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# Toric integrable metrics on tori are flat

## 1. Introduction

In a recent paper Toth and Zelditch studied the relation between the dynamics of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian manifold $`(Q,g)`$ and the growth rate of $`L^{\mathrm{}}`$ norms of $`L^2`$-normalized eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator $`\mathrm{\Delta }_g`$ \[TZ\]. They showed that if the square root of the Laplace operator $`\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_g}`$ is “quantum completely integrable” and has uniformly bounded eigenfunctions then the metric $`g`$ is flat, and hence by the Bieberbach theorems $`Q`$ is finitely covered by a torus. The proof is particularly transparent when the geodesic flow is toric integrable. The latter means that there is an effective action of a torus $`𝕋^n`$, $`n=dimQ`$, on the punctured cotangent bundle $`T^{}QQ`$ of $`Q`$ which

1. commutes with dilations $`\rho _t:T^{}QQT^{}QQ`$, $`\rho (q,p)=(q,e^tp)`$,
2. preserves the standard symplectic form on $`T^{}Q`$ and
3. preserves the energy function $`h(q,p)=g_q^{}(p,p)`$, where $`g^{}`$ denotes the metric on $`T^{}Q`$ dual to $`g`$. (The Hamiltonian flow of $`h`$ is the geodesic flow.)

Note that any symplectic group action on the punctured cotangent bundle which commutes with dilations preserves the Liouville 1-form and is, therefore, Hamiltonian. Consequently if a metric on a manifold $`Q`$ is toric integrable, the pull-back metric on a finite cover of $`Q`$ is toric integrable as well. One is therefore lead to wonder if in the case of tori the boundedness of eigenfunctions is necessary for the flatness of the metric or if toric integrability by itself is enough. The main goal of this paper is to prove that, as conjectured by Toth and Zelditch in \[TZ\], toric integrable metrics on tori are flat:

###### Theorem 1.

Suppose that $`g`$ is a toric integrable metric on a torus $`𝕋^n:=^n/^n`$. Then $`g`$ is flat.

The term “toric integrable” is apparently due to Toth and Zelditch (but the objects involved have been studied since the late 70’s, e.g. by Colin de Verdière, Duistermaat and Guillemin). It describes a class of completely integrable systems more general than the systems with global action-angle variables. On the other hand toric integrable systems are much more manageable than arbitrary completely integrable systems, and one can use the tools of symplectic and contact geometry to investigate them.

Recall that a symplectic cone is a symplectic manifold $`(M,\omega )`$ with a free proper action $`\rho _t`$ of the real line which expands the symplectic form exponentially: $`\rho _{t}^{}{}_{}{}^{}\omega =e^t\omega `$. For example the punctured cotangent bundle $`T^{}QQ`$ with the standard symplectic form is a symplectic cone: the real line acts by dilations $`\rho _t(q,p)=(q,e^tp)`$ for all $`qQ`$, $`pT_q^{}Q`$. Given a symplectic cone $`(M,\omega ,\rho _t)`$, a function $`hC^{\mathrm{}}(M)`$ is toric integrable if there is an effective action of a torus $`G`$ with $`dimG=\frac{1}{2}dimM`$ which preserves the symplectic form $`\omega `$ and the function $`h`$ and commutes with dilations $`\rho _t`$. Any action of a torus $`G`$ on a a symplectic cone $`(M,\omega ,\rho _t)`$ that commutes with dilations preserves a 1-form $`\alpha `$ with $`d\alpha =\omega `$ and hence is Hamiltonian. Thus toric integrability of a function $`h`$ on a symplectic cone $`M`$ amounts to the existence of $`n=\frac{1}{2}dimM`$ functions $`f_1,\mathrm{},f_n`$ which are homogeneous with respect to dilations, Poisson commute with each other and with $`h`$ and whose Hamiltonian flows are all $`2\pi `$-periodic.

Recall that if $`\{f_1,\mathrm{},f_n\}`$ is a completely integrable system on a symplectic manifold $`(M,\omega )`$ and if the fibers of the map $`f=(f_1,\mathrm{}f_n):M^n`$ are compact, then, by Arnold-Liouville theorem, in a neighborhood of every point of $`M`$ the Hamiltonian vector fields of the functions $`f_1,\mathrm{}f_n`$ generate a Hamiltonian action of the $`n`$-torus $`𝕋^n`$ \[A\]. According to Duistermaat there are obstructions to these “local” $`𝕋^n`$ actions to patch up to an action of $`𝕋^n`$ on $`M`$ — the monodromy of the period lattice \[Du, GS\]. Strictly speaking Duistermaat only considered patching together free torus actions, but essentially the same argument works in general \[BoM\]. If these “local” $`𝕋^n`$ actions patch to a global $`𝕋^n`$ action, there is a further obstruction to the existence of global action-angle variables: the “Chern class of the fibration $`f:M^n`$.” (The expression is in quotation marks because if the torus action is not free then $`f`$ is not a fibration. None the less one can still speak of the “Chern class” of $`f`$ \[BoM\].) The second obstruction is easily seen to be nontrivial — there are completely integrable systems with global torus actions but no global action-angle variables. See, for example, \[Bt\]. Thus toric integrability is weaker than the existence of global homogeneous action variables.

Toric integrable systems have not been studied systematicly. We will see in this paper that a good way to understand them is through the study contact toric manifolds. It appears that toric integrability is rare. It would be interesting to classify all compact manifolds admitting toric integrable geodesic flows. In particular it would be interesting to find out if there are manifolds other that $`S^2`$ and tori that admit such flows. (Toric integrable metrics on $`S^2`$ other than the round one were described by Colin de Verdière \[CdV\].) This will be addressed elsewhere. See \[L1\] for a first step in that direction.

### Acknowledgments

We thank Steve Zelditch for suggesting the problem and the referee for a number of comments.

### A note on notation

Throughout the paper the Lie algebra of a Lie group denoted by a capital Roman letter will be denoted by the same small letter in the fraktur font: thus $`𝔤`$ denotes the Lie algebra of a Lie group $`G`$ etc. The identity element of a Lie group is denoted by 1. The natural pairing between $`𝔤`$ and $`𝔤^{}`$ will be denoted by $`,`$.

When a Lie group $`G`$ acts on a manifold $`M`$ we denote the action by an element $`gG`$ on a point $`xM`$ by $`gx`$; $`Gx`$ denotes the $`G`$-orbit of $`x`$ and so on. The vector field induced on $`M`$ by an element $`X`$ of the Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ of $`G`$ is denoted by $`X_M`$. The isotropy group of a point $`xM`$ is denoted by $`G_x`$; the Lie algebra of $`G_x`$ is denoted by $`𝔤_x`$ and is referred to as the isotropy Lie algebra of $`x`$. We recall that $`𝔤_x=\{X𝔤X_M(x)=0\}`$.

If $`P`$ is a principal $`G`$-bundle then $`[p,m]`$ denotes the point in the associated bundle $`P\times _GM=(P\times M)/G`$ which is the orbit of $`(p,m)P\times M`$.

## 2. From toric integrability to contact toric manifolds

We now start the proof of Theorem 1. As the first step, following Toth and Zelditch, let us reduce the proof of Theorem 1 to a statement about actions of tori on their punctured cotangent bundles. To wit, suppose we know that any action of an $`n`$-torus $`G`$ on $`M=T^{}𝕋^n𝕋^n`$ which is symplectic and commutes with the action of $`^+`$, is actually a free action. Then, as indicated in \[TZ\] we can apply a theorem of Mañe

###### Theorem 2 (Mañe, \[M\]).

Let $`(Q,g)`$ be a Riemannian manifold with a geodesic flow $`\varphi _t:T^{}QQT^{}QQ`$. Suppose the flow $`\varphi _t`$ preserves the leaves of a non-singular Lagrangian foliation of $`T^{}QQ`$. Then $`(Q,g)`$ has no conjugate points.

to conclude that the toric integrable metric on $`𝕋^n`$ has no conjugate points. Finally, following \[TZ\] again, and applying

###### Theorem 3 (Burago-Ivanov, \[BI\]).

A metric on a torus $`𝕋^n`$ with no conjugate points is flat.

we can conclude that a toric-integrable metric is flat. To summarize, in order to prove Theorem 1 it is enough to show

###### Proposition 2.1.

Suppose that an $`n`$ torus $`G`$ acts effectively and symplecticly on the punctured cotangent bundle $`T^{}𝕋^n𝕋^n`$, and suppose that the action commutes with the action of $``$. Then the action of $`G`$ is free.

Clearly the lift of the left multiplication on $`𝕋^n`$ to the cotangent bundle $`T^{}𝕋^n`$ satisfies both the hypotheses of the proposition and the conclusion. The crux is to show that an arbitrary action of $`G𝕋^n`$ satisfying the hypotheses has to be free.

Under the hypotheses of the proposition, the action of $`G`$ descends to an action on the co-sphere bundle $`M:=(T^{}𝕋^n𝕋^n)/`$. Moreover this induced action $`G`$ preserves the natural contact structure $`\xi `$ on $`M`$ (we’ll discuss contact structures in more detail in the next section). Consequently the proof of Theorem 1 reduces to

###### Theorem 4.

Suppose that an $`n`$ torus $`G`$ acts effectively on the co-sphere bundle $`M:=S(T^{}𝕋^n)`$ of the standard $`n`$-torus $`𝕋^n`$ preserving the standard contact structure on $`M`$. Then the action of $`G`$ is free.

Our strategy is to study completely integrable torus actions on arbitrary (compact connected co-oriented) contact manifolds and to show that if an action is not free then the underlying manifold cannot be the product of a torus and a sphere of the appropriate dimensions.

## 3. Group actions on contact manifolds

Recall that a co-oriented contact manifold is a pair $`(M,\xi )`$ where $`\xi TM`$ is a distribution globally given as the kernel of a 1-form $`\alpha `$ such that $`d\alpha |_\xi `$ is nondegenerate. Such a 1-form $`\alpha `$ is called a contact form and the distribution $`\xi `$ is called a contact structure. A co-sphere bundle $`S(T^{}N)`$ of a manifold $`N`$ (defined with respect to some metric) is a natural example of a contact manifold: the contact form is the restriction of the Liouville 1-form to the co-sphere bundle.

The condition that a distribution $`\xi TM`$ is contact is equivalent to: the punctured line bundle $`\xi ^{}M`$ is a symplectic submanifold of the punctured cotangent bundle $`T^{}MM`$, where $`\xi ^{}`$ denotes the annihilator of $`\xi `$ in $`T^{}M`$. Note that if $`\xi =\mathrm{ker}\alpha `$ then the 1-form $`\alpha `$ is a nowhere zero section of the line bundle $`\xi ^{}M`$. (Conversely any nowhere vanishing section of $`\xi ^{}`$ is a contact form.) Thus if $`\xi =\mathrm{ker}\alpha `$ then $`\xi ^{}M`$ has two components. If a compact connected Lie group $`G`$ acts on $`M`$ and preserves the contact distribution $`\xi `$, then the action of $`G`$ on $`\xi ^{}`$ maps the components of $`\xi ^{}M`$ into themselves. Hence given a contact 1-form $`\alpha `$ with $`\xi =\mathrm{ker}\alpha `$, we can average it over $`G`$ and obtain a $`G`$-invariant contact form $`\overline{\alpha }`$ with $`\xi =\mathrm{ker}\overline{\alpha }`$. Note that each component of $`\xi ^{}M`$ is the symplectization of $`(M,\xi )`$.

###### Definition 3.1.

An action of a torus $`G`$ on a contact manifold $`(M,\xi )`$ is completely integrable if it is effective, preserves the contact structure $`\xi `$ and if $`2dimG=dimM+1`$.

A contact toric $`G`$-manifold is a co-oriented contact manifold with a completely integrable action of a torus $`G`$.

Note that if an action of a torus $`G`$ on $`(M,\xi )`$ is completely integrable, then the action of $`G`$ on a component $`\xi _+^{}`$ of $`\xi ^{}M`$ is a completely integrable Hamiltonian action and thus $`\xi _+^{}`$ is a symplectic toric manifold (for more information on symplectic toric manifolds and orbifolds see \[D\] and \[LT\]).

Completely integrable torus actions on co-oriented contact manifolds and contact toric manifolds have been studied by Banyaga and Molino \[BM1, BM2, B\] and by Boyer and Galicki \[BG\]. To state their results it would be convenient to first digress on the subject of moment maps for group actions on contact manifolds.

If a Lie group $`G`$ acts on a manifold $`M`$ preserving a contact form $`\alpha `$, the corresponding $`\alpha `$-moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{}`$ is defined by

(3.1)
$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (x),X=\alpha _x(X_M(x))$$

for all $`xM`$ and all $`X𝔤`$, where $`X_M`$ denotes the vector field corresponding to $`X`$ induced by the infinitesimal action of the Lie algebra $`𝔤`$ of the group $`G`$: $`X_M(x)=\frac{d}{dt}|_{t=0}(\mathrm{exp}tX)x`$.

Note that if $`f`$ is a $`G`$-invariant nowhere zero function, then $`\alpha ^{}=f\alpha `$ is also a $`G`$-invariant contact form defining the same contact structure. Clearly the corresponding moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}`$ satisfies $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}=f\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$. Thus the definition of a contact moment map above is somewhat problematic: it depends on a choice of an invariant contact form rather then solely on the contact structure and the action. Fortunately there is also a notion of a contact moment map that doesn’t have this problem. Namely, suppose again that a Lie group $`G`$ acts on a manifold $`M`$ preserving a contact structure $`\xi `$ (and its co-orientation). The lift of the action of $`G`$ to the cotangent bundle then preserves a component $`\xi _+^{}`$ of $`\xi ^{}M`$. The restriction $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Phi }|_{\xi _+^{}}`$ of the moment map $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ for the action of $`G`$ on $`T^{}M`$ to depends only on the action of the group and on the contact structure. Moreover, since $`\mathrm{\Phi }:T^{}M𝔤^{}`$ is given by the formula

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(q,p),X=p,X_M(q)$$

for all $`qM`$, $`pT_q^{}M`$ and $`X𝔤`$, we see that if $`\alpha `$ is any invariant contact form with $`\mathrm{ker}\alpha =\xi `$ then $`\alpha ^{}\mathrm{\Psi }(q,p),X=\alpha ^{}\mathrm{\Phi }(q,p),X=\alpha _q,X_M(q)=\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (q),X`$. Here we think of $`\alpha `$ as a section of $`\xi _+^{}M`$. Thus $`\mathrm{\Psi }\alpha =\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$, that is, $`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Phi }|_\xi ^{}`$ is a “universal” moment map.

There is another reason why the universal moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }:\xi _+^{}𝔤^{}`$ is a more natural notion of the moment map than the one given by (3.1). The vector fields induced by the action of $`G`$ preserving a contact distribution $`\xi `$ are contact. The space of contact vector fields is isomorphic to the space of sections of the bundle $`TM/\xi M`$. Thus a contact group action gives rise to a linear map

(3.2)
$$𝔤\mathrm{\Gamma }(TM/\xi ),XX_Mmod\xi .$$

The moment map should be the transpose of the map (3.2). The total space of the bundle $`(TM/\xi )^{}`$ naturally maps into the space dual to the space of sections $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(TM/\xi )`$:

$$(TM/\xi )^{}\eta \left(s\eta ,s(\pi (\eta ))\right),$$

where $`\pi :(TM/\xi )^{}M`$ is the projection and $`,`$ is the paring between the corresponding fibers of $`(TM/\xi )^{}`$ and $`TM/\xi `$. In other words, the transpose $`\mathrm{\Psi }:(TM/\xi )^{}𝔤^{}`$ of (3.2) should be given by

(3.3)
$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\eta ),X=\eta ,X_M(\pi (\eta ))mod\xi $$

Under the identification $`\xi ^{}(TM/\xi )^{}`$, the equation above becomes

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(q,p),X=p,X_M(q)$$

for all $`qM`$, $`p\xi _q^{}`$ and $`X𝔤`$, which is the definition of $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ given earlier as the restriction to $`\xi _+^{}`$ of the moment map for the lifted action of $`G`$ on the cotangent bundle $`T^{}M`$.

Thus part of the above discussion can be summarized as

###### Proposition 3.2.

Let $`(M,\xi )`$ be a co-oriented contact manifold with an action of a Lie group $`G`$ preserving the contact distribution and its co-orientation. Suppose there exists an invariant 1-form $`\alpha `$ with $`\mathrm{ker}\alpha =\xi `$. Then the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$ for the action of $`G`$ on $`(M,\alpha )`$ and the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ for the action of $`G`$ on the symplectization $`\xi _+^{}`$ are related by

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\alpha =\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha .$$

Here $`\xi _+^{}`$ is the component of $`\xi ^{}0`$ containing the image of $`\alpha :M\xi ^{}`$.

###### Remark 3.3.

We will refer to $`\mathrm{\Psi }:\xi _+^{}𝔤^{}`$ as the moment map for the action of a Lie group $`G`$ on a co-oriented contact manifold $`(M,\xi =\mathrm{ker}\alpha )`$. It is easy to show that $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is $`G`$-equivariant with respect to the given action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ and the coadjoint action of $`G`$ on $`𝔤^{}`$. Hence for any invariant contact form $`\alpha `$ the corresponding moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{}`$ is also $`G`$-equivariant.

###### Definition 3.4.

Let $`(M,\xi =\mathrm{ker}\alpha )`$ be a co-oriented contact manifold with an action of a Lie group $`G`$ preserving the contact distribution and its co-orientation. Let $`\mathrm{\Psi }:\xi _+^{}𝔤^{}`$ denote the corresponding moment map. We define the moment cone $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ to be the image of a connected component $`\xi _+^{}`$ of $`\xi ^{}M`$ plus the origin:

$$C(\mathrm{\Psi }):=\mathrm{\Psi }(\xi _+^{})\{0\}.$$

Remark that

$$C(\mathrm{\Psi })=^+\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (M)\{0\}$$

where $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{}`$ is the $`\alpha `$-moment map.

Note that the moment cone does not depend on the choice of a contact form; it is a true invariant of the co-oriented contact structure and the group action.

###### Remark 3.5.

An action of a Lie group $`G`$ on a manifold $`M`$ preserving a contact form $`\alpha `$ is completely encoded in the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{}`$. Therefore it will be convenient for us to think of a contact toric $`G`$-manifold as an equivalence class of triples $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ where the $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$ is the moment map for a completely integrable action of a torus $`G`$ on a contact manifold $`(M,\alpha )`$, or, somewhat more sloppily, as a triple $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$.

## 4. Proof of Theorem 4

Banyaga and Molino made the first step towards classifying compact connected contact toric manifolds in \[BM1\]. A revised version of this paper circulated as the preprint \[BM2\]. The main classification result of \[BM2\] is cited in \[B\] roughly as follows:

###### Theorem 4.1.

Let $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ be a compact connected contact toric $`G`$-manifold.

Suppose the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ is free. Then the orbit space $`M/G`$ is diffeomorphic to a sphere. If additionally $`dimG>2`$ then the map $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_\alpha :M/G𝔤^{}`$ induced by the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$ is an embedding. If furthermore $`dimG>3`$, then $`M`$ is the co-sphere bundle of $`G`$, i.e., $`M=S(T^{}G)`$.

Suppose the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ is not free and suppose $`dimG>2`$. Then the moment cone $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ is a convex polyhedral cone and the map $`\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_\alpha :M/G𝔤^{}`$ induced by the moment map is an embedding. Moreover the cone $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ determines the contact toric manifold.

###### Remark 4.2.

It is easy to construct examples of a completely integrable action of a 2-torus on a contact 3-torus for which the fibers of the corresponding moment map are not connected: let $`M=𝕋^3`$ with coordinates $`\theta _1,\theta _2`$ and $`t`$, let $`\alpha =\mathrm{cos}2td\theta _1+\mathrm{sin}2td\theta _2`$ be the contact form, and let $`𝕋^2`$ act by $`(\mu ,\nu )(\theta _1,\theta _2,t)=(\theta _1+\mu ,\theta _2+\nu ,t)`$. Also there are examples of completely integrable 2-torus actions on overtwisted lens spaces for which the corresponding moment cones are not convex. See \[L2\].

Contact toric manifolds have also been studied by Boyer and Galicki \[BG\]. The following result is implicit in their paper:

###### Theorem 4.3.

Let $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ be a compact connected contact toric $`G`$-manifold. Suppose there exits a vector $`X𝔤`$ such that the component of the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ,X`$ is strictly positive on $`M`$. Then $`M`$ is a Seifert bundle over a (compact) symplectic toric orbifold.

We remind the reader that a symplectic toric orbifold is a symplectic orbifold with a completely integrable Hamiltonian torus action. Compact connected symplectic toric orbifolds were classified in \[LT\].

###### Proof of Theorem 4.3.

Since $`M`$ is compact, the image $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (M)`$ is compact. Therefore the set of vectors $`X^{}𝔤`$, such that the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ,X^{}`$ is strictly positive on $`M`$, is open. Hence we may assume that $`X`$ lies in the integral lattice $`_G:=\mathrm{ker}(\mathrm{exp}:𝔤G)`$ of the torus $`G`$. Let $`H=\{\mathrm{exp}tXt\}`$ be the corresponding circle subgroup of $`G`$.

Let $`f(x)=1/(\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (x),X)`$ and let $`\alpha ^{}=f\alpha `$. The form $`\alpha ^{}`$ is another $`G`$-invariant contact form with $`\mathrm{ker}\alpha ^{}=\xi `$. The moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}`$ defined by $`\alpha ^{}`$ satisfies $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}=f\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$. Therefore $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}(x),X=1`$ for all $`xM`$.

Since the function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ,X`$ is nowhere zero, the action of $`H`$ on $`M`$ is locally free. Consequently the induced action of $`H`$ on the symplectization $`(N,\omega )=(M\times ,d(e^t\alpha ^{}))`$ is locally free as well. Hence any $`a`$ is a regular value of the $`X`$-component $`\mathrm{\Phi },X`$ of the moment map $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ for the action of $`G`$ on the symplectization $`(N,\omega )`$. Note that $`\mathrm{\Phi }(x,t)=e^t\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ^{}(x)`$. Now $`M\times \{0\}`$ is the $`1`$ level set of $`\mathrm{\Phi },X`$. Therefore $`B:=(\mathrm{\Phi },X)^1(1)/HM/H`$ is a (compact connected) symplectic orbifold with an effective Hamiltonian action of $`G/H`$. The orbit map $`\pi :M(\mathrm{\Phi },X)^1(1)B`$ makes $`M`$ into a Seifert bundle over $`B`$. A dimension count shows that the action of $`G/H`$ on $`B`$ is completely integrable. ∎

###### Remark 4.4.

It is easy to see that the moment cone for the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ is the cone on the moment polytope of $`B`$. In particular it is a proper polyhedral cone, that is, it contains no linear subspaces.

###### Corollary 4.5.

Let $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ be a (compact connected) contact toric manifold. Suppose there exits a vector $`X𝔤`$ such that the component of the moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha ,X`$ is strictly positive on $`M`$. Then $`dim_{}H^1(M,)1`$.

###### Proof.

By Theorem 4.3 the manifold $`M`$ is a Seifert bundle over a compact connected symplectic toric orbifold $`B`$. A generic component of the moment map on $`B`$ is a Morse function with all indices even. The Morse inequalities hold rationally for Morse functions on orbifolds (see \[LT\]). Therefore the first cohomology $`H^1(B,)`$ is zero.

Next we apply the Gysin sequence to the map $`\pi :MB`$. Since the Gysin sequence comes from the collapse of the Leray-Serre spectral sequence for $`\pi `$ and since rationally the ”fibration” $`\pi `$ is a circle bundle, the Gysin sequence does exist. We have $`0H^1(B,)H^1(M,)\stackrel{\pi _{}}{}H^0(B,)H^2(B,)\mathrm{}`$. Since $`H^0(B,)=`$ and since $`H^1(B,)=0`$, the result follows. ∎

We conclude immediately

###### Corollary 4.6.

If $`M`$ is a contact toric manifold satisfying the hypotheses of the Theorem 4.3, then $`M`$ is not the co-sphere bundle of a torus.

Combining Corollary 4.6 with Theorem 4.1 we see that if an $`n`$-dimensional torus $`G`$ ($`n>2`$) acts on the co-sphere bundle $`M=S(T^{}𝕋^n)`$ preserving a contact form $`\alpha `$ and if the action is not free, then the corresponding moment cone $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ contains a linear subspace $`P`$ of positive dimension.

###### Proposition 4.7.

Suppose $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ is a compact connected contact toric $`G`$-manifold of dimension $`2n1>3`$, the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ is not free and the moment cone $`C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ contains a linear subspace $`P`$ of dimension $`k`$, $`0<k<n`$. Then $`dimH^1(M,)=kn=dimH^1(S(T^{}𝕋^n),)`$.

###### Proof.

By Theorem 4.1 the fibers of the contact moment map $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha `$ are connected. Let $`\mathrm{\Phi }:M\times 𝔤^{}`$ denote the symplectic moment map for the Hamiltonian action of $`G`$ on the symplectization $`(M\times ,d(e^t\alpha ))`$ of $`(M,\alpha )`$. It is given by $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m,t)=e^t\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (m)`$. Thus $`\mathrm{\Phi }(M\times )\{0\}=C(\mathrm{\Psi })`$ and the fibers of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are connected. The triple $`(M\times ,d(e^t\alpha ),\mathrm{\Phi })`$ is a symplectic toric manifold. Since the image of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is contractible and since the fibers of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ are connected, it follows from a result of Lerman, Tolman and Woodward (Lemma 7.2 and Proposition 7.3 in \[LT\]), that the image of $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ determines the symplectic toric manifold $`(M\times ,d(e^t\alpha ),\mathrm{\Phi })`$ uniquely.<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1In proving the result Lerman, Tolman and Woodward rediscovered the ideas of Boucetta and Molino \[BoM\] In particular the image determines the first cohomology group of $`M`$.

A standard argument for Hamiltonian $`G`$-spaces implies that the subspace $`P`$ is the annihilator of the Lie algebra $`𝔥`$ of a subtorus $`H`$ of $`G`$. Since $`H`$ is a subtorus, the exact sequence

$$1HGG/H1$$

splits. Let $`KG/H`$ be a subtorus in $`G`$ complementary to $`H`$ and let $`𝔤^{}=𝔥^{}\times 𝔨^{}`$ be the corresponding splitting of the duals of the Lie algebras. Then $`P𝔨^{}`$ and $`C(\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha )=P\times W`$ where $`W𝔥^{}`$ is a proper cone. It follows from a theorem of Delzant \[D\] that the exists a basis $`w_1,w_2,\mathrm{},w_l`$ of weight lattice of the torus $`H`$ so that the edges of the cone $`W`$ are of the form $`^+w_i`$. In particular the representation of $`H`$ on $`^l`$ defined by the infinitesimal characters $`w_1,\mathrm{},w_l`$ has the property that the image of the corresponding moment map is $`W`$. Consequently we can realize $`\mathrm{\Phi }(M\times )`$ as the image of the moment map for the product action of $`K\times H`$ on $`K\times \left(𝔨^{}\times ^l(0,0)\right)T^{}K\times ^l`$. Therefore $`M\times `$ is $`G`$-equivariantly symplectomorphic to $`K\times \left(𝔨^{}\times ^l(0,0)\right)`$, which is homotopy equivalent to $`K\times S^{k+2l1}=(S^1)^k\times S^{k+2l1}`$. Since $`0<k<n`$ and since $`l=nk>0`$, $`k=dimH^1((S^1)^k\times S^{k+2l1})=dimH^1(M)`$. ∎

It remains to consider the case where $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ is a contact toric manifold of dimension $`3`$ and the action of the 2-torus $`G`$ is not free.

###### Proposition 4.8.

Suppose $`(M,\alpha ,\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha :M𝔤^{})`$ is a compact connected contact toric $`G`$-manifold of dimension $`3`$ and suppose the action of the 2-torus $`G`$ is not free. Then $`M`$ is a lens space and hence cannot be the co-sphere bundle of a 2-torus.

###### Remark 4.9.

We consider the 3-manifold $`S^1\times S^2`$ a lens space.

###### Proof of Proposition 4.8.

As we remarked earlier the symplectization $`(M\times ,d(e^t\alpha ),\mathrm{\Phi }(m,t)=e^t\mathrm{\Psi }_\alpha (m))`$ is a symplectic toric manifold. Delzant \[D\] showed that for symplectic toric manifolds all the isotropy groups are connected and all fixed points are isolated. If a point $`xM`$ is fixed by the action of $`G`$ then the line $`\{x\}\times `$ is fixed by the action of $`G`$ on $`M\times `$. Therefore the action of $`G`$ on a contact toric $`G`$-manifold has no fixed points (one can also give a direct proof of this fact).

Next we use the fact that $`dimM=3`$ and $`dimG=2`$. By the above observations the isotropy groups for the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ are either trivial or circles. If the isotropy group of $`xM`$ is trivial, then a neighborhood of the orbit $`Gx`$ in $`M`$ is $`G`$-equivariantly diffeomorphic to $`G\times (ϵ,ϵ)`$ for some small epsilon. If the isotropy group of a point $`xM`$ is a circle $`H<G`$, then a neighborhood of the orbit $`Gx`$ in $`M`$ is $`G`$-equivariantly diffeomorphic to $`G\times _HD^2`$ for a small disk $`D^2=\{z|z|<ϵ\}`$. Moreover the action of $`H`$ on $`D^2`$ must be effective; hence we may identify $`H`$ with $`S^1`$ in such a way that the action of $`H`$ on $`D^2`$ is given by $`\lambda z=\lambda z`$.

We conclude that locally $`M/G`$ is homeomorphic to either $`(ϵ,ϵ)`$ or to $`D^2/S^1[0,ϵ)`$. Thus if the action of $`G`$ on $`M`$ is not free, then $`M/G`$ is a one-dimensional manifold with boundary. Since $`M`$ is compact and connected, $`M/G`$ has to be an interval. Therefore, by a theorem of Haefliger and Salem (Proposition 4.2 in \[HS\]), $`M`$ as a $`G`$-space is uniquely determined by the isotropy representations at the points in $`M`$ above the endpoints of the interval $`M/G`$. It is easy to see that in this case $`M`$ is diffeomorphic to two solid tori glued along their boundaries. We conclude that if $`M`$ is a three dimensional compact connected contact toric manifold and if the action of a 2-torus $`G`$ is not free, then $`M`$ is a lens space. In particular $`M`$ is not diffeomorphic to $`𝕋^3=S(T^{}𝕋^2)`$. ∎

This finishes the proof of the main result, Theorem 4 and consequently the proof of Theorem 1.


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# New meson mass relation and lowest pseudoscalar glueball mass This work is supported in part by 1) NSFC under contract No. 19677102, No. 19775044 and No. 19991480; 2) DURF of SEC under contract No. 97035807; 3) BEPC National Lab of China; 4) CTNP of LHIA National Lab of china and 5) China Postdoctoral Science Foundation.

## Abstract

After considering mixing with glueball, we give a new mass relation for meson nonet. According to this mass relation and predicted mass of pseudoscalar glueball given by lattice calculation and effective Hamiltonian, the expected mass of mixed pseudoscalar glueball is about 1.7 Gev. This result is helpful for experimental search for the mixed Isoscalar pseudoscalar glueball. $`\eta (1760)`$ is discussed as a possible canditate of this kind of particle.

PACS Numbers: 12.39.Mk, 12.40.Yx, 14.40.Cs.
Keywords: Mass relation, Glueball mass, meson mixing

There is some inconsistency about meson mass spectrum and lowest glueball mass between theory and experiments. As an example, the lowest mass of pseudoscalar glueball which is given by lattice calculation is about 2232 $`\pm `$ 370 $`\pm `$ 220 Mev . However, the mass value of experimental candidate is much lower than this value. Another question is about Gell-mann-Okubo formula. It is know that vector meson nonet and baryon decuplet satisfy the Gell-mann-Okubo formula well. But the pseudoscalar meson nonet does not satisfy the Gell-mann-Okubo formula at all. Why pseudoscalar meson nonet does not satisfy it? The third question is about glueball-meson mixing. It is believed that there is mixing between meson and glueball. If there is mixing, how to determine the masses of glueball and mesons after mixing? A meson mass relation can be obtained after consider glueball-meson mixing. This mass relation is almost well satisfied by all meson nonet, and it can help us to determine the mass of some mixed glueball.

First, let’s discuss the general case. Suppose that there is a mason nonet. $`M_1^0`$ and $`M_8^0`$ are $`SU(3)`$ singlet states and the isoscalar of $`SU(3)`$ nonet states. The nearest glueball which has the same $`I^GJ^{PC}`$ as the nonet is denoted as $`G^0`$. Generally, these three states will have mixing. The corresponding states after mixing are denoted as $`M_1`$, $`M_8`$ and $`G`$. Suppose that the mixing matrix is $`U`$, then we have

$$\left(\begin{array}{c}M_1\\ M_8\\ G\end{array}\right)=U\left(\begin{array}{c}M_1^0\\ M_8^0\\ G^0\end{array}\right).$$
$`(1)`$
In the most general case, the mixing matrix is a $`3\times 3`$ unitary matrix. However, in the present case, it is a real orthogonal matrix. If the mass matrix before mixing is denoted as $`M^0`$, then the mass matrix after mixing is given by:

$$M=UM^0U^t,$$
$`(2)`$
where $`U^t=U^1`$ is the transposition matrix of $`U`$. The diagonal elements of mass matrix $`M^0`$ are $`m_{M_1^0}`$, $`m_{M_8^0}`$ and $`m_{G^0}`$ respectively, and the diagonal elements of mass matrix $`M`$ are $`m_{M_1}`$, $`m_{M_8}`$ and $`m_G`$ respectively. The trace of eq.(2) gives the following relation:

$$m_{M_1^0}+m_{M_8^0}+m_{G^0}=m_{M_1}+m_{M_8}+m_G.$$
$`(3)`$
The particles that have isospin 1 in the meson nonet are denoted as $`M_\pi `$ and the particles have isospin $`\frac{1}{2}`$ are denoted as $`M_K`$. Supposed that Gell-Mann-Okubo mass formula are well satisfied by meson nonet before mixing, that is

$$4m_{M_K}m_{M_\pi }=3m_{M_8^0}$$
$`(4)`$
$$2m_{M_K}+m_{M_\pi }=3m_{M_1^0}.$$
$`(5)`$
Then we have

$$2m_{M_K}=m_{M_8^0}+m_{M_1^0}.$$
$`(4)`$
Then eq(3) will change into:

$$2m_{M_K}+m_{G^0}=m_{M_1}+m_{M_8}+m_G.$$
$`(6)`$
This is the mass relation for meson nonet. In the above relation, $`M_1`$, $`M_8`$ and $`M_K`$ are mesons which have already been observed in experiments and their masses are already known. $`G^0`$ are pure glueball, its mass are predicted by theoretical calculations. So, in the above relation, the only unknown thing is the mass of mixed glueball $`G`$. It can be calculated from the above relation. Therefore, this meson mass relation can help us to determine the mass of mixed glueball $`G`$.

Now, let’s use this mass relation to discuss the lowest mass of pseudoscalar glueball. According to PDG, the two pseudoscalar isoscalar mesons are $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$. Their masses are

$$m_\eta =547\mathrm{Mev},m_\eta ^{}=958\mathrm{Mev}.$$
$`(7)`$
The isospin $`\frac{1}{2}`$ mesons are Kaons, their masses are $`m_K=494`$ Mev. Then eq(6) changes into:

$$m_G=m_{G^0}517(\mathrm{Mev}).$$
$`(8)`$
In the above relation, $`m_{G^0}`$ is the mass of pure pseudoscalar glueball. Its mass can be obtained from theoretical calculation. The calculated mass of pure pseudoscalar glueball from lattice calculation is $`2.23\pm 0.37\pm 0.22`$ Mev. Then eq(8) means that the center value of the lowest mass of mixed glueball is about 1713 Mev. However, its predicted center mass from an effective Hamiltonian is about $`2.19`$ Mev. Then the lowest center mass of mixed glueball is about $`1673`$ Mev. According to PDG, there are two pseudoscalar mesons below 2.0 Gev, there are $`\eta (1440)`$ and $`\eta (1760)`$. The mass of $`\eta (1760)`$ is more closer to the predicted masses given by both lattice calculation and effective Hamiltonian. The width of this resonance is narrow(only about 60 Mev). This resonance is also found in $`J/\psi \gamma K\overline{K}\pi `$ and $`J/\psi \gamma \eta \pi \pi `$. Using all these experimental results, the partial width of $`\eta (1760)`$ decays into two gluons can be calculated. It is found that this partial width is big. From these results, especially its mass position, it seems that $`\eta (1760)`$ is more like a mixed glueball. But in order to confirm its glueball nature of $`\eta (1760)`$, a lot of things need to do, especially accurately measurement of the total branching ratio of of $`J/\psi \gamma \eta (1760)`$, its mass and width, and detailed study on its decay pattern.

An evidence to support the glueball nature of $`\eta (1760)`$ is about the study of $`J/\psi \gamma \gamma \rho ^0`$. For $`\eta (1440)`$ appears in the invariant mass spectrum of $`\gamma \rho ^0`$, and $`\eta (1760)`$ does not, and glueball should have very weak coupling with photons. Another evidence to support the glueball nature of $`\eta (1760)`$ is about $`J/\psi `$ radiative to $`\gamma \eta ^{}`$. The mass of $`\eta `$ is close to the mass of $`\eta _8`$, but the mass of $`\eta ^{}`$ is much higher then the mass of $`\eta _1`$. The glueball content is mainly mixed into $`\eta ^{}`$ so as to increase its mass by about 500 Mev. In another words, the meson $`\eta ^{}(958)`$ should contain large amount of glueball content. This result is consistent with experimental results, because $`\eta ^{}`$ is abundantly produced in radiative $`J/\psi `$ decay. The branching ratio of $`J/\psi \gamma \eta ^{}`$ is big, it is $`4.31\times 10^3`$. The large sample of $`J/\psi `$ data in BES provides a good oppotunity for the comfirmation of the mixed Isoscalar pseudoscalar glueball.

Eq.(6) is also helpful for the scalar glueball and tensor glueball searching. For example, the two isoscalar tensor mesons are $`f_2(1270)`$ and $`f_2^{}(1525)`$, and the isospin $`\frac{1}{2}`$ tensor meson is $`K_2^{}(1430)`$. According to eq.(6), we have $`m_Gm_{G^0}.`$ It means that the mass of the mixed tensor glueball is very close to the mass of pure glueball. The mixing between glueball and ordinary tensor mesons is small. The mass of tensor glueball should close to the theoretical predictions.


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# Radio Supernova 1987A at 843 MHz

## 1 Introduction

Supernova 1987A (SN1987A) in the Large Magellanic Cloud is the nearest supernova explosion detected in over 300 years. Although not particularly bright, its proximity has facilitated studies at a level of detail unprecedented in supernova research, and rivalled only by the bright SN1993J.

We report here on observations of the radio emission from SN1987A at 843 MHz using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST). Our results cover the period 1994 September – 2000 May, extending previously published data for 1987 February – 1994 September (Ball et al. 1995). Together these data sets from the MOST comprise a unique time series, sampled at intervals of 2 to 6 weeks.

Radio emission from SN1987A was first detected with the MOST on 1987 February 25.23 UT (Turtle et al. 1987), just two days after the arrival of neutrinos on February 23.32 (Bionta et al. 1987). After rising quickly to a peak flux density of $`130`$ mJy at 843 MHz the emission decayed rapidly and was undetectable at radio frequencies after 1987 September. On 1990 July 5 MOST observations indicated the reappearance of radio emission from SN1987A (Ball et al. 1995), an event confirmed about a month later by observations at 4.8 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (Staveley-Smith et al. 1992). These observations were the first indications that the expanding shock from the supernova explosion had encountered a dramatic change in the circumstellar material (CSM) it was passing through, an interpretation first suggested on the basis of modelling of the radio emission (Ball & Kirk 1992). Confirmation of this scenario followed from measurement of the low expansion speed of the radio source (Staveley-Smith et al. 1993; Gaensler at al. 1997) which required a dramatic deceleration of the supernova shock at or prior to the onset of the second phase of radio emission. More detailed models for the radio emission (Duffy, Ball & Kirk 1995) and for the hydrodynamics of the interaction of the supernova ejecta with the CSM (e.g. Chevalier & Dwarkadas 1995; Borkowski, Blondin & McCray 1997) all attribute the radio emission to the interaction of the SN shock with a density jump in the CSM.

The implied radius of the circumstellar density jump responsible for the reappearance of the radio emission is smaller than that of the dense ring surrounding SN1987A (Jakobsen et al. 1991; Plait et al. 1995; Sonneborn et al. 1997). Spatially-resolved spectra of SN1987A from the STIS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope indicated that on 1997 April 26 (day number 3714) the reverse supernova shock radius was $`80\%`$ of that of the ring (Sonneborn et al. 1998). HST images from the WFPC2 instrument show that line emission from a local ‘knot’ on the inner edge of the ring brightened by tens of percent between early-1996 and mid-1997 (days 3200–3750; Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 1997). There are now clear indications that similar brightenings are taking place over a large fraction of the ring (Bouchet et al. 2000; Lawrence & Crotts 2000; Maran, Pun & Sonneborn 2000; Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 2000), suggesting that the interaction of the supernova shock and the inner edge of the ring is underway. Further analysis of archival WFPC2 images shows that the optical signatures of the interaction between material from the supernova explosion and the inner edges of the ring have been detectable since early 1995 (Lawrence et al. 2000).

The radio data we report here show that the emission from SN1987A at 843 MHz has continued to increase monotonically from 1990 July until May 2000. We present 106 new flux density determinations for the radio emission from SN1987A at 843 MHz between 1994 September and 2000 May. In §2 we briefly describe the observations themselves. In §3 (and Appendix A) we explain the approach used to reduce the observations of this time-varying source. The reduced data are described in §4 and tabulated in Appendix B. In Appendix C we discuss an alternative, more direct data reduction method, and compare the results with those given in Appendix B. In §5 we discuss the implications of the observed evolution of the 843 MHz radio flux density from SN1987A. In particular we investigate the evidence for features in the 843 MHz radio light curve that may be related to the dramatic changes in the optical line emission from this source that herald the collision of the supernova shock with the ring.

## 2 Observations

The MOST is a synthesis telescope comprising two colinear, cylindrical-paraboloid reflectors each $`11.6`$m wide and $`778`$m long (Mills 1981; Robertson 1991). It operates at 843 MHz (a wavelength of $`0.356`$m) and measures right circular polarization. The telescope is unique in that it forms a comb of 64 fan beams in real time, and an image is available immediately following a 12-hour observation. The synthesised beam of the telescope at the declination of SN1987A is $`43^{\prime \prime }\times 46^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM, so the supernova is recorded as a point source.

We report here on the results of 106 12-hour synthesis observations of the field including SN1987A. All the observations reported here were made with the same pointing center, using the standard $`23^{}`$ field of the telescope. A small number of observations which were incomplete, or of low quality due to technical problems, have been discarded.

## 3 Data analysis

The flux density of any unresolved source, such as SN1987A, can be estimated directly from the image produced automatically at the end of a 12-hour MOST synthesis observation. However, the precision of such direct estimates is limited by contributions from out-of-field sources which cancel imperfectly as a result of variations in ambient conditions and telescope characteristics during the observation.

SN1987A is situated in a complex region of the radio sky, as can be seen from the MOST image of the field presented in Figure 1. The complexity of the radio emission surrounding SN1987A and, in particular, its proximity to the bright Hii complex 30 Doradus and the supernova remnant SNR B0538$``$691, degrade the accuracy of direct estimates of the flux density of SN1987A. This was especially true in the first few years of observations when the supernova was a relatively weak source. As a result a novel and complex method of analysing the data was developed specifically for this unique object (Ball et al. 1995) involving correcting each 24-second record of a 12-hour observation. Although less transparent than procedures that aim to correct the synthesised image, correction of each record in the data set can provide flux density estimates with considerably lower scatter, approaching the limiting thermal noise of the telescope.

While the same method still provides accurate estimates of the flux density of SN1987A, the effects of differential precession (with respect to a reference data set made from observations before the appearance of the supernova) have become important. The increasing flux density of the supernova itself was also beginning to affect the calibration procedure. To address these effects some details of the analysis procedure have been modified while retaining the significant features of the method, particularly the reliance on correcting each 24-second record in an observation to be as close as possible to that from the reference. The changes to the analysis from that of Ball et al. (1995) are detailed in Appendix A.

The consistency between the flux density estimates obtained by the revised data analysis described in Appendix A and those published in Ball et al. (1995), is very good. For the observations of the standard $`23^{}`$ field up to 1994 September 3, 60% of the estimates agree within $`1\sigma `$, 90% within $`2\sigma `$ and 97% within $`3\sigma `$, where $`\sigma `$ is the uncertainty quoted by Ball et al. (1995) in their Equation (2).

The internal consistency of the flux density measurements can be estimated by analysing the scatter about a linear trend for periods of up to a few hundred days over which such a trend is a good fit to the data. This suggests that the uncertainty at epochs after 1994 September is dominated by a flux dependent term which is conservatively estimated at 2%, the same as the flux-dependent contribution reported by Ball et al. (1995).

## 4 Flux density estimates

A total of 106 independent measurements of the 843 MHz flux density from SN1987A are tabulated in Appendix B. These comprise the MOST data set from 1994 September 17 (day 2763) until 2000 May 05 (day 4820). The quoted uncertainties for the record-corrected estimates are simply 2%, based on the scatter of the estimates about a linear increase.

The entire evolution of the radio emission from SN1987A at 843 MHz, based on the flux densities tabulated in Appendix B together with those from Ball et al. (1995), is shown in Figure 2. This ‘light curve’ illustrates dramatically the two distinct phases of radio emission, separated by almost 3 years during which SN1987A was undetected at radio frequencies.

The most striking feature of the second phase of radio emission is its continued steady increase over an interval of 10 years, quite unlike the behaviour of any other radio supernova observed to date (e.g. Chevalier 1998 and references therein). Some structure is visible in the light curve, including a distinct jump in the rate of increase around days 2800–3000 which has not previously been reported. A simple linear increase at a rate of $`(62.7\pm 0.5)\mu \mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{day}^1`$ fits the observed flux densities from day 3000 onwards remarkably well. This rate of increase is significantly higher than that of $`(31.8\pm 1.4)\mu \mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{day}^1`$ observed between days 2100 and 2700, but not quite as high as the $`(70.9\pm 2.3)\mu \mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{day}^1`$ increase seen between days 1500 and 2100 (Ball et al. 1995). The 843 MHz light curve shows no evidence of any departure from the linear increase between day 3000 (1995 May) and 4820 (2000 May).

### 4.1 Template image subtraction

The need for a complex treatment of the observations of SN1987A has diminished as the supernova has increased in strength. A simpler alternative method based on the subtraction of a template image representing the observed field in the absence of emission from SN1987A now provides reliable flux density estimates, albeit with somewhat higher uncertainties. This simplified analysis uses the standard data pipeline developed for the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS; Bock et al. 1999), and a comparison of the technique with the more complicated record-correction procedures developed for SN1987A provides an invaluable test of its reliability. Details of the template image subtraction estimates of the flux densities of SN1987A for 48 observations between 1997 January 1 and 2000 May 05 are presented in Appendix C.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Up to 1995

The reappearance of radio emission from SN1987A in 1990 July was first revealed by MOST observations at 843 MHz, and is now attributed to the encounter of the expanding supernova shock with a circumstellar density jump well inside the circumstellar ring (Ball & Kirk 1992 – hereafter BK92; Chevalier 1992; Duffy, Ball & Kirk 1995 – hereafter DBK95). This interpretation is supported by the analysis of images of the radio emission from SN1987A made at $`8.6\mathrm{GHz}`$ using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (Staveley-Smith et al. 1993; Gaensler et al. 1997). In particular, model fits to super-resolved images of the radio emission suggest that the source of the radio emission was expanding at only $`2800\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the period 1992–1995, much lower than the average speed of $`35,000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ required between the time of explosion and the first imaging observations in 1992 (Gaensler et al. 1997). While this expansion speed is not a direct measurement of the speed of the supernova shock, it clearly indicates that the shock had undergone a dramatic deceleration from its initial speed of greater than $`50,000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Hanuschik & Dachs 1987), as would occur if the shock encountered a significant jump in the density of circumstellar material (Chevalier & Dwarkadas 1995; Borkowski, Blondin & McCray 1997) associated with a dense Hii region inside the circumstellar ring. The interpretation is also consistent with the observed soft X-ray emission from SN1987A (Beuermann, Brandt & Pietsch 1994; Gorenstein, Hughes & Tucker 1994; Hasinger, Aschenbach & Trümper 1996), though the X-ray evolution is relatively poorly sampled.

The only attempts to model the evolving second phase of radio emission from SN1987A are those of BK92 and DBK95. Based on diffusive acceleration of electrons at an evolving supernova shock, including modification of the shock hydrodynamics by the pressure of accelerated protons, their model fits very well from switch-on to around day 2600 (as shown in Figure 2). BK92 and DBK95 proposed that the switch on and subsequent rise of the radio emission resulted from the supernova shock encounter with a significant jump in the density of the circumstellar material. Chevalier & Dwarkadas (1995) placed this suggestion on a firmer footing, indicating that a very large density jump was expected at the inner boundary of a dense Hii region surrounding the progenitor. At times later than those considered by DBK95 (i.e. after about day 2600 or May 1995) the model flux density reaches a plateau and then decreases slowly – contrary to the observations. The DBK95 model has many limitations (such as assuming spherical symmetry) which rapidly become less tenable at such epochs. No detailed model that combines a plausible distribution of the circumstellar material with a calculation of the supernova shock hydrodynamics and which treats the particle acceleration self consistently has yet been developed.

### 5.2 1995 on

The optical brightening of the inner edge of the circumstellar ring that has been observed from mid-1996 on (Pun et al. 1997; Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 1997, 1999 & 2000; Bouchet et al. 2000; Lawrence & Crotts 2000; Maran, Pun & Sonneborn 2000) clearly indicates that the interaction of the supernova shock and the ring is underway. H$`\alpha `$ images show that an isolated spot just inside the main ring brightened by roughly 50% between 1994 February (day $`2500`$) and 1997 July (day $`3750`$) and broad band (R) images indicate a brightening by $`33`$%, occurring between 1996 February (day $`3300`$) and 1997 July (Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 1997). More recent reports of R-band observations state that the brightening over the four years prior to 1999 February are well fitted by a steady increase in brightness, suggesting that the optical signature of the interaction may have begun as early as 1995 February (day $`2900`$; Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 1999). This has been confirmed by the analysis of archival HST data by Lawrence et al. (2000).

It is possible that the jump in the rate of increase of the radio emission around days 2800 – 3000 and the subsequent long-lived linear rise is associated with the impact of the supernova shock with the ring material. If not, the lack of features in the 843 MHz light curve between days 2800 and 4820 implies that there is no significant radio emission from the impact sites evident in the optical images. Unfortunately, the highest resolution presently available at radio wavelengths with sufficient sensitivity is $`0.4`$ arcsec at 9 GHz (Gaensler et al. 1997) so direct comparison of radio and optical images is not definitive in this regard.

#### 5.2.1 Timing and the shock radius

The optical ‘hot spots’ which were the first indications of the shock-ring interaction have been reported as being at position angle $`30^{}`$ and $`0.55`$arcsec from the supernova ($`87\pm 4`$% of the ring radius; Garnavich, Kirshner & Challis 1997) and at p.a. $`103^{}\pm 5^{}`$ and $`0.60.65`$arcsec (around 80% of the ring radius; Bouchet et al. 2000; Lawrence & Crotts 2000). Lawrence et al. (2000) have shown that there was detectable optical emission from the first hot spot (near p.a. $`30^{}`$) since at least March 1995 (day $`2950`$). This first optical hot spot is not coincident with either radio lobe seen in the $`9`$GHz images of Gaensler et al. (1997). The brightening first seen around p.a. $`100^{}`$ has now been shown to extend over position angles from $`90^{}`$ to $`130^{}`$ (Maran, Pun & Sonneborn 2000), which is roughly coincident with the brighter of the two radio ‘lobes’ or ‘hot spots’ seen in the $`9`$GHz images of Gaensler et al. (1997) – and with the major axis of the ring. Lawrence et al. (2000) have shown that the emission from this region began no later than 1999 January (day $`4350`$) and probably as early as 1998 February (day $`4000`$).

If the first optical hot spot is in the ring plane, its projected radial distance of $`0.55`$arcsec and p.a. of $`30^{}`$ imply a true radial distance from the progenitor of $`0.7`$arcsec. The appearance of this emission in early 1995 (around day 3000) therefore suggests a shock radius which is consistent with or perhaps slightly larger than that inferred from model fits of a spherical source to the radio images (Gaensler et al. 1997, Figure 10), given the significant uncertainties in both estimates. The near coincidence of the second more extended region of optical emission with the major axis of the ring implies that if the radiating material is in the ring plane, its true radial distance from the progenitor is the same as its projected radial distance in the plane of the sky. The appearance of this optical emission at a radial distance of $`0.65`$arcsec around the beginning of 1998 is again consistent with the radius of model fits to the radio images. Furthermore, the very similar radial distances to the first and second optical hot spots, and the significant delay between their appearance, are broadly consistent with the low expansion speed inferred from the fits to the radio images (Gaensler et al. 1997).

#### 5.2.2 Acceleration times

The acceleration time required for electrons to attain sufficient energy to produce radio frequency synchrotron emission is an important physical parameter. The appearance of optical hot spots suggest that the shock impact with the ring began at least as early as March 1995 (day $`2950`$; Lawrence et al. 2000). If the change in the evolution of the 843 MHz radio emission around day 3000 is related to the ring impact, the implied acceleration time is less than a few hundred days. The alternative, that a change in the radio emission associated with the ring impact is yet to be observed, may indicate an acceleration time greater than $`1800`$ days, the interval from 1995 February to 2000 May. The model for the radio reappearance of SN1987A in 1990 July (BK92; DBK95) suggested that the acceleration time was $`300\mathrm{days}`$.

Theory suggests that the time required for diffusive shock acceleration scales as $`(Bv_s^2)^1`$ where $`B`$ is the magnetic field and $`v_s`$ is the shock speed. Given that the shock speed is most probably decreasing with time, the first scenario suggests a significant increase in $`B`$ between the first circumstellar density jump and the ring, while the latter suggests a decrease. If the field is that of the stellar wind, an increase in $`B`$ with radial distance occurs if the wind is confined (as it is in SN1987A), but more detailed modelling is required to address such issues adequately.

## 6 Future outlook

The very good fit of a simple linear increase to the evolving 843 MHz emission from early 1995 to mid-2000 is remarkable given the inherent complexity of this source. Modelling of this dependence is beyond the scope of the present paper, but its simplicity is encouraging. We propose that the transition to the linear increase at 843 MHz in early 1995 is related to the impact of the supernova shock with circumstellar ring material seen at optical wavelengths by the HST, or at least with fingers of very dense material which intrude from the inner edge of the ring. On the other hand, if the onset of radio emission associated with the ring impact has not yet occurred, it is likely that the first detection of this event will result from the ongoing regular monitoring of SN1987A with the MOST. Comparisons of the 843 MHz light curves with Australia Telescope Compact Array data – comprising light curves at higher radio frequencies and images of the $`9`$GHz emission – are underway. Analysis aimed at identifying possible changes in the radio spectral index are also underway.

There is ample evidence from observations of the CSM, the explosion ejecta, images of the radio emission and now the brightening of the ring material that the SN1987A system is now far from spherically symmetric. The relationship between the radio emission, the optical emission and the shock evolution is likely to carry strong signatures of this geometry. It is also possible that the radio and optical emission originate from distinct regions of the shock which are encountering different circumstellar environments, and are at different radii. The imminent upgrade of the Australia Telescope Compact Array to 25 GHz will provide higher angular resolution radio images; and comparison with optical and new X-ray images from Chandra may help to clarify such issues.

## Acknowledgements

The authors thank Duncan Campbell-Wilson, the Site Manager at the Molonglo Radio Observatory, for his continued efforts and enthusiasm in pursuing the monitoring program for SN1987A. We also thank Bryan Gaensler for numerous ongoing productive and stimulating discussions. The MOST is operated by the University of Sydney and supported in part by grants from the Australian Research Council.

## Appendix A Data reduction

Each 12-hour MOST synthesis observation of a $`23^{}`$ field consists of approximately 1795 24-second records comprising 128 beam responses. The analysis used by Ball et al. (1995) involved correcting each record of an observation to be as close as possible to that from a reference data set generated by combining 50 observations of the same field. The analysis used to calculate the flux densities presented here is very similar but with the following differences.

The flux density of SN1987A in a given observation was first estimated directly from the observed data by fitting a point source at the appropriate location to each record. A point source with the mean flux density determined by this method was added to the reference data set at the position of SN1987A. The observed data were then interpolated to the hour angle of the amended reference data set. (In the earlier analysis of Ball et al. 1995 the reference data were interpolated to the hour angle of each observation.) Records with an unacceptably high noise level were rejected at this stage. A gain correction was then determined for each record in the interpolated observation by performing a least squares fit of the beam responses in the data to those in the corresponding amended reference record.

The amended reference data were then subtracted from the interpolated observed data. If the direct estimate of the supernova flux density was accurate, the difference data should contain only noise. We test that assumption by fitting a point source to each record of the difference data, at the position of SN1987A. If the assumption is correct, the mean flux density will be zero, and the record-to-record rms variation will indicate the uncertainty. In general the mean is small but not zero, indicating the effects of imperfect cancellation of out of field sources due to variations in telescope performance during the observation. To correct for these effects we sum the direct estimate of the flux density and the non-zero mean of the fits to the difference data.

The flux density was then scaled by the factor required to ensure that the sum of the flux densities of the nearby reference sources (Sources 1, 2 & 3) was constant. The final estimate of the flux density of SN1987A was obtained by applying a fixed offset to correct for a non-zero base level in the reference data at the supernova position.

In the analysis of Ball et al. (1995) correction terms for the gain, a phase difference and a phase gradient were obtained through a least-squares fit of the Fourier transform of each 24-second record to the corresponding transform of the reference data. The reference data were then subtracted from the inverse transform of the corrected data, and a difference image was synthesised. The flux density of SN1987A was estimated by fitting a source to the difference image. In the new analysis, the comparison was made without performing the Fourier transforms, and the fitting to the difference data was performed for each record, not for the synthesised image. The decision to avoid Fourier transforming the data has the advantage that it avoids the scattering of spurious signal across the data sets that sometimes occurs in the inverse transform (primarily when the untransformed data have much more power at one end of the vector), increasing the noise levels.

## Appendix B Flux densities

The table contains the observed flux densities $`S`$ from SN1987A at 843 MHz from 1994 September 17 to 2000 May 05. The day number refers to the midpoint of the observation in UT, relative to the geocentric time of the explosion on 1987 February 23.32 (UT) or JD 2446849.82. The uncertainty estimates $`\sigma `$ are 2% of the flux density.

A complete file of the 843 MHz flux densities of SN1987A is available from
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/astrop/SN1987A

Date Day $`S`$ $`\sigma `$  (UT) Number (mJy) (mJy)    1994 Sep 17 2763.5 77.5 1.5  1994 Oct 01 2777.5 76.2 1.5  1994 Oct 15 2791.4 77.7 1.6  1994 Dec 09 2846.3 84.2 1.7  1994 Dec 17 2854.3 83.4 1.7  1995 Jan 08 2876.2 82.5 1.7  1995 Jan 15 2883.2 84.3 1.7  1995 Feb 05 2904.1 85.4 1.7  1995 Mar 11 2938.0 85.9 1.7  1995 Mar 18 2945.0 86.9 1.7  1995 Mar 26 2953.0 87.3 1.7  1995 Apr 08 2966.0 86.4 1.7  1995 Apr 14 2971.9 88.7 1.8  1995 Apr 16 2973.9 86.8 1.7  1995 Apr 22 2979.9 88.0 1.8  1995 Apr 25 2982.9 87.7 1.8  1995 May 06 2993.9 85.5 1.7  1995 May 20 3007.8 88.7 1.8  1995 Jun 10 3028.8 87.7 1.8  1995 Jun 18 3036.8 88.3 1.8  1995 Jul 09 3057.7 92.4 1.8  1995 Jul 16 3064.7 92.6 1.9  1995 Aug 25 3105.6 94.1 1.9  1995 Aug 26 3106.6 93.8 1.9  1995 Sep 02 3113.6 94.7 1.9  1995 Sep 08 3119.5 94.8 1.9  1995 Sep 23 3134.5 96.6 1.9  1995 Oct 27 3168.4 96.4 1.9  1995 Nov 10 3182.4 97.8 2.0  1995 Nov 24 3196.3 97.6 2.0  1995 Dec 05 3207.3 97.8 2.0  1995 Dec 15 3217.3 99.8 2.0  1996 Jan 01 3234.2 100.6 2.0  1996 Jan 26 3259.2 103.1 2.1  1996 Feb 24 3288.1 104.2 2.1  1996 Mar 16 3309.0 103.6 2.1  1996 Mar 30 3323.0 108.3 2.2  1996 Apr 13 3336.9 107.2 2.1  1996 Apr 25 3348.9 105.5 2.1  1996 May 04 3357.9 107.1 2.1  1996 Jun 07 3391.8 112.4 2.2  1996 Jun 08 3392.8 111.8 2.2

Date Day No. $`S`$ $`\sigma `$  (UT) Number (mJy) (mJy)    1996 Jul 06 3420.7 111.7 2.2  1996 Jul 19 3434.7 115.2 2.3  1996 Aug 09 3455.6 115.5 2.3  1996 Aug 17 3463.6 114.6 2.3  1996 Aug 23 3469.6 114.1 2.3  1996 Sep 27 3504.5 120.0 2.4  1996 Oct 14 3521.4 117.1 2.3  1996 Oct 26 3533.4 120.4 2.4  1996 Nov 09 3547.4 122.1 2.4  1996 Dec 08 3576.3 122.5 2.4  1996 Dec 15 3583.3 127.8 2.6  1996 Dec 19 3587.3 126.3 2.5  1997 Jan 02 3601.2 125.5 2.5  1997 Jan 13 3612.2 125.3 2.5  1997 Jan 17 3616.2 127.9 2.6  1997 Jan 29 3628.2 129.6 2.6  1997 Mar 16 3674.0 129.4 2.6  1997 Mar 28 3686.0 127.8 2.6  1997 Apr 12 3700.9 128.0 2.6  1997 May 10 3728.9 130.7 2.6  1997 May 24 3742.8 130.8 2.6  1997 May 31 3749.8 131.3 2.6  1997 Jun 29 3778.7 133.3 2.7  1997 Jul 13 3792.7 137.1 2.7  1997 Aug 01 3812.6 140.9 2.8  1997 Aug 15 3826.6 135.8 2.7  1997 Sep 05 3847.5 136.5 2.7  1997 Sep 12 3854.5 139.0 2.8  1997 Sep 26 3868.5 139.5 2.8  1997 Oct 10 3882.4 146.1 2.9  1997 Oct 25 3897.4 144.2 2.9  1997 Nov 14 3917.3 144.7 2.9  1997 Nov 28 3931.3 143.8 2.9  1997 Dec 16 3949.3 143.1 2.9  1997 Dec 24 3957.2 146.9 2.9  1998 Jan 09 3973.2 144.8 2.9  1998 Feb 28 4023.1 147.5 3.0  1998 Mar 07 4030.0 148.1 3.0  1998 Mar 21 4044.0 152.6 3.1  1998 May 02 4085.9 153.0 3.1  1998 May 10 4093.9 155.1 3.1  1998 May 23 4106.8 153.4 3.1  1998 Jun 08 4122.8 156.9 3.1

Date Day No. $`S`$ $`\sigma `$  (UT) Number (mJy) (mJy)    1998 Jul 05 4149.7 156.5 3.1  1998 Jul 24 4169.7 158.3 3.2  1998 Aug 09 4185.6 162.3 3.2  1998 Aug 23 4199.6 162.3 3.2  1998 Oct 10 4247.4 162.2 3.2  1998 Nov 15 4283.3 169.9 3.4  1998 Dec 16 4314.3 172.1 3.4  1999 Jan 25 4354.2 172.2 3.4  1999 Feb 28 4388.1 172.9 3.5  1999 Mar 14 4402.0 174.3 3.5  1999 Apr 27 4445.9 179.1 3.6  1999 Jun 05 4484.8 181.6 3.6  1999 Jul 05 4514.7 179.9 3.6  1999 Sep 04 4576.5 190.7 3.8  1999 Nov 27 4660.3 193.8 3.9  1999 Dec 17 4680.3 192.8 3.9  2000 Jan 13 4707.2 192.0 3.8  2000 Feb 28 4753.1 196.0 3.9  2000 Mar 18 4772.0 197.3 3.9  2000 Apr 15 4799.9 199.8 4.0  2000 May 05 4819.9 202.3 4.0

## Appendix C Template image subtraction

This simplified analysis uses a template image constructed from observations performed in the period between the prompt and second phases of radio emission from SN1987A. Four full 12-hour synthesis observations (on 1989 Feb 15, 1989 Apr 15, 1989 Dec 20 and 1990 Apr 08) were selected, scaled and combined to produce the template. A set of scaled versions of the template image was then constructed, stepping the scaling factor from 0.9 to 1.1 in increments of 0.02.

The object denoted in Figure 1 as ‘Source 2’ – the only point source close to SN1987A and reasonably free of background confusion – is of primary importance in the calibration. The scaling of the template was such that the flux density determined by a point source fit to Source 2 had a flux density of $`133.0\mathrm{mJy}`$. The other background objects denoted ‘Source 1’ and ‘Source 3’ were also used for calibration but were given less weight; Source 1 sits on a radial artifact from 30 Doradus and Source 3 is marginally extended.

The simplified process of measuring the flux density from a given observation involves the following steps:

1. A set of difference images is constructed by subtracting the scaled templates from the observed image.
2. The pair of difference images in which the flux densities in the peak pixel of the chosen reference source (Source 1, 2 or 3) are closest to zero (one negative and one positive) is identified. One such difference image is presented in Figure 3. The scaling factor for which the peak flux density of the reference source would be zero is then determined by simple linear interpolation.
3. Step 2 is repeated for each of the other two reference sources.
4. The three estimates of the scaling factor are averaged, with the estimate based on Source 2 given double the weight of the estimates based on Sources 1 and 3.
5. The nominal peak flux density of the source at the position of SN1987A is determined by fitting a Gaussian profile to the relevant region of the previously-chosen difference images.
6. The nominal flux density is divided by the appropriate mean scale factor.

The scale factors determined by this process show an RMS scatter of 4.3% about unity which is consistent with the calibration uncertainty of the Molonglo telescope. We estimate the total random uncertainty in the flux density estimates obtained by template image subtraction to be $`3`$%.

Figure 4 shows a comparison between the two alternative estimates of the flux density of SN1987A for 48 epochs between 1997 January and 2000 May. The consistency between the two methods is very good. The template image subtracted estimates have slightly larger uncertainties than the record-corrected data, as reflected in a larger scatter about the trend in Figure 4. The flux densities estimated by template image subtraction differ by at most 6% from those determined by record correction, which is consistent with the combined uncertainties in the two data sets. The ratios of the two estimates are plotted in the lower panel of Figure 4; the mean ratio and its standard error is $`0.998\pm 0.003`$. We conclude that there is no significant systematic difference between the two methods of analysis when applied to post 1997 January observations.


text:
# MERLIN/VLA imaging of the gravitational lens system B0218+357

## 1 Introduction

The gravitational lens system B0218+357 \[Patnaik et al. 1993\] has long been recognised as an excellent system for measuring the Hubble constant ($`H_0`$) over cosmological distances using the method of Refsdal (1964). The system has a simple morphology comprising two compact images (A and B) of a flat-spectrum radio core and a radio Einstein ring (Figs 1, 2 and 4). There is also a kpc-scale radio jet that extends south from the bottom of the Einstein ring (seen most clearly in Fig 3). Both lens and source redshifts are well determined, at 0.6847 \[Browne et al. 1993\] and 0.96 \[Lawrence 1996\] respectively. In addition, the time delay between the two compact components has been accurately measured ($`10.5\pm 0.4`$ d) from VLA monitoring \[Biggs et al. 1999\]. Preliminary modelling of the mass distribution in the lensing galaxy using a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoidal (SIE) parameterization \[Kormann, Schneider & Bartelmann 1994\] gave a value for $`H_0`$ of 69$`{}_{19}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+13}`$ km s$`^1`$Mpc-1. The quoted error is a 95 per cent confidence limit (statistical). Constraints on this model come from the VLBI substructure of the compact images (Patnaik, Porcas & Browne 1995) as well as the flux density ratio measured from the VLA monitoring. A free parameter in the model is the position of the lensing galaxy centre which is poorly determined from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical and infra-red observations. Lehár et al. (2000) have pointed out that the uncertainty in the position of the lensing galaxy implies an uncertainty in $`H_0`$ that is much greater than that given in Biggs et al. (1999).

A potential source of model constraints in B0218+357 is the radio brightness distribution in the Einstein ring which has been neglected until now. Einstein rings have proved to be a valuable source of constraints in other lens systems (e.g. MG 1131+0456 and PKS 1830-211) as they probe the mass distribution in the lensing galaxy at many points, thus providing many more constraints than are available from lenses that do not contain images of large-scale extended structure \[Kochanek 1990\]. Techniques that have been developed to optimise lens models using radio maps of Einstein rings include the Ring Cycle algorithm \[Kochanek et al. 1989\] and LensClean \[Kochanek & Narayan 1992\].

The Einstein ring in B0218+357 is believed to be an image of part of the extended emission of the kpc-scale radio jet. It is also the smallest known Einstein ring with a diameter of only 335 milliarcsec (mas), equal to the separation between the two compact components. Because of its small size, producing reliable maps of the brightness distribution in the ring that have high resolution and high sensitivity is difficult. The previous best map was made at a frequency of 5 GHz with the MERLIN array \[Patnaik et al. 1993\], but due to the incomplete aperture coverage of the observations no attempt was made to interpret details of the Einstein ring in a lensing context. This paper presents a new map of B0218+357 made from data obtained with both MERLIN (in multi-frequency mode) and the VLA at frequencies around 5 GHz. The excellent aperture coverage when these data are combined has allowed us to produce the best map of this system at this frequency to date. Work is currently underway to exploit the new map for model constraints (Wucknitz et al., in preparation).

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 MERLIN data

Observations were taken in June 1995 with the MERLIN array in multi-frequency synthesis (MFS) mode (see Conway, Cornwell & Wilkinson \[Conway, Cornwell & Wilkinson 1990\] or Sault & Conway \[Sault & Conway 1999\] for a full discussion of this technique). The advantage of this technique is that for a given baseline separation, changing the observing frequency changes the spatial frequency of the measured visibility and hence the position of the visibility in the $`(u,v)`$ plane. This allows the $`(u,v)`$ plane to be filled in more fully than would be possible for observations taken at a single frequency with the same array and covering the same period of time. This in turn allows the sky brightness distribution to be reconstructed more accurately. A complication arises from the spectral index of the emission which, if uncorrected for, will produce imaging artefacts and significantly degrade the dynamic range (the ratio of peak brightness to off-source error) of a map.

For these observations three frequencies around 5 GHz separated by 320 MHz were used. These were 4546, 4866 and 5186 MHz, a frequency range of $`\pm `$7 per cent. The bandwidth of the individual frequencies was 16 MHz. B0218+357 was observed alternately with the nearby JVAS calibrator source B0233+359 \[Patnaik et al. 1992\] for phase-referencing purposes, a complete cycle of these two sources through all frequencies taking about half an hour before being repeated. Observations were taken irregularly over the period 17–20 June totalling approximately 36 hours of data. Full Stokes parameters were observed so that polarization maps could be made.

Initial data reduction followed standard procedures for MERLIN data. After the flagging of corrupted data, the flux density scale was set relative to 3C 286. Subsequent calibration was accomplished using the NRAO Astronomical Image Processing Software (aips). The phase-calibrator was found to be substantially resolved and was therefore iteratively mapped and self-calibrated several times to produce an accurate model of the source structure. This was then used to derive antenna-based complex gain solutions which were then applied to the B0218+357 data. B0233+359 was also used to derive instrumental polarization corrections and 3C 286 was used to calibrate the polarization position angle.

The data from each frequency were next individually mapped and self-calibrated using the difmap package \[Shepherd 1997\], solving for both phase and amplitude antenna corrections. A map made from the 4546 MHz data is shown in Fig. 1. Before the three frequencies could be combined into a single data set, it was necessary to correct the data for the steep spectral index of the Einstein ring ($`\alpha =0.6`$, where $`S_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$). Simply scaling each frequency’s data was not possible due to the compact cores having a significantly flatter spectral index than the ring ($`\alpha =0.2`$). This problem was solved by subtracting the compact cores from the $`(u,v)`$ data. This was achieved by (in aips) making a map of the calibrated data output from difmap and subtracting the Fourier transform of the CLEAN components corresponding to the positions of components A and B. The data were then remapped and the process repeated until all the core emission had been removed. The total flux density that remained in each subtracted map was then used to scale the $`(u,v)`$ data sets to a consistent amplitude scale. This correction was as expected, the higher frequencies having to be scaled upwards in amplitude relative to the lower. Finally, the CLEAN components removed from the central frequency were added back into the combined data set resulting in a ‘complete’ B0218+357 data set.

These data were then amplitude and phase self-calibrated (using the CLEAN components from an earlier 4546 MHz map) and mapped. In order to remove spurious data, the brightest 1000 CLEAN components were vector-subtracted from the $`(u,v)`$ data and points with a residual amplitude of $`>`$200 mJy were removed from the data. This cut-off was chosen using a “by-eye” estimate of the scatter in the data, but as these only constituted $`<`$0.7 per cent of the data the effect on the resulting map is minimal. The subtracted CLEAN components were then added back into the clipped data set, a map of which is shown in Fig. 2. In this case the dirty map was made using mx and CLEANed using the task sdcln. This task utilises the Steer-Dewdney-Ito (SDI) method of choosing CLEAN components \[Steer, Dewdney & Ito 1984\] and is useful when a map contains extended structure of similar brightness. This map represents a considerable improvement on the single-frequency maps (such as that shown in Fig. 1), the dynamic range having increased from 1500:1 to 8000:1. The map includes some low-level brightness from the jet to the south of the Einstein ring. There are also obvious miscalibration artefacts (alternate positive and negative sidelobes) around component A.

### 2.2 VLA data

The VLA data were observed on the 8th August 1995 for a total of $``$100 minutes, less than two months after the MERLIN observations. Two separate frequency bands were used and these were centred at 4885 and 4835 MHz, each with a bandwidth of 50 MHz. 3C 48 was used as the primary flux calibrator and 3C 84 the point source phase-calibrator. Calibration followed standard procedures and proved to be straightforward with very little flagging of data necessary. B0218+357 was next iteratively mapped (using mx with uniform weighting) and phase and amplitude self-calibrated to produce a map of the source which is shown in Fig. 3. This has an rms noise of 60$`\mu `$Jy beam-1, a figure that is substantially higher than the theoretical noise of $``$16$`\mu `$Jy beam-1. This though is unsurprising given that the dynamic range in the map is $``$15 000:1. The map contains some likely spurious features (particularly emission to the west of component A and the jet), but these are only present at the 3$`\sigma `$ level, the lowest contour in the map. As the errors present in the VLA map are at such a low level of significance, they are unlikely to significantly degrade the quality of maps made from the combined MERLIN/VLA dataset.

### 2.3 MERLIN/VLA combined data

As the VLA data were observed in J2000 coordinates and MERLIN in B1950, the VLA data were transformed to B1950 coordinates. A map made from the transformed $`(u,v)`$ data was essentially identical to that shown in Fig. 3. As a check on the accuracy of the coordinate transformation, the task maxfit was used to find the peak brightness and its position in both the MERLIN and the transformed VLA data sets, the results of which are shown in Table 1.

The VLA data were observed as close as possible in time to the MERLIN MFS data so as to keep to a minimum any complications in the combination of the two arrays arising from source variability. This has been successful as the peak brightness in each map is very similar. The positions of the peaks are a little less consistent. Whilst in declination the peaks are coincident to within 1 mas, the right ascension coordinates differ by 60 mas. Therefore the two maps are offset by about one MERLIN beam. This is not completely surprising as no attempt was made to perform exact astrometry with the VLA observations. The poor resolution of the VLA map may also be a contributing factor. However, as the offset in position is not unduly large (and removable with self-calibration) and the flux scales broadly consistent the two data sets were simply combined with no scaling or removal of model components (A and B). Prior to this the weights of each visibility of each array were made approximately the same so that each data set contributed roughly equally to the resultant image.

All maps of the combined data set were made using the aips imaging task imagr. A value for the robust parameter (which allows a compromise to be made between the traditional natural and uniform weighting schemes) of $`1`$ was used in all maps which resulted in a beamsize of $`57\times 55`$ mas. The initial map of the combined data was very poor, but with several iterations of phase self-calibration subsequent maps were of much higher quality. In order to make the best possible map the data were also amplitude self-calibrated and corrected for baseline errors. This latter step was particularly successful in removing the sidelobe structure around component A seen in Fig. 2. The final image is shown in Fig. 4 and has an rms noise of $`82\mu \mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{beam}^1`$ and a dynamic range of 10 000:1. The dynamic range of a typical bright area of the ring is about 100:1.

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 Image fidelity

The final image shown in Fig. 4 represents a marked improvement on previous maps made of the Einstein ring in this lens system, combining the sensitivity of the VLA with the resolution of MERLIN. As the dynamic range of the map is greater and the aperture coverage so much better than in previous high-resolution maps, we can also expect there to have been a substantial improvement in the image fidelity (fractional on-source errors). Short of performing complicated and time-consuming simulations of the entire mapping process on a model source it is difficult to calculate the image fidelity. Instead, in the following paragraphs we will consider several ways in which the theoretical image fidelity could be degraded and show that the magnitudes of these are negligible.

The fundamental problem with MFS that must be overcome is that source brightness varies with frequency. We have compensated for this with the MERLIN data, as described in Section 2.1, by removing the flat-spectrum cores and scaling the remaining emission. In doing so we have assumed that the Einstein ring emission is described by a single value of $`\alpha `$. As gravitational lensing is an achromatic process this is in general a reasonable approach, providing that the lensed source has a uniform spectral index. If this is not the case then errors will result from the spectral-index residuals. We believe that the assumption of uniform $`\alpha `$ holds fairly well in B0218+357 due to the fact that the area of jet imaged into the ring is small (of order 10 mas) and because spectral-index gradients along radio jets are shallow \[Bridle & Perley 1984\]. Furthermore, Conway et al. (1990) have shown that for a knotty jet (of which the ring in B0218+357 could be considered an example with extreme curvature) observed with the MERLIN array with a bandspread of $`<`$25 per cent, the spectral errors can usually be ignored when the dynamic range in the map is $`<`$1000:1. Our observations easily fulfill this criterion as the dynamic range of the ring emission is $``$100:1 and the bandspread $`\pm `$7 per cent. The much brighter cores do not contribute to the spectral sidelobes as after their subtraction at all three frequencies, only those from the central frequency were subsequently returned to the combined data. As the average VLA and central MERLIN frequencies differ by less than 1 per cent and the peak brightnesses in the three-frequency MERLIN map and VLA map were so similar, it is unlikely that major spectral errors could result from the addition of the VLA data.

Another effect that will reduce the image fidelity is source flux density variability. This needs particular consideration with regards to B0218+357 as the radio core of the background source is variable, as it had to be for the time delay to be measured. Fortunately, the relatively low frequency of these observations means that any source variability should be reduced compared with the rapid variations seen at higher frequencies. VLA monitoring data at 5,111Although only the 8.4 and 15 GHz data featured in Biggs et al. (1999), a small amount of time per epoch was spent observing at 5 GHz. 8.4 and 15 GHz \[Biggs et al. 1999\] show that although highly variable at the highest frequency, the variations become much reduced in magnitude (by a factor of about one half) and have a longer timescale at 5 GHz. This theoretical argument is supported by the very similar peak flux densities in the MERLIN and VLA maps of this work despite their being observed approximately a month and a half apart.

### 3.2 The new image

Perhaps the most striking feature of Fig. 4 is the absence of emission in the middle of the ring lying very close to, and to the west of, component B. Related to this is the reduction in brightness that forms a valley running north-south through the ring and passing through this hole. A similarly-aligned feature was seen at low significance in the independently-mapped 5-GHz MERLIN image of Patnaik et al. (1993), lending confidence in the reliability of this feature. The presence of this valley results in the ring taking on more the appearance of two arcs. Further support for the reduction in brightness close to component B comes from the 15-GHz VLA map shown in Biggs et al. (1999). The radio jet can be seen emerging from the southern edge of the Einstein ring as the two protrusions at the bottom. These correspond well to similar features in the VLA 15-GHz radio map of Biggs et al. (1999).

Another interesting area of the map is the bright spot (the third brightest component in the map) that lies outside the Einstein ring, $``$150 mas to the north of component A. This has not been identified before and is noticeable by its absence in the MERLIN 5 GHz map of Patnaik et al. (1993). Recently though, a feature at the same position and with similar brightness has been seen in a combined MERLIN/European VLBI Network (EVN) image at 1.7 GHz (A. R. Patnaik, private communication). In addition to this, four-telescope VLBI data (Vermeulen et al., in preparation) shows HI absorption associated with the lensing galaxy against three components — A, B and a third component located close and to the north-east of A. For the purposes of this discussion we shall refer to this as component C. What this third component might be is currently undetermined, but given that its position is so close to component A it is unlikely that it is not a lensed image. Its counterpart (component D say) is most likely to be located close to component B, but if we assume that the relative magnification between C and D is similar to that between A and B, component D will be difficult to detect. This is because it will be weakened by about a third compared to C and closer to component B than C is to A by a similar factor.

It is the lensed emission in the Einstein ring that interests us most as it is this which will enable us to constrain the lens model. One way of doing this is to identify lensed images of the same surface brightness as these are likely to be images of the same background source (as gravitational lensing preserves surface brightness). This is the basis of the Ring Cycle algorithm \[Kochanek et al. 1989\] that attempts to optimise the mass model so that, when back-projected into the source plane, the surface brightness dispersion within individual pixels is minimised. A natural consequence of this process is a reconstruction of the unlensed source. However, it is clear from Fig. 4 that the two arcs of the Einstein ring contain substructure with different surface brightnesses. This is almost certainly due to the fact that the finite beam of the combined observations is not sufficient to resolve fully the brightness variations in the Einstein ring. In this case the appropriate action is to use the LensClean \[Kochanek & Narayan 1992\] algorithm. This represents a considerable improvement on the Ring cycle and uses the CLEAN algorithm familiar to radio astronomers to allow for resolution effects like those present in the combined MERLIN/VLA map of B0218+357. As with the Ring cycle, LensClean simultaneously finds the best-fit lens model and produces a map of the unlensed source structure. This work is currently underway and will feature in a future paper (Wucknitz et al., in preparation).

## 4 Conclusions

In this paper we have presented a new image of the gravitational lens system B0218+357 at a mean frequency close to 5 GHz. This has combined data from both the VLA and MERLIN, the latter in multi-frequency mode observing at three separate frequencies. The resulting data set has excellent $`(u,v)`$ coverage and sensitivity, as well as resolution high enough ($`50`$ mas) to easily resolve the Einstein ring. The new map is the best made of this system.

The motivation for making this map was to improve the lens model for this system and hence to improve the estimate of $`H_0`$. This currently stands at 69$`{}_{19}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+13}`$ km s$`^1`$Mpc-1 \[Biggs et al. 1999\], but there are only limited constraints on the mass model available from the VLBI substructure of the compact images and the centre of the lensing galaxy is poorly determined. The next stage will be to exploit the new image for lensing constraints. The results of applying the Lens Clean algorithm will allow us to improve substantially the estimate of $`H_0`$ from the time delay.

## acknowledgements

ADB acknowledges the receipt of a PPARC studentship. We thank Olaf Wucknitz for fruitful discussions and the anonymous referee for several suggestions that significantly improved this paper. This research was supported in part by the European Commission TMR Programme, Research Network Contract ERBFMRXCT96-0034 ‘CERES’. MERLIN is run by the University of Manchester as a National Facility on behalf of PPARC. The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.