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# The Correlations between Planetary Nebula Morphology and Central Star Evolution. Analysis of the Northern Galactic Sample.

## 1 Introduction

Stars with masses in the 1–8 M range are very likely to go through the evolutionary phase of PN ejection at the end of their lives. The ejection of most of the gaseous envelope in Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars occurs at the tip of the Thermal Pulse phase, in the form of a massive, low velocity wind (Iben & Renzini, 1983). Subsequently, the remnant CS ionizes the gaseous ejecta, while the fast, low mass-loss rate CS wind shapes the PN. The observed PN morphology thus depends on a complicate combination of phenomena, some occurring within the nebular gas, which evolves in dynamic time scale, others deriving from the evolution of the stellar progenitors and of the CSs. Morphology may also depend on the physical status of the interstellar environment of the PN progenitor.

The relations between PN morphology and CS evolution may be used to explore the gas versus star interplay. Pioneering this field, Peimbert (1978) found a link between PN morphology and stellar evolution through the chemical elements that are produced by PN progenitors, and are drawn to the stellar surface via dredge-up episodes. Peimbert’s study showed that most of the helium- and nitrogen-rich, carbon-poor PNs where of asymmetric (bipolar etc.) shapes. This result is broadly consistent with the predictions of stellar evolution if the progenitors of asymmetric PNs have on average larger masses than the progenitors of round (and elliptical) PNs, without any assumption or relation to stellar multiplicity of the stellar progenitors.

About a decade ago, several authors have tried to tie up the correlations between nebular morphology and stellar properties (Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz, 1993; Corradi & Schwarz, 1995), inspired by the new bounty of narrowband images available for Galactic PNs (Schwarz, Corradi, & Melnick, 1992; Balick, 1987). Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz (1993), based on a large, yet non homogeneously selected, sample of Southern PNs from the ESO catalog (Schwarz, Corradi, & Melnick, 1992), found that the CSs of symmetric and asymmetric PNs have different mass distribution, and that the CSs of bipolar PNs are spread over a large mass range. Other papers have been written in the recent years (Amnuel, 1995; Gorny, Stasinska, & Tylenda, 1997) on this subject, none of which have challenged the earlier results.

Strength to the association of bipolar PNs with high mass progenitors comes from the Galactic distribution of morphological types. Among others, Schwarz, Corradi, & Stanghellini (1993), Stanghellini (1995), and Manchado et al. (2000) found that bipolar PNs lie closer to the Galactic plane than round and elliptical PNs, making the high-mass origin plausible.

The motivation of the present work is to test the correlations between PN morphology and CS evolution with a larger and homogeneous PN database. In 1996 the IAC Catalog of PNs (Manchado et al., 1996), and with it a complete and homogeneous PN image data set, became available.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the relations between morphological type and the physical parameters that are linked to stellar populations and evolution. We will examine principally the variations of temperature, luminosity, and mass of the CSs. We will also show the variation across morphological types of elemental abundances and Galactic distribution. The statistics of the nebular characteristics variations across morphological types will be published elsewhere (Manchado et al., 2002).

In $`\mathrm{\S }`$2 we discuss the sample selection and the morphological classification. In $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 3 we describe the determination of the stellar temperature and luminosity. In $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 4 we present the results of our analysis. A discussion of the significance of our findings for the understanding of the evolution of PNs and their CSs is presented in $`\mathrm{\S }`$5.

## 2 Morphological classification

The database that we have used in this paper includes the IAC morphological catalog of Northern Galactic PNs (Manchado et al., 1996), supplemented by a selection of PNs from Balick (1987) and Schwarz, Corradi, & Melnick (1992). Therefore, our sample includes all PNs in Acker et al. (1992) that are larger than 4 arcsec in maximum size, and that are within the observing limits of the IAC and La Palma Observatory telescopes (Manchado et al., 2000).

We classify the PN morphology primary on the basis of the H$`\alpha `$ images, and secondary on the \[O iii\] 5007 and the \[N ii\] 6584 images, when available. A thorough discussion on the extended morphological classification will be available in Manchado et al. (2002). Here, we briefly describe the morphological classes used to analyze the results on the CSs correlations.

We use the following, simplified morphological scheme:

* Round (R) PNs.
* Elliptical (E) PNs. We distinguish between R and E PNs if an axial difference of at least 5 $`\%`$ is detected.
* Bipolar (B) PNs. As commonly defined, bipolarity implies at least one pair of lobes and a pinched waist. Quadrupolar PNs belong to this category.

.

Together with the three main morphological classes above, we also examine the group properties of Bipolar Core (BC) PNs. This morphological class identifies those PNs whose external contour does not show obvious bipolar lobes, but whose inner structure is clearly suggestive of a projected ring. A ring-like structure was detected above the 20 $`\%`$ flux level for our BC PNs to be classified as such. This class was firstly used in Stanghellini et al. (1999) to analyze bipolarity in Magellanic Cloud PN images acquired before the first HST servicing mission that restored the telescope optics. Note that Gorny, Stasinska, & Tylenda (1997) use a similar definition for embedded bipolars (BE).

A few comments on this simplified classification scheme are in order. First note that Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz (1993) do not distinguish between R and E PNs. We now know that it is possible to separate these classes, and that they have different properties. Note that our classification of round PN is an objective one, based on the measured axial ratio on the 2D images, without making assuptions on the 3D structures (note that Soker (2002) uses a different classsification approach, and subjectively defines elliptical those PNs that have structures such as knots or filaments, even if they have round contours).

Second, in this paper we subsume the quadrupolar PNs into the bipolar class. Quadrupolar (Q) PNs show two pairs of lobes (Manchado, Stanghellini, & Guerrero, 1996) and their formation mechanism has to be similar to that of bipolar PNs. Our database contains but a few Q PNs, and studying them as a class apart will dilute their statistical significance anyway.

Third, we do not classify pointsymmetric (P) PNs as a separate morphological type. As pointed out by Manchado et al. (2000), pointsymmetric structures are present in a variety of main body morphologies. For this reason, we classified the pointsymmetric PNs as round, bipolar, or elliptical depending on the structure of the main body of the PN. Pointsymmetry is detected in a very small fraction of the PNs in our sample, and if they were selected in a separate class the results from our analysis would not change statistically. Finally, it is worth noting that the bipolar core PNs would have been classified as R or E in the usual or the new morphological schemes (Manchado et al., 2002). We want to isolate their properties in this paper, and relate them to those of B PNs. By doing so, we moderately decrease the R and E PN data sets.

## 3 Temperature and luminosity derivation

The stellar properties of the selected PNs were determined via the Zanstra analysis (Kaler, 1983). The input parameters to the Zanstra analysis were selected from the literature, with the endeavor of using the best possible set of input data, chosen as homogeneously as possible. In Table 1 we list our reference choices for the input parameters.

The stellar magnitudes used for the analysis were taken, for the most part, from the paper by Tylenda et al (1991).

The H$`\beta `$ and He ii ($`\lambda `$4686) line intensities were drawn, when available, from Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992), otherwise from Tylenda et al (1991). Additional fluxes and extinction constant references are listed in Table 1. Extinction constants are from Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992) or, alternatively, from Stasinska et al. (1992). If neither of these two references had relevant data, we used the additional references listed in table 1.

Nebular radii were measured by us on the original frames. For elliptical PNs, we compute equivalent radii as $`R_\mathrm{E}=[(a\times b)/4]^{1/2}`$, where $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the elliptical axes. For bipolar PNs, we make the approximation that the lobes are two ellipses, and we define $`R_\mathrm{E}=[(a\times b)/4]^{1/2}`$, where $`a`$ is the extension of the waist, and $`b`$ the extension of the bipolar lobes.

All distances used in this paper are statistical distances. We have calculated all the statistical distances based on the newly measured radii, and the Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992) distance scale calibration. The 6 cm fluxes used in this calculation were taken from Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992) where available, otherwise from the other references in Table 1. To assure that the calibration of the distance scale is independent on the morphological type of the calibrators used, we have morphologically classified the calibrators in Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992), and verified that all morphological types have similar weight in the calibration. We also verified that the calibration based on just bipolar and bipolar core PNs is almost identical to the calibration based on round PNs.

All input data are used in our Zanstra code with their own original error bars, as given from the original papers listed above and in Table 1. The Zanstra analysis then produces the propagated error bars. The statistical distances do not carry error bars, as it is impossible to quantify the magnitude of the errors in the assumptions made to scale the ionized masses with the nebular distances (see the discussion by Cahn, Kaler, & Stanghellini (1992)).

## 4 Results

In the following sections we illustrate the results of our investigation. Among the 255 Northern Galactic PNs with morphological classification, Zanstra analysis was performed in all the cases where the input parameters were available in the literature, and precisely for 54 round, 96 elliptical, 36 bipolar, and 19 bipolar core PNs.

In Table 2 we give the results of the Zanstra analysis. Column (1) gives the PN name; column (2) gives the morphological type, following the simplified scheme described in $`\mathrm{\S }`$2. Unless otherwise noted within the Table the images for morphological analysis were from Manchado et al. (1996). Columns (3) through (6) give the Zanstra temperature (and error) and luminosity (and error), in logarithmic format. We always give the He ii Zanstra temperature if available. Otherwise, we give the H i Zanstra temperature. In the cases in which the stellar magnitude was not available, we give the cross-over temperature instead (Kaler & Jacoby, 1989). The reader should not use cross-over temperatures in Table 2 at face value, since they are calculated assuming that the He ii and H i temperatures are equal. Cross-over temperatures are upper limits for most nebulae except for optically thick PNs, and the magnitudes estimated via cross-over analysis are also upper limits.

Distances, dimensions, and detailed morphology will be discussed in a future paper.

In Table 3 and 4 we give the averaged physical diagnostics across morphological types that we use in the following sections. Table 3 contains the Galactic distribution and Zanstra temperature diagnostics (with the $`\sigma `$ values in square braketts), while Table 4 gives the elemental abundance diagnostics.

### 4.1 Spatial distribution

The apparent spatial distribution of Galactic PNs with different morphology is shown in Figure 1, where the different symbols indicate morphological types (open circles are round, asterisks are elliptical, filled squares are bipolar, and open squares are bipolar core PNs). It appears from this plot that the bipolar and bipolar core PNs are found at lower Galactic latitudes, and their distribution do not extend, for the most part, away from the disk. Differently, elliptical and round PNs are spread all over the l-b plane. From column (2) in Table 3 we can see that the round PNs have a latitude range much larger than that of bipolar PNs.

We have run the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) statistics (Presse et al., 1986) on the Galactic latitude distribution to investigate the quantitative differences of the different morphology PNs. The K-S statistical test give the maximum absolute value of the difference between two given distributions, Dmax. The significance level for the null hypothesis that the data sets are drawn from the same distribution (P) is also given by the K-S statistics: lower values of P indicate two different distributions. Typically, P $`5\times 10^2`$ indicates that there is a real possibility that the two distributions are different, while P=1 indicates identical distributions. Larger data sets give better results, but data sets as large as N=20 already give a good indication on the statistics.

By considering the Galactic latitude distributions of R and B PNs, we found that Dmax=1.8 and P=0.003. The latitude distributions of round and elliptical PNs are not so sharply dissimilar (P=0.19). To enhance the statistical significance of the results we grouped B and BC PNs in one class (B+BC). The K-S probability for R and B+BC PNs to have similar b distributions is 0.086, while this probabilities is 0.53 when we use the E and B+BC samples. Our conclusion is that there is a sharp difference between the nature of R and B+BC PNs. Much more detail on these distribution will be presented in a future paper.

In Figure 2 we show the PNs distribution of the absolute distance to the Galactic plane, $`|z|`$, for each morphological type. This parameter is calculated with the statistical distance scale, and the sample sizes are different than those of Figure 1, since some PNs did not have the necessary parameters in the literature for the derivation of their statistical distance. We see in Figure 2 that the distribution of R PNs is the broadest, followed by the E, the BC, and the B PNs.

We have calculated the average scale distance from the Galactic plane for the different morphological types (column  in Table 3). Round PNs have the largest average $`|z|`$, E PNs follow, then BC PNs , and finally B PNs, closest to the Galactic plane. The average scale height of all PNs in the sample is 0.44 kpc. Our calculations basically confirm the early results by Schwarz, Corradi, & Stanghellini (1993). It is worth noting that the average distance per morphological class are comparable to one another.

Our results on the Galactic distribution of morphological types show that morphology could be used as indicator of stellar population. For example, the scale height for a young disk population is similar to that of bipolar and bipolar core PNs (Scalo, 1998). The caveat of this conclusion is that there may be a selection effect that limits the observations of low surface brightness PNs toward the Galactic plane.

In order to asses the importance of the selection effects, we checked the H$`\beta `$ surface brightness distributions of the PNs, calculated as F$`{}_{\beta }{}^{}/\pi R^2`$, where the H$`\beta `$ flux is corrected for extinction and the radii are the equivalent radii calculated as described in $`\mathrm{\S }`$3. We found that surface brightness of R and E PNs are in the $`17<\mathrm{log}SB_\beta <11.5`$ range, while B and BC PN’s surface brightness range within $`15.5<\mathrm{log}SB_\beta <12.5`$111This results is obtained with the PNs of Table 2, but we eliminated NGC 7017 from this calculation. The lack of high surface brightness B and BC PNs may simply indicate that they evolve faster than E and R PNs, similarly to what observed in the Magellanic Clouds (Stanghellini et al., 1999; Shaw et al., 2001). This is another hint that B and BC PNs may originate from higher mass progenitors.

On the other hand, the lack of very low surface brightness B and BC PNs may indicate that there may be a selection effect against low surface brightness B and BC PNs in the Galaxy, possibly due to the interstellar extinction which is higher for these PNs, given their location within the Galactic plane. The average H$`\beta `$ extinction for each morphological type is given in column (4) or Table 3. Since on average extinction does anti-correlates with the distance from the Galactic plane, it roughly indicates that interstellar extinction is predominant, and the internal extinction is only marginally important in the overall cβ values.

### 4.2 Central stars on the Log L – log T plane, and the inferred mass distribution

Zanstra temperatures of the CSs were calculated as described by Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz (1993). The He ii temperatures are the most reliable, as most PNs are optically thick to the He ii ionizing photons. H i temperatures are generally reliable for the optically thick PNs. When using H i Zanstra temperatures we should keep in mind that it is difficult to define which PN is optically thick and which is thin, especially in the case of bipolar PNs. Thus the only reliable results are the few temperatures calculated from the He ii line intensities.

In order to disclose all possible relations between PNs and their CSs, we have taken a conservative approach. We first consider the most reliable Zanstra temperature set, using only He ii Zanstra temperatures with minimal errors ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}<0.1`$). The averages of column (5) in Table 3 refer to this set. We do not find marked differences among the average temperatures of stars hosted by different morphological types.

Corradi & Schwarz (1995) found an average effective temperature of 142,000 K for stars hosted by bipolar PNs, and 99,000 for those within the elliptical (including round) PNs. We do not disclose such a difference in the average temperatures. In Figure 3 we show the location on the log T- log L plane of the PN CSs, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}T_{\mathrm{eff}}<0.1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}L/L_{}<0.3`$ (note that the error bars do not account for uncertainties in the statistical distances).

The HR diagram distribution of Figure 3 shows that stars hosted by round nebulae are spread on the logT – logL plane differently than stars hosted by bipolar and bipolar core PNs. Central stars of elliptical PNs cover more or less the whole plane, up to the 0.8 M evolutionary track. We derive the distribution of the CS’s masses for the different morphologies from Figure 3, and we show it in Figure 4. Round nebulae appear to have a peak CS mass around 0.55, then the distribution declines for larger masses. Central stars of elliptical PNs have a flatter mass distribution. Bipolar and bipolar core PNs seem to have a flat mass distribution (better compare the round and elliptical distribution with the sum of bipolar and bipolar core, since these two later classes are so sparsely populated).

Figure 5 is similar to Figure 3, with the difference that we plot the HR diagram location of CS PNs whose temperatures have errors smaller than 0.4 dex, and where we include the H i Zanstra temperatures. Figure 6 gives the histograms of the mass distributions relative to the sample of Figure 5. Here, the low-mass section of the histogram for elliptical PNs is more prominent than in Figure 4, but the overall distributions have the same qualitative form. These results are indicative of different CS masses for different PN shapes. The statistical K-S analysis applied to this set of temperatures (and the relative luminosities) does not disclose enormous differences between the effective temperature and luminosity distributions.

We have analyzed the ratios of He ii to H i Zanstra temperatures across morphological types, to have an indication of their optical thickness. Our aim was to probe the preliminary results of Figures 1 and 3 in Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz (1993), by using the better and more homogeneous sample of Northern Galactic PNs. Our results (column  of Table 3) shows that, although there are differences in the average Zanstra ratio for the various morphologies, such differences are milder that previously found (Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz, 1993). We confirm that, on average, bipolar PNs have lower Zanstra ratio than symmetric PNs, but we can not draw the same conclusion for bipolar core PNs based on our small sample (see also the higher sigma value).

### 4.3 Hints from elemental abundances

During the evolution of intermediate-mass stars, the chemical enrichment of the outer region of the stars occurs in a series of dredge-up and nuclear burning events (Iben & Renzini, 1983), that enrich the future PN in different ways, depending on the stellar mass. By measuring the CNO elemental abundances we can probe stellar evolution. Carbon depletion and nitrogen enrichment depend on the progenitor mass, forming a direct connection between observed progenitor mass (i.e. Population) and chemical content.

The argon and neon abundances in PNs are probes of the original chemical mix at the time of the formation of the progenitors. In fact, these elements are unaffected during the evolution of the stars in this mass range.

A large study of the PN abundances and their correlations to shell morphology is in preparation (Manchado et al., 2002), based on abundances of Galactic PNs newly calculated with a selection of the available spectral data in the literature. In Table 4 we show the averages of the derived abundances (all abundances are with respect to hydrogen, by number), calculated for each morphological type. Note that we use only reliable elemental abundances (see Manchado et al. (2002)). With each entry, in parenthesis, we report the statistical sample used for that particular diagnostic.

Among the significant results, we find that helium abundances are, on average, higher in bipolar PNs than in round and elliptical PNs. The average helium abundance trace nicely the increasing asymmetry, from round to bipolar PNs. If we consider R+E PNs and B+BC PNs, the average helium abundance of the two groups differ, quite significantly, at the 25 percent level.

The oxygen abundance averages do not change as much from one group to the next, with the exception that the average oxygen abundance for bipolar PNs is slightly higher than for the other groups.

Bipolar PNs have much higher average nitrogen abundance than the other morphological types, confirming the results by Peimbert (1978) and others. Bipolar core PNs are mildly nitrogen enriched, based on a rather small PN sample. If we compare the R+E and the B+BC groups, we obtain that the average nitrogen abundances in the two groups differ at the 60 percent level. This is a clear signature that bipolar PNs have massive progenitors.

Other diagnostics do not show remarkable differences, or are statistically insignificant. We do not see the trend found in LMC, where B PNs have higher neon and argon abundances (Stanghellini, et al., 2000).

While the abundances used here are probably the best collection available to date, it is very difficult to draw sound conclusions on the basis of sparse spectroscopic data with slits collecting variable areas of PNs. This is particularly debilitating for multiple shell or very bipolar PNs, as their abundance gradients can be substantial. It is worth remarking that, in addition to the above difficulties, the abundances are also contaminated by the ISM material, ingested by the PN during their evolution (Villaver, Garcia-Segura, & Manchado, 2002).

### 4.4 Evolutionary paths

As seen in the two preceding sections, there is an indication of mass segregation among the CSs hosted by symmetric and asymmetric PNs. This has bearings on the possible evolutionary paths that lead to the different morphologies. The formation of asymmetric PNs has been ascribed to binary evolution, either through common envelope (CE) or via wide binary or planetary companions (Soker, 1997), as well as to the presence of stellar rotation and magnetic fields (Garcia-Segura, Langer, & Rozyczka, 1999). Soker (1997) selected a large sample of PNs, and, based solely on their morphology, determines the likeliness that these morphologies originate (1) from the evolution of a single star, (2) from binary evolution, where the member of the binary system go through the Common Envelope (CE) phase, (3) from binary evolution of a pair that avoids the CE phase, or (4) from the evolution of a star and a planet companion. We have checked Soker’s determinations of the stellar origins of PNs against our morphological sample. We found, based on our classification scheme and on his evolutionary scheme, that (1) no B or BC PNs would originate from single stars; (2) no round PNs progenitors would have gone through the CE phase; and (3) no R nor E PNs would originate through binary stars, without going through the CE phase. If (1) was true, then why the CS masses of B and BC PNs are distributed differently than those of R and E PNs? Why B and BC PNs would be found at lower scale heights on the Galactic plane, and would they have higher helium and nitrogen content? Clearly, a theoretical scenario that explains all the observations is not available at this time. In particular, while the binary star scenario can be streched to explain the Galactic distribution of bipolar PNs (Soker, 1998), much more stellar evolution modeling is needed to compare the chemical yields in the cases of single and binary star evolution.

## 5 Summary and discussion

The analysis of Northern Galactic PNs have produced interesting results. First, there is a general indication that bipolar and bipolar core PNs belong to the same physical class, even if they may be at different evolutionary stages. This results from the apparent and physical spatial distribution of B and BC PNs, from the excinction analysis, and from the CSs distributions. The BC sample is barely large enough for accurate statistical analysis, thus this result is still to be confirmed in the future. It agrees, though, with the analysis of Magellanic Cloud PNs, as discussed by Stanghellini et al. (1999); Stanghellini, et al. (2000); Shaw et al. (2001).

Second, we have analyzed the CSs via Zanstra analysis. The results are in moderate agreement with those of Stanghellini, Corradi, & Schwarz (1993), after correcting for the different morphological classification. Although the mass histograms of the CSs of Figures 4 and 6 tell us that bipolar (and bipolar core) PNs have a larger fraction of massive CSs (i.e., massive progenitors) than round and elliptical PNs, the result is not as sharp as previous results have shown. Our approach is accurate, yet it lacks true luminosity error bars, as the distances to the nebulae were derived in a statistical way. Furthermore, the Zanstra analysis implies the assumption that the CS radiates as a blackbody. It is worth noting that, to date, no CS mass has been derived without strong assumptions on the distances, on the ionized masses, or on model-dependent parameters. Our conclusion is that, to date, there is not a reliable way to measure the mass of Galactic PNs or their stellar progenitors, although our analysis seems to indicate that asymmetric PNs were formed from more massive progenitors, on average.

Third, we have investigated the progenitors’ populations of the different morphological PN types: higher mass progenitors should have different chemistry both from the evolutionary dredge-ups and from the different chemistry at star formation. We found that the helium and nitrogen (and very marginally oxygen) average abundances in bipolar and bipolar core PNs are larger than the corresponding values in round and elliptical PNs. In agreement with the theory of stellar evolution, we confirm that B and BC PNs have more massive progenitors than E and R PNs.

On the other hand, the average neon and argon abundances are almost identical in round, elliptical, and bipolar PNs (bipolar core PNs do show high neon and low argon abundances, but the sample size is very small for statistical significance). This result is in contrast to a study of LMC PNs (Stanghellini, et al., 2000), where bipolar (and bipolar core) PNs have higher neon and argon abundances than round and elliptical PNs. We know that there is a larger fraction of bipolar PNs in the LMC than in the Galaxy (Shaw et al., 2001), and that Galactic bipolar PNs tend to be located in the Galactic plane, where the interstellar extinction is maximum. It seems then reasonable that the observed Galactic bipolar PNs are local, so their neon and argon abundances reflect the local environment at formation, rather than the average Galactic disk environment.

Last, we conclude that the study of the statistical correlations between CSs and PN morphology has probably reached, in this form, its exploitation. By increasing the statistical significance and the quality of the analyzed sample we do not get sharper results on the statistical correlations between CSs and PNs. The future of this type of studies is, in our view, two-fold. On one hand, the acquisition and interpretation of CS spectra, and at the same time, the development and improvement of non-LTE stellar models, is essential to acquire the necessary stellar data for a non-biased analysis. On the other hand, better nebular analysis on the individual objects will improve the knowledge of reddening to the individual PNs, and their global elemental abundances, possibly extending the analysis to UV spectroscopy, i.e., to reliable carbon abundances. High resolution spectroscopy on the PNs will also be essential to confirm the morphology of some uncertain cases, where the spatial dimension of the velocity is essential.

A continuing study of those extra-Galactic PNs whose morphologies are detectable with today’s technology (e.g., the LMC, the SMC, and the nearby dwarf galaxies observed with HST) will have the double benefit of minimizing the ill-effects of the unknown Galactic PN distance scale, and those of the poorly known reddening, and of allowing us to extend and integrate our knowledge of the final phases of intermediate-mass stars to Galaxies of different types and metallicities. The emerging picture is that PNs generated by more massive progenitors, those that have been ejected by disk population stars, seem to be bipolar in shape, while smaller mass stars give birth to round PNs. Elliptical PNs are produced by stars in a wider mass range. This result is in agreement with the findings of the PN distribution within the Galaxy, and with the relative N/H and He/H abundance of the Galactic PNs sample. It bears on the formation of PNs of different morphological types, and it agrees with bipolar PNs to be formed by the evolution of larger mass stars than round and elliptical PNs. While both single and binary star evolutionary models can account for bipolar PN formation, via common envelope evolution, magnetic fields, and fast stellar rotation, the binary scenario alone would not comply with our results.

It is a pleasure to thank Dick Shaw, Bruce Balick, Stacy Palen, Chris Blades, and Max Mutchler for participating in our collective PN morphology classification experiment. Mark Dickinson is thanked for his help in the statistical analysis.


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# Do solar neutrinos decay?

## I Introduction

Since solar neutrinos have been detected with roughly the expected flux, it appears that they do not decay over the 500 s $`\times c`$ distance to Earth. Furthermore, neutrinos from SN1987a were also detected in reasonable numbers on a much longer baseline of ($`5\times 10^{12}`$ s) $`\times c`$. Decay will deplete the flux of neutrinos of energy $`E`$ and mass $`m`$ over a distance $`L`$ by the factor

$$\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{t}{\tau _{lab}}\right)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{L}{E}\times \frac{m}{\tau }\right),$$
(1)
where $`\tau `$ is the rest-frame lifetime and we use $`c=1`$ units from now on. In Table I, we list representative $`\tau /m`$ scales for various neutrino sources.

In this paper, we critically assess what the best limits on neutrino decay are. We find that it is not yet possible to set model-independent bounds, even for the well-measured solar neutrinos. We discuss how decay limits can be improved in the future.

Though in the past neutrino decay was frequently discussed in terms of flavor eigenstates, the lifetimes of neutrinos are only well-defined for mass eigenstates (a flavor state does not have a definite mass, lifetime, or magnetic moment). Since we now know that mixing angles are large, this distinction is essential.

Therefore, in considering the decay of neutrinos from the Sun and SN1987a, one has to properly assess the mass eigenstate content of the fluxes. The SN1987a data can be reasonably explained by saying that the expected flux of $`\overline{\nu }_1`$ made it to Earth and was detected as $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ via the charged-current reaction $`\overline{\nu }_epe^+n`$. The $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ component would only have been detectable in neutral-current reactions, and the SN1987a data are consistent with no neutral-current events. If $`\nu _1`$ is (as suggestively labeled) the lightest mass eigenstate, then it would not be kinematically allowed to decay, so that the decay limit from SN1987a would be meaningless.

Presently, the best explanation of the solar neutrino problem is large mixing angle (LMA) Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) transformation of $`\nu _e`$ to $`\nu _\mu ,\nu _\tau `$. Besides being the best oscillation-parameter fit, LMA also provides a “good” fit to all of the solar neutrino data in terms of an acceptable chi-squared. Without the effects of oscillations, the solar neutrino flux is only understood at the factor of two level. Including the effects of oscillations, the total flux of all flavors is better understood, and the hope is that much more stringent decay limits can be derived. A similar approach was used to set the strongest direct neutrino magnetic moment limit magnetic .

If LMA is the correct scenario, then solar neutrinos in the $`515`$ MeV energy range are created as nearly pure $`\nu _2`$ mass eigenstates. Furthermore, their propagation in the Sun is completely adiabatic, so that they emerge as pure $`\nu _2`$ eigenstates, where $`m_2>m_1`$. Since the characteristic signature of decay is its energy dependence, we restrict our attention to this energy range, over which Super-Kamiokande (SK) SK  and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) SNO  have measured energy spectra. This data may thus be used to search for the signatures of the kinematically allowed $`\nu _2\nu _1+X`$ decay (the decay modes are discussed in detail below).

While neutrino decay was an early proposed explanation of the solar neutrino problem solardecay ; solardecay1 , in this paper we will take the point of view that the LMA solution specifies the correct basic picture and will consider $`\nu _2\nu _1+X`$ decay as a perturbation, with the goal of placing a limit on $`\tau /m`$ (since $`m`$ is unknown, only the quantity $`\tau /m`$ can be constrained). Ongoing experiments will soon confirm or refute the LMA solution.

While there are strong limits on radiative neutrino decays RPP ; raffelt , in this paper we consider only the so-called “invisible” decays, i.e., decays into possibly detectable neutrinos (or antineutrinos) plus truly invisible particles, e.g., light scalar or pseudoscalar bosons. For these modes, the lifetime limits are very weak indeed; see Table I. There are also limits from cosmology, the strongest of which use the cosmic microwave background data cosmolimits . The effect searched for arises because of the transfer of nonrelativistic energy density in the parent neutrinos ($`m10`$ eV) to relativistic energy density in the daughter neutrinos ($`m0`$). Neither the large mass of the parent neutrino nor the huge mass splitting is supported by present data, so these cosmological limits on non-radiative neutrino decays are inapplicable.

While detection of daughter neutrinos or antineutrinos has been considered in the literature, it has nearly always been with the assumption that $`m_1m_2`$, and that the daughter neutrino carries half the energy of its parent in a two-body decay. These assumptions are not generally valid. Since oscillation experiments do not determine the overall mass scale, the lightest mass eigenvalue $`m_1`$ is unknown. However, for fixed $`m_1`$, the masses $`m_2`$ and $`m_3`$ are determined by the measured mass-squared differences. Thus

$$m_2=\sqrt{m_2^2m_1^2+m_1^2}=\sqrt{m_1^2+\delta m_{sol}^2},$$
(2)
where solar-neutrino data give $`\delta m_{sol}^24\times 10^5`$ eV2, and similarly,

$$m_3=\sqrt{m_1^2+\delta m_{sol}^2+\delta m_{atm}^2},$$
(3)
where atmospheric-neutrino data give $`\delta m_{atm}^23\times 10^3`$ eV2. All three masses are shown in Fig. 1, illustrating that the masses are nearly degenerate unless the overall mass scale is tiny. The accepted wisdom is that neutrino masses should be strongly hierarchical, e.g., in see-saw models, proportional to the squares of charged-lepton masses. Note that the ratio $`m_3/m_210`$ for all $`m_1`$. Naively, this argues against a simple see-saw mass pattern and argues for the idea that the mass ratios can be small, and quite possibly degenerate.

If the neutrino masses are degenerate, then the daughter neutrino carries nearly the full energy of the parent neutrino in any reference frame (in the rest frame, a $`\nu _2`$ at rest decays to a $`\nu _1`$ nearly at rest). This completely alters scenarios in which active daughters are detected.

## II Neutrino Decay Models

Non-radiative neutrino decay may arise through the coupling of the neutrino to a very light or massless particle, such as a Majoron majoronmodels . Majoron models typically have tree-level scalar or pseudoscalar couplings of the form

$$=g_{ij}\overline{\nu }_i\nu _j\chi +h_{ij}\overline{\nu }_i\gamma _5\nu _j\chi +\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.,$$
(4)
where $`\chi `$ is a massless Majoron, which does not carry definite lepton number. For the couplings specified by Eq. (4), the decay rates into neutrino and antineutrino daughters are given by Ref. kim

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\nu _1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_1m_2}{16\pi E_2}}[g^2({\displaystyle \frac{x}{2}}+2+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x}}\mathrm{ln}x{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2x^3}})`$ (5)
$`+`$ $`h^2({\displaystyle \frac{x}{2}}2+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x}}\mathrm{ln}x+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2x^3}})],`$
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\overline{\nu }_1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_1m_2}{16\pi E_2}}\left(g^2+h^2\right)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{x}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x}}\mathrm{ln}x{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2x^3}}\right],`$ (6)
where $`x=m_2/m_1`$, and we have dropped the subscripts on the coupling constants. The decay widths in this section are defined in the laboratory frame, so the relation to the rest-frame lifetimes quoted elsewhere is

$$\frac{\tau }{m}=\frac{1}{m\mathrm{\Gamma }_{rest}}=\frac{1}{E\mathrm{\Gamma }_{lab}}.$$
(7)
In the limit of hierarchical neutrino masses, $`m_2m_1`$, the case that has received the most attention to date, the decay rates are equal:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\nu _1}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\overline{\nu }_1}=\frac{(g^2+h^2)}{32\pi }\frac{m_2^2}{E_2}.$$
(8)
In the opposite limit, where $`m_2m_1`$ (but keeping $`\delta m^20`$), we find instead:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\nu _1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2}{16\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta m^2}{4E_2}}+h^2\times 𝒪\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta m^2}{m_2^2}}\right)^3,`$
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\nu _2\overline{\nu }_1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(g^2+h^2)}{16\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{m_2^2}{E_2}}\times 𝒪\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta m^2}{m_2^2}}\right)^3.`$ (9)
The important point to note is that in these Majoron models, both neutrino and antineutrino decay products may be produced, but the relative weight of the two decay modes depends strongly upon the mass hierarchy.

In the simplest versions of these models, the neutrino masses are proportional to these coupling constants and hence the neutrinos are exactly stable, as the matrix of coupling constants is diagonal in the mass basis. Even in this case, the neutrinos may have finite lifetimes in matter, as the rotation of the mass basis in matter will lead to non-diagonal couplings between matter mass eigenstates valle ; matterdecay . In the most general case, the basic models can easily be modified to permit non-diagonal couplings in vacuum fastdecay .

While there are a huge variety of Majoron models in the literature including, for instance, “charged” Majoron burgess  and “vector Majoron” carone  models, we will not restrict our attention to any particular model. For example, instead of a Majoron model per se, we can consider the couplings of neutrinos to a very light gauge boson. Similarly, we make no assumption about the relationship between the neutrino masses and the couplings that give rise to decay, or whether the neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana particles.

We thus take a purely phenomenological point of view and consider any possible tree-level coupling between the neutrinos and a very light or massless particle. We shall consider the cases where the decay products are active or sterile neutrinos or antineutrinos, plus an “invisible” particle. While one could imagine models where such a coupling is absent at tree level (as with radiative decay in the Standard Model, for example), models of this sort are of less interest, as any coupling arising only at loop level is likely to lead to a very small decay rate.

Bounds on neutrino-Majoron couplings of the form in Eq. (4) may be obtained from considering their effects on the two-body leptonic decays of $`\pi `$ and $`K`$ mesons at rest. A nonzero coupling allows the final neutrino to also appear as a neutrino or antineutrino, plus a Majoron. This increases the decay rate and also smears the momentum distribution of the charged lepton. The bounds obtained are approximately $`g^210^4`$ meson ; britton , and are reasonably model-independent.111These bounds do not apply to the $`g_{\tau \tau }`$ element of the coupling matrix which, given the large neutrino mixing angles, will contribute to all elements of $`g`$ in the mass basis. Whether it is likely that $`g_{\tau \tau }`$ would be significantly greater than all other (flavor basis) elements $`g`$ is a model-dependent question of naturalness. (Note that in this section we denote by $`g`$ either a scalar or pseudoscalar coupling). A considerably more stringent bound may be derived from limits on neutrinoless double beta decay with Majoron emission zuber . However, the limit of $`g^210^8`$ applies only to the $`g_{ee}`$ element of the coupling matrix and does not directly translate into a bound on the parameter of interest, namely $`g_{21}`$.

Translated into a bound on neutrino lifetimes, the meson-decay bound on the coupling of $`g^210^4`$ becomes

$$\frac{\tau }{m}3\times 10^5\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}\left(\frac{10^5\mathrm{eV}^2}{\delta \mathrm{m}^2}\right),$$
(10)
where we have used Eq. (8). With the solar $`\delta m^24\times 10^5`$ eV2, the lifetime limit obtained allows substantial decay of solar neutrinos (from Table I, the natural scale of the problem is $`\tau /m10^4`$ s/eV). If the mass hierarchy is inverted, then solar neutrino decays can also occur with $`\delta m^210^3`$ eV2, in which case the derived lifetime limit is 100 times weaker, and hence not useful.

We emphasize again that it is not our intention to restrict our attention only to the case of Majoron models. We discuss these models only as a concrete example of the types of decay modes that may be expected. In Section III we take a quite general perspective and discuss specific decay modes as illustrative, model-independent examples.

## III Solar $`\nu _2`$ Decay

We consider the decay of neutrinos during their journey from the Sun to Earth, and neglect decay inside the Sun, since the distances are 500 s and 2 s, respectively. Decay rates can be increased in matter matterdecay  by the greater phase space provided by the matter enhancement to $`\delta m^2`$. However, for LMA-type solutions, this effect is not large. If decay in the Sun were significant it would imply that our understanding of the solar neutrino flux is fundamentally flawed; KamLAND and future solar-neutrino experiments will check this possibility.

As noted, since an identifying characteristic of decay is its particular energy dependence, we consider only the SK and SNO spectral data. These experiments are sensitive to $`515`$ MeV neutrinos from 8B beta decay (while the normalization uncertainty is $`20\%`$, it is common to SK and SNO). While one might think that the lowest energy neutrinos are the best suited for testing decay effects, there are two important caveats. First, the gallium and chlorine radiochemical experiments only measure energy-integrated rates, and receive contributions from several different neutrino sources with uncertain relative normalizations. Exotic effects on the neutrino survival probability can be hidden in this data. Second, for the LMA solutions, the $`\nu _1`$ to $`\nu _2`$ ratio rises at low energies, and as noted, only the heavier $`\nu _2`$ can decay.

In the energy range covered by the SK and SNO spectra, the solar neutrino flux is dominated by the 8B neutrinos. To a very good approximation, these neutrinos are produced at the solar center where the matter potential is

$$\zeta \sqrt{2}G_FN_e\frac{2E}{\delta m^2}=15.3\left(\frac{E}{10\mathrm{MeV}}\right)\left(\frac{10^5\mathrm{eV}^2}{\delta m^2}\right).$$
(11)
The initial $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ fractions of the flux are specified by

$`P_{\nu _1}^i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _m,`$
$`P_{\nu _2}^i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _m,`$ (12)
where the matter mixing angle given by

$$\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _m=\frac{\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _v}{\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _v+(\mathrm{cos}2\theta _m\zeta )^2},$$
(13)
and $`\theta _v`$ is the vacuum angle. As representative values in the LMA allowed region lma , we choose $`\delta m^2=4\times 10^5`$ eV2 and $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta _v=0.9`$. The MSW transformation is always adiabatic in the solar neutrino energy range for the LMA solutions, so the fluxes of $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ are unchanged at the solar surface (neglecting the tiny decay probability over the solar radius). The final $`\nu _1`$ and $`\nu _2`$ fluxes at Earth, taking decay into account are

$`P_{\nu _1}^f`$ $`=`$ $`P_{\nu _1}^i,`$
$`P_{\nu _2}^f`$ $`=`$ $`P_{\nu _2}^i\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{E}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{m}{\tau }}\right).`$ (14)
Note that the small variation in the Earth-Sun distance cannot be exploited, as its effects are washed out by the energy resolution. It is convenient to think of a typical energy for decay (that makes the argument of the exponential unity); in convenient units, this is

$$\frac{E_{decay}}{1\mathrm{MeV}}=\frac{5\times 10^4\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}}{\tau /m}.$$
(15)
The electron neutrino survival probability at Earth is thus

$$P(\nu _e\nu _e)=P_{\nu _1}^f\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _v+P_{\nu _2}^f\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _v.$$
(16)
The muon neutrino appearance probability is

$$P(\nu _e\nu _\mu )=P_{\nu _1}^f\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _v+P_{\nu _2}^f\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _v.$$
(17)
Because of decay, $`P(\nu _e\nu _e)+P(\nu _e\nu _\mu )<1`$ (at this point, we are considering all decay products to be sterile).

In the absence of decay or oscillations, the recoil electron spectrum from neutrino-electron scattering in SK can be computed by convolving the 8B neutrino spectrum ortiz  with the $`\nu _ee`$ elastic scattering cross section $`d\sigma /dT`$ (see, e.g., Ref magnetic ), and smearing with the SK energy resolution SKres . For a given decay or oscillation scenario, the spectrum is calculated in the same way, but now allowing an energy-dependent survival probability for the neutrinos. The contribution (about 6 times smaller, and with a slightly different differential cross section) from $`\nu _\mu e`$ elastic scattering must also be included. These two spectra, binned every 0.5 MeV in the recoil electron total energy $`E_e=T_e+m_e`$ can then be divided bin-by-bin. The resulting “ratio spectrum” $`R_{SK}`$ closely approximates how SK presents their data, though they of course use a much more detailed Monte Carlo to model the detector response. Also, in their case the numerator in the ratio is the measured counts per bin.

### III.1 Simple $`\nu _2`$ Disappearance

In the upper panel of Fig. 2 we display the $`\nu _e`$ survival probability as a function of neutrino energy, for a range of decay rates. We have chosen parameters in the LMA allowed region. The solid curve corresponds to the case of no decay. In the lower panel, we show the corresponding SK electron energy spectrum, which also includes the $`\nu _\mu `$ component. At large energies, the height of the solid lines is set just by $`\mathrm{sin}^22\theta =0.9`$; SNO expects 0.34 and SK expects $`0.34+0.66/6=0.45`$. The upturn at low energies is set by $`\delta m^2=4\times 10^5`$ eV2. Note that the chlorine experiment is mostly sensitive to the 8B neutrinos, so also expects $`1/3`$. In order to correctly calculate the rate in the gallium detectors, one must also integrate over the finite source region in the Sun. One can see from the figure that as the neutrino lifetime approaches $`10^4\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}`$ or shorter the spectral shape begins to display a significant deviation from the flat SK ratio spectrum. The total flux also begins to depart significantly from the measured value, though only at about the $`2\sigma `$ level, taking into account the 8B flux uncertainty.

### III.2 Compensating Effects from Oscillations

In Fig. 2 we used the flatness of the SK spectrum to estimate a bound on the decay rate of $`\nu _2`$. However, things may not be as straightforward as this basic case. In particular, since oscillation effects may lead to an energy distortion, we must address the possibility that a cancellation between oscillation and decay survival probabilities may produce an acceptably flat spectrum.

For example, we could choose a $`\delta m^2`$ somewhat larger than those in the allowed LMA region, so that the $`\nu _e`$ survival probability begins to rise toward the lower energy end of the SK energy range. Since the decay rate is larger for lower energy neutrinos, the question then becomes whether the decay might be “just so” in the sense that it conspires to cancel this tilt in the survival probability, resulting in a spectrum which is apparently flat. Such a scenario has recently been addressed in Ref. choubey ; chou ; joshipura . We view this scenario as somewhat unnatural, however we agree that it cannot be excluded.

In Fig. 3, we show an example of such a conspiracy, using oscillation parameters for which, in the absence of decay, the SK spectrum is not very flat. Here, if we choose a lifetime of order $`10^4\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}`$ we see that a reasonably flat spectrum may be regained. Note however, the large difference between the solid and dashed curves in this figure, both in terms of the spectral shape and the overall rates. It is important to realize that KamLAND will essentially break the degeneracy between the oscillation parameters and the neutrino lifetime, giving a prediction for the mixing effects (without decay) on the solar neutrino spectrum. One can then go and look for a deviation from this prediction in the solar neutrino spectrum. As is clear from Figs. 2 and 3, a lifetime of order $`10^4\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}`$ defines the scale at which decay could possibly be distinguished.

### III.3 Appearance of Active Daughter $`\nu _1`$

Another possible complication is the possible detection of neutrinos produced as decay products.222The possible detection of decay products was actually noted in the first paper on neutrino decay, Ref. solardecay . However, active daughter neutrinos (as opposed to antineutrinos) have since received very little attention in the literature. The replacement of a parent neutrino with an active daughter may partially hide the effects of decay. Unlike the situation discussed above, this would not be sensitive to a conspiracy between parameters. Rather, the appearance and possible detection of active decay products is a quite generic expectation, as most plausible decay models will feature a neutrino or antineutrino in the final state. There are a range of model-dependent possibilities for these final-state neutrinos, such as whether the neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana particles and whether the decay products are active or sterile dodelson . In this subsection we study the effects of active daughter neutrinos.

If active daughters are produced, the overall neutrino mass scale is important. In virtually all studies of neutrino decay, it has been assumed that the neutrino mass spectrum is hierarchical, and thus the mass of the final state neutrino may be neglected. This is important, since the energy difference between initial and final state neutrinos depends on the values of the masses. If a neutrino decays to a massless particle and another neutrino, the fraction of the initial neutrino energy carried by the final state neutrino ranges from a maximum of $`E_f/E_i1`$ to a minimum of $`E_f/E_im_1^2/m_2^2`$. Where a hierarchical mass spectrum is a good approximation, the two decay products will each carry a large fraction of the original neutrino energy, hence the daughter neutrino will, on average, be degraded in energy. However, if the neutrino masses are degenerate, the daughter neutrino must have approximately the same energy as the parent neutrino. For example, if we take $`\delta m^24\times 10^5\mathrm{eV}^2`$ and the degenerate mass larger than about $`m_1m_20.03\mathrm{eV}`$ the energy degradation of the daughter neutrino would be less than about 0.5 MeV – the width of the SK energy bins.

Given this, one may wonder if it is possible to set any decay bound at all. For example, if the mixing angle were exactly maximal, any decay of $`\nu _2`$ to $`\nu _1`$ in which the neutrino energy was not degraded would be undetectable. However, the solar $`\nu _e`$ survival probability appears to be less than 1/2 in the SNO/SK and Cl energy region (and somewhat larger in the Ga region) strongly disfavoring exact maximal mixing. As long as the mixing angle is not exactly maximal, decay will cause the relative fluxes of $`\nu _e`$ and $`\nu _\mu `$ to vary as a function of energy, which would be distinguishable in both SK and SNO.

In Fig. 4 we demonstrate the effect on the spectrum if $`\nu _2`$ decays to the orthogonal state $`\nu _1`$, in the limit where the daughter neutrinos carry the full energy of the parent.333The possibility that the entire flux (across the whole energy range) has decayed to the $`\nu _1`$ state by the time the neutrinos reach Earth would give an energy-independent suppression of the solar $`\nu _e`$ flux, contrary to that observed. The expressions in Eq. (III) have now to be replaced by

$`P_{\nu _1}^f`$ $`=`$ $`P_{\nu _1}^i+P_{\nu _2}^i\left[1\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{E}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{m}{\tau }}\right)\right],`$
$`P_{\nu _2}^f`$ $`=`$ $`P_{\nu _2}^i\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{E}}\times {\displaystyle \frac{m}{\tau }}\right).`$ (18)
in order to include the $`\nu _1`$ produced by the decay of $`\nu _2`$. Note that there is no quantum-mechanical interference between $`\nu _1`$ originally in the beam with those produced by the decays of $`\nu _2`$ ohlsson . In addition, we may take the daughter neutrinos to be collinear with the parent neutrinos ohlsson .

An interesting feature of Fig. 4 is the direction of the deviation from a flat spectrum. Rather than a deviation downward (as observed in Fig. 2) caused by the depletion of the flux at lower energies, we instead obtain a deviation upward. This is due to the replacement of a portion of the $`\nu _2`$ flux by $`\nu _1`$, which has a larger $`\nu _e`$ component (since $`\theta _{solar}36^{}`$). Note, however, that the size of $`\tau /m`$ where decay effects show up as a significant deviation (either to the flat spectrum, or to the total rates) is comparable to that shown in Fig. 2. Therefore, the lifetime limits for the cases of decay to steriles and decay to active neutrinos of non-degraded energy could be comparable (if $`m_1m_2`$ were known).

### III.4 Dark-Side Inversion Undone by Decay

We now consider an unusual case that requires decay. Suppose the solar neutrino parameters live on the so-called “dark-side” dark  of the parameter space, that is, the hierarchy is inverted such a way that $`\nu _2`$ has a larger $`\nu _e`$ component than does $`\nu _1`$. This situation does not provide a good fit to the solar neutrino data, as an MSW resonance would not take place in the Sun and it is not possible to obtain a $`\nu _e`$ survival probability less than one half. However, if we add fast decay to this dark-side solution, we can convert the entire flux to $`\nu _1`$, obtaining a solution that is in good agreement with the SK, SNO and Cl data. That is, decay effectively undoes the $`\nu _2\nu _1`$ reversal in $`\nu _e`$. We have plotted such an example in Fig. 5. Note that the curve which most closely resembles the measured SK data is the one which corresponds to the largest decay rate. The only problem with this solution lies with Ga flux measurement of greater than a half – a difficulty which, alone, is probably sufficient to rule out such a solution. So, although such a scenario seems unlikely, it is enough, however, to give one pause for thought.

### III.5 Other Possibilities

In Fig. 2 we have considered decay products that are completely undetectable (this could also be achieved if the daughter neutrino energies were artificially taken to zero), while in Fig. 4 we considered active daughters of the full energy, such that their detectability is optimized. It is clear that the case where the daughter neutrino should be active but have degraded energy, lies somewhere between the examples considered in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4. This case would occur if $`m_1m_2`$. However, note that this directly modifies the absolute spectrum, which is steeply falling (see Ref SK ); the ratio spectra shown above cannot be averaged by eye. By comparing Figs. 2 and 4, it should be clear that it could be quite difficult to discern such a decay using either the spectral shape or the total flux

Another example is that of the inverted hierarchy, where the solar neutrino flux can decay to the eigenstate that consists mainly of $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$. Since these flavors have a cross-section approximately 6 times smaller than $`\nu _e`$, this situation is closer to the sterile daughters example presented in Fig. 2 than to the active daughter $`\nu _1`$ case presented in Fig. 4.

The decay products might include antineutrinos rather than neutrinos or, more generally, a mixture of the two. Since $`\overline{\nu }_\mu `$ and $`\overline{\nu }_\tau `$ have similar neutrino-electron scattering cross-sections to $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$, they would also be difficult to detect.

In Ref. pakvasadaughters ; choubey , the appearance of $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ as a decay product is discussed. An estimated limit on the solar $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ flux has been obtained for the SK data in Ref. torrente , using the technique of Ref. invbeta , and is quoted as 3.5% of the 8B $`\nu _e`$ flux (at the 95% C.L.). Ref. choubey  takes this to imply a stringent decay limit of $`\tau /m10^3`$ s/eV. Though they state that the $`\overline{\nu }_1`$ carries less energy than the parent neutrino, it appears that the bound is derived without taking this into account. Indeed, as we have stressed above, the daughter may carry nearly the full energy of the parent. But if not, it makes a big difference for the yield, since the $`\overline{\nu }_epe^+n`$ cross section is nearly quadratic in neutrino energy. And the neutrino spectrum is falling steeply with energy, so decay products from a high energy can be hidden at a lower energy. Also, if the daughter energy is less than the parent energy, then the limit as quoted from Ref. torrente  does not apply. The limit of 3.5% assumes that the $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ spectrum has the same shape as the 8B $`\nu _e`$ spectrum. If that assumption is relaxed, then the flux limit is more conservatively about 10%. Thus the decay limit is certainly considerably weaker than $`\tau /m10^3`$ s/eV.

Finally, one might reasonably ask if the solar neutrino data can be explained by neutrino decay. The formulation of this question that seems to be the most interesting is this: Can the solar $`\nu _e`$ and LSND lsnd  $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ data be made consistent? The combined solar, atmospheric, and LSND results require three independent $`\delta m^2`$ values, whereas only two are allowed in three-generation mixing. Thus, our question can be rephrased: Can one explain all of the data with the two $`\delta m^2`$ values and one $`\tau /m`$ value? Let us assume the LSND vacuum mixing parameters. For the large $`\delta m^21`$ eV2, matter effects in the Sun are negligible. We are free to invert the sign of $`\delta m^2`$ so that the solar $`\nu _e\nu _2`$ (the LSND mixing angle is very small). Suppose decay turns this into $`1/3\nu _2+2/3\nu _11/3\nu _e+2/3\nu _\mu `$ in the SK energy region, roughly matching the SNO and SK observations (we ignore the spectral distortion). But then decay is complete in the gallium-detector energy range, predicting nearly zero $`\nu _e`$ flux there, in gross disagreement with observations.

## IV Other Neutrino Decays

Let us suppose that a model-independent limit on solar neutrino decay can be arrived at, and that it reaches the scale of $`\tau /m10^4`$ s/eV. Once such a limit has been established, can it be used to set meaningful limits on the possible decay of neutrinos from other sources? In particular, we shall consider the decay of atmospheric neutrinos. It is immediately obvious that if we restrict ourselves to the three active neutrinos, it is difficult to arrange for decay to play a role in the atmospheric neutrino problem. Since two of the three mass eigenstates have large $`\nu _e`$ components, it is hard to see how decay could alter the atmospheric $`\nu _\mu `$ flux, while leaving the $`\nu _e`$ flux unaltered, as the data suggests.

We can make this point more precise. Let us define the neutrino mass eigenstates to be such that $`m_3>m_2>m_1`$. Considered as a function of mass squared, in a normal hierarchy two states are close together (the solar $`\delta m^2`$), and are well below the third state (by the atmospheric $`\delta m^2`$). The sign of the solar $`\delta m^2`$ is fixed by the observation of matter effects in the Sun (for the opposite sign, there is no MSW resonance). However, the sign of the atmospheric $`\delta m^2`$ that dictates vacuum oscillations is unknown. An inverted hierarchy is obtained when this state is well below the solar doublet on a mass-squared scale. See also Fig. 1, but note that the scale there is mass, not mass squared.

If we have a normal hierarchy, the solar decay limit applies to $`\tau _{21}/m_2`$, whereas if we have an inverted hierarchy, the limit applies to both $`\tau _{32}/m_3`$ and $`\tau _{31}/m_3`$. In the inverted case, only $`\nu _2\nu _1`$ is not directly constrained (in the inverted case, we relabel so that $`m_3>m_2>m_1`$). However, since this decay mode has virtually the same phase space as $`\nu _3\nu _1`$, it must also be constrained, unless there were a large hierarchy in the respective couplings. It is important to remember that the flavor content of the mass eigenstates is irrelevant for their decays.

In the case of a normal hierarchy, we can translate the bound on $`\nu _2`$ decay into one on $`\nu _3`$ if we make certain assumptions. Since the quantity limited by experiment is $`\tau /m_2`$ and $`\tau /m_2(g^2\delta m^2)^1`$ (using Eq. (8)), then the overall mass scale is mostly irrelevant (at least for the hierarchical case) for setting a bound on $`g`$. A solar decay limit of $`10^4`$ s/eV would translate into a limit on the coupling of

$$g_{21}^23\times 10^5\left(\frac{10^5\mathrm{eV}^2}{\delta m^2}\right).$$
(19)
For the solar LMA solution, $`\delta m^24\times 10^5`$ eV2, one would obtain a limit of $`g_{21}^2<10^5`$, slightly more restrictive than the limit from meson decays of $`g^210^4`$. However, from Section II we see that the correspondence between neutrino lifetime and the coupling constant depends sensitively on the mass hierarchy.

In order to translate a bound on $`\nu _2`$ into one on $`\nu _3`$, we would have to assume that $`g`$ is approximately universal among generations. Of course, this is a very model-dependent assumption. The limit on the $`\nu _3`$ lifetime would become

$$\frac{\tau _{31}}{m_3}\frac{\tau _{21}}{m_2}\times \frac{\delta m_{21}^2}{\delta m_{31}^2}10^6\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}.$$
(20)
The natural scale for setting a limit on neutrino decay with atmospheric neutrinos is $`\tau /mL/E10^4\mathrm{km}/300\mathrm{MeV}10^{10}`$ s/eV. Thus if there were significant decay in the atmospheric neutrinos, a significant hierarchy in the couplings $`(g_{31}/g_{21})^210^4`$ would be required. The exception to this is to greatly increase the $`\delta m^2`$, as in Ref. barger . This model is now strongly disfavored since it cannot accommodate large-angle mixing with an active neutrino in the solar sector. Finally, as noted, if there is an inverted hierarchy, a limit on solar neutrino decay may apply directly to atmospheric neutrino decay, since the same states may be involved.

A limit on solar neutrino decay would also apply to decays to “phantom” neutrinos. Light sterile neutrinos can be used to add new mass eigenstates anywhere relative to the standard hierarchy. These new mass eigenstates might be inaccessible by flavor mixing (or with very small angles), but might be reached via decays (which connect mass eigenstates directly). If so, the presence of these phantom neutrinos could result in an apparent non-unitarity of the $`3\times 3`$ mixing matrix. Indeed, such tests could infer their existence even if decay were not seen directly. These phantom neutrinos can also be lower in mass than $`\nu _1`$ in the standard case; however, the very long SN1987a lifetime limit frieman  would apply to those states.

## V Conclusions

Solar and supernova neutrinos have been observed on Earth suggesting, naively, that they do not decay. However, this conclusion cannot immediately be drawn unless one can rule out certain subtleties. When considering these possibilities we must be careful to distinguish the mass eigenstates (for which the lifetimes are properly defined) and the flavor eigenstates.

1. While the LMA solution is an excellent fit to the solar neutrino data, one cannot completely rule out more exotic scenarios until KamLAND kamland  confirms the LMA parameters in an experiment that does not rely upon properties of the Sun. KamLAND will determine the “solar” mixing parameters using antineutrinos rather than neutrinos, in vacuum rather than in matter, and using a much shorter baseline than the Earth-Sun distance. In addition, exotic effects such as flavor-changing neutral currents, or resonant spin-flip transitions can be eliminated. Only then shall we have the complete confidence in the LMA solution necessary to fully utilize the potential of the solar neutrino beam as a probe of non-standard neutrino properties.
2. The flat energy spectrum observed in SK and SNO is well described by the LMA solution, which would seem to argue against an energy-dependent distortion of the survival probability, as would be characteristic of decay. However, for parameters outside the LMA region one can obtain an energy dependent oscillation survival probability to offset the effects of decay. This possibility may be eliminated by KamLAND.
3. Decay will typically (though not always) cause a depletion of the total solar neutrino flux. While this is also a possible way to identify decay, we should keep in mind the $`20\%`$ uncertainly in the 8B flux normalization. That uncertainty will be reduced by future neutral-current data from SNO, as well as direct nuclear-physics measurements s17 .
4. In the limit that the neutrino masses are degenerate, a daughter neutrino produced by decay will carry the full energy of the parent neutrino, and could be detected in solar neutrino experiments. The replacement of the parent neutrino with an active daughter of the same energy could obscure the characteristic features of decay. This is especially pertinent in the case of the decay $`\nu _2\nu _1`$, where both $`\nu _2`$ and $`\nu _1`$ have large $`\nu _e`$ projections.
5. Decays producing $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ daughters should be readily detectable, provided the energy of the $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ is not too degraded. If the hierarchy is inverted, there may be decays to the state that is dominantly $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ (or the antiparticle state). These are harder to detect in SK, though they would add to the integral neutral-current rate in SNO.
6. If a model-independent limit on neutrino decay can be established, the bound will likely be of order $`\tau /m10^4`$ s/eV. This is close to the limit obtained via meson-decay bounds (which may or may not apply; see above). Though the bound is quite weak, the solar neutrino flux would, however, still provide the best limit on non-radiative neutrino decay. This limit is about eight orders of magnitude too weak to rule out the decay of astrophysical neutrinos (e.g., from a Galactic supernova or a distant AGN Keranen ) on their journey to Earth. We thus have absolutely no guarantee we shall be able to use such neutrinos to probe the astrophysics of these sources without taking decay into account.

## Acknowledgments

We thank Kev Abazajian, Boris Kayser, Gail McLaughlin, Stephen Parke, David Rainwater, and Mark Vagins for useful discussions. We also thank B. Peon for pointing out the existence (or non-existence) of Hinchliffe’s Rule peon . J.F.B. (as the David N. Schramm Fellow), and N.F.B. were supported by Fermilab, which is operated by URA under DOE contract No. DE-AC02-76CH03000, and were additionally supported by NASA under NAG5-10842.


text:
# Naked singularities in cylindrical collapse of counter-rotating dust shells.

## Abstract

Solutions describing the gravitational collapse of asymptotically flat cylindrical and prolate shells of (null) dust are shown to admit globally naked singularities.

We consider two models of cylindrical collapse, both based on the cylindrically symmetric line element

$$ds^2=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha (v))dudv+dz^2+r^2(u,v)d\varphi ^2.$$
(1)
$`u,v`$ are null co-ordinates and we take $`r=(vu)/20`$. Then $`u,v`$ label outgoing and ingoing null hypersurfaces respectively; we take both $`u`$ and $`v`$ to increase into the future. The energy-momentum tensor is in the form of null dust with Ricci tensor given by

$$R_{ab}=\frac{\alpha ^{}(v)}{4r}k_ak_b,k_a=_av.$$

Then the strong, weak and dominant energy conditions are all equivalent to

$$\alpha ^{}0,$$
(2)
which we assume henceforth. The matter content of the space-time may be described as infalling null dust. There is a curvature singularity along $`r=0`$. Since the solution is Petrov type $`N`$ with a pure radiation energy-momentum tensor, all curvature invariants vanish. It has been shown in letwang (1) that this is a parallel propagated curvature singularity. Additionally, scalars such as $`R_{ab}w^aw^b`$ diverge at $`r=0`$ for any unit time-like vector $`w^a`$. At fixed $`z`$ on the singularity, we have

$$ds^2=e^{\alpha (v)}dv^2,$$

so the singularity is time-like.

The causal nature of the singularity is further elucidated by studying the null geodesics in the 2-space $`z=`$constant, $`\varphi =`$constant. The geodesic equations yield (for future-pointing geodesics)

$`\dot{v}`$ $`=`$ $`k^2\mathrm{exp}(\alpha (v)),`$ (3)
$`u`$ $`=`$ $`u_0+u_1\tau ,`$ (4)
where the over-dot represents differentiation with respect to the affine parameter $`\tau `$, $`u_10`$ and $`k`$ are constants. The null condition is $`u_1k^2=0`$; both constants cannot vanish simultaneously.

If $`k=0`$, then $`u_1>0`$. We see that $`u\mathrm{},r+\mathrm{}`$ as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$. As $`\tau `$ increases, $`r`$ decreases to $`0`$ at parameter time $`\tau =(v_0u_0)/u_1>0`$. So these geodesics are past complete and terminate in the future at the singularity $`r=0`$ in finite parameter time.

If $`u_1=0`$, then $`k^2>0`$. We calculate

$$\ddot{v}=\alpha ^{}(v)\dot{v}^2,$$

so $`\tau v(\tau )`$ is increasing and concave (according to the energy condition (2)). Hence $`v`$ cannot reach $`+\mathrm{}`$ in finite parameter time. Either $`v\mathrm{}`$ as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$, or $`v`$ is bounded above. In the latter case, monotonicity implies that $`v`$ has a limit $`v_F`$ as $`\tau `$ increases. Then either $`vv_F`$ as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$, or $`v=v_F`$ at some $`\tau =\tau _F`$ with $`\dot{v}(\tau _F)=0`$. This implies $`\alpha (v_F)=\mathrm{}`$, and by monotonicity, $`\alpha ^{}(v_F)=\mathrm{}`$. In this case, these is a singularity along $`v=v_F`$. In the other cases, the geodesics are future complete. Future null infinity $`𝒥^+`$ is at $`v=v_F`$ or $`v=+\mathrm{}`$ depending on whether or not $`v`$ is bounded above as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$. In the former case, $`r`$ has a finite limit at $`𝒥^+`$, which will be different along different geodesics.

$`v`$ decreases as $`\tau `$ decreases. Either $`r`$ decreases to $`0`$, or the geodesic meets a singularity at $`v=v_P`$ whereat $`\dot{v}\mathrm{}`$. This occurs if and only if $`\alpha (v_P)=+\mathrm{}`$. Again, monotonicity implies that $`\alpha ^{}(v_P)=\mathrm{}`$.

So there are four different possible global structures depending on whether or not there exist values $`v_P,v_F`$ for which $`\alpha (v_{P,F})=+\mathrm{},\mathrm{}`$. The conformal diagrams are given in Figures 1-4. Note that when $`𝒥^\pm `$ exists and corresponds to $`r\mathrm{}`$, the space-time is asymptotically flat at that surface in the following sense: all superenergy terms jose (2) such as $`R_{ab}w^aw^b,C_{abcd}w^aw^bw^cw^d`$ ($`w^a`$ null or unit time-like) vanish in the limit as the surface is approached for fixed values of $`z`$. Along any time-like geodesic, parallel propagated components of the Riemann tensor will also vanish in this limit letwang (1). Since the space-times represent infinite cylinders, they cannot be asymptotically flat in directions along which $`z`$ becomes infinite. This feature can be removed; see below.

We note that to obtain space-times filled with outgoing null dust, we define $`U=v,V=u,\beta (U)=\alpha (v)`$ and re-designate the future direction as the reverse of that used above. The line element is

$$ds^2=\mathrm{exp}(\beta (U))dUdV+dz^2+R^2d\varphi ^2,$$
(5)
where $`R=(VU)/2`$. The Ricci tensor is given by

$$R_{ab}=\frac{\beta ^{}(U)}{4r}_aU_bU,$$

and the energy condition now reads

$$\beta ^{}(U)0.$$
(6)
The relevant conformal diagrams are obtained by inverting those of Figures 1-4.

In order to make the connection with cosmic censorship, i.e. to study collapse for an initially regular configuration, we replace the interior of a past light cone of a point on $`r=0`$ with a portion of Minkowski space. The resulting space-times are asymptotically flat and evolve from regular initial data. They may be considered the cylindrical version of Vaidya space-time. Writing the line element of Minkowski space-time in the cylindrical form

$$ds^2=d\overline{u}d\overline{v}+d\overline{z}^2+\frac{1}{4}(\overline{v}\overline{u})^2d\overline{\varphi }^2,$$

we obtain a smooth matching across an ingoing null hypersurface by taking $`\overline{x}^a=x^a`$, matching across $`v=0`$ (a translation may be required to guarantee that $`0`$ lies in the domain of $`\alpha `$ and that $`v_P<0<v_F`$ if such exist) and using the boundary condition $`\alpha (0)=0`$ BI (3). We paste the portion $`v<0`$ of Minkowski space-time to the portion $`v0`$ of the space-time with line element (1).

Two possibilities arise and are shown in Figures 5 and 6 respective. Both contain locally naked singularities. Figure 5 corresponds to space-times modelling the gravitational collapse of cylindrical null dust which are asymptotically flat at fixed $`z`$ and which arise from regular initial data. The singularity in this case is globally naked.

A slightly different model has been studied in PW (4), GJ (5) and Gleiser (6). Here, the exterior region is taken to be filled with outgoing null dust, and is matched across a time-like shell of (ordinary) dust to a flat interior. One can interpret this as a collapsing cylindrical shell emitting both gravitational radiation (the solution is Petrov type $`N`$) and massless particles. It was shown in GJ (5) and Gleiser (6) that this shell can be constructed in such a manner that the collapse proceeds to $`r=0`$ without any trapped or marginally trapped surfaces appearing either on the shell or in the exterior geometry. This leads one to suspect that the resulting singularity may be naked; the present results confirm this. The shell is constructed as follows. The metric inside the shell is taken to be flat;

$$ds^2=dt^2+dr^2+dz^2+r^2d\varphi ^2.$$

The exterior geometry is given by (5). Define $`T`$ by $`U=TR`$, $`V=T+R`$, and take the shell to be at $`R=R_0(T)=r_0(t)`$. Demanding continuity of the metric yields a relation for $`t`$ in terms of $`T`$. The surface energy-momentum tensor of the shell general takes the form of an imperfect fluid; following PW (4), we impose the condition that there are stresses only in the azimuthal direction. This choice of matter admits the interpretation of a thin shell of dust particles in which counter-rotation of one half of the particles results in zero net angular momentum, and is referred to as a “shell of counter-rotating dust”AT (7, 4, 6). The field equations for the shell yield the following differential equation for $`R_0(T)`$ which includes the terms $`\beta (U_0),\beta ^{}(U_0)`$, where $`U_0=TR_0(T)`$:

$$R_0^{\prime \prime }=(1R_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})\left\{\frac{\mathrm{}^{1/2}}{R_0}+\frac{R_0^{}\mathrm{}^{1/2}}{\mathrm{}^{1/2}1}\frac{\beta ^{}}{2}(1R_0^{})\right\},$$
(7)
where

$$\mathrm{}=R_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}+e^{beta}(1R_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}).$$

(An erroneous version of this equation was given in PW (4) and was corrected in Gleiser (6).)

The solutions studied in PW (4), GJ (5) and Gleiser (6) are similar to the following simple example. For our present purposes, it suffices to show that there exists a function $`\beta (U)`$ and a solution $`R_0(T)`$ of (7) with the following properties: $`R_0(T)`$ decreases monotonically from a finite positive value to $`R_0=0`$ in finite proper time; $`|R_0^{}|<1`$; $`\beta ^{}(U)0`$; $`\mathrm{}>0`$ along the solution; a suitable energy condition is satisfied by the shell. In order to do this, we make the choice $`R_0(T)=abT`$ where $`a,b>0`$ and $`b<1`$. Then (7) may be written as the following equation for $`y(\tau ):=\beta (TR_0(T))`$ where $`\tau =\mathrm{ln}|abT|`$:

$$\frac{dy}{d\tau }=\frac{2}{b}\frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{}^{1/2}}{b+\mathrm{}^{1/2}}.$$
(8)
The right hand side here is a $`C^1`$ function of $`y`$, and so this equation admits a unique solution through any point $`(\tau _0,y_0)`$. If we choose data with $`y<0`$, we see that $`y`$ increases towards $`y=0`$ asymptotically as $`\tau \mathrm{}`$. Such a solution cannot reach $`y=0`$ in a finite time since $`y0`$ is the unique solution through any point $`(\tau ,y)=(\tau _0,0)`$. In other words, there exist solutions of (7) for which $`R_0`$ decreases to zero in finite time $`T=a/b`$, with $`\beta `$ satisfying $`\beta _0\beta 0`$ on $`T[0,a/b]`$. The shell has density $`\rho `$ and azimuthal stress $`p_\varphi `$ satisfying

$$\rho =p_\varphi =e^{\beta /2}(1R_{0}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})^{1/2}R_0^1(\mathrm{}^{1/2}1),$$

which is clearly positive for the solution constructed, and the other conditions mentioned above are clearly satisfied. We note that Gleiser’s general analysis shows that there are numerous possibilities which lead to the outcome exemplified by this case Gleiser (6).

To see that the resulting singularity is globally naked, we note that since $`\beta (U_0)0`$ during the collapse, $`\beta `$ cannot diverge to $`+\mathrm{}`$ before the shell undergoes complete collapse and hence the conformal diagram for the matched space-time must be of the form shown in either Figure 7 or Figure 8. When there is no future singularity $`U_F`$, i.e. when Figure 7 applies, the space-times give more examples of cylindrical collapse resulting in a globally naked singularity. The space-time is asymptotically flat at $`𝒥^+`$ ($`r\mathrm{}`$ at fixed $`U`$) for fixed $`z`$.

The problem of the lack of asymptotic flatness at large $`z`$ can be dealt with as follows. The space-time with line element (1) can be matched smoothly across any surface $`z=`$constant with the spherically symmetric space time with line element

$$ds^2=\mathrm{exp}(\alpha (v))dudv+r^2(u,v)(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2),$$
(9)
provided the matching is done across the equator $`\theta =\pi /2`$ of the spherically symmetric space-time. Doing this at two different values of $`z`$ and choosing normals in the appropriate directions corresponds to replacing the infinite cylinder with a finite cylinder bounded by hemispherical caps BIL (8). The Ricci tensor of (9) has non-vanishing components

$$R_{vv}=\frac{\alpha ^{}}{4r},R_{\theta \theta }=\mathrm{csc}^2\theta R_{\varphi \varphi }=1e^\alpha .$$

The models of Figures 5 and 6 used the boundary condition $`\alpha (0)=0`$, and the energy conditions for the cylinder gave $`\alpha ^{}(v)0`$. Using these, it is straightforward to show that all energy conditions (weak, strong, dominant) are satisfied in the hemispheres. A similar conclusion holds for the off-shell regions of the models of Figures 7 and 8 using the condition $`\beta 0`$ found above. The collapsing shell of matter now has a finite cylindrical body and hemispherical caps. We take its equation of motion to be given by the same equation $`r=r_0(T(\tau ))`$ in both the cylindrical and spherical regions (this is in line with our ‘recycling’ of the cylindrical metric functions in the spherical regions). It is straightforward to show that the surface energy-momentum tensor of the shell in the cylindrical region is given by PW (4, 5, 6)

$$S_{ab}=\rho \delta _a^\tau \delta _b^\tau +p_z\delta _a^z\delta _b^z+r_0^2(p_z+\rho )\delta _a^\varphi \delta _b^\varphi .$$

Then it transpires that the surface energy-momentum tensor in the spherical region is

$$S_{ab}=2\rho \delta _a^\tau \delta _b^\tau +p_zr_0^2\delta _a^\theta \delta _b^\theta +p_zr_0^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \delta _a^\varphi \delta _b^\varphi .$$

Imposing the ‘counter-rotating dust’ condition $`p_z=0`$ shows that the collapsing shell is composed of dust with no tangential stresses in the hemispheres. In particular, the energy conditions in the hemispheres are inherited from the energy conditions in the cylindrical region. Asymptotic flatness in the hemispherical regions is guaranteed by asymptotic flatness at fixed $`z`$ in the cylindrical region. The properties of the singularities which we have examined depends only on the geometry of the Lorentzian 2-space $`z=`$constant, $`\varphi =`$constant of (1). Since this 2-space is identical to the 2-space $`\theta =`$constant, $`\varphi =`$constant of (9), the singularity structure in the cylindrical region applies throughout the entire space-time.

Finally, we note the unsuitability of these models for studying the hoop conjecture. Since the hemispheres may be attached at any pair of values of $`z`$, the resulting object may have an arbitrary degree of prolateness, from zero (spherical) to infinity (infinite cylinder). Thus the lack of occurrence of an apparent horizon (i.e. trapped surfaces) relates only to the particular choice of metric functions and not to the asphericity of the collapsing object.

I am grateful to S. Gonçalves and S. Jhingan for allowing me to read their work GJ (5) prior to publication.