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# Heated granular fluids: the random restitution coefficient approach

## I Introduction

Despite a wealth of recent experimental investigations, it seems that there is no consensus yet as to the characteristics of the collective behaviour of vibrated granular mono- or multi-layers . Among the statistical properties of interest, the velocity fluctuations and more precisely the deviations from Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution due to inelastic collisions have been intensively studied for rapid granular flows, and several groups reported an overpopulated high energy tail that can be fitted by stretched exponentials with various exponents.

Theoretical investigations commonly use the inelastic hard spheres (IHS) model , which has proven very useful despite the simplicity of its definition: smooth hard spheres undergo binary inelastic momentum conserving collisions, thereby losing during the collision a constant fraction of their relative normal velocity (and therefore loosing energy). Many studies have concentrated on the homogeneous cooling state of the IHS , obtained by letting the system evolve without any energy injection. On the other hand, experiments on strongly vibrated granular media consider systems that are heated by an external forcing (e.g. a vertically oscillating plate) to compensate for the energy loss due to collisions, and are therefore in a non equilibrium stationary state (NESS). Various ways of modeling the heating mechanism have been put forward, mostly consisting in the study of an effective system with a constant coefficient of normal restitution $`\alpha `$, in which the energy lost through collisions is balanced by energy injected by random “kicks” . In this context, analytical and numerical results have been obtained for the high energy tail of the velocity distributions and for its fourth cumulant, a natural measure of the deviation from a Gaussian distribution . Moreover, more realistic Molecular Dynamics simulations of vibrated soft sphere mono-layers  have been able to reproduce the phenomenology obtained in some experiments .

In this paper, we propose an alternative modeling of a three-dimensional system shaken vertically along the $`z`$ axis, for which the velocities are studied both numerically and analytically in the horizontal ($`xy`$) plane. If the collisions with the boundaries are elastic, the vibrating wall feeds energy in the system in the $`z`$ direction only, but not in the $`xy`$ plane where the correponding two dimensional energy is either lost or gained at each collision between two grains. Upon restricting to the $`xy`$ velocities, we obtain a system that is subject to an effective stationary dynamics with sequential energy injection or dissipation consecutive to particle-particle collisions only. We shall thus disregard the vibrating boundary and concentrate on the effective planar dynamics where energy gains and losses statistically cancel in the NESS, so that an effective restitution coefficient can either be larger or smaller than $`1`$; this will be accounted for by a random $`\alpha `$, drawn from a probability distribution $`\rho (\alpha )`$ (such that the second moment $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$ in order to conserve energy on average). Our approach, in which momentum transfer occurs only through collisions, consequently differs from the situations investigated in  where energy is injected globally into the system at regular time intervals through a stochastic external force. Clearly, the functional form of $`\rho (\alpha )`$ reflects the energy injection mechanism, and it is a difficult task to establish this connection. The physical situations that could be described by the present model are mono- or multi-layers of grains provided the interactions with the wall are elastic, or a multilayer system with arbitrary interactions with the wall, in a “bulk” region far from the boundaries where energy and density can be considered as constant. In a very different context, a similar stochastic coefficient of restitution has been introduced to study the dynamics of a one-dimensional granular gas, thereby accounting for internal degrees of freedom .

The paper is organized as follows: after setting the general framework in section II, we consider the two-dimensional projection of three-dimensional simulations of inelastic hard spheres with constant restitution coefficient $`\alpha `$, energy being injected in the third direction (section III). We analyze in particular the distribution of energy transfer through collisions. In section IV, the two dimensional IHS model with random restitution coefficient is then studied by analytical and numerical means. Section V is devoted to a short investigation of the one-dimensional case, and some conclusions are finally presented in section VI.

## II General framework

### A IHS: definitions and notations

In the inelastic hard spheres (IHS) model, grains are modeled as smooth hard spheres of mass $`m`$ undergoing binary, inelastic and momentum-conserving collisions: a collision between two spheres labeled by $`1`$ and $`2`$, with velocities $`𝐯_1`$ and $`𝐯_2`$, dissipates a fraction $`(1\alpha )`$ of the component of the relative velocity $`𝐯_{12}=𝐯_1𝐯_2`$ along the center-to-center direction $`\widehat{𝝈}`$. Noting with stars the post-collision velocities, this translates into $`𝐯_{12}^{}\widehat{𝝈}=\alpha 𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈}`$, while the tangential relative velocity (perpendicular to $`\widehat{𝝈}`$) is conserved, i.e.:

$`𝐯_1^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐯_1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+\alpha \right)(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\widehat{𝝈}`$ (1)
$`𝐯_2^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐯_2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+\alpha \right)(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\widehat{𝝈}.`$ (2)
These equations are also sometimes written in terms of restituting collisions, i.e. for collisions which yield $`(𝐯_1,𝐯_2)`$ as postcollisional velocities, for precollisional velocities $`(𝐯_1^{},𝐯_2^{})`$:

$`𝐯_1^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐯_1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha }}\right)(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\widehat{𝝈}`$ (3)
$`𝐯_2^{}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐯_2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\alpha }}\right)(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\widehat{𝝈}.`$ (4)
### B Evolution equation

The Enskog-Boltzmann equation describes the evolution of the one-particle distribution function $`f(𝐫,𝐯,t)`$, upon the molecular chaos hypothesis . In the homogeneous case, for hard spheres of diameter $`\sigma `$, in $`d`$ dimensions, this equation reads:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{f(𝐯_1,t)}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`\chi \sigma ^{d1}{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐯_2^{}𝑑\widehat{𝝈}(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\left\{\frac{1}{\alpha ^2}f(𝐯_1^{},t)f(𝐯_2^{},t)f(𝐯_1,t)f(𝐯_2,t)\right\}}`$ (5)
$``$ $`\chi I(f,f)`$ (6)
The prime on the integration symbol is a shortcut for $`𝑑\widehat{𝝈}\mathrm{\Theta }(𝐯_{12}\widehat{𝝈})`$ where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the Heavyside function, while $`\chi `$ accounts for excluded volume effects (for elastic hard spheres, $`\chi `$ coincides with the density dependent pair correlation function at contact). The forcing mechanism necessary to sustain a NESS can be of different types, and has not been introduced in Eq. (6). This issue will be addressed in section IV.

### C Sonine expansion for the velocity distribution

Because of analytical, numerical and experimental evidences, it is customary to look for scaling solutions of eq. (6), in the form

$$f(𝐯,t)=\frac{n}{v_0^d(t)}\stackrel{~}{f}\left(\frac{v}{v_0(t)}\right),$$
(7)
where $`n`$ is the density and the thermal velocity $`v_0`$ is by definition related to the temperature $`T(t)`$ through $`\frac{m}{2}v_0^2(t)=T(t)`$, where in turn the temperature is defined by the average kinetic energy of the particles:

$$\frac{dn}{2}T(t)=𝑑𝐯\frac{m}{2}v^2f(𝐯,t).$$
(8)
Replacing the scaling function in eq (6), together with the law of evolution of the temperature (see  for details) yields the following equation:

$$\frac{\mu _2}{d}\left(d+c_1\frac{d}{dc_1}\right)\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1)=\stackrel{~}{I}(\stackrel{~}{f},\stackrel{~}{f}),$$
(9)
where $`𝐜_i=𝐯_i/v_0(t)`$,

$$\stackrel{~}{I}(\stackrel{~}{f},\stackrel{~}{f})=𝑑𝐜_2^{}𝑑\widehat{𝝈}(𝐜_{12}\widehat{𝝈})\left\{\frac{1}{\alpha ^2}\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1^{})\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2^{})\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1)\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)\right\},$$
(10)
and $`\mu _p𝑑𝐜_1c_1^p\stackrel{~}{I}(\stackrel{~}{f},\stackrel{~}{f})`$.

In the elastic case ($`\alpha =1`$), $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$ is the Gaussian $`\mathrm{\Phi }(c)=\pi ^{d/2}\mathrm{exp}(c^2)`$ (since $`\stackrel{~}{I}(\mathrm{\Phi },\mathrm{\Phi })=0`$). The deviations from $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are studied by an expansion in terms of Sonine polynomials

$$\stackrel{~}{f}(c)=\mathrm{\Phi }(c)\left(1+\underset{p=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_pS_p(c^2)\right).$$
(11)
Indeed, the coefficients $`a_p`$ can be obtained from the moments of $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$, because the $`S_p`$ satisfy the orthogonality relations:

$$𝑑𝐜\mathrm{\Phi }(c)S_p(c^2)S_p^{}(c^2)=\delta _{pp^{}}N_p$$
(12)
where the $`N_p`$ are normalization constants. These polynomials consequently depend on the dimension $`d`$; the first ones read:

$`S_0(x)`$ $`=`$ $`1`$ (13)
$`S_1(x)`$ $`=`$ $`x+{\displaystyle \frac{d}{2}}`$ (14)
$`S_2(x)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{x^2}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{d+2}{2}}x+{\displaystyle \frac{d(d+2)}{8}}`$ (15)
The orthogonality properties allow to write

$$a_p=\frac{1}{N_p}S_p(c^2).$$
(16)
In particular, $`a_1=(2/d)(c^2+d/2)`$ vanishes because of the definition of temperature, and $`a_2`$ is related to the fourth cumulant of $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$:

$$a_2=\frac{4c^4}{d(d+2)}1.$$
(17)
In section IV, we shall briefly recall the different steps involved in the computation of $`a_2`$ that quantifies the deviations from gaussianity.

### D DSMC Method

The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method allows to solve numerically the Boltzmann equation (6) . It has been successfully used e.g. for the study of the homogeneous cooling state of the IHS, in  to assess the validity of the Sonine expansion, and in  to analyze the high energy tail of $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$. In , the case of heated granular fluids has also been considered and compared to the theoretical predictions of .

The positions of the particles do not appear in equation (6). Therefore all reference to space is here useless; this amounts, in the usual DSMC language, to taking only one cell where all particles stand, and of course eliminates the possibility to study spatial inhomogeneities. Moreover, upon an appropriate rescaling of time, we shall take $`\chi =1`$ and $`\sigma =1`$. Since no external force is present, the velocities of the particles do not change between collisions, and no “free streaming stage” is here necessary, and the simulation has the following scheme: we start from $`N`$ particles with random velocities taken from an arbitrary distribution (e.g. Gaussian, or flat); then the evolution proceeds by choosing at random pairs of particles $`(i,j)`$, a direction $`\widehat{𝝈}`$ for their center to center direction, and updating their velocities according to the collision rule with a probability proportional to $`\mathrm{\Theta }(𝐯_{ij}\widehat{𝝈})𝐯_{ij}\widehat{𝝈}`$. Once a stationary state is reached, running averages can be taken on the quantities of interest.

### E Molecular Dynamics simulations

The Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations integrate the exact equation of motion of the model, with no reference to the Boltzmann equation: we consider $`N`$ spheres of diameter $`\sigma `$, in a box of linear size $`L`$ in dimension $`d`$, with periodic boundary conditions . These spheres initially have random velocities, and we use an event-driven algorithm to study their dynamics. Once more, running averages are taken once a stationary state is reached.

## III 2D Projection of a 3D system

We consider an IHS model with constant (velocity independent) restitution coefficient $`\alpha <1`$, in dimension $`d=3`$, the Cartesian coordinates being labeled $`x,y`$ and $`z`$. The collisions are dissipative but energy is re-injected in the vertical direction ($`z`$) in the following way: after each collision, the $`z`$-component of the velocity of the particles having collided is randomly drawn from a Gaussian distribution at fixed temperature, while the $`xy`$ components remain those resulting from the initial inelastic collision. This procedure is intended to mimic both the energy injection due to a vibrating wall, and transfer to horizontal degrees of freedom through collisions only: indeed, a vibrating boundary can yield in the bulk of a multi-layer system an equilibrated Gaussian vertical velocity . We could have used different vertical velocity distributions, in particular asymetric ones, with the same conclusion: the point here is to illustrate the horizontal energy tranfer mechanism.

Let us indeed analyze the system in the horizontal plane ($`xy`$). After a transient, the two-dimensional temperature $`T_{xy}=\frac{1}{2}(v_x^2+v_y^2)`$ remains stationary (see the inset of Fig. 1): overall, i.e. when the three components of the velocities are considered, a collision is dissipative, but in the $`xy`$-plane, energy can be gained by a transfer from the $`z`$-direction. In the horizontal plane, both phenomena compensate each other, as appears in Fig. 1: the histogram of the energy transferred in the $`xy`$-plane at each collision (given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=v_{1x}^2+v_{1y}^2+v_{2x}^2+v_{2y}^2(v_{1x}^2+v_{1y}^2+v_{2x}^2+v_{2y}^2)`$, where $`1`$ and $`2`$ label the two colliding particles) has of course a negative part but also a positive one, corresponding to an energy gain in the $`xy`$-plane thought a three-dimensional collision (the positive part would be absent in a simulation without heating and constant $`\alpha <1`$). This positive part compensates the energy loss and allows to reach a NESS with a constant $`T_{xy}`$.

It would be feasible to inject energy in a more refined way, by considering for instance the collisions with the vibrating wall. Seeking for analytical results concerning the 2D horizontal velocity distribution, we shall however make the simplifying assumption that the effective 2D restitution coefficient decouples from the impact relative velocity. The resulting zeroth order modeling introduced below displays qualitatively the same energy transfer behaviour as the projected 3D system and is amenable to a kinetic theory description.

## IV Random restitution coefficient

We shall hereafter consider an IHS model for which, at each collision, the restitution coefficient is drawn from a probability distribution $`\rho (\alpha )`$. The means over $`\rho (\alpha )`$ will be denoted by an overline, and the distribution of $`\alpha ^2`$ by $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(\alpha ^2)`$. Since, in a binary collision with restitution coefficient $`\alpha `$, the energy change is:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=\frac{m}{2}(𝐯_{12}^{}\widehat{𝝈})^2\frac{(\alpha ^21)}{2},$$
(18)
(where $`𝐯_{12}^{}`$ is the relative velocity before collision, $`\widehat{𝝈}`$ the center to center direction, and $`m`$ the mass of the particles), and since the value of $`\alpha `$ is taken uncorrelated with the velocities of the particles, we shall consider distributions with $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$ in order to ensure a stationary, constant temperature regime (at each collision, energy changes, but is conserved on average: $`\overline{\mathrm{\Delta }E}=0`$). Moreover, we will restrict ourselves to positive values of $`\alpha `$. Since the average energy is constant, the granular temperature is also a constant determined by the initial velocity distribution. This model is therefore intended to study the distribution of rescaled velocities $`𝐜=v/v_0`$.

### A Analytical results

The methods of  for the case of constant normal restitution (with or without external heating) can be easily applied to the case of random $`\alpha `$ to systematically obtain the coefficients of the Sonine expansion. We refer to  for details and sketch only the principal steps. Note that the calculation is made under the hypothesis of a small $`a_2`$: the Sonine expansion (11) is therefore truncated after second order and besides, terms of order $`a_2^2`$ are discarded (it is possible to go beyond the linear approximation in $`a_2`$, with again truncation of (11) after $`n=2`$; it was however shown that in the case of constant $`\alpha `$, the correction is less than $`10\%`$ ).

Once the moments $`\mu _p𝑑𝐜_1c_1^p\stackrel{~}{I}(\stackrel{~}{f},\stackrel{~}{f})`$ have been defined, multiplying the equation (9) by $`c_1^p`$ and integrating over $`c_1`$ yields

$$\mu _p=\mu _2\frac{p}{d}c^p.$$
(19)
Taking $`p=4`$ and approximating $`\stackrel{~}{f}`$ by its second order Sonine expansion, it is now possible to evaluate $`\mu _2`$, $`\mu _4`$ and $`c^4`$, that can be averaged over $`\alpha `$:

$`c^4`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d(d+2)}{4}}(1+a_2)`$ (20)
$`\overline{\mu _2}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_d}{2\sqrt{2\pi }}}(1\overline{\alpha ^2})\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{3}{16}}a_2\right)`$ (21)
$`\overline{\mu _4}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\pi }}}\mathrm{\Omega }_d(\overline{T_1}+a_2\overline{T_2}),`$ (22)
with $`T_1=(1\alpha ^2)(d+3/2+\alpha ^2)/4`$, $`T_2=3(1\alpha ^2)(10d+39+10\alpha ^2)/128+(1+\alpha )(d1)/4`$ ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_d`$ is the volume of the $`d`$-dimensional unit sphere). Inserting these relations in (19) and neglecting terms of order $`a_2^2`$ leads to the final expression for $`a_2`$ in dimension $`d`$:

$$a_2=16\frac{13\overline{\alpha ^2}+2\overline{\alpha ^4}}{9+24d+32(d1)\overline{\alpha }+(8d11)\overline{\alpha ^2}30\overline{\alpha ^4}}.$$
(23)
It can be checked that the expression obtained in  is recovered in the case of constant $`\alpha `$: when $`\rho (\alpha )=\delta (\alpha \alpha _{})`$, we get

$$a_2=16\frac{1\alpha _{}2\alpha _{}^2+2\alpha _{}^3}{9+24d+8\alpha _{}d41\alpha _{}+30(1\alpha _{})\alpha _{}^2}.$$
(24)
Moreover, in the case $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$, expression (23) reduces to

$$a_2=16\frac{\overline{\alpha ^4}1}{16d1+16(d1)\overline{\alpha }15\overline{\alpha ^4}}.$$
(25)
The values of $`a_2`$ corresponding to the various distributions of normal restitutions shown in Fig. 2, are given in appendix A.

An important consequence of Eq. (23) is that the fourth cumulant depends only on $`\overline{\alpha }`$, $`\overline{\alpha ^2}`$, and $`\overline{\alpha ^4}`$: two different distributions $`\rho (\alpha )`$ having the same first, second and fourth moments should then yield very similar velocity distributions. This will be checked numerically in the next subsection and can be considered as a test for the consistency of the linear order approximation in $`a_2`$ underlying the analytical computation.

The question of the high energy tail, which was addressed in  by neglecting the gain term in the collision integral $`\stackrel{~}{I}`$, turns out to be more problematic. Whenever $`\alpha `$ is allowed to take values exceeding 1, the gain term can no longer be discarded and we could not obtain analytical predictions. We shall therefore resort to a numerical resolution of the Boltzmann equation and to molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the high velocity statistics. It can however be shown that the velocity distribution is Gaussian in the elastic case only \[i.e. for $`\rho (\alpha )=\delta (\alpha 1)`$, see appendix B\].

### B Numerics

We have simulated the IHS model with random restitution coefficient in two dimensions for various distributions $`\rho (\alpha )`$, both with DSMC and MD methods. The DSMC simulations were performed with $`3.10^5`$ particles, the MD ones with up to $`50000`$ particles, and packing fractions from $`10\%`$ to $`40\%`$. The restitution coefficient $`\alpha `$ were drawn from distributions of various types: bimodal or trimodal distributions, flat distributions, flat distributions of $`\alpha ^2`$, Gaussian distributions of $`\alpha ^2`$ (with a cutoff in zero to ensure that $`\alpha ^20`$). The distributions are shown in Fig. 2: no large values of $`\alpha `$ or pathological distributions will be used.

The stationarity of the kinetic energy (following from $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$) is controlled during the simulation, and allows to obtain in a single run the velocity distribution with a precision of typically $`7`$ to $`8`$ orders of magnitude. We first show in Fig. 3 the histogram of the energy transfers during the collisions, corresponding to various $`\rho (\alpha )`$, for both DSMC and MD simulations; the similarity with the results of the 3 dimensional simulations (Fig. 1) allows to validate the model as far as energy transfer is concerned (the precise form of the histogram depends on the probability distributions $`\rho (\alpha )`$, but the qualitative features are those displayed by the projected 3D system considered in section III).

Figure 4 shows the velocity distributions for a flat $`\stackrel{~}{\rho }(\alpha ^2)`$ between $`0`$ and $`2`$, for DSMC and MD simulations. The agreement between both sets of data is remarkable, and was also checked for other choices of $`\rho (\alpha )`$. Moreover, the curves obtained in MD simulations with small or large packing fractions (up to 40%) are indistinguishable (not shown). The inset shows that the distribution of impact parameters in Molecular Dynamics simulations is flat, which is a hint that no violation of molecular chaos is observed and an indication that the factorization of the 2-particle correlation function resulting in Eq. (6) holds. The super-imposition of MD (where a priori inhomogeneities and/or violations of molecular chaos could appear), and DSMC results is in contrast with the phenomenology at constant $`\alpha `$  or with randomly driven IHS , and is probably due to an efficient randomization of the velocities with the collision rule of the present model. For a constant dissipative restitution parameter, colliding particles emerge with more parallel velocities than in the elastic case $`\alpha =1`$. When they recollide, their velocities are still more parallel. Here, this mechanism for the creation of velocity correlations violating molecular chaos seems removed by the possibility of having $`\alpha >1`$. This validates the theoretical approach based on the Boltzmann equation.

The remainder of this article is devoted to the deviations from gaussianity that can be seen in Fig. 4. To this aim, we shall use DSMC simulations that allow to obtain precise velocity distributions for a larger range of velocities than the MD method. However, as stated above, we always observed an excellent agreement between DSMC and MD velocity statistics, up to the resolution of MD.

The theoretical (from eq (23)) and measured (from the fourth moment of the velocity distribution) values of $`a_2`$ are given in Table 1. For small $`a_2`$ the measured and theoretical values agree perfectly, while for larger $`a_2`$ the agreement is worse, probably due to the neglect of quadratic $`a_2^2`$ and higher order terms in the derivation of the theoretical formula. In fact the disagreement is at most of $`10\%`$ when $`|a_2|>0.1`$, comparably to the results for constant $`\alpha `$. As predicted, the same value of the fourth cumulant $`a_2`$ is associated with distributions having the same first, second and fourth moments \[see Eq. (25)\]. Moreover, Fig. 5 shows strong numerical evidence that, in this case, the whole distributions of velocities are indistinguishable, i.e. not only $`a_2`$ but the complete statistics (including large velocities) depend only on the first moments of $`\rho (\alpha )`$. Of course, for other $`\rho (\alpha )`$, this property may not be true anymore.

In fig. 6, we show the comparison between the normalized velocity distribution for two distributions of restitution coefficients, together with the Sonine prediction $`1+a_2S_2`$. In the case of small $`a_2`$, the agreement is striking: the Sonine expansion is supposed to be valid for small values of $`c`$, while we see in Fig. 6 an agreement up to relatively large $`c`$. For larger $`a_2`$, the global shape corresponds to the prediction, but the quantitative agreement is lost. This is quite expected since, when $`a_2`$ is not very small, higher order terms in the Sonine expansion become relevant.

We now turn to the study of the large velocity tails. A first indication is given by the plot of the derivative of $`\mathrm{ln}\stackrel{~}{f}(c)`$, which is linear for a Gaussian, and constant for an exponential law. An $`\mathrm{exp}(Ac^B)`$ tail on the other hand leads to a $`c^{B1}`$ behaviour. We see in Fig. 7 that the non gaussianity is indeed revealed by this criterion, but that the numerical noise hinders any clear conclusion on the value of $`B`$. Since our velocity statistics are smooth over $`8`$ orders of magnitude, this approach is unable to determine the values of $`B`$, even if $`f(v)`$ behaves asymptotically as a stretched exponential.

Figure 8 on the other hand shows three fits, for three distributions of restitution coefficients. These fits are of the form $`\mathrm{exp}(Ac^B)`$, and we obtain a wide range of possible values for $`B`$ <sup>*</sup><sup>*</sup>*As stated above, for the situations investigated, the value of $`B`$ seems to depend on the first moments of $`\rho (\alpha )`$ only.: from $`0.8`$ to $`2`$, with fits accurate over 6 orders in magnitude. In particular, a convenient choice of $`\rho (\alpha )`$ is compatible with $`B=1.6`$, which has been found in some experiments  (close to $`B=3/2`$ obtained in  for randomly driven IHS fluids). The corresponding $`\rho (\alpha )`$ \[trimodal $`\rho (\alpha )=\frac{b}{2}(\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1+\gamma })+\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1\gamma }))+(1b)\delta (\alpha 1)`$ with $`(b0.546248,\gamma 0.390584)`$, or equivalently flat $`\alpha ^2[0.5,1.5]`$\], is not very broad and does not imply the use of particularly large values of $`\alpha `$. Other choices of $`\rho (\alpha )`$ can also lead to an exponential tail ($`B=1`$), similarly to the case of the homogeneous cooling state (constant $`\alpha <1`$, with no heating), or even to larger distributions with $`B<1`$.

## V One-dimensional case

For completeness, we briefly report the results obtained for the one-dimensional version of the random-$`\alpha `$ model; it should correspond to a projection in one dimension of a two-dimensional system, with energy injection along the projection direction.

The study of the projected model defined in section III (injection of energy by randomly drawing the $`y`$-component of the velocity after each collision) yields similar results as those obtained in the case of a three-dimensional system projected in 2D.

The random-$`\alpha `$ model however displays a certain number of pathologies: for $`d=1`$ and $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$, we obtain analytically $`a_2=16/15`$ from Eq.(25). This large value, independent of $`\rho (\alpha )`$ (i.e. non perturbative), indicates that the Sonine expansion is not valid. In fact, numerical investigations (both MD and DSMC) show that the velocity distributions $`f(v)`$ have power law tails (see Fig. 9). This behaviour differs significantly from a Gaussian and explains the failure of the Sonine approximation.

## VI Summary and Conclusions

We have introduced the idea of a random restitution coefficient in the IHS model to describe a vertically vibrated layer of granular material. Since energy is injected only along the vertical axis, and transferred through collisions in the perpendicular directions, our approach accounts for the fact (as shown in section III) that the projection in $`2`$ dimensions of a $`3`$-dimensional collision can correspond to a gain in the two-dimensional energy, and therefore to an effective restitution coefficient $`\alpha `$ larger than $`1`$, even if the genuine $`\alpha `$ necessarily corresponds to a dissipative collision. The model is consequently studied in 2 dimensions, with a probability distribution $`\rho (\alpha )`$ for the restitution coefficient. We have analyzed the velocity distributions, and in particular the deviation from the Maxwellian, using the Sonine expansion technique. Following  we obtained analytically the expression of the fourth cumulant $`a_2`$, which has been tested against Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo Direct Simulations (DSMC). It turns out that the theoretical predictions for $`a_2`$ are quite accurate, with a slight overestimation for $`a_2`$ that probably corresponds to the approximations made during the calculation (nonlinear terms $`𝒪(a_2^2)`$ and higher order Sonine polynomials neglected); in particular $`a_2`$ depends only on the first moments of $`\rho (\alpha )`$; numerically, the whole velocity distribution has the same property with a very high precision, at least for the $`\rho (\alpha )`$ studied here (we do not exclude that this behaviour could be violated by other kinds of distributions). Moreover, the comparison between numerical data and the second order Sonine expansion shows a remarkable agreement for small values of $`a_2`$. The high energy tails, studied with DSMC simulations, can be fitted by functions of the form $`\mathrm{exp}(Ac^B)`$, with $`B<2`$ depending on $`\rho (\alpha )`$. It would certainly be interesting to have theoretical predictions concerning $`B`$; it seems for example that the high-energy tail is always overpopulated with respect to the Maxwellian, while a particular choice of heating can also yield an under-population, as shown in . Note that once a functional form has been chosen for $`\rho (\alpha )`$, very different tails can be observed depending on the range of variation for $`\alpha `$ (compare the circles and squares in Fig. 8). This feature might question the relevance of the exponent $`B`$ as an intrinsic quantity for granular gases in steady states.

An interesting issue concerns the fact that no violation of molecular chaos has been observed: MD and DSMC results are in remarkable agreement (even with a packing fraction as high as 40% in MD). This is in contrast with the situation of free cooling  but also with MD results on heated inelastic hard spheres . The microscopic precollisional velocity correlations driven by the standard inelastic collision rule with a constant restitution coefficient  seem significantly reduced within the present random $`\alpha `$ model. A thorough investigation of short scale velocity correlations would require the computation of various precollisional averages involving moments of the relative velocities, and has not been performed. Our results however suggest that the dynamical correlations inducing recollisions  and responsible for the violation of molecular chaos may not be a generic feature of driven granular gases exhibiting a non equilibrium stationary state.

More refined models could introduce correlations between the effective restitution coefficient and the relative velocities of colliding pairs. This feature, neglected here, seems difficult to quantify from first principles, but might affect the high energy tail or induce precollisional velocity correlations. It would however be very interesting to be able to link a realistic energy injection mechanism with a precise distribution of restitution coefficients.

Finally, a hydrodynamic study of the present random $`\alpha `$ model, in which the conservation of the energy is valid on average only, is left for future investigations.

## A Fourth cumulant of the velocity distribution

In this appendix, we consider particular distributions $`\rho (\alpha )`$ (with $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$), and give the corresponding formulae for $`a_2`$.

* Trimodal $`\rho (\alpha )=\frac{b}{2}[\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1+\gamma })+\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1\gamma })]+(1b)\delta (\alpha 1)`$

$$a_2=\frac{16b\gamma ^2}{8b(\sqrt{1+\gamma }+\sqrt{1\gamma })+3216b15b\gamma ^2}$$
(A1)
* Bimodal $`\rho (\alpha )=\frac{1}{2}(\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1+\gamma })+\delta (\alpha \sqrt{1\gamma }))`$ (particular case of the trimodal distribution, with $`b=1`$)

$$a_2=\frac{16\gamma ^2}{1615\gamma ^2+8(\sqrt{1+\gamma }+\sqrt{1\gamma })}$$
(A2)
Example: for $`\gamma =0.5`$, $`a_20.1444`$
* Flat distribution for $`\alpha ^2`$, between $`1\gamma `$ and $`1+\gamma `$

$$a_2=\frac{16\gamma ^3}{16\left((1+\gamma )^{3/2}(1\gamma )^{3/2}\right)+48\gamma 15\gamma ^3}$$
(A3)
Example: for $`\gamma =0.5`$, $`a_20.0436`$; for $`\gamma =1`$, $`a_20.2045`$.
* Flat distribution for $`\alpha `$, between $`\gamma `$ and $`1+\gamma `$

$`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$ imposes $`\gamma =(\sqrt{11/3}1)/2`$, and yields $`a_20.1868`$.

## B Gaussian iff $`\rho =\delta (\alpha 1)`$

We show in this appendix that only the trivial elastic distribution $`\rho (\alpha )=\delta (\alpha 1)`$ can lead to Gaussian velocity statistics.

Since we assume $`\overline{\alpha ^2}=1`$, $`\mu _2=0`$ (see section III-A). Therefore, equation (9) reduces to

$$𝑑\alpha \rho (\alpha )\stackrel{~}{I}(\stackrel{~}{f},\stackrel{~}{f})=0.$$
(B1)
Let us assume that $`\stackrel{~}{f}(c)`$ is Gaussian. The equations for $`𝐯_1^{}`$ and $`𝐯_2^{}`$ lead to

$$\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1^{})\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2^{})=\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1)\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{\alpha ^21}{2}(𝐜_{12}\widehat{𝝈})^2\right).$$
(B2)
Equation (B1) is then recast, by carrying out the integration over $`\alpha `$ for the term $`\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1)\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)`$, and simplifying by $`\stackrel{~}{f}(c_1)`$, into

$$\gamma _dI_d𝑑𝐜_2c_{12}\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)=𝑑\alpha \frac{\rho (\alpha )}{\alpha ^2}𝑑𝐜_2c_{12}\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)J_d$$
(B3)
where

$`\gamma _dI_d`$ $`=`$ $`\gamma _d{\displaystyle _{\pi /2}^{\pi /2}}𝑑\theta \mathrm{sin}^{d2}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta `$ (B4)
$`J_d`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle ^{}}𝑑\widehat{𝝈}\mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha ^21}{2}}(c_{12}\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\right)`$ (B5)
$`=`$ $`\gamma _d{\displaystyle _{\pi /2}^{\pi /2}}𝑑\theta \mathrm{sin}^{d2}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta \mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha ^21}{2}}(c_{12}\mathrm{cos}\theta )^2\right).`$ (B6)
$`\theta `$ is the angle between $`\widehat{𝝈}`$ and $`𝐜_{12}`$, and $`\gamma _d`$ is a geometrical factor corresponding to the integration over the remaining angles. By expanding the exponential, we thus obtain the relation valid for any $`𝐜_1`$:

$`0=I_d{\displaystyle }d𝐜_2c_{12}\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2){\displaystyle }d\alpha {\displaystyle \frac{\rho (\alpha )}{\alpha ^2}}\times `$ (B7)
$`{\displaystyle 𝑑𝐜_2\stackrel{~}{f}(c_2)\underset{p=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\left(\frac{1\alpha ^2}{2}\right)^pc_{12}^{2p+1}_{\pi /2}^{\pi /2}𝑑\theta \mathrm{sin}^{d2}\theta \mathrm{cos}^{2p+1}\theta }`$ (B8)
Since this is valid for any $`𝐜_1`$, each term of the expansion in powers of $`c_{12}`$ must be zero. For $`p=0`$ we obtain

$$\overline{\alpha ^2}=1,$$
(B9)
and for $`p1`$:

$$\overline{\alpha ^2(1\alpha ^2)^p}=0.$$
(B10)
A straightforward recurrence yields $`\overline{\alpha ^{2p}}=1`$ for any $`p0`$, and thus

$$\rho (\alpha )=\delta (\alpha 1)$$
(B11)


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# Fabry Perot H𝛼 observations of the Barred Spiral NGC 3367

## 1 Introduction

NGC 3367 is an SBc barred spiral galaxy considered isolated at a distance of 43.6 Mpc behind the Leo Spur group of galaxies (i.e. using H$`{}_{0}{}^{}=75`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 Tully (1988)), with a distant neighbor NGC 3419 at $`900\pm 100`$ kpc away. At a distance of 43.6 Mpc, 1′′ corresponds to 210 pc. Its optical appearance in the broadband filter I ($`\lambda =8040`$ Å from Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ; Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996b ) is shown in Figure 1; it suggests a galaxy almost face on but compilation values from the published papers indicate that its inclination with respect to the plane of the sky is not well determined. Although the weak optical emission originates from an almost axisymmetric disk, the bright emission shows an asymmetry such that only the south western region looks symmetric half disk, but not the north eastern region. The stellar bar has a radius of only $`16^{\prime \prime }`$ (3.3 kpc) oriented at P.A. $`63^{}\pm 5^{}`$, and there is an optical structure consisting of several H$`\alpha `$ knots resembling a “bow shock” at a radius of about 10 kpc from the nucleus from south east to north west (Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ; Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996b ). VLA observations at 4′′.5 angular resolution at 1.46 GHz show radio continuum emission from two lobes extending to at least 6 kpc straddling the nucleus, most likely off the plane, as well as weaker emission from the disk (Garcia-Barreto, Rudnick, Franco & Martos (1998)). Soft X-ray emission has been reported by Giogia et al. (1990).Single dish 21 cm HI observations indicate values of a systemic velocity of v=3035$`\pm 8`$ km s-1 and a total hydrogen mass of M(HI)=$`5\pm 2\times 10^9`$ M (Helou et al. (1981); Huchtmeier & Seiradakis (1985); Mirabel & Sanders (1988); Staveley-Smith & Davies (1988)). Optical systemic velocity values are v=2850$`\pm 50`$ km s-1 (Véron-Cetty & Véron (1986); de Vaucouleurs (1991); Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1995); Véron, Gonçalves & Véron-Cetty (1997); de Vaucouleurs (1991); Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1995, 1997)).

In this paper we present new Fabry Perot H$`\alpha `$ observations of NGC 3367 carried out with the PUMA equipment attached to the San Pedro Mártir 2.1m optical telescope in Baja California, México. The velocity field thus obtained indicates that differential rotation appears to dominate. Departures from near circular rotation are clear from the central region and also from the outer bright semi circle to the south west. The fitted rotation curve shows a slow rise and flat part. $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 2 presents the observations and calibration. $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 3 presents the data reduction and analysis. $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 4 presents the velocity field. $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 5 presents the discussion and finally $`\mathrm{\S }`$ 6 presents the conclusions.

## 2 Observations and Calibration

Two dimensional velocity field for the ionized gas in NGC 3367 was obtained by using the UNAM Scanning Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer PUMA on 1999 February 8 & 9. This instrument is currently in use at the f/7.9 Ritchey-Chretien focus of the 2.1 m telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at San Pedro Mártir, B.C., México.

The PUMA setup consists of a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer, a focal reducer 2:1 which brings the initial focal ratio from f/7.9 to f/3.95, a f/3.95 camera, a filter wheel, a calibration system and a Tektronix CCD detector of 1024$`\times `$1024 pixels (Rosado et al. 1995). Since NGC 3367 has angular dimensions less than $`3^{}`$ we used only a central region of the CCD of $`512\times 512`$ pixels. In this way, we observed a field of view of 5$`{}_{}{}^{}\times 5^{}`$ with a pixel size of $`0^{\prime \prime }.6\pm 0^{\prime \prime }.01`$.

To obtain FP data cubes of NGC 3367, we used an interference filter with a central wavelength of 6620 Å and a narrow band (30 Å) in order to isolate the redshifted H$`\alpha `$ emission of this galaxy. The gap between the plates of the FP interferometer,with an interference order of 330 at H$`\alpha `$, was scanned over a free spectral range and a total of 48 interference channels (each 120 seconds of integration time) were obtained with a velocity increment of 19 km s-1. Thus, the data cubes are of 512$`\times 512\times `$48.

Calibration cubes were obtained before and after the cubes corresponding to NGC 3367. The line at 6598.95 Å of a neon lamp was used for wavelength calibration.

The raw data were calibrated in wavelength using the specialized software CIGALE developed at the Marseille Observatory (Le Coarer et al. 1993) and object cubes were produced consisting of 48 velocity maps of 512$`\times 512`$ with final image scale of 0′′.6 pixel-1 and a spectral sampling of 19 km s-1. No attempt was made for absolute calibration of the H$`\alpha `$ emission.

## 3 Data Reduction and Analysis

The cube was exported from CIGALE in a fits format to the AIPS package in order to continue with the data analysis. Preliminary inspection of the emission at different velocities showed that a bright south west star was elongated in a position angle (P.A.) 13. Having no idea whether it is a double star from our observations or from POSS plates nor anything arising from instrumental effect that one could possibly correct for, it was decided to convolve the 48 planes to an output gaussian beam of 6$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.5\times 4^{\prime \prime }.1`$ at P.A. 13, based on the fits on the sw star, with the task CONVL. With this beam the experiment was aimed mainly on the velocity field with a medium angular resolution. This, as mentioned later, turned out to be crucial in not being capable to study the kinematics of the central most region of the galaxy. For the best continuum image it was decided to align as best as possible all the image planes. For this purpose, careful position determination using IMSTAT and IMFIT were used in AIPS for the nuclear position and a bright south west star in the field. It was decided to obtain shifts with respect to plane 25 which showed the maximum brightness (in arbitrary units) for both the nuclear region and the star. Shifts less than 3.6 pixels in RA and 0.9 pixels in DEC were found for the nuclear region and less than 1.5 pixels in RA and 0.63 pixels in DEC were found in the south west star. Individual planes were corrected for the corresponding shifts found using the program LGEOM in AIPS. A continuum offset was determined, from regions outside galaxy emission, and corrected for each plane with the program COMB. In order to obtain a continuum emission, from the cube, to be subtracted from each plane the data was displayed for every velocity channel and it was visually decided which channels had no emission. Finally channels 2 to 13 and 37 to 48 were chosen. First an image was produced from channels 2 to 13 using the program SQASH and another image using the channels 37 to 48. Both images were then averaged using the program COMB in order to have a final continuum image. This continuum image was subtracted from the cube. Finally, the program MOMNT in AIPS was used in order to obtain the moments zero (integrated intensity), one (velocity) and two (velocity dispersion), after smoothing the data with a box car of size 5 and 7 in velocity and space coordinates. After careful inspection of the results using different cutoff values for flux and intensity it was decided to allow only data using fluxes and intensities above values that guaranty to determine a velocity field where weak, but above noise level, emission was detected. Figure 2 shows the moment 0 or total integrated intensity map of the H$`\alpha `$ emission. The map is similar to the previous map obtained with a direct image camera taken at the same observatory (Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ; Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996b ; Garcia-Barreto, Rudnick, Franco & Martos (1998)). Figure 3 shows the channel maps with heliocentric radial velocities indicated corresponding to channels 18 to 33. Figure 4 shows the isovelocity contours plotted on a grey representation of the same H$`\alpha `$ distribution shown in Fig. 2. Figure 5 shows velocity dispersion and Figure 6 shows the residual velocity field (observed minus model).

The program GAL in AIPS was used in order to get the rotation curve. The observed velocity at a given radius is given by the expression

V$`{}_{obs}{}^{}=`$ V$`{}_{sys}{}^{}+`$ Vθ(R,$`\theta `$)sin$`i`$cos$`\theta +`$ VR(R,$`\theta `$)sin$`i`$sin$`\theta +`$ Vz(R,$`\theta `$)cos$`i`$,

where $`i`$ is the inclination of the disk with respect to the plane of the sky, $`\theta `$ is the azimuthal angle in the plane of the galaxy, Vθ(R) is the azimuthal velocity at a radius R, VR(R) is the radial velocity component at a radius R, and Vz(R) is the vertical velocity component at a radius R, Vsys is the systemic velocity of the galaxy (Mihalas & Binney (1981)). The program GAL assumes, as a first approximation, that the gas is in near circular orbits in a plane, that is, it considers the VR(R) and Vz(R) velocity components equal to zero. This assumption will be not valid in the case of NGC 3367 as it will be seen below. The orientation in space of a galaxy is described, in general, by four parameters: the position of the center (x,y), the position angle of the receding semi major axis (P.A.) and the inclination of the plane ($`i`$). Other parameters involve the systemic velocity, Vsys, the maximum rotation velocity, Vmax, and the radius at which occurs the maximum rotation velocity, Rmax (van Moorsel & Wells (1985)). Our first attempt was to allow to vary all parameters x,y, P.A., $`i`$, Vsys, Vmax, Rmax using both the receding and approaching sides. The fitted values for the different parameters were x=10h 46m 35s.04, y=$`+13^{}`$ 45 06$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.4`$, P.A.$`=52^{}`$, $`i=30`$, V$`{}_{sys}{}^{}=3034`$ km s-1, V$`{}_{max}{}^{}=208`$ km s-1 and R$`{}_{max}{}^{}=49^{\prime \prime }`$. The fitted values for the x and y position corresponded to the kinematical center $`0^{\prime \prime }.5`$ west in RA and $`2^{\prime \prime }.1`$ north in Dec. from the center of surface brightness maximum. Varying the values of some parameters, while holding fixed others, we tried to get the best rotation curve.

## 4 The Velocity Field

It is not advisable to make an elaborate many parameters fit to the rotation curve, however, the fitting of the orientation parameters is by far the most important task (van Moorsel & Wells (1985)). First it was noticed that the kinematical center fitted, with all parameters free to vary, was off by about $`0^{\prime \prime }.5`$ in RA and +2$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.3`$ in Dec from the center of the brightness distribution. At this point it is necessary to mention that the coordinate grid to the cube was anchored in such a way as to make coincide the maximum H$`\alpha `$ brightness distribution and the peak of emission in the high resolution VLA 3.6 cm radio continuum from the central region (which we think corresponds to the nucleus, Garcia-Barreto & Rudnick (2000)). We decided to fix the position of the x,y coordinates to the maximum of the integrated intensity distribution, that is, at $`\alpha `$(J2000)=10$`{}_{}{}^{h}46_{}^{m}35^s.06`$, $`\delta `$(J2000)=$`+13^{}45^{}04^{\prime \prime }.1`$. We ran the program fixing different parameters and fitting others as listed in Table 2.

Average values of Vmax for small diameter Sc galaxies with high inclination angles are between 150 km s-1 and 200 km s-1 (Rubin et al. (1985); Rubin, Waterman & Kenney (1999)). Since the value of the inclination $`i`$ has been reported in the range from 6 to 37, a search for reported values of the inclination of NGC 3367 followed. Table 1 lists inclination angles found in the literature for NGC 3367 and the method used.

In general, determination of the inclination of a galaxy has been done in any of three methods: i) From multiparametered fits to detailed high resolution radio synthesis or Fabry Perot maps; ii) from axial ratio corrected for spiral arm structure and iii) from axial ratio according to the formula (Hubble (1926); Mihalas & Binney (1981))

$$cos^2i=\{(b/a)^2(b_i/a_i)^2\}/\{1(b_i/a_i)^2\}$$

where $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the apparent major and minor semi axis of a galaxy and $`a_i`$and $`b_i`$ are the intrinsic major and minor semi axis. In general for a flattened spheroid the intrinsic axial ratio is taken to be 0.2 (Holmberg (1958)).

As stated by Aaronson, Mould and Huchra (1980) method i) is the best method for measuring sin$`i`$ since it is the only one that actually measures the inclination of the rotating gas and is based on quantitative analysis of kinematic structure, except for kinematic departures from differential rotation, as HI warps (Bosma (1981)). Aaronson, Mould and Huchra (1980) found that inclinations determined from axial ratios from RC2 were too face on by about 3.

To evaluate our inclination and position angle of the receding semi major axis values we looked at the residual velocity field (observations minus model) for the different values of the inclination, namely, $`i=20^{}`$, $`i=25^{}`$ and $`i=30^{}`$ and two values for the position angle of the receding semi major axis, P.A.$`=46`$ and P.A.=51. The rotation curve was slightly modified but mainly only the velocity scale. We did run the program using only $`\pm `$60 from the P.A. of the line of nodes of both the receding and approaching sides in order to look for asymmetry deviations but we did not find any and finally we also tried leaving out the central 10′′. Finally, the residual velocity field with least asymetries was the one using an inclination of $`i=30^{}`$. Values for inclination and maximum rotation velocity are listed in Table 2.

The maximum velocity is in agreement with the estimated maximum velocity value obtained from HI measurements, as : Vmax = (1/2) ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ V$`{}_{}{}^{50}{}_{HI}{}^{}`$)/(sin $`i`$), since for NGC 3367 $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V$`{}_{}{}^{50}{}_{HI}{}^{}`$ = 206 km s-1 (Huchtmeier & Seiradakis (1985)). It is smaller, though, by about 50 km s-1 from the estimated value if using the width of the HI line at 20 % ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$V$`{}_{}{}^{20}{}_{HI}{}^{}`$).

The final rotation curve, assuming as usual azimuthal symmetry and zero vertical and radial components of the velocity vector, is shown in Figure 7. This rotation curve can be fitted as a first approximation by a Brandt curve (Brandt (1960)) with V$`{}_{max}{}^{}=210`$ km s-1 at R$`{}_{max}{}^{}=52^{\prime \prime }`$ (11 kpc). An estimate of the dynamical mass using Vmax and Rmax has been obtained. Radio interferometric detection of atomic hydrogen (from larger radii than the maximum distance where optical H$`\alpha `$ emission was detected) and a model to account for non-zero vertical or radial components are a must in order to make a detailed modeling of the mass distribution (bulge, disk, halo) (see for example Kent (1987); van der Kruit (1990); Freeman (1993); Olling (1996); Sicotte & Carignan (1997); Ryder et al. (1998)).

Finally we obtained for NGC 3367, based on our Fabry Perot observations, the following values :

1. Center at $`\alpha `$(J2000)=10$`{}_{}{}^{h}46_{}^{m}35^s.06`$, $`\delta `$(J2000)=$`+13^{}45^{}04^{\prime \prime }.1`$
2. Position Angle of receding major axis, P.A.=51$`{}_{}{}^{}\pm 3^{}`$
3. Inclination with respect to plane of sky, $`i=30^{},+2^{},5^{}`$
4. Systemic Velocity, V$`{}_{sys}{}^{}=3032\pm 3`$ km s-1
5. Maximum Rotation Velocity, V$`{}_{max}{}^{}=210`$ km s$`{}_{}{}^{1}\pm 15`$ km s-1
6. Radius at maximum velocity, R$`{}_{max}{}^{}=52^{\prime \prime }\pm 3^{\prime \prime }`$
7. Dynamical Mass inside 52′′, M$`{}_{dyn}{}^{}=2_{0.25}^{+0.5}\times 10^{11}`$ M

## 5 Discussion

NGC 3367 is known to exhibit two large ($`2`$ kpc diameter) radio continuum lobes straddling the nucleus at a distance of about 6 kpc (Garcia-Barreto, Rudnick, Franco & Martos (1998)); while at high resolution there is a compact nuclear source ($`70`$ pc in diameter) surrounded by a structure at a radius of less than 350 pc (Garcia-Barreto & Rudnick (2000)), with probable presence of WR stars from optical spectroscopy (Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1995)). H$`\alpha `$ optical imaging observations, show an unresolved bright source, most likely associated with the compact nucleus and weak extended emission covering the innermost 5′′ but the existence of a possible circumnuclear structure is difficult to confirm because of poor angular resolution (Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ; Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996b ). Our Fabry Perot observations were not the exception, since we had also very low final angular resolution, as mentioned earlier. Spectra from NGC 3367 in the red optical region indicates a moderate width of the H$`\alpha `$ line only to be considered to have an HII nucleus (Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1997)). Only two out of ten SBc galaxies from the list observed by Martin (1995) have bars’ semi axes smaller than the bar in NGC 3367, suggesting that the bar in NGC 3367 is small given its Hubble type. From high resolution radio continuum observations the lobes are connected to the central region but this emission is most likely also out of the plane and not associated with any dust or shock regions along the stellar bar since these are expected to be on the leading side of the bar, south east and north west assuming that the bar is rotating counter clockwise as suggested by trailing arms (as seen in other galaxies, for example NGC 1365 \[Jörsater & van Moorsel (1995)\]). The presence of radio continuum lobes out from the nuclear region and X-ray emission indicate the presence of activity and suggest an inflow process to the very center of the galaxy. The high dispersion velocity found in the central region (of up to 120 km s-1) might be associated with the circumnuclear structure and probable outflow (since emission is observed at different velocity channels, see Fig. 3). Starburst driven galaxy outflows have been reported for several strong far infrared emitters (Heckman, Armus & Miley (1990)). Faint broad optical emission lines have been modeled as associated with shells of interstellar material smoothly accelerated after breakout (Tenorio-Tagle et al. (1997)). The existence of an unresolved radio continuum source ($`70`$ pc in diameter) hints that the source of energy is a compact nucleus; however optical spectroscopy fails to detect emission from high ionization atoms (ie. Fe) from NGC 3367 as detected from other active galactic nuclei (Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1995)). The source of the central activity is still to be resolved and is beyond the scope of the present work. Since the raw rotation curve in Figure 7, most likely includes non zero vertical and radial components of the velocity at different radii, the derived angular velocity is therefore ambiguous as well as the radial frequencies (since $`\kappa `$(R) depends on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and d$`\omega `$/dR). However, if the south west ring were the result of an outer Lindblad resonance (OLR) at a distance between 8.5 kpc and 10 kpc, a possibility that was discarded because of lack of symmetry on the north east side (Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ), then the estimated constant angular velocity of the bar would be close to 43 km s-1 kpc-1 and co-rotation (CR) would be at a radius between 3.5 kpc and 4 kpc, which would correspond to about 1 and 1.25 the radius of the stellar bar. These estimates must clearly be taken with caution and only as a zero order, but it is fair to say that they are in agreement with values given for other barred galaxies (Buta & Combes (1996)). However, nothing could be said about the distance from the nucleus expected for an inner Lindblad Resonance (ILR) which in general for Sc galaxies is expected to be at larger radii than for Sa galaxies, simply as a result of mass concentration in early type galaxies. The structure in high resolution radio continuum observations between 0.3 kpc and 0.45 kpc from the compact nucleus remains to be proven if it lies near an inner Lindblad resonance (ILR).

Deviations from circular orbits have been routinely observed in almost every spiral galaxy (Teuben et al. (1986); Giovanelli & Haynes (1988); Rots, et al. (1990); Jörsater & van Moorsel (1995); Sicotte & Carignan (1997); Beauvais & Bothun (1999)). Substantial noncircular streaming motions and large residual velocities were found in the inner bar region of NGC 1365 (Teuben et al. (1986); Jörsater & van Moorsel (1995)). In the case of NGC 3367, isovelocity contours from a) the central region, and b) from the south west (approaching side) outer most regions of the galaxy are observed to deviate from normal circular motion. For example, the isovelocity contours from the south in NGC 3367 indicate an observed bluer velocity of about 20 to 30 km s-1, at a radius of about 8.5 kpc from the nucleus, than the expected value; a similar behaviour is observed from the western bright sources (see Fig. 4). In particular from inspection of the channel velocity maps (Fig. 3), the western bright region shows from the first channel at 2898 km s-1 up to the channel at velocity 3031 km s-1 suggesting an expanding bubble of about 65 km s-1 centered at a radial velocity of 2965 km s-1 which would correspond to the expected circular velocity. The central and bright eastern regions show up in different velocity channels possibly suggesting the existence of expanding gas also, however more detailed observations are needed in order to confirm this idea.

Large velocity dispersions from the central region in NGC 3367 might be associated with an outflow. Reasons in favor are: a) a plasma outflow is definitely there since NGC 3367 presents two radio continuum lobes connected to the nucleus at a radii of 6 kpc, b) a probable circumnuclear structure (Garcia-Barreto & Rudnick (2000)) with WR stars (Ho, Filippenko & Sargent (1995)) and c) X-ray emission (Giogia et al. (1990)).

A possible interpretation for large velocity dispersions from the south west semi-ring (see Fig. 4) might be that these sources are part of a structure with a higher radial velocity, from 10 to 40 km s-1, than expected at their radii assuming circular orbits (Beauvais & Bothun (1999)). This radial velocity could be the result of coeval evolution of HII regions evolving in a normal disk or could be the result of a large scale phenomenon (ie bow shock (Kritsuk (1983)), outward wave (Lynds & Toomre (1976); Toomre (1978)),etc.). Yet, another possibility is that the semi-ring of H$`\alpha `$ sources is at a higher inclination with respect to the plane of the sky and therefore inclined with respect to the galaxy interior disk. If the outer region were a warp (Binney (1992)) it would show from atomic hydrogen observations.

Finally, Grösbol (1985) has studied the mass distribution of many spiral galaxies from azimuthal intensity profiles based on POSS red plates, including NGC 3367. Values found by him are: radius with a mean surface brightness of 23.5 magnitudes/arcsec2 r$`{}_{23.5}{}^{}=74^{\prime \prime }`$; inner radius in which the mean intensity could be approximated by an exponential disk, r$`{}_{i}{}^{}=6^{\prime \prime }`$; outer radius in which the mean intensity could be approximated by an exponential disk, r$`{}_{o}{}^{}=46^{\prime \prime }`$ and scale length of exponential disk, r$`{}_{l}{}^{}=24^{\prime \prime }.3`$. Baggett, Baggett & Anderson (1998) also have reported a bulge disk decomposition for 659 spiral galaxies including NGC 3367 based on major axis brightness profiles from the Photometric Atlas of Northern Bright Galaxies by Kodaira, Okamura & Ichikawa (1990). They fitted de Vaucouleurs law profiles for bulges and a truncated exponential disk (after Kormendy). In particular for NGC 3367 they report a disk scale length of 8′′, a disk truncation radius of 26$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.6`$ and a bulge efective radius of 25$`{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }.8`$. It is pertinent here to repeat that NGC 3367 has a stellar bar in a P.A.=63$`{}_{}{}^{}\pm 5^{}`$ and a radius of only 16′′ (Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996a ; Garcia-Barreto et al. 1996b ), and thus the bulge disk decomposition by Baggett at al. includes the stellar bar inside what they consider a bulge. A detailed model of the mass distribution in NGC 3367 including bulge, disk and halo is necessary and it would benefit from not only optical surface photometry and velocity field but also from extended atomic hydrogen gas and velocity distributions.

## 6 Conclusions

We have carried out Fabry Perot H$`\alpha `$ emission observations from the barred galaxy NGC 3367 field in the disk of the galaxy with the PUMA equipment at the San Pedro Mártir 2.12m telescope in order to determine the velocity field in NGC 3367. Importat results can be summarized as follows: i) We have determined the values for different parameters as follows: inclination of the disk with respect to the plane of the sky to be $`i=30^{}`$; position angle of the receding semi major axis, P.A.=$`51^{}`$; systemic velocity V$`{}_{sys}{}^{}=3032`$ km s-1; maximum rotation velocity V$`{}_{max}{}^{}=210`$ km s-1 and radius at which maximum rotation velocity is attained R$`{}_{max}{}^{}=52^{\prime \prime }`$ (10.9 kpc). ii) We estimated a dynamical mass inside 52′′, based on the maximum rotation velocity to be M$`{}_{dyn}{}^{}=2\times 10^{11}`$ M. iii) We have detected a large velocity dispersions (up to 120 km s-1) in the central region; from the bright regions in the west at about 10 kpc from the nucleus (with velocities up to 60 km s-1) and from the bright regions just east of the end of the stellar bar (with velocities up to 70 km s-1). The velocity dispersion from the central region might be associated with the presence of an outflow either from a compact nucleus or from a circumnuclear structure and regions of intense star formation with WR stars. iv) We observed deviations from the isovelocity contours from the south west (approaching side) outer most regions of the galaxy coinciding with the string of bright H$`\alpha `$ sources. A possible interpretation is that these sources are part of a semi-ring with a higher radial velocity, from 10 to 40 km s-1, than expected at their radii assuming circular orbits, or that this region is at different inclination than the plane of the galaxy.

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank an anonymous referee for useful comments and suggestions on how to improve the paper. We acknowledge fruitful conversations with E. Moreno and V. Avila-Reese. M. Rosado acknowledges partial financial support from CONACYT (México) grant 27984-E and from DGAP.A. (UNAM, México) grant IN122298.


text:
# More Noncommutative 4-Spheres

## 1. Introduction

Recently some new examples of noncommutative algebras, which are deformations of spheres (3 nad 4-dimensional) were presented . The significant part of the construction was the deformation of the 3-sphere, then the 4-sphere in both cases is obtained by a commutative suspension.

The deformation , which, on the algebraic level is a twist of the algebra of functions relative to the action of two $`U(1)`$ groups, preserves much of the geometry of the sphere. In particular, the spectral triple is also deformed with the Dirac operator unchanged (similarly as for the noncommutative torus), which explains the name of an isospectral deformation .

In this Letter we propose another family of noncommutative 4-spheres constructed using the method of ”twisting”. Let us stress, however, that such deformed algebras will probably not be ’noncommutative spin manifolds’ as described by spectral triples (see  for details) and their geometry seems to be much different from the commutative four-sphere.

## 2. Noncommutative 2-sphere

Let us remind here the construction of the Podleś quantum sphere111We have chosen here a particular quantum sphere. . Let $`q`$ be a real number $`0<q1`$ and $`S_q`$ be an algebra generated by operators $`a`$, $`a^{}`$ and $`b=b^{}`$, which satisfy the following relations:

(1)
$$\begin{array}{ccc}ba=qab,\hfill & & a^{}b=qba^{},\hfill \\ a^{}a+b^2=1,\hfill & & aa^{}+\frac{1}{q^2}b^2=1.\hfill \end{array}$$

This algebra admits the action of the $`U_q(su(2))`$ quantum group and in the $`q=1`$ limit corresponds to the continuous functions on the two-dimensional sphere.

## 3. Noncommutative 4-spheres

Let us consider an algebra generated by $`\alpha ,\alpha ^{},\beta =\beta ^{}`$ and $`U,U^{}`$ with the following contraints:

(2)
$$\begin{array}{ccc}\beta \alpha =q\alpha \beta ,\hfill & & \alpha ^{}\beta =q\beta \alpha ^{},\hfill \\ \alpha ^{}\alpha +\beta ^2+U^{}U=1,\hfill & & \alpha \alpha ^{}+\frac{1}{q^2}\beta ^2+U^{}U=1,\hfill \\ U\alpha =e^{2\pi i\theta }\alpha U,\hfill & & U\alpha ^{}=e^{2\pi i\theta }\alpha ^{}U,\hfill \\ U\beta =\beta U,\hfill & & U^{}U=UU^{}.\hfill \end{array}$$

This defines a family of algebras $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$. By taking the supremum of operator norm over all admissible representations, taking out the ideal of zero-norm elements and completing the quotient we obtain a $`C^{}`$ algebra structure.

Let us make here some remarks.

###### Remark 1.

The center of the algebra $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$ (for $`0<q<1`$ and irrational $`\theta `$) is generated by a non-negative operator $`UU^{}`$. The space of characters, as one can easily verify, contains all following maps $`\chi `$:

(3) $`\chi (\alpha )S^1,\chi (\beta )=0,\chi (U)=0,`$
or
$`\chi (\alpha )=0,\chi (\beta )=0,\chi (U)S^1,`$
so that the ’classical’ space underlying the noncommutative construction is a union of two disjoint circles.

###### Remark 2.

In the $`\theta =0`$ limit $`S_{q,0}^4`$ is the complex (2-dimensional) suspension of the Podleś sphere. Note that this is not equivalent to the real (1-dimensional) suspension of $`SU_q(2)`$ constructed in .

###### Remark 3.

A map $`\rho :S_{q,\theta }^4S_\theta ^3`$ defined by $`\rho (\beta )=0`$ and $`\rho (\alpha )=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$, $`\rho (U)=\stackrel{~}{\beta }`$ (for definitions of the generators of $`S_\theta ^3`$ see ) is a star algebra morphism.

###### Remark 4.

In the $`q=1`$ limit $`S_{1,\theta }^4`$ is exactly the sphere $`S_\theta ^4`$ of  (obtained through the suspension od $`S_\theta ^3`$).

###### Remark 5.

The sphere $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$ arises as a subalgebra of the crossproduct algebra from nontrivial action of $``$ on the one-dimensional suspension of the Podleś sphere.

(4) $`na=e^{2\pi i\theta }a,`$
$`na^{}=e^{2\pi i\theta }a^{},`$
$`nb=b,`$
$`nt=t,`$
where $`t`$ is a central selfadjoint suspension generator. The crossproduct algebra of $``$ is generated by $`a,a^{},b,t`$ and a unitary generator $`V`$ of $``$. It is easy to observe that the subalgebra generated by $`a,a^{},b`$ and $`Vt=tV`$ is isomorphic to $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$.

As one can see, the family of 4-spheres we have just introduced, shares both the properties of the $`q`$-deformation as well as that of the twisted deformation. Notice that for $`\theta =0`$ (as well as for the suspension of $`SU_q(2)`$ in ) $`U_q(su(2))`$ is still a symmetry group. This does not hold, however, for (irrational) $`\theta 0`$.

## 4. Representation of $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$

To obtain the Hilbert space representation of $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$ we proceed as follows. First, let $`_q`$ be the Hilbert space representation of the Podleś sphere and $`\rho `$ the corresponding representation map (see  for details on the representations of $`S_q^2`$). Then for every $`0\varphi <2\pi `$ we construct the following representation $`\rho _\varphi `$ on $`_ql^2()`$:

(5) $`\rho _\varphi (\alpha )\left(v|n\right)=(\mathrm{cos}\varphi )e^{2\pi in\theta }\left(\rho (\alpha )(v)|n\right),`$
$`\rho _\varphi (\beta )\left(v|n\right)=(\mathrm{cos}\varphi )\left(\rho (\beta )(v)|n\right),`$
$`\rho _\varphi (U)\left(v|n\right)=(\mathrm{sin}\varphi )\left(v|n+1\right).`$
Given this example, let us finish this section with a remark that using various representations of $`S_q^2`$ (which may correspond to nontrivial projective modules over the quantum sphere) one might obtain many interesting models for field theory.

## 5. The projector.

A question, which is interesting in itself is the construction of noncommutative vector bundles over our noncommutative space. This is expressed algebraically by construction of finitely generated projective modules over an algebra $`𝒜`$, defined by idempotents in the algebra $`M_n(𝒜)`$. We shall provide here an example of an idempotent in $`M_4(𝒜)`$ and calculate its first Chern class in order to make contact with the construction of .

Let us take:

(6)
$$e=\frac{1}{2}\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1+\beta & 0& U& \alpha ^{}\\ 0& 1+\frac{1}{q}\beta & \alpha & e^{2\pi i\theta }U^{}\\ U^{}& \alpha ^{}& 1\beta & 0\\ \alpha & e^{2\pi i\theta }U& 0& 1\frac{1}{q}\beta \end{array}\right),$$

We may easily calculate its Chern-Connes character in the reduced $`(b,B)`$ standard complex of the algebra $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$ using the Dennis trace map . Clearly, $`ch_0(e)=0`$ and:

(7) $`ch_1(e)`$ $`(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q}})(\beta (UU^{}U^{}U)+`$
$`+u(U^{}\beta \beta U^{})+U^{}(\beta UU\beta )).`$
Notice that here, $`ch_1(e)`$ does not depend on $`\theta `$ and vanishes for $`q=1`$, exactly as in . In fact, the formula (7) is almost the same as for the suspension of $`SU_q(2)`$. In the commutative limit $`q=1`$ and $`\theta =0`$ we recover the projector of the instanton bundle. Note that $`ch_2(e)`$ does not vanish and contains 222 terms.

Of course, this is not the only projector one can find, in particular, using the monopole projector for the quantum sphere we define, similarly as in :

(8)
$$e^{}=\frac{1}{2}\left(\begin{array}{cccc}1+x& 0& \beta & \alpha ^{}\\ 0& 1+x& \alpha & \frac{1}{q}\beta \\ \beta & \alpha ^{}& 1x& 0\\ \alpha & \frac{1}{q}\beta & 0& 1x\end{array}\right),$$

where $`x=\sqrt{U^{}U}`$ is a central element. However, this projector lives effectively on the subalgebra of the $`S_{q,\theta }^4`$, which could be identified as a deformation of a 3-sphere and therefore it would correspond to a trivial bundle over $`S^3`$ . In fact, it is easy to verify that all its Chern classes vanish.

## 6. Conclusions

In this letter we have shown that there exists a large family of objects, which could be called noncommutative 4-spheres: this includes the $`\theta `$-deformation (”isospectral deformation”) defined in  and extends the family of objects presented in .

All of them have the same commutative limit and all are deformations, however, only in the case of the ”isospectral” deformation ($`q=1`$) the lower chern characters of the deformed instanton bundle projector vanish.

Such objects should be studied in greater details: the classes and examples of projective modules over the algebra, their cyclic cohomology etc. It would be interesting to verify whether these deformations could be understood as noncommutative manifolds in the sense of . Let us remark that despite some negative results like dimension change in cyclic cohomology  or no-go theorems for some differential calculi  the main problem of understanding such deformations as noncommutative manifolds might be algebraic and related with the choice of the dense subalgebra of ”$`C^{\mathrm{}}`$” functions on our deformations (see Rieffel’s ”Question 19” in ).


text:
# ON FRACTIONAL SUPERSYMMETRIC QUANTUM MECHANICS: THE FRACTIONAL SUPERSYMMETRIC OSCILLATOR

## 1 Generalities about supersymmetry

What is supersymmetry ? Roughly speaking SUperSYmmetry or SUSY can be defined as a symmetry between bosons and fermions (as considered as elementary particles or simply as degrees of freedom). In other words, SUSY is based on the postulated existence of operators $`Q_\alpha `$ which transform a bosonic field into a fermionic field and vice versa. In the context of quantum mechanics, such symmetry operators induce a $`Z_2`$-grading of the Hilbert space of quantum states. In a more general way, fractional SUSY corresponds to a $`Z_k`$-grading for which the Hilbert space involves both bosonic degrees of freedom (associated to bosons) and $`k`$-fermionic degrees of freedom (associated to $`k`$-fermions to be described below) with $`k𝐍\{0,1\}`$ ; the case $`k=2`$ corresponds to ordinary SUSY.

Where does SUSY come from ? The concept of SUSY goes back to the sixtees when many attemps were done in order to unify external symmetries (described by the Poincaré group) and internal symmetries (described by gauge groups) for elementary particles. These attempts led to a no-go theorem by Coleman and Mandula 1 in 1967 which states that, under reasonable assumptions concerning the $`S`$-matrix, the unification of internal and external symmetries can be achieved solely through the introduction of the direct product of the Poincaré group with the relevant gauge group. In conclusion, this unification brings nothing new since it simply amounts to consider separately the two kinds of symmetries. A way to escape this no-go theorem was proposed by Haag, Lopuszanski and Sohnius 2 in 1975: The remedy consists in replacing the Poincaré group by a Poincaré supergroup (or $`Z_2`$-graded Poincaré group).

Let us briefly discuss how to introduce the Poincaré supergroup. We know that the Poincaré group has ten generators (six $`M_{\mu \nu }M_{\nu \mu }`$ and four $`P_\mu `$ with $`\mu ,\nu \{0,1,2,3\}`$): Three $`M_{\mu \nu }`$ describe ordinary rotations, three $`M_{\mu \nu }`$ describe special Lorentz transformations and the four $`P_\mu `$ describe space-time translations. The Lie algebra of the Poincaré group is characterized by the commutation relations

$$[M,M]=M,[M,P]=P,[P,P]=0$$

(written in a symbolic way). The minimal extension of the Poincaré group into a Poincaré supergroup gives rise to a Lie superalgebra (or $`Z_2`$-graded Lie algebra) involving the ten generators $`M_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`P_\mu `$ plus four new generators $`Q_\alpha `$ (with $`\alpha \{1,2,3,4\}`$) referred to as supercharges. The Lie superalgebra of the Poincaré supergroup is then described by the commutation relations

$$[M,M]=M,[M,P]=P,[P,P]=0$$

$$[Q,M]=Q,[Q,P]=0$$

and the anticommutation relations

$$\{Q,Q\}=0$$

(in a symbolic way).

What is the consequence of this increase of symmetries (i.e., passing from 10 to 14 generators) and of the introduction of anticommutators ? In general, an increase of symmetry yields an increase of degeneracies. For instance, in condensed matter physics, passing from the tetragonal symmetry to the cubical symmetry leads, from a situation where the degrees of degeneracy are 1 and 2, to a situation where the degrees of degeneracy are 1, 2 and 3 (in the absence of accidental degeneracies). Another possible consequence of the increase of symmetry is the occurrence of new states or new particles. For instance, the number of particles is doubled when going from the Schrödinger equation (with Galilean invariance) to the Dirac equation (with Lorentz invariance): To each particle of mass $`m`$, spin $`S`$ and charge $`e`$ is associated an antiparticle of mass $`m`$, spin $`S`$ and charge $`e`$. In a similar way, when passing from the Poincaré group to the Poincaré supergroup, we associate to a known particle of mass $`m`$, spin $`S`$ and charge $`e`$ a new particle of mass $`m^{}`$, spin $`S^{}=\left|S\pm \frac{1}{2}\right|`$ and charge $`e`$. (We have $`m^{}m`$ because supersymmetry is a broken symmetry.) The new particle is called a sparticle or a particlino according to whether as the known particle is a fermion or a boson. In terms of field theory, the sparticle or particlino field results from the action of a supercharge $`Q_\alpha `$ on the particle field (and vice versa):

$$Q_\alpha :\mathrm{fermion}\mathrm{sfermion}=\mathrm{boson}$$

$$Q_\alpha :\mathrm{boson}\mathrm{bosino}=\mathrm{fermion}$$

(see also Ref. 3). We thus speak of a selectron (a particle of spin $`0`$ associated to the electron) and of a photino (a particle of spin $`\frac{1}{2}`$ associated to the photon).

It is not our intention to further discuss SUSY from the viewpoint of elementary particles. We shall rather focus our attention on some aspects of fractional SUSY and, more precisely, on fractional supersymmetric or para-supersymmetric (one-dimensional) nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, in the vein of the works in Refs. 4-23. From the point of view of quantum mechanics, a SUSY Hamiltonian comprises both bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom. Then, the problem is to associate a SUSY Hamiltonian to the Hamiltonian of a given dynamical system. Here, we are interested in one of the simplest dynamical systems, namely, the harmonic oscillator. We know that the ordinary oscillator can be described in terms of boson operators. We shall see that the SUSY oscillator can be described in terms of boson and fermion operators (reflecting a $`Z_2`$-grading) and, more generally, that the fractional SUSY oscillator can be described in terms of boson and $`k`$-fermion operators (corresponding to a $`Z_k`$-grading with $`k𝐍\{0,1\}`$). The rest of this paper is thus devoted to the construction (via three methods) of the Hamiltonian for a fractional supersymmetric (or SUSY) oscillator.

This school was dedicated to the memory of Louis Michel. One of the authors (M.R. K.) has had the chance to meet Louis Michel at the Université de Montréal in 1976. Louis will remain an example for him and for many of us. We will all remember the exceptional qualities of the man as a scientist, as a private person, as a public figure and as a teacher.

## 2 A quon approach to the SUSY oscillator

### 2.1 The $`Q`$-uon $``$ boson $`+`$ $`k`$-fermion decomposition

We shall limit ourselves to give an outline of this decomposition (see Dunne et al. 24 and Mansour et al. 25 for a more rigorous mathematical presentation based on the isomorphism between the braided $`Z`$-line and the $`(z,\theta )`$-superspace). We start from a $`Q`$-uon algebra spanned by three operators $`a_{}`$, $`a_+`$ and $`N`$ satisfying the relationships 26

$$a_{}a_+Qa_+a_{}=1$$

$$Na_{}a_{}N=a_{},Na_+a_+N=+a_+$$

where $`Q`$ is generic (a real number different from zero). Let us consider the $`Q`$-deformed coherent state 27

$$|Z):=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\left(Za_+\right)^n}{[n]_Q!}|0=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{Z^n}{([n]_Q!)^{\frac{1}{2}}}|n$$

(with $`|n`$ such that $`N|n=n|n`$ and $`Z𝐂`$) where

$$[n]_Q:=\frac{1Q^n}{1Q}$$

and

$$[n]_Q!:=[1]_Q[2]_Q\mathrm{}[n]_Q\text{for}n𝐍^{}\text{and}[0]_Q!:=1$$

If we assume that

$$Qq:=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\pi \mathrm{i}}{k}\right),k𝐍\{0,1\}$$

then we have $`[k]_Q![k]_q!=0`$. Therefore, in order to give a sense to $`|Z)`$ for $`Qq`$, we have to do the replacement

$$a_+f_+\mathrm{with}(f_+)^k=0$$

We thus end up with what we call a $`k`$-fermionic algebra spanned by the operators $`f_{}`$, $`f_+`$ and $`N`$ completed by the adjoints $`f_+^+`$ and $`f_{}^+`$ of $`f_+`$ and $`f_{}`$, respectively. 20-22 The defining relations for the $`k`$-fermionic algebra are

$$f_{}f_+qf_+f_{}=1$$

$$Nf_{}f_{}N=f_{},Nf_+f_+N=+f_+$$

$$\left(f_{}\right)^k=\left(f_+\right)^k=0$$

and similar relations for $`f_+^+`$ and $`f_{}^+`$. The case $`k=2`$ corresponds to ordinary fermion operators and the case $`k\mathrm{}`$ to ordinary boson operators. The $`k`$-fermions are objects interpolating between fermions and bosons. They share some properties with the para-fermions 4-6 and the anyons as introduced by Goldin et al. 28 (see also Ref. 29). If we define

$$b_\pm :=\underset{Qq}{lim}\frac{\left(a_\pm \right)^k}{[k]_Q!}$$

we obtain

$$b_{}b_+b_+b_{}=1$$

so that the operators $`b_{}`$ and $`b_+`$ can be considered as ordinary boson operators. This is at the root of the two following results. 20

As a first result, the set $`\{a_{},a_+\}`$ gives rise, for $`Qq`$, to two commuting sets: The set $`\{b_{},b_+\}`$ of boson operators and the set of $`k`$-fermion operators $`\{f_{},f_+\}`$. As a second result, this decomposition leads to the replacement of the $`Q`$-deformed coherent state $`|Z)`$ by the so-called fractional supercoherent state

$$|z,\theta ):=\underset{r=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{s=0}{\overset{k1}{}}\frac{\theta ^s}{([s]_q!)^{\frac{1}{2}}}\frac{z^r}{\sqrt{r!}}|kr+s$$

where $`z`$ is a (bosonic) complex variable and $`\theta `$ a ($`k`$-fermionic) generalized Grassmann variable4,6,30,31 with $`(\theta )^k=0`$. The fractional supercoherent state $`|z^k,\theta )`$ can be seen to be a linear combination of the coherent states introduced by Vourdas 32 with coefficients in the generalized Grassmann algebra spanned by $`\theta `$ and the derivative $`_\theta `$.

In the case $`k=2`$, the fractional supercoherent state $`|z,\theta )`$ turns out to be a coherent state for the ordinary (or $`Z_2`$-graded) supersymmetric oscillator. 33 We construct below a fractional (or $`Z_k`$-graded) supersymmetric oscillator which can be associated to the fractional supercoherent state $`|z,\theta )`$ with $`k=3,4,\mathrm{}`$.

### 2.2 A quon approach to the Weyl-Heisenberg algebra

In this section, the basic ingredients consist of a pair of ordinary bosons $`(b_{},b_+)`$ and a pair of $`k`$-fermions $`(f_{},f_+)`$. The $`f`$’s satisfy $`q`$-commutation relations and the $`b`$’s usual commutation relations (see the relations above). In addition, the $`f`$’s commute with the $`b`$’s. Indeed, the two pairs $`(b_{},b_+)`$ and $`(f_{},f_+)`$ may be considered as originating from a pair of $`Q`$-uons $`(a_{},a_+)`$ through the above-described $`Q`$-uon $``$ boson $`+`$ $`k`$-fermion decomposition.

Let us define the two operators $`X_{}`$ and $`X_+`$ by

$$X_{}:=b_{}\left[f_{}+\frac{(f_+)^{k1}}{[k1]_q!}\right],X_+:=b_+\left[f_{}+\frac{(f_+)^{k1}}{[k1]_q!}\right]^{k1}$$

and the operator $`K`$ by

$$K:=f_{}f_+f_+f_{}$$

in terms of the operators $`b_{}`$, $`b_+`$, $`f_{}`$ and $`f_+`$. Then, we can check that $`X_{}`$, $`X_+`$ and $`K`$ satisfy

$$X_{}X_+X_+X_{}=1,K^k=1$$

$$KX_+qX_+K=0,KX_{}q^1X_{}K=0$$

Furthermore, the operator

$$M:=X_+X_{}$$

satisfies the following commutation relations

$$MX_{}X_{}M=X_{},MX_+X_+M=+X_+,MKKM=0$$

The operators $`X_{}`$, $`X_+`$, $`K`$ and $`M`$ thus generate an extended Weyl-Heisenberg algebra.

### 2.3 The resulting fractional supersymmetric oscillator

In the spirit of the work by Rubakov and Spiridonov, 4 we introduce the $`k`$ projection operators

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_i:=\frac{1}{k}\underset{s=0}{\overset{k1}{}}q^{si}K^s,i=0,1,\mathrm{},k1$$

for the cyclic group $`Z_k`$, the two supercharges

$$Q_{}:=X_{}(1\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1}),Q_+:=X_+(1\mathrm{\Pi }_0)$$

and the Hamiltonian $`H`$ defined through

$$\left(Q_{}\right)^{k1}Q_++\left(Q_{}\right)^{k2}Q_+Q_{}+\mathrm{}+Q_+\left(Q_{}\right)^{k1}=\left(Q_{}\right)^{k2}H$$

It is then a simple matter of calculation to show that the supercharges $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ are nilpotent operators with

$$\left(Q_{}\right)^k=\left(Q_+\right)^k=0$$

and that the Hamiltonian $`H`$ can be written as a bilinear form involving $`X_{}X_+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_0,\mathrm{\Pi }_1,\mathrm{},\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1}`$ with

$`H=X_{}X_+\mathrm{\Pi }_1`$ $`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=2}{\overset{k1}{}}}(X_+X_{}\mathrm{}+1)(\mathrm{\Pi }_0+\mathrm{\Pi }_1+\mathrm{}+\mathrm{\Pi }_{k\mathrm{}1})`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=2}{\overset{k1}{}}}\mathrm{}(X_{}X_++{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}1}{2}})\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{}}+X_+X_{}(1\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1})`$
In addition, we have the commutation relations

$$HQ_\pm Q_\pm H=0$$

and thus $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ can be regarded as constants of motion. Finally, it can be seen that $`H`$ may be associated to the fractional supercoherent state $`|z,\theta )`$ with $`k𝐍\{0,1\}`$.

### 2.4 Examples

Example 1. As a first example, we take $`k=2`$, i.e., $`q=1`$. Then, we have

$$X_{}:=b_{}\left(f_{}+f_+\right),X_+:=b_+\left(f_{}+f_+\right)$$

and

$$K:=f_{}f_+f_+f_{}$$

where $`(b_{},b_+)`$ are ordinary bosons and $`(f_{},f_+)`$ ordinary fermions. The operators $`X_{}`$, $`X_+`$ and $`K`$ satisfy

$$X_{}X_+X_+X_{}=1,K^2=1$$

$$KX_++X_+K=0,KX_{}+X_{}K=0$$

which reflect bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom. The projection operators

$$\mathrm{\Pi }_0:=\frac{1}{2}(1+K),\mathrm{\Pi }_1:=\frac{1}{2}(1K)$$

are here simple chirality operators and the supercharges

$$Q_{}:=X_{}\mathrm{\Pi }_0,Q_+:=X_+\mathrm{\Pi }_1$$

have the property

$$\left(Q_{}\right)^2=\left(Q_+\right)^2=0$$

The Hamiltonian $`H`$ assumes the form

$$H=Q_{}Q_++Q_+Q_{}$$

which can be rewritten as

$$H=X_+X_{}\mathrm{\Pi }_0+X_{}X_+\mathrm{\Pi }_1$$

It is clear that $`H`$ commutes with $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$. In terms of boson and fermion operators, we have

$$Q_{}=f_+b_{},Q_+=f_{}b_+$$

and

$$H=b_+b_{}+f_+f_{}$$

so that $`H`$ corresponds to the ordinary (or $`Z_2`$-graded) supersymmetric oscillator whose energy spectrum $`E`$ is (in a symbolic way)

$$E=122\mathrm{}$$

with equally spaced levels, the ground state being a singlet (denoted by 1) and all the excited states (viz., an infinite sequence) being doublets (denoted by 2). Finally, note that the fractional supercoherent state $`|z,\theta )`$ with $`k=2`$ is a coherent state for the Hamiltonian $`H`$ (see Ref. 33).

Example 2. We continue with $`k=3`$, i.e.,

$$q=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{2\pi \mathrm{i}}{3}\right)$$

In this case, we take

$$X_{}:=b_{}\left[f_{}+\frac{(f_+)^2}{[2]_q!}\right],X_+:=b_+\left[f_{}+\frac{(f_+)^2}{[2]_q!}\right]^2$$

and

$$K:=f_{}f_+f_+f_{}$$

where $`(b_{},b_+)`$ are ordinary bosons and $`(f_{},f_+)`$ are $`3`$-fermions. We hence have

$$X_{}X_+X_+X_{}=1,K^3=1$$

$$KX_+qX_+K=0,KX_{}q^1X_{}K=0$$

Our general definitions can be specialized to

$`\mathrm{\Pi }_0`$ $`:=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}(1+q^3K+q^3K^2)`$
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_1`$ $`:=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}(1+q^1K+q^2K^2)`$
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_2`$ $`:=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}(1+q^2K+q^1K^2)`$
for the projection operators and to

$$Q_{}:=X_{}(\mathrm{\Pi }_0+\mathrm{\Pi }_1),Q_+:=X_+(\mathrm{\Pi }_1+\mathrm{\Pi }_2)$$

for the supercharges with the property

$$\left(Q_{}\right)^3=\left(Q_+\right)^3=0$$

By introducing the Hamiltonian $`H`$ via

$$\left(Q_{}\right)^2Q_++Q_{}Q_+Q_{}+Q_+\left(Q_{}\right)^2=Q_{}H$$

we obtain

$$H=\left(2X_+X_{}1\right)\mathrm{\Pi }_0+\left(2X_+X_{}+1\right)\mathrm{\Pi }_1+\left(2X_+X_{}+3\right)\mathrm{\Pi }_2$$

which can be rewritten as

$$H=2b_+b_{}1+2(12q)f_+f_{}+2(1+2q)f_+f_{}f_+f_{}$$

in terms of boson and 3-fermion operators. We can check that $`H`$ commutes with $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$. The energy spectrum of $`H`$ reads

$$E=1233\mathrm{}$$

It contains equally spaced levels with a nondegenerate ground state (denoted as 1), a doubly degenerate first excited state (denoted as 2) and an infinite sequence of triply degenerate excited states (denoted as 3).

## 3 A generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach to the SUSY oscillator

This second approach starts directly from a generalized Weyl-Heisenberg algebra. Let this algebra be spanned by four operators $`Y_{}`$, $`Y_+`$, $`N`$ and $`K`$ (the analogues of $`X_{}`$, $`X_+`$, $`M`$ and $`K`$ in Section 2) with the relations

$$Y_{}Y_+Y_+Y_{}=\underset{s=0}{\overset{k1}{}}f_s(N)\mathrm{\Pi }_s,K^k=1$$

$$KY_+qY_+K=0,KY_{}q^1Y_{}K=0$$

and

$$NY_{}Y_{}N=Y_{},NY_+Y_+N=+Y_+,NKKN=0$$

where $`f_s`$ is an arbitrary (reasonable) function, $`\mathrm{\Pi }_s`$ the projection operator defined in Section 2 and $`q`$ is the same root of unity as before. By defining the supercharges $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ and the Hamiltonian $`H`$ as in Section 2 (with $`X_\pm `$ replaced by $`Y_\pm `$), we obtain again that $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ are nilpotent operators of order $`k`$ which commute with $`H`$. Furthermore, we find that the operator $`H`$ can be expressed as

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`\left[(k1)Y_+Y_{}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{k2}{}}}(k1\mathrm{})f_{\mathrm{}}(N1)\right]\mathrm{\Pi }_0`$
$`+`$ $`\left[(k1)Y_{}Y_+{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=1}{\overset{k2}{}}}(k1\mathrm{})f_{\mathrm{}}(N\mathrm{}+1)\right]\mathrm{\Pi }_1`$
$`+`$ $`\left[(k1)Y_{}Y_++f_1(N+1){\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=2}{\overset{k2}{}}}(k1\mathrm{})f_{\mathrm{}}(N\mathrm{}+2)\right]\mathrm{\Pi }_2`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}=3}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[(k1)Y_+Y_{}+{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}jf_j(N+\mathrm{}j)\right]\mathrm{\Pi }_{\mathrm{}}`$
which generalizes the Hamiltonian derived in Section 2.

## 4 An $`U_q(sl_2)`$ approach to the SUSY oscillator

In this section, we shall briefly show how it is possible to define an Hamiltonian for a fractional supersymmetric oscillator in terms of the generators of the quantum algebra $`U_q(sl_2)`$ with $`q`$ a root of unity. Let $`J_{}`$, $`J_+`$, $`q^{J_3}`$ and $`q^{J_3}`$ be the generators of $`U_q(sl_2)`$. They satisfy the relationships

$$J_+J_{}J_{}J_+=\frac{q^{2J_3}q^{2J_3}}{qq^1}$$

$$q^{J_3}J_+q^{J_3}=qJ_+,q^{J_3}J_{}q^{J_3}=q^1J_{}$$

where $`q`$ is the same root of unity as before. It is straightforward to prove that the operator

$$C:=J_{}J_++\frac{qq^{2J_3}+q^1q^{2J_3}}{(qq^1)^2}$$

is an invariant of $`U_q(sl_2)`$.

We now define the operator $`K`$ by

$$K:=q^{J_3}$$

and the projection operators $`\mathrm{\Pi }_s`$ ($`s=1,2,\mathrm{},k1`$) as functions of $`K`$ as in Section 2. The two supercharges $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ are defined here by

$$Q_{}:=J_{}(1\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1}),Q_+:=J_+(1\mathrm{\Pi }_0)$$

and the Hamiltonian $`H`$ is defined from the multilinear form involving $`Q_{}`$ and $`Q_+`$ given in Section 2. As a final result, we obtain for $`H`$ the expression

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`J_{}J_+\mathrm{\Pi }_1+J_+J_{}(1\mathrm{\Pi }_{k1})`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=2}{\overset{k1}{}}}\left[J_+J_{}+(G(J_3m+1)+G(J_3m+2)+\mathrm{}+G(J_31))\right]`$
$`\times `$ $`(\mathrm{\Pi }_0+\mathrm{\Pi }_1+\mathrm{}+\mathrm{\Pi }_{km1})`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{m=2}{\overset{k1}{}}}[mJ_{}J_+((m1)G(J_3+1)+(m2)G(J_3+2)+\mathrm{}`$
$`+`$ $`G(J_3+m1))]\mathrm{\Pi }_m`$
where $`G`$ is defined by

$$G(X):=\frac{q^{2X}q^{2X}}{qq^1}$$

The Hamiltonian $`H`$ is thus given by a formula involving $`J_3`$ (through the function $`G`$) and the product $`J_+J_{}`$ (or alternatively the operators $`J_3`$ and $`C`$).

## 5 Concluding remarks

We have derived three different Hamiltonians for a supersymmetric oscillator. At this point, it is worthwhile to introduce some links between the three derivations.

In the three derivations, the $`Z_k`$-grading is introduced via the same relation, i.e., $`K^k=1`$, although the introduction of $`K`$ is specific to each approach. The operator $`K`$ is: (i) a bilinear form of $`k`$-fermion operators in the quon approach (Section 2) originally developed in Ref. 22, (ii) a formal operator in the generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach (Section 3), and (iii) a generator of the quantum algebra $`U_q(sl_2)`$ in the $`U_q(sl_2)`$ approach (Section 4). The $`Z_k`$-grading manifests itself in Section 2 through the introduction of bosonic degrees of freedom and $`k`$-fermionic degrees of freedom but this is not the case in Sections 3 and 4.

The connection between the approaches in Sections 2 and 3 is easy to describe: To pass from the generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach to the quon approach, it is sufficient to take $`f_s=1`$ for $`s=1,2,\mathrm{},k1`$. It is also to be noted that the generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach covers some published works: (i) for $`k=2`$, our generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach may be specialized to the cases where

$$\underset{s=0}{\overset{1}{}}f_s(N)\mathrm{\Pi }_s=1$$

and

$$\underset{s=0}{\overset{1}{}}f_s(N)\mathrm{\Pi }_s=1+cK,c𝐂$$

treated by Plyushchay 15 and (ii) for $`k𝐍\{0,1\}`$, by taking

$$\underset{s=0}{\overset{k1}{}}f_s(N)\mathrm{\Pi }_s=\underset{s=0}{\overset{k1}{}}c_sK^s,c_s𝐂$$

our generalized Weyl-Heisenberg approach may be found to be equivalent to the one developed by Quesne and Vansteenquite. 19

Finally, note that the connection between the approach in Section 4 and the ones in Sections 2 and 3 still deserves to be explored. This will be the object of a forthcoming paper.

To close this paper, let us mention three domains where (fractional) supersymmetry play or might play an important rôle. First, in condensed matter physics, the interest of fractional supersymmetry rests on its application to the fractional quantum Hall effect and supraconductivity at critical temperature. Second, in nuclear physics, it seems that (ordinary) supersymmetry has been observed in nuclear spectroscopy: Supersymmetry could relate the structure of odd-odd nuclei to even-even and odd-$`A`$ systems. 34 Third, in elementary particle physics, (ordinary) supersymmetry imposes some limits on the masss of the Higgs boson : The mass should be below 130 GeV/$`c^2`$ so that the “events” observed at LEP200 (CERN) in August 2000 around 115 GeV/$`c^2`$ are compatible with the hypotheses of supersymmetry in high energy physics. As a conclusion, supersymmetry is still a chapter of physics under construction.

## Acknowledgments

The senior author (M.R. K.) is grateful to the Organizing Committee of the 6th International School of Theoretical Physics SSPCM’2000, and more specifically Prof. T. Lulek, for inviting him to deliver this lecture. He is also indebted to Profs. M. Bożejko, J.D. Louck and A. Vourdas for interesting comments.

## References