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# Host Galaxies, Obscuration and Nuclear Structure of Three Nearby Compact Symmetric Objects

## 1 Introduction

One of the most enduring mysteries concerning radio galaxies is the trigger for the onset of the active phase. This multifaceted issue strikes at the heart of our understanding of the AGN phenomenon, and yet it is difficult to address because of the high resolutions required to peer into the innermost regions of radio galaxies, and also because of the rarity of the youngest active galaxies.

Observational data now point to the Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) and GigaHertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio galaxies as the most likely candidates for being “young” radio galaxies. The distinguishing property of the CSO and GPS classes (heretofore we will use the CSO moniker to refer to both classes; as reviewed by O’Dea 1998, they share most observational properties) is their small lobe separations: typically tens to hundreds of parsecs. Two very recent lines of evidence now point directly to ages $`10^{34}`$ years, including lobe advance speeds $`0.10.3c`$ (Owsianik & Conway 1998, Taylor et al. 1998, Owsianik et al. 1998, Conway 2000) and synchrotron aging and energy supply arguments \[Readhead et al. 1996a, b; see also Murgia et al. (1999) for similar analyses on CSSs (compact steep spectrum sources) and CSOs\]. This “youth” scenario currently appears much more viable than the alternate “frustration” model (e.g., Fanti et al. 1990), which requires an unphysically large amount of material ($`10^{11}M_{}`$) within the inner $`100`$ pc (Readhead et al. 1994, DeYoung 1993).

It is natural to ask how (or if) the host galaxies of CSOs differ from those of large-scale, powerful radio galaxies (PRGs). The answer to this question is not yet apparent. On one hand, there should be a continuum of properties, and along these lines recent papers indicate that both CSOs and larger-scale PRGs reside in bright elliptical galaxies with predominantly old stellar populations (De Vries et al. 1998a, 1998b, 2000; Snellen et al. 1996, 1998b; O’Dea et al. 1996). Yet if mergers play a significant role in triggering nuclear activity (see, e.g., Wilson & Colbert 1995), one might expect more dense nuclear interstellar media and unusual nuclear kinematics in the youngest AGN. Along these lines, a few CSOs appear to be highly reddened (O’Dea et al. 1996, De Vries et al. 1998a), their narrow emission line properties argue for higher gas pressures than large-scale PRGs (Fosbury et al. 1987), and 75% of the HI absorption detections among radio galaxies in the unbiased survey of van Gorkom et al. (1989), have turned out to be CSOs (although it may simply be that CSOs are more favorable targets for single-dish HI surveys such as that of van Gorkom et al.; see also Conway 1996).

To date 13 CSOs have been observed with HST. Ten are at $`z>0.10.8`$ and have been analyzed by McHardy et al. (1994), Perlman et al. (in prep), De Vries et al. (2000), Evans et al. (1999) and Scoville et al. (2000). Unfortunately, in $`z>0.2`$ objects the limiting resolution of HST is a few hundred to one thousand parsecs, which is insufficient to probe structures comparable to the size of the radio sources in CSOs.

It was with the goal of observing nuclear structure that we observed three CSOs at $`z0.1`$ with HST. These objects were selected because of their proximity to Earth, but also because they had been detected in HI absorption (van Gorkom et al. 1989, Mirabel 1990, Peck, Taylor & Conway 1998). The presence of HI absorption was viewed to be particularly important to test the Wilson & Colbert (1995) hypothesis that the “turn-on” of activity in radio-loud AGN is a product of merger events between possibly active spiral galaxies, because a powerful AGN could blow out dense nuclear gas fairly early in its lifetime via a combination of ram pressure from the radio jet and radiation pressure.

The paper is laid out as follows. In §2 we discuss the observations and data reduction procedures. In §3 we show the images and discuss each galaxy’s morphological and environmental characteristics, including the location of dust lanes and emission features, and relationship to the radio emission. In §4, we discuss the fitting of surface brightness profiles and isophotal models. In §5 we discuss the dust distribution and derive extinction maps. Finally, in §6 we discuss the impact of our results on our knowledge of CSOs and the formation of radio galaxies.

Throughout the paper we assume $`H_0=60h_{60}\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ and $`q_0=0.1`$. Table 1 lists the corresponding physical scale, in parsecs per arcsecond, for each object.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction Procedures

HST observations were done in three bands, WFPC2 F450W and F702W, and NICMOS F160W (corresponding roughly to $`B`$, $`R`$ and $`H`$ bands). The WFPC2 images were taken with the PC1, while the NICMOS images were taken with the NIC1 chip. In Table 1, we give a log of the observations. Due to the high absorbing columns in these sources (plus the typically red colors of both elliptical and spiral galaxies), we chose to integrate significantly longer in F450W than in F702W. The longest integrations were done in F160W, however, because of the HST’s lower sensitivity in the near-IR. The wider field of view of the WFPC2 alllowed us to image companion galaxies in the WF chips.

The WFPC2 data were reduced using the best available dark and flat-field images, using the IRAF/STSDAS tasks CALWP2 and CRREJ according to standard recipes. SYNPHOT values in the images headers were used to flux calibrate and transform the images to the standard $`B`$ and $`R`$ bands.

The NICMOS images were reduced using the best available dark and flat-field images in CALNICA. Since no dithering was done, these images are affected by “grot” and warm pixels. We used UNPEDESTAL (van der Marel 1998) to equalize pedestal levels in the four quadrants of the NICMOS chip; however, we chose not to subtract out the pedestal entirely because of the difficulty of measuring the pedestal when a galaxy occupies most or all of the chip. We resampled the NICMOS image to square pixels (the NICMOS pixels are slightly rectangular), but did not correct for distortion since our main interest in these observations is the central $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ of each galaxy, for which the corresponding errors in registration are $`<<1`$ pixel (NICMOS team 1999). The NICMOS images were flux-calibrated and transformed to the standard $`H`$ band using the SYNPHOT information in their headers.

Once the images were reduced to this point, we registered the NICMOS and WFPC images. In so doing, we used $`0.0455^{\prime \prime }`$ pixels and assumed the position and orientation of the nucleus on the WFPC images as fiduciary. Two-band (B$``$R) and (R$``$H) color maps were then constructed from the flux-calibrated images (using mag(Vega) = 0.0 in each band).

## 3 Host Galaxy Characteristics

In Figures 1-3, we show $`R`$, $`(BR)`$ and $`(RH)`$ images. Smaller regions are shown in the color index images than in the F702W image, to bring out detail. Two views of the F702W image are shown in each of Figures 1-3: the top left panel in each figure shows the entire WFPC2 “chevron”, whereas the top right panel shows the inner $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ (for 1146+596) or $`10^{\prime \prime }`$ (for 4C 31.04 and 1946+708).

Below we give a general discussion of the morphological features we find for each object. We also give some background from the literature on each.

1146+596. This object (Figure 1) is the nearest of our targets, and is one of the least radio-luminous CSOs. Its milliarcsecond-scale continuum structure is double-lobed, and has been monitored by Taylor, Wrobel & Vermeulen (1998), who detect component advance speeds of $`0.23\pm 0.05c`$. Unlike most CSOs, 1146+596 has some faint kpc scale radio emission (Wrobel, Jones & Shaffer 1985), which has led some authors (e.g., Conway 1996) to speculate that it might be an example of a recurrent radio source (cf. Reynolds & Begelman 1997). HI observations of this source were made with the VLBA by Peck & Taylor (1998).

The host galaxy is NGC 3894, previously described as an E4 (de Vaucouleurs 1976, 1991), E (Sandage & Tammann 1981) or S0 (Nilson 1973). There is a spiral companion $`2^{}`$ away (NGC 3895, $`z=0.0105`$, $`25`$ kpc projected distance) which is visible on the sky survey plates, and various fainter dwarf galaxies appear on the WFPC2 mosaic (Figure 1a). 1146+596 is the least luminous of the three hosts (Table 2), with an absolute magnitude of approximately $`L^{}`$. Ground-based observations found the rare combination of “disky” isophotes (i.e., positive isophotal moment $`a_4`$), at radii $`\stackrel{<}{}5^{\prime \prime }`$, but “boxy” isophotes (i.e., negative $`a_4`$) at radii $`\stackrel{>}{}10^{\prime \prime }`$ (Bender, Döbereiner & Möllenhoff 1988; Nieto & Bender 1989; Nieto, Poulain & Davoust 1994). Bender and collaborators also reported an anomalous rotation curve and a M/L ratio about 3 times higher than typical for their sample. The work of Kim (1989) revealed a kiloparsec-scale dust disk, with associated H$`\alpha `$ line emission. The source has been detected with IRAS, and from those data Forbes (1991) calculated a mass of $`1.8\times 10^7M_{}`$ of cold dust, very large for an elliptical galaxy. The object was first detected in HI absorption by Dickey (1986), and also appears in the sample of van Gorkom et al. (1989).

In our WFPC2 data, the nuclear emission appears rather irregular in shape, due to the presence of two dust lanes. These dust features are very narrow ($`0.1^{\prime \prime }`$), extend $`300`$ pc on either side of the nucleus, and are oriented nearly perpendicular to the arcsecond and milli-arcsecond radio axes (Figures 1c, 1d). The dust lanes are considerably redder than the surrounding galaxy: $`(RH)1.3`$ mag compared to $`0.8`$ mag, and $`(BR)22.5`$ mag compared to $`1.5`$ mag. The observed colors and geometry are consistent with the northwestern and southeastern branches representing (respectively) the foreground and background (with respect to the nucleus) halves of a dust torus at inclination angle $`70^{}`$, an interpretation supported by the HI distribution and kinematics (Peck & Taylor 1998). There are also two dusty “loops” on either side of (and connected to) the dust disk, as well as patchy features in the outer parts of the galaxy. When elliptical galaxy isophotes are subtracted from the F160W image, there is a “bar”-like feature in the residuals (Figure 1e) along the dust disk, suggesting either star formation within the region of the dust disk or a non-axisymmetric potential in the nuclear regions (which could drive a radial inflow of gas; Shlosman, Frank & Begelman 1989). This “bar” also appears in the $`(RH)`$ color map. The HI opacity appears to be higher on the northwestern lobe (Peck & Taylor 1998); this is consistent with the redder colors observed in that part of the dust disk.

4C31.04. This object (Figure 2) is associated with the galaxy MCG 5-4-18. The HI absorption was first detected in single-dish observations by van Gorkom et al. (1989), and Mirabel (1990) also noticed a high-velocity cloud which later VLBA observations revealed was projected against the galaxy’s center (Conway 1999). The source was detected with IRAS (Impey, Wynn-Williams & Becklin 1990), yielding evidence of considerable dust emission; those authors, however, did not calculate a dust mass. The VLBI radio morphology of the object has been discussed by Conway (1996, 1999), but there is as yet no estimate of lobe advance speeds for this object.

There is a companion galaxy $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ away (MCG 5-4-17, $`z=0.055`$, 20 kpc projected distance) which is visible on both sky survey plates and our WFPC2 image (Figure 2a), as well as various fainter galaxies which could well form a group associated with the object. Neither the host to 4C31.04 nor its spiral companion shows “tidal tails” or other large-scale evidence of interaction.

The optical galaxy is about two magnitudes brighter than $`L^{}`$ (Table 2). It is permeated with obscuration features in both the nucleus and outer regions. The nucleus extends perpendicular to the majority of the nuclear dust, with cone-like features very closely aligned with the radio structure. The western extension is somewhat redder \[$`(RH)1.5`$ mag\] than the eastern one \[$`(RH)1`$ mag\]. By comparison the mean color of the galaxy is $`(RH)1.25\pm 0.21`$ mag. The nuclear obscuration is concentrated in two regions. The first is a very red \[$`(RH)2`$ mag\] disk-like feature, oriented close to 90 from the radio axis, which extends $`500`$ pc to the north, and $`1`$ kpc to the south of the nucleus. There are also two 500 pc long “arms” which are less reddened than the disk. These extend both east and west before turning to a more southerly direction, and connect with the southern part of the disk. A disk of similar size and orientation to the one shown in these images, was predicted by Conway (1999) based on VLBA HI maps. Those maps show that the HI opacity is higher on the Eastern side, but patchy obscuration extends to the West side. A significant amount of patchiness is likely required to reconcile the obscuring features observed in the HI and HST images, although we note that the size scales are rather different. The HI observations were modelled by a disk of atomic gas of radius 500-1000 pc and thickness 100 pc, inclined within $`20^{}`$ of edge-on.

1946+708. This object (Figure 3) is our most distant target. It was first detected in HI by Peck, Taylor & Conway (1998; see also Conway 1996). Taylor & Vermeulen (1997) have presented an excellent discussion of multi-year VLBI monitoring of this source, which constrains the angle between the radio jet axis and our line of sight to $`6580^{}`$. There is a bright companion galaxy about $`1^{}`$ away (67 kpc projected distance, redshift not listed in NED), which is visible on the WFPC image, as well as a number of fainter companions which may form an associated group (although the redshift of these objects is not known).

The host galaxy is about two magnitudes brighter than $`L^{}`$ (Table 2). The nuclear regions are somewhat redder than the outer regions of the galaxy \[$`(BR)23`$ mag compared to $`1.52`$ mag\]. This galaxy exhibits nuclear obscuration, which appears to have an inclined, disk-like morphology. The disk is about 600 pc in radius and its major axis could be about $`60^{}`$ from the radio axis.

The HI absorption data for this object are complicated: while the highest HI opacities are observed NE of the nucleus, this is only because that component is very narrow in velocity space. Much higher column densities, in fact, are seen against the core and SW of the nucleus (Peck, Taylor & Conway 1999), where the velocity width of the absorption is much higher. Taylor & Vermeulen (1997) and Peck et al. (1998) cite this as evidence that the NE jet is approaching. Free-free absorption has also been detected against the SW jet, suggesting that some of the obscuring material is ionized. Both our HST images and the radio HI data can be explained by an inclined disk, but the pattern of obscuration is not what one would expect because the highest optical obscurations are not seen at the same point as the highest HI columns. The obscuring material is therefore likely to be azimuthally non-uniform, perhaps also with a varying gas to dust ratio.

## 4 Isophotal Profiles

We fit isophotes for the host galaxies using ELLIPSE and BMODEL in IRAF. In doing so, we excluded obvious isophotal features such as the aligned nuclear emission ‘cones’ observed in 4C31.04 or the bar observed in 1146+596. This process was done iteratively, as some features did not immediately evidence themselves before the initial fitting. In Figure 4, we show the isphotal profile for each galaxy. This figure includes plots of surface brightness, ellipticity, PA, and moments. The isophotes shown in Figure 4 represent the H band data; while isophotes were also extracted from the R and B band images, the H band data are less affected by dust (cf. §5) and therefore are more representative of the mass distribution of the galaxies.

Figure 4 also shows several other aspects of the isophotal profile: PA and ellipticity as well as isophotal moments. As can be seen, all three objects display significant changes in ellipticity and PA within the range of semi-major axes shown. With the possible exception of the large-scale change in ellipticity in 4C31.04, all of the features seen in these plots can be traced to the images shown in Figures 1-3 (recall, however, that a few obvious features were excluded from the fits). It is likely that some of the largest-ellipticity isophotes extracted in 4C31.04 (i.e., at nuclear distances $`<0.4^{\prime \prime }`$) are a byproduct of flagging the nuclear emission ‘cones’, so we exclude them from further discussion. Note, however, that this cannot explain the larger scale (at radii up to $`4^{\prime \prime }`$ or 4000 pc) changes in ellipticity observed, as the “cones” extend over less than $`1^{\prime \prime }`$. Importantly, the amount of variation we see in PA and ellipticity is not unusual for elliptical galaxies, as shown by the data of Bender et al. (1988), who give many examples of objects where (for example) isophotal twists of several tens of degrees, or changes in ellipticity from 0.1 to 0.4, are seen.

The surface brightness profiles of these galaxies cannot be well-fit by generalized models of the form $`I(r)\mathrm{exp}(\alpha r^\beta )`$. In this formulation, $`\beta =1`$ represents an exponential disk, whereas $`\beta =0.25`$ represents the classical DeVaucouleurs’ profile. All three show essentially power law surface brightness distributions at radii larger than 1 arcsecond, with significant flattenings at small radii (respectively $`0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ in 1146+596, $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ in 4C31.04 and $`0.3^{\prime \prime }`$ in 1946+708). This is a common feature among elliptical galaxies, and a signature of ‘nuker’ models (Byun et al. 1996, Faber et al. 1997), which represent the best fits to the nuclear regions of nearby elliptical galaxies at HST resolutions (see also Rest et al. 2001). The nuker models have the mathematical form

$$I(r)=I_b2^{(\beta \gamma )/\alpha }\left(\frac{r_b}{r}\right)^\gamma \left[1+\left(\frac{r}{r_b}\right)^\alpha \right]^{(\gamma \beta )/\alpha },$$
$`(1)`$
where $`r_b`$ is the point of maximum curvature in log-log coordinates, $`I_b`$ is the surface brightness at $`r_b`$, the asymptotic logarithmic slope inside $`r_b`$ is $`\gamma `$, the asymptotic outer slope is $`\beta `$, and $`\alpha `$ parametrizes the sharpness of the break.

Nuker models were fit to the isophotal profiles using an IDL program that employs the CURVEFIT utility, which uses a generalized, weighted least-squares fitting algorithm. Initial guesses for $`\gamma `$, $`\beta `$, $`r_b`$ and $`I_b`$ were determined using by-eye estimation. Gaussian errors were used to weight the data. We did not extract isophotes at semi-major axes smaller than $`0.2^{\prime \prime }`$ as this is approximately the FWHM of the HST PSF in H band.

The nuker model fits are overplotted on the surface brightness profiles in Figure 4. As can be seen, the nuker models fit well for all three objects; the best fit parameters are given in Table 2. All three show deviations at large radii: in 4C 31.04, there is a clear excess at radii $`\stackrel{>}{}3.5^{\prime \prime }`$ (3500 pc), in 1946+708 the nuker model overpredicts the observed isophotes at radii $`\stackrel{>}{}1.5^{\prime \prime }`$ (2500 pc), and in 1146+596 we see a slight excess above the nuker models at $`r\stackrel{>}{}4^{\prime \prime }`$ (900 pc).

In Figure 5, we show the $`\alpha ,\beta ,\gamma ,r_b`$ values of these objects compared to the sample of Faber et al. (1997). As shown, by this measure the surface brightness profiles of these objects are not visibly abnormal compared to the samples of Faber et al. (1997) and Rest et al. (2001). 1946+708 appears to be what Faber et al. would call a “power-law” galaxy (despite having a significant, if small, break at $`0.3\mathrm{"}`$), while 4C31.04 and 1146+596 seem to be intermediate between the “core” and “power-law” classes of Faber et al. However, all of these galaxies, and particularly 4C 31.04 and 1946+708, are more distant than any of the objects in the Faber et al. (1997) sample. As noted by Faber et al., in distant galaxies bulge characteristics ‘blend’ with those of the larger galaxy. This would cause the fitted values of $`\gamma `$ and $`r_b`$ to be larger than they truly are (see their Figures 2 and 3, where Faber et al. simulate the effect of fitting the profiles of M31 and M32, placed at the distance of the Virgo cluster). If their significantly larger distance is accounted for, it is likely that all three are “core” galaxies similar to other bright $`L>L^{}`$ ellipticals.

The moments of the surface brightness distribution, $`a_3,b_3,a_4,b_4`$ (bottom four panels in each column of Figure 4), for these objects all change sharply at very close to the same radii where flattenings in the isophotal profiles are seen (above). In all three objects, we observe the moment $`a_4`$ become sharply negative at small radii. The other moments also show significant departures in the inner regions of each galaxy. 1146$`+`$596 shows a sharp increase in the moments $`a_3,b_3`$, and $`b_4`$ at radii $`0.7^{\prime \prime }`$, but at radii $`0.3^{\prime \prime }`$ , $`b_3`$ and $`b_4`$ decrease sharply and become negative. This is consistent with the near-IR bar observed in this object, although the variations at $`0.3^{\prime \prime }0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ may indicate that some obscuration still remains in the $`H`$ band image. By contrast, in 4C31.04, we observe fairly smooth, monotonic decreases in all four moments, beginning at radii $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$. This pattern is indicative of the nuclear emission cones observed in this object. In 1946+708, we observe small increases in $`a_3`$ and $`a_4`$ at radii $`0.4^{\prime \prime }0.6^{\prime \prime }`$, and then decreases in all four moments at radii $`<0.4^{\prime \prime }`$. These features are more difficult to trace, because unlike 4C31.04 and 1146+596, there are no obvious features in the H band residuals of this object. However, these changes are somewhat similar in pattern to those observed in 1146+596, and as can be seen in the $`(BR)`$ and $`(RH)`$ color images, 1946+708 exhibits a nuclear dust disk at these radii, as does 1146+596 at radii where sine-wave like variations are seen in the moments. If this interpretation is correct, we might expect that some obscuration remains in these objects at $`H`$ band. This interpretation is also consistent with the small changes in ellipticity and PA observed at similar radial distances in 1946+708.

These objects also show some larger scale isophotal features, but as can be seen in Figure 4, the departures in the isophotal moments are much smaller than in the nuclear regions. At $`r>1^{\prime \prime }`$, 4C 31.04 appears to have a “disky” profile, consistent with the presence of two larger-scale, spiral shaped dust lanes noted earlier. Diskiness was also previously noted in 1146+596 at radii of $`210^{\prime \prime }`$ by Bender et al. (1988); we see this in our data as well, but we are not sensitive to the change to boxy isophotes they noted in this object at radii $`>10^{\prime \prime }`$. In both 4C 31.04 and 1146+596, we also see significant departures in the other moments at these larger radii.

The variations that we see in all the isophotal moments at small radii indicate that the kinematics in the inner regions of these objects are likely to be irregular. This is to be expected in ”boxy” (i.e., $`a_4<0`$) objects; as noted by Nieto & Bender (1989), boxiness tends to be correlated with large kinematic anisotropies. Interestingly, Bender & Nieto (1989) note that boxy isophotes tend to predominate in active elliptical galaxies on kiloparsec scales, thus possibly linking isophotal and kinematical anisotropies to the feeding of AGNs. By contrast, in ”disky” (i.e., $`a_4>0`$) galaxies, the usual kinematic signature is a rotationally flattened disk, but much less prominent anisotropy (Bender 1988). Thus we can feel secure in saying that by far the most prominent kinematic feature of these objects is likely to be large anisotropies at small radii. We will return to this and related topics in §6.

## 5 Obscuration Features and Distribution

We have used the multi-color HST images to obtain estimates of the total extinction in $`B`$ band, $`A_B`$ (see Figure 6). In so doing, we made three assumptions. The first assumption is that the average colors of each object are taken as representative of the unextincted stellar population of the host. Since none of these objects appear to be disk-dominated objects seen along their disks, this should be very nearly true if these galaxies follow an extinction law similar to that for our own Galaxy (see Mathis 1990), where by $`H`$-band the extinction is only 6% of what it is in $`B`$-band. We also assume a covering factor of unity, the most conservative assumption, but it is likely that there is some variation in the covering factor, just as in our own Galaxy. Our final assumption is that the overall galaxy colors are dominated by continuum emission, rather than lines. Without emission line imaging we cannot comment on the validity of this assumption. Once these assumptions are made, we can then compute $`A_B`$ values for each pixel $`(i,j)`$ via

$$(A_B)_{ij}=(BH)_{ij}(BH).$$
$`(2)`$
The nuclear dust disks represent the highest-extinction features seen in each host galaxy. In 1146+596, the northwestern branch of the dust disk reaches $`A_B=0.91.1`$ mag, while the southeastern branch reaches somewhat lower values ($`A_B=0.70.9`$ mag). There is considerable extinction as well in between the two visible branches of the central dusty region ($`A_B=0.50.7`$ mag), suggesting that the nuclear dust torus is filled, rather than open. Somewhat larger extinction values are seen in the disks of 4C31.04 and 1946+708. In 4C 31.04, the disk appers nearly edge-on, with $`A_B=1.52.3`$ mag, peaking southwest of the galaxy’s nucleus. In 1946+708, which appears to have a somewhat inclined disk, we see $`A_B`$ peaking at about 2.0 mag at the northern extremum of the disk, and a much larger variation in extinction, varying between 0.4 and 1.8 magnitudes, with the minimum value of $`A_B`$ at the disk’s southwestern edge.

We find lower $`A_B`$ values in the dust “loops” of 1146+596 and 4C 31.04, than in their respective nuclear dust disks. In 4C 31.04, the extinction values in the “loops” range from $`A_B=1.01.3`$ mag in two spots, to the northwest of the nucleus and where the loop intersects with the northern extension of the disk, to values as low as $`0.10.2`$ mag east and southeast of the nucleus. By comparison, in 1146+596, the extinction in the “loops” ranges from $`A_B=0.40.5`$ mag in the loop to the north of the nucleus to only $`0.150.3`$ mag south and east of the nucleus.

1146+596 and 4C 31.04 also exhibit extinction features in their outer regions. In 1146+596, these are patchy, and have moderate $`A_B`$ values ($`A_B=0.30.7`$ mag). In 4C31.04, the large-scale extinction features are distributed in an S-shaped lane, extending outwards from the nuclear disk on both sides for up to 4 kpc. The values of $`A_B`$ in this feature range from 0.7–1 mag in the northern lane to 0.2–0.5 mag in the southeastern lane.

The $`A_B`$ values can be transformed into HI columns by assuming the extinction law of Mathis (1990), and the $`E(BV)N(H)`$ relationship of Bohlin et al. (1978), viz. $`N_H=5.8\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{mag}^1`$. Total dust masses were obtained by integrating the $`N(H)`$ maps and a dust-to-gas ratio similar to that of our own Galaxy ($`100`$ by weight). This yields the values given in Table 3. As can be seen, all three of these galaxies have significant HI columns and dust masses typical of spiral galaxies. By comparison, ellipticals typically have dust masses an order of magnitude lower (Goudfrooij et al. 1994a, b), although there are notable exceptions, including some large scale FR II radio sources (de Koff et al. 2000; see also §6). We note in the captions to Figure 6 what the $`A_B`$ greyscales of each extinction map corresponds to in terms of $`N_H`$, under the above assumptions.

The $`N_H`$ maps allow us to estimate the $`T_s/f_c`$ values on each side of the radio source by comparing the values we calculate with $`N_H`$ values derived from VLBI observations (Peck & Taylor 1998, Conway 1999, Peck et al. 1999). To do this, of course, one must assume that the same gas serves as the absorbing column for both the radio and optical emission, a nontrivial assumption given that there is a resolution mismatch of approximately a factor 5-10 between the VLBA observation and our HST observations. So these are fairly rough estimates and at most we can differentiate between the two sides of the radio source and not on a point by point basis. Nevertheless, the results are given in Table 3. For all three objects, values of $`T_s/f_c100200`$ K are obtained, even though the dust and gas are within $`100`$ pc of the nucleus. For two objects, 1146+596 and 4C 31.04, our results are roughly consistent with the assumptions of $`100`$ K in the literature (Peck & Taylor 1998, Conway 1999). However, for 1946+708, our results are inconsistent with the assumption by Peck et al. (1998) of $`T_s8000`$ K, unless a very low filling factor is invoked. This is a significant result, even given the resolution mismatch and different methods used in the calculation. To reconcile the two temperature results in a covering factor $`f_c0.025`$, which we believe is unlikely given the rather uniform appearance of the obscuring screen shown in Figure 6c. As one can see by comparing our Figure 6c to the maps in Peck et al. (1999) the ratio between the thickness of the densest part of the obscuring disk and the the width of the 1.3 GHz continuum emitting region is about 5:1, so that a rather unlikely combination of orientations for the radio minilobes and dust clouds would be required. Further, we note that at $`T=8000`$ K and the densities calculated for this temperature by Peck et al. (1999), one would not expect 21 cm HI absorption due to collisional quenching.

## 6 Discussion

The hosts of these three CSOs appear typical of nearby elliptical galaxies in many respects. All three are ellipticals, well-fit by “nuker” models (Faber et al. 1997) within $`3`$ kpc of the nucleus. All three show significant breaks to flatter cores in their surface brightness distributions, although none actually fall into the “core” region as defined by Faber et al. (1997). Instead, two objects, 1146+596 and 4C31.04, fall into the intermediate region of the $`(r_b,\gamma )`$ plane, while 1946+708 falls into the “power-law” section of that diagram. As noted in §4, however, the true values of $`r_b`$ and $`\gamma `$ for 4C 31.04 and 1946+708 are likely smaller, given their distance and the fact that HST barely resolves the cores in these objects. The hosts of 4C 31.04 and 1946+708 are about 2 magnitudes brighter than $`L^{}`$, which is fairly typical of radio galaxy hosts (e.g., Martel et al. 1999, Ledlow & Owen 1995, Smith & Heckman 1989, Owen & Laing 1989), but 1146+596 is somewhat underluminous compared to most radio galaxy hosts, with $`LL^{}`$.

As noted in §4, these objects have significantly non-relaxed isophotes at radii of a few hundred parsecs, with significant variations in ellipticity and PA, as well as significant deviations in the isophotal moments. Taken together, this is a fairly sensitive indication that the inner regions of the underlying galaxies are not completely relaxed (e.g., Mihos et al. 1995, Mihos & Hernquist 1996), even if they show no outward indications of a recent merger. Indeed, if the kinematic and morphological properties of elliptical galaxies follow the same relationship on scales of tens to hundreds of parsecs as they do on scales of kiloparsecs, this is a likely indication of large nuclear kinematical anisotropies in these objects. In order to understand the overall impact of this observation, we must assess not only how unusual such variations are, but also assess any resolution related and other biases. Some caution is warranted at the smallest radii (Rest et al. 2001), i.e., at resolutions $`<0.2^{\prime \prime }`$ HST’s sensitivity to detecting real isophotal twists decreases significantly, such that for a cuspy model with constant ellipticity and PA, ELLIPSE still would erroneously detect some changes in ellipticity and PA on scales smaller than $`0.2^{\prime \prime }`$. This concern is particularly applicable to 1946+708, which has an a large change in ellipticity at $`0.3^{\prime \prime }`$. Further, we must also exclude from our analysis the isophotes within $`0.4^{\prime \prime }`$ for 4C 31.04 because they are heavily affected by the masking of the nuclear emission “cones” in that object (cf. §4)

With these caveats in mind, then, we are left with 2 objects (4C31.04 and 1146+596) which have ellipticities that vary between 0.10 and 0.40 in the inner 2-4 kpc, and one (1946+708) which shows much smaller variations. Similarly, 4C31.04 and 1146+596 exhibit major isophotal twists (by several tens of degrees) while 1946+708 exhibits much less variation in PA. Such variations in ellipticity and PA are not at all uncommon in the nearest elliptical galaxies on the 100-1000 pc level (Bender et al. 1988). In 1146+596, we see an ellipticity that decreases fairly steadily in the inner few hundred parsecs. This is consistent with the “diskiness” found on $`210^{\prime \prime }`$ scales by Bender et al. (1988) in ground-based data. The pattern of the variations seen in 4C31.04 is somewhat reversed; however, this could still be consistent with significant “diskiness” on 500-2000 pc scales (as indicated by the positive values of $`a_4`$ we observe at these scales) in a more face-on orientation, and it would be consistent with the larger scale dust lanes in this object noted in §§3 and 5.

These galaxies are somewhat unusual compared to the hosts of most radio galaxies in the amount of nuclear and galaxy wide dust. Martel et al. (1999) analyzed HST WFPC images of 46 $`z>0.1`$ 3CR radio galaxies, and further analyses of the dust properties of the sample were done by de Koff et al. (2000) and Martel et al. (2000). About half of the 3CR galaxies have some sort of dust feature, including irregular lanes, filaments, nuclear or large-scale disks above a threshold detection level of $`3\times 10^4M_{}`$ in dust. That amount of dust is consistent with the amounts of dust found in non-active elliptical galaxies by Goudfrooij et al. (1994a, b) and Tran et al. (2001). As can be seen, therefore, these objects have dust masses $`0.51`$ dex higher than typical for elliptical galaxies and radio galaxy hosts, although 9/46 3CR hosts are comparable to 1146+596, 4C 31.04 and 1946+708. Interestingly, it is not just the smallest 3CR sources that have substantial dust masses: e.g., 3C 46, 3C 236 (but see below) and 3C 306.1 are all large ($`\stackrel{>}{}1h_{60}^1`$ Mpc) and have $`M_{\mathrm{dust}}>10^5M_{}`$. The 3CR objects with prominent dust lanes also show a significant, but not universal, anti-correlation of dust lane position angle with radio axis, similar to these objects. Somewhat similar results were seen in the HST snapshot survey of BL Lacs undertaken by Urry et al. (2000) and Scarpa et al. (2000). Of the 58 objects in that sample with resolved hosts, 12 were at $`z<0.1`$, and only one of those (1ES1959+650) has an obvious dust feature: a kpc-scale disk with an estimated dust mass of $`5\times 10^5M_{}`$, in the same range as these CSOs (Scarpa et al. 2000).

Given the large amount of nuclear dust shown by these observations, it is natural to wonder whether these objects are typical of CSOs in general. While these objects were chosen partly because of their HI absorption, we note that this is a property which is common among CSOs, since up to 50% of CSOs now appear to be HI absorbers (Conway 1996, 2001). Thus, any such bias in this regard is small, although observations of non-HI absorbers might be helpful to elucidate this further.

None of our objects show obvious nuclear point sources, consistent with their strong nuclear obscuration. Martel et al. (1999) found nuclear point sources in 43-54% of $`z<0.1`$ 3CR radio galaxies, and some correlation between the lack of a point source and nuclear absorption. Chiaberge, Capetti & Celotti (1999), working with a very similar sample, found a strong correlation between the optical flux of the central compact core and the radio core flux, and an anti-correlation between optical core flux and dust content.

Only one other $`z<0.2`$ CSO has been observed with HST: PKS 1345+12 ($`z=0.122`$; Evans et al. 1999, Scoville et al. 2000, Surace et al. 1998). Like our targets, PKS 1345+12 was detected in HI by van Gorkom et al. (1989). However, it seems a much more extreme object, having also been singled out as an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) by Sanders et al. (1988), with an IRAS luminosity of $`10^{12.44}L_{}`$. The host galaxy of PKS 1345+12 has an irregular optical morphology, with two nuclei separated by $`3.0^{\prime \prime }`$ and prominent tidal tails; thus it is almost certainly a merger event in progress. In addition, in PKS1345+12 we also see large amounts of nuclear obscuration, and CO (Evans et al. 1999) and OH megamaser (Baan, Salzer & Lewinter 1998) emission centered on the western nucleus, which is also the location of the AGN. Evans et al. (1999) attempt to link the molecular gas with the feeding and development of the AGN. Hurt et al. (1999) reported a UV polarization of $`16.4\pm 2.6\%`$ in HST/FOC observations, with a polarization PA nearly perpendicular to the radio axis, consistent with scattered AGN light. However there is inadequate astrometric information to associate the polarized UV source with the AGN. The X-ray data are consistent with a hard power-law spectrum plus a large ($`>10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$) absorbing column (O’Dea et al. 1996b, Imanishi & Ueno 1999)

Nine $`z>0.2`$ CSOs have been observed with HST (DeVries et al. 2000, Perlman et al. 2001, McHardy et al. 1994). All of the DeVries et al. objects are well fit by elliptical models, and none show irregular isophotes (although n.b., De Vries et al. do not discuss variations in PA or ellipticity) or strong obscuration features, although three are significantly reddened: 0404$`+`$768 $`(z=0.599)`$, 0428$`+`$205 $`(z=0.219)`$ and 0500$`+`$019 $`(z=0.583)`$, all of which also have close companions. But due to their much greater distances, the lack of (e.g.) visible dust features and/or aligned structures in the remaining sources cannot be taken as a statement that they do not exist. In fact, only for the very nearest of the three reddened sources in the DeVries et al. sample (0428$`+`$205) could HST resolve features similar in size to those observed in the nuclear regions of these three objects. Moreover, the DeVries et al. observations were carried out in redder bands (NICMOS F110W and F205W) so that their sensitivity to modest amounts of dust was much less. PKS 1413+135, analyzed by Perlman et al. (in prep.) and McHardy et al. (1994), appears to be a very different object, having a clearly spiral host, but strong nuclear and galaxy wide obscuration, molecular absorption (Wiklind & Combes 1994, 1997), and a hard, obscured X-ray source (Sugiho et al. 1999); the latter properties being similar to PKS 1345+12.

In summary, the three CSOs imaged here appear to be relatively normal, albeit relatively dusty luminous elliptical galaxies. They also appear to be representative of the CSO class, although a few CSOs (e.g., PKS 1345+12 and PKS 1413+135) appear to be more obvious candidates for very recent merger events.

Since mergers tend to force gas and dust towards the central regions (Mihos & Hernquist 1996), the large dust masses of 1146+596, 4C 31.04 and 1946+708, are interesting in the light of the scenario proposed by Wilson & Colbert (1995), whereby the “turn-on” of nuclear activity is triggered by a merger event. Also interesting is the presence of companions within 20-70 kpc projected distance, for all three objects. But perhaps most interesting of all in this light is that these objects appear to have outwardly normal isophotal profiles (fitting nuker models rather well), but exhibit significant anomalies in PA and ellipticity, particularly in their inner regions. This is consistent with the finding of Mihos (1995) that $`\stackrel{>}{}10^8`$ years after a major merger of two disk galaxies, the inner 3-5 kpc region of the remaining galaxy appears quite similar to a normal elliptical in its surface brightness profile but with remnant ellipticity changes and isophotal twists. Thus if a major merger triggered the activity seen in these objects, it must have occurred $`\stackrel{>}{}10^8`$ years earlier (cf. Mihos 1995, Hernquist & Mihos 1995, Mihos & Hernquist 1996).

A timescale of $`>10^8`$ years after a major merger is similar to the timescale over which a $`10^8M_{}`$ black hole could double its mass while accreting at the Eddington rate (the Eddington rate is $`3M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ for a $`10^8M_{}`$ black hole, and scales linearly with the mass), and is also of the same order as the timescale required to accrete material into the inner few parsecs of a galaxy ( i.e., the dynamical time of the “nested bars” hypothesis of Shlosman et al. 1989). These timescales are relevant if indeed the “activation” of a radio-loud AGN is directly related to spinning up of the nuclear black hole (see, e.g., Meier 1999, Reynolds et al. 1999); a significant increase in the black hole’s angular momentum would require the accretion of a mass comparable to the mass of the black hole. This long time delay between the merger and the onset of nuclear activity could also be due to the long time required for a bound black hole binary to coalesce (or for a hard black hole binary to form - see Begelman et al. 1980), although recent simulations indicate that the coalescence timescale for black hole binaries is almost certainly much longer than $`10^8`$ years (Merritt, Cruz & Milosavljevic 2000; Poon & Merritt 2001), as required by the Wilson & Colbert (1995) scenario. In either case, our observations require that if a major merger is responsible for the onset of nuclear activity, a mechanism with timescale $`10^8`$ years must delay the production of the radio source. Simulations of mergers (Mihos & Hernquist 1996) suggest that gas inflow into the nuclear regions of the product galaxy would peak $`510\times 10^7`$ years after the beginning of the merger, and continue for several $`\times 10^7`$ years.

A timescale of $`10^8`$ years is also important to our understanding of these objects for another reason: by the time that long of a time period has elapsed, any nuclear starburst associated with the merger will have subsided, although some evidence may remain in the colors. We do not see any evidence of nuclear starbursts in these objects, with the possible exception of the near-IR “bar” in 1146+596. De Vries et al. (1998a, 1998b, 2000) also found that the colors of CSO host galaxies at higher redshifts were consistent with predominantly old stellar populations.

Our findings are also consistent with more quiescent feeding mechanisms for a pre-existing black hole. For example, a more distant tidal encounter could alter the gravitational potential of the inner few kpc of these galaxies, driving gas radially inward as in the “nested bars” hypothesis of Shlosman et al. (1989). Our discovery of a stellar bar in the nearest of these objects is surprising and constitutes strong support for the “nested bars” hypothesis. The presence of more distant ($`2070h_{60}^1`$ kpc) companions in all three cases is also important in this regard. Tidal encounters with these companions could also produce the isophotal anomalies we observe, and would also be consistent with a less-violent mode for nuclear star formation, thus lessening the effect of a nuclear superwind on the fuelling of the nascent central engine. If indeed tidal encounters or other more quiescent methods are the preferred way to trigger nuclear activity in AGN, these objects may not be in their first active phase. In this case, we might expect to find evidence for previous nuclear activity due to previous tidal encounters with companion galaxies. By contrast, in the merger scenario, relic haloes are much harder to explain and would not be expected.

Previous authors (e.g., Conway 1996 and sources therein) have cited the kpc-scale radio halo of 1146+596 as evidence of a possible previous active stage, perhaps indicative of a recurrent radio source (e.g., Reynolds et al. 1997). Similar statements have been made for 3C 236 (O’Dea et al. 2001, Schilizzi et al. 2001), a CSS with both compact, 2 kpc-size inner radio lobes and a Mpc-scale radio halo. The size of the variations in isophotal PA and ellipticity seen in 3C 236 are similar to those we see in 1146+596, as are the mass and relative orientation of its nuclear dust disk, and the amount of larger-scale dust features. 3C 236 also has evidence for recent star formation of varying ages in these dust features. O’Dea et al. (2001) suggest on the basis of these features that the fuel supply to the AGN in 3C 236 was interrupted for $`10^7`$ years and is now restored. They argue in favor of a non-steady transport of gas in the disk and more quiescent triggering of active stages based on gas-dynamical processes.

In the light of these findings, further observations of nearby CSOs are warranted. The results of a sensitive 90 cm VLA search for very steep spectrum, aged radio remnants around CSOs would be an important discriminant between the merger and more quiescent triggering scenarios. Emission-line imaging and spectra of these objects with HST would allow us to disentangle their nuclear kinematics and dynamics, enabling us to relate the dust, gas disks and any nuclear star formation to the feeding and triggering of the nuclear activity. Finally, observations of many more nearby CSOs (including objects not selected for large obscuring columns) are needed to substantiate the results from this very small sample, and hopefully give us more concrete evidence regarding the Wilson & Colbert (1995) scenario that radio galaxy activity is triggered by major merger events.

We wish to thank Al Schultz, Howard Bushouse and Eddie Bergeron for considerable help with the HST data reductions. We also wish to thank an anonymous referee for many suggestions which significantly improved this paper. We thank Peter Barthel, Eleni Chatzichristou, Tim Heckman, Susan Neff, Chris O’Dea, Alison Peck, Eric Smith and Greg Taylor for interesting discussions. Support for proposal GO-7344 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ESP acknowledges support at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland from NASA LTSA grant NAG5-9534/NAG5-9997 and HST grant GO-8060. CR acknowledges support at the University of Colorado from Hubble Fellowship HF-01113.01-98A.


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# On periodic Takahashi manifolds11footnote 1Work performed under the auspices of G.N.S.A.G.A. of C.N.R. of Italy and supported by the University of Bologna, funds for selected research topics.

## 1 Introduction

Takahashi manifolds are closed orientable 3-manifolds introduced in  by Dehn surgery on $`𝐒^3`$, with rational coefficients, along the $`2n`$-component link $`_{2n}`$ depicted in Figure 1. These manifolds have been intensively studied in , , and . In the latter two papers, a nice topological characterization of all Takahashi manifolds as two-fold coverings of $`𝐒^3`$, branched over the closure of certain rational 3-string braids, is given.

A Takahashi manifold is called periodic when the surgery coefficients have the same cyclic symmetry of order $`n`$ of the link $`_{2n}`$, i.e. the coefficients are $`p/q`$ and $`r/s`$ alternately. Several important classes of 3-manifolds, such as (fractional) Fibonacci manifolds  and Sieradsky manifolds , represent notable examples of periodic Takahashi manifolds.

In this paper we show that each periodic Takahashi manifold is an $`n`$-fold cyclic covering of the connected sum of two lens spaces, branched over a knot. This knot arises from a component of the Borromean rings, by performing a surgery with coefficients $`p/q`$ and $`r/s`$ along the other two components.

For particular values of the surgery coefficients (including the classes of manifolds cited above), the periodic Takahashi manifolds turn out to be $`n`$-fold cyclic coverings of $`𝐒^3`$, branched over two-bridge knots of genus one222For notation and properties about two-bridge knots and links we refer to . For the characterization of two-bridge knots of genus one, see ., whose parameters are obtained using Kirby-Rolfsen calculus  (compare the analogous result of , obtained by a different approach). Observe that in  a characterization of all periodic Takahashi manifolds as $`n`$-fold cyclic coverings of $`𝐒^3`$, branched over the closure of certain rational 3-string braids, is presented, but the result is incorrect, as we show in Remark 1.

For many interesting periodic Takahashi manifolds - including the ones corresponding to branched cyclic coverings of $`𝐒^3`$ \- a cyclic presentation for the fundamental group is provided and proved to be geometric, i.e. arising from a Heegaard diagram, or, equivalently, from a canonical spine333A canonical spine is a 2-dimensional cell complex with a single vertex. .

## 2 Main results

We denote by $`M(p_1/q_1,\mathrm{},p_n/q_n;r_1/s_1,\mathrm{},r_n/s_n)`$ the Takahashi manifold obtained by Dehn surgery on $`𝐒^3`$ along the $`2n`$-component link $`_{2n}`$ of Figure 1, with surgery coefficients $`p_1/q_1,r_1/s_1,\mathrm{},p_n/q_n,r_n/s_n\stackrel{~}{𝐐}=𝐐\{\mathrm{}\}`$ respectively, cyclically associated to the components of $`_{2n}`$.

A Takahashi manifold is periodic when $`p_i/q_i=p/q`$ and $`r_i/s_i=r/s`$, for every $`i=1,\mathrm{},n`$. Denote by $`M_n(p/q,r/s)`$ the periodic Takahashi manifold $`M(p/q,\mathrm{},p/q;r/s,\mathrm{},r/s)`$. From now on, without loss of generality, we can always suppose that: $`\mathrm{gcd}(p,q)=1`$, $`\mathrm{gcd}(r,s)=1`$ and $`p,r0`$. Moreover, if $`\alpha ,\beta 𝐙`$ with $`\alpha 0`$ and $`\mathrm{gcd}(\alpha ,\beta )=1`$, we shall denote by $`L(\alpha ,\beta )`$ the lens space of type $`(\alpha ,\beta )`$. As usual, $`L(0,1)`$ is homeomorphic to $`𝐒^1\times 𝐒^2`$ and $`L(1,\beta )`$ is homeomorphic to $`𝐒^3`$, for all $`\beta `$ (including $`\beta =0`$).

Notice that $`M_n(p/q,p/q)`$ is the Fractional Fibonacci manifold $`M_n^{p/q}`$ defined in  and, in particular, $`M_n(1,1)`$ is the Fibonacci manifold $`M_n`$ studied in . Moreover, $`M_n(1,1)`$ is the Sieradsky manifold $`M_n`$ introduced in  and studied in . Because of the symmetries of $`_{2n}`$, the homeomorphisms

$$M_n(p/q,r/s)M_n(p/q,r/s)M_n(r/s,p/q)M_n(r/s,p/q)$$

can easily be obtained for all $`n1`$ and $`p/q,r/s\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$.

A balanced presentation of the fundamental group of every Takahashi manifold is given in , and in  it is shown that this presentation is geometric, i.e. it arises from a Heegaard diagram (or, equivalently, from a canonical spine). As a consequence, $`\pi _1(M_n(p/q,r/s))`$ admits the following geometric presentation with $`2n`$ generators and $`2n`$ relators:

$$<x_1,\mathrm{},x_{2n}|x_{2i1}^qx_{2i}^rx_{2i+1}^q,x_{2i}^sx_{2i+1}^px_{2i+2}^s;i=1,\mathrm{},n>,$$

where the subscripts are mod $`2n`$.

When $`r=1`$, we can easily get a cyclic presentation  with $`n`$ generators:444Alternatively, a similar cyclic presentation can be obtained when $`p=1`$.

$$\pi _1(M_n(p/q,1/s))=<z_1,\mathrm{},z_n|z_i^p(z_i^qz_{i+1}^q)^s(z_i^qz_{i1}^q)^s;i=1,\mathrm{},n>,$$
$`(1)`$
where the subscripts are mod $`n`$.

###### Proposition 1

For all $`p/q\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$ and $`s𝐙`$, the cyclic presentation (1) of $`\pi _1(M_n(p/q,1/s))`$ is geometric.

Proof. If $`s=0`$ then $`M_n(p/q,1/s)`$ is homeomorphic to the connected sum of $`n`$ copies of $`L(p/q)`$, and therefore the statement is straightforward. If $`s>0`$, the presentation becomes

$$<z_1,\mathrm{},z_n|z_i^{pq}(z_{i+1}^qz_i^q)^s(z_{i1}^qz_i^q)^{s1}z_{i1}^q;i=1,\mathrm{},n>.$$
$`(1^{})`$
Figure 2 shows an RR-system which induces ($`1^{}`$), and so, by , this presentation is geometric. If $`s<0`$, the presentation becomes

$$<z_1,\mathrm{},z_n|z_i^{p+q}(z_{i+1}^qz_i^q)^s(z_{i1}^qz_i^q)^{s1}z_{i1}^q;i=1,\mathrm{},n>.$$
$`(1^{\prime \prime })`$
Therefore, if we replace $`q`$ with $`q`$, Figure 2 also gives an RR-system inducing ($`1^{\prime \prime }`$).

Since the link $`_2`$ is a two-component trivial link, we immediately get the following results:

###### Lemma 2

For all $`p/q,r/s\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$, the manifold $`M_1(p/q,r/s)`$ is homeomorphic to the connected sum of lens spaces $`L(p,q)\mathrm{\#}L(r,s)`$. In particular, $`M_1(p/q,1/s)`$ is homeomorphic to the lens space $`L(p,q)`$ and $`M_1(1/q,1/s)`$ is homeomorphic to $`𝐒^3`$.

Proof. $`M_1(p/q,r/s)`$ is obtained by Dehn surgery on $`𝐒^3`$, with coefficients $`p/q`$ and $`r/s`$, along the trivial link with two components $`_2`$.

Now we prove the main result of the paper:

###### Theorem 3

For all $`p/q,r/s\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$ and $`n>1`$, the periodic Takahashi manifold $`M_n(p/q,r/s)`$ is the $`n`$-fold cyclic covering of the connected sum of lens spaces $`L(p,q)\mathrm{\#}L(r,s)`$, branched over a knot $`K`$ which does not depend on $`n`$. Moreover, $`K`$ arises from a component of the Borromean rings, by performing a surgery with coefficients $`p/q`$ and $`r/s`$ along the other two components.

Proof. Both the link $`_{2n}`$ and the surgery coefficients defining $`M_n(p/q,r/s)`$ are invariant with respect to the rotation $`\rho _n`$ of $`𝐒^3`$, which sends the $`i`$-th component of $`_{2n}`$ onto the $`(i+2)`$-th component (mod $`2n`$). Let $`𝒢_n`$ be the cyclic group of order $`n`$ generated by $`\rho _n`$. Observe that the fixed-point set of the action of $`𝒢_n`$ on $`𝐒^3`$ is a trivial knot disjoint from $`_{2n}`$. Therefore, we have an action of $`𝒢_n`$ on $`M_n(p/q,r/s)`$, with a knot $`K_n`$ as fixed-point set. The quotient $`M_n(p/q,r/s)/𝒢_n`$ is precisely the manifold $`M_1(p/q,r/s)`$, which is homeomorphic to $`L(p,q)\mathrm{\#}L(r,s)`$ by Lemma 2, and $`K_n/𝒢_n`$ is obviously a knot $`KM_1(p/q,r/s)`$, which only depends on $`p/q`$ and $`r/s`$. Moreover, $`K_2`$ is the Borromean rings, as showed in Figure 3. This proves the statement.

We can give another description of the branching set $`K`$, as the inverse image of a trivial knot in a certain two-fold branched covering.

Denote by $`(p/q,r/s)`$ the link depicted in Figure 4. It is composed by the closure of the rational 3-string braid $`\sigma _1^{p/q}\sigma _2^{r/s}`$, which is the connected sum of the two-bridge knots or links $`𝐛(p,q)`$ and $`𝐛(r,s)`$, and by a trivial knot. Moreover, denote: (i) by $`𝒪_n(p/q,r/s)=M_n(p/q,r/s)/𝒢_n`$ the orbifold from the proof of Theorem 3, whose underlying space is $`L(p,q)\mathrm{\#}L(r,s)`$ and whose singular set is the knot $`K`$, with index $`n`$; (ii) by $`𝐒^3(𝒦_n(p/q,r/s))`$ the orbifold whose underlying space is $`𝐒^3`$ and whose singular set is the closure of the rational 3-string braid $`(\sigma _1^{p/q}\sigma _2^{r/s})^n`$, with index $`2`$; and (iii) by $`𝐒^3((p/q,r/s))`$ the orbifold whose underlying space is $`𝐒^3`$ and whose singular set is the link $`(p/q,r/s)`$, with index $`2`$ and $`n`$ as pointed out in Figure 4.

###### Proposition 4

Assuming the previous notations, the following commutative diagram holds for each periodic Takahashi manifold.

Proof. The link $`_{2n}`$ admits an invertible involution $`\tau `$, whose axis intersects each component in two points (see the dashed line of Figure 1), and the rotation symmetry $`\rho _n`$ of order $`n`$ which was discussed in Theorem 3. These symmetries induce symmetries (also denoted by $`\tau `$ and $`\rho _n`$) on the periodic Takahashi manifold $`M=M_n(p/q,r/s)`$, such that $`\tau ,\rho _n\tau 𝒢_n𝐙_2𝐙_n`$. We have $`M/\tau =𝐒^3(𝒦_n(p/q,r/s))`$ (see  and ) and $`M/𝒢_n=𝒪_n(p/q,r/s)`$ (see Theorem 3). It is immediate to see that $`\rho _n`$ induces a symmetry (also denoted by $`\rho _n`$) on the orbifold $`M/\tau `$, and $`(M/\tau )/𝒢_n`$ is the orbifold $`𝐒^3((p/q,r/s))`$. As we see from Figure 3, $`\tau `$ induces a strongly invertible involution (also denoted by $`\tau `$) on the link $`_2`$. Using the Montesinos algorithm we see that $`(M/𝒢_n)/\tau =𝐒^3((p/q,r/s))`$. This concludes the proof.

As a consequence, the branching set $`K`$ of Theorem 3 can be obtained as the inverse image of the trivial component of $`(p/q,r/s)`$ in the two-fold branched covering $`𝒪_n(p/q,r/s)𝐒^3((p/q,r/s))`$.

From Theorem 3 we can get the following result, which has already been obtained in  by a different technique.

###### Proposition 5

For all $`q,s𝐙`$ and $`n>1`$, the periodic Takahashi manifold $`M_n(1/q,1/s)`$ is the $`n`$-fold cyclic covering of $`𝐒^3`$, branched over the two-bridge knot of genus one $`𝐛(|4sq1|,2s)𝐛(|4sq1|,2q)`$.

Proof. From Theorem 3, $`M_n(1/q,1/s)`$ is the $`n`$-fold cyclic covering of $`L(1,q)\mathrm{\#}L(1,s)𝐒^3`$, branched over a knot $`K`$ which does not depend on $`n`$. By isotopy and Kirby-Rolfsen moves it is easy to obtain (see Figure 5) a diagram of $`K`$, which is a Conway’s normal form of type $`[2q,2s]`$. This proves the statement.

Proposition 5 covers the results of ,  and  concerning $`n`$-fold branched cyclic coverings of two-bridge knots. Moreover, for all $`p,q𝐙`$, the periodic Takahashi manifold $`M_n(1/q,1/s)`$ is homeomorphic to the Lins-Mandel manifold $`S(n,|4sq1|,2s,1)`$ , the Minkus manifold $`M_n(|4sq1|,2s)`$  and the Dunwoody manifold $`M((|4q1|1)/2,0,1,s,n,q_\sigma )`$ .

Moreover, observe that all cyclic coverings of two-bridge knots of genus one are periodic Takahashi manifolds.

Remark 1 The results of Corollaries 8, 9 and 11 of , concerning periodic Takahashi manifolds as $`n`$-fold cyclic branched coverings of the closure of certain (rational) 3-string braids, are incorrect. This is evident from the following counterexamples. If $`p/q=3`$ and $`r/s=3`$ then the first homology group of the 3-fold cyclic branched covering of the closure of the 3-string braid $`(\sigma _1^3\sigma _2^3)^2`$ has order $`256`$, but $`|H_1(M_3(3,3))|=1296`$. If $`p/q=3/2`$ and $`r/s=1`$ then the first homology group of the 4-fold cyclic branched covering of the closure of the rational 3-string braid $`(\sigma _1^{3/2}\sigma _2)^2`$ has order $`135`$, but $`|H_1(M_4(3/2,1))|=15`$. Note that the corollaries are valid if $`p=r=1`$.

The following conjecture is naturally suggested by the previous results.

Conjecture Let $`p/q,r/s\stackrel{~}{𝐐}`$ be fixed. Then, for all $`n>1`$, the periodic Takahashi manifolds $`T_n=M_n(p/q,r/s)`$ are $`n`$-fold cyclic coverings of $`𝐒^3`$, branched over a knot which does not depend on $`n`$, if and only if $`p=1=r`$.

Added in revision \- The referee pointed out that it is possible to prove the conjecture for “almost all cases” by using the hyperbolic Dehn surgery theorem and the shortest geodesic arguments by Kojima .

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank the referee for his valuable suggestions to improve this paper and Massimo Ferri and Andrei Vesnin for the useful discussions on the topics.

MICHELE MULAZZANI, Department of Mathematics, University of Bologna, I-40127 Bologna, ITALY, and C.I.R.A.M., Bologna, ITALY. E-mail: mulazza@dm.unibo.it


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# Efficient Mixing at low Reynolds numbers using polymer additives

Mixing in fluids is a rapidly developing field of fluid mechanics , being an important industrial and environmental problem. The mixing of liquids at low Reynolds numbers is usually quite weak in simple flows, and it requires special devices to be efficient. Recently, the problem of mixing was solved analytically for a simple case of random flow, known as the Batchelor regime . Here we demonstrate experimentally that very viscous liquids at low Reynolds number, $`Re`$. Here we show that very viscous liquids containing a small amount of high molecular weight polymers can be mixed quite efficiently at very low Reynolds numbers, for a simple flow in a curved channel. A polymer concentration of only 0.001% suffices. The presence of the polymers leads to an elastic instability  and to irregular flow , with velocity spectra corresponding to the Batchelor regime . Our detailed observations of the mixing in this regime enable us to confirm sevearl important theoretical predictions: the probability distributions of the concentration exhibit exponential tails , moments of the distribution decay exponentially along the flow , and the spatial correlation function of concentration decays logarithmically.

Solutions of flexible high molecular weight polymers are viscoelastic fluids . There are elastic stresses that appear in the polymer solutions in a flow, and that grow non-linearly with the flow rate . This can lead to many special flow effects, including purely elastic transitions  that qualitatively change character of the flow at vanishingly small $`Re`$. As a result of such transitions secondary vortical flows appear in different systems, where the primary motion is a curvilinear shear flow. Onset of those secondary flows depends on the Weissenberg number, $`Wi=\lambda \dot{\gamma }`$, where $`\lambda `$ is the polymer relaxation time and $`\dot{\gamma }`$ is the shear rate. It plays a role analogous to that of $`Re`$ in competition between non-linearity and dissipation. As it has been reported recently, an elastic flow transition can result in a special kind of turbulent motion, elastic turbulence , which arises at arbitrary small $`Re`$. In our experiments we find that irregular flow excited by the elastic stresses in the polymer solutions can lead to quite efficient mixing at very low $`Re`$.

Our mixing experiments were carried out in a curvilinear channel, Fig.1a, at a room temperature, $`22.5\pm 0.5`$ C. The total rate of the fluid discharge, $`Q`$, was always kept constant, so that the average time of mixing was proportional to the position, $`N`$, along the channel, Fig.1a. We used a solution of 65% saccharose and 1% NaCl in water, viscosity $`\eta _s=0.153`$ Pa s, density $`\rho =1.32`$ g/cm3, as a solvent for the polymer. We added polyacrylamide, $`M_w=18,000,000`$, at a concentration of 80 p.p.m. by weight. One of the solutions entering the channel, Fig.1a, also contained $`c_0=2`$ p.p.m. of a fluorescent dye. The solution viscosity was $`\eta =0.198`$ Pa$``$s at a shear rate $`\dot{\gamma }=4`$ s-1. The relaxation time, $`\lambda `$, estimated from the phase shift between the stress and the shear rate in oscillatory tests, was 1.4 s. An estimate for the diffusion coefficient of the dye is given by that for the saccharose molecules, which is about $`D=8.510^7`$ cm2/s. The characteristic shear rate and the Weissenberg number in the flow are estimated as $`\dot{\gamma }=(2Q/d^2)/(d/2)=4Q/d^3`$ and $`Wi=\lambda (4Q/d^3)`$, respectively.

The Reynolds number, $`Re=2Q\rho /(d\eta )`$, was always quite small. It only reached 0.6 for highest $`Q`$ that we explored. Therefore, flow of the pure solvent remained quite laminar and no mixing occurred, Fig.1b. The boundary separating the liquid with and without the dye was smooth and parallel to the direction of the flow, and it only became smeared due to molecular diffusion as the liquids advanced downstream. Behaviour of the polymer solution was qualitatively different from that of the solvent. The flow only was laminar and stationary up to a value of $`Q`$ corresponding to $`Wi_c=3.2`$ (and $`Re=0.06`$), at which an elastic instability occurred. This instability lead to irregular flow and mixing of the liquids, Fig.1c. The experiments were carried out at $`Q`$ about twice above the flow instability onset, $`Wi=6.7`$, at which homogeneity of the mixture at the exit of the channel was the highest.

Power spectra of fluctuations of velocity in the center of the channel at $`Wi=6.7`$ are shown in Fig.2. The spectra of both longitudinal and transversal velocity components do not exhibit any distinct peaks and have broad regions of a power law decay, that is typical for turbulent flow. They resemble the power spectra found at similar $`Wi`$ in flow of the same polymer solution between two parallel plates in the regime of elastic turbulence . So, we believe the origin of the irregular flow is the same here as in Ref. .

According to the Taylor hypothesis fluctuations of the flow velocity in time are mainly due to fluctuations in space advected by the mean flow . So, the spectra in Fig.2 imply that the power of the velocity fluctuations scales with the $`k`$-number in space as $`Pk^{3.3}`$. Fluctuations of the velocity gradients should scale then as $`k^{1.3}`$, so that the flow becomes increasingly homogeneous at small scales, and mixing is mainly due to the largest eddies having the size of the whole flow system . Such flow conditions correspond to the Batchelor regime of mixing . It is one of the two simple cases of random flow, where the problem of mixing has been solved analytically . Investigation of mixing in the irregular flow in the channel gave us an opportunity to study mixing in the Batchelor regime in detail and to test a few key the theoretical predictions for the first time.

Mixing of the polymer solution was a random process. So, it was appropriate to characterize it statistically, by probability distribution function (PDF) to find different concentrations, $`c`$, of the dye in a point, and by values of the moments, $`M_i`$, of the distribution. An $`i`$-th moment is defined as an average, $`<|c\overline{c}|^i>/\overline{c}^i`$, where $`\overline{c}`$ is the average concentration of the dye, which in our case is equal to $`c_0/2`$. Small values of $`M_i`$ mean high homogeneity and good mixing of the liquids. $`M_i`$ are all unity at the channel entrance and they become zero for perfectly mixed liquids.

PDF of the concentrations at $`N=8`$ and $`N=24`$ (with $`M_1=0.25`$ and 0.72, respectively) are shown in Fig. 3a-b. Dependencies of $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ on the position, $`N`$, along the channel are presented in Fig.4. Advanced stages of mixing corresponding to $`N>30`$ were studied, when the liquids were premixed before they entered the channel, Fig.4. Representative PDF in the flow with preliminary mixing taken at the positions, where $`M_1=0.082`$ and $`0.030`$, are shown in Fig.3c-d, respectively.

Representative spatial autocorrelation functions for the dye concentration are shown in Fig.5. At the beginning the concentration distribution is strongly influenced by the initial conditions. There are extended uniform regions with maximal and zero dye concentration, so, the concentration remains highly correlated over rather large distances, Fig.5a, and PDF has maxima near $`c_0`$ and zero, Fig.3a. As the liquid advances downstream, it becomes increasingly homogeneous. Mixing patterns exhibit a lot of fine scale structures of different brightnesses, the correlation distances become shorter, Fig.5b, and PDF of the dye concentration become narrower, Fig.3b. PDF in Fig.3b has a single peak at $`\overline{c}`$ and long tails that decay exponentially and touch the limits of the concentration, zero and $`c_0`$.

Further downstream mixing patterns have characteristic features at similar spatial scales, Fig.5c-e, but are much more faded. The PDF in Fig.3c is much narrower than in Fig.3b and has quite clear exponential tails, in agreement with the theoretical predictions , that implies significant intermittency in mixing . The distribution is well confined in a region far from the limits of zero and $`c_0`$. So, the dependence on the initial conditions should be quite minor by that point. At the last point ($`N=54`$, $`M_1=0.030`$) the non-homogeneity in the concentration is hardly seen, and the PDF, Fig.3d, is very narrow. One can see that at $`N`$ of about 30 the autocorrelation function reaches some asymptotic form, which does not change as the liquid moves further downstream. This may correspond to a situation, when the small scale structures are smeared by the molecular diffusion at the same rate as they are created by the flow. The autocorrelation functions, Fig.5c-e, decay logarithmically at the distances above the diffusion length, that is in agreement with the theoretical predictions for the Batchelor regime . Spatial structure of concentration fluctuations in the Batchelor regime has been experimentally studied before in different types of flows . However, agreement between experiment and theory remained rather controversial (see Ref.2, 14 and 15 for discussion).

The dependencies of $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ on $`N`$ in Fig.4 have inflections at $`N`$ between 20 and 30. From the above discussion we can suggest that they are due to transition to an asymptotic regime, where dependence on the initial conditions is lost. The correlation functions at different positions become identical, and PDF of concentrations can be superimposed rather well for $`\mathrm{\Delta }c`$ of about $`3M_1\overline{c}`$ around $`\overline{c}`$ by appropriate stretching of the axes. There is no self-similarity in the shapes of PDF at larger $`\mathrm{\Delta }c/(M_1\overline{c})`$, however, and the shape permanently changes with $`N`$. One can learn from Fig.4 that both $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ decay exponentially above $`N=30`$, the rate of the decay being two times higher for $`M_2`$ than for $`M_1`$. The higher order moments were found to decay exponentially, $`M_iexp(\gamma _iN)`$, as well, that is quite in agreement with the theoretical predictions . We note here that $`M_2`$, which is the variance of fluctuations of the dye concentration, is often considered as an analogue of energy of turbulent motion . So its logarithmic derivative, $`\frac{dlnM_2}{dt}=\gamma _2/7.8`$ s-1 (see Fig.4), is the analogue of the energy dissipation rate. The theory also predicts linear growth of the coefficients, $`\gamma _i`$, with $`i`$ at small $`i`$ and saturation of the growth, when $`i`$ becomes large . This form of dependence of $`\gamma _i`$ on $`i`$ is quite confirmed by our experimental results, inset in Fig.4. The deviation of the dependence of $`\gamma _i`$ on $`i`$ from a straight line at large $`i`$ is a quantitative evidence for the lack of self-similarity in the mixing. One can see that all our experimental results agree very well with all the theoretical predictions for the Batchelor regime of mixing, we tested .

As it is suggested by the decay of $`M_1`$ in Fig.4, the polymer solutions are mixed at a characteristic distance of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N15`$. It corresponds to the total path of about $`140d`$ and the average flow time of about 120 seconds, which is three orders of magnitude smaller than the diffusion time, $`d^2/D`$. Using a more concentrated sugar syrup as a solvent, we prepared a polymer solution with $`D`$ about 30% smaller and with viscosity and relaxation time about two times larger than those of the original solution. We studied distribution of $`c`$ at $`N=29`$ in a flow of this solution at the same $`Wi`$ of 6.7 as before. Here the characteristic flow velocities were twice lower, $`Re`$ was about four times lower, and the ratio between the flow time and the diffusion time, $`d^2/D`$, was about 1.5 higher than in the original flow. The measured values of $`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$ were the same as in Fig.4. So, the inertial forces and the molecular diffusion did not have any apparent influence on the mixing efficiency. Dependence of the efficiency of mixing at the optimal flow conditions on concentration of the polymers was surprisingly weak (although $`Wi_c`$ grew fast, when the polymer concentration was decreasing). So, for a solution with the polymer concentration of 10 p.p.m. ($`\eta /\eta _s=1.03`$), $`M_1`$ of as low as 0.22 was reached at $`N=29`$ (and at $`Re=0.065`$). The mixing was observed down to the polymer concentration of 7 p.p.m. Thus, very viscous liquids can be efficiently mixed in curvilinear channels at very low flow rates with the aid of polymer additives at very low concentrations. This method of mixing, we believe, can find some industrial and laboratorial applications.

Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge G. Falkovich for theoretical guidance and numerous discussions. The work was partially supported by the Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems, by a Research Grant from the Henry Gutwirth Fund and by Israel Science Foundation grant.


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# The Landau problem and noncommutative quantum mechanics

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We would like to thank Prof. V.O. Rivelles and V. A. Kostelecky by comments on the manuscript. This work was partially supported by FONDECYT-Chile under grant numbers 1010596, 1010976 and 3000005.