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# Galactic structure studies with BATC star counts

## 1 Introduction

Over the past decade considerable efforts have been undertaken to gain information about the structure of the Galaxy. For example, Méndez (1996) has developed a Galactic structure model to predict star-counts self-consistently with kinematic distribution of stars; For example, novel multivariate data analysis methods are being applied to recent surveys to characterize the individual stellar distributions of each populations (Chen 1997; 1999); age-metallicity or the kinematics of nearby halo and disk stars have been determined (Norris 1998), and so on. The starcount method which is predominantly used to study the general properties of the Galaxy is a very effective way of constraining global structural parameters for the Milky Way, and of providing density distribution of the Galaxy components.

Bahcall & Soneira (1980) established the first self-consistent model by analyzing star count data and derived that the old thin disk has a scale height of 325 pc, and that the halo can be represented by a deprojected de Vaucouleurs $`r^{1/4}`$ law. Bahcall & Soneira (1984; 1985) showed that their two major components (thin-disk and spheroid) model for the distribution of stars in the Galaxy is in agreement with all the available data. However, Gilmore (1984) pointed out that the star count data cannot be fitted much better by a two component model, and proposed a Galaxy model with three populations: the halo, thin disk and thick disk. At the same time, the scale height of the thick disk was derived by Gilmore (1984) to be 1450 pc with a space number density 2% of the thin disk in the solar neighborhood. Ojha et al. (1996) found that the vertical distribution of stars fainter than $`M_v=3.5`$ has scale height $`h_z=260\pm 50`$ pc in the thin disk, and $`h_z=760\pm 50`$ pc in the thick disk with a local density of 7.4% relative to the thin disk. Chen (2001) used high latitude star counts to derive the scale height of the old thin disk to be $`330\pm 3`$ pc, and the thick disk between 580 pc and 750 pc with a local density of 13%-6.5% of the thin disk in their best-fit model.

For a spherical halo, the standard references for star counts are Kron (1980), Koo & Kron (1982; 1986) for two fields: SA 57 (near the North Galactic pole) and SA 68 (near $`l=90^{},b=46^{}`$). Using a de Vaucouleurs $`r^{1/4}`$ law spheroid, Bahcall & Soneira (1984) found that this axial ratio was at least 0.8. However, Wyse & Gilmore (1989) argued on the basis of star counts that the axial ratio for the stellar halo is much flatter than this canonical value. They made an independent analysis of two fields, the south Galactic Pole and one at $`l=272^{},b=44^{}`$, and obtained a very different ratio of 0.6, implying a more flattened halo. Based on star counts from the APS catalog of the POSS, Larsen (1994) gave a mean ratio of 0.5 implying $`c/a0.5`$ for the stellar halo.

Although the existence of both the disk and halo components seems well established, the spatial distribution of the Galactic components are not well determined and remain controversial due to different and conflicting results from modeling of star counts. This is unfortunate because the shape of Galactic components are necessary for understanding the conditions during the formation of the Galaxy. In addition, the stellar luminosity function of main sequence stars in the disk is also a topic of debate. For example, there are some arguments about whether features like the Wielen dip near $`M_v7`$ mag and the apparent rise of the stellar luminosity function beyond $`M_v12`$ exist in the local neighborhood. Therefore, it is worthwhile to know if the features are present in the BATC starcount.

To pin down the Galactic structure with more precision, the Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut (BATC) multicolor photometric survey provides new catalogs with accurate object classification. These catalogs are very useful in constraining the structure of the main components of the Galaxy. In this paper, based on the BATC observation, we investigate the vertical distribution of stars in the Milky way. Details of observations and data reduction are given in Sect. 2; Sect. 3 describes the object classification and the photometric parallaxes; Sect. 4 deals with the space density distribution of stars; Sect. 5 gives the SLF of the thin disk. Finally, we summarize our main conclusions and briefly mention the prospects for future work on this survey project.

## 2 BATC Observations and data reduction

### 2.1 BATC photometric system and observations

The BATC survey performs photometric observations with a large field multicolor system. There are 15 intermediate-band filters in the BATC filter system, which covers an optical wavelength range from 3000 to 10000 Å (Fan et al. 1996; Yan et al. 2000; Zhou 2001). The observation is carried out with the 60/90 cm f/3 Schmidt Telescope of National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC), located at the Xinglong station with an altitude of 900 m. A Ford Aerospace 2048$`\times `$2048 CCD camera with a 15 $`\mu `$m pixel size is mounted at the main focus of the Schmidt telescope. The field of view of the CCD is $`58^{}`$ $`\times `$ $`58^{}`$ with a pixel scale of $`1\mathrm{}.67`$.

As in the definition of the AB system of Oke & Gunn (1983), the BATC magnitude system is defined as follows:

$$m_{\mathrm{batc}}=2.5\mathrm{log}\stackrel{~}{F_\nu }48.60,$$
(1)
where $`\stackrel{~}{F_\nu }`$ is the flux per unit frequency in unit of $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{Hz}^1`$. The advantage of the AB magnitude system is that the magnitude is directly related to physical units. The 4 Oke & Gunn (1983) standards are used for flux calibration in the BATC survey. The 4 stars are HD19445, HD84937, BD+262606 and BD+174708. The magnitudes of these standards were refined by several authors. Fukugita et al. (1996) presented the latest re-calibrated fluxes. Their magnitudes were also corrected in the BATC photometric system (Zhou et al. 2001). The extinction coefficients and magnitude zero points obtained from standard star observations are then used to calibrate other BATC field images. The observation for calibration are described in detail in Zhou et al. (2001).

The observations of the BATC T329 field (Galactic coordinates: $`l=169.95^{},b=49.80^{}`$) were obtained in 15 intermediate band filters with a total exposure time of 69.37 hours from December 11, 1996 to May 5, 1999. The CCD images are centered at $`\mathrm{RA}=09^\mathrm{h}53^\mathrm{m}13^\mathrm{s}.30`$ and DEC=47$`{}_{}{}^{}49_{}^{}00^{\prime \prime }`$ (J2000). The resulting images with the total exposure time and image numbers of each filter band are listed in Table 1.

### 2.2 Data reduction

The BATC survey images were reduced through standard procedures, including bias subtraction, flat-fielding correction and flux calibrations (Fan et al. 1996; Zhou et al. 2001; Zhou et al. 2003). After the basic correction described above, the flat-fielded images and field images observed of each filter were combined by integer pixel shifting, respectively. When combining the images, the cosmic rays and bad pixels were corrected by comparison of multiple images. The HST Guide star catalog (GSC) (Jenkner et al. 1990) was then used for coordinate determination. The final RMS error in positions of GSC stars is about 0.5 arcsec.

The magnitude of the point sources in the BATC fields are measured by the photometric method of point spread function (PSF) fitting. Our PSF magnitudes were obtained through an automatic data reduction program PIPELINE 2, which was developed based on Stetson’s DAOPHOT procedures (Stetson 1987).

It is difficult to obtain good PSF fitting for faint stars due to their asymmetry in profile. However, in order to construct a SED catalog as complete as possible, faint stars were measured with aperture photometry. The difference between the PSF and aperture photometry result is corrected by the bright, isolated stars in the same field. At the completion of photometry, the SEDs of all measurable objects are obtained. Finally, we determine the SEDs of 15 filters for more than 6000 objects in the BATC T329 field. In Fig. 1, we plot the BATC $`d`$, $`i`$, $`m`$ magnitude histograms for the 6000 objects in the field. In general, the limiting magnitude of our photometry is about $`21.^m0`$ with an error of about $`0.^m1`$ in the BATC $`i`$ band.

## 3 Object classification and photometric parallaxes

One of the goals of the BATC survey is the classification of every object found in all BATC fields, and the majority of these objects should be classified according to their SED information constructed from the 15-color photometric catalog. The observed colors of each object are compared with a color library of known objects with the same photometric system. For each object the probability of belonging to a certain object class (stars-galaxies) is given. Following that, we use spectral templates of galaxies and stars to discriminate the stars from galaxies. The profile of objects classified as stars does not deviate significantly from that of stellar templates. The input spectral templates for the galaxies are the enlarged galaxy evolutionary library of Bruzual and Charlot (1993), and the empirical template that is obtained through the averaged spectra of observed local field galaxies (Coleman 1980). Details about the classification of galaxies are given in Xia et al. (2002). The input library for stellar spectra is the Pickles (1998) catalog. This library consists of 131 flux-calibrated spectra, including all normal spectral types and luminosity classes at solar abundance, and metal-weak and metal-rich F$``$G dwarfs and G$``$K giant components. Our sample may contain stars spread over a range of different metallicities. In Fig. 2, the two-color diagram $`(di)`$ versus $`(im)`$ is shown for our sample. Although the 15 filters are used in the object classification, the two-color diagram based only on the $`d`$, $`i`$, $`m`$ filters as an example shows that the scatter still exists in our sample. Most of stars lie in the mean main sequence track, and for those objects beyond the track, the scatter can be mainly due to the metallicity effect. Secondly, the analysis of deep star counts can be critically affected by faint galaxy contamination. At the magnitude limit of our data ($`i21`$), galaxies outnumber stars. Although our multicolor photometric information is effective at discriminating stars from galaxies, some fainter objects still can be misclassified due to the increase in the observational error associated with the photometry of faint stars. The possibility of galaxy contamination is estimated to be less than 3%. In addition, there is an effect called ‘non-simultaneous observation’, and it will play an important role for long period variable stars (Chen 1996). However, this should not affect the final results derived by our sample, since the variable stars are relatively few. Here, we can only give the upper limit (less than 2%)(Zhang 2002; private communication).

For those stars, the probability of belonging to a certain star class is computed by the SED fitting method. The standard $`\chi ^2`$ minimization, i.e., computing and minimizing the deviations between photometric SED of a star and the template SEDs obtained with the same photometric system, is used in the fitting process. The minimum $`\chi _{min}^2`$ indicates the best fit to the observed SED by the set of template spectra:

$$\chi ^2=\underset{l=1}{\overset{N_{filt}=15}{}}\left[\frac{F_{obs,l}F_{temp,l}b}{\sigma _l}\right]^2,$$
(2)
where $`F_{obs,l}`$, $`F_{temp,l}`$ and $`\sigma _l`$ are the observed fluxes, template fluxes and their uncertainty in filter $`l`$, respectively, and $`N_{filt}`$ is the total number of filters in the photometry, while $`b`$ is the mean magnitude difference between observed fluxes and template fluxes.

Thus, we can obtain the spectral types and luminosity classes for stars in the BATC survey. Due to the multicolor photometry, the classification can be relatively accurate. After knowing the stellar type, the photometric parallaxes can be derived by estimating absolute stellar magnitudes. We adopted the absolute magnitude versus stellar type relation for main-sequence stars from Lang (1992). The derived relation $`M_v`$ vs. $`(di)`$ for the main sequence is shown in Fig. 3. In this Figure, the scatter band in the relation $`M_v`$ vs. $`(di)`$ is probably due to the larger uncertainty in the absolute magnitude determination only using two colors to express the information resulting from 15 colors.

A variety of errors affect the determination of stellar distances. The first source of errors could be from photometric uncertainty; the second from the misclassification that affects the derivation of absolute magnitude, but the misclassification should be small due to the multicolor photometry. For luminosity class V, types F–G–K, the absolute magnitude uncertainty is about 0.3 mag, and 0.8 or more for late M main sequence stars. In addition, there may be an error by the contamination of binary stars in our sample. We neglect the effect of binary contamination on distance derivation. For binaries with equal mass components, the distance will be assumed closer by a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$. Due to the unknown but probable mass distribution in binary components, the effect is certainly less severe (Kroupa 1993; Ojha 1996). Since the BATC T329 field is at intermediate latitude ($`b=49.80^{}`$), we can neglect the influence of interstellar extinction in distance calculation.

## 4 Space density distribution

In previous work, various models have been developed to describe the stellar populations of the Galaxy. In general, these models were based on the assumption of a suitable spatial density distribution, and on the observational luminosity function and color-magnitude diagram for each stellar population (Bahcall & Soneira 1984; Reid & Majewski 1993) to fit the structural parameters by exploiting the measurements of colors and magnitudes. Here, on account of the use of the photometric parallaxes, we can make a direct evaluation of the spatial density law. Rather than trying to fit the structure of the Galaxy in the observed parameter space of colors and magnitudes, we translate the observations into discrete density measurements at various points in the Galaxy.

As the starting point for our analysis, we consider models with three major components: a thin disk and a thick disk, both with exponential density profiles, and a halo component, with a deprojected de Vaucouleurs profile. Given a reliable stellar sample, the next step is to differentiate between member stars of the disk and those of the halo population. It is important to consider the volume-sampling effects inherent in any star count analysis. As described in Reid et al. (1993; 1996), the convolution of a monotonically-decreasing density law with the sampling volume leads to a ‘preferred’ distance modulus dependent on the slope of the density law along the particular Galactic line of sight for a given stellar population. Since the density distribution of the disk population falls off faster with height above the plane than does that of the halo, and the former is sampled primarily at $`mM7`$ mag, while the latter lies preferentially at $`mM17`$ mag. Thus, at a given apparent magnitude, the halo contributes more luminous (bluer) stars than the disk. In Fig. 4, we plot the color distribution of our sample stars. From this figure, we can see the bimodal color distribution and the left peak is a close to a normal distribution. We use a Gaussian function to fit it and check the convergence by its left wing which is not contaminated by disk stars. We find that the bluer stars are dominated by halo stars which are supposed to be metal-poor, with a turnoff of $`di0.9`$. Beyond this point the contribution by disk stars becomes dominant. Therefore, a crude disk-halo separation can be drawn by color cut.

We try to derive the structural parameters (e.g. scale height) of the thin and thick disk populations using our data set at intermediate latitude. For this we calculate the stellar space density as a function of distance from the Galactic plane. At first, we use the two dimensional distribution of stars in the ($`di`$) vs. log$`r`$ diagram (Fig. 5) to correct for this incompleteness. The nearest bins are assumed to be complete; for the incomplete bins we multiply iteratively by a factor given by the ratio of complete to incomplete number counts in the previous bin (Phleps et al. 2000). With the corrected number counts, the density in the log arithmetic space volume bins $`V_j`$ can then be calculated according to

$$\rho _j=\frac{N_j^{corr}}{V_j}$$
(3)
here, $`V_j=(\pi /180)^2(\omega /3)(r_{j+1}^3r_j^3)`$ is partial volume, $`r_{j+1}`$ and $`r_j`$ are the limiting distances; and $`\omega `$ is field size in square degrees.

### 4.1 Density distribution in the disk

We study the density distribution of the disk stars by taking stars of $`(di)0.9`$. The color cut is a crude separation between disk and halo, but we can gain a clear insight to the disk distribution due to the relatively less contamination by halo stars. Fig. 6 shows the resulting density distribution of the disk stars in our field. The solid line represents a fit with a superposition of two exponentials, i.e., the function of the disk is:

$$\rho (z)=n_1exp(z/h_1)+n_2exp(z/h_2),$$
(4)
$`h_1`$ and $`h_2`$ are the scale heights of the thin disk and thick disk, respectively, and the dashed line is the fit for the thin disk component. It is obvious that a single exponential disk is not a good fit for the disk component. Thus, the thick disk component in our Galactic model is indispensable to explain the observed star counts and color data. The comparison between data and simulations is made using a $`\chi ^2`$-fit. The corresponding parameters can be given. The scale height of the thin disk $`h_1`$ is $`320_{15}^{+14}`$ pc. The thick disk’s scale height $`h_2`$ is $`640_{32}^{+30}`$ pc, and the corresponding space number density normalization is $`7.0\pm 1\%`$ of the thin disk. The errors of scale heights and the corresponding space number density normalization are estimated at a $`68\%`$ confidential level.

Some results for the thin disk scale height have been published in the literature. Most authors (Gilmore 1984; Bahcall & Soneira 1984; Yoshii 1987; Reid & Majewski 1993) derived a scale height of 325 pc for old-disk stars; Chen (2001) used two large star count samples to derive the scale height of the thin disk to be 330 pc. However, Kuijken & Gilmore (1989) derived a scale height of 249 pc for the old-disk stars. Haywood (1994) showed, from an analysis of numerous star counts towards the pole using his self-consistent evolutionary model, that the thin disk scale height does not exceed 250 pc. Ojha (1999) also found that the scale height of the thin disk is 240 pc based on an analysis of two star count samples. It is clear that our derived thin disk scale height (320 pc) is consistent with the value presented by Chen (2001) and the classical value in the literature.

The thick disk density law can be reasonably modeled either by a exponential or by a density law close to sech$`{}_{}{}^{2}(z)`$, and star counts are unable to distinguish between these two hypothesis (Reylré & Robin 2001). The thick disk vertical structure is generally described as exponential with scale heights varying between 480 pc and 1500 pc and local density between 1% to 15% relative to the thin disk. Because of the small proportion of the thick disk locally with regard to the thin disk, it is difficult to derive a accurate scale height and local density of the thick disk. In general, any values of $`h_z`$ in the range $`4801500`$ pc and of local density in $`1\%15\%`$ turn out to be acceptable.

The thick disk’s scale height is anticorrelated with its local density when fitted simultaneously, and a small scale height is obtained in combination with high local density, while large scale height is associated with low local density (Robin et al. 1996; Chen 2001). Robin et al. (1996) derived a scale height of $`h_z=760\pm 50`$ pc with a local density of $`5.6\pm 1.0`$% relative to the thin disk, and Ojha et al. (1999) presented a scale height of 790 pc with a local density of 6.1% of the thin disk from a photometry and proper-motion survey in the two directions at intermediate latitude. Gilmore (1984) presented a scale height of 1300 pc and local normalization of 2%, Kuijken & Gilmore (1989) derived a scale height of 1000 pc and local normalization of 4%. Chen (2001) gives a thick disk scale height between 580 pc and 750 pc, with a local density of $`136.5\%`$ of the thin disk. Our study gives a scale height of $`640_{32}^{+30}`$ pc and the corresponding space number density normalization is $`7.0\pm 1\%`$ of the thin disk. In Table 2, we summarize the main parameters relating to the vertical distribution of stars in these models. It is clear that our results favor the thick disk scale height presented by Chen et al. (2001), well below the original proposal of Gilmore et al. (1984).

Fig. 7 gives the density distribution of all stars in the BATC T329 field. The dotted line shows the contribution of the thin disk component; the dashed line is the contribution of the thick disk; the dot-dashed line is a de Vaucouleurs law, and the solid line is the sum of the three components. It shows that the thick disk dominates star counts at distances between 1.5 and 4 kpc over the galactic plane. Phleps (2000) derived that the thick disk provides the predominant contribution from 1.5 kpc to 5.0 kpc. It showed that our thick disk result determination is in agreement with Phleps’s (2000). However, photometric counts are not accurate enough to estimate the distances of stars at the turnoff with an accuracy of even a factor of two. It can also be seen that the corresponding plots fit the distribution of the halo stars up to distance of over 20 kpc above the Galactic plane.

### 4.2 The density law of the halo

We use a de Vaucouleurs law for the halo component of the Galaxy. The de Vaucouleurs law is an empirical description of the density distribution of the galactic halo. The analytic approximation is:

$`\rho _H(z,b,l)`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _0{\displaystyle \frac{exp[10.093(\frac{R}{R_{}})^{1/4}+10.093]}{(\frac{R}{R_{}})^{(7/8)}}}`$
$`\times `$ $`1.25{\displaystyle \frac{exp[10.093(\frac{R}{R_{}})^{1/4}+10.093]}{(\frac{R}{R_{}})^{(6/8)}}},R<0.03R_{}`$
$`\times `$ $`[10.08669/(R/R_{})^{1/4}],R0.03R_{}`$
where $`R=(x^2+z^2/\kappa ^2)^{1/2}`$ is Galactocentric distance, $`\kappa `$ is the axis ratio, $`x=(R_{}^2+d^2`$cos$`{}_{}{}^{2}b2R_{}d`$ cos$`b`$ cos$`l)^{1/2}`$, $`z=d`$ sin$`b`$; $`R_{}=8`$ kpc is the distance of the sun from the Galactic center, $`b`$ and $`l`$ are the Galactic latitude and longitude; the normalization factor $`\rho _0`$ is usually expressed as a percentage of the local spatial density of stars.

In our sample, disk stars greatly outnumber halo stars and it is therefore difficult to isolate halo stars, and we use the blue tail of the distribution (Fig. 4) $`di<0.9`$ mag for our star counts to distinguish the population of halo stars from the sample. Adopting a de Vaucouleurs $`r^{1/4}`$ law halo and a local density normalization $`\rho _0=0.125\%`$, the $`\chi ^2`$-curve for the axis ratio parameter as derived from the BATC T329 field is shown in Fig. 8. Our counts imply that the axial ratio of the stellar halo approximates 0.6. This ratio agrees with the star count results of Larsen (1994) and is also consistent with a kinematic analysis, but it does not agree with the ratio from the Koo et al. (1986) surveys. The apparent discrepancy is probably due to the multi-component nature of the Galactic halo (Buser 1985). Some studies of the kinematics and abundance of both field stars and globular clusters show that the halo is better described as having two subpopulations–a flattened inner halo and a spherical outer halo (Siegel 2002). Additional support for dual-halo models can be drawn from the apparent dichotomy in detailed chemical abundance of halo stars (Nissen & Schuster 1997). In a dual-halo model, nearby stars (Larsen 94; Chen 2001; Siegel 2002; this work) are dominated by the flattened inner halo while distant stars (Koo 1986; Bahcall 1984; Nissen 1997) are dominated by the round outer halo. Such models may resolve many of the disagreements in star count results.

Sources of uncertainty in our star counts include the effects of extinction and possible contamination by thick disk stars. Chen (2001) found that the redding for the BATC T329 field, $`E_{BV}<0.011`$ and $`A_v/E_{BV}`$ for the bluest band $`a`$ is 5.46, therefore, it yields $`A_v`$ (the BATC $`a`$ band) 0.06 and lower than our observation error 0.1, so we can neglect its effect. A major uncertainty in the interpretation of our star counts is from a thick disk. However, the small sample prevents further conclusions about halo structure. We will recheck these results with forthcoming BATC data in other Galactic directions in the future.

## 5 The stellar luminosity function

The stellar luminosity function (SLF) gives the number of stars per cubic parsec of space per unit interval of absolute magnitude $`M`$ as a function of $`M`$. The SLF is a key input parameter for models of the stellar content of the Galaxy. The stellar samples are used to derive it, and counts of stars are estimated to be complete at distance (from the sun) limits of 24 kpc and absolute magnitude limits of 12 mag. The stellar luminosity function differs in different parts of the Galaxy. Of the greatest interest is its determination in the thin disk. The stellar luminosity function for the thin disk stars can be calculated according to the knowledge of the density distribution function. We selected the nearby stars as thin-disk stars with distances less than 1.5 kpc. Beyond this point the contribution from thick disk and halo stars becomes dominant.

To investigate this possibility further, we make the following alternative estimate of the SLF. We first calculate the effective volume, $`\upsilon _{eff}(M_v)`$, as a function of absolute magnitude by integrating the volume element as a function of the distance $`r`$ along the line of sight,

$$\upsilon _{eff}(M_v)=\omega _{R_{min}}^{R_{max}}\nu (r,b)r^2𝑑r,$$
(6)
here, the integration limits are

$$R_{min}=10^{0.2(14M_V)2.0}$$

$$R_{max}=min(1.5kpc,10^{0.2(21M_V)2.0}),$$

and $`\nu (r,b)`$ is the distribution function of the thin disk, and it is normalized to unity at $`z=0`$.

Finally, we divide the total number of stars in a given magnitude bin by the effective volume of that bin. The derived SLF is listed in Table 3 and in Fig. 9, in comparison with SLF derived by Eggen (1983) from a survey of proper motion selected stars with apparent magnitude $`V<15`$, and the SLF by Jahreiß & Wielen (1997) from the superior HIPPARCOS data for the local stellar population.

As can be seen from Fig. 9, the observed luminosity function in the BATC T329 field is in agreement with the local luminosity function as given by Eggen (1983) and by Jahreiß & Wielen (1997) only for three intervals, i.e.: $`7<M_v<8`$, $`8<M_v<9`$, and $`10<M_v<11`$, whereas the observed SLF is lower than the Wielen (1997) standard for the other intervals. The low value of the present observed SLF at the brighter luminosity intervals is most probably due to the larger uncertainty in the absolute magnitude determination. It is noticeable that there is a dip at the faint luminosity intervals $`11<M_v<12`$ and $`12<M_v<13`$. It is possible that the dip is real at the faint magnitude end. In addition, the discrepancy at the faint magnitude intervals may come from the fact that the stars are too faint to be sampled in any significant number and uncertainties of the classification may introduce systematic errors that are hard to quantify.

## 6 Conclusions

Based on the BATC observation, we have analyzed the star counts with the help of a Galaxy model in order to parameterize the vertical distribution of stars in the Milky Way. The basic conclusions of this paper are:
1. Based on the BATC multicolor photometry and on the template SEDs, the stellar spectral types and luminosity classes can be obtained. Thus, the photometric parallaxes of the main sequence stars can be derived.
2. Using two exponential disks, we determine that the scale height of the thin disk is $`320_{15}^{+14}`$ pc and the thick disk scale height is $`640_{32}^{+30}`$ pc with a corresponding space number density normalization $`7.0\pm 1\%`$ of the thin disk.
3. Adopting a de Vaucouleurs $`r^{1/4}`$ law halo and a local density normalization $`\rho _0=0.125\%`$, the observed counts yield a axial ratio of $`c/a0.6`$, implying a more flattened halo. Our study suggests that it is possible that the halo has two subpopulations–a flattened inner halo and a spherical outer halo in the Milky Way.
4. Based on this knowledge of the density distribution, we determined the stellar luminosity function (SLF) for the thin disk stars, with distances less than 1.5 kpc. Beyond this point the contribution by thick disk and halo stars become dominant.

In general, these preliminary test results are in remarkable agreement with the majority of independent recent determinations. Since our data comprise a large field, with a multicolor filter system including 15 intermediate-band filters, this finding confirms in a satisfactory way similar results found from other projections. Of course, the structural parameter values derived from the BATC survey data critically depend on the reliability of the basic model. While this model needs to be refined in many respects in the future, it can provide a suitable framework for interpreting the BATC data in its present form.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank the anonymous referee for his/her insightful comments and suggestions that improved this paper. The BATC Survey is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation under the contract No. 10273012, the Chinese State Committee of Sciences and Technology. This work has been supported by the National Key Basic Research Science Foundation (NKBRSF TG199075402). We also thank the assistants who helped with the observations for their hard work and kind cooperation.


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# I U(3) decay amplitudes for 𝐵→𝑃𝑃 with at least one of the 𝑃 being a 𝜂₈ or 𝜂₁.

$`B\eta (\eta ^{})K(\pi )`$ in the Standard Model with Flavor Symmetry
Han-Kuei Fu, Xiao-Gang He, Yu-Kuo Hsiao

Physics Department, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C

## Abstract

The observed branching ratios for $`BK\eta ^{}`$ decays are much larger than factorization predictions in the Standard Model (SM). Many proposals have been made to reconcile the data and theoretical predictions. In this paper we study these decays within the SM using flavor U(3) symmetry. If small annihilation amplitudes are neglected, one needs 11 hadronic parameters to describe $`BPP`$ decays where $`P`$ can be one of the $`\pi `$, $`K`$, $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$ nonet mesons. We find that existing data are consistent with SM with flavor U(3) symmetry. We also predict several measurable branching ratios and CP asymmetries for $`BK(\pi )\eta (\eta ^{})`$, $`\eta (\eta ^{})\eta (\eta ^{})`$ decays. Near future experiments can provide important tests for the Standard Model with flavor U(3) symmetry.

Experimental data from CLEO, BaBar and Belle have measured branching ratios of $`BK\eta ^{}`$ around $`6\times 10^5`$ which are substantially larger than theoretical calculations based on naive factorization approximation in the Standard Model (SM). Although there are some improvements in calculating the branching ratios in the last few years by using QCD improved factorization method, there are still large uncertainties in calculating the branching ratios for $`BK\eta ^{}`$ because of issues related to $`\eta _1\eta _8`$ mixing and QCD anomaly associated with $`\eta _1`$. There are also many speculations about possible new physics beyond the SM in these decays. Before any claim can be made about new physics, one must study the SM contributions in all possible ways to see if it is really inconsistent with experimental data.

In this paper we carry out a systematic study of $`BK\eta ^{}`$, and more generally processes of $`BPP`$ decays with at least one of the $`P`$ to be $`\eta (\eta ^{})`$ in the final states by using flavor symmetry in the SM. This way one can relate different decays to predict unmeasured branching ratios and CP asymmetries. Drastic deviations between the predicted relations and experimental data can provide information about the SM and models beyond. Similar considerations based on $`SU(3)`$ have been applied to $`BPP`$ decays, and shown to be consistent with data . If one sticks to flavor SU(3) symmetry, one needs to introduce the singlet $`\eta _1`$ in the theory and to add additional amplitudes to describe new decay modes. One may also consider to promote the flavor SU(3) symmetry to flavor U(3) symmetry such that $`\eta _1`$ is automatically included in the theory.

Flavor $`U(3)`$ symmetry has been studied in Kaon decays. There there are non-negligible symmetry breaking effects. For $`B`$ decays one may also expect symmetry breaking effects to exist. There are also some studies of U(3) symmetry for $`B`$ decays. Present data, however, are not able to make clear statement about whether this symmetry is badly broken. In this paper we will take the flavor U(3) symmetry as working hypothesis and to study whether experimental data can be explained by carrying out a systematic analysis. We find that the SM with flavor U(3) symmetry can explain all existing data, in particular can obtain large branching ratios for $`BK\eta ^{}`$ decays. We also predict some unmeasured branching ratios and CP asymmetries which can be used to further test the theory.

The quark level effective Hamiltonian can be written as

$`H_{eff}^q={\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}[V_{ub}V_{uq}^{}(c_1O_1+c_2O_2){\displaystyle \underset{i=3}{\overset{11}{}}}(V_{ub}V_{uq}^{}c_i^{uc}+V_{tb}V_{tq}^{}c_i^{tc})O_i].`$ (1)
Here $`V_{ij}`$ are KM matrix elements. The coefficients $`c_{1,2}`$ and $`c_i^{jk}`$ are the Wilson Coefficients which have been evaluated by several groups with $`|c_{1,2}|>>|c_i^{jk}|`$. $`O_i`$ are operators consist of quarks and gluons.

The $`BPP`$ decay amplitudes can be parameterized as

$`A(BPP)=<PP|H_{eff}^q|B>={\displaystyle \frac{G_F}{\sqrt{2}}}[V_{ub}V_{uq}^{}T+V_{tb}V_{tq}^{}P],`$ (2)
where $`B=(B_u,B_d,B_s)=(B^{},\overline{B}^0,\overline{B}_s^0)`$ which form a fundamental representation of $`SU(3)`$ (or ($`U(3)`$). The amplitudes $`T`$ and $`P`$ are related to the hadronic matrix elements $`<PP|O_i|B>`$ which are very difficult to calculate. For our purpose, however, we only need to know the fact that under $`SU(3)`$ (or $`U(3)`$) $`O_{1,2}`$, $`O_{36,11}`$, and $`O_{710}`$ transform as $`\overline{3}+\overline{3}^{}+6+\overline{15}`$, $`\overline{3}`$, and $`\overline{3}+\overline{3}^{}+6+\overline{15}`$, respectively, and to parameterize the amplitudes according to SU(3) (or U(3)) invariant amplitudes to be discussed below.

As mentioned earlier that there are two approaches to the problem from flavor symmetry point of view. We first work with the U(3) symmetry approach. In this case, the $`\pi `$, $`K`$, $`\eta _8`$ and $`\eta _1`$ form a nonet representation of $`U(3)`$, $`M_j^i`$, with

$`(M_i^j)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{\pi ^0}{\sqrt{2}}+\frac{\eta _8}{\sqrt{6}}& \pi ^+& K^+\\ \pi ^{}& \frac{\pi ^0}{\sqrt{2}}+\frac{\eta _8}{\sqrt{6}}& K^0\\ K^{}& \overline{K}^0& 2\frac{\eta _8}{\sqrt{6}}\end{array}\right)+\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\eta _1& 0& 0\\ 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\eta _1& 0\\ 0& 0& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\eta _1\end{array}\right)`$ (9)
One can write the $`T`$ amplitude for $`BPP`$ in terms of the flavor U(3) invariant amplitudes as

$`T`$ $`=`$ $`A_{\overline{3}}^TB_iH(\overline{3})^i(M_l^kM_k^l)+C_{\overline{3}}^TB_iM_k^iM_j^kH(\overline{3})^j`$ (10)
$`+`$ $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6^TB_iH(6)_k^{ij}M_j^lM_l^k+\stackrel{~}{C}_6^TB_iM_j^iH(6)_l^{jk}M_k^l`$ (11)
$`+`$ $`A_{\overline{15}}^TB_iH(\overline{15})_k^{ij}M_j^lM_l^k+C_{\overline{15}}^TB_iM_j^iH(\overline{15})_l^{jk}M_k^l`$ (12)
$`+`$ $`B_{\overline{3}}^TB_iH(\overline{3})^iM_j^jM_k^k+\stackrel{~}{B}_6^TB_iH(6)_k^{ij}M_j^kM_l^l`$ (13)
$`+`$ $`B_{\overline{15}}^TB_iH(\overline{15})_k^{ij}M_j^kM_l^l+D_{\overline{3}}^TB_iM_j^iH(\overline{3})^jM_l^l.`$ (14)
In Table I we list all decay amplitudes involving $`\eta _{1,8}`$. The amplitudes containing only $`K`$ and $`\pi `$ in the final states can be found in Ref. . There are a few new features for the U(3) amplitudes in eq. (14) compared with the SU(3) amplitudes for $`BPP`$. The last four terms are new. In SU(3) case because the traceless condition of $`M_i^j`$, these terms are automatically zero. With SU(3) symmetry, the amplitudes $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{C}_6`$ always appear in the combination of $`\stackrel{~}{C}_6\stackrel{~}{A}_6`$. This degeneracy is, naively lifted in processes with $`\eta _1`$ in the final states. It seems that there is the need of having both $`\stackrel{~}{C}_6`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6`$ to describe the decays increasing the total number of hadronic parameters by one. However, this is not true since that the $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6^T`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{C}_6^T`$ terms in decay modes with $`\eta _1`$ in the final state can be written as $`C_6^T=\stackrel{~}{C}_6^T\stackrel{~}{A}_6^T`$, and the additional $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6^T`$ be absorbed by redefining the amplitude $`B_6^T=\stackrel{~}{B}_6^T+\stackrel{~}{A}_6^T`$. In Table I we therefore have listed the decay amplitudes in terms of the independent U(3) invariant amplitudes, $`C_{\overline{3},6,\overline{15}}^T`$, $`A_{\overline{3},\overline{15}}^T`$, $`B_{\overline{3},6,\overline{15}}^T`$ and $`D_{\overline{3}}^T`$.

We now describe the other approach to include $`\eta _1`$ in $`BPP`$ decays. Here one treats $`\eta _1`$ as a singlet of $`SU(3)`$ and parameterizes the decay amplitudes according to SU(3) symmetry. In this case there are also additional four new terms,

$`T_{new}`$ $`=`$ $`a^TB_iH(\overline{3})^i\eta _1\eta _1+b^TB_iM_j^i(8)H(\overline{3})^j\eta _1`$ (15)
$`+`$ $`c^TB_iH(6)_l^{ik}M_k^l(8)\eta _1+d^TB_iH(\overline{15})_l^{ik}M_k^l(8)\eta _1.`$ (16)
In the U(3) symmetry limit, we have

$`a^T=A_{\overline{3}}^T+3B_{\overline{3}}^T+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}C_{\overline{3}}^T+D_{\overline{3}}^T,b^T={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}}C_3^T+\sqrt{3}D_{\overline{3}}^T,`$ (17)
$`c^T={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}}\stackrel{~}{A}_{\overline{6}}^T+\sqrt{3}\stackrel{~}{B}_{\overline{6}}^T+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}\stackrel{~}{C}_{\overline{6}}^T,d^T={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}}A_{\overline{15}}^T+\sqrt{3}B_{\overline{15}}^T+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}}C_{\overline{15}}^T.`$ (18)
We also see from the above that one can use $`C_6^T`$ and $`B_6^T`$ to absorb $`\stackrel{~}{A}_6^T`$ by writing, $`c^T=\sqrt{3}B_6^T+C_6^T`$. It is interesting to note that both approaches discussed above introduce the same number of new parameters, four of them, into the theory. In our analysis we will work with the flavor U(3) symmetry.

To obtain the amplitudes for $`B`$ decays with at least one $`\eta (\eta ^{})`$ in the final states, one also needs to consider $`\eta \eta ^{}`$ mixing,

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}\eta \\ \eta ^{}\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{cc}cos\theta & sin\theta \\ sin\theta & cos\theta \end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}\eta _8\\ \eta _1\end{array}\right).`$ (25)
The average value of the mixing angle $`\theta `$ is $`15.5^{}\pm 1.3^{}`$. We will use $`\theta =15.5^{}`$ in our fit.

There are similar $`U(3)`$ invariant amplitudes for the penguin contributions. We indicate them as $`C_{\overline{3},6,\overline{15}}^P`$, $`A_{\overline{3},\overline{15}}^P`$, $`B_{\overline{3},6,\overline{15}}^P`$ and $`D_{\overline{3},6,\overline{15}}^P`$. The amplitudes $`A_i`$ and $`B_i`$ are referred as annihilation amplitudes because the $`B`$ mesons are first annihilated by the interaction Hamiltonian and two light mesons are then created. In total there are 22 complex hadronic parameters (44 real parameters with one of them to be an overall unphysical phase). However simplification can be made because the following relations in the SM,

$`C_6^P(B_6^P)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{c_9^{tc}c_{10}^{tc}}{c_1c_23(c_9^{uc}c_{10}^{uc})/2}}C_6^T(B_6^T)0.013C_6^T(B_6^T),`$ (26)
$`C_{\overline{15}}^P(A_{\overline{15}}^P,B_{\overline{15}}^P)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{c_9^{tc}+c_{10}^{tc}}{c_1+c_23(c_9^{uc}+c_{10}^{uc})/2}}C_{\overline{15}}^T(A_{\overline{15}}^T,B_{\overline{15}}^T)+0.015C_{\overline{15}}^T(A_{\overline{15}}^T,B_{\overline{15}}^T).`$ (27)
Here we have used the Wilson Coefficients obtained in Ref..

We comment that in finite order perturbative calculations the above relations are renormalization scheme and scale dependent. One should use a renormalization scheme consistently. We have checked with different renormalization schemes and find that numerically the changes are less than 15% for different schemes. In obtaining the above relations, we have also neglected small contributions from $`c_{7,8}`$ which cause less than 1% deviations.

Using the above relations the number of independent hadronic parameters are reduced which we choose to be, $`C_{\overline{3}}^{T,P}(A_{\overline{3}}^{T,P})`$, $`C_6^T`$, $`C_{\overline{15}}^T(A_{\overline{15}}^T)`$, $`B_{\overline{3}}^{T,P}`$, $`B_{\overline{6}}^T`$, $`B_{\overline{15}}^T`$, $`D_{\overline{3}}^{T,P}`$. An overall phase can be removed without loss of generality, we will set $`C_{\overline{3}}^P`$ to be real. There are in fact only 25 real independent parameters for $`BPP`$ in the SM with flavor U(3) symmetry,
$`C_{\overline{3}}^P,C_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{\overline{3}}},C_6^Te^{i\delta _6},C_{\overline{15}}^Te^{i\delta _{\overline{15}}},A_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{A_{\overline{3}}^T}},A_{\overline{3}}^Pe^{i\delta _{A_{\overline{3}}^P}},A_{\overline{15}}^Te^{i\delta _{A_{\overline{15}}^T}},B_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{B_{\overline{3}}^T}},B_{\overline{3}}^Pe^{i\delta _{B_{\overline{3}}^P}},B_{\overline{6}}^Te^{i\delta _{B_{\overline{6}}^T}},B_{\overline{15}}^Te^{i\delta _{B_{\overline{15}}^T}},D_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{D_{\overline{3}}^T}},D_{\overline{3}}^Pe^{i\delta _{D_{\overline{3}}^P}}.`$
Further the amplitudes $`A_i`$ and $`B_i`$ correspond to annihilation contributions and are expected to be small which is also supported by data. If the annihilation amplitudes are neglected, there are only 11 independent hadronic parameters

$`C_{\overline{3}}^P,C_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{\overline{3}}},C_6^Te^{i\delta _6},C_{\overline{15}}^Te^{i\delta _{\overline{15}}},D_{\overline{3}}^Te^{i\delta _{D_{\overline{3}}^T}},D_{\overline{3}}^Pe^{i\delta _{D_{\overline{3}}^P}}.`$ (28)
The phases in the above can be defined in such a way that all $`C_i^{T,P}`$ and $`D_i^{T,P}`$ are real positive numbers.

At present many $`BPP`$ decay modes have been measured at B-factories . It is tempting to use experimental data to fix all the hadronic parameters described earlier. It has been shown that if processes involving $`\eta (\eta ^{})`$ are not included, it is indeed possible to determine all the SU(3) invariant amplitudes, $`A_i`$ and $`C_i`$. When processes involving $`\eta (\eta ^{})`$ are also included, a meaningful determination of all hadronic parameters (25 of them) is, however, not possible at present because of too many parameters. We therefore in the following neglect the annihilation amplitudes, which are anticipated to be small, to see if all data can be reasonably explained, in particular to see if large $`BK\eta ^{}`$ branching ratios can be obtained, with only 11 parameters given in eq. (28). This is a nontrivial task. Remarkably we find that all data can, indeed, be well explained.

We use the averaged CLEO, BaBar and Belle data shown in Table III and IV to fix the unknown 11 hadronic parameters by carrying out a global $`\chi ^2`$ analysis. The results are shown in Table II. In our analysis due to the lack of knowledge of the error correlations from experiments, in obtaining the averaged error bars, we have, for simplicity, taken them to be uncorrelated and assumed to obey Gaussian distribution taking the larger one between $`\sigma _+`$ and $`\sigma _{}`$ to be on the conservative side. Experimental data on $`ϵ_K`$, $`B\overline{B}`$ mixing, $`|V_{cb}|`$, $`|V_{ub}/V_{cb}|`$, and $`\mathrm{sin}2\beta `$ provide very stringent constraints on the KM matrix elements involved in our analysis. We have treated them in our analysis as known parameters with the values $`\lambda =0.2196`$, $`A=0.854`$, $`\rho =0.25`$ and $`\eta =0.34`$ ($`\gamma =53.4^{}`$) determined from the most recent data.

Using the above determined hadronic parameters, we study several other unmeasured branching ratios and CP violating rate asymmetries $`A_{CP}`$ for $`BPP`$ defined by,

$`A_{CP}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(B_iPP)\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}_i\overline{P}\overline{P})}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(B_iPP)+\mathrm{\Gamma }(\overline{B}_i\overline{P}\overline{P})}}.`$ (59)
The results are shown in Tables III and IV.

We now discuss some implications of the results obtained and draw conclusions. We see from Tables III and IV that the best fit values for the known branching ratios are in good agreements with data, in particular large $`BK\eta ^{}`$ can be obtained. The minimal $`\chi ^2`$ in our fit is 16 with total of 23 data points from $`BPP`$ decays and the 11 hadronic parameters in eq.(28) as fitting parameters. The value of 1.33 for the $`\chi ^2`$ per degree of freedom represents a reasonable fit. In our fit the $`\eta \eta ^{}`$ mixing parameter $`\theta `$ is fixed at the average value determined from other data. We checked the sensitivity of the final results on $`\theta `$ within the allowed region and find the changes are small. We also find that if one reduces the U(3) symmetry to the SU(3) case, just fitting data on $`B\pi \pi ,\pi K,KK`$, the values obtained for $`C_i`$ are not very much different than what obtained here. This indicates that the parameters $`C_i`$ are stable when promoting $`SU(3)`$ to $`U(3)`$. The large branching ratios for $`BK\eta ^{}`$ are due to the new parameters $`D_{\overline{3}}`$. The $`U(3)`$ assumption can provide a good approximation for $`BPP`$ decays. The Standard Model with flavor U(3) symmetry is not in conflict with existing data.

In our fit, we did not include the branching ratios which only have information on their upper bounds, such as $`Br(B_dK^{}K^+)`$, $`Br(B_d\overline{K}^0K^0)`$ and $`Br(B_u\pi ^{}\eta ^{})`$. Since we neglected annihilation contributions, the mode $`B_dK^{}K^+`$ has vanishing branching ratio which is consistent with data. The stringent upper limit of $`10^6`$ on $`B_dK^{}K^+`$ branching ratio supports the expectation that annihilation contributions are small. The predicted branching ratio of $`0.7\times 10^6`$ for $`B_d\overline{K}^0K^0`$ is safely below the experimental bound. The predicted branching ratio for $`Br(B_u\pi ^{}\eta ^{})`$ is $`16.8_{\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}9.7}}^{+16.0}\times 10^6`$. The central value is slightly larger than the 90% C.L. allowed upper bound $`12\times 10^6`$. But the 68% C.L. range is consistent with data. At present it is too early to claim conflict of theory with data. But this mode can be used to test the theory. Should a branching ratio much smaller than the central value predicted here be measured in the future, it is an indication that the assumptions made need to be modified.

Using existing experimental data, we have determined 11 hadronic parameters needed to describe $`BPP`$ decays with flavor U(3) symmetry. We have compared with QCD improved factorization calculations and found that the magnitudes of the parameters are of the same order of magnitude. In our fit, we determined two U(3) invariant amplitudes, $`D_{\overline{3}}^{T,P}`$. These are particularly difficult to estimate from theoretical calculations because these amplitudes may be related to QCD anomalies. Also in factorization approach, it is not possible to reliably calculate the phases in the hadronic parameters. In our fit, we find that these phases can be sizeable. Further improved theoretical method is needed to have a better understanding of $`BPP`$ decays.

Using the hadronic parameters determined from existing data, we have predicted several unmeasured branching ratios. These predictions can be used to test the theory. There are six modes involving at least one $`\eta `$ (or a $`\eta ^{}`$) in the final states for $`B_d`$ decays. Among them $`B_d\pi ^{}\eta ^{}`$ has the largest branching ratio, it is a clear test for the theory. The other modes are also in the reach of near future data from B-factories. There are also seven $`B_s`$ decay modes with at least one $`\eta `$ or $`\eta ^{}`$ in the final states. Several of the branching ratios are predicted to be large, in particular the predicted branching ratio for $`B_s\eta ^{}\eta ^{}`$ is about $`7\times 10^5`$ which can be measured at future hadron colliders and can provide another crucial test for theory.

We have also obtained interesting predictions for CP asymmetries in $`BPP`$ decay modes. Many of the predicted central values for the CP asymmetries are larger than $`10\%`$ which can be measured in the near future. These modes can provide important information about CP violation in the Standard Model.

In conclusion, we have carried out an systematic analysis for $`BPP`$ decays in the SM with flavor U(3) symmetry. This approach allows one to study $`B`$ decays involving at least one $`\eta `$ or $`\eta ^{}`$ in the final states. We find that all existing data can be explained, in particular large branching ratios for $`BK\eta ^{}`$ are possible. There is no conflict between the Standard Model and present experimental data. We have also predicted several unmeasured branching ratios and CP asymmetries within the reach of near future B-factories. Future experimental data will provide crucial information on flavor symmetries and also the Standard Model.


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Due to their different couplings to the initial photon - nucleon and the final meson - nucleon states the low lying nucleon resonances D13(1520) and S11(1535) can be separated to a large extent: The production of $`\eta `$-mesons proceeds almost exclusively via the excitation of the S11, while the largest resonance contributions to single and double pion production come from the D13. Using this selectivity, the properties of the resonances, when excited on the free proton or quasifree neutron, have been studied in much detail during the last few years via $`\eta `$-photoproduction  and single and double pion photoproduction reactions . The excellent quality of the data allowed precise determinations of the resonance properties, like the extraction of a 0.05% - 0.08% branching ratio for the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}\text{N}\eta `$ decay .

Much less is known about the behavior of the isobars inside the nuclear medium, where a number of modifications arise. The most trivial is the broadening of the excitation functions due to Fermi motion. The decay of the resonances is modified by Pauli-blocking of final states, which reduces the resonance widths, and by additional decay channels like $`\text{N}^{}\text{N}\text{NN}`$ which cause the collisional broadening. Both effects cancel to some extent and it is a priori not clear which one will dominate. A very exciting possibility is that the resonance widths could be sensitive to in-medium mass modifications of mesons arising from chiral restoration effects. The D13-resonance for example has a 15 - 25% decay branch to the $`\text{N}\rho `$-channel , which is only fed from the low energy tail of the $`\rho `$ mass distribution. This means that the resonance width is very sensitive to the $`\rho `$ mass distribution. The first experimental investigation of the second resonance region for nuclei was done with total photoabsorption. The results showed an almost complete absence of the resonance bump for 4He and heavier nuclei , which up to now has not been understood.

In this talk new experimental results are presented which shed light on the contribution of the D13 resonance to the second resonance bump via the double pion decay channels and on the in-medium behavior of the resonance.

## 2 Double pion production and the D13(1520)

The cross sections for single meson photoproduction (pions and $`\eta `$-mesons) and double pion photoproduction are almost equal at incident photon energies between 600 and 800 MeV. Moreover, most of the rise of the total photoabsorption cross section from the dip above the

$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance to the peak of the second resonance bump is due to double pion production (see fig.1, left hand side). Any detailed interpretation of the second resonance bump therefore requires the understanding of double pion production. Previously it was not even clear which role the P11-, D13\- and S11-resonances play for double pion production. Background terms like the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-Kroll-Rudermann (KR) and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-pion-pole term, which instead involve the excitation of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, are important at least for the charged double pion channels.

Among the possible double pion production reactions previously only $`\gamma pp\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ was measured with good precision. The total cross section, which is in reasonable agreement with model calculations (see fig.1, right hand side), is very small between threshold at $``$310 MeV and $``$400 MeV. It rises sharply from $``$400 MeV to a maximum at $``$650 MeV. This rise is accompanied by a strong peak at the mass of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance in the invariant mass distribution of the $`p\pi ^+`$-pair. This peak is absent in the $`p\pi ^{}`$ invariant mass. A large contribution to the cross section is therefore assigned in all models to the $`\gamma p\mathrm{\Delta }^{++}\pi ^{}`$-reaction via the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-KR and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-pion pole terms.

The situation is very different for the final states involving neutral pions. The total cross sections for $`\gamma pp\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ and $`\gamma pn\pi ^+\pi ^o`$ measured in Mainz with the TAPS  and DAPHNE  detectors are compared in fig.2 to the model calculations of Gomez-Tejedor et al. , Murphy et al.  and Ochi et al. . None of the models agrees with both data sets. The calculation by Ochi et al. , was developed later with special emphasis on the $`\pi ^+\pi ^o`$ final state.

In case of the $`\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ final state the two models from refs.  made very different predictions. One of them  predicted as dominant process the sequential decay of the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}(1520)`$ resonance via a $`\mathrm{\Delta }\pi `$ intermediate state, the other  the decay of the P$`{}_{11}{}^{}(1440)`$ resonance via a correlated pair of pions in a relative s-wave. The total cross section (see fig.2) is in better agreement with the prediction from ref. , but the problem was finally solved by the study of the the invariant mass distributions . The pion - pion invariant mass distributions are similar to phase space behavior, while a strong deviation from phase space was predicted for the correlated two pion decay of the P11 in . The pion - proton invariant mass deviates from phase space and peaks at the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ mass as expected for a sequential $`N^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi ^oN\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ decay and as predicted in . The high quality invariant mass distributions available now , will certainly allow a more detailed analysis.

The first measurement of the $`\gamma p\pi ^o\pi ^+`$ reaction  came up with a total cross section that was strongly underestimated by the predictions from the then available models  (see fig.2, right hand side). This experimental result was confirmed by a measurement with the TAPS detector  and a similar situation was found for the $`\gamma np\pi ^{}\pi ^o`$ reaction . Obviously an important contribution was missing in the models.

Ochi et al.  suggested that a contribution of the $`\rho `$-Kroll-Rudermann term, which is negligible for the other isospin channels, might solve the problem. This suggestion motivated a carefull study of the invariant mass distributions of the pion - pion and the pion - nucleon pairs, which are again the most sensitive observables . Contributions from $`\rho ^+`$-meson production should result in an enhancement of high pion - pion invariant masses.

The DAPHNE collaboration  has searched for such enhancements in the $`d(\gamma ,\pi ^o\pi ^{})pp`$ reaction and found some indication of the effect. However, their analysis is largely complicated by effects from the bound nucleons. The pion - pion invariant masses for the $`\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ and $`\pi ^o\pi ^+`$ pairs from the free proton measured with TAPS  are compared at the left hand side of fig.3. This comparison is particulary instructive since the $`\rho ^o\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ decay is forbidden so that the $`\rho `$-meson cannot contribute to the double $`\pi ^o`$ channel. The $`\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ invariant mass is similar to phase space behavior, but at the higher incident photon energies the $`\pi ^o\pi ^+`$ invariant mass has an excess at large values. The $`\pi ^o\pi ^+`$-data were fitted with a simple model assuming only phase space and $`\rho `$-decay contributions . The result for the ratio of the matrix elements without phase space factors is shown at the right hand side of fig.3. The relative contribution of the $`\rho `$-decay matrix element peaks close to the position of the D13 resonance which is a hint at a D$`{}_{13}{}^{}N\rho `$ contribution. In view of the new experimental results the group of E. Oset has updated their model  and now correctly included the possible $`\rho `$ diagrams. They found indeed a significant contribution of the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}N\rho `$ decay.

The final results are summerized in fig.4 where the measured total cross sections are compared to the latest model results. The prominant role of the sequential decay of the D13 resonance via D$`{}_{13}{}^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi N\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ to the $`\pi ^o\pi ^o`$ final state explains the peak at roughly 700 MeV incident photon energy. The peak like structure for the $`\pi ^o\pi ^+`$ final state is mainly caused by the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}N\rho `$ decay which is enhanced via interference effects with other diagrams. It was shown earlier  that the peaking of the $`\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ final state comes from an interference of the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}\mathrm{\Delta }\pi N\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ with the leading $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-KR term. These results taken together show that the resonance bump in double pion production is mainly due to the excitation of the D13 resonance.

## 3 The D13(1520) excited in nuclei

The in-medium properties of mesons and nucleon resonances are a very hotly debated subject, however with the exception of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-isobar experimental results are still very scarce and partly contradicting. We have therefore now investigated the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}(1520)`$ resonance in the nuclear medium via quasifree single $`\pi ^o`$-photoproduction.

For the discussion of possible medium modifications of the D13 resonance we compare first the inclusive data to predictions in the framework of a transport model (BUU) . Here, inclusive means that all events with at least one $`\pi ^o`$ are included. The total cross section (left hand side of fig.5) predicted by the standard BUU calculation largely overestimates the data. Some improvement is achieved when the spreading width of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is taken from $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-hole models. However, even the calculation taking into account the in-medium modification of the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}N\rho `$ decay shows a much larger resonance bump than is observed in the data. Only an arbitrary and probably unrealistic broadening  of the D13-resonance by 300 MeV produces a significant suppression.

In the next step quasifree single $`\pi ^o`$-photoproduction was selected via a missing energy analysis as in . The result for the deuteron is compared at the right hand side of fig.5 to the proton data and to the expectation from a unitary isobar analysis of pion photoproduction (MAID) .

The data for the proton are well reproduced. The deuteron data are compared to the sum of the proton and neutron cross sections from MAID folded with the momentum distribution of the bound nucleons (see fig.5, right side). The result agrees very well with the data in the tail of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance, but it largely overestimates the data in the D13 region. This result is surprising since we are dealing with quasifree pion production, for which the large momentum mismatch between participant and spectator nucleon is expected to suppress any interference terms between the two nucleons. This finding could be part of the explanation why the BUU results overestimate the inclusive data. Such calculations must rely on the assumption that the total cross section from nuclei before taking into account in-medium and FSI effects is the incoherent sum of proton and neutron cross sections.

For a more quantitative analysis of the D13-excitation in nuclei the cross sections were decomposed into a resonance and a background part. In principle, such a decomposition requires a multipole analysis wich takes into account resonance - background interference terms. However, interference terms are small in this case . The result is shown in fig.6 (left hand side). The background part was fitted with a function of the type:

$$\sigma e^{(aE_\gamma ^2+bE_\gamma )}$$
(1)
with $`a`$ and $`b`$ as free parameters. The resonance contribution for heavier nuclei is not qualitatively different from the deuteron case. The differences between measured cross sections and fits are shown in fig.6 (right hand side). In the upper part of the figure the resonance contributions for the proton, the deuteron and the average for the nuclei are compared to the MAID predictions for the D13 and S11 contributions folded with the Fermi momentum distributions and scaled to the data. No broadening of the resonance structure beyond Fermi smearing is observed. A D13 resonance broadened to 300 MeV as used in the BUU calculations  for the inclusive data (see fig.5) is clearly ruled out, the data correspond rather to BW-curves with a width around 100 MeV.

Finally, it was investigated if the strength of the resonance signal for the nuclei is consistent with the deuteron case. The MAID proton cross section for resonance excitation was folded with the nucleon momentum distribution and compared to the measured deuteron cross section. Agreement is obtained for $`\sigma _n(\text{D}_{13})/\sigma _p(\text{D}_{13})1/3`$. We have then adopted the 1/3 ratio, folded $`(1+1/3)\sigma _p/2`$ with a typical nuclear momentum distribution and compared the result to the nuclear data scaled to $`A^{2/3}`$, which in first approximation accounts for the FSI effects (see fig.6, lower part). The agreement of this approximation with the data is quite good.

The approximate scaling of the cross sections with $`A^{2/3}`$ indicates of course FSI effects. This means that in contrast to total photoabsorption not the entire nuclear volume is probed. However, suppression of the resonance bump in total photoabsorption reactions occurs already for 4He  and does not change from very light nuclei like lithium and beryllium up to very heavy ones like uranium. This excludes a strong density dependence of the effect.

Furthermore, the models without a strong broadening of the D13 resonance overestimate our inclusive pion data (see fig.5) which are subject to FSI in a similar way as the exclusive data. It thus seems that the models miss some other effect which must be understood before the results from total photoabsorption can be used as evidence for an in-medium resonance broadening.

In summary, investigating quasifree $`\pi ^o`$ photoproduction from nuclei we have found no indication of a broadening or a depletion of the excitation strength of the D$`{}_{13}{}^{}(1520)`$ resonance compared to the deuteron. On the other hand, in comparison to the free proton, the resonance structure for the deuteron in the D13-region is much reduced, but not broadened.


text:
# Uncovering the Beast: Discovery of Embedded Massive Stellar Clusters in W49ABased on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile

## 1 Introduction

Massive stars are the main suppliers of heavy elements and energy into a galaxy’s interstellar medium (ISM), play a role in regulating star formation, and in a sense, drive galaxy evolution. Yet our knowledge of the early phases of massive stellar evolution is rather primitive, in part because objects for study are rare due to the combination of small number statistics and the rapidity with which they pass through their early stages (for a review see Churchwell (1999); Garay & Lizano (1999); Churchwell (2002)). With this in mind, the abundance of embedded massive stars in the Galactic star-forming region W49A marks it as a scientific gem.

W49A (Mezger et al. 1967) is one of the brightest Galactic giant radio H II regions ($`10^7L_{}`$), powered by the the equivalent of about 100 O7 stars (e.g., Conti & Blum (2002)). It is embedded in the densest region of a $`10^6`$ M Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) extending more than $`100`$ pc in size (Simon et al. 2001) and is the best Galactic analogue to the starburst phenomenon seen in other galaxies. The W49A star forming region lies essentially on the Galactic plane ($`l=43.17^{},b=+0.00^{}`$) at a distance of 11.4$`\pm `$1.2 kpc (Gwinn et al. 1992), has $``$40 well studied UC HII regions (e.g., De Pree et al. (1997, 2000)), each associated with at least one stars earlier than approximately B3. About 12 of these radio sources are arranged in the well known Welch “ring” (Welch et al. 1987).

In an attempt to uncover the embedded stellar population in W49A we performed an unbiased $`5^{}\times 5^{}`$ (16 pc $`\times `$ 16 pc), deep $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$band imaging survey centered on the densest region of the W49 GMC (Simon et al. 2001). In this Letter we present the first results of this survey, namely a previously unknown massive stellar cluster about 3 pc East of the Welch ring of ultra-compact HII regions and still deeply embedded in the GMC, as well as 3 relatively smaller stellar clusters.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

The observations were taken in June 2001, with the SofI near-infrared camera on the ESO’s 3.5m New Technology Telescope (NTT) on La Silla, Chile, during a spell of good weather and exceptional seeing (FWHM $``$ 0.5′′). A set of 30 dithered images of 60 seconds each were taken in the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ filters. The images were combined with the DIMSUM111DIMSUM is the Deep Infrared Mosaicing Software package developed by Peter Eisenhardt, Mark Dickinson, Adam Stanford, and John Ward. package and calibrated through observations of standard stars taken right after the program observations and at similar airmasses. Photometry was performed with the DAOPHOT package in IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. The full details of the data reduction will be given in a companion paper (Homeier & Alves 2003).

## 3 Results

In Figure 1 we present the composite $`JHK_s`$ color image for our NTT-SofI survey. The image covers an area of $`5^{}\times 5^{}`$ on the sky and the red, green, and blue channels are mapped logarithmically to the $`K_s`$, $`H`$, and $`J`$band respectively. Because most field stars are essentially colorless in the near-infrared (e.g. Alves et al. 1998) one expects the color of a star in this image to be, to first order, a qualitatively measure of the amount of extinction towards this star. Hence, all blue stars in this Figure are foreground sources to the star forming region.

In Figure 2 we present a 3.6 cm radio continuum (red), $`K_s`$ (green), and $`J`$ (blue) color composite of the central regions of the survey. The radio continuum data is taken from De Pree et al. (1997) and has a spatial resolution of 0.8′′, close to the spatial resolution of the NTT images. The red-only features in this image represent regions of ionized hydrogen so deeply embedded in the W49A molecular cloud that they cannot be detected in our $`K_s`$band image, e.g., the Welch ring of UC HII regions with the exception of sources F and J2 (that appear in yellow in the image). Several HII regions and UC HII regions detected at radio continuum wavelengths are clearly detected on the $`K_s`$band, suggesting that the $`K_s`$ extended emission is dominated by hydrogen lines. The most prominent are identified in Figure 1 following De Pree et al. (1997) nomenclature. Several point sources lie prominently in the center of some of these regions (e.g., CC, O3, W49A south), are extincted by A$`{}_{V}{}^{}>24`$ mags of visual extinction (see below), and are excellent candidates to the exciting sources powering these HII regions (Homeier & Alves 2003).

The main feature in Figures 1 and 2 is the central 6 pc diameter HII region E of the ring of radio sources, with a stellar cluster at its projected center. From here on we will refer to this cluster as Cluster 1. Note that only the North part of this 6 pc HII region is visible in the $`JHK_s`$ color composite, suggesting that there is a larger optical depth towards the South of Cluster 1, perhaps due to chance alignment of the embedded compact HII regions (e.g., JJ, O3) in front of it.

Recently, Conti & Blum (2002) conducted a $`H`$ and $`K`$band imaging survey covering about 1.5 arcmin2 roughly centered on the Welch ring, and were able to identify 2 of the exciting massive stars associated with UC HII regions (sources F and J2). They also identified several candidate O stars at the edges of their image, and speculated that star formation may have begun on the periphery of the UC HII concentration. Here we can clearly see that these sources are associated with Cluster 1, at the center of a giant HII region in Figure 2, and with Clusters 3 and 4 to the SW.

We present in Figure 3 the spatial distribution of the detected sources as a function of ($`HK_s`$) color. In Figure 4 we present the $`HK_s`$ vs. $`K_s`$ Color–Magnitude diagram for our survey. The solid line represents a 1 Myr old population taken from the Geneva tracks (Lejeune & Schaerer 2001) and the slanted dotted lines represent a reddening in this diagram of A$`{}_{V}{}^{}=48`$ mag. The black circles represent sources likely associated with the new clusters (see Figure 3).

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Spatial distribution of reddened sources

Since the W49A star forming region is at a distance of 11.4 kpc, virtually on the Galactic plane, one expects a large amount of unrelated line-of-sight dust extinction to W49A, as well as dust associated with the star forming region. We will take advantage of the large amounts of dust extinction to isolate a reliable stellar population associated with W49A giant molecular cloud. We present in Figure 3 the spatial distribution of the detected sources as a function of ($`HK_s`$) color. Starting with the bluer sources, ($`HK_s<1`$ mag) we find a non-uniform distribution where about $`\frac{2}{3}`$ of the sources are found on the southern half of the field. Sources in this first bin are mainly foreground sources to the W49A star forming region, extincted by less than about 14 magnitudes of visual extinction, and the non-uniform distribution is likely cause by an intervening cloud at a distance of about 3 kpc (cloud GRSMC 43.30-0.33, (Simon et al. 2001)). The second panel ($`1<HK_s<1.5`$ mag; $`14<`$ AV $`<24`$ mag) further suggests this interpretation. We see the opposite spatial distribution with an increase in extinction and the region that in the first bin seemed under-populated is now over-populated. The majority of these stars are likely to be highly reddeneded stars in the background of GRSMC 43.30-0.33 but further work would have to be done to confirm this. In the third panel we clearly detect 4 clusterings of reddened sources. These make up the stellar population of W49A and some are still visible in the fourth panel where we find sources extincted by over 32 magnitudes of visual extinction, more than half associated with the newly found clusters. The positions of these 4 clusters are given in Table 1.

### 4.2 Star formation in the W49A Starburst Region

Based on $`HK_s`$ color and $`K_s`$ magnitude, we preliminarily identify around 100 O-stars candidates associated with the W49A region, among which $``$30 within the 6 pc diameter region defined by the ionized bubble central to our images(Cluster 1), and $`10`$ in each of the smaller clusters to the South (clusters 2, 3, and 4). We should bear in mind that due to the very high values of foreground and local (inhomogeneous) extinction we are not complete even for the most luminous stars in W49A. Nevertheless, this number compares surprisingly well with the luminosity of the entire region (about $`10^{51}`$ Lyman continuum photons emitted per second; Smith et al. 1978, Gwinn et al. 1992) or the equivalent of about 100 O7 V stars (Vacca 1994). We can now say that the census of massive stars in W49A agrees with the number of Lyman continuum photons derived from radio observations. In fact, photon leakage or absorption by dust could be operating in the W49A region, as our count of candidate O-stars (incomplete due to severe inhomogeneous extinction), added to the number of known UC HII regions, gives $`140`$ stars with masses greater than $`1520`$ M, suggestive perhaps of a slight overabundance of ionizing stars.

It is remarkable that the Welch ring of UCHII regions is seen in projection against the edge of the giant HII region powered by Cluster 1 (Figure 2). It necessarily invokes the classical triggering scenario of Elmegreen & Lada (1977) as one can easily imagine that, chronologically, the densest part of the W49A GMC collapsed to form Cluster 1, and the combined action of stellar winds and UV radiation compressed the abundant nearby gas to the West, triggering its collapse into the Welch ring. Recent theoretical calculations (McKee & Tan 2002) suggest timescales for massive star formation of the order of $`10^5`$yr which for a typical sound speed of $``$10 kms-1 agrees well with the crossing time in the Welch ring. However, we argue that the formation of the three smaller clusters to the South, undoubtedly associated with the burst of star formation in W49A, is unlikely to have been triggered by Cluster 1. The minimum distance (because of projection) between these less massive clusters and Cluster 1 is $``$6 pc, which is larger than the bubble of ionized gas surrounding it, the giant central HII region in Figure 2. Also, given the short lifetimes of compact HII regions (Churchwell 1999) and the fact that they can be found almost over the entire surveyed region (e.g., the projected distance between source CC and W49A South is $``$11 pc) suggests a multi-seeded, largely coeval, star formation episode in the W49A.

Finally, this work suggests that star formation in W49A, the most massive and youngest known star forming region in the Galaxy, began earlier and extends over a larger area than previously thought. Moreover, star formation in W49A is still ongoing (the GMC is not exhausted yet) as 6 hot cores (the precursors of UC HII regions) were recently found in the vicinity of the Welch ring (Wilner et al. 2001). Our results show that a considerable part of the stellar population of this Galactic starburst is accessible in the 2$`\mu `$m window. Further characterization of the embedded population (via $`H`$ and $`K`$band spectra and adaptive optics techniques) is called for and will surely provide much needed information on the starburst phenomenon seen across the Universe.

## 5 Summary

The main results can be summarized as follows:

1) A deep $`5^{}\times 5^{}`$ NIR survey of the W49 star forming region reveals the presence of a massive stellar cluster about 1 (3 pc in projection) to the East of the well known Welch ring of ultra-compact HIIregions. About 2 (6 pc) to the Southeast of the main cluster we find a smaller cluster associated with W49S and about 2 (6 pc) to the Southwest we find two smaller clusters associated with radio continuum sources S and Q.

2) We find more than 100 O-stars candidates in the entire survey, mostly associated with the stellar clusters. We are able to identify the likely exciting sources of well known compact and ultra-compact HII regions, and a companion paper will follow with these results. The census of massive stars in W49A agrees or is slightly overabundant when compared to the number of Lyman continuum photons derived from radio observations.

3) We argue that although the formation of the Welch ring of UC HII regions could have been triggered by the interaction of the main cluster with the densest regions of the giant molecular cloud, the entire W49A starburst region seems to have been multi-seeded instead of resulting from a coherent trigger.

We are pleased to acknowledge Miguel Moreira for discussions and assistance with the observations, Robert Simon for providing molecular line data from the BU-FCRAO Galactic Ring Survey on W49A’s giant molecular cloud, where the clusters are embedded, and Chris De Pree for providing radio continuum data of the HII regions associated with W49A.