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# Persistent fluctuations and scaling properties in galaxy number counts

## 1 Introduction

In the counts of galaxies, large fluctuations from field to field and from author to author, both in faint and bright counts, and in different spectral bands, have been reported (e.g. Shanks et al 1989, Tyson 1988, Cowie et al. 1990, Maddox et al. 1990, Metcalfe et al., 1991, Picard 1991, Weir et al. 1995, Bertin & Dennefeld 1997, Arnout et al 1997). These fluctuations can be as large as a factor of two. There have been controversy as to whether these fluctuations are due to real clustering or to differences in the magnitude zero point of the various surveys. Hence, in order to avoid possible systematic errors, it is very important to understand the nature of fluctuations in a given field of a single survey, once the magnitude system and zero point have been carefully calibrated. It is, in fact, possible that discrepancies among these surveys are not due mostly to differences in photometric systems or in data reduction effects, but rather to real effects, i.e. large scale structures. In this Letter we propose a method to verify this latter possibility in the actual data. The slope and the amplitude of the counts are shown to be compatible with a fractal distribution of galaxies, and we point out that fundamental information about clustering can obtained by studying the fluctuations of counts as a function of apparent magnitude.

## 2 Average number counts in a fractal distribution

As suggested in Baryshev (1981), and proposed in a series of papers (Sylos Labini et al. 1996, Montuori et al. 1997, Sylos Labini Montuori & Pietronero 1998) number counts versus apparent magnitude can be used to test whether the large scale distribution of galaxies can be compatible with a fractal or with an homogeneous behavior. In this context, we discuss the case in which the joint space-luminosity distribution $`\nu (\stackrel{}{r},L)`$ can be factorized as the product of the number spatial density $`n(\stackrel{}{r})`$ and the luminosity function $`\varphi (L)`$ 111which we take to be Schechter like (Schechter 1976) but its actual function does not change the final results (Binggeli, Tammann & Sandage 1988):

$$\nu (\stackrel{}{r},L)d^3rdL=n(\stackrel{}{r})\varphi (L)d^3rdL.$$
(1)
This is known to be a good approximation in the case of small redshift ($`z1`$). All the eventual corrections to Eq. 1 (space geometry, K-corrections, evolution, etc.) are in fact proportional to $`z`$ (Yoshii & Takahara 1988, Sandage 1995).

In the case of a fractal distribution, the average density seen from a galaxy (averaged over enough many observing galaxies) can be written as $`n(\stackrel{}{r})\mathrm{\Gamma }(r)=Br^{D3}`$ (Pietronero 1987, Sylos Labini et al. 1998) where $`D`$ is the fractal dimension; then:

$$\nu (\stackrel{}{r},L)=\mathrm{\Gamma }(r)\varphi (L)=Br^{D3}AL^\delta e^{\frac{L}{L_{}}}.$$
(2)
In this case one ends up with a very simple relation for the integrated counts as a function of apparent flux ($`f=L/(4\pi r^2`$)), for unit of steradian:

$$N(>f)=N_0f^{\frac{D}{2}}.$$
(3)
By using the transformation between apparent flux and magnitude (Peebles 1993)

$$f=\frac{L_{}}{4\pi (10\text{pc})^2}10^{0.4(M_{}m)},$$
(4)
where $`M_{}`$ is the cut-off of the luminosity function $`L_{}`$ in terms of magnitude, one obtains

$$N(<m)=\stackrel{~}{N}_010^{\frac{D}{5}m},$$
(5)
and hereafter we denote $`\alpha D/5`$.

Note that, from what concerns the average behavior, the case of a homogeneous distribution is included in the fractal case with $`D=3`$. Eq.2 has been tested (Sylos Labini, Montuori & Pietronero 1998; Joyce, Montuori & Sylos Labini 1999) to be a rather good approximation in local redshift surveys. Thus, the exponent of the average counts is simply related to the fractal dimension of galaxies in the three dimensional space (see also Sandage, Tammann & Hardy 1972, Peebles 1993). In Eq. 2 $`A`$ is a normalizing constant such that

$$A=\frac{1}{_{L_{min}}^{\mathrm{}}L^\delta e^{L/L_{}}𝑑L},$$
(6)
where $`L_{min}`$ is the faintest object observed in current surveys. Such a lower cut-off, larger than zero is necessary to avoid divergences for $`\delta 1`$. Therefore, Eq. 2 depends on a combination of five different parameters which can be independently measured. Three parameters are related with the luminosity function: the exponent $`\delta `$, the luminosity cut-off $`L_{}`$ and the lower cut-off $`L_{min}`$. These three quantities have been measured with good precision in different redshift surveys (Binggeli, Sandage & Tammann 1988, Efsthatiou, Ellis & Peterson 1988). The fourth parameter is the fractal dimension $`D`$ and the last one, $`B`$, is the absolute normalization of the fractal distribution. This latter can be, for example, defined as the average number of galaxies of any luminosity as seen by an average observer in a ball of radius $`1h^1Mpc`$ and can be measured in redshift surveys (see Sylos Labini, Montuori & Pietronero 1998, Joyce, Montuori & Sylos Labini 1999 for a more detailed discussion of the subject).

The amplitude $`N_0`$ in Eq.3 is given by

$$N_0=\frac{AB}{2(4\pi )^{\frac{D2}{2}}}L_{}^{\delta +\frac{D+2}{2}}\mathrm{\Gamma }_e\left(\delta +\frac{D}{2}\right),$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_e`$ is the Euler’s Gamma function.

In view of Eq.2 and Eq.4, one can compute the average redshift of a galaxy with apparent magnitude $`m`$. We obtain

$$z=\frac{h}{310^8}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_e\left(\frac{D+3}{2}+\delta \right)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }_e\left(\frac{D+2}{2}+\delta \right)}10^{0.2(mM_{})},$$
(8)
where $`h`$ is the normalized Hubble’s constant.

From current data both the amplitude and the slope of counts can be estimated. In general in the standard $`B_J`$ photometric system222We adopt hereafter the standard Johnson-Cousins system following the choice of Arount et al (1997) and of Bertin & Dennefeld (1997)., and in the range of magnitude from $`11^m`$ to $`19^m`$ (see Tab.1), one has $`\alpha =0.50\pm 0.04`$ corresponding to $`D=2.5\pm 0.2`$. The corresponding range of average redshift (Eq. 8) is $`10^3\mathrm{}<z\mathrm{}<10^1`$. Note that, in the faint end part of counts, where the cosmological corrections are known to be relevant, the slopes are consistent with the bright end (see Tab.2).

Such a value of $`\alpha `$ (and hence of $`D`$) is slightly larger than the value of $`D`$ found in nearby redshift surveys, which is $`D=2.1\pm 0.1`$ up to $`30÷50h^1Mpc`$. Whether such a difference is due to an increase of fractal dimension with scale or it is related to some systematic effects in the counts will be discussed in forthcoming papers (e.g. Gabrielli & Sylos Labini 2000). It is worth to note that Teerikorpi et al. (1988) have found a dimension $`D=2.35\pm 0.05`$ up to $`100h^1Mpc`$ by counting galaxies in real space and in volume limited samples.

Note that in the range of $`z1`$ one expects eventual cosmological and luminosity evolution corrections to be negligible. However, we propose a further test to discriminate the importance of these effects.

More specifically, we propose to study in detail the fluctuations around the average behavior of number counts as a function of apparent magnitude. In fact, as shown below, this test can discriminate between the fractal or smooth cosmological nature of the deviation of the $`\alpha `$ exponent from Euclidean behavior ($`\alpha =0.6`$). This study is motivated by the fact that through number counts we can analyze much larger space volumes than in redshift surveys. In fact, the deepest actual red-shift surveys where the fractal dimension has been estimated (Joyce et al., 1999) contains some thousand galaxies, whereas magnitude limited surveys can have as many as some millions of galaxies up to very faint magnitudes and deep scales (e.g. POSS-II).

## 3 Fluctuations

A very illustrative and simple case is a poissonian homogeneous distribution of galaxies. In this case the difference between the number of points in two equal non overlapping volumes is of the order of the square root of the average number. The variance of counts can be easily computed from the probabilistic definition of Poisson distribution $`n(\stackrel{}{r})`$ and by using again Eq.1, obtaining

$$\sigma _m^2=\frac{(N(<m)N(<m))^2}{N(<m)^2}10^{0.6m},$$
(9)
where $`N(<m)`$ is the number of galaxies with apparent magnitude brighter than $`m`$. The average $`N(<m)`$ is given by Eq.5 with $`D=3`$. A more rigorous derivation, considering three point correlation function, can be found in Gabrielli & Sylos Labini (2000). Thus, in the poissonian case, relative fluctuations decrease exponentially at faint magnitudes. The pre-factor in Eq.9 is simply related to a combination of the parameters in Eq.2.

In a fractal distribution the typical fluctuation of the number of points $`N(r)`$ in a sphere of radius $`r`$, with respect to the average value over different observers $`N(r)`$, is always of the same order of the average number (e.g. Mandelbrot 1977):

$$\delta N(r)=\sqrt{(N(r)N(r))^2}N(r).$$
(10)
This property is very important for counts, which are not averaged over different observers (Sylos Labini Montuori & Pietronero 1998). Eq. 10 means that, in a fractal, at any scale, one expects to find a void or a structure, the extension of which is of the same order of the scale itself: this is the source of geometrical self-similarity. This property implies that fluctuations in the number of points (differential or integral) should be, in absolute value, always proportional to the average number itself and never decreases with distance.

From Eq. 10 and Eq. 1 one obtains that the relative fluctuation in the counts as a function of apparent magnitude has a constant amplitude:

$$\sigma _mconst.>0.$$
(11)
Eq. 11 describes the “persistent” character of fluctuations in number counts induced by the fractal nature of the spatial distribution. The numerical value of $`\sigma _m`$ depends now on the same parameters in Eq.1, and on some other morphological characteristics of the specific studied fractal. In fact, fluctuations are characterized by higher order correlation functions (Blumenfeld & Ball 1993; Gabrielli, Sylos Labini & Pellegrini 1999) and the fractal dimension does not determine them univocally. Note that $`\sigma _m`$ can be also very small: its striking feature being in fact that it is constant as a function of $`m`$, and not its absolute amplitude. By using simple approximations, it is possible to relate the constant $`\sigma _m`$ to three point correlation function of the distribution (Gabrielli & Sylos Labini 2000). In a deterministic fractal, fluctuations have a nearly constant amplitude with a log-periodical modulation (Sornette, 1998) as a function of scale, because the algorithm generating such a structure is a deterministic one. In the more realistic case of stochastic fractals, the oscillations are in general a superposition of waves, which are periodic in log-space, but which have different frequencies and amplitudes.

The poissonian case describes also the situation in which one has a spatial distribution of galaxies with a small crossover scale $`\lambda _0`$ to homogeneity and a finite correlation length $`r_c`$ (Gaite et al. 1999, Gabrielli, Sylos Labini & Durrer 2000). A different situation occurs in the case of a spatial distribution with a finite homogeneity scale, but an infinite correlation length. This case can be thought as obtained by a superposition of a fractal distribution to a dominating flat constant density. In this case $`N(<m)`$ is again given by Eq. 7 with $`D=3`$ (i.e. it is dominated by the flat constant distribution). On the other hand the absolute fluctuation $`(N(<m)N(<m))^2`$ is dominated by the fractal scale invariant correlations. Consequently, the normalized varaince $`\sigma _m^2`$ is again an exponentially decreasing function of $`m`$, even if with a slower behavior than a poissonian distribution

$$\sigma _m^210^{(0.2(3D)m)},$$
(12)
where $`D<3`$ is the dimension of the fractal superimposed to the constant density.

Note that, in general one can have more complex situations, but the case described by Eq. 11 is an unambiguous indication of persistent and scale invariant real space fluctuations typical of statistically self similar irregular distributions.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusions

Up to $`B_J18^m`$ (i.e. $`z<0.1`$) cosmological models, in the framework of the Friedmann solutions, predict an exponent $`\alpha =0.6`$. This is because, one assumes an homogeneous distribution starting at very small scale, i.e. $`5÷20h^1Mpc`$ (Peebles 1993, Davis 1997, Wu, Lahav & Rees 1999). Evolutionary effects, as other cosmological corrections, become efficient at $`z1`$ (Yoshii & Takahara 1989, Sandage 1995). Such a situation is nearly independent on the value of $`q_0`$, the amount of K-corrections, the possible evolution of galaxies with redshift, and the photometric band chosen. It is important to note that $`N(m,q_0)`$ is degenerate to $`z`$ in first order: i.e. it is independent on $`q_0`$ for small redshift. For instance, at $`z=0.1`$ (i.e. $`B_J18^m`$) the deviation from the Euclidean $`\alpha =0.6`$ slope is less than $`10\%`$ for any value of $`q_0`$. Moreover, the slope at fainter magnitudes should be a rapidly varying function of the magnitude itself. Clearly, this is not the case for the data shown in Tab.1 and Tab.2.

From an experimental point of view, we propose to study the fluctuations with respect to the average in the integrated number counts $`N(<m)`$ instead of in the differential one $`N(m)`$, in order to avoid problems with shot noise in magnitude bins. In such a way it is clear that at bright magnitudes $`\sigma _m`$ shows an initial decay due to the paucity of bright galaxies in small solid angle fields. Then, after the integrated number of points has reached a large enough value, one should be able to detect only the effect of eventual intrinsic fluctuations.

However, calibration errors or other systematic field-to-field possible biases can affect the measurement. For this reason we suggest first to focus the study to a single sky field at time, instead of considering fluctuations in different sky fields. That is, after having determined the best fit as in Eq. 3 (or by adding eventual cosmological corrections) one can study fluctuations in a single well calibrated sky field. The instrisic nature of fluctuations reveals as soon as the shot noise contribution becomes negligible. Clearly, there is a transient between the shot noise regime and the instrinsical fluctuations, where the there is a combination of these two effects. The range of magnitudes of such a combination of shot noise and intrinsic fractal fluctuations, depends not only on the number of points, but also on the solid angle of the survey (see Sylos Labini, Montuori & Pietronero 1998 for a more detailed discussion about the shot noise effect on the galaxy counts).

It is important to note that the presence of eventual persistent and scale-invariant fluctuations, in the $`\mathrm{log}N(<m)`$ vs. $`m`$ plot, cannot be due to any smooth correction to the data as cosmological and evolution effects, but they can be the outcome exclusively of strongly correlated fractal fluctuations. The reason being that smooth linear corrections are not able to produce persistent scale-invariant fluctuations on $`N(<m)`$ of the same order of $`N(<m`$) itself.

It is important to note that the exponent of the counts can be very sensible to the photometric band chosen, due to the different K-correction and kind of objects selected. However, it is important to stress that the nature of fluctuation structures must be the same in all different photometric bands. In other words, since these fluctuations are intrinsic, then they should not depend on the photometric band used. On the contrary other possible intervening effects, like galactic extinction fluctuations, strongly depend on the photometric band chosen.

From the present discussion an important challenge for the new generation of experiments is represented by the following questions: (i) Why the slope and the amplitude of the counts remain nearly constant beyond $`B_J18^m`$? (ii) Why there is no clear sign of change of slope due to galaxy evolution, space-time geometry effects and K-correction, even when the average redshift becomes to be of order unity ? (iii) The last question concerns the detection of persistent and scale-invariant fluctuations in the counts. The new generation of redshift surveys like SSDS and 2dF, together with the new POSS-II (Djorgovski et al., 2000) photometric survey, will be able to answer to these fundamental questions.

## Acknowledgements

F.S.L. warmly acknowledge continuous and detailed comments of Y.V. Baryshev. We are grateful to E. Bertin for illuminating discussions about data. We also thank H. Di Nella, G. Djorgovski, R. Durrer, J.-P. Eckmann, M. Joyce, G. Mamon, M. Montuori, G. Paturel, L. Pietronero and P. Teerikorpi for very useful comments and suggestions. This work is partially supported by the EC TMR Network ”Fractal structures and self-organization” ERBFMRXCT980183 and by the Swiss NSF.


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# The reality of old moving groups - the case of HR 1614 Based on observations with the ESA Hipparcos satellite

## 1 Introduction

Globular and open clusters provide useful probes of the longterm chemical and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way. The globular clusters probe the formation and early evolution of the spheroidal components of the Milky Way while the open clusters provide a useful tool to study the evolution of the galactic disk. However, the paucity of very old (old is here taken to mean $`10^8`$ years, the time scale on which an open cluster will be dissolved, Spitzer 1958) open clusters in the disk forces us to consider the considerably more loosely arranged moving groups to probe the earlier evolution of the disk. It was Olin Eggen who first introduced the concept of moving or stellar kinematic groups, of which the Hyades is a well known example. The basic idea behind the moving groups is that stars form in clusters and thus with similar space motion, on top of which the random motions of single stars are added, resulting in a modest velocity dispersion within the group. Through the orbital motion within the galactic potential the group will be stretched out into a tube-like structure and finally, after several galactic orbits, dissolve. The result of the stretching is that the stars will appear, if the Sun happens to be inside the tube, all over the sky but may be identified as a group through their common space velocity. Thus the moving groups may provide the essential, and so far largely un-utilized, link between cluster and field stars. These are the assumptions, but are moving groups observable realities? A large stumbling block for assessing the reality of moving groups has been the lack of large numbers of reliable parallaxes. This has now been largely overcome by the observations from the Hipparcos satellite (ESA 1997). This has, in fact, resulted in a small burst of recent papers studying, mainly young, moving groups, e.g. Asiain et al. (1999), Barrado y Navascués (1998), Odenkirchen et al. (1998), Skuljan et al. (1997), and Dehnen (1998).

Eggen defined moving groups as stars that all share the same velocity in the direction of galactic rotation, i.e. V-velocity. Specifically the velocities required to be constant were corrected for the stars differing radial distance from the Sun in order to make the circular orbits iso-periodic (Eggen 1998b). However, using the Hipparcos parallaxes it is noted that firstly the groups get more compact and secondly that stars identified as group members do not form flat bars or ellipses with small $`\sigma _V`$ but are in fact structures tilted in the $`UV`$-plane (Skuljan et al. 1997 Fig. 1). Part of this shape can be attributed to the errors in the parallaxes themselves and their transformation into errors in the $`UV`$-plane. However, through dynamical simulations Skuljan et al. (1997) show that all of the tilt cannot be attributed to the errors in parallaxes but also has a physical basis.

In view of these new possibilities it is now appropriate to re-asses the reality and membership criteria for the HR 1614 moving group. Eggen (1998b) has compared Hipparcos and cluster parallaxes for stars in his sample (Eggen 1992) of HR 1614 moving group member stars. However, he disregards the Hipparcos parallaxes in favour of cluster parallaxes, also when the discrepancies are large, without further discussion.

The article is organized as follows: Sects. 2, 3, and 4 describe the search for the HR 1614 moving group in the Hipparcos catalogue, as well as dynamical simulations of old moving groups and their characteristics today. Sect. 5 reviews previous work on the HR 1614 moving group. A new selection criterion for HR 1614 moving group is developed in Sect. 6 and used to derive its age. In Sect. 7. we derive, from data in the literature, a metallicity for the moving group. The Eggen (1992, 1998b) sample is revisited in Sect. 8 and discussed in detail. Sect. 9 contains a discussion primarily of possible sources of contamination in our sample. Sect. 10 provides a brief summary of the main results of this paper.

## 2 Finding the HR 1614 moving group – Searching the Hipparcos catalogue

We perform an unbiased search in the Hipparcos catalogue complemented with radial velocities from the Hipparcos Input Catalogue (ESA 1992), Grenier et al. (1999), and Barbier-Brossat et al. (1994) over a wide area in $`UV`$-space (Fig. 1 shows the distribution of stars) around the probable values for the HR 1614 moving group to see if we can find any signature of what appears to be stars with similar, high, metallicities and with correlation in the $`UV`$-plane. First we divide the $`UV`$-plane into seven boxes and construct the corresponding HR-diagrams, Figs. 1 and 2.

The four boxes 1, 3, 4, and 6, all show stellar population with metallicities around solar and below. Box 3 has what appears to be a younger population as well, while the other boxes show exclusively old populations. None of these boxes show any trace of a large population significantly more metal-rich than the Sun and we will disregard them from further discussions and concentrate on the remaining three boxes.

The three boxes 2, 5, and 7 all show well populated HR-diagrams. As we move from box 2 to 7 over box 5 the turn-off age of stars with solar-like metallicities increases. The canonical view of the stellar populations in the solar neighbourhood implies that we would expect subsequently more and more metal-poor stars as we move further away from the Sun in velocity space. Especially we would expect box 5 to be older and more metal-poor than box 2 and box 7 even older and more metal-poor as we sample more and more halo and thick disk stars and less of the disk stars.

The visual impression from Fig. 2 is the presence of a a richly populated metal-rich isochrone present in box 2 and 5 but not in any other box. However the relative number of metal-rich stars appears much larger in box 5 than in box 2. Is this significant? To find out we combine our Hipparcos catalogue with Strömgren photometry (Hauk & Mermilliod 1998) and calculate \[Me/H\] using the calibration in Schuster & Nissen (1989). All stars flagged as possible binaries in the Hipparcos catalogue were excluded. This includes both systems detected by Hipparcos itself and system previously known (e.g. from radial velocity variation) and included in the CCDM catalogue of multiple stars (ESA 1997). These stars have to be excluded since it is not possible to derive metallicities from their Strömgren photometry. The results are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 where we also distinguish between three major metallicity ranges, \[Me/H\] $`<0.1`$, $`0.1`$\[Me/H\]$`<+0.1`$, and $`+0.1`$ \[Me/H\]. Again box 5 shows a clear high-metallicity population not at all present in the other field. The resulting normalized metallicity-distributions for box 2, 5, and 7 are shown in Fig. 5. Clearly box 7 has a large, metal-poor tail, as expected since this box should contain many halo stars as well as thick disk stars. Box 2 on the other hand, which should be the most solar-like box, has almost no metal-poor tail and a distinct peak at $`0.2`$ dex, just what is expected for the solar neighbourhood, Wyse & Gilmore (1995). Box 5 on the other hand is more metal-rich than the solar neighbourhood. This does not fit into the canonical picture of the general stellar populations in the Galaxy. It should be more metal-poor (on average) than box 2 and more metal-rich than box 7.

The background distribution of stars in Fig. 1 shows that the maximum density occurs in several clumps rather close to the local standard of rest (LSR) but also that a secondary maximum exists centered on $`U20`$ km s-1, $`V40`$ km s-1 (see also Dehnen 1999, Fig. 1 for a similar smoothed density distribution plot). This stellar population with a mostly negative U-velocity, was already tentatively identified in pre-Hipparcos data and named the U-anomaly. In the Hipparcos data it is much more well defined. Raboud et al. (1998) who obtained Geneva photometry for stars in this area of the $`UV`$-space, found a metallicity distribution similar to that of the bulge. Supported by dynamical simulations they concluded that the stars formed in the inner disk were scattered by the bar into the solar neighborhood. These stars make up a large part of the old stars found in box 2. Figure 4 shows the velocity distribution of stars with Strömgren metallicities in box 2 and 5. The U-anomaly is clearly seen in box 2 and found to be dominated by stars of solar metallicity and below.

From this and our previous considerations it is clear that the super-solar metallicity stars are predominantly found in box 5, the area of the $`UV`$-plane in which the HR 1614 moving group is supposed to be found. We thus conclude that there exists a distinct stellar population more metal-rich than the average background centered at $`U10`$ and $`V60`$ km s-1 and tilted in the $`UV`$-plane. This population is not found in the adjacent areas in the $`UV`$-plane. Can this stellar population be identified with the moving group HR 1614 found by Eggen?

## 3 Finding the HR 1614 moving group – Dynamic simulations

To answer this question we now turn to a dynamical simulation of the evolution of old moving groups to find out whether or not the structure we observe in box 5 can indeed be identified with an old moving group.

A galactic potential model consisting of a stellar and gaseous disk, thick disk, bulge and dark halo (Dehnen & Binney 1998) is used to integrate the orbits of the individual stars in a dissolving moving group. In the model the solar distance from the galactic centre is R$`{}_{}{}^{}=8.0`$ kpc, the height above the plane is z$`{}_{}{}^{}=8`$ pc, the solar peculiar velocity components are $`U=10`$ km s-1, $`V=5`$ km s-1, $`W=7`$ km s-1 and the circular velocity $`v_\mathrm{c}(R_{})=219`$ km s-1. The starting point for the simulation is attained by taking a velocity vector and position from a star assumed to belong to the moving group e.g. HR 1614 itself and integrate the orbit backwards for the assumed age of the moving group. At this position an ensemble of stars is placed and followed forward into the present time. The stars are treated as test particles in the static potential and the dispersion processes is modeled in two different ways. Either the moving group is born unbound like an OB association with a certain velocity dispersion and no further dispersion processes are active or the group is born as a bound system like an open cluster with identical velocities and the dispersion is gradually built up by stars becoming unbound to the cluster and starting to experience orbital diffusion (Wielen 1977).

Both methods are rather crude approximations to the real processes that affect the evolution of a dissolving moving group, but they can be seen as limiting cases to the real processes at work. Our main use of the simulations is also to test the assumption that the sample of stars identified as probable members due to metallicity and kinematics have a common origin in time and space. The two examples in Fig. 6 shows that the structure in the $`UV`$-plane outlined by the metal-rich stars in Fig. 4 with a width in U-velocity of 60 km s-1 and in $`V`$ of 20 km s-1 and not confined to a single V-velocity is a natural result of the dynamically simulated dispersion processes. The classical configuration, used by Eggen, with all stars belonging to the group lined up along a single V-velocity only appears when the Sun is located very close to the centre of the group, which is not likely. Otherwise, either if the Sun is located to the outside or the inside of the tube-orbit defined by the moving group, we get the tilted structure in the $`UV`$-plane shown in Fig. 6. In the simulation in Fig. 6a with an original velocity dispersion of 6 km s-1, the center of the group had a velocity of $`U=15`$ km s-1, $`V=58`$ km s-1 and $`W=7`$ km s-1 when it passed the present Solar position 40 Myrs ago. In the simulation with Wielen diffusion, we used a time and velocity independent diffusion coefficient $`D=2.010^7`$ km s-1 yr-1 and the center of the group had a velocity of $`U=0`$ km s-1, $`V=58`$ km s-1 and $`W=7`$ km s-1 when it passed the present Solar position only 5 Myrs ago. These two examples have their peak density in the $`UV`$-plane at approximately the same position as the observed distribution found in Sect. 2.

## 4 Finding the HR 1614 moving group – Conclusions

We close the first part of our paper with a few remarks on the reality of old moving groups. Before the Hipparcos mission the numbers of reliable parallaxes were too small to address the reality of most proposed old moving groups successfully. Recent studies (e.g. Barrado y Navascués 1998, and Skuljan et al. 1997) have shown that well known moving groups such as the Pleiades and the Hyades but also several other young moving groups, e.g. Castor ($`200\pm 100`$ Myr, Barrado y Navascués 1998), are well identified as physical entities using the new data from the Hipparcos mission.

Are the proposed old moving groups a reality? We conclude that at least one old moving group exists and that it’s possible to find other ones using velocity information in combination with metallicities based on Strömgren photometry. The study by Dehnen (1998) further supports our findings. He recovered many maxima, using a maximum likelihood solution, in the velocity distribution of nearby stars using the Hipparcos catalogue. Several of these are identifiable with known moving groups. In particular he found several maxima that exclusively contained red stars, indicating an old age. He identifies one of these maxima with the HR 1614 moving group.

However, HR 1614 might be a rather special case. It is particularly metal-rich compared to the majority of stars in the part of the $`UV`$-plane it resides in. In other parts of the $`UV`$-plane (e.g. close to the local standard of rest) the group would have been completely obscured by other metal-rich stars.

In summary, we conclude that at least one old moving group exists and it’s possible to find others using our simple method if they stand out in terms of metallicity and/or age from the ambient background of stars in their space of the $`UV`$-plane.

## 5 Review of previous work on the HR 1614 moving group

The HR 1614 moving group stands out among stellar moving groups in terms of age and metallicity. The age and metallicity have been estimated to be roughly similar to that of the old open cluster NGC 6791, Hufnagel & Smith (1994) and Eggen (1998a). However, this is challenged by the recent determination by Chaboyer at al. (1999) who found NGC 6791 to have a metallicity of $`+0.4`$ dex and an age of 8 Gyr.

It was Eggen (1978) who, following leads in earlier studies by Eggen (1971) and Hearnshaw (1974), first identified the presence of a moving group associated with the K dwarf star HR 1614 (HD 32147) by studying a sample of stars which were selected as being within $`\pm 10`$ km s-1 of the V-velocity of the star HR 1614 (then estimated to $`58`$ km s-1). He found that in a sample of 44 stars with $`(U,V)`$111These are the $`U`$ and $`V`$ velocities in a right handed system. Eggen use a left handed system, however, we conform with the now common practice and use a right handed system where U points in the direction towards the galactic centre and $`V`$ in the direction of galactic rotation. $`(0,60)`$ km s-1 60 % were over abundant with respect to the Sun (based on a few spectroscopic studies, mainly Oinas (1974) and the $`m_1`$ index). The stars appear as metal-rich as the Hyades in the $`M_V,RI`$ diagram. They also showed strong blanketing effects in $`by`$ (an excess of $`0.03`$ compared to the Hyades group, which was utilized as a selection criterion) and made up a colour magnitude diagram resembling that of an old stellar cluster (Eggen 1978 Fig. 1a).

Smith (1983) subsequently obtained DDO photometry of 19 suggested member stars and found many of them to have enhanced cyanogen bands similar to those found in so called super-metal-rich stars (SMR, see Taylor 1996 for a discussion of SMR stars). The group also showed anomalously many CN-rich stars when compared with a random sample of stars. Derived \[Fe/H\] generally confirmed the high metallicity of the member stars, however, two giant stars were found to be significantly lower in metallicity casting some doubt on Eggen’s (1978) $`by`$ criterion for membership. A stricter application of membership criteria, i.e. that the stars should show the same behaviour in both UBV, DDO and $`by`$, showed that many of Eggen’s original candidates did not belong to the group. Smith (1983) further suggests that the abundances and kinematics of the HR 1614 moving group stars are consistent with the abundance gradient observed in old open clusters (if it formed at perigalacticon) and thus the lack of observations of similar clusters would be due to that either they no longer exist or that observations up to 1983 had not sampled the inner regions of the Galaxy well enough. Utilizing the CN-enhancement Eggen (1992) found a total of 39 main-sequence members of the HR 1614 moving group by isolating them through their V-velocity. All these dwarfs are within 40 pc of the Sun. A further 19 red giants within 200 pc of the Sun were also identified.

No high resolution spectroscopic study has targeted the probable member stars of the HR 1614 moving group.

## 6 A new selection of probable HR 1614 members and its age

We now proceed with the second part of this paper and provide a new sample of stars with high probability of being member stars. From this new sample we are able to derive an age as well as a metallicity for the moving group.

### 6.1 Defining a new selection criterion

Is it possible to define a selection criterion in the $`UV`$-plane for the moving group HR 1614 that is stricter than the boundaries of box 5? From Fig. 4 we find that metal-rich stars in box 5 predominantly fall along a diagonal band going from the lower left to the upper right-hand corner. In order to find out if this tilted structure is significant we select only stars with small relative errors in the parallaxes, $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <0.05`$, and with \[Me/H\]$`>0.1`$ dex. The latter selection is based on the assumption that, if existing (as we assume in this section), the HR 1614 group should have a metallicity around $`+0.2`$ dex. For example the star HR 1614 itself has \[Fe/H\] $`=+0.28`$ dex from high resolution spectroscopy (Feltzing & Gustafsson 1998). Fig. 7a show the $`UV`$-plane for these stars with error-bars on the $`U`$ and $`V`$ velocities arising from errors in the parallaxes and radial velocities. Apart from one star (HIP 87116, which we consider as belonging to the general background and is excluded from the following discussion) the stars tend to fall along a diagonal line. The star at the top ($`U24`$ km s-1) could be contamination from the U-anomaly (see text above), but we leave it in the sample. A simple least square fit to these data give $`\mathrm{\Delta }V/\mathrm{\Delta }U=+0.19`$, Fig. 7 a. We also show lines representing $`\pm `$ one rms. In Fig. 7 b we show all stars in box 5 with \[Fe/H\] $`>0.1`$ dex and $`\sigma _\pi /\pi <0.05`$ as well as all stars with $`0.0<`$ \[Fe/H\] $`<0.1`$ dex. As can be seen all of the stars with \[Fe/H\] $`>0.1`$ dex could be regarded as falling inside this tilted band if the errors on the velocities are taken into account. This finding combined with our simulations suggests that we have identified a metal-rich co-moving stellar sample with a common origin in space and time. The simulations indicate that the structures may not only be tilted but also curved in the $`UV`$-plane, however, our data set is too small to address that question and we have to be satisfied with a “straight line”.

This selection procedure now helps us to define a new sample of probable HR 1614 moving group member stars from our Strömgren catalogue, Table 1. Our new sample is limited by the fact that the calibration from Schuster & Nissen (1989) used to calculate \[Me/H\] is only valid for dwarf stars with $`0.32BV1.0`$. Because of these limitations K dwarf stars are excluded and for example HR 1614 itself is not included although it perfectly obeys our selection criteria in all other respects. However, see discussions in Sect. 7.2 and 8.

We thus propose that future searches for member stars of the HR 1614 moving groups should be directed to the area in the $`UV`$-plane defined by our tilted band.

### 6.2 A new estimate of the age of the moving group HR 1614

We are now in a position to determine a new age estimate of the HR 1614 moving group from the HR-diagram of stars with Strömgren metallicities and based on the selection described in the previous section. Thus from Fig. 8 we derive an age estimate of 2 Gyr using the Bertelli et al. (1994) isochrones.

The iron content \[Fe/H\] of the Z = 0.05 isochrone from Bertelli et al. (1994) which is found to be \[Fe/H\] = +0.40 dex from their relation (11), is higher then the observed one for our sample of HR 1614 member stars which is $`+0.19\pm 0.06`$. This discrepancy could be due to an error in the colour transformation from the $`\mathrm{log}T_\mathrm{e},M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ to the $`BV,M_\mathrm{V}`$ plane where a metal-rich model atmosphere is used compared to the solar metallicity case which is much better constrained. Other possible error sources are the assumed $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z`$, where a lower value would give a lower metallicity for the isochrone and the assumed scaled solar abundances. If other elements than iron is over-abundant this would lower the iron content for the same assumed metallicity.

In an attempt to estimate an error on this age estimate we have compared the the Bertelli et al. (1994) isochrones with those from Chaboyer et al. (1999). Their metal-rich isochrones present excellent fits to observations from solar metallicity (M67) to the very high metallicity of \[Fe/H\] $`=+0.4`$ for NGC 6791, both of which are older than the HR 1614 moving group. For solar metallicity the Bertelli et al. (1994) and Chaboyer et al. (1999) isochrones are very similar up to the sub-giant region. The two sets of isochrones agree well for ages applicable to NGC 6791. Chaboyer at al. (1999) find this open cluster to be 8 Gyr. Furthermore, and most importantly here, they also investigate the effect of changing $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z`$. Using values between 1 and 3 they find the impact on the derived age to be small. Bertelli et al. (1994) use $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z=2.5`$. It is quite likely that the HR 1614 moving group has a $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z2.5`$. From our comparison of the isochrones we conclude that errors on the derived age, from the possibility that our stars have $`\mathrm{\Delta }Y/\mathrm{\Delta }Z2.5`$, is less than 1 Gyr.

The conclusion by Hufnagel & Smith (1994) that the age of the HR 1614 group is $``$3 Gyr based on the MgII chromospheric emission index is consistent with our isochrone determined age of 2 Gyr in the light of the work by Rocha-Pinto & Maciel (1998). They show that the strength of the chromospheric emission has a strong dependence of the metallicity of the stars, with metal-rich stars having higher chromospheric ages than isochrone ages. Using their relation between the error in the chromospheric age and the iron abundance, for a assumed \[Fe/H\] of +0.20 for HR 1614, a chromospheric age of 3 Gyr corresponds to a isochrone age of 1 Gyr.

## 7 The metallicity of the HR 1614 moving group

We now proceed to determine the metallicity of the HR 1614 moving group from \[Fe/H\] measurements found in the literature.

### 7.1 The spectroscopic catalogue

The basis for our spectroscopic catalogue is the kinematic catalogue described in Sect. 2 supplemented by iron abundances as well as other elemental abundances from the catalogues by Fuhrmann (1998), Favata et al. (1997), Edvardsson et al. (1993), and Feltzing & Gustafsson (1998).

These studies were chosen because they all have large samples of stars, high-resolution has been used, they all have small internal errors, and a comparison of the several stars in common between the studies reveals a high internal consistency between the studies, $`\sigma `$(\[Fe/H\])$`=\pm 0.06`$ dex. All kinematical data have been recalculated using the new parallaxes and proper motions from Hipparcos.

The Edvardsson et al. (1993) sample was selected in order to study F and early G main sequence stars, which were evenly distributed in metallicity between $`1.0`$ dex and $`+0.3`$ dex, and slightly evolved off the ZAMS so that ages could be estimated. The selection of stars was done from Olsen (1988) which includes almost all F and early G stars brighter than $`V8.3`$. The stars in Feltzing & Gustafsson (1998) were selected from the same photometric catalogue with updates in order to study the metal-rich population of disk dwarf stars on solar orbits but also of stars with fairly eccentric orbits and a subsample was selected to have $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}<50`$ km s-1 and/or total space velocity $`>60`$ km s-1. We may therefore expect to find most probable HR 1614 moving group members in this study. Note that in the selection of stars for these two studies no attempt was made to cover the probable member stars of the HR 1614 moving group.

Favata et al. (1997) provide a volume limited sample of G and K dwarf stars drawn from the Gliese catalogue. Fuhrmann (1998) provide iron abundances for 50 nearby F and G type stars on the main-sequence, turn-off, and sub-giant branch.

Comparing \[Fe/H\] from Edvardsson et al. (1993) and Feltzing & Gustafsson (1998) with \[Me/H\] derived using the calibration by Schuster & Nissen (1989) we find that $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}][\mathrm{Me}/\mathrm{H}]=+0.015\pm 0.076`$.

### 7.2 The metallicity

We now apply the $`UV`$-selection criterion to our spectroscopic catalogue. The resulting HR diagram and also the $`UV`$-plot for the full catalogue are shown in Fig. 9.

As noted in Sect. 6.1 our final sample of probable member stars presented in Table 1 only contained stars which fell inside the calibration by Schuster & Nissen (1989), however, for example HR 1614 itself would fall outside this calibration but does indeed fulfill the selection criteria. We thus include two K dwarf stars in our final sample of probable member stars on the basis of their spectroscopically measured metallicities.

For the 8 stars with \[Fe/H\]$`>0.05`$ dex $`<`$\[Fe/H\]$`>`$ $`=0.19\pm 0.06`$ using the \[Fe/H\] for HR 1614 from Feltzing & Gustafsson (1998). For the 11 rejected stars (i.e. both stars inside the strip with \[Fe/H\] $`<0.05`$ dex and stars outside the strip) we find $`<`$\[Fe/H\]$`>`$ $`=0.19\pm 0.38`$. The three that fall just outside our selection criterion in the $`UV`$-plane (HIP 22336, HIP 26437, HIP 70470) have \[Fe/H\] = 0.14, 0.15, 0.06 dex. Including them into the sample we arrive at $`0.17\pm 0.06`$ dex.

Obviously the spectroscopic catalogue is subject to selection biases. However, none of the investigations included in the catalogue have been biased against metal-rich stars in this part of the $`UV`$-plane. In fact Feltzing & Gustafsson (1998) did actively include metal-rich stars with large negative $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$. Note though that no attempt was made in their investigation to preferentially include HR 1614 members. We may thus expect to sample the metal-rich stars well, while the metal-poor stars are less well sampled.

In conclusion we find that the HR 1614 moving group has a metallicity, determined from high resolution spectroscopy, of $`0.170.19\pm 0.06`$ dex depending on the exact selection in the $`UV`$-plane.

## 8 The Eggen sample revisited

Having defined a new selection criterion for membership in the $`UV`$-plane we now revisit the Eggen (1992, 1998b) sample of HR 1614 moving group stars. Fig. 10 show the sample of stars that Eggen (1998b) indicate as probable members of the HR 1614 moving group. In Fig. 10a we use his cluster parallaxes, in Fig. 10b the Hipparcos parallaxes. The use of the cluster parallaxes forces the stars onto more or less one isochrone. Eggen (1998b) does not discuss the apparent metallicity spread in Fig. 10a. We note especially that the turn-off region, crucial for age determination, shows a larger scatter in Fig. 10b as compared to Fig. 10a.

When we apply our $`UV`$-selection criteria to Eggen’s sample (with re-calculated velocities and using the Hipparcos parallaxes) a total of 21 stars with $`M_V>2`$ falls inside the band in Fig. 7. 8 of these are in common with our selection from the Strömgren catalogue. These stars are marked in the first part of Table 1. Of the remaining 13 stars one is HR 1614 and is already included in our sample on the basis of its \[Fe/H\] measured from high resolution spectroscopy. The two stars HIP 11575 and HIP 35872 appears in our Strömgren catalogue and have \[Me/H\]$`=0.12`$ and $`0.09`$, respectively, disqualifying them as probable member stars of the HR 1614 moving group. Four more stars were excluded due to binarity, HIP 7143 is a spectroscopic binary, HIP 94570 and HIP 96037 were resolved as binary systems by Hipparcos and HIP 112426 have an accelerated solution, probably due to orbital motion (ESA 1997).

This leaves, after having considered binarity and metallicity when information is available, an additional 6 stars from Eggen’s (1992, 1998b) sample to be included in our final sample of probable member stars of the HR 1614 moving group. The stars are detailed in the final part of Table 1.

The HR-diagram of the 15 stars from Eggen (1992, 1998b) thus full-filling our criteria are plotted in Fig. 10c.

## 9 Discussion

As already touched upon, the HR-diagram of the HR 1614 group is “contaminated” by stars from the general field and possibly also by stars from other moving groups and open clusters.

The general background of stars in the $`UV`$-plane using the Hipparcos results have been studied by Dehnen (1999) and Raboud et al. (1998). Dehnen (1999) shows that there exists an over-density of stars in the $`UV`$-plane centered on $`U=20`$ and $`V=45`$ km s-1. He associates this stellar over-density with stars thrown out from the inner disk by the galactic bar. In particular stars close to the outer Lindblad resonance are susceptible to this and the phenomenon a clear indication of the non-axisymmetry of the galactic potential. Thus we should expect to see a generally more metal-rich stellar population present in the upper left half of our boxes in Fig. 2. We do indeed do so, however, we also note that the contamination is mainly in box 1 and 2 and does not effect box 5. This is further born out by the $`UV`$-plots using the Strömgren sample, Sect. 2.

The moving group Wolf 630 is present in the upper right hand corner of box 5 ($`50<U<+25`$ and $`75<V<45`$ km s-1, see also Fig. 1 in Skuljan et al. 1997 for the position of Wolf 630). However, since the Wolf 630 moving group has a mean \[Fe/H\] of $`0.14`$ dex (Boesgaard & Friel 1990) almost none of the stars would remain in our Strömgren sample. Schuster & Nissen (1989) estimated the scatter of their calibration to 0.16 dex. When we compare the estimated metallicities with spectroscopic abundances the differences are much smaller, around 0.06 dex. Thus we may expect these stars to be removed also in the Strömgren sample. In the spectroscopic sample all would be removed. We conclude that the contamination of our sample by stars from the Wolf 630 moving group is negligible.

Eggen (1998a) suggested that the open cluster NGC 6791 might be part of the HR 1614 moving group. This is ruled out by two recent studies by Tripico et al. (1995) and Chaboyer et al. (1999) which both agree that the open cluster has an age around $`810`$ Gyr. This means that even if we allow for the uncertainties in our age determination due to uncertainties in the modeling of stellar evolutionary tracks the age of the HR 1614 moving group is $`>`$ 5 Gyr younger than the old open cluster NGC 6791. Also, the metallicity of NGC 6791 is almost 0.2 dex higher than that of the HR 1614 moving group. Combining these facts the association of the HR 1614 moving group with NGC 6791 must be incorrect.

Our sample provides a sample for future studies of the abundance profiles in old moving groups to address the question whether or not todays field stars originate in stellar clusters subsequently dissolved. It is at the higher metallicities, i.e. $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]0.1`$ dex, that differences in star formation histories will manifest themselves in the abundance ratios (e.g. Pagel 1997, fig 8.6, and Matteucci 1991). If metal-rich stars in the field originate in clusters then abundance ratios for stars in a metal-rich moving group should be identical to those of the field stars in the solar neighbourhood. On the other hand if the moving groups are not the source of the field stars then it is most likely that their star formation rate was different and thus the resulting elemental abundances will be different. If the star formation rate was more rapid in the cluster than what is typical for the places where the metal-rich stars, now in the solar neighborhood, were born then the \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\] will be larger at say \[Fe/H\]$`0.2`$ dex for the group stars than for the field stars. If on the other hand the star formation rate was lower \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\] will be smaller, Pagel (1997 Fig. 8.6).

## 10 Summary

Utilizing the new possibilities given by the Hipparcos mission we perform, for the first time, an unbiased search in the $`UV`$-plane of all stars with measured radial velocities and find an over-density of stars more metal-rich than the Sun close to the $`U`$ and $`V`$ values associated with the moving group HR 1614 (Eggen 1998b). Supported by dynamical simulations we find that old moving groups in fact does exist, at least the HR 1614 moving group. The selection criterion for the HR 1614 moving group in the $`UV`$-space is further refined using metallicities derived from Strömgren photometry. This new criterion is applied to the large catalogue of all Hipparcos stars with measured radial velocities and Strömgren photometry resulting in a new determination of the probable age of the moving group.

We derive an age of 2 Gyr using the Bertelli et al. (1994) isochrones and a iron abundance of $`+0.19\pm 0.06`$ dex using available data, from high resolution spectroscopy, in the literature.

We also provide a comparison of \[Me/H\] derived from Strömgren photometry of the Hauk & Mermilliond catalogue (1998) using the Schuster & Nissen (1989) calibration. The comparison shows that the Strömgren \[Me/H\] and \[Fe/H\] for F and G type dwarf and sub-giant stars are in extremely good agreement with $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}][\mathrm{Me}/\mathrm{H}]=+0.015\pm 0.076`$.

The sample of bright main-sequence and turn-off stars that are probable members of the moving group HR 1614 is presented in Table 1. They make up a sample for further investigations into the abundance profile of this old, metal-rich moving group.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work has made use of the SIMBAD on-line database search facility maintained by the CDS, Strasbourg. JH acknowledges the financial support of the Swedish National Space Board. The Royal Physiographic Society in Lund is thanked for providing funding for computer facilities. The anonymous referee is thanked for providing contructive remarks that lead to a revision and considerable improvement of the paper.


text:
# Ekman layers and the damping of inertial r-modes in a spherical shell: application to neutron stars

## 1 Introduction

Recently much work has been devoted to the study of the rotational instability of neutron stars resulting from a coupling between gravitational radiation and the so-called “r-modes” of a rotating star Andersson (1998); Friedman and Morsink (1998); Lindblom et al. (1998); Kokkotas and Stergioulas (1999). Such an instability may indeed play a key role in the distribution of rotation periods of neutron stars as well as it may be an important source of gravitational radiation.

In this paper, we shall first clarify a point of history concerning “r-modes” which are in fact a special class of inertial modes; we shall then review their singular properties which have been clarified only very recently in Rieutord and Valdettaro (1997), Rieutord et al. (2000a) and Rieutord et al. (2000b). The last section will present the analytical derivation of the damping rate of inertial r-modes in a neutron star with a crust and/or a core through the boundary layer analysis within the framework of newtonian theory. We conclude on the stability of crusted neutron stars when modeled by an incompressible viscous fluid in a rotating sphere.

## 2 A short point of history

The very first work on rotating fluids oscillations which are presently known as inertial modes dates back to Thomson111later Lord Kelvin (1880) who analysed the case of a fluid contained in a cylinder. However, another impetus to the study of these oscillations was given soon after by Poincaré’s (1885) work on the stability of rotating self-gravitating masses, a work applied to MacLaurin spheroids by Bryan (1889)222 but see the recent rederivation by Lindblom and Ipser (1999). and later continued by Cartan (1922) who christened the equation of inertial modes as “Poincaré equation”. In these studies, however, the effect of rotation is combined to the one of gravity through (for an incompressible fluid) surface gravity waves. In fact, except for the work of Thomson, investigations on the oscillations specific of rotating fluids seem to have started with the work of Bjerknes et al. (1933) where they are called “elastoid-inertial oscillations” since conservation of angular momentum makes axis-centered rings of fluid behave elastically; but see Fultz (1959) or Aldridge (1967) for an account on this part of history. In the sixties, much work has been devoted to these oscillations, mainly by Greenspan who introduced the terminology of “inertial oscillations”. The presently used denomination “inertial modes” has been “officially” given by Greenspan’s book (Greenspan, 1969).

However, inertial modes are somewhat too general for applications in some specific domains like atmospheric sciences. In this field indeed motions are essentially two dimensional and inertial modes may be simplified into the well-known Rossby (or planetary) waves.

The introduction of r-modes by Papaloizou and Pringle (1978) was quite unfortunate since they associated eigenmodes of rotating fluids with a very special class of inertial modes, namely purely toroidal inertial modes. This lead following authors to introduce weird names such as “hybrid modes” or “generalized r-modes” (Lockitch and Friedman, 1999) for describing the general class of inertial modes. We therefore encourage authors to use, as fluid dynamicists, inertial modes unless they discuss the very specific r-modes.

## 3 The present theory of inertial modes

Inertial modes are a class of modes of oscillation of rotating fluids which owe their existence to the Coriolis force. This force of inertia has indeed a restoring action on perturbations of rotating fluids since it insures the global conservation of angular momentum. These modes have many properties similar to those of gravity modes of stably stratified fluids (Rieutord and Noui, 1999).

The dynamics of inertial modes may be appreciated when all other effects are suppressed: no compressibility, no magnetic fields, no gravity, etc… only an incompressible inviscid rotating (like a solid body) fluid. In this case, perturbations of velocity $`\delta 𝐯`$ and pressure $`\delta P`$ obey

$$\frac{\delta 𝐯}{t}+2𝛀\times \delta 𝐯=\mathrm{NewA}\delta P,\mathrm{NewA}\delta 𝐯=0$$
(1)
where $`𝛀`$ is the angular velocity of the fluid. Concentrating on time-periodic oscillations and choosing $`(2\mathrm{\Omega })^1`$ as the time scale, (1) can be written

$$i\omega 𝐮+𝐞_z\times 𝐮=\mathrm{NewA}p,\mathrm{NewA}𝐮=0$$
(2)
with non-dimensional variables; $`\omega `$ is the non-dimensional (real) frequency. When the velocity $`𝐮`$ is eliminated in favor of the pressure perturbation $`p`$, one is left with

$$\mathrm{\Delta }p\frac{1}{\omega ^2}\frac{^2p}{z^2}=0$$
(3)
which is known as Poincaré equation since Cartan (1922). This equation is remarkable in the fact that it is hyperbolic spatially since $`|\omega |1`$ (Greenspan, 1969). As the solution of (3) must meet boundary conditions, namely $`𝐮𝐧=0`$, we see that inertial modes are solutions of an ill-posed boundary value problem333Such boundary conditions eliminate any distorsion of the surface due to the fluid motion; for a free surface, these distorsion are surface gravity waves (see Rieutord 1997) but their inclusion (in order to be more realistic) would not modify the ill-posed nature of the problem.. This property means that, in general, inertial modes are singular; in other words they cannot exist physically if the fluid is strictly inviscid. These properties are detailed in Rieutord and Valdettaro (1997) and Rieutord et al. (2000a); to make a long story short, one may summarize the situation as follows.

Let us first recall that in hyperbolic systems, energy propagates along the characteristics of the equation. For the Poincaré problem, these are straight lines in a meridional plane. A way to approach the solutions of this difficult problem is to examine the propagation of characteristics as they reflect on the boundaries. They define trajectories which depend strongly on the container. Let us therefore concentrate on the case of a spherical shell as a container; this configuration is relevant for neutron stars with a central core due to some phase transition of the nuclear matter (see Haensel, 1996). In this case, it may be shown that characteristic trajectories generically converge towards attractors which are periodic orbits. It may be shown (Rieutord et al., 2000a) that in this case, the associated solutions are singular, namely the velocity field is not square-integrable. However, inertial r-modes are still solutions of the problem since they meet the boundary conditions ($`u_r=0`$); in fact they are the only regular (square-integrable) solutions of the Poincaré problem in a spherical shell. In a more mathematical way, we may say that the spectrum of eigenvalues of the Poincaré problem in a spherical shell is empty except for the inertial r-modes. In this sense, these modes are quite exceptional. This situation occurs because there exists no system of coordinate in which the dependent variables of the Poincaré equation can be separated. This is a consequence of the conflict between the symmetry of the Coriolis force (cylindrical) and the geometry of the boundaries. Thus, when this constraint is relaxed, like in the case of a cylindrical container, regular solutions exist and a dense spectrum of eigenvalues appears in the allowed frequency range, namely $`[0,2\mathrm{\Omega }]`$. In the case the container is a full sphere, attractors also disappear and eigenmodes exist; they are also related to a dense spectrum of eigenfrequencies. In this case, Poincaré equation is exactly solvable (Greenspan, 1969).

However, real fluids have viscosity ($`\nu `$) and equation (2) should be transformed into

$$\lambda 𝐮+𝐞_z\times 𝐮=\mathrm{NewA}p+E\mathrm{\Delta }𝐮,\mathrm{NewA}𝐮=0$$
(4)
where $`\lambda `$ is the complex eigenvalue and $`E=\nu /2\mathrm{\Omega }R^2`$ is the Ekman number ($`R`$ is the outer radius of the shell).

Using no-slip ($`𝐮=\mathrm{𝟎}`$) or stress-free boundary conditions, (4) yields a well-posed problem. Yet, the singularities of the associated inviscid solutions show up through the existence of shear layers. As shown by fig. 1, the shape of inertial modes is deeply influenced by the underlying singularity of the inviscid solution. We have shown (Rieutord et al., 2000a) that these shear layers are in fact nested layers with different scales for their inner part scales as $`E^{1/3}`$ and their outer part seems to scale with $`E^{1/4}`$. Because of these internal shear layers, these modes are strongly damped.

We therefore see that according to whether a neutron star has a central core or not, the damping of inertial modes will be extremely different. If there is a central core, the only regular modes are the inertial r-modes which will be by far the least damped; if there isn’t any core then a dense spectrum exists (Greenspan, 1969; Lockitch and Friedman, 1999) but inertial r-modes remain the most unstable because of their simple structure.

## 4 Damping of toroidal inertial modes in a sphere or a shell

We shall now give the expression of the viscous damping of inertial r-modes when one of the boundary is solid therefore when the dissipation is due to Ekman boundary layers; we shall thus complete the works of Bildsten and Ushomirsky (2000) and Andersson et al. (2000) by giving the rigorous estimate of the damping rate; the method which we use here has been outlined in Greenspan (1969).

The damping rate is given by:

$$\gamma =\mathrm{}e(\lambda )=E\frac{(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2dV}{𝐮^2𝑑V}$$
(5)
where $`(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2`$ stands for the squared rate-of-strain tensor (see below). The velocity field of r-modes is

$$\overline{u}_\theta =Ar^m(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{m1}\mathrm{sin}(m\varphi +\omega _mt)$$

$$\overline{u}_\phi =Ar^m(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{m1}\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{cos}(m\varphi +\omega _mt)$$

The kinetic energy integral may be evaluated explicitly

$$𝐮^2𝑑V=\pi A^2\left(1\eta ^{2m+3}\right)\frac{2^{m+1}(m+1)!}{m(2m+3)!!}$$
(6)
where $`\eta `$ is the ratio of the radius of the inner boundary to the one of the outer boundary.

The dissipation integral need more work if one of the boundary is no-slip. In this case, dissipation is essentially coming from the Ekman layers and thus we need to derive the flow in these layers. The method has been given by Greenspan from whom we know that the boundary layer correction $`\stackrel{~}{u}`$, is related to the interior solution $`\overline{u}`$ by

$$\stackrel{~}{u}_\theta +i\stackrel{~}{u}_\phi =(\overline{u}_\theta +i\overline{u}_\phi )_{r=r_b}e^{\zeta \sqrt{i\mathrm{cos}\theta \pm i\omega }}$$
(7)
where $`\zeta `$ is the radial scaled variable $`(rr_b)/\sqrt{E}`$ with $`r_b`$ as the radius of the boundary (1 or $`\eta `$). The complete solution is then $`𝐮=\stackrel{~}{u}+\overline{u}`$; setting $`\beta =\omega t+m\phi `$ we have

$`\overline{u}_\theta +i\overline{u}_\phi ={\displaystyle \frac{Ar^m(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{m1}}{2i}}`$
$`\times \left\{(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )e^{i\beta }(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )e^{i\beta }\right\}`$
from which it follows that

$`\stackrel{~}{u}_\theta +i\stackrel{~}{u}_\phi ={\displaystyle \frac{Ar_b^m(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{m1}}{2i}}\{(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )e^{i\beta \zeta \sqrt{i\mathrm{cos}\theta i\omega }}`$
$`(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )e^{i\beta \zeta \sqrt{i\mathrm{cos}\theta +i\omega }}\}`$
Now we need the expression of the square of the rate-of-strain tensor $`s_{ij}=_iv_j+_jv_i`$ in spherical coordinates, viz

$$(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2=s_{rr}^2+s_{\theta \theta }^2+s_{\varphi \varphi }^2+2(s_{r\theta }^2+s_{r\varphi }^2+s_{\theta \varphi }^2)$$

Since the radial derivatives dominate, this expression reduces to the contribution of the tangential stresses. Using the scaled coordinate, $`\zeta =|rr_b|/\sqrt{E}`$, we have

$$(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2=\frac{2}{E}\{\left(\frac{u_\theta }{\zeta }\right)^2+\left(\frac{u_\phi }{\zeta }\right)^2\}_{r=r_b}$$

We now set $`p=\mathrm{cos}\theta \omega `$ and $`q=\mathrm{cos}\theta +\omega `$. We thus get

$`(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2={\displaystyle \frac{A^2r_b^{2m}(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{2m2}}{2E}}\{(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|p|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|p|}}`$
$`+(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|q|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|q|}}`$
$`2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta \sqrt{pq}\mathrm{}e\left(e^{2i\beta \zeta (\sqrt{iq}+\sqrt{ip})}\right)\}`$
Integrating over the $`\phi `$-variable yields

$`{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2d\phi ={\displaystyle \frac{\pi A^2r_b^{2m}(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{2m2}}{E}}`$
$`\times \left\{(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\right|p|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|p|}}+(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|q|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|q|}}\}`$ (8)
We now integrate over the radial variable:

$`{\displaystyle _\eta ^1}{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2d\phi r^2dr=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi A^2(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{2m2}}{E}}{\displaystyle _\eta ^1}r^{2m+2}f(\zeta )𝑑r`$
with $`f(\zeta )=(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|p|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|p|}}+(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|q|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|q|}}`$; since $`r=\eta +\sqrt{E}\zeta `$ or $`r=1\sqrt{E}\zeta `$ according to which side of the integral is chosen, it turns out that

$`{\displaystyle _\eta ^1}{\displaystyle _0^{2\pi }}(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2d\phi r^2dr`$
$`=`$ $`K{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}[(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|p|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|p|}}`$
$`+(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2|q|e^{\zeta \sqrt{2|q|}}]d\zeta `$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K}{\sqrt{2}}}[(1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\sqrt{|\mathrm{cos}\theta \omega |}`$
$`+(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\sqrt{|\mathrm{cos}\theta +\omega |}]`$
with $`K=\pi A^2(\mathrm{sin}\theta )^{2m2}P(\eta )/\sqrt{E}`$, where $`P(\eta )`$ is a function depending on the boundary conditions (see table 1). Finally integrating over $`\theta `$, we find

$$(\mathrm{NewA}:𝐮)^2dV=\frac{2\pi A^2P(\eta )}{\sqrt{2E}}_m$$
(9)
with

$$_m=_0^\pi (1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\sqrt{|\mathrm{cos}\theta \omega |}\mathrm{sin}^{2m1}\theta d\theta $$
(10)
Finally grouping (6) and (9), we find the damping rate

$$\gamma =\frac{m(2m+3)!!}{2^{m+3/2}(m+1)!}Q(\eta )_m\sqrt{E}$$
(11)
where $`Q(\eta )=P(\eta )/\left(1\eta ^{2m+3}\right)`$.

For the cases $`m=1`$ and $`m=2`$ we evaluated the expression of $`_m`$, viz

$$_1=\frac{\sqrt{2}}{35}\left(3^{5/2}+19\right)$$

$$_2=4\left(\frac{2}{3}\right)^{11/2}\frac{3401+2176\sqrt{2}}{5\times 7\times 9\times 11}$$

Other values are computed numerically and given in table 2.

The values given by (11) may be compared to other derivations, in particular that of Greenspan (1969) for $`m=1`$ who finds $`\gamma /\sqrt{E}=2.62/\sqrt{2}=1.8526`$ ! For $`m=2`$, a direct numerical calculation, similar to that of Rieutord and Valdettaro (1997), gives $`2.482\sqrt{E}`$ at $`E=10^8`$ which is in good agreement with the analytical formula.

## 5 Application to neutron stars and conclusions

Let us now apply these results to the case of rapidly rotating neutron stars. We take the viscosity from Bildsten and Ushomirsky (2000), $`\nu =1.8f/T_8^2`$ m2/s where $`f`$ is a dimensionless parameter taking into account the different transport mechanisms in the fluid (superfluid phases for instance) and $`T_8`$ is the temperature in 108K unit. Using a radius of 12.53 km and an angular frequency of $`2\pi \times `$1kHz, we find an Ekman number $`10^{12}`$ which is indeed very small and thus boundary layer theory applies.

We may now estimate the charateristic time scale for the damping of the $`m=2`$-mode. We find

$$T_d=26.7\mathrm{s}\frac{T_8}{\sqrt{f}}\left(\frac{R}{10\mathrm{km}}\right)\left(\frac{1\mathrm{kHz}}{\nu _s}\right)^{1/2}$$
(12)
which is a somewhat smaller value than the previous estimate of Bildsten and Ushomirsky (2000) and Andersson et al. (2000) who find a characteristic time of 100 s and 200 s respectively. Our disagreement with these authors comes from their approximate evaluation of the boundary layer dissipation and from the resulting functional dependence with respect to mass and density. Let us first evaluate the damping rate according to Landau and Lifchitz (1989); it turns out that

$$2\gamma =\left(\frac{\omega E}{2}\right)^{1/2}\frac{\left(_{4\pi }𝐮^2\mathrm{sin}\theta d\theta d\phi \right)(r=1)}{_{(V)}𝐮^2𝑑V}$$
(13)
where we used our non-dimensional units. Since the radial dependence of the modes is in $`r^m`$ and $`\omega =1/(m+1)`$, we easily find that

$$\gamma =\frac{2m+3}{2\sqrt{2m+2}}\sqrt{E}$$

When this expression is applied to the $`m=2`$-mode, we find that $`\gamma =1.429\sqrt{E}`$ which is a factor $`1.74`$ weaker than the correct result.

If we use, as previous authors, a step function for describing the density difference between that of the crust and the mean density, we find that the damping rate reads

$$\gamma _{Ek}=2.4876\sqrt{E}\frac{\rho _b}{\overline{\rho }}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\mathrm{\Omega }=0.0346\frac{\rho _b}{\overline{\rho }}\frac{\sqrt{f\mathrm{\Omega }_{}}}{T_8}\mathrm{s}^1$$
(14)
where $`\rho _b`$ is the density of the fluid just below the crust and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{}=\mathrm{\Omega }/\sqrt{\pi G\overline{\rho }}`$.

Our calculation therefore shows that the window of instability in the $`\mathrm{\Omega },T`$ plane is smaller than previously estimated for crusted neutron stars.

Considering a 1.4 M neutron star with a radius of 12.53 km as a test case, the growth rate of the mode due to gravitational radiation is $`\gamma _{gw}=0.658\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{\Omega }_{}^6`$ (we use the expression given in Lindblom et al., 1998); although, it is not relevant for an incompressible fluid, we take into account the damping rate due to bulk viscosity in order to ease comparison with previous work; from Lindblom et al. (1999), we find $`\gamma _{bulk}=\mathrm{2.2\hspace{0.17em}10}^{12}\mathrm{s}^1T_9^6\mathrm{\Omega }_{}^2`$. From (14), we have $`\gamma _{Ek}=\mathrm{1.53\hspace{0.17em}10}^3\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{\Omega }_{}^{1/2}/T_9`$ where we took $`\rho _b=\mathrm{1.5\hspace{0.17em}10}^{17}`$kg/m3; solving the equation

$$\gamma _{gw}+\gamma _{Ek}+\gamma _{Bulk}=0$$

for different values of the temperature yields the curves displayed in figure 2.

As expected, we see that the window of instability narrows compared to Andersson et al. (2000): for a given temperature, the critical angular velocity raises by $``$10% typically.

Another interesting conclusion of this work is that the presence of a solid inner core does not change the damping rates very much unless its radius is close to unity. The reason for that is to be found in the shape of the inertial r-modes whose amplitudes are concentrated near the outer boundary. Therefore, the rotating instability of rapidly rotating stars is quite insensitive to the presence of a solid core and more generally to any phase transition which does not occur close to the surface.

I am very grateful to S. Bonazzola and E. Gourgoulhon for drawing my attention on these questions and for helpful discussions. I am also very grateful to Ian Jones for his note about the density profile used in models of neutron stars in previous work. Part of the calculations have been carried out on the Nec SX5 of IDRIS at Orsay and on the CalMip machine of CICT in Toulouse which are gratefully acknowledged.


text:
# The use of neutrino beams from muon storage rings 1footnote 11footnote 1Invited plenary talks given at 23rd Johns Hopkins Workshop on Current Problems in Particle Theory: Neutrinos in the Next Millennium, Baltimore, MD, 10-12 June 1999, and The International Conference on Physics Potential and Development of 𝜇⁺𝜇⁻ Colliders, San Francisco, CA, 15-17 December 1999.

## I Motivation

The purpose of this talk is to overview physics goals for the short baseline experiments utilizing high energy and high intensity neutrino beams. These include standard model electroweak physics, novel tests of QCD, and rare processes sensitive to physics beyond the standard model (SM).

The standard model electroweak parameters that are conventionally measured in neutrino experiments are $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark mixing matrix elements $`V_{cd}`$ and $`V_{cs}`$. Given the intense high energy beam of neutrinos these measurements will certainly yield new precise values for these quantities. In addition, completely new measurements, like precision studies of $`V_{ub}`$ and $`V_{cb}`$ CKM matrix elements, will be possible. On the QCD side, neutrino-nucleon interactions are potentially the best probes of various valence parton distribution functions, both unpolarized and polarized, as well as the strong coupling constant $`\alpha _s`$. One can also study various non-perturbative parameters, such as fragmentation functions. Finally, there are interesting new physics scenarios that can be tested in neutrino interactions. These include supersymmetric extensions of the standard model with broken $``$ parity (or any models with leptoquarks), new heavy neutral leptons or gauge bosons, etc.

A proposed muon storage ring should provide a highly collimated, high-intensity $`\nu `$ beam from muons decaying in the accelerator tunnel. The neutrino spectra can be easily calculated Bigietal ; for instance, the $`\nu _\mu `$ energy spectrum is given by $`dN_{\nu _\mu }/dx6x^24x^3`$ with $`x=2E_\nu ^{}/m_\mu `$ being the normalized neutrino energy in the $`\mu `$ rest frame. $`E_\nu ^{}`$ is easily related to the neutrino energy in the lab frame, $`E_\nu =xE_\mu (1+\mathrm{cos}\theta )/2`$, where $`\theta `$ is a neutrino angle in the muon rest frame. Another advantage of this facility is that for sufficiently high muon energies the neutrinos are produced in thin pencil-like beams with an opening half-angle $`\theta _\nu m_\mu /E_\mu `$.

## II QCD and Electroweak studies

### II.1 Measurements of $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$

One of the most important parameters of the standard model is the weak mixing angle $`\theta _W`$ which represents the angle of rotation from the “gauge” basis to the “physical” basis where the mass matrix of the gauge $`Z`$ boson and the photon is diagonal. One of the many possible definitions is the on-shell definition of $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$

$$\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W^{os}1\frac{M_W^2}{M_Z^2},$$
(1)
In neutrino-nucleon interactions $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ can be extracted using the Llewellyn Smith LS83  or Pascos-Wolfenstein relations PW73 . These methods involve measuring three total cross sections and forming three ratios,

$$R_\nu =\frac{\sigma (\nu N\nu X)}{\sigma (\nu N\mu ^{}X)},R_{\overline{\nu }}=\frac{\sigma (\overline{\nu }N\overline{\nu }X)}{\sigma (\overline{\nu }N\mu ^+X)},r=\frac{\sigma (\nu N\mu ^+X)}{\sigma (\nu N\mu ^{}X)}.$$
(2)
In the approach of Llewellyn Smith, these can be combined to obtain $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$:

$`R_\nu `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{9}}(1+r)\mathrm{sin}^4\theta _W+C_\nu `$
$`R_{\overline{\nu }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{5}{9}}(1+r^1)\mathrm{sin}^4\theta _W+C_{\overline{\nu }},`$ (3)
where $`C_\nu `$ and $`C_{\overline{\nu }}`$ represent known QCD and electroweak corrections. Alternatively, a Pascos-Wolfenstein construction can be used to extract $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$:

$`R^\pm `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{R_\nu \pm rR_{\overline{\nu }}}{1\pm r}},R^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{C_\nu rC_{\overline{\nu }}}{1\pm r}}`$
$`R^+`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{10}{9}}\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W+{\displaystyle \frac{C_\nu +rC_{\overline{\nu }}}{1\pm r}}.`$ (4)
This method is actually “cleaner” as the QCD and electroweak corrections partially cancel out in Eq. (II.1). These relations are now used to extract $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ by CCFR/NuTeV collaboration and will be used again at $`\nu `$FMSR.

In addition to the methods described above, intense neutrino beams from the muon storage ring ($`\nu `$FMSR) should allow for another measurement of $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$, which involves neutrino-electron scattering. This method is theoretically “cleaner”, as it involves scattering of two leptons. This measurement involve investigation of four neutrino-electron elastic cross sections $`\nu _i(\overline{\nu }_i)e^{}\nu _i(\overline{\nu }_i)e^{}`$ for $`i=e,\mu `$. The involved cross section are much smaller then the corresponding DIS cross sections described above, but theoretical clearness of this process and much improved neutrino beam intensity makes this measurement a realistic possibility. Of course, future determinations of $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$ from $`\nu `$FMSR should be comparable or better than the projected result of the SLAC E158 Moller scattering experiment, i.e. should measure $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _W`$ with relative accuracy of better then $`afew\times 10^4`$. Preliminary studies Bigietal  show that it is quite realistic.

### II.2 CKM and quark densities

Extraction of the matrix elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix is one of the outstanding challenges in phenomenology of the standard model. It is most likely that Nature has chosen only three generations of quarks, so

$`V_{CKM}=S_L^uS_L^d=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}V_{ud}& V_{us}& V_{ub}\\ V_{cd}& V_{cs}& V_{cb}\\ V_{td}& V_{ts}& V_{tb}\end{array}\right).`$ (5)
Currently, the charm quark sector of CKM is best studied in $`\nu N`$ charged current interactions, where neutrino interacts with valence and sea quarks of the nucleon. For example, the CCFR collaboration has provided a direct measurement of $`|V_{cd}|=0.232_{0.019}^{+0.017}`$. Independent knowledge of the strange sea quark density should also provide an independent measurement of $`|V_{cs}|`$ as well. In the framework of a “naive” parton model,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\sigma (\nu N\mu ^+\mu ^{}X)}{d\xi dy}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_F^2ME_\nu }{\pi }}\{[\xi u(\xi )+\xi d(\xi )]|V_{cd}|^2`$ (6)
$`+`$ $`2\xi s(\xi )|V_{cs}|^2\}[1{\displaystyle \frac{m_c^2}{2ME_\nu \xi }}]D(z)B_c,`$
where $`\xi =x(1+m_c^2/Q^2)`$ in a “slow rescaling” model of Georgi and Politzer GePo76  and $`D(z)`$ is a charm fragmentation function. Thus, measuring $`d^2\sigma `$ at different values of $`\xi `$ provides an independent measurement of $`|V_{cd}|`$ and $`|V_{cs}|`$, if quark densities are known well enough Conrad:1997ne . Otherwise, a multiparameter fit can be performed to determine both $`q(x)`$ and CKM matrix elements.

Even though in the above discussion a parton model was used, a problem of semiinclusive single particle production can be addressed model-independently using the formalism of perturbative QCD factorization theorems. In this framework, the essential problem of having a heavy quark in the final state is the fact that its mass brings an additional scale to the problem at hand. The presence of this scale might affect theoretical predictions by inducing large logarithms involving $`m_Q`$, which have to be resummed in order for perturbative expansion to make sense. A practical recipe for such resummation is provided by the prescription of Aivazis et. al. (ACOT) ACOT .

A future measurement utilizing high intensity neutrino beams would provide accurate determinations of various $`q(x)`$. It is interesting to note that future neutrino factories would be able to study production of the $`b`$-flavored mesons, which would allow for an accurate determination of the intrinsic charm content of the nucleon. If an $`x`$-dependent high statistics measurement of $`b`$-quark production becomes available, an independent determination of $`|V_{ub}|`$ and $`|V_{cb}|`$ CKM matrix elements will be possible as well Bigietal .

Of course, heavy quark production is not the only way of studying the nucleon structure. Quark densities are usually measured in DIS-type experiments. These measurements are naturally performed in neutrino-nucleon interactions. Here, $`\nu `$FMSR offers a tantalizing possibility to measure parity-violating polarized nucleon structure functions. These measurements were considered hopeless in $`\nu N`$ experiments due to the enormous technical difficulties in polarizing heavy targets, the only possible targets for neutrino accelerator experiments if sufficient statistics is expected. At $`\nu `$FMSR , light targets (like $`H_2`$ or $`D_2`$), which are relatively easy polarized, can be used due to the large density of neutrino beam. A number of unique measurements (such as the measurement of parity-violating polarized structure function of neutron) is possible Bigietal .

### II.3 Charmonium production and gluon density

High intensity neutrino beams would also allow studies of charmonium production, a sensitive probe of the gluon distribution function in the nucleon. Contrary to the open-flavor meson production, the production of charmonium states can be described in a model-independent fashion using the factorization theorems of Non-Relativistic QCD (NRQCD),

$$\sigma (A+BH_{c\overline{c}}+X)=\underset{n}{}\frac{F_n}{m_c^{d_n4}}0|𝒪_n^H|0,$$
(7)
which separates short-distance physics, represented by the coefficients $`F_n`$ (which might be sensitive to various parton distribution functions) from the long-distance physics, represented by the NRQCD matrix elements

$$0|𝒪_n^H|0=\underset{X}{}\underset{m_J}{}0|𝒦_n|H_{m_J}+XH_{m_J}+X|𝒦_n^{}|0,$$
(8)
and determine the probabilities of charm quarks produced in the various angular momentum and color (singlet and octet) states by action of NRQCD operators $`𝒦_n^{()}`$ to evolve into a physical charmonium state, like a $`J/\psi `$. At the moment, these matrix elements cannot be computed model-independently. However, they are universal (i.e. process-independent), so they can be extracted from other experiments. Clearly, $`J/\psi `$ produced in sufficiently high numbers can be used to study gluon distribution function in the wide range of $`x`$ Petrov:1999fm .

A major advantage of using the neutrino beam is that, at leading order in $`\alpha _s`$, the spin structure of the $`\nu Z`$ coupling selects a certain combination of octet operators. The largest contribution is from the one with the quantum numbers $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{(8)}`$. The differential cross section was calculated in Petrov:1999fm :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma (s,Q^2)}{dQ^2}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^2\alpha ^2\alpha _s}{3\mathrm{sin}^42\theta _W}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(Q^2+m_{Z}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\right)^2}}`$ (9)
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{0|𝒪_n|0}{m_c^3}}{\displaystyle _{\frac{Q^2+4m_c^2}{s}}^1}𝑑xf_{g/N}(x,Q^2)h_n(y,Q^2),`$
where $`s`$ is the total invariant mass of the $`\nu N`$ system, $`x`$ is the momentum fraction of the incoming gluon, $`Q^2`$ is the momentum-squared transferred from the leptonic system, $`y=\frac{Q^2+4m^2}{sx}`$, and $`f_{g/N}(x,Q^2)`$ is a gluon distribution function in the nucleon. The charmonium structure functions are given by

$`h_{{}_{}{}^{1}S_{0}^{(8)}}(y,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_V^c\right)^2\times 6{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2m_c^2}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^2}}(y^22y+2)`$
$`h_{{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{(8)}}(y,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_A^c\right)^2\times 2m_c^2{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2(y^22y+2)+16(1y)m_c^2}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^2}}`$
$`h_{{}_{}{}^{3}P_{0}^{(8)}}(y,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_V^c\right)^2\times 2Q^2{\displaystyle \frac{\left(Q^2+12m_c^2\right)^2}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^4}}(y^22y+2)`$ (10)
$`h_{{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{(8)}}(y,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_V^c\right)^2\times 4Q^4{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2(y^22y+2)+16(1y)m_c^2}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^4}}`$
$`h_{{}_{}{}^{3}P_{2}^{(8)}}(y,Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_V^c\right)^2\times {\displaystyle \frac{4}{5}}Q^2[{\displaystyle \frac{(y^22y+2)Q^4}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^2}}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{48(1y)Q^2m_c^2+96(y^22y+2)m_{c}^{}{}_{}{}^{4}}{\left(Q^2+4m_c^2\right)^2}}],`$
where $`g_A^c=\frac{1}{2}`$ and $`g_V^c=\frac{1}{2}\left(1\frac{8}{3}\mathrm{sin}^2\mathrm{\Theta }_W\right)`$ are the vector and axial couplings of the $`c`$-quark. Clearly, the coupling constants favor the $`{}_{}{}^{3}S_{1}^{(8)}`$ contribution, which is due to the large axial coupling (a similar contribution is, of course, absent in the case of $`J/\psi `$ lepto- and photoproduction). Indeed a numerical estimate Petrov:1999fm  shows that this matrix element dominates the total cross section, and also the differential cross section unless $`Q^2m_c^2`$. At large $`Q^2`$, the relative $`Q^4`$ enhancement of the $`P`$-wave structure functions makes them dominant. These structure functions should be incorporated in the specific Monte Carlo generators built for the particular detector design.

An important question to address is the expected event rate of $`J/\psi `$ production. Computing the total cross sections for the $`J/\psi `$ production (Table (1)), a simple calculation shows that currently running neutrino experiments NOMAD and NuTeV could collect a few $`J/\psi `$ events (due to either low energy of the neutrino beam or particular detector configuration) and “confirm” the color octet mechanism. On the contrary, a neutrino experiment at the future Muon Collider would collect about $`3\times 10^3`$ events/year and provide precise measurement of various NRQCD matrix elements and/or the gluon distribution function.

### II.4 Neutrino factory $`=`$ charm factory?

It is clear from the preceding discussion that charm production plays an important role in the studies of nucleon structure and electroweak parameters. It is also important that with the estimated $`10^8`$ well-reconstructed charm events Bigietal  $`\nu `$FMSR is also an impressive charm factory. Charm physics is an important complement to the $`B`$-physics program at $`B`$-factories (see, e.g. BaBar ). Besides testing our understanding of QCD effects in charmed particle decays, it also offers an opportunity to look for the effects of new physics in rare decays of charmed mesons, CP-violating asymmetries and $`D\overline{D}`$ mixing studies, as the standard model background to this processes is tiny AP .

It is interesting to see if $`\nu `$FMSR has any advantages over the existing charm experiments. One important advantage of $`D\overline{D}`$ mixing analysis performed at $`\nu `$FMSR that is not available elsewhere involves initial $`D`$ flavor tagging. In particular, $`D^0`$ mesons produced in charged current interactions receive an automatic initial flavor tag in the form of the final state lepton charge. Correlation studies of the charges of the “tag” lepton and, say, lepton from the semileptonic charm decay would offer experimentally clean signatures of $`D\overline{D}`$ mixing.

## III Rare processes

Neutrino-nucleon processes at low momentum transfer are sensitive to generic four-fermion contact terms produced by the high energy neutral current interactions. These four-fermion interactions can be associated with supersymmetric theories with $``$-parity nonconservation, new vector bosons, quark compositness or even loop effects associated with the new flavor-changing neutral current interactions Bigietal . Consider, for instance, the low energy remnant of a generic high energy electron-quark neutral current interaction. It can be represented by

$`_{NC}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{q}{}}[\eta _{LL}^{eq}\left(\overline{e_L}\gamma _\mu e_L\right)\left(\overline{q_L}\gamma ^\mu q_L\right)+\eta _{RR}^{eq}\left(\overline{e_R}\gamma _\mu e_R\right)\left(\overline{q_R}\gamma ^\mu q_R\right)`$ (11)
$`+\eta _{LR}^{eq}\left(\overline{e_L}\gamma _\mu e_L\right)\left(\overline{q_R}\gamma ^\mu q_R\right)+\eta _{RL}^{eq}\left(\overline{e_R}\gamma _\mu e_R\right)\left(\overline{q_L}\gamma ^\mu q_L\right)].`$
A similar equation can be written for a direct neutrino-quark interactions. One can use $`SU(2)`$ symmetry to relate $`\nu `$ and $`e`$ couplings

$`\eta _{LL}^{\nu u}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _{LL}^{ed},\eta _{LL}^{\nu d}=\eta _{LL}^{eu},`$
$`\eta _{LR}^{\nu u}`$ $`=`$ $`\eta _{LR}^{eu},\eta _{LR}^{\nu d}=\eta _{LR}^{ed},`$
so that $`\nu N`$ interactions can be used to constrain $`\eta `$’s of the Lagrangian of Eq. (11). A particular example of a high-energy model that leads to the low-energy Lagrangian of this type is provided by $``$-parity violating SUSY, where at low values of transferred momenta one can integrate out heavy $`\stackrel{~}{e}_{_R^L}^i`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{d}_{_R^L}^i`$ to rewrite the Lagrangian in terms of local four-fermion interactions. Assuming that the squarks of first two generations are degenerate and imposing $`SU(2)`$ symmetry constraints,

$$\eta _{LR}^{ed}=\frac{(\lambda _{1j1}^{})^2}{2m_{\stackrel{~}{u}_L^j}^2}=\frac{(\lambda _{1j1}^{})^2}{2m_{\stackrel{~}{d}_L^j}^2}=\eta _{LR}^{\nu d}.$$
(12)
Here $`\lambda _{ijk}^{}`$ is a parameter of the original $`\text{/}`$ SUSY Lagrangian. Indeed, the best constraint on this coupling, $`\eta _{LR}^{ed}<0.07_{0.24}^{+0.24}`$ comes from the analysis of neutrino nucleon scattering experiments Zeppenfeld:1998un . Other new physics scenarios involve new heavy neutral leptons (models with $`H_L^0\nu _\mu `$ mixing) Gronau:1984ct  or new neutral gauge bosons like $`Z^{}`$ which appears in many superstring-motivated models.

## IV Conclusions

New experiments utilizing high energy and intensity neutrino beams would offer a unique opportunity to perform new precision studies of QCD and electroweak interactions. New types of measurements, like charmonium production and extractions of $`V_{cb}`$ and $`V_{ub}`$ CKM matrix elements, will become possible. Interesting new physics scenarios can also be explored. As a result, a high intensity neutrino facility could prove to be a very useful addition to the Muon Collider physics program.