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# Dust properties of the dark cloud IC 5146

## 1 Introduction

Dense, cold cores embedded in molecular clouds are the progenitors of protostellar cores which subsequently form low mass stars. Many observational studies have recently focused on the determination of the physical properties of these pre-protostellar or prestellar cores. This is because the initial conditions just before the collapse phase determine the properties of the protostar. There is consequently considerable interest in measuring their masses and thermal balance. Since cold molecular hydrogen cannot be detected in emission, trace constituents of the cloud have to be studied, requiring knowledge of their abundances. Two approaches have generally been used. The first is via the low-$`J`$ rotational emission lines of a rare CO isotopomer. The major difficulty with this technique is that CO can freeze out onto cold dust grains in the interiors of the prestellar cores thus changing significantly the CO gas-phase abundance from its canonical value of $`10^4`$ (e.g. Bergin et al. 2002; Tafalla et al. 2002; Caselli et al. 1999; Kramer et al. 1999) and also thus changing the thermal balance of the cores (Goldsmith 2001).

Since dust is by far the most important coolant and constitutes about 1% of the total mass, measuring the dust emission has proved popular as another method. The recent advent of large, sensitive bolometer arrays on millimeter and submillimeter telescopes now makes it possible to measure the weak continuum emission even from cool clouds showing no signs of star formation. The surface regions of prestellar cores are heated by the weak interstellar radiation field (ISRF) while cosmic rays penetrate easily even the densest cores. The cores therefore exhibit a small temperature gradient between the cold core interiors and the warmer surfaces. This argument was quantified by early radiation transport models (e.g. Leung 1975) and refined by recent calculations (e.g. Zucconi et al. 2001; Evans et al. 2001). These models show the dependence of the gradient on, for example, the grain material and on the core geometry. A comparison with observed fluxes should therefore allow to discriminate between these factors. Recent observations have indeed shown that many prestellar cores exhibit a temperature gradient while others appear to be isothermal (e.g. Ward-Thompson et al. 2002).

Another difficulty is that the grain opacity at submillimeter wavelengths is poorly known and may vary due to grain evolution in the dense, cold core interiors. At wavelengths longer than about 250 $`\mu `$m, the wavelength dependence of the emissivity is customarily parametrized by a power-law function: $`\kappa _\lambda =\kappa _0(\lambda /\lambda _0)^\beta `$. The dust properties are thus characterized by two parameters, the emissivity exponent $`\beta `$ and the opacity $`\kappa _0`$ at a given wavelength $`\lambda _0`$. In general, the opacity may not even follow a power strict law, and so would require more than two parameters to describe it; given the lack of accurate multi-frequency submillimeter data we do not consider more complex models in this paper. The dust coagulation model of Ossenkopf & Henning (1994, OH94 hence on) shows that the formation of dirty ice mantles and grain coagulation increase the opacity at long wavelengths (cf. Pollack et al. 1994; Stognienko et al. 1995; Henning et al. 1995).

Some studies use the spectral energy distribution in the FIR and submm regime to disentangle dust temperature and opacity (e.g. Ward-Thompson et al. 2002). These observations indicate a constant spectral index of $`\beta 2`$.

Here, we try to tackle this task by combining optical extinction data, obtained via NIR observations of background stars obtained by Lada et al. (1999), with deep dust emission maps at 450 and 850 $`\mu `$m, obtained with the SCUBA bolometer on the JCMT. There are two key strengths of this technique. First, the submillimeter flux ratios in themselves are an excellent temperature diagnostic in cold gas, if the dust index $`\beta `$ is nearly constant, because the Raleigh-Jeans corrections are large at these frequencies ($`h\nu /k_B=32`$ K at 450 $`\mu `$m). Second, the optical extinctions are an accurate tracer of dust column densities independent of the dust temperature. Combining the three data sets therefore allows us to determine at each position the dust temperature and the grain opacity, averaged along the line of sight.

We observed an area of 2 pc$`\times `$0.33 pc of a filamentary cloud in the IC 5146 complex which consists of several dense starless condensations. This study thus covers a much larger region than the previous work of Kramer et al. (1998, 1999, Paper I and II henceforth) who studied one core of the IC 5146 filament.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

### 2.1 SCUBA data

We used the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA, Holland et al. 1999) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT111The JCMT is operated by the JAC, Hawaii, on behalf of the UK PPARC, the Netherlands OSR, and the Canadian NRC.) to map IC 5146. On September, 13th and 15th, 2000, we observed a $`14^{}\times 2.5^{}`$ region simultaneously at 850 $`\mu `$m and 450 $`\mu `$m. The SCUBA array covers a hexagonal field of view of $`2.5^{}`$ with 91 and 37 pixels at 450 and 850 $`\mu `$m respectively. To create fully-sampled maps, the ‘jiggle’ mode was used, in which the telescope beam is moved in a 64-position pattern by the secondary mirror, spending 1 s at each sample point while simultaneously chopping at 7.8 Hz to remove atmospheric emission. Since the filament is elongated in right ascension and smaller than about $`2^{}`$ in declination, we chopped in declination using the maximum throw of $`\pm 2\stackrel{}{.}5`$.

Pointing, focus, and calibration checks were done on NGC 7027 and Uranus at regular intervals. The zenith opacity was derived from simultaneous skydips at 850 and 450 $`\mu `$m. It stayed almost constant at $`\tau _{850}=0.18`$ and $`\tau _{850}=0.24`$ during the first and second night respectively, with a repeatability being better than 3% at 850 $`\mu `$m. The half power beamwidths were measured on Uranus to be $`16^{\prime \prime }`$ at 850 $`\mu `$m and $`10^{\prime \prime }`$ at 450 $`\mu `$m. The main beam is almost Gaussian at 850 $`\mu `$m. At $`450\mu `$m the main beam efficiency is $`50`$ %, with the remaining power forming an error beam around the main beam roughly $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ in size.

We reduced the data primarily using the SCUBA User Reduction Facility (SURF; Jenness & Lightfoot (1998); Jenness et al. (2002)) in the standard way. The data were corrected for individual bolometer gains (i.e. flat-fielded), for atmospheric extinction and correlated sky noise, and regridded and calibrated to yield the final images in Jy beam-1. To improve the image quality, we deconvolved both maps using our own CLEAN algorithm to deconvolve the triple beam response of the observations: this final step made only small changes to the maps because there is little emission extended by more than 150 arcsec in declination. At 450 $`\mu `$m, our beam model is composed of three symmetric Gaussians similar to the model fitted by Hogerheijde & Sandell (2000). We restored the cleaned images back to the original resolutions. Next, we smoothed the images to $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution using a Gaussian convolving kernel. And we resampled the data onto a common grid with $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ spacing. This allows for a pixel-by-pixel comparison of the $`450\mu `$m and $`850\mu `$m maps with the $`A_\mathrm{V}`$ data at the same resolution and grid.

### 2.2 Sources of errors

The most important source of statistical error comes from fluctuations in the atmospheric opacity. At $`450\mu `$m, there are also possible errors from changes in dish shape and thus in the beam pattern as the dish temperature changes, and errors when deconvolving the error beam. Finally, the absolute flux scales at 850 and 450 $`\mu `$m are derived from the flux of Uranus, and these are uncertain to $`510`$% (Sandell 1994). Since this error is entirely systematic, it cannot account for any point to point variations in cloud properties, only stretching monotonically the derived temperature or $`\kappa ^{}`$ scales.

Uncertainties in the 450 $`\mu `$m maps due to the error beam should be small, because the CLEAN deconvolution included the error beam pattern and because we are only interested in data at $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution, which includes most of the power in the error beam. In addition, most of the data were taken in cool nighttime conditions when the dish temperature is stable.

The best estimate of the fluctuations in atmospheric transmission are probably the opacities at 225 GHz measured at the CSO every ten minutes using a tipping radiometer (Archibald et al. 2000). These opacities varied very smoothly and by small amounts, indicating very stable atmospheric conditions during our observations. We applied the opacities at 850$`\mu `$m measured via SCUBA skydips to the data. The scatter of these opacities, scaled to 225 GHz (Archibald et al. 2002) relative to the fitted opacities is less than $`5`$% during the 11 hours of the two night observations. At the average CSO-zenith opacity of 0.055 and typical airmass of 1.56, this translates into a calibration uncertainty of $`10`$% at 450$`\mu `$m. Temporal variations in opacity are expected to be slow, of the order of 10 minutes, so the error on close by parts of the maps will be much smaller.

We thus estimate that the calibration error of the flux density ratio $`S_{450}/S_{850}`$, observed simultaneously through the same atmosphere, is $`15`$% and $`10\%`$ for the ratio $`S_{850}/A_\mathrm{V}`$ since the latter is dominated by the error of the flux density. In fact, the resulting dust temperatures of between 10 and 20 K and their small scatter (Figs. 4, 5) also indicate that errors cannot be much larger.

### 2.3 NIR data

The NIR observations of IC 5146 are described in Lada et al. (1999, 1994). The determined color excess $`E(HK)`$ is proportional to dust column density. Following convention, the dust column density is represented in terms of optical extinctions $`A_V`$ by converting the color excess at each position to the optical extinction using the normal reddening law: $`A_V=15.9E(HK)`$ (Rieke & Lebofsky 1985) with the ratio of total to selective extinction $`R=A_V/E(BV)=3.1`$. Although the resulting map accurately reflects the distribution of dust column density and mass, it may not accurately predict the true visual extinction through the cloud. This is because grain growth in cold clouds can alter the reddening law at wavelength $`1\mu `$m (e.g. Fig.2 in Mathis 1990). Conversion to near-infrared extinctions (e.g. $`A_K=1.78E(HK)`$) would avoid this problem. In this paper, like in Papers I and II, we stick to $`A_V`$ and therefore compare the dust absorption $`\kappa _{850}`$ in IC 5146 to the absorption in the NIR of general interstellar grains rather than to the actual value of $`\kappa _\mathrm{V}`$ of grains in IC 5146.

## 3 Properties of the dust

### 3.1 Maps

The IC 5146 complex of molecular clouds lies in Cygnus at a distance of 460 pc (Lada et al. 1999). The part we analyzed is called Northern Streamer (Dobashi et al. 1992, 1993) for its filamentary appearance which is strikingly visible in the map of optical extinctions of Lada et al. (1999). We mapped at $`850`$ and $`450\mu `$m the inner part of the ridge above about 10 mag of optical extinction covering an area of about $`2`$pc$`\times 0.3`$pc. The resulting maps of flux densities are shown in Fig. 1 at a resolution of 0.04 pc ($`16^{\prime \prime }`$). The filament has a clumpy appearance. About nine cores are discernible at both wavelengths. Most prominent is the bright clump at the eastern edge of the mapped region near ($`5.3^{}`$,$`0.8^{}`$). Many clumps appear much more distinct at 850$`\mu `$m than at 450$`\mu `$m, which is probably an indication that the dust is cold, with the Rayleigh-Jeans correction suppressing the 450 $`\mu `$m emission. This holds for example for the center core near ($`0^{}`$,$`0^{}`$). There are exceptions. For example the clump near ($`4.1^{}`$,$`0.7^{}`$) is much more distinct at 450$`\mu `$m than at 850$`\mu `$m which probably indicates a much higher fraction of warm dust.

In Fig. 2 we show the same data set, but smoothed to a common resolution of 0.067 pc ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$) in comparison with the optical extinctions at that resolution. Currently, the number of detected background stars does not allow to create an $`A_V`$ map of still higher spatial resolution. At least four cores show up at all three wavelengths reaching peak extinctions between 20 and 35 mag. An exception is the core near ($`0.8^{}`$,$`0.5^{}`$) which exhibits a peak in extinctions of 28 mag, while it does not show maxima in dust emission. Almost no background stars are found near this position (see Fig. 1 in Kramer (1999)) but only one strongly reddened star. This indicates high extinctions, but the position of the AV maximum may be shifted.

The mapped region shows no signs of star-forming activity. Two protostellar cores associated with CO outflows and IRAS point sources (Dobashi et al. 1993; Levreault 1983), the FU Ori source El1-12 with a luminosity of 25 L and another much weaker protostar, lie just outside of the SCUBA maps at offsets ($`8.5^{}`$,$`1.2^{}`$) and ($`5.5^{}`$,$`2.47^{}`$). The H ii region S125 and its associated young open cluster IC 5146 lie more than $`1^{}`$ to the east.

### 3.2 Deriving the distribution of dust properties over the surface of the map

#### 3.2.1 Basic equations

The dust temperature $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ is determined by the ratio of flux densities per beam at $`850\mu `$m and $`450\mu `$m which are optically thin up to very high column densities:

$$\frac{S_{450}}{S_{850}}=\left(\frac{850}{450}\right)^{3+\beta }\frac{\mathrm{exp}(17\mathrm{K}/T_{\mathrm{dust}})1}{\mathrm{exp}(32\mathrm{K}/T_{\mathrm{dust}})1}.$$
(1)
At the low temperatures of about 10 K prevalent in dark clouds and at submillimeter wavelengths, deviations from the Rayleigh-Jeans law are highly significant and so this ratio is a strong function of both the dust temperature and the dust emissivity index $`\beta `$. To derive the dust temperature distribution over the surface of the cloud, we assume $`\beta =2`$ as has generally been found for dust grains in molecular clouds (Ward-Thompson et al. 2002; Johnstone & Bally 1999; Sandell et al. 1999; Huard et al. 1999; Visser et al. 1998; Goldsmith et al. 1997) and is also consistent with theory. A relative error of the flux density ratio of 10% would result in an error of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ of 1.4 K at 12 K.

Next, we used the observed optical extinctions to derive the distribution of the ratio of absorption and extinction coefficients $`\kappa ^{}\kappa _{850}/\kappa _V`$ over the surface of the cloud via:

$$\frac{S_{850}}{A_\mathrm{V}}=B_{850}(T_{\mathrm{dust}})\mathrm{\Omega }_{850}\frac{1}{1.086}\frac{\kappa _{850}}{\kappa _\mathrm{V}}.$$
(2)
$`B_{850}(T_{\mathrm{dust}})`$ is the Planck function at $`850\mu `$m and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{850}`$ is the main beam solid angle. This analysis assumes $`\beta =2`$, it may thus miss any variations of $`\beta `$, if present. Dust flux densities in the FIR would be needed to analyze the frequency dependence of the dust absorptivity in more detail. However, we do derive variations of $`\kappa ^{}`$. This approach is supported by the dust models of e.g. OH94 which indicate that grain evolution in dense, cold prestellar cores leads to significant changes in $`\kappa _{850}`$ but leaves $`\beta `$ rather constant.

#### 3.2.2 Scatterplots

We use the three data sets $`S_{850}`$, $`S_{450}`$, $`A_\mathrm{V}`$ of the full region at the common resolution of $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ and for each position on a $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ grid. Figure 3a shows a scatterplot of the observed ratios $`S_{850}/A_\mathrm{V}`$ versus $`S_{450}/S_{850}`$. Mean and rms values are $`S_{850}/A_\mathrm{V}=4.0\pm 1.5`$ (38%) and $`S_{450}/S_{850}=6.7\pm 1.6`$ (24%). The scatter is thus significantly larger than the estimated calibration errors of 10% and 15% respectively. The reason may be variations of dust temperature and/or of the $`\kappa `$-ratio $`\kappa ^{}`$, assuming that $`\beta `$ stays constant. Using the $`A_\mathrm{V}`$ data allows to disentangle these two variations. We plot in Fig. 3a lines of constant $`\kappa ^{}`$ for dust temperatures in the range 6 to 30 K using eqs. 1 and 2. These lines clearly show that the observed data with its uncertainty is inconsistent with a constant dust temperature and kappa-ratio. High kappa-ratios are found for regions of low dust temperatures. The resulting scatterplot of kappa-ratio versus dust temperature (Fig. 3b) also shows this anti-correlation.

Care has to be taken when interpreting this plot, since the scatter of points is influenced by the calibration errors and also by the interdependency of the two equations used to derive the numbers for $`\kappa ^{}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$. We therefore conducted a Monte Carlo simulation to create two samples of data shown in Fig. 3c. The rms scatter of these distributions equals the estimated calibration errors. Their mean values lie at the low and high end of the observed data but also well within its scatter (Fig. 3a): $`S_{450}/S_{850}=5.5\pm 15\%`$, $`S_{850}/A_\mathrm{V}=5`$mJy beam-1 mag-1$`\pm `$10%, and $`S_{450}/S_{850}=8.0\pm 15\%`$, $`S_{850}/A_\mathrm{V}=3`$mJy beam-1 mag-1$`\pm `$10%. From these distributions we derived again a scatterplot of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$ (Fig. 3d). The two selected distributions are significantly different at the $`3\sigma `$ level. We thus find a significant drop of dust temperatures from 20 K to about 12 K while the $`\kappa `$-ratio rises at the same time from $`\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ to $`\mathrm{5\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$.

The average of the $`\kappa `$-ratio is $`\mathrm{3.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$, comparing well to the canonical value of $`\mathrm{3.7\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ derived from the extinction curve of Mathis (1990) who uses the estimate of Hildebrand (1983) for the FIR opacity:

$`\kappa _\lambda /\kappa _\mathrm{V}`$ $`=`$ $`(\lambda /250)^\beta (\kappa _{250}/\kappa _\mathrm{J})(\kappa _\mathrm{J}/\kappa _\mathrm{V})\mathrm{and}`$ (3)
$`\kappa _\mathrm{V}/\kappa _\mathrm{J}`$ $`=`$ $`3.55,\kappa _{250}/\kappa _\mathrm{J}=0.0015`$
with $`\lambda =850\mu `$m and $`\beta =2`$.

#### 3.2.3 Dependence on assumed dust emissivity

The absolute derived values of dust temperature and $`\kappa ^{}`$ are dependent on the assumed value $`\beta =2`$, but as long as $`\beta `$ is constant, it cannot affect the derived point-to-point variations in properties. The same is true if the absolute flux scales are in error. For example, if $`\beta =1.5`$, the set of curves delineating constant $`\kappa ^{}`$ in Fig. 3a is shifted to the left. The resulting temperatures are increased. They range between 12 and $`50`$ K and corresponding values for $`\kappa ^{}`$ range between $`\mathrm{5\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ and $`\mathrm{0.5\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$. The average value lies at $`\mathrm{1.7\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$, significantly lower than the canonical value. Such high dust temperatures are not expected for the weak interstellar FUV field warming IC 5146 (see next chapter). We thus infer that a dust emissivity index of $`\beta =2`$ is the more realistic value. Of course, if the assumed fluxes of Uranus (which set the absolute flux scales) are in error, a different value of $`beta`$ may also be fully consistent with the data.

#### 3.2.4 Residual emission at the OFF-positions

The dust emission at the positions of the OFF-beam of the SCUBA jiggle maps may be estimated from the large scale maps of optical extinctions obtained by Lada et al. (1999) and shown in Fig. 2. To improve slightly, we used a recently observed, new NIR map, covering the extended extinction of IC 5146 (unpublished observations by T. Huard, J. Alves, C. Lada). The average optical extinction in the Northern area of the OFF-beam is 3.5 mag, in the Southern area it is 2.8 mag. For a rough estimate of the corresponding dust emission at 850 and 450 $`\mu `$m, we used eqs.1, 2, and assumed an average dust temperature of 20 K and $`\kappa `$-ratio of $`\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ which is roughly appropriate for the inter-core regions (cf. Fig. 5). The resulting flux densities are 8 mJy beam-1 at 850 $`\mu `$m and 61 mJy beam-1 at 450 $`\mu `$m corresponding to about 6% of the peak emission at both wavelengths.

The resulting error may be higher in the outskirts of the cores, where dust emission is rather low and thus the relative contribution of off-source emission may be high. This is e.g. the case at position $`(4.75^{}/0.5^{})`$ between cores #2 and #3, where flux densities drop to $`S_{850}=67`$ mJy beam-1 and $`S_{450}=517`$ mJy beam-1. The resulting dust temperature and $`\kappa `$-ratio at this position are 18.4 K and $`\mathrm{1.45\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$. The average off-source contamination is $`12`$ % of the measured flux densities at both frequencies when using the above rough estimate of the OFF-source flux densities. However, the ratio $`S_{450}/S_{850}`$ is largely unaffected and thus is the dust temperature determination.

We did not correct for this error which leads to a slight but systematic underestimate of fluxes.

#### 3.2.5 Maps of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$

The resulting maps of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$ are shown in Fig. 4. Dust temperatures are low and lie between $`10`$ and 20 K for the bulk of the filament. Still higher temperatures are reached at a few positions at the edges of the ridge but are probably insignificant as discussed above. The average and rms are $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}=16.5\pm 8`$ K. In the center region, dust temperatures are low at about 10 K and there is only little variation. To the east of the center, the map of dust temperatures shows vertical stripes: temperatures are low at the positions of clumps #3 and #2, while the temperature rises to above $`20`$ K in the interclump regions and at the eastern edge of clump #2. The western part of the map is less well characterized.

#### 3.2.6 Discussion

Our finding is consistent with $`\kappa _V`$ and $`\beta `$ being constant, while the absorption coefficient $`\kappa _{850}`$ is rising with dropping temperatures.

The colder regions are in general associated with regions of high column densities as is seen in the map of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ (Fig. 4) and in the radial profiles of the four cores discussed in the next chapter (Fig. 5). Assuming that high column densities correlate with high volume densities, grain coagulation may be of importance. In addition, gas-phase molecules may freeze out on dust grains at low temperatures, altering their emissivities. Sandford & Allamandola (1993) e.g. found a sublimation temperature of CO onto CO-ice of 17 K from laboratory experiments under interstellar conditions. In Paper II, we indeed found evidence for depletion of the CO gas-phase abundance in one of the IC 5146 cores, which we attributed to freeze-out on grain surfaces.

This view is supported by the results of the dust model of OH94 who show that coagulation and formation of ices on grains in the dense and cold cloud interiors leads to an increase of long wavelength absorption. Depending on parameters like the density or ice thickness, OH94 predict enhancements by upto a factor of 3.4 (Table 2 in OH94) while we have observed an increase by about a factor of 3.8 (Fig. 3). Grain coagulation has a larger influence than formation of ices which contributes only a factor of 1.7. Dust opacity spectra of icy grains displayed in OH94 (Fig. 5b,c) show the rise in long wavelength opacity with coagulation. These calculations also indicate that the emissivity index $`\beta `$ stays almost constant for ice covered grains.

Furthermore, Fig. 5 in OH94 shows that the slopes of the dust opacity spectra stay rather constant in the NIR while the absolute opacities in the NIR rise only slightly when coagulation becomes important. The constancy of the slopes is consistent with the NIR extinctions law analyzed by Lada et al. (1994) who found that the ratio of color excess $`E(JH)/E(HK)`$ stays constant upto optical extinctions of 30 mag.

### 3.3 Four prestellar cores in more detail

The positions of four embedded cores are shown in the map of optical extinctions (Fig. 4). Center extinctions rise above 20 mag and all cores show some central symmetry. We therefore derived radially averaged profiles of optical extinction, dust temperature and $`\kappa ^{}`$ (Fig. 5). Radially averaged extinctions drop by about 50% at a distance of $`1^{}`$ corresponding to 0.13 pc. Mean radial values are listed in Table 1.

The peak in $`A_\mathrm{V}`$ near ($`45^{\prime \prime }`$,$`30^{\prime \prime }`$) was excluded since it exhibits an east-west orientated gradient in dust temperature and $`\kappa ^{}`$, but no central symmetry.

#### 3.3.1 Dust temperatures

The average temperatures of the four cores differ significantly: they range between 10 K and 18 K (Table 1). Mean temperatures of cores #1 and #3 are only 10 and 12 K, much lower than the globally averaged temperature of 16.5 K. These findings correspond well with typical dust and gas temperatures of starless molecular cores observed previously. The survey of ammonia in dense cloud cores by Benson & Myers (1989) shows typical gas temperatures of between 10 and 15 K. The observational derivation of dust temperatures is more difficult. Often, a canonical dust temperature of 12 K is used for quiescent dark clouds (Visser et al. 2001). Dust- and gas temperatures couple only at high densities of more than $`10^5`$cm-3 (Goldsmith 2001; Krügel & Walmsley 1984).

Cores #1 and #4 appear to be almost isothermal. They show an almost constant temperature profile of 10 K and 16 K, respectively. The other two cores show a constant inner temperature of 15 K (core #2) and 12 K (core #3) for $`R<40^{\prime \prime }`$, and a rise of the temperatures by 7 and 3 K respectively at greater radii which trace the interclump medium when the radially averaged optical extinctions stay constant. This rise is also prominent in the map of dust temperatures (Fig. 4), in particular for the eastern most core #2.

For the center region of the IC 5146 filament, we have in addition obtained a small map ($`0.3`$pc$`\times 0.3`$ pc, $`2.2^{}\times 2.2^{}`$) of 1.2 mm flux densities which had been presented in Paper I. We derived $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ from the observed $`S_{450}/S_{850}`$ ratio and $`\kappa ^{}`$ from the independently observed $`S_{1200}/A_V`$ ratio (assuming again $`\beta =2`$). The resulting dust temperatures vary only between 9 and 14 K. There is again a systematic anti-correlation between $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$: the dust temperature varies from 9 K and $`\kappa ^{}=\mathrm{8\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ to 14 K and $`\kappa ^{}=\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$. The dust temperature drops slightly from an average of $`12`$K at 10 mag optical extinction to 10 K at 20 mag. This gradient is shallower than the gradient derived solely from $`S_{1200}/A_V`$ in Paper I, where a constant, canonical dust emissivity had been assumed.

A natural explanation for inwardly decreasing temperature gradients is that these cores are prestellar and only externally heated by the weak ambient ISRF. This leads to cool, dense dust in the core interiors surrounded by outer, less dense layers of warmer dust. The FUV field impinging on IC 5146 is probably slightly enhanced due to the small IC5146 star cluster (Wilking et al. 1984) which lies at a distance of $`1^{}`$ to the east. Assuming that BD$`+46.3474`$, a B0V star and the most massive member of the cluster, is the only source of FUV photons, that the star is a black body at the effective temperature of 30900 K corresponding to its spectral type (Panagia 1973), and that its radiation is not diluted by material along the way, we derive a flux of $`\chi =3`$ in units of the average interstellar radiation field at a distance of 8.1 pc.a 222 The integrated flux $`\chi `$ of the FUV field is given here in units of $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{D}=\mathrm{2.7\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (Draine & Bertoldi 1996). This unit is a factor of 1.71 stronger than the Habing field $`G_0`$ (Habing 1968).

Ward-Thompson et al. (2002) observed 18 prestellar cores using ISOPHOT data at 170 and $`200\mu `$m. From the flux ratio, assuming $`\beta =2`$, they also find similarly low dust temperatures of between $`10`$ and 20 K. About half of their sources show a uniform temperature distribution while the other half shows an inwardly decreasing temperature profile.

We find low l.o.s. averaged dust temperatures of $``$10 K in some cloud cores. This corresponds well with models of Mathis et al. (1983) who find that deep inside clouds, both silicate and graphite grains attain local temperatures between 5 and 7 K. We have found indications for increased opacities in the cloud interiors due to grain coagulation and formation of ices. This increased emissivity may lead to more efficient cooling of the dust grains, thus further lowering the dust temperatures.

Recent models by Zucconi et al. (2001) and Evans et al. (2001) quantify the temperature gradient expected for prestellar cores illuminated only by the external average ISRF. These models show that local temperatures vary between $``$8 K in the interior and 14 K at the surface. An increase of the ISRF by a factor of 2 would lead to an increased dust temperature by only 15-20%.

#### 3.3.2 Dust emissivity

The average dust temperatures and $`\kappa ^{}`$ values (Table 1) are anticorrelated, as had already been found when analyzing all the mapped positions (Fig. 3). Cores #2 and #4 show a low average ratio of $`\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ (and at the same time relatively high temperatures) while cores #1 and #3 show a high ratio of 5 and $`\mathrm{6\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ respectively (and relatively low temperatures). The radial profiles (Fig. 5) are mostly flat (#1, #2, #4). Only core #3 shows a large radial variation of the kappa-ratio between 3 and $`\mathrm{8\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$.

#### 3.3.3 Masses

We calculated the masses of the prestellar cores (Fig. 4, Table 1) by integrating over a disk with a radius of 0.067 pc ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$), i.e. covering the inner region of the radial profiles shown in Fig. 5. We use three different methods to derive core masses. (1.) Optical extinctions were used to derive masses $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ via the canonical ratio of $`N(`$H$`{}_{2}{}^{})`$/$`A_\mathrm{V}=\mathrm{9.36\hspace{0.17em}10}^{20}`$ cm-2mag-1 observed by Bohlin et al. (1978) in the diffuse interstellar medium: $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}=N(\mathrm{H}_2)A\mu m_\mathrm{H}`$ with the area $`A`$ and the mean particle mass $`\mu =2.33`$ in units of the hydrogen atom mass $`m_\mathrm{H}`$. (2.) The flux density at $`850\mu `$m was also used to independently derive the total mass $`M_{\mathrm{canon}}=F_{850}d^2/(\kappa _{850}B_{850}(T_{\mathrm{dust}}))`$, where $`d`$ is the distance, and $`F_{850}=S_{850}/\mathrm{\Omega }_{850}\times A`$ is the integrated flux. Here, we used canonical values for the dust temperature and $`\kappa `$: $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}=12`$ K and $`\kappa _{850}=0.01`$cm2g-1. The masses derived from dust emission are a sensitive function of dust temperatures. For example, assuming a temperature of 10 K would result in an overestimate by a factor of 2.1 relative to the mass at 15 K temperature. Assuming on the other hand a temperature of 20 K would lead to an underestimate by a factor of 0.6 relative to the mass at 15 K. (3.) We therefore employed a third method, using the radial profiles of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ (Fig. 5) and $`\kappa ^{}`$ to derive masses $`M_{\mathrm{core}}`$ 333To calculate $`\kappa _{850}`$ from the $`\kappa ^{}`$ profile, we assumed a constant extinction coefficient in the V band of $`\kappa _\mathrm{V}=273.6`$cm2g-1. This value was in turn derived using the canonical values of Mathis (1990) (Eq. 3) and a mean $`\kappa _{850}=0.01`$cm2g-1..

Core masses lie between 3 Mand 7 M, thus constituting only about 20% of the total mass. The masses derived by the three methods agree to within 30%. This excellent agreement is surprising, given that the masses $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{canon}}`$ were derived from two independent data sets i.e. the $`A_V`$ data on the one hand and the submillimetric flux densities on the other hand and given the observational errors of both methods. The agreement shows that the observational errors are still smaller and the underlying assumptions are valid to within that accuracy.

When comparing $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ with core masses $`M_{\mathrm{core}}`$ derived from the profiles of dust temperature and $`\kappa ^{}`$, we find that the latter are smaller by an almost constant factor of $`0.85\pm 0.01`$. The scatter is significantly smaller than the scatter of $`M_{\mathrm{canon}}`$/$`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$. The main factor contributing to the improved mass estimate is probably the determined dust temperature. A correction of the canonical conversion factor N(H2)/$`A_V`$ or, alternatively, of the extinction coefficient $`\kappa _V`$ by only 15% would be needed to explain the constant deviation of $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ from $`M_{\mathrm{core}}`$.

## 4 Summary

We mapped the submillimeter dust emission at 850 and 450 $`\mu `$m and the optical extinction of the IC 5146 molecular cloud filament. All data was smoothed to the resolution of the $`A_V`$ data, i.e. to 0.067 pc ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$). The map covers a region of $`2`$ pc$`\times `$0.3 pc. Several peaks of $`A_V>20`$ mag show up along the east-west orientated dust ridge which we interpret as dense prestellar cores.

* The maps of dust emission correspond well with the map of dust extinction. Most cores show up in all three maps. However, the map of dust extinction shows a higher contrast. The subsequent analysis relies on the estimated calibration accuracy, i.e. mainly on the assumption that the ratio of flux densities $`S_{450}/S_{850}`$ is accurate to within $`15`$ %. This accuracy is established by accurate correction for the atmospheric opacity, by deconvolving the error beam at $`450\mu `$m, and by smoothing all three data sets to $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution. The validity of the estimated calibration error is indicated by the smooth variation of dust temperatures over the surface of the dust ridge (Fig. 4) and the small sampling errors of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ within the annuli of the radial core profiles (Fig. 5). These errors are less than 1 K for all annuli.
* We constructed a map of dust temperature from the dust emissivities, assuming a constant dust emissivity index of $`\beta =2`$ and only one dust temperature component along each line of sight. A Monte Carlo simulation shows that the significant part of the dust temperature distribution is restricted to temperatures between $`12`$K and $`20`$ K. Cores have rather low temperatures of less than $`15`$K, while the inter clump dust shows temperatures of about $`20`$K.
* A map of the dust absorption ratio $`\kappa ^{}=\kappa _{850}/\kappa _V`$ was constructed by using in addition the map of optical extinctions. Its mean value corresponds well to the ratio found by Mathis (1990). The Monte Carlo simulation indicates a systematic and significant rise of $`\kappa ^{}`$ with dropping dust temperature, i.e. from $`\mathrm{1.3\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ at $`20`$ K to $`\mathrm{5\hspace{0.17em}10}^5`$ at $`12`$ K.

This translates into a corresponding variation of $`\kappa _{850}`$, assuming that $`\kappa _\mathrm{V}`$ stays constant. Such a variation is in fact predicted by the grain evolutionary model of OH94 when coagulation and formation of ices on grain surfaces becomes important in the cold, dense cloud interiors.

This is also consistent with the previously observed reduction of the CO gas phase abundance due to freeze out onto grains in the IC 5146 center region (Paper II).
* We identified four cores with high optical extinctions along the ridge. Radial profiles of dust temperature show almost isothermal profiles for the inner radius of 0.067 pc ($`30^{\prime \prime }`$). Two of the cores show a significant increase of dust temperature at larger radii which we attribute to the presence of externally heated dust of the inter clump medium.
* Core masses $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ derived from $`A_V`$ and integrated over a diameter of 0.13 pc ($`1^{}`$) vary between 4 and 7 M. Masses $`M_{\mathrm{canon}}`$ derived independently from the 850 $`\mu `$m dust emissivity assuming canonical values for $`\kappa _{850}`$ and $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ agree with $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ by better than 30%. This indicates that both completely independent methods trace the distribution of total dust and gas column densities with that accuracy. Masses $`M_{\mathrm{core}}`$ derived from $`S_{850}`$ taking into account the radial profiles of $`T_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ and $`\kappa ^{}`$ are offset from $`M_{\mathrm{Av}}`$ by an almost constant factor of 0.85.

Dust fluxes at shorter wavelengths than $`450`$$`\mu `$m are however needed to better disentangle variations of dust temperature, dust emissivity index $`\beta `$, and the absolute opacities. This is because the spectral energy distributions of cold cloud cores peak around $`\lambda 100300\mu `$m. Since this wavelength range is inaccessible from the ground, it will be space-borne instruments like PACS and SPIRE on board the Herschel space observatory, which is scheduled to start in 2007, which will provide unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution to access this wavelength regime (e.g. André 2001).

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank M. Walmsley and V. Ossenkopf for helpful comments on a first version. We are grateful to T. Huard for using a new NIR-dataset prior to publication, to derive optical extinctions in the area of the OFF beam. CJL acknowledges support from NASA Origins grant NAG5-9520. BM is supported by an Alexander von Humboldt research fellowship.


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# Absence of gross inhomogeneity in HTS cuprates

## Abstract

Recent scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) studies on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi-2212) revealed the presence of severe inhomogeneity with length scale $`L_0\xi _0`$, the coherence length. Other studies have been interpreted in terms of mesoscale or nanoscale phase segregation. Here we analyze heat capacity and NMR data on Bi-2212 and (Y,Ca)Ba2Cu3O7-δ and find no evidence for phase segregation or gross inhomogeneity. For Bi-2212 the coherence scale $`L_0`$ increases with doping from 5 to 17$`\xi _0`$ and the hole density inhomogeneity decreases from 0.028 to 0.005 holes/Cu. We conclude that STM measurements considerably overstate the inhomogeneity in bulk Bi-2212.

The possible importance of inhomogeneity in the physics of high temperature superconducting (HTS) cuprates has been stressed since the earliest investigations of these materials. Of necessity they involve chemical disorder as substitutional dopants in the parent compounds are usually required to introduce carriers. Frequently observed forms of inhomogeneity include substitutional, interstitial, reconstructive, twinning and incommensuration. Despite this potentially high degree of structural and compositional disorder (which is quite variable from one compound to another) the cuprates display universal phase behaviour. Their physical properties vary systematically with doping in very much the same way from one compound to another provided simply that the substitutional disorder lies outside of the active CuO2 planes. This, of course, reflects the strongly two-dimensional nature of the electron dynamics in the CuO2 planes. More fundamentally however, inhomogeneity of intrinsic electronic origin has been discussed widely, most notably various nanoscale stripe phases in which the background spins separate spatially from doped charges to form quasi-one-dimensional structures. There is thus much scope in HTS materials for significant extrinsic and intrinsic spatial inhomogeneity.

Recent high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) studies at 4.2K have provided dramatic evidence of electronic inhomogeneity on the surfaces of Bi-2212 in the superconducting (SC) state. These reveal a patchwork of contrasting regions with length scale $``$ 14$`\AA `$, comparable with the coherence length $`\xi _0`$, some having well-defined coherence peaks and others having strongly-reduced coherence peaks shifted to higher energies similar to the features of the pseudogap above $`T_c`$. The $``$ 50% spread in the magnitude of the SC energy gap, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, was shown to correlate with a similar spread in the local density of states. These variations were attributed to a distribution of hole concentration, $`p`$, arising from oxygen disorder and a FWHM spread of $`\mathrm{}p`$ 0.08 holes/Cu was inferred by comparing the distribution in SC gap with the $`p`$-dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ deduced from ARPES. It was suggested that such inhomogeneity may be quite general and may reflect ”an intimate relationship with superconductivity” in the cuprates. However, it cannot be presumed that such inhomogeneity is generic nor that it even reflects the nature of the $`bulk`$ electronic state. STM is strictly a surface probe susceptible to just the outermost CuO2 layer. Little is known about surface reconstruction in this material, the location of additional oxygen atoms in the cleaved BiO layer or the role of Bi atoms incorporated into the underlying SrO layer. We argue here from thermodynamic measurements and NMR data that the bulk electronic state is much more homogeneous than is suggested by the STM results which, by implication, are an artifact of a perturbed surface.

A quantitative measure of the degree of doping inhomogeneity in the HTS cuprates can be inferred from NMR linewidths. NMR is a bulk probe which is sensitive to the local electronic state near the probe nucleus. We show in Fig. 1 the 89Y Knight shift, $`{}_{}{}^{89}K_{s}^{}`$, at 300K for Y0.8Ca0.2Ba2Cu3O7-δ (Y,Ca-123) at six different values of $`\delta `$ and $`p`$ spanning the SC phase diagram. The $`p`$ values were obtained from thermopower measurements and $`T_c`$ values are also plotted. As is well known, the Knight shift varies systematically with doping and the figure reveals a slope of 580 ppm/hole. Doping inhomogeneity will therefore induce a $`minimum`$ line width of 580 $`\times \mathrm{}p`$ ppm. Other contributions, such as local moments and the effect of disorder on the chemical shift will also add to the linewidth. We may thus use the observed linewidth to determine the $`maximum`$ doping inhomogeneity (if all the linewidth came only from $`\mathrm{}p`$).

The vertical bands in the figure show the FWHM in the hole concentration determined in this way. We have used the magic-angle-spinning data of Balakrishnan et al. for YBa2Cu3O7-δ (Y-123) and of Williams et al. for YBa2Cu4O8 (Y-124). In the last case the linewidth is extremely narrow, about 100 Hz, giving $`\mathrm{}p`$ 0.0069. It is clear that this class of HTS is remarkably homogeneous yet they exhibit the same generic thermodynamic and ground-state behavior as Bi-2212.

Heat capacity studies on HTS cuprates provide a number of potential checks against electronic inhomogeneity. These include (i) the value of the specific heat coefficient, $`\gamma C_p/T`$ at $`T`$=0, (ii) its value, $`\gamma _n`$, at high temperature in the normal state, (iii) the magnitude and doping dependence of the jump, $`\mathrm{}\gamma `$, in $`\gamma `$ at $`T_c`$ and (iv) the transition width. For example, mesoscale segregation into SC and normal metallic phases will result in normal states in the gap manifested by a non-zero value of $`\gamma `$ at $`T`$=0. Progressive segregation with overdoping, for example, will see $`\gamma `$(0) rising steadily, filling out the $`d`$-wave gap. On the other hand, mesoscale segregation into insulating and normal metallic phases will result in a progressive reduction in the high-temperature value of $`\gamma _n`$ as states are removed. Here we focus on the thermodynamic data for Bi-2212 because this is the system in which the STM inhomogeneity was observed. To this we add data for Y,Ca-123, a very different system, to show that our observations are generic to the cuprates.

Ceramic samples ($``$ 2 gm) of Bi2.1Sr1.9CaCu2O8+δ and Y0.8Ca0.2Ba2Cu3O7-δ were synthesized using standard solid-state reaction and were oxygen loaded by slow cooling and annealing for many days at 325C in flowing oxygen. The electronic heat capacity was measured using a high-precision differential technique described elsewhere. The samples were then alternately annealed and quenched into liquid nitrogen and the heat capacity remeasured so as to track the thermodynamic state as a function of progressively depleted oxygen content. Changes in oxygen stoichiometry were determined from the mass changes and these concurred rather precisely with changes in the phonon specific heat. Values of $`p`$ were determined from $`T_c`$ values using the approximate parabolic phase curve, $`T_c(p)`$, given by

$$T_c(p)=T_{c,max}[182.6(p0.16)^2].$$
(1)
Similar studies have correlated such values of $`p`$ with the thermopower for both Bi-2212 and (Y,Ca)-123.

Fig. 2 shows a series of $`\gamma (T)`$ curves for each sample at closely spaced $`p`$-values from deeply underdoped to deeply overdoped. Dashed curves denote optimal doping where $`T_c`$ maximises while the thick curves denote critical doping ($`p_{crit}`$=0.19) where the pseudogap abruptly closes. Apart from small impurity-induced upturns for $`T<`$ 10 K $`\gamma (0)`$ remains close to zero across the entire doping range 0.084$``$p$``$0.23 in Y-123 and 0.13$``$p$``$0.21 in Bi-2212, while the values of $`\gamma (T)`$ at high temperature are constant, independent of doping and characteristic of a uniform normal metal. These observations rule out the two types of mesoscale segregation discussed above. We note that the 17O Knight shift in overdoped Y,Ca-123 also approaches zero at $`T`$=0 in agreement with the thermodynamic data and independently confirming the absence of unpaired quasiparticles. Significant gap filling in the single layer cuprates Tl-2201 and La-214 only occurs in the most heavily overdoped region p$``$0.24. This may reflect the increased role of pair breaking relative to a rapidly decreasing superconducting gap, and does not necessarily indicate segregation.

Fig. 2 also reveals rather sudden changes in $`\gamma (T,p)`$ with doping. The jump, $`\mathrm{}\gamma `$, at the transition changes only slowly across the deeply overdoped region but, starting at $`p_{crit}`$=0.19, the magnitude of $`\mathrm{}\gamma `$ falls very rapidly with further reduction in doping. Adjacent curves are separated by about $`\mathrm{}p`$0.008 and the observed sudden collapse of the specific heat anomaly suggests that any spread in doping state arising from nanoscale inhomogeneity must be less than this value. Consistent with this inference the transition widths remain quite narrow and we now focus on this issue in more detail.

A finite transition width $`\mathrm{}t_m`$ may arise from a spread, $`\mathrm{}p`$, in doping over $`mesoscopic`$ regions (due for example to a spread, $`\mathrm{}x`$, in local donor density, $`x`$). Here,

$$\mathrm{}t_m=\mathrm{}T_c/T_c=T_c^1dT_c/dp\times \mathrm{}p,$$
(2)
which falls to a minimum at optimum doping $`p`$ = $`p_{opt}`$ = 0.16. On the other hand a finite transition width $`\mathrm{}t_{fs}`$ independent of $`dT_c/dp`$ will result from inhomogeneity on a much shorter length scale, $`\xi `$ the coherence length, due to $`finitesize`$ effects . In the thermodynamic limit the coherence length, $`\xi (T)`$, diverges as $`t=T/T_c10`$ according to the power law $`\xi (T)`$ = $`\xi _0/`$$`t^\nu `$, where $`\nu `$=0.67 ($``$ 2/3) for 3D-XY fluctuations. Where the system is inhomogeneous this divergence is cut off by a length scale $`L_0`$ which is presumed by several authors to be the spatial length scale of the inhomogeneity. As a consequence the divergence of critical fluctuations is suppressed within

$$\mathrm{}t_{fs}=(\xi _0/L_0)^{3/2}.$$
(3)
It is immediately apparent that, if $`L_0\xi _0`$ as inferred from STM, then the transition broadening must be comparable to the magnitude of $`T_c`$, which is clearly not the case. In fact, typical transition widths of $``$ 2-3K require that $`L_0/\xi _0>`$ 10. For any doping state we can estimate the transition width from the finite cut-off of the fluctuation-induced heat capacity as $`t0`$ and we will see that it is indeed small.

Fig. 3(a) shows the specific heat near $`T_c`$ of Bi-2212 and pure YBa2Cu3O6.92, both at a similar doping state $`p0.18`$. In the 3D-XY model the logarithmic divergence of the specific heat near $`T_c`$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }C_p`$ = $`A^{}\mathrm{ln}t`$ \+ $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ for $`t<`$0 and $`A^+\mathrm{ln}t`$ for $`t>`$0. Here $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ is the mean field step, $`A^{}A^+=4k_B/(9\pi ^2\mathrm{\Omega }(0))`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the coherence volume. A semilog plot of $`\mathrm{}C_p`$ versus $`\mathrm{ln}`$$`t`$ gives two parallel lines offset by the mean-field step, $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$. In practice this plot (shown in Fig. 3(b) for Bi-2212 and in Fig. 3(c) for Y-123) exhibits negative curvature for sufficiently small $``$$`t`$ due to the finite-size cut-off in critical fluctuations or other sources of broadening. The effect of a spread in $`T_c`$ may be modelled by replacing t by $`t^{}=(t^2+\mathrm{}t^2)^{1/2}`$ in the above expressions for $`\mathrm{}C_p`$ . This is illustrated in Figs. 3(b) and (c) by selecting values of the half-width $`\mathrm{}t`$ that just avert negative curvature. Since $`\mathrm{}t_{fs}`$ and $`\mathrm{}t_m\mathrm{}t`$ the measured broadening $`\mathrm{}t`$ yields a lower limit to $`L_0/\xi _0`$ and an upper limit to $`\mathrm{}p`$ (eqs. 2,3). From the figures one finds $`\mathrm{}t`$ = 0.018 and $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ = 34 mJ/g.at.K for Bi-2212; and $`\mathrm{}t`$ = 0.0028 and $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ = 266 mJ/g.at.K for YBa2Cu3O6.92. These values for $`\mathrm{}t`$ translate to $`L_0`$ 16 $`\xi _0`$ and 50 $`\xi _0`$, respectively, values which are very much larger than those implied by the STM results.

The same analysis may be carried out for each investigated doping level in Y0.8Ca0.2Ba2Cu3O7-δ and in Bi-2212. Fig. 4 shows the measured broadening $`\mathrm{}t`$ and the corresponding lower limit to $`L_0/\xi _0`$ plotted as a function of $`p`$ in the case of Bi-2212 and of oxygen content, $`x=1\delta `$, for (Y,Ca)-123. In the former case lower-limit values of $`L_0`$/$`\xi _0`$ range from 17 at critical doping ($`p_{crit}`$ = 0.19) down to 5 in the most heavily underdoped samples. For (Y,Ca)-123, though less than for pure Y-123, values of $`L_0`$/$`\xi _0`$ are still as high as 35. Even in the most extreme cases the length scale is almost an order of magnitude longer than that inferred from the STM studies. We also show in Fig. 4 $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ obtained from eq. (2) using $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ = 0.005 for Bi-2212 and $`\mathrm{\Delta }x`$ = 0.01 for (Y,Ca)-123. In the latter case $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$ follows $`\mathrm{}t`$ rather well across the phase diagram indicating a spread in oxygen content of $`\mathrm{}x\pm `$0.01 for this compound. In Bi-2212 the transition width $`\mathrm{}t`$ does not correlate with $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_m`$, confirming the existence of short-length-scale inhomogeneity. Nevertheless we can conclude that the spread in p does not exceed $``$ 0.005 at p= 0.21 and $``$ 0.028 at p=0.13, significantly less than the value inferred from the STM data.

We plot in Fig. 5 the magnitude of the deduced mean-field step, $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$, for Bi-2212. This remains rather constant on the overdoped side but falls extremely sharply at $`p_{crit}`$ = 0.19 as the pseudogap opens and, remarkably, is essentially zero by optimal doping. A mere change of $`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ = 0.03 results in the complete collapse to zero of the mean-field step. This abrupt change again underscores the degree of bulk electronic homogeneity that must be present, even in the case of Bi-2212. With $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ 0 for $`p`$ 0.16 the specific heat anomaly becomes symmetric about $`T_c`$ because its weight arises $`purely`$ from critical fluctuations. We note that there is no significance in the fact that the mean-field step reaches zero at $`p_{opt}`$. This is not the case in Y-123 and we expect that the collapse in $`\mathrm{}C_p^{MF}`$ would be even more abrupt in a system with weaker interlayer coupling than Bi-2212. The coherence volume, $`\mathrm{\Omega }(0)`$, is also shown in the figure. The values are consistent with $`\xi _{ab}`$ 17 $`\AA `$ and $`\xi _c`$ 0.5 $`\AA `$.

We conclude that specific heat and NMR measurements indicate levels of inhomogeneity much lower than those inferred from STM experiments. In the doping range considered there are no phase-separated ”normal” or ”insulating” regions coexisting with superconductivity. Y-123 and Bi-2212 reveal very narrow thermodynamic features, such as the jump in $`\gamma C_p/T`$, which change abruptly with doping indicating a spread in local hole concentration no more than $`\mathrm{}p\pm `$0.01. Such features, found also in Y1-xCaxBa2Cu3O7-δ, Tl0.5Pb0.5Sr2Ca1-xYxCu2O7 and in La2-xSrxCuO4, are generic to the cuprates and suggest (at least for $`p`$0.125) a remarkable degree of bulk electronic homogeneity in spite of considerable disorder in the non-CuO2 layers. Analysis of critical fluctuations near $`T_c`$ indicates a spread of local donor densities no greater than $`\mathrm{}x\pm `$0.01 for Y1-xCaxBa2Cu3O7-δ and $`\pm `$0.02 for Bi-2212, while the latter compound exhibits a sudden and complete collapse of the mean-field step between critical and optimal doping. We conclude that the static inhomogeneity observed in STM on Bi-2212 single crystals is unrelated to bulk superconducting HTS properties and probably reflects the presence of disorder at the surface.

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (JWL & WYL) and the Marsden Fund (JLT).


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# On properties of elementary excitations in fractal media

\[

## Abstract

It is shown that elementary excitations in fractal media obey the so-called parastatistics of a variable order. We show that the order of the parastatistics $`N(k)`$ is a function of wave numbers $`k`$ which depends on the fractal dimension $`D`$ as $`N(k)k^{D3}`$ and represents a specific characteristic of such media. This function $`N(k)`$ defines properties of the ground state for excitations and the behavior of the spectrum of thermal fluctuations. In particular, in fractal media fluctuations of the density acquire an amplification by the factor $`N(\omega )\omega ^{D3}`$ which can be related to the origin of $`1/f`$-noise.

\]

It is well known that a physical system in which particle distribution follows, in some range of scales, a fractal law $`N\left(r\right)r^D`$ (where $`N\left(r\right)`$ is the number of particles contained within a radius $`r`$) with $`D`$ $`<3`$ is not an exotic example, rather it represents a typical situation (e.g., see Refs.  - and references therein). Nevertheless, an acceptable quantitative theory which allows for the description of thermodynamical properties of such systems is still absent. In the present paper we, however, show that the possibility to construct such a theory has recently appeared. First, we note that thermodynamical properties of a system are determined by properties and behaviour of elementary excitations in the system. In quantum theory excitations are described in terms of respective particles, while the number of degrees of freedom of a particular excitation can be characterized, in the Fourier space, by the spectral number of modes in the interval of wave numbers between $`k`$ and $`k+dk`$ as

$$\nu \left(k\right)\frac{dk}{k}.$$
(1)
The behaviour of the function $`\nu \left(k\right)`$ depends on the dimension of the system as $`\nu \left(k\right)k^D`$ and for regular (or homogeneous) systems the exponent $`D=n`$ takes integral values $`n=1,2,`$ or $`3`$. In the case of fractals, however, the dimension $`D`$ is not an integral number, while in a more general case (e.g., in the case of multifractals) this function may change its behaviour for different intervals of scales, i.e., $`D=D\left(k\right)`$. Moreover, a change in the thermodynamical state of a system may lead to essential transformations in the behaviour of the function $`\nu \left(k\right)`$ (e.g., in the case of percolation systems ). Thus, an adequate description of such systems requires that the spectral number of modes $`\nu \left(k\right)`$ has to be a variable which, in general, depends on wave numbers and, in the presence of self-organization processes, on time.

In the standard field theory the spectral number of modes is always fixed by the dimension of space. However, there exists a modification of the field theory (MOFT) in which the number of fields (and, therefore, of field modes) can vary. Such a modification was proposed in Ref.  to account for spacetime foam effects and it was recently developed in Refs. . In particular, MOFT was shown to predict a significant amplification of the gravitational force at galaxy scales (which is really observed and represents the so-called dark matter problem) and a fractal law for the galaxy distribution with dimension $`D2`$  which is in a full agreement with the observed picture of our Universe . Thus, we can expect that the theoretical scheme of MOFT provides a natural basis to describe excitations in systems with the fractal behaviour.

The measure (1) can be used to define the number of field modes $`N\left(k\right)`$ as $`\nu \left(k\right)=k^3N\left(k\right)/\left(4\pi ^2\right)`$ (to be specific we consider a fractal volume). In the standard field theory $`N\left(k\right)=1`$, while in a general case $`N\left(k\right)`$ is a variable which depends on the wave number $`k`$ and time (in particular, the fractal law gives $`N\left(k\right)k^{D3}`$). From the mathematical standpoint this means that excitations obey the so-called parastatistics which generalizes the standard Bose and/or Fermi statistics and the number of field modes $`N\left(k\right)`$ plays the role of the order of the parastatistics. We note that the first attempt to generalize the Bose and Fermi statistics was made by Gentile , while the parastatistics was suggested by Green in Ref. . Since then, the parastatistics has been studied in many papers (e.g., see Refs.  \- ). In particular, experimental observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect  stimulated the interest in various nontraditional statistics  and an attempt was made to relate the parastatistics to high temperature superconductivity . However, the parastatistics is still considered as an exotic possibility and has not received an adequate attention (e.g., see Ref. ). MOFT  gives a specific realization of the parafield theory in which the order of the parastatistics represents an additional variable. The discussion above shows that the parastatistics of a variable order has a straightforward relation to the formation of properties of elementary excitations in fractal media.

Consider as an example sound waves in a system of identical $`q`$particles whose distribution in space has, at low temperatures $`T0`$, an irregular (i.e., fractal) character $`\rho _0\left(x\right)`$. We note that the case of fermionic excitations can be considered in the same way. Sound waves represent oscillations in the density $`\delta \rho (x,t)=`$ $`\rho (x,t)\rho _0\left(x\right)`$ and the velocity $`\delta u(x,t)=u(x,t)u_0\left(x\right)`$ of particles (where $`\rho _0`$, $`u_0`$ are mean values which, in fractal media, have a specific dependence on coordinates). In what follows we denote these functions as a field $`A(x,t)=(\delta \rho (x,t),\delta u(x,t))`$. This field can be expanded in modes

$$A(x,t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{V}}\underset{k,\alpha }{}a_{k,\alpha }e_\alpha \left(k\right)e^{ikx}+a_{k,\alpha }^+e_\alpha ^{}\left(k\right)e^{ikx},$$
(2)
where $`V`$ is the volume and $`e_\alpha \left(k\right)`$ is the polarization vector (we assume that any additional normalization factor is included in $`e_\alpha \left(k\right)`$). The coefficients $`a_{k,\alpha }^+`$ and $`a_{k,\alpha }`$ play the role of creation and annihilation operators for elementary excitations (phonons). Thus, in the standard picture these operators obey the relations

$$a_{k,\alpha }a_{k^{},\beta }^+a_{k^{},\beta }^+a_{k,\alpha }=\delta _{k,k^{}}\delta _{\alpha ,\beta },$$
(3)
which mean that phonons represent Bose particles, while the Hamiltonian for free particles is given by

$$H_0=\underset{k,\alpha }{}\omega _{k,\alpha }a_{k,\alpha }^+a_{k,\alpha },$$
(4)
where $`\omega _{k,\alpha }`$ is the energy of a phonon.

As it was discussed above in fractal media oscillations have a more complex character than in homogeneous media (e.g., like in ideal crystals or gases) and for an adequate description of oscillations a single field $`A(x,t)`$ is not enough. Indeed, to illustrate this statement we can imagine the situation when the system of particles splits into a set of almost independent thin surfaces (e.g., the system represents a fractal with dimension $`D2)`$, so that excitations for every surface can be described by its own field $`A_i(x,t)`$ (where $`i`$ numerates the surfaces). Such surfaces can have a chaotic distribution in space and, therefore, to distinguish them in an explicit way is not so trivial. In real fractal media such a splitting works in the Fourier space (e.g., see Ref. ) and, therefore, in a general situation we can only state that particles of a system can be divided in groups $`n=\{n_1,n_2,\mathrm{}n_N\}`$ ($`_1^Nn_i=n`$, where $`n`$ is the total number of particles), so that every group is responsible for the formation of its own excitations. In general, such a decomposition can depend on time, while its character and the distribution of the groups in the space of modes $`N\left(k\right)`$ constitute particular properties of the medium which require the exact knowledge of the dynamics of particles (in simple cases, however, this information can be found from simple thermodynamical considerations, e.g., see Ref. ). As we will see, the distribution of groups $`N\left(k\right)`$ in the space of modes defines spectrum of thermal fluctuations in the system and, therefore, for practical needs this function can be determined from direct measurements .

It is important that $`q`$particles are identical, and, therefore, the decomposition $`n=n_i`$ has a conditional character. In particular, the mean values $`\rho _0`$ and $`u_0`$ are determined by all groups, while perturbations acquire analogous decomposition $`A=A_i`$. The identity of particles $`q`$ results in the analogous identity of fields $`A_i`$. Thus, from the mathematical standpoint excitations will be particles which obey the parastatistics, while the number of fields (groups) $`N`$ plays the role of the order of the parastatistics.

In what follows we, for the sake of simplicity, neglect the presence of the index $`\alpha `$ (which numerates different polarizations). In this manner, when the number of fields is variable, the set of creation /annihilation operators $`\{a_k,a_k^+\}`$ is replaced by the expanded set $`\{a_k\left(j\right),a_k^+\left(j\right)\}`$, where $`j[1,\mathrm{}N\left(k\right)]`$, and $`N\left(k\right)`$ is the total number of fields (groups) for a given wave number $`k`$. Then the energy for a free field can be written as

$$H_0=\underset{k}{}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N\left(k\right)}{}}\omega _ka_k^+\left(j\right)a_k\left(j\right).$$
(5)
The fields are identical and are supposed to obey the same statistics as that of $`q`$particles. It is convenient to consider the set of creation/annihilation operators for field modes $`\{C^+(n,k),C(n,k)\}`$, where $`k`$ is the wave number and $`n`$ is the number of particles in the given mode. Since the number of modes corresponds to the true degrees of freedom there exists a relation between the operators $`C^+(n,k)`$ and $`C(n,k)`$ and the standard creation/annihilation operators $`\psi ^+\left(x\right)`$ and $`\psi \left(x\right)`$ for $`q`$particles, i.e., $`C(n,k)=A(n,k,x)\psi \left(x\right)d^3x`$ with some kernel $`A(n,k,x)`$. Thus, operators $`C^+(n,k)`$ and $`C(n,k)`$ obey the relations

$$C(n,k)C^+(m,k^{})\pm C^+(m,k^{})C(n,k)=\delta _{nm}\delta _{kk^{}},$$
(6)
where the sign reflects the statistics of $`q`$particles. We note that in the case of the so-called parafield theory there exists a spin-statistics theorem  (analogous to the Pauli theorem) which states that bosonic modes should be quantized according to the Fermi statistics, while fermionic modes should obey the Bose statistics. This means that the fractal behaviour can be associated only with fermions. In the case of a fractal medium in which atoms have an integral spin we should assume that the distribution of modes is determined by electrons. Mathematically, this can be expressed by the fact that in the case when $`q`$particles are bosons the necessary kernel $`A(n,k,x)`$ does not exist. Thus, in what follows we consider the case of the Fermi statistics for modes only (the sign $`+`$ in (6)).

The eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian (5) can be written straightforwardly

$$H_0=\underset{k,n}{}\omega _knN(n,k),$$
(7)
where $`N(n,k)=C^+(n,k)C(n,k)`$ is the number of field modes with the given wave number $`k`$ and the number of phonons $`n`$. The fact that modes obey the identity principle results in a redefinition of the standard creation and annihilation operators for phonons (see, for details, Ref. ). Indeed, since fields $`A_i`$ (corresponding to different groups of $`q`$particles) are identical they cannot be detected separately. What is really measured in experiments is the total perturbation $`A=A_i`$ which is given by the expression (2) in which, however, we should replace the creation/annihilation operators $`a_k`$ and $`a_k^+`$ by sums

$$a_k=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N\left(k\right)}{}}a_k\left(j\right),a_k^+=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N\left(k\right)}{}}a_k^+\left(j\right).$$
(8)
In the representation of occupation numbers $`N(n,k)`$ these operators have the expression

$$a_k=\underset{n}{}\sqrt{n+1}C^+(n,k)C(n+1,k),$$
(9)
$`a_k^+={\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\sqrt{n+1}C^+(n+1,k)C(n,k).`$

Thus, from (6) we find that these operators obey the relations

$$a_ka_k^{}^+a_k^{}^+a_k=N\left(k\right)\delta _{k,k^{}},$$
(10)
which generalize the standard relations (3) and are a consequence of the fact that phonons obey the parastatistics. The order of the parastatistics $`N\left(k\right)`$ is the operator of the total number of field modes for a given wave number $`k`$ which is given by

$$N\left(k\right)=\underset{n}{}N(n,k).$$
(11)
Physically, this operator characterizes the distribution of the number of groups of $`q`$particles in the space of modes, while $`N=_kN\left(k\right)`$ gives the total number of particles in the system.

In the thermal equilibrium state (and in the absence of self-organization processes) the number of fields is conserved and the operator $`N\left(k\right)`$ can be considered as an ordinary function of wave numbers. Thus, we assume that $`N\left(k\right)`$ represents a structural function of the system which should remain constant (at least, for not very high temperatures). Then the thermodynamically equilibrium state will be characterized by mean values for occupation numbers of the type

$$N(k,n)=\left(\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{n\omega _k\mu _k}{T}\right)+1\right)^1,$$
(12)
where the chemical potential $`\mu _k`$ can be expressed via the structural function $`N\left(k\right)`$ as

$$N\left(k\right)=\underset{n}{}\left(\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{n\omega _k\mu _k}{T}\right)+1\right)^1.$$
(13)
In the limit $`T0`$ the system reaches the ground state. From (12) we find that the ground state is characterized by the occupation numbers

$$N(n,k)=\theta \left(\mu _kn\omega _k\right)$$
(14)
where $`\theta \left(x\right)`$ is the Heaviside step function. Thus, in the limit $`T0`$ we find that the chemical potential $`\mu _k`$ is expressed via the structural function $`N\left(k\right)`$ as

$$N\left(k\right)=\underset{n}{}\theta \left(\mu _kn\omega _k\right)=1+\left[\frac{\mu _k}{\omega _k}\right]$$
(15)
where $`\left[x\right]`$ denotes the integral part of the number $`x`$.

From (14) we find that the ground state is characterized by a nonvanishing number of phonons $`n_0\left(k\right)`$

$$n_0\left(k\right)=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}nN(n,k)=\frac{1}{2}N\left(k\right)\left(N\left(k\right)1\right)$$
(16)
and corresponds to the energy $`E_0=\omega _kn_0\left(k\right)`$. This accounts for the fact that in the limit $`T0`$ the distribution of $`q`$particles in the medium has an inhomogeneous (fractal) character (i.e., in the ground state the density of $`q`$particles contain a specific dependence on coordinates $`\rho _0\left(x\right)`$, e.g. see Ref. ).

The expression (15) allows to understand some general properties of the structural function $`N\left(k\right)`$. Indeed, consider the case when $`\mu _k=\mu `$. Then there exists a region of wave numbers $`\omega _k>`$ $`\mu `$ in which $`N\left(k\right)=1`$ and phonons behave as standard Bose particles. Thus, the wave number $`k^{}`$ (at which $`\omega =`$ $`\mu `$) characterizes the scale on which effects of the parastatistics start to show up. In this sense regular systems can be considered as those systems in which this scale $`\mathrm{}^{}=2\pi /k^{}`$ exceeds the maximal possible wavelength. At scales $`kk^{}`$ (i.e., as $`\omega _k0`$) we get $`N\left(k\right)\mu /\omega _k`$ which gives the fractal dimension $`D2`$.

Now we examine the problem how the structural function $`N\left(k\right)`$ can be expressed via the correlation functions and hence how it can be directly measured. Substituting the expressions (9) for the creation/annihilation operators in (2) we find that correlation functions have the structure

$$A\left(x\right),A\left(x+r\right)=\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Phi }^2\left(k\right)\frac{\mathrm{sin}kr}{kr}\frac{dk}{k}$$
(17)
where

$$\mathrm{\Phi }^2\left(k\right)=k^3\left|e\left(k\right)\right|^2\left(2\stackrel{~}{n}_k+N\left(k\right)\right)$$
(18)
and $`\stackrel{~}{n}_k=a_k^+a_k`$ is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{n}_k=\underset{n}{}\left(n+1\right)N(n+1,k)\left(1N(n,k)\right),$$
(19)
where the occupation numbers $`N(n,k)`$ are defined in (12). For small temperatures $`T0`$ we get $`\stackrel{~}{n}_k0`$ and the correlation function $`\mathrm{\Phi }^2\left(k\right)`$ explicitly defines the structural function of the system $`N\left(k\right)`$.

The explicit form of the function $`\stackrel{~}{n}_k`$ can be found as follows. We recall that we assume that the number of modes $`N\left(k\right)`$ represents a constant function (the structural function of the system). Then from (10) we see that the difference between operators $`a_k^+`$ and $`a_k`$ and the standard creation and annihilation operators for Bose particles comes from the coefficient $`a_k=\sqrt{N\left(k\right)}c_k`$ (where $`c_k`$ is the standard annihilation operator, i.e., $`[c_k,c_k^{}^+]=\delta _{k,k^{}}`$). Hence for thermal equilibrium state we should get the expression $`a_k^+a_k=N\left(k\right)c_k^+c_k=N\left(k\right)\left(\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\omega }{T}\right)1\right)^1`$. Therefore, from the formal standpoint the fact that phonons obey the parastatistics can be accounted for by the substitution $`\left(2\overline{n}_k+1\right)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{coth}\left(\frac{\omega }{2T}\right)`$ $``$ $`N\left(k\right)\mathrm{coth}\left(\frac{\omega }{2T}\right)`$ in all thermodynamical formulas and, in general, the structural function $`N\left(k\right)`$ defines deviations of thermodynamical potentials and fluctuations from the standard thermodynamical laws. In particular, for phonons we get $`\omega =ku`$, where $`u`$ is the sound speed (in general $`u`$ can depend on the polarization of phonons, but we neglect here this effect). Thus, if in some range of scales a system possesses a fractal behaviour with dimension $`D`$, we find that in that range fluctuations will acquire an amplification by the factor $`N\left(\omega \right)\omega ^\alpha `$ with $`\alpha =3D`$. Such kind of amplification is indeed observed in various systems and represents the so-called $`1/f`$ -noise problem . Hence we may conclude that at list in some class of systems the origin of $`1/f`$noise can have straightforward relation to the fractal behaviour and, therefore, to the parastatistics of elementary excitations. This problem, however, requires the further investigation.

In this manner, we have shown that in a wide class of systems (which demonstrate an anomalous behavior for thermodynamical potentials and fluctuations, presumably at low frequencies) elementary excitations obey the so-called parastatistics of a variable order $`N\left(k\right)`$. The order of the parastatistics $`N\left(k\right)`$ reflects properties of a system at low temperatures (e.g., the inhomogeneous distribution of particles) and represents a specific, for every given system, structural function which can be determined by means of direct measurements of fluctuations. In fractal media this function behaves as $`N\left(k\right)k^{D3}`$, while for a more general case (i.e., in general disordered systems) this function can have an arbitrary behaviour.


text:
# Polarized Parton Distributions and QCD Analysis

## 1 Introduction

The polarized parton densities of deep inelastic scattering can be unfolded from measurements of the longitudinal polarization asymmetry. Here the unpolarized denominator–function serves as a normalization and is usually also being determined from data . The present polarized deep inelastic world data have reached a precision which allows to extract the corresponding parton densities and their correlated statistical errors as a function of $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ as well as the QCD $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$–parameter. Previous analyses  were limited to a determination of the central value of the parton densities. In a recent analysis  we extended the investigation using the available world data to determine also the correlated errors and the QCD–scale, for which numerical parameterizations are provided as a FORTRAN code. In this analysis the QCD scale has been also determined using scheme–invariant evolution equations, which directly describe the evolution of observables as the structure function $`g_1(x,Q^2)`$ and its slope $`g_1(x,Q^2)/\mathrm{ln}(Q^2)`$ which was yielding nearly the same value for $`\alpha _s(M_Z^2)`$. Finally the lower Mellin moments of the present parton distributions were calculated and compared to results obtained in Lattice–QCD. This Note summarizes main results of our analysis.

## 2 The Parameterizations

The principle shape of the polarized parton densities $`x\mathrm{\Delta }u_v,x\mathrm{\Delta }d_v,x\mathrm{\Delta }q_{\mathrm{sea}}`$ and $`x\mathrm{\Delta }G`$ were chosen as

$$x\mathrm{\Delta }q_i(x,Q_0^2)=\eta _iA_ix^{a_i}(1x)^{b_i}(1+\gamma _ix+\rho _ix^{1/2}),$$
(1)
with $`A_i`$ the normalization and $`\eta _i`$ the first moment. All details of the analysis are found in . Some parameters are fixed by sum rules. It turned out that not all parameters can be measured at the same quality and have to be set to their value at $`\chi _{min}^2`$. In Fig. 1 we show results on $`x\mathrm{\Delta }G(x,Q^2)`$ emphasizing the correlated statistical errors and the present experimental and theoretical systematics. It is evident that a further improvement of the statistical error very soon will require 3–loop evolution equations to cope with the forthcoming experimental errors.

## 3 The strong coupling constant

In the analysis $`\alpha _s(M_Z^2)`$ is measured at NLO. We also include the variations due to a change in the renormalization and factorization scales varying $`\mu _{R,F}^2`$ by a factor of 2 around $`Q^2`$. We obtain

$$\alpha _s(M_Z^2)=0.113\pm 0.004(stat)\pm 0.004(fac)+0.008/0.005(ren).$$
(2)
## 4 Comparison with lattice results

The parameterizations may be used to evaluate integer Mellin moments of the respective parton distributions including their errors. These moments correspond to the experimental data, as far as the parameters of the corresponding representations are fixed in the QCD–fit procedure. To evaluate moments the parameterizations have to be partly extrapolated outside the domain of the current measurements. It is now interesting to compare these moments to the results which have been found in recent lattice flavor non–singlet simulations (see Table 1). The comparison shows that the extractions do well agree in all the nine values determined in the lattice measurements 111The value of $`g_A`$, the first moment of $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_v\mathrm{\Delta }d_v`$ seemed to have moved by $`+10\%`$ in a very recent lattice measurement (Panic’02).. The observation of this agreement, despite the use of pion masses $`m_\pi 600\mathrm{M}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$ in the lattice simulations, was surprising to us in early 2002, since parabolic extrapolations were needed to reach agreement between experimental and lattice measurements in the unpolarized case. However, later the year it was found, that the extrapolation to the chiral limit is indeed nearly flat . The reason for this is a cancellation due to $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–baryon contributions.

|  |  | QCD results | lattice results | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ | $`n`$ | NLO moments | QCDSF | LHPC/ |
|  |  | at $`Q^2=4\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ |  | SESAM |
| $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_v`$ | –1 | $`0.926\pm 0.071`$ | 0.889(29) | 0.860(69) |
|  | 0 | $`0.163\pm 0.014`$ | 0.198(8) | 0.242(22) |
|  | 1 | $`0.055\pm 0.006`$ | 0.041(9) | 0.116(42) |
| $`\mathrm{\Delta }d_v`$ | –1 | $`0.341\pm 0.123`$ | -0.236(27) | -0.171(43) |
|  | 0 | $`0.047\pm 0.021`$ | -0.048(3) | -0.029(13) |
|  | 1 | $`0.015\pm 0.009`$ | -0.028(2) | 0.001(25) |
| $`\mathrm{\Delta }u`$$`\mathrm{\Delta }d`$ | –1 | $`1.267\pm 0.142`$ | 1.14(3) | 1.031(81) |
|  | 0 | $`0.210\pm 0.025`$ | 0.246(9) | 0.271(25) |
|  | 1 | $`0.070\pm 0.011`$ | 0.069(9) | 0.115(49) |

Table 1. Moments of the NLO parton densities (for ISET =3, see ) at $`Q^2=4\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and from recent lattice simulations at the scale $`\mu ^2=1/a^24\mathrm{GeV}^2`$, see .