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# A Study of the 𝜂𝜋⁰ Spectrum and Search for a 𝐽^{𝑃𝐶}=1⁻⁺ Exotic Meson

## I Introduction

The observation nearly four decades ago that mesons are grouped in nonets, each characterized by unique values of $`J^{PC}`$ – spin ($`J`$), parity ($`P`$) and charge conjugation ($`C`$) quantum numbers – led to the development of the quark model. Within this picture, mesons are bound states of a quark ($`q`$) and antiquark ($`\overline{q}`$). The three light-quark flavors ($`up`$, $`down`$ and $`strange`$) suffice to explain the spectroscopy of most – but not all – of the lighter-mass mesons (i.e. below 3 GeV$`/c^2`$) that do not explicitly carry heavy flavors (charm or beauty). Early observations yielded only those $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers consistent with a fermion-antifermion bound state. The $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers of a $`q\overline{q}`$ system with total quark spin, $`\stackrel{}{S}`$, and relative angular momentum , $`\stackrel{}{L}`$, are determined as follows: $`\stackrel{}{J}=\stackrel{}{L}+\stackrel{}{S}`$, $`P=(1)^{L+1}`$ and $`C=(1)^{L+S}`$. Thus $`J^{PC}`$ quantum numbers such as $`0^{}`$, $`0^+`$, $`1^+`$ and $`2^+`$ are not allowed and are called *exotic* in this context.

Our understanding of how quarks form mesons has evolved within quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and we now expect a richer spectrum of mesons that takes into account not only the quark degrees of freedom but also the gluonic degrees of freedom. Gluonic mesons with no quarks (*glueballs*) are expected. These are bound states of gluons and since the quantum numbers of low-lying glueballs are not necessarily exotic, they should manifest themselves as extraneous states that cannot be accommodated within $`\overline{q}q`$ nonets. Indeed there is evidence for a glueball state CBglue  based on overpopulation of the scalar nonet but identification is complicated since the observed states can be a mixture of a glueball and $`\overline{q}q`$. Excitations of the gluonic field binding the quarks can also give rise to so-called *hybrid* mesons that can be viewed as bound states of a quark, anti-quark and valence gluon ($`q\overline{q}g`$). An alternative picture of hybrid mesons, one supported by lattice QCD, is one in which a gluonic flux tube forms between the quark and anti-quark and the excitations of this flux tube lead to so-called *hybrid* mesons Isg85 . Conventional $`\overline{q}q`$ mesons arise when the flux tube is in its ground state. Some hybrid mesons can have a unique signature, exotic $`J^{PC}`$, and therefore the spectroscopy of exotic hybrid mesons is not complicated by possible mixing with conventional $`\overline{q}q`$ states. According to the flux-tube model Isg85  and lattice gauge calculations Be97 , one expects the lightest $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ exotic hybrid to have a mass of about 1.9 GeV$`/c^2`$. In contrast, calculations based on the MIT bag model deViron ; Bar82 ; Jaffe  place the mass of the lightest $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ hybrid meson at about 1.4 GeV$`/c^2`$.

The spectroscopy of exotic mesons provides an attractive starting point for the study of gluonic excitations. Since flux tubes are thought to be responsible for the confinement mechanism in QCD, experimental information on this spectroscopy is of fundamental importance.

### I.1 Experimental situation

After about two decades of experimental searches there have been reports of experimental observations of states with $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ by the Brookhaven E852 collaboration in $`\pi ^{}p`$ interactions at 18 GeV$`/c`$. One of these has a mass of ($`1593\pm 8_{47}^{+29}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$ and width of ($`168\pm 20_{12}^{+150}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$ and decays into $`\rho ^0\pi ^{}`$ Adams98 ; SUC2002  and another has a similar mass, ($`1597\pm 10_{10}^{+45}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$, but a larger width,($`340\pm 40_{50}^{+50}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$, and decays into $`\eta ^{}\pi ^{}`$ Ivanov2001 . The E852 collaboration also reported observation of another $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ state with mass ($`1370\pm 16_{30}^{+50}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$ and a width of ($`385\pm 40_{105}^{+65}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$ decaying into $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ DRT97 ; SUC1999 . If an $`\eta \pi `$ system is in a $`P`$ wave, the resulting $`J^{PC}`$ quantum number combination is exotic ($`1^+`$). Critical to the identification of this state is not only showing the presence of a $`P`$ wave, but also that the resulting line shape is consistent with a Breit-Wigner and that the phase motion of the $`P`$, as determined by its interference with the dominant $`D`$ wave cannot be due solely to the $`a_2^{}(1320)`$ resonance. Soon after the E852 report, the Crystal Barrel Collaboration reported an exotic $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ state produced in $`\overline{p}n\pi ^{}\pi ^0\eta `$ obtained by stopping antiprotons in liquid deuterium Abe98 . They reported a mass of ($`1400\pm 20_{20}^{+20}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$ and a width of ($`310\pm 50_{30}^{+50}`$) MeV$`/c^2`$. A later analysis of $`\overline{p}p\pi ^0\pi ^0\eta `$ supported this evidence for an exotic state Abe99 .

The first claim of an exotic meson decaying into $`\eta \pi ^0`$ with a mass of 1400 MeV$`/c^2`$ was made by the GAMS collaboration in the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ Alde88  but a later analysis by the group Yu95  led to ambiguous results. The VES collaboration also presented evidence for a P-wave contribution in $`\eta \pi `$ Bela93  and at KEK a claim was made for an exotic $`\eta \pi `$ state Aoy93  as well but with a mass and width close to that of the $`a_2(1320)`$ and leakage from the dominant $`D`$ wave could not be excluded.

Indeed, in all the observations, the $`\eta \pi `$ $`P`$ wave enhancements have cross sections that are substantially smaller than the dominant $`a_2(1320)`$ so this leakage, usually due to an imperfect understanding of experimental acceptance, is a source of concern. For example, an observed enhancement in the $`P`$ wave in the $`\rho \pi `$ system at low mass was reported in references Adams98 ; SUC2002  as being due to leakage. Apart from these experimental issues, the interpretation of the nature of low-mass $`\eta \pi `$ $`P`$ wave amplitude and phase motion should be guided by the principle of parsimony – less exotic interpretations must also be considered.

This work presents a partial wave analysis (PWA) of the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ system produced in $`\pi ^{}p`$ interactions at an incident momentum of 18 GeV$`/c`$ using the E852 apparatus. In this analysis both the $`\eta `$ and $`\pi ^0`$ are detected through their $`2\gamma `$ decays. The starting point uses data corresponding to the reaction $`\pi ^{}p4\gamma n`$. A subset of these data correspond to $`\pi ^{}p\pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ and the partial wave analysis of the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ system has been reported on in an earlier publication gunter2001 . Here we present the PWA of data from $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$.

In contrast to the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ system, charge-conjugation $`C`$ is a good quantum number for the neutral $`\eta \pi ^0`$ system. In the E852 experiment the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ and $`\eta \pi ^0`$ systems have different systematics. The latter relies on measurements from an electromagnetic detector alone while the former also requires information from charged particle tracking in the forward direction. Moreover, as will be discussed below, two resonances dominate the $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ reaction; the scalar ($`S`$ wave) $`a_0(980)`$ and the tensor ($`D`$ wave) $`a_2(1320)`$ providing benchmarks for the PWA. In constrast, only the $`a_2(1320)`$ is dominant in the $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^{}p`$ reaction.

### I.2 Outline for this paper

This paper is organized as follows. The experimental overview is presented in Section 2. Event reconstruction and data selection are described in Section 3. The details of the PWA formalism and results are given in Section 4 along with the criteria used to select the physical solution from the set of ambiguous solutions. In Section 5 the results of leakage studies are presented. In Section 6 the distributions in moments (averages of spherical harmonics) are compared with moments calculated from the PWA solutions. Fits to the moment distributions are also presented. In Section 7 the mass and $`t`$ dependence of the PWA solutions are presented and discussed. In particular the $`t`$ distributions for the $`D`$ waves are described within the context of Regge phenomenology. The conclusions are summarized in Section 8.

## II Experimental Overview

The E852 apparatus Te98  was built around and included the Multi-Particle Spectrometer (MPS) at BNL. The data used for the analysis reported in this paper were collected in 1994 and 1995 using a nearly pure ($`>`$ 95%) beam of negative pions of momentum 18.3 GeV$`/c`$. A 30-cm-long liquid hydrogen target was surrounded by a cylindrical drift chamber BY97  and an array of thallium-doped CsI crystals TA96  arranged in a barrel, all located inside the MPS dipole magnet. Drift chambers were used to track charged particles downstream of the target. Two proportional wire chambers (PWC’s), downstream of the target, were used in requiring specific charged particle multiplicities in the event trigger. A 3000-element lead glass detector (LGD) Cr97  measured the energies and positions of photons in the forward direction. The dimensions of the LGD matched the downstream aperture of the MPS magnet. Photons missing the LGD were detected by the CsI array or by a lead/scintillator sandwich array (DEA) downstream of the target and arranged around an aperture to allow for the passage of charged particles.

The first level trigger required that the unscattered or elastically scattered beam not enter an arrangement of two small beam-veto scintillation counters located in front of the LGD. The next level of trigger required that there be no signal in the DEA and no charged particles recorded in the cylindrical drift chamber surrounding the target or in the PWC’s (an all-neutral trigger). In the 1994 run all layers of the cylindrical drift chamber were used in the trigger requirement whereas in the 1995 run, only the outer layer was used. A common off-line analysis criterion required no hits in the cylindrical drift chamber. The final trigger requirement was a minimum deposition of electromagnetic energy in the LGD Cr97  corresponding to 12 GeV.

The LGD is central to this analysis. The LGD was initially calibrated by moving each module into a monoenergetic electron beam. Further calibration was performed by adjusting the calibration constant for each module until the width of the $`\pi ^0`$ and $`\eta `$ peaks in the $`\gamma \gamma `$ effective mass distribution was minimized. The calibration constants were also used for a trigger processor that did a digital calculation of energy deposited in the LGD and the effective mass of photons striking the LGD Cr97 . A laser-based monitoring system allowed for tracking the gains of individual modules.

Studies were made of various algorithms for finding clusters of energies deposited by photons, including issues of photon-to-photon separation and position finding resolution. These are also described in reference Cr97 .

## III Event Reconstruction and Data Selection

Experiment E852 took data in 1994 and 1995 with an approximate seven-fold increase in statistics collected in 1995 compared to 1994.

The combined data sets taken in 1994 and 1995 contain approximately 70 million all-neutral triggered events. Of these events, approximately 13 million were found to have four photons in the LGD. Figure 1 shows a scatterplot of one di-photon effective mass against the other di-photon combination in the event. There are clear indications of the presence of $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ and $`\eta \pi ^0`$ events in the sample. The single clustering at $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ = $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ =0.135 GeV$`/c^2`$ is dominated by $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ events and the two clusterings at $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ =0.135 GeV$`/c^2`$, $`m_{\gamma \gamma }`$ =0.540 GeV$`/c^2`$ are dominated by $`\eta \pi ^0`$ events.

Studies were carried out comparing the 1994 and 1995 data sets for both $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ and $`\eta \pi ^0`$ events. In each case distributions in the decay angles of the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ (or $`\eta \pi ^0`$) system were studied in mass bins of 40 MeV$`/c^2`$ and in four bins of $`t`$, where $`t`$ is the square of the momentum transferred from the beam $`\pi ^{}`$ to the outgoing $`4\gamma `$ system. A Kolmogorov test measured the probability that the two distributions (1994 and 1995 data) in each case were consistent with having been drawn from the same parent distribution. The conclusion of this study is that the 1994 and 1995 data sets are statistically indistinguishable.

Events consistent with the production of two $`\pi ^0`$’s dominate the sample. The partial wave analysis of the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ events is presented in an unpublished thesis of J. Gunter jgth  and in a previous paper gunter2001 . The identification of events from the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ is described in the unpublished thesis of R. Lindenbusch roblin .

The sample of 45,000 $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ events was selected from the 13 million four photon events by imposing various analysis criteria. It was required that no charged particles were registered in the MPS drift chambers or the cylindrical drift chamber surrounding the liquid hydrogen target. This cut was performed at the pre-reconstruction level and was based on total hit multiplicity. Any event with a photon within 8 cm of the center of the beam hole or the outer edge of the LGD was removed.

Monte Carlo studies were carried out to determine the $`\chi ^2`$ criteria needed to select $`\eta \pi ^0`$ events and eliminate backgrounds from other processes, especially from $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ events. Events corresponding to $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$, $`\eta \pi ^0`$, $`\eta \eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}\pi ^0`$ were generated and passed through detector simulation, reconstruction, kinematic fitting and other event selection software. The $`\chi ^2`$ returned from kinematic fitting to the $`\pi p\eta \pi ^0n`$ reaction hypothesis was required to be less than 7.8 (95% C.L. for a three-constraint fit). The two-constraint $`\chi ^2`$ for the $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ hypothesis (no requirement that the missing mass be consistent with the neutron mass) was required to be greater than 100. It was found that this latter cut eliminated true $`\pi ^0\pi ^0`$ events that have a poor fit to the $`\pi p\pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ hypothesis. A further demand was that none of the other final state hypotheses considered ($`\eta \eta n`$, $`\eta ^{}\pi ^0n`$) had a better $`\chi ^2`$ than that used to select the $`\eta \pi ^0n`$ hypothesis.

The final criterion was that the CsI detector registered less than 20 MeV, a cut which eliminated events with low-energy $`\pi ^0`$’s. Background studies roblin  estimated the non-$`\eta `$ background in the $`\pi p\eta \pi ^0n`$. The signal-to-noise ratio varies from about $`5.1:1`$ in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass region 1.2 to 1.5 GeV$`/c^2`$ to $`2.5:1`$ in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass regions below this range and above this range up to 1.8 GeV$`/c^2`$.

The $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass distribution is shown in figure 2(a). The $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ states, one a scalar and the other a tensor, are clearly observed. The presence of both states is important for this analysis since it provides a basis, as will be discussed below, for selecting the physical solutions from among mathematically ambiguous solutions in doing the partial wave analysis. This distribution in $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass is not corrected for the acceptance of the apparatus but the PWA procedure does take into account the effects of experimental acceptance.

The distribution in $`t_{\pi ^{}\eta \pi }`$ is shown in figure 2(b). Figure 3 shows the four-photon effective mass distribution for events with a di-photon mass combination consistent with a $`\pi ^0`$ and the other di-photon mass either below or above the $`\eta `$ mass region for a portion of the total four-photon sample. The resulting $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0`$ spectra do not show the enhancements at the $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ observed in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ spectrum.

A possible source of background in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ in the $`a_0(980)`$ mass region are events corresponding to production of the final state $`\eta \pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ and in particular that subset corresponding to $`f_1(1285)n`$ where the $`f_1`$ decays to $`a_0\pi ^0`$. There events can enter the sample under study if one of the $`\pi ^0`$’s escapes detection. From a Monte Carlo study of this sample roblin  based on a measurement of $`f_1(1285)`$ production in this experiment Te98  it is estimated that at most 10% of the events in the $`a_0(980)`$ region are due to this background process.

The acceptance in $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass and $`t_{\pi ^{}\eta \pi }`$ was estimated by generating Monte Carlo events corresponding to the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$. The acceptance functions as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass are shown in figure 4. The acceptance in $`t_{\pi ^{}\eta \pi }`$ increases for $`t`$ near zero. This comes about because of the all-neutral requirement in the trigger. The recoil neutron produced in the reaction can interact and cause a signal in the CsI detector thereby vetoing true $`\pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ events but for small values of $`|t|`$ the neutron cannot escape the LH2 target and the event will not be vetoed.

## IV Partial Wave Analysis

Partial wave analysis is used to extract production amplitudes (partial waves) from the observed decay angular distributions of the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ system. A process such as $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$, dominated by $`t`$-channel meson exchange, is conveniently analyzed in the Gottfried-Jackson reference frame. The Gottfried-Jackson frame is defined as a right-handed coordinate system in the center of mass of the produced $`\eta \pi ^0`$ system with the $`zaxis`$ defined by the beam particle momentum and the $`yaxis`$ perpendicular to the plane defined by the beam and recoil neutron momenta. The decay angles ($`\theta ,\varphi `$) are determined by the $`\eta `$ four-momentum vector. At a fixed beam momentum, an event is fully specified by $`(m_{\eta \pi },t,\theta ,\varphi )`$. The acceptances of the E852 apparatus for the Gottfried-Jackson angles were studied using Monte Carlo simulations. Results for the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass region from 1.3 GeV$`/c^2`$ to 1.4 GeV$`/c^2`$ are shown in figure 5.

The production amplitudes and their relative phases are extracted from the accumulated angular distributions, for bins in $`m_{\eta \pi }`$ and $`t`$, using an extended maximum likelihood fit to the distributions in ($`\theta `$,$`\varphi `$) jgth ; roblin ; Chu97 . Fits were performed for three bins in $`t_{\pi ^{}\eta \pi }`$ (or simply $`t`$) which we label as low-$`|t|`$ for $`|t|<`$ 0.14 (GeV$`/c`$)2, medium-$`|t|`$ for 0.14 $`<|t|<`$ 0.31 (GeV$`/c`$)2, and high-$`|t|`$ for $`|t|>`$ 0.31 (GeV$`/c`$)2. For each $`t`$ bin the PWA fits were performed in 0.04 GeV$`/c^2`$-wide $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass bins.

Events corresponding to the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ were processed through PWA software that extracts partial wave amplitudes and phase differences between various partial waves. This procedure takes into account information about the acceptance of the apparatus. The PWA formalism used in this analysis is model independent since the three-body final state follows from a quasi-two body interaction. This is in contrast to the *isobar* model needed for more complex final states, for example, in which one makes specific assumptions about a series of sequential decays leading to the final state under consideration.

The decay angular distributions are described by an expansion in partial waves that are products of a production amplitude for a state of angular momentum $`L`$ and associated magnetic quantum number $`M`$ and a decay amplitude, also for a given $`L`$ and $`M`$. The angular momentum $`L`$ is between the $`\eta `$ and the $`\pi ^0`$. The production amplitude takes into account the spin degrees of freedom of the initial and final nucleons and the naturality of the exchange particle. That is, the assumption is made that in this peripheral process the produced $`\eta \pi ^0`$ state results from a $`t`$-channel exchange from the nucleon vertex to the meson production vertex. Alternatively one can view the production vertex as a time-reversed decay of the produced $`\eta \pi ^0`$ state into the beam particle ($`\pi `$) and the exchanged particle.

Parity conservation in the strong interactions implies a relationship between the magnetic quantum number $`M`$ and naturality. Following Chu97  we choose a basis characterized by the naturality of the exchanged particle. *Natural* parity exchange obtains if parity and spin are related as $`P=(1)^J`$ (e.g. $`\rho `$ meson exchange) and the exchange is *unnatural* if $`P=(1)^{J+1}`$ (e.g. $`\pi `$ meson exchange).

This basis, the *reflectivity* basis, is one that does not possess the mixed symmetries of the D-functions or spherical harmonics under rotations about the $`y`$ axis. For $`M>0`$ the linear combination with positive reflectivity, corresponding to natural parity exchange, is:

$${}_{}{}^{+}D_{M0}^{L}(\varphi ,\theta ,0)\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}[D_{M0}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)(1)^MD_{M0}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)]$$
(1)
and the linear combination with negative reflectivity, corresponding to unnatural parity exchange, is:

$${}_{}{}^{}D_{M0}^{L}(\varphi ,\theta ,0)\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}[D_{M0}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)+(1)^MD_{M0}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)]$$
(2)
For $`M=0`$ the reflectivity is negative and:

$${}_{}{}^{}D_{00}^{L}(\varphi ,\theta ,0)D_{00}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)$$
(3)
The distribution of events in $`m_{\eta \pi }`$, $`t`$, $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ is given by

$`I(m_{\eta \pi },t,\theta ,\varphi )`$ $`=`$ $`|{\displaystyle \underset{LM}{}}A_{LM}^+(m_{\eta \pi },t)^+D_{M0}^L(\theta ,\varphi ,0)|^2`$ (4)
$`+`$ $`|{\displaystyle \underset{LM}{}}A_{LM}^{}(m_{\eta \pi },t)^{}D_{M0}^L(\theta ,\varphi ,0)|^2,`$
where the $`A_{LM}`$ are the production amplitudes and we refer to the various waves as $`S_0A_{00}^{}`$, $`P_+A_{11}^+`$, $`P_{}A_{11}^{}`$, $`P_0A_{10}^{}`$, $`D_+A_{21}^+`$, $`D_{}A_{21}^{}`$, and $`D_0A_{20}^{}`$.

In this analysis we considered $`L=0,1,2`$ (the nomenclature is $`S`$, $`P`$ and $`D`$ respectively). Waves are further characterized by a subscript $`0`$ if $`M=0`$ and $`+`$ or $``$ if $`|M|=1`$. As noted in Chu97 , amplitudes with $`|M|>1`$ are not expected to be important for the production of mesons in $`\pi p`$ quasi-two-body processes. This assumption is borne out by PWA fits to these data indicating little contribution from $`|M|>1`$. We present these results after the discussion of fitting the moments distributions. The amplitudes considered in this analysis, $`S_0`$, $`P_0`$, $`P_{}`$, $`D_0`$, and $`D_{}`$ are produced via unnatural  exchange and $`P_+`$ and $`D_+`$ are produced via natural exchange. Waves of different naturality do not interfere. Since the nucleon polarization is not being measured, in equation (4) the dependence on the nucleon helicity is implicit in the production amplitude, e.g. $`|D_+|^2=|D_+^{++}|^2+|D_+^+|^2`$ with the upper labels referring to the target and recoil nucleon helicities and the two amplitudes representing nucleon helicity flip and non-flip.

### IV.1 Ambiguities and finding the physical solution

There are multiple discrete sets of partial wave amplitudes that can give rise to exactly the same angular distribution Chu97 . It can be shown that for the production of two pseudoscalars with only $`S`$, $`P`$ and $`D`$ waves there are up to eight ambiguous solutions. For a given bin in $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ these multiple solutions can be found by randomly seeding the fit (using sets of different initial values for the amplitudes) and doing multiple fits.

It is also possible to find the ambiguous solutions analytically, starting with one of the solutions found from the fitting procedure using the method of Barrelet zeroes Bar72 . In this analysis the ambiguous solutions found from multiple randomly seeded fits were found to be consistent with the ambiguous solutions found analytically.

As an example, all ambiguous solutions are shown for the $`S_0`$ and $`D_+`$ waves for the full range in $`t`$ in figure 6. The presence of the dominant $`a_2(1320)`$ in the $`D`$ wave leads to a clustering of solutions about the expected Breit-Wigner lineshape. The solutions for the $`S`$ wave are more widely distributed.

When possible, mass-bin to mass-bin continuity along with other independent criteria must be used to select the physical solutions among the ambiguous solutions. In this analysis the presence of the well-established $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ states, as observed in the $`\eta \pi `$ mass distribution, provides a means by which to select the physical solution. For each $`m_{\eta \pi }`$ mass bin the solution selected as *physical* is one where the $`S_0`$ and $`D_+`$ amplitudes and the phase difference, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(D_0S_0)`$, all as a function of $`\eta \pi `$ mass, are simultaneously most consistent with two interfering Breit-Wigner amplitudes with masses and widths for the $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ as listed in the Review of Particle Properties Hag02 . For example, referring to figure 6, the $`S_0`$ amplitude of the physical solution in the 1.0 GeV$`/c^2`$ region should be large and its corresponding $`D_+`$ amplitude small and in the 1.3 GeV$`/c^2`$ mass region the $`D_+`$ amplitude should be large and the $`S_0`$ amplitude should be small. It was found that the requirement that the $`S_0`$ and $`D_+`$ solutions simultaneously lie close to the expected line shapes leaves a few ambiguities that are removed when the criterion of proximity to the expected value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(D_0S_0)`$ is imposed. We note that although the $`a_2(1320)`$ is dominant in the $`D_+`$ wave, the criterion for selection involved the phase difference between the $`D_0`$ and $`S_0`$ waves – the $`D_+`$ and $`S_0`$ waves do not interfere. In summary, these criteria were sufficient to uniquely select the physical solution.

In the discussion below that follows the description of fits to experimentally observed moments distributions, we discuss additional quantitative measures for discarding other ambiguous solutions as well as the effect of their inclusion on the stability of the final results. In addition, as discussed below, the $`t`$-dependences of the selected $`D`$-wave solutions are well-described by Regge phenomenology as is the ratio $`\left(D_0D_{}\right)\mathrm{/}D_+`$, giving us confidence in the selection procedure.

In figure 7 the selected physical solution in each of the low-$`|t|`$, medium-$`|t|`$ and high-$`|t|`$ regions is shown as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass for the $`S_0`$-wave, the $`D_+`$ wave and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(S_0D_0)`$ phase difference. Also shown are the corresponding line shapes and phase differences assuming two interfering Breit-Wigner forms for the $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ – the basis for the criteria used to select the physical solutions. We note that the intensity and phase motion of the $`S_0`$-wave is also consistent with the presence of both the $`a_0(980)`$ and the $`a_0(1450)`$. The $`a_0(1450)`$ resonance parameters have been extracted from a coupled channel analysis of final states producted in $`\overline{p}p`$ annihilations a01450 . This may account for the excess of events in the 1.4 GeV$`/c^2`$ mass region for the $`S_0`$-wave intensity. However because of the large statistical errors in this region we have not been able to unambigously extract the $`a_0(1450)`$ resonance parameters. We will return to this issue in Sections VI and VII.

## V Leakage Studies

Incomplete or incorrect understanding of the experimental acceptance can lead to serious systematic effects in this type of analysis. In particular, it is possible that part of a large, dominant partial wave (for example $`D_+`$) could appear as a spurious signal in a different partial wave. We refer to this phenomenon as leakage and study it by intentionally using an incorrect model of the acceptance.

A Monte Carlo sample of pure $`a_2(1320)`$ events was generated including both $`D_0`$ and $`D_+`$ waves. This Monte Carlo sample included the effects of experimental acceptance. This sample was analyzed in two ways, in one case our best estimate of the acceptance was used, in the second no correction for the acceptance was made.

The analysis using the acceptance correction should produce as output only $`D_0`$ and $`D_+`$ waves with all others consistent with zero. This was found to be the case and the resulting $`S_0`$ and $`P_+`$ solutions are compared to the $`D_+`$ intensity in figure 8(a). A similar result was obtained for all other waves. We conclude that there are no pathological defects in our method since we were able to reproduce correct output from known input.

The second analysis provides an upper limit as to the contribution of leakage in this analysis. The acceptance is known to be significantly different than 100% and a function of the kinematic variables, see, for example, figure 4. Approximating the acceptance as equal to 100% independent of the kinematic variables simulates a situation where our understanding of the acceptance is as incorrect as possible, thus providing a limit on the effect of leakage.

It was found that ignoring the acceptance does generate spurious signals in other partial waves. Results for the $`P_+`$ and $`S_0`$ partial waves are shown in figure 8(b). Crucial to the interpretation of this spurious $`P_+`$ partial wave is the fact that even when ignoring corrections for the acceptance, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ phase difference is independent of mass. As we will show below, the observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ phase difference is a strong function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass.

## VI Experimental Moments

To check the results of PWA fitting, moments of the spherical harmonics were calculated for each bin in $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ for each of the three $`t`$ regions. These moments are labelled as $`H(LM)`$ and are defined as

$$H(LM)=I(\mathrm{\Omega })D_{M0}^L(\varphi ,\theta ,0)𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }.$$
(5)
Since

$$H(00)=I(\mathrm{\Omega })𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }$$
(6)
$`H(00)/(4\pi )`$ is just the number of events. Moments are directly measured observables and therefore not subject to ambiguities. Given a set of amplitudes, the expected values of the moments can be calculated. If the partial wave expansion is limited to $`S,P`$ and $`D`$ waves with $`|M|1`$ there are 12 non-zero moments and the following relations hold:

$`H(00)=\left|S_0\right|^2+\left|P_0\right|^2+\left|P_{}\right|^2+\left|D_0\right|^2`$
$`+\left|D_{}\right|^2+\left|P_+\right|^2+\left|D_+\right|^2`$ (7)
$`H(10)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}}Re\{S_0P_0^{}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{4}{\sqrt{15}}}Re\{P_0D_0^{}\}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{5}}}Re\{P_{}D_{}^{}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{5}}}Re\{P_+D_+^{}\}`$ (8)
$`H(11)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{6}}}Re\{S_0P_{}^{}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{10}}}Re\{P_0D_{}^{}\}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{30}}}Re\{P_{}D_0^{}\}`$ (9)
$`H(20)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{5}}}Re\{S_0D_0^{}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{5}}\left|P_0\right|^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}\left|P_{}\right|^2`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}\left|P_+\right|^2+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{7}}\left|D_0\right|^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{7}}\left|D_{}\right|^2+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{7}}\left|D_+\right|^2`$ (10)
$`H(21)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{\sqrt{10}}}Re\{S_0D_{}^{}\}+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{5}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}}Re\{P_0P_{}^{}\}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{2}{7\sqrt{2}}}Re\{D_0D_{}^{}\}`$ (11)
$`H(22)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}}\left|P_{}\right|^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}}\left|P_+\right|^2`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{7}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}}\left|D_{}\right|^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{7}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}}\left|D_+\right|^2`$ (12)
$`H(30)={\displaystyle \frac{6}{7}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3}{5}}}Re\{P_0D_0^{}\}{\displaystyle \frac{6}{7\sqrt{5}}}Re\{P_{}D_{}^{}\}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{6}{7\sqrt{5}}}Re\{P_+D_+^{}\}`$ (13)
$$H(31)=\frac{4}{7}\sqrt{\frac{3}{5}}Re\{P_0D_{}^{}\}+\frac{6}{7\sqrt{5}}Re\{P_{}D_0^{}\}$$
(14)
$$H(32)=\frac{2}{7}\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}Re\{P_{}D_{}^{}\}\frac{2}{7}\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}}Re\{P_+D_+^{}\}$$
(15)
$$H(40)=\frac{2}{7}\left|D_0\right|^2\frac{4}{21}\left|D_{}\right|^2\frac{4}{21}\left|D_+\right|^2$$
(16)
$$H(41)=\frac{2}{7}\sqrt{\frac{5}{3}}Re\{D_0D_{}^{}\}$$
(17)
$$H(42)=\frac{\sqrt{10}}{21}\left|D_{}\right|^2\frac{\sqrt{10}}{21}\left|D_+\right|^2$$
(18)
We note that the $`H(1M)`$ and $`H(3M)`$ moments involve only terms linear in the $`P`$-wave and the $`H(4M)`$ moments only involve $`D`$-waves. The above equations also underscore the inherent ambiguities in this partial wave analysis. Solving for the amplitudes and their interferences in terms of the non-ambiguous observable moments does not lead to a unique solution.

In figure 9 we show the comparison of moments computed directly from data with those calculated from the above expressions using the selected PWA solutions for the $`H(00)`$,$`H(10)`$, $`H(20)`$ and $`H(30)`$ moments. The agreement is excellent and similar results were obtained for the other moments.

### VI.1 Fitting the moments

The moments as function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass were fitted using the above equations and assuming Breit-Wigner resonance line shapes for the $`a_0(980)`$, the $`a_2(1320)`$ and a possible $`P`$-wave resonance. These line shapes specify the form of the mass dependence of the amplitudes and phases (interference terms) in the above equations.

A relativistic Breit-Wigner form was used:

$$A_{LM}(m)=\frac{A_{LM}B_L((qR)^2)}{m^2m_r^2+im_r\mathrm{\Gamma }_L(m)}$$
(19)
where $`q=\lambda (m,m_\pi ,m_\eta )`$ is the breakup momentum of mass $`m`$. $`A_{LM}`$ is a complex, mass-independent normalization, and $`m_r`$ is mass of the resonance. The energy dependent width is given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_L(m)=\mathrm{\Gamma }_r\left(\frac{q}{q_r}\right)\left(\frac{m_r}{m}\right)\left(\frac{B_L((qR)^2)}{B_L((q_rR)^2)}\right)^2$$
(20)
with $`q_r=\lambda (m_r,m_\pi ,m_\eta )`$ and the barrier factors $`B_L(x)`$ given by $`B_0(x)=1`$, $`B_1(x)=\sqrt{x/(1+x)}`$, $`B_2(x)=\sqrt{x^2/((x3)^2+9x)}`$, where the $`R`$ parameterizes the range of the interaction. In the cross section, phase space introduces a factor of $`q`$ which multiplies the intensity function given in equation (4). Finally the $`S`$-wave contribution was modified by adding an incoherent background parametrized as a linear function in $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$.

There are 21 parameters allowed to vary in the simultaneous fits to the distributions of the 12 moments as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass. The $`S`$, $`P`$ and $`D`$-wave Breit-Wigners are each characterized by a mass and width for a total of six parameters. Each of the seven waves is characterized by a complex number but the overall phase for each reflectivity is fixed accounting for 12 more parameters. Finally the slope and intercept of the background and the R-parameter account for the final three parameters. The values of these parameters resulting from the fits are shown in table 1. We have also attempted to include a second $`S_0`$-wave resonance to account for a possible $`a_0(1450)`$ in the data. The moment fits were, however, not able to constrain the $`a_0(1450)`$ resonance parameters. We therefore removed the $`a_0(1450)`$ from the moments fits. This has no effect on the results and interpretation of the $`P`$-wave fits.

The outcome of the fitting is shown for all moments for the three ranges of $`t`$ described above in figures 10 through 21. The moments shown are corrected for acceptance using the procedure described in reference Chu97 . The solid curves are the result of fits in which all of the 21 parameters described above were allowed to float. The dashed curves are the results of fits where the $`P`$-wave Breit-Wigner mass was fixed at 1.37 GeV$`/c^2`$ and the the width was fixed at 0.37 GeV$`/c^2`$. These are the parameters reported for the $`P`$-wave exotic in the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ channel in reference SUC1999 .

In the low-$`t`$ region, the $`S_0`$ wave is prominent at $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ 1 GeV$`/c^2`$ and agrees well with the expected contribution to the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ spectrum from the decay of the $`a_0(980)`$ meson. The $`S_0`$-wave is produced without flipping helicities at the meson vertex and therefore it is dominant at low-$`t`$ and decreases with increasing $`|t|`$. The structure at $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ 1 GeV$`/c^2`$ in the $`H(10)`$ and $`H(11)`$ moments (figures 11 and 12 respectively) reflects the interference between the $`S`$ and $`P`$ waves and it is noticeable only at low-$`t`$ where the $`S`$-wave production is the strongest. The $`D_+`$ wave dominates the spectrum at $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ 1.3 GeV$`/c^2`$ and since it is produced with a meson helicity flip it is suppressed at low-$`t`$ and it is the largest in the medium-$`t`$ region. In all three $`t`$-regions, however it is well described by a Breit-Wigner shape corresponding to the $`a_2(1320)`$ meson. As the $`D_+`$ production increases (to medium and large $`t`$-regions), the structure in the moment $`H(10)`$ (figure 11) moves to the $`a_2`$ region and a similar structure in the moment $`H(30)`$ (figure 16) appears. Similarly, the interference of the negative reflectivity $`P`$-waves with the negative reflectivity $`D`$-waves is reflected in the moments $`H(11)`$ and $`H(31)`$ (figures 12 and 17 respectively) at $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ 1.3 GeV$`/c^2`$.

The fit corresponding to the fixed $`P`$-wave parameters (dashed curve) is significantly worse in $`H(10)`$ (figure 11) – a moment linear in the $`P`$-wave and somewhat worse or no better in the other moments that are linear in the $`P`$-wave – $`H(11)`$ (figure 12), $`H(30)`$ (figure 16) and $`H(31)`$ (figure 17). In addition to the $`H(00)`$ moment distribution, the other moments – $`H(20)`$, $`H(22)`$, $`H(40)`$ and $`H(42)`$ – are primarily sensitive to the presence of the $`a_2`$ meson, and therefore are not very sensitive to treatment of $`P`$-waves in the fit. The fit with the $`P`$-wave parameters fixed gives a significantly worse $`\chi ^2`$ per degree of freedom ($`\chi _\nu ^2`$ from 1.70 to 2.00) as compared to the case when the $`P`$-wave parameters are allowed to float ($`\chi _\nu ^2`$ from 1.37 to 1.43). In the later case, however, it was found that no single set of consistent parameters could be found for the $`P`$ waves across the three $`t`$-ranges. In the low-$`t`$ range the $`P`$-wave with mass of 1.39 GeV$`/c^2`$ and width of 0.36 GeV$`/c^2`$ was found, which is the only solution consistent with what was reported for the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ channel SUC1999 . However, even in this $`t`$-range other solutions could also be found with masses ranging from 1 to 5 GeV$`/c^2`$. For example, a solution for a $`P`$-wave with a mass of 0.91 GeV$`/c^2`$ and a width of 1.05 GeV$`/c^2`$ had a $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.57`$. This is because the interference with the $`D`$-waves is weak at low-$`t`$ and the $`S`$-wave is too narrow to constrain the $`P`$ away from the $`m_{\eta \pi ^0}`$ 1.3 GeV$`/c^2`$ region. The medium-$`t`$ to large-$`t`$ range should be the best for constraining the $`P`$ waves. Here the $`D`$ waves are dominant and some $`S`$-wave is still present. In this $`t`$-range, however, acceptable solutions (with comparable $`\chi _\nu ^2`$) different from the one listed in table 1 could not be found.

The non-vanishing moments $`H(10)`$ (figure 11), $`H(11)`$ (figure 12), $`H(30)`$ (figure 16), $`H(31)`$ (figure 17) and $`H(32)`$ (figure 18) clearly indicate a presence of a $`P`$-wave in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ system. The large values of mass and width found indicate that the Breit-Wigner parameterization for these waves is most likely inadequate.

## VII Mass and $`t`$ Dependence of Partial Waves

### VII.1 PWA solutions and fits to the moments

In figures 22 through 24 various partial waves and phase differences are shown as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass for the low-$`|t|`$, medium-$`|t|`$ and high-$`|t|`$ ranges. In particular we show the mass dependence of the $`S_0`$ and $`D_0`$ amplitudes and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(S_0D_0)`$ phase difference. Also shown is the mass dependence of the $`P_+`$ and $`D_+`$ amplitudes and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ phase difference. The filled data points indicate the selected (physical) solutions. The additional points indicated by open circles and dashed error bars are those ambiguous solutions that satisfy conditions described below.

The curves are the result of the fits to the moments where the $`P`$-wave Breit-Wigner parameters are allowed to float. We refer the reader to similar plots shown in figure 7 for the $`S_0`$ and $`D_+`$ amplitudes and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(S_0D_0)`$ phase difference along the the curves used to select the solutions.

The results of the fits to the moments (recalling that the moments are unambiguous) were used to study the possible inclusion of other ambiguous solutions not selected as the physical solutions. We compute a $`\chi ^2`$ that measures the deviation of other ambiguous solutions from the partial wave solutions obtained from the moments fits. This requirement was imposed separately for the $`S_0`$ and $`D_+`$-waves and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(S_0D_0)`$ phase difference. In some cases several ambiguous solutions were found to have $`\chi ^2`$ similar to the selected solutions and these are included in figures figures 22 through 24 as the open circles with dashed error bars. The mass-dependent fits involving only the $`P_+`$ and $`D_+`$ amplitudes and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ – as described below – phase difference were insensitive to the inclusion of these solutions.

The fits shown in figures 22 through 24 describe the $`D_0`$ and $`D_+`$ in all three $`|t|`$ regions. The values obtained for the mass and width of the $`a_2(1320)`$ as shown in table 1 are consistent with nominal values for this well understood state. The $`S_0`$ is well described in the low-$`|t|`$ region and the mass and width shown in table 1 for the $`a_0(980)`$ agree with published values. As $`|t|`$ increases the production of the $`a_0(980)`$ decreases and the description of the $`S_0`$ wave in figure 24, for the high-$`|t|`$ range is problematic. In this region the $`S_0`$ wave includes mostly structureless background naturally subsumed into the $`S_0`$ wave. Requiring that the $`S_0`$ wave be described by a Breit-wigner wave yields a width that is wide and driven by the phase motion of the $`a_2(1320)`$ via the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(S_0D_0)`$ phase difference. As noted above, the moment fits did not constrain the parameters of a possible second scalar resonance, the $`a_0(1450)`$. In the mass-dependent amplitude and phase difference fits, the inclusion of a second scalar resonance In the low-$`t`$ region yields $`M=1.34\pm 0.06\text{ GeV}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.41\pm 0.09\text{ GeV}`$ for the mass and width of the second $`a_0`$ resonance, while in the medium-$`t`$ region we obtain $`M=1.44\pm 0.03\text{ GeV}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.25\pm 0.06\text{ GeV}`$, respectively. No stable fit was found for high-$`t`$ data.

The moments fits poorly describe the $`P_+`$ waves in all three $`|t|`$ regions and the $`P_+`$ amplitude peaks in the vicinity of the dominant $`D_+`$ wave strongly suggesting leakage. We also note that the $`P_+`$ wave has an additional lower mass peak in the vicinity of the $`a_0(980)`$ in the low-$`|t|`$ region (see figures 22 and 23 where production of the $`a_0(980)`$ is strong – again suggesting leakage. Our Monte Carlo studies indicate that leakage of dominant waves can lead to false peaks in other amplitudes but it is unlikely to cause false phase motion. Indeed this $`P_+`$ wave enhancement at about the mass of the $`a_0(980)`$ follows closely the behavior of the $`S`$ wave in its dependence on both mass and momentum transfer squared. Furthermore as shown in figure 22 and especially in figure 23 the additional solutions allowed by the selection criteria (those indicated by open circles) do not alter the $`S`$ wave shape but reduce the amplitude of the $`P_+`$ wave in the region of $`1`$ GeV/$`c^2`$. Furthermore, the fits to the moments do not reveal any $`P`$ wave signal at $`1`$ GeV/$`c^2`$ and due to angular momentum barrier effects it is expected that at low breakup momentum the $`S`$ wave should dominate over the $`P`$ wave.

### VII.2 Systematics and the fitting procedure

The assumption was made earlier that waves with $`|M|>1`$ were not important. In order to test this assumption the additional $`|M|=2`$ $`D`$ waves, one for each reflectivity, were included in the fits for all the moments including the $`H(43)`$ and $`H(44)`$ moments. The Breit-Wigner distributions corresponding to the resulting fits are shown in figure 25 for the $`D_+`$, $`D_0`$, $`D_{}`$ waves and the two $`D_{M=2}`$ waves of opposite reflectivities (the two $`M=2`$ curves are indistinguishable in the plot). This supports our original assumption.

The systematics of varying all possible fit assumptions was studied for the $`D_+`$-wave for the high-$`|t|`$ region and the results are shown in the plot of figure 26. We chose to study this high-$`|t|`$ region since the description of the $`D_+`$ wave amplitude is poorest for this region ((see figure 24). The curve is the result of a of the overall fit to the moments. The shaded region corresponds to the variations in the fit by letting the Breit-Wigner parameters for all the other waves vary in all possible combinations – that is, being fixed at nominal values or allowed to float. The $`D_+`$ wave is within the systematic errors.

### VII.3 Mass-dependent fits

The dependence of the measured $`D_+`$ and $`P_+`$ amplitudes and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ phase difference as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass was fitted to two interfering Breit-Wigner line shapes following the method of reference SUC1999 . Fits carried out separately for the three ranges in $`t`$ are presented in the plots of figure 27 and the fit parameters are listed in table 2. In figure 28 the $`P`$-wave parameters obtained from the mass dependent fits are compared to those reported in references SUC1999 ; Abe98 ; Abe99 . The $`P`$-wave mass obtained for the high-$`t`$ range is consistent with that reported in the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ channel but the width observed here is significantly higher. The values obtained for the mass in the low-$`t`$ and high-$`t`$ ranges are lower than for the $`\eta \pi ^{}`$ channel. The conclusion is that no consistent set of resonant $`P`$-wave parameters can describe the data while the resonant parameters obtained for the $`a_2(1320)`$ are consistent for various ranges in $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass and $`|t|`$ and consistent with well-established parameters from earlier experiments.

### VII.4 Description of the $`t`$ dependence of the $`D`$-waves

Figure 29 shows the dependence of the $`D_+`$, $`D_0`$ and $`D_{}`$-waves as a function of $`t_{\pi ^{}\eta \pi }`$. Since the $`a_2(1320)`$ is dominant in these waves and the production of these waves is associated with exchanges well known from Regge phenomenology, a comparison of data with this known phenomenology is a check on the methodology. Indeed the $`t`$ dependence is well described.

The $`D_+`$ wave is produced via a natural $`t`$-channel charge exchange which is dominated by the $`\rho `$ trajectory and is parametrized by, IW

$`D_+^{++}=i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{t^{}}{4m_N^2}}}(1{\displaystyle \frac{t}{m_a^2}})^2e^{b_\rho t}e^{i\pi \alpha _\rho (t)/2}\times `$
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\alpha _\rho (t))\mathrm{sin}(\pi \alpha _\rho (t)/2)`$ (21)
$$D_+^+=r\sqrt{\frac{t^{}}{4m_N^2}}D_+^{++}.$$
(22)
Here the $`D_+^+`$ and $`D_+^{++}`$ are the nucleon helicity flip and non-flip amplitudes respectively, with $`r=7`$ in equation 22 according to reference IW , and

$$|D_+|^2=|D_+^{++}|^2+|D_+^+|^2.$$
(23)
The parameters of the $`\rho `$ trajectory are given by $`\alpha _\rho (t)=0.5+0.9t[\text{GeV}^2]`$, $`b_\rho =3.25\text{ GeV}^2`$ IM . The fit of the $`t`$-distribution given by Eq. (22) to the measured $`t`$-distribution involves one parameter – the overall normalization and is shown in figure 29. Some discrepancy is seen at large- $`t`$, in particular the characteristic dip of the $`\rho `$ exchange at $`t=m_\rho ^2`$ is not seen. This indicates that there is some absorption required for the $`a_2`$.

The $`D^0`$ wave is produced via unnatural exchange and is expected to be dominated by the $`b_1`$ in the nucleon helicity flip amplitude and the tensor, $`Z`$-trajectory, ($`J^{PC}I=2^{}1`$) in the non-flip amplitude. These can parametrized by, IW

$`D_0^+=i\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{t^{}}{4m_N^2}}}(1{\displaystyle \frac{t}{m_a^2}})e^{b_{b_1}t}\times e^{i\pi \alpha _{b_1}(t)/2}\times `$
$`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\alpha _{b_1}(t))\mathrm{sin}(\pi \alpha _{b_1}(t)/2)`$ (24)
$`D_0^{++}=e^{b_Zt}e^{i\pi \alpha _Z(t)/2}\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\alpha _Z(t))\mathrm{cos}(\pi \alpha _Z(t)/2).`$ (25)
with the parameters of the two trajectories given by $`\alpha _{b_1}=0.37+0.9t,[\text{GeV}^2]`$, $`\alpha _Z=0.9t,[\text{GeV}^2]`$, and $`b_{b_1}=b_Z=b_\pi =4.51\text{ GeV}^2`$ IM  .

The $`D_{}`$-wave is produced by unnatural parity exchange and its $`t`$ dependence is given by $`D_{}(t)=\sqrt{t^{}/4m_N^2}\dot{D}_0(t)`$. The fit to the measured $`D_0`$ wave intensity has two parameters – the normalization of the nucleon helicity flip and non-flip amplitudes – and is also shown in figure 29.

### VII.5 Ratio of $`D`$-waves

In a paper discussing the PWA of the $`\eta \pi `$ system produced in peripheral $`\pi p`$ interactions Sad99 , Sadovsky uses a criterion for selecting the physical solution among the ambiguous solutions. The test involves a measurement of the ratio $`r_S=\left(D_0D_{}\right)\mathrm{/}D_+`$. According to Regge phenomenology this ratio should fall like $`\alpha /p_\pi `$ where $`\alpha `$ is determined from other experiments. At $`p_\pi `$=18 GeV$`/c`$ this ratio is expected to be $`r_S=0.80`$. Integrating the distributions in figure 29 over all $`t`$ we obtain $`r_S=0.72\pm 0.12`$.

## VIII Conclusions

A partial wave and moment (averages of spherical harmonics) analysis of data collected in experiment E852 from the reaction $`\pi ^{}p\eta \pi ^0n`$ (where $`\eta \gamma \gamma `$) as a function of $`\eta \pi ^0`$ effective mass and momentum-transfer-squared was performed. The presence of two well-established $`a_0(980)`$ and $`a_2(1320)`$ resonances allows for the imposition of criteria for selecting the physical solution among the mathematically ambiguous solutions. The physical solution is consistent with the presence of two interfering Breit-Wigner resonances for these states. The distribution in 12 acceptance-corrected moments, $`H(L,M)`$, calculated directly from the data are consistent with moments calculated from the PWA solutions.

Every term in the moments with odd $`L`$ (5 of the 12) is linear in the $`P`$ wave and the observed moments distributions are non-zero clearing indicating that the data demand the presence of a $`P`$ wave. To allow for the inclusion of a possible resonance with exotic quantum numbers, the moments are thus fit with the assumption of three interfering Breit-Wigner resonances for the $`S`$-wave and $`D`$-wave and $`P`$-wave.

The data suggest weak production of the $`a_0(1450)`$. The $`a_0(1450)`$ was established by the Crystal Barrel collaboration in $`\overline{p}p\pi ^0\pi ^0\eta `$ and $`\overline{p}p\pi ^0\eta \eta `$ a01450  with production ratios for $`a_0(1450):a_0(980):a_2(1320)`$ equal to $`4:6:33`$ and $`11:14:25`$ respectively. These are qualitatively consistent with our results. The dominant $`D_+`$, $`D_0`$ and $`D_{}`$-waves are consistent with production of the $`a_2(1320)`$ and fits to the their line shapes are consistent with the resonance parameters of this well-established tensor resonance. Moreover, the observed $`t`$-dependence of the individual $`D`$ waves are well described by Regge phenomenology as is their ratio. Finally the $`a_0`$ and $`a_2`$ in the data are well described as Breit-Wigner resonances produced via a $`t`$-channel exchange mechanisms regardless the treatment of the $`P`$-wave, and/or incoherent background.

While the Breit-Wigner parameterization of the $`S`$ wave and $`D`$ wave is physically well motivated and confirmed by the data, the resonance representation of the $`P`$-wave is problematic. The data unambiguously indicated that the phase of the $`P`$-wave increases as the function of the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ mass which corresponds to an attractive interaction in the $`\eta \pi ^0`$ $`P`$-wave channel. However, the data do not require the phase of the $`P`$-wave to increase over $`90^o`$ nor is there compelling evidence for the intensity of the $`P`$-wave to have a resonance shape in the mass range studied, i.e from threshold to $`1.8\text{ GeV}`$.

Mass-dependent fits, restricted to the $`P_+`$ and $`D_+`$ amplitudes and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$ phase difference, following the method of reference SUC1999  reporting an exotic $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ meson decaying into $`\eta \pi ^{}`$, yield results inconsistent with those of reference SUC1999  and among the three $`t`$ ranges in this analysis. The discrepancy in the resonance parameters found by fitting the natural waves alone is, however, smaller than the one found by fitting the full data sample (moments).

However, by restricting the study to only $`P_+`$, $`D_+`$ waves and the phase, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }(P_+D_+)`$, important additional information from the remaining data is ignored. For example, an exotic $`P`$ wave resonance should have the same resonance parameters in all three, $`P_{}`$,$`P_0`$ and $`P_+`$-waves. These wave represent different spin projections of the resonance and the data should discriminate between their production strengths.

Furthermore, we have found that the intensity of the weak waves, i.e. $`P`$ and $`S`$-wave above the $`a_0`$ region are more affected by leakage from the strong, $`D`$ waves due to the $`a_2`$ than are the phase differences. Thus, since the mass-dependent fit to the natural waves alone, is strongly constrained by the intensity distribution of the $`P`$-wave, it tends to follow the $`a_2`$ line shape, and force the fit to mimic a $`P`$-wave resonance with mass near the $`a_2`$ mass.

In a separate paper we will present an alternative description of the mass dependent $`P`$-wave amplitude and phase that does not require the existence of an exotic meson but is consistent with $`\eta \pi `$ re-scattering.

## IX Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the members of the MPS group at BNL as well as the staffs of the AGS and BNL. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Energy.


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# 1 . Introduction

## 1 . Introduction

Eclipsing binary stars are among the most important sources of information on stellar parameters like radii, masses, luminosities, etc. They also seem to be very promising candidates for standard candles. They should allow to determine distances within the Local Group with accuracy of a few percent (Paczyński 1997). The method of distance determination to eclipsing systems is almost hundred years old and its main advantage is that it is largely geometric, i.e., free from possible population effects which affect other standard candles. With accurate photometry and spectroscopy, absolute dimensions of both components can be precisely derived and, with accurately determined temperatures, emitted fluxes can be calculated. When compared with the flux observed from the Earth it should give precise distance to the binary.

Eclipsing binary stars are very common in the Universe, but their detection may be quite difficult, because very good sampling of the light curve is necessary to detect eclipses. Large photometric databases collected during microlensing surveys provide ideal observational material for search for eclipsing objects. Hundreds of observations of millions of stars make detection of eclipsing objects relatively easy and efficient. For example, large samples of eclipsing binary stars were already found in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Grison et al. 1995, Alcock et al. 1997), Small Magellanic Cloud (Udalski et al. 1998a) or Galactic bulge (Udalski et al. 1997a).

Determination of accurate distances is one of the most important goals of the modern astrophysics, in particular, the distance to the LMC as the extragalactic distance scale is based on the LMC distance. In the long lasting dispute on the LMC distance, large sample of eclipsing binary stars can potentially solve this problem. To date several applications of eclipsing binaries for distance determination to the LMC were presented: HV982 (Fitzpatrick et al. 2002), EROS1044 (Ribas et al. 2002). However single stars determination can be affected by all kind of systematic errors (e.g., HV2274: Guinan et al. 1998, Udalski et al. 1998b, Nelson et al. 2000, Groenewegen and Salaris 2001). Large and consistent sample of eclipsing stars is necessary for obtaining reliable distances to objects, as it was shown in Harries et al. (2003), based on OGLE-II catalog of about 1400 eclipsing binaries in the SMC (Udalski et al. 1998a).

The main aim of this paper is to provide a list and photometry of eclipsing binary stars detected in the Large Magellanic Cloud during the OGLE-II survey (Udalski, Kubiak and Szymański 1997b). The catalog contains 2580 objects found in the Difference Image Analysis Catalog of variable stars in the LMC (Żebruń et al. 2001b).

The detected eclipsing binaries were divided into three classical types of eclipsing variables: EA (Algol type), EB ($`\beta `$ Lyr type) and EW (W UMa type). The sample is reasonably complete, allowing statistical analysis and should provide a good material for testing theory of evolution of binary system as well as studying the LMC evolution, star formation etc. From detached systems, i.e., EA class of eclipsing binaries, we additionally selected 36 objects – the best candidates for distance determination to the LMC. We also describe automated algorithm based on artificial neural network developed for eclipsing star search which can be applied in the future for other large scale variable stars’ classifications.

## 2 . Observational Data

All photometric data presented in the catalog of eclipsing stars were collected with the 1.3-m Warsaw telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, which is operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, during the second phase of the OGLE experiment. The telescope was equipped with the “first generation” camera with the SITe 2048x2048 CCD detector working in driftscan mode. The pixel size was 24$`\mu `$m giving the scale of 0.417 arcsec/pixel.

Observations of the LMC were performed in the “slow” reading mode of the CCD detector with the gain 3.8e-/ADU and readout noise of about 5.4 e-. Details of the instrumentation setup can be found in Udalski, Kubiak and Szymański (1997b).

Regular observations of the LMC fields started on January 6, 1997 and covered about 4.5 square degrees of the central parts of the LMC. Reductions of the photometric data collected up to the end of May 2000 were performed with the Difference Image Analysis (DIA) package (Woźniak 2000, Żebruń, Soszyński and Woźniak 2001a) and variable stars candidates were published in the Catalog of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds (Żebruń et al. 2001b).

The DIA photometry is based on the I-band observations. The catalog of variable stars contains about 53 000 stars in 21 fields of the LMC (Table 1). Each star has at least 300 photometric measurements. The magnitudes of stars were transformed to the standard system (Udalski et al. 2000). The errors of the measurements are about 0.005 mag for the brightest stars ($`I<16`$ mag) and grow to 0.08 mag at 19 mag and to 0.3 mag at 20.5 mag.

## 3 . Search for Eclipsing Binary Stars

The most common method of classification of variable stars is based on visual inspection of light curves, but when the number of stars to be examined is growing to thousands, it becomes very inefficient. Until now several attempts have been made to create an automated periodic variables classification. First method is examination of two dimensional projections of a multidimensional parameter space. Such an approach was applied by e.g., Ruciński (1993, 1997), Szymański, Kubiak, Udalski (2001), for contact binaries, Mizerski and Bejger (2001) for RR Lyr and W UMa stars, Udalski et al. (1999) for Cepheids. Expanded and improved versions of this method were also applied by all sky surveys, as ROTSE (Akerlof 2000) and ASAS (Pojmański 2002) to classify variables into several common variability types.

Another method applied in automated classifications includes neural networks and machine learning algorithms (e.g., Woźniak et al. 2001). We attempted to use an artificial neural network as a main classification tool to find eclipsing binaries among OGLE-II variable stars in the LMC.

### 3.1 Preparation of Photometric Data

We performed the search on about 53000 stars from 21 fields of the LMC, published in the OGLE-II catalog of variable stars (Żebruń et al. 2001b).

First, all stars from the DIA catalog were checked for all kind irregularities in the light curve. This step allowed us to reject most non-periodic variables from the database. Next, all stars left (about 36 000) were searched for periodicity using AoV algorithm (Schwarzenberg-Czerny 1989). Because photometric data span about 1500 days we searched for periodicities in the wide range of 0.1–500 days.

Before the main process of recognition of variability types was started, some additional preparation steps were performed. To use the neural network, we had to convert the light curves of all periodic stars in such a way that the differences between them were only caused by differences of variability type. The main problem was caused by the AoV algorithm which sometimes detects not the correct period, $`P`$, but $`2\times P`$ or $`P/2`$. Therefore we performed a Fourier decomposition of phased light curves and examined the ratio of the first two coefficients. We did not change detected period if the ratio indicated that the first harmonic dominates, and divided it by two in other cases. In this way we further processed all eclipsing variables phased with periods $`P/2`$, and all pulsating (sinusoidal and wide class of “saw shape” type) with their correct periods.

At the last stage before running the network recognition we found zero phase for each light curve and we mapped the light curve as a $`70\times 15`$ pixel image. Examples of the projection of light curves are shown in Fig. 1.

### 3.2 Neural Network

Now, the variability type recognition problem becomes the image recognition problem, which we solved using artificial neural network. Fig. 2 shows schematically the structure of the network. We built three layers, one-direction, non-linear neural network with logistic activation function. Input of the network was a $`70\times 15`$ pixel image of the light curve, which was transformed to one-dimensional line-by-line “image”. Therefore we had 1050 input nodes in the Input Layer. Layers I, II and III (Output Layer) consisted of 150, 50 and 5 neurons, respectively. Number of neurons in each layer was chosen accordingly to the image recognition requirements.

We used error back-propagation algorithm for network learning. Neural network was constructed to recognize three main types of variable stars, according to their light curve shape: eclipsing, sinusoidal and saw-shape type. From the first LMC field (LMC\_SC1) we selected manually 10 examples of each type objects and presented them randomly to the network a few thousand times, until the mean network error was smaller than $`10^8`$.

After learning, light curves of all previously found periodical stars from all LMC fields were subject of the network analysis. The procedure allowed us to divide stars into main predefined types and exclude some artifacts and non-variable objects from the catalog. After this stage we could exclude the sinusoidal and saw-shaped variables and we were left with only about 3000 candidates for eclipsing variables.

### 3.3 Detailed Classification of Eclipsing Variable Stars

In order to divide the obtained database of the eclipsing stars into subclasses we inspected visually light curves of all candidates. First, periods of eclipsing stars used in the network analysis were multiplied by two to obtain real periods. Then, the periods were tuned up to smooth the eclipse shape which is very sensitive to period inaccuracies. Similarly to the Fourth Edition of “General Catalog of Variable Stars” (GCVS: Kholopov et al. 1999) we divided detected eclipsing variables into three classical types, based on the shape of the light curve: EA (Algol type), EB ($`\beta `$ Lyr type) and EW (W UMa type). For several stars dual classification (e.g., EB/EW) was chosen, because of difficulties with distinguishing between two classes. The most difficult classification problem was the separation between EB and EW classes. When the orbital period was about one day or less we usually assigned EW type. In the case of several stars their variability, classification or period are uncertain. Such objects are marked with additional remark as “uncertain”.

By the visual inspection we excluded very uncertain objects and almost 200 light curves of probably ellipsoidal variables – stars with very low amplitude (about 0.1 mag) and in very wide range of periods. They were originally classified as eclipsing stars because the shape of their light curves revealed somewhat different depths of minima. The remaining part of ellipsoidal variables with clearly sinusoidal light curves were included in the “sinusoidal shape” class during neural network classification. However, in the case of some stars we were still unable to clearly distinguish between eclipsing and ellipsoidal variables. Therefore, they were also marked as ELL.

In the case of some objects additional variability of one or both components was superimposed on the clear eclipsing variability. These light variations could be caused by e.g., spots on binary system stars, high proper motion of the system (what is seen in the DIA method as a long term falling or rising tendency in the light curve, see Soszyński et al. 2002) or probably by pulsations of one of the binary components. The latter type systems containing Cepheids were already found in the LMC by OGLE (Udalski et al. 1999) and examined by MACHO Collaboration (Alcock et al. 2002). All variables with additional, confirmed or only suspected, light curve changes are marked with “Puls” or “Puls?” remark, respectively.

Additionally, we found 291 eclipsing variables with clear eccentricity effects visible in their light curves. They were marked with “ecc”. In 20 cases we could not smooth both eclipses using the same period what suggests large appsidal motion. We marked these objects as “eccAP” and selected the period corresponding to the primary minimum.

## 4 . Catalog of Eclipsing Binary Stars

In total 2580 eclipsing binary stars were found in the OGLE-II DIA catalog of variable stars in the LMC fields. List of the first 50 stars is presented in Table 2. It contains the ordinal number of the eclipsing variable star, field, name of the star, orbital period, heliocentric Julian Date of the primary minimum ($`T_0`$ – 2 450 000, corrected for position of the star in the driftscan image, as described by Żebruń et al. 2001b), V-band magnitude, $`BV`$ and $`VI`$ colors at maximum brightness from the standard OGLE-II data pipeline photometry, amplitude in the I-band from DIA photometry (depth of primary minimum) and eclipsing type. Color value of $`99.99`$ stands for no observations in the B or V bands.

One should remember that the conversion of the DIA flux differences to the magnitude scale is not always accurate. In particular, in the case of severely blended objects the depth of the maxima can be unreliable, as the constant flux cannot be accurately determined. Nevertheless, such blends contain a real eclipsing star.

Among 2580 stars, 101 were identified twice in the overlapping regions between neighboring fields, so the total number of identified eclipsing binary stars is equal to 2681. List of all cross-identified objects is presented in Table 3.

Stars’ names follow the convention of Żebruń et al. (2001b), i.e., are based on the equatorial coordinates of the star for the epoch J2000 in the format:

OGLE$`hhmmss.ssddmmss.s`$.

For example, OGLE053232.28-700056.5 stands for a star with coordinates $`\mathrm{RA}=05^\mathrm{h}32^\mathrm{m}32\text{.}^\mathrm{s}28`$ and $`\mathrm{DEC}=70^{}00{}_{}{}^{}56\text{.}{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }5`$.

1882 stars were classified as EA, 718 as EB and 168 as EW type. These figures do not sum up to 2681, because of several double classifications. Appendices A–C present examples of DIA I-band light curves of types EA, EB and EW, respectively. The ordinate is the phase with 0.0 value corresponding to the deeper eclipse. Abscissa is the $`I`$-band magnitude. Light curve is repeated twice for clarity.

Tables, light curves and finding charts of all 2681 eclipsing binary objects are available from the OGLE Internet archive and $`via`$ the WWW Interface (Section 8).

We should stress that periods of several stars might be incorrect. First, period can be two times longer than the real one, because in some cases, the secondary eclipse of faint stars and for noisy light curves could not be reliably detected. Other possible period error, which was noticed during the visual inspection of light curves, was related with the AoV method. For stars with large eccentricity it triggered periods of $`1.5\times P`$ or $`2.5\times P`$ instead of the correct period $`P`$. We probably corrected most of such cases, but we cannot fully exclude that some of them are still in the catalog.

## 5 . Discussion

We present 2580 eclipsing binary stars located in the central regions of the LMC. It is the largest number of eclipsing stars ever discovered in the LMC. We did not attempt to identify the detected stars with previously discovered eclipsing binaries in the LMC, but it is obvious, that the vast majority of these objects are newly discovered systems, because other published catalogs contain only 79 (EROS: Grison et al. 1995) and 611 (MACHO: Alcock et al. 1997) objects.

Very good quality of the DIA photometry is clearly visible in the light curves of presented stars. Also magnitude limit is low, as shown in Fig. 3, which presents the histogram of the DIA $`I`$-band brightness for all eclipsing stars found in the LMC.

Fig. 4 presents a picture of the LMC from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) with contours of the OGLE-II fields. Positions of the eclipsing binary stars are marked with black dots. The stars are distributed proportionally to the density of the LMC stars, with the largest concentration in the fields LMC\_SC2–LMC\_SC7.

Fig. 5 shows the histogram of orbital periods of the LMC eclipsing variables in 0.25 day bins from 0 to 10 days. Dashed, dot-dashed and solid lines correspond to classes EA, EB and EW, respectively and dotted line corresponds to all eclipsing objects. Additional 416 objects with periods longer than 10 days are distributed more or less uniformly and their number falls rapidly to zero at longer periods. The longest reliable period found among all objects equals to 251.096 days (LMC\_SC16 OGLE053725.90-700223.3), but there are two objects (LMC\_SC21 OGLE052052.41-700655.1 and LMC\_SC19 OGLE054310.48-703057.8), with only one or two eclipses observed, which periods can be even longer. However, these periods cannot be derived reliably with the present dataset.

The majority of stars are short period systems with the most frequent period of about 1.5 days. EA type is the most numerous class of eclipsing objects in the LMC. Its period distribution is characterized by a broad maximum at 1.5–2.5 days. Periods of stars from EB class are distributed with wide, flat maximum in the range of 1–2 days. The EW class is least numerous and has a maximum at periods of about 1 day. Distribution of the latter class is, however, severely biased because only long period tail of these objects from the LMC is bright enough to be in the range of the OGLE data. The remaining part of this class are foreground Galactic variables.

Fig. 6. presents I vs. $`VI`$ color-magnitude diagram for all eclipsing binary stars from the catalog. EA, EB and EW classes are marked with different symbols. Fig. 6 indicates, that almost all eclipsing stars belong to the LMC and there are only a few foreground systems. All three classes seem to be distributed uniformly over the CMD diagram.

In Fig. 7 we present CMD diagram for all eclipsing binary stars in the LMC, dividing stars into 4 groups depending on their periods: short, medium, long and very long. Each group is marked with different symbol. This plot was created similarly to the one for the eclipsing binaries found in the SMC (Fig. 3 in Udalski et al. 1998a). Both figures indicate close similarities in the distribution in the CMD of the eclipsing binary stars from both Magellanic Clouds. The majority of short and medium period eclipsing stars belong to the young population located on the main sequence. Long period stars are located in the lower giant branch or on the right part of the main sequence, i.e., they are probably evolved main sequence stars. Very long period stars are mostly concentrated in the upper part of the red giant branch.

## 6 . Completeness of the Catalog and Network Efficiency

Assessment of the completeness of our catalog is important for statistical studies of eclipsing binaries in the LMC. Fig. 3, showing distribution of magnitudes of eclipsing objects, suggests that our sample should be complete to about $`I17.5`$ mag. In general, the completeness is a function of magnitude, quality of photometry, period and other factors. We attempted to determine the mean completeness of our catalog by comparing objects detected in the overlapping regions of neighboring fields. Based on astrometric solutions, we checked, which of the detected eclipsing binary stars should have a counterpart in the neighboring field and compared these objects with actually detected stars. In total, 238 stars should be theoretically paired up. In practice 202 stars with pairs were found, yielding the mean completeness of our catalog equal to about 85%. However it should be noted that this is certainly a lower limit as the regions close to the edge of each field are affected by non-perfect pointing of the telescope leading to effectively smaller number of observations.

Classification types and periods of paired stars were very similar to their counterparts, however we unified them to the values of star with larger number of observations.

Fig. 8 presents the diagram of brightness of the system vs. $`\mathrm{log}P`$ for stars used in our test. Solid dots mark stars that were paired in the neighboring fields. Crosses show missed pairs. It can be seen that completeness is depending on brightness – most unpaired stars are fainter than $`I17.5`$ mag. Histogram of brightness of all eclipsing binaries (Fig. 3) also indicates, that completeness is likely to be better than 90% for objects brighter than $`I<17.5`$ mag and then it falls gradually to zero for stars fainter than $`I20`$ mag.

We also used paired stars from overlapping fields to check the neural network efficiency. Among 238 stars which should be paired, we found 5 different stars rejected in our pipeline before entering the net, in most cases because of small number of observations. Consequently, only 233 of 238 objects entered the net, leading to only 228 to-be-paired objects. Because we found 202 paired stars, we checked 26 not paired objects and found that 10 of them were rejected by the network (0-class) and one was classified as a “saw-shape” object. Assuming, that the remaining 15 stars (i.e., 6%) passed correctly through the net, but were somehow misclassified or rejected during visual inspection, it gives 217 objects, which were correctly classified by the network. Compared to 228 objects entered, it yields about 95% neural network efficiency. It is worth noticing that the network behavior was “secure” in a sense that it was rather rejecting eclipsing variables than classifying them to wrong classes (one star of 228 gives probability of a mistake less than 1%).

Independently, we checked the network efficiency by visual inspection of all rejected stars (i.e., classified to 0-class) and found additional 146 candidates for eclipsing variables. Compared to 2681 eclipsing stars classified correctly, it yields again about 94% network efficiency. However, one should note, that these tests are only crude approximation and more advanced tests are needed to check neural network efficiency in more detail. Nevertheless, our results are very encouraging and confirm good performance of our algorithm based on artificial neural network. Therefore, it seems it could be applied successfully also in other implementations of automatic classification of variable stars.

## 7 . Candidates for Distance Measurements

Selection of systems suitable for distance determination is one of the main and the most important applications of the catalog of eclipsing binary stars. The catalog contains large number of bright and well detached systems, suitable for spectroscopic study. From EA class, which corresponds to detached eclipsing systems, we selected 36 stars, which satisfied the following criteria: brightness in the I-band $`<`$ 16 mag and depth of secondary minimum $`>`$ 0.2 mag.

Fig. 9 presents the diagram of the I-band brightness vs. secondary eclipse depth. The selection region is marked. Note that for a part of objects the depth of the secondary eclipse is deeper than 0.7 mag. For some very ellipsoidal stars this can be a real feature caused by ellipsoidal shape and gravitational darkening. For the others this is probably an artifact caused by crude determination of the depth by automatic procedure in the case of noisy photometry, nonaccurate transformation of the DIA flux differences to magnitudes in the case of blended objects and uncertain period ($`2\times P`$ vs. $`P`$). Table 4 contains main information about the selected stars: number of star in the catalog, field, identification, orbital period, heliocentric J.D. of the primary minimum ($`T_02450000`$) corrected for the position of the star in driftscan image, I-band magnitude, I-band amplitude (i.e., depth of the primary minimum), I-band depth of the secondary minimum, $`VI`$ color, $`BV`$ color and overlapping field if a given star is also present. Color value of $`99.99`$ stands for no observations in the B or V bands. Appendix D presents the DIA I-band light curves of 36 selected stars. The ordinate is phase with 0.0 value corresponding to the deeper eclipse. Abscissa is I-band magnitude. Magnitudes at the top and bottom left are the brightness of the maximum and primary minimum, respectively. Period of the star is also given. Light curve is repeated twice for clarity.

All information about selected eclipsing binaries, light curves as well as finding charts can be found in the OGLE Internet archive and via WWW Interface (see below).

## 8 . The Catalog in the INTERNET

The Catalog of eclipsing binary stars is available on-line through ftp and WWW from the OGLE Internet archive. The Catalog can be accessed via anonymous ftp at the following addresses:

ftp://sirius.astrouw.edu.pl/~ogle/ogle2/var\_stars/lmc/ecl

ftp://bulge.princeton.edu/~ogle/ogle2/var\_stars/lmc/ecl

WWW interface to the catalog is available from the following addresses:

http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/~ogle

http://bulge.princeton.edu/~ogle

The Catalog will be regularly updated when the final set of the OGLE-II data is available and/or any errors, unavoidable in so large dataset, are found. The most recent version will always be available in the Internet from the above addresses. The Catalog will also be significantly extended when large enough number of epochs in the ongoing OGLE-III phase is collected. As the OGLE-III fields cover practically entire LMC the final version of the Catalog will include the vast majority of eclipsing stars from the LMC.

## 9 . Summary

The catalog of eclipsing binary stars found during the OGLE-II project in the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest set of such type variable stars. The catalog contains 2580 eclipsing stars of three main types EA, EB and EW. Its high completeness which was obtained by using automated search algorithm based on artificial neural network makes it very useful for many statistical analysis of the LMC stars. Very good quality of photometry and very long time-base of the OGLE-II observations allowed to obtain good quality light curves for most objects in the catalog and very accurate orbital periods. Additionally we selected a subsample of bright detached eclipsing systems suitable for distance determinations. With the high resolution spectra obtained with the largest 6-8 m class telescopes very accurate distance determinations to these objects should be potentially possible, allowing independent, accurate determination of the distance to the LMC.

Acknowledgements. We would like to thank Prof. Bohdan Paczyński for his encouragements and discussions about this work. We would also like to thank Dr. Słavek Ruciński for his help, and Dr. Grzegorz Pojmański and Tomasz Mizerski for making their computer programs available. This work was partly supported by the KBN grant 2P03D02523 to Ł. Wyrzykowski and NASA grant NAG5-12212 and NSF grant AST-0204908 to B. Paczyński. We acknowledge usage of the Digitized Sky Survey which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute based on photographic data obtained using the UK Schmidt Telescope, operated by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.

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