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# Magnetic fields in the absence of spiral density waves – NGC 4414

## 1 Introduction

The relative role of small-scale velocity perturbations and galaxy-scale gas flows in determining the evolution and structure of galactic magnetic fields is one of the most hotly debated questions in studies of the evolution and structure of galactic magnetic fields (e.g. Zweibel zwi96 (1996), Zweibel & Heiles zwi97 (1997), Beck et al. bec96 (1996)). Large-scale galactic magnetic fields are known to display a coherent spiral-like pattern of polarization B-vectors (see Beck et al. bec96 (1996) for a review), indicating a substantial radial component capable of resisting the shear due to differential rotation. The spiral magnetic field pattern could be produced by the dynamo mechanism (Wielebinski & Krause wie93 (1993), Beck et al. bec96 (1996)) in which the small-scale motions are constantly feeding the large-scale poloidal (i.e. radial and vertical) field. The radial field could also be produced by continuous field stretching by large-scale flows due to density waves or bars (e.g. Otmianowska-Mazur & Chiba otm95 (1995)). In choosing a flocculent spiral, where flocculent means without large-scale spiral structure, density waves and bars should play no significant role in determining the magnetic field orientation.

In well-studied nearby spiral galaxies it is extremely difficult to discern the effects of the turbulent dynamo from those due to processes in spiral arms. These objects have well-developed grand-design patterns with strong density wave compression and/or a high concentration of star formation in spiral arms. The first process may strongly modify the magnetic field by effects of compression and gas flows along the arms (Otmianowska-Mazur & Chiba otm95 (1995)). In some galaxies like M83 spiral-like compression regions (as traced by aligned dust filaments) fill the whole interarm space. Strong star formation in spiral arms acts destructively on regular fields (Beck et al. bec96 (1996)). Differences in turbulent activity between the arms and the interarm region may give rise to strong concentration of regular magnetic fields between the stellar arms, thereby strongly influencing the global field structure (Rohde & Elstner roh98 (1998)).

Knapik et al. (kna00 (2000)) first reported that flocculent galaxies may possess regular fields with a strong radial component. Their study was made at low resolution and only at one frequency. In this paper we present a high-resolution multifrequency polarization study of the flocculent galaxy NGC 4414 (Thornley & Mundy tho97 (1997)). The velocity field shows no evidence for non-circular gas flows (Braine et al. bra93 (1993), Sakamoto sak96 (1996), Thornley & Mundy tho97 (1997)). NGC 4414 has a high surface gas density and is forming stars fairly intensively, much like in our own galaxy, but is in no way a starburst. All this ensures good conditions for building up a global magnetic field by turbulent processes in a way unaffected by large-scale gas flows and compressions.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

The maps of total power and linearly polarized radio emission of NGC 4414 at three frequencies were obtained using the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)111NRAO is a facility of National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.. At 8.44 GHz and 4.86 GHz the compact D-array configuration has been used. At 1.415 GHz and 4.86 GHz observations were made with C-array. The on-source time was 1.3 hours and 1.7 hours in the C-array at 1.415 GHz and 4.86 GHz, respectively. In the D-array the observing time was 14 hours at 8.44 GHz and 13 hours at 4.86 GHz. The receiver bandwidth was 50 MHz.

The intensity scale was determined by observing 3C286 and calibrating with the flux densities taken from Baars et al. (baa77 (1977)). The position angle of the linearly polarized emission was calibrated using the same source with an assumed position angle of 33$`\mathrm{°}`$. The phase calibrator 1219+285 was also used to determine telescope phases and the instrumental polarization.

The data reduction has been performed using the AIPS data reduction package. The edited and calibrated visibility data were Fourier transformed to obtain maps of the Stokes parameters I, Q and U at all three frequencies. At 4.86 GHz the visibilities from both array configurations were combined. The maps were weighted with ROBUST=0 for the best resolution and sensitivity compromise, yielding synthesized half-power beam widths (HPBW) of 7$`\mathrm{}`$ and 11$`\mathrm{}`$ at 8.44 GHz and 4.86 GHz, respectively. At 1.415 GHz our C-array map also weighted with ROBUST=0, has an original HPBW of 14$`\mathrm{}`$. The naturally weighted maps, more sensitive to extended structures, have HPBWs of 11$`\mathrm{}`$ and 16$`\mathrm{}`$ at 8.44 GHz and 4.86 GHz, respectively. The Q and U maps were combined to get maps of the linearly polarized emission (corrected for the positive zero level offset) and of the position angle of apparent magnetic vectors (B-vectors).

NGC 4414 has been also observed using the Effelsberg 100-m MPIfR telescope to determine the total power flux at 2.695 GHz. Several small maps of the galaxy scanned either in R.A. or in declination were made, then the maps were averaged and the flux density was determined by integrating the final map in concentric rings.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Total power emission

The contour map of the total power brightness of NGC 4414 at 8.44 GHz is presented in Fig. 1. The total power emission shows a ring-like distribution with a central depression roughly at the position of the hole in the CO and H$`\alpha `$ emission (Thornley & Mundy tho97 (1997), Sakamoto sak96 (1996), Braine et al. bra93 (1993)). Our total power map also shows two maxima. The southern maximum coincides roughly with an optically bright clump and with a group of three large H ii regions (Pogge pog89 (1989)). The peanut-shaped northern peak extends eastwards from the major axis and forms a bridge between two groups of H ii regions. These brightness maxima have almost the same amplitude relative to the rest of the disk in our total power maps at 1.415 GHz and at 8.44 GHz. They are thus certainly nonthermal. In the outermost disk the radio emission in our total power maps at 8.44 and 4.86 GHz is asymmetric with a steeper brightness gradient along the western disk boundary (Fig. 1). A small peak north of the centre coincides with a bright star-forming region and is not visible in our 1.415 GHz map so we suspect that it has an increased fraction of thermal emission. A faint radio ridge extends eastwards from the southern end of the major axis. It coincides with weak optical and H$`\alpha `$ extensions. At low frequencies, the total power map at 1.415 GHz also shows a clear tail extending to the south (Fig. 2).

Our C-array map of NGC 4414 at 4.86 GHz shows the brightest total power peaks with a resolution of $`4\mathrm{}`$ (Fig. 3). The total power hole in the disk centre is very deep at this resolution with no trace of any nuclear source. In the southern disk there is a good agreement between the total power peaks and bright H ii regions. In the outer parts of the NE disk a large H ii region at R.A.$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=12^\mathrm{h}23^\mathrm{m}57\stackrel{s}{.}9`$ Dec$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=+31\mathrm{°}30\mathrm{}50\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to a local radio emission maximum as well. However, in the bright peanut-shaped feature the association is less obvious: its radio-brightest part lies between nearby H$`\alpha `$ peaks.

The spectral index distribution in the disk of NGC 4414 is shown in Fig. 4. The flattening of the spectrum in the NE disk corresponds to a bright complex of H ii regions at R.A.$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=12^\mathrm{h}23^\mathrm{m}57\stackrel{s}{.}9`$ Dec$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=+31\mathrm{°}30\mathrm{}50\mathrm{}`$. The mean spectral index in the inner disk (within the radius of $`1\mathrm{}`$) is about $`\alpha 0.82`$ ($`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) to the North $`\alpha 0.79`$ to the South. The difference is insignificant (r.m.s variations are about 0.02) and may be due to the flattening to $`\alpha 0.76`$ at the position of large H ii regions in the southern disk. Thus, there is no clear evidence for a flatter spectrum of total power emission in the southern disk region.

### 3.2 High-frequency polarized intensity

The high resolution map of the polarized intensity at 8.44 GHz is presented in Fig. 5. The brightest peak of polarized emission is located in the northern half of the disk, east of the bright ensemble of H ii regions. An elongated polarized feature is also located in the southern disk, just outside of the optically bright arm-like patch. The peaks of high polarized intensity do not clearly avoid nor correspond to bright star-forming regions. Diffuse, more smoothly distributed polarized emission is visible as well.

Despite the lack of organized optical or H$`\alpha `$ spiral structure the polarization B-vectors form a clear spiral pattern. Our 8.44 GHz polarization map at high resolution (Fig. 5) shows that the magnetic field orientation does not fluctuate from place to place, being coherent even at the scale of our smallest beam (650 pc). The global magnetic spiral pattern becomes fully visible when natural weighting is applied, lowering the resolution to 11$`\mathrm{}`$ but allowing smooth, low-brightness regions to be seen (Fig. 6). The B-vectors are nearly azimuthal (pitch angle near 0$`\mathrm{°}`$) close to the northern semi-axis but show a strong radial component (pitch angle up to 45$`\mathrm{°}`$) in the southern disk. In the very inner disk the polarization B-vectors cross the galaxy’s centre along the minor axis, forming an S-shaped pattern. On each side of the centre polarization minima are visible, presumably caused by beam depolarization of strongly twisted magnetic fields, seen perpendicular in sky projection.

The highest degrees of polarization (up to some 30% at 8.44 GHz) were found along the western disk boundary and in the faint eastern tail. The inner disk shows a significant north-south asymmetry. The mean polarized brightness at 8.44 GHz and the mean polarization fraction are about 40% higher in the North than the South, where the H$`\alpha `$ emission is slightly stronger. In particular, the H$`\alpha `$ map (Pogge pog89 (1989) and priv. comm.) convolved to the beam of 23″ (the resolution of the CO(1–0) map) shows the brightest peak in the southern disk. The mean H$`\alpha `$ brightness, within the area delineated by the level of 30% of the peak value, is some 10% higher in the southern disk than in the northern one. In this respect NGC 4414 resembles nearby galaxies in which the highly polarized emission tends to avoid regions of high star formation (Beck et al. bec96 (1996)).

### 3.3 Faraday rotation and depolarization

NGC 4414 lies very close to the North Galactic Pole where the foreground Faraday rotation measure (RM) is smaller than 30 rad/m2 (Simard-Normandin & Kronberg sim80 (1980)). Using the polarized background source found in our maps at about $`4\mathrm{}`$ NE from NGC 4414 we determined the foreground rotation to be $`4\pm 8`$ rad/m2. For this reason no correction for the foreground rotation was applied to our data.

The changes of RM with azimuthal angle in the disk (Fig. 7) do not show clearly any simple singly-periodic or doubly-periodic variations traditionally attributed to axisymmetric (ASS) or bisymmetric (BSS) global field symmetry (Beck et al. bec96 (1996)). Instead, the azimuthal profiles show a sudden jump at an azimuthal angle of about 200$`\mathrm{°}`$ with RM values in the inner disk changing abruptly from $`+600`$ rad/m2 to $`600`$ rad/m2. The rapid sign change occurs almost throughout the southern half of the disk. Such a jump usually means that the Faraday rotation angle exceeds 90$`\mathrm{°}`$, corresponding at 4.86 GHz to RM$`=\pi /2\lambda ^2`$ $`600`$ rad/m2. It does not imply any reversal of the magnetic field in NGC 4414 but signifies a “Faraday-thick regime” when the rotation angle exceeds 90$`\mathrm{°}`$ (Sokoloff et al. sok98 (1998)). Such strong Faraday rotation is exceptional at 4.86 GHz and has not been observed in moderately inclined nearby galaxies which become “Faraday-thick” much below this frequency (Beck at al. bec96 (1996)). The jump is most conspicuous at small galactocentric radii, becoming smoother and of smaller amplitude in the outer disk. The azimuthal profiles shown in Fig. 7 also show that RM values in the northern half of the disk are of order of 50–70 rad/m2, much smaller than in the southern half, especially at the galactocentric radii $`<45\mathrm{}`$.

Details of the distribution of Faraday rotation between 8.44 GHz and 4.86 GHz are shown in Fig. 8. The rotation measure (RM) forms large intermixed domains of positive and negative values which do not correspond to any of the known global field symmetries. Generally, positive values dominate in the SW and western disk part with a small spot at the northern tip of the major axis. In large parts of the southern and SW disk the RM exceeds $`+100`$ rad/m2. A narrow region of very strong Faraday rotation, reaching $`+600`$ rad/m2 is located in the southern disk close the depolarized region south of the centre, jumping on its other side down to $`600`$ rad/m2. The negative rotation measures occupy the SE and eastern disk regions, extending to northwest. In the northern disk the rotation measures are small ($`100`$ rad/m2) with interspersed domains of positive and negative sign. This region is also substantially polarized at 1.415 GHz, yielding similar values of RM determined between this frequency and 8.44 GHz. The above picture only weakly depends on the assumption concerning small ($`<30`$ rad/m2) foreground Faraday rotation.

The map of Faraday depolarization (DP) between 8.44 and 4.86 GHz (defined as the ratio of polarization degree between the lower and higher frequencies) is shown in Fig. 9. In the southern disk a region strongly depolarized at 4.86 GHz is present, with a depolarization factor DP $``$ 0.2. It is associated with a jump in RM, as expected for a depolarization due to strong Faraday rotation inside the emitting region (see Burn bur66 (1966), Sokoloff et al. sok98 (1998)) and extends to the SE disk region. The southern disk is completely depolarized at 1.415 GHz which confirms the strong Faraday effects. Another moderately depolarized region was found NW of the centre, close to the major axis. The DP there is about 0.45, rising to 0.5–0.6 when a correction for depolarization due to RM gradients across the beam is applied. On average, the DP between 4.86 and 8.44 GHz in northern disk is about 0.7. This region was even detected in polarization at 1.415 GHz thus, it is definitely Faraday-thin at 4.86 GHz.

The regions of strong Faraday rotation or depolarization show some association with the ionized gas, as traced by the H$`\alpha `$ line. Both the Faraday rotation jump and the depolarized area lie close to the complex of three large H ii regions and the jump south of the centre coincides with the strongest peak of H$`\alpha `$ emission. The area depolarized by more than 50% close to the northern major semi-axis lies close to two large H ii regions. However, a similar complex of ionized gas NW of the disk centre (around R.A.$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=12^\mathrm{h}23^\mathrm{m}56\stackrel{s}{.}3`$ Dec$`{}_{1950}{}^{}=+31\mathrm{°}30\mathrm{}13\mathrm{}`$) shows a rather low RM and is not strongly depolarized at 4.86 GHz.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Total magnetic field strength

The flux densities of NGC 4414, compiled from data available in the literature are shown in Tab. 2. The value at 2695 MHz has been obtained by integrating our Effelsberg map in circular rings (the galaxy was only barely resolved) out to a radius of $`6\mathrm{}`$. The flux density at 4.86 GHz was obtained from the integration of our VLA naturally weighted total power map in elliptical rings with the inclination and position angle from Tab. 1 out to a radius of $`3\mathrm{}`$.

The best power-law fit to this data yields $`\alpha `$= 0.77. Using this value and assuming energy equipartition, a lower limit to the cosmic-ray spectrum to be 300 MeV (see Beck bec91 (1991)), a ratio of proton-to-electron energy density of 100 (Pacholczyk pah70 (1970)), and a nonthermal disk thickness of 2 kpc (full thickness corrected to face-on), we compute the mean magnetic field strength within the radius delineated by 5% of the maximum brightness at 4.86 GHz to be $`<B_t>=15\pm 4\mu `$G. The uncertainty takes into account factor two variations in the proton-to-electron ratio, the disk thickness and the lower energy cutoff as well as, a variation in the thermal fraction at 4.86 GHz between 0 and 10% (allowed by spectral fits to the data in Tab. 2). The total magnetic field in NGC 4414 is comparable to that of actively star-forming (non-starburst) spiral galaxies (Beck et al. bec96 (1996)). Assuming the regular field to be parallel to the disk plane we obtain its mean strength $`<B_{reg}>=4\pm 1\mu `$G. The average ratio $`<B_{reg}>/<B_t>`$ is 0.25.

### 4.2 Distribution of the nonthermal emission

Significant correlations between the gas density, star formation rate and magnetic fields were established by Berkhuijsen et al. (ber93 (1993)). In grand-design objects these quantities are affected by processes in spiral arms, like the accumulation of molecular gas in dust lanes followed by massive star formation and the magnetic field enhancement in compression regions.

Azimuthal distributions of the 4.86 GHz total power brightness of NGC 4414 (showing a smaller contamination by thermal emission than that at 8.44 GHz and less affected by the zero-spacing problem than the C-array map at 1.415 GHz) are compared to the H$`\alpha `$ and CO(1–0) emission in Fig. 10. At all radii there is a reasonable correspondence between the maxima of emission at 4.86 GHz and those in the H$`\alpha `$ and CO lines. In the innermost disk region the correlation is less obvious and the maxima shifted, possibly because of severe beam-smearing effects. At larger radii the azimuthal variations of the total power brightness follow well those in CO and in H$`\alpha `$. The maximum of the total power brightness at the azimuthal angle of about $`45\mathrm{°}`$ is visible both in CO and H$`\alpha `$. However, instead of a second maximum visible in CO and H$`\alpha `$ at the azimuth of $`120\mathrm{°}`$ the radio emission shows only an asymmetric extension. It is possible that the CO and H$`\alpha `$ minimum at the azimuth of $`90\mathrm{°}`$ has been smoothed out by cosmic-ray propagation effects. All profiles exhibit a similar rise for azimuthal angles $`>180\mathrm{°}`$. However, the CO peak at an azimuthal angle of about 340$`\mathrm{°}`$ in the rings outside a radius of $`30\mathrm{}`$ does not correspond to a similar feature in the H$`\alpha `$ line. It has no counterpart in the radio domain so the H$`\alpha `$ emission is not caused by strong absorption of the optical radiation from hidden star-forming regions. Thus, the interrelations between gas density, star formation rate and magnetic fields also exist in flocculent galaxies, in which the distributions of gas, young stars and magnetic field are not strongly modulated by density waves. They have a global character, while small-scale details may show substantial place-to-place differences.

The central depression in the radio emission, gas density and star formation deserves attention. The gas in this region is depleted during the early strong star formation necessary for the high stellar densities found in galaxy nuclei. In density wave galaxies the gas is replenished by radial flows in spiral arms, which feed star-forming processes in the centre and inner disk. Some flocculent galaxies show an accumulation of CO gas in the central region (Regan et al. reg01 (2001)) but this is not the case for NGC 4414 (Sakamoto sak96 (1996)). The central minimum of all species in NGC 4414 is an argument for the absence of dynamically important radial gas flows.

### 4.3 Distribution of the thermal emission

The interpretation of our Faraday rotation data needs information on the distribution of thermal electron density independent of the H$`\alpha `$ data which suffer from extinction effects. The azimuthal distribution of thermal emission from NGC 4414 at 8.44 GHz (Fig. 11) was determined from our spectral index map (Fig. 4) assuming the nonthermal spectral slope $`\alpha _{nt}`$ constant over the whole disk and equal to 1.0 – the mean observed value of $`\alpha `$ in the disk outskirts. The detailed value of $`\alpha _{nt}`$ has little meaning for our discussion as it can only shift vertically the curves shown in Fig. 11 without changing the shape of azimuthal variations of the thermal flux.

The distribution of the thermal emission shows two maxima of similar amplitude at both ends of the major axis. The northern maximum at an azimuthal angle of about $`30\mathrm{°}`$ coincides well with a similar peak of total radio power, CO and H$`\alpha `$. The southern maximum is only slightly stronger and roughly corresponds to a second peak of all these species at an azimuth $`220\mathrm{°}`$$`240\mathrm{°}`$. We do not find any strong excess of thermal emission in the southern disk which would naturally explain why the Faraday effects are so much stronger than in the northern disk.

The lack of much higher thermal emission in the southern disk also means that this region does not exhibit strong star formation hidden by absorption in the H$`\alpha `$ line. Thus we cannot explain the lower degree of polarization at high-frequency of the southern region by stronger magnetic field tangling generated by star-formation. The depolarization by differential Faraday rotation at 8.44 GHz reaches 0.68 at the RM jump. However, such strong depolarization occupies a small fraction of the disk and cannot account for the systematically lower mean polarization degree of the southern disk.

### 4.4 The magnetic field structure

The CO velocity field observed by Sakamoto (sak96 (1996)) does not show any perturbations similar to density wave streamings (Visser vis80 (1980)), which would cause radial stretching of magnetic field lines. As also stated by Thornley & Mundy (tho97 (1997)) the optical filaments or armlets which they detected in the near infrared do not cause strong departures from otherwise smooth HI and CO velocity fields. Though the armlets are likely to be dynamical features, they do not constitute a well-organized grand-design spiral pattern (Thornley & Mundy tho97 (1997)). Small-scale phenomena like chaotic, turbulent gas motions may play an important role in the dynamics and star-forming processes in NGC 4414.

Despite the lack of organized spiral arms, the B-vectors (rectified to face-on) (Fig. 12) form a very regular spiral pattern. The magnetic pitch angle $`\psi `$ observed in NGC 4414 is about zero in the northern disk, increasing to about $`40\mathrm{°}`$$`45\mathrm{°}`$ over the rest of the disk. This is also visible in the azimuth-$`\mathrm{ln}(r)`$ frame (Fig. 13) in which a logarithmic spiral would form a straight line inclined by the pitch angle. The infrared armlets detected by Thornley & Mundy (tho97 (1997)) show only limited similarity to the magnetic field structure. They generally have smaller pitch angles in the northern disk and larger ones in the remaining disk portions. However, the magnetic field is aligned only with some portions of armlets while the polarization B-vectors apparently run across other armlet segments in all parts of the disk (Fig. 12, Fig. 13). For the deprojection to face-on, we assumed that both the armlets and magnetic vectors lie in the galaxy plane. As demonstrated by Knapik et al. (kna00 (2000)) the presence of a three-dimensional magnetic field geometry as generated by the dynamo does not strongly affect the orientation of deprojected B-vectors even at inclinations as high as $`60\mathrm{°}`$. Thus, while the armlets may still have some influence upon the magnetic field structure, local processes like field amplification by the turbulent dynamo process need to be considered.

The magnetic vectors crossing the disk centre are very suggestive of an admixture of non-axisymmetric magnetic field components, especially as the field running through the centre along the minor axis cannot be explained by the limited angular resolution (see Knapik et al. kna00 (2000)). The hypothesis of a mixture of modes is supported by an analysis which simultaneously uses position angles of B-vectors at 8.44 GHz and 4.86 GHz (thus involving Faraday rotation effects), made kindly for us by Dr Andrew Fletcher (priv. comm). The azimuthal variations of magnetic pitch angles are best reproduced by a mixture of axisymmetric (the azimuthal magnetic wavenumber m=0), bisymmetric (m=1) and m=2 fields (Fig. 13 middle panel). Because the magnetic field is a vector (in contrast to e.g. density), for the BSS configuration m=1 is required to get opposite signs of magnetic field components at azimuthal angles differing by $`180\mathrm{°}`$. The amplitudes of the higher modes relative to the axisymmetric field are 0.6 (m=1) and about 0.3–0.5 (m=2, varying with the radius). The axisymmetric field used in this analysis forms a trailing spiral with a pitch angle $`\psi `$ of about $`22\mathrm{°}`$, the bisymmetric one has $`\psi `$ of only $`2\mathrm{°}`$ while the m=2 component has a large pitch angle whose absolute value varies between $`40\mathrm{°}`$ and $`80\mathrm{°}`$. This mixture of modes well explains the highest polarization extending from the northern major semi-axis along the western disk edge (see Fig. 6) and the weakest polarized intensity in the SE disk. It also yields two asymmetric regions of a constant sign of magnetic field along the line of sight (responsible for Faraday rotation) with the sign reversal at the azimuthal angles of about $`180\mathrm{°}`$ and $`270\mathrm{°}`$. This bears some resemblance to the RM sign distribution in NGC 4414 at radii $`<1\mathrm{}`$ (Fig. 14).

As suggested by Chiba (chi93 (1993)) and Moss (1996a ) the generation of bisymmetric magnetic fields may be boosted by the parametric resonance in strong density waves. In this work we show the evidence for higher modes of the field structure without strong effects of spiral arms. The apparent contribution of an m=2 mode may indicate a modulation of the lower modes e.g. due to the non-axisymmetric distribution of thermal gas (see Fig. 11) and Faraday effects. Furthermore, the models discussed assume only a two-dimensional magnetic field parallel to the disk. Their further development requires a three-dimensional divergence-free magnetic field, computed using elaborate MHD models.

Though NGC 4414 is currently an isolated spiral (e.g. Braine et al. bra97 (1997)), the observed magnetic field asymmetries may also signify external interactions. Asymmetric total power gradients, smaller magnetic and optical pitch angles and a higher polarization degree on one side of the disk were observed in the wind-swept spirals NGC 2276 (Hummel & Beck hum95 (1995)) and NGC 4254 (Soida et al. soi96 (1996), Chyży et al. in prep.). NGC 2276 also has a radio tail noted by Condon (con83 (1983)). Pitch angle asymmetries and an enhancement of the polarization on one side of the disk by field compression are found in the tidally interacting spiral NGC 3627 (Soida et al. soi01 (2001) and references therein). We note also that the large-scale distribution of H i presented by Thornley & Mundy (tho97 (1997)) shows at intermediate radii a slightly larger gas extent and slower density decrease with radius along the southern semi-axis, where we find larger magnetic pitch angles. A similar coincidence is found in interacting spirals (Chyży et al. in prep.).

Isolated objects often show signs of past weak interactions, like retrograde stellar orbits or H i warps (e.g. Jore et al. jor96 (1996)). Multiple “minor merging” effects may occur during the galaxy lifetime (Haynes et al. hay00 (2000)), sometimes producing large-scale asymmetries in spiral structure (Zaritsky & Rix zar97 (1997)) or short low-brightness stellar or molecular tails (Aalto et al. aal01 (2001)). Recently Kornreich et al. (kor01 (2001)) found that while the optical morphology returns quickly to a symmetric appearance, the gas dynamics constitutes a long-lasting memory of past, weak perturbations.

NGC 4414 may be an example in which a distant interaction is remembered by its magnetic field. The inner disk is relatively unperturbed (see Sect. 4.2) and no central starburst nor a nuclear source are present. NGC 4414 could have accreted diffuse gas, perturbing only its outer disk. As demonstrated using numerical models of galaxies interacting with ambient gas clouds (Otmianowska-Mazur & Vollmer otm02 (2002)), asymmetries in the polarized intensity, magnetic pitch angles and H i may last for more than 1 Gyr. The magnetic field of NGC 4414 may thus “remember” a perturbation which could have occurred 1 Gyr ago. We note finally that the asymmetries found in the H$`\alpha `$, H i distribution and kinematics are very weak and only visible in low-surface brightness features. They are more obvious in the magnetic field properties like the pitch angle variations by $`45\mathrm{°}`$ and the dramatic asymmetry in Faraday effects between the northern and southern disk. Multifrequency polarization observations may thus serve as a complementary tracer of weak perturbations, poorly visible in other domains.

External influences could in principle explain the present-time radial magnetic field component. However, a single event cannot explain the observed strength of the regular magnetic fields (see Sect. 4.1) which require stable, continuous reproduction of their radial component over long timescales (e.g. Brandenburg & Urpin bra98 (1998)). Without constant replenishment, the magnetic fields would diffuse out of the galaxy in a timescale of 108 yrs (Parker par79 (1979)). Although one can still imagine a quasi-continuous set of merging events which permanently regenerate the radial magnetic field, the turbulent dynamo seems a more reasonable alternative. The observations presented here are evidence for dynamo action with much less contamination from spiral arms than in grand-design spirals, using a considerably better resolution than in our earlier work (Knapik et al. kna00 (2000)).

To reproduce the strength of the Faraday rotation is by far a more complex issue. In the northern disk we got reasonable agreement between our estimate of the regular magnetic field and standard assumptions concerning the ionized gas properties. We assume that about 80% of the observed thermal flux originates in H ii regions making a small contribution to the Faraday rotation because of their small volume filling factor. Taking 20% of the thermal flux to be due to a diffuse component (Walterbos & Braun wal94 (1994)) with a face-on full thickness of 700 pc and a volume filling factor of 0.04 (Fletcher et al. in prep.) we obtain for the equipartition regular field (assumed parallel to the disk plane) RM values of $`100`$ rad/m2, in reasonable agreement with observations. In the southern disk the apparent RM jump signifies a Faraday-thick regime and thus an intrinsic RM in excess of 500 rad/m2. We can reproduce this taking the observed thermal flux and assuming the same regular magnetic field but assuming that 50% (a factor 2.5 higher) of the observed thermal emission comes from the diffuse gas. We also require a filling factor of the diffuse ionized gas 2.5 times higher, equal to 0.1. Additionally we need a much thicker magnetoionic disk, with a face-on thickness of 3 kpc.

The observed magnetic field structure in NGC 4414 may be the result of the following processes:

* The turbulent dynamo generates the global magnetic field with a substantial radial component and a mixture of modes.
* Past external interactions could enhance the regular field in the northern half of the disk, decreasing the magnetic pitch angles in this region and increasing them in the South, as found in galaxies known to be affected by external influences (Hummel & Beck hum95 (1995), Soida et al. soi96 (1996), Chyży et al. in prep.). The non-axisymmetric fields may be boosted by interactions (Moss 1996b ) and/or from ram pressure effects as modeled by Otmianowska-Mazur & Vollmer (otm02 (2002)).
* External interactions could thicken the magnetoionic disk and make it contain more diffuse ionized gas in the South than in the North. This could then make the southern disk of NGC 4414 Faraday-thick at 4.86 GHz. Such a phenomenon is so far unique among spiral galaxies.

We have found that the magnetic field may be a very sensitive indicator of the behaviour of the diffuse component of the interstellar gas. In particular, it may trace signs of interactions which would pass unnoticed when observing the stellar or H$`\alpha `$ emission. Studying their magnetic fields together with deep mapping of their environment in H i, X-rays and in low-excitation spectral lines like C ii, N ii, O i or O iii provides an important clue to their physics and evolution.

## 5 Summary and conclusions

We have performed a three-frequency VLA study of the flocculent galaxy NGC 4414 known to have extremely weak traces of optical spiral structure and no evidence for non-axisymmetric gas flows. The data were analyzed together with CO(1–0) and H$`\alpha `$ maps, yielding the following results:

* The galaxy shows a bright total power disk with a central depression corresponding to the minimum in H$`\alpha `$ and CO brightness, which may serve as an additional argument for the absence of radial gas flows.
* The correlation of the nonthermal brightness with the CO and H$`\alpha `$ emission also holds in a galaxy without strong spiral arms and thus it is not due to an accumulation of cold gas and star formation in density-wave compression regions.
* Despite the lack of spiral arms and of non-azimuthal gas flows the galaxy shows a clear magnetic spiral pattern with a significant radial component, resembling that in grand-design galaxies. Dynamo action is the most likely source of a significant radial magnetic field component. Admixtures of bisymmetric field and possibly higher modes are likely to exist even in a flocculent galaxy.
* There is some correspondence between the optical armlets discussed by Thornley & Mundy (tho97 (1997)) and local magnetic field orientations. The optical structure seems to follow the general global asymmetry of magnetic pitch angles, while the magnetic lines seem to be aligned with only some segments of individual armlets.
* NGC 4414 shows a strongly asymmetric distribution of Faraday rotation. Our observations are suggestive of a much thicker magnetoionic disk and an increased relative content of diffuse ionized gas (compared to classical H ii regions) in the southern disk. These asymmetries, together with those in the magnetic pitch angles and total power asymmetries suggest some past interaction (e.g. merging with dwarf galaxies or more likely accreting gas clouds) in the history of NGC 4414.

In this work we show that the regular spiral magnetic pattern observed in all nearby galaxies does not require strong density wave action. We propose that the magnetic pattern in NGC 4414 is due to the dynamo process free from contamination by flows occurring in grand-design spiral arms. On the other hand, the picture of the magnetic field in NGC 4414 is still far from being clear and no good description of the three-dimensional magnetic field geometry is yet available, except for some rough and very qualitative guesses. We suggest that observing the galactic magnetic field may provide a clue to the properties of rarefied ionized gas, contributing greatly to the Faraday rotation but little to the H$`\alpha `$ emission. This gas phase may be more sensitive to external interactions than either the molecular gas or H ii regions associated with recent star formation. Thus, we propose to use the magnetic fields as an indicator of past external interactions working even in cases when the optical information does not indicate significant perturbations. We note finally that a more quantitative magnetic field description in NGC 4414 may come from extensive modeling using more sophisticated multi-component field topologies and realistic distributions of thermal gas and relativistic electrons. A deep study of its environment in H i line and X-ray is highly desirable. Such a study is planned for the near future.

###### Acknowledgements.

The Authors wish to express their thanks to Dr Richard W. Pogge from Dept. of Astronomy, Ohio State University for providing us with his H$`\alpha `$ map of the whole disk on NGC 4414 in a numerical format and to Dr Wendy L. Freedman from Carnegie Institution for her permission to use the unpublished optical image. We express our thanks to Dr Andrew Fletcher, University of Newcastle, for performing for us the analysis of magnetic field modes in NGC 4414. We are grateful to numerous colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) in Bonn for their valuable discussions during this work. M.U. and M.S. are indebted to Professor R. Wielebinski from the MPIfR for the invitations to stay at this Institute, where substantial parts of this work were done. We wish to express our thanks to Professor Alexei Bykov from Moscow State University for providing for us his program DEPOLARM and his assistance in its use. We are also grateful to colleagues from the Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków for their comments. We wish to express our gratitude to the anonymous referee for the critical reading of our manuscript. This work was supported by a grant from the Polish Research Committee (KBN), grants no. 962/P03/97/12 and 4264/P03/99/17.


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# References

October 2002

Generalized Integrability and the connections between
Skyrme-Faddeev and Yang Mills theories

Joaquín Sánchez-Guillén

Facultad de Física, University of Santiago de Compostela

15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain

## Abstract

Skyrme theory on $`S^2`$ (Faddeev coset proposal), is analyzed with a generalization of $`0`$-curvature integrability, based on gauge techniques. New expressions valid for models in the sphere are given. The relation of the minimum energy configurations to gauge vacua is clarified. Consequences of adding a potential term to break the $`SO(3)`$ symmetry are discussed.

Skyrme’s original proposal was to adjust chiral fields with an stabilizing quartic derivative term . As it is well known, his new soliton solutions representing nucleons were shown later to correspond to the planar limit of the non-abelian gauge theory  . Faddeev conjectured a more direct connection to pure QCD, restricting Skyrme chiral fields to the coset $`SU(2)/U(1)`$  and there have been many efforts to reach the Skyrme-Faddev model from perturbative functional integrations of fast frequencies in special decompositons of the nonabelian gauge fields .

Non-perturbative progress has generally required recourse to numerical computations both for ordinary Skyrme  as well as for Faddeev formulation, which was also investigated by lattice methods . Analytical attempts were also initiated  in a scheme which used gauge techniques and fields as auxiliary connections to study non-linear systems in higher dimensions, generalizing the methods of 2 dimensional field theory. The theory will have infinite conserved currents if its equations of motion, expressed in terms of the auxiliary gauge fields, are independent of the representation of their Lie algebra. In higher dimensions this is exceptional, but then the formalism naturally gives constraints for which sectors of the theory exhibit infinite conserved currents. A zero curvature representation for the Skyrme Faddeev model was included in , among other examples of models defined on a $`S^2`$ sphere, discussing briefly the corresponding integrable sector.

In this Letter we work out the generalized integrability analysis of the model, having in mind the connection with the gauge theory. We pay special attention to a coincidence found recently  between the static energy and a functional related to that minimized in the abelian projections. This relation of the minimum energy configurations to gauge vacua is clarified and is an example of other possibilities, offered naturally by the generalized integrablity, of connecting gauge fixings with nonlinear physical systems. Those can get unexpected simplifications in the analysis, while the former obtain physical interpretations. Another application of the analysis concerns additional potentials, as suggested by Faddev and Niemi to account for the $`SO(3)`$ breaking and avoid global colour problems . Such explicit breaking of the global symmetry was first suggested in  to avoid spontaneous Goldstone modes, incompatbible with the mass gap of pure QCD.

With $`R^3`$ compatified to $`S^3`$ from the finite energy requirement, Faddeev proposal to go to the $`SU(2)/U(1)`$ 2-sphere, changes the degree by the Hopf map and the topological charge becomes the linking number of the preimages. The solitons should have then knot configurations and axial symmetry is the simplest allowed. The action for the Skyrme-Faddeev model is given by

$$S=d^4x(m^2(𝐧)^2)\left(\frac{1}{e^2}_\mu 𝐧\times _\nu 𝐧\right)^2$$
(1)
where $`𝐧`$ is a unit field in $`SU(2)`$ colour space. $`m`$ is a parameter with dimension of mass and $`e^2`$ can be considered as a strong coupling. The second term is the pull back of the area form on $`S^2`$, and it is the tensor used in the Skyrme-Faddeev model to balance the instability of the solitons under rescaling of the space variables.

A potential term can be added  to circumvent the global problems with colour in the glueball interpretation. Such terms, which will be discussed later, are also required for the pion mass and phenomenological application in the ordinary Skyrme case and for stability in 2+1 dimensions (the so called baby Skyrme ), which is closely related in many ways to the Skyrme Faddeev model . This can be seen in terms of the complex field $`u`$ of the stereographic projection of the $`S^2`$ defined by $`𝐧^2=1`$, which is of course very useful for fields on the sphere, independent of the space-time dimension,

$$𝐧=\frac{1}{1+u^2}(u+u^{},i\left(uu^{}\right),u^21);uu_1+iu_2=\frac{n_1+in_2}{1n_3}$$
(2)
The second term is the square of the antisymmetric and real tensor

$$h_{\mu \nu }\frac{2i}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}\left(_\mu u_\nu u^{}_\nu u_\mu u^{}\right)𝐧\left(_\mu 𝐧\times _\nu 𝐧\right)$$
(3)
The Lagrangian density can be given in a compact form also in terms of $`u`$

$$L=\frac{m^2(u)^2}{(1+|u|^2)^2}\frac{1}{e^2}\frac{(u\times u^{})^2}{(1+|u|^2)^4}$$
(4)
and the equations of motion

$`0`$ $`=`$ $`m^2(_\mu ^\mu u2u^{}{\displaystyle \frac{_\mu u^\mu u}{1+|u|^2}})`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{e^2(1+|u|^2)^2}}\{_\mu (^\mu u^{}_\nu u^\nu u^\mu u_\nu u^\nu u^{})`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2u}{1+|u|^2}}(_\mu u^\mu u_\nu u^{}^\nu u^{}_\mu u^\mu u^{}_\nu u^\nu u^{})\}`$
will become much simplified in our integrability analysis.

The energy for static configurations of the Skyrme-Faddeev model is given by

$$E=E_1+E_2$$
(6)
with

$`E_1`$ $``$ $`4m^2{\displaystyle d^3x\frac{u^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}}`$
$`E_2`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{8}{e^2}}{\displaystyle d^3x\frac{\left(u^4\left(u\right)^2\left(u^{}\right)^2\right)}{\left(1+u^2\right)^4}}`$ (7)
Notice that the above mentioned scaling stability requires, as one immediately sees at first order expanding in the scaling parameter,

$$E_1=E_2$$
(8)
Models on the sphere in any dimension have a convenient natural formulation in the approach of  where the equations of motion are given by the constant covariance of the dual of an antisymmetric tensor $`D_AB=0`$, with respect to a flat gauge connection

$`A_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(1+u^2\right)}}((_\mu u+_\mu u^{})T_1+i(_\mu u_\mu u^{})T_2`$ (9)
$`+`$ $`i(u_\mu u^{}u^{}_\mu u)T_3).`$
where $`T_{3,\pm }`$ are the usual generators of the $`su(2)`$ algebra. That $`A_\mu `$ is flat follows from the fact that we can write it in the form $`A_\mu =_\mu gg^1`$, where 111This $`g`$ are the elements which conjugate Skyrme’s hedgehog Ansatz to the Cartan component and serve to identify its integrable sector .

$$g=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1+|u|^2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& iu\\ iu^{}& 1\end{array}\right).$$

For the Skyrme-Faddeev model the (dual of the) 2-form can be taken as

$`B_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1+|u|^2}}\{(m^2_\mu u{\displaystyle \frac{4}{e^2(1+|u|^2)^2}}(_\mu u^{}_\nu u^\nu u_\mu u_\nu u^\nu u^{}))P_{+1}`$ (10)
$`(m^2_\mu u^{}{\displaystyle \frac{4}{e^2(1+|u|^2)^2}}(_\mu u_\nu u^{}^\nu u^{}_\mu u^{}_\nu u^{}^\nu ))P_1\}`$
$``$ $`B_\mu ^{+1}P_{+1}+B_\mu ^1P_1`$
where $`P_{\pm 1}`$ transform under the spin-1 representation. A simple calculation shows that

$`D_\mu B^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`(^\mu B_\mu ^{+1}+A_\mu ^3B_\mu ^{+1})P_{+1}+`$ (11)
$`+\sqrt{2}(A_+^\mu B_\mu ^1+A_{}^\mu B_\mu ^{+1})P_0+(^\mu B_\mu ^1A_\mu ^3B_\mu ^1)P_1`$
$`=`$ $`0`$
and we see that the equations of motion are in fact equivalent to the equation $`D_\mu B^\mu =0`$ . Conjugation of $`B`$ with $`g`$ gives conserved currents, which so far are the Noether currents. But it may be that this geometric representation contains more information and unravels hidden symmetries as in the $`2d`$ case. For that purpose we can define auxiliary fields $`B_\mu ^{(j)}`$ for any spin $`j`$ representation in the same way, with $`P_m^{(j)}`$ trnasforming under the spin -$`j`$ representation. The projection of the result on quantum numbers 0 and $`\pm 1`$ is the same as the one given above, but in addition there is now an extra component of grade $`\pm 2`$, where for example the projection on the $`+2`$ component is proportional to $`_\mu u^\mu u`$. This is completely equivalent to what happens in the usual $`CP^1`$ model, and it leads us to define a restricted model, with infinite conserved currents

$$J_\mu ^{(j)}=g\stackrel{~}{B}_\mu ^{(j)}g^{}\underset{m=j}{\overset{j}{}}J_\mu ^{(j),m}P_m^{(j)};\text{for any positive integer }j$$
(12)
by imposing the constraint 222 for the simplest $`O(3)`$ model in $`2+1`$ this constraint generalizes the Cauchy Riemann conditions of the baby Skyrmion solution.

$$(u)^2=0$$
(13)
For this integrable submodel, the second term in $`E_2`$ of (7) vanishes and the stability relation (8) becomes

$$d^3x𝒥=d^3x𝒥^2$$
(14)
where $`𝒥`$ is the dimensionless, positive definite quantity

$$𝒥=\frac{2}{m^2e^2}\frac{u^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}$$
(15)
The energy for the submodel solutions then becomes

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`2m^4e^2{\displaystyle d^3x𝒥\left(𝒥+1\right)}`$ (16)
$`=`$ $`4m^4e^2{\displaystyle d^3x𝒥}`$
$`=`$ $`4m^4e^2{\displaystyle d^3x𝒥^2}`$
Therefore, the submodel solutions present the spectrum of a rotor, which is the natural adiabatic step from a classical geometric picture to the quantum case, as in nuclear physics or Skyrme model itself. The equation of motion of the submodel have a useful simple form in terms of $`𝒥`$

$$^\mu \left(m^2\left(2𝒥+1\right)_\mu u\right)=0$$
(17)
One can easily check  that the constraint minimizes the energy and it is compatible with the stability condition (8) and the axial symmetry required. The question is whether there are solutions, field configurations minimizing the energy, as we discuss below.

Of special interest is the application of the geometrical integrability formulation of Skyrme-Faddev (and similar models) to an intriguing new connection with the gauge theory  and . Performing consecutive ingenious changes of variables of the adjusted $`𝐧`$ field, the authors found that its static energy can be written in terms of a flat connection closely related to the functional chosen in the maximal abelian procedure, to fix by minimization to the non-abelian theories to an abelian gauge 333This implements the abelian Higgs phenomenon and it should correspond to the monopole condensation scenario of confinement .. In our zero curvature approach, these relations are present from the beginning, since that flat connection is precisely the one chosen to represent Skyrme-Faddev (and other models on the sphere). In fact, writing explicitly the components along the step operators of the auxiliary flat connection (9) (as in eq. (6.58) of ) as

$$A_j^1\frac{_ju+_ju^{}}{\left(1+u^2\right)}A_j^2i\frac{_ju_ju^{}}{\left(1+u^2\right)}$$
(18)
one has

$`A_j^1A_j^1+A_j^2A_j^2=4{\displaystyle \frac{u^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}}`$ (19)
In addition

$$A_i^1A_j^2A_j^1A_i^2=i2\frac{\left(_iu_ju^{}_ju_iu^{}\right)}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}$$
(20)
and so

$$\left(A_i^1A_j^2A_j^1A_i^2\right)^2=8\frac{u^4\left(u\right)^2\left(u^{}\right)^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^4}$$
(21)
Consequently, the static energy reads

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^3x\left(\left(A_j^1A_j^1+A_j^2A_j^2\right)+\left(A_i^1A_j^2A_j^1A_i^2\right)^2\right)}`$ (22)
$`=`$ $`16{\displaystyle d^3x\left(\frac{u^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^2}+\frac{u^4\left(u\right)^2\left(u^{}\right)^2}{\left(1+u^2\right)^4}\right)}`$
Where the first line is eq. (12) of  (notice that $`e=1=m`$ has been taken after a $`xx/em`$ redefinition ).

One sees that as stated above, the first term invloves only the transverse colour components of the gauge field and it formally coincides with the functional one chooses to minimize to get an abelian gauge. This observation led  to suggest that the minima of the Skyrme-Faddeev, knot configurations with topological charge given by linking numbers, may correspond to the vacua of the nonabelian theory, fixed to pure gauge.

With our analysis one can obtain more precise information from the correspondence. The second term, which respresents the Hopf tensor, involves the diagonal components, as it is a commuatator in colour space, and so it does not corespond strictly to the maximal abelian gauge, where one only minimizes the transverse components. Observe that, since $`A`$ is flat,

$$A_i^1A_j^2A_j^1A_i^2=i(_iA_j^3_jA_i^3)$$
(23)
and this term is the curl of the third colour component, $`\times 𝐀^3`$, so that those diagonal degrees of freedom appear as the dual (chromomagnetic) components. Both results are relevant for the claims that the minima of the Skyrme-Faddeev model may represent QCD at long distances . Moreover, this Hopf term cannot be directly proportional 444This simple argument is what prevents Skyrme theory from saturating a BPS type of topological bound, which would require proportionality, as explained in . to the Cartan component $`𝐀^3`$. Therefore, the static energy of Skyrme-Faddev model does not represent neither the functional corresponding to the space integral of $`A^2`$, extensively studied in the context of non-perturbative QCD, including the flat case , and which could provide information about the sigma model solutions.

On the other hand, in the reduced sector, the second term in the energy has been simplified to $`u^4`$, since $`(u)^2`$ vanishes due to the constraint. Therefore the energy involves just the transverse $`𝐀^\pm `$ components, and so it is this sector, which has a more simple expression, which represents the maximal abelian gauge functional. Notice that from the point of view of the gauge theory, both from the lattice and functional perturbative methods, there is no reason a priori for this vanishing contribution $`(_\mu 𝐧_\nu 𝐧)^2`$ to have the same coefficient as the remaining $`(_\mu 𝐧)^4`$ . A comprehensive effort to find solutions, which would improve the physical analysis of the gauge fixed theory, is in progress. One knows that the constraint is compatible with Derrick scaling and axial symmetry conditions . The alternative possible result that the integrable sector does not have solutions would be also relevant for the connection with the gauge theory, as it would suggest that the strict maximal abelian gauge functional has no stable minimum and the effective classical rotor spectrum.

We turn now to the possibility of adding a potential term as recently suggested  to break the global colour symmetry and avoid massless modes and it can also be analysed in the integrability approach. First, it is very difficult to maintain the $`D_\mu B^\mu `$ representation of the equation of motion, as one would have to obtain a $`V^{}`$ term as the RHS of a commutator with $`A_\mu `$. Also, it will be even more difficult to have minimal energy configurations satisfying the constraint, which is independent of the details of the potential. But still, it is possible to have infinite conserved currents. For instance if the potential depends just on $`u^2`$. As an illustration one can consider the case required in $`2+1`$ dimensions to stabilize the soliton and in $`3+1`$ to account for the pion mass, given by $`V(𝐧)=\theta (1+n_3)^4=\frac{4\theta }{(1+|u|^2)^4}`$.

In the restricted model, we have (using the equations of motion):

$$D_\mu (B^{(j)})^\mu =\frac{16\theta }{(1+|u|^2)^4}(uP_{+1}u^{}P_1)$$

for all values of $`j`$. If $`\theta =0`$, then we have $`2j+1`$ conserved currents for each $`j`$, using the usual procedure. But even for $`\theta 0`$ we still have one conserved current for each $`j`$. To see this, define $`J_\mu =g^1(D_\mu B^\mu )g`$, where $`g`$ is a generic group element, and calculate

$`_\mu J^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`g^1D_\mu (B^{(j)})^\mu g`$ (24)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{16\theta }{(1+|u|^2)^4}}g^1(uP_{+1}u^{}P_1)g`$
For spin $`j=1`$ we can take a matrix-representation where

$$uP_{+1}u^{}P_1=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& u\\ u^{}& 0\end{array}\right)$$

and it is easy to show that $`uP_{+1}u^{}P_1`$ is invariant under conjugation by $`g`$, and therefore $`^\mu J_\mu ^{(1,0)}=0`$. For higher spin, the calculation is a little more complicated, but also in that case we find that $`^\mu J_\mu ^{(j,0)}=0`$, thereby giving us one conserved current for each value of $`j`$.

But on the other hand it becomes more difficult that the constraint has any solutions, as illustrated by the $`2+1`$ dimensional case. There the restricted model is solved for the general baby-skyrmion static solution given by meromorphic fields $`u=\lambda (x+iy)`$, but with the potential considered, $`u`$ is a solution of the equations of motion only for a special value  of the parameters ($`\lambda =(2e\theta )^{\frac{1}{4}}`$). Therefore, while it is still possible to have infinite conserved currents, the chances of an stable solution are reduced considerably.

In conclusion, we have shown that there is some evidence for the Skyrme-Faddeev model representing global properties of the pure non-abelian theory in the infrared and capturing its topological properties in a local formulation, which may be solvable, but that some ingredients are still missing and more work is required. We have seen how this generalized zero curvature method can be useful for this. The interplay between auxiliary gauge fields and gauge choices which contains, can be applied to other models. In particular many expressions in this analysis can be used directly to the Skyrme model in $`2+1`$ dimensions and for generalized $`CP^1`$ models in any dimension which give useful non-perturbative information about confinement.

Acknowledgments. The author gratefully acknowledges IFT São Paulo, CERN and the University of Miami for hospitality and Orlando Alvarez, M. Asorey, P.van Baal and M.Garcia Pérez for discussions. Suggestions and comments of L.A. Ferreira were specially important. This work is supported by a Spanish DGI grant AEN99-0589.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Recent experimental results gave overwhelming evidence that neutrinos have small but non-vanishing masses . In the standard model (SM), neutrinos are exactly massless, hence the explanation of neutrino experiments requires Physics beyond the SM. Furthermore, neutrino masses appear to be very small with respect to the other fermions ones. If neutrinos are Majorana particles, it is possible to accommodate small neutrinos masses in the SM by introducing the lepton number violating effective operator  $`O_{\mathrm{eff}}=\alpha _{ij}\mathrm{}_i^T\tau _2\stackrel{}{\tau }\mathrm{}_jH^T\tau _2\stackrel{}{\tau }H/M`$, where $`\mathrm{}_i`$ and $`H`$ are the lepton and the Higgs doublet respectively. Here $`M`$ is the scale where “new Physics” is expected to occur, is usually taken as the Planck or the GUT scale. In the former case, the presence of this lepton number violating operator is motivated by the common belief that gravity does not respect any global quantum number , or at least this is what happens for example in black holes and wormholes –no hair theorems. In the latter case ($`M=M_{\mathrm{GUT}}`$), the effective operator arises via the see-saw mechanism , when integrating-out the heavy right-handed neutrinos (RHNs hereafter). On the other hand, our Universe appears to be constituted exclusively of baryons. In order not to spoil the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) successful predictions of the observed light elements abundances , a small baryon excess have to be present. The required value is quantified by the baryon-to-entropy ratio and is given by $`Y_Bn_B/s=(7.2\pm 0.4)\times 10^{11}`$ . To accomplish successfully their task, baryogenesis scenarios  have to satisfy three essential conditions , namely: (i.) Baryon number violation, (ii.) $`C`$ and $`CP`$ violation, and (iii.) Departure from thermal equilibrium. One particularly appealing scenario is the leptogenesis scenario, where lepton number, produced either by the out-of-equilibrium decay of heavy RHN’s  or by the decay of a scalar condensate carrying non-zero lepton number , is reprocessed to a baryon asymmetry via the sphalerons interactions. Given the experimental evidence that lepton number is violated in neutrino oscillation and the fact that proton decay have not been observed yet, the present experimental situation seems to favor this scenario over the other existing baryogenesis scenarios. A generic problem of thermal leptogenesis scenarios is the mismatch between the maximum reheat temperature implied by gravitino overproduction and the minimum temperature required to thermally create heavy RHNs $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}`$. To reconcile these two facts, non-thermal creation of RHNs in a low reheat temperature plasma were considered. These mechanisms, however, involve non-perturbative dynamics and are in general sensitive to inflation models. Furthermore, they lead to even more stringent bounds on the reheat temperature, due to the non thermal production of moduli and gravitinos .

The aim of this paper is to address this issue in a different perspective. We will consider the situation where the reheat temperature is low (may be as low as the TeV) and we will only consider thermal production of RHNs. This will naturally lead us to consider a class of see-saw models (that we will subsequently call low-scale see-saw models), where RHNs have TeV masses instead of the conventional unification scale. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we give our main motivation for the scenario. In section 3, we study leptogenesis through the out-of-equilibrium decay of low scale RHNs. In section 4, we turn to the Affleck-Dine scenario. Finally, in section 5, we summarize our conclusions.

## 2 The gravitino problem vs. thermal leptogenesis

As any unwanted relic, gravitinos represents a potential danger for the thermal history of the Universe. Gravitinos are created predominantly via $`22`$ inelastic scatterings of gluons and gluinos quantas. Their relic density and contribution to the energy density are given by

$`Y_{3/2}`$ $`=1.1\times 10^{10}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T_{\mathrm{RH}}}{10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{100\mathrm{GeV}}{m_{3/2}}}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}}{1\mathrm{TeV}}}\right)^2,`$ (1)
$`\mathrm{\Omega }_{3/2}h^2`$ $`=0.21\left({\displaystyle \frac{T_{\mathrm{RH}}}{10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{100\mathrm{GeV}}{m_{3/2}}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}}{1\mathrm{TeV}}}\right)^2,`$ (2)
where $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}`$ denotes the gluino mass. The requirement that, if unstable, their late decay do not disrupt the successful BBN predictions, and if stable, their energy density do not overclose the Universe, put tight constraints on their relic abundance. It has been noted that if $`m_{3/2}>`$10 TeV or $`m_{3/2}<`$ keV, then there is no gravitino problem . These requirements can be relaxed if there is a period of inflation and the constraints apply only on post-inflation abundances. From the expression (1), one sees that the gravitino abundance scales linearly with the reheat temperature, therefore the bound on $`Y_{3/2}`$ translates onto the following bound on the maximum allowed reheat temperature $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}`$

$$T_{\mathrm{RH}}(10^610^9)\mathrm{GeV}\text{ for }m_{3/2}=100\mathrm{GeV}1\mathrm{TeV}.$$
(3)
There exists however more stringent bounds on $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}`$ from non-thermal production. For generic supersymmetric inflation models, the bound can be as tight as  $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}10^5(V^{1/4}/10^{15}\mathrm{GeV})`$, where $`V^{1/4}`$ is the height of the inflationary potential. Let us now see the constraints on the reheat temperature coming from leptogenesis. In the original see-saw model  the mass scale of RHNs is typically of $`𝒪`$$`(10^{10}10^{15})\mathrm{GeV}`$. In addition, the bound on the CP parameter  for hierarchical RHN’s in thermal leptogenesis implies a lower bound on the mass of the lightest RHN $`M_{N_1}10^{10}`$ GeV. Consequently, if the thermal leptogenesis scenario is truly the mechanism responsible for the the generation of the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe (BAU), RHNs of this mass have to be produced after inflation. This means a high reheat temperature, at least as high as the mass of the lightest RHN, i.e. $`10^{10}\mathrm{GeV}`$, potentially conflicting with the gravitino bound discussed above. A possible way out to get around this problem is to produce RHNs non-thermally, that is during an efficient preheating phase . Non-thermal production, however, can lead in some cases to even more stringent bounds on the reheat temperature. Indeed, for typical hybrid inflation models, the upper bound on the reheat temperature can be as low as 1 TeV .

From the above discussion, it is clear that any compelling solution to this problem will, in one way or another, involve low reheat temperatures. After all, we dont know the thermal history of our Universe before BBN. All we know experimentally is that $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}T_{\mathrm{BBN}}`$ MeV. In this paper, we will consider a rather exotic solution to this problem, namely the case for leptogenesis when RHNs have a low scale mass. The first benefit of such an approach is that RHNs can be produced thermally with a low reheat temperature $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}`$ $`𝒪`$(TeV), avoiding thus the creation of dangerous relics, like heavy GUT monopoles, and more importantly suppressing the creation of gravitinos. On theoretical grounds, nothing forbids the mass of RHNs to be of $`𝒪`$(TeV). In fact this situation is encountered in many cases (See for e.g. ). This is also a typical situation that arises in models where the fundamental scale (the GUT scale and/or the quantum gravity scale) is of $`𝒪`$(TeV). In this case, the Yukawa couplings of RHNs have to be much smaller to produce phenomenologically acceptable light neutrino masses. Such a fine-tuning is stable under radiative corrections because that Yukawa couplings are self renormalizable and is protected by supersymmetry. There remains the question of how such suppressed Yukawa couplings can arise in a concrete model. This can be achieved for example by the mean of some $`R`$-symmetry that forbids the bare Yukawa coupling between the left and the right-handed neutrinos. As a result the leading Yukawa couplings will be suppressed by powers of a heavy scale . The Yukawa suppression can be obtained upon integrating-out some heavy field as well .

## 3 Thermal Leptogenesis with TeV scale RHNs

We begin by reviewing the basics of the out-of-equilibrium decay leptogenesis scenario. Consider the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model extended by three RHNs, one for each generation. The interactions of the RHNs are given by the following superpotential

$$W_N=Y_{ij}L_iH_uN_j+\frac{1}{2}M_iN_i^2$$
(4)
After integrating-out the RHN and electroweak symmetry breaking, the light neutrinos mass matrix will be given by the familiar see-saw formula

$$m_\nu =Y^TM^1YH_u^2.$$
(5)
In this scenario, the RHNs must decay out-of-equilibrium. A measure of the departure from thermal equilibrium is given by the parameter $`K`$ defined as

$$K\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_N}{2H}|_{T=M_N},$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_N`$ is the decay rate of RHNs and $`H`$ is the expansion rate of the Universe. The decay is out-of-equilibrium when $`K1`$. The final baryon asymmetry reprocessed by sphalerons is given by

$$Y_B\frac{n_B}{s}=\left(\frac{8n_g+4n_H}{22n_g+13n_H}\right)\frac{n_L}{s},$$
(7)
where $`n_g`$ and $`n_H`$ counts the number of fermion generations and Higgses respectively.

The lepton asymmetry produced by the CP-violating out-of-equilibrium decay of the RHNs can be computed using

$$\frac{n_L}{s}=\kappa \frac{\epsilon }{g_{}},$$
(8)
where $`g_{}`$ is the effective degrees of freedom and $`\kappa `$ is the dilution factor, computed by integrating the relevant set of Boltzmann equations . The parameter $`\epsilon `$ characterizing CP violation in the RHNs decay, can be defined for each RHN separately as

$`\epsilon _i`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\underset{j}{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_i\mathrm{}_jh_u)\underset{j}{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_i\overline{\mathrm{}}_j\overline{h}_u)}{_j\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_i\mathrm{}_jh_u)+_j\mathrm{\Gamma }(N_i\overline{\mathrm{}}_j\overline{h}_u)}}`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(YY^{}\right)_{ii}}}{\displaystyle \underset{ki}{}}\text{Im}\left[\{(YY^{})_{ik}\}^2\right]\left[F_V\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_k^2}{M_i^2}}\right)+F_S\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_k^2}{M_i^2}}\right)\right]`$
where $`F_V`$ and $`F_S`$ are the contributions of the vertex and self-energy respectively. They are given by

$$F_V(x)=\sqrt{x}\mathrm{ln}\left(1+\frac{1}{x}\right),F_S(x)=\frac{2\sqrt{x}}{x1}$$
(10)
Now, applying the above formulae to TeV mass RHNs, one immediately sees that, due to the smallness of the Yukawa couplings, the decay of RHNs is automatically out-of-equilibrium. In addition to the decay processes, there can be other competing processes that might bring the RHNs to thermal equilibrium, depleting any pre-existing lepton number. These processes have to be out-of-equilibrium too, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }n\sigma vH`$. The first such process is the $`\mathrm{\Delta }L=2`$ scattering $`\mathrm{}h_u\overline{\mathrm{}}\overline{h_u}`$, via both $`s`$ and $`t`$ channel. Other competing processes may involve the $`t`$-($`s`$)quark, such as $`Nt(\overline{b})\mathrm{}b(\overline{t})`$. It turns out that due to the Yukawa coupling suppression all these processes are out-of-equilibrium. Finally, it has been noted  that the process $`W^\pm W^\pm \mathrm{}^\pm \mathrm{}^\pm `$, mediated by virtual left-handed neutrinos can lead to stringent constraints on their masses. In our case, it leads to a very mild constraint. So far for the out-of-equilibrium conditions, now we concentrate on the CP violation parameter $`\epsilon `$. As we have seen previously, due to the smallness of the Yukawa couplings, it is very easy to satisfy the out-of-equilibrium condition, however the resulting CP violation parameter $`\epsilon `$ is too small. This is due to the fact that the decay rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the CP-parameter $`\epsilon `$ are both proportional to the same Yukawa couplings combination. From Eqts (9, 10), one sees that the two contributions to the CP parameter $`\epsilon `$ are sensible to two completely different patters of RHNs masses. While the vertex contribution $`F_V`$ is enhanced for large hierarchies, the self-energy contribution $`F_S`$ is so when RHNs are (quasi-)degenerate 111 For perturbation theory to hold, the mass splitting $`\delta M_{ik}=|M_iM_k|`$ must satisfy $`\delta M_{ik}\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the decay rate of RHNs, otherwise one can no more trust the perturbative calculation based on Eqts (9,10) and one have to rely on a resummation approach . In the limit of exact degeneracy, the CP parameter vanishes.. In order to enhance the value of $`\epsilon `$, one have to exploit the properties of the two functions $`F_V`$ and $`F_S`$. In the next subsection, we will consider the case where RHNs are nearly degenerate . There exist however another possibility, related to the fact that RHNs masses and soft SUSY breaking $`A`$-terms are of the same order i.e. $`𝒪`$(TeV).

### 3.1 Leptogenesis with quasi-degenerate TeV scale RHNs

Consider a model where two out of the three RHNs are quasi degenerate, that is $`N_1`$, $`N_2`$ and $`N_3`$ have masses $`M_1,M_2`$ $`𝒪`$(TeV) $`M_3`$ respectively. The mass splitting $`\delta M_{12}|M_2M_1|=\delta M_0`$, where $`M_0`$ TeV). Due to their suppressed Yukawa’s, RHNs will be long-lived enough to eventually dominate the Universe before decaying. The condition for RHNs dominance can be written $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_N\mathrm{\Gamma }_\phi `$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\phi `$ is the decay rate of the inflaton . While, RHNs can hardly dominate the energy density of the Universe because of Pauli blocking, this can happen more easily for their scalar partners the RH sneutrinos. Moreover, due to quantum de Sitter quantum fluctuations  and for $`H_{\mathrm{inf}}M_N`$ $`𝒪`$(TeV), RH sneutrinos become coherent over super-horizon scales and can be considered as classical fields with the constant value (vev) $`\stackrel{~}{N}^2=3H_{\mathrm{inf}}^4/8\pi ^2M_N^2`$. Therefore if the RH sneutrinos scalar potential is just given by the mass term, they are likely to dominate quickly the energy density of the Universe. Given the above discussion, one can compute the lepton asymmetry produced during the decay of $`N_2`$ using

$$\frac{n_L}{s}=\frac{3}{4}\frac{T_{N_2}}{M_2}\epsilon _2,$$
(11)
where $`T_{N_2}`$ is the decay temperature of $`N_2`$’s computed by equating the energy density of RHNs with the energy density of the Universe when $`H\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$. Since $`N_1`$ and $`N_2`$ are quasi-degenerate, we can safely ignore the vertex contribution to the CP parameter ($`F_SF_V`$). Using Eqts (9) and (10), we can compute the total CP parameter $`\epsilon \epsilon _1+\epsilon _2`$, giving

$$\epsilon \frac{1}{8\pi }\underset{i=1,2}{}\frac{1}{(YY^{})_{ii}}\text{Im}\left[\{(YY^{})_{12}\}^2\right]\frac{1}{\delta }$$
(12)
A rough estimate of the required degeneracy gives $`\delta `$ $`𝒪`$$`(10^610^7)`$, and perturbativity is clearly satisfied (See footnote 1 on page 1). Such a degeneracy could be ascribed for example to a flavor symmetry, the parameter $`\delta `$ would then characterize its breaking. In the simplest case, the flavor group $`G_f`$ is taken as a $`Z_2`$ and the RHNs have different parity $`Z_2`$ assignments, i.e. $`N_1`$ odd (even) and $`N_2`$ even (odd) under $`Z_2`$. The flavor symmetry is broken by the vev of the odd field $`\psi `$. Restricting to the 12 block, the resulting mass matrix for the RHNs is

$$M_RM_0\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& \delta /2\\ \delta /2& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(13)
with $`\delta /2\psi /\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The diagonalization of the mass matrix yields two quasi-degenerate RHNs with a mass-splitting $`\delta M_0`$.

### 3.2 Leptogenesis from soft SUSY breaking $`A`$-terms

In the traditional leptogenesis scenario, the contributions of the soft SUSY breaking $`A`$-terms to the CP parameter $`\epsilon `$ are usually neglected. Indeed, SUSY breaking will induce the following $`A`$-terms

$$_{\mathrm{soft}}=A_{ij}m_{3/2}\stackrel{~}{L_i}\stackrel{~}{N}_jH_u+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}..$$
(14)
Let us consider the following vertex diagrams, where in the tri-scalar vertex we put the $`A`$-term contribution from Eqt (14) instead of the standard SUSY one.

Figure 1: SUSY breaking $`A`$-term contributions to the CP parameter $`\epsilon `$.

Estimating the contribution of the SUSY soft breaking $`A`$-terms to $`\epsilon `$ and comparing it to the standard SUSY one for each of the two considered diagrams, we obtain

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon _{(a)}^{\mathrm{soft}}}{\epsilon ^{\mathrm{SUSY}}}}`$ $``$ $`|A|{\displaystyle \frac{m_{3/2}}{M_i}}\mathrm{sin}\delta _{\mathrm{soft}},`$ (15)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon _{(b)}^{\mathrm{soft}}}{\epsilon ^{\mathrm{SUSY}}}}`$ $``$ $`|A|^4\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_{3/2}}{M_i}}\right)^4\mathrm{sin}\delta _{\mathrm{soft}}`$ (16)
where $`\delta _{\mathrm{soft}}`$ is an effective soft CP phase. From (15), we see that in the conventional leptogenesis scenario, where the mass of the lightest RHN is $`M_110^{10}`$ GeV, $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{soft}}`$ is suppressed with respect to $`\epsilon ^{\mathrm{SUSY}}`$ at least by a factor of $`10^7`$. However, in our scenario, where $`M_im_{3/2}`$, the CP asymmetry parameter $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{soft}}`$ is no more suppressed. It can even dominate the over the SUSY contribution depending on the value of the soft parameters. This means that CP violation may completely originate from the soft SUSY breaking sector, like in the Affleck-Dine case. However, besides enhancing the amount of CP violation, the soft SUSY breaking interactions could bring the RHNs decay at equilibrium, erasing considerably the produced lepton number. A more accurate analysis, requiring the integration of Boltzmann equations, is necessary to reach a firm conclusion.

Finally, it is worth noticing from Eqt. (2) that gravitinos could no more constitute a sizable amount of dark matter in our scenario. Indeed, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{3/2}h^2=0.011`$, requires the gravitino to be lighter and/or the gluinos masses to be heavier.

## 4 Affleck-Dine leptogenesis with TeV scale RHNs

Now, we turn to investigate the Affleck-Dine mechanism  in the presence of TeV scale RHNs. Consider the $`LH_u`$ MSSM flat direction given by 222The factor $`\sqrt{2}`$ is necessary to have a canonical kinetic term for $`\phi `$ (The Kahler potential is $`K=H_uH_u^{}+LL^{}=\phi \phi ^{}`$).

$$L_i=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{c}\phi \\ 0\end{array}\right),H_u=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{c}0\\ \phi \end{array}\right)$$
(17)
This flat direction is lifted by the non-renormalizable operator $`W_{\mathrm{NR}}=\lambda (LH_u)^2/M=\lambda \phi ^4/4M`$. This operator can be generated via the see-saw mechanism when integrating-out the heavy RHNs. The evolution of the scalar condensate $`\phi `$ in the expanding background is dictated by the classical equation of motion

$$\ddot{\phi }+3H\dot{\phi }+\frac{V(\phi )}{\phi ^{}}=0$$
(18)
where $`V(\phi )`$ is the full potential, including the soft masses, the Hubble induced masses and the $`A`$-terms (both from SUSY breaking and the Hubble induced ones)333Here, we are simply ignoring thermal effects ..

$`V(\phi )`$ $`=`$ $`(m_{3/2}^2c_HH^2)|\phi |^2+a_HH{\displaystyle \frac{\phi ^4}{4M}}`$ (19)
$`+a_mm_{3/2}{\displaystyle \frac{\phi ^4}{4M}}+\text{h.c.}+{\displaystyle \frac{|\lambda |^2}{M^2}}|\phi |^6.`$
The constants $`c_H`$ and $`a_H`$ depend on the detailed structure of the Kahler potential. In particular the sign of $`c_H`$ is crucial for the validity of the AD scenario. We assume throughout the paper that it is positive ($`c_H>0`$). The evolution of the scalar condensate follows three phases. During inflation, when $`Hm_{3/2}`$ the field $`\phi `$ is over-damped and it settles away from the origin at a distance

$$|\phi _0|\left(\frac{c_HM^2H^2}{|\lambda |^2}\right)^{1/4}.$$
(20)
From the last equation, one sees that $`\phi `$ is displaced farther as the neutrino Yukawa coupling $`\lambda `$ is smaller. That is why $`L_i`$ in Eqt. (17) is usually chosen as the neutrino with the smallest Yukawa coupling, $`L_1`$ say. When $`Hm_{3/2}`$, the $`A`$-terms enter into play and the condensate begins to oscillate. In general, when taking into account thermal effects, the condensate begins to oscillate when the decreasing expansion rate reaches a certain value denoted $`H_{\mathrm{osc}}`$, determined when the thermal contributions are taken into account . At later times when $`Hm_{3/2}`$, the lepton number is essentially conserved. The evolution of the lepton number, $`n_L`$ defined as

$$n_L=\frac{i}{2}(\phi ^{}\dot{\phi }\phi \dot{\phi ^{}}),$$
(21)
follows the equation

$$\dot{n_L}+3Hn_L=\text{Im}\left[\phi \frac{V(\phi )}{\phi }\right]$$
(22)
The generated lepton asymmetry can be approximated by integrating the equation (22). This gives

$$n_L\frac{m_{3/2}}{2M}\text{Im}(a_m\phi ^4)t$$
(23)
In a matter dominated Universe, the expansion rate scales with time as $`H=2/3t`$. Plugging this into the last equation, we get

$$\frac{n_L}{s}\frac{1}{12}\left(\frac{T_{\mathrm{RH}}}{H_{\mathrm{osc}}}\right)\left(\frac{m_{3/2}}{M_{}}\right)\left(\frac{M}{M_{}}\right)\frac{\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}}{|\lambda |^2},$$
(24)
where $`M_{}M_{\mathrm{Planck}}/\sqrt{8\pi }2.4\times 10^{18}`$ GeV is the reduced Planck mass and we have dropped constants of $`𝒪`$(1). The effective CP-violating parameter $`\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is defined as

$$\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}\mathrm{sin}\left(4\mathrm{arg}\phi +\mathrm{arg}a_m\right)$$
(25)
Now, specializing to the low scale see-saw models , where Yukawa couplings come-out naturally suppressed as $`\lambda |Y^{\mathrm{eff}}|^2m_{3/2}/M_{}`$, we get

$$\frac{n_L}{s}\frac{1}{12}\left(\frac{T_{\mathrm{RH}}}{H_{\mathrm{osc}}}\right)\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}$$
(26)
Usually the effective CP-violating parameter is assumed to be maximal i.e. $`\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}1`$. In our case there is no need to do so, since the reheating temperature can be as low as $`m_{3/2}`$ so TeV mass RHNs are produced thermally, while the gravitinos are not. Typically, the condensate begins to oscillate at $`H_{\mathrm{osc}}m_{3/2}`$. In the extreme case when $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}H_{\mathrm{osc}}m_{3/2}`$, only a small amount of CP is sufficient to reproduce the observed value, namely $`\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}10^910^{10}`$. Up to now, we did not specify the transmission mechanism of SUSY breaking. We just assumed that some hidden sector will produce the soft breaking scalar masses and $`A`$-terms. In the gravity-mediated scenario the $`A`$-terms are known to be of the form $`am_{3/2}W+\text{h.c.}`$. This means that $`a_m=b_m\lambda `$ and $`a_H=b_H\lambda `$, where $`b_H,b_mO(1)`$. In this case, the resulting lepton asymmetry is given by

$$\frac{n_L}{s}\frac{1}{12}\left(\frac{T_{\mathrm{RH}}}{H_{\mathrm{osc}}}\right)\left(\frac{m_{3/2}}{M_{}}\right)\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}$$
(27)
where now the CP violation parameter is defined as

$$\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}\mathrm{sin}\left(4\mathrm{arg}\phi +\mathrm{arg}a_m+\mathrm{arg}\lambda \right)$$
(28)
For the typical values $`H_{\mathrm{osc}}m_{3/2}`$, $`T_{\mathrm{RH}}10^9\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}O(1)`$, we obtain the right value for the lepton asymmetry.

## 5 Conclusions

To conclude, motivated by the potential conflict between the gravitino overproduction bound and the high reheat temperature required to produce RHNs thermally, we investigated the baryogenesis through leptogenesis scenario in the presence of low scale RHNs. We have seen that, in such a scenario the Yukawa couplings of RHNs have to be suppressed, in order to give rise to acceptable light neutrino masses. This suppression proved to be useful for many purposes, in particular in satisfying the out-of-equilibrium condition in the FY scenario. Due to this suppression, however, the resulting CP was too small. We used two different mechanisms to enhance the CP parameter: the degeneracy of RHNs and soft $`A`$-terms. In the latter case, the necessary CP violation may come entirely from the soft SUSY $`A`$-term. We also considered leptogenesis via the $`LH_u`$ flat direction. We have seen that for generic SUSY breaking scenarios, AD leptogenesis with low scale RHNs is possible, though with reheat temperatures higher than TeV.

## Acknowledgments

I would like to thank B. Bajc, J. March-Russell, F. Vissani for useful discussions. Special thanks to G. Senjanović for careful reading of an earlier version of the manuscript and for valuable suggestions. I would like also to acknowledge the hospitality of the CERN theory division where part of this work was done. This work was partially supported by the European RTN project “Supersymmetry And The Early Universe” under contract number HPRN-CT-2000-00152 and by the Italian INFN under the project “Fisica Astroparticellare”.