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# Pair production of neutralinos via gluon-gluon collisions 11footnote 1The project supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China

Abstract

The production of a neutralino pair via gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. The numerical analysis of their production rates are carried out in the mSUGRA scenario. The results show that this cross section may reach about 80 femto barn for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production and 23 femto barn for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production with suitable input parameters at the future LHC collider. It shows that this loop mediated process can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation process at the LHC.

PACS number(s): 14.80.Ly, 12.15.Ji, 12.60.Jv

1. Introduction

The Standard Model(SM)  is a successful theory of strong and electroweak interactions up to the present accessible energies. The hierarchy problem suggests that in principle the SM is the low energy effective theory of a more fundamental one. Supersymmetry (SUSY) is presently the most popular attempt to solve the hierarchy problem of the SM, where the cancellation of quadratic divergences is guaranteed and hence any mass scale is stable under radiative corrections. The most favorable candidate for a realistic extension of the SM is the minimal supersymmetric standard model(MSSM). In the MSSM, a discrete symmetry called R-parity is kept in order to assure baryon and lepton number conservations, because the gauge-coupling unification supports conservation of R-parity. It implies that there exists an absolutely stable lightest supersymmetric particle(LSP). Proper electroweak symmetry breaking induces the right properties of the LSP being a natural weakly interacting cold dark matter candidate, which can explain many astrophysical observations. In most cases the LSP in the MSSM may be the lightest Majorana fermionic neutralino. The neutralinos are mass eigenstates which are model dependent linear combinations of neutral gauginos and higgsinos. They are determined by diagonalizing the corresponding mass matrix. In the MSSM the mass matrix depends on four unknown parameters, namely $`\mu `$, $`M_2`$, $`M_1`$, and $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =v_2/v_1`$, the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs fields. $`\mu `$ is the supersymmetric Higgs-boson-mass parameter and $`M_2`$ and $`M_1`$ are the gaugino mass parameters associated with the $`SU(2)`$ and $`U(1)`$ subgroups, respectively.

Direct search of supersymmetric particles in experiment is one of the promising tasks for present and future colliders. The multi-TeV Large Hadron Collider(LHC) at CERN and the possible future Next Linear Collider(NLC) are elaborately designed in order to study the symmetry-breaking mechanism and new physics beyond the SM. When the LEP2 running will be terminated, the hadron colliders Tevatron and LHC will be the machines left in searching for supersymmetric particles. Therefore it is necessary to give a proper and full understanding of the production mechanisms of supersymmetric particles at hadron colliders. If supersymmetry really exists at TeV scale, SUSY particles should be discovered and it will be possible to make accurate measurements to determine their masses and other parameters of the Lagrangian at the LHC, and then we will have a better understanding of the supersymmetric model. We know that there are several mechanisms inducing the production of a chargino/neutralino pair at hadron colliders. One is through the quark-antiquark annihilation called Drell-Yan process, and another is via gluon-gluon fusion. Although the neutralino pair production via gluon-gluon fusion is a process induced by one-loop Feynman diagrams, the production rate can be still significant due to the large gluon luminosity in hadron colliders. The direct production channels of chargino/neutralinos and sleptons at the hadron colliders Tevatron and LHC $`p\overline{p}/pp\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j+X`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{l}\overline{\stackrel{~}{l^{}}}+X`$ via quark-antiquark annihilation are investigated by Beenakker et al. A recent work  showed that the one-loop process of the lightest chargino pair production via gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC can be considered as part of the NLO QCD correction to the quark-antiquark annihilation process. The neutralino pair production via quark-antiquark annihilation at the LHC was also considered by Han et al.. The measurement of CP violating supersymmetric phases in the chargino and neutralino pair production at the NLC was investigated by Barger et al. The lower mass limit of $`29.1GeV`$ on the lightest neutralino is obtained experimentally by analyzing the DELPHI results with the assumption that $`M_1/M_2{}_{}{}^{>}0.5`$,$`tan\beta =1`$, $`\mu =62.3GeV`$ and $`M_2=46.0GeV`$.

In this paper we concentrate on the direct neutralino pair production via gluon-gluon collisions at the LHC in the framework of the MSSM with complete one-loop Feynman diagrams. The numerical calculation will be illustrated in the CP conserving mSUGRA scenario with five input parameters, namely $`m_{1/2}`$, $`m_0`$, $`A_0`$, $`\mu `$ and $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, where $`m_{1/2}`$, $`m_0`$ and $`A_0`$ are the universal gaugino mass, scalar mass at GUT scale and the trilinear soft breaking parameter in the superpotential respectively. From these five parameters, all the masses and couplings of the model are determined by the evolution from the GUT scale down to the low electroweak scale. The paper is organized as follows: In section 2, we introduce the relevant features of the model and the analysis of the cross section in this work. In section 3, we discuss the numerical results of the cross sections and finally, a short summary is presented.

2. The Calculation of $`ppgg+X\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0+X`$

In the MSSM the physical neutralino mass eigenstates $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0(i=1,2,3,4)`$ are the combinations of the neutral gauginos, $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{W}^3`$, and the neutral higgsino, $`\stackrel{~}{H}_1^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{H}_2^0`$. In the two-component fermion fields $`\psi _j^0=(i\lambda ^{^{}},i\lambda ^3,\psi _{H_1^0},\psi _{H_2^0})`$, where $`\lambda ^{^{}}`$ is the bino and $`\lambda ^3`$ is the neutral wino, the neutralino mass term in the Lagrangian is given by

$$_M=\frac{1}{2}\left(\psi ^0\right)^TY\psi ^0+h.c.,$$
$`\left(2.1\right)`$
where the matrix $`Y`$ reads

$$Y=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}M_1& 0& m_Z\mathrm{sin}\theta _W\mathrm{cos}\beta & m_Z\mathrm{sin}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\beta \\ 0& M_2& m_Z\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{cos}\beta & m_Z\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\beta \\ m_Z\mathrm{sin}\theta _W\mathrm{cos}\beta & m_Z\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{cos}\beta & 0& \mu \\ m_Z\mathrm{sin}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\beta & m_Z\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\beta & \mu & 0\end{array}\right)$$
$`\left(2.2\right)`$
$`M_1`$, $`M_2`$ and $`\mu `$ can be complex and introduce CP-violating phases. By reparametrization of the fields, $`M_2`$ can be real and positive without loss of generality. The matrix $`Y`$ is symmetric and can be diagonalized by one unitary matrix $`N`$ such that $`N_D=N^{}YN^+=diag(m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0},m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0},m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_3^0},m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_4^0})`$ with the order of $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_3^0}m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_4^0}`$. Then the two-component mass eigenstates can be

$$\chi _i^0=N_{ij}\psi _j^0,i,j=1,\mathrm{},4.$$
$`\left(2.3\right)`$
The proper four-component mass eigenstates are the neutralinos which are defined in terms of two-component fields as

$$\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0=\left(\begin{array}{c}\chi _i^0\\ \overline{\chi }_i^0\end{array}\right)\left(i=1,\mathrm{},4\right),$$
$`\left(2.4\right)`$
and the mass term becomes

$$_m=\frac{1}{2}\underset{i}{}\stackrel{~}{M}_i\overline{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0}\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0,$$
$`\left(2.5\right)`$
where $`\stackrel{~}{M}_i`$ are the diagonal elements of $`N_D`$.

The neutralino pair via gluon-gluon collisions can only be produced through one-loop diagrams in the lowest order. The calculation for this process can be simply carried out by summing all unrenormalized reducible and irreducible diagrams and the result will be finite and gauge invariant. In this work, we perform the calculation in the ’t Hooft-Feynman gauge. The generic Feynman diagrams contributing to the subprocess $`gg\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0`$ in the MSSM are depicted in Fig.1, where the exchange of incoming gluons in Fig.1(a.1$``$3) and Fig.1(c.1$``$2) are not shown. All the one-loop diagrams can be divided into three groups: (1) box diagrams shown in Fig.1(a.1$``$3), (2) quartic interaction diagrams in Fig.1(b.1$``$2), (3) triangle diagrams shown in Fig.1(c.1$``$2). The $`Z^0`$ boson intermediated s-channel diagrams with quark or squark loops, as shown in Fig.1(b.2), Fig.1(c.1) and Fig.1(c.2), cannot contribute to the cross section. That can be explained in two fields. Firstly, the vector component of the $`Z^0`$ boson wave function does not couple to the initial gg state as the result of the Laudau-Yang theorem. Secondly, the CP-odd scalar component of the $`Z^0`$ boson does not couple to the invariant CP-even $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0`$ state. We should mention that there are also some diagrams not contributing to the process, which we do not draw them in Fig.1(for example the s-channel diagrams with trilinear gluon interactions). Since the vertices of $`A^0(G^0)\stackrel{~}{q}\stackrel{~}{q}`$ vanish, there is no diagrams with a triangle squark loop coupling with an $`A^0`$ or $`G^0`$ Higgs boson.

We denote the reaction of neutralino pair production via gluon-gluon collision as:

$$g(p_3,\mu )g(p_4,\nu )\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\left(p_1\right)\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0\left(p_2\right).$$
$`\left(2.6\right)`$
The corresponding matrix element for each of the diagrams can be written as

$$=^{\widehat{s}}+^{\widehat{t}}+^{\widehat{u}}$$
$`\left(2.7\right)`$
where $`^{\widehat{s}}`$, $`^{\widehat{t}}`$ and $`^{\widehat{u}}`$ are the matrix elements from s-channel, t-channel and u-channel diagrams, respectively. The amplitude parts from the u-channel box and triangle vertex interaction diagrams can be obtained from the t-channel’s by the following:

$$^{\widehat{u}}=(1)^{\delta _{ij}}^{\widehat{t}}(\widehat{t}\widehat{u},p_3p_4,\mu \nu ),$$
$`\left(2.8\right)`$
where the indices i and j are for the final neutralino. When $`i=j`$, there is a relative minus sign due to the Fermi statistics, which requires the amplitude to be antisymmetric under interchange of the two final identical fermions. The cross section for this subprocess at one-loop order in unpolarized gluon collisions can be obtained by

$$\widehat{\sigma }\left(\widehat{s},gg\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0\right)=\frac{1}{16\pi \widehat{s}^2}\left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^{\delta _{ij}}_{\widehat{t}^{}}^{\widehat{t}^+}𝑑\widehat{t}\stackrel{}{}\left|\right|^2,$$
$`\left(2.9\right)`$
where $`\widehat{t}^\pm =1/2\left[(m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i}^2+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j}^2\widehat{s})\pm \sqrt{(m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i}^2+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j}^2\widehat{s})^24m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i}^2m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j}^2}\right]`$. The factor $`(\frac{1}{2})^{\delta _{ij}}`$ is due to the two identical particles in the final states. The bar over the sum means average over initial spins and colors.

With the results from Eq.(2.9), we can easily obtain the total cross section at $`pp`$ collider by folding the cross section of the subprocess $`\widehat{\sigma }(gg\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0)`$ with the gluon luminosity,

$$\sigma \left(ppgg+X\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0+X\right)=_{\left(m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0}\right)^2/s}^1𝑑\tau \frac{d_{gg}}{d\tau }\widehat{\sigma }\left(gg\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0,at\widehat{s}=\tau s\right).$$
$`\left(2.10\right)`$
where $`\sqrt{s}`$ and $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ denote the proton-proton and gluon-gluon c.m.s. energies respectively and $`\frac{d_{gg}}{d\tau }`$ is the gluon luminosity, which is defined as

$$\frac{d_{gg}}{d\tau }=_\tau ^1\frac{dx_1}{x_1}\left[f_g(x_1,Q^2)f_g(\frac{\tau }{x_1},Q^2)\right].$$
$`\left(2.11\right)`$
Here we used $`\tau =x_1x_2`$, the definitions of $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$ are from Ref.. In our numerical calculation we adopt the MRST(mode 2) parton distribution function $`f_g(x_i,Q^2)`$ , and ignore the supersymmetric QCD corrections to the parton distribution functions for simplicity. The factorization scale $`Q`$ was chosen as the average of the final particle masses $`\frac{1}{2}(m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j})`$. The numerical calculation is carried out for the LHC at the energy $`14TeV`$.

3. Numerical results and discussions

In this section, we present some numerical results of the total cross section from the full one-loop diagrams involving virtual (s)quarks for the process $`ppgg+X\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0+X`$, respectively. The input parameters are chosen as: $`m_t=173.8GeV`$, $`m_Z=91.187GeV`$, $`m_b=4.5GeV`$, $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=0.2315`$, and $`\alpha =1/128`$. We adopt a simple one-loop formula for the running strong coupling constant $`\alpha _s`$

$$\alpha _s\left(\mu \right)=\frac{\alpha _s\left(m_Z\right)}{1+\frac{332n_f}{6\pi }\alpha _s\left(m_Z\right)\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mu }{m_Z}\right)}.$$
$`\left(3.1\right)`$
where $`\alpha _s(m_Z)=0.117`$ and $`n_f`$ is the number of active flavors at energy scale $`\mu `$. In our numerical calculation to get the low energy scenario from the mSUGRA, the renormalization group equations(RGE’s) are run from the weak scale $`M_Z`$ up to the GUT scale, taking all threshold into account. We use two loop RGE’s only for the gauge couplings and the one-loop RGE’s for the other supersymmetric parameters. The GUT scale boundary conditions are imposed and the RGE’s are run back to $`M_Z`$, again taking threshold into account. The decay widths of the intermediate Higgs bosons are considered at the tree level and these formula can be found in ref..

The neutralino pair production cross sections dependence on the factorization scale Q is illustrated in Fig.2, where we choose the mSUGRA parameters as $`m_0=100GeV`$, $`m_{1/2}=150GeV`$, $`A=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =4`$ and $`\mu >0`$. The masses of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ are $`51.4GeV`$ and $`98GeV`$. For the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, the cross section changes from $`28fb`$ to $`30fb`$ when the scale Q changes from $`0.2m_{\stackrel{~}{x}_2^0}`$ to $`m_{\stackrel{~}{x}_2^0}`$. For the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, the cross section changes from $`14fb`$ to $`15.5fb`$ when the Q changes from $`0.2m_{\stackrel{~}{x}_2^0}`$ to $`m_{\stackrel{~}{x}_2^0}`$. When Q is larger than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{x}_2^0}`$, the cross sections of these two processes are nearly independent of the factorization scale.

In Fig.3 we show the cross sections of gaugino-like neutralino pair production and the higgsino-like neutralino pair production. For the gaugino-like neutralino pair production, we choose the same values of mSUGRA parameters adopted in Fig.2. But in the higgsino-like neutralino case, we choose $`M_1=150GeV`$, $`M_2=210GeV`$ and $`\mu =90GeV`$ in order to keep the masses of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ being the same as those in the previous gaugino-like neutralino case, the other parameters of the higgsino-like neutralino case at the weak scale are chosen being the same as those in the gaugino-like neutralino case. Then the difference of the cross sections between gaugino-like neutralino pair production and higgsino-like neutralino pair production only comes from the change of the coupling of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{q}q`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0H^0(A^0,h^0,G^0)`$ where the matrix elements of N are changed. For the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, the cross section in the higgsino-like case is smaller than that in the gaugino-like case, but for the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, the cross section in the higgsino-like case is larger than that in the gaugino-like case.

The cross sections for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ productions at the LHC versus the mass of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ is shown in Fig.4. We assume that $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ is the LSP and escapes detection. The input parameters are chosen as $`m_0=100GeV`$, $`A_0=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =4`$, $`\mu >0`$ and $`m_{1/2}`$ varying from $`130GeV`$ to $`325GeV`$. In the framework of the mSUGRA, the masses of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ increase from $`41GeV`$ to $`129GeV`$ and from $`81GeV`$ to $`251GeV`$ respectively, and the masses of Higgs boson $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ increase from $`230GeV`$ to $`509GeV`$ and from $`226GeV`$ to $`507GeV`$ respectively with our input parameters. In our case, the mass of the Higgs boson $`h^0`$ is always smaller than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$ and the contribution to the cross section of $`h^0`$ is very small due to the s-channel suppression. Since the masses of $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ are larger than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$, the cross section will be strongly enhanced by the s-channel resonance effects when the total energy $`\sqrt{\widehat{s}}`$ of the subprocess approaches the mass of $`H^0`$ or $`A^0`$. Since $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}>m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}`$, the pair production of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ compared to $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ is kinematically suppressed. For the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, the cross section can reach 43 femto barn when $`m_{1/2}=130GeV`$, $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}=41GeV`$ and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}=81GeV`$. The cross section of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production can reach 23 femto barn when $`m_{1/2}=130GeV`$. From the results of , we know that the cross sections of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production via quark-antiquark annihilation at the LHC are about 70 femto barn and 300 femto barn respectively, when the input parameters are chosen as $`m_0=150GeV`$, $`A_0=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =4`$, $`\mu >0`$ and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}=81GeV`$. The pair production rate of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ via gluon-gluon fusion is about few ten percent of that via quark-antiquark annihilation at the LHC with the same input parameters. The cross section of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ via gluon-gluon fusion is about few percent of that via quark-antiquark annihilation at the LHC. The neutralino pair production via gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC is of the same order of the next leading order(NLO) QCD correction to the quark-antiquark production process. The neutralino pair production rate via gluon-gluon fusion should be considered in studying the pair pair productions of neutralinos at proton-proton colliders.

In Fig.5 we present the cross sections of neutralino pair productions versus $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ where the other four input parameters are chosen as $`m_0=100GeV`$, $`A_0=300GeV`$, $`\mu >0`$ and $`m_{1/2}=150GeV`$. When $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ increases from 4 to 32, the mass of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ increases from $`51GeV`$ to $`57GeV`$ and the mass of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ increases from $`98GeV`$ to $`102.5GeV`$. So the masses of neutralinos are nearly independent of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. The masses of Higgs boson $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ depend on $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and decrease from $`258GeV`$ to $`165GeV`$ and from $`254GeV`$ to $`165GeV`$ respectively. The mass of $`h^0`$ is a function of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ too, but keeps $`m_{h^0}<m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$. Since the couplings of Higgs bosons to quarks and squarks pair are related to the ratio of the vacuum expectation values, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ should effect the cross sections substantially. The cross sections of the neutralino pair productions decrease when $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ goes from 4 to 6, and increase when $`20>\mathrm{tan}\beta >6`$ due to the effect of the coupling strength of Higgs bosons to quarks and squarks pair. For the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production, when $`tan\beta <27`$, the masses of $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ are larger than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$, the s-channel resonance effects of $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ on the cross section can be enhanced, while when $`tan\beta >27`$, the masses of $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ become smaller than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$, then there will be no s-channel resonance effects and the cross section goes down rapidly. For the similar reason, the cross section of the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production increase in the range of $`20>\mathrm{tan}\beta >6`$ due to the effect of the Yukawa couplings of Higgs bosons to quarks and squarks pair and the s-channel resonance effects of the intermediate Higgs bosons, but it goes down again when $`\mathrm{tan}\beta >20`$ where the masses of $`H^0`$ and $`A^0`$ become smaller than $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}+m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$ and the s-channel resonance effects of the Higgs bosons disappear. From the figure we can see that if we choose suitable input parameters, the cross section can be largely enhanced. Especially the cross section of the $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production can even reach about 80 femto barn when $`\mathrm{tan}\beta 27`$.

In our calculation we find that the discrepancy between our results from the newer sets of gluon densities in the MRST(mode 2) scheme and the older sets in the MRS(set G) scheme is very small and cannot be distinguished in figures.

4. Summary

In this paper, we studied the pair production process of the neutralino via gluon-gluon fusion at the LHC collider. The numerical analysis of their production rates is carried out in the mSUGRA scenario with some typical parameter sets. The results show that the cross section of the neutralino pair-production via gluon-gluon fusion can reach about 80 femto barn for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production and 23 femto barn for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production at the LHC collider. In some c.m.s energy regions of incoming gluons, where the s-channel resonance conditions are satisfied in the parameter space, we can see observable enhancement effects of the cross sections. We conclude that neutralino pair production via gluon-gluon fusion can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation production process at the LHC and should be considered as a part of the NLO QCD correction to the quark-antiquark annihilation production process.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(project number: 19875049), the Youth Science Foundation of the University of Science and Technology of China, a grant from the Education Ministry of China and the exchange program between China and Austria(Project number V.A.12). One of the authors Y. Jiang would like to thank Prof. F.F. Schöberl for valuable discussion in this context.

Figure Captions

Fig.1 The Feynman diagrams of the subprocess $`gg\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0`$.

Fig.2 Dependence of the cross sections for the productions of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pairs on the factorization scale Q with the mSUGRA parameters $`m_0=100GeV`$, $`m_{1/2}=150GeV`$, $`A=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =4`$ and $`\mu >0`$. The masses of $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0`$ $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ are $`51.4GeV`$ and $`98GeV`$.

Fig.3 The cross sections for the neutralino pair production at the gaugino-like neutralino case and higgsino-like neutralino case at the LHC. For the gaugino-like neutralino case , the parameters are chosen in mSUGRA scenario with $`m_0=100GeV`$, $`m_{1/2}=150GeV`$, $`A=300GeV`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =4`$ and $`\mu >0`$. For the higgsino-like neutralino case, we choose $`M_1=150GeV`$, $`M_2=210GeV`$, $`\mu =90GeV`$ and the other parameters the same as those in the gaugino-like neutralino case.

Fig.4 Total cross sections of the process $`ppgg+X\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0+X`$ as function of $`m_{\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0}`$ at the LHC. The solid curve is for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production and the dashed curve is for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production.

Fig.5 Total cross sections of the process $`ppgg+X\stackrel{~}{\chi }_i^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_j^0+X`$ as function of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ at the LHC. The solid curve is for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_1^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production and the dashed curve is for $`\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0\stackrel{~}{\chi }_2^0`$ pair production.


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# Dependence of the physical properties of 𝑁𝑑_0.5𝐶𝑎_0.5𝑀𝑛𝑂_{3+𝛿} on the oxydation state of 𝑀𝑛.

## Abstract

We present a comparative study of the magnetic, transport and structural properties of $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3+\delta }`$ \[$`\delta =`$ 0.02(1) and 0.04(1)\]. We have found significant differences between the low temperature magnetic orders and the magnetization curves below $`T_{CO}250K`$ of the two samples. In particular one component of the magnetic moment presents a ferromagnetic coupling between the $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$ planes ($`Pbnm`$ setting) deviating the angle between neighboring $`Mn`$ ions from $`180^o`$ (perfect CE order) to $`150^o`$ \[$`\delta =0.02(1)`$\] and $`130^o`$ \[$`\delta =0.04(1)`$\]. These results imply a remarkable $`\delta `$ dependence which is discussed in the light of a non-random spatial distribution of defects in the perfect charge order scheme.

A considerable research effort concerning the charge order (CO) phenomenon in doped manganites ($`Ln_{1x}A_xMnO_3`$ with $`Ln=`$ rare earth and $`A=`$ alkaline earth) has been made during the last years. Ingredients such as Coulomb repulsion, the effect of Jahn-Teller distortion on the $`e_g`$ energy levels and lattice distortions play an important role on the stability of the CO state. This state is usually accompanied by a real space ordering of the orbitals occupied by the $`e_g`$ electrons. When this orbital order (OO) occurs, the $`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ superexchange interactions are FM if a half-filled $`d_{3r_i^2r^2}`$ ($`r_i=x,y`$ or $`z`$) and an empty $`e_g`$ orbitals are involved and antiferromagnetic (AFM) if the involved ones are two $`t_{2g}`$ orbitals. This makes the magnetic behavior to be strongly dependent on (i) the mean valence state of the $`Mn`$ ions (or, equivalently, on the density of $`e_g`$ electrons) and (ii) the real space OO. When the formal ratio $`\frac{Mn^{+4}}{Mn^{+3}}`$ ions is 1, and for a rich variety of rare earths the low temperature magnetic structure found is the CE. This structure is usually explained as resulting from a well established CO and OO. Some previous works have been devoted to study how the off-stoichiometry of the $`\frac{Mn^{+4}}{Mn^{+3}}=1`$ ratio affects the CO. One interesting effect is the variation in the CO modulation wave vector \[$`𝑸=\frac{2\pi }{a}(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}1}/2\alpha \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}0})`$ in the $`Pbnm`$ setting\] that different annealing conditions produce, for example, in $`Pr_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3`$ and in $`Sm_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3`$. Incommensurability of the CO in $`La_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3`$ have also been reported in the temperature range of the structural transformation, but it disappears at lower temperature. Barnabé et al. (Ref. ) argue that in an under-doped sample (presenting CO) the extra $`e_g`$ electrons are randomly placed in the $`Mn`$ positions leaving the CO commensurated ($`\alpha =0`$), but the extra $`Mn^{+4}`$ ions of an over-doped sample introduce incommensurability in the CO structure ($`\alpha >0`$) even when the excess of $`Mn^{+4}`$ is very small. Using electron diffraction data, Barnabé et al. conclude that the extra $`Mn^{+4}`$ ions form ordered $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}1\hspace{0.33em}0})`$ planes. Such an incommensurability of an over-doped sample has been also reported by Chen et al. in Ref. .

In this brief report we present the effects of changing the oxydation state of $`Mn`$ in $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3+\delta }`$. The notation we use here is convenient from the point of view of the chemical formulation, but the actual structural defects are not interstitial oxygens, they should correspond to cation vacancies. This study is based on the comparison of the structural, magnetic and transport properties. The main changes correspond to the magnetic structure. Its evolution with $`\delta `$ indicates that the extra holes due to $`\delta `$ are not randomly distributed.

Two different polycrystalline samples have been sintered by standard solid state reaction by mixing high purity powders of $`CaCO_3`$, $`Mn_2O_3`$ and $`Nd_2O_3`$ in appropiate ratios for the nominal composition $`Nd_{1/2}Ca_{1/2}MnO_3`$. After some intermediate treatments, the two samples were pressed into pellets, fired and ground again for several times. For the first sample (air sample) the firings were done at $`1450^oC`$ in air followed by a rapid quench to RT ($`500^oC/hour`$). For the second sample ($`O_2`$ sample) the firings were done at $`1400^oC`$ in an atmosphere of flowing $`O_2`$ and the final one was followed by a slow cooling to RT ($`50^oC/hour`$). X-ray powder diffraction confirmed that both samples are well crystallized in a single phase. Agreeing with the synthesis conditions, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), used to determine the oxygen content of the samples ($`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3+\delta }`$), evidenced a larger content of oxygen in the $`O_2`$ ($`\delta =0.04(1)`$, $`Mn^{+4}=58(2)\%`$) than in air sample ($`\delta =0.02(1)`$, $`Mn^{+4}=54(2)\%`$). Neutron diffraction (ND) patterns of the air sample were collected at the Institute Laue Langevin (Grenoble) using D2B ($`\lambda =1.594\mathrm{\AA }`$) and D1B ($`\lambda =2.52\mathrm{\AA }`$) diffractometers. ND patterns of the $`O_2`$ sample were collected at the Laboratoire Leon Brillouin (Paris) using 3T2 ($`\lambda =1.227\mathrm{\AA }`$) and G4.2 ($`\lambda =2.426\mathrm{\AA }`$) diffractometers. For both samples, ND patterns were collected for several temperatures in the range $`1.5K`$ to room temperature (RT). They were analyzed by the Rietveld method using the program FULLPROF. Resistivity was measured by the four-probe method using a commercial PPMS (Quantum Design). Magnetization measurements have been carried out using a commercial SQUID (Quantum Design).

Figure 1 shows the high-resolution ND patterns, collected at RT, refined using an average $`Pbnm`$ structure. The refined lattice parameters, $`Mn`$-$`O`$ bond lengths and $`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ bond angles are listed in Tab. I for comparison. There is a good agreement between the structural parameters obtained for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ with those for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$ and with those previously reported for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3`$. The lattice parameters show a negligible compression of the $`c`$-axis. The $`MnO_6`$ octahedra are very regular and without any appreciable apical compression. In order to check the mean oxidation state of the $`Mn`$ ions using ND data, we refined the occupation factors of $`Nd`$, $`Ca`$ and $`Mn`$ ions assuming that no interstitial oxygens are present (that is, fixing the oxygen stoichiometry to 3). It is known that any excess of oxygen in perovskites always corresponds to the presence of cation vacancies since there is no space left in the perovskite structure to allocate interstitial oxygens. We observed no improvement of the refinement factors and no significant differences between the nominal composition and the refined values: $`Nd_{0.502(8)}Ca_{0.492(8)}Mn_{1.001(9)}O_3`$ for the air sample $`Nd_{0.496(8)}Ca_{0.492(8)}Mn_{0.992(8)}O_3`$ for the $`O_2`$ sample.

ND patterns of both samples present superlattice peaks below $`T_{CO}250K`$, attributed to the development of the CO/OO state. A small incommensurability of the charge order can be appreciated through the position of the $`(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1}/2\alpha \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2})`$ peak for the $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$ sample \[$`\alpha =0.03(1)`$\] but not, within the resolution of our ND data, for the $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ sample ($`\alpha 0`$). The inset of Fig. 2(a) shows the growth of the $`(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1}/2\alpha \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2})`$ peak found for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$. Its integrated intensity relative to that of the $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}2\hspace{0.33em}2}),(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}2})`$ positions is, at low temperature, $`I_{(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1}/2\alpha \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2})}/I_{(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}2\hspace{0.33em}2}),(\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}2})}=\mathrm{7.4\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ and $`\mathrm{7.1\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$, indicating a very similar degree of long range ordering in both samples. The effect on the lattice parameters of the CO/OO is shown in the insets of Fig. 1. The strong compression of the $`c`$ lattice parameter is due to the localization of the $`e_g`$ electrons in $`d_{3x^2r^2}`$ or $`d_{3y^2r^2}`$ orbitals contained in the $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$ planes. The low temperature ND patterns have been refined using the $`Pbnm`$ description of the single cell. The obtained lattice parameters, $`Mn`$-$`O`$ bond distances and $`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ bond angles are listed in Tab. I. The aforementioned in-plane localization of the $`e_g`$ electrons causes an apical compression of the $`MnO_6`$ octahedra that can be quantified through the parameter $`ϵ_d=\left|1\frac{d_{MnO1}}{d_{MnO2}}\right|\times 10^4`$. $`ϵ_d`$ is, at low temperature, about four times larger than at RT for both samples. $`La_{1/2}Ca_{1/2}MnO_3`$ ($`ϵ_d=205`$) and $`Nd_{1/2}Sr_{1/2}MnO_3`$ ($`ϵ_d=215`$), both presenting CO and a CE-type magnetic structure, present an apical compression comparable to $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ ($`ϵ_d=217`$). A little lower value is found for $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$ ($`ϵ_d=192`$), reflecting the partial lack of $`e_g`$ electrons.

Figure 2(a) shows the temperature evolution of the low angle region of the ND patterns of $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$. The apparition of magnetic reflections is observed to occur at $`T_{N1}=165K`$ \[$`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$\] and $`T_{N2}=150K`$ \[$`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$\]. The low angle regions of the refined ND patterns at low temperature are plotted in Fig. 3 for both samples. The magnetic peaks have been indexed on the basis of the $`Pbnm`$ setting. In both samples, there are two families of magnetic peaks displaying $`(hkl)`$ Miller indices with $`h`$ half integer and k both integer or half integer. The first family of peaks has $`l=`$odd \[$`(1/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$, $`(1/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1}/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1})`$,…\] and is associated to the CE-type AFM structure. The second family of peaks has $`l=`$even \[$`(1/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}0})`$, $`(1/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}1}/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0})`$,…\] and is usually associated to the pseudo CE-type AFM structure. These two families of peaks are also present in $`Nd_{0.45}Ca_{0.55}MnO_3`$. We have obtained good fits to the ND patterns assuming that the components of the magnetic moment contained in the $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$ planes ($`m_x`$ and $`m_y`$) present a CE-type order structure, while the component of the magnetic moment in the $`[\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1}]`$ direction ($`m_z`$) presents a pseudo CE-type AFM order. The obtained magnetic structures are described in Tab. II and schematically plotted in Fig. 2(b). In both cases the ordered moments are well below the expected values for perfectly ordered moments. The effect of the considered out-of-plane component of the magnetic moment can be interpreted as a deviation from the perfect value ($`180^o`$) of the angles formed by the magnetic moments in neighboring $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$ planes \[e.g. between the magnetic moments of the $`Mn^{+3}`$ ions in positions $`(\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{2},0)`$ and $`(\frac{1}{4},\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2})`$ of Tab. II as is schematically depicted in Fig. 2(b)\] that is about $`30^o`$ in $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ and $`50^o`$ in $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$.

The magnetization \[M(T)\] and resistivity \[$`\rho (T)`$\] curves are shown in Fig. 4 and its inset respectively. The CO transition can be well appreciated as a sudden increase in the $`\rho (T)`$ curves, caused by the localization of the charges, and as a local maximum in the $`M(T)`$ curves. This local maximum is due to the transition from the FM $`Mn`$-$`Mn`$ correlations above $`T_{CO}`$ (double-exchange) to the AFM $`Mn`$-$`Mn`$ correlations below $`T_{CO}`$ ($`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ superexchange). There is scarcely any variance in $`\rho (T)`$ from one sample to the other. In this sense, the magnetization curves clearly show two regimes: above $`T_{CO}`$ both curves are almost identical, but below this point the curves systematically start to come away.

The results presented in the previous paragraphs show that the two samples are indeed very similar: the different oxydation state of the $`Mn`$ does not significantly change the structure, the transport and the magnetic properties of the compound above $`T_{CO}`$. Consequently, the differences observed at lower temperatures cannot be attributed to intrinsic differences in the structure due to the different concentration of cation vacancies.

In contrast with the behavior above $`T_{CO}`$, substantial discrepancies in the $`M(T)`$ curves start at this temperature, just when the $`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ superexchange interactions are dominated by the real space location of the $`e_g`$ electrons. This indicates that the difference in the magnetic behavior of the samples is driven by the defects introduced by the lack of $`e_g`$ electrons in the OO state. The different density of carriers causes differences in the real space distribution of $`Mn`$-$`O`$-$`Mn`$ superexchange interactions giving rise to a dissimilar $`M(T)`$ evolution. The presence of defects in the OO structure gives rise to frustrated magnetic coupling and, hence, differences between the magnetic structure and the perfect CE-type. To be emphasized is that such great changes in the obtained magnetic order and in the $`M(T)`$ are hard to explain in the scenario of a random location of the holes among $`Mn`$ positions. The last will simply lead to a CE structure with disorder. Consequently, a certain spatial grouping of the defects may enhance their effects and also cause the small incommensurability of the CO.

Of special interest is to determine if the two families of magnetic peaks are sustained by the same structural lattice or they correspond to two slightly different lattices. In $`Nd_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3`$, the coexistence of an A-type and a CE-type AFM phases below the CO transition, supported by different crystallographic cells, has been attributed to inhomogeneities in the cation distribution. In the present case (for both samples) the two families of magnetic peaks can be very well reproduced using the same lattice parameters and appear at the same temperature \[see Fig. 2(a)\]. Within our resolution, a single set of cell parameters allows a proper indexation of all the magnetic intensities (see Fig. 3).

In summary, off-stoichiometric samples of $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.02(1)}`$ \[$`\%Mn^{+4}=54(2)`$\] and $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3.04(1)}`$ \[$`\%Mn^{+4}=58(2)`$\] samples have been investigated in comparison with the stoichiometric $`Nd_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3`$. The same structural features and macroscopic behavior are observed above $`T_{CO}`$. A detailed ND study reveals pronounced influence of the different, but very similar, oxidation state of $`Mn`$ upon the magnetic long range ordering. The intensities of the magnetic $`(h/2k/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.33em}0})`$ peaks (absent in the CE-type order) increase significantly with the value of $`\delta `$. As a result the angle formed by the spins of successive $`MnO_2`$ $`(\mathrm{0\hspace{0.33em}0\hspace{0.33em}1})`$ planes change from $`\theta =180^o`$ for $`\delta =0`$ to $`\theta =130^o`$ for $`\delta =0.04`$. These remarkable changes in the magnetic structure are unusually important compared to the effects of a small off-stoichiometry in most of the transition metal oxides. They indicate, in connection with the incommensurability of the CO detected for the $`\delta =0.04(1)`$ sample, that the extra holes are not randomly placed in the $`Mn`$ positions but they form spatial sub-structures.

This work has been done with financial support from the CICyT (MAT97-0669) MEC (PB97-1175) and Generalitat de Catalunya (GRQ95-8029). A.L. acknowledges financial support form the Oxide Spin Electronics Network (EU TMR) program. The ILL and LLB are acknowledged for making available the beam time.


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# Percolation and Magnetization in the Continuous Spin Ising Model

## 1 Introduction

It has recently been proposed that the deconfinement transition in SU(2) gauge theory can be characterized as percolation of Polyakov loop clusters \[forsatz\]. This idea is based on the fact that SU(2) gauge theory and the Ising model belong to the same universality class \[Svet\], and that the magnetization transition in the Ising model can be specified as percolation of clusters defined through local bond weights \[Fortuin\]. It thus seems natural that the same holds for the corresponding Polyakov loop clusters in SU(2) gauge theory, provided suitable bond weights can be defined. In \[forsatz\], it was shown that in a lattice formulation effectively corresponding to the strong coupling limit, SU(2) gauge theory indeed leads to the predicted Ising critical exponents.

In the present paper, we want to consider the classical continuous spin model on $`Z^2`$ introduced by Griffiths \[Gr\], an Ising model with spins taking values continuously between $`1`$ and $`+1`$, and prove that in this case magnetization and percolation transitions coincide. We also present a detailed numerical study of the model with simulations on the 2d square lattice.

For SU(2) lattice gauge theory it was shown in the strong coupling limit \[Ka\] that the partition function can be written in a form which, apart from a factor which depends on the group measure, is the partition function of the classical spin model, with spins varying continuously in some bounded real interval \[Gr\]. These continuous spins thus are the natural counterparts of the Polyakov loops in SU(2) gauge theory. Following the pioneering work \[Fortuin\], the relationship between the thermodynamical features of spin models and the properties of the corresponding geometrical clusters have in the past years received considerable attention (see \[SW\] \- \[Cha2\]). We want to address here the random percolation content of the continuous spin Ising model \[Gr\] obtained through a Fortuin-Kasteleyn transformation \[Fortuin\] of the partition function. A specific class of geometrical clusters \[Wo\] shows a percolation transition whose critical behaviour matches the conventional Ising counterparts. In particular, it can be shown that up to finite constants, the spin magnetization equals the probability of long range cluster connectivity; moreover, the spin susceptibility becomes equal (up to the same constants) to some mean cluster size \[BCG\].

The numerical method to be used here is the Wolff algorithm \[Wo\]. It is based on the formulation of a single cluster update algorithm for spin systems with unprecedented performances regarding the problem of critical slowing down behaviour near phase transition \[Wo\]. It turns out that the Wolff clusters exhibit critical percolation behaviour at the point of the Ising phase transition. Very recently, this specific property of Wolff clusters has been put into a rigorous framework \[Cha1\], leading to a concept of Wolff measures which provides the theoretical basis for the method to be used below. We shall extend this work to the 2-d continuous spin model and corroborate the results through numerical simulations.

## 2 The Model.

Let $`\mathrm{\Lambda }Z^2`$ be a finite lattice with edge set $`E`$ and vertex set $`V=\{1,..,N\}`$ and $`𝐒`$ a random configuration of spin variables $`𝐒=\{S_i\}\mathrm{\Sigma }^V`$, where the $`S_{i,iV}`$ take values independently in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=[1,+1]`$. Consider the Hamiltonian

$$H(𝐒)=\underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}J_{i,j}S_iS_j,$$
(2.1)
where the sum is over all nearest neighbour pairs ($`<i,j>`$) of spins and $`J_{i,j}>0`$. Rewriting the spin variables $`S_i=l_i\sigma _i`$, where $`\sigma _i=sign(S_i)=\pm 1`$ and $`l_i=|S_i|[0,1]`$, one has

$$H(𝐒)=H(𝝈,𝒍)=\underset{i,j}{\mathbf{}}J_{i,j}l_il_j\sigma _i\sigma _j$$
(2.2)
### 2.1 Joint Distribution over Spin Amplitudes and Bond Variables

Following Edwards and Sokal \[ES\], the random cluster representation ( RCR ) \[Fortuin, G\] of this model is derived in the following way. Let $`𝒏\{0,1\}^E`$ be a configuration of bond variables on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ where,

1. $`n_{ij}=1`$ means that there is a bond between sites $`i`$ and $`j`$ in $`V`$,
2. $`n_{ij}=0`$ is the opposite event.

Consider the following joint probability distribution of the random variables $`(\sigma ,l,n)`$,

$`\mathrm{I}\mathrm{P}(𝐒,𝒏)=\mathrm{I}\mathrm{P}(𝒍,𝝈,𝒏)`$ $`=`$ $`Z_\mathrm{\Lambda }^1{\displaystyle \underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}}e^{\beta J_{i,j}l_il_j}\left[p_{i,j}\delta _{n_{ij,1}}\delta _{\sigma _i\sigma _j}+(1p_{ij})\delta _{n_{ij,0}}\right]`$ (2.3)
$`=`$ $`Z_\mathrm{\Lambda }^1{\displaystyle \underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}}w_{\beta ,J}(𝒍,𝝈,𝒏),`$
where $`p_{i,j}=1e^{2\beta J_{i,j}l_il_j}`$ is a weighting factor to be interpreted as the probability for a link $`n_{ij}`$ to exist ($`n_{ij}=1`$) between two nearest neighbour spins $`S_i`$ and $`S_j`$ that share the same sign ($`\delta _{\sigma _i\sigma _j}=1`$), and $`(1p_{i,j})`$ the probability of having no link ($`n_{ij}=0`$) between them. $`Z_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the partition function of the model given by

$$Z_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\underset{\{\sigma \}}{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{}\underset{i}{\mathbf{}}df_i(l_i)\mathrm{exp}[\beta \underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}J_{i,j}l_il_j\sigma _i\sigma _j],$$
(2.4)
where $`df_i`$ is the probability distribution of the spin amplitudes $`l_i`$ and $`\beta `$ is the inverse temperature.

Starting with the joint distribution (2.3), it is straightforward to express the weights $`w_{\beta ,J}(𝒍,𝝈,𝒏)`$ in the following way

$$w_{\beta ,J}(𝒍,𝝈,𝒏)=\underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}e^{\beta J_{i,j}l_il_j}\underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}_{n_{ij}=1}p_{i,j}\delta _{\sigma _i\sigma _j}\underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}_{n_{ij}=0}(1p_{ij}).$$

Now, we write $`\stackrel{~}{𝒏}`$ for a bond configuration fulfilling the compatibility condition that a bond $`\stackrel{~}{𝐧}_{i,j}`$ exists between sites $`i`$ and $`j`$ ($`\stackrel{~}{𝐧}_{i,j}=1`$) iff $`\sigma _i=\sigma _j`$  and call $`c(\stackrel{~}{𝒏})`$ the number of clusters of bonds in the configuration $`\stackrel{~}{𝒏}`$. Then, the weights $`w_{\beta ,J}`$ take the form (FK-representation)

$$w_{\beta ,J}(𝒍,\stackrel{~}{𝒏})=\underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}e^{\beta J_{i,j}l_il_j}\left(2^{c(\stackrel{~}{𝒏})}\underset{<i,j>\stackrel{~}{𝒏}}{\mathbf{}}p_{i,j}\underset{<i,j>\stackrel{~}{𝒏}}{\mathbf{}}(1p_{ij})\right).$$
(2.5)
These weights are called the Wolff weights of the random cluster distribution. The joint distribution on the configurations ($`𝒍,\stackrel{~}{𝒏}`$) provide the right framework to relate the critical behavior in the original spin system and its associated percolation representation.

###### Remark 2.1

The Wolff weights $`w_{\beta ,J}(𝐥,\stackrel{~}{𝐧})`$ differ from the (FK) weights of the Ising case (see \[Fortuin, CK\]) by the term $`{\displaystyle \underset{<i,j>}{\mathbf{}}}e^{\beta J_{i,j}l_il_j}`$ that reflect the measure on the spin amplitudes in the continuous case.

## 3 Wolff Cluster Algorithm and Distributions

Non-local cluster Monte Carlo (MC ) algorithms have brought significant improvements in the simulation of Ising models near criticality. Starting from the ground-breaking work of Fortuin and Kasteleyn \[Fortuin\], which relates the partition function of spin systems with that of a correlated percolation model, Swendsen and Wang \[SW\] derived a non-local cluster algorithm which drastically reduces the critical slowing down phenomena near the transition point, with a dynamical critical exponent near $`0.25`$, where $`z`$ is defined by

$$\tau =\xi ^z.$$
(3.1)
Here $`\tau `$ is the correlation time in MC simulations (measured in MC steps per site) and $`\xi `$ is the correlation length. For a system of size $`L`$, near the critical point, $`\xi `$ scales like $`L^2`$ in two dimensions. In the case of a local update algorithm like Metropolis or Heatbath, $`z`$ is found to be close to $`2`$, so the required time to reach stable configurations at criticality in this case is of order $`L^4`$, reducing noticeably the possible size of samples to study.

Building on the Swendsen-Wang idea, Wolff \[Wo\] improved the method (see below) and derived a non-local update MC scheme with a dynamical critical exponent $`z`$ smaller than or equal to Swendsen-Wang’s in any dimension and furthermore easier to implement.

### 3.1 The Wolff Algorithm

First let us recall briefly the main features of the Wolff method. Consider the $`2`$-$`D`$ ferromagnetic Ising Model on $`Z^2`$ with coupling constant $`J`$ and inverse temperature $`\beta `$. Starting from a randomly chosen spin $`\sigma _0`$, visit all nearest neighbours and

1. with probability $`p_b=1exp(2\beta J)`$,
2. and only if they have the same orientation as $`\sigma _0`$, (III.1)

include them in the same cluster as $`\sigma _0`$; spins not satisfying both conditions are excluded. Repeat iteratively this procedure with newly added spins in the cluster until no more neighbours fulfill the above compatibility condition ($`III.1`$). Now flip all the spins in that cluster with probability $`1`$. After that, erase all the bonds and start this procedure again. It turns out that this dynamics verifies the detailed balance condition, i.e. it samples the Gibbs distribution of the Ising model (see \[Wo\]). The distinguishing feature of the Wolff method compared to Swendsen-Wang’s is that, in the latter (following Fortuin and Kasteleyn \[Fortuin\]) one needs to build, with the same growing probability $`p_b`$ as before, all possible clusters of like spins and then, with probability 1/2, flip all the spins in those clusters. Then all the bonds are erased and one starts again from the newly created spin configuration. It can also be shown that this method verifies the detailed balance condition \[SW\]. In summary, the following remarks can be made:

1. The building procedure of an individual cluster in both methods is clearly the same, thus the Wolff cluster belongs to the set of Swendsen-Wang clusters.
2. When the Wolff cluster is built, the randomly chosen spin has obviously higher probability to fall in a large Swendsen-Wang cluster than in a smaller one.

It results that the distribution of Wolff clusters is given by the distribution of Swendsen-Wang clusters (see below) modified by an additional weight that takes into account the size of the clusters.


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# Detection of H𝛼 Emission in a Methane (T-type) Brown Dwarf

## 1 Introduction

Activity is an important parameter in the study of stellar populations. Numerous investigations of late-type (F-M) stars have shown correlations between emission (e.g., Ca II H & K, Mg II h & k, Balmer series, etc.) and fundamental parameters such as age, rotation, and metallicity (Hawley, Reid, & Gizis, 2000). It is generally believed that the majority of this optical emission occurs in the chromosphere via collisional heating by ions and electrons along magnetic field lines. Indeed, this hypothesis is supported by the observed correlation of activity and rotation in late-type stars (Kraft, 1967; Noyes et al., 1984; Basri, 1987), which is expected if magnetic fields are generated by an internal dynamo (e.g. $`\alpha `$-$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ dynamo; Parker 1955). Decrease in activity as stars age can be attributed to spin-down due to angular momentum loss in stellar winds (Stauffer & Hartmann, 1986).

As we examine cooler M and L dwarfs, however, these relations begin to break down. As stars become fully convective ($``$ 0.3 M), the $`\alpha `$-$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ dynamo mechanism becomes ineffective, as it requires a low-buoyancy, radiative/convective boundary to anchor flux lines (Spiegel & Weiss, 1980). However, the observed activity level remains roughly constant around this transition point (Hawley, Gizis, & Reid, 1996), suggesting a turbulent dynamo as an alternate magnetic field source (Durney, De Young, & Roxburgh, 1993). Indeed, flaring activity, which is magnetically driven, is seen in objects as late as M9.5 (Liebert et al., 1999; Reid et al., 1999), supporting the existence of substantial magnetic fields beyond the convective cut-off. Alternately, acoustic heating could sufficiently heat the chromosphere (Schrijver, 1987; Mathioudakis & Doyle, 1992) to produce a “basal flux” of H$`\alpha `$ emission. In either case, Gizis et al. (2000) have shown that the fraction of objects with measurable emission rises to 100% at spectral type M7, then rapidly declines, so that no emission is seen in types L5 or later (Kirkpatrick et al., 2000). The decrease in (steady) activity even encompasses objects with rapid rotation (Basri & Marcy, 1995; Tinney & Reid, 1998), at odds with trends in hotter stars. Whether this drop in emission is due to ineffective chromospheric heating, decreased magnetic activity, or some other mechanism is unclear, but the end of the main sequence appears to mark a change in activity.

Based on the results of Gizis et al. (2000), we would not expect significant activity in T dwarfs, brown dwarfs that show CH4 absorption bands at 1.6 and 2.2 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ (Kirkpatrick et al., 1999). Nonetheless, we have observed H$`\alpha `$ in emission in the T dwarf 2MASSW J1237392+652615 (Burgasser et al., 1999, herefter 2MASS J1237+65), identified from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (Skrutskie et al., 1997). We describe the optical observations of this and two other T dwarfs in $`\mathrm{\S }`$2; in $`\mathrm{\S }`$3 we discuss the H$`\alpha `$ detection in 2MASS J1237+65 and possible emission mechanisms; in $`\mathrm{\S }`$4 we compare 2MASS J1237+65 to the unusual M9.5Ve PC 0025+0447; we summarize our results in $`\mathrm{\S }`$5.

## 2 Optical Spectroscopy

### 2.1 Observations

2MASS J1237+65 was observed on three consecutive nights, 1999 July 16, 17, and 18 (UT) using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (Oke et al., 1995, hereafter LRIS) on the Keck II 10-meter telescope. On each occasion, conditions were transparent with seeing of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 to 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0, and we employed a 1$`\mathrm{}`$ wide slit. The target was acquired via blind offset from field stars, as it was invisible in the guiding imager. The July 16 and 17 observations were made using the 400 lines mm-1 grating blazed at 8500 Å, covering the wavelength range 6300 to 10100 Å at 9 Å resolution. Total integrations of 4800 (1800 + 1800 + 1200) and 1800 s were obtained, respectively. The July 17 observation was plagued by poor target centering, reducing the observed flux by a factor of $``$ 2; the data for this night are thus omitted, although H$`\alpha `$ was detected. The July 18 observation was an 1800 s exposure using the 300 lines mm-1 grating blazed at 5000 Å, covering 3800 to 8600 Å at 12 Å resolution. Additional 3600 and 2700 s observations (total integration time) of T dwarfs SDSSp J162414.37+002915.6 (Strauss et al., 1999, hereafter SDSS 1624+00) and SDSSp J134646.45-003150.4 (Tsvetanov et al., 2000, hereafter SDSS 1346-00) were made on July 16 and 17, using the 400 lines mm-1 grating blazed at 8500 Å.

The data for all three objects were reduced and calibrated using standard IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. routines. A one-second dark exposure was used to remove the bias, and quartz-lamp flat-field exposures were used to normalize the response of the detector. The individual spectra were extracted using the APEXTRACT routine, allowing for slight curvature of the point-source dispersion line viewed through the LRIS optics. Due to the low flux levels of the T dwarf targets, we used an extraction template derived from observations of standard stars. Wavelength calibration was achieved using Hg-Ne-Ar arc lamp exposures taken after each object exposure. Finally, the spectra were flux calibrated using observations of the DC white dwarf standard LTT 9491 (Hamuy et al., 1994). Data have not been corrected for telluric absorption, so the atmospheric H2O bands at 8161-8282, 8950-9300, and 9300-9650 Å are still present in the spectra (telluric H2O and O2 bands are not visible shortward of 8000 Å due to low flux levels).

### 2.2 Optical Spectra

Spectra from 6300-10100 Å for all three objects are shown in Figure 1. Data blueward of 6300 Å are not shown, as our July 18 observations failed to detect any flux, continuum or emission, in this regime. Features identified by Oppenheimer et al. (1998) in Gl 229B are indicated. The optical spectrum of SDSS 1624+00 is discussed in detail in Liebert et al. (2000). Cs I lines at 8521 and 8944 Å are seen strongly in SDSS 1624+00, while both SDSS 1346-00 and 2MASS J1237+65 have progressively weaker lines. Broadened H2O at 9250 Å and a weak CH4 feature centered near 8950 Å are noted, both of which are stronger in 2MASS J1237+65 and SDSS 1346-00 than in SDSS 1624+00. The pressure-broadened resonant K I doublet at 7665 and 7699 Å, which is prominent in the spectra of L dwarfs (Kirkpatrick et al., 1999), is masking most of the flux between 7300 and 8100 Å in all three objects (Burrows, Marley, & Sharp, 2000; Liebert et al., 2000). We note a feature in SDSS 1624+00 centered around 9900 Å which we identify as the 9896 Å 0-0 A4$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-X4$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ band of FeH, a feature that weakens from L6V and later (Kirkpatrick et al., 1999). This detection supports the claims of Nakajima et al. (2000) and Liebert et al. (2000) that SDSS 1624+00 is probably warmer than Gl 229B, which shows no FeH band. Hydride bands in SDSS 1346-00 and 2MASS J1237+65 are either weak or absent, suggesting that they in turn are cooler than SDSS 1624+00. The remaining feature of interest, H$`\alpha `$ emission at 6563 Å in 2MASS J1237+65, is the subject of the remainder of this article.

## 3 H$`\alpha `$ in 2MASS J1237+65

The H$`\alpha `$ emission seen in 2MASS J1237+65 (Figure 2) is quite unexpected given the cool nature of this object, and great care was taken to verify its presence over three nights of observation. The emission spike was clearly seen in the raw data and is not spatially extended, thus ruling out the possibility of a background HI region or telluric emission. H$`\alpha `$ emission was detected in five observations, spanning three nights and two different instrument settings, with the emission full-width at half-maximum equivalent to the instrumental resolution ($``$ 5 pixels). Hence, we can rule out the possibility of a chance cosmic ray. Finally, since no emission at 6563 Å is seen for the other T dwarfs, which were reduced using the same bias and flat-field exposures, we can rule out detector features. The H$`\alpha `$ emission line is thus quite real.

Measurements of the H$`\alpha `$ line for all three T dwarfs are given in Table 1. The integrated line luminosity at 6563 Å averaged over the three July 16 observations is $`f_{H\alpha }`$ = (6.6$`\pm `$0.6) $`\times `$ 10-17 erg cm-2 s-1. An equivalent width measurement is not possible as no continuum flux was detected in this spectral region. Note that there appears to be an increase in H$`\alpha `$ flux on July 18 to $`f_{H\alpha }`$ = (8.5$`\pm `$0.3) $`\times `$ 10-17 erg cm-2 s-1. We estimate the bolometric flux of 2MASS J1237+65 using the 2MASS J-band magnitude of 15.90$`\pm `$0.06 and assuming a Gl 229B bolometric correction of BCJ = 2.3 (Matthews et al., 1996). This yields mbol = 18.2 and fbol $``$ 1.3 $`\times `$ 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1; thus, log($`f_{H\alpha }`$/$`f_{bol}`$) = log(L/Lbol) $``$ $``$4.3. A limit on H$`\beta `$ emission at 4861 Å is estimated at $`f_{H\beta }`$ $``$ 2.0 $`\times `$ 10-17 erg cm-2 s-1, resulting in a Balmer emission ratio on 1999 July 18 (UT) of $`f_{H\beta }`$/$`f_{H\alpha }`$ $``$ 0.24.

### 3.1 Unusually Strong Magnetic Activity

The detection of H$`\alpha `$ is clearly inconsistent with the emission trend seen in objects later than L5V and indeed in brown dwarfs in general (Gizis et al., 2000). The level of activity for 2MASS J1237+65 can be placed in context with other late-type emission-line objects by comparing relative flux emitted through the H$`\alpha `$ line. Hawley, Gizis, & Reid (1996) find a mean log(L/Lbol) $``$ $``$3.8 for field dMe stars with Mbol $`<`$ 12 (spectral type M5V or earlier), while Gizis et al. (2000) show that this falls to below $``$5 for L dwarfs. Hence, even the activity level of 2MASS J1237+65 is inconsistent with these trends, while SDSS 1346-00 and SDSS 1624+00 have upper limits of log(L/Lbol) $``$ $``$5.3 and $``$5.7, respectively. Does 2MASS J1237+65 have an unusually strong magnetic field, perhaps powered by a dynamo mechanism different than that of M and L dwarfs? Further examination of activity statistics in this cool regime are clearly needed.

### 3.2 Flaring

While sustained activity may appear to diminish toward later spectral types, flaring does not. A good example of this is BRI 0021-0214, a rapid M9.5V rotator (Basri & Marcy, 1995) which in quiescence shows little or no H$`\alpha `$ emission (Basri & Marcy, 1995; Tinney, Delfosse, & Forveille, 1997; Tinney & Reid, 1998), yet was seen to flare by Reid et al. (1999) with log(L/Lbol) = $``$4.2, similar to 2MASS J1237+65. The BRI 0021-0214 flare also showed no continuum emission, again similar to the activity in 2MASS J1237+65. While flaring has not yet been observed in L dwarfs, the occurrence of flares in the latest M dwarfs (Reid et al., 1999; Liebert et al., 1999; Fleming, Giampapa, & Schmitt, 2000) suggests that they may simply have not yet been observed. However, most strong M-dwarf flares persist only a few hours (Hawley & Petterson, 1991), while smaller flares (which would show weaker continuum emission) have timescales on the order of minutes (Nelson et al., 1986). Thus, prolonged emission of 2MASS J1237+65 requires either a continuous flaring mechanism or fortuitous timing on our part. Further observations of the emission line are warranted to investigate more fully the temporal behavior of this emission.

### 3.3 Acoustic Flux

Schrijver (1987) first pointed out that a minimum “basal flux” seen in late-type stars could be attributed to chromospheric heating from acoustic waves. We can estimate the amount of acoustic flux from 2MASS J1237+65 by extrapolating the models of Ulmschneider et al. (1996), which improved on pivotal work done by Bohn (1984). Estimating Teff $``$ 1000 K, log g(cm s-2) $``$ 5, and using the scaling Facoustic $``$ Teff20 from the coolest points in their Table 1, we estimate Facoustic $``$ 4 $`\times `$ 10-8 erg cm-2 s-1, or log(Lacoustic/Lbol) $``$ $``$15, well below the observed activity level. As such, acoustic energy is not likely the source of activity in 2MASS J1237+65.

### 3.4 An Interacting Binary

Finally, it is possible that 2MASS J1237+65 is active as a result of a binary interaction with an equal magnitude or fainter companion. The binarity of brown dwarfs is well established, (Martín et al., 1998; Basri & Martín, 1999; Koerner et al., 1999), and the identification of three equal magnitude binaries in an L dwarf sample of ten by Koerner et al. (1999) is consistent with the binary fraction seen in late main sequence stars ($``$ 35%; Fischer & Marcy 1992; Henry & McCarthy 1993). Hence, it is reasonable to consider that 2MASS J1237+65 could itself be double. In this case, the companion would have to be equal-mass or smaller, as the optical continuum shows no evidence of a warmer component nor any significant variation over three days.

An unusual feature of brown dwarf binaries is the possibility of sustained Roche lobe overflow. Because of its degenerate interior, if a brown dwarf loses mass on a dynamical timescale ($`\tau `$ $``$ ($`\frac{R^3}{GM})^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ $``$ 1 hr), its radius increases approximately as dlnR/dlnM $``$ -$`\frac{1}{3}`$ when its mass lies in the range 5 - 70 MJup222MJup = 1.9 $`\times `$ 1030 g = 0.00095 M, RJup = 7.1 $`\times `$ 109 cm = 0.10 R (Allen, 1973). (Burrows & Liebert, 1993). Sustained conservative mass transfer then occurs if the change in the Roche lobe of the secondary satisfies

$$\frac{dlnR_L}{dlnM_2}=\frac{8}{3}q\frac{4}{3}(q+1)\frac{0.4q^{\frac{2}{3}}+\frac{1}{3}q^{\frac{1}{3}}(1+q^{\frac{1}{3}})^1}{0.6q^{\frac{2}{3}}+ln(1+q^{\frac{1}{3}})}<\frac{1}{3}.$$
(1)
We have taken $`q`$ = $`\frac{M_2}{M_1}`$ as the mass fraction, $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ the primary and secondary masses, and $`R_L`$ the secondary Roche lobe radius, as approximated by Eggleton (1983)

$$R_L=a\frac{0.49q^{\frac{2}{3}}}{0.6q^{\frac{2}{3}}+ln(1+q^{\frac{1}{3}})}.$$
(2)
Here $`a`$ is the binary separation. Equation (1) is satisfied when $`q`$ $`<`$ 0.63. We have calculated possible brown dwarf binary separations, periods, and edge-on primary radial velocities as a function of $`q`$ (Figure 3) for primary masses $`M_1`$ = 30 and 70 MJup and (Zapolsky & Salpeter, 1969)

$$R_L=R_2=\frac{\pi M_{(Jup)}^{\frac{1}{3}}}{(1+1.8M_{(Jup)}^{\frac{1}{2}})^{\frac{4}{3}}}R_{(Jup)}.$$
(3)
M(Jup) and R(Jup) are the mass and radius of the secondary in units normalized to Jupiter. This rough model shows that sustained outflow requires a separation $`a`$ $``$ 4 - 20 RJup (Figure 3a). This close separation may seem problematic; however, the brown dwarf spectroscopic binary PPl 15 has been shown to have an orbital separation of about 60 RJup (Basri & Martín, 1999). Note that this scenario results in at least partial eclipsing for orbital inclination $`i`$ $``$ 6 - 30$`\mathrm{°}`$, suggesting that photometric monitoring could detect a transit event in a period of $``$ 1 - 10 hours. Alternatively, radial velocity monitoring of the H$`\alpha `$ line can produce a measurable variation (v1 $``$ 10 - 90 cos($`i`$) km s-1) over this period.

The emission mechanism from overflow accretion is uncertain, as a hot accretion disk is ruled out by the lack of thermal continuum. Ionization along a shock front or magnetic streaming onto the primary’s pole are possibilities. Nonetheless, we find this an intriguing and, more importantly, observationally constrainable hypothesis.

## 4 PC 0025+0447: An Analogue?

A possible analogue to 2MASS J1237+65 is the much warmer M9.5Ve PC 0025+0447, which was identified by Schneider et al. (1991) in a search for high redshift quasars due to its unusually strong Balmer line emission. The contribution of H$`\alpha `$ luminosity to total luminosity (log(L/Lbol) = $``$3.4; Schneider et al. 1991) is a full order of magnitude stronger in this object than 2MASS J1237+65, and appears to be steady over a timescale of at least 7 - 8 years with no indication of flaring activity (Schneider et al., 1991; Mould et al., 1994; Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio, 1999). Both Schneider et al. (1991) and Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999) argue that PC 0025+0447 is a young (600 Myr) brown dwarf; if this were the case, then it is possible that 2MASS J1237+65 is an evolved version of this object that has slowly declined in activity with age. Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999) propose various mechanisms for the activity in PC 0025+0447, including sustained flaring and emission from a highly active, low-density corona. Mould et al. (1994), however, argue against PC 0025+0447 being a brown dwarf based on significant Li depletion, and propose that it is a Hyades-age ($``$ 700 Myr) main sequence star with normal photospheric thermal emission.

We propose a scenario in which PC 0025+0447 is itself an interacting binary, consisting of a $``$ 0.1 M M dwarf and a brown dwarf companion losing mass to the primary. This scenario provides a natural explanation for the observed phenomena: Roche lobe overflow from the companion provides a steady H$`\alpha `$ emission source, accretion may lead to the observed variable veiling of the M dwarf spectrum (Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio, 1999), and the accreted material from the brown dwarf companion may retain lithium at primordial abundance, leading to the intermittent appearance of Li 6707 Å absorption seen by Martín, Basri, & Zapatero Osorio (1999), without requiring modification of the measured trigonometric parallax. Extrapolation from Figure 3 leads to similar maximal separations (3 - 25 RJup) and periods (1 - 14 hours) as for 2MASS J1237+65. Unfortunately, despite many photometric and spectroscopic observations of PC 0025+0447, no time-resolved data is available to constrain this hypothesis. More detailed modeling is required to determine the feasibility of these mechanisms.

## 5 Summary

We have reported the detection of H$`\alpha `$ emission in the T dwarf 2MASS J1237+65, at a level of log(L/Lbol) = $``$4.3. This emission is intriguing, as it is a salient exception to the cool dwarf temperature-activity relations identified thus far. We have proposed various activity mechanisms, including a strong magnetic field, continuous flaring, and an interacting brown dwarf binary, but these are speculative guesses at best. Comparison can be drawn with the M9.5Ve PC 0025+0447, which, if it is a brown dwarf, could be a warm analogue to 2MASS J1237+65. Both objects could also be close binary systems with lower-mass brown dwarf companions, which are steadily transferring mass to their primaries by Roche lobe overflow. Nonetheless, the mechanism for both objects remains unclear. Further investigation of the temporal stability of the H$`\alpha `$ line in 2MASS J1237+65 and searches for emission in other T dwarfs is clearly warranted.

###### Acknowledgements.

A. J. B. acknowledges the assistance of Terry Stickel and Wayne Wack at the telescope, useful discussions with P. Goldreich and M. Marley, helpful comments from our referee S. Hawley, and the foresight of S. Phinney for assigning the brown dwarf binary problem in class (equation 1). A. J. B., J. D. K., I. N. R., J. E. G., and J. L. acknowledge funding through a NASA/JPL grant to 2MASS Core Project science. A. J. B., J. D. K., and J. E. G. acknowledge the support of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, which is operated under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.