text:
# Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548

## 1 Introduction

The X-ray emission of Seyfert galaxies is commonly believed to be produced by Compton scattering of soft photons on a population of hot electrons (Pozdniakov et al., poz76 (1976); Shapiro et al., sha76 (1976); Liang & Price, lia77 (1977); Sunyaev & Titarchuk, sun80 (1980)). Although high energy observations of Seyfert galaxies may be consistent with both thermal and non–thermal models (Zdziarski et al. zdz94 (1994); Malzac et al. mal98 (1998)) the non–detection of Seyferts by Comptel and the high energy cut-offs indicated by OSSE (Jourdain et al. jou92 (1992); Maisack et al., mai93 (1993)) and BeppoSAX (Matt mat99 (1999)) have focused attention on thermal models. In fact it was shown early on that assuming thermal equilibrium and a plane parallel geometry for the Comptonizing plasma above an accretion disk, and neglecting direct heating of the disk, the average properties of the X-ray emission of Seyfert galaxies could be naturally accounted for (Haardt & Maraschi haa91 (1991)). The spectral slope is mainly determined by two parameters, the temperature $`kT_\mathrm{e}`$ and optical depth $`\tau `$ of the scattering electrons, while the cut–off energy is related essentially to $`kT_e`$. Thus, simultaneous measurements of the slope of the X-ray continuum and of the cut–off energy are necessary to determine the physical parameters of the Comptonizing region.

Moreover, in a disk plus corona system, the Comptonizing region and the source of soft photons are coupled, as the optically thick disk necessarily reprocesses and reemits part of the Comptonized flux as soft photons which are the seeds for Comptonization. The system must then satisfy equilibrium energy balance equations, which depend on geometry and on the ratio of direct heating of the disk to that of the corona. In the limiting case of a ”passive” disk, the amplification of the Comptonization process, determined by the Compton parameter $`y4\left({\displaystyle \frac{kT_e}{m_ec^2}}\right)\left[1+4\left({\displaystyle \frac{kT_e}{m_ec^2}}\right)\right]\tau (1+\tau )`$, is fixed by geometry only. Therefore, if the corona is in energy balance, the temperature and optical depth must satisfy a relation which can be computed for different geometries of the disk+corona configuration (e.g., the review of Svensson sve96 (1996)). It is then theoretically possible to constrain the geometry of the system and verify the selfconsistency of the model, provided that $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ are known with sufficient precision.

The extent of spectral variability during luminosity variations is an additional, in principle powerful, diagnostic tool that can be used to test existing models, as it provides direct insight into the way the emitting particles are heated and cooled. For example, if the plasma is pair dominated, the value of $`\tau `$ is fixed by the compactness parameter (i.e. by the luminosity for fixed geometry). This yields a definite relation between spectral variations and intensity, predicting modest spectral changes for large (factor 10 at least) variations in the intensity. On the contrary, for low pair density plasmas, significant spectral variations are possible even in the absence of luminosity variations. In the latter case, for constant geometry (i.e. at a constant Compton parameter $`y`$), the spectral index is expected to increase when the electron temperature decreases (Haardt, Maraschi & Ghisellini haa97 (1997)).

In the present paper, our aim is to test Comptonization models over high quality data, deriving further constraints on the physical parameters and geometry of the source. To achieve such goal, the long look at the Seyfert I galaxy NGC 5548 performed by BeppoSAX provides an ideal dataset. Previous studies of the source conducted over several years using EXOSAT, GINGA, ASCA and RXTE and, in some cases, coordinated observations first with IUE and later with EUVE (Walter & Courvoisier, wal90 (1990); Nandra et al., nan91 (1991); Chiang et al., chi00 (2000)) support the general Comptonization picture, revealing the presence of several components in the X-ray spectra (neutral Iron line, reflection hump, soft excess…). No information on the high energy and of the Comptonization component could however be obtained from the above studies. Magdziarz et al. (mag98 (1998)), using average OSSE data and non simultaneaous GINGA observations, suggested a temperature of 50 keV for the hot corona.

NGC 5548 was observed by BeppoSAX in a single long (8 days) observation, with a net exposure of 314 ks on source. The high quality of the BeppoSAX data allows a detailed study of the spectrum over a very wide energy range, from 0.2 to 200 keV, and offers the opportunity to study spectral variability, since a conspicuous flare occurred in the middle of the observation. A detailed analysis of these data has been presented by Nicastro et al. (nic99 (1999), hereafter N99). The differences between the latter analysis and our results concern only the modelling of the continuum and will be discussed in the course of the paper.

Our main progress here is to adopt and fit directly to the data a detailed model of the Comptonized spectrum, for which the commonly adopted representation of a simple power law with a high energy cut–off turns out to be a rather poor approximation. Effectively, Comptonized spectra intrinsically show additional features, such as bumps due to different scattering orders, and an anisotropy ”break” due to the (plausible) anisotropic nature of the soft photon input.

The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 we briefly summarize the main characteristics of Comptonization models, and compare results of different approaches and geometries. The analysis of the BeppoSAX data is presented in section 3. We will not be concerned here in detail with the warm absorber features already discussed in N99. In section 4, we compare the BeppoSAX data with non–simultaneous IUE and OSSE data. We discuss our results and their physical interpretations in section 5. We then conclude in the last section.

## 2 The Comptonization Model

Theoretical Comptonized spectra, produced by a mildly relativistic plasma scattering off low–frequency radiation, have been computed for two decades now (Shapiro, Lightman & Eardley sha76 (1976); Sunyaev & Titarchuk sun80 (1980); Pozdnyakov, Sobol & Sunyaev poz76 (1976)). More recently, it has been realized that, if the scattering occurs above an accretion disk, the source of seed photons is anisotropic, introducing anisotropies and modifications of the outgoing spectrum. Haardt & Maraschi (haa91 (1991), haa93b (1993)) and Haardt (haa93a (1993)) derived the angle–dependent spectra from disk–corona system using an iterative scattering method, where the scattering anisotropy was taken into account only in the first scattering order. Other more detailed works have followed, exploiting non linear Monte Carlo techniques (Stern et al 1995b ), or the iterative scattering method (Poutanen & Svensson pou96 (1996), hereafter PS96), allowing the treatment of systems with different geometries such as slabs, cylinders, hemispheres, and spheres. All these works have shown that anisotropic effects are important, and indeed can modify substantially the spectral shape of the Comptonized radiation. The largest effect occurs when soft photons are emitted by a plane (disk) on one side of the corona. In this case, photons backscattered towards the disk in the first scattering are necessarily produced in ”head–on collisions” and therefore have an energy gain larger than average, while photons scattered towards the corona (i.e. in the forward direction) have an energy gain smaller than average. As a consequence, the contribution of the first scattering order to the outgoing flux is significantly reduced. Clearly, this effect becomes important when the energy gain per scattering is large, that is when $`kT_e`$ is mildly relativistic, say $`kT_e>100`$ keV.

In Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 we compare spectra computed for the same value of the coronal temperature ($`kT_e`$=360 keV) for different geometries. For the slab geometry, we show spectra obtained with the code of Haardt (haa94 (1994), hereafter H94), whereas the hemispherical and the spherical ones have been produced by the code kindly made available by Poutanen & Svensson (PS96). We have checked that in the slab case the two codes give identical results. For the sphere, the soft photons are supposed to be emitted isotropically at the centre of the sphere, whereas they come from the bottom for the slab and the hemisphere configurations. In each case, the optical depths have been chosen so as to produce approximatively the same spectral index in the X–ray range. We have thus taken $`\tau `$=0.09, 0.16 and 0.33 for the slab, hemisphere and sphere geometry, respectively. We have also plotted, for comparison, a cut–off power law spectrum setting the e–folding energy $`E_\mathrm{c}=2kT_\mathrm{e}`$=720 keV, as a first order approximation to Comptonization spectral models (for $`\tau <1`$).

It is clear, from Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548, that the spectra are quite different at medium - high energy ($`E>10`$ keV). Below the high energy cut–off the spectra for the slab and hemisphere cases can be approximately described by broken power laws. The slope observed at low energies is harder due to the deficiency of once scattered photons. In this range the spectral index depends on the viewing angle, since the anisotropy is maximal at 0 degrees. The slope above the break corresponds to that produced by the Comptonization process without taking into account anisotropy and is therefore almost angle–independent.

The energy of the break $`E_{\mathrm{break}}`$ should approximately correspond to the peak energy of the spectrum formed by twice–scattered photons. In practice $`E_{\mathrm{break}}`$ is close to the peak energy of the third scattering order (Haardt 1993), that is (assuming a black body soft emission):

$$E_{\mathrm{break}}2.7kT_{\mathrm{bb}}\left[16\left(\frac{kT_e}{m_ec^2}\right)^2+4\left(\frac{kT_e}{m_ec^2}\right)+1\right]^3.$$
(1)
In cases relevant for Seyfert galaxies, $`E_{\mathrm{break}}`$ is typically of the order of few keV, much lower than the high energy cut–off. The anisotropy break is thus an important feature when fitting real data, even if it may be hidden by the presence of the reflection hump above 10 keV.

The anisotropy break is important only for high temperatures. In fact, for $`kT_e<50`$ keV, the forward–backward anisotropy becomes small and consequently, the amplitude of the spectral break decreases. Also, for small values of $`\tau `$, a broken power law is not a good description of the emerging spectrum anyway, since the spectrum is formed by distinct humps corresponding to the different Compton scattering orders. Finally, for high values of $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$, as may be the case for galactic black holes, $`E_{\mathrm{break}}`$ can be well above 10 keV, completely hidden by the reflection component.

For the same temperature, a hemispheric geometry gives rise to a larger anisotropy (larger break) than a slab. This can be qualitatively understood as follows. Consider a pole on observer and the seed photons emitted at the centre of the bottom of the hemisphere. In the first scattering order all scattering angles between 0 and 90 degrees (final direction towards the pole on observer) have similar probabilities. In the slab case the scattering at 90 degrees has larger probability relative to that at 0 degrees since the optical depth along the horizontal direction is larger than along the vertical.

Note that the shape of the break has important effects on the best–fit values of other parameters involved in the fitting procedure. For instance, we expect that the amplitude of the reflection component derived from the spectral fit when allowing for an anisotropy break in the continuum will be larger for configurations with larger anisotropy and minimal in the case of a simple power-law model (cf. Table1).

## 3 Application of different models to the BeppoSAX data of NGC 5548

Here we will be concerned with data from three instruments on board BeppoSAX : the Low Energy Concentrator Spectrometer, LECS (Parmar et al. par97 (1997)) covering the 0.15–10 keV range, the Medium Energy Concentrator Spectrometer, MECS (Boella et al. boe97 (1997)) covering the 2–10 keV range and the Phoswich detector system, PDS (Frontera et al. fro97 (1997)) covering the range 12 – 200 keV. For a description of the instruments and data reduction procedure we refer to N99 and references therein.

A careful analysis of the BeppoSAX data was carried out by N99. The continuum, was described using a simple cut–off power law model

$$f_EE^{1\mathrm{\Gamma }}\mathrm{e}^{E/E_\mathrm{c}},$$
(2)
characterized by the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and the e–folding energy $`E_\mathrm{c}`$, with additional, superimposed features due to reflection and the possible presence of a warm absorber. The source brightened during the central $``$70 ks of the observation by $``$30% in the LECS and by $``$15% in the MECS. No significant variability larger than $``$ 20% was detected in the 13–200 keV PDS range. N99 divide the observations into three parts, each with nearly constant intensity and with similar signal to noise ratio: two low states L1, L2 (from the first $``$ 120 ks and the last $``$ 106 ks of the observation respectively) and a high state H (from the central $``$ 70 ks of the observation). The main results of N99 can be summarized as follows:

* the average spectral data can be well fitted by a cut–off power law, plus reflection component and warm absorber features. For most of the duration of the observation (i.e. in the low state), the continuum is characterized by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.59`$ and $`E_\mathrm{c}=115`$ keV
* NGC 5548 shows significant spectral variability between the low and high states, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 0.2 (the low state being the harder one), whereas the total luminosity remains essentially constant. The high energy cut-off is also tightly constrained in the low state, $`E_\mathrm{c}=115_{27}^{+39}`$ keV, while, in the high state, a lower limit is obtained, $`E_\mathrm{c}>260`$ keV. This lower limit is however larger than the one obtained in the low state.
* the presence of a warm absorber in this source is confirmed, and for the first time an emission feature, possibly associated with the OVII-OVIII K$`\alpha `$ and Kβ emission lines at $``$0.6 keV, is detected.

Here we focus on the continuum plus reflection components fitting directly Comptonization spectra computed for different values of the physical parameters $`kT_{bb}`$, $`\tau `$ and $`kT_e`$ and for different geometries. In our analysis, we used the H94 and PS96 codes. The advantage of the H94 code is that its outputs are computed before the fitting procedure, and stored as a table in xspec, so that searching for best fit values, confidence levels, errors, etc, is a very fast procedure. For this reason, throughout the paper, fits to the slab model always refer to the H94 code outputs, while for the hemisphere and sphere geometries the results reported have been obtained using the PS96 code.

The reflection component was included following White, Lightman & Zdziarski (whi88 (1988)) and Lightman & White (lig88 (1988)) and assuming neutral matter. In the H94 code, a constant spectral shape averaged over angles is assumed for the reflected photons. It is multiplied by a normalization factor which depends on the inclination angle (see Ghisellini, Haardt & Matt 1994 for details). PS96 instead computes the reflection component for the given inclination angle using the Green functions of Magdziarz & Zdziarski (mag95 (1995)). The geometrical normalization of the reflection component $`R`$ is left as a free parameter. A value $`R=1`$ corresponds to a covering factor of the cold matter to the X–ray source of $`\mathrm{\Omega }=2\pi `$. Note that the X–ray emission, as discussed in Section 2, is not assumed to be isotropic.

The iron line is modeled by a Gaussian with null width, since the line appeared practically unresolved ($`\sigma _{F_e}<`$ 300 eV) in the previous analysis of N99. The central energy of the line is fixed at 6.3 keV, the best fit value obtained by N99. For what concerns the warm absorber (WA), we simply modelled it as two edges at 0.74 and 0.87 keV, to account for O VII and O VIII absorption. A more detailed analysis, as that done by N99, is beyond the scope of our paper, which is instead focused on the high energy continuum. We have however checked that a better modelization of the WA (CLOUDY code used by N99) does not affect the results obtained in this paper.

Finally, the LECS/MECS and PDS/MECS normalization ratios were frozen to the standard values of 0.75 and 0.88 respectively (Fiore, Guainazzi & Grandi fio99 (1999)). The results of the fits are detailed in the following sections. Throughout the paper, errors on single parameter (obtained by letting the others free to vary) are quoted at a confidence level of 90 % (i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$=2.7) unless otherwise specified.

### 3.1 Constraining the soft photon field and the inclination angle

To take advantage of the maximum available signal to noise ratio, we consider first the total data set obtained by BeppoSAX , that is the average over the whole observation period from the three Narrow Field Instruments, LECS, MECS and PDS. These data taken together cover the range from 0.15 to 200 keV.

We start to constrain the values of the soft photon temperature $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$, and of the inclination angle $`i`$ (or its cosine $`\mu \mathrm{cos}i`$). To this end we assume a fixed, slab geometry where the input soft radiation field is supposed to be localized on one side of the slab.

A soft X–ray excess was found previously in NGC 5548 (Done et al. don95 (1995); Magdziarz et al. mag98 (1998)), but is not present in the BeppoSAX spectra (N99). From IUE data, the UV bump seems to peak above 3 eV (Clavel et al. cla92 (1992); Magdziarz et al. mag98 (1998)). We therefore tested values of $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$, in the 5 to 50 eV range.

We perform a best–fit analysis on the four parameters $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$ , $`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$ and $`R`$ with two fixed values of $`\mu `$. The results of the fitting procedure are reported in Table 1, where we give the best fit values and 90% confidence errors for each of the four fitted quantities.

For an inclination angle of 30 the best fitting soft temperature $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$ is 16 eV, with a 90% confidence interval between 7 and 18 eV. This is higher but not far from the maximum temperature deduced from the UV spectrum suggesting that the emission from the accretion disk should extend to higher energies. This could be due to deviations from a pure blackbody emission and/or to the presence of a hotter inner region of the disk. The reflection component is nicely consistent with a solid angle of 2$`\pi `$. High black body temperatures (20 eV and larger) are statiscally unacceptable. The reason is that, in these cases, the high energy tail of the UV–to–Soft–X-ray bump would fall in the LECS band.

It is worth stressing, at this point, that the BeppoSAX data, as already noted by N99, do not confirm the presence of a soft excess, as observed by ROSAT in 1992-1993 (Done et al. don95 (1995)). This discrepancy could be due to systematic errors in the ROSAT low energy data, as already discussed by Iwasawa et al. (iwa99 (1999)) but may also result from a possible variability of the soft component. In the latter case the soft photon temperature could be different at different epochs. We recall that the soft excess derived by Reynolds (rey97 (1997)), fitting ASCA data of NGC 5548, having best fit black body temperature of 240 eV, referred to a state when the spectral index of the continuum was 1.9, definitely steeper than during this BeppoSAX observation (see further discussion section 5.2).

For a larger inclination angle, $`i=60^{}`$, the fit yields a smaller value of the reflection component $`R`$. This is because the anisotropy of the Compton emission is maximum at $`i=0^{}`$, and is reduced for increasing inclination. Hence the difference in spectral index before and after $`E_{\mathrm{break}}`$ is smaller for i$`=60^{}`$. The MECS data constrain the spectral index for $`E<E_{\mathrm{break}}`$, leaving, for larger viewing angles, less room for the reflection component, which peaks at energies $`E>E_{\mathrm{break}}`$. Figure Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 shows the LECS, MECS and PDS spectra and the best fit models obtained with inclination angles of 30 and 60 respectively. Although the $`\chi ^2`$ value is acceptable in both cases, it is significantly worse for the larger angle ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2`$=35) as shown by the fit residuals in the PDS range. We will not discuss the inclination further fixing $`i=30^{}`$ in the following.

The $`\chi ^2`$ contour plots for two parameters (confidence levels of 68%, 90%, and 99%) for slab models with $`i=30^{}`$ are shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The joint confidence levels of $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ is shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548c. To compute these contour plots $`kT_{bb}`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_e`$, $`R`$ and the model normalization were allowed to vary, while the Fe line intensity and the depth of the Oxygen edges were frozen to their best fit values, since they do not significantly affect the fit of the continuum. From such plot one can see how $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ adjust so that the combination of the two produces a spectrum with the observed shape. In fact the shape of the contours follows approximately a line of constant Comptonization parameter.

### 3.2 Comparing different geometries

In order to test different geometries we performed spectral fits using the PS96 code for a hemisphere with soft photon input from the bottom plane and a sphere with soft photons isotropically emitted at the centre. In the first case the fits were performed for different values of the inclination angle as previously done for the slab case. Again the best quality fits are obtained for $`i=30^{}`$. The results are reported in Table 1. In both cases the derived temperature of the hot Comptonizing electrons does not change significantly with respect to the case of the slab geometry. The optical depth adjusts as expected towards somewhat higher values, since for the slab configuration the optical depth parameter, which is measured in the vertical direction, is lower than the average optical depth seen by the Comptonized photons. The soft photon temperature for the hemisphere model also coincides with that for the slab, while it is somewhat lower in the case of the sphere. The largest difference is the value of the reflection component, which is larger for larger anisotropy. In fact the hemisphere yields the largest value and the sphere the smallest one (cf. section 2).

We also report in Table 1 the best fit parameters of a simple cut–off power law (plus reflection) model (pexrav model in xspec, Magdziarz & Zdziarski mag95 (1995)). For this model, the fit parameters are the e–folding energy of the cut–off power law $`E_\mathrm{c}`$, the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the reflection normalization $`R`$. Note that our best fit values are in complete agreement with those obtained by N99. On the other hand, here and in the following sections, we report “equivalent” values of $`kT_e`$ also for pexrav, simply computed as $`kT_eE_\mathrm{c}/2`$, keeping in mind that such approximation roughly holds for $`\tau <1`$. For $`\tau 1`$, $`kT_eE_\mathrm{c}/3`$ would be more appropriate. The value reported can be considered as an upper limit to the temperature estimated from a cut–off power law model. Knowing the temperature, the spectral index derived from the pexrav fit can be used to determine the optical depth using the relation (Shapiro, Lightman & Eardley sha76 (1976); Sunyaev & Titarchuk sun80 (1980); Lightman & Zdziarski lig87 (1987)):

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }1=\left[\frac{9}{4}+\frac{m_ec^2}{kT_e\tau (1+\tau /3)}\right]^{1/2}\frac{3}{2}$$
(3)
This equation is valid for $`\tau 1`$, and we have checked a posteriori that such condition is roughly matched in all cases.

Every alternative geometry gives statistically acceptable fits. The spherical (isotropic) model, though acceptable, is however considerably worse than the others. Also it is surprizing that the best fit temperature obtained with this model is similar to the anisotropic models rather than to the pexrav results. We therefore checked this result fitting the data with the analytical Comptonization model of Titarchuck (comptt model of xspec, Titarchuk tit94 (1994)) and adding the reflection component computed by pexrav, a gaussian for the iron line and two edges for the O VII and OVIII ones. Such model should represent quite well the case of an isotropic spherical geometry. The best fit then gives $`\tau 4.3`$ and $`kT_e`$ 30 keV, comparable to the pexrav results if $`kT_eE_c/3`$. We believe that the discrepancy with the results obtained using the spherical code of Poutanen is due to the fact that the latter is limited to $`\tau 3`$ (we have cheked that both codes are in agreement when we fixed $`\tau `$ to 3). This can prevent the fitting procedure to find an acceptable fit with low temperature and high optical depth. We therefore will not discuss the spherical model further.

The data and best fit model for the hemisphere are compared in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 with those for the slab. In Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548, we show the confidence levels for various combinations of the fitted parameters (here again only $`kT_{bb}`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_e`$, $`R`$ are allowed to vary) for the hemisphere configuration for an inclination angle fixed at $`30^{}`$. In particular the contour plots of $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ for the hemisphere do not overlap those for the slab. Although the temperature range is the same, the optical depth is higher, yielding a larger value of the Comptonization parameter.

The theoretical relation between $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ expected for the slab and hemisphere configurations in energy balance and with negligible disk heating as computed by Stern et al. (1995a ) are also shown on the same figures. The parameters derived for the slab correspond to a Comptonization parameter $`y`$ 1 higher than expected in an equilibrium configuration ($`y0.5`$). The case of a hemisphere appears in better agreement with the theoretical predictions from energy balance requirements. For the latter model the normalization of the reflection component is however relatively large (R $`=1.6\pm 0.3`$) in marginal agreement with the measured EW (of the order of 120 eV) of the Fe line (George & Fabian geo91 (1991); Matt et al. mat91 (1991); Reynolds, Fabian & Inoue rey95 (1995)). Thus neither model is entirely satisfactory. This problem will be further discussed in section 5.

The most important and general conclusion from this section is that the temperature estimates of the hot electrons derived from fits with Comptonization spectra, irrespective of geometry, are substantially different from those obtained using models involving a power law with high energy cut–off plus a reflection component, exemplified by pexrav fits (see Table 1 and 2). This is due to the fact that the power law slope is determined with small errors by the LECS and MECS data. Since within pexrav type models this slope by hypothesis cannot change at higher energies, a cut–off around 100 keV is required to fit the PDS data. In Comptonization models, the LECS and MECS data determine the slope below the anisotropy break. Above this break the intrinsic spectrum is steeper and thus can fit the PDS data without an additional steepening below 100 keV, allowing for a larger temperature. The large difference in the fitted temperatures leads to widely different predictions as to the fluxes emitted at higher energies, above the PDS range.

### 3.3 Comparing the low and high states

We now discuss the spectral variations associated with the flare experienced by NGC 5548 during the central $``$70 ks of the BeppoSAX observation. Using direct Comptonization fits we can derive the variations of the physical parameters during the flare. Since no significant variations were found by N99 between the two low state spectra (before and after the flare), we combined them into a mean low state spectrum, labelled as “L”. The high state spectrum will be referred to as “H”. Again, we fixed the inclination at 30 and performed the fitting procedure for the plane parallel and hemispherical geometries for the two states.

The fits to the L and H spectra are shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The high quality of the data allows to constrain quite precisely the main parameters $`kT_{bb}`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_e`$ and $`R`$ in the two states. The best fit values are reported in Table 2, with their associated 90% error and confidence level contours are shown in Fig Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. While these errors take into account the possible variations of all the parameters involved, we stress that not all the parameters are expected to vary simultaneously. To illustrate the mutual parameter dependence we also show in Fig Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548c the contour plots obtained assuming that the soft photon temperature remained constant during the flare. These ”partial” contours suggest that for constant $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$ the change in physical parameters is essentially a decrease of the coronal temperature. This is even more true if $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$ increases in the softer state as indicated by the best fit values and discussed in section 5.2. We have reported the values of $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ found for the low and high states for the slab and hemisphere configuration in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. Two main points should be noted here:

* the change of state of the source, from L to H, is consistent with a constant Compton parameter $`y`$. The trend in the $`\tau `$$`kT_e`$ plane is for a decrease of the temperature of the hot corona in the high state, with a roughly constant optical depth.
* As the high state is the softer one (cf. Table 2), the temperature $`kT_e`$ and the slope of the intrinsic continuum are anticorrelated, as expected if an increase of the cooling caused the hard–to–soft luminosity ratio to decrease.

We also derived values of $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ for both the low and high states using the slopes and cut–off energies obtained from fits with pexrav (see section 3.2) . These are reported in Table 2 and shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The errors on the temperature are rather large, since in this kind of model it is derived from the cut off energy which is constrained only by the hard X-ray data. We recall that in N99, only a lower limit to the cut–off energy was obtained for the high state. Our results have somewhat tighter constraints because we have fixed the relative normalization of the instruments.

In contrast with the results obtained using anisotropic Comptonization the parameter variations derived fitting pexrav models suggest that:

* the change of state of the source is consistent with the Compton parameter remaining constant during the transition but the trend in the $`\tau `$$`kT_e`$ plane is for an increase of the temperature of the hot corona in the high state, with a decrease of the optical depth.
* the temperature of the corona is thus positively correlated with the continuum spectral index.

Thus not only different continuum models yield different values of the physical parameters but also the variability trends derived are opposite.

## 4 Multifrequency SED using non simultaneous IUE and OSSE data

Our purpose here is to examine whether existing data on the broad band energy distribution (optical to hard X–ray) may provide additional constraints to the Comptonization models discussed above. We therefore compare the BeppoSAX data on NGC 5548 to non–simultaneous UV and soft $`\gamma `$–ray data, obtained with IUE, and with OSSE on board CGRO, respectively. These data have been analysed, together with Ginga and ROSAT data, in Magdziarz et al. (mag98 (1998), hereafter M98).

### 4.1 UV data

The ultraviolet spectra were extracted from the IUE electronic archive, and cover nine epochs, from January 1989 to July 1990. We use the data as reduced by M98. Emission lines were removed, and dereddened with E(B-V)$``$ 0.03. The fit of the IUE data shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 was done with an accretion disk model, consisting of multiple blackbody components, modified by the estimated absorption. In addition a vertical line represents the dispersion of the UV fluxes of NGC 5548 measured with IUE between 1983–1995 (see also Clavel et al. cla92 (1992)). The best fit gives an inner disk temperature of $``$ 3 eV and a flux of $`10^{10}`$ erg s-1 cm-2. Note that the UV and X–ray luminosities appear to be of the same order. Moreover the extrapolation of the X-ray spectrum towards lower frequencies falls well below the peak of the putative disk emission. Although some caution is in order due to the non simultaneity of the observations and to the absence of data in the FUV – EUV range, this result is consistent with a) a corona with low optical depth and covering factor of order unity or b) a patchy corona with larger ($`>`$ 1) local optical depth but which covers a small fraction of the surface which emits the thermal radiation.

### 4.2 OSSE data

The OSSE data were obtained during different observing periods in 1991 and in 1993 ( See also M98). Their average was used to constrain the high energy cut-off by fitting simultaneously the BeppoSAX data with the OSSE data with a free relative normalization, which turns out to be 30% higher with respect to the MECS fluxes. Unfortunately, the OSSE data have a relatively poor signal–to–noise ratio, and their inclusion in the fit does not lead to an improvement in the determination of the temperature of the hot plasma. They clearly show however that the larger temperature estimated with the Comptonization models is completely consistent with the highest energy data available.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Physical parameters of the corona

#### 5.1.1 Temperature and optical depth

Thanks to the long BeppoSAX observation of NGC 5548, we were able to test quantitatively accurate anisotropic Comptonization models for the X-ray emission from this source. We have shown that if such models are adopted, either in a plane parallel or hemispheric approximation for the geometry of the corona, the inclination angle should be low, $`i30^{}`$ and the soft photon temperature $`kT_{\mathrm{bb}}`$ 5-15 eV.

The best fit values of the hot plasma temperature and optical depth depend somewhat on the adopted geometry and on the state of the source, but in any case, the estimated temperatures, $`kT_\mathrm{e}`$ 250 – 260 keV, are substantially larger than those inferred from fits with a cut–off power law. N99 find a high energy cut–off $`E_\mathrm{c}`$ of the order of 120 keV, corresponding to a temperature $`kT_\mathrm{e}60`$ keV (see also Table 2).

Correspondingly the optical depth, $`\tau `$ 0.16–0.37 (for the slab and hemisphere geometry) is smaller than that deduced from the pexrav best fit where $`\tau `$ 2.4. Large values of $`\tau `$ should have observable consequences on the profile of the Fe line component produced in the disk, leading to an attenuation and broadening of the line. At present the profile of this line in NGC 5548 is not unambiguously determined. The line seems unresolved in the BeppoSAX data (N99) but a significant width is suggested by ASCA data (Mushotzky et al., mus95 (1995); Nandra et al., nan97 (1997); Chiang et al., chi00 (2000); N99). Forthcoming observations with CHANDRA and XMM-Newton are expected to bring substantial progress on this issue.

We show in Fig.Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 the best fit Comptonization model (in slab geometry) of the BeppoSAX data of NGC 5548, together with the best fit model obtained with a cut–off power law model (in solid and dashed line respectively). Due to the different normalization of the reflection component both models are in good agreement for $`E<100`$ keV. Above this energy the two models diverge, the first one predicting much larger fluxes. Unfortunately the available non–simultaneous OSSE data cannot discriminate between the two. This underlines the need of better soft $`\gamma `$–ray observations, as those possibly provided by INTEGRAL, in order to directly confirm or disprove the temperatures inferred with anisotropic Comptonization models.

#### 5.1.2 Energy Balance

The physical parameters $`kT_\mathrm{e}`$ and $`\tau `$ derived for the corona in the case of a plane parallel geometry are not in agreement with the predictions for a simple two phase disk–corona system in energy balance, even under the extreme assumption that all the available gravitational power is dissipated in the hot corona (Haardt & Maraschi haa91 (1991), haa93b (1993); Stern et al. 1995a ). They instead suggest that the hot gas is photon starved, i.e., it is undercooled with respect to theoretical expectations based on a stationary equilibrium hypothesis.

Indeed, the fits obtained with a hemispherical model (cf. Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548) yield parameters in agreement with theoretical predictions for this geometry under the same assumptions mentioned above. In fact, a hemisphere is naturally photon starved with respect to an (infinite) plane parallel system, because of “side effects”, which are obviously negligible when the scale height of the corona is much lower than its radial dimension. In any case the best fit values of $`kT_e`$ are, in the two geometries, roughly consistent, while there is a factor of 2 of difference between the corresponding values of $`\tau `$ (on this point, see section 2).

In the hemisphere case, however, we obtain a large normalization of the reflection component, in excess of unity (again, see section 2 and Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 on this point), which does not agree with the observed EW of the Fe line, while the slab geometry gives a slightly better fit with a reflection of order unity, as expected. These results indicate that the real model is probably more complicated but not too far from these two ideal cases.

Our results indicate that the anisotropy break should be as expected for the slab but the Comptonization parameter should be higher, as expected for the hemisphere. These two aspects could be reconciled if a significant fraction of the area below a flattish corona did not contribute to absorb and reprocess the downscattered Comptonized photons into soft luminosity. One could envisage a picture in which the corona extends down to the very innermost orbits around the black hole, while the inner part of the disk, could be hot and highly ionised. In this kind of picture the average energy balance is shifted toward a photon starved condition, while most of the reflection features from the external part of the disk should be visible anyway. Detailed calculations are necessary to test such kind of picture. A model along this line has been proposed by Belloni et al. (bel97 (1997)) for GRS 1915+105, and is believed to be relevant in the context of the different spectral states observed in Galactic black holes (see, e.g., Narayan, Mahadevan & Quataert nar98 (1998)).

### 5.2 Variability

As already discussed, the source exhibits a flare in the central part of the observation during which the X-ray spectrum steepens. Analysing the spectral variability in terms of anisotropic Comptonization models, we find that, irrespective of geometry (see section 3.3, and figure Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548), the best fit parameters for the low–to–high state suggest a change of the Compton parameter y, in the sense that y tends to decrease in the high state (cf. Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548). A decrease of $`y`$ implies a decrease of the Comptonized to soft luminosity ratio.

Since the X–ray continuum varies more at lower energies, pivoting at the highest energies, where the bulk of the Comptonized luminosity is emitted, the change in $`y`$ is most likely due to an increase of the cooling, rather than to a decrease of the heating. In fact if the heating decreased while the cooling remained constant the pivot should occur at the lowest energies. If this interpretation is correct, then the spectral softening in the high state is naturally explained by a drop of the coronal temperature, ultimately due to an increase of the EUV soft photon flux. In fact our fits yield lower temperatures of the corona in the higher state and are consistent with the optical depth remaining constant in the transition. More precisely, from the high and low state fits we estimate a Compton parameter of $`1.3`$ and $`0.6`$ in the low and high states respectively, corresponding within the model to an increase of the soft photon luminosity of a factor $`3`$. It is worth noting that similar variability amplitudes have been observed by EUVE in this source on a time scale of a few tenths of kiloseconds, while the 2-10 keV flux was varying by about 20% (Chiang et al., chi00 (2000)).

We show in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 the full best fit models of the low and high state including the soft photon component but removing the neutral absorption and Oxygen edges for clarity. It is remarkable that the required soft luminosities compare well with the intensity and variability range of the UV spectra observed with IUE and shown in Fig. Testing Comptonizing coronae on a long BeppoSAX observation of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. They require however, especially in the case of the softer state, regions of higher temperature than visible in the UV range. It is interesting to recall that Reynolds (rey97 (1997)), fitting ASCA data of NGC 5548 found a significant soft excess with black body temperature near 240 eV and a spectral index of the continuum of 1.9 in the 2–10 keV range, definitely steeper than during this BeppoSAX observation. The above soft component could be the signature of the UV-EUV seed photon becoming prominent enough to be directly detected. The corresponding strong cooling of the corona would then imply a steeper X-ray continuum in the ASCA data as observed.

Qualitatively, the spectral and luminosity change can be explained assuming that, in the H (soft) state, the disk pushes a bit closer to the black hole, increasing the portion of the hot corona which ”sees” a copious flux of UV–EUV soft radiation. This would cause a more effective cooling of the hot gas, a decrease in its temperature, while the overall energetics would not change substantially. A clear prediction is that the temperature of the soft photons and the strength of the reflection features should be larger in the H state with respect to the L state. Our data are consistent with such a view, and, again, detailed calculations are necessary to test the model quantitatively.

Interpreting variability in terms of the physical parameters obtained with pexrav leads to different conclusions. In this case the Compton parameter is consistent with remaining constant between L and H. The decrease of the optical depth is thus expected to go with an increase of the temperature, in agreement with the best fit values. It is however difficult to predict the corresponding change of the soft photon flux.

### 5.3 The role of pairs

It is interesting to ask what could be the role of electron positron pairs in a corona with the derived parameters. This is determined by the ”compactness” parameter $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{X}`$.

For any given temperature, there exists a maximum value that $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{X}`$ can have, without violating pair equilibrium, i.e., pair production balanced by pair annihilation (Haardt & Maraschi haa93b (1993); Svensson sve96 (1996)). Such limit compactness is reached in the case of a pure pair plasma, a situation in which the pair production is so intense that the new created particles dominates the scattering opacity against ”normal”, pre–existing electrons. A further increase of $`\mathrm{}_\mathrm{X}`$ would produce more pairs than annihilate, increasing the net opacity of the source, and hence the cooling. The plasma can find a new equilbrium only at a lower temperature.

We can estimate the compactness of NGC 5548 from the luminosity ($`L_\mathrm{X}10^{44}`$ erg s-1), and from the variability time scale. The variation observed during the BeppoSAX long look gives an upper limit of $`3\times 10^{15}`$ cm to the linear dimensions of the varying region. From these values we derive a compactness

$$\mathrm{}_\mathrm{X}\frac{L_\mathrm{X}\sigma _\mathrm{T}}{Rm_\mathrm{e}c^3}0.1.$$
(4)
Such value is below the maximum allowed for a slab or hemisphere corona with a temperature $`250`$ keV, assuming energy balance (Stern et al. 1995b ), which is of the order of the unity. For this compactness and this temperature the optical depth associated with pairs in equilibrium is smaller than that estimated from our model fits. However, our estimate of the source dimension is probably a rough upper limit, which translates into a lower limit for the compactness. A higher compactness allows for more pairs.

In view of these uncertainities, we can only conclude that a pair dominated corona is not required for NGC 5548.

## 6 Conclusions

The aim of this paper was to test realistic Comptonization models over the high signal to noise BeppoSAX observations of NGC 5548 (which has been detailed by N99). Our main effort was to adopt detailed Comptonization codes that treat carefully the Compton processes in different geometries, especially for what concerns the possible anisotropy of the soft photon field. This last point is crucial, since, in geometries like slabs or hemispheres, the observed first order scattering humps is highly reduced in comparison to the others, producing an anisotropy break just above the averaged energy of twice scattered photons. Specifically, the BeppoSAX observation of NGC 5548 has allowed us to show that:

* the data are well fitted by a plane parallel corona model with an inclination angle of $`30^{}`$ and a soft photon temperature between 5 and 15 eV. The corresponding best fit values of the hot plasma temperature and optical depth are $`kT_\mathrm{e}`$ 250 keV and $`\tau `$ 0.1 respectively. These values of $`kT_\mathrm{e}`$ and $`\tau `$ are however not in agreement with a radiatively balanced two phases disk/corona system in plane parallel geometry, even under the assumption that all the gravitationnal power is dissipated in the hot corona. Instead the data suggest that the hot Comptonizing gas is photon-starved. A better agreement is effectively obtained with a hemispherical geometry, which is naturally undercooled with respect to the slab model. However for the hemisphere the anisotropy break is larger, yielding a large reflection component (R=1.6$`\pm `$0.3). This suggests that the real configuration is probably more complex than these two ideal cases.
* the flare occurring during the central 70 ks part of the run enabled us to interpret the spectral change of the source between different states in terms of changes in the physical parameters of the system. Within the framework of anisotropic thermal Comptonisation the change of state suggests a variation of the Compton parameter $`y`$, and thus a change of the central configuration. The spectral variability can be most naturally explained by an increase of the soft photon flux causing a reduction of the coronal temperature. be the first
* the zero order cut–off power law approximation commonly used to Comptonization spectra leads to quite different results. The corresponding best fit values of the temperature and optical depth of the corona are $`kT_e`$ 60 keV and $`\tau `$ 2.4. The bright state is consistent with the Compton parameter remaining constant during the spectral transition, but suggets an increase of the coronal temperature and a decrease of the optical depth. This model is statistically acceptable.
* We expect that the substantial improvements in the spectral data at low and medium X-ray energies achievable with CHANDRA and XMM-Newton could discriminate between these alternative models if complemented by simultaneous measurements at higher energies possibly provided by BeppoSAX . A decisive progress could come from improved soft $`\gamma `$–ray observations like those expected in the near future by INTEGRAL,

Acknowlegements: We gratefully acknowledge J. Poutanen for providing us his code and the anonymous referee for his helpful comments. POP, FH and LM were supported by the European Commission under contract number ERBFMRX-CT98-0195 ( TMR network ”Accretion onto black holes, compact stars and protostars”) and by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MURST) under grant COFIN98-02-154100. GM and GCP were supported by the Ministry for University and Research (MURST) under grant COFIN98-02-32.

Figure Captions


format: text

text:
# Signal Selection Based on Stochastic Resonance

## I Introduction

Our view of noise has shifted markedly over the past two decades: After it had long been seen merely as a nuisance, geophysicists first suggested in 1981 that noise may amplify the effect of weak periodic signals on dynamic systems . This effect, called *stochastic resonance* (SR), has since been found in a variety of experiments. The origin of stochastic resonance in both dynamical and non-dynamical systems is well understood today, although theories are mostly confined to slow signals. A recent review of the field can be found in Ref. .

The finding that noise may aid signal detection and transmission has spurred intense research in the neurosciences, where scientists have long been puzzled by the seeming irregularity of neuronal activity. The benefits of noise for signal processing in neurons have now been demonstrated in a wide range of species: neurons transduce a signal (or stimulus) optimally if a certain amount of ambient noise is present ; see Ref.  for a review.

Recent studies by ourselves  and other authors  have revealed a further noise-induced resonance effect in model neurons: There is also an optimum signal frequency, for which the neuron responds with spike trains (output signals) that have a particularly high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this letter, we show that this resonance frequency and the optimum noise amplitude are linearly related to the AC component of the signal impinging on a neuron, while the DC component serves as tuning parameter. We argue that these relations permit the neuron to switch between a signal transmission and a signal selection mode of operation.

The present work is based on the integrate-and-fire neuron model, which will briefly be reviewed in Sec. II, before the noise-induced response properties of the neuron are presented in Sec. III. Implications for neuronal signal processing are discussed in Sec. IV. More details are contained in Ref. .

## II Model

We focus on the spike generator of neurons for the sake of both simplicity and generality. The spike generator integrates the net input current $`I(t)`$ impinging on the neuron like a leaky capacitor. For sinusoidal input superimposed with white noise, the potential $`v(t)`$ across the capacitor (the membrane potential) is thus governed by

$$\dot{v}(t)=v(t)+\mu +q\mathrm{cos}(\mathrm{\Omega }t+\varphi )+\sigma \xi (t).$$
(1)
The input is characterized by the DC offset $`\mu `$, the signal amplitude $`q`$, the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and the (arbitrary) initial phase $`\varphi `$. The noise term with root mean square amplitude $`\sigma `$ and autocorrelation $`\xi (t)\xi (t^{})=\delta (tt^{})`$ subsumes the noise arising both from cell biochemistry  and background activity in the neuronal network . The neuron emits a stereotyped voltage pulse (a spike) whenever the membrane potential reaches a firing threshold $`v(t_k)=1=\mathrm{\Theta }`$; the potential is reset to $`v(t_k^+)=v_r<1`$ immediately thereafter. Time and voltage are measured in their natural units, i.e., the membrane time constant $`\tau _m`$ and the firing threshold $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$.

The spike generator thus operates as an analog-to-digital converter , encoding the continuous input signal $`I(t)`$ into a pulse train $`f(t)=_k\delta (tt_k)`$. Even though this model is a gross simplification of biological neurons, it has proven most fruitful for investigations of the nature of the neuronal code . For a derivation of this model from more realistic neuron models, see .

We restrict ourselves to sub-threshold signals, which would not elicit any spikes in the absence of noise, i.e., $`\mathrm{max}_t\mathrm{}v(t)=\mu +q/\sqrt{1+\mathrm{\Omega }^2}<1`$ from integration of Eq. (1). These appear to be more relevant than super-threshold signals for the encoding of periodic signals . Note that the membrane potential will oscillate about $`\overline{v}=\mu `$ after an initial transient in the absence of noise.

We measure the performance of the neuron in coding the sinusoidal input by the signal-to-noise ratio

$$R_{\text{SN}}=S(\mathrm{\Omega })/S_\text{P}$$
(2)
of the output spike train at the signal frequency. Here, $`S(\mathrm{\Omega })=\frac{1}{\pi T_o}|_0^{T_o}f(t)e^{i\mathrm{\Omega }t}𝑑t|^2`$ is the power spectral density of the train for a given observation time $`T_o`$, while the white power spectrum of a Poissonian spike train with equal mean interspike interval $`\tau `$, i.e., $`S_\text{P}=(\pi \tau )^1`$, is used as reference noise level. $`T_o=200`$ is employed throughout .

## III Response Properties

The leaky integrate-and-fire neuron responds best to sinusoidal stimulation—i.e. attains a maximum signal-to-noise ratio—at a particular combination of signal frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and input noise amplitude $`\sigma `$, see Fig. 1. The location of the SNR maximum is marked by an asterisk . In what follows, we shall explore the location of and the SNR value at this maximum as a function of the remaining stimulus parameters, namely the signal amplitude $`q`$, the DC offset $`\mu `$, and the reset potential $`v_r`$.

In the absence of noise, sub-threshold stimuli evoke membrane potential oscillations about $`\overline{v}=\mu `$ as pointed out in Sec. II. The gap between this average potential and the threshold, $`\mathrm{\Theta }\overline{v}=1\mu `$, needs to be bridged by the concerted effort of signal-induced oscillations and noise. It is therefore plausible to scale both stimulus and noise amplitude by this threshold distance, i.e., to define relative amplitudes,

$$q_r=\frac{q}{1\mu }\text{and}\sigma _r=\frac{\sigma }{1\mu }.$$
(3)
Furthermore, the reset potential $`v_r`$ should enter only as the ratio of the reset distance to threshold distance, which we shall refer to as *relative reset*

$$\gamma =\frac{\mu v_r}{1\mu }.$$
(4)
This scaling can be established rigorously via escape noise approximations to the dynamics of the integrate-and-fire neuron .

We shall now turn to the relation of the optimum tuning parameters (preferred signal frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}`$, scaled noise amplitude $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}`$, and SNR $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$) to the signal amplitude parameters (scaled AC amplitude $`q_r`$, and relative reset $`\gamma `$; or DC offset $`\mu `$ and reset potential $`v_r`$ instead of $`\gamma `$). Figure 2(a) indicates a perfect linear relation between $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$, the attainable SNR, and the stimulus amplitude $`q_r`$, while the optimum input noise amplitude $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}0.60.7`$ is practically independent of $`q_r`$, see Fig. 2(b): variations of $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}`$ are about one order of magnitude smaller than the range of $`q_r`$ values. Both relations are remarkably independent of the value of the DC offset $`\mu `$ (indicated by symbol/line type in Fig. 2, supporting the scaling given in Eq. (3). $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$ and $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}`$ are thus independent of the DC component of the signal transmitted for fixed reset potential.

A different behavior is observed for the optimum frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}`$ as shown in Fig. 3(a): For large values of $`\gamma `$, i.e., a strong positive DC offset, the optimum frequency is nearly independent of the signal amplitude $`q_r`$, while small values of $`\gamma `$ lead to a marked linear dependence of $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}`$ on $`q_r`$: the preferred frequency may be selected by a variation of the signal amplitude. Figure 3(a) also clearly indicates that the response of the neuron depends on the DC offset $`\mu `$ and reset potential $`v_r`$ only via the relative reset $`\gamma `$, vindicating Eq. (4): each data point shown is a superposition of two almost perfectly coincident points obtained from different $`(\mu ,v_r)`$-combinations yielding the same $`\gamma `$ (circles, crosses). The same is found for $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$ and $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}`$ (not shown). The results presented here are thus applicable both to sensory and cortical neurons: the former are best fit by the model for reset potentials $`v_r0`$ , while the latter require $`v_r0.7`$ .

Figure 3(a) indicates that the integrate-and-fire neuron may operate in two different modes: a *transmission mode* for large $`\gamma `$, which optimally encodes stimuli of a fixed preferred frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}1`$ irrespective of their amplitude, and a *selection mode*, in which the preferred frequency may be chosen by variation of the stimulus amplitude $`q_r`$. The slope of the frequency-amplitude curve (linear least squares fit) as a function of the relative reset $`\gamma `$ is shown in Fig. 3(b). There is a sharp transition between the selection and transmission modes at $`\gamma 2.1`$. No slope could be determined for $`\gamma <1.5`$, since the period of the optimal stimulus $`2\pi /\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}`$ tends to the duration of the observation period $`T_o`$ for small amplitudes $`q_r`$ in this case.

The two modes of operation arise through different firing patterns: For large relative reset ($`\gamma >2`$), less than one spike is fired on average per stimulus period, i.e., the neuron fires at most one well phase-locked spike per period, and often skips periods in between spikes, with a slight increase in spike number with $`q_r`$. For small reset ($`\gamma <2`$), in contrast, the neuron has a bursting firing pattern for small $`q_r`$, i.e., two or three spikes are fired in rapid succession near the maximum of the signal in each period, followed by silence till the next period. As $`q_r`$ is increased and the optimum frequency rises, the signal period becomes too short to harbor more than one spike and bursting gives way to a more regular firing pattern, with a little more than one spike per period on average. For intermediate reset ($`\gamma 2`$), the neuron fires almost regularly, with about $`0.8`$ spikes per signal period independent of $`q_r`$. Cold receptor neurons show all three kinds of firing patterns (skipping, regular, bursting) depending on ambient temperature ; their behavior is reproduced well by the integrate-and-fire neuron .

## IV Functional Significance

Let us summarize the neuronal response properties and discuss them in turn: (i) The optimal signal-to-noise ratio scales linearly with the input signal amplitude, and (ii) is attained at a constant noise amplitude, while (iii) the preferred frequency is either independent of (transmission mode) or linearly related to the signal amplitude (selection mode).

Property (i) means that the optimal SNR of the spike train emitted by the neuron is related to the SNR of the input signal as $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}q_r\sqrt{R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{in}}}`$ , in qualitative agreement with recent findings in a variant model neuron . This suggests a law of diminishing returns for the signal-to-noise ratio: there is no point in investing valuable resources to improve $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{in}}`$ beyond a certain level, because resulting gains in $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$ would be minimal. Since the output of each neuron in turn is input to other neurons, the same argument holds for raising $`R_{\text{SN}}^{\text{opt}}`$. The level of noise observed in the brain might thus reflect an evolutionary compromise between coding quality and resource consumption.

(ii) The independence of the optimum input noise amplitude $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}`$ from signal amplitude makes the integrate-and-fire neuron a useful signal processing device, as no fine-tuning of the noise to the signal is required to attain optimal performance. The noise level need only be adjusted relative to the DC offset, which largely reflects homogeneous background activity. The optimum noise amplitude of $`\sigma _r^{\text{opt}}0.60.7`$ (relative to the threshold distance $`1\mu `$) is in good agreement with the observation that coincidence detection in the auditory system of barn owls works best for sub-threshold stimuli which raise the average membrane potential to roughly one noise amplitude below threshold .

Property (iii) is the central finding reported here: a model neuron as simple as the integrate-and-fire neuron may switch between two distinct modes of operation, a transmission and a selection mode. Switching between the two modes is achieved by variation of the temporally homogeneous background input to the neuron: weak background activity activates the selection mode, a strong background the transmission mode. Switching between modes requires only moderate variations of the background activity as indicated by Fig. 3(b). In the former, an input signal of particular frequency reaching the neuron through synapses far from the cell body—and thus the spike generator—may easily be (de-)selected: modulatory input through synapses closer to the spike generator need only vary the amplitude $`q`$ of the net input current $`I(t)`$ to the spike generator to tune the neuron’s optimum frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }^{\text{opt}}`$ either closer to or away from the given signal frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Selected signals are then coded into spike trains with high signal-to-noise ratio, i.e., trains with clear temporal structure, while deselected signals elicit more random output. Since pulse packets can propagate through networks of neurons only if they are sufficiently strong and tight , variation of the SNR provides a means of gating such packets through neuronal networks.

## V Summary

We have shown here that the filter properties of a threshold system exploiting stochastic resonance in the sub-threshold regime are linearly related to the AC amplitude of the input signal, and may be tuned by variation of the DC signal amplitude. Our results indicate that such a simple device may, with the aid of noise, provide the means to selectively transmit signals in neuronal networks. It might thus harness noise for the benefit of neuronal computation. Although our study is set in the framework of neurons as the most widespread threshold detectors in nature, the results apply more generally to any threshold system that may be characterized as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck escape process.

We would like to thank A. N. Burkitt, G. T. Einevoll and W. Gerstner for critically reading an earlier version of the manuscript.


text:
# FUSE Observations of Intrinsic Absorption in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy Mrk 509

## 1. INTRODUCTION

Mrk 509 straddles the boundary in luminosity between Seyfert 1 nuclei and QSOs with an absolute magnitude of $`M_B=22.0`$. This gives it particular importance for understanding how the properties typical of the well-studied nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) might scale with luminosity, and, therefore, be applied to the more distant and luminous QSOs. Like many Seyfert 1 galaxies, Mrk 509 exhibits intrinsic UV absorption lines (York et al. (1984); Crenshaw, Boggess, & Wu (1995); Savage, Sembach, & Lu (1997); Crenshaw et al. (1999)) and X-ray absorption edges of O vii and O viii (Reynolds (1997); George et al. (1998)). The UV absorption is blue-shifted relative to the systemic velocity of 10,365 km s-1 (Phillips et al. (1983)), and Phillips et al. suggest that it is related to the expanding shell of high ionization gas visible in images and spectra out to a radius of 15′′ from the nucleus.

At high resolution, UV absorption in Seyferts appears to be kinematically complex (NGC 3516: Crenshaw, Maran, & Mushotzky (1998); NGC 5548: Mathur, Elvis, & Wilkes (1999)), with at most one of the UV components having any possible relation to the X-ray absorbing gas (Mathur, Elvis, & Wilkes (1999)). High resolution observations of UV absorption lines covering a range of ionization states is the key to determining which, if any, of the UV absorbers are associated with an X-ray warm absorber. The FUSE observations of Mrk 509 we present in this paper extend the far-UV spectral coverage to wavelengths shortward of 1200 Å. Our spectra include the O vi $`\lambda \lambda 1032,1038`$ resonance doublet and the high-order Lyman lines, down to the redshifted Lyman limit. Since the L$`\alpha `$ lines resolved in earlier UV observations are saturated, the high-order lines visible with FUSE provide a better constraint on the total neutral hydrogen column density. The O vi doublet is a crucial link for establishing a connection between the higher ionization absorption edges seen in the X-ray and the lower ionization absorption lines seen in earlier UV observations. Based on these new observations, we discuss the implications for the location of the absorbing gas in AGN, and how intrinsic absorption in low-$`z`$ AGN may be related to the broad-absorption line phenomenon in more luminous QSOs.

## 2. OBSERVATIONS

FUSE comprises four separate primary mirrors gathering light for four prime-focus, Rowland-circle spectrographs and two, two-dimensional, photon-counting detectors. For a full description of FUSE, its mission, and its in-flight performance, see Moos et al. (2000), and Sahnow et al. (2000). Two of the optical systems employ LiF coatings on the optics, giving coverage from $`990`$–1187 Å, and the other two use SiC coatings, which provide reflectivity down to wavelengths as short as 905 Å. The mirror systems focus light on a slit assembly in the focal plane. The holographically ruled gratings disperse the light entering through the slits and form an astigmatic image on the two-dimensional microchannel-plate detectors. The detectors have KBr photocathodes and delay-line anode readouts that provide the location and arrival time of each photon event.

Mrk 509 was observed on 1999 Nov 9 and 1999 Nov 11 through the $`30^{\prime \prime }\times 30^{\prime \prime }`$ low-resolution apertures. We obtained good spectra from the LiF1 and LiF2 channels covering the 987–1187 Å band, and lower signal-to-noise-ratio (S/N) spectra from the SiC2 channel covering 905–1091 Å. As a result of channel misalignment during the observations, almost no data were obtained in the SiC1 channel. We recorded the data in photon-address mode, which provides a time-tagged list of event positions in the down-linked data stream. This enables us to filter out short periods of event “bursts” (Sahnow et al. (2000)) and to correct for image motion on the detectors to achieve the best spectral resolution. As described by Sahnow et al. (2000), we extracted one-dimensional spectra from the two-dimensional data on each of the active detector segments. These extracted spectra are dark subtracted and flux and wavelength calibrated by the standard FUSE calibration pipeline. We estimate that the flux scale is accurate to $``$10%, and that wavelengths are accurate to $``$15 km s-1. Poisson errors and data quality flags are propagated through the data reduction process along with the science data.

To produce the full spectrum shown in Figure 1, we have spliced together sections of data from segments SiC2A, LiF1A, SiC2B, LiF1B, and LiF2A to eliminate the gaps in wavelength coverage and to present the best S/N. These data have also been binned by 20 pixels (0.12 Å) to show the overall appearance of the spectrum. In our analysis discussed in the following sections, we use spectra binned by only 5 pixels. This preserves the full spectral resolution of $`20\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for this observation.

In Figure 1 strong, broad O vi emission is readily apparent as is broad C iii $`\lambda `$977 emission. Another less prominent feature in the spectrum is the hump of emission redward of O vi $`\lambda \lambda 1032,1038`$. We have marked the position of He ii $`\lambda 1085`$, but one can see that its wavelength is a bit too long. A similar feature was noted in the spectra of low-redshift quasars by Laor et al. (1995) who suggested this may be blended Fe ii emission. The numerous Galactic absorption features, particularly $`\mathrm{H}_2`$, make the intrinsic spectrum difficult to see shortward of 1000 Å, but, at the resolution of FUSE, one can trace out the intrinsic spectrum as the peaks between the foreground absorptions. Note how the C iii $`\lambda `$977 line is not prominent in the overlayed Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) data, primarily because the foreground Galactic absorption renders it less visible at the $`3`$Å resolution of HUT.

## 3. WARM ABSORBING GAS IN MRK 509

A detailed examination of the FUSE spectrum at full spectral resolution shows that absorption near the redshift of Mrk 509 is visible in the Lyman lines, in the O vi $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 resonance doublet, and in C iii $`\lambda `$977. Figure 2 shows portions of the Mrk 509 spectrum around each absorption line complex with velocities relative to the AGN systemic velocity.

Close inspection of the O vi doublet and the Lyman lines shows that while much of the absorption appears to be saturated, the absorption troughs are not black. (Scattered light in FUSE at these levels is negligible. See Sahnow et al. (2000).) Partial covering by the absorbers or scattering around the absorbing region can explain this appearance. Extended broad-line Balmer emission and variable, polarized broad Balmer-line emission are seen in Mrk 509 (Mediavilla et al. (1998); Thompson & Martin (1988); Young et al. (1999)). These are both indications that scattering may play some role in producing the light at the bottoms of the absorption troughs.

In the L$`\beta `$ and O vi absorption lines we have identified at least 7 distinct kinematic components spanning a range of velocities from $`478`$ to $`+166`$ km s-1 relative to the systemic velocity of Mrk 509. To ascertain the physical properties of these intrinsic absorbers in Mrk 509, we fit a model to the spectral regions surrounding the O vi lines, the Lyman lines, and C iii $`\lambda `$977 using the IRAF task specfit (Kriss (1994)). Figure 3 shows the best fit overlayed on the L$`\beta `$/O vi region. Our model of the emission components includes an underlying power-law continuum, a pair of broad (FWHM$``$11,000 km s-1) O vi emission lines with their relative intensities fixed at the optically thin ratio of 2:1, a pair of narrow (FWHM$``$1200 km s-1) O vi emission lines, again with their relative intensities fixed at a 2:1 ratio, and a broad L$`\beta `$ emission line with its width and velocity linked to those of the broad O vi lines. The absorption lines are treated as Gaussians in optical depth, and they are allowed to partially cover the emission components with fraction $`f_c`$. The wavelengths of the O vi doublets are linked at the ratio of their laboratory values, their velocity widths are required to be identical, and their relative optical depths are fixed at a 2:1 ratio. Thus, a pair of lines uniquely determines the column density and the covering fraction for a given kinematic component. The L$`\beta `$ lines have their wavelengths linked to those of the O vi lines, but, to allow for residual uncertainties in the FUSE wavelength scale, we permit a linear adjustment to the whole group of L$`\beta `$ lines. The widths and the covering fractions for the L$`\beta `$ lines are fixed at the values determined for the O vi lines.

Fig. 2.— Normalized line profiles for the Lyman lines, C iii $`\lambda 977`$, O VI $`\lambda 1032`$ (OVIb), and O VI $`\lambda 1038`$ (OVIr) are shown. These data are binned by 5 pixels, and foreground Galactic absorption features have been divided out. The central wavelengths of the 7 distinct intrinsic absorption components are marked. The L$`\alpha `$ profile at the upper left is archival HST data from a GHRS observation by B. Savage.

Higher-order Lyman lines are visible in the FUSE spectrum out to L$`\zeta `$. These lines are also fit simultaneously with L$`\beta `$. Their optical depths are fixed at the ratio of their oscillator strengths to that of L$`\beta `$, their wavelengths are linked to those of O vi at the ratio of the vacuum wavelengths (again allowing for slight linear adjustments), and their widths are fixed at the same values as those of the O vi components. The Lyman lines permit an independent check of the covering fractions determined from the O vi doublets. We find that if they are allowed to vary independently, they give results consistent with those determined from O vi alone, so we leave them fixed at the O vi values in our final results. C iii $`\lambda 977`$ is treated similarly. Although there is no independent check on its covering fraction, we also fixed $`f_c`$ at the O vi values.

The results of our fits for C iii $`\lambda 977`$, L$`\beta `$, and O vi $`\lambda 1032`$ are given in Table 1. The column densities for each ion are determined by integrating the optical depth across each parameterized line profile. (Since the parameters given completely determine the values for O vi $`\lambda 1038`$ and the remaining Lyman lines, these are not shown.)

To determine physical conditions in the absorption components, we used photoionization models similar to those used by Krolik & Kriss (1995) and Kriss et al. (1996). From a grid of models we determined the total column density and the ionization parameter based on the observed relative columns of H i and O vi. With no other constraints, this method can lead to double-valued results for the ionization parameter and column density since the ratio of O vi to H i will rise to a peak and then decline. However, we note that the presence of C iii in components 1–4 restricts the solutions to the lower ionization parameter in these cases. Component 5 lies near the peak of the N(O vi)/N(H i) curve, and, as we show below, the inferred ionization and column density are corroborated by X-ray observations of O vii and O viii. As component 5 fully accounts for the observed X-ray absorption, a high-column, high-ionization-parameter solution for components 6 and 7 is also ruled out by the X-ray observations. Physical parameters for the 7 kinematic components are shown in Table 2. Note that most components have relatively low total column densities and ionization parameters. The components associated with the most blue-shifted complex could well be associated with the outflowing narrow-emission line gas as originally suggested by Phillips et al. (1983). This would place it many kiloparsecs from the central ionizing source. Similarly, the lower ionization components (6 & 7) near the systemic velocity may be associated with the low-ionization gas in the rotating disk near the center of Mrk 509 (Phillips et al. (1983)).

Fig. 3.— FUSE spectrum of Mrk 509 (binned by 5 pixels) in the L$`\beta `$/O vi region is shown as the thin black line. The best fit described in the text is overlayed in color. The thin green line shows the fitted continuum and emission components. The thin red line shows the fitted intrinsic absorption components, and the thin blue line shows the foreground Galactic absorption lines. The central wavelengths of the 7 distinct intrinsic absorption components are marked.

Among all the absorption components, the most exceptional is #5. Its high ionization parameter and high total column density make it likely to be directly associated with the intrinsic X-ray warm absorber. In his analysis of the ASCA X-ray spectrum of Mrk 509, Reynolds (1997) found O vii and O viii optical depths of $`0.11_{0.04}^{+0.03}`$ and $`0.04_{0.03}^{+0.04}`$, respectively. For threshold photoionization cross sections of $`\sigma _{O7}=0.239\times 10^{18}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{O8}=0.109\times 10^{18}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (Reilman & Manson (1979)), this implies column densities of $`N_{O7}=(4.6_{1.7}^{+1.3})\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`N_{O8}=(3.7_{2.8}^{+3.7})\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Our photoionization modeling for UV absorption component 5 predicts $`N_{O7}=2.3\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`N_{O8}=0.1\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Considering the large uncertainties in the X-ray columns and the temporal difference between the X-ray and UV observations, the agreement is remarkably close. The X-ray absorption predicted by our photoionization modeling for the other UV absorption components is negligible.

We conclude that observations of the O vi doublet in AGN is a perfect complement to observations of the O vii and O viii edges often seen in the X-ray spectra of Seyfert 1 galaxies. Comparison of the UV and X-ray measurements permits us to rigorously test whether the gas responsible for X-ray absorption in Seyferts also gives rise to the UV absorption, as suggested by Mathur et al. (1994, 1995). The multiple kinematic components, the wide range of ionization parameters, and the typical low total columns inferred for most of the UV absorbers (see Kriss et al. (1996); Crenshaw et al. (1999)) make it unlikely that the UV and X-ray absorption arise in the same gas. In fact, in Mrk 509, with the high spectral resolution and far-UV sensitivity of FUSE, we can easily pick out the high ionization absorption component that is likely to be directly associated with the X-ray absorbing gas. The remaining components (which dominate the total UV absorption) are lower column density and lower ionization. This suggests that the absorbing medium is complex, with separate UV and X-ray dominant zones. One potential geometry is high density, low column UV-absorbing clouds embedded in a low density, high ionization medium that dominates the X-ray absorption. This is possibly a wind driven off the obscuring torus or the accretion disk.

TABLE 1
Absorption Lines in Mrk 509    Feature # $`W_\lambda `$ $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{ion}}`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{v}^\mathrm{a}`$ FWHM $`f_c`$      (Å) $`\left(\mathrm{cm}^2\right)`$ ($`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) ($`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$)   C III 1 0.11 $`1.6\times 10^{13}`$ $`438`$ 49 0.77  $`\lambda 977.02`$ 2 0.21 $`2.4\times 10^{13}`$ $`349`$ 63 0.91   3 0.06 $`5.4\times 10^{12}`$ $`280`$ 31 1.00   4 0.17 $`2.1\times 10^{13}`$ $`75`$ 57 0.92   5 $`<0.01`$ $`<2.0\times 10^{12}`$ $`5`$ 40 0.92   6 $`<0.01`$ $`<2.0\times 10^{12}`$ $`+71`$ 48 0.94   7 $`<0.01`$ $`<2.0\times 10^{12}`$ $`+166`$ 59 0.94  H I 1 0.25 $`5.7\times 10^{14}`$ $`438`$ 49 0.77  $`\lambda 1025.72`$ 2 0.24 $`5.3\times 10^{14}`$ $`349`$ 63 0.91   3 0.26 $`9.3\times 10^{14}`$ $`280`$ 31 1.00   4 0.43 $`6.0\times 10^{15}`$ $`75`$ 57 0.92   5 0.36 $`2.7\times 10^{14}`$ $`5`$ 40 0.92   6 0.25 $`1.2\times 10^{15}`$ $`+71`$ 48 0.94   7 0.28 $`1.2\times 10^{15}`$ $`+166`$ 59 0.94  O VI 1 0.24 $`1.9\times 10^{14}`$ $`438`$ 49 0.77  $`\lambda 1031.93`$ 2 0.46 $`1.3\times 10^{15}`$ $`349`$ 63 0.91   3 0.14 $`1.2\times 10^{14}`$ $`280`$ 31 1.00   4 0.44 $`1.2\times 10^{15}`$ $`75`$ 57 0.92   5 0.31 $`3.2\times 10^{15}`$ $`5`$ 40 0.92   6 0.37 $`1.2\times 10^{15}`$ $`+71`$ 48 0.94   7 0.41 $`9.4\times 10^{14}`$ $`+166`$ 59 0.94     aVelocity relative to a systemic redshift of $`cz=10365\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Phillips et al. 1983).

One puzzling inconsistency with the outflow hypothesis, however, is that component 5 is at rest with respect to the systemic velocity. If the X-ray absorbing gas is in the low-ionization disk observed by Phillips et al. (1983), then the low line-of-sight velocity could be explained by having most of its motion transverse to the line of sight. The ionization parameter $`U0.4`$ is consistent with this location if the gas density is low enough— for $`n=10^3\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and an ionizing luminosity of $`L_{ion}=3.4\times 10^{45}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for Mrk 509, the absorbing gas would be located at a distance of 330 pc from the nuclear source, or $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ for $`H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$. Setting better constraints on the location of the X-ray absorbing gas, however, will require better knowledge of the gas density, which can be determined from variability studies (e.g., Kriss et al. (1997); Hamann, Barlow, & Junkkarinen (1997); Espey et al. (1998)).

TABLE 2
Physical Properties of the Absorbers in Mrk 509    # $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{OVI}}/\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ $`\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ log U      $`\left(\mathrm{cm}^2\right)`$   1 00.37 $`2.0\times 10^{18}`$ $`1.64`$  2 01.51 $`5.9\times 10^{18}`$ $`1.19`$  3 00.48 $`2.2\times 10^{18}`$ $`1.79`$  4 00.19 $`1.6\times 10^{19}`$ $`1.73`$  5 13.9 $`5.0\times 10^{20}`$ $`0.43`$  6 02.14 $`7.6\times 10^{18}`$ $`1.41`$  7 02.76 $`6.8\times 10^{18}`$ $`1.46`$

## 4. SUMMARY

The far-UV spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 509 shows bright broad O vi $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 emission as well as broad C iii $`\lambda `$977 emission. Kinematically complex intrinsic absorption in Mrk 509 shows at least 7 distinct components in the Lyman lines, O vi $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038, and C iii $`\lambda `$977. Although many of the O vi and Lyman line components appear to be saturated, they are not black, implying that partial covering or scattering affects the absorption. Only one of the intrinsic absorption components in Mrk 509 is likely to be associated with the warm X-ray absorbing gas. Component 5 (near the systemic velocity) has an ionization state and column density that is in reasonable agreement with the O vii and O viii absorption edges seen in the ASCA X-ray spectrum. The high resolution of FUSE and its sensitivity in the O vi band make it an ideal tool for identifying high-ionization UV absorbers that may correspond to X-ray warm absorbers.

This work is based on data obtained for the Guaranteed Time Team by the NASA-CNES-CSA FUSE mission operated by the Johns Hopkins University. Financial support to U. S. participants has been provided by NASA contract NAS5-32985. G. Kriss acknowledges additional support from NASA Long Term Space Astrophysics grant NAGW-4443.


text:
# Charge ordering in the TMTTF family of molecular conductors

\[

## Abstract

Using one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy applied to 13C spin-labeled (TMTTF)2AsF6 and (TMTTF)2PF6, we demonstrate the existence of an intermediate charge-ordered phase in the TMTTF family of charge-transfer salts. At ambient temperature, the spectra are characteristic of nuclei in equivalent environments, or molecules. Below a continuous charge-ordering transition temperature Tco, the spectra are explained by assuming there are two inequivalent molecules with unequal electron densities. The absence of an associated magnetic anomaly indicates only the charge degrees of freedom are involved and the lack of evidence for a structural anomaly suggests that charge/lattice coupling is too weak to drive the transition.

PACS #s 71.20.Rv, 71.30.+h, 71.45.Lr, 76.60.-k

\]

Recent evidence that electronic correlations can lead to inhomogenous charge and spin structures has become a dominant theme in analyzing the properties of doped transition-metal oxides such as the high-Tc cuprates  and the manganites . An important feature is that the details of the structures can fundamentally influence the low-temperature physics in ways that might otherwise seem inconceivable, possibly even the creation of a superconducting state by doping an antiferromagnetic insulator .

Observations of charge-ordering in (DI-DCNQI)2Ag  and (BEDT-TTF)2X  indicate inhomogeneities occur in some organic conductors as well. Prototypical among these is the family of isostructural TMTTF and TMTSF charge transfer salts . For nearly twenty years, the remarkable diversity of physical properties they exhibit have been summarized using a single temperature/pressure phase diagram (Fig. 1), where pressure is the parameter controlling the ratio of two competing energy scales. Note the existence of a superconducting phase next to an antiferromagnetic insulator . Below, we describe observations which require the incorporation of a new transition line to the phase diagram (bold, blue line), below which the systems are charge-ordered (CO). The observation of an intermediate phase in this class of compounds can be explained by including a new energy scale , and is particularly significant because the influence of the new scale can be examined across a range of ground states by pressure-tuning the system. And since there is evidence from independent transport measurements for CO fluctuations far above the CO transition temperature Tco, the interactions which drive the transition are relevant far into the normal phase and over a range of pressures .

First we discuss Fig. 1 while explicitly excluding the CO transition. The sequence of observed ground states (Spin-Peierls (SP), antiferromagnetic (AF), and superconducting (SC)) follows naturally from the combined effects of tunable dimensionality and on-site correlations . Near to the SP ground state is a high-

symmetry phase with a charge gap ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_\rho `$), whereas near to the SC ground state is a highly conducting normal state. Emery, et al.  were the first to point out a simple mechanism by which this crossover from insulating to metallic behavior could occur without crossing a phase boundary, and their proposal led to the composite phase diagram. The compounds are formed by stacking the planar TMTTF molecules, and then lining up the stacks into layers that are separated by layers of counterions. If the molecular stacks are considered as weakly coupled chains with alternating intermolecular distances, then two-particle Umklapp processes produce a charge gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\rho `$. Either an increase in transverse hopping or a decrease in the dimerization potential, as applied pressure would do, deconfines the charges and restores the conducting state. That is, application of pressure is equivalent to controlling the ratio of the dimerization gap to the transverse overlap integral ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_\rho `$/t), which in turn determines the properties of the normal state.

Here we demonstrate the existence of an intermediate, charge-ordered phase in (TMTTF)2PF6 and (TMTTF)2AsF6, and propose that off-site Coulomb interactions are responsible. Strictly speaking, introducing a new energy scale modifies the physical properties exhibited by a particular compound, so the phase diagram of Fig. 1 is better described as a slice of a diagram with at least one additional axis. Several previously-unexplained observations can be understood by recognizing the existence of the CO transition.

Our conclusions are based on 13C NMR spectroscopy from samples of (TMTTF)2PF6 and (TMTTF)2AsF6 that were grown using standard electrolysis. Spin-labeled molecules were synthesized at UCLA  with the two 100% 13C-enriched carbon sites forming the bridge of the TMTTF dimer molecule. All of the NMR measurements were made in an external field of B0=9.00T, corresponding to an NMR frequency of 96.4MHz.

In Fig. 2, seven 1D 13C NMR spectra for (TMTTF)2AsF6 at representative temperatures are shown. At ambient temperature, each molecule is equivalent, but the two 13C nuclei in each molecule have inequivalent hyperfine coupling, giving rise to two spectral lines. The angular dependence of the spectral frequencies appears in the inset; the broken lines are the hyperfine shifts and the addition of a nuclear dipolar coupling gives the solid lines. The solid arrow is the angle at which the seven spectra were recorded.

Upon cooling, the NMR spectrum remains unchanged down to T=105K, below which each of the two peaks appear to split. From each molecule there is a signal from the nucleus with a stronger hyperfine coupling and a signal from the nucleus with a weaker hyperfine coupling. The doubling comes about because of two different molecular environments of roughly equal number, one with slightly greater electron density and one with a reduced electron density. Following the effects of the charge disproportionation to low temperature was difficult, because the SP fluctuations lead to line broadening and spectral overlap. However, we were able to use 2D J-resolved spectroscopic techniques to ”unfold” unresolved signals from coupled nuclear spins. These measurements are discussed below.

The obvious choice for investigating the generality of the CO phenomenon is (TMTTF)2PF6, a system with physical properties originally used to identify Fig.1 as the appropriate phase diagram , and recently found to be superconducting at a pressure of P$``$5.2 GPa . In previous high-field 13C NMR spectroscopy on this compound, we had identified four inequivalent nuclei in the domain-walls of the incommensurate SP phase, rather than the expected two . The present results demonstrate that this is a consequence

of a charge-ordering occurring at a higher temperature. Even though the spectra were complicated by overlap, 2D J-resolved experiments led to unambiguous identification of a CO transition at approximately T=65K. The temperature dependence of the order parameter exhibited in Fig.3 shows that the transition is continuous to within the experimental resolution. Our measurements confirm the hypothesis put forward in recent reports of ac transport measurements, where a large and strongly frequency-dependent dielectric constant was attributed to the response of a charge-ordered phase .

An important puzzle of the TMTTF salts is solved by these experiments. It has been known for a long time that properties of certain TMTTF salts, for example (TMTTF)2SbF6, did not fit into the generally accepted model . The temperature dependence of the resistivity $`\rho `$(T) for this material is metallic, that is, d$`\rho `$/dT$`>`$0 down to T=155K, where it appears that a continuous metal-insulator transition takes place . It was referred to as ”structureless” because no signature was found in X-ray scattering studies. Also, the spin susceptibility is transparent to the structureless transition. Later, Coulon, et al. identified a feature in the thermopower of (TMTTF)2AsF6 at T$``$100K, and through doping studies, they were able to establish that it was the same type of transition . Taken together with our observations, the implication is that the structureless transition is a CO transition, it appears to be continuous, it is primarily the charge degrees of freedom which are involved, and it is ubiquitous to the TMTTF family. The charge-ordering is probably the reason why the activation energy obtained from transport measurements increases upon cooling, even though the dimerization decreases .

The mechanism for producing a CO phase is not unique, and both off-site Coulomb correlations , and lattice coupling  are proposed as possible explanations. Although it is not proven, we believe that it is a consequence of long-range Coulomb interactions, because there was no previous identification of a structural anomaly, and we have seen no evidence for molecular reorientation in the 2D J-resolved experiments. Future scattering studies will be very helpful in this regard.

There are implications for our understanding of the physical properties in the Bechgaard salts in particular and organic conductors in general. First, the details of the charge ordering in the insulators, and therefore the finite-ranged Coulomb interactions, can influence the 3D SP or AF orderings, including the pressure-tuned commensurate/incommensurate AF transition . Also, CO fluctuations are evident from dielectric measurements to persist up to very high temperatures in a number of salts , suggesting that dynamic density correlations are important to charge transport in the normal state. Of particular importance is the possibility that such correlations could be important for self-doping effects .

Lastly, we present some of the 2D spectra which helped us establish the temperature dependence of the charge disproportionation. The 2D J-resolved technique is useful in separating interactions along two frequency

axes, hence providing more information than conventional 1D spectra, as well as sometimes resolving peaks that overlap . Referring to Fig. 4, the spectra are shown with the nuclear dipolar interaction separated along the f1 axis, and hyperfine interactions are separated along the f2-f1 axis. The orientation for these spectra are denoted by the the dashed arrow in the inset of Fig. 1.

The spectrum in Fig. 4a was obtained at T=115K; it arises from two spin I=1/2 nuclei seeing different hyperfine fields, coupled by the nuclear dipolar interaction. Repeating the experiment at T=76K, below the charge-ordering temperature Tco, leads to the charge-ordered spectrum shown in Fig. 4b, where each of the four peaks in Fig. 4a is doubled. No significant molecular reorientation occurs; that would change the dipolar coupling strength. By unfolding the spectra in this way, we were able to follow the charge ordering to lower temperatures where SP fluctuations lead to significant broadening.

The spectra in Fig. 4c) and d) are below the SP phase transition temperature TSP(B=9T)=10.2K. These are displayed to demonstrate an interesting effect on the NMR spectrum associated with the quantum mechanics of the two coupled spins in each molecule. At these temperatures, the negative hyperfine shift has reduced significantly. In addition, an increase in the dipolar coupling energy by a factor of 3/2 is observed. Above the SP transition, the two carbon nuclei are ”unlike” spins because of the different hyperfine shifts. The two coupled I=1/2 spins form four non-degenerate energy states. When the hyperfine shifts decrease for T$`<`$TSP, the unlike spins become ”like” spins and the appropriate basis states are the symmetric singlet and antisymmetric triplet. Only the triplet states are coupled by the nuclear dipolar interaction or the rf field, and further, the secular part of the internuclear dipolar interation increases by 3/2 . In the data, the shift in spectral strength from the ”unlike” to the ”like” cases occurs smoothly as the difference in hyperfine interaction strength crosses below the characteristic dipolar interaction.

In conclusion, we have recorded 1D and 2D 13C NMR spectra in (TMTTF)2AsF6 and (TMTTF)2PF6 over the range 4-300K, from which we observe evidence of a charge-ordering transition. A direct connection between this phenomenon and the ”structureless” transition is made, indicating that an intermediate, CO phase between the normal state and the ground state is ubiquitous in the TMTTF family of charge-transfer salts. The undetermined structure is essential information for identifying the mechanism, though it is probably caused by off-site Coulomb interactions. Dielectric experiments  demonstrate that CO fluctuations persist to very high temperatures, suggesting that a proper description of the high-symmetry phase will depend on including these effects. More generally, evidence for charge-ordering in a family of compounds that includes neighboring antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases is an important unifying observation in the field of highly correlated materials.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. We would like to recognize discussions with W. G. Clark, H. Fukuyama, H. Seo, S. Kivelson, S. Mazumdar, and P. Monceau. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.