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# OB Stellar Associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Survey of young stellar systems

## 1 Introduction

The spatial distribution and the statistical study of the properties of young stellar systems in a galaxy provide useful information on its structure and its formation history. Almost all the stars are born as members of various kinds of stellar groups, stellar associations being a very interesting one (Gomez et al. 1993; Massey et al. 1995). The variety of sizes of such stellar systems suggests a hierarchy in the formation of stellar structures as was earlier noted by McKibben Nail & Shapley (1953). In addition, the investigation of a large sample of star forming regions in nearby galaxies allows us to study the behaviour of star formation in galactic scale. Such a study has been done with use of the spatial investigation of the star formation history throughout the whole body of dwarf galaxies (e.g. Dohm-Palmer et al. 1997) and the distribution of the most active centres of recent star formation in distant galaxies (e.g. Hunter et al. 1998).

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) shows to be an ideal laboratory for the study of different stellar populations, due to its wide variety of stellar systems, it is relatively close to us (Madore & Freedman 1998), there is low dust extinction (Harris et al. 1997) and we observe it almost face on (Westerlund 1997), while its depth seems to be very small (Caldwell & Couslon 1986). In the LMC the star formation mechanisms in galactic scale have been investigated through the spatial distribution of Cepheids in this galaxy by Elmegreen & Efremov (1996). This investigation was focused on a time scale of recent star formation $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$ $`5\times 10^8`$ yr. Harris & Zaritsky (1999), expanding the research of stellar formation to larger areas and toward earlier times, give a quantitative description of the distribution of different stellar populations in the LMC. They found indications of hierarchy in the formation of young stellar groups for length-scales between about 30 and 550 pc. As far as the initial spatial distribution of newly born stellar populations and their evolution concerns, it seems that these populations are mostly confined in small scale structures as was recently found in the SMC by Maragoudaki et al. (2001).

In order to investigate the spatial distribution of the clustered young populations in a galaxy one must identify the most recent formed stellar systems. Stellar associations being typically loose stellar systems (Blaauw 1964) characterised by their bright blue populations, are considered tracers of the distribution of the youngest population in a galaxy in a specific galactic scale of about 80 pc (Efremov & Elmegreen 1998). Still, their detection is not a trivial task. According to Hodge (1986) the differences of the samples of stellar associations in various galaxies arise from the use of different observational material and selection criteria. He concludes that with only the integrated colour and patchiness of the images as criteria the danger of having severe selection effects in the sample is acute and he notes that the problem of identifying stellar associations must be approached by carrying out proper controls and statistical techniques in order to be sure that we are dealing with physical groupings. Following these advises we developed an objective method for the detection of loose young stellar systems in the LMC (Gouliermis et al. 2000, from here on Paper I). The method is based on the one proposed by Kontizas et al. (1994) and the selection criteria presented by Kontizas et al. (1999).

In this paper we present the results of our investigation on the detection of loose stellar systems, in the total area of about $`6.^{}5\times 6.^{}5`$ around the Bar of the LMC. This area according to Westerlund (1997) covers a subsystem, characterised by young stellar populations (see also Nikolaev & Weinberg 2000). Our investigation here consists of the following steps: (1) Detection of stellar systems in the whole area of a 1.2m UK Schmidt Telescope plate in U by applying the method and the criteria of Paper I (see Sect. 2). (2) Estimation of the structural parameters of the detected systems according to the assumptions of Paper I (Sect. 3.1). (3) Classification of the systems according to their stellar density into bound, intermediate and unbound systems (Sect. 3.2), following the classification scheme proposed in Paper I. (4) In Sect. 3.3, comparison of our survey with other catalogs and objects found in the same areas. (5) Study of the spatial distribution of the detected unbound and intermediate systems in the LMC, which takes place in Sect. 4. (6) Statistical study of the properties of these systems (Sect. 5). General conclusions are given in Sect. 6.

## 2 Detection of Stellar Systems

### 2.1 Plate Description

We applied the detection method on the whole stellar catalog of a photographic direct plate taken with the 1.2m UK Schmidt Telescope in U. The ID of the plate is U12346 and its centre coordinates are 05h 25m 36s, $``$69 35 30′′ (in J2000) with a field of view of about 6$`.^{}`$5 $`\times `$ 6$`.^{}`$5. It was exposed for 150 minutes on January 17, 1988. A UG1 filter was used on a hypersensitized Kodak IIIa-J emulsion. The stellar catalog was produced by the Automated Plate Measuring Facility (APM) in Cambridge. The data were calibrated and checked for completeness (see Paper I). This plate covers the central area of the galaxy around the Bar, where most of the associations found by Lucke & Hodge (1970) (from here on LH) are located. In addition it covers a large area southern of the LH survey, where many new systems were identified.

### 2.2 Application of the Method

The method is based on star counts on a square grid, as we describe in Sect. 3 of Paper I. We repeat the star counts six times, each for a different range of magnitudes (magnitude slice), in which the stellar catalog was divided and one time for all stars brighter than $``$ 17 mag (cumulative catalog). The adopted magnitude slices, as well as representative values of the mean background surface stellar density and its standard deviation $`\sigma `$ for different areas of the plate, are listed in Table 2 of Paper I. We applied the star counts procedure on 52 different quadrilateral areas with dimensions varying from 0$`.^{}`$3 to 2$`.^{}`$0, which cover the whole region of the plate. The selection of the boundaries of these areas was made so that each one has a uniform distribution of field stars, meaning a more or less uniform background surface density. For each area we used the corresponding mean background density and its standard deviation ($`\sigma `$) in order to reveal the stellar concentrations which appear with a density exceeding the background by a specific limit in $`\sigma `$s (density threshold) on the cumulative catalog, satisfying the first criterion set in Paper I (Sect. 3). According to the second criterion each concentration should appear in at least two magnitude slices, one of them being for bright stars, at the same position as in the cumulative catalog.

The method depends on two parameters. The first is the resolution limit, which corresponds to the grid element size for counting stars and sets the minimum size of the detected systems. The second is the lower density difference (in $`\sigma `$s) of each low-density grid element from its neighbours so that it can be accepted as “member” of the concentration, in order different neighbouring systems lying within the same density boundaries to be separated during the detection. More details are given in Sect. 3.1 of Paper I. The method’s performance concerning these parameters, as well as for different density thresholds was thoroughly checked in Sect. 3.2 of Paper I. As a consequence the grid element size was selected to correspond to 20 pc $`\times `$ 20 pc. The lower density difference of neighbouring grid elements in order to be accepted as members of the same concentration was set to 1$`\sigma `$ and the lower density of the grid elements, which represent statistical important stellar groups (density threshold) was set to 3$`\sigma `$, both above the local background surface density.

## 3 The Detected Systems

### 3.1 Parameters Estimation

Structural parameters for the detected systems were estimated following the calculations and assumptions of Sect. 4.1 of Paper I. The size of each system was defined as the maximum dimension of a quadrilateral enclosing its 3$`\sigma `$ density boundaries. The Spitzer radius $`r_{\mathrm{Sp}}`$ was computed as the mean square of the stars’ distances from the point of peak density within this quadrilateral. The average central stellar density of each system (in M pc-3) was estimated within the radius where half the number of its stars is contained, which may represent very well the half-mass radius of the system. The mass estimation of the systems needed a more thorough investigation and could only by achieved based on several assumptions. The difficulties in such estimation and the assumptions used are discussed in detail in Paper I. In general, in order to estimate the total mass of each detected system we had to transform the luminosities of the stars from our catalog into masses by using isochrone models from Alongi et al. (1993) and to extrapolate the number of the brighter stars to the lower mass end due to incompleteness of the data. It was assumed that all detected systems are young (with ages around 5 Myr) and that their Mass Functions have slopes varying from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$1.0 to $``$1.6. Considering that the estimated masses depend on the errors of counting stars and mainly on the span of the adopted MF slopes and age, the extracted estimation errors can be as large as an order of a magnitude.

### 3.2 Classification of the Detected Systems

We used the central stellar density of each system ($`\rho `$) in order to classify it as bound ($`\rho 1.0`$ M pc-3), intermediate ($`0.1<\rho <1.0`$ M pc-3) or unbound system ($`\rho 0.1`$ M pc-3). This classification scheme is proposed in Sect. 4.1 of Paper I, where a discussion on the stability of stellar systems according to these density limits is also presented. In total 494 stellar systems were found in the area of 6$`.^{}`$5 $`\times `$ 6$`.^{}`$5 around the LMC Bar in the U plate. From them 82 were classified as bound, 259 as intermediate and 153 as unbound systems. Our interest here is focused on the intermediate and unbound detected systems. They represent loose young stellar concentrations, which our method was designed for. Consequently almost all the detected bound systems were found with sizes on the detection limit of 20 pc and they are of no particular importance in this investigation. The detected intermediate and unbound systems and their parameters are available in two tables from CDS (one table for every category). Table 1 here is a sample of the data given in these tables. In Col. 1 the identification number of each system is given. Cols. 2 and 3 show the coordinates of the dynamical centre of the system, which is taken to be the most dense part of the system. The size of each system is given in Col. 4, and in Cols. 5,6 and 7 we present the number of bright stars $`N_{}`$ counted within the system’s boundaries, its Spitzer radius $`r_{\mathrm{Sp}}`$, as well as its half-mass radius $`r_\mathrm{h}`$. The mass limits and the mean central stellar density of each system is given in Cols. 8 and 9 respectively. The identification numbers of the intermediate systems have the prefix ‘O’, since the large majority of these systems most probably represents Open Clusters. For the unbound systems, considering that they are mostly Stellar Associations we used the prefix ‘A’. This numbering scheme will be used from here on.

During the investigation on the detected systems in two selected areas of U plate, as was presented in Paper I, it was found that according to the spectral classification, all the identified unbound systems show to have the characteristics of OB stellar associations. Considering the various uncertainties in the estimation of the parameters of the systems, we also found that at least 30% of the intermediate systems are probably stellar associations, since they show to have stellar densities very close to the limit of $`\rho `$ 0.1 M pc-3, while $``$ 68% of them showed an excess of bright OB stars and we accepted them as candidate stellar associations or open clusters. Taking these under consideration we present the results of our investigation on the detected intermediate and unbound systems in the whole U plate. The map of the survey of these systems is shown in Fig. 1.

### 3.3 Comparison with Other Surveys

In this section we present the results of the comparison of our survey with other already published catalogs of stellar systems in the LMC. This comparison is made in order to test the efficiency of our method in comparison with others, concerning the number of the detected systems, their positions and their estimated sizes. We state in the introduction, that the results of the detection of a specific type of stellar systems is directly connected to the method and data used. Thus, the detection criteria adopted are very important, if we are to compare the results of two different detection methods. The most complete available catalog of stellar systems in the LMC is presented by Bica et al. (1999). This survey covers the whole area of the galaxy and contains almost 6500 clusters, associations and nebulae. Still we are not going to compare our results with those of Bica et al., due to our differences with these authors concerning the definition of a stellar association and in consequence the adopted criteria. We found though all the Bica et al. (1999) objects related to our systems as is shown later.

The method of Bica et al. (1999) as was presented by Bica & Schmitt (1995) is based on identification by eye on ESO/SERC R and J Sky Survey Schmidt films. In addition the distinction between clusters and associations according to these authors “is based primarily on the stellar density, but additional criteria are the magnitude distribution of stars and the occurrence of irregular shape, which characterise associations” (Bica & Schmitt 1995). It seems that the detection criteria used was purely qualitative. Consequently systems classified by these authors as associations do not meet systematically the criteria, which characterise this type of systems (see e.g. Kontizas et al. 1999). On the other hand the definition of stellar associations (roughly as loose concentrations of bright blue stars) used by Lucke & Hodge (1970) is in line with the typical criteria for stellar associations and the criteria of our method. Thus we compare our results here with the LH catalog of LMC associations due to the similarities of the two methods, as far as the criteria concerns.

In the area covered by the U plate there are 102 LH associations (Lucke & Hodge 1970). We checked the coincidence of our identified systems with the LH associations for each smaller area, on which we applied the detection method. For each area we constructed the cumulative isodensity contour map (like the maps of Fig. 4 in Paper I), so that the limits of each detected system to be drawn after the limits of the LH associations of the same area were overplotted. The comparison was carried out by eye on these maps. We applied this kind of comparison due to the fact that the systems in both surveys have not symmetrical appearance, so it is possible that a centre to centre comparison wouldn’t give any useful results. We accepted that two systems coincide even when these systems overlap each other with no centre coincidence. There are also cases where one system in the one catalog overlaps more than one systems of the other.

We identified 73 LH associations. The 29 unidentified LH associations are located in crowded regions characterised by high nebulosity, which makes their identification a rather difficult task. Among them are the easily recognized but highly nebulous LH 58 (Garmany et al. 1994) and the LH associations located near 30 Doradus (Parker 1993; Parker & Garmany 1993). More specifically, five of the LH associations not detected by us are located within and around the area of 30 Doradus (LH 81, LH 90, LH 100, LH 105 & LH 113), while additional seven are located in the dense area northwest of and outside the Bar (LH 58, LH 67, LH 71, LH 73, LH 74 & LH 85). In addition thirteen of the undetected LH associations belong to the group of the 19 LH stellar associations, which cover the central area and the northwest edge of the Bar. From these we detected LH 11, LH 12, LH 20, LH 39, LH 44 & LH 59, which are all located very close to the limits of the Bar. Finally our method did not detect four small LH associations: LH 5, LH 82, LH 88 and LH 122. We conclude, thus, that the method did not perform well in crowded regions and in regions where nebulosity is very high. This result is not due to the detection method itself, but due to the nature of the data used. It is worth noting that in the U filter dense nebula regions like the 30 Doradus and the Bar are shown to be extremely bright. Consequently, the detection of stars by the scanning machines is affected by this phenomenon and the resulting stellar catalogs in these regions are incomplete. Indeed in the areas covering the Bar, where we performed our method, we noticed phenomena of bad statistics. The U plate on the other hand is one of the most appropriate for the detection of young stellar populations, which is the aim of this survey. In addition the coincidence of our detected systems with LH associations in the rest areas of the plate was excellent.

In general we were able to detect 412 intermediate and unbound systems in the same area where Lucke & Hodge detected 102 associations, meaning that this survey is almost four times richer than the one by Lucke & Hodge. Although the latter relied upon various criteria in addition to star density, the central criterion of both methods is the appearance of stellar associations as loose concentrations of bright young stars. So, one may ask why this difference between the two surveys. Considering that stellar density plays important role in both methods it seems that the higher number of systems in our survey is probably due to the ability of our method to detect loose stellar concentrations in areas where the eye is not able to identify any significant stellar group unless there is nebulosity related.

We confirmed the results of the comparison of the positions of the systems in our survey with those of the LH associations using SIMBAD111SIMBAD: Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/). We searched for all the known stellar systems (as well as for other objects, as HII regions, nebulae, etc.), which are located around the centre of each one of our systems within a search radius equal to the half of the size of the system as it was estimated in Sect. 3.1. It should be taken under consideration that this kind of “centre to centre” search, within specific search radii, gave excellent results as far as the coincidence of unbound systems and LH associations concerns, verifying the results of our search. On the other hand, the search in SIMBAD for coincidence of known objects with the detected intermediate systems verified only two thirds of the coincidence of intermediate systems with LH associations found by us, probably due to the systematically smaller search radii, which were used in SIMBAD for these systems. As it is said earlier, there are cases, where more than one of our systems coincide with a LH association. Probably these LH associations are stellar aggregates, for which we detected the various internal subsystems. There are also cases, where more than one LH associations were found to coincide with one of the systems of our survey. Such a case is the one of LH 93, LH 94, LH 97 & LH 98 west of 30 Doradus, which Lucke & Hodge (1970) mark within the limits of one larger association (LH 96), and which we detected through two systems (A110 and O168), one of them being a large stellar association.

In Fig. 2 we compare the maximum sizes of our systems with the ones of the corresponding LH associations. In cases where more than one systems of one catalog coincide with only one of the other, we compared the size of this system with the total size of all the subsystems coinciding with it. As is shown from Fig. 2 the coincidence is very good, considering a gap for sizes between $``$ 10 and 15 arcmin. This gap is due to the lack of systems with sizes in this range in the LH catalog only. The two groups of systems shown in Fig. 2 give a linear correlation with slopes 0.9$`{}_{}{}^{+0.1}{}_{0.2}{}^{}`$ for the small systems ($`<`$ 10 arcmin) and 0.95$`{}_{}{}^{+.05}{}_{0.5}{}^{}`$ for the larger ones ($`>`$ 10 arcmin). These values give a very good coincidence of our systems’ sizes with the ones of LH associations, being very close to the value of excellent coincidence (slope=1) also shown in Fig. 2. In the case of LH associations with sizes less that 10 arcmin the correlation show to follow this line, considering the relatively wide spread in sizes. In the case of the larger systems, though the slope is nearly unit, the zero point of the fitted line is well above zero, moved by about 5 arcmin. This implies that the ‘larger’ systems as was detected by us are systematically smaller that the corresponding LH associations by about 5 arcmin. Probably this is due to two factors: (1) The sizes as were estimated here are based purely on star counts and we did not consider the related nebulosity, as Lucke & Hodge did. (2) The correspondence of the systems is not always one to one, since as we already stated there are cases where there are more than one systems of our catalog corresponding to one system in the LH catalog and vise versa. So, the comparison of the overall size of all these systems to the size of the corresponding one can not be precise.

As a second step to our search for objects related to our systems through SIMBAD we used the catalogs by Lucke & Hodge (1970) and Bica et al. (1999) to find additional “inter-relations” between these objects, as well as to find new objects. In Table 2 we present summarised results of our SIMBAD search. We found 9 different types of non-stellar objects given in Col. 1 of the table. The nomenclature and acronyms of these types are given in Cols. 2 and 3 respectively. In Cols. 4 and 5 we give the corresponding bibliographical references and the number of objects found per acronym. Maybe the most interesting results are the ones concerning clusters, associations and HII regions, as they were classified by other authors: 341 clusters, 298 associations and 92 HII regions found in SIMBAD to coincide in location with the intermediate and unbound systems detected by us. Ofcourse one cannot exclude the chance of superposition of SIMBAD clusters on our associations. This can be proved from the Galactic open and globular clusters also found in SIMBAD. Still, the estimation of an accurate fraction for the cases of super-positioning is almost impossible. Anyhow, the coincidence of the loci of the systems of our survey with clusters and small associations found by other authors can be approached as a physical phenomenon, since these small systems may represent core clusters in our associations. In total 225 intermediate and unbound systems of our survey were found to be related to 818 non-galactic SIMBAD objects. We compiled a catalog of all these objects. This catalog contains the systems of our survey (Col. 1), the related SIMBAD objects and the relations between them (Cols. 2 and 3), their coordinates (Cols. 4 and 5) and the corresponding SIMBAD nomenclature (Col. 6). Table 3 shows a small portion of this catalog, which is not presented in full here due to its size and which is available upon request to the authors.

### 3.4 Completeness of the Survey in the Bar

In order to quantify the incompleteness of our survey in the area of the LMC Bar, we use the LH survey. Since we know the total number of LH associations and of our systems in the whole region, as well as in the area of the Bar, we can extrapolate the number of the systems we detected in the whole plate to the expected number of detected systems in the Bar area. In the whole area of the plate except the Bar (according to its limits as are plotted in Fig. 1) we detected 147 unbound and 246 intermediate systems. In the same area there are 85 LH associations. If we limit our catalog in the area, which is covered by the LH survey, then we find 105 unbound and 195 intermediate systems. This suggests that our survey covers $``$ 1.2 times more unbound and $``$ 2.5 times more intermediate systems than the survey of LH associations. If we consider that the distribution of the systems in the area of the Bar is uniform and that the detection performs consistently in every area of the plate, since the area of the Bar includes 17 LH associations, then we should expect to detect $``$ 21 unbound and $``$ 39 intermediate systems. We detected 6 unbound and 14 intermediate systems, which gives a completeness of 35% for the unbound and of 27% for the intermediate systems in the area of the Bar.

## 4 Spatial Distribution of the Systems

From the map of Fig. 1 one may suspect the appearance of large structures, which are formed by the systems. The incomplete detection of systems in the area of the Bar produces the hole, which is shown in this figure. The separate maps of the detected systems for each category show these structures as well. We counted the detected intermediate and unbound systems in quantrilateral grid with grid elements of sizes around 230 pc, which is the size of a typical large stellar aggregate in the LMC (e.g. Maragoudaki et al. 1998) and we produced the corresponding isodensity contour map shown in Fig. 3. For the production of the map we didn’t use any specific density threshold, since we used ‘clean’ numbers of systems not contaminated by any ‘background’ contribution.

From the isodensity contour map of Fig. 3, the existence of filamentary structures, which are formed by the detected systems is apparent. These structures show also to prefer the outer parts in the whole region. This could be due to the incomplete detection in the area of the Bar, but could also be due to the formation of the systems itself. If we consider that in the area of the Bar we detected only the 27% of the expected intermediate systems, then one should expect to see a strong concentration of these systems in the area of the Bar. Still, this concentration would leave unaffected the structures shown on the NE and SW part of the map of Fig. 3, due to the lack of systems in the areas between the Bar and these structures. This shows to be the case also for the unbound systems, of which we detected only the 35% in the area of the Bar. Very interesting in the NNE part of the isodensity contour map is the arc structure, which is located right below of the super-bubble Shapley III (LMC 4), which several authors (e.g. de Boer et al. 1998; Efremov et al. 1998) have investigated concerning its star formation history. One may ask if other similar structures, which we observe in the isodensity contour map are connected to such star forming shells.

More information on such an investigation can be given from observations on atomic hydrogen (HI) in the LMC, like the ones presented by Kim et al. (1999). These authors note that the structure of HI in the LMC is characterised by a large number of shells, as well as of filamentary and spiral structures. Taking under consideration that we detected stellar systems using data obtained in U, as well as the criteria chosen for the detection and acceptance of the systems as candidate stellar associations, then one should expect to find a relative coincidence of the spatial distribution of the systems in our catalog with the spatial distribution of atomic hydrogen, which is a good indicator of recent star formation.

Indeed such a coincidence was found, when we overplotted the map of the detected intermediate and unbound systems on the corresponding part of the HI map of LMC by Kim et al. (1999). It was rather interesting that the large filamentary structure in the SW part of our survey (see Fig. 1 or Fig. 3) found an almost perfect correspondence in the survey of Kim et al. (1999). Another interesting result of this comparison is that many of our systems are distributed around areas empty in HI (holes). Kim et al. using their observations and additional observations in H$`\alpha `$, classified 103 candidate giant- and 23 supergiant-shells. We show in Fig. 4 the comparison of the positions of the stellar systems in our survey with the edges of the giant (left panel) and supergiant (right panel) shells detected by Kim et al. This figure is an additional indication that probably some of the systems in our survey are related to the boundaries of such shells. Consequently the distribution of the systems forms arc-like structures shown in the contour map of Fig. 3. Could these systems be the result of star formation events happening on the edges of HI shells? -Probably.

For example this seems to be the case for the systems found to coincide with the “conjunction” point of the supergiant shells in the NE part of the map (Fig. 4 \- right panel). Stellar systems of our survey were also found projected on the inner areas of some shells. Kim et al. comment that the shells which cover HII regions and known OB associations seem to expand faster. This fact implies an additional input of mechanical energy from active star forming regions. Indeed we compared the areas of the HII regions found by SIMBAD to be related to systems of our survey and we found that more than half of them are located at the inner part of HI shells. It is interesting to note that the ages of the shells, as were estimated by Kim et al. (1999) are varying from about 2 to 11.5 Myr. This age estimation is in good agreement with the age of 5-10 Myr we assumed for the transformation of luminosities to masses for the detected systems during the estimation of their structural parameters.

## 5 The Systems’ Parameters

### 5.1 Sizes and Masses of the Systems

The sizes of the detected systems was measured as shown in Sect. 3.1. If we take all three categories of detected systems under consideration, we see that as one moves from the category of the most compact systems (bound) toward the less compact ones (unbound), the corresponding dimensions are getting larger with the bound systems having sizes close to our detection limit and the unbound representing the larger detected systems. More specifically as far as the intermediate systems concerns most of them have sizes clustered around 30 pc, while there are some systems with sizes up to 160 pc (Fig. 5 \- left panel). The size distribution of the unbound systems shows a peak at about 70 pc and a second shorter peak at about 130 pc. Considering that the unbound systems found in Paper I are true stellar associations (as the spectral classification showed), then possibly all the unbound stellar systems of this survey represent the true population of stellar associations in the central area of LMC. The mean size of these systems was found around 85 pc. This result is in good agreement with the size distribution for stellar associations of galaxies in the Local Group, as was found by various investigators as will be shown below.

In Table 4 a compilation of existing data on detection methods and measured sizes is given for stellar associations in different galaxies. In Cols. 1 and 2 the name and the Hubble type of the galaxies are given. In Col. 3 we give the number of detected associations, while Col. 4 shows the minimum, average and maximum sizes of the detected associations. The corresponding references and methods are given in Cols. 5 and 6 respectively. This table shows the differences between galaxies as far as the number of detected associations and their sizes concerns. Hodge (1986), using a similar compilation of data available at that time, argues that the differences of the detected number of associations in various galaxies is a result of their greater distances, which makes the recognition of small associations more difficult and which leads to preferentially interpreting complexes of associations as single objects. Consequently, the associations of more distant galaxies are found to be larger.

In addition, according to the same author the differences in the properties of stellar associations in different galaxies arise also from the use of different observational material and detection criteria. So the different sizes of associations in different samples could be a selection effect. Efremov (1988) found that the mean size of the OB associations ($``$ 80 pc) is a universal scale for the process of star formation in the galactic discs and Ivanov (1996) discuss the use of the average size of OB associations as a distance indicator of the parent galaxy. The same author found that the average diameter of the stellar associations of eight galaxies detected using CCD observations is 84 $`\pm `$ 15 pc, very close to Efremov’s value. The average size of our detected unbound systems (86 pc) seems to be in a very good agreement with both these values. From the data of Table 4 one can see that more than half of the surveys include associations with average sizes around the value of 80 pc (between 65 and 93 pc). Almost 30% of the surveys have associations with sizes larger than about 114 pc up to 440 pc and there is only a small fraction (3 surveys) with smaller limits for the sizes of stellar associations (18 to 46 pc).

If we select from Table 4 the surveys of stellar associations, which have been compiled with the use of more advanced detection techniques (not by eye) then we limit the sample of surveys of associations to half. Almost all of them are in agreement on the average size of stellar associations. Specifically all 12 except 2 surveys give the size of a stellar association to be between 65 and 93 pc; this gives an average size of stellar associations equal to 80 $`\pm `$ 3 pc, in excellent agreement with the universal scale of star formation as given by Efremov (1988). Thus, one could almost safely conclude that as far as the size of stellar associations concerns, this might represent a specific global length-scale of star formation in a galaxy. Still, there are differences between different surveys of associations (like in the total number of associations in a galaxy), which might as well depend on the total luminosity or Hubble type of the host galaxy (Hodge 1986).

Concerning the mass estimation of each detected stellar system, it should be noted that the MF slope of the systems was the most important assumption and that the uncertainties of the estimated masses up to an order of a magnitude are due to the span of the adopted MF slopes (see Sect. 4.1, Paper I). This range ($`1.6`$ $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$ $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$ $`1.0`$) is in excellent agreement with the established IMF slopes of LH associations by several detailed studies of their stellar content (LH 117/118: Massey et al. 1989; 30 Dor area: Parker & Garmany 1993; LH 58: Garmany et al. 1994; LH 47/48: Oey & Massey 1995; Will et al. 1997; LH 1/2/5/8: Parker et al. 2001). These slopes were found to be comparable to each other and clustered around $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1.5`$.

From the results of the investigations above, we were able to test the mass estimation for four of our detected systems: A129/130 (LH 47/48) and O123/A092 (LH 117/118). The MF slopes of the coinciding LH associations (LH 47/48: Oey & Massey 1995; Will et al. 1997; LH 117/118: Massey et al. 1989) were used for an estimation of their masses in the range 0.8 $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$ $`M`$/M $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$ 15, which was selected during our detection method for the mass estimation of the identified systems. The masses of the systems were found to be consistent with those of the related LH associations as estimated by their MF slopes, giving us confidence in the mass estimation of the detected systems of this survey.

The frequency distribution of the masses found for the intermediate and unbound systems is shown in Fig. 6. It seems to be a normally distributed mass function around a mass of about 103 M. In this figure the x-axis represents the average mass of the systems estimated according to the assumptions of Sect. 4.1 of paper I and y-axis the fraction of systems over the total of intermediate and unbound detected systems (412 in total). We limit this graph at 5 $`\times `$ 103 M, which represents the majority (82%) of the detected systems. The remaining 18% of the systems is divided in two groups: The first 9% includes systems with masses of 5 to 10 $`\times `$ 103 M and the other with masses 10 to 64 $`\times `$ 103 M. The distributions of both groups are flat. It is interesting to point out that this distribution implies that the mass function of the stellar associations and open clusters in the LMC seems to be Gaussian.

### 5.2 Parameter Correlations

Geyer & Hopp (1981) presented a correlation of the number of stars and the corresponding system’s radius for 12 open and 8 globular clusters in the LMC. They found that the corresponding correlation coefficients are almost the same for both kind of systems. Still, the correlations for these two types of systems are parallel probably due to the systematic differences in number of stars per radius between them. In Fig. 7 (left panel) the original diagram of Geyer & Hopp (1981) is shown with the corresponding points for the stellar associations found by Kontizas et al. (1994) overplotted. The correlation $`r_\mathrm{h}`$($`N_{}`$) for these systems is also almost parallel to the correlations of open and globular clusters. In Fig. 7 (right panel) we also present the corresponding correlation of the half-mass radius to the included number of stars for the intermediate and unbound systems of this survey.

In this diagram we observe that there is a differentiation in the radii of the systems at a limit of $`r_\mathrm{h}`$ $``$ 23 pc, meaning that there are no intermediate systems with radii larger than this limit, in contrast to the unbound systems. This limit (diameter of $``$ 46 pc) seems to meet the diameter limit as was defined by Efremov (1982) for clusters and stellar associations. The correlation of number of stars versus radius, as shown in the right panel of Fig. 7 for both classes of systems follows almost an identical trend. Specifically the relation $`\mathrm{log}r_\mathrm{h}`$ (vs) $`\mathrm{log}N_{}`$ for the intermediate systems has a slope of 0.35$`\pm `$0.02, while this slope for the unbound systems is 0.31$`\pm `$0.01. Both correlations can be fitted very well to a line. The statistical tests we performed for the goodness of fit, using Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients, showed that indeed there is a strong correlation between the radius of a system and the corresponding number of stars. The correlation coefficients where found to be between 0.8 and 0.9.

It is worth noting that these slopes are in a very good agreement with the one for the stellar associations found by Kontizas et al. (1994), which is equal to $``$ 0.35$`\pm `$0.06. On the contrary the slopes for the open and globular clusters of Geyer & Hopp (1981) are steeper equal to 0.53$`\pm `$0.05 and 0.54$`\pm `$0.05 correspondingly. We performed additional statistical tests using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov method, in order to detect any possible similarities between the correlations for our systems and the ones of the Kontizas et al. associations and of the Geyer & Hopp clusters. The only significant similarity found was the one between our intermediate systems and of the open clusters with 96% of coincidence.

It should be taken under consideration that the parameters used in these correlations are directly measured without any assumption to be used for their estimation. So the number of stars used is the counted stellar number within each system’s boundaries from the APM catalog, while $`r_\mathrm{h}`$ is the radius, where half of these stars are contained. Consequently these correlations are physically meaningful, as far as their slopes concerns. Still, they are to be taken arbitrarily due to the systematic incompleteness in the estimation of the actual numbers. Interesting is also the fact that the distributions of associations, open clusters and globulars in the diagram of Geyer & Hopp (1981) and Kontizas et al. (1994) systems are very well distinct to each other and this is probably due to incomplete samples. The distributions of our larger sample, on the other hand, show that there is no clear distinction between systems of different types, which implies that there might be also “hybrid” systems between what we call associations and open clusters as far as these parameters correlations concerns.

### 5.3 Fainter Magnitude of Appearance

During the detection and study of stellar systems in two selected areas of the U plate, in Paper I, we observed that the fainter magnitude, where each systems first appears in the star counts differs from the one system to the other. We called this limit “Fainter Magnitude of Appearance” (FMA). These differences in the FMA are apparent for systems of the same category, as well as for neighbouring systems. This phenomenon is now verified from the larger sample of systems in this paper. For this investigation we will also use the detected bound systems, since we are only interested in the fainter detected magnitude for every concentration of stars found, without taking any system category under consideration. The number distribution of all the detected systems according to their FMA is given in Fig. 8. In this distribution we use steps of one magnitude in order to achieve statistically significant results, due to the relatively low number of systems. Considering that the detection limit of the plate is at around U $``$ 20 mag, the incompleteness around the 19th magnitude can be important. In this case one should expect a larger number of systems in the fainter magnitude bin. Still, the distribution of systems in different FMAs remains.

Interesting seems to be also the spatial distribution of the detected systems according to their FMA. We found that as far as the FMA concerns the systems show to be concentrated in larger structures, most of which have filamentary shape and contains other smaller and denser concentrations of systems. As we note in Paper I this differentiation of the FMA should not depend of the density of the systems, since systems of different types show to have the same FMA. Probably it is also not due to intergalactic absorption, since the LMC reddening is not large enough to produce a magnitude differentiation up to four magnitudes (Harris et al. 1997). In Paper I we give as a possible explanation for this phenomenon the existence of pre-main sequence stars with masses up to 8 M in the systems, as was found by various authors for example in R 136 in 30 Doradus (e.g. Sirianni et al. 1999). Still, this is a rough explanation and detailed analysis on selected young stellar systems in the LMC is needed in order to be verified.

## 6 Conclusions

In this paper we present the properties of the stellar associations and open clusters in the LMC, as detected on a digitised, by APM, 1.2m UK Schmidt Telescope Plate in U, using the method proposed in Paper I. There were found 494 stellar systems in an area of $``$ 6$`.^{}`$5 $`\times `$ 6$`.^{}`$5 around the LMC Bar. We classified the detected systems in three categories based on their stellar density in the half-mass radius, as was estimated for every system according to the method and assumptions of Paper I. There were found 82 bound systems with $`\rho `$ 1.0 M pc-3, 259 intermediate systems with 0.1 $`\rho `$ 1.0 M pc-3 and 153 unbound systems with $`\rho `$ 0.1 M pc-3.

Lucke & Hodge (1970) detected in the same area 102 stellar associations. We detected almost the 70% of them. The 29 non-detected LH stellar associations are located in dense regions of ionised hydrogen and in the Bar of the galaxy. In these regions the method was unable to detect low concentration systems, due to the incompleteness of the stellar catalog. It was found that the coincidence of the sizes of the LH associations, as were estimated by us with the ones of Lucke & Hodge is very good. In general we detected about four times more loose young stellar systems than Lucke & Hodge in their survey of associations. The higher number of identified systems in our survey is probably due to the better detection performance of our method in areas of loose stellar concentrations.

Several studies have demonstrated the coevality of LH stellar associations in their IMF slopes and star formation histories (e.g. Massey 1998; Massey et al. 2000). The selection criteria of our method for the detection of young loose stellar systems in the LMC were based on this coevality concerning their MF slopes and stellar content. In addition, thorough statistical tests were carried out for the best performance of the method in detecting coeval loose concentrations of bright blue stars. These can serve as evidence that the newly discovered unbound and intermediate systems should be considered as candidates for true open clusters and stellar associations and not just statistical coincidences.

The intermediate and unbound systems, as was found from their spatial distribution, seem to construct large filamentary structures. A comparison of the loci of these systems with neutral hydrogen observations shows that filamentary and arc structures are often formed from the concentration of systems on the edges of giant and super-giant HI shells. The intermediate systems cover a size range of about 30 pc up to 160 pc. The size distribution of the unbound systems shows two peaks, the higher first at 70 pc and the lower second at 130 pc. The average size of these stellar associations (86 pc) is in a very good agreement with the mean size of stellar associations found in various galaxies (80 $`\pm `$ 3 pc), which possibly represents a global length-scale of star formation. The mass function of the intermediate and unbound systems was found here to be almost normally distributed around $`10^3`$ M.

The correlation of the half-mass radius of every system to the corresponding number of stars, shows the existence of two different system types, the borders of which are overlapping each other. Still, there is a distinction between these two classes at a diameter limit of $``$ 46 pc. The differences in the distributions of $`r_\mathrm{h}`$ versus $`N_{}`$ for the intermediate and unbound systems of the survey indicates the different nature of these two kinds of systems, with the unbound representing dynamically loose stellar concentrations, which are expected to dissolve sooner than the intermediate, which seem to represent mostly open clusters.

Throughout the whole catalog of detected systems the Fainter Magnitude of Appearance (FMA) shows variations, which seem to be independent of the system types and of the location of the systems. These variations are found up to four magnitudes, which implies that the LMC absorption may not be the reason and allowing us to suggest the existence of pre-main sequence stars.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors would like to express their thanks to the 1.2m U.K. Schmidt Telescope Unit for the loan of the plates and the APM & SuperCOSMOS for the digitisation of them. Our thanks are also due to the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of the Greek Ministry of Development and the British Council for their financial support, as well as to the University of Athens (ELKE). This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.


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# Forbidden Transitions in a Magneto-Optical Trap

## Abstract

We report the first observation of a non-dipole transition in an ultra-cold atomic vapor. We excite the 3P-4P electric quadrupole (E2) transition in 23Na confined in a Magneto-Optical Trap(MOT), and demonstrate its application to high-resolution spectroscopy by making the first measurement of the hyperfine structure of the 4P1/2 level and extracting the magnetic dipole constant A $`=`$ 30.6 $`\pm `$ 0.1 MHz. We use cw OODR (Optical-Optical Double Resonance) accompanied by photoinization to probe the transition.

One of the frontiers in atomic physics is the detection of the signature of a transition that is classified as “forbidden.” Forbidden-transition spectroscopy now plays a central role in tests of fundamental symmetries of Nature. A significant example is the study of parity non-conserving (PNC) interactions which provides one of the best measurements of electro-weak symmetry breaking Bennett and Wieman (1999). More generally, forbidden transitions have been experimentally studied fts  using a variety of techniques (such as electron impact and laser excitation), in a range of contexts (from nebular spectra to cold-ion frequency standards ), and in a number of atoms, ions, and molecules. In the case of alkali atoms, the first observation of a forbidden transition dates back to the early days of quantum mechanics Datta (1922). More recently, non-dipole effects have been explored in photoionization Leuchs et al. (1986), n-wave mixing (NWM) Dinev et al. (1991) and collision-induced absorption Ueda and Fukuda (1982). In the particular case of sodium, the 3S-3D E2 transition moment has been measured using NWM Bethune et al. (1977) and the 3P-(5P, 4F) transitions were observed in OODR Lambropoulos et al. (1975), both via pulsed laser excitation.

Another frontier in atomic physics is laser cooling and trapping of atoms. The availability of ensembles of cold atoms has made accessible entirely new regimes of atomic behavior ranging from atom-optical effects Inouye et al. (1999) to the formation of a Bose-Einstein condensateAnderson et al. (1995). Moreover, a cold vapor is a nearly ideal enabler for precision measurement applications such as metrology Fertig and Gibble (2000) and high-resolution spectroscopy Shaffer et al. (1999). In this Letter, we describe the first experimental observation of a forbidden atomic transition in a laser-cooled vapor, confined in a MOT. Our experiment combines the Doppler-free nature of the MOT, and its specific optical pumping properties, with the high resolution afforded by cw lasers and the near-unity efficiency of ion detection. To illustrate the power of this approach, we demonstrate the electric quadrupolar nature of the 3P-4P transition and use it to analyze the hyperfine structure of the 4P1/2 level. Measurements of hyperfine splittings are of interest because they are sensitive to electronic correlations and relativistic effects, providing a benchmark for testing the accuracy of many-body atomic structure calculations Arimondo et al. (1977).

Our initial observations were made with a standard MOT Shaffer et al. (1999) (Fig.1) operating on the D2 transition. We refer to this as the D2MOT. Atoms held in the trap were probed with light tunable around 750 nm generated using an Ar+\- pumped Ti:Sa ring laser. While the trapping light excited atoms on the D2 (3S$`{}_{1/2}{}^{}`$3P3/2) transition, the probe laser excited the 3P-4P E2 transition. Atoms populating the resulting doubly excited state were then ionized to S and D states in the continuum by either a trap or a probe photon. The resulting Na+ ions were detected using a channel electron multiplier (CEM).

Our experiments were typically carried out using probe laser powers $``$ 100 mW focused down to a $``$ 100 $`\mu `$m diameter spot yielding an excitation intensity of $`10^6\mathrm{mW}/\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (the MOT diameter is $``$ 300 $`\mu `$m). The intensity ISat for saturating the E2 transition can be estimated in the semi-classical approximation by equating the 3P-4P quadrupole Rabi frequency ( $`\mathrm{\Omega }_QQkE_o/\mathrm{}`$, where $`Q`$ is the quadrupole moment of the transition, and k and Eo are the wavevector and electric field amplitude of the 750 nm light ) with the sum of the linewidths of the 3P and 4P levels ( $`\gamma _D`$ ), which are set by dipole (E1) emission to the 3S ground state. We find

$$I_{Sat}=\frac{E_o^2}{2\eta _o}\frac{1}{2\eta _o}\left(\frac{\mathrm{}\gamma _D}{Qk}\right)^2$$
(1)
where $`\eta _o=377`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the impedance of free space. With k=$`2\pi `$/(750 nm), $`\gamma _D`$ 15 MHz 3P (4) and Q $`30`$ in atomic units Tull et al. (1971) we arrive at I$`{}_{Sat}{}^{}`$ 106 mW/cm2, indicating that the E2 transition is adequately saturated in our experiment. We were actually able to observe clearly resolved spectra with good signal-to-noise ratios down to $``$ 20 mW of Ti:Sa power. It is important to note that saturation intensities comparable to those quoted here will also apply to transition moments to higher P states in Na Tull et al. (1971) as well as in other alkalis Qsf . This implies that our excitation techniques can be readily generalized to other levels and other species. Moreover, the low excitation power required means that similar E2 studies can be carried out even using inexpensive, low-power cw-diode lasers familiar to most cooling and trapping laboratories.

Our subsequent experiments were carried out using a MOT (Fig. 1), operating on both the D1 and D2 transitions. We refer to this trap as the D1D2MOT. In the D1D2MOT, the trapping light was produced by one dye laser detuned 16 MHz below the 3S1/2(F=2)$``$3P3/2(F=3) D2 transition and locked using saturation spectroscopy. The repumping light was produced by a second dye laser that was intense enough to be resonant with both the 192 MHz split 3S1/2(F=1)$``$3P1/2(F=1, 2) D1 transitions via power-broadening. The power broadening eliminated the need to stabilize the repumping laser against long-term drift. Anti-Helmholtz coils produced a 20 G/cm magnetic field gradient and the background pressure was $`10^9`$ Torr. From fluorescence measurements we estimated the number of atoms in the trap to be $`10^6`$ at densities $`10^9`$ cm-3.

We find that the D1D2MOT is particularly useful for our experiments for several reasons. First, in the D2MOT, the presence of the repumping light tuned to the 3P3/2 excited state manifold complicates the spectrum - the ion production channels involve two intense laser fields interacting with four closely spaced hyperfine levels. By moving the repumping frequency to the 3P1/2 manifold we isolate the 3P3/2(F=3)$``$4P1/2(F=1, 2) spectrum and remove any effects associated with the repumper intensity. Second, in order to control power-broadening in our spectrum and also to acquire data at detunings both above and below the 3P3/2(F=3) level, we switched the trapping light off, and used a weak tunable pump to excite the 3S-3P transition. However, to prevent optical pumping into the 3S1/2(F=1) state from interfering with our measurement it was necessary to leave the repumper on, a configuration made possible by our two-laser scheme. Finally, the D1D2MOT naturally provides a steady-state population in the 3P1/2 state, allowing us to investigate all possible transitions between the 3PJ and 4P$`_J^{}`$ fine structure levels, as discussed below.

Having observed the peaks in the ion spectrum associated with the hyperfine structure of the $`4P_{1/2}`$ level, we carried out several studies to confirm that excitation was due to an E2 process. To begin with, we noted that (1) the absence of a J=1/2$``$J=1/2 peak in the 3P$`{}_{J}{}^{}`$4P$`_J^{}`$ spectrum is a direct consequence of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$J selection rules assuming an E2 process in an alkali atom Sobelman (1992) and (2) the intensity scale agreement described in Eq.(1) above depends crucially on E2 excitation. We then eliminated the only two possible processes that could lead to excitation in absence of an E2 process: Stark-mixing and collisional coupling. Consider first Stark-mixing. In our setup, the only source of an electric field large enough ($``$kV/cm) to produce Stark-mixing is the CEM and associated ion collection optics. We switched off the CEM and still observed depletion of the MOT fluorescence at resonant Ti:Sa frequencies. While the presence of Stark-mixing implies a quadratic dependence of the ion-count on the electric field, no change was observed as the ion-detection-optic fields were varied by more than a factor of four. To address the possibility of collisional effects, we repeated our measurements using the D2MOT in two distinct configurations that produce atom clouds differing in density by an order of magnitude. The first configuration, in which the trapping light was tuned below the 3P3/2(F=3) level, produced higher densities than the second configuration in which the trapping light was tuned below the 3P3/2(F=2) level. In the presence of collisional excitation, which scales as density squared, the ion count rate is expected to change by approximately two orders of magnitudemol . Instead we observed an ion count rate that increased only as the number of atoms in the interaction volume defined by the probe laser, or specifically, with a linear dependence on atomic density.

The quantitative measurement of the 4P1/2 hyperfine structure was made in the following manner (Fig. 1). The D1D2MOT trapping laser was passed through an acousto-optic modulator (AOMtrap) and the first order beam provided the trapping light. Using the modulator, the trapping light was switched on and off every 100$`\mu `$s with a 50% duty cycle, which allowed us to maintain a trapped atom number of $`10^5`$. A weak ($``$ 1 $`\mu `$W/cm2) pump was introduced into the trap by selecting a small portion of light from the same laser before it passed through AOMtrap and sending it through a separate AOM whose first order output was tunable from 16MHz below the 3P3/2(F=3) level to 64MHz above. This pump field was not switched, but was instead left on continuously. Further, the pump beam was retro-reflected to prevent the MOT from being depleted due to mechanical pushing effects, particularly when the pump light was tuned near atomic resonance. In all experiments, repumping light was applied continuously.

Probe light from the Ti:Sa was also sent through a modulator (AOMTi:Sa) aligned such that the zeroth and first order beams had approximately equal power. The first order was shifted up in frequency relative to the zeroth order by $`120.0045\pm 0.0003`$ MHz as measured on a precise frequency counter. Both orders were then separately focused on the atoms in the MOT and each beam contributed a set of peaks to our spectrum as the Ti:Sa frequency was varied (Fig. 2). The offset supplied by AOMTi:Sa allowed us to calibrate our measurement and to check the slope and linearity of the Ti:Sa frequency sweep. We found the sweep was linear but the nominal value of the slope required a $`3\%`$ correction. This procedure eliminated any need to externally calibrate the Ti:Sa laser frequency.

Using this set-up, we obtained ionization spectra for different detunings of the pump. Each spectrum was fit to the sum of four Lorentzians and a value of the hyperfine splitting was extracted from each fit. Forty-eight measurements were fit assuming a normal distribution. We thereby determined a mean value and standard error for the magnetic dipole constant A(4P1/2)= $`30.6\pm 0.1`$ MHz, which is half of the hyperfine splitting. The theoretical prediction is 30.7 MHz Safronova et al. (1999), in excellent agreement with our data.

When we acquire spectra with the trapping light left on, we observe Autler-Townes doublets which exhibit dependence on the Rabi frequency and detuning of the light. In the case of the D1D2MOT (Fig. 3b) we can identify these peaks as arising from the interaction of the intense trapping light with the 3P3/2(F=3)level. In the case of the D2MOT (Fig. 3c)the same interaction gives rise to all the peaks except for the rightmost which is due to the repumping light and which corresponds to the 3P3/2(F=2)$``$4P1/2(F= 2) transition. This type of spectra reveals both the effective Rabi frequency seen by the atoms and the population distribution in the excited-state of the 3P3/2 trapping manifold. The ability to detect these populations is of interest, for example, in elucidating the role of atomic hyperfine structure in excited-state cold collisions in MOTs Lett et al. (1995). In fact, E2 transitions are especially well-suited for this type of measurement for two reasons. First, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$F=0, $`\pm 1,\pm 2`$ selection rules allow for any single hyperfine level in any higher P1/2 state to probe the entire trapping manifold. More generally, the weakness of E2 transitions makes them narrower probes than those that rely on dipole transitions from other atomic states. It is also interesting to note that, in the context of a MOT where exchange of momentum with light is important, the E2 transition is the lowest electric multipolar process in which exchange of orbital angular momentum between light beams and internal (as opposed to center-of-mass) atomic motion can be observed Babiker et al. (2002).

Having demonstrated that E2 excitation of an atomic transition can be observed using standard cw lasers in combination with a simple robust laser cooling apparatus, we now turn to extensions and limitations of our work. A natural first step is to consider the linewidths extracted from spectra such as in (Fig. 2). We observe that the magnitudes of these linewidths are $``$10 MHz. Although the values confirm that the Na atoms are at or below the Doppler temperature ($`240\mu `$K) the observed linewidth is convolved with the width of the intermediate 3P3/2(F=3) state, which is known to be $``$10 MHz. For more accurate linewidth measurements, a detuning of the pump field further to the blue of the 3P3/2(F=3) level can be used because in this limit the spectrum yields the natural linewidth of the 4P state being ionized. An alternative approach would be to detect the 330 nm fluorescence from the dipolar (E1) decay of the 4P level to the 3S ground state.

If we now consider the peak amplitudes in our spectra we find our experiment provides a natural way to measure the strength of the E2 interaction. From the relative heights of the 4P1/2 peaks we estimated the ratio of the quadrupole transition matrix elements for the F= 1 and 2 states to be 1. Similarly, we compared the ion yield from the 3S$``$3P$``$4P$``$continuum transition to that from the dipole-allowed process ( with the probe laser at 820nm ) 3S$``$3P$``$3D$``$continuum. The ratio of ion counts from the two processes essentially yields the value of the E2 transition matrix element in terms of the known 3P$``$3D matrix element Lambropoulos et al. (1975).Our experimental values agree with the theoretical value used to estimate Eq.(1) within a factor of 5 uncertainty. Better control over laser parameters can provide amplitude data of quality high enough to be compared to theory, and to be of use, for example, in PNC experiments. We point out that other methods for measuring forbidden transition matrix elements, such as NWM Bethune et al. (1977) and polarization spectroscopy Bayram et al. (2000) have so far been implemented using pulsed lasers. The application of cw techniques demonstrated by us would make these methods more accurate and increase their resolution enabling them to account for atomic hyperfine structure.

The observation of a forbidden process in a physical system points to a lowering of symmetry, which in turn implies the presence of new physics. For example, our observations open up the possibility of using a MOT to observe second order ($`\chi ^{(2)}`$) nonlinear processes which are not allowed in the dipole approximation in centrosymmetric media such as alkali vapors. Also interesting would be the observation of radiative behavior of cold atoms close to dielectric surfaces, a situation in which the intensity of quadrupole transitions has been predicted to become comparable to that of dipole transitions Klimov and Letokhov (1996).The achievement of single-atom MOTs Schlosser et al. (2001) implies the possibility of PNC measurements via E1-E2 interference as proposed for Ba+ Fortson (1993).

In conclusion, we report the first observation of a forbidden transition in a cold atomic vapor formed in a MOT. We use the resulting excitation process in combination with OODR ionization spectroscopy to measure the magnetic dipole constant of the 4P1/2 level of sodium and find A $`=`$ 30.6 $`\pm `$0.1 MHz. In addition to demonstrating the application to high-resolution atomic spectroscopy, we describe how our technique can used to perform multiphoton ionization and Autler-Townes spectroscopy and to explore the role of hyperfine structure in alkali MOTs.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank Prof. C. Stroud and W. Bittle for equipment loans. M.B. would like to thank Prof. J. Muenter for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office and the University of Rochester.


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has measured the power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) for multipoles up to $`l800`$ with unprecedented accuracy . The best–fit model to the WMAP data alone is consistent with a spatially flat universe, with near scale–invariant, adiabatic and Gaussian distributed primordial density (scalar) perturbations , as predicted by the simplest models of inflation . (For a review, see, e.g., Ref. ).

Combinations of CMB results with other astrophysical observations have led to strong constraints on the standard cosmological parameters such as the Hubble parameter, baryon density and age of the universe . In order to differentiate between the numerous inflationary models, however, it is necessary to constrain the power spectrum of the primordial fluctuations. Assuming that such a spectrum varies in a suitable fashion, the standard approach is to expand its logarithm as a Taylor series in $`\mathrm{ln}k`$, about a given scale, $`k_0`$:

$$\mathrm{ln}A_S(k)=\mathrm{ln}A_S(k_0)+(n_S1)\mathrm{ln}\frac{k}{k_0}+\frac{1}{2}\alpha _S\mathrm{ln}^2\frac{k}{k_0}+\mathrm{},$$
(1)
where $`k`$ is the comoving wavenumber, $`n_S`$ is the spectral index (tilt) of the spectrum and the second–order term, $`\alpha _S(dn_S/d\mathrm{ln}k)_{k_0}`$, represents the ‘running’ of the spectral index . The ‘power-law’ approximation is equivalent to truncating the spectrum to first order, i.e., specifying $`\alpha _S=0`$. At this level of approximation, the best–fit to the WMAP data is $`n_S=0.99\pm 0.04`$ . On the other hand, there is some evidence that the power–law approximation may be inadequate when data sets spanning a much wider range of scales are combined. Specifically, Peiris et al.  include CMB data from the CBI  and ACBAR  (covering the range of multipoles $`800<l<2000`$ complementary to WMAP), together with the two degree field (2dF) galaxy redshift survey  and Lyman–$`\alpha `$ forest data at wavenumbers above $`k0.1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ . There is marginal $`1.3\sigma `$ support for a non–zero running, $`\alpha _S=0.055_{0.029}^{+0.028}`$ . However, the validity of employing the Lyman–$`\alpha `$ forest data has been questioned . Bridle et al.  include CMB data from the VSA  but not from the Lyman–$`\alpha `$ forest, and find the marginalised 1$`\sigma `$ result $`\alpha _S=0.04\pm 0.03`$, in agreement with the WMAP collaboration, although they conclude that evidence for a non–zero running is dependent on the surprisingly low values of the quadrupole and octopole moments in the CMB power spectrum. In particular, $`\alpha _S=0`$ is consistent when the $`l<5`$ multipoles are excluded . Other authors who include only CMB and 2dF data also find that a scale–invariant tilt is consistent with the observations .

Although there still remain some open questions regarding the interpretation of the data, the recent developments outlined above provide strong motivation for considering what one might expect to learn about inflationary cosmology if a running in the spectral index is detected . This is especially true given the anticipated improvement in the quality of data from future satellite experiments such as Planck. In general inflationary settings one would expect the running itself to be scale–dependent. However, given the current absence of observational evidence for such a variation and, furthermore, that a varying running may be approximated as a piecewise constant over a small enough range of scales, we consider inflationary models where the running of the tilt is scale–independent and non–zero. It is found in Section 2 that the amplitude, tilt and running of the scalar spectrum are related in a non–trivial fashion to the amplitude of the gravitational wave spectrum that is also generated during inflation. A similar relationship is found in Section 3 for a class of braneworld inflationary cosmologies. We conclude with a discussion in Section 4.

## 2 Running of the Spectral Index

In general, the power spectrum of the scalar perturbations is closely related to the functional form of the inflaton potential111We employ the normalization conventions of Ref.  in this paper., $`V(\varphi )`$:

$$A_S^2=\frac{\kappa ^6}{75\pi ^2}\frac{V^3}{V_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}},$$
(2)
where $`\kappa ^2=8\pi m_P^2`$, $`m_P`$ is the Planck mass and a prime denotes $`d/d\varphi `$. The relationship between the inflaton field and comoving wavenumber follows from the scalar field equations of motion and is given by

$$\frac{d}{d\mathrm{ln}k}=\frac{V^{}}{3H^2}\frac{d}{d\varphi }$$
(3)
in the slow–roll limit. By defining the ‘slow–roll’ parameters as :

$`ϵ{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\kappa ^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{V^2}}`$ (4)
$`\eta {\displaystyle \frac{V^{\prime \prime }}{\kappa ^2V}}`$ (5)
$`\xi {\displaystyle \frac{V^{}V^{\prime \prime \prime }}{\kappa ^4V^2}},`$ (6)
the spectral index and its running may be expressed directly in terms of the potential and its derivatives :

$`n_S1=6ϵ+2\eta `$ (7)
$`\alpha _S=16ϵ\eta 24ϵ^22\xi .`$ (8)
Thus, the running of the spectral index depends on the third derivative of the potential. Eq. (7) is truncated at order $`\xi `$, such that quadratic corrections in $`ϵ`$ and $`\eta `$ are assumed to be negligible. This requires that $`|\xi |\mathrm{max}(ϵ,|\eta |)`$ and is equivalent to assuming that $`|n_S1|1`$ and $`|\alpha _S|(n_S1)^2`$ or less. As emphasized in Ref. , slow–roll predicts the former condition but not necessarily the latter.

The slow–roll parameter (4) is also related to the spectrum of tensor (gravitational wave) perturbations that are generated quantum mechanically during inflation . The relationship is expressed through the consistency equation (for a review, see, e.g., Ref. ):

$$\frac{A_T^2}{A_S^2}=\frac{1}{2}n_T,n_T=2ϵ,$$
(9)
where $`\{A_T,n_T\}`$ represent the amplitude and spectral index of the tensor perturbations respectively.

In view of the discussion given in the previous Section, we consider the case where $`\alpha _S`$ is assumed to be constant. Our aim is to derive an expression relating observable parameters in the presence of a non-zero running. This requires the integration of Eq. (8) with respect to the inflaton field. This equation may be viewed as a third–order, non–linear differential equation. Its first integral therefore relates the inflaton potential to its first two derivatives, or equivalently, the two slow–roll parameters (4) and (5). Consequently, substitution of Eqs. (7) and (9) into such an expression then results in a constraint equation that relates the observable parameters $`\{A_S,n_S,\alpha _S,A_T\}`$.

To proceed, we introduce a new variable

$$y\frac{V^{}}{V}$$
(10)
representing the logarithmic derivative of the potential. The third–order equation (8) then reduces to the non–linear, second–order equation

$$yy^{\prime \prime }y^2y^{}=\frac{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}{2}.$$
(11)
Defining $`zy^{}`$, such that $`y^{\prime \prime }=zdz/dy`$, then reduces Eq. (11) to a first–order equation of the form

$$yz\frac{dz}{dy}y^2z=\frac{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}{2}.$$
(12)
Eq. (12) may be further simplified by defining the variable

$$uz\frac{1}{2}y^2$$
(13)
and it follows after substitution of Eq. (13) into Eq. (12) that

$$\frac{dy}{du}=\frac{2}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\left[uy+\frac{1}{2}y^3\right],$$
(14)
where we now view $`y`$ and $`u`$ as the dependent and independent variables, respectively. Eq. (14) may then be rewritten in a separable form by introducing the variable

$$wy(u)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{u^2}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\right]$$
(15)
and substitution of Eq. (15) into Eq. (14) implies that

$$\frac{1}{w^3}\frac{dw}{du}=\frac{1}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{2u^2}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\right].$$
(16)
Eq. (16) admits the first integral

$$\frac{1}{y^2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{2u^2}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\right]\left(\frac{\pi }{2\kappa ^4\alpha _S}\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{erf}\left[\sqrt{\frac{2}{\kappa ^4\alpha _S}}u\right]=c,$$
(17)
where $`\mathrm{erf}(x)2\pi ^{1/2}_0^x𝑑s\mathrm{exp}[s^2]`$ represents the error function and $`c`$ is an integration constant. The error function is a monotonically increasing function, such that $`\mathrm{erf}(0)=0`$ and $`\mathrm{erf}(\mathrm{})=1`$, and has a first derivative given by $`d\left[\mathrm{erf}(x)\right]/dx=(2/\sqrt{\pi })\mathrm{exp}(x^2)`$. In the case where $`\alpha _S<0`$, Eq. (17) may be expressed in terms of the imaginary error function, $`\mathrm{erfi}(x)=i\mathrm{erf}(ix)`$.

Finally, the pair $`\{u,y\}`$ may be directly related to observable parameters. Comparison of Eqs. (4) and (10) implies that $`y^2=2\kappa ^2ϵ`$ and it then follows from definition (13) that the variable $`u`$ is directly related to the scalar spectral index, $`u=\kappa ^2(n_S1)/2`$. Thus, substituting Eq. (9) into Eq. (17) implies that

$$\frac{A_S^2}{A_T^2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(n_S1)^2}{2\alpha _S}\right]\left(\frac{2\pi }{\alpha _S}\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{erf}\left[\frac{n_S1}{\sqrt{2\alpha _S}}\right]=\stackrel{~}{c},$$
(18)
where $`\stackrel{~}{c}`$ is an undetermined constant that is, in principle, measurable. Eq. (18) represents an observable signature of inflationary models that generate a scale–invariant running of the spectral index.

## 3 Running and Braneworld Cosmology

It is also of interest to investigate whether the above type of observable signature holds in other more general inflationary scenarios. In recent years, considerable interest has focused on the possibility that our observable four–dimensional universe may be viewed as a domain wall or ‘brane’ that is embedded in a higher–dimensional ‘bulk’ space . According to these scenarios, the standard model gauge interactions are confined to the brane, but gravity may propagate in the bulk . The motion of the brane through the static bulk space is interpreted by an observer confined to the brane as cosmic expansion or contraction .

In this Section, we consider the Randall–Sundrum type II (RSII) braneworld scenario, where a single brane is embedded in five–dimensional anti–de Sitter (AdS) space . In this case, the effective Friedmann equation on the brane is derived from the Israel junction conditions that relate the extrinsic curvature of the induced metric on the brane to the energy–momentum of the matter fields that are confined to the brane . The form of the Friedmann equation is modified from that of standard cosmology based on Einstein gravity and acquires a quadratic dependence on the energy density, $`\rho `$ :

$$H^2=\frac{\kappa ^2}{3}\rho \left[1+\frac{\rho }{2\lambda }\right],$$
(19)
where $`\lambda `$ is the brane tension.

Such a modification becomes important at high energies and has significant implications for inflation . In particular, in the limit where $`\rho \lambda `$, the amplitudes of the scalar and tensor perturbations are enhanced :

$$A_S^2=\frac{\kappa ^6}{600\pi ^2}\frac{V^6}{\lambda ^3V_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}},A_T^2=\frac{\kappa ^4}{200\pi ^2}\frac{V^3}{\lambda ^2}.$$
(20)
However, despite these corrections, the consistency equation relating the two spectra is identical to that of the standard scenario, Eq. (9) . Such a degeneracy in the consistency equation also arises in more general brane cosmologies .

A natural question to address, therefore, is whether such a degeneracy may be lifted by allowing for a running of the spectral index. In view of the modifications to the Friedmann equation that typically arise in brane cosmology, we consider a model described by a Friedmann equation of the form

$$H^2=\frac{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2}{3}\rho ^q,$$
(21)
where $`\rho `$ is the energy density of the matter, $`q`$ is an arbitrary, positive constant and $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2`$ is an arbitrary constant. Eq. (21) may be viewed as a limiting case of a more generalized Friedmann equation that is relevant in the high energy regime of early universe dynamics. For example, the case $`q=2`$ corresponds to the RSII scenario when the energy density dominates the brane tension and we specify $`\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2=\kappa ^2/2\lambda `$. A further case of interest is given by $`q=2/3`$. A Friedmann equation of this form arises in the extended version of the RSII scenario when a Gauss–Bonnet combination of curvature invariants is included in the five–dimensional bulk action .

We further assume that the universe is dominated by a single, self–interacting inflaton field. Conservation of energy–momentum of this field then implies that

$$\ddot{\varphi }+3H\dot{\varphi }+V^{}=0,$$
(22)
where a dot denotes differentiation with respect to time. We define the generalized slow–roll parameters as $`ϵ_g\dot{H}/H^2`$, $`\eta _gV^{\prime \prime }/(3H^2)`$ and $`\xi _gV^{}V^{\prime \prime \prime }/(3H^2)^2`$, respectively, and in the slow–roll limit, $`\dot{\varphi }^2V`$ and $`|\ddot{\varphi }|H|\dot{\varphi }|`$, these reduce to

$`ϵ_g={\displaystyle \frac{q}{2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{V_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}}{V^{q+1}}}`$ (23)
$`\eta _g={\displaystyle \frac{V^{\prime \prime }}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2V^q}}`$ (24)
$`\xi _g={\displaystyle \frac{V^{}V^{\prime \prime \prime }}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4V^{2q}}}.`$ (25)
Conservation of energy–momentum implies that the curvature perturbation on uniform density hypersurfaces is conserved on super–Hubble radius scales. This follows as a direct consequence of energy–momentum conservation of the inflaton and is independent of the gravitational physics . It can then be shown that the amplitude of the scalar perturbation spectrum is given by $`A_S^2H^4/\dot{\varphi }^2`$ in the slow–roll limit . The value of the scalar field is related to the comoving wavenumber through Eq. (3). Substituting the field equations into the expression for the amplitude and differentiating with respect to comoving wavenumber then implies that the scalar spectral index is given by

$$n_S1=6ϵ_g+2\eta _g$$
(26)
and the running of the tilt is given by

$$\alpha _S=16ϵ_g\eta _g\frac{12(q+1)}{q}ϵ_g^22\xi _g.$$
(27)
As in the previous Section, our aim is to integrate Eq. (27) under the assumption that the running of the spectral index is constant. It proves convenient to define a new scalar field, $`\phi `$:

$$\frac{d}{d\phi }V^{(1q)/2}\frac{d}{d\varphi }$$
(28)
and this implies that Eq. (27) takes the form

$$\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S=4(q+1)\frac{(V^{})^2V^{}}{V^3}2(2q+1)\frac{(V^{})^4}{V^4}2\frac{V^{}V^{}}{V^2},$$
(29)
where a star denotes $`d/d\phi `$. Defining the new variable $`YV^{}/V`$ then simplifies Eq. (29) to

$$YY^{}+(12q)Y^2Y^{}=\frac{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}{2}.$$
(30)
Eq. (30) can be integrated in a similar way to that employed in Section 2 and we therefore omit the details. Eq. (30) reduces to the separable equation

$$\frac{1}{W^3}\frac{dW}{dU}=\left(\frac{12q}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}\right)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{2U^2}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}\right],$$
(31)
where

$`UY^{}+\left({\displaystyle \frac{12q}{2}}\right)Y^2`$ (32)
$`W(U)Y\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{U^2}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}}\right]`$ (33)
and solving Eq. (31) then implies that

$$\frac{1}{Y^2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{2U^2}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}\right]+\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}}(12q)\mathrm{erf}\left[\sqrt{\frac{2}{\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^4\alpha _S}}U\right]=C,$$
(34)
where $`C`$ is an integration constant.

Comparison of Eqs. (26) and (32) implies that $`U=\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2(n_S1)/2`$. Moreover, substituting Eq. (28) into the definition of the variable $`Y`$ implies that $`Y^2=(2\stackrel{~}{\kappa }^2/q)ϵ_g`$. It follows, therefore, that Eq. (34) may be expressed in the form

$$\frac{1}{ϵ_g}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(n_S1)^2}{2\alpha _S}\right]+\left(\frac{2\pi }{\alpha _S}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{12q}{q}\right)\mathrm{erf}\left[\frac{n_S1}{\sqrt{2\alpha _S}}\right]=\stackrel{~}{C},$$
(35)
where $`\stackrel{~}{C}`$ is a dimensionless constant.

In braneworld inflationary scenarios, the calculation of the tensor perturbation spectrum is more involved than that of the scalar perturbations because the gravitational waves extend into the bulk dimensions . Consequently, one must consider the tensor perturbations for each specific model. For the RSII scenario, where $`q=2`$, substituting Eq. (23) into Eq. (20) implies that $`A_T^2/A_S^2=3ϵ_g/2`$. Remarkably, therefore, we conclude that when Eq. (35) is expressed in terms of the observables $`\{A_S,n_S,\alpha _S,A_T\}`$, it reduces to precisely the same form as the corresponding relationship for the standard inflationary cosmology, Eq. (18).

## 4 Discussion

The inflationary scenario has received a great deal of observational support from recent CMB satellite observations . From the theoretical perspective, an important problem to address is the origin of the inflaton field within a fundamental underlying theory and, more specifically, the nature of the inflaton potential that drove the accelerated expansion of the very early universe. In the case where the running of the spectral index vanishes, it is well known that the form of the potential leading to a constant spectral index is not unique . Indeed, the origin of this degeneracy may be understood from a mathematical point of view by expressing the potential in terms of the derivative $`VdW(\varphi )/d\varphi `$ and rewriting Eq. (7) in the form

$$\frac{W^{\prime \prime \prime }}{W^{}}\frac{3}{2}\left(\frac{W^{\prime \prime }}{W^{}}\right)^2=\frac{\kappa ^2}{2}\left(n_S1\right).$$
(36)
This novel way of expressing the constraint on the potential is illuminating because the left hand side of Eq. (36) is the Schwarzian derivative of the function $`W(\varphi )`$ . This is the unique elementary function of the derivatives that is invariant under the homographic transformation that corresponds to the group of fractional linear transformations:

$$\stackrel{~}{W}=\frac{aW+b}{cW+d},$$
(37)
where $`\{a,b,c,d\}`$ are arbitrary constants satisfying $`adbc=1`$. Thus, given a particular solution to Eq. (36) (such as an exponential potential), more general solutions and corresponding potentials may be generated by applying the transformation (37). Further observational input, most notably from the gravitational wave background, is required to lift the degeneracy .

In this paper we have considered the more general class of inflationary models where the running of the scalar spectral index is itself non–zero and independent of scale. In general, it is not possible to determine the analytic form of the potentials that generate such a spectrum. On the other hand, their asymptotic limit may be deduced by noting that the first integral of the second–order equation (11) may be written in the form

$$y^{}=\sqrt{f(\varphi )\kappa ^4\alpha _S\mathrm{ln}y},$$
(38)
where the function $`f(\varphi )`$ itself satisfies the non–linear equation, $`f^{}=2yy_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$, i.e.,

$$f^{}=2y\left(f\kappa ^4\alpha _S\mathrm{ln}y\right).$$
(39)
The pair of equations (38) and (39) represent a plane autonomous system with a single equilibrium point located at $`f=\kappa ^4\alpha _S\mathrm{ln}y`$ and it follows from the definition of the function $`f`$ that this point represents the asymptotic form of the general solution to Eq. (11) in the limit where $`|y^{\prime \prime }|y|y^{}|`$, i.e., where the first term on the left hand side of Eq. (11) is negligible. In this limit, Eq. (11) may be integrated to yield the form of the potential:

$$V=V_0\mathrm{exp}\left[\pm \left(\frac{81\left|\alpha _S\right|}{128}\right)^{1/3}\left(\kappa \varphi \right)^{4/3}\right],$$
(40)
where $`V_0`$ is an arbitrary positive constant and the sign of the exponent corresponds to the sign of the running. It is worth remarking that potentials of this specific asymptotic form also arise within the context of supergravity models .

Eq. (18) directly relates the four observable parameters $`\{A_S,n_S,\alpha _S,A_T\}`$. An important feature of this relation is that it is independent of the specific functional form of the inflaton potential. In this sense, therefore, it represents an observable signature of the class of inflationary models where the ‘running of the running’, $`\beta _Sd\alpha _S/d\mathrm{ln}k`$, is negligible. However, the expressions for the tilt and running, Eqs. (7) and (8), were derived under the standard assumption that $`|\xi |\mathrm{max}(ϵ,|\eta |)`$. Although this is consistent, it is not required by the slow–roll approximation  and failure to satisfy Eq. (18) may therefore indicate that such an assumption would need to be relaxed.

The occurrence of the arbitrary constant implies that to proceed observationally the parameters $`\{A_S,n_S,\alpha _S,A_T\}`$ must be measured over at least two separate scales. One measurement is required to determine the numerical value of the integration constant and the second to determine whether Eq. (18) is indeed satisfied. The advantage of Eq. (18) over the consistency equation (9) is that it relates the scalar and tensor perturbation amplitudes directly to the scalar spectral index and its running. Consequently, it does not require the tilt of the tensor spectrum to be directly measured.

On the other hand, we have assumed that the running is effectively constant and this can only be verified observationally to within some error. When discussing observational constraints, the primordial power spectrum may be viewed as an unknown function and the fitting procedure effectively truncates the Taylor expansion (1) at a finite order. This is equivalent to setting all corresponding higher–order, slow–roll parameters to zero. Establishing whether a constant running is a good fit to the data requires the introduction of the next–order term, $`\beta _Sd\alpha _S/d\mathrm{ln}k`$, as an additional parameter in the analysis. Self–consistency of the assumptions made above requires that $`\beta _S|n_S1|^3`$ or smaller. The assumption that the running is constant would then be supported if it turned out that $`\beta _S`$ has only a moderate influence on the likelihood distributions for the other observable parameters and is itself entirely consistent with zero within the observed errors.

Nevertheless, Eq. (18) may prove important even if a high running of the running is reported. Leach and Liddle have argued that appropriate conditions should be satisfied if the inclusion of a higher–order parameter of the power spectrum is to be justified . In effect, the criterion is that of convergence in the Taylor expansion (1). In the present context, the inclusion of the running of the running could only be justified if the third–order term in Eq. (1) is significantly smaller than the second–order term and, quantitatively, this requires

$$\left|\frac{\beta _S}{3}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{k}{k_0}\right)\right|\left|\alpha _S\right|.$$
(41)
If condition (41) is violated when the detection of $`\beta _S`$ has only a low significance, it could be argued that the determination of this parameter may be unreliable and that it is therefore not appropriate to include it in the analysis . Indeed, Eq. (18) proves important in this case because it may be employed to yield crucial information about the magnitude of the second derivative of the tilt. Failure of Eq. (18) to satisfy the data (under the assumption of a constant running) could be interpreted as evidence that the second derivative of the tilt is important without the need for allowing this parameter to be a priori non–zero.

We have also considered inflationary models that generate a scale–invariant running of the spectral index in the Randall–Sundrum type II braneworld scenario. Surprisingly, we found that in the high energy limit, the relation (35), when expressed in terms of the observables $`\{A_S,n_S,\alpha _S,A_T\}`$, takes precisely the same form as the corresponding relationship for the standard inflationary cosmology, Eq. (18). This provides further evidence of the degeneracy that exists between the primordial perturbations that are generated in the two scenarios even though the gravitational physics is manifestly different in the two cases . It should be borne in mind, however, that in these calculations the effects of the bulk space on the evolution of the density perturbations has been neglected. This is consistent at linear order when considering scalar perturbations of a homogeneous background . More generally, the backreaction perturbs the bulk space away from conformal invariance and generates a non–trivial Weyl curvature in the bulk . This plays the role of a non–local energy–momentum source when projected down to four–dimensions and thus alters the background dynamics . The failure of the relation (18) to be satisfied in this case could therefore indicate the possible importance of these bulk effects.

Acknowledgments

JEL is supported by the Royal Society. We thank N. Nunes for helpful discussions.