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# Cosmic optical activity in the spacetime of a scalar-tensor screwed cosmic string

## I Introduction

The Cosmological Principle postulates that the Universe is homogenuous and isotropic on large scales. This means that there exists no preferred direction on the sky, and that in any patch of the sky we look into we may expect to find roughly the same distribution of matter and radiation. This premise was verified by the COBE satellite up to about $`10^6`$ in temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation, a residual from the Big Bang. However, recent measurements of radio and optical emission from distant radio-galaxies and quasars provides clear evidence that the linearly polarized light emitted by these objects presents an additional rotation of its polarization plane, which remains even after Faraday rotation, the one produced by its interaction with the intergalactic plasma, is extracted. This may represent evidence for cosmological anisotropy on large scale.

In particular, Hutsemékers and Lamy  found that the polarization vectors of light from quasars are not randomly oriented on the sky as standard understanding suggested. To confirm this effect they studied a sample of 170 optically polarized quasars with accurate polarization measurements. Their analysis showed that in some regions the polarization position angles appear concentrated around preferential directions, what suggests the existence of large-scale coherent orientations or alignments of the quasar’s radiation polarization vectors. In their measurements, the hypothesis of uniform distribution of polarization position angles may be rejected at the 1.8 $`\%`$ significance level. Though the sample seemed to be statistically not too much significant, further surveys confirm its unexpected nature. The occurrence of coherent orientations over cosmic distances, they claimed, seems to point towards the existence of new non-standard effects relevant to cosmology.

Other authors had claimed to find evidence for cosmological birefringence . This claim, initially contentious, was confirmed by subsequent studies that demonstrated the existence of such an effect up to a high confidence level. Thenceforth, these actual evidences give new motivations to investigate more detailed this possibility.

The implications of the possible existence of a preferred direction over cosmological distances have been discussed in the context of theories of gravitation and observational cosmology. Such a phenomenon, if it exists, would imply the violation of the Lorentz invariance, bringing unpredictable consequences for fundamental physics.

The idea that the intergalactic space is a birefringent medium has been considered for a long time. Several potential sources of optical activity have already been studied. They include the scattering produced by atoms, by a neutrino sea, and also by a background Kalb-Ramond torsion (axion) field in the context of a heterotic string theory. In particular, the scattering-inspired theories suggested that the intergalatic medium contains neutral atoms and microwave radiation immersed in a neutrino or antineutrino sea. The sea is very hard to detect experimentally as a result of its low energy and its exclusively weak interactions. Electromagnetic radiation travelling though the intergalatic medium interact with its components, and if this radiation is initially plane polarized, the plane of polarization would rotate.

In this paper, instead of the idea of a neutrino or axion-like sea interacting with the electromagnetic radiation or the model inspired on heterotic strings, we will consider that a screwed cosmic string (SCS) on the background, whose gravitational effects are described by a scalar-tensor theory, has the same effect, i. e., the plane polarized electromagnetic radiation from high redshifts cosmic sources has the plane of polarization rotated when it is travelling through the spacetime generated by this screwed cosmic string. In the literature, the association of such anisotropy with a torsion background has been considered.

On the other hand, the assumption that gravity may be intermediated by a scalar field (or, more generally, by many scalar fields) in addition to the usual symmetric rank-2 tensor of Einstein’s general relativity has considerably revived in recent years. It has been argued that gravity may be described by a scalar-tensor gravitational field, at least at sufficiently high energy scales.

From the theoretical point of view, scalar-tensor theories of gravitation, in which the gravitational interaction is mediated by one or several long-range scalar fields in addition to the usual tensor field present in Einstein’s theory, are the most natural alternatives to general relativity. In these theories the gravitational interaction is mediated by a (spin-2) graviton and by a (spin-0) scalar field . If gravity is essentially a scalar-tensor theory, there will be direct implications for cosmology and experimental tests of the gravitational interaction. In particular, any gravitational phenomena will be affected by the variation of the gravitational constant $`\stackrel{~}{G}_0`$. At sufficiently high energy scales where gravity becomes scalar-tensor in nature , it seems worthwhile to analyze the behaviour of matter and radiation fields in the presence of a scalar-tensor gravitational field, specially those generated during the early universe by objects such cosmic strings. In this context, some authors have studied solutions for cosmic strings and domain walls in Brans-Dicke , in dilaton theory  and in situations with more general scalar-tensor couplings .

The dilaton-torsion identification was previously made in a modified scalar-tensor theory, where the torsion field is generated by a scalar field. Torsion is important from the phenomenological point of view and it may be relevant to cosmology. This importance is associated with the modifications of kinematic quantities like shear, vorticity, acceleration, expansion and their evolution equations derived in the presence of torsion.

A cosmic string  is a topological defect that may has been formed during phase transitions in the realm of the early Universe. Its gravitational field, in the context of General Relativity is quite remarkable: a particle placed at rest around a straight, infinite, static cosmic string will not be attracted to it. The richness of new ideas this defect brought along with general relativity seems to justify the interest in the study of this structure, and specifically the role played by it in the framework of cosmology due to the fact that it carries a large energy density and for this reason it could be a potential source for primordial density perturbations.

In this paper we will consider the coupling of a Chern-Simons-like(CS) term with the spacetime of a screwed cosmic string, in a scalar-tensor gravity, to introduce a novel explanation of the observations suggesting an optical activity of spacetime. This optical activity manifests itself through the peculiar orientation of the polarization vectors of radio waves emitted by distant quasar and galaxies, which seems to indicate some kind of anisotropy over cosmological distances.

This paper is organized as follows: In Section II we introduce the physics of the scalar-tensor screwed cosmic string (SCS). In Section III, the dilatonic solution for the SCS is used as a background to study, in Section IV, the coupling of a gauge invariant Chern-Simons-like term. In Section V, we study the superconducting string case and a comparison is done with general relativity effects. In Section VI an overall discussion of our results is given. We stress the possibility of using this approach to explain the data evidencing the optical activity of the spacetime intervening between us and distant quasars and galaxies. Finally, in Section VII we provide some closing remarks.

## II Screwed cosmic string in scalar-tensor gravity

The scalar-tensor theory of gravity with torsion is an extension of Einstein’s General Relativity to which a scalar field is coupled minimally to the gravitational field and a dynamical torsion term is considered additionally. The action describing this coupling, here presented in the Jordan-Fierz frame, takes the form

$$I=\frac{1}{16\pi }d^4x\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}\left[\stackrel{~}{\varphi }\stackrel{~}{R}\frac{\omega (\stackrel{~}{\varphi })}{\stackrel{~}{\varphi }}_\mu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }^\mu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }\right]+I_m(\stackrel{~}{g}_{\mu \nu },\mathrm{\Psi }).$$
(1)
where $`I_m(\stackrel{~}{g}_{\mu \nu },\mathrm{\Psi })`$ is the action of the matter, which in the general case takes into account all fields. Here we will consider the presence of spinor fields in the action. The function $`\omega `$ in a general scalar-tensor theory has a $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$ dependence, but in the specific case of the Brans-Dicke theory it is a constant. In this case the scalar curvature $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$, appearing in Eq.(1) in the Jordan-Fierz frame, can be written as

$$\stackrel{~}{R}=\stackrel{~}{R}(\{\})+ϵ\frac{_\mu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }^\mu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }}{\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^2},$$
(2)
where $`\stackrel{~}{R}(\{\})`$ is the Riemann scalar curvature in the Jordan-Fierz frame and $`ϵ`$ is the torsion coupling constant. It is worth to stress that in the scalar curvature $`\stackrel{~}{R}`$, the scalar function $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$ (the dilaton field) can act as a source of the torsion field. Therefore, in the absence of string spin, the torsion field may be generated by the gradient of this scalar field . In this case the torsion can be propagated with the scalar field, and can be written as

$$S_{\mu \nu }^\lambda =(\delta _\mu ^\lambda _\nu \stackrel{~}{\varphi }\delta _\nu ^\lambda _\mu \stackrel{~}{\varphi })/2\stackrel{~}{\varphi }.$$
(3)
The most general affine connection $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha `$ in this theory receives a contribution from the contortion tensor $`K_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha `$ throughout the definition

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha =\{_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha \}+K_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha ,$$
(4)
where the quantity $`\{_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha \}`$ is the Christoffel symbol computed from the metric tensor $`g_{\mu \nu }`$, whilst the contortion tensor $`K_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha `$ can be written in terms of the torsion field as

$$K_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha =\frac{1}{2}(S_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha +S_{\nu \lambda }^\alpha S_{\lambda \nu }^\alpha ).$$
(5)
Although the action proposed in Eq.(1) shows explicitly this scalar-tensor gravity feature, for technical reasons, we will adopt the Einstein (conformal) frame in which the kinematic terms of the scalar and tensor fields do not mix. In this frame the action is given as

$$I=\frac{1}{16\pi G}d^4x\sqrt{g}\left[R2g^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi \right]+I_m[\mathrm{\Psi }_m,\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\varphi )g_{\mu \nu }],$$
(6)
where $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ is a pure rank-2 tensor in the Einstein frame, and $`R`$ is the curvature scalar given by

$$R=R(\{\})+4ϵ\alpha ^2(\varphi )_\mu \varphi ^\mu \varphi .$$
(7)
It is interesting to call attention to the fact that the action in Eq.(6) is obtained from Eq.(1) by a conformal transformation of the kind

$$\stackrel{~}{g}_{\mu \nu }=\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\varphi )g_{\mu \nu },$$
(8)
and by a redefinition of the quantity

$`G\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\varphi )=\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^1.`$

This transformation makes it evident that any gravitational phenomena will be affected by the variation of the gravitational constant $`G`$ in the scalar-tensor gravity, a feature that is exhibited through the definition of a new parameter

$`\alpha ^2(\varphi )\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Omega }(\varphi )}{\varphi }}\right)^2=[2\omega (\stackrel{~}{\varphi })+3]^1,`$

which can be interpreted as the field-dependent coupling strength between matter and the scalar field. In order to turn our calculations as general as possible, we will not fix the factors $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\varphi )`$ and $`\alpha (\varphi )`$, leaving them as arbitrary functions of the scalar field.

## III Ordinary SCS plus a scalar field dynamics

Let us now consider the dynamics of an ordinary SCS plus a scalar field, as the simple realization of our scenario for inducing optical activity in spacetime. In the conformal frame, the Einstein equations are modified. A straightforward calculation shows that they turn into

$`R_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`2\xi _\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi +8\pi G(T_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\mu \nu }T),`$ (9)
$`G_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`2\xi _\mu \varphi _\nu \varphi \xi g_{\mu \nu }g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha \varphi _\beta \varphi +8\pi GT_{\mu \nu },`$ (10)
where $`\xi `$ is defined as

$$\xi (\varphi )=12ϵ\alpha ^2(\varphi ),$$
(11)
which contains two contributions: one coming from the scalar-tensor term and another from the torsion.

In the scalar-tensor theory the Einstein equations are modified by the presence of the field $`\varphi `$ and are obtained by applying the variational principle to Eq.(6). Thus, the equation describing the dynamics of the field $`\varphi `$ reads

$$\mathrm{}_g\varphi =4\pi G\alpha (\varphi )T,$$
(12)
where

$$\mathrm{}_g\varphi =\frac{\xi }{\sqrt{g}}_\mu \left(\sqrt{g}^\mu \varphi \right).$$
(13)
Equation(12) brings some new information because it does not appear in general relativity. It also shows us that a matter distribution in the space behaves like a source for $`\varphi `$, and, as usual, for $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ as well. Up to now we have dealt with the purely gravitational sector, in what follows, however, we will introduce the action for the matter that describes a cosmic string.

To describe the simplest cosmic string in a scalar-tensor theory, we require the matter dynamics to be figured out from a complex scalar and a gauge field, in an Abelian Higgs model with symmetry $`U(1)`$ whose action is given by

$$I_m=d^4x\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}\left[\frac{1}{2}D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }(D^\mu \mathrm{\Phi })^{}\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }V(|\mathrm{\Phi }|)\right],$$
(14)
where $`D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }=(_\mu +iqA_\mu )\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the covariant derivative, whilst $`V(|\mathrm{\Phi }|)`$ is the potential. The reason why the gauge fields do not minimally couple to torsion is well discussed in Refs.. The field strengths are defined as usually: $`F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu `$, with $`A_\mu `$ being the gauge field. The action given by Eq.(1) has a $`U(1)`$ symmetry, where the $`U(1)`$ group associated with the $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$-field is broken by the vacuum and gives rise to vortices of the Nielsen-Olesen type (here written in terms of $`(t,r,\theta ,z)`$ the usual cylindrical coordinates)

$$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Phi }=\phi (r)e^{i\theta },\hfill & \\ A_\mu =\frac{1}{q}[P(r)1]\delta _\mu ^\theta .\hfill & \end{array}$$
(15)
The boundary conditions for the fields $`\phi (r)`$ and $`P(r)`$ are the same as those of ordinary cosmic strings, namely

$$\begin{array}{cc}\begin{array}{cc}\phi (r)=\eta ,\hfill & r\mathrm{},\hfill \\ \phi (r)=0,\hfill & r=0,\hfill \end{array}\hfill & \begin{array}{cc}P(r)=0,\hfill & r\mathrm{},\hfill \\ P(r)=1,\hfill & r=0.\hfill \end{array}\hfill \end{array}$$
(16)
The potential $`V(\phi )`$ triggering the spontaneous symmetry breaking can be built as

$$V(\phi )=\frac{\lambda _\phi }{4}(\phi ^2\eta ^2)^2,$$
(17)
where $`\lambda _\phi `$ is a coupling constant. Constructed in this way, this potential possesses all the ingredients that makes it viable to drive the transition leading to the formation of a cosmic string, as it is well stablished.

If we solve the Einstein-Cartan equations and transform to the Jordan-Fierz frame by using the conformal transformation of Eq.(8), we find that the metric of a static, straight axially symmetric SCS in scalar-tensor gravity, is given as

$$ds^2=[1+8G_0\mu \xi ^1\alpha ^2(\varphi _0)ln\rho /r_0][dt^2+dz^2+d\rho ^2+(18G_0\mu )\rho ^2d\theta ^2],$$
(18)
where $`G_0`$ is defined as $`G_0G\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\varphi _0)`$ and we have used the fact that for a cosmic string the linearized solution of Eq.(12) is given by

$$\varphi _{(1)}=4G_0\alpha (\varphi _0)\xi ^1\mu \mathrm{ln}\frac{\rho }{r_0}.$$
(19)
The constant $`r_0`$ appearing in the Eqs.(18) and (19) is an integration constant, and is chosen, for convenience, as having the same order of magnitude as that of the string radius. The metric given by Eq.(18) can be obtained from the one corresponding to the superconducting cosmic string, by considering the limit when the string current vanishes.

## IV Chern-Simons-like coupling in a scalar-tensor SCS background

Recent mesurements of optical polarization of light from quasars and galaxies provide evidence that in some regions on the sky the radiation polarization vectors are not randomly oriented as naturally expected, but rather they appear concentrated around a preferential direction. These are fundamental observations that, despite the sky coverage was a bit incomplete, may hint at the spacetime as exhibiting novel properties such as the recently claimed optical activity or birefringence. An interesting set of potential explanations of this effect has been put forward in Refs. . Here we provide an alternative explanation of this phenomenon by considering the modification of the Maxwell action density that adds to it a Chern-Simons-like term

$$I_{eff}=d^4x\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}\left(\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\frac{1}{3!}\lambda \epsilon ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }F_{\mu \nu }A_\alpha S_\beta \right),$$
(20)
in which we couple the electromagnetic field $`F_{\mu \nu }`$ and the vector potential $`A_\alpha `$ to the torsion vector $`S_\beta `$ (as we identify it here), responsible for the appearance of the preferred cosmic direction, as suggested by the observations. The parameter $`\lambda `$ is the coupling constant of the theory, whose likely value will be estimated later upon current astronomical data sets. Next, we will investigate the rôle played by the Chern-Simons term in the scalar-tensor screwed cosmic string background.

In this paper we will consider the case where $`S_\mu `$ is a gradient of some scalar field $`\varphi `$ that preserves the gauge invariance but not the Lorentz invariance. In the scalar-tensor screwed cosmic string background we can consider this scalar $`\varphi `$ as the dilaton. Thus, by using Eq.(3) the torsion vector (in the Jordan-Fierz frame) is defined as

$$S_\mu =\frac{3}{2}_\mu \mathrm{ln}\stackrel{~}{\varphi }.$$
(21)
Substituting the linearized solution given by Eq.(19) into Eq.(21), we have

$$S_\mu =3\alpha (\varphi _0)_\mu \varphi _{(1)}.$$
(22)
In this context, the field equation of the eletromagnetic field becomes

$$\frac{1}{\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}}_\mu \left[\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}F^{\mu \nu }\right]=\lambda \alpha (\varphi _0)\stackrel{~}{F}^{\mu \nu }_\mu \varphi _{(1)}.$$
(23)
The solutions of the Eq.(23) give us the corresponding dispersion relation

$$(k^\alpha k_\alpha )^2+(k^\alpha k_\alpha )(S^\beta S_\beta )=(k^\alpha S_\alpha )^2,$$
(24)
with $`\omega `$ and $`𝐤`$ being the wave frequency and wave vector, respectively, and form the 4-vector $`k^\alpha =(\omega ,𝐤)`$; $`k=|𝐤|`$. Because of the magnitude of the effect observed, we do expect $`S_\alpha `$ to be small (see arguments and references in the next section) and thence we can expand the dispersion relation Eq.(24) in powers of $`S_\alpha `$. By using Eq.(22) and substituting $`\varphi _{(1)}`$ as given by Eq.(19), we get, to first order, the following result

$$k_\pm =\omega \pm 2\lambda \xi ^1G_0\mu \alpha ^2(\varphi _0)\widehat{s}\mathrm{cos}(\gamma ),$$
(25)
where $`\gamma `$ is the angle between the propagation wavevector $`𝐤`$ of the radiation and the unit vector $`\widehat{s}`$. We shall discuss later the relevant rôle of this wavevector components in face of the plane polarization of far out radio-galaxies and quasars. But before so doing let us generalize first this result to the case of a superconducting cosmic string.

## V Screwed superconducting cosmic string effects

We have already studied the screwed superconducting cosmic string in a recent work , from which further details can be obtained. In order to describe the simplest superconducting cosmic string in a scalar-tensor theory, we demand a more general matter dynamics to be constructed upon a couple of complex scalar and gauge fields, in an Abelian Higgs model whose action is written as

$$I_m=d^4x\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}}\left[\frac{1}{2}D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }(D^\mu \mathrm{\Phi })^{}\frac{1}{2}D_\mu \mathrm{\Sigma }(D^\mu \mathrm{\Sigma })^{}\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }\frac{1}{4}H_{\mu \nu }H^{\mu \nu }V(|\mathrm{\Phi }|,|\mathrm{\Sigma }|)\right],$$
(26)
where $`D_\mu \mathrm{\Sigma }=(_\mu +iA_\mu )\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi }=(_\mu +iC_\mu )\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are the covariant derivatives. The field strengths are defined as in the standard fashion: $`F_{\mu \nu }=_\mu A_\nu _\nu A_\mu `$ and $`H_{\mu \nu }=_\mu C_\nu _\nu C_\mu `$, with $`A_\mu `$ and $`C_\mu `$ being the gauge fields.

The action given by Eq.(26) has a $`U(1)\times U(1)^{}`$ symmetry, where the $`U(1)`$ group associated with the $`\phi `$-field is broken by the vacuum and gives rise to vortices of the Nielsen-Olesen type. The other $`U(1)^{}`$ symmetry, that we associate with the electromagnetism, acts on the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-field. This symmetry is not broken by the vacuum. It is only broken in the interior of the defect. The $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$-field in the string core, where it acquires an expectation value, is responsible for a bosonic current being carried by the gauge field $`A_\mu `$. The only non-vanishing components of the gauge fields are $`A_z(r)`$ and $`A_t(r)`$, and the current-carrier phase may be expressed as $`\zeta (z,t)=\omega _1t\omega _2z`$ (see Ref. for definitions). Notwithstanding, we focus only on the magnetic case. Their configurations are defined as

$$\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{\Sigma }=\sigma (r)e^{i\zeta (z,t)},\hfill & \\ A_\mu =\frac{1}{e}[A(r)\frac{\zeta (z,t)}{z}]\delta _\mu ^z,\hfill & \end{array}$$
(27)
because of the rotational symmetry of the string itself. The fields responsible for the cosmic string superconductivity satisfy the following boundary conditions

$$\begin{array}{cc}\begin{array}{cc}\frac{d}{dr}\sigma (r)=0,\hfill & r=0,\hfill \\ \sigma (r)=0,\hfill & r\mathrm{},\hfill \end{array}\hfill & \begin{array}{cc}A(r)0,\hfill & r\mathrm{},\hfill \\ A(r)=1,\hfill & r=0.\hfill \end{array}\hfill \end{array}$$
(28)
The potential $`V(\phi ,\sigma )`$ triggering the spontaneous symmetry breaking can be built in the most general case as

$$V(\phi ,\sigma )=\frac{\lambda _\phi }{4}(\phi ^2\eta ^2)^2+f_{\phi \sigma }\phi ^2\sigma ^2+\frac{\lambda _\sigma }{4}\sigma ^4\frac{m_\sigma ^2}{2}\sigma ^2,$$
(29)
where $`\lambda _\phi `$, $`\lambda _\sigma `$, $`f_{\phi \sigma }`$ and $`m_\sigma `$ are coupling constants. Constructed in this way, this potential possesses also all the ingredients so as to drive the formation of a superconducting cosmic string, as in analogy with the ordinary cosmic string case.

In order to investigate the dynamics resulting from the interaction of electromagnetic radiation from quasars and radio-galaxies with the torsion field coupled to the spacetime of background generated by the SCS in this scalar-tensor theory, as encripted by the coupling term type Chern-Simons in Eq.(20), we shall adopt the same procedure as in the last section to obtain the dilaton solution in this the superconducting case. For a superconducting cosmic string, the dynamics defined by Eq.(23) is complicated in itself, but if we assume that we are very far from the source then the gravitational coupling can be neglected, and so we are left with

$$\varphi _{(1)}=4G_0\alpha (\varphi _0)\xi ^1(\mu +\tau I^2)\mathrm{ln}\frac{\rho }{r_0}.$$
(30)
Working out the dynamics of the interaction pictured by Eq.(20), we get a dispersion relation. Once again, since we expect $`S_\alpha `$ to be small (see sound arguments in Ref.), we can expand the dispersion relation Eq.(24) in powers of $`S_\alpha `$ to obtain, to first order,

$$k_\pm =\omega \pm 2\lambda \xi ^1G_0(\mu +\tau I^2)\alpha ^2(\varphi _0)\widehat{s}\mathrm{cos}(\gamma ).$$
(31)
In this case, the parameter I is the current in the vortex and $`\tau `$ is the tension of the string.

We have already commented that the polarization of the radiation moving through an intervening magnetized intergalactic plasma must be removed from the measurements of the rotation of its polarization plane by using the fact that Faraday rotation is proportional to the square of the wavelength. In the case of the superconducting cosmic string in general relativity there is no residual polarization related to the anisotropy after removing the Faraday rotation. In this paper we show that in scalar-tensor theories of gravity, this is not the situation. In fact, the polarization effect is present even after the Faraday rotation is removed. The scalar coupling has a current carrying contribution given by $`\tau `$ and the current $`I`$ that appear in Eq.(31).

As for the comparison with the ordinary string as the background, we note that the current $`I`$ has a strong negative contribution to the wavevector magnitude. This can be interpreted as if the photon has gained now a smaller wavenumber and consequently larger wavelength, and thus larger distances need to be traveled in order for the optical activity of spacetime to manifest on cosmic scales. In this case, these our results go on the same lines of those in the papers by Das, Jain and Mukherji and by Kar et al., .

In the next section we will connect these our theoretical results with the conclusions drawn from data analisys of electromagnetic emission from radio-galaxies and quasars by Nodland and Ralston (NR97); Jain and Ralston (JR99); Das, Jain and Mukherji (DJM00); and more recently from the study of optical polarization of radio-emitting galaxies and quasars by Hutsemékers and Lamy . Note that these new results by Hutsemékers and Lamy  appears to confirm their preliminary conclusions based on an earlier survey, and those in Refs., in which they analyzed measurements of the optical polarization properties of a limited sample of broad absortion-line radio-loud and radio-intermediate high-redshift quasars.

## VI Discussion

Let us contextualize our theoretical results in the framework of the conclusions drawn from the analysis of observational data of quasar emission performed by NR97, JR99 and DJM00. In the analysis of the data of high-redshift radio-emitting galaxies and quasars: about 73 in NR97, 277 in JR99, and 231 in DJM00, they found correlations between the direction on the sky and the distance to a galaxy. The angle $`\beta `$ between the polarization vector and the galaxy’s major axis is defined as

$$<\beta >=\frac{1}{2}\frac{r}{\mathrm{\Lambda }_s}\mathrm{cos}(\stackrel{}{k},\stackrel{}{s}),$$
(32)
where $`<\beta >`$ represents the mean rotation angle after Faraday’s rotation is removed, $`r`$ is the distance to the galaxy, $`\stackrel{}{k}`$ the wavevector of the radiation, and $`\stackrel{}{s}`$ a unit vector defined by the direction on the sky: $`(315^0\pm 30^0,0^0\pm 20^0)`$, given here in equatorial celestial coordinates (r.a.,dec.).

The rotation of the polarization plane is a consequence of the difference in the propagation speed of the two modes $`\kappa _+`$, $`\kappa _{}`$, the main dynamical quantitites computed above. This difference, defined as the angular gradient with respect to the radial (coordinate) distance, is expressed as

$$\frac{1}{2}(\kappa _+\kappa _{})=\frac{d\beta }{dr},$$
(33)
where $`\beta `$ measures the specific entire rotation of the polarization plane, per unit length $`r`$, and is given once again by $`\beta =\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }_s^1r\mathrm{cos}\gamma .`$ In the case of the screwed cosmic string, the constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_s`$, that encompasses the cosmic distance scale for the optical activity to be observed, can be written as a function of the string energy density $`\mu `$ as

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_s^1=4G_0\mu \lambda \xi ^1\alpha ^2(\varphi _0).$$
(34)
It is illustrative to consider a particular form for the arbitrary function $`\alpha (\varphi )`$, corresponding to the Brans-Dicke theory, namely, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=e^{\alpha \varphi }`$, with $`\alpha ^2=\frac{1}{2w+3}`$, ($`w`$=cte). Here we use the values for the scalar parameter $`w>2500`$ such that the theory keeps consistent with solar system experiments made by using Very Large Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) . In this case $`G_0=G_{}\mathrm{\Omega }^2(\varphi _0)=\left(\frac{2\omega +3}{2\omega +4}\right)G_{eff}`$ , with $`G_{eff}`$ the Newtonian constant. In this way, for an ordinary SCS we have the following set of constraints

$$\left|\begin{array}{cc}G_0\mu 10^6\hfill & \text{ from COBE data}\hfill \\ \alpha ^22\times 10^2\hfill & \text{Brans-Dicke gravity}\hfill \\ \xi =1\hfill & \text{in our days}\hfill \\ \mathrm{\Lambda }_s^1=10^{32}\mathrm{eV}\hfill & \text{ from Nodland and Ralston}\hfill \end{array}\right|$$

With these observational constraints one can put a limit in the value of the coupling constant of the theory, which yields: $`\lambda 10^{26}`$ eV.

This result is very interesting because it shows that the optical effect could indeed be large in a theory that has a screwed cosmic string as the background in a scalar-tensor gravity, compared to the one expected from a theory that has not it, as for instance in Refs.. In particular, the paper by Mukhopadhyaya, Sen and SenGupta shows that a very large suppression of the torsion zero-mode on the visible brane occurs in their theory, and that that suppression scales down with the Planck mass M$`{}_{P}{}^{}=(\mathrm{}c/G_N)^{1/2}10^{19}`$ GeV. This means that their coupling constant is $`10^{28}`$ eV. This suppression scale is two orders of magnitude smaller than the strength of coupling attained in the present theory. In this way we show that the general scalar-tensor theory in the SCS background with torsion can give an interesting explanation to these observational data regarding the occurrence of optical activity in the spacetime spanning over cosmological distances. And more interesting yet, the result attained shows that the torsion field effect is more stronger than the one contemporary wisdom believed, and that it may indeed be being detected through this spacetime birefringence and optical activity phenomenology. This is a new view point as opposite to the one presented in Ref., where the illusion of a torsion-free universe appears to be supported in the framework of braneworld physics.

If both, the cosmological anisotropy that Nodland and Ralston; Jain and Ralston; and Das et al. (DJM00)  have claimed to exist in the direction (NR97) $`\widehat{s}=([21\pm 2]hrs,0^0\pm 20^0)`$ (r.a.,dec.), and the optical activity of spacetime evidenced in the Hutsemékers and Lamy  surveys of quasar optical polarization vectors, are real, then they may reconcile these modern observations with earlier ones. Although this birefringence phenomenon was contentious, at the moment its occurrence is vastly demonstrated . Indeed, JR99 and DJM00 suggested that the effect, which is clearly visible for the two highest redshifts in the DJM00 data set, would be more decisively demonstrated, as already pointed out by Carroll and Field, when new data from very distant galaxies are incorporated to the sample. Thus, there seems to be room for viable explanations of the origin of such a preferred direction on the sky.

## VII Closing remarks

In the present paper we consider the possibility of explaining the quoted polarization effects in the framework of scalar-tensor gravity theories that couples to torsion. In our approach a screwed cosmic string, defining the background spacetime on which the interaction between the electromagnetic and torsion fields may take place, is able to create a propagating effect which may manifest outside the string itself. In this sense, being the effect or phenomenon a real one, this model may also provide a consistent description of the NR97, JR99 and DJM00 conclusions by endowing the cosmic string spacetime with torsion. In fact, a possible connection of this effect with the existence of a cosmic rotation axis was pointed out in, who suggested the discovery of a cosmic axis in NR97, and claimed that the observed phenomenon may be a realization of an ancient theoretical idea already presented in Gödel’s cosmology. An alternative mechanism was envisioned by Dobado and Maroto who proposed that the effect, if real, may be interpreted through the coupling of the electromagnetic field with a background torsion field created by charged fermions. Although a viable proposal, this suggestion exhibits a fundamental drawback: it is implicit that the sea of fermions is isotropically distributed in spacetime. Thence, the effect must be present in any other direction on the sky! Unfortunately, observations do not support this assumption. In addition, the model should also be put forward a bit further to cope with additional observational implications of the existence of such a chiral background of relic particles. This crucial constraint was overlooked in that paper. Meanwhile, the spacetime with torsion produced by the Kalb-Ramond field coupled gravitationally to the Maxwell field, in the heterotic string-inspired model of Ref. (and references therein), appears also to be a very sound proposal for explaining the origin of the optical activity observed in the synchroton radiation received from cosmic radio-galaxies and quasars. Once again, the mechanism suggests the just quoted isotropic effect, which not stands on the quoted observations evidencing the existence of a preferred direction on the sky. Moreover, there are several well-known open issues in the string theory used for that leaves the mechanism not fully solidly fundamented.

Put the other way round, our theory is able to provide a consistent explanation for the occurrence of these phenomena regarding the curious propagation of electromagnetic waves over cosmic distances. Concommitantly, the theory can account also for the peculiar alignment of the spin axes observed in galaxies belonging to the supercluster Perseus-Piscis. If confirmed, this cosmic effect might prove an indication of the existence of a universal torsion (or shear) field and an universal spin, as well.

We consider as a possible origin of such an effect the coupling between electromagnetic fields and some torsion field, as described by Eq.(20), in the background of a screwed cosmic string in scalar-tensor gravity theories, with no fermion fields. The use of alternative gravity theories is justified by the fact that Einstein’s gravitation does not admit this sort of phenomenology, and consequentely cannot provide any explanation to this puzzle. In this approach the screwed cosmic string background can be source of optical activity of spacetime even if the string has no spin. In a screwed cosmic string background the medium can be birefringent too due to the appearance of a torsion-dependent deficit angle, and this feature may induce an interaction of the eletromagnetic radiation with a scalar gradient by means of a Chern-Simons coupling. In this way, we can explain the optical activity without invoking an universal sea of either fermionic or axion-like matter pervading the spacetime as its source, as considered by other authors. At the same time, the fact that this theory is concommitant with several experiments and astronomical observations may hint at a gravitation theory beyond Einstein’s general relativity.

Acknowledgments: We would like to express our deep gratitude to Prof. J.A. Helayël-Neto and Prof. R.W. Kühne for helpful suggestions on the subject of this paper. The authors would like to thank (CNPq-Brazil) for financial support. C. N. Ferreira also thank Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (CBPF) for hospitality. HJMC acknowledges support from a Grant-in-Aid of FAPERJ, the Science Foundation of Rio de Janeiro State (Brazil).


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# MKPH-T-02-13 The Two-Nucleon System beyond the Pion Threshold

## 1 Introduction

At present, a very interesting topic in the field of medium energy physics is devoted to the role of effective degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) in hadronic systems in terms of nucleon, meson and isobar d.o.f. and their connection to the underlying quark-gluon dynamics of QCD. For the study of this basic question, the two-nucleon system provides an important test laboratory, because it is the simplest system for the study of the nucleon-nucleon interaction, the role of medium effects due to two-body operators and the relevance of offshell effects, i.e. the change of single particle properties in the nuclear medium. Moreover, the deuteron is of specific relevance as an effective neutron target. Within the present effective description, one is able to obtain a reasonable, though not perfect description of the possible hadronic and electromagnetic reactions in the two-nucleon sector below $`\pi `$ threshold. However, for energies beyond $`\pi `$ threshold up to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ region additional complications occur. Present state-of-the-art models should incorporate not only a realistic NN interaction, but also a dynamical treatment of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ isobar. Moreover, in view of the requirement of unitarity, the various possible reactions should be described within one consistent framework, because they are linked by the optical theorem. In the past, we have started to realize this ambitious project within a retarded coupled channel $`NNN\mathrm{\Delta }`$ approach, based on a three-body scattering approach with nucleon, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and meson degrees of freedom .

## 2 The Model

For energies up to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ region, our model Hilbert space $`^{[2]}`$ consists of three orthogonal subspaces $`^{[2]}=_{\overline{N}}^{[2]}_\mathrm{\Delta }^{[2]}_X^{[2]}`$, where $`_{\overline{N}}^{[2]}`$ contains two (bare) nucleons, $`_\mathrm{\Delta }^{[2]}`$ one nucleon and one $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ resonance, and $`_X^{[2]}`$ two nucleons and one meson $`X\{\pi ,\rho ,\sigma ,\delta ,\omega ,\eta \}`$.

Concerning the hadronic part, the basic interactions in our model are $`XNN`$ and $`\pi N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ vertices. Inserting these into the Lippmann-Schwinger equation, one obtains after some straightforward algebra  effective hadronic interactions acting in $`_{\overline{N}}^{[2]}_\mathrm{\Delta }^{[2]}`$ which contain, apart from pion-nucleon loop contributions to the nucleonic self energy, retarded one-boson exchange (OBE) mechanisms describing the transitions $`NNNN`$, $`NNN\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`N\mathrm{\Delta }N\mathrm{\Delta }`$. Due to the nonhermiticity and nonlocality of a retarded operator, which becomes moreover complex above pion threshold, in most applications the simple static approximation is used by neglecting the energy transfer by the exchanged meson. The corresponding static operators are much easier to handle, but one encounters on the other hand at least two serious problems. Above pion-threshold, unitarity is violated due to the absence of singularities in the static operators. Moreover, in the past it turned out that even the simplest photonuclear reaction, namely deuteron photodisintegration, cannot be described even qualitatively within a consistent static framework .

In our explicit realization, we use for the retarded $`NN`$ interaction the Elster potential  which takes into account in addition one-pion loop diagrams in order to fulfil unitarity above pion threshold. Therefore, one has to distinguish between bare and physical nucleons (see  for details). Concerning the transitions $`NNN\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and $`N\mathrm{\Delta }N\mathrm{\Delta }`$, we take besides retarded pion exchange static $`\rho `$ exchange into account. Moreover, the interaction of two nucleons in the deuteron channel in the presence of a spectator pion (the $`\pi d`$ channel) is also considered. This mechanism is necessarry for satisfying unitarity, because otherwise no asymptotic free $`\pi d`$ state would exist. By a suitable box renormalization , we are able to obtain approximate phase equivalence between the Elster potential and our coupled channel approach below pion threshold.

Similarly, the basic electromagnetic interactions consist of baryonic and mesonic one-body currents as well as vertex and Kroll-Rudermann contributions . These currents are, together with the $`\pi NN`$ vertex, the basic building blocks of the corresponding effective current operators. The latter contain beside the ordinary spin-, convection- and spin-orbit currents full retarded pionic meson exchange currents and electromagnetic loop contributions, where the latter can be interpreted as off-shell contributions to the baryonic one-body current . Moreover, static $`\rho `$ MEC as well as $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ MEC contributions are taken into account. It can be shown  that concerning the pionic part gauge invariance is fulfiled in leading order of $`1/M_N`$. This is a consequence of the fact that the hadronic pion-nucleon loop contributions, the retarded $`\pi `$-exchange contribution to the NN interaction, the electromagnetic loop contributions, and the $`\pi `$ MEC are based on the same $`\pi NN`$ vertex.

## 3 Results

The hadronic $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ parameters and the M1 $`\gamma N\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coupling are simultaneously fitted to the $`M_{1+}(3/2)`$ multipole of pion photoproduction on the nucleon, to the $`P_{33}`$ channel of pion-nucleon scattering and to the $`{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$ channel of nucleon-nucleon scattering . In Fig. 1, our results for the $`{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$ phase shift and inelasticity are depicted. We obtain a good description at least up to about $`T_{lab}=800`$ MeV. This is of particular relevance for deuteron photodisintegration where the most important contribution to the unpolarized cross section in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ region comes from the $`{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$ channel. Concerning the other partial $`NN`$ waves, the overall description is only fairly well . Therefore, we have started to construct from scratch an interaction model whose parameters are fitted to the phase shifts and inelasticities of all relevant $`NN`$ partial waves for energies up to about 1 GeV. However, as of yet we have not found a parameter set which would lead to a considerable improvement. One reason for this failure may be the fact that our effective baryon-baryon model is basically a one-boson exchange model which does not take into account more complicated mechanisms like the crossed two-pion-exchange. Moroever, the $`\pi N`$ interaction has to be improved. Forthcoming studies on that topic are essential, especially for clarifying the role of final state interactions (FSI) in hadronic and electromagnetic breakup reactions on the deuteron for energies beyond the $`\pi `$ threshold.

As next, we discuss very briefly deuteron photodisintegration. The starting point of our consideration is the static approach of Wilhelm et al.  which is based on the Bonn-OBEPR potential . Similar to our present approach, there is no free parameter in the calculation of the photodisintegration process in . As is evident form Fig. 2, Wilhelm et al. clearly fail in describing the data. One obtains a considerable underestimation of the cross section in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ peak. Moreover, a dip structure around $`90^{}`$ occurs at higher energies which is not present in the data. This feature is also present in other static approaches like the unitary three-body model of Tanabe and Otha . On the other hand, these problems in the differential cross section vanish almost completely in a retarded approach . However, some discrepancies in polarization observables like the linear photon asymmetry $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ or the polarization $`P_y(p)`$ of the outgoing proton are still present . It is known that polarization observables may be sensitive to small reaction mechanisms which are suppressed in the unpolarized cross section. Therefore, we assume that the failure of our model in describing $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`P_y(p)`$ may be attributed to the present treatment of the hadronic interaction which needs to be improved as has been outlined above.

A very interesting topic is the exploration of the spin asymmetry of the total cross section of the nucleon and light nuclei which determines the GDH-sum rule

$$I^{GDH}=𝑑k\frac{\sigma ^P(k)\sigma ^A(k)}{k}=4\pi \kappa ^2\frac{e^2}{M^2}S$$
(1)
and which is at present under investigation experimentally . In (1), $`\sigma ^{P/A}(k)`$ denotes the total photoabsorption cross section on a target with mass $`M`$, spin $`S`$ and anomalous magnetic moment $`\kappa `$ with the photon spin parallel (antiparallel) to the target spin.

Due to the lack of a free neutron target, a measurement of the GDH-sum rule on the deuteron is of specific significance because it has been suggested in the past that one can measure the spin asymmetry of the total photoabsorption cross section of the neutron by using light nuclei like the deuteron. This would rest on the assumptions that (i) the polarized deuteron constitutes an effective polarized neutron target and (ii) one has to suppose that the spin asymmetry on the deuteron is dominated by the quasi free pion-production, so that binding and FSI effects from the presence of the spectator nucleon can be neglected, resulting in an incoherent sum of proton and neutron contributions.

However, both assumptions are questionable. First of all, due to the existence of the $`D`$ state component in the deuteron wave function, even in a completely polarized deuteron target, the neutron is not completely polarized. With respect to the second assumption, one has to recall that, in contrast to the nucleon case, for the GDH-integral on the deuteron also the energy region below $`\pi `$ threshold has to be taken into account due to the existence of the breakup channel $`\gamma dNN`$ which is absent in the photoabsorption on a free nucleon. As has been pointed out in , there exists a strong anticorrelation between pion production and photodisintegration, because the latter reaction yields a very large negative contribution to the GDH-integral in (1) near the breakup threshold. This facts explains at least partially the large difference between the GDH-value on the deuteron ($`I_d^{GDH}=0.65`$ $`\mu `$b) and the sum of the GDH-value on proton and neutron yielding 438 $`\mu `$b. Morover, the effect of final state interactions in $`\pi `$ production on the deuteron cannot at all be neglected  so that a simple spectator model picture is not appropriate for the evaluation of the spin asymmetry on the deuteron.

Due to these facts, it is obvious that an extraction of the neutron amplitude from the deuteron reaction cannot be performed in a model independent manner. Nevertheless, the experimental investigation of the GDH-sum rule on the deuteron is very important because the measurement of the spin asymmetry is for itself of great interest since it will give us much more detailed information on the underlying dynamics than just the unpolarized cross section. Therefore, it may serve in the future as a stringent test for existing models (see for example Fig. 3) in the two-nucleon sector.

## 4 Outlook

In the future, we plan to apply the present model to other reactions, especially electrodisintegration. Conceptually, we have to improve our hadronic interaction model. Moreover, additional d.o.f. like the Roper, the $`D_{13}`$ and the $`S_{11}`$ resonances should be taken into account if one wants to consider higher energies.


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# Fundamental parameters of Galactic luminous OB stars VI. Temperatures, masses and WLR of Cyg OB2 supergiantsThe INT is operated in the island of La Palma by the ING in the Spanish Observatorio de El Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

## 1 Introduction

New winds are blowing from hot massive stars. The development of new model atmosphere codes during recent years (Hubeny & Lanz, (1995); Santolaya–Rey et al., (1997); Hillier & Miller, (1998); Pauldrach et al., (2001)) employing improved numerical techniques and detailed atomic models offers the opportunity to derive more realistic stellar parameters that can be used for the research of astrophysical problems. Thus very recently Martins et al. (2002) have presented a new temperature scale for massive O dwarfs that lowers considerably the previous one given by Vacca et al. (1996) as a result of strong metal line blanketing. The effect should be even larger for supergiants, where strong mass–loss should add to metal line opacity to yield even smaller effective temperatures. First indications of this behaviour were obtained for example by Crowther & Bohannan (1997), Herrero et al. (2000) or Fullerton et al. (2000). More recently, Crowther et al. (2002) have presented an analysis of 4 supergiants in the LMC and the SMC with similar trends and Bianchi & García (2002) obtain comparable results for O6–O7 stars in the Milky Way.

The stellar masses of O stars are still a subject of debate. A large part of the uncertainty originates from the so-called mass-discrepancy (Herrero et al., 1992): masses derived from a spectroscopic analysis using hydrostatic, plane–parallel model atmospheres are systematically lower than those predicted by non–rotating evolutionary models. Unified model atmospheres are expected to reduce the discrepancy, especially if new evolutionary models account for rotationally induced mixing in stars (Herrero et al., (2000); Meynet & Maeder, (2000)). To this end, considerable effort has been made in the last decade to account for the possibility of He enriched and CNO contaminated atmospheres in early type stars. Efforts to improve the derived abundances have lowered them, but without completely ruling out He enhancements (Villamariz et al., (2002)).

On the other hand, the presence of a wind momentum-luminosity relation (WLR) for hot, massive stars offers the unique opportunity to derive stellar distances directly from the analysis of the observed spectra with an accuracy of about 10$`\%`$ (Kudritzki et al., 1999). For this purpose, the coefficients in the relation

$$log(\dot{M}V_{\mathrm{}}R^{0.5})\frac{1}{\alpha ^{}}logL+C=xlog(L/L_{})+logD_0$$

have to be calibrated as function of metallicity and spectral type. For O-stars, this has been done by Puls et al. (1996) for Galactic and MC objects. However, their WLR shows a large scatter, especially for non-supergiants. It is reasonable to assume that part of this scatter results from uncertainties in the individual stellar distances, as their sample was mainly taken from Herrero et al. (1992), aiming at targets with large apparent brightness.

Following this idea, we started a programme to calibrate the WLR using a more homogeneous sample of OB supergiants, all of them belonging to the same OB association. From this approach we expected to reduce the scatter in the derived WLR. The OB association chosen was Cyg OB2, and the optical observations and first analysis using plane–parallel, hydrostatic models were presented in Herrero et al. (1999). The required wind terminal velocities were obtained from HST STIS observations and are discussed in Herrero et al. (2001).

By means of spherical, mass–losing models we will derive here an improved WLR for those Cyg OB2 supergiants that were observed with the HST. (One of the stars, Cyg OB2 #4, is actually a luminosity class III object, but we will refer to our sample as Cyg OB2 supergiants. When required, we will emphasize the difference).

This effort is being complemented in our group by other studies to calibrate the WLR in the Local Group (see McCarthy et al., 1997, Urbaneja et al., 2002, Bresolin et al., 2002 for M31 and M33).

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2 we describe the characteristics of the code we have used, and in Sect. 3 we present an analysis of the O9 V star 10 Lac as a test case. The analyses of our targets is given in Sect. 4, and we end with a discussion of our results in Sect. 5 and the conclusions in Sect. 6.

## 2 The code

The analyses presented here have been performed by means of the latest version of FASTWIND (an acronym for Fast Analysis of STellar atmospheres with WINDs), a code which was originally described by Santolaya–Rey et al. (1997) and was recently updated to include an approximate treatment of metal line opacity effects, i.e., metal line blocking and blanketing.

The code follows the philosophy of using suitable physical approximations allowing for a fast computational time, thus enabling us to calculate a large number of models (which are necessary to analyze stellar atmospheres with winds), while being realistic enough to preserve their value as a tool for determining stellar parameters.

It assumes a $`\beta `$–velocity law in the wind and calculates a consistent photospheric structure; the temperature structure is approximated using “NLTE Hopf functions” as described in Santoloaya–Rey et al. (1997); the coupling between the radiation field and the rate equations is treated within an ALI scheme, using local ALOs following Puls (1991). The program allows for a solution of the rate equations using either Sobolev or comoving frame calculations, but all calculations presented here were done using comoving frame. The formal solution to calculate the emergent profiles utilizes a radial micro-grid to account for the different scales involved and includes Stark broadening, which is a prerequesite for the analysis of O stars by means of H and He lines.

The approximate treatment of metal line blocking/blanketing will be described in detail by Puls (2002), in the following we will give only a brief summary. The basic philosophy to calculate the required NLTE metal opacities (bound-bound, bound-free and free-free) follows the line of reasoning given by Abbott & Lucy (1985), Schmutz (1991), Schaerer & Schmutz (1994) and Puls et al. (Pulsetal00 (2000)), however applying significant improvements. In particular and most important for realistic results, we have reformulated the equations of approximate ionization equilibrium (e.g., Puls et al. Pulsetal00 (2000), Eq. 43) to account for the actual radiation field (as function of depth) at all ionization edges (including those from excited levels) and employ a consistent coupling of rate-equations and mean intensity, in a way similar to the ALI approach, to avoid any kind of Lambda Iteration.

The underlying atomic data base has been described by Pauldrach et al. (1998). In order to save computational effort, the resulting metal line opacities are averaged in a suitable way (mean of inverse opacties, in analogy to Rosseland means) over a frequency interval of order wind terminal velocity before the radiation transport is performed. Finally, flux conservation (and thus line blanketing) is obtained by adapting the NLTE-Hopf parameters in a consistent way. The method has been carefully tested by comparing the results with up-to-date methods, in particular with calculations performed with TLUSTY (Hubeny & Lanz, (1995)) for the case of dwarfs (see also the next section) and with WMBasic (Pauldrach et al., (2001)) for the case of stars with winds.

## 3 A test case: 10 Lac

Before applying the modified code to the analysis of our Cyg OB2 sample, we have analyzed the O9V star 10 Lac as a test case. This star is well suited for calibration purposes because it is a luminosity class V star with a low projected rotational velocity, has already been used as standard by Herrero et al. (1992) and was later considered by Hubeny et al. (1998) to study the effects of line blanketing in plane-parallel, hydrostatic atmospheres.

Fig. 1 gives the fit diagram for the H/He spectrum of 10 Lac. It is very similar to the corresponding fit diagram in Herrero et al. (1992), but now it is centered at a lower effective temperature (and a slightly lower gravity). A comparison of both diagrams also reveals that the dispersion around the final model is now smaller. Therefore, the present error box has a width of only 1 000 K instead of 2 000 K, as the one in Herrero et al. (1992). It is reassuring that all lines, including He ii $`\lambda `$ 4200 that could not be fitted by Herrero et al. (1992), lie within the error box.

The stellar parameters of 10 Lac we have derived here are $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$= 35 500$`\pm `$500 K, $`\mathrm{log}g`$= 3.95$`\pm `$0.10 and $`ϵ`$=$`\frac{\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{He})}{\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{H})+\mathrm{N}(\mathrm{He})}`$= 0.09$`\pm `$0.03, N(X) being the abundance of element X by number. The only significant difference compared to the results from Herrero et al. (1992) is the effective temperature, now lower by 2 000 K. This is in complete agreement with the result obtained by Hubeny et al. (1998). These authors estimated a temperature of 35 000 K for 10 Lac using TLUSTY, a plane-parallel, hydrostatic, line–blanketed model.

Fit diagrams have the drawback that they only give the best possible fit for the chosen constraints. They rely on interpolations and sometimes (when using EWs) do not account for the profile shape. The actual final fit may still be poor. Fig. 2 shows the line spectra for our final model of 10 Lac. Good agreement is found for all lines, although a few details are not perfectly reproduced. In particular, the core of He ii $`\lambda `$ 4200 is too weak, which is also true for the forbidden component of He i $`\lambda `$ 4471. Besides this, however, the final fit is perfectly consistent in all other aspects.

Our result also agrees with the study of Martins et al. (2002), who recently found that using pure H/He models (as Herrero et al., (1992) did) results in an effective temperature scale for O dwarfs hotter by 1 500 to 4 000 K compared to using line–blanketed models.

These authors have derived a new effective temperature scale for O dwarfs using CMFGEN (Hillier & Miller, (1998)), a spherical code including mass–loss and blanketing. In their $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ scale, O9V stars are located at 33 000 K. However, their scale is calibrated using the equivalent width (EW) – spectral classification relations of Conti & Alschuler (1971) and Mathys (1998), and thus we have to compare our result with Martins et al. using the classification of 10 Lac in this system.

Conti & Alschuler (1971) have classified 10 Lac as O8 III and not as a luminosity class V star (which have been considered by Martins et al., (2002)), although the star lies just at the border between both luminosity classes. The luminosity class III is mainly due to the low EW quoted by Conti & Alschuler (1971) for the He i $`\lambda `$4143 line. Other EWs quoted by these authors are consistent with our observations which show a much larger value for this line, resulting in a luminosity class V within their classification scheme. Thus, we conclude that 10 Lac should be classified as O8 V in the system of Conti & Alschuler (1971) (whatever the reason for the low EW in Conti & Alschuler, (1971) was).

The effective temperature in the Martins et al. scale for O8 dwarfs lies between 36 000 and 35 000 K, in perfect agreement with our result. Therefore we regard our result as fully consistent with recent findings using more elaborate but also more expensive fully blanketed NLTE model atmospheres.

Nevertheless we have analyzed 10 Lac with our version of CMFGEN that includes a consistent photospheric structure (Najarro, (2002)) and have fitted the line profiles instead of only using their EWs. Our results from CMFGEN completely agree with those from FASTWIND.

The reason for the lower temperatures derived is twofold (see also Martins et al., (2002)). On the one hand, the radiation field which is backscattered due to the additional opacity produces a larger (E)UV radiation field. On the other hand, due to line-blanketing the electron temperature rises in photospheric regions. Both effects favour a higher ionization degree at lower effective temperatures, compared to unblanketed models. This effect can be clearly seen in Fig. 3.

The analysis of 10 Lac gives us an indication of what we can expect when introducing metal line opacity (namely lower effective temperatures), either in the form of traditional line–blanketing (as Hubeny et al., (1998), Martins et al., (2002) and references therein) or including the line–blanketing via adapted Hopf–parameters (as here). Although with our method we do not force flux conservations, in all models calculated here the flux is conserved to better than 3$`\%`$ at all depths, where the remaining deviations have no impact on the emergent fluxes and profiles.

Our analysis of 10 Lac also gives us an idea of the error bar we can expect for the stellar parameters. For a resolution of 8 000, a S/N of 200 and a projected rotational velocity of 40 km s-1, the estimated errors are $`\pm `$500 K in $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`\pm `$0.1 dex in $`\mathrm{log}g`$ and $`\pm `$0.03 in $`ϵ`$. For what follows we shall note here that this analysis does not give us information about the mass loss rate or the $`\beta `$ exponent in the wind velocity law, as the wind of 10 Lac is negligible. We obtain an upper limit of 10-8 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1, but the fit has the same quality for any value below that limit. (The fit presented here was performed with Ṁ= 10-10 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1).

## 4 Analysis of the Cyg OB2 supergiants

We make use of optical and UV spectra that have been presented elsewhere (Herrero et al., (1999); Herrero et al., (2001)). The optical spectra have been newly rectified, resulting in a less pronounced bump in the 4630-4700 Å region, which, however, does not affect our present analysis. Basic data, together with previously determined parameters adopted here are listed in Table 1, while the new parameters determined in this work are provided in Table 2. Note that the gravities in that table have been corrected for the effect of centrifugal acceleration (in the same way as in Herrero et al., (1992)). This effect is small (modifying only the last digit of the entries in our table) and the gravities actually used in our calculations are always given by the nearest lower value ending with “0” or “5” in the second decimal (i.e., a corrected value of 3.52 corresponds to a model value of 3.50). The corrected gravities have been used for the calculation of stellar masses.

Errors adopted for the parameters given in Table 2 have been taken from the errors obtained for Cyg OB2 #7 (see below) or from those for 10 Lac, depending on the stellar parameters, the spectrum quality and the fit conditions. A summary of all errors is given in Table 3.

For Cyg OB2 #7, errors have been estimated “by eye” from a microgrid of models around the final one. At fixed $`\beta `$ (the exponent of the velocity law), this resulted in $`\pm `$1000 K in $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, $`{}_{0.10}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.15}`$ dex in $`\mathrm{log}g`$, $`\pm `$0.05 dex in $`ϵ`$ and $`{}_{0.10}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.05}`$ dex in Ṁ. $`\beta `$ is determined from the form of the Hα wings, and its uncertainty is estimated to be $`\pm `$0.10. This has an influence on the derived effective temperature and mass–loss rates. Therefore, the adopted error for $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ has been increased to $`\pm `$1500 K and that for Ṁ to $`{}_{0.15}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.10}`$.

The errors for radii and masses depend on the error in the absolute magnitude. This is assumed to be $`\pm `$0.1 from the work by Massey & Thompson (1991). (The influence of the error in $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ on the stellar radius is marginal and has been neglected here). For the analysis we have adopted a microturbulence of 10 km s-1. Tests indicate that this parameter is of no relevance for the results presented here.

In the following we will comment on the individual analyses. Further discussions about the individual stars were presented in Herrero et al. (2001).

#### Cyg OB2 #7

The final fit to the observed H/He spectrum of Cyg OB2 #7 is shown in Fig. 4. The good fit to the Hα profile is accompanied by a much poorer fit to the other two Balmer lines (and also to Hδ, not displayed here). This behaviour reproduces the one found in Herrero et al. (2000): for stars with strong winds we could not obtain a consistent fit for all Balmer lines at a given mass–loss rate. The situation has improved with the new version of our code, but the discrepancy still reaches a 30$`\%`$ effect, by which the mass–loss rate has to be reduced (from 10-5 to 7.7$`\times `$10-6) in order to fit Hβ and Hγ. The other stellar parameters are not affected by this modification, as the fit to the other lines does not change. We adopt the mass–loss rate indicated by Hα as this line is much more sensitive to changes in this parameter and there is good general agreement between the mass–loss rates from Hα and radio fluxes (Scuderi et al., (1998)). Our result also supports this conclusion, as the mass–loss rate derived here agrees with the upper limit of 1.5$`\times `$10-5 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1 quoted by Bieging et al. (1989) (1.6$`\times `$10-5 if we use our values for distance and $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$) in case the star is a thermal emitter (the authors classify the object among the probable thermal emitters). However, in addition to the error quoted, Ṁ could be lowered by an additional 20$`\%`$ if we would adopt the value indicated by Hγ.

The singlet He i lines ($`\lambda \lambda `$ 4387, 4922) give a poor fit to the observed spectrum, partly due to the difficulties in the continuum rectification. Therefore we have given a low weight to these lines when determining the stellar parameters. However, since these lines react strongly to changes in stellar parameter, it is always possible to find a reasonable fit within the error box. The error in $`ϵ`$ is larger than for other stars and $`ϵ`$ itself is not well constrained towards higher He abundances, because the already large He abundance produces a saturation effect.

The derived $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is much lower than the one obtained by Herrero et al. (2000) using the same code as here but without line–blocking. The derived luminosity is also lower by more than 0.2 dex, as the radius does not change very much. The reason can be seen in Fig. 5, where we compare the emergent energy of two models for Cyg OB2 #7. The first model (the dash–dotted line in the figure) is the one adopted here, with a $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ of 45 500 K, a radius of 14.6 $`R_{}`$ and metal line opacity. The second model (solid line) corresponds to the model adopted by Herrero et al. (2001), with a $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ of 50 000 K, a radius of 14.8 $`R_{}`$ and pure H/He opacities. Both models give the same optical luminosity and thus fit equally well the observed visual magnitude of Cyg OB2 #7. We additionally show in the figure the CMFGEN luminosities calculated with the same parameters and conditions (dashed lines). The good agreement supports our approximated treatment of the metal line opacity.

The reason for the similarity in derived radii is that the emergent flux is strongly blocked in the UV by the metal line opacity and thus emerges at higher wavelengths, including the optical. Therefore, at lower temperatures we obtain larger optical fluxes for models that include metal line opacity than for pure H/He models of the same temperature.

The radius needed to fit the observed visual magnitude is then significantly smaller for models with metal line opacities (compared to unblanketed models at the same $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$), however roughly similar to the “old” value derived from unblanketed models at higher $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. In consequence, the reduction in luminosity is mostly due to the change in the effective temperature. Note, however, the dramatic difference of the ionizing fluxes in the (E)UV.

The helium abundance derived here is even larger than the one obtained by Herrero et al. (2000), although the error bars overlap significantly. Cyg OB2 #7 is thus confirmed as the only star in our sample for which we derive an enhanced He abundance. The $`\beta `$ value we obtain (0.9) is slightly larger than the one obtained from the UV analysis presented in Herrero et al. (2001), a behaviour which has been found already in previous investigations (e.g., Puls et al., (1996)). However, our mass–loss rate is similar to the one derived in that work, resulting again from the fact that the optical fluxes are similar.

Finally, the $`\mathrm{log}g`$ value obtained here is slightly larger than the one obtained by Herrero et al. (2000). This results in a spectroscopic mass of 39.7 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, to be compared with an evolutionary mass of 67.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. Accounting for maximum errors, masses of 56.7 and 59.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, respectively, are possible, still not overlapping. However, we have to remember the large He abundance derived for Cyg OB2 #7. This is an indication that this star might be evolved or be affected by rotational mixing. Taken together, there is no (clear) evidence that evolutionary and spectroscopic masses really disagree.

Walborn et al. (2000) and Walborn et al. (2002) have recently studied Cyg OB2 #7 and HD 93 129A. They conclude, from a comparison of their spectra, that Cyg OB2 #7 has to be cooler than HD 93 129A, and in fact HD 93 129A has been reclassified as the prototype of the new O2 If class. Taresch et al. (1997) have analyzed this latter star and obtained an effective temperature of 52 000$`\pm `$1 000 K, based on the N v/N iv/N iii ionization equilibrium. This is similar to the Herrero et al. (2000) value and again much higher than the temperature we obtain here for Cyg OB2 #7. Both stars display simultaneously N v, N iv and N iii lines in their spectra, and thus we would not expect a very large temperature difference. Clearly, a cross–calibration of He and N blanketed temperature scales for the earliest stars is an urgent task.

#### Cyg OB2 #11

The fit to Cyg OB2#11 is given in Fig. 6. It shows the same problems as the fit to Cyg OB2 #7, except for the fit to the He i singlet lines, which are again affected by continuum rectification problems. However their depths relative to the depressed local continuum are now well predicted.

Therefore we adopt the same errors, except for $`ϵ`$, for which we adopt $`\pm `$0.03. It is interesting that in spite of the extreme Of character of both stars and the similarity of the problems found, we do not derive an enhanced He abundance for Cyg OB2 #11. This star also shows the same trend as Cyg OB2 #7 towards cooler temperatures and lower luminosities, but now the spectroscopic and evolutionary masses (73.0 and 58.1 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$, respectively) invert their usual ratio. When considering the formal errors presented in Table 3, the mass ranges of both stars overlap significantly.

The $`\beta `$ value we have used is again 0.9. The mass loss rate we derive is consistent with the upper limit given by Bieging et al. (1989) (1.4$`\times `$10-5 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1, or 1.2$`\times `$10-5 using again our values for distance and wind terminal velocity).

#### Cyg OB2 #8C

The fit to Cyg OB2#8C is presented in Fig. 7. The only problem is a serious failure in the predicted He ii $`\lambda `$4686 line (which is not used in the fit procedure). To fit this line one had to increase the mass–loss rate by at least a factor of 1.7, although we note that the observed line lies at top of a broad emission feature that we cannot reproduce. The same comments as for Cyg OB2 #11 apply for the He i singlet lines.

$`\beta `$ is not well constrained from the wings of Hα, as these are in absorption. We have adopted the same value as for Cyg OB2 #7 and #11 (0.9), as well as the same errors.

The resulting mass–loss rate is consistent with the upper limit quoted by Bieging et al. (1989) of 8.8$`\times `$10-6 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1. The gravity is large for a supergiant (a lower gravity is prohibited by the Balmer line wings), but we find good agreement between the spectroscopic and evolutionary masses.

#### Cyg OB2 #8A

The final fit can be seen in Fig. 8. The fit to He ii $`\lambda `$4686 is problematic, but much less than for Cyg OB2 #8C, while the same comments apply for the He i singlet lines. Errors are the same as for Cyg OB2 #8C. The temperature is cooler and the luminosity lower than quoted in Herrero et al. (2001). However, the spectroscopic mass is again very large (90.5 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$), larger than the evolutionary one (78.4 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$), but with significant overlap when considering the errors.

The mass–loss rate we derive here is nearly a factor of two lower than the one given in Herrero et al. (2001). Note, that the latter was not derived from spectrum analysis, however was calculated from the luminosity (believed to be larger at that time) and the Galactic WLR.

Our new mass–loss rate in Table 2 (1.35$`{}_{0.39}{}^{+0.35}\times `$10-5 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1) agrees well with the radio mass–loss rate given by Waldron et al. (1998) (1.97$`\times `$10-5), and lies between the extreme values one would derive from the fluxes given by Bieging et al. (1989) (1.1–6.1$`\times `$10-5) assuming free–free emission. Although Cyg OB2 #8A is a known non-thermal emitter, with variable radio flux and spectral index (Waldron et al., 1998; Bieging et al., (1989)), our Hα mass–loss rate is of the same order of magnitude as the radio mass–loss rates and consistent with their lower limit. This consistency contradicts the suggestion by Waldron et al. (1998) that the X–ray emission might originate from an X–ray source deeply embedded in the stellar wind, i.e., a base corona model scenario, which would imply a much lower mass-loss rate ($``$1.5$`\times `$10-6 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$ yr-1).

#### Cyg OB2 #4

The fit to Cyg OB2 #4 is presented in Fig. 9. The predicted He ii $`\lambda `$4686 and the singlet He i line at $`\lambda `$4922 are too strong in the core, although we note the large scale in the corresponding plots. The fit of He i $`\lambda `$4387 is acceptable taking the normalization into account. $`\beta `$ is again not well constrained from the Hα wings and we adopt a similar value as for the cooler stars in our sample ($`\beta `$= 1). However, the influence of $`\beta `$ on the other stellar parameters begins to decrease and therefore we adopt the same errors as for 10 Lac.

The mass loss rate is not well constrained towards lower values, because the profiles react only slightly. In this case, as also for the next two Cyg OB2 stars, there are no radio mass–loss rates available to compare with (which is an indication of a rather low value). The derived effective temperature is still cooler than in Herrero et al. (2001), although the differences begin to decrease. The evolutionary and spectroscopic mass ranges agree within the large error bars.

#### Cyg OB2 #10

The fit to Cyg OB2 #10 is given in Fig. 10. As for Cyg OB2 #4, the main difficulties appear in the fit of the He ii $`\lambda `$4686 and the He i lines, where from the three He i lines one is slightly too strong, the second slightly too weak and the third one fits well. The errors adopted are the same as for Cyg OB2 #4. The derived effective temperature is still lower than in Herrero et al. (2001), but the difference is only 2 000 K. The spectroscopic and evolutionary masses agree well.

#### Cyg OB2 #2

The final fit to the star is shown in Fig. 11. The adopted errors are the same as for Cyg OB2 #8C (because of the lower S/N compared to 10 Lac), although again the mass loss rate is not well constrained towards lower values. Here, the derived effective temperature is hotter than in Herrero et al. (2001), but also the derived He abundance has decreased significantly. The masses, however, do not agree, with the spectroscopic mass being lower than the evolutionary one by a factor of two.

Herrero et al. (2001) indicated some problems with the stellar classification as B1 I and its Cyg OB2 membership, because this would result in a rather faint absolute magnitude for its spectral class. However, the large reddening quoted by Massey & Thompson (1991) indicates that the star is probably related to or lies beyond Cyg OB2. On the other hand, this large reddening is comparatively low when compared to other Cyg OB2 members, which additionally weakens the above argument. (Cyg OB2 #2 has the fourth lowest reddening in Table 7 of Massey & Thompson, 1991, who list a total 64 Cyg OB2 stars. The stars with the three lowest values lie in the same region of the association as Cyg OB2 #2). Thus, we adopt the absolute magnitude derived from the canonical distance to Cyg OB2 and assume a larger error, $`\pm `$0.2 instead of $`\pm `$0.1, which also doubles the error in the (logarithmic) radius.

## 5 Discussion

The results obtained in the preceding section allow us to address four important aspects of the properties of massive OB supergiants: the effective temperature scale, the ionizing fluxes, the mass discrepancy and the wind momentum-luminosity relationship.

### 5.1 The effective temperature scale for massive O supergiants

With the inclusion of mass-loss, sphericity and line–blocking/blanketing we derived lower temperatures than those quoted in Herrero et al. (2001), where we have used plane–parallel, hydrostatic models without line–blocking for all stars except Cyg OB2 #7, for which a spherical model with mass–loss, but without line–blocking was used. As we have covered various spectral types from O3 to B1 in our analysis, we can obtain a temperature scale for O supergiants. We note however, that Cyg OB2 #4 is actually a luminosity class III star, while #2 is probably of class II.

For our earlier supergiants (O3–O7) we find temperatures that are 4 000 to 8 000 K cooler than in Herrero et al. (2001), while for the O9.5 I supergiant we obtain 2 000 K less and for the B1 star the temperature is now hotter, but with a lower He abundance. These findings are in qualitative agreement with theoretical expectations (e.g., Schaerer & Schmutz, (1994)) and with the recent temperature scale for O dwarfs presented by Martins et al. (2002). These authors obtain lower temperatures for O dwarfs by 1 500–4 000 K when including line–blanketing and sphericity.

Our temperature scale is shown in Fig. 12, together with the one from Vacca et al. (1996) for O supergiants. The effective temperature scale from these authors has been mainly derived from analyses using pure H–He, plane–parallel, hydrostatic models, like those performed by Herrero et al. (1992). It is thus not surprising that our new scale is cooler.

In spite of the still low number statistics, we already appreciate some interesting features in Fig. 12. First, from O3 to O9 we see a smooth temperature decline into which Cyg OB2 #4 fits perfectly, despite its luminosity class III. From this smoothness is excluded Cyg OB2 #11, much cooler than the other O5 supergiant, Cyg OB2 #8C, and even cooler than the O5.5 supergiant, Cyg OB2 #8A. The main difference in their properties is the extreme Of character of Cyg OB2 #11, which thus appears to be related to cooler temperatures. This is indicating to us that all spectral signatures have a significance in terms of stellar parameters, and thus a temperature scale using only spectral subtypes of O supergiants, with the various nuances in their classification scheme, will neccesarily be of limited accuracy.

We also see that both temperature scales converge towards later spectral types, until the B1 star, Cyg OB2 #2. This object has a temperature that does not seem to fit into the general behaviour, although data are still too scarce to know whether this has any significance.

The new temperature scale and the lower luminosities will have an influence on other aspects, e.g., on the emergent ionizing fluxes that are now much lower than in the older models, as we have seen in the discussion of Cyg OB2 #7.

### 5.2 Ionizing fluxes from O supergiants

Our treatment of UV metal line opacity is approximate (in the sense that we use an approximate NLTE approach and suitably averaged lines opacities), and we do not pretend to give a detailed description of the UV radiation field. However, the emergent fluxes, should be correct in an average sense (i.e., neglecting distinct spectral features, see again Fig. 5), in particular concerning frequency integrated quantities. (Note that the differences bluewards from Heii 228 Å are majorly due to different temperature structures in the outer wind.) Thus, we should obtain a rather correct description of quantities extending over broad spectral regions, like the number of photons capable of ionizing hydrogen.

This number, of course, is of extreme relevance to studies of H ii regions surrounding the stars. Vacca et al. (1992) have calculated ionizing fluxes from plane–parallel, hydrostatic, LTE, line–blanketed Kurucz–models (Kurucz, 1992) and concluded, from a comparison with more elaborate models available at that time (Schaerer & Schmutz, (1994)), that their ionizing fluxes should be reliable. That would indicate that line–blocking/blanketing is the major effect when calculating the UV continuum ionizing flux at a given effective temperature.

Our calculations seem to support this conclusion, but also indicate that for an application to H ii regions further effects have to be considered.

In Fig. 13a we have plotted our calculated H ionizing fluxes versus the effective temperature of the corresponding model. The dashed line gives the calibration by Vacca et al. (1996) for O supergiants (their Table 7). We see that the agreement is good. Even more, the entry departing slightly from the relation corresponds to Cyg OB2 #4, that has a luminosity class III. Note that the ionizing fluxes are basically independent of stellar radius. Thus, at given temperature the effects of metal line opacity remain the major ingredient which detemine the emergent UV flux, and the differences between NLTE and LTE models seem to be small regarding the integrated hydrogen Lyman fluxes. (This behaviour should become significantly different when, considering, e.g., He ii ionizing fluxes because of the extreme sensitivity of this ion to NLTE effects, in particular as function of mass-loss.)

In Fig. 13b we have plotted the H ionizing luminosities as function of spectral type. Here, the differences with the calibration by Vacca et al. (1996) are apparent. They clearly originate from our new relation between spectral type and effective temperature (and our lower radii for most stars, compared to the calibrations by Vacca et al., (1996)), i.e., the stellar luminosities at given subtype are now smaller. (This discrepancy between both plots, of course, results from the former inconsistency of calibrating spectral types via unblanketed models, however calculating the number of ionizing photons from blanketed ones). Furthermore, for one case (Cyg OB2 #8A) we find that our ionizing luminosities are larger as a consequence of the larger radius in this particular case. Since the ionizing luminosity is the quantity which really matters for the ionization of H ii regions, our results indicate that statistically there are fewer photons available compared to earlier findings, but also that individual cases have to be studied in detail, because they can depart from the general trend.

### 5.3 The mass discrepancy

The mass discrepancy is a term that was used by Herrero et al. (1992) to refer to the systematic difference between spectroscopically determined stellar masses of OB supergiants and their evolutionary counterparts. The latter were always systematically larger, well beyond the error bars.

In Fig. 14 we have plotted the evolutionary mass (derived from the “classical” models by Schaller et al. (1992) without rotation) and the spectroscopic masses obtained in our analysis for the Cyg OB2 supergiants. We see that the situation is by no means satisfactory: despite the (very) large errors adopted for the spectroscopic masses, three of the seven stars still do not cross the one-to-one relation and for two other we find only a marginal agreement. In fact, only two out of the seven stars have masses that agree reasonably well. However, compared to previous diagrams the situation seems to have improved: there is no clear systematic trend any longer. Roughly the same number of data points lie on each side of the one-to-one relation and the apparent scatter might be related to problems in the individual analyses.

Nevertheless it is somewhat too early to conclude that the atmosphere models with sphericity, mass–loss and metal opacity agree with the evolutionary models without rotation, and thus give the same answer in a statistical sense. First, the large scatter in Fig. 14 still poses a question for the masses of both set of models; and second, the stars in Cyg OB2 have moderate projected rotational velocities and are very young, with only the earliest type exhibiting an enhanced He abundance. Thus, older or faster rotating stars may have masses that disagree even more when derived using different methods.

This result indicates that we badly need both a calibration of present mass scales based on early type binaries (or any other reliable method), and CNO abundances for isolated massive stars.

### 5.4 The Wind momentum–Luminosity Relationship in Cyg OB2

The original purpose of our work was to obtain a better constrained WLR for Galactic O stars by using objects belonging to the same association, and thus minimizing the scatter introduced by uncertainties in the relative distances. The distance to Cyg OB2 and thus the derived luminosities may be in error, but all determinations will be affected in a similar way.

Fig. 15 displays the WLR obtained for our Cyg OB2 sample. Errors for $`v_{\mathrm{}}`$ are taken from Herrero et al. (1991). The stars #8A, #8C, #4 and #10 follow a nice sequence with low scatter. Cyg OB2 #7 and #11 seem to lie above this sequence. This is interesting because these stars display the most extreme Of signatures in their spectra, which might be related to an ionization change in the wind that could result in a different line-driving force or to clumping effects that would produce an overestimation of the mass–loss rate. Cyg OB2 #2 seems to lie below that relation, which is consistent with the results by Kudritzki et al. (1991), who found a different WLR (with a lower offset) for the winds of early B supergiants, compared to the O-star case. Our observed relation also agrees well with the theoretical WLR derived by Vink et al. (2000) (the dashed line in Fig. 15).

We have investigated whether a reduction in the outer minimum electron temperature (that the model is allowed to reach, see Santolaya–Rey et al., (1997), Sect. 3.1) might result in lower mass–loss rates for Cyg OB2 #7 and #11. While we usually assume that $`T_{\mathrm{min}}`$= 0.75 $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ (a typical value for OB stars), calculations by Pauldrach (private communication) indicate that this value can reach values as low as 0.40 $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ in extreme cases. This effect has usually no influence on an analyis as performed here, where almost all considered lines are formed in a region with temperatures beyond this minimum. “Only” Hα (and He ii $`\lambda `$4686) might be affected in cases of extreme mass–loss, which is the reason that we have investigated here this question. Nevertheless, in all considered cases the resulting reduction of the derived mass–loss rate was less than 20$`\%`$. Thus, even accounting for this uncertainty we cannot bring the position of these two stars into agreement with the WLR defined by the other four O stars.

However, taking into account the error bars, our data are still compatible with a unique relation including all seven stars. This is also shown in Fig. 15, where we display two different regressions, one including only Cyg OB2 #8A, #8C, #4 and #10, and one including all seven stars, respectively. Interestingly, the relation obtained by including only the O–supergiants, not shown for clarity, is still marginally compatible with the position of the B–supergiant.

In Fig. 16 we show a comparison of our data points with those obtained by Puls et al. (1996), updated by Herrero et al. (2000) for some entries. We see that both sets compare well, the most important difference being the fact that the scatter in our data points is lower. However, at present it is not possible to conclude whether this is a real improvement (as we have expected) or an artefact of the low number statistics. We note that the first possibility would imply that stars with extreme Of characteristics follow a slightly different relation than normal O stars, although we could not determine the reason for the relatively high position of Cyg OB2 #7 and #11.

In Table 4 we compare the coefficients we have obtained for the WLR (by weighted least–squares fits) using different samples (see above) as well as those quoted by Kudritzki & Puls (2000) in their Table 2, and the coefficients of the theoretical relation provided by Vink et al. (2000). A correct error treatment would require to take into account errors in both axes and their correlation. This treatment is not simple and will be presented elsewhere (Markova & Puls, (2002)). For the scope of the present paper we have adopted as error an average of the errors obtained when considering only those in the ordinate values (an underestimation) and when considering the errors in abscissa and ordinate as uncorrelated (an overestimation). Using both estimates for the errors, we have calculated the corresponding regression, where the resulting values for slope and offset turned out to be only marginally different. The final values quoted in Table 4 have been obtained from a straight average of these results.

We see that in spite of the visual agreement found in Fig. 16, our results differ significantly from those given by Kudritzki & Puls (2000), in particular concerning the slope of the relation. Kudritzki & Puls (2000) found a slope of 1.51$`\pm `$0.18, while, when excluding the B supergiant, we obtain values from 1.74$`\pm `$0.24 to 1.92$`\pm `$0.22. In addition, our values for the vertical offset vary between 19.27 and 18.30, below the value of 20.69 of Kudritzki & Puls (2000). Although the error bars allow for marginal agreement, the conclusion is that our relation is steeper and thus $`\alpha _{\mathrm{eff}}^{}`$ (= 1/x) is smaller in our case. This indicates a different slope of the line–strength distribution function (see Puls et al., 2000 and Kudritzki & Puls, (2000), Sect. 4.1), i.e., a larger number of weak lines.

In contrast, we obtain very good agreement with the theoretical relation by Vink et al. (2000). Their relation, both in slope and offset, lies right between our relation when considering all supergiants or only the moderate O, Of stars, respectively. Our observations are thus compatible with a unique WLR for all O supergiants, but favour a separation of the extreme O, Of stars.

## 6 Conclusions

We have analyzed a homogeneous set of spectra of Cyg OB2 supergiants with spectral types ranging from O3 to B1. The analysis has been performed using a new version of the code presented by Santolaya–Rey et al. (1997) that includes an approximate treatement of metal line–blocking/blanketing. A test applied to the O9 V star 10 Lac resulted in an excellent fit, at temperatures lower than those obtained previously (Herrero et al., (1992)) and in agreement with other findings (Hubeny et al., (1998); Martins et al., (2002)).

The fits to the supergiants are also satisfactory, except for the discrepancy between the fits of Hα and other higher Balmer lines for stars with dense winds (see discussion in Sect. 6.1 of Herrero et al., (2000)) and the pure absorption profile predicted for He ii $`\lambda `$ 4686 in Cyg OB2 #8C instead of the P-Cygni profile observed.

We obtain temperatures that are cooler than in our previous analyses, as a consequence of the effects of sphericity, mass–loss and metal–line blocking/blanketing. Thanks to our coverage in spectral type, we can construct a temperature scale for O–supergiants. This temperature scale is 4 000 to 8 000 K cooler at early types than the one presented by Vacca et al. (1996), mainly based on pure H-He analyses. An important additional result is that at the same spectral subtype, Cyg OB2 #8C and #11 have a difference of 3 000 K in their effective temperatures, reflecting their very different mass–loss rates. For the hotter stars, additional information based on a nitrogen temperature scale is needed, as the He lines become progressively either insensitive to changes in stellar parameters or simply too weak.

Models including metal line opacities result in cooler temperatures and similar radii than those using pure H/He opacities, therefore giving smaller luminosities. Together with the blocking produced in the (E)UV, the corresponding ionizing luminosities may change drastically, which will have a large impact on studies of the surrounding regions. However, each particular case has to be treated individually.

The results obtained indicate that Cyg OB2 stars are very massive. Only for two of the seven stars we found spectroscopic or evolutionary masses below 40 $`\mathrm{M}_{}`$. Although there are still significant differences between spectroscopic and evolutionary masses, we do not find any obvious systematic pattern. Thus, at present we cannot conclude that there is a discrepancy between both sets of masses in Cyg OB2. However, this association is a very young one and the stars analyzed show only moderate projected rotational velocities: it might be possible that rotationally induced effects simply have had no sufficient time to become apparent. It is remarkable that we found an enhanced He abundance for only one of the stars, Cyg OB2 #7.

Finally, we derived a new calibration of the wind momentum–luminosity relationship for O supergiants, including errors resulting from our analysis. Our data indicate that there might be a different relation for extreme Of and for moderate O, Of stars, respectively, perhaps indicating different ionization conditions or clumping in the wind. Considering only the moderate O, Of stars, we obtain a very low scatter in the relation, but this might reflect only the low number statistics. In fact, our still limited sample is also consistent with a unique relation including all stars, even the B supergiant. Clearly, more data are needed to disentangle whether the large modified wind momentum rate we derive for the extreme Of stars is a real, physical effect or just the result of our poor statistics.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank an annonymous referee for very valuable suggestions that helped to improve the paper. FNP thanks the spanish MCyT for grants ESP98-1351 and PNAYA2000-1784 within the Ramón y Cajal Program. AHD thanks support from the spanish MCyT under project PNAYA2001–0436.