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# D-brane Anti-brane Annihilation in an Expanding Universe

## 1 Introduction

In a previous article we showed how $`D`$-branes may have been produced in a tachyonic phase transition at an energy near the string scale . While providing a well-defined non-perturbative method of generating branes, this mechanism suffers from the typical problem common to all topological defect theories – too many defects are produced.

The mass of a $`D`$-brane is proportional to its volume and is inversely proportional to the closed string coupling $`g_s`$. Thus non-compact branes at weak coupling are extremely heavy. Compact branes which wrap compact cycles of a spacetime $`M`$ are less heavy, but are still much heavier than fundamental string states like electrons and heavy gauge bosons, etc. Thus, a gas of branes, whether compact or non-compact, is likely to cause the energy density of the universe to exceed the critical energy density and turn an expanding universe into a contracting one .

However, if $`g_s0`$, branes do not pose many cosmological problems because they then decouple from gravity in bulk. This is albeit that the mass $`m_{Dp}V_p/g_s`$ diverges. Gravity couples to D-branes through closed string emission and absorption. The “vertices” (in field theory parlance) for such interactions are generated by closed string vertex operators, $`V(𝐤)`$, which are proportional to $`g_s`$. Thus as $`g_s0`$, the vertex operators “tend to” zero, closed string emission/absorption is suppressed, and gravity decouples from the branes. This is similar to the fact that the vertex for electron-photon interactions is proportional to the fine-structure constant $`\alpha `$; and if $`\alpha 0`$ then electrons and photons no longer interact. Thus interestingly, heavy branes do not affect the gravitational dynamics of the universe in this context.

This can be seen in a different manner. The perturbation $`\delta g_{00}`$ of a massive object on the surrounding spacetime in linearized gravity is given by the Newtonian potential,

$$\delta g_{00}=\frac{G_dm_{Dp}}{r^{d2}}0\mathrm{if}g_s0$$
(1)
because the $`d+1`$-dimensional Newton’s constant varies as $`G_{d+1}g_s^2`$ and $`m_{Dp}1/g_s`$.

However, for reasonable values of $`g_s`$ (which is related to the Yang-Mills coupling on the branes) branes will distort any cosmological spacetime. It is therefore imperative to dilute their densities via brane anti-brane annihilation, inflation, or something similar. In this paper we try to determine how brane anti-brane annihilation affects brane densities.

If extra compact directions exist then the density of branes and anti-branes at late times will significantly depend on the process of decompatification of the large dimensions or compactification of the small dimensions, the initial topology of spacetime, and more generally the evolution of the compact directions. Our results can be summarized as follows.

Suppose that all of the compact directions are stabilised before brane production and that four non-compact directions are expanding. Then because of strong brane anti-brane interactions, branes filling the non-compact directions and separated only in the compact directions will quickly annihilate. Such branes will not feel the cosmic expansion which typically causes interactions to freeze out below some temperature. Thus branes with $`p3`$ which completely fill the non-compact directions and possibly wrap some of the compact directions will not pose any cosmological problems. Interactions between branes with $`p<3`$ will be frozen out, and these branes may pose severe cosmological problems. Branes with $`p3`$ which do not fill the non-compact directions will pose problems as well.

If all of the dimensions, compact and non-compact, are expanding at the time of brane production then branes of all dimensionalities will soon dominate the energy density of the universe and cause it to collapse. This is because brane interactions will quickly be frozen out and they will be unable to annihilate. If none of the dimensions have been decompactified, such that all the directions are compact but expanding as in the Brandenberger-Vafa model, then a variety of possibilites are possible. If the wrapped branes can generate a positive pressure and confine the compact directions via some sort of dilaton dynamics, then all of the wrapped branes may annihilate. This will ameliorate any brane problem but also prevent wrapped branes from allowing four compact directions to grow large. If the compact directions are not stabilized, then interactions will be frozen out and branes will be littered throughout spacetime.

One interesting, but expected result from our calculations is that high dimensional branes annihilate more efficiently and drop out of equilibrium later. This is essentially because they interact more vigorously with other branes and matter in the bulk. This means that a Type IIB universe initally filled with branes may migrate to a universe filled with only a few $`D3`$ branes and many $`D1`$ strings. This may be very attractive from a braneworld point of view.

The plan of this paper is as follows. First we consider the idealized case of non-interacting branes in a static universe; this is essentially a reworking of the heuristic arguments of  from a somewhat more algebraic point of view. Then we consider the case of interacting branes in a static universe. Next, we move onto the more realistic case of interacting branes in an expanding universe. Finally, we end with a catalog of how our results apply to scenarios with differing numbers of compact directions, expanding directions, wrapped directions, etc..

### 1.1 Non-interacting branes in Flat Space

If we ignore long-range interactions and the cosmic expansion rate $`H^1`$, then the annihilation rate of a system of branes in a static spacetime $`M`$, should depend only on the distinguishing features of the branes such as their dimensionality $`(p+1)`$, and the geometry, topology and dimensionality of the spacetime $`M`$.

Consider a non-coincident $`Dp`$ brane and $`\overline{D}p^{}`$ anti-brane. Label them as brane $`A`$ and brane $`B`$ and their worldvolumes as $`A`$ and $`B`$. $`A`$ and $`B`$ will annihilate if they are coincident, parallel, and if $`p=p^{}`$. Anihilation occurs because tachyons arise which eventually condense to the minima of their potential. The minima for coincident anti-parallel branes corresponds to the disappearance/confinement of all open string degrees of freedom – i.e. annihilation . Tachyons also arise if two branes intersect at angles . However, the minima of the tachyon potential in that case correspond to changes in the geometry of the branes and not annihilation.

A $`Dp`$ brane and $`\overline{D}p^{}`$ anti-brane will only meet each other if their spacetime paths intersect at some point in time – i.e. if their worldvolumes intersect. We have the following set theory identities

$$A+B=AB+BA+AB$$
(2)
where

$`AB`$ $`=`$ $`AAB`$
$`BA`$ $`=`$ $`BAB.`$ (3)
This allows us to write

$`\mathrm{dim}(A+B)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{dim}(AAB)+\mathrm{dim}(BAB)+\mathrm{dim}(AB)`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{dim}(A)+\mathrm{dim}(B)\mathrm{dim}(AB).`$
where $`\mathrm{dim}(AB)`$ is appropriately defined to ensure that the $`\mathrm{dim}`$ operator is linear.111For example, if $`\mathrm{dim}(A)=\mathrm{dim}(B)>\mathrm{dim}(A+B)/2`$ and the worldvolumes $`A`$ and $`B`$ are non-intersecting and parallel, then (4) would imply that $`\mathrm{dim}(AB)>0`$ which cannot be true. This is ameliorated by defining the intersection of the worldvolumes of two parallel objects to be intersecting in $`^n`$. This is reasonable because generic such worldvolumes will not be parallel and will intersect. Alternatively, one can work in projective space where for example, two parallel lines always intersect. We now use the definitions

$`\mathrm{dim}(A+B)D;`$ $`\mathrm{dim}(A)=p+1;`$ $`\mathrm{dim}(B)=p^{}+1`$ (5)
where $`D`$ is the dimensionality of the spacetime. We then conclude that

$$\mathrm{dim}(AB)(p+1)+(p^{}+1)D$$
(6)
Thus, brane $`A`$ and anti-brane $`B`$ will surely meet at some point in time if $`(p+p^{})>D2`$. Equation 6 provides a lower bound on the dimensionality of the intersection, and the actual dimensionality of the intersection will usually be larger. For example, if $`(p+p^{})=D2`$, then $`\mathrm{dim}(AB)0`$. The only way $`\mathrm{dim}(AB)=0`$ and $`AB=\mathrm{}`$ can occur is if the worldlines of $`A`$ and $`B`$ are roughly parallel - an unlikely situation. Otherwise, they will intersect in a non-zero dimensional space. In the special case when $`p=p^{}`$, and the $`Dp`$ and $`\overline{D}p`$ are parallel, any intersection of $`A`$ and $`B`$ will be $`p+1`$ dimensional. This is crucial, because annihilation requires the brane and anti-brane to be coincident and that $`\mathrm{dim}(AB)=p+1`$.

In string theory, $`D=10`$. Thus, $`D3`$ branes will (almost surely)222In the measure theoretic sense. not meet. But, $`D5`$ and $`D7`$ branes will meet and annihilate. $`D3`$ branes and lower dimensional branes may meet. But the number of such configurations is a set of measure zero. For example, intuition tells us that two non-interacting low dimension branes can on rare occasions simply “run into each other.” This will occur if brane $`A`$ and brane $`B`$ live in a smaller space $`WM`$, which is a proper subset of $`M`$. Then effectively, $`D=\mathrm{dim}(W)`$. For example, if the worldlines of two $`D0`$ branes lie in a 2D plane in a 10D dimensional space, then $`W=^2`$; $`D=2`$; and unless the worldlines are parallel, the branes will meet. The probability of two randomly moving objects lying in a proper subset of $`^{10}`$ is small. This would require that a subset of the transverse coordinates of $`A`$ in $`M`$ and $`B`$ in $`M`$ coincide exactly. The number of such coordinates is $`\mathrm{dim}(MW)`$. Thus, the probability, $`P`$ of lying in the subset is of order

$$P\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{vol}()}\right)^{\mathrm{dim}(MW)}$$
(7)
which is vanishingly small. The actual probability will be larger, since $`A`$ and $`B`$ cannot be completely random surfaces. They must lie within their respective lightcones.

However, if the transverse dimensions to $`W`$ are compact with a compactification radius of $`l`$, then

$$P\left(\frac{1}{l}\right)^{\mathrm{dim}(MW)}$$
(8)
which may still be small, but does not vanish. Thus, compactification helps branes meet. But eq. 6 is still the principal criterion determining when non-interacting $`Dp`$ and $`Dp^{}`$ branes will meet.

However, in reality branes are rarely non-interacting. Only parallel branes of the same dimension with the same orientation feel no attraction or repulsion to each other. An inter-brane potential exists for branes at angles, branes of different dimensions, and branes and anti-branes .

### 1.2 Interacting Branes in Flat Space

Recall that the charge of a brane relative to another brane depends on the relative orientation. The extreme case is when a brane is rotated by an angle $`\pi `$ relative to another brane. This corresponds to an anti-parallel or anti-brane. Just as particles and anti-particles feel a mutual attractive force, so do branes and anti-branes. Two branes with zero relative rotation angle are parallel branes. Thus, it is not surprising that the intermediate case of a rotation by $`0<\theta <\pi `$ interpolates between no force and the large attractive force of brane anti-brane interaction; i.e. branes at angles feel forces. However, at a few special angles the force vanishes and the configuration is stable.

Branes of different dimension also feel forces because open string excitations connecting the branes are tachyonic. For example, a $`Dp`$ is attracted to a $`D(p+2)`$. The force disappears once the $`Dp`$ brane lies on the worldvolume of the $`D(p+2)`$ brane. A $`Dp`$ is repulsed by a $`D(p+6)`$ brane, and unlike the $`DpD(p+2)`$ system does not flow toward a stable system . $`DpD(p+4)`$ brane configurations are supersymmetric and feel no forces .

We will focus on the force between parallel branes and anti-branes of the same dimension. Only such systems can decrease the brane/anti-brane number densities in the universe.

The potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$ between a $`Dp`$ brane at a distance $`r`$ away from a $`\overline{D}p`$ is the analog of the gravitational potential, $`\varphi (r)`$ in four dimensions

$$\varphi (r)=\frac{G_4m}{r}\mathrm{\Phi }(r)=\mathrm{constant}\frac{G_{10}\tau _p}{r^{7p}}$$
(9)
where $`G_D`$ is Newton’s constant in $`D`$ spacetime dimensions. In place of the mass, the potential contains the tension $`\tau _p`$. The quantity $`G_D\tau _p`$ is analogous to the effective gravity of cosmic strings, $`G\mu `$, where $`\mu `$ is the string tension. It measures the gravitational strength of the branes. The potential energy $`V(r)`$, of a brane and anti-brane is therefore $`V(r)=m_{Dp}\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$ in analogy with the purely gravitational case. Since $`\kappa ^2=8\pi G_{10}`$, we can write $`V(r)`$ as

$$V(r)=\beta \frac{\kappa ^2\tau _pm_{Dp}}{r^{7p}}\frac{h^2}{r^{7p}}$$
(10)
Here, $`\beta `$ is a numerical factor characteristic of D-branes .

$$\beta =\pi ^{(9p)/2}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{7p}{2})$$
(11)
A brane and anti-brane in relative motion will have velocity and acceleration dependent potentials as well . For example, the largest velocity dependent piece is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_vV(r)=\frac{v^2}{2}\frac{h^2}{r^{7p}}+O(\frac{v^4}{r^{7p}})$$
(12)
The first piece appears because of supersymmetry breaking and the second is present in susy and non-susy cases. Since both terms change the potential energy in (10) by no more than a small numerical factor (of the same sign), we will ignore them. We will also ignore acceleration terms. Note, we have left out the rest mass $`2m_{Dp}`$ in (10).

If some directions are compact then the brane inter-brane potential will depend on the average distance between the branes and anti-branes. If the distance is comparable to the size of the compact directions then the branes will notice the compactness of the extra-dimensional space. Hence, to calculate the effective brane anti-brane potential, the effects of an infinity of image charges will have to be added. This will soften the potential. However, the inter-brane separation is unlikely to be close to the compactification scale $`r_c`$, as a gas of branes with a non-neglible density $`n`$, will have an inter-brane seperation of $`n^{(dp)}`$ which will usually be much smaller than $`r_c`$ – and this is the case that we will investigate.

Because of long-range interactions the naive dimension-based arguments in the previous section do not hold for more general brane systems. Long rang forces lead to infinite scattering cross-sections. Thus branes and anti-branes will disappear due to annihilation if the universe remains static for a sufficiently long time and if annihilation doesn’t require impossible topology change of any wrapped D-branes (impossible winding number transitions).

### 1.3 Branes in an Expanding Universe

We can calculate the brane and anti-brane abundances in an expanding universe as in . First assume that the branes and anti-branes form dilute gases. This assumption allows us to ignore correlations between brane and anti-brane positions arising from the physics of a tachyonic phase transition which may have created them. Next, assume that the brane density equals the anti-brane density to ensure charge neutrality. The time evolution of the branes/anti-branes is then given by

$$\frac{dn}{dt}=nH(d_Hp_H)\mathrm{\Gamma }n^2.$$
(13)
Here $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ characterizes the annihilation process; $`dn/dt`$ is the time derivative of the density of branes $`n`$; and $`d_H`$ is the number of expanding dimensions. The constant $`p_H`$ is the number of expanding directions which the branes fill. If $`p_s`$ is the number of static dimensions which the branes fill (non-compact or compact), then

$$p=p_H+p_s$$
(14)
The quantity $`(d_Hp_H)`$ represents the number of expanding dimensions in which the branes move. The first term in (13) represents the dilution effect of cosmic expansion. The second represents brane anti-brane annihilation.

The $`d_H`$ expanding dimensions may be compact or non-compact. Suppose that they are all non-compact and that the remaining $`dd_H`$ spatial dimensions are compact. Then branes living only in the compact directions will still be diluted because their inter-brane separations in the non-compact directions will grow. The only way branes in the compact directions will not feel the first term in (13) is if they are all coincident in the non-compact directions which is very unlikely, or they competely fill the extra-dimensions such that $`d_H=p_H`$. For example, if $`d_H=3`$, then a gas of $`D3`$ branes all lying in the four non-compact directions and separated only in the compact directions will not suffer cosmic dilution. If the extra dimensions are themselves expanding or contracting, then branes will obviously feel additional dilution/contraction.

Interestingly, according to (13) branes which fill some expanding directions such that $`p_H0`$, will feel less dilution than completely wrapped branes ($`p_H=0`$). Thus interactions between completely wrapped branes might be expected to freeze out more quickly than between incompletely wrapped branes ($`p_H0`$).

The kind of branes that can fill the spacetime will be determined by the K-theory charges of the spacetime. However, since D-brane charges have yet to be classified for cosmological spaces, we will simply assume that they are the same as in flat space, i.e., for Type IIA/B theory all even/odd dimensional branes are possible, etc. The kind of cycles which branes can wrap and the number of such cycles are given by the Betti numbers of the compact extra dimensions. The Betti numbers largely dictate which brane configurations are possible. For example, a surface with $`b_2=b_1=0`$ possesses no one-dimensional or two-dimensional cycles. Hence, $`D2/D1`$ branes will only be able to exist as contractable two-dimensional/one-dimensional loops on the surface.

A more common compactification like $`K3\times T^2`$ possesses 2-cycles from the K3 and $`T^2`$, two 1-cycles from the $`T^2`$, 3-cycles from combining a 1-cycle of the $`T^2`$ and a 2-cycle of the K3, and 4-cycles by combining different 2-cycles of the K3 or by combining a 2-cycle of the K3 with the 2-cycle of the torus. Finally, 5-cycles also arise by combining the entire 4-cycle of the K3 with a 1-cycle of the torus, and 6-cycles by combining the entire K3 with the 2-cycle of the $`T^2`$. Thus branes can wrap 1,2,3,4,5, or 6 dimensions.

Since branes and anti-branes will annihilate only if they are parallel and share the same transverse space, we will assume that all the branes are parallel and possess the same transverse space $`V_{}`$. We can then take the dimension of $`n`$ to be $`[n][L]^d_{}`$.

We parameterize the annihilation rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{A_p}{m^{d_{}2}}\left(\frac{m}{T}\right)^w$$
(15)
where $`m`$ is some mass scale and $`A_p`$ is roughly constant.

Although in this paper we will not worry about the functional dependence of $`A_p`$, it will depend on the following. It will depend on the distribution of winding numbers of each cycle for each type of brane/anti-brane. This is because a brane and anti-brane can annihilate only if their winding numbers, $`(n_1,\mathrm{},n_w)`$, around $`w`$ compact cycles are the same. Collisions between branes can lead to inter-commutation of the branes and a change in their winding numbers. For example, a brane wrapping say cycle $`\gamma `$ with winding number $`w_\gamma =1`$ and a brane wrapping say cycle $`\beta `$ with winding number $`w_\beta =1`$ can collide and produce a single brane wrapping both cycles $`\gamma `$ and $`\beta `$ with winding number $`(w_\gamma ,w_\beta )=(1,1)`$ if the intersection number of $`\gamma `$ and $`\beta `$ is nonzero. Thus the intersection numbers tell us which winding number transitions are possible and $`A_p`$ will generally depend on them.

For example for the K3$`\times T^2`$ example, the intersection number $`{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{\#}}(A_rB_s)`$ of a $`r`$-dimensional cycle $`A`$ and a $`s`$-dimensional cycle $`B`$ is one for two 1-cycles, $`2b_2(K3)`$ for a 2-cycle and 1-cycle. Many intersection numbers are non-zero. This means that branes wrapping the various cycles of the compactification can collide to produce branes with very different winding numbers. If some cycles are isolated, then only branes wrapping those cycles can interact with branes wrapping the same isolated cycles, reducing the volume accessible to such branes. This means that branes and anti-branes wrapping identical isolated cycles interact more easily. However, if the number of branes and anti-branes wrapping an isolated cycle are different, then due simply to topology, complete annihilation of the branes and anti-branes can not occur.

In general, collisions between branes wrapping compact cycles and branes lying along non-compact directions will lead to branes wrapping compact cycles and lying along non-compact cycles . Thus, spacetimes with both compact and non-compact directions are unlikely to have branes lying along only the compact or only along the non-compact directions.

$`A_p`$ will also be affected by the presence of any points/locii at which the compact surfaces degenerate on the base manifold. At such points the volume of the cycles decreases. Such points may thus act as accumulation points for branes and anti-branes wishing to minimize their energy.

For example, K3 possesses 24 singularities where a $`T^2`$ fiber degenerates over a base $``$ of the K3. Thus, the two dimensions of the branes wrapping the $`T^2`$ become very small at the singularities. Presumably at such singular points it is much easier for a brane and anti-brane to annihilate, affecting $`A_p`$.

If some directions are fixed then the number of expanding dimensions satisfies $`d_H<d`$. If some of the compact directions are expanding then the expansion rate will be affected by the wrapped branes. For example, the negative pressure of a gas of wrapped branes will increase the expansion rate. If the dilaton is allowed to freely evolve then the branes may actually inhibit and halt the expansion . However, this halting will only aid brane anti-brane annihilation if all of the directions are compact, or if the branes are coincident in the non-compact directions, or they fill the non-compact directions. In general, expanding non-compact directions will still dilute brane densities even if the compact directions stop expanding.

Thus, we take our spacetime to be a FRW universe. We fix the dilaton. We ignore the expansionary effects of the brane density as it increases the expansion rate and freezes out brane interactions more quickly, making a FRW universe a conservative choice.333Higher dimensional branes $`\rho =(p/d)P_{ress}`$. Then the Hubble rate, $`H`$, of such a radiation dominated universe is:

$$H=\frac{\dot{T}}{T}=\frac{T^{(d_H+1)/2}}{Cm_p^{(d_H1)/2}}.$$
(16)
where $`C^2`$ is proportional to the effective number of spin degrees of freedom. Integrating (13), we find

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{f(T)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{f(T_i)}}+{\displaystyle \frac{AC}{w+p_H+(1d_H)/2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m_p}{m}}\right)^{(d_H1)/2}`$ (17)
$`\times \left(\left({\displaystyle \frac{m}{T}}\right)^{w+p_H+(1d_H)/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{m}{T_i}}\right)^{w+p_H+(1d_H)/2}\right)`$
where $`f(T)n/T^{d_Hp_H}`$ and is proportional to the comoving density. Here $`T_i`$ is the initial temperature at which annihilation begins and $`f(T_i)`$ is proportional to the initial comoving density. If $`w+p_H+(1d_H)/2<0`$ then the annihilation is cut off for $`TT_i`$. If instead $`w+p_H+(1d_H)/2>0`$ as in (15) then for $`TT_i`$ the number of branes $`f(T)`$ becomes independent of the initial temperature $`T_i`$ and approaches the limit

$$f(TT_i)\frac{w+p_H+(1d_H)/2}{AC}\left(\frac{m}{m_p}\right)^{\frac{d_H1}{2}}\left(\frac{T}{m}\right)^{w+p_H+(1d_H)/2}$$
(18)
The annihilation rate will depend on brane anti-brane forces and brane interactions with massless bulk fields like the graviton, dilaton, etc. If the bulk is thermalized, numerous closed string fields will populate it. As the branes move toward each other, bulk particles will scatter off of them slowing them down. To scatter a brane by a large angle will require many bulk-particle scattering events, after which the brane’s velocity will be randomized apart from a drift velocity in the direction of the attracting anti-brane. Let $`\lambda `$ be the distance the brane can travel before it is scattered by a large angle (mean free path). Also let $`r_c`$ be the distance between a stationary brane and anti-brane for which capture is almost sure. Then, there are two important regimes: (1) the capture distance exceeds the mean free path, $`r_c>\lambda `$; and (2) $`r_c<\lambda `$.

In the first case the branes will diffuse toward the anti-branes, and once the branes reach within $`r_c`$ of the anti-branes they will continue to be scattered such that all velocities transverse to the direct path toward the anti-brane are randomized and effectively zeroed away (impact parameter = 0). The branes will thus collide directly with the anti-branes. If the drift velocity of a brane is sufficiently slow, the brane will be captured by an anti-brane in a bound state and eventually annihilation will occur. Otherwise the brane will simply pass through the anti-brane.444We thank Ian Kogan and others for clarifications regarding solitons passing through one another.

Assuming collision occurs upon capture, the annihilation rate will be the rate of branes diffusing toward the anti-branes. The rate per unit density $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, will be

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{F}{n}$$
(19)
where $`F`$ is the number of branes approaching the anti-branes per unit time. As in the diffusion of charged particles through a plasma, this rate is

$$F=h^2\left(\frac{\tau }{m_{Dp}}\right)n$$
(20)
where $`\tau `$ is the mean free time and is the important quantity determining the rate of brane collisions.

In the second case, once the brane is within $`r_c`$ of an anti-brane, its transverse velocities will not necessarily be randomized and the brane may streak past the anti-brane. The only way for capture to occur in this regime is for the brane to radiate away its kinetic energy. A moving brane drawn to an anti-brane will radiate via a Larmor-type formula. However, radiative capture is very weak and most branes and anti-branes will survive as we show later.

At high temperature the bulk particles will be very energetic and the mean capture length will exceed the mean free path (case 1). However, as the universe adiabatically expands, the temperature will drop until such a time that brane-bulk interactions are frozen out at a temperature $`T_f`$. After $`T=T_f`$, the mean free path will exceed the capture length and capture will occur only by radiative capture. Hence, below $`T_f`$, brane anti-brane annihilation will become very infrequent.

## 2 Mean Free Path and Freezeout

The capture distance $`r_c`$ can be obtained by the virial theorem, KE$``$-PE. Since $`\mathrm{KE}mv_{Dp}^2`$, and PE$`h^2/r^{7p}`$, we find that

$$r_c=\left(\frac{h^2}{T}\right)^{1/(7p)}$$
(21)
However, $`D7`$ branes are not asymptotically flat and possess a logarithmically diverging inter-brane potential: PE$`\mathrm{ln}r`$. Similarly, $`D9`$ branes have a quadratically diverging potential: PE$`r^2`$. Thus, the capture lengths for $`D7`$ branes and $`D9`$ branes are infinite. In any case, the notion of capture length for $`D9`$ branes is not a meaningful since the branes fill the whole space.

We can obtain the mean free path, $`\lambda `$, for a brane to be scattered by a large angle by bulk fields like gravitons, dilaton, etc., by writing $`\lambda =v_{Dp}\tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the mean time between collisions in which the brane is scattered by a large angle and $`v_{Dp}`$ is the brane velocity. If the branes move with thermal velocities then $`v_{Dp}=\sqrt{T/m_{Dp}}`$ and $`\lambda =\sqrt{T/m_{Dp}}\tau `$.

Now, in a time $`\tau `$, the number of particles which are scattered is

$$N_s=v_a\tau \sigma n_a$$
(22)
where $`\sigma `$ is the cross section for a particle (graviton, dilaton, etc,) to scatter off of a brane and $`v_a`$ is its average velocity. A particle can scatter two ways. Suppose the brane fills the $`X^1,\mathrm{},X^p`$ directions. Because the brane is an extended object, a particle in the transverse directions may directly strike the $`Dp`$ brane. Since the brane has a width of order $`1/m_s`$, unless the incident particle wavelength is smaller than $`1/m_s`$ it will reflect off the brane (the transmission coefficient is zero) . For a wavelength less than $`1/m_s`$, the particle will pass through the brane. Thus, for temperatures below the string scale the cross section will be a product of the geometrical size in the $`X^1,\mathrm{},X^p`$ directions, which is essentially the volume of the brane $`V_p`$, and the cross-section to scatter off of it by streaking by it, $`\sigma _s`$. Thus,

$$\sigma =V_p\sigma _s\mathrm{for}p<D2$$
(23)
Note, if $`p=D2`$ (e.g. a $`D8`$ brane), $`\sigma =V_p`$.

Now, we want the time necessary for scattering by large angles. A particle can be scattered by a large angle when the amount of energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$, imparted to it by thermal collisions is of order the mass of the target object, in this case – the brane mass, $`m_{Dp}`$. A gas of thermal particles will impart an energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }ET`$ to the target particle. Thus the target particle will be scattered by a large angle after approximately $`m_{Dp}/T`$ collisions with lighter (massless) particles. Thus setting $`N_s=m_{Dp}/T`$

$$\tau =\frac{1}{v_a\sigma n_a}\frac{m_{Dp}}{T}$$
(24)
We have $`v_a1`$ and $`n_a=aT^{D1}`$ since $`D1`$ is the number of spatial dimensions in which the light particles move. Thus

$$\lambda =\frac{1}{a\sigma }\frac{m_{Dp}^{1/2}}{T^{D1/2}}$$
(25)
Note that $`\lambda `$ grows with $`m_{Dp}`$ since the heavier the D-brane is, the harder it is to deflect by bulk scattering.

We can now write down an expression for the temperature at which the mean free path equals the capture length, $`T_f`$.

Setting $`r_c`$ in eq 21 equal to $`\lambda `$ in eq. 25, we find

$$T_f=\left(\frac{1}{h^2}\right)^x\left(\frac{\sqrt{m_{Dp}}}{a\sigma (T_f)}\right)^y$$
(26)
where

$`x={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(D1/2)(7p)1}}`$ $`y={\displaystyle \frac{7p}{(D1/2)(7p)1}}`$ (27)
We parameterize the scattering cross section, $`\sigma _s`$ as

$$\sigma _s=\frac{B}{m^{d_{}1}}\left(\frac{m}{T}\right)^q$$
(28)
where $`m`$ is some mass scale. As section 5 shows for closed string scattering off of branes, $`q=2`$ and $`m=m_s`$. That calculation was done in the zero recoil limit. For compact branes, recoil will be more important and $`q`$ may deviate from its value $`q=2`$.

Using (28), we find

$$T_f=\left(\frac{1}{h^2}\right)^{x/(1qy)}\left(\frac{\sqrt{m_{Dp}}m^{d_{}q1}}{aBV_p}\right)^{y/(1qy)}\left(\frac{1}{V_p}\right)^{\frac{x+y/2}{1qy}}$$
(29)
The exponent in (29) is

$$\frac{x+y/2}{1qy}=\frac{1}{9.5\frac{1}{7p}q}\left(\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2}\right)\frac{1}{9.5q}\left(\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2}\right)$$
(30)
The important feature of (30) is that the exponent is strictly positive, ($`p<7`$). Using $`q=2`$ we find

$$T_f\left(\frac{1}{V_p}\right)^{\frac{1}{7.5}(\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2})}$$
(31)
To make the dependence of $`T_f`$ on $`p`$ more explicit, we set $`V_p\mathrm{}^p`$ and calculate $`dT_f/dp`$. Here, $`\mathrm{}`$ is some length scale, and the binary relation $``$ is used because the different directions may have different sizes.

$$\frac{dT_f}{dp}\frac{\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{}}{7.5}\left(\frac{p}{(7p)^2}+\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2}\right)\left(\frac{1}{V_p}\right)^{\frac{1}{7.5}(\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2})}<0$$
(32)
Thus $`dT_f/dp<0`$. This implies that the higher the dimension of a brane (the smaller the co-dimension), the lower its freezeout temperature is, since $`V_p`$ grows with $`p`$ and the exponent in (31) also grows with $`p`$. This is particularly true if the cycles the branes wrap, or non-compact dimensions the branes fill, are much larger than the string scale. Low dimension branes drop out of thermal contact with the bulk fields first. Higher dimensional branes continue to interact with bulk fields at lower temperatures and are thus captured by the same dimensional anti-branes at lower temperatures. Intuitively, this is plausible because the brane anti-brane potential grows with $`p`$, and hence the capture distance grows with $`p`$. Also, higher dimensional branes can more easily interact with bulk fields because their extended area is exponentially larger. This is essentially a selection rule which states that a universe populated with branes will get rid of higher dimensional branes more easily. We expect this, since higher dimensional branes can meet much more easily in the non-interacting case and presumably also in the interacting case. This implies that co-dimension dominates over mass in the annihilation process. One might have expected larger mass objects to drop out of equilibrium first. However, because of the extended size of the objects, this appears not to happen. For branes wrapping small compact directions with radii $`\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$, then $`V_p1`$, weakening the selection rule. But, in most cases the radii will be at least tens of string lengths. This is because brane formation is a stringy process occurring around an energy $`m_s`$ (energy scale of tachyonic phase transition). Because, of the energy in the momentum modes of the strings and branes wrapping the compact dimensions, the cycles will typically be expanding. Thus by the time the branes have formed and start to look for one another, the compact universe will have substantially grown and the radii will be $`\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$. Furthermore, if we assume that annihilation occurs in the loitering phase of dilaton dynamics as in , then radii$`\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}`$. This is because loitering occurs after the compact universe has grown substantially larger than its early string length size.

¿From (31) we can also infer that for fixed $`p`$ that $`T_f`$ grows with the number of static dimensions, $`p_s`$, which a brane fills. If we take all such static dimensions to be compact, then $`p_s`$ is the number of dimensions a $`Dp`$ wraps. If we write $`V_p\mathrm{}^pR^{pp_s}`$ where $`R(t)`$ is a cosmological expansion factor, then

$$T_f\left(\frac{R^{p_s}}{R^p\mathrm{}^p}\right)^{\frac{1}{7.5}(\frac{1}{7p}+\frac{1}{2})}\frac{T_f}{p_s}|_p>0$$
(33)
This is expected as (13) shows that for fixed $`p`$ that $`Dp`$ branes are frozen out more quickly as $`p_H`$ decreases or equivalently as $`p_s=pp_H`$ grows.

Using equations 19, 20, 24 we find that

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{A_p}{m_s^{d_{}1}}\left(\frac{m_s}{T}\right)^{D2}$$
(34)
Since $`d_Hp_HD1`$ and $`d_HD1`$, we find that the condition for the number of $`Dp`$ branes to be independent of the initial number: $`w+p_H+(1d_H)/2>0`$, is always satisfied since $`w=D2`$. Because, $`T_f`$ is essentially the lowest temperature at which our annihilation mechanism works, we find that at late times the number of $`Dp`$ branes is

$$f_p(T_f)\frac{D2+p_H+(1d_H)/2}{A_pC}\left(\frac{m_s}{m_p}\right)^{\frac{d_H1}{2}}\left(\frac{T_f}{m_s}\right)^{D2+p_H+(1d_H)/2}$$
(35)
Note that $`T_f/m_s<1`$ and the part of the exponent in (35) which is $`(T_f/m_s)^{p_H}`$ decreases as $`p_H`$ grows.

This means that the more expanding dimensions the branes fill, the smaller their final quantities are. If no compact directions exist or the branes live only in the non-compact directions such that $`p=p_H`$, then at freezeout the number of high dimensional branes is lower than the number of low dimensional branes for equal initial number of branes. If compact directions exist and the branes wrap $`p_s`$ directions, then since $`p_H=pp_s`$, fewer high dimensional branes still remain. Thus, in addition to the fact that $`T_f`$ is lower for higher dimensional branes, this further confirms that the number of higher dimensional branes is exponentially suppressed compared to the number of lower dimensional branes.

For a fixed $`p`$, since $`p_Hp_s`$ as a $`Dp`$ brane wraps more directions its chance of being annihilated decreases. This is because according to (13) the more compact directions a gas of branes fills (the fewer compact directions it wraps) the more diluted it becomes. In the limit that the branes fill all of the expanding directions such that $`p_H=d_H`$, (35) can be shown to take the form of $`f_p(T_f)1/\mathrm{\Gamma }(T_f)t(T_f)`$.

Because $`f_p`$ does not vanish remnants remain. This is troublesome because once $`T`$ falls below $`T_f`$ annihilation can occur only by radiative capture, an inefficient process. For example, a brane may be attracted to an anti-brane. However, to form a bound state, the kinetic energy of both branes need to be radiated away. In the case of monopoles, it is known that almost all orbits leading to capture are nearly parabolic (eccentricity = 1) at the point of closest approach. Most of the radiation is given off during closest approach and the energy loss can change an initially hyperbolic orbit with eccentricity slightly larger than unity to a bound state elliptic orbit with eccentricity slighter smaller than unity. Once captured in this bound state, the brane then spirals in towards the anti-brane. At stringy distances, tachyonic open strings appear leading to brane anti-brane annihilation.

Branes and anti-branes possess Ramond-Ramond charges. Thus, it is not surprising that accelerating branes and anti-branes radiate and possess a Larmor type formula. We write the total power radiated by an accelerating brane/anti-brane as

$$P=\frac{1}{6\pi }\gamma _{p,D}\mathrm{\Omega }(D)h^2\dot{v}^2$$
(36)
$`\gamma _{p,D}`$ describes how the power radiated per unit solid angle varies with $`p`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }(D)`$ is the total solid angle in $`D`$ spacetime dimensions; $`\dot{v}`$ is the acceleration which can be found from the trajectory.

We will calculate the radiative capture rate for $`D6`$ branes wrapped on six compact directions and moving in four non-compact directions. Thus, from a four dimensional point of view, the $`D6`$ branes behave like point particles. In this case, $`D`$ is effectively equal to four and $`p=6`$. The general case of $`Dp`$ branes moving in $`D1`$ dimensions is not much more interesting. This is because lower dimensional branes have an inter-brane potential which falls off faster and can less easily form bound states. Also, higher dimensional branes like $`D7`$ branes are expected to disappear quickly since the inter-brane potential of $`D7\overline{D}7`$ brane anti-brane pairs does not drop off with distance, but grows logarithmically, $`V\mathrm{ln}r`$.

Because we are interested in only the gross properties of the motion, we will approximate the trajectory for a given energy $`E`$ and angular momentum $`l`$ by the same trajectory as traced out by a particle with the same energy and angular momentum in four dimensions. We also approximate the orbit during closest approach by an ellipse with eccentricity near unity.

The radiation of kinetic energy leading to capture has been calculated in the case of monopole anti-monopole annihilation before by , and the following calculations are virtually identical. The amount of energy radiated in a frequency interval $`(\omega ,\omega +d\omega )`$ is $`dE_r=\omega N(\omega )d\omega `$. Here $`N(\omega )d\omega `$ is the number of quanta radiated with frequency near $`\omega `$. It can be parameterized as

$$N(\omega )d\omega =\frac{8h^6\gamma _{6,4}}{\pi l^2}(K_{1/3}^2(x)+K_{2/3}^2(x))xdx$$
(37)
where $`K_{1/3},K_{2/3}`$ are Bessel functions and $`l`$ is the orbital angular momentum, and

$$x=\frac{l^3\omega }{3h^4m}=\frac{v^2l^3\omega }{6h^4E_k}$$
(38)
The expectation value of the total energy radiated is then

$$E_r=_0^{\mathrm{}}N(\omega )𝑑\omega =\frac{4\gamma _{6,4}\pi h^{10}}{v^2l^5}E_k$$
(39)
where $`E_k`$ is the kinetic energy. All the kinetic energy is radiated away for angular momentum values less than a critical value, $`l_c`$

$$l_c=h^2\left(\frac{4\pi \gamma _{6,4}}{v^2}\right)^{1/5}$$
(40)
Capture will occur for $`l<l_c`$. This gives a classical cross section of

$$\sigma =\pi \left(\frac{l_c}{\mu v}\right)^2$$
(41)
The thermally averaged interaction rate cross-section is therefore (using $`v\sqrt{T/m_{D6}}`$ )

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\sigma |v|\frac{K}{m_{D6}^2}\left(\frac{m_{D6}}{T}\right)^{\frac{9}{10}}$$
(42)
where

$$K=(2^4\pi ^7\gamma _{6,3})^{1/5}h^4g_s^2$$
(43)
Note that the mass term is not the string mass, $`m_s`$, but rather the mass of the $`D6`$ brane, which is not exceedingly large because the $`D6`$ was taken to be wrapped on a compact surface.

Since in this case $`p_H=0,d_H=3`$, and $`w=9/10`$, we have $`w+p_H+(1d_H)/2<0`$. We know from the discussion around (17, 18) that the annihilation is therefore cutoff and that the brane and anti-brane densities do not appreciably change from their values at $`T=T_f`$. Thus, the number of branes is not driven to zero and brane anti-brane annihilation doesn’t resolve the brane problem. For the opposite case where a $`D3`$ brane fills the expanding four-dimensional spacetime and moves through the static six dimensional compact space, the annihilation rate $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ will be given by an expression similar to (42) and the exponent $`w`$ is expected to be positive. Then $`w+p_H+(1d_H)/2=14/10+d_H/2`$ will be positive definite because $`p_H=d_H`$. This means that because the $`D3`$ branes fill the expanding space their annihilation is not cutoff and they continue to annihilate until they completely disappear. This is despite the fact that brane-bulk interactions are frozen out because the temperature decreases as the universe expands.

## 3 Catalogue of results

Below we list a somewhat pedantic catalogue of results – how our results apply to different spacetimes. The spacetimes differ in the number of compact, static and expanding directions.

1. All directions non-compact and expanding: Brane interactions are frozen out and branes are leftover. This corresponds to the case where dynamical compactification of the extra dimensions occurs after brane production.
2. All directions non-compact and static: Interactions do not have to fight cosmic expansion. Thus all of the branes disappear if the directions are static for a sufficiently long period. This may correspond to an initial state where all the dimensions are initially non-compact, static and some directions are later dynamically compactified.
3. All directions non-compact, $`d_H^{nc}`$ are expanding, $`d_s^{nc}`$ are static; branes fill only static directions: The distance between branes and anti-branes expands. Hence interactions are frozen out and branes do not annihilate fast enough. (This corresponds to the case of $`pd_s^{nc}`$, or $`p6`$ if $`d_H^{nc}=4`$).
4. All directions non-compact, $`d_H^{nc}`$ are expanding, $`d_s^{nc}`$ are static; branes fill only the expanding directions: This corresponds to $`p=d_H^{nc}`$ or $`p=3`$ for $`d_H^{nc}=4`$. As the branes are separated only in the non-expanding compact directions, they do not feel the expansion and interact unhindered by the expansion. Thus if non-expanding directions are static for a sufficiently long period, virtually all of the $`D(d_H^{nc}1)`$ branes disappear.
5. All directions non-compact, $`d_H^{nc}`$ are expanding, $`d_s^{nc}`$ are static; branes fill $`p_H`$ expanding directions and fill $`p_s`$ static directions: As long as the branes move in some expanding directions they do not annihilate efficiently. This only happens if $`p_H<d_H^{nc}`$.
6. All directions compact and static: There is no expansion for interactions to fight. All the branes disappear if the compact directions are static for a sufficiently long period.
7. All directions compact and expanding: Expansion will eventually kill off interactions and brane anti-brane remnants remain. However, if as in  the dilaton is allowed to vary, then via some dilaton dynamics the branes may be able to halt the expansion of the compact directions for a period sufficiently long for them to annihilate.
8. All directions compact, $`d_H^c`$ are expanding, $`d_s^c`$ are static; branes wrap only static directions: The branes effectively behave like point particles moving in a non-compact spacetime. They do not disappear.
9. All directions compact, $`d_H^c`$ are expanding, $`d_s^c`$ are static; branes fill only expanding directions: This is again the case of expanding branes moving in a static space. The branes disappear.
10. All directions compact, $`d_H^c`$ are expanding, $`d_s^c`$ are static; branes wrap $`p_H`$ expanding directions and wrap $`p_s`$ static directions: The compact directions which the branes wrap will act to only dimensionally reduce the branes which move in the expanding directions. This then reduces to scenario 7.
11. There are $`d^c`$ compact directions, $`d^{nc}`$ non-compact directions. The compact directions are static, and the non-compact directions are expanding.  Branes with $`p<d_{nc}`$ feel the expansion and do not disappear. For $`pd_{nc}`$ then: (a) if the branes completely fill the expanding directions (e.g. non-compact $`D3`$ branes in a 4+6 split of spacetime) then they disappear; (2) if the branes only partially fill the expanding directions and wrap $`p_w`$ directions such $`pp_w<d_{nc}`$ then the branes feel the expansion and create a remnant problem; (3) in the unlikely case that all of the branes are coincident in the non-compact directions the brane separation is oblivious to the expansion and the branes disappear.
12. This is the most general case. There are $`d^c`$ compact directions, $`d^{nc}`$ non-compact directions. $`d_H^c`$ compact and $`d_H^{nc}`$ non-compact directions are expanding. $`d_s^c`$ compact and $`d_s^{nc}`$ non-compact directions are static. Branes move in the expanding non-compact directions if $`p<d_H^{nc}`$, and thus do not disappear. If $`pd_H^{nc}`$ then branes still do not dissappear if they do not completely fill the non-compact space, i,e., if $`pp_w<d_H^{nc}`$. If at the same time the branes wrap some of the expanding directions, then either the wrapped branes must halt the expansion of the expanding compact directions or the brane remnants will remain. If they do do halt the such expansion then the brane density tends to zero.
13. The case of some compact contracting directions Contracting directions do not shrink distances in the expanding directions. Thus contraction is unlikely to aid brane annihilation. However, this deserves further investigation.

## 4 Conclusions

D-branes are attractive brane-world candidates. However, a number of fundamental questions must be answered before they become persuasive alternatives to the standard big bang model. Several of these are: why does there appear to be only one braneworld? Why is that braneworld four-dimensional and not say a $`D5`$ brane? Why are $`D3`$ branes favored over higher or lower dimensional branes? If braneworlds were littered throughout spacetime, they would typically over-close the universe. Hence, either other braneworlds are very far away, diluted by something like inflation, or forced to be very rare because of some dynamical anomoly/tadpole cancellation mechanism, or their interactions with matter in the bulk is highly suppressed, or there is only one brane-world – ours.

We showed that it is very difficult to dynamically produce an universe which migrates from a universe filled with many branes to a universe filled with only a few branes. Brane anti-brane interactions are cutoff by the expansion rate and annihilation after that point becomes very inefficient. Dynamical brane anti-brane annihilation in a non-compact universe is in fact more unlikely because branes and anti-branes will typically not be parallel. Hence, brane anti-brane collisions will typically lead not to annihilation but a complicated configuration of intersecting branes.555On a compact surface, branes tend to align themselves so as to minimize their energies so that non-intersecting branes wrapping the same cycles become parallel. Thus this may not be true.

However, in a universe with $`d^c`$ extra dimensions which have already been stabilised, we showed that branes may disappear if they fill all of expanding directions, $`pd_H^{nc}`$. For four non-compact directions, this means that $`Dp`$ branes with $`p3`$ may disappear. However, if the branes do not wrap all of the expanding directions, they will remain. For example, even $`D7`$ branes may remain if they are separated in only one non-compact expanding direction. Universes in which the expanding directions are compact may become brane-less only if the wrapped branes conspire to halt the expansion. Otherwise, they suffer from the same problems that universes with expanding non-compact directions suffer from.

We found one interesting result: higher dimensional branes tend to annihilate fastest, leaving lower dimensional branes behind. This is intriguing because it implies that in a scheme where branes are dynamically generated as in a tachyonic phase transition that the branes which survive and cause cosmological problems are low dimensional branes like $`D3`$ and $`D1`$ branes (in type IIB theory). Higher dimensional branes disappear. This at least begins to answer the question of why the universe may be filled with $`D3`$ branes as opposed to higher dimensional branes. This means that only one additional mechanism – inflation – may be needed to make the brane-world idea much more persuasive. Such inflation would dilute the $`D3`$ branes, making an observer on any $`D3`$ think that there is only one braneworld. Also, it would dilute any line ($`D1`$ branes) or point ($`D0`$ branes) defects on the surfaces of the $`D3`$ branes. Such inflation would also dilute any small dimensional branes in the bulk as well. It would be interesting to see whether this same result holds once we also include interactions between $`DpDp^{}`$ branes, where $`pp^{}`$. In general terms this problem is very complex as there will not only be forces between branes of different dimensionalities, but branes oriented at angles, and intersecting configurations attracting other intersecting configurations. We did not include these interactions in the paper as they are irrelevent to the central question asked in this paper: do branes and anti-branes annihilate fast enough to make themselves small components of the energy density of the universe?

## Acknowledgements

We thank Carsten Van de Bruck, Fernando Quevedo and Ian Kogan for comments. A.C.D thanks PPARC. M.M also thanks the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust, Isaac Newton Trust, DAMTP, Hughes Hall and PPARC for financial support.

## 5 Appendix: Closed String Scattering off of $`D`$-branes

Closed strings fields such as the dilaton, graviton, anti-symmetric tensor field, and massive modes can interact with a brane by exchanging closed strings. One can think of this as spontaneously created open strings on the brane absorbing and then re-emitting closed strings and then subsequently annihilating themselves. This is the $`t`$ channel point of view, see figure 1. The dual $`s`$ channel process is: a closed string strikes the brane, creates an open string excitation which then propagates along the brane and is eventually annihilated when it emits another closed string .

We are concerned most with the $`t`$ channel because, the $`t`$ channel scattering amplitude blows up for small scattering angle. This divergence is also common to scattering by other solitons like monopoles.

The form of the scattering amplitude can be guessed as follows. Because of the exchange of a massless particle, there will be a pole and $`𝒜1/t`$ where $`t`$ is the exchanged momentum squared. The numerator of the amplitude should possess some momentum dependent factors because the interactions between the bulk and the brane occur via quadratic derivative interactions.

Because the amplitude is stringy, there should also be a series of Regge poles, allowing for not only massless closed string exchange, but the exchange of massive closed strings as well. Thus we expect that

$$𝒜=\frac{a_1}{t}+\frac{a_2}{t+1}+\frac{a_3}{t+2}+\mathrm{}$$
(44)
where we have taken the poles, in appropriate units, to be $`n1,2,3\mathrm{}.=`$. The $`a_i`$ factors are quadratic in the initial and final momenta, $`p_1,p_2`$. The amplitude for massless exchange $`a_1/t`$, should be proportional the $`g_s`$, since for $`g_s0`$ the brane should decouple from the bulk and no scattering should occur. The simplest way to achieve this is for $`a_1\kappa ^2\tau _p(\mathrm{function}\mathrm{of}p_1,p_2),`$ since the amplitude should be proportional to Newton’s constant $`\kappa ^2g_s^2`$.

Because momentum is conserved only parallel to the brane, (in the limit of small recoil), the only invariants are

$`s`$ $`=`$ $`2\alpha ^{}(p_1^2)_{||}=2\alpha ^{}(p_2^2)_{||}`$
$`t`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha ^{}(p_1+p_2)^2=2\alpha ^{}p_1p_2`$ (45)
More formally, in the limit of no recoil the tree level stringy amplitude can be found by calculating the disk amplitude with insertions of two closed string vertex operators in the interior of the disk.

$$𝒜=\frac{d^2z_1d^2z_2}{V_{CKG}}V_1(z_1,\overline{z}_1)V_2(z_2,\overline{z}_2)$$
(46)
$`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$ can be decomposed into two right moving operators and two left moving operators. After fixing the positions of three of them one finds the familiar Veneziano scattering amplitude

$$𝒜=c_1\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }(t)\mathrm{\Gamma }(s)}{\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+s+t)}(sa_1ta_2)\delta ^{p+1}(p_1+p_2)$$
(47)
where $`(sa_1ta_2)`$ is a kinematic factor and is equal to $`s\mathrm{Tr}(ϵ_1ϵ_2)`$ if the initial and final state polarisations, $`ϵ_1`$ and $`ϵ_2`$, are orthogonal to the brane. The delta function insures that momentum is conserved on the brane. When expanded in the $`t`$-channel ($`t1,s1`$), the amplitude (47) takes the form of (44). The constant $`c_1`$ is

$$c_1=\frac{1}{g_o^2\alpha ^{}}\left(\frac{\kappa }{\alpha ^{}}\right)^2(\alpha ^2)g_s$$
(48)
The factor on the left is the normalization of the disk amplitude. Note that because the open string coupling constant $`g_o`$ is basically the Yang-Mills coupling constant, in dimensions other than four it is dimensionful, $`1/g_o^2\alpha ^2\tau _p`$. The second factor in (48) comes from the insertion of two closed string vertex operators. The third factor comes from evaluating two sets of propagators like $`X(z_1)X(z_2)=\alpha ^{}\mathrm{ln}|z_1z_2|`$.666Note the conventions,
$$g_o^2=\frac{1}{(2\pi \alpha ^{})^2\tau _p};\tau _p=\frac{1}{g_s(2\pi )^p\sqrt{\alpha ^{}}^{p+1}};\kappa ^2=\frac{(2\pi )^7}{2}g_s^2\alpha ^4.$$
(49)

The amplitude can also be derived from an effective gravity picture . The NS-NS sector of the low energy action of Type II theories is

$$I_{NS}=d^{10}x\sqrt{g}\left[\frac{1}{2\kappa ^2}R\frac{1}{2}(\varphi )^2\frac{3}{2}H^2e^{\sqrt{2}\kappa \varphi }\right]$$
(50)
The source term for a D-brane is

$$I_s=d^{10}x\sqrt{g}[S_B^{\mu \nu }B_{\mu \nu }+S_\varphi \varphi +S_h^{\mu \nu }h_{\mu \nu }]$$
(51)
To leading order the source functions will be delta function sources at the positions of the branes. For example, the Fourier transform of the dilaton source is $`\stackrel{~}{S}_\varphi (k)=\tau _p(p3)/\sqrt{8}`$. If one expands the metric as $`g_{\mu \nu }=\eta _{\mu \nu }+2\kappa h_{\mu \nu }`$, we can read off the dilaton-dilaton-graviton vertex $`\stackrel{~}{V}_{h\varphi \varphi }`$ as follows

$$2\kappa h_{\mu \nu }^\mu \varphi ^\nu \varphi 2\kappa ϵ_{\mu \nu }p_1^\mu p_2^\nu \varphi (p_1)\varphi (p_2)$$
(52)
and find that the amplitude

$$𝒜=i\stackrel{~}{S}_\varphi (t)\stackrel{~}{G}_\varphi (t)\stackrel{~}{V}_{h\varphi \varphi }$$
(53)
is the same as the massless part of (44) and (47) if we perform a field redefinition $`h_{\mu \nu }2\kappa h_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`\varphi \sqrt{2}\kappa \varphi `$.

The high energy limit, $`s,t0`$ of the amplitude (47) is exponentially damped because of the Regge poles ($`𝒜s\mathrm{exp}(\alpha ^{}sm(\varphi )/2)`$ . However, it peaks in the small momentum transfer limit $`t1`$, but large energy limit $`s1`$. In that case

$$𝒜=c_1\frac{s}{t}=\frac{c_1}{2\mathrm{sin}^2\frac{\theta }{2}}$$
(54)
where we have assumed that momentum of the incoming particles to the brane such that $`s=\alpha ^{}E^2`$. This is the massless term in our heuristic derivation (44). The above amplitude is the zero recoil limit. In this case, $`p_1=p_2`$, because as in usual Compton scattering for $`m_{Dp}\mathrm{}`$

$$\omega _2=\frac{\omega _1}{1+\frac{\omega _1}{m_{Dp}}(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )}\stackrel{m\mathrm{}}{\stackrel{}{}}\omega _1$$
(55)
Thus $`t=p_1p_2=\alpha ^{}E^2(1\mathrm{cos}\theta )`$. Because of this and momentum conservation, the final state $`|f`$ will be identical to the initial state $`|i`$. The probability of scattering is

$$𝒫(ii)=\frac{|i|S|i|^2}{i|ii|i}=\frac{|𝒜|^2}{2p_12p_1}\frac{g_s^2}{E^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta /2}$$
(56)
where we have explicitly included the normalization, $`i|i=p_1|p_1=2E_{p_1}`$.

The cross section will be proportional to $`𝒫(ii)`$ once we average over the angle $`\theta `$. Thus

$$\sigma _s\frac{g_s^2}{E^2}\frac{1}{2\pi }_{\theta _{min}}^{2\pi }\frac{d\theta }{\mathrm{sin}^2\theta /2}\frac{g_s^2}{E^2}$$
(57)
The dimensionful factors ignored in (57) are simply factors of $`\alpha ^{}`$ and are not so important in determining the energy dependence of $`\sigma _s`$. The integral in (57) diverges for $`\theta _{min}=0`$. Now a small deflection angle corresponds to a large impact parameter . However, because the bulk fields scatter off other bulk fields as well as the brane, the maximum impact parameter of a particle which solely scatters off the brane is bounded. A bulk particle will feel a long range force from other bulk particles. The momentum change due to brane-bulk scattering will be (see figure 2)

$`\mathrm{\Delta }p`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle F𝑑t}{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{r^{8p}}}={\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{dt}{(b^2+t^2)^{(8p)/2}}}`$ (58)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{b^{7p}}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d(t/b)}{((t/b)^2+1)^{(8p)/2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{b^{7p}}}`$
where $`b`$ is the impact parameter and $`t`$ is time. The angle of deflection will be $`\theta =\mathrm{\Delta }p/p`$. If the mean free path of the bulk fields is $`\mathrm{}`$, and $`pT`$, then $`\theta _{min}1/(T\mathrm{}^{7p}).`$ Hence, the forward scattering limit of (57) is not singular.


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# Abundant H₂D⁺ in the pre–stellar core L1544

## 1 Introduction

The last few years have seen a boom of the studies of molecular deuteration in star forming regions, triggered by the discovery of a large fraction of doubly deuterated formaldehyde in the low mass protostar IRAS16293-2422 (Ceccarelli et al. (1998); Loinard et al. (2000)), where the measured D2CO/H2CO ratio is 25 times larger than in Orion (Turner (1990)). It is now clear that IRAS16293-2422 is not unusual, for all Class 0 protostars show similar or larger D2CO/H2CO ratios (Loinard et al. (2002)). Formaldehyde is not unusual either, as other molecules present astonishing deuteration degrees. Notable examples are methanol, whose deuterated forms are as abundant as the main isotopomer (Parise et al. (2002)), or ammonia, where not only the doubly deuterated form (Roueff et al. (2000); Loinard et al. (2001)), but also the triply deuterated form (van der Tak et al. (2002); Lis et al. (2002)) has been detected.

The picture emerging from those studies is that this extreme molecular deuteration starts during the pre-collapse phase, when the gas is cold and dense (Ceccarelli et al. (2001)). Whether formed in the gas phase (e.g. Roberts & Millar (2000)) or on the grain surfaces (Tielens (1983); Caselli et al. 2002a ), deuterated isotopomers of neutral species are stored into the grain mantles, and released back into the gas phase during the collapse phase, as the dust is heated by the new born star. This picture has been substantially confirmed by the recent observations of Bacmann et al. (2003), who measured D2CO/H2CO$`10`$% in a sample of pre-stellar cores presenting large degrees of CO depletion (Bacmann et al. (2002)). A decisive factor for the large observed deuteration seems in fact to be the CO depletion: the larger the CO depletion, the larger the molecular deuteration. This suggests that the enhanced molecular deuteration is the product of gas phase chemistry, given that CO depletion leads to an increase of the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$/$`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$ abundance ratio (Dalgarno & Lepp (1984)) and thus stimulates the formation of deuterated molecules, mainly produced in ion–neutral reactions with $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$.

Evidently, the key molecule for fully understanding the molecular deuteration process is indeed H2D+. Unfortunately, the only H2D+ transition observable from ground based telescopes, the ortho-H2D+ $`1_{10}1_{11}`$ transition, lies at 372 GHz, next to an atmospheric band which makes the observation rather difficult. As a result, the search of H2D+ has been a very frustrating business for about two decades (e.g. Phillips et al. (1985); Pagani et al. (1992); van Dishoeck et al. (1992); Boreiko & Betz (1993)), and although several massive protostars have been targetted, H2D+ has been so far detected, with a relatively low signal (main beam temperature, T$`{}_{\mathrm{mb}}{}^{}0.1`$ K), in only two low mass protostars: NGC1333–IRAS4 (Stark et al. (1999)) and IRAS16293-2422 (Stark et al., in preparation). We decided to re-start the H2D+ search in sources with the largest expected H2D+/H$`{}_{}{}^{+}{}_{3}{}^{}`$ ratio, even where the excitation conditions of the 372 GHz line may not be the most favorable. And, since molecular deuteration is indeed dramatically enhanced during the pre-collapse phase of low mass protostars, we decided to search for H2D+ in the best studied pre-stellar core.

L1544 consists of a dense core surrounded by a low density envelope which is undergoing extended infall (Tafalla et al. (1998); Williams et al. (1999)). From dust emission and absorption observations, we know that the core has a central density of about 106 $`\text{cm}^3`$ inside a radius $`r_{\mathrm{flat}}`$ = 2500 AU (the “flattened” region), followed by $`1/r^2`$ density fall–off until a radius of about 10000 AU (Ward–Thompson et al. (1999); Bacmann et al. (2000)). Molecular species such as CO, CS, and CCS are highly depleted at densities above $``$ 105 $`\text{cm}^3`$, or inside radii of $``$6000 AU (Caselli et al. (1999); Ohashi et al. (1999); Tafalla et al.  2002). On the other hand, molecules such as $`\mathrm{NH}_3`$, $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ do not show signs of depletion, probably because of the volatility of their precursor $`\mathrm{N}_2`$ (Bergin & Langer (1997); Caselli et al. 2002b , hereafter CWZ). Indeed, $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ have been used to study gas kinematics (Caselli et al. 2002c ) and the ionization degree (CWZ) of the high density core nucleus. The $`N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+)/N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)`$ column density ratio toward the dust peak was determined to be $``$0.2, in agreement with chemical models which take into account differential depletion of molecular species in centrally concentrated clouds (Aikawa et al.  2001; CWZ). These models predict fractional abundances of $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ to be $``$ 10-10, a value which can be tested by the present observations.

## 2 Observations and Results

During two nights in October 2002, we observed the dense core L1544 in the $`1_{10}1_{11}`$ transition of $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ ($`\nu =372.42134`$ GHz), using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea. The spectra were taken in wobbler switching mode, with a chop throw of 300$`\mathrm{}`$. The central position (the peak of the 1.3 mm continuum dust emission map of Ward–Thompson et al. (1999)), as well as the 4 positions offset by $`\pm 20\mathrm{}`$ in Right Ascension and Declination were observed. The rms reached were of the order of 110 mK for the central position and 60-90 mK for the others. We used as backend an acousto-optical spectrometer with 50 MHz bandwidth. The velocity resolution, as measured from a frequency comb scan, is 0.101 km s-1. The beam efficiency at $`\nu =372`$ GHz was measured on Saturn during the observations, and found to be $``$0.65 for a $`22^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM beam size. Pointing was monitored every couple of hours and found to be better than 3$`\mathrm{}`$.

In Table LABEL:tgauss we report the integrated intensity, $`V_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$ velocity, and line width of the five observed $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ spectra. In Fig. 1 the peak spectrum is shown together with the average spectrum obtained by summing the four off-peak spectra.

First, the most striking feature of the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$(110$`1_{11}`$) line at the dust peak is its intensity ($``$1 K), which is at least ten times stronger than any other previously detected $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ line (Stark et al. (1999)), suggesting that pre–stellar core conditions favour the production of $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$. The second important result is the detection of a strong signal ($``$0.4 K) about 20″ from the center. Assuming that the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ emission is constant within a certain radius $`r(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ and then drops to zero, one can estimate $`r(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ by convolving the predicted $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ integrated intensity profile with the CSO beam and comparing it with the data. This comparison, shown in Fig. 2 (thin and dashed curves), gives $`r(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ 15″– 20 ″, consistent with $`r_{\mathrm{flat}}`$ = 17″, the size of the “flattened” region observed in the millimeter continuum emission. In the case of a power law distribution of the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ integrated intensity ($`T_{\mathrm{mb}}𝑑vr^1`$; dotted curve in Fig. 2), the estimated (convolved) size is $`r(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ = 17″. This result suggests that the bulk of the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ emission is concentrated within the highly depleted high density core nucleus.

The central line profile shows a dip at the rest velocity which may be due to the kinematics of the emitting gas (in analogy with other molecular ion profiles; see Caselli et al. 2002c ) or it may indicate that the line is optically thick. We will get back on this issue in a future paper where the velocity structure of the L1544 core will be included in a detailed radiative transfer code (van der Tak et al., in preparation).

## 3 Column density and abundance

As shown in Fig. 2, the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ emission appears to be concentrated within a radius of $``$2800 AU. In this region, the gas temperature is predicted to be $``$ 7 K (Evans et al. (2001); Galli et al.  2002), although molecular data suggest larger temperatures ($``$ 9–10 K; Tafalla et al.  2002, Bacmann et al. (2002)). However, because of the large amount of gas phase depletion (see Sect. 4), it is likely that molecular tracers do not provide information on the gas temperature in the central 2800 AU. Assuming LTE conditions ($`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$ = 7 K), we can immediately determine the optical depth ($`\tau `$) of the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$(110$`1_{11}`$) line:

$`\tau `$ $`=`$ $`ln\left[1{\displaystyle \frac{T_{\mathrm{mb}}}{J_\nu (T_{\mathrm{ex}})J_\nu (T_{\mathrm{cb}})}}\right]=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}1.0}\pm 0.2,`$ (1)
where $`T_{\mathrm{mb}}`$ =0.91$`\pm `$0.11 K at the peak, $`T_{\mathrm{cb}}`$ = 2.7 K is the cosmic background temperature, and $`J_\nu (T)`$ = $`T_0/(exp(T_0/T)1)`$ with $`T_0`$ = $`h\nu /k`$ = 17.9 K. Assuming a spontaneous transition coefficient $`A`$ = 1.08$`\times `$10-4 s-1, the total column density of ortho–$`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ is:

$`N_{\mathrm{ortho}}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{5.15\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}10}^{13}\mathrm{\Delta }v(\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)\tau \mathrm{cm}^2`$ (2)
so that at the dust peak, where $`\tau `$1 and the linewidth is 0.47 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$(Table LABEL:tgauss), we obtain $`N_{\mathrm{ortho}}`$ = 2.4$`\times `$1013 $`\text{cm}^2`$. At the low assumed temperatures, where the ortho to para ratio is close to 1 (Gerlich et al.  2002), we deduce a total $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ column density of $``$4.8$`\times `$1013 $`\text{cm}^2`$, about three times larger than $`N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)`$ (see CWZ).

To gauge the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance, the above estimate of the total $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ column density has been divided by the molecular hydrogen column density derived from the 1.3 mm continuum emission of Ward–Thompson et al. (1999), smoothed at a resolution of 22″ ($`N(\mathrm{H}_2)`$=1.1$`\times `$1023 $`\text{cm}^2`$): $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ $`N(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)/N(\mathrm{H}_2)4.4\times 10^{10}`$. This value is only four times lower than the estimated electron abundance $`x(e)`$ in the L1544 center ($``$ 2$`\times `$10-9, CWZ), suggesting that $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ is one of the major ions in the gas phase (see Sect. 4).

In case of subthermal emission, the line optical depth and the total column density increase. For example, if $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$ = 6 K, $`\tau `$ = 2.8 and the total $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ column density becomes $``$ 1.2$`\times `$1014 $`\text{cm}^2`$. This corresponds to $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ 1$`\times `$10-9, so that $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ $`x(e)`$. We note that $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$ = 6 K is the minimum excitation temperature possible to have a solution of eq. (1) in the case of an optically thick ($`\tau `$ 0.5) line with $`T_{\mathrm{mb}}`$ = 0.9 K. At the off–positions (20″ or 2800 AU from the dust peak), where $`N(\mathrm{H}_2)`$ $``$ 8$`\times `$1022 $`\text{cm}^2`$, the derived $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance is 2.3$`\times `$10-10 (if $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$ = 7 K) and 4.0$`\times `$10-10 (if $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$ = 6 K), a factor of about two lower than toward the dust peak.

We also carried out a radiative transfer analysis using the Monte Carlo program by Hogerheijde & van der Tak (2000)111http://talisker.as.arizona.edu/$``$michiel/ratran.html. The $`\mathrm{H}_2`$ density profile was taken from Tafalla et al.  (2002), whereas dust temperatures are from Galli et al.  (2002). Only thermal line broadening was included. Term energies, statistical weights and Einstein A coefficients were taken from the JPL catalog (Pickett et al. (1998)). Besides collisional excitation, for which we used the scaled radiative rates proposed by Black et al. (1990), radiation from the cosmic microwave background and thermal radiation by local dust are taken into account, using grain opacities from Ossenkopf & Henning  (1994). The abundance of $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ was assumed to be constant within a radius $`r_0`$ and zero at $`r>r_0`$. Model results are compared to line profiles at the center and offset positions to constrain the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance and $`r_0`$. The best-fit abundance is $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$/$`\mathrm{H}_2`$= 10-9, where calibration uncertainty allows a 50% decrease. Models with $`r_0`$ = 20–25 arcsec give good matches to the line fluxes at both the center and the offset positions. The optical depth at line center along the central pencil beam is 2.73. Here we limited our analysis to a static cloud. In a future paper (van der Tak et al., in prep.) we will explore the effects of including a velocity structure in the radiative transfer code.

## 4 Chemistry

The main result of this study is that $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ has been detected for the first time in a pre–stellar core. The observed ($`1_{10}1_{11}`$) line has a main beam temperature of $``$ 1 K, and the emission is concentrated in a region with radius of $``$2800 AU, roughly coincident with the so–called “flattened region” seen in the millimeter dust continuum emission, where the density is slowly changing with radius ($`r^{1.4}`$; see André et al. (2000)) and/or the temperature is around 7 K (Evans et al. (2001); Galli et al.  2002).

The data have been analysed with a simple analytical model and with a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. The derived $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance ($`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ 10-9) is consistent with the electron fraction estimated by CWZ in the center of L1544. This implies that $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ is the main molecular ion in the core center. The simple chemical code of CWZ, constrained by observations of several molecular ions, predicts $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ $``$ 7$`\times `$10-11 in the center of L1544, about one order of magnitude less than that deduced from the present data. A similar $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance ($``$ 6$`\times `$10-11) at the cloud center was also predicted by the detailed chemical model of Aikawa et al.  (2001), coupled with the Larson–Penston dynamical evolution which best reproduced the L1544 observational results.

CWZ found that to match the observed $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$/$`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+`$ ($``$0.24) and $`\mathrm{DCO}^+`$/$`\mathrm{HCO}^+`$ ($``$0.06) column density ratios toward the L1544 center one needs to (i) allow differential depletion of molecular species onto dust grains (in particular, $`\mathrm{N}_2`$ has to be more volatile than CO, to maintain a large fraction of $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ in the core center); and (ii) maintain a significant fraction of atomic oxygen in the gas phase, to limit the deuterium fractionation to the observed values ($``$ 0.2). As a by–product, $`\mathrm{H}_3\mathrm{O}^+`$ was predicted to be abundant ($`x(\mathrm{H}_3\mathrm{O}^+)`$ $``$ 10-9) in the core center.

The results of the present paper apparently contradict the CWZ conclusions, because the large $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance can only be produced if all neutral species, including O and $`\mathrm{N}_2`$, are essentially frozen onto dust grains (see also Bergin et al. (2002)). In fact, only in this case can the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance reach values close to the electron abundance. This can be seen with a simple chemical model, where the ingredients are H, $`\mathrm{H}_2`$, HD, $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$, $`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$, CO, $`\mathrm{HCO}^+`$, $`\mathrm{DCO}^+`$and electrons. We neglect recombination onto dust grains, which is likely not to be an important process for the above molecular ions in the high density core nucleus, where small grains and PAHs – significant carriers of negative charges (Lepp & Dalgarno (1988)) – are expected to be deposited onto bigger grains (e.g. Ossenkopf & Henning  1994). Following section 2 of Caselli  (2002), assuming conditions appropriate for the central 2500 AU of L1544 (kinetic temperature = 7 K, $`n(\mathrm{H}_2)`$ = 106 $`\text{cm}^3`$, see Galli et al.  2002), we have:

$`R_{\mathrm{DEUT}}{\displaystyle \frac{x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)}{x(\mathrm{H}_3^+)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}10}^{10}k_\mathrm{f}}{\mathrm{3\hspace{0.17em}10}^2/f_\mathrm{D}+x(e)/\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}10}^9}}`$ (3)
where $`k_\mathrm{f}`$ is the forward rate coefficient of the proton–deuteron exchange reaction $`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$+HD $``$ $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$+$`\mathrm{H}_2`$ (see below), and $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ is defined as the ratio between the “canonical” CO abundance (9.5$`\times `$10-5; Frerking et al. (1982)) and the observed $`N(\mathrm{CO})/N(\mathrm{H}_2)`$. The $`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$ abundance can be estimated from the charge conservation equation, so that we obtain (with rate coefficients as in Caselli 2002):

$`x(\mathrm{H}_3^+)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_\mathrm{D}x(e)^2}{(f_\mathrm{D}x(e)+\mathrm{4\hspace{0.17em}10}^8)(R_{\mathrm{DEUT}}+1)+\mathrm{8\hspace{0.17em}10}^8}}.`$ (4)
Equations (3) and (4) directly furnish the $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$ abundances as a function of $`f_\mathrm{D}`$, once $`x(e)`$ is known. Figure 3 shows the result of this simple chemical analysis, with $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ (thin curves) and $`R_{\mathrm{DEUT}}`$ (dashed curves) as a function of $`f_\mathrm{D}`$, assuming $`x(e)`$ = 2$`\times `$10-9 (as roughly determined by CWZ in the L1544 center). We note that eqn. (3) breaks down at large values of $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ ($``$ 100), when dissociative recombination starts to dominate over proton transfer reactions. In the figure, two different values for $`k_\mathrm{f}`$ have been used: (i) the “standard” value $`k_\mathrm{f}`$ = 1.5$`\times `$10-9 cm3 s-1 (upper curves), and (ii) $`k_\mathrm{f}`$ = 3.5$`\times `$10-10 cm3 s-1, recently measured by Gerlich et al.  (2002) (lower curves). The two data points in the figure are our present estimates of $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$, the arithmetic means of the abundances calculated with $`T_{\mathrm{ex}}`$=6 and 7 K (Sect. 3): 7.2$`\times `$10-10 and 3.15$`\times `$10-10 at the peak and off–peak positions, respectively. The corresponding $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ values are from CWZ. The error bars indicate the uncertainties in the excitation temperature ($``$1 K; Sect. 3) for estimating $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$, and calibration errors affecting the determination of $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ (about 30%; CWZ).

The observed $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundances cannot be reproduced unless the CO depletion factor is $``$20 in the off position and $``$40 at the peak (the “Monte Carlo abundance” indicates an even higher $`f_\mathrm{D}`$, $``$70), whereas the observed $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ values are $``$7 and $``$9, at the same positions. Although our comprehension of the deuteration process in cold gas may be substantially incomplete, it is certain that measurements of $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ are contaminated by the CO emission along the line of sight coming from regions with marginal CO depletion, so that the resultant $`f_\mathrm{D}`$’s estimates are lower limits of the total amount of CO freeze out at the core center. Indeed, the chemical model of CWZ predicts an almost complete ($``$99%) CO freeze out within the central 2800 AU of L1544. Following the model results in Fig. 3, the predicted $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ values at the observed $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundances correspond to $`R_{\mathrm{DEUT}}`$ $``$ 1 and 2 at the off and central positions, respectively.

If other neutrals reacting with $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ and $`\mathrm{H}_3^+`$, such as O and $`\mathrm{N}_2`$, are present in the gas phase, the predicted $`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ abundance will drop as in the case of a low $`f_\mathrm{D}`$ value (e.g. Caselli  2002). Thus, the present $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ observations also require a heavy depletion of O ($``$99%) and $`\mathrm{N}_2`$ ($``$97%). A way to overcome the apparent inconsistency with CWZ (who need significant fractions of molecular nitrogen and atomic oxygen in the gas phase at $`r`$ $``$ 2800 AU) and well reproduce both the moderate value ($``$ 0.2) of the $`N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{D}^+)/N(\mathrm{N}_2\mathrm{H}^+)`$ column density ratio as well as the large $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance (which implies $`R_{\mathrm{DEUT}}`$ $``$ 2) is to increase the depletion rate of O and $`\mathrm{N}_2`$ within the “flattened” region. This case requires central core densities of about 107 $`\text{cm}^3`$ within a radius of 1000 AU, which is consistent with current mm continuum dust emission measurements if the central temperature drops to values of $``$ 7 K (e.g. Evans et al. (2001)). The conclusion is that present observations are compatible with $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ being the most abundant molecular ion and with a total depletion of elements heavier than helium in the central $``$ 2800 AU. This can also explain the lower $`\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+`$ abundance derived in the direction of NGC1333–IRAS4 ($`x(\mathrm{H}_2\mathrm{D}^+)`$ = 3$`\times `$10-12; Stark et al. (1999)), where the young stellar object heats up the central zones, thus allowing the return of solid phase molecules back into the gas phase. A more comprehensive chemical model, coupled with a detailed radiative transfer code is however needed to better understand the whole data set available for L1544 and we are going to explore this in a future paper (van der Tak et al., in preparation).

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors are grateful to Malcolm Walmsley for discussion and to Dominic Benford for his assistance during the observations. The CSO is supported by NSF grant AST 99-80846. PC acknowledges support from the MIUR project “Dust and Molecules in Astrophysical Environments”.