text:
# Macroscopic equations for pattern formation in mixtures of microtubules and motors

## I Introduction

The emergence of complex patterns and correlated fluctuations is a characteristic of many out of equilibrium situations. Living organisms provide many examples, ranging from the flocking of birds, the social organization of bacterial colonies, to internal reorganization of a cell during division.

At the molecular level, motors and microtubules are frequently the ingredients responsible for construction and motion. Molecular motors are the proteins that convert chemical energy to mechanical energy, and have been extensively studied. Microtubules, consisting of a subunit protein called tubulin provide the scaffolding for many cell constructs, as well as “railways” for transport of proteins. In particular, microtubules have a polarity that provides a direction for the transport of motors.

One of the many processes in which motors and microtubules are involved is cell division. They are indeed the main ingredients of mitotic spindles which serve to move apart the duplicated chromosomes of eucaryotic cells. To elucidate some of the physical mechanisms involved, several in vitro experiments on mixtures of microtubules and motors have been carried out. Even these simple mixtures result in interesting patterns: At an initial stage the microtubules form an aster with their “plus” ends pointing towards a center. The kinesin based beads move along the microtubules towards this center. In a confined geometry, the aster pattern is then destabilized, giving way to a vortex in which the motors rotate around a center. At larger scales and in unconfined geometries, a variety of self-organized patterns are obtained upon varying the motor concentration. With increasing concentration, an array of vortices, a mixture of asters and vortices, a collection of asters, and bundles of microtubules emerge.

The motivation of this paper is to describe some of the patterns observed in these experiments. There are in fact already several models of these phenomena in the literature, starting with the simulations reported in the original paper on the patterns. A two-dimensional model for the orientations of microtubules was used to produce inhomogeneous stripe patterns. Another recent model introduces a convection-diffusion equation for motor density in the presence of the microtubule array. This model results in a density profile of motors in asters which decays as a power-law.

Our approach is to take a macroscopic perspective, introducing two continuous fields $`m(\stackrel{}{r},t)`$ and $`\stackrel{}{T}(\stackrel{}{r},t)`$ to describe the local motor density and tubule orientation, respectively. The central input to these equations is that the motor density is transported along the tubule direction, while the tubules are in turn aligned by the motors. In the in vitro experiments, the physical origin of the latter is that the motor complexes can attach to two nearby tubules and their motion along the two provides a force that makes them parallel. In writing such continuum equations for densities, we are following recent studies modeling the flocking of birds, and the organization of growing bacteria. Simulations of these equations reproduce asters and vortices in agreement with experiment. Analytical solutions also provide further insights on the patterns. For example, we find that the motor density is much larger close to the center of an aster, than in a vortex. The resulting increased strain energy on the tubules provides a driving force for asters to break off to form vortices, in qualitative agreement with experiments.

The global evolution of the tubule pattern is sensitive to the initial density of motors. At high density, it is similar to coarsening of XY spins following a quench from high temperatures. With periodic boundary conditions, the ultimate pattern is one of aligned tubules, with the motors going around in a uniform current. Such a pattern is not possible with closed boundary conditions, which typically lead to a single vortex in the center. At lower densities, fluctuations play a strong role, and we observe a novel phenomenon of arrested coarsening, in which an inhomogeneous pattern of tubules freezes at some point in time. This occurs because the transport of motors produces regions in which the density of motors is very low (effectively zero). When such regions percolate throughout the system, no further rearrangement of tubules is possible.

To better understand the dynamics of coarsening and sizes of the arrested domains, we also simulated the equations in one dimension. Even in this case, the equations exhibit a variety of interesting patterns that depend on the boundary conditions: (i) With periodic boundary conditions, there is a phase transition between a state with a uniform current of motors running along tubules aligned in one direction (at high motor densities); and one in which there is a localized cluster of motors moving at constant velocity around the system (at low densities). Note that both patterns correspond to a broken symmetry (of the two possible tubule orientations) in one dimension. In contrast to the equilibrium Ising model, this symmetry breaking appears to persist in the presence of noise (mimicking finite temperatures). (ii) Reflecting boundary conditions lead to an oscillating front sweeping back and forth across the system; yet another solitonic solution to the equations. (iii) Closed boundary conditions give rise to initial coarsening, and eventual freezing of the tubules into domains. The domain size for frozen tubules depends on the value of the average motor density. Unlike its two dimensional counterpart, the motor density continues to evolve after the tubules are frozen, and all motors are eventually localized in one cluster.

## II Model

We introduce the local motor density $`m(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$, and the tubule orientation field $`\stackrel{}{T}(\stackrel{}{x},t)`$. The conservation of motors leads to the continuity equation

$$\frac{m}{t}=J_m,$$
(1)
where for the motor current, we shall assume the form

$$J_m=Dm+Am\stackrel{}{T}.$$
(2)
Here, $`D`$ is the diffusion constant for motors, while $`A`$ is a coefficient describing their transport along the tubule direction $`\stackrel{}{T}`$. These are the lowest order terms in an expansion in $`m`$; higher order terms are expected and may become important at high motor densities. While tubules generally grow and fragment; their lengths can be stabilized by addition of taxol. We model this preference towards a particular length by an energy function, $`\alpha T^2/2+\beta T^4/4`$, similar to that used to describe spins in the Landau-Ginzburg equation. In the same spirit, we associate an energy cost of $`K(\stackrel{}{T})^2/2`$ with variations in the orientation of tubules. Extremizing such an energy function leads to

$$\frac{\stackrel{}{T}}{t}=\alpha \stackrel{}{T}\beta T^2\stackrel{}{T}+(K\stackrel{}{T}).$$
(3)
Since the alignment of tubules is entirely by motors, we set $`K=\gamma m`$. Of course, since this is a non-equilibrium process, there is no a priori reason for the dynamics to originate from the minimization of an energy functional. A more systematic approach is to include all terms allowed by symmetries. In this case the equation for $`\stackrel{}{T}/t`$ may include terms $`\gamma m^2\stackrel{}{T}`$ and $`\gamma ^{}m\stackrel{}{T}`$ with different coefficients. For ease of description we shall start with the case $`\gamma =\gamma ^{}`$, so that the dynamics is similar to minimizing an energy locally proportional to $`\gamma m(\stackrel{}{x},t)(\stackrel{}{T})^2/2`$.

Finally, we can bring the equations into simpler form by rescaling to

$`{\displaystyle \frac{m}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`^2m(m\stackrel{}{T}),`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{}{T}}{t}}`$ $`=`$ $`C\stackrel{}{T}\left(1T^2\right)+(m\stackrel{}{T}),`$ (5)
where we now measure length in units of $`\sqrt{\beta /\alpha }D/A`$, time in units of $`\beta D/(\alpha A^2)`$, motor density in units of $`D/\gamma `$, and the tubule density vector in units of $`\sqrt{\alpha /\beta }`$. The remaining parameter $`C`$ is given by $`\beta D/A^2`$.

## III Simulations

We perform numerical simulations on a two-dimensional $`L\times L`$ lattice, adapting the Crank–Nicholson scheme with the ADI operator splitting method. The equations are discretized with spatial intervals of $`\mathrm{\Delta }x=\mathrm{\Delta }y=1`$, and time intervals of $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=10^2`$. At the edges of a finite system, we employ one of several possible boundary conditions: Reflecting boundaries have fixed inward pointing microtubules described by

$$\stackrel{}{T}|_{\text{boundary}}=\widehat{n},$$
(6)
where $`\widehat{n}`$ is the normal outward vector at the boundary. This discourages motors from approaching an edge. By contrast, with parallel boundary conditions the microtubules are tangential to the boundaries, while closed boundary conditions place no restriction on the tubules. In all these cases, there is no current transporting motors outside the system. There is no restriction on the motor current when periodic boundary conditions are applied, although again the total number of motors is conserved.

We start with an initial condition in which the motor density is uniformly set to $`m_0`$ at all points, while the tubule field has magnitude $`|\stackrel{}{T}_0|=10^3`$ and random orientations. After a transient period, the homogeneous configuration self organizes into patterns that depend on the value of average motor density $`m_0`$, as well as the growth constant $`C`$. Figure 1 shows a mixture of vortices and asters which arises as the stationary pattern for $`m_0=0.01`$. Both asters (tubules pointing inward) and vortices (tubules going around) are clearly visible and randomly arranged throughout the system. The motor density now becomes inhomogeneous, with motors accumulating in the centers of vortices and asters \[Fig. 2\]. The asters are more visible and dominant as the initial motor density increases, as shown for $`m_0=0.15`$ in Fig. 3. However, higher densities lead to a single vortex as in Fig. 4 for $`m_0=0.5`$.

The dynamics of formation of a large vortex from the random initial conditions is depicted in Fig. 5. This figure corresponds to reflecting boundary conditions, with $`C`$=10, and $`m_0`$=0.15. Since the initial tubule length is smaller than unity, the first stages of evolution are the lengthening of tubules as depicted in Figs. 5(a) and 5(b), for times $`t=0.6`$ and $`t=1`$, respectively. During this stage the directions of the tubules do not change and remain randomly distributed. The next stage involves reorientations of the tubules. Since a uniform alignment is incompatible with the boundary conditions, an aster forms in the center as depicted in Fig. 5(c), for $`t=120`$. Motors are now transported along the tubules and accumulate at the center of the aster. At longer times, the aster pattern gives way to a vortex as in Fig. 5(d) for $`t=1200`$. The vortex pattern is stable, although its center may move around depending on the choice of boundary conditions. This dynamics is consistent with the experimental observation that vortices form from the destabilization of asters.

To model pattern formation in larger systems in which boundary effects are less important, we also performed simulations with closed boundary conditions. This change in the boundary condition does not qualitatively alter the pattern formation process. At low motor densities, we still observe a mixture of vortices and asters, followed by a collection of asters as $`m_0`$ is increased. However, at large motor density, after formation of a large vortex at the center, motors also pile up at several points on the boundary, as indicated in Fig. 6.

Equations (4) and (5) are deterministic; the only stochasticity appearing through the initial conditions. However, randomness and noise are certainly present in the experimental situations. In particular, microtubules are known to constantly grow and shrink though a dynamic instability, while asters are still observed under such conditions. To make sure that the patterns observed in our simulations survive the addition of noise, we also introduced a stochastic noise in the tubule evolution equation. We observed that the self-organized patterns are stable at small noise, but that sufficiently large noise causes a phase transition to homogeneous mixtures (bundles of microtubules in a uniform motor density). Alternatively, we observe that for a fixed amount of noise, patterns are destroyed at motor densities lower than a critical $`m_c`$, but are qualitatively unchanged otherwise. (The value of $`m_c`$ is 0.005 if the noise distributed uniformly between $`1`$ and $`1`$.)

## IV Aster and vortex solutions

We can easily find analytical solutions to Eqs. (4) and (5) that describe the motor density in the center of an aster or vortex. To this end, we look for stationary solutions, $`_tm=_t\stackrel{}{T}=0`$, with radial symmetry. In an aster the tubules are directed towards the center and $`\stackrel{}{T}=\widehat{r}`$, where $`\widehat{r}`$ is the unit radial vector. Balancing the diffusive current $`_rm`$, with that transported along tubules gives an exponential form

$$m_{\mathrm{aster}}(r)=m(0)\mathrm{exp}(r).$$
(7)
This exponential profile is indeed verified by the simulations as depicted in Fig. 7.

The tubules go around the center of a vortex, and $`\stackrel{}{T}=\widehat{\theta }`$, where $`\widehat{\theta }`$ indicates the tangential unit vector. Motors are then transported in a uniform circular current by the tubules. To ensure that there is no radial current of motors we need $`_r(r_rm)=0`$, whose solution is

$$m_{\mathrm{vortex}}(r)=M\mathrm{log}\left(r/R\right),$$
(8)
where $`R`$ is a long distance cut-off, of the order of the vortex size. A logarithmic fit to the simulated vortex motor density profile is shown in Fig. 8.

The profile of motors in quasi two dimensional asters has been studied theoretically and experimentally in Ref. . In this study the tubules can grow to form quite long tracks, and their density also falls off away from the aster center. These differences in tubule behavior (as opposed to our case where tubules have uniform density and length) lead to predicted power law decays of the motor density profile.

The aster and vortex configurations of tubules are related to topological defects in the XY model. However, they are equivalent defects in the XY model as one can be deformed into the other through a $`90^{}`$ rotation. The presence and rearrangement of motors in our problem breaks this symmetry and the two configurations become inequivalent. In particular, the two defects have very different static energies $`E=d^2rm(r)(T)^2/2`$. In the aster, the motors are concentrated close to the center leading to a high strain energy. By contrast, the motor density in a vortex in more uniform. Consequently, for the same number of motors, a large aster has much higher energy than a large vortex. Since the dynamics tends to minimize this energy, we have an explanation for why asters give way to the more stable vortices. Presumably, finite size effects in smaller asters, of the order of the decay length implicit in Eq. (7), account for their stability at small motor densities as in Fig. 3.

## V Arrested Coarsening

If the motor density is maintained at a uniform and fixed value, the dynamics of the tubules is identical to the coarsening of an XY system following a quench from high temperatures. This problem has been extensively studied and (up to logarithmic corrections) the typical length scale of the pattern coarsens as $`\xi t^{1/2}`$. In our case, the motors rearrange themselves in the landscape of the tubules and the coarsening scenario is modified when the motor density fluctuations become significant.

At high motor densities there are enough motors left over after formation of asters and vortices to cause further rearrangements of the tubules, and coarsening continues towards the final pattern consistent with the boundary conditions. However, at low densities the motors quickly migrate to the centers of asters and vortices. The little motor density left in the regions in between defects may then be too small to cause further realignment of tubules which became frozen. We call this phenomenon arrested coarsening of tubules. The limiting value of $`m_0`$ for the onset of arrested coarsening in fact depends on the growth constant of tubules $`C`$, as indicated by the “phase diagram” sketched in Fig. 9.

## VI One dimension

To further understand the patterns, we examine the equations in one dimension, where more detailed simulations are possible. In particular, we consider scalar fields $`m(x,t)`$ and $`T(x,t)`$ evolving as

$`_tm`$ $`=`$ $`_{x}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}m_x(Tm),`$ (9)
$`_tT`$ $`=`$ $`C(TT^3)+_x(m_xT).`$ (10)
Such equations may be appropriate to describe the movement of myosin motors along quasi-one dimensional bundles of actin filaments which occurs in muscle contraction, and may be responsible for other types of cell motion. Bundles of actin molecules can be formed in vitro in mixtures with other inert polymers. These bundles consist of random mixtures of actin molecules oriented in the two possible direction. However, in the presence of myosin motors and ATP, there is a sorting of polarity and active contraction of polar filaments. While the bundles are usually linear with open ends, then sometimes assemble into a ring. It may also be possible to artifically confine other mixtures of tubules and motors in quasi-one dimensional containers with various boundary conditions. In fact, we observe that the solutions to Eqs. (9) and (10) are quite sensitive to boundary conditions. Specifically, simulations show the following results:

(i) Periodic boundary conditions correspond to placing the system on a closed loop. We observe two types of symmetry breaking, depending on the initial density of motors. If $`m_0`$ is larger than a critical value of $`m_c`$ ($`m_c0.04`$ for $`C=1`$), the tubule pattern coarsens until the tubules are all aligned in one direction $`(T=+1`$ or $`1)`$. This is accompanied by a uniform current of motors that goes around the system. This symmetry breaking is similar to that of an Ising model. However, unlike the equilibrium Ising model, the broken symmetry survives in the presence of random noise (simulating finite temperatures) in Eq. (10). Any domains of opposite spin formed due to randomness are annealed by a rush of motors to the domain walls. The symmetry breaking in the presence of noise is due to advection term in Eq. (9), and active transportation of motors along the tubules. Indeed we checked that when the advection term is removed, the presence of noise in Eq. (10) leads to finite domains.

If $`m_0`$ is smaller than $`m_c`$, a novel final state emerges in which the motors gather together in a cluster that moves around the loop with a constant velocity. The tubules are again ordered in one direction, except near the cluster, where they briefly take the opposite alignment. Figure 10 shows that the configurations of the tubules and the profile of the motor density for $`m_0=0.02<m_c`$. We have verified by direct numerical integration that Eqs. (9) and (10) do indeed support such a solitonic solution. However, the mathematical details are not in the spirit of this article, and will be presented elsewhere.

(ii) Reflecting boundary conditions were imposed by requiring the tubules at the edges to point inward, i.e. $`[T(0)=+1`$ and $`T(L)=1]`$. There is an initial coarsening period in which domains of $`+1`$ and $`1`$ grow inward from the respective edges. However, in the final pattern the boundary between the $`+1`$ and $`1`$ domains is not stationary, but sweeps back and forth across the system! The motors are again concentrated at the interface, with a solitonic profile as indicated in Fig. 11.

(iii) Closed boundary conditions were also applied, with no restrictions on the value of $`T`$ at the edges, but setting the outward motor current to zero. Above a critical motor density, coarsening of tubules proceeds to a single domain of the size of the system, $`L`$. Following the tubules, the motors then pile up at one end of the system. The low density behavior in this case is similar to the arrested coarsening observed in the two dimensional case: The initial growth of $`+1`$ and $`1`$ domains is stopped at some point due to the local absence of motors necessary for continuing realignments. Figure 12 shows the average domain size, as a function of the average motor density. At the point when tubule evolution is stopped, the motor density has peaks at $`(+,)`$ domain boundaries. However, as time goes on, there is a slower ripening process in which the motors gradually diffuse against the unfavorable domains, and eventually aggregate at one point in the system, as in Fig. 13. (It is not clear if this process is truly absent in two dimension, or merely takes too long to observe in simulations. There are similarities to the localization problem in which 2 is a critical dimension.)

There are similarities in the above behaviors to patterns and phase transitions in other one dimensional non-equilibrium processes. A localization transition is observed in a population with diffusion, drift, and reproduction in Refs. . This model of a bacterial colony living on an oasis in the presence of randomly fluctuating wind, shows extended, localized, mixed states, as well as extinction, as a function of the average growth rate and convection velocity. In our model, the tubules (in their disordered state) provide a similar source of random advection. Ordered states are also observed in a lattice model with two species of particles in which the mobility of one species depends on the density of the other. This model exhibits three phases: One with strong phase, a fluctuation-dominated phase, and another with uniform overall density. The couplings in our system between motors and tubules have similarities to the latter model, although the enforced conservation laws are different (there is no conservation of tubule orientations).

## VII Discussion

Given how little input is used to construct the macroscopic equations (tubules transport motors and are aligned in the process), it is encouraging that many features of the experimental patterns are reproduced. As in the experiments, we observe arrays of asters and vortices, and large single vortices (formed from the break up of asters). However, at high densities of motors, the experiments lead to irregularly arranged bundles of tubules, a feature not present in our model. The absence of tubule bundles indicates the limitations of the macroscopic approach. To reproduce the observed sequence of patterns, more physical input into the equations is necessary. For example, a potential modification is to include non-linear terms in the transported motor current to model the inter-particle interactions at high densities.

In models of highway traffic, the current actually diminishes at high density, and can be approximated by

$$J[m]=m+\stackrel{}{T}me^{m/m_{\mathrm{max}}},$$
(11)
where $`m_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is a characteristic density for saturation of current. Since the alignment of tubules is intimately connected to the motor current, similar modifications should appear in Eq. (5). As discussed earlier, because of the non-equilibrium nature of the process, the equation for $`_t\stackrel{}{T}`$ does not have to be obtained from the minimization of an energy density. In fact, to describe saturation effects on alignment of tubules, we modified Eq. (5) to

$$_t\stackrel{}{T}=C\stackrel{}{T}\left(1T^2\right)+m\stackrel{}{T}+me^{m/m_{\mathrm{max}}}^2\stackrel{}{T}+\eta ,$$
(12)
where $`\eta `$ is a stochastic noise. The sequence of tubule patterns obtained from these modified equations upon increasing initial motor density is depicted in Fig. 14. We observe that the single vortex pattern becomes unstable at high densities, and we may regard the high density phase as representing bundles of tubules. We also find that the patterns of vortices and asters are stable in the presence of noise in the following sense: If we average the whole configuration of tubules over time, the intermediate regions between defects are washed away while the defects survive.

The rich variety of behaviors observed in these simple equations are due to their nonequilibrium character. In the realm of equilibrium, for example, one dimensional systems at non-zero temperature are featureless and disordered. Clearly non-equilibrium effects can lead to symmetry breaking, and a rich interplay behaviors sensitive to boundaries. Biological systems can take advantage of such phenomena, and should indeed provide many interesting patterns in need of explanation.

We wish to thank F. J. Nédélec and P. De Wulf for helpful discussions. H.Y.L. is supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation through a fellowship. MK acknowledges the support of NSF grants DMR-98-05833 (at MIT) and PHY99-07949 (at ITP).


format: text

text:
# References

Anomalous Magnetic Moment of the Muon in a Composite Model

Prasanta Das111E-mail: pdas@mri.ernet.in , Santosh Kumar Rai222E-mail: skrai@iitk.ac.in , Sreerup Raychaudhuri333E-mail: sreerup@iitk.ac.in

Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208 016, India.

(March 31, 2004 )

We make a fresh evaluation of contributions to ($`g`$-2) of the muon in the framework of a preonic model with coloured vector-like leptons and heavy coloured $`Z`$ bosons and discuss their implications in the light of the recent Brookhaven measurement. It is shown that the observed deviation(s) can be accommodated within this framework with masses and couplings consistent with all constraints.

Ever since the original QED derivation of Schwinger, the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron — and the muon — has been a testing ground for the correctness of the Standard Model (SM). The most precise measurement of this parameter has been the recent measurement

$$a_\mu =\frac{g2}{2}=11659208(6)\times 10^{10}$$
(1)
by the E821 experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), which is the culmination of a series of measurements of ever-increasing accuracy over the past several years. Given the care and effort which has gone into this measurement, it is probably fair to say that this result is one of the most accurate ever achieved and a triumph of human ingenuity.

The theoretical situation is somewhat more murky. In the SM, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon arises from electromagnetic, weak and hadronic sources. While there is no problem in determining the first two using the basic electroweak theory, it is not possible to make a perturbative estimate of the hadronic contributions because the strong coupling constant is too large at the muon scale. Accordingly the lowest order vacuum polarisation in the hadronic contribution is calculated using a dispersion integral and the actual data on $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation to hadrons. With this input, the theoretical prediction is

$$a_\mu ^{(e^+e^{})}=11659181(8)\times 10^{10}$$
(2)
which means that the present measurement (Eqn. 1) deviates from the SM by

$$a_\mu ^{\mathrm{exp}}a_\mu ^{(e^+e^{})}=(2.7\pm 1.0)\times 10^9$$
(3)
which represents a 2.7$`\sigma `$ excess. On the other hand, the hadronic vacuum polarisation could also be determined by using data from hadronic $`\tau ^\pm `$ decays in combination with the CVC hypothesis, and this yields

$$a_\mu ^{(\tau ^+\tau ^{})}=11659196(8)\times 10^{10}$$
(4)
which is just a little more than 1$`\sigma `$ away from the experimental result.

In the normal course of events, one would trust the calculation of $`a_\mu ^{(e^+e^{})}`$ much more than that of $`a_\mu ^{(\tau ^+\tau ^{})}`$, because the $`e^+e^{}`$ data is much more clean and the number of theoretical assumptions are less. If we accept this, then it appears that the E821 experiment has observed the first real deviation from the SM in experimental data, which makes their result very exciting. This deviation constitutes an immediate challenge to theorists to find possible explanations, and several such analyses have already appeared in the literature. However, since scientists tend to be conservative, the $`a_\mu ^{(\tau ^+\tau ^{})}`$ calculation cannot and should not be ignored — especially as it is in much better agreement with the SM, which has been tested with spectacular success in so many other areas.

In this article, we shall take the middle ground, viz. we shall try to provide an explanation of the nearly 3$`\sigma `$ discrepancy between the measured $`a_\mu ^{\mathrm{exp}}`$ and the calculated $`a_\mu ^{(e^+e^{})}`$ in a model with new physics, but keeping in mind the fact that accepting the $`a_\mu ^{(\tau ^+\tau ^{})}`$ calculation would provide strong constraints on any such model. It has been pointed out that in order to explain a discrepancy of the observed magnitude in a low-energy phenomenon like the muon anomalous magnetic moment, it is necessary to invoke new physics with particle masses around the electroweak scale as well as couplings of at least electroweak strength. This makes it immediately clear that the new physics responsible for the BNL anomaly cannot be due to effects expected at $`𝒪(1\mathrm{TeV})`$, such as, for example, graviton exchanges in theories with extra dimensions and possible non-commutative effects in QED, which are two of the currently fashionable ideas. On the other hand, supersymmetry, which is the most popular way of going beyond the SM, can explain the observed excess, since it predicts new particles with the correct order of masses and couplings. In fact, several studies have already appeared in the literature which map out the portion of the supersymmetric parameter space which could give rise to the observed effect.

While it is gratifying to know that supersymmetric models constitute an acceptable explanation of the muon anomaly, it is also relevant and interesting to ask what other new physics options can give rise to such an effect. Suggestions already made in the literature vary from a scalar leptoquark exchange to lepton flavour-violation, exotic vector-like fermions, torsion fields in non-Einsteinian gravity models and possible non-perturbative effects at the 1 TeV order. Given the importance of the BNL result, many more suggestions will surely be forthcoming, in the fullness of time.

In this work, we revive earlier ideas that the excess contribution to the muon anomaly could be a signal for compositeness of the muon and of the weak gauge bosons. Given the well-known history of finding layers of substructure every time a significant increase in the resolving power of experiments has increased, it is surely reasonable to address the question whether the BNL anomaly could be the first hint of a new layer of substructure which may be discovered some time in the future. However, it is also a well-known fact that since the original suggestion several – in fact, one may say, dozens — of preonic models have been proposed in the literature. Different models among these have different virtues and various motivations, and it is not our purpose to make a comprehensive survey of these models. A generic feature of all these models, however, is the existence of excited leptons and gauge bosons, which are just excited states of the preonic combinations which make up ordinary leptons and gauge bosons. These excitations may be simple orbital excitations, which share the same set of flavour and colour quantum numbers as the SM particles, or they may have exotic flavour and colour charges. To fix our ideas, we concentrate on a well-known model, namely the so-called haplon model of Fritzsch and Mandelbaum, which has the prime virtues of simplicity and elegance444Another popular model is the rishon model of Harari and Seiberg. This has a simpler preonic spectrum than the haplon model, but by virtue of combining together several preons at a time it predicts many more exotic colour states..

The haplon model is based on the assumption that the leptons, quarks and weak gauge bosons of the SM (as also possible neutral and charged scalars) are not elementary particles, but are composed of pairs of preons called haplons. The fundamental symmetry of Nature is $`SU(3)_c\times U(1)_{em}\times SU(N)_h`$, which, of course, makes the photon and the gluons fundamental particles. The weak interaction is no longer a gauge interaction, but is interpreted in this scenario as a feeble van der Waals-type effect of the preonic gauge interaction $`SU(N)_h`$ (A variant with just a $`U(1)_h`$ instead of $`SU(N)_h`$ has also been proposed; however, it is hard to see how this could lead to preon confinement.) In this scenario, the weak isospin and hypercharge have a status similar to the isospin and hypercharge of the meson and baryon multiplets. The haplon model is, in many ways, a copy of the quark model at a deeper level, with $`SU(3)_c\times U(1)_{em}`$ replacing $`U(1)_{em}`$ and $`SU(N)_h`$ for the preonic interactions replacing $`SU(3)_c`$ for the quark interactions. The basic building blocks of matter, then, apart from the photon and gluon, are two fermionic preons $`\alpha (\mathrm{𝟑},\frac{1}{2},𝐍)`$ and $`\beta (\mathrm{𝟑},\frac{1}{2},𝐍)`$, and two scalar preons $`x(\mathrm{𝟑},\frac{1}{6},\overline{𝐍})`$ and $`y(\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}},\frac{1}{2},\overline{𝐍})`$. Using these, we can build up the entire SM by taking bound states of pairs of haplons, and interpret the three observed fermion families as representing orbital excitations of these bound states. Since it is known that sequential or mirror fermions other that these three families are ruled out by precision electroweak data, any further families must be vector-like in nature. The cause for these being vector-like, whereas the first three states are sequential, must be attributed to the dynamics of the bound state, which are as yet unknown.

A natural consequence of having bound pairs of particles belonging to either 3 or $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}}`$ of $`SU(3)_c`$, is to predict the existence of exotic particles such as

* Colour-octet $`W^\pm `$ bosons ($`W_8^+=\overline{\alpha }\beta `$ in a spin-1 state);
* Colour-octet $`Z`$ bosons ($`Z_8=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\alpha \overline{\alpha }+\beta \overline{\beta })`$ in a spin-1 state);
* Colour-octet neutral scalars ($`H_8=\frac{1}{2}(\alpha \overline{\alpha }+\beta \overline{\beta }+x\overline{x}+y\overline{y}`$) in a spin-0 state);
* Colour singlet and octet charged scalars ($`H_8^+=\overline{\alpha }\beta `$ in a spin-0 state);
* Colour singlet and octet leptoquarks ($`\mathrm{\Phi }^{+2/3}=\overline{x}y`$);
* Colour sextet quarks ($`u_6=\overline{\alpha }\overline{x}`$, $`d_6=\overline{\beta }\overline{x}`$);
* Colour-octet leptons ($`\mathrm{}_8^{}=\overline{\beta }\overline{y}`$, $`\nu _\mathrm{}8=\alpha y`$).

Since such exotic coloured objects would be produced copiously at hadron colliders, it is clear from their non-observation that that they must be rather heavy. In fact, direct searches for the coloured fermions leads to the following bounds: $`m_{q_6}>84`$ GeV, $`m_\mathrm{}_8>86`$ GeV and $`m_{\nu _8}>110`$ GeV. It is also clear from the non-observation of deviations from the SM predictions at hadron colliders that coloured $`W_8`$ and $`Z_8`$ bosons, as well as scalar leptoquarks (coloured or otherwise) must be rather heavy, with masses typically of the order of a few hundred GeV or a few TeV. Direct detection of such objects — if they exist — may, therefore, have to await the commissioning of the LHC. However, the $`a_\mu `$ measurement at BNL may just provide a window into this mass regime through virtual effects, and this is the motivation of the present work.

We address the question as to whether the existence of so many exotic particles can affect the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. It may be noted that the current deviation from the SM is typically an effect of the order of $`10^9`$, which makes it comparable to relativistic effects in everyday life. It is interesting to speculate that just as the tiny effect observed (or not observed) by Michelson was the first harbinger of relativity, so the tiny discrepancy observed at BNL could be the first indication of substructure. To this end we have considered the possible contributions to an excess muon magnetic moment from one-loop diagrams involving the exotic particle spectrum. Of these, the ones which are of greatest interest are of the following three types:

1. Vertex-type diagrams with a $`W_8^\pm `$ and/or a $`H^\pm `$/$`H_8^\pm `$ together with a neutrino (coloured or ordinary, as the case may be) in the loop;
2. Vertex-type diagrams with a $`Z_8^0`$ and/or a $`H^0`$/$`H_8^0`$ together with a muon (coloured or ordinary, as the case may be) in the loop;
3. Vertex-type diagrams with a scalar leptoquark $`\mathrm{\Phi }^{\pm 2/3}`$ or $`\mathrm{\Phi }_8^{\pm 2/3}`$ and a quark (ordinary or colour sextet) in the loop.

These follow the topology illustrated in Fig. 1($`ii`$).

In this work, we assume that the interactions of scalar bosons, coloured or otherwise, mimic those of the SM Higgs bosons, i.e. these scalars couple to particles with a strength proportional to the particle mass. As a result, their coupling to muons is very feeble and hence the effects of these scalars need not be considered any further. The situation is different for scalar leptoquarks, whose couplings have no SM analogy. While there are strong restrictions on the masses and couplings of scalar leptoquarks from the Fermilab Tevatron data, it has nevertheless been shown that scalar leptoquark exchanges can produce the desired excess in $`(g2)`$ of the muon. In this work, however, we exclude this interesting possibility. We also assume that the $`SU(N)_h`$ scale is very high — too high for any appreciable magnetic moment to arise directly from orbital excitations of the preons. Both of these possibilities have already been explored in the literature. We are thus concentrating on the remaining one out of three different ways in which an excess muon magnetic moment can be generated in a composite model.

The detailed Feynman rules for the vector boson interactions in the haplon model are given in Ref. . An interesting feature of these is that the interactions of the $`W_8^\pm `$ are chiral, whereas those of the $`Z_8`$ are vector-like. It is also worth noting that there is no mixing between the $`Z_8`$ and the photon, for obvious reasons, and hence, there is no analogue of the Weinberg angle in $`Z_8`$ interactions. The fact that the $`Z_8`$ interactions are vector-like allows us to evade any constraints from the electroweak precision data, provided we allow the colour octet muon to be practically degenerate with its coloured neutrino partner.

Figure 1. Illustrating ($`i`$) the preonic level diagram responsible for the $`\mu `$-$`\mu _8`$-$`Z_8`$ vertex $`\frac{ig_8}{2}\gamma _\lambda `$, and ($`ii`$) the corresponding one-loop diagram contributing to $`(g2)`$ of the muon.

It is well-known that chiral interactions lead to contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment which are strongly suppressed by the ratio of muon mass to the (large) scale of the new physics, and hence, it in not useful to consider the first type of diagram listed above. On the other hand, it is indeed possible to evaluate the new physics contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon at the one-loop level using the vector-like $`Z_8`$-$`\mu _8^\pm `$-$`\mu ^{}`$ interaction illustrated in Fig. 1. It is worth noting that the coupling constant $`g_8`$ — again arising from preon dynamics — is unknown but is expected to be of electroweak strength, just like the well-known $`Z`$-$`\mu ^+`$-$`\mu ^{}`$ coupling. We have two more unknown quantities to consider in Fig. 1, viz. the mass $`m_8`$ of the octet muon ($`\mu _8`$), and the mass $`M_8`$ of the octet $`Z`$-boson ($`Z_8`$). These are expected to be at least a few hundred GeV and may well be much larger.

At this point, it is relevant to ask if there are analogous contributions to the self-energy of the muon and the answer is, obviously, yes. In fact, the muon mass receives large contributions from all of the above Green’s functions, if one simply removes the photon leg. Consequently, the haplon model, like many others of its kind, must be severely constrained by the experimental data on the muon mass. There are two possibilities:

1. The coupling of colour octet $`W_8`$ and $`Z_8`$ (and leptoquark) bosons to the muon and its colour octet conterpart could be very small ($`<10^4`$), and consequently, all contributions to the self-energy would be severely suppressed.
2. The relevant couplings could be large ($`0.1`$), but the (large) contributions to the muon self-energy from diagrams with $`Z_8`$-$`\mu _8`$ exchange and $`W_8`$-$`\nu _8`$ exchange could cancel to give the correct order of magnitude. Phenomenologically, this can always be arranged by tuning the masses and couplings of the colour octet particles suitably.

It is important to note that both these cases involve some fine-tuning. There is no á priori reason to assume that van der Waals-type interactions will be suppressed when some of the particles are colour octets — which makes small ($`10^4`$) couplings unnatural; at the same time, there is no symmetry which guarantees the cancellation of self-energy contributions of different diagrams to give a net contribution two to three orders smaller than either contribution. However, one of the two mechanisms must be at work, since, after all, the muon mass measurements do not allow large self-energy contributions. Of course, the reason must ultimately be sought in the non-perturbative preon dynamics. As these are, at present, unknown, we must work within a set of phenomenological assumptions.

In the first of the above cases, of course, the colour octet bosons and fermions are essentially decoupled from the SM fermions and hence, contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment are as severely suppressed as the self-energy. The haplon model cannot then constitute an explanation for the BNL anomaly and hence, the story ends at this point. However, the second option is more interesting, since the chiral structure of the $`W_8^\pm `$-$`\nu _8`$-$`\mu ^{}`$ and $`Z_8`$-$`\mu _8^\pm `$-$`\mu ^{}`$ couplings guarantee that there will be near-vanishing contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment from diagrams with $`W_8`$-$`\nu _8`$ loops. Thus, we have a very convenient situation: the $`W_8`$-$`\nu _8`$ loops cancel the self-energy contribution of the $`Z_8`$-$`\mu _8`$ loops, but hardly affect the corresponding contribution to $`g2`$ of the muon. This is a rare and satisfying situation in beyond-SM physics and can ultimately be traced to the chiral structure of the couplings — itself a consequence of the colour assignments of the extra gauge bosons.

We have not exhibited a detailed analysis of the self-energy contributions since these depend on several unknown parameters, viz., the masses of the $`W_8`$ and $`Z_8`$ bosons, the masses of the coloured leptons $`\mu _8`$ and $`\nu _8`$ (which have to be nearly degenerate to avoid constraints from electroweak precision tests) and the magnitudes of the $`W_8`$-$`\nu _8`$-$`\mu `$ and $`Z_8`$-$`\mu _8`$-$`\mu `$ coupling constants. All that we require is a sufficiently sensitive cancellation and we have checked that, even keeping the couplings and boson masses of the same order in magnitude, enough leeway remains in the parameter space to arrange for a phenomenological cancellation of the self-energy corrections. It follows that the self-energy yields no useful constraints on the parameters responsible for the muon anomaly.

The contribution of a heavy fermion and a heavy neutral vector boson to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon has been evaluated several times before, and we skip the details of the actual derivation. The one-loop-corrected vertex function of the muon can be written

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_\alpha =F_1(q^2)\gamma _\alpha +\frac{i}{2m_\mu }F_2(q^2)\sigma _{\alpha \beta }q^\beta $$
(5)
from which it follows that

$$a_\mu =\frac{g2}{2}=F_2(q^2)|_{q^20}.$$
(6)
Direct evaluation of the form factor $`F_2(q^2)`$ using the Feynman rule of Fig. 1 and taking account of the colour factor of 8 leads to the result (in terms of the unknown parameters $`g_8,m_8,M_8`$)

$`a_\mu (Z_8)=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _8}{2\pi }}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_\mu }{M_8}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{x_8}}{(1x_8)^4}}`$ $`[`$ $`47x_8+3x_8^2x_8^3+x_8^4+6x_8(1x_8)\mathrm{log}x_8`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{12}}{\displaystyle \frac{m_\mu }{M_8}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{x_8}}}(838x_8+39x_8^214x_8^4+518x_8^2\mathrm{log}x_8)],`$
where $`\alpha _8=g_8^2/4\pi `$ and $`x_8=m_8^2/M_8^2`$. For large values of $`M_8`$ and $`m_8>100`$ GeV, the terms on the last line of the above equation may be safely neglected.

We are now in a position to make a phenomenological analysis of the haplon model vis-á-vis the E821 data. Our numerical results are set out in Fig. 2. In the left box we have plotted, for three different choices of $`\alpha _8`$ (= 0.1, 0.01, 0.001), the region in the $`M_8`$$`m_8`$ plane which can explain the BNL 2.7$`\sigma `$ excess which arises using the estimate based on $`e^+e^{}`$ data. The darker-shaded regions correspond to the data with errors at the 1$`\sigma `$ level, while the lighter-shaded regions correspond to the 2$`\sigma `$ level. It is of great interest to note that large values of the exotic particle masses $`m_8`$ and $`M_8`$ can actually yield the correct order of magnitude of the anomalous magnetic moment. This is because the actual contribution depends only on the ratio of a function of $`x_8`$ with $`M_8`$.

Figure 2. Illustrating the regions in the $`M_8m_8`$ plane which can explain the BNL data. Values of $`\alpha _8`$ are marked inside the relevant shaded region. Dark (light) shading denotes the allowed region at 1(2)$`\sigma `$. There is no upper bound on $`M_8`$ at the 3$`\sigma `$ level because the observed deviation from the SM is at 2.7$`\sigma `$. For the $`\tau ^+\tau ^{}`$ data, almost all large values of $`M_8,m_8`$ are allowed; hence the choice $`\alpha _8=0.01`$ has not been exhibited.

We see, therefore, that it is possible to interpret the observed deviation of the muon anomalous moment from the SM prediction as a signal for a preonic structure of the weak gauge bosons provided the effective coupling $`\alpha _8`$ lies in the range 0.001 to 0.1 and other parameters of the model guarantee sufficiently small corrections to the muon mass. The lower value of $`\alpha _8`$ represents a superweak-type interaction, while the upper value represents a strong interaction. However, it is gratifying to note that the most favourable region in the parameter space is indeed when $`\alpha _8`$ is close to the weak coupling strength, i.e. $`𝒪(0.01)`$. This value is an eminently desirable feature, given the philosophy adopted in the haplon model. In fact, several interesting phenomenological features of the model emerge. For example, the exotic particle masses which can explain the BNL result are rather large and can easily evade any constraints coming from Fermilab Tevatron data. In fact, to see any manifestation of these exotic particles and their interactions at low energies will generically require a measurement which is precise to the same level as the E821 experiment, which would explain why the observed excess in the muon anomalous magnetic moment could be a single isolated hint of a composite structure of leptons and weak bosons. However, we must note that the coloured $`Z`$ and coloured muon states cannot be decoupled, i.e. the masses cannot be arbitrarily heavy. Thus, a future experiment which would scan the 10–50 TeV range might actually produce these particles directly.

As we have noted before, it is also necessary to take into account the possibility that the correct theoretical estimate is the one obtained from the $`\tau ^\pm `$ data and hence that the BNL measurement is more or less consistent with the SM prediction. In this case, the measurement can only be used to constrain the haplon model. We have plotted the allowed region in Fig. 2 in the box on the right, for two extreme values $`\alpha _8`$ (= 0.1, 0.001). As expected, the experimental result forces the $`\mu _8`$ and the $`Z_8`$ to be rather heavy — in fact, the $`Z_8`$ must be over 1 TeV even when the coupling $`\alpha _8`$ is rather small. However, once this is taken, most of the parameter space is allowed, which is consistent with a decoupling behaviour, and is obviously, less exciting.

To summarize, then, we have made a phenomenological analysis of the recent BNL measurement and shown how the possible 2.7$`\sigma `$ excess can be interpreted as a signal for heavy exotic coloured lepton and $`Z`$-boson states arising in a preonic model. Though, admittedly, this is not a unique way in which the observed deviation from the SM can be interpreted, nor is the haplon model the only preonic model, but our result is nevertheless exciting, since it means that the old idea of substructure remains one of the new physics options which remain viable in the post-BNL scenario. This does not depend very crucially on our choice of model (the haplon model was essentially chosen for simplicity) but it requires a degree of fine-tuning in the muon self-energy whatever be the model chosen. Whether this explanation is the correct one, or whether the postulated substructure is anywhere near the correct theory is something only time and new data from other processes can indicate.

Acknowledgments: The authors collectively thank Pankaj Jain, the late Uma Mahanta and Gautam Sengupta for discussions.


text:
# Cosmic Rays in the Energy Range of the Knee – Recent Results from KASCADE –

## 1 Introduction

The origin and acceleration mechanism of ultra-high energy cosmic rays have been subject to debate for several decades. Mainly for reasons of the power required to maintain the observed cosmic ray energy density of $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{cr}}1`$ eV/cm3 the dominant acceleration sites are generally believed to be supernova remnants (SNR). Charged particles mainly originating from the surrounding interstellar medium of the pre-supernova star may get trapped at the highly supersonic shock wave generated by the SN explosion. Repeatedly reflections on both sides of the shock front lead to an acceleration by the so-called ‘first order Fermi mechanism’. Naturally, this leads to a power law spectrum $`dj/dEE^\gamma `$ as is observed experimentally. Simple dimensional estimates show that this process is limited to $`E_{\mathrm{max}}\begin{array}{c}<\\ \end{array}Z\times (\rho \times B)`$, with $`Z`$ being the atomic number of the cosmic ray (CR) isotope and $`\rho `$, $`B`$ the size and magnetic field strength of the acceleration region. A more detailed examination of the astrophysical parameters suggests an upper limit of acceleration of $`E_{\mathrm{max}}Z\times 10^{15}`$ eV. Curiously, the CR spectrum steepens from $`\gamma 2.75`$ to $`3.1`$ at $`E4\times 10^{15}`$ eV which is called the ‘knee’. The coincidence thus may indicate that the ‘knee’ is related to the upper limit of acceleration.

An alternative interpretation of the knee is that it may reflect a change in the propagation of CRs from their sources to the solar system. Propagation effects are studied mostly by balloon or space borne experiments measuring abundances of secondary to primary CR isotopes at energies up to some GeV. A prominent example is the B/C-ratio. Analysing such data yields the ‘escape time’ of CRs from our galaxy which scales with energy according to $`\tau _{\mathrm{esc}}E^\delta `$ with $`\delta 0.6`$. A simple extrapolation of $`\tau _{\mathrm{esc}}`$ to higher energies breaks down at $`E310^{15}`$ eV, because $`c\tau _{\mathrm{esc}}300`$ pc which is the thickness of the galactic disk. The value corresponds to just one crossing of the disk and would give rise to significant anisotropies with respect to the galactic plane when approaching this value. Similarly as to the process of acceleration at SNR shocks, the process of galactic containment is closely related to magnetic field confinement, i.e. in addition to anisotropies one again expects $`E_{\mathrm{max}}^{\mathrm{gal}}Z`$.

A picture related to both of these interpretations has been proposed by Erlykin and Wolfendale. They consider the knee as a superposition of a weakly energy dependent galactic modulation with additional prominent structures in the flux spectrum caused by a single near-by object. This so-called ’single source model’ assumes that a shock wave of a recent nearby supernova which exploded some 10,000 years ago at a distance of a few hundred parsecs currently propagates, or has recently propagated through the solar system causing distinct peaks of elemental groups in the energy spectrum. However, there is some controversy whether or not the statistics of presently existing data gives support to the model.

Recently, a more particle physics motivated picture of explaining the knee was put forward by Wigmans. He suggested that inverse beta decay of protons with massive relic neutrinos according to $`p+\overline{\nu _e}n+e^+`$ could destroy protons. Simple kinematics shows that this channel is open for $`E_p>1.710^{15}\mathrm{eV}/m_\nu (\mathrm{eV})`$. Thus, the knee energy $`E_{\mathrm{knee}}4`$ PeV would correspond to an electron neutrino mass of $``$ 0.4 eV, a value presently not excluded by any other observation or experiment. However, ‘eating’ sufficiently large amounts of protons by such a process requires extraordinary high local densities of relic neutrinos, even if possible gravitational trapping is considered.

It has also been suggested that the knee is not a property of the primary energy spectrum itself, but rather may be caused by changing high-energy interactions in the earth atmosphere. Producing a new type of a heavy particle in the first interactions escaping unseen by air shower experiments could, in principle, mimic a break in the spectrum. From the particle physics point of view this is not completely ruled out as the centre-of-mass energy available at the knee is above Tevatron energies. Different from the astrophysical interpretations of the knee, one would now expect to see the knee energy of different primary particles being displaced by their mass number $`A`$ rather than by their charge $`Z`$. This is understood from the nuclear reaction mechanism being governed by the energy per nucleon $`E/A`$ of the incident particle.

A key observable for understanding the origin of the knee and distinguishing the SN acceleration model from the other proposed mechanisms, is thus given by CR energy spectra of different elemental groups or, if measured more inclusively, by the mass composition of CRs measured across the knee (see e.g. Ref.). This is to be complemented by measurements of anisotropies in the arrival directions of CRs. Finally, experiments should also aim at testing hadronic interaction models by means of air shower data.

At present, beyond the knee little is known about CRs other than their all-particle energy spectrum. The low flux of particles ($`1`$ m$`{}_{}{}^{2}`$year-1 above the knee) puts strong demands on the collection power of the experiments, such as can at present only be achieved by extended air shower (EAS) arrays at ground level. The development of an EAS is a process of truly multi-particle dynamics with frequent high-energy hadronic and electromagnetic interactions taking place. At primary energies of $`10^{15}`$ eV about $`10^6`$ particles reach sea-level. These are mostly photons and electrons plus some fraction of high-energy muons and hadrons, spread out over an area of several hectares. Sampling detector systems with typical coverages of less than one percent can thus be used for registration of such EAS. However, this indirect method of detection bears a number of serious difficulties in the interpretation of the data and requires detailed modelling of the air shower development (see talk given by D. Heck) and detector responses. Particularly, systematic effects caused by the employed high-energy interaction models and by inevitable EAS fluctuations need to be considered. The basic concept of the KASCADE experiment is to measure a large number of EAS parameters in each individual event in order to verify the consistency of EAS simulations and to determine the energy and mass of the primary particles on a reliable basis. It is hoped that the new data will substantially improve our knowledge of the origin of high-energy cosmic rays.

## 2 KASCADE Experiment

KASCADE (Karlsruhe Shower Core and Array Detector) is located at the laboratory site of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany (at $`8^{}`$ E, $`49^{}`$ N, 110 m a.s.l.). In brief, it consists of three major components (see Fig. 1);

1. A scintillator array comprising 252 detector stations of electron and muon counters arranged on a grid of $`200\times 200`$ m2 and providing in total about 500 m2 of $`e/\gamma `$\- and 620 m2 of $`\mu `$-detector coverage. The detection thresholds for vertical incidence are $`E_e>5`$ MeV and $`E_\mu >230`$ MeV.
2. A central detector system (320 m2) consisting of a highly-segmented hadronic calorimeter read out by 40,000 channels of warm liquid ionization chambers, a layer of scintillation counters above the shielding, a trigger plane of scintillation counters in the third layer and, at the very bottom, 2 layers of positional sensitive MWPC’s, and a streamer tube layer with pad read-out for muon tracking at $`E_\mu 2.4`$ GeV.
3. A $`48\times 5.4`$ m2 tunnel housing three horizontal and a two vertical layers of positional sensitive limited streamer tubes for muon tracking at $`E_\mu 0.8`$ GeV.

More details about the experiment can be found in Refs. . First correlated data have been taken with some parts of the experiment in 1996 and with its full set-up since 2000. At present, more than 300 Mio. events have been collected in a very stable mode and with a trigger threshold of the array corresponding to $`E410^{14}`$ eV.

## 3 Tests of High-Energy Hadronic Interaction Models

The observation of EAS provides an opportunity to study global properties of hadronic interactions in an energy range not accessible to man-made accelerators. For example, the centre-of-mass energy at the Tevatron collider corresponds to a fixed target energy in the nucleon-nucleon system of $`E_p1.710^{15}`$ eV. Even more importantly, the diffractive particle production dominating the energy flux in the forward region and influencing the EAS development most strongly, was studied experimentally only at comparatively low energies of $`\sqrt{s}10`$ GeV. Most of the beam energy in present collider experiments, however, remains unseen. For example, the UA5 experiment could register up to 30 % of the total collision energy at $`\sqrt{s}=0.9`$ TeV, while the CDF detector registers only about 5 % at $`\sqrt{s}=1.8`$ TeV. Hence, hadronic interaction models applied to higher energies and to particle production in the forward region rely on extrapolations and may cause systematic uncertainties in simulations of EAS. Additional uncertainties arise from simulations of p-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions including a possible formation of a quark-gluon plasma. Again, such data are important for EAS interpretations but have been studied only at low energies in the past (SPS and ISR at CERN). Only very recently, RHIC data at $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ GeV have become available and will be very helpful in this respect. Apart from different theoretical extrapolations, an additional source of uncertainty for all models originates from the experimentally deduced energy dependent inelastic cross-sections. At Tevatron energies, the proton-antiproton cross section is not known to better than 5 % at best. As will be shown below, these uncertainties are amplified when predicting absolute hadron fluxes at sea-level by means of EAS simulations. Thus, one may take advantage of this strong dependence and perform stringent tests of models on the basis of EAS data. The idea is to use data of absolute CR fluxes up to several TeV of energy, as obtained from balloon and satellite experiments at the top of the atmosphere, and propagate these particles (taking into account their energy distribution and chemical composition) through the atmosphere employing the CORSIKA simulation package. At the level of the KASCADE experiment, we then ask for triggers released by either high energy hadrons ($`E_h>90`$ GeV) or a minimum number of 9 muons detected in the central detector of KASCADE. These simulated inclusive trigger rates, employing different hadronic interaction models, are then compared to actual experimental data. Figure 2 shows the results. None of the predictions agrees well with the experimental data, particularly the hadron rates are overestimated by up to a factor of 3. Furthermore, there are also large differences found between the models. This convincingly proves the sensitivity of the experimental observable to details of the interaction models.

Earlier investigations of high-energy hadrons observed in the shower core of the KASCADE calorimeter lead to the conclusion that QGSJET provides the best overall prescription of EAS data. This was confirmed also by an independent analysis including data from different EAS experiments. Therefore, several modifications were applied to the QGSJET model in order to study their influence to the predicted trigger rates. Results are presented in the lower panel of Fig. 2. Increasing the inelastic proton-air cross section by 5 and 10 % reduces the predicted hadron rate by approx. 27 % and 54 %, respectively. Similar effects are obtained by lowering the diffraction dissociation by up to 10 % of the inelastic cross section. Clearly, there is a strong sensitivity to these parameters. Since the total inelastic cross section appears to be the better known quantity, we conclude that the diffraction dissociation is overestimated in the simulated hadron-nucleus interactions by about 5 % of the inelastic cross section $`\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}`$(p-air). Further studies with new models and with high energy hadrons observed in the core of EAS are in progress and will, hopefully, help to further improve our understanding of hadronic interaction processes in EAS. This will be important also for interpretations of EAS data in terms of primary energy and chemical composition.

## 4 Energy Spectrum and Chemical Composition

Extracting the primary energy and mass from EAS data is not straightforward and a model must be adopted to relate the experimental observables to properties of the primary particle. As shall be discussed below, the analysis is complicated by large fluctuations of EAS observables and by the fact, that virtually all of these observables are sensitive to changes in the mass and energy of the primary particle.

Air shower measurements generally include particle measurements at ground and are sometimes complemented by detection of Cherenkov- and fluorescence light. Primary observables of KASCADE are lateral particle density distributions, $`\rho _{e,\mu ,h}(r)`$, and their integrals $`N_{e,\mu ,h}=_{r_1}^{r_2}2\pi r\rho _{e,\mu ,h}(r)𝑑r`$, yielding total (if extrapolations $`r_10`$ and $`r_2\mathrm{}`$ are made) or truncated particle shower sizes. Truncated shower-sizes, $`N_{e,\mu ,h}^{\mathrm{tr}}`$, have been introduced by the KASCADE collaboration in order to avoid systematic uncertainties resulting from extrapolations of $`\rho _{e,\mu ,h}(r)`$ to large distances not covered by the experiment. Reconstruction techniques of the individual particle densities, shower core position, and shower direction have been discussed in Ref. . As simulations predict and as it is obvious from very basic considerations, the weighted sum of particle shower sizes provides an estimate of the primary energy, i.e. $`Ea\mathrm{log}N_\mu ^{\mathrm{tr}}+b\mathrm{log}N_e^{\mathrm{tr}}`$, with $`a`$ and $`b`$ determined from simulations. On the other hand, the ratio $`Y_{\mathrm{ratio}}=\mathrm{log}N_\mu ^{\mathrm{tr}}/\mathrm{log}N_e^{\mathrm{tr}}`$ provides a

reliable estimate of the primary mass. This is mostly because showers of heavy primaries will, on average, develop higher in the atmosphere so that the electromagnetic component suffers more absorption in the atmosphere as compared to a shower induced by a primary proton. An example is presented in Fig. 3. Clearly, a superposition of different particle types (represented by the lines) is required to account for the experimental distribution. Noteworthy, the left and right hand tails of the experimental distribution are nicely described by the proton and iron simulations, respectively. Performing such an analysis for different bins of shower sizes yields an increasingly heavier composition for energies above the knee.

The separation of primary particle types by $`Y_{\mathrm{ratio}}`$ may also be used to disentangle the primary flux spectrum into ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ components. An example is shown in Fig. 5. Here, the distribution of muon densities measured in the trigger plane of the central detector at a distance of 45.5 m from the shower core is plotted for all showers and for those where $`Y_{\mathrm{ratio}}<0.75`$ (‘electron-rich’) and $`Y_{\mathrm{ratio}}>0.75`$ (‘electron-poor’). Interestingly, the knee structure is seen for unselected and electron-rich showers but is absent for electron-poor showers. Realizing that the muon density at given distance to the shower core is linked to the primary energy, the figure proves in a very model independent way that the knee structure appears to be a feature caused by the light component only. Again, we like to stress that $`\rho _\mu `$ is directly measured by the experiment and that any meaningful model will predict electron-rich and -poor showers for light and heavy primaries, respectively.

This finding is confirmed by combined energy and composition analyses of the shower size spectra of KASCADE, albeit then based on quantitative Monte Carlo simulations. A compilation of the all-particle energy spectrum reconstructed from various experiments is presented in figure 5. The agreement appears reasonable and deviations are mostly explained by uncertainties in the energy scale by up to 25 %, e.g. CASA MIA data were shifted upwards in energy by 20 % to yield a better agreement to the other data sets. The shift is likely to be explained by the interaction model SIBYLL 1.6 employed by the authors of Ref.  but which has been proven to provide only a poor description of the experimental data. The lines correspond to a simultaneous fit of the electron and muon size spectra of KASCADE, assuming the all-particle spectrum to be described by a sum of proton and iron primaries. Energy and mass dependent fluctuations of the electron and muon shower size are taken into account in this analysis and, in fact, turn out to be important for any quantitative discussion. Again, the knee is only reconstructed for the light component and no indication of a break is seen in the heavy component up to about $`10^{17}`$ eV. Obviously, the different spectral shapes of the ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ induced air showers will result in an increasingly heavier composition above the knee, such as is found also by other experiments. The analysis is an ongoing process with improved statistics and reconstruction techniques making use of the multi-detector capabilities of KASCADE.

## 5 Conclusions and Outlook

KASCADE data provide mounting evidence for the knee being caused by the light particle component only. Up to an energy of $`10^{17}`$ eV, which is the upper limit of the present KASCADE experiment, no indication of a similar structure is found in the iron-like distribution. However, comparison to the all-particle spectrum deduced from other experiments, suggests the necessity of a similar break in the heavy component just above $`10^{17}`$ eV. This important finding gives direct support to the picture of acceleration or galactic confinement in magnetic fields. To discriminate the two pictures, high statistics data on anisotropy will be required and are currently being analysed. Furthermore, an extension of the mass-selective measurements to higher energies appears mandatory in order to test the hypothesis of a ‘Fe-knee’ in more detail. This should go in parallel with further tests of hadronic interaction models in order to improve the reliability of the EAS data analysis.

The KASCADE and EAS-TOP collaborations have just started a common effort to realise these goals already in the near future. The EAS-TOP scintillators are currently positioned next to the KASCADE experiment at the site of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe providing a 12 times larger acceptance as compared to the present set-up. Generating a common trigger for the combined experimental installations will allow taking advantage of the full multi-detector capabilities including hadronic measurements as well as muon counting, tracking, and timing capabilities. The new installation is foreseen to start taking data in spring 2002. It is expected that the upcoming KASCADE and future KASCADE-GRANDE data will allow extending the tests of hadronic interaction models to higher energies and to substantially improve our understanding of the origin of the knee in particular and about the origin and acceleration of cosmic rays in general.