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# Using kaon regeneration to probe the quark mixing parameter cos{2𝛽} in 𝐵→𝜓𝐾 decays

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## Abstract

We suggest a novel method to determine the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ in the decays $`B\psi K`$, by creating interference between $`K_L`$ and $`K_S`$ final states via “regeneration,” that is propagation through a matter target region to convert some $`K_L`$ to $`K_S`$. The determination of this quantity resolves an ambiguity between $`\beta `$ and $`90^{}\beta `$ that remains after the standard measurements of $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ and may turn out to be important in resolving whether the result is in agreement with Standard Model predictions or indicates the presence of new physics. We find the measurement is feasible at a $`B`$-factory, but requires several years of high-luminosity running with a regeneration target affecting a significant fraction of the detector.

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The determination of the parameters of the quark-mixing or Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM)  matrix as a consistency test of the Standard Model is a priority in current high-energy physics research. The BaBar  and Belle  collaborations have announced preliminary results from the study of the CP-violating asymmetry in the decay $`B^0\psi K_S`$  which attain a precision comparable to the earlier CDF measurement . Eventually, these and other experiments will provide us with an accurate and clean determination of the CKM-parameter $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$. Unfortunately, knowledge of $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ only determines the angle $`\beta `$ up to a four-fold ambiguity, meaning that new physics could be hiding under an apparent confirmation of the Standard Model . A measurement of the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ would remove the $`\beta 90^{}\beta `$ ambiguity.

The interference between the $`K_S`$ and the $`K_L`$ decays to $`\pi \pi `$ in principle provides enough information in the time-dependence of the decay chain $`B\psi K\psi (\pi \pi )_K`$ to extract $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$. However, the CP suppression of the $`K_L\pi \pi `$ decay makes such a measurement unrealistic. Kayser has suggested the use of semileptonic kaon decays to avoid the CP suppression, but this again leads to tiny effects because of the small $`K_S\pi \mathrm{}\nu `$ branching ratio .

Here we propose to utilize neutral kaon regeneration to enhance the $`K_S`$$`K_L`$ interference, leading to a measurement of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ in the decay $`B\psi K\psi (\pi \pi )_K`$ that does not suffer from CP suppression nor from small branching ratios. Regeneration hinges on the fact that the eigenstates in matter and in vacuum do not coincide. They are related through $`K_L^{}K_L+rK_S`$ and $`K_S^{}K_SrK_L`$, where

$$r=\frac{\pi N}{m_K}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }f}{\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda }$$
(1)
is the regeneration parameter. Here, $`N`$ is the density of scattering centers, $`\mathrm{\Delta }f=f\overline{f}`$, $`f`$ ($`\overline{f}`$) is the elastic forward scattering amplitude of $`K^0`$ ($`\overline{K^0}`$), whose imaginary part is related by the optical theorem to the total cross section $`\sigma _T`$ ($`\overline{\sigma }_T`$), $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =\mathrm{\Delta }m_Ki\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_K/2=\lambda _L\lambda _S`$, and $`\lambda _n=m_ni\mathrm{\Gamma }_n/2`$ are the vacuum eigenvalues corresponding to the two kaon mass eigenstates with masses $`m_n`$ and widths $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ for $`n=S`$ and $`n=L`$. We use the approximation $`m_K=(m_L+m_S)/2`$.

Consider the situation depicted schematically in Fig. 1, where an initial $`|B^0`$ state evolves at proper $`t_B`$ as

$`e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_Bt_B/2}|B^0(t_B)=\mathrm{cos}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B/2\right)|B^0`$ (2)
$`+q_B/p_B\mathrm{sin}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B/2\right)|\overline{B^0}.`$ (3)
Here $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_B`$ is the difference between the masses of the two $`B`$ mass eigenstates $`B_H`$ and $`B_L`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_B`$ is their average width (the difference can be neglected), and $`q_B/p_B`$ is defined via the relation $`|B_{H,L}=p_B|B^0\pm q_B|\overline{B^0}`$. At time $`t_B`$ the $`B`$ mixture decays into a $`\psi `$ and a kaon.

The resulting kaon state is given by $`|K_{\mathrm{from}B^0(t_B)}=\psi K^0|T|B^0(t_B)|K^0+\psi \overline{K^0}|T|B^0(t_B)|\overline{K^0}`$, which may be rewritten as $`\alpha _S^0|K_S+\alpha _L^0|K_L`$, with

$`\sqrt{2}\alpha _{L,S}^0=A(B^0\psi K^0)e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_Bt_B/2}\times `$ (4)
$`\left[\mathrm{cos}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B/2\right)e^{i\beta }\pm i\mathrm{sin}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B/2\right)e^{i\beta }\right].`$ (5)
We have used Eq. (3), written the kaon states in terms of the mass eigenstates, and used $`q_B/p_BA(\overline{B^0}\psi \overline{K^0})/A(B^0\psi K^0)p_K/q_K=\mathrm{exp}(2i\beta )`$ .

We now consider the evolution of this kaon state. The short- and long-lived components evolve independently until the kaon hits the regenerator at kaon proper time $`\tau _1`$, at which time $`\alpha _n(\tau _1)=\mathrm{exp}(i\lambda _n\tau _1)\alpha _n^0`$, with $`n=S,L`$. These components mix as the kaon state evolves through matter, until proper time $`\tau _2=\tau _1+\delta \tau `$ when the kaon emerges from the regenerator of length $`L`$. The kaon components at that instant may be written as ,

$$\alpha _i(\tau _2)=e^{N(\sigma _T+\overline{\sigma }_T)L/4}e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_S\delta \tau /2}\underset{j}{}m_{ij}\alpha _j(\tau _1),$$
(6)
where $`i,j=S,L`$. To linear order in $`r`$, we have $`m_{SS}1`$, $`m_{SL}m_{LS}r\left[\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \delta \tau )1\right]`$, and $`m_{LL}\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \delta \tau )`$. Thenceforth the two components evolve independently again according to $`\alpha _n(\tau )=\mathrm{exp}[i\lambda _n(\tau \tau _2)]\alpha _n(\tau _2)`$. At proper time $`\tau _K`$ the kaon state decays into $`f_K`$.

Factoring out the $`K_S`$ lifetime and decay rate, we obtain that the total decay rate (which we denote by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)`$) is given by the expected normalization factors $`1/2`$ $`e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_Bt_B}`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[B^0\psi K^0]`$ $`e^{N(\sigma _T+\overline{\sigma }_T)L/2}`$ $`e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_S\tau _K}\mathrm{\Gamma }[K_Sf_K]`$ multiplied by

$`|a_{SS}+\eta a_{LS}|^2\left[1\mathrm{sin}2\beta \mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B)\right]`$ (7)
$`+|a_{SL}+\eta a_{LL}|^2\left[1+\mathrm{sin}2\beta \mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B)\right]`$ (8)
$`+2\mathrm{I}m\left[(a_{SS}+\eta a_{LS})(a_{SL}+\eta a_{LL})^{}\right]\mathrm{cos}2\beta \mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B)`$ (9)
$`+2\mathrm{R}e\left[(a_{SS}+\eta a_{LS})(a_{SL}+\eta a_{LL})^{}\right]\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B).`$ (10)
We have defined $`\eta =A(K_Lf_K)/A(K_Sf_K)`$,$`a_{SS}`$ = $`m_{SS}`$, $`a_{SL}`$ = $`m_{SL}\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \tau _1)`$, $`a_{LS}`$ = $`\mathrm{exp}[i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (\tau _K`$$``$$`\tau _2)]m_{LS}`$, and $`a_{LL}`$ = $`\mathrm{exp}[i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda (\tau _K`$$``$$`\tau _2`$)\]$`m_{LS}\mathrm{exp}(i\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda \tau _1`$). The second (first) sub-index in $`a_{ij}`$ indicates the vacuum eigenstate before the kaon state reaches (after it leaves) the regenerator. Eq. (10) and the relations between $`a_{ij}`$ and $`m_{ij}`$ are valid for any value of $`r`$. However, when $`r`$ is large we must use the complete expressions of the $`m_{ij}`$ in terms of $`r`$, which can be found in Ref. . A similar expression applies for $`\overline{B}`$ decays, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)`$, with the sign of all $`\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B)`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_Bt_B)`$ terms reversed.

Kayser  has considered the case without a regenerator. In that case, $`a_{SL}`$, $`a_{LS}`$, $`L`$, and $`\delta \tau `$ vanish. The first line in Eq. (10) is proportional to $`e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_S\tau _K}\mathrm{\Gamma }[K_Sf_K]`$; it arises from the decay path $`B^0\psi K_S\psi f_K`$. It shows how one measures $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ in the CP-violating asymmetry of $`B^0\psi K_S`$. The second line, proportional to $`e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_L\tau _K}\mathrm{\Gamma }[K_Lf_K]`$, arises from the decay path $`B^0\psi K_L\psi f_K`$ and shows that the CP-violating asymmetry in $`B^0\psi K_L`$ has the opposite sign to the asymmetry in $`B^0\psi K_S`$. At intermediate times these two paths interfere and one has access to the $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ term on the third line, which in vacuum is given by $`2|\eta |\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_K\tau _K/2)\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_K\tau _K\mathrm{arg}\eta )`$ . This interference vanishes with $`\eta `$ and is maximized for semileptonic decays, where $`|\eta |1`$. A simple estimate shows that measuring $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ in $`B\psi (\pi \mathrm{}\nu )_K`$ should require around a few hundred to a thousand times as many events as the measurement of $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ from $`B\psi K_S`$ .

One advantage of using a regenerator is that the interference term exists even when $`\eta =0`$. Indeed, in that case the third line of Eq. (10) becomes proportional to $`2|r|\left[\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_K\tau _2/2)\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_K\tau _2\mathrm{arg}r)\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }_K\tau _1/2)\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Delta }m_K\tau _1\mathrm{arg}r)\right]`$, which determines the asymmetry arising from the $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ term. Since $`\tau _2\tau _1=Lm_K/p_K`$ (where $`p_K`$ is the momentum of the kaon), this term is related to the matter absorption $`\mathrm{exp}[N(\sigma _T+\overline{\sigma }_T)L/2]`$ which determines the rate. To achieve the maximum sensitivity to $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ we must find the optimal balance between the two effects.

The observable of interest is the decay rate asymmetry

$$A_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)=\frac{\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)}{\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta (t_B,\tau _K)},$$
(11)
shown in Fig. 2 for a kaon momentum of 2 GeV/$`c`$ and $`t_B`$ fixed at the mean $`B`$ lifetime, in comparison with the asymmetry obtained with Kayser’s semileptonic method, where the rate is very small.

It is convenient to integrate the decay rates behind the regenerator as the dependence on the kaon decay time contains little information on $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ compared to the regeneration effect. Neglecting the small contributions from $`K_L2\pi `$ decays, the asymmetry simply becomes

$$A_\beta ^{\text{reg}}(t_B)=\frac{\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_\beta (t_B,\tau _2)\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta (t_B,\tau _2)}{\overline{\mathrm{\Gamma }}_\beta (t_B,\tau _2)+\mathrm{\Gamma }_\beta (t_B,\tau _2)}.$$
(12)
We assume that $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ will be known with good precision by the time such an experiment will be considered. The experimental task will then consist in determining which of the two hypotheses, $`\beta `$ or $`90^{}\beta `$, is favored by the data. To compare the probabilities of the two hypotheses we calculate the logarithm of the likelihood ratio ,

$`\mathrm{log}(t_B)dt_B`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}n_\beta (t_B)dt_B{\displaystyle \underset{k=\pm 1}{}}(1+kA_\beta ^{\text{reg}}(t_B))`$ (14)
$`\times \mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+kA_\beta ^{\text{reg}}(t_B)}{1+kA_{90^{}\beta }^{\text{reg}}(t_B)}}\right)`$
where $`n_\beta (t_B)dt_B`$ denotes the total number of $`K2\pi `$ decays behind the regenerator for which the $`K`$ originates from a $`B`$ that decayed in the time interval $`[t_B,t_B+dt_B]`$. Integration over the $`B`$ decay time yields the average likelihood ratio:

$$\mathrm{log}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_B_0^{\mathrm{}}e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_Bt_B}\mathrm{log}(t_B)𝑑t_B$$
(15)
The average likelihood ratio is a good measure of the expected discrimination power of an experiment and therefore may be used as a figure of merit to optimize the regenerator geometry.

To obtain a first estimate of the number of events needed to establish the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ we calculate $`\mathrm{log}`$ for a tungsten regenerator of varying thickness at varying distance. We propose tungsten for this experiment because it gives large regeneration effects. Since the elastic forward scattering amplitudes $`f`$ and $`\overline{f}`$ for $`K^0`$ and $`\overline{K^0}`$ in tungsten are not known, we use an empirical scaling law as determined by Gsponer and collaborators from their measurements in C, Al, Cu, Sn, and Pb for kaon momenta between 20 to 150 GeV/$`c`$. They found that $`(\sigma _T+\overline{\sigma }_T)/2\sigma _T(K_L)`$ = 23.5 mb ($`A`$/g mol-1)0.840  and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }f|`$ = 1.13 fm ($`A`$/g mol-1)0.758 ($`p_K`$/GeV$`c^1`$)0.386 . The last result exhibits a power law momentum dependence in accordance with Regge theory , which also predicts that $`\mathrm{arg}\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ should be constant and given by $`(1+0.386)\pi /2=0.693\pi `$ . As a result, $`r`$ = 0.033 $`e^{i0.049\pi }`$ ($`\rho `$/g cm-3) ($`A`$/g mol-1)-0.242 ($`p_K`$/GeV$`c^1`$)0.386 where $`\rho `$ is the density of the material used. The power-law approximation is fairly good down to a few GeV/$`c`$ momentum, where low-energy resonances set in . Such resonances can enhance or degrade regeneration effects, but are not expected to alter significantly the conclusions of this work. At an asymmetric $`e^+e^{}`$ collider operating at the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ resonance the average kaon momentum from $`B\psi K`$ decays lies around 2 GeV/$`c`$, so that $`r`$ = 0.24 $`e^{i0.049\pi }`$ for tungsten.

Using these numbers we find that for $`\beta =0^{}`$ ($`\mathrm{sin}2\beta =0`$), $`\mathrm{log}`$ has a rather broad maximum for regenerator distances around $`R_{\text{opt}}`$ = 17.3 cm and thicknesses of about $`L_{\text{opt}}`$ = 11.9 cm. For this case, $`\mathrm{log}`$ equals 0.006

times the total number of (flavor-tagged) $`B\psi K`$ decays with the $`K`$ aiming at the regenerator. This means that in order to get a likelihood ratio of 370 (corresponding to a 3$`\sigma `$ separation) one would need about 980 such events. If $`\beta =70^{}`$ ($`\mathrm{sin}2\beta =0.7`$), the optimum position and thickness are not much different, but $`\mathrm{log}`$ drops by a factor of 1.7. Table 1 contains more examples at different kaon momenta and can be used to estimate the requirements at various facilities. At high momenta regeneration effects become smaller and more events are needed to probe $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$.

A more realistic estimate of the statistical requirements needs to take into account experiment-specific details such as the geometry of the detector and the phase space occupied by the kaons from the $`B`$ decays. As an example, we have modeled regenerator geometry as a cylinder in the BaBar detector.

At BaBar, 9 GeV electrons collide with 3.1 GeV positrons, copiously producing $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs via the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)`$ resonance. The tight constraints between the kaon momentum and the polar angle due to the kinematics of the decay chain $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4S)B\overline{B}`$ followed by $`B\psi K`$ allow us to optimize the position and thickness of the regenerator. In this experiment one $`B`$ decays to a flavor-identifying mode, or tag, and the other to $`\psi K`$. In this case Eq. (15) becomes $`\mathrm{log}=\mathrm{\Gamma }_B_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }_B|t|}\mathrm{log}(t)𝑑t`$, where $`t=t_{\psi K}t_{\text{tag}}`$ is the time between the two decays. The value $`\mathrm{log}`$ is maximal for the 9 cm thick cylindrical regenerator placed at a radius of 5 cm and a polar angle of $`120^{}`$. At this point each kaon aimed at the regenerator contributes 0.008 to $`\mathrm{log}`$ which implies that about 600 perfectly tagged events would achieve a 3$`\sigma `$ separation between $`\beta =0^{}`$ and $`\beta =90^{}`$. For a regenerator occupying 25% of the instrumented solid angle around the optimal point, we estimate that (with a merged $`J/\psi `$ and $`\psi (2S)`$ sample) a luminosity of about 300 fb-1 would be needed to reach 3$`\sigma `$ separation, where we have used the reconstruction efficiency and effective tagging efficiency currently achieved by BaBar  and assumed that tagging particles that hit the regenerator are lost. If $`\beta =70^{}`$ then about 600 fb-1 would be needed.

We have also briefly considered the application of this method at a hadron collider experiment where hundreds of thousands of reconstructed $`\psi K`$ decays and an effective tagging efficiency of $``$10% are expected. However, this statistical advantage is offset by the reduction in the size of the regeneration effect, because the difference between the $`K^0`$ and the $`\overline{K^0}`$ cross sections drops with momentum (see Table 1) and because the broad spectrum of kaon momentum makes it impossible to design a regenerator optimal for all decays. A regenerator optimized for 2 GeV$`/c`$ averages about 38% of its optimum for momenta between 1 and 10 GeV/$`c`$. So, an experiment carried out in the central region where kaon momenta are modest might be more effective.

In passing we would like to point out that a tungsten target inside the detector would not only act as a regenerator, but also as a strangeness indicator via reactions such as $`\overline{K^0}nK^{}p`$ or $`\overline{K^0}p\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^+`$ etc. The outgoing strange particle unambiguously identifies the strangeness of the neutral kaon at the time of the interaction in the regenerator, just as the lepton from a semileptonic decay tags the strangeness at the time of decay, allowing us to apply Kayser’s method with considerably higher statistics. Comparing Figs. 2b and 2c we see that an optimized regenerator would also be in the right position for this method to be sensitive to $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$. Depending on the capability of the detector to reconstruct and identify such events, combined analysis of the two effects may substantially reduce the number of events needed to determine the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$.

If the measurement of the sign of $`\mathrm{cos}2\beta `$ becomes an issue of significant interest, then the method suggested here offers an opportunity to measure it at a high-luminosity $`B`$-factory. It requires insertion of a tungsten target deep inside the detector, affecting a significant portion of the detector solid angle. Thus it is not without cost for other physics measurements, so it will be a question of competing priorities to decide whether to implement this approach. Similar considerations will apply in a hadronic $`B`$-physics experiment, but detailed simulation of the actual situation is needed before one can say which configuration of machine, target and detector offers the best choice for this measurement.

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC03-76SF00515. The work of J. P. S. is supported in part by Fulbright, Instituto Camões, and by the Portuguese FCT, under grant PRAXIS XXI/BPD/20129/99 and contract CERN/S/FIS/1214/98.


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# Untitled Document

August 2000

Lumps in level truncated open string field theory

Robert de Mello Koch and João P. Rodrigues

Department of Physics and Center for Nonlinear Studies,

University of the Witwatersrand,

Wits, 2050, South Africa

robert,joao@physnet.phys.wits.ac.za

The ratios of the masses of $`D\left(pd\right)`$ branes to the masses of $`Dp`$ in open bosonic string field theory are computed within the modified level truncation approximation of Moeller, Sen and Zweibach. At the lowest non-trivial truncation requiring the addition of new primary states, we find evidence of rapid convergence to the expected result for $`2d6`$ providing additional evidence for the consistency of this approximation.

There is growing evidence that open string field theory provides a direct approach to study string theory tachyons. This recent progress has been possible as a result of Sen’s conjecture that there is an extremum of the tachyon potential at which the total negative potential energy exactly cancels the tension of the $`D`$-brane and that lump solutions are identified with lower dimensional branes\[1,,2\]. These conjectures have been extended for tachyons living on coincident $`D`$-brane anti-$`D`$-brane pairs and for tachyons on the non-BPS $`D`$-branes of type IIA or IIB superstring theories\[3,,4,,5,,6,,7,,8\]. These conjectures provide precise predictions which can be used to test and develop approximation techniques in open string field theory. The results obtained thus far are impressive\[9,,10,,11,,12,,13,,14,,15,,16,,17,,18,,19,,20\]. In particular, the level truncation approximation has proved to be powerful in this context. The original argument for level truncation appeared in the unpublished work and was subsequently used by Samuel and Kostelecky to study the vacuum structure of string field theory. In this article, we are interested in a variant of the level truncation scheme, introduced by Moeller, Sen and Zweibach (MSZ). Within this scheme, MSZ were able to compute the ratio of the mass of a $`D(p1)`$-brane to a $`Dp`$-brane to an impressive accuracy of about 1%!1 By turning on a large $`B`$ field the description of tachyon condensation can be drastically simplified. In this limit, the tension computed from tachyonic solitons exactly agree with the expected $`D`$-brane tensions.

This ratio was computed in  in the field theory limit and good agreement with the expected result was obtained. Indeed, the field theory lump reproduces 78% of the expected $`D(p1)`$ brane tension. Including the stringy corrections from the momentum dependence of the interaction terms does not significantly change the tension of the lump. This is not the case for the ratios of the masses of $`D(pd)`$ branes to the masses of $`Dp`$ branes for $`d>1`$. As $`d`$ is increased the field theory predictions get worse and for $`d`$ large enough there are no lump solutions. When the stringy corrections are included, lump solutions can be found for any value of $`d`$. However, initial studies of these ratios show that the leading order in the level truncation approximation over estimates this ratio for $`d>4`$, with the results becoming increasingly worse as $`d`$ is increased. As a further interesting check of the modified level truncation scheme, one could compute the ratios of the masses of $`D(pd)`$ branes to the mass of a $`Dp`$ brane. These ratios are more difficult to reproduce and obtaining them within the modified level truncation approximation will give important insight into how fast the approximation converges. This is the question that is studied in this article.

The modified level truncation approximation starts by assigning to a state $`|\mathrm{\Phi }_i`$, with number eigenvalue $`N_i`$, the level

$$l(\mathrm{\Phi }_{i,n})\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}}{R^2}+N_iN_0,$$

where $`N_0`$ is the number eigenvalue for the zero momentum tachyon. The level $`(M,N)`$ approximation to the action is then defined by keeping only fields with level $`M`$ and terms in the action for which the sum of levels is $`N`$. We assume that the background spacetime is the product of a $`(d+1)+1`$ dimensional flat spacetime labelled by the spacelike coordinates $`(x^1,\mathrm{},x^d,y)`$ and a timelike coordinate $`x^0`$, and a Euclidean manifold $``$ described by a conformal field theory of central charge $`26d2`$. The spatial direction $`y`$ is non-compact; the $`x^i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},d`$ parametrize a torus $`T^d`$: $`x^ix^i+R.`$ As in  by studying the motion of the brane along this non-compact direction, we can compute its tension. For an open string ending on the $`D`$-brane, we put Neumann boundary conditions on the fields $`(X^1,\mathrm{},X^d)`$ and $`X^0`$, and Dirichlet boundary conditions on the field $`Y`$ and on the fields associated with the coordinates of $``$. These boundary conditions are correct for a $`Dd`$-brane wrapped on the $`T^d`$. Because the $`D`$-brane has a finite volume, it will have a finite mass.

The dynamics of the open strings with ends on this $`D`$-brane is described by the direct sum of the conformal field theories associated with the fields $`X^i`$, $`Y`$, $`X^0`$ and the manifold $``$. Following  we will work on a subspace of the full string field theory Fock space. Towards this end, we denote the conformal field of the $`X^i`$ by CFT($`T^d`$) and the conformal field theory of the fields $`Y`$, $`X^0`$ and of the manifold $``$ by CFT$`{}_{}{}^{}=`$CFT($`Y`$)$``$CFT($`X^0`$)$``$CFT($``$). The Virasoro generators of the system are given by $`L_n=L_n^{ghost}+L_n^{T^d}+L_n^{}`$, where $`L_n^{ghost}`$ are the Virasoro generators of the ghost system, $`L_n^{T^d}`$ are the Virasoro generators of CFT($`T^d`$) and $`L_n^{}`$ are the Virasoro generators of CFT. The subspace of the full string Fock space that we will focus on is most easily characterized by grouping states into Verma modules. Each Verma module can be labelled by a primary state. The Verma module contains this primary state together will all states obtained by acting on this primary with the Virasoro generators $`L_n^{T^d},L_n^{},c_1,c_n`$ and $`b_n`$ with $`n0`$. Null states and their descendents should be removed. The truncation can now be described by specifying which primary states we consider. We consider primary states (with arbitrary momentum on the $`T^d`$) of CFT($`T^d`$) which are even under $`XX`$ and are trivial CFT primaries. We will also restrict to states of even twist. For more details, the reader should consult\[24\]. Working on this subspace was shown in\[24,,18\] to be a consistent truncation of the full open string field theory.

If we work to a given level, then we need only consider the Verma modules built on a finite number of primary fields. In our subspace, the zero momentum tachyon mode is the only primary that needs to be considered at level $`0`$; there are $`d1`$ zero-momentum primaries to be considered at level $`2`$ . In the analysis of , the case $`d=1`$ was considered, so no new zero-momentum primaries had to be added until level 4. Since we work only to level $`(2,4)`$ we need not consider any other zero-momentum primaries. Thus, the states that we consider are

$$|T_\stackrel{}{n}=c_1\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0$$

$$|U_\stackrel{}{n}=c_1\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0$$

$$|V_\stackrel{}{n}=c_1L_2^{T^d}\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0,$$

$$|W_\stackrel{}{n}=c_1L_2^{}\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0,$$

$$|Z_\stackrel{}{n}=c_1L_1^{T^d}L_1^{T^d}\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0,$$

$$|S_\stackrel{}{n}^i=c_1(\alpha _1^1\alpha _1^1\alpha _1^{i+1}\alpha _1^{i+1}\alpha _0^1\alpha _2^1+\alpha _0^{i+1}\alpha _2^{i+1})\mathrm{cos}\left(\frac{\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{X}(0)}{R}\right)|0.$$

The states $`|S_\stackrel{}{0}^i`$ are the new zero momentum primaries that need to be added at level $`2`$. We should not include the zero momentum $`Z_\stackrel{}{0}`$ mode, since it corresponds to the descendent of a null state. The index $`i`$ runs from $`i=1,\mathrm{},d1`$. The conditions that the states $`|S_\stackrel{}{n}^i`$ are primary implies the following restriction on $`\stackrel{}{n}`$

$$n^1=\pm n^{i+1}.$$

The string field is expanded in terms of these states as follows

$$|\mathrm{\Phi }=\underset{\stackrel{}{n}}{}\left(t_\stackrel{}{n}|T_\stackrel{}{n}+u_\stackrel{}{n}|U_\stackrel{}{n}+v_\stackrel{}{n}|V_\stackrel{}{n}+w_\stackrel{}{n}|W_\stackrel{}{n}+z_\stackrel{}{n}|Z_\stackrel{}{n}+s_\stackrel{}{n}^i|S_\stackrel{}{n}^i\right).$$

To ensure that we have the $`X^iX^i`$ symmetry we have to put restrictions on the coefficients appearing in this expansion. For example, in the case that $`d=2`$, states carrying momentum $`\stackrel{}{n}=(1,1)`$ are related to states carrying momentum $`\stackrel{}{n}=(1,1)`$ by $`X^2X^2`$. Thus, the coefficients corresponding to these states in (1) should be identified. If we were treating this problem in the $`R\mathrm{}`$ limit, we’d look for solutions which are rotationally invariant. However, for finite $`R`$, all that survives of the rotational invariance is a discrete subset of rotations which permute the different $`X^i`$. We will compute the potential below assuming this symmetry. Thus for example, in the case $`d=2`$, we will not distinguish between states carrying momentum $`\stackrel{}{n}=(0,1)`$ and states carrying momentum $`\stackrel{}{n}=(1,0)`$. In addition, we will not distinguish between $`s_0^i`$ for diferent values of $`i`$.

The string field theory action is given by

$$S=\mathrm{\Phi }|Q|\mathrm{\Phi }+\frac{g}{3}V_3||\mathrm{\Phi }|\mathrm{\Phi }|\mathrm{\Phi }$$

with $`Q`$ the first quantized BRST operator and $`|V_3`$ the three string interaction vertex. To compute the potential, we have used the operator representation of the vertex as an object in the three string (dual) Fock space. Evaluation of the above two terms in the action then requires only algebraic manipulations. The details of this computation will appear elsewhere. The result, up to level $`(2,4)`$ is (with $`R=\sqrt{3}`$)

$$V(0,0)=\frac{1}{2}t_0^2+\frac{1}{3}K^3t_0^3.$$

$$V(\frac{1}{3},\frac{2}{3})=V(0,0)\frac{d}{4}\left(1\frac{1}{R^2}\right)t_1^2+\frac{d}{2}K^{3\frac{2}{R^2}}t_0t_1^2.$$

$$V(\frac{2}{3},\frac{4}{3})=V(\frac{1}{3},\frac{2}{3})+\frac{d(d1)}{2}K^{3\frac{4}{R^2}}t_2^2t_0\frac{d(d1)}{4}\left(1\frac{2}{R^2}\right)t_2^2+\frac{d(d1)}{2}K^{3\frac{4}{R^2}}t_1^2t_2.$$

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill V(1,2)=V(\frac{2}{3},\frac{4}{3})+d(d1)(d2)[& \frac{1}{3}K^{3\frac{6}{R^2}}t_3^2t_0\frac{1}{6}t_3^2\left(1\frac{3}{R^2}\right)\hfill \\ & +K^{3\frac{6}{R^2}}t_1t_2t_3+\frac{1}{3}K^{3\frac{6}{R^2}}t_2^3].\hfill \end{array}$$

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill V(\frac{4}{3},\frac{8}{3})& =V(1,2)+d(d1)(d2)(d3)[\frac{1}{6}\stackrel{~}{t}_4^2t_0K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}\frac{1}{12}\stackrel{~}{t}_4^2(1\frac{4}{R^2})\hfill \\ & +\frac{1}{2}\stackrel{~}{t}_4t_2^2K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}+\frac{2}{3}t_1t_3\stackrel{~}{t}_4K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}+t_3^2t_2K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}]+d[\frac{1}{2}\overline{t}_4^2t_0K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}\hfill \\ & \frac{\overline{t}_4^2}{4}(1\frac{4}{R^2})+\frac{d1}{2}t_2^2\overline{t}_4K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}}+\frac{1}{4}t_1^2\overline{t}_4K^{3\frac{6}{R^2}}].\hfill \end{array}$$

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill V(\frac{5}{3},\frac{10}{3})& =V(\frac{4}{3},\frac{8}{3})+d(d1)(t_0\overline{t}_5^2K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}\frac{1}{2}\overline{t}_5^2[1\frac{5}{R^2}]+t_1\overline{t}_4\overline{t}_5K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}\hfill \\ & +2(d2)t_2t_3\overline{t}_5K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}+\frac{1}{2}(d2)t_3^2\overline{t}_4K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}})+d(d1)(d2)(d3)\times \hfill \\ & \times (d4)(\frac{1}{15}t_0\stackrel{~}{t}_5^2K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}\frac{1}{30}\stackrel{~}{t}_5^2[1\frac{5}{R^2}]+\frac{1}{3}t_1\stackrel{~}{t}_4\stackrel{~}{t}_5K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}+\frac{2}{3}t_2t_3\stackrel{~}{t}_5K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}\hfill \\ & +\frac{2}{3}t_2\stackrel{~}{t}_4^2K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}+t_3^2\stackrel{~}{t}_4K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}})+d(d1)t_1t_2\overline{t}_5K^{3\frac{8}{R^2}},\hfill \end{array}$$

$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill V(2,& 4)=V(\frac{5}{3},\frac{10}{3})+d(d1)(d2)(t_0\overline{t}_6^2K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}+2t_1\overline{t}_5\overline{t}_6K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}+t_2\overline{t}_5^2K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}\hfill \\ & +t_1t_3\overline{t}_6K^{3\frac{10}{R^2}}+\frac{K^{1\frac{6}{R^2}}}{3}\left[\frac{5d}{32}+\frac{3}{R^2}\right]t_3^2v_0+\frac{11}{48}K^{1\frac{6}{R^2}}u_0t_3^2\frac{5(26d)}{96}K^{1\frac{6}{R^2}}w_0t_3^2\hfill \\ & \frac{1}{2}\overline{t}_6^2[1\frac{6}{R^2}]+t_2\overline{t}_4\overline{t}_6K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}})+d(d1)(d2)(d3)(d4)(d5)K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}\times \hfill \\ & (\frac{1}{45}t_0\stackrel{~}{t}_6^2+\frac{2}{15}t_1\stackrel{~}{t}_5\stackrel{~}{t}_6+\frac{1}{3}t_2\stackrel{~}{t}_4\stackrel{~}{t}_6+\frac{1}{3}t_2\stackrel{~}{t}_5^2+\frac{2}{9}t_3^2\stackrel{~}{t}_6+\frac{4}{3}t_3\stackrel{~}{t}_4\stackrel{~}{t}_5+\frac{2}{3}\stackrel{~}{t}_4^3)+d(d1)\times \hfill \\ & (d2)(d3)K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}\left(2t_3^2\overline{t}_6+2t_3\stackrel{~}{t}_4\overline{t}_5+\frac{1}{3}\stackrel{~}{t}_4^2\overline{t}_4\right)+\frac{19K}{144}u_0^2t_0\frac{5d}{32}Kt_0^2v_0\hfill \\ & d(d1)(d2)(d3)(d4)(d5)\frac{\stackrel{~}{t}_6^2}{90}(1\frac{6}{R^2})+d(d1)(\frac{1}{4}s_0^2\hfill \\ & +\frac{1}{2}K^{1\frac{4}{R^2}}[\frac{5d}{32}+\frac{2}{R^2}]t_2^2v_0+\frac{11}{32}K^{1\frac{4}{R^2}}u_0t_2^2\frac{5(26d)}{64}K^{1\frac{4}{R^2}}w_0t_2^2+\frac{32}{27}Ks_0^2t_0)\hfill \\ & +\frac{K}{432}\left[\frac{25d^2}{4}+128d\right]t_0v_0^2+\frac{d}{2}K^{1\frac{2}{R^2}}\left[\frac{5d}{32}+\frac{1}{R^2}\right]t_1^2v_0+\frac{11}{32}dK^{1\frac{2}{R^2}}u_0t_1^2\hfill \\ & +\frac{11}{16}Kt_0^2u_0K\frac{5(26d)}{32}t_0^2w_0+\frac{K}{432}\left[\frac{25(26d)^2}{4}+128(26d)\right]t_0w_0^2+\frac{d}{4}v_0^2\hfill \\ & \frac{5(26d)}{64}dK^{1\frac{2}{R^2}}w_0t_1^2\frac{55d}{432}Kt_0u_0v_0\frac{55(26d)}{432}Kt_0u_0w_0\frac{u_0^2}{2}+\frac{26d}{4}w_0^2\hfill \\ & +\frac{25d(26d)}{864}Kt_0w_0v_0+\frac{1}{2}d(d1)t_2\overline{t}_5^2K^{3\frac{12}{R^2}}.\hfill \end{array}$$

In this potential we have labelled the modes by their $`\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}`$ eigenvalue. This labelling is not unique if $`d>3`$ and $`\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}4`$. For example, when $`d=4`$ and $`\stackrel{}{n}\stackrel{}{n}=4`$ we can build the $`\stackrel{}{n}`$ as $`\stackrel{}{n}=(1,1,1,1)`$ or $`\stackrel{}{n}=(2,0,0,0).`$ We distinguish between these two vectors by using a tilde $`(\stackrel{~}{t})`$ to denote vectors whose only entries are $`1`$s and by using a bar $`(\overline{t})`$ to denote vectors whose entries include a $`2`$. This labeling is unique to the level considered here. We now seek lump solutions for the tachyon condensate which minimize this potential.

The lump solutions are local minima of the potential. A direct minimization of the potential usually yields the tranlationally invariant vacuum which is the unique global minimum. To obtain the lump solutions, we found it simplest to work with the equations of motion. The numerical results obtained in this way were stable, both as $`d`$ is increased and as the level is increased. For example, the following table summarizes the values of the fields at the minimum corresponding to the $`D0`$ lump, with $`R=\sqrt{3}`$ and $`d=2`$

$`(\frac{1}{3},\frac{2}{3})`$ $`(\frac{2}{3},\frac{4}{3})`$ $`(\frac{4}{3},\frac{8}{3})`$ $`(\frac{5}{3},\frac{10}{3})`$ $`(2,4)`$                     $`t_0`$ 0.1810 0.2863 0.3021 0.3186 0.3806            $`t_1`$ 0.2435 0.2115 0.2025 0.1915 0.2127            $`t_2`$  -0.1253 -0.1256 -0.1257 -0.1432            $`\overline{t}_4`$   -0.0442 -0.0495 -0.0563            $`\overline{t}_5`$    0.0280 0.0353            $`u_0`$     0.1268            $`v_0`$     0.0234            $`w_0`$     0.0417            $`s_0^i`$     0.00
The fact that $`s_0^i`$ is zero is a consequence of the fact that it enters the action quadratically. Generically, at this level, the potential would include terms linear in $`s_0^i`$ which would couple $`s_0^i`$ to the $`t_1`$, $`t_2`$ and $`t_3`$ tachyon modes. However, due the symmetry of the tachyon solution these couplings vanish once summed over momenta.

We have used these minima to compute the ratio of the mass of a $`D(pd)`$-brane to the mass of a $`Dp`$ brane. The quantity that we measure is

$$r=\frac{E_{lump}}{T_0}=\frac{(2\pi R)^p}{2^{p1}\pi ^{p2}}\left(V_{lump}V_{vac}\right),$$

where $`E_{lump}`$ in the energy of the lump solution, $`T_0`$ is the mass of a zero brane, $`V_{lump}`$ is the value of the potential evaluated at the lump solution and $`V_{vac}`$ is the value of the potential evaluated at the global minimum corresponding to the translationally invariant tachyon condensate. The predicted value for this ratio is 1. We have computed $`V_{lump}`$ and $`V_{vac}`$ to the same order in the modified level truncation expansion. In  this parameter was called $`r^{(2)}`$. The values of $`r`$ obtained in this study are

$`(\frac{1}{3},\frac{2}{3})`$ $`(\frac{2}{3},\frac{4}{3})`$ $`(1,2)`$ $`(\frac{4}{3},\frac{8}{3})`$ $`(\frac{5}{3},\frac{10}{3})`$ $`(2,4)`$                       $`d=2`$ 1.3402 0.8992  0.8377 0.7772 1.1303             $`d=3`$ 2.3213 1.4237 1.0690 1.0278 0.9313 1.3277             $`d=4`$ 4.0206 2.3658 1.5659 1.2712 1.1754 1.6384             $`d=5`$ 6.963 4.009 2.472 1.7782 1.5036 2.0901             $`d=6`$ 12.06 6.8225 4.0391 2.6862 2.0618 2.6641
The decrease in the value of $`r`$ as higher tachyon modes are added and the sharp increase in the tension at level (2,4) qualitatively match the results obtained in .

For $`d=2`$ we have ploted the tachyon profile of the $`D0`$ brane lump solution at levels $`(2,4)`$ and $`(5/3,10/3)`$

Fig. 1:  A contour plot of the tachyon lump profile at level $`(2,4)`$ and at radius $`R=\sqrt{3}`$. We have reversed the signs of $`t_1`$ and $`\overline{t}_5`$, which shifts the lump’s center from $`x=y=\pi R`$ to $`x=y=0`$.

Fig. 2:  A profile plot of the tachyon lump at level $`(\frac{6}{3},\frac{12}{3})`$ and at radius $`R=\sqrt{3}`$.

Our results indicate the the modified level truncation proposed by MSZ provides a powerful tool for the study of tachyon condensation in bosonic open string field theory. It is interesting to extend these results to higher level, to further test the accuracy and concergence of the modified level truncation approximation. It is possible to continue to level $`(11/3,22/3)`$ with $`R=\sqrt{3}`$ before we need to add any new zero-momentum primaries. This study is in progress.

Note Added: An independent study of two dimensional solitons in open bosonic string theory has recently appeared in . The results of  agree with the results we obtained here for $`d=2`$.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Nicolas Moeller for helpful correspondence and detailed comparison. This was crucial for correcting a coefficient in equation (17). This research was supported in part by the NRF under Grant No. GUN-2034479. RdMK also thanks the University of the Witwatersrand for a Friedel Schellschop award.

References

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text:
# BROAD-BAND SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI FROM AN ACCRETION DISK WITH ADVECTIVE CORONAL FLOW

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) exhibit a lot of spectral components over a wide waveband; optical/ultraviolet (UV) bump, power-law component in hard X-rays, excess component in soft X-ray band (so called soft excess), warm absorber feature around 1 keV in some objects, and reflection/Fe K$`\alpha `$ fluorescence line around a few to a few tens of keV (Mushotzky, Done & Pounds 1993; Koratkar & Blaes 1999 for reviews). Those spectral components are commonly thought to be powered by gas accretion onto a massive black hole. The most well-known disk-accretion model is called as the standard disk model (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973). According to the standard disk model, the spectrum at each radius of the disk is assumed to be a blackbody radiation with a local effective temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. This simple picture was supported by their luminosity and by rough agreement of optical/UV spectral energy distribution (SED) between observations and models (e.g., Shields 1978; Malkan & Sargent 1982).

The standard model, however, has limitations; (i) if UV turn-over around 2000 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ is indeed an indication of the temperature at the innermost radius (e.g., Malkan 1983; Sun & Malkan 1989) such disks are too cool to produce enough soft X-ray photons. (ii) Inversely, if the soft excess component at 0.1 to 1 keV is due to radiation from the innermost region, as is often interpreted, such a disk only produces by 1.5–2 orders of magnitude less optical/UV flux than what is observed. (iii) When optical and soft X-rays spectra are simultaneously fitted with the disk spectrum, the luminosity of the disks ($`L`$) often exceeds the Eddington luminosity ($`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$). (iv) Observed optical spectra of QSOs are typically redder ($`\alpha 0.3`$, where $`L_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$; Francis et al. 1991) than those of the simplest standard accretion disks ($`\alpha 1/3`$). In other words, a successful model spectrum of AGNs should deviate from that of the standard accretion disk. (v) Hard power-law X-ray cannot be reproduced.

Then, a number of authors have tried to distort the disk spectrum toward the high energy regime so that the disk can emit substantial soft X-ray and optical/UV radiation simultaneously. One promising idea is the Comptonization within the disk in the vertical direction (Czerny & Elvis 1987; Wandel & Petrosian 1988; Laor & Netzer 1989; Ross, Fabian & Mineshige 1992). The most accurate treatment of Comptonization in the framework of the standard model was made by Shimura & Takahara (1993, hereafter ST93) who solved radiative transfer and vertical structure simultaneously and presented emergent spectra integrated over radii (see also Shimura & Takahara 1995, hereafter ST95). The effect of Comptonization is more prominent at higher accretion rates (e.g., Ross et al. 1992; ST93; ST95).

However, there still remain discrepancies between models and observations. (i) Although Comptonization tends to increase $`\alpha `$, the Far-UV (FUV) spectra of these accretion disks exhibits $`\alpha `$ $``$ 1 at best when the luminosity of the disk approaches the Eddington limit (Ross et al. 1992; ST95). On the other hand, the observations of distant quasars showed steeper FUV spectra ($`\alpha `$ 1.8 – 2.2, Zheng et al. 1997). (ii) The observed small spectral indices in soft X-ray ($`\alpha 1.4`$$`1.6`$; e.g., Walter & Fink 1993; Laor et al. 1997) are not achieved by any disk models (e.g., Nandra et al. 1995 for Mrk 841; Laor et al. 1997 for a sample of low-redshift QSOs), because the higher energy tail of those disk models is the superposition of Wien laws, thus exhibiting exponential roll-over. (iii) These accretion disks still cannot reproduce the hard X-rays. Then, hard X-ray emission should be treated as additional components in these models.

With these problems kept in mind, we, in this present study, aim to produce the overall SED simultaneously by disk-corona models. The spectrum to be reproduced with these models is a composite one obtained from several independent observations (see Zheng et al. 1997; Laor et al. 1997). It is composed of ‘typical’ spectral indices over broad-bands from Near-IR to hard X-ray, optical–to–X-ray flux ratio, and the energy cut-off of the hard power-law component (see §3.1 for more detailed description). We can, for the first time, reproduce such broad-band spectra. In §2 we review the assumptions and numerical method used in the calculation. Numerical results and comparisons between the models and the composite spectrum are presented in §3. The final section is devoted to discussion and summary.

## 2. BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND EQUATIONS

The numerical code used in this study is basically the same as that of ST93 except for some modifications. We assume for the configuration of the system that the accretion disk main body is sandwiched between coronal layers in the vertical direction (e.g., Haardt & Maraschi 1991), and that the whole system is geometrically thin (i.e., plane-parallel slab geometry). We treat the disk-corona system consisting of fully ionized hydrogen, thermal plasma around a Schwarzschild black hole of mass $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$. Gas evaporation from the disk to corona and -condensation from corona to disk (e.g., Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister 1994) are not included here for simplicity; the disk and coronal layers are interacting only via radiation and pressure (e.g., Nakamura & Osaki 1993; Życki, Collin-Souffrin & Czerny 1995). Although magnetic fields may also affect the disk-corona structures, they are not included in this calculations.

The equation of hydrostatic equilibrium in the vertical direction is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dP_{\mathrm{gas}}}{dz}}+{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\nu {\displaystyle \frac{F_\nu }{\lambda _\nu c}}=m_\mathrm{p}N_\mathrm{e}{\displaystyle \frac{GM_{\mathrm{BH}}}{R^3}}z,`$ (1)
where $`R`$ and $`z`$ are the radial and the vertical coordinates, respectively; and $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ and $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ are the gas pressure and the number density of electrons, respectively. For the radiation field, we adopt the diffusion approximation. Then, the radiative flux $`F_\nu `$ at some frequency $`\nu `$ is given by

$`F_\nu ={\displaystyle \frac{c\lambda _\nu }{3}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{ϵ_\nu }{z}}\right),`$ (2)
where $`ϵ_\nu `$ and $`\lambda _\nu `$ are the radiation-energy density per unit frequency per unit volume and the mean free path of a photon with a frequency $`\nu `$, respectively. We set $`\lambda _\nu =(\sigma _\mathrm{T}+\sigma _{\mathrm{ff},\nu })^1N_e^1`$; we do not include the bound-free nor free-bound transitions in the calculations. Here, $`\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{ff},\nu }`$ are the cross sections of Thomson scattering and bremsstrahlung absorption, respectively. The Thomson optical depth of the disk-corona measured from the mid-plane $`\tau `$ is related to the height from the mid-plane $`z`$, as

$`d\tau =N_e\sigma _\mathrm{T}dz.`$ (3)
The total Thomson optical depth from the mid-plane (through the boundary between the disk-corona) to the surface of the corona, $`\tau _0`$, is a free parameter. The equation of state is that $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}=N_ek_\mathrm{B}(T_p+T_e)`$, where $`T_p`$ and $`T_e`$ are temperature of protons and electrons, respectively.

The dissipated energy per unit surface area of the disk-corona system $`Q_0^+`$ in Newtonian approximation is written as (Shakura & Sunyaev 1973)

$`Q_0^+={\displaystyle \frac{3}{8\pi }}\dot{M}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{K}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\left(1\sqrt{3R_\mathrm{g}/R}\right),`$ (4)
where $`\dot{M}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$ \[$`=(GM_{\mathrm{BH}}/R^3)^{1/2}`$\] are the total (above and below the mid-plane) accretion rate and the Keplerian angular velocity, respectively. The innermost radius of the disk-corona is assumed to be $`3R_\mathrm{g}`$, where $`R_\mathrm{g}`$ \[$`=2GM_{\mathrm{BH}}/c^2=3\times 10^{13}\mathrm{cm}(M_{\mathrm{BH}}/10^8M_{}))=0.01`$ lt-day $`(M_{\mathrm{BH}}/10^8M_{})`$\] is the Schwarzschild radius. For the case of a non-rotating black hole under non-relativistic treatment, $`\dot{M}=12L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$ \[$`=2.6M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1(M_{\mathrm{BH}}/10^8M_{})`$\] corresponds to the accretion disk shining at $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ \[$`=1.3\times 10^{46}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{sec}^1(M_{\mathrm{BH}}/10^8M_{})`$\].

A constant fraction $`f`$ of mass accretion is assumed to be dissipated in the corona with a Thomson optical depth of $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$, where advective energy transport of protons is also included in addition to radiative cooling of electrons (see Figure 1). A remaining fraction, $`1f`$, dissipates within the disk layer. Advection in the disk layer (i.e., slim disk model that will be discussed later) is not included because of small radial velocity there. The advective cooling rate in the corona per unit surface area, $`Q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}`$, is taken from the expression of optically-thin advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF) in one-temperature case (i.e., $`T_\mathrm{p}=T_\mathrm{e}`$; see, Kato, Fukue & Mineshige 1998, p272):

$`Q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{16\pi ^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}}{R^2}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{(f\dot{M})^2\sigma _\mathrm{T}}{\alpha _cm_p\tau _c}}.`$ (5)
Here, $`\alpha _c`$ is the viscosity parameter which controls the efficiency of the advection in the corona. We perform numerical calculations under the condition that the advective cooling should be less than the dissipated energy in the coronal layer; $`Q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}fQ_0^+`$.

The heating rate in the disk and corona, $`q_\mathrm{d}^+`$ and $`q_\mathrm{c}^+`$, respectively, and advective cooling rate in the corona per unit volume, $`q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}`$, are assumed to be proportional to matter density at each site. As a result, the fraction of advective cooling in the dissipated energy is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}}{q_\mathrm{c}^+}}={\displaystyle \frac{Q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}}{fQ_0^+}}=0.21{\displaystyle \frac{f}{\alpha _c\tau _\mathrm{c}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{M}}{L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{R}{5R_\mathrm{g}}}\right)^{1/2}\left(1\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3R_\mathrm{g}}{R}}}\right)^1.`$ (6)
The energy balance in each layer is as follows:

$`\mathrm{Disk}:`$ $`\mathrm{Protons}`$ $`:q_\mathrm{d}^+=\lambda _{\mathrm{ie}}`$ (7)
$`\mathrm{Electrons}`$ $`:\lambda _{\mathrm{ie}}=q_{\mathrm{rad}}^{}`$ (8)
$`\mathrm{Corona}:`$ $`\mathrm{Protons}`$ $`:q_\mathrm{c}^+=q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}+\lambda _{\mathrm{ie}}`$ (9)
$`\mathrm{Electrons}`$ $`:\lambda _{\mathrm{ie}}=q_{\mathrm{rad}}^{},`$ (10)
with

$`q_\mathrm{d}^+=(1f)Q_0^+{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _\mathrm{T}N_e}{\tau _0\tau _\mathrm{c}}},q_\mathrm{c}^+=fQ_0^+{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _\mathrm{T}N_e}{\tau _\mathrm{c}}},q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}=Q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _\mathrm{T}N_e}{\tau _\mathrm{c}}},`$ (11)
where $`\lambda _{\mathrm{ie}}`$ is the energy exchange rate due to Coulomb collisions taken from Guilbert and Stepney (1985); and $`q_{\mathrm{rad}}^{}`$ is the radiative cooling rate. We consider bremsstrahlung and Comptonization for emission mechanisms. Then, radiative cooling rate $`q_{\mathrm{rad}}^{}`$ is described as

$`q_{\mathrm{rad}}^{}={\displaystyle 𝑑\nu (cN_e\sigma _{\mathrm{ff},\nu }ϵ_\nu +j_{\mathrm{ff},\nu }+j_{\mathrm{Comp},\nu })},`$ (12)
where $`j_{\mathrm{ff},\nu }`$ and $`j_{\mathrm{Comp},\nu }`$ are the bremsstrahlung emissivity (Rybicki & Lightman 1979) and the net rate of energy transfer from electrons to photons via Comptonization per unit volume per unit frequency, respectively. The latter is described by the Kompaneets equation (Rybicki & Lightman 1979; see Hua & Titarchuk 1995 for comparisons of the analytical treatment of Comptonization with Monte Carlo simulations). Thus, the radiative transfer equation for $`F_\nu `$ is written as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{F_\nu }{z}}=cN_e\sigma _{\mathrm{ff},\nu }ϵ_\nu +j_{\mathrm{ff},\nu }+j_{\mathrm{Comp},\nu }.`$ (13)
For the expression of the free-free absorption and emission ($`\sigma _{\mathrm{ff},\nu }`$ and $`j_{\mathrm{ff},\nu }`$, respectively), we take the Gaunt factor to be unity, for simplicity (see Rybicki & Lightman 1979).

Following ST93, we take $`\xi `$ \[ $``$log($`\tau _0\tau `$) \] as an independent variable for the vertical coordinate. To calculate the spectra integrated over the whole disk (§3.1), we divide the disk-corona from $`3R_\mathrm{g}`$ to $`300R_\mathrm{g}`$ into 20 consentric rings so that each ring radiates approximately the same luminosity (cf. Ross et al. 1992; ST95). In total, input free parameters required for the calculations are $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$, $`\dot{M}`$, $`f`$, $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$, $`\tau _0`$, and $`\alpha _c`$. The number of these parameters is similar to that of relevant observed parameters which we aim to explain simultaneously; e.g., $`L_X`$, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{UV}}`$, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{opt}}`$, $`\alpha _{ROSAT}`$, $`\alpha _{ASCA}`$, etc. Then, outputs are $`N_e(\xi )`$, $`T_e(\xi )`$, $`T_i(\xi )`$, $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}(\xi )`$, $`z(\xi )`$, and $`ϵ_\nu (\xi )`$. Spectrum of the whole disk-corona system is obtained by summing up the emergent spectra of all the rings.

The emergent spectrum at each ring does not so strongly depend on $`\tau _0`$ as long as $`\tau _01`$, but is sensitive to $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$. We, thus, take $`\tau _0`$ as a constant over all rings, for simplicity. Currently, we do not have a good theory to predict the radial dependence of $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ and $`f`$ that can, in principle, be determined by physics of evaporation/condensation. Thus, $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ and $`f`$ are also simply assumed to be constant over all rings. The effects of changing $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ and $`f`$ will be discussed later.

General relativistic effect is not included. Since no Doppler broadening is considered, the total spectrum represents the case of a face-on disk. Convection/conductive energy transport is not included. Shakura, Sunyaev & Zilitinkevich (1978) have shown that convection transports no more than $``$ 30 % of the vertical energy flux.

## 3. SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF AGNS

### 3.1. Observed Composite Spectrum

The spectrum to be reproduced with our models is a composite one (dotted lines in Figure 2a), which is a useful probe to see whether a model for the SED of AGNs can work or not. The vertical normalization is determined so as to give rise to a representative optical luminosity among low-redshift quasars from the Bright Quasar Survey adopting $`H_0`$ of 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`q_0`$ of 0.5 with an assumption of isotropic emission (see Laor et al. 1997). There are, however, two major problems that one should keep in mind when dealing with the composite spectrum (Koratkar & Blaes 1999; Laor 1999). (i) We observe objects with different redshifts in different wavebands; spectral index in FUV is obtained from distant QSOs (Zheng et al. 1997), while that of soft X-ray is mainly from nearby objects (e.g., Walter & Fink 1993; Laor et al. 1997). Also, sample used in each wavebands contains objects that are not necessarily the same objects. (ii) Soft excess might be an instrumental/calibration problem; BeppoSAX observations did not detect soft X-ray excess in some objects while excess was seen for the same objects with other telescopes (e.g., Matt 1999). Although the results are still controversial, we assume that soft excess really exists in most AGNs throughout this paper. In what follows, we try to reproduce broad-band spectra similar to the composite one, as the first step.

### 3.2. Model Spectrum Integrated over Radii

We first show the most successful case with $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=3\times 10^9M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}=0.5L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$ that gives rise to luminosity of about 5 % of the Eddington limit for a non-rotating black hole under non-relativistic treatment. Thick line in figure 2a shows an example of the resultant broad-band spectra. Since the innermost ring from 3.0 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$ to 4.0 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$ does not satisfy the restriction that $`q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}/q_\mathrm{c}^+1.0`$ for the parameter sets described in Fig. 2a, we, hereafter, plot integrated spectra from 4.0 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$ to 300 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$. In other words, all dissipated energy is assumed to be carried out by advection in $`3.0<R<4.0R_\mathrm{g}`$. To account for the radiation at the surfaces of coronae above and beyond the disk, the resultant spectrum is multiplied by two. A significant fraction $`f=0.6`$ of mass accretion occurs at the corona. In this case, advective cooling in the corona is comparable with the radiative cooling at $`R4.9R_\mathrm{g}`$; $`q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}/q_\mathrm{c}^+0.5`$ \[eq. (6)\]. A spectrum of the standard disk with the same $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\dot{M}`$ is also depicted for comparison (dashed line).

Presence of multiple spectral components is the most noteworthy feature of the present model. This is because different radiative mechanisms play roles in different wavebands in Fig. 2a; thermal radiation of the disk in optical/UV, unsaturated Comptonization in FUV/soft X-ray, and a combination of the power-law component due to Comptonization, bremsstrahlung, and a reflection in hard X-ray. Note that the underlying radiative processes in soft–hard X-rays are distinct from those of the traditional explanation, in which UV–soft X-ray component is due to blackbody whereas hard power-law component is due to Comptonization of the soft photons. In our model, hard X-ray spectrum looks a power-law with $`\alpha `$ 0.5–1.0 due to the combination of multiple radiative mechanisms, in contrast.

Figure 2b shows contributions to the total spectrum ($`4.0R_\mathrm{g}<R<300R_\mathrm{g}`$; thick line) due to individual rings. The outermost ring ($`104R_\mathrm{g}<R<300R_\mathrm{g}`$) contribute as much as one third of the total spectrum at a few tens of keV. Usual models for X-ray emission of AGNs assume that only inner region radiates X-ray (i.e., one-zone); our model differs from the traditional model in terms of radial dependence of the X-ray spctrum, as well. Like optically-thin ADAF (e.g., Narayan, Yi & Mahadevan 1995; Manmoto, Mineshige & Kusunose, 1997), X-ray emission arises from wide spatial range ($`R300R_\mathrm{g}`$), in contrast with a usual belief. Interestingly, contribution from the outer rings to the total X-ray spectrum decreases towards lower-energy X-ray band. Provided that inner rings are more time-variable than outer rings, resultant X-ray spectrum will get softer when the luminosity increases, as is actually observed (e.g., Done et al. 1995; Leighly et al. 1996). The most powerful test of our model will be gravitational microlensing (Yonehara et al. 1998) which provides information as to the size of emission region as a function of wavelength on AU ($`R_\mathrm{g}`$ for $`10^8M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$) scales.

The effect of advective cooling in the coronal layer to the emergent spectrum is demonstrated in Figure 2c. Thick dashed line is the resultant spectrum without advective cooling, which corresponds to a two-temperature treatment of the study by Shimura, Mineshige, & Takahara (1995), but with a constant $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$. Lower dashed curves represents the spectra of each ring in the case without advective cooling. Thick solid curve has the same meaning as in Fig. 2a and 2b.

In our models above (Fig. 2a–2c), we assumed constant $`f`$ and $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ over all rings. This will be a reasonable assumption since Janiuk, Życki & Czerny (2000), for example, estimated $`f`$ as a function of radius under some assumptions, finding that $`f`$ is a slowly increasing variable with radius, and that 0.2 $`<f<`$ 1.0 for various parameter sets at 3 to 300 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$. The coronal gas is probably originated in evaporated gas cumulated in the flow (Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister 1994; Liu, Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister 1997). In other words, we have assumed that a disk corona has already formed until $``$ 300 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$. If, however, evaporation of disk material is still active at $`R300R_\mathrm{g}`$, $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ and $`f`$ are both likely to increase with a decreasing radius. To what extent the resultant spectrum changes in such a case is demonstarated in figure 2d. Spectra for the outermost ring with $`f=\tau _\mathrm{c}=0.6`$ (solid curve) and $`f=\tau _\mathrm{c}=0.1`$ (dashed curve) are shown. In the latter case, hard X-ray emission is not strong as the former case, in which bremsstrahlung emission at the outermost ring is the main origin of hardening in the total X-ray spectrum (thick solid curve). Then, we are lead to the conclusion that the corona must have developed until $`300R_\mathrm{g}`$ so as to have large values of $`f`$ and $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ at the outermost ring, thereby reproducing the observed spectrum.

### 3.3. Red Optical Spectrum

Optical spectral index of QSOs has been recognized as a discrepancy between disk models and observations; Francis et al. (1991) reported that the bright QSOs, in which stellar contamination to the optical fluxes is relatively negligible, typically show spectral index in optical, $`\alpha `$ at 1500–5000 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$, of 0.32 ($`L_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$), while the classical standard disk model predict that of $`0.33`$ (i.e., $`L_\nu \nu ^{1/3}`$).

In order to emphasize the optical spectra, a part of Fig. 2a is enlarged and shown in figure 3 with additional spectra of disk models integrated over 3 $`<R<1000R_g`$. Thick solid and dotted lines have the same meanings as in Fig. 2a, and they both show similar spectral index, $`\alpha 0.3`$. The shaded area inndicates the relevant waveband, 1500–5000 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$.

The reason why the current model has a better agreement with the observations in terms of the optical spectral index is as follows. The long-dashed line is a spectrum of the standard disk (i.e., eq. 4), but without the inner boundary term (the term within the parenthesis on the right-hand-side of eq. 4, which is sometimes omitted when roughly estimating the spectral index of the disk model). It shows $`\alpha 0.3`$. Spectra of the standard disks with the inner boundary term are drawn by the short-dashed lines. The upper one represents the disk with $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=3\times 10^9M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}=0.5L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$, while the lower one is for $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=10^8M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}=L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$ showing somewhat redder spectrum ($`\alpha 0.1`$) due to the inner-boundary term.

The emergent local spectrum changes its shape in a sense that the spectrum is distorted and shifted towards shorter wavelength when the electron scattering in the disk is taken into account (Czerny & Elvis 1987). Such a spectral shift is more efficient in inner region than in outer region. As the result, disk models with electron scattering finally show redder optical spectra, $`\alpha +0.1`$ in lower solid curve and $`\alpha +0.3`$ in upper solid curve. The difference of spectral indices in the two solid curves, which are obtained by radial integrations of ST93 model (i.e., no corona), are due mainly to the difference of their black-hole masses. The disk with larger $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ gets cooler at fixed $`\dot{M}/L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ and $`R/R_g`$, as is expected for the standard accretion disk (eq. 14 described later). The optical band becomes to measure the flux at inner part of the disk, where it gets close to the edge of the integral interval (e.g., 3 $`<R<1000R_g`$). Then, the emergent spectrum is somewhat curved in a sense that it is redder than the spectrum from outer region (e.g., figure 16 in Koratkar & Blaes 1999). Note that the redder spectra are achieved even within the framework of original ST93 and ST95 models, as well as our disk-corona model. If one wants to discuss in more details about optical spectra, heavy metals, bound-bound, free-bound, bound-free transitions and precise estimation of the contribution from broad line region (e.g., Balmer continuum) must be included.

### 3.4. Spectra for Various $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\dot{M}`$

Figure 4 shows the black-hole mass dependence of the spectra with a fixed ratio of $`\dot{M}`$ to $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ (i.e., fixed $`\dot{M}/M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$). The peak frequency of the big blue bump varies with $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ in a similar fashion to that of the standard accretion disk in which

$`T_{\mathrm{eff}}(4R_\mathrm{g})M_{\mathrm{BH}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1/2}\dot{M}^{1/4}M_{\mathrm{BH}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1/4}(\dot{M}/L_{\mathrm{Edd}})^{1/4}.`$ (14)
On the other hand, the cut-off frequency of the hard X-ray (i.e., coronal electron temperature) and the spectral slopes in X-rays are rather insensitive to the black-hole mass.

Accretion-rate dependence of the emergent spectra with a fixed blackhole mass ($`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=3\times 10^9M_{}`$) is shown in Figure 5. The spectral slope at 0.1 – 2.0 keV stays almost constant, $`\alpha `$ = 1.46, 1.58, 1.62 for $`\dot{M}/(L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2)`$ = 0.1, 0.5 and 0.7, respectively.

### 3.5. Vertical Structure

We finally present the vertical structure of the disk/corona. Number density of electrons (dotted line) and temperature of protons (crosses) and electrons (solid line) at $`R4.9R_\mathrm{g}`$ are shown in Figure 6. The left side of the figure where $`\xi `$ \[$``$ log($`\tau _0\tau `$)\] = 3 corresponds to the mid-plane (i.e., $`\tau _0=1000`$), and the boundary between the disk and corona is located at $`\xi 0.2`$ (i.e., $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ = 0.6). Parameters used here are the same as those of Fig. 2a. It turns out that the height of the boundary measured from the mid-plane is 0.03 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$, and that of the surface of the corona (at $`\xi `$ of $`2`$) is 0.3 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$. Then, the disk-corona system is indeed geometrically thin; the height of the corona from the mid-plane $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.1}R`$.

## 4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

### 4.1. Comparison with previous models

The most widely accepted interpretation, to date, of soft and hard X-ray emission mechanisms is that soft excess is due to unscattered photons propagating from the disk-corona boundary to the coronal surface, while hard power-law emission is attributed to unsaturated Comptonization, i.e., photons that are Compton up-scattered during the propagation within the corona. Monte-Carlo simulations of propagating photons in the framework of two zone treatment (disk and coronal layers) indeed reproduce bump-like feature in soft X-ray and power-law component due to Comptonization in hard X-ray (e.g., Haardt & Maraschi 1991; Nakamura & Osaki 1993). However, the bump-like feature due to unscattered photons still keeps its spectral shape as it was at the disk-corona boundary even after it goes away from the coronal surface: i.e., it should look like blackbody radiation. Then, higher energy tail of the soft excess is predicted to be as steep as the Wien law, in contradiction with observed small spectral indices in soft X-ray ($`\alpha 1.4`$$`1.6`$).

Thermal bremsstrahlung emission was proposed for hard X-ray power-law component by Schlosman, Shaham & Shaviv (1984), in which the emission comes from the disk-corona transition layer with an temperature gradient, where thermal conduction from the overlying corona is balanced with radiative cooling. They show that such a layer emits hard X-rays efficiently in the case of an accretion disk model proposed by Sakimoto & Coroniti (1981), in which viscous torque is proportional to gas pressure, but that it does not work in standard accretion disks where the torque is in proportion to the total pressure unless viscosity parameter in the disk is less than $`10^3`$. We should note here that non-thermal, power-law electron energy distribution models, similarly to our results, produce two spectral power-laws for soft and hard X-ray emissions (e.g., Zdziarski & Lightman 1985), although ours is a thermal model.

Shimura et al. (1995) proposed a model in which FUV–hard X-ray is attributed to unsaturated Comptonization in a corona above a disk. Their claim is that their model, with $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ being a strongly increasing function with increasing radius, reproduces a single power-law in X-ray bands, not a broken power-law (i.e., soft excess and hard power-law). Then, the corona could be patchy so that the disk is covered over only in part with the corona. In our model, however, bremsstrahlung emission from the corona and reflection of the coronal emission at the disk-corona boundary also contribute to hard X-ray as well as the unsaturated Comptonization. As a result, we have different spectral slopes at soft and hard X-ray bands. It largely depends on our assumption of constant $`f`$ and $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$. In other words, we need $`f`$ and $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ to be almost constant or weak functions of radius in order to expect sufficient bremsstrahlung emission from the corona at outer region and then in order to reproduce the observed spectrum within the current framework. Theoretical works to check the assumption are needed as next steps. Without advective cooling in the corona, we also have rather straight spectrum from FUV to hard X-ray (see Fig. 2c). The effect of advection seems to bent the total spectrum so as that the spectrum has two power-laws in X-ray bands.

In the extremely high accretion rate, the disk spectra may be able to reproduce the observed steep spectral decline at $`1000\mathrm{\AA }`$$`400\mathrm{\AA }`$, since Comptonization is more efficient at higher accretion rates and since an increase of accretion rate changes the disk dynamics from the standard disk to optically-thick ADAF. Optically-thick ADAF, which is so called the slim disk model, radiates with higher temperature than the standard disk (Szuszkiewicz, Malkan & Abramowicz 1996; Mineshige et al. 2000). Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) have peculiar spectral and temporal features that are not seen in normal Seyfert nuclei and QSOs (e.g., Boller, Brandt, & Fink 1996; Brandt, Mathur, & Elvis 1997; Leighly 1999a, 1999b; Grupe et al. 1998, 1999). These features are often attributed to small black-hole mass and to high accretion rate (i.e., $`LL_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$; e.g., Pounds, Done, & Osborne 1996; Hayashida et al. 1998; Mineshige et al. 2000). Then, such extreme accretion rate is not relevant in this study, where we are going to construct a disk model for normal Seyferts/QSOs that perhaps have moderate accretion rate \[$`L`$ (0.01 – 0.1) of $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$; e.g., Wandel 1999\]. To account for systematically large $`\alpha _{ROSAT}`$ in NLS1s, we would need to reduce Compton-$`y`$ parameter in the corona.

The configuration of cold ($``$ 105 K) and hot ($``$ 100 keV) regions that radiate optical/UV bump and X-rays, respectively, is an unsolved problem. Optically-thin ADAF is a possible energy source of X-ray emissions. However, optically-thin ADAF itself is basically faint (e.g., Mahadevan 1997) compared with observed luminosity of AGNs. Then, the luminosity of the power-law X-ray emission indicates that cold material is located adjacent to such hot flow as a source of seed photons: for example, corona-like flows above and below a disk (e.g., Liang & Price 1977; Haardt & Maraschi 1991). Separation in the vertical direction has been also suggested from the stability against thermal and secular instabilities in inner, radiation-pressure dominated region of the disk (Ionson & Kuperus 1984; Nakamura & Osaki 1993; Mineshige & Kusunose 1993), the correlated variabilities between the iron-line flux and the X-ray continuum (e.g., Nandra et al. 1999; see also, however, Lee et al. 1999), and need for a cold disk as a ‘mirror’ for reflection-component/broad-fluorescence line (e.g., Tanaka et al. 1995; Mushotzky et al. 1995; Nandra et al. 1997). Another potential problem is that those layers could be inhomogeneous and highly time dependent; the corona can be patchy (Shimura, Mineshige, & Takahara 1995; Di Matteo 1998; Kawaguchi et al. 2000; Machida et al. 2000), or the cold gas may exist as numerous blobs within the corona instead of the slab geometry (Guilbert & Rees 1988; Lightman & White 1988; Sivron & Tsuruta 1993; Collin-Souffrin et al. 1996; Krolik 1998; Różańska 1999). Nevertheless, spatially and temporally averaged treatment of the cold and hot regions will still be useful for study of time-averaged spectrum. Appropriate treatment of mass evaporation/condensation process is another future issue. In other words, $`f`$ and $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ may be variable in terms of $`R`$, $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$, $`\dot{M}`$, etc. For instance, see Janiuk et al. (2000) for $`f`$ as a function of $`R`$ with various $`\dot{M}`$ and viscosity parameter, and Życki et al. (1995) for $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$ v.s. $`\dot{M}`$.

### 4.2. Expected Time Variability

Time variability provides strong constraints on spectral models. Then, it will be worthwhile to briefly comment on the temporal behaviour, although we are now working on a model for the steady accretion disk-corona with an aim to reproduce the observed, time-averaged spectrum. Followings are qualitative arguments expected from our current model. More details are out of the scope of this paper, and will be remained as future works.

For the optical-to-UV time-lag observed in NGC 7469 (Wanders et al. 1997; Collier et al. 1998) and marginally detected in NGC 4151 (Peterson et al. 1998), our model can explain the lag as Collier et al. (1998) demonstrated using the standard accretion disk model. That is because optical/UV emitter in our model is, like other spectral models, an accretion disk that has a similar dependence of (surface) temperature upon radius to the standard accretion disk. It should be noted here that such a time-lag has not yet been established in all AGNs (Edelson et al. 2000)

Since the FUV, soft X-ray and a part of hard X-ray emission come from the same region in our model, they are expected to vary without serious time-lag (larger than an order of days), except for difference of escaping (diffusion) time at different energies. Chiang et al. (2000) reported the inter-band lags in NGC 5548 from $``$ 240 k sec simultaneous observations; 0.14-0.18 keV flux leads 0.78 keV flux by $``$ 10 k sec, and 5.4 keV flux by $``$ 30 k sec. As discussed in section 6 in their paper, these lags are consistent with a coronal size of 10 $`R_g`$ for a $`10^8M_{}`$ black-hole. Incidentally, the blackhole mass of NGC 5548 is estimated to be about $`10^8M_{}`$ through the reverberation mapping method (Wandel, Peterson & Malkan 1999; Kaspi et al. 2000). However, the $``$ 4-day X-ray lag behind UV near the peak flux levels and almost simultaneous variations near the minimum fluxes detected in NGC 7469 (Nandra et al. 1998) is not solved by our model easily, as well as other models, to date, fail to do.

Finally, our model qualitatively explains following two issues about spectral variability in X-rays on short timescales (less than months) that are reported by numerous X-ray observations (§3.2). i) Soft X-ray flux is more variable than hard X-ray flux. ii) Hard X-ray becomes softer when it gets brighter.

### 4.3. Conclusions

We study emission spectrum emerging from the vertical disk-corona structure composed of two-temperature plasma by solving hydrostatic equilibrium and radiative transfer self-consistently. The key question is what physical condition exhibits a soft X-ray excess with a spectral index $`\alpha `$ ($`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) of 1.6 and a hard X-ray tail with $`\alpha `$ of 0.7 at the same time. In our model, a fraction $`f`$ of viscous heating is assumed to be dissipated in a corona with a Thomson optical depth of $`\tau _\mathrm{c}`$, where advective cooling is also included, and a remaining fraction, $`1f`$, dissipates within a main body of the disk. Our model can nicely reproduce the observed composite spectrum of AGNs, which shows soft X-ray excess with $`\alpha `$ of about 1.5 and hard tail extending to $``$ 50 keV with a different slope ($`\alpha 0.5`$). Our model should be checked with individual objects in the future, though.

The broken power laws ($`\alpha `$ 1.5 below 2keV and $``$ 0.5 above) are the results of different emission mechanisms: unsaturated Comptonization in soft X-rays and a combination of the Comptonization, bremsstrahlung, and a reflection of the coronal radiation at the disk-corona boundary in hard X-rays. Previous models, where soft X-ray excess is attributed to blackbody or saturated Comptonization of the disk blackbody, tended to deal with limited wavebands separately, while we tried to fit the broad-band SED simultaneously. That is the reason why we propose here emission mechanisms, that are different from previous models, in soft and hard X-ray bands. Also, our model differs from traditional models in terms of X-ray emitting region; hard X-ray emission causes from spatially spread region up to 300 Schwarzschild radii. The emergent optical spectrum is redder ($`\alpha 0.3`$) than that of the standard disk ($`\alpha 0.3`$), being consistent with observations, due to the different efficiencies of spectral distortion and shift of disk emission at different radii. The cut-off frequency of the hard X-ray (reflecting the coronal electron temperature) and X-ray spectral slopes are insensitive to the black-hole mass, while the peak frequency of the big blue bump is sensitive to the mass.

We wish to thank Hitoshi Negoro for helpful discussions and encouragement, Makoto Kishimoto, Masaru Matsuoka, Juri Poutanen, Ken Ebisawa and Lev Titarchuk for useful comments. We would also like to thank an anonymous referee for rewarding suggestions. T.K. appreciates the organizers of the Guillermo Haro Advanced Lectures on the starburst-AGN connection held in Mexico, 2000, for providing him the excellent lectures and acknowledges useful discussions with the participants, especially Dario Trevese and Agnieszka Janiuk. This work was supported in part by the Research Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists (4616, TK), and by the Grants-in Aid of the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (10640228, SM).

FIG. 1.— A schematic view of the energy balance in the present model.

FIG. 2a.— Resultant spectrum from the disk-corona structure integrated over 4.0 to 300$`R_\mathrm{g}`$ (thick line). Parameters used in this model are listed in the figure. With those parameter sets, advective cooling in the corona is comparable with the radiative cooling at $`R4.9R_\mathrm{g}`$; $`q_{\mathrm{adv}}^{}/q_\mathrm{c}^+0.5`$. Dashed line indicates the integrated spectra of the standard disk with the same $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\dot{M}`$. Spectral indices of the observed composite spectra (dotted lines) are: $`\alpha `$ of 1.4 at NIR ($`\lambda 1\mu m`$), 0.3 at optical ($`1\mu m\lambda 2500\mathrm{\AA }`$), 1.0 at UV ($`2500\mathrm{\AA }\lambda 1000\mathrm{\AA }`$), 1.8 at FUV ($`1000\mathrm{\AA }\lambda `$), 1.6 at soft X-ray (0.2–2.0 keV), 0.7 at hard X-ray ($`>`$ 2.0keV), 1.5 between optical and X-ray (2500 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$–2keV). The energy cut-off for the hard X-ray power-law is assumed to be 100 keV.

FIG. 2b.— Contributions to the total spectrum due to individual rings (lower curves). Thick line denotes the total spectrum ($`4.0R_\mathrm{g}<R<300R_\mathrm{g}`$) as the same as in Fig. 2a.

FIG. 2c.— The effect of advective cooling in the corona layer to the emergent spectrum. Thick dashed line is the resultant spectrum without advective cooling. Lower dashed curves represents contributions to the total spectrum due to each ring. Thick solid curve has the same meaning as in Fig. 2a and 2b.

FIG. 2d.— Spectra for the outermost ring with $`f=\tau _\mathrm{c}=0.6`$ (solid curve) and $`f=\tau _\mathrm{c}=0.1`$ (dashed curve). It is shown that hard X-ray emission in the latter case is not strong as the former case, where bremsstrahlung emission at the outermost ring is the main origin of hardening in the total X-ray spectrum (thick solid curve; see Fig. 2b).

FIG. 3.— Spectra of various models with optical spectral indices $`\alpha `$ ($`L_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$). The shaded area inndicates the relevant waveband, 1500–5000 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$. Thick solid and dotted lines have the same meanings as in Fig. 2a. Spectra of the standard disks \[Shakura & Sunyaev 1973 (SS73), i.e., eq. 4\] are shown as the short-dashed lines as in Fig. 2a. A long-dashed one is calculated through eq. 4 without inner boundary term (the last term in eq. 4). Finally, thin solid curves are obtained by radial integrations of ST93 model (i.e., no corona). Lower three calculations are made for $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=10^8M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}=L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$ at 3 $`<R<1000R_g`$, while upper two curves are for $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=\mathrm{3\hspace{0.17em}10}^9M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}=0.5L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/c^2`$ at the same radii.

FIG. 4.— Black-hole mass dependence of the emergent spectra with a fixed ratio of $`\dot{M}`$ to $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$. Parameters used here are the same as those of Fig. 2a and 2b. The cut-off frequency of the hard X-ray (reflecting the coronal electron temperature) and X-ray spectral slopes are insensitive to the black-hole mass, while the peak frequency of the big blue bump is sensitive to the mass.

FIG. 5.— Accretion-rate dependence of the emergent spectra with a fixed black-hole mass ($`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=3\times 10^9M_{}`$).

FIG. 6.— Vertical structure of the matter density (dotted line), proton temperature (crosses), and electron temperature (solid line). The mid-plane of the disk is located at $`\xi `$ of 3, and the boundary between the disk and corona is at $`\xi 0.2`$. It turns out that the height of the boundary measured from the mid-plane is 0.03 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$, and that of the surface of the corona (at $`\xi `$ of $`2`$) is 0.3 $`R_\mathrm{g}`$. Note that $`k_\mathrm{B}T`$/$`m_\mathrm{e}c^2`$ = 1 corresponds to $`T\mathrm{5\; 10}^9`$ K ($``$ 500 keV).


text:
# Mid-infrared Studies of the AGB Star Populations in the Local Group Galaxies : the Magellanic Clouds

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, as being one of the brightest stellar populations, can be effectively used to trace star formation histories within the Local Group galaxies. However, due to the sensitivity of presently available mid-infrared and far-infrared detectors, such studies so far were mostly confined to the Magellanic Clouds (MC). Indeed, populous intermediate age clusters in both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC hereafter) represent an ideal laboratory for studying stellar evolution. They span a range of ages and metallicities, which makes them suitable to trace the AGB evolution of stars with different masses and in different evolutionary stages.

In this work we present a brief summary of ISOCAM survey of AGB stars in the populous intermediate age star clusters in the LMC and SMC. Although several obscured AGB stars were discovered during the course of our survey (Tanabé et al. 1998, 1999), in this work we concentrate on non-obscured AGB stars. Since the radiation of these objects is not modified by the surrounding circumstellar shell, their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) can be effectively modeled using conventional model atmospheres, which allows a straightforward determination of $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$.

Although the AGB stars are ideal candles to trace stellar ages on extragalactic distance scales, an efficient method to derive ages of stellar populations using AGB stars is not yet available. We show that a precise knowledge of the basic stellar parameters of the AGB objects may provide a clue for the solution of this problem too.

## 2 ISOCAM OBSERVATIONS

The populous intermediate age clusters in the LMC and SMC were observed in the raster imaging mode with the ISOCAM (\[Cesarsky et al. 1996\]) on board the ISO satellite (Kessler et al. 1996). Observations were made using the broad-band CAM filters LW1, LW2 and LW10 (corresponding to the effective wavelengths of 4.5, 6.7 and 12 $`\mu `$m, respectively), with a pixel field of view (PFOV) of 3′′. The raster mode was typically 5 $`\times `$ 5 frames, with the raster step size equal to 8 pixels (24′′). The fundamental integration time was set to $`t_{\mathrm{int}}=2.1`$ sec, with a total number of 15 to 20 exposures per single raster position.

ISOCAM data were reduced using the CAM Interactive Analysis software (CIA version 3) 111The ISOCAM data presented in this paper was analyzed using “CIA”, a joint development by the ESA Astrophysics Division and the ISOCAM Consortium led by the ISOCAM PI, C. Cesarsky, Direction des Sciences de la Matière, C.E.A., France., and photometry was performed with the IRAF DAOPHOT package. The absolute photometric uncertainty of our measurements is mainly due to the ISOCAM calibration uncertainties and the correction for the memory effect (transient) of the ISOCAM, which is estimated to be less than 20% (\[Biviano 1998\]). A typical ISOCAM image of one of the sample clusters (NGC 1783) is given in Figure 1.

The obtained ISOCAM fluxes of the AGB stars, combined with the optical and near-infrared photometry available from the literature, were used to construct the observed SEDs, which were further used to derive $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ of the AGB stars without circumstellar shells.

## 3 $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ AND $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ OF THE STUDIED AGB STARS

Though there are numerous methods to derive effective temperatures of the AGB stars, none of them works well in cases when limited information about the spectral energy distribution of a particular star is available (e.g. when only the broad-band photometric fluxes are available). Various calibrations of photometric colors vs. effective temprature have been used extensively in such cases (\[Bessell et al. 1983\]; \[Feast 1996\]; \[Montegriffo et al. 1998\]), though the accuracy of the derived $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is not better than $`200`$ K.

Since color indices measure only a portion of the observed SED, we suggest to use the entire SED as an indicator of the effective temperature. One of the possible ways is to employ synthetic SEDs of AGB stars, which would yield $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ as a fitting parameter. In our analysis we have fitted the observed SEDs with the theoretical fluxes calculated from synthetic spectra of Fluks et al. (1994). Though the synthetic spectra of Fluks et al. (1994) are of solar metallicity, our analysis shows, that the influence of metallicity (and gravity) on the derived $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is minor (Kučinskas et al. in preperation). Therefore, this offers a flexible tool for estimating effective temperatures of AGB stars in stellar populations where the metallicity is not known a priori. It should be stressed, however, that this method would not be applicable in case of AGB stars with circumstellar shells.

As an example, the observed SEDs and fitted synthetic SEDs are shown for the AGB stars in the LMC clusters NGC 1783 (Figure 2). Typically, the accuracy of such fits is better than $`\pm 50`$K. This therefore gives a possibility to obtain precise effective temperature estimates of the AGB stars even if only the broad-band photometric fluxes are available.

Absolute bolometric magnitudes, $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$, of the studied AGB objects were obtained by flux integration in the observed SEDs. To obtain the total integrated flux, the observed SEDs were linearly interpolated between the two adjacent photometric fluxes, whereas the blackbody extrapolation was used for both the short- and long-wavelength tails of the SEDs. The apparent bolometric magnitudes were calculated then using the elementary formula :

$$m_{\mathrm{bol}}=2.5\mathrm{log}(F_{\mathrm{tot}})+ZP$$
(1)
where $`F_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ is the total integrated flux, and the zero point is taken to be $`ZP=11.478`$ (\[Montegriffo et al. 1998\]). The apparent bolometric magnitudes were then converted into the absolute bolometric magnitudes using the distance moduli of 18.4 and 18.9 for the LMC and SMC, respectively.

It should be stressed, that the knowledge of the mid-infrared fluxes of AGB stars is important in several aspects when deriving $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ :

\- mid-infrared fluxes constrain the total amount of energy emitted by the star and thus influences on the accuracy in determining $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ (the improvement can reach up to 10% with the respect to $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ derived from the SEDs constructed of optical and near-infrared observations only, where the red-tail of the SED is extrapolated as a blackbody);

\- mid-infrared observations can reveal the excess flux due to the circumstellar dust, thus resulting in an easy discrimination between the AGB stars with and without circumstellar shells;

\- mid-infrared data constrain fits of theoretical SEDs to the observed SEDs in the long-wavelength tail, and thus allow to derive $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ more precisely.

## 4 AGES OF THE POPULOUS STAR CLUSTERS IN THE LMC AND SMC

The derived $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ of the non-obscured AGB stars were used to construct the observed HR diagrams, which were employed further to derive cluster ages using the isochrone fitting. We have used Bertelli et al. (1994) isochrones to work in $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ versus $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ plane. A typical example of the observed HR diagram and isochrone fitting is given in Figure 3 for the LMC cluster NGC 1783. The derived ages of all clusters in the sample and their comparison with the ages derived from the main sequence turn-off point (MSTO) fitting are given in Table 1. There is an excellent agreement between the ages obtained using these two methods.

It should be stressed, however, that metallicity plays an important role in the age determination. For instance, in case of NGC 1783 metallicity is not known precisely and the existing estimates vary between \[Fe/H\]$`=0.45`$ and \[Fe/H\]$`=0.90`$ (\[Cohen 1982\]; \[Bica et al. 1986\]; \[de Freitas Pacheco et al. 1998\]). The ages resulting from the isochrones of the corresponding metallicities would be $`0.8\pm 0.2`$ Gyr and $`2.2\pm 0.4`$ Gyr, respectively. It therefore shows, that ab initio knowledge of the cluster metallicity is an essential ingredient for obtaining a precise estimate of the population age.

## 5 SUMMARY AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

We suggest an alternative way for obtaining precise effective temperatures of oxygen-rich AGB stars without circumstellar shells. The only information needed to use this method is the availability of photometric broad-band fluxes. The observed SEDs should span as large wavelength interval as possible (optical through mid-infrared), which makes the mid-infrared observations highly desirable.

The obtained fundamental parameters of non-obscured oxygen-rich AGB stars ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}`$) can be used further to derive population ages employing the usual procedure of isochrone fitting. This gives a possibility to study star formation histories in a wide range of ages and metallicities.

The present ISOCAM study allowed to detect non-obscured AGB and RGB stars in the LMC and the SMC down to $`M_{\mathrm{bol}}2.7`$ ($`L_{}1000L_{}`$). The forthcoming infrared space missions (ASTRO-F, SIRTF etc.) and the ground-based instrumentation for large telescopes (SUBARU, VLT etc.) will allow to detect and study extragalactic AGB stars in most of the Local Group galaxies (\[Zijlstra 1999\]; \[Kaufl et al. 1999\]). Therefore, such observations combined with the proposed method to estimate $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and age offer a powerful tool to study evolution of stellar populations in diverse astrophysical environments.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was supported in part by grant-in-aids for Scientific research (C) and for International Scientific research (Joint Research) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.