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# Ab initio evaluation of the charge-ordering in 𝛼'𝑁𝑎𝑉₂𝑂₅

\[

## Abstract

We report ab initio calculations of the charge ordering in $`\alpha ^{}NaV_2O_5`$ using large configurations interaction methods on embedded fragments. Our major result is that the $`2p_y`$ electrons of the bridging oxygen of the rungs present a very strong magnetic character and should thus be explicitly considered in any relevant effective model. The most striking consequence of this result is that the spin and charge ordering differ substantially, as differ the experimental results depending on whether they are sensitive to the spin or charge density.

\]

The problem of charge ordering in the $`\alpha ^{}NaV_2O_5`$ compound has been widely discussed since Isobe et al  discovered in 1996 that this compound presents a spin-Peierls transition at $`34K`$. From the first X-ray structural determination by Carpy and Galy  a charge ordering was assumed in the compound. Indeed, the $`P2_1mn`$ non-centrosymmetric group yielding two inequivalent vanadium atoms, it supported the hypothesis of an electronic structure formed by an alternation of magnetic $`V^{4+}`$ chains and non-magnetic $`V^{5+}`$ chains. When a spin-Peierls transition was found its interpretation through the dimerization of the magnetic chains seemed quite obvious. In 1998, the reinvestigation of the high temperature (HT) crystal structure  yielded a $`Pmmn`$ centrosymmetric group for which the equivalence of all vanadium atoms lifted any grounding to the charge ordering. The controversy was raised again by Damascelli et al. in 1998 . The strong on-rung doublet-doublet absorption band, observed in the optical conductivity spectrum around $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=1eV`$, was attributed by the authors to a charge transfer excitation of the magnetic electron between the two vanadium atoms. This picture assumes a strong charge order on the rung (of about $`0.8`$ electron), however both the crystallographic data and the $`{}_{}{}^{51}V`$ NMR studies  exhibit only one type of vanadium atom.

It is now widely accepted that the $`\alpha ^{}NaV_2O_5`$ spin-Peierls transition is in fact a double transition , consisting in a magneto-distortion of the lattice following a charge ordering of the unpaired electrons. X-ray  and electron diffraction  experiments leaded to propose for the low temperature (LT) phase a $`Fmm2`$ symmetry group associated with a doubling of the unit cell in the $`a`$ and $`b`$ directions while it is quadrupled in the $`c`$ direction. This low temperature symmetry yields two inequivalent, but very similar, $`V_2O_5`$ layers, each of them containing three inequivalent vanadium atoms. $`{}_{}{}^{51}V`$ NMR experiments  see however only two inequivalent sets of vanadium atoms. In order to explain these experimental results, a large number of hypotheses have been proposed for the electronic structure of the low temperature phase. Among these hypotheses the partisans of a total charge ordering ($`V^{5+}`$ and $`V^{4+}`$ sites) are the most numerous. They suppose either the same alternation of magnetic $`V^{4+}`$ and diamagnetic $`V^{5+}`$ chains that was first suggested for the high temperature phase, or a zig-zag charge ordering along the ladders . More in agreement with the X-ray structural symmetries, but not with the NMR results, is the hypothesis of two alternated ladders, one supporting two equivalent $`V^{4.5+}`$ atoms and the other a zig-zag $`V^{5+}`$$`V^{4+}`$ charge ordering. Fewer authors suggest that the charge ordering is only partial  and that one should consider the previous charge localizations hypotheses with a $`V^{4.5\pm \delta },\delta 0.5`$ charge ordering.

The aim of the present ab-initio quantum chemical calculations is to investigate the local electronic structure of the compound in order to better understand — and solve some of the controversies of — the charge ordering both in high and low temperature phases.

For this purpose we used a method of ab-initio spectroscopy of embedded crystal fragments, using large atomic basis sets  and large differential configurations interactions methods dedicated to the accurate evaluation of both transitions energies and states wave-functions  (for a detailed description of the method applied to this system see our paper on the evaluation of $`tJ`$ and two-band Hubbard models for the high temperature phase ). This method has been successfully used both in molecular magnetic systems  and in strongly correlated materials  in order to determine super-exchange or hopping integrals with an exceptional accuracy. The bath is designed in order to model the major effects (Madelung and Pauli exclusion) of the rest of the crystal on the fragment, that is in such a way that the crystal density of states projected on the atomic orbitals (the most crucial being the magnetic and bridging orbitals) is accurately reproduced in the embedded fragment. This goal is reached through a combination of punctual charges and total-ions pseudo-potentials (TIP) (see ref.  for more details and validity checks on the high temperature $`\alpha ^{}NaV_2O_5`$ phase).

We have computed all (fundamental-)doublet to (first excited-)doublet excitation energies and associated wave-functions, on all non-equivalent pairs of nearest neighbors vanadium atoms, in the high and low temperature phases. The crystal fragments are composed of two adjacent $`VO_5`$ pyramids (corner sharing for the rungs and along the ladders, edge-sharing between the ladders). The positions of the atoms as well as the bath charges and TIP are taken from the X-ray crystallographic data \[Pmmm, 7\].

The most important results of our calculations, both in the high and low temperature phases is that

* the magnetic sites are not the vanadium atoms by themselves but the whole $`VOV`$ rungs (as first suggested by Horsch ),
* these magnetic sites do not support one delocalized or partly delocalized magnetic $`3d`$ electron but that the $`2p`$ electrons of the bridging oxygen atoms — supported by the $`2p_y`$ orbital pointing along the $`b`$ axis — present also a strong magnetic character.

Indeed the computed wave-functions (reported below for the HT and LT fundamental doublets) for the fundamental, as well as first excited, doublet states exhibit a strong contribution on the configurations where the $`2p_y`$ orbital of the bridging oxygen is half-filled. In fact the magnetic problem on the rungs should not be considered as one magnetic electron delocalized between the $`3d_{xy}`$ of the two vanadium atoms but rather as a resonance between this configuration ($`\alpha |d_ip\overline{p}+\beta |p\overline{p}d_j`$ where $`d_i`$ and $`d_j`$ respectively stand for the magnetic $`3d_{xy}`$ orbitals of the two vanadium atoms and $`p`$ for the $`2p_y`$ orbital of the bridging oxygen atom) and the configuration with three magnetic electrons respectively localized on the magnetic $`3d_{xy}`$ orbitals of two vanadiums and the $`2p_y`$ orbital of the bridging oxygen ($`\left(\gamma +\delta \right)|d_i\overline{p}d_j+\gamma |\overline{d_i}pd_j+\delta |d_ip\overline{d_j}`$).

The wave function of the HT fundamental doublet of the rungs is

$`+0.63\left(|d_ip\overline{p}+|p\overline{p}d_j\right)/\sqrt{2}`$
$`+0.68\left(2|d_i\overline{p}d_j+|\overline{d_i}pd_j+|d_ip\overline{d_j}\right)/\sqrt{6}`$
$`+0.13\left(|d_i\overline{d_i}d_j+|d_id_j\overline{d_j}\right)/\sqrt{2}`$
$`+0.12\left(|d_i\overline{d_i}p|pd_j\overline{d_j}\right)/\sqrt{2}`$
$`+\mathrm{small}\mathrm{terms}\mathrm{}`$
The LT phase is known  for presenting an alternation (along the $`\stackrel{}{a}`$ direction) between modulated and non-modulated ladders as well as two slightly different $`(a,b)`$ planes. While one out of two ladders remains of similar geometry as in the high temperature phase, the other ladder takes a small zig-zag form along the $`\stackrel{}{b}`$ direction. The results on the non-modulated rungs are very similar as in the HT phase and will not be further detailed. The wave functions of the LT fundamental doublets on the modulated rungs are

$`+0.25(0.23)|d_ip\overline{p}+0.59(0.60)|p\overline{p}d_j`$
$`+0.53(0.52)|d_i\overline{p}d_j0.40(0.41)|\overline{d_i}pd_j0.13(0.11)|d_ip\overline{d_j}`$
$`+0.11(0.11)|d_i\overline{d_i}d_j+0.06(0.06)|d_id_j\overline{d_j}`$
$`0.06(0.05)|d_i\overline{d_i}p+0.09(0.09)|pd_j\overline{d_j}`$
$`+\mathrm{small}\mathrm{terms}\mathrm{}`$
where the number in parentheses correspond to the alternate (a,b) plane.

The first consequence of the strong magnetic character of the bridging oxygen atom is that it should be explicitly considered while modeling the compound. One of the most striking implication is that while in the single magnetic electron picture the charge and spin sites populations are equal when $`3`$ magnetic electrons are considered the charge and spin sites populations can strongly differ. Table I displays the charge and spin population of the magnetic orbitals.

One should notice that while the $`3d`$ charge population ordering on the modulated rungs is only $`2\delta _{ch}=0.33`$, the participation of the oxygen to magnetic properties results in a spin population ordering nearly twice as large with $`2\delta _{sp}=0.66`$. On the non-modulated rungs however, as expected from the crystallographic data, there is not any charge ordering and the overall results are very similar to the high temperature phase. One should however notice that the charge and spin populations remain substantially different, with a strong increase of the $`3d`$ population (compared to the $`0.5`$ value expected in the one magnetic electron picture) and a smaller increase of the spin polarization of the $`3d`$ orbitals by inverse polarization on the central oxygen $`2p`$ orbital.

Another result worth to be pointed at is the substantial differences we found between the magnetic orbitals charge populations and the total atomic populations. It is well known that such total population calculations are partly dependent to the choice in the atomic basis set, and in particular to the spatial extension of the latter. It is however widely accepted in quantum chemistry that the population variations are significant and reliable evaluations of charge transfer processes. Table II therefore presents the computed atomic populations variations through the transition.

One notices immediately that while the atomic total spin population results are totally coherent with the magnetic orbital spin populations reported in table I, the atomic total charge populations are substantially different from the magnetic orbital charge populations. Indeed while the total charge disproportion between the two vanadium atoms of the modulated rungs is extremely small ($`2\delta _{chtot}=0.045`$), the disproportion between the two $`3d`$ magnetic orbital populations is $`2\delta _{ch}=0.33`$. A finer analysis of the electrons repartition in term of atomic orbitals shows that there are substantial electron population transfers between the vanadium magnetic $`3d_{xy}`$ orbitals and the other $`3d`$ vanadium orbitals.

Indeed, while the $`V_j`$ atom sees its total number of electron decrease, the occupation of its $`3d_{xy}`$ atomic magnetic orbital increases by $`0.143`$ electron due to a population transfer from the $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$, $`3d_{z^2}`$ and $`3d_{xz}`$ orbitals. On the $`V_i`$ atom the population transfer goes in reverse order and the atomic magnetic orbital looses $`0.166`$ electron in favor of the $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$, $`3d_{z^2}`$ and $`3d_{xz}`$ orbitals (see table IVIV).

This electron transfer can be understood if one considers that the $`2p_x`$ doubly-occupied orbital of the bridging $`O`$ atoms strongly overlaps with the $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$, $`3d_{z^2}`$ and $`3d_{xz}`$ orbitals of the vanadiums. $`V_i`$ being closer to the oxygen than $`V_j`$ by $`0.13\AA `$, the larger overlap between the oxygen $`2p_x`$ and the vanadium $`3d_{x^2y^2}`$, $`3d_{z^2}`$ and $`3d_{xz}`$ orbitals increases the occupation of the later orbitals. The opposite phenomenum acts on the $`V_j`$ atom. Such an increase in the $`3d`$ atomic population would result in a proportional increase of the on-site repulsion unless another valence orbital, close to the Fermi level, is simultaneously de-populated. This is precisely the case with the magnetic $`3d_{xy}`$ orbital. The combined result of this $`dd`$ transfers and the magnetic character of the bridging oxygen results in a strong difference between the total charge ($`2\delta _{chtot}=0.05`$) and the spin ($`2\delta _{sptot}=0.69`$) orderings.

The consequence of this analysis, and this is one of the major conclusions of the present work to draw this unexpected result, is that experiments sensitive to the local charge density and experiments sensitive to the local spin density should yield substantially different results.

Summarizing our results on the charge ordering, we have found (in agreement with the crystallographic data) that there is neither charge nor spin ordering in the high temperature phase, that there is neither charge nor spin ordering on the non-modulated rungs in the low temperature phase and that while the total charge ordering is very small on the modulated rungs, the spin ordering is on the contrary quite large.

In the HT phase, our results agree nicely both with the $`{}_{}{}^{51}V`$ NMR studies  (as them we see only one type of vanadium atom) and optical conductivity measurements . Indeed, our computed on-rung doublet-doublet excitation energy is $`1.08eV`$ which compares very well with the $`1eV`$ optical conductivity peak.

In the LT phase Presura et al.  conclude from optical conductivity experiments, that there should not be any major charge redistribution through the phase transition, in full agreement with our results. The apparent contradiction between these results and the inelastic neutron scattering experiments  that predict large charge ordering can also be lifted. Indeed, the latter are sensitive to the spin ordering which we have seen to be very different from the charge ordering, due to the magnetic nature of the bridging oxygen of the rung. Finally, the $`{}_{}{}^{51}V`$ NMR experiments  predict only two different types of vanadium atoms in the LT phase. NMR experiments are sensitive to the electronic spin polarization at the vanadium nuclei, that is essentially the spin polarization of the vanadium $`s`$ orbitals induced by the spin polarization of the magnetic sites. A simple energetic perturbative argument shows that the major contribution to this $`s`$ spin polarization must be supported by the vanadium $`4s`$ orbitals. Indeed, the $`4s`$ orbitals are the only ones close enough to the Fermi level to interact with the magnetic electrons in a non negligible way. We therefore computed the induced spin polarization on the vanadiums $`4s`$ orbitals. On modulated rungs we found a spin $`4s`$ population of $`0.24\times 10^2`$ on $`V_i`$ and $`1.51\times 10^2`$ on $`V_j`$ while on the non-modulated rungs we found $`0.005\times 10^2`$, that is two order of magnitude lower. As a title of comparison the spin vanadium $`4s`$ polarization is in the HT phase $`0.9\times 10^2`$. It seems therefore possible to explain the NMR experiments in the low temperature phase by the fact that the induced spin polarization on the $`s`$ orbital of the non-modulated rungs vanadium atoms is so low that their signal is not observed in the experimental window.

The main message we would like to send as a conclusion is that the $`\alpha ^{}NaV_2O_5`$ compound should not so much be considered as a quarter-filled system with one magnetic electron delocalized on the two vanadiums of each ladder rung, but rather as a resonating system where the $`VOV`$ rungs support three magnetic electrons on three magnetic orbitals, namely the two $`d_xy`$ orbitals of the vanadium atoms and the $`p_y`$ orbital of the bridging oxygen. A major consequence of this result is that, on the LT-modulated rungs, the charge and spin ordering are different. Indeed, while the charge ordering is very small, the spin ordering is quite large. The direct implication is that experiments sensitive to the spin density and experiments sensitive to the charge density should not yield similar ordering amplitudes. We therefore think that a reinterpretation of experimental measurements in view of the present results could solve most of their apparent inconsistencies.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Dr. D. Maynau for giving us graciously his CASDI code, Dr. T. Ziman and Dr. V. Robert for fruitful discussions and Prof. Van der Marel for his remarks.


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# Theorems of Barth-Lefschetz type on Kähler manifolds of non-negative bisectional curvature

## 0. Introduction

The general philosophy of Barth-Lefschetz type theorems is that a subvariety $`Y`$ of “small” codimension in a fixed variety $`X`$ must be subject to stringent topological restrictions. For example, in the case of a complete intersection $`Y`$ in the $`n`$-dimensional complex projective space $`^n`$, the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem gives cohomological restrictions on $`Y`$.

In 1970 W. Barth \[B\] discovered that even when $`Y`$ is not a complete intersection, one can compare the cohomology of $`^n`$ to that of $`Y`$ and prove theorems similar to the Lefschetz theorem. Since Barth’s foundational work, there have been many studies in this direction, for example, those by Sommese \[S\] and Fulton-Lazarsfeld \[F-L\].

In \[S-W\], R. Schoen and J. Wolfson showed that a variant of an argument of Frankel together with Morse theory on a space of paths leads to a proof of homotopic Barth-Lefschetz type theorems for complex submanifolds of compact Kähler manifolds of non-negative holomorphic bisectional curvature. To use the technique of \[S-W\] in manifolds other than $`^n`$ it is necessary to compute a numerical invariant, called the complex positivity, which measures the positivity of the holomorphic bisectional curvature. In this note, we compute the complex positivity of all the compact hermitian symmetric spaces. In fact this number plays an important role in much work centered on hermitian symmetric spaces, for example the metric rigidity theorems of Mok \[M1\]. Combining the computations of complex positivity with the results of \[S-W\] we conclude:

###### Theorem 0.1.

Let $`V`$ be a Kähler manifold. Suppose that $`M,NV`$ are compact complex submanifolds of complex dimensions $`m,n`$, respectively. Let

$$i_{}:\pi _j(N,NM)\pi _j(V,M),$$

be the homomorphism induced by the inclusion.

1. If $`V=U(p+q)/S(U(p)\times U(q))`$, the complex grassmannian, then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+m2pq+p+q1,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+m2pq+p+q.`$
2. If $`V=SO(2+p)/SO(2)\times SO(p)`$, the complex quadric, then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+mp1,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+mp.`$
3. If $`V=Sp(r)/U(r),`$ then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+mr^2,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+mr^2+1.`$
4. If $`V=SO(2r)/U(r),`$ then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+mr^2+3r3,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+mr^2+3r2.`$
5. If $`V=E_6/Spin(10)\times T^1,`$ then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+m21,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+m20.`$
6. If $`V=E_7/E_6\times T^1,`$ then $`i_{}`$ is an isomorphism for $`jn+m37,`$ and is surjective for $`j=n+m36.`$

Case (i) is stated in \[S-W\] and case (ii) is stated incorrectly there, both without proof. We remark that this result also follows from computations of Goldstein \[G\] and Sommese’s approach to Barth-Lefschetz type theorems. On the other hand using the result of \[S-W\] the proof of the theorem is reduced to what are essentially standard computations in hermitian symmetric spaces. Further, the method of proof of the theorem yields better results when some additional information is available about the ambient curvature along either $`M`$ or $`N`$. This should prove especially useful if either $`M`$ or $`N`$ is a hypersurface. This is discussed in more detail in Section 1. Finally the method described in \[S-W\] requires that the ambient manifold be Kähler of non-negative biholomorphic sectional curvature. Up to taking covers, by a uniformation theorem of Mok, every such manifold is a product of flat space and hermitian symmetric spaces. Consequently it was necessary to understand how well the method of \[S-W\] worked in hermitian symmetric spaces. This is accomplished here.

In June 2001 Meeyoung Kim died in a tragic drowning accident. She was 35 years old and had a promising mathematical future ahead of her. Her mathematics was centered around the relation between topology and algebraic geometry. She had wanted the work reported on in this paper to be a beginning, not an end. Her passing leaves all who knew her saddened with a profound sense of loss.

## 1.  The index of a critical point

Let $`V`$ be a complete Kähler manifold of complex dimension $`v`$, with complex structure $`J`$ and Levi-Civita connection $``$. Let $`M`$ and $`N`$ be complex submanifolds of complex dimensions $`m`$ and $`n`$, respectively. We denote, by $`\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,N)=\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the space of piecewise smooth paths $`\gamma :[0,1]V`$ constrained by the requirements that $`\gamma (0)M`$ and $`\gamma (1)N`$. Consider the energy of a path

$$E(\gamma )=_0^1|\dot{\gamma }|^2𝑑t$$

as a function on $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. It is shown in \[S-W\] that $`\gamma `$ is a critical point of $`E`$ if:

1. $`\gamma `$ is a smooth geodesic
2. $`\gamma `$ is normal to $`M`$ and $`N`$ at $`\gamma (0)`$ and $`\gamma (1)`$, respectively.

Let $`W_1,W_2T_\gamma \mathrm{\Omega }`$. If $`\gamma `$ is a critical point of $`E`$ then the second variation of $`E`$ along $`\gamma `$ is:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}E_{}(W_1,W_2)`$ $`=_{W_1}W_2,\dot{\gamma }|_0^1+{\displaystyle _0^1}_{\dot{\gamma }}W_1,_{\dot{\gamma }}W_2𝑑t`$
(1.1) $`{\displaystyle _0^1}R(\dot{\gamma },W_1)\dot{\gamma },W_2𝑑t.`$
where $`R`$ denotes the curvature tensor of $`V`$.

Suppose that $`\gamma `$ is a nontrivial critical point and that $`W(0)`$ is a vector in $`T_{\gamma (0)}M`$. Parallel translate $`W(0)`$ along $`\gamma `$ to construct a vector field $`W=W(t)`$ along $`\gamma `$. Of course, $`W(1)`$ need not be tangent to $`N`$ at $`\gamma (1)`$ so $`W`$ is not necessarily an element of $`T_\gamma \mathrm{\Omega }`$. However formally we have:

(1.2)
$$\frac{1}{2}E_{}(W,W)=_WW,\dot{\gamma }|_0^1_0^1R(\dot{\gamma },W)\dot{\gamma },W𝑑t.$$

$`V`$ is Kähler so $`JW`$ is also parallel along $`\gamma `$. $`M`$ is complex so $`JW(0)T_{\gamma (0)}M`$. Thus we also have:

(1.3)
$$\frac{1}{2}E_{}(JW,JW)=_{JW}JW,\dot{\gamma }|_0^1_0^1R(\dot{\gamma },JW)\dot{\gamma },JW𝑑t.$$

Adding (1.2) and (1.3) and using $`_{JW}JW=_WW`$ we have:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}E_{}(W,W)`$ $`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}E_{}(JW,JW)=`$
(1.4) $`{\displaystyle _0^1}(R(\dot{\gamma },W)\dot{\gamma },W+R(\dot{\gamma },JW)\dot{\gamma },JW)𝑑t.`$
Using the symmetries of the curvature tensor we have:

(1.5)
$$R(\dot{\gamma },W)\dot{\gamma },W+R(\dot{\gamma },JW)\dot{\gamma },JW=R(\dot{\gamma },J\dot{\gamma })W,JW.$$

This expression is the holomorphic bisectional curvature of the complex lines $`\dot{\gamma }J\dot{\gamma }`$ and $`WJW`$.

Let $`\{W_1(0),\mathrm{},W_m(0),JW_1(0),\mathrm{},JW_m(0)\}`$ be an orthonormal framing of $`T_{\gamma (0)}M`$. For each $`i=1,\mathrm{},m`$, parallel translate $`W_i(0)`$ along $`\gamma `$ to construct parallel vector fields $`\{W_1,\mathrm{},W_m,JW_1,\mathrm{},JW_m\}`$ along $`\gamma `$. Note that the vectors $`W_i(1),JW_i(1)`$ are perpendicular to both $`\dot{\gamma }(1)`$ and $`J\dot{\gamma }(1)`$. Thus the vector space

$$S=\text{span}\{W_1(1),\mathrm{},W_m(1),JW_1(1),\mathrm{},JW_m(1)\}$$

is a complex $`m`$-dimensional space lying in a complex $`(v1)`$-dimensional subspace of $`T_{\gamma (1)}V`$. It follows that the subspace $`ST_{\gamma (1)}N`$ has complex dimension at least equal to

$$m+n(v1).$$

Moreover, the vector fields $`\{W,JW\}`$ with $`W(1),JW(1)ST_{\gamma (1)}N`$ are parallel and lie in $`T_\gamma \mathrm{\Omega }`$.

###### Theorem 1.1.

Suppose that $`V`$ is a Kähler manifold of positive holomorphic bisectional curvature, that $`M`$ and $`N`$ are complex submanifolds and that $`\gamma `$ is a nontrivial critical point of the energy on $`\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,N)`$. Then,

$$\text{index}(\gamma )m+n(v1).$$

###### Proof.

There are at least $`m+n(v1)`$ pairs $`\{W,JW\}`$ that are parallel along $`\gamma `$ and lie in $`T_\gamma \mathrm{\Omega }`$. For each such pair, using the curvature assumption (1.4) and (1.5) we have:

$`E_{}(W,W)+E_{}(JW,JW)=`$
$`2{\displaystyle _0^1}R(\dot{\gamma },J\dot{\gamma })W,JW𝑑t<0.`$
The result follows. ∎

Let $`V`$ be a Kähler manifold. Fix $`xV`$ and let $`XJX`$ be a complex line in $`T_xV`$. Let $`𝒞(x,XJX)`$ be the cone:

$$𝒞(x,XJX)=\{YT_xV:R(X,JX)Y,JY>0\}.$$

Note that $`𝒞`$ is a complex cone; if $`Y𝒞`$ then $`JY𝒞`$.

###### Definition 1.1.

Denote the set of complex subspaces of $`𝒞(x,XJX)`$ by $`=(x,XJX)`$ and define

$$\mathrm{}(x,XJX)=\underset{L}{\mathrm{max}}\text{dim}_{}(L).$$

Then define,

1. $`\mathrm{}(x)=\underset{XJX}{inf}\mathrm{}(x,XJX)`$
2. $`\mathrm{}=\underset{xV}{inf}\mathrm{}(x).`$

We say that $`\mathrm{}`$ is the complex positivity of $`V`$.

If $`V`$ is a hermitian symmetric space then clearly $`𝒞(x,XJX)`$ and hence $`\mathrm{}(x,XJX)`$ are independent of $`xV`$.

Remark: If $`V`$ is a compact hermitian symmetric space and $`e`$ is the identity define the symmetric bilinear form $`H_X(W,Z)=R(X,JX)W,JZ`$, where $`X,W,ZT_eV`$. Then for any $`X0`$, $`H_X`$ is positive semi-definite. Denote the null-space by $`𝒩_X`$. Then it follows easily that $`\mathrm{}(XJX)`$ is the complementary dimension of $`𝒩_X`$. For the four classical families of hermitian symmetric spaces it is easy to compute $`\text{dim}_{}𝒩_X`$ directly (see \[M2\]). For example, if $`V=\text{Gr}(p,p+q;),`$ the complex Grassmann manifold and $`XT_eV`$ then $`X0`$ is a matrix with $`1\text{rank}(X)\mathrm{min}(p,q)`$. Then,

$$\text{dim}_{}𝒩_X=(p\text{rank}(X))(q\text{rank}(X)).$$

Therefore, $`\text{dim}_{}𝒩_X`$ is maximal and $`\mathrm{}(XJX)`$ is minimal when $`\text{rank}(X)=1`$.

###### Theorem 1.2.

Suppose that $`V`$ is a complete Kähler manifold of non-negative holomorphic bisectional curvature. Let $`M`$ and $`N`$ be complex submanifolds of complex dimensions $`m`$ and $`n`$, respectively, and $`\gamma `$ be a nontrivial critical point of energy on $`\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,N)`$. Then

$$\text{index}(\gamma )m+n(v1)(v\mathrm{}).$$

###### Proof.

The argument in the proof of Theorem 1.1 shows that if $`W,JWST_{\gamma (1)}N`$ then

$$E_{}(W,W)+E_{}(JW,JW)=2_0^1R(\dot{\gamma },J\dot{\gamma })W,JW0.$$

To get strict inequality we want

$$R(\dot{\gamma },J(\dot{\gamma }))W,JW>0$$

at $`\gamma (0)`$. This is insured by requiring that:

$$W(0),JW(0)LT_{\gamma (0)}M$$

where $`L(\gamma (0),\dot{\gamma }J(\dot{\gamma }))`$. Let $`L(\gamma (0),\dot{\gamma }J(\dot{\gamma }))`$ be of maximal dimension. Then the complex dimension of $`LT_{\gamma (0)}M`$ is at least $`\text{dim}_{}L+m(v1)`$. Parallel transport $`LT_{\gamma (0)}M`$ along $`\gamma `$ to $`\gamma (1)`$ and denote the resulting subspace by $`T`$. Then $`TT_{\gamma (1)}N`$ has complex dimension at least $`n+\text{dim}_{}L+m(v1)(v1)`$. The result follows. ∎

###### Corollary 1.3.

Under the same hypotheses as the theorem assume that

$$\mathrm{}(x,XJX)\mathrm{}_0,$$

for every $`xM`$ and every complex line $`XJX`$ normal to $`T_xM`$ then

$$\text{index}(\gamma )m+n(v1)(v\mathrm{}_0).$$

## 2. Applications

Let $`V`$ be a complete Kähler manifold of non-negative holomorphic bisectional curvature, of complex dimension $`v`$ and with complex positivity $`\mathrm{}`$. Let $`M,NV`$ be complex submanifolds of complex dimensions $`m,n`$, respectively and suppose that $`M`$ is compact and $`N`$ is a closed subset of $`V`$. The Morse theory of the energy functional on the path space $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is described in \[S-W\]. Combining this Morse theory with Theorem 1.2 it follows that:

###### Theorem 2.1.

Suppose that,

$$\lambda _0=n+mv(v\mathrm{})0.$$

Then relative homotopy groups $`\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega },NM)`$ are zero for $`0j\lambda _0.`$

Theorem 2.1 and the long exact homotopy sequence of the pair $`(\mathrm{\Omega },NM)`$ imply that the homomorphism induced by the inclusion:

(2.1)
$$ı_{}:\pi _j(NM)\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega })$$

is an isomorphism when $`j<n+mv(v\mathrm{})`$ and is a surjection when $`j=n+mv(v\mathrm{}).`$

Consider the fibration:

(2.2)
$$\begin{array}{cccc}\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,x)& \mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,N)& & \\ & & & \\ & e& & \\ & & & \\ & N& & \end{array}$$

where $`e`$ is the evaluation map $`e:\gamma \gamma (1)`$ and $`xN`$. It is well-known that the homotopy groups of the fiber $`\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,x)`$ satisfy:

(2.3)
$$\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,x))\pi _{j+1}(V,M),$$

for all $`j`$. The long exact homotopy sequence of the fibration is:

$`\mathrm{}\pi _{j+1}(N)`$ $`\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,x))\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega })`$
(2.4) $`\stackrel{e_{}}{}\pi _j(N)\pi _{j1}(\mathrm{\Omega }(V;M,x))\mathrm{}`$
Thus, using (2.3), the long exact sequence (2.4) becomes:

(2.5)
$$\mathrm{}\pi _{j+1}(N)\pi _{j+1}(V,M)\pi _j(\mathrm{\Omega })\pi _j(N)\pi _j(V,M)\mathrm{}$$

We have:

###### Theorem 2.2.

Let $`V`$ be a complete Kähler manifold of non-negative holomorphic bisectional curvature, of complex dimension $`v`$ and with complex positivity $`\mathrm{}`$. Let $`M,NV`$ be complex submanifolds of complex dimensions $`m,n`$, respectively, such that $`M`$ is compact and $`N`$ is a closed subset of $`V`$. Then the homomorphism induced by the inclusion

$$ı_{}:\pi _j(N,NM)\pi _j(V,M)$$

is an isomorphism for $`jn+mv(v\mathrm{})`$ and is a surjection for $`j=n+mv(v\mathrm{})+1`$ .

###### Proof.

For $`\lambda _0=n+mv(v\mathrm{})`$ consider the diagram:

$$\begin{array}{ccccc}\pi _{\lambda _0+1}(N)& \pi _{\lambda _0+1}(V,M)& \pi _{\lambda _0}(\mathrm{\Omega })& \pi _{\lambda _0}(N)& \pi _{\lambda _0}(V,M)\\ & & & & \\ & & \text{onto}& & \\ & & & & \\ \pi _{\lambda _0+1}(N)& \pi _{\lambda _0+1}(N,NM)& \pi _{\lambda _0}(NM)& \pi _{\lambda _0}(N)& \pi _{\lambda _0}(N,NM)\end{array}$$

The vertical arrows are induced by inclusion. The top row is the long exact sequence (2.5). The bottom row is the long exact sequence of the pair $`(N,NM)`$. The result follows using Theorem 2.1 and the commutativity of the diagram. ∎

###### Corollary 2.3.

Under the same hypotheses as in Theorem 2.2, if

$$j2mv(v\mathrm{})+1$$

then

$$\pi _j(V,M)=0.$$

###### Proof.

Apply Theorem 2.2 to the case $`N=M`$. ∎

###### Corollary 2.4.

Under the same hypothesis as in Theorem 2.2, if

$$j\mathrm{min}(2mv(v\mathrm{})+1,n+mv(v\mathrm{}))$$

then

$$\pi _j(N,NM)=0.$$

###### Proof.

Follows from Corollary 2.3 and Theorem 2.2. ∎

Remark: Under the same hypotheses as Theorem 2.2 assume, in addition, that

$$\mathrm{}(x,XJX)\mathrm{}_0,$$

for every $`xM`$ and every complex line $`XJX`$ normal to $`T_xM`$. Then by Corollary 1.3 the ranges of validity of the results of this section are improved by replacing $`\mathrm{}`$ by $`\mathrm{}_0`$. For example suppose $`V=\text{Gr}(p,p+q;)`$ and $`M`$ is a complex hypersurface. If every normal $`(1,0)`$-vector $`X`$ along $`M`$ has rank$`(X)r>1`$ then for any complex submanifold $`N`$ the index range in Theorem 2.2 is increased by $`r1`$.

## 3. The Compact Hermitian Symmetric Spaces

We exploit the curvature computation in \[Bo\], to compute the complex positivity of the hermitian symmetric spaces. Recall the notation of \[Bo\]. Let $`G`$ be a compact connected simple Lie group and $`K`$ be the identity component of the fixed point set of an involutive automorphism of $`G`$. We assume that $`K`$ has infinite center. Let $`𝔤`$ and $`𝔨`$ be the Lie algebras of $`G`$ and $`K`$ and $`𝔭`$ be the orthogonal complement of $`𝔨`$ in $`𝔤`$ with respect to the Killing form. Let $`𝔱`$ be a Cartan subalgebra of $`𝔨`$. Denote the complexifications of these Lie algebras by $`𝔤_{},𝔨_{}`$ and $`𝔱_{}`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ be the system of roots of $`𝔤`$ with respect to $`𝔱`$. Let $`𝔟_\alpha `$ be the one-dimensional eigenspace of $`𝔱_{}`$ in $`𝔤_{}`$ corresponding to $`\alpha \mathrm{\Sigma }`$. We have,

(3.3) $`[𝔟_\alpha ,𝔟_\beta ]`$ $`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{cc}𝔟_{\alpha +\beta },\hfill & \text{ if }\alpha +\beta \text{ is a root}(\alpha +\beta 0),\hfill \\ 0,\hfill & \text{ if }\alpha +\beta \text{ is not a root }(\alpha +\beta 0),\hfill \end{array}`$
$`h_\alpha `$ $``$ $`[𝔟_\alpha ,𝔟_\alpha ].`$
There are elements $`e_\alpha 𝔟_\alpha `$ such that

$$[h,e_\alpha ]=2\pi i\alpha (h)e_\alpha ,[e_\alpha ,e_\alpha ]=(2\pi i)^1h_\alpha ,(h𝔱).$$

$`𝔤`$ is spanned by $`𝔱`$ and $`e_\alpha +e_\alpha ,i(e_\alpha e_\alpha ),`$ for $`\alpha \mathrm{\Sigma }`$. Define $`N_{\alpha ,\beta }`$ by:

$$[e_\alpha ,e_\beta ]=N_{\alpha ,\beta }e_{\alpha +\beta },\alpha ,\beta \mathrm{\Sigma },\alpha +\beta 0.$$

Then (\[Bo\]),

(3.4) $`N_{\alpha ,\beta }=N_{\alpha ,\beta }.`$
The set of positive complementary roots of $`G/K`$, i.e. the set of positive roots of $`𝔤`$ which are not the roots of $`𝔨`$, will be denoted by $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$. We put

$$𝔫^+=\underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }}{}𝔟_\alpha ,𝔫^{}=\underset{\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }}{}𝔟_\alpha .$$

We identify $`𝔭`$ with the tangent space of $`G/K`$ at $`K`$ (or at the identity $`e`$). Then $`T_{}G/K`$ is identified with $`𝔫^+𝔫^{}`$. Complex conjugation of $`𝔭`$ becomes $`e_\alpha e_\alpha `$ and the assignment $`e_\alpha e_\alpha +e_\alpha `$ defines an isomorphism of complex vector spaces between $`𝔫^+`$ and $`𝔭`$. Here we endow $`𝔭`$ with the complex structure induced from that of $`G/K`$.

For $`\alpha \mathrm{\Sigma }`$, let $`\omega _\alpha `$ be the Maurer-Cartan form on $`G_{}`$ (the complex Lie group with Lie algebra $`𝔤_{}`$) defined by,

$$\omega _\alpha (e_\alpha )=1,\omega _\alpha (e_\beta )=0,\alpha \beta ,\omega _\alpha (t)=0,t𝔱_{}.$$

This induces a Kähler metric on $`G/K`$ with orthonormal basis $`\{e_\alpha :\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }\}`$.

Note that $`e_\alpha `$ and $`e_\alpha `$ are $`(1,0)`$ and $`(0,1)`$ vectors, respectively. The curvature tensor with respect to the basis $`\{e_\alpha :\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }\}`$ is

$$R(e_\gamma ,e_\delta )e_\alpha =\mathrm{ad}[e_\delta ,e_\gamma ](e_\alpha )=[[e_\delta ,e_\gamma ],e_\alpha ]=\underset{\beta }{}R_{\alpha \overline{\gamma }\delta }^\beta e_\beta .$$

Writing,

$$e_\alpha =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(X_\alpha iJX_\alpha ),e_\alpha =\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(X_\alpha +iJX_\alpha ),$$

the real tangent vectors $`\{X_\alpha :\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }\}`$ to $`G/K`$ at $`K`$ form a basis for $`𝔭`$ and using the Kähler symmetries of curvature,

$$R(X_\alpha ,JX_\beta )X_\gamma ,JX_\delta =R(e_\alpha ,e_\beta )e_\gamma ,e_\delta .$$

For $`\alpha ,\beta \mathrm{\Sigma }`$, we will denote the Killing form $`\kappa (h_\alpha ,h_\beta )=\mathrm{Tr}(\mathrm{ad}h_\alpha \mathrm{ad}h_\beta )`$ by $`(\alpha ,\beta )`$.

###### Lemma 3.1.

(\[Bo\] 1.4) If $`\alpha ,\beta \mathrm{\Psi },`$ then $`\alpha +\beta `$ is not a root and therefore $`(\alpha ,\beta )0.`$

We use the following theorem to compute the holomorphic bisectional curvature:

###### Theorem 3.2.

(\[Bo\] 2.1,2.2)

$$R_{\beta \overline{\delta }\alpha }^\gamma =\{\begin{array}{cc}0,\hfill & \text{ if }\beta +\alpha \gamma +\delta \hfill \\ (\beta ,\delta ),\hfill & \text{ if }\beta =\gamma ,\alpha =\delta \hfill \\ N_{\alpha ,\delta }N_{\beta ,\gamma },\hfill & \text{ if }\beta +\alpha =\gamma +\delta ,\beta \gamma .\text{ }\hfill \end{array}$$

Hence,

###### Lemma 3.3.

$`R({\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}a_\alpha X_\alpha ,J{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}a_\alpha X_\alpha ){\displaystyle \underset{\beta }{}}b_\beta X_\beta ,J{\displaystyle \underset{\beta }{}}b_\beta X_\beta `$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha ,\gamma }{}}a_\alpha ^2b_\gamma ^2(\alpha ,\gamma )+{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \beta ,\gamma \delta ,\alpha +\gamma =\beta +\delta }{}}a_\alpha a_\beta b_\gamma b_\delta N_{\alpha ,\beta }N_{\gamma ,\delta }.`$
###### Proof.

For $`\alpha =\beta `$ and $`\gamma \delta ,`$ by Theorem 3.2,

$$R(X_\alpha ,JX_\alpha )X_\gamma ,JX_\delta =R(e_\alpha ,e_\alpha )e_\gamma ,e_\delta =R_{\gamma \overline{\alpha }\alpha }^\delta =0.$$

Similarly, for $`\alpha \beta `$ and $`\gamma =\delta ,`$

$$R(X_\alpha ,JX_\beta )X_\gamma ,JX_\gamma =0.$$

Therefore,

$`R({\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}a_\alpha X_\alpha ,J{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}a_\alpha X_\alpha ){\displaystyle \underset{\beta }{}}b_\beta X_\beta ,J{\displaystyle \underset{\beta }{}}b_\beta X_\beta `$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha ,\gamma }{}}a_\alpha ^2b_\gamma ^2R(X_\alpha ,JX_\alpha )X_\gamma ,JX_\gamma +{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha \beta ,\gamma \delta }{}}a_\alpha a_\beta b_\gamma b_\delta R(X_\alpha ,JX_\beta )X_\gamma ,JX_\delta .`$
Using the orthonormality of $`\{e_\alpha :\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }\}`$ and Theorem 3.2, we have

$$R(X_\alpha ,JX_\alpha )X_\gamma ,JX_\gamma =R_{\gamma \overline{\alpha }\alpha }^\gamma e_\gamma ,e_\gamma =(\alpha ,\gamma ).$$

For $`\alpha \beta ,\gamma \delta `$, by Theorem 3.2, we have

$$R(X_\alpha ,JX_\beta )X_\gamma ,JX_\delta =R_{\gamma \overline{\beta }\alpha }^\delta =\{\begin{array}{cc}N_{\alpha ,\beta }N_{\gamma ,\delta }\hfill & \text{if }\alpha +\gamma =\beta +\delta \text{}\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \text{otherwise.}\hfill \end{array}$$

The lemma follows. ∎

Suppose that $`e_{\alpha _j},e_{\alpha _j}`$ for $`\alpha _j\mathrm{\Psi },j=1,\mathrm{},k,`$ lie in an abelian subspace of $`𝔭`$. Then

(3.5)
$$N_{\alpha _i,\alpha _j}=0,ij,i,j=1,\mathrm{},k.$$

Let $`X_{\alpha _i}`$ be the vector associated to the root $`\alpha _i`$. From Lemma 3.3 it follows that:

$$R(X_{\alpha _i},JX_{\alpha _j})Y,JY=0,ij,$$

for any vector $`Y`$. This implies:

###### Lemma 3.4.

Suppose that $`X=_i^ka_iX_{\alpha _i}`$, where $`e_{\alpha _i},e_{\alpha _i}`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},k,`$ lie in an abelian subspace of $`𝔭`$. Then for any $`i=1,\mathrm{},k,`$

$$\mathrm{}(X_{\alpha _i}JX_{\alpha _i})\mathrm{}(XJX).$$

###### Proof.

From (3.5) and Lemma 3.3:

$$R(\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}a_iX_{\alpha _i},J\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}a_iX_{\alpha _i})\underset{\beta }{}b_\beta X_\beta ,J\underset{\beta }{}b_\beta X_\beta =\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}\underset{\beta }{}a_i^2b_\beta ^2(\alpha _i,\beta ).$$

Since $`(\gamma ,\delta )0`$ for $`\gamma ,\delta \mathrm{\Psi }`$, the result follows. ∎

Under the action of the linear isotropy group any tangent vector of a hermitian symmetric space can be written as the sum of vectors all of which lie in a maximal abelian subspace $`𝔞𝔭`$. Therefore the infimum

$$\underset{XJX}{inf}\mathrm{}(XJX)$$

is achieved when $`X`$ is spanned by one base element, i.e. $`X=a_\alpha X_\alpha `$. Fix $`\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }`$ and set $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}:=\{\gamma \mathrm{\Psi }:(\alpha ,\gamma )0\}.`$

###### Proposition 3.5.

For fixed $`X_\alpha `$:

1. $`R(X_\alpha ,JX_\alpha )_\beta b_\beta X_\beta ,J_\beta b_\beta X_\beta =_\beta a_\alpha ^2b_\beta ^2(\alpha ,\beta ).`$
2. The span of $`\{X_\gamma ,JX_\gamma :\gamma \mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}\}`$ is a maximal subspace of the cone $`𝒞(X_\alpha JX_\alpha )`$.

###### Proof.

(i) immediately follows from Lemma 3.3. (ii) then follows from (i). ∎

###### Corollary 3.6.

For a compact hermitian symmetric space the complex positivity is equal to

$$\mathrm{}=|\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}|,$$

for any $`\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }`$.

###### Proof.

By Proposition 3.5, it follows that $`\mathrm{}=inf_{\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }}|\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}|`$. However, the elements of $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ are all highest weight vectors and hence they are equivalent under the action of the isotropy group. Therefore $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}|`$ is independent of $`\alpha \mathrm{\Psi }`$. ∎

By Corollary 3.6 the complex positivities of the compact hermitian symmetric spaces are:

$`\text{Gr}(p,p+q;)`$: $`\mathrm{}=p+q1.`$

$`\text{Gr}(2,p+2;)`$: $`\mathrm{}=p1.`$

$`Sp(r)/U(r)`$: $`\mathrm{}=r.`$

$`SO(2r)/U(r)`$: $`\mathrm{}=(r1)+(r2).`$

$`E_6/(Spin(10)\times T^1)`$: $`\mathrm{}=11`$

$`E_7/(E_6\times T^1)`$: $`\mathrm{}=17`$.

Combining this computation with Theorem 2.2 gives Theorem 0.1.


text:
# Observations and theoretical models of gamma-ray bursts

## 1 Introduction

In 1967-73, the four VELA spacecraft (named after the spanish verb velar, to keep watch), that where originally designed for verifying whether the former Soviet Union abided by the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, observed 16 peculiarly strong events (Klebesadel, Strong and Olson 1973, Bonnell and Klebesadel 1996). On the basis of arrival time differences, it was determined that they were related neither to the Earth nor to the Sun, but they were of cosmic origin. Therefore they were named cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs hereafter). Nearly 4000 events have been detected to date.

## 2 Observational facts and implications

### 2.1 GRBs in the gamma-ray domain

GRBs appear as brief flashes of cosmic high energy photons, carrying the bulk of their energy above $``$ 0.1 MeV. The KONUS instrument on Venera 11 and 12 gave the first indication that GRB sources were isotropically distributed in the sky (Mazets et al. 1981, Atteia et al. 1987). Based on a much larger sample, this result was nicely confirmed by BATSE on board the CGRO satellite (Meegan et al. 1992). In general, there was no evidence of periodicity in the time histories of GRBs. However there was indication of a bimodal distribution of burst durations, with $``$25% of bursts having durations around 0.2 s and $``$75% with durations around 30 s. A deficiency of weak events was noticed in the log $`N`$-log $`S`$ diagram, as the GRB distribution deviates from the -3/2 slope of the straight line expected for an homogeneous distribution of sources assuming an Euclidean geometry. However, the GRB distance scale had to remain unknown for 30 years. A comprenhensive review of these observational characteristics can be seen in Fishman and Meegan (1995).

### 2.2 GRBs in the whole electromagnetic spectrum: eight selected bursts

It was well known that an important clue for solving the GRB puzzle was going to be the detection of transient emission -at longer wavelengths- associated with the bursts. A review on the unsuccessful search for counterparts prior to 1997 can be seen in Castro-Tirado (1998) and references therein. Here I will present some results concerning eight selected bursts detected by the BeppoSAX (BSAX) and RossiXTE (RXTE) satellites in 1996-2000 and their impact on the current understanding on the physics of GRBs.

#### 2.2.1 GRB 970228: the first X-ray and optical counterpart

Thanks to BSAX, it was possible on 28 Feb 1997 to detect the first clear evidence of a long X-ray tail -the X-ray afterglow- following GRB 970228. A previously unknown X-ray source was seen to vary by a factor of 20 on a 3 days timescale. The X-ray fluence was $``$ 40 % of the gamma-ray fluence, as reported by Costa et al. (1997), implying that the X-ray afterglow was not only the low-energy tail of the GRB, but also a significant channel of energy dissipation of the event on a completely different timescale. Another important result was the non-thermal origin of the burst radiation and of the X-ray afterglow (Frontera et al. 1998). The precise X-ray position (1) led to the discovery of the first optical transient (or optical afterglow, OA) associated to a GRB, 20 hr after the event with V $``$ 21.3 (Groot et al. 1997, van Paradijs et al. 1997). The OA was afterwards found on earlier images taken by Pedichini et al. (1998) and Guarnieri et al. (1997). The optical flux decayed following a power-law decay F $``$ t-1.2 (Galama et al. 1997, Bartolini et al. 1998). An extended source was seen at the OA position since the very beginning by ground-based and HST observations (van Paradijs et 1997, Sahu et al. 1997). New HST observations taken 6 months after the event were reported by Fruchter et al. (1997) and both the OA (at V = 28) and the extended source (V = 25.6) were seen. The latter object was interpreted as a galaxy, according to the similarities (apparent size, magnitude) with objects in the HST Deep Field. Finally, after two years, the redshift of this object has been determined as z = 0.695 (Djorgovski et al. 1999a), confiming its extragalactic nature and implying a star-forming rate comparable to other galaxies at similar redshifts.

#### 2.2.2 GRB 970508: the clue to the distance

The second OA associated to a GRB was discovered by Bond (1997) within the GRB 970508 error box, and observed 3 hr after the burst in unfiltered images (Pedersen et al. 1998). The optical light curve reached a peak in two days (R = 19.7, Castro-Tirado et al. 1998a, Djorgovski et al. 1997, Galama et al. 1998a) and was followed by a power-law decay F $``$ t-1.2. Optical spectroscopy obtained during the maximum allowed a direct determination of a lower limit for the redshift of GRB 970805 ($`z0.835`$), implying E $``$ 7 $`\times `$ 1051 erg and was the first proof that GRB sources lie at cosmological distances (Metzger et al. 1997). The flattening of the decay in late August 1997 (Pedersen et al. 1998, Sokolov et al. 1998) revealed the contribution of a constant brightness source -the host galaxy- that was revealed in late-time imaging obtained in 1998 (Bloom et al. 1998, Castro-Tirado et al. 1998b, Zharikov et al. 1998). The maximum observed 1-day after the burst has not been detected in other GRBs and it was interpreted by a delayed energy injection or by an axially symmetric jet surrounded by a less energetic outflow (Panaitescu et al. 1998). The luminosity of the galaxy is well below the knee of the galaxy luminosity function, L $``$ 0.12 $`L^{}`$, and the detection of deep Mg I absorption (during the bursting episode) and strong \[O II\] 3727 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ emission (the latter mainly arising in H II regions within the host galaxy) confirmed $`z`$ = 0.835 and suggested that the host could be a normal dwarf galaxy (Pian et al. 1998), with a star formation rate (SFR) of $``$ 1.0 $`M_{}`$ year-1 (Bloom et al. 1998). Prompt VLA observations of the GRB 970508 error box allowed detection of a variable radio source at 1.4, 4.8 and 8.4 GHz, the first radiocounterpart ever found for a GRB (Frail et al. 1997). The fluctuations could be the result of strong scattering by the irregularities in the ionized Galactic interstellar gas, with the damping of the fluctuations with time indicating that the source expanded to a significantly larger size. However VLBI observations did not resolve the object (Taylor et al. 1997). The transient was also detected at 15 GHz (Pooley and Green 1997) and as a continuum point source at 86 GHz with the IRAM PdBI on 19-21 May 1997 (Bremer et al. 1998). A Fe K$`\alpha `$ line redshifted at $`z`$ = 0.835 in the X-ray afterglow spectrum (Piro et al. 1999) was attributed to a thick torus surrouding the central engine (Mészáros and Rees 1998). GRB 970508 is the best observed afterglow so far. The broad band spectrum (see Fig. 1) is nicely explained by the standard relativistic blast wave model (Wijers and Galama 1999).

#### 2.2.3 GRB 970828: the first dark GRB

This burst was detected by RXTE (Remillard et al. 1997) and was followed up by ASCA and ROSAT (Murakami et al. 1997, Greiner et al. 1997). The fact that no optical counterpart down to R = 23.8 was detected between 4 hr and 8 days after the event, could support the idea that the non-detection was due to photoelectric absorption (Groot et al. 1998). The X-ray spectrum as seen by ASCA is strongly absorbed, suggesting that the event occurred in a dense medium. An excess at 6.7 keV was foud by ASCA in the X-ray afterglow spectrum. If this is due to highly ionized Fe, then $`z`$ $``$ 0.33 (Yoshida et al. 1999) and the host would be another dwarf galaxy (Gorosabel 1999). However, if the transient radiosource detected with the VLA is indeed associated to the event, the galaxy would be at z = 0.96 (Djorgovski et al. 2001), although there is some concern (Murakami et al. 2001) regarding the proposed association as the rest frame energy of the line (9.79 keV) will be even larger than the energy of the FeXXVII recombination edge at 9.28 keV (Weth et al. 2000).

And least in another three cases (GRB 981226, GRB 990506 and GRB 001109), radiotransients were detected without accompanying optical/IR transients. For GRB 000210, the CHANDRA position is consistent with a R = 23.5 constant brightness object (Gorosabel et al. 2000).

#### 2.2.4 GRB 980425: a GRB-SN connection ?

A peculiar Type Ic supernova (SN 1998bw) was found in the error box for this soft GRB (Galama et al. 1998b). The SN lies in the galaxy ESO 184-G82, an actively star forming SBc sub-luminous galaxy at $`z`$ = 0.0085. The fact that the SN event occurred within $`\pm `$ 1 day of the GRB event, together with the relativistic expansion speed derived from the radio observation (Kulkarni et al. 1998a) strengths such a relationship. In that case, the total energy released would be 8 $`\times `$ 1047 erg which is about $``$ 105 smaller than for ”classical” GRBs. Follow-up HST observations of ESO 184-G82 2.1 yr after the event, revealed an object consistent with being a point source within the astrometric uncertainty of 0.018 arcseconds of the SN position. The object is located inside a star- forming region and is at least one magnitude brighter than expected for the SN based on a simple radioactive decay model, implying either a significant flattening of the light curve or a contribution from an underlying star cluster (Fynbo et al. 2000a).

Reichart (1999) proposed a type Ib/c supernova lies ”behind” another GRB (GRB 970228), overtaking the light curve two weeks after. This fact seems to be confirmed by the work of Galama et al. (2000). Castro-Tirado and Gorosabel (1999) and Bloom et al. (1999) also suggested the presence of an underlying SN in GRB 980326 and recently in GRB 991208 (Castro-Tirado et al. 2001).

#### 2.2.5 GRB 990123: the existence of a jet

This is the first for which contemporaneous optical emission was found simultaneous to the gamma-ray burst, reaching V $``$ 9 (Akerloff et al. 1999). This optical flash did not track the gamma-rays and did not fit the extrapolation of theSAX and BATSE spectra towards longer wavelengths. This optical emission was interpreted as the signature of a reverse shock moving into the ejecta (Sari and Piran 1999). A brief radiotransient was also detected (Frail et al. 1999a) coincident with the optical counterpart (Odewahn et al. 1999) and spectroscopy indicated a redshift z = 1.599 (Kulkarni et al. 1999, Andersen et al. 1999). A break observed in the light curve $``$ 1.5 days after the high energy event suggested the presence of a beamed outflow (Castro-Tirado et al. 1999, Fruchter et al. 1999, Kulkarni et al. 1999). See Fig. 2. A weak magnetic field in the forward shock region could account for the observed multiwavelength spectrum in contrast to the high-field for GRB 970508 and it seems that the emission from the three regions was first seen in this event (Galama et al. 1999a): the internal, reverse and forward shocks.

#### 2.2.6 GRB 990510: first detection of linear polarization

This burst belongs to the top 10% of all GRBs detected by BATSE. Following the BSAX/WFC detection, an optical counterpart was reported by Vreeswijk et al. (1999a) and $`z`$ = 1.619 was determined. The acromatic break seen in the light curve was also interpreted as a jet, with a model yielding an opening angle of 0.08 and a beaming factor of 300 (Harrison et al. 1999). This is the first burst for which polarized optical emission was detected ($`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ = 1.7 $`\pm `$ 0.2 %), by means of an observation performed $``$18.5 hr after the event (Covino et al. 1999) and later on (Wijers et al. 1999). This confirms the synchrotron origin of the blast wave itself and represents the second case for a jet-like outflow (Stanek et al. 1999). Further polarization measurements were carried out in GRB 990712 during one- day time interval. The polarization angle did not vary significantly but the degree of polarization was not constant. No current model can account for this (Rol et al. 2001).

#### 2.2.7 GRB 991216: a jewel for X-ray spectroscopy

This GRB was detected by BATSE (Kippen et al. 1999) and subsequently scanned by RXTE detecting a bright X-ray afterglow about 1 and 4-hr after the occurence of the event (Takeshima et al. 1999, Corbet and Smith 1999). The optical and radio counterparts were identified by Uglesich et al. (1999) and Taylor et al. (1999) respectively. Three absorption systems at redshifts z = 0.77, 0.80 and 1.02 were found by Vreeswijk et al. (1999c) in the OA spectra. A follow-up X-ray observation by CHANDRA has revealed the presence of a redshifted K-$`\alpha `$ line from H-like Fe (at rest energy of 6.97 keV). See Fig. 3. The line width and intensity imply that the progenitor of the GRB was a massive star system that ejected, shortly before the GRB event, about a $``$ 0.1 $`M_{}`$ of Fe at 0.1$`c`$, probably by a SN explosion (Piro et al. 2000), at distances less than a light-hour (Rees and Mészáros 2000) thus giving support to the “supranova” model discussed in section 4.2 (Vietri et al. 2001).

#### 2.2.8 GRB 000301c: a very peculiar afterglow

It was detected by RXTE, Ulysses and  Near, and following IPN coordinates (Hurley et al. 2000), a very blue optical counterpart was found (Fynbo et al. 2000b, Jensen et al. 2001). The R- and K’-bands show significant differences, especially in the early time decay slope and break time. This is contrary to the expectation of achromatic light curve breaks (Rhoads and Fruchter 2001). Therefore jet collimation is not the responsible mechanism for the sharp break. Refreshed shock effects can account to the high variability observed at optical wavelengths (Masetti et al. 2000, Sagar et al. 2000), but also an ultra- relativistic shock in a dense medium rapidly evolving to a non-relativistic phase (Dai and Lu 2001). An UV spectrum with HST (+ NUV-MAMA) allowed to detect the H I Lyman- break at $`z`$ = 2.03 (Smette et al. 2000, 2001). A gravitational microlens has been also proposed to explain the short-time scale variability (Garnavich, Loeb and Stanek 2000).

Further X-ray afterglows were observed by BSAX and RXTE in 1997-2000, with exponents for the power-law decay in the X-rays and in the optical are in the range $`\alpha `$ = 0.75-2.25 for a dozen of bursts. Energies releases are of the order of 5 $`\times `$ 1051 – 2 $`\times `$ 1054 erg. These results are given on Table 1. See also Greiner (2001) for an updated information.

## 3 GRB host galaxies

About 50% of the GRBs with X-ray counterparts are not detected in the optical, and this could be due to intrinsic faintness because of a low density medium, high absorption in a dusty enviroment, or Lyman limit absorption in high redshift galaxies (z $`>`$ 7). If GRBs are tightly related to star-formation, a substantial fraction of them should occur in highly obscured regions. For instance, most of star formation in the Hubble Deep Field is so enshrouded by dust that starlight from the galaxies detected by SCUBA is attenuated by a factor of $``$102 (Hughes and Dunlop 1999). About 25 host galaxies have been detected so far, in the range 0.430 $``$ z $``$ 4.50 if ESO 184-G82 is excluded. None of the hosts are brigther than the knee of the luminosity function L at their redshift, but the GRB hosts are noticeable bluer than typical galaxies of similar magnitude (Fruchter et al. 1999). Table 2 summarizes the properties of the host galaxies found so far. See also Sokolov et al. (2001).

## 4 Theoretical models

### 4.1 The standard model of GRB afterglows

The observational characteristics of the GRB counterparts can be accommodated in the framework of the relativistic fireball models, first proposed by Goodman (1986) and Paczyński (1986), in which a compact source releases 1053 ergs of energy within dozens of seconds in a region smaller than 10 km. The opaque radiation-electron-positron plasma accelerates to relativistic velocities (the fireball) with Lorentz factors of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ $``$ 102–103. The GRB itself is thought to be be produced by a serie of ”internal shocks”, at large radii probably within the fireball due to collisions amongst layers expelled with different $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ that are being caught up to each other (Rees and Mészáros 1994, Daigne and Mochkovitch 1998).

When the fireball runs into the surrounding medium, a ”forward shock” ploughs into the medium, and sweeps up the interstellar matter, decelerating and producing an afterglow at frequencies gradually declining from X-rays to radio wavelenghts (Mészáros and Rees 1997). A ”reverse shock” impinges on the ejecta. An extensive review is given by Piran (1999). See Fig. 4. Further collisions amongst faster shells and outer layers that have been decelerated are expected in the refreshed shock scenario where the ejecta is reenergized. This can be done either continuosly or in discrete episodes (Sari and Mészáros 2000).

The properties of the blast wave can be derived from the classical synchrotron spectrum (Ginzburg and Syrovatskii 1965) produced by a population of electrons with the addition of self absorption and a cooling break (Sari, Piran and Narayan 1998). The determination for every GRB of the six observables: the synchrotron, break and self-absorption frequencies, the maximum flux and the power-law decay exponent (all from the multiwavelength spectrum) and $`z`$ (from optical or X-ray spectroscopy) allows to obtain the total energy per solid angle, the fraction of the shock energy in electrons and post-grb magnetic fields, and the density of the ambient medium.

### 4.2 What are the progenitors ?

The most popular models fall into two broad cathegories: the explosion of a massive star and the coalescence of a compact binary system.

The “collapsar” model (Bodenhaimer and Woosley 1983, Woosley 1993, 2001) deals with a rotating massive star with a Fe core that collapses forming a Kerr black hole (BH) and a 0.1-1 $`M_{}`$ torus. The matter is accreted at a very high rate and the energy can be extracted in two manners: i)from the accretion of disk material by the BH; ii)from the rotational energy of the BH via the Blandford-Znajek process (Blandford and Znajek 1977), within the framework of a force-free magnetosphere with a strong magnetic field and a magnetically dominated MHD flow (Brown et al. 2000, Spruit, Daigne and Drenkhahn 2001). The energy released in this process is $``$ 1054 erg. A “dirty fireball”, is produced reaching a luminosity $``$ 300 times larger that than of a normal SN. This would happen every $``$ 106 yr. In this scenario, GRBs would be produced in dense enviroments near star forming regions (see also MacFadyen and Woosley 1999) and GRBs might be used for deriving the SFR in the Universe (Krumholz et al. 1998, Totani et al. 1999).

Within this cathegory, the “supranova” model (Vietri and Stella 1998) involves a supra-massive neutron star imploding to a black hole and during the SN explosion the medium surrounding the remnant is swept-up, leading to a baryon-clean environment. A torus of $``$ 0.1 $`M_{}`$ is also expected and energy extraction is via the conversion of the Poynting flux into a magnetized relativistic wind.

The coalescence of neutron stars in a binary system has been also proposed (Narayan et al. 1992): lifetimes of such systems are of the order of $``$ 109 years, and large escape velocities are usual, putting them far away from the regions where their progenitors were born. The likely result is a Kerr BH, and the energy released energy during the merger process is $``$ 1054 erg. It is also possible that a $``$ 0.1 $`M_{}`$ accretion disk forms around the black hole and is accreted within a few dozen seconds, then producing internal shocks leading to the GRB (Katz 1997). In this scenario, GRBs would be produced far away from their host galaxies, and this could account for the $``$ 40$`\%`$ of bursts not located in the optical window.

There are variations of this latter model where one or two components are substituted for black holes (Paczyński 1991), white dwarfs (Fryer and Woosley 1998) or He stars (Zhang and Fryer 2001).

A statitiscal study of the offsets of 20 long-duration GRBs from their apparent host galaxies centers (see Fig. 5) favours the explosion of a massive star rather than the binary merger model (Bloom et al. 2000). It has been suggested that the short duration ($`<`$ 1 s) bursts could be due to compact star mergers, whereas the longer ones are caused by the collapse of massive stars.

## 5 Summary

The existence of X-ray afterglow in most bursts is confirmed. Out ot 27 BSAX pointings, 18 revealed a clear afterglow, leading to the detection of several optical/IR/radio counterparts in 1997-2000. However, only the population of bursts with durations of few seconds has been explored. Short bursts lasting less than 1 s, like GRB 980706, that follow the -3/2 slope in the log $`N`$-log $`S`$ diagram (in contrast to the longer bursts) remain to be detected at longer wavelengths. In any case, it is clear today that GRBs might provide an important clue for the study of the early Universe (Lamb & Reichart 2000).