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# Modelling the TeV 𝛾-ray spectra of two low redshift AGNs: Mkn 501 & Mkn 421

## 1 Introduction

Ground-based detectors, utilizing the imaging atmospheric Čerenkov technique, provide an effective tool for the study of cosmic TeV $`\gamma `$-rays. Recently, several celestial objects have been identified as TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emitters using this technique (Ong, 1998; Catanese & Weekes, 1999). Among these are a few active galactic nuclei located at different redshifts: Mkn 421 ($`z=0.031`$) (Punch et al., 1992), Mkn 501 ($`z=0.034`$) (Quinn et al., 1996), 1ES 2344+514 ($`z=0.44`$) (Catanese et al., 1998), 1ES 1959+650 ($`z=0.048`$) (Nishiyama et al., 2000), PKS 2155-304 ($`z=0.117`$) (Chadwick et al., 1999) and 1ES 1426+428 ($`z=0.129`$) (Horan et al., 2002).

Several explanations have been advanced for the formation of the spectrum of these objects, starting from an injection of energy in the form of either energetic hadrons (Mannheim & Biermann, 1992; Mannheim, 1993, 1998; Mücke & Protheroe, 2001; Aharonian, 2000) or energetic electrons (e.g., Maraschi, Ghisellini & Celotti (1992); Marscher & Travis (1996); Inoue & Takahara (1996); Kino, Takahara & Kusunose (2002)). At present it is not possible to eliminate either of these possibilities on the basis of observation. However, the most widely investigated model involves the injection of relativistic electrons and the production of TeV photons via the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) mechanism and in this paper we adhere to this scenario.

Some forty years ago it was suggested that TeV $`\gamma `$-rays could be absorbed by interacting with diffuse interstellar or intergalactic infra-red (IR) radiation (Nikishov, 1962; Gould & Schreder, 1966). Following the discovery by the EGRET team that the blazar 3C279 at a redshift of 0.54 was an emitter of a powerful flux of high energy $`\gamma `$-rays (Hartman et al., 1992), it was suggested by Stecker, de Jager & Salamon (1992) that such powerful extragalactic sources would be useful as probes of the extragalacic infrared radiation because of the absorption caused by pair-production interactions of their TeV $`\gamma `$-rays. Stecker, de Jager & Salamon (1992) further derived the formula for the redshift dependence of this absorption and showed that the absorption coefficient would be highly dependent on redshift.

Owing to the lack of direct measurements of the IR background radiation in the wavelength range $`1`$$`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$ (Hauser & Dwek, 2001), a computation of the opacity of the intergalactic medium to TeV $`\gamma `$-rays must be based on a model of the diffuse radiation field. The lower limits on the extra-galactic background light (EBL) at $`7\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`15\mu \mathrm{m}`$ set by ISOCAM measurements (Franceschini et al., 2001) have ruled out a number of such models that underestimate the EBL distribution and have significantly constrained others. Improved computations of the intergalactic opacity reveal, in turn, new information on the intrinsic TeV spectra of AGN. In this paper we apply the SSC model to the two best observed TeV sources, using opacities computed from models of the EBL that satisfy the most recent constraints.

In principle, one can attempt to predict directly the TeV measurements, by combining a theoretical model of intrinsic spectrum of the AGN with one of the intergalactic absorption. This would enable an unambiguous comparison of prediction with observation and, via a maximum likelihood approach, an estimate of the “best-fit” parameters. However, the absorption model is subject to observational constraints independent of the TeV measurements. These constraints allow a range of possibilities, each of which can be associated with a different likelihood of realisation. In order to take this into account, it would be necessary to assign a range of values to each predicted flux point, confusing the procedure of maximising the overall likelihood.

In this paper, we adopt a different approach, similar to that used in Konopelko et al. (1999). There, it was shown that for the EBL distribution given by Malkan & Stecker (1998) the homogeneous SSC model provides a reasonable fit to the intrinsic TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum of Mkn 501. Here, we use the revised distributions of the EBL given by Malkan & Stecker (2001) to estimate both the magnitude and the uncertainty in the absorption and construct intrinsic spectra using several sets of TeV data, before fitting them with a homogeneous SSC model. In particular, we use the results recently obtained by the Whipple (Krennrich et al., 2001) and HEGRA (Aharonian et al., 2002) groups on Mkn 421 during its flaring state in 2001, which provide statistics unprecedented in TeV astronomy, with more than $`30,000`$ photons detected.

Previous discussions of the intrinsic spectrum of TeV blazars have used specific forms for the absorption optical depth, rather than estimating an uncertainty. Thus, Konopelko et al. (1999) obtained the intrinsic spectrum of Mkn 501 using the combined spectrum of the Whipple and HEGRA groups and applying the optical depth, $`\tau =\tau (E_\gamma ,z)`$, calculated by de Jager & Stecker (1998) based on the predictions on SED of intergalactic IR photon field from Malkan & Stecker (1998). The unfolded spectrum was close to a power-law of index 2.0 within the energy range starting from 500 GeV and extending up to 20 TeV. Using a similar method for the optical depth derived from simplified calculations of the SED of EBL over optical, IR and far-IR wavelengths, Kneiske, Mannheim & Hartmann (2002) obtained an intrinsic spectrum of Mkn 501, which is consistent with a power-law of 2.49. Using another similar method, de Jager & Stecker (2002) reconstructed the intrinsic spectrum of Mkn 501 as a power-law of index $`1.6`$$`1.7`$ up to $`510`$TeV. Protheroe & Meyer (2000) had previously obtained an upturn in the intrinsic spectrum in this energy range. However, such an upturn does not occur when the recalibrated HEGRA data for Mkn 501 (Aharonian et al., 2001) and a more realistic SED of the EBL is used, in which the $`60\mu \mathrm{m}`$ flux reported by Finkbeiner, Davis & Schlegel (2000) is not taken into account. Aharonian et al. (2002a) have also derived the intrinsic spectrum of Mkn 501 for a specific SED of EBL which also excludes the controversial $`60\mu \mathrm{m}`$ data point.

Having constructed the intrinsic spectrum we use the SSC model described by Mastichiadis & Kirk (1997) to obtain a fit. Several groups have recently published fits to both the X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectra of Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 (see e.g., Tavecchio et al. (2001); Krawczynski et al. (2001); Kino, Takahara & Kusunose (2002)) using schemes similar to this one. However in these papers, the effect of intergalactic IR $`\gamma `$-ray absorption was not emphasized. Here we test the SSC model against the de-absorbed TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectra of two BL Lac’s, Mkn 421 and Mkn 501. The IR absorption of multi-TeV $`\gamma `$-rays substantially changes the intrinsic source spectra and strongly influences the optimum values of the model parameters we find. In particular, taking account of extragalactic absorption moves the peak of the intrinsic spectrum to higher energies. Thus, Tavecchio, Maraschi & Ghisellini (1998), by not taking account of absorption, placed the Compton peak in the Mkn 501 in the sub-TeV range and could not generate a logically consistent SSC model, whereas de Jager & Stecker (2002), taking account of absorption, showed that the peak in the intrinsic spectrum of Mkn 501 was $``$ 8 TeV.

The BL Lac objects Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 have similar redshifts ($`z=0.031`$ and $`z=0.034`$, respectively) so that the effects of intergalactic absorption are almost identical. Observations of both of these objects show a softening of the spectrum to higher energies. However, the intrinsic, de-absorbed spectra, are very different, while the two objects have rather different variability patterns. Nevertheless, the SSC model provides a reasonable fit to both of them, indicating large Doppler factors ($`\delta >50`$) and high, but different, values for the maximum energy at which electrons are injected. Thus, the exponential cut-offs found at similar energies in observations of both sources should be interpreted as due to the effect of intergalactic absorption and not taken as evidence of similarities in the physical conditions intrinsic to the two sources. Recent data for other AGNs detected at larger redshifts — 1ES1426+428 ($`z=0.129`$) and PKS 2155-304 ($`z=0.117`$), are consistent with this interpretation.

## 2 Observations

Since their discovery in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays two BL Lac objects Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 have been continuously monitored by a number of ground-based imaging atmospheric Čerenkov telescopes, e.g., CAT (Barrau et al., 1998), HEGRA (Konopelko et al., 1999a), Whipple (Finley et al., 2001). Even though the calibration of a Čerenkov telescope is not an easy procedure, it can ultimately be tested by joint measurements of the energy spectrum of a source selected as a standard. Recent measurements of the TeV energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula performed by these groups are consistent within the quoted statistical errors (see Aharonian et al. (2000)). Thus spectral measurements performed on any particular source by different groups can be considered as complementary. In this section we briefly review the results of observations of several TeV-emitting BL Lac objects in X-rays and $`\gamma `$-rays.

### 2.1 Mkn 501

The BL Lac object Mkn 501 was first detected by the Whipple group (Quinn et al., 1996) in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays and was later confirmed by the HEGRA group (Bradbury et al., 1997). Early detections of Mkn 501 revealed a very low flux of TeV $`\gamma `$-rays, at the level of about 0.5 Crab (1 Crab corresponds to the constant flux from the Crab Nebula). However, in 1997 Mkn 501 exhibited an unprecedented flare in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays with an integral flux of up to 10 Crab. A very long exposure on this source, lasting almost 6 months, yielded unprecedented statistics for TeV $`\gamma `$-rays, which provided very accurate measurements of the spectrum (Samuelson et al., 1998; Krennrich et al., 1999; Aharonian et al., 1999, 2001; Djannati-Atai et al., 1999) over the energy range from 250 GeV up to 20 TeV. The spectrum of Mkn 501 is evidently curved and can be empirically fit by a power-law with an exponential cut-off at energy $`E_0`$: $`(dN_\gamma /dE)E^\alpha \mathrm{exp}(E/E_0).`$ For such a spectrum, showing a gradual steepening of the spectral slope, one can expect a significant spill-over of the low energy events towards the higher energies, given a limited energy resolution. However, even for the rather modest energy resolution of the $`10`$m Whipple telescope — which is about $`30\%`$ (Mohanty et al., 1998) — the effect of spill-over may not be very important, because the energy spectrum below 10 TeV is relatively flat. The HEGRA system of IACTs has noticeably better energy resolution (about $`10`$$`20\%`$, see Hofmann et al. (2000)). Recent studies show that the effect of spillover for HEGRA data is almost negligible up 17 TeV and has a limited effect above that energy (Aharonian et al., 1999).

In the energy range between 0.5 and 10 TeV, the Whipple Mkn 501 data are in good agreement with the HEGRA Mkn 501 data. Hereafter, we use in our analysis the combined energy spectrum of Mkn 501 as measured by both groups, which extends from 260 GeV up to 22 TeV. Note that the analysis of the HEGRA Mkn 501 data taken during the flaring state in 1997 has shown that the shape of the energy spectrum does not depend on the flux level (Aharonian et al., 1999). This was confirmed by analysis of the Whipple Mkn 501 data taken during the same observational period (Samuelson et al., 1998; Krennrich et al., 1999). Despite some evidence of spectral variations in Mkn 501 reported by Djannati-Atai et al. (1999) and Aharonian et al. (2001a) for specific observational periods, such spectral variation cannot be considered as an established feature of the source. Additional observations of Mkn 501 are needed in order to prove or disprove this point. In addition, there are no contemporaneous X-ray data available for those obserational periods which show a slight deviation of the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectra from its time-averaged spectral shape. Thus we do not discuss here the possibile scenario of the simulateneous X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray flare for Mkn 501, even though the main conclusions, regarding the environmental parameters of the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission should certainly apply to any state of Mkn 501. For the additional fine tuning of the model parameters one needs more simultaneous multi-wavelengh observations of this source.

Mkn 501 is a highly variable source of TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission. The shortest variability discovered has a doubling time of $``$20 mins (Sambruna et al., 2000). Such fast variability of the source is associated with sporadic changes of the flux level on much longer time scales. The source can be in a flaring state ($``$3 Crab) as well as in a very low state ($``$0.1 Crab) for a few months.

Occasionally Mkn 501 shows a very strong flux of X-ray emission (see (Tavecchio et al., 2001)). For example, during the 1997 flare the BeppoSAX satellite detected a dramatic increase in the X-ray flux up to 100 keV (Pian et al., 1997) with a very flat spectral slope. Simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of Mkn 501 revealed clear correlations between the X-ray and the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray fluxes (Catanese et al., 1997; Petry et al., 2000; Sambruna et al., 2000), even though the rapid X-ray flares from Mkn 501 are not always accompanied by a high emission state in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays (Catanese & Sambruna, 2000).

We used here the data taken with BeppoSAX in observation period of April 1997 as discussed in detail by (Pian et al., 1997). These data were combined with the time-averaged TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum as measured by HEGRA in 1997 observational campaign (Aharonian et al., 1999).

### 2.2 Mkn 421

The BL Lac object Mkn 421 is one of the AGNs detected by the EGRET instrument on board Compton GRO in the $`30`$MeV–$`30`$GeV energy range (Thompson et al., 1995). It was the first extra-galactic TeV $`\gamma `$-ray source, discovered by the Whipple group (Punch et al., 1992) and was confirmed by the HEGRA group (Petry et al., 1996). Since its discovery, Mkn 421 has shown a very low baseline TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission with a few extremely rapid flares on timescales from one day to 30 minutes (Gaidos et al., 1996). The limited statistics of the $`\gamma `$-ray events recorded during the short duration flares, as well as the long exposure observations during the very low emission state, did not permit a measurement of the energy spectrum above $`7`$TeV (Krennrich et al., 1999; Aharonian et al., 1999a). Only recently, in 2000 and 2001, has Mkn 421 demonstrated a flare with an average flux of 4 Crab

(Krennrich et al., 2001; Aharonian et al., 2002; Krennrich et al., 2002). Data taken during this flare have been used to extract the energy spectrum of Mkn 421 at higher energies, up to 20 TeV. As stated by both groups, the energy spectrum of Mkn 421 is evidently curved. Analysis of the HEGRA Mkn 421 data revealed significant variations of the spectral slope at energies below 3 TeV (Aharonian et al., 2002; Krennrich et al., 2002), with the high flux state showing a substantially harder spectrum. However the best empirical fit to the data taken in both the high and the low states gives the same cut-off energy of 3.6 TeV. This is consistent with the assumption that all spectra are affected by intergalactic absorption. The cut-off energy derived from the Whipple data on Mkn 421 (Krennrich et al., 2001, 2002) is $`4`$TeV. Given the statistical and systematic errors of such a measurement this value agrees with that measured by HEGRA group (Aharonian et al., 2002).

Mkn 421 is a bright, variable X-ray source. Its X-ray energy spectrum was measured in different states of emission by the BeppoSAX instrument (Fossati et al., 2000) within the range from 0.1 keV up to 10 keV and the RXTE instrument up to 100 keV. During the flares, the peak of the X-ray emission moves towards high energies (Fossati et al., 2000). Note that the peak position in the X-ray spectrum of Mkn 421 is substantially lower ($``$1 keV) than the peak in the X-ray spectrum of Mkn 501 ($``$100 keV) in its flaring state. This implies intrinsic physical differences between the two sources.

We used here the fits of the X-ray spectra of Mkn 421 measured with the BeppoSAX in 2000 for low and high states of the source (Fossati et al., 2002) (see Figure 5). These data were combined with the two time averaged HEGRA spectra (Aharonian et al., 2002) of Mkn 421 derived from the data taken mostly in 2000 (see Figure 2 in (Aharonian et al., 2002)) for two bservational periods when Mkn 421 was in high and low states.

### 2.3 1ES 1426+428

1ES 1426+428 is a BL Lacertae object (see (Remillard et al., 1989)) at a redshift of $`z=0.129`$. Recent BeppoSAX observations (Costamante et al., 2001) revealed for this source a rather flat ($`\alpha =0.92`$) power-law X-ray spectrum extending up to 100 keV, without evidence for a spectral break. Such extreme behavior of the source in X-rays is reminiscent of the BL Lacertae object Mkn 501 previously detected at TeV energies. Estimates of the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray flux from 1ES 1426+428 obtained in a homogeneous synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model (Costamante et al., 2001) suggested that this source should be detectable at TeV energies.

This was confirmed by the detection of 1ES 1426+428 recently reported by the Whipple group (Horan et al., 2002). The source was also detected by the HEGRA group (Aharonian et al., 2002b) during the same observational period in 2000 and 2001. HEGRA also measured the energy spectrum of 1ES 1426+428 (Aharonian et al., 2002b). Recent spectral measurements made by Whipple (Petry et al., 2002) and CAT (Djannati-Atai et al., 2002) generally confirmed HEGRA spectrum of 1ES 1426+428. The limited statistics of the detected $`\gamma `$-rays does not allow a study of flux and spectral variability. A preliminary estimate of the spectral shape is consistent with a rather steep power-law spectrum and a significant $`\gamma `$-ray rate above 3 TeV (Aharonian et al., 2002b). Note that 1ES 1426+428 has a redshift substantially larger than the two well-established BL Lac objects, Mkn 421 and Mkn 501. Therefore, IR absorption should significantly modulate the intrinsic TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum of this object. However, current 1ES 1426+428 data are rather limited in statistics and cannot be used to place stringent constraints on the distribution of EBL.

### 2.4 Other TeV BL Lacs

For the three remaining AGN detected at TeV energies, namely 1ES 2344+514 (Catanese et al., 1998), 1ES 1959+650 (Nishiyama et al., 2000), and PKS 2155-304 (Chadwick et al., 1999), there are still no data available on the spectral shape. 1ES 1959+650 was detected recently by Whipple (Weekes et al., 2002) and HEGRA (Horns & Konopelko, 2002) in a very high state ($`3`$ Crab), but the spectral measurements have not yet been published. The TeV $`\gamma `$-ray fluxes reported for 1ES 2344+514, 1ES 1959+650, and PKS 2155-304, are consistent with the IR absorption model used here. These data do not constrain the model severely because of the rather large uncertainties of the measured TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectra.

## 3 Opacity of TeV $`\gamma `$-rays

TeV $`\gamma `$-rays can be absorbed and produce electron-positron pairs on interaction with photons of the intergalactic background light (see Stecker, de Jager & Salamon (1992)). The corresponding opacity can be calculated once an assumption is made about the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the extra-galactic background light (EBL). $`\gamma `$-rays of energy from 300 GeV to 20 TeV interact most effectively with photons of wavelength from $`1`$$`50\mu \mathrm{m}`$, respectively. There have been a number of attempts in past to measure the SED of EBL in this range as well as to model it (for a review see Hauser & Dwek (2001)). Recently Malkan & Stecker (2001) revised their empirically based model (Malkan & Stecker, 1998) for the EBL starting from the near-IR and extending to the far-IR range (see Fig. 1). This model is consistent with all currently measured lower and upper limits in the mid-IR range as well as with the COBE-FIRAS fluxes given at $`140\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`240\mu \mathrm{m}`$. In addition, de Jager & Stecker (2002) extended the EBL derived in (Malkan & Stecker, 2001) to ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths using the galaxy counts in the Hubble Deep Field data taken with Hubble Space Telescope (see Madau & Pozzetti (2000)). The so-called hybrid model developed by de Jager & Stecker (2002) gives a smooth distribution of the EBL over the $`1`$$`300\mu \mathrm{m}`$ wavelength range. It is consistent with existing measurements and upper limits in the optical–UV range and agrees rather well with similar theoretical models (e.g. Tan, Silk & Balland (1999); Rowan-Robinson (2001); Xu (2000)) in the mid-IR range. Note that all of those models predict a flat distribution of EBL in the mid-IR range at a flux level of about $`3`$$`4\mathrm{nW}\mathrm{m}^2\mathrm{sr}^1`$. However, direct measurements of the EBL in the mid-IR range are hampered by unavoidable foreground emission (for a detailed discussion see Hauser & Dwek (2001)).

An alternative approach to finding the SED of EBL in the relevant energy range is provided by semi-analytical modelling of the evolution of galaxy formation (see Primack (2002)). However, the results of this approach are sensitive, for example, to the IMF assumed in the calculations. In fact different IMFs result in rather different SEDs (see Primack (2002) and references therein). Specific sets of model parameters succeed rather well in reproducing the phenomenological hybrid model developed by Malkan & Stecker (2001), and such models could in principle be used in conjunction with an SSC model of the intrinsic emission of an AGN to predict the TeV flux. However, in this paper it is not our goal to test both the SSC and the absorption models simultaneously. Instead, we wish to test only the SSC model and include the uncertainties in the level of absorption into an additional error to be added to that already present in the TeV observation. To this end, we consider the two extreme cases of high and low flux SEDs as given by Malkan & Stecker (2001) as shown in Fig. 1. One can see that in the mid-IR region the upper limits derived from the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray data (see e.g. Renault et al. (2001)) and the low limits established from the data taken by ISOCAM instrument (see Franceschini et al. (2001)) are very close to each other. They stringently limit the allowed region for the actual SED of EBL in this range. For the extreme cases considered by Malkan & Stecker (2001), de Jager & Stecker (2002) have calculated the optical depth, $`\tau (E_\gamma ,z)`$, of the $`\gamma `$-rays of energy $`E>50`$ GeV for redshifts up to $`z=0.3`$. Using the parametric expression given in Eq. (1,2) in de Jager & Stecker (2002), we interpret the resulting upper and lower values of the “de-absorbed” intrinsic flux

$$(dN_\gamma /dE)_{\mathrm{intrinsic}}=(dN_\gamma /dE)_{\mathrm{measured}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\tau (E,z)\right].$$
(1)
as $`3\sigma `$ deviations from the true value, and add this error to that attached to the original TeV point.

The resulting intrinsic spectra for both the flaring and quiescent states of Mkn 501 and for Mkn 421 shown in Figure 2,3. All of these spectra show a prominent peak in the $`E^2F(E)`$ distribution The position of the peak is at about 8 TeV and 2 TeV for Mkn 501 and Mkn 421, respectively. These objects have significantly different X-ray spectra, which are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively.

## 4 Modelling

To model the multi-wavelength spectra of the BL Lac objects Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 in a homogeneous SSC scenario we use an approach described by Mastichiadis & Kirk (1995, 1997). This method involves prescribing an injection function for relativistic electrons and solving the two time-dependent kinetic equations for the electron and photon distributions source. All relevant physical processes are taken into account in the code, i.e., synchrotron radiation, inverse Compton scattering (both in the Thomson and Klein-Nishina regimes), photon-photon pair production, and synchrotron self-absorption. Both synchrotron and inverse Compton scattering emissivities have been improved from the original version (Mastichiadis & Kirk, 1995) and now incorporate the full emissivity rather than a delta-function approximation.

Seven model parameters are required to specify a source in a stationary state. These are:

1. the Doppler factor $`\delta =1/[\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )]`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`c\beta `$ are the Lorentz factor and speed of the source, and $`\theta `$ is the angle between its direction of motion and the line of sight to the observer,
2. the radius $`R`$ of the source (in its rest frame, in which it is assumed spherical) or, equivalently, the crossing time $`t_{\mathrm{cr}}=R/c`$. This is related to the observed minimum variation timescale in the galaxy frame by $`t_{\mathrm{var}}=R/(\delta c)`$,
3. the magnetic field strength $`B`$,
4. the index $`s`$ of the electron injection spectrum, for which we take $`Q_\mathrm{e}=q_\mathrm{e}\gamma ^se^{\gamma /\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}}`$ where $`\gamma `$ is the electron Lorentz factor,
5. $`\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}`$, the Lorentz factor at the cut-off of the injection spectrum
6. $`q_\mathrm{e}`$, the amplitude of the injection spectrum, which is expressed in terms of the electron injection compactness $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{e}=\frac{1}{3}m_\mathrm{e}c\sigma _\mathrm{T}R^2_1^{\mathrm{}}d\gamma (\gamma 1)Q_\mathrm{e}`$ (Mastichiadis & Kirk, 1995),
7. $`t_{\mathrm{esc}}`$, the effective escape time of relativistic electrons, which can be identified as the timescale over which adiabatic expansion losses limit the accumulation of relativistic electrons within the source.

It is possible to introduce a lower limit to the Lorentz factor at which electrons are injected (Krawczynski, Coppi & Aharonian, 2002). This permits more flexibility in fitting the soft X-ray spectrum and leads to different values of the parameter $`s`$, which is then no longer related to the low frequency spectral index. However, at TeV $`\gamma `$-ray energies, the models are essentially identical.

In attempting to optimize a fit to a particular data set, it is essential to use a physically motivated strategy to arrive at reasonable starting values for these seven parameters. This is done by identifying six scalars which characterise the typical blazar spectrum:

1. the peak frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{s},18}`$ of the synchrotron emission expressed in units of $`10^{18}`$Hz
2. the peak frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}`$ of the inverse Compton emission, expressed in units of $`10^{27}`$Hz
3. the total nonthermal luminosity $`L`$
4. The approximate ratio $`\eta `$ of the total flux in the inverse Compton part to that in the synchrotron part of the spectrum
5. the break frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{bf}}`$ in the synchrotron part (typically between millimeter and optical wavelengths) of the spectrum, where cooling and electron escape or expansion losses are comparable
6. the low-frequency spectral index

Together with an estimate of the fastest variability timescale $`t_{\mathrm{var}}`$, these roughly estimated quantities or observables enable one to find reasonable starting values of the seven parameters of the SSC model. However, this method works only if the intrinsic spectrum is available. In particular, it is not possible to estimate quantities $`\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}`$ (2) or $`\eta `$ (4) unless the observed spectrum has been unfolded using an absorption model.

Following (Mastichiadis & Kirk, 1997) we can find an estimate of the Doppler factor in terms of the observables:

$`\delta `$ $`=`$ $`55\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}^{1/2}t_3^{1/4}\nu _{\mathrm{s},18}^{1/4}L_{46}^{1/8}\eta ^{1/8}`$ (2)
where $`L_{46}`$ is the nonthermal luminosity in units of $`10^{46}`$erg/s and $`t_3`$ is the variation timescale in units of $`10^3`$s. From this follow the radius, magnetic field and Lorentz factor at the cut-off:

$`R`$ $`=`$ $`ct_{\mathrm{var}}\delta ;B=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}5}\times 10^3\delta \nu _{\mathrm{s},18}\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}^2\mathrm{G};\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}\times 10^6\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}\delta ^1`$ (3)
The power-law index $`s`$ is limited by radio data of Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 to be close to $`1.5`$$`1.7`$ provided, as we assume here, that the radiowaves are created in the same region as the high energy photons. In this case, the parameter $`\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}`$ is important, since most of the power is injected at the highest permitted values of the Lorentz factor. The remaining parameters are the electron compactness $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{e}`$, and the escape time $`t_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ which do not have a strong influence on the shape of the X-ray and TeV spectra, but only on the flux levels.

Using these starting values, we find the best fit models for the high and low states of Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 as given in Table 1. In each case, the differences between the optimal parameter values and the starting values given by Eq. (2) and (3) are small. The $`\chi ^2`$ values associated with these fits, taking into account the error introduced by the uncertainty in intergalactic absorption are unusually small. This indicates two things: 1) the SSC model provides a good fit and 2) the errors inferred from uncertainty in SED of IR are probably too generous. We may conclude that the actual value of the intergalactic absorption lies closer to the mean of the two extreme models given by Malkan & Stecker (2001) than suggested by our assumption that these represent $`1\sigma `$ deviations.

In Figure 2 and 3 we show the fits for both BL Lac objects, Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 in the TeV range, in the case of Mkn 421 in both high and low states. In order to derive the time averaged spectrum of Mkn 501 (see also Section 2), which extends up to 17 TeV, we assume that despite the different levels of emission, the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum of Mkn 501 remains the same as that derived from the HEGRA data (Aharonian et al., 1999).<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1CAT group claimed an evidence for spectral variability in Mkn 501 $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum during the same observational period as HEGRA (Djannati-Atai et al., 1999). However CAT instrument has substantially lower energy threshold, $`E_{th}250`$ GeV, whereas HEGRA has energy threshold of about 500 GeV. Here we are interested in data around and above 1 TeV, where spectra taken at different fluxes have similar spectral shape. The same models are shown together with the X-ray data in Figs. 4 and 5. The complete SSC fits for Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 are shown in Figure 6 and 7.

Interestingly, the $`\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}`$ values (see Table 1) providing the best fit to the data are very different for Mkn 421 and Mkn 501. The position of a peak in the de-absorbed $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum of Mkn 501 is at about 8 TeV, whereas for Mkn 421 it is at noticeably lower energy of about 2 TeV. The value of $`\gamma _{max}`$ strongly correlates with the maximum energy of the observed IC photons as given by e.g. Kino, Takahara & Kusunose (2002). We also find that the main difference between the high and low states of Mkn 421 can be accounted for by a change in $`\gamma _{max}`$ (as discussed earlier by (Fossati et al., 2000)) and in luminosity which, however, is not large.

Recent observations of Mkn 421 and Mkn 501, have revealed variability on the very short time scale of a few times $`10^3`$s (see Section 2). Combined with the fact that the de-absorbed spectrum of Mkn 501 is rather flat at TeV energies (Konopelko et al., 1999) (so that $`\nu _{\mathrm{c},27}>1`$), it is evident from Eq. (2) that the high Lorentz factors $`50`$ are required to fit the observations, since this quantity is very insensitive to the other properties of the spectrum. This is in agreement with earlier estimates (Mastichiadis & Kirk, 1997; Konopelko et al., 1999).

In order to check that the choice of the parameters does indeed lead to variations on the timescale $`t_{\mathrm{var}}`$ in the TeV regime, we performed time-dependent calculations. Starting from a stationary state, we impulsively changed the electron injection compactness by a factor of several and checked the behaviour of the flux at the TeV regime as it moved towards the new stationary state. We found that for all cases prescribed in Table 1, the e-folding time of the flux was always between $`t_{\mathrm{var}}`$ and $`2t_{\mathrm{var}}`$.

It is generally accepted that the X-ray fluxes from BL Lac objects like Mkn 421 and Mkn 501, are well correlated with the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray fluxes — the high state emission in X-rays appears at the same time in the TeV $`\gamma `$-rays. BL Lac objects can stay in a high emission state for more than 6 months (e.g., Mkn 501) and can at the same time be highly variable sources of both X-rays and $`\gamma `$-rays on a time scale of less than one hour. The spectral variations in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays are not well studied so far at such short time scales, even though there are clear indications for such variations (at least in case of Mkn 421, see Aharonian et al. (2002)).

The behavior of the X-ray emission of the BL Lac objects is sporadic, and also demonstrates very large flux variations on extremely short time scales of less than one hour (Sambruna et al., 2000; Catanese & Sambruna, 2000). TeV $`\gamma `$-ray flares on similar time scales usually do not permit the accumulation of a sufficient number of $`\gamma `$-ray events with currently operating ground based Cherenkov detectors. Poor event statistics in such cases prevent the measurement of the energy spectrum well above 3 TeV, and make it difficult to detect the effects of IR absorption in such spectra. Thus, we feel it is premature to study in detail the correlations between the X-ray and multi-TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission spectra on such short time scales, and have restricted our modelling to time-independent states.

For Mkn 421 a variation of the spectral slope with flux level was recently discovered by HEGRA (Aharonian et al., 2002). However here we are not aiming to fit the X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectra for each particular flare, because the observational data in X-rays and TeV $`\gamma `$-rays are insufficient. Thus we consider here only two different spectra of X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission from Mkn 421 in lower and high state. It is important to mention that the position of the cut-off energy is the same in each case ($`E_0=3.6`$ TeV).

Figure 4 shows BeppoSAX measurements taken exactly during the 1997 outburst of Mkn 501. The X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum were averaged over different observing times but their fluxes at long time scales (month) are strongly correlated and finally X-ray to TeV $`\gamma `$-ray flux ratio remains almost unchanged.

## 5 Conclusion

We use here the data on the energy spectra of Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 over the energy range from 500 GeV up to $``$20 TeV, which became available recently, to reconstruct the intrinsic, IR de-absorbed source spectra for both of these AGNs. Present uncertainties in EBL are treated here as the systematic errors of the de-absorbed spectra. We fit those intrinsic spectra of Mkn 501 and Mkn 421 (in low and high states) along with the X-ray data using the homogeneous SSC model.

Both the X-ray data and de-absorbed TeV $`\gamma `$-ray data can be fitted reasonably well by a homogeneous SSC model, even though the X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray features of both Mkn’s are very different.

The two AGNs modelled have definitely different intrinsic spectra as well as slightly different variability scales. This leads to a slightly higher value of Doppler factor for Mkn 421 as well as a higher magnetic field and a lower value of $`\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}`$.

The energy spectra of Mkn 421 in high and low states can be fitted by changing the $`\gamma _{\mathrm{max}}`$ and luminosity parameters, whereas the Doppler factor and the magnetic field remain unchanged.

In present analysis we used the X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray data, which are not simulateneous. They were averaged over not exactly the same but overlapping observing periods. This is because, first of all, one needs a substantially longer period to observe in TeV $`\gamma `$-rays and measure the spectrum over a broad multi-TeV region. Secondly, the shape of TeV $`\gamma `$-ray spectrum is more constraining than the absolute flux level. However, further dedicated multiwave campaigns for Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 may place a tighter limit on the choice of the model parameters.

We argue that a logically consistent SSC model of X-ray and TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission can be constructed for both AGNs, Mkn 501 and Mkn 421, taking into account the IR absorption. Accurate spectral data are needed for other AGNs, in particular for the newly discovered 1ES 1426+428 and 1ES 1959+650, in order to test the consistency of this model for AGNs at different redshits.


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# VMD, chiral loops, 𝜎-meson, and 𝜔-𝜌 mixing in 𝜔→𝜋⁰𝜋⁰𝛾 decay

## Abstract

In an attempt to explain the latest experimental result about the branching ratio of $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay we reexamine the decay mechanism of this decay in a phenomenological framework in which the contributions of VMD, chiral loops, $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state amplitudes and the effects of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing are considered. We conclude that in order to obtain the experimental value of the branching ratio $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ $`\sigma `$-meson amplitude which makes a substantial contribution should be included into the reaction mechanism and the effects of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing should be taken into account. We also estimate the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ as $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.11`$ which is much smaller than the values suggested by light cone QCD sum rules calculations.

The recent experimental study of $`\rho \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ and $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decays by SND Collaboration obtained the value $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(6.6_{0.8}^{+1.4}\pm 0.6)\times 10^5`$ for the branching ratio of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay . Their result is in good agreement with GAMS Collaboration measurement of $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(7.2\pm 2.5)\times 10^5`$ , but it has a higher accuracy.

On the theoretical side, $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay was first studied by Singer  who postulated that this transition proceeds through the $`\omega (\rho )\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ mechanism involving $`\rho `$-meson intermediate state. The contribution of intermediate vector mesons (VMD) to the vector meson decays into two pseudoscalars and a single photon $`VPP^{}\gamma `$ was also considered by Bramon et al.  using standard Lagrangians obeying the SU(3)-symmetry, and in particular for the branching ratio of the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ they obtained the result $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=2.8\times 10^5`$. The $`VPP^{}\gamma `$ decays have also been considered within the framework of chiral effective Lagrangians using chiral perturbation theory. Bramon et al.  studied various such decays using this approach and they noted that if chiral perturbation theory Lagrangians are used there is no tree-level contribution to the amplitudes for the decay processes $`VPP^{}\gamma `$, and moreover the one-loop contributions are finite and to this order no counterterms are required. They considered both $`\pi \pi `$ and $`K\overline{K}`$ intermediate loops. In the good isospin limit $`\pi `$-loop contributions to $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ amplitude vanish, and the contribution of K-loops is two orders of magnitude smaller than the contribution of VMD amplitude. Therefore, the VMD amplitude essentially accounts for the decay rate of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay. Guetta and Singer  recently updated the theoretical value for the branching ratio $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ of the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ as $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(4.1\pm 1.1)\times 10^5`$. In their calculation they noted that when the Born amplitude for VMD mechanism is used the decay rate $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ is proportional to the coupling constants $`g_{\omega \rho \pi }^2`$ and $`g_{\rho \pi \gamma }^2`$, and they assumed that the decay $`\omega 3\pi `$ proceeds with the same mechanism as $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$, that is as $`\omega (\rho )\pi \pi \pi \pi `$ . They use the experimental inputs for the decay rates $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega 3\pi )`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\rho \pi \pi )`$, and furthermore they employ a momentum dependent width for $`\rho `$-meson. If a constant $`\rho `$-meson width is used, then the value $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(3.6\pm 0.9)\times 10^5`$ is obtained for the branching ratio of this decay. Therefore there appears to be a serious discrepancy between the theoretical result and the experimental value for the branching ratio of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay.

Guetta and Singer  noted that in the theoretical framework based on chiral perturbation theory and vector meson dominance one feature has been neglected. This is the possibility of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing one consequence of which is the isospin violating $`\omega \pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ decay with the branching ratio B$`(\omega \pi ^+\pi ^{})=(2.21\pm 0.30)\%`$ . The phenomenon of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing has been observed in the electromagnetic form factor of the pion improving the standard VMD model result involving $`\rho `$-meson intermediate state. A recent review of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing and vector meson dominance is given by O‘Connell et al. . Guetta and Singer  calculated the effect of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing using the Born amplitude for VMD mechanism and showed that it increases the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ width only by $`5\%`$. They then combined all the improvements on the simple Born term of VMD mechanism, that is $`\omega \rho `$ mixing, momentum dependence of $`\rho `$-meson width and the inclusion of the chiral loop amplitude as given by Bramon et al. , and using the resulting amplitude which includes all these effects they obtain the theoretical result $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(4.6\pm 1.1)\times 10^5`$ for the branching ratio of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay. Palomar et al.  also analyzed the radiative $`VPP^{}\gamma `$ decays using vector meson dominance, chiral loops obtained using unitarized chiral perturbation theory, and $`\omega \rho `$ mixing. They obtained the result $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(4.7\pm 0.9)\times 10^5`$ for this branching ratio. These theoretical results are still seriously less than the latest experimental result $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(6.6_{0.8}^{+1.4}\pm 0.6)\times 10^5`$. Therefore, the possibility of additional contributions to the mechanism of $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay should be investigated.

One such additional contribution to the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay may be provided by the amplitude involving scalar-isoscalar $`\sigma `$-meson as an intermediate state. The existence of the controvertial $`\sigma `$-meson now seems to be established by the Fermilab (E791) Collaboration in their observation of the $`D^+\sigma \pi ^+\pi \pi \pi `$ decay channel in which $`\sigma `$-meson is seen as a clear dominant peak with $`M_\sigma =(438\pm 31)`$ MeV, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma =(338\pm 48)`$ MeV , where statistical and systematic errors are added in quadrature . Two of present authors in a previous work , calculated the decay rate for the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ by considering $`\rho `$-pole vector meson dominance amplitude as well as $`\sigma `$-pole amplitude in a phenomenological approach. By employing then the available experimental value for this branching ratio $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(7.2\pm 2.5)\times 10^5`$  which is somewhat less accurate than the present new value , they obtained for the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ the values $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.13`$ and $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.27`$. They observed that $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state amplitude makes an important contribution by itself and by its interference with the VMD amplitude. The same authors later estimated the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ by studying $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$-vertex in the light cone QCD sum rules method , and the value $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=(0.72\pm 0.08)`$ was deduced for this coupling constant. Aliev et al.  also used light cone QCD sum rules techniques to calculate the coupling constant $`g_{\rho \sigma \gamma }`$, and they obtained the value $`g_{\rho \sigma \gamma }=(2.2\pm 0.2)`$ from which by using SU(3)-symmetry it follows that the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ should have the value $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.73`$. Thus, there seems to be a serious discrepancy between the values obtained for the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ using light cone QCD sum rules method and the phenomenological analysis of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay.

Therefore, in the present work, we reconsider the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay in a phenomenological framework in order to the assess the role of $`\sigma `$-meson in the mechanism of $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay and to recalculate the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ utilizing the latest experimental value of the branching ratio $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$. For this purpose, we calculate the decay rate for the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ by considering $`\rho `$-pole vector meson dominance amplitude, chiral loop amplitude, $`\sigma `$-pole amplitude and we also include the effects of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing which was not taken into account in the previous analysis .

In order to calculate the effects of the $`\omega \rho `$ mixing in the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay we need an amplitude characterizing the contribution of $`\sigma `$-meson to the $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay. In a previous work, two of the present authors  calculated the branching ratio $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma )`$ in a phenomenological framework using pion bremsstrahlung amplitude and $`\sigma `$-meson pole amplitude, and they determined the coupling constant $`g_{\rho \sigma \gamma }`$ by using the experimental value of the branching ratio $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma )`$. In a following work, these authors  calculated the branching ratio $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ of the $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay using the value of the coupling constant $`g_{\rho \sigma \gamma }`$ they thus obtained again in a phenomenological approach in which the contribution of $`\sigma `$-meson, $`\omega `$-meson intermediate states and of the pion-loops are considered. However, the branching ratio $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ obtained this way was much larger than the experimental value. This unrealistic result was due to the constant $`\rho ^0\sigma \gamma `$ amplitude employed and consequently the large coupling constant $`g_{\rho \sigma \gamma }`$ that was deduced using the experimental branching ratio of the $`\rho ^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}\gamma `$ decay. Therefore, it may be concluded that it is not realistic to include $`\sigma `$-meson in the mechanism of radiative $`\rho ^0`$-meson decays as an intermediate pole state. On the other hand, the $`VPP^{}\gamma `$ decays were also studied by Marco et al.  in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. They used the techniques of chiral unitary theory , and by a unitary resummation of the pion loops through the Bethe-Salpeter equation they obtained the decay rates for various decays. They furthermore noted that their result for $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay could be interpreted as resulting from the $`\rho ^0(\sigma )\gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ mechanism. Thus, it seems that a natural way to include the effects of $`\sigma `$-meson in the mechanism of radiative $`\rho ^0`$-meson decays is to assume that $`\sigma `$-meson couples to $`\rho ^0`$-meson through the pion-loop.

Our phenomenological approach is based on the Feynman diagrams shown in Fig. 1 for $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay and in Fig. 2 for $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay. The direct terms shown in the diagrams in Fig. 1 b and in Fig. 2 b, c are required to establish the gauge invariance. The interaction term for two vector mesons and one pseudoscalar meson is given by the Wess-Zumino anomaly term of the chiral Lagrangian , we therefore describe the $`\omega \rho \pi `$-vertex by the effective Lagrangian

$`_{\omega \rho \pi }^{eff}=g_{\omega \rho \pi }ϵ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }_\mu \omega _\nu _\alpha \stackrel{}{\rho }_\beta \stackrel{}{\pi },`$ (1)
which also conventionally defines the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \rho \pi }`$. This coupling constant was determined by Achasov et al.  through an experimental analysis as $`g_{\omega \rho \pi }=(14.4\pm 0.2)GeV^1`$, who assumed that $`\omega 3\pi `$ decay proceeds with the intermediate $`\rho \pi `$ state as $`\omega (\rho )\pi \pi \pi \pi `$ and they used the experimental value of the $`\omega 3\pi `$ width to deduce the coupling constant $`g_{\rho \omega \pi }`$. Similarly we describe the $`V\pi \gamma `$-vertices where $`V=\rho ,\omega `$ with the effective Lagrangian

$`_{V\pi \gamma }^{eff}=g_{V\pi \gamma }ϵ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }_\mu V_\nu _\alpha A_\beta \pi .`$ (2)
We then use the experimental partial widths of the radiative $`V\pi \gamma `$ decays  to deduce the coupling constants $`g_{\omega \pi \gamma }`$ and $`g_{\rho \pi \gamma }`$. This way for the coupling constants $`g_{\omega \pi \gamma }`$ and $`g_{\rho \pi \gamma }`$ we obtaine the values $`g_{\omega \pi \gamma }=(0.706\pm 0.021)GeV^1`$ and $`g_{\rho \pi \gamma }=(0.274\pm 0.035)GeV^1`$. The $`\rho \pi \pi `$-vertex is described by the effective Lagrangian

$`_{\rho \pi \pi }^{eff}=g_{\rho \pi \pi }\stackrel{}{\rho }_\mu (^\mu \stackrel{}{\pi }\times \stackrel{}{\pi }),`$ (3)
and the experimental decay width of the decay $`\rho \pi \pi `$  then yields the value $`g_{\rho \pi \pi }=(6.03\pm 0.02)`$ for the coupling constant $`g_{\rho \pi \pi }`$. We describe the $`\sigma \pi \pi `$-vertex by the effective Lagrangian

$`_{\sigma \pi \pi }^{eff}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\sigma \pi \pi }M_\sigma \stackrel{}{\pi }\stackrel{}{\pi }\sigma .`$ (4)
The experimental values for $`M_\sigma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma `$ $`M_\sigma =(483\pm 31)`$ MeV and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma =(338\pm 48)`$ MeV, where statistical and systematic errors are added in quadrature  then results in the strong coupling constant $`g_{\sigma \pi \pi }=(5.3\pm 0.55)`$. The effective Lagrangians $`_{\sigma \pi \pi }^{eff}`$ and $`_{\rho \pi \pi }^{eff}`$ are obtained from an extension of the $`\sigma `$ model where the isovector $`\rho `$ is included through a Yang-Mills local gauge theory based on isospin with the vector meson mass generated through the Higgs mechanism . In order to describe the $`\pi ^4`$-vertex we again consider the $`\sigma `$-model with spontaneous symmetry breaking  and we describe the $`\pi ^4`$-vertex by the effective Lagrangian

$`^{eff}={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{4}}(\stackrel{}{\pi }\stackrel{}{\pi })^2,`$ (5)
where the coupling constant $`\lambda `$ is given as $`\lambda =\frac{g_{\pi NN}^2}{2}\frac{M_\sigma ^2M_\pi ^2}{M_N^2}`$ and we use $`\frac{g_{\pi NN}^2}{4\pi }=14`$. We note that this effective interaction results in only isospin I=0 amplitudes. The small I=2 amplitudes were also neglected in previous calculations within the framework of chiral unitary theory . The $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$-vertex is described by the effective Lagrangian

$`_{\omega \sigma \gamma }^{eff}={\displaystyle \frac{e}{M_\omega }}g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }^\alpha \omega ^\beta (_\alpha A_\beta _\beta A_\alpha )\sigma ,`$ (6)
which also defines the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$.

In our calculation of the invariant amplitude, we make the replacement $`q^2M^2q^2M^2+iM\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in $`\rho `$-meson and $`\sigma `$-meson propagators. We use for $`\sigma `$-meson the momentum dependent width that follows from Eq. 4

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma (q^2)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_\sigma {\displaystyle \frac{M_\sigma ^2}{q^2}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{q^24M_\pi ^2}{M_\sigma ^24M_\pi ^2}}}\theta (q^24M_\pi ^2),`$ (7)
and for $`\rho `$-meson we use the following momentum dependent width as conventionally adopted

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho (q^2)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho {\displaystyle \frac{M_\rho }{\sqrt{q^2}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{q^24M_\pi ^2}{M_\rho ^24M_\pi ^2}}\right)^{3/2}\theta (q^24M_\pi ^2).`$ (8)
Loop integrals similar to the ones appearing in Figs. 1 and 2 were evaluated by Lucio and Pestiau  using dimensional regularization. We use their results and, for example, we express the contribution of the pion-loop amplitude corresponding to $`\rho ^0(\pi ^+\pi ^{})\gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ reaction in Fig. 2 b as

$`_\pi ={\displaystyle \frac{eg_{\rho \pi \pi }\lambda }{2\pi ^2M_\pi ^2}}I(a,b)\left[(pk)(ϵu)(pϵ)(ku)\right],`$ (9)
where $`a=M_\rho ^2/M_\pi ^2`$, $`b=(pk)^2/M_\pi ^2`$, $`p(u)`$ and $`k(ϵ)`$ being the momentum (polarization vector) of $`\rho `$-meson and photon, respectively. A similar amplitude corresponding to $`\rho ^0(\pi ^+\pi ^{})\gamma \sigma \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$ reaction can also be written. The function I(a,b) is given as

$`I(a,b)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(ab)}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{(ab)^2}}\left[f\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{b}}\right)f\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}\right)\right]+{\displaystyle \frac{a}{(ab)^2}}\left[g\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{b}}\right)g\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}\right)\right]`$ (10)
where

$`f(x)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \left[\mathrm{arcsin}(\frac{1}{2\sqrt{x}})\right]^2,& \hfill x>\frac{1}{4}\\ \hfill \frac{1}{4}\left[\mathrm{ln}(\frac{\eta _+}{\eta _{}})i\pi \right]^2,& \hfill x<\frac{1}{4}\end{array}`$ (13)
(14)
$`g(x)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill (4x1)^{\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{arcsin}(\frac{1}{2\sqrt{x}}),& \hfill x>\frac{1}{4}\\ \hfill \frac{1}{2}(14x)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left[\mathrm{ln}(\frac{\eta _+}{\eta _{}})i\pi \right],& \hfill x<\frac{1}{4}\end{array}`$ (17)
(18)
$`\eta _\pm ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2x}}\left[1\pm (14x)^{\frac{1}{2}}\right].`$ (19)
Although the contribution of chiral kaon-loop diagram shown in Fig. 1 b to the decay rate of $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay is small, we also include the corresponding amplitude of this diagram in our calculation for completeness. However, since we lack any experimental information to describe the $`\omega K^+K^{}`$-vertex and $`K^+K^{}`$-$`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ amplitude, for the contribution of this diagram we use the amplitude given by Bramon et al.  derived using chiral perturbation theory. This may not be entirely consistent with the philosophy of our phenomenological approach, but since its contribution is shown to be small  we do not think that this way of including kaon-loop diagram into our calculation constitutes a serious inconsistency. Moreover, in Fig. 2 b in addition to pion-loop intermediate state there is also a contribution to $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay coming from $`K\overline{K}`$ intermediate state. However, as shown by Bramon et al. , these kaon-loop intermediate states give a contribution to $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay which is $`10^3`$ times smaller than the contribution coming from the charged-pion loops. Therefore, in our calculation we do not take the kaon-loop amplitude in $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay into account.

We describe the $`\omega \rho `$ mixing by an effective Lagrangian of the form

$`_{\rho \omega }^{eff}=\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \omega }\omega _\mu \rho ^\mu ,`$ (20)
where $`\omega _\mu `$ and $`\rho _\mu `$ denote pure isospin field combinations. The corresponding physical states can therefore be written as

$`\rho >`$ $`=`$ $`\rho ,I=1>+ϵ\omega ,I=0>`$ (21)
$`\omega >`$ $`=`$ $`\omega ,I=0>ϵ\rho ,I=1>,`$ (22)
where

$`ϵ={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \omega }}{M_\omega ^2M_\rho ^2+iM_\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho iM_\omega \mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega }}.`$ (23)
O‘Connell et al.  determined $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \omega }`$ from fits to $`e^+e^{}\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ data as $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \omega }=(3800\pm 370)MeV^2`$. Then, using the experimental values for $`M_V`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_V`$, the mixing parameter $`ϵ`$ is obtained as $`ϵ=(0.006+i0.036)`$. Another effect of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing besides the mixing of the states is that it modifies the $`\rho `$-propagator in diagrams in Fig. 1 a as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_\rho (s)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{D_\rho (s)}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{g_{\omega \pi \gamma }}{g_{\rho \pi \gamma }}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Pi }_{\rho \omega }}{D_\rho (s)}}\right)`$ (24)
where $`D_\rho (s)=sM_\rho ^2+iM_\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho (s)`$. The amplitude of the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ can then be written as $`=_0+ϵ^{}`$ where $`_0`$ includes the contributions coming from the diagrams shown in Fig. 1 for $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ and $`^{}`$ represents the contributions of the diagrams in Fig. 2 for $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$.

We calculate the invariant amplitude $``$(E<sub>γ</sub>, E<sub>1</sub>) this way for the decay $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ from the corresponding Feynman diagrams shown in Fig. 1 and 2 for the decays $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ and $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$, respectively.The differential decay probability for an unpolarized $`\omega `$-meson at rest is then given as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{dE_\gamma dE_1}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8M_\omega }}^2,`$ (25)
where E<sub>γ</sub> and E<sub>1</sub> are the photon and pion energies respectively. We perform an average over the spin states of the vector meson and a sum over the polarization states of the photon. The decay width is then obtained by integration

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\right){\displaystyle _{E_{\gamma ,min.}}^{E_{\gamma ,max.}}}𝑑E_\gamma {\displaystyle _{E_{1,min.}}^{E_{1,max.}}}𝑑E_1{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{dE_\gamma dE_1}}`$ (26)
where the factor ($`\frac{1}{2}`$) is included because of the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ in the final state. The minimum photon energy is E$`{}_{\gamma ,min.}{}^{}=0`$ and the maximum photon energy is given as $`E_{\gamma ,max.}=(M_\omega ^24M_\pi ^2)/2M_\omega `$=341 MeV. The maximum and minimum values for pion energy E<sub>1</sub> are given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2(2E_\gamma M_\omega M_\omega ^2)}}[2E_\gamma ^2M_\omega +3E_\gamma M_\omega ^2M_\omega ^3`$ (27)
$`\pm E_\gamma \sqrt{(2E_\gamma M_\omega +M_\omega ^2)(2E_\gamma M_\omega +M_\omega ^24M_\pi ^2)}].`$ (28)
The theoretical decay rate for $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay that we calculate results in a quadric equation for the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$, and using the experimental value for this decay rate , we obtain the values $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=(0.11\pm 0.01)`$ and $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=(0.21\pm 0.02)`$ for the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$. These values are smaller than the values $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.13`$ and $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.27`$ that were obtained in the previous phenomenological analysis which did not include the effects of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing . We may therefore conclude that $`\omega \rho `$ mixing does make a reasonably substantial contribution to the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay amplitude when $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state is taken into account which then results in a reduced value for the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$.

The resulting $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$-invariant mass distribution for the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay if we use the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.11`$ is plotted in Fig. 3 where we also indicate the contributions coming from the different amplitudes. The interference term between the different amplitudes is positive over the whole region. The contribution of the VMD amplitude calculated from the diagrams in Fig. 1 a does not change appreciably if we take into account the effect of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing by including the contribution coming from the diagrams in Fig. 2 a The situation changes somewhat if we consider VMD and chiral loop amplitudes and $`\omega \rho `$ mixing as well. However, the significant modification is obtained when we include VMD, chiral loop, and $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state amplitudes with $`\omega \rho `$ mixing.

Although the shapes of the various curves are quite similar, as it can also be seen the corresponding branching ratios are considerably different. If we use only the VMD amplitudes we obtain for the branching ratio $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ the values $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=3.96\times 10^5`$ and $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=4.22\times 10^5`$ without and with the effect of the $`\omega \rho `$ mixing, respectively. These results are in agreement with the calculation of Guetta and Singer . When we consider VMD amplitudes and chiral loop amplitudes, the resulting values for the branching ratio are $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=3.98\times 10^5`$ and $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=4.67\times 10^5`$ without and with the effect of the $`\omega \rho `$ mixing included, respectively. Again these calculated values are consistent with the previous results, in particular, with the results of Bramon et al.  and Palomar et al. . However, the main difference with previous results arises when we consider the contribution of $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state. Indeed, the branching ratio $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )`$ that we calculate using the full amplitude including the contributions of VMD, chiral loop, and $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state diagrams which is $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=7.29\times 10^5`$ is reduced to the value $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=6.6\times 10^5`$ when the effect of the $`\omega \rho `$ mixing is included. We thus observe that in this case the effect of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing on the amplitude of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay is reasonably pronounced and moreover the contribution of the $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state is quite substantial. We may therefore conclude that $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state and $`\omega \rho `$ mixing should be included in the analysis of $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay in order to explain the latest experimental result .

In Fig. 4, we plot the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$-invariant mass distribution we obtain if we use the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }=0.21`$. In this case also the $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state amplitude makes a very significant contribution, but the interference term resulting from the $`\sigma `$-meson and VMD and chiral loop amplitudes is negative over some regions of the spectrum. Moreover, the overall shape is quite different from the previous case.

In our work, we consider a new approach to the mechanism of $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay. We assume that the $`\sigma `$-meson couples to $`\rho ^0`$-meson through the pion-loop and thus we neglect a direct $`\rho \sigma \gamma `$-vertex. The assumed mechanism of $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay is shown by the Feynman diagrams in Fig. 2. We can therefore calculate the branching ratio of $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay based on these Feynman diagrams. This way we obtain for the branching ratio of $`\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay the value $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(3.81\pm 0.63)\times 10^5`$ which is in a good agreement the latest experimental result $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(4.1_{0.9}^{+1.0}\pm 0.3)\times 10^5`$ . Scalar $`\sigma `$-meson effects in radiative $`\rho ^0`$-meson decays are studied in a recent work by two of the present authors in detail . In that work, the standard $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ amplitude of chiral perturbation theory is used in the loop diagrams, and the value $`B(\rho ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=(4.95\pm 0.82)\times 10^5`$ is obtained for the branching ratio. If we use the same amplitude in the present work we then obtain the value $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=6.12\times 10^5`$ using the full amplitude including the contributions of VMD, chiral loop, and $`\sigma `$-meson intermediate state diagram as well as the effects of $`\omega \rho `$ mixing, which is not very different from $`B(\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma )=6.6\times 10^5`$ that is obtained employing the effective Lagrangian given in Eq. 5 to describe the $`\pi ^4`$-vertex.

An essential assumption of our work, therefore, is that there is no SU(3) vector meson-sigma-gamma vertex. Thus, the $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$-vertex cannot be related to the $`\rho \sigma \gamma `$-vertex. The $`\omega \sigma \gamma `$-vertex that we use may be considered as representing the effective final state interactions in the $`\pi \pi `$-channel. The small value of the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ that we obtain leads to a change in the Born amplitude of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay which is of the same of the magnitude, as it is typical of final state interactions. As a matter of fact, Levy and Singer  in a study of the $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ decay using dispersion-theoretical approach shown that final state interactions resulting in a decay rate of the same order of magnitude as the one calculated from the Born term can be parameterized with the effective-pole approximation.

As a final comment, we like to mention that our analysis suggests that the coupling constant $`g_{\omega \sigma \gamma }`$ has actually a much smaller value than obtained by light cone QCD sum rules calculations.


text:
# Universal Spin-Flip Transition in Itinerant Antiferromagnets

\[

## Abstract

We report a universal spin flip (SF) transition as a function of temperature in spin-density-wave (SDW) systems. At low temperatures the antiferromagnetic (AFM) polarization is parallel to the applied field and above a critical temperature the AFM polarization flips perpendicular to the field. This transition occurs in any SDW system and may be considered as a qualitative probe of the itinerant character of AFM in a given material. Our SF transition resolves the longstanding puzzle of the SF transition observed in cromium and may be at the origin of the equally puzzling SDW-I to SDW-II transition in Bechgaard salts for which we make experimental predictions.

\]

The study of itinerant antiferromagnetism (AFM) started in the early fifties when this state has first been observed in Cromium  and since then it has been a field of continuous interest related to some of the most fascinating problems in materials physics. The first consistent theoretical scheme for itinerant AFM has been elaborated by Overhauser  who introduced the spin density wave (SDW) picture. The itinerant character of AFM and the relevance of the SDW picture in cromium are firmly established experimentally . However, despite several decades of intense theoretical work which led to the construction of a successful microscopic SDW model for cromium , there is a surprising aspect of the AFM behavior in this material which escapes any microscopic understanding so far. It is the famous spin-flip (SF) transition as a function of temperature for which there are only phenomenological accounts within a Landau framework . Spin-orbit coupling and dipole-dipole interactions have been shown to be unable to produce a spin-flip transition with temperature . Lacking any understanding of this first order SF transition, it is viewed up to now as a mysterious peculiarity of cromium.

Other very extensively studied SDW materials are the so called Bechgaard salts which attracted much interest not only for their SDW behavior, but also for its interplay with superconductivity and related exotic phenomena like field-induced SDW transitions and quantum-Hall-effect phenomena . These salts are quasi-one-dimensional organic compounds having the form $`(TMTSF)_2X`$ where X denotes a monovalent ion and TMTSF is for tetramethyltetraselenafulvalene . It has been established recently that inside the SDW phase there is a surprising transition to a new SDW phase . This SDW-I to SDW-II transition manifests by a sudden change in the T-behavior of the NMR relaxation rate from linear just below $`T_{Neel}`$ to an exponential Arhenius behavior at lower temperatures . So far, this phenomenon has been regarded as a peculiar transition from an incomplete SDW state below $`T_N`$ to a complete SDW state at low T, but such a picture is not consistent with the transport behavior. A spin glass transition has also been invoked .

In the present Letter we point out that the spin-flip transition observed in cromium is in fact a totally generic phenomenon in itinerant AFM. We show that the zero temperature field-induced spin-flop transition in itinerant AFM, at finite temperatures it occurs at a lower critical field and at a sufficiently high temperature it occurs at an arbitrarilly small field giving rise to the T-induced spin-flip transition. This SF transition is absolutely generic characterizing any SDW state and therefore should manifest in all itinerant antiferromagnets when crystal fields are negligible. Such a generic behavior of the SDW state has not been noticed so far probably because in most theoretical works on SDW a one-dimensional framework was adopted lacking the extra spatial dimensions involved in the SF transition. All aspects of the well studied SF transition in cromium  are in agreement with our SF transition. As for the SDW-I to SDW-II transition in TMTSF’s, we predict the identification of a similar SF transition as the one observed in cromium when the measurements of Ref.  will be extended to lower temperatures. In fact we argue that the available NMR data  are totally compatible with our SF transition. Our SF transition can be regarded as a qualitative probe of the itinerant SDW character of AFM in a given material.

We consider the most general mean-field Hamiltonian describing a SDW state in the presence of a uniform magnetic field:

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\alpha }{}}\xi _{𝐤\alpha }c_{𝐤\alpha }^{}c_{𝐤\alpha }+\mu _B{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\alpha ,\beta }{}}c_{𝐤\alpha }^{}\left(\sigma 𝐇\right)c_{𝐤\beta }`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\alpha ,\beta }{}}(\sigma 𝐧)_{\alpha \beta }𝐌_𝐤\left(𝐜_{𝐤\alpha }^{}𝐜_{𝐤+𝐐\beta }+\mathrm{ℎ𝑐}\right)`$ (2)
where $`\alpha ,\beta `$ index the spin, $`M_𝐤`$ is the SDW order parameter, n defines the axis of the magnetic polarization of the SDW and H the Pauli contribution of the applied magnetic field. Orbital effects of the magnetic field are irrelevant in the SDW state. The electronic dispersion $`\xi _𝐤`$ considered in the numerical calculations reported here is a tight-binding scheme for a square two dimensional lattice with nearest-neighbors hoping $`\xi _𝐤=t(\mathrm{cos}k_xa+\mathrm{cos}k_ya)`$. However our results are independent of the choice of the dispersion as we have verified numerically and discuss later.

To allow for any relative orientation between the SDW polarization and the direction of the field we will use an eight-component spinor formalism. This eight component space is overcomplete for the present problem, however, it allows to consider elsewhere the same phenomena in the presence of additional order parameters  avoiding a problem dependent formalism. Our space is defined by the eight component spinor

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_𝐤^{}=\left(c_𝐤^{}c_𝐤^{}c_𝐤c_𝐤c_{𝐤+𝐐}^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐}^{}c_{𝐤𝐐}c_{𝐤𝐐}\right)`$ (3)
The following tensor products provide a convenient basis for the projection of the Hamiltonian in this spinor space

$`\widehat{\tau }_i=\widehat{\sigma }_i(\widehat{I}\widehat{I})`$ (4)
$`\widehat{\rho }_i=\widehat{I}(\widehat{\sigma }_i\widehat{I})`$ (5)
$`\widehat{\sigma }_i=\widehat{I}(\widehat{I}\widehat{\sigma }_i)`$ (6)
where $`\widehat{\sigma }_i`$ are Pauli matrices in usual notations and $`I`$ the $`2\times 2`$ identity matrix. This type of multicomponent formalism has been used for the study of magnetic superconductors  and recently for the study of excitonic ferromagnetism and colossal magnetoresistance .

When $`𝐇𝐧`$ our hamiltonian (1) can be written in the eight component spinor space as follows:

$`\widehat{H}_{}={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\mathrm{\Psi }_𝐤^{}\left(\xi _𝐤\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\rho }_3M_𝐤\widehat{\tau }_1\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3+\mu _BH\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3\right)\mathrm{\Psi }_𝐤`$ (7)
The Green’s function corresponding to this Hamiltonian is now an $`8\times 8`$ matrix which can be shown to take the following form in our representation:

$`\widehat{G}_{}(𝐤,i\omega _n)=[i\omega _n+\xi _𝐤\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\rho }_3M_𝐤\widehat{\tau }_1\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3+\mu _BH\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3]`$ (8)
$`[\omega _n^2+\xi _𝐤^2+M_𝐤^2+\mu _B^2H^22\xi _𝐤\mu _BH\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3+2M_𝐤\mu _BH\widehat{\tau }_1]`$ (9)
$`[\omega _n^2+E_+^2(𝐤)]^1[\omega _n^2+E_{}^2(𝐤)]^1`$ (10)
where

$`E_\pm (𝐤)=\sqrt{\xi _𝐤^2+M_𝐤^2}\pm \mu _BH`$ (11)
The SDW gap equation results from the self-consistency relation $`M_𝐤=\frac{1}{8}T_𝐤^{}_nV_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐤}^{}}\times Tr\{\widehat{\tau }_1\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3\widehat{G}_{𝐤^{}n}\}`$ and after analytic summation over the Matsubara frequencies it can be shown to take the following form

$`M_𝐤={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤^{}}{}}V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐤}^{}}{\displaystyle \frac{M_𝐤^{}}{4\sqrt{\xi _𝐤^{}^2+M_𝐤^{}^2}}}[\mathrm{tanh}\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_+(𝐤^{})}{2T}}\right)`$ (12)
$`+\mathrm{tanh}\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_{}(𝐤^{})}{2T}}\right)]`$ (13)
which is identical with the gap equation of a singlet BCS superconductor in a Zeeman field. The field $`\mu _BH`$ appears only in the hyperbolic tangent functions and in the zero temperature regime we have $`|\mathrm{tanh}(E_\pm (𝐤)/2T)1|`$. Therefore a magnetic field smaller than the critical field and parallel to the polarization of the SDW has practically no influence on the SDW in the zero temperature regime. On the other hand, when the field is sufficiently large $`\mu _BH>M_𝐤`$ then in the $`T0`$ regime $`\mathrm{tanh}(E_{}(𝐤)/2T)=\mathrm{tanh}(E_+(𝐤)/2T)=1`$ and the SDW is eliminated. Therefore, in the $`T0`$ regime there is a critical magnetic field parallel to the polarization of the SDW ($`\mu _BH_cM_𝐤`$ if the gap is isotropic) that can melt the SDW. This is the analog of the well known Clogston-Chandrasekhar critical field  in superconductivity which has indeed been observed in superconducting films when the field is applied parallel to the film planes .

Numerical solutions of the gap equation confirm this behavior (see Fig. 1a). Indeed, in the zero temperature regime $`M_𝐤`$ as a function of the field has a step-like behavior and for $`\mu _BH>M_𝐤`$ (in the example shown in Fig. 1a the gap is isotropic), $`M_𝐤`$ is identically zero. The melting of the SDW when $`\mu _BH_c=M_𝐤`$ manifests already in the structure of the poles of the Green’s function reported in (6). One of the two quasiparticles poles $`E_{}(𝐤)`$ moves to zero when $`\mu _BH_c=M_𝐤`$ and there is no gap on the Fermi surface. Because in $`E_{}(𝐤)`$ the field $`\mu _BH`$ and the SDW gap $`M_𝐤`$ contribute into terms which have opposite sign we can say that the $`𝐇𝐧`$ magnetic field is in direct competition with the SDW. The situation will be shown below to be different if the polarization of the SDW is perpendicular to the field.

We now consider the case is which $`𝐇𝐧`$. In the same eight-component formalism our Hamiltonian (1) can be written as follows:

$`\widehat{H}_{}={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤}{}}\mathrm{\Psi }_𝐤^{}\left(\xi _𝐤\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\rho }_3M_𝐤\widehat{\tau }_1\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3+\mu _BH\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_1\right)\mathrm{\Psi }_𝐤`$ (14)
The corresponding matrix Green’s fucntion diagonalized in our representation takes the following form

$`\widehat{G}_{}(𝐤,i\omega _n)=[i\omega _n+\xi _𝐤\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\rho }_3M_𝐤\widehat{\tau }_1\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_3+\mu _BH\widehat{\rho }_3\widehat{\sigma }_1]`$ (15)
$`[\omega _n^2+\xi _𝐤^2+M_𝐤^2+\mu _B^2H^22\xi _𝐤\mu _BH\widehat{\tau }_3\widehat{\sigma }_1]`$ (16)
$`[\omega _n^2+E_+^2(𝐤)]^1[\omega _n^2+E_{}^2(𝐤)]^1`$ (17)
and the quasiparticles poles are now defined by

$`E_\pm (𝐤)=\sqrt{(\xi _𝐤\pm \mu _BH)^2+M_𝐤^2}`$ (18)
From the structure of the poles it is already obvious that the perpendicular field is not in direct competition with the SDW. None of the quasiparticle poles given in (10) can be set to zero no matter how large the magnetic field is. This indicates that the magnetic field cannot melt the SDW. Let us check this by calculating the gap equation which can now be shown to take the following form:

$`M_𝐤={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤^{}}{}}V_{\mathrm{𝐤𝐤}^{}}M_𝐤^{}[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4E_+(𝐤^{})}}\mathrm{tanh}\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_+(𝐤^{})}{2T}}\right)`$ (19)
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4E_{}(𝐤^{})}}\mathrm{tanh}\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_{}(𝐤^{})}{2T}}\right)]`$ (20)
Only in the limit $`\mu _BH\mathrm{}`$ the gap equation provides an identically zero solution. Moreover, any finite perpendicular field reduces gradually the SDW gap (because it appears in the denominator) even in the $`T0`$ regime no matter how small it is in sharp contrast with the parallel field behavior where in the $`T0`$ regime fields smaller than the gap have practically no influence.

The above behavior in the $`T0`$ regime is verified by numerical solutions as shown in Fig. 1a. Therefore, if the polarization $`𝐧`$ of the SDW is free as in any perfectly itinerant SDW system, we naturally expect the following behavior of $`𝐧`$ in the presence of a field in the $`T0`$ regime. For weak fields the polarization of the SDW will chose the direction parallel to the field since in that way it is insensitive on it. As the field grows, and as long as it remains smaller than the gap, $`𝐧`$ remains locked parallel to the direction of the field. When the field equals the gap, the SDW will suddenly flip its polarization from $`𝐧𝐇`$ to $`𝐧𝐇`$. This first order transition illustrated in Fig. 1a is the itinerant counterpart of the well studied spin-flop transition in the localized magnetism picture. However, the situation is qualitatively different here. In fact, in the localized magnetic moments picture, at any finite field the moments have tendency to be perpendicular to the field while here this tendency exists only above the critical field.

More suprising, and without counterpart in the localized limit, is the behavior of our spin-flop transition at finite temperatures. Finite temperature solutions of the gap equations indicate that although at low temperatures and low fields the $`𝐧𝐇`$ state prevails (see Fig. 1a), at a higher temperature $`TT_N/2`$ the $`𝐧𝐇`$ state prevails whatever the field (Fig. 1b). Above a given temperature, the magnetic field induced spin-flop transition is in fact eliminated. An example of the evolution of both $`M_{}`$ and $`M_{}`$ as a function of the field and the temperature is reported in Fig. 2. The zero temperature spin flop transition from $`𝐧𝐇`$ to $`𝐧𝐇`$, by rising the temperature it appears at lower critical fields and at $`T0.435T_N`$ the critical field of this transition is zero. The physical origin of this thermally induced spin-flip transition is probably related with the phase space for spin fluctuations. In fact, with the SDW polarization perpendicular to the field, the available phase space for thermal excitation of the spins is larger than in the case of a polarization parallel to that of the field. At a sufficiently high temperature this phase-space gain apparently dominates inducing the spin-flip transition.

Our SF transition displays as a function of the field and the temperature all the characteristics of the SF transition in Cromium  which we believe is its most obvious physical realization. This is further supported by the fact that the order of magnitude of the ratio $`T_{SF}/T_N`$ in cromium is just in the range in which we predict this transition should happen. Moreover, when particle-hole asymmetry is introduced including for example a next nearest neighbors hopping term in our dispersion and reducing thus the nesting, our $`T_{SF}/T_N`$ is reduced and this precisely what is observed by alloying cromium . The most likely range of this transition is $`0.20T_NT_{SF}0.45T_N`$, the highest value being indicative of a particle-hole symmetric system. In bare cromium $`T_{SF}0.395T_N`$ which is just in the range where we expect our SF transition.

As for the SDW-I to SDW-II transition in Bechgaard salts, here as well it happens precisely in the temperature range in which we predict our SF transition ($`T_{Neel}/3`$). Moreover, the Arhenius low-T behavior of the NMR relaxation rate  is consistent with n locked parallel to the field while the linear Korringa behavior at higher T and up to $`T_{Neel}`$ is consistent with both n perpendicular to the field and the observed insulating transport behavior. We predict that extending the measurements of  to temperatures below 4K could definitely establish the SF character of the SDW-I to SDW-II transition which is observed at about 3.5 K in Bechgaard salts.

In conclusion, we have shown that in all SDW systems occurs a SF transition by varying temperature. In the low-T phase the SDW polarization is parallel to the field while above the SF transition it is perpendicular. This SF transition has been identified in cromium and is likely to be the origin of the SDW-I to SDW-II transition in Bechgaard salts. It represents a qualitative tool for identifying the itinerant character of AFM in a given material.

Valuable discussions with Michel Héritier, Denis Jerôme, Peter Littlewood, Peter Oppeneer, Nikos Papanikolaou and Peter Thalmeier are gratefully acknowledged.