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# Star formation properties of UCM galaxies

## 1 Introduction

The study of the evolution of the Star Formation Rate (SFR) of individual galaxies and the SFR history of the Universe has experienced considerable progress recently (see, e.g., Madau, Dickinson & Pozzeti 1998 and references therein). These are key observables needed to extend our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. In the last few years, the combination of very deep ground-based and HST multi-band imaging with deep spectroscopic surveys carried out with 4-m and 10-m class telescopes has allowed the sketching of the SFR history of the Universe up to $`z>4`$ (see, e.g., Madau et al. 1998 and references therein).

A great deal of effort has been devoted to both observational and theoretical studies of star-forming objects and their evolution with look-back-time. Deep imaging and spectroscopy of faint galaxies at intermediate and high redhsifts have yielded vast amounts of quantitative information in this field (Lilly et al. 1995; 1998 and references therein; Driver, Windhorst & Griffiths 1995; Steidel et al. 1996; Lowenthal et al. 1997; Hammer et al. 1997; Hu, Cowie & McMahon 1998; see Ellis 1997 for a recent comprehensive review). Although substantial uncertainties still exist, a reasonably coherent picture is emerging. The Star Formation Rate density of the universe was probably about an order of magnitude higher in the past than it is now, perhaps peaking at $`z1`$$`2`$ (e.g., Gallego et al. 1995; Madau et al. 1996; Connolly et al. 1997; Madau et al. 1998). These observational results seem to be in good agreement with the predictions of recent theoretical models of galaxy formation (Pei & Fall 1995; Baugh et al. 1998; Somerville, Primack & Faber 1999), although the question of whether the SFR density decreased beyond $`z2`$ is still a matter of intense debate (Hu et al. 1998; Somerville et al. 1999; Hughes et al. 1998; Barger et al. 1998; Steidel et al. 1999).

Given the large redshift range covered by these studies, different SFR indicators have perforce been used, all of which have different calibrations, selection effects and systematic uncertainties. These indicators include emission line luminosities (e.g., H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, \[OII\]$`\lambda 3727`$Å), blue and ultraviolet fluxes, far-infrared and sub-mm fluxes, etc (see, e.g., Gallego et al. 1995; Rowan-Robinson et al. 1997; Tresse & Maddox 1998; Glazebrook et al. 1999; Treyer et al. 1998; Madau et al. 1996; Connolly et al. 1997; Hughes et al. 1998; Barger et al. 1998; see also Charlot 1998 and Kennicutt 1992). It would be highly desirable to use the same SFR indicator at all redshifts, so that the problems related to different selection effects and systematics could be avoided. It is widely accepted that the H$`\alpha `$ is one of the most reliable measurements of the current star formation rate (modulo the IMF; see, e.g., Kennicutt 1992). Several groups have used the H$`\alpha `$ line to estimate SFRs at different redshifts, from the local universe to beyond $`z=1`$ (Gallego et al. 1995; Tresse & Maddox 1998; Glazebrook et al. 1999), albeit with very different sample selection methods. Nevertheless, it is clear that it is now necesary to build sizeable samples of H$`\alpha `$-selected star-forming galaxies at different redshifts and study their properties. One would like to know the preferred sites of star formation in the local universe and beyond, and the main propeties of the star-forming galaxies and their evolution. Some questions that need to be answered include: does star formation mainly occur in dwarf, starbursting galaxies or in more quiescent, normal L galaxies? how has that evolved with time? what fraction of the stellar mass of the galaxies is being built by their current star-formation episodes?

Progress towards answering questions such as these requires, as a first step, a comprehensive study of the properties of the star-forming galaxies in the local universe. The Universidad Complutense de Madrid survey (UCM hereafter; Zamorano et al. 1994, 1996) is currently the most complete local sample of galaxies selected by their H$`\alpha `$ emission (see section 2). It has been used to determine the local H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function, the SFR function and the SFR density (Gallego et al. 1995). It is also widely used as a benchmark for high redshift studies (e.g., Madau et al. 1998 and references therein). Thus, the UCM survey provides a suitable sample of local star-forming galaxies for detailed studies.

Both optical imaging (Gunn-$`r`$; Vitores et al. 1996a, 1996b) and spectroscopy of the whole UCM sample (Gallego et al. 1996; GAL96 hereafter; see also Gallego et al. 1997) are already available. The optical data provides information on the current star-formation activity, but is rather insensitive to the past star-formation history of the galaxies. In this paper we present new near-infrared imaging observations for a representative subsample of UCM galaxies. The near infrared luminosities are sensitive to the mass in older stars, and therefore provide a measurement of the integrated past star formation in the galaxies and their total stellar masses (see, e.g., Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993; Alonso-Herrero et al. 1996; Charlot 1998). Alonso-Herrero et al. (1996; AH96 hereafter) carried out a pilot study of similar nature with a very small sample. We will now extend the work to a galaxy sample that is large enough for statistical studies, and that is expected to represent the properties of the complete UCM sample and thus those of the local star-forming galaxy population. We will also improve the work of AH96 in two fronts: first, we will use up-to-date population synthesis models, and second, we will use a more sofisticated statistical technique when comparing observational data and model predictions.

In section 2 we briefly introduce the UCM sample. In section 3 the observations, reduction procedures, and data analysis are described. The evolutionary synthesis models are presented in section 4, and the results are described in section 5. Finally, section 6 contains a summary of this work.

## 2 UCM survey

The UCM survey is a wide-field objective-prism search for star-forming galaxies which used the H$`\alpha `$ emission line as main selection criterium (Zamorano et al. 1994, 1996). This survey was carried out at the 80-120cm Schmidt Telescope of the Calar Alto German-Spanish Observatory (Almería, Spain), using IIIaF photographic plates. The identification of the emission-line objects was done by visual inspection of the plates over the 471.4 square degrees that the survey covers. An automatic procedure for the detection has also been developed by Alonso et al. (1995, 1999) which avoids possible human subjectivities in the selection. The number of emission-line candidates found was 264, about 44 per cent of them previously uncatalogued. This yielded a detection rate of about 0.6 objects per square degree \[Zamorano et al. 1994\]. A total of 191 of these objects were confirmed spectroscopically by GAL96 as emission-line galaxies.

The wavelength cut-off of the photographic emulsion limits the redshift range spanned by the survey to H$`\alpha `$-emitting objects below $`z`$=0.045$`\pm `$0.005. The completeness tests performed (Vitores 1994; Gallego 1995) ensure that the Gunn-$`r`$ limiting magnitude of the whole sample is 16.5m with an H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width detection limit of about 20Å.

Details about the observations, data reduction, reliability and accessibility of the complete data set are summarized in Zamorano et al. (1994, 1996).

## 3 Observational data

### 3.1 Optical imaging

The complete description of the optical Gunn-$`r`$ \[Thuan & Gunn 1976\] observations and image reduction is given in Vitores et al. (1996a, 1996b). Briefly, these images were acquired during a total of eight observing runs from December 1988 through January 1992 using different CCD detectors on the CAHA/MPIA 2.2-m and 3.5-m telescopes, both at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain).

### 3.2 Near-infrared images

Near-infrared (nIR hereafter) images in the $`J`$ (1.2$`\mu `$m) and $`K`$ (2.2$`\mu `$m) or $`K^{}`$-bands (2.1$`\mu `$m), were obtained for 67 galaxies from the UCM survey during three observing runs at the Lick Observatory and one run at the Calar Alto Observatory.

The three Lick observing runs took place in 1996 (January 9–14, May 4–7 and June 7–9). We used the Lick InfraRed Camera (LIRC-II) equipped with a nicmos3 256$`\times `$256 detector on the 1-m telescope of the Lick Observatory (California, USA). The instrumental setup provided a total field of view of 2.4$`\times `$2.4 square arc minutes with a spatial scale of 0.57″ per pixel. For details about the LIRC-II camera and the nicmos3 detector used see Misch, Gilmore & Rank \[Misch et al. 1995\]. The Calar Alto observations were carried out in 1996 (August 4–6). We used the MAGIC camera with a nicmos3 256$`\times `$256 detector attached to the CAHA/MPIA 2.2-m telescope at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain). The field of view was 2.70$`\times `$2.70 square arc minutes and the spatial scale 0.63″ per pixel. Details about the MAGIC camera can be found in Herbst et al. \[Herbst et al. 1993\]. Images were obtained in the $`J`$ and $`K^{}`$ bands in all the observing runs, except for the January 9–12 one, when a standard $`K`$ filter was used. A $`K^{}`$ filter \[Wainscoat & Cowie 1992\] was used in order to reduce the thermal background introduced by the red wing of the standard $`K`$ passband.

The observational procedure followed was extensively described in Aragón-Salamanca et al. \[Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993\]. Briefly, we subdivided the total exposure time required for each object in a number of images, offset by a few arcseconds, in order to avoid saturation. Also, blank sky images were obtained between consecutive object images for sky-subtraction and flat-fielding purposes with offests larger than $`1`$ arc minute. This procedure allows to reduce the effect of pixel-to-pixel variations, bad pixels, cosmic rays, and faint star images in the sky frames.

The reduction was carried out using our own IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. procedures, following standard reductions steps also described in Aragón-Salamanca et al. \[Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993\], these included bad pixel removal, dark substraction, flat-fielding, and sky substraction. Finally, all the object images were aligned, combined and flux calibrated. Flux calibration was performed using standard stars from the lists of Elias \[Elias et al. 1982\] and Courteau \[Courteau 1995\] observed at airmasses close to those of the objects. The atmospheric extinction coefficients used were $`\kappa _J`$=0.102 mag/airmass and $`\kappa _K`$=0.09 mag/airmass, while independent zero-points were derived for each night. The $`K^{}`$-band magnitudes were converted into $`K`$-band magnitudes using the empirical relation given by Wainscoat & Cowie \[Wainscoat & Cowie 1992\], $`K^{}K`$=0.22$`\times (HK)`$. Based on the zero-redshift SEDs of Aragón-Salamanca et al. \[Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993\] and the mean nIR colours given in AH96 for a small sample of UCM galaxies, we used an $`HK`$ colour of 0.3$`\pm `$0.1m. Thus, the $`K^{}K`$ correction was 0.07$`\pm `$0.02m.

Aperture photometry was carried out on the Gunn-$`r`$ and nIR images using the IRAF/APPHOT routines. We measured $`rJK`$ magnitudes and optical-nIR colours ($`rJ`$, $`JK`$) through several physical apertures, including three disk-scale lengths222$`H_0`$=50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`q_0`$=0.5 have been assumed throughout this paper (see Vitores et al. 1996a). We also measured total $`K`$-band magnitudes using physical apertures large enough to ensure that all the light from the galaxy was included. Finally, we corrected for contamination from field stars by replacing affected pixels by adjacent sky counts. Circular aperture $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours measured at three disk-scale lengths and integrated $`K`$-band magnitudes are given in Table LABEL:data. Magnitude and colour errors include both calibration and photometric uncertainties. In all the objects analyzed, except UCM0014$`+`$1748 and UCM1432$`+`$2645 (which was observed off-centre), the field covered by the detector was large enough to include three disk-scale length apertures. For these two galaxies we obtained the three disk-scale colours from their extrapolated growth curves. The differences between the larger measurable aperture and the extrapolated values were 0.05m for UCM0014$`+`$1748 and 0.1m for UCM1432$`+`$2645.

In our analysis, the $`rJK`$ magnitudes and optical-nIR colours are corrected for Galactic and internal extinction. Since most of the luminosity of these galaxies in the $`rJK`$ passbands comes from the stellar continuum, we have estimated the colour excesses on the continuum, $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}`$, with the expression given by Calzetti, Kinney & Storchi-Bergmann (1996, see also Calzetti 1997a; Storchi-Bergmann, Calzetti & Kinney 1994),

$$E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}=0.44\times E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}.$$
(1)
where the $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ were obtained from the spectroscopic Balmer decrements measured by GAL96 (see below). We assumed a diffuse dust model that implies a total-to-selective extinction ratio of $`R_V`$=3.1 (see Mathis 1990; Cardelli, Clayton & Mathis 1989). Assuming a Galactic extinction curve, we obtained that $`A_r/A_V`$, $`A_J/A_V`$ and $`A_K/A_V`$ are 0.83, 0.28 and 0.11 respectively \[Mathis 1990\]. Note than when correcting the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes and equivalent widths we assume that the line emission comes from the gaseous component, but the continuum is mainly stellar. In table LABEL:data we present the observational data before correcting for extinction, together with the gas colour excesses needed for the correction.

### 3.3 Optical spectroscopy

Optical long-slit spectroscopy for the UCM survey was obtained by Gallego \[Gallego 1995\] at the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma (Spain), and the 2.2-m and 3.5-m telescopes at Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), during a total of 10 observing runs. Details about the instrumental setups, slit widths, spatial scales and dispersions achieved are given in Table 1 of GAL96.

The line fluxes and equivalent widths of different emission lines are given in GAL96. Gas colour excesses, $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$, were obtained assuming a Galactic extinction curve and intrinsic ratios I$`(\mathrm{H}\alpha )/I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$=2.86 and I$`(\mathrm{H}\gamma )/I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$=0.468, which are the theoretical values expected for a low density gas with $`T_\mathrm{e}`$=104 K in Case B recombination \[Osterbrock 1989\]. We estimate that the effect of differential atmospheric refraction on the H$`\alpha /`$H$`\beta `$ ratio is in most cases (82% of the galaxies) below 5%. Only in four of the galaxies studied here the uncertainty in $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ due to differential refraction is larger than 0.1m. The observation and analysis procedures followed by Gallego \[Gallego 1995\] —slit widths, position angles, spectrum extraction— ensure good integrated spectroscopic information for these objects. Errors in the EW(H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\]) have been estimated from the signal-to-noise and spectral resolution data given by GAL96. We have assumed a 100Å interval for the continuum fit range, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{\mathrm{cont}}`$ \[Gallego 1995\], and a reciprocal dispersion of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$3Å/pixel. Thus,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{EW}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{SNR}\sqrt{\mathrm{N}}}\sqrt{\mathrm{EW}^2+\mathrm{FWZI}^2}$$
(2)
where SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio of the continuum, N is the number of points used to determine the mean continuum flux, i.e. N=$`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{\mathrm{cont}}/\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$30, and FWZI is the Full Width at Zero Intensity. The FWZI was computed as two times the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the comparison arc lines. Typical FWHMs are about 12.5Å (for a 3″ wide slit with the R300V$`+`$IDS$`+`$Tek3 configuration). Equivalent widths (EWs hereafter) of H$`\alpha `$+\[NII\] and their corresponding errors are given in Table LABEL:data. The H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width data used in this work were corrected for contamination of the \[NII\]$`\lambda `$6548Å and \[NII\]$`\lambda `$6584Å emission lines using the \[NII\]$`\lambda `$$`\lambda `$6548,6584Å/H$`\alpha `$ line ratios given by GAL96 (see also Gallego 1995). Finally, we consider a correction of 2 Å in the EW(H$`\alpha `$) due to the H$`\alpha `$ underlying absorption in G-K giants (see, e.g., Kennicutt 1983).

## 4 Evolutionary synthesis models

Although the $`K`$-band luminosity can provide a very good estimate of the stellar mass in galaxies (Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993; Charlot 1998), the contribution from red supergiants associated with recent star forming events may lead to the overestimate of the stellar mass when standard mass-luminosity relations are used. Thus, in order to estimate the relative contribution of the old underlying and young stellar populations to the magnitudes and colours measured, we have developed a complete set of evolutionary synthesis models. These models are based on those developed by AH96, but use the new population synthesis models of Bruzual & Charlot (private communication, BC96 hereafter), instead of the old Bruzual & Charlot (1993; BC93 hereafter) models. From the number of ionizing photons supplied by the BC96 models, we have also calculated the contribution of the hydrogen and helium emission-lines and nebular continuum to the optical and nIR passbands.

AH96 demonstrated that the properties of most of the UCM star-forming galaxies are better reproduced with instantaneous burst models rather that models with constant star formation. Therefore, we have computed the evolution with time of the optical-nIR colours and EW(H$`\alpha `$) of an instantaneous burst superimposed on a 15 Gyr old evolving population. A Scalo Initial Mass Function (IMF; Scalo 1986) with lower and upper mass cutoffs of $`M_{\mathrm{low}}`$=0.1 M and $`M_{\mathrm{up}}`$=125 M was adopted. The Cousins-$`R`$ magnitudes given by the BC96 models have been converted into Gunn-$`r`$ magnitudes using the relation $`r`$=$`R_\mathrm{C}+`$0.383$``$0.083$`\times (VR_\mathrm{C})`$ (Fernie 1983; Kent 1985).

In order to match the colours predicted by the BC96 models for a 15 Gyr old Single Stellar Population (SSP hereafter; $`rJ`$=2.09, $`JK`$=0.85) to those measured in the bulges of local relaxed spiral galaxies, assuming a negligible dust reddening (see Peletier & Balcells 1996; Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1999), we applied a small correction to our models
$`(rJ)^{\mathrm{obs}}`$=$`(rJ)_{15\mathrm{G}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}}^{\mathrm{mod}}0.03`$
$`(JK)^{\mathrm{obs}}`$=$`(JK)_{15\mathrm{G}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}}^{\mathrm{mod}}+0.06`$.
In addition, the stellar mass-to-light ratio predicted by the model for a 15 Gyr old stellar population, 1.34 M/LK,☉, was corrected to match that measured in local relaxed spiral galaxies, $``$1 M/LK,☉ (see Héraudeau & Simien 1997, and references therein), using MK,☉=3.33 \[Worthey 1994\]. Since most UCM galaxies (about 83 per cent) are morphologically classified as Sa–Sc$`+`$ \[Vitores 1994\], we are confident that the corrections applied to the models are reasonable. In any case, these small corrections, intended to provide a good agreement between the model predictions and observations for the underlying stellar populations of the galaxies, do not affect significantly any of the conclusions of this paper.

The main parameters of our models are those inherent to the BC96 models (age, metallicity, IMF, etc), together with the strength of the current star-forming burst. The burst strength, $`b`$, is defined as the ratio of the mass of the newly formed stars to the total stellar mass of the galaxy \[Krüger, Fritze-v. Alvensleben & Loose 1995\]. We have explored models with metallicities between 1/50 Z and 2 Z, and burst strengths in the range 1–$`10^4`$ (in 0.04 dex steps). The new BC96 models (Scalo IMF) produce slightly redder $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours and fewer Lyman photons than the BC93 ones (Salpeter IMF), for the same burst strength and solar metallicity.

## 5 Results

The main goal of this work is the characterization of the star formation activity of a representative sample of local galaxies. The properties of the current star-formation events and the host galaxies will be studied. In particular, we are interested in linking the properties of the local star-forming galaxies with those of galaxies forming stars at higher redshifts.

First, we study the completeness and representativeness of our sample in relation to the local star-forming galaxy population (see section 5.1). In section 5.2 we analyze the measured magnitudes and colours of the galaxies. Then, and in order to obtain the burst strengths, burst ages, stellar masses and specific star formation rates (SFR per unit mass; Guzmán et al. 1997; Lowenthal et al. 1997), we compare our data with evolutionary synthesis models (section 5.3). The comparison between data and models, and the determination of the best-fitting set of parameters, are not straightforward tasks, and some details of the method we have applied are described in the Appendix. Finally, we discuss the derived burst strengths, ages, metallicities, galaxy stellar masses and star formation rates derived for our sample (section 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6).

### 5.1 Sample completeness

Our nIR sample will suffer, first, from the intrinsic selection effects of the objective-prism$`+`$photographic plate technique used in the UCM survey. Those were discussed in detail in Zamorano et al. (1994, 1996), Vitores \[Vitores 1994\] and Gallego \[Gallego 1995\]. Briefly, the observational procedure employed limits the UCM sample to local galaxies with redshift lower than 0.045$`\pm `$0.005 and H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width larger than 20Å. The Gunn-$`r`$ limiting magnitude is 16.5m with a brigth end cut-off, due to saturation of the photographic plates, placed at $``$14.2m. However, additional selection effects may be present in our work due to the limited size of our nIR sample ($``$35 per cent of the UCM whole sample), thus it is necessary to ensure that the properties of this subsample are representative of those of the complete UCM survey.

In Figure 1a we compare the Gunn-$`r`$ apparent magnitude histogram of the whole UCM sample with that of the galaxies observed in the nIR. Although the apparent magnitude distributions match reasonably well, the objects in the nIR subsample tend to be marginally brighter than those in the UCM complete sample. The median $`m_r`$ for the UCM complete sample is 15.5m, while that of the nIR sample is 15.2m (see Vitores et al. 1996b). This may imply a small deficiency of low-luminosity and/or higher redshift galaxies. However, that does not seem to be a strong effect (see figures 1b and d).

From Figures 1b, 1c and 1e it is clear that the nIR sample represents about 35 per cent of the UCM complete sample \[Gallego 1995\] in every redshift, $`E(BV)`$ and EW(H$`\alpha `$) bin. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that both samples show similar distributions in $`z`$, $`E(BV)`$ and EW(H$`\alpha `$), with probabilities of 45, 93 and 87 per cent, respectively. For the $`r`$-band absolute magnitudes and H$`\alpha `$ luminosities the probabilities are 25 and 47 per cent, respectively (see Figures 1d and 1f). Thus the galaxies in the nIR sample seem to be a fair subsample of the UCM complete sample in their global properties.

The only small difference arises when comparing in detail the spectroscopic type distributions of the star-forming galaxies in the nIR and UCM complete samples. There is a small deficiency of HII-like galaxies (see ahead) in the nIR subsample relative to the whole UCM sample. About 30 per cent of the UCM whole sample are HII-like galaxies, whereas only 19 per cent are present in the nIR subsample. Consequences of such a limitation will be taken into account in further discussions.

### 5.2 Aperture magnitudes and colours

#### 5.2.1 Mean colours

Global colours (obtained inside three disk-scale lengths), together with the integrated $`K`$-band magnitudes (not corrected for extinction) and the $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ colour excesses, are given in Table LABEL:data. In GAL96, the galaxies in the UCM sample were classified in different morphological and spectroscopic classes (listed in table LABEL:data). We will briefly describe them here (see GAL96 for details):

SBNStarburst Nuclei— Originally defined by Balzano \[Balzano 1983\], they show high extinction values, with very low \[NII\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios and faint \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007 emission. Their H$`\alpha `$ luminosities are always higher than 108 L.

DANSDwarf Amorphous Nuclear Starburst— Introduced by Salzer, MacAlpine & Boroson \[Salzer et al. 1989\], they show very similar spectroscopic properties to SBN objects, but with H$`\alpha `$ luminosities lower than 5$`\times `$107 L.

HIIHHII Hotspot— The HII Hotspot class shows (see GAL96) similar H$`\alpha `$ luminosities to those measured in SBN galaxies but with large \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ ratios, that is, higher ionization.

DHIIHDwarf HII Hotspot—- This is an HIIH subclass with identical spectroscopic properties but H$`\alpha `$ luminosities lower than 5$`\times `$107 L.

BCDBlue Compact Dwarf— Finally, the lowest luminosity and highest ionization objects have been classified as Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies, showing in all cases H$`\alpha `$ luminosities lower than 5$`\times `$107 L. They also show large \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ and H$`\alpha `$/\[NII\]$`\lambda `$6584 line ratios and intense \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727 emission.

In our analysis, we separate the galaxies in two main categories: starburst disk-like (SB hereafter) and HII-like galaxies (see Guzmán et al. 1997; Gallego 1998). The SB-like class includes SBN and DANS spectroscopic types, whereas the HII-like includes HIIH, DHIIH and BCD type galaxies.

In order to determine representative mean optical-nIR colours for each galaxy group, we have assumed Gaussian probability distributions for the $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours and EW(H$`\alpha `$) with the centres and widths ($`\sigma `$) given in Table LABEL:data. We have weighted the data for each galaxy with their corresponding errors when determining the mean values.

The HII-like objects seem to be on average 0.2m bluer in $`rJ`$ and 0.1m in $`JK`$ than the SB galaxies (see Table LABEL:datamean). Since the mean colour excess of the SB population ($`\overline{E(BV)}`$=0.7m) is 0.2m higher than that of the HII-like galaxies, these colour differences are even more significant when data not corrected for extinction are used: the differences for the un-corrected colours are 0.35m in $`rJ`$ and 0.15m in $`JK`$. K-S tests performed on the SB-like and HII-like objects indicate that both subsamples arise from independent distributions with a probability of 99.7 and 99.9 per cent respectively for the un-corrected $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours.

Finally, whereas more than 60 per cent of the HII-like objects show not corrected for extinction equivalent widths of H$`\alpha `$ higher than 120 Å, only 3 per cent of the SB galaxies do. The relatively low EW(H$`\alpha `$) detection limit estimated for the UCM survey ($``$ 20 Å; Gallego 1995) ensures that the difference in EW(H$`\alpha `$) between SB and HII-like galaxies is not due to selection effects. A K-S test gives a probability of 99.9 per cent that these samples have independent EW(H$`\alpha `$) distributions. These differences in colours and H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths are probably related to differences in their evolutionary properties (typical starburst age, starburst strength, specific star formation rate, etc) between both galaxy types (see section 5.4 and section 5.6).

#### 5.2.2 Colour-colour and colour-EW(H$`\alpha `$) diagrams

In Figure 2 we show colour-colour ($`rJ`$ vs. $`JK`$) and colour-EW(H$`\alpha `$) plots for the nIR sample. The offset between the position of the star forming galaxies (filled circles) in the $`rJ`$$`JK`$ plane (Figure 2a) and the bulges and disks of relaxed nearby spirals \[Peletier & Balcells 1996\] indicates the existence of ongoing star formation. Error bars in Figure 2a represent $`\pm `$1$`\sigma `$ errors. In Figures 2a and 2b we plot solar metallicity models with burst strengths, 10-3, 10-2, 10-1, and 1. In the case of Figures 2c and 2d, models with 10-1 burst strength and different metallicities are displayed (cf. section 4).

Figures 2a and 2c show that changes in the optical-nIR colours due to changes in burst strength and age are much more significant than those produced by changes in metallicity. This fact is also observed in the colour-EW(H$`\alpha `$) diagrams (Figures 2b and 2d), especially in the case of sub-solar metallicity models. It is thus clear that it is in principle possible to infer burst strengths and ages from these diagrams, but the determination of metallicities would be very uncertain.

### 5.3 Determination of the physical properties of the galaxies

For each individual galaxy we have information on its $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours and H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width. Thus, each galaxy has a point associated in the $`rJ`$, $`JK`$, 2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$) three-dimensional space. However, due to the calibration and photometric errors, the uncertainty in these measurements transforms these points into probability distributions. As in section 5.2.1, we will assume Gaussian probability distributions for the $`rJ`$, $`JK`$ colours and 2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$) with the centres and widths ($`\sigma `$) given in Table LABEL:data. The evolutionary synthesis models that we will associate with each galaxy probability distribution, will also follow different tracks in this three-dimensional space.

The three-dimensional probability distributions ($`rJ`$,$`JK`$,2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$)) have been reproduced using a Monte Carlo simulation method. A total of 103 data points were generated in order to reproduce this distribution for each galaxy. No significant differences were observed using a larger number (e.g., 104) of input particles. We estimated the model that better reproduces the colours and EW(H$`\alpha `$) for each of the 103 test particles applying a maximum likelihood method. The maximum likelihood estimator used, $``$, includes two colour terms and an EW(H$`\alpha `$) term. Thus,

$$(t,b,Z)=\underset{n=1}{\overset{3}{}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }\mathrm{\Delta }C_n}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{(c_nC_n)^2}{2\mathrm{\Delta }C_n^2}\right)$$
(3)
where $`C_1`$, $`C_2`$ and $`C_3`$ are the $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours and 2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_3`$ are their corresponding errors. The $`c_n`$ coefficients are the $`rJ`$, $`JK`$ and 2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$) values predicted by a given model. A similar estimator was employed by Abraham et al. \[Abraham et al. 1999\] for a sample of intermediate-$`z`$ HDF \[Williams et al. 1996\] galaxies.

Finally, we obtained the age, $`t`$, burst strength, $`b`$, and metallicity, $`Z`$, of the model that maximizes $``$ for each test particle of the ($`rJ`$,$`JK`$,2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$)) probability distribution. Therefore, this procedure effectively provides the ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) probability distribution for each input galaxy.

The resulting ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) probability distributions are in many cases multi-peaked. Instead of analyzing these probability distributions as a whole, we have studied the clustering pattern present in the ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) solution space. We have used a single linkage hierarchical clustering method (see Murtagh & Heck 1987; see also Appendix), which allows to isolate different solutions in the ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) space. We have recovered the three most representative solution clusters for each galaxy. In Table LABEL:tablafin we show the mean properties of those solution clusters with probability higher than 20 per cent. This probability is computed as the number of test particles in a given cluster over the total number of test particles (103). The errors shown in Table LABEL:tablafin correspond to the standard deviation of the data for each solution cluster. In those cases where all the solutions within a cluster yield the same age, burst strength, metallicity or mass, no errors were given.

The subsequent statistical analysis of each of the ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) clusters indicates that significant correlations between $`t`$, $`b`$ and $`Z`$ are present. We have performed a principal component analysis (PCA hereafter; see Morrison 1976; see also Appendix) of the individual clusters given in Table LABEL:tablafin. The orientation of the first PCA component and the contribution of this component to the total variance within the solution cluster are also given.

After applying this procedure to the observed sample, only three galaxies (UCM1440$`+`$2521S, UCM1506$`+`$1922 and UCM1513$`+`$2012; see Figure 3a and 3b) show $`_{\mathrm{max}}`$$`<`$10.0. Note that a value $`_{\mathrm{max}}=10.0`$ corresponds to a model where the differences between the observed data and the model predictions equal the measurement errors, assuming mean errors of 0.12m in $`(rJ)`$ and $`(JK)`$ and 10 per cent in EW(H$`\alpha `$). This indicates that the range of model predictions covers reasonably well the observed properties of the galaxies. In Figure 3a and 3b we plot the differences between the colours and EW(H$`\alpha `$) measured and those predicted by the best-fit model. These differences have been calculated for the central values of the $`rJ`$, $`JK`$ and 2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$) probability distributions.

Figure 3a shows that, in some cases, the models predict bluer $`JK`$ colours than those measured. At first sight, these discrepancies could be explained if we were underestimating the extinction correction factors applied to these objects. However, since the extinction correction affects $`rJ`$ more than $`JK`$, applying a higher extinction correction would destroy the good agreement between the observed and model $`rJ`$ colours. We have quantified the effect of a change in the correction for extinction assumed for our galaxies by comparing data de-reddened using $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}`$=$`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ with our models. Figure 3c shows that data corrected using the relation given by Calzetti et al. \[Calzetti et al. 1996\] fit the models better than data corrected assuming $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}`$=$`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$. In addition, none of the three galaxies given above show higher $`_{\mathrm{max}}`$ values after using $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}`$=$`E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$. Thus, we are confident that the extinction correction applied provides a reasonable fit to the models, and the discrepancies in $`JK`$ between the data and the models are probably due to inherent uncertainties in the modelling of the nIR continuum by the Bruzual and Charlot code.

The cluster analysis performed indicates that the clustering in the solution space is basically produced by the discretization in metallicity of the models. Fortunately, in many of the objects ($``$30 per cent; see Table LABEL:tablafin), only one ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) solution cluster is able to reproduce the observables. About 33 per cent need two solutions and three solutions are needed for the remaining 37 per cent. The goodness of this comparison method, given by the number and size of statistically significant ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) solution clusters, basically depends on the particular position of the object in the ($`rJ`$,$`JK`$,2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$)) space and on its measurement errors. Fortunately, in those cases where the ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) probability distribution is multi-valuated, the different solution clusters give similar burst strengths and total stellar masses. This is another manifestation of the fact that, as we saw in section 5.2.2, our data is not very sensitive to metallicity, and we will not attempt to derive it. Nonetheless, the burst ages are affected somewhat by small changes in metallicity, and frequently show wider distributions than the burst strenghts.

Finally, the PCA performed on each solution cluster suggests that the best-axis, given by the vector ($`u_t`$,$`u_{\mathrm{log}(b)}`$,$`u_{\mathrm{log}(Z)}`$)=($`u_x`$,$`u_y`$,$`u_z`$) shown in Table LABEL:tablafin, is commonly placed in the $`u_x`$-$`u_y`$ ($`t`$-$`b`$) plane and obeys $`u_x`$$``$$`u_y`$. This implies that age and burst strength are in many cases degenerated and, therefore, the properties of an individual object can be reproduced both with a young, low burst strength or an old, high burst strength model, within the ranges given in Table LABEL:tablafin.

### 5.4 Burst strengths and ages

In Table LABEL:tablafin we give mean burst strengths and ages for the individual solutions with probability higher than 20 per cent. Errors given are the standard deviations of the data points in each solution. For the stellar masses, the error related with the uncertainty in the $`K`$-band absolute magnitude determination is also given (in parenthesis). Using these probability distributions we have derived the burst strength, age, mass and metallicity frequency histograms for the whole sample as well as for the SB-like and HII-like galaxies (see Figures 4a–d). The number of points in the $`y`$ axis of these figures corresponds to the number of Monte Carlo test particles with a given burst strength, age, mass or metallicity within the accepted high-probability solutions.

This analysis yields a typical burst strength of 2$`\times `$10-2 with approximately 90 per cent of the sample having burst strengths between 10-3 and 10-1. Only seven objects in the sample show burst strengths higher than 10-1 with a probability larger than 50 per cent, UCM0003$`+`$2200, UCM0145$`+`$2519, UCM1257$`+`$2808, UCM1259$`+`$3011, UCM1308$`+`$2958, UCM1432$`+`$2645 and UCM1440$`+`$2511.

Although the properties of the local star-forming galaxies seem to be well reproduced with an episodic star formation history (see also AH96), some of these objects may have evolved under more constant star formation rates (Glazebrook et al. 1999; Coziol 1996). In those objects the instantaneous burst assumption could yield very high burst strengths.

The burst strength histograms shown in Figure 4a give typically larger burst strengths for the HII-like objects, especially for the DHIIH and BCD type galaxies, than for the SB-like (see also Table LABEL:resmean). This segregation in burst strength is probably related to the difference in mean EW(H$`\alpha `$) pointed out in section 5.2.1 (see Table LABEL:datamean). In Table LABEL:resmean we also show the burst strengths and ages derived under the unrealistic assumption that the continuum extinction is as high as that measured for the ionized gas (see section 5.3).

The distribution of the burst ages is shown in Figure 4b. Since the probability of detection increases with EW(H$`\alpha `$) in objective-prism surveys (see García-Dabó et al. 1999), and the EW(H$`\alpha `$) continuously decreases with the the burst age, the number of objects detected with old burst ages is expected to be lower than with young ages, as observed. This behaviour is observed at ages older than 4 Myr, both for the SB and HII-like galaxies.

However, one would expect a reasonably flat distribution in the number of objects with young ages if the sample selection depended only on the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width. But other factors such as the H$`\alpha `$ flux and continuum luminosity play an important role (see García-Dabó et al. 1999). Moreover, in our models we have estimated the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity ($`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$) from the number of Lyman continuum photons (Brocklehurst 1971) assuming that no ionizing photons escape from the galaxies. If some Lyman photons escape, the predicted H$`\alpha `$ luminosity would be lower and the derived ages could be significantly younger. Recent studies estimate the fraction of Lyman photons escaping from starburst galaxies to be about 3 per cent \[Leitherer et al. 1995\]. Bland-Hawthorn & Maloney \[Bland-Hawthorn & Maloney 1997\] estimated this quantity to be about 5 per cent for the Milky Way. Another feasible explanation could be that a significant fraction of these Lyman photons is absorbed by dust within the ionized gas (see, e.g., Armand et al. 1996). Both mechanisms would produce lower H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths than those predicted by the standard super-ionizing models, and could explain the paucity of young star-forming bursts in Figure 4b. In this figure (dotted line) we also show the age distribution obtained assuming that 25 per cent of the Lyman continuum photons are missing. This distribution yields a larger number of objects at ages younger than 3 Myr, and a very steep decay at ages older than 4–5 Myr.

Finally, Bernasconi & Maeder \[Bernasconi & Maeder 1996\] have argued that, during the first 2–3 Myr in the main-sequence, stars more massive than 40 M, are still accreting mass embedded in the molecular cloud, and do not contribute to the ionizing radiation. Therefore, due to this reduction in the number of Lyman photons, the predicted H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths below 2-3 Myr will be significantly lower and the ages deduced for the bursts should be younger.

### 5.5 Total stellar masses

In order to determine the total galaxy stellar mass we have assumed that the burst strengths and mass-to-light ratios derived from our models at three disk scale-length apertures are representative of the galaxy global properties. Thus, using these $`K`$-band mass-to-light ratios and the total $`K`$-band absolute magnitudes we have obtained stellar masses for the whole sample.

The inferred galaxy stellar masses derived depend, in principle, on four quantities: the galaxy $`K`$-band absolute magnitude, burst strength, and the mass-to-light ratios of the burst and the old underlying population. Since the derived burst strengths are very low ($``$10-2), the total mass-to-light ratios are dominated by the old stellar component. In fact, the ratio of the $`K`$-band luminosity of the old and young stellar populations is $``$20 for $`t`$=4 Myr, 4 for $`t`$=8 Myr and 7 for $`t`$=15 Myr (for $`Z`$=$`Z_{\mathrm{}}`$). Moreover, the absolute age of the old stellar component has a very small effect on the $`K`$-band mass-to-light ratio: there is only a 0.1 dex difference between 10 Gyr and 15 Gyr for solar metallicity, and the difference is even lower in the case of sub-solar metallicity models. In Figure 5 we show that the derived $`K`$-band stellar mass-to-light ratios span a very narrow range. Although statistically the SB- and HII-like mass-to-light ratio distributions are different with a probability of 95.3 per cent (from a K-S test), the difference in absolute value is only minor: the median mass-to-light ratios are 0.93 M/LK,☉ for the whole sample, and 0.93 M/LK,☉ and 0.91 M/LK,☉, for the SB and HII-like objects respectively. Consequently, the derived mass values mainly depend on the $`K`$-band absolute magnitude. In the upper-panel of Figure 5 we also show the range in $`K`$-band mass-to-light ratios given by Worthey \[Worthey 1994\] for 12 Gyr old modeled ellipticals. Thus, we can conclude that the $`K`$-band luminosity is a very good tracer of the stellar mass for both old stellar populations and local star-forming objects.

The distribution of stellar masses is shown in Figure 4c. This frequency histogram indicates that a typical star forming galaxy in our Local Universe has a stellar mass of about 5$`\times `$1010 M. This value is somewhat lower than the stellar mass expected for a local L galaxy. Assuming M$`{}_{K}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$=$``$25.1 (for H0=50 km s-1 Mpc-1; Mobasher, Sharples and Ellis, 1993) and a $`K`$-band mass-to-light ratio of 1 M/LK,☉ \[Héraudeau & Simien 1997\], the stellar mass inferred for an L galaxy is about 2$`\times `$1011 M. Thus, star-forming galaxies in the local universe are typically a factor 4 less massive than L galaxies.

In addition, a clear offset between the stellar mass histograms of the SB and HII-like objects is seen in Figure 4c. The distributions of their stellar masses are centred at 7$`\times `$1010 and 2$`\times `$1010 M respectively (Figure 4c). This difference is even more significant, about 1 dex, when DHIIH and BCD spectroscopic types (Dwarfs in Table LABEL:resmean) and SBN galaxies are compared. A K-S test analysis of the SB-like and HII-like objects indicates that these two samples come from different age, burst strength and stellar mass distributions with probabilities 98.8, 77.1 and 99.9 per cent respectively.

In Table LABEL:resmean we also present the mean properties that would be obtained using $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{continuum}}=E(BV)_{\mathrm{gas}}`$. In this case, although we obtain important differences in age and burst strength, very similar stellar masses are derived since the stellar mass depends mainly on the $`K`$-band magnitude, only weakly affected by extinction.

### 5.6 Star formation rates

Since the star formation activity in the UCM galaxies is better described as a succession of episodic star formation events rather than continuous star formation (see also AH96), the current star formation rate (SFR) is not a meaningful quantity: the latest star formation event might have finished in many of the galaxies, and their current SFR would be zero. However, these galaxies have substantial H$`\alpha `$ luminosities, and it is accepted that the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity is a good measurement of the current SFR. In AH96 we showed that this is true, in a statistical sense, for a population of galaxies undergoing a series of star formation events, and we defined an ‘effective’ present-day SFR which coincides with the SFR we would derive if the galaxies were forming stars at a constant rate, producing the same mass in new stars as the ensemble of all the star-formation episodes (see AH96 for details). Here we will follow the same approach.

When estimating star formation rates (SFRs) in AH96 we used the BC93 models and a Salpeter IMF. In the present work, we have used the updated BC96 models with a Scalo IMF. Since the number of Lyman photons (NLy) predicted by the old models is about 0.94 dex higher than that predicted by the new ones (for solar metallicity and ages lower than 16 Myr), we need to re-compute the relation between the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$, and star formation rate. In addition, we will investigate the change produced in this relation using different metallicity models.

In order to compute the $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$/SFR ratio, we have used a very similar procedure to that employed by AH96: we simulated a population of galaxies undergoing random bursts of star-formation and computed their total H$`\alpha `$ luminosities and the mass in newly-formed stars. However, instead of considering a uniform age and burst strength probability distribution, we have considered the burst strength, age and metallicity distributions for our galaxy sample. We used 67$`\times `$1000 points in order to reproduce this distribution in our Monte Carlo simulations. The SFR was computed as the ratio between the stellar mass produced in the burst, i.e. $`b`$$`\times `$M, and the maximum age for which we could have detected the galaxy in the UCM sample, that is, the time while EW(H$`\alpha `$)$`>`$20Å \[Gallego 1995\]. The $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$/SFR ratios obtained are shown in Figure 6 for different metallicities and for the total ($`t`$,$`b`$,$`Z`$) distribution. The mean, median, and standard deviation values are given in Table LABEL:fig6t.

Since the changes in this ratio for different metallicity models are quite small, we have adopted the median value of the whole distribution in order to determine the ’effective’ SFR of the galaxies from our sample. The difference between the value adopted here and that of AH96 is about 1 dex, which is very close to the difference in the number of Lyman photons predicted by the BC93 and BC96 models, as expected.

Therefore, we have evaluated the current ’effective’ SFR using the expression

$$\mathrm{SFR}=\frac{L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }}{1.7\times 10^{40}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}^1$$
(4)
This expression assumes that every Lyman photon emitted effectively ionizes the surrounding gas. If, however, as is suggested in Section 5.4, we consider a fraction of non-ionizing Lyman photons of 25 per cent, the star formation rates computed should be 0.1 dex higher.

Specific star formation rates (SFR per unit mass; Guzmán et al. 1997) have been obtained using these SFR values and the stellar masses given by the highest probability solution cluster in Table LABEL:tablafin. The mean SFR and specific SFR for SB-like, HII-like, and whole sample are given in Table LABEL:tablasfrs (see also Figure 4d).

The specific SFR vs. stellar mass diagram is shown in Figure 7 (see Guzmán et al. 1997). In panel-a we show the stellar masses and star formation rates per unit mass for three reference samples. We have included the sample of Kennicutt (1983, K83 hereafter), taking the H$`\alpha `$ and $`B`$-band luminosities given by K83 and the stellar mass-to-light ratios of Faber & Gallagher \[Faber & Gallagher 1979\]. In addition, the sample of HII-galaxies of Telles \[Telles 1995\] was included, after converting virial masses to stellar masses using a correction of 0.6 dex (Gallego et al. 1999, in preparation) and assuming the H$`\beta `$-to-H$`\alpha `$ luminosity ratios used by Guzmán et al. \[Guzmán et al. 1997\] for this sample. Masses and specific SFRs for the Calzetti \[Calzetti 1997b\] sample are also shown. In this case, stellar masses were inferred subtracting the HI mass from the dynamical mass measured. The SFR values for the Calzetti \[Calzetti 1997b\] sample were obtained from their Br$`\gamma `$ luminosities assuming $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$=102.8$`\times `$$`L_{\mathrm{Br}\gamma }`$ (Osterbrook 1989, for $`T_e`$=104 K and $`n_e`$=100 cm-3). Finally, the dwarf irregular galaxy GR8 \[Reaves 1956\] was included. Its H$`\alpha `$ luminosity was obtained from the H$`\beta `$ luminosity given by Gallagher, Hunter & Bushouse \[Gallagher, Hunter & Bushouse 1989\], assuming $`L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }`$/$`L_{\mathrm{H}\beta }`$=2.86, and its stellar mass, 3.2$`\times `$106 M, from Carignan, Beaulieu & Freeman \[Carignan, Beaulieu & Freeman 1990\]. The limits in the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function of Gallego et al. \[Gallego et al. 1995\], 1040.4–1042.8 erg s-1, are also drawn.

Figure 7 shows that the UCM sample clearly represents a bridge between relaxed spiral galaxies and the most extreme HII galaxies from Telles \[Telles 1995\], that is, Sp$``$SB-like$``$HII-like$``$HII galaxies. In fact, some of the HII galaxies from Telles \[Telles 1995\] have very similar properties to those of the less massive HII-like UCM galaxies, mainly DHIIH and BCD spectroscopic types, very rare in our sample (see section 5.1). In addition, most of the SBN type UCM galaxies seem to be normal late-type spirals with enhanced star formation. This star formation enhancement is about a factor of three, and is due to the ongoing nuclear starburst. Thus, the range in specific SFR spanned by the population of the star-forming galaxies that dominate the SFR in the local universe is (10–103)$`\times `$10-11 yr-1, from the local relaxed spirals to the most extreme HII galaxies. In fact, this range is not very different from that obtained by Guzmán et al. \[Guzmán et al. 1997\] for a sample of intermediate/high-$`z`$ compact galaxies from the HDF. The high specific SFR region, where the HII galaxies from Telles \[Telles 1995\] are placed, is not very well covered by our sample due to the scarcity of very low-luminosity objects, basically DHIIH and BCD spectroscopic type galaxies, relative to the UCM whole sample.

## 6 Summary

Using new nIR observations and published optical data for 67 galaxies from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) survey, we have derived the main properties of their star-forming events and underlying stellar populations. This sample represents about 35 per cent of the UCM galaxies covering the whole range of absolute magnitudes, H$`\alpha `$ luminosities and equivalent widths spanned by the survey. Burst strengths and ages, stellar masses, stellar mass-to-light ratios and, to a certain extent, metallicities, have been obtained by comparing the observed $`rJ`$ and $`JK`$ colours, $`K`$-band magnitudes, and H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths and luminosities with those predicted by evolutionary synthesis models. The comparison of the observations with the model predictions was carried out using a maximum-likelihood estimator in combination with Monte Carlo simulations which take into account the observational uncertainties. Our main results are:

1. The star-forming galaxies in the UCM sample (used to determine the SFR density of the local universe), show typical burst strengths of about 2 per cent and stellar masses of 5$`\times `$1010 M. The current star formation in these galaxies is taking place in discrete star formation events rather than in a continuous fashion. If this is typical of the past star-formation history in the galaxies, many of such star formation events would be necessary to build up their stellar mass. However, our observations provide very little information on star-formation episodes that took place before the current one.
2. We have identified two separate classes of star-forming galaxies in the UCM sample: SB-like and HII-like galaxies. Within the HII-like class the DHIIH and BCD spectroscopic type galaxies, i.e. dwarfs, constitute the most extreme case. The mean burst strength deduced for the SB-like galaxies is about a 25 per cent lower than for the dwarf HII-like galaxies. The average stellar mass is an order of magnitude larger in the former than in the latter. The SB-like galaxies are relatively massive galaxies where the current star formation episode is a minor event in the build up of their stellar masses, while HII-like galaxies are less massive systems in which the present star formation could dominate in some cases their observed properties and contributes to a greater extent to their stellar population.
3. Because of the low burst strengths inferred, $`K`$-band luminosity is dominated by the old stellar populations, and the $`K`$-band stellar mass-to-light ratio is almost the same (within $``$20 per cent) for all the galaxies. Thus, the $`K`$-band luminosity is a very good estimator of the stellar mass for typical star-forming galaxies.
4. The average SFR of the galaxies is log(SFR)$``$1.5, with the SFR expressed in M yr-1, and it is similar for the SB-like and the HII-like galaxies. However, since the latter are typically less massive, their specific SFR (SFR per unit stellar mass) is significantly larger, in a factor 2.3, than that of the former.
5. The UCM galaxies represent a bridge in specific SFR between relaxed spirals and extreme HII galaxies. The range in specific star formation rate spanned by the local star-forming galaxies, (10–103)$`\times `$10-11 yr-1, is very similar to that observed in higher redshift objects.

## APPENDIX: Analysis of the space of solutions

In this appendix we briefly describe the analysis performed onto the ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) space of solutions. For each galaxy we have 103 ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) points that correspond to the 103 points generated in the ($`rJ`$,$`JK`$,2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$)) space using a Monte Carlo simulation method.

The mean values ($`<t>`$,$`<`$log $`b`$$`>`$,$`<`$log $`Z`$$`>`$) are primary indicators of the best ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) solution, and their standard deviations ($`\sigma _t`$,$`\sigma _{\mathrm{log}b}`$,$`\sigma _{\mathrm{log}Z}`$) could be taken as estimators of the deviation of the data. However, due to the well known age-metallicity and age-burst strength degeneracies these standard deviations are not representative of the distribution of these solutions in the ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) space. Fortunately, these degenaracies do not span the whole range in age, burst strength and metallicity given by the models, being relatively well constrained by the ($`rJ`$,$`JK`$,2.5$`\times `$log EW(H$`\alpha `$)) data.

Therefore, we have studied the clustering of the ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) solutions for each individual galaxy. We have used for this analysis a single linkage hierarchical clustering method \[Murtagh & Heck 1987\]. First, (1) we determine the distances between every couple of solutions, which represents a total of $`N\times (N1)/2`$ dissimilarities (=distances), being N the number of solutions. The dissimilarity between the elements $`j`$ and $`k`$, $`d_{j,k}`$, is defined as

$$d_{j,k}^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}(x_{ij}x_{ik})^2$$
(5)
The matrix of dissimilarities is known as dendogram. Then, (2) we find the smallest dissimilarity, $`d_{ik}`$. These points, $`i`$ and $`k`$, (3) are therefore agglomerated and replaced with a new point, $`ik`$, and the dissimilarities updated such that, for all objects $`ji,k`$,

$$d_{ik,j}=min\{d_{i,j},d_{k,j}\}$$
(6)
Then, (4) the dissimilarities $`d_{i,j}`$ and $`d_{k,j}`$, for all $`j`$, are deleted, as these are no longer used. Finally, we return to step (1) after reducing the dimension of the dissimilarities matrix and the number of clusters. Finally, we recover the last three clusters of solutions.

The clustering pattern obtained is basically produced by the discretization in metallicity of the original BC96 evolutionary synthesis models. Now, we analyze the solutions within each solution cluster. In this case, the discretizations in burst strength and age are comparable and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA hereafter) is the most suitable choice (0.04 dex in burst strength and $``$0.05 dex in age).

The PCA basically determines, in a Rn data array, the set of $`n`$ orthogonal axes that better reproduces our data distribution. The first new axis, i.e. the principal component, will try to go as close as possible through all the data points, describing the larger fraction of the data variance. Figure 8 shows the principal component for each of the three solution clusters of a hypothetical ($`t`$,log $`b`$,log $`Z`$) distribution.

Formally, following the PCA (see, e.g., Morrison 1976), (1) we construct the variance-covariance and the correlation matrix of the sample, being the $`(j,k)^{th}`$ term of these matrixes, respectively,

$`c_{jk}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{n}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}(r_{ij}\overline{r}_j)(r_{ik}\overline{r}_k)`$ (7)
$`\rho _{jk}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{n}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(r_{ij}\overline{r}_j)(r_{ik}\overline{r}_k)}{s_js_k}}`$ (8)
where

$$s_j^2=\frac{1}{n}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}(r_{ij}\overline{r}_j)^2.$$
(9)
Then, (2) solving the eigenvector equation, $`\rho u`$=$`\lambda u`$, we obtain the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the correlation matrix. The ratio between an eigenvalue and the sum of all the eigenvalues, $`\lambda _i/_{i=1}^n\lambda _i`$, gives us the contribution of the new axis, determined by the corresponding eigenvector, to the total data variance. Therefore, the eigenvector with higher eigenvalue is the principal component and will indicate which is the dominant degeneracy inside each solution cluster.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is based on observations obtained at the Lick Observatory, operated by the University of California and on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Centre, Calar Alto, Spain, operated by the Max-Planck Institute fur Astronomie (MPIE), Heidelberg, jointly with the Spanish Commission for Astronomy. It is also partly based on observations made with the Isaac Newton Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Royal Greenwich Observatory in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

A. Gil de Paz thanks the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge for all the facilities and support during his stay there. J. Gallego and A. Gil de Paz acknowledge the invitation, hospitality and facilities provided during the 3rd Guillermo Haro Workshop, included in the Guillermo Haro Programme at the INAOE (Mexico). We also thank C.E. García-Dabó, C. Sánchez Contreras and R. Guzmán for stimulating conversations and the referee Dr. M. Edmunds for his useful comments and suggestions. A. Gil de Paz acknowledges the receipt of a Formación del Profesorado Universitario fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education. A. Aragón-Salamanca acknowledges generous financial support from the Royal Society. A. Alonso-Herrero was supported by NASA on grant NAG 5-3042. This research was also supported by the Spanish Programa Sectorial de Promoción General del Conocimiento under grants PB96-0610 and PB96-0645. This work was partially carried out under the auspices of EARA, a European Association for Research in Astronomy, and the TMR Network on Galaxy Formation and Evolution funded by the European Commission.


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# Magnetic-field-induced singularities in spin dependent tunneling through InAs quantum dots

## Abstract

Current steps attributed to resonant tunneling through individual InAs quantum dots embedded in a GaAs-AlAs-GaAs tunneling device are investigated experimentally in magnetic fields up to 28 T. The steps evolve into strongly enhanced current peaks in high fields. This can be understood as a field-induced Fermi-edge singularity due to the Coulomb interaction between the tunneling electron on the quantum dot and the partly spin polarized Fermi sea in the Landau quantized three-dimensional emitter.

PACS numbers: 73.40.Gk, 73.23.Hk, 72.10.Fk 85.30.Vw

The interaction of the Fermi sea of a metallic system with a local potential can lead to strong singularities close to the Fermi edge. Such effects have been predicted more than thirty years ago for the X-ray absorption and emission of metals and observed subsequently. Similar singularities as a consequence of many body effects are also known from the luminescence of quantum wells. Matveev and Larkin were the first to predict interaction-induced singularities in the tunneling current via a localized state which were measured experimentally in several resonant tunneling experiments from two-dimensional electrodes through a zero-dimensional system.

Here we report on singularities observed in the resonant tunneling from highly doped three-dimensional (3D) GaAs electrodes through an InAs quantum dot (QD) embedded in an AlAs barrier. These Fermi-edge singularities (FES) show a considerable magnetic field dependence and a strong enhancement in high magnetic fields where the 3D electrons occupy the lowest Landau level in the emitter. We observe an asymmetry in the enhancement for electrons of different spins with an extremely strong FES for electrons carrying the majority spin of the emitter. The experimental observations are explained by a theoretical model taking into account the electrostatic potential experienced by the conduction electrons in the emitter due to the charged QD. We will show that the partial spin polarisation of the emitter causes extreme values of the edge exponent $`\gamma `$ not observed until present and going beyond the standard theory valid for $`\gamma 1`$ .

The active part of our samples are self-organized InAs QDs with 3-4 nm height and 10-15 nm diameter embedded in the middle of a 10 nm-thick AlAs barrier and

sandwiched between two 3D electrodes. They consist of a 15 nm undoped GaAs spacer layer and a GaAs-buffer with graded doping. A typical InAs dot is sketched in inset (a) of Fig. 1, the vertical band structure across a dot is schematically shown in inset (b).

Current voltage ($`I`$-$`V`$) characteristics were measured in large area vertical diodes ($`40\times 40\mu `$m2) patterned on the wafer. In Fig. 1 we show a part of a typical $`I`$-$`V`$-curve with several discrete steps. We have demonstrated previously that such steps can be assigned to single electron tunneling from 3D electrodes through individual InAs QDs  consistent with other resonant tunneling experiments through self-organized InAs QDs .

For the positive bias voltages shown in Fig. 1 the electrons tunnel from the bottom electrode into the base of an InAs QD and leave the dot via the top. The tunneling current is mainly determined by the tunneling rate through the effectively thicker barrier below the dot (single electron tunneling regime). A step in the current occurs at bias voltages where the energy level of a dot, $`E_D`$, coincides with the Fermi level of the emitter, $`E_F`$.

In the following we will concentrate on the step labeled (\*) in Fig. 1. Other steps in the same structure as well as steps observed in the $`I`$-$`V`$-characteristics of other structures show a very similar behavior.

After the step edge a slight overshoot in the tunneling current occurs consistent with other tunneling experiments through a localized impurity  or through InAs dots . This effect is caused by the Coulomb interaction between a localized electron on the dot and the electrons at the Fermi edge of the emitter. The decrease of the current $`I(V)`$ towards higher voltages $`V>V_0`$ follows a power law $`I(VV_0)^\gamma `$  ($`V_0`$ is the voltage at the step edge) with an edge exponent $`\gamma =0.02\pm 0.01`$.

The evolution of step (\*) in a magnetic field applied parallel to the current direction is shown in Fig. 2a. The step develops into two separate peaks with onset voltages marked as $`V_{}`$ and $`V_{}`$. The Landau quantization of the emitter leads to an oscillation of $`V_{}`$ and $`V_{}`$ and a shift to smaller voltages as a function of magnetic field, see Fig. 2b. This reflects the magneto-quantum-oscillation of the Fermi energy in the emitter . From the period and the amplitude of the oscillation we can extract a Fermi energy (at $`B=0`$) $`E_0=13.6`$meV and a Landau level broadening $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.3`$meV in the 3D emitter. The measured $`E_0=13.6`$meV agrees well with the expected electron concentration at the barrier derived from the doping profile in the electrodes.

For $`B>6`$ T only the lowest Landau level remains occupied. With a level broadening $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.3`$meV the Fermi level $`E_F`$ for 15 T $`<`$ B $`<`$ 30 T is within less than $`2`$meV pinned to the bottom of the lowest Landau band, $`E_L=\mathrm{}\omega _c/2`$. As a consequence the onset voltage shifts to lower values as $`\alpha e\mathrm{\Delta }V\mathrm{}\omega _c/2`$ with $`\alpha =0.34`$. The diamagnetic shift of the energy level in the dot can be neglected compared to this shift of the Fermi energy in the emitter. For the dot investigated in  with $`r_0=3.7`$ nm the diamagnetic shift at 30 T is $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_D=3.5`$ meV negligible compared to $`E_L=26`$meV.

The two distinct steps with onset voltages $`V_{}`$ and $`V_{}`$ originate from the spin-splitting of the energy level $`E_D`$ in the dot. Their distance $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_p`$ is given by the Zeeman splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_z=g_D\mu _BB=\alpha e\mathrm{\Delta }V_p`$ with an energy-to-voltage conversion factor $`\alpha =0.34`$ . As shown in Fig. 2c $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_p`$ is indeed linear in B, with a Landé factor $`g_D=0.8`$ in agreement with other experiments on InAs dots .

For low magnetic fields ($`B9`$T in our case, see graph for $`B=9T`$ in Fig. 2a) the size of the steps is very similar for both spins and about half of the size at zero field. Also the slight overshoot in the current as the signature of a Fermi edge singularity is similar for both spin orientations and comparable to the zero field case with an edge exponent $`\gamma <0.05`$ for all magnetic fields $`B<10`$T.

The form of the current steps changes drastically in high magnetic fields where only the lowest Landau level of the emitter remains occupied. In particular, the second current step at higher voltage evolves into a strongly enhanced peak with a peak current of one order of magnitude higher compared to the zero-field case.

Following  we assume that $`g_D`$ is positive whereas the Landé factor in bulk GaAs is negative. This assumption is verified by the fact that the energetically lower lying state (first peak in Fig. 3) is thermally occupied at higher temperatures and can therefore be identified with the minority spin in the emitter.

The strongly enhanced current peak at higher energies is due to tunneling through the spin state corresponding to the majority spin (spin up) in the emitter. The resulting spin configuration is scetched in the inset of Fig. 2a and will also be confirmed below by our theoretical results.

The shape of this current peak can be described by a steep ascent and a more moderate decrease of the current towards higher voltages. Down to temperatures $`T<100`$ mK the steepness of the ascent is only limited by thermal broadening. The decrease of the current for $`V>V_0`$ is again described with the characteristic behavior for a Fermi-edge singularity, $`I(VV_0)^\gamma `$, where $`V_0`$ here is the voltage at the maximum peak current.

However, along with the drastic increase of the peak current the edge exponent $`\gamma `$ increases dramatically reaching a value $`\gamma >0.5`$ for the highest fields.

A different way to visualize the signature of a FES is a temperature dependent experiment. As an example we have plotted the $`I`$-$`V`$-curve at $`B=22`$ T for different temperatures in Fig. 3. As shown in the inset the peak maximum $`I_0`$ for the spin-up electrons decreases according to a power law $`I_0T^\gamma `$ with an edge exponent $`\gamma =0.43\pm 0.05`$. Such a strong temperature dependence is characteristic for a FES and allows us to exclude that pure density of states effects in the 3D emitter are responsible for the current peaks in high magnetic fields.

As shown in Fig. 3 an edge exponent $`\gamma =0.43`$ also fits within experimental accuracy the observed decrease of the current for $`V>V_0`$.

It is not possible to extract the edge exponent for the minority spin directly from temperature dependent experiments. At high magnetic fields the observed increase of the current with increasing temperature is mainly caused by an additional thermal population of the minority spin in the emitter. The general form of the curve is merely affected by temperature. Therefore, the edge exponent can only be gained from fitting the shape of the current peaks.

A compilation of the edge exponents $`\gamma `$ for various magnetic fields and both spin orientations is shown in Fig. 4.

For the data related to the majority spin two independent methods were used to extract $`\gamma `$. For the minority spin only fitting of the shape of the $`I`$-$`V`$-curves was used.

For a theoretical description of these effects we consider a 3D electron gas in the half space $`z<0`$. In a sufficiently strong magnetic field $`B||\widehat{z}`$ all electrons are in the lowest Landau level. This defines a set of one-dimensional channels with momentum $`\mathrm{}k`$ perpendicular to the boundary. This situation is different from the cases considered for scattering off point defects as in Refs.  or for a 2D electron gas where the current is carried by edge states . The single particle wave functions in channel $`m0`$ are $`\psi _m(\rho ,\varphi )\mathrm{sin}kz`$ with $`\psi _m(\rho ,\varphi )\rho ^m\mathrm{exp}(im\varphi \rho ^2/4\mathrm{}_0^2)`$. In the experiments the magnetic length $`\mathrm{}_0=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/eB}`$ ($`\mathrm{}_0=5.6`$ nm at 20 T) is comparable to the lateral size of the QD $`2r_07`$ nm. Hence the effect of the electrostatic potential of a charged dot on the electrons in a given channel of the emitter decreases rapidly with $`m`$, and the observed FES are mainly due to tunneling of electrons from the $`m=0`$ channel into the dot. Following  tunneling processes of spin $`\sigma `$ electrons from the $`m=0`$ state in the emitter give rise to a FES with edge exponent

$$\gamma _\sigma =\frac{2}{\pi }\delta _0(k_{F\sigma })\frac{1}{\pi ^2}\underset{m}{}\underset{\tau =,}{}\left(\delta _m(k_{F\tau })\right)^2$$
(1)
where $`\delta _m(k)`$ is the Fermi phase shift experienced by the electrons in the $`m`$-th channel due to the potential of the quantum dot . From (1) the observed field dependence of the edge exponents is a consequence of the variation of the Fermi momenta for spin-$`\sigma `$ electrons with magnetic field *and* the field dependence of the effective potential in the one-dimensional channels. The former can be computed from the one-dimensional density of states (DOS) of the lowest Landau band

$$D(E,B)=\frac{e\sqrt{m^{}}}{(2\pi \mathrm{})^2}B\left(d(ϵ_{})+d(ϵ_{})\right).$$
(2)
Here $`ϵ_\sigma =E(\mathrm{}\omega _c\pm g^{}\mu _BB)/2`$ is the energy of electrons with spin-$`\sigma `$ measured from the bottom of the Landau band. $`g^{}0.33`$  is the effective Landé factor of the electrons in the emitter. The DOS for the spin-subbands is $`d(ϵ)=\sqrt{2}\mathrm{Re}(ϵ+i\mathrm{\Gamma })^{1/2}`$. Without broadening, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$, one has $`k_{F\sigma }=\pi ^2n\mathrm{}_0^2(1\pm b^3)`$ where $`n`$ is the 3D density of electrons and $`b`$ is the magnetic field measured in units of the field necessary for complete spin polarization of the 3D emitter. Using a Fermi energy $`E_0=13.6`$ meV and neglecting level broadening we find that only the lowest Landau level (*both spin states!*) is occupied for $`B_1>5.2`$ T. Including level broadening changes $`B_1`$ to a slightly higher value. With the known field dependence of the Fermi energy in the quantum limit we can calculate the field for total spin polarisation

$$B_{pol}=\left(\frac{16}{9\xi }\right)^{1/3}\frac{m^{}E_0}{\mathrm{}e}43\text{T}$$
(3)
with $`g^{}=0.33`$  and $`m^{}=0.067m_0`$. $`\xi =\frac{1}{2}|g^{}|m^{}/m_0`$ is the ratio between spin splitting and Landau level splitting.

To make contact to the experimental observations we have to specify the interaction of the screened charge on the QD and the conduction band electrons. A Thomas-Fermi calculation gives $`U(\rho ,z)=(2e^2\mathrm{exp}(\kappa z)/\kappa )(d/(\rho ^2+d^2)^{(3/2)})`$ . Here $`d=5\mathrm{nm}`$ is the width of the insulating layer and $`\kappa ^1=7\mathrm{nm}`$ is the Debye radius. The effective potential seen by electrons in channel $`m`$ is $`V_m\mathrm{exp}(\kappa z)/\kappa `$ with $`V_m=2e^2d𝑑\rho ^2|\psi _m(\rho ,\varphi )|^2/(\rho ^2+d^2)^{(3/2)}`$. For large $`\kappa `$ we obtain for the phase shift in the $`m=0`$ channel $`\delta _0(k)v_0f(B)k/\kappa `$ where

$$f(B)=\left(\frac{d}{\mathrm{}_0}\right)^2\left\{1\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2}}\frac{d}{\mathrm{}_0}\mathrm{e}^{\frac{d^2}{2\mathrm{}_0^2}}\mathrm{erfc}\left(\frac{d}{\sqrt{2}\mathrm{}_0}\right)\right\}$$
(4)
and $`v_0(m^{}e^2/\mathrm{}^2\kappa )(\kappa d)^2`$ up to a numerical factor. Similarly we obtain the integrated effect of the channels $`m>0`$ in (1). In Fig. 4 the resulting exponents $`\gamma _\sigma `$ obtained for $`\sigma =,`$ are shown for $`v_0=6.75`$ and a broadening $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.3`$ meV, respectively. The value used for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ reflects its realistic experimental value. $`v_0`$ is the only fit parameter.

Already the simple model with no level broadening ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0`$) is in good agreement with the experimentally measured edge exponents for both spin directions, especially in high magnetic fields where possible admixtures of higher Landau levels play a minor rule. Including level broadening leads to a less dramatic spin polarisation in the emitter and as a consequence smears out the field dependence of $`\gamma `$ for the minority spin. The basic features, however, remain unchanged. In particular, the edge exponent for the minority spin retains moderate values for high magnetic fields, whereas the edge exponent related to the majority spin shows a strong field dependence with very high values in high magnetic fields.

In conclusion we have evaluated experimental data concerning magnetic-field-induced FES in resonant tunneling experiments through InAs QDs. We have shown that the interaction between a localized charge and the electrons in the Landau quantized emitter leads to dramatic Fermi phase shifts if only the lowest Landau level in the 3D emitter is occupied. This results in edge exponents $`\gamma >0.5`$ which were measured and described theoretically.

We would like to thank H. Marx for sample growing, P. König for experimental support and F. J. Ahlers for valuable discussions. Part of this work has been supported by the TMR Programme of the European Union under contract no. ERBFMGECT950077. We acknowledge partial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Grants HA 1826/5-1 and Fr 737/3.


text:
# Is the Polarized Antiquark Sea in the Nucleon Flavor Symmetric?

## Abstract

We show that the model which naturally explains the $`\overline{u}\overline{d}`$ asymmetry in the nucleon and is in quantitative agreement with the Gottfried sum rule data, also predicts that in the proton $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}>0>\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}>\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}>\overline{d}\overline{u}>0`$. At the input scale, these results can be derived even analytically. Thus the violation of the flavor symmetry is more serious in the polarized case than in the unpolarized case. In contrast, many recent analyses of the polarized data have made a simplifying assumption that all the three $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}`$’s have the same sign and magnitude. We point out the need to redo these analyses, allowing for the alternate scenario as described above. We present predictions of the model for the $`W^{}`$ asymmetry in polarized $`pp`$ scattering, which can be tested at RHIC; these are quite different from those available in the literature.

PACS numbers: 14.20.Dh, 13.60.Hb, 13.88.+e

Keywords: polarized deep inelastic scattering, polarized pp collisions, polarized parton densities, antiquark flavor asymmetry, spin asymmetries, statistical model of the nucleon

Several comprehensive analyses of the polarized deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data, based on next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamics (QCD), have appeared recently . In these analyses the polarized parton density functions (PDFs) are either written in terms of the well-known parameterizations of the unpolarized PDFs or parameterized independently, and the unknown parameters are determined by fitting the polarized DIS data. Additional simplifying assumptions are often made; the one that has been widely used in the literature  is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}=\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}=\lambda \mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s},$$
(1)
with a positive $`\lambda `$ which is usually set equal to unity. Recently the HERMES and SMC collaborations  too analyzed their inclusive and semi-inclusive DIS data assuming all $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}`$’s to be of the same sign. The same assumption has also been used to make predictions for future accelerators; see e.g. . In some analyses , the nonsinglet PDFs $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_8`$ are assumed to differ only by a constant multiplicative factor (see (21) below).

In this paper, we examine these simplifying assumptions made in the literature. This is important because a similar ad hoc assumption about the flavor decomposition of the unpolarized antiquark sea, $`\overline{u}=\overline{d}`$, turned out to be wrong when accurate data on muon DIS became available , and the global analyses of the unpolarized data had to be redone. Here we derive a series of inequalities satisfied by the PDFs and point out the need to redo the global analyses of the polarized DIS data in the light of these inequalities, allowing in particular for the violation of the flavor symmetry in the polarized antiquark sea; see (20) below. We then present predictions of our model, which can be tested in polarized $`pp`$ scattering at RHIC, BNL. Finally, we describe other recent works on flavor asymmetry of polarized sea distributions.

We use the framework of the statistical model for polarized and unpolarized structure functions and PDFs of the proton and the neutron, which was presented recently . This model provided a natural explanation of the $`\overline{u}\overline{d}`$ asymmetry in the nucleon and was in quantitative agreement with the Gottfried sum rule data. Additionally, it reproduced the data on $`F_2^p(x,Q^2)`$ for $`0.00001<x<1`$ and $`2.5<Q^2<5000`$ GeV2, $`F_2^p(x)F_2^n(x),F_2^n(x)/F_2^p(x),xg(x),\overline{d}(x)\overline{u}(x),d(x)/u(x)`$, the fractional momentum of charged partons and the polarized structure functions $`g_1^{p,n}(x)`$, at various $`Q^2`$. Out of those, only the $`F_2^p`$ and $`(F_2^pF_2^n)`$ data, both at $`Q^2=4`$ GeV2 only, were used as an input to fix the model parameters, and all other results served as model predictions. In particular, the $`d(x)/u(x)`$ ratio in the limit $`x1`$ turned out to be 0.22 in good agreement with the QCD prediction 0.2 . At the input scale ($`Q^2=Q_0^2=M^2`$, where $`M`$ is the nucleon mass), all $`xq(x)`$ and $`x\overline{q}(x)`$ distributions were found to be valence-like, and $`xg(x)`$ was found to be constant in the limit $`x0`$. Thus the total number of gluons was logarithmically divergent providing a strong a posteriori justification for the statistical model ansatz . Contrary to the common practice, the polarized and unpolarized data were reproduced in a single framework and the simplifying assumption of charge symmetry was not made. Here we further explore the predictive power of the model.

If $`n_{\alpha (\overline{\alpha })()}`$ denotes the number of quarks (antiquarks) of flavor $`\alpha `$ and spin parallel (antiparallel) to the proton spin, then any model of PDFs in the proton has to satisfy the following constraints:

$`n_u+n_un_{\overline{u}}n_{\overline{u}}`$ $`=`$ $`2,`$ (2)
$`n_d+n_dn_{\overline{d}}n_{\overline{d}}`$ $`=`$ $`1,`$ (3)
$`n_s+n_sn_{\overline{s}}n_{\overline{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (4)
$`n_un_u+n_{\overline{u}}n_{\overline{u}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u},`$ (5)
$`n_dn_d+n_{\overline{d}}n_{\overline{d}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d},`$ (6)
$`n_sn_s+n_{\overline{s}}n_{\overline{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }s+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}.`$ (7)
The RHSs of (5)-(7) have been measured by several groups. We use $`(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u})=0.83\pm 0.03,(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})=0.43\pm 0.03,(\mathrm{\Delta }s+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s})=0.10\pm 0.03`$; see . The parton numbers $`n_{\alpha (\overline{\alpha })()}`$ in (2)-(7) are obtained by integrating the appropriate number density $`dn/dx`$ over $`x`$. The various $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s are also $`x`$-integrated quantities.

The RHSs of (2)-(4) are clearly $`Q^2`$-independent. The RHSs of (5)-(7) are also $`Q^2`$-independent in the jet and Adler-Bardeen (AB) schemes: Recall that the nonsinglets $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_3=(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u})(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_8=(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u})+(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})2(\mathrm{\Delta }s+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s})`$ are $`Q^2`$-independent in all renormalization schemes because of the conservation of the nonsinglet axial vector current, and the singlet $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }=(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u})+(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})+(\mathrm{\Delta }s+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s})`$ is $`Q^2`$-independent in the jet and AB schemes because of the Adler-Bardeen theorem . As a result, $`(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}),(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Delta }s+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s})`$ which can be expressed as linear combinations of $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_3,\mathrm{\Delta }q_8`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, are also $`Q^2`$-independent in these two schemes. In the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme, on the other hand, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is $`Q^2`$-independent at the leading order and only weakly $`Q^2`$-dependent at the next-to-leading order. Empirically too $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is found to be almost $`Q^2`$-independent; see e.g. Fig. 5 of . Hence in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme the RHSs of (5)-(7) are expected to be nearly $`Q^2`$-independent.

We now show how the statistical model naturally leads to a violation of the flavor symmetry in the unpolarized and polarized seas in the nucleon. Consider the following 6 equations:

$`2n_u2n_{\overline{u}}`$ $`=`$ $`2.83,`$ ()
$`2n_u2n_{\overline{u}}`$ $`=`$ $`1.17,`$ ()
$`2n_d2n_{\overline{d}}`$ $`=`$ $`0.57,`$ ()
$`2n_d2n_{\overline{d}}`$ $`=`$ $`1.43,`$ ()
$`2n_s2n_{\overline{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`0.10,`$ ()
$`2n_s2n_{\overline{s}}`$ $`=`$ $`0.10.`$ ()
These are obtained from (2)-(7) by linearly combining the latter set of equations in pairs. E.g. (8) and (9) are obtained by adding or subtracting (2) and (5).

It was shown in  that the parton number density $`dn/dx`$ in the infinite-momentum frame, at the input scale, is given by

$$\frac{dn}{dx}=\frac{M^2x}{2}_{xM/2}^{M/2}\frac{dE}{E^2}\frac{dn}{dE},$$
(8)
where

$$dn/dE=gf(E)(VE^2/2\pi ^2+aR^2E+bR),$$
(9)
is the density in the nucleon rest frame. Here $`M`$ is the nucleon mass, $`E`$ is the parton energy in the nucleon rest frame, $`g`$ is the spin-color degeneracy factor, $`f(E)`$ is the usual Fermi or Bose distribution function $`f(E)=\{\mathrm{exp}[(E\mu )/T]\pm 1\}^1`$, $`V`$ is the nucleon volume and $`R`$ is the radius of a sphere with volume $`V`$. The three terms in (14b) are the volume, surface and curvature terms, respectively; in the thermodynamic limit only the first survives. The two free parameters $`a`$ and $`b`$ in (14b) were determined in  by fitting the structure function $`F_2(x,Q^2)`$ data at $`Q^2=4`$ GeV2. Their values as well as the values of the temperature $`(T)`$ and chemical potential $`(\mu )`$ which get determined due to (2)-(7), were given in .

At the input scale, with the help of (14), (8) can be written in a full form as

$$_0^1𝑑x\frac{M^2x}{2}_{xM/2}^{M/2}\frac{dE}{E^2}g(VE^2/2\pi ^2+aR^2E+bR)\left[\frac{2}{e^{\beta (E\mu _u)}+1}\frac{2}{e^{\beta (E\mu _{\overline{u}})}+1}\right]=2.83.$$
(10)
It is straightforward to show that the chemical potentials for quarks and antiquarks satisfy the relations

$`\mu _{\overline{q}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _q,`$ ()
$`\mu _{\overline{q}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mu _q.`$ ()
So it follows from (15) and (16b) that $`\mu _u>0`$. Similar arguments show that $`\mu _u,\mu _d,\mu _d`$ and $`\mu _s`$ are positive and $`\mu _s`$ is negative. Moreover, since the RHSs of (12) and (13) differ only in sign, we have $`\mu _s=\mu _s`$. Since RHSs of (8)-(13) can be arranged as $`2.83>1.43>1.17>0.57>0.10>0.10`$, the corresponding chemical potentials satisfy

$$\mu _u>\mu _d>\mu _u>\mu _d>(\mu _s=\mu _{\overline{s}})>0>(\mu _s=\mu _{\overline{s}})>\mu _{\overline{d}}>\mu _{\overline{u}}>\mu _{\overline{d}}>\mu _{\overline{u}}.$$
(11)
It will be useful to recall the actual values of the $`\mu `$’s given in . They are (in MeV) $`\mu _u=210,\mu _d=106,\mu _u=86,\mu _d=42,\mu _s=7,\mu _s=7.`$ $`\mu `$’s for the antiquarks follow from (16). \[The RHSs of (8)-(13) are sufficiently different from each other so that the experimental errors in $`(\mathrm{\Delta }q+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q})`$, quoted above, will not alter the ordering in (17).\] (17) together with (14) yields, at the input scale $`Q_0^2(=M^2=0.88`$ GeV2):

$$n_u>n_d>n_u>n_d>(n_s=n_{\overline{s}})>(n_s=n_{\overline{s}})>n_{\overline{d}}>n_{\overline{u}}>n_{\overline{d}}>n_{\overline{u}}>0.$$
(12)
As a check, it is easy to verify that (18) reproduces the correct signs of the RHSs of (2)-(7). Notice the symmetric arrangement of the $`\mu `$’s in (17) and the consequent arrangement of the $`n`$’s in (18).

To recapitulate, the statistical model provides a quantitative method to incorporate the effects of the Pauli exclusion principle into the PDFs: the RHSs of the number constraints (2)-(7) or equivalently (8)-(13), force the various chemical potentials and hence the parton distributions to be arranged as in (17) and (18), respectively, at the input scale.

Further consequences of (18) are easy to derive: (Note $`n_q=n_q+n_q`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }q=n_qn_q`$.)

(a) The general positivity constraints on the polarized and unpolarized PDFs: $`|\mathrm{\Delta }q|n_q`$ are satisfied trivially.

(b) $`\mathrm{\Delta }u>0,\mathrm{\Delta }d<0,\mathrm{\Delta }s<0`$.

(c) $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}>0,\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}<0,\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}<0`$. This is in contrast to the assumption (1) made in the literature  that all the three $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}`$’s have the same sign.

(d) $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_v=\mathrm{\Delta }u\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}=n_un_un_{\overline{u}}+n_{\overline{u}}>0`$, because the two $`n_{\overline{u}}`$ terms are too small compared to the two $`n_u`$ terms (see (18)) to change the sign of the RHS.

(e) $`\mathrm{\Delta }d_v=\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}=n_dn_dn_{\overline{d}}+n_{\overline{d}}<0`$, because the two $`n_{\overline{d}}`$ terms are too small compared to the two $`n_d`$ terms (see (18)) to change the sign of the RHS.

(f) $`\mathrm{\Delta }s_v=\mathrm{\Delta }s\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}=0`$.

(g) $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_3=(\mathrm{\Delta }u+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u})(\mathrm{\Delta }d+\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d})>0`$; see (b)-(c).

(h) $`n_{\overline{d}}>n_{\overline{u}}`$ which leads to the Gottfried sum rule violation. Thus the statistical model naturally leads to the $`\overline{u}\overline{d}`$ asymmetry in the unpolarized sea . Moreover, it was shown in  that the model is in quantitative agreement with the data on $`(F_2^pF_2^n)`$ vs $`x`$ and the Gottfried sum $`S_G`$.

(i) $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}>n_{\overline{d}}n_{\overline{u}}>0`$. Thus the violation of the flavor symmetry is more serious in the polarized case than in the unpolarized case.

(j) $`\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }s=n_dn_dn_s+n_s<0`$, because $`n_s`$ and $`n_s`$ tend to cancel each other, unlike $`n_d`$ and $`n_d`$. Combining this result with (b) above, one gets $`|\mathrm{\Delta }d|>|\mathrm{\Delta }s|`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }u>0>\mathrm{\Delta }s>\mathrm{\Delta }d.$$
(13)
(k) $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}=n_{\overline{d}}n_{\overline{d}}n_{\overline{s}}+n_{\overline{s}}<0`$, because $`n_{\overline{s}}`$ and $`n_{\overline{s}}`$ tend to cancel each other, unlike $`n_{\overline{d}}`$ and $`n_{\overline{d}}`$. Combining this result with (c) above, one gets $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}|>|\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}|`$, and

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}>0>\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{s}>\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}.$$
(14)
We have derived the results (a)-(k) analytically, at the input scale. They are borne out by actual numerical calculations; see Fig. 1 which shows our polarized PDFs at the input scale $`Q_0^2=M^2=0.88`$ GeV2. We have evolved our polarized PDFs in the next-to-leading-order QCD, in the $`\overline{MS}`$ scheme, in the range $`Q_0^2<Q^2<6500`$ GeV2. We find that the results (a)-(k) are valid throughout this range. Figure 2 shows that the violation of the flavor symmetry is more serious in the polarized case than in the unpolarized case, throughout this range.

Incidentally, we have examined another simplifying assumption made e.g. in , namely

$$\mathrm{\Delta }q_3(x,Q^2)=C\mathrm{\Delta }q_8(x,Q^2),$$
(15)
where C is a constant independent of $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$. The present model predicts that (21) is not justified (Fig. 1).

The statistical model makes concrete predictions for various asymmetries in polarized $`pp`$ scattering, which can be tested at RHIC. For example, parity-violating single- and double-spin asymmetries for $`W`$ production in the reactions $`\stackrel{}{p}pW^\pm X`$ and $`\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{p}W^\pm X`$ respectively, are given by

$`A_L^{PV}(W^+)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }u(x_a,M_W^2)\overline{d}(x_b,M_W^2)\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}(x_a,M_W^2)u(x_b,M_W^2)}{u(x_a,M_W^2)\overline{d}(x_b,M_W^2)+\overline{d}(x_a,M_W^2)u(x_b,M_W^2)}},`$ ()
$`A_L^{PV}(W^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}d+\mathrm{\Delta }d\overline{u}}{\overline{u}d+d\overline{u}}},`$ ()
$`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^+)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }u\overline{d}u\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}u+\overline{d}\mathrm{\Delta }u}{u\overline{d}\mathrm{\Delta }u\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}+\overline{d}u\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}\mathrm{\Delta }u}},`$ ()
$`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}dd\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}+\mathrm{\Delta }d\overline{u}}{\overline{u}d\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }d+d\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }d\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}}},`$ ()
where $`x_a=\sqrt{\tau }e^y,x_b=\sqrt{\tau }e^y,\tau =M_W^2/s`$, $`y`$ is the rapidity of $`W`$ and $`\sqrt{s}`$ is the $`pp`$ center-of-mass energy. The arguments $`x_a,x_b`$ and $`M_W^2`$ are suppressed in (23)-(25) for brevity of notation.

In the present model, $`\mathrm{\Delta }u`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}`$ are positive and $`\mathrm{\Delta }d`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}`$ are negative (see (b), (c) and Fig. 1). Also note that $`\mathrm{\Delta }uu`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}|\overline{d}`$ (see (a) above). Hence it is straightforward to show that $`0<A_L^{PV}(W^+)<1`$. Similarly, $`1<A_L^{PV}(W^{})<0,A_{LL}^{PV}(W^+)>0,A_{LL}^{PV}(W^{})<0.`$ It is somewhat tedious but again straightforward to show using (22)-(25) that $`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^+)>A_L^{PV}(W^+)`$ and $`|A_{LL}^{PV}(W^{})|>|A_L^{PV}(W^{})|`$. A quick and crude way to convince oneself that $`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^+)>A_L^{PV}(W^+)`$ is to ignore the (small) “$`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Delta }`$” terms in the denominator of (24), which makes the denominators of (22) and (24) identical, and then to compare their numerators. In fact, at $`y=0`$ (or $`x_a=x_b`$), $`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^+)`$ is seen to be almost twice as big as $`A_L^{PV}(W^+)`$.

Figure 3 shows our predictions for $`A_L^{PV}`$ and $`A_{LL}^{PV}`$ for $`W^{}`$ production in polarized $`pp`$ scattering at $`\sqrt{s}=500`$ GeV, as a function of the rapidity $`y`$. The above inequalities for $`A_L^{PV}(W^{})`$ and $`A_{LL}^{PV}(W^{})`$, which we derived analytically here are borne out by the actual numerical results in Fig. 3. Also shown for comparison are results reported in . These are based on the parameterizations of polarized PDFs given in . Asymmetries for $`W^{}`$ production are sensitive to the sign of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}`$ which is positive in the present model, negative in  and $`x`$-dependent in . The recent work of de Florian and Sassot  has yielded a clear preference for a positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}`$ distribution.

As stated earlier, the HERMES and SMC collaborations  analyzed their inclusive and semi-inclusive DIS data assuming all $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{q}`$’s to be of the same sign. Recently, Morii and Yamanishi  have reanalyzed these data and have estimated $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}(x)\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}(x)`$ at $`Q^2=4`$ GeV2. It is evident from their Fig. 1 that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}(x)\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}(x)`$ is positive and has a peak at $`x0.06`$ where $`x(\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}(x)\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}(x))`$ is $`0.05`$. All these observations are consistent with our Fig. 2.

Another model which is able to generate flavor asymmetric polarized antiquark sea is the chiral quark soliton model (CQSM) . Results in our Fig. 2 are strikingly similar to those in . This is remarkable because the physics inputs of the two models are quite different. It is also noteworthy that the origin of the $`\overline{u}\overline{d}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{u}\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{d}`$ asymmetries is quite simple in the statistical model. While the role of gluons is yet to be understood in CQSM, the statistical model predicts a positive $`\mathrm{\Delta }g(x,Q^2)`$. The pion cloud model also gives rise to the $`\overline{u}\overline{d}`$ asymmetry, \[for a recent review, see \], and there have been some attempts to generate polarization by including spin-1 resonances in that model. These attempts have been commented upon in . Recently, Glück and Reya  have discussed the issue of flavor asymmetry, in a phenomenological way making use of the Pauli exclusion principle. We recall that the statistical model  provides a quantitative method to incorporate the effects of the Pauli exclusion principle into the PDFs.

We have treated all partons as massless: $`m_u=m_d=m_s=0`$. If $`m_s`$ is taken to be nonzero, then (14) will have to be generalized, but the parton densities still have to satisfy (2)-(7) and equivalently (8)-(13). So it is not obvious how that will affect the symmetric arrangement of the $`\mu `$’s in (17) and the consequent arrangement of the $`n`$’s in (18), at the input scale. This is a nontrivial problem which needs to be investigated further.

In conclusion, we have derived, on rather general grounds, a series of inequalities for the polarized PDFs; see (a)-(k) above. This points to the need to redo the analyses  of polarized data, allowing for the alternate scenario as in (19)-(20). Some of the inequalities can be tested in the forthcoming spin-physics program at RHIC, BNL. To illustrate, we have given our predictions for the $`W^{}`$ asymmetries; these are quite different from those available in the literature.

I would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the Nuclear Theory Center, Indiana University where this work was initiated.