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# Advection-Dominated Accretion with Infall and Outflows

## 1 Introduction

Advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) have been invented to explain low-luminosity black hole candidates like Sgr A (Narayan et al., 1998) in our Galactic Center. The low-luminosity of this model is achieved in an optically thin plasma, where most of the energy is stored in hot ions, while electrons as potential radiators are inefficiently coupled to the heat source and remain relatively cold. The electrons become nonetheless mildly relativistic close to the central black hole and the inevitable synchrotron radiation is observed from most ADAF candidates. The presence of magnetic fields not far from energy equipartition with the gas is indicative of their origin in MHD-instabilities (Balbus & Hawley, 1991) leading to turbulence in the accretion flow and subsequent generation of an effective viscosity. On larger scales magnetic fields are likely to be responsible for the collimation of outflows from accretion disks into jets, seen in the cores of M87 (Reynolds et al., 1996) and NGC 4258 (Lasota et al., 1996; Herrnstein et al., 1998), which are prototypical ADAF candidates. Furthermore the model can explain the accretion in some low-luminosity AGNs of elliptical galaxies (di Matteo et al., 1999) and in NGC 4258 (Gammie, Narayan & Blandford, 1999). In a recent X-ray survey (Sambruna, Eracleous & Mushotzky, 1999) a few more examples have been found for low-luminosity core in radio-loud AGNs, which are candidates for advection-dominated accretion flows in their central engines, suggesting that ADAFs can be found even in radio-loud AGNs and that jet formation is a common feature.

Outflow models for ADAFs have been investigated by Blandford & Begelman (1999) and applied to several candidates (di Matteo et al., 1999; Quataert & Narayan,, 1999). On the theoretical side Igumenshchev & Abramowicz (1999) and Stone, Pringle & Begelman (1999) have performed time-dependent 2D calculations of accretion flows, which in some cases resemble ADAFs for certain viscosity parameters $`\alpha 0.1`$, but suggest the production of outflows for larger $`\alpha `$ (Igumenshchev & Abramowicz, 1999). It is found that the $`(rr)`$ stress tensor component, which was not included in the original description of vertically integrated models for accretions flows, is important in the cited calculations for ADAFs. The existence of self-similar solutions with a radial viscous force has been shown in previous work (Narayan & Yi, 1995a) and discussed for 2D solutions with a separation of variables.

In this paper we describe advection-dominated accretion flows in polar-integrated variables including the radial viscous braking force, which either produce outflows or are formed by wind infall. The wind infall is assumed to consist of free falling low angular momentum gas, which is cold with respect to the already existing accretion flow. One possible source for this gas are stellar winds from massive stars in young clusters as in the center of our galaxy. In the following we will refer to this wind infall into the accretion flow as infall. In our treatment the main difference between infall and outflow is the sign of the mass infall rate and we talk about winds, if it is not necessary to distinguish between infall and outflow. We restrict the discussion to an extension of the self-similar solutions given by Narayan & Yi (1994) for the Newtonian limit.

In §2 we present the equations, which describe the accretion flow including the reaction to winds. The role of $`(rr)`$ stresses and bulk viscosity is emphasised. We discuss angular momentum transport and viscosity in §3 and specify the possible equations of state and the resulting energy equation in §4. General features of self-similar solutions are presented in §5 and in §6 detailed solutions for the $`\alpha `$-viscosity law are shown. Consequences of the alternative $`\beta `$-viscosity are discussed in §7 and ADAFs with an intermediate shear-limited viscosity law follow in §8. We compare the solutions and draw our conclusions in §9.

## 2 Stationary accretion with infall or outflows

In a first step we have to establish the set of equations, which describe the accretion flow. Advection-dominated flows, in which we are interested, are known to be quasi-spherical (Narayan & Yi, 1995a) and therefore we will use spherical coordinates in our discussion. Consider a stationary, axisymmetric and rotating flow with angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ around a compact object of mass $`M`$. Instabilities in the flow, either hydrodynamic or magneto-hydrodynamic in origin, generate turbulence on small scales and lead to an effective viscosity much larger than the microscopic one. The effective turbulent viscosity $`\nu `$ in the flow will redistribute specific angular momentum $`\mathrm{}(r,\theta )=\mathrm{sin}^2\theta r^2\mathrm{\Omega }`$ by a local viscous torque between neighbouring rings or shells. Short term evolution on scales smaller than the mean free path of eddies $`\lambda `$ in the turbulent flow, which is related to the viscosity $`\nu =v_{\mathrm{eddy}}\lambda `$ is not resolved in this description. All quantities like density or accretion velocity must be understood in a local time averaged sense with probably large short term variations. Besides the time average, we will discuss accretion flows also as polar-averaged, one-dimensional flows with only a radial coordinate $`r`$. The average is taken over sections of shells occupied by the flow.

Polar motions can consequently not be traced in this treatment. We are left with the angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }(r)`$ and the radial component of the velocity, which is the accretion velocity $`u=u(r)`$. Mass is accreted by the central object with a rate $`\dot{M}=2\pi ru\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. In this discussion $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is a suitable polar integral of the density

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }=2_{\pi /2\vartheta }^{\pi /2+\vartheta }d\theta r\mathrm{sin}\theta \rho $$
(1)
so that $`H=r\vartheta `$ is the vertical thickness of the accretion flow and the integral in equation (1) is restricted to a region around the symmetry plane of the flow to make room for winds seen in Fig.1. Nonetheless any vertical motion has a radial and polar component and the later is considered as a source or sink of mass, momentum and energy. We regard these sources as external to our description of the flow and call it infall into the accretion flow or an outflow respectively.

For a non-relativistic flow the conservation of mass implies that the change in mass flux at every radius is balanced by mass exchange with the wind in the stationary case

$$\frac{1}{r}\frac{(ru\mathrm{\Sigma })}{r}=\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W,$$
(2)
where $`\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W`$ is the mass per surface area added to the flow from the infall per time at a given radius. According to equation (1) this happens at a height $`r\vartheta `$, but rapid mixing with the flow is assumed so that the equations averaged over polar section occupied by the accretion flow remain valid. Angular momentum is a conserved quantity in accretion flows without winds and is redistributed by torques generated by viscous stresses $`t_{r\varphi }`$

$$\frac{1}{r}\frac{}{r}(ru\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{}r^2t_{r\varphi })=\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W\mathrm{}_W.$$
(3)
Here $`\mathrm{}`$ is a mass weighted polar average of $`\mathrm{}(r,\theta )`$. The infall contributes its own angular momentum to the flow $`\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W\mathrm{}_W`$ and exerts an additional torque, which depends on the relative angular momentum of infall and flow $`\mathrm{}_W\mathrm{}`$.

The accretion velocity $`u`$ follows from the imbalance of gravitational force, centrifugal barrier and radial pressure gradient. In addition to that we include the viscous braking force $`F_\nu `$ from the $`(rr)`$-component of the stress tensor and bulk viscosity

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{(ru\mathrm{\Sigma }u)}{r}}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\left(r\mathrm{\Omega }^2{\displaystyle \frac{GM}{r^2}}\right)r{\displaystyle \frac{𝒫}{r}}`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`F_\nu +\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_Wu_W`$
with the integrated pressure $`𝒫=d\theta P`$ and the radial velocity of the wind $`u_W`$, which adds its momentum to the flow. The change in specific radial momentum induced by winds is proportional to the velocity difference $`u_Wu`$. The viscous force (see Appendix A)

$`F_\nu `$ $`=`$ $`F_{rr}+F_{\mathrm{bulk}}`$ (5)
$`F_{rr}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _1[{\displaystyle \frac{4r}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left(\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{u}{r}}\right)\right)`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`4\nu {\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{u}{r}}\right)]`$
$`F_{\mathrm{bulk}}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta r{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }}{r^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{(r^2u)}{r}}\right)`$ (7)
has a contribution proportional the $`(rr)`$ component of the shear tensor of the flow in equation (6) and the compression of the gas in equation (7). We make the crude assumption that the corresponding viscosities are the same for the $`(r\varphi )`$ and $`(rr)`$ components of the shear stress and also for the bulk viscosity. Our ignorance is cast into the parameters $`\eta _1`$ and $`\eta `$, which measure the strength of the $`(rr)`$-shear and bulk viscosity relative to the familiar $`(r\varphi )`$-shear viscosity respectively. For isotropic turbulence $`\eta _11`$ is expected, but no estimate on $`\eta `$ can be derived from this assumption. We will call $`\eta `$ and $`\eta _1`$ viscous force measures in the following. Finally an energy equation must be given

$`u\mathrm{\Sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{e}{r}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{r^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{(r^2u)}{r}}+Q^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ (8)
$`+`$ $`\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W\left(\omega _W\omega +{\displaystyle \frac{(𝐯_𝐖𝐯)^2}{2}}\right),`$
which describes the change of specific internal energy $`e`$ of the flow due to compression (first term right side), viscous heating $`Q^+`$, radiative cooling $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, the enthalpy difference between flow $`\omega `$ and wind $`\omega _W`$ and the kinetic energy associated with the velocity difference, which has to be dissipated into heat. Here $`𝐯`$ is the velocity vector of the flow and $`𝐯_𝐖`$ the corresponding vector for the wind.

## 3 Angular Momentum Transport and Viscosity

The $`(r\varphi )`$ component of the stress tensor is assumed to be proportional to the corresponding component of the shear tensor with the kinematic viscosity $`\mu =\nu \rho `$ as the factor of proportionality. For the viscosity $`\nu `$ we will adapt three different representations. The first and obvious one is the $`\alpha `$-prescription introduced by Shakura & Sunyaev (1973) and the resulting $`\alpha `$-disks will be discussed in §6. The $`\alpha `$-viscosity is not a unique choice and effects of the so-called $`\beta `$-viscosity introduced by Duschl, Strittmatter & Biermann are discussed as $`\beta `$-disks in §(7). For the $`\alpha `$-viscosity

$$\nu =\alpha \frac{c_s^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }_K}$$
(9)
we avoided to introduce the vertical scale-height $`H`$ of the disk, because we believe that it leads to the misunderstanding that angular momentum transport in the radial direction depends on the thickness of the disk. Only with the assumption of vertical hydrostatic equilibrium is it possible to introduce $`H=c_s/\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$ in (9).

The $`\alpha `$-viscosity can be recovered from the $`\beta `$-viscosity law in the case of shock-limited turbulence in a Keplerian disk. The $`\beta `$-viscosity assumes that a typical length scale in the direction of transport $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ and the typical velocity difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\varphi `$ between interacting shells, which exchange eddies, equal the mean free path of eddies and their typical velocities relative to the mean flow respectively. A parametrisation with a new constant $`\beta `$ is suggested

$$\nu =\mathrm{\Delta }v_\varphi \mathrm{\Delta }r=\beta v_\varphi r.$$
(10)
If the typical velocity of eddies in a differentially rotating disk is limited by the sound speed, than the typical length scale $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ of communication between differentially rotating rings is estimated Duschl et al. to be

$$\mathrm{\Delta }r\frac{c_s}{\mathrm{\Omega }}.$$
(11)
Only in disks with Keplerian rotation does this length scale equal the vertical scale-height and the form $`\nu =\alpha c_sH`$ is recovered. As a third possibility we consider the shear-limited form of the $`\beta `$-viscosity with the length scale from equation (11), which has not been used for sub-keplerian accretion flows before. This is reasonable, if the mean free path of eddies is not limited by the vertical scale-height, but instead determined from the distance between shells, for which the velocity difference due to differential rotation equals the eddie velocity. This argument implies a larger effective viscosity for disks in sub-keplerian rotation. The $`(r\varphi )`$ component of the viscous stress tensor becomes in any case

$$t_{r\varphi }=\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }r\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{r}.$$
(12)
We assume that the same viscosity prescription can be applied to the $`(rr)`$-component of the stress and the bulk viscosity. Their relative strength is scaled to the $`(r\varphi )`$-viscosity by the force measures $`\eta _1`$ and $`\eta `$ introduced above. The heat generated by the described viscous forces has to be included in the energy equation and amounts to

$`Q^+`$ $`=`$ $`\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }\left(r{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{r}}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\eta _1\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }\left(r{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{u}{r}}\right)\right)^2`$ (13)
$`+`$ $`\eta {\displaystyle \frac{\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }}{r^4}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{(r^2u)}{r}}\right)^2.`$
The internal energy is increased by viscous heat and compression and reduced by radiative cooling $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

## 4 Equation of State

In general accretion flows are expected to exist for all reasonable equations of state for the accreted gas. The self-similar solutions we will use in what follows, are restricted to rather simple equations of state. For ADAFs the gas should be well described by an ideal gas law with $`\gamma =5/3`$ for ratio of specific heats, because the temperatures in ADAF solutions are so large ($`T>10^7`$K for most radii of interest) that the gas is completely ionised and only ions of a few heavy elements retain their highly bound inner electrons (see Narayan & Raymond (1999) for possible emission lines of these elements). The change of the equation of state due to partial ionization can be neglected, but the contribution of magnetic to the total pressure must be considered for two reasons. The first is the observational evidence that at least some candidates (e.g. Sgr A, see Narayan et al. (1998)) for ADAFs show a significant contribution of synchrotron emission to the total luminosity, which requires magnetic fields close to pressure equipartition with the gas. Given their existence, we might try a MHD-description of the accretion flow to separate the evolution of magnetic fields and gas, which might be different (Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Lovelace, 1997) unless magnetic diffusivity (Heyvaerts, Priest & Bardou, 1996) and/or reconnection require an even more complex model. The easy way out is to assume that turbulence generates small scale magnetic fields, which dominate the energy density in magnetic fields and produce an isotropic contribution to total pressure and energy. In doing so, one arrives at a hydrodynamic description of the accretion flow with a equation of state, which has to incorporate the magnetic pressure. Consider an equation of state of the quite general form

$$P\rho ^{\chi _\rho }T^{\chi _T}$$
(14)
with the exponents $`\chi _\rho ,\chi _T`$ defined according to Cox & Giuli (1968). For the self-similar solutions we have to restrict the internal energy per unit volume to be proportional to the total pressure

$$P=\frac{\chi _\rho }{\chi _T}(\gamma 1)e=(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)e$$
(15)
with $`\gamma =c_P/c_V`$ being the ratio of specific heats and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ the adiabatic coefficient defined by Chandrasekhar (1939). The restriction from equation (15) is that $`\chi _\rho ,\chi _T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ have to be constants, which requires that the relative strength of the magnetic pressure must be constant so that the effective equation of state is an ideal gas law with a ratio of specific heats less than $`5/3`$. We define the isothermal sound speed $`c_s=\sqrt{r𝒫/\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ from the integrated pressure and density. The sound speed used in the viscosity prescription is the total pressure divided by the mass density. We use thermodynamic relations (Cox & Giuli, 1968) to get an equation for the temperature from equation (8) for stationary accretion flows

$`uc_V{\displaystyle \frac{T}{r}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\chi _\rho rc_s^2}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}}u{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }}{r}}\right)+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^+\mathrm{\Lambda }}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}}`$ (16)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W}{\mathrm{\Sigma }}}\left(\omega _W\omega +{\displaystyle \frac{(𝐯_𝐖𝐯)^2}{2}}\right).`$
Here $`c_V`$ is the specific heat at constant volume

$$c_V=\frac{\chi _T^2c_s^2}{\chi _\rho (\gamma 1)T}$$
(17)
and if we assume that gas pressure contributes a fraction $`\delta `$ to the total pressure and magnetic fields are responsible for the rest, we get

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_31=\frac{\delta }{\frac{3}{2}\delta +(1\delta )}$$
(18)
for the adiabatic exponent $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ which is related to $`\gamma `$ by equation (15). For constant $`\chi _\rho `$ and $`\chi _T`$ we can rewrite the temperature gradient in equation (16) as a gradient of the sound speed and search for solutions in terms of the sound speed.

## 5 Self-similar ADAF solutions with a wind

The set of equations described in §2 and §3 allow self-similar power-law solutions for accretion velocity, angular velocity and sound speed in the way Narayan & Yi (1994) have shown

$$u=u_0s^{1/2}c\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_0s^{3/2}\frac{c}{r_G}$$
(19)
$$c_s^2=a^2s^1c^2$$
(20)
with the radial coordinate scaled to the gravitational radius of the central mass

$$s=\frac{r}{r_G};r_G=\frac{GM}{c^2}$$
(21)
and the speed of light $`c`$. It is required that the cooling is either completely negligible or is a radius independent fraction of the heating rate

$$f=1\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{Q^+}$$
(22)
so that $`1f`$ is the cooling efficiency, which will be small, if electrons are inefficiently coupled to the heat source. This happens, if ions are preferentially heated by viscous friction and the energy transfer rate between electrons and ions is smaller than the heating rate.

For the self-similar solution the radial component of the wind velocity must be proportional to the accretion velocity and we get a measure $`\xi _1=u_W/u`$, which tells us the relative radial velocity of the wind, but we will neglect it in the following discussion and assume $`\xi _1=0`$. This is motivated from the infall calculations of Coker, Melia & Falcke (1999), which predicts a very small radial velocity of the infalling material in the disk mid-plane for the infall from stellar winds in the Galactic Center. If a fraction $`f`$ larger than a few per cent of the viscously generated heat is not radiated away but kept in the flow as internal energy, the disk scale height $`H=c_s/\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$ is of the same order as the radius and the infall may have a significant radial velocity component. Nonetheless we will neglect it in the following discussion. The same is true for the enthalpy of the infalling material, but here we have better reasons to believe that the gas joining the ADAF is cold compared with the gas in the ADAF, which is heated by viscous friction, while the infalling gas maybe provided by stellar winds or the gas of the Hii region Sgr A West in case of the Galactic Center with temperatures of $`\mathrm{6\hspace{0.17em}10}^310^4`$ K (see Mezger, Duschl & Zylka (1996) for a review of the Galactic Center). This should be compared to typical temperatures of ADAFs of $`10^7`$ K at $`10^4`$ black hole radii. The situation with outflows might be different, where it is hard to imagine that the gas leaving the disk has a different temperature than the gas left in the flow. The gas might need some outward pointing radial momentum to get away from the ADAF, but again we will ignore it here. For infalling material we expect it to be in free fall so that their total velocity is $`v_W=v_{\mathrm{ff}}=\sqrt{2}cs^{1/2}`$. In the case of outflows we require that they are able to escape the gravitational attraction of the central object and their velocity must be at least the free fall velocity $`v_{\mathrm{ff}}`$.

In the same way the rotation of the infall has to be a constant fraction $`\xi =\mathrm{\Omega }_W/\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of the rotation of the accretion flow itself and again calculations by Coker et al. (1999) for the Galactic Center predict infall with only weak rotation. Outflows on the one hand might be expected to carry their initial angular momentum from the point of origin and therefore $`\xi =1`$. On the other hand magnetically driven outflows will exert a torque on the remaining accretion flow if the gas in the outflow has different angular velocity than the point in the flow, to which it is connected by magnetic field lines. In this case $`0<\xi <1`$ would be expected.

The rate of mass added by the infall per surface area of the flow in its central plane is constrained to steep radial profiles and introduces one free parameter $`p`$ (Blandford & Begelman, 1999) not to be confused with the pressure $`P`$

$$\dot{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_W=p\frac{u\mathrm{\Sigma }}{r},\mathrm{\Sigma }=\mathrm{\Sigma }_0s^{1/2+p}.$$
(23)
For infall into accretion flows $`p`$ has to be negative and the radial dependence of the infall rate must be steeper than $`r^2`$. Therefore most of the mass is added at small radii and the total mass infall $`d\dot{M}_Wdrr^{1+p}`$ diverges in the center. This solution is consequently not valid for small radii, where the infall must deviate from the solution (23). Positive values of $`p`$ correspond to outflows generated by the accretion flow and reversing the argument for the total mass now taken away from the ADAF, the solution is confined to small radii so that $`\dot{M}_W`$ is still smaller than the mass accretion rate supplied at the outer radius. The surface density of the flow implies a density $`\rho r^{3/2+p}`$, which restricts the specific equation of state (14) to those with $`\chi _\rho `$,$`\chi _T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ being constants and the temperature as a function of radius follows

$$T^{\chi _T}r^{1+(1\chi _\rho )(3/2+p)}$$
(24)
so that the radial pressure gradient is independent of the thermodynamic exponents and $`Pr^{5/2+p}`$. The gas density in self-similar solutions for advection-dominated accretion is unconstrained and only the required inefficient cooling restricts the solutions to small mass accretion rates below $`10^2\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ (Narayan & Yi, 1995b). $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ is the Eddington accretion rate for an radiation efficiency of 10% in terms of the rest mass of the accreted material.

## 6 $`\alpha `$-ADAFs

Whether the parametrisation of the wind, which is necessary for the self-similar solution in §5, is justified or not, depends on boundary conditions, which the wind has to meet at large distances, or the internal physics of outflows. While outflows might naturally follow the self-similarity of ADAFs, the distribution of stellar wind sources will determine, if a power-law dependence of the infall rate is reasonable. The parametrisation of the viscosity (Shakura & Sunyaev, 1973) in equation (9) is based on dimensional arguments and besides numerical simulations, which do not exist for ADAF conditions, there is no way to determine what values for $`\alpha `$ are appropriate in the case of stationary ADAFs. Without information on the strength of the magnetic fields from MHD-calculations, the adiabatic exponent $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ is also undetermined. We will discuss the self-similar solutions as functions of $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ as well as for certain wind parameters and viscous force measures $`\eta `$ and $`\eta _1`$.

The self-similar ansatz in §5 reduces the dynamical equations (3), (4) and (16) to a set of non-linear algebraic equations for the coefficients of sound speed $`a`$, angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ and accretion velocity $`u_0`$. The accretion velocity is derived from equation (3) in terms of sound speed $`a`$ and $`\alpha `$

$$u_0=\frac{3}{2}\alpha a^2𝒜𝒜=\frac{1+2p}{1+2p(1\xi )}$$
(25)
with a constant $`𝒜`$, which reflects the torque exerted by the the wind on the flow. The combined wind parameter $`𝒜`$ is 1 for a vanishing wind or a non-rotating wind. For rotating infall the solution is restricted to moderate infall rates with $`p>1/2`$. Otherwise accretion would not be possible. For a given sound speed and accretion velocity, the centrifugal barrier and therefore the angular velocity follows from the radial momentum equation (4), if we know the viscous force measures. We find for the square of the angular velocity <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1
$$=𝒜(12p(1\xi _1))+\eta (52p)+\frac{4}{3}\eta _1(1+2p)$$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2=c^2\left(\frac{5}{2}p\right)a^2\frac{9}{8}\alpha ^2𝒜\frac{a^4}{c^2}.$$
(26)
We are left with a quadratic equation for the square of the sound speed. One solution turns out to be irrelevant either by predicting $`a^2`$ to be negative or leaving $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2`$ in equation(26) negative. But even the second root not always gives reasonable solutions, because with increasing $`\alpha `$ and small changes in $`a^2`$ as seen in Fig.2 and Fig.3, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2`$ decreases and becomes negative. Solutions for the accretion problem exist only for values of the viscosity parameter smaller than a critical $`\alpha _c`$. The wind parameters for the solutions in Fig. 2 and 3 have been chosen in a way that the infall or outflow is in free fall or leaves with the escape speed. No radial momentum of the wind is included and both infall and outflow are cold. While the infall has no proper angular momentum, the outflow rotates with the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of the accretion flow. With the requirements of a cold outflow and total velocity of the wind being the escape speed, which both enter the energy equation (16) in the same way, we make a minimal energy assumption for the extraction of internal energy by the outflow. For the equation of state we take the natural choice $`\chi _\rho =1`$ so that the mix of gas and magnetic field behaves like an ideal gas. The ratio of specific heats equals $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$, if we assume $`\chi _T=1`$. $`\chi _T`$ is not a parameter of our solutions, but determines the actual temperature of the gas through equation (24). For energy equipartition we have $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3=1.4`$ from equation (18) and we use this value if not stated otherwise. For the cooling efficiency $`1f`$ we assume a low rate of 1%. For the dynamics of the flow not the energy radiated away matters, but the energy left in the flow. The actual cooling efficiency is unimportant as long as it is small and $`f1`$.

For an ADAF without winds it is possible to derive an analytic solution for the sound speed and determine the maximum allowed $`\alpha _c`$ given by<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2    $``$ $`=`$ $`2(5\eta +{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\eta _1)[{\displaystyle \frac{4}{9}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)`$  (27)    $`\times `$ $`(({\displaystyle \frac{7}{3}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_3)f({\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_3))]`$     $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{32}{3}}\eta _1f(\mathrm{\Gamma }1)\left({\displaystyle \frac{5}{3}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_3\right)`$

$$\alpha _c=\frac{\sqrt{8/92(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)(7/3\mathrm{\Gamma }_3)+}}{f(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)(3\eta +4\eta _1)}.$$
(28)
In that case $`𝒜`$ equals $`1`$ and the accretion velocity is $`u_0=(3/2)\alpha a^2`$. If the viscosity parameter is small, the limit $`\alpha 0`$ provides a good approximation for the sound speed

$$a^2\frac{6f(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)}{3(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)(5f2\chi _\rho )+106\chi _\rho }$$
(29)
and the angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\sqrt{c^2(5/2)a^2}`$ as seen in Fig.2 and Fig.3. From equation (28) and (27) we immediately see that $`1<\mathrm{\Gamma }_3<5/3`$ is required for the no wind case and the familiar result arises that no solution exists for a non-relativistic ideal gas. It is also obvious that the upper limit on $`\alpha `$ increases and becomes irrelevant with vanishing radial viscous force. In other words, with increasing viscous force measures $`\eta ,\eta _1`$ ADAF solutions are restricted to reasonably small values of $`\alpha <\alpha _c`$.

One additional criterion for the realization of accretion solutions is the Bernoulli number

$$\mathrm{Be}=\frac{GM}{r}+r^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2+u^2+e+\frac{P}{\rho }$$
(30)
discussed by Narayan & Yi (1994, 1995a) for ADAFs and Blandford & Begelman (1999) for ADIOS. While the total energy decreases inwards the Bernoulli number being the total specific energy plus $`P/\rho `$ is positive and increases inwards for ADAFs. This changes with outflows due to their cooling effect by removing internal energy and reducing the Bernoulli number of the remaining flow. Correspondingly an infall increases the Bernoulli number of the flow. The combinations of allowed values for $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ as a function of the wind strength $`p`$ is shown in Fig.4 for corotating ($`\xi =1`$) and non-rotating winds. The statement that ADAFs exist for an ideal gas with negative Bernoulli numbers, if an outflow is present (Blandford & Begelman, 1999), is confirmed, even when the radial viscous force is included. The minimal possible wind strength depends on the viscosity parameter $`\alpha `$ as seen in Fig.4.

## 7 $`\beta `$-ADAFs with winds

Following the arguments in Duschl et al. (2000) the viscosity law should not depend on the sound speed, if the actual velocity of turbulent eddies is smaller than the sound speed in the gas. In the $`\beta `$-viscosity law (10) the eddy velocity is determined from the actual rotation velocity $`v_{\mathrm{eddy}}\sqrt{\beta }r\mathrm{\Omega }`$ with the lessening $`\sqrt{\beta }`$ equally distributed between velocity and length scale. The arguments given in §3 suggest that $`\alpha `$-viscosity can be seen as the shock-limited case of the $`\beta `$-viscosity and the $`\alpha `$-ADAFs discussed in §6 can be checked for consistency, if this hypothesis is correct. Specialising on the no wind case in the limit of small $`\alpha `$ we find the ratio

$$\frac{c_s^2}{(r\mathrm{\Omega })^2}=\frac{f(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)}{(5/3\mathrm{\Gamma }_3\chi _\rho )}$$
(31)
and the $`\beta `$-viscosity can be applied for $`\beta <1.5f`$ with the adaption of $`\chi _\rho =1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3=1.4`$. Therefore the $`\beta `$-viscosity is valid for ADAFs with low cooling efficiencies, if the resulting flows are similar to $`\alpha `$-disks. The scale length of the $`\alpha `$-viscosity is the vertical scale height $`H=c_s/\mathrm{\Omega }_K`$, which turns out be $`H1.55r\sqrt{f/(1.6+6f)}0.6r`$ for $`\alpha `$-ADAFs in the no wind case and the limit $`\alpha 0`$. The length scale of the $`\beta `$-viscosity is $`\sqrt{\beta }r`$ and we expect the same sound speeds and angular velocities for $`\alpha `$\- and $`\beta `$-ADAFs below $`\beta 0.3`$. This is verified by comparing Fig.2 and 3 with Fig.5. The actual solution for $`\beta `$-ADAFs is derived in the same way as for $`\alpha `$-ADAFs in §6 and we find the accretion velocity depending explicitly on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and not $`c_s^2`$.

$$u_0=\frac{3}{2}\beta \mathrm{\Omega }_0𝒜$$
(32)
The constant $`𝒜`$ is defined in equation (25). The increased accretion velocity seen in Fig.6 compared to $`\alpha `$-ADAFs is explained by the larger value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ in equation (25) relative to the sound speed squared in case of the $`\alpha `$-viscosity. The angular velocity of the accretion flow can be given<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3
$$=\left((52p)\eta +4/3(1+2p)\eta _1\right)𝒜$$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2=\frac{1(5/2p)a^2}{9/8\left[(12p(1\xi _1))𝒜^2+\right]\beta ^2+1}$$
(33)
including the reaction of the flow due to the presence of winds. Turning to the energy equation shows that two obvious solutions exist for the sound speed. First an non-rotating and non-accreting solution

$$a^2=\frac{2c^2}{52p},$$
(34)
where the gravitational attraction is completely balanced by the pressure gradient. The gas is in hydrostatic equilibrium and constitutes an optically thin atmosphere.

This is not a viable solution for a black hole, because general relativity does not allow a pressure supported atmosphere close to the horizon. The second solution is an accreting and rotating flow as shown in Fig.5. The gas is cooler than in the atmosphere solution and strong outflows in corotation with the flow or even non-rotating outflows reduce the sound speed further so that the accreted gas can be gravitationally bound to the central mass. For a corotating, cold outflow, which reaches infinity with the escape velocity from the radius of origin $`\xi _2=2`$, and a simple equation of state $`\chi _\rho =1`$ we can give the sound speed for a case of negligible radial viscosity $`\eta =\eta _1=0`$: <sup>4</sup><sup>4</sup>4    $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒜}{24}}[4(6p)(12p)(1+\beta ^2𝒜^2)`$     $`+`$ $`\beta ^2𝒜^2(3(1+4p)^2p(17+2p))]`$     $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒜(1p)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_31}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\beta ^2𝒜^2(12p)\right)`$

$$a^2=\frac{f\left[3(3/4p)\beta ^2𝒜^2+1\right]p𝒜}{(5/2p)f\mathrm{\Xi }}.$$
(35)
For non-rotating and cold infall, which is in free-fall for $`p<0`$, or outflows barely reaching infinity ($`\xi _2=1`$) with $`p<0.36`$ the ratio of specific heats has to be smaller than a limiting value

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_31<2\frac{1p}{39p+2p^2}$$
(36)
at which the rotation of the flow stops and no solutions exist for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ larger than that. This limit for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ equals $`5/3`$ for ADAFs without winds or outflows and is the well known result that ADAFs do not exits for an ideal equation of state. The consistency of $`\beta `$-ADAFs follow from the above predictions based on $`\alpha `$-flows. With infall into the flow the sound speed increases and the rotation velocity decreases. The $`\beta `$-viscosity law is therefore more likely to be applicable to ADAFs with infall than with outflows.

## 8 ADAFs with shear-limited viscosity and winds

The motivation for a shear limited viscosity law is the observation that the standard $`\alpha `$-viscosity agrees with the general $`\beta `$-viscosity law only for Keplerian accretion disks with a shock-limited eddy velocity. In the shear-limited viscosity

$$\nu =\widehat{\alpha }\frac{c_s^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }}$$
(37)
we assume that the eddy velocity is indeed shock-limited and the mean free path of eddies is determined by the radial distance of differentially rotating shells, which allows the exchange of eddies along radial paths in a comoving frame of one shell. If the eddy velocity is the sound speed, the maximal distance of shells follows from a Taylor expansion of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_\varphi `$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }r\frac{c_s}{2\mathrm{\Omega }}.$$
(38)
The length scale over which shells can interact is larger for sub-keplerian rotation. This is the main difference of equation (37) to the original $`\alpha `$-viscosity. The consequence for the accretion velocity

$$u_0=\frac{3}{2}\widehat{\alpha }\frac{a^2}{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}𝒜$$
(39)
is an explicit dependence on the inverse of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ contrary to $`\beta `$-ADAFs in equation (32). The combined wind parameter $`𝒜`$ is defined in equation (25). The square of the angular velocity follows from a quadratic equation with two roots <sup>5</sup><sup>5</sup>5    $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{9}{8}}\widehat{\alpha }^2𝒜[(12p(1\xi _1))𝒜`$     $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\eta _1(1+2p)+\eta (52p)]`$

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_0^2=\frac{1}{2}\frac{52p}{4}a^2\pm \sqrt{\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{52p}{4}a^2\right)^2a^4\mathrm{\Psi }}.$$
(40)
In the limit of vanishing viscosity parameter $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ the angular velocity has two obvious solutions

$$\widehat{\alpha }0\mathrm{\Omega }_0\{\begin{array}{c}\sqrt{1(5/2p)a^2}\hfill \\ \mathrm{or}\hfill \\ 0\hfill \end{array}.$$
(41)
For small $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ the rotation for the second solution is proportional to $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ and positive. The existence of these slowly or non-rotating ADAFs depends on non-vanishing force measures $`\eta ,\eta _10`$. The solution disappears without a radial viscous force. The viscosity in non-rotating ADAFs tends to a finite value at $`\widehat{\alpha }=0`$

$$\nu =a\sqrt{\frac{1(5/2p)a^2}{a^2\mathrm{\Psi }}}c\sqrt{sr_G}$$
(42)
and so does the accretion velocity. If we interpret $`\widehat{\alpha }c_s/\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as the viscous length scale, it does not diverge for small $`\widehat{\alpha }`$. The sound speed also tends to a positive value as seen in the upper solution branches for the sound speed in Fig.8 and accretion velocity in Fig.7 corresponding to the lower branches for the angular velocity in Fig.7. The energy equation is itself quadratic in $`a^2`$ for either choices of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0`$ in equation (40). Only one solution satisfies the condition

$$a^2\frac{2}{52p}$$
(43)
for real values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. We end up with two solution branches, which join at a critical $`\widehat{\alpha }_c`$.

Beyond $`\widehat{\alpha }_c`$ no physical solution exists for the accretion problem. Besides the slowly rotating solution discussed above, we find more familiar ADAFs, where the accretion velocity is linear in $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ as seen in Fig.7. For small viscosity parameters, the solution is independent of the force measures $`\eta ,\eta _1`$. Real solutions for the square of the sound speed in the no wind case are only possible for

$$\widehat{\alpha }\frac{(5/3\chi _\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }_3)}{3f(\mathrm{\Gamma }_31)\sqrt{\eta +(4/3)\eta _1}}.$$
(44)
The situation does not differ from the standard $`\alpha `$-viscosity in so far as no upper limit for $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ exists in the limit of vanishing radial viscosity $`\eta =\eta _1=0`$ in the radial momentum equation (4) as long as the ratio of specific heats is in the range $`1<\mathrm{\Gamma }_35/3`$. In the limit of vanishing viscosity $`\widehat{\alpha }0`$ the rotating solution coincides with the unique ADAF solution without winds and radial viscosity. For the simplest equation of state $`\chi _\rho =1`$ the sound speed in the limit $`\widehat{\alpha }0`$ is

$$a^2=\frac{2ϵf}{2ϵ^2+5ϵf},ϵ=\frac{5/3\mathrm{\Gamma }_3}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_31}.$$
(45)
The critical $`\widehat{\alpha }_c`$, which sets the upper limit for the existence of ADAFs with shear-limited viscosity, depends not only on the force measures $`\eta ,\eta _1`$, but also on the presence of winds. The same pattern as for the standard $`\alpha `$-viscosity appears, in which solutions with outflows are possible for a wider range of $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ than for infall solutions as seen in Fig.7 and Fig.8. It turns out that the slowly rotating branch of solutions produces smaller Bernoulli numbers than the fast rotators for infall and the no wind case $`p=0`$. Only for outflow solutions is the fast rotator preferred with smaller Bernoulli numbers. But in all cases shown in Fig.8, the Bernoulli number is positive and no gravitationally bound flow is found. This changes if more energy is extracted by the wind and the fast rotating outflow solution shown in the figures has negative Bernoulli numbers, if the outflow is cold and reaches a terminal velocity equal to the escape speed at its origin. The allowed combinations of $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$ regardless of Bernoulli numbers are shown in Fig.9. The dividing lines in the $`(\widehat{\alpha },\mathrm{\Gamma }_3)`$-plane are vertical without a radial viscous force and bend in the way drawn in the figure, when the $`(rr)`$ component of the stress tensor is included.

## 9 Conclusions

We have investigated the importance of a radial viscous braking force for advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) in the presence of infall or outflows. Under the assumption of almost isotropic turbulence, bulk viscosity and $`(rr)`$ component of the viscous stress tensor provide an efficient brake of the rapid radial accretion of hot gas in ADAFs and produce additional heat due to viscous friction. This opens a second channel for transfer of kinetic into internal energy and supports in part the radial motion so that the shear due to differential rotation and the centrifugal barrier is reduced in ADAFs with radial viscous braking.

We derived self-similar solutions of ADAFs for three different viscosity laws. The standard $`\alpha `$-viscosity produces solutions, which show more and more sub-keplerian rotation with increasing $`\alpha `$. The solutions terminate at a critical $`\alpha _c`$, which depends strongly on the ratio of specific heats so that the greatest possible $`\alpha `$ tends to zero for a non-relativistic ideal gas. At the critical $`\alpha _c`$ the rotation of the flow vanishes and a purely radial inflow appears, which is not only supported by a pressure gradient, but also by the viscous braking force, provided the flow is still turbulent in the absence of differential rotation. This limit is reminiscent of Bondi accretion (Bondi, 1952) in the presence of effective turbulent viscosity. The transition from ADAFs to Bondi accretion nonetheless affords a suspicious fine tuning in $`\alpha `$.

The $`\beta `$-viscosity law of Duschl et al. (2000) based on geometrical arguments in the absence of shock-limited turbulence allow ADAF solutions for all reasonable values of $`\beta `$. The estimates of $`\beta `$ as inverse of the critical Reynolds number of the flow suggests small $`\beta `$s, for which the solutions do not differ from $`\alpha `$-ADAFs. No transition to a Bondi like flow is possible in this case and no upper bound on $`\beta `$ exists.

We showed that it is possible to derive a shear-limited viscosity law from the $`\beta `$-viscosity mentioned above, for which the transition to non-rotating Bondi like accretion with turbulent viscosity occurs naturally. The now familiar ADAF solutions with sub-keplerian rotation at $`\widehat{\alpha }0`$ join with a second branch of solutions at a maximal sustainable $`\widehat{\alpha }`$. Similar to the $`\alpha `$-ADAFs no accretion flow with larger $`\widehat{\alpha }`$ are possible. The second solution branch is a hot, slowly rotating, and rapidly accreting solution even for small values of $`\widehat{\alpha }`$. The transition to viscous Bondi accretion occurs from the slowly rotating to the non-rotating solution in the limit $`\widehat{\alpha }0`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is linear in $`\widehat{\alpha }`$. A finite viscous force is present in these flows even in the limit $`\widehat{\alpha }=0`$. In all cases the connection of ADAFs to non-rotating flows depends on the presence of a radial viscous force.

The observation that ADAFs generally possess positive Bernoulli numbers lead to the idea (Narayan & Yi, 1995a; Blandford & Begelman, 1999) that ADAFs are good candidates for the production of outflows. In that way the accretion flow loses energy to the outflow and the remaining material is left with negative Bernoulli numbers and gravitationally bound to the central accreting mass. We confirm that statement in the presence of a radial viscous force for $`\alpha `$\- and $`\beta `$-ADAFs and show the back-reaction of outflows on ADAFs for different outflow characteristics. Most noticeably is the cooling effect and the increased accretion velocity of the remaining ADAF as angular momentum and internal energy is carried away. Outflows with a minimal energy assumption for the extracted energy have to be fairly massive $`p0.35`$ to lower the Bernoulli number and leave a bound flow in case of the shear-limited viscosity. It is much easier to get a bound flow, if the minimal energy assumption is violated and the terminal velocity of the outflow is the escape speed from the origin of the out-flowing material.

If a natural choice of the viscosity parameter—either $`\alpha `$ or $`\widehat{\alpha }`$—exists and provided the strength of the radial viscous force can be estimated from isotropic turbulence, then outflows are inevitable for certain equations of state with ratios for specific heats close to $`5/3`$. This conclusion is independent of arguments based on the positiveness of Bernoulli numbers for ADAFs.

The scenario of thin disk evaporation in binary systems (Liu et al., 1999) or the transition from cooling flows to ADAFs in low-luminosity cores of elliptical galaxies (Quataert & Narayan,, 1999b) can explain the existence of ADAFs in these systems. The formation of an ADAF, which is the most promising model for the spectral energy distribution of Sgr A in the Galactic Center, cannot proceed in either way. We suggest that an ADAF in the Galactic Center forms out of stellar wind infall (Coker et al., 1999) and the transfer of kinetic energy of the infall into internal energy of an advection-dominated flow. The even larger Bernoulli numbers produced in this way wound give rise to subsequent outflows and reduce the mass accretion rate inferred from infall calculations by Coker et al. (1999) to the smaller accretion rates predicted from spectral fitting (Quataert & Narayan,, 1999) of ADAF models to Sgr A.

I thank Ramesh Narayan and Wolfgang Duschl for helpful conversations and challenging discussions. This work has been supported through DAAD fellowship D/98/27005.

## Appendix A The radial viscous force

The radial viscous force in spherical coordinates is derived from the tensor divergence of the shear stress tensor $`t_{ij}`$ and the bulk viscous force from the divergence of bulk viscosity and compression. The stress tensor is assumed to be proportional to the shear tensor $`𝒟`$ which is defined as

$$𝒟_{ij}=\frac{1}{2}(v_{i;j}+v_{j;i})\frac{1}{3}g_{ij}v_{;l}^l$$
(A1)
with the kinematic viscosity $`\mu =\nu \rho `$ as a scalar function relating shear and stress $`t_{ij}=\mu 𝒟_{ij}`$. Here $`v_i`$ are velocity vector components, $`g_{ij}`$ the metric tensor and $`v_{i;j}`$ implies covariant differentiation of the velocity. The radial viscous force derived from the shear tensor is

$`f_\nu `$ $`=`$ $`(2\mu 𝒟^{rj})_{;j}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4}{3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left[\mu r{\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{u}{r}}\right)\right]+3\mu {\displaystyle \frac{}{r}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{u}{r}}\right)\right),`$
where axial-symmetry and $`v_\theta =0`$ is assumed and $`u`$ is the radial velocity as used throughout the paper. The corresponding heating rate due to this viscous friction is

$$q_{rr}^+=\frac{4}{3}\mu r^2\left(\frac{}{r}\left(\frac{u}{r}\right)\right)^2.$$
(A3)
The contribution from compression and bulk viscosity $`\zeta `$ to the radial viscous force is

$$f_{\mathrm{bulk}}=(\zeta v_{;l}^l)_{;r}=\frac{}{r}\left(\frac{\zeta }{r^2}\frac{}{r}(ur^2)\right)$$
(A4)
and the corresponding heating rate is

$$q_{\mathrm{bulk}}^+=\left(\frac{\zeta }{r^2}\frac{}{r}(ur^2)\right)^2.$$
(A5)
Multiplying by $`r`$ and performing polar integration of the force gives the radial viscous force used in (6) and (7)

$$F_{rr}=\frac{4r}{3}\left(\frac{}{r}\left[\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{}{r}\left(\frac{u}{r}\right)\right]+3\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{}{r}\left(\frac{u}{r}\right)\right)$$
(A6)
and

$$F_{\mathrm{bulk}}=r\frac{}{r}\left(\frac{\nu \mathrm{\Sigma }}{r^3}\frac{}{r}(ur^2)\right)$$
(A7)
with the replacement of the bulk viscosity by the effective turbulent viscosity $`\nu `$. The heating rates used in equation (13) are derived from equation (A3) and (A5) in the same way. The force measures $`\eta ,\eta _1`$ used in the text have been omitted here.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

One of the issues of string theory preventing phenomenological applications is the moduli that we get upon compactification. Since the critical dimension is $`D=10`$ for (worldsheet) $`N=1`$ superstrings, one has to compactify six of ten dimensions to get four-dimensional spacetime. Then there appear a number of massless scalars which characterize the size, the shape and other structures of the compactification space, although no so many (approximately) massless scalars are expected to be observed in reality. One must also break supersymmetries. It would therefore be interesting to explore any possibility to find a lower-dimensional string model with less supersymmetries which we could use as a starting point.

Recently, an interesting duality between strings on singular Calabi-Yau spaces and lower-dimensional non-gravitational (string) theories has been discussed -. In this paper, we will construct a modular invariant string partition function on four-dimensional Minkowski $`\times `$ two-dimensional black hole . This model may be thought of as a noncompact $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ version of Gepner models  and corresponds  to a conifold point on the moduli space of Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theories. We directly deal with the characters of $`N=2`$, $`c=9`$ unitary superconformal field theory realized as a Kazama-Suzuki model  based on $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$  at level $`k=3`$. Unlike the conventional Gepner models, which use a tensor product of minimal models (realized as a compact coset $`SU(2)/U(1)`$ ) as the internal CFT and is known  to describe regular Calabi-Yau compactifications, the necessary central charge 9 is supplied by a single $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ conformal field theory. Thus we do not need to take a tensor product. If we regard the coset conformal field theory as a gauged $`SL(2,\text{})`$ WZW model , we end up with a six dimensional string theory on four-dimensional Minkowski space $`\times `$ two-dimensional black hole111 This is a critical string theory since the total central charge is 0 and the Liouville mode decouples. However, in the linear dilaton region which is far from the tip of the cigar, the coordinate field along the cigar looks like the Liouville field  which adjusts the total central to 0 if treated as a conformal field . The idea of replacing the Liouville $`\times `$ $`U(1)`$ system in noncritical string theories with two-dimensional Euclidean black hole was proposed in . .

The main obstacle in constructing modular invariants using $`N=2`$, $`c>3`$ superconformal characters - was its bad modular behavior (See  for an earlier attempt.); for example, the nondegenerate NS character is given by

$`\text{Tr}q^{L_0}=q^{h+1/8}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _3(0|\tau )}{\eta ^3(\tau )}},`$ (1)
whose monomial factor $`q^{h+1/8}`$ makes the modular behavior awful. To overcome this problem, we use the following two ideas : First, we consider (a countable set of) infinitely many primary fields so that the sum of their $`q^{h+1/8}`$ factors form a certain theta function. Which theta function to choose has to be examined carefully, and will be determined later. The modular property of the total partition function can be thus improved. Consistent CFTs with an infinite number of primary fields are known (e.g. $`c=1`$ CFTs ) and not surprising. On the contrary, they are required for modular invariance .

There is still a problem even after the monomial of $`q`$ is replaced by a theta function; the number of eta and theta functions do not balance between the denominator and the numerator. It is a problem because in the modular $`S`$ transformation the $`\sqrt{\tau }`$ factors do not cancel. The situation is similar for a free scalar partition function, in which, however, the $`|\tau |`$ factor from the left and right eta functions is compensated by the modular transformation of the zeromode integral. Thus our second proposal is to assume that the “internal” $`N=2`$ superconformal system constructed from the $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ coset has a degree of freedom of the center-of-mass motion along a certain direction, which has to be integrated over in the partition function. This assumption just agrees with the picture of CFTs on singular Calabi-Yau spaces advocated by Witten . With these two ideas we construct a modular invariant, and it turns out that the integration over the continuous set of ensembles above is nothing but the “Liouville-momentum” integration along the cigar (See  for an earlier analysis of strings on two-dimensional black hole.).

Another important question in constructing a model is how to restore the spacetime supersymmetry. In type II string theories the key role was played by Jacobi’s abstruse identity. Some similar useful theta identities were found by Bilal and Gervais  long time ago and were used to construct interesting noncritical superstring models. In fact, our model is closely related to their six-dimensional ($`d=5`$) model, in particular contains the latter as a subsector, although the interpretation is somewhat different.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In sect. 2, we briefly review the construction of $`N=2`$ superconformal algebra based on the noncompact coset $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ and the geometrical meaning of the free fields used in the realization. In sect. 3, we use theta identities to construct a modular invariant partition function, clarify the $`N=2`$ character content and summarize the features of our model. In sect. 4 we study the lowest mass spectra. Finally, we present our conclusions and suggestions for further work in sect. 5.

## 2 $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ Kazama-Suzuki model

### 2.1 Free-field realizations

Let us begin with a review of the $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ Kazama-Suzuki model . We use the following free-field realization of the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ current algebra:

$`J^3(z)`$ $`=`$ $`i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k}{2}}}\varphi ,`$
$`J^\pm (z)`$ $`=`$ $`i\left(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k}{2}}}\theta \pm i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k2}{2}}}\rho \right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\pm i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{k}}}(\theta \varphi )\right).`$ (2)
The OPEs of the free scalars are $`\rho (z)\rho (0)\theta (z)\theta (0)\mathrm{log}z`$ but $`\varphi (z)\varphi (0)+\mathrm{log}z`$. This realization may be obtained by bosonizing  the $`\beta `$-$`\gamma `$ system of the Wakimoto realization  followed by a redefinition of the scalars. The same realization was used in . The energy-momentum tensor is

$`T_{SL(2,\text{})}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\rho )^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{2(k2)}}}^2\rho {\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\theta )^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2.`$ (3)
The central charge is $`c_{SL(2,\text{})}=3k/(k2)`$.

The $`SL(2,\text{})`$ parafermions are defined by removing the exponentials of $`\varphi `$ from $`J^\pm `$:

$`\psi ^\pm (z)`$ $`=`$ $`i\left(\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}}\theta \pm i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k2}{2k}}}\rho \right)\mathrm{exp}\left(\pm i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{k}}}\theta \right),`$ (4)
where the parafermion fields $`\psi ^\pm `$ are $`\psi _1`$ and $`\psi _1^{}`$ in the usual notation. (See also  for a realization of the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ parafermion algebra.)

The energy-momentum tensor of the parafermion theory is

$`T_{SL(2,\text{})/U(1)}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`T_{SL(2,\text{})}(z)\left(+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2\right).`$ (5)
The $`N=2`$ superconformal algebra can be obtained by adding back another free boson $`\phi (z)`$ with the OPE $`\phi (z)\phi (0)\mathrm{log}z`$. The currents are given by

$`T_{N=2}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`T_{SL(2,\text{})/U(1)}(z){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\phi )^2,`$
$`T_F^\pm (z)`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2k}{k2}}}\psi ^\pm \mathrm{exp}\left(\pm i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k2}{k}}}\phi \right),`$ (6)
$`J_{N=2}(z)`$ $`=`$ $`i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{k}{k2}}}\phi .`$
The central charge is $`c_{N=2}=3k/(k2)`$ again. $`k`$ will be set to 3 later.

### 2.2 Representations of classical SL(2,)

A unitary $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ coset module is constructed by forbidding the $`J^3`$ excitation in a unitary highest (or rather lowest) weight module of the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ current algebra. Thus the lowest $`L_0`$ level states form a unitary representation of (classical) $`SL(2,\text{})`$. (See e.g.  for the representations of the classical $`SL(2,\text{})`$ Lie algebra. See also .) The latter can be realized as the differential operators acting on functions on $`S^1`$: 222These equations correct the inconsistency in the sign convention in ref. .

$`H^3`$ $`=`$ $`ϵ+i{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}},`$
$`H^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`ie^{ix}{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dx}}+(ϵ\pm l)e^{ix},`$ (7)
$`C`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(H^+H^{}+H^{}H^+)(H^3)^2.`$
$`\{e^{imx}|m\text{}\}`$ form a complete set and

$`H^3e^{imx}`$ $`=`$ $`(m+ϵ)e^{imx},`$
$`H^\pm e^{imx}`$ $`=`$ $`(m+ϵ\pm l)e^{i(m\pm 1)x},`$ (8)
$`Ce^{imx}`$ $`=`$ $`l(l1)e^{imx}.`$
Thus the representations of $`SL(2,\text{})`$ are labeled by $`(l,ϵ)`$. The corresponding equations in the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ current algebra module are

$`J_0^3|m+ϵ>`$ $`=`$ $`(m+ϵ)|m+ϵ>,`$
$`J_0^\pm |m+ϵ>`$ $`=`$ $`(m+ϵ\pm l)|m+ϵ\pm 1>,`$ (9)
$`𝑱|m+ϵ>`$ $`=`$ $`l(l1)|m+ϵ>`$
with $`𝑱=1/2(J_0^+J_0^{}+J_0^{}J_0^+)(J_0^3)^2`$.

Unitary representations $`(l,ϵ)`$ of (classical) $`SL(2,\text{})`$ are known to be classified into the following four cases:333 We do not need to consider the universal covering of $`SL(2,\text{})`$ in our $`c_{N=2}=9`$ case. Then $`ϵ`$ takes discrete values.

* Principal unitary series: $`(+\frac{1}{2}+ip,ϵ)`$; $`p\text{}`$, $`ϵ\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}`$.
* Complementary series: $`(l,0)`$; $`0<l<1`$.
* Discrete series $`𝒟_n^+`$: $`(n+ϵ,ϵ)`$; $`ϵ\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}`$, $`n\text{}_{>0}`$ if $`ϵ=0`$, $`n\text{}_0`$ if $`ϵ=\frac{1}{2}`$.
* Discrete series $`𝒟_n^{}`$: $`(nϵ,ϵ)`$; $`n\text{}_0`$, $`ϵ\{0,\frac{1}{2}\}`$.
* Trivial representation.

In the cases i, ii, the whole module consists of the states $`|m+ϵ>`$, $`m\text{}`$. There are neither highest weight states nor lowest-weight states. In the cases iii$`\pm `$, the module spanned by $`|m+ϵ>`$, $`m\text{}`$ turns reducible due to the appearance of null states. In this case the irreducible submodules $`𝒟_{lϵ}^\pm `$ are unitary. $`𝒟_{lϵ}^+`$ ($`𝒟_{l+ϵ}^{}`$ ) has a lowest- (highest-)weight state $`|l>`$ ($`|l>`$). The quotient module divided by $`𝒟_{lϵ}^+𝒟_{l+ϵ}^{}`$ is finite, and non-unitary if $`l\frac{1}{2},1`$. If $`l=\frac{1}{2}`$ the quotient module is empty; if $`l=1`$ the quotient module consists of a single state, and hence corresponds to the trivial representation. One can also construct unitary representations by starting from negative $`n`$, but they only give equivalent representations. ($`𝒟_0^+`$ is equivalent to $`𝒟_1^+`$ if $`ϵ=0`$.) This is manifest in the symmetry of the Casimir $`ll+1`$. Finally, the trivial representation maps any element of the Lie algebra to 0.

The vertex operator of the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ current algebra at level $`k`$ corresponding to the state $`|m+ϵ>`$ in the $`(l,ϵ)`$ representation is

$`|m+ϵ>e^{+\sqrt{\frac{2}{k2}}l\rho +i\sqrt{\frac{2}{k}}(m+ϵ)(\theta \varphi )}.`$ (10)
It has

$`L_0^{SL(2,\text{})}={\displaystyle \frac{l^2l}{k2}},J_0^3=m+ϵ.`$ (11)
The corresponding $`N=2`$ vertex operator is

$`e^{+\sqrt{\frac{2}{k2}}l\rho +i\sqrt{\frac{2}{k}}(m+ϵ)\theta +i\frac{2(m+ϵ)}{\sqrt{k(k2)}}\phi }.`$ (12)
It has

$`h=L_0^{N=2}={\displaystyle \frac{(l^2l)+(m+ϵ)^2}{k2}},Q=J_0^{N=2}={\displaystyle \frac{2(m+ϵ)}{k2}}.`$ (13)
### 2.3 Interpretation — the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ WZW model

One of the nice features of the realization (2) is its clear geometrical meanings. To see this, let us write out the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ WZW action

$`S_{\text{WZW}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2x\text{Tr}_\mu g^\mu g^1}+k\mathrm{\Gamma }(g),`$ (14)
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(g)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12\pi }}{\displaystyle d^3xϵ^{\overline{\mu }\overline{\nu }\overline{\rho }}\text{Tr}\overline{g}^1_{\overline{\mu }}\overline{g}\overline{g}^1_{\overline{\nu }}\overline{g}\overline{g}^1_{\overline{\rho }}\overline{g}}`$ (15)
using the parameterization

$`g`$ $`=`$ $`\left[\begin{array}{cc}\hfill u+w& v+y\hfill \\ \hfill v+y& uw\hfill \end{array}\right],`$ (18)
$$\begin{array}{cc}u=\mathrm{cosh}𝝆\mathrm{cos}𝒕,\hfill & v=\mathrm{cosh}𝝆\mathrm{sin}𝒕,\hfill \\ w=\mathrm{sinh}𝝆\mathrm{cos}\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽},\hfill & y=\mathrm{sinh}𝝆\mathrm{sin}\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}.\hfill \end{array}$$

(The signature of the worldsheet is $`\eta ^{\mu \nu }=\text{diag}[1,+1]`$.) The result is

$`S_{\text{WZW}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle }d^2x[\sqrt{h}h^{\mu \nu }(_\mu 𝝆_\nu 𝝆\mathrm{cosh}^2𝝆_\mu 𝒕_\nu 𝒕+\mathrm{sinh}^2𝝆_\mu \stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}_\nu \stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽})`$ (19)
$`2ϵ^{\mu \nu }\mathrm{sinh}^2𝝆_\mu 𝒕_\nu \stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}]`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2x\left[_+𝝆_{}𝝆+_+𝒕_{}𝒕+\mathrm{sinh}^2𝝆_+(𝒕\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽})_{}(𝒕+\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽})\right]}.`$
The last line is the expression on the flat worldsheet with $`x^\pm =(x^1\pm x^0)/\sqrt{2}`$. $`SL(2,\text{})`$ invariant metric is given by

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`d𝝆^2\mathrm{cosh}^2𝝆d𝒕^2+\mathrm{sinh}^2𝝆d\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}^2`$ (20)
in this parameterization. We now dualize $`\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}`$ by adding

$`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2xϵ^{\mu \nu }_\mu 𝜽_\nu \stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝜽}}`$ (21)
to $`S_{\text{WZW}}`$. The dual action reads

$`S_{\text{WZW}}^{\text{dual}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{k}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle d^2x\sqrt{h}\left[(_\mu 𝝆)^2(_\mu (𝒕+𝜽))^2+\mathrm{tanh}^2𝝆(_\mu 𝜽)^2\right]}`$ (22)
with the dilaton field

$`\mathrm{\Phi }=\mathrm{log}\mathrm{cosh}𝝆+\text{const.}`$ (23)
Thus the target space of the dual sigma model is $`\text{}\times `$ two-dimensional black hole. The cigar geometry may be obtained by simply dropping the “time” coordinate $`𝒕`$+$`𝜽`$. In the region $`𝝆\mathrm{}`$, $`𝝆`$, $`𝜽`$ and $`𝒕+𝜽`$ correspond to the free fields $`\rho `$, $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$, respectively. Clearly, $`\rho `$ plays the role of the Liouville field.

## 3 Modular Invariant Partition Function

Having reviewed the $`SL(2,\text{})/U(1)`$ coset construction, we will now construct a modular invariant partition function. In type II string theories, the key equation was Jacobi’s abstruse identity:

$`\vartheta _3^4(0|\tau )\vartheta _4^4(0|\tau )\vartheta _2^4(0|\tau )=0.`$ (24)
Are there any such nice theta identities for us, too? In fact, we may find one in the works on noncritical string theory done by Bilal and Gervais long time ago:

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{1,1}(\tau ,0)\left(\vartheta _3^2(0|\tau )+\vartheta _4^2(0|\tau )\right)\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,1}(\tau ,0)\vartheta _2^2(0|\tau )=0,`$ (25)
where

$`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m,1}(\tau ,\nu )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n\text{}}{}}q^{(n+m/2)^2}z^{2(n+m/2)}(m=0,1),`$ (26)
$$q=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi i\tau ),z=\mathrm{exp}(2\pi i\nu )$$

are the level-1 $`SU(2)`$ theta functions. We also use another identity :

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,1}(\tau ,0)\left(\vartheta _3^2(0|\tau )\vartheta _4^2(0|\tau )\right)\mathrm{\Theta }_{1,1}(\tau ,0)\vartheta _2^2(0|\tau )=0,`$ (27)
which is nothing but the modular $`S`$ transform of (25). The determinant of the coefficient matrix of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_{m,1}(\tau ,0)`$ in (25)(27) consistently vanishes (for they are nonzero functions) due to (24). Their modular properties are

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau +1)`$ $`=`$ $`i\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau ),`$
$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau +1)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau ),`$ (28)
and

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}(3\pi i/4)}{\sqrt{2}\tau ^{3/2}}}\left(\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(1/\tau )+\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(1/\tau )\right),`$
$`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{exp}(3\pi i/4)}{\sqrt{2}\tau ^{3/2}}}\left(+\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(1/\tau )+\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(1/\tau )\right).`$ (29)
Thus

$`\left|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )/\eta ^3(\tau )\right|^2+\left|\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )/\eta ^3(\tau )\right|^2`$ (30)
is modular invariant.

Having found a building block, we now construct a partition function. We set $`k=3`$ from now on. For the NS sector, we collect the unitary representations

$`h={\displaystyle \frac{Q^2+1}{4}}+p^2,Q\text{}`$ (31)
and integrate over $`p\text{}`$ with the same weight (Figure.1). Except when $`Q`$ is odd and $`p=0`$, they all have non-degenerate characters:

$`\text{Tr}_{\mathrm{NS}}q^{L_0^{N=2}}z^{J_0^{N=2}}=\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{NS}}(h,Q)=q^{p^2+\frac{Q^2+1}{4}}z^Qf^{\mathrm{NS}}(\tau ,z),`$ (32)
where

$`f^{\mathrm{NS}}(\tau ,z)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1+zq^{n1/2})(1+z^1q^{n1/2})}{(1q^n)^2}}\left(=q^{1/8}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _3(\nu |\tau )}{(\eta (\tau ))^3}}\right).`$ (33)
Note that this class of representations precisely correspond to the ones made out of the principal unitary series only.

When

$`Q=Q_m=(2m+1),h=h_m={\displaystyle \frac{Q_m^2+1}{4}}=m^2+m+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(m\text{})`$ (34)
(that is, $`p=0`$), the representation reaches the boundary of the unitarity region, where its irreducible subspace becomes smaller. The non-degenerate character then decomposes  into a sum of two degenerate characters of A3 type:

$`\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{NS}}(h_m,Q_m)=\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{A}_3\mathrm{deg}}(h_m,Q_m;m)+\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{A}_3\mathrm{deg}}(h_m+|m+1/2|,Q_m+\text{sign}(Q_m);m),`$ (35)
where

$`\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{A}_3\mathrm{deg}}(h,Q;r)=q^hz^Q{\displaystyle \frac{f^{\mathrm{NS}}(\tau ,z)}{1+q^{|r+1/2|}z^{\mathrm{sign}(Q)}}}.`$ (36)
The first term of (35) is the irreducible character of the representation $`(h_m,Q_m)`$, while the second is that of the adjacent integer $`Q`$ degenerate representation on the same boundary line (Figure.1). These representations are also summed over. As a result, the points $`(h_m,Q_m)`$ may also be thought of as if they were generic (non-degenerate) ones. Such degenerate representations on the boundary lines of the unitarity region are made out of the discrete series of $`SL(2,\text{})`$.

For the R sector, we similarly consider the following set of representations:

$`h={\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{4}}+p^2,Q\text{}.`$ (37)
In this case, unless $`Q`$ is even and $`p=0`$, the characters are given by the generic ones:

$`\text{Tr}_\mathrm{R}q^{L_0^{N=2}}z^{J_0^{N=2}}=\mathrm{ch}_\mathrm{R}(h,Q)=q^{p^2+\frac{Q^2}{4}}z^Qf^\mathrm{R}(\tau ,z),`$ (38)
where

$`f^\mathrm{R}(\tau ,z)`$ $``$ $`(z^{1/2}+z^{1/2}){\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1+zq^n)(1+z^1q^n)}{(1q^n)^2}}\left(={\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _2(\nu |\tau )}{(\eta (\tau ))^3}}\right).`$ (39)
We do not shift the $`U(1)`$ charge by $`\pm 1/2`$ in the definition of the Ramond character; if the representation has two degenerate lowest $`L_0`$ states (which is the generic ($`h3/8`$) case), $`Q`$ represents the mean value of $`U(1)`$ charges of the two states. If $`h=3/8`$, the lowest $`L_0`$ state is unique because the other becomes null. Then the $`U(1)`$ charge of the lowest $`L_0`$ state is $`Q1/2`$ (P+ module).

If $`Q`$ is even and $`p=0`$, the non-degenerate character again can be written as a sum of two irreducible degenerate characters of P$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{3}{}^{}`$ type:

$`\mathrm{ch}_\mathrm{R}(h_m,Q_m)=\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{P}_3^+\mathrm{deg}}(h_m,Q_m;m)+\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{P}_3^+\mathrm{deg}}(h_m+|m|,Q_m+\text{sign}(Q_m+1/2);m),`$ (40)
where

$`Q=Q_m=2m,h=h_m={\displaystyle \frac{Q_m^2}{4}}=m^2(m\text{})`$ (41)
and

$`\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{P}_3^+\mathrm{deg}}(h,Q;r)=q^hz^Q{\displaystyle \frac{f^\mathrm{R}(\tau ,z)}{1+q^{|r|}z^{\mathrm{sign}(Q+1/2)}}}`$ (42)
(Figure.2). Again, taking into account the extra degenerate representations (the second term of (40)), the points $`(h_m,Q_m)`$ can be thought of as generic.

The two sets of representations (31) and (37), as well as the extra degenerate representations added to them, transform into each other by a spectral flow.

Which GSO projection should we take? We wish to construct a partition function in which the fermion theta in the four-dimensional Minkowski + ghost sector and the characters of the internal $`N=2`$ sector are combined into the form like (30). Thus we need to have the following GSO projection: Let $`F`$ ($`\overline{F}`$) be the right (left) fermion number of the four-dimensional Minkowski + ghost sector, $`Q`$ ($`\overline{Q}`$) the right (left) $`N=2`$ $`U(1)`$ charge and $`ϵ`$ ($`\overline{ϵ}`$) the parameter which distinguishes the parity of the $`U(1)`$ charge of the right (left) $`N=2`$ ground state (See eq. (12).). Then for the NS sector, we only keep the states with both $`F+Q`$ and $`\overline{F}+\overline{Q}`$ odd, and $`2ϵ+2\overline{ϵ}`$ even. In other words, we keep odd fermion excited states if $`ϵ=\overline{ϵ}=0`$, while we do even states if $`ϵ=\overline{ϵ}=1/2`$. The two parameters $`m`$ and $`ϵ`$ labeling the $`U(1)`$ charge are separately GSO projected. On the other hand, for the R sector, the states with the same $`N=2`$ vacuum $`U(1)`$ parity (i.e. $`ϵ=\overline{ϵ}`$) are similarly paired, but the left-right chirality may or may not be the same. If the chirality is the same, we get a IIB-like model, while if it is opposite, we get a IIA-like model. In addition, the left-right diagonal $`p=\overline{p}`$ are required for modular invariance for both sectors.

With this GSO projection, the total partition function reads

$`Z(\tau )={\displaystyle \frac{d\tau d\overline{\tau }}{\text{Im}\tau }(\text{Im}\tau )^2\left|\eta (\tau )\right|^4(\text{Im}\tau )^{\frac{1}{2}}\left|\eta (\tau )\right|^2\left[\left|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )/\eta ^3(\tau )\right|^2+\left|\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )/\eta ^3(\tau )\right|^2\right]},`$ (43)
where the factor $`(\text{Im}\tau )^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ comes from the diagonal “Liouville-momentum” $`p`$ integration, and $`\left|\eta (\tau )\right|^2`$ from the transverse fermions. The transverse fermion theta has already been taken into account in the last factor and GSO projected with the $`N=2`$ theta together. This is the main result of this paper.

We will now list some of the notable features of our partition function $`Z(\tau )`$ (43):

* It is modular invariant. Modular invariance has been achieved by integrating the “Liouville momenta” $`p`$. This may be understood as a summation over the radial momenta on the cigar. Indeed, the principal unitary series is the only class of representations that corresponds to an $`N=2`$ vertex operator with real $`\rho `$ momentum (apart from the imaginary background charge $`i/\sqrt{2}`$). Consequently, spacetime, which was supposed to be four-dimensional, turns five-dimensional effectively; any “particle” in the four-dimensional world has a continuous spectrum. This agrees with the picture of singular CFTs advocated in ref. .
* It is unitary and tachyon free.
* It is spacetime supersymmetric. $`Z(\tau )`$ is zero in reality. Since the vanishing $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_{1,2}(\tau )`$ are a consequence of the ordinary spectral flow, the spacetime supercharge must be given by the usual one using the bosonized ghost, the fermion-number current and the $`N=2`$, $`U(1)`$ current. This is in contrast to the one in ref.  containing a contribution from the “longitudinal” boson.
* It has a graviton. The tensor product of the NS transverse fermion excitations yields a graviton, a dilaton and an anti-symmetric two-form field. They survive the GSO projection. This is the most significant difference between Bilal-Gervais’s model  and ours; the graviton comes from the $`F+Q2ϵ`$ odd sector ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )`$), which is missing in the former. Those fields are massive in the sense that they have $`L_0=\overline{L_0}=1/4`$ even when $`p=\overline{p}=0`$.
* It contains bound states in the spectrum. As we have shown in (35) and (40), the partition function has a contribution from the representations made out of the discrete series of $`SL(2,\text{})`$. They do not have a momentum along the cigar and are regarded as the bound states .

## 4 Mass Spectra

Let us now discuss more in detail the lightest mass spectra of our model. In the last section, we have seen that any four-dimensional particle exhibits a continuous mass spectrum, which is attributed to its momentum along the cigar. Therefore we consider the value of total $`L_0`$ of particles “at rest” along the cigar (i.e. $`p=0`$). This is equivalent to studying masses in five dimensions.

Since the transverse fermion theta and the $`N=2`$ fermion theta are GSO projected together and enter in the partition function symmetrically, $`SO(4)`$ (acting on four real fermions) plays an analogous role to the transverse rotational group (or the little group for massive states) in six dimensions, although our model does not have six-dimensional Poincare invariance. The four-dimensional field content can be conveniently obtained by a dimensional reduction (since the $`N=2`$ fermions carry no spacetime indices).

We first consider the states coming from $`|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )|^2`$. The lightest NS-NS fields are four scalars. They are of course common in both types of GSO projection in the R sector. On the other hand, the doubly-degenerate lowest $`L_0`$ states in the R sector cannot be a spinor of $`SO(4)`$ because a pseudo-real spinor needs four components. Thus it can only be a nonchiral Majorana $`SO(2)`$ spinor. Then the lightest R-R fields are a four-dimensional vector and two scalars in either projection. (The IIB- and IIA-like projections yield the same R-R fields here because either of the eigenspaces of the $`SO(4)`$ chirality operator decompose into a direct sum of $`+`$ and $``$ $`SO(2)`$ chirality eigenspaces.) They are massless ($`L_0=\overline{L_0}=0`$). Including fermions, they form a four-dimensional $`N=2`$ $`U(1)`$ vector multiplet \+ a hypermultiplet. They are the same field content as a single $`N=4`$, $`U(1)`$ vector multiplet has, although we have only eight spacetime supersymmetries from the standard supercharge construction. It is interesting that those fields are formally obtained by a dimensional reduction of a six-dimensional (2,0) tensor multiplet or a (1,1) vector multiplet on a flat background. They are the lightest fields of Bilal-Gervais’s closed string model .

The lightest NS-NS bosons from $`|\mathrm{\Lambda }_2(\tau )|^2`$ are a graviton, a dilaton and a 2-form (self-dual + anti-self-dual) as we have seen in the previous section. In the R sector, we have now twice as many states as those in $`|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )|^2`$ at the lowest level, and hence may regard them as the components of a single $`SO(4)`$ Weyl spinor. Then in the R-R sector, the IIB-like projection yields four anti-self-dual 2-forms and four scalars, while the IIA-like projection gives four vectors. They are the bosonic fields of a six-dimensional $`N=2`$ (“$`𝒩=1`$”) graviton + a self-dual tensor \+ four anti-self-dual tensor multiplets (IIB-like), and a graviton + a self-dual tensor + four vector multiplets (IIA-like), respectively. Again, they combine into a (2,0) graviton + a tensor multiplets in the former case, and a single (1,1) graviton multiplet in the latter. The four-dimensional field contents are obtained by the dimensional reduction of those fields. They have $`L_0=\overline{L_0}=1/4`$.

## 5 Conclusion

In this paper we have constructed a modular invariant partition function of superstrings on four-dimensional Minkowski space $`\times `$ two-dimensional black hole using the $`N=2`$, $`c=9`$ superconformal characters. Our model may be thought of as a modular invariant extension of Bilal-Gervais’s $`d=5`$ noncritical string model and describes type II strings on a conifold. It is unitary, tachyon free and has a continuous spectrum in the four-dimensional sense.

In the $`\alpha ^{}0`$ limit the cigar becomes very thin and can be replaced by a thin cylinder $`\text{}\times S^1`$ since one would need very high energy to see the effect of the sharp tip. In this case one is left with a four-dimensional $`N=2`$ non-gravitational theory with a vector multiplet and a hypermultiplet. This will give an example of holography proposed in , and the $`SL(2,\text{})`$ coset in our model will provide a regularization of the strong coupling singularity of the linear-dilaton vacuum.

It is also interesting that the four-dimensional massless spectrum (with $`p=0`$) of our model coincides with that of the tensionless strings which arise on the four-dimensional intersection of two M5-branes . To understand its implication we recall that the (0,4) tensionless strings arise in type IIB theory on K3 when K3 gets an ADE singularity , while IIB on such a singular K3 is known  to be T-dual to a system of type IIA 5-branes . Thus, in view of this, the coincidence of the spectra may suggest that type II strings on a Calabi-Yau threefold with a conifold singularity have a dual description in terms of two intersecting NS5-branes.

On the other hand, $`\alpha ^{}\mathrm{}`$ means that the area near the tip of the cigar is zoomed in on, and the whole target space looks like a six-dimensional Minkowski space. In this case all the towers of particles affect the low-energy physics, of which we cannot expect any local quantum field theory descriptions.

In the middle region of $`\alpha ^{}`$ in between, the lowest level fields do not completely decouple but interact with some other light fields. In the previous section, we have seen that the first two lightest fields in the IIA-like GSO projection are the dimensional reduction of a six-dimensional (1,1) vector multiplet and a graviton multiplet. Remarkably, they are the field content of $`D=6`$, $`N=4`$ ($`=(1,1)`$) gauged supergravity ! Although the graviton multiplet has $`L_0=\overline{L_0}=1/4`$, perhaps this is linked to the well-known subtlety in defining masslessness of a particle in a curved background (See e.g. .). Indeed, $`L_0+\overline{L_0}`$ corresponds to the Klein-Gordon operator in a flat space, but the correspondence becomes less clear in the Minkowski $`\times `$ cigar geometry. If the massless point is shifted by $`1/4`$, the graviton becomes massless but the lightest fields from $`|\mathrm{\Lambda }_1(\tau )|^2`$ then have negative mass square. They can, however, still remain stable if they are above the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound . It would be interesting to explore $`D=6`$, $`N=4`$ gauged supergravity on this background. The supergravity interpretation of the IIB-like projection model remains an open question.

Finally, some generalization of our construction to other singular Calabi-Yau spaces can be done when the corresponding analogue of Jacobi’s abstruse identity is known. For example, an interesting theta identity was found in , which seems to be related to a Calabi-Yau four-fold with a conifold singularity. Very recently, new theta identities corresponding to Calabi-Yau $`n`$-folds with an ADE singularity have been systematically obtained by Eguchi and Sugawara .

I wish to thank T. Eguchi, A. Fujii, T. Kawai, Y. Satoh, Y. Yamada and S.-K. Yang for valuable discussions. I also wish to thank K. Fujikawa, Y. Matsuo, Y. Sugawara and all participants of the seminar given at Dept. of Physics, University of Tokyo in Nov. 1999 for questions and comments, which were useful for completing the final version. I am also grateful for the hospitality of Dept. of Math., Kobe University where a part of this work was done.