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# Primordial black hole production due to preheating

## I Introduction

There has recently been great interest in the reheating process which occurs at the end of inflation. It has been found that in many inflation models reheating proceeds initially via a period of broad parametric resonance, known as preheating . During preheating the inflaton field decays extremely rapidly producing an exponentially growing number of particles, until the backreaction of the particle production shuts off the parametric resonance with the particles produced subsequently thermalising and the universe becoming radiation dominated.

Attention has been focused on two-field models with either a quadratic  or a quartic inflaton potential. It has been claimed in Ref.  that the amplification of curvature perturbations could be large with fluctuations being driven non-linear, even on large ‘super-Hubble’ scales. This would have serious consequences for cosmology, destroying the standard picture of structure formation , in particular by violating the microwave background constraint on the amplitude of the power spectrum on large scales, and leading to the overproduction of primordial black holes (PBHs) on small scales. The growth on large scales, relevant for structure formation, has been confirmed for the quartic case , whilst it has recently been shown for the quadratic inflaton potential , that in fact the amplification of the fluctuations on large scales is negligible. The formation of PBHs has not been studied for either model. For the quadratic potential the power spectrum of curvature perturbations has a $`k^3`$-spectrum however, growing strongly towards small scales, so that PBH formation may still be problematic despite the amplification of large scale fluctuations being negligible.

In this letter we present the first study of the formation of PBHs due to the resonant amplification of field fluctuations during preheating. The scales which we are interested in pass outside the Hubble radius towards the end of inflation. The fluctuations are amplified during preheating and PBHs will be formed, when these scales re-enter the Hubble radius after reheating during the radiation dominated era, if the fluctuations are sufficiently large. PBHs may in principle also be formed on the slightly shorter scales which re-enter the Hubble radius during preheating, when the universe is dominated by the oscillating scalar fields, however 3-D simulations along the lines of the 1D simulations carried out in Ref.  would be necessary to study this.

## II Calculation of the power spectrum

In common with Refs.  we will study the two-field model with quadratic scalar field potential

$$V(\varphi ,\chi )=\frac{1}{2}m^2\varphi ^2+\frac{1}{2}g^2\varphi ^2\chi ^2,$$
(1)
where $`\varphi `$ is the inflaton and $`\chi `$ the preheating field, $`m`$ the mass of the inflaton and $`g`$ the coupling of the inflaton to the preheat field. The $`\varphi `$ field, and hence the effective mass of the $`\chi `$ field, $`m_\chi =g\varphi `$, oscillates around zero with large amplitude resulting in efficient preheating. The power spectrum of the curvature perturbation in the constant density gauge, $`\zeta `$, produced in this model has recently been calculated by Liddle, Lyth, Malik and Wands  (LLMW hereafter). The scales which we are interested in have $`kg\mathrm{\Phi }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the initial amplitude of the $`\varphi `$-field oscillations, and are outside the Hubble radius at the end of inflation, so that we can use the results of their calculation. In this section we outline the relevant results of LLMW, for further details see Ref. .

Strong parametric resonance, resulting in large amplification of the initial quantum fluctuation in the $`\chi `$ field, occurs if

$$q\frac{g^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2}{4m^2}1.$$
(2)
The power spectrum of a quantity $`x`$ is defined as

$$𝒫_x\frac{k^3}{2\pi ^2}|x_𝐤|^2,$$
(3)
where $`k=|𝐤|`$ is the comoving wavenumber, $`x_𝐤`$ are the coefficients of the Fourier expansion of $`x`$, and the average is over ensembles. The effect of preheating on the amplitude of the $`\chi `$ field can be modelled as

$$𝒫_{\delta \chi }=𝒫_{\delta \chi }|_{\mathrm{end}}\mathrm{exp}\left(2\mu _km\mathrm{\Delta }t\right),$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is the time elapsed since the end of inflation. The power spectrum of $`\delta \chi `$ at the end of inflation is denoted by $`𝒫_{\delta \chi }|_{\mathrm{end}}`$. The Floquet index $`\mu _k`$ is taken as

$$\mu _k\frac{1}{2\pi }\mathrm{ln}\left(1+2e^{\pi \kappa ^2}\right),$$
(5)
and

$$\kappa ^2\left(\frac{k}{k_{\mathrm{max}}}\right)^2\frac{1}{18\sqrt{q}}\left(\frac{k}{k_{\mathrm{end}}}\right)^2,$$
(6)
where $`k_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the scale which undergoes maximum amplification and $`k_{\mathrm{end}}`$ is the comoving wavenumber of the scale which exits the Hubble radius at the end of inflation. For strong coupling ($`q1`$) $`\mu _k\mu =\mathrm{ln}3/2\pi 0.17`$ for all modes outside the Hubble radius at the end of inflation ($`\kappa 1`$).

LLMW find that the evolution of the curvature perturbations is due to the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation $`\delta p_{\mathrm{nad}}`$, which is dominated by second-order fluctuations in $`\chi `$, $`g^2\varphi ^2\delta \chi ^2`$ (see also ). The first-order contribution, which is of order $`g^2\varphi ^2\chi \delta \chi `$, is negligible since the background field $`\chi `$ is vanishingly small . The power spectrum of $`\zeta _{\mathrm{nad}}`$ resulting from the amplification of the non-adiabatic fluctuations in the $`\chi `$ field, is then given by

$`𝒫_{\zeta _{\mathrm{nad}}}A\left({\displaystyle \frac{k}{k_{\mathrm{end}}}}\right)^3I(\kappa ,m\mathrm{\Delta }t),`$ (7)
where

$$A=\frac{2^{9/2}3}{\pi ^5\mu ^2}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{m_{\mathrm{Pl}}}\right)^2\left(\frac{H_{\mathrm{end}}}{m}\right)^4g^4q^{1/4},$$
(8)
and

$$I(\kappa ,m\mathrm{\Delta }t)\frac{3}{2}_0^{\kappa _{\mathrm{cut}}}𝑑\kappa ^{}_0^\pi 𝑑\theta e^{2(\mu _\kappa ^{}+\mu _{\kappa \kappa ^{}})m\mathrm{\Delta }t}\kappa ^2\mathrm{sin}\theta ,$$
(9)
where $`\theta `$ is the angle between $`𝐤`$ and $`𝐤^{}`$ and $`\kappa _{\mathrm{cut}}`$ is an ultraviolet cut-off, $`\kappa _{\mathrm{cut}}\kappa _{\mathrm{max}}`$. LLMW found that on the scales relevant for large scale structure formation the change in $`\zeta `$ due to preheating is negligible, however since $`𝒫_{\zeta _{\mathrm{nad}}}k^3`$ smaller scale fluctuations with wavenumbers $`kk_{\mathrm{end}}`$ may become large enough for PBHs to be overproduced, before backreaction shuts off preheating.

The duration of the first stage of preheating, $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{BR}}`$, during which backreaction is unimportant and fluctuations are amplified exponentially, can be estimated numerically by finding the smallest solution of

$$m\mathrm{\Delta }t\frac{1}{4\mu }\mathrm{ln}\frac{10^6(m\mathrm{\Delta }t)^3}{g^4\sqrt{48\pi q}}.$$
(10)
After this stage backreaction becomes important; energy is drained from the inflaton field, and transferred to the $`\chi `$ field, diminishing the amplitude of the inflaton oscillations. The growth in the preheating field changes the effective mass of the $`\chi `$ field itself, thereby rendering preheating less efficient. The growth in the $`\chi `$ field also changes the oscillation frequency of the inflaton, narrowing the resonance band and eventually shutting the resonance down. The duration of this second stage of preheating is typically far shorter than that of the first stage of preheating. The solution of Eq. (10), $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{BR}}`$, thus provides us with a conservative estimate of the duration of the entire preheating process.

## III Black hole abundance constraints

Primordial black holes may be formed in the the early universe via the collapse of sufficiently large density perturbations . Due to their observational consequences there are tight constraints on their abundance; typically less than $`10^{20}`$ of the energy in the universe can go into PBHs at the time that they form . For a PBH to form during radiation domination the density contrast, $`\delta `$, when the fluctuation enters the horizon must exceed a critical value $`\delta _\mathrm{c}`$, where numerical simulations find $`\delta _\mathrm{c}0.7`$ . The fraction of the energy of the universe which goes into PBHs is found by integrating the probability distribution of the fluctuations, $`p(\delta )`$, over the large, PBH forming, fluctuations,

$$\beta =\frac{\rho _{\mathrm{pbh}}}{\rho _{\mathrm{tot}}}_{\delta _\mathrm{c}}^{\mathrm{}}p(\delta )d\delta ,$$
(11)
and is controlled by the mass variance, $`\sigma (k)`$, at horizon crossing, of the fluctuations:

$$\sigma ^2(k)=_0^{\mathrm{}}\delta ^2p(\delta )d\delta .$$
(12)
The density perturbation distribution is close to gaussian; strictly speaking it is a chi-squared distribution with a large number of degrees of freedom, resulting from the convolution of the square of the gaussian distributed field fluctuations over a wide range of scales.***This is significantly different from the case of single field models where difficulties arise in calculating $`\beta `$ . In those models PBH production requires large field fluctuations, which are non-linear and therefore may not be gaussian distributed. Furthermore there is no definite prescription for relating the field and metric fluctuations if the field fluctuations are large. This is not the case in our model as the leading order metric perturbations arise from terms which are second-order in the *linear* field fluctuations. We find, using Eqs. (11) and (12), that for a gaussian probability distribution PBHs are overproduced, $`\beta >10^{20}`$, if $`\sigma (k)>\sigma _{\mathrm{thresh}}=0.08`$. For comparison for a first order chi-squared distribution the threshold would be $`\sigma _{\mathrm{thresh}}=0.03`$. We use $`\sigma _{\mathrm{thresh}}=0.08`$ as a conservative estimate of the threshold for PBH overproduction.

To calculate $`\sigma (k)`$ the power spectrum must be smoothed using a window function, $`W(kR)`$:

$$\sigma ^2(k)=\frac{16}{81}_0^{\mathrm{}}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{k}}{k}\right)^4𝒫_{\zeta _{\mathrm{nad}}}(\stackrel{~}{k})W^2(\stackrel{~}{k}R)\frac{\mathrm{d}\stackrel{~}{k}}{\stackrel{~}{k}}.$$
(13)
The precise form of the window function is not important and we take it to be a gaussian,

$$W(\stackrel{~}{k}R)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{k}^2R^2}{2}\right),$$
(14)
where $`R=1/k=1/aH`$, is the scale of interest, i.e. the Hubble radius at the time the PBHs form.

For $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t=0`$, i.e. immediately after inflation ends before preheating commences, $`I(\kappa ,0)=\kappa _{\mathrm{cut}}^31`$, so that we can calculate $`\sigma (k)`$ approximately analytically. Inserting Eq. (7) into Eq. (13) and defining the dimensionless wavenumber $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }=\stackrel{~}{k}/k_{\mathrm{max}}`$ we find

$`\sigma ^2(k)|_{m\mathrm{\Delta }t=0}{\displaystyle \frac{16}{81}}A\left({\displaystyle \frac{k_{\mathrm{max}}}{k}}\right)^4\left({\displaystyle \frac{k_{\mathrm{max}}}{k_{\mathrm{end}}}}\right)^3\times `$ (15)
$`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^6\mathrm{exp}\left[\left({\displaystyle \frac{k_{\mathrm{max}}}{k}}\right)^2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2\right]d\stackrel{~}{\kappa }.`$ (16)
The integral in Eq. (15) above can be evaluated as

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^6\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{k_{\mathrm{max}}}{k}\right)^2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2\right]𝑑\stackrel{~}{\kappa }=\frac{15}{16}\sqrt{\pi }\left(\frac{k}{k_{\mathrm{max}}}\right)^7,$$
(17)
so that the mass variance squared at the beginning of preheating is given by

$$\sigma ^2(k)|_{m\mathrm{\Delta }t=0}10\sqrt{2\pi }Aq^{\frac{3}{4}}\left(\frac{k}{k_{\mathrm{end}}}\right)^3,$$
(18)
which provides a check for our numerical results below.

## IV Results

We evaluate Eq. (7) numerically using the values of the Hubble parameter $`H`$ and the inflaton $`\varphi `$ at the end of slow roll inflation: $`H_{\mathrm{end}}=m/3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\varphi _{\mathrm{end}}=m_{\mathrm{Pl}}/\sqrt{12\pi }`$.

In Fig. 1 we plot the mass variance at horizon crossing, $`\sigma (k)`$, for several values of $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, versus the dimensionless wavenumber $`k/k_{\mathrm{end}}`$, for the commonly used parameter values $`m=10^6m_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, $`g=10^3`$; for these values $`q6600`$. For $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t=0`$ we reproduce the analytic expression found above, Eq. (18). We find that for $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t35`$ the mass variance $`\sigma (k)`$ exceeds $`\sigma _{\mathrm{thresh}}=0.08`$ on small scales, leading to the overproduction of PBHs. Since $`\sigma (k)`$ is largest on small scales, PBHs are formed most easily immediately after preheating. In this preheating model $`k=aHa^{1/2}`$ and the scale factor grows by at most $`16`$  so that $`k`$ changes by, at most, a factor of 0.25 during preheating. For definiteness we therefore evaluate $`\sigma (k)`$ on the scale $`k_{}=0.25k_{\mathrm{end}}`$. This approach is conservative; we over-estimate the Hubble radius immediately after preheating and consequently also over-estimate the preheating duration neccesary to overproduce PBHs.

In Fig. 2 we plot $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{PBH}}`$, the minimum preheating duration for which the mass variance on small scales exceeds the threshold for PBH overproduction, $`\sigma (k_{})>\sigma _{\mathrm{thresh}}=0.08`$, versus the coupling $`g`$, for two values of the parameter $`q`$, $`q=10^6`$ and $`10^9`$. For comparison we also plot the estimate of the duration of preheating, $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{BR}}`$, found from Eq. (10). Similarly in Fig. 3 we plot $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{PBH}}`$ and $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ as a function of $`g`$ for $`m=10^6m_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$ and $`10^9m_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$. The minimum preheating duration for which PBHs are overproduced, $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t_{\mathrm{PBH}}`$, depends most strongly on the strength of the coupling between the inflaton and preheating fields, $`g`$, decreasing as the coupling increases. We find that, for all sets of parameters investigated, the field fluctuations are amplified sufficiently during preheating that PBHs are overproduced during the subsequent radiation dominated era. The minimum preheating duration for which PBHs are overproduced is at least $`m\mathrm{\Delta }t25`$ smaller than than the duration of the first stage of preheating, during which backreaction is unimportant and the fluctuations undergo exponential amplification.

## V Discussion

In this letter we have investigated primordial black hole formation in the two-field preheating model with a quadratic inflaton potential. Whilst the amplification of the field fluctuations on the scales relevant for structure formation is negligible , the power spectrum of curvature perturbations has a $`k^3`$-spectrum, i.e. the fluctuations are largest on small scales. We find that the fluctuations are amplified sufficiently during preheating, before backreaction is expected to shut-off the resonance, for PBHs to be overproduced during the subsequent radiation dominated era. We emphasize that, in the strong preheating regime, the overproduction occurs irrespective of the strength of the coupling of the inflaton to the preheat field. This constitutes a serious problem for this preheating model.

## Acknowledgements.

We thank Bruce Bassett, Karsten Jedamzik, Andrew Liddle and David Wands for useful discussions. AMG is supported by the PPARC and acknowledges use of the Starlink computer system at QMW, KAM acknowledges the use of the Starlink computer system at Sussex.


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# Ca II activity and rotation in F-K evolved stars,Based on observations collected at ESO, La Silla. Tables 1-3 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html

## 1 Introduction

The study of activity in the external layers of evolved stars is a quite exciting topic, which still needs firm answers to a number of questions. We do not really know how these chromospheres are powered, and what is the precise relationship between the presence of chromospheres and mass losses, with the interesting implications this may have for stellar evolution (see e.g. Cacciari and Freeman 1983, Dupree et al. 1992).

In main sequence stars stellar activity is linked to stellar rotational velocity and to the evolution of the angular momentum (i.e. Pallavicini et al. 1981, Noyes et al. 1984); this last quantity, often neglected in stellar evolutionary theory, is becoming more and more relevant in several aspects, for instance when extra mixing mechanisms are required to explain the evolution of elements like Li, Be and C (see, i.e. Zahn 1992, Charbonnel and Do Nascimento 1998). In general, by studying both chromospheres and angular momentum evolution of evolved stars we also aim at better understanding convection, which is one of the most critical aspects in the modeling of the stellar interior.

In this work we have derived chromospheric fluxes based on high resolution spectroscopy in the K line of Ca II. In addition for almost all stars we have derived stellar rotational velocities; we also use the Hipparcos parallaxes to place the stars in the H-R diagram and we finally use theoretical evolutionary models to estimate stellar masses and to interpret the observed data. In addition to stars in the field we have observed 15 giants belonging to 5 open clusters of different turn-off masses, and we use these data to guide the interpretation of the field stars.

## 2 Observations and Sample

The Ca II observations were obtained at ESO, La Silla in several observing runs in the years 1990-1994. Most observations were obtained at the ESO 1.52m with the Echelec spectrograph (Lindgren 1989), while CASPEC at the ESO 3.6m (Randich and Pasquini 1997) was used to observe the giants in the open clusters IC 4651 and NGC 6067; for both configurations the resolving power obtained was similar, with R$``$22000.

Data reduction was performed by using the echelle context of the MIDAS package; special care was taken in observing several early type stars, to correct properly for the blaze function of the spectrographs, using the recepies described in Pasquini (1992). In the case of the CASPEC observations of NGC 6067, a quite reddened cluster, one early type star belonging to the cluster was observed. This spectrum allowed us to eliminate the strong IS Ca II K line which would otherwise have heavily contaminated our spectra. The spectrum of the early star was fitted, leaving the narrow interstellar absorption line at its position. By dividing the late type star spectra by the early type one, the IS Ca II is therefore eliminated. One example is shown in Figure 1, where the spectrum of the giant CPD-537416 is shown after the correction for the IS line (continuous line) and before (dashed line). The strong IS line, if not considered, would not only alter the chromospheric flux of the cool giants, but also the K line core asymmetry.

The full sample analyzed in this work consists of three different groups:

* Stars published by Pasquini and Brocato (1992, here-after PB92); for these stars CORAVEL rotational velocities and Hipparcos parallaxes are now available.
* 15 Stars belonging to 5 clusters, selected with the aim of covering the largest possible range of ages and turn-off masses. In addition, we also make use of the M67 data from Dupree et al. 1999.
* 45 new Ca II observations of field giants, all of them with measured CORAVEL rotational velocities.

The sample is not complete in any aspect. Most stars were selected because of their bright apparent magnitude, in addition in the new observations several hot giants were observed, because this region in the H-R diagram was not well covered in previous studies. We emphasize, however, that stars were selected neither on the basis of their previously known rotational velocity nor activity level; we should not have therefore inserted any bias with respect to these quantities.

## 3 Data Analysis

For the sample stars, we aim at determining several quantities: chromospheric fluxes, rotational velocities, stellar effective temperatures and absolute magnitudes.

In addition, for our analysis it is essential to have estimates of the stellar masses. To this end we make use of several evolutionary tracks of solar metallicity computed with the updated Padua code (Girardi et al. 2000). The momentum of inertia I has been computed for each of the evolutionary points along the tracks. For this study, no mass losses were considered; we note however that for the low and intermediate mass stars we do not expect mass losses to modify substantially I (and therefore our results) at least if a standard Reimers (1975) mass loss law is assumed (see section 4.4 below).

For all stars Ca II K line chromospheric fluxes are computed following the calibrations of Pasquini et al. (1988) and Linsky et al. (1979), and effective temperatures are derived for all stars following the calibration of Pasquini et al. (1990). More recent Teff temperature calibrations exist, nevertheless the Pasquini et al. (1990) calibration has the advantage that it is based on the V-R (Johnson) color, which is the same used to compute the stellar chromospheric fluxes; since most of our analysis is based on relative scales, this will help in reducing systematic effects. Note also that the effective temperatures derived are used exclusively to infer stellar masses and rotational periods; changes in the temperature scale may therefore have some impact on the correlation coefficient derived, but they will not influence our main conclusions.

Absolute magnitudes were derived by using Hipparcos parallaxes, reddening is relevant only for some bright giants and supergiants (Pasquini et al. 1990); e(V-R) was estimated on the basis of Johnson (1966), then the law e(B-V)=0.66 e(V-R) was applied and finally absolute visual magnitudes were derived by using the standard absorption law A(V)=3.1 e(B-V).

Since from our spectra Wilson-Bappu (1957) magnitudes can be derived and these magnitudes were used in the previous, pre-Hipparcos studies, we have computed Wilson-Bappu Mv for all stars, and compared them with the Hipparcos ones. Most of the observed stars are within 200 pc, and their Hipparcos parallaxes are therefore very accurate. In Figure 2 the comparison between absolute magnitude as computed by using the Wilson-Bappu law following Lutz (1970) (as applied in PB92) and the Hipparcos parallaxes is shown. A systematic trend is present: the W-B law gives systematically brighter magnitudes than Hipparcos. We think that a re-calibration of the Wilson Bappu law with Hipparcos stars would become a powerful tool to infer the absolute magnitude of late type stars.

As far as rotational velocities are concerned, the Vsini measurements were derived from the CORAVEL survey of de Medeiros and Mayor (1999), but several stars have Vsini measured by Gray and coworkers (Gray 1982, 1983, Gray and Pallavicini 1989, Gray and Toner 1987, Gray and Nagar 1985); the claimed accuracy for both analyses is in the range of 0.5-1 km/sec. Since for $``$ 50 stars both CORAVEL and Gray rotational velocities are available, a comparison can be performed, and it is shown in Figure 3. For most stars the agreement between the two sets of measurements is excellent, within 1 km/sec, but discrepancies much larger than the quoted errors exist: the results are consistent with the results of De Medeiros and Mayor (1999) who found for a larger sample of giants and subgiants: Vsini(COR)= -1.15 + 1.18$`\times `$Vsini(Gray); since the CORAVEL measurements are available for all stars, we will adopt them in the following, ensuring an homogeneous data set.

### 3.1 Previously Published stars

PB92 investigated the dependence of Ca II activity from several stellar parameters, using Ca II observations of quality comparable with the present one, and using the same calibration, V-R temperature scale, bolometric corrections by Flower (1977), and determining the stellar reddening following Johnson(1966).

Table 1 contains the updated PB92 data. The differences from PB92 are that absolute magnitudes are now based on the Hipparcos parallaxes and the CORAVEL rotational velocities have been added, as well as a binarity flag, which indicates if the stars are likely single (S), spectroscopic binary (SB) and with known orbit (SBO).

From the PB92 sample, for only 5 stars Vsini measurements were unavailable (all of spectral class M) and these stars are not considered in the present subsample, which therefore consists of 60 stars. Rotational velocities from Gray and collaborators are given, when available. G refers to Gray (1982, 1983), GN to Gray and Nagar (1985), GT to Gray and Toner (1987), GP to Gray and Pallavicini (1989).

### 3.2 Cluster stars

In addition to the field stars, vital information may be obtained by analyzing stars belonging to open clusters, for which basic stellar parameters are better constrained. As part of this project, 15 giants belonging to 5 clusters were observed; the clusters are (ordered as decreasing turn-off masses): NGC 2516, NGC 6067, Praesepe, Hyades, and IC4651. The cluster stars were analyzed in the same way as the field stars, and the same effective temperature scale was adopted.

In Table 2, the data on the observed clusters are presented; turn-off masses, reddening and distance modulus are taken from Meynet and Mermilliod (1993) for NGC 2516 (E(B-V)=0.12, turn-off=4.3M), NGC 6067 (E(B-V)=0.314, turn-off=4.5M) and IC 4651 (E(B-V)=0.08, turn-off= 1.4 M). For Hyades and Praesepe, distances are derived directly from Hipparcos parallaxes; E(B-V)=0 and turn-off=2.05 M have been assumed. Ak refers to the ratio between the Ca II K line core area and the pseudocontinuum at 3950Å (Pasquini et al. 1988), while A(50) refers to the same area, divided by the 3925-3975 bandpass (Linsky et al. 1979).

### 3.3 New Field stars

The last subsample includes the new Echelec observations of field stars. These observations were acquired to enlarge the PB92 sample, both to obtain more stars with measured rotational velocities and to explore Ca II activity among bright (and hot) giants and supergiants, a region of the H-R diagram poorly investigated in previous studies.

Table 3 summarizes the basic data for this subsample; column names are as in Table 1, while Ak and A(50) are as in Table 2. It is worth noticing that for 12 stars no signature of Ca II K line core reversal is observed. All these stars are either rather hot (with (V-R)$`{}_{o}{}^{}0.4`$), or belonging to the Ia supergiant class. We will return to this point in the discussion.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Cluster Stars

The obvious advantage of observing stars in clusters is to eliminate the uncertainties always present in the stellar parameters of field stars. Stars belonging to a cluster can for most purposes be approximated to a homogeneous sample in age, chemical composition, and, when referring to the evolved stars, masses as well. In addition, when observing one cluster, the magnitude and temperature sequence of the stars is usually well defined, at least on a relative scale.

We recall that, since the cluster star observations are processed in the same way as the field stars, they form an homogeneous sample with them; this implies that it should be possible to extend the results of the cluster stars to the field ones.

In Figure 4 Ca II fluxes are shown as a function of the stellar effective temperature. Stars from different clusters are marked with different symbols. In this Figure, in addition to the data of Table 2, the sequence of giants from M67 (Dupree et al. 1999) is added. The M67 data were acquired at a similar spectral resolution and analyzed in a similar way to the present sample. A different Ca II calibration was used, and when the difference between the calibrations is taken into account, the results are in excellent agreement (Dupree et al. 1999); the M67 Ca II fluxes from Dupree et al. (1999) have been corrected to be homogeneous with the present analysis.

Figure 4 confirms the well known trend between stellar activity and effective temperature in evolved stars: the higher the temperature, the higher the chromospheric emission. In addition it can be noticed that:

1. The Hyades giants show a spread of chromospheric fluxes of up to 0.4 dex. Since this difference is known to be largely caused by stellar cycles (Baliunas and Vaughan 1985, see also Stern et al. 1995 for a discussion on the X-ray emission), this first result provides an estimate of the cosmic spread of chromospheric activity in evolved stars: a difference of a few dex can be found even in otherwise almost identical stars.
2. The Hyades and Praesepe giants, which have similar ages, temperatures and masses, also show the same mean level of chromospheric activity. This is reassuring, because it indicates that it may indeed be possible to represent (within the cosmic spread of point 1) chromospheric activity as a function of macroscopic stellar parameters. The fact that the chromospheric levels are the same among Praesepe and Hyades giants is also in very good agreement with the finding by Randich and Schmitt (1995) of a similar X-ray luminosity among the evolved stars of these two clusters.
3. The lower mass RGB stars (IC4651 and M67) form a well defined, narrow sequence with emission slightly lower than the Hyades and Praesepe clump giants, while the M67 clump stars (located at $`\mathrm{log}T_{eff}3.66`$) have fluxes similar to the younger Hyades and Praesepe.
4. It is well known that when field stars are plotted in the same activity-temperature diagram, they show a large spread. In Figure 4 we may observe how, introducing the $``$ 4.3 M stars from NGC 2516 and 6067, the spread is enhanced, in that the more massive stars tend to show higher levels of chromospheric activity for a given Teff than the lower mass stars. In the same Figure the F’k $``$ T$`{}_{eff}{}^{8}\times M`$ relationship found by PB92 is also shown. The continuous line represents what is expected for the Hyades and Praesepe clusters according to this law: the data are well reproduced. In addition the broken line gives the predictions for 4 M stars. Clearly, the high mass clusters confirm these predictions.

### 4.2 Field Stars

The H-R diagram of the field stars observed is given in Figure 5. In this diagram the evolutionary tracks for several masses (1, 1.3, 1.6 2, 3, and 5 M ) are also shown, together with the observed cluster stars (including the M67 stars from Dupree et al. 1999). To make the Figure more readable, cluster stars are grouped in 3 symbols, according to the cluster turn-off masses: stars of NGC 2516 and 6067 as filled pentagons, stars of Hyades and Praesepe as filled squares, stars from M67 and IC4651 as filled triangles. In Figure 5 the continuous lines refer to the RGB, while the broken lines represent the 1 and 1.6 M HB.

Clearly the field stars span a large range in mass and evolutionary status. We also note the good agreement between the cluster turn-off masses as given in Table 2 and those indicated by the evolutionary tracks: differences can be ascribed to the photometry adopted, set of tracks used and to differences in the effective temperature scales adopted. We emphasize that a detailed study of the colour magnitude diagram of these clusters is beyond the scope of the present work, and that for our purposes the agreement shown in Figure 5 is excellent. As expected, there is some degeneracy in allocating masses in the region of the yellow giants, where He-burning Hyades-like and M67-clump like stars tend to group. The spread of stars in this region in fact reflects the age dispersion (and to a lower extent the metallicity dispersion) among the giants in the solar neighborhood (Girardi et al. 1998).

In Figure 5 we only plot those stars of Table 3 with chromospheric emission determination. From Table 3 it emerges clearly that the stars with no detected chromospheric emission are confined to two well determined groups: class Ia supergiants and stars with (V-R) smaller than $``$ 0.4. It is tempting to say that these stars define regions where chromospheric activity is not present, for instance because they are so hot that they do not possess a subphotospheric convective zone. However this cannot be determined uniquely on the basis of the Ca II data, because several causes may make the detection of Ca II emission impossible in these stars:

* For the hot stars high rotational velocities will tend to smear out the Ca II core, and make the detection of the Ca II minima impossible; in addition high photospheric contribution at 3933 Å will also make the contrast in the Ca II core very shallow.
* For the three Ia supergiants, we know that these stars have large line broadening, with atmospheres not in static equilibrium. This line broadening may wipe out the Ca II core, making its detection impossible. It would not be surprising, however, if the atmospheres (or chromospheres, if present at all) of these stars would be very different from those of the other late-type giants forming the sample (see e.g. Achmad et al. 1997).

In Figures 6a,b chromospheric fluxes are shown for all field stars as a function of effective temperature and measured rotational velocity, respectively. Clearly a strong dependence of chromospheric activity on both quantities is present, although with a large scatter.

In Figure 6b two active stars have low rotational velocities. Since our sample contains $``$ 100 stars, some of the objects are expected to have very high inclination angles, and therefore these high activity, low Vsini stars are likely to be pole-on candidates.

Vsini and Teff are on the other hand only slightly correlated in our sample, as shown in Figure 7; this allows us to fit activity with both quantities, obtaining:

$$F_k^{}T_{eff}^\alpha \mathrm{𝑉𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑖}^\beta $$

with $`\alpha `$ = 8.01 $`\pm `$ 0.7 and $`\beta `$ = 0.8 $`\pm `$0.1 and a standard deviation of 0.32 dex. Eliminating from the sample the two pole-on candidates of Figure 6b the fit changes only marginally ($`\alpha `$ = 7.7 and $`\beta `$ = 0.9) with a standard deviation of 0.29 dex. When considering the intrinsic chromospheric variability and all the uncertainties involved in the analysis (including the sini), this can be considered a good representation of the data set. A similar dependence was found by Strassmeier et al. (1994) by analyzing a sample containing normal and active giants.

When comparing this result with that of PB92, we find the same strong dependence of activity on Teff, and a similar scatter in the final relationship. The fact that PB92 found a linear dependence of chromospheric activity on stellar mass and now a similar dependence on Vsini is found, suggests that Vsini should scale with the stellar mass: for the same effective temperature, more massive giants should have higher rotational velocities.

One immediate explanation for the observed correlation is to assume that the dependence on Teff and Vsini represents two well separated mechanisms: the dependence on Teff being a component related to the stellar structure, and the Vsini term representing an additional source of chromospheric heating, likely of magnetic origin. This scheme has been proposed in the past by several authors (see e.g. Rutten and Pylyser 1988 and references therein), and it is natural to associate the ’temperature’ component with that generated by acoustic heating (see e.g. Cuntz et al. 1997). The acoustic theory has been developed in the last 20 years, and some of the most recent works (Buchholz et al. 1998) predict an activity-temperature dependence very close to the one observed. It is not clear to the authors if, for instance, any dependence of acoustic heating should be expected with stellar mass, due to the different internal structure of the stars sharing the same effective temperature.

The presence of stellar cycles in the Hyades giants as well as the measurements of Ca II variability induced by rotational modulation could on the other hand question the relevance of the acoustic heating mechanism and these observed phenomena suggest that acoustic heating may represent only a small fraction of the overall chromospheric heating budget. In the specific case of the Hyades giants for instance, the differences observed would indicate that the magnetic part is at least 4 times higher than the acoustic contribution. The data of the Hyades giants, however tell us also something else: that even if a correlation between activity and Vsini is found, a simple correlation can only have a limited range of accuracy: indeed among the Hyades giants, the difference in measured Vsini is rather small (cfr. Table 2), and their difference in activity cannot likely be ascribed directly to a difference in stellar rotation. This indicates that any activity - rotation relationship, while it can provide with a broad agreement with the observations, it may hide rather complex physical mechanisms, possibly similar to those in force in the sun.

A different approach considers that in the presence of a composite sample, we can divide the sample according to the stellar masses and follow the evolution of the chromospheric activity along each of the evolutionary tracks. For instance it is clear that while a star evolves along its track, its rotational velocity will also evolve, giving a dependence of rotational velocity from effective temperature and the plot of figure 7 could therefore be the result of merging many stars with different masses and evolutionary histories in the same diagram.

In the following we will analyze the data by studying the possible relationship between activity and angular momentum evolution, making use of the evolutionary tracks. A somewhat similar approach was adopted by Rutten and Pylyser (1988); these authors found that the post main sequence evolution of angular momentum and of stellar activity could be, at least qualitatively, explained in terms of angular momentum conservation for the most massive stars, while for stars of 2 M or lower, this law would predict a much too high activity (and rotation rate) for stars having intermediate temperatures. The advantage of using Hipparcos based parallaxes, homogeneously determined chromospheric fluxes and stellar rotational velocities, together with the information coming from the clusters, should provide new hints on this topic.

We have therefore subdivided our sample according to the evolutionary tracks: if stars are closer than 0.01 in Log(Teff) and 0.3 in Mv to the 1, 1.3, 1.6, and 2 M evolutionary tracks, they were given the respective masses. For more massive stars the Mv requirements were relaxed: for 3 M stars all objects within Mv (-0.3 + 0.7) from the track have been given 3 M, while all stars above the 5 M curve and 0.7 magnitudes below it were considered as 5 M stars. Clearly this division suffers from some limitations: for example several stars will be common to two subsamples; in addition, since in this subdivision we have considered only the RGB, in the region of the yellow giants we will attribute higher masses to some clump low mass stars; finally, the 5 M subsample will be more composite than the others.

### 4.3 Empirical relationships for different masses

Under the hypothesis that all stars belonging to a subsample represent different evolutionary stages of objects having otherwise similar characteristics, linear fits of Log F’k vs different quantities performed for the different subsamples will tell us how chromospheric activity will evolve for the stars of a given age (or turnoff mass). We have performed fits of the following form: F’k $``$ Xα, where X can be either the rotational velocity Vsini, the angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ or the effective temperature Teff. The results of the fits are given in Table 4, together with the dispersions.

We can immediately notice that, when subdividing the stars in mass ranges, for the 1.3-3 M samples, the Ca II emission can rather well be represented as a function of Vsini, without any need for an additional parameter, with a dependence of activity on Vsini close to 1. For the 1 M Ca II does not depend on rotational velocity. The 1 M case is very interesting because, as we will see later, taking the data at face value, a rather peculiar angular momentum evolution is required. For the 5 M, while stellar activity depends strongly on Teff, it does not depend on Vsini.

Since Vsini is a quantity which involves the stellar radius, rotational periods could be a more appropriate parameter to represent any rotationally induced effect. We have computed for each star the stellar radius from the data in Tables 1,2,3 and derived periods. The results of the fits are also given in Table 4 and the diagrams are shown in Figure 8. With the exception of the 5 M stars, very good fits can be obtained by using this parameter. Finally, good fits for all our subsamples can be obtained by using Teff as governing parameter.

From Table 4 several points emerge:

a) That the representation of the chromospheric flux is better obtained as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ than Vsini

b) That the Ca II fluxes can be well represented as a function of the angular velocity only, but for stars of $``$ 5 M and above the fit is rather poor. A large slope is required for these stars. A clear drop in the relationship is clearly present in Figure 8 when the coolest supergiants are considered: these stars show higher rotational velocities (or lower Ca II fluxes) than expected from extrapolating the trend given by the hotter stars.

c) While the dependence on Teff can be acceptable for most mass intervals, it may be difficult to explain how this dependence should strongly change in slope among the different subsamples if Teff was the only relevant parameter.

### 4.4 Angular Momentum Evolution

The measured Vsini and the attribution of masses allow also a preliminary analysis of the evolution of the stellar angular momentum. We have computed from the Padua models the momentum of inertia I of the stars along the evolutionary tracks. For spherically symmetric distribution of density $`\rho (r)`$ I is given by:

$$\frac{8\pi }{3}_0^R\rho (r)r^4𝑑r$$
(1)
where $`r`$ is the radial coordinate and R the stellar radius. We recall that the adopted models do not include mass losses, angular momentum redistribution from the interior or braking. In the following we will not perform fits to the observed Vsini, rather we will verify if the observed Vsini distribution can be reproduced in terms of simple scaling laws of the form I$`\mathrm{\Omega }^\beta =Const`$.

#### 4.4.1 Low Mass stars

Figure 9a,b show the rotational velocities for the 1 and 1.6 M stars respectively. The observed Vsini of table 1 and 2 have been multiplied by 4/$`\pi `$ to take into account the projectional effects.

The first striking point is that, if taken at face values, the Vsini of the 1 M stars is independent of the stellar effective temperature and therefore of their evolutionary status. This is at odds with the intuitive picture, from which we would expect that the stars slow down rather quickly after they leave the main sequence and that further deceleration could happen if magnetic braking is at work. In Figures 9a,b the lines represent what is expected from the simplest hypothesis:

$$I\mathrm{\Omega }=Const(M)$$

or V = V$`{}_{o}{}^{}\times 1/I`$

The 1 M curve has been adjusted to reproduce the solar equatorial velocity of 2 km/sec (continuous line in Figure 9a), while for the 1.6 M stars the curve has been adjusted to reproduce the mean distribution of the giants.

Clearly, this simple law does not work for the 1 M stars: giants rotate too fast to obey the angular momentum conservation law. Of course one could consider that the solar zero point is wrong and that a typical solar type star has a rotational velocity as large as twice that of the Sun; but even when considering this case (broken line in Figure 9a) the conservation of angular momentum would predict far too low rotational velocities for the giants. Only with a law of the type I$`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$=Const can the data points be reproduced, as is shown by the dashed dotted line in Figure 9a, which represents the behavior of this law. It is interesting to observe, however, that in case activity and rotational velocities were related, these relatively high Vsini for the low mass stars would explain the relatively high level of activity observed among the globular clusters giants (Dupree et al. 1990, 1994). But we have to stress that the Vsini values measured in these stars are typically of a few km/sec, therefore measurement uncertainties (systematics in particular) could in this regime play a crucial role.

Pending more and more accurate data on 1 M giants, we can conclude that the angular momentum evolution of these low mass stars does not follow a I$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$=Const law, but possibly a more steep one. From the physical point of view it is difficult to explain this behavior: possibly large mass losses in the RGB phase (which are also required for the interpretation of the color-magnitude diagrams of globular clusters) with winds not suffering magnetic backing could explain part of this behavior, but we would expect these mass losses, if at all, to act mostly towards the coolest part of the RGB only.

For the 1.6 M stars the situation is different: the conservation of angular momentum law reproduces very well most stars. To better look into this point, in Figure 9b the rotational velocities of three 1.3-1.6 M stars having measured rotational periods are shown as starred points (Choi et al. 1995). Finally, in the same Figure the filled squares represent the CORAVEL Vsini of stars belonging to the open cluster NGC 3680 (mean of 8 turn-off single stars and mean of 4 single giants, corrected by 4/$`\pi `$, Nordstrom et al. 1996,1997): the agreement between the prediction of the constant angular momentum law derived for the field stars and the NGC 3680 points is impressive.

It is worth recalling that there is a basic structural difference between the 1 and the 1.6 M stars of figure 9a and 9b: the low mass stars present a radiative nucleus and a convective envelope on the main sequence, whereas the opposite situation is found in the more massive stars. This may also produce relevant differences in the evolution of the stellar rotational velocity.

#### 4.4.2  Intermediate mass stars (2-3 M)

Figures 10 a,b show the 2 and 3 M subsamples with, superimposed, the results obtained by assuming angular momentum conservation. The agreement is very good. As in Figure 9b starred points are V as derived from the Choi et al. (1995) periods. The filled squares represent the Hyades and Praesepe measured Vsini. It is worth noticing that out of the Choi et al. stars, 3 are belong to Praesepe and 1 to the Hyades; for these stars we can therefore compare the Vsini with the V derived from the observed periods. Vsini values are systematically lower than the V derived from the periods. The Hyades and Praesepe giants have a mean Vsini of 1.74 km/sec, while for the 4 Praesepe and Hyades giants from Choi the mean V is of 5.4 km/sec. This result indicate that the Coravel Vsini may slightly underestimate the Vsini for these stars, in line with the offset between Coravel and Gray measurements quoted above.

The angular momentum conservation law would predict a V$``$ 65 km/sec for the Hyades turn-off stars, which is comparable to, but lower than the observed mean turn-off velocity of 100$`\pm `$50 km/sec (Gaige 1993). Although we cannot consider this discrepancy as significant (in fact the Hyades turnoff value would be perfectly reproduced if a systematic effect is present and the line was passing through the Choi et al. (1995) points of Figure 10a), still the difference could be due to the simplification adopted in our model; a factor two slow down between turn-off and giant stars is predicted for instance by models adopting internal angular momentum redistribution (Endal and Sofia 1979).

#### 4.4.3  High mass stars (5M)

Figure 11 shows the behavior of the rotational velocity vs. effective temperature for the 5 M stars. Obviously the I$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$=Const law (continuous line) does not represent the data. As for the 1 M stars the distribution of rotational velocities requires a much steeper dependence on the angular velocity. In the same Figure the I$`\mathrm{\Omega }^2`$ = Const law is given, which approximates much better the observations. As found for the Ca II analysis in the previous chapter, the cool supergiants seem to rotate too fast with respect to what is predicted by their hotter ’precursors’. We do not have any explanation for this phenomenon, we caution only that for these stars the nominal uncertainty in Vsini  is likely underestimated, since in these stars other line broadening mechanisms may be comparable or superior to those induced by Vsini .

### 4.5  Consistency

Before deriving any conclusion, we believe that it is important to perform a cross check of the previous analysis. We shall in this section outline a summary of the analysis previously performed.

We have first seen how F’k can be well fitted as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha `$, with $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ derived from Vsini, MBol and Teff as given in tables 1,2,3. As a second step we have investigated the dependence of the observed Vsini on the I$`\omega ^\beta `$ = Const scaling law by using the momentum of inertia I as computed by theoretical models, finding that the data are consistent with $`\beta `$=2 for the 1 and the 5 M stars, and $`\beta `$=1 for the 1.6-3 M stars. Combining these results we expect that for each subsample the derived Ca II chromospheric fluxes should depend on the momentum of inertia I (as computed by the models) according to F’$`{}_{k}{}^{}I^{\alpha /\beta }`$, where $`\alpha `$ for the different subsamples is given in Table 4 and $`\beta `$=1 or 2 depending on the stellar mass subsamples.

We have therefore used the models and the previously determined exponents to verify this consistency and the results are shown in Figures 12a-e for the different mass subsamples. As can readily be seen, the results are very satisfactory, confirming therefore the consistency and the quality of our analysis. We find the results in Figure 12a-e very encouraging, although several improvements could be performed in future studies.

This analysis holds for our sample stars, whose angular momentum behavior is not dominated by those phenomena, like tidal locking, which determine the dynamic behavior in short period binaries. For those cases rotational periods should instead be taken explicitly into account.

## 5 Conclusions

By providing a large, homogeneous sample of Ca II chromospheric fluxes and rotational velocities for field and  cluster F-K giants, thanks to the use of Hipparcos accurate parallaxes and evolutionary tracks, we have found first approximation laws which govern chromospheric activity and angular momentum evolution in F-K giants and supergiants. In particular:

1. Hot giants and Ia supergiants do not show Ca II emission. We cannot conclude from the Ca II only if this is due to the absence of a chromosphere or to other factors (high Vsini, large turbulence)
2. When considering young clusters, the results are in agreement with what is observed by PB92: for a given effective temperature more massive stars tend to have higher chromospheric fluxes than low mass stars.
3. Hyades and Praesepe giants show the same mean level of chromospheric activity, as expected for stars having the same mass and effective temperature.
4. However Hyades stars show a spread of up to 0.5 dex in chromospheric fluxes. This difference shows that stellar cycles produce some ’cosmic’ scatter among stars which are otherwise very similar. This scatter would limit our prediction capabilities even in the absence of measurement errors.
5. When analyzing the whole sample the Ca II fluxes can be well represented by F’k $``$ T$`{}_{eff}{}^{7.7}\times \mathrm{𝑉𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑖}^{0.9}`$ .
6. On dividing the sample into stars of different masses by using evolutionary tracks, we find that we can represent F’k for all subsamples but the 5 M stars as a function of the angular velocity: F’$`{}_{k}{}^{}\mathrm{\Omega }^\alpha `$. Also, in each subsample F’k can be well represented as a function of the stellar effective temperature Teff (cfr. Table 4)
7. By using the momentum of inertia I as deduced by theoretical models we have verified that the observed rotational velocities can be represented by simple I$`\mathrm{\Omega }^\beta `$ = Const laws. 1.6-3 M giants are consistent with angular momentum conservation law ($`\beta `$=1), while for the 1 and 5 M giants a steeper, $`\beta `$=2 law seems more appropriate. (We caution, however, that for different reasons these two samples may be heavily affected by systematics errors in their Vsini measurements).
8. The Vsini data for 1 M stars do not show any dependence on the stellar evolutionary status. This result is at odds with the intuitive expectations.
9. Finally we have checked the consistency of our analysis and we have been able to reproduce the observed Ca II chromospheric fluxes F’k as a function of the theoretical momentum of inertia using the results from the above analysis: F’$`{}_{k}{}^{}I^{\alpha /\beta }`$.

As far as the mechanism governing stellar activity in giant stars is concerned, our analysis shows how, with two macroscopic parameters, it is possible to determine the level of chromospheric activity in evolved stars. This can be explained in two alternative ways:

a) Chromospheres are powered by two mechanisms: one dependent on the stellar rotational velocity and one on the stellar effective temperature.

b) Evolved stars of the same mass tend to behave similarly, having similar angular momentum for a given position on the evolutionary tracks. The angular momentum evolution is however different for stars of different masses and angular velocity and mass are the only parameters determining the level of activity.

We stress that some of the present uncertainties could be dissipated by observing subgiants and giants in well populated clusters. A full self consistent analysis (e.g. including fitting of the C-M diagram) with the theoretical models would reveal which of the above interpretations is correct. Also, measurements of rotational periods in many more giants and supergiants will be fundamental in assessing systematic uncertainties in the Vsini measurements.

###### Acknowledgements.

A large part of this work was prepared during the stay of LP at UFRN in Natal. This work has been possible thanks to the ESO DGDF and Brazilian agency CNPq grants. The work of LG was funded by the Alexander von Humboldt stiftung. We are grateful to L. Achmad for his help in the data reduction and P. Bristow for a careful reading of the manuscript.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Let $`M`$ be a connected complex manifold of dimension $`n`$ and let $`\text{Aut}(M)`$ denote the group of holomorphic automorphisms of $`M`$. The group $`\text{Aut}(M)`$ is a topological group equipped with the natural compact-open topology. We are interested in the problem of characterizing $`M`$ by $`\text{Aut}(M)`$. This problem becomes particularly intriguing when $`\text{Aut}(M)`$ is infinite-dimensional.

Let, for example, $`M=\mathrm{}^n`$ and suppose that $`M^{}`$ is such that $`\text{Aut}(M^{})`$ is isomorphic as a topological group to $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$; is it then true that $`M^{}`$ is biholomorphically equivalent to $`\mathrm{}^n`$?

In \[IK\] we gave a positive answer to the above question, and the proof there followed from a general classification of all connected $`n`$-dimensional complex manifolds that admit effective actions of the unitary group $`U_n`$ by holomorphic transformations. In this paper we give a simpler proof in the case of Stein manifolds. This proof does not require considering the whole group $`U_n`$, but relies only on linearization of the induced action of the torus $`\mathrm{𝕋}^nU_n`$ \[BBD\].

In this paper we prove the following theorem.

###### THEOREM 1.1

Let $`M`$ be a connected Stein manifold of dimension $`n`$ and suppose that $`\text{Aut}(M)`$ and $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ are isomorphic as topological groups (both groups are considered with the compact-open topology). Then $`M`$ is biholomorphically equivalent to $`\mathrm{}^n`$.

## 2 Proof of Theorem

The theorem is obvious for $`n=1`$, so we assume that $`n2`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }:\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)\text{Aut}(M)`$ be an isomorphism. The group $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ contains the subgroup $`\mathrm{}^n`$, i.e., all transformations of the form

$$(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)(\lambda _1z_1,\mathrm{},\lambda _nz_n),$$
(2.1)
with $`\lambda :=(\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _n)\mathrm{}^n`$ and $`z:=(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)\mathrm{}^n`$. Therefore $`\mathrm{}^n`$ acts on $`M`$ with the action mapping $`F:\mathrm{}^n\times MM`$ defined as follows:

$$F(\lambda ,p):=\mathrm{\Phi }(\lambda )(p),$$

for $`\lambda \mathrm{}^n`$, $`pM`$. This action is clearly effective on $`M`$. Since $`F`$ is continuous in $`(\lambda ,p)`$ and holomorphic in $`p`$, it is in fact real-analytic in $`(\lambda ,p)`$ \[BM\].

We will now prove the following proposition which is of independent interest and holds for manifolds more general than Stein manifolds.

###### Proposition 2.1

Let $`M`$ be a connected manifold of complex dimension $`n`$ whose envelope of holomorphy is smooth, and suppose that $`M`$ admits an effective action of $`\mathrm{}^n`$ by holomorphic transformations. Then $`M`$ is biholomorphically equivalent to either $`\mathrm{}^n`$, or $`\mathrm{}^n\{0\}`$, or $`\mathrm{}^n`$ without some coordinate hyperplanes:

$$\mathrm{}^n_{k=1}^r\{z_{i_k}=0\},r1.$$
(2.2)
Proof: Let as above $`F:\mathrm{}^n\times MM`$ denote the action of $`\mathrm{}^n`$ on $`M`$. Consider the restriction of the action to the torus $`\mathrm{𝕋}^n:=\{(\lambda _1,\mathrm{},\lambda _n)\mathrm{}^n:|\lambda _j|=1\text{for all }j\}`$. It follows from \[BBD\] that there exists a holomorphic embedding $`\alpha :M\mathrm{}^n`$ such that $`D:=\alpha (M)`$ is a Reinhardt domain and the induced action $`G(\lambda ,z)=(G_1(\lambda ,z),\mathrm{},G_n(\lambda ,z)):=\alpha (F(\lambda ,\alpha ^1(z)))`$ of $`\mathrm{𝕋}^n`$ on $`D`$ has the form

$$G_j(\lambda ,z)=e^{i(a_{j1}\lambda _1+\mathrm{}+a_{jn}\lambda _n)}z_j,$$

where $`\lambda \mathrm{𝕋}^n`$, $`zD`$ and $`a_{jk}`$ are fixed integers such that $`det(a_{jk})=\pm 1`$.

Let $`F_\alpha :\mathrm{}^n\times DD`$ be the induced action of $`\mathrm{}^n`$ on $`D`$:

$$F_\alpha (\lambda ,z):=\alpha (F(\lambda ,\alpha ^1(z))),$$

for $`\lambda \mathrm{}^n`$, $`zD`$. Denote by $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha :\mathrm{}^n\text{Aut}(D)`$ the corresponding homomorphism:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (\lambda )(z)=F_\alpha (\lambda ,z),$$

for $`\lambda \mathrm{}^n`$, $`zD`$. Since $`G`$ and $`F_\alpha `$ coincide on $`\mathrm{𝕋}^n`$, it follows that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (\mathrm{𝕋}^n)`$ consists precisely of all mappings of the form (2.1) with $`|\lambda _1|=\mathrm{}=|\lambda _n|=1`$, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (\mathrm{𝕋}^n)=\mathrm{𝕋}^n`$. Let $`C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n)`$ denote the centralizer of $`\mathrm{𝕋}^n`$ in $`\text{Aut}(D)`$, i.e.,

$$C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n):=\{f\text{Aut}(D):ft=tf\text{for all }t\mathrm{𝕋}^n\}.$$

Since $`\mathrm{}^n`$ is commutative, we have $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha (\mathrm{}^n)C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n)`$.

We now need the following lemma.

###### Lemma 2.2

Every element of $`C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n)`$ has the the form (2.1), i.e., $`C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n)\mathrm{}^n`$.

Proof: Let $`f=(f_1,\mathrm{},f_n)C(\mathrm{𝕋}^n)`$. Then we have

$$f_j(e^{i\theta _1}z_1,\mathrm{},e^{i\theta _n}z_n)=e^{i\theta _j}f_j(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n),j=1,\mathrm{},n,$$
(2.3)
for all $`\theta _1,\mathrm{},\theta _n\mathrm{}`$ and $`zD`$. In particular, for every fixed $`j`$ we have

$$f_j(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{k1},e^{i\theta }z_k,z_{k+1},\mathrm{},z_n)=f_j(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n),$$

for all $`\theta \mathrm{}`$, $`kj`$, which implies that $`f_j`$ depends only on $`z_j`$ (we will write $`f_j=f_j(z_j))`$. Then (2.3) gives

$$f_j(e^{i\theta }z_j)=e^{i\theta }f_j(z_j),$$
(2.4)
for all $`\theta \mathrm{}`$. Differentiating (2.4) with respect to $`z_j`$ we get

$$f_j^{}(e^{i\theta }z_j)=f_j^{}(z_j),$$

which implies that $`f_j^{}\text{const}`$ and thus $`f_j=\lambda _jz_j`$, $`\lambda _j\mathrm{}^{}`$.

The lemma is proved. $`\mathrm{}`$

Lemma 2.2 gives that $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha `$ is a continuous homomorphism from $`\mathrm{}^n`$ into itself, and thus is a Lie group homomorphism (see, e.g, \[W\]). Further, since $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\alpha `$ is injective, it is in fact an automorphism of $`\mathrm{}^n`$. In particular, $`D`$ is invariant under all mappings of the form (2.1), and thus $`D`$ is either $`\mathrm{}^n`$ or, $`\mathrm{}^n\{0\}`$, or a domain of the form (2.2).

The proposition is proved. $`\mathrm{}`$

We will now show that the automorphism groups of $`\mathrm{}^n`$ and any domain of the form (2.2) are not isomorphic as topological groups. This is a consequence of the following observation.

###### Lemma 2.3

For $`n2`$ we have

(i) $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ is connected;

(ii) If $`D`$ is a domain of the form (2.2), then $`\text{Aut}(D)`$ is disconnected.

Proof: Following \[AL\], we consider special automorphisms of $`\mathrm{}^n`$ called overshears:

$$(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1},f(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1})+h(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1})z_n),$$
(2.5)
where $`f,h`$ are entire functions on $`\mathrm{}^{n1}`$ and $`h`$ is nowhere zero. Let $`G(\mathrm{}^n)`$ denote the subgroup of $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ generated by overshears (2.5) and permutations of coordinates. It is proved in \[AL\] that $`G(\mathrm{}^n)`$ is dense in $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$. We will show that every element of $`G(\mathrm{}^n)`$ can be joined with the identity by a continuous path in $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$. For a mapping of the form (2.5) we choose a path $`\gamma (t)`$ as follows:

$`\gamma (t)(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n):=(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1},(1t)f(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1})+h^{1t}(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{n1})z_n),`$
$`0t1.`$
Further, for the permutation of $`z_j`$ and $`z_k`$ we choose (assuming $`j<k`$)

$`\gamma (t)(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n):=`$
$`(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{j1},(1t)z_k+tz_j,z_{j+1},\mathrm{},z_{k1},`$
$`tz_k+[(1t)+if(t)]z_j,z_{k+1},\mathrm{},z_n),0t1,`$
where $`f`$ is a real-valued continuous function on $`[0,1]`$ such that $`f(0)=f(1)=0`$ and $`f(1/2)0`$.

Therefore, $`G(\mathrm{}^n)`$ lies in the identity component of $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ and hence $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ does not in fact have any other connected components. Thus, $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ is connected, and (i) is proved.

Let $`D`$ be a domain of the form (2.2). Choose $`1sr`$ and $`pD`$. Let $`L_p`$ be the complex affine line in $`\mathrm{}^n`$ orthogonal to the hyperplane $`\{z_s=0\}`$ and passing through $`p`$. Denote by $`q`$ the point of intersection of $`L_p`$ and $`\{z_s=0\}`$. Next, we choose a closed curve $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ in $`L_pD`$ around $`q`$ and define a subset of $`\text{Aut}(D)`$ as:

$$A:=\{(f_1,\mathrm{},f_n)\text{Aut}(D):\frac{1}{2\pi i}_\mathrm{\Gamma }\frac{\widehat{f}_s^{}}{\widehat{f}_s}𝑑z_s<0\},$$

where $`\widehat{f}_s:=f_s|_{L_p}`$ and $`\widehat{f}_s^{}`$ denotes the derivative of $`\widehat{f}_s`$ with respect to $`z_s`$. The subset $`A`$ is clearly open in $`\text{Aut}(D)`$. It is also closed in $`\text{Aut}(D)`$ since the integrals in its definition are integers. It is non-empty since it contains the automorphism

$$(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)(z_1,\mathrm{},z_{s1},\frac{1}{z_s},z_{s+1},\mathrm{},z_n).$$

And obviously $`A\text{Aut}(D)`$ since the identity mapping is not in $`A`$. Therefore, $`\text{Aut}(D)`$ is disconnected, and (ii) is proved. $`\mathrm{}`$

It now follows from Lemma 2.3 that $`\text{Aut}(\mathrm{}^n)`$ and $`\text{Aut}(D)`$ are not isomorphic as topological groups, and hence $`M`$ is not equivalent to $`D`$. Further, since $`M`$ is Stein and $`\mathrm{}^n\{0\}`$ is not, Proposition 2.1 gives that $`M`$ is biholomorphically equivalent to $`\mathrm{}^n`$, and the theorem is proved. $`\mathrm{}`$

Centre for Mathematics and Its Applications
The Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200
AUSTRALIA
E-mail address: Alexander.Isaev@anu.edu.au