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# Modelling the two point correlation function of galaxy clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

## 1 Introduction

Galaxy clusters occupy a special position in the hierarchy of cosmic structure formation, being the largest gravitationally collapsed objects in the universe. Therefore, they appear to be ideal tools for testing theories of structure formation as well as studying large-scale structure. The traditional indicator of clustering, the cluster two-point correlation function, is a fundamental statistical test for the study of the cluster distribution and is relatively straightforward to measure from observational data.

Indeed, many authors based on optical and X-ray data have shown that the large scale clustering pattern of galaxy clusters is well described by a power law, $`\xi (r)=(r_{}/r)^\gamma `$, with $`\gamma =1.62`$. The correlation length $`r_{}`$ lies in the interval $`r_{}=1325h^1`$Mpc, depending on the cluster richness as well as the analyzed sample (cf. Bahcall & Soneira 1983; Klypin & Kopylov 1983; Lahav et al. 1989; Bahcall & West 1992; Peacock & West 1992; Dalton et al. 1994; Nichol, Briel & Henry 1994; Croft et al. 1997; Abadi, Lambas & Muriel 1998; Borgani, Plionis & Kolokotronis 1999; Collins et al. 2000; Tago et al. 2002; Moscardini, Matarrese & Mo 2001; Gonzalez, Zaritsky & Wechsler 2002). However, a serious issue here is how the galaxy clusters trace the underlying mass distribution. The cluster distribution traces scales that have not yet undergone the non-linear phase of gravitationally clustering and thus simplifying their connection to the initial conditions of cosmic structure formation. Galaxy clusters is strong biased with respect to the matter distribution (e.g. Peacock & Dodds 1994 and references therein).

In this paper we utilize the recently completed SDSS CE cluster catalog (Goto et al. 2002) in order: (i) to study the two point correlation function in redshift space and (ii) to calculate the relative cluster bias at the present time comparing the observational results with those derived from three flat cosmological models with dark energy (quintessence). The structure of the paper is as follows. The observed dataset and its measured correlation function are presented in section 2. In section 3 we give a brief account of the method used to estimate the predicted correlation function in different CDM spatially flat cosmologies. The linear growth rate of clustering in quintessence cosmological models can be found in section 4, while in section 5 we fit the SDSS cluster clustering to different cosmological and biasing models. Finally, we draw our conclusions in section 6.

## 2 Estimation of the SDSS cluster correlation function

### 2.1 Cluster catalogue

In this work we use the recent SDSS CE cluster catalog (Goto et al. 2002), which contains 2770 and 1868 galaxy clusters in the North ($`145.1^{}<\alpha <236.0^{}`$, $`1.25^{}<\delta <1.25^{}`$) and South ($`350.5^{}<\alpha <56.61^{}`$, $`1.25^{}<\delta <1.25^{}`$) slices respectively, covering an area of $`400`$deg2 in the sky. Redshifts are converted to proper distances using a spatially flat cosmology with $`H_{}=100h`$km s$`^1`$Mpc-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.3`$. The cluster redshifts are estimated using the color information by identifying the bin in $`gr`$ which has the largest number of galaxies around the color prediction of elliptical galaxies (Fukugita, Shimasaku, Ichikawa 1995) at different redshifts (which define the different $`gr`$ bins). Due to the fact that the true and estimated redshifts are better correlated for $`z<0.3`$ (Goto et al. 2002), we will limit our analysis within this redshift range, corresponding to a limiting distance of $`r_{\mathrm{max}}836h^1`$Mpc.

In Fig. 1, we present the estimated (histogram) and the expected for a volume limited sample (solid line), number of the SDSS clusters as a function of redshift. It is evident that the number of SDSS clusters appears to follow the equal-volume $`r^3`$ law out to $`z0.23`$, a fact corroborated also from the standard Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test which gives probability of consistency between model and observations (up to $`z0.23`$) of $`𝒫_{\mathrm{KS}}0.43`$. Therefore, this SDSS cluster sample is the only to-date sample that is volume limited to such a large distance and can thus play an important role in large scale structure studies.

We apply the cluster correlation function analysis using clusters of two richness class: (a) $`N_{\mathrm{gal}}30`$ members (roughly corresponding to Abell $`R0`$; hereafter $`S_1`$ sample) and (b) $`N_{\mathrm{gal}}20`$ members (roughly corresponding to APM clusters; hereafter $`S_2`$ sample). These two subsamples contains 200 and 524 entries with corresponding mean densities of $`n_{\mathrm{S}_1}(z_{\mathrm{max}})8.42(\pm 0.06)\times 10^6h^3`$Mpc-3 and $`n_{\mathrm{S}_2}(z_{\mathrm{max}})2.20(\pm 0.10)\times 10^5h^3`$Mpc-3, giving rise to inter-cluster separations of the order of $`d_{\mathrm{S}_1}49.15\pm 2.56`$ $`h^1`$Mpc and $`d_{\mathrm{S}_2}35.66\pm 2.18`$ $`h^1`$Mpc, respectively.

### 2.2 SDSS cluster correlations

We estimate the redshift space correlation function using the estimator described by Hamilton (1993):

$$\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)=4\frac{N_{DD}N_{RR}}{N_{DR}^2}1$$
(1)
where $`j=1,2`$ and $`N_{DD}`$ is the number of cluster pairs in the interval $`[r\mathrm{\Delta }r,r+\mathrm{\Delta }r]`$. While, $`N_{RR}`$ and $`N_{DR}`$ is the average, over 10000 random simulations with the same properties as the real data (boundaries and redshift selection function), cluster-random and random-random pairs, respectively. The random catalogues were constructed by randomly reshuffling the angular coordinates of the clusters (within the limits of the catalogue), while keeping the same redshifts and thus exactly the same redshift selection function as the real data.

Note that in order to take into account the possible systematic effects (eg. fraction of high-$`z`$ clusters missed by the finding algorithm due to SDSS magnitude limit) in the different cluster subsamples we generate random catalogs, utilized the individual distance distribution of each subsample and not the overall SDSS cluster selection function. We compute the errors on $`\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)`$ from 100 bootstrap re-samplings of the data (Mo, Jing & B$`\ddot{\mathrm{o}}`$rner 1992).

We apply the correlation analysis to the $`\mathrm{S}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{S}_2`$ subsamples evaluating $`\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)`$ in logarithmic intervals. In Fig. 2, we present the estimated two point redshift correlation function (dots), divided according to richness class; strong clustering is evident. The dashed lines correspond to the best-fitting power law model $`\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)=(r_{}/r)^\gamma `$, which is determined by the standard $`\chi ^2`$ minimization procedure in which each correlation point is weighted by its error-1. The fit has been performed taking into account bins with $`r5h^1`$Mpc in order to avoid the signal from small, non-linear, scales while we have used no upper $`r`$ cut-off (due to our $`\sigma ^1`$ weighting scheme, our results remain robust by varying the upper $`r`$ limit within the 25 to 100 $`h^1`$ Mpc range).

In Fig. 3 we present the iso-$`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$ contours (where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=\chi ^2\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2`$) in the $`\gamma r_{}`$ plane. The $`\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2`$ is the absolute minimum value of the $`\chi ^2`$. The contours correspond to $`1\sigma `$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=2.30`$) and $`2\sigma `$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=6.17`$) uncertainties, respectively. In the insert of Fig. 3 we show the variation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$ around the best fit, once we marginalize with respect to the other parameter, while in Table 1, we list all the relevant information. For the $`\mathrm{S}_1`$ cluster subsample (Abell $`R0`$ richness) the best fitted clustering parameters are $`r_{}=20.7_{3.8}^{+4.0}h^1`$Mpc and $`\gamma =1.6_{0.4}^{+0.4}`$ which are in very good agreement with the values $`r_{}=20.6\pm 1.5h^1`$Mpc and $`1.5\pm 0.2`$ derived by Peacock & West (1992)111The robustness of our results to the fitting procedure was tested using different bins (spanning from 10 to 20) and we found very similar clustering results.. Results for the $`\mathrm{S}_2`$ subsample (APM richness) $`r_{}=9.7_{1.2}^{+1.2}h^1`$Mpc and $`\gamma =2.0_{0.5}^{+0.7}`$ can be compared with those obtained by Dalton et al (1994); Bahcall & West (1992) and recently, from Plionis & Basilakos (2002), based on the APM cluster catalog. They found a somewhat greater correlation length $`r_{}1213h^1`$ Mpc. We can further estimate an upper limit of the correlation length using the expression between the $`r_{}`$ and the mean cluster separation of Bachall & Burgett (1986), as modified by Bahcall & West (1992): $`r_{,\mathrm{S}_2}0.4d_{\mathrm{S}_2}14.2h^1`$ Mpc (see also Dalton et al. 1994 and Croft et al 1997).

In order to directly compare the correlation lengths of the two subsamples, we fixed the correlation function slope to its nominal value of $`\gamma =1.8`$ and we found $`r_{}=19.8_{3.2}^{+2.9}`$ and $`r_{}=9.8_{1.3}^{+1.2}`$ respectively (see last column of Table 1.). It is clear that the correlation length increases with cluster richness, as expected from the well-known richness dependence of the correlation strength.

Finally, we have investigated the isotropy of the clustering signal for both subsamples, by examining the radial and tangential component of the SDSS correlation function $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$, with $`\pi `$ the line-of-sight separation and $`\sigma `$ the perpendicular component of the cluster separation $`r`$ (cf. Efstathiou et al. 1992). We have used bins of 20 $`h^1`$ Mpc width and in Fig. 4 we present the $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$ for both subsamples. It is evident that the $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$ contours are elongated along the line-of-sight direction, $`\pi `$, up to $`40h^1`$ Mpc. However, we suspect that this is not an indication of systematic effects related to line-of-sight projections but rather due to the extremely small width of the survey area ($`2.4`$ degrees in the declination direction which corresponds to $`25h^1`$ Mpc at a redshift of $`0.25`$), a fact that gives predominance to superclusters elongated along the line-of-sight with respect to those in the perpendicular direction (see Jing, Plionis & Valdarnini 1992 for the effects of superclusters elongated along the line-of-sight). Below we investiate our suspesion using the Hubble volume $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM simulation (cf. Frenk et al 2000).

### 2.3 Testing the robustness of the SDSS cluster correlations

In order to test whether it is possible to recover the true underline cluster correlations from a survey with the geometrical characteristics, selection function and richness of the SDSS, we have used the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM Hubble volume cluster catalogues (Colberg et al 2000). As an example, we present in Fig.5 the underline $`S_1`$-like cluster correlation function, estimated from the whole volume (continuous line) and the mean of 6 mock $`S_1`$ SDSS cluster samples (which contain around 200 clusters each). The mean clustering length of the SDSS mock samples is $`r_{}18.5h^1`$ Mpc while that of the underline cluster population is $`r_{}19.2h^1`$ Mpc. It is evident that the SDSS survey is adequate to recover the underline clustering signal, albeit with a scatter of $`\sigma (\xi )/\xi 0.3`$ at separations, for example of, $`r15h^1`$ Mpc.

Furthermore, we address the issue of the observed anisotropies along the line of sight (see Fig. 4) by searching whether mock obervers show similar $`S_1`$-like clustering elongations along either their $`\pi `$ or $`\sigma `$ directions. We quantify this anisotropy by the ratio, $``$, of the $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$ in the bins $`(\pi ,\sigma )=(020,2040)h^1`$ Mpc (hereafter $`\xi _{1,2}`$) and $`(\pi ,\sigma )=(2040,020)h^1`$ Mpc (hereafter $`\xi _{2,1}`$).

We have selected 114 independent mock SDSS surveys (by spanning the $`z`$ coordinate axis of the simulation) and we have found that in the majority of the cases ($``$ 60%) the value of $``$ is larger than unity, indicating a predominance of anisotropies along the $`\pi `$ direction, while only $``$40% of the cases it is less than one, indicating anisotropies along the $`\sigma `$ direction.

We then investigated the amplitude of these $`S_1`$ clustering anisotropies by deriving the distribution of the $``$ values for those observers that see relatively high correlation values; $`\xi _{1,2}>0.4`$ and $`\xi _{2,1}>0.4`$ (Fig. 6). In total we find 50 such observers out of which 37 (74%) show elongation along their line-of-sight. Therefore, it is evident, also due to the tail towards large $``$ values, that there are systematic anisotropies along the line-of-sight, which of course could be only due to the geometric characteristics of the mock cluster distribution. Furthermore in the insert of figure 6 we plot a scatter diagram between the normalized, by the value of $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$ at the first bin (ie., $`0<\sigma ,\pi <20h^1`$ Mpc), values of $`\xi _{1,2}`$ and $`\xi _{2,1}`$. It is apparent that the observed SDSS value (filled point) is roughly consistent with of the simulation derived values, although it appears to be an extremum. This indicates that the major part of the observed anisotropy is indeed due to the geometrical characteristics of the survey, as we have anticipated in the previous subsection, however we cannot exclude that some small contribution from intrinsic systematics effects, like projection effects (cf. Sutherland 1988), could be present.

A similar analysis of the $`S_2`$ richness cluster correlations has shown that the percentage of mock observers having significant clustering anisotropies along the $`\pi `$ direction is significantly higher than those seeing anisotropies along the $`\sigma `$ direction (9 out of 10), however the amplitude of these anisotropies appear to be lower than in the observed case. In Fig. 7 we show the corresponding $``$ distribution and the scatter plot, in which it is evident that the amplitude of the true SDSS clustering anisotropy in the $`\pi `$ direction is quite larger than what expected due to the survey geometrical characteristics.

Therefore, we conclude that in the case of the $`S_1`$ cluster correlations there is no significant evidence for contamination by projection effects, while in the case of the $`S_2`$ correlations we do have such indications. However, in order to perform an a posteriori correction of $`\xi (r)`$ (cf. Efstathiou 1992), for projection effects it would be necessary to disentangle first the effects of the survey geometry, a task which at the present time is out of the scope of this work. Therefore, we caution the reader that all results based on the $`S_2`$ cluster sample could be affected by the above mentioned systematic effect.

## 3 Model cluster correlations

It is well known (cf. Kaiser 1984; Benson et al. 2000) that assuming linear biasing the mass-tracer and dark-matter correlations, at some redshift $`z`$, are related by:

$$\xi _{\mathrm{model}}(r,z)=\xi _{\mathrm{DM}}(r,z)b^2(z),$$
(2)
where $`b(z)`$ is the bias redshift evolution function. In the present work we have used the so called test particle bias model described by Nusser & Davis (1994), Fry (1996) and Tegmark & Peebles (1998). In this case the evolution of the correlation bias is developed assuming that only the test particle fluctuation field is related proportionally to that of the underling mass. Therefore, the bias factor as a function of redshift is

$$b(z)=1+\frac{(b_{}1)}{D(z)},$$
(3)
with $`b_{}`$ being the bias at the present time and $`D(z)`$ the linear growth rate of clustering (described in section 4). It has been found (Bagla 1998) that, in the interval $`0z1`$, the above formula represents well the evolution of bias. Furthermore, the more accurate linear bias evolution model given by Basilakos & Plionis (2001; 2003) is also very similar to the model of eq.(3) within $`z1`$.

We quantify the evolution of clustering with epoch presenting the spatial correlation function of the mass $`\xi _{\mathrm{DM}}(r,z)`$ as the Fourier transform of the spatial power spectrum $`P(k)`$:

$$\xi _{\mathrm{DM}}(r,z)=D^2(z)\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}k^2P(k)\frac{\mathrm{sin}(kr)}{kr}dk,$$
(4)
where $`k`$ is the comoving wavenumber.

As for the power spectrum, we consider that of CDM models, where $`P(k)k^nT^2(k)`$ with scale-invariant ($`n=1`$) primeval inflationary fluctuations. We utilize the transfer function parameterization as in Bardeen et al. (1986), with the approximate corrections given by Sugiyama’s (1995) formula:

$$T(k)=\frac{\mathrm{ln}(1+2.34q)}{2.34q}[1+3.89q+(16.1q)^2+$$

$$(5.46q)^3+(6.71q)^4]^{1/4}.$$

with

$$q=\frac{k}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{}h^2\mathrm{exp}[\mathrm{\Omega }_b(2h)^{1/2}\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_{}]}$$
(5)
where $`k=2\pi /\lambda `$ is the wavenumber in units of $`h`$ Mpc-1 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ is the baryon density.

In the present analysis we consider flat models with cosmological parameters that fit the majority of observations, ie., $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}+\mathrm{\Omega }_Q=1`$, $`H_{}=100h`$km s-1 Mpc-1 with $`h0.7`$ (cf. Freedman et al. 2001; Plionis 2002; Peebles and Ratra 2002 and references therein), baryonic density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{b}h^20.02`$ (e.g. Olive, Steigman & Walker 2000; Kirkman et al 2003) and a CDM shape parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.17`$. In particular, we investigate 3 spatially flat low-$`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.3`$ cosmological models with negative pressure and values of $`w=1`$ ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM), $`w=2/3`$ (QCDM1) and $`w=1/3`$ (QCDM2). Note that all the cosmological models are normalized to have fluctuation amplitude, in a sphere of 8 $`h^1`$Mpc radius, of $`\sigma _8=0.50(\pm 0.1)\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}^\gamma `$ (Wang & Steinhardt 1998) with $`\gamma =0.210.22w+0.33\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$.

## 4 The linear growth rate of clustering

For homogeneous and isotropic flat cosmologies, driven by non relativistic matter and an exotic fluid (quintessence models) with equation of state, $`p_Q=w\rho _Q`$ and $`1w<0`$, the Friedmann field equations can be written as:

$$H^2=\left(\frac{\dot{\alpha }}{\alpha }\right)^2=\frac{8\pi G}{3}(\rho _\mathrm{m}+\rho _Q)$$
(6)
and

$$\frac{\ddot{\alpha }}{\alpha }=4\pi G[(w+\frac{1}{3})\rho _Q+\frac{1}{3}\rho _\mathrm{m}],$$
(7)
where $`\alpha (t)`$ is the scale factor, $`\rho _\mathrm{m}\alpha (t)^3`$ is the matter density and $`\rho _Q\alpha (t)^{3(1+w)}`$ is the dark energy density.

The time evolution equation for the mass density contrast, modeled as a pressureless fluid has general solution of the growing mode (Peebles 1993):

$$\ddot{D}+2H(t)\dot{D}=4\pi G\rho _\mathrm{m}D,$$
(8)
where dots denote derivatives with respect to time. From the equations describing the Friedmann model, it follows that $`\dot{H}+H^2=4\pi G[(w+1/3)\rho _Q+(1/3)\rho _\mathrm{m}]`$. Differentiating this relation and using $`\dot{\rho _\mathrm{m}}=3H\rho _\mathrm{m}`$ $`\dot{\rho _Q}=3(1+w)H\rho _Q`$ we obtain

$$\ddot{H}+2H\dot{H}=4\pi G(1+w)(w+\frac{1}{3})\rho _QH+4\pi G\rho _\mathrm{m}H.$$
(9)
Therefore, it turns out that if $`w=1`$ ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM) or $`w=1/3`$ (QCDM2) then $`H(t)`$ is a decaying mode of eq.(8). In that case, the growing solution (Peebles 1993) as a function of redshift is:

$$D(z)=\frac{5\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}E(z)}{2}_z^{\mathrm{}}\frac{(1+x)}{E^3(x)}dx.$$
(10)
where we have used the following expressions:

$$E(z)=\left[\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(1+z)^3+\mathrm{\Omega }_Q(1+z)^{3(1+w)}\right]^{1/2}$$
(11)
$$\frac{dt}{dz}=\frac{1}{H_{}E(z)(1+z)}.$$
(12)
The Hubble parameter is given by: $`H(z)=H_{}E(z)`$, while $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=8\pi G\rho _o/3H_o^2`$ (density parameter), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q=8\pi G\rho _Q/3H_o^2`$ (dark energy parameter) at the present time, which satisfy $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}+\mathrm{\Omega }_Q=1`$ and finally $`H_{}`$ is the Hubble constant. In addition to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m(z)`$ also $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Q(z)`$ could evolve with redshift as

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(z)=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(1+z)^3}{E^2(z)}$$
(13)
and

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_Q(z)=\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_Q(1+z)^{3(1+w)}}{E^2(z)}.$$
(14)
It is interesting to mention that in a flat low-$`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ with $`w=1/3`$ model, the equation of state $`p_Q=(1/3)\rho _Q`$ leads to the same growing mode as in an open universe, despite the fact that this quintessence model has a spatially flat geometry! Therefore, as the time evolves with redshift, utilizing equations (12), (11) and the relation

$$4\pi G\rho _\mathrm{m}=\frac{3H_{}^2}{2}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(1+z)^3,$$
(15)
then the basic differential equation for the evolution of the linear growing mode takes the following form:

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}^2D}{\mathrm{d}z^2}+P(z)\frac{\mathrm{d}D}{\mathrm{d}z}+Q(z)D=0$$
(16)
with basic factors,

$$P(z)=\frac{1}{1+z}+\frac{1}{E(z)}\frac{\mathrm{d}E(z)}{\mathrm{d}z}$$
(17)
and

$$Q(z)=\frac{3\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(1+z)}{2E^2(z)}.$$
(18)
We find that eq.(16) has a decaying solution of the form $`D_1(z)=(1+z)^n`$ only for $`w=2/3`$, with $`n=3/2`$. The second independent solution of eq.(16) can be found easily from the following expression:

$$D(z)=D_1(z)_z^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{D_1^2(x)}\mathrm{exp}\left[^xP(t)dt\right]$$
(19)
which finally leads to the following growing mode:

$$D(z)=(1+z)^{3/2}_z^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\mathrm{d}x}{(1+x)^2E(x)}.$$
(20)
## 5 The SDSS cluster biasing

In order to quantify the cluster bias at the present time we perform a standard $`\chi ^2`$ minimization procedure (described before) between the measured correlation function of the SDSS galaxy clusters with those expected in our spatially flat cosmological models

$$\chi ^2(b_{})=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}\left[\frac{\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}^i(r)\xi _{\mathrm{model}}^i(r,b_{})}{\sigma ^i}\right]^2,$$
(21)
where $`\sigma ^i`$ is the observed correlation function (bootstrap) uncertainty.

In Fig. 5 we present, for various cosmological models, the variation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=\chi ^2(b_{})\chi _{\mathrm{min}}^2(b_{})`$ around the best $`b_{}`$ fit, for the different richness class (left panel for $`\mathrm{S}_2`$ and right panel for $`\mathrm{S}_1`$).

To this end, owing to the fact that the observational data are analyzed in redshift space, the correlations should be amplified by the factor $`K(\beta )=1+2\beta /3+\beta ^2/5`$ (Hamilton 1992) where $`\beta \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}^\alpha /b_{}`$. We utilize the generic expression for $`\alpha `$, defined by the Wang & Steinhardt (1998):

$$\alpha \frac{3}{5w/(1w)}+\frac{3}{125}\frac{(1w)(13w/2)}{(16w/5)^3}(1\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}).$$
(22)
In Table 2 we list the results of the fits for our two cluster catalogs, ie., the cosmological models and the value of the cluster optical bias, $`b_{}`$, at the present time, as well as the redshift distortion $`\beta `$ parameter and a measure of the $`K(\beta )`$ correction. We find that the redshift space distortions effect increases $`\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)`$ by a factor of $`1226\%`$.

In Fig. 6, we plot the measured $`\xi _{\mathrm{S}_\mathrm{j}}(r)`$ (filled symbols) of our two samples with the estimated two point correlation function for all three cosmological models. We should conclude that the behavior of the observed two point correlation function of the galaxy clusters is sensitive to the different cosmologies with a strong dependence on the present time bias. By separating between low and high richness regimes, we obtain results being consistent with the hierarchical clustering scenario, in which the rich clusters are more biased tracers of the underlying matter distribution with respect to the low richness clusters.

We can put some further cosmological constraints, comparing our clustering results with those based on large-scale dynamics. For example Branchini & Plionis (1996) using the cluster dipole after reconstructing the spatial distribution of Abell/ACO $`R0`$ clusters found $`\beta _{\mathrm{Abell}}=0.21\pm 0.03`$. Also, Branchini at al. (2000) comparing the density and velocity fields of the Abell/ACO cluster distribution with the corresponding POTENT fields (using the MARK III galaxy velocity sample), obtained $`\beta _{\mathrm{POTENT}}=0.22\pm 0.08`$. Comparing the latter $`\beta `$-results with our clustering predictions (Table 2) we can conclude that for the $`\mathrm{S}_1`$ sample (Abell $`R0`$ richness) the only model which fails (although marginally) to reproduce the large-scale dynamical results is QCDM2 ($`w=1/3`$).

## 6 Conclusions

We have studied the clustering properties of the SDSS galaxy clusters in redshift space. We have divided the total sample in two richness subsamples; roughly corresponding to Abell $`R0`$ ($`N_{\mathrm{gal}}30`$ members) and to APM ($`N_{\mathrm{gal}}20`$ members) clusters. We find that if the two point cluster correlation function is modeled as a power law, $`\xi (r)=(r_{}/r)^\gamma `$, then the best-fitting parameters are (a) $`r_{}=20.7_{3.8}^{+4.0}h^1`$ Mpc with $`\gamma =1.6_{0.4}^{+0.4}`$ and (b) $`r_{}=9.7_{1.2}^{+1.2}h^1`$ Mpc with $`\gamma =2.0_{0.5}^{+0.7}`$ respectively. We have also found that the Abell-like sample is not significantly affected by projection effects, and its apparent clustering elongation along the line-of-sight is due to the survey geometry. However, the APM-like sample appears to be somewhat affected by projection effects, showing a clustering elongation along the line-of-sight larger than what expected from the survey geometry.

Comparing the cluster correlation function with the predictions of 3 spatially flat quintessence models (having $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.3`$), we estimate the cluster redshift space distortion parameter $`K(\beta )`$ and we conclude that the amplitude of the cluster redshift correlation function increases by a factor of $`1226\%`$ (depending on the richness class). Finally, comparing our clustering results with those of dynamical analysis, based on the large scale motions, we find that the flat cosmological models with $`w0.6`$ are consistent with the observational results.

## Acknowledgments

The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM simulation used in this paper was carried out by the Virgo Supercomputing Consortium using computers based at the Computing Centre of the Max-Planck Society in Garching and at the Edinburgh parallel Computing Centre. The data are publicly available at http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/NumCos.

This work is jointly funded by the European Union and the Greek Government in the framework of the program ’Promotion of Excellence in Technological Development and Research’, project ’X-ray Astrophysics with ESA’s mission XMM’. Furthermore, MP acknowledges support by the Mexican Government grant No CONACyT-2002-C01-39679. Finally, we would like to thank the referee, Chris Collins, for useful suggestions.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Experimental data on solar neutrinos ($`\nu `$e) has accumulated rapidly in the last few years by the operation of several large detector facilities such as Super-Kamiokande (SK), the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and KamLAND. The data from these detectors were precise and informative. The neutral current signals (NC) from 8B neutrinos in SNO  showed that $`\nu `$e flavor was not conserved because the flavor-blind NC rate explicitly exceeded the charged current (CC) $`\nu `$e signal rate. The absolute NC rate was close to the 8B $`\nu `$e flux of the Standard Solar Model (SSM). The ($`\nu `$-electron) scattering (ES) signal in SK  indicated the type of flavor conversion with a highly precise energy-independent ES spectrum in the measured window 5-15 MeV. This result severely restricted the possible $`\nu `$e models. Global analyses of solar $`\nu `$e data pinpointed matter conversion (MSW effect) in the large mixing (mass) (LMA-MSW) regime as the most favored model of solar neutrinos. Finally, KamLAND observed oscillations of terrestrial antineutrinos. The resulting parameters were approximately consistent with LMA-MSW neutrinos, as expected by the invariance of CPT symmetry. The solar neutrino problem therefore appears resolved.

In view of the preponderance of evidence of global consistency for the LMA-MSW model, why search for an alternate model? In principle, however, no physical effect specific to LMA has yet been observed to prove its uniqueness.  The NC/CC result from SNO, shows only that the $`\nu `$e’s oscillate but it does not specify the mechanism as LMA-MSW. The lack of a uniqueness proof becomes a central issue (not just a point of principle) if an explicitly testable competitive model can be invented.

In this work I show that such a solar neutrino model can be constructed. The uniqueness of this model can be proved or disproved by a variety of effects at signal energies $`<`$5 MeV. In particular, in contrast to LMA-MSW, sizable shape distortions are predicted in the 3–5 MeV window in ES spectra even though the shape is still flat above 5 MeV. Such an effect in solar neutrino spectra is predicted for the first time. The 3–5 MeV window is now experimentally observable for the first time in a liquid scintillation device such as the already operational KamLAND detector; thus, the above prediction can be readily subjected to experimental test.

The physical mechanism of the present model is long wavelength oscillations (LWO) in vacuum, discovered by a new approach based on “spectral engineering”. Although the underlying parameters were previously detected in the general dragnet of global analysis programs  the experimental effects of the model are new, unsuspected and distinctly different from those of generic vacuum oscillations.

The $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ parameters of the model, very different from LMA, imply manifest violation of CPT invariance in view of the KamLAND results. Whether this is a fatal flaw is at present unclear from the standpoint of basic theory. The suggested experimental tests of the new model, however, offer a decisive resolution of the question, thus they are doubly important.

The present work has its origins in a question posed in 1994, if it was possible to conceive a neutrino oscillation model elusive enough to escape detection in experiments at the time. The answer was yes, if solar neutrinos oscillated at only the lowest energies. In very long wavelength (VLWO) oscillations in vacuum with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m$`{}_{}{}^{2}<10\mu `$eV$`{}_{}{}^{2}(10^{12}`$eV2), 8B neutrinos are hardly converted; neutrinos $`<`$1 MeV are converted, and explain the 71Ga results. Thus, the 8B flux deficit observed in the 37Cl data can only be produced by an initial flux reduced astrophysically to $``$1/3. This scenario, called “Just-so 2”, was the first model to be ruled out  by the SNO NC result – the initial flux is apparently the full SSM flux, thus, conversion is centrally responsible for the flux deficit. Such an effect is available via LMA-MSW especially since it also supplies the crucial undistorted SK spectrum. Thus, conversion models at two extremes produce the observed undistorted 8B spectrum in principle, via: 1) VLWO with no 8B $`\nu `$e flavor conversion but a flux reduction by a factor $``$0.36; and 2) LMA-MSW with $`\nu `$e survival of $``$0.36 but the full initial SSM 8B flux.

The question then arises whether a scenario could be engineered with a mixture of both flavor conversion and a smaller initial flux that leaves the high energy part of the 8B $`\nu `$e spectrum shape invariant so that all the experimental consequences (at $`>`$5 MeV) follow automatically. By definition, this does need a smaller initial 8B flux than the SSM/SNO value, however, in the spirit of global analyses made so far, one could tolerate in principle a lower flux up to the 2$`\sigma `$ lower limit of the SNO NC result, i.e., $`>`$ 75% of the SSM flux.

The surprising initial discovery was that a shape invariant high energy 8B neutrino spectrum could indeed be engineered to a high degree of precision (within a few percent) by a sensitive choice of the initial flux and mass-mixing parameters in a very narrow band $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2= 70-80 $`\mu `$eV2, $`10`$ times larger than the VLOW-just-so2 regime . The oscillations in the new regime are thus termed long-wavelength or LWO in this paper. The new mass-mixing band is very different from LMA-MSW regime. In view of the KamLAND result, one thus immediately faces the problem of violation of CPT invariance by neutrinos. Nevertheless, work proceeded undeterred. Recent theoretical ideas appear to allow that the otherwise rigid invariance of CPT may be relaxed in principle in the neutrino sector.

## 2 Spectral Engineering

Fig.1 illustrates the central thesis of this work. It shows a series of 8B $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ spectral shapes engineered via LWO to reproduce at high energies, the rate and shape of the LMA-MSW (thick red) solution as closely as possible. The LMA shape is defined as the standard SSM shape (thin blue) scaled by the factor 0.365 (0.349(22), the CC flux at SNO). The convenient definition “LMA = 0.365 SSM” agrees very closely in the $`\varphi `$(8B) and the flat spectral shape observed above 5 MeV. The other spectra are derived with “shape invariant” LWO parameter combinations (see box and caption of Fig.1) chosen individually and interactively on-line.

The shapes change extremely sensitively with the three $`\nu `$e parameters that tune up a viable solution systematically: The $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 arranges the flavor survival Pee spectrum such that a roughly horizontal part energywise, is positioned in the $`>`$5 MeV regime; the $`\varphi `$(B)parameter scales it into the LMA shape window; the sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta `$ that strongly affects the curvature, flattens it into a nearly undistorted shape. The final angles that expose the new model are in general, smaller than previously examined; e.g., solutions with the same $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2=76$`\mu `$eV2 but sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta `$0.8, beyond the present range $``$ 0.58, failed earlier  and in this work.

Fig. 1 shows that the needed shape invariance can be achieved with precision above $``$8 MeV below which the LWO shapes fan out deviating from the LMA-MSW shape. We aim at neutrino reaction signals such as ES and CC$`>`$ 5 MeV using these input shapes. Thus, deviations in Fig 1 between 5 and 8 MeV appear problematic. In both ES-SK and CC-SNO that apply the Cerenkov technique, the experimental signals of the electron kinetic energy T range above 5 MeV. In the quest for LWO $`\nu `$e shapes that generate ES/CC shapes that fit the data, the spectral smearing due to the inherent reaction as well as the detector energy resolution play a key role. In the end, for both CC and ES, the overall spectral smearing is such that the dominant contribution to the ES and CC signal comes from E($`\nu _\mathrm{e})>8`$ MeV where the spectral match is close. The possible deviations occur mainly near the 5 MeV signal threshold where background is strong in both SK and SNO.

This effect can be understood in the case of the ES shape since the ES signal at a given electron energy is derived from the whole neutrino spectrum above that energy, i.e. the reaction smearing effect is complete. Even a large deviation e.g., at 5–6 MeV is damped down considerably in the ES spectrum. In the case of the CC spectrum T$`>`$5 MeV which implies E($`\nu `$e)$`>`$6.44 MeV, the deviations look more worrisome since in this case one normally expects 1-to-1 correspondence of E($`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$) and T, thus no reaction smearing. In reality, there is considerable reaction smearing even for the CC signal since in the reaction $`\nu `$e \+ d $`2`$p + e, the proton recoils cannot be neglected. The effect removes the E($`\nu `$e)-T correspondence significantly (although not to the extent in ES). The final effect is shown in Fig. 2 where the light blue curve for no recoil corrections peaks at 8 MeV. The recoil correction results in a large downshift to $`<`$7 MeV. The detector resolution smearing produces a further downshift to $``$6.5 MeV. Thus, also the CC signal shape is determined largely by E($`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$)$`>`$8 MeV.

The plan of search for a new $`\nu `$e model was as follows. In the first step, the viable basic parameters of the LWO scenarios were fixed by matching predicted shapes and rates to the ES-SK result, by far the most the stringent test. The ES spectral/rate match set the primary fix of the sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$(B) values for each selected $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 in the viable band. The match to the SNO CC data followed with the same parameter set except for possibly very slight changes in the scaling $`\varphi `$(B) only. With a reasonable match to data on $`\nu `$e (8B), the matches to low energy data from 37Cl and 71Ga were tested with the same final set of parameters reached above. The upper limit of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 band is $`80`$$`\mu `$eV2, because, beyond this limit, the spectral deviations around 5 MeV become too large to accommodate a spectral match to the data. At $``$70 $`\mu `$eV2 and below, the required scaling factor $`\varphi `$(B) dips $`<`$0.75, the 2$`\sigma `$ limit of SNO.

## 3 Electron Scattering

The procedure involved the calculation of the ES spectra for LMA and LWO scenarios normalized to that for the SSM spectrum with no conversion. Thus, the ES signal for each scenario is:

$$\mathrm{R}(\mathrm{ES})=[<\mathrm{W}(\lambda ;\mathrm{P}_{\mathrm{ee}})+\mathrm{Z}(\lambda ;1\mathrm{P}_{\mathrm{ee}})>]/<\mathrm{W}(\lambda )>$$
(1)
where W and Z are the differential ES cross-sections for e- and $`\mu `$/$`\tau `$ neutrinos respectively , averaged over the SSM $`\nu `$e spectrum P($`\lambda `$)  modified by the e-flavor survival function Pee that, in general, depends on E($`\nu `$e). The $`<>`$ in (1) indicate convolution with the detector resolution in SK.

For the LMA case, Pee is a constant =0.365, close to 0.349(22) (relative to the SSM flux of $`5.05\times 10^6`$ cm2s-1), the value found in CC-SNO. Then, W($`\lambda `$;Pee)= W($`\lambda `$)$`\times `$0.365 and Z($`\lambda `$;1-Pee) =W($`\lambda `$)(1-P$`{}_{\mathrm{ee}}{}^{})0.16`$ W($`\lambda )\times 0.635\times 0.16`$, because of the nearly constant value of Z/W$``$ 0.16 for solar $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ energies $`>`$3 MeV. This leads to R(ES;lma) 0.466 $``$0.465(15), the SK result  relative to the SSM flux above (the reason for choosing Pee (LMA)=0.365).

In the case of the LWO spectra, the same procedure was used. Here Pee is energy dependent, given by the standard oscillation formula for solar baseline:

$$\mathrm{P}_{\mathrm{ee}}=1\mathrm{sin}^22\theta \mathrm{sin}^2\{0.1899[\mathrm{\Delta }m^2(\mu \mathrm{eV}^2)/\mathrm{E}(\nu _\mathrm{e})(\mathrm{MeV})]\}$$
(2)
For each value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2, using the convoluted spectra $`<`$W($`\lambda `$;P$`{}_{\mathrm{ee}}{}^{})+`$Z($`\lambda `$;(1-P$`{}_{\mathrm{ee}}{}^{})>`$ and $`<`$W($`\lambda >`$, the ES signals were calculated as in (1).

This spectrum (energy dependent in principle), was matched to the data points of the ES-SK spectrum  by varying the parameters $`\varphi `$(ES) ($`<`$1) and sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta `$ for each value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 in the range 70-80 $`\mu `$eV2. The best match was selected interactively for a given value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 from the $`\chi ^2`$of the fit of the R(ES) curve to the ES-SK data points. The results are shown in Fig. 3.

The box in Fig. 3 shows the values of the parameter combinations \[$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2; sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta `$; $`\varphi `$(ES)\], “the “best match” \[$`\chi `$2\] (dof =16 for 17 SK data points in the range 5-14 MeV) and the \[R(ES) area\] normalized to SSM for each curve including ES-lma. The ES(lwo) curves are seen to match the SK data, particularly those for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 = 75-78 $`\mu `$eV2, even in the narrow slit allowed by the high statistical precision of the SK data. Indeed, except for the first two data points at the lowest energies in Fig. 3 that are the most susceptible to background, the $`\chi ^2`$ values (dof =14) for T= 6.5–14 MeV (also given in the box in Fig 3) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 =75-78 $`\mu `$eV2 jump to 1.05 to 1.15 with probabilities in the range of 35% compared to the best fit 50% value for $`\chi `$2=1. The rate matches are excellent (see Table 2 below). Our new model thus passes its most severe test. A key reason is the significantly smaller mixing angles used here (compared to previous analyses) that flatten the ES spectra sufficiently to be scaled into the ES data window. Another key effect is detector resolution as shown in Fig. 4. The unconvoluted ES(lwo) curve (in blue) with a discouraging shape (even without the low energy points) reduces to the much more acceptable curve (in red) that includes the effect of the SK energy resolution.

## 4 CC Reaction on deuterons

The CC reaction $`\nu _\mathrm{e}+\mathrm{d}2\mathrm{p}+\mathrm{e}`$ has been applied at SNO to measure directly the $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ 8B spectrum. The theoretical cross sections for this reaction including the recoils of the two protons in the final state have been extensively tabulated. The calculation of the CC spectra for LWO and LMA, input $`\nu `$e spectra must be summed over the contributions of $`\nu `$e from 0 to E($`\nu `$e)(max) = T+ Q (=1.44 MeV) for each signal electron kinetic energy T instead of just from the single $`\nu `$e energy T+Q. The cross section C($`\lambda `$; Pee) is first averaged over the input solar $`\nu `$e spectrum P($`\lambda `$) modulated by the Pee of the oscillation scenario. Pee(LMA) =0.365. Pee(LWO) is given by (2). For each value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 the CC shapes were generated as:

$$\mathrm{R}(\mathrm{CC})=\varphi (\mathrm{CC})<\mathrm{C}(\lambda ;\mathrm{P}_{\mathrm{ee}})>$$
(3)
where Pee was calculated with the same mixing parameter fixed in the ES-SK spectral match. The $`<>`$ indicates, as before, convolution with the SNO detector resolution. $`\varphi `$(CC) is the scale factor applied to match the LWO-CC spectrum to LMA-CC spectrum measured at SNO. The shape matches aimed at fits (by eye) within a $`\pm `$12% band, the error band in the measured SNO-CC spectrum. Fig. 5 shows the LWO-CC matches to the LMA-CC spectrum (thick red line marked SSM\*0.365). The legend box shows in \[ \] the signal areas under the curves in the window 5–13.5 MeV.

The scale parameter $`\varphi `$(CC) is the true flux of $`\nu `$e(8B). The spectral matches in Fig. 5 are good with only a $``$10% deviation even at the lowest energies that are most susceptible to errors from background and the disentanglement of the relatively broad NC $`\gamma `$-ray shower signal that occurs at the effective energy of $``$5 MeV instead of at its full energy of 6.15 MeV. The rate matches are also good (see Table 2). The best match LWO parameter group in the CC matches as well as overall, is \[$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 ($`\mu `$eV2)/sin$`{}_{}{}^{2}2\theta /\varphi `$(CC)\] = \[77/0.57/0.82\].

## 5 Low Energy Signals from 37Cl and 71Ga

We now consider how the low energy parts of the new model, constructed so far only with high energy 8B solar neutrinos in mind, match the signals from the 37Cl and 71Ga detectors that respond not only to the low energy parts of the 8B spectrum (37Cl Q=0.814 MeV) but beyond, to the lowest energies of the pp $`\nu `$e’s (71Ga Q=0.235 MeV).

Interaction rates (in SNU=10-36 /target nucleus/s) were calculated using well-known target data and standard $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ spectra from every solar source  modulated by the LWO effect using (2). Table 1 lists these results for 37Cl and 71Ga for the SSM as well as LWO with the same parameters fixed by the ES and CC-matches above. The values for the SSM agree with published values, checking the overall source data and the calculation methods.

Table 1 shows the signal rates in the lines marked “Total SNU” in 4 different solar astrophysical scenarios. These rates compare with the measured SNU for Cl and Ga (last line in each section). The favored LWO groups are highlighted. The first result is the line marked SSM, for the standard sun. The LWO results for Ga range between $``$80–82 SNU that deviate by $`2\sigma `$ from the measured value of 70.8(44) SNU. The match of LWO rates with the Cl data, 2.56(23) SNU, is worse, deviating systematically from it by $`>3\sigma `$ for every LWO parameter choice. A similar problem exists also for the LMA-Cl match (see Table 2 below). The fact that the mismatch in Cl is much worse than in Ga indicates that problem lies in the spectral region between 1–5 MeV. Neutrino spectral engineering cannot solve this problem.

Astrophysical spectral adjustments, on the other hand, could be resorted to, to a limited extent by changes in the solar fluxes. The only negotiable fluxes in the framework of the SSM are the 8B flux (predicted with a large error $``$20%) and the CNO fluxes ($``$100%). Two astrophysically sound remedies touching these solar sources are conceivable.

The LWO scenarios above are based inherently on the assumption $`\varphi `$(B)$`<\varphi `$(B:SSM). This idea must be astrophysically based, not stand as an ad hoc construct as tacitly viewed so far. The simplest way to reduce the 8B flux is to reduce the central temperature T of the sun using astrophysically sound scaling laws: $`\varphi `$(B)$``$T20 and $`\varphi `$(Be)$``$T10. Using the matched values of $`\varphi `$(CC-B) above ($``$71–80%), the reduction in $`\varphi `$(Be) can be calculated. This correction is applied in the lines marked SSM(T) in Table 1. The correction helps to a small extent.

The second remedy concerns the CNO flux for which there is little astrophysical guidance. Global fits of all neutrino scenarios proposed so far are eminently compatible with 0–5% CNO luminosity in the sun. We therefore suggest that the CNO flux is seriously reduced, viz. =0. The lines marked (No CNO) reflect this assumption. This correction helps substantially in the LWO-Cl match. Finally both astrophysical modifications result in the rates marked SSM \[No CNO(T)\]. The Cl rates now match the LWO predictions within 1.65$`\sigma `$ (similarly, no-CNO helps also the LMA-Cl match to move within 1.5$`\sigma `$, see Table 2) The LWO Ga match also improves to a much closer $``$0.3$`\sigma `$. We therefore accept and require these astrophysical modifications; hence the designation “astroparticle” to our model.

Table 1 indicates the reason why $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 values below 75$`\mu `$eV2 become rapidly untenable. The LWO oscillations become progressively faster as E($`\nu `$e) decreases (see Fig. 1). At the energy of the 7Be line (0.862 MeV), the oscillation period changes rapidly with $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2. Below 75 $`\mu `$eV2 the Be line strobes into a resonance, thus Pee jumps to $``$1. The Be contribution to the Cl (as well as the Ga) rate jumps, causing both to fall out of match. Even though the LWO-8B matches are good for $`85>\mathrm{\Delta }`$m$`{}_{}{}^{2}>70\mu `$eV2 the Be factor limits the model at $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$m2 = 75 $`\mu `$eV2 as long as $`\varphi `$(8B) $``$ 0.8 $`\varphi `$(8B:SSM).

## 6 Model & Data

The discussion above has examined in detail the compatibility of the predictions of the new LWO-based astroparticle model of solar neutrinos to every experimental result available to date with sensitivities that span the entire solar neutrino spectrum. In Table 2 we summarize the match of model to data quantitatively and individually. The “astroparticle LWO model” is competitive with the (astroparticle) LMA in the consistency with the global data. The major difference is a 1.4$`\sigma `$ mismatch with the SNO absolute NC rate, a main reason why the LWO scenario was disfavored in global analyses such as  even though it was found competitive in the absence of the NC result.

## 7 Experimental tests

For the LMA-MSW, only two types of experimental data can provide new support. The first is a substantial improvement in the precision of the absolute NC signal rate. We note that the fundamental difference vis a vis the LWO model is a mere 20% lower 8B $`\nu `$e flux. The NC rate in SNO is now known to $`\pm `$13% 1$`\sigma `$. This precision needs to improve markedly to exclude the possibility of a 20% lower flux by at least 3$`\sigma `$. The second possibility is the only predicted effect specific to the LMA viz., a gradual rise of the CC signal from 0.365 SSM above 5 MeV to 0.6 SSM below 1 MeV in the region of the 7Be and pp neutrinos. This regime, endemic to high background is difficult to access experimentally and the LMA vs. LWO test requires sharp differentiation of somewhat comparable signals at 0.6 SSM and 0.45 SSM (see last lines in Table 1) respectively. The first opportunity for this test will arise when Borexino, designed for very low background at low energies, starts operation in 2004. We now turn to experiments aimed specifically at exposing the LWO basis of the new model.

## 8 ES Signals at KamLAND, BOREXINO

The basic premise of the present model is spectral shape invariance for E($`\nu `$$`{}_{\mathrm{e}}{}^{})>5`$ MeV under the action of LWO. However, as seen in Fig. 1 this action is fundamentally accompanied by strong shape changes immediately below 5 MeV. Experimental tests accessible to the signal window $`<`$ 5 MeV, hitherto unexplored via direct solar neutrino detection, hold the key to a compelling demonstration of the present model since the LWO spectral predictions in this window are dramatically different from the relatively weak shape effects in the LMA case. This window is closed to the present large-scale Cerenkov detectors SK and SNO. It is however accessible to a liquid scintillator (LS) based detector on the scale of at least 1 kton target mass (similar to SNO though much smaller than SK with 22 kton fiducial mass). KamLAND is such a detector that is already operational. Borexino is another, that will soon be operational. Both are designed for low background neutrino spectroscopy at low energies, a key factor in considering signals below 5 MeV. We first consider KamLAND because interesting data can be expected from this device in the very near future.

Let us first consider ES signals below 5 MeV. Fig. 6 shows the ES spectra expected in a 1 kton LS detector. These are theoretical curves unconvoluted with detector resolution since the superior energy resolution in a LS device results in little smearing of the spectral shapes. Fig. 6 shows that while the ES spectra for LMA and LWO match identically above 6 MeV, they diverge significantly below this critical energy. While it is obviously desirable to measure the full spectrum and determine the shape characteristics below 6 MeV (normalized to the “flat” part $`>`$6 MeV), a reliable preliminary indication of the effect can be obtained just from the relative rates in two broad windows below and above 6 MeV. Table 3 lists the signal rates/2y live time for the two models in the windows 3–6 and 6–16 MeV. In the LWO scenario (with practically no differences between the viable solutions), the excess of counts at 3–6 MeV is measurably higher than in LMA, 484(39) vs. 370(38), a $`3\sigma `$ effect. For the lower threshold at 2.5 MeV background permitting, the LWO effect can possibly be detected at the $`4\sigma `$ level. KamLAND has been in operation now for nearly two years but it is not clear if data on signals in these windows are available. Information is therefore eagerly awaited.

In KamLAND the background characteristics in the 2–5 MeV regime, the key factor, is not known. The relatively shallow depth of this detector could pose a high cosmogenic background interference. In Borexino, with a larger overburden, this problem is less acute. The disadvantage is that in the present design, the largest mass available in Borexino is only 300 tons. It is envisioned that the target mass can be upgraded to approach 1 kton in the future, when a definitive result on LWO can be attempted.

## 9 7Li CC Spectroscopy

The ES spectra in Fig. 6 are interesting and informative especially since they may be observable already in KamLAND. However, the spectral effects are considerably less prominent than could be expected from Fig. 1 because of the basic spectral smearing effect of the ES reaction (although the less serious detector smearing is avoided). One can thus expect stronger effects in CC transitions with bound nuclei in the final state that ensure that the signal electron energy is uniquely connected to the $`\nu _\mathrm{e}`$ energy (unlike in the $`\nu `$e+d reaction). Other considerations in the choice of the reaction are: 1) a high rate and/or a large target mass since the 8B $`\nu `$e flux is small and 2) a low threshold. The latter is important since an energy threshold $`>`$3 MeV is desirable in order to avoid background. An ideal choice is the case of 7Li, long known as a candidate for direct solar neutrino spectroscopy  but not so far applied in practice.

Fig. 7 shows the nuclear data relevant to the inverse $`\beta `$(IB) reaction $`\nu `$e+7Li$`^7`$Be + e. The IB threshold is only 0.862 MeV so that dominant part of the 8B $`\nu `$e spectrum can be observed above a $`3`$ MeV signal threshold. The IB transition is a superallowed transition with a precisely calculable rate, one of the highest known in beta decay. As a light nucleus with a high natural abundance, a relatively small mass of 30–100 tons (compared to 1 kton) may suffice for a decisive result. Technical details are beyond the scope of this paper, but a suitable technology for the Li-CC experiment appears possible.

Fig. 8 (left) shows CC spectra observable in the Li IB reaction. Almost the entire spectrum occurs above 3.5 MeV, comfortably above the background threshold. With the thick red line for SSM\*0.365=LMA as the reference, the spectra directly display the essential action of Fig. 1, –shape invariance above 8 MeV and dramatic modulation at lower energies. The prominence of the modulations is illustrated in Fig. 8 (right) where the LWO spectra are normalized to LMA which appears as a flat line. The spectral deviations are strong and compelling. Table 4 lists the signal rates in two broad windows above and below 7 MeV. The yearly rates are high. In the low window, the LWO rates are $``$50% higher than the LMA, whereas in the high window they are same (within $``$3%). It would thus appear that the essential proof of the LWO basis of the present model could be obtained in one year’s live time possibly with a target mass as small as 30 tons of Li.

The LWO modulations become even stronger at very low energies in regime of the pp neutrinos. Even in the relatively small window of a few hundred keV several periods of LWO modulations occur. These modulations may be observable by a suitable CC transition with a sufficiently low threshold that can be implemented by a technology that offers sharp energy resolution. The modulations at these energies are more sensitive to the neutrino parameters than at the high energy windows considered above. Thus it may be possible to determine them more precisely than the narrow LWO specifications already inherent in the present model. An ideal choice for this application is the CC transition in 115In . A practical real time pp neutrino detector based on indium is under development in the LENS project . The application of LENS to the spectroscopy of the present neutrino model will be discussed elsewhere.

## 10 Conclusions

Is the LMA-MSW model the last word in solar neutrinos? It may well be. The present work raises a serious possibility that it need not necessarily be. We have made the prima facie case that a model based on LWO, a very different physics scenario, offers a credible alternative. Only a 20% difference in a measured absolute signal rate stands between them. The serious pause against the new model is, clearly, the possible violation of CPT invariance that may hold rigidly also in the neutrino sector in spite of recent suggestions to the contrary. It is thus a classic case of decision by a unique physical result vs. discovery by consensus with a mass of different data. Experiments with the potential for compelling spectral impact are proposed in this work and may already be observable. Only they can tell which model is the prevalent one.

The impact of this decision goes well beyond the already rich field of solar neutrinos. This science has led us deep into the sun’s interior and beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Is it poised to take us to yet more unknown territory opened by the breakdown of one of the most cherished symmetry principles in physics?

## 11 Acknowledgments

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Peter Kurcynski who initiated me into the mysteries of MS-EXCEL computing used extensively in this work and for helpul discussions. I am grateful to K. Kubodera and S.Nakamura for generously supplying their tabular data in a format ready for use in this work. I thank John Bahcall, Michel Cribier, Eligio Lisi, Sandip Pakvasa and Carlos Penya-Garay for their comments on the draft MS.


text:
# Spinodal in asymmetric nuclear matter

## 1 Stability analysis

Let us consider asymmetric nuclear matter (ANM) characterized by a proton and a neutron densities $`\rho _i=`$ $`\rho _p`$, $`\rho _n`$. These densities can be transformed in a set of 2 mutually commuting charges $`\rho _i=`$ $`\rho _1`$, $`\rho _3`$ where $`\rho _1`$ is the density of baryons, $`\rho _1=\rho _n+\rho _p,`$ and $`\rho _3`$ the asymmetry density $`\rho _3=\rho _n\rho _p`$. In infinite matter, the extensivity of the free energy implies that it can be reduced to a free energy density : $`F(T,V,N_i)=V(T,\rho _i).`$ The system is stable against separation into two phases if the free energy of a single phase is lower than the free energy in all two-phases configurations. This stability criterium implies that the free energy density is a convex function of the densities $`\rho _i`$. A local necessary condition is the positivity of the curvature matrix :

$$\left[_{ij}\right]=\left[\frac{^2}{\rho _i\rho _j}|_T\right]\left[\frac{\mu _i}{\rho _j}|_T\right]$$
(1)
where we have introduced the chemical potentials $`\mu _j\frac{F}{N_j}|_{T,V,N_i}=\frac{}{\rho _j}|_{T,\rho _{ij}}`$.

We represent in Fig. 1 the energy surface as a function of $`\rho _n`$ and $`\rho _p`$, deduced from SLy230a Skyrme interaction . In the symmetric case ($`\rho _n=\rho _p`$), one can see the negative curvature of the energy which defines the spinodal area, whereas in pure neutron matter ($`\rho _p=0`$), no negative curvature and so no spinodal instability are predicted. We can also notice that the isovector density dependence is almost parabolic illustrating the positivity of $`_{33}`$.

We show in Fig. 2 several aspects of the spinodal contour defined as the region where the matrix $`\left[_{ij}\right]`$ is negative. In the left part is plotted the spinodal contour in ANM for several forces. It exhibits important differences. In the case of SLy230a force (as well as SGII, D1P), the total density at which spinodal instability appears decreases when the asymmetry increases whereas for SIII (as well as D1, D1S) it increases up to large asymmetry and finally decreases. We observe that all forces which fulfill the global requirement that they reproduce symmetric nuclear matter (SNM) equation of state as well as the pure neutron matter calculations, leads to the same curvature of the spinodal region. We can appreciate the reduction of the instability when we go away from SNM. However, large asymmetries are needed to induce a sizable effect. The temperature dependence of the spinodal contour can be appreciated in the right part of Fig. 2. As the temperature increases the spinodal region shrinks up to the critical temperature for which it is reduced to SNM critical point. However, up to a rather high temperature ( $`5`$ $`\mathrm{MeV}`$) the spinodal zone remains almost identical to the zero temperature one.

Almost all theoretical predictions has been made with simplified Skyrme interactions : in medium nucleonic masses are taken as the free masses and spin exchange terms proportionnal to $`x_i`$ are not explicitly treated. In our case, we have included the standard terms of the interactions that we refer to. Fig. 3 shows a comparison between our calculation and one of those simplified interactions (used by Baran et al ). In SNM (y=0.5), exploring high temperatures means exploring the k dependance of the single particle potential, hence the k-effective mass of the nucleons in the medium. On the counter part, increasing the asymmetry means being sensitive to the isospin dependance of the effective mass. As the k-effective mass used by Baran et al is independant of the asymmetry parameter but is only a function of the total density, we can conclude that the effective mass (according to SLy230b) reduces the critical temperature in SNM by about 1 MeV while it increases the critical temperature by 1 MeV in very asymmetric matter. This comparison shows that for qualitative predictions, a simple interaction is enough but quantitative predictions requires the standard interaction.

## 2 Analysis of the curvature matrix $`[_{ij}]`$

In the considered two-fluids system, the $`[_{ij}]`$ is a $`22`$ symmetric matrix, so it has 2 real eigenvalues $`\lambda ^\pm `$  :

$$\lambda ^\pm =\frac{1}{2}\left(\mathrm{Tr}\left[_{ij}\right]\pm \sqrt{\mathrm{Tr}\left[_{ij}\right]^24\mathrm{D}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{t}\left[_{ij}\right]}\right)$$
(2)
associated to eigenvectors $`\delta \rho ^\pm `$ defined by ($`ij`$)

$$\frac{\delta \rho _j^\pm }{\delta \rho _i^\pm }=\frac{_{ij}}{\lambda ^\pm _{jj}}=\frac{\lambda ^\pm _{ii}}{_{ij}}$$
(3)
Eigenvectors associated with negative eigenvalue indicate the direction of the instability. It defines a local order parameter since it is the direction along which the phase separation occurs. The eigen values $`\lambda `$ define sound velocities, $`c`$, by $`c^2=\frac{1}{18m}\rho _1\lambda .`$ In the spinodal area, the eigen value $`\lambda `$ is negative, so the sound velocity, $`c`$, is purely imaginary and the instability time $`\tau `$ is given by $`\tau =d/|c|`$ where $`d`$ is a typical size of the density fluctuation.

The requirement that the local curvature is positive is equivalent to the requirement that both the trace ($`\mathrm{Tr}[_{ij}]=\lambda ^++\lambda ^{})`$ and the determinant ($`\mathrm{Det}[_{ij}]=\lambda ^+\lambda ^{})`$ are positive

$$\mathrm{Tr}[_{ij}]0,\text{ and }\mathrm{Det}[_{ij}]0$$
(4)
The use of the trace and the determinant which are two basis-independent characteristics of the curvature matrix clearly stresses the fact that the stability analysis should be independent of the arbitrary choice of the thermodynamical quantities used to label the state e.g. $`(\rho _p`$, $`\rho _n)`$ or $`(\rho _1`$, $`\rho _3)`$. If Eq. 4 is violated the system is in the unstable region of a phase transition. Two cases are then possible : i) only one eigenvalue is negative and one order parameter is sufficient to describe the transition or ii) both eigenvalues are negative and two independent order parameters should be considered meaning that more than two phases can coexist. For ANM below saturation density, the case ii) never occurs since the asymmetry energy has always positive curvature ($`_{33}`$). A complete discussion is presented in .

Let us now focus on the direction of the instability. If $`\delta \rho ^{}`$ is along $`y`$=cst then the instability does not change the proton fraction. For symmetry reasons pure isoscalar $`(\delta \rho _3=0)`$ and isovector $`(\delta \rho _1=0)`$ modes appears only for SNM so it is interesting to introduce a generalization of isoscalar-like and isovector-like modes by considering if the protons and neutrons move in phase ($`\delta \rho _n^{}\delta \rho _p^{}>0`$) or out of phase ($`\delta \rho _n^{}\delta \rho _p^{}<0`$). We propose a generalization of the definition of isoscalar and isovector modes in ANM. According to the left graph of Fig. 4, the instability is of isoscalar type if its direction points in the direction of the first bissectix with an absolute value angle less that 45 degrees, while it is of isovector kind if its directions points in the direction of the second bissectrix with an absolute value angle less that 45 degrees. The two figures on the rigth part of Fig. 4 shows the direction of instabilities along the spinodal boarder and some iso-instability lines. We observed that instability is always almost along the $`\rho _1`$ axis meaning that it is dominated by total density fluctuations even for large asymmetries. This shows that the unstable direction is of isoscalar nature as expected from the attractive interaction between proton-neutron . The total density is therefore the dominant contribution to the order parameter showing that the transition is between two phases having different densities (i.e. liquid-gas phase transition). The angle with the $`\rho _1`$ axis is almost constant along a constant $`y`$ line. This means that as the matter enters in the spinodal zone and then dives into it, there are no dramatic change in the instability direction which remains essentially a density fluctuation. Moreover, the unstable eigenvector drives the dense phase (i.e. the liquid) towards a more symmetric point in the density plane. By particle conservation, the gas phase will be more asymmetric leading to the fractionation phenomenon. Those results are in agreement with recent calculation for ANM  and nuclei .

## 3 Are they new signals in asymmetric matter ?

A frequent discussion can be found in the literature . It is argued that asymmetric nuclear matter do not only present a mechanical instability for which the density is the order parameter but also a broader chemical instability associated with fluctuations of the matter isospin content . Indeed, it is usually argued that it exists a region in which the compressibility at constant isospin asymmetry is negative (see Fig.1 of ) leading to the interpretation that the system is mechanically unstable. Above a maximum asymmetry the isotherms at constant asymmetry does not presents any back bending leading to the idea that the system is mechanically stable. However, looking at the equilibrium of the chemical potentials one can see that above this maximum asymmetry for mechanical instabilities the system may amplify fluctuations in the proton neutron concentration leading to a second instability region usually called chemical instabilities.

However, we have recently shown that this splitting of the spinodal region into two types of instabilities, a mechanical and a chemical one, is not correct and that ANM present only one type of instability  (hereafter called the first argument). This result is robust because it can be related to the density dependance of the asymmetry energy reproduced by several models of the nuclear interaction (Skyrme, Gogny, Brueckner). In a recent proceeding , we have discussed that figures like Fig.1 of  may lead to the unphysical separation of two area in the spinodal. Indeed, these two regions are artefact in the sense that it comes from a 2-dimensionnal projection of the 3-dimensionnal representation of the free energy (see for instance Fig.1). At the entrance of the spinodal region, only one direction is unstable (the direction pointed out by the eigen vector, see Fig.4). The further the system sink inside the spinodal, the wider become the unstable directions and each point in the spinodal is a saddle point. Deep inside the spinodal, the particuliar direction $`y=\rho _p/\rho =`$const becomes also unstable but the system do not enter inside a new phase as it is often claimed.

Here, we will give a third argument against the artifical separation of chemical and mechanical instabilities. This argument is based on the relations first demonstrated by Baran et al . It rely the eigen modes to the chemical and mechanical definitions. It reads:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{P}{\rho _1}}|_{T,y}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^{}}{\sqrt{t}}}(t\mathrm{cos}\beta +\mathrm{sin}\beta )^2+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^+}{\sqrt{t}}}(t\mathrm{sin}\beta \mathrm{cos}\beta )^2`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mu _p}{y}}|_{T,P}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _n\lambda ^+\lambda ^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P}{\rho _1}}|_{T,y}\right)^1`$ (6)
where $`\beta =1/2\mathrm{arctan}_{np}/(_{pp}_{nn})`$ and $`t=\rho _nN_0^n/\rho _pN_0^p`$. In SNM, $`t=1`$ and $`\beta =\pi /4`$. Then, the relation between the eigen values $`\lambda ^+`$, $`\lambda ^{}`$ and the definition of mechanical and chemical instabilities is trivial: below saturation density, SNM is unstable toward density fluctuations which means that $`\lambda ^{}`$ or $`\frac{P}{\rho _1}|_{T,y}`$ become negative. Beyond saturation density, some interactions manifest an instability in the isospin channel, and once again, it can be associated to the negativity of $`\lambda ^+`$ or $`\frac{\mu _p}{y}|_{T,P}`$. Hence, it is totally equivalent to discuss the negativity og the eigen values $`\lambda ^+`$, $`\lambda ^{}`$ or the onset of a chemical and mechanical instability. But, in ANM, the simplicity of this equivalence is not preserved as it is shown by Eq. 5 and Eq. 6. Hence, one should trust only the eigen analysis of the curvature matrix $`[_{ij}]`$ and this analysis have shown that only one of the two eigen values ($`\lambda ^{}`$) changes its sign. Then, there is one unstable mode in ANM below saturation density.

## 4 Conclusion

Finally, we have presented three arguments in favor of the fact that ANM does not present two types of spinodal instabilities, a mechanical and chemical, but only one which is dominantly of isoscalar nature. This means that the instability is always dominated by density fluctuations and so can be interpreted as a liquid-gas separation. The instabilities tend to restore the isospin symmetry for the dense phase (liquid) leading to the fractionation of ANM. We have shown that changing the asymmetry up to $`\rho _p<3\rho _n`$ does not change quantitatively the density at which instability appears, neither the imaginary sound velocity compared to those obtained in SNM. The quantitative predictions concerning the shape of the spinodal zone as well as the instability times depends upon the chosen interaction but converge for the various forces already constrained to reproduce the pure neutron matter calculation.


text:
# CNGS beam monitor with the LVD detector.

## 1 Introduction

The CNGS beam from CERN to the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) is a wide-band high-energy $`\nu _\mu `$ beam ($`<E>23GeV`$) optimized for $`\tau `$ appearance. It provides $`2600CC/kt/y`$ and $`800NC/kt/y`$ at Gran Sasso , that is, assuming $`200`$ days of beam-time per year, a total number of $`17(CC+NC)/kt/day`$.

In order to provide an adequate monitoring of the beam performance it has been estimated  that one should be able to collect an event sample affected by a statistical error of the order of $`3\%`$ in a few days time. In table 1 the number of days needed in order to get this statistical significance is shown as a function of the total number of CNGS events collected per day at Gran Sasso.

Even considering an overall mass of the various experiments which will be active in GS at the beam start up as large as $`5kt`$, the number of CC and NC interaction per day, internal to the detectors, will be only $`80`$ and therefore more than $`14`$ days will be needed to collect a sample with the statistical significance mentioned above.

The number of events observed per day can be increased considering the muons produced by the $`\nu _\mu `$ CC interactions in the upstream rock, emerging into the experimental halls and detected either by a simple wide area dedicated monitor or by the running experiments.

The LVD experiment is primarily dedicated to the search for neutrinos from gravitational stellar collapses and has been running since 1991. In this study, we have investigated the beam monitor capabilities of the existing LVD detector , whose beam orthogonal surface is $`13\times 11m^2`$, larger than the other foreseen CNGS experiments. A detailed MonteCarlo simulation to estimate both the muon flux inside LVD and the number of detectable CC and NC internal interactions has been developed.

## 2 Event Generation

The charged current interactions of the CNGS beam neutrinos have been simulated using the Lipari generator  in which neutrino interactions are calculated with GRV94 parton distributions  with explicit inclusion of the contribution of quasi-elastic scattering and of single pion production to the neutrino cross-sections. The neutrino energy has been sampled from the reference CNGS beam spectrum . In fig. 1 is shown the energy spectrum of $`\nu _\mu `$ CC interactions, cross section weighed. The muon energy at the interaction vertex is shown in figure 2 (left).

### 2.1 Muons generated in the rock

The muons originated in the rock by the beam neutrinos (CNGS muons), which have an angle of $`3.2^{}`$ (upward) from the horizon, have been propagated through the rock with MUSIC , a three dimensional code which takes into account multiple scattering, energy losses due to ionization, bremsstrahlung, pair production and nuclear interactions. The muon energy spectrum after emerging from the rock is shown in figure 2 (right), while the zenithal and azimuthal angle in the LVD reference system are shown in figure 3.

The CNGS neutrino interactions, considered for the present study, are generated in a rock cylinder of height $`370m`$ and radius $`25m`$, just in front of the LNGS Hall A. The cylinder and Hall A axis coincide. The generation volume and mass are thus $`726493m^3`$ and $`1969kt`$. The muon range in the rock, in a first approximation, is given by

$$R=\frac{E_\mu }{\rho _{GS}\times \frac{dE}{dX}}$$

where the Gran Sasso rock density $`\rho _{GS}=2.71g/cm^3`$ and $`\frac{dE}{dX}=2MeV/(g/cm^2)`$. We assumed a maximum muon energy of $`200GeV`$ that corresponds to a $`370m`$ path in GS rock. This explains the choice of the cylinder height. We use a large radius ($`25m`$ with respect to the $`13\times 11m^2`$ of LVD front surface) in order to take into account also muons originated far from the detector axis, but able to reach it because of their large angle (with respect to the beam direction).

The interaction vertex is selected uniformly in the cylinder volume. We define “Entrance LNGS (EL) Plane” the infinite vertical plane separating the rock cylinder face and the entrance wall of the experimental hall. The muon propagation from the interaction vertex to the LVD detector is subdivided into two main steps:

* The muons, generated with energy distribution according to figure 2 (left), are traced by MUSIC until they lose all their energy or until they reach the EL plane. The muons emerging from the EL plane with non-zero energy are $`6.8\%`$ of the generated events.
* The event is taken into account if the emerging muon direction points to a mother volume ($`13.75m(horiz.)\times 12m(vert.)\times 24.8m(lenght)`$) which encloses the LVD detector and if the muon has enough energy to reach the LVD mother volume from the emerging point in the EL plane. This request is satisfied by $`9.6\%`$ of the muons that emerge from the EL plane.

For comparison purposes we have calculated the total number of $`\nu _\mu `$ CC interactions in one CNGS year (200 days) inside the rock volume using the number of $`CC/protonontarget(pot)/kt`$ and $`pot/year`$ given in ref. .

Accordingly, the number of muons hitting the LVD mother volume in one year is thus $`33600`$, i.e. $`170`$ per day.

A summary of the elements needed for the muon number calculation in LVD is shown in table 2.

### 2.2 Internal CC and NC events

The LVD detector consists of 912 counters constituted of liquid scintillator in stainless steel tanks. 8 counters are grouped in a supporting structure (portatank) and 38 portatanks are arranged in a compact structure to form a LVD tower.

The total active scintillator mass is $`1050t`$ while the total mass of stainless steel tank and portatank, that can efficiently act as high energy neutrino target, is $`770t`$. The interaction vertex of CC and NC internal events has been distributed uniformly in the apparatus. The number of events generated in steel and in scintillator is proportional to the relative weight of the two components.

The number of CC and NC events, at nominal beam intensity, are respectively $`4770`$ and $`1460`$ per year, as shown in table 3. The number of CC interactions is calculated accordingly to ref.  while the ratio between the number of CC and NC interactions is calculated accordingly to the event generator described in paragraph 2.

## 3 LVD response

The detailed detector geometry and the particle interactions with the detector material have been taken into account with a GEANT simulation of the LVD detector (see  for a detailed description of the simulation code).

### 3.1 Event Selection: muons generated in the rock

According to the simulation described in paragraph 2, $`87\%`$ of the generated muon tracks hit the mother volume in the front face, while the remaining $`13\%`$ enter LVD in the lateral faces (left, right, top, bottom).
Figure 4 shows the distribution of the number of counters hit by the muons emerging from the rock. About $`21\%`$ of them pass through the detector dead regions (corridors), and the corresponding geometrical efficiency is about $`79\%`$. See some event displays in figure 5 and 6.

Each scintillation counter is $`1m\times 1m`$ of front area and $`1.5m`$ along the beam direction. In figure 7 (top) the maximum energy released by muons in one single counter per event is shown. Figure 7 (bottom) shows the number of counters with an energy release greater than $`200MeV`$, the entries being normalized to the total number of events with at least one fired counter. Assuming, as an event selection criteria, the presence of at least one counter with an energy loss greater than $`200MeV`$, we are able to detect $`92\%`$ of the total number of muons entering an active part of the LVD detector (detection efficiency). The global efficiency (geometrical + detection) is thus $`72\%`$.

Therefore the mean number of detected muons in LVD, at the nominal CNGS beam intensities, is about $`24200`$ per year, i.e. $`120`$ per day.

### 3.2 Event selection: internal CC and NC events

In the case of neutrinos interacting inside the LVD detector, all the particles generated (muons and hadrons) are traced through the apparatus and the energy released in the scintillation counters is the sum of the contribution from all the traversing particles. Applying the same selection cut described in the previous paragraph (at least one counter with $`E>200MeV`$), the efficiency for the CC (NC) internal event sample is $`97\%`$ ($`91\%`$), as shown in figures 8 and 9. This gives $`4630`$ CC and $`1330`$ NC events in one year, corresponding to $`30`$ additional CNGS events per day. Two examples of internal $`\nu _\mu `$ CC and NC interaction event displays are shown in figure 10 and 11.

## 4 Total event rate and background

We stress the point that here we are not interested in distinguishing between neutrino interacting in the rock events and internal neutrino events; the loose cut chosen has the advantage of a very good efficiency needed for a good monitoring task. Taking into account both the muons from CC interactions in the rock and the internal CC and NC interactions, the statistical error obtained during various number of days of run is shown in table 6.

The main background source is due to cosmic muons. The rate in the whole LVD detector is about 9300 muons/day (about $`6.5`$ per minute), considering the events with at least one scintillation counter fired by the muon. The requirement of at least one counter with an energy loss greater than 200 MeV rejects $`20\%`$ of them, leaving about 7500 muons per day. Considering the $`10^4`$ reduction factor due to the CNGS beam timing characteristics ($`10.5\mu s`$ of spill length and $`50ms`$ inter-spill gap ), the actual number of background $`\mu `$ per day is $`1.5`$, practically negligible.

## 5 Comparison with a dedicated muon track detector

In order to evaluate the capabilities of a dedicated muon monitor at LNGS, we used the same software chain for the event generation and the muon propagation in rock. Thereafter we simulate the event in the ideal detector.
We define the muon monitor as three vertical planes made of RPC’s (or Limited Streamer Tubes) with $`100\%`$ efficiency, separated by $`1m`$ from each other along the beam direction. A muon is tagged when three planes are crossed by the muon track. At this level we don’t add any consideration about the cosmic muon background rejection of this kind of detector, that must be studied in details. The number of muons detected per day by the detectors are shown in table 7 for various trasversal dimensions. We remark that the total number of CNGS interaction detected by LVD (muons from the rock + internal events) is similar to the number of muon seen by the biggest dedicated muon monitor.

## 6 Summary and conclusions

The importance of a CNGS beam monitor apparatus in the experimental halls of Gran Sasso Laboratory has been stressed in many papers  . In this paper the performances of the LVD detector as a monitor for the CNGS neutrino beam are shown.
Thanks to its wide area ($`13\times 11m^2`$ orthogonal to the beam direction) LVD can detect about $`120`$ muons per day using a very simple selection cut (at least one counter with an energy loss greater than $`200MeV`$). With a $`2kt`$ total mass, LVD could detect 30 more CNGS events per day as internal $`(NC+CC)`$ $`\nu _\mu `$ interactions, for a total of $`150`$ events per day. A $`3\%`$ statistical error can thus be reached in 7 days (see table 6). The cosmic muons background can be reduced to a negligible level, of the order of about one event per day, by taking into account the CNGS beam spill.
These results compare well with the expected performances of a dedicated muon detector.

## 7 Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and in part by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Scientific Research (MIUR) and the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (RFBR Grant 03-02-16413).