text:
# AGB variables in Baade’s windows

## 1 Introduction

The ISOGAL programme (Omont et al. 1999, 2001) has made use of the ISO satellite to obtain detailed surveys of sample areas of the inner Bulge and the Galactic Plane at two mid-infrared wavelengths, 7$`\mu `$m and 15$`\mu `$m, with the intention of investigating the longitude and latitude variations of stellar properties and their bearing on galactic structure. Because many of the fields are highly obscured, parts of the relatively clear Baade’s Windows were included for comparison purposes (Glass et al. 1999). By studying the contents of the latter at infrared and visible wavelengths one obtains a picture of the basic stellar population in the Bulge, to which more heavily obscured fields, observable only in the infrared, can be compared. Fields of 15 $`\times `$ 15 arcmin2 from each of Sgr I and NGC 6522 were thus included in the ISOGAL work. These were centred at $`\mathrm{}`$ = +1.37, $`b`$ = –2.63 and $`\mathrm{}`$ = +1.03, $`b`$ = –3.83 respectively.

Near-infrared data at $`I`$(0.79 $`\mu `$m), $`J`$(1.22 $`\mu `$m) and $`K_S`$(2.14 $`\mu `$m), where the subscript $`S`$ denotes ‘short’, for both windows are now available from the DENIS survey (Epchtein, 1998) and for the Sgr I window only at $`J`$($``$1.22 $`\mu `$m), $`H`$(1.65 $`\mu `$m) and $`K_S`$(2.16 $`\mu `$m) from 2MASS (Skrutskie, 1998). In addition, photometry on the Caltech-CTIO system by Frogel and Whitford (1987, hereafter FW) was obtained for many of the M stars in the objective prism survey of the NGC 6522 field by Blanco, McCarthy and Blanco (1984) and Blanco (1986). A comparison of stars detected by ISOGAL with the latter survey indicates that, except for a few probable foreground stars, none with spectral type earlier than M2 were seen. The rate of detection increased with sub-type, reaching 100% at M6.

Several previous surveys of these fields for variable stars have been made. $`I`$-band photography by Lloyd Evans (1976) yielded identifications and periods of many Miras. A search for the near-infrared counterparts of IRAS sources (Glass 1986) revealed some additional long-period, large-amplitude variables that were not found in the $`I`$-band survey. Infrared observations of nearly all the long-period, large-amplitude variables in Sgr I were obtained by Glass et al. (1995), so that the sample is probably complete and the period distribution, period-luminosity relation and period-colour properties of Miras in Sgr I may be regarded as known.

The Sgr I and NGC 6522 windows formed part of the MACHO gravitational lens survey. Alard et al. (2001) present variability information for all 332 stars that have been detected at both ISOGAL and both MACHO wavelengths: $`v`$ ($``$0.54$`\mu `$m), $`r`$ ($``$0.70$`\mu `$m), 7 $`\mu `$m and 15 $`\mu `$m. Nearly all of the 332 objects were found to be semi-regular variables (SRVs) with periods of from 10 to 230 days and amplitudes $`<`$ 1 mag. and will be referred to collectively here as the ISOGAL/MACHO sample. The SRVs in the present fields outnumber the Miras by a factor of about 20. Note that the area surveyed by MACHO omits about 10% of each ISOGAL field.

We have assumed that the interstellar absorption is $`A_V`$=1.5 mag for both fields. We take in addition $`A_I`$=0.59$`A_V`$, $`A_J`$=0.245$`A_V`$, $`A_H`$=0.142$`A_V`$ and $`A_K`$=0.085$`A_V`$, based on the van de Hulst curve (Glass, 1999).

## 2 Comparison of DENIS, 2MASS and other photometry

All objects falling in the ISOGAL fields have been extracted from the DENIS and 2MASS databases as well as the FW work. A search radius of 2′′ was chosen to avoid mis-identifications. The DENIS observations form part of a dedicated survey of the Galactic Bulge (Simon et al., in preparation). The 2MASS observations are limited to Sgr I and a small part of NGC 6522 with the consequence that only 225 of the 332 ISOGAL/MACHO stars fall within the common area. In this and the following section we show by direct comparisons that the available information is consistent.

Firstly, it is necessary to consider what effect the different filter systems may be expected to have on the photometry. The DENIS filters have been convolved with the typical atmospheric transmission at La Silla (Fouqué et al. 2000), where the survey was made. A summary of the available data is given in table 1. For details of the filter transmissions and systematic response curves, see Fouqué et al (2000) for DENIS; 2MASS web pages for 2MASS.

### 2.1 Photometric passbands

Important differences between systems occur in the $`J`$\- and $`K`$-bands. The Caltech-CTIO system as used by FW has an effective $`J`$ wavelength (see $`J_{\mathrm{old}}`$ in fig. 4 of Persson et al. 1998) of about 1.25$`\mu `$m, considerably longer than that of DENIS ($``$1.22 $`\mu `$m).

The $`H`$ and $`K`$ bands of the SAAO photometric system are very close to those of the ESO system (see Bouchet, Schmider & Manfroid, 1991). The SAAO Mira data for the Baade’s Window field (Glass et al. 1995), to which we refer later on, were taken with the MkIII photometer, whose effective wavelength at $`J`$ is $``$1.22 $`\mu `$m (Glass, 1993). This is essentially identical to $`J_{\mathrm{DENIS}}`$.

Fig 1 shows histograms of differences between DENIS and 2MASS $`J`$ and $`K_S`$ data for MACHO variables identified in both data sets. It is seen that the agreement is satisfactory, both $`\mathrm{\Delta }J`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }K_S`$ being less than 0.01 mag on average, with $`\sigma `$ $``$ 0.12 and 0.09 for the two bands respectively. The two surveys were conducted during the same year and season. We have also plotted the differences between the DENIS and 2MASS photometry for all stars in common in the ISOGAL field against (J–K) and find no significant trend.

Fig 2 shows histograms of the differences between the DENIS and the FW data for NGC 6522 in the sense (DENIS – FW). It should be noted that the size of the sample is small and some degree of variability is likely in almost all the stars. The FW $`I`$-band data are from the photographic survey by Blanco et al. (1984) and Blanco (1986). As might be expected, $`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ shows a large scatter (0.4 mag) but its average value is almost zero (note that the number of objects compared is small).

$`\mathrm{\Delta }J`$ shows an average of 0.24 mag with $`\sigma `$ = 0.12. According to the conventional transformation between the Caltech and SAAO (and similar) systems, defined by observations of standard stars in common, part at least of the difference ($``$0.14 mag) can be attributed to the effective wavelengths of the filters. There is evidence that transformation of the $`J`$ mags of late-type variables requires a stronger colour term than the standard stars (Glass 1993).

$`\mathrm{\Delta }K`$ is 0.04 with $`\sigma `$ = 0.11. Differences arise from the shorter cut-on and cut-off wavelengths of the $`K_S`$ filter relative to $`K`$. These will have strong effects if the spectra show well-developed H2O or CO bands as is the case for Mira variables and other very late-type M stars. $`K_S`$ will include more of the water-vapour band and less of the CO first overtone band than $`K`$.

We have constructed synthetic $`K_{\mathrm{ESO}}`$ and $`K_{\mathrm{DENIS}}`$ data from the Lançon & Wood (2000, hereafter LW) spectrophotometry (see also section 5). In this exercise the spectral energy distributions were convolved with the DENIS filter profiles and the estimated average atmospheric transmission at La Silla. The zero-points of the synthetic photometry were obtained from spectrophotometry of Vega, which was taken to have magnitude 0.0 at all wavelengths. We found that most categories of late-type stars show $`\mathrm{\Delta }(KK_{\mathrm{DENIS}})`$ $`0.03`$ mag with s.d. $`\pm `$0.01 mag. However, the difference increases to 0.05 with p-p scatter $`\pm `$0.025 for field Miras (see fig. 3). Two long-period Bulge Miras in the LW sample show $`\mathrm{\Delta }(KK_{\mathrm{DENIS}})`$ $``$ 0.07 mag.

## 3 Star counts and completeness

Fig 4 shows histograms of near-infrared photometry of objects from DENIS and 2MASS in the Sgr I Baade’s window and may be used to examine the completeness of these surveys as functions of magnitudes in the $`J`$ and $`K_S`$ bands. The area considered is slightly less than the total ISOGAL field in order to avoid edge effects.

At $`J`$ it is evident that there are slightly fewer 2MASS sources than DENIS in most magnitude bins. The two histograms deviate systematically for $`J`$ $`>`$ 13.0 and indicate that DENIS is probably complete to about 13.5 ($``$ 80% of the maximum of the histogram).

In $`K_S`$ it is once again evident that the 2MASS detections are slightly fewer than the DENIS to about 12.0. The limit of 2MASS appears to be about 0.2 mag fainter than DENIS.

DENIS $`I`$ appears complete to about mag 15.0 while 2MASS $`H`$ is complete to about 12.5.

For both 2MASS and DENIS the sensitivity is mostly limited by confusion in the J, H and $`K_S`$ bands. The densities of sources detected in DENIS reach 73 pixels/object at $`I`$, 6 pixels/object at $`J`$ and 15 pixels/object at $`K_S`$. The corresponding figures for 2MASS are 13 pixels/object in $`J`$ and $`K_S`$ and 12 pixels/object in $`H`$. Almost certainly, the reliability of detection and the accuracy of the photometry decreases towards the faint end, but a full discussion of these issues awaits the publication of the catalogues.

There are 201 ISOGAL/MACHO stars in Sgr I, of which 196 were detected by DENIS and 187 (of which 185 were in common with DENIS) by 2MASS. The two 2MASS stars not detected by DENIS lay along the edge of the field and may have been lost due to slightly different astrometric solutions.

## 4 Colour-magnitude diagram

Fig 5 shows the $`K_{S,0},(JK_S)_0`$ diagram for the 2MASS data from Sgr I. Although the 2MASS data show smaller scatter, the DENIS data show fewer objects with outlying high $`(JK_S)`$ colours. An investigation of such objects from the general field of Sgr I showed that in DENIS some were not recorded, some had $`J`$ but not $`K`$ detections and the remainder had ordinary $`JK`$ colours.

We distinguish with special symbols the ISOGAL/MACHO variables with high mass-loss, defined by  -  $`>`$ 0.6 and  $`<`$ 7.5, the latter criterion being used to eliminate objects with high probable errors. The diagram is dominated by the sequence of late-type giants having the ISOGAL/MACHO objects towards the tip. The SRVs with infrared excesses are generally redder and more luminous than the others. The Miras lie at or near the tip and are overlapped by the SRVs. Some apparently luminous stars in this diagram may lie in the foreground.

There is also a vertical sequence of objects at $`(JK_S)_0`$ $``$ 0.6 which may represent foreground stars.

The isolated star at ($`K_{S,0},(JK_S)_0`$) = (8.65, 2.23) is the reddest object in Fig 9 (the  vs – diagram) of Glass et al (1999). Because of doubt about its (preliminary) ISOGAL photometry, it was omitted from Table 3 of the same paper. It is listed as J175850.9–290106 in Alard et al. (2000), with log $`P`$ = 2.158: (144 d, uncertain). Its excess appears to begin at least by the $`K`$-band. It is very red at mid-IR wavelengths, with $`K[7]`$ = 1.61 and  –  = 1.98 (Omont et al. 2001).

In addition, during the preparation of this diagram, two ISOGAL/MACHO stars (J175903.0–290137 and JJ175916.9–290225) that appeared to be about a magnitude fainter than the others in $`K_S`$ were investigated and found to have been dropped from the final ISOGAL Catalogue (Omont et al., 2001), i.e., they are MACHO stars not identified with reliable mid-infrared sources.

## 5 Colour-colour diagrams

In what follows we include some solar neighbourhood giants for comparison purposes. These have been derived from the spectrophotometric atlases of LW and Pickles (1998). Their colours have been calculated assuming the ESO and DENIS photometric response functions. Recourse to this ‘synthetic’ photometry, based on spectrophotometry, is necessary because no data that combine the $`I`$ band with $`JHK_S`$ exist outside the DENIS work.

Fig 6 presents the $`(IJ)_0`$ vs $`(JK_S)_0`$ diagram. There is a continuous well-defined sequence from left to right. The LW and Pickles (1998) stars cover the giants from medium to late spectral types. By comparison with the colours of the latter, it is apparent that the clumped DENIS objects are predominantly of K- and early M-type, with smaller numbers of earlier and later types. The ISOGAL/MACHO stars without dust show a rapid increase in $`(IJ)_0`$ with $`(JK_S)_0`$ colour as the $`I`$-band strength decreases due to increasing TiO and VO absorption at lower temperatures. Finally, the most extreme colours are shown by the stars with dust excesses that are also the most luminous. The sequence shows much greater scatter about a given point in $`(IK_S)_0`$ and $`(IJ)_0`$ than in $`(JK_S)_0`$.

Fig 7 shows the $`(JH)_0,(HK_S)_0`$ diagram. Again a clear sequence is seen from the LW and Pickles (1998) stars through the great mass of 2MASS objects, to the ISOGAL/MACHO stars. The average colours of Miras in Sgr I from Glass et al. (1995), computed for various period groups and shifted to the right by 0.07 mag, to allow for the difference in the $`K`$ filters, are also shown as a solid line.

In general, the $`JH`$ and $`HK`$ colours, which are sensitive to metallicity (see comparison of LMC and Sgr I Miras in Glass et al. 1995) and atmospheric extension (Bessell et al. 1989), of the SRVs and Miras of the Baade’s Window population agree closely with the solar neighbourhood sample.

## 6 Colour-period diagrams

The periods of the SRVs are by their very nature not very well-defined. The techniques for determining them from the MACHO data and their limitations have been described by Alard et al. (2001). Essentially, the periods given here are those that were dominant during the years of the MACHO observations. In some cases, other (usually nearby) periods had nearly equal Fourier amplitudes.

Fig 8 shows the colour-period plots for the available samples.

One should recollect that appreciable mass-loss is only seen for those stars that have periods in excess of 70d (Alard et al. 2001), but a longer period does not guarantee that it will occur. This is also true of field SRVs, as found from CO observations (Kerschbaum Olofsson & Hron 1996). The colours of Miras can vary by 0.1 mag or more around a cycle. Note that an individual variable star from LW may be represented by more than one point in these diagrams since their observations were often made at more than one phase.

### 6.1 $`IJ`$ vs log $`P`$

In all colours it is apparent that the colours of the SRVs increase on the average with period. However, it is noticeable that the scatter in $`I`$ at a given period is 3–4 mags whereas in the other colours it is much less (up to 0.7). Alvarez et al. (2000) show that there is a close relationship (s.d. = 0.09 mag) of wide validity between $`IM_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ and $`(IJ)`$ colour for O-rich stars. The Miras do not show any clear colour-period relation.

### 6.2 $`JH`$ vs log $`P`$

Because of the poor overlap between the available 2MASS data and the NGC 6522 ISOGAL field, most of the stars in the diagrams involving the $`H`$-band are from Sgr I. It is expected that the observed $`(JH)`$ colours will not differ significantly between the 2MASS and ESO or SAAO systems.

The semiregulars show a moderate increase in $`(JH)_0`$ colour with period. They overlap, particularly at the longer-period end, the field SRVs (e.g., Kerschbaum & Hron 1994, not shown in the figures in order to avoid confusion). Our knowledge of the statistics of short-period field SRVs is limited at present by their small amplitudes and the consequent difficulty of detecting them by traditional methods. Only recently have systematic studies become possible using photometry from the Hipparcos satellite (Bedding & Zijlstra 1998; Koen & Laney, 2000).

That the Miras are displaced from the region of SRVs in the $`JH`$, $`HK`$ diagram has been known for many years (see e.g. Feast et al, 1982, and references therein). The LW atlas shows definitively that stars which exhibit strong H2O absorption bands during their pulsation cycles have large amplitudes. Now that this effect can be displayed on a $`JH`$, log $`P`$ diagram (fig. 8b), the displacement caused by the water-vapour absorption bands is seen to be quite dramatic at periods of about 150–200 days. In this connection, it is also interesting to note that that the spectra of Bulge Miras can be matched very closely by non-Mira spectra differing only by the absence of H2O features (LW).

The observed $`JH`$ colours from Glass et al. (1995) are slightly redder on average than the points derived from the LW spectrophotometry of field Miras, though similar to the colours obtained by Kerschbaum (unpublished) and others for field Miras. This difference may reflect the difficulty of allowing for the terrestrial atmospheric water vapour absorption in deriving the synthetic photometry.

We also comment that the LW points representing T Cen, classed as a SRV (open circles) with period 90d (log $`P`$ = 1.95), are unusually low in this and the other colour-period diagrams. Its visual amplitude of 3.5 mag is excessive for a SRV, suggesting that it is a Mira variable of unusually short period.

### 6.3 $`HK_S`$ vs log $`P`$

The $`(HK_S)_0`$ colours of the SRVs increase with period in much the same way as the $`(JH)_0`$. It is more noticeable in this diagram than in the $`(JH)`$ vs log $`P`$ that the SRVs with  – excesses are redder than those without, at a given period. The LW points for field SRVs are in agreement with the SRVs of similar period with low mass-loss.

The Miras form a well-defined sequence which, however, starts below the average $`(HK_S)_0`$ of the SRVs at the same period ($``$180d). The Sgr I relation appears to straddle the LW field Miras satisfactorily, though the scatter of the latter is rather large.

### 6.4 $`JK_S`$ vs log $`P`$

The $`(JK_S)_0`$ index, like the others, increases steadily with period for the SRVs, especially those with strong mass-loss from  – photometry. The redder colours of the mass-losing objects are even more obvious.

## 7 $`K_S`$ vs log$`P`$ diagram

A version of this diagram, based on transformed 7 $`\mu `$m mags, was presented by Alard et al. (2001). It is given here with $`K_S`$ mags directly from 2MASS. The conclusions of Alard et al. remain unchanged.

Absolute $`K`$ magnitudes of SRVs with periods are available for only a few other samples. They include nearby objects with parallaxes from the Hipparcos Catalogue (Bedding & Zijlstra, 1998) and those in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Wood, 2000) with periods also derived from MACHO. Whitelock (1986) showed that SRVs in low-metallicity galactic globular clusters exhibit a P-L sequence that falls about 0.8 mag below that of Bedding & Zijlstra.

In the Large Magellanic Cloud the Miras, the SRVs and the small-amplitude SRVs seem to form distinct parallel sequences C, B, A etc (see fig. 9) which have been identified by Wood (2000) as pulsators in the fundamental, first and the next two higher overtones respectively. The present data do not show such clearly separated sequences except perhaps between the Miras and the others. The effect may be blurred in the Galactic Centre relative to the Large Magellanic Cloud by the depth in the line of sight of the Bulge. For example, the scatter of the averaged $`K`$ mags of Miras about the P-L relation is 0.35 mag for the latter as compared to 0.13 for the LMC (Glass et al. 1987).

Included in the diagram is a P-L sequence for the Hipparcos (nearby) SRVs from Bedding and Zijlstra (1998). Similar lines, which cross the loci of the various pulsation modes, were predicted by Vassiliadis & Wood (1993) as evolutionary sequences, their absolute luminosity depending on initial mass and metallicity. The position of the line suggests that there is little difference between the Bulge and local samples. The spectra of Mira variables in the Bulge can also be matched well by local Miras (LW).

## 8 Conclusions

In the Baade’s Windows $`K_S`$, $`JK`$ diagram the most luminous stars are the Miras and SRVs. The SRVs with significant mass-loss are generally more luminous than those without.

The average $`IJ`$, $`JH`$, $`HK`$ and $`JK`$ colours of the SRVs increase with period but the effect is much less pronounced if the mass-losing stars are omitted. The scatter in the colours of SRVs is greatest in $`IJ`$. In all the colours considered here, scatter increases with period.

The average $`JH`$ colours of the shorter-period Bulge Miras ($``$ 200d) are much bluer than the average of the SRVs with similar periods. A similar but less conspicuous discontinuity occurs in the $`HK`$ and $`JK`$ colours. This effect is attributed to the onset of H2O absorption, which affects $`H`$ and $`K`$ more than $`J`$. In each of $`JH`$, $`HK`$ and $`JK`$, the average Mira colours show steeper rates of increase with period than the SRVs.

The colours of solar neighbourhood SRVs and Miras, derived for the DENIS and 2MASS systems from the LM spectrophotometry, agree with those of the Bulge. In addition, the locations in the $`K`$, log $`P`$ diagram of the SRVs, which should be sensitive to any differences in initial mass and metallicity, are in good agreement.

## 9 Acknowledgments

We thank A. Lançon for her help in calculating the synthetic near-IR colours of stars from the spectrophotometry of LW and A. Omont for his helpful comments. We also thank F. Kerschbaum for access to unpublished photometry.

MS thanks SAAO and ISG thanks the IAP for their hospitality during visits financed through the CNRS (France)/NRF (South Africa) agreement.

MS is supported by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF), Austria, under the project number J1971-PHY.

The DENIS project is supported, in France by the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, the Education Ministry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in Germany by the State of Baden-Würtemberg, in Spain by the DGICYT, in Italy by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, in Austria by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint prodect of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.


format: text

text:
# A Chandra observation of the long-duration X-ray transient KS 1731–260 in quiescence: too cold a neutron star?

## 1 Introduction

The X-ray transients are a special sub-group of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). These systems are usually very dim, with X-ray luminosities of $`10^{3034}`$ erg s-1, but they exhibit sporadic outbursts during which the luminosity increases to $`10^{3639}`$ erg s-1. The exact mechanisms for the quiescent X-ray emission are still uncertain (e.g., Menou et al. 1999; Campana & Stella 2000; Bildsten & Rutledge 2001). The most promising and testable model for the quiescent properties of neutron star transients is the one which assumes that the X-rays below a few keV111In the spectra of several systems, a power law component above a few keV is present (e.g., Asai et al. 1996, 1998) which is not understood but which may be due to residual accretion (see Campana & Stella 2000 for a discussion). Here, we will not discuss this component. are due to cooling of the neutron star after the accretion has stopped (van Paradijs et al. 1987; Verbunt et al. 1994; Asai et al. 1996; Brown, Bildsten, & Rutledge 1998). The main argument against this interpretation used to be that the temperature obtained from black-body fits to the spectral data resulted in very small ($`<`$3 km) emitting radii, significantly smaller than the theoretical predictions for neutron star radii. However, recently it has been put forward that black-body fits to the spectra overestimated the effective temperatures and thus underestimated the emitting areas (Brown et al. 1998). The spectra are better and more realistically described by thermal emission from a pure hydrogen atmosphere. By using data of quiescent neutron star systems, Rutledge et al. (1999, 2000) demonstrated that their spectra could indeed be fitted with such hydrogen atmosphere models and emission radii of $``$10 km were obtained.

If the quiescent emission below a few keV is indeed due to the cooling of the neutron star, then the actual luminosity is predicted to depend on the time-averaged accretion rate (Brown et al. 1998). Using their cooling model, a distance independent prediction of the expected quiescent flux can be derived of $`F_\mathrm{q}F/130`$ (see also Rutledge et al. 2001b) with $`F`$ the time averaged flux of the source. The latter can be rewritten as $`F=t_\mathrm{o}F_\mathrm{o}/(t_\mathrm{o}+t_\mathrm{q})`$ resulting in $`F_\mathrm{q}\frac{t_\mathrm{o}}{t_\mathrm{o}+t_\mathrm{q}}\times \frac{F_\mathrm{o}}{130}`$, with $`F_\mathrm{o}`$ the average flux during outburst, $`t_\mathrm{o}`$ the average time the source is in outburst, and $`t_\mathrm{q}`$ the average time the source is in quiescence. This model indeed appears to reproduce the observed quiescent luminosities (e.g., Rutledge et al. 1999, 2000). Furthermore, Brown et al. (1998) also predicted the very low luminosity of SAX J1808.4–3658 in quiescence (Dotani, Asai, & Wijnands 2000; Wijnands et al. 2001a) due to its very low time averaged accretion rate. Despite these successes, more quiescent systems should be observed to test and refine the model further.

A class of sources not yet compared in this model is that of the long-duration transients (e.g., MXB 1659–298; EXO 0748–676; KS 1731–260 \[see below\]). These are systems which suddenly, like ordinary transients, become X-ray bright but in contrast to the ordinary, short-duration ones, do not disappear after a few weeks to months, but remain active for several years to decades. If the only difference between those systems and the ordinary ones is the duration $`t_\mathrm{o}`$ of the outburst episodes, and everything else is similar, in particular if the time $`t_\mathrm{q}`$ the sources spend in quiescence is similar to that of normal transients, then the neutron stars of such long-duration transients are predicted to be heated to considerably higher temperatures than those in the ordinary ones. Up to recently, this prediction could not be tested because none of the known long-duration neutron star transients which are currently active had turned off. In this Letter, we discuss the first results obtained of such a system, KS 1731–260, which turned off in early 2001 after having accreted for over a decade.

KS 1731–260 was discovered in Aug. 1989 using the Mir/Kvant instrument and was also found to be active in Oct. 1988 (Sunyaev 1989). The compact object in this transient is a neutron star as it exhibits type-I X-ray bursts (Sunyaev 1989; Sunyaev et al. 1990). Since its initial discovery, its has been observed as a persistent source with Ginga, Sigma, ROSAT, RXTE, and ASCA (Yamauchi & Koyama 1990; Barret et al. 1992, 1998; Smith et al. 1997; Muno et al. 2000; Narita et al. 2001). Recently, the source became undetectable during the monitoring observations with the All Sky Monitor (ASM) aboard RXTE. In Figure 3, the ASM light curve of KS 1731–260 is presented, which shows that in early 2001, after a short period during which solar constraints inhibited monitoring, the source could not be detected anymore near day 1800. Its disappearance was confirmed by its non-detection using pointed RXTE observations with the proportional counter array (PCA) and the bulge scan observations of the Galactic center region (Fig. 3; Markwardt 2000; Markwardt et al. 2000), which include KS 1731–260. The first non-detection in the bulge scans was on 2001 Feb. 7. The 1 $`\sigma `$ upper limit is $`1.7\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (2–10 keV; absorbed).

Before it disappeared, KS 1731–260 had been accreting for about 12.5 years. This is the only outburst observed for this source and previous outbursts could have been significantly shorter (less than a year) or considerably longer (several decades). However, if the behavior displayed by KS 1731–260 during its last outburst is typical, then its average outburst duration is of the order of a decade (we use $`t_\mathrm{o}=12.5`$ years in the following). To estimate its quiescent flux using the Brown et al. (1998) model, its time averaged outburst flux needs to be known. During all outburst observations, the absorbed source fluxes were in the range of $`10^9`$$`10^8`$ erg cm-2 s-1. The average absorbed flux obtained during the bulge scans from 05 Feb 1999 to 30 Oct 2000 was $`1.7\times 10^9`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (2–10 keV; with a range of 0.1–4.8 $`\times 10^9`$ erg cm-2 s-1). Due to the limited energy ranges for which those fluxes are quoted and the high column density towards the source, the total unabsorbed fluxes are likely to be in the range of 0.5–1 $`\times 10^8`$ erg cm-2 s-1, or even higher. To obtain a lower limit on the average quiescent time of KS 1731–260, we will assume that its time averaged outburst flux did not exceed $`10^9`$ erg cm-2 s-1. It is conceivable that during previous outbursts the source has reached similar flux levels (recurrent transients tend to have similar peak fluxes), so we take as $`F_\mathrm{o}=10^9`$ erg cm-2 s-1. We use this conservative flux to demonstrate later on that even for such a low flux level, the quiescent time of KS 1731–260 might be several hundreds of years. Using the Brown et al. (1998) model, this results in predicted quiescent fluxes of 7.1, 4.3, and 0.85 $`\times 10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, for a $`t_\mathrm{q}`$ of 1, 10, and 100 years, respectively (see Chen, Shrader, & Livio 1997 for typical observed quiescent times and Lasota 2001 for theoretical expected ones).

## 2 Observation, analysis, and results

We obtained a Chandra/ACIS-S observation on KS 1731–260 on 27 March 2001 00:17–06:23 UTC (only a few months after it turned off; Fig. 3) for a total on-source time of $``$20 ksec. During our observation the ACIS-S3 backside-illuminated CCD was used with a 1/4 sub-array. This configuration was chosen to reduce the pile-up problems which would arise if the source were to exceed a luminosity of $`10^{34}`$ erg s-1 ($`10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1). No episodes of high background occurred, so all the data were used. We used the CIAO tools (version 2.1.3) and the threads listed at http://asc.harvard.edu to analyze the data. Two point sources were detected using the tool celldetect; one of them is located near the center of the ROSAT/HRI error circle of KS 1731–260 (Barret et al. 1998) and can almost certainly be identified with KS 1731–260. For a discussion of its X-ray position (including the identification of the extra source with a star in the 2MASS catalog) and its likely optical/infra-red counterpart, we refer to Wijnands et al. (2001b) and Groot et al. (2001).

The source spectrum was extracted using a circle of 10 pixels in radius on the source position. The background data were obtained by using four background regions, each consisting of a circle with a radius of 10 pixels. The data were rebinned using the FTOOLS routine grppha into bins with a minimum of 10 counts per bin. The spectrum was fitted using XSPEC version 11 (Arnaud 1996). We used several models to fit the data and either the column density, $`N_\mathrm{H}`$, was fixed to the value obtained by ROSAT and ASCA ($`1.1\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2; Barret et al. 1998; Narita et al. 2001) or it was included in the fit as a free parameter. A pure power-law and a black-body model fit the data equally well, although a power-law model gave a very high photon index of 4 ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ fixed) or 5.3 ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ left free; the resulting value was $`1.7\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2). This strongly suggests that the X-ray spectrum is more likely to be black-body like. Therefore, we concentrate on the black-body fits in the rest of our paper.

The obtained spectral results are listed in Table 1 and the spectrum is shown in Figure 3. Because several quiescent neutron star systems have shown evidence for an extra power-law component above a few keV in their quiescent spectra (e.g, Asai et al. 1996, 1998), we also fitted the data with a black-body plus power-law model (using a fixed photon index of 1; e.g., Rutledge et al. 2001a). When the column densities are left as a free parameter, its value is consistent with that obtained from the ROSAT and ASCA data of KS 1731–260. The temperature, $`kT`$, of the black body we measure with Chandra, is in all cases consistent with 0.3 keV. The unabsorbed 0.5–10 keV black body fluxes are around $`1.7\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, although the flux is slightly lower when only a black body model was used with a free floating column density. The power-law component flux would be $`15`$% of the total flux in the 0.5–10 keV energy range, but it is not statistically required.

The black body flux results in a 0.5–10 keV luminosity of $`1\times 10^{33}`$ erg s-1 (for 7 kpc; Muno et al. 2000). Rutledge et al. (2000) found that the bolometric luminosity of quiescent neutron star systems (using hydrogen atmosphere models) is about a factor of 2 higher than the luminosity in the 0.5–10 keV range (e.g., 4U 1608–52 has a very similar column density and black body temperature in quiescence \[Rutledge et al. 1999\] and it has only a factor of two higher bolometric luminosity compared to the black-body 0.5–10 keV luminosity; Rutledge et al. 2000). Therefore, we will adopt a bolometric value of $`2\times 10^{33}`$ erg s-1 in the rest of this paper, resulting in a quiescent bolometric flux of $`4\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1.

## 3 Discussion

After actively accreting for 12.5 years, the neutron star X-ray binary KS 1731–260 suddenly turned off in early 2001. It has a quite different outburst behavior than ordinary transients. In those ordinary systems, it is believed (e.g., Lasota 2001 and references therein), that during their quiescent episodes their accretion disks slowly fill due to low-level mass transfer from the companion star via Roche-lobe overflow. During outbursts, this matter is dumped onto the compact object at a rate faster than can be supplied by the donor star and the disk quickly empties. It will slowly refill again in quiescence. However, for KS 1731–260 and similar systems, the mass transfer rate of the companion star can keep up with the mass transfer rate onto the compact object for a considerable time period (12.5 years for KS 1731–260) and the sources become quasi-persistent with quasi-stable accretion disks. It is unclear if and how such sources can be accounted for in the latest versions of the disk instability models to explain the outbursts in X-ray transients (e.g., Lasota 2001).

We have observed KS 1731–260 in quiescence with Chandra only a few months after its transition in order to test the cooling neutron star model (see Wijnands 2001 for a short discussion about other models). The bolometric flux of KS 1731–260 in quiescence is $`4\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, resulting in a bolometric luminosity of $`2\times 10^{33}`$ erg s-1 (for a distance of 7 kpc; Muno et al. 2000). This bolometric luminosity and the black body temperature ($`kT0.3`$ keV) are very similar to what has been observed for other, short-duration transients (see, e.g., Asai et al. 1996, 1998; Rutledge et al. 2001a, 2001b). This result is unexpected, because, as explained in Section 1, the long accreting episode should have heated the neutron star in KS 1731–260 to a higher temperature (and thus higher luminosity) than what we have observed. However, this assumes that (i) the Brown et al. (1998) model for short duration transients also applies to systems such as KS 1731–260, (ii) standard cooling operates in the neutron star in KS 1731–260, and (iii) the source spends a similar amount of time in quiescence as the other known X-ray transients.

Therefore, one obvious solution to this discrepancy would be that the time KS 1731–260 spends in quiescence is extremely long compared to other systems. Our general believe on how long transients can be quiescent is based on those systems for which multiple outbursts have been observed and is therefore biased to short quiescent episodes (years to a few decades, basically the time since the birth of X-ray astronomy). For certain types of transients, the quiescent episodes could last significantly longer. However, if the standard cooling model for neutron stars applies here, KS 1731–260 has to be quiescent in between outbursts for at least 200 years. The quiescent intervals most likely have to be considerably longer. To calculate the expected quiescent flux, we used a very conservative bolometric outburst flux of $`10^9`$ erg cm-2 s-1, but the true value is more likely in the range of $`0.51\times 10^8`$ erg cm-2 s-1, or even larger. If indeed this is a typical outburst flux level, this would indicate that the source has to spend over a thousand years in quiescence. In the present day disk instability models (e.g., Lasota 2001; Dubus, Hameury, & Lasota 2001), it is not easy to see how such long quiescent episodes can occur because the accretion disk will slowly fill again, but at a certain point, even small fluctuations in the mass transfer rate from the companion star will trigger an outburst (see, e.g., Lasota 2001 for a discussion). An alternative model for this source might be the companion star instability model.

But if some LMXBs can indeed be quiescent for over a thousand years, then there may be a considerable number of such systems in our Galaxy. Only a rough number estimate can be obtained by assuming that such systems are active on average for ten years and quiescent for thousand years. At the moment, we know of only a few sources which fall in the class of the long-duration transients and which where actively accreting during the last decade (e.g., KS 1731–260, MXB 1659–29, EXO 0748–676, GS 1826–238). Thus, if these assumptions are correct, one would expect not more than several hundred of such systems. Although the numbers are highly uncertain, if indeed such a large number of extra previously unrecognized LMXBs are present in our Galaxy, then they might help to bring the birth rate of binary millisecond radio pulsars and of LMXBs in better agreement (Kulkarni & Narayan 1988; Coté & Pylyser 1989; see Lorimer 1999 for a recent discussion).

Alternatively, instead of postulating that the quiescent episodes of KS 1731–260 are extremely long, one could also speculate on the possibility that enhanced cooling takes place in the core of the neutron star in this system. If strong enhanced neutrino cooling occurs in the core (Colpi et al. 2001; Ushomirsky & Rutledge 2001), this might cool down the star in a much shorter time span and this could possibly explain why KS 1731–260 is so underluminous in quiescence compared to the expected value inferred from cooling neutron star models (Brown et al. 1998). Colpi et al. (2001) suggested that such a mechanism is at work in the neutron star transient Cen X-4, to explain its low ratio of quiescent to outburst luminosity. They also suggested that this enhanced cooling might be caused by a more massive neutron star in Cen X-4 compared to those in the other systems, which would suggest that a massive neutron star might also be present in KS 1731–260.

Finally, we have assumed that the cooling neutron star model developed by Brown et al. (1998) for the short duration transients, is valid also for the long-duration transients such as KS 1731–260. However, this model might break down for systems like KS 1731–260. It is unclear what the effects of such a long active period are on the crust and the core of the neutron star. It is plausible that the crust looks more like that of a neutron star in a persistent X-ray binary. The X-ray flux observed from KS 1731–260 might be dominated by the state of the crust. However, the core should then be even cooler than we have assumed, which would strengthen our conclusion that KS 1731–260 has to be in quiescence for a very long time. More detailed modeling of the behavior of the neutron star (its crust and its core) needs to be performed to understand long-duration systems like KS 1731–260.

Note added in manuscript We became aware of the work of Burderi et al. (2001) and Rutledge et al. (2001c), using BeppoSAX and our Chandra quiescent observations of KS 1731–260, respectively. Both papers confirm our conclusion: if the X-ray emission originates from the neutron star surface, KS 1731–260 has to have been in quiescence for $`>`$1000 years.


text:
# Statistical Features of Drainage Basins in Mars Channel Networks.

\[

## Abstract

Erosion by flowing water is one of the major forces shaping the surface of Earth. Studies in the last decade have shown, in particular, that the drainage region of rivers, where water is collected, exhibits scale invariant features characterized by exponents that are the same for rivers around the world. Here we show that from the data obtained by the MOLA altimeter of the Mars Global Surveyor one can perform the same analysis for mountain sides on Mars. We then show that in some regions fluid erosion might have played a role in the present martian landscape.

\]

Whether water flowed on the surface of Mars in the past is one of the most intriguing and challenging problems of contemporary planetary science. Indeed the presence of surface water, even some billion years ago, would make the odds for the development of life (as we know it) on Mars much higher. At present, the atmospheric conditions are almost incompatible with surface liquid water, so that its presence in the past has to be detected indirectly, looking at clues in the geomorphology of the planet. Moreover, understanding where water could have been present in the past is of great importance to choose the landing sites of future automatic and manned missions to Mars. Already early pictures taken from orbit showed canyons and channels similar to the ones carved by rivers on Earth. More recently, the high resolution pictures taken in the last three years by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) camera of the NASA probe Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) have provided a wealth of data that add some more clues: gullies on the walls of craters and valleys , that suggest the presence of liquid water in (geologically) recent times, sedimentary rock formations typical, on Earth, of the beds of ancient lakes , the presence of an ocean in the northern hemisphere  and rootless cones similar to the ones that are found on Earth where molten lava has flowed over waterlogged ground. All these photographic evidence needs to be complemented by some more robust analysis on data such as the ones from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Here we show that the channel networks that can be inferred from the MOLA data bear similarities with the structures carved by water erosion on Earth.

On Earth fluvial systems can be described through the self-affine properties of their drainage basin, where water, either from underground sources or from rain, is collected . Those self-affine properties have been established starting from Hack’s seminal work where the scaling relation (1) between the basin area $`A`$ and the length $`L_{}`$ of the basin’s main stream was proposed :

$$A^hL_{}$$
(1)
¿From measures on real rivers, the Hack’s exponent $`h`$ takes values between $`0.5`$ and $`0.7`$. The allometric relation between $`A`$ and $`L_{}`$ is just one in a number of scaling properties of drainage basins. In general, the drainage basin is characterized by the longitudinal length $`L_{}`$ (we use the same symbol as for the main stream length since, for real rivers, they scale in the same way) and by the transverse one, $`L_{}`$ in such a way that $`L_{}L_{}^H`$. If the exponent $`H`$ is less than $`1`$, the basin is self-affine (the width of the basin scales slower than its length). If the basin is self-similar $`H`$ is equal to $`1`$ (the trivial case where the width scales as the length). The two exponents $`H`$ and $`h`$ are connected, as it is easy to see by comparing $`L_{}L_{}^H`$ together with Hack’s law (1): one finds that $`h=1/(1+H)`$. These two macroscopic features are not the only ones available in the study of drainage basins. In order to describe even more precisely the statistical properties channel networks, geomorphologists use Digital Elevation Models (DEM) . Measures, either ground based or, in more recent times, by satellites, provide the average height of an area that, on Earth, can be as little as $`30\times 30m^2`$. Each of these square units is associated to a pixel on an image (or, technically, to a site on a two dimensional square grid). Then, water collected in each pixel flows toward the lowest of the neighbor pixels, according to a simple maximal slope rule (other rules would be also viable, such as, for example, that water flows toward more than a single neighbor, and is partitioned proportionally to the slopes). If the maximal slope rule is applied, this procedure produces a branched structure without loops that should reproduce the visible river network. In a loopless branched structure, it is easy to define the region upstream of a given point, that is, the region whose collected water will all flow to that point. Therefore it is possible to label each and every point on the map by the area $`A`$ of its own drainage basin. The final outlet is of course labeled by the whole area of the basin. It is possible to draw the histogram of these areas for a given basin, finding that the frequency $`P(A)`$ to find a sub-basin of area $`A`$ follows the law $`P(A)A^\tau `$, where $`\tau =1.431.46`$. On the same branched structure, it is possible to measure the upstream length $`L`$ from a given point, as the distance of that point from the furthest source (a source is defined as a point without any upstream basin, that is, that does not collect any upstream water). Again, these lengths can be organized in a histogram, whose asymptotic behavior for the frequency distribution $`\mathrm{\Pi }(L)`$ behaves as $`\mathrm{\Pi }(L)L^\gamma `$, where $`\gamma =1.71.8`$. All these exponents, and others that could be defined, depend on the above exponent $`H`$ relating $`L_{}`$ and $`L_{}`$, and then depend ultimately on the fractal properties of the basin. Using finite size scaling arguments, Maritan et al.  have shown that $`\tau =2h`$, and $`\gamma =1/h`$. These relations hold for any kind of branched structure, whatever its origin, and they show that indeed there is only one independent exponent that determines all the others. Actually, one more independent exponent is the fractal dimension of the main stream; yet, river networks are, on the average, directed because water flows down slopes, which gives a preferential direction. Consequently the fractal dimension of the main stream is $`d_l=1`$. Still, the relations do not tell why the exponents should take a particular set of values. One can study the same statistical properties on a random landscape. In this case of course, due to the nature of the landscape, many outlets (points lower than all of their neighbors) will be present in the system. We will refer hereafter to these points as ”pits”. These points act as sinks where water is only collected and not distributed around. This effect is so strong, that aggregation of rivers does not take place. The drainage basins have a characteristic small size and the above distributions $`P(A)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }(L)`$ show an exponential decay. In order to remove inner pits, one can recursively raise them at the height of the lowest neighbor (therefore simulating the behavior of water in a real lake when the liquid level increases steadily). By this procedure, one finally deals with connected structures (maybe with multiple outlets on the boundaries) whose landscape is very different from the original one (typically one can expect an overlap of about $`2025\%`$ between the original and the final landscape). The spanning tree formed by the river has peculiar statistical properties listed in Table I. This class of spanning trees has been also studied analytically and will be hereafter described as the class of the ”random spanning trees” . Since real rivers are not described by this class of spanning trees, it has been conjectured that an optimization process took place in order to shape the drainage basins in their present form. In particular with the aid of the Optimal Channel Networks (OCN)  model one can show in a rigorous way that by requiring minimization of the total gravitational energy dissipation in the system one can reshape a random spanning tree, transforming it into one with the same statistical properties of the real basins. We then want to exploit this difference in order to check if the martian landscape has ever been sculpted by fluvial erosion.

We then performed the same analysis on the surface of Mars. The latest MOLA data provide us with a DEM such that every pixel covers a surface of about $`1500\times 1500m^2`$ (roughly $`0.03125^{}\times 0.03125^{}`$). With these data at hand, we have chosen four regions of about $`100\times 100km^2`$, where to reconstruct a network from a DEM: the Warrego Vallis shown in Fig.1, where some river-like structures are visible in both Viking Orbiter and MOC pictures; Solis Planum and Noctis Labyrinthum, two rough districts in the Tharsis region; and a region from the northern hemisphere, where an ocean could have existed in the past . On these regions we reconstructed a channel network using the maximal slope rule: the results are shown in Fig.2 where we represented every pixel by the area it collects (at this level we still do not speculate whether such an area corresponds to any collected water). In Fig.4 we show the statistical analysis of the areas: interestingly, the histogram of the areas for the flat northern lowlands show a clear exponential decrease, corresponding to the absence of any particular correlation in the network, and in agreement with random surfaces; on the contrary, the histograms for the other three regions clearly exhibit a power-law decay, consistent with the existence of correlated structures in the channel networks. The exponents $`\tau `$ that can be fitted are between $`1.7`$ and $`1.9`$, with a quite large error-bar due the poverty of the statistics, yet unambiguously larger than $`1.6`$ and smaller than $`2`$. The upstream length histogram has also been collected, giving exponents $`\gamma `$ around $`1.7`$. Some observations are already possible: the exponential distribution of the northern hemisphere areas is indicative of the absence of long-range correlations in the system, as we would expect on a rough, random surface (and indeed this is the result on an artificially generated random landscapes); on the other hand, the power-law distributions in the other regions are suggestive that some correlation building process has taken place. Still, the exponents are larger than those of river networks on Earth, and moreover, the relation $`\tau =21/\gamma `$ is not respected. Actually, the above scaling relations have been obtained in the single outlet approximation. If many inner outlets are present, no definite relation has been found. As mentioned above, we can try to eliminate pits from the landscape, letting water fill them up to the level of the lowest neighbor, and then flowing toward it. Repeating this procedure for all the inner pits, the only possible outlets are located on the boundaries. This kind of reconstruction is of course crude, and it implies an extrapolation about some past behavior. Other reconstructions could be performed, since we are trying to recover some features that formed billions of years ago, and that have been surely smoothed by atmospheric erosion. Yet, we feel that, in the hypothesis that some form of fluid (be it water or liquid $`CO_2`$) ran along martian channels, the pit-filling procedure is reasonable, and subject to simple laws. Moreover, a simple criterion can be used to decide how much this procedure changes the network: we define the overlap between the processed and unprocessed networks as the fraction of sites that do not change their outflow direction. A high value of the overlap means that filling pits does not change much the network, whereas a low overlap implies that the network has been completely modified. Using this criterion, we can see that a random network changes almost completely upon processing, whereas the three channel networks have large overlaps, implying that no great rearrangements have taken place, and that therefore it is tempting to associate such networks to real rivers. In Figs.2 and 3, the raw network and the reconstructed one are shown: first, it is clear enough that large pieces of the raw network are still present after the pit-filling procedure has been applied; moreover, there is a good visual correlation between the reconstructed network and the one from orbit pictures. The exponents are also shown in Table I, and they are clearly approaching the exponents of Earth river networks. Such similarity suggests that a common mechanism could have produced both: we know that on Earth such structures are formed by water erosion.

In comparison with data available on Earth ($`30\times 30m^2`$), the resolution available at present is extremely low. Yet, we obtained the same results working on maps of $`0.0625^{}\times 0.0625^{}`$, the highest resolution available before March 2001. Moreover, as the Mars Global Surveyor covers more and more orbits, the MOLA also collects more and more data so that a reliable average (for which at least four measures are needed) can be obtained for areas increasingly smaller: at the present rate, by the time the instrument will be shut off the resolution could of the order of $`100\times 100m^2`$ or less (for a real time count of the laser shots, look at http://sebago.mit.edu/shots//), so that detailed digital elevation maps comparable with the one for Earth could be processed. A problem related to the resolution is also the appropriate way to redistribute the collected areas to downstream sites. All through this work we used the maximal slope rule; yet, as mentioned above, other rules could also be used. In particular, we tried to partition areas proportionally to the slope. Such a rule is reasonable when the resolution is still not high enough, so that water could flow along more than a single direction. In all the examined cases we always found an exponential behavior of the distributions $`P(A)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }(L)`$. Anyway such a rule should be less and less appropriate as the resolution increases, so that, as better data will be available, the maximal slope rule should become the correct one to be used. A further problem with the interpretation of the MOLA data is that we are trying to look at channel networks produced maybe billions of years ago. Over such a huge period, winds in the thin martian atmosphere could have smoothed the landscape . Going back to the original landscape is extremely difficult; erosion rates can be greatly varied by climate changes. Nevertheless, a simplistic idea could be to apply some anti-diffusion, but the starting landscape has a resolution such that we could not be sure about the outcome (anti-diffusion is an unstable process). Yet, we can try to look at the behavior of an even more eroded landscape, to understand how much erosion influences the area and upstream length statistics. Applying some diffusion (that, on the contrary, is a stable process), we find smoother and smoother surfaces, yet the statistics do not change considerably. If we extrapolate back in the past the same considerations, we can conclude that today we are looking at statistics close to the ones when the networks have been produced.

The results of this work are of course speculative, yet, since the debate on whether water ever flowed on Mars is extremely hot, we strongly believe that as many clues as possible should be examined, waiting for the time when some more specific mission (either robotic or, in a more distant future, manned) will give some definitive answers on the questions that we can ask on such indirect and general observations that we have at hand right now. Answering the question on whether water ever flowed on Mars is of extreme importance: Mars is the closest place that could have harbored life in the past, close enough that, at some point in the near future, we could have direct evidence of it. Moreover, understanding where water was present in the past could also be of relevance in choosing the landing site for future human missions: the site should be as much scientifically interesting as possible and, maybe, rich in natural resources that could be used by astronauts. The present study tries indeed to point out the possible scientific merit of some regions, that could also be associated with some resource richness, as river networks usually are on Earth.

We thank the MOLA Team at NASA for making the MOLA data readily available online, and for helping us to extract the information for our analysis. This work has been partially supported by the EU Network ERBFMRXCT980183.


text:
# Coherent population trapping in two-electron three-level systems with aligned spins

## Abstract

The possibility of coherent population trapping in two electron states with aligned spins (ortho-system) is evidenced. From the analysis of a three-level atomic system containing two electrons, and driven by the two laser fields needed for coherent population trapping, a conceptually new kind of two-electron dark state appears. The properties of this trapping are studied and are physically interpreted in terms of a dark hole, instead of a dark two-electron state. This technique, among many other applications, offers the possibility of measuring, with subnatural resolution, some superposition-state matrix-elements of the electron-electron correlation that due to their time dependent nature are inaccesible by standard measuring procedures.

Coherent manipulation of the atomic wavefunction by laser fields allows the preparation of the atom in particular states with surprising properties due to the constructive or destructive interference of the wavefunction. The presence of non-absorption resonances or dark states is well known since the late seventies   . From those initial times the physical properties of the dark and bright states have been fruitfully employed in thousands of different situations . Related concepts such as Electromagnetically Induced Transparency, Amplification Without Inversion, or Lasing Without Inversion, have been also introduced over the last years  .

Most of the related experiments deal with single electron atoms, or single active electron situations, where an electron is coherently forced to a superposition state. In a two electron system, however, the situation can be a bit different because of the electron-electron interaction and particularly because of the Pauli exclusion principle. If both electrons are not allowed to be at the same state at the same time, the dynamics of one of them will strongly influence the dynamics of the second one. Of course, to evidence this effect one needs to work with electrons having parallel spins. If spins were antiparallel, then both of them could be allowed in the same atomic (spatial) state. There are some studies that use related properties of the two electron systems in case of antiparallel spins , in different contexts, namely double-core resonance in two-electron atoms.

In the present letter we restrict ourselves to the case of a two-electron ortho-system , i.e. a case in which both electrons have parallel spins and therefore the Pauli exclusion principle acts on the spatial part of the wavefunctions. This prevents both electrons to be in the same spatial state. For the case of coherent population trapping this has rich consequences of a very fundamental nature that have never been considered before. We present the general case, we discuss some possibilities for experimental realization of such a system, and we propose the use of coherent population trapping to measure some time-dependent electron-electron interaction matrix elements.

Let us consider a typical V-configuration of the three single-electron states, as indicated in Fig. 1, labelled $`|a`$, $`|b`$, and $`|c`$, with energies $`\mathrm{}\omega _a`$, $`\mathrm{}\omega _b`$, and $`\mathrm{}\omega _c`$ respectively. If two of these states are populated, we can build up antisymmetrized two-electron states. Since two electrons with aligned spins are considered, the spin term is symmetric and the antisymmetry of the total wave function comes from the spatial part of the wavefunction.

The three level system is formed by two adjacent dipole transitions sharing a common state $`|c`$. The dipole coupling to the laser fields, $`H_{dip}`$, is given by $`a|H_{dip}|c=\mathrm{}\alpha e^{i\omega _\alpha t}`$, and $`b|H_{dip}|c=\mathrm{}\beta e^{i\omega _\beta t}`$, where $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are the Rabi frequencies of the two laser fields, and $`\omega _\alpha `$ and $`\omega _\beta `$ represent their frequencies. We assume that all three single-electron states involved have definite parity, with states $`|a`$ and $`|b`$ having the same parity and state $`|c`$ having the opposite one. Therefore, $`a|H_{dip}|a=`$ $`b|H_{dip}|b=`$ $`c|H_{dip}|c=0`$, and also $`a|H_{dip}|b=0`$. We introduce the Rotating Wave Approximation  , just keeping slow oscillations at frequencies comparable to the detunings, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha =\omega _\alpha (\omega _a\omega _c)`$, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta =\omega _\beta (\omega _b\omega _c)`$. To describe the long-time dynamics of this system is necessary to consider relaxation. We introduce the relaxation coefficient $`\gamma _{ac}`$, indicating the rate of decay of the population from state $`|a`$ (the uppermost level) to state $`|c`$, and the relaxation coefficient $`\gamma _{bc}`$, indicating the rate of decay of the population from state $`|b`$ to state $`|c`$. In the dipole approximation, $`\gamma _{ba}=\gamma _{ab}=0`$

Let us consider now that two electrons (in the same spin state) are forced to be inside this three-level system. The two-electron states are indicated by $`|i,j=|i|j`$, with $`i,j=a,b,c`$. Antisymmetrized states are $`|A=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|c,b|b,c\right)`$, $`|B=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|a,c|c,a\right)`$, and $`|C=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|a,b|b,a\right)`$. Without considering electron-electron interaction, the energies of those states are given by $`\mathrm{}`$ times $`\omega _A=\omega _b+\omega _c`$, for state $`|A`$, $`\omega _B=\omega _a+\omega _c`$, for state $`|B`$, and $`\omega _C=\omega _a+\omega _b`$, for state $`|C`$.

Parity of the two-electron states is directly related to the parity of the single-electron states. Two electron states will thus keep a well defined parity. In particular, $`|A`$ and $`|B`$ will be of the same parity and $`|C`$ of the opposite one. The two-electron states non-vanishing dipole matrix elements will be: $`C|H_{dip}|A=\mathrm{}\alpha e^{i\omega _\alpha t}`$, and $`C|H_{dip}|B=\mathrm{}\beta e^{i\omega _\beta t}`$ and all other couplings are zero because of parity considerations, $`A|H_{dip}|A=`$ $`B|H_{dip}|B=`$ $`C|H_{dip}|C=`$ $`A|H_{dip}|B=0`$. These two-electron states determine now a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$-configuration, as indicated in Fig. 2, while the one-electron states $`|a`$, $`|b`$, $`|c`$ formed a V-configuration.

The density matrix for the two-electron three-level system is defined by $`(\rho )_{IJ}=|IJ|`$, with $`I,J=A,B,C`$. Still without considering the electron-electron interaction, the dynamical equations for the two-electron density matrix are,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AA}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\alpha \rho _{AC}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]+\gamma _{CA}\rho _{CC}`$ (2)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{BB}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{BC}\beta \rho _{BC}^{}\beta ^{}\right]+\gamma _{CB}\rho _{CC}`$ (3)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{CC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\alpha +\rho _{AC}^{}\alpha ^{}\rho _{BC}\beta +\rho _{BC}^{}\beta ^{}\right]\left(\gamma _{CA}+\gamma _{CB}\right)\rho _{CC}`$ (4)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AB}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_\beta \right)+\rho _{AC}\beta \rho _{BC}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}\rho _{AB}`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha +\alpha ^{}\left(\rho _{AA}\rho _{CC}\right)+\rho _{AB}\beta ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AC}\rho _{AC}`$ (6)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{BC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{BC}\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta +\beta ^{}\left(\rho _{BB}\rho _{CC}\right)+\rho _{AB}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BC}\rho _{BC}`$ (7)
The relaxations correspond to single electron processes, $`\gamma _{CA}=\gamma _{ac}`$, $`\gamma _{CB}=\gamma _{bc}`$, indicate an electron falling from state $`|a`$ to state $`|c`$, and from state $`|b`$ to state $`|c`$, respectively. Dipole decay between states $`|a`$ and $`|b`$ is forbidden by parity: $`\gamma _{BA}=\gamma _{ab}=0`$, and $`\gamma _{AB}=\gamma _{ba}=0`$. The two-electron coherences will relax according to: $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BA}=\gamma _{BA}+\gamma _{AB}=0`$, $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AC}=\gamma _{CA}+\gamma _{CB}=\gamma _{ac}+\gamma _{bc}`$, and $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BC}=\gamma _{CA}+\gamma _{CB}=\gamma _{ac}+\gamma _{bc}`$. No simultaneous two-electron relaxation mechanisms will be considered, because they are forbidden in the electric dipole approximation.

Following standard ideas of solid state physics we can interpret that we have two electrons to fill three states, $`|a`$, $`|b`$, and $`|c`$. So there are two occupied states plus an empty one, the hole. The system is thus characterized by the position of the hole. The two-electron state $`|C`$, for example, involves one electron at state $`|a`$ and the second electron at state $`|b`$, leaving the $`|c`$ empty.

It is perfectly well established   , that under certain conditions the two lower states form a very peculiar coherent superposition. The result is that a state $`|d`$ uncoupled to the laser fields and another state $`|e`$ coupled to the laser fields appear. These single-electron states are not precisely the typical dark and bright states because they correspond to the two upper states of the V-configuration and relax very fast. In the particular case that the Rabi frequencies of both transitions are equal, $`\alpha =\beta `$, and the detunings verify $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha =\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta `$, then the expressions of the dark, $`|d`$, and the bright, $`|e`$, states are extremely simple and symmetrical, $`|d=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|a|b\right)`$, and $`|e=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|a+|b\right)`$.

We can repeat the procedure to obtain the dark states now using two-electron states. The result is that a dark state $`|D`$ and a bright state $`|E`$ appear. In the particular case of equal Rabi frequencies, $`\alpha =\beta `$, and equal detunings $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha =\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta `$, then the dark state is $`|D=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|A|B\right)`$ and the bright state is $`|E=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(|A+|B\right)`$. Now the dark state $`|D`$ involves one electron in a superposition of the upper states $`|a`$ and $`|b`$, while the other electron lies in the lowest energy state $`|c`$. Therefore a hole appears in the empty upper state. Relaxation does not play a role now because the lower state is filled with an electron and Pauli exclusion principle does not allow a second one in the same state. Therefore this dark state has the appearance of a hole that is moving between the two upper single electron states. To illustrate this we have included a new scheme of the single electron states. Fig. 3a correspond to only one electron (grey circle) in the system. Under the appropriated conditions, the electron can be placed in a state $`|d`$ that is not coupled to the fields. This state, however, can decay. In the case of two electrons, Fig. 3b, there is one electron at the lower state that prevents the decay from the upper states. The state without electron, the hole, is trapped and stable. Therefore, we have now a hole placed at a dark state!

We have so far considered two-electron systems where the electron-electron interaction is not accounted for. Only the Pauli exclusion principle has been considered through the antisymmetrization of the spatial part of the wave function (spin part is always symmetrical in the considered ortho-atom). The two-electron system can be understood in terms of a hole. Of course this agreement is so far perfect because we have forgotten one particular feature, the electron-electron repulsion. Now it is time to consider these terms and see how they modify the presented results. The interaction Hamiltonian is $`H_{ee}=e^2/|r_1r_2|`$, $`r_1`$ and $`r_2`$ being the positions of the electrons, then

$`A|H_{ee}|A`$ $`=`$ $`cb|H_{ee}|cbcb|H_{ee}|bc=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_A`$ (9)
$`B|H_{ee}|B`$ $`=`$ $`ca|H_{ee}|caca|H_{ee}|ac=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_B`$ (10)
$`C|H_{ee}|C`$ $`=`$ $`ba|H_{ee}|baba|H_{ee}|ab=\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Delta }_C`$ (11)
$`A|H_{ee}|C`$ $`=`$ $`cb|H_{ee}|abcb|H_{ee}|ba=0`$ (12)
$`B|H_{ee}|C`$ $`=`$ $`ca|H_{ee}|abca|H_{ee}|bc=0`$ (13)
$`A|H_{ee}|B`$ $`=`$ $`cb|H_{ee}|accb|H_{ee}|ca=\mathrm{}\chi e^{i\omega _bt}e^{i\omega _at}`$ (14)
These electron-electron interaction terms can be grouped in two different families, the time-independent terms (that do not contain time oscillations at the energy difference) and the time-dependent terms (that do contain explicit time oscillations). Time independent terms come from the diagonal matrix elements $`A|H_{ee}|A`$, $`B|H_{ee}|B`$, $`C|H_{ee}|C`$. The contributions $`c,b|H_{ee}|c,b`$, $`c,a|H_{ee}|c,a`$, and $`b,a|H_{ee}|b,a`$, are Coulomb terms. The contributions $`c,b|H_{ee}|b,c`$, $`c,a|H_{ee}|a,c`$, and $`b,a|H_{ee}|a,b`$, are exchange terms. For a system in a pure quantum state only these two kind of electron-electron terms are relevant. With the dynamical situation established via the interaction with the laser fields, electrons are in superposition states and, thus, new terms may appear that are time dependent. The term, $`A|H_{ee}|B`$ is very particular because it involves three different one-electron states. It is the sum of two different contributions $`c,b|H_{ee}|a,c`$, and $`c,b|H_{ee}|c,a`$. The cross term $`cb|H_{ee}|ac`$ involves the two dipole-allowed transitions, $`|a|c`$ for one electron, and $`|c|b`$ for the other electron. Another cross term that appears is $`c,b|H_{ee}|c,a`$ , it is different to the first one because one of the electrons remains in the common state $`c`$ while the other is in a $`|a|b`$ coherence. In any case, these two terms present a time oscillation at frequency $`\omega _a\omega _b`$, so the resulting electron-electron matrix element can be written as, $`A|H_{ee}|B=\mathrm{}\chi e^{i\omega _bt}e^{i\omega _at}`$. Finally, let us remember that due to parity considerations, $`A|H_{ee}|C=B|H_{ee}|C=0`$ because $`H_{ee}`$ is an even operator.

Now we can introduce the $`H_{ee}`$ couplings in the time evolution of the density matrix. To simplify the expressions it is worth to consider as the energy origin the corrected energy of state $`|A`$. After introducing the rotating wave approximation, we obtain a new system of dynamical equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AA}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\alpha \rho _{AC}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]+\gamma _{CA}\rho _{CC}`$ (16)
$`+`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AB}\chi ^{}e^{i\omega _at}e^{i\omega _bt}\rho _{AB}^{}\chi e^{i\omega _at}e^{i\omega _bt}\right]`$ (17)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{BB}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{BC}\beta \rho _{BC}^{}\beta ^{}\right]+\gamma _{CB}\rho _{CC}`$ (18)
$`+`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AB}^{}\chi e^{i\omega _at}e^{i\omega _bt}\rho _{AB}\chi ^{}e^{i\omega _at}e^{i\omega _bt}\right]`$ (19)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{CC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\alpha +\rho _{AC}^{}\alpha ^{}\rho _{BC}\beta +\rho _{BC}^{}\beta ^{}\right]\left(\gamma _{CA}+\gamma _{CB}\right)\rho _{CC}`$ (20)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AB}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }_\beta \right)+\rho _{AC}\beta \rho _{BC}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AB}\rho _{AB}`$ (21)
$`+`$ $`i\left[\left(\rho _{AA}\rho _{BB}\right)\chi e^{i\omega _at}e^{i\omega _bt}+\rho _{AB}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_A\mathrm{\Delta }_B\right)\right]`$ (22)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{AC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha +\alpha ^{}\left(\rho _{AA}\rho _{CC}\right)+\rho _{AB}\beta ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{AC}\rho _{AC}`$ (23)
$`+`$ $`i\left[\rho _{AC}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_C\mathrm{\Delta }_A\right)\rho _{BC}\chi e^{i\omega _\alpha t}e^{i\omega _\beta t}\right]`$ (24)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{d}{dt}}\rho _{BC}`$ $`=`$ $`i\left[\rho _{BC}\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta +\beta ^{}\left(\rho _{BB}\rho _{CC}\right)+\rho _{AB}^{}\alpha ^{}\right]\mathrm{\Gamma }_{BC}\rho _{BC}`$ (25)
$`+`$ $`i\left[\rho _{BC}\left(\mathrm{\Delta }_C\mathrm{\Delta }_A\right)\rho _{AC}\chi ^{}e^{i\omega _\alpha t}e^{i\omega _\beta t}\right]`$ (26)
One very clear example where coherent population trapping of this kind is calcium, or other alkaline-earth elements. In the ortho-atom case (parallel spins) the ground state is of the form n$`s`$n$`p`$ (4$`s`$4$`p`$ for calcium). One excited state very interesting for our purposes is the n$`p`$n$`p`$. The transition energy is about 2.9 eV for calcium. If a $`\sigma ^+`$, $`\sigma ^{}`$ laser field is considered, then the three single electron states involved will be $`|a=|\mathrm{n}p_+`$, $`|b=|\mathrm{n}p_{}`$, and $`|c=|\mathrm{n}s`$. Obviously, the three-two electron states will become $`|A=|\mathrm{n}s,\mathrm{n}p_{}`$, $`|B=|\mathrm{n}s,\mathrm{n}p_+`$, and $`|C=|\mathrm{n}p_+,\mathrm{n}p_{}`$. In this particular case, $`A|H_{ee}|B=0`$ due to the angular momentum addition laws . Because n$`s`$n$`p_+`$ and n$`s`$n$`p_{}`$ correspond to the ground state of the ortho-atom, they are relatively stable. In that case a clear dark state can be formed with all the characteristics of the coherent population trapping, except that the trapping affects the hole, that is in a coherent superposition of the two excited single-electron states. Other similar systems can be found in atoms with more than two electrons in the external shell. This structure is also present in ortho-lithium (lithium with three aligned spins) involving the 1$`s`$2$`s`$2$`p`$ and 1$`s`$2$`p`$2$`p`$ states.

On the opposite case, for atoms or molecules where the $`A|H_{ee}|B`$ matrix element is non-zero, we predict a similar dark resonance but shifted by an amount equal to the time average of the $`A|H_{ee}|B`$ coupling. This suggest a new method to calculate electron-electron correlations with subnatural resolution. To illustrate this, Fig. 4 has been included. This figure represents the spectra of the dark state resonance and its two satellites induced by the crossed correlations terms of the electron-electron interaction. It is a plot the imaginary part of the $`|A|C`$ coherence versus the $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha `$ detuning, and corresponds to $`\gamma _{ac}=\gamma _{bc}`$, $`\alpha =0.1\gamma _{bc}`$, $`\beta =0.1\gamma _{bc}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\beta =0`$, and $`\chi =0.3\gamma _{bc}`$. For simplicity, all parameters have been given referred to $`\gamma _{bc}`$.

Coherent population trapping appears at the center $`\mathrm{\Delta }_\alpha =0`$, as expected. Moreover, two satellite holes appear at $`\pm \chi `$. They are due to the splitting of the levels induced by the time dependent matrix element and to its coupling to the laser field. The dresed transitions responsible for those peaks are depicted at the insets of Fig. 4.

In conclusion we have analyzed the dynamical properties of a three-level two-electron system. The presence of a coherence between the atomic two-electron states leads to population trapping similar to the one found in one-electron systems. However, this two-electron trapping presents some new and interesting features. Particularly remarkable is the presence of a hole (the empty state) trapped in a superposition of the upper states. In the case where the two lower states are coupled by the electron-electron potential, we propose a direct subnatural measure of these coupling coefficient.

Partially support by the Spanish Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Científica (grants PB98-0935-C03-03, and PB98-0268), by the Direcció Catalana de Recerca (contract 1999SGR00096), and by the Junta de Castilla y León and Unión Europea, FSE (grant SA044/01), is acknowledged. We thank G. Orriols and V. Ahufinger for critical reading of the manuscript.


text:
# Penetrating the Mask: The Gravitational Torque of Bars

## 1. Introduction

Bars have been recognized in galaxies since the time of Curtis (1918) and Hubble (1926), although the bar-like structure of the LMC was already beautifully portrayed in a remarkable sketch by J. Herschel in 1847 (Figure 1). Bars are among the most interesting features of galaxies that present a clear challenge to theorists. It is not surprising, then, that bars attracted the early attention of Ken Freeman, who applied his mathematical expertise to understanding them in a remarkable series of papers published in the 1960s (Freeman 1965; 1966a,b,c). Of course, at that early stage, bars were regarded mostly as dynamical curiosities rather than representing a major topic of research, which still continues to unfold at the present time. Nevertheless, Ken pursued them initially in his Cambridge dissertation work and later developed a model of asymmetric barred galaxies in a collaborative effort with G. and A. de Vaucouleurs (de Vaucouleurs, de Vaucouleurs, and Freeman 1968).

Ken’s work, in a way, culminated with his fine review of barred galaxies with Gerard de Vaucouleurs, the first really significant review of the subject (de Vaucouleurs and Freeman 1972). This long article focussed mainly on the features of late-type, asymmetric barred spirals of the Magellanic type, and also outlines an early interpretation of the nature of the inner rings of SB(r)-type galaxies in terms of a class of resonant periodic orbits. It is interesting to note that at the time of Ken’s work, the status of rotation curves suggested that bars rotated as rigid bodies (see also Figure 2).

It is also remarkable that only recently have people perceived just how strong bars are in their host galaxies, that is, how significant is their forcing relative to the dominant mass components. This was previously known only in a few individual cases that had been the subject of detailed dynamical models (e.g., Lindblad, Lindblad, and Athanassoula 1996). For the general galaxy population, the quantification of bar strength in terms of forcing had to wait for the advent of routine near-infrared imaging. We have been engaged in dust-penetrated galaxy classification for some time now, and describe here a recently-developed method for quantifying the gravitational torques of bars using potentials inferred from near-IR images. Bar strength is important in galaxy morphological studies because phenomena such as gas inflow, angular momentum transfer, noncircular motions, lack of abundance gradients, nuclear activity, starbursts, and the shapes and morphologies of rings and spirals, may all be tied in various ways to the effectiveness with which a bar potential influences the motions of stars and gas in a galactic disk (e.g., Sellwood & Wilkinson 1993; Buta & Combes 1996; Knapen 1999).

## 2. Removing the Mask: Dust-Penetrated Galaxy Classification

Two hours north of Dunk Island, our meeting locale, lies the land of Papua New Guinea. It is the country where masks still dance. Customs have remained unchanged for centuries. Where men and women, as if from the stone age, meet the New Millennium. In Roget’s Thesaurus, we find the following:

Mask: \[noun\] screen, cloak, shroud. \[verb\] to camouflage, to make opaque, to disguise.

Optically thick dusty domains in galactic disks can completely camouflage or disguise underlying stellar structures. Cosmic dust grains act as masks. The dust masks obscure whether or not the dust lies in an actual screen or is well intermixed with the stars. The presence of dust and the morphology of a galaxy are inextricably intertwined: indeed, the morphology of a galaxy can completely change once the Population I disks of galaxies – the masks – are dust penetrated (e.g., Block and Wainscoat 1991; Block et al., 1994, 2000).

The classification of galaxies has traditionally been inferred from photographs or CCD imaging shortward of the 1$`\mu m`$ window, where stellar Population II disks are not yet dust-penetrated. Images through an $`I`$ (0.8 $`\mu m`$) filter can still suffer from attenuations by dust at the 50% level. The NICMOS and other near-infrared camera arrays offer unparalleled opportunities for deconvolving the Population I and II morphologies, because the opacity at $`K`$ – be it due to absorption or scattering – is always low. The extinction (absorption+scattering) optical depth at $`K`$ is only 10% of that in the V-band.

Many years before the advent of large format near-infrared camera arrays, it became increasingly obvious from rotation curve analyses that optical Hubble type is not correlated with the evolved Population II morphology. This was already evident in the pioneering work of Zwicky (1957) when he published his famous photographs showing the ‘smooth red arms’ in M51. In the Hubble Atlas and other atlases showing optical images of galaxies, we are looking at masks: at the gas, not the stars, to which the properties of rotation curves are inextricably tied.

## 3. A duality in spiral structure

There is a fundamental limit in predicting what an evolved stellar disk might look like (Block et al. 1994, 2000). The greater the degree of decoupling, the greater is the uncertainty. The fact that a spiral might be flocculent in the optical is very important, but it is equally important to know whether or not driving the dynamics is a grand design old stellar disk.

Decouplings between stellar and gaseous disks are cited in many studies including Grosbøl & Patsis (1998), Elmegreen et al. (1999), Block et al. (2000) and Puerari et al. (2000). The Hubble type of a galaxy does not dictate its dynamical mass distribution (Burstein & Rubin 1985). This is confirmed by examining Fourier spectra, for example, of the evolved disks of NGC 309 (Sc) and NGC 718 (Sa); these spectra are almost identical (Figs. 11 and 12 in Block et al. 2001a).

## 4. Bar Strength: the 60s versus the 00s

In the 60s, bar strength was something that was judged visually on blue-light photographs. Galaxies were recognized as either S or SB in Hubble’s (1926, 1936) system, or as SA, SAB, SB in de Vaucouleurs’ (1959) revised Hubble system. It was assumed that an SB galaxy has a stronger bar than an S galaxy, and that the sequence SA-SAB-SB was a sequence of increasing average bar strength However, neither the Hubble nor the de Vaucouleurs bar classifications can be expected to be accurate measures of bar strength in individual cases because apparent bar strength is impacted by wavelength, the effects of extinction and star formation, inclination and bar orientation relative to the line of sight, and also on observer interpretations. The percentage of unbarred galaxies in the Carnegie Atlas dramatically drops from 70% to only 27% when Sa, Sb, Sc spirals are mask-penetrated (Eskridge et al. 2000; see also Knapen, Shlosman & Peletier 2000, Block & Wainscoat 1991). Thus, the near-IR is the best wavelength regime for quantifying the strength of bars. A simple, easily reproducible quantitative near-infrared morphological classification scheme for spirals that accounts for bar strength, dominant harmonic, and arm pitch angle class has been proposed by Block & Puerari (1999) and Buta & Block (2001) and is seen in Figure 3.

## 5. Bar Strengths Derived from Gravitational Torques

Any reliable measure of bar strength ought to involve forces, because this is how the influence of a bar is actually felt. Unlike the axisymmetric background, a bar involves both radial and tangential forces. The most elegant definition of bar strength in terms of these force components was proposed by Combes and Sanders (1981). Given the gravitational potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }(R,\theta )`$ in the disk plane, these authors defined the bar strength at radius $`R`$ as

$$Q_T(R)=\frac{F_T^{max}(R)}{F_0(R)}=\frac{\frac{1}{R}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }(R,\theta )}{\theta }\right)_{max}}{\frac{d\mathrm{\Phi }_0(R)}{dR}}$$
(1)
where $`F_T^{max}(R)`$ represents the maximum amplitude of the tangential force and $`F_0(R)`$ is the mean axisymmetric radial force, inferred from the $`m`$=0 component of the gravitational potential. In this approach, the strength of the bar is measured relative to the axisymmetric forces of the background disk. A relatively thin bar imbedded in a massive axisymmetric disk may have significant tangential forces, but relative to the background radial force field, it could be weak. Thus, measuring bar strength as a force ratio (rather than an isophotal axis ratio) is an idea whose time has come. Our gravitational potentials are derived from near-IR images under the assumptions of a constant mass-to-light ratio and an exponential vertical scale height (Quillen, Frogel, & González 1994).

A tangential-to-radial force ratio map reveals a butterfly pattern that is the characteristic signature of a bar (see Figure 4, adapted from Buta & Block 2000). The actual force ratio changes sign from quadrant to quadrant relative to the bar axis, because the total force in the plane is slightly offset towards the ends of the bar. In the case of perfect symmetry, $`|Q_T|`$ would reach a maximum at the same radius and angle relative to the bar in each quadrant. However, slight asymmetries and/or noise can make these maxima different in each quadrant. If we let $`Q_{bi}`$ = $`|Q_T|^{max}`$ in quadrant $`i`$, then the average of these four values can provide a single measure of bar strength for a whole galaxy, if the gravitational potential is known. We call this average the relative bar torque parameter, $`Q_b`$. The $`Q_{bi}`$ are known as the “maximum points.”

Bar torque classes are defined in terms of intervals of $`Q_b`$. Bar class Bc=1 includes galaxies having relative torques $`Q_b`$= 0.1$`\pm `$0.05 (meaning the tangential force reaches a maximum of 10% of the axisymmetric background radial force); class 2 involves those with $`Q_b`$= 0.2$`\pm `$0.05, etc., up to class 6 (Buta & Block 2001).

Uncertainties in the bar torque method are discussed in Buta & Block (2001). These include simple deprojection uncertainties, such as bulge “deprojection stretch”, as well as more complex uncertainties, such as variations in the stellar mass-to-light ratio with position, the impact of dark matter and bulge thickness, vertical resonances and the thickening of bars, and the generally unknown vertical scale heights of disks. Future studies will involve evaluating these uncertainties further and refining the method.

## 6. Hubble Classifications and Bar Torques

From our studies (Buta & Block 2001; Block et al. 2001b), we have estimates of $`Q_b`$ for 75 galaxies at this time. Figure 5 shows how this parameter correlates with optical bar classification in the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalogue (RSA, Sandage and Tammann 1981). A wide range of relative bar torques characterizes each of the S and SB categories. Category S (i.e., optically unbarred) in Fig. 5 includes galaxies ranging from bar torque class 0 (e.g., NGC 628) to bar class 3 (e. g., NGC 1042). NGC 4321, a Hubble Sc prototype, has a bar class of 2. Likewise, NGC 4450 (Sab) is of bar class 2.

Similarly, Hubble category SB in the RSA has a wide range of bar strengths. This category commences at a bar torque of class 1 (e.g., NGC 5371) and reaches bar class 5 (e.g., NGC 7741) and class 6 (e.g., NGC 7479). In other words, the bar strengths of some RSA SB galaxies may be weaker than those found in RSA unbarred spirals such as NGC 1042 (Sc; near-infrared bar class 3). This is not due to the uncertainties in the $`Q_b`$ method, but instead reflects the difficulties of making reliable bar strength judgments in the visual Hubble system. The work of Knapen et al. (2000) reaches this identical conclusion, using their independent definition of bar strength.

Martin (1995) classified bars according to shape of isophotes. One of the strongest classes in Martin’s sample is bar ellipticity class 7. It is interesting to note that highly elliptical bars as measured by Martin (1995) need not have strong gravitational bar torques (see Figure 6).

## 7. Toward the future: Choice of instruments for NGST and Dust penetrated morphology in the high-redshift universe

HDF morphology preferentially samples restframe UV light. Does the duality of spiral structure, found in our local Universe (section 2) persist at higher $`z`$? In order to explore the capability of NGST for undertaking stellar (as opposed to gaseous) morphology studies in the higher redshift universe, Block et al. (2001a) present NASA-IRTF and SCUBA observations of NGC 922, a chaotic system in our local Universe which bears a striking resemblance to objects such as HDF 2-86 ($`z=0.749`$) in the HDF North. If objects such as NGC 922 are common at high-redshifts, then this galaxy may serve as a local morphological ‘Rosetta stone’ bridging low and high-redshift populations. Block et al. (2001a) show that quantitative measures of galactic structure are recoverable in the rest-frame infrared for NGC 922 seen at high redshifts using NGST, by simulating the appearance of this galaxy at redshifts z=0.7 and z=1.2 in rest-frame K. Our results suggest that the capability of efficiently exploring the rest-wavelength IR morphology of high-z galaxies should probably be a key factor in deciding the final choice of instruments for the NGST.

## 8. Concluding Thoughts: Freeman and Ornithology

The work of Ken Freeman in bars and galaxy dynamics may be likened to his great passion for ornithology. Species such as Aquila Rapax (the Tawny Eagle) and Aquila Nipalensis (the Steppe Eagle) survey their terrain with exceptionally keen foresight. Ken recognised the fundamental nature of bars three decades ahead of the commissioning of large format HgCdTe arrays in the early 1990s.

### Acknowledgments.

DLB is indebted to Ken and to the SOC for their invitation to participate in this Workshop. It is also a pleasure to thank Gary Da Costa for his prompt reply to emails, to facilitate travel to Dunk Island. RB would like to thank Ken for inspiring his early interest in barred galaxies and resonance rings. DLB is indebted to SASOL for sponsoring his sabbatical, during which time this paper was prepared. In particular, he wishes to express his deep appreciation to Mr P. Kruger, Mr P. Cox and the entire SASOL Board. Without the financial support of the Anglo-American Chairman’s Fund, none of this research would have been possible. A special note of thanks is expressed to the CEO of the Anglo-American Fund, Mrs M. Keeton. BGE was supported by grant AST-9870112 from the U. S. National Science Foundation.

## References

Block D.L. et al. 1994, A&A, 288, 365

Block D.L. & Wainscoat R.J. 1996, Nature, 353, 48

Block D.L. & Puerari I. 1999, A&A, 342, 627

Block, D.L. et al. 2000, ‘Toward a New Millennium in Galaxy Morphology’ (eds. D.L. Block, I. Puerari, A. Stockton & D. Ferreira, Kluwer); see also Ap&SS, 269, 5

Block, D.L. et al. 2001a, A&A, 371, 393

Block, D.L. et al. 2001b, A&A(in press) \[astro-ph/0106019\]

Burstein D. & Rubin V. 1985, ApJ, 297, 423

Buta, R.J. & Combes, F. 1996, Fund. Cosmic Phys. 17, 95

Buta, R.J. & Block, D.L. 2001, ApJ, 550, 243

Combes, F. & Sanders, R. H. 1981, A&A, 96, 164

Curtis, H. D. 1918, Pub. Lick Obs. XIII, Part I, 11

de Vaucouleurs, G. 1959, Handbuch der Physik, 53, 275

de Vaucouleurs, G. & Freeman, K.C. 1972, Vistas in Astronomy, 14, 163

de Vaucouleurs, G., de Vaucouleurs, A, & Freeman, K. C. 1968, MNRAS, 139, 425

Elmegreen, D.M. et al. 1999, AJ, 118, 2618

Eskridge, P. et al. 2000, AJ 119, 536

Freeman, K.C. 1965, MNRAS, 130, 183

Freeman, K.C. 1966a, MNRAS, 133, 47

Freeman, K.C. 1966b, MNRAS, 134, 1

Freeman, K.C. 1966c, MNRAS, 134, 15

Freeman, K. C. 1992, in Physics of Nearby Galaxies: Nature or Nurture?, T. X. Thuan, C. Balkowski, and J. Tran Thanh Van, eds., Gif-sur-Yvette, Editions Frontiere, p. 201

Grosbøl, P.J. & Patsis, P.A. 1998, A&A, 336, 840

Herschel, J. 1947, ‘Results of astronomical observations made during the years 1834-8 at the Cape of Good Hope’, Smith and Col., London.

Hubble, E. 1926, ApJ, 64, 321

Knapen, J.H. 1999, in The Evolution of Galaxies on Cosmological Timescales, J.E. Beckman & T.J. Mahoney, Eds., ASP Conf. Ser. 187, 72

Knapen, J.H., Shlosman, I. & Peletier, R.F. 2000, ApJ, 529, 93

Lindblad, P. A. B., Lindblad, P. O., & Athanassoula, E. 1996, A&A, 313, 65

Martin, P. 1995, AJ, 109, 2428

Puerari, I. et al. 2000, A&A, 359, 932

Quillen, A. C., Frogel, J. A., & González, R. 1994, ApJ, 437, 162

Sandage, A. & Tammann, G. 1981, “A Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies” \[RSA\] (Carengie Inst; Wash. DC)

Sanders, D.B. 2000, Ap&SS, 269, 381

Sellwood, J.A. & Wilkinson, A. 1993, Rep. Prog. Phys. 56, 173

Zwicky, F. 1957, ‘Morphological Astronomy’, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.