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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The study of the electroweak single top-quark physics is a very important part of research programs at future TeV energy colliders. Such a study allows to investigate with high enough accuracy properties of the top-quark and to measure a $`Wtb`$ coupling structure. It may shed a light on the underlying theory which probably stands beyond the Standard Model . Besides, single top production at LHC has a large rate of the order of 300 pb and therefore it gives an important part of the background to various ”new physics” processes.

In this paper we concentrated on the $`pptW+X`$ production process at the LHC. This process was the subject of the previous studies . In the paper  we have calculated $`tW+X`$ process among the others processes important at the Tevatron and LHC colliders. In order to separate $`tWb`$ process of the single top-quark production from the $`t\overline{t}`$ pair production we have introduced a cut on the invariant $`Wb`$ mass window $`(^{}approachI^{})`$. In the paper  the cross section of $`tW`$ process was calculated in a different approach where $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution was subtracted from $`tWb`$ process in the narrow width approximation ($`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$). However, both approaches have different drawbacks and have some aspects which have been treated not quite correctly. Therefore it deserves closer look at the process.

In $`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$ results are formally $`|m_{WB}m_{top}|`$ cut dependent. In the paper  this cut was chosen too modest from the experimental point of view ($`|m_{WB}m_{top}|<3\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$) since the real experimental mass window for the top-quark is of the order of 20 GeV $`1015\mathrm{\Gamma }_t`$. This was pointed out in the paper . However, in the present study we give the pure theoretical arguments how the cut should be chosen and explain why it has to be significantly larger than the top width. This cut should be of the order of $`20`$ GeV even in case of an ideal detector. After that it will be clear that a formal cut dependence is significantly reduced. Specially one should stress that the ($`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$) reproduces $`correctly`$ kinematical distributions which is the crucial point for a phenomenological analysis.

The $`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$ in it’s turn is cut independent but it does not have receipt how to simulate $`Wtb`$ events at all. In the paper  the only $`22`$\[$`Wt`$\] process ($`bgWt`$) has been used for an event simulation. However in this case an important part of $`Wtb`$ events are absent and such an implementation of the $`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$ leads to the wrong kinematical distributions for $`tW+X`$ process. For the numerical values of the cross section the QCD scale $`\widehat{s}`$ has been used. But one should point out that such a scale is too large and leads to significantly lower rate even for top quark pair production as we know from NLO calculations . For single top $`Wt`$ process NLO results have not been obtained yet, however one would expect lower characteristic scale comparing to top pair.

In this paper we have been developed the $`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$. We apply the reasonable $`|m_{WB}m_{top}|`$ cut consistent with theoretical arguments and an experimental mass resolution for top-quark. We have calculated also the cross sections using $`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$ for the cross check.

For both methods one needs to apply subtraction procedure to avoid double counting. We have suggested the new procedure of the combining of the two different processes. This method implies the correct subtraction procedure, reproduces the correct kinematical properties in the whole phase space region, and gives stable results.

Our paper is organised as follows. In the section II we compare two different approaches of a subtraction of $`t\overline{t}`$ pair production from the process with $`tWb`$ final state. In section III we develop the new approach for a treatment of double counting and combining two signal processes together. In section IV we present the final results and draw the conclusions.

## 2 Leading order $`22`$ and $`𝒪`$($`1/logm_t^2/m_b^2`$) $`23`$ process: subtraction of $`t\overline{t}`$ pair production

In Fig. 1 we present the complete gauge invariant set of leading order and $`𝒪`$($`1/logm_t^2/m_b^2`$) diagrams contributing to the $`tW+X`$ final state.

There are two problems one should avoid in order to combine correctly different contributions to the $`tW`$ single top production: one should remove the contribution from $`t\overline{t}`$ production, giving the same $`tWb`$ final state and take care about the double counting which takes place when one simply adds contribution from two $`22`$ and $`23`$ processes.

This happens because $`23`$ process is singular in the region of collinear b-quarks coming from gluon splitting. The same singularity has been resolved for $`22`$ process when b-quark PDF was defined and collinear contributions of b-quark was resumed. The contribution from the collinear region should be taken only once, and therefore one should apply a subtraction procedure. It should be noticed that $`22`$ and $`23`$ processes have overlapping only for the leading log gluon splitting term.

In this section we would like to compare two different approaches of solving the first problem – subtracting the contribution from the top-quark pair production. As for double counting, we use the conventional solution in this section , namely, we use the subtraction of gluon splitting term:

$$\sigma (gb+ggtW+X)_{real}=\sigma (gbtW)+\sigma (ggtW\overline{b})\sigma (gb\overline{b}gbtW)$$
(1)
As it was mentioned in the introduction, there are two basic approaches to remove the contribution from top-quark pair production in a gauge invariant way. The first ($`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$), is the application of the cut on the invariant mass of $`Wb`$– pair in order to remove the resonant $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution. This procedure is cut dependent, but it has the straightforward receipt how to simulate single-top quark production events with the proper kinematics. One should note however that the cut dependence is not arbitrary since the cut should be applied according to well known mass resolution  which is typically 10-15 GeV. In terms of the top-quark width the window cut should be applied to remove the $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution would be of the order of $`\pm 20`$ GeV $``$ $`1015\mathrm{\Gamma }_{top}`$.

The second ($`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$) way of subtraction of $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution is the narrow width limit approach :

$$\sigma (ggtWb)_{singletop}=\sigma (ggtWb)_{total}\sigma (ggt\overline{t})Br(tWb)interf[t\overline{t}tWb],$$
(2)
where $`interf[t\overline{t}tWb]`$ means interference of $`t\overline{t}`$ diagrams with the non-resonant ones. This procedure formally should reproduce the correct production rate for the single top quark. But from the practical point of view, it does not give any receipt how to simulate events of the single top-quark production which is crucial for the further kinematical studies.

Table 1 shows the results for two methods of subtraction of the $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution. In order to give the idea how strong is the dependence on the $`Wb`$ invariant mass we present numbers for two – $`10`$ and $`15\mathrm{\Gamma }_{top}`$ window cuts which corresponds to $`\pm 16`$ and $`24`$ GeV mass windows respectively. All the numerical results have been obtained by means of the program CompHEP .

Results in the table are shown for several characteristic QCD factorisation/normalisation scales: $`Q=m_W,m_{top},m_{top}+m_W`$ GeV which give a natural scale interval for the process under study. We also show in the last column the results at $`Q^2=\widehat{s}`$ for a comparison to previous calculations. From the table one can see that the subtraction term $`gb\overline{b}(gb+bg)tW^{}`$ is of the order of $`80\%`$ of $`(gb+bg)W^{}t`$ cross section. One can also see that $`{}_{}{}^{}approachII^{}`$ of subtraction of $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution gives cross section for $`W^{}t+X`$ process consistent with the $`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$ for $`\pm 15\mathrm{\Gamma }_{top}`$ $`W^{}b`$ mass window cut. For example, one has 31.0 and 28.9 pb respectively for these two methods at $`\mu =m_{top}`$. Since the $`{}_{}{}^{}approachI^{}`$ is more physical in the sense that it allows to reproduce the correct kinematical distribution we use it with $`\pm 15\mathrm{\Gamma }_{top}`$ $`W^{}b`$ mass window cut for the final results. One could also take a look at the $`Wb`$ invariant mass distribution at the parton level which is presented in Fig. 2. From this figure one can clearly see that $`25GeVWb`$ mass window would completely remove $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution with its interference to the $`ggtW^{}\overline{b}`$ processes.

One could easily perform the fitting procedure which leads to the more quantitative answer about the size of this window and gives those 25 GeV. This procedure significantly reduce the ambiguity of the choice of this window cut which is also of the order of the experimental mass resolution mentioned above.

Contribution from $`qqtWb`$ process has been also taken into account in our study. The contribution from this process is not negligible and is of the order of 7% to the $`tWb`$ final state after the removing $`t\overline{t}`$ contribution.

One should also notice that cross sections are quite scale dependent. For three QCD scales: $`Q=m_W,m_{top},m_{top}+m_W`$ GeV the uncertainty due to the choice of different scales are of the order of 25-30%. The choice of the scale $`Q=\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ gives significantly lower results. But we should stress that high QCD scale $`Q=\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ seems to be unphysical since it gives almost factor two lower cross section even for $`t\overline{t}`$ production at tree level in comparison with the next-to-leading(NLO) order result . For $`Q=m_{top}=175`$ GeV tree level result is much close to NLO one. Therefore it is quite reasonable to use $`Q=m_{top}=175`$ GeV choice for the processes involving single top-quark production for which the physical scale could be even smaller then for the $`t\overline{t}`$ pair production.

## 3 Treatment of the double counting: comparison and combining of the $`Wt`$+ISR and complete $`tWb`$ processes

In this section we would like make close look at the solution of the double counting problem.

Results from in Table 1 have been obtained using ’conventional’ subtraction procedure. However one need to study how $`22`$ and $`23`$ processes should be combined in order to reproduce not only the total cross section but also the correct event kinematics.

We have used the following procedure to work out the receipt for this. We have compared various kinematical distributions of $`pp(bg)tW^{}`$\+ $`b_{ISR}`$$`22`$ process with an additional b-quark from the initial state radiation and complete $`23`$$`pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b}`$ process. In this way one can try to find a proper matching between resumed contribution at the collinear region for the b-quark and complete tree level contribution at the hard region. Figure 3 shows transverse momenta and rapidity distributions for all three particles in the final state. As expected one can see the difference in the b-quark distributions. For $`pp(bg)tW^{}`$\+ $`b_{ISR}`$ process it is much softer and less central in comparison to the $`pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b}`$ process. In the same time one can see that $`Wboson`$ and $`t`$quark distributions are nearly the same.

Since we know the absolute value of the combined cross section we propose the following method to match collinear and hard kinematical regions. One can use kinematical $`p_T^b`$ separation of $`pp(bg)tW^{}`$\+ $`b_{ISR}`$ and $`pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b}`$ in the regions $`p_T^b<P_T^{cut}`$ and $`p_T^b>P_T^{cut}`$ respectively.

Now one can move the cut and try to satisfy two requirements, namely:
1) the common rate of $`pp(bg)tW^{}`$\+ $`b_{ISR}`$ with $`p_T^b<P_T^{cut}`$ and $`pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b}`$ with $`p_T^b>P_T^{cut}`$ gives the combined total rate computed in previous section, in other words one can normalise a rate in a collinear region on the $`\sigma _{total}\sigma [pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b},p_T^b>P_T^{cut}]`$;
2) the overall $`p_T^b`$ distribution should be smooth.
The result is illustrated in Fig. 4 where we show several variants of combining those two processes for various values of $`P_T^{cut}`$. We have found that the optimal $`P_T^{cut}`$ providing the smooth sewing for these two processes at the LHC is equal to 20 GeV. This value gives physically reasonable answer in which regions $`pp(bg)tW^{}+b_{ISR}`$ and $`pp(gg+q\overline{q})tW^{}\overline{b}`$ processes should be considered.

We conclude that the method of combining of the $`p_T^b`$ distribution of $`Wt`$+ISR gluon and complete tree level $`tWb`$ process allows to find the physically motivated $`p_T`$ cut on the $`bquark`$ which allows us to treat together those processes and simulate them in different kinematical regions of $`p_T^b`$.

We have estimated uncertainties due to a the choice of the QCD scale within the range $`M_W<\mu <M_{TOP}+M_W`$ taking the central value of $`\mu =M_{TOP}`$. The total cross section presented in Table 1 is $`31.0_{1.8}^{+8.3}`$ pb within the QCD scale mentioned above.

## 4 Final results and conclusions

We have reexamined the $`tW+X`$ single top-quark production process which is important at the LHC. We have shown that $`23`$\[$`Wtb`$\] process has to be correctly taken into account with a proper subtraction of the top pair contribution and that it has qualitatively different kinematical distributions from the $`22`$\[$`Wt`$\] process.

We suggest the new method of ’kinematical’ sewing of two different processes contributing to the $`tW+X`$ productions using the transverse b-quark momenta distribution. This method allows unambiguously simulate correct kinematical distribution of the total process of $`tW+X`$ production in the whole kinematical region.

We have estimated the cross section of the single top $`tW+X`$ production taking into account uncertainties due to the choice of the QCD scale. The cross section for single top and single anti-top quark production – $`tW^{}+X`$ and $`\overline{t}W^++X`$ at the LHC are equal to each other in contrary to other processes of the single top-quark production. So, combined \[$`tW^{}+X`$ \+ $`\overline{t}W^++X`$\] cross section is $`62.0_{3.6}^{+16.6}`$ pb.

## Acknowledgements

We thank C.-P. Yuan for useful remarks and discussions. E.B. is grateful to the Russian Ministry of Science and Technologies, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 99-02-04011), INTAS-CERN Foundation (grant No 377), and the German Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (BMBF) (project no. HTE0499 Manakos) for partial financial support. E.B. would like to thank P. Manakos and Th. Ohl for their kind hospitality during a visit to Darmstadt University of Technology where the paper has been completed.


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# LMU-TPW 00-9UAHEP 00-4hep-th/0003116 A note on gravity-scalar fluctuations in holographic RG flow geometries

## 1 Introduction

The AdS/CFT correspondence  provides a powerful method for computing correlation functions of gauge invariant operators in $`𝒩=4`$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory (YM) in four dimensions at large $`N`$ and at strong ’t Hooft coupling. A question of obvious interest is to extend the correspondence and in particular the prescription for computing Green functions to a general class of theories without (or with spontaneously broken) superconformal invariance. Such theories have a renormalization group flow and they generically arise either from deforming YM away from the conformal point by adding to the Lagrangian IR relevant perturbations - or by giving vacuum expectation values to scalar fields -. In the gauged supergravity description the corresponding bulk geometries are supported in both cases by 4-dimensional Poincaré invariant kink solutions approaching asymptotically AdS space (see  for a recent extensive review of the subject).

Recently a gravity computation of some two-point correlation functions in field theories with renormalization group flow was presented in . This computation amounts to the study of the coupled gravity-scalar equations describing fluctuations of the scalars and the metric around a kink solution. The background scalars naturally fall into two classes: the scalars with a non-trivial dependence on the fifth dimension which, in the terminology of , are called “active” and the constant (or vanishing) “inert” scalars. In  striking differences between the expected correlation functions of YM operators dual to inert and to active scalars were observed. The correlation functions of the operators dual to the inert scalars are straightforward to compute and they provide a consistent description of the spectrum in the boundary field theory. Quite opposite, the correlation functions of the operators dual to active scalars were then found to be physically unreasonable. The authors of  suggested that this might be due to the presence of the metric singularity in the interior, which in turn might invalidate the standard AdS prescription for computing correlation functions. Adding the standard supplementary gravity boundary terms did not clarify the situation.

In this note we reconsider the two-point correlation functions for operators dual to active scalars. We use the Hamiltonian formulation of the AdS/CFT correspondence  to deal with boundary terms and the standard prescription for computing correlation functions in the gravity approximation . Another point of deviation from the analysis in  is our choice of gauge.

We start by analyzing the quadratic action for fluctuations of the scalar fields and the metric near their background values. All the boundary terms one could add to the gravity action are unambiguously fixed by the Hamiltonian version of the AdS/CFT correspondence  that requires the gravity action to be schematically of the form $`𝑑t(p\dot{q}H(p,q))`$, where $`H`$ is the Hamiltonian and $`t`$, the coordinate in the bulk direction, plays the role of the time. For the quadratic action this prescription implies that it does not contain any gravity or scalar fields with second derivative in the bulk direction. All such terms are integrated by parts and arising boundary terms are simply discarded.

For the sake of simplicity we consider the case of a unique active scalar $`\overline{\varphi }`$ and pick up the “almost” radial gauge for which the scalar fluctuation $`\varphi `$ is set to zero. The residual gauge symmetry is enough to decouple the transverse components of the graviton and it leads to the conservation law for the stress-energy tensor in the boundary field theory. Except for the traceless transverse graviton the only physical degree of freedom is then the trace of the graviton $`h`$ for which we obtain a very simple action, basically due to the existence of a superpotential.

The trace of the graviton is usually viewed as the gravity field dual to the trace of the stress-energy tensor in the field theory away from the conformal point. However, we show that by using a field redefinition one can recast the action for $`h`$ into the standard action for a scalar field $`s`$ in the kink background with some complicated potential. Depending of the form of the kink solution, the scalar $`s`$ may then be naturally interpreted as the dual either to the YM operator invoking RG flow or to the corresponding field theory operator with a non-trivial vacuum expectation value. The relation between $`h`$ and $`s`$ appears to be $`h\beta ^1s`$, where $`\beta `$ is the holographic beta function introduced in . We believe that a similar relation also occurs for general backgrounds with many active scalars .

We then consider the same two kink solutions as in . The first one corresponds to $`𝒩=4`$ SYM, perturbed by an operator of dimension 3, that flows in the IR to $`𝒩=1`$ SYM. The second kink involves one active scalar from the $`\mathrm{𝟐𝟎}`$ of $`SO(6)`$ and the corresponding dual flow describes the states on the Coulomb branch of $`𝒩=4`$ SYM, which is parametrized by the vacuum expectation value of one of the operators $`O_2=\mathrm{tr}(X^{(I}X^{J)})`$, where $`X^I`$ are YM scalars.

Evaluating the on-shell action for these supergravity solutions we find that in both cases the two-point functions exhibit the same behaviour as was found for the inert scalars in . Indeed, in the first case we get a discrete spectrum while in the second example the spectrum is continuous with a mass gap.

## 2 Gravity/active scalar system

Consider $`(d+1)`$-dimensional gravity, described by a metric $`G_{\mu \nu }`$ with signature $`(1,1,\mathrm{},1,1)`$, minimally coupled to scalar fields $`\phi ^I`$. The action is of the form 111Our conventions are: $`[_\mu ,_\nu ]V_\rho =R_{\mu \nu \rho }{}_{}{}^{\sigma }V_{\sigma }^{}`$ and $`R_{\mu \rho }=R_{\mu \nu \rho }^\nu `$.

$`S={\displaystyle d^{d+1}x\sqrt{G}\left(\frac{1}{4}R\frac{1}{2}G^{\mu \nu }_\mu \phi ^I_\nu \phi ^IV(\phi )\right)};`$ (2.1)
$`V(\phi )`$ is the scalar potential. The equations of motion that follow from this action are

$`R_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}G_{\mu \nu }R2_\mu \phi ^I_\nu \phi ^I+G_{\mu \nu }_\rho \phi ^I^\rho \phi ^I+2G_{\mu \nu }V=0,`$ (2.2)
$`^\mu _\mu \phi ^I{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\phi ^I}}=0.`$ (2.3)
They imply

$`R2_\rho \phi ^I^\rho \phi ^I=4{\displaystyle \frac{d+1}{d1}}V,`$ (2.4)
$`R_{\mu \nu }2_\mu \phi ^I_\nu \phi ^I={\displaystyle \frac{4V}{d1}}G_{\mu \nu }.`$ (2.5)
Let $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`\overline{\varphi }^I`$ be solutions of the equations of motion and decompose $`G_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`\phi `$ around their background values

$$G_{\mu \nu }=g_{\mu \nu }+h_{\mu \nu },\phi ^I=\overline{\varphi }^I+\varphi ^I.$$

Discarding total derivative terms, we find the following quadratic action for the fluctuations

$`S_2={\displaystyle d^{d+1}x\sqrt{g}}`$ $`[`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_\rho h_{\mu \nu }^\rho h^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\rho h_{\mu \nu }^\mu h^{\rho \nu }`$ (2.6)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}^\nu h^\mu h_{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_\mu h^\mu h+{\displaystyle \frac{2V}{d1}}h_{\mu \nu }^2{\displaystyle \frac{V}{d1}}h^2)`$ (2.7)
$`+`$ $`h^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi ^I_\nu \overline{\varphi }^I+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu h\varphi ^I^\mu \overline{\varphi }^I`$ (2.8)
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_\mu \varphi ^I^\mu \varphi ^I{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}V_{IJ}\varphi ^I\varphi ^J].`$ (2.9)
The covariant derivative $`_\mu `$ is with respect to the background metric $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ which is also used to raise and lower indices, $`h=h_\mu ^\mu `$, and we have introduced the notation

$$V_I=\frac{V}{\phi ^I}|_{\phi =\overline{\varphi }},V_{IJ}=\frac{^2V}{\phi ^I\phi ^J}|_{\phi =\overline{\varphi }}.$$

Within the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we are interested in background solutions which respect $`d`$-dimensional Poincaré invariance. Thus, we make an ansatz for the background solving (2.3) of the form

$`ds^2=dx_0^2+e^{2A(x_0)}\eta _{ij}dx^idx^j,`$ (2.10)
where $`\eta _{ij}`$ is the Minkowski metric and take $`\overline{\varphi }`$ to depend only on $`x_0`$.

The analysis of the action and the equations of motion is complicated by the fact that the scalar fields couple to the graviton already in the quadratic action. Therefore, the spectrum of the theory on this background cannot be readily read off the action or the equations. However, the problem of finding the spectrum of the theory can be simplified by an appropriate gauge choice. The quadratic action and the equations of motion are invariant under gauge transformations induced by reparametrizations:

$`\delta h_{\mu \nu }=_\mu \zeta _\nu +_\nu \zeta _\mu ,\delta \varphi ^I=\zeta ^\mu _\mu \overline{\varphi }^I.`$ (2.11)
One usually imposes the temporal gauge $`h_{0\mu }=0`$ and solves the constraints, i.e. the equations of motion for $`h_{0\mu }`$. This was done in . However, this gauge choice leads to a very complicated system of equations and, moreover, it was only possible to derive a third-order equation for scalar fields. On the other hand, the gauge transformations (2.11) of scalar fields show that on backgrounds with at least one nonvanishing field $`\overline{\varphi }^1\overline{\varphi }`$ one can impose the almost temporal gauge $`h_{0i}=0=\varphi `$. This gauge choice is very natural, because the combination $`\stackrel{~}{h}_{00}h_{00}2_0(\varphi /_0\overline{\varphi })`$ is gauge invariant, and one could express the action and the equations of motion in terms of $`\stackrel{~}{h}_{00}`$ rather than $`h_{00}`$. Then only the scalar fields change under gauge transformations.

For the sake of simplicity we restrict ourselves to considering the simplest case of one active scalar. Then the action depends only on $`h_{ij}`$ and $`h_{00}`$. It is convenient to introduce $`t_{ij}`$ via

$$h_{ij}=e^{2A}t_{ij},h^{ij}=e^{2A}t^{ij},tt_i^i=t_{ij}\eta ^{ij}.$$

In what follows we will not distinguish upper and lower indices. It is straightforward to derive

$`_0h_{00}=_0h_{00},_ih_{00}=_ih_{00},_0h_{0i}=0,`$ (2.12)
$`_ih_{0j}=e^{2A}_0A(\eta _{ij}h_{00}t_{ij}),_0h_{ij}=e^{2A}_0t_{ij},_ih_{kl}=e^{2A}_it_{kl}`$
and to cast the action (2.9) in the form

$`S_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle }d^{d+1}x{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{dA}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(_0t_{ij})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(_0t)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{2A}(_it_{kl})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_0^2At_{ij}^2`$ (2.13)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{2}}(_0A)^2t_{ij}^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_it_{kl}_kt_{il}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}_0^2At^2{\displaystyle \frac{d}{4}}(_0A)^2t^2`$ (2.14)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}t_i_jt_{ij}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{2A}(_it)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{2V}{d1}}t_{ij}^2{\displaystyle \frac{V}{d1}}t^2`$ (2.15)
$`+`$ $`h_{00}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1d}{2}}_0A_0t{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_0^2At{\displaystyle \frac{d}{2}}(_0A)^2t+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_i_jt_{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_i^2t{\displaystyle \frac{2V}{d1}}t\right)`$ (2.16)
$`+`$ $`h_{00}({\displaystyle \frac{d}{4}}_0^2A+{\displaystyle \frac{d^2}{4}}(_0A)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{d1}})h_{00}].`$ (2.17)
We see from this action that $`h_{00}`$ is a non-dynamical field, and can thus be integrated out. On the other hand we have the constraints that follow from the $`h_{0i}`$ equations of motion and from the equation for $`\varphi `$. They are

$`(1d)_0A_ih_{00}+_0(_it_jt_{ji})=0,`$ (2.18)
$`_0h_{00}_0\overline{\varphi }+2(d_0A_0\overline{\varphi }+_0^2\overline{\varphi })h_{00}_0t_0\overline{\varphi }=0.`$ (2.19)
These constraints allow us to express $`h_{00}`$ through $`t_{ij}`$ and therefore, they should be compatible with the equation of motion for $`h_{00}`$ that follows from (2.17).

From here on we restrict ourselves to the most interesting case $`d=4`$, and to a potential $`V(\phi )`$ which can be derived from a superpotential $`W(\phi )`$,

$$V(\varphi )=\frac{g^2}{8}\left(\frac{W}{\varphi }\right)^2\frac{g^2}{3}W^2.$$
(2.20)
All explicitly known backgrounds are obtained from such a potential. One can show , that any solution to the equations

$$_0A=\frac{g}{3}W,_0\overline{\varphi }=\frac{g}{2}\frac{W}{\overline{\varphi }},g=\frac{2}{L},$$
(2.21)
also satisfies the equations of motion (2.3). The length scale $`L`$ is related to the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ via $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=12/L^2=4V(\phi =0)`$. It is not difficult to verify that these relations lead to the identity

$`_0^2A+4(_0A)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}V=0.`$ (2.22)
This identity simplifies the action (2.17) considerably and it now takes the form

$`S_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle }d^5x{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{4A}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(_0t_{ij})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(_0t)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{2A}(_it_{kl})^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_kt_{kl}_it_{il}`$ (2.23)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}t_i_jt_{ij}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{2A}(_it)^2`$ (2.24)
$`+`$ $`h_{00}({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}_0A_0t+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_i_jt_{ij}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}e^{2A}_i^2t)Vh_{00}^2].`$ (2.25)
It is well-known (see, e.g. ) that the transverse traceless components of the metric fluctuations decouple, and are described by the same equation as a free minimally-coupled massless scalar in the background (2.10). The physical reason for the decoupling is that due to the Lorentz invariance the boundary stress tensor is conserved and, therefore, only the transverse traceless components can couple to it. For this reason it is convenient to introduce the following decomposition of the graviton

$$t_{ij}=t_{ij}^{}+t_{ij}^{||}+\frac{1}{4}h\eta _{ij}_i_jH.$$

Here $`t_{ij}^{}`$ is the traceless transverse part and $`t_{ij}^{||}`$ is a traceless longitudinal part given by

$`t_{ij}^{||}={\displaystyle \frac{_i}{\mathrm{}}}_kt_{jk}+{\displaystyle \frac{_j}{\mathrm{}}}_kt_{ik}2{\displaystyle \frac{_i_j}{\mathrm{}^2}}_k_mt_{km};`$ (2.26)
it satisfies $`_i_jt_{ij}^{||}=0`$.

Substituting this decomposition in the action one can easily see that the transverse traceless components do decouple, and in what follows we will drop them. Moreover, the longitudinal traceless components also decouple and the only remaining coupled fields are $`h`$ and $`H`$.

To analyze their action we introduce their Fourier transforms

$$t_{ij}(x_0,x)=\frac{1}{4\pi ^2}d^4pe^{ipx}t_{ij}(x_0,p),h_{00}(x_0,x)=\frac{1}{4\pi ^2}d^4pe^{ipx}h_{00}(x_0,p).$$

In momentum space the constraints (2.18) take the form

$`3_0Ah_{00}p_i+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}p_i_0hp_j_0t_{ij}^{||}=0.`$
From here one finds that

$$_0Ah_{00}=\frac{1}{4}_0h.$$
(2.27)
and $`t_{ij}^{||}`$ does not depend on $`x_0`$. Thus, $`t_{ij}^{||}`$ are not dynamical modes and do not couple to any operators in the boundary theory. They may therefore be omitted.

We are left with the graviton modes $`t_{ij}`$ of the form

$$t_{ij}=\frac{1}{4}\eta _{ij}h+p_ip_jH,$$

whose dynamics is described by the action

$`S_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle }dx_0d^4p{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{4A}[{\displaystyle \frac{3}{16}}(_0h)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{8}}p^2_0h_0H+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{32}}e^{2A}p^2h^2`$ (2.28)
$`+`$ $`h_{00}({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}_0A(_0h+p^2_0H)+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{8}}e^{2A}p^2h)Vh_{00}^2].`$ (2.29)
Making the following shift of $`h_{00}`$

$$h_{00}h_{00}+\frac{_0h}{4_0A},$$
(2.30)
we rewrite (2.29) as

$`S_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle }dx_0d^4p{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}e^{4A}[{\displaystyle \frac{3}{16}}(_0h)^2{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}p^2_0Ah_{00}_0H+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{32}}e^{2A}p^2h^2`$ (2.31)
$`+`$ $`(h_{00}+{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{4_0A}})({\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}_0A_0h+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{8}}e^{2A}p^2h)V(h_{00}+{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{4_0A}})^2].`$ (2.32)
Thus $`h_{00}`$ is a momentum for $`H`$ and the constraint (2.27), which, after the shift (2.30) reads $`h_{00}=0`$, shows that $`H`$ is not a dynamical field. So we can set $`h_{00}=0`$ and obtain, using again (2.22), the final action for $`h`$

$`S_2={\displaystyle 𝑑x_0d^4p\frac{1}{4}e^{4A}\frac{3}{64}\frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}\left((_0h)^2+e^{2A}p^2h^2\right)}.`$ (2.33)
Some comments are in order. The action (2.33) has the correct overall sign as $`_0^2A`$ is always negative . The terms in parentheses are exactly the same as for the transverse traceless components. Actually the only difference between the action (2.33) and the action for the transverse traceless components is in the factor

$$\frac{3}{16}\frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}=\frac{9}{32}(\frac{}{\overline{\varphi }}\mathrm{log}W)^2=\frac{1}{8}\left(\frac{d\overline{\varphi }}{dA}\right)^2=\frac{1}{8}\beta ^2,$$

where $`\beta =\frac{d\overline{\varphi }}{dA}`$ is the holographic beta function introduced in . One can remove this factor by rescaling $`h`$

$$h=\frac{8}{\beta }s=8\sqrt{\frac{2(_0A)^2}{3_0^2A}}s.$$

The new field $`s`$ is a scalar with proper transformation properties under reparametrizations, however, it has a complicated potential $`U(x_0)`$, and is described by the action

$`S_2={\displaystyle 𝑑x_0d^4p\frac{1}{2}e^{4A}\left((_0s)^2+(e^{2A}p^2+U(x_0))s^2\right)},`$ (2.34)
where

$`U(x_0)=2\left({\displaystyle \frac{A^{\prime \prime }}{A^{}}}\right)^22{\displaystyle \frac{A^{\prime \prime \prime }}{A^{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{A^{\prime \prime \prime }}{A^{\prime \prime }}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{A^{(iv)}}{A^{\prime \prime }}}+2{\displaystyle \frac{A^{\prime \prime \prime }A^{}}{A^{\prime \prime }}}4A^{\prime \prime }.`$ (2.35)
The appearance of the relative factor between $`h`$ and $`s`$ is indeed very natural, because the trace of the graviton $`h`$ is dual to the trace of the stress tensor and, as was discussed in , in a deformed conformal field theory we expect to have an operator relation

$$T_i^i(x)=\beta 𝒪(x),$$

where $`𝒪`$ is the operator responsible for the deformation of the conformal field theory. In other words, the coupling of $`h`$ to the trace of the stress-energy tensor is $`_\epsilon hT=_e\frac{1}{\beta }sT_\epsilon s𝒪`$. Therefore, we see that if $`h`$ is dual to the trace of the stress tensor then the scalar $`s`$ is dual to the operator $`𝒪`$.

It is worth noting that we have no linear term in the final action. Linear terms do not appear because they can come only from total-derivative bulk terms, but we omit any such a term following the prescription of . Moreover, according to , we do not need to add any boundary term to the actions (2.33) or (2.34), and these actions are appropriate for computing the 2-point function of the operator $`𝒪`$. The absence of linear terms leads to the vanishing of the one-point correlator of the operator $`𝒪`$ dual to the scalar $`s`$. This may look strange because one usually says that in a perturbed conformal field theory an operator dual to an active scalar has a nonvanishing one-point function. Nevertheless, we work in flat 4-dimensional space, and, therefore, we can always choose such a substraction scheme that a one-point function of any local operator vanishes. This seems to mean that the scalar $`s`$ is actually dual to the operator $`𝒪𝒪`$.

Deriving the action (2.33), we have not used the constraint (2.19) yet. One may wonder if this constraint imposes additional restrictions on admissible configurations of the gravity fields. In the appendix we show that this constraint follows from the equations of motion for $`h`$ and $`H`$, and from the $`h_{0i}`$-constraints (2.18), and, therefore, can be omitted.

Next we use the action (2.33) to compute 2-point functions in the two cases recently studied in . Recall that the 2-point functions of active scalars obtained in  appear to be problematic. We will see that action (2.33) in both cases leads to reasonable 2-point functions.

We begin with the case considered in section 3 of . The supergravity solution discussed there was found in , and describes the renormalization group flow of $`𝒩=4`$ SYM theory to $`𝒩=1`$ SYM theory at long distances. We refer the reader to  for details.

To simplify the equations of motion of the scalar field and its solution, a new coordinate $`u`$ was introduced in  such that

$$e^{2A}=\frac{u}{1u},\frac{du}{dx_0}=\frac{2}{L}(1u),\frac{dA}{dx_0}=\frac{1}{Lu}.$$

In this coordinate the boundary of the 5-d space is at $`u=1`$, and there is a singularity at $`u=0`$. With these formulas we rewrite the action (2.33) as

$`S_2={\displaystyle \frac{3}{64L}}{\displaystyle 𝑑ud^4pu^2\left((_uh)^2+\frac{p^2L^2}{4u(1u)}h^2\right)}={\displaystyle \frac{3}{64L}}{\displaystyle 𝑑ud^4p_u(u^2h_uh)},`$ (2.36)
where in the second step the equation of motion for $`h`$

$$_u^2h+\frac{2}{u}_uh\frac{p^2L^2}{4u(1u)}h=0$$
(2.37)
has been used. To compute the 2-point function we follow the standard AdS/CFT prescription . Imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions at $`u=1\epsilon ^2`$, we obtain the solution to (2.37), regular at $`u=0`$

$$h(u,p)=\frac{F(a_{},a_+;2;u)}{F(a_{},a_+;2;1\epsilon ^2)}h(p),$$
(2.38)
where

$$a_\pm =\frac{1}{2}(1\pm \sqrt{1p^2L^2})$$

and $`F(a,b;c,u)`$ is the hypergeometric function $`{}_{2}{}^{}F_{1}^{}`$. The 2-point function of $`h`$ in momentum space is given by the familiar formula

$`O(p)O(p)=\mathrm{lim}_{\epsilon 0}{\displaystyle \frac{3}{32L}}{\displaystyle \frac{_uF(a_{},a_+;2;u)}{F(a_{},a_+;2;u)}}|_{u=1\epsilon ^2}.`$ (2.39)
To find the 2-point function we need

$$\frac{d}{du}(uF(a,b;2;u))=F(a,b;1;u),F(a_{},a_+;2;1)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(2a_{})\mathrm{\Gamma }(2a_+)},$$

and the expansion

$$F(a_{},a_+;1;u)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(a_{})\mathrm{\Gamma }(a_+)}\left(2\mathrm{\Psi }(1)\mathrm{\Psi }(a_{})\mathrm{\Psi }(a_+)2\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{g}\epsilon +o(\epsilon )\right).$$

Then, omitting all terms polynomial in $`p`$, we find in the limit $`\epsilon 0`$

$`O(p)O(p)={\displaystyle \frac{3}{32L}}{\displaystyle \frac{p^2L^2}{4}}\left(\mathrm{\Psi }({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1\sqrt{1p^2L^2}))+\mathrm{\Psi }({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(1+\sqrt{1p^2L^2}))\right).`$ (2.40)
The correlator has a discrete spectrum of poles at $`p^2=4n(n+1)/L^2`$, $`n=0,1,\mathrm{}`$. A similar discrete spectrum was found in  by studying 2-point correlators of inert scalars. Thus contrary to the result in , we obtain for the active scalar a 2-point correlator with the expected behaviour.

Next we consider the second case, c.f. section 4 of , where the flow obtained in  was used to analyze the 2-point function of an active scalar. This flow changes the vacuum of $`𝒩=4`$ SYM which is now on the Coulomb branch.

A new coordinate $`v`$ was introduced  such that

$`e^{2A}={\displaystyle \frac{l^2}{L^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{v^{2/3}}{1v}},{\displaystyle \frac{dv}{dx_0}}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{L}}v^{2/3}(1v),{\displaystyle \frac{dA}{dx_0}}={\displaystyle \frac{v+2}{3Lv^{1/3}}},`$ (2.41)
$`l`$ is an additional length scale. As in the first example, the boundary of the 5-d space is at $`v=1`$, and there is a singularity at $`v=0`$.

First we check that our interpretation of the field $`s`$ as the dual to the operator $`O_2`$ in the YM is consistent. For the kink solution (2.41) there exists a limiting procedure  that allows one to remove the flow and to restore the AdS solution. This is a limiting case when $`\frac{l^2}{L^2}\xi ^2`$ becomes small while $`\frac{z}{L}=x`$ is kept fixed. The variable $`z`$ is introduced via

$$v=\mathrm{sech}^2\left(\frac{zl}{L^2}\right)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{ch}^2(\xi x)}=1\xi ^2x^2+\frac{2}{3}\xi ^4x^4+\mathrm{}$$

Clearly, in this limit

$$2A=\mathrm{log}\left(\xi ^2\frac{v^{2/3}}{1v}\right)\mathrm{log}(x^2),$$

and from $`\frac{dv}{dx_0}=\frac{2}{L}v^{2/3}(1v)`$ it follows that

$`dx_0={\displaystyle \frac{L}{x}}dx,`$ (2.42)
i.e. one recovers the standard AdS metric.

By using $`A^{}=dA/dx_0`$ from (2.41) together with (2.42) it is easy to find the leading terms of the derivatives

$$A^{}\frac{1}{L}+\frac{1}{9L}\xi ^4x^4;A^{\prime \prime }\frac{4}{9L^2}\xi ^4x^4;A^{\prime \prime \prime }\frac{4^2}{9L^3}\xi ^4x^4;A^{(IV)}\frac{4^3}{9L^4}\xi ^4x^4;$$
(2.43)
Since $`\beta \xi ^2`$, it vanishes in this limit.

Upon substituting (2.43) into (2.35) one gets $`U(x_0)=\frac{4}{L^2}+𝒪(\xi ^4)`$. Thus, in the limit $`\xi 0`$ the action (2.34) becomes

$`S_2={\displaystyle \frac{L^3}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑zd^4p\sqrt{g_a}\left(z^2(_zs)^2+z^2p^2s^24s^2\right)},`$ (2.44)
where $`g_a`$ is the determinant of the standard $`AdS`$ metric. Eq. (2.44) is the familiar action for the scalar field on the AdS space with mass $`m^2=4`$ that is dual to the YM operator $`O_2`$ of conformal weight $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2`$. It is worth noting that from the point of view of the 2-point correlator of the operator dual to the scalar $`s`$, the limit $`\xi 0`$ is equivalent to taking $`p^2`$ to infinity, i.e. to the UV limit. Therefore, this consideration shows that the 2-point correlator does not vanish, and behaves itself in the UV as expected from an operator of the UV conformal dimension $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2`$.

With the help of (2.41) we rewrite (2.34) as

$`S_2={\displaystyle \frac{l^4}{L^5}}{\displaystyle }dvd^4p{\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{(1v)}}((_vs)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{p^2L^4}{4l^2v^2(1v)}}s^2{\displaystyle \frac{3(42v+v^2)}{(v+2)^2v(1v)^2}}s^2.)`$ (2.45)
This action leads to the following equation of motion for $`s`$

$$_v^2s+\frac{2v}{v(1v)}_vs\frac{p^2L^4}{4l^2v^2(1v)}s+\frac{3(42v+v^2)}{(v+2)^2v(1v)^2}s=0.$$
(2.46)
The on-shell value of the action is

$`S_2={\displaystyle \frac{l^4}{L^5}}{\displaystyle d^4p\left(\frac{v^2}{1v}s_vs\right)_{v=1\epsilon ^2}}.`$ (2.47)
Equation (2.46) has four regular singular points, $`(2,0,1,\mathrm{})`$ and a closed form solution does not exist. But we can nevertheless analyze the behaviour of a solution in the neighbourhood of the physically relevant points at $`v=1`$ and at $`v=0`$. At $`v=1`$, the power series Ansatz $`s(v)=(1v)^\rho [1+a_1(1v)+𝒪((1v)^2)]`$ leads to the indicial equation $`\rho ^22\rho +1=0`$ with two degenerate solutions $`\rho =1`$. Thus, the general solution is of the form

$$s(v)=(1v)\left(c_1f_1(v)+c_2f_2(v)\mathrm{log}(1v)\right),$$
(2.48)
where $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ are power series in $`(1v)`$ with leading term 1.

A similar analysis at $`v=0`$ leads to an indicial equation with the two solutions

$$\rho _\pm =\frac{1}{2}\pm \frac{1}{2}\sqrt{1+\frac{p^2L^4}{l^2}}.$$

For generic parameters the two independent solutions are pure power series. Of these, the one for $`\rho _{}`$, is forbidden by regularity. Thus, the solution we are interested in has the general form

$$h(v)=cv^{\rho _+}(1+a_1v+a_2v^2+\mathrm{}).$$

It is regular at $`v=0`$ for space-like momenta ($`p^2>0`$). Note however that although the solution is not regular at the singularity $`v=0`$ if the momentum obeys $`0p^2<l^2/L^4`$, the $`v`$-integration, c.f. (2.47), gives a vanishing contribution at $`v=0`$ due to the factor $`v^2`$ in the numerator.

To find the 2-point function we need to analytically continue this solution to the neighbourhood of $`v=1`$. By comparing with the known solution of (2.46) in the UV limit $`p^2\mathrm{}`$ ($`\xi 0`$) we conclude that both constants $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ in (2.48) are nonvanishing. It is not difficult to compute the 2-point function in terms of these constants. By using the conventional rules of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we get

$`O(p)O(p)=\mathrm{lim}_{\epsilon 0}{\displaystyle \frac{2l^4}{L^5}}{\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{1v}}_vs_\epsilon (v)|_{v=1\epsilon ^2},`$ (2.49)
where

$$s_\epsilon (v)=\frac{(1v)\left(c_1f_1(v)+c_2f_2(v)\mathrm{log}(1v)\right)}{\epsilon ^2\left(c_1f_1(1\epsilon ^2)+c_2f_2(1\epsilon ^2)\mathrm{log}(\epsilon ^2)\right)}$$

is the solution of the equation of motion normalized to be 1 at $`v=1\epsilon ^2`$. The leading term in $`\epsilon `$, non-analytic in $`p^2`$, is

$`O(p)O(p)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{\epsilon ^4\mathrm{log}^2\epsilon }}{\displaystyle \frac{l^4c_1}{2L^5c_2}}.`$ (2.50)
The factor $`\frac{1}{\epsilon ^4\mathrm{log}^2\epsilon }`$ is the one that one expects in the 2-point correlator of a scalar field with the UV conformal weight 2 (see, e.g.  or appendix of ). Although we do not know the constants $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ explicitly, their $`p^2`$-dependence will be through $`\rho _+`$. We thus conclude, as in  for the case of the inert scalar, that the correlator has a continuous spectrum with a mass gap, $`m^2l^2/L^4`$, which vanishes in the limit $`\xi 0`$.

## 3 Conclusion

In this paper we studied graviton-scalar fluctuations in $`d=5`$ flow geometries which are dual to boundary field theories with RG flow. We showed that the analysis of the coupled gravity-scalar sector drastically simplifies by a choice of the almost radial gauge, where one of the active scalars vanishes, but the trace of the graviton $`h`$ remains dynamical. We considered in detail the simplest case of one active scalar, decoupled the graviton trace from the transverse traceless components, and obtained a very simple quadratic action for it. The Lagrangian of the graviton trace differs from the one of a minimally-coupled massless scalar field (e.g. dilaton) only by a factor which coincides with the square of the holographic beta function of the operator responsible for the deformation of the conformal field theory. This is a very natural result due to the operator relation $`T_i^i=_I\beta ^I𝒪^I`$ in a deformed CFT. We expect that a similar relation between the action for $`h`$ and the dilaton action also holds for the general case of many active scalars, where the factor would be given by the square of a “weighted” holographic beta function.

We fixed the form of the quadratic action by means of the Hamiltonian prescription  and used the action to compute 2-point functions of the graviton trace in two cases of flow geometries. In both cases we obtained physically reasonable functions which have the same momentum dependence as those of inert scalars. Thus, we successfully resolved the problem recently raised in .

It is worth noting that the geometries we considered have a curvature singularity in the interior and one would expect large string corrections to the 2-point functions, which could drastically change the behaviour of the correlators. Nevertherless, this seems not to happen because the curvature is small near the boundary, and the contribution of the vicinity of the singularity to the on-shell gravity action vanishes.

## Appendix AThe second constraint

Here we analyze the constraint (2.19) and show that it follows from (2.18) and the equations of motion. Since the equation of motion for $`\overline{\varphi }`$ is

$$\frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}=_0^2\overline{\varphi }+4_0\overline{\varphi }_0A,$$

eq.(2.19) can be written as

$`C=_0h_{00}_0\overline{\varphi }+2{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}}h_{00}_0t_0\overline{\varphi }.`$ (A.1)
By using the equation of motion for $`h_{00}`$ together with (2.18) we find

$$p^2_0H=_0h\frac{V}{3}\frac{_0h}{(_0A)^2}+\frac{1}{4}\frac{e^{2A}p^2h}{_0A}$$

and, therefore,

$$_0t=\frac{V}{3}\frac{_0h}{(_0A)^2}+\frac{1}{4}\frac{e^{2A}p^2h}{_0A}.$$

Taking into account that

$`_0h_{00}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2h}{_0A}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}}_0h`$
one finds

$`C=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2h}{_0A}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}}_0h{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{e^{2A}p^2h}{_0A}}+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{(_0A)^2}}\right)_0\overline{\varphi }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{_0A}}`$ (A.2)
From (2.33) one finds the equation of motion for $`h`$:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2h}{_0A}}2{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}}_0h{\displaystyle \frac{e^{2A}p^2h}{_0A}}=4_0h{\displaystyle \frac{_0^3A}{_0A_0^2A}}_0h.`$ (A.3)
Therefore, by virtue of this equation one obtains

$`C=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^2A}{(_0A)^2}}_0h_0h{\displaystyle \frac{_0^3A}{4_0A_0^2A}}_0h+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{(_0A)^2}}\right)_0\overline{\varphi }+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{_0A}}.`$ (A.4)
Recalling (2.22), one then finds

$`C={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\left(8{\displaystyle \frac{_0^3A}{_0A_0^2A}}\right)_0\overline{\varphi }_0h+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0h}{_0A}}.`$ (A.5)
Differentiating (2.22), one gets

$$_0^3A+8_0A_0^2A+\frac{4}{3}\frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}_0\overline{\varphi }=0$$

and, as a consequence,

$$C=\frac{1}{3}\frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}\frac{(_0\overline{\varphi })^2_0h}{_0A_0^2A}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}\frac{_0h}{_0A}=\frac{1}{2}\frac{V}{\overline{\varphi }}\frac{_0h}{_0A_0^2A}\left(\frac{2}{3}(_0\overline{\varphi })^2+_0^2A\right).$$

Finally, we have the relation

$`_0^2A={\displaystyle \frac{g}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{W}{\varphi }}_0\overline{\varphi }={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}(_0\overline{\varphi })^2.`$ (A.6)
Upon substituting this relation into the previous formula we find $`C=0`$. Thus, constraint (2.19) is compatible with the dynamics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to thank A. Tseytlin for useful comments. The work of G.A. was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and in part by the RFBI grant N99-01-00166, and the work of S.F. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under grant No. DE-FG02-96ER40967 and in part by RFBI grant N99-01-00190. S.T. is supported by GIF – the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research by the TMR programme ERBRMX-CT96-0045.


text:
# High Resolution Near-Infrared Spectra of Protostars

## 1 Introduction

The physical natures, evolutionary states, and circumstellar disks of classical T Tauri stars are becoming better understood due to recent spectroscopic observations, high resolution imaging, and advances in the theory of pre-main-sequence (PMS) evolution. However, the natures of the central stars and inner circumstellar environments of protostars are still not very well known. This is primarily because they are so heavily extinguished that they are difficult to observe even with modern instruments and detectors. For example, it is not known whether the central stars in protostellar objects differ substantially in effective temperature, radius, or rotation properties from classical T Tauri stars (CTTSs). The presence of protostellar envelopes, significantly higher accretion rates, and more powerful outflows suggest that the photospheres of protostellar cores may indeed be physically different from CTTSs. Moreover, it is not known whether the physical natures of protostellar photospheres are consistent with the predictions of protostellar evolution and PMS stellar theory.

Flat-spectrum and Class I young stellar objects (YSOs) are the best low-mass protostellar candidates for spectroscopic study because they have relatively well-developed central stars and are detectable at near-IR wavelengths. Several pioneering studies have recently been undertaken to begin investigating the physical natures of these objects. A few flat-spectrum protostars have been observed in low resolution spectroscopic surveys and thus far they appear to be characterized by late-type photospheres with high continuum veilings and sub-giant surface gravities (Luhman & Rieke, 1999; Kenyon et al., 1998; Casali & Matthews, 1992; Greene & Lada, 1996, hereafter Paper I). Even fewer have been observed at high spectroscopic resolution, and these observations suggest that the flat-spectrum protostars rotate significantly faster than the more evolved CTTSs (Greene & Lada, 1997, hereafter Paper II).

These investigations have provided some interesting clues to the natures of these objects, but more observations are clearly needed to make sense of these late-phase protostars. It would be most interesting to determine if the less evolved, more heavily embedded and veiled Class I protostars also show near-IR photospheric absorption lines when observed at high resolution with high signal-to-noise. Such observations could directly constrain the effective temperatures, gravities, veilings, and rotations of these objects, providing further evidence as to whether they are dominated by near-IR stellar, disk, or envelope emission and whether they are physically similar to flat-spectrum YSOs. More flat spectrum YSOs should also be observed with high-resolution near-IR spectroscopy to confirm that they are indeed late-type rapid rotators. In a sense the flat-spectrum YSOs provide a link to the well-known PMS stars, and this must be better developed so that they can in turn serve as a link to the less well-known Class I objects.

Therefore we have undertaken a new high-resolution, near-IR spectroscopic study of flat-spectrum and Class I YSOs in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud core. We describe these new observations in §2 and present a rotation and veiling analysis of these data in §3. In §4 we discuss the likely natures of each of these objects and suggest further observational work.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

Near-IR spectra were acquired in 1997 May – June and 1998 July with the 3.0 m NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, using the CSHELL facility single-order cryogenic echelle spectrograph (Tokunaga et al., 1990; Greene et al., 1993). Spectra were acquired with a 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 (5 pixel) wide slit on the dates indicated in Table 1, providing a spectroscopic resolution $`R\lambda /\delta \lambda `$ = 21,000 (14 km s-1). The spectrograph was fitted with a 256 $`\times `$ 256 pixel InSb detector array, and custom circular variable filters (CVFs) manufactured by Optical Coating Laboratories Incorporated were used for order sorting. These filters successfully eliminated the significant interference fringing normally produced in CSHELL and other echelle spectrographs which use CVFs for order sorting. The plate scale was 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$20 pixel-1 along the 30$`\mathrm{}`$ long slit (oriented east – west on the sky), and all spectra were acquired at a central wavelength setting of 2.29353 $`\mu `$m corresponding to the v = 0 – 2 CO band head. Each exposure had a spectral range $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \lambda /400`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$ 700 km s-1). Total integration times for each YSO are given in Table 1.

Data were acquired in pairs of exposures of up to 400 s duration each, with the telescope nodded $`10\mathrm{}`$ east or west between exposures so that object spectra were acquired in all exposures. The B0V star HR 6165 ($`\tau `$ Sco) was observed periodically for telluric corrections. The telescope was guided with the CSHELL internal CCD autoguider during exposures of these telluric correction stars, while the telescope tracking rates were adjusted for minimum drift while observing the optically invisible $`\rho `$ Oph YSOs. Spectra of the internal CSHELL continuum lamp were taken for flat fields, and exposures of the internal CSHELL Ar and Kr lamps were used for wavelength calibrations.

All data were reduced with IRAF. First, object and sky frames were differenced and then divided by flat fields. Next, bad pixels were fixed via interpolation, and spectra were extracted with the APALL task. Extracted spectra were typically 5 pixels (1″) wide along the slit (spatial) direction at their half-intensity points. Spectra were wavelength calibrated using low-order fits to lines in the arc lamp exposures, and spectra at each slit position of each object were co-added. Instrumental and atmospheric features were removed by dividing wavelength-calibrated object spectra by spectra of early-type stars observed at similar airmass at each slit position. Final spectra were produced by combining the spectra of both slit positions for each object.

## 3 Data Analysis and Results

### 3.1 Object Sample

The object sample was selected from the Class I and flat-spectrum YSOs observed at low spectral resolution ($`R500`$) in Paper I which were not subsequently observed at high spectral resolution in Paper II. None of the newly observed sources (listed in Table 1) showed any absorption features in their low resolution $`K`$-band spectra (Paper I), and they are also relatively bright, 7 mag $`K`$ 10 mag. Table 1 shows that the brighter point sources (i.e. Elias 29, IRS 54) were observed with higher signal-to-noise ratios than the fainter ones (i.e. IRS 43, WL 6). This is useful for analyzing the veiling in these objects if the brightness differences among the sources are mostly due to different amount of IR excess emission from circumstellar regions. If this is true, then the brighter objects have greater near-IR veiling and greater signal-to-noise is required to detect their photospheric absorption lines. On the other hand, it may be possible that some of the bright protostars are featureless because they are of relatively early spectral type (G or earlier) and possess intrinsically weak $`K`$-band absorption lines (besides H and He).

### 3.2 Veiling and Rotation Analysis

The new flat-spectrum and Class I YSO spectra are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. None of the five Class I spectra show any evidence of CO absorption. Two of the flat-spectrum YSOs also show no evidence of any CO absorption (GSS 26 and YLW 13B), while the other two show evidence of weak, broad band heads and perhaps some overlapping rotation-vibration lines as well (Figure 1).

We now analyze these spectra to constrain the veilings and physical natures of these sources. Our previous high resolution study (Paper II) showed that late-type Class II YSOs (pre-main-sequence stars) rotate slowly, $`v\mathrm{sin}i<20`$ km s-1, while flat-spectrum ones rotate quickly, $`v\mathrm{sin}i>20`$ km s-1. This study also showed that in addition to broadening the band head, high rotation also decreased the maximum absorption depth of the band head and adjacent individual rotation-vibration lines. Thus rotation as well as veiling can reduce the detectability of CO absorption in finite signal-to-noise spectra.

We now explore the limits of $`K`$-band veiling and rotation in our new protostar sample by comparing their spectra to those of flat-spectrum and Class II YSOs to which we have artificially added continuum veiling. We chose VSSG 25 to be representative of a slowly rotating Class II YSO ($`v`$ sin $`i=5`$ km s-1) and VSSG 17 to be representative of a quickly rotating ($`v`$ sin $`i=47`$ km s-1) flat-spectrum source (see Paper II). The spectral types and $`K`$-band veilings have been measured for both of these objects. VSSG 25 has a spectral type M0IV/V with $`r_k`$ = 0.25 (Luhman & Rieke, 1999) while VSSG 17 is M0IV/V with $`r_k`$ = 0.9 (Luhman & Rieke; Paper I). The $`K`$-band veiling is defined as $`r_k=F_{Kex}/F_K`$ where $`F_{Kex}`$ is the $`K`$ band excess flux, and $`F_K`$ is the $`K`$ band stellar flux. We added veiling (a constant positive offset) to the template spectrum of VSSG 17 (taken from Paper II) and degraded its signal-to-noise so that its CO absorption equivalent width and detectability were weakened. We then used a series of these VSSG 17 templates with various veilings and signal-to-noise ratios to estimate the veilings of our observed sources.

We estimated the veiling for sources which show CO band head absorptions (IRS 51 and IRS 63) by matching their spectra to veiled templates with identical signal-to-noise and similar features (CO band head depth and slope). The band head profiles of these objects also matched the shape of VSSG 17 and matched those of observed slowly rotating late-type stars which had been artificially broadened with a stellar rotation profile of $`v`$ sin $`i=50`$ km s-1 (see Paper II). Thus it is likely that their CO absorptions arise in rapidly rotating stellar photospheres. However, the absorption features of these highly veiled sources are very weak, and this limits the derived rotation velocities to uncertainties of approximately 40% and the derived veilings to uncertainties of at least 20%.

The minimum likely veilings of the Class I and flat-spectrum sources without detectable CO absorptions were estimated by assuming that their CO absorptions were intrinsically similar to VSSG 17 but had increased continuum veiling. We derived an analytical relation for veiling based on the principle that an object’s CO band head is undetectable when its maximum absorption depth is less than 3.0 times the RMS noise over 1 resolution element (5 pixels) in the spectrum. This is a robust minimum likely veiling criterion because less veiling would ensure that the band head would be definitely detected, and considering more resolution elements would increase the amount of veiling derived. The resultant derived minimum likely $`r_k`$ values matched those of templates which were veiled to the point where their CO absorptions just disappeared visually.

Possible differences between the actual spectral types of these sources and the M0 template also cause uncertainties in the derived veilings of up to about 50%, but most deviations are expected to be smaller than this. All observed Class I sources except Elias 29 are relatively low luminosity, 2.4 L$`{}_{}{}^{}`$ L$`{}_{\mathrm{bol}}{}^{}13`$ L (Wilking, Lada, & Young, 1989, hereafter WLY). All observed flat-spectrum YSOs have 1 L$`{}_{}{}^{}`$ L$`{}_{\mathrm{bol}}{}^{}<3`$ L (WLY; Greene et al. 1994). These luminosities are consistent with the sources being low-mass PMS YSOs (M $`<`$ 1 M) if the Class I objects are powered by accretion, an assumption which is consistent with their high veilings (see also §4.2). In using VSSG 17 as a spectral type template to measure veilings, we have implicitly assumed that all sources have spectral types near M0IV/V, a typical value for T Tauri stars. A young star of this spectral type has a mass of approximately 0.4 M if on the birthline of the H–R Diagram (see Stahler, 1988). If an observed YSO is really 1 M, then it would have a spectral type of K3–4IV/V (see D’Antona & Mazzitelli, 1997; Stahler, 1988) and thus an intrinsic stellar CO equivalent width of only about 0.6 times that of an M0IV/V star (see Paper I). This would mean that its actual veiling is $`r_k^{}=0.6r_k0.4`$ (see §4.2 of Paper I) where $`r_k`$ is the veiling estimate made assuming an M0IV/V spectral type. Likewise, if an observed object were really a lower mass star near the brown dwarf limit, then its true birthline spectral type would be near M6IV/V and its intrinsic CO absorption would be about 40% greater than that of the M0IV/V template. Thus the true veilings of observed sources may differ from our derived ones by as much as 50%. However, it is unlikely that many of the observed objects have such large deviations (in either direction) because their luminosities are consistent with most having masses of approximately 0.5 M, similar to that expected for our M0IV/V template. We have used other published information on the observed objects when available to estimate their intrinsic spectral types before deriving veiling estimates (see §4.1 and 4.2).

Finally, we studied how rotation decreases the apparent CO band head absorption depths. This effect can be separated from veiling by measuring the slope of the CO band head, but this is not possible for sources which do not show this absorption feature. The majority of sources in our sample do not show this feature, so we do not know their rotation velocities. Our earlier study (Paper II) showed that flat-spectrum sources rotate significantly faster than Class II YSOs, so our current sample of more highly embedded flat-spectrum and Class I YSOs may rotate even faster still (perhaps $`v`$ sin $`i>50`$ km s-1). Indeed, recent X-ray observations with the ASCA satellite indicate that one Class I source in our sample (IRS 43) is rotating at least this rapidly (Montmerle et al., 2000). We estimate that the equatorial rotational breakup velocities of these young stars ($`M0.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`R3R_{\mathrm{}}`$) are approximately $`v180`$ km s-1, or $`v`$ sin $`i150`$ km s-1 for a mean inclination $`i=57\mathrm{deg}`$. Next, we studied how rotation decreases the maximum CO band head absorption in YSOs by artificially rotating our WL 5 template by convolving its observed spectrum with limb-darkened stellar broadening profiles for 25 km s$`{}_{}{}^{1}v`$ sin $`i175`$ km s-1. See Paper II for more details and examples of artificially rotated spectra.

These experiments showed that the maximum CO absorption depth of the VSSG 25 template with $`v`$ sin $`i=150`$ km s-1 is a factor of 1.37 weaker than the one with $`v`$ sin $`i=50`$ km s-1. Therefore if VSSG 17 were rotating at breakup, its maximum CO absorption depth would be only 73% as deep as now seen in its spectrum. Thus if rotating near breakup, the featureless objects in our sample would have somewhat lower continuum veilings than those calculated based on the observed VSSG 17 spectrum. We have calculated these reduced values, and in Table 2 we present all of these estimated veilings for the observed sources, using our best estimates of their intrinsic spectral types.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

We now discuss how the results of this veiling / rotation analysis and pre-existing data constrain the possible physical natures of these sources.

### 4.1 Flat-Spectrum Objects

The flat-spectrum YSOs IRS 63 and IRS 51 were both found to have broad, weak CO absorptions which matched those expected for late-type stellar photospheres rotating at $`v`$ sin $`i50`$ km s-1. The weak CO absorptions of these two YSOs are consistent with their not being detected in our initial low-resolution survey (Paper I). We estimate the continuum veiling of IRS 63 to be $`r_k4`$ provided that it is a PMS YSO near M0 spectral type. Luhman & Rieke find that the spectral type of IRS 51 is G5 – K7, earlier than our M0 template VSSG 17. Thus their derived veiling $`r_k`$ = 1 – 3 is lower than ours because a G5 – K7 PMS star has less intrinsic CO absorption than a M0 one (see §3.2). It is likely that IRS 51 is indeed an embedded low-mass YSO because its bolometric luminosity is only 1.4 L (WLY). The birthline mass for this luminosity is approximately 0.5 M, corresponding to a spectral type of K5–7 and a true veiling of $`r_k3`$. Thus it is likely that both IRS 63 and IRS 51 are similar to the quickly rotating flat-spectrum YSOs which we analyzed in Paper II, but these new objects have even greater veiling (i.e. $`r_k`$ = 3 – 4 versus $`r_k1`$ for the Paper II YSOs).

Luhman & Rieke found GSS 26 to have variable veiling, $`r_k`$ = 0.75 and $`r_k`$ = 4 at epochs of 1994 July and 1996 May, respectively. Our spectrum of GSS 26 (in Figure 1) was taken in 1997 May, one year after the latest Luhman & Rieke spectrum. We estimate that $`r_k11`$ when our spectrum was acquired, and our assumption of a M0 spectral type is consistent with the Luhman & Rieke determination of K5 – M2. This rapid increase in veiling - a factor of 2 each year - is perhaps suggestive of a similarly rapid increase in accretion. Luhman & Rieke also note that this source increased in brightness by $`K`$ 1.2 mag between epochs. Our spectra are not photometrically calibrated, but comparisons with other objects support that this source was at least as bright as when observed by Luhman & Rieke the previous year. This is one of the YSOs Luhman & Rieke observed whose HI Br $`\gamma `$ emission line flux increased as its veiling increased, implying that the excess continuum emission is associated with a circumstellar accretion disk if the Br $`\gamma `$ emission arises from disk accretion. The rapid variability of this object’s veiling also suggests that its $`K`$-band veiling is produced by accretion from inner disk distances (several AU) and not from an outer disk or an outer circumstellar envelope.

The high $`r_k`$ values of these objects also constrain the physical origins of their veilings. In Paper I we showed that veilings $`r_k>1`$ cannot be produced by a simple optically thick, geometrically thin reprocessing disk around a low-mass PMS star. Consequently we argued that these high veilings are most likely produced by either actively accreting circumstellar disks or circumstellar envelopes associated with these objects. Furthermore we found that veilings in the range measured for IRS 51 and IRS 63, $`r_k`$ = 3 – 4, can be caused by luminous accretion disks ($`L_{disk}/L_{}3`$). Veilings in the range observed for GSS 26, $`r_k510`$, could be explained by extremely luminous accretion disks ($`L_{disk}/L_{}3`$). In either case, these accretion disks would have to have relatively large central holes to avoid producing strong CO absorption-line systems in the disk photosphere itself. However, because there is no obvious physical mechanism for producing central holes of the needed size, Calvet, Hartmann, & Strom (1997) suggested that the veiling flux must originate in some other circumstellar structure such as the inner regions of the protostellar envelope. On the other hand, this seems to be inconsistent with the observation by Luhman & Rieke that the $`K`$-band excesses of flat-spectrum YSOs are correlated with their HI Br $`\gamma `$ line fluxes which in turn suggests that the veiling flux should originate in the disk. More detailed knowledge of the conditions required to produce CO absorption line systems in an accretion disk may be needed to resolve this issue.

The flat-spectrum source YLW 13B was found to have H Br $`\gamma `$ absorption by Luhman & Rieke, who estimate its spectral type to be earlier than K0. However, they also find it to be significantly veiled with $`r_k>1`$, so it is possibly an intermediate mass PMS cloud population member. Our non-detection of CO absorption does not constrain this source further.

### 4.2 Class I Objects

We do not detect CO absorptions in any of the Class I YSOs which we observed (Figure 2), confirming earlier low resolution spectroscopic observations that found all these objects to be featureless and highly veiled (Paper I; Luhman & Rieke). Consequently their spectral types are unknown, however all of these Class I sources exhibit HI Br $`\gamma `$ emission (Paper I; Luhman & Rieke).

Analysis of our new data constrains the natures of these objects. Table 2 shows that they all have large veilings, $`r_k>4`$, if they are late-type ($``$ M0) stars. GSS 30, IRS 43, and WL 6, all have estimated minimum veilings of $`r_k58`$, overlapping with the flat-spectrum sample. These sources all have bolometric luminosities L$`{}_{\mathrm{bol}}{}^{}13`$ L (WLY). This is consistent with their being low-mass (M $`<`$ 1 M) protostars accreting matter at rates $`\dot{M}5\times 10^6`$ M yr-1, the value expected for the T $``$ 20 K gas temperatures in the $`\rho `$ Oph cloud (see Adams, Lada, & Shu, 1987, hereafter ALS). Veilings in the observed range, $`r_k>410`$, are also predicted by theoretical models of Class I circumstellar envelopes (Paper I; Calvet et al.).

Montmerle et al. note that the maximum possible mass of IRS 43 (also known as YLW 15) is 2.2 M which is derived from PMS models given its bolometric luminosity (L $``$ 10 L) and assuming it is on the birthline. Likewise, they calculate that the maximum likely mass of WL6 is approximately 0.4 M; this increases somewhat if the Lbol = 2.4 L of WLY is adopted. These maximum calculated masses assume that essentially all luminosity is due to photospheric thermal radiation ($`L=4\pi R^2\sigma T^4`$) and essentially none is due to accretion ($`L=GM\dot{M}/R`$). These sources are discussed further in $`\mathrm{\S }4.3`$.

We estimate that Elias 29 and IRS 54 have very high veilings if they are late-type low-mass stars, $`r_k>1434`$. The bolometric luminosity of IRS 54 is estimated to be only 12 L (WLY), also consistent with this object being a low-mass protostar which is accreting its envelope at the rate prescribed by the $`\rho `$ Oph cloud’s gas temperature. However, its continuum veiling must be $`r_k>1420`$ if it has spectral type M0 and is rotating rapidly. This is about a factor of 2 higher than the model predictions of Calvet et al., but those calculations were done for a hypothetical $`\rho `$ Oph Class I YSO with L = 5 L. The model may predict greater veiling for IRS 54 if its higher luminosity is taken into consideration. It is also possible that this source may be a somewhat earlier type protostar which is less veiled.

Elias 29 has the highest derived veiling of the sample, $`r_k>2534`$, assuming an intrinsic M0 photosphere and a high rotation rate. WLY estimate its luminosity to be Lbol = 48 L, and ALS have modeled it as a 1 M protostar which is accreting its circumstellar envelope. Such a star would have a spectral type of K3–4 if on the birthline (see D’Antona & Mazzitelli, 1997; Stahler, 1988), with an intrinsic CO absorption approximately 60% as strong as that of an M0 star (see §3.2). Thus we revise our estimate of the likely veiling of this YSO to $`r_k>1520`$ if it is indeed a 1 M protostar. In Paper I we analyzed the ALS model for Elias 29 and showed that the predicted emission from the inner protostellar envelope of this source would produce a veiling of $`r_k20`$, assuming that its disk luminosity is 0.75 Lbol. Thus our new measurement is consistent with our earlier prediction based on the ALS model.

The high luminosity of Elias 29 also allows for it being a more massive, earlier spectral type YSO that has higher stellar luminosity and less accretion luminosity than assumed by the ALS model. However, it is unlikely to be very different because the observed near-to-far IR energy distribution and the 10 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ silicate absorption of Elias 29 are fit well by the ALS model, and there are no clues which indicate that Elias 29 is an early-type object. For example, WL 16, which is likely an early A type star (Biscaya Holzbach et al., 2000), has mid-IR aromatic hydrocarbon emission features which indicate a UV radiation field (Hanner, Tokunaga, & Geballe, 1992). However, Elias 29 shows no evidence for IR hydrocarbon emission (Hanner, Brooke, & Tokunaga, 1995; Boogert, 1999) and thus no evidence for a UV radiation field.

### 4.3 Protostellar Rotation

Our observations, specifically the broad band head shapes of IRS 51 and IRS 63, strengthen the earlier findings of Paper II which suggested that flat-spectrum protostars rotate more rapidly than Class II sources (CTTSs). Since flat-spectrum protostars are believed to be evolutionary precursors of CTTSs, then this finding may indicate that certain physical conditions characteristic of protostellar evolution (e.g., high accretion rates) may result in their higher rotation rates. It is therefore interesting to ask whether the less evolved Class I sources might rotate even more rapidly than the flat spectrum sources. Indeed, some models of protostar development predict that such objects should be rotating near breakup (Shu, 1991).

Recently, strong hard X-ray flares have been observed with the ASCA satellite from two of the Class I protostars in our sample – IRS 43 and WL 6 (Montmerle et al.). These remarkable observations reveal relatively rapid periodicities in the X-ray emission from these sources, enabling the derivation of their photometric rotation rates. Montmerle et al. find that WL 6 is rotating with a period of about 3 days ($`v`$ sin $`i40`$ km s-1 for a 0.5 M star on the birthline), comparable to the rotation rates of the flat-spectrum sources observed here and in Paper II. This source also has a weak outflow (Sekimoto et al., 1997), undetected millimeter emission from its envelope (André & Montmerle, 1994), and an IR energy distribution which can be modeled as a highly extinguished flat spectrum YSO (Montmerle et al.). All of these properties indicate that WL 6 may indeed be very similar to the flat spectrum YSOs for which we have detected absorption lines and have found to be rotating more rapidly than CTTSs (Class II YSOs).

Montmerle et al. also argue that the central star of IRS 43 has a 20 h rotation period, the observed period of its X-ray variability. This requires that its mass be greater than or equal to 1.8 M in order for it to be rotating below breakup velocity if it is on the birthline (Montmerle et al.). Thus the mass of IRS 43 is constrained to lie in the range 1.8 – 2.2 M by its X-ray emission and bolometric luminosity (see $`\mathrm{\S }4.2`$) if its rotation period is indeed equal to its X-ray variability period of 20 h. IRS 43 does have a more steep mid-IR energy distribution (clearly Class I) than WL 6, and it also has spatially-resolved (r $``$ 3000 AU) millimeter emission with a derived envelope mass of approximately 0.1 M (André & Montmerle). Therefore it is likely to be in an earlier evolutionary state than WL 6.

The slow rotation velocities of CTTSs have been explained by angular momentum regulation of these stars by magnetic coupling to their disks. Edwards et al. (1993) found that late-type T Tauri stars (TTSs) with large $`HK`$ IR excesses (CTTSs) had slow rotation periods, P $`>`$ 4 d. They also found that TTS with small $`HK`$ IR excesses had a broad range of periods, including a significant number with P $`<`$ 4 days. Edwards et al. interpreted this correlation to arise because the magnetic fields of the CTTSs were were coupled to their disks, providing stellar angular momentum regulation and therefore long stellar rotation periods. The low-excess TTSs had already dissipated their disks and so were not subject to this regulation mechanism. More recent studies of larger TTS samples have both disputed that the correlation between IR excess and rotation period exists (Stassun et al., 1999) and have provided evidence that it exists but is weak (Herbst et al., 2000).

Our studies of YSO rotation (this paper and Paper II) have shown that flat-spectrum protostars rotate significantly more rapidly than Class II YSOs or CTTSs, suggesting that rotation velocities decrease as stars evolve past the protostellar state. This scenario has been bolstered and expanded further by the recent X-ray results of Montmerle et al.. Taken together (and along with the many rotation studies of optically visible CTTSs), these works suggest that heavily embedded protostars (Class I) rotate very rapidly, in some cases near breakup velocity, while less embedded ones (flat–spectrum YSOs) rotate somewhat less rapidly, at about 1/3 breakup velocity ($`v`$ sin $`i50`$ km s-1), and Class II YSOs / CTTSs rotate slowly, $`v`$ sin $`i<20`$ km s-1. This finding would be strengthened considerably by further cross-checking of observational techniques; the X-ray protostars should be observed at higher signal-to-noise in the near-IR to search for rotationally broadened lines, while the flat spectrum and Class II YSOs with IR-derived rotation velocities should be observed for periodic X-ray variability.

If the angular momenta of low-mass YSOs are indeed regulated by star–disk coupling, then the fact that flat-spectrum (and at least one Class I) YSOs rotate significantly more rapidly than CTTS implies that either the flat-spectrum / protostellar YSOs are coupled to faster rotating disk regions than CTTSs, or else that stars and disks do not become rotationally locked until the CTTS evolutionary phase. In the first case, flat-spectrum and Class I YSOs may couple to their disks at smaller radii (and hence have higher rotation velocities) because their accretion rates are much higher than CTTS. The veilings and luminosities of Class I and flat-spectrum YSOs are considerably higher (by about an order of magnitude) than CTTS, supporting the notion that they have higher accretion rates also. In support of the second case, Montmerle et al. have posited that protostars are not initially magnetically coupled to their disks but rather spin-down and become coupled over a magnetic braking time on the order of 105 yr which is nearly linearly proportional to stellar mass. This is comparable to the lifetime of the Class I and flat spectrum phases, so this would account for the higher rotation velocities of flat-spectrum and Class I protostars. This latter magnetic braking scenario of velocity evolution from Class I to flat-spectrum to CTTS YSOs may be somewhat complicated by mass effects; Montmerle et al. predict that at the same age more massive protostars will rotate more quickly than less massive ones. Protostellar masses must be measured much more accurately before this effect can be verified, however.

Obtaining new high resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra over the entire 1.5 – 2.4 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ region will likely be the best method for obtaining more definitive information on the masses (spectral types) and rotational characteristics of Class I protostars. This wide spectral range is required in order to be sensitive to a wide range of spectral types. Even intermediate-to-high mass stars with HI line emission may show $`H`$-band HI Br absorption lines which may strongly constrain spectral types and masses (e.g., Biscaya Holzbach et al.), while $`K`$-band data are required to determine the properties of very red late-type YSOs. Detecting and resolving near-IR lines in WL 6 and IRS 43 would allow determination of their masses and photospheric rotation rates, providing a good test of the emerging scenario of protostellar rotational evolution.

We thank the referee John Lacy and also Pat Cassen for providing comments which improved this paper. We also thank W. Golisch, D. Griep, and C. Kaminski for assistance with the observations. We acknowledge the National Science Foundation for funding grant AST–9420506 to develop the fringe-free CVFs used to acquire these data with CSHELL. TPG acknowledges a grant from the NASA Ames Research Center Director’s Discretionary Fund. All data were reduced with IRAF, which is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract to the National Science Foundation.