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# Properties of Radio-Selected Broad Absorption-Line Quasars from the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey

## 1. Introduction

Until recently, a search of the astronomical literature would have revealed that broad absorption lines (BAL) are seen in approximately 10% of optically selected quasars (Foltz et al. (1990); Weymann et al. (1991)) and in exactly 0% of radio-loud quasars (Stocke et al. (1992)). This dichotomy has puzzled astronomers for years. The BAL quasars can be divided into two classes, high-ionization and low-ionization, which are primarily defined by the presence of broad absorption by C IV $`\lambda 1549`$ and Mg II $`\lambda 2800`$, respectively. (Note that all low-ionization BAL quasars also show high ionization absorption). The high-ionization BAL (HiBAL) quasars are more common, including 10% of all optically selected quasars, while the rarer low-ionization BAL (LoBAL) quasars make up only 1% of optically selected quasars.

Prior to the FIRST survey there was only a single example of a LoBAL quasar whose spectrum shows strong absorption by metastable excited states of Fe II (Q 0059$``$2735, Hazard et al. (1987)). Becker et al. (1997) reported the discovery of two more objects resembling Q0059$``$2735 (FIRST J084044.5+363328 and J155633.8+351758), the second of which is radio-loud. We will refer to these as FeLoBAL quasars. Both of the new unusual quasars were found by making optical identifications of radio sources from the VLA FIRST survey (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm, Becker, White, & Helfand (1995); White et al. (1997)). Subsequently, Brotherton et al. (1998) identified five more radio-loud BAL quasars (two HiBAL and three LoBAL quasars) from a complete sample of radio-selected ultraviolet excess quasars, firmly establishing the existence of radio-loud BAL quasars. Lastly, Wills, Brandt, and Laor (1999) have recently suggested that the radio-loud quasar PKS 1004+13 is also a BAL quasar.

For the past five years we have been developing several new radio-selected samples of quasars based on the VLA FIRST survey. The most extensive of these is the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey or FBQS (Gregg et al. 1996, hereafter FBQS (1); White et al. 2000, hereafter FBQS (2)). The goal of the FBQS is to identify all quasars in the FIRST survey brighter than 17.8 on the POSS-I $`E`$ (red) plate. In the initial 2700 square degrees of the FIRST survey, we defined a sample of 1238 quasar candidates based on positional coincidence between a FIRST source and a POSS-I stellar object (see FBQS (1) and FBQS (2) for a detailed discussion of the candidate selection criteria). Spectra have been collected for 90% of these candidates, 636 of which have been identified as quasars. Among these are 29 which display BAL characteristics. We present the optical spectra and radio spectral indices of these BAL quasars, comparing their radio and optical properties to previous samples of optically selected BAL quasars. We discuss the selection biases inherent in the survey results and discuss why our sample differs from those based on optically selected samples.

## 2. Identification and Classification of BAL Quasars

The FBQS BAL quasars are defined to be any quasar which shows significant broad absorption blueward of either Mg II $`\lambda 2800`$ or C IV $`\lambda 1549`$. We have chosen not to employ any strict definition of a BAL, such as the “BALnicity” index of Weymann et al. (1991), which requires continuous absorption of at least 10% in depth spanning more than 2000 km s-1, discounting absorption closer than 3000 km s-1 blueward of the emission peak. Weymann’s highly conservative definition has the advantage of unambiguously distinguishing between associated absorbers and “classical BALs” but could unnecessarily exclude several potentially very interesting members of the class. We advocate classification of absorption systems based on their physical characteristics such as variability and partial coverage (c.f. Barlow et al. (1997)) and so we choose not to exclude any likely BAL quasars.

Even though we did not use “BALnicity” to define our sample, we have calculated the BALnicity index for each of our BALs. The values are given in Table 1. In all, seven of our BALs fail the BALnicity test, i.e., they have zero BALnicity. Three of these are LoBALs for which by necessity the BALnicity was calculated from the Mg II absorption line, a line for which the test was never meant to be applied (Weymann et al 1991). For example, Voit et al (1993) found that Mg II absorption troughs are usually narrower than the C IV absorptions troughs in LoBALs. Two of these LoBALs are in fact FeLoBALs and the correctness of their inclusion is almost beyond question in so far as the conditions necessary for absorption by excited states of Fe strongly indicate an intrinsic system local to the active nucleus (FIRST J084044.5+363328 and FIRST 121442.3+280329). The inclusion of the third (FIRST J112220.5+312441) is problematical and will only be resolved with an observation of C IV. Inclusion of the four HiBALs which fail the test can be justified as follows. Two of them (FIRST J095707.4+235625 and J141334.4+421202) have nearly black C IV absorption spanning 4000 km/sec which is very unlikely to break up into a blend of narrow lines. FIRST J115023.6+281908 has three C IV absorption systems with velocities up to 11700 km/sec. Even though none of the absorbers individually is 2000 km/sec broad, the three taken together are very suggestive of being an intrinsic BAL outflow. Lastly, the Si IV absorption lines in FIRST J160354.2+300209 show clear evidence of partial covering which is normally taken to be a property of BALs (Arav et al. 1999).

The typical wavelength coverage of the FBQS spectra is 3800 to 8000 Å. For quasars with $`0.5<z<1.7`$, the MgII 2800 feature is shifted into the observed range, permitting identification of LoBALs. Somewhat higher redshift LoBALs can be identified through broad absorption by Al III $`\lambda 1860`$ as in the case of FIRST J105427.1+253600. HiBAL quasars can be identified only for $`z1.4`$ which brings CIV $`\lambda `$1549 well into the observed spectral range. (Since the observed wavelength coverage is not uniform for all the FBQS spectra, the redshift range over which C IV is observable differs from quasar to quasar.) Some of our HiBAL quasars may actually be unrecognized LoBAL or FeLoBAL quasars, since LoBALs also exhibit broad CIV $`\lambda `$1549 and other high-ionization species.

Table 1, partially excerpted from Table 2 in FBQS2, lists FIRST catalog RA and Dec (J2000), recalibrated and extinction-corrected $`E`$ and $`O`$ magnitudes, red extinction corrections $`A(E)`$, FIRST peak and integrated radio flux densities, the computed BALnicity index (as defined in Weymann et al. (1991)), the maximum outflow velocity in the absorption lines, and redshifts for the 29 BAL quasars identified to date in the FBQS. Also in Table 1 are the radio luminosity $`L_R`$ at a rest frequency of 5-GHz (calculated using the observed radio spectral indices from Table 2 and hence different from the values given in FBQS2), the absolute $`B`$ magnitude $`M_B`$, and the radio loudness, $`R^{}`$, the ratio of the 5 GHz radio flux density to the 2500 Å optical flux in the quasar rest frame (using $`\alpha _{radio}`$ from Table 2 and assuming $`\alpha _{opt}=1`$, Stocke et al. (1992)). We use the (APS-calibrated) APM $`O`$ magnitude (White et al. 2000) as a direct estimate of $`B`$, and we do not correct the optical magnitude for the emission-line contribution. The cosmological parameters $`H_\mathrm{o}=50\text{km}\text{s}^1\text{Mpc}^1`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$, and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ are adopted. In the last column, we give the type of BAL. Our spectra for FIRST J112220.5+312441 and J115023.6+281908, while suggestive that these objects are BAL QSOs, are not definitive; this uncertainty is indicated by question marks next to the type in Table 1. Figures 1 and 3 show the spectra of the BAL quasars, plotted in the rest frame to facilitate the recognition of the sometimes complex absorption features.

The BAL quasars in Table 1 divide nearly evenly into 15 HiBALs and 14 LoBALs. Both FIRST J105427.2+253600 and J132422.5+245222 are classified as LoBALs solely by the presence of Al III $`\lambda 1860`$, since their Mg II is redshifted into the near IR. Four of the LoBALs belong to the rare class of FeLoBALs (Becker et al. 1997), characterized by the metastable FeII absorption bands centered at $`2350`$ and $`2575`$ Å. These four FeLoBAL quasars vary markedly in the depth of their absorption features. Two of the other LoBAL quasars (FIRST J140806.2+305449 and J152350.4+391405) are unusual insofar as the spectra appear suppressed blueward of 2500 Å in the rest frame. Several of the BAL quasars, both high and low ionization, are almost devoid of obvious emission lines (e.g., FIRST J142703.6+270940, J142013.1+253404).

## 3. Radio Properties of the FIRST BAL Quasars

The FIRST Survey provides 20 cm maps with 5 arcsec angular resolution taken with the NRAO VLA111The NRAO is operated by Associated Universities, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. in the B-configuration. To investigate the radio spectral indices and radio morphologies of the radio-selected BAL quasars, we have reobserved nearly all of the objects with the VLA in either A or D configurations (sometimes both) at 20 and 3.6 cm wavelength. The observed flux densities of the quasars at 20 cm from the three different VLA configurations (A, B, and D) are given in Table 2, along with the A and D configuration 3.6 cm flux densities. These are supplemented by data from the WENSS (Westerbork Northern Sky Survey, Rengelink et al. (1997)) survey at 92 cm, the Green Bank 6 cm survey (Becker, White, & Edwards (1991)), and the NVSS 20 cm survey (Condon et al. 1998). Angular resolutions for all the observations are listed in Table 2. Spectral indices are given for 28 of the BAL quasars; the sources have a mix of flat spectra (9 sources, $`\alpha >0.5`$) and steep spectra (19 sources, $`\alpha 0.5`$), with 9 of the sources falling close to the dividing line ($`0.6\alpha 0.4`$). Where possible, the spectral indices are based on simultaneous observations at two frequencies.

This heterogeneous set of radio observations spans a wide range of angular resolutions, so the measured flux densities may not be directly comparable; any spectral index derived from data with different angular resolutions is uncertain unless the radio source is effectively a point source at the highest resolution available. In that case, the flux densities from all the observations can be directly compared, assuming a nonvariable source. If all the flux density measurements at a given frequency for an object are the same independent of angular resolution, then the point source assumption is probably valid. If the flux density measured with low resolution is less than that at high-resolution, then the source is probably variable. If the low-resolution flux density is higher than the high-resolution value, the difference could arise from either resolution effects or variability.

The VLA observations provide some indication of the radio brightness distribution and morphology. Roughly 90% of the BAL quasars appear point-like at the FIRST resolution of $`5\mathrm{}`$. This is in sharp contrast to the parent population of quasars in the FBQS, which are evenly split between point-like and extended (based on a subset of several hundred quasars with a similar range of parameters to the BAL quasars: $`z>0.5`$ and a 20 cm flux density less than 50 mJy). Of 13 BAL quasars observed in the A configuration of the VLA, 11 are still unresolved at the level of $`1.5\mathrm{}`$.

### 3.1. Comments on Individual Radio Sources

FIRST J072418.4+415914 – Appears to be variable at 20 cm.

FIRST J080901.3+275342 – Slightly resolved in FIRST.

FIRST J084044.5+363328 – A second radio source positioned $`27\mathrm{}`$ away from 0840+3633 has a FIRST flux density of 2.5 mJy and appears extended. This source is too close for the NVSS to resolve from 0840+3633 and probably explains the higher NVSS flux density. The lower B-configuration 20 cm flux density was used to determine the spectral index in Table 2.

FIRST J093404.0+315331 – Appears to be variable at 20 cm.

FIRST J115023.6+281907 – Appears to be variable at 20 cm.

FIRST J140806.2+305449 – Possibly a triple source, although a chance alignment of sources is more likely since both of the other sources break up into double sources in higher resolution images.

FIRST J152350.4+391405 – Appears to be variable at 20 cm.

FIRST J160354.2+300209 – Possibly a GigaHertz-peaked radio spectrum.

FIRST J164152.3+305852 – Partially resolved by FIRST, consistent with the higher NVSS flux density but subsequent D configuration data suggests variability.

FIRST J165543.2+394520 – Appears to be variable at 20 cm.

## 4. The FBQS BAL Quasar Fraction and Its Dependence on Radio-Loudness

The frequency of BALs within the FBQS can be derived by comparing the number of BAL quasars found to the number of quasars with rest-frame wavelength coverage (determined by the redshift and observed spectral range) that would have allowed absorption to be seen had it been present. For the redshift range relevant to LoBAL quasars, $`0.5z1.7`$, there are $`350`$ quasars in the FBQS in which LoBALs could have been confirmed had they been present. In this same redshift range, we find 11 are LoBAL or FeLoBAL quasars (3$`\pm `$1%, where the uncertainty is the standard deviation of a binomial distribution). There are 100 quasars in the redshift range relevant to HiBALs, $`z1.4`$, in which the wavelength coverage would have permitted C IV absorption to be seen had it been present. Of these 100 quasars, eighteen show high-ionization broad absorption. This includes the 3 high-redshift LoBALs, so designated because they also show Al III absorption; the other 15 objects show only high-ionization absorption. Our BAL rate is therefore $`18\pm 3.8`$%. If we exclude from this those objects with zero BALnicity, our rate is reduced to 14% which is roughly a 50% increase over the rate seen in optically selected samples ($``$9% in the LBQS; Foltz et al. 1990). It is worth noting of the unambiguous BAL quasars, i.e., those with nonzero BALnicity, one third are either LoBALs or FeLoBALs while the comparable number for the LBQS is 10%. This is very suggestive that the frequency of LoBAL quasars is highly dependent on radio luminosity as was already postulated in Becker et al. (1997).

Until the discovery of FIRST J155633.8+351758 by Becker et al. (1997) and several additional objects by Brotherton et al. (1998), it was believed that the BAL phenomenon did not occur in radio-loud quasars, i.e., those with $`R^{}>10`$. The 29 FBQS BALs demonstrate otherwise. In Figure 5 we plot $`\mathrm{log}R^{}`$ vs $`z`$ (where $`R^{}`$ is taken from FBQS (2)). Consistent with the Becker et al. (1997) and Brotherton et al. (1998) results, the BAL quasars are not confined to the radio-quiet regime. Our data do suggest that the incidence of BALs decreases for radio-loud quasars with $`R^{}>100`$. For the LoBALs in particular, $`R^{}`$ never exceeds 35. In comparison, 38% of the quasars in the FBQS over the same redshift range (z $`>0.5`$) have $`R^{}>35`$. The incidence of LoBALs is 5% for quasars with $`R^{}<35`$. While based on a rather small sample, these statistics suggest that the frequency of LoBAL quasars is dependent on radio loudness. The likelihood of a quasar being a HiBAL, however, shows no obvious dependence on radio loudness. HiBALs are slightly under-represented in quasars with $`R^{}>100`$, but this is not statistically significant. A better delineation of the frequency of BALs as a function of $`R^{}`$ will have to wait until more sky is surveyed by the FBQS, but the existence of a population of radio-loud BALs, both low and high ionization, is now firmly established.

Using $`R^{}`$ as a measure of radio loudness may be a little misleading for BAL quasars in so far as the BAL quasars are affected by reddening which would reduce the optical magnitude and hence inflate the value of $`R^{}`$. As we point out in section 4.2 (see Figure 6), if we use the alternative definition of radio-loud, ie, $`L_R>10^{32}`$ erg s-1 Hz-1 (Miller, Rawlings, and Saunders 1993), which is independent of the observed optical magnitude, we still find that a significant number of the FBQS BAL quasars are radio-loud.

The traditional measure of the significance of the broad absorption lines in a quasar spectrum is the BALnicity index (BI; Weymann et al. (1991)). In Figures 6(a) and 6(b) we plot the dependence of BI on the observed radio luminosity, for HiBAL and LoBAL quasars respectively. For HiBAL quasars, there is an anticorrelation between BI and $`L_R`$ (The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is $`0.85`$ which would arise by chance with a probability of only $`6\times 10^5`$). No such anticorrelation is apparent for the LoBAL quasars in Figure 6(b). In Figures 6(c) and 6(d), we plot the dependence of the maximum outflow velocity $`V_{max}`$ against $`L_R`$ for HiBAL and LoBAL quasars. There is a suggestion of an anticorrelation for HiBAL quasars (the Spearman rank correlation coefficient is $`0.70`$; probability of only 0.0037), though it is considerably less convincing than that with BI.

The lack of correlation between BI or $`V_{max}`$ and $`L_R`$ for the LoBAL quasars may simply reflect the lack of high radio luminosity LoBAL quasars. If HiBAL quasars with luminosities greater than $`10^{33}`$ ergs/s/Hz are omitted from the plots, at most a weak correlation is detectable in the less luminous objects.

### 4.1. Why the FBQS BAL Quasar Fraction is High

There are several possible reasons for the higher frequency of BAL quasars in the FBQS. One possible explanation is the looser definition of BAL used in this paper, a definition divorced from the BALnicity index. Since the fraction of BALs seen in the LBQS has only appeared as an AAS abstract (Foltz et al. (1990)), it is difficult to evaluate the magnitude of this effect. Another possible explanation is that the frequency of the BAL phenomenon depends on the radio emission, albeit a reversal of the old thesis that only radio-quiet quasars can have BALs (Stocke et al. (1992)). The FBQS quasars span the radio-quiet/radio-loud boundary, filling in what used to be considered a bimodal distribution which was perhaps the result of selection effects in other surveys (White et al. 2000). Based on a limited sample, Francis, Hooper, & Impey (1993) found that BAL quasars in the LBQS appeared primarily in this radio-intermediate regime; accepting their result as correct, the FBQS naturally includes BALs passed over, for whatever reasons, by optical surveys. It is easy to imagine that the objects in Figure 1 that do not have strong emission lines or that have significantly redder continua than typical quasars would be overlooked in surveys with optical selection criteria.

A related reason for the high incidence of BAL quasars is that our sample was selected using the red $`E`$ magnitude of the optical counterparts while most quasar surveys (including the LBQS) are based on bluer $`B`$ magnitudes. A plot of the color of the FBQS quasars as a function of redshift is shown in Figure 7. The reddest objects in the figure are low-redshift objects, in which there is undoubtedly a large contribution of starlight. The BALs in general and the LoBALs in particular are predominant among the reddest quasars with $`z0.5`$, accounting for over 50% of the quasars redder than $`OE`$ of 1.3. The BAL quasars are redder than the average FBQS quasar by $`0.5`$ magnitude. Hence samples based on $`B`$ magnitudes have an effective magnitude cutoff 0.5 magnitudes higher for BAL quasars than for the non-BAL quasars which, owing to the steep quasar number counts would substantially reduce the observed incidence of BAL quasars. This effect is tantamount to a differential $`k`$-correction between BAL and non-BAL quasars and has been discussed in earlier studies (Boroson & Meyers 1992; Sprayberry & Foltz 1992). It is possible that the red FBQS BAL quasars represent the tip of the iceberg and that there remains a large population of BAL quasars that are yet redder and do not make it into the FBQS despite its weak color selection ($`OE<2`$) (Becker at al. 1997).

The red colors of the BAL quasars are not simply the effect of broad absorption lines suppressing the flux in the $`O`$ band (typically $``$0.2 mag), although this contributes part of the difference. The unabsorbed continuum itself appears red, especially in the LoBAL quasars, which is suggestive of dust (Brotherton et al. 1999; Yamamoto & Vansevicius 1999). The color difference extends to the infrared (Hall et al. 1997). Egami et al. (1996) presented the near-IR spectrum of Q 0059$``$2735, which displays a very large Balmer decrement (H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ = 7.6), almost the same as that seen in FIRST J155633.8+351758 (Dey 1998, priv. comm.). For case B recombination, H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ = 2.85; and “normal” blue quasars usually show H$`\alpha `$/H$`\beta `$ $`<`$ 4. (While case B is not likely to apply to Balmer lines and the Balmer decrement, the empirical result is that the smallest Balmer decrements are consistent with case B and that the Balmer decrement has been shown to correlate with the continuum slope in a manner consistent with an intrinsic case B ratio and dust reddening (Baker 1997)). The observed Balmer decrements of these extreme objects then imply $`A_V3`$, which is consistent with the Brotherton et al. (1997) estimate for J155633.8+351758 based on spectropolarimetry. Because of the bright magnitude limit of the FBQS ($`E=17.8`$), and the redshifts required to see BALs in the optical, modest reddening will remove BAL quasars from the sample (especially the LoBAL quasars which appear redder than other classes, e.g., Sprayberry and Foltz (1992)). If it suffered no intrinsic reddening, FIRST J155633.8+351758 would likely have been selected for inclusion in the FBQS.

### 4.2. Why the FBQS BAL Quasar Fraction is Low

The FBQS certainly misses BAL quasars. The magnitude limit discriminates against BAL quasars when the heavily absorbed spectral regions fall within the $`E`$ bandpass ($`6250\pm 180`$ Å). While less affected than the $`O`$ bandpass, $`E`$ magnitudes are still affected by dust reddening. The BAL quasar fraction we find, $``$18%, is then a lower limit to the actual BAL quasar fraction for radio-intermediate quasars. The LoBAL quasars, which can be significantly dust reddened, are more susceptible to color selection effects than HiBAL quasars.

Goodrich (1997) and Krolik & Voit (1998) have argued that the true fraction of BAL quasars is much higher ($``$30%). While we would agree that the true fraction is possibly this high, the FBQS sample undermines their position that BAL quasars are radio-moderate (Francis, Hooper, & Impey (1993)) because of optical attenuation rather than intrinsically strong radio emission. Figure 8 plots the radio luminosity of the FBQS quasars as a function of redshift, clearly showing that at least some BAL quasars are intrinsically strong radio sources.

Goodrich (1997) (see also Goodrich & Miller 1995) had a second reason for arguing that the optical continuum was suppressed and the true fraction of BAL quasars was underestimated: high polarization. The idea is that scattered and polarized light is present in all quasars, but only becomes noticeable when the direct light is somehow attenuated. Hutsemekers, Lamy, & Remy (1998) found that, on average, LoBAL quasars are more polarized than HiBAL quasars, which are in turn (slightly) more polarized than non-BAL quasars. This is consistent with the idea that LoBAL quasars possess more absorbing material and dust along the line of sight.

Estimating the true fraction of BAL quasars remains a difficult problem given the many unknowns that must be assumed or derived with incomplete information. What we can say with some certainty is that the true fraction of BAL quasars among radio-selected quasars is greater than 18%.

### 4.3. Radio Properties and Unified Schemes

The similarity of the emission lines in BAL quasars and normal quasars (Weymann et al. (1991)) suggests that BAL quasars are normal quasars seen at a viewing angle that intersects an outflow common to all quasars. The spectropolarimetry results have often been interpreted in terms of a preferred orientation: Goodrich & Miller (1995), Hines & Wills (1995), and Cohen et al. (1995) all suggest that BAL quasars are normal quasars seen along a line of sight skimming the edge of a disk or torus, with BAL clouds accelerated from its surface by a wind, and polarized continuum light scattered above along a less obscured path. LoBAL quasars are those seen at the largest inclinations, thus presenting the largest column densities.

The jets of quasars provide a way to measure orientation. The relativistic beaming model for radio sources (e.g., Orr & Browne 1982) unifies core-dominated (flat spectrum) and lobe-dominated (steep spectrum) radio sources by means of orientation: core-dominant objects are those viewed close to the jet axis, while lobe-dominant objects are those viewed at larger angles. Indeed, relativistic jets appear to be present in at least some radio-quiet quasars (e.g., Blundell & Beasley 1998), and a flat radio spectral index in a radio-quiet quasar may indicate a beamed source (e.g., Falcke, Sherwood, & Patnaik 1996).

We find that about two thirds of the FBQS BAL quasars have steep radio spectra ($`\alpha <0.5`$), as expected for edge-on systems, but that the remaining third have flat spectra (including clearly radio-loud sources such as FIRST J141334.4+421202, as well as J155633.8+351758 which is not in this sample). This is inconsistent with the simple unified scheme, which predicts only steep spectrum sources for an edge-on geometry.

Similarly, Barvainis & Lonsdale (1997) found that the radio spectra of radio-quiet BAL quasars have a range of slopes, again including both flat and steep spectra, suggesting that BAL quasars are seen for a range of orientations with respect to the system (jet) axis.

The radio morphology of the FIRST BAL quasars is also unexpected for the unified edge-on scheme. VLA A array maps of our BALQSOs show that 80% of the sources are unresolved at the 0.2″ scale. This could be because they are small, “frustrated” or young sources, similar to compact steep spectrum sources, or because they are very core-dominated with the jet beamed toward us. The compactness of the radio emission, even in the radio-loud sources, favors their existence in gas-rich interacting systems which can confine the radio emission to small scales.

There is an alternative to “unification by orientation,” which may be described as “unification by time,” with BAL quasars characterized as young or recently refueled quasars. Boroson & Meyers (1992) found that LoBAL quasars constitute 10% of IR-selected quasars, greater than the 1% found in optically selected samples, and that LoBALs show very weak narrow \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 emission. Turnshek et al. (1997) found that 1/3 of weak \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 quasars show BALs. Because \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 is emitted from the extended narrow-line region (NLR), its weakness suggests that obscuring material with a large covering factor is present. We are unaware of any LoBAL quasars with significant \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 emission. Voit et al. (1993) argue that low-ionization BALs are a manifestation of a “quasar’s efforts to expel a thick shroud of gas and dust,” consistent with the scenario of Sanders et al. (1988) in which quasars emerge from dusty, gas-rich merger-produced ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The warm $`IRAS`$-selected BAL quasars ($`0.25<F_\nu (25\mu m)/F_\nu (60\mu m)`$ $`<3`$) Markarian 231 (Smith et al. 1995), $`IRAS`$ 07598+6508 (Boyce et al. 1996), and PG 1700+518 (Hines et al. 1999; Stockton et al. 1998) all show evidence for recent mergers or interactions, including young starbursts.

While the geometry of BAL quasars and their relationship to non-BAL quasars remains an open question, our results do not appear to favor the popular notion that all BAL quasars are normal quasars seen edge-on. The FBQS results are more consistent with the unification by time picture.

## 5. Summary

We have investigated the properties of 29 radio-selected BAL quasars found in the FBQS. The sample comprises 15 high-ionization BAL quasars, and 14 low-ionization BAL quasars, 4 of which are rare FeLoBALs. At least 13 are formally radio-loud, unequivocally establishing the existence of a substantial population of radio-loud quasars exhibiting BAL spectral features.

The frequency of BAL quasars appears to be higher than that found in optically selected samples. Even so, because of selection effects and preferential reddening of LoBAL quasars, the FBQS almost certainly misses additional BAL quasars and the true frequency must be higher. The situation is complicated by indications that the frequency of BAL quasars peaks among the radio-moderate population and decreases for the extremes of radio-loudness. The BAL quasars show compact radio morphologies, and have a range in radio spectral indices. The radio properties do not support the popular scenario in which all BAL quasars are normal quasars seen edge-on. An alternative picture in which BALs are an early stage in the development of new or refueled quasars is preferred.

The success of the FIRST survey is in large measure due to the generous support of a number of organizations. In particular, we acknowledge support from the NRAO, the NSF (grants AST-98-02791 and AST-98-02732), the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48), the Space Telescope Science Institute, NATO, the National Geographic Society (grant NGS No. 5393-094), Columbia University, and Sun Microsystems. We also acknowledge several very helpful comments from an anonymous referee.


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# Quantum computation by optically coupled steady atoms/quantum-dots inside a quantum electro-dynamic cavity

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## Abstract

We present a model for quantum computation using $`n`$ steady 3-level atoms or 3-level quantum dots, kept inside a quantum electro-dynamics (QED) cavity. Our model allows one-qubit operations and the two-qubit controlled-NOT gate as required for universal quantum computation. The $`n`$ quantum bits are described by two energy levels of each atom/dot. An external laser and $`n`$ separate pairs of electrodes are used to address a single atom/dot independent of the others, via Stark effect. The third level of each system and an additional common-mode qubit (a cavity photon) are used for realizing the controlled-NOT operation between any pair of qubits. Laser frequency, cavity frequency, and energy levels are far off-resonance, and they are brought to resonance by modifying the energy-levels of a 3-level system using the Stark effect, only at the time of operation.

preprint:

\] A computer, which follows quantum mechanical principles, has significant advantages over a classical computer . Implementing a quantum computer is based upon the implementation of basic quantum units called quantum bits (two-level systems) and communication among them. Logical operations of a quantum computer can be decomposed into a series of an arbitrary one-qubit rotation plus a two-qubit controlled-NOT operation, thus this set of operations makes a universal quantum computer . A similar set in which the controlled-NOT is replaced by the controlled-phase-shift gate \[$`|00|00`$, $`|01|01`$, $`|10|10`$, and $`|11|11`$\] is also universal . $`n`$ two-level systems can have $`2^n`$ highly entangled (phase coherence) states and a quantum computer takes advantages of performing unitary transformations in a parallel manner on these $`2^n`$ classical strings.

The main difficulties in implementing a quantum computer are the contradicting demands in terms of interaction with the environment. On one hand, a strong controlled interaction is desired in order to operate the computing algorithm (to switch the state of the qubits), but on the other hand uncontrolled interactions are strongly undesired since they cause decoherence of the qubits and hence loss of computing ability. All quantum systems lose their coherence after some time due to non-zero coupling with the environment. Thus the above problem is usually expressed as the need to increase the ratio between the decoherence time and the switching time: a quantum computer must perform all calculations within the decoherence time of the qubit.

Several theoretical and experimental attempts are currently ongoing to realize simple gates (such as the controlled-NOT gate between two qubits). The most realistic ones at the moment are ion-trap , liquid NMR , and cavity-QED . However, serious problems in scaling these systems, and/or in addressing particular qubits create the need for better suggestions or major modifications of these implementations.

The first interesting experiments were done on cavity-QED systems . The cavity-QED computation model is based on the idea of having two types of qubits (atoms and cavity-modes) and it was found very useful in implementing various gates. However, the requirement of mechanical control of atoms makes this model less desirable for quantum computing: the interaction time is controlled by the physical motion of the atoms inside the cavities, and having enough control to let the atom enter a cavity several times (whenever required by the algorithm) is difficult.

The long decoherence time of liquid-NMR and ion trap systems, and easy control of the qubits make these systems a serious candidate for quantum computation. But the problem is in scaling these systems with the increasing numbers of qubits. Like, in case of bulk liquid-NMR, the signal from the system decreases exponentially with the numbers of qubits. Thus the number of qubits comprising the quantum computer has to be small. The ion-trap computation model is based on interaction via a common-mode qubit and it has two main problems: (a) the addressing of an individual qubit by a separate laser directed to each ion is an idea which cannot be implemented yet. (b) the use of only one type of two-qubit interaction—interaction via one common mode. This problem prevents the possibility of running simultaneous several gate operations.

Proposals for a solid state  and solid-state NMR  devices based on nanotechnology, might be more promising for the far future. But even single qubit systems have not been implemented in these systems due to the difficulties in creating and controlling such a single qubit.

Clearly, more candidates for realization of quantum computing devices are still needed, with the hope of a more diverted experimental effort. Such an effort, mainly in the direction of solid-state devices, but combining ideas from existing implementations, might lead to a system where single qubits can be addressed, scaling to large number of qubits made possible, and in the future, may be even a system where fault-tolerant computation can be performed.

This paper suggests a model of a quantum computer that combines the advantages of other models . We shall show how to implement the universal set of gates containing the controlled-phase-shift and the arbitrary one qubit rotation.

As a first step we suggest a hypothetical model of atoms fixed in a cavity, and a pair of electrodes “directed” around each atom to control its energy level-spacing. In this first step, we combine the use of a common mode as in the ion-trap computation model , with the two types of qubits as suggested by cavity-QED models , to obtain better control of addressing a single qubit. Unfortunately, fixing atoms for the required time scales is not yet realistic. In general, atoms are in motion in all cavity QED experiments.

In the second step, we suggest replacing the atoms by quantum dots, so the idea of “fixing” the qubits becomes more realistic. The technical ability of putting a single qubit in a single quantum dot, and the technical ability of putting a quantum dot in a cavity exist separately. Combining them together (while demanding also that the cavity is highly reflecting) is far from the ability of current experiments, but we hope to motivate this direction by showing that the computation model we obtain is very promising. Recently, it has been experimentally shown  that a single electron can be controlled in a quantum dot; The dot size and dielectric modulation are however large $`(.5\mu m)^3`$.

A sketch of the model for the proposed quantum-computer (with steady atoms) is shown in Fig.1. Atoms are kept steady along the axis of the cavity. An external laser source is accessible to all atoms, and is directed perpendicular to the cavity axis. Electrodes around each atom (which we refer as “Stark plates”) are used to control its level spacing via the Stark effect, and are perpendicular to the laser and the cavity axis. When required in the protocol, a strong electric field is applied to the atom by changing the voltage on the electrodes. This field changes the energy level separation (a thorough study has been done for Rydberg atoms in Ref.). The required electric field can be calculated easily once the energy levels and the wave functions of the system are chosen. We will assume that the on/off switching of the electric field is but slow such that the change in the original wave function is insignificant. At the same time, it must be fast relative to the time steps of the computation. The applied DC field has to be a fraction of the order of the atomic energy level separations.

Quantum bits of the computer are described by the ground state ($`|g`$), and the first excited state ($`|e_0`$) of the atom; a third level ($`|e_1`$) is used for a controlled phase shift operation. Rotation of an individual qubit is achieved by applying a laser pulse to all atoms, while only one the qubit undergoing transformation is on-resonance with the laser frequency, and others are far off-resonance.

Communication between any two qubits is done by a common mode cavity photon as described now. The photonic mode is in its ground state (zero photons) and a maximum of one cavity photon is present at the time of interaction between two qubits. The cavity’s $`0`$-photon and $`1`$-photon states are defined by $`|0`$ and $`|1`$ respectively. The atomic levels are kept far off-resonance with respect to the resonant frequency of the cavity, to avoid undesired interaction (in which a transition from excited state to ground state takes place while emitting a photon to the cavity). Desired energy levels are brought into resonance with the cavity by changing the Stark field only at the time of logic operations. To perform a controlled operation between any two qubits, we do the following: (a) The state of the first qubit and the vacuum state of the cavity are swapped. (b) the new cavity state is used to perform a controlled operation with another qubit; the third level of the atom is used for that purpose, yielding a controlled-phase-shift gate. (c) Finally, the cavity state is again swapped with the first qubit, so the cavity is back into its vacuum state, and the controlled operation between the two qubits is completed.

We assume that the time for a significant far off-resonance evolution is huge compare to the on-resonance evolution time. We also assume that the cavity is of high-quality and has almost perfect reflecting walls, so that the decoherence time for the cavity mode is much larger than the time between the two required swap operations. The frequency of the laser pulses is off-resonant with the cavity.

We will describe in detail the Hamiltonian leading to the single qubit rotations and the controlled-phase-shift operations. This is done by taking into account the fact that $`|g|e_0`$ and $`|e_0|e_1`$ are allowed dipole transitions, but $`|g|e_1`$ is not an allowed transition due to the definite parity of the wave function.

Let $`\omega _{g;e_0}`$ be the level separations of the qubit (a similar definition applies for $`\omega _{e_0;e_1}`$ and $`\omega _{g;e_1}`$). For the atomic levels with definite parity, we assume that the levels are chosen so that the difference frequencies $`\omega _{g;e_0}`$ and $`\omega _{e_0;e_1}`$ are nearly the same. We treat this case here, but one can easily treat the case where other transitions are allowed or forbidden.

In the following, we describe the steps to obtain the necessary operations involving only one atom at a time, by bringing its levels to be on-resonance with the laser frequency or the cavity mode. The other atoms are kept far off-resonance to avoid their interactions. If the initial levels are such that $`g;e_0`$, and $`e_0;e_1`$ are the allowed transitions, and $`\omega _{e_0;g}<\omega _{e_0;e_1}`$, then one way to choose the cavity and the laser frequencies are such that $`\omega _{e_0;g}<\omega _{e_0;e_1}<\omega _l<\omega _c`$.

By increasing the level separations, the qubit can be brought to be on-resonance with the laser. This increase in level separation must be significant enough that the interaction of off-resonant atoms with the laser is insignificant. By increasing the level separations further, the qubit is brought to be on-resonance with the cavity photon. Each level separation increases with the applied electric field. While increasing the level separation $`\omega _{e_0;g}`$, the level separation $`\omega _{e_0;e_1}`$ will first come to resonance with the cavity. But we will assume that the switching time is much smaller than the inverse Rabi frequency of the atom-cavity system such that there is practically no effect of this resonance crossing.

One qubit rotation is performed by changing the atomic levels so that $`\omega _l=\omega _{e_0}\omega _g`$ and applying the laser pulse. The laser and qubit involved interact on resonance (but $`\omega _l`$ is off resonance with the cavity and with other qubits). The Hamiltonian for the atomic levels in the presence of the laser field is :

$`H_1={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_l}{2}}[\sigma _+e^{i\varphi }+\sigma _{}e^{i\varphi }]\text{.}`$
Where $`\sigma _+=|e_0><g|`$, $`\sigma _{}=|g><e_0|`$, $`\varphi `$ is the phase factor of the laser at the location of the basic unit, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_l`$ is the Rabi frequency due to the laser $`\mathrm{\Omega }_l=E_0\mu _{ge_0}`$, where $`\mu _{ge_0}`$ is the dipole moment for $`|g>|e_0>`$ transition and $`E_0`$ is the strength of the electric field.

If the interaction time between the laser pulse and the qubit is $`t=\frac{k\pi }{\mathrm{\Omega }_l}`$, then the time evolution operator is

$`\widehat{V}_m^k(\varphi )=exp[ik{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}(\sigma _+^me^{i\varphi }+\sigma _{}^me^{i\varphi })]`$
The process is an energy non-conserving process, and the system is fed energy from the laser field.

The Jaynes-Cumming Hamiltonian  for a 2-level system, which is on-resonance with the cavity photon is described by:

$`H_2=i{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_c}{2}}[\sigma _+\widehat{a}^{}\sigma _{}\widehat{a}]`$
Where $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ are the annihilation and creation operators for common mode photon, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ is the photon Rabi frequency of the cavity-atom system.

If the interaction time between the laser pulse and the qubit is $`t=\frac{k\pi }{\mathrm{\Omega }_c}`$, then the time evolution operator is

$`\widehat{U}_m^k(\varphi )=exp[ik{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{2}}[i\sigma _+^m\widehat{a}^{}i\sigma _{}^m\widehat{a}]]\text{.}`$
To get a control-phase-shift between two qubits (two atoms/QDs, say $`m`$ and $`n`$ such that $`m`$ is the control and $`n`$ is the target), we need two types of cavity-atom operations: A $`\pi `$ pulse for obtaining the swap operation, where the qubit levels $`g;e_0`$, and the cavity levels are used and a $`2\pi `$ pulse using the third level and the cavity photon to obtain the atom-cavity controlled-phase-shift.

The operation is done in three steps:
(1) The levels $`|g_m`$ and $`|e_0_m`$ of the $`m`$th atom are brought into resonance with the cavity. The system is let to evolve on-resonance with the cavity for a time equal to $`\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$. At the end of this, a SWAP operation the state of the atom with the state of the cavity (which is the vacuum state) occurs. After the interaction, the $`m`$th atom is in its ground state.

(2) The states $`|g_n`$ and $`|e_1_n`$ are brought to resonance with the cavity and let to evolve for a time equal to $`2\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$. The result is that the state doesn’t change if there is no photon in the cavity: $`|g_n0|g0_n`$, $`|e_{0n}0|e_{0n}0`$; Also, there is no change if the $`n`$th atom is in its ground state: $`|g1|g1`$; however, if there is a photon in the cavity, and the $`n`$th atom is in the excited state, it gets a phase $`|e_{0n}1|e_{0n}1`$ (since it is a spinor).

(3) The $`m`$th atom and the cavity are brought into resonance and the system is let to evolve for a time equal to $`\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$. At the end of this, a SWAP operation the state of the $`m`$th atom with the state of the cavity (which is the vacuum state) occurs.

A $`\pi `$ pulse $`(k=1)`$ is given between the levels $`|g_m`$ and $`|e_0_m`$ by bringing these two levels (of the $`m`$’th atom) on resonance with the cavity to SWAP again their states. After the interaction, the cavity is back in the vacuum state, but the state of the qubits change.

A crucial issue in this model is the relative time scale between the cavity on-resonance and off-resonance with the 2-level system. When the cavity is off-resonance in presence of a photon, a dressed state evolves. The relative time scale of the evolution is :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\tau _{offresonance}}{\tau _{onresonance}}}=\sqrt{({\displaystyle \frac{\omega _c\omega _{ge_0}}{\mathrm{\Omega }_c}})^2+1}`$
where $`\omega _c`$ is the cavity frequency $`\omega _{ge_0}=\omega _{e_0}\omega _g`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ is the Rabi frequency of the atom due to the cavity photon. The vacuum off-resonance phase evolution, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c^2/(\omega _c\omega _{e_0g})`$ must be small enough to make the off-resonant evolution insignificant . Another way to get rid of the vacuum off resonance evolution is by nullifying the extra phase evolution by additional logic operations or by taking into account the phase in every step of operations.

The spontaneous emission time is quite low or negligible for a trapped atom. The ratio of decoherence time to the time required for a single operation is $`10^6`$. That is, $`10^6`$ pulses can be applied within the coherence time. In case of a Rydberg atom, for $`5051`$ transition, $`\omega _{ge_0}=510^{10}`$ Hz, the cavity length is $`1`$ cm, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c410^5`$ Hz, and $`\delta =410^6`$ Hz, where $`\delta `$ is the detuning, i.e., $`\omega _{e;g}\omega _l`$.

In the case of a quantum dot with transition energy $`\omega _{ge_0}1meV`$ (1 THz), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c10^8`$ Hz and the cavity length is $`150\mu `$. The phase coherence length should be much larger than $`1/\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ to realize a system that is capable of performing non trivial operations. The best reported values for decoherence times in a quantum dot system are comparable to $`1/\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$ These dots were however open in the sense that large electron reservoirs were connected to them. Isolated quantum dots that are specifically designed to reduce the decoherence times will be of paramount importance, not only here but also in other applications of coherent phenomena.

Measurement of the final state of the quantum computer is crucial for an experiment. In this proposed model, qubits are inside the cavity, the state of a qubit can be measured by the following procedure: (a) Transferring the quantum state of the qubit to the cavity by bringing the qubit into resonance with the cavity and waiting for half the time period of the atom-cavity Rabi oscillation. If the electron in the qubit is in higher state, it will release a photon to the cavity. (b) This photon has to be detected from the cavity by a detector, which is a difficulty that all models of quantum computing suffer from.

Here we have shown a new model of quantum-computer using atoms or quantum dots inside a quantum cavity. A similar model can be easily designed for spin-states inside a cavity by replacing the Stark effect by a Zeeman effect. With the advance of technology, it may be possible to fabricate steady atoms inside the cavity or quantum dots inside a cavity with long enough decoherence time. The important point of this model is that the qubits are easily addressed (and we don’t require a separate laser addressing each one). Note that operations are done only when the cavity/laser and the atomic levels are on-resonance, while undesired interactions are avoided by keeping the far off-resonance condition for the other atoms. The main operations are done by an external laser and controlling the voltage of the stark plates from outside.

We are grateful to T. Mor and V. P. Roychowdhury for useful discussions throughout this work. The work of PP was supported by the Revolutionary Computing group at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, contract No. 961360, and grant No. 530-1415-01 from DARPA Ultra program.


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# P-vortices, nexuses and effects of gauge copies ITEP-TH-12/2000

## 1 Introduction

The old idea about the role of the center vortices in confinement phenomena  has been revived recently with the use of lattice regularization. Both gauge invariant  and gauge dependent  approaches were developed. The gauge dependent studies were done in a particular gauge, named center gauge. Such gauge leaves intact center group local gauge invariance. It is believed that gauge dependent P-vortices defined on the lattice plaquettes are able to locate thick gauge invariant center vortices and thus provide the essential evidence for the center vortex picture of confinement. So far 3 different center gauges have been used in practical computations: the indirect center gauge , the direct center gauge  and the Laplacian center gauge . It is known that the first two of these gauges suffer from gauge copies problem. Many results supporting the above mentioned role of P-vortices were obtained in the direct center gauge. Recently the following feature of this gauge has been discovered : there are gauge copies which correspond to higher maxima of the gauge fixing functional $`F`$ (see below for definition) than usually obtained and at the same time these new gauge copies produce P-vortices evidently with no center vortex finding ability since projected Wilson loops have no area law. It has been argued in  that one can still use direct center gauge to locate center vortices if one uses gauge fixing algorithm avoiding “bad” copies of . Below we subject this statement to the careful check. Another goal of our paper is to investigate properties of recently introduced new objects called nexuses  or center monopoles . One can define nexus in $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory as 3D object formed by $`N`$ center vortices meeting at the center, or nexus, with the zero (mod $`N`$) net flux. We use P–vortices in the center projection to define nexuses in $`SU(2)`$ lattice gauge theory.

## 2 Direct center gauge

Direct center gauge is defined by the maximization of the following functional of the lattice gauge field $`U_{n,\mu }`$ :

$$F(U)=\frac{1}{4V}\underset{n,\mu }{}\left(\frac{1}{2}\text{Tr}U_{n,\mu }\right)^2=\frac{1}{4V}\underset{n,\mu }{}\frac{1}{4}\left(\text{Tr}_{adj}U_{n,\mu }+1\right),$$
(1)
with respect to local gauge transformations, and can be considered as Landau gauge for adjoint representation; $`V`$ is the lattice volume. Condition (1) fixes the gauge up to $`Z(2)`$ gauge transformation. Fixed configuration can be decomposed into $`Z(2)`$ and coset parts: $`U_{n,\mu }=Z_{n,\mu }V_{n,\mu }`$, where $`Z_{n,\mu }=\text{sign}\text{Tr}U_{n,\mu }`$. Plaquettes constructed from $`Z_{n,\mu }`$ field have values $`\pm 1`$. Those of them taking values $`1`$ compose the so called P-vortices. P-vortices form closed surfaces in 4D space. Some evidence has been collected, that P-vortices in the direct center gauge can serve to locate gauge invariant center vortices. It has been reported  that projected Wilson loops computed via linking number of the static quarks trajectories and P-vortices have area law with the string tension $`\sigma _{Z(2)}`$ very close to the string tension of the nonabelian theory $`\sigma _{SU(2)}`$. This fact has been called center dominance. Another important observation was that the density of P-vortices scales as a physical quantity . We inspect these statements using careful gauge fixing procedure.

The most common method to fix the gauge of the type (1) is the relaxation algorithm which makes maximization iteratively site by site. The relaxation is made more effective with the help of the overrelaxation. It is known that another algorithm – simulated annealing – is more effective and very useful when gauge copies problem becomes severe . Here we do not employ simulated annealing and apply gauge fixing procedure explained in details in ref. . We call it RO (relaxation – overrelaxation) procedure.

The main problem of the direct center gauge fixing is that the functional $`F(U)`$ (1) has many local maxima. We call configurations corresponding to these local maxima gauge copies. They are lattice Gribov copies in fact. It is well known that for some gauge conditions which are formulated as the maximization of a nonlocal functional (e.g. Landau, Coulomb and Maximal Abelain gauges) the gauge dependent quantities depend strongly on the local maxima picked up, while to find out the global maximum is impossible. Thus it is necessary to approach the global maximum as close as possible. We follow the following procedure proposed and checked in : for given configuration we generate $`N_{cop}`$ gauge equivalent copies applying random gauge transformations, and fix the gauge for each gauge copy using the RO procedure. After that we compute the gauge dependent quantity $`X`$ on the gauge copy corresponding to the highest maximum of (1), $`F_{max}(N_{cop})`$. Averaging over statistically independent gauge field configurations and varying $`N_{cop}`$ we obtain the function $`X(N_{cop})`$ and extrapolate it to $`N_{cop}\mathrm{}`$ limit. This should provide a good estimation for $`X`$ computed on the global maximum unless the algorithm in use does not permit to reach the global maximum or its vicinity (the situation we met also in the present study). The main difference of the present study from the calculations performed earlier is that we use the higher value of the gauge copies ($`1N_{cop}20`$) than it was used in refs.  and make careful analysis of $`N_{cop}`$ dependence. Due to that our results differ drastically from those reported previously .

Separately we compute observables using the modified (LRO) gauge fixing procedure : every configuration has been first fixed to Landau gauge, and then the RO algorithm for the direct center gauge has been applied. In this case the effect of large number of gauge copies, $`N_{cop}`$, is not very important, we confirm the results of ref. .

Note that there exists another proposal  for the general gauge fixing procedure which is free of gauge copies problem. In some particular limit this procedure corresponds to the search of the global maximum . There is also a class of gauge conditions ,  which do not suffer from the gauge copies problem.

## 3 Results

Our computations have been performed on lattice $`L^4=12^4`$ for $`\beta =2.3,2.4`$ and $`L^4=16^4`$ for $`\beta =2.5`$. For $`\beta =2.3,2.4`$ ($`\beta =2.5`$) we study $`100`$ ($`50`$) statistically independent gauge field configurations. Using the described above gauge fixing procedure we calculate the various observables as functions of the number of randomly generated gauge copies $`N_{cop}`$ ( $`1N_{cop}20`$).

(i) We confirm the conclusion of ref.  that gauge copies generated via LRO procedure have higher maxima of $`F(U)`$ and thus are closer to the global maximum of $`F(U)`$. We found that $`F_{max}^{LRO}(N_{cop})>F_{max}^{RO}(N_{cop})`$ for any value of $`N_{cop}`$, at any considered value of $`\beta `$.

(ii) We find that LRO procedure gives copies with significantly lower density, $`\rho `$, of P-vortices than RO procedure. We use the standard definition: $`\rho =\frac{1}{12V}_{n;\mu >\nu }(1Z_{n,\mu \nu })`$. Thus gauge copies generated by RO and LRO procedures are indeed different even in the limit $`N_{cop}\mathrm{}`$.

(iii) The difference between LRO and RO procedure results can be qualitatively explained as follows. Fixing the Landau gauge we get the configuration almost without P-vortices, the subsequent RO procedure substantially increases the number of P-vortices but percolating cluster does not appear. The original gauge field configuration contains a lot of P-vortices and the local RO procedure is not able to remove all large (and even wrapping) clusters of P-vortices. The field configuration after application of LRO procedure contains many small P-vortex clusters; the field configuration after application of RO procedure contains one large percolating cluster. It seems that this cluster is responsible for the area law behavior of the projected Wilson loops (see below).

(iv) The most important observable is the $`Z(2)`$-projected Creutz ratio $`\chi (I)`$ which we calculate using the procedure suggested in refs. , . $`\chi (I)`$ is defined through the projected Wilson loops, $`W_{Z(2)}(C)=\mathrm{exp}\{i\pi (\mathrm{\Sigma }_P,C)\}`$. Here $`(\mathrm{\Sigma }_P,C)`$ is the 4D linking number of the closed surface, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_P`$, formed by P-vortex and closed loop $`C`$.

In Fig.1. we show the dependence of $`\chi (I)`$ on $`N_{cop}`$ for $`\beta =2.5`$. It occurs that this dependence is nicely fitted by the function $`C_1+C_2/\sqrt{N_{cop}}`$. The reason for such dependence is still to be understood. In Table 1 we give the ratio $`\sigma _{Z(2)}/\sigma _{SU(2)}`$ 111The data for $`\sigma _{SU(2)}`$ are taken from . $`\sigma _{Z(2)}`$ is computed from $`\chi (I)`$ for $`3I4`$ data at $`12^4`$ lattice and for $`3I6`$ data at $`16^4`$ lattice. For $`N_{cop}=3`$ (number of gauge copies used in ) $`\sigma _{Z(2)}`$ is close to $`\sigma _{SU(2)}`$. But it becomes significantly lower for $`N_{cop}\mathrm{}`$. Thus RO procedure results strongly depend on $`N_{cop}`$. It is important that $`\sigma _{Z(2)}`$ is 20-30 % lower than $`\sigma _{SU(2)}`$ for $`N_{cop}\mathrm{}`$. This implies that even if one restricts oneself to RO procedure as it is suggested in , one cannot conclude that P-vortices indeed well locate all center vortices.

(v) For gauge copies generated by LRO procedure we confirm the result of  that $`\chi (I)`$ is zero within statistical errors for any value of $`N_{cop}`$.

(vi) In Table 1 we also show the ratio $`2\rho /\sigma _{SU(2)}a^2`$ ($`\rho `$ is the density of P-vortices). As it is claimed in ref.  in case of the uncorrelated plaquettes carrying P-vortices $`2\rho `$ coincides with the dimensionless string tension, $`\sigma _{SU(2)}a^2`$. The results presented in Table 1 show that the density of P-vortices is not proportional to $`\sigma _{SU(2)}a^2`$. We have found out that for $`N_{cop}=3\rho `$ is in good agreement with the asymptotic scaling as it was found in . But for $`N_{cop}\mathrm{}\rho `$ deviates from the two loop asymptotic scaling formula.

(vii) We also investigate the properties of the point like objects, called nexuses. On the 4D lattice we have the conserved currents of nexuses, defined after the center projection. We calculate the phase, $`s_l`$, of the $`Z(2)`$ link variable: $`Z_l=\mathrm{exp}(i\pi s_l),s_l=0,1`$. Then we define the plaquette variable $`\sigma _P=\text{d}s\text{mod}2`$, $`(\sigma _P=0,1)`$. The nexus current (or center monopole current ) is then defined as $`{}_{}{}^{}j=\frac{1}{2}\delta ^{}\sigma _P`$. These currents live on the surface of the P-vortex (on the dual 4D lattice) and P-vortex flux goes through positive and negative nexuses in alternate order. The important characteristic of the cluster of currents is the condensate, $`C`$, defined  as the percolation probability. As it is shown in ref.  the condensate $`C`$ of the nexus currents is the order parameter for the confinement – deconfinement phase transition. We found that $`C`$ is nonzero for the gauge copies obtained via RO procedure (when the projected Wilson loops have the area law). $`C`$ is zero (in the thermodynamic limit $`L\mathrm{}`$) for gauge copies obtained using LRO procedure (when the projected Wilson loops have no area law). It is interesting that for RO procedure $`C`$ seems to scale as the physical quantity with the dimension $`(mass)^4`$. This is illustrated in Fig.2, where we plot the $`\beta `$–dependence of the ratio $`C/(\sigma _{SU(2)}a^2)^2`$. Thus these new objects might be important degrees of freedom for the description of the nonperturbative effects.

(viii) It is important to perform the same calculations for the indirect center gauge  and for the Laplacian center gauge .

We thank Ph. de Forcrand and T. Kovacs for useful remarks. This study was partially supported by grants RFBR 96-15-96740, RFBR 99-01230a, INTAS 96-370 and Monbushu grant.


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# Asymmetric, arc minute scale structures around NGC 1275

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The Perseus cluster of galaxies (Abell 426) is one of the best studied clusters, due to its proximity ($`z=0.018`$, $`1^{}`$ corresponds to $``$ 30 kpc for $`H_0=50kms^1Mpc^1`$) and brightness. Detailed X–ray images were obtained with the Einstein IPC (Branduardi–Raymont et al. 1981) and HRI (Fabian et al. 1981) and the ROSAT PSPC (Schwarz et al. 1992, Ettori, Fabian, White 1999) and HRI (Böhringer et al. 1993; see also Heinz et al. 1998). The cluster has a prominent X–ray surface brightness peak at its center along with cool gas, which is usually interpreted as due to the pressure induced flow of gas releasing its thermal energy via radiation. The cooling flow is centered on the active galaxy NGC1275, containing a strong core-dominated radio source (Per A, 3C 84) surrounded by a lower surface brightness halo (e.g. Pedlar et al. 1990, Sijbring 1993). Analysis of the ROSAT HRI observations of the central arcminute has shown that the X-ray emitting gas is displaced by the bright radio emitting regions (Böhringer et al. 1993), suggesting that the cosmic ray pressure is at least comparable to that of the hot intracluster gas. Many other studies explored correlations of X-ray, radio, optical, and ultraviolet emission (see e.g. McNamara, O’Connell & Sarazin, 1996 and references therein). In this contribution, we discuss asymmetric structure in the X–ray surface brightness within $``$ 5 arcminutes of NGC 1275 and suggest that buoyant bubbles of relativistic plasma may be important in defining the properties of this structure.

## 2 IMAGES

The longest ROSAT HRI pointing towards NGC 1275 was made in August 1994 with a total exposure time of about 52 ksec. The $`8^{}\times 8^{}`$ subsection of the HRI image, smoothed with a $`3^{\prime \prime }`$ Gaussian, is shown in Fig. 1. The image is centered at NGC 1275. Two X–ray minima immediately to the north and south of NGC 1275 coincide (Böhringer et al. 1993) with bright lobes of radio emission at 332 MHz, mapped with the VLA by Pedlar et al. (1990). Another region of reduced brightness ($`1.5^{}`$ to the north–west from NGC 1275) was detected earlier in Einstein IPC and HRI images (Branduardi–Raymont et al. 1981, Fabian et al. 1981). It was suggested that reduced brightness in this region could be due to a foreground patch of a photoabsorbing material or pressure driven asymmetry in the thermally unstable cooling flow (Fabian et al. 1981). The complex shape of the X-ray surface brightness is much more clearly seen in Fig. 2 which shows the same image, adaptively smoothed using the procedure of Vikhlinin, Forman, Jones (1996). The “compressed” isophotes in the figure delineate a complex spiral–like structure. Comparison of Fig. 2 and Fig. 1 shows that the same structure is present in both images, i.e. it is not an artifact of the adaptive smoothing procedure.

In order to estimate the amplitude of the substructure relative to the undisturbed ICM, we divided the original image (Fig.1) by the azimuthally averaged radial surface brightness profile. The resulting image, convolved with the $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ Gaussian is shown in Fig.3. The regions having surface brightness higher than the azimuthally averaged value appear grey in this image and form a long spiral–like structure starting near the cluster center and ending $`5^{}`$ from the center to the south–east. Of course the appearance of the excess emission as a “spiral” strongly depends on the choice of the “undisturbed” ICM model (which in the case of Fig.3 is a symmetric distribution around NGC 1275). Other models would imply different shapes for the regions having excess emission. In particular a substantial part of the subtructure seen in Fig.1 and 2 can be accounted for by a model consisting of a sequence of ellipses with varying centers and position angles (e.g. using the IRAF procedure ellipse due to Jedrzejewski, 1987). Nevertheless the image shown in Fig.3 provides a convenient characterization of the deviations of the X–ray surface brightness relative to the azimuthally averaged value. Comparison of Fig.3 and Fig.1, 2 allows one to trace all features visible in Fig.3 back to the original image.

Superposed onto the image shown in Fig.3 are the contours of the radio image of 3C 84 at 1380 MHz (Pedlar et al. 1990). The radio image was obtained through DRAGN atlas (http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas edited by J. P. Leahy, A . H. Bridle, and R. G. Strom). In this image, having a resolution of $`22\times 22`$ arcsec2, the central region is not resolved (unlike the higher resolution image of the central area used in Böhringer et al. 1993) and it does not show features, corresponding to the gas–voids north and south of the nucleus. The compact feature to the west of NGC 1275, visible both in X–rays and radio, is the radio galaxy NGC 1272. Fig.3 hints at possible relations between some prominent features in the radio and X–rays. In particular, the X–ray underluminous region to the North–West of NGC 1275 (Branduardi–Raymont et al. 1981, Fabian et al. 1981) seems to coincide with a “blob” in radio. A somewhat better correlation is seen if we compare our image with the radio map of Sijbring (1993), with its better angular resolution), but again the correlation is not one to one111Note, that some random correlation is expected since both the X–ray and radio emission are asymmetric and centrally concentrated around NGC 1275. A similar partial correlation of X–rays and radio images also was found for another well studied object – M87 (Böhringer et al. 1995). For M87, the relatively compact radio halo surrounds the source and some morphological similarities of the X–ray and radio images are observed. Gull and Northover (1973) suggested that buoyancy plays an important role in the evolution of the radio lobes. Böhringer et al. (1993, 1995) pointed out that buoyant bubbles of cosmic rays may affect the X–ray surface brightness distribution in NGC 1275 and M87. Below we speculate on the hypothesis that this mechanism is operating in both sources and the disturbance of X–ray surface brightness is related, at least partly, with the activity of an AGN in the past.

## 3 EVOLUTION OF THE OLD RADIO LOBES

The complex substructure of the X–ray emission in the Perseus cluster is seen at various spatial scales. At large scales (larger than $`10^{}`$$`20^{}`$), excess emission to the east of NGC 1275 was observed in the HEAO–2 IPC and ROSAT images (Branduardi–Raymont et al. 1981, Fabian et al. 1981, Schwarz et al. 1992, Ettori, Fabian, White 1999). Schwarz et al. (1992), using ROSAT PSPC data, found that the temperature is lower in this region and suggested that there is a subcluster projected on the A426 cluster and merging with the main cluster. At much smaller scales ($`1^{}`$), there are two X–ray minima (symmetrically located to the north and south of NGC 1275) which Böhringer et al. (1993) explained as due to the displacement of the X–ray emitting gas by the high pressure of the radio emitting plasma associated with the radio lobes around NGC 1275. As is clear from Fig.1,2 at intermediate scales (arcminutes), substructure is also present. We concentrate below on the possibility that at these spatial scales, the disturbed X–ray surface brightness distribution is affected by the bubbles of radio emitting plasma, created by the jets in the past and moving away from the center due to buoyancy.

Recently Heinz, Reynolds & Begelman (1998) argued that the time-averaged power of the jets in NGC 1275 exceeds $`10^{45}ergss^1`$. This conclusion is based on the observed properties (in particular – sharp boundaries) of the X–ray cavities in the central $`1^{}`$, presumably inflated by the relativistic particles of the jet. Such a high power input is comparable to the total X–ray luminosity of the central $`6^{}`$ region (i.e. $``$ 200 kpc) around NGC 1275. If the same power is sustained for a long time (e.g. cooling time of the gas $`10^{10}`$ years at a radius of 200 kpc) then the entire cooling flow region could be affected. Following Gull and Northover (1973) we assume that buoyancy (i.e. Rayleigh–Taylor instability) limits the growth of the cavities inflated by the jets. After the velocity of rise due to buoyancy exceeds the expansion velocity, the bubble detaches from the jet and begins rising. As we estimate below, for the jet power of $`10^{45}ergss^1`$ the bubble at the time of separation from the jet should have a size $``$10–20 kpc ($`1^{}`$). The subsequent evolution of the bubble may resemble the evolution of a powerful atmospheric explosion or a large gas bubble rising in a liquid (e.g. Walters and Davison 1963, Onufriev 1967, Zhidov et al. 1977). If the magnetic field does not provide effective surface tension to preserve the quasi–spherical shape of the bubble, then it quickly transforms into a torus and mixes with the ambient cooling flow gas. The torus keeps rising until it reaches the distance from the center where its density (accounting for adiabatic expansion) is equal to the density of the ambient gas. Since the entropy of the ICM rises with distance from the center in the cooling flow region, the torus is unlikely to travel a very large distance from the center. Then the torus extends in the lateral direction in order to occupy the layer having a similar mass density. Below we give order of magnitude estimates characterizing the formation and evolution of the bubble.

For simplicity we assume a uniform ICM in the cluster center, characterised by the density $`\rho _0`$ and pressure $`P_0`$. The bubble is assumed to be spherical. During the initial phase (Scheuer 1974, Heinz et al., 1998) jets with a power $`L`$ inflate the cocoon with relativistic plasma and surrounded by a shell of the compressed ICM. The expansion is supersonic and from dimensional arguments it follows that the radius of the bubble $`r`$ as a function of time $`t`$ is given by the expression

$`r=C_1\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{\rho _0}}t^3\right)^{1/5}`$ (1)
where $`C_1`$ is a numerical constant (see e.g. Heinz et al., 1998 for a more detailed treatment). At a later stage, expansion slows and becomes subsonic. The evolution of the bubble radius is then given by the expression

$`r=C_2\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{P_0}}t\right)^{1/3}=\left({\displaystyle \frac{3}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma 1}{\gamma }}\right)^{1/3}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{P_0}}t\right)^{1/3}`$ (2)
where $`\gamma `$ is the adiabatic index of the relativistic gas in the bubble (i.e. $`\gamma =4/3`$). The above equation follows from the energy conservation law, if we equate the power of the jet with the change of internal energy plus the work done by the expanding gas at constant pressure: $`\frac{\gamma }{\gamma 1}P_04\pi r^2\dot{r}=L`$. The expansion velocity is then simply the time derivative of equation (1) or (2).

The velocity at which the bubble rises due to buoyancy can be estimated as

$`v_b=C_3\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _0\rho _r}{\rho _0+\rho _r}}rg}=C_3\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{r}{R}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{GM}{R}}}=C_3\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{r}{R}}}v_K`$ (3)
where $`C_3`$ is a numerical constant of order unity, $`\rho _r`$ is the mass density of the relativistic gas in the bubble, $`g`$ is the gravitational acceleration, $`R`$ is the distance of the bubble from the cluster center, $`M`$ is the gravitating mass within this radius and, $`v_K`$ is the Keplerian velocity at this radius. In equation (3) we assumed that $`\rho _r\rho _0`$ and therefore replaced the factor $`\frac{\rho _0\rho _r}{\rho _0+\rho _r}`$ (Atwood number) with unity. The presently observed configuration of the bubbles on either side of NGC 1275 suggests that $`rR`$. Assuming that such a similar relation is approximately satisfied during the subsequent expansion phase of the bubble we can further drop the factor $`\sqrt{\frac{r}{R}}`$ in equation (3). Thus as a crude estimate we can assume that $`v_bC_3v_K`$ ($`C_30.5`$ is a commonly accepted value for incompressible fluids). Following Ettori, Fabian, and White (1999) we estimate the Keplerian velocity taking the gravitating mass profile as a sum of the Navarro, Frenk and White (1995) profile for the cluster and a de Vaucouleurs (1948) profile for the galaxy. For the range of parameters considered in Ettori, Fabian, White (1999), the Keplerian velocity between a few kpc and $``$ 100 kpc falls in the range 600-900 km/s. We can now equate the expansion velocity (using equation (2) for subsonic expansion) and the velocity due to buoyancy in order to estimate the parameters of the bubble when it starts rising:

$`t_b=\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{36\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma 1}{\gamma }}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{P_0}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{C_3v_K}}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}`$
$`\mathrm{1.6\; 10}^7\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{10^{45}}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P_0}{\mathrm{2\; 10}^{10}}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{v_K}{700}}\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}years`$ (4)
$`r_b=\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{P_0C_3v_k}}{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma 1}{\gamma }}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4\pi }}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}`$
$`17\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{10^{45}}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P_0}{\mathrm{2\; 10}^{10}}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{v_K}{700}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}kpc`$ (5)
Here $`t_b`$ and $`r_b`$ are the duration of the expansion phase and the radius of the bubble respectively. In the above equation we neglected the contribution to the radius (and time) of the initial supersonic expansion phase. Thus for $`L10^{45}erg/s`$ and for $`P_0=\mathrm{2\; 10}^{10}ergcm^3`$ (Böhringer et al. 1993) we expect $`r_b17kpc`$, which approximately corresponds to the size of the X–ray cavities reported by Böhringer et al. (1993). If, as suggested by Heinz et al. (1998), the jet power is larger than $`10^{46}ergs^1`$ then the bubble size will exceed 50 kpc ($`>1^{}`$) before the buoyancy velocity exceeds the expansion velocity. Of course these estimates of the expanding bubble are based on many simplifying assumptions (e.g. constant pressure assumption in equation (2)). In a subsequent publication we consider the expansion of the bubble in more realistic density and temperature profiles expected in cluster cooling flows.

According to e.g. Walters and Davison (1963), Onufriev (1967), Zhidov et al. (1977), a large bubble of light gas rising through much heavier gas under a buoyancy force will quickly transform into a rotating torus, which consists of a mixture of smaller bubbles of heavier and lighter gases. This transformation occurs on times scales of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (i.e. $`tr_b/v_bt_b`$) and during this transformation the whole bubble changes its distance from the center by an amount $`r_b`$. The torus then rises until its average mass density is equal to the mass density of the ambient gas. The rise is accompanied by adiabatic expansion and further mixing with the ambient gas. Accounting for adiabatic expansion the mass density of the torus $`\rho _t(R)`$ will change during the rise according to

$`\rho _t(R)=\rho _0{\displaystyle \frac{\varphi }{(1\varphi )\left(\frac{P_0}{P(R)}\right)^{1/\gamma _{cr}}+\varphi \left(\frac{P_0}{P(R)}\right)^{1/\gamma _{th}}}}`$ (6)
where $`P(R)`$ is the ICM pressure at a given distance from the center, $`\varphi `$ is volume fraction of the ambient ICM gas mixed with the relativistic plasma at the stage of torus formation, $`\gamma _{cr}`$ and $`\gamma _{th}`$ are the adiabatic indices of the relativistic plasma and the ICM. Note that in equation (6) we (i) neglected further mixing with the ICM during the rise of the torus and (ii) mixing was assumed to be macroscopic (i.e. separate bubbles of the relativistic plasma and ICM occupy the volume of the torus). The equilibrium position of the torus can be found if we equate the torus density $`\rho _t(R)`$ and the ICM density $`\rho (R)`$ and solve this equation for $`R`$. We consider two possibilities here. One possibility is to assume that in the inhomogeneous cooling flow, the hot phase is almost isothermal and gives the dominant contribution to the density of the gas. Adopting the temperature of $`kT=6`$ keV for the hot phase and using the same gravitational potential as above, one can conclude that if a roughly equal amount (by volume) of the relativistic plasma and the ambient gas are mixed (i.e. $`\varphi 0.5`$), during the formation of the torus, then it could rise 100-200 kpc before reaching an equilibrium position. Accounting for additional mixing will lower this estimate. Alternatively we can adopt the model of a uniform ICM with the temperature declining towards the center (e.g. temperature is decreasing from 6 keV at 200 kpc to 2 keV at 10 kpc). Then for the same value of mixing ($`\varphi 0.5`$) the equilibrium position will be at the distance of $``$60 kpc from NGC 1275. Once at this distance the torus as a whole will be in equilibrium and it will further expand laterally in order to occupy the equipotential surface at which the density of the ambient gas is equal to the torus density. If the cosmic rays and thermal gas within the torus are uniformly mixed (or a magnetic field binds the blobs of thermal plasma and cosmic rays), the torus will not move radially. If, on the contrary, separate (and unbound) blobs of relativistic plasma exist then they will still be buoyant, but since their size is now much smaller than the distance from the cluster center the velocity of their rise will be much smaller than the Keplerian velocity. Analogously overdense blobs (with uplifted gas) may then (slowly) fall back to the center.

We now consider how radio and X–ray emission from the torus evolve with time. Duration of the rise phase of the torus will be at least several times longer than the time of the bubble formation (see eq. (3)), since the velocity of rise is a fraction of the Keplerian velocity (see e.g. Zhidov et al., 1977), i.e., $`t_{rise}10^8`$ years. Adiabatic expansion and change of the transverse size of the torus in the spherical potential tend to further increase this estimate. Even if we neglect energy losses of the relativistic electrons due to adiabatic expansion we can estimate an upper limit on the electron lifetime due to synchrotron and inverse Compton (IC) losses.

$`t=\mathrm{5\; 10}^8\left({\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{20cm}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{B}{\mu G}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{B_t}{\mu G}}\right)^2years`$ (7)
where $`\lambda `$ is the wavelength of the observed radio emission, $`B`$ is the strength of the magnetic field, $`\frac{B_t^2}{8\pi }`$ is the value characterizing the total energy density of the magnetic field and cosmic microwave background. This life time (of the electrons emitting at a given frequency) will be longest if the energy density of the magnetic field approximately matches the energy density of the microwave background, i.e., $`B3.5\mu G`$. Then the maximum life time of the electrons producing synchrotron radiation at 20 cm is $`\mathrm{5\; 10}^7`$ years. This time is comparable to the time needed for the torus to reach its final position. Therefore, the torus could be either radio bright or radio dim during its evolution. If no reacceleration takes place, then the torus will end up as a radio dim region. We note here that, although the electrons may lose their energy via synchrotron and IC emission, the magnetic field and especially relativistic ions have a much longer lifetime (e.g. Soker & Sarazin 1990, Tribble 1993) and will provide pressure support at all stages of the torus evolution.

As we assumed above, the bubble detaches from the jet when the expansion velocity of the bubble is already subsonic. This means that there will be no strongly compressed shell surrounding the bubble and the emission measure along the line of sight going through the center of the bubble will be smaller than that for the undisturbed ICM, i.e., at the moment of detachment the bubble appears as an X–ray dim region. The X–ray brightness of the torus during final stages of evolution (when the torus has the same mass density as the ambient ICM) depends on how the relativistic plasma is mixed with the ambient gas (Böhringer et al. 1995). If mixing is microscopic (i.e. relativistic and thermal particles are uniformly mixed over the torus volume on spatial scales comparable with the mean free path) then the emission measure of the torus is the same as that for a similar region of the undisturbed ICM. Since part of the pressure support in the torus is provided by magnetic field and cosmic rays then the temperature of the torus gas must be lower than the temperature of the ambient gas (Böhringer et al. 1995). Thus emission from the torus will be softer than the emission from the ambient gas.

If, on the contrary, mixing is macroscopic (i.e. separate bubbles of relativistic and thermal plasma occupy the volume of the torus), then the torus will appear as an X–ray bright region (the average density is the same as of ICM, but only a fraction of the torus volume is occupied by the thermal plasma). For example, if half of the torus volume is occupied by the bubbles of the relativistic plasma then the emissivity of the torus will be a factor of 2 larger than that of the ambient gas. The X–ray emission of the torus is again expected to be softer than the emission of the ambient gas for two reasons (i) gas uplifted from the central region has lower entropy than the ambient gas and therefore will have lower temperature when maintaining pressure equilibrium with the ambient gas (ii) gas, uplifted from the central region, can be multiphase with stronger density contrasts between phases than the ambient gas and as a result a dense, cooler phase would give a strong contribution to the soft emission. Cosmic rays may heat the gas, but at least for the relativistic ions, the time scale for energy transfer is very long (comparable to the Hubble time). Trailing the torus could be the filaments of cooling flow gas dragged by the rising torus in a similar fashion as the rising (and rotating) torus after an atmospheric explosion drags the air in the form of a skirt.

We note here that the morphology predicted by such a picture is very similar to the morphology of the “ear–like” feature in the radio map of M87, reported by Böhringer et al. (1995). The “ear” could be a torus viewed from the side. The excess X–ray emission trailing the radio feature could then be due to the cooling flow gas uplifted by the torus from the central region. For Perseus the X–ray underluminous region to the North–West of NGC 1275 could have the same origin (i.e. rising torus). In fact, the whole “spiral” structure seen in Fig.2 could be the remains of one very large bubble (e.g. with the initial size of the order of arminutes – corresponding to a total jet power of $`10^{46}ergs^1`$) inflated by the nucleus over a period of $`10^8`$ years. Alternatively multiple smaller bubbles, produced at different periods may contribute to the formation of the X–ray feature. If the jets maintain their direction over a long time then a quasi–continuous flow of bubbles will tend to mix the ICM in these directions uplifting the gas from the central region to larger distances. If the jet direction varies (e.g. precession of the jet on a timescale of $`10^8`$ years) then a complex pattern of disturbed X–ray and radio features may develop.

## 4 ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS

Of course there are other possible explanations for disturbed X–ray surface brightness. We briefly discuss a few alternative scenarios below.

Assuming that the undisturbed ICM is symmetric around NGC 1275 (as was assumed in Fig.3) one may try to attribute the observed spiral-shaped emission to the gas stripped from an infalling galaxy or group of galaxies. Stripped gas (if denser and cooler than the ICM) will be decelerated by ram pressure and will fall toward the center of the potential, producing spiral–like structure. Rather narrow and long features tentatively associated with stripped gas were observed e.g., for the NGC 4921 group in Coma (Vikhlinin et al. 1996) and NGC 4696B in the Centaurus cluster (Churazov et al. 1999). We note here that to prevent stripping at much larger radii, the gas must be very dense (e.g., comparable to the molecular content of a spiral galaxy). A crude estimate of the gas mass needed to produce the observed excess emission (assuming a uniform cylindrical feature with a length of 200 kpc and radius of 15 kpc, located 60 kpc away from NGC1275) gives values of the order of a few$`\times 10^{10}`$$`10^{11}M_{}`$. Here we adopted a density for the undisturbed ICM of $`10^2cm^3`$ at this distance from NGC 1275 following the deprojection analysis of Fabian et al. (1981) and Ettori, Fabian, and White (1999). The factor of two higher density within the feature will cause a $``$ 20–40% excess in the surface brightness. In the above estimate for the mass of hot gas in the filament, it is assumed that this medium is approximately homogeneous and in ionization equilibrium. If the medium is very clumpy, the radiative emission of the plasma would be enhanced and this would result in an overestimate of the relevant gas mass. Such clumps should be easily seen with the high angular resolution of Chandra. Also if the medium consists of turbulently mixed hot and cold plasma, the very efficient excitation of lines in cold ions by hot electrons could lead to enhanced radiation (see e.g. Böhringer and Fabian 1989, Table 4) which may lead to an overestimate of the gas mass by up to an order of magnitude. The signature of this effect is a strongly line dominated spectrum, (see e.g. Böhringer and Hartquist, 1987) which could be tested by Chandra or XMM, in particular for the important iron L-shell lines. Thus it is possible that the inferred gas mass could be lower by up to an order of magnitude which makes the stripping scenario more likely and future observations with the new X-ray observatories can help to differentiate between these interpretations.

As was suggested by Fabian et al. (1981) a large scale pressure–driven asymmetry may be expected in a thermally unstable cooling flow. This is perhaps the most natural explanation which does not invoke any additional physics. The same authors gave an estimate of the amount of neutral gas needed to explain the NW dip due to photoabsorption: excess hydrogen column density around $`10^{22}cm^2`$ is required to suppress the soft count rate in this region.

Yet another possibility is that the motion of NGC 1275 with respect to the ICM causes the observed substructure. As pointed out in Böhringer et al. (1993), NGC 1275 is perhaps oscillating at the bottom of the cluster potential well causing the excess emission $`1^{}`$ to the east of the nucleus. Since the X-ray surface brightness peak is well centered on NGC 1275, it is clear that the galaxy drags the central part of the cooling flow as it moves in the cluster core. At a distance larger than 2-3 arcminutes from NGC 1275, the cluster potential dominates over the potential of the galaxy. The gas at this distance should be very sensitive to the ram pressure of the ambient cluster gas and might give rise to the asymmetric (and time dependent) features.

The motion of NGC 1275 could also contribute to the X-ray structure through the formation of a “cooling wake” (David et al. 1994). If NGC 1275 is moving significantly, then inhomogeneities in the cooling gas would be gravitationally focussed and compressed into a wake. The wake would mark the, possibly complex, motion of NGC 1275, as it is perturbed by galaxies passing through the cluster core. Such a feature would be cool, since it arises from overdense concentrations of gas.

Finally, one can assume that cooling gas may have some angular momentum (e.g., produced by mergers) and the observed spiral structure simply reflects slow rotation of the gas combined with non-uniform cooling. Following Sarazin et al. (1995), one can assume that this gas will preserve the direction of its angular momentum and that this infalling material would eventually feed an AGN – NGC 1275. One then might expect the radio jets to be aligned perpendicular to the rotation plane of the gas. At first glance, the “spiral” feature appears approximately face-on, suggesting that jets should be directed along the line of sight as indeed is derived from the radio observations (see Pedlar et al. 1990).

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

The X–ray surface brightness around NGC 1275 (dominant galaxy of the Perseus cluster) is perturbed at various spatial scales. We suggest that on arcminute scales, the disturbance is caused by bubbles of relativistic plasma, inflated by jets during the past $`10^8`$ years. Overall evolution of the buoyant bubble will resemble the evolution of a hot bubble during a powerful atmospheric explosion. Colder gas from the central region of the cooling flow may be uplifted by the rising bubbles and (in the case of continuous jet activity) may make several cycles (from the center to the outer regions and back) on time scales comparable to the cooling time of the gas in the cooling flow.

A very important result that can be inferred from this model is the total power output of the nuclear energy source in NGC 1275 in the form of relativistic plasma. This energy release averaged over a time scale of about $`\mathrm{3\; 10}^7`$ to $`10^8`$ years is estimated as a function of the inflation time of the central radio lobes, the rise time of the inflated bubbles due to buoyancy forces, and the actual size of the central bubbles. A geometrically simplified model yields a power output on the order of $`10^{45}`$ erg s-1. This is comparable with the energy lost at the same time by thermal X-ray radiation from the entire central cooling flow region. This raises the question, where does all this energy go, especially if the energy release is persistent over a longer epoch during which the relativistic electrons can lose their energy by radiation, but the energy in protons and in the magnetic field is mostly conserved. The complicated X-ray morphology discussed in this paper may indicate long lasting nuclear activity, if we interpret the peculiar structure in the X-ray surface brightness as remnants of decaying radio lobe bubbles.

Detailed measurements of the morphology of the X–ray structure and the temperature and abundance distribution with Chandra and XMM may test this hypothesis. The gas uplifted from the central region is expected to be cooler than the ambient gas and to have an abundance of heavy elements typical of the innermost region. If cosmic rays are mixed with the thermal gas, then the pressure, as derived from X–ray observations, may be lower than the pressure of the ambient gas.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the referees for several helpful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Nail Inogamov and Nail Sibgatullin for useful discussions. This research has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. W. Forman and C. Jones acknowledge support from NASA contract NAS8-39073.