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# The transition from Population III to normal galaxies: Ly𝛼 and He ii 𝜆1640 emission and the ionising properties of high redshift starburst galaxies

## 1 Introduction

The discovery of numerous high redshift galaxies provides a unique opportunity to study galaxies in formation in the early Universe. Most of these galaxies show signs of actively ongoing massive star formation, as revealed by their overall spectral appearance, by detailed spectral features, and in many cases by the presence of strong emission lines.

In fact, since the detection of Lyman-break galaxies at $`z`$ 2–4 by colour selection techniques (Steidel et al. 1996, review by Stern & Spinrad 1999), Ly$`\alpha `$ surveys or other search techniques have found a large number of objects at higher redshift showing in most cases intense line emission (e.g. Hu et al. 1998, 1999, Kudritzki et al. 2000, Rhoads & Malhotra 2001, Malhotra & Rhoads 2002, Ellis et al. 2002, Frye et al. 2002, Ajiki et al. 2002). This also includes the most distant galaxy known to date, a lensed galaxy at $`z=6.56`$ found through its Ly$`\alpha `$ emission (Hu et al. 2002).

It is possible that such strong line emitters showing also relatively little continuum light may represent the earliest stages of galaxy formation, where small amounts of metals have so far been formed. Strong ongoing star formation and a small dust content, which can suppress Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, would then explain the high observed Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths (cf. Hu et al. 1998). More striking is the suggestion of Malhotra & Rhoads (2002) that the high Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths observed in the LALA survey at $`z=4.5`$ could, among other explanations, be due to metal-free (so-called Population III, hereafter Pop III) objects. Possibly we are beginning to probe distant chemically little evolved galaxies, closing the gap between the first (primordial) galaxies and the high (close to solar) metallicities of massive galaxies in the local Universe.

To properly study these objects appropriate spectral models are necessary. They should take into account all possible metallicities, and also probable systematic changes of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) at very low metallicity (Abel et al. 1998, Bromm et al. 1999, Nakamura & Umemura 2001, Hernandez & Ferrara 2001). Providing such model calculations is the main aim of the present work.

Other applications also require an understanding of how properties like line emission and the ionising fluxes of starburst behave in the transition between metal-free (Pop III) objects and metal-poor galaxies with observable counterparts in the local Universe. This is the case in studies addressing the re-ionisation history of the Universe (e.g. Gnedin 1998, Ciardi et al. 2000, review by Loeb & Barkana 2000), especially if account is taken for the simultaneous metal-enrichment (cf. Gnedin & Ostriker 1997, Ferrara & Schaerer 2002). Also, for searches of primordial galaxies, it is of interest to explore how far extreme properties such as strong He ii emission predicted for Pop III starbursts (Tumlinson & Shull 2000, Tumlinson et al. 2001, 2002; Oh et al. 2001, Bromm et al. 2001b, Schaerer 2002) are truly limited to zero metallicity. Our model calculations, including in particular metallicities $`Z=0`$, $`10^7`$, $`10^5`$, $`\mathrm{4.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$ and higher, allow, for the first time, such investigations.

The present paper is structured as follows. Our models ingredients, including two new sets of stellar evolution tracks at very low metallicity, are described in Sect. 2. The predicted Lyman continuum fluxes and the properties of the Lyman-break at all metallicities are presented in Sects. 4 and 5 respectively. In Sect. 6 we discuss theoretical predictions and empirical constraints on the He+ ionising flux and the hardness of the ionising spectra of starbursts at various metallicities. Finally, quantitative predictions for the Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 emission are given in Sect. 7. Section 8 summarises our main conclusions.

## 2 Model ingredients

The basic model ingredients are identical to those described in Schaerer & Vacca (1998, hereafter SV98) and the Pop III models of Schaerer (2002a, henceforth S02). A brief summary is provided subsequently including the new features introduced in the present work.

### 2.1 Atmosphere models

Depending on the metallicity different sets of atmosphere models are used.

For metallicities $`Z10^5`$ we follow S02 in using the grid of plane parallel non-LTE atmospheres computed with the TLUSTY code of Hubeny & Lanz (1995) for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ $``$ 20000 K and the plane parallel line blanketed LTE models of Kurucz (1991) with a very metal-poor composition (\[Fe/H\] $`=5.`$) otherwise. Possible uncertainties in the predicted ionising spectra of very metal-poor stars are discussed in S02. In comparison with the computations of S02, the use of an extended grid of TLUSTY models in the present paper leads to some small differences related to the highest energy range considered here.

For higher metallicities we follow SV98 and adopt for O stars the CoStar non-LTE models including stellar winds (Schaerer & de Koter 1997), for Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars the pure He spherically expanding non-LTE models of Schmutz et al. (1992), and Kurucz (1991) models of appropriate metallicity otherwise.

As discussed in earlier publications (e.g. Mihalas 1978, Schaerer & de Koter 1997, Schmutz et al. 1992, Tumlinson & Shull 2000, Kudritzki 2002) the inclusion of non-LTE models is the most important ingredient to obtain accurate predictions for the ionising spectra of massive stars.

### 2.2 Stellar tracks

To explore a wide range of metallicities covering populations from zero metallicity (Pop III), over low metallicities ($`Z4.\times 10^4`$) such as observed in H ii regions in the local Universe, up to solar metallicity ($`Z=Z_{}=0.02`$), we use the following stellar evolution tracks: 1) the Pop III tracks covering masses from 1 to 500 M with no/negligible mass loss compiled in S02 (Marigo et al. 2001, Feijóo 1999, Desjacques 2000), 2) new main sequence stellar evolution tracks from 1 to 500 M computed with the Geneva stellar evolution code for $`Z=10^7`$, 3) non-rotating stellar models from 2 to 60 M from Meynet & Maeder (2002) complemented with new calculations for 1 M and 85–500 M for $`Z=10^5`$, 4) non-rotating Geneva stellar evolution tracks for masses 0.8–120 M (up to 150 M for $`Z=0.0004`$) from the compilation of Lejeune & Schaerer (2001) for the remaining metallicities $`Z=`$0.0004, 0.001, 0.004, 0.008, 0.02 ($`=`$Z), and 0.04. For massive stars we have adopted the high mass loss tracks in all cases, as these models reproduce best various observational constraints from the local Universe (cf. Maeder & Meynet 1994).

Our calculations at $`Z10^5`$ include only the H-burning phase. As He-burning is typically less than 10 % of the main sequence lifetime, and is generally spent at cooler temperature, neglecting this phase should have little or no consequences on our predictions. A possible exception may be if stars at very low $`Z`$ are very rapid rotators (cf. Maeder et al. 1999) which could suffer from non-negligible rotationally enhanced mass loss and could therefore become hot WR-like stars (cf. Sect. 6.2).

To verify our new computations we have compared several $`Z=10^5`$ tracks with the independent calculations of Meynet & Maeder (2002) done with a strongly modified version of the Geneva stellar evolution code. Good agreement is found regarding the zero age main sequences (ZAMS), H-burning lifetimes, and the overall appearance of the tracks.

The HR-diagram showing the main sequence tracks at very low metallicity is given in Fig. 1. As expected one finds an important shift of the ZAMS and main sequence toward hotter $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ with decreasing $`Z`$. For massive stars the trend shown by the low $`Z`$ tracks is expected to continue down to a limiting metallicity $`Z_{\mathrm{lim}}`$ of the order of $`10^9`$, below which the stellar properties essentially converge to those of metal-free (Pop III) objects. This is the case, as massive stars ($`M`$ 50 M) with $`0Z<Z_{\mathrm{lim}}`$ will rapidly build up a mass fraction $`X_{\mathrm{CNO}}\mathrm{5.\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}`$ to $`\mathrm{2.\hspace{0.17em}10}^9`$ of CNO during pre main sequence contraction or the early main sequence phase (e.g. El Eid et al. 1983, Marigo et al. 2001). A typical value of $`Z_{\mathrm{lim}}=10^9`$ will be adopted subsequently for various simplified models fits.

### 2.3 Evolutionary synthesis models

As described in S02 the above stellar atmosphere models and evolutionary tracks have been included in the evolutionary synthesis code of Schaerer & Vacca (1998). Using the prescriptions summarised below we compute the predicted properties of integrated stellar populations at different metallicities for instantaneous bursts and constant star formation, the two limiting cases of star formation histories.

#### 2.3.1 Nebular emission

Among other predictions the code in particular computes the recombination line spectrum including Ly$`\alpha `$, He ii $`\lambda `$1640, He ii $`\lambda `$3203, He i $`\lambda `$4026, He i $`\lambda `$4471, He ii $`\lambda `$4686, H$`\beta `$, He i $`\lambda `$5016, He i $`\lambda `$5876, and H$`\alpha `$. Case B recombination is assumed for an electron temperature of $`T_e=30000`$ K at $`Z10^5`$ and $`T_e=10000`$ K otherwise, and a low electron density ($`n_e=100`$ cm-3). Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is computed assuming a fraction of 0.68 of photons converted to Ly$`\alpha `$ (Spitzer 1978). The line emission coefficients $`c_l`$ (defined by Eq. 7) of interest here are listed in Table 1.

Some differences, e.g. due to a more realistic temperature structure or due to collisional effects on H lines, can be expected between the adopted prescriptions and predictions from detailed photoionisation models (see e.g. Stasińska & Tylenda 1986, Stasińska & Schaerer 1999). However, for the scope of the present investigation these effects can quite safely be neglected.

As shown by S02 the inclusion of nebular continuous emission processes is crucial for very metal-poor objects with intense ongoing star formation. Following S02 we include free-free, free-bound, and H two-photon continuum emission assuming $`T_e=20000`$ K or 10000 K and the above value of $`n_e`$.

#### 2.3.2 Initial mass function

In view of our ignorance on the massive star IMF at very low metallicities ($`Z<4.\times 10^4`$) we adopt as in S02 a powerlaw IMF and different upper and lower mass limits with the aim of assessing their impact on the properties of integrated stellar populations. The main cases modeled here are summarised in Table 2 111For comparison with SFR indicators used for “normal” galaxies we also indicate the mass conversion factor $`c_M`$ expressing the relative masses between our model IMF and a “standard” Salpeter IMF with Mlow $`=`$ 0.1 and Mup $`=`$ 100 M used frequently throughout the literature. $`c_M`$ is given by $`c_M=_{0.1}^{100}M\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑m/_{M_{\mathrm{low}}}^{M_{\mathrm{up}}}M\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑m`$.. For all models the IMF slope is taken as the Salpeter value ($`\alpha =`$ 2.35) between the lower and upper mass cut-off values Mlow and Mup respectively.

The model A IMF is a good description of the IMF in observed starbursts (e.g. Leitherer 1998, Schaerer 2002b) down to $``$ 1/50 Z ($`=\mathrm{4.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$), the metallicity of I Zw 18 representing the most metal-poor galaxy known to date. It is adopted in all calculations for $`Z\mathrm{4.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$. IMFs B and C, favouring the formation of very massive stars, could be representative of stellar populations at metallicities $`ZZ_{\mathrm{crit}}10^5`$ (e.g. Bromm et al. 2001a), where altered fragmentation properties may form preferentially more massive stars (cf. Abel et al. 1998, Bromm et al. 1999, Nakamura & Umemura 2001). The computations at $`Z10^5`$ consider all IMF cases (A, B, and C). Note that our calculations obviously do not apply to cases where only one or few massive stars form within a pre-galactic halo, as suggested by the simulations of Abel et al. (2002).

## 3 Overview of EUV–UV spectra of starbursts at various metallicities

To illustrate several points discussed in detail below, we plot the EUV to UV spectral energy distribution (SED) for selected models at different metallicities and computed with different IMFs (see Fig. 2). Only ZAMS models are shown here for simplicity sake.

The main points apparent from this Figure are:

* The rapid decrease of the He+ ionising photon flux (i.e. flux above 228 Å) and the associated overall softening of the ionising spectrum from Pop III to higher metallicity (cf. Sects. 4 and 6).
* The increase of the Lyman-break amplitude with increasing $`Z`$ (Sect. 5).
* The rapid decrease of the contribution of nebular continuous emission to the UV continuum flux (cf. S02).
* The strong dependence of the ionising flux and in turn also of the nebular continuous emission on the upper mass cut-off of the IMF, which is considered as a free model parameter for very low ($`Z10^5`$, currently unobserved) metallicities (Sects. 4 and 6).

The metallicity dependence of the emission lines (strongest in the Pop III models) cannot clearly be discerned from this figure. It is discussed in Sect. 7.

## 4 Ionising properties of starbursts at various metallicities

### 4.1 Burst models

The basic quantities describing the ionising spectrum are the emitted number of H, He, and He+ ionising photons, denoted by $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$, $`Q(\mathrm{He}^0)`$ and $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)`$ respectively, and the hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ ($`Q(\mathrm{He}^0)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$) tracing the energy range between 54 (24.6) and 13.6 eV. The predicted temporal evolution of $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ is shown in Fig. 3 (upper panel) for all metallicities between $`Z=0.`$ and $`2\times Z_{}`$. For the very low metallicities ($`Z10^5`$) only the models with an IMF extending to 500 M (model B) are shown for clarity sake. Adopting a larger value of Mup affects only the predictions at very young ages (ages $``$ 2.5 Myr) due to very short lifetime of these stars.

The predicted $`Q_i`$ of ZAMS populations (age=0) for all IMF cases are listed in Table 3. For completeness with S02 the photon flux in the Lyman-Werner band (11.2–13.6 eV) capable to dissociate H2 is also listed.

The main difference in the Lyman continuum photon output at different $`Z`$ is a slower decline of the ionising photon production at low metallicities, due to the blueward shift of the main sequence. The temporal evolution of $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ at $`Z=10^7`$ is essentially undistinguishable from the Pop III case. The larger $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ apparent for $`Z10^5`$ at ages $``$ 2.5 Myr are essentially due to the larger value of Mup adopted at very low Z. The difference at older ages (when stars with masses $`>`$ 100 M have disappeared) represents the pure metallicity difference.

As can be seen from Table 3 the $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ production of ZAMS populations at different metallicities increases somewhat with decreasing $`Z`$; the changes remain fairly small ($``$ 40 %) in reasonable agreement with other estimates (e.g. Tumlinson & Shull 2000). However, in cases such as constant star formation (equivalent to a temporal average) the $`Z`$-dependence is more pronounced (cf. Sect. 4.2).

### 4.2 Constant star formation

The main predictions for models with constant star formation at all metallicities and for all the IMF cases are listed in Table 4. In this case most quantities of interest here reach rapidly (over timescales $``$ 6–10 Myr; except for the Lyman-break and $`Q(\mathrm{LW})`$ requiring $``$ 200 Myr) an equilibrium value given in the table, normalised to a star formation rate (SFR) of 1 M yr-1. In addition to the ionising photon production $`Q_i`$ (cols. 3-5), and the $`H_2`$ photodissociating photon flux ($`Q(\mathrm{LW})`$, col. 6), we list the average energies $`\overline{E}(Q(\mathrm{H}))`$ and $`\overline{E}(Q(\mathrm{He}^+))`$ of the Lyman continuum photons and the photons with energies above 54 eV (cols. 7 and 8). These quantities, not further discussed here, are e.g. of interest to estimate the thermal evolution of the ISM. Most of the data for $`Z=0`$, 0.0004, an 0.02 were already given in Table 3 of S02. Due to the use of a finer grid of atmosphere models at $`Z=0`$ some small changes are found for these models222$`f_{1640}`$ and the corresponding $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)`$ are reduced by $``$ 9, 4, and 30 % for IMFs A, B, and C respectively.. The values in Table 4 supersede those of S02.

As expected from the earlier discussion (see Fig. 3), the Lyman continuum flux $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ shows an increase with decreasing metallicity, which can be fitted to an accuracy better than 10 % by

$$\mathrm{log}(Q(\mathrm{H}))=0.0029\times (\mathrm{log}(Z)+9.)^{2.5}+53.81$$
(1)
valid for the Salpeter IMF from 1–100 M (models A) and $`Z[10^9,0.04]`$. The limitation to $`ZZ_{\mathrm{lim}}10^9`$ is due to the fact that all metallicities below $`Z_{\mathrm{lim}}`$ are equivalent to the Pop III ($`Z=0`$) case, as discussed in Sect. 2.2. Fits for alternate IMFs may be derived from the data in Table 4.

Overall, while ZAMS Lyman continuum fluxes vary by less than $``$ 40 % over the entire metallicity range for IMF A (Table 3), the ionising output at SFR$`=const`$ shows an increase of an factor $``$ 1.9 (2.8) between solar and 1/50 Z (zero metallicity). Even larger increases are of course predicted in the case of IMFs extending to higher masses (models B and C).

## 5 Lyman-break predictions at various metallicities

Quantitative predictions of the amplitude of the Lyman-break, i.e. the relative flux above and below the Lyman edge are of importance for example to estimate the escape fraction $`f_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ of ionising photons out of their hosts. Such measurements are possible in relatively nearby ($`z`$ 0.015) and high redshift galaxies (e.g. Leitherer et al. 1995, Deharveng et al. 1997, 2001, Steidel et al. 2001).

Different working definitions of the Lyman-break exist in the literature. For simplicity we chose the definition adopted in Starburst99 (Leitherer et al. 1999), quantifying the break amplitude by 912+/912-, where 912+ is the average flux in $`F_\lambda `$ units over the interval 1080–1120 Å, and 912- the average over 870–900 Å. A word of caution is appropriate if wavelengths $`\lambda \lambda (\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ are used as reference for the red side of the Lyman-break. In this case the continuum may, for very metal-poor objects, include a non negligible contribution from nebular continuous emission (see S02) which itself also depends on the escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons. A detailed SED fit should then be undertaken to quantify $`f_{\mathrm{esc}}`$.

The temporal evolution of the Lyman-break predicted by the models at metallicities $`0ZZ_{}`$ is shown in Fig. 4 for instantaneous bursts and constant star formation. The main finding apparent here is the overall reduction of the Lyman-break at metallicities $`Z10^{4\mathrm{}5}`$, e.g. by 0.2–0.3 dex at very young ages, for identical IMFs or larger values of Mup. 333IMFs A and B yield Lyman-break amplitudes differing by less than $``$ 0.1 dex. This is due to the decrease of the break in individual stars with increasing $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and to the shift of the main sequence towards hotter temperatures. At higher metallicity ($`Z\mathrm{4.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$) this temperature/metallicity dependence is not important, and e.g. the predicted values at SFR$`=const`$ (near equilibrium at $`t10^8`$ yr) vary by less than 10 % around $`\mathrm{log}(912^+/912^{})`$ 0.58. In contrast for very low metallicities one has for the same case $`\mathrm{log}(912^+/912^{})`$ 0.3–0.4 for the IMFs A and B.

Note that, as expected, at $`Z10^3`$ our predictions at young ages are somewhat ($``$ 0.1 dex) smaller than the Starburst99 models for identical $`Z`$ and IMF, due to the inclusion of non-LTE O star model atmospheres in the present computations. For constant star formation this difference becomes, however, smaller. We also compared our calculations to the models of Smith et al. (2002; Norris, private communication) including more sophisticated non-LTE stellar atmospheres. For metallicities $`0.001ZZ_{}`$ and SFR$`=const`$ their Lyman-break predictions show an additional but small ($``$ 10-20 %) reduction.

## 6 The $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ hardness of starbursts at various metallicities

### 6.1 Predictions at metallicities $`Z=`$ 0 to Z

#### 6.1.1 Burst models

The time evolution of the predicted hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ is shown in the lower panel of Fig. 3. The corresponding hardness reached at equilibrium in the case of constant star formation (cf. below), plotted on the right, illustrates the non negligible difference with the hardness derived from a simple ZAMS population neglecting stellar evolution effects (cf. S02).

Note that predicted quantities such as $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$, rely obviously strongly on the adopted value of Mup. For the very low $`Z`$ this quantitative dependence can be estimated from the tabulated ZAMS properties (Table 3).

As expected from the strong decrease of the stellar temperatures with increasing metallicity (cf. Fig. 1) both the maximum hardness (at age=0) and the overall $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ decreases for $`Z`$ between 0 and $`10^5`$. The typical timescale for a decrease of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ by $``$ 2 dex in a burst is driven by the redward stellar evolution, and is short ($``$ 2–3 Myr), with obvious potential implications for the detection of sources with very hard spectra (cf. Sect. 7). Possible additional sources of He+ ionising photons not included here are discussed in Sect. 6.2.

At higher metallicities ($`Z4.\times 10^4`$) the present models predict a re-increase of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ after $``$ 3–4 Myr, due to presence of WR stars, among which a fraction is found at high temperatures (cf. Schmutz et al. 1992, SV98). Albeit with minor quantitative differences, a qualitatively similar behaviour is predicted by the Starburst99 models based on very similar input physics (Leitherer et al. 1999). However, these predictions depend especially on the procedure adopted to link stellar tracks with atmospheres in WR phases with strong winds, and on the neglect of line blanketing in the adopted WR model atmospheres. The reality and the extent of such a trend remains therefore questionable, especially at the largest metallicities (cf. review of Schaerer 2000). Indeed using recent line blanketed O and WR atmospheres and different prescriptions to connect the interior and atmosphere models Smith et al. (2002) find a considerably softer spectrum – i.e. reduced $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ – before and during the WR phase. To circumvent this theoretical uncertainty we will subsequently derive an empirical estimate of the hardness at metallicities $`Z4.\times 10^4`$ (Sect. 6.3).

#### 6.1.2 Constant star formation

For the case of constant star formation at equilibrium the metallicity dependence of the hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ of the ionising flux is shown in Fig. 5 for all the IMFs considered. As apparent, for the very metal-poor cases ($`Z10^4`$) $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ can be well fitted by

$$\mathrm{log}(Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H}))=a\times \mathrm{log}(Z)+b$$
(2)
with the numerical coefficients listed in Table 5, again taking into account that all metallicities $`ZZ_{\mathrm{lim}}10^9`$ are equivalent.

At higher metallicities — in the $`Z`$ range of known objects — the theoretical predictions for $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ are probably less clear, due to possible presence of hot WR stars, difficulties in their modeling (cf. above), and the neglect of non-stellar emission processes which could contribute especially to $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)`$. Indeed as shown in Fig. 5 rather important differences are obtained between various evolutionary synthesis models (SV98, Starburst99 of Leitherer et al. 1999, and the latest computations of Smith et al. 2002). In the metallicity range $`Z\mathrm{8.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$ to $`\mathrm{5.\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$ our empirical estimate of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ (Sect. 6.3), also shown on this Fig., is likely more reliable than the models. At still larger $`Z`$ the average ionising spectrum of starbursts should be softer, as indicated by the tentative empirical upper limit and predicted by the Smith et al. (2002) models.

### 6.2 Uncertainties on the He+ ionising flux at very low metallicities ($`Z10^4`$)

In contrast to the Lyman continuum flux $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$, the He+ ionising flux (and in general spectral features at high energy) show a very strong dependence on the stellar temperature in the $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ range $``$ 50–100 kK typical of very low metallicity stars (Fig. 2 in S02). Therefore their prediction is naturally more sensitive to even small modifications of the exact stellar $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ or evolutionary scenario.

For example, one may wonder how reliable the above predictions of the metallicity dependence of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ (Fig. 5) are at $`Z10^4`$, where presently no observational constraints are available. In fact, studies of massive stars in the Local Group suggest that their average rotation rates increase towards low $`Z`$ (Maeder et al. 1999), which – when combined with their increased compactness – can lead to non-negligible mass loss despite the low metallicity (Maeder & Meynet 2000, Meynet & Maeder 2002). If this effect is large enough, one could imagine that fast rotators could loose sufficient mass to follow a WR star like evolution leading possibly to a He/C/O core at temperatures $`T`$ 100 kK, a scenario known for metal-rich massive WR (e.g. Maeder & Meynet 1988). Despite high rotational velocities, the detailed calculations of Meynet & Maeder (2002) for $`Z=10^5`$ do not show important alterations of the evolution for stars with $`M`$ 60 M. Exploratory calculations of Marigo et al. (2002) for Pop III stars treating in an simplified manner the effects of rotation on stellar mass loss find such a scenario for stars with initial mass $``$ 750 M.

Quantitatively the effect of such a putative hot “WR-like” population on the hardness of the ionising flux can be estimated for the case of constant star formation only in the following way. Suppose that stars of given initial mass $`MM_{\mathrm{WR}}`$ spend this phase at constant luminosity $`L`$ and (hot) temperature $`T`$ during a constant fraction $`f_{\mathrm{WR}}=(t_{\mathrm{WR}}/t_{})`$ of their lifetime $`t_{}`$. Assuming their winds are optically thin at $``$ 54 eV, the He+ flux in this phase is then

$$Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}(M)=\frac{L(M)}{\sigma T^4}q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}(T),$$
(3)
where $`q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}`$ is the photon flux per unit surface area (cf. Fig. 2 in S02). The hardness $`(Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H}))^{}`$ of a population including both the “normal” (main sequence) population and the additional hot population can be approximated by (for SFR$`=const`$)

$$\left(\frac{Q(\mathrm{He}^+)}{Q(\mathrm{H})}\right)^{}\frac{Q(\mathrm{He}^+)}{Q(\mathrm{H})}\left(1f_{\mathrm{WR}}\right)+\frac{Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}}{Q(\mathrm{H})}f_{\mathrm{WR}},$$
(4)
assuming small changes in the total Lyman continuum photon output $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$. Here the first term stands for the unperturbed “normal” hardness shown in Fig. 5. The second term describes the additional contribution due to hot WR-like objects, which can be expressed as

$$\frac{Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}}{Q(\mathrm{H})}=\frac{_{M_{\mathrm{WR}}}^{M_{\mathrm{up}}}t_{}(M)Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}(M)\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑M}{_{M_{\mathrm{low}}}^{M_{\mathrm{up}}}t_{}(M)\overline{Q}(\mathrm{H})(M)\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑M},$$
(5)
where $`\overline{Q}(\mathrm{H})(M)`$ is the lifetime average of the Lyman continuum production, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(M)`$ is the IMF. The quantities $`t_{}(M)`$ and $`\overline{Q}(\mathrm{H})(M)`$ are taken from S02, and we assume as first approximation a luminosity $`L(M)`$ corresponding to the ZAMS444The results discussed below are fairly insensitive to the exact (low) metallicity adopted for these quantities.. The hardness contribution $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ is then computed assuming temperatures $`T=`$ 100–160 kK as expected from stellar evolution models, and durations $`f_{\mathrm{WR}}=(t_{\mathrm{WR}}/t_{})`$ of 0.1 or 0.5. The result is plotted for the IMFs A and B (Mup=100 and 500 M) in Fig. 6 as a function of the minimum mass $`M_{\mathrm{WR}}`$, above which all stars are assumed to reach this hot “WR” phase.

The case of $`(t_{\mathrm{WR}}/t_{})=`$ 50 %, which would require very strong mass loss already during the main sequence or a nearly homogeneous evolution leading early to a blueward evolution, appears extremely unlikely and is shown here to mimic the “strong mass loss” models adopted in the Pop III models of S02. For a hot phase of a duration typical of the post main sequence evolution ($``$ 10 % of total lifetime) Fig. 6 shows that such putative “hot WR” could in the “best” case contribute an additional hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)^{}/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ of the order of $`10^{2\mathrm{}3}`$, comparable to the hardness of normal stellar populations with metallicities $`Z10^4`$ (cf. Fig. 5). To examine how realistic such cases may be, will require a detailed understanding of the coupled processes of stellar mass loss, rotation, and internal mixing. At present the available limits are $`M_{\mathrm{WR}}>`$ 60 M at $`Z=10^5`$ and $`(t_{\mathrm{WR}}/t_{})`$ 10 % from the rotating stellar models of Meynet & Maeder (2002), and $`M_{\mathrm{WR}}`$ 750 M at $`Z=0`$ from the simplified models of Marigo et al. (2002).

Although the above exercise shows that at very low metallicity ($`Z10^5`$) the hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ due to stellar sources could be higher than shown in Fig. 5, it seems that such scenarios are quite unlikely. If star formation takes place on much longer time scales, and massive stars would not form (or in much smaller quantities), hot planetary nebulae could also be a source of hard ionising photons, as illustrated by the scenario of Shioya et al. (2002). In any case, a major uncertainty stems from our limited knowledge of the IMF at very low metallicities.

### 6.3 Empirical constraints on the He+ ionising flux of starbursts at $`Z4.\times 10^4`$

Spectroscopic observations of extra-galactic giant H ii regions probing He ii recombinations lines can yield empirical information on the “average” hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ of starbursts. Indeed it is well known that a fairly large fraction of metal-poor H ii regions show the presence of nebular He ii $`\lambda `$4686 emission indicative of a hard ionising spectrum (see e.g. Guseva et al. 2000, compilation of Schaerer et al. 1999). A complete explanation of the origin of the required high energy photons (shocks, X-rays, WR stars) remains to be found (e.g. Garnett et al. 1991; Schaerer 1996, 1998; Guseva et al. 2000, Izotov et al., 2001, Stasińska & Izotov 2002).

The largest sample of high quality data is that of Izotov and collaborators (cf. Guseva et al. 2000 and references therein), which shows He ii $`\lambda `$4686 detections with typical relative intensities of $`I(4686)/I(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$ 1–2 %.

From such a sample we may estimate an average hardness from

$$\frac{Q(\mathrm{He}^+)}{Q(\mathrm{H})}=\frac{I(4686)}{I(\mathrm{H}\beta )}\times a\times f_{\mathrm{detect}}\times \frac{t_{\mathrm{detect}}}{t_{\mathrm{total}}},$$
(6)
where $`a`$ ($`=`$0.47 (0.63) for $`T_e=`$ 10000 (30000) K) translates the relative line emissivities, $`f_{\mathrm{detect}}`$ is the fraction of objects showing nebular He ii among the spectra of sufficient quality to allow detections down to this intensity level, $`t_{\mathrm{detect}}`$ is the age range covered by the observed H ii regions, and $`t_{\mathrm{total}}`$ is the total lifetime of H ii regions. Inspection of the data of Izotov yields $`f_{\mathrm{detect}}`$ 1/3–1/2 for metallicities $`Z[\mathrm{8.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4,\mathrm{4.8\hspace{0.17em}10}^3]`$ and possibly even a larger fraction at the lowest observed metallicities. (Stasińska & Izotov 2002). One has $`t_{\mathrm{total}}`$ 10 Myr, the typical H ii region lifetime or the time over which bursts show detectable line emission. However, it is now well established that H ii region samples suffer from selection biases leading to an absence of advanced bursts, or in other words a preferential selection of bursts with ages younger than $``$ 4–5 Myr (e.g. Bresolin et al. 1999, Raimann et al. 2000, Moy et al. 2001, Stasińska et al. 2001). For this range of values and $`a=0.47`$ one obtains an estimate of $`\mathrm{log}(Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H}))`$ –3.2 to –2.6. Postulating the extreme case that additionally the first 2 Myr of the H ii phase are also not detected in the optical555The well known absence of H ii regions with very large H$`\beta `$ equivalent widths could be taken as an indications for such a scenario. one has a minimum value of $`t_{\mathrm{detect}}`$ 1 Myr, yielding a lower limit of $`\mathrm{log}(Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H}))`$ –3.5. In principle this average value could be even larger as the (conservative) assumption of $`t_{\mathrm{detect}}/t_{\mathrm{total}}<1`$ implies that older (non-detected) H ii regions have no He+ ionising flux.

This estimate is obviously independent of the nature of the hard (He+) ionising radiation. By construction Eq. 6 provides an estimate of the average $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ expected in objects with constant ongoing star formation for metallicities $`Z\mathrm{8.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$ to $`\mathrm{5.\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$. The near absence of nebular He ii detections in H ii regions at higher metallicity (cf. Schaerer 1998, Guseva et al. 2000) indicates softer spectra. However, it is difficult to establish a firm upper limit on $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ for $`Z\mathrm{5.\hspace{0.17em}10}^3`$. We here retain $`\mathrm{log}(Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H}))3.3`$ as a tentative limit.

### 6.4 Overall behaviour of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ with metallicity

In short, from the considerations above, we find the following two cases for the most plausible metallicity dependence of the average $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ hardness ratio of starbursts with metallicity (see Fig. 5).

1) If a universal Salpeter like IMF with a “normal” upper mass limit of $``$ 100 M prevails for all metallicities the hardness decreases by more than 2 orders of magnitude from $`Z=0`$ to $`10^4`$, re-increases thereafter (up to $`Z\mathrm{5.\; 10}^3`$, in metal-poor starbursts) to a level $``$ 2 to 10 times smaller than that of Pop III objects, and decreases again to low levels for higher metallicities.

2) If very massive stars are favoured at metallicities $`Z10^4`$, the hardness $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ of Pop III objects is considerably enhanced (corresponding to a powerlaw spectrum with spectral index $`\alpha `$ 2.3–2.8 in $`F_\nu `$), then decreases down to levels somewhat smaller or comparable to that of metal-poor starbursts, before decreasing further to levels at least two orders of magnitude softer than at zero metallicity.

## 7 Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 emission at various metallicities

To first order recombination line luminosities are proportional to the ionising photon flux and are thus simply expressed as (in units of erg s-1)

$$L_l(t)[\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1]=c_l(1f_{\mathrm{esc}})Q_i(t)[\mathrm{s}^1],$$
(7)
where $`c_l`$ are the line emission coefficients given in Table 1, $`f_{\mathrm{esc}}`$ is the photon escape fraction out of the galaxy or observed aperture, and $`Q_i`$ is the ionising photon flux (in units of s-1) corresponding to the appropriate recombination line.

However, as well known Ly$`\alpha `$ constitutes a particular case due to its very large line optical depth, which implies that several effects (e.g. dust absorption, ISM geometry and velocity structure) can alter the total Ly$`\alpha `$ emission and lead to complex line profiles (cf. Charlot & Fall 1993, Valls-Gabaud 1993, Chen & Neufeld 1994, Kunth et al. 1998, Loeb & Rybicki 1999, Tenorio-Tagle et al. 1999). Furthermore for Ly$`\alpha `$ source at redshifts close to or above the redshift of reionisation the intrinsic Ly$`\alpha `$ emission may be further reduced or suppressed by absorption in nearby line of sight HI clouds (cf. Miralda-Escude & Rees 1997, but also Haiman 2002, Madau 2002). A proper treatment of these effects requires a complex solution of radiation transfer which depends strongly on geometrical properties of the ISM and IGM, and for which no general solution is possible. One must thus caution that depending on the application our simplifying assumptions may not apply and the predicted Ly$`\alpha `$ emission should thus be considered as an upper limit. Note that these difficulties do not affect other recombination lines such as H$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640, whose optical depth is strongly reduced compared to Ly$`\alpha `$.

Bearing the above in mind, the time evolution of the Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 line luminosities can be deduced from the evolution of $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ and $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)`$ respectively given in Fig. 3.

In the case of constant star formation, at equilibrium, recombination line luminosities $`L_l`$ are proportional to the star formation rate (SFR), i.e.

$$L_l=(1f_{\mathrm{esc}})f_l\left(\frac{\mathrm{SFR}}{M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}\right).$$
(8)
For $`L_l`$ in erg s-1 the proportionality constants $`f_l`$ for Ly$`\alpha `$, H$`\alpha `$, and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 are listed in columns 9–11 of Table 4. The variations of the ionising flux $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ already discussed above imply in particular lower star formation rates at low metallicity when identical recombination lines are used. We note that our H$`\alpha `$ SFR conversion factors are in good agreement with other computations at various metallicities (e.g. Kennicutt 1998, Sullivan et al. 2001) when rescaled for their Mlow using $`c_M`$ (Table 2).

The predicted Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 emission line equivalent widths of ageing bursts of different metallicities and all the IMF cases considered are shown in Fig. 7. Note that our revised Pop III models show smaller Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths compared to the previous calculation in S02. This is due to an erroneous continuum definition in the earlier computations. The new models supersede those of S02. Good agreement is also found with the $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ predictions of Tumlinson et al. (2002). The reader is also reminded that none of these recent calculations include stellar Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption (cf. Valls-Gabaud 1993, Charlot & Fall 1993, and Valls-Gabaud & Schaerer 2002 for new predictions).

Maximum Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths of $``$ 240–350 Å are predicted for metallicities between solar and $`\mathrm{4.\hspace{0.17em}10}^4`$. For $`Z`$ down to zero (Pop III), max$`(W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha ))`$ may reach up to $``$ 800–1500 Å for the various adopted IMFs (cf. S02) For comparison, the equilibrium values for SFR=$`const`$ are in the range of $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ 175–275, 240–350, 500–930 Å for IMF A, B, and C respectively at $`Z10^5`$, and $``$ 70–100 Å for higher metallicities (IMF A). Note that the increased Lyman continuum output of young very metal-poor populations alone does not explain the strong increase of $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ (cf. Table 3). In addition the reduced stellar UV continuous luminosity at $`\lambda `$ 1215 Å, due to the shift of the SED peak far into the Lyman continuum (Fig. 2), also contributes to increase W(Ly$`\alpha `$).

A high median Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent width ($``$ 430 Å) was found in the Large Area Lyman Alpha (LALA) survey of Malhotra & Rhoads (2002) at $`z=4.5`$ and interpreted as due to AGN, starbursts with flat IMFs, or even Pop III objects. Indeed, if constant star formation is appropriate for their objects and the IMF slope is universally that of Salpeter, the observed large $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ would require very metal-poor populations with large upper mass cut-offs and/or an increased lower cut-off (e.g. IMFs B or C). Alternatively their observations could also be explained by predominantly young bursts, with metallicities $`10^5`$ and no need for extreme IMFs (Fig. 7). This issue will be addressed in detail in a subsequent publication (Valls-Gabaud & Schaerer 2002).

As expected from the softening of the radiation field with increasing metallicity, the He ii $`\lambda `$1640 equivalent widths decreases strongly with $`Z`$; values $`W(`$He ii $`\lambda `$1640$`)`$ 5 Å are expected only at metallicities $`Z10^7`$, except if hot WR-like stars (cf. Sect. 6.2) or non-stellar sources (e.g. X-rays, AGN) provide sufficient amounts of He+ ionising photons.

Part of the relative weakness of $`W(`$He ii $`\lambda `$1640$`)`$ compared to $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ is due to a relatively strong, mostly nebular, continuum flux at 1640 Å (see S02). As Ly$`\alpha `$ emission may be strongly reduced due to the effects discussed earlier in objects beyond the re-ionisation redshift, and the He ii $`\lambda `$1640 luminosity is potentially strong enough to be detected (cf. Tumlinson et al. 2001, Oh et al. 2001, Schaerer & Pelló 2001), it is a priori not clear if both lines may be observed simultaneously and if so which of the two lines would be stronger.

## 8 Conclusions

We have examined the spectral properties of the ionising continua, the Lyman-break, and the Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640 recombination lines in starbursts with metallicities $`Z`$ from zero – corresponding to primordial, Pop III objects – over low metallicities ($`Z\mathrm{4.\; 10}^4`$) observed in nearby galaxies, up to solar metallicity (Z$`=`$0.02).

Our computations, including new sets of stellar evolution models at very low metallicities ($`Z=10^7`$, $`10^5`$) and previously published grids at other $`Z`$, allow us in particular to study how spectral properties vary in the transition from Pop III objects to “normal” currently measurable metallicities.

Various IMFs are treated, including also cases where very massive stars (up to $`500`$ M) are formed, as suggested by hydrodynamical calculations for metallicities $`ZZ_{\mathrm{crit}}10^5`$ (Bromm et al. 2001a, Abel et al. 1998, Nakamura & Umemura 2001).

Predictions are provided for the number of H, He0, and He+ ionising photons and average photon energies in these continua, the hardness of the ionising spectrum, the amplitude of the Lyman-break, the number of photons able to photodissociate H2, and finally recombination line luminosities and equivalent widths (mostly for Ly$`\alpha `$ and He ii $`\lambda `$1640).

Two limiting cases of star formation histories, instantaneous bursts and constant star formation, are considered. For SFR=$`const`$, presumably appropriate to describe the average properties of starbursts galaxies or populations thereof, the following main results have been obtained:

* As expected from numerous earlier computations the Lyman continuum flux $`Q(\mathrm{H})`$ increases with decreasing metallicity. For a universal Salpeter IMF from 1–100 M the enhancement reaches typically a factor of $``$ 3 between solar metallicity and Pop III objects for a constant star formation (Sect. 4, cf. Tumlinson & Shull 2000, Schaerer 2002).
* While for metallicities $`Z1/50Z_{}`$ the amplitude of the Lyman-break is rather metallicity independent, a reduction by a factor $``$ 2 is found at lower metallicities, related to the strong increase of the average stellar temperature (Sect. 5).
* The predicted hardness of the ionising fluxes between $`54`$ eV and $`13.6`$ eV, i.e. the ability to doubly ionise He, decreases by $``$ 1.5–2 or more orders of magnitude from $`Z=0`$ to $`10^4`$ depending strongly on the upper mass cut-off of the IMF (Sect. 6).

From empirical constraints we derive a hardness $`\mathrm{log}Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ –3.2 to –2.6 for metal-poor starbursts ($`1/25Z/Z_{}1/4`$) and softer spectra for higher metallicities (Sect. 6.3). The former should provide the best estimate of $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$; the latter finding is also compatible with recent evolutionary synthesis models of Smith et al. (2002) including line blanketed non-LTE atmospheres for WR and O stars.

We also provide (Sect. 6.2) a simple estimate of the possible impact of hot WR like stars on $`Q(\mathrm{He}^+)/Q(\mathrm{H})`$ at very low metallicities ($`Z10^4`$). Such stars could eventually form due to a strong enhancement of mass loss related to rapid rotation (Marigo et al. 2002) or in principle also due very efficient rotational mixing processes (cf. Meynet & Maeder 2002), although we believe that these scenarios are quite unlikely or overall of minor importance.
* Finally, calibrations for star formation rate determinations from Ly$`\alpha `$ and other recombination lines at all metallicities and for various IMFs are provided (Sect. 7).

For young bursts, the maximum Ly$`\alpha `$ equivalent width predicted is shown to increase strongly with decreasing metallicity from $`W(\mathrm{Ly}\alpha )`$ 240–350 Å at $`Z`$ 1/50 Z to 400–850 Å or higher at $`Z`$ between $`10^5`$ and 0 (Pop III) for the same Salpeter IMF (Sect. 7).

We find that non-negligible He ii $`\lambda `$1640 emission due to photoionisation from stellar sources appears to be limited to very small metallicities ($`\mathrm{log}(Z/Z_{})5.3`$) and Population III objects, except if hot WR like stars, whose existence appears very speculative, were frequent.

The detailed model predictions presented here are available on the Web through the CDS and at http://webast.ast.obs-mip.fr/sfr/. In subsequent publications our models are applied to the interpretation of Ly$`\alpha `$ observations in high redshift galaxies (Valls-Gabaud & Schaerer 2002), modeling of the combined chemical enrichment and re-ionisation history of the Universe (Ferrara & Schaerer 2002), and feasibility studies on the detection of Population III objects (Pelló & Schaerer 2002).

###### Acknowledgements.

I thank Andrea Ferrara, Roser Pelló, David Valls-Gabaud for stimulating discussions and comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Useful comments from Tom Abel, Daniel Kunth, and Grazyna Stasińska on the draft and related issues were also appreciated. Richard Norris kindly provided model results from his calculations for comparison. Last, but not least, I thank the referee for useful comments which helped to improve the presentation.


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# Exclusive measurement of quasi-free 𝜂-photoproduction from deuterium

## 1 Introduction

The first excited state of the nucleon with the quantum numbers $`I(J^P)=1/2(1/2^{})`$, the so-called S$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1535)`$ resonance has very interesting properties and its structure was recently intensely debated in the literature Glozman ; Kaiser\_1 ; Kaiser\_2 ; Bijker . The discussion centered around the unusual large decay branching ratio ($`b_\eta `$ 50% PDG ) of this resonance into the $`N\eta `$ channel. The much weaker coupling of the close-by P$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1440)`$ and D$`{}_{13}{}^{}(1520)`$ resonances to the $`N\eta `$ channel can be explained by simple phase space arguments since they need to decay with relative orbital angular momentum $`l=1,2`$ which is suppressed close to threshold. However, also the second S11-resonance at 1655 MeV has only a branching ratio into $`N\eta `$ of 1 % or less. Glozmann and Riska Glozman  have argued, that these decay patterns can be understood as a isospin selection rule in their quark model with quark-diquark clusterization of the nucleon. Their diquark clusters in the nucleon ground state and in the S$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1535)`$ have both $`I=0`$ but the diquark cluster in the S$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1650)`$ has $`I=1`$. Consequently, the decay via the isoscalar $`\eta `$-meson is strongly suppressed for the second S11. Other work even questioned the very nature of the S$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1535)`$ as a nucleon resonance. Kaiser et al. Kaiser\_1 ; Kaiser\_2  treated the resonance as a quasi-bound $`K\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-state and Bijker et al. Bijker , failing to explain the S$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1535)`$ properties in their model, suggested a quasi-bound $`N\eta `$ (penta-quark) state. If such suggestions are correct, the immediate question would be where are the regular low lying three quark states predicted in the quark model with the quantum numbers 1/2-,1/2?

The precise experimental determination of the properties of this state is essential in order to resolve the problem. From the experimental point of view the strong coupling to the $`N\eta `$-channel is advantageous since it allows an almost background free investigation of this resonance. Precise experiments measuring angular distributions Krusche\_1 , the photon beam asymmetry Ajaka  and the target asymmetry Bock  for $`\eta `$-photoproduction and the dependence of the electromagnetic helicity coupling on the momentum transfer in $`\eta `$-electroproduction Thompson  have been recently reported for the proton. However, photoproduction from the proton alone gives no information about the isospin structure of the electromagnetic excitation of the resonance. It is thus desirable to study the reaction also on the neutron, but due to the non-availability of free neutron targets such experiments must rely on meson photoproduction from light nuclei. Due to its small binding energy and the comparatively well understood nuclear structure the deuteron is the obvious choice as target nucleus.

Previously, quasifree $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron was measured in two experiments Krusche\_2 ; Hoffmann  carried out at the Mainz MAMI- and Bonn ELSA-accelerators. In the first experiment Krusche\_2  only the $`\eta `$-mesons were detected via their two-photon decay channel. The neutron - proton cross section ratio was determined from the comparison of the inclusive cross section to the free proton cross section in the framework of a participant - spectator model. In the second experiment Hoffmann  recoil protons and neutrons were measured, but the $`\eta `$-mesons were only identified via a missing mass analysis of the recoil nucleons. In the present experiment $`\eta `$-mesons were unambiguously identified in an invariant mass analysis of their decay photons and the recoil nucleons were detected in coincidence. This allows a very clean comparison of the proton and neutron cross sections measured under identical conditions from the nucleons bound in the deuteron. The kinematic over-determination furthermore allows the test of the participant - spectator assumption. At the same time the cross section of the inclusive reaction $`d(\gamma ,\eta )X`$ was re-measured with much higher statistical accuracy.

## 2 Experimental setup

The experiment was carried out using the Glasgow tagged photon facility Anthony  installed at the Mainz microtron MAMI Walcher ; Ahrens  with the TAPS detector Novotny ; Gabler .

The quasi-monochromatic photon beam covered the energy range from 580 - 820 MeV with a resolution of 1 - 2 MeV and an average photon flux of $``$ 250 kHz/MeV. The liquid deuterium target of 10 cm length was mounted in a vacuum chamber of 90 cm diameter, constructed from carbon fiber. The thin wall thickness (4 mm) of the chamber ensured that scattering and energy loss of the recoil nucleons were minimized. The photons from the $`2\gamma `$-decay of the $`\eta `$-mesons and the recoil nucleons were detected with the electromagnetic calorimeter TAPS. The device consists of 504 BaF2 crystals and is optimized for the detection of photons via electromagnetic showers but has also excellent particle detection capabilities. Each $`\mathrm{BaF}_2`$ scintillator module is of hexagonal shape, 25 cm long (corresponding to 12 radiation lengths), and has an inner diameter of 5.9 cm. The modules were arranged in six blocks with 8$`\times `$8 $`\mathrm{BaF}_2`$ crystals each, placed at polar angles of $`\pm 50^{}`$,$`\pm 100^{}`$, and $`\pm 150^{}`$ in a plane around the scattering chamber at a distance of 54 cm from the target center. A hexagonally shaped forward wall of 120 crystals was positioned at $`0^{}`$ around the beam pipe at a distance of 1 m from the target. The BaF2-modules of the blocks were equipped with individually read-out plastic scintillators (NE102) at their front sides for the identification of charged particles. The modules of the forward wall were operated in phoswich mode, i.e. the light from each BaF2-module and the corresponding plastic scintillator was read out by the same photo-multiplier tube. These modules effectively worked as $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$E-E-telescopes and thus allowed the separate identification of photons, recoil protons and neutrons. A detailed description of the experimental setup is given in Hejny , where the results for quasifree $`\eta `$-photoproduction from $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ are reported.

## 3 Data analysis

The separation of photons from recoil particles was achieved with a time-of-flight measurement with typically 500 ps resolution (FWHM), the pulse-shape discrimination capability of the BaF2-scintillators, and the charged particle veto detectors. The energies and impact points of the photons were determined in the usual way (see e.g. Hejny ) from the energies deposited by the electromagnetic showers in clusters of BaF2 scintillator modules. The energy calibration of the individual modules was done with the help of cosmic radiation. The $`\eta `$-mesons were then identified via their two photon decay, which has a branching ratio of 39.2%, with a standard invariant mass analysis of coincident photon pairs using:

$$m_{\mathrm{inv}}^2=(E_1+E_2)^2(\stackrel{}{p}_1+\stackrel{}{p}_2)^2=2E_1E_2(1\mathrm{cos}\mathrm{\Phi }_{12})$$
(1)
where $`E_i`$ denotes the energies, $`\stackrel{}{p}_i`$ the momenta of the two photons and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{12}`$ the relative angle between them (units with $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ are used throughout the paper). An invariant mass resolution for the $`\eta `$ of $``$ 60 MeV (FWHM) was achieved (see Hejny ). The data sample with an identified $`\eta `$-meson was used to extract the angular distributions and the total cross section of inclusive $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron. The energy and angle dependent detection efficiency of the TAPS detector for the 2$`\gamma `$-decay of $`\eta `$-mesons was determined as described in Weiss\_2 ; Krusche\_3  with a Monte Carlo simulation using the GEANT code Geant . It is important to note that no model assumptions about the non-trivial energy and angular distributions of the $`\eta `$-mesons in the three body final state were needed for the modeling of the detection efficiency. This is possible because in the investigated energy range the detector has a non-vanishing detection probability for all kinematically possible combinations of the meson lab angle and energy. The absolute normalization of the cross section was obtained in the usual way from the target thickness and the photon flux Weiss\_2 ; Krusche\_3 .

The recoil nucleons were detected in the forward wall which subtended laboratory angles between 5 and 20. Due to the Lorentz boost, only a few nucleons were seen in the side-ward blocks which covered lab angles larger than 35. The recoil protons and neutrons were identified by their pulse shape signature and their time-of-flight (see Hejny ). The standard energy calibration of TAPS, which is done with cosmic muons, is only valid for photons since the energy response of the BaF2-plastic phoswich telescopes is different for particles. Furthermore charged particles like protons undergo some energy loss in the target and the wall of the scattering chamber. The energy information of the protons was re-calibrated using the kinematic over-determination of the reaction when the $`\eta `$ is detected in coincidence with the proton. This is possible because in the energy range of interest $`np\eta `$ is the only final state with proton and $`\eta `$-meson. In this case the only missing particle is the neutron and the energy of the proton can be varied until the missing mass of the reaction (see below) equals the neutron mass. This correction was not done event-by-event but an average correction as function of the proton energy obtained from the cosmic calibration was determined. Since there is no direct correlation of the energy response of the detector and the kinetic energies of the neutrons, the neutron energies were determined from the time-of-flight measurement. The energy resolution achieved by this procedures can be judged from the missing mass spectra where the mass of the non observed nucleon is derived from the energy of the incident photon and the momenta of the $`\eta `$-meson and the detected nucleon using:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ $`=`$ $`(E_d+E_\gamma )(E_\eta +E_p)`$ (2)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{p}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{}{p}_\gamma (\stackrel{}{p}_\eta +\stackrel{}{p}_p)`$ (3)
$`m_{\mathrm{miss}}^2`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }E^2\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{p}^2`$ (4)
where $`E_d`$, $`E_\gamma `$, $`E_\eta `$ and $`E_p`$ are the total energies of the incident deuteron and photon and the detected $`\eta `$-meson and participant nucleon and $`\stackrel{}{p}_\gamma `$, $`\stackrel{}{p}_\eta `$, $`\stackrel{}{p}_p`$ are the respective momenta .

The expected value for the missing mass (i.e. proton or neutron mass) is subtracted from $`m_{\mathrm{miss}}`$, so that the resulting distributions for $`\mathrm{\Delta }m=m_{miss}m_N`$ peak at zero, which in case of the $`\eta `$-proton coincidence is enforced by the calibration procedure. The result of this analysis is shown in fig. 1. The resolution for the $`\eta `$-neutron coincidence is not as good as for the $`\eta `$-proton coincidence due to the limited time-of-flight resolution (500 ps FWHM, 1 m flight path).

As discussed above, the detection efficiency of the $`\eta `$-mesons was simulated with the GEANT package, but the simulation of neutron and proton efficiencies is much less precise. The recoil particle detection efficiencies were thus experimentally determined with the help of reactions where the nucleons are ’tagged’ by the detection of other reaction products. The reaction $`p(\gamma ,\pi ^0)p`$ with the detection of the $`\pi ^o`$ was used for the proton efficiency and the reaction $`p(\gamma ,\pi ^0\pi ^+)n`$ with detection of the $`\pi ^0`$\- and $`\pi ^+`$-mesons for the neutron efficiency. In both cases the momentum of the recoil nucleon was determined from the incident photon energy and the measured momenta of the pions and the efficiencies were constructed from the ratios of the event numbers with and without additional detection of the recoil nucleon. The procedure is described in detail in Hejny .

The acceptance of the TAPS detector for the two-photon decay of $`\eta `$-mesons covers the full polar angular range. However, recoil nucleons were only detected for lab angles between 5 and 20 and recoil protons with kinetic energies below $``$ 60 MeV did not reach the detector. Since an extrapolation to the full angular and energy range of the recoil nucleons would be model dependent, the exclusive cross sections are only given in the TAPS acceptance. This means, that only events with recoil nucleons in the restricted angular and energy ranges were considered (neutrons with energies below the proton detection threshold were removed) and corrected for the TAPS detection efficiencies for $`\eta `$-mesons, neutrons and protons discussed above. In this way, no total exclusive cross sections were obtained, however the cross sections within the TAPS acceptance can be used to extract the neutron - proton cross section ratio. Here one has to keep in mind that due to the Lorentz boost a large fraction of the recoil nucleons is emitted into the angular range covered by the forward wall (see Hejny ). Furthermore is important, that as shown below, the cross section ratio is not strongly angular dependent and that due to the influence of Fermi motion a modest restriction of the angular range of the recoil nucleons does not restrict the angular range of the coincident $`\eta `$-mesons.

## 4 Results and discussion

### 4.1 Inclusive $`\eta `$ cross section

Eta-photoproduction from the neutron can be measured via the $`d(\gamma ,\eta )np`$ reaction in so-called quasi-free kinematic where the $`\eta `$-meson is produced on one nucleon, called the participant, while the other nucleon can be regarded as a spectator. The total inclusive cross section for $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron is shown in fig. 2. The data agrees with our previous result Krusche\_2 , but has much higher statistical quality and extends to somewhat higher incident photon energies so that the resonance position of the S11-state ($`W_R`$ 1540 MeV, $`E_\gamma `$ 795 MeV) is covered. The extraction of the cross section ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ from this data relies on the participant - spectator approximation as in Krusche\_2 ; Hejny . A Breit-Wigner curve fitted to the cross section of the $`p(\gamma ,\eta )p`$ reaction was folded with the momentum distribution of the bound nucleons calculated from the deuteron wave function Lacombe . The result was adjusted to the measured inclusive $`d(\gamma ,\eta )X`$ cross section with a constant factor representing an energy independent $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ ratio. The result of this fit is also shown in fig. 2. At energies above the $`\eta `$-production threshold on the free nucleon the data is very well reproduced with the constant ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p=0.67\pm 0.005\pm 0.07`$, where the first error is statistical and the second comes from the systematic uncertainties of the proton and deuteron cross sections. At lower incident photon energies the data is underestimated by this fit. This is however expected since it is known Fix ; Sibirtsev ; Weiss\_2 ; Sibirtsev\_2  that in this energy range the cross section from the deuteron is enhanced by final state interaction effects. The dashed curve in the insert of fig. 2 shows the result of a calculation with the same ratio of $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ which includes $`NN`$\- and $`\eta N`$-FSI effects Sibirtsev\_2  and is in good agreement with the data.

### 4.2 The participant spectator model

The extraction of the cross section ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ from inclusive data where only the $`\eta `$-meson is detected, relies on two assumptions. The contribution from the coherent reaction $`d(\gamma ,\eta )d`$ must be negligible, which is true for the deuteron in the energy range of interest Krusche\_2 ; Hoffmann ; Weiss . The other assumption is the validity of the spectator - participant model which is used to extract the cross section ratio from a comparison of the inclusive deuteron data to the cross section on the free proton folded with the momentum distribution of the nucleons bound in the deuteron Krusche\_2 ; Hejny . This means in particular that the cross section from the bound nucleons must not be affected by off-shell effects beyond nuclear Fermi motion and re-scattering contributions must be negligible. Such effects can be much better controlled when the recoil nucleon is detected in coincidence with the $`\eta `$-meson. In this case, one can directly compare the cross section of the bound proton to the bound neutron and furthermore one can select kinematic conditions close to the ideal quasi-free situation.

The lab momentum of the non-detected spectator nucleon was constructed from the measured momenta of the $`\eta `$-meson and the participant nucleon according to eq. 3. The x- and y-components (perpendicular to the photon beam) of the momentum are shown in fig. 3.

As expected the distributions are centered around zero. In the participant - spectator approximation the spectator nucleon picks up the momentum $`\stackrel{}{p}_F`$ where $`\stackrel{}{p}_F`$ is the Fermi momentum of the participant nucleon which is symmetrically distributed around zero. The momentum distribution of the bound nucleons calculated from the deuteron wave function Lacombe  is shown for comparison. The difference between the measured distributions and the prediction from the wave function is mainly due to instrumental resolution effects.

The z-component (parallel to the photon beam) of the spectator nucleons is shown in fig. 4 for different bins of incident photon energy. In this case the distribution is approximately symmetric around zero for high incident photon energies, but the situation changes for low incident photon energies. At energies below the production threshold on the free nucleon ($``$ 707 MeV) the reaction is only possible for participant nucleons with a z-component of the Fermi momentum anti-parallel to the photon beam. Consequently, spectator momenta in photon beam direction are selected. Very close to the threshold for coherent $`\eta `$-production from the deuteron ($``$ 628 MeV) energy and momentum conservation enforce that spectator and participant nucleon have only a small relative momentum in the final state. This means that for very low incident photon energies no experimental separation of ’participants’ and ’spectators’ is possible and the probability for final state interaction between the nucleons becomes large so that the participant - spectator approximation breaks down.

In the ideal case where re-scattering effects etc. can be neglected, the measured quasi-free cross sections correspond to the elementary cross sections on the nucleon folded with the momentum distributions of the bound nucleons. However, due to the kinematic over-determination of the exclusive reaction it is also possible to reconstruct event-by-event the total cm energy of the participant nucleon - $`\eta `$ system via:

$$s=(E_\eta +E_p)^2(\stackrel{}{p}_\eta +\stackrel{}{p}_p)^2$$
(5)
and to deduce the effective incident photon energy $`E_\gamma ^{}`$ which would lead to the same $`\sqrt{s}`$ for an incident nucleon at rest:

$$E_\gamma ^{}=\frac{sm_p^2}{2m_p}.$$
(6)
In this way it is not only possible to eliminate the Fermi smearing but one can even extract a cross section ratio for values of $`\sqrt{s}`$ which are larger than $`\sqrt{s}`$ for a given incident photon energy on a nucleon at rest.

### 4.3 Neutron-proton cross section ratio

The exclusive cross sections in the TAPS acceptance and the neutron - proton ratio as function of the beam energy are summarized in fig. 5. The ratio over the full range of incident photon energies was obtained with no further cuts on the reaction kinematics. In addition, above the production threshold on the free nucleon a ratio with a cut on the z-component of the spectator nucleon around zero ($`\pm 1.5\sigma `$ of a Gaussian fitted to the $`p_z`$ distribution in the highest photon energy bin of 726–818 MeV) is shown in the figure. This cut removes events in which due to large Fermi momenta spectator nucleons have been detected in TAPS and falsely interpreted as participant nucleons. However the effect of the cut is small since at the higher incident photon energies participant and spectator nucleons are well distinguished.

The average of the ratio above the production threshold on the free nucleon is 0.66$`\pm `$0.01 (statistical error). However, even in this energy range the data seem to show some dependence on the incident photon energy. Taking into account this possible variation a conservative estimate of $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p=(0.66\pm 0.10)`$ is derived for photon energies above the free nucleon production threshold.

The cross section ratio rises significantly at lower incident photon energies and approaches unity. Such a behavior was predicted by Fix and Arenhövel Fix  with a model calculation which takes into account $`NN`$ and $`\eta N`$ re-scattering. This rise therefore does not reflect an energy dependence of the elementary cross section ratio but is a pure nuclear effect. Their prediction for a fixed nucleon lab polar angle of 4 is compared to the data in fig. 5. Here one should keep in mind that in the immediate vicinity of the threshold the kinematic separation between spectator and participant nucleons breaks down. This means that very close to threshold the experimentally observed cross section ratio will approach unity in any case.

Inclusive and exclusive total cross section data allow only the extraction of the ratio of the absolute values of $`A_{1/2}^n`$, $`A_{1/2}^p`$ but not of the relative sign which is related to the isospin structure of the helicity amplitudes via:

$`|A_{1/2}^p|^2`$ $`=`$ $`|A_{1/2}^{IS}+A_{1/2}^{IV}|^2`$ (7)
$`|A_{1/2}^n|^2`$ $`=`$ $`|A_{1/2}^{IS}A_{1/2}^{IV}|^2`$
where $`A_{1/2}^{IS}`$ denotes the isoscalar and $`A_{1/2}^{IV}`$ the isovector part of the helicity amplitude for the proton ($`A_{1/2}^p`$) and the neutron ($`A_{1/2}^n`$), respectively. Since the ratio of the absolute values is close to 0.8, either the isovector or the isoscalar part must be strongly dominant and the relative sign between $`A_{1/2}^n`$ and $`A_{1/2}^p`$ determines which one. This question has been investigated with the help of coherent $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron Krusche\_2 ; Hoffmann ; Weiss . In this case only the isoscalar amplitude contributes and the observed very small cross sections have been taken as evidence for a dominant isoscalar contribution.

A different possibility to determine the relative sign originates from interference terms in the angular distributions of quasifree $`\eta `$-production from the deuteron. This can be seen in the following way. Due to the strong dominance of the S11-resonance in $`\eta `$-photoproduction, the cross section can be expressed in good approximation by s-wave multipoles and interference terms of the s-wave with other multipoles Krusche\_1 ; Tiator\_99  which gives:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q_\eta ^{}}{k^{}}}[E_{o^+}^2\text{Re}(E_{o^+}^{}(E_2^{}3M_2^{}))`$ (8)
$`+2\text{Re}(E_{o^+}^{}(3E_{1^+}+M_{1^+}M_1^{}))cos(\mathrm{\Theta }^{})`$
$`+3\text{Re}(E_{o^+}^{}(E_2^{}3M_2^{}))cos^2(\mathrm{\Theta }^{})].`$
It has been shown Krusche\_1 ; Tiator\_99 , that in the excitation energy range of the S11(1535), the cross section is dominated by the constant term, the $`cos`$-term is negligible, and the angular dependence results entirely from the $`cos^2`$-term. The responsible amplitude $``$:

$$=Re(E_{o^+}^{}(E_2^{}3M_2^{}))$$
(9)
results from an interference of the S11 excitation ($`E_{o^+}`$-multipole) with the D13 excitation ($`E_2`$-, $`M_2`$-multipoles) and can be rewritten in terms of helicity elements as:

$$\text{Re}(A_{o+}^{}A_2),$$
(10)
in the usual notation. Close to the resonance positions of the S11 and the D13, the product of the real parts of the amplitudes is negligible compared to the product of the imaginary parts so that:

$$\text{Im}(A_{o+})\text{Im}(A_2).$$
(11)
In the vicinity of the two resonances this can be approximated by:

$$A_{1/2}^N(S_{11})A_{1/2}^N(D_{13})\times (E_\gamma )$$
(12)
where $`(E_\gamma )`$ is the same function for proton and neutron and $`A_{1/2}^N`$ are the helicity 1/2 couplings for the resonance excitations on proton ($`N=p`$) and neutron ($`N=n`$). Therefore the angular distributions can be approximated by:

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}\right)_N`$ $``$ $`(A_{1/2}^N(S_{11}))^2+`$
$`𝒢(E_\gamma )A_{1/2}^N(S_{11})A_{1/2}^N(D_{13})(3cos^2(\mathrm{\Theta })1).`$
The helicity couplings of the D13 resonance are well known from pion photoproduction experiments PDG . We adopt here the results from the latest analysis of the GW-group Arndt  of $`A_{1/2}^p(D_{13})`$=(-24$`\pm `$2) (Particle Data Group PDG : -24$`\pm `$9) and $`A_{1/2}^n(D_{13})`$=(-67$`\pm `$3) (PDG: -59$`\pm `$9). The helicity coupling $`A_{1/2}^p(S_{11})`$ is taken from Krusche\_4 ; Eta\_MAID  as (120$`\pm `$20). With these parameters the constant $`𝒢(E_\gamma )`$ can be approximated at excitation energies around 800 MeV with eq. 4.3 from the measured angular distributions of $`p(\gamma ,\eta )p`$ Krusche\_1  as $`𝒢(800MeV)0.2`$. Since the angular distributions for the proton have a maximum at 90o Krusche\_1 , $`A_{1/2}^p(S_{11})`$ is positive, and the helicity couplings for the D13 are both negative, we qualitatively expect a minimum at 90o in the angular distribution of $`n(\gamma ,\eta )n`$ if $`A_{1/2}^n(S_{11})`$ is negative and a maximum if it is positive.

The angular dependence of the cross section ratio in the excitation region of the S11-resonance is shown in fig. 6 in the cm system of the incident photon and a nucleon at rest. In comparison to the free nucleon case angular distributions of quasifree $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron are only somewhat smeared out in this frame by Fermi motion Krusche\_2  as long as the incident photon energies are not to close to the production threshold. Note that due to the influence of Fermi motion, the experiment had non-zero acceptance for all $`\eta `$-emission angles in this frame, although the lab angle of the recoil nucleons was restricted. The data are compared to the ratios predicted from eq. 4.3 with $`A_{1/2}^n(S_{11})=\pm 93`$, corresponding to the observed cross section ratio in this energy region (see fig. 5). As also demonstrated in the figure, the effects of the momentum distribution of the nucleons and the limited acceptance of the detector system have only a small effect on the ratio of the angular distributions. It is obvious that the shape strongly favors the negative sign (reduced $`\chi ^2`$: 1.2 and 8.3 for negative respectively positive sign). The data are also compared to a full calculation with the MAID-model Eta\_MAID , which also reproduces the shape with the negative sign for $`A_{1/2}^n(S_{11})`$. The small disagreement on the absolute scale between data and MAID corresponds to a slightly different absolute value of the neutron coupling.

### 4.4 Cross section ratio versus effective photon energy

Due to the momentum distribution of the bound nucleons the exclusive cross section ratios discussed above represent for each incident photon energy an average over a certain range of $`\sqrt{s}`$ for the photon - nucleon system. This means that when comparing to the elementary cross section ratio predicted by models, one must account for the Fermi smearing which could wash out a possible energy dependence of the ratio. This effect can be eliminated when instead of the incident photon energy the equivalent photon energy $`E_\gamma ^{}`$ (see eq. 6), reconstructed from the over-determined reaction kinematics, is used.

The exclusive cross sections within the TAPS acceptance as function of $`E_\gamma ^{}`$ are shown in fig. 7. The energies of the recoil nucleons, which enter into the calculation of the equivalent photon energy, are measured in different ways (see sec. 3). Consequently, systematic effects due to the resolution and the relative absolute calibration of the recoil nucleon energies must be taken into account for the extraction of the cross section ratio. As discussed in sec. 3 the resolution of the proton recoil energy, determined from the energy deposited in the scintillators, is better than for the neutron recoil energy measured via time-of-flight. In order to avoid a systematic effect on the cross section ratio, the proton energies were folded with an additional resolution term so that the resolution for the recoil energies of both nucleons became equal. This was controlled via the influence of the resolution on the shape of the missing mass spectra. The folded proton cross section is also shown in the figure, the effect is largest for small photon energies.

The resulting ratio is shown in fig. 8 and compared to the measurement with the 4He target Hejny  which was now analyzed in the same way. The two data sets show a very similar behavior. Due to the nuclear re-scattering effects the ratios approach unity close to threshold. At higher energies the ratios become almost constant although the deuteron data tend to somewhat lower values around photon energies of 800 MeV, where they are close to the lower limit extracted from fig. 5. This behavior is not inconsistent with the results shown in fig. 5. This is demonstrated with a participant - spectator model calculation using the cross section ratio extracted above from the equivalent photon energy. The result for the cross section ratio as function of the incident photon energy (dotted line in fig. 5) agrees very well with the measured values. On the other hand, the cross section ratio as function of the equivalent photon energy has an additional systematic uncertainty from the relative calibration of the nucleon recoil energies which can give rise to a shift of $`E_\gamma ^{}`$ between protons and neutrons. The possible size of this effect is indicated as shaded band in fig. 8. It was determined in the following way: the energies were artificially changed until a significant shift of the peak positions in the missing mass spectra was observed. Subsequently the cross section ratio was re-analyzed with the modified energy calibration. The uncertainty is almost negligible around 740 MeV, where the two cross section peak, but becomes large in the regions with a steep slope.

## 5 Conclusions

Inclusive and exclusive $`\eta `$-photoproduction from deuterium has been measured. An impulse approximation model fitted to the inclusive data yields a ratio $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p=0.67\pm 0.07`$ in agreement with an earlier measurement Krusche\_2 .

Fully exclusive data from the deuteron, i.e. the coincident detection of the $`\eta `$-meson and the recoil nucleon has been obtained for the first time. The kinematics is over-determined for this reaction, which allows the reconstruction of the momentum of the spectator nucleon and of $`\sqrt{s}`$ of the photon - participant nucleon system. The exclusive data was analyzed in two ways: as function of the incident photon energy and as function of the equivalent photon energy corresponding to the reconstructed $`\sqrt{s}`$. The data are compared to the results from a similar experiment using a 4He target and to model predictions in fig. 9.

The observed rise of the cross section ratio to unity at the breakup threshold for incident photon energies, respectively at the free nucleon threshold for equivalent photon energies is understood. It is a pure nuclear effect due to re-scattering contributions etc., which are not related to the behavior of the elementary cross sections on the free nucleon. Therefore the extreme threshold region should not be included into the determination of the neutron - proton ratio for the excitation of the S11(1535) resonance. The ratios are almost constant for higher incident photon energies and the small residual energy dependence is opposite for the deuteron data (slight decrease to higher energies) and the 4He data Hejny  (slight increase). As a function of the equivalent photon energy the ratios from both measurements show a slight decrease towards higher energies in the excitation energy range of the S11, which lies, however, within the systematic uncertainty of the data. Consequently, no final conclusion can be drawn as to whether a small energy dependence of the elementary cross section ratio for $`\eta `$-photoproduction on the free neutron and proton exists in the excitation energy range of the S11. A comparison of the energy dependence in the S11 range to model predictions (see fig. 9) clearly disfavors the interpretation of the resonance as a $`K\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ bound state Kaiser\_1 ; Kaiser\_2 . This model reproduced the cross section for $`p(\gamma ,\eta )p`$ quite well, but predicts a strong rise of $`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$, which is not observed.

The cross section ratios derived from the inclusive and exclusive data for incident photon energies in the S11-range are compared below to previous results:

$`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ $`=`$ $`(0.67\pm 0.07)\text{}\text{2}\text{H, }\eta \text{ detected; this work}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.66\pm 0.10)\text{}\text{2}\text{H, }\eta \text{ }\text{and}\text{ recoil nucleon; this work}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.66\pm 0.07)\text{}\text{2}\text{H, }\eta \text{ detected; }\text{Krusche\_2}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.68\pm 0.06)\text{}\text{2}\text{H, recoil nucleon detected; }\text{Hoffmann}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.67\pm 0.07)\text{}\text{4}\text{He, }\eta \text{ detected; }\text{Hejny}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.68\pm 0.09)\text{}\text{4}\text{He, }\eta \text{ }\text{and}\text{ recoil nucleon; }\text{Hejny}`$
The values obtained from effective photon energies around the $`S_{11}`$ position ($`E_\gamma ^{}`$=750 - 850 MeV, see fig. 8) are close to the lower limits of the above results, but have much larger errors due to the systematic uncertainty of the relative energy calibration:

$`\sigma _n/\sigma _p(E_\gamma ^{})`$ $`=`$ $`(0.58\pm 0.20)\text{}\text{2}\text{H, this work}`$
$`=`$ $`(0.62\pm 0.20)\text{}\text{4}\text{He, this work}.`$
The results from all measurements agree and their uncertainties are dominated by systematic effects like the absolute cross section normalizations and the model dependence of the extraction from inclusive data. This systematic uncertainties are largely independent since the experiments include different target nuclei, different extraction methods of the ratio, and different experimental setups, so that an overall average of the results is meaningful:

$`\sigma _n/\sigma _p`$ $`=`$ $`(0.67\pm 0.03)`$ (16)
$`|A_{1/2}^n|/|A_{1/2}^p|`$ $`=`$ $`(0.819\pm 0.018)`$ (17)
$`A_{1/2}^{IV}/A_{1/2}^{IS}`$ $`=`$ $`(10.0\pm 0.7)`$ (18)
$`A_{1/2}^{IS}/A_{1/2}^p`$ $`=`$ $`(0.09\pm 0.01)`$
Inclusion or not of the less precise results obtained from the analysis of the effective photon energies ( eq. 5) leaves the overall result unchanged. This precise value of the cross section ratio can then be used for the extraction of the ratio of the electromagnetic helicity couplings $`A_{1/2}^n`$ and $`A_{1/2}^p`$ for the excitation of the S11(1535) resonance on the neutron and the proton. Here it is assumed that in the energy range of interest $`\eta `$-photoproduction is so strongly dominated by the excitation of the S11 resonance that the sum of all other contributions can be safely neglected Krusche\_4 . The extraction of the isospin structure of the helicity amplitude, i.e. the ratio $`A_{1/2}^{IV}/A_{1/2}^{IS}`$ or $`A_{1/2}^{IS}/A_{1/2}^p`$ furthermore requires the knowledge of the relative phase between the proton and the neutron amplitude. The results from coherent $`\eta `$-photoproduction from the deuteron Hoffmann ; Weiss  and the behavior of the ratio of the angular distributions for quasifree $`\eta `$-production from the proton and the neutron investigated here, have shown, that the reaction on the nucleon must be dominantly isovector. Under this assumption a 9% isoscalar contribution to the proton amplitude is determined. The lowest value for the proton - neutron ratio in the S11 range is 0.55 for equivalent photon energies around 800 MeV in the present experiment. Even if we use this value, the isoscalar component would only rise to 13%. As discussed in Weiss  such a small isoscalar amplitude is not in agreement with models reproducing the measured coherent cross section which require an isoscalar admixture of roughly 20%. The origin of this discrepancy is not yet understood. It was however recently suggested by Ritz and Arenhövel Ritz  that the proton and neutron amplitudes could have an unexpected large complex relative phase. In this case the amplitude ratio $`|A_{1/2}^n|/|A_{1/2}^p|=(0.819\pm 0.018)`$ could be consistent with a 20% isoscalar admixture.

At higher photon energies a rise of the neutro-proton ratio is predicted by models. This is shown in fig. 9. The full curve is a prediction from a coupled channel model by Sauermann et al. Sauermann . The dash-dotted and dotted curves are predictions from the MAID model Eta\_MAID  for the full model and for a truncated model which only takes into account the excitation of the S11(1535) resonance, Born terms and vector meson exchange. The predicted rise at the higher photon energies is assigned to the excitation of higher lying nucleon resonances. The measured cross section ratio does not yet show any rise to higher energies, but it is evident that higher incident photon energies must be used to test this prediction.

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the outstanding support of the accelerator group of MAMI, as well as many other scientists and technicians of the Institut für Kernphysik at the University of Mainz. Stimulating discussions with A. Arenhövel and A. Fix are gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 201), the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation.