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# The peculiar variable V838 Mon

## 1 Basic data

V838 Mon was discovered by Brown et al.  on 2002 January 6. Pre–discovery images show the target first on 2002 January 1. On February 2 the second ’outburst’ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_\mathrm{V}`$ = 3$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$6) was monitored in detail (Kimeswenger et al. 2002a). Such a behaviour of an extremely long pre-max halt or even a decline followed by a strong outburst was, according to our knowledge, never observed before in nova–like outburst, although HR Del and V723 Cas showed some similarities (Terzan et al. 1974; Dürbeck 1981, Munari et al. 1996).

Our data were obtained with the Innsbruck 60cm telescope (Kimeswenger 2001; Kimeswenger & Lederle 2002) and a direct imaging CCD device. Until March 5 a CompuScope Kodak 0400 CCD (4$`\stackrel{}{.}`$6 $`\times `$ 3$`\stackrel{}{.}`$1 field of view) was used. Thereafter and in the night of February 8 an AP7p SITe 502e (8$`\stackrel{}{.}`$36 $`\times `$ 8$`\stackrel{}{.}`$36) was attached to the system.

1018 images were taken in 31 nights between 2002 January 14 and April 13 using $`BVR`$ and $`I_\mathrm{C}`$ filters. Average values for each day are given in Table 1 and the resulting light curves shown in Fig. 1. The complete data table containing all individual measurements will be published elsewhere (Kimeswenger et al. 2002b).

Wagner et al.  mention that the object on the sky survey plate is a blend of at least two objects. To identify unambiguously the progenitor, CCD frames from January and SuperCOSMOS sky survey plate scans were astrometrically calibrated. The difference in position is below 30 mas (see Fig. 2).

Furthermore a set of deep $`B`$ and $`R`$ images were taken to calibrate the stars surrounding V838 Mon on the SuperCOSMOS frames (Fig. 3). Using the colour corrections from Hörtnagl et al. (1992), we find the pre–outburst magnitudes $`R=14\stackrel{m}{.}56\pm `$0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$10 and $`B=15\stackrel{m}{.}87\pm `$0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$10. However, the ($`BR`$) may be used only with care, since the plate epochs differ by 6.13 years. If the object was already variable, the colour is not meaningful. Our values differ from those given by Munari et al. (2002). This difference in $`R`$ is higher than expected from the different filter sets used ($`R`$ vs. $`R_\mathrm{C}`$). As they give no information on the type of plate scan used in their work (DSS, SuperCOSMOS, …) we are unable to compare the results. No information also is given there, how they transformed POSS E and ESO R ($`\lambda _{\mathrm{eff}}=645`$nm). Moreover their conclusion that a red object \[(B-V) = 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$9 in their calibration\] has the same magnitude on POSS I ($`\lambda _{\mathrm{eff}}=410`$nm) and SERC $`J`$ ($`\lambda _{\mathrm{eff}}=480`$nm) is confusing. They also include the $`B`$-band to the fit of the spectral energy distribution (SED), although this band is known to be strongly affected by non grey opacities at temperatures below 10 000 K. This leads to a lower temperature and thus later on to a lower interstellar extinction.

## 2 interstellar extinction, temperatures and radii

As the early spectra did not show strong spectral features affecting our wide band photometry (Wagner et al. 2002, Della Valle & Iijima 2002, Geballe et al. 2002a, Zwitter & Munari 2002, Lynch et al. 2002) a blackbody approximation is applicable at $`\lambda >0.5\mu `$m. We used the flux $`F`$ for a given epoch $`i`$ at a wavelength $`\lambda `$

$$F_{\lambda ,i}\frac{R_i^2}{\lambda ^5}\frac{1}{\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{c_2}{\lambda T_i}\right)1}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{0.4\mathrm{A}_\lambda }$$
(1)
where $`R_i`$ is the radius of the photosphere, $`c_2=0.0144\text{m K}`$, $`T_i`$ the Planck colour temperature and Aλ the interstellar foreground extinction. We applied this to the V and the IC bands, as they are less affected by lines than B and R, to define a colour–dependent quantity

$$\frac{F_{V,i}}{F_{I,i}}=C_i^{VI}=\left(\frac{\lambda _I}{\lambda _V}\right)^5\frac{\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{c_2}{\lambda _IT_i}\right)1}{\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{c_2}{\lambda _VT_i}\right)1}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{0.4992\mathrm{E}_{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}}}$$
(2)
using the interstellar extinction law (Mathis et al. 1977, Koller & Kimeswenger 2001). This leads us to a complete sequence for the temperature as a function of the interstellar extinction (Fig. 4). The relative radii $`R_i/R_0`$, obtained by the combination of the equations, are independent from the extinction. These radii show a smooth evolution with time that was fitted by means of an empirical function. Using the radius $`R_0`$ from January 14 as reference we thus can approximate the radius by

$$R(d)=0.6212\times R_0\mathrm{exp}(0.0273\times d),$$
(3)
with $`d`$ being the day–number of the year 2002. Spectroscopic observations give us now boundaries for the extinction. While the spectroscopy of Wagner et al. (2002) around $`d=10`$ (namely FeII absorption lines but no SiII) suggests 5100 $`<T<`$ 6000 K and thus 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$7 $``$ EB-V $``$ 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$9, the findings of Zwitter & Munari , $`d=26`$ and the spectra of Fujii (2002) from $`d=19`$ yield to 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$5 $``$ EB-V $``$ 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$7. The occurrence of CaII lines before and SiII lines just after the February 2 outburst (Morrison et al. 2002), confines via the Saha equation (assuming that the density did not change significantly within those few days) the increase of temperatures to at least 1:1.36. As the P-Cygni profiles around that time are similar, we have to assume, that the radiation originates from the same region of the shell. So we get a lower limit of 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$60 $`<`$ EB-V. The SiII disappeared just after a few days. Thus the value should be rather near to that boundary. This gives an estimated density of $`N_e10^{19}`$ m-3. The temperature from the NIR continuum (Geballe et al. 2002b), although not very accurate at the beginning Raleigh-Jeans domain of the blackbody, leads to a lower extinction. The non-appearance of TiO bands before April limits the temperature in March and again gives 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$7 $``$ EB-V (Gavin 2002, Morata & Morata 2002). Furthermore, when referring to an extinction of 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$7 $``$ EB-V $``$ 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$8, our results for April fit also very well to the M5 spectral temperature given by Rauch & Kerber . Thus we assume an interstellar extinction of EB-V $``$ 0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$7 for the following calculations.

The resulting temperatures were used to fit a SED also for the dates when NIR data by Bailyn , Geballe et al. (2002a, 2002b), Lynch et al.  and Hinkle et al.  were available. The results for all bands in the V to K range deviate less than 15 percent. Altogether these facts suggest, a simple blackbody model in fact may be applied here.

## 3 The Distance

Using expansion and diameter of the light echo reported by Henden et al.  and the size from the HST observations (Bond et al. 2002a), we obtain, assuming spherical geometry, a distance of 640 to 680 pc. Munari et al. (2002) obtained a higher value of 790 pc from a different analysis of only the Henden et al. data. The larger distance scale is supported by the measurements of Orio et al. (2002). But the latter are using red bands and are thus less sensitive at the outer edge. Thus the HST calibration, and thereafter the shorter distance, seems more reliable to us. Using the WHT image (Figure 2 in Munari et al. 2002) we also obtain 650 pc and not 790 pc as stated there.

Recently Bond et al. (2002b) reported new HST observations from 2002 May 20. They conclude from the radius of 20″a minimum distance of 2.5 kpc, using the weak peak on March 11 as outburst date. But the light echoes are reported first already mid of February. We thus assume that the February 2 outburst started the illumination of circumstellar material. With respect to the possibility of a slab of material in front of the star, as used in the estimate by Bond et al. (2002b), we like to refer to the detailed discussion in Munari et al. (2002). There it is already shown that such a geometry is very unlikely. Taking into account our assumptions, the USNO and WHT images of Munari et al., the first HST images and the marginal growth of the structure from April 30 until May 20, we conclude that the light has reached the outer boundary of the dust shell. Thus the shell has a size of 0.1 pc. The inner edge has grown since end of April. This is due to the rapid decrease of brightness just 2 weeks before (16 light days are 5″at a distance of 650 pc).

Although the distance is somewhat sensitive to the geometry of the dust around the object, we adopt 650 pc here for the further discussion yielding to M$`{}_{V}{}^{}4\stackrel{m}{.}5`$ at maximum visual light.

## 4 IRAS 07015-0346 and the 10 micron excess of V838 Mon

The model of the visual to near infrared photometry gives us a 10 $`\mu `$m flux excess (Fig. 5). The 10 $`\mu `$m excess was already obvious before the second outburst and increased steadily (Käufl et al. 2002). Using the grey dust temperature (Leene & Pottasch 1988, Evans 1994) and assuming an AGB– or C–star like condensation model with an average $`T_\mathrm{C}=750`$ K (Dominik et al. 1993) the condensation is possible at $`r=3\times 10^{11}`$ m in January and $`r=1.4\times 10^{12}`$ m in February. Assuming a constant dust formation rate in January and again a constant but higher one in February, we find $`3.5\times 10^{10}`$ M/yr and $`2\times 10^6`$ M/yr, respectively, leading to reasonable values of 150 to 350 km s-1 for the mass loss wind. The material, causing the light echoes starting in a distance of about $`3\times 10^{14}`$ m and reaching out to $`2\times 10^{15}`$ m (measured by us on the HST images) cannot be the origin of the MIR excess.

Kato et al.  stated that the position of the target and that of the IRAS PSC source 07015-0346 correspond very well. The position is far inside the light echoes. Using the space density of IRAS sources within 100 square degrees, a chance for a pure coincident superposition is about 1:50 000. As there are no large CO clouds known in that region, the IRAS PSC source is not very likely connected to a cold background molecular cloud. The source is best fitted with a 35$`\pm `$3 K blackbody spectrum. At a distance of 650 pc we obtain a dust mass of a few times 10-4 M. A single previous event like the one this year cannot form such a cloud but a continuous phase of massive mass loss by a stellar wind may produce such an environment. We assume that the IRAS PSC source is the dust causing the light echoes. Our dust code NILFISC (Koller & Kimeswenger 2001) and the mass estimate given above, leads to a contribution of the circumstellar material to the total extinction of E$`{}_{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{V}}{}^{circum.}0\stackrel{m}{.}1`$. Assuming a typical albedo of 0.6, this leads to a total integrated reflected light of approximately 15 percent of the unreddened star. This is, within a factor of 3, in fact the brightness of the halo on the (polarimetric) HST images April 30, if integrating the nearly constant visual magnitude beginning with the February outburst.

## 5 Discussion

### CV or Nova–like outburst ?

Using, although this may be not applicable for this peculiar object, the steady decline after the first primary maximum 2002 January 10, the thick wind models of Hachisu & Kato  suggest a low mass WD with about 1 M. The optical and $`JHK`$ (2MASS) pre-outburst photometry, even if the use of the colours might be dangerous, is either fitted by a single 7800$`\pm `$300 K blackbody or better by a composite of a hot accretion disk with a 4500 K companion. At a distance of 650 pc the absolute visual magnitude would be around +3$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$6. A single early F type main sequence star would fit to these values. Using the better fitting double component model and using the accretion disk parameters from Webbink et al.  we obtain a K2-4 main sequence star and a very reasonable accretion rate of $`2\times 10^8`$ M yr-1. Due to the higher extinction and the different values of the photometry for the progenitor, we do not need an unusual subluminous star as it is used by Munari et al. (2002). The temperatures during outburst are too low for such a classical scenario. Although the models of M31 RV (Iben & Tutukov 1992) allow such a red cold outburst in small period CV with a cold low mass WD, it leads to a higher outburst luminosity (M$`{}_{\mathrm{V}}{}^{}10`$). Munari et al. (2002) discuss this scenario with respect to a thermonuclear runaway of the complete WD. However M31 RV underwent at least two recurrent outbursts within the rather small timescale of 20 years (Sharov 1990). We thus infer that the nova/CV scenario have to be excluded

### A late helium flash post-AGB ?

This scenario (V605 Aql, V4334 Sgr, …) was discussed several times in different IAU circulars. Both, V605 Aql as well as V4334 Sgr, showed a 6000-7000 K photosphere throughout more than one year. The light curves were smooth. For V4334 Sgr (outburst in February 1996) we know now, that it stayed at constant bolometric luminosity for at least seven years. V605 Aql has the same bolometric luminosity even 85 years after its outburst. Even if we adopt a much larger distance and thus a more luminous scenario, we should have a much slower evolution after the outburst. Also the lack of strong carbon overabundance in the spectra clearly rules out this model.

### A twin of V4332 Sgr ?

V4332 Sgr underwent a similar outburst in 1994 (Martini et al. 1999 and references therein). Its nature is unclear up to now. While the evolution of the temperature and the expansion of an opaque massive shell and the luminosity at maximum look much the same, V4332 Sgr did not show multiple visual maxima like V838 Mon. This statement, as well as the statement that the ascent to maximum lasted 200 days (Martini et al. 1999), have to be used with care. V4332 Sgr was not observable before the discovery (daytime object). If we compare the light curve and the temperature sequence of V838 Mon with those of V4332 Sgr, we see a good agreement, starting mid of March 2002. It is thus possible, that the earlier features did also exist there. They were simply not observed. A single thermonuclear event, as discussed for V4332 Sgr, still might cause such a behaviour. Also the density of $`N_e10^{14}`$ m-2 (Martini et al. 1999) for the late stages fits well to our finding above, if we take into account the 15 times larger radius, compared to the date when we estimated the density. But this does not agree with the main sequence progenitor. Why should a main sequence star undergo a shell flash? Low mass blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars evolve directly to a WD without passing through a luminous AGB phase (Heber et al. 1997). They are stated to be the progenitors of low mass WDs ($`0.3M_{}`$) without planetary nebula. Those stars, at the end of the He-core burning in transition to He-shell burning, pass the main sequence at a similar position in the HR-diagram. This would be a new possible scenario similar to a late He-flash for normal mass progenitors passing through the AGB.

Although it is too early to draw final conclusions, the photometric behaviour, the temperature and the bolometric luminosity most likely make V838 Mon a twin of V4332 Sgr. Those two objects seem to form a new class of eruptive variables. Unlike Munari et al. (2002), we do not include M31 RV in this group. The photometric and spectroscopic behaviour and especially the luminosity of this object seem to differ significantly. We have to think about possible physical processes causing a star near the main sequence to ignite eruptive thermonuclear events.
Further observations at all wavelengths of the up to now unstudied remnant of V4332 Sgr and the new remnant expected after V838 Mon emerges from its solar conjunction are urged.

## Acknowledgments

We thank the head of the institute, R. Weinberger, for the unlimited access to the facilities of the new university observatory. We also thank the referee for his helpful remarks during revision of the paper. This research used data originating from the SuperCOSMOS digitization of UK Schmidt plate material.


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# Discontinuities of the integrated density of states for random operators on Delone sets

## 1. Introduction

In the present article we study the occurrence of discontinuities in the integrated density of states (IDS). For the special case of a tight binding model associated with the Penrose tiling the occurrence of this effect has been known since quite some time as witnessed for example in \[ATF, FATK, KF, KS\]. We present two results. The first aims at showing that the occurrence of jumps in the IDS cannot be excluded by global assumptions concerning, e.g. ergodic or combinatorial properties. To this end we present a theorem saying that starting from some model of aperiodic order (phrased in the language of Delone sets) one can construct a model that is ”basically the same” and gives rise to a tight binding operator with a discontinuity in the IDS. Here ”basically the same” is cast in the notion of ”mutually locally derivable” for Delone dynamical systems. We discuss this notion analogous to the respective notion for tilings found in \[BSJ\]. In the construction we use that the laplacians on certain graphs have finitely supported eigenfunctions. It now becomes clear that it is the more complex structure of graphs in higher dimension that makes such a phenomenon possible. On lattices (and, consequently, in one-dimensional systems) such finitely supported eigenfunctions cannot occur.

Our second theorem says that this is the only possibility to create a jump of the IDS, at least when starting from a reasonable Delone dynamical system. It is a consequence of a rather strong ergodic theorem in \[LS3\]. This theorem states that the IDS is in fact the uniform limit of eigenvalue counting distributions. It is therefore substantially stronger than the weak convergence results typically proven in connection with the IDS see for example \[BLT, H, K\]. The fact that such a strong convergence holds true is special for models of aperiodic order and not met in usual random systems.

## 2. Notation and results

In this section we introduce some notation and present our results. We will use the same setting as the one found \[LS2\]. For completeness reasons we include the necessary definitions.

Let $`d1`$ a fixed integer and all Delone sets, patterns etc. will be subsets of $`^d`$. The Euclidean norm on $`^d`$ will be denoted by $``$. For $`r^+`$ and $`p^d`$, we let $`B(p,r)`$ be the closed ball in $`^d`$ centered at $`p`$ with radius $`r`$.

A subset $`\omega `$ of $`^d`$ is called Delone set if there exist $`r(\omega )`$ and $`R(\omega )>0`$ such that $`2r(\omega )xy`$ whenever $`x,y\omega `$ with $`xy`$, and $`B(x,R(\omega ))\omega \mathrm{}`$ for all $`x^d`$.

We are dealing in this paper with local structures of Delone sets, therefore the restrictions of $`\omega `$ to bounded subsets of $`^d`$ are of particular interest. In order to treat these restrictions, we introduce the following definition.

###### Definition 2.1.

(a) A pair $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },Q)`$ consisting of a bounded subset $`Q`$ of $`^d`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }Q`$ finite is called pattern. The set $`Q`$ is called the support of the pattern.
(b) A pattern $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },Q)`$ is called a ball pattern if $`Q=B(x,r)`$ with $`x\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ for suitable $`x^d`$ and $`r(0,\mathrm{})`$.

The diameter and the volume of a pattern are defined to be the diameter and the volume of its support respectively.

We will have to identify patterns which are equal up to translation. More precisely, on the set of patterns we introduce an equivalence relation by setting $`(\mathrm{\Lambda }_1,Q_1)(\mathrm{\Lambda }_2,Q_2)`$ if and only if there exists a $`t^d`$ with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1=\mathrm{\Lambda }_2+t`$ and $`Q_1=Q_2+t`$. The class of a pattern $`(\mathrm{\Lambda },Q)`$ is then denoted by $`[(\mathrm{\Lambda },Q)]`$. Obviously the notions of diameter, volume occurrence etc. can easily be carried over from patterns to pattern classes.

Every Delone set $`\omega `$ gives rise to a set of pattern classes, $`𝒫(\omega )=\{Q\omega :Q^d\text{bounded and measurable}\}`$, and to a set of ball pattern classes $`𝒫_B(\omega )=\{[B(p,r)\omega ]:p\omega ,r^+\}`$. Here we set $`Q\omega =(\omega Q,Q)`$. We define the radius $`s=s(P)`$ of an arbitrary ball pattern $`P`$ to be the radius of the underlying ball. For $`s(0,\mathrm{})`$, we denote by $`𝒫_B^s(\omega )`$ the set of ball patterns with radius $`s`$. A Delone set is said to be of finite type or of finite local complexity if for every radius $`s>0`$ the set $`𝒫_B^s(\omega )`$ is finite.

The Hausdorff metric on the set of compact subsets of $`^d`$ induces the so called natural topology on the set of closed subsets of $`^d`$. It is described in detail in \[LS2\] and shares some nice properties: firstly, the set of all closed subsets of $`^d`$ is compact in the natural topology. Secondly, and this is of prime importance in view of the dynamical system we are to consider, the natural action $`T`$ of $`^d`$ on the closed sets in $`^d`$ given by $`T_tG=G+t`$ is continuous.

Furthermore, a Delone dynamical system (DDS) consists of a set $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of Delone sets, which is invariant under the shift $`T`$ and closed in the natural topology. A DDS is said to be of finite type (DDSF) if $`_{\omega \mathrm{\Omega }}P_B^s(\omega )`$ is finite for every $`s`$ and the set $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ of patterns classes associated to a DDS $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is defined by $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Omega })=_{\omega \mathrm{\Omega }}𝒫(\omega )`$. Due to the compactness of the set of all closed sets in the natural topology a DDS $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is compact. We refrain from a precise discussion of the topology but we give the following Lemma from \[LS2\].

###### Lemma 2.2.

If $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is a DDSF then a sequence $`(\omega _k)`$ converges to $`\omega `$ in the natural topology if and only if there exists a sequence $`(t_k)`$ converging to $`0`$ such that for every $`L>0`$ there is an $`k_0`$ with $`(\omega _k+t_k)B(0,L)=\omega B(0,L)`$ for $`kk_0`$.

Roughly speaking, $`\omega `$ is close to $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ if $`\omega `$ equals $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ on a large ball up to a small translation. We now recall some standard notions from the theory of dynamical systems and some available equivalent “combinatorial” characterizations.

A dynamical system $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is called minimal if the orbit $`\{T_t\omega :t^d\}`$ of any $`\omega `$ is dense in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. For a DDS this is equivalent to the property that $`𝒫(\mathrm{\Omega })=𝒫(\omega )`$ for any $`\omega `$. This latter property is called local isomorphism property in the tiling framework; see \[Sol1\]. A sequence $`(Q_k)`$ of subsets in $`^d`$ is called a van Hove sequence if the sequence $`|^RQ_k||Q_k|^1`$ tends to zero for every $`R(0,\mathrm{})`$. Here, $`^RQ`$ denotes the set of those $`x^d`$ whose distance to the boundary of $`Q`$ is less than $`R`$. Furthermore, a dynamical system $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is called uniquely ergodic if it admits only one $`T`$-invariant measure (up to normalization). For a Delone dynamical system, this is equivalent to the fact, that for every nonempty pattern class $`P`$ the frequency

$$\nu (P)\underset{k\mathrm{}}{lim}|Q_k|^1\mathrm{}_P(Q_k\omega ),$$

exists uniformly in $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ for every van Hove sequence $`(Q_k)`$. We call a dynamical system $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ strictly ergodic if it is minimal and uniquely ergodic. Note that in this case the frequency $`\nu (P)`$ is positive for every $`P𝒫`$

###### Definition 2.3.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a DDSF. A family $`(A_\omega )`$ of bounded operators $`A_\omega :\mathrm{}^2(\omega )\mathrm{}^2(\omega )`$ is called a random operator of finite range if there exists a constant $`r_A`$ with

* $`A_\omega (x,y)=0`$ whenever $`xyr_A`$.
* $`A_\omega (x,y)`$ only depends on the pattern class $`(B(x,r_A)B(y,r_A))\omega `$.

Note that the above defined operators provide a framework including Laplace type operators defined on $`\mathrm{}^2(^d)`$. Let us mention, that for $`\stackrel{~}{\omega },\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ the operators act on different Hilbert spaces $`\mathrm{}^2(\omega )`$ and $`\mathrm{}^2(\stackrel{~}{\omega })`$ unless $`\omega `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }`$ differ only by translation. Thus, to deal with operators on $`\mathrm{}^2(\omega )`$ is more complicated than in the lattice case.

The aim of this article is to discuss the phenomenon of discontinuities of the integrated density of states of random operators $`(A_\omega )`$ on a DDSF $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$. This might rather come as a surprise in view of what is known for random models as well one dimensional quasicrystals. It turns out that this phenomenon occurs if and only if there exist locally supported eigenfunctions of $`(A_\omega )`$. One can find examples of locally supported eigenfunctions on the Penrose tiling in \[KS\] and \[ATF\]. An eigenfunction $`f`$ is said to be locally supported if $`\mathrm{supp}fK`$, with $`K`$ a compact set. The phenomenon of locally supported eigenfunctions is by no means pathological. Rather from any given DDSF $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ we can construct an in some sense local equivalent DDSF $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ such that a random operator of finite range $`(A_\omega ^b)`$ defined on $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ has locally supported eigenfunctions. More precise: $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ are mutually locally derivable (MLD). The equivalence concept of mutual local derivability for tilings was discussed in detail in \[BSJ\]. This will all be discussed below. Our first result reads as follows.

###### Theorem 1.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a arbitrary DDSF. Then there exists a DDFS $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ and a random operator of finite range $`(A_w^b)`$ such that $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ are mutually locally derivable and $`(A_w^b)`$ has locally supported eigenfunctions with eigenvalue $`E`$ for every $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }^b`$. Moreover, $`(A_w^b)`$ can be chosen to be the nearest neighbor laplacian of suitable graph.

Note that for a selfadjoint random operator $`A`$ and bounded $`Q^d`$ the restriction $`A_\omega |_Q`$ defined on $`\mathrm{}^2(Q\omega )`$ has finite rank. Therefore, the spectral counting function

$$n(A_\omega ,Q)(E):=\mathrm{\#}\{\text{ eigenvalues of }A_\omega |_Q\text{ below }E\}$$

is finite and $`\frac{1}{|Q|}n(A_\omega ,Q)`$ is the distribution function of the measure $`\rho _Q^{A_\omega }`$, defined by

$$\rho _Q^{A_\omega },\phi :=\frac{1}{|Q|}\text{tr}(\phi (A_\omega |_Q))\text{ for }\phi C_b().$$

On a uniquely ergodic DDSF the measures $`\rho _{Q_k}^{A_\omega }`$ converge in distribution to a measure $`\rho ^A`$, called the integrated density of states (IDS) for any van Hove sequence $`Q_k`$ as $`k\mathrm{}`$. This is described in \[LS2, LS3\]. There one can also find an interpretation of the IDS as a certain trace on a von Neumann algebra. Now, we can state our main theorem.

###### Theorem 2.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a strictly ergodic DDSF. Let $`A`$ be a selfajoint random operator of finite range. Then $`E`$ is a point of discontinuity of $`\rho ^A`$ if and only if there exists a locally supported eigenfunction of $`A_\omega `$ to $`E`$ for one (all) $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$.

###### Remarks 2.4.

* It rather straightforward to see that locally supported eigenfunctions lead to a discontinuity of the IDS. The more interesting part of the equivalence is discontinuities only happen in that way.
* The theorem holds also in the tiling setting. Here a single tile of the original tiling will be replaced by 9 tiles of a new tiling which is MLD to the originally given one.
* As pointed out already the theorem gives rise to a complete characterization of the phenomenon of locally supported eigenfunctions in quasicrystal settings (i.e. DDSF an tiling settings).
* Let us emphasize that the integrated density of states is continuous in the case of almost periodic and random operators on lattices. Due to the more complex geometry this does not follow in the quasicrystal framework.

## 3. Preliminaries

In this section we will study the equivalence concept of MLD. Further we are going to construct a map, which maps any given DDSF to a DDSF which is MLD to the given one and where a random operator exists who has locally supported eigenfunctions. As well we state some tools which will be used later on to prove our results.

As mentioned already the equivalence concept of MLD for patterns on tilings was discussed in \[BSJ\]. We give the obvious definition for Delone dynamical systems of finite type.

###### Definition 3.1.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ a DDSF. A map $`D:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }^b`$ is called a local derivation map if there exists a radius $`r_D>0`$ such that $`D(\omega )\{x\}=(t+D(\omega ))\{x\}`$ holds whenever $`\omega B(x,r_D)=(t+\omega )B(x,r_D)`$. In this case $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ is called locally derivable from $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$. Two DDSF $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ are mutually locally derivable if $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is locally derivable from $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ and vice versa (with a possibly different radius $`r_D^{}`$).

Note that the map $`D`$ is local in the sense that $`D(\omega )B(x,s)`$ only depends on $`\omega B(x,s+2r_D)`$.

###### Proposition 3.2.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a DDSF, $`D:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }^b`$, $`\omega D(\omega )`$ a local derivation map. Then $`D`$ is continuous with respect to the natural topology.

Proof. This is immediate as $`D`$ is local and the topology is local in the sense of Lemma 2.2. ∎

What we want to do now is to put a well scaled local structure in a given Delone set whenever a certain pattern occurs. Let $`\omega `$ be a Delone set and $`P`$ be a ball pattern class with $`P𝒫`$. Then, we define $`\omega _P`$ to be the set of all occurrences of $`P`$ in $`^d`$, i.e.

(1)
$$\omega _P\{t^d:B(t,s(P))\omega =P\}.$$

Now, let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a DDSF and $`r<r(\omega )`$ for all $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`G`$ be a finite graph with $`V_G`$ the set of vertices of $`G`$ contained in $`^d`$. Furthermore let $`\text{diam}(G)=\frac{r}{21}`$ and $`V_GB(0,\frac{r}{42})`$. We use this finite graph to define a local derivation map by setting $`D_{P,V_G}(\omega )\omega \{t+V_G:t\omega _P\}`$ for $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^b:=\{D_{P,V_G}(\omega ):\omega \mathrm{\Omega }\}.`$ Then,

$$D_{P,V_G}:\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Omega }^b,\omega D_{P,V_G}(\omega )$$

is a local derivation with inverse given by the local derivation map

$$H_{P,V_G}:\mathrm{\Omega }^b\mathrm{\Omega },H_{P,V_G}(\omega ^b)=\{x\omega ^b:\omega ^bB(x,\frac{r}{3})=\omega ^bB(x,\frac{r}{42})\}.$$

Note that $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is also a local derivation of $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$. Thus, $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ are mutually locally derivable.

###### Remarks 3.3.

Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }^b`$ be as above. Then

* If $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is a DDSF then $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ is a DDSF as well.
* If $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ is a uniquely ergodic DDSF, the same holds for $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$.
* The frequency of $`G`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }^b`$ is the same as the frequency $`\nu (P)`$ of $`P`$ in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

The following two ingredients are essential for the proof of Theorem 2. The first one is one of the main results from \[LS3\]. It relies on a strong ergodic type theorem proven there (see \[Len\] for a study of uniform ergodic theorems in the one dimensional case).

###### Theorem 3.4.

Let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be an aperiodic strictly ergodic DDSF. Let $`A`$ be a selfadjoint operator of finite type and $`(Q_k)`$ be a van Hove sequence in $`^d`$. Then, the distribution functions of $`\rho _{Q_k}^{A_\omega }`$ converge uniformly to the distribution function of the measure $`\rho ^A`$ and this convergence is uniform in $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$.

The second one is a well known dimension argument from linear algebra which we will state for completeness reasons.

###### Proposition 3.5.

Let $`H`$ be a finite dimensional Hilbert space, $`U,V`$ subspaces of $`H`$ with $`\mathrm{dim}U>\mathrm{dim}V`$ then $`\mathrm{dim}V^{}U>0`$.

## 4. Proofs

In this section we prove Theorem 1 and Theorem 2.

Proof of Theorem 1. To prove the theorem we start with the construction of a DDSF where a random operator of finite range $`(A_\omega )`$ exists which has locally supported eigenfunctions. The starting point is a small graph $`G_{fin}=(V_{fin},E_{fin})`$ and an eigenfunction $`u_{fin}`$ of the associated nearest neighbor laplacian. For definiteness sake consider Figure 1. The values of $`u_{fin}`$ are indicated near the corresponding vertices. Here the eigenvalue is $`E=0`$.

It is clear that whatever edges reach out of the four corners in a larger graph extending $`G_{fin}`$, the extension of $`u_{fin}`$ by $`0`$ to the larger vertex set will still constitute an eigenfunction of the laplacian on the large graph. It is now easy to implement this picture into a given DDSF. In fact, let $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ be a DDSF and $`P`$ be a ball pattern. We use the local derivation map $`D_{P,V_{fin}}`$ discussed in the last section to put in $`V_{fin}`$ from above, scaled properly, whenever $`P`$ appears. It is obvious by the definition of $`D_{P,V_{fin}}`$, that this gives rise to a DDSF $`(\mathrm{\Omega }^b,T)`$ which is locally derivable from $`(\mathrm{\Omega },T)`$ and vice versa.

Obviously we get a random operator $`A^b`$ with locally supported eigenfunctions by taking for $`A_\omega ^b`$ the nearest neighbor laplacian on the copies of $`E_{fin}`$ in $`\omega `$ and consistent matrix elements otherwise.

###### Remarks 4.1.

* The simplest case of the construction made above is of course given by choosing $`P=(\{x\},B(x,r))`$ with $`r<r(\omega )`$. Then the graph $`G_{fin}`$ is glued at any point of the underlying Delone set. The corresponding $`\mathrm{}^2`$ space is just a direct sum (or tensor product) and that applies to the operators as well. Related constructions have been considered by \[SA\] in the context of creation of spectral gaps.
* For those who prefer tiling examples we now indicate how to view the construction above in this framework. Take a tiling dynamical system (see \[LS2, Sol2\]) and replace one given tile $`T`$ by a suitable homeomorphic image of $`T^b`$ indicated in Figure 2. We also indicated the next neighbor relations, showing that the resulting graph is just $`G_{fin}`$ above.

Proof of Theorem 2. We first show that the condition is sufficient. Let $`u`$ be an eigenfunction of $`A_{\omega _0}`$ associated to an eigenvalue $`E`$ with $`\mathrm{supp}uB(x,r)`$ and $`x\omega _0`$. Then for any $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$ every copy of $`P=B(x,r)\omega _0`$ in $`Q\omega `$ adds a dimension to the eigenspace of $`A_\omega |Q`$ belonging to the eigenvalue $`E`$. Let $`\dot{\mathrm{}}_PQ\omega `$ be the maximal number of disjoint copies of $`P`$ in $`Q\omega `$. Note that $`\frac{|B(0,3r+r(\omega ))|}{|B(0,r(\omega ))|}=:C`$ is a upper bound for the number of points (and therefore the maximal number of copies of $`P`$) in $`B(0,3r)\omega `$.

This gives by a direct combinatorial argument that

$$\dot{\mathrm{}}_PQ\omega \frac{1}{C}\mathrm{}_PQ\omega .$$

Thus, for arbitrary $`ϵ>0`$

$$\frac{\mathrm{tr}(\chi _{(\mathrm{},Eϵ)}(A_\omega |_Q)}{|Q|}\frac{\mathrm{tr}(\chi _{(\mathrm{},E+ϵ)}(A_\omega |_Q)}{|Q|}\frac{1}{C}\frac{\mathrm{}_P\omega Q}{|Q|}.$$

Setting $`Q=Q_k`$ with $`Q_k`$ from a van Hove sequence and letting $`k`$ tend to infinity, we get that $`\rho ^A(Eϵ)\rho ^A(E+ϵ)\frac{\nu (P)}{C}`$. As $`ϵ>0`$ is arbitrary and $`\nu (P)>0`$ the desired implication follows.

Next we show the converse implication. Let $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$ be a point of discontinuity of the function $`E\rho _A((\mathrm{},E])`$ and $`(Q_k)`$ an arbitrary van Hove sequence. We consider the distribution function $`\frac{1}{|Q|}n(A_\omega ,Q)`$ of the measure $`\rho _{Q_k}^{A_\omega }`$. Proposition 3.4 shows, that $`\frac{1}{|Q_k|}n(A_\omega ,Q_k)`$ converges w.r.t. the supremum norm to the function $`E\rho ^A((\mathrm{},E])`$. Thus, for large $`k`$ the jump at $`\stackrel{~}{E}`$ of the function $`\frac{1}{|Q_k|}n(A_\omega ,Q_k)(E)`$ does not become small. More precisely we get

$$\mathrm{dim}\left(\mathrm{ker}(A_\omega |_{Q_k}\stackrel{~}{E})\right)=\underset{ϵ0}{lim}(n(A_\omega ,Q_k)(\stackrel{~}{E}+ϵ)n(A_\omega ,Q_k)(\stackrel{~}{E}ϵ))c|Q_k|$$

for a $`c>0`$ and all $`k`$. Now let $`_{2r_A}Q_k^{2r_A}Q_kQ_k`$ denote the inner boundary of range $`2r_A`$ of $`Q_k`$. For a van Hove sequence $`(Q_k)`$ we have

$`\mathrm{dim}\mathrm{}^2(_{2r_A}Q_k)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{}\{x^d:x_{2r_A}Q_k\omega \}`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{|_{2r_A+r(\omega )}Q_k|}{|B(0,r(\omega ))|}}`$
$`=`$ $`ϵ_k{\displaystyle \frac{1}{|B(0,r(\omega ))|}}|Q_k|`$
with a suitable $`ϵ_k`$ which tends to $`0`$ for $`k\mathrm{}`$. For $`k`$ large enough we get that $`c>ϵ_k\frac{1}{|B(0,r(\omega ))|}`$. Thus, for large $`k`$ the inequality

$$\mathrm{dim}\left(\mathrm{ker}(A_\omega |_{Q_k}\stackrel{~}{E})\right)>\mathrm{dim}\mathrm{}^2(_{2r_A}Q_k).$$

holds. Now let $`W_k`$ the projection onto the inner boundary of range $`2r_A`$ of $`Q_k`$. Then Propositon 3.5 shows that there exists an eigenfunction $`f`$ of $`A_\omega `$ such that $`W_kf=0`$ for $`k`$ large enough. ∎

###### Remark 4.2.

Let the conditions be as above. Then $`E`$ is an infinitely degenerate eigenvalue of $`A_\omega `$ for every $`\omega \mathrm{\Omega }`$. The integrated density of states has a jump at $`E`$ whose height is at least $`C^1\nu (P)`$.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Uwe Grimm for helpful comments on the physics literature.


text:
# Electron-hole versus exciton delocalization in conjugated polymers: the role of topology

## Abstract

There is currently a great need for solid state lasers that emit in the infrared. Whether or not conjugated polymers that emit in the IR can be synthesized is an interesting theoretical challenge. We show that the requirement for such a material is that the exciton delocalization in the system be large, such that the optical gap is small. We develop a theory of exciton delocalization in conjugated polymers, and show that the extent of this can be predicted from the topology of the conjugated polymer in question. We determine the precise structural characteristics that would be necessary for light emission in the IR.

A serious limitation in the field of polymer-based lasers arises from the fact that all light emitting $`\pi `$-conjugated polymers to date emit in the visible or UV. Telecommunications use infrared radiation, so lasing at these wavelengths is desirable. Within conventional theories of light emission from $`\pi `$-conjugated polymers, light emission in the IR from undoped $`\pi `$-conjugated polymers would be impossible. In this paper we point out the structural modifications that can lead to emission in the IR.

Linear polyenes and trans-polyacetylene (t-PA) are weakly emissive, because the lowest two-photon state, the 2Ag, occurs below the optical 1Bu state in these. The optically pumped 1Bu decays to the 2Ag in ultrafast times, and radiative transition from the 2Ag to the ground state 1Ag is forbidden. Strong photoluminescence (PL) in systems like PPV and PPP implies excited state ordering E(2Ag) $`>`$ E(1Bu) (where E(…) is the energy of the state), which is a consequence of enhanced effective bond alternation within the effective linear chain model for these systems . Since enhanced bond alternation necessarily increases E(1Bu), it appears that strong PL is limited to systems with optical gaps larger than that of t-PA.

Our goal is to demonstrate that materials obtained by “site-substitution” of t-PA, in which the hydrogen atoms of t-PA are replaced with transverse conjugated groups will simultaneously have small optical gaps and E(2Ag) $`>`$ E(1Bu). Initial work in this area by us was limited to the specific system poly-diphenylpolyacetylene (PDPA) , in which the hydrogen atoms of t-PA are replaced with phenyl groups. Because of chain-bending due to steric repulsion, PDPAs have short conjugation lengths  and emit in the visible. Further, although we determined from our calculations that E(2Ag) $`>`$ E(1Bu) in PDPA, because of the large number of atoms in the phenyl groups, our calculations were based on uncontrolled approximations. Here we have chosen a hypothetical system for which considerably improved many-body calculations can be done, and also, if the system can at all be synthesized, steric repulsion would be minimal and true long chain systems can be expected.

Our calculations below are for the substituted polyene shown in Fig. 1, with the hydrogen atoms of a 10-carbon atom polyene replaced with ethylene. We shall refer to this as the substituted polyene, and compare the excited state ordering in this system with the ordinary 10-carbon atom polyene. Our calculations are within the dimerized Hubbard Hamiltonian

$`H`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{j\sigma }{}}t_j(c_{j\sigma }^{}c_{j+1}+h.c)+U{\displaystyle \underset{j}{}}n_jn_j`$ (1)
where all terms have their usual meanings and $`t_j`$ = 2.2 eV and 2.6 eV for single and double bonds, respectively. For both the polyene and the substituted polyene we increase the Hubbard $`U`$ from zero (where E(2Ag) $`>`$ E(1Bu)) and determine the critical $`U_c`$ at which energy cross-over E(2Ag) $`<`$ E(1Bu) occurs. For our speculation to be correct, (i) E(1Bu, substituted) must be smaller than E(1Bu, unsubstituted), and (ii) $`U_c`$(substituted) must be greater than $`U_c`$(unsubstituted). The latter would imply that for a fixed $`U`$, E(2Ag, substituted) is higher than E(2Ag, unsubstituted).

Our calculations are based on the exciton basis valence bond method , within which the both the unsubstituted and substituted polyene are considered as coupled two-level systems, where the two levels are the HOMO and the LUMO of the unit cell (i.e. both calculations involve 10 MOs). This approach is exact for the polyene, but approximate for the substituted polyene. It is easy to prove that the $`U_c`$ calculated within the approximate method is a lower limit for the true $`U_c`$(substituted). To prove this, we compare the exact Hückel energes of the 10-carbon substituted polyene with those calculated using the exciton basis. The exact (approximate) E(1Bu) = 1.02 (1.25) eV and E(2Ag) = 1.59 (1.65) eV. Now, since E(1Bu) increases with $`U`$, while E(2Ag) decreases (following an initial weak increase), it is seen from the above energies that the $`U`$ at which the true E(1Bu) becomes larger than the true E(2Ag) must be higher than that calculated within the reduced basis set.

In Figs. 2(a) and (b) we have plotted E(1Bu) and E(2Ag) against $`U`$ for the unsubstituted and the substituted polyene. We note that (i) E(1Bu, substituted) $`<`$ E(1Bu, unsubstituted) for any $`U`$, and (ii) $`U_c`$(substituted) is larger than $`U_c`$(unsubstituted) by $``$ 1 eV. The reason why the 2Ag (1Bu) is higher (lower) in energy in the substituted system is as follows. In the strongly correlated electron model, the 1Ag has all sites singly occupied with electrons, and the 1Bu consists of a single doubly occupied site. This double-occupancy in the substituted polyene is delocalized over the entire transverse molecular unit, and thus the effective Hubbard correlation, $`U_{eff}`$, is smaller. The lower $`U_{eff}`$ reduces E(1Bu) and raises E(2Ag). Since the 1Bu is predominantly a singly excited configuration, while the correlated 2Ag consists of both single and double excitations, one then expects that there is no qualitative difference between the unsubstituted and substituted 1Bu wavefunctions at any $`U`$, but a strong difference in the 2Ag wavefunctions. This is exactly what is seen from our calculations of the wavefunctions within the exciton basis.

Very similar results are obtained for N = 4,6 and 8 carbons on the backbone polyene. Finite size scaling shows that considerably larger $`U_c`$ in the substituted polyene is expected for N $`\mathrm{}`$. We conclude that transverse site-substitution is one approach to obtain excited state orderings conducive to light emission in the IR. Whether or not the present system can be synthesized, we believe that the principle demonstrated here is general.

Work in Arizona was supported by NSF DMR-0101659 and NSF ECS-0108696. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.