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# The Mathematical Universe in a Nutshell

## 1. Introduction

When we talk about the universe, we usually mean the physical universe around us, but then we must recognize that we are capable of visualizing universes which are quite different from the one we live in. The possible universes that we can *reasonably* imagine is what we collectively call the *mathematical universe*. There is yet another universe which we may call the *spiritual universe*, a universe hard to avoid and to define. We will accept a weak definiton of the spiritual universe as the collection of unverifiable persistent *emotional beliefs* within us that are difficult to analyze. Our description makes it clear that spiritual universe is beyond and the physical universe is within the mathematical universe. As a matter of record, here are the three universes we are interested in:

* Physical universe
* Mathematical universe
* Spiritual universe

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the mathematical universe in some detail, so that we may have a deeper understanding of the physical universe and a greater appreciation for the spiritual universe.

## 2. Mathematical Logic

We want to talk about what the mathematicians call an axiomatic derivation and what the computer scientists call a string manipulation. A familiar, but unemphasized fact is that it is the string manipulation of the four Maxwell’s equations that allowed us to predict the radiation of electromagnetic waves from a dipole antenna. Similarly, it is the derivations in Einstein’s theory of relativity that convinced us about the bending of light rays due to gravity. It is as though nature dances faithfully to the tune that we write on paper, as long as the composition strictly conforms to certain strict mathematical rules.

It was the Greeks who first realized the power of the axiomatic method, when they started teaching elementary geometry to their school children. Over the years logicians have perfected the method and today it is clear to us that it not necessary to draw geometrical figures to prove theorems in geometry. Without belaboring the point, we will make a long story short, and state some of the facts of mathematical logic that we have learned to accept.

Mathematical logic reaches its pinnacle when it deals with Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory (ZF theory). Here is a set of axioms which define ZF theory.

* Axiom of Extensionality: $`x(xaxb)(a=b)`$.
Two sets with the same members are the same.
* Axiom of Pairing: $`xy(yxy=ay=b)`$.
For any $`a`$ and $`b`$, there is a set $`\{a,b\}`$.
* Axiom of Union: $`xy(yxzx(yz))`$.
For any set of sets, there is a set which has exactly the elements of the sets of the given set.
* Axiom of Powerset: $`xy(yxzy(za))`$.
For any set, there is a set which has exactly the subsets of the given set as its elements.
* Axiom of Infinity: $`x(\mathrm{}xyx(y\{y\}x))`$.
There is a set which has exactly the natural numbers as its elements.
* Axiom of Separation: $`xy(yxyaA(y))`$.
For any set $`a`$ and a formula $`A(y)`$, there is a set containing all elements of $`a`$ satisfying $`A(y)`$.
* Axiom of Replacement: $`xya(zA(y,z)zxA(y,z))`$.
A new set is created when every element in a given set is replaced by a new element.
* Axiom of Regularity: $`x(x\mathrm{}y(yxxy=\mathrm{}))`$.
Every nonempty set $`a`$ contains an element $`b`$ such that $`ab=\mathrm{}`$.

These axioms assume importance when they are applied to infinite sets. For finite sets, they are more or less obvious. The real significance of these axioms is that they are the only strings, other than those of mathematical logic itself, that can be used in the course of a proof in set theory. Here is an example of a derivation using the axiom of regularity, which saved set theory from disaster.

###### Theorem 2.1.

$`aa`$.

Proof: $`aa`$ leads to a contradiction as shown below.

> $`aaa[\{a\}a]`$ … (1).
> $`b\{a\}b=a`$ … (2).
> Using axiom of regularity and (2),
> $`\{a\}a=\mathrm{}`$, which contradicts, $`a[\{a\}a]`$ in (1).

Even though we are in no position to prove it, over a period of time we have built up enough confidence in set theory to believe that there are no contradictions in it.

## 3. Generalized Anthropic Principle and The Book

It is generally accepted that all of mathematics can be described in terms of the concepts of set theory, which in turn means that we can, in principle, axiomatize any branch of science, if we so wish. This allows us to conceive of an axiomatic theory which has all of known science in it, and all the phenomena we observe in the universe having corresponding derivations. Since every derivation in a theory can be considered as a well-formed formula, we can claim that the set of derivations in our all-encompassing theory can be listed in the lexicographic order, with formulas of increasing length. A book which lists *all* the proofs of this all-encompassing mathematics is called *The Book*. The concept of The Book is an invention of the mathematician, Paul Erdös, perhaps the most prolific mathematician of the twentieth century. Note that the book contains an infinite number of proofs, and also that the lexical order is with respect to the proofs and not with respect to theorems. It was this book that David Hilbert, the originator of formalism, once wanted to rewrite with theorems in the lexical order, which of course, turned out to be an unworkable idea.

Note that a computer can be set up to start writing the book. We cannot expect the computer to stop, since there are an infinite number of proofs in our theory. Thus, a computer generated book will always have to be unfinished, the big difference between a computer generated book and The Book is that it is a *finished* book.

When discussing cosmology, a notion that is often invoked is called the *anthropic principle*. The principle states that we see the universe the way it is, because if it were any different, we would not be here to see it . We generalize this concept as follows.

> *Generalized Anthropic Principle:* Every phenomenon in the universe has a corresponding derivation in The Book.

Note that the generalized anthropic principle does not claim that there is a phenomenon corresponding to every derivation. Such derivations are part of mathematics, but not of physics, in other words, we consider the physical universe as part of the mathematical universe.

## 4. Expanding Universe

As a preliminary to the understanding of the expanding universe, we will first talk about a perfectly spherical balloon whose radius is increasing with velocity $`U`$, starting with $`0`$ radius and an elapsed time $`T`$. If we write $`UT`$ as $`R`$, we have the volume of the balloon as $`(4/3)\pi R^3`$, surface area as $`4\pi R^2`$ and the length of a great circle as $`2\pi R`$. In our expanding balloon it is easy to see that two points which are a distance $`R\theta `$ apart from each other will be moving away from each other with velocity $`U\theta `$. Since $`(R/U)=T`$, it follows that a measurement of the relative movement of two spots on the balloon will allow us to calculate the age of the balloon.

The facts about the expanding universe is more or less like that of the balloon, except that instead of a spherical surface, we have to deal with the hyper surface of a $`4`$-dimensional sphere of radius $`R`$. If we use the same notations as before, we have the hyper volume of the hyper sphere as $`(\pi ^2/2)R^4`$, the hyper surface as $`2\pi ^2R^3`$, and the length of a great circle as $`2\pi R`$. We can calculate the age of the universe by measuring the velocity of a receding galaxy near to us. If we assume the velocity of expansion of the hyper sphere as $`U`$, we have $`UT=R`$ and the volume of the universe as $`2\pi ^2R^3`$.

We would have been more realistic, if we were to start off our analysis with a warped balloon, but then our intention here is only to discuss what is mathematically possible and not what the actual reality is.

## 5. Intuitive Set Theory

ZF theory which forms the foundations of mathematics gets simplified further to Intuitive Set Theory (IST), if we add two more axioms to it as given below . If $`k`$ is an ordinal, we will write $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{k}\right)`$ for the cardinality of the set of all subsets of $`\mathrm{}_\alpha `$ with the same cardinality as $`k`$.

Axiom of Combinatorial Sets:

$$\mathrm{}_{\alpha +1}=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right).$$

We will accept the fact that every number in the interval $`(0,1]`$ can be represented uniquely by an infinite nonterminating binary sequence. For example, the infinite binary sequence

$$.10111111\mathrm{}$$

can be recognized as the representation for the number $`3/4`$ and similarly for other numbers. This in turn implies that an *infinite recursive* subset of positive integers can be used to represent numbers in the interval $`(0,1]`$. It is known that the cardinality of the set $`R`$ of such recursive subsets is $`\mathrm{}_0`$. Thus, every $`rR`$ represents a real number in the interval $`(0,1]`$.

We will write

$$\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right)_r,$$

to represent the cardinality of the set of all those subsets of $`\mathrm{}_\alpha `$ of cardinality $`\mathrm{}_\alpha `$ which contain $`r`$, and also write

$$\left\{\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right)_r\right|rR\}=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right)_R.$$

We will define a *bonded sack* as a collection which can appear only on the left side of the binary relation $``$ and not on the right side. What this means is that a bonded sack has to be considered as an integral unit from which not even the axiom of choice can pick out an element. For this reason, we may call the elements of a bonded sack *figments*.

Axiom of Infinitesimals:

$$(0,1]=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right)_R.$$

The axiom of infinitesimals makes it easy to visualize the unit interval $`(0,1]`$.

We derive the generalized continuum hypothesis from the axiom of combinatorial sets as below:

$$2^\mathrm{}_\alpha =\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{0}\right)+\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{1}\right)+\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{2}\right)+\mathrm{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_0}\right)+\mathrm{}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right).$$

Note that $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{1}\right)=\mathrm{}_\alpha `$. Since, there are $`\mathrm{}_\alpha `$ terms in this addition and $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{k}\right)`$ is a monotonically nondecreasing function of $`k`$, we can conclude that

$$2^\mathrm{}_\alpha =\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right).$$

Using axiom of combinatorial sets, we get

$$2^\mathrm{}_\alpha =\mathrm{}_{\alpha +1}.$$

The concept of a bonded sack is significant in that it puts a limit beyond which the interval $`(0,1]`$ cannot be pried any further. The axiom of infinitesimals allows us to visualize the unit interval $`(0,1]`$ as a set of bonded sacks, with cardinality $`\mathrm{}_0`$. Thus, $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{\mathrm{}_\alpha }{\mathrm{}_\alpha }\right)_r`$ represents an *infinitesimal* or *white hole* or *white strip* corresponding to the number $`r`$ in the interval $`(0,1]`$.

## 6. Universal Number System

A real number in the binary number system is usually defined as a two way binary sequence around a binary point, written as

$$xxx.xxxxx\mathrm{}$$

in which the left sequence is finite and the right sequence is nonterminating. Our discussion earlier, makes it clear that the concept of a real number and a white strip are equivalent. The two way infinite sequence we get when we flip the real number around the binary point, written as

$$\mathrm{}xxxxx.xxx$$

we will call a *supernatural number* or a *black stretch*. The set of white strips we will call the *real line* and the set of black stretches the *black whole*. Since there is a one-to-one correspondence between the white strips and the black stretches, it follows that there is a duality between the real line and the black whole.

The name black stretch is supposed to suggest that it can be visualized as a set of points distributed over an infinite line, but it should be recognized as a bonded sack, which the axiom of choice cannot access. Our description of the black whole clearly indicates that it can be used to visualize what is beyond the finite physical space.

## 7. Conclusion

We will conclude with a few remarks about mathematical logic, which give us some indication why we cannot afford to ignore the spiritual universe. Gödel tells us that there is no logical way to establish that there are no contradictions in ZF theory, which forms the foundations of mathematics. We are confident about our mathematics only because it has worked well for us for the last two thousand years. Since, any set of axioms is a set of beliefs, it follows that any theory is only a set of beliefs. Since, any individual is the sum total of h(is)er beliefs (axioms) and rational thoughts (derivations), no individual, including scientists, can claim to be infallible on any subject matter. If an honest scientist is called to appear in the ultimate court of nature, (s)he can use The Book for taking the oath, and the most (s)he can say is: *I solemnly swear that if I am sane, I will tell nothing but the truth, but never the whole truth*.


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# Chandra X-ray Observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster. II Relationship between X-ray activity indicators and stellar parameters

## 1 Introduction

The present work focuses on the study of the X-ray activity of Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) members: from a purely observational standpoint, we explore the relationship between X-ray activity and stellar characteristics, searching for the physical mechanisms responsible for coronal X-ray activity in pre-main sequence (PMS) stars. In spite of the previous observational work in this area (e.g., Feigelson et al., 1993; Casanova et al., 1995; Gagné et al., 1995; Flaccomio et al., 2000), no definitive picture has yet emerged.

Our investigation is based on the original Chandra High Resolution Camera (HRC, Murray et al., 2000) X-ray data and literature optical data presented in Flaccomio et al. (2002, hereafter Paper I) and Flaccomio (2002) for objects in the ONC area. For the ONC region under study, Paper I defined an optical sample of 696 optically selected, extinction limited, and well characterized ONC members. Here we address the controversial questions of the relationship of X-ray activity with convection and rotation (i.e., the classical $`\alpha \omega `$ dynamo parameters), with stellar mass and age, and with circumstellar accretion and/or the presence of circumstellar disks. Taking advantage of our detailed description of activity as a function of stellar mass, we then explore the nature of the few detected X-ray sources not associated with any optical/infrared (IR) counterparts.

The structure of this paper is as follows: In §2 we study the relation of activity with rotation, mass, age and circumstellar accretion strength. In §3 we speculate on the nature of X-ray sources with no optical/IR counterpart. Finally we discuss our findings and summarize our conclusions in §4. An Appendix details our technique for investigating possible sources below our X-ray sensitivity limit.

## 2 Relationships between X-ray activity indicators and stellar parameters

In exploring relationships between X-ray activity and stellar characteristics through empirical correlations with physically meaningful stellar parameters, our main goal is to understand the $``$5 orders of magnitude spread that we observe in $`L_X`$ and $`L_X/L_{bol}`$. We focus on how activity is related to stellar rotational period, to mass and evolutionary status (as inferred from evolutionary tracks - see Paper I), and to the presence of an accretion disk. Paper I presents relevant X-ray and optical data for our optical sample comprised of 696 ONC likely members, 342 of which are unambiguously detected in our HRC X-ray data and have both low optical extinction ($`A_V<3.0`$) and available mass estimates. This stellar sample was carefully selected in order to avoid X-ray selection effects.

Our non-parametric approach is to split our reference sample into several bins of the stellar parameter under examination, to evaluate for each of these bins a Maximum Likelihood distribution function (using the Kaplan-Mayer estimator) for our two X-ray activity indicators, and then to examine the trends of these distributions as a function of the parameter. The Kaplan-Mayer estimators were computed using the ASURV package (Feigelson & Nelson, 1985), which was also used to perform various two population tests111Gehan’s generalized Wilcoxon test using both permutation and hypergeometric variance; Logrank test; Peto and Peto generalized Wilcoxon test; Peto and Prentice generalized Wilcoxon test. on pairs of selected stellar subsamples in order to establish the confidence with which we can reject the null hypothesis (that two distributions of a given parameter are drawn from the same parent distribution).

### 2.1 Rotational Period

We first searched for a correlation between X-ray activity and stellar rotational period ($`P_{rot}`$). Such a correlation is known to hold for older, main sequence stars of low mass and moderate rotation rate and is the main evidence for activity being driven by an $`\alpha \omega `$ stellar dynamo. Such correlations have not previously been found for the ONC stars (Gagné et al., 1995) and several other PMS associations (e.g., Walter & Barry, 1991; Feigelson et al., 1993; Alcala et al., 1997). In the young Taurus region, to the contrary, a correlation between activity and rotation has been observed (Bouvier, 1990; Strom & Strom, 1994; Damiani & Micela, 1995; Stelzer & Neuhäuser, 2001). Given the incompleteness of rotational databases used in most previous studies, the question remains open.

In Figure 1 we show the distribution of rotational periods (upper panel) collected in Paper I from the recent literature for 282 stars in our optical sample. Also shown vs. $`P_{rot}`$ is the HRC detection fraction (lower panel). Our database of rotational periods is significantly more complete than that available to Gagné et al. (1995), but in spite of this improvement and Chandra’s higher X-ray sensitivity (which yields a high detection fraction), we still can find no evidence of correlation between X-ray luminosity and $`P_{rot}`$. The scatter plot of $`Log(L_X/L_{bol})`$ vs. $`Log(P_{rot})`$ (Figure 2) similarly shows no evidence of a correlation with $`P_{rot}`$. These results hold true no matter what physically meaningful subsample of the whole we consider. Indeed, in order to minimize stellar structure differences throughout the sample that might wash out a correlation with $`P_{rot}`$, we repeated the analysis in several mass bins (see §2.2) and also for high and low accretion stars (see §2.5), obtaining the same negative results in all cases.

It should be noted that the sample of stars for which rotational periods are available is strongly biased toward the most X-ray active stars. For example, the median $`Log(L_X/L_{bol})`$ for stars with known rotational period and mass smaller than 3.0$`M_{}`$ is -3.37 while the corresponding median for stars of the same mass with unknown rotational periods is -3.73. Moreover, the subsample of stars with known $`P_{rot}`$ appears to be dominated by the most weakly accreting stars in the whole sample (see §2.5).

### 2.2 Stellar mass stars

Figure 3 shows Maximum Likelihood X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) for ONC members in eight mass bins, while Figure 4 shows a scatter plot of $`L_X`$ vs. mass with characterizations of the XLFs superposed for the same mass bins (see caption). In Figure 4 a direct correlation between median $`L_X`$ and mass can clearly be seen for $`M3M_{}`$, while in the mass range from 3 to 10 $`M_{}`$ (where 6 of 12 stars have luminosities below detection threshold) the median $`L_X`$ drops significantly and only an upper limit can be estimated. For massive O-type stars with $`M10M_{}`$, $`L_X`$ rises again.

Scenarios in which a dynamo drives X-ray activity would interpret this break at $``$$`M_{}`$ as the point at which stars of the ONC’s age ($`1Myr`$) become fully radiative and the dynamo stops functioning. This interpretation is indeed supported by the stellar structure evolutionary tracks of Siess, Dufour, & Forestini (2000, hereafter SDF).

The drop in $`L_X`$ at $``$$`M_{}`$ is even more pronounced than shown in Figures 3 and 4 if we take stellar multiplicity into account. The fact that most secondaries will have significantly lower masses than their primaries, together with the mass – $`L_X`$ relation, means that multiplicity effects on the XLFs can generally be expected to be rather small. But if primaries in the $`310M_{}`$ bin have very little intrinsic X-ray emission, we will detect only secondary emission. Indeed, we observe that the XLF for $`310M_{}`$ mass stars crosses those for stars of lower mass and is determined for about half the bin population. This lends indirect support to the hypothesis that emission for $`310M_{}`$ mass stars is mainly due to unresolved secondaries.

Figure 5 shows distribution functions for $`L_X/L_{bol}`$, in the same mass bins as defined for Figure 3, while Figure 6 follows the format of Figure 4 to show $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ vs. mass (logarithmically). The drop in activity at $`3M_{}`$ is even more striking with $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ as an indicator: more than 2 orders of magnitude (note that the median value in the $`310M_{}`$ range is an upper limit). It is also interesting to note that the upper envelope of $`log(L_X/L_{bol})`$ for stars with $`M3M_{}`$ is compatible (within uncertainties) with the level of $`3`$, i.e. the saturation level found for both rapidly-rotating main sequence stars (Vilhu & Walter, 1987) and low mass stars in several other star formation regions (e.g., Alcala et al., 1997; Flaccomio et al., 2000). This is also apparent from Figure 5. No satisfactory theoretical explanation for the physical nature of this saturation has been found to date. Our analysis quantifies typical $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ values in terms of the median and the scatter of points and finds somewhat lower values than the canonical -3 value, indicating either a different saturation level or perhaps the presence of a mix of saturated and non-saturated stars. There also seems to be a relationship between median level and stellar mass, with the lowest mass stars (e.g., those in the 0.10-0.16$`M_{}`$ bin) having a significantly lower median value of $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ than those of higher mass stars. The range of the variation between the 0.10-0.16$`M_{}`$ and the 0.5-1.0$`M_{}`$ bins is 0.45 dex, larger than our estimated uncertainty in individual $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ values (cf. Paper I). A viable theoretical explanation of activity in the PMS phase will have to account for this mass dependence of either the fraction of saturated vs. unsaturated stars or of the saturation phenomenon itself.

To conclude our study of X-ray activity vs. stellar mass, we now wish to address the X-ray properties of the significant fraction of undetected very low mass stars. More specifically we wonder whether non detected stars are simply located at the bottom of the $`L_X`$ distributions shown in Figure 3 or whether they constitute distinct stellar populations with significantly lower X-ray luminosities. Appendix A describes how we used our Chandra HRC data to derive (or constrain) mean X-ray luminosities for mass segregated groups of objects, some or all of which are individually undetected. The method measures the flux of a “composite” source by summing HRC photons detected at the optical positions of individually undetected objects comprising the “composite.”

Figure 7 shows the logarithm of average $`L_X`$, both for the whole reference sample222Note that this reference sample contains fewer objects than the complete optical sample. This is due to a number of constraints imposed when selecting objects to which our method was applied (cf. Appendix A). and for undetected objects in several mass bins. The height of the boxes reflect the uncertainty in the count-rate to flux conversion factors for the “composite” source (see Appendix A). The number of summed objects in each mass bin is reported in the upper part of the figure, and for reference, the median $`L_X`$ from Figure 4 is also shown. As a “sanity check” we compared the average $`L_X`$ computed with the method described in Appendix A for the whole reference sample of detected and undetected objects with the average $`L_X`$ computed from the maximum likelihood luminosity functions (not shown in the figure). We find the two results consistent, lending support to this analysis. Note that the discrepancy of mean and median $`L_X`$ in Figure 7 is indeed due to a real difference between the two indices and indicates an asymmetry in the $`L_X`$ distributions.

From Figure 7 we therefore draw the conclusion that undetected stars in the stellar samples ($`0.1<M/M_{}<0.5`$) have an average $`L_X`$ well below our sensitivity limit (note that the 0.1-0.16$`M_{}`$ bin has only an upper limit). This could either mean that the XLFs have very long low-luminosity tails or indicate the existence of a stellar population with quiescent/suppressed magnetic activity.

The same qualitative results found in this section are also obtained if the evolutionary tracks of D’Antona & Mazzitelli (1997) are substituted for those of SDF in estimating masses. Similarly, if we exclude the few optical sample stars with unknown astrometric membership (cf. Paper I) from our analysis, the results also remain unchanged.

### 2.3 Brown Dwarfs

Our optical sample contains 15 substellar mass objects ($`0.008<M<0.08M_{}`$) all of which were studied through IR spectroscopy by Lucas et al. (2001). Only one of the brown dwarfs (BD), with an estimated mass of $`M=0.074M_{}`$, is detected in our HRC data333The brown dwarf status of this object is uncertain. The quoted mass is taken from Lucas et al. (2001). However, an independent mass estimate from the optical data of Hillenbrand (1997) and the SDF tracks (cf. Paper I) gives a larger value of $`0.11M_{}`$.. Our XLF analysis therefore cannot be extended to such low masses. This poses the question of why so few brown dwarfs are detected: Are BDs subluminous in X rays with respect to our mass – $`L_X`$ relation, or do they fall on this relation but below our limiting sensitivity level, as a linear extrapolation of the mass – $`L_X`$ relationship in Figure 4 indeed suggests.

In order to investigate this question, we once again applied the method of Appendix A: the two substellar mass bins in Figure 7 show our results. The lowest mass bin contains just 3 undetected objects and yields only an upper limit. Nine objects lie in the brown dwarf bin ($`0.03<M_{}<0.1`$)444Although this mass range nominally extends above the BD limit, the most massive object in this bin has a mass of only $`0.08M_{}`$. and our method yields a positive detection of the “composite” source with high confidence555An integrated flux of $``$40.1 photons in a total effective exposure time of 553 ksec is measured. As discussed above, one of these 9 objects is detected individually, with 16.2 extracted counts. If we exclude this object of uncertain BD status, the resulting “composite” source falls slightly below our detection threshold ($`3\sigma `$), with its probability of being due to background fluctuations at $`0.28\%`$ ($`2.8\sigma `$). Figure 7 indicates it as an upper limit corresponding to less than 25.1 photons accumulated over an effective exposure time of 491 ksec. Had we instead accepted it as a positive detection, an accumulated photon count of 23.9 would imply an X-ray luminosity virtually identical to the upper limit value.. Figure 7 indicates that: 1) brown dwarfs in the ONC do not depart from the $`L_X`$ \- mass relationship we observe for higher mass stars, and 2) the mean BD X-ray luminosity is of the order of $`10^{28.5}`$ erg$``$s-1. On average this is higher than the recent results obtained for BDs in IC 348 by Preibisch & Zinnecker (2001), but lower than the $`L_X`$ reported by Imanishi et al. (2001) for one detected BD and one BD candidate in the young $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud.

### 2.4 Stellar age

Although the relationship with mass explains a good deal of the scatter in activity levels of our sample, the deviations from this trend are still significant. The next stellar parameter we investigate in order to understand this residual scatter is the age, as inferred from the SDF evolutionary tracks. Figure 9 shows the $`Log(L_X)`$ vs. $`Log(Age)`$ plot for stars in our sample with mass between 0.5 and 1.0 $`M_{}`$. The median $`L_X`$ appears to decrease with increasing age, but we must exercise special care in the interpretation of this trend: there is a widespread concern that the age spread indicated by the position of low mass stars still on the Hayashi tracks may be largely, or even entirely, due to an artificial spread in the bolometric luminosities (cf. Hartmann, 2001). The sources of error that may contribute to uncertainties in $`L_{bol}`$ and consequent age are indeed numerous and include uncertainties in: adopted distance, spectral type and extinction, photometric variability, unresolved companions, and accretion luminosity. On the other hand, if one were to concede a real age spread in the ONC (plausible as star formation is still taking place at the present day), stellar ages might carry a statistical and relative significance, though still uncertain on an individual basis: stars that we place lower on the Hayashi tracks may be older, on average, than those that we place higher. This latter hypothesis is supported by the time evolution of ONC stellar radii recently observed by Rhode et al. (2001). Although our correlation of $`L_X`$ with age also seems to argue in favor of a real age spread, it could also be an artifact of an interrelation between inferred $`L_X`$ and $`L_{bol}`$, and the matter remains open. Indeed the trend in Figure 9 corresponds to a constant ratio of X-ray to bolometric luminosity at different ages and can be interpreted equally well in two different ways: 1) Stars of equal mass have equal bolometric and X-ray luminosities, but there are effects that act in exactly the same way on both $`L_X`$ and $`L_{bol}`$; 2) These stars are saturated and stay saturated through their contraction on the Hayashi tracks, thus keeping $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ constant.

Figure 9 presents a plot of $`Log(L_X)`$ vs. $`Log(Age)`$ for stars in the $`23M_{}`$ mass bin and reveals an age dependence and a sudden drop of $`L_X`$ at $`Log(Age)6.5`$ (a similar drop is also seen in $`L_X/L_{bol}`$). This is just the age at which a $`2.5M_{}`$ star dissipates its convective envelope according to the SDF models, lending further evidence for the convection – activity connection found in §2.2. Figure 9 also supports the existence of a real age spread in the ONC. Contrary to the situation in the $`0.51.0M_{}`$ mass range, evolution of these higher mass stars occurs in temperature as well as in luminosity for $`Log(Age)6.0`$. The spread in age therefore cannot be due to a spurious spread in $`L_{bol}`$, as may be the case in the lower mass bin.

Figures 10 and 11 show trends of median $`L_X`$ and $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ as a function of mass in each of four age bins. Care must be taken in interpreting these plots because many of the mass/age bins for which medians are computed are sparsely populated (numbers of detections and upper limits are given in Table 1) and some points are subject to rather large uncertainties. In those bins with less than four detections, we show means computed from the XLFs (instead of medians), and both medians and means are replaced by upper limits in some cases. From left to right in the lower portion of Figure 11 we show mass ranges over which stars of each age bin are fully convective, partially convective, and fully radiative according to SDF tracks. We can draw several conclusions from this presentation: 1) For all ages, $`L_X`$ increases with mass for low masses and then suffers a break at higher mass; 2) The mass at which this break occurs appears to depend on the age, being lower for the oldest stars in our sample; 3) There is good agreement between the mass at which the break occurs and the mass at which stars in that age bin become fully radiative; 4) The increase of $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ with mass appears again at the low mass end, at least for $`Log(Age)6.0`$.

### 2.5 Accretion/disk indicators: Ca II

It has long been disputed whether the presence of circumstellar disks and/or circumstellar accretion plays a role in determining the activity levels of PMS stars. We are now in the position to address this problem in the ONC. We will use the $`\lambda =8542\AA `$ equivalent width ($`EW`$) of the Ca II triplet as an indicator of disk accretion. In main sequence and weak-line T Tauri stars, where accretion is absent, this line is seen in absorption with $`EW3`$, a value that depends only weakly on spectral type (cf. discussion in Hillenbrand et al., 1998). Accretion has the effect of filling in the line and the $`EW`$ is then related to the mass accretion rate (Muzerolle et al., 1998). The observational values we will use are those obtained through $`58\AA `$ resolution spectroscopy by Hillenbrand (1997) for a large fraction of our optical sample (see Table 5 of Paper I). Figure 12 (upper panel) shows the distribution of the Ca II $`EW`$ both for our optical sample and for the subset of HRC detected stars. The detection fraction as a function of $`EW`$ is shown in the lower panel.

In order to make the distinction between accreting and non accreting stars more evident and to minimize the effects of observational uncertainties666Hillenbrand et al. (1998) quote $`EW`$ errors of $`\pm 0.5`$., we divided our stars in two groups: stars whose Ca II line is seen in absorption, with $`EW(`$Ca II$`)>1`$, and which therefore are inferred to have low or no accretion, and stars that show the line in clear emission, with $`EW(`$Ca II$`)<1`$, and which are undergoing significant accretion. We exclude from our analysis stars with $`1<EW(`$Ca II$`)<1`$, about half the sample for which we have Ca II $`EW`$ information (see Figure 12). As the majority of stars in the ONC appear to possess a circumstellar accretion disk, judging from both Ca II line and IR photometric indicators (Hillenbrand et al., 1998; Lada et al., 2000; Muench et al., 2001), we refer to stars in the two selected groups as having high and low circumstellar accretion and avoid using the terms “classical” or “weak-line” T Tauri stars.

In Figure 13 we present X-ray luminosity functions for stars in the six lowest mass ranges defined in §2.2, computed separately for the two accretion-differentiated samples. Figure 14 shows median $`Log(L_X)`$ vs. $`Log(M/M_{})`$ depicted in the same format as Figure 4 and separated into low- and high-accretion subsamples. For any mass bin with enough points, it is clear in either representation that stars with high accretion have lower median $`L_X`$ than low-accretion stars. The difference of the medians is about an order of magnitude in the $`0.252.0M/M_{}`$ mass range. Two-population statistical tests confirm the difference with high confidence (null-hypothesis probabilities less than $`10^4`$, for $`M=0.250.50M/M_{}`$). Similar plots for $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ confirm the same result, also with high confidence: low-accretion objects are more X-ray active that similar high-accretion objects. In order to check that the dependence of activity on accretion is not due to different mean ages/bolometric luminosities in the two subsets, we repeated this analysis in several mass and age slices, similar to those of Figure 10. When we did this, we invariably confirmed that the high-accretion stars are less X-ray active than the low-accretion ones. For any mass and age bin where the two subsamples are well represented, we obtain highly significant results (e.g., in the bin with $`M/M_{}=0.250.50`$ and $`Log(Age)=6.06.5`$, null-hypothesis tests give better than 99.96% confidence that the two accretion categories differ).

Differences in X-ray activity level aside, trends of mean activity with mass seem to hold preferentially for low accretion stars. The scatter in X-ray activity levels in any given mass range also appears lower for low-accretion stars than for the whole sample (cf. Figures 4 and 14). A relationship of activity with mass is not apparent for high-accretion stars, which also evidence larger spreads in their activity levels.

## 3 The nature of unidentified sources

Forty of our HRC sources remain unidentified with any optical/IR object. In this section we will explore the nature of these sources.

As noted in Paper I (cf. §2.2), our X-ray detection method will yield about 10 spurious detections, and virtually all of these are expected to be unidentified (Paper I, §3.2) and have near-threshold SNRs. We therefore have $`30(=4010)`$ sources with no optical/IR identification (”non-IDs”) that are expected to be real and require some explanation777Of the 40 “non-IDs” 14 were previously detected with Chandra by Garmire et al. (2000) and/or Schulz et al. (2001); we are therefore confident that these 14 X-ray detections are not spurious. . Particularly puzzling is the fact that most of them appear in the central $`5^{}\times 5^{}`$ of the FOV (see Figure 15) where the $`K`$-band coverage is quite deep (limiting $`K17.5`$). A first clue to their nature comes from their spatial distribution and from the correlation with the Goldsmith, Bergin, & Lis (1997) 13CO data on the molecular cloud total extinction, as shown in Figure 15. If we exclude four, likely-spurious888We note that the 26 (=40 - 14, see footnote 7) unidentified detections that have not been confirmed have extremely low SNRs (median SNR = 4.94, vs. 12.45 for those previously confirmed by Chandra). sources with $`SNR<4.8`$, the median $`V`$-band total extinction at the positions of the remaining sources is $``$63 mag, much larger than that for all detected sources ($``$24 mag) in this central region. This suggests that the ”non-IDs” as a group are high-intrinsic X-ray luminosity objects, which are either highly embedded in the cloud or which lie in the background.

This conclusion is supported by our analysis of the hydrogen column density, $`N_H`$, measured directly from X-ray data (cf. Appendix A of Paper I). Since the “non-IDs” are largely low-SNR detections9, however, the hardness ratios derived from Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS, Townsley et al. 2000) spectra are subject to large uncertainties.999The hardness-ratio approach suffers not only from low source statistics but also from the fact that the low-energy hardness ratio saturates at high values of extinction (see Paper I, Appendix A). Nevertheless, the fact that the low-energy portion of their spectra are extremely underpopulated with respect to higher energies is consistent with the hypothesis of high extinction: on average, “non-ID” hardness ratios suggest optical extinction $`30`$ magnitudes.

Having established that a majority of our unidentified sources are associated with highly absorbed objects, we next consider whether or not the hypothesis that they are high-intrinsic luminosity, embedded cluster members is compatible with the observational constraint that they are not detected in the deep $`K`$-band survey. We can derive an empirical relationship between stellar mass and intrinsic, non absorbed, $`K`$-band magnitude101010There is significant scatter in $`K`$ for this relation, probably due both to variable IR excesses induced by the presence of circumstellar disks and to a spread in stellar ages. by considering the two quantities for ONC members with low measured optical extinction ($`A_V<1.0`$). We then derive, as a function of mass, the minimum $`K`$-band extinction needed to make these sources fall below the $`K`$-band sensitivity threshold of $`K=17.5`$. Converting this minimum $`A_K`$ to a minimum $`N_H=9.3A_K210^{21}cm^2`$ and assuming a detection threshold of 10 photons, we then find the minimum $`L_X`$ that stars emitting at a given temperature and similar to those in our low-extinction sample should have in order to be both detected in our HRC data and too absorbed to appear in the deep $`K`$-band survey.

Figure 16 shows the result of this exercise for three different assumed source temperatures within the range determined in Paper I. Any source that we detected without a $`K`$-band counterpart requires an X-ray luminosity in excess of 1030.3 erg$``$s-1. The large scatter in inferred $`L_X`$ values (for a given temperature) is due to the spread in the mass – $`K`$-band magnitude relation. We also show on the same plot the relation obtained in §2.2 between stellar mass and $`L_X`$ for the optical sample. We conclude that “non-IDs” may well be embedded ONC members but must have masses larger than $`1M_{}`$, i.e. lower mass ONC members of the same activity level as our optical sample, if detected in X rays, must appear in the K-band survey and hence cannot be “non-IDs.”

Thus we have established that the “non-IDs” are indeed affected by high extinction and that their HRC count rates and $`K`$-band magnitude lower limits are compatible with their being highly absorbed ”high” mass PMS stars similar to those of our optical sample. In order to confirm their ONC membership, we must also exclude the possibility of their being background extragalactic objects.

We can estimate the number of expected extragalactic X-ray sources by combining information on the expected sky density of such objects, as a function of unabsorbed flux (Giacconi et al., 2001; Tozzi et al., 2001), with our knowledge of the total extinction due to the Orion Molecular Cloud (Goldsmith, Bergin, & Lis, 1997). For this exercise we make the following assumptions: 1) Extragalactic sources have power law spectra of photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ between 1.3 and 1.5, compatible with values derived by Giacconi et al. (2001); 2) The sky density $`\rho [F]`$ of extragalactic objects as a function of unabsorbed flux follows the descriptions of Giacconi et al. (2001) and Tozzi et al. (2001)111111They give two relations, $`\rho _s(F_s)`$ and $`\rho _h(F_h)`$, for the sky density of objects with unabsorbed flux larger then $`F`$, measured in soft (0.5-2.0 keV) and hard (2.0-10.0 keV) spectral bands, respectively.; 3) Observed photon flux is determined by intrinsic flux and an absorption proportional to the molecular cloud total optical absorption ($`N_H=210^{21}A_V^{tot}`$), as estimated from radio data by Goldsmith, Bergin, & Lis (1997); we use $`CF(N_H)`$ to denote the unabsorbed flux to HRC count rate conversion factor computed with PIMMS, which depends on $`N_H`$, the assumed source spectrum and the spectral band under consideration; and 4) We can detect sources above count rate thresholds, $`CR_{th}`$, computed as the photon threshold (viz. 6, 8 or 10) divided by exposure time. With these assumptions, the surface density of extragalactic sources seen through a given hydrogen column density becomes $`\rho [CR_{th}CF(N_H)]`$ and we can compute the expected number of extragalactic sources detected in an area $`S`$ as:

$$_S\rho [CR_{th}CF(N_H)]𝑑a$$
(1)
where $`da`$ is the infinitesimal area element and $`N_H`$ is a function of position on the sky. Computing the integral (1) for the given values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, $`CR_{th}`$ and energy band (and therefore $`\rho [F]`$), we find expected numbers of detectable extragalactic objects in the inner $`5^{}\times 5^{}`$ of our FOV ranging from 0.6 to 1.2. An extragalactic nature for most of our unidentified sources is therefore excluded, and most “non-IDs” can indeed be highly embedded ONC members never observed with optical or near-IR instruments.

We can get a rough estimate for the size of this hidden population if we assume that counterparts of the $``$20 unidentified field-center sources (expected to be real) have masses larger than $`1M_{}`$ (cf. Figure 16) and that the ratio of the number of stars with $`M>1.0M_{}`$ to stars with $`M<1.0M_{}`$ is the same as for our optical sample, namely, $``$25% for the field center and $``$16% for the entire FOV. We obtain the interesting result that the undiscovered population numbers between 80 and 125 stars, i.e., about half of the optically-well characterized members 121212About 200 stars are placed in the HR diagram, and $``$140 are in our optical sample. in the same region and about a quarter of the optical objects studied by Hillenbrand (1997). For comparison, there are $`600`$ stars seen in the infrared with $`K<14.0`$, implying masses that roughly correspond to the mass range spanned by our optical sample. We conclude, therefore, that the central region of the ONC contains $``$100 additional stars that remain hidden from the deepest $`K`$-band surveys conducted to date.

## 4 Discussion and Summary

Using Chandra X-ray data and recent optical/IR data from the literature, both presented in Paper I, we have studied relationships among X-ray activity indices and various stellar parameters for an optically-selected sample of ONC members. Our ultimate goal is to explain on physical grounds the mechanisms responsible for X-ray emission and magnetic activity in PMS stars.

We do not find any correlation of either $`L_X`$ or $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ with stellar rotational period. This result has sometimes been regarded as evidence against the $`\alpha `$ \- $`\omega `$ dynamo explanation of activity for PMS stars. We note however that: 1) Although the sample of stars for which we have a measure of rotational period is larger than ever considered in similar past studies, it is still biased toward more active stars, as judged from distributions of X-ray activity indicators; 2) Many of the sources with known rotational properties may thus have saturated activity levels and the intensity of their X-ray emission may therefore be insensitive to the rotational period; 3) 90% of these rotational periods are shorter than 10 days; 4) As discussed by Flaccomio (2002), periods up to $`16`$ days might correspond to saturated activity for $``$1 Myr-old stars, according to the consolidated activity – Rossby number relation. We therefore do not regard the present lack of evidence of a rotation-activity relationship as conclusive for the ONC and look forward the realization of more complete rotational period databases. We also note that even if the measured rotational periods were representative of the whole ONC population (as recently indicated by Rhode et al. 2001), a lack of correlation does not necessarily require a new explanation of activity.

As previously noted for other star forming regions (e.g., Feigelson et al., 1993), we find a significant correlation of $`L_X`$ with mass for $`M3.0M_{}`$. The logarithm of the median $`L_X`$ rises quite linearly on a logarithmic mass scale from $`Log(M/M_{})0.9`$ to $`0.4`$, but for higher masses, drops sharply before rising again above $`Log(M/M_{})1.0`$. The drop in activity at $`M3.0M_{}`$ is even more dramatic in $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ (more than two orders of magnitude) and may be further enhanced if proper account for multiplicity were taken. Supported by recent PMS evolutionary models (SDF) we interpret this drop as the effect of the disappearance of a convective envelope for stars more massive than $`3M_{}`$. In general we note a convincing correlation between the presence of a convective layer and activity for $`M<10M_{}`$.

For $`0.5M/M_{}3.0`$, the median $`Log(L_X/L_{bol})`$ is observed to be quite stable at about -3.5, lower than (though close to) the saturation level. At lower masses however we observe a decrease of the median $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ with decreasing mass, as it falls by a factor of $`2.8`$ ($`0.45`$ dex) between $`M=0.51.0`$ and $`M=0.1M_{}`$. We are unsure of the origin of this mass dependence but note a rough coincidence between the turning point in the $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ \- mass relation, at $`1M_{}`$, and the mass at which 1 Myr stars cease to be fully convective (cf. Figure 11). We suggest this may be due to a transition from an $`\alpha `$$`\omega `$ dynamo to a fully-convective dynamo. It may be even more relevant to note that the median value of the Ca II line equivalent width, which can be used as a proxy of disk accretion (cf. §2.5), is significantly lower for stars with masses below 0.5$`M_{}`$ (median $`EW`$=-0.15) than for stars with mass between 0.5 and 3.0$`M_{}`$ (median $`EW`$=0.94), possibly indicating a larger fraction of accreting stars at low masses131313There is indeed growing evidence that disk lifetime is longer for lower mass stars. Two examples of such a result, based on detection of disks in the IR, can be found in Hillenbrand et al. (1998) for the ONC and Haisch et al. (2001) for IC 348.. We therefore propose (cf. Flaccomio 2002) that the increase of $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ at low masses might be the effect of a decrease, with increasing stellar mass, of the fraction of stars that are accreting and/or are surrounded by disks. We indeed found such stars to have significantly lower activity levels (§2.5).

Although we do not detect any securely identified brown dwarfs, we are able to estimate the mean X-ray luminosity for the 9 spectroscopically confirmed BDs of the BD bin in Figure 7. The mean $`L_X`$ of $`10^{28.5}`$ erg$``$s-1 appears to be on the same $`L_X`$ vs. mass relationship we observe for higher mass stars. This is not particularly surprising because at this evolutionary stage BDs do not fundamentally differ from low mass fully convective PMS stars.

We have evidence of the presence of a population of very weak emitters at the low mass end. In the $`0.250.50M_{}`$ mass bin, for example, we observe that the mean X-ray luminosity of stars individually not detected in the X-ray data (Paper I) is $`1.5`$ orders of magnitude lower with respect to the mean of the whole sample, indicating either a very wide or a bimodal X-ray luminosity distribution. At least part of this dispersion can be explained by a dependence of activity on circumstellar accretion rate. By discriminating stars with high and low circumstellar accretion on the basis of the Ca II ($`\lambda =8542\AA `$) equivalent width, we prove with high statistical significance that the X-ray activity of the two groups differs by as much as an order of magnitude. The relationships of median $`L_X`$ and $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ with mass appear to hold exclusively for the low accretion sample. We also note that the scatter in activity at a given mass appears to be larger for the high accretion sample than for the low accretion sample. Although the origin of these differences is presently unknown, we put forward three possible scenarios:

1) Accreting stars are rotating slowly due to disk breaking and their dynamo efficiency depends on rotation, while those accreting less have broken free of their disks to spin-up and thus saturate their activity. This hypothesis seems to be contradicted by two facts: low and high accretion stars have statistically indistinguishable rotational periods (cf. Figure 1) and, as reported in §2.1, we do not observe a correlation between activity and $`P_{rot}`$. However, the sample of stars for which we have rotational information is not complete and may be subject to biases (see §2.1), so that we cannot rule out this possibility until a more representative sample of rotational periods becomes available.

2) Accretion and/or the presence of a disk, and/or outflows influences coronal geometry, for example, by decreasing the fraction of the stellar surface available for the closed magnetic structures from which X-ray emission is thought to emanate. Other scenarios of altered geometries have been proposed; e.g., Montmerle et al. (2000) argue that coronal structures might extend to the inner part of disk. Because of the inhomogeneous and time variable nature of accretion, variability studies and simultaneous X-ray/optical observations could help clarify this matter.

3) Accreting stars have higher X-ray extinction than assumed, so that the difference in inferred $`L_X`$ and $`L_X/L_{bol}`$ is only apparent. Although in Paper I our ACIS spectra analysis was not able to exclude this possibility with high confidence, due mainly to the low photon statistics of sources associated with high accretion stars, we also found no supporting evidence for this scenario. Moreover, an empirical determination of the $`N_H`$ vs. $`A_V`$ relation for the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi population (cf. Imanishi et al. 2001) also does not support this hypothesis. The reason for the departure from the assumed $`A_V`$-$`N_H`$ relation could be that the gas to dust ratio may differ for accreting stars with respect to the average interstellar value, resulting in an underestimation of the X-ray absorption. One could imagine a scenario in which accretion gas columns that cross the line of sight would obscure X-rays and let optical/IR radiation through. The most obvious test for this hypothesis is a better determination of hydrogen absorbing columns through deeper (i.e., longer exposures) medium spectral resolution X-ray observations. As for the previous hypothesis, variability studies might also give useful clues.

Finally we have investigated the nature of sources detected in our HRC X-ray data and not identified with any optical/IR object. On the basis of their X-ray spectra and location in the cloud we conclude that, as a class, they are subject to high extinction. We exclude an extragalactic nature for most of these objects by considering the sky density of such objects as a function of X-ray flux and of the molecular cloud total extinction and conclude that most unidentified X-ray sources are likely associated with deeply embedded, high intrinsic X-ray luminosity, ONC members. Given the relationship between $`L_X`$ and stellar mass we infer that these stars are most likely fairly massive ($`M1.0M_{}`$), thus indicating the likely presence of a significant number of lower mass, as yet undetected ONC members.

In light of these results, we propose this scenario:

1) Activity in $`1Myr`$ old low mass PMS stars is ultimately due to a dynamo mechanism that requires a convective layer in order to function. Rotation may or may not be a fundamental ingredient of this dynamo.

2) The same mechanism responsible for X-ray emission of low mass stars is probably also at work in brown dwarfs.

3) Many of our stars appear to be saturated. The fraction of saturated stars, or alternatively the saturation level, depends on stellar mass. At low masses we might be seeing the effect of decreasing accretion/disk fraction with increasing mass, or the transition between two kinds of dynamos: one that functions on fully convective stars and brown dwarfs and in which the saturation level depends on mass, and another at work on partially convective - partially radiative stars, characterized by a constant saturation level.

4) Highly accreting stars are seen to be less active with respect to low accretion counterparts, possibly because of (a) different rotational properties, (b) disk/accretion induced modifications of the coronal magnetic field geometry, or (c) anomalous interstellar X-ray absorption due to the presence of circumstellar material.

Additional deep X-ray and IR observations are needed to advance our understanding and enable us to identify which scenario(s) Nature prefers.

## Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank L. Hartman for useful discussion.

This work was partially supported at the CfA by NASA contracts NAS8-38248 and NAS8-39073 and by NASA grant NAS5-4967. F.D., E.F., G.M., and S.S. wish to acknowledge support from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and MURST. E.F. would like to thank the CfA for its hospitality during his Fellow visits.

## Appendix A “Composite” source analysis

Here we describe a “composite” source method we employed to study the mean X-ray properties of groups of ONC members, some or all of which were individually undetected in our HRC data. The method was applied in §2.2 to undetected low mass stars, and in §2.3, to objects of substellar mass.

The basic steps of our method are to: 1) define a suitable sample of stellar or substellar objects; 2) determine the number of photons detected in a circular region at the X-ray position corresponding to each optical object; 3) correct the photon numbers for background contributions and the fact that a (predictable) fraction of the photons from a point-like source will fall outside the extraction circle; 4) sum the contributions of single objects and derive a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the “composite” source; 5) divide the “composite” source net counts (or upper limit, for SNRs below a set threshold) by the cumulative exposure time to obtain a mean count rate for objects in the sample; and finally, 6) convert the mean count rate (or upper limit) to a “composite” $`L_X`$ value.

The critical points in these six steps for estimating $`L_X`$ values for the composite sources are as follows:

#### 1)

The selection of composite source samples was based on stellar (or substellar) mass as given by our optical sample. We also added three more requirements: a) that the objects lay in the inner 5 of the HRC field of view, b) that the closest detected X-ray source (other than the object in question, if detected) was farther away than 5′′ and c) that the measured optical extinction $`A_V`$ was less than 2.0. Constraint (a) ensures that the PSF at the position of all the objects in the sample contains more than $`60\%`$ of the photons falling within a circle of $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ radius, while (b) isolates the source to avoid contamination with photons from neighboring sources. Constraint (c) reduces the uncertainty in the conversion between composite source count rates and X-ray luminosities.

#### 2)

Individual source photons were extracted from a 2′′ circle centered on the optical star position. Figure 17 shows an example of the extraction regions for undetected members in the $`0.160.25M/M_{}`$ mass range as well as a graphical representation of the composite source resulting from the summation process.

#### 3)

The background contribution in each of the extraction circles was estimated from the values of the source-free background map produced by pwdetect (cf. Paper I). The fraction of counts from the object falling within this extraction circle ranges from $``$ 60% to 95% and was estimated from the images of calibrated PSFs obtained for the position of each source using the ciao task mkpsf and the F1 standard PSF library file (Karovska et al., 2001). Sources were assumed for this purpose to be monochromatic with an energy of 2.0 keV. A visual comparison of the expected and observed shape of the PSF for bright sources in our present sample indicates a good qualitative match.

#### 4)

From counting statistics we estimated the probability that the measured total number of extracted counts is the result of random fluctuation in the background level. In those cases in which such probability was larger than 0.135% ($`3\sigma `$), we computed upper limits to the composite source counts using the same confidence threshold.

#### 5)

The cumulative exposure time used to compute mean count rates for the objects in each mass segregated sample was obtained by summing the values of the exposure map (cf. Paper I) at the position of the objects.

#### 6)

We converted mean count rates to X-ray luminosities in a manner consistent with Paper I, but such conversion depends critically on extinction. While we can derive conversion factors for each of the component objects, a global conversion factor for a composite source cannot be readily defined. If all the objects in the sample had the same intrinsic X-ray luminosity the conversion factor for the average source would be the average of the single conversion factors. In order to reduce the range of individual conversion factors we have limited our object sample to low optical extinction ($`A_V<2.0`$). However some uncertainty remains: as shown in Figure 8 of Paper I, this range of $`A_V`$ corresponds to a factor of about 3 ($`0.5`$ dex) variation in the conversion factor at our chosen source temperature (2.16 keV). We therefore report two values of luminosity for each of our average sources: one computed with the mean of the conversion factors, the other with the median.

The results of applying this technique are discussed in §2.2 and §2.3 and are shown in Figure 7.


text:
# Observation of a 1750 𝐌𝐞𝐕/𝒄^𝟐 Enhancement in the Diffractive Photoproduction of 𝑲⁺𝑲⁻

## 1 Motivation

Previous photoproduction experiments have consistently observed an enhancement in $`K^+K^{}`$ at a mass near 1750 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ (referred to here as the X(1750)) . However, with signals consisting of only around 100 events and with a statistical significance of the enhancement of, at best, only $`3.5\sigma `$ over background, these experiments have suffered from a lack of statistics. Due to the large statistical errors on the mass of the enhancement, and assuming that a diffractively photoproduced meson is a vector, this enhancement has been identified with the $`\varphi (1680)`$ seen in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation , which is a candidate radial excitation of the $`\varphi (1020)`$. The present analysis challenges this interpretation of the 1750 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ signal on two grounds.

First, assuming the enhancement is a single resonance, we determine a mass of $`1753.5\pm 1.5\pm 2.3`$ $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ from our sample of more than 10,000 signal events, which is clearly inconsistent with 1680 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$. One previous photoproduction experiment , using less than 50 signal events and guided by $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation results, presented a mass of $`1690\pm 10`$ $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ after an analysis based on a model including interference and Deck-like effects. With orders of magnitude more statistics, we are unable to reproduce this result.

Second, although $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation experiments report the dominant decay mode of the $`\varphi (1680)`$ to be $`K^{}K`$ , as expected theoretically for the radial excitation of the $`\varphi (1020)`$ , we find no evidence for a photoproduced enhancement in $`K^{}K`$ corresponding to the photoproduced enhancement in $`K^+K^{}`$. We put a low upper limit on the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)K^{}K)/\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)K^+K^{})`$.

## 2 Data Sample

The data for this analysis was collected by the Wideband photoproduction experiment FOCUS during the Fermilab 1996–1997 fixed-target run. FOCUS is a considerably upgraded version of the previous E687 photoproduction experiment . A forward multi-particle spectrometer is used to measure the interactions of high energy photons on a segmented BeO target.

The FOCUS detector is a large aperture, fixed-target spectrometer with excellent vertexing, particle identification , and reconstruction capabilities for photons, $`\pi ^0`$’s, and $`K_S`$ . A photon beam is derived from the bremsstrahlung of secondary electrons and positrons with an approximately 300 $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ endpoint energy produced from the 800 $`\mathrm{GeV}`$ Tevatron proton beam. The charged particles which emerge from the target are tracked by two systems of silicon microvertex detectors. The upstream system, consisting of 4 planes (two views in 2 stations), is interleaved with the experimental target, while the other system lies downstream of the target and consists of twelve planes of microstrips arranged in three views. The momentum of a charged particle is determined by measuring its deflections in two analysis magnets of opposite polarity with five stations of multiwire proportional chambers. Three multicell threshold Cerenkov counters are used to discriminate between pions, kaons, and protons.

The $`K^+K^{}`$ and $`K_SK^\pm \pi ^{}`$ data samples used in this paper require a single vertex in the target, no electromagnetic energy apart from that associated with the reconstructed tracks, and require all tracks to be singly linked between the upstream and downstream tracking systems. Events with additional reconstructed tracks are rejected, making the data samples as exclusive as possible. The Cerenkov identification of the kaons in both diffractive final states limits the photon energy range to $`160`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}`$.

## 3 Mass and Width Measurement

Our sample of $`K^+K^{}`$ events, selected using the criteria described above, shows a clear $`\varphi (1020)`$ signal dominating the spectrum (Figure 1). The diffractive component of the production of the $`\varphi (1020)`$ shows up as a peak in the $`p_T`$ spectrum (Figure 2.a). Cutting around this peak by requiring $`p_T<0.15`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}/c`$, we select a diffractive sample of $`K^+K^{}`$ events, in which a clear enhancement appears in the mass spectrum near 1750 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ (Figure 3.a). Figure 3.b confirms that the enhancement appears at only low $`p_T`$. Plotting the $`p_T`$ spectra in the 1750 region (1640–1860 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$) and in the two sideband regions (1500–1600 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ and 1900–2100 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$), it is seen that the 1750 region has a peak in the $`p_T`$ spectrum in nearly the same place as the $`\varphi (1020)`$ peak, but the sideband regions have significantly smaller $`p_T`$ peaks (Figure 2.a), indicating that the background under the X(1750) signal is largely non-diffractive.

The $`t^{}`$ spectrum ($`t^{}|t||t|_{min}p_T^2`$ and $`t(P_\gamma P_{KK})^2`$, where $`P_\gamma `$ and $`P_{KK}`$ are the four-momenta of the photon beam and the KK system, respectively) for $`K^+K^{}`$ masses between 1640 and 1860 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ has been fit with two exponentials (Figure 2.b). The diffractive exponential for this region has a slope of $`69.2\pm 2.1`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}^2c^2`$ and the background exponential has a slope of $`4.17\pm 0.21`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}^2c^2`$. For comparison, the $`\varphi (1020)`$ signal has a diffractive slope of $`77.71\pm 0.59`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}^2c^2`$ and a background slope of $`1.71\pm 0.14`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}^2c^2`$. The steep diffractive slopes are characteristic of exclusive diffractive photoproduction off of nuclear targets.

Fitting the 1750 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ mass region with a non-relativistic Breit-Wigner distribution and a quadratic background, we find

$$\text{Yield}=11,700\pm 480\mathrm{Events}$$

$$\mathrm{M}=1753.5\pm 1.5\pm 2.3\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$$

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=122.2\pm 6.2\pm 8.0\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$$

Because the acceptance of the detector is flat in this region, as determined by a full Monte Carlo simulation, the fit was performed on the uncorrected mass spectrum. Further, since Monte Carlo studies of the detector have shown that the $`K^+K^{}`$ mass resolution in the 1750 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ region is better than 10 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$, which is much less than the width of the X(1750), resolution effects have been neglected in the fit. (Similar Monte Carlo studies have accurately predicted the $`D^0`$ mass resolution in the decay $`D^0K^+K^{}`$, and find a compatible resolution .) The systematic errors were determined by varying the $`p_T`$ cut, the Cerenkov cuts, the form of the Breit-Wigner shape (non-relativistic, and relativistic L = 0,1,2), and the form of the background shape, and include the systematic uncertainty in our mass scale.

There is a region near 1600 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ where there is some discrepancy in our fit to the $`K^+K^{}`$ mass spectrum. The residuals show that the statistical significance of this discrepancy is not strong (Figure 3.d). It has been found that several different interference scenarios can improve the fit. These include interference with the $`K^+K^{}`$ continuum and interference between the X(1750) and a second resonance with lower mass. The goodness of the fits, however, does not allow us to discriminate between solutions, and we find no physics motivation for picking one solution over another. In all scenarios, the mass of the X(1750) exceeds 1747 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$. If the X(1750) has $`J^{PC}=1^{}`$ and if the $`\varphi (1680)`$ were also photoproduced, then we would expect some distortion of the $`K^+K^{}`$ mass shape. However, the apparent absence of the $`\varphi (1680)`$ in its dominant $`K^{}K`$ mode and the measured ratio of branching fractions  limit the amplitude in the $`K^+K^{}`$ state so that the distortion of the expected line shape is negligible. Our mass and width measurements and our determination of systematic errors assume the production of a single, non-interfering resonance.

## 4 Branching Ratio

Figure 4 shows our $`K_SK\pi `$ sample and the two $`K^{}`$ combinations. The $`K_SK^\pm \pi ^{}`$ spectrum shows the classic “D” and “E” regions .

After requiring $`p_T<0.15`$ $`\mathrm{GeV}/c`$ (the same $`p_T`$ cut imposed on the $`K^+K^{}`$ sample), and requiring a $`K^{}`$, the two distinct $`K^{}K`$ spectra were fit individually (Figure 5). There is no obvious X(1750) signal in either of the two $`K^{}K`$ modes. In order to place upper limits on the $`K^{}K/K^+K^{}`$ branching ratios of the X(1750), an estimate of the background is needed. The presence of a slight enhancement somewhat below the $`\varphi (1680)`$ region introduces some ambiguity in estimating the background in the X(1750) region. In order to make a conservative estimate of the background, we have used a fit which includes a second, unconstrained, non-interfering resonance in the 1630 $`\mathrm{MeV}/c^2`$ region as well as the X(1750) with mass and width fixed from the fit to the $`K^+K^{}`$ mode. The size of the X(1750) resonant component was unconstrained. These fits provide an estimate of the number of events above background in the X(1750) region, $`123\pm 120`$ events in the $`K^0K_S`$ mode and $`106\pm 117`$ in the $`K^\pm K^{}`$ mode.

The efficiencies of the $`K^+K^{}`$ and $`K^{}K`$ final states were determined by Monte Carlo simulations in bins of $`p_T`$, beam energy, and mass. As the spin of the X(1750) is still uncertain, several decay angular distributions were simulated. Using the highest efficiency for $`K^+K^{}`$ (Figure 3.a) and the lowest for $`K^{}K`$ (Figure 5) and correcting for the $`K_S`$ unseen decay mode, we have found an upper limit on the following relative branching ratios

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)\overline{K}^0K^0K^{}\pi ^+K_S+c.c.)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)K^+K^{})}<0.065\mathrm{at}90\%\mathrm{C}.\mathrm{L}.$$

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)K^+K^{}K_S\pi ^+K^{}+c.c.)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(X(1750)K^+K^{})}<0.183\mathrm{at}90\%\mathrm{C}.\mathrm{L}.$$

The confidence limits were set using the Feldman-Cousins methodology . The two relative branching ratios were measured to be $`0.083\pm 0.081`$ and $`0.065\pm 0.072`$, respectively.

## 5 Discussion

Because of the large discrepancies in mass and relative branching fractions to $`K^+K^{}`$ and $`K^{}K`$, we do not believe it is reasonable to identify the X(1750) with the $`\varphi (1680)`$. In fact, because the mass of the X(1750) is significantly higher than all known vector mesons, the most massive of which are the $`\omega (1650)`$, $`\varphi (1680)`$, and $`\rho (1700)`$, an interpretation claiming the X(1750) is some combination of interfering vector mesons also seems highly unlikely. The interpretation of the X(1750) remains uncertain.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge P. Page and T. Barnes for valuable discussions, the assistance of the staffs of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the INFN of Italy, and the physics departments of the collaborating institutions. This research was supported in part by the U. S. National Science Foundation, the U. S. Department of Energy, the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, the Brazilian Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CONACyT-México, the Korean Ministry of Education, and the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation.