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# Quantum Monte Carlo Method for Attractive Coulomb Potentials

## I Introduction

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation is a powerful method for computing the ground state and non-zero temperature properties of quantum many-body systems. There are two fundamental problems that limit the application of these methods. The first and most important is the minus-sign problem on which we have nothing to say in this paper, see however. The second problem arises if one would like to simulate systems with attractive singular potentials, the Coulomb interaction being the prime example. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach that solves the latter problem, in a form that fits rather naturally in the standard Path Integral QMC (PIQMC) approach and leaves a lot of room for further systematic improvements.

Let us first recapitulate the basic steps of the procedure to set up a PIQMC simulation. Writing $`K`$ and $`V`$ for the kinetic and potential energy respectively the first step is to approximate the imaginary-time propagator by a product of short-time imaginary-time propagators. The standard approach is to invoke the Trotter-Suzuki formula

$$e^{\beta (K+V)}=\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}\left(e^{\beta K/m}e^{\beta V/m)}\right)^m,$$
(1)
to construct a sequence of systematic approximations $`Z_m`$ to the partition function $`Z`$:

$`Z`$ $`=`$ $`\text{Tr}\mathrm{exp}(\beta H)=\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}Z_m`$ (2)
$`Z_m`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑r_1\mathrm{}𝑑r_m\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}r_n|e^{\beta K/m}|r_{n+1}e^{\beta V(r_{n+1})/m}},`$ (3)
where $`r_{m+1}=r_1`$ and use has been made of the fact that the potential energy is diagonal in the coordinate representation. Taking the limit $`m\mathrm{}`$, (3) yields the Feynman path integral for a system with Hamiltonian $`H=K+V`$. Expression (3) is the starting point for PIQMC simulation.

In the case the attractive Coulomb interaction, it is easy to see why the standard PIQMC approach fails. Let us take the hydrogen atom as an example. The Hamiltonian reads

$$H=\frac{\mathrm{¯}h^2}{2M}^2\frac{q^2}{r},$$
(4)
where $`q`$ denotes the charge of the electron and $`M=m_e/(1+m_e/m_p)`$, $`m_e`$ ($`m_p`$) being the mass of the electron (proton). Replacing the imaginary-time free-particle propagator in (3) by its explicit, exact expression

$$r|e^{\beta K/m}|r^{}=\left(\frac{mM}{2\pi \beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}\right)^{3/2}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{mM|xx^{}|^2}{2\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}\right),$$
(5)
we obtain

$$Z_m=\left(\frac{mM}{2\pi \beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}\right)^{3m/2}𝑑r_1\mathrm{}𝑑r_m\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{mM}{2\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}(r_nr_{n+1})^2\right]\mathrm{exp}\left[+\frac{\beta q^2}{m}\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}\frac{1}{r_n}\right].$$
(6)
PIQMC calculates ratio of integrals such as (6) by using a Monte Carlo procedure to generate the coordinates $`\{r_1,\mathrm{},r_m\}`$. The integrand in (6) serves as the weight for the importance sampling process. As the latter tends to maximize the integrand, it is clear that because of the factors $`\mathrm{exp}\left(+\beta q^2m^1r_n^1\right)`$, the points $`\{r_1,\mathrm{},r_m\}`$ will, after a few steps, end up very close to the origin. In the case of a singular, attractive potential importance sampling based on (6) fails. Using instead of the simplest Trotter-Suzuki formula (1) a more sophisticated one  only makes things worse because these hybrid product formulae contain derivatives of the potential with respect to the coordinates.

The problem encountered in setting up a PIQMC scheme for models with a singular, attractive potential is just a signature of the fundamental difficulties that arise when one tries to define the Feynman path integral for the hydrogen atom. The formal solution to this problem is known. It is rather complicated and not easy to incorporate in a PIQMC simulation.

In spirit the method proposed in this paper is similar to the one used to solve the hydrogen path integral: Use the quantum fluctuations to smear out the singularity of the potential. Mathematically we implement this idea by applying Jensen’s inequality to the propagator. Applications of the Feynman path-integral formalism are often based on a combination of Jensen’s inequality and a variational approach so it is not a surprise that similar tricks may work for PIQMC as well.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we give a simple derivation of an exact lower bound on the imaginary-time propagator. This inequality naturally defines a sequence of systematic approximations $`\widehat{Z}_m`$ to the partition function. Although each $`\widehat{Z}_m`$ looks very similar to $`Z_m`$, the former can be used for PIQMC with attractive, singular potentials. For pedagogical reasons, in Section 3 we illustrate the approach by presenting an analytical treatment of the harmonic oscillator. In Section 4 we give the explicit form of the approximate propagator for the attractive Coulomb potential and present PIQMC results for the ground state of the hydrogen and helium atom.

## II Lower bound on the propagator

Consider a system with Hamiltonian $`H=K+V`$ and a complete set of states $`\{|x\}`$ that diagonalizes the hermitian operator $`V`$. In the case that $`V`$ contains a singular attractive part we replace $`V=lim_{ϵ0}V_ϵ`$ by a regular $`V_ϵ(x)>\mathrm{}`$ and take the limit $`ϵ0`$ at the end of the calculation. Using the Trotter-Suzuki formula we can write

$`x|e^{\tau (K+V_ϵ)}|x^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}x|\left(e^{\tau K/m}e^{\tau V_ϵ/m}\right)^m|x^{},`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}x_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1}e^{\tau V_ϵ(x_i)/m}},`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n_{i=1}^mx_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1}e^{\tau V_ϵ(x_i)/m}}{𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n_{i=1}^mx_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}x_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1}}.`$ (9)
If $`x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}0`$ for all $`\tau `$, $`x`$ and $`x^{}`$, the function

$$\rho (\{x_i\})=\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}x_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1}/𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}x_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{i+1},$$
(10)
is a proper probability density. Clearly (10) is of the form $`𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\rho (\{x_i\})f(\{x_i\})`$ so that we can apply Jensen’s inequality

$$𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\rho (\{x_i\})e^{g(\{x_i\})}\mathrm{exp}\left(𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_n\rho (\{x_i\})g(\{x_i\})\right),$$
(11)
and obtain

$`x|e^{\tau (K+V_ϵ)}|x^{}`$ $``$ $`x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\tau }{m}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_m\frac{V_ϵ(x_i)_{n=1}^mx_n|e^{\tau K/m}|x_{n+1}}{x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}}}\right),`$ (12)
$``$ $`x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}\underset{m\mathrm{}}{lim}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\tau }{m}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{m}{}}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_i\frac{x|e^{\tau K/m}|x_iV_ϵ(x_i)x_i|e^{\tau K/m}|x^{}}{x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}}}\right).`$ (13)
For $`m\mathrm{}`$, the sum over $`n`$ can be replaced by an integral over imaginary time. Finally we let $`ϵ0`$ and obtain

$`x|e^{\tau (K+V)}|x^{}`$ $``$ $`x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑u{\displaystyle \frac{x|e^{uK}Ve^{(\tau u)K}|x^{}}{x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}}}\right\}.`$ (14)
Note that l.h.s of (14) reduces to the standard, symmetrized Trotter-Suzuki formula approximation if we replace the integral over $`u`$ by a two-point trapezium-rule approximation. This replacement also changes the direction of inequality as can been seen directly from the upperbound

$`x|e^{\tau (K+V)}|x^{}`$ $``$ $`x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑u\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{x|e^{uK}e^{\tau V}e^{(\tau u)K}|x^{}}{x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}}}\right)\right\}x|e^{\tau K}|x^{}e^{\tau V(x)}.`$ (15)
Expression (14) can be used to define a new type of approximant to the partition function namely

$`\widehat{Z}_m=\left({\displaystyle \frac{M}{2\pi \tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}}\right)^{3m/2}{\displaystyle 𝑑r_1\mathrm{}𝑑r_m\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{M}{2\tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}(r_nr_{n+1})^2_0^\tau 𝑑u\frac{r_n|e^{uK}Ve^{(\tau u)K}|r_{n+1}}{r_n|e^{\tau K}|r_{n+1}}\right]}.`$ (16)
where $`\tau =\beta /m`$. The simplest approximant $`\widehat{Z}_1`$ corresponds to the Feynman’s variational approximation to the full Feynman path integral. The main difference between (3) and (16) is that the bare potential $`e^{\tau V(x)}`$ is replaced by an effective potential that is obtained by convoluting the bare potential and free-particle propagators $`e^{uK}`$ and $`e^{(\tau u)K}`$. Convolution smears out singularities. As we show below, in the case of the attractive Coulomb interaction expression (14) is finite, for any choice of $`x`$ and $`x^{}`$. For the approximants $`\widehat{Z}_m`$ to be useful in PIQMC, it is necessary that the integral over $`u`$ can be done efficiently. In the next two sections we show how this can be done.

## III Illustrative example

It is instructive to have at least one example for which the details can be worked out analytically, without actually using PIQMC. Not surprisingly this program can be carried out for the harmonic oscillator. For notational convenience we will consider the one-dimensional model Hamiltonian $`H=K+V`$, with $`K=(\mathrm{¯}h^2/2M)d^2/dx^2`$ and $`V=M\omega ^2x^2`$. Calculating the matrix element $`x|e^{uK}Ve^{(\tau u)K}|x^{}`$ in (16) is a straightforward excercise in perfoming Gaussian integrals. We obtain

$`\widehat{Z}_m=\left({\displaystyle \frac{mM}{2\pi \beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}}\right)^{m/2}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_1\mathrm{}𝑑x_m\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{mM}{2\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}(x_nx_{n+1})^2\frac{\beta M\omega ^2}{6m}(x_n^2+x_{n+1}^2+x_nx_{n+1}+\frac{\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2}{2mM})\right]}.`$ (17)
The integrand in (17) is a quadratic form and can be diagonalized by a Fourier transformation with respect to the index $`n`$. Evaluation of the resulting Gaussian integrals yields

$`\widehat{Z}_m=2^{m/2}\mathrm{exp}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\beta ^2\mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2}{12m}}\right){\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{m1}{}}}\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\beta ^2\mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2}{3m}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{\beta ^2\mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2}{6m}}\right)\mathrm{cos}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\pi n}{m}}\right)\right]^{1/2}.`$ (18)
Taking the partial derivative of $`\mathrm{ln}\widehat{Z}_m`$ with respect to $`\beta `$ gives the corresponding approximation to the energy:

$$\widehat{E}_m=\frac{\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2}{6m}\left[1+\underset{n=0}{\overset{m1}{}}\frac{2+\mathrm{cos}\left(2\pi n/m\right)}{1\mathrm{cos}\left(2\pi n/m\right)+\beta ^2\mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2\left(2+\mathrm{cos}(2\pi n/m)\right)/6m}\right].$$
(19)
For comparison, if we use of the standard Trotter-Suzuki formula we obtain

$$E_m=\frac{\beta \mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2}{2m^2}\underset{n=0}{\overset{m1}{}}\frac{1}{1\mathrm{cos}\left(2\pi n/m\right)+\beta ^2\mathrm{¯}h^2\omega ^2/2m^2}$$
(20)
In Table 1 we present numerical results obtained from (19) and (20) and compare with the exact value of the energy $`E=(\mathrm{¯}h\omega /2)\text{coth}(\beta \mathrm{¯}h\omega /2)`$). Note that the average of the two approximations, i.e. $`(\widehat{E}_m+E_m)/2`$, is remarkably close to the exact value $`E`$, an observation for which we have no mathematical justification at this time.

## IV Attractive Coulomb Potential

As a second example we will consider a neutral system consisting of two electrons with opposite spin and a nucleus. The Hamiltonian reads

$$H=\frac{\mathrm{¯}h^2}{2M_1}_1^2\frac{\mathrm{¯}h^2}{2M_2}_2^2\frac{q^2}{|r_1|}\frac{q^2}{|r_2|}+\frac{2q^2}{|r_1r_2|},$$
(21)
where the vectors $`r_1`$ and $`r_2`$ describe the position of the two electrons, with the nucleus placed in the origin. It is convenient to introduce the notation $`K_i=D_i^{}_i^2`$, $`D_i=\mathrm{¯}h^2/2M_i`$, $`V_i=V(r_i)`$, $`V_{12}=V(r_1r_2)`$, and $`V(r)=q^2/|r|`$, for $`i=1,2`$. Application of inequality (14) requires the evaluation of

$`I(r_1,r_2,r_1^{},r_2^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0^\tau 𝑑ur_1r_2|e^{u(K_1+K_2)}(V_1+V_22V_{12})e^{(\tau u)(K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}{r_1r_2|e^{\beta (K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}}`$ (22)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0^\tau 𝑑ur_1|e^{uK_1}V_1e^{(\tau u)K_1}|r_1^{}}{r_1|e^{\tau K_1)}|r_1^{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{_0^\tau 𝑑ur_2|e^{uK_2}V_2e^{(\tau u)K_2}|r_2^{}}{r_2|e^{\tau K_2}|r_2^{}}}`$ (24)
$`+2{\displaystyle \frac{_0^\tau 𝑑ur_1r_2|e^{u(K_1+K_2)}V_{12}e^{(\tau u)(K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}{r_1r_2|e^{\tau (K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}},`$
where we made use of the fact that $`[K_1,V_2]=[K_2,V_1]=0`$. It is sufficient to consider the last term of (22). Inserting a complete set of states for both particles we obtain

$`I_{12}(r_1,r_2,r_1^{},r_2^{})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0^\tau 𝑑u𝑑r_1^{\prime \prime }𝑑r_2^{\prime \prime }r_1r_2|e^{u(K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{\prime \prime }r_2^{\prime \prime }V(r_1^{\prime \prime }r_2^{\prime \prime })r_1^{\prime \prime }r_2^{\prime \prime }|e^{(\tau u)(K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}{r_1r_2|e^{\tau (K_1+K_2)}|r_1^{}r_2^{}}}.`$ (25)
Inserting the explicit expression for the free-particle propagator (5), a straightforward manipulation of the Gaussian integrals in (23) gives

$`I_{12}(r_1,r_2,r_1^{},r_2^{},D)={\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑u{\displaystyle 𝑑r\left(\frac{\tau }{4\pi u(\tau u)D}\right)^{3/2}V(r)\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{[\tau r(\tau u)(r_1r_2)u(r_1^{}r_2^{})]^2}{4u\tau (\tau u)D}\right\}},`$ (26)
where $`D=D_1+D_2`$

In the case of the Coulomb potential, the integral over $`r`$ can be evaluated analytically by changing to spherical coordinates. The remaining integral over $`u`$ is calculated numerically. In practice, it is expedient to replace the integration over $`u`$ by an integration over an angle. An expression that is adequate for numerical purposes is

$`I_{12}(r_1,r_2,r_1^{},r_2^{},D)=2\tau q^2{\displaystyle _0^{\pi /2}}𝑑\varphi {\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{erf}\left[(4\tau D)^{1/2}|(r_1r_2)\mathrm{tan}\varphi +(r_1^{}r_2^{})\mathrm{cot}\varphi |\right]}{|(r_1r_2)\mathrm{tan}\varphi +(r_1^{}r_2^{})\mathrm{cot}\varphi |}}.`$ (27)
It is easy to check that $`I_{12}(r_1,r_2,r_1^{},r_2^{},D)`$ is finite. The expressions for the first and second contributions in (22) can be obtained from (25) by putting ($`D_2`$, $`r_2`$, $`r_2^{}`$) and ($`D_1`$, $`r_1`$, $`r_1^{}`$) equal to zero, i.e. $`I_1(r_1,r_1^{},D_1)=I_{12}(r_1,0,r_1^{},0,D_1)`$ and $`I_2(r_2,r_2^{},D_2)=I_{12}(0,r_2,0,r_2^{},D_2)`$.

For the helium atom $`M=M_1=M_2`$, and the $`m`$-th approximant to the partition function reads

$`\widehat{Z}_m^{He}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{M}{2\pi \tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}}\right)^{3m}{\displaystyle }`$ $`dr_1\mathrm{}dr_mdr_1^{}\mathrm{}dr_m^{}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{M}{2\tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}}\left[(r_nr_{n+1})^2+(r_n^{}r_{n+1}^{})^2\right]\right\}`$ (29)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left\{\tau {\displaystyle \underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}}\left[I_1(r_n,r_{n+1},D_1)+I_2(r_n^{},r_{n+1}^{},D_1)2I_{12}(r_n^{},r_{n+1}^{},r_n^{},r_{n+1}^{},2D_1)\right]\right\},`$
whereas in the case of the hydrogen atom we have

$`\widehat{Z}_m^H=\left({\displaystyle \frac{M}{2\pi \tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}}\right)^{3m/2}{\displaystyle 𝑑r_1\mathrm{}𝑑r_m\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{M}{2\tau \mathrm{¯}h^2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}(r_nr_{n+1})^2+\tau \underset{n=1}{\overset{m}{}}I_1(r_n,r_{n+1},D_1)\right\}},`$ (30)
with $`\tau =\beta /m`$. As the integrands in (26) and (27) are always finite, expressions (26) and (27) can be used perform PIQMC simulations.

In the path integral formalism the ground state energy is obtained by letting $`\beta \mathrm{}`$ and $`\beta /m0`$, i.e. $`E=lim_\beta \mathrm{}lim_{\beta /m0}\widehat{E}_m`$. Of course, in numerical work, taking one or both these limits is impossible. In Tables 2 and 3 we present numerical results of PIQMC estimates of the ground state energy $`E`$ of the hydrogen and helium atom. These results have been obtained from five statistically independent simulations of 100000 Monte Carlo steps per degree of freedom each. The systematic errors due to the discretization of the path integral are hidden in the statistical noise. The PIQMC procedure we have used is standard except for a trick we have used to improve the efficiency of sampling the paths, details of which are given in the appendix. Although a ground state calculation pushes the PIQMC method to point of becoming rather inefficient, the numerical results are in satisfactory agreement with the known values.

## V Discussion

We have show that is possible to perform PIQMC simulations for quantum systems with attractive Coulomb potentials. Instead of the conventional Trotter-Suzuki formula approach one can use (16) to construct a path integral that is free of singularities. In practice, a numerical calculation of the latter requires only minor modifications of a standard PIQMC code.

The efficiency of the PIQMC method describe above can be improved with relatively modest efforts. Instead of using the free-particle propagator $`K`$, we are free to pick any other model Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ for which the matrix elements of $`e^{\tau H_0}`$ are positive and integrals involving these matrix elements are known analytically. An obvious choice would be to take for $`H_0`$ a set of harmonic oscillators. The matrix elements of $`e^{\tau H_0}`$ are Gaussians and hence the conditions used to derive (14) are satisfied. If necessary the approximant $`\widehat{Z}_m`$ can be improved further by optimization of the parameters of the oscillators. For $`m=1`$ this approach is identical to the variational method proposed by Feynman and Kleinert and independently by Giachetti and Tognetti. Extending the PIQMC method in this direction is left for future research.

## Appendix

In PIQMC the simplest mehod for sampling paths is to change one degree of freedom at each Monte Carlo step. Usually this is rather inefficient and one adds Monte Carlo moves that make global changes of the path, e.g. moves that resembles the classical motion. In this appendix we present a more sophisticated scheme which we found performed very well at very low temperature. The basic idea is to change variables such that the kinetic energy term in the path integral becomes a diagonal quadratic form, i.e.

$`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{m}{}}}\left(x_kx_{k+1}\right)^2={\displaystyle \underset{k=2}{\overset{m}{}}}y_k^2,`$ (31)
where $`x_{m+1}=x_1`$. After some straightforward algebra one finds that the transformation from the $`\{x_i\}`$ to the $`\{y_i\}`$ is given by

$`y_k^2={\displaystyle \frac{mk+2}{mk+1}}\left(x_k{\displaystyle \frac{(mk+1)x_{k1}+x_{m+1}}{mk+2}}\right)^2.`$ (32)
The expression for $`x_k`$ in terms of the $`\{u_i\}`$ reads

$`x_k=y_1+{\displaystyle \underset{j=2}{\overset{k}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{mk+1}{mj+1}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{mj+1}{mj+2}}\right)^{1/2}y_j,1<km,`$ (33)
with $`x_1=y_1`$. From (30) we conclude that the computational work for making a global change of the path (i.e. simultaneously changing all $`y_i`$) is linear in $`m`$, hence optimal. It is also clear that the variable $`y_1`$ plays the role of the “classical” position. The variables $`y_2,\mathrm{},y_m`$ describe the quantum fluctuations.


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# Testing a model of variability of X–ray reprocessing features in Active Galactic Nuclei

## 1 Introduction

Spectral features originating as a result of reprocessing of energetic X–ray radiation by cool, optically thick plasma around accreting compact objects can be extremely helpful in constraining the geometry of accretion flows. Indeed, one of the strongest evidences for the existence of accretion discs very close to central black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) came from observations of broad profiles of the fluorescent iron Kα line near 6.4 keV in many Seyfert 1 galaxies, the ASCA result from MCG–6-30-15 (Tanaka et al. 1995) being the best known case. The broad line profile is unlikely to be explained as a result of Comptonization in transmission through a plasma cloud (Fabian et al. 1995), so broadening as a result of Doppler effects and gravitational redshift seems to be the main mechanism (although Comptonization in reflection can contribute to the broadening; Karas et al. 2000). Quantitative estimates of the distances of the cold plasma from central black holes based on the line profiles indicate an intrinsic dispersion of parameters among the sources (Nandra et al. 1997; Done, Madejski & Życki 2000), but generally yield the distance $`<100r_\mathrm{g}`$ ($`r_\mathrm{g}GM/c^2`$).

Data analyzed in most cases are integrated over relatively long periods of time ($``$days) in order to decrease statistical errors. They are therefore averages over many dynamical timescales, $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}=\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}^1`$, and correspond to time/space average geometrical/physical conditions in the region where the line is produced. Studies of time variability of the line can add a new dimension to inferences based on averaged spectra, as they can potentially resolve the structure of the X–rays production region. Reverberation analysis (investigations of the response of the line to variability of the continuum driving its emission; Blandford & McKee 1982) can provide independent constraints on the geometry of the emission region (e.g. Reynolds et al. 1999).

Indeed, a number of surprising results were obtained in those cases where a good quality of data enabled studies of the line variability. Generally, the line absolute flux appears to be less variable than the flux of the driving continuum. The best example here is the long campaign of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) observations of MCG–6-30-15 analyzed in Reynolds (2000) and Lee et al. (2000). The r.m.s. variability in the line band was reduced to $`0.8\times `$ that of the continuum, due to a combination of constant line flux and flux-correlated spectral changes. Similarly, Done et al. (2000) analyzed RXTE observations of another Seyfert 1 galaxy IC 4329a and found that the absolute amplitude of the reprocessed component stayed roughly constant as the source brightened, i.e. the relative amplitude decreased somewhat. Chiang et al. (2000) found constant line flux in NGC 5548, even though the 2-10 keV continuum flux varied by a factor of 2.

However, the lack of response of the line integrated flux to the continuum variability does not mean that there are no changes at all. The profile of the line clearly responds to the continuum variability. Again, the most striking example is MCG–6-30-15, where the line profile showed quite dramatic changes (Iwasawa et al. 1996): it was narrow during a high flux state but it was very broad when the source’s flux decreased. Interestingly, the total flux of the line photons seems to have been constant in time (see fig. 6 in Iwasawa et al. 1996).

A suggestion that the line flux can be constant due to ionization of the reprocessor varying in relation to the primary flux were made by Reynolds (2000). However, no physical model was proposed for the flux–ionization dependence. Nayakshin, Kazanas & Kallman (2000; hereafter NKK) pointed out that a reduction of the Fe Kα line variability can be expected if the disc develops a hot, ionized layer where the line production is inefficient. Development of such an ionized layer is a necessary consequence of the thermal instability operating in X–ray irradiated plasma (Krolik, McKee & Tarter 1981; Różańska & Czerny 1996, hereafter RC96). Since the thickness of the hot layer and its radial extent are correlated with the illuminating flux, the efficiency of the Kα line production can indeed be anti-correlated with the source X–ray luminosity. Moreover, changes to the radial location of the line emission region will influence the line profile.

The same idea has been proposed by Nayakshin (2000a,b) to explain the X-ray “Baldwin effect” (Baldwin 1977; Iwasawa & Taniguchi 1993; Nandra et al. 1997), i.e. smaller equivalent width of the Kα line for X-ray brighter sources. The two effects (the Baldwin effect and the lack of reverberation signatures) can be simply considered as the same effect looked at statistically in a sample of objects and in a time history of a single object, respectively (“ergodic theorem”), although the two phenomena may differ in details: X–ray variability of a single source is probably related to variable output of some magnetic activity, while different (averaged) luminosities of sources are probably due to different mass accretion rates.

In this paper we consider and test this model further, based on computations of vertical structure of illuminated accretion discs in hydrostatic equilibrium (RC96; Różańska 1999, hereafter R99; see also NKK). The plan of the paper is as follows: in Section 2 we sketch the physics of the thermal instability responsible for the two-layer structure of irradiated accretion discs, in Section 3 we present our method of computing the thickness of the hot layer and results of such computations, Section 4 contains discussion of consequences of the presence of the hot layer for variability properties of accreting objects, while Section 5 contains similar discussion on spectral properties. The results are discussed in Section 6.

## 2 Physical picture

### 2.1 Thermal instability of irradiated plasma

Our physical picture is based on vertical structure of illuminated accretion discs. As a result of illumination the topmost disc layer can be strongly ionized, but the level of ionization decreases with depth into the disc. In calculations performed with the assumption of constant density (Ross & Fabian 1993; Życki et al. 1994), the ionization level at the disc surface is given by $`\xi F_\mathrm{X}/n_\mathrm{e}`$ ($`F_\mathrm{X}`$ is the flux of illuminating X-rays and $`n_\mathrm{e}`$ is the electron number density) and it smoothly decreases inwards. Adjusting any of these parameters it is possible to obtain any specified ionization stage. The picture is rather different when the condition of hydrostatic equilibrium (or in fact any condition on gas pressure rather than its density) is additionally imposed in the illuminated disc (RC96; NKK). Solutions corresponding to certain range of temperatures (and/or ionization parameter $`\mathrm{\Xi }F_\mathrm{X}/(cP_{\mathrm{gas}})`$, more appropriate than $`\xi `$ for characterizing solutions with pressure constraints) are thermally unstable (Field 1965; Krolik et al. 1981). The condition for instability (Field 1965),

$$\left(\frac{}{T}\right)_\mathrm{P}<0,$$
(1)
where $``$ is the heat-loss function, can be expressed as

$$\left(\frac{\mathrm{d}T}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Xi }}\right)<0.$$
(2)
The unstable solutions are thus those located on the part of the $`T`$$`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ diagram with a negative slope (Krolik et al. 1981). The physical mechanism for the instability is the weak dependence of bremsstrahlung cooling on temperature, $`j_{\mathrm{brems}}T^{1/2}`$, which cannot balance the photoionization heating on heavy elements caused by hard X–rays. On the lower stable branch at $`T10^4`$ K the plasma is cooled by atomic line emission, while on the upper branch, at $`T10^7`$$`10^8`$ K, Compton heating and cooling are the dominant processes.

### 2.2 Vertical structure of irradiated discs

In an illuminated accretion disc in hydrostatic equilibrium a movement along the $`T`$$`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ curve corresponds to changing the depth into the disc. As a result of the instability, a broad range of intermediate ionization of iron is inaccessible to a stable solution. The uniqueness of the solution is assured only when the basic equations: energy equation, hydrostatic equilibrium and radiative transfer equations are supplemented by the heat conduction equation (Maciołek-Niedźwiecki, Krolik & Zdziarski 1997; R99). The transition from the hot to cold solution branch is very sharp and its location can be obtained from the general condition of radiative–conductive equilibrium (Różańska 2000). The condition gives the temperature at the transition point

$$T_{\mathrm{trans}}=\frac{7}{15}T_\mathrm{s},$$
(3)
where $`T_\mathrm{s}`$ is the surface temperature. For purely radiation heated disc atmosphere $`T_\mathrm{s}=T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$, where $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$ is the inverse-Compton temperature (McKee & Begelman 1990; Różańska & Czerny 2000a). When the $`\alpha P`$ heating is also included, $`T_\mathrm{s}`$ is somewhat higher than $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$ (Różańska 2000). In a good approximation, the transition occurs where the upper, stable branch of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$$`T`$ curve changes to the middle, unstable branch (RC96, R99, NKK), The resulting structure is then basically two-layered: the upper, hot layer (HL) and the lower, cold layer, although there is a thin transition layer in between the two (R99). For a sufficiently hard illuminating spectra (i.e. high $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$) iron can be considered completely ionized in the hot layer, while it recombines to below FeXI in the cold layer (NKK; see also fig. 2 in Życki & Czerny 1994).

## 3 The thickness of the hot layer

The model parameter crucial for spectral/timing predictions is the thickness of the hot layer, $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$. The larger the thickness, the smaller the fraction of primary radiation penetrating to the cold layer and giving rise to the usual reprocessed component. The reprocessed component is further Comptonized as the photons escape through the hot layer. The result (at least in the limited energy band corresponding to e.g. Ginga or RXTE data) is a reprocessed component with amplitude reduced compared to the usual geometrical factor $`\mathrm{\Omega }/4\pi `$ (Eq. 8), where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle subtended by the reprocessor from the X–ray source (Done & Nayakshin 2001). The amplitude of the iron spectral features is further reduced by the Comptonization.

Two most important parameters determining the thickness of the hot layer are: the strength of irradiation compared to internal disc emission, $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}`$, and the ratio of gravity at the base of the layer to X–ray radiation pressure (RC96, NKK). Following NKK we parameterize the latter by

$$A\frac{\mu _\mathrm{m}}{m_\mathrm{e}}\frac{r_\mathrm{g}}{r}\left(\frac{H_\mathrm{d}}{r}\right)^2l_\mathrm{X}^1,$$
(4)
where

$$l_\mathrm{X}\frac{F_\mathrm{X}H_\mathrm{d}\sigma _\mathrm{T}}{m_\mathrm{e}c^3},$$
(5)
where $`\mu _\mathrm{m}=\rho /n_\mathrm{H}1.9`$ for cosmic abundance. Obviously then, the structure of the hot layer has to be solved simultaneously with the structure of the cold disc, since $`A`$ depends on the disc thickness, $`H_\mathrm{d}`$. NKK used vertically averaged solutions of Shakura & Sunyaev (1973; hereafter SS) for the disc in their computations of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$. They assumed that total pressure, $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}+P_{\mathrm{rad}}`$, should be continuous across the boundary between the two layers, and obtained both $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{rad}}`$ individually continuous across the boundary.

In this paper we explicitly solve equations of vertical structure of the cold disc. We do this for the $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ SS disc, i.e. a disc with energy generation proportional to total pressure. We define the input parameters of the computations in such a way as to make the connection between accretion discs models and observable quantities obvious. First, we describe calculations at a given radius and then discuss radial dependence of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$.

### 3.1 Vertical structure at a given radius

The structure of the HL at a given radius is computed by combining the method of RC96 and R99 with computations of the vertical structure of X-ray illuminated discs by Różańska et al. (1999). For the HL we follow closely the method of RC96 and R99, with the important simplification of neglecting thermal conduction. The reason is purely practical, as efforts to fully combine proper photo-ionization computations of the hot layer with vertical disc structure have only just begun (Dumont, Abrassart & Collin 2000; Różańska et al., in preparation). This leaves us with an important problem of selecting proper solution in the zone of instability, where the system of equations has more than one solution for temperature. We adopt a simple prescription and select the highest value of $`T`$ as the solution. Comparing solutions with and without conduction in RC96 and R99 one sees that our procedure may overestimate somewhat the total thickness of the hot and transition layers (i.e. the depth of the point where $`T=T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$). However, the thickness of the hot layer alone is not affected by our neglecting the thermal conduction. The spectrum of illuminating radiation is assumed to be a power law with a cutoff, $`F_EE^{\mathrm{\Gamma }+1}\mathrm{e}^{E/E_\mathrm{c}}`$, parameterized by the photon spectral index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and cutoff energy, $`E_\mathrm{c}`$.

Equations of vertical structure of the cold disc are the same as in Różańska et al. (1999). We assume that a certain fraction of gravitational energy, $`\xi `$, is dissipated within the disc (but the disc transports all the angular momentum, see e.g. Witt, Czerny & Życki 1997). The remaining fraction, $`1\xi `$, is dissipated in an active corona and converted to hard X-ray radiation, of which a fraction $`0.5\eta `$ illuminates the disk, i.e.

$$F_\mathrm{X}=0.5\eta (1\xi )F_{\mathrm{tot}},$$
(6)
where

$$F_{\mathrm{tot}}=G(r)\frac{3}{8\pi }\frac{GM\dot{M}}{r^3}\left(1\sqrt{\frac{6r_\mathrm{g}}{r}}\right),$$
(7)
is the gravitational energy dissipation per unit area of the disc surface. Value of $`\eta =1`$ would thus correspond to a stationary illumination by an X-ray producing corona above the disk, assuming isotropic emission (see e.g. Haardt & Maraschi 1991). We will assume $`\eta 1`$, corresponding to a possible enhancement of the X–ray flux. Such an enhancement can be expected if the X–rays are produced by magnetic flares, due to 1) the “charge” time of a flare being longer than the “discharge” time, 2) the collecting area for the flare energy being larger than the illuminated area (e.g. Haardt, Maraschi & Ghisellini 1994).

We solve the structure of the HL assuming a certain initial geometrical thickness of the total system, $`H_{\mathrm{tot}}`$. Four parameters, computed at the bottom of the HL, are then used to modify the equations of the disc structure and their boundary conditions:

* Location of the bottom of the HL (height above the equatorial plane) gives the initial thickness of the cold disc,
* The hard X-ray flux attenuated by the HL contributes to heating of the disc.
* The temperature at the top of the cold disc is computed from the Eddington approximation, $`T=T_{\mathrm{eff}}[1/2+(3/4)\tau ]^{1/4}`$, taking $`\tau `$ to be equal to the optical depth of the HL, and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ from both the internal energy dissipation and the irradiation,
* Gas pressure at the bottom of the HL determines the gas density at the top of the disk.

Iterations of the vertical structure of the disc now follow, to compute the disc thickness for given disc dissipation $`\xi F_{\mathrm{tot}}`$, with the boundary conditions as above. Usually, the converged thickness of the disc is different than the initially assumed one. Therefore the final solution (at a given radius $`r`$ and for an assumed central mass $`M`$, mass accretion rate $`\dot{m}\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$, and viscosity parameter, $`\alpha `$) is obtained by iterating $`H_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ until a consistent solution is found. As already mentioned above, we define $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ as the thickness of the layer where temperature changes from $`T_\mathrm{s}`$ down to $`(7/15)T_\mathrm{s}`$.

As a reference, we compute $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ for parameters appropriate for a Seyfert 1 galaxy: $`M=10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`\dot{m}=0.05`$, $`r=10r_\mathrm{g}`$ (close to the peak in energy dissipation), $`\alpha =0.1`$, $`\xi =0.5`$ and $`\eta =1`$ (i.e. no enhancement), $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.9`$ and $`E_\mathrm{c}=150`$ keV.

Figure 1 shows an example of the vertical structure of the disc with the hot layer. The Thomson thickness of HL is rather small, $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}0.1`$, irrespectively of $`\alpha `$. The “gravity parameter” is $`A7`$ in this case. Our value of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ is thus very similar to what NKK obtain for this value of $`A`$ (see fig. 4 in NKK), demonstrating that, despite some approximations in our procedure, our results are accurate.

The main parameter, $`A`$, is a non-unique function of other parameters of the system. For given $`\dot{m}`$ and $`r`$, $`A`$ is determined by a combination of $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$: both parameters influence the disc thickness and the irradiation flux. We have therefore extended our reference computations to obtain $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ on a grid of $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$. Results are plotted in Figure 2, where we show a number of quantities characterizing the disc or the spectrum.

The amplitude of the observed “cold” reflection (energy-integrated albedo) is estimated using

$$R=\frac{\left[p_{\mathrm{tr}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})\right]^2}{1+p_{\mathrm{rf}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})},$$
(8)
where $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})`$ and $`p_{\mathrm{rf}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})`$ are hard X–rays transmission and reflection probabilities for the HL thickness $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$. They are defined as ratios of the transmitted and reflected flux to the incident flux, respectively, for a purely scattering atmosphere. The factor $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}^2`$ appears in the numerator of equation (8), because the reflected photons have to go through the HL twice. Additionally, a fraction $`p_{\mathrm{rf}}`$ of the incident photons is elastically back-scattered off the HL, and, by our assumption, simply contributes to the primary continuum photons initially directed towards an observer. In the limiting case of no HL ($`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}0`$), $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})1`$, while $`p_{\mathrm{rf}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})0`$ and $`R1`$, i.e. $`R`$ represents then the solid angle of the reprocessor, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, normalized to $`2\pi `$. We compute $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})`$ and $`p_{\mathrm{rf}}(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}})`$ using a Monte Carlo simulations of Compton scattering. This is a rather approximate estimate of the angle averaged amplitude, since it assumes no photo-absorption in the HL, i.e. no contribution to the reprocessed spectrum from highly (but not completely) ionized elements. It thus assumes a rather hard illuminating spectrum ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }<2`$) giving high $`T_{\mathrm{IC}}`$. A more accurate procedure of estimating $`R`$ was employed by Done & Nayakshin (2001), who fitted spectra computed by NKK by a “cold” reflection model in the context of Ginga data. For softer illuminating spectra, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2`$, the reprocessed component contains strong spectral features due to H- and He-like Fe ions and it cannot be approximated by “cold” reprocessing (NKK; Nayakshin 2000b).

The ratio $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}/F_{\mathrm{soft}}`$ is the observed ratio of fluxes, i.e. the hard X–ray flux

$$F_{\mathrm{hard}}=F_\mathrm{X}(1+p_{\mathrm{rf}})$$
(9)
contains a contribution from photons backscattered in the HL towards an observer. The soft flux, $`F_{\mathrm{soft}}`$, contains a contribution from the disc internal emission, $`F_\mathrm{D}=\xi F_{\mathrm{tot}}`$, and hard photons thermalized in the cold disc,

$$F_{\mathrm{soft}}=F_\mathrm{D}+(1a)p_{\mathrm{tr}}F_\mathrm{X},$$
(10)
with $`a0.2`$ being the energy-integrated X–ray albedo of cold matter. We note that the above relations of $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{soft}}`$ with $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ assume implicitly that there are no significant changes of the source geometry (e.g. the height of the flare above the disc), so that the variability of $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ is solely due to the variable output of the magnetic activity.

The structure of the disc has to be rather different from the standard SS solution, if the hot layer is to be Thomson thick(ish), $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}1`$. For half of the total energy dissipated in the active regions, $`\xi =0.5`$, the illumination flux has to be further enhanced by a factor of $`\eta 40`$ relative to the stationary situation in order to obtain $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}=1`$. This corresponds to the ratio of illumination flux to disc internal flux, $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}=0.5\eta (1\xi )/\xi 20`$. For larger fraction of energy dissipated in the magnetic corona, i.e. smaller $`\xi `$, the required ratio $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}`$ is even larger (e.g. $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}60`$ for $`\xi =0.1`$). This appears to be due to the disc thickness, $`H_\mathrm{d}`$, increasing with $`\xi `$ more slowly than linearly, and thus for $`A(F_\mathrm{D}/F_\mathrm{X})(H_\mathrm{d}/\xi )`$ to remain constant, $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}`$ has to increase when $`\xi `$ decreases.

On the other hand, the presence of the HL will be apparent in observations even if its thickness is rather smaller than $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}=1`$. According to our approximate formula (equation 8) reflection amplitude gets reduced to 0.8 for $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}0.25`$. Quality of current data is usually sufficient to distinguish $`R=0.8`$ from $`R=1`$ in typical X–ray spectra of AGN (e.g. Done et al. 2000).

### 3.2 Radial structure

The Thomson thickness of the HL changes with radius, even for a constant $`F_\mathrm{X}/F_\mathrm{D}`$, since $`A`$ is not constant with $`r`$. We computed radial dependencies of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ for $`\eta =3`$ and three values of $`\xi =0.01,0.3`$ and $`0.6`$. Values of other parameters were as before: $`M=10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`\dot{m}=0.05`$, $`\alpha =0.1`$. Results are plotted in Fig. 3.

The thickness is largest at $`r10r_\mathrm{g}`$. It then drops slowly, roughly in accord with the formula of Nayakshin (2000a). A consequence of that particular $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ distribution is a relative suppression of highly relativistically smeared component of the reprocessed spectrum. On the other hand, the reprocessed photons that do manage to diffuse from below the hot layer close to the central BH, suffer Comptonization smearing, which in practice may be difficult to distinguish from relativistic smearing (see Sec. 5.2).

Obviously, in the magnetic flare scenario there is no reason for changes of $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$ to be perfectly correlated on all radii. One can thus imagine rather different values at different radii, leading to $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ rather different than those plotted in Fig. 3. On timescales long compared to $`t_{\mathrm{dyn}}`$ one could perhaps obtain time average $`\xi (r)`$ and $`\eta (r)`$ employing a particular variability model, e.g. that of Poutanen & Fabian (1999).

### 3.3 Dependence of $`\tau _{\mathrm{𝐡𝐨𝐭}}`$ on X–ray flux

The qualitative relation between the thickness of the HL and the illuminating X–ray flux is obvious: the stronger the X–ray flux the thicker the HL. In this Section we present the quantitative relation from our model.

In Figure 4 we again plot contours of amplitude of reflection $`R`$ in the $`\xi `$$`\eta `$ plane, together with contours of the observed X–ray flux, $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$, as well as the projected dependence $`R`$$`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$. For $`R`$ close to 1, doubling $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ results in only modest decrease of $`R`$, by 10–20 per cent. For smaller $`R`$ the process is more effective. But still, to go from e.g. $`R=0.8`$ to $`R=0.4`$ requires an increase of $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$ by a factor of $`8`$ (when the movement is along the $`\xi `$ axis, for $`\eta 4`$). Going from $`R=0.6`$ to $`R=0.3`$ requires that $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$ increases at least 4 times, again approximately along the $`\xi `$ axis. In no case does it seems possible to obtain an inverse proportionality of $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$ and $`R`$, so that $`R\times F_{\mathrm{hard}}\mathrm{const}`$. Thus, these results seem to rule out the possibility that the absolute flux of the Fe Kα line may remain constant despite continuum variability, although certain reduction of the line variability amplitude (compared to that of the continuum) can be expected (see next Section).

We note that a change of $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ is more effective in changing $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$, if $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ increases or decreases due to changing fraction of energy dissipated in the disc, $`\xi `$, rather than $`\eta `$. The reason is that e.g. removing the energy dissipation from the disc to the active corona (i.e. decreasing $`\xi `$) not only increases the X–ray illuminating flux, but it also decreases the disc thickness, thus decreasing the gravity.

## 4 Reduction of variability amplitude of the Fe Kα line

### 4.1 Method

Based on results of previous Section we expect the variability of the Fe Kα line flux to be reduced compared to the amplitude of variability of the driving continuum, even though it does not seem possible to obtain absolutely constant flux of the line. Here we estimate the reduction of the r.m.s. variability of the Fe Kα line, compared with an assumed r.m.s. variability of its driving continuum. To this end we will use results of our calculations of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(\xi ,\eta )`$ at $`r=10r_\mathrm{g}`$. In this way we will obtain the upper limit to the considered effect, since $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ reaches maximum at $`r10r_\mathrm{g}`$, for a given pair $`(\xi ,\eta )`$ (see Fig. 3).

First, we construct a simulated light curve of hard X–ray continuum by summing Fourier components with random phases (e.g. Tsonis 1992),

$$C(t_i)=\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}\sqrt{P(f_j)}\mathrm{cos}\left[2\pi f_jt_i+\varphi (f_j)\right],$$
(11)
for an adopted form of power spectral density (PSD), $`P(f)`$. For the PSD we adopt

$$P(f)\frac{1}{\left[1+(f/f_\mathrm{c})\right]^p}.$$
(12)
This provides a good description of hard X–ray PSD of e.g. MCG–6-30-15, with the cutoff frequency $`f_\mathrm{c}=10^5`$ Hz, the slope $`p=1.4`$ and the normalization corresponding to r.m.s. variability of 20 per cent (Green, McHardy & Lehto 1993; Czerny & Lehto 1997; Yaqoob et al. 1997; Nowak & Chiang 2000; Reynolds 2000). We take these parameters to be representative for Seyfert 1 galaxies. The light curve is scaled to have a given mean value $`\overline{C}`$. Next, the light curve in energy band containing the Kα line photons is constructed according to

$$L(t_i)=(1A_\mathrm{l})C(t_i)+A_\mathrm{l}C(t_i)R[C(t_i)],$$
(13)
where $`A_\mathrm{l}`$ is the fraction of line photons contributing to total counts in the considered energy band, while $`R[C(t)]`$ is the relative amplitude of the reprocessed component as a function of the illuminating hard X–ray flux. Writing equation (13) we have assumed no time lag in the response of the Fe Kα line emission after the continuum variations, consistent with observations (e.g. Reynolds 2000). The amplitude $`R[C(t)]`$ is computed as follows: we choose a value for the effective amplitude of the reprocessed component at the mean flux level, $`R(\overline{C})`$. We then assume that $`R(\overline{C})`$ corresponds to a pair $`(\xi _0,\eta _0)`$, which is located on a trajectory in the $`\xi `$$`\eta `$ plane that the system travels while changing its luminosity. The trajectory describes how changes of $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$ contribute to the variability. Since our understanding of variability mechanisms is rather limited, we will simply test a number of arbitrary trajectories, to get an idea of available range of results. As discussed in previous Section, variations along the $`\xi `$-axis give largest possible change of $`R`$ for a given change of $`F_\mathrm{X}`$, therefore our chosen trajectories have a significant component along the $`\xi `$ axis.

Next, we construct the light curve of the observed hard X–ray continuum, which has a contribution from photons backscattered in the hot layer, i.e. $`F(t)=C(t)\{1+p_{\mathrm{rf}}\{\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}[C(t)]\}\}`$. Finally, the r.m.s. variability is computed for $`F(t)`$ and $`L(t)`$ according to

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(C)=\frac{1}{\overline{C}}\sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\left[C(t_i)\overline{C}\right]^2}.$$
(14)
### 4.2 Results

First we set $`A_\mathrm{l}=1`$ i.e. we consider the light curve of the Fe Kα line alone, without any continuum photons. An example of the simulated light curves is plotted in Fig. 5. They were obtained assuming that the mean flux of the intrinsic continuum, $`\overline{C}`$, corresponds to $`\xi _0=0.5`$ and $`\eta _0=1`$ (which yields $`R(\overline{C})0.75`$, see Fig. 4), and that the variability is only due to changing $`\xi `$. The line flux is reduced at all times, since $`R(\overline{C})`$ is significantly lower than 1, and its r.m.s. variability is reduced by $`5`$ per cent compared with the r.m.s. variability of its driving continuum, $`C(t)`$. The observed hard X–ray continuum, $`F(t)`$, contains a contribution from photons backscattered in the hot layer, which increase its r.m.s. variability by $`1`$ per cent. Thus, the difference of r.m.s. variabilities between the line and the hard continuum, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(F)\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(L)`$ is in this example $`6`$ per cent.

In real spectra the contribution of line photons to the 5–7 keV band is only $`A_\mathrm{l}0.15`$, for $`R=1`$. The reduction of r.m.s. variability, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(F)\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(L)`$, is therefore much weaker than in previous case, and in the above example, only $`2`$ per cent.

The difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}`$ is plotted in Fig. 6 as a function of $`R(\overline{C})`$, for both $`A_\mathrm{l}=1`$ and $`A_\mathrm{l}=0.15`$. The general trend is that the larger the $`R(\overline{C})`$ is, the smaller the $`\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(F)\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(L)`$ is. Consider for example $`R(\overline{C})1`$, i.e. at the mean flux level the irradiation flux is relatively weak and in consequence the hot layer is rather thin, $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}0.1`$. Then $`R`$ is reduced only when the instantaneous flux exceeds the mean flux, but $`R`$ saturates at 1 whenever $`C(t)<\overline{C}`$. This then gives smaller reduction of r.m.s. variability compared to a case $`R(\overline{C})0.5`$ when the anti-correlation between $`R`$ and $`C(t)`$ can hold through the entire range of $`C(t)`$. Details of the relation $`R(\overline{C})`$$`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}`$ depend on the mapping $`C(t)(\xi ,\eta )`$, i.e. which parameter, $`\xi `$, $`\eta `$ or both of them, cause flux variations. Solid squares in Fig. 6 show the case of variations $`C(t)`$ caused by changes of $`\xi `$ only (for $`\eta =1`$). Reduction of the line variability is strongest in this case, since a given variation of $`C(t)=F_\mathrm{X}`$ causes largest possible change of $`R`$, as already discussed in Sec. 3.3 and shown in Fig. 4. On the other hand, the available range of $`R(\overline{C})`$ is rather limited.

These results are quantitatively dependent on the assumed constancy of X–ray source geometry (see comments following Eq. (10)). The reduction of variability, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}`$, could be larger, if the geometry were correlated with the X–ray luminosity, changing in such a way as to make the illuminating flux, $`F_\mathrm{X}`$, to increase more strongly than the observed flux, $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$. However, as we are going to argue in the next Section, the combined timing and spectral observational result put quite tight constraints on any geometry–luminosity dependences.

Finally, we note that both $`R(\overline{C})`$ and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(F)\sigma _{\mathrm{var}}(L)`$ are observable quantities and their relation plotted in Fig. 6 can be used to test the model.

## 5 Spectral Data

### 5.1 The $`R`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$–flux correlations

The spectral index of the hard X–ray power law, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and the observed amplitude of the reprocessed component, $`R`$, appear to be correlated in the data of both AGN and Galactic Black Holes (GBH) (Zdziarski, Lubiński & Smith 1999; Gilfanov, Churazov & Revnivtsev 2000): the harder the spectrum (smaller $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$), the smaller the amplitude. Two models were considered to explain the correlation: truncated cold disc with hot central flow (e.g. Esin, McClintock & Narayan 1997) and relativistic outflow of emitting plasma (Beloborodov 1999ab). The model of an accretion disc with a hot layer is also able to qualitatively explain the correlation, with $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ being the control parameter: the larger $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ is, the smaller the effective $`R`$ and the harder the spectrum, due to reduced soft flux from thermalization (assuming that most of the energy dissipation occurs in the active corona). We present here the $`R`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation predicted by the model. The estimate of $`R`$ is obtained as in Sec. 3.1 (equation 8), while for $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ we use the formula from Beloborodov (1999ab),

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }2.33(l_\mathrm{h}/l_\mathrm{s}1)^{1/10},$$
(15)
where $`l_\mathrm{h}`$ and $`l_\mathrm{s}`$ are the power in hard and soft radiation crossing the active region, respectively. We estimate

$$l_\mathrm{s}=_1^{\mu _\mathrm{s}}[F_{\mathrm{dissip}}(\mu )+F_{\mathrm{reproc}}(\mu )]𝑑\mu ,$$
(16)
where $`F_{\mathrm{dissip}}F_\mathrm{D}=\xi F_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ and

$$F_{\mathrm{reproc}}=(1a)F_\mathrm{X}=\frac{1}{2}\eta (1\xi )(1a)F_{\mathrm{tot}}p_{\mathrm{tr}}\left(\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(\xi ,\eta )\right).$$
(17)
The second term describes the contribution to the soft flux from the thermalized fraction of the illuminating X–rays. We have also introduced the geometrical factor $`\mu _\mathrm{s}`$ (see Beloborodov 1999ab), describing the fraction of soft flux actually intercepted by a magnetic flare (in computations we assume isotropic emission). The hard power is simply estimated as $`l_\mathrm{h}=2F_\mathrm{X}=\eta (1\xi )F_{\mathrm{tot}}`$.

Figure 7 presents results of the computations for a number of $`\mu _\mathrm{s}`$ values. The shape of the model correlation is somewhat different from the correlation observed in the data. The model requires $`\mu _\mathrm{s}>0.6`$ in order to obtain quantitative agreement with the data, i.e. $`1\mu _\mathrm{s}<0.4`$ of the soft flux crossing an active region. It has to be remembered however that the observed correlation, particularly among different objects, is more likely to be due to changes of geometry driven by e.g. $`\dot{m}`$ rather than varying output of magnetic activity, and thus parameterizing the correlation by our parameters $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$ may not be sufficient.

Another correlation applicable to AGN observations may be the $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ (anti)correlation plotted in Figure 7b. It follows from combining results shown in Fig. 4 with those in Fig. 7: an increase of illuminating flux, $`F_\mathrm{X}`$, gives a decrease of $`R`$ and a decrease of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. If the observed X–ray flux, $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$, follows the illuminating flux, $`F_\mathrm{X}`$, (i.e. if the Eq. (9) holds), the predicted $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ anticorrelation is obtained. However, an opposite effect seems to be observed in the data from RXTE observing campaigns of some AGN, where the spectrum generally softens ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ increases) when the observed X–ray flux goes up (NGC 5548, Chiang et al. 2000; IC 4329a, Done et al. 2000). At least in IC 4329a the spectral analysis of Done et al. (2000) reveals that this is not an artifact of limited band pass of RXTE instruments. If this observational result is generic, it would mean changes of the flares’ geometry correlated with their luminosity, so that the relation between $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$ and $`F_\mathrm{X}`$ can be reversed. From the discussion of variability (Sec 4.2), we need a correlated increase of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ with the flare luminosity. If this is to be accompanied by a softening of the spectrum, the flare’s geometry has to change in such a way, that the intercepted soft luminosity is larger than the increased hard luminosity ($`l_\mathrm{h}/l_\mathrm{s}`$ has to decrease; Eq. (15)), despite the decreased soft flux from thermalized hard X–rays.

### 5.2 Model dependence of relativistic smearing and amplitude of reflection

The hot layer is thickest at close distances from the central black hole, according to results of computations of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ presented in Sec. 3.2. The Kα line generation is then suppressed at small $`r`$, which means that the inner disc radius determined from the line profile may be larger than $`r_{\mathrm{ms}}=6r_\mathrm{g}`$. We quantified this effect in our model, since indeed the line observed in a number of sources is narrower than in the extreme case of MCG–6-30-15 (IC 4329a, Done et al. 2000; Cyg X-1, Done & Życki 1999; GS 2023+338, GS 1124-68, Życki, Done & Smith 1997, 1998).

We computed the relativistic smearing in the reprocessed spectra for the radial dependencies $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ plotted in Fig. 3. We assumed that the irradiation emissivity follows radial distribution of gravitational energy dissipation, G(r) (equation 7). Ratios of the reprocessed spectra to the reference case of no hot skin (so full relativistic smearing), are plotted in Fig. 8. The magnitude of the effect obviously depends on the thickness of the HL. Even for the thickest HL considered ($`\xi =0.01`$, maximum $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)0.5`$), the “wiggles” in the ratio plots are only a few percent, for pure reprocessed component, i.e. no contribution from primary photons. It would then be rather difficult to detect such an effect in the data, the more so that the additional broadening due to Comptonization in the HL (not included here), is strongest for the thickest HL. Qualitatively then, reduction of effective amplitude of the reprocessed component is much more prominent, than any changes to the profile of the Kα line (as is also clear from Fig. 8).

One can estimate the maximum magnitude of the suppression of the broadest line component, noticing that it will occur for $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}(r)`$ being a step function: $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ very large for radii $`r<r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$, and $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}=0`$ otherwise. In other words, no observable reprocessed component is produced for $`r<r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ (Ross, Fabian & Young 1999). This obviously means a reduction of the effective amplitude of the reprocessed component, which one can relate to $`r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$

To do so, we write $`R=F_{\mathrm{refl}}/(a_0F_{\mathrm{direct}})`$, i.e. $`R`$ is the reflection albedo (ratio of flux of reflected radiation to the flux directed towards an observer), normalized to the albedo $`a_0`$ of cold reflection, expected from an isotropic source above a flat disc. Both fluxes can be written as radial integrals, e.g.

$$F_{\mathrm{refl}}=2\pi _{r_{\mathrm{min}}}^{r_{\mathrm{max}}}F_{\mathrm{refl}}(r)r𝑑r.$$
(18)
Averaged over many dynamical time scales, the radial distribution of energy generation in the active corona can be expected to follow the gravitational energy dissipation prescription. If isotropy of emission is assumed, then

$$F_{\mathrm{refl}}(r)=F_{\mathrm{direct}}(r)=G(r).$$
(19)
If a purely scattering layer of a thickness giving a transmission probability $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}`$ (reflection probability $`1p_{\mathrm{tr}}`$) covers the reflecting disc up to a radius $`r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$, then

$`F_{\mathrm{refl}}(r)/a_0=`$ $`2\pi {\displaystyle _{r_{\mathrm{min}}}^{r_{\mathrm{cut}}}}p_{\mathrm{tr}}^2G(r)r𝑑r+`$ (20)
$`2\pi {\displaystyle _{r_{\mathrm{cut}}}^{r_{\mathrm{max}}}}G(r)r𝑑r`$
and

$`F_{\mathrm{direct}}(r)=`$ $`2\pi {\displaystyle _{r_{\mathrm{min}}}^{r_{\mathrm{cut}}}}(2p_{\mathrm{tr}})G(r)r𝑑r+`$ (21)
$`2\pi {\displaystyle _{r_{\mathrm{cut}}}^{r_{\mathrm{max}}}}G(r)r𝑑r.`$
The resulting function $`R(r_{\mathrm{cut}})`$ is plotted in Figure 9 for $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}=0`$, which maximizes $`r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$ for any $`R`$. For $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(r)=1`$ (no hot layer) we obviously obtain $`R(r_{\mathrm{cut}})=1`$, but for any $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(r)<1`$ the amplitude $`R`$ decreases dramatically with increasing $`r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$, i.e. when the ionized zone becomes more extended. The reason for the dramatic decrease is that the emission is strongly concentrated towards the center. Interestingly, many Galactic black hole binaries show $`R0.3`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{in}}20r_\mathrm{g}`$, in accord with the relation shown in Figure 9, but we note that, with the assumption of perfect reflectivity, the geometry here is equivalent to the disc being truncated at $`r_{\mathrm{cut}}`$, and replaced by central X–ray source. We also emphasize that the assumption $`p_{\mathrm{tr}}(r<r_{\mathrm{cut}})=0`$, is not justified by our present understanding of the model.

### 5.3 The X–ray “Baldwin effect”

The observed equivalent width (EW) of the Fe Kα line appears to be anticorrelated with average 2–10 keV luminosities of the sources (Iwasawa & Taniguchi 1993; Nandra et al. 1997), in a similar manner as EW of CIV $`\lambda `$1550 line is anticorrelated with the UV continuum luminosity (Baldwin 1977). This could be explained by the presence of the hot layer, since indeed $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ is larger for larger $`F_\mathrm{X}`$, although in this case we expect the flux to be driven by accretion rate, rather than $`\xi `$ and/or $`\eta `$. Since the average X–ray luminosity can be expected to be proportional to the accretion rate $`\dot{M}=\dot{m}\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}\dot{m}M`$, we have computed the EW varying either $`M`$ or $`\dot{m}`$ and keeping the other parameter constant. We again assumed that situation at $`r=10r_\mathrm{g}`$ is characteristic to the whole disc, and we adopted $`\xi =0.5`$ and $`\eta =1`$. Results presented in Fig. 10 show that indeed the EW of the Kα line ($`R`$) decreases with $`\dot{m}`$. The reason for the underlying increase of $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ with $`\dot{m}`$ is that the increase of $`H_\mathrm{d}`$ with $`\dot{m}`$ is slower than linear. The gravity parameter $`AH_\mathrm{d}/\dot{m}`$ then decreases with $`\dot{m}`$. We note that the vertically averaged SS solution predicts $`H_\mathrm{d}\dot{m}`$ and, in consequence, constant $`\tau _{\mathrm{hot}}`$ in the regime of $`P_{\mathrm{rad}}P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ and $`\kappa \kappa _{\mathrm{es}}`$. In our vertically explicit solution $`P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ is not neglected. Contribution from convective energy transfer contributes to departures from the SS solution as well.

## 6 Discussion

Presence of a hot, ionized layer on top of an X–ray illuminated accretion disc has inevitable observational consequences. Most importantly, it reduces the amplitude of the effective, observed “cold” reprocessed component. Since the thickness of the hot layer (hence the reduced amplitude) is correlated with the X–ray flux, a number of observable correlations follow from this model.

Generally, the predicted Fe Kα fluorescent line originating from the disc is weaker (relative to the continuum) when the source is brighter (provided that the illuminating spectrum has $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<2`$ so that there is no He-like Fe in the hot layer; NKK). This effect can be used to explain two observed phenomena. Firstly, the reduction of the amplitude of variability of the line with respect to the driving continuum ($`E>7`$ keV) in AGN monitoring campaigns (Reynolds 2000; Done et al. 2000; Chiang et al. 2000). Quantitatively, our computations indicate that it is not possible to obtain constant absolute line flux constant. That is, the relative amplitude of the reprocessed component decreases more slowly than $`F_\mathrm{X}^1`$. Nevertheless, reduction of the variablity amplitude by a few per cent is possible. However, the variability reduction is inversly related with the mean amplitude of the reprocessed component (i.e. observed at the mean flux level). Thus, in sources like MCG–6-30-15, where $`R1`$, this effect should actually be negligible. Moreover, the X–ray continuum in MCG–6-30-15 is rather soft ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }2`$), which implies a contribution from a highly ionized reprocessed component (NKK), that does not seem to have been observed in this source. Perhaps the hot skin developes on accretion discs in the other Seyfert 1 galaxies, where both $`R<1`$ and $``$constant Fe Kα line flux was observed (IC 4329a, Done et al. 2000; NGC 5548, Chiang et al. 2000). Quality of current RXTE data should be good enough to quantitatively test the model relation presented in Fig. 6.

Second, the decrease of the EW of the Fe Kα line in brighter sources (X–ray “Baldwin effect”) can be explained, if the inverse relation between efficiency of the line production and X–ray flux is applied to a sample of objects. This is not quite a trivial statement, since different average X–ray luminosities of sources are rather due to different mass accretion rates, than a variable output of some magnetic activity.

The model is also able to explain the correlation between the amplitude of the reprocessed component and X–ray spectral index, again observed both in a sample of objects (Zdziarski et al. 1999), and in the time history of a single object (GX 339-4, Gilfanov et al. 2000; GS 1124-68, Życki et al. 1998). Our computations of the correlation give perhaps somewhat different shape to what is observed, although the observed correlation is also subject to instrument–related uncertainties.

Another relation often looked for in data and used to constrain theoretical models is a relation between spectral index and hard X–ray flux. This is usually more difficult to obtain from data because of uncertain corrections from limited detector band pass to the entire X–ray band. Perhaps the most robust result was obtained by Done et al. (2000) for IC 4329a, where broad band spectral analysis revealed that the spectrum became harder when the X–rays ($`E>1`$ keV) decreased. Similar relation was reported for NGC 5548 (Magdziarz et al. 1998; Chiang et al. 2000) although this involved flux in 2–10 keV band. On the other hand the soft X–ray transient GS 1124-68 (Nova Muscae 1991) showed a clear hardening of its spectrum during its decline phase (Życki et al. 1998; Życki 2001), which was however correlated with an increase of the $`E>1\mathrm{keV}`$ flux by $`50`$ per cent (so called ’re-flare’). The model discussed in this work predicts anti-correlation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{hard}}`$, i.e. hardening of the spectrum when a source brightens, unless there are correlated changes of the X–ray source geometry and its luminosity.

The structure of the hot layer and resulting correlations between observables may also depend upon the model adopted for the underlying accretion disc. In this paper we adopted the $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ SS prescription for viscosity. However such discs are subject to a number of instabilities in the parameter range appropriate to AGN. Classical theory predics thermal and viscous instability whenever contribution of gas pressure to $`P_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ drops below 0.4 (Kato, Fukue & Mineshige 1998), which in practice means the region within a few hundreds $`r_\mathrm{g}`$, for $`\dot{m}`$ a few per cent. Therefore, models with a different viscosity prescription were sometimes considered, e.g. $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$, which are free from those instabilities. Solving the vertical structure of $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ discs for a number of ($`\xi ,\eta `$) values we find that the disc height is very similar (less than 1 per cent difference) to that of the corresponding $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ disc. The resulting relations between observable quantities are then practically identical to those for $`\alpha P_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ discs. Our current understanding of mechanisms providing viscosity strongly points out towards the magneto-rotational instability as the source of turbulence responsible for the viscosity (see Balbus & Hawley 1998 for review). Global magnetohydrodynamical simulations reveal the disc structure very different from the smooth, classical, hydrodynamical models (Hawley 2000). The spatial and temporal structure is highly turbulent and inhomogeneous, displaying fractal-like scalings (Kawaguchi et al. 2000). The relevance of the presented model to such inhomogeneous, clumpy discs needs further studies.

The presented model is currently one of at least three general scenarios within which it is possible to explain bulk of observed data from low/hard states of AGN and GBH: the other two are the cold disc with inner hot flow model (Esin et al. 1997 and references therein; Różańska & Czerny 2000b) and relativistically outflowing plasma model (Beloborodov 1999ab). None of them fully addresses all complexities of observed spectral and timing data, but all three account for the main facts: the range of observed spectral indices, the $`R`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation, relativistic smearing of Fe reprocessed features (see Poutanen 1998 for review and e.g. Di Salvo et al. 2001 for application to Cyg X-1). It also seems possible to incorporate into all of them the basic X–ray timing observables: the shape of PSD, time lags, auto- and cross-correlation functions (Poutanen & Fabian 1999; Böttcher & Liang 1999; see review in Poutanen 2000). Clearly, further progress can only be made if the models are developed in more details incorporating more relevant physical processes. Confronting detailed, quantitative predictions with good quality spectral and timing data should hopefully enable distinguishing which, if any, of our current ideas are closest to reality.

## 7 Conclusions

* The model does predict certain reduction of the variability of the Fe Kα line, compared to the variability of its driving continuum, although it does not seem possible to obtain absolutely constant line flux.
* The anti-correlation of the equivalent width of the Kα line and average source luminosity (the X–ray “Baldwin effect”) is reproduced in the model.
* Reduction of the amplitude of the observed, “cold” reprocessed component is more evident than any reduction of the spectral broadening (due to relativistic effects and Comptonization) of the Kα line.
* The model is able to quantitatively explain the observed $`R`$-$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation.
* The geometry of the X–ray sources is quite tightly constrained, if the model is to explain both timing and spectral observational data.

## Acknowledgments

We acknowledge helpful discussions with Bożena Czerny, Chris Done, Sergei Nayakshin and Grzegorz Wardziński. This work was supported in part by grants no. 2P03D01816 and 2P03D01718 of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN).


text:
# Twists and spectral triples for isospectral deformations.

## 1. Introduction

The isospectral deformations, which have been introduced by Connes and Landi , with the examples of the noncommutative 3 and 4 spheres, have attracted recently much attention.

The deformation itself, which, looking only at the algebra is of the ”star deformation” (Moyal) type, has been discussed in other contexts and the construction of similar, physically motivated examples can be found in recent works by Kulish and Mudrov  as well as in Paschke Ph.D. thesis .

On the mathematical side (though also with a physical motivation) it could be traced back to sixties  or, more recently, to the works of Rieffel , Dubois-Violette  and Mourre .

However, only after  it became apparent that these kind of deformation allows to describe a real noncommutative spin manifold in the sense of real spectral triples. Moreover, their geometry is distinct from the most of other known deformations allowing for definition of $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ elements, no dimension drop and the transfer of most geometric features from the commutative case .

In this paper we discuss the notion of symmetries of the spectral triples for isospectral deformations. The existence of quantum group symmetries for isospectral deformations has been first noted by Connes and Dubois-Violette . Here, for the purpose of making connections with the work on symmetries of spectral triples  we have independently developed a dual approach (using Lie algebras and not Lie groups). We demonstrate that the twist by a Cartan subalgebra provides a deformed symmetry of the isospectral deformation and that it is an isometry of the deformed manifold.

## 2. Symmetries of the isospectral deformations

The isospectral deformation has appeared in the construction of the examples of noncommutative 4 spheres, which have the same instanton bundle as the ”classical” sphere. One of the crucial questions posed by the construction was whether the constructed spheres still are symmetric, i.e. whether the natural $`SO(5)`$ symmetries (or, respectively, $`SO(4)`$ for the 3-sphere) are preserved (in the form of deformed Hopf algebras) and whether the constructed spectral triples are symmetric in the sense of .

Here, we shall present the symmetry in terms of the deformation of the universal enveloping algebra acting on the deformed algebra. We shall use both a general approach as well as the description in terms of generators and relations, the latter to make connections with the known specific examples. This enabled us to make connection  with the work of Rieffel  and to present the isospectral deformation (on the algebraic level) as a special case of the strict deformation quantization as described elsewhere .

Let $`H`$ be a Hopf algebra (symmetry algebra), which contains two independent, mutually commuting generators of $`U(1)`$ symmetries, i.e. operators $`h_1,h_2`$ such that:

$$[h_1,h_2]=0,\mathrm{}h_i=1h_i+h_i1.$$

Consider an algebra $`𝒜`$ on which $`H`$ acts from the left. The generators $`h_i`$ act on $`𝒜`$ as generators of mutually independent $`U(1)`$ symmetries.

###### Remark 1.

With respect to the action of $`h_1,h_2`$ we can select out elements in $`𝒜`$ of degree $`(n_1,n_2)`$, we say that $`t𝒜`$ is of degree $`(n_1,n_2)`$ iff:

(1)
$$\begin{array}{cc}h_1t=n_1t,\hfill & h_2t=n_2t.\hfill \end{array}$$

###### Remark 2.

The product in the algebra $`𝒜`$ can be deformed, first on elements of given degree, and then extending the deformation by linearity:

(2)
$$ab=ab\lambda ^{n_1^an_2^b},$$

where $`\lambda `$ is a complex number such that $`|\lambda |=1`$.

This is the crucial step of the construction of the isospectral deformation as described in , for future reference we shall denote the deformed algebra by $`𝒜_\lambda `$.

This deformation, can be extended, in the case of a differential manifold and a Lie algebra acting on the differential functions, to all $`C^{\mathrm{}}`$ functions .

It would be useful to introduce a quantization map:

$$𝒜a\underset{¯}{a}𝒜_\lambda ,$$

so that the Eq.2 could be rewritten as:

(3)
$$\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}=\underset{¯}{ab}\lambda ^{n_1^an_2^b},$$

Before we proceed with the deformation of the symmetry and the generalization of the above deformation, let us observe that the star structure of the algebra $`𝒜_\lambda `$ could be also deformed:

(4)
$$(\underset{¯}{a})^{}=\lambda ^{n_1^an_2^a}\underset{¯}{(a^{})},$$

### 2.1. Example: Lie algebras of rank $`n2`$

Let $`U(𝔤)`$ be the universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ with the Cartan matrix $`a_{ij}`$, and the set of generators in the Chevalley basis: $`h_i`$, which commute with each other (we assume that the rank of the Lie algebra is at least 2).

(5)
$$[h_i,h_j]=0,$$

and $`x_k^\pm `$, which satisfy:

(6) $`[h_i,x_j^\pm ]=\pm a_{ij}x_j^\pm .`$
(7) $`[x_i^+,x_j^{}]=\delta _{ij}h_i,`$
together with the Serre relations:

(8)
$$\underset{k=0}{\overset{1a_{ij}}{}}\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{1a_{ij}}{k}\right)(x_i^+)^kx_j^+(x_i^+)^{1a_{ij}k}=0.$$

Then, choosing, for instance, $`h_1,h_2`$ as the generators discussed earlier we have the desired situation.

## 3. The twisted symmetry $`H_\lambda `$

We shall construct here the deformation of the symmetry algebra $`H_\lambda `$, which is the twist (cocycle deformation) of $`H`$. Furthermore, we shall verify in the next section that this will be the symmetry of the deformed algebra $`𝒜_\lambda `$. It will have the same algebra structure and the same action of the generators on the elements of $`𝒜_\lambda `$, with the coalgebra and antipode modified by a twist. For a general theory, examples and details of twists see  and . We shall use capital letters to denote the elements of the deformed algebra, then, if no misinterpretation is possible we shall write $`\mathrm{}`$ instead of $`\mathrm{}_\lambda `$.

###### Definition 1.

Let us define $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ as an algebra isomorphic to $`H`$, however, with a twisted coproduct:

(9)
$$\mathrm{}_\lambda T=\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{}t\mathrm{\Psi }^1,$$

where $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is an invertible element of $`HH`$, which satisfies a cocycle condition:

(10) $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{12}(\mathrm{}\text{id})\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }_{23}(\text{id}\mathrm{})\mathrm{\Psi },`$
(11) $`(ϵ\text{id})\mathrm{\Psi }=1=(\text{id}ϵ)\mathrm{\Psi }.`$
In the particular example associated with the isospectral deformations we shall take an element $`\mathrm{\Psi }_c`$ associated with the Cartan subalgebra generated by $`h_1,h_2`$:

$$HH\mathrm{\Psi }_c=\lambda ^{H_1H_2},$$

and we shall call this particular twist $`H_\lambda `$. The deformed coproduct in $`H_\lambda `$ becomes:

(12)
$$\mathrm{}_\lambda T=\lambda ^{H_1H_2}(\mathrm{}t)\lambda ^{H_1H_2},$$

To see that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_c`$ satisfies the cocycle condition we shall verify it explicitly:

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{\Psi }_{12}(\mathrm{}\text{id})\mathrm{\Psi }=\lambda ^{H_1H_21}\left(\mathrm{}\text{id}\right)\lambda ^{H_1H_2}=\hfill \\ =\lambda ^{H_1H_21}\lambda ^{(1H_1+H_11)H_2}=\hfill \\ =\lambda ^{H_1H_211H_1H_2H_11H_2}.\hfill \end{array}$$

on the other hand:

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{\Psi }_{23}(\text{id}\mathrm{})\mathrm{\Psi }=\lambda ^{1H_1H_2}\left(\text{id}\mathrm{}\right)\lambda ^{H_1H_2}=\hfill \\ =\lambda ^{1H_1H_2}\lambda ^{H_1(1H_2+H_21)}=\hfill \\ =\lambda ^{H_1H_211H_1H_2H_11H_2}.\hfill \end{array}$$

which proves (10).

The counit does not change:

(13)
$$ϵ(T)=ϵ(t),$$

whereas the antipode is twisted by an element $`U`$:

(14)
$$U=\mathrm{\Psi }_{(1)}S(\mathrm{\Psi }_{(2)}),$$

(15)
$$S(T)=US(t)U^1.$$

### 3.1. Twist of $`U_\lambda (𝔤)`$

In the particular example of the Lie algebra $`𝔤`$, we have an algebra with the same relations as (5-8) . For simplicity we shall call $`a_{1i}=\alpha _i`$ and $`a_{2i}=\beta _i`$.

Then, using (12) we might calculate explicitly:

(16)
$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{}H_i=H_i1+1H_i,\hfill \\ \mathrm{}X_i^\pm =\lambda ^{H_1H_2}\left(X_i^\pm 1+1X_i^\pm \right)\lambda ^{H_1H_2}=\hfill \\ =X_i^\pm \lambda ^{\alpha _iH_2}+\lambda ^{\beta _iH_1}X_i^\pm ,\hfill \end{array}$$

The obtained object is a triangular Hopf algebra with the universal $``$-matrix:

$$=\lambda ^{H_2H_1H_1H_2}.$$

For completeness we give here the counit and the antipode calculated using (15):

(17)
$$\begin{array}{ccc}ϵ(H_i)=0,\hfill & & ϵ(X_i^\pm )=0,\hfill \\ SH_i=H_i\hfill & & SX_i^\pm =\lambda ^{\pm \beta _iH_1}X_i^\pm \lambda ^{\pm \alpha _iH_2},\hfill \end{array}$$

## 4. Twisted symmetry of the algebra $`𝒜_\lambda `$

We shall demonstrate now that the twisted Hopf algebra defined in the previous section is the symmetry algebra of the deformation $`𝒜_\lambda `$.

Even more, to see it, we shall use the generalization of the deformation of $`𝒜`$ by an arbitrary twist $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$.

###### Definition 2.

Let us define a deformed product for elements of $`𝒜`$ (we shall denote the deformed algebra $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$): If $`\underset{¯}{a},\underset{¯}{b}𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ then:

(18)
$$\underset{¯}{m}\left(\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}\right)=\underset{¯}{m\left(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(ab)\right)},$$

where $`m`$ is the multiplication map

$$m:𝒜𝒜abab𝒜.$$

and $`\underset{¯}{m}`$ is the multiplication in $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$:

$$\underset{¯}{m}:𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }.$$

We shall verify explicitly this defines an associative product:

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{¯}{a}(\underset{¯}{b}\underset{¯}{c})=\underset{¯}{m(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(a(\underset{¯}{b}\underset{¯}{c})}=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{((\text{id}\mathrm{})\mathrm{\Psi }^1)\mathrm{\Psi }_{23}^1(abc)}=\mathrm{}\hfill \end{array}$$

and using the cocycle condition for $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$;

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{}=\mathrm{}\underset{¯}{((\mathrm{}\text{id})\mathrm{\Psi }^1)\mathrm{\Psi }_{12}^1(abc)}=\hfill \\ =(\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b})\underset{¯}{c},\hfill \end{array}$$

###### Definition 3.

The action of the twisted symmetry $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ on $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ could be defined as the twisting of the action of $`H`$ on $`𝒜`$. If $`\underset{¯}{a}𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$, and $`TH_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ then:

(19)
$$T\underset{¯}{a}=\underset{¯}{(ta)},$$

where $`T`$ is deformed $`t`$.

To verify that this is an action of the Hopf algebra on $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ we have to verify first the compatibility with the product.

We shall present here a general proof, which we shall repeat later in the specific case of $`U_\lambda (𝔤)`$, using generators and homogeneous elements. The general proof uses the twisting relation (12).

Proof:  We have, for arbitrary $`TH_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ (which we identify with $`tH`$):

(20)
$$\begin{array}{c}T\left(\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}\right)=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{tm\left(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(ab)\right)}=\hfill \\ \underset{¯}{m\left(\left((t_{(1)}t_{(2)})\mathrm{\Psi }^1\right)(ab)\right)},\hfill \end{array}$$

where we have used the form of the product (18) the definition of the action (19) and the undeformed coproduct of $`t`$. On the other hand we have:

(21)
$$\begin{array}{c}T\left(\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b}\right)=\hfill \\ =(T_{(1)}\underset{¯}{a})(T_{(2)}\underset{¯}{b})=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{m}\left(\left(\mathrm{\Psi }(t_{(1)}t_{(2)})\mathrm{\Psi }^1\right)(\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b})\right)=\hfill \\ =m\underset{¯}{\left(\left(\mathrm{\Psi }^1\mathrm{\Psi }(t_{(1)}t_{(2)})\mathrm{\Psi }^1\right)(ab)\right]}=\hfill \\ =m\underset{¯}{\left((t_{(1)}t_{(2)})\mathrm{\Psi }^1\right)(ab)},\hfill \end{array}$$

which ends the proof.

###### Remark 3.

In particular, $`H_\lambda `$ is the symmetry of the deformed $`𝒜_\lambda `$ algebra.

## 5. The star structure

Suppose that $`H`$ is a star Hopf algebra and that the action on $`𝒜`$ is compatible with the star structures on both algebras:

(22)
$$ta^{}=\left((St)^{}a\right)^{}.$$

###### Lemma 1.

The twisted algebra $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is a star Hopf algebra provided that $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Psi }^1`$ (which for the twist by the Cartan subalgebra translates to: $`H_1^{}H_2^{}=H_1H_2`$).

This follows directly form (12).

We shall prove that the action is compatible with the star structure (4), however to prove it we shall rewrite (4) in a more general way:

(23)
$$\underset{¯}{a}^{}=\underset{¯}{(U^1a)^{}},$$

where $`U`$ is as defined in (14).

(24)
$$\begin{array}{c}T\underset{¯}{a}^{}=T\underset{¯}{((U^1a)^{})}=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{t(U^1a)^{})}=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{(St)^{}U^1a)^{}}\hfill \end{array}$$

on the other hand:

(25)
$$\begin{array}{c}T\underset{¯}{a}^{}=((ST)^{}\underset{¯}{a})^{}=\hfill \\ =\left((U(St)U^1)^{}\underset{¯}{a}\right)^{}=\hfill \\ =\left(\underset{¯}{U(St)^{}U^1a}\right)^{}=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{(U^1U(st)^{}U^1a)^{}}=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{(St)^{}U^1a)^{}}.\hfill \end{array}$$

where we have used $`U^1=U^{}`$. This follows from $`\mathrm{\Psi }^{}=\mathrm{\Psi }^1`$ .

### 5.1. The action of $`U_\lambda (𝔤)`$

For completeness we mention that one could always give the definition (19) using the generators alone:

(26) $`X_i^\pm \underset{¯}{T}=\underset{¯}{x_i^\pm T},`$
(27) $`H_i\underset{¯}{T}=\underset{¯}{h_iT},`$
and then extend it to the whole of $`U_\lambda (𝔤)`$ for every $`T𝒜_\lambda `$.

To verify the compatibility of this action with the deformed product in $`𝒜_\lambda `$ clearly only action of $`X_i^\pm `$ must be checked, as the coproduct of $`H_i`$ remains not changed. Before we start let us observe:

###### Remark 4.

If $`T𝒜`$ is homogeneous with degree $`(n_1,n_2)`$ then $`x_i^\pm T`$ is also homogeneous with degree $`(n_1\pm a_{1i},n_2\pm a_{2i})`$. This follows directly from (6).

Proof:  Consider $`X_i^\pm (\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b})`$, where $`a,b`$ are homogeneous elements of $`𝒜`$. On one hand:

(28)
$$X_i^\pm (\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b})=\lambda ^{n_1^an_2^b}\left(\underset{¯}{x_i^\pm (ab)}\right),$$

on the other hand, calculating it directly:

(29)
$$\begin{array}{cc}\hfill X_i^\pm (\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{b})& =\left(X_i^\pm \underset{¯}{a}\right)\left(\lambda ^{\alpha _iH_2}\underset{¯}{b}\right)+\left(\lambda ^{\beta _iH_1}\underset{¯}{a}\right)\left(X_i^\pm \underset{¯}{b}\right)\hfill \\ & =\underset{¯}{(x_i^\pm a)}\underset{¯}{b}\lambda ^{\alpha _in_2^b}+\lambda ^{\beta _in_1^a}\underset{¯}{a}\underset{¯}{(x_i^\pm b)}\hfill \\ & =\lambda ^{\alpha _in_2^b}\lambda ^{(n_1^a\pm \alpha _i)n_2^b}\underset{¯}{(x_i^\pm a)b}+\lambda ^{\beta _in_1^a}\lambda ^{n_1^a(n_2^b\pm \beta _i)}\underset{¯}{a(x_i^\pm b)}\hfill \\ & =\lambda ^{n_1^an_2^b}\left(\underset{¯}{x_i^\pm (ab)}\right).\hfill \end{array}$$

## 6. Differential structures

Differential structures on twisted Hopf algebras (and their duals) has been extensively studied by Majid and Oeckl , where the stability of bicovariant calculi under twisting has been shown. We briefly restate these results for the particular situation of the differential calculi over $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ invariant under the action of $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$.

Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜)`$ be the differential algebra of forms over the algebra $`𝒜`$. We shall assume that the $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜)`$ is invariant with respect to the action of $`H`$, i.e. the action of $`H`$ extends on $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜)`$ and intertwines the exterior derivative:

(30)
$$Ht(d\omega )=d(t\omega ),$$

By using the same procedure as in the case of the deformation of $`𝒜`$ we simply deform $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜)`$ by modifying the product using (18). In particular, for two forms of homogeneous degree (defined similarly as for the elements of $`𝒜`$) we have:

(31)
$$\underset{¯}{\omega }\underset{¯}{\rho }=\lambda ^{n_\omega ^1n_\rho ^2}\underset{¯}{(\omega \rho )},$$

thus extending the quantization map to the differential algebra.

First we shall prove that on $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi })`$ there exists an exterior derivative making it a differential algebra.

###### Lemma 2.

The exterior derivative defined as:

(32)
$$d\underset{¯}{\omega }=\underset{¯}{d\omega },$$

makes $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi })`$ a differential algebra.

We need to verify the Leibniz rule (it is obvious that $`d^20`$). This follows, however, directly from the graded Leibniz rule of the undeformed differential algebra and the relation (32).

###### Lemma 3.

The deformed symmetry algebra acts on the quantized differential complex $`\mathrm{\Omega }(𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi })`$.

It remains only to verify that the action commutes with the external derivative.

$$\begin{array}{c}T\underset{¯}{d\omega }=\underset{¯}{td\omega }=\hfill \\ =\underset{¯}{d(t\omega )}.\hfill \end{array}$$

and using (32) we see that the action of $`T`$ is well-defined.

Similarly one verifies that the star structure (if defined for the original differential complex) is preserved.

## 7. Spectral triples

Let us assume that there exists a spectral triple for the algebra $`𝒜`$, i.e. we have all the data : Hilbert space $``$ on which $`𝒜`$ is represented as bounded operators, the Dirac operator $`D`$ (grading $`\gamma `$ in case of even dimensions and $`J`$ for real spectral triples) satisfying all the axioms as defined in . Additionally, we assume that the spectral triple is symmetric (as defined in ), so that there exists the action of an Hopf algebra $`H`$ on $`𝒜`$, and that the crossproduct of $`H`$ and $`𝒜`$ is represented on the Hilbert space. We call $`H`$ isometry if the representation of $`H`$ commutes with $`D`$.

Now we can state the main lemma:

###### Lemma 4.

The deformation of the algebra $`𝒜`$ by a twist $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ by a Cartan subalgebra allows for the representation of $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and the crossproduct of $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ with $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ on the same Hilbert space. Moreover, with the Dirac operator $`D`$, as taken from the undeformed spectral triple we shall have a spectral triple for $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$, which, moreover, will be invariant under the twisted Hopf algebra $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$.

The sketch of the construction of the deformed spectral triple has been given in  (Theorem 6), here we only need to verify that $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is the symmetry of algebra.

We need to define the representation of $`𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ on the Hilbert space, which gives rise to the representation of the crossproduct.

For $`v`$, $`\underset{¯}{a}𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ we have:

(33)
$$\underset{¯}{a}v=\mu \left(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(av)\right),$$

where $`\mu `$ denotes the representation of $`𝒜`$, $`\mu (av)=av`$ Clearly, for $`LH_\mathrm{\Psi }`$, $`a𝒜_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`v`$ we have:

(34)
$$L(\underset{¯}{a}v)=l\mu \left(\mathrm{\Psi }^1(av)\right)=\mu \left((\mathrm{}l)\mathrm{\Psi }^1(av)\right),$$

where we have used the known form of the representation of the $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$, which is the same as this of $`H`$ ($`l`$ is ”undeformed” $`L`$). On the other hand:

$$L(\underset{¯}{a}v)=\underset{¯}{\mu }\left(\mathrm{\Psi }(\mathrm{}l)\mathrm{\Psi }^1(\underset{¯}{a}v)\right),$$

where $`\underset{¯}{\mu }`$ is the representation of the deformed algebra $`\mu (\underset{¯}{a}v)=\underset{¯}{a}v`$. But using (33) we obtain the same result as in (34).

Since the representation of $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is then the same as $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ and $`D`$ does not change as well, it follows at once that $`H_\mathrm{\Psi }`$ will be the isometry of the deformed spectral triple.

## 8. Conclusions

As we have shown, the isospectral deformation has a Hopf algebra isometry, which is a twist of the classical Lie algebra symmetry of the commutative space. Some physical models based on twists have already been described in the literature, for instance, the twisted Lorenz group and Minkowski space, which has been discussed by Kulish and Mudrov in .

Since the algebraic form of the symmetries remains intact and only the coproduct changes one could expect modifications with respect to ”undeformed physics” not on the one-particle level but only on the level of interactions. It remains to verified, especially for gauge theories, whether such deformations are physically plausible.

Acknowledgements: While finishing this paper we have learned of a similar work by Joseph Varilly  who developed the description of the symmetries dual to the presented above.

The author would also like to thank Michel Dubois-Violette, J.M.Gracia-Bondía, Gianni Landi, John Madore, Mario Pachke and Harold Steinacker for helpful discussions on many topics.