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# The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance

## 1 Introduction

The determination of $`Y_p`$ based on the Small Magellanic Cloud can have at least four significant advantages and one disadvantage with respect to those based on distant H ii region complexes: a) no underlying absorption correction for the helium lines is needed because the ionizing stars can be excluded from the observing slit, b) the determination of the helium ionization correction factor can be estimated by observing different lines of sight of a given H ii region, c) the accuracy of the determination can be estimated by comparing the results derived from different points in a given H ii region, d) the electron temperature is generally smaller than those of metal poorer H ii regions reducing the effect of collisional excitation from the metastable 2 3S level of He i, and e) the disadvantage is that the correction due to the chemical evolution of the SMC is in general larger than for the other systems.

The determination of the pregalactic, or primordial, helium abundance by mass $`Y_p`$ is paramount for the study of cosmology, the physics of elementary particles, and the chemical evolution of galaxies (e. g. Fields & Olive, 1998; Izotov et al., 1999; Peimbert & Torres-Peimbert, 1999, and references therein). In this paper we present a new determination of $`Y_p`$ based on observations of the SMC. This determination is compared with those carried out earlier based on extremely metal poor extragalactic H ii regions.

## 2 Observations

Long slit spectra were obtained at CTIO during two observing runs, in August and September 1990, with the 4-m telescope equipped with the R-C Spectrograph and a coated GEC CCD detector. Using three different gratings (at first order) the spectral ranges between $`\lambda \lambda `$ 3440-5110, 4220-7360, and 5800-7370 were covered. The slit, oriented E-W, was 4.7 arcmin long and 1.6 arcsec wide; the scale along the dispersion axis was 0.73”/pixel. The resolution was 7 Å for the blue and red wavelength ranges and 14 Å for the intermediate one. The slit was placed at two different positions of the nebula, five extraction windows were defined in one slit position (regions 1-5) and eight in the other (regions 11-18), four of the extraction windows included the brightest ionizing stars (m$``$14), while the other 9 positions avoided stars brighter than m = 17 to minimize the stellar contamination of the nebular spectra. Table 1 presents the positions and sizes of the extraction windows.

In Table 1 we also present the observed H$`\beta `$ fluxes, $`F`$(H$`\beta `$), before correction for extinction. Massey, Parker, & Garmany (1989) present excellent pictures of the stellar cluster of NGC 346 where the ionizing stars included in Table 1 are indicated, and the observed regions can be located. Ye, Turtle, & Kennicutt (1991) also present excellent pictures of NGC 346 where the filamentary structure of the nebula can be appreciated. Also in Table 1 we define regions A and B. Region A is the sum of regions 2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 17, and 18. Region A was defined to minimize the errors of the emission lines and the effect of stellar underlying absorption; the main results of this paper will be based on it. Regions 1 and 11 were not included in region A because they are fainter than the others (see Table 1) and the equivalent widths of their emission lines are also smaller (see the last paragraph of this section), both effects could increase the systematic errors. Region B is the sum of all observed regions and will be used to show the effect of the underlying absorption on the measured line intensities.

To flux calibrate the spectra five or six spectrophotometric standards, from Stone & Baldwin (1983), were observed each night with the slit widened to 6.4”. A He-Ne-Ar lamp was used to perform the wavelength calibration. Dome-flats and sky-flats were obtained to flatten the red frames while a quartz lamp flat and a sky flat were used for the blue range frames. Several bias frames were taken each night. Data reduction was performed using the IRAF reduction package. Sky subtraction was made from observations taken one degree away from the nebula before and after each nebular observation. Short exposure frames at each position were used to remove cosmic rays and to measure fluxes of strong lines saturated in the longer exposures.

In Figures The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance, The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance and The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance we show spectra of region A at different wavelength ranges. In Figure The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance we compare regions A and B near the Balmer limit to show the effect of the underlying absorption on the Balmer lines and on $`\lambda `$ 4026 of He i.

In Tables 2, 3, and 4 we present the intrinsic line intensities, $`I(\lambda )`$, given by

$$\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{I(\lambda )}{I(\mathrm{H}\beta )}\right)=\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{F(\lambda )}{F(\mathrm{H}\beta )}\right)+C(\mathrm{H}\beta )f(\lambda ),$$
(1)
where $`F(\lambda )`$ is the observed line flux corrected for atmospheric extinction and $`C`$(H$`\beta `$) is the logarithmic reddening correction at H$`\beta `$, and $`f(\lambda )`$ is the reddening function. For $`f(\lambda )`$ we adopted the normal extinction law (Whitford, 1958). $`C`$(H$`\beta `$) was obtained by fitting the observed Balmer decrement with that computed by Brocklehurst (1971) for $`T_e`$ = 12 000 K, and $`N_e`$ = 100 cm-3; the Balmer decrement is almost insensitive to the expected variations in $`T_e`$ and $`N_e`$ over the observed volumes. Table 2 presents the line intensities for regions A and B that were obtained after adding the spectra of all their components, while Tables 3 and 4 present the line intensities for regions 1-5 and 11-18 respectively.

The $`C`$(H$`\beta `$) value for region A amounts to $`0.15\pm 0.01`$, a value in good agreement with the values derived from the stellar data of the cluster by Niemela, Marraco, & Cabanne (1986) and Massey et al. (1989) that amount to 0.20 and 0.18 respectively. We have adopted the $`C`$(H$`\beta `$) value of region A for all the observed regions. The differences between the adopted $`f(\lambda )`$ and the reddening function in the visual region in the direction of NGC 346 are small, moreover their effect on the determination of the line intensity ratios is negligible because with the adopted $`C`$(H$`\beta `$) value we have recovered the theoretical Balmer decrement of the four brightest lines that are not expected to be affected by underlying absorption.

The SMC reddening law in the UV is very different to the normal Galactic one, but fortunately in the visual both laws are similar (Bouchet et al., 1985); according to Bouchet et al. (1985) $`R=A_V/E(BV)`$ amounts to $`2.7\pm 0.2`$ for the SMC. From the use of various reddening laws with $`R`$ in the 3.0 to 3.2 range (Whitford, 1958; Nandy et al., 1975; Seaton, 1979) we estimate that the error introduced by the adopted reddening law is about 0.002 dex for all line ratios and smaller than 0.001 dex for ratios of lines closer than 500 Å.

In Tables 2, 3, and 4 one-$`\sigma `$ errors are included, the errors were estimated by comparing the results derived from the two different observing seasons. The total number of photons received by each of the He i lines of region A is in the $`3\times 10^4`$ to $`6\times 10^5`$ range, therefore the errors presented in Table 2 are about a factor of five larger than those given by photon statistics. The errors presented for region A are larger because they include other sources of error present in the reduction procedure.

The line intensities in Tables 2, 3, and 4 were not corrected for underlying stellar absorption with the exception of the H$`\alpha `$ lines of regions B, 4, 14, 15, and 16, where we adopted an underlying absorption of 2 Å; for these regions we adopted the theoretical $`I`$(H$`\alpha `$)/$`I`$(H$`\beta `$) value to normalize all the lines to H$`\alpha `$, notice that H$`\beta `$ has an intensity smaller than unity because it has not been corrected for underlying absorption.

The $`\lambda `$ 3727 line intensity was corrected for the contribution due to H13 and H14 and to $`\lambda `$ 3724 of \[S iii\], these contributions were estimated from the other Balmer lines and from the $`\lambda `$ 6312 of \[S iii\]; $`I`$(4711) of \[Ar iv\] was obtained after subtracting the expected contribution of $`\lambda `$ 4713 of He i based on the work by Smits (1996); $`I`$(3889) of He i was obtained after subtracting the expected contribution of H8 based on the work by Brocklehurst (1971).

In Table 5 we present the H i and He i equivalent widths for all the observed regions. The equivalent widths of regions B, 4, 14, 15, and 16 are strongly affected by the stellar underlying absorption. No correction due to underlying absorption has been made for any line in this table. After correcting region A for extinction, based on the four brightest Balmer lines, it is found that the weaker Balmer lines (H9 to H12) are not affected by stellar underlying absorption (see Figure The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance), therefore the He lines are not expected to be affected by underlying absorption. From similar arguments we expect each of the regions included in region A (2, 3, 5, 12, 13, 17, and 18) to be unaffected by underlying absorption.

## 3 Temperatures and Densities

We derived the temperatures and densities presented in Tables 6 and 7 based on the program of Shaw & Dufour (1995) for forbidden lines. $`T`$(O iii), $`T`$(O ii), and $`N_e`$(S ii) values were derived from the 4363/5007, 3727/7325 and 6716/6731 ratios respectively; to derive $`T`$(O ii) we considered the contribution by recombination to the $`\lambda \lambda `$ 7320,7330 line intensities (Liu et al., 2000). We will define another temperature given by

$$T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II}+\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})=\frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})+N(\mathrm{O}^{++})T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})}{N(\mathrm{O})},$$
(2)
where $`N`$(O+) and $`N`$(O++) are obtained in Section 4 (see Table 7).

To derive the root mean square density, $`N_e`$(rms), we adopted the following equation

$$N_e^2(rms)=\left(\frac{3d^2}{r^3}\right)\left(\frac{I(\mathrm{H}\alpha )}{a(\mathrm{H}\alpha )h\nu (\mathrm{H}\alpha )}\right)\left[1+\frac{N(\mathrm{He}^+)}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}+2\frac{N(\mathrm{He}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}\right],$$
(3)
where $`a`$(H$`\alpha `$) is the effective recombination coefficient (e. g. Brocklehurst, 1971), $`d`$ is the distance to the SMC (64 kpc Reid, 1999, and references therein), and $`r`$ is the radius of the adopted homogeneous sphere (150 arcsec). From the He+/H+ and He++/H+ values for region A presented in the next section, the $`a`$(H$`\alpha `$) value for $`T`$ = 11950 K, and the $`I`$(H$`\alpha `$) measured by Kennicut & Hodge (1986) we find that $`N_e(\mathrm{rms})=14cm^3`$ (see Table 7). It can be shown that, in the presence of density fluctuations (which is always the case), $`N_e`$(rms) provides us with a lower limit for the local density, $`N_e`$(local). To derive the abundance ratios we need to use $`N_e`$(local) values; in the presence of density fluctuations $`N_e^2`$(rms) = $`ϵN_e^2`$(local), where $`ϵ`$ is the filling factor. From our $`N_e`$(rms) value and the $`N_e`$(He ii)SC present in Table 7 (defined in the last paragraph of this section) it follows that 0.01 is a representative value for $`ϵ`$.

From the ratio of the Balmer continuum flux to a Balmer line flux it is possible to derive the temperature $`T_e`$(Bac), from the Balmer line emissivities (Storey & Hummer, 1995; Hummer & Storey, 1987; Brocklehurst, 1971) and the continuum emissivities for the He i and H i continuum (Brown & Mathews, 1970) we find the $`T_e`$(Bac) value presented in Table 7.

By combining $`T`$(Bac), $`T`$(O ii), and $`T`$(O iii), together with $`N`$(O+) and $`N`$(O++) (see Section 4), and assuming that $`t^2`$(O ii) = $`t^2`$(O iii), it is possible to determine the mean square temperature variation $`t^2`$(H ii$``$ $`t^2`$, the average temperature $`T_0`$(H ii$``$ $`T_0`$, and $`t^2`$(O iii) over the observed volume since (Peimbert, 1967)

$$T_0(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})=\frac{T_eN_eN(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})𝑑V}{N_eN(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})𝑑V},$$
(4)
$$t^2(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})=\frac{(T_eT_0(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+}))^2N_eN(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})𝑑V}{T_0(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})^2N_eN(\mathrm{X}^{\mathrm{i}+})𝑑V},$$
(5)
$$T_e(Bac)=T_0(11.67t^2),$$
(6)
$$T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})=T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})\left[1+\left(\frac{90800}{T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})}3\right)\frac{t^2(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})}{2}\right],$$
(7)
$$T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})=T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})\left[1+\left(\frac{97300}{T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})}3\right)\frac{t^2(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})}{2}\right],$$
(8)
$$T_0=\frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})+N(\mathrm{O}^{++})T_0(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})}{N(\mathrm{O})}.$$
(9)
In region A $`T`$(O ii$`<`$ $`T`$(O iii), therefore $`T_0`$(O ii$``$ $`T_0`$(O iii), and from equation (5) it follows that $`t^2>t^2`$(O iii). In Table 7, we present the $`t^2`$(Bac, O ii+O iii) value for region A.

In the low density and low optical depth limit it follows that the emissivities of the helium and hydrogen lines are proportional to powers of the temperature and consequently that $`T_e`$(He ii) is given by (Peimbert, 1967)

$`T_e(\mathrm{He}\mathrm{II})=T_e(\mathrm{He}\mathrm{II},\mathrm{H}\mathrm{II})`$ $`=`$ $`T_0[1+(\alpha +\beta 1)t^2/2]`$ (10)
$`=`$ $`T_0(11.43t^2),`$
where $`\alpha `$ is the average value of the power of the temperature for the helium lines and $`\beta `$ for H$`\beta `$. The $`\alpha `$ powers in the low density limit for the $`\lambda \lambda `$ 3889, 4026, 4388, 4471, 4922, 5876, 6678, 7065, and 7281 lines are -0.72, -0.98, -1.00, -1.02, -1.04, -1.12, -1.14, -0.55, and -0.60, respectively (Smits, 1996), and $`\beta =0.89`$ (e. g. Brocklehurst, 1971). In the low density limit and weighted according to the observational errors we obtain $`\alpha =0.96`$; for $`N_e`$(He ii) = 143 cm-3 we obtain $`\alpha =0.89`$. From $`t^2`$(Bac, O ii+O iii) and $`T_0`$(Bac, O ii+O iii) derived from equations (6 \- 9) together with equation (10) we obtain $`T_e`$(He ii)$`{}_{Bac}{}^{}=11890`$, which is a representative temperature for the He i lines.

Based on nine emission line ratios in the next section we derive $`N`$(He+)/$`N`$(H+), $`T_e`$(He ii) and $`N_e`$(He ii) self-consistently, hereinafter $`N_e`$(He ii)SC and $`T_e`$(He ii)SC (which are presented in Table 7). In Table 7 we also include $`t^2`$(He ii, O ii+O iii) derived from equations (7), (8), (9), and (10); and $`t^2`$(Bac, He ii, O ii+O iii), an average of the two $`t^2`$ determinations; $`T_e`$(He ii)$``$ which is the average of $`T_e`$(He ii)Bac and $`T_e`$(He ii)SC; and $`N_e`$(He ii)$``$ which is the density that corresponds to $`T_e`$(He ii)$``$.

From this discussion and the values in Table 7 we conclude that $`t^2t^2(\mathrm{H}\mathrm{II})=t^2(\mathrm{He}\mathrm{II})=0.022\pm 0.008`$ and that to a very good approximation $`t^2(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})=t^2(\mathrm{H}\mathrm{II})`$.

## 4 Ionic Chemical Abundances

To determine the abundances from collisionally excited lines many authors adopt a two temperature scheme, with $`T`$(O iii) for the high degree of ionization zones and $`T`$(O ii) or $`T`$(N ii) for the low degree of ionization zones. Therefore to compare with the abundances determined from collisionally excited lines by other authors we will assume also that that the temperature within the O ii and O iii zones is constant, that is $`t^2`$(O ii)=$`t^2`$(O iii)=0.000. Two points should be stated here: (1) under the assumption that $`t^2`$(O ii)=$`t^2`$(O iii)=0.000 and since $`T`$(O ii)$`T`$(O iii), from equation (5), it follows that $`t^20.000`$; from the $`T`$(O iii) and $`T`$(O ii) values for region A (see Table 6) and equations (5) and (9), we find that $`t^2=0.0013`$; (2) the $`t^2=0.0013`$ abundances are a lower limit to the real abundances since the assumption that $`t^2`$(O ii)=$`t^2`$(O iii)=0.000 implies constant temperature within the O ii and O iii zones, which is not the case (see section 3). The total abundances for $`t^2`$(H ii)=0.022, our preferred $`t^2`$ value, will be discussed in section 5.

Therefore we have determined the ionic abundances of the heavy elements for all the regions observed using $`t^2=0.0013`$, the abundances are presented in Table 8. The abundances were computed with the program presented by Shaw & Dufour (1995). To determine the O++, Ne++, S++, Ar++, and Ar3+ abundances we used $`T`$(O iii), while for N+, O+, and S+ we used $`T`$(O ii). For $`T`$(O iii) we adopted the value derived for each region (see Table 6). On the other hand, it can be seen in Table 6 that the $`T`$(O ii) temperatures are systematically higher for those regions that include bright stars and have relatively smaller $`EW`$(H$`\beta `$) values (regions 4, 14, 15, 16, and B) than for the regions that have larger $`EW`$(H$`\beta `$) values; however, this effect is not real and has to do with the difficulty of establishing a proper continuum baseline owing to the presence of underlying Balmer lines in absorption in the 3700–3750 Å region, where the $`\lambda `$3727 lines originate. This effect, together with large $`T`$(O ii) errors presented in Table 6 ,which are due to other causes, led us to assume for all regions that $`T`$(O ii)$`=0.9036T`$(O iii), the value determined for region A.

To estimate the H$`\beta `$ emissivity we adopted

$$I(\mathrm{H}\beta )=I(\mathrm{H}\beta \mathrm{O}^+)+I(\mathrm{H}\beta \mathrm{O}^{++}),$$
(11)
$$\frac{I(\mathrm{H}\beta \mathrm{O}^+)}{I(\mathrm{H}\beta \mathrm{O}^{++})}=\frac{T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{II})^{0.89}}{T(\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III})^{0.89}}\frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)}{N(\mathrm{O}^{++})},$$
(12)
where $`I`$(H$`\beta `$O+) and $`I`$(H$`\beta `$O++) are the intensities of H$`\beta `$ in the O+ and O++ regions respectively. We consider our procedure adequate since the total O abundances derived for all the regions show a small dispersion despite their different ionization degree (compare for example the total O abundances of regions 16 and 18 that are practically the same).

To obtain He+/H+ values we need a set of effective recombination coefficients for the He and H lines, the contribution due to collisional excitation to the helium line intensities, and an estimate of the optical depth effects for the helium lines. The recombination coefficients that we used were those by Storey & Hummer (1995) for H, and Smits (1996) for He. The collisional contribution was estimated from Kingdon & Ferland (1995) and Benjamin, Skillman, & Smits (1999). From the intensity of $`\lambda `$3614 and the computations of Robbins & Bernat (1973) it was found that the He i singlet lines were produced under case B. The optical depth effects in the triplet lines were estimated from the computations by Robbins (1968).

To derive the He+/H+ value of region A, in addition to the Balmer lines, we made use of nine He i lines, $`\lambda \lambda `$ 3889, 4026, 4387, 4471, 4922, 5876, 6678, 7065, and 7281 to determine $`N_e`$(He ii) and $`T_e`$(He ii) self-consistently. Each of the 9 He i/H i line ratios depends on $`T_e`$, $`N_e`$, $`N(\mathrm{He}^+)/N(\mathrm{H}^+)`$, and the optical depth of 3889 ($`\tau _{3889}`$), and each dependence is unique. Therefore we have a system of 9 equations and 4 unknowns. We decided to obtain the best value for the 4 unknowns by minimizing $`\chi ^2`$. The $`\chi ^2`$ value is given by:

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{9}{}}\left(\frac{1N(\mathrm{He}^+)/N(\mathrm{He}^+(\lambda _i,T_e,N_e,\tau _{3889}))}{\sigma (\lambda _i)/I(\lambda _i)}\right)^2,$$
(13)
where $`\sigma (\lambda _i)`$ is the absolute error in the measurement that can be obtained from Table 2, and $`N(\mathrm{He}^+(\lambda _i,T_e,N_e,\tau _{3889}))/N(\mathrm{H}^+)`$ is the abundance derived from each line for those parameters. The best $`\tau _{3889}`$ value is slightly negative which is unphysical, moreover from CLOUDY models (Peimbert, Peimbert, & Luridiana, 2000) it is found that $`\tau _{3889}`$ is close to zero, therefore we decided to adopt $`\tau _{3889}=0.0`$ and to use equation (13) to derive $`T_e`$, $`N_e`$, and $`N(\mathrm{He}^+)/N(\mathrm{H}^+)`$ self-consistently. For a system with 9 independent determinations and 3 unknowns we have 6 degrees of freedom and we expect the minimum $`\chi ^2`$ to be in the range $`1.64<\chi _{min}^2<12.59`$ at the 90% confidence level. The value of $`\chi _{min}^2=6.53`$ found in Table 9 is in excellent agreement with this range. In Table 10 we present He+/H+ values for different temperatures and densities; the temperatures were selected to include $`T`$(O iii), $`T`$(Bac), $`T`$(He ii)SC, and two representative temperatures; the densities were selected to include the minimum $`\chi ^2`$ at each one of the five temperatures. The temperature with the minimum $`\chi ^2`$ is the self-consistent $`T`$(He ii) and amounts to $`11950\pm 560`$ K; this temperature is in excellent agreement with the temperature derived from the Balmer continuum that amounts to $`11800\pm 500`$ K, alternatively $`T`$(O iii) amounts to $`13070\pm 100`$ K. Notice that the $`\chi ^2`$ test requires a higher density for a lower temperature, increasing the dependence on the temperature of the He+/H+ ratio. As mentioned above, the values in Table 9 correspond to the case where $`\tau _{3889}`$ equals zero, for higher values of $`\tau _{3889}`$ the $`\chi ^2`$ values increase. In Table 9 we present He+/H+ values for a set of temperatures and densities.

From Table 9 we obtain that $`T_e`$(He ii)$`{}_{SC}{}^{}=11950`$ K and $`N_e`$(He ii)$`{}_{SC}{}^{}=143`$ cm-3, which correspond to He+/H$`{}_{}{}^{+}=0.0793`$.

From the surface of $`T_e`$, $`N_e`$ and He+/H+ values defined by the condition $`\chi ^2=\chi _{min}^2+1`$ the one-$`\sigma `$ errors presented in Table 7 were computed.

In Table 10 we present the He+/H+ values for all the observed regions without underlying stellar absorption. We have adopted the $`N_e`$(He ii)SC and $`T_e`$(He ii)SC values of region A to determine the He+/H+ values for all the other regions in Table 10 because their observational errors are higher than for region A and do not permit to obtain $`N_e`$(He ii) and $`T_e`$(He ii) self-consistently for each region.

## 5 Total Abundances

In Table 11 we present the total abundances of region A for $`t^2`$(O ii)=$`t^2`$(O iii)=0.000 and $`t^2=0.0013`$. The gaseous abundances were obtained from the following equations (Peimbert & Costero, 1969)

$`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{O})}{N(\mathrm{H})}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)+N(\mathrm{O}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}},`$ (14)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{N})}{N(\mathrm{H})}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)+N(\mathrm{O}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{O}^+)}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{N}^+)}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}},`$ (15)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{Ne})}{N(\mathrm{H})}}`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)+N(\mathrm{O}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{O}^{++})}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{Ne}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}}.`$ (16)
The abundances derived for all the other regions based on these equations agree within the errors with those derived from region A indicating the reliability of the equations. To obtain the total O abundances we assumed a correction of 0.04 dex due to the fraction of O tied up in dust grains, this fraction was estimated from the Si/O values derived for the Orion nebula (Esteban et al., 1998) and for H ii regions in irregular galaxies (Garnett et al., 1995).

To obtain the total S abundance we adopted the following equation

$$\frac{N(\mathrm{S})}{N(\mathrm{H})}=ICF(\mathrm{S})\frac{N(\mathrm{S}^+)+N(\mathrm{S}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}+)};$$
(17)
from Table 8 it can be seen that the higher the O ionization degree the lower the $`[N(\mathrm{S}^+)+N(\mathrm{S}^{++})]/N(\mathrm{H}^+)`$ ratio indicating, as expected, the increase of S3+ with the O ionization degree. Therefore to obtain the S abundance we decided to take regions 11 and 12 as representative of NGC 346 since they are expected to have the smallest $`ICF`$(S) values. Therefore from the $`ICF`$(S) values computed by Garnett (1989), the data for regions 11 and 12 in Table 8, and equation (17) we derived the value presented in Table 11.

To obtain the total Ar abundance we adopted the following equation

$$\frac{N(\mathrm{Ar})}{N(\mathrm{H})}=ICF(\mathrm{Ar})\frac{N(\mathrm{Ar}^{++})+N(\mathrm{Ar}^{3+})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)};$$
(18)
where $`ICF`$(Ar) includes the Ar+/H+ contribution and according to Liu et al. (2000) can be approximated by

$$ICF(\mathrm{Ar})=\left(1\frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)}{N(\mathrm{O})}\right)^1.$$
(19)
Based on the $`T_e`$ values presented in Table 7 we also include in Table 11 the total abundances for $`t^2=0.022`$, our preferred $`t^2`$ value, following the procedure outlined by Peimbert & Costero (1969). The relevant equations are:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{X}^{i+})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{T(\mathrm{H}\beta \{\mathrm{X}^{i+}\})^{0.89}T(\lambda ,\mathrm{X}^{i+})^{0.5}}{T(\lambda /\lambda ^{},\mathrm{X}^{i+})^{1.39}}}`$ (20)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E}{kT(\lambda ,\mathrm{X}^{i+})}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E}{kT(\lambda /\lambda ^{},\mathrm{X}^{i+})}}\right)`$
$`\times \left[{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{X}^{i+})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}}\right]_{\lambda /\lambda ^{}}`$
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is the energy difference between the ground and the excited levels, $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the nebular line (5007 Å for O iii), $`\lambda ^{}`$ is the wavelength of the auroral line (4363 for O iii), $`T(\mathrm{H}\beta \{\mathrm{X}^{i+}\})`$ is the $`T(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$ value in the region where the Xi+ ion is present and is given by

$$T(\mathrm{H}\beta \{\mathrm{X}^{i+}\})=T_0(\mathrm{X}^{i+})\left(10.945t^2(\mathrm{X}^{i+})\right);$$
(21)
$`T(\lambda ,\mathrm{X}^{i+})`$ is the representative temperature of the nebular line which can be obtained from

$`T(\lambda ,\mathrm{X}^{i+})`$ $`=`$ $`T_0(\mathrm{X}^{i+})`$ (22)
$`\times \left(1+\left[{\displaystyle \frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }E/kT_0(\mathrm{X}^{i+}))^23\mathrm{\Delta }E/kT_0(\mathrm{X}^{i+})+3/4}{\mathrm{\Delta }E/kT_0(\mathrm{X}^{i+})1/2}}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{t^2(\mathrm{X}^{i+})}{2}}\right);`$
and \[$`N`$(Xi+)/$`N`$(H+)\]$`_{\lambda /\lambda ^{}}`$ is the abundance derived from $`T(\lambda /\lambda ^{})`$ ($`T`$(O iii) for O iii).

It is possible to derive the abundances for other $`t^2`$ values by interpolating or extrapolating the abundances presented in Table 11.

In Table 11 we compare the abundances of NGC 346 with an average of the H ii regions in the SMC derived by Dufour (1984) and those of the Sun and M17. Notice that the abundances derived by Dufour should be compared with those for $`t^2=0.0013`$, and that no correction for the fraction of O tied up in dust grains was included by Dufour. Alternatively the M17 values are for $`t^2=0.037`$ and 0.08 dex has been added to the O abundance to correct for the fraction of this element tied up in dust grains, consequently the M17 values can be compared directly with the NGC 346 values for $`t^2=0.022`$.

The total He/H value is given by:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{He})}{N(\mathrm{H})}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{He}^0)+N(\mathrm{He}^+)+N(\mathrm{He}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}^0)+N(\mathrm{H}^+)}},`$ (23)
$`=`$ $`ICF(\mathrm{He}){\displaystyle \frac{N(\mathrm{He}^+)+N(\mathrm{He}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{H}^+)}}.`$
The He++/H+ ratio can be obtained directly from the 4686/H$`\beta `$ intensity ratio. In objects of low degree of ionization the presence of neutral helium inside the H ii region is important and $`ICF`$(He) becomes larger than 1. The $`ICF`$(He) can be estimated by observing a given nebula at different lines of sight since He0 is expected to be located in the outer regions. Another way to deal with this problem is to observe H ii regions of high degree of ionization where the He0 amount is expected to be negligible.

Vílchez & Pagel (1988, see also ) defined a radiation softness parameter given by

$$\zeta =\frac{N(\mathrm{O}^+)N(\mathrm{S}^{++})}{N(\mathrm{S}^+)N(\mathrm{O}^{++})};$$
(24)
for large values of $`\zeta `$ the amount of neutral helium is significant, while for low values of $`\zeta `$ it is negligible, where the critical value is around 8. In Table 10 we present the $`\zeta `$ values for all the observed regions, the $`\zeta `$ values indicate that the amount of He0 inside the H+ region is negligible.

On the other hand, for ionization bounded objects of very high degree of ionization the amount of H0 inside the He+ Strömgren sphere becomes significant and the $`ICF`$(He) can become smaller than 1. This possibility was firstly mentioned by Shields (1974) and studied extensively by Armour et al. (1999), Viegas, Gruenwald, & Steigman (2000), and Ballantyne, Ferland, & Martin (2000).

To study this possibility we have estimated the $`ICF`$(He) from three different methods. (1) We have divided the regions in Table 10 in three groups: H (regions 5, 17, and 18), I (regions 1, 2, 3, and 13) and L (regions 11 and 12), where H, I, and L stand for high, intermediate and low degree of ionization regions; within the errors the three groups yield the same He/H ratio, indicating that the $`ICF`$(He) is very close to unity. (2) Ballantyne et al. (2000) have defined the following cutoff

$$([\mathrm{O}\mathrm{III}]\lambda 5007/\mathrm{H}\beta )_{\mathrm{cutoff}}=(1.139\pm 0.306)+(2.5\pm 0.4)\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\times 10^4.$$
(25)
For observed values higher than the cutoff $`ICF`$(He) is very close to unity; from Table 11, and without considering the fraction of O embedded in dust grains, we have that $`\mathrm{log}N`$(O)/$`N`$(H)$`+12=8.11`$ and, consequently, a cutoff of $`4.36\pm 0.60`$. Alternatively the observed value is $`5.43\pm 0.03`$. (3) Ballantyne et al. (2000) also find that for \[O iii\]$`\lambda 5007`$/\[O i\]$`\lambda 6300300`$, the $`ICF`$(He) becomes very close to unity; from Table 2 it is found that $`I(5007)/I(6300)>600`$. (It should be noted that the \[O i\] lines present in Figure The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance are blends of telluric and nebular lines even though we subtracted the sky contribution. Unfortunatelly the \[O i\] line intensities in the sky varied in a scale of minutes leaving a telluric remnant present, which becomes apparent because the centroids of the \[O i\] lines are blue shifted by about 3 Å from the centroid of the other lines.) From these three methods we conclude that the amount of H0 inside the He+ Strömgren sphere is negligible and in what follows we will adopt an $`ICF`$(He) = 1.000.

In Table 12 we present the helium abundance by mass $`Y`$(SMC), derived from region A. The $`Y`$(SMC) values were derived from Table 9, the He++/H+ value (that amounts to $`2.2\times 10^4`$ for the $`T_e`$ range present in Table 12), and the $`Z`$ values presented in Table 13. The $`Y`$(SMC) error presented in Table 13 is based only on the results of the self consistent method; by considering the $`T_e`$(Bac) measurement the $`Y`$(SMC) error diminishes from 0.0018 to 0.0013 (and $`Y`$(SMC) diminishes by 0.0001).

In Table 13 we present the helium, heavy elements, and oxygen abundance by mass of NGC 346. The estimated error for $`O`$ amounts to 0.06 dex. The $`Z`$ value was obtained by assuming that $`O`$ comprises 54% of the heavy elements by mass, this fraction was estimated by Carigi et al. (1995) from a group of ten irregular galaxies that includes the SMC. The estimated error for the $`Z`$ value amounts to 0.08 dex.

## 6 The Primordial Helium Abundance

To determine the $`Y_p`$ value from the SMC it is necessary to estimate the fraction of helium present in the interstellar medium produced by galactic chemical evolution. We will assume that

$$Y_p=Y(\mathrm{SMC})O(\mathrm{SMC})\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }Y}{\mathrm{\Delta }O}.$$
(26)
In a recent review Peimbert & Peimbert (2000) derive $`Y_p`$ for the SMC from a similar discussion but using $`Z`$ instead of $`O`$ in equation (26); since the error in the $`O`$ determination is smaller than in the $`Z`$ determination (see Table 13) it is better to use $`O`$ to determine $`Y_p`$.

To estimate $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$ we will consider three observational determinations and a few determinations predicted by chemical evolution models.

Peimbert, Torres-Peimbert, & Ruiz (1992) and Esteban et al. (1999) found that $`Y=0.2797\pm 0.0060`$ and $`O=0.0083\pm 0.0012`$ for the Galactic H ii region M17, where we have added 0.08 dex to the oxygen gaseous abundance to take into account the fraction of these elements embedded in dust grains (Esteban et al., 1998). By comparing the $`Y`$ and $`O`$ values of M17 with those of region A we obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=5.45\pm 1.10`$. M17 is the best H ii region to determine the helium abundance because among the brightest galactic H ii regions it is the one with the highest degree of ionization and consequently with the smallest correction for the presence of He0 (i.e. $`ICF`$(He) is very close to unity e. g. Peimbert et al., 1992; Deharveng et al., 2000). It can be argued that the M17 $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$ value is not representative of irregular galaxies, because the yields are heavy element dependent and the $`O`$ value is considerably higher than that of the SMC.

From a group of 10 irregular and blue compact galaxies, that includes the LMC and the SMC, Carigi et al. (1995) found $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=4.48\pm 1.02`$, where they added 0.2 dex to the O/H abundance ratios derived from the nebular data to take into account the temperature structure of the H ii regions and the fraction of O embedded in dust; moreover they also estimated that $`O`$ constitutes 54% of the $`Z`$ value. Izotov & Thuan (1998) from a group of 45 supergiant H ii regions of low metalicity derived a $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z=2.3\pm 1.0`$; we find from their data that $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z=1.46\pm 0.60`$ by adding 0.2 dex to the O abundances to take into account the temperature structure of the H ii regions and the fraction of O embedded in dust; furthermore from their data we also find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=2.7\pm 1.2`$ by assuming that $`O`$ constitutes 54% of the $`Z`$ value.

Based on their two-infall model for the chemical evolution of the Galaxy Chiappini, Matteucci, & Gratton (1997) find $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=3.15`$ for the solar vicinity. Carigi (2000) computed chemical evolution models for the Galactic disk, under an inside-out formation scenario, based on different combinations of seven sets of stellar yields by different authors; the $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$ spread predicted by her models is in the 2.9 to 4.6 range for the Galactocentric distance of M17 (5.9 kpc).

Carigi et al. (1995), based on yields by Maeder (1992), computed closed box models adequate for irregular galaxies, like the SMC, and obtained $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=2.95`$. They also computed models with galactic outflows of well mixed material, that yielded $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$ values similar to those of the closed box models, and models with galactic outflows of O-rich material that yielded values higher than 2.95. The maximum $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$ value that can be obtained with models of O-rich outflows, without entering into contradiction with the C/O and $`(Z\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O})/\mathrm{O}`$ observational constraints, amounts to 3.5.

Carigi, Colín, & Peimbert (1999), based on yields by Woosley, Langer, & Weaver (1993) and Woosley & Weaver (1995), computed chemical evolution models for irregular galaxies also, like the SMC, and found very similar values for closed box models with bursting star formation and constant star formation rates that amounted to $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=4.2`$. The models with O-rich outflows can increase $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$, but they predict higher C/O ratios than observed.

From the previous discussion it follows that $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=3.5\pm 0.9`$ is a representative value for models and observations of irregular galaxies.

The $`Y_p`$ values in Table 14 were computed by adopting $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=3.5\pm 0.9`$. The differences between Tables 12 and 14 depend on $`T_e`$ because the lower the $`T_e`$ value the higher the $`O`$ value for the SMC. In Figure The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance we present our $`Y_p`$ value as well as the theoretical $`Y_p`$ value derived from Big Bang nucleosynthesis computations by Copi, Schramm, & Turner (1995) for three neutrino species as a function of $`\eta `$, the baryon to photon ratio.

## 7 Conclusions

The $`Y_p`$ value derived by us is significantly smaller than the value derived by Izotov & Thuan (1998) from the $`Y`$ versus O/H linear regression for a sample of 45 BCGs, and by Izotov et al. (1999) from the average for the two most metal deficient galaxies known (I Zw 18 and SBS 0335–052), that amount to $`0.2443\pm 0.0015`$ and $`0.2452\pm 0.0015`$ respectively (see Figure The Chemical Composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud H ii Region NGC 346 and the Primordial Helium Abundance).

The difference could be due to systematic effects in the abundance determinations. There are two systematic effects not considered by Izotov and collaborators that we did take into account, the possible presence of H0 inside the He+ region and the use of a lower temperature than that provided by the \[O iii\] lines. We consider the first effect to be a minor one and the second to be a mayor one but both should be estimated for each object. For further discussion of the first effect see the papers by Viegas et al. (2000) and Ballantyne et al. (2000). The second effect was first mentioned by Peimbert & Costero (1969, see also ).

From constant density chemically homogeneous models computed with CLOUDY (Ferland, 1996; Ferland et al., 1998) we estimate that the maximum temperature that should be used to determine the helium abundance should be 5% smaller than $`T_e`$(O iii). Moreover, if in addition to photoionization there is additional energy injected to the H ii region $`T_e`$(He ii) should be even smaller.

Luridiana, Peimbert, & Leitherer (1999) produced a detailed photoionized model of NGC 2363. For the slit used by Izotov, Thuan, & Lipovetsky (1997) they find an $`ICF`$(He) = 0.993; moreover they also find that the $`T_e`$(O iii) predicted by the model is considerably smaller than observed. From the data of Izotov et al. (1997) for NGC 2363, adopting a $`T_e`$(He ii) 10% smaller than $`T_e`$(O iii) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O=3.5\pm 0.9`$ we find that $`Y_p=0.234\pm 0.006`$.

Similarly, Stasinska & Schaerer (1999) produced a detailed model of I Zw 18 and find that the photoionized model predicts a $`T_e`$(O iii) value 15% smaller than observed, on the other hand their model predicts an $`ICF`$(He) = 1.00. From the observations of $`\lambda \lambda `$ 5876 and 6678 by Izotov et al. (1999) of I Zw 18, and adopting a $`T_e`$(He ii) 10% smaller than $`T_e`$(O iii) we obtain $`Y_p=0.237\pm 0.007`$; for a $`T_e`$(He ii) 15% smaller than $`T_e`$(O iii) we obtain $`Y_p=0.234\pm 0.007`$, both results in good agreement with our determination based on the SMC. Further discussion of these issues is presented elsewhere (Peimbert et al., 2000).

The primordial helium abundance by mass of $`0.2345\pm 0.0026(1\sigma )`$ — based on the SMC — combined with the Big Bang nucleosynthesis computations by Copi et al. (1995) for three light neutrino species implies that, at the one-$`\sigma `$ confidence level, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2`$ is in the 0.0065 to 0.0091 range. For $`h=0.65`$ the $`Y_p`$ value corresponds to $`0.015<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<0.022`$, a value considerably smaller than that derived from the pregalactic deuterium abundance, $`D_p`$, determined by Burles & Tytler (1998) that corresponds to $`0.041<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<0.047(1\sigma )`$ for $`h=0.65`$. Our $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ value is in very good agreement with the low redshift estimate of the global budget of baryons by Fukugita, Hogan, & Peebles (1998) who find $`0.015<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<0.030(1\sigma )`$ for $`h=0.65`$ and is consistent with their minimum to maximum range for redshift $`z=3`$ that amounts to $`0.012<\mathrm{\Omega }_b<0.070`$. The discrepancy between $`Y_p`$ and $`D_p`$ needs to be studied further.

In addition to the relevance for cosmology an accurate $`Y_p`$ value permits to determine $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }O`$, ratio that provides a strong constraint for the models of chemical evolution of galaxies (see for example Carigi et al., 1995; Carigi et al., 1999).

To increase the accuracy of the $`Y_p`$ determinations we need observations of very high quality of as many He i lines as possible to derive $`T_e`$(He ii), $`N_e`$(He ii), $`\tau _{3889}`$, and $`N`$(He+)/$`N`$(H+) self-consistently. We also need observations with high spatial resolution to estimate the $`ICF`$(He) along different lines of sight.

We are grateful to S. Torres-Peimbert for her participation on the observations presented in this paper. It is a pleasure to acknowledge several fruitful discussions on this subject with: L. Carigi, V. Luridiana, B. E. J. Pagel, M. Peña, E. Skillman, G. Steigman, S. Torres-Peimbert, and S. Viegas. We are also grateful to the referee for some excellent suggestions. MP received partial support from CONACyT grant 25451-E, MTR received partial support from a Cátedra presidencial and Fondecyt grant 1980659.


text:
# On the WDVV-equation in quantum K-theory

(UC Berkeley and Caltech)

0. Introduction. Quantum cohomology theory can be described in general words as intersection theory in spaces of holomorphic curves in a given Kähler or almost Kähler manifold $`X`$. By quantum $`K`$-theory we may similarly understand a study of complex vector bundles over the spaces of holomorphic curves in $`X`$. In these notes, we will introduce a $`K`$-theoretic version of the Witten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde equation which expresses the associativity constraint of the “quantum multiplication” operation on $`K^{}(X)`$.

Intersection indices of cohomology theory,

$$_{[\text{space of curves}]}\omega _1\mathrm{}\omega _k$$

obtained by evaluation on the fundamental cycle of cup-products of cohomology classes, are to be replaced in $`K`$-theory by Euler characteristics

$$\chi (\text{space of curves};V_1\mathrm{}V_k)$$

of tensor products of vector bundles. The hypotheses needed in the definitions of the intersection indices and Euler characteristics — that the spaces of curves are compact and non-singular, or that the bundles are holomorphic — are rarely satisfied. We handle this foundational problem by restricting ourselves throughout the notes to the setting where the problem disappears. Namely, we will deal with the so called moduli spaces $`X_{n,d}`$ of degree $`d`$ genus $`0`$ stable maps to $`X`$ with $`n`$ marked points assuming that $`X`$ is a homogeneous Kähler space. Under the hypothesis, the moduli spaces $`X_{n,d}`$ (we will review their definition and properties when needed) are known to be compact complex orbifolds (see ). We use their fundamental cycle $`[X_{n,d}]`$, well-defined over $``$, in the definition of intersection indices, and we use sheaf cohomology in the definition of the Euler characteristic of a holomorphic orbi-bundle $`V`$:

$$\chi (X_{n,d};V):=(1)^k\mathrm{dim}H^k(X_{n,d};\mathrm{\Gamma }(V)).$$

1. Correlators. The WDVV-equation is usually formulated in terms of the following generating function for correlators:

$$F(t,Q)=\underset{d}{}\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{Q^d}{n!}(t,\mathrm{},t)_{n,d}.$$

Here $`dH_2(X,)`$ runs the Mori cone of degrees, that is homology classes represented by fundamental cycles of rational holomorphic curves in $`X`$, and the correlators $`(\varphi _1,\mathrm{},\varphi _n)_{n,d}`$ are defined using the evaluation maps at the marked points:

$$\mathrm{ev}_1\times \mathrm{}\times \mathrm{ev}_n:X_{n,d}X\times \mathrm{}\times X.$$

In cohomology theory, we pull-back to the moduli space $`X_{n,d}`$ the $`n`$ cohomology classes $`\varphi _1,\mathrm{},\varphi _nH^{}(X,)`$ of $`X`$ and define the correlator among them by

$$(\varphi _1,\mathrm{},\varphi _n)_{n,d}:=_{[X_{n,d}]}\mathrm{ev}_1^{}(\varphi _1)\mathrm{}\mathrm{ev}_n^{}(\varphi _n).$$

In K-theory, we pull-back $`n`$ elements $`\varphi _1,\mathrm{},\varphi _nK^{}(X)`$ (representable under our restriction on $`X`$ by holomorphic vector bundles or their formal differences) and put

$$(\varphi _1,\mathrm{},\varphi _n)_{n,d}:=\chi (X_{n,d};\mathrm{ev}_1^{}(\varphi _1)\mathrm{}\mathrm{ev}_n^{}(\varphi _n)).$$

We will treat the series $`F`$ as a formal function of $`tH`$ depending on formal parameters $`Q=(Q_1,\mathrm{},Q_{\text{Betti}_2(X)})`$, where $`H=H^{}(X,)`$ or $`H=K^{}(X)`$.

Let $`\{\varphi _\alpha \}`$ be a graded basis in $`H^{}(X,)`$, and

$$g_{\alpha \beta }:=\varphi _\alpha ,\varphi _\beta =_{[X]}\varphi _\alpha \varphi _\beta $$

denote the intersection matrix. Let $`(g^{\alpha \beta })=(g_{\alpha \beta })^1`$ be the inverse matrix (so that $`(\varphi _\alpha 1)g^{\alpha \beta }(1\varphi _\beta )`$ is Poincare-dual to the diagonal in $`X\times X`$). In quantum cohomology theory, one defines the quantum cup-product $``$ on the tangent space $`T_tH`$ by

$$\varphi _\alpha \varphi _\beta ,\varphi _\gamma :=F_{\alpha \beta \gamma }(t)$$

(where the subscripts on the RHS mean partial derivatives in the basis $`\{\varphi _\alpha \}`$). In the above notation the associativity of the quantum cup-product is equivalent to the WDVV-identity:

$`_{\epsilon ,\epsilon ^{}}F_{\alpha \beta \epsilon }g^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}F_{\epsilon ^{}\gamma \delta }`$ is totally symmetric in $`\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma ,\delta `$.

2. Stable maps, gluing and contraction. In order to explain the proof of the WDVV-identity we have to discuss some properties of the moduli spaces $`X_{n,d}`$ (see  for more details).

We consider prestable marked curves $`(C,𝐳)`$, that is compact connected complex curves $`C`$ with at most double singular points and with $`n`$ marked points $`𝐳=(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)`$ which are non-singular and distinct. Two holomorphic maps, $`f:(C,𝐳)X`$ and $`f^{}:(C^{},𝐳^{})X`$, are called equivalent if they are identified by an isomorphism $`(C,𝐳)(C^{},𝐳^{})`$ of the curves. This definition induces the concept of automorphism of a map $`f:(C,𝐳)X`$, and one calls $`f`$ stable if it has no non-trivial infinitesimal automorphisms. The moduli spaces $`X_{n,d}`$ consist of equivalence classes of stable maps with fixed number $`n`$ of marked points, degree $`d`$ and arithmetical genus $`0`$ (it is defined as $`g=\mathrm{dim}H^1(C,𝒪_C)`$).

In plain words, the space of degree $`d`$ holomorphic spheres in $`X`$ with $`n`$ marked points is compactified by prestable curves which are trees of $`P^1`$’s and satisfy the stability condition: each irreducible component $`P^1`$ mapped to a point in $`X`$ must carry at least $`3`$ marked or singular points. Under the hypothesis that $`X`$ is a homogeneous Kähler space, the moduli space $`X_{n,d}`$ has the structure of a compact complex orbifold of dimension $`\mathrm{dim}_{}X+_dc_1(T_X)+n3`$.

In the case when $`X`$ is a point the moduli spaces coincide with the Deligne-Mumford compactifications $`\overline{}_{0,n}`$ of moduli spaces of configurations of marked points on $`P^1`$. For instance, $`_{0,4}`$ is the set $`P^1\{0,1,\mathrm{}\}`$ of legitimate values of the cross-ratio of 4 marked points on $`P^1`$. The compactification $`\overline{}_{0,4}=P^1`$ fills-in the fibidden values of the cross-ratio by equivalence classes of the reducible curves $`P^1P^1`$ with one double point and two marked point on each irreducible component.

For $`n3`$, there is a natural contraction map $`X_{n,d}\overline{}_{0,n}`$ defined by composing the map $`f:(C,𝐳)X`$ with $`Xpt`$ (so that the components of $`C`$ carrying $`<3`$ special points become unstable) and contracting the unstable components. Similarly, one can define the forgetting maps $`\mathrm{ft}_i:X_{n+1,d}X_{n,d}`$ by disregarding the $`i`$-th marked point and contracting the component if it has become unstable.

In particular, we will make use of the contraction map

$$\mathrm{ct}:X_{n+4,d}\overline{}_{0,4}$$

defined by forgetting the map $`f:(C,𝐳)X`$ and all the marked points except the first four. A legitimate value $`\lambda =\mathrm{ct}[f]`$ of the cross-ratio means the following: the curve $`C`$ has a component $`C_0=P^1`$ carrying $`4`$ special points with the cross-ratio $`\lambda `$, and the first $`4`$ marked point are situated on the branches of the tree connected to $`C_0`$ at those $`4`$ special points. A forbidden value $`\mathrm{ct}[f]=0`$,$`1`$ or $`\mathrm{}`$ means that $`C`$ containing a chain $`C_0,\mathrm{},C_k`$ of $`k>0`$ of $`P^1`$’s such that $`2`$ of the $`4`$ branches of the tree carrying the marked points are connected to the chain via $`C_0`$, and the other two — via $`C_k`$. Such stable maps form a stratum of codimension $`k`$ in the moduli space $`X_{n,d}`$. We will refer to them as strata (or stable maps) of depth $`k`$.

A stable map of depth $`1`$ is glued from $`2`$ stable maps obtained by disconnecting $`C_0`$ from $`C_1`$. This gives rise to the gluing map

$$X_{n_0+3,d_0}\times _\mathrm{\Delta }X_{n_1+3,d_1}X_{n_0+n_1+4,d_0+d_1}$$

as follows. Consider the map from $`X_{n_0+3,d_0}\times X_{n_1+3,d_1}`$ to $`X\times X`$ defined by evaluation at the $`3`$-rd marked points. The source of the gluing map is the preimage of the diagonal $`\mathrm{\Delta }X\times X`$. 111Note that for a homogeneous Kähler $`X`$, the evaluation map is conveniently transverse to the diagonal in $`X\times X`$. It consists of pairs of stable maps which have the same image of the third marked point and which therefore can be glued at this point into a single stable map of degree $`d_0+d_1`$ with $`n_0+2+n_1+2`$ marked points.

Similarly, gluing stable maps of depth $`k`$ from $`k+1`$ stable maps subject to $`k`$ diagonal constraints at the double points of the chain $`C_0,\mathrm{},C_k`$ defines appropriate gluing maps parameterizing the strata of depth $`k`$.

3. Proof of the WDVV-identity. All points in $`\overline{}_{0,4}`$ represent the same (co)homology class. Thus the analytic fundamental cycles of the fibers $`\mathrm{ct}^1(\lambda )`$ are homologous in $`X_{n+4,d}`$. The cohomological WDVV-identity follows from the fact that for $`\lambda =0`$, $`1`$ or $`\mathrm{}`$ the fiber $`\mathrm{ct}^1(\lambda )`$ consists of strata of depth $`>0`$, and moreover — the corresponding gluing maps (for all splittings $`d=d_0+d_1`$ of the degree and all splittings of the $`n=n_0+n_1`$ marked points), being isomorphisms at generic points, identify the analytic fundamental cycle of the fiber with the sum of the fundamental cycles of $`X_{n_0+3,d_1}\times _\mathrm{\Delta }X_{n_1+3,d_2}`$. This allows one to equate $`3`$ quadratic expression of the correlators which differ by the order of the indices $`\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma ,\delta `$ associated with the first $`4`$ marked points.

We leave the reader to work out some standard combinatorial details which are needed in order to translate this argument into the WDVV-identity for the generating function $`F`$ and note only that the contraction with the intersection tensor $`(g^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}})`$ in the WDVV-equation takes care of the diagonal constraint $`\mathrm{\Delta }X\times X`$ for the evaluation maps.

In K-theory, similarly, the push-forward to $`X\times X`$ of the structural sheaf $`𝒪_\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the diagonal is expressed as

$$(\varphi _\epsilon 1)g^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}(1\varphi _\epsilon ^{})$$

via $`(g^{\epsilon ,\epsilon ^{}})`$ inverse to the “intersection matrix”

$$g_{\alpha \beta }:=\varphi _\alpha ,\varphi _\beta =\chi (X;\varphi _\alpha \varphi _\beta ).$$

The argument justifying the WDVV-equation fails, however, since the above gluing map to $`\mathrm{ct}^1(\lambda )`$ is one-to-one only at the points of depth $`1`$ and does not identify the corresponding structural sheaves. Indeed, a stable map of depth $`k`$ can be glued from two stable maps in $`k`$ different ways and thus belongs to the $`k`$-fold self-intersection in the image of the gluing map.

Let us examine the variety $`\mathrm{ct}^1(\lambda )`$ at a point of depth $`k>1`$. One of the properties of Kontsevich’s compactifications $`X_{m,d}`$ is that after passing to the local non-singular covers (defined by the orbifold structure of the moduli spaces) the compactifying strata form a divisor with normal crossings . Moreover, analyzing (inductively in $`k`$) the local structure of the contraction map $`\mathrm{ct}:X_{n+4,d}\overline{}_{0,4}`$ near a depth-$`k`$ point, one easily finds the local model $`\lambda (x_1,\mathrm{},x_k,\mathrm{})=x_1\mathrm{}x_k`$ for the map $`\mathrm{ct}`$ in a suitable local coordinate system. In this model, the components $`x_1=0,\mathrm{},x_k=0`$ of the divisor with normal crossings represent the strata of depth $`1`$, their intersections $`x_{i_1}=x_{i_2}=0`$ — the strata of depth $`2`$, etc. Denote by $`𝒪`$ the algebra of functions on our local chart, so that $`𝒪/(x_{i_1},\mathrm{},x_{i_l})`$, $`i_1<\mathrm{}<i_l`$, are the algebras of functions on the depth-$`l`$ strata. We have the following exact sequence of $`𝒪`$-modules:

$$0𝒪/(x_1\mathrm{}x_k)𝒪/(x_i)𝒪/(x_{i_1},x_{i_2})𝒪/(x_{i_1},x_{i_2},x_{i_3})\mathrm{}.$$

Notice that the $``$-terms in the sequence are the algebras of functions on the normalized strata of depth $`1`$, depth $`2`$, etc. Translating this local formula to a global K-theoretic statement about gluing maps, we conclude that in the Grothendieck group of orbi-sheaves on $`X_{n+4,d})`$, the element represented by the structural sheaf of $`\mathrm{ct}^1(\lambda )`$ for $`\lambda =0`$,$`1`$ or $`\mathrm{}`$ is identified with the structural sheaf of the corresponding alternated disjoint sum over positive depth strata:

$$X_{n_0+3,d_0}\times _\mathrm{\Delta }X_{n_1+3,d_1}X_{n_0+3,d_0}\times _\mathrm{\Delta }X_{n_1+2,d_1}\times _\mathrm{\Delta }X_{n_2+3,d_2}+\mathrm{}$$

4. Formulation and consequences. Now we can apply the above K-theoretic statement about the moduli spaces to our generating functions.

Introduce

$$G(t,Q):=\frac{1}{2}\underset{\alpha ,\beta }{}g_{\alpha \beta }t_\alpha t_\beta +F(t,Q).$$

Let $`(G^{\alpha \beta })`$ be the matrix inverse to $`(G_{\alpha \beta })=(_\alpha _\beta G)`$.

Theorem.

$$\underset{\epsilon ,\epsilon ^{}}{}G_{\alpha \beta \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}G_{\epsilon \gamma \delta }\text{is totally symmetric in }\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma ,\delta \text{.}$$

Proof. We have rewritten

$$F_{\alpha \beta \epsilon }g^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}F_{\epsilon ^{}\gamma \delta }F_{\alpha \beta \epsilon }g^{\epsilon \mu }F_{\mu \mu ^{}}g^{\mu ^{}\epsilon ^{}}F_{\epsilon ^{}\gamma \delta }+\mathrm{}$$

using the famous matrix identity $`1F+F^2\mathrm{}=(1+F)^1`$. $`\mathrm{}`$

Introduce the quantum tensor product on $`T_tH`$ (with $`H=K^{}(X)`$) by

$$(\varphi _\alpha \varphi _\beta ,\varphi _\gamma ):=G_{\alpha \beta \gamma }(t),$$

and the metric $`(,)`$ on $`TH`$ is defined by $`(\varphi _\mu ,\varphi _\nu ):=G_{\mu \nu }(t)`$.

Corollary 1. The operations $`(,)`$ and $``$ define on the tangent bundle the structure of a formal commutative associative Frobenius algebra with the unity $`1`$. 222At $`t=0,Q=0`$ it turns into the usual multiplicative structure on $`K^{}(X)`$.

Proof. As in the cohomology theory, it is a formal corollary of the Theorem, except that the statement about the unity $`1`$ means that $`G_{\alpha ,1,\beta }=G_{\alpha \beta }`$ and follows from the simplest instance of the string equation in the K-theory: $`(1,t,\mathrm{},t)_{n+1,d}=(t,\mathrm{},t)_{n,d}`$. The last equality is obvious. Indeed, the push-forward of the constant sheaf $`1`$ along the map $`\mathrm{ft}:X_{n+1,d}X_{n,d}`$ forgetting the first marked point is the constant sheaf $`1`$ on $`X_{n,d}`$ since the fibers are curves $`C`$ of zero arithmetic genus, $`g=\mathrm{dim}H^1(C,𝒪_C)=0`$, while $`H^0(C,𝒪_C)=`$ by Liouville’s theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

We introduce on $`T^{}H`$ the $`1`$-parametric family of connection operators

$$_q:=(1q)d\underset{\alpha }{}(\varphi _\alpha )dt_\alpha .$$

Corollary 2. The connections $`_q`$ are flat for any $`q1`$.

Proof. This follows from $`\varphi _\alpha \varphi _\beta =\varphi _\beta \varphi _\alpha `$, $`d^2=0`$, and $`_\alpha (\varphi _\beta )=_\beta (\varphi _\alpha )`$:

$$_\alpha (\varphi _\beta )_\mu ^\nu =G_{\mu \alpha \beta \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \nu }G_{\mu \beta \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}G_{\epsilon ^{}\alpha \epsilon ^{\prime \prime }}G^{\epsilon ^{\prime \prime }\nu }$$

is symmetric with respect to $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ due to the WDVV-identity. $`\mathrm{}`$

Proposition. The operator $`_1`$ is twice the Levi-Civita connection of the metric $`(G^{\alpha \beta })`$ on $`T^{}H`$.

Proof. For a metric of the form $`G_{\alpha \beta }=_\alpha _\beta G`$ the famous explicit formulas for the Christoffel symbols yield

$$2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\alpha \beta }^\gamma =[G_{\alpha \epsilon ,\beta }+G_{\beta \epsilon ,\alpha }G_{\alpha \beta ,\epsilon }]G^{\epsilon \gamma }=G_{\alpha \beta \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \gamma }=(\varphi _\beta )_\alpha ^\gamma .$$

Corollary 3. The metric $`(,)`$ on $`TH`$ is flat.

We complete this section with a description of flat sections of the connection operator $`_q`$ in terms of K-theoretic “gravitational descendents”. Let us introduce the generating functions

$$S_{\alpha \beta }(t,Q):=g_{\alpha \beta }+\underset{n,d}{}\frac{Q^d}{n!}(\varphi _\alpha ,t,\mathrm{},t,\frac{\varphi _\beta }{1qL})_{n+2,d},$$

where the correlators are defined by

$$(\psi _1,\mathrm{},\psi _nL^k)_{m,d}:=\chi (X_{m,d};\mathrm{ev}_1^{}(\psi _1)\mathrm{}\mathrm{ev}_m^{}(\psi _m)L^k).$$

Here $`L`$ is the line orbibundle over the moduli space $`X_{m,d}`$ of stable maps $`(C,𝐳)X`$ formed by the cotangent lines to $`C`$ at the last marked point (as specified by the position of the geometrical series $`1+qL+q^2L^2+\mathrm{}=(1qL)^1`$ in the correlator).

Theorem. The matrix $`S:=(S_{\mu \nu })`$ is a fundamental solution to the linear PDE system:

$$(1q)_\alpha S=(\varphi _\alpha )S.$$

Proof. Taking $`\varphi _\mu ,\varphi _\alpha ,\varphi _\beta `$ and $`\varphi _\nu /(1qL)`$ for the content of the four distinguished marked points in the proof of the WDVV-identity, we obtain its generalization in the form:

$$G_{\mu \alpha \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}_\beta S_{\epsilon ^{}\nu }=G_{\mu \beta \epsilon }G^{\epsilon \epsilon ^{}}_\alpha S_{\epsilon ^{}\nu },$$

or $`(\varphi _\alpha )_\beta S=(\varphi _\beta )_\alpha S`$. Now it remains to put $`\varphi _\beta =1`$ and use $`(1q)_1S=S`$, which is another instance of the string equation:

$$(1,t,\mathrm{},t,\varphi L^k)_{n+2,d}=(t,\mathrm{},t,\varphi (1+L+\mathrm{}+L^k))_{n+1,d}.$$

The last relation is obtained by computing the push forward of $`L^k`$ along $`\mathrm{ft}_1:X_{n+2,d}X_{n+1,d}`$. 333Some details can be found in . Briefly, one identifies the fibers of $`\mathrm{ft}_1`$ with the curves underlying the stable maps $`f:(C,𝐳)X`$ with $`n+1`$ marked points. It is important to realize that the pull-back $`L^{}:=\mathrm{ft}_1^{}(L)`$ of the line bundle named $`L`$ on $`X_{n+1,d}`$ differs from the line bundle named $`L`$ on $`X_{n+2,d}`$. In fact, there is a holomorphic section of $`Hom(L^{},L)`$ with the divisor $`D`$ defined by the last marked point $`z_{n+1}C`$, and the bundle $`L`$ restricted to $`D`$ is trivial (while $`L^{}|_D`$ is therefore conormal to $`D`$). Since $`L^{}`$ is trivial along the fibers $`C`$, we find that $`H^1(C,L^k)=0`$ and $`H^0(C,L^k)=(L^{})^kH^0(C,𝒪_C(kD))(L^{})^k(1+(L^{})^1+\mathrm{}+(L^{})^k)`$.

5. Some open questions.

(a) Definitions. It is natural to expect that the above results extend from the case of homogeneous Kähler spaces $`X`$ to general compact Kähler and, even more generally, almost Kähler target manifolds.

In the Kähler case, the moduli of stable degree $`d`$ genus $`g`$ maps with $`n`$ marked points form compact complex orbi-spaces $`X_{g,n,d}`$ equipped with the intrinsic normal cone . The cone gives rise  to an element in K-group of $`X_{g,n,d}`$ which should be used in the definition of $`K`$-theoretic correlators in the same manner as the virtual fundamental cycle $`[X_{g,n,d}]`$ is used in quantum cohomology theory.

The moduli space $`X_{g,n,d}`$ can be also described as the zero locus of a section of a bundle $`EB`$ over a non-singular space. Due to the famous “deformation to the normal cone” , the virtual fundamental cycle represents the Euler class of the bundle. This description survives in the almost Kähler case and yields a topological definition and symplectic invariance of the cohomological correlators. In $`K`$-theory, there exists a topological construction of the push forward from $`B`$ to the point based on Whitney embedding theorem and Thom isomorphisms. We don’t know however how to adjust the construction to our actual setting where $`B`$ is non-singular only in the orbifold sense.

One (somewhat awkward) option is to define $`K`$-theoretic correlators topologically by the RHS of the Kawasaki-Riemann-Roch-Hirzebruch formula  for orbi-bundles over $`B`$. This proposal deserves further study even in the Kähler case since it may lead to a ”quantum Riemann-Roch formula”.

(b) Frobenius-like structures. Our results in Section $`4`$ show that $`K`$-theoretic Gromov-Witten invariants of genus $`0`$ define on the space $`H=K^{}(X)`$ a geometrical structure very similar to the Frobenius structure  of cohomology theory, but not identical to it.

One of the lessons is that the metric tensor on $`H`$, which can be in both cases described as $`F_{\alpha ,1,\beta }`$, is constant in cohomology theory and equal to $`g_{\alpha \beta }`$ only by an ”accident”, but remains flat in $`K`$-theory even though it is not constant anymore.

The translation $`tt+\tau 1`$ in the direction of $`1H`$ leaves the structure invariant in cohomology theory, but causes multiplication by $`e^\tau `$ in $`K`$-theory — because of a new form of the string equation. Also, the $``$-grading missing in $`K`$-theory makes an important difference. It would be interesting to study the axiomatic structure that emerges here and to compare it with the structure implicitly encoded by $`K`$-theory on Deligne-Mumford spaces.

(c) Deligne-Mumford spaces. When the target space $`X`$ is the point, the moduli spaces $`X_{g,n,0}`$ are Deligne-Mumford compactifications of the moduli spaces of genus $`g`$ Riemann surfaces with $`n`$ marked points. The parallel between cohomology and $`K`$-theory suggest several problems.

Holomorphic Euler characteristics of universal cotangent line bundles and their tensor products satisfy the string and dilation equations. 444The same is true not only for $`X=pt`$ (see ). By the way, the push forward $`\mathrm{ft}_{}(L)`$ along $`\mathrm{ft}:X_{g,n+1,d}X_{g,n,d}`$, described by the dilation equation, equals $`+^{}2+n`$. Here $``$ is the $`g`$-dimensional Hodge bundle with the fiber $`H^1(C,𝒪_C)`$. This answer replaces a similar factor $`2g2+n`$ in the cohomological dilation equation, but also shows that tensor powers of $``$ must be included to close up the list of “observables”. $`K`$-theoretic generalization of the rest of Witten – Kontsevich intersection theory  is unclear.

The case of genus $`0`$ and $`1`$ has been studied in  and . The formula

$$\chi (\overline{}_{0,n};\frac{1}{(1q_1L_1)\mathrm{}(1q_nL_n)})=\frac{(1+q_1/(1q_1)+\mathrm{}+q_n/(1q_n))^{n3}}{(1q_1)\mathrm{}(1q_n)}$$

found by Y.-P. Lee  is analogous to the famous intersection theory result

$$_{[\overline{}_{0,n}]}\frac{1}{(1x_1c_1(L_1))\mathrm{}(1x_nc_1(L_n))}=(x_1+\mathrm{}+x_n)^{n3}.$$

The latter formula is a basis for fixed point computations  in equivariant cohomology of the moduli spaces $`X_{n,d}`$ for toric $`X`$. As it was notices by Y.-P. Lee, the former formula is not sufficient for similar fixed point computation in K-theory: it requires Euler characteristics accountable for invariants with respect to permutations of the marked points. Finding an $`S_n`$-equivariant version of Lee’s formula is an important open problem.

(d) Computations. The quantum $`K`$-ring is unknown even for $`X=P^1`$. It turns out that the WDVV-equation is not powerful enough in the absence of grading constraints and divisor equation (see, for instance, ).

On the other hand, for $`X=P^n`$, it is not hard to compute the generating functions $`G(t,Q)`$ and even $`S_{\alpha \beta }(t,Q,q)`$ at $`t=0`$ (see ). In cohomology theory, this would determine the small quantum cohomology ring due to the divisor equation which, roughly speaking, identifies the $`Q`$-deformation at $`t=0`$ with the $`t`$-deformation at $`Q=1`$ along the subspace $`H^2(X,)H`$. No replacement for the divisor equation seems to be possible in K-theory.

At the same time, the heuristic study  of $`S^1`$-equivariant geometry on the loop space $`LX`$ suggests that the generating functions $`S=S_{1,\beta }(0,Q,q)`$ should satisfy certain linear $`q`$-difference equations (instead of similar linear differential equations of quantum cohomology theory). This expectation is supported by the example of $`X=P^n`$: Y.-P. Lee  finds that the generating functions are solutions to the $`q`$-difference equation $`D^{n+1}S=QS`$ (where $`(DS)(Q):=S(Q)S(qQ)`$).

In the case of the flag manifold $`X`$ the generating functions $`S`$ have been identified with the so called Whittaker functions — common eigen-functions of commuting operators of the $`q`$-difference Toda system. This result and its conjectural generalization  to the flag manifolds $`X=G/B`$ of complex simple Lie algebras links quantum K-theory to representation theory and quantum groups. Originally this conjecture served as a motivation for developing the basics of quantum K-theory.

The author is thankful to Yuan-Pin Lee and Rahul Pandharipande for useful discussions, and to the National Science Foundation for supporting this research.