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# N2H+(1–0) survey of massive molecular cloud cores

## 1 Introduction

It is well-known that stars in some cases are formed in clusters and isolation in others, however, the reasons of such a dichotomy are far from being understood at present. The number of stars depends apparently on physical parameters of dense molecular cloud cores where stars are formed. It is known, in particular, that clusters are formed in the most massive and turbulent cores. High-mass stars are encountered solely in such cores. An important feature of massive cores is their clumpy structure which extends from large scales down to the smallest ones even unresolved by present-day telescopes. An existence of small-scale clumpiness is implied, for example, by 1–2 orders of magnitude difference between mean densities and densities derived from multitransitional analysis (e.g. Bergin et al. bergin1 (1996), Zinchenko zin2 (1995), Zinchenko et al. zin4 (1998)); by the absence of significant broadening of presumably very optically thick CS lines as compared to the rarer C34S isotopomer lines (Zinchenko et al. zin4 (1998)); by the hyperfine intensity ratios anomalies in HCN (Pirogov pirogov (1999)) and ammonia (Stutzki & Winnewisser stutzki (1985)) in warm clouds. The degree of small-scale clumpiness is probably related to the number of newborn stars.

Important parameters for describing evolution of star forming cores in modern theoretical models are radial dependences of density and velocity dispersion in envelopes that surround newborn stars. A popular model for massive star formation is based on the logatropic equation of state which incorporates non-thermal gas motions (McLaughlin & Pudritz mclaughlin (1996)). It results in the $`r^1`$ density distribution. Velocity dispersion in this model is nearly constant in the center and rises with distance in the outer regions as $`r^{1/3}`$. In contrast, the standard theory of low-mass star formation from a singular isothermal sphere (Shu shu (1977)) predicts the $`r^2`$ density profile in the static outer envelope. Both models predict $`r^{3/2}`$ and $`r^{1/2}`$ density and velocity profiles, respectively, for the regions involved in free-falling collapse (Shu shu (1977), McLaughlin & Pudritz mclaughlin1 (1997)). Therefore, studies of density and velocity dispersion profiles in the cores are essential for discrimination between different theoretical models and for determination of their dynamical status.

Recently, density structure of large samples of objects have been explored in several studies. Analysis of dust continuum emission in low-mass cores where stars are formed mostly in isolation, reveals a density power-law index of $`\alpha 1.52`$ (e.g. Motte & André motte (2001), Shirley et al. shirley (2002)) being more or less in accordance with the isothermal sphere model. Dust continuum emission studies in high-mass star forming regions have resulted in the following power-law indices: $`\alpha =1.6(0.5)`$ (Beuther et al. beuther (2002)) and $`\alpha =1.8(0.4)`$ (Mueller et al. mueller (2002)), while molecular multi-line modeling of several massive star forming regions (Van der Tak et al. tak (2000)) gave somewhat lower values: $`\alpha =1.01.5`$.

In their study of velocity dispersion profiles in low-mass cores, Goodman et al. (goodman98 (1998)) found nearly constant velocity dispersion within so-called “coherent regions” with sizes of $`0.1`$ pc and a rise of velocity dispersion in the outer regions with power-law index $`0.2`$, which is more consistent with the logatropic model. In contrast, molecular line studies of high-mass cores show highly non-thermal lines of decreasing widths with distance from center (Zinchenko zin2 (1995), Lapinov et al. lapinov (1998), Fontani et al. fontani (2002)), which apart from optical depth effects could imply a higher degree of gas dynamical activity in central regions.

Recently, about 60 nearby low-mass cores were mapped in the N2H+(1–0) line (Caselli et al. paper1 (2002), hereafter Paper I). As a result, a number of physical parameters including density and velocity dispersion profiles were derived. N2H+ was chosen as a tracer of quiescent high density gas (critical density for excitation of the $`J=10`$ transition at a kinetic temperature of 40 K is $`4.410^5`$ cm-3). An advantage of the N2H+(1–0) transition is the hyperfine structure which enables a reliable determination of the optical depth and improves estimates of related physical parameters of the dense gas that surrounds young stars. It is known that the N2H+(1–0) lines have relatively strong intensities and moderate ($`\tau 1`$) optical depths both in cold and warm clouds (Womack et al. womack (1992)) associated with low-mass and high-mass star forming regions, respectively. The goal of the present study is to derive physical parameters for a representative sample of dense cores in high-mass star forming regions from observations in the N2H+(1–0) line. The derived parameters will be compared with those of low-mass cores (Paper I) to help to understand the details of the star formation process.

A sample list for the study has been taken from the ammonia database compiled by P. Myers and co-workers (Jijina et al. 1999) where data on cluster existence is included. This list overlaps with a sample of massive cores earlier mapped in CS, both in the northern and southern hemispheres (Zinchenko et al. zin1 (1994), zin3 (1995), zin4 (1998); Juvela juvela (1996)). In the present paper we give the results of N2H+(1–0) observations towards a sample of 35 massive dense cores where star formation in clusters is going on. Their physical parameters including density and velocity dispersion profiles are derived and compared with parameters of low-mass cores (Paper I).

## 2 Observations

The N2H+(1–0) observations at the frequency 93.2 GHz have been done in April, 2000 at 20-m OSO radiotelescope and in February, 2001 at 15-m SEST radiotelescope. The observing parameters are given in Table 1.

For OSO we took into account beam efficiency dependence on source elevation and give an average value. We also give the ranges of system temperatures which depend on source elevation and weather conditions. At OSO we used both a filterbank spectrum analyzer (256 channels) and autocorrelator (1600 channels) while at SEST an acousto-optical spectrum analyzer (1000 channels) was used. Pointing was regularly checked by SiO maser observations and usually was better than 5$`\mathrm{}`$.

The objects for observations were selected from the list of dense cores observed earlier in the CS(2–1) line (Zinchenko et al. zin1 (1994), zin3 (1995), zin4 (1998); Juvela juvela (1996)) as well as from the ammonia database (Jijina et al. jijina (1999)) according to the following criteria: an existence of embedded clusters of stars detected in infrared (Jijina et al. jijina (1999), Hodapp hodapp (1994), Carpenter et al. carpenter (1993)), distances to the objects not far than 5 kpc and an existence of extended CS or NH3 emission regions ($`>2^{}`$) in order to get detailed N2H+(1–0) maps. In the cases of no data on the clusters existence, the sources with high IR-luminosities were selected ($`L>10^4`$ L), which can be an indirect indication of cluster (Jijina et al. jijina (1999)). In total, 35 objects that satisfy these criteria were selected. The source list with coordinates and distances is given in Table 2. The number of points per map and the names of associated objects are also given. Mapping has been done with 20$`\mathrm{}`$ grid spacing (Nyquist sampled maps) with the exception of S 187, G 133.69 and S 153 for which the spacing was 40$`\mathrm{}`$ (beam sampled maps).

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Integrated intensity maps

The N2H+(1–0) emission has been detected in 33 of 35 sources (except LkH$`\alpha `$101 and LkH$`\alpha `$25). Maps of intensities integrated over all hyperfine components for 31 object are given in Fig. 1. The maps of AFGL 490 and G 142.00 (which actually belong to a single molecular complex), S 88B, G 267.94 and G 305.36 have not been completed (the latter two are not shown in Fig. 1). The maps of S 187, G 133.69 and AFGL 6366 each consist of two separated clumps at the 30% peak intensity level. Some others (e.g. S 255, G 316.77, G 345.41, G 351.41) contain intensity peaks separated at the half maximum intensity level. The maps of RNO 1B, NGC 281, G 173.48, S 76E, G 270.26 indicate spherical symmetry while others demonstrate elongated, curved or more complex structures. Per 4 and L 1251T4 show the most narrow and weak lines and actually belong to low-mass star forming cores (see Paper I). The clumpy structures visible in the maps of these two sources (see Fig. 1) are primarily caused by noise. The OSO and SEST beam sizes are shown in Fig. 1 on RNO 1B and G 268.42 maps, respectively.

Most of the sources have associated IRAS point sources. The positions of IRAS sources are indicated by stars and the uncertainty ellipses corresponding to 95% confidence level are also shown. In 17 objects IRAS sources lie within the half maximum level (marked by thick black lines) or coincide with a secondary intensity peak. Although there is no IRAS point source in DR 21, it is a well-known star forming molecular cloud with compact H II regions and strong extended far-infrared emission (Harvey et al. harvey3 (1979)) which is close in shape to the N2H+(1–0) integrated intensity distribution.

Peak integrated intensities are given in Table 3. For the sources having separate clumps at the 30% level, peak intensity for each clump is given. The uncertainties of integrated intensities have been calculated as $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{MB}}\sqrt{N_{\mathrm{ch}}}\delta V_{\mathrm{ch}}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{\mathrm{MB}}`$ – noise level in channel without line (after baseline subtracting), $`N_{\mathrm{ch}}`$ – number of line channels, $`\delta V_{\mathrm{ch}}`$ – velocity resolution. For the sources observed at OSO we used high-resolution autocorrelator data, with the exception of S 88B for which only filterbank data are available.

### 3.2 N2H+(1–0) line parameters and peak column densities

N2H+(1–0) spectra consist of seven hyperfine components (Womack et al. womack (1992), Caselli et al. caselli1 (1995)). However, due to overlap of closely spaced components only three lines (two of which are actually triplets) have been observed in most cases (with exception of L1251 and Per4). As an example, the N2H+(1–0) spectrum toward the peak position in G 351.41$`+`$0.64 is shown in Fig. 2 with hyperfine components indicated. The relative amplitudes of the components correspond to the LTE optically thin case. Each component is marked by two pairs of numbers $`(F_1^{}F^{}F_1F)`$ corresponding to initial and final states of the transition (Caselli et al. caselli1 (1995)).

After removing baselines from the data (low-order polynomials) we performed gaussian fitting. While choosing three gaussians for fitting the data can give only crude information about position and amplitudes of the components, fitting by seven independent gaussians with fixed separations usually leads to incorrect results (negative amplitudes for some of the overlapped components). We decided to fit the data by seven gaussians, only three of which having independent amplitudes, whereas the amplitudes of the overlapping components have been assumed proportional to their statistical weights. This method proved to be useful for treating both LTE and non-LTE cases and gave lowest $`\chi ^2`$ values in most cases.

The derived parameters are (Table 3): main beam brightness temperature of the (23–12) component, peak intensity ratios of the (12–12) to (23–12) and (01–12) to (23–12) transitions ($`R_{12}`$ and $`R_{02}`$, respectively), velocity of the (23–12) component and line width at half maximum level, considered equal for all components. For most of the sources the $`R_{12}`$ ratios do not significantly differ from the optically thin value (5:7) while the $`R_{02}`$ ratios are usually higher than expected in the optically thin case (3:7). Observed $`R_{12}`$ versus $`R_{02}`$ ratios together with the LTE curve are shown in Fig. 3. The mean ratios for the sources given in Table 3 are: $`R_{12}=0.70(0.01)`$ and $`R_{02}=0.57(0.03)`$. Similar ratios apply for each source when all map positions with significant emission are averaged, i.e., $`R_{12}`$ is close to 5:7 while $`R_{02}`$ is higher than 3:7. Fitting by three independent gaussians also reveals an enhanced intensity of the (01–12) component compared with the LTE case.

No evidence of broad line wings as indicators of outflow activity has been found in the spectra. The N2H+(1–0) spectra towards several positions of G 316.77, G 345.01 and G 351.41 are highly non-gaussian apparently associated with more than one clump along the line of sight. Fitting these spectra by the procedure described above resulted in much higher line widths than for the rest of spectra. No attempts have been made to decompose these spectra into several velocity components due to the ambiguity of such a procedure, and we have excluded these sources from our velocity analysis.

In order to derive line optical depths in the case of closely spaced and overlapping components the following function could be used:

$$T(\nu )=\left[\underset{i}{}J(T_{\mathrm{EX}_\mathrm{i}})\frac{\tau _i(\nu )}{_k\tau _k(\nu )}J(T_{BG})\right]\left[1\mathrm{exp}(\underset{k}{}\tau _k(\nu ))\right],$$
(1)
where $`J(T)=\frac{h\nu }{k}[\mathrm{exp}(\frac{h\nu }{kT})1]^1`$, $`T_{\mathrm{BG}}=2.7K`$ is the cosmic background radiation temperature, $`T_{\mathrm{EX}_\mathrm{i}}`$ and $`\tau _i(\nu )`$ are excitation temperature and optical depth of the $`i`$-th component at the frequency $`\nu `$, respectively, and summing is going over all components. For the case of the observed N2H+(1–0) spectra the fitting function (1) could be simplified. It is known that excitation temperatures of the overlapping lines always tend to be equal due to photon exchanges (e.g. Guilloteau et al. G81 (1981)). Assuming equal excitation temperatures for the overlapping components within triplets, and, that the (01–12) line and the triplets do not overlap, the fitted function becomes:

$$T(\nu )=\left[\underset{i}{}J(T_{\mathrm{EX}_\mathrm{i}})J(T_{BG})\right]\left[1\mathrm{exp}(\underset{k}{}\tau _{ik}(\nu ))\right],$$
(2)
where the first sum is going over non-overlapping groups of components and the second is going over overlapping components within individual group. $`\tau _{ik}(\nu )`$ is the optical depth of the $`i`$-th group and $`k`$-th overlapping component at the frequency $`\nu `$. Thus, the fitted parameters are: three excitation temperatures, optical depth of the central (23–12) component as well as line width and velocity of the central component.

The spectra toward the positions given in Table 3 as well as toward several additional emission peaks have been fitted by the function (2). In three sources with low S/N ratios (G 133.69, S 88B and L 1251) the solutions did not converge. In 10 cases the derived optical depth exceeds 3$`\sigma `$. For the remaining sources an upper 3$`\sigma `$ level has been derived and it exceeds unity in 8 cases (in the case of S 201 $`\tau `$(23–12)$`<`$3, the highest upper limit among the sources). The results of fitting for 10 sources (excitation temperatures, velocities, line widths and optical depths) are given in Table 4. The optical depth and excitation temperature ranges for different sources are: $`0.21`$ and $`729`$ K, respectively. The difference in excitation temperature between different groups of components is $`5.6`$ K and in several cases $`T_{\mathrm{EX}}`$(01–12) is the highest one. As the sources given in Table 4 are among those with highest intensities we conclude that $`T_{\mathrm{EX}}25`$ K and $`\tau (2312)1`$ for the studied sample. It should be emphasized that we have assumed a beam filling factor of 1 in all cases; if smaller, excitation temperatures are higher.

Since non-LTE effects seem small, we have assumed LTE and the optically thin approximation to calculate N2H+ column densities, $`N`$(N2H+), for all sources in Table 3. Excitation temperatures were taken equal to 10 K for all sources, the value at which LTE column densities are close to minimum. At $`T_{\mathrm{EX}}=20`$ K column densities are 1.6 times higher. The calculated values, which could be treated as lower limits, are given in the last column of Table 3.

### 3.3 Clump deconvolution

Most of the maps in Fig. 1 show elongated or more complex structures with prominent secondary peaks. In order to estimate core sizes, two-dimensional (2D) gaussian fittings have been used. As a first step we tried to fit simultaneously a number of circular 2D gaussians to each map in order to reveal distinct clumps. The initial guesses of number of components and their locations were simply based on inspections of the maps in Fig. 1 and strip scans, obtained where required. In the second step the circular gaussians were replaced by elliptical ones, adding two more parameters to be determined: axial ratio and position angle. Finally, core sizes were estimated by deconvolving the geometric mean of the extents of the fitted elliptical gaussians with the beam size, i.e., $`C=\sqrt{G^2B^2}`$ where $`C`$, $`G`$, and $`B`$ are the full half widths of the core, observed geometric mean of the extents and beam, respectively. In general, 1–2 clumps per map were found but in several sources (S 187, G 291.27, G 316.77, G 345.01 and G 351.41) three clumps have been revealed. We have excluded Per 4 and L 1251T4 from this analysis, (the former has already been analyzed in Paper I) as well as sources with small ($`25`$ points per map) and incomplete maps. In total, 47 clumps in 26 objects have been revealed. The relative coordinates of the clumps, their axial ratios, angular and linear sizes calculated at half maximum level are given in Table 5 together with fitting uncertainties. We have not taken into account possible uncertainties in source distances while calculating linear sizes. Clumps in the same core are marked by numbers. Angular sizes of some clumps are smaller than the telescope beam. These clumps and those having high uncertainties in size have been excluded from calculations of physical parameters (Section 3.4). For four cores where all revealed clumps are smaller than the telescope beam the parameters of the whole core are also given in Table 5. For three of them (G 265.14, G 269.11 and G 285.26) physical parameters have been calculated.

### 3.4 Physical parameters of clumps

In column 7 of Table 5 mean line widths averaged over the half maximum intensity regions are given. For overlapping clumps that are not separated at this level, line widths have been averaged over the whole regions. The following formula was used for weighted averages:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }V=\frac{w_i\mathrm{\Delta }V_i}{w_i},$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_i`$ – velocity dispersion in the $`i`$-th position, $`w_i=\sigma _i^2`$ and $`\sigma _i`$ – uncertainty of velocity dispersion in the $`i`$-th position calculated from the fit. Uncertainties of mean line width were calculated as:

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }V}=\sigma \frac{\sqrt{w_i^2}}{w_i},$$
(4)
where

$$\sigma =\sqrt{\frac{w_i\mathrm{\Delta }V_i^2}{w_i}\mathrm{\Delta }V^2}$$
(5)
is the uncertainty of individual line width measurements taking into account point-to-point differences in line widths and using the same weights.

Mean line widths vary from 1 km s-1 to 4.7 km s-1, i.e. much higher than thermal widths. So these values should be considered as non-thermal velocity dispersion in the sources without any recalculations.

Following Paper I we have calculated virial masses of homogeneous spherically-symmetrical clumps with no external pressure and no magnetic field (e.g. Pirogov & Zinchenko pz (1998)):

$$M_{\mathrm{vir}}(M_{})=105\mathrm{\Delta }V^2d,$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ and $`d`$ are in km s-1 and pc units. Virial masses (column 8 of Table 5) lie in the range: $`303000`$ $`M_{}`$. These values should be treated as upper limits. If clumps have inner density profiles $`r^\alpha `$, equation (6) should be multiplied by the factor $`\frac{3}{5}\frac{52\alpha }{3\alpha }`$ which for $`\alpha 0`$ is $`1`$. Mean volume densities for spherically-symmetric clumps have been calculated as

$$n_{\mathrm{vir}}=3M_{\mathrm{vir}}/(4\pi r^3m),$$
(7)
where $`r=d/2`$ is the radius of the half maximum intensity region, $`m=2.33`$ amu, mean molecular mass. Mean volume densities lie in the range: $`(0.517.1)10^4`$ cm-3 (see column 9 of Table 5). The N2H+ abundances are given in column 10 of Table 5:

$$X(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)=\frac{N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)}{N(\mathrm{H}_2)},$$
(8)
where $`N(`$N2H$`{}_{}{}^{+})`$ is mean column density averaged over the emission region defined by $`I/I_{\mathrm{MAX}}0.5`$ and $`N(\mathrm{H}_2)`$ is molecular hydrogen column density calculated for the same region using virial mass estimate. Calculated abundances lie in the range: $`(1.212.8)10^{10}`$. Averaged over 36 analyzed clumps, $`X(`$N2H$`{}_{}{}^{+})=(5.2\pm 0.5)10^{10}`$.

## 4 Distributions of the observed parameters over the sources

According to the present theories of star formation radial dependences of density and velocity dispersion (which is considered to be related to magnetic field distribution) are the most important parameters describing the evolution of star forming cores. In particular, the standard theory of low-mass star formation from a singular isothermal sphere (Shu shu (1977)) gives a radial density law $`r^2`$ for nearly static envelope while in the logatropic sphere model for massive star formation density varies as $`r^1`$ (McLaughlin & Pudritz mclaughlin (1996)). Velocity dispersion in the latter model is nearly constant in the center and rises with distance in the outer regions as $`r^{1/3}`$.

Recent studies of dust continuum emission in star forming low-mass and massive cores have not revealed significant differences between density power-law indices ($`\alpha `$) for these two classes of objects, implying $`\alpha 1.52`$. Molecular multi-line modeling of massive cores shows somewhat lower values (see Section 1). An analysis of the N2H+(1–0) data in low-mass cores (Paper I) revealed the following ranges: $`\alpha =1.82.8`$ for cores with stars, and $`\alpha =1.61.9`$ for cores without stars.

Goodman et al. (goodman98 (1998)) found that velocity dispersion profiles in low-mass cores are nearly constant within so-called “coherent regions” with sizes of $`0.1`$ pc, while rising in the outer regions with power-law index $`0.2`$ which is more in line with the logatropic model. Low-mass cores observed in N2H+(1–0) (Paper I) imply “coherent lengths” of $`0.01`$ pc but show no common trends in the outer regions. In contrast, molecular line widths in massive cores increase toward the center (Zinchenko zin2 (1995), Lapinov et al. lapinov (1998), Fontani et al. fontani (2002)) which could be connected either with optical depth effects or with an enhancement of dynamical activity of gas in central regions.

In this section we make an attempt to derive N2H+ integrated intensity and line width radial profiles on the cores which, under certain assumptions, could be connected with density and velocity dispersion profiles, respectively. An analysis of velocity gradients in the cores which could give a clue to their rotational properties is also given.

### 4.1 Integrated intensity profiles

As N2H+ emission is probably optically thin toward most of the map positions, except peak positions in few of them (see Section 3.2), their integrated intensity distributions should follow column density distributions if excitation conditions do not vary inside the sources. If in addition N2H+ abundance is constant, the integrated intensity distribution is directly related to the hydrogen column density distribution. Then, for infinite, spherically-symmetric core the power-law index for volume density profile will be $`p+1`$, where $`p`$ is an integrated intensity power-law index (see e.g. Motte & André motte (2001)).

We performed fitting of N2H+(1–0) integrated intensity maps for 26 clumps which are not highly elongated (axial ratios $`<2`$) using power-law radial distributions ($`r^p`$) convolved in 2D with a gaussian telescope beam. Although power laws are not optimal for fitting the radial distributions (e.g. gaussian functions usually give lower $`\chi ^2`$ values) we used them in order to probe different star formation theories. The intensity maps integrated over total line range as well as those integrated over the (01–12) component have been analyzed. The latter should be less affected by optical depth effects than total integrated intensity maps, however, due to lower intensities these maps are more noisy and in several cases fits were not successful. Power-law index, amplitude and coordinates of maximum position have been varied in order to get the best fit. Power-law indices calculated for these two kinds of maps ($`p`$ and $`p^{}`$, respectively) with fitting uncertainties are given in Table 6. We have also calculated power-law indices for reduced integrated intensity maps which contain only points with intensities equal or higher than 20% and 40% of peak integrated intensity. The calculated power-law indices ($`p_{20}`$ and $`p_{40}`$, respectively) and corresponding uncertainties are also given in Table 6. In Fig. 4 four examples of integrated intensity maps as 1D profiles are shown together with fitting results for reduced maps. The radial distance ($`r`$) in Fig. 4 is the distance from the maximum of fitting curve to the given point of the map. The data below the dashed lines (20% of peak integrated intensity) have not been taken into account during fitting.

A comparison of the different power-law indices derived for each individual source (Table 6) shows that $`p`$ and $`p^{}`$ are nearly the same confirming the idea that optical depth effects are not important in general. Mean power-law indices averaged over the sources in Table 6 are: $`p=1.29(0.05)`$ and $`p^{}=1.34(0.06)`$. We have fitted total integrated intensity maps without data points with intensities larger than 90% of the peak, which could mainly suffer from optical depth effects. In this case the power-law indices are also close to $`p`$. However, a further comparison of power-law indices calculated for total and reduced maps reveals the following inequality: $`pp_{20}p_{40}`$ for most of the sources, indicating that N2H+(1–0) intensity distributions are steeper away from map centers comparing with inner regions and do not follow single power law. Note, that the $`p_{20}`$ and $`p_{40}`$ indices calculated over the regions with relatively high intensities could be more influenced by possible saturation effects than the $`p`$ indices. The effect of steepening of dust intensity distributions in outer regions was found by Beuther et al. (beuther (2002)) for most of massive star forming cores they studied; they associated this phenomenon with finite sizes of the cores. N2H+(1–0) integrated intensity profiles in low mass cores also demonstrated the same effect (Paper I) but it was explained by fast drop in excitation temperature caused by density drop in outer core regions. The latter seems doubtful since the same cores mapped in CS are usually more extended than in N2H+ (Zinchenko et al. zin1 (1994), zin3 (1995), zin4 (1998); Juvela juvela (1996)), instead, the fast decrease of intensities could be caused by N2H+ abundance drop (A. Lapinov, private communication).

Mean power-law indices for reduced maps averaged over the sources in Table 6 are: $`p_{20}=1.05(0.06)`$ and $`p_{40}=0.96(0.10)`$. Assuming excitation conditions are constant and saturation effects are small in the interior regions where $`I/I_{\mathrm{MAX}}0.2`$, the derived power-law indices more likely correspond to density profiles $`r^2`$ as the theory of isothermal sphere predicts (Shu shu (1977)). This is in general consistent with mean power-law index 1.6(0.5) found by Beuther et al. (beuther (2002)) for radial density profiles in inner clump regions ($`32\mathrm{}`$) of massive star forming cores as well as with the value 1.8(0.4) derived by Mueller et al. (mueller (2002)) for dense cores associated with water masers. Our sample includes seven sources explored by Mueller et al. (mueller (2002)), and for five of them (RNO 1B, NGC 281, G 173.48, S 76E and S 140) we have got intensity profile power-law indices. However, density power-law indices derived by Mueller et al. (mueller (2002)) are systematically lower by $`0.40.6`$ than the values $`p_{20}+1`$ expected for density profiles from our data for inner clump regions. Model calculations of N2H+ excitation in dense cores as well as maps of optically thin dust emission for the rest of our core sample are highly desirable to explain the origin of the discrepancy.

### 4.2 Velocity dispersion profiles

The values of line widths obtained from spectra fits are much larger than thermal widths (kinetic, dust or peak CO(1–0) temperatures for the sample sources are $`2050`$ K, see Schreyer et al. schreyer (1996), Zinchenko et al. zin3 (1995), zin6 (1997), zin4 (1998)) and could be used as a measure for dispersion of non-thermal velocities in the sources. This parameter is widely used in theoretical models describing non-thermal motions of gas within dense cores and is important for calculations of equation of state, stability and evolution of dense envelopes around newborn stars.

We have compared line width and integrated intensity maps and found that in most cases the shapes of the regions with constant line width do not follow directly integrated intensity distributions demonstrating more complex clumpy structures.

Since one-dimensional line width profiles demonstrate large scatter, we used the method from Paper I to calculate a dependence of averaged line widths on impact parameters. Only the values higher than $`3\sigma `$ were taken for averaging. Here, the impact parameter ($`b`$) is the square root of $`A/\pi `$, where $`A`$ is the area of the region enclosing all the points with intensity larger than certain level, which in turn varies from $`I_{\mathrm{max}}`$ to $`0.05I_{\mathrm{max}}`$ with a step $`0.01I_{\mathrm{max}}`$. If the difference $`b_ib_{i1}`$ becomes higher than half of the mapping step (10$`\mathrm{}`$) the averaged line width and its uncertainty have been calculated for this region according to the formulas (35).

In Fig. 5 velocity dispersion profiles are given for ten sources having at least 5 points per profile including seven cores with one clump and three clumps separated from their neighbours at half maximum intensity level. The number of averaged values per point on the plots increases with $`b`$ from 1 to 10–15 at the edge. Uncertainties of averaged line widths also increase with $`b`$ (if they are lower than $`(\sigma _i^2)^{1/2}`$, where $`\sigma _i`$ is the line width uncertainty in the $`i`$-th map position calculated from the spectral fit, the latter values are shown). The cores with one clump demonstrate that velocity dispersion decreases with impact parameter or remains nearly constant in one case (NGC 281). In 5 of these 7 cases, IRAS sources (taking into account their position uncertainties) are located within 90% of peak intensity level. In the three remaining clumps in Fig. 5 there is no clear $`\mathrm{\Delta }Vb`$ trend and either no associated IRAS source or it is located outside half maximum intensity level. RNO 1B, S 199 and G 268.42 demonstrate the steepest slopes. Differences between central line widths and those at the edges of these cores are $`11.5`$ km s-1. For eight cores with more than one clump per core and at least 5 points per profile which are not shown in Fig. 5 there is a decrease of line width with impact parameter at least in two cases, G 269.11 and G 264.28. In other cases no clear trend has been found.

An enhancement of line width in central regions in several cases could be at least in part due to optical depth effects. In fact, line optical depths $`0.51.5`$ can result in $`1.11.3`$ gaussian line broadening due to saturation (e.g. Phillips et al. phillips2 (1979)). Therefore, the line width profiles in RNO 1B, S 76E (optical depths are given in Table 4) and, probably, in S 199, G 173.48 and G 173.58, where optical depths are more uncertain (1.3$`\pm `$0.7, 0.2$`\pm `$0.1 and 0.6$`\pm `$0.3, respectively), could partially suffer from this effect but cannot alone explain the observed trends in all the cases. The conclusion will not change if the objects consist of small unresolved clumps.

A plausible explanation could be found in a larger degree of dynamical activity of gas in central regions in the vicinity of IRAS point sources, including differential rotation, infall motions and turbulence due to winds and outflows from massive stars.

### 4.3 Velocity gradients

It is known that an analysis of spatial distributions of line-of-sight velocities is fruitful in revealing rotational motions of gas (Goodman et al. goodman (1993)). In particular, solid body rotation should produce linear gradients on $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$ maps. Velocity gradients also have been interpreted in terms of turbulent motions by Burkert & Bodenheimer (BB (2000)).

In order to investigate velocity structure of the sample cores we have used a least squares fitting program (Goodman et al.goodman (1993), Paper I) which calculates local and total linear velocity gradients for a given core (see Paper I for a detailed explanation of the program). The results of fits are summarized in Table 7 where the magnitude ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) and the direction ($`\mathrm{\Theta }_\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, direction of increasing velocity, measured east of north) of the total velocity gradient in each core, the product of the velocity gradient and core size ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }\times d`$), and $`\beta `$, the ratio of rotational to gravitational energy (Goodman et al. goodman (1993), Paper I) are given. We have not separated all the cores into clumps (as has been done in Section 4.1) except those having clumps that do not overlap at half maximum intensity level (S 187, G 133.69, AFGL 6366, S 255 and G 345.41).

In Fig. 6 local velocity gradient maps (white arrows) overlayed over integrated intensity maps (grey scaled) are shown for 20 cores. Two objects (S 187 and G 133.69) are not shown due to small number of points per local gradient map. The arrows point towards increasing $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$. Total velocity gradients calculated for the whole cores or distinct clumps are shown by bold arrows; their values are also indicated. Many sources show systematic and at least in some parts of maps nearly constant (both in magnitude and direction) velocity gradient fields, implying nearly uniform rotation (e.g. RNO 1B, S 201, G 173.48, G 173.58, S 255, G 264.28, G 265.14).

The cores with (not separated) closely located clumps usually have more complex velocity fields than those composed of single clump or more clumps separated at the half maximum intensity level. No direct link between velocity gradient distribution and IRAS source location has been found. The direction of constant velocity gradient field in several cases is close to elongation angle of the core. For 17 cores resolved in both directions there is a correlation between direction angle of total velocity gradient ($`\mathrm{\Theta }_\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) and elongation angle found from 2D gaussian fitting of integrated intensity maps, with correlation coefficient, $`cc=0.9`$. This fact satisfies an assumption that elongation of cores and clumps could be due to rotation. Yet, $`\beta `$ values vary from $`410^4`$ to $`7.110^2`$ with the mean value of 0.01 for 27 sources (Table 7, last column). These ratios are the lowest ones among dense cores with 0.2–2 pc sizes (Phillips phillips (1999)). Thus, rotation should not play significant role in core dynamics.

## 5 Correlations between mean velocity dispersions, column densities and sizes

We have searched for possible correlations between mean line widths (or mean non-thermal velocity dispersions) and emission region sizes for the cores and clumps found by deconvolution method (see Section 3.3). Beginning from the works of Larson (larson (1981)) and Myers (myers (1985)) such correlations are widely used in estimates of clouds stability and turbulence.

In Fig. 7(a) we plot mean line widths versus emission region sizes in logarithmic scale for 26 cores and clumps having size estimates (Table 5), with the exception of three cores presenting more than one velocity component (G 316.77, G 345.01 and G 351.41). The correlation coefficient between parameters is not high ($`0.5`$), yet, the correlation is significant. The hypothesis of zero correlation is rejected at 0.6% significance level (Press et al. press (1992)). The slope of the regression line, calculated by the ordinary least-squares method, is 0.3(0.1), and the intercept coefficient is 0.38(0.03). Practically, the same results have been obtained excluding the cores with steepest line width profiles (RNO 1B, S 199 and G 268.42, see Section 4.2), for which mean line widths could be enhanced due to additional broadening in the central regions of the maps. However, since the compared variables are independent, it could be more correct to use linear regression methods that treat them symmetrically (e.g. orthogonal, reduced major-axis or bisector methods, see Isobe et al. isobe (1990)). Applying these methods to the data we have obtained higher slopes (0.4–0.65) and nearly the same intercept values.

The regression line calculated by the ordinary least-squares method is shown in Fig. 7(a) as a solid line together with two additional linear regressions found by other authors with the same method for massive cores. Whereas the dependence of Caselli & Myers (cm (1995)) (dashed line) was calculated using multi-line data for more compact cores in Orion A and B, the dependence of Zinchenko (zin5 (2000)) (dotted line) was calculated for the sample observed in CS and C34S. All the slopes agree within the uncertainties of their determination.

We have also searched for possible correlations between peak N2H+ column densities (which in the case of constant N2H+ abundances trace hydrogen column densities) and sizes (Fig. 7(b)). These parameters have been chosen because they are independent, unlike to mean densities and virial masses which have been calculated using size estimates (see Section 3.4). No significant correlation has been found. No correlation has been also found between mean N2H+ column densities (averaged over emission regions with $`I/I_{\mathrm{MAX}}0.5`$) and sizes.

It is doubtful that the observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }Vd`$ dependence is connected with general turbulence properties or with some common equation of state for the sample cores. As it is shown in Section 4.2 there is no evidence for growing line width with distance inside the cores. On the other hand, the dependence found does not contradict the assumption of gravitationally bounded objects in virial equilibrium. Depending on the so-called virial parameter, $`M_{\mathrm{vir}}/M`$ (Bertoldi & McKee BM (1992)), where virial mass is calculated from equation (6) and $`M`$ is an independent estimate of mass, such objects could be in the critical state on the threshold of gravitational collapse ($`M_{\mathrm{vir}}/M`$1) or in pressure equilibrium ($`M_{\mathrm{vir}}/M>>`$1) (e.g. Pirogov & Zinchenko pz (1998)). If the cores are close to the critical state, with magnetic energy being of the order of kinetic energy, the slope of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }Vd`$ dependence should be equal to 0.5, with intercept coefficient depending on external pressure and inner density profile. Column density in this case does not depend on size. If the cores are in pressure equilibrium, any $`\mathrm{\Delta }Vd^q`$ dependence implies a corresponding $`Md^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3}2q}`$ dependence.

Our virial masses for four cores coincide within a factor of 1.5 with the $`M_n`$ masses found by Mueller et al. (mueller (2002)), and in one case (RNO 1B) the virial mass is $`5`$ times lower than the corresponding $`M_n`$ value, which could be connected with differences in core size. Masses derived from CS observations for most of the sample sources (Zinchenko et al. zin1 (1994), zin3 (1995), zin4 (1998); Juvela juvela (1996)) are several times larger than our virial masses (except G 316.77), yet, CS emission is usually more extended. Therefore, if the studied cores are in equilibrium, they could be close to the critical state rather than in pressure equilibrium.

## 6 Comparison with physical parameters of low-mass cores

In Table 8 physical parameters of the clumps averaged over the studied sample are given together with the same parameters derived in Paper I for low-mass cores with and without stars. Physical parameters for massive cores are taken from Table 3 and Table 5. We have used weighted averages for the parameters which uncertainties resulted from fits (line width, size, axial ratio, power-law index, velocity gradient), for the others standard arithmetic means are given. In brackets we give standard deviations (as in Paper I).

Apart from well-known differences in virial mass and velocity dispersion between these two samples, one can see that massive cores have higher sizes and column densities, lower mean densities and velocity gradients than low-mass counterparts. Note, that for low-mass cores $`d=2r`$, where $`r`$ was taken from Table 6 of Paper I. Mean power-law indices for integrated intensity maps for the studied cores are also given as well as the same parameters for low-mass cores (see Table 6 from Paper I, $`p=\alpha 1`$). On average, integrated intensity profiles in massive cores have nearly the same power-law indices as in low-mass cores within uncertainties of their determination. Mean axial and $`\beta `$ ratios, as well as mean N2H+ abundances also are nearly the same taking into account their uncertainties. Velocity dispersion in massive cores is either constant or decreases with distance from the center in contrast to low-mass cores where no common tendency was found.

The fact that mean density in massive cores is lower than in low-mass cores is somewhat unexpected. For example, Fontani et al. (fontani (2002)) recently found densities of $`10^510^6`$ cm-3 for the sample of massive cores associated with ultracompact H II regions and having sizes 0.2–1.6 pc. Possible explanation could be found if dense cores from our sample actually consist of unresolved clumps much smaller than the telescope beam. If density of such unresolved clumps is the same as for low-mass cores with stars (see Table 8) the clumps volume filling factor should be $`0.3`$.

## 7 Conclusions

In order to derive physical conditions of dense gas in molecular cloud cores where massive stars and star clusters are formed, 35 objects from northern and southern hemispheres have been observed in the N2H+(1–0) line. N2H+ emission has been detected in 33 sources, and detailed maps have been obtained for 28 sources. The results can be summarized as follows:

1. Peak LTE N2H+ column densities lie in the range: 3.6$``$1012–1.5$``$1014 cm-2. Intensity ratios of (01–12) to (23–12) hyperfine components in most cases are slightly higher than the LTE value. The optical depth of (23–12) component toward peak intensity positions of 10 sources is $`0.21`$.
2. N2H+ intensity maps in most cases show elongated or more complex structures. Two-dimensional gaussian fittings have revealed 47 clumps in 26 objects. Their sizes lie in the range: 0.3–2.1 pc, the range of virial masses is $`303000M_{}`$. Mean N2H+ abundance for 36 clumps is $`(5.2\pm 0.5)10^{10}`$.
3. Power-law indices for radial integrated intensity profiles in the cores with axial ratios $`<2`$ have been calculated. The mean value of power-law index is close to 1.3 for total integrated intensity maps in 25 objects, and about unity for reduced maps, where positions of low intensity were rejected. This corresponds to a density profile $`r^2`$ in the core inner regions, assuming constant N2H+ excitation conditions and abundances, and small saturation effects.
4. In the cores with relatively extensive and high quality maps N2H+ line widths either decrease or stay constant with distance from the center implying an enhanced dynamical activity in the central regions in the vicinity of IRAS sources.
5. Elongation angles of the 17 cores and distinct clumps correlate with total velocity gradient direction confirming that elongation could be due to rotation. However, the ratio of rotational to gravitational energy ($`410^4`$$`7.110^2`$) is too low for rotation to play a significant role in the dynamics of the cores.
6. A correlation has been found between mean line widths and sizes of the clumps, $`\mathrm{\Delta }Vd^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.3}\pm 0.1}`$. No correlation has been found between peak N2H+ column densities and the sizes. These results do not contradict the assumption of gravitationally bounded objects in virial equilibrium.
7. A comparison between mean physical parameters of massive and low-mass cores (Paper I) reveals that massive cores have higher sizes, N2H+ column densities, virial masses and velocity dispersions as well as lower mean densities and velocity gradients than low-mass counterparts. Mean N2H+ abundances, axial ratios and ratios of rotational to gravitational energy are nearly the same. N2H+ integrated intensity profiles have nearly the same mean power-law indices while velocity dispersions in massive cores have a tendency to decrease with distance in contrast to low-mass cores, where no common trend was found.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to A. Lapinov for valuable comments. We would like to thank the anonymous referee for useful detailed comments. The research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated by CDS, Strasbourg, France. The work was supported by NASA-CRDF grant RPO-841, INTAS grant 99-1667 and Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 03-02-16307 (in part). PC wish to acknowledge support from the MURST project “Dust and molecules in astrophysical environments”. PCM would like to acknowledge NASA grant NAG-6266.


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# Neutrino Mixings and Unified Theories

## 1 Introduction

The last five years have proven to be incredibly rich in Neutrino Physics. Numerous experiments around the globe enabled to turn neutrino oscillations from discovery into an almost complete determination of the physical parameters. Noticeably, the confirmation of the original oscillation signals from solar and atmospheric neutrinos by terrestrial and man-made sources stands as a remarkable success $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ and leads to a consistent picture of the neutrino sector.

The scheme that emerges involves the three active neutrinos, whose light mass eigenstates aaain the effective low-energy description with Majorana masses are related to the flavor eigenstates by a mixing matrix $`U_{MNS}`$ (the Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata matrix) bbb in the charged leptons mass eigenstates basis that contains two large and one small mixing angles. The presence of a small mixing angle $`\theta _{13}`$ enables to write $`U_{MNS}`$ as

$$U_{MNS}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{}& \mathrm{sin}\theta _{}& s_{13}e^{i\delta }\\ \mathrm{sin}\theta _{}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{}& \mathrm{cos}\theta _{}\mathrm{cos}\theta _{}& \mathrm{sin}\theta _{}\\ \mathrm{sin}\theta _{}\mathrm{sin}\theta _{}& \mathrm{cos}\theta _{}\mathrm{sin}\theta _{}& \mathrm{cos}\theta _{}\end{array}\right)$$
(1)
where $`\theta _{}\pi /6`$ and $`\theta _{}\pi /4`$ are the mixing angles measured by solar and atmospheric neutrinos experiments respectively, $`s_{13}=\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _{13}`$ and $`\delta `$ is a possible CP violating phase. The constraint from the CHOOZ experiment $`^\mathrm{?}`$ translates into a bound for $`\theta _{13}`$

$$\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _{13}0.03$$
(2)
A mild hierarchy between $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2`$ for solar neutrinos and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2`$ for atmospheric neutrinos is also observed $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$, although the absolute scale for neutrinos masses is yet to be found. Assuming the LMA solution for solar neutrinos (combined with the KamLAND result), we have

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2710^5\mathrm{eV}^2;\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2310^3\mathrm{eV}^2$$
(3)
so that

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2}{\mathrm{\Delta }m_{}^2}10^2$$
(4)
The experimental evidences that support this picture can be summarized as follows. The SNO neutral current data $`^\mathrm{?}`$ proves beyond any doubt that flavor conversion of solar neutrinos is taking place. Moreover, it limits severely the amount of neutrino disappearance in sterile flavors or in extra-dimensions. The observed loss of reactor anti-neutrinos in KamLAND agrees with the solar neutrinos data, and selects the LMA region as the unique solution. Moreover, the possibility of CPT violation in the neutrino sector, although not completely ruled out, seems unlikely. Of course, the controversial claim of the LSND experiment $`^\mathrm{?}`$ is quite problematic in this picture, because a $`4\nu `$ scheme gives only a poor fit to the data. It will need the verdict of miniBoone, meanwhile, one solution is simply to drop out the LSND result.

It appears that the Yukawa structure in the neutrino sector looks very different from that of the quark sector, where steep mass hierarchies come along with small mixing angles. From the model-building point of view, the latter situation is natural, because a hierarchical structure in a mass matrix will precisely yield hierarchical masses and small mixing angles. For example, with two flavors, a mass matrix with the structure (the $`𝒪(1)`$ prefactor coefficients are dropped)

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}ϵ^2& ϵ\\ ϵ& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(5)
with $`ϵ1`$ gives two eigenmasses $`m_1𝒪(1)`$ and $`m_2𝒪(ϵ^2)`$, and a mixing angle $`\theta 𝒪(ϵ)`$. On the contrary, hierarchical masses with large mixings lead to a mass matrix without hierarchical structure, but with correlated entries. Again, with two flavors, if $`m_1𝒪(1)`$, $`m_2𝒪(ϵ^2)`$ and $`\theta =\pi /4`$ we get a matrix of the form

$$\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(6)
whose determinant is $`D𝒪(ϵ^2)`$. Of course, the absolute mass scale of neutrinos is not known yet, but naturalness arguments in unified theories favor hierarchical masses over almost degenerate masses with hyperfine splittings.

The question is to understand how large mixing angles have to be treated in a model-building point of view. In what follows, we analyze their relationships with hierarchical mass patterns to derive possible hidden components of a unifying structure. We then show how these components can be embedded in a scheme with a replicated gauge group.

## 2 Schemes with large neutrinos mixings

We start by reconstructing the effective neutrino mass matrix, assuming hierarchical masses, to obtain the following hierarchical structure

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}ϵ& ϵ& ϵ\\ ϵ& 1& 1\\ ϵ& 1& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(7)
The parameter $`ϵ`$ is set by the measured ratio of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$, so $`ϵ^210^2`$.

It is worth pointing out that the hierarchy in the neutrino sector is very mild compared to that observed in the charged lepton or in the quark sectors. This observation, together with the appearance of large mixing angles, supports the idea of anarchy as a hypothesis for the description of the neutrino sector. A first task is to compare this possibility to a hierarchical structure.

### 2.1 Anarchy

Anarchy is basically the idea that there is no fundamental distinction between the three different flavors of neutrinos. The neutrino mass matrix will therefore have no structure

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& 1& 1\\ 1& 1& 1\\ 1& 1& 1\end{array}\right)$$
(8)
and the observed values of mixing angles and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ ratio just reflect Nature’s choice of the random $`𝒪(1)`$ prefactors that conspired to produce the observed data.

In this scenario, large mixing angles are expected to be generic, so that the small value of $`\theta _{13}`$ puts a severe constraint. Anarchical matrices have been analyzed using statistical tools $`^\mathrm{?}`$, and have been shown to be consistent with data with a probability of about 12%.

The anarchical hypothesis can also be embedded in a model $`^\mathrm{?}`$ based on an Abelian family symmetry commuting with $`SU(5)`$, which can reproduce the observed hierarchies among quarks and leptons. This step towards a quark-lepton unification in the Yukawa couplings finds roots in the mass relation $`m_bm_\tau `$. However, the agreement in the measured masses between down-type quarks and charged leptons deteriorates for the lighter families. As argued in an earlier work $`^\mathrm{?}`$, in the framework of Abelian family symmetries, neutrino data could also hint at some quark-lepton unification. In this context, it is natural to ask how large mixing angles can appear in the lepton sector while only small mixing angles are observed in the quark sector. In the case of a family symmetry that commutes with $`SU(5)`$, the answer is that the charged leptons and the down-type quarks mass matrices are transposed of one another, and therefore, large mixing angles in the lepton sector correspond to hidden, unobservable rotations in the quark sector.

We also note that the anarchical scenario for neutrinos is a possible outcome in a unified scheme with a replicated gauge group $`^\mathrm{?}`$.

### 2.2 Hierarchy

If the neutrino mass matrix is given by Eq. (7), the values of the mixing angles will also strongly depend on how the prefactor coefficients conspire.

In the generic case, i.e. when there is no cancellation between these coefficients, the sub-determinant of the 2-3 block is $`D_1𝒪(1)`$, so we expect the following behavior for eigenmasses and mixing angles,

$$\mu _1𝒪(ϵ),\mu _{2,3}𝒪(1);\theta _{}𝒪(1),\theta _{},s_{13}𝒪(ϵ)$$
(9)
If the sub-determinant is suppressed, the solar mixing angle gets enhanced. It becomes large, $`\theta _{}𝒪(1)`$, for $`D_1𝒪(ϵ)`$, and close to maximal for $`D_1𝒪(ϵ^p)`$, with $`p>1`$.

The sensitivity of the solar mixing angle to the value of the sub-determinant implies that radiative corrections might play an important role. When the neutrino masses are obtained by the see-saw mechanism, the corrections are indeed important, and depend strongly on the masses of the right-handed neutrinos $`^\mathrm{?}`$. On the other hand, the mixing angles $`\theta _{}`$ and $`\theta _{13}`$ are more stable.

If radiative corrections are indeed important for the solar mixing angle, low-energy and high-energy parameters will not be simply related. In particular, the correspondence will presumably depend on the unknown masses of the right-handed neutrinos. These difficulties can be avoided in several cases.

For example, in the situation referred to as ”right-handed neutrino dominance $`^\mathrm{?}`$”, only one right-handed neutrino is responsible for the leading contributions to the low-energy mass matrix obtained. As an illustration, we take two flavors and

$$m_D=m\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& b\\ c& d\end{array}\right),M^1=\frac{1}{M_0}\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 0\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right)$$
(10)
This gives a low-energy neutrino mass matrix with a vanishing determinant

$$m_\nu =m_DM^1m_D^t=\frac{m^2}{M_0}\left(\begin{array}{cc}a^2& ac\\ ac& c^2\end{array}\right)$$
(11)
The other right-handed neutrinos give rise to sub-leading contributions. As a result, the sub-determinant can be naturally small, even if radiative corrections are added. Therefore, a natural large solar mixing angle can be obtained if right-handed neutrino dominance holds. However, it is not clear that $`\theta _{}`$ will be stable against radiative corrections, because its precise value is a ratio of sub-leading contributions.

Right-handed neutrino dominance is however not a feature of models with $`U(1)`$ family symmetries of the chiral type. The basic reason is that the right-handed neutrino family charges cancel in the see-saw. The structure of the neutrino matrix is given by the charges of the lepton doublet

$$m_\nu L\overline{N}\frac{1}{\overline{N}\overline{N}^t}(L\overline{N})^tLL^t$$
(12)
and the value of the sub-determinant $`D_1`$ is not generically suppressed.

### 2.3 Discrete symmetries

Another way to avoid the sensitivity to radiative corrections is to impose more symmetry. One can think of non-Abelian symmetries, or discrete symmetries as additional components of the flavor structure.

Discrete flavor symmetries in the neutrino mass matrix give the possibility to enforce special values of the mixing angles, as it is suggested by the recent neutrino data. For example, with two generations, a permutation symmetry $`P_{12}`$ between the two flavors automatically imposes a maximal mixing angle. With three generations, an approximate $`P_{23}`$ symmetry can give rise to a maximal atmospheric angle, and a large but not maximal solar angle $`^\mathrm{?}`$.

An extension of a permutation symmetry to three flavors leads to the finite non-Abelian group $`S_3`$ of permutations of three objects. It turns out $`^\mathrm{?}`$ that a tri-bimaximal neutrino mixing can be achieved if neutrinos belong to the (reducible) three dimensional representation of $`S_3`$. The tri-bimaximal mixing corresponds to a bi-maximally mixed neutrino $`\nu _3`$ and a tri-maximally mixed neutrino $`\nu _2`$, corresponding to a maximal atmospheric angle $`\theta _{}=45^{}`$, and a large solar angle of about $`\theta _{}35^{}`$.

$$U=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}& 0\\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\end{array}\right)$$
(13)
## 3 Flavor symmetries revisited

Because the Yukawa structure and the mixing angles are very different for quarks and for leptons, it is difficult to embed naturally both sectors in a unified scheme. A hierarchical structure that arises from an Abelian family symmetry can fit nicely the quark sector but leaves the neutrino sector sensitive to order one parameters and to possible radiative corrections. On the other hand, a discrete symmetry that would explain the particular values of the neutrino mixings would require severe fine-tuning to accommodate the hierarchical mass patterns for quarks.

How can Abelian flavor symmetries and discrete flavor symmetries emerge from a common scheme? We contemplate the idea that both components emerge from a replicated gauge structure of the type

$$G_0=G\times G\times G$$
(14)
The fundamental gauge group at the Planck scale contains a copy of the same group $`G`$ for each generation. Fermions for each family fall into representations of the respective copy of $`G`$, but are singlets under the other copies. By symmetry-breaking, the fundamental group is reduced to the diagonal (family-blind) Standard Model gauge group $`SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)_Y`$. In the chain of symmetry breakings, family-dependent Abelian symmetries are left over at some intermediate step. We assume that they are responsible for the observed hierarchies of the Yukawa couplings. In this framework, the question of family hierarchy reduces to a search for plausible unifying groups and the way to break them. The patterns of the fermion masses and mixings are encoded in the underlying group structure and the breaking path $`^\mathrm{?}`$.

Because the low-energy spectrum contains chiral fermions, a good candidate for a replicated gauge group must be anomaly-free and have complex representations that contain the known fermions. This limits the freedom to the sequence

$$E_6SO(10)SU(5)$$
(15)
It turns out that phenomenologically relevant $`U(1)`$ symmetries can arise in the breaking

$$E_6\times E_6\times E_6SU(5)$$
(16)
We refer the interested reader to the paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ for a detailed analysis of the symmetry breaking and the way they can give rise to family-dependent $`U(1)`$ symmetries. Here, we would only like to point out that this construction leads to Abelian flavor symmetries that are automatically anomaly-free. Moreover, their form is not arbitrary, but is reminiscent of the group structure and the breaking path, although the (finite) number of such possible flavor symmetries turns out to be quite large.

The breaking scheme of Eq. (16) leads to a few viable mass patterns from the point of view of phenomenology. They are expressed by the family charges for the two irreducible representations $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟎}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟓}}`$ of $`SU(5)`$ (The family symmetry $`Y_F`$ commutes with $`SU(5)`$ because of the breaking scheme that has been chosen). Three models are listed in Table 1.

All these models lead to the following relations, strongly suggested by data,

$$\frac{m_c}{m_t}\left(\frac{m_s}{m_b}\right)^2\left(\frac{m_\mu }{m_\tau }\right)^2\lambda ^4$$
(17)
where the expansion parameter $`\lambda `$ has a value close to that of the Cabibbo angle $`\lambda _c0.22`$. As a reward, the relations in Eq. (17) automatically give rise to a large mixing angle for the atmospheric neutrinos!

As we can see, these models realize a compromise between the strong hierarchy observed in the quark sector, and the mild hierarchy with large mixing angles in the neutrino sector. In particular, the model A gives rise to an anarchical scenario for the neutrinos. We suggest that a discrete flavor symmetry plays a critical role in this last case. In the replicated gauge structure, it is indeed natural to suppose that the full lagrangian at the Planck scale is invariant under the permutation group $`S_3`$ between the three families. In the quark sector, this symmetry is spontaneously broken by the vacuum expectation value of the order parameter, and the $`U(1)`$ flavor symmetry drives a hierarchical structure. However, the flavor gauge structure being absent for neutrinos, an exact $`S_3`$ symmetry can remain. If this is the case, the low-energy neutrino mixing angles that are being measured may be remnants of a replicated structure that holds at a very early stage. A complete understanding of this picture is still in progress $`^\mathrm{?}`$.

## 4 Conclusions

The advent of large mixing angles in the neutrino sector brings a new challenge for theorists. While hierarchical structures that arise from $`U(1)`$ flavor symmetries are well suited to describe the quark sector, their predictions for neutrinos become sensitive to $`𝒪(1)`$ coefficients and radiative corrections. Rather, a discrete symmetry based on the group $`S_3`$ might be an adequate ingredient chosen by Nature. We have shown that both components arise naturally in a scheme with a replicated gauge group.

## Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the United States Department of Energy under grant DE-FG02-97ER41029. The author would like to thank the conference organizers for their hospitality.

## References


text:
# Flavor Symmetry Breaking in Strongly Coupled 𝑁=1 Supersymmetric 𝑆𝑂(𝑁_𝑐) Gauge Theory with 𝑁_𝑓=𝑁_𝑐-2 1footnote 11footnote 1to be published in Europhysics Letters (2003)

(April, 2003)

## Abstract

In the $`SO(N_c)`$ gauge theory with $`N_f`$ quarks for $`N_f=N_c2`$, its instanton effects indicate the signal of dynamical flavor symmetry breakdown of $`SU(N_f)`$ to $`SO(N_f)`$, which is not described by the conventional “magnetic” degree’s of freedom. It is argued that this breaking is well described by our effective superpotential consisting of “electric” quarks and gluons instead of monopoles of $`SO(N_c)`$. The low-energy particles include the Nambu-Goldstone superfields associated with this breakdown. The proposed superpotential is found to exhibit the holomorphic decoupling property and the anomaly-matching property on a residual chiral $`U(1)`$ symmetry.

preprint: TOKAI-HEP/TH-0301

It is well known that the physics of strongly coupled $`N`$=1 supersymmetric (SUSY) gauge theories can be described by the $`N=1`$ duality using the “magnetic” degrees of freedom instead of the “electric” degrees of freedom Seiberg . This description has been motivated by the great success of the $`N=2`$ duality in $`N=2`$ SUSY theories, where the “magnetic” degrees of freedom determine various properties of $`N=2`$ physics SeibergWitten . However, neither the appearance of the “magnetic” degrees of freedom can be readily understood inside $`N=1`$ SUSY theories nor the meaning of the $`N=1`$ duality is clear. The physics due to the $`N=1`$ duality can be traced back to the corresponding physics due to the $`N`$=2 duality BrokenN\_2 . Especially, the “electric” quarks and gluons in $`N=2`$ SUSY theories are continuously deformed to the “magnetic” quarks and gluons in the corresponding $`N=1`$ SUSY theories. It is also known that $`N=2`$ SUSY theories are too constrained to cover physics realized in all of $`N=1`$ SUSY theories. For example, supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) with $`N_c`$-colors and $`N_f`$-flavors exhibits the $`N`$=1 duality Seiberg ; EarlySeiberg  only for $`3N_c/2<N_f`$ ($`<`$ 3$`N_c`$), where its phase is characterized as an interacting Coulomb phase CoulombPhase . It is, thus, obscure that SQCD with ($`N_c+2`$) $`N_f3N_c/2`$ really enjoys the $`N=1`$ duality although it satisfies plenty of indirect consistency conditions Review  including those from brane constructions in string theory Brane . The similar questioning on the validity of the $`N=1`$ duality has lately appeared in $`SO(N_c)`$ SUSY theories (with $`N_f<3(N_c2)`$) SO\_IS ; SO  by demonstrating that physics near the Chebyshev point (known as a superconformal point Conformal ) in explicitky broken $`N=2`$ SUSY theories is found to be characterized by the presence of dynamical flavor symmetry breaking RecentSO , which should be contrasted with the absence of flavor symmetry breaking in the $`N`$=1 duality. It is still possible to expect that the Chebyshev point may merge with the ordinary singular point in the exact $`N=1`$ limit.

As an alternative description of the physics of strongly coupled $`N`$=1 SUSY theories Alternative ; YasueSU ; YasueSO , which is not directly supported by the $`N=2`$ duality, we have suggested to use Nambu-Goldstone superfields as low-energy degrees of freedom associated with dynamically flavor symmetry breaking YasueSU ; YasueSO . Namely, the suggested phase is described by confined “electric” quarks and gluons instead of “magnetic” quarks and gluons. The essence to make dynamical breakdown of flavor symmetry more visible in N=1 SUSY theories lies in the inclusion of a composite superfield ($`S`$) made of two chiral gauge superfields as well as mesons and baryons VY . This composite superfield has been excluded in the low-energy degrees of freedom because one can envision that it turns out heavy after the vacuum structure is determined. But, it will correctly describe the instanton physics present in $`N=1`$ SUSY theories and has been proved that our superpotentials constructed along this line of reasoning in fact reproduce the consistent vacuum with the instanton effects, where $`N_c`$ (or $`N_c2`$) quarks get heavy while others remain massless in the $`SU(N_c)`$ (or $`SO(N_c)`$) SUSY theories with $`N_fN_c+2`$ (or $`N_fN_c`$) YasueSU ; YasueSO . Furthermore, it has greatly helped us reveal the existence of the vacuum located away from the origin of a moduli space. Of course, this new phase coexists with the one with the $`N=1`$ duality as much as the same way that QCD with two flavors theoretically allows both phases with massless proton and neutron (corresponding to the “magnetic” description) as well as with pions (corresponding to the “electric” description) to exist.

One may raise the objection stating that this kind of dynamical flavor symmetry breaking cannot occur in strong coupling SUSY gauge theories since the $`N`$=1 duality description is valid and the emergence of the origin of moduli space forbids the presence of dynamical symmetry breaking. In this paper, we would like to show affirmative discussions on the presence of the flavor symmetry breaking, thus located away from the origin of moduli space, in the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory with $`N_f=N_c2`$ along the above line of thought, which should be contrasted with the absence of the flavor symmetry breaking based on the $`N`$=1 duality, utilizing two monopoles SO . We rely upon the known instanton dynamics of the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory with $`N_f=N_c2`$, leading to the flavor symmetry breaking of $`SU(N_f)`$. However, so far no superpotential has been proposed to reproduce this instanton effect in the “electric” phase. We describe this dynamics in the form of an effective superpotential for $`N_f=N_c2`$ regulated by “electric” degrees of freedom.

In the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory with $`N_f`$-quarks, the flavor symmetry is given by

$$G=SU(N_f)\times U(1)_R,$$
(1)
under which chiral quark superfields of $`Q_A^i`$ and chiral gauge superfields of $`W_{[AB]}`$ 222Throughout this paper, the labels of $`i,j,\mathrm{}`$ specify the flavor indices of $`SU(N_f)`$ and those of $`A,B,\mathrm{}`$ specify the color indices of $`SO(N_c)`$ transform according to TABLE 1. The instanton of $`SO(N_c)`$ yields the contributions from the gluinos and $`N_f`$ quarks, which can be expressed as $`(\lambda \lambda )^{N_c2}det(\psi ^i\psi ^j)`$, where $`\psi `$ ($`\lambda `$) is a spinor component of $`Q`$ ($`S`$). This instanton amplitude is equivalent to

$$det(\varphi ^i\varphi ^j)\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_f}{}}\pi _i\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f},$$
(2)
where $`\varphi ^i`$ is the $`i`$-th scalar quark and $`\pi _i`$ represents the scalar component of $`T^{ii}`$. This evaluation clearly shows the appearance of the dynamical flavor symmetry breaking of

$$SU(N_f)\times U(1)_RSO(N_f)\times U(1)_R,$$
(3)
with $`SO(N_f)`$ as a maximal subgroup.

We would like to explain this instanton physics realized in the “electric” phase of $`SO(N_c)`$ on the basis of an effective superpotential. Possible composite superfields involved in our discussions are chiral superfields (mesons) of $`T^{ij}=\mathrm{\Sigma }_{A=1}^{N_c}Q_A^iQ_A^j`$, and a chiral flavor-singlet “gauge” superfield (baryons) SO\_IS  of $`B`$ = $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i_1\mathrm{}i_{N_c2}}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{A_1\mathrm{}A_{N_c}}`$ $`\epsilon _{i_1i_2\mathrm{}i_{N_c2}}`$ $`\epsilon ^{A_1A_2\mathrm{}A_{N_c}}`$ $`Q_{A_1}^{i_1}\mathrm{}Q_{A_{N_c2}}^{i_{N_c2}}`$ $`W_{[A_{N_c1}A_{N_c}]}`$ / $`(N_c2)!(N_c2)!2!`$ as well as a composite superfield made of two chiral gauge superfields $`S`$ = $`g^2\mathrm{\Sigma }_{A,B=1}^{N_c}W_{[AB]}W_{[AB]}/32\pi ^2`$ with the $`SO(N_c)`$ gauge coupling, $`g`$, where the gauge coupling is explicitly included in $`S`$ for later discussions. The inclusion of $`S`$ is advocated by Veneziano and Yankielowicz VY  some times ago while the formulation without $`S`$ has been motivated by Afleck, Dine and Seiberg EarlySeiberg . The role of $`S`$ is to reproduce the correct amount of the breaking of an anomalous $`U(1)`$ symmetry by instantons, which may not be physically required since this symmetry is not a conserved symmetry so that effective interactions need not respect its presence. However, we adopt the description in terms of $`S`$ to evaluate the instanton effects by the effective superpotential approach.

The classic construction VY ; MPRV ; YYY  of effective superpotentials requires that not only they are invariant under the transformations of all the symmetries but also they are compatible with the response from an anomalous $`U(1)_{anom}`$ symmetry, namely, $`\delta `$ $``$ $`F^{\mu \nu }\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }`$, where $``$ represents the lagrangian of the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory and $`F^{\mu \nu }`$ ($`\stackrel{~}{F}_{\mu \nu }ϵ_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }F^{\rho \sigma }`$) is a gauge field strength. Its SUSY version applied to the effective superpotential denoted by $`W_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ becomes $`\delta W_{\mathrm{eff}}S`$. The resulting superpotential takes the simple form of

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{detT}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f}}\right),$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the mass scale of $`SO(N_c)`$. We can also construct another effective superpotential including the chiral “gauge” superfield of $`B`$:

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{detT}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f}}\right)+f\frac{BB}{detT},$$
(5)
where $`f`$ is a coupling parameter, which also satisfies $`\delta W_{\mathrm{eff}}S`$ . However, this superpotential generates a massive $`B`$ superfield for the instanton-suggested vacuum of $`detT0`$ and the anomaly-matching conditions on $`U(1)_R`$ fail to be satisfied. One may worry about the classical limit of our superpotential of Eq.(4), where the non-perturbative effects should vanish. Recalling the relation of $`g^2[(3(N_c2)N_f)/(16\pi ^2)]\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{\Lambda }^2/\mu ^2)`$, where $`\mu `$ is a reference scale, one can readily find that our superpotential simply yields $`W_{[AB]}W_{[AB]}`$, which is the tree superpotential for the gauge kinetic term as stressed in Ref.VY .

The SUSY vacuum defined by our superpotential, which requires $`W_{\mathrm{eff}}/\pi _{i,\lambda }(W_{\mathrm{eff};i,\lambda })`$ to vanish, is specified by $`W_{\mathrm{eff};i}`$ = $`\pi _\lambda /\pi _i`$ = 0 and $`W_{\mathrm{eff};\lambda }`$ = $`\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=1}^{N_f}\pi _i/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2)`$ = 0, where $`\pi _\lambda `$ is the scalar component of $`S`$ 333Other fields such as scalar components of $`T^{ij}`$ with $`ij`$ can be set to vanish at the minimum; therefore, we omit these terms.. The solution to these equations is given by $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{i=1}^{N_f}\pi _i=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f}`$ and $`\pi _\lambda `$ = 0, leading to

$$detT=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f},S=0.$$
(6)
This vacuum is the same as Eq.(2) generated by the instantons. As a result, the maximal flavor symmetry respected by the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory turns out to be $`SO(N_f)\times U(1)_R`$ as in Eq.(3). In this end, the superpotential vanishes but the chiral Nambu-Goldstone superfields are produced as the low-energy degrees of freedom 444Of course, interactions of the Nambu-Goldstone superfields arise from kinetic terms via their K$`\ddot{\mathrm{a}}`$hlar potentials. This situation is similar to the one encountered in supersymmetric quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) with $`N_f=N_c`$ Review ; MPRV . The corresponding superpotential in terms of $`S`$ is given by

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{detT\stackrel{~}{B}\overline{\stackrel{~}{B}}}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f}}\right),$$
(7)
where $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ and $`\overline{\stackrel{~}{B}}`$ are flavor-singlet chiral superfields (baryons) analogous to $`B`$ without $`W_{[AB]}`$, respectively, made of quarks and anti-quarks. The solution is given by

$$detT\stackrel{~}{B}\overline{\stackrel{~}{B}}=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f},S=0.$$
(8)
indicating flavor symmetry breaking in SQCD with $`N_f`$=$`N_c`$.

The anomaly-matching property is easily seen by the use of the complementarity tHooft ; Susskind , where $`SU(N_f)\times U(1)_R`$ is also broken by $`0|\varphi _A^i|0`$ = $`\delta _A^i\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, resulting in $`SO(N_f)\times U(1)_R`$. The low-energy degrees of freedom listed in TABLE 2 are supplied by $`Q^{\{ij\}}`$ as the symmetric representation of $`SO(N_f)`$ and $`W_{[AB]}`$ as the chiral gauge superfields of $`SO(2)`$ arising from the leftover piece in $`SO(N_c)`$. These superfields directly corresponds to the Nambu-Goldstone superfields of $`T^{ij}`$ (with Tr($`T^{ij}`$) = 0) associated with $`SU(N_f)SO(N_f)`$ and to the chiral flavor-singlet “gauge” superfield of $`B`$. The field $`T`$ with Tr($`T`$)$``$0 forms a mass term with $`S`$ and the both are decoupled. The presence of $`U(1)_R`$ requires that the “gauge” superfield of $`B`$ to be massless. This masslessness of the chiral “gauge” superfield of $`B`$ is the indication of the appearance of a gauged $`U(1)`$ symmetry SO\_IS . Since the Nambu-Goldstone superfields are neutral under this $`U(1)`$ symmetry, this “photon” does not interacts with matter fields.

This description of the $`SO(N_c)`$ gauge theory with $`N_f=N_c2`$ should be compared with the one given by the $`N=1`$ duality with “magnetic” quarks SO . The flavor symmetry breaking is absent and the low-energy degrees of freedom are supplied by two monopoles and the chiral “gauge” superfield of $`B`$, whose anomalies match the original anomalies. One may think that since, in the “magnetic” phase, the flavor $`SU(N_f)`$ group is unbroken, the anomaly-matching on its subgroup of $`SO(N_c)`$ is also realized and that, furthermore, our low-energy spectrum looks the same as the one in the “magnetic” phase. So, one may also think that it is trivial to have the consistent description of the flavor $`SO(N_f)`$ group. But, our physics is regulated by the “electric” quarks but not by the “magnetic” quarks. As long as our “electric” physics also correctly describes the $`SO(N_c)`$ physics, it is not surprising that the both descriptions result in the similar low-energy spectrum.

The holomorphic decoupling property of Eq.(4) can be seen by adding a mass of $`m_{N_f}`$ to the $`N_f`$-th quark, yielding

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{S^{N_cN_f2}detT}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{3N_cN_f6}}\right)+N_fN_c+2\right]m_{N_f}T^{N_fN_f}.$$
(9)
with $`N_f=N_c2`$. The vacuum is, then, specified by $`S/T^{N_fN_f}=m_{N_f}`$, which results in

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{S^{N_cN_f1}det\stackrel{~}{T}}{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{3N_cN_f5}}\right)+N_fN_c+1\right],$$
(10)
where $`\stackrel{~}{T}`$ is a $`(N_f1)\times (N_f1)`$ submatrix of $`T`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^{3N_cN_f5}`$ = $`m_N\mathrm{\Lambda }^{3N_cN_f6}`$. This superpotential is nothing but Eq.(9) by letting $`N_fN_f1`$ with $`T^{N_fN_f}`$ decoupled. For $`N_fN_c3`$, after eliminating $`S`$ in Eq.(9), we reach

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}^{}=\left(N_fN_c+2\right)\left[\frac{det\left(T\right)}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{3N_cN_f6}}\right]^{1/(N_fN_c+2)},$$
(11)
which is the same effective superpotential as one of the series of the superpotentials discussed in Ref.SO\_IS  for $`N_fN_c3`$.

Finally, we comment on the holomorphic decoupling from the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory with $`N_fN_c`$. We have advocated to use the effective superpotential in the “electric” phase of $`SO(N_c)`$ for $`N_fN_c`$ YasueSO :

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\left\{\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{S^{N_cN_f2}detTf(Z)}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{3N_cN_f6}}\right]+N_fN_c+2\right\},$$
(12)
where $`\widehat{B}`$ is a baryon made of $`N_c`$ quarks, namely, $`\widehat{B}=\epsilon ^{A_1\mathrm{}A_{N_c}}Q_{A_1}^{[1}\mathrm{}Q_{A_{N_c}}^{N_c]}`$, and $`f(Z)=(1Z)^\rho `$ ($`\rho >2`$) with $`Z`$=$`\widehat{B}T^{N_fN_c}\widehat{B}/detT`$ 555In Ref.YasueSO , Eq.(8) should reads $`f(Z)=(1Z)^\rho `$ ($`\rho >2`$) and the related parts should be modified accordingly.. The combination of $`\widehat{B}T^{N_fN_c}\widehat{B}`$ with the obvious notation is classically equivalent to det$`T`$. The spontaneous flavor symmetry breaking is also induced at the SUSY vacuum specified by this effective superpotential. It can be found that this superpotential correctly describes the instanton effects for the $`N_fN_c+2`$ of massive quarks, thus leaving $`N_c2`$ quarks massless, with any finite masses and exhibits the holomorphic decoupling property for $`N_fN_c`$ YasueSO .

Similarly, we also expect the holomorphic decoupling from $`SO(N_c)`$ for $`N_f=N_c`$ with the $`N_f`$-th quark decoupled to $`SO(N_c)`$ for $`N_f=N_c1`$, which gives the superpotential

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\left[\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{S^1detTf(Z)}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f3}}\right)+1\right],$$
(13)
for $`N_f=N_c1`$, where $`Z`$ contains the field $`\widehat{B}^{}`$ analogous to $`\widehat{B}`$, which can be literally obtained from $`\widehat{B}`$ by decoupling the $`N_c`$-th quark: $`\widehat{B}^A=\epsilon ^{AA_1\mathrm{}A_{N_c1}}Q_{A_1}^{[1}\mathrm{}Q_{A_{N_c1}}^{N_c1]}`$. As a result, $`Z`$=$`\widehat{B}\widehat{B}/detT`$ for $`N_f=N_c`$ with the $`N_c`$-th quark removed is converted into $`Z`$=$`/detT`$ for $`N_f=N_c1`$, where $`=\widehat{B}^A\widehat{B}^A`$. Namely, a composite superfield of the “diquark”-type given by $`\widehat{B}^A`$ should be present to form a color-singlet composite of $``$. If $`S`$ is correctly decoupled, Eq.(13) becomes

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}^{}=\frac{detTf(Z)}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f3}}.$$
(14)
Since $`detT0`$ (as we expected) is allowed if $`f(Z)=0`$, yielding $`Z=1`$, at the SUSY minimum, this superpotential will describe the spontaneous symmetry breaking by $`Z`$=1 leading to $`detT=\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2(N_c1)}`$ and $`SU(N_f)\times U(1)_RSO(N_f)`$ is realized. Such a nonvanishing $`detT`$ is found to be ensured by requiring $`f^{}(Z)=0`$. For $`f(Z)=(1Z)^\rho `$, it is satisfied by $`\rho >1`$. Therefore, the choice of $`\rho >2`$ required for the $`SO(N_c)`$ theory with $`N_fN_c`$ respects the holomorphic decoupling. The complementarity argument follows for $`Q_A^i\mathrm{\Lambda }\delta _A^i`$ ($`i,A=1N_c1`$) and the resulting spectrum in the Higgs phase coincides with that of the Nambu-Goldstone superfields in the confining phase. One of the linear combinations of Tr$`(T)`$ and $``$ is decoupled by forming a mass term with $`S`$ and the presence of $``$ is essential for the consistent decoupling of $`S`$. It is readily understood that the further decoupling of the $`(N_c1)`$-th quark yields Eq.(4). The details can be found in the subsequent article Future .

Summarizing our discussions, we have stressed the importance of the instanton physics specific to $`SO(N_c)`$ with $`N_f=N_c2`$ to reveal the non-perturbative “electric” physics of $`SO(N_c)`$, which indicates the spontaneous flavor symmetry breaking. This dynamics is opposed to the $`SO(N_c)`$ dynamics based on the $`N=1`$ duality, describing the unbroken flavor symmetry realized in the “magnetic” phase. We have found that the following effective superpotential correctly describes the $`SO(N_c)`$ physics realized in the “electric” phase with $`N_f=N_c2`$:

$$W_{\mathrm{eff}}=S\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{detT}{\mathrm{\Lambda }^{2N_f}}\right).$$
(15)
Our superpotential respects

1. correct vacuum structure with instanton physics,
2. holomorphic decoupling property for $`N_fN_c2`$ (and also for $`N_f>N_c2`$ Future ),
3. dynamical breakdown of the flavor $`SU(N_f)`$ symmetry:

$`SU(N_f)\times U(1)_RSO(N_f)\times U(1)_R,`$ (16)
4. consistent anomaly-matching property due to the emergence of the Nambu-Goldstone superfields together with the additional flavor-singlet composite gauge superfield.

The low-energy symmetry is found to be:

$$U(1)^{loc}\times SO(N_f)\times U(1)_R,$$
(17)
where $`U(1)^{loc}`$ is associated with the massless composite gauge superfield.

The similar dynamical symmetry breaking is also expected for the $`SO(N_c)`$ theories with $`N_fN_c1`$, which require either a “diquark”-type $`N_c1`$ body composite of $`\widehat{B}^A=\epsilon ^{AA_1\mathrm{}A_{N_c1}}Q_1\mathrm{}^{[1\mathrm{}}Q_{N_c1}^{N_c1]}`$ for $`N_f=N_c1`$ or a $`N_c`$-body composite of $`\widehat{B}=\epsilon ^{A_1\mathrm{}A_{N_c}}Q_1\mathrm{}^{[1\mathrm{}}Q_{N_c}^{N_c]}`$. Equipped with these composites, we are allowed to have $`detT0`$ (or equivalent configurations for $`N_fN_c+1`$), signaling the dynamical symmetry breakdown and the Nambu-Goldstone bosons as low-energy degrees of freedom in the strongly coupled $`SO(N_c)`$ theories for $`N_fN_c2`$ Future .


text:
# Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov Superconducting State in CeCoIn5

## Abstract

We report specific heat measurements of the heavy fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 in the vicinity of the superconducting critical field $`H_{c2}`$, with magnetic field in the , , and  directions, and at temperatures down to 50 mK. The superconducting phase transition changes from second to first order for field above 10 T for $`H`$  and $`H`$ . In the same range of magnetic field we observe a second specific heat anomaly within the superconducting state. We interpret this anomaly as a signature of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) inhomogeneous superconducting state. We obtain similar results for $`H`$ , with FFLO state occupying a smaller part of the phase diagram.

preprint: submitted to Physical Review Letters

In the early 1960’s, following the success of the BCS theory of superconductivity, Fulde and Ferrell Fulde and Ferrell (1964) and Larkin and Ovchinnikov Larkin and Ovchinnikov (1964) developed theories of inhomogeneous superconducting states. At the core of FFLO theory lie competing interactions of a very basic nature. One is the interaction of the spin of the electron with magnetic field and the other is the energy of the superconducting coupling of electrons into Cooper pairs, or the condensation energy. In the normal state the electrons are free to lower their total energy by preferentially aligning their spins along the magnetic field, leading to a temperature-independent Pauli susceptibility. For spin-singlet superconductors (both s- and d-wave), the condensate contains an equal number of spin-up and spin-down electrons. Therefore, Pauli paramagnetism will always favor the normal state over the spin-singlet superconducting state, and will reduce the superconducting critical field $`H_{c2}`$ which suppresses superconductivity. This effect is called Pauli limiting, with the characteristic Pauli field $`H_P`$ determining the upper bound of $`H_{c2}`$ Clogston (1962). Another effect of magnetic field that leads to the suppression of superconductivity is orbital limiting, or suppression of superconductivity when the kinetic energy of the supercurrent around the normal cores of the superconducting vortices in Type II superconductors becomes greater than the superconducting condensation energy. The orbital limiting field $`H_{c2}^0`$ defines $`H_{c2}`$ in the absence of Pauli limiting. The relative strength of Pauli and orbital limiting, the so called Maki parameter $`\alpha =H_{c2}^0/H_P`$, determines the behavior of the system in high magnetic field. The prediction of FFLO theory is that for a clean Type II superconductor with sufficiently large $`\alpha `$ (for $`\alpha >1.8`$ in the calculations of Ref. Gruenberg and Gunther, 1966), a new inhomogeneous superconducting FFLO state will appear between the normal and the mixed, or vortex, state below the critical temperature $`T_{FFLO}`$ Gruenberg and Gunther (1966). Within the particular realization of Larkin and Ovchinnikov Larkin and Ovchinnikov (1964), this state is characterized by the appearance of a periodic array of planes of normal electrons that can take advantage of the Pauli susceptibility.

A number of conventional superconductors were proposed as candidates for observation of the FFLO state, due to their high orbital critical field $`H_{c20}`$ and, therefore, relatively strong Pauli limiting effect, in the early and mid-sixties. Experimental searches, however, yielded null results Berlincourt and Hake (1963); Kim et al. (1965); Shapira and Neuringer (1965); Hake (1965). The failure to observe the FFLO state was attributed to high spin-orbit scattering rate in these compounds Maki (1966). In the last decade the FFLO state was suggested to exist in heavy fermion UPd2Al3 (Ref. Gloos et al. (1993) and CeRu2 (Ref. Huxley et al. (1993)), based on thermal expansion and magnetization data, respectively. Subsequent research identified the magnetization feature in CeRu2 as due to flux motion Tenya et al. (1999), and the region of the suggested FFLO state in UPd2Al3 was shown to be inconsistent with theoretical models Norman (1993). Most notably, multiple phase transitions that can be associated with the FFLO state have not been observed with a single measurement technique.

Heavy-fermion superconductor CeCoIn5 satisfies all requirements of theory for the formation of the FFLO state. It is very clean, with an electronic mean free path on the order of microns in the superconducting state, which significantly exceeds the superconducting correlation lengthMovshovich et al. (2001). Its Maki parameter $`\alpha 3.5`$ is twice the minimum required for the formation of the FFLO state Bianchi et al. (2002). It was recently discovered that the superconducting phase transition changes from second to first order at $`T_00.3T_c`$ for field $`H`$ , which was taken as an indication that Pauli limiting drives the physics of CeCoIn5 at low temperature and high magnetic field Bianchi et al. (2002); Maki and Tsuneto (1964). The critical point $`T_0`$ was found to be in very good agreement with the one predicted by FFLO theory for a compound with $`\alpha =3.5`$ Gruenberg and Gunther (1966). Magnetization measurements of Tayama et al. Tayama et al. (2002) showed that the superconducting transition in CeCoIn5 becomes first order at a critical temperature $`T_0=0.7`$ K for both $`H`$  and $`H`$ . Magnetization measurements of Murphy et al. Murphy et al. (2002) with $`H`$  indicated the presence of a second temperature-independent, $`H`$ 8 T, anomaly below 1.4 K, and the authors suggested that these results were consistent with FFLO state.

Materials with quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surfaces, which are likely to exhibit Fermi surface nesting, are expected to have more stable FFLO phases when magnetic field lies within the 2D-like planes Shimahara (1994). De Haas-van Alphen studies of CeCoIn5 revealed that a part of its Fermi surface is an undulating cylinder with the axis along the (001) direction, characteristic of the quasi-two-dimensional systems with planes perpendicular to  Hall et al. (2001). These theoretical Shimahara (1994) and experimental observations motivated us to perform specific heat investigation of CeCoIn5 with magnetic field $`H`$ .

Specific heat data were collected by employing two techniques: the standard quasi-adiabatic method and the temperature decay method, where a complete specific heat data set for a given field was obtained by differentiating a single temperature versus time curve, generated as the sample was coming into equilibrium with the bath starting from high temperature (above 1 K). This technique was employed previously to resolve a sharp specific heat anomaly associated with the first order superconducting phase transition in CeCoIn5 for $`H`$  Bianchi et al. (2002), and was demonstrated to give high resolution data consistent with the quasi-adiabatic method.

Figure 1 shows specific heat data of CeCoIn5 collected with the quasi-adiabatic method, as Sommerfeld coefficient $`\gamma =C/T`$ after subtraction of the Schottky anomaly tail at low temperature, due to In and Co nuclear levels Movshovich et al. (2001), for magnetic field $`H`$  (panel (a)), and specific heat for $`H`$  (panel (b)), as a function of temperature. The superconducting anomaly at lower fields $`H10`$ T is mean-field-like, with a step in the specific heat at $`T_c`$, similar to the case of $`H`$  when the field is far from $`H_{c2}`$ Bianchi et al. (2002). In this range increasing magnetic field simply reduces the magnitude of anomaly, without changing the character of the transition. As the field is increased further, the trend changes dramatically: the magnitude of the anomaly in the specific heat starts to increase, and the anomaly itself sharpens up and acquires symmetric character, characteristic of first order phase transitions. The specific heat data indicate that the change from second to first order occurs at a critical magnetic field $`H_010`$ T and a critical temperature $`T_01`$ K. As the superconducting transition temperature is suppressed by the magnetic field below $`500`$ mK, the transition becomes hysteretic (the data for 11.2 T and 11.4 T in Fig. 1(b)), proving unambiguously that the superconducting transition in CeCoIn5 at high fields close to the critical field $`H_{c2}`$ is indeed first order. At a temperature of about 300 mK the specific heat data displays an additional anomaly within the superconducting state for $`H10`$ T, which we call a $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly. The low temperature region, in the vicinity of the $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly, is shown in the insets of Figures 1(a) and (b), where $`T_{FFLO}`$’s for different fields are indicated by the arrows. The $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly can be described as a step followed by a gradual decrease of the specific heat as with decreasing temperature, a behavior characteristic of the second order phase transition. The $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly is observed only in the superconducting state, and disappears when the superconducting phase transition is suppressed by magnetic field below $`T_{FFLO}`$, as illustrated by the data for $`H=11.4`$ T in Fig. 1(a), or when $`H10`$ T.

The specific heat data collected with the decay method for $`H`$  is displayed in Fig. 2(a) as a surface contour plot in the $`HT`$ plane. We can see a clear evolution of the character of the specific heat anomaly with increasing magnetic field from a mean-field-like step to a very sharp peak at higher magnetic field, as well as the development of the second low temperature $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly (a red ridge) in the low temperature/high field corner of the H-T plane. By plotting the data as color contour plot in Fig. 2(b) we can immediately obtain the low temprerature/high field part of the phase diagram of CeCoIn5 with $`H`$ , where both superconducting - normal phase boundary $`T_c`$ and the $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomalies are indicated by gray curves.

The complete $`HT`$ phase diagram of CeCoIn5 based on our specific heat measurements is displayed in Fig. 3 for three orientations of the magnetic field, $`H`$ , $`H`$  (closed and open symbols in panel (a), respectively), and $`H`$  (panel (b)). The second-to-first order change is indicated by $`T_0=1.1\pm 0.1`$ K for $`H`$ , which is about 10% higher than $`T_0`$ for $`H`$ . The $`T_0`$ is obtained from the evolution of the specific heat anomaly and the magneto-caloric data (not shown), with analysis similar to the one performed for $`H`$  Bianchi et al. (2002). There is anisotropy for the field in the a-b plane of CeCoIn5 Murphy et al. (2002); Izawa et al. (2001). This anisotropy is manifested in $`=1.1`$% higher critical field in the  direction which develops above $`H=10`$ T, the region of the first order superconducting transition. The inset (c) of Fig. 3(a) shows the evolution of the entropy with magnetic field $`H`$  spanning the region of fields from well into the first order (11.4 T) to well into the second order (8.6 T) regions of the superconducting phase transition. The entropy is clearly conserved (all curves collapse on a single curve in the normal state ($`T1.5`$ K), proving that in both regimes the specific heat anomalies are due to the same electrons (and no other degrees of freedom) participating in superconducting phase transitions. The inset (d) of Fig. 3(a) shows the magnitude of the step of the $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly, obtained via the equal entropy construction, as a function of magnetic field $`H`$ . The data are rather linear in field, indicating the tendency of the anomaly to disappear for fields less then $`9.9`$ T. The $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly, indicated by solid circles for $`H`$ , also appears to extrapolate towards field close to 10 T on the $`H`$-axis. The inset in Fig. 3(b) shows low temperature electronic specific heat (Schottky contribution was subtracted) for magnetic field close to $`H_{c2}=4.95`$ T with $`H`$ . The low temperature anomaly $`T_{FFLO}`$ can also be resolved at 4.9 T, 4.875 T, and 4.85 T. This anomaly was not observed for $`H4.8`$ T. $`T_{FFLO}=130`$ mK is about half of the value for $`H`$ . This indicates that FFLO state is more stable when magnetic field is in the $`ab`$ plane of this quasi-2D compound, as expected. The tiny high-field/low-temperature corner of the $`HT`$ phase diagram occupied by the FFLO phase for $`H`$  is indicated by open triangles in Fig. 3(b). The emerging picture therefore is that of a single $`T_{FFLO}`$ phase boundary carving out a high field/low temperature part of the superconducting state of CeCoIn5.

A number of theoretical approaches were taken to explore the FFLO state, which resulted in a variety of possible phase diagrams Tachiki et al. (1996); Houzet and Buzdin (2001); Agterberg and Yang (2001). Our data is consistent with some of these expectations. The first order superconducting phase transition for $`T_c<T_0`$ was predicted by K. Maki Maki and Tsuneto (1964) for Type II superconductor with strong Pauli limiting. Under these conditions the FFLO state was calculated to occur below the same temperature $`T_0`$ for pure superconductors Gruenberg and Gunther (1966). Introduction of impurities modifies this picture: the first order normal-to-superconducting phase transition is expected to be rather insensitive to the impurity scattering, while the FFLO state is suppressed to lower temperatures both for the s-wave Bulaevskii and Guseinov (1976) and d-wave Agterberg and Yang (2001) pairing. CeCoIn5 has been shown to be a d-wave superconductor in a clean limit Movshovich et al. (2001), with impurity scattering most likely close to the unitary limit, based on low temperature thermal conductivity measurements. In such case, a Larkin-Ovchinnikov state is most likely stabilized in the low temperature/high field corner of the superconducting state of the $`HT`$ phase diagram Agterberg and Yang (2001), in accord with our data. Recent Monte Carlo calculations of the phase diagram of the $`d_{x^2y^2}`$ superconductor in magnetic field Adachi et al.  indicate that the superconducting fluctuations modify the first order phase transition below $`T_0`$ into the nearly discontinuous crossover (broadened first order phase transition), observed experimentally in CeCoIn5. These theoretical considerations lead us to conclude that the $`T_{FFLO}`$ anomaly is indeed the vortex state - FFLO state phase boundary.

In summary, we have observed the low temperature specific heat anomaly within the superconducting state of CeCoIn5 in a region of the phase diagram where the normal to superconducting phase transition is first order, as also demonstrated by the specific heat measurements. This transition is conclusively identified as due to the formation of the spatially inhomogeneous superconducting FFLO state, predicted first theoretically about 40 years ago.

We thank L. Boulaevskii, D. Agterberg, K. Maki, Y. Ikeda, and I. Vekhter for stimulating discussions. Work at Los Alamos National Laboratory was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy. Work at the NHMFL was performed under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, the State of Florida and the US Department of Energy.