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# Non-equilibrium Kondo effect in asymmetrically coupled quantum dot

## I  Introduction

Recent advances in nanotechnology have allowed the fabrication of structures containing quantum dots coupled to the external environment. The quantum dot consists of finite number of electrons confined to the small region of space. It behaves like an impurity in a metal PALee  and allows the study of the many body correlations between electrons. However, unlike an impurity which parameters are fixed, the coupling of the quantum dot to the external leads and its other parameters can be changed in a highly controlled way. Most importantly the non-equilibrium transport non-eq  can also be studied.

The discovery GGordon ; SaraCr  of the Kondo effect Hewson  in the quantum dots connected to external leads by tunnel junctions has resulted in an increased experimental GGordon2 -vKlitzing2  and theoretical multilevel -time-dep  interest in this many body phenomenon. The Kondo effect in the quantum dot manifests itself at temperatures $`T`$ lower than the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ as an increased conductance $`G`$ through the system. It is due to the formation of the so called Abrikosov-Suhl or Kondo resonance at the Fermi energy. This is a many body singlet state involving spin on the the quantum dot and the electrons in external leads.

The experiments GGordon ; SaraCr ; GGordon2 ; Wiel  have confirmed the validity of the theoretical picture. They also discovered phenomena the explanation of which requires new theoretical ideas. In particular they have shown the non-orthodox and unexpected behavior of the systems in the Kondo regime. These are inter alia the observation of the Kondo peak at nonzero source-drain voltage vKlitzing ; Simmel , absence of the odd-even parity effects expected for these systems vKlitzing2  and observation of the singlet-triplet transition in a magnetic field. Besides the non-linear current-voltage characteristics it has been possible to measure charge distribution which led to the conclusion of spin-charge separation in a Kondo regime, observe the evolution of the transmission phase Ji  and the detection of two different energy scales Wiel2  related to two stages of the spin screening process in systems with spin $`S1`$, with one of the Kondo temperatures as high as $`4K`$.

The great progress in theoretical understanding of the Kondo physics in real quantum dots has been made during last decade. The theory has concentrated on such important aspects as the Kondo-driven transport in multilevel quantum dots multilevel , the coupled quantum dots Ivanov , double-dot structures in which existence of the Kondo effect without spin-degree of freedom and new singlet-triplet effects have been predicted doubledot , the nature (weak vs strong coupling) of the Kondo effect at high voltage Kaminski , the spin-charge separation in the strongly correlated quantum dot spin-ch , the systems driven out of equilibrium by different means time-dep  etc..

Here we shall focus our attention on the experimental observation vKlitzing ; Simmel  of the Kondo effect at nonzero source drain voltages. To state the problem in the right perspective let us remind that in systems containing quantum dot, the Kondo effect manifests itself at low temperatures as an enhanced conductance observed at zero source-drain voltage, $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}=0`$ PALee ; non-eq ; Hewson . Occasionally, the Kondo peak in conductance appearing at nonzero voltages $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}0`$ vKlitzing  has been observed and this unusual behavior, called anomalous Kondo effect remains unexplained. Recently this phenomenon has been studied systematically Simmel . The authors have fabricated the dot coupled weakly to one and strongly to another lead and observed the evolution of the peak at $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}0`$. The source-drain voltage $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$, at which the peak appears, scales roughly linearly with a gate voltage, $`V_g`$. In the experimental setup Simmel  the additional electrode determines the asymmetry in the coupling of the dot to left and right leads.

It is the purpose of this paper to study the anomalous Kondo peak observed at non zero voltage. We shall present the results of the model calculations based on the non-equilibrium transport theory Keldysh  applied to the quantum dot described by the Anderson model Anderson  with asymmetric coupling to the leads. As we shall see the asymmetry in the couplings is the main factor which leads to this anomalous Kondo effect. The experimentally observed shifts of the Kondo peak to higher values of $`V_{\mathrm{SD}}`$ with increasing gate voltage can be satisfactorily explained by assuming that the values of the left and right barriers change together with the gate voltage, while the asymmetry in the couplings remains constant. This scenario is realized in experiment Simmel .

The organization of the rest of the paper is as follows. In section II we introduce the model, give the formula for the current through the quantum dot and discuss briefly the methods (equation of motion ($`EOM`$) with slave boson representation of electron operators and non-crossing approximation ($`NCA`$)) used to calculate on-dot Green’s function relegating some technical details to the appendix. In section III we present the results of our numerical calculations of the tunneling conductance across the asymmetrically coupled single level quantum dot in $`U=\mathrm{}`$ limit. Conclusions are given in section IV.

## II  The theory

For the sake of simplicity we discuss here the dot with single energy level. The theoretical analysis of the transport through quantum dot usually starts with the following, Landauer type, formula non-eq  for the current

$`J={\displaystyle \frac{e}{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\omega [f_L(\omega )f_R(\omega )]}`$
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^L(\omega )\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^R(\omega )}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^L(\omega )+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^R(\omega )}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\pi }}\right)\mathrm{Im}G_\sigma ^r(\omega +i0^+)`$ (1)
Here $`f_\lambda (\omega )`$ denotes the Fermi distribution function for lead $`\lambda `$ with chemical potential $`\mu _\lambda `$, $`G_\sigma ^r(\omega )`$ is the (retarded) impurity Green’s function and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma ^\lambda (\omega )=2\pi _k|V_{\lambda k}|^2\delta (\omega \epsilon _{\lambda k})`$ is the effective coupling of localized electron to conduction band.

The current $`J`$ flowing across the system depends on the source-drain voltage $`V_{SD}=(\mu _L\mu _R)/e`$, where $`e`$ is the electron charge. The differential conductance of the system defined as $`G(V_{SD})=\frac{dJ(V_{SD})}{dV_{SD}}`$ is directly measured experimentally GGordon .

To calculate the on-dot Green’s function $`G_\sigma (\omega +i0^+)`$ we shall describe the dot coupled to the external leads by the single impurity Anderson Hamiltonian Anderson

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{\lambda k\sigma }{}}\epsilon _{\lambda k}c_{\lambda k\sigma }^+c_{\lambda k\sigma }+E_d{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}d_\sigma ^+d_\sigma `$
$`+Un_{}n_{}+{\displaystyle \underset{\lambda k\sigma }{}}(V_{\lambda k}c_{\lambda k\sigma }^+d_\sigma +H.c.)`$ (2)
Here $`\lambda =R,L`$ denote the right ($`R`$) or the left ($`L`$) lead in the system. Other symbols have the following meaning: $`c_{\lambda k\sigma }^+`$ ($`c_{\lambda k\sigma }`$) denotes creation (annihilation) operator for a conduction electron with wave vector $`\stackrel{}{k}`$, spin $`\sigma `$ in the lead $`\lambda `$, $`V_{\lambda k}`$ is the hybridization matrix element between conduction electron of energy $`\epsilon _{\lambda k}`$ in the lead $`\lambda `$ and localized electron on the dot. $`E_d`$ is the single particle energy at the dot. $`n_{}=d_{}^+d_{}`$ is the number operator for electrons with spin up localized on the dot and $`U`$ is the (repulsive) interaction energy between two electrons. Our calculations are restricted to very low temperatures, much smaller than the orbital level spacing in quantum dot so it is legitimate to consider single energy level $`E_d`$.

There are various methods non-eq  of calculating the on-dot Green’s function entering the current (1). Here we shall apply two of them: equation of motion method ($`EOM`$) and non-crossing approximation ($`NCA`$). In both cases we assume that the Coulomb repulsion $`U`$ between electrons on the dot is the largest energy scale. Therefore we take the limit $`U=\mathrm{}`$. The original correlated electron operators are expressed as products of auxiliary fermion and boson ones non-eq .

When using equation of motion method ($`EOM`$) we apply a mean field like approximation for the slave bosons and calculate all matrix elements of the Keldysh Green’s functions, including the distribution one EOM . In the process we consistently decouple all elements of the higher order Keldysh Green functions MAK-KIW . The relevant formulae and some technical details can be found in the appendix. As we shall see the method gives correct position of the Kondo peak. However, like the standard $`EOM`$ it leads to incorrect width of the peak and the occupations. Therefore we have used the non-crossing approximation ($`NCA`$), which is generally accepted technique of solving the problem at hand Hewson . In the $`NCA`$ one maps the infinite $`U`$ Anderson model onto the slave boson one and calculates both boson and fermion propagators. They are expressed by the coupled integral equations non-eq .

Where appropriate we shall present the results obtained by both techniques.

## III  Numerical results

Let us first discuss the relation between the experimental parameters and those entering the model and the theory. The effective coupling $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ have been estimated in ref.Simmel  to be $`170\mu eV`$ and $`80\mu eV`$ respectively. Their values and the ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R2`$ have been argued to remain constant during the measurements. The source-drain voltage $`V_{SD}`$ is the difference of the chemical potentials of the external leads. The (back)gate voltage $`V_g`$ controls the position of the on-dot energy level $`E_d`$. As already mentioned we stick here to the $`U=\mathrm{}`$ limit. In this limit there can be at most a single electron with energy $`E_d`$ on the dot at a time.

We start the presentation of the results with the comparison of the (equilibrium) density of states of a quantum dot coupled to two leads obtained by means of $`NCA`$ and $`EOM`$ approaches. It is shown in the Fig. (1).

The main features of the $`DOS`$ remain the same in both approaches. However the height and the width of the Kondo peak is much larger in the $`NCA`$. Moreover the spectral weight is shifted towards higher energies. In turn this leads to different occupations shown in the inset of the Fig.(1).

Now let’s turn to the nonequilibrium ($`\mu _L\mu _R`$) density of states. In this case the high energy features to large extend remain the same as in equilibrium (see Fig.(1)), so the only low energy $`DOS`$ is shown in the Fig.(2).

The upper panel presents results obtained via equation of motion technique for Keldysh (matrix) Green’s function.In the lower panel the results obtained with the non-crossing approximation are shown. The coupling is asymmetric with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=2`$ (dashed lines) and $`\frac{1}{2}`$ (dotted lines). The case of the symmetric coupling $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ is also shown (solid lines) for comparison. Few features have to be noted. First we see that the Kondo peak is always located at energies coinciding with those of the Fermi levels of the leads. Thus in non-equilibrium we get (in the density of states) two Kondo resonances pinned to Fermi energies of the left and right electrodes. Note also that the heights of the respective Kondo resonances strongly depend on the value of the hybridization. The overall shape of the density of states is similar. The positions of the Kondo peaks are roughly the same but they differ in width and heigths. The peaks obtained in $`EOM`$, are much narrower and smaller. As a result the curves in figure (2a) differ from that in figure (2b).

These details in the energy dependence of the density of states may shortly be a matter of direct measurements. In fact it has been recently predicted theoretically Lebanon  that the on-dot density of states can be measured in a device containing quantum dot coupled to three leads. The very weakly coupled third lead will act as a tunneling tip in conventional tunneling microscope and will probe the non-equilibrium density of states. The conductance spectrum measured by this additional electrode has been shown Lebanon  to follow the non equilibrium density of states, like one shown in Fig.(2).

Returning to our main subject we show in Fig.(3) the differential conductance spectrum corresponding to the same ’experimental setup’ as discussed previously in connection with figure (2).

For comparison we have also plotted in this figure the conductance through the symmetrically coupled quantum dot. In the symmetric situation ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$) the Kondo resonance is located exactly at zero bias ($`V_{DS}=0`$), but for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L>\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L<\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$) it is shifted to the negative (positive) voltages $`V_{DS}`$. This finding is in nice qualitative agreement with the experimental studies on the transport through the quantum dot in the presence of the asymmetric barriers Simmel . While the observed shifts calculated within $`EOM`$ and $`NCA`$ are of comparable magnitude the clear differences in their shape are visible. The $`NCA`$ peaks are much higher and more symmetric in vicinity of their maxima. For asymmetric coupling the Kondo resonance in the conductance is pinned to the position of the Fermi level of that lead which is more strongly coupled (larger $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) to the dot. It is thus mainly the relative coupling which rules the value of the shift.

In Fig.(4) we show the systematic change of the $`G(V_{DS})`$ with increasing asymmetry $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ of the coupling.

The upper curves in both panels corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=5.5`$ while lower one is for symmetric coupling $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=1`$ in steps of 0.5. The increase of the asymmetry $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ from $`1`$ to $`5.5`$ continuously moves the Kondo peak away from $`V_{SD}=0`$ position. We have checked that increasing asymmetry to still higher values does not lead to bigger shifts. This is easy to understand as for large asymmetry one of barriers is not transparent enough to produce the clear Kondo resonance in the density of states.

The position of the on-dot electron energy level $`E_d`$ influences anomalous Kondo peak for the asymmetric dot with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R=2`$ to lesser extend. It is only important that it takes a value appropriate for observing a Kondo resonance. For all appropriate $`E_d`$ the shifts are of comparable magnitudes.

The data displayed in the figure (4) qualitatively agree with those plotted in figure (5) of vKlitzing  and figure (3) of Simmel . However, theoretical shifts of the Kondo peak position are smaller than the experimental.

There may be additional factors which affect the position of the peaks. We have checked that the energy dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{L,R}`$ introduces only small quantitative differences in the density of states and differential conductance, and does not lead to better agreement between theory and experiment. Similarly the calculations within $`EOM`$ approach for finite values of $`U`$ show that finite $`U`$ leads to minor corrections as also does the presence of the additional energy levels in the vicinity of Fermi energy. In all the cases studied one gets usual behavior with Kondo peak located at $`V_{SD}=0`$ for symmetric coupling to both leads and the anomalous Kondo effect for asymmetric coupling. This proves the importance of the asymmetry in the observattion of it.

In experimental setup Simmel  the changes of the gate voltage $`V_g`$, which in first place affect the position of the electron energy level also modify the height of the barriers and their transparency $`V_𝐤`$. This effect is of special importance in the quantum dots defined in the two dimensional electron gas where the voltage at a single electrode couples capacitively to other electrodes Buttiker . If we assume that (as in experiments) $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L/\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ remains constant ($`=2`$) and that the decrease of the energy $`E_d`$ is accompanied by the simultaneous increase of the couplings $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L`$ then the calculated shifts get larger.

The occurence of the Kondo resonace is possible at low enough temperature. It is also well known non-eq  that changes of temperature move slightly the Kondo peak. We have checked this and found that if temperature is raised the position of the peak moves slightly away from the $`V_{SD}=0`$. At finite temperature the occupation of the dot changes and the Abrikosov-Suhl resonances smear out and this leads to small changes in the position of the Kondo peak.

We thus have combined all above contributions, i.e. assymetry in the couplings $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$, their $`E_d`$-dependence, and assumed high enough, but still below $`T_K`$, temperature to get larger shifts of the Kondo peak.

We have shown the results in Fig.(5). The various curves have been calculated for $`T=510^3`$ which is below Kondo temperature. In the figure the change of the position of the on dot energy level is accompanied by the simultaneous change of the barrier transparency. The bottom curve in figure (5)corresponds to $`E_d=3\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=\mathrm{\Gamma }_L`$, while the upper one corresponds to $`E_d=12\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=6.4\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$. Here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ is equal to experimentally estimated value of of the smaller of couplings Simmel . The ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R/\mathrm{\Gamma }_L`$ is kept constant and equal $`2`$ as estimated in Simmel . The data are in nice qualitative agreement with experiments. The theoretical shifts, however, are smaller than experimental by a factor of $`5`$-$`10`$. To check whether this is due to different asymmetry ratio we plot in figure (6) the results obtained for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R/\mathrm{\Gamma }_L=4`$. The shifts have increased.

## IV  Conclusions

We have found that the emergence of the Kondo peak at non zero voltages $`V_{DS}0`$ is caused by asymmetric coupling of the dot to the external electrodes. These results are in qualitative agreement with experimental data on the transport through the quantum dot asymmetrically coupled to the leads vKlitzing ; Simmel . The theoretical Kondo peaks in differential conductance, however, are narrower than experimental ones. Their maxima move to nonzero $`V_{SD}`$ with increasing the asymmetry or the position of the on-dot energy level. The simultaneous change of $`E_d`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_L`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_R`$ can semi-quantitatively explain experimental data. More experimental results are needed to draw firm conclusions such as the applicability of simple Anderson model to asymmetrically coupled quantum dots. It follows from the presented studies that the asymmetry of the couplings is a necessary ingredient for the explanation of the anomalous Kondo effect. Within the Anderson model one always gets normal Kondo effect for symmetric couplings and small shifts of the Kondo peak to non-zero voltages for asymmetric couplings. Our inability to explain quantitatively the experimental data may indicate the necessity of much better theoretical treatment of the model or even better model for the description of these complicated systems. There is a possibility that the experimentally observed features, even though similar to, do not represent genuine Kondo effect. In fact some researches DGG-privat  have seen very small shifts, consistent with present calculations, even for quite asymmetrically coupled quantum dots.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work has been partially supported by the State Committee for Scientific Research under grant 2P03B 106 18. We thank unknown Referee for her/his comments on the first version of the paper.

## Appendix A

To find the current accross the system, Eq.(1), it is enough to calculate the on-dot retarded Green’s function.

The $`NCA`$ method to get $`G_\sigma ^r(\omega )`$ has been extensively discussed previously non-eq  and there is no need to repeat its derivation again. For the sake of completeness let us only note that we have adapted the formulae derived in the second paper of the reference non-eq .

The $`EOM`$ method to calculate the $`GF`$ is straightforward and in $`U\mathrm{}`$ limit leads to

$`G_\sigma ^r(\omega )={\displaystyle \frac{1n_\sigma }{\omega E_d_\lambda \mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma \lambda }^r(\omega )}}`$ (3)
with the self-energy

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma \lambda }^r(\omega )={\displaystyle \underset{\lambda 𝐤}{}}|V_{\lambda 𝐤}|^2{\displaystyle \frac{1+f(\omega \mu _\lambda )}{\omega ϵ_{\lambda 𝐤}}}.`$ (4)
In the equation (3), $`n_\sigma `$ denotes the average on-dot occupation number of the spin $`\sigma `$ electrons. In the equilibrium one calculates $`n_\sigma `$ self-consistently from the retarded Green’s function $`G_\sigma ^r(\omega )`$. Here we are dealing with nonequilibrium situation and $`n_\sigma `$ cannot be calculated directly from $`G_\sigma ^r(\omega )`$. Instead the nonequilibrium Keldysh  Green’s function technique has to be used. The occupation of the dot at time $`t`$ is expressed via Keldysh ”lesser” Green’s function $`n_\sigma (t)=c_\sigma ^+(t)c_\sigma (t)=iG_\sigma ^<(t,t)`$. In the steady state one gets

$`n_\sigma =i{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega }{2\pi }}G_\sigma ^<(\omega ).`$ (5)
This shows that the consistent calculations of the retarded $`GF`$ requires the knowledge of ”lesser” one. The equation of motion for the ”lesser” $`GF`$ has been formulated by Niu et al EOM . For the Hamiltonian of the form $`H=H_0+H_I`$ they derived the following general equation for the ”lesser” GF

$$A|B_\omega ^<=g^<(\omega )[A,B]_\pm +g^r(\omega )[A,H_I]|B_\omega ^<+g^<(\omega )[A,H_I]|B_\omega ^a,$$
(6)
here $`g^{<(r)}(\omega )`$ is the ”lesser” (retarded) $`GF`$ of the noninteracting part $`H_0`$ of Hamiltonian.

To treat strong correlations we use the version MAK-KIW  of the slave boson technique and rewrite the Hamiltonian in the form

$$H^{SB}=\underset{\lambda k\sigma }{}(\epsilon _{\lambda k}\mu _\lambda )c_{\lambda k\sigma }^+c_{\lambda k\sigma }+\epsilon _d\underset{\sigma }{}f_\sigma ^+f_\sigma +\underset{\lambda k\sigma }{}V_{\lambda k}(c_{\lambda k\sigma }^+b^+f_\sigma +f_\sigma ^+bc_{\lambda k\sigma }),$$
(7)
where new fermionic ($`f_\sigma ^+,f_\sigma )`$ and bosonic ($`b^+,b)`$ operators have been introduced. Calculating the on-dot Green’s function $`G_\sigma ^<(\omega )=b^+f_\sigma |f_\sigma ^+b_\omega ^<`$ we have taken the third term of $`H^{SB}`$ as an interaction part $`H_I`$ and the first two terms of it as $`H_0`$.

The average occupation number is found to be

$`n={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\omega {\displaystyle \underset{\lambda }{}}\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\sigma \lambda }^r(\omega )f_\lambda (\omega )|G_\sigma ^r(\omega )|^2.`$ (8)
Note that in turn it depends on the retarded Green’s function. This closes the system of equations.


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# Effective Theory of the Color-Flavor-Locked Phase

## 1 Introduction

What is the ground state of ordinary hadronic matter if it is compressed to baryon densities several times larger than nuclear matter saturation density? This theoretical question, which has important applications to the physics of neutron stars, has led to the discovery of several novel and unusual phases of QCD. At zero baryon density chiral symmetry is broken by a condensate of quark-anti-quark pairs. If the baryon density is large then condensation in the quark-anti-quark channel is suppressed. Instead, attractive interactions between two quarks in a color anti-symmetric wave function lead to diquark condensation and color superconductivity .

The global symmetries of color superconducting quark matter depend on the density, the number of quark flavors, and their masses. In the physically relevant case of three light quark flavors a particularly symmetric phase exists, color-flavor-locked (CFL) quark matter . This phase is believed to be the true ground state of strange quark matter at very large density. The CFL phase is characterized by the order parameter

$$q_{L,i}^aCq_{L,j}^b=q_{R,i}^aCq_{R,j}^b=\varphi \left(\delta _i^a\delta _j^b\delta _i^b\delta _j^a\right).$$
(1)
At realistic baryon densities flavor symmetry breaking due to the quark masses $`m_sm_dm_u`$ and non-zero lepton chemical potentials will lead to distortions of the ideal CFL state . In this contribution we show how to address this problem using the effective chiral theory of the CFL phase .

## 2 Chiral Effective Theory

For excitation energies smaller than the gap the only relevant degrees of freedom are the Goldstone modes associated with the breaking of chiral symmetry and baryon number. The interaction of the Goldstone modes is described by the effective Lagrangian

$`_{eff}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_\pi ^2}{4}}\mathrm{Tr}[_0\mathrm{\Sigma }_0\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}v_\pi ^2_i\mathrm{\Sigma }_i\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}]+[C\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})+h.c.]`$
$`+[A_1\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})+A_2\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})+A_3\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})\mathrm{Tr}(M^{}\mathrm{\Sigma })+h.c.]+\mathrm{}.`$
Here $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi ^a\lambda ^a/f_\pi )`$ is the chiral field, $`f_\pi `$ is the pion decay constant and $`M`$ is the mass matrix. The field $`\varphi ^a`$ describes pion, kaon, and eta collective modes in the CFL phase. The microscopic nature of these modes is not relevant for our discussion. It is nevertheless useful to have a physical picture of these excitations, see Fig. 1a. In the CFL phase the flavor and color orientation of the left handed condensate $`X_i^a=ϵ_{ijk}ϵ^{abc}(\psi _L)_j^bC(\psi _L)_k^c`$ are locked, $`X_i^a\delta _i^a`$. The same is true for the right handed condensate $`Y_i^a=ϵ_{ijk}ϵ^{abc}(\psi _R)_j^bC(\psi _R)_k^c`$. Low energy excitations of the CFL phase correspond to small fluctuations of $`X`$ and $`Y`$ around their equilibrium values. Because color gauge invariance is broken colored excitations acquire a mass via the Higgs mechanism. The true low energy modes are color neutral fluctuations of $`X`$ relative to $`Y`$, parameterized by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=XY^{}`$. For example, a low energy mode with the quantum numbers of the $`K^0`$ is given by $`K^0ϵ^{abc}ϵ^{ade}(\overline{u}_R^bC\overline{s}_R^c)(d_L^dCu_L^e)`$.

At very high baryon density the effective coupling is weak and the coefficients $`f_\pi ^2,C,A_i`$ can be determined in perturbative QCD. The pion decay constant is given by (see Fig. 1b)

$$f_\pi ^2=\frac{218\mathrm{log}(2)}{18}\left(\frac{p_F^2}{2\pi ^2}\right).$$
(3)
The coefficient $`C`$ is related to instantons and was computed in . At large baryon density $`C(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}/p_F)^8`$ and the linear mass term is not important. The coefficients $`A_i`$ of the quadratic mass terms are given by

$$A_1=A_2=\frac{3\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{4\pi ^2},A_3=0.$$
(4)
Finally, the covariant derivative $`_\mu \mathrm{\Sigma }`$ was determined in . The temporal component $`_0\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ contains the quark mass matrix,

$$_0\mathrm{\Sigma }=_0\mathrm{\Sigma }+i\left(\frac{MM^{}}{2p_F}\right)\mathrm{\Sigma }i\mathrm{\Sigma }\left(\frac{M^{}M}{2p_F}\right).$$
(5)
We note that equ. (5) is completely fixed by the symmetries of the theory. In addition to that, using the power counting proposed in  we find that the low energy constants $`A_i`$ are of natural magnitude. This suggests that even though equs. (3-5) were obtained using weak coupling methods, the results are more general.

## 3 Kaon Condensation

The effective chiral lagrangian equ. (2) determines the masses and interactions of the CFL Goldstone bosons. In addition to that, the effective theory also determines the structure of the ground state as a function of the quark masses and external fields that couple to the Goldstone modes . The effective potential is given by

$$V_{eff}(\mathrm{\Sigma })=\frac{f_\pi ^2}{2}\mathrm{Tr}\left[X_L\mathrm{\Sigma }X_R\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\right]+A[\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})\mathrm{Tr}(M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}M\mathrm{\Sigma }^{})+h.c.],$$

with $`X_L=MM^{}/(2p_F)`$ and $`X_R=M^{}M/(2p_F)`$. For small $`M`$ the minimum of $`V_{eff}`$ is at $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=1`$. If the mass is increased a number of different phases can occur. In practice we are mostly interested in the case $`m_sm_dm_u`$. In this case there is an instability towards kaon condensation. The simplest ansatz for a $`K^0`$ condensed ground state is given by $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{exp}\left(i\alpha \lambda _4\right)`$. With this ansatz the vacuum energy is

$$V(\alpha )=f_\pi ^2(\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{m_s^2m^2}{2p_F}\right)^2\mathrm{sin}(\alpha )^2+(m_K^0)^2(\mathrm{cos}(\alpha )1)),$$
(6)
where $`(m_K^0)^2=(4A/f_\pi ^2)m_{u,d}(m_{u,d}+m_s)`$ is the $`O(M^2)`$ kaon mass in the limit of exact isospin symmetry. Minimizing the vacuum energy we obtain $`\alpha =0`$ if $`m_s^2/(2p_F)<m_K^0`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}(\alpha )=(m_K^0)^2/\mu _s^2`$ with $`\mu _s=m_s^2/(2p_F)`$ if $`\mu _s>m_K^0`$. The hypercharge density is given by

$$n_Y=f_\pi ^2\mu _s\left(1\frac{(m_K^0)^4}{\mu _s^4}\right).$$
(7)
We observe that within the range of validity of the effective theory, $`\mu _s<\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the hypercharge density satisfies $`n_Y<\mathrm{\Delta }p_F^2/(2\pi ^2)`$. This means that the number of condensed kaons is bounded by the number of particles contained within a strip of width $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ around the Fermi surface. It also implies that near the unlocking transition, $`\mu _s\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the CFL state is significantly modified. In this regime, of course, we can no longer rely on the effective theory and a more microscopic calculation is necessary.

## 4 Summary and Outlook

We have studied the ground state of CFL quark matter for non-zero quark masses. We have argued that there is a new scale $`m_s^2/(2p_F)(\mathrm{\Delta }/p_F)`$ which corresponds to the onset of kaon condensation. For larger values of the strange quark mass, $`m_s^2/(2p_F)1`$, color-flavor-locking breaks down. Using weak coupling methods, we can determine the critical $`m_s`$ for kaon condensation to occur. We find $`m_s|_{crit}3(m_{u,d}\mathrm{\Delta }^2)^{1/3}`$. This result suggests that for values of the strange quark mass and the gap that are relevant to compact stars CFL matter is likely to support a kaon condensate.

The effective lagrangian equ. (2) can also be used to compute many physical properties of the CFL phase. In recent work  we considered the specific heat, neutrino emission and neutrino scattering in the CFL phase. At energies $`E<\mathrm{\Delta }`$ these processes are dominated by Goldstone modes. We find that the long term emissivity of the CFL phase is very low, and that the CFL phase contributes little to the long term cooling of a neutron star with a CFL core. Interaction in the CFL phase are important in determining the neutrino opacity at early times .


text:
# The precession of the giant HH34 outflow: a possible jet deceleration mechanism

## 1 Introduction

Herbig-Haro (HH) objects are the optical manifestations of outflows from young stellar objects (YSOs). Following the discovery of jet-like structures in HH objects (Dopita et al. 1982; Mundt & Fried 1983), many of these HH jets were observed in the Orion (Reipurth et al. 1986; Mundt et al. 1987; Reipurth 1989a, Reipurth 1989b) and Taurus (Mundt et al 1988) star formation regions. These objects present a characteristic morphology of aligned knots extending over $`0.3`$ pc. It appears that the kinematics and morphologies of these jets depend simultaneously on the time-dependent nature of the outflow activity and on the interaction of the hypersonic flows with the surrounding interstellar medium.

It has recently been discovered (Bally & Devine 1994; Reipurth et al. 1997; Devine et al. 1997) that a few HH jets extend over distances of a few parsecs. For example, HH 111 shows a total extent of $`7.7`$ pc, HH 34 of $`3`$ pc and HH 355 a total extent of $`1.55`$ pc.

Apart from their alignments, the main evidence that the knots belong to the same jet (and not to other, smaller outflows) is their kinematic association with red- and blue-shifted bipolar lobes. From the radial velocity, the proper motions and the distance of the knots from the source it has been possible to estimate a typical dynamical age of $`10^4`$ yr for these “giant jets”.

An important characteristic of the giant jets is that they appear to slow down for increasing distances from the outflow source. This effect is seen in the HH 34 (Devine et al. 1997) and in the HH 111 giant jets (Reipurth et al. 1997; Rosado et al. 1999). The present paper is concerned with the possible theoretical interpretations of the deceleration effect. This is a critical point in the determination of the jet’s age and also in the identification of the physical properties of the central engine that feeds the outflows.

The potential causes that might produce such a deceleration can be divided into two categories :

* internal causes, i.e. that the mechanism is intrinsically related to the properties of the outflow, for example to a temporal variability of the ejection velocity,
* external causes, i.e. that the deceleration is due to the drag effect resulting from the interaction of the hypersonic flow with the interstellar medium.

Previous studies have considered both of these possibilities. Cabrit & Raga (2000) considered the case of an ejection velocity which monotonically grows as a function of time, and tried to fit the observed, position-dependent jet velocity with different, parameterized forms of the ejection velocity time-dependence. These authors concluded that the only way to fit the observed kinematics of the HH 34 giant jet is with an ejection velocity that slowly increases over $`5\times 10^4`$ yr, followed by a very strongly increasing ejection velocity over the last $`10^4`$ yr.

Cabrit & Raga (2000) argued that this very dramatic increase in the ejection velocity at recent times appeared to be unlikely, and then studied an alternative scenario. Following the idea proposed by Devine et al. (1997), they considered the knots along the HH 34 giant jet as scattered “bullets” resulting from the combination of an ejection velocity variability and a precession of the jet axis. Raga & Biro (1993) have carried out a theoretical study of this kind of flow, obtaining an analytic description of this “machine gun jet” flow and comparing this model with a numerical simulation of a radiative, 2D “slab” jet with a time-dependent ejection velocity and direction.

One could argue that the jet/counterjet symmetry observed in the HH 34 giant jet (see Devine et al. 1997) goes against the “environmental drag” scenario for the deceleration of this object. As there is no reason to suppose that the environments within which the jet and the counterjet are traveling have identical densities, one would think that the drag would introduce asymmetries between the two outflow lobes. However, the deceleration induced by the environmental drag is proportional to $`\rho _{a}^{}{}_{}{}^{1/3}`$ (where $`\rho _a`$ is the environmental density, see Cabrit & Raga 2000), so that these asymmetries might not be so important.

Also, de Gouveia Dal Pino (2001) presented 3D simulations (done with the Lagrangian SPH method) of HH 34 assuming a sinusoidal ejection velocity variability of the kind used by Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998) and studying the two cases of a pressured and overpressured jet without considering the precession contribution. To reproduce the large spatial working surface structures the author used a half-amplitude of the velocity modulation of $`100`$ km s-1 and a period of $`760`$ yr. The author obtained encouraging results showing that a deceleration of the jet velocity was obtained from the model (lower decelerations being produced for initially overpressured jets than for pressure matched jets). She concluded from the simulations that the deceleration was related to the temporal velocity variability of the jet at injection and was mainly caused by progressive momentum transfer sideways into the surrounding medium by the expelled gas from the travelling working surfaces. She also found that a steady state jet, with similar initial conditions to those of the pulsed jet, experienced, on the contrary, an initial acceleration followed by a constant velocity propagation regime, which was an additional indication that the primary source of deceleration in giant flows could not be attributed to simple breaking of the jet head against the external medium. These models were run over a distance of only $`0.3`$ pc, well below the size of the giant HH 34 jet (see Devine et al. 1997).

In the present paper, we carry out a numerical study of the effect of a precession of the outflow axis on the deceleration of a giant jet. The existence of such a phenomenon is suggested by the observed morphology of the flow, which shows evidence of long period (of the order of $`10^4`$ yr) precession (Devine et al. 1997). The precession is generally ascribed to tidal forces produced by a companion in a binary or multiple system. Even though in the case of HH 34 the binary source has noy yet resolved, there are elements that indicate that this source could be a binary such as the discovery of a second outflow (HH 534) emanating from the source as well as the abrupt change of direction of the jet axis near the knots B (Reipurth et al. 2002). Less evident is the explanation of the existence of a precession period of the order of $`10^4`$ yr.

As reported in Terquem et al. (1999), the precession period ($`\tau _p`$) depends on the orbital parameters and the spatial extent of the accretion disk. The precession period is generally at least one order of magnitude larger than the orbital period. Therefore, to justify such a large $`\tau _p`$ we need a value of the ratio between the accretion radius disk $`R`$ and the orbital radius $`r_0`$ ($`\sigma `$ $`=`$ $`R`$/$`r_0`$ ) of the order of $`10^3`$ (see Masciadri & Raga, 2002).

Reipurth (2000) has also proposed that perturbations on an accretion disk due to close passages (i. e., at perihelion) of a binary companion in an elliptical orbit could be responsible for producing a time-variability in the ejection of the outflow. It is of course unclear whether or not such a mechanism could produce a variability in the ejection velocity such as the one included in our jet models.

We carry out the simulations of only one of the two lobes of HH 34 (with and without precession) conserving the same geometrical and physical parameters. However, our numerical simulations could correspond to any of the two lobes of the HH 34 giant jet. Actually, our simulations are made to reproduce the morphology of the northern lobe of the HH 34 outflow, and in order to compare the predicted maps with the southern lobe it is necessary to carry out a point reflection of the predicted maps with respect to the position of the outflow source. This point symmetry of a precessing jet/counterjet system is clearly seen in the observations of the HH 34 giant outflow (Devine et al. 1997).

We underline that this study cannot be applied in a simple way to other giant jets. The two lobes of HH 111, for example, show quite straight paths. HH 355, on the contrary, seems to precess with a half-opening angle of $`13^{}`$ and a period of $`1500`$-$`2000`$ yr (Reipurth et al. 2002). Further work should be carried out to study the properties of these other giant flows.

We find that the impact of the precession on the deceleration mechanism is quite considerable, and that the dynamical age of the jet grows by $`3000`$ yr when including a precession. We also find that H$`\alpha `$ intensity maps and position-velocity diagrams obtained from models with precession reproduce the observations of the HH 34 giant jet in a qualitatively successful way (an agreement which is not found for models without precession).

We add that, from a numerical point of view it is not a simple exercise to reproduce the evolution of outflows over such a large spatial and temporal extent particularly given the small initial radius of the beam. Indeed, in order to cover the whole domain of $`1.5`$ pc, previously published simulations used $`r_j`$ $`=`$ $`10^{16}`$ cm (de Gouveia Dal Pino 2001) and $`r_j`$ $`=`$ $`10^{17}`$ cm jet radii (Cabrit & Raga 2000), which are $`1`$-$`2`$ order of magnitude greater than the width of the jet as observed in HST images (Reipurth & Raga 1999). One of the goals of our study is to simulate the HH 34 giant jet over its full extent ($``$ $`1.5`$ pc) using the correct $`r_j`$ $`=`$ $`3\times 10^{15}`$ cm initial jet radius corresponding to $`0\mathrm{}.4`$ at $`460`$ pc. We underline that the radius is measured at $`10\mathrm{}`$ distance away from the HH 34 source.

In Section 2, we describe the parameters and the ejection velocity time-variability used in our models of the HH 34 jet. In Section 3 the numerical simulations are discussed, and H$`\alpha `$ maps and position-velocity diagrams predicted from models with and without precession are presented and compared with the corresponding observations of the HH 34 giant jet. In Section 4 we summarize the conclusions of this study.

## 2 Parameters for the jet models

Following the study of HH 34 of Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998), we attempt to reproduce the structure of this jet by assuming the existence of a sinusoidal ejection velocity time-variability. As our work is focussed on trying to reproduce the large scale structure of this outflow, a single mode time-variability is appropriate, as opposed to the three-mode variability used by Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998) to model the structures close to the source along the southern lobe.

We therefore consider an ejection velocity of the form

$$v(t)=v_j+v_a\mathrm{sin}\omega _at$$
(1)
where $`v_j`$ is the average jet velocity, $`\omega _a=2\pi /\tau _a`$ is the frequency ($`\tau _a`$ is the period) and $`v_a`$ is the half-amplitude of the variability law.

We adopt the following values : $`v_j=300`$ km s-1, $`v_a=110`$ km s-1 and $`\tau _a=1010`$ yr. These values are consistent with the long period mode deduced from the kinematics of the southern lobe of HH 34 by Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998). Also, these parameters give a spatial separation

$$\mathrm{\Delta }x\tau _av_j=9.5\times 10^{17}\mathrm{yr},$$
(2)
which corresponds to a separation of $`120^{\prime \prime }`$ on the plane of the sky (considering a distance of 460 pc to HH 34 and a $`\varphi =28^{}`$ angle between the outflow axis and the plane of the sky). This separation is consistent with the separations between successive knots along the HH 34 giant jet (see Devine et al. 1997). Also, the images of the HH 34 giant jet show evidence of a long period precession. From the images of Bally & Devine (1994) and Devine et al. (1997), we find that both the jet and the counterjet appear to lie within a cone of half-opening angle $`\alpha =6^{}`$, and that the locus of the jet appears to imply a $`\tau _p=12000`$ yr precession period. We take these values as estimates of a possible precession of the HH 34 outflow.

For our numerical simulations, we consider that the jet has a top-hat initial cross section, of radius $`r_j=3\times 10^{15}`$ cm, corresponding to $`0^{\prime \prime }.4`$ at the distance of HH 34, which is consistent with the recent results obtained from HST images of this object (Reipurth et al. 2002). Moreover, we choose two initial jet number densities, $`n_j=10^3`$ and $`5\times 10^3`$ cm-3. We have assumed that the surrounding environment is homogeneous, with a $`n_a=100`$ cm-3 number density. We have set the initial temperature of both the jet and the environment to 1000 K, and assumed that the gas is neutral, with the exception of Carbon, which is singly ionized.

## 3 Numerical simulations

### 3.1 The numerical computations

The simulations were carried out using 3D gasdynamic adaptive grid yguazu-á code. This code integrates the 3D gasdynamic equations and a set of atomic/ionic reaction equations for the species HI, HII, OI, OII, OIII, CII, CIII and CIV. They are the main contributors to the cooling function. The yguazu-á code employs the flux-vector splitting algorithm of Van Leer (1982) and it was described in detail by Raga et al. (2000). The reaction rates and the non-equilibrium cooling function that we have used are given by Raga et al. (2002a).

The computations were carried out on a 7-level, binary adaptive grid with a maximum resolution along the three axes of $`1.95\times 10^{15}`$ cm. The computational domain extends over $`10^{18}\times 10^{18}\times (4`$x$`10^{18})`$ cm, corresponding to $`512\times 512\times 2048`$ grid points at the highest resolution grid level. The jet is injected at the origin in the centre of the $`xy`$-plane and the outflow axis precesses around the $`z`$-axis.

The maximum resolution (level $`7`$) is allowed only within a region limited within a spherical surface of radius $`0.5\times 10^{18}`$ cm centred on the injection point. The next highest resolution (level $`6`$) is allowed only in a region with an outer radius of $`1.5\times 10^{18}`$ cm.

Figure 1 shows the adaptive grid configuration on the $`xz`$-plane obtained from Model B (see below) after a $`t=8.4\times 10^3`$ s time integration. This figure shows the grid in a domain of size ($`10^{18}`$, $`3\times 10^{18}`$) cm (left frame), and two successive zooms (centre and right) showing the higher resolution grids.

We computed three different models :

* Model A -  a jet that precesses in a cone of half-angle $`\alpha =6^{}`$ with a period $`\tau _p=12000`$ yr. The initial jet density has a $`n_j=10^3`$ cm-3 value, resulting in a $`\rho _j/\rho _a=10`$ jet to environment density ratio.
* Model B -  the same precession as Model A, but a jet with $`n_j=5\times 10^3`$ cm-3 ($`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ $`=`$ $`50`$),
* Model C -  a jet with the same parameters as Model A but without precession.

The three models have the time-dependent ejection velocity given by Eq. (1), and the jet and ambient medium parameters given at the end of §2.

As an example of the flows that result from our simulations, in Figure 2 we show a time-sequence of the column density obtained for Model B (which, as we show below is the model that more closely resembles de HH 34 giant jet). The column density was obtained by integrating the density field along the $`y`$-axis. Figure 2 shows that many working surfaces are formed, and that they travel in different directions away from the source as more or less independent “bullets”. The qualitative features of this kind of flow were discussed by Raga & Biro (1993).

### 3.2 H$`\alpha `$ maps

All the three models (A, B and C) were run over different time intervals such that the outflows have traveled a distance of $`3\times 10^{18}`$ cm, equivalent to $`1`$ pc. Figures 3, 4 and 5 show the temporal evolution of the H$`\alpha `$ maps predicted from the three models. These maps were computed assuming an $`\varphi =28^{}`$ angle between the outflow axis and the plane of the sky. The H$`\alpha `$ emission coefficient was calculated considering the contributions of the recombination cascade and of collisional excitations from the ground state.

It is evident that the locci of the jets are quite different for Models A, B and C. Model A and B show a bending not present in Model C. Moreover the first two models have a larger concentration of knots than the Model C. The non-precessing model C, of course, shows a structure of aligned knots that looks dramatically different from Models A and B. Also, the times $`t_A`$, $`t_B`$ and $`t_C`$ (corresponding to Models A, B and C, respectively) at which the jet heads reach a distance of $`1`$ pc from the source are substantially different from each other. We obtain $`t_A=18.4\times 10^3`$ yr, $`t_B=8.4\times 10^3`$ yr and $`t_c=5.4\times 10^3`$ yr. We note that the maximum H$`\alpha `$ map value is equal to $`7\times 10^6`$ erg cm-2 s-1 sr-1 in Model A, equal to $`2.5\times 10^5`$ erg cm-2 s-1 sr-1 in Model B and equal to $`2\times 10^7`$ erg cm-2 s-1 sr-1 in Model C. Comparing the results of our simulations with the measured H$`\alpha `$ emission (Reipurth et al. 2002, Fig. 4) we conclude that the model that better reproduces the observed H$`\alpha `$ fluxes is Model B. Indeed, the highest H$`\alpha `$ contour obtained displayed in the HST images of Reipurth et al. (2002, Fig. 4) corresponds to $``$ \[$`13`$-$`18`$\] $`\times 10^{18}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 pixel-1, which is equivalent to \[$`3`$-$`5`$\] $`\times 10^4`$ erg cm-2 s-1 sr-1. We conclude that the model that better reproduces the observed H$`\alpha `$ fluxes is Model B.

However, we find that the model predicions give H$`\alpha `$ maps that are in general one order of magnitude fainter than the the observed ones. In a previous study, Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998) found that for an initial jet density of $`5\times 10^2`$ $`cm^3`$, the predicted flux is two orders of magnitude fainter than HH 34. The fact that we obtain a one order of magnitude higher flux is consistent with the fact that in the present model we have considered a $`5\times 10^3`$ cm-3 jet density (in other words, the models follow the standard intensity $``$ pre-shock density scaling law). Therefore, in order to obtain a better agreement with the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes of HH 34, we would need a model in which both the jet and the environment are denser by a factor of $`10`$. We have not computed denser models, because they have shorter cooling distances, which would not be resolved appropriately in our numerical simulations.

At the same time, the morphology of the knot distribution in Model B better resembles the observed morphology of the HH 34 giant jet (Devine et al. 1997, Fig. 6) than do the knot structures predicted from Models A and C. We note that Model A (with $`\rho _j/\rho _a=10`$) produces, at a time $`t11.2\times 10^3`$ yr from the beginning of the simulation, an extended shock structure (resulting from a piling up of several working surfaces) at about $`z0.7\times 10^{18}`$ cm. Such piling ups of working surfaces do not occur in Model B (which has $`\rho _j/\rho _a=50`$), resulting in quite dramatically different H$`\alpha `$ maps being predicted from both models. We therefore conclude that the jet-to-environment density ratio $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ is a critical parameter for jets from precessing sources, and has to be adjusted in order to be able to reproduce the observations of a given HH jet.

The calculation of the temporal evolution of the H$`\alpha `$ maps permitted us to retrieve the proper motions of the knots dispersed along the jet path. Figure 6 shows H$`\alpha `$ maps obtained at two different times. From the positions of the knots in these two frames, we have computed proper motion vectors (shown on the left plot). One can observe that the magnitude of the proper motion velocity slows down as a function of distance from the source. This result is qualitatively consistent with the proper motion measurements of Devine et al. (1997), which show tangential velocities which decrease from $`198`$ $`km/sec`$ to $`96`$ $`km/sec`$ as a function of distance from the source along the giant jet. We do not attempt to carry out a quantitative comparison of the predicted and observed proper motions, as the errors of the proper motions of the HH 34 giant jet are quite large.

In order to carry out a more quantitative comparison between the kinematics of HH 34 and our models, it is better to compare the predicted and measured radial velocities. This kind of comparison between models and observations is described in the following section.

### 3.3 Position-velocity diagrams and radial velocities

One of the most reliable ways to validate the simulations is to compare the PV diagrams obtained from the three models with observations. Indeed, one of the most interesting results of Devine et al. (1997, Fig. 7) are their quite accurate measurements of decreasing radial velocities as a function of distance from the source along the HH 34 giant jet. Figure 7 shows the PV diagrams predicted obtained from Models A, B and C. The black, thin line represents the maximum of the emission (as determined from quadratic fits to the line peaks) vs. distance from the source. The three PV diagrams are calculated at the times at which the head of the jet reaches $`3\times 10^{18}`$ cm (these times are $`t_A`$, $`t_B`$ and $`t_C`$, see §3.2). The same $`\varphi =28^{}`$ angle between the outflow axis and the plane of the sky was considered.

Figure 8 shows the radial velocity vs. distance from the source measured by Devine at al. (1997) for the knots along both the north and south lobes of the HH 34 giant jet. We changed the sign of the velocities of the knots in the south lobe, so that all of the velocities are then positive. The bold points are the peak of the gaussian fit and the error bars represent the FWHM of the emission line. We omitted the point related to the HH 34 X knot because, as one can see in Figure 7 of Devine et al. (1997), it is quite distant from the trend defined by the velocities of all of the other knots in the outflow.

The three continuous lines join the radial velocities of the working surfaces (the sharp velocity jumps in Fig. 7) obtained from Model A (dotted line), Model B (thin line) and Model C (dot-dash-dot line). These radial velocities (shown with stars in the PV diagrams of Fig. 7) correspond to the successive knots which are seen in the predicted H$`\alpha `$ maps. The positions of the stars correspond to the intensity maxima (i. e., the knots) in the corresponding H$`\alpha `$ maps.

Both Figures 7 and 8 show that Model A produces too steep radial velocity vs. distance decrease, particularly beyond $`2\times 10^{18}`$ cm from the source. Model C produces radial velocities which are too high over the whole path of the jet. On the other hand, Model B produces radial velocities which agree quite well with the observed values.

Figure 8 (right-hand side) shows linear fits to the radial velocities as a function distance from the source obtained from the observations and from Models A, B and C, in other words, the lines trace the decreasing rate of the radial velocity. In this graph, we again see that while Model A produces a too sharp drop in radial velocities, and Model C gives velocities which are too high, Model B does produce a good agreement with the observations.

### 3.4 Effects of the precession vs. the initial jet to environmental pressure ratio

What can we say about the impact of the precession and of the initial jet to environmental pressure ratio ? We define $`\eta `$ as the ratio between the initial jet and environmental density ($`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$) and we define $`k`$ as the corresponding pressure ratio ($`k`$ $`=`$ $`p_j/p_a`$). Knowing the values of $`\rho _a`$, $`\rho _j`$, $`T_a`$ and $`T_j`$ we can calculate $`k`$ $`=`$ $`10`$ for the Models A and C and $`k`$ $`=`$ $`50`$ for Model B. All three models are therefore overpressured, Model A and C have the same value of $`k`$ and Model B is more highly overpressured. Figure 8 shows that the deceleration rates of Models A and C are very different in spite of the fact that the two models have identical $`k`$. Considering that in Model A we have a precession that is absent in the Model C we would then conclude that the difference in the deceleration is a direct result of the precession.
de Gouveia Dal Pino (2001) studied the effects of different $`k`$ values on a non-precessing jet and found that lower values of $`k`$ resulted in stronger decelerations for the working surfaces. This is a result of the fact that the different $`k`$ values are obtained by changing the environmental temperature $`T_a`$, with higher values of $`T_a`$ resulting in a stronger coupling between the aligned working surfaces and the surrounding gas (and therefore causing a stronger deceleration). This rather subtle effect is not likely to be important in the case of a precessing jet for which the scattered working surfaces ram directly into the undisturbed environment. For this case, the important parameter for determining the deceleration rate is the density ratio $`\eta `$.

It would be interesting to study in the future the effect on the deceleration mechanism of two other flow parameters: the angle and the period of the precession. However, an idea of the effects that would be introduced can be obtained from the analytic model of Raga & Biro (1993). These authors showed that the distance (measured along the precession axis) at which the working surfaces become independent “bullets” interacting with the surrounding environment is $`z_br_j\tau _p\mathrm{cot}\alpha /(\pi \tau _a)`$, corresponding to $`4\times 10^{17}`$ cm for our model B. Therefore, in our model, the $`z<z_b`$ region in which the working surfaces are sheltered from a direct interaction with the environment is small, so that they are subjected to the full environmental drag during most of their evolution. We would then expect that all models with $`\alpha `$, $`\tau _p`$ and $`\tau _a`$ such that $`z_b`$ is much smaller than the full length of the jet will have deceleration properties similar to our models, provided that the they have the same $`r_j`$ and jet-to-environment density ratios.

## 4 Conclusion

In this paper, we explore the role of a precession of the outflow axis on the deceleration of giant HH jets. In particular, we try to simulate the HH 34 giant jet, and we compare the results of our numerical simulations with previously published observations of this object.

Our simulations represent a step forward from previous numerical studies of HH objects, in that the use of a 7-level, binary adaptive grid has allowed us to compute models which appropriately cover all of the relevant scales of a giant jet, from the $`100`$ AU jet radius close to the source to the $`1`$ pc length of the outflow. Previous simulations of giant jets either did not cover the length of a real flow (de Gouveia dal Pino 2001), or else had a very large jet radius (Cabrit & Raga 2000 and de Gouveia dal Pino 2001).

A set of simulations done with and without precession of the outflow axis are presented, and predictions of H$`\alpha `$ maps, proper motions and radial velocities are compared with the observations of Devine et al. (1997). The principal conclusions of our study are the following :

* we see that the morphology and kinematics of the HH 34 giant jet can be reproduced with a model of a jet with a sinusoidal ejection velocity variability (with a mean velocity of 300 km s-1, a half-amplitude of 100 km s-1 and a period of 1010 yr) and a precession of the outflow axis (with a half-angle of 6 and a 12000 yr period). The simulated and measured H$`\alpha `$ maps and radial velocities show a good qualitative as well as quantitative agreement,
* comparing simulations done with and without precession we showed that the simple precession can give differences in the jet age estimations of the order of about $`3000`$ yr. This proves that the drag effect produced by the external medium on the working surfaces is not negligible with respect to the $`10^4`$ yr dynamical timescale of the outflow.
* we proved that the $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratio is a critical parameter in the determination of the deceleration rate of the jet, and that it has to be properly adjusted in order to be able to fit the observed properties of a giant HH flow.

The results of our study do not exclude that, in other giant jets, a correct jet deceleration could be attained without the precession. More models should be tested with different $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratios to obtain more definite conclusions. Besides this, in the case of HH 34, the results seem to indicate that the precession has a fundamental role in the deceleration mechanism. We underline that the non-precessing, velocity-variable jet of Model C also decelerates, however it has radial velocities which are larger than the observed ones in HH34 (Devine et al. 1997). Previous 3D modeling of time-variable, non-precessing giant outflows (de Gouveia Dal Pino 2001) had also detected jet deceleration that reproduced the observations only qualitatively. Therefore, the results of the present work indicate that in the case of HH34, it is the combined effect of both, the jet temporal velocity variability and the precession (along with the appropriate choice of the ratio $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$) that reproduces the observed deceleration pattern in that source (as in Model B). One could argue that Model C with different $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratios or velocity variability law could reproduce the correct deceleration. On the other hand we observe that a change of the $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratio seems to produce a modification in the deceleration rate (Fig. 8 right hand side). A different velocity variability would produce a different distribution of the working surfaces along the jet trajectory and an H$`\alpha `$ map characterized by a different emission. We also recall that the emission of the H$`\alpha `$ maps strongly depends on the $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratio. A smaller $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratio in Model C would probably reproduce a H$`\alpha `$ map characterized by an emission level which is too low (see Section 3.2). It therefore appears that these high radial velocities are due neither to an incorrect $`\rho _j/\rho _a`$ ratio nor to a velocity variability law different from the one that we have considered.

In our simulations of the HH 34 giant jet, all of the structure of the outflow is due to a velocity variability with a single, sinusoidal mode and a well ordered precession. In our model, both the velocity variability and the precession last for all of the life of the outflow. Furthermore, the ejection velocity variability that we have used agrees with the one determined by Raga & Noriega-Crespo (1998) for the region between the source and HH 34S, so that there is evidence that this variability is continuing to at least quite close to the present time.

The existence of a precession is an indication that the source belongs to a binary or multiple system. This is in agreement with Reipurth (2000), who argued that the sources of giant HH jets are binary or multiple systems.

However, our results seem to be less consistent with the thesis proposed by Reipurth (2000) that giant jets are fossil records of the evolution of orbital motions in disintregating multiple systems. This process has three distinct phases : (1) a non-hierarchical state (called interplay) in which the multiple system performs a random motion, (2) a close triple approach in which a close binary is formed and a low mass star or embryo moves over to a larger orbit and (3) an ejection phase in which the low mass embryo is ejected from the nucleus of the system.

In our models, the structure of the HH 34 giant jet is reproduced without the need of having different properties of the ejection at different times, reflecting qualitative changes in the outflow source resulting from the three phases of a disintegrating multiple system (see above). Therefore, we conclude that if the HH 34 system does correspond to an outflow history with distinct phases, the evidence for this appears to have been lost in the complexities of the interaction between the jet and the surrounding environment.

The work of EM and AR was supported by CONACyT grants 34566-E and 36572-E. We thank Israel Díaz for installing the new computer with which the numerical simulations were carried out. E.M.G.D.P. has been partially supported by grants of the Brazilian Agencies FAPESP (grant 97/13084-3) and CNPq. A.N-C. research was carried at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institue of Technology, under contract with NASA; and partially funded by ADP grant NRA0001-ADP-096. We acknowledge an anonymous referee for giving us helpful comments.


text:
# On the Low and High Frequency Correlation in Quasi-Periodic Oscillations Among White Dwarfs, Neutron Star and Black Hole Binaries

## 1 Introduction

Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) in the bright white dwarf (WD), neutron star (NS) and black hole (BH) binaries provide invaluable information on the accretion dynamics in the innermost parts of these systems. The question is what kind of objective information we can extract from observations using the fundamental principles of fluid physics, radiative transfer theory and oscillatory processes? In this sense the discovery of low 20-50 Hz QPOs in the luminous NS binaries (van der Klis et al. 1985), and discoveries of NS kilohertz QPOs by Strohmayer et al. (1996) and of BH hectohertz by Morgan, Remillard & Greiner (1997) opened a new era in the study of the dynamics near compact objects. Psaltis, Belloni & van der Klis (1999), hereafter PBK, demonstrated that these NS and BH low and high frequencies follow a tight correlation. Their result suggests that the same types of variability may occur in both neutron star and black systems over 3 orders of magnitude in frequency. These two features are “horizontal branch oscillation” (HBO) along with “low frequency noise Lorentzian”, $`\nu _{low}`$ and the lower kHz QPO $`\nu _{high}`$ respectively. Belloni, Psaltis & van der Klis (2002), hereafter BPK, have updated PBK’s correlation adding more points from Nowak (2000), Boirin et al. (2000), Homan et al. (2002), Di Salvo et al. (2001) and Nowak et al. (2002) data. PBK suggest that the low and high frequencies correlate in a way that seems to depend only weakly on the properties of the sources, such the mass, magnetic field, or possibly the presence of a hard surface in compact object. At large scales (over 3 orders of magnitude) the PBK-BPK correlation for NS and BH systems is fitted by a linear function $`\nu _{low}=0.081\nu _{high}`$ and it also has a fine structure at smaller frequency scales (see Fig.1).

Recently Mauche (2002) has reported low and high frequency QPOs in the dwarf nova SS Cygni and VW Hyi (see Wouldt & Warner 2002 for for the VW Hyi observations), and has called attention to the fact that these QPOs do extend the correlation of PBK downward in frequency by more than two orders of magnitude (see Fig.1).

In fact, Titarchuk, Lapidus & Muslimov (1998), hereafter TLM98 were first to put forth the possibility of dynamical adjustments of a Keplerian disk to the innermost sub-Keplerian boundary conditions to explain most observed QPOs in bright low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). TLM98 concluded that an isothermal sub-Keplerian transition layer between the NS surface and its last Keplerian orbit forms as a result of this adjustment. The TLM98 model is a general treatment applicable to both NS and black hole systems. The primary problem in both NS and BH systems is understanding how the flow changes from pure Keplerian to the sub-Keplerian as the radius decreases to small values. TLM98 suggested that the discontinuities and abrupt transitions in their solution result from derivatives of quantities such as angular velocities (weak shocks). Titarchuk & Osherovich (1999) and Titarchuk et al. (2001) interpreted the low noise frequencies as viscous oscillations and expected them to provide reliable estimates of radial velocities that would be very close to the magnetoacoustic (MA) velocities. The formulation of the MA problem and derivation of MA frequencies are presented by Titarchuk, Bradshaw & Wood (2001), hereafter TBW. They demonstrate that the observed correlation of the low frequency on the low kHz frequency is perfectly described by the dependence of the inferred MA frequency on the Keplerian frequency.

In this Letter, we explain a general correlation between low frequency and high frequency oscillations in the TL. In §2, we refer to the QPO data obtained from NSs and BHs by PBK and BPK, from the dwarf nova SS Cygni by Mauche (2002) and from VW Hyi by Woudt & Warner (2002). The formulation of the problem of low frequency oscillations and the relationship with MA oscillations in the transition layer are described in §3. The derivation of the low-high frequency correlation is also present in §3. Our summary and conclusions follow in §4.

## 2 Data Sources

In Figure 1 we present data points showing low-high frequency dependence from BPK (see also PBK), Mauche (2002) and Woudt & Warner (2002) along with a fitted line $`\nu _{low}=0.081\nu _{high}`$. The plot combines data points for BH, NS and white dwarf (WD) systems. A reader can find the details of these observations and the QPO data analysis in BPK, PBK and Mauche (2002). Each data point is strickly observational, representing two QPO frequencies that are detected at the same time in some particular source.

## 3 High-Low Frequency Correlation

### 3.1 The main features of the transition layer model

TLM98 define the transition layer as a region confined between the the inner sub-Keplerian disk boundary and the first Keplerian orbit (for the TL geometry, see Fig. 1 in TLM98 and Fig. 1 in Titarchuk, Osherovich & Kuznetsov 1999). The radial motion in the disk is controlled by friction and the angular momentum exchange between adjacent layers, resulting in the loss of the initial angular momentum by accreting matter. The corresponding radial transport of the angular momentum in a disk is described by the following equation (see e.g. Shakura & Sunyaev 1973):

$$\dot{M}\frac{d}{dR}(\omega R^2)=2\pi \frac{d}{dR}(W_{r\phi }R^2),$$
(1)
where $`\dot{M}`$ is the accretion rate in the disk and $`W_{r\phi }`$ is the component of a viscous stress tensor that is related to the gradient of the rotational frequency $`\omega =2\pi \nu `$, namely,

$$W_{r\phi }=2\eta HR\frac{d\omega }{dR},$$
(2)
where H is a half-thickness of a disk and $`\eta `$ is turbulent viscosity. The nondimensional parameter that is essential for equation (1) is the Reynolds number for the accretion flow,

$$\gamma =\dot{M}/4\pi \eta H=RV_r/D,$$
(3)
where $`V_r`$ is a characteristic velocity, and $`D`$ is the diffusion coefficient. D can be defined as $`D=V_tl_t/3`$ using the turbulent velocity and the related turbulent scale, respectively or as $`D=D_M=c^2/\sigma `$ for the magnetic case where $`\sigma `$ is the conductivity (e.g. see details of the D-definition in Lang 1998). Equations $`\omega =\omega _0`$ at $`R=r_{in}`$ (the inner disk radius), $`\omega =\omega _\mathrm{K}`$ at $`R=r_{out}`$ (the radius where the transition layer adjusts to the Keplerian motion), and $`d\omega /dr=d\omega _\mathrm{K}/dr`$ at $`R=r_{out}`$ were assumed by TLM98 to be these boundary conditions. Thus, the profile $`\omega (R)`$ and the outer radius of the transition layer are uniquely determined by the boundary conditions and the angular momentum equation (1, 3) for a given value of Reynolds number $`\gamma `$. TLM98 present the analytical solution of this TL problem (see also TO99 , Eqs. 8-9). For the observed range of $`\nu _{kQL}=4001000`$ Hz one can find using the TLM98 solution that $`\gamma `$ varies from one to 5 (see also Fig. 3 in TLM98) .

### 3.2 Magnetoacoustic oscillations in the disk transition layer

The frequency of the QPO associated with MA oscillations and the correlation of the MA frequency with the Keplerian frequency $`\nu _\mathrm{K}`$ were derived by TBW. The MA frequency is derived as the eigenfrequency of the boundary-value problem resulting from a MHD treatment of the interaction of the disk with the magnetic field. The problem is solved for two limiting boundary conditions encompassing realistic possibilities. The solution yields a velocity identified as a mixture of the sound speed and the Alfvén velocity. The TBW treatment does not specify how the eigenfrequency is excited or damped. However, it makes clear that the QPO is a readily stimulated resonant frequency. TBW construct an approximate formula for the MA frequency $`\nu _{MA}`$ using the asymptotic forms for the two extreme (acoustic and magnetic) cases (see TBW, Eqs. 12-13)

$$\nu _{MA}[(b_s/\pi )^2\nu _s^2+(b_M/\pi )^2\nu _M^2]^{1/2},$$
(4)
where $`b_M=b_s=\pi `$ for the stiff boundary conditions. $`b_M`$ and $`b_s`$ are determined by Eqs. (16-17) in TBW for the free boundary conditions. They are approximately $`b_M=\pi `$ and $`b_s=1`$. The frequencies $`\nu _\alpha `$, $`\nu _6=\nu _M`$ ($`\alpha =6`$) and $`\nu _0=\nu _s`$ ($`\alpha =0`$) are determined by the equation

$$\nu _\alpha =[(\alpha +2)/4]A^{1/2}/(r_{out}^{(\alpha +2)/2}r_{in}^{(\alpha +2)/2}),$$
(5)
where $`A=A_s=s^2`$ and $`s^2`$ is the square of the sound velocity for the pure acoustic case, and $`\alpha =6`$ and $`A=A_m=B_{r_{out}}^2r_{out}^\alpha /4\pi \rho `$ for the dipole magnetic case ($`\rho `$ is the TL mean density). For the case of interest $`r_{out}/r_{in}>2`$ we approximate

$$\nu _s=s/2(r_{out}r_{in})s/2r_{out}$$
(6)
and

$$\nu _M=\frac{2B(r_{out})}{(4\pi \rho )^{1/2}[r_{out}r_{in}(r_{in}/r_{out})^3]}2V_\mathrm{A}(r_{out})/r_{out}.$$
(7)
where $`V_\mathrm{A}(r_{out}=B(r_{out})(4\pi \rho )^{1/2}`$ is the Alfvén velocity at $`r_{out}`$.

Now we express the MA oscillation frequencies through the gas pressure $`P_g=s^2\rho `$ and the magnetic pressure $`P_M=V_A^2\rho /2`$ using equations (4,6,7)

$$\nu _{MA}^2\frac{8}{\rho r_{out}^2}(fP_g+P_M),$$
(8)
where $`f=1/32,1/(32\pi ^2)`$ for the stiff and free boundary conditions respectively.

### 3.3 Low-high frequency correlation

If $`\beta =P_M/P_g`$ is a ratio of the magnetic pressure to the gas pressure we can rewrite equation (8) as follows

$$\nu _{MA}^2=\frac{8P_M(f+\beta )}{\rho r_{out}^2\beta }.$$
(9)
The hydrostatic equilibrium in the disk is presented by the equation

$$P/\rho =(P_g+P_M)/\rho =(2\pi \nu _\mathrm{K})^2r_{out}^2(H/r_{out})^2.$$
(10)
Using Eq. (9) we can transform this relation into

$$\frac{(1+\beta )\nu _{MA}^2r_{out}^2}{(f+\beta )8}=(2\pi \nu _\mathrm{K})^2r_{out}^2(H/r_{out})^2.$$
(11)
which leads us ultimately to the linear relation between $`\nu _{MA}`$ and $`\nu _\mathrm{K}`$

$$\nu _{MA}=C_{MA}\nu _\mathrm{K}.$$
(12)
where $`C_{MA}=2^{1/2}4\pi [(f+\beta )/(1+\beta )]^{1/2}(H/r_{out})`$ is a proportionality coefficient which will be “universal” to the extent that $`\beta `$ and $`H/r_{out}`$ remain about the same from one source to the next. To proceed further we estimate the magnitude of $`C_{MA}`$ separately for NS, BH and WD systems. Hydrostatic equilibrium (Eq.10) gives

$$\frac{H/r_{out}}{(1+\beta )^{1/2}}=\frac{(P_g/\rho )^{1/2}}{V_\mathrm{K}(r_{out})}=s/V_\mathrm{K}|_{r=r_{out}},$$
(13)
where $`V_\mathrm{K}=(GM/r)^{1/2}`$ is the Keplerian velocity. Approximate constancy within a source class of the coefficient $`C_{MA}H/r_{out}=s/V_\mathrm{K}`$ can perhaps be understood as the thermalization of an excess kinetic energy according to the virial theorem. If the disk is in equilibrium with nonradial inward motion then all of the orbital velocity at $`r_{out}`$ would be needed for virial equilibrium at that radius. The small amount of inward motion (see Shakura & Sunyaev 1973) creates a disposable energy budget given $`U_{excess}=m_pV_r^2/2`$. Thus one can conclude that $`(U_{excess}/U_{grav}))^{1/2}`$ sets the maximum value of $`H/r_{out}`$. After that, the argument is that it grows to that maximum because there is little else one can do with the excess except thermalize. The coefficient $`C_{MA}`$ applicable within a class is estimated from canonical or representative values for the Keplerian frequency (essentially the lower kHz QPO frequency $`<\nu _{kQL}>`$), the plasma temperature $`\widehat{T}`$, all evaluated at the transition layer outer boundary $`r_{out}`$ and the scaled central object mass, $`m=M/M_{}`$ (in the solar units). We obtain

$$C_{MA}=0.08\times k\widehat{T}_{25}^{1/2}m_{10}^{1/3}<\nu _{kQL,150}>^{1/3}(\beta /0.1)^{1/2},$$
(14)
where $`k\widehat{T}_{25}=k\widehat{T}/25`$ keV, $`m_{10}=m/10`$ and $`<\nu _{kQL,150}>=<\nu _{kQL}>/150`$ Hz.

Laurent and Titarchuk (1999) demonstrated that the temperature of the Compton cooled corona $`k\widehat{T}`$ is about 25 keV and 12 keV for BH and NS respectively. This assumes that the energy released in the corona (supposedly the TL) is comparable with the external illumination flux, coming from the disk and from the star surface (in the NS case). Mauche (2002) and Woudt & Warner (2002) detected the QPO frequencies from white dwarfs (WD), SS Cyg and VW Hyi during outbursts when the temperature of the transition layer should be very close to the effective temperature of the star surface, i.e. $`k\widehat{T}=0.050.1`$ keV. With assumptions $`k\widehat{T}=25,12,0.05`$ keV, $`m=10,1.4,1`$, $`<\nu _{kQL}>=150,800,0.1`$ Hz for BH, NS and WD respectively and $`\beta =0.1`$ we obtain $`C_{MA}`$ values that are very close to the observed one, $`C_{MA}0.08`$. They are 0.08, 0.061 and 0.089 for BH, NS and WD respectively. Formula (13) also gives us estimate of the ratio $`H/r_{out}`$ using $`k\widehat{T},m`$ and $`\nu _{kQL}`$

$$H/r_{out}=0.015\times k\widehat{T}_{25}^{1/2}m_{10}^{1/3}<\nu _{kQL,150}>^{1/3}.$$
(15)
Thus $`H/r_{out}0.015,0.011,0.017`$ for BH, NS and WD respectively.

### 3.4 B-field estimate

Now we can proceed with the magnetic field strength determination in the TL using the obtained value of $`\beta =0.1`$. Because $`P_M=\beta P_g`$, $`P_g=(kT/m_p)\rho `$ and $`p_M=B^2/8\pi `$ we find that

$$B=1.14\times 10^5k\widehat{T}_{25}^{1/2}m_{10}^{1/6}\tau ^{1/2}<\nu _{kQL,150}>^{1/3}\mathrm{G},$$
(16)
where $`\tau =(\rho /m_p)\sigma _\mathrm{T}r_{out}`$ is the Tompson optical depth of the TL. Thus $`B1.1\times 10^5,2\times 10^5,700`$ G in the TL of BH, NS and WD systems respectively.

## 4 Summary and Conclusions

We have presented a model which treats the radial oscillations in the transition layer surrounding a black hole, neutron star and white dwarf.

(1) We found that the observed high-low frequency correlation is a natural consequence of an adjustment of the Keplerian disk flow to the innermost sub-Keplerian boundary conditions near the central object. This ultimately leads to the formation of the sub-Keplerian transition layer (TL) between the adjustment radius and the innermost boundary (the star surface for NS and WD and the horizon for BH). (2) In the framework of the TL model $`\nu _{high}`$ is related to the Keplerian frequency at the outer (adjustment) radius $`\nu _\mathrm{K}`$ and $`\nu _{low}`$ is related to the magnetoacoustic oscillation frequency $`\nu _{MA}`$. Using a relation between $`\nu _{MA}`$ the magnetic and gas pressure and the density and the hydrostatic equilibrium condition in the disk we infer a linear correlation between $`\nu _\mathrm{K}`$ and $`\nu _{MA}`$ (see formula 12). (3) Identification of $`\nu _{high}`$ and $`\nu _{low}`$ with $`\nu _\mathrm{K}`$ and $`\nu _{MA}`$ respectively, lead us to the determination of $`H/r_{out}1.5\times 10^2`$. (4) We present strong arguments that the ratio $`\beta =P_M/P_g0.1`$ in all binaries studied. (5) We estimate the magnetic field strength near the TL outer radius for BHs, NSs and WDs. (6) The fact that the observed correlation of high and low frequencies holds over five orders of magnitude shows that the QPO frequencies cannot be set by general relativistic effects, because they are essentially non-relativistic in the white dwarf case.

We acknowledge Chris Mauche and Tomaso Belloni for kindly supplying us data shown in Figure 1 and Chris Shrader, Paul Ray and particularly, Chris Mauche for fruitful discussions that motivated this paper.