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# Variable stars in the globular cluster NGC 3201. I. Multimode SX Phe-type variables

## 1 Introduction

Variable stars in star clusters have long been recognized as unique laboratories that allow the study of both the properties of the variables and the stellar systems they belong to. One of the most important applications is the use of the variables to determine the distance to the parent system. Interest in SX Phoenicis variables as precise distance indicators has grown in the last few years with the publication of results of the Hipparcos mission (ESA 1997). McNamara (1997) used a semiempirical approach to determine the period-luminosity (P-L) relation for high-amplitude $`\delta `$ Scuti (HADS) stars; the zero point of this relation was set with the aid of Hipparcos parallaxes. Petersen & Høg (1998) derived a P-L relation for HADS which was based on Hipparcos parallaxes of six variables, including SX Phoenicis itself. Both relations yield distances with an uncertainty of $`\pm 0.10`$ mag. Theoretical calculations imply that the inclusion of colour and metallicity terms can significantly decrease the intrinsic scatter of this relation (Petersen & Christensen-Dalsgaard 1999, Santolamazza et al. 2001). Thus SX Phoenicis stars can provide a valuable cross-check for the distance determined with other methods, e.g. with other types of variable stars: detached eclipsing binaries (Paczynski 1997), W UMa-type systems (Rucinski & Duerbeck 1997) and RR Lyraes.

In 1989 we started at Las Campanas Observatory a CCD survey for short-period variables in southern star clusters. The sample contained open clusters (e.g. Cr261 – Mazur, Krzemiński & Kaluzny 1995, NGC 2243 – Kaluzny, Krzemiński & Mazur 1996, Berkeley 39 – Mazur, Krzemiński & Kaluzny 1999a) and globular clusters (e.g. NGC 6362 – Mazur, Kaluzny & Krzemiński 1999b and references therein). The results of the survey have shown that CCD photometry can be an effective method of detection of pulsating stars and short-period binaries, even those with periods of a few days. However an extended data set is a must to detect such binaries. In a continuation of this survey we embarked in January 1993 on an extended CCD study of the globular cluster NGC 3201. Our goal was to obtain as complete a census of variable stars as possible, with the aim of using observations of the variables to derive the distance modulus to the cluster.

NGC 3201 ($`\alpha _{2000}=10^\mathrm{h}17^\mathrm{m}37^\mathrm{s},\delta _{2000}=46\mathrm{°}24\stackrel{m}{.}7,l=277\stackrel{}{.}2,b=8\stackrel{}{.}6`$), is a nearby cluster of low central concentration, and has been the subject of numerous photometric and spectroscopic studies. Historically, the first papers were devoted to variable stars (Woods 1919, Bailey 1922, Dowse 1940, Wright 1941, Wilkens 1965, Cacciari 1984, Samus et al. 1996). Photographic CMDs were published by Alcaino (1976), Lee (1977) and Alcaino & Liller (1981), and CMD’s based on CCD photometry by Penny (1984), Alcaino, Liller & Alvarado (1989), Brewer et al. (1993), Covino & Ortolani (1997), Rosenberg et al. (2000), and von Braun & Mateo (2002). Cote at al. (1994) presented radial velocities of a sample of the cluster giants, they also used these multiple velocity measurements to search for binaries.

The metal abundance of NGC 3201 falls in the intermediate range, however the exact value is still not well established. Zinn & West (1984) derived \[Fe/H\]=–1.61 and Carretta & Gratton (1997) obtained \[Fe/H\]=–1.23 from an analysis of echelle spectra of 3 cluster giants. Gonzalez & Wallerstein (1998) found a mean value of \[Fe/H\]=–1.42 from the echelle spectra of 18 giants.

The Catalogue of Variable Stars in Globular Clusters (Clement et al. 2001) lists 100 entries for NGC 3201, 8 of them with the notation ”not var”. Of the 92 variables, 77 are RR Lyrae stars. Recently, von Braun & Mateo (2002), reported the discovery of 14 short-period variables, mainly eclipsing binaries, in the cluster field. Using radial velocities and location of the variables in the cluster CMD they concluded that only one of their variables, a W UMa-type blue straggler, is a cluster member. No SX Phoenicis-type variables has been reported thus far.

## 2 Observations and data reductions

Observations reported in this paper were obtained with the 1 m Swope and 2.5 m duPont telescopes of the Las Campanas Observatory with a variety of CCD cameras. A field centered on the cluster core was observed during 24 nights between 1993 Jan 6 and 1994 Jan 3, ut. The log of the observations is summarized in Table 1.

In January 1993 the Texas Instrument TI#1 $`800\times 800`$ CCD was used, giving a field size of 5.8 arcmin with a scale of 0.435 arcsec/pixel. In February and March 1993 data were taken with the Tektronix #1 $`1024\times 1024`$ CCD with a scale of 0.7 arcsec/pixel, and the field size of 12 arcmin. The same CCD was used at the beginning of the December 1993 run, later it was replaced with the Tektronix #2 $`1024\times 1024`$ chip, with a scale of 0.61 arcsec/pixel and a field size of 10.5 arcmin. The Tek#1 camera was used again during the January 1994 run on the duPont telescope, this time the field of view was 4.4 arcmin with a scale of 0.21 arcsec/pixel. Most of the frames were collected in the $`V`$ band, in addition several frames were taken with $`B`$ and $`I`$ filters. The exposure time for the $`V`$ frames taken with the Swope telescope was 300-360 s, whereas for those collected with duPont telescope it was 120 s. We obtained a total of 999 frames in the $`V`$ band. On the night of 1994 January 2 several standard stars from Landolt (1992) were observed. They were used to determine the transformations to the standard $`BV`$ system.

The preliminary processing of the raw CCD data was performed under iraf 111iraf is distributed by National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.. All frames were bias subtracted and then flatfielded with median-combined sky flats. Photometry of NGC 3201 stars was measured using two software packages: frames used to extract the cluster CMD were analyzed with daophot (we used a version with variable PSF; Stetson 1987, 1989), while the sequences of observations obtained for searches for variables were reduced with dophot package (Schechter, Mateo & Saha 1993). dophot V1.1 uses an analytic, position-independent point spread function (PSF). In order to minimize the influence of variable PSF on the light curves of individual stars we applied a method of local comparison stars, as described in detail in Kaluzny et al. (1993).

## 3 Variables

Sequences of observations in the $`V`$ filter were used to search for the variables in the cluster field. Candidate variables were identified following two methods described in detail in Mazur, Krzemiński & Kaluzny (1995). First, we applied the traditional “scatter search” technique – we selected stars exhibiting excessive scatter compared to other stars of comparable brightness. The idea for the second method was taken from Stellingwerf’s (1978) paper on the phase dispersion minimization (PDM) method. We divided the overall variance calculated for consecutive intervals of a time-domain light curve by the global variance obtained from all data points and selected for further examination stars for which the quotient was the smallest. An additional examination was made of light curves of all stars that fall in the blue straggler region.

Analysis of the 1993/94 data set led to the identification of 32 new variable stars (Mazur 1996), half of which are SX Phe–type pulsating blue stragglers. In eleven of these, multiple modes are excited and these stars will be discussed in the present paper.

In Fig. 1 we present finding charts for the newly found multimode SX Phe-type variables.

Table 2 lists the coordinates of the variables. Column (1) gives the designation of the star; column (2) and (3) are the equatorial coordinates, derived from the position of about 100 stars selected from the USNO-A V1.0 Catalogue of Astrometric Standards (Monet at al. 1996). The errors of the coordinates are about 1 arcsec. Columns (4) and (5) are the coordinates in the system of the Sawyer Hogg Catalogue (Sawyer Hogg 1973).

Fig. 2 shows the locations of the variables in the cluster colour-magnitude diagram (CMD). The $`V/BV`$ diagram is based on a 100 s $`V`$-band exposure and a 200 s $`B`$-band exposure taken with the duPont telescope on the night of 1997 February 20 ut. The field was centered on the cluster core and covered an area of $`8.8\times 8.8`$ arcmin. The CMD is not intended to be complete – stars having atypically large photometric errors at a given magnitude were omitted. All of the variables are located in the blue straggler region, and occupy a narrow strip of width 0.11 mag in $`BV`$.

Table 3 lists the photometric properties of the variables.

Column (2) gives mean $`V`$-band magnitude. Column (3) is the $`<B><V>`$ colour, while column (4) shows the frequencies of pulsations, in cycles per day. Column (5) gives the full amplitude in the $`V`$ band. The mean $`<B>`$ magnitudes were derived from data obtained in February 1997 on the duPont telescope.

The data have been collected during 6 observing runs which separate into two data sets. The first data set consist of January, February and March 1993 runs and we will refer to it as to season 1993; the second set is formed by 3 runs in December 1993/January 1994 – hereafter season 1994. Since the gap between both data sets is long (9 months), we calculated Fourier periodograms for each season separately. The long gaps between successive runs and the fact that these runs were very short resulted in a very complex spectral window for the 1993 season. In the case of low amplitude variables, the noise introduced by photometric errors made it impossible to decide which of the aliases is real. The spectral window for the 1994 season is much clearer although the resolution is poorer. We decided to restrict our analysis to the 1994 data. We used the 1993 data set to improve the determination of frequencies of high amplitude modes.

Fourier periodograms of the 11 SX Phe–type pulsators for the 1994 season are shown in Figures 3-13. In most cases there is a considerable signal at very low frequencies. Most likely the presence of these frequencies is caused by zero-point drift, which in turn seems to be a result of variations of the PSF across the chip. The method of local comparisons can compensate for errors in the profile photometry to some extent, but some variability on a time-scale of nights remains. An additional source of error is the combination of photometry that was collected with 3 different telescope/chip configurations. We assume that the low frequencies present in the periodograms are not intrinsic to the variables, and decided to fit a sine wave to the data and subtract this long term variability; frequencies less than 0.2 cycle $`\mathrm{d}^1`$ have been removed from the data.

Fourier transforms have been recalculated, and the frequency of the highest peak has been used as an input to the programme NFIT (Schwarzenberg-Czerny 1999). NFIT fits a Fourier series by nonlinear least squares allowing for a refinement of frequency; several base frequencies, their harmonics and linear combinations can be included. Once the first frequency was determined, the data were prewhitened and the Fourier transform of the residuals was calculated. The second main frequency was identified and NFIT was used to fit a Fourier series of both frequencies to the data. The number of harmonics and the combination terms depended on the amplitude of the excited modes. In the case of the low amplitude variables for each frequency usually only one term was significant. In the case of the high amplitude double-mode variable V7 combination terms up to fourth order could be detected. The second solution was again subtracted from the data and the residuals were searched for additional periodicities. For eight variables the Fourier transform of the residuals from the two frequency solution showed no more periodicities with the full amplitudes in the $`V`$-band in excess of 0.02 mag. In the case of V5, V9 and V11 a third periodicity has been detected, and the whole procedure was repeated. In some cases the Fourier transform showed daily aliases of comparable height. This problem could generally be resolved with the help of the 1993 data when the observing nights were longer and the side-lobes due to day cycles smaller. We have also compared residuals resulting from fits assuming different combinations of frequencies, but in the case of low amplitude variables differences we got were negligible. In several cases we were not able to distinguish between a real frequency and an alias, and two possibilities are given in Table 3.

## 4 Mode identification

Multiperiodicity of SX Phe variables opens the possibility of applying the theory of pulsations to constrain masses and possible formation scenarios of blue stragglers (Gilliland & Brown 1992, Petersen & Christensen-Dalsgaard 1996). The first step in constructing models is the identification of modes. Until recently, SX Phe variables were usually attributed a single (fundamental or first-overtone) radial mode (Nemec & Mateo 1990; Nemec, Linnell Nemec & Lutz 1994, McNamara 1995). SX Phe itself was for a long time the only member of the class known to pulsate in fundamental and first-overtone modes simultaneously. This situation has changed in the last few years. Garrido & Rodriguez (1996) analysed the existing data on SX Phoenicis to show that in addition to two high-amplitude modes at least two other periodicities are present (one of them clearly non-radial) with amplitudes at the mmag level. Additional periodicities have also been discovered in another field SX Phe-type star, BL Camelopardalis (Hintz et al.1997, Zhou et al. 1999). Gilliland et al. (1998) reported on the discovery of multimode SX Phoenicis pulsators in 47 Tucanae. For one of the variables (V2) the interpretation of the detected periodicities as fundamental radial mode and first overtone is based on the derived period ratio (0.772). For the others, a safe identification of modes is not possible (Bruntt et al. 2001). Pych et al. (2001) discovered twelve double-mode variables among SX Phe stars in M55. For the majority of these the period ratio is close to 1, implying that at least one of the excited modes is nonradial. Freyhammer, Petersen & Andersen (2000) reported the discovery of 11 multimode pulsators in $`\omega `$ Cen, and they estimate that $`\omega `$ Cen hosts hundreds of SX Phe stars. Petersen et al. (2000) analyzed the published light curves of 48 SX Phe variables in globular clusters in search for double-mode oscillation. Several stars that show indications for double-mode pulsations in low order radial modes have been identified.

All these studies show that in SX Phoenicis stars both radial and nonradial modes are excited suggesting that they are population II twins of $`\delta `$ Scuti variables. Multisite photometric campaigns and spectroscopic studies suggest that in $`\delta `$ Scuti stars hundreds of nonradial pulsation modes are simultaneously excited (Breger 2000). Only the low-degree modes can be detected photometrically. The multisite observing campaigns resulted in the discovery of about 20 independent modes in the best studied stars (FG Vir - Breger et al. 1998, 4 CVn - Breger et al. 1999). The number of the observed frequencies in SX Phe-type stars is much smaller, and this is most likely due to the lower accuracy of the data and the shorter timespan of observing runs – many of the peaks in $`\delta `$ Scuti stars fall in the mmag range.

The photometric methods that can be employed to discriminate between radial and low-order nonradial modes rely on “amplitude ratios versus phase shifts” diagrams. In order to apply this analysis technique multicolor photometry is required \[$`BV`$ – Watson (1988), Strömgren $`vby`$ – Garrido, Garcia-Lobo & Rodriguez (1990\]. In the 1993/1994 seasons we observed NGC 3201 in mainly the $`V`$ band, the few obtained frames in $`B`$ do not allow mode discrimination. However, there is an indirect method that one can use. Rodriguez et al. (1996) examined the amplitude ratios and phase shifts between observed light and color variations to show that the high amplitude (with full visual amplitude greater than roughly 0.3 mag) $`\delta `$ Scuti and SX Phoenicis stars pulsate in radial modes. They also analysed 3 monoperiodic medium amplitude $`(0.09<A_V<0.2)`$ stars and concluded that they are radial pulsators as well. Hence we will assume that the high amplitude modes in V7,V8 and V9 correspond to radial pulsation. It seems likely that the medium amplitude modes in V6 and V11 are radial as well. However this latter assumption may not be correct. As pointed out by the referee some $`\delta `$ Scuti stars have nonradial modes with individual amplitudes in excess of 0.1 mag (e.g. 1 Mon, Balona et al. 2001).

Another method that can be useful in mode identification is the analysis of observed period ratios. Petersen & Christensen-Dalsgaard (1996) have discussed the $`P_1/P_0`$ (first overtone to the fundamental mode) and $`P_2/P_1`$ (second to first overtone) period ratios in terms of metal content and mass-luminosity relation. The calculated period ratios show a significant dependence on both metal abundance and the $`ML`$ relation. For Z=0.001 they obtain $`P_1/P_0`$ in the range 0.775-0.790, depending on the $`ML`$ relation used. The uncertainty of period ratios calculated from models is large but fortunately there is the possibility of comparing them with the observed period ratio of SX Phoenicis itself. The metallicity of SX Phoenicis (\[Fe/H\]=-1.37 – Hintz, Joner & Hintz 1998) is very similar to that of NGC 3201 (\[Fe/H\]=-1.42, Gonzalez & Wallerstein 1998). The $`P_1/P_0`$ period ratio observed in SX Phoenicis is 0.7782, very close to the value derived for the high amplitude variable V7 (0.779); we conclude that the radial modes excited in V7 are the fundamental mode and first overtone. The period ratios derived for V2 and V8 (0.781 and 0.780 respectively) are also very similar. We have already assumed that the longer of the periods detected in V8 corresponds to the radial mode (on the basis of its high amplitude), and it seems likely that this is the fundamental mode and that the other mode is the first overtone. In the case of V2 both modes are of low amplitude, and the period ratio is the only argument in favour of the first overtone/fundamental mode interpretation. However this conclusion may not be correct. Poretti (2000) gives the example of the $`\delta `$ Scuti star 44 Tau to show that nonradial modes can also show a similar period ratio. Several examples of period ratios in the range 0.76-0.78 can be found among the seven terms observed in this star.

In the case of low amplitude variable V5, the situation is even more complicated. Three frequencies have been detected in the Fourier spectrum, and some additional periodicities seem to be visible in the residuals. We are not able to identify frequencies unambiguously because of daily aliases. When dividing some of the possible frequencies we get period ratios that fall in the range 0.77-0.79 typical for $`P_1/P_0`$ (22.991/29.367 = 0.783), but values typical for $`P_2/P_1`$ (22.991/28.204 = 0.815) are also possible. From the position on the period-luminosity diagram (Fig. 14) the interpretation of 22.991 as the first overtone seems more likely, but we cannot exclude the possibility that it is a nonradial mode. Further observations are needed to analyze the frequency spectrum of this star.

In the case of the other stars (V1,V3,V4,V10) we observed two closely spaced periodicities - at least one of these must correspond to a nonradial mode. The same applies to low amplitude modes present in the vicinity of the high amplitude ones in V6, V9 and V11.

## 5 Period-luminosity relation and distance modulus to NGC 3201

In Fig. 14 we show the period-luminosity relation for the SX Phoenicis stars in NGC 3201. Circles represent positions of the presumed radial modes (assigned on the basis of the full visual amplitude $`A_V>0.1`$ mag). The horizontal lines connect the pairs of modes in variables V2, V7 and V8, for which the observed period ratio suggests pulsations in fundamental mode and first overtone. Also plotted are lines corresponding to McNamara’s (1997) period-luminosity relations for the fundamental mode ($`M_V=3.725\mathrm{log}P_01.933`$) and first overtone, shifted by the distance modulus to the cluster. We adopted a period-ratio of $`P_1/P_0=0.779`$ when calculating the first overtone relation.

The apparent distance modulus to the cluster has been calculated as a mean of distant moduli determined from McNamara’s (1997) P-L relation for 6 variables (V2, V6, V7, V8, V9, V11). The individual distance moduli were 13.98, 14.11, 13.91, 14.27, 14.09, 14.10, respectively. The variables V6, V9 and V11 have been assumed to be pulsating in the first overtone and corresponding fundamental periods were calculated assuming a period ratio $`P_1/P_0=0.779`$. We obtain a mean apparent distance modulus to NGC 3201 $`(mM)_V=14.08\pm 0.06`$. For comparison a mean distance modulus calculated taking into account only 3 variables pulsating in the first overtone and fundamental mode is $`(14.05\pm 0.11`$). The quoted error does not include systematic errors in McNamara’s period-luminosity relation. To estimate the systematic error we calculated the distance modulus to NGC 3201 using two other P-L relations. Pych et al. (2001) presented P-L relations for SX Phe stars in the globular cluster M55. These fundamental mode and first overtone relations yield $`(mM)_V=13.99`$ and $`(mM)_V=13.97`$, respectively. The Petersen & Høg 1998 relation is based on Hipparcos parallaxes and gives a mean modulus of $`(mM)_V=14.02`$. We estimate that the systematic error in the determination of distance moduli based on P-L relations is $``$0.1 mag, so the final result for the distance modulus to NGC 3201 is $`(mM)_V=14.08\pm 0.06\pm 0.1`$.

Our value of the distance modulus to NGC 3201 is only slightly lower than the distance modulus listed in the Harris (1996) Catalog of Parameters for Globular Clusters in the Milky Way (the electronic edition as updated in June 1999) ($`(mM)_V=14.24`$). The distance scale adopted there is defined by $`M_V(HB)=0.15[Fe/H]+0.8`$. Covino & Ortolani (1997) measured the distance modulus to NGC 3201 by main sequence fitting to the subdwarf sequence and by the $`M_V[Fe/H]`$ relation for RR Lyrae stars. Main sequence fitting to 8 local subdwarfs yielded $`(mM)_V=13.95`$, and the use of the subdwarf fiducial resulted in $`(mM)_V=14.15`$. However the absolute magnitudes of the field subdwarfs they used had been derived from ground based parallaxes which are known now to have the systematic errors and which are larger than those determined by Hipparcos. The RR Lyraes yielded two values $`(mM)_V=14.0`$ and $`14.2`$, depending on the $`M_V[Fe/H]`$ relation used. von Braun & Mateo (2001) obtained a true distance modulus $`(mM)_0=13.26`$ and an average reddening $`<E(VI)>=0.24`$ from isochrone fitting, resulting in an observed distance modulus $`(mM)_V=13.84`$. Piersimoni, Bono, & Ripepi (2002) determined the distance to NGC 3201 based on cluster RR Lyrae stars. They measure ($`(mM)_0=13.32`$ and $`<E(BV)>=0.3`$) or $`(mM)_V=14.25`$ for $`R_V=3.1`$. Layden (2002) also used observations of RR Lyrae stars to obtain a true distance modulus $`(mM)_0=13.35`$ and mean $`<E(BV)>=0.28`$, or $`(mM)_V=14.21`$. Our distance modulus to NGC 3201, $`(mM)_V=14.08\pm 0.06\pm 0.1`$, falls in the range defined by the other determinations. Recent distance modulus determinations are summarized in Table 4.

## 6 Summary

We have surveyed the southern globular cluster NGC 3201 for short-period variable stars. In this first of a series of papers we present CCD photometry of eleven multimode SX Phoenicis–type blue stragglers discovered in this cluster. Fourier periodograms of the $`V`$-band light curves are presented. The analysis of Fourier transforms shows that both radial and non-radial modes are excited. A tentative identification of radial modes in six variables is proposed. For three stars (V2, V7, V8) the derived period ratios are close to that observed in SX Phoenicis itself, suggesting pulsations in the fundamental and the first-overtone radial modes. For three more stars (V6, V9 and V11) a radial mode has been assigned on the basis of high ($`>`$ 0.3 mag) or medium ($`>`$ 0.1 mag) amplitudes of variability; from the position on period-luminosity diagram we infer that in these variables the first overtone is excited. In eight of the variables pairs of closely spaced modes are detected that cannot be explained with radial modes, at least one of them must be nonradial. The apparent distance modulus to the cluster has been calculated from distant moduli determined from McNamara’s (1997) P-L relation applied to six presumed radial pulsators. We measure $`(mM)_V=14.08\pm 0.06\pm 0.1`$, consistent with other determinations.

## Acknowledgments

BM and WK were supported by the grant 5.P03D.004.21 from the Committee of Scientific Research (Poland). IBT and WK were supported by NSF grant AST-9819786. We would like to thank Dr. Paul Schechter for making dophot available to us, and Dr. Alex Schwarzenberg-Czerny for the opportunity to use his programme NFIT. We also thank the director of The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for a generous allocation of observing time. BM acknowledges with gratitude the kind hospitality of the Las Campanas Observatory during her stays in Chile, and WK the generous hospitality of the Copernicus Astronomical Centre where this paper was written. An anonymous referee’s comments are also appreciated. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service.


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# 1 Preface

## 1 Preface

These lecture notes are based on invited lectures at The Second Tah Poe School on Cosmology “Modern Cosmology”, Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand, April 17 -25, 2003. See the web page

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/gumjudpb/TPC2FIRSTpage.html
for the details of this school and conference.

## 2 Introduction

The proposal of General Relativity by Einstein in 1915 made it possible to discuss the structure of spacetime and the evolution of the universe in terms of physical laws. In 1922 Friedmann found the existence of expanding/collapsing cosmological solutions by solving the Einstein field equations. In 1929 Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe by the observations in the redshift of galaxies, as the Einstein theory predicts. In 1946 Gamov and his collaborators showed that the universe must begin in a very hot and dense state from the theory of nucleosynthesis. They also predicted that the present universe should be filled with the microwaves with black body radiations. In 1965 Penzias and Wilson discovered microwave background radiations which coincide well with theoretical predictions by Gamov et al.. These strong observational evidences have made people believe that the universe started out from a hot and dense state, which is called as the standard big-bang model.

In standard big-bang cosmology the state of the universe is characterized by the radiation-dominated or the matter-dominated stage. These correspond to the decelerated expansion of the universe where the second derivative of the scale factor is negative. Meanwhile this decelerated expansion is not sufficient to solve a number of cosmological problems such as flatness and horizon problems which plagues in the standard big-bang scenario222In the next section I will explain how inflation solves these problems.. In order to overcome these fundamental problems, it is required to consider an epoch of accelerated expansion in the early universe, i.e., inflation.

The basic ideas of inflation were originally proposed by Guth  and Sato  independently in 1981, which is now termed as old inflation333Note that a specific version of the inflationary scenario–so called $`R^2`$ inflation– was proposed by Starobinsky one year earlier . Nevertheless this did not explicitly point out the virtue of inflation as in the paper of Guth.. This corresponds to the de-Sitter inflation which makes use of the first-order transition to true vacuum. However, it has a serious shortcoming that the universe becomes inhomogeneous by the bubble collision soon after the inflation ends. The revised version was proposed by Linde , and Albrecht and Steinhardt  in 1982, which is dubbed as new inflation. This corresponds to the slow-roll inflation with the second-order transition to true vacuum. Unfortunately this scenario also suffers from a fine-tuning problem of spending enough time in false vacuum to lead to sufficient amount of inflation. In 1983 Linde  considered the variant version of the slow-roll inflation called chaotic inflation, in which initial conditions of scalar fields are chaotic. According to this model, our homogeneous and isotropic universe may be produced in the regions where inflation occurs sufficiently. While old and new inflation models are based on the assumption that the universe was in a state of thermal equilibrium from the beginning, chaotic inflation can occur even without such an assumption. In addition chaotic inflation can start out in the regime close to Planck density, thereby solving the problem of initial conditions.

Many kinds of inflationary models have been constructed in these twenty years (see e.g., ref. ). In particular, the recent trend is to construct consistent models of inflation based on superstring or supergravity models. See ref.  for a review in such a direction.

The inflationary paradigm not only provides an excellent way in solving flatness and horizon problems but also generates density perturbations as seeds for large scale structure in the universe . In fact inflation provides a causal mechanism to generate nearly scale-invariant spectra of cosmological perturbations. Quantum fluctuations of the field driving inflation–called inflaton– are typically frozen by the accelerating expansion when the scales of fluctuations leave the Hubble radius. Long after the inflation ends, the scales cross inside the Hubble radius again. Thus perturbations imprinted during inflation can be the origin of large-scale structure in the universe. In fact temperature anisotropies observed by the COBE satellite in 1992 exhibit nearly scale-invariant spectra as predicted by the inflationary paradigm. Recent observations of WMAP also show strong evidence for inflation .

## 3 The standard big-bang cosmology and its problems

### 3.1 The standard big-bang cosmology

The standard big-bang cosmology is based on the cosmological principle , which means that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic on large distance. Then the metric takes the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) form:

$`ds^2=g_{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu =dt^2+a^2(t)\left[{\displaystyle \frac{dr^2}{1Kr^2}}+r^2(d\theta ^2+\mathrm{sin}^2\theta d\varphi ^2)\right].`$ (1)
Here $`a(t)`$ is the scale factor with $`t`$ being the cosmic time. The constant $`K`$ is the spatial curvature, where positive, zero, and negative values correspond to closed, flat, and open universes, respectively.

The evolution of the universe is dependent on the material within it. This is characterized by the equation of state between the energy density $`\rho (t)`$ and the pressure $`p(t)`$. Typical examples are :

$`p`$ $`=`$ $`\rho /3,\mathrm{radiation},`$ (2)
$`p`$ $`=`$ $`0,\mathrm{dust}.`$ (3)
In order to know the dynamical evolution of the universe, it is required to solve the Einstein equations in General Relativity. The Einstein equations are expressed as

$`G_{\mu \nu }R_{\mu \nu }{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g_{\mu \nu }R=8\pi GT_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Lambda }g_{\mu \nu },`$ (4)
where $`R_{\mu \nu }`$, $`R`$, $`T_{\mu \nu }`$, and $`G`$ are the Ricci tensor, Ricci scalar, energy momentum tensor, gravitational constant, respectively. The Planck energy, $`m_{\mathrm{pl}}=1.2211\times 10^{19}`$ GeV, is related with $`G`$ through the relation $`m_{\mathrm{pl}}=(\mathrm{}c^5/G)^{1/2}`$. Here $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$ are the Planck’s constant and the speed of light, respectively. Hereafter we use the units $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is a cosmological constant originally introduced by Einstein.

For the background metric (1) with a negligible cosmological constant, the Einstein equations (4) yield

$`H^2={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}\rho {\displaystyle \frac{K}{a^2}},`$ (5)
$`\dot{\rho }+3H(\rho +p)=0,`$ (6)
where a dot denotes the derivative with respect to $`t`$, and $`H\dot{a}/a`$ is the Hubble expansion rate. Eqs. (5) and (6) are so called the Friedmann and Fluid equations, respectively. Combining these relations gives the following equation,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\ddot{a}}{a}}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}(\rho +3p).`$ (7)
The Friedmann equation (5) can be rewritten as

$`\mathrm{\Omega }1={\displaystyle \frac{K}{a^2H^2}},`$ (8)
where

$`\mathrm{\Omega }{\displaystyle \frac{\rho }{\rho _c}},\mathrm{with}\rho _c{\displaystyle \frac{3H^2m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{8\pi }}.`$ (9)
Here the density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the ratio of the energy density to the critical density. When the spatial geometry is flat ($`K=0`$), the solutions for Eqs. (5) and (6) are

$`\mathrm{Radiation}\mathrm{dominant}:at^{1/2},\rho a^4,`$ (10)
$`\mathrm{Dust}\mathrm{dominant}:at^{2/3},\rho a^3.`$ (11)
In these simple cases, the universe is expanding deceleratedly ($`\ddot{a}<0`$) as confirmed by Eq. (7).

### 3.2 Problems of the standard big-bang cosmology

#### 3.2.1 Flatness problem

In the standard big-bang theory with $`\ddot{a}<0`$, the $`a^2H^2(=\dot{a}^2)`$ term in Eq. (8) always decreases. This indicates that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ tends to shift away from unity with the expansion of the universe. However, since present observations suggest that $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is within the order of magnitude of one , $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ needs to be very close to one in the past. For example, we require $`|\mathrm{\Omega }1|<𝒪(10^{16})`$ at the epoch of nucleosynthesis  and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }1|<𝒪(10^{64})`$ at the Planck epoch . This is an extreme fine-tuning of initial conditions. Unless initial conditions are chosen very accurately, the universe soon collapses, or expands quickly before the structure can be formed. This is so called the flatness problem.

#### 3.2.2 Horizon problem

Consider a comoving wavelength, $`\lambda `$, and also a physical wavelength, $`a\lambda `$, which is inside the Hubble radius, $`H^1`$ (i.e., $`a\lambda \stackrel{<}{}H^1`$). The standard big-bang cosmology is characterized by the cosmic evolution of $`at^p`$ with $`0<p<1`$. In this case the physical wavelength grows as $`a\lambda t^p`$, whereas the Hubble radius evolves as $`H^1t`$. Therefore the physical wavelength becomes much smaller than the Hubble radius with the passage of time. This means that the region where the causality works eventually becomes the only small fraction of the Hubble radius.

To be more precise, let us first define the particle horizon $`D_H(t)`$ where the light travels from the beginning of the universe, $`t=t_{}`$,

$`D_H(t)=a(t)d_H(t),\mathrm{with}d_H(t)={\displaystyle _t_{}^t}{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{a(t)}}.`$ (12)
Here $`d_H(t)`$ corresponds to the comoving distance. Setting $`t_{}=0`$, we find $`d_H(t)=3t`$ in the matter-dominant era. We observe photons in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) which are emitted at the time of decoupling. The particle horizon at decoupling, $`D_H(t_{\mathrm{dec}})=a(t_{\mathrm{dec}})d_H(t_{\mathrm{dec}})`$, corresponds to the region where photons could have contacted causally at that time. The ratio of $`d_H(t_{\mathrm{dec}})`$ to the particle horizon today, $`d_H(t_0)`$, where $`t_0`$ is the present time, is estimated as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d_H(t_{\mathrm{dec}})}{d_H(t_0)}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{t_0}{t_{\mathrm{dec}}}}\right)^{1/3}\left({\displaystyle \frac{10^5}{10^{10}}}\right)^{1/3}10^2.`$ (13)
This result implies that the causality regions of photons are restricted to be small. In fact the surface of the last scattering surface only corresponds to the angle of order $`1^{}`$. Observationally, however, we see photons which thermalize to the same temperature in all regions in the CMB sky. This is so called the horizon problem.

#### 3.2.3 The origin of large-scale structure in the universe

The COBE satellite observes the anisotropies in the last scattering surface, whose amplitudes are small and close to scale-invariant. These fluctuations spread so large a scale that it is practically impossible to generate them between the big bang and the time of the last scattering in the standard cosmology. This problem is almost equivalent to the horizon problem mentioned above, i.e., the standard cosmology can not provide satisfactory explanation for the origin of large-scale structure.

#### 3.2.4 Monopole problem

According to the view point of particle physics, the breaking of supersymmetry leads to the production of many unwanted relics such as monopoles, cosmic strings, and topological defects . The string theories also predict supersymmetric particles such as gravitinos, Kaluza-Klein particles, and moduli fields.

If these particles exist in the early stage of the universe, the energy densities of them decrease as a matter component ($`a^3`$). Since the radiation energy density decreases as $`a^4`$ in the radiation-dominant era, these massive relics could be the dominant materials in the universe, which contradicts with observations. This problem is generally called as the monopole problem.

## 4 Idea of inflationary cosmology

The problems in the big-bang cosmology lie in the fact that the universe always exhibits the decelerating expansion. Let us assume the existence of a stage in the early universe with an accelerated expansion of the universe, i.e.,

$`\ddot{a}>0.`$ (14)
From the relation (7) this corresponds to the condition

$`\rho +3p<0.`$ (15)
The condition (14) essentially means that $`\dot{a}(=aH)`$ increases during inflation. Then the comoving Hubble radius, $`(aH)^1`$, decreases in the inflationary phase. This property is the key point to solve the cosmological puzzles in the standard big-bang cosmology as I will show below.

### 4.1 Flatness problem

Since the $`a^2H^2`$ term in Eq. (8) increases during inflation, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ rapidly approaches unity. After the inflationary period ends, the evolution of the universe is followed by the conventional big-bang phase and $`|\mathrm{\Omega }1|`$ begins to increase. In spite of this, as long as the inflationary expansion occurs sufficiently and makes $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ very close to one, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ stays of order unity even in the present epoch.

### 4.2 Horizon problem

Since the scale factor evolves as $`at^p`$ with $`p>1`$ during inflation, the physical wavelength, $`a\lambda `$, grows faster than the Hubble radius, $`H^1(t)`$. Therefore the physical wavelength is pushed outside the Hubble radius during inflation. This means that the region where the causality works is stretched on scales much larger than the Hubble radius, thus solving the horizon problem.

Of course the Hubble radius begins to grow faster than the physical wavelength after inflation (radiation/matter dominant era). In order to solve the horizon problem, it is required that the following condition is satisfied for the comoving particle horizon:

$`{\displaystyle _t_{}^{t_{\mathrm{dec}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{a(t)}}{\displaystyle _{t_{\mathrm{dec}}}^{t_0}}{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{a(t)}}.`$ (16)
This implies that the comoving distance that photons can travel before decoupling needs to be much larger than that after the decoupling. According to the precise calculation, it is achieved when the universe expands about $`e^{70}`$ times during inflation .

### 4.3 The origin of the large scale structure

The fact that the comoving Hubble radius decreases during inflation makes it possible to generate the nearly scale-invariant density perturbations on large scales. Since the scales of perturbations are within the Hubble radius in the early stage of inflation, causal physics works to generate small quantum fluctuations. After a scale is pushed outside the Hubble radius (i.e., the first horizon crossing) during inflation, the perturbations can be described by classical ones. When the inflationary period ends, the evolution of the universe is followed by the standard big-bang cosmology, and the comoving Hubble radius begins to increase. Then the scales of perturbations cross inside the Hubble radius again (the second horizon crossing), after which causality works. The small perturbations imprinted during inflation appear as large-scale perturbations after the second horizon crossing. In this way the inflationary paradigm naturally provides a causal mechanism in generating the seeds of density perturbations observed in the CMB anisotropies.

### 4.4 Monopole problem

During the inflationary phase ($`\rho +3p<0`$), the energy density of the universe decreases very slowly. For example, when the universe evolves as $`at^p`$ with $`p>1`$, we have $`Ht^1a^{1/p}`$ and $`\rho a^{2/p}`$. Meanwhile the energy density of massive particles decreases much faster ($`a^3`$), these particles are red-shifted away during inflation, thereby solving the monopole problem.

Of course, we have to worry for the case where these unwanted particles are produced after inflation. In the process of reheating followed by inflation, the energy of the universe can be transferred to radiation or other light particles. At this stage unwanted particles must not be overproduced in order not to violate the success of the standard cosmology such as nucleosynthesis. Generally if the reheating temperature is sufficiently low, the thermal production of unwanted relics such as gravitinos can be avoided.

## 5 Inflationary dynamics

The scalar fields are the important ingredients in particle physics theories. Consider a homogeneous scalar field, $`\varphi `$, called inflaton, whose potential energy leads to the exponential expansion of the universe. The energy density and the pressure density of the inflaton can be described, respectively, as

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2+V(\varphi ),p={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2V(\varphi ),`$ (17)
where $`V(\varphi )`$ is the potential of the inflaton. Substituting Eq. (17) for Eqs. (5) and (6), we get

$`H^2={\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2+V(\varphi )\right],`$ (18)
$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+V^{}(\varphi )=0,`$ (19)
where $`\kappa ^28\pi G=8\pi /m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2`$, and we neglected the curvature term $`K^2/a^2`$ in Eq. (18).

During inflation, the relation (15) yields $`\dot{\varphi }^2<V(\varphi )`$, which indicates that the potential energy of the inflaton dominates over the kinetic energy of it. Therefore a flat potential of the inflaton is required in order to lead to sufficient amount of inflation. Imposing the slow-roll conditions: $`\frac{1}{2}\dot{\varphi }^2V(\varphi )`$ and $`\ddot{\varphi }3H\dot{\varphi }`$, Eqs. (18) and (19) are approximately given as

$`H^2{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi }{3m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}V(\varphi ),`$ (20)
$`3H\dot{\varphi }V^{}(\varphi ).`$ (21)
Defining the so-called slow-roll parameters

$`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{16\pi }}\left({\displaystyle \frac{V^{}}{V}}\right)^2,\eta {\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{8\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{V^{\prime \prime }}{V}},`$ (22)
we can easily verify that the above slow-roll approximations are valid when

$`ϵ1,|\eta |1.`$ (23)
The inflationary phase ends when $`ϵ`$ and $`|\eta |`$ grow of order unity. A useful quantity to describe the amount of inflation is the number of e-foldings, defined by

$`N\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{a_f}{a_i}}={\displaystyle _{t_i}^{t_f}}H𝑑t,`$ (24)
where the subscripts $`i`$ and $`f`$ denote the quantities at the beginning and the end of the inflation, respectively.

In order to solve the flatness problem, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is required to be $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_f1|\stackrel{<}{}10^{60}`$ right after the end of inflation. Meanwhile the ratio $`|\mathrm{\Omega }1|`$ between the initial and final phase of inflation is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{|\mathrm{\Omega }_f1|}{|\mathrm{\Omega }_i1|}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{a_i}{a_f}}\right)^2=e^{2N},`$ (25)
where we used the fact that $`H`$ is nearly constant during inflation. Assuming that $`|\mathrm{\Omega }_i1|`$ is of order unity, the number of e-foldings is required to be $`N\stackrel{>}{}70`$ to solve the flatness problem. We have similar number of e-foldings from the requirement to solve the horizon problem.

## 6 Models of inflation

So far we did not mention the form of the inflaton potential, $`V(\varphi )`$. Originating from the old inflationary scenario proposed by Guth  and Sato , we now have varieties of inflationary models : $`R^2`$, new, chaotic, extended, power-law, hybrid, natural, supernatural, extranatural, eternal, D-term, F-term, brane, oscillating, trace-anomaly driven,…, etc.

These different kinds of models can be roughly classified in the following way . The first class (type I) is the “large field” model, in which the initial value of the inflaton is large and it rolls down toward the potential minimum at smaller $`\varphi `$. Chaotic inflation  is one of the representative models of this class. The second class (type II) is the “small field” model, in which the inflaton field is small initially and slowly evolves toward the potential minimum at larger $`\varphi `$. New inflation  and natural inflation  are the examples of this type. In the first model, the second derivative of the potential $`V^{(2)}(\varphi )`$ usually takes positive values, whereas $`V^{(2)}(\varphi )`$ can change its sign in the second model. The third one (type III) is the hybrid (double) inflation model , in which inflation typically ends by the phase transition triggered by the presence of the second scalar field (or by the second phase of inflation after the phase transition).

Let us briefly recap each type of inflationary models.

#### 6.0.1 Chaotic inflation– an example of type I

The chaotic inflation model is described by the quadratic or quartic inflaton potential,

$`V(\varphi )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2,\mathrm{or}V(\varphi )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\lambda \varphi ^4.`$ (26)
The “chaotic” means that initial conditions of inflaton are distributed chaotically. According to this scenario, the region which undergoes the sufficient amount of inflation gives rise to our universe.

Let us investigate the evolution of the universe in the case of the quadratic potential. Then Eqs. (20) and (21) read

$`H^2{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi m^2\varphi ^2}{3m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}},3H\dot{\varphi }+m^2\varphi 0.`$ (27)
Combining these relations gives the following solutions:

$`\varphi \varphi _i{\displaystyle \frac{mm_{\mathrm{pl}}}{2\sqrt{3\pi }}}t,`$ (28)
$`aa_i\mathrm{exp}\left[2\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{3}}}{\displaystyle \frac{m}{m_{\mathrm{pl}}}}\left(\varphi _it{\displaystyle \frac{mm_{\mathrm{pl}}}{4\sqrt{3\pi }}}t^2\right)\right],`$ (29)
where $`\varphi _i`$ is an integration constant corresponding to the initial values of the inflaton. We find from the relation (29) that the universe expands exponentially during the initial stage of inflation. With the increase of the second term in the square bracket of Eq. (29), the expansion rate slows down. Since the slow-roll parameters are expressed as

$`ϵ=\eta ={\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{4\pi \varphi ^2}},`$ (30)
the inflationary period ends around $`|\varphi |m_{\mathrm{pl}}/\sqrt{4\pi }`$, after which the system enters a reheating stage. The total amount of inflation is approximately expressed as

$`N2\pi \left({\displaystyle \frac{\varphi _i}{m_{\mathrm{pl}}}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}.`$ (31)
In order to lead to sufficient inflation $`N\stackrel{>}{}70`$, we require the initial value to be $`\varphi _i\stackrel{>}{}3m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$. The inflaton mass, $`m`$, is constrained by the amplitude of density perturbations observed by the COBE satellite. In order to fit observations, $`m`$ is required to be

$`m10^6m_{\mathrm{pl}}.`$ (32)
In the quartic potential case, the self-coupling is constrained to be $`\lambda 10^{13}`$ by the similar argument .

#### 6.0.2 Natural inflation– an example of type II

Natural inflation model  is characterized by Pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons (PNGBs) which appear when an approximate global symmetry is spontaneously broken. The PNGB potential is expressed as

$`V(\varphi )=m^4\left[1+\mathrm{cos}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{f}}\right)\right],`$ (33)
where two mass scales $`m`$ and $`f`$ characterize the height and width of the potential, respectively. The typical mass scales are of order $`fm_{\mathrm{pl}}10^{19}`$ GeV and $`mm_{\mathrm{GUT}}10^{16}`$ GeV, which are expected by particle physics.

Let us consider the case where the inflaton is initially located in the region, $`0<\varphi <\pi f`$, and inflation occurs while the inflaton slowly evolves toward the potential minimum at $`\varphi =\pi f`$. The slow-roll parameters are

$`ϵ={\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{16\pi f^2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}(\varphi /f)}{1+\mathrm{cos}(\varphi /f)}}\right]^2,\eta ={\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{8\pi f^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}(\varphi /f)}{1+\mathrm{cos}(\varphi /f)}}.`$ (34)
Note that $`ϵ`$ and $`\eta `$ depend on $`f`$, but not on $`m`$. Inflation starts out from the regime where $`\varphi `$ is close to zero. The system enters a reheating stage when the inflaton begins to oscillate around $`\varphi =\pi f`$.

One typical property in the type II model is that the second derivative of the inflaton potential can change its sign. In the natural inflation, $`V^{(2)}(\varphi )`$ is negative when inflaton evolves in the region of $`0<\varphi <\pi f/2`$. This leads to the enhancement of inflaton fluctuations by spinodal (tachyonic) instability . When the particle creation by spinodal instability is neglected, the number of $`e`$-foldings is expressed by

$`N={\displaystyle \frac{16\pi f^2}{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}\mathrm{ln}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _f/2f)}{\mathrm{sin}(\varphi _i/2f)}}\right],`$ (35)
where $`\varphi _i`$ and $`\varphi _f`$ are the initial and final values of the inflaton during inflation, respectively. In order to obtain the sufficient amount of e-foldings satisfying $`N\stackrel{>}{}70`$, the initial value of the inflaton is required to be $`\varphi (t_i)\stackrel{<}{}0.1m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$ for the mass scale $`fm_{\mathrm{pl}}`$.

#### 6.0.3 Hybrid (Double) inflation– an example of type III

The inflationary model building in the presence of multiple scalar fields is the recent trend from the viewpoint of particle physics . Let us consider the Linde’s hybrid inflation model , described by

$`V={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{4}}\left(\chi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{\lambda }}\right)^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g^2\varphi ^2\chi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2.`$ (36)
When $`\varphi ^2`$ is large, the field tends to roll down toward the potential minimum at $`\chi =0`$. In this case, the potential is effectively described by a single field,

$`V{\displaystyle \frac{M^4}{4\lambda }}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2.`$ (37)
Inflation does not end for the potential (37). In the presence of the $`\chi `$ field, however, the mass of the field $`\chi `$ becomes negative for $`\varphi <\varphi _cM/g`$. Then the field begins to roll down to one of the true minima at $`\varphi =0`$ and $`\chi =\pm M/\sqrt{\lambda }`$ (see Fig. 3). The original version of the hybrid inflation  corresponds to the case where the inflation soon comes to an end after the symmetry breaking ($`\varphi <\varphi _c`$) due to the rapid rolling of the field $`\chi `$. In this case the number of e-foldings acquired in double inflation can be approximately estimated by using the potential (37):

$`N{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi M^4}{\lambda m^2m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}}\mathrm{ln}{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi _i}{\varphi _c}},`$ (38)
where $`\varphi _i`$ is the initial value of inflaton.

If the condition, $`M^2\lambda M_p^2`$, is satisfied, the mass of the field $`\chi `$ is “light” relative to the Hubble rate around $`\varphi =\varphi _c`$, thereby leading to the second stage of inflation for $`\varphi <\varphi _c`$ . This corresponds to the double inflationary scenario.

## 7 Density perturbations from inflation

In this section we study cosmological perturbations generated from inflation. For simplicity we shall consider the single-field model of inflation. The most general form of the line element that describes scalar metric perturbations is written as

$`ds^2=a^2(\tau )\{(1+2A)d\tau ^2+2B,_idx^id\tau +[(12\psi )\gamma _{ij}+2E,_{ij}]dx^idx^j\},`$ (39)
where $`\tau a^1𝑑t`$ is the conformal time. The scalar quantities $`A`$, $`\psi `$, $`B`$, and $`E`$ are the functions of space and time coordinates. We denote the three-dimensional covariant derivative of a function $`f`$ with respect to some coordinate $`i`$ by $`f_i`$. In the linear perturbation theory of cosmological perturbations, there exist some redundant degress of freedom in the equations of motions which can be fixed without affecting the physics. It is important to choose a proper gauge condition so that it allows for an simplified mathematical analysis and an easier physical interpretation (see e.g., Ref.  for details). Among several gauge conditions, the longitudinal gauge defined by the gauge condition $`B=E=0`$ is often used :

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`a^2(\tau )[(1+2\mathrm{\Phi })d\tau ^2+(12\mathrm{\Psi })\gamma _{ij}dx^idx^j]`$ (40)
$`=`$ $`(1+2\mathrm{\Phi })dt^2+a^2(t)(12\mathrm{\Psi })\delta _{ij}dx^idx^j.`$
The potentials $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ can be constructed as gauge-invariant variables, whose forms are invariant under infinitesimal coordinate transformations (see Ref.  for details). When the spatial part of the energy-momentum tensor is diagonal, $`\delta T_j^i\delta _j^i`$, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ coincides with $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$.

Let us consider the linearized Einstein equation with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ :

$`\delta G_\nu ^\mu =8\pi G\delta T_\nu ^\mu .`$ (41)
The perturbed Einstein tensor can be evaluated in the longitudinal gauge as follows

$`\delta G_0^0`$ $`=`$ $`2a^2\left[3(\mathrm{\Phi }+\mathrm{\Psi }^{})+^2\mathrm{\Psi }\right],`$
$`\delta G_i^0`$ $`=`$ $`2a^2(\mathrm{\Phi }+\mathrm{\Psi }^{}),_i,`$
$`\delta G_j^i`$ $`=`$ $`2a^2\{[2^{}+^2)\mathrm{\Phi }+\mathrm{\Phi }^{}+\mathrm{\Psi }^{\prime \prime }+2\mathrm{\Psi }^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}^2D]\delta _j^i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\gamma ^{ik}D,_{kj}\},`$ (42)
where $`a^{}/a`$ and $`D\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }`$, with a prime being a derivative with respect to $`\tau `$. In the case where the universe is filled with a minimally coupled scalar field, $`\varphi `$, the energy momentum tensor takes the following form

$`T_\nu ^\mu =(\varphi )^2+\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(\varphi )^2+V(\varphi )\right]\delta _\nu ^\mu .`$ (43)
We decompose the field $`\varphi `$ into homogenous and fluctuational parts as $`\varphi =\varphi _0+\delta \varphi `$. Then the energy momentum tensor is decomposed into background and perturbed parts as

$`T_\nu ^\mu =^{(0)}T_\nu ^\mu +\delta T_\nu ^\mu ,`$ (44)
where

$`{}_{}{}^{(0)}T_{0}^{0}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2a^2}}\varphi _0^2+V(\varphi _0),{}_{}{}^{(0)}T_{i}^{0}=0,{}_{}{}^{(0)}T_{j}^{i}=\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2a^2}}\varphi _0^2+V(\varphi _0)\right]\delta _j^i,`$ (45)
and

$`\delta T_0^0`$ $`=`$ $`a^2\left[\varphi _0^2\mathrm{\Phi }+\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi ^{}+V^{}(\varphi )a^2\delta \varphi \right],`$
$`\delta T_i^0`$ $`=`$ $`a^2\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi ,_i,`$
$`\delta T_j^i`$ $`=`$ $`a^2\left[+\varphi _0^2\mathrm{\Phi }\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi ^{}+V^{}(\varphi )a^2\delta \varphi \right]\delta _j^i.`$ (46)
Note that the relation $`\delta T_j^i\delta _j^i`$ holds in this case. This leads to the relation $`D=\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{\Psi }=0`$ by considering the $`ij`$ part in Eq. (41). Then the perturbed Einstein equation (41) can be written as

$`^2\mathrm{\Phi }3\mathrm{\Phi }^{}(^{}+2^2)\mathrm{\Phi }={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa ^2}{2}}(\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi +V^{}(\varphi )a^2\delta \varphi ),`$ (47)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }^{}+\mathrm{\Phi }={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa ^2}{2}}\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi ,`$ (48)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }^{\prime \prime }+3\mathrm{\Phi }^{}+(^{}+2^2)\mathrm{\Phi }={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa ^2}{2}}(\varphi _0^{}\delta \varphi V^{}(\varphi )a^2\delta \varphi ),`$ (49)
where $`\kappa ^28\pi G`$. We used the background equations in deriving these equations. Combining Eqs. (47)-(49) gives the equation for the gauge-invariant scalar field:

$`\delta \varphi ^{\prime \prime }+2\delta \varphi ^{}^2\delta \varphi +V^{\prime \prime }(\varphi )a^2\delta \varphi =4\varphi _0^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}2V^{}(\varphi )a^2\mathrm{\Phi }.`$ (50)
Note that the effect of gravitational perturbations appears in the rhs of Eq. (50).

Eliminating the scalar field perturbation in Eqs. (47)-(49), we find the following equation for gauge-invariant cosmological perturbations:

$`\mathrm{\Phi }^{\prime \prime }+2(a/\varphi _0^{})^{}(a/\varphi _0^{})^1\mathrm{\Phi }^{}^2\mathrm{\Phi }+2\varphi _0^{}(/\varphi ^{})^{}\mathrm{\Phi }=0.`$ (51)
Introducing new variables

$`u=(a/\varphi _0^{})\mathrm{\Phi },z=/a\varphi _0^{},`$ (52)
Eq. (51) reduces to

$`u^{\prime \prime }^2u(z^{\prime \prime }/z)u=0.`$ (53)
Making Fourier transformations, the mode function $`u_k`$ with a wave number $`k`$ satisfies444Note that the comoving wavelength $`\lambda `$ is related with $`k`$ by the relation $`\lambda =2\pi /k`$.

$`u_k^{\prime \prime }+(k^2z^{\prime \prime }/z)u_k=0.`$ (54)
In the long-wavelength limit, $`k^2z^{\prime \prime }/z`$, we find the analytic solution

$`u=z\left(c_1+c_2{\displaystyle \frac{d\tau }{z^2}}\right),`$ (55)
where $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ are integration constants. Making use of Eqs. (48), (52), and (55), we have

$`\mathrm{\Phi }={\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}}{a^2}}\left(c_12c_2{\displaystyle a𝑑t}\right)+2c_2,`$ (56)
$`\delta \varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\varphi }_0}{a}}\left(c_12c_2{\displaystyle a𝑑t}\right).`$ (57)
The solution (56) indicates that there exists a gauge-invariant conserved quantity (comoving curvature perturbation) in the long-wavelength limit:

$`=\mathrm{\Phi }{\displaystyle \frac{H^2}{\dot{H}}}\left(\mathrm{\Phi }+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{H}}\right)=2c_2,`$ (58)
which was firstly introduced by Bardeen .

During inflation, the perturbations with a comoving wavenumber $`k`$ are pushed outside the Hubble radius by the accelerated expansion of the universe. This makes the wavenumber toward the long wavelength regions: $`k^2z^{\prime \prime }/z`$, in which case we have the analytic solutions of Eqs. (56) and (57). Since the terms which include the $`c_1`$ coefficient rapidly decrease and the relation $`|\dot{H}|H^2`$ holds during the inflationary phase, Eqs. (56) and (57) yield

$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ $``$ $`2c_2\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{a}}{\displaystyle a𝑑t}\right)^{}`$ (59)
$`=`$ $`2c_2\left[H^1a^1{\displaystyle a(H^1)^{}𝑑t}\right]^{}2c_2\dot{H}/H^2,`$
$`\delta \varphi 2c_2\dot{\varphi }_0a^1{\displaystyle a𝑑t}2c_2\dot{\varphi }_0/H.`$ (60)
Combining Eqs. (58) and (60), we have

$`={\displaystyle \frac{H\delta \varphi _k}{\dot{\varphi }_0}},`$ (61)
where we introduced the subscript “k” for the fluctuation, $`\delta \varphi `$. The $`H\delta \varphi _k/\dot{\varphi }_0`$ term should be evaluated when the wavelength of the perturbation crosses the Hubble radius: $`k^2=z^{\prime \prime }/z`$. Once the scales are pushed outside the Hubble radius during inflation, the evolution of perturbations can be described by Eqs. (56) and (57). Long after the inflation ends, the scale of the perturbations reenters the Hubble radius again, which generates the seeds for the galaxies and clusters. Thus the inflationary paradigm naturally explains the origin of large-scale structure.

The spectrum of the comoving curvature perturbation is defined as

$`𝒫_{}={\displaystyle \frac{k^3}{2\pi ^2}}||^2={\displaystyle \frac{k^3}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{H^2}{\dot{\varphi }_0^2}}|\delta \varphi _k|^2.`$ (62)
From Eqs. (59) and (60) we have $`\mathrm{\Phi }ϵH\delta \varphi _k/\dot{\varphi }_0`$ with $`ϵ=\dot{H}/H^2`$ being the slow-roll parameter defined in eq. (22). Taking note that $`|4\varphi _0^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^{}||2V^{}(\varphi )a^2\mathrm{\Phi }|`$ on super-Hubble scales and making use of the slow-roll relation $`3H\dot{\varphi }V^{}(\varphi )`$, Eq. (50) can be approximately written as

$`\delta \varphi _k^{\prime \prime }+2\delta \varphi _k^{}+\left[k^2+a^2V^{\prime \prime }(\varphi )+6a^2ϵH^2\right]\delta \varphi _k=0.`$ (63)
Redefining a field perturbation, $`\delta \chi _k=a^1\delta \varphi _k`$, this equation reduces to

$`\delta \chi _k^{\prime \prime }+\left[k^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau ^2}}\left(\nu ^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\right)\right]\delta \chi _k=0\mathrm{with}\nu ^2={\displaystyle \frac{9}{4}}+9ϵ3\eta ,`$ (64)
where we used the fact that $`a^{\prime \prime }/a=a^2(2ϵ)H^2(2+3ϵ)/\tau ^2`$. When $`\nu `$ is a real number, the solution for this equation can be written in terms of the Hankel functions of the first and second kind:

$`\delta \chi _k=\sqrt{\tau }\left[c_1(k)H_\nu ^{(1)}(k\tau )+c_2(k)H_\nu ^{(2)}(k\tau )\right].`$ (65)
Quantum fluctuations are generated in the ultraviolet regime ($`kaH)`$, which is required to take the plane-wave form $`e^{ik\tau }/\sqrt{2k}`$ for $`k\tau 1`$. Matching Eq. (65) with this quantum fluctuation, we have $`c_1(k)=\frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}e^{i(\nu +\frac{1}{2})\frac{\pi }{2}}`$ and $`c_2(k)=0`$, thereby yielding

$`\delta \chi _k={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\pi }}{2}}e^{i(\nu +\frac{1}{2})\frac{\pi }{2}}\sqrt{\tau }H_\nu ^{(1)}(k\tau ).`$ (66)
Since the Hankel function takes the form $`H_\nu (k\tau 1)\sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi }}e^{i\frac{\pi }{2}}2^{\nu \frac{3}{2}}(\mathrm{\Gamma }(\nu )/\mathrm{\Gamma }(3/2))(k\tau )^\nu `$ on super-Hubble scales, the amplitude of the fluctuation $`\delta \varphi _k`$ is estimated as

$`|\delta \varphi _k|{\displaystyle \frac{H}{\sqrt{2k^3}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{k}{aH}}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}\nu }.`$ (67)
Substituting this relation for eq. (62), we finally get the spectrum of the curvature perturbations on super-Hubble scales:

$`𝒫_{}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2ϵ}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{H}{2\pi }}\right)^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{k}{aH}}\right)^{32\nu }A_{}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{k}{aH}}\right)^{n_{}1}.`$ (68)
Here the spectral index $`n_{}`$ is given as

$`n_{}1{\displaystyle \frac{d\mathrm{ln}𝒫_{}}{d\mathrm{ln}k}}=6ϵ+2\eta .`$ (69)
When $`n_{}=1`$, the spectrum of the curvature perturbation is scale-invariant. Since the slow-roll parameters $`ϵ`$ and $`\eta `$ are much smaller than unity \[see eq. (23)\], scalar perturbations generated in standard inflation are close to scale-invariant. This property is consistent with the recent observation of WMAP . When $`n_{}<1`$ and $`n_{}>1`$, we call the red-tilted spectrum and the blue-tilted spectrum, respectively. For example the chaotic inflation model exhibits the red-tilted spectrum, while the hybrid inflation model shows the blue-tilted spectrum . This property is useful to constrain on inflationary models from observations.

The spectrum (68) corresponds to the adiabatic perturbation generated in the single-field inflationary scenario. In the case of the multi-field inflation, this is modified due to the presence of isocurvature (entropy) perturbations . In particular the curvature perturbation $``$ is no longer a conserved quantity in the multi-field context . Therefore we have to estimate the curvature perturbation at the end of inflation instead of using its value at the horizon crossing. See ref.  for the detailed numerical analysis of correlated adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations in concrete models of double inflation.

## 8 Reheating after inflation

After the end of inflation, the universe enters a reheating stage, during which the potential energy of the inflaton is transferred to radiation and the universe is thermalized. In the original version of the reheating scenario which is now called old reheating, the decay of the inflaton is described by the perturbation theory . This process is not efficient for the success of the GUT scale baryogenesis scenario. In contrast, it was later found that the existence of the nonperturbative stage called preheating can lead to the explosive particle production in the early stage of reheating .

### 8.1 Old reheating

The reheating stage turns on when the inflaton reaches the potential minimum and begins to oscillate. Let us first study the background evolution during reheating for the polynomial potential

$`V(\varphi )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2n}}m^2m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2\left({\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{m_{\mathrm{pl}}}}\right)^{2n},`$ (70)
where $`n`$ is a positive integer. Making use of the time-averaged relation

$`\dot{\varphi }^2_T=2nV(\varphi )_T,`$ (71)
the time evolution of the scale factor and the Hubble parameter are

$`at^{(n+1)/3n},H{\displaystyle \frac{n+1}{3n}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{t}},`$ (72)
where we used eqs. (18) and (19). When $`n=1`$ and $`n=2`$, the universe evolves as matter-dominant ($`at^{2/3}`$) and radiation-dominant ($`at^{1/2}`$), respectively.

Let us consider the case of $`n=1`$ in order to understand the basic picture of reheating. In this case, the evolution of the inflaton is described by the sinusoidal oscillation with a decreasing amplitude $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t)`$:

$`\varphi =\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t)\mathrm{sin}mt,\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t)={\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}}{\sqrt{3\pi }mt}}.`$ (73)
Then the energy density of the inflaton decreases as

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\dot{\varphi }^2+V(\varphi ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}^2a^3.`$ (74)
The simple estimations of Eqs. (73) and (74) should be modified in the presence of the inflaton decay. Without this decay, the universe will evolve toward emptier and colder states because of the redshift of the energy density. In the old reheating scenario  where the single inflaton decay is considered, the inflaton $`\varphi `$ is coupled to a scalar field $`\chi `$ and a fermion field $`\psi `$ with the interacting Lagrangian,

$`_{\mathrm{int}}=\sigma \varphi \chi ^2h\varphi \overline{\psi }\psi ,`$ (75)
where $`\sigma `$ and $`h`$ are coupling constants. Note that we assume that the bare masses of $`\chi `$ and $`\psi `$ are much smaller than the inflaton mass $`m`$ and neglect them. We include quantum correction effects to the equation of inflaton as

$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+\left[m^2+\mathrm{\Pi }(m)\right]\varphi =0,`$ (76)
where $`\mathrm{\Pi }(m)`$ is the polarization operator of inflaton. Although the real part of $`\mathrm{\Pi }(m)`$ is small relative to $`m^2`$, $`\mathrm{\Pi }(m)`$ acquires an imaginary part,

$`\mathrm{Im}\mathrm{\Pi }(m)=m\mathrm{\Gamma },`$ (77)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }(\varphi \chi \chi )+\mathrm{\Gamma }(\varphi \overline{\psi }\psi )`$ is the total decay rate of inflaton. The perturbative decay rates of $`\varphi \chi `$ and $`\varphi \psi `$ are expressed as

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\varphi \chi \chi )={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma ^2}{8\pi m}},\mathrm{\Gamma }(\varphi \overline{\psi }\psi )={\displaystyle \frac{h^2m}{8\pi }}.`$ (78)
Note that these relations are valid in the case of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }m`$, which implies the relations: $`\sigma ^2m^2`$ and $`h^21`$. We cannot use Eq. (78) in the nonperturbative stage of reheating (preheating).

Combining Eqs. (76) and (77) and setting $`\varphi =\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t)\mathrm{exp}(imt)`$, we find

$`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t)={\displaystyle \frac{m_{\mathrm{pl}}}{\sqrt{3\pi }mt}}\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Gamma }t/2).`$ (79)
The same solution can be obtained by adding the phenomenological decay term $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\dot{\varphi }`$ to the equation of inflaton:

$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+\mathrm{\Gamma }\dot{\varphi }+m^2\varphi =0.`$ (80)
The relation, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }<3H`$, holds in the initial stage as long as coupling constants $`\sigma `$ and $`h`$ are small. Since the Hubble parameter decreases as $`H1/t`$, the fraction of produced particles to the total energy density becomes important when $`3H`$ drops less than $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. The energy density of the universe at this time can be estimated by setting $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^2=(3H)^2=24\pi \rho /m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2`$, as

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{24\pi }}.`$ (81)
If we assume that this energy density is rapidly transferred to light particles and newly-produced particles acquire the radiation energy with temperature $`T_R`$ by instant thermalization, we obtain the relation

$`\rho ={\displaystyle \frac{g_{}\pi ^2T_R^4}{30}}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2m_{\mathrm{pl}}^2}{24\pi }},`$ (82)
where $`g_{}(\stackrel{>}{}100)`$ is the effective number of degrees of freedom at $`T=T_R`$. Then the reheating temperature is estimated as

$`T_R\stackrel{<}{}0.1\sqrt{\mathrm{\Gamma }m_{\mathrm{pl}}}.`$ (83)
Taking into account the relation, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }m\stackrel{<}{}10^6m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$, we find

$`T_R10^4m_{\mathrm{pl}}.`$ (84)
This value is much smaller than the GUT scale temperature $`T_{\mathrm{GUT}}=10^3m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$, which indicates that the GUT scale baryogenesis does not work well in the old reheating scenario.

### 8.2 Preheating

In the early 1990s, it was realized that the inflaton decay may have started in a much more explosive process, called preheating  before the perturbative decay (see also refs. ). At this stage, the fluctuations of scalar particles can grow quasi-exponentially by parametric resonance. The process of reheating consists of three stages:

(i) Preheating stage where particles are nonperturbatively produced

(ii) Perturbative stage where the inflaton decay is described by the Born process

(iii) Thermalization of produced particles

Among variant models of inflation, chaotic inflation has an advantage that the dynamics of preheating is simply analyzed. Kofman, Linde, and Starobinsky investigated the structure of resonance in preheating both in massive and self-interacting inflationary models . Hereafter we shall review the dynamics of preheating for the two-field model with a massive inflaton,

$`V(\varphi ,\chi )={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}m^2\varphi ^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}g^2\varphi ^2\chi ^2.`$ (85)
We assume that the spacetime and the inflaton $`\varphi `$ give a classical background and the scalar field $`\chi `$ is treated as a quantum field on that background. Expanding the scalar field $`\chi `$ as

$`\chi ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^{3/2}}}{\displaystyle \left(a_k\chi _k(t)e^{i𝐤𝐱}+a_k^{}\chi _k^{}(t)e^{i𝐤𝐱}\right)d^3𝐤},`$ (86)
and adopting the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric, the each Fourier component $`\chi _k(t)`$ satisfies the following equation of motion,

$`\ddot{\chi }_k+3H\dot{\chi }_k+\left({\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{a^2}}+g^2\varphi ^2\right)\chi _k=0.`$ (87)
Introducing a new scalar field $`X_ka^{3/2}\chi _k`$, Eq. (87) yields

$`\ddot{X}_k+\omega _k^2X_k=0,`$ (88)
where

$`\omega _k^2{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{a^2}}+g^2\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{3}{4}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{2\ddot{a}}{a}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\dot{a}^2}{a^2}}\right).`$ (89)
We neglect the last term in Eq. (89) for analytic investigations since this term becomes gradually negligible during the reheating phase.

Then Eq. (89) is reduced to the well known Mathieu equation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2X_k}{dz^2}}+\left(A_k2q\mathrm{cos}2z\right)X_k=0,`$ (90)
where $`z=mt`$ and

$`A_k=2q+{\displaystyle \frac{k^2}{m^2a^2}},`$ (91)
$`q={\displaystyle \frac{g^2\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}^2(t)}{4m^2}}.`$ (92)
The strength of the resonance in Eq. (90) depends on the variables of $`A_k`$ and $`q`$, which is shown in a stability-instability chart of Fig. 4. In the unstable region (the lined region in Fig. 4), $`X_k`$ grows exponentially as $`X_k\mathrm{exp}(\mu _kz)`$ with the Floquet index $`\mu _k`$ and particles with momentum $`k`$ are produced. For small $`q(\stackrel{<}{}1)`$, the width of the instability band is small and few $`k`$-modes grow by this resonance. This is called the narrow resonance. On the other hand, for the large $`q(1)`$, the resonance can occur for a broad range of the momentum $`k`$-space. Since the growth rate of the $`\chi `$-particle becomes larger with the increase of the variable $`q`$, this resonance provides more efficient particle production than in the narrow one. This is called the broad resonance . Note that the initial amplitude of the inflaton and the coupling constant $`g`$ play important roles to determine whether the resonance is narrow or broad. Since the inflaton mass is constrained to be small as $`m10^6m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$ by COBE normalizations, the large resonance parameter, $`q1`$, can be easily achieved for the coupling $`g\stackrel{>}{}10^4`$ with the initial amplitude, $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}(t_i)0.2m_{\mathrm{pl}}`$. The allowed region on the Mathieu chart is determined by Eq. (91) as

$`A_k2q.`$ (93)
Hence the broadest resonance is given by the limit line $`A_k=2q`$.

As is found in Eq. (91), particles with low momenta are mainly produced. Considering the nonadiabatic condition, $`d\omega _k/dt\omega _k^2`$, for the particle production, the maximum comoving momentum is roughly estimated as

$`k\stackrel{<}{}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{gm\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}}{2}}}.`$ (94)
This indicates that large values of $`g`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ lead to the production of particles with high momenta.

When $`q`$ is sufficiently large initially ($`q1`$), the resonance of each mode occurs stochastically . In this case, the frequency $`\omega _k`$ decreases by cosmic expansion and $`\omega _k`$ drastically changes within each oscillation of the inflaton field, so the phases of $`\chi `$ field at successive moment of $`\varphi =0`$ are not correlated each other. In the first stage of preheating, the $`\chi `$ fields cross large number of instability bands. The periods when they are in instability bands are so short that the resonance can not occur efficiently relative to the Minkowski spacetime case. Nevertheless, the $`\chi `$ fluctuations can still grow quasi-exponentially. As $`q`$ becomes smaller, cosmic expansion slows down, and the fields stay in each resonance band for a longer time. When the variables decrease below the lower boundary of the first resonance band by the expansion of the universe, particle productions come to an end.

We have to note that there is another mechanism which terminates the resonance. Taking into account the backreaction effect of created $`\chi `$ particles, the equation of inflaton is modified as

$`\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+(m^2+g^2\chi ^2)\varphi =0,`$ (95)
where the expectation value of $`\chi ^2`$ is defined as

$`\chi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi ^2}}{\displaystyle k^2|\chi _k|^2𝑑k}.`$ (96)
When the initial value of $`q`$ is large as $`q\stackrel{>}{}3000`$, which corresponds to $`g\stackrel{>}{}3.0\times 10^4`$, the variance $`\chi ^2`$ grows of order $`m^2/g^2`$ and the backreaction onto the inflaton field cannot be ignored. This makes the oscillation of the inflaton incoherent, which finally stops the resonance. The evolution of the variance $`\chi ^2`$ for $`g=3.0\times 10^4`$ is shown in fig. 5.

The growth of the field perturbations can stimulate the enhancement of metric perturbations on sub-Hubble and even on super-Hubble scales . Whether this enhancement occurs or not is sensitive to the evolution of the large-scale $`\chi `$ fluctuation during inflation. In the model (85), for example, strong amplification of the $`\chi `$ fluctuation requires a resonance parameter $`q1`$ at the beginning of preheating, in which case the large-scale $`\chi _k`$ modes are suppressed during inflation . Therefore it is difficult to amplify super-Hubble metric perturbations in this model. However there exist several models of inflation where metric perturbations can be amplified during preheating . This also provides an interesting possibility of overproducing primordial black holes in certain cases .

## 9 Summary

In this lecture note I reviewed the concept of inflation, generation of density perturbations, and reheating after inflation. I explained how inflationary cosmology solves a number of cosmological problems such as flatness, horizon, and monopole problems. In addition inflation makes it possible to generate nearly scale-invariant density perturbations, which is consistent with observations. Inflation is really an efficient mechanism to solve the cosmological problems associated with standard big-bang cosmology. In addition, elementary particles can be produced during the (p)reheating stage after inflation through the decay of the inflaton.

So far there exist several cosmological scenarios that might be the alternative to inflation such as the pre-big-bang  and ekpyrotic/cyclic model . Nevertheless, unlike the standard inflation, it is generally difficult to solve all of the major cosmological problems at the same time in these models without a fine tuning of the model parameters. It is fair to say that standard inflation with a slow-roll flat potential is the most promising scenario in the very early universe among the models proposed so far.

Nevertheless we still have unsolved problems even in the inflationary cosmology: What is the origin of the inflaton field? What is the state of the universe before inflation? The initial singularity can be avoided?

Fortunately we begin to get the high-precision observational data, which is expected to reveal the nature of inflation in details in near future. From the theoretical side, there are a lot of extensive works to try to construct viable models of inflation based on superstring and supergravity theories. It is really encouraging that we are living in an exciting era where the early universe models can be strongly constrained from the upcoming observational data.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank the organizers of the school, especially Burin Gumjudpai and Rachan Rangdee, for organizing nice school and conference.


text:
# Kinematics of Tidal Debris from Omega Centauri’s Progenitor Galaxy

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Omega Centauri, the most massive globular cluster in the Milky Way, is unique in terms of its metallicity content, internal kinematics, and structure. Unlike other Galactic globular clusters, $`\omega `$ Cen shows a wide spread in metallicity (e.g. Norris, Freeman, & Mighell 1996), with a main metal-poor component at \[Fe/H\]$`1.6`$, a second smaller peak at \[Fe/H\]$`1.2`$, and a long tail extending up to \[Fe/H\]$`0.5`$. The metal-rich population holds a low velocity dispersion and no sign of rotation, in contrast to the rotating metal-poor population. Furthermore, the metal-rich stars in $`\omega `$ Cen are largely enhanced in $`s`$-process elements relative to those in globular clusters and field stars with similar metallicities (e.g. Norris & Da Costa 1995), thereby suggesting that the ejecta from low-mass, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars had to be retained and incorporated into the next-generation stars.

In spite of its large mass ($`5\times 10^6`$ M), it has been demonstrated by Gnedin et al. (2002) that $`\omega `$ Cen is not unique in its ability to retain the AGB ejecta as found for other clusters. An isolated formation of $`\omega `$ Cen is thus unlikely, because the enriched gas would easily be lost by encountering the Galactic disk. The most viable explanation for the uniqueness of $`\omega `$ Cen is that it was once the dense nucleus of a dwarf galaxy (Freeman 1993). A gravitational potential provided by progenitor’s stellar system and dark matter (as suggested from dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group, Mateo 1998) would help retaining the enriched gas and let the cluster being self-enriched at least over a few Gigayears.

If this hypothesis is the case for the origin of $`\omega `$ Cen, the question arises: where and in what form does the stellar system of its progenitor galaxy remain? Dinescu (2002) first investigated this issue, by examining the possible signature of the progenitor’s tidal debris among nearby metal-poor stars in the catalog of Beers et al. (2000, B00). She identified a group of stars with $`2.0<`$\[Fe/H\]$`1.5`$, which departs from the characteristics of the inner Galactic halo but has retrograde orbits similar to $`\omega `$ Cen. Her simplified disruption model of the progenitor galaxy demonstrated that trailing tidal debris, having orbital characteristics similar to the cluster, can be found in the solar neighborhood, although the concrete spatial distribution and kinematics of the debris stars remain yet unclear.

This work motivates us to conduct an N-body simulation for the tidal disruption of $`\omega `$ Cen’s progenitor galaxy, to obtain the characteristic structure and kinematics of its debris stars and compare with various observations showing signatures of recent merging events in the Milky Way (Gilmore, Wyse, & Norris 2002, GWN; Kinman et al. 2002, K02; Chiba & Beers 2000, CB). In particular, we show that a recently identified stream of stars at heliocentric radial velocity of $`300`$ km s-1 (GWN) is a natural outcome of the current disruption model, without affecting local halo kinematics near the Sun and microlensing optical depth towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC).

## 2 SIMPLE DYNAMICAL MODEL OF A PROGENITOR GALAXY

We calculate the dynamical evolution of an orbiting dwarf galaxy in a fixed external gravitational potential representing the Milky Way. The potential consists of three parts: a spherical Hernquist bulge $`\mathrm{\Phi }_b(r)`$, a Miyamoto-Nagai disk $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(R,z)`$, and a logarithmic dark halo $`\mathrm{\Phi }_h(r)`$, where $`r`$ is the Galactocentric distance and $`(R,z)`$ denote cylindrical coordinates. Each is given as, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_b(r)=GM_b/(r+a)`$, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(R,z)=GM_d/\sqrt{R^2+(b+\sqrt{z^2+c^2})^2}`$, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_h(r)=v_h^2/2\mathrm{ln}(r^2+d^2)`$, where $`M_b=3.4\times 10^{10}`$ M, $`a=0.7`$ kpc, $`M_d=10^{11}`$ M, $`b=6.5`$ kpc, $`c=0.26`$ kpc, $`v_h=186`$ km s-1, and $`d=12`$ kpc. This choice yields a circular velocity of 228 km s-1 at the solar circle of $`R_{}=8`$ kpc and a flat rotation curve outside $`R_{}`$.

We set self-gravitating particles in the dwarf galaxy following a King model, where the central density, central velocity dispersion, and core radius are given as 0.3 M pc-3, 18.1 km s-1, and 0.56 kpc, respectively. In addition, a particle with the mass of $`5\times 10^6`$ M representing $`\omega `$ Cen is placed at the center of the galaxy to trace its orbit. This setting yields the total mass of the galaxy as $`M_{tot}=5.79\times 10^8`$ M. A part of the mass is provided by stars, which is roughly estimated from the mean metallicity of stars in $`\omega `$ Cen ($``$\[Fe/H\]$`1.6`$), combined with the metallicity-luminosity relation for the Local Group dwarfs (Côté et al. 2000) and the mass-to-light ratio (assuming $`M/L4`$ obtained for $`\omega `$ Cen, Meylan et al. 1995), yielding $`M_{stars}10^7`$ M. Thus, our model galaxy is largely dominated by a dark component, in agreement with the observed large $`M/L`$ in dwarfs (Mateo 1998). The galaxy is represented by a collection of $`10^4`$ particles and the self-gravity is calculated in terms of a multiple expansion of the internal potential to fourth order (Zaritsky & White 1988).

In the course of its orbital motion, a dwarf galaxy is disrupted by Galactic tides, whereas its dense core is expected to survive and follow $`\omega `$ Cen’s orbit. While our calculation in a fixed Galactic potential neglects dynamical friction against progenitor’s orbit, the effect is only modest for the system of $`10^8`$ M (Zhao 2002), especially during a few orbital periods required for tidal disruption. We thus examine two representative orbits for the progenitor, model 1 and 2: model 1 follows the current orbit of $`\omega `$ Cen, whereas for model 2, we calculate an orbit back to the past over $`2`$ Gyr from its current position and velocity by fully taking into account dynamical friction and then set a progenitor galaxy on its non-decaying orbit. These two models provide us with satisfactory information on the generic properties of a tidally disrupted progenitor and we postulate that the realistic nature of their debris is midway between these model predictions. We calculate $`\omega `$ Cen’s orbit, based on the distance111We estimate this distance, based on the Harris (1996) data and the relation between absolute magnitude of cluster horizontal branch and metallicity derived by Carretta, Gratton, & Clemintini (2000). from the Sun $`D=5.3\pm 0.5`$ kpc, position $`(l,b)=(309^{},15^{})`$, proper motion $`(\mu _\alpha \mathrm{cos}\delta ,\mu _\delta )=(5.08\pm 0.35,3.57\pm 0.34)`$ mas yr-1, and heliocentric radial velocity $`v_{los}=232.5\pm 0.7`$ km s-1 (Dinescu, Girard, & van Altena 1999). This orbit for model 1 is characterized by frequent disk crossings with a period of $`\tau _{orb}=0.8\times 10^8`$ yr, retrograde motion, and apo and pericentric distances $`(r_{apo},r_{peri})=(6.4,1.1)`$ kpc. For model 2, we obtain $`\tau _{orb}=1.5\times 10^8`$ yr and $`(r_{apo},r_{peri})=(11.3,3.0)`$ kpc. In both experiments, we adopt the same progenitor mass $`M_{tot}`$ and place it at apocenter to maximize its survival chances222For model 1, this initial mass may be too large as an as-yet-undisrupted galaxy (Zhao 2002), so the debris density in model 1 can be overly represented..

Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of the tidally disrupted debris. Upper (middle) panel shows model 1 (model 2) after the 1.37 (1.86) Gyr orbital excursion of the progenitor galaxy. Lower panel shows the orbit of the galaxy center. In the course of the orbital motion of the galaxy, its structure is made elongated along the orbit induced by Galactic tides, in particular at its pericenter passages, and then the particles are spread out to form the tidal streams along the orbit. A rosette-like feature of the debris becomes steady after about eight orbital periods. Model 1 results in more compact distribution than model 2, which reflects the difference in orbital radii.

Figure 2 shows the velocity distributions of the debris particles in cylindrical coordinates $`(v_R,v_\varphi ,v_z)`$. As is evident, model 1 and 2 provide essentially the same debris kinematics: most remarkable is a sharply peaked $`v_\varphi `$ distribution at $`100`$ km s-1, arising from a retrograde orbit of a progenitor. These kinematics suggest that the difference in model 1 and 2 resides only in the spatial extent of the debris.

## 3 EFFECTS OF DEBRIS ON GALACTIC KINEMATICS

### 3.1 Method for kinematic analysis

In order to assess the reality of the debris stars in light of observed stellar kinematics in the Milky Way, we analyze the kinematics of both the simulated debris and other Galactic stars generated randomly by a Monte Carlo method. The metal-poor halo is modeled as a flattened spheroid $`\rho (R^2+z^2/q^2)^{3.5/2}`$, where $`q`$ is an axis ratio ranging 0.55-0.7, anisotropic velocity ellipsoid $`(\sigma _R,\sigma _\varphi ,\sigma _z)=(154,121,96)`$ km s-1, and small mean rotation $`v_\varphi =24`$ km s-1, as found for halo stars with \[Fe/H\]$`<2`$ near the Sun (CB). Thin and thick disks are modeled as $`\rho \mathrm{exp}(R/R_d)\mathrm{sec}^2(z/z_d)`$, where $`R_d=3.5`$ kpc and $`z_d=0.3`$ (1) kpc for thin (thick) disk. Both disks rotate at 200 km s-1, having velocity ellipsoids of $`(34,25,20)`$ km s-1 and $`(46,50,35)`$ km s-1 for thin and thick disks, respectively (CB). The relative fraction of each component is fixed using observed local densities near the Sun, in such a manner that the halo and thick-disk densities at $`D<1`$ kpc are 0.2 % and 2 % of the thin-disk density, respectively (e.g. Yamagata & Yoshii 1992).

In our model of $`\omega `$ Cen’s progenitor galaxy, the self-gravitating particles represent both stars and dark matter. We note that a correct estimate for the fraction of stars is uncertain, because their $`M/L`$ ratio as well as the amount of dark matter in the progenitor is unavailable. As a useful method to incorporate this ambiguity for the current kinematic analysis, we set a parameter $`f`$ as the fraction of the debris particles relative to halo stars near the Sun, when all of the particles are regarded as stellar ones. By this, the normalization of the halo density is obtained for the given debris particles.

A typical value of $`f`$ for the conversion of the simulated particles to the stars is estimated in the following manner. Model 1 (model 2) yields 21 (74) particles at $`D<2`$ kpc, giving the mass density of $`\rho _g=0.4(1.3)\times 10^4`$ M pc-3 near the Sun, whereas the total mass density and metal-poor halo density have been derived as $`8\times 10^3`$ M pc-3 (Gates, Gyuk, & Turner 1995) and $`6.4\times 10^5`$ M pc-3 (Gould, Flynn, & Bahcall 1998), respectively. Then, if the debris stars (with $`M_{stars}10^7`$ M) are distributed in the same manner as the simulated particles (with $`M_{tot}=5.74\times 10^8`$ M), which would be a reasonable approximation in view of the dissipationless nature of stars, the mass density of the debris stars in the solar neighborhood can be estimated as $`(M_{stars}/M_{tot})\rho _g=O(10^6)`$ M pc-3, which is about 1 % of the halo density. Thus, $`f`$, defined here as debris fraction at $`D<2`$ kpc, is expected to be of order of a few percents.

### 3.2 GWN’s radial velocity survey

Recently, GWN reported a spectroscopic survey of $`2000`$ F/G stars down to $`V=19.5`$ mag, in the direction against Galactic rotation $`(l,b)=(270^{},45^{})`$ and $`(270^{},+33^{})`$, where radial velocities, $`v_{los}`$, in combination with distances largely reflect orbital angular momentum. The $`v_{los}`$ distribution of the stars a few kpc from the Sun shows two stellar streams at $`v_{los}100`$ km s-1 and $`300`$ km s-1, which are not explained by known Galactic components. While the stream at $`v_{los}100`$ km s-1 was reproduced by their model of a merging satellite in prograde rotation, the stream at $`v_{los}300`$ km s-1 remains yet unexplained.

Figure 3a shows the $`v_{los}`$ distribution for the debris stars of model 2 and halo stars of $`q=0.7`$ (i.e. without disks) at $`1<D<5`$ kpc, $`260^{}<l<280^{}`$, and two fields for $`b`$. Figure 3b shows when disk stars are incorporated. As is evident, the debris stars from $`\omega `$ Cen’s progenitor form a local peak at $`v_{los}300`$ km s-1, which is provided by many stars having $`v_\varphi 100`$ km s-1. This is in good agreement with the $`v_{los}300`$ km s-1 stream discovered by GWN. A more flattened halo than the case $`q=0.7`$ yields a higher peak, since the density contrast of the debris relative to halo is made higher in this survey region. It is worth noting that model 1 yields essentially the same $`v_{los}`$ distribution as model 2, reflecting the same velocity distribution, although to attain the same peak height at $`300`$ km s-1, $`f`$ be a few factor larger and the selected range of $`l`$ be a few degree higher than the respective values in model 2, because of less number of debris stars near the Sun. This rule applies to other considerations below as well.

### 3.3 Kinematics at the North Galactic Pole

Majewski (1992) suggested that the outer halo at the North Galactic Pole (NGP) shows a retrograde rotation $`v_\varphi 55`$ km s-1 at $`z>4`$ kpc. Also, K02 reported that their sample of horizontal branch stars at $`2<z<12`$ kpc shows a retrograde rotation at $`v_\varphi 65`$ km s-1. On the other hand, halo stars near the Sun show no retrograde rotation (CB).

To investigate the role of the debris stars in this issue, we select those of model 2 and randomly generated stars at $`b>70^{}`$ and $`2<D<5`$ kpc (resembling K02’s selection). Since the observational determination of full space velocities involves rather inaccurate information of proper motions compared to radial velocities, we convolve the velocity distribution of stars with a Gaussian distribution for velocity errors, having 1 $`\sigma `$ of a typical 30 km s-1 error. The resulting velocity distribution shows a non-Gaussian feature owing to the presence of the debris stars: the $`v_\varphi `$ distribution holds an extra peak at $`100`$ km s-1 in addition to the $`v_\varphi 20`$ km s-1 peak, where the former amplitude becomes comparable to the latter one at $`f`$ of a few percents, whereas for $`v_R`$ and $`v_z`$, the velocity distributions are made slightly asymmetric. However, the change of $`v_\varphi `$ by the inclusion of the debris stars with $`f=5`$ % amounts to only $`19`$ ($`14`$) km s-1 for $`q=0.55`$ ($`0.7`$), which are still insufficient for explaining the reported $`v_\varphi =3565`$ km s-1. Also, if we extend the selection of the stars at higher $`z`$ or instead consider model 1, the changes of $`v_\varphi `$ become smaller than the above mentioned values, because there are no debris stars in our current model. Thus, it is safe to conclude that the debris stars contribute only in part to a reported retrograde motion at the NGP.

### 3.4 Local halo kinematics and microlensing towards LMC

We select the nearby debris and halo stars at $`6.5<R<9.5`$ kpc, $`z<4`$ kpc, and $`D<4`$ kpc (as was drawn by CB), convolve the velocities with a Gaussian error distribution of $`1\sigma =30`$ km s-1, and compare with the corresponding stars with \[Fe/H\]$`2`$ in B00. It follows that the non-Gaussian feature in velocities is much weaker than that at the NGP: the change of $`v_\varphi `$ for $`f=5`$ % is only $`9`$ ($`10`$) km s-1 in model 1 (model 2). This is due to the smaller debris fraction near $`z=0`$ than at high $`|z|`$.

The effects of the debris stars on the microlensing optical depth towards LMC, $`\tau `$, are modest as well. Following the Gould (1999) prescription for $`\tau `$ and investigating the debris within $`10^{}\times 10^{}`$ centered at LMC, we arrive at $`\tau 10^7f`$, thereby indicating that $`\tau `$ provided by the debris stars is much smaller than the observed $`\tau `$ of $`O(10^7)`$.

## 4 DISCUSSION

We have demonstrated that our fiducial models of an orbiting dwarf galaxy that once contained $`\omega `$ Cen predict a sequence of tidal streams in retrograde rotation and their existence is imprinted in kinematics of nearby stars, especially in the direction against Galactic rotation (GWN) and at the NGP (K02), while local halo kinematics and microlensing towards LMC remain unchanged. The streams are mostly distributed inside the solar circle, as suggested from the current orbit of $`\omega `$ Cen (Dinescu 2002). In contrast to the Sgr dwarf galaxy having polar orbit, the orbit of $`\omega `$ Cen’s progenitor galaxy is largely affected by a non-spherical disk potential, where the orbital plane exhibits precession with respect to the Galactic Pole, causing self-crossing of tidal streams in the disk. The projection of the orbit perpendicular to the disk shows an ’X’-like feature, thereby leaving denser streams at high $`|z|`$ than at low $`|z|`$ for a given radius. This explains the significance of the debris at the NGP compared to the solar neighborhood.

Existing kinematic studies of Galactic stars to search for a signature of $`\omega `$ Cen’s progenitor galaxy are yet confined to nearby stars, where the significance of the debris streams is modest, as shown here. Searches of stars inside the solar circle are more encouraging (Fig. 1), in particular in the directions of $`l320^{}`$ and $`l50^{}`$, where we expect the presence of high-velocity streams at $`v_{los}=200300`$ km s-1 and $`400300`$ km s-1, respectively. Future radial velocity surveys of these fields including the sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey or planned RAdial Velocity Experiment are worth exploring in this context. Also, detailed abundance studies of candidate stream stars will be intriguing, because such stars may exhibit different abundance patterns from field halo stars, as found in dwarf galaxies (Shetrone, Côté, & Sargent 2001).

A yet unsettled issue is the origin of a progenitor satellite orbiting inside the solar circle, because dynamical friction alone from the present-day smooth Galactic components is insufficient for shrinking the orbit if it was born at a large distance (say, $`50`$ kpc) from Galactic center (Zhao 2002). One of the possibilities to preclude it may be that the merging of a satellite occurred while the Milky Way was still in the process of halo formation via hierarchical merging of several subgalactic clumps; successive gravitational interaction among clumps may help reducing the orbital angular momentum of a progenitor efficiently. Also, a progenitor may have formed in the vicinity of the proto-Galaxy, where the environment of a strong tidal field promotes the formation of a compact M32-like galaxy (Burkert 1994) and its high density affords the survival chances until the epoch of the Galactic disk formation. Then, if a progenitor retained gas, growing Galactic tides induce the infall of gas into the progenitor center and trigger the formation of a globular cluster there (Bekki & Chiba 2002) similar to $`\omega `$ Cen. The story is yet speculative but worth pursuing based on sophisticated numerical codes for Galaxy formation.

We are grateful to the anonymous referee for helpful comments. M.C. thanks Kenji Bekki and Tim Beers for useful discussions.