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# CLASSIFICATION OF PLANETARY NEBULAE BY THEIR DEPARTURE FROM AXISYMMETRY

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The rich varieties of planetary nebula (PNe) structures have attracted considerable attention in recent years (see Kastner, Soker & Rappaport 2000 for a collection of papers with additional references). The PNe were classified according to their large structure (Schwarz, Corradi, & Stanghellini 1992; Manchado et al. 1996, 2000; Stanghellini et al. 1999), with further divisions according to microstructures, such as different types of blobs (e.g., Goncalves, Corradi & Mampaso 2001). The most common classification is into Bipolar (also called “bilobal” and “butterfly”) PNe, which are defined as axially symmetric PNe having two lobes with an ‘equatorial’ waist between them, and elliptical PNe, which have a large scale elliptically shaped shell, with no, or only small, lobes or waists.

Most of these classifications consider axisymmetrical structures, with little attention paid to the departure of PNe from axisymmetry. PNe with departure from axisymmetry are defined as having substructures which have no symmetry axes, or the symmetry axes of different substructures either lack a common intersection point or the illuminating star is displaced from the intersection point. By departure from axisymmetry we refer only to large-scale structures, and not to small blobs, filaments, bubbles, etc. Note that point-symmetric PNe also depart from pure axisymmetry, but we do not define them as having departure if they can be built by pure rotations of the different symmetry axes of the different substructures. Only if displacements of one or more of the symmetry axes relative to the central star is detected, and/or large scale asymmetry exists, would we define a point-symmetric PN as having departure from axisymmetry. Small numbers of observational papers in recent years (e.g., Sahai 2000b; Miranda et al. 2001b; Miranda, Guerrero, & Torrelles 2001a) consider the departure from axisymmetry of specific PNe (hereafter termed “departure”). The only process which causes departure and which attracted more attention of observers was the interaction of PNe with the ISM (e.g., Jacoby 1981; Tweedy & Kwitter 1996; Kerber et al. 2000; Muthu, Anandarao & Pottasch 2000; Rauch et al. 2000). This process also stimulated more theoretical work (e.g., Borkowski, Sarazin, & Soker 1990; Soker, Borkowski, & Sarazin 1991; Villaver, Manchado, & Garcia-Segura 2000; see Dgani 2000 for a recent review). This process is most likely to cause departure in the outskirts of the PN.

Binary star system progenitors of PNe may also lead to departure from axisymmetry, mainly in the inner regions of PNe. Both close binary companions in eccentric orbits (Soker, Rappaport, & Harpaz 1998) and wide binary companions (Soker 1994; 1999) can lead to departure (for a summary of processes with further references see section 1 of Soker & Rappaport 2001, hereafter SR01). SR01 conduct population synthesis to estimate the number of PNe expected to possess detectable departure as a result of a binary companion influence on the AGB progenitor wind. They also study the distribution of systems according to whether the companion is a main-sequence star or a white dwarf companion (the remnant of the initially more massive star). They find that $`25\%`$ of all elliptical or circular PNe and $`3050\%`$ of all bipolar PNe are expected to possess detectable departure from axisymmetry. Since $`1015\%`$ of all PNe are bipolar, and the rest are elliptical or circular, they argue that $`27\%`$ of all PNe are expected to possess significant departure from axisymmetric structure. SR01 examine a limited sample of PNe and argue for a satisfactory agreement between the fraction of PNe possessing departure from axisymmetry found in the population synthesis and their estimate from the sample of PNe. SR01 consider an observed PN to possess departure if the illuminating star is not at the center of the nebula, if one side of the nebula is being brighter or more extended than the other, if the two sides have different magnitude Doppler shifts, or if there is any combination of these. However, they do not classify the PNe according to the different types of departure.

Our goal is to build a classification scheme that (1) can easily be used by people studying specific PNe to classify them, and (2) has some connection with physical processes that can cause departure from axisymmetry. In section 2 we propose a classification scheme, and give typical PNe for each class. Section 3 contains discussion and summary, including comparison with theoretical expectations, mainly according to the results of SR01.

## 2 THE PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION

Our proposed classification for departure from axisymmetry is summarized in the first column of Table 1. The classification is based on 5 basic types of departure and a class of PNe without departure, or with a very small one that can’t be distinguished from small-scale irregularities. For each class we give a few typical examples of elliptical (second column) and bipolar (third column) PNe which possess that type of departure. In many cases a PN can possess more that one type of departure. For example, the two sides along the equatorial plane can show unequal size as well as unequal intensity. Each PN is classified according to the most prominent type of departure from axisymmetry, according to our, sometimes subjective, judgment. The sources for the typical PNe given in Table 1 are listed there. The HST images can be found in the home page of the STScI, and in a list compiled by Terzian & Hajian (2000; http://ad.usno.navy.mil/pne/gallery.html); many of the the different HST images are taken from the following papers: Balick (2000), Balick et al. (1998), Bobrowsky et al. (1998), Bond (2000), Borkowski, Blondin, & Harrington (1997), Corradi et al. (2000), Kwok, Su, & Hrivnak (1998), Sahai (2000a,b), Sahai & Trauger (1998), Sahai et al. (1998a,b) Su et al. (1998), and Terzian & Hajian (2000). We now elaborate on the different classes, leaving the discussion of the physical mechanisms for departure to the next section. In the present paper we only discuss departure from axisymmetry along the equatorial plane. This avoids cases where the appearance of departure, e.g., between one lobe and another in bipolar PNe, is simply an effect of obscuration, e.g., by dust, because of inclination effects. Therefore, when writing ‘two sides’ we refer to two sides of the symmetry axis, i.e., on or near the equatorial plane, but not along the symmetry axis.

The proposed classes are as follows.
Central star not in the center: These PNe possess a general axisymmetric (or point-symmetric) structure, possibly beside another type of departure as listed below, but the central star is not along the symmetry axis (or the intersection of a few axes in point-symmetric PNe).
Unequal intensity: These PNe possess a general axisymmetric (or point-symmetric) structure, but the intensity over a large area on one side is higher than that on the other side. In the present paper we refer mostly (but not solely; see the discussion in the next paragraph) to unequal intensity in the optical band.
Unequal size or shape: In these PNe the most prominent departure is unequal size or shape of the two sides of the symmetry axis. Here, as with PNe with unequal intensity, the departure can reveal itself in some bands but not in others (SR01). For example, the general structure of the Red Rectangle (BD-10-1476), which contains a close eccentric binary system with $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}=318`$ days and $`e=0.38`$ (Waters et al. 1998), is highly axisymmetric, up to a distance of $`1^{}`$ from the central star (e.g., Van Winckel 2000). However, the 10 $`\mu `$m map presented by Waters et al. (1998; their fig. 3) shows a clear departure from axisymmetry on scales of $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ from the central star. Their contour map shows that the equatorial matter is more extended on the west side. Another example is the Egg nebula which appears axisymmetric in the HST optical image, while only the NICMOS image shows a clear departure from axisymmetry (Sahai et al. 1998a,b).
Bent: These PNe contain an elongated structure near the symmetry axis, e.g., two lobes or two jets, one at each side of the equatorial plane, which are bent to the same side, i.e., there is a mirror symmetry about the equatorial plane (not to be confused with point-symmetry, where the two structures are bent in opposite directions). The bipolar PN NGC 2899 (Corradi & Schwarz 1995) has two lobes bent to the same side, while the elliptical PNe NGC 3242 and NGC 6826 (Balick 1987; see also HST images) contain two FLIERS (or ansae) bent to the same side.
Departure in outer regions: When a PN possesses departure in its very outer region it belongs to this class. The departure can be in the shape, size or intensity of the two sides; in most cases all three exist, hinting at an interaction of the PN with the ISM. Many examples are given in Tweedy & Kwitter (1996). Note that many PNe are old and large and it is hard to tell whether they are intrinsically bipolar or elliptical (or round) PNe, and whether they had departure not caused by the ISM; we classified them as elliptical PNe. HDW 5 (PNG 218.9-10.7), for example, is classified by Manchado et al. (1996) as a bipolar PN. However, it seems that the structure is more complicated, and it is hard to tell whether this PN is really a bipolar PN.
Very small (no) departure. By very small departure we refer to PNe where we could not identify any large-scale departure from axisymmetry (or from point-symmetry). Any departure, if it exists, is smaller than the typical size of blobs, filaments, loops, and other small-scale irregularities in the nebula. A good example is NGC 6543, a very complicate point-symmetric PN. Despite the many loops, filaments, and blobs, the PN possesses no departure from point-symmetry on a scale larger than the typical size of these irregularities.

## 3 DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY

A discussion of physical processes that can cause departure from axisymmetry is in SR01, where more details can be found. Here we mention briefly the possible connection between these processes and the classification scheme proposed in the previous section. Four main processes can result in large-scale deviations from axisymmetry.
1. Interaction with the ISM. In this case the most prominent features are on the outskirts of the nebula (e.g., Tweedy & Kwitter 1994, 1996; Rauch et al. 2000). Departures in the inner regions may still result from binary progenitors.
2. Local mass loss events. If one or a few long-lived hot or cool spots exist on the surface of the AGB star during the mass-loss process itself, they can lead to enhanced mass-loss rates in one or a few particular directions. This process seems to be important in massive stars (e.g., as suggested for the $`30M_{}`$ star HD 179821 by Jura & Werner 1999). The question is whether this process can operate efficiently in AGB stars, where strong convection may not allow such spots to live long enough. Our results (see below) indicate that this process may occur in AGB stars as well. Such large spots in the equatorial plane will cause the descendant PN to have the ‘unequal size or shape’ or ‘unequal intensity’ departure type. The presence of stochastic mass-loss process from the AGB star and instabilities in the outflowing gas are the largest sources of uncertainty when comparing theory and observations.
3. A wide binary companion. This applies to the case where the AGB star has a wide binary companion (Soker 1994). Here the departure from axisymmetry results simply from the fact that the mass loss from the AGB star occurs while it is moving in its orbit. Interesting effects due to the orbital motion occur for a wide range of orbital periods (Soker 1994; Mastrodemos & Morris 1999; SR01). This type of systems explains many elliptical PNe belonging to the ‘unequal size or shape’, ‘unequal intensity’, or ‘bent’ types.
4. A close binary companion in an eccentric orbit. This occurs when the companion is close enough to influence the mass-loss process from the AGB star and/or from the system as a whole, and the eccentricity is substantial (Soker, Rappaport, & Harpaz 1998). If the companion is close enough to significantly influence the mass-loss process then most likely a bipolar PN is formed. This process is responsible for many bipolar PNe belonging to ‘unequal size or shape’, ‘unequal intensity’, or ‘bent’ types of departure.

Unequal intensity may result from collisions on one side of the nebula of two segments of the wind blown at different orbital phases, e.g., a spiral structure (Soker 1994; Mastrodemos & Morris 1999). ‘Bent’ PNe are those with departure along the symmetry (polar) axis. The flow along the polar directions is faster than that along the equatorial plane. Hence in ‘bent’ PNe the orbital velocity of the mass-losing AGB star is relatively high, i.e., relatively close binary and/or massive companions. This explains why many bipolar PNe show departure in the slowly expanding equatorial region (mostly unequal size and shape or uneqaul intensity), but not along the fast-moving polar lobes. A quantitative study of these processes requires 3D gasdynamical numerical simulations.

SR01 find from their population synthesis study that $`25\%`$ of all elliptical or circular PNe, and $`3050\%`$ of all bipolar PNe, are expected to possess detectable departure from axisymmetry. They also find that in the list of HST images compiled by Terzian & Hajian (2000; the sources to this list were cited in the previous section) $`3060\%`$ of all elliptical (and round) PNe, and $`3560\%`$ of all bipolar PNe have some type of departure. We examine two large samples of high quality PNe images, the HST list and The IAC Morphological Catalog of Northern Galactic Planetary Nebulae (Manchado et al. 1996). We find 69 good images in the HST list, with 44 elliptical (or round) and 25 bipolar, and 179 PNe, of which 142 are elliptical and 37 bipolar, in the IAC Catalog. There are 4 PNe common to both samples. We list the fraction (in percentage) of PNe belonging to each type of departure separately for elliptical, columns 4-5, and bipolar PNe, columns 6-7. For example, there are 6 elliptical PNe with displaced central star in the HST list, and a total of 44 elliptical in that list. Hence we put a value of $`6/44=14\%`$ for elliptical PNe with “central star not at the center”. We do not include in this statistics PNe with departure in outer regions only; these are usually large and may contain another type of departure in the inner regions.

There are several sources of uncertainties in addition to the statistical errors due to the small number of objects in each group. ($`i`$) There are difficulties in identifying the departure and its type in many PNe. ($`ii`$) A selection exists due to the obscuration of the central star in bipolar PNe. This is the reason for the low number of bipolar PNe with displaced central star. ($`iii`$) In comparing with theoretical expectations from binary interaction, blobs, filaments, and other irregularities, caused by stochastic mass-loss process or instabilities, may be mistaken for large-scale departure caused by a binary companion. SR01 estimate that $`2025\%`$ bipolar PNe have large blobs, filaments, and other irregularities. In the present study most of these PNe enter the ‘unequal size or shape’ or ‘unequal intensity’ departure types.

The fraction of elliptical PNe with departure found in the present work is in the range of $`4652\%`$ (IAC Catalog and HST list, respectively). This is compatible with the finding of SR01 from their analysis of PN images, but larger than the fraction of $`25\%`$ expected from binary interaction according to the population synthesis (SR01). The fraction of bipolar PNe possessing departure is in the range of $`5676\%`$ (HST list and IAC Catalog, respectively). The value from the HST list is within the range found from analyzing the same data by SR01, while the value from the IAC catalog is larger than these numbers. The fraction from the images analysis is much larger than the theoretical expected fraction, $`3050\%`$, from binary interaction according to SR01. However, SR01 only study binary systems which avoided RLOF and/or common envelope phases, which add up to only half of all progenitors of bipolar PNe. Therefore, it is quite possible that a large fraction of bipolar PNe progenitors which went through a RLOF and/or common envelope phase do acquire departure from axisymmetry from the binary interaction. An example is the PN NGC 2346 which have a central binary system (Bond & Livio 1990), and which possess departure from axisymmetry. Bipolar PN progenitors that were not studied by SR01 increase the number of bipolar PNe expected to possess departure, but still cannot overcome the large discrepancy. In addition, a large discrepancy exists in elliptical PNe also. The discrepancy between the number of PNe expected to acquire departure from binary interaction and the number deduced from the large sample of PNe suggests that long-lived large spots, or local groupings of small spots, whether hot (Schwarzschild 1975) or cool (Soker 1998), exist on the surface of AGB stars. These spots locally enhance, especially near the equatorial plane (Soker 1998), the mass-loss rate, leading to a large-scale departure from axisymmetry. Such a process was suggested by Jura & Werener (1999) to have occurred on the surface of the $`30M_{}`$ star HD 179821, and may also account for the asymmetry of Mira (Karovska et al. 1997). Taking the different uncertainties into account, we crudely estimate that $`15\%`$ of very late AGB stars have large cool (or hot) spots when they reach the upper AGB, such that the enhanced mass-loss rate above these, relatively long-lived, spots causes the descendant PN to acquire departure from axisymmetry. The fraction can be much larger than $`15\%`$, if many AGB stars have a nonaxisymmetric mass-loss process due to a companion, and in addition possess large spots on their surface.

The main points of the present paper are as follows.
(1) We proposed a classification scheme (first column of Table 1) to the different types of departures from axisymmetry observed in PNe.
(2) We find that $`50\%`$ of all PNe possess large-scale departure from axisymmetry. The distribution among the different types (column 4-7 of Table 1) is highly uncertain, for reasons discussed in the paper.
(3) The number of PNe found to have departure from axisymmetry is much larger than that expected from the influence of binary companions. This, we claim, results from the presence of long-lived and large, hot or cool, spots on the surface of AGB stars, particularly near the stellar equator, which locally enhance mass-loss rate, causing the descendant PN to possess large-scale departure from axisymmetry. PNe that acquire their departure from axisymmetry from such spots belong either to the ‘unequal size or shape’ type or the ‘unequal intensity’ type. We crudely estimate that $`15\%`$ of all stars on the final phase of the AGB possess such spots.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This research was supported in part by grants from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation.


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# Black hole mass and velocity dispersion of narrow line region in active galactic nuclei and narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Massive Black Holes (MBHs) are believed to exist in the centers of all active and many or most normal galaxies. High-resolution observations of various kinematic tracers of the central gravitational potential have resulted in the detections of numerous MBHs in nearby galaxies over the past decade (e.g. Kormendy & Richstone (1995); Ferrarese & Merritt (2000); Gebhardt et al. 2000a ; Sarzi et al. (2000); Ho (1999), and references therein). A relationship between the MBH mass and the mass of the spheroidal component was suggested by Kormendy (1993) and later quantified by Kormendy & Richstone (1995) and Magorrian et al. (1998). This correlation appears also in Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs, in which the MBH masses are measured either using reverberation mapping techniques (Wandel (1999)) or using the empirical relation between the Broad Line Region (BLR) size and nuclear luminosity (Laor (1998)). Laor (1998) found that the MBH mass-to-bulge mass ratio for a sample of PG QSOs is the same as that for nearby galaxies. In contrast, Wandel (1999) obtained a substantially lower MBH mass-to-bulge mass ratio for Seyfert 1 galaxies. This could be due to an overestimation of the bulge mass in Seyfert galaxies, e.g., a larger luminosity-to-mass ratio in the host galaxies, or an underestimation of central black hole masses using the reverberation mapping method (McLure & Dunlop (2000); Krolik (2000)), or an intrinsic difference in the MBH mass-to-bulge mass ratio for Seyfert galaxies and normal galaxies.

For nearby hot galaxies (ellipticals and spiral bulge), recent works by Gebhardt et al. (2000a) and Ferrarese & Merritt (2000) have demonstrated that the mass of a MBH is tightly correlated with the stellar velocity dispersion, which is obtained within a large aperture extending to the galaxy effective radius and thus with little influence of the MBH, with remarkably small scatter. Note that Gebhardt et al. (2000b) included also seven AGN, in which the MBH masses are obtained by the reverberation mapping method, and they found that these objects follow the same correlation with small scatter. Ferrarese et al. (2001) reached the same conclusion by making an accurate measurement of stellar velocity dispersions for 6 Seyfert galaxies, for which the masses of MBHs have been measured using reverberation mapping techniques.

The good correlation between the \[OIII\] width and the stellar velocity dispersion (Nelson & Whittle (1996)) indicates that the narrow-line width is primarily virial in origin and the Narrow Line Region (NLR) kinematics are mainly controlled by the gravitational potential of the galaxy bulge. For a sample of 32 AGN and QSOs in which the MBH masses have been measured from reverberation mapping, Nelson (2000) demonstrated a good relation between the MBH mass and the bulge velocity dispersion derived from the \[OIII\] width, which is consistent with the results of Gebhardt et al. (2000b) but with somewhat larger scattering. This agreement can be taken as evidence in support of the reverberation mapping method to measure the MBH masses in AGN.

The tight $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation supports the theoretical arguments of a close link between the growth of MBHs and the galaxy or spheroidal formation. Several theoretical scenarios have been proposed to explain the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ or $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}M_{\mathrm{bulge}}`$ relation (e.g. Silk & Rees (1998); Fabian (1999); Ostriker (2000); Haehnelt & Kauffmann (2000)). Silk & Rees (1998) predicted $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma ^5`$, based on the back-reaction mechanism such that the kinetic energy associated with the output wind from the central BH-accretion disk system will evacuate the fueling gas when it is comparable to the bound energy of the gas in the bulge or host galaxy. Fabian (1999) further incorporated the Silk–Rees scenario into an obscured growth of MBHs model, and a consequent result is that most MBHs grow very fast in an obscured phase before they clean the surrounding dust and cold gas and appear as QSOs or AGN. This scenario can also explain both the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ and $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}M_{\mathrm{bulge}}`$ relation.

It is of particular interest to investigate the time evolution (or accretion history) of MBHs and thus reveal the physical link between the bulge formation and the MBH growth. One approach is to measure the masses of MBHs and bulge properties in high redshift QSOs and AGN and compare them with low redshift QSOs, AGN and nearby galaxies. Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) are suggested to be due to accretion rates close to the Eddington limit and have small BHs compared to normal Seyfert 1 galaxies at a given luminosity, and much evidence suggests that NLS1s might be normal Seyfert galaxies at an early stage of evolution ((Mathur, 2000, and references therein)). If this is true, NLS1s could be an ideal class of objects, together with normal Seyfert galaxies and QSOs, to study the accretion history and growth of MBHs. Therefore, it is also interesting to measure the masses of MBHs and bulge properties in NLS1s and compare them with those in Broad Line (BL) Seyfert 1 galaxies and nearby galaxies. Using the MBH mass estimated from spectra fitting by an accretion disk model and the virial mass of the broad line region, Mathur et al. (2001) found that NLS1s show systematically lower $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ than BL AGN with the same bulge luminosity or \[OIII\] width of host galaxies. However, two NLS1s in the Ferrarese et al. (2001) sample follow the same relation as BL Seyfert 1 galaxies. The conflicting results in the literature suggest that further study is required. In the present paper, we investigate the correlation between the MBH mass and the \[OIII\] line width for a large sample of NLS1s (Veron-Cetty et al. (2001)) and find that NLS1s consistently follow the well-known $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation defined in nearby galaxies.

## 2 Data and Analysis

A heterogeneous sample of 59 NLS1 galaxies were observed spectroscopically by Veron-Cetty et al. (2001) (hereafter VVG) with a moderate resolution of 3.4Å . The measurement of the instrument-subtracted \[OIII\] and H$`\beta `$ width as well as the optical magnitude at B band are listed in table 1. VVG found that, in general, the \[OIII\] lines of those NLS1s have a relatively narrow Gaussian profile (with Full Width at Half Maximum, hereafter FWHM, of $`200500`$ km s-1) with often, in addition, a second broad blueshifted Gaussian component (with FWHM of $`5001800`$ km s-1). The blueshifted Gaussian component is proposed to be associated with those individual high-velocity clouds seen in the spatially resolved NLR of some nearby Seyfert galaxies, which is outflowing rather than virial bounded (e.g. NGC 4151: Kaiser et al. (2000)). The width of the narrow component is then adopted as the velocity dispersion of the virial NLR clouds if the line is fitted by a narrow component and a blueshifted broad component.

### 2.1 Estimation of black hole masses

The size of the broad emission line region (BLR) can be estimated by the empirical relationship between the size and the monochromatic continuum luminosity at 5100Å (Kaspi et al. (2000)):

$$R_{\mathrm{BLR}}=32.9\left(\frac{\lambda L_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })}{10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{0.7}\mathrm{lt}\mathrm{day},$$
(1)
where $`\lambda L_\lambda `$ is estimated from the B-magnitude by adopting an average optical spectral index of $`0.5`$ and accounting for Galactic reddening and K-correction (H0=75km s-1 Mpc-1, q0=0.5). Assuming that the BLR is virialized, the MBH mass can be estimated by $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=R_{\mathrm{BLR}}V^2G^1`$, where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant, $`V`$ can be estimated from the emission line width, $`V=\sqrt{3}/2\mathrm{F}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{M}`$, by assuming BLR clouds in random orbit motion. The estimated BH masses are also listed in Table 1.

There are some uncertainties in the estimation of the MBH mass. First, a typical error of 0.2 mag in the B magnitude given in VVG would introduce an uncertainty of above 0.05 dex in MBH mass. Second, the continua are likely to be variable, but generally this variation is not larger than a factor of 2 for most AGN (cf. Kaspi et al. (2000)), which may introduce an uncertainty of 0.15 dex in the estimation of MBH mass. Third, using the empirical law of equation 1 to estimate the BLR size, the uncertainties are generally not much larger than a factor of 2 for those NLS1s in VVG sample (see Kaspi et al. (2000)) with $`\lambda L_\lambda (5100\mathrm{\AA })`$ range from $`10^{43}`$ to $`10^{45}`$ erg s-1, if those NLS1s do follow this empirical relation. Finally, a significant fraction of optical light may come from host galaxies. To make a quantitative estimation of this effect in a NLS1, we notice that $`L_{\mathrm{AGN}}/L_{\mathrm{bulge}}=L_{\mathrm{AGN}}/L_{\mathrm{Edd}}\times L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/M_{\mathrm{BH}}\times M_{\mathrm{bulge}}/L_{\mathrm{bulge}}\times M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\mathrm{bulge}}`$, and $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}/M_{\mathrm{BH}}3\times 10^4L_{\mathrm{}}/M_{\mathrm{}}`$. For NLS1, the typical value of $`L_{\mathrm{AGN}}/L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$ should be around 0.5 (Puchnarewicz et al. 2001); the typical bulge mass to light ratio may be similar to nearby hot galaxies with $`M_{\mathrm{bulge}}/L_{\mathrm{bulge}}10M_{\mathrm{}}/L_{\mathrm{}}`$; and the MBH mass to bulge mass ratio may be similar to (or less than) nearby galaxies with $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_{\mathrm{bulge}}`$ of about 0.0015 — 0.003 (by an order of magnitude) (Merritt & Ferrarese 2001b; Gebhardt et al. 2000a; Mathur et al. 2001). The fraction of light at the optical band $`L_{\mathrm{opt}}/L_{\mathrm{bol}}`$ is $`0.1`$ for AGN and $`1.0`$ for bulge. Adopting those values, one obtains $`L_{\mathrm{opt},\mathrm{AGN}}/L_{\mathrm{opt},\mathrm{bulge}}110`$, which suggests that the stellar contribution to the measured optical luminosity should be much less (or less) than that from the nuclear emission. Thus, the uncertainty in the mass estimation is small in comparison with the intrinsic scatter in the mass of the sample. Combining all those uncertainties, the estimation of the MBH mass would typically have an uncertainty of about 0.5 dex.

### 2.2 Estimation of the bulge velocity dispersion

The \[OIII\] width can be converted to the stellar velocity dispersion by $`\sigma =\mathrm{FWHM}_{[\mathrm{OIII}]}/2.35`$ (Nelson & Whittle (1995)). Nelson (2000) has shown that the reverberation mapping measured MBH mass in AGN, for which the bulge velocity dispersion is derived from the \[OIII\] width, is in good agreement with the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation defined by nearby hot galaxies, which may support the assertion that the narrow line \[OIII\] width serves as a good representation of the bulge velocity dispersion. The $`\sigma `$ derived this way is systematically lower than the stellar velocity dispersion from the absorption line width by 0.1 dex, while the mean deviation to the best fit line is 0.13 dex (Nelson & Whittle (1995)). This systematic difference will not affect the following statistical analysis significantly since it is much smaller than the intrinsic scatter in the \[OIII\] line width measurements.

The \[OIII\] width could be significantly over-estimated from the spectra with poor resolution (Veilleux 1991, hereafter V91). According to Figure 3 in V91, this overestimation could be as large as a factor of 1.2—1.5 if the spectral resolution is close to the intrinsic \[OIII\] width of the object. Note that three objects in VVG, Mrk 359, NGC 4051, Mrk 766, were also observed by Veilleux (1991) at a resolution of 10 km s-1, and the \[OIII\] line width (the width measured by VVG, the V91 width to the VVG width ratio) are 113 (180, 1.59), 162 (200, 1.23) and 180 (220, 1.22) km s-1, respectively. These values clearly support that the \[OIII\] line width is overestimated by a factor of 1.2—1.5 for those objects with intrinsic widths close to or less than the spectral resolution, i.e. 204 km s-1. As discussed by Whittle (1985), the detailed amount of the deviation is also sensitive to the line profile. This would suggest that the measured line width of less than 300 km s-1 may be overestimated by such a factor. In the following analysis, we will keep in mind this uncertainty, and discuss its consequences wherever appropriate. Note also that the \[OIII\] widths for most objects in the Nelson (2000) sample were measured from the spectra with high resolution, $`<2`$Å, corresponding to $`<120`$ km s-1, which may not suffer from the overestimation due to spectral resolution, since measured \[OIII\] line widths are much larger than the spectral resolution.

### 2.3 $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ to the bulge velocity dispersion relation

The relationship between the estimated MBH mass $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and the bulge velocity dispersion represented by the \[OIII\] width is shown in the left panel of Figures 1 and 2 for NLS1s in VVG, along with the same relationship for those BL AGN in Nelson (2000). Note that four objects, NGC 4051, Mrk 335, PG 1211+143 and Mrk 110, which have reverberation mapping measured MBH masses and high resolution ($`R1500`$) \[OIII\] line widths, in the Nelson (2000) sample are NL Seyfert 1 galaxies or QSOs. The former three objects are also included in VVG. The high quality data in Nelson (2000) are adopted for these three objects instead of the estimated ones from VVG. The effectiveness of using the empirical law to estimate the mass of MBHs in NLS1s may also be supported by the fact that the other NL objects, whose masses are estimated from the empirical law, follow the trend of these four NL objects in Figures 1 and 2. In the present paper, the stellar velocity dispersion derived from the \[OIII\] width is likely to represent the central velocity dispersion. For comparison, the nearby hot galaxies from Merritt & Ferrarese (2001a), for which values of $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ (the central stellar velocity dispersion) are measured from dynamical modeling of HST data, are therefore also plotted in Figure 1. Since there are different views on the slope of the $`M\sigma `$ relation defined in nearby galaxies (see Merritt & Ferrarese 2001a; Gebhardt et al. 2000a), a similar figure is also plotted (see Fig. 2) for comparison with the galaxies from Gebhardt et al. (2000a), in which the brightness weighted stellar velocity dispersions within the effective radius of galaxies are adopted.

It is clearly shown in Figures 1 and 2 that five NL objects, Mrk 507, Mrk 684, IRAS 15462-0450, MS 22102+1827, and PG 1404+226, having large \[OIII\] widths, deviate from other NL objects. Note that Mrk 507, Mrk 684, IRAS 15462-0450 are the three objects for which a narrow HII region contribution has been subtracted in the VVG sample. For spectra with a resolution of 3.4Å used by VVG, the HII component may not be reliably separated from a narrow component of NLR with width 200—500 km s-1 if an additional broad wing is present. Thus the widths of NLR in these three objects are likely to be significantly over-estimated. Only poor quality \[OIII\] profiles are available for MS 22102+1827 and PG 1404+226, and VVG mentioned that broad blueshifted \[OIII\] profiles should not be overlooked in PG 1404+226. These five objects will be excluded in the following statistic analysis. The galactic bulge mass of IC 4329A, which clearly deviates from other AGN in the Figure 1 in Nelson (2000), is one of the smallest in the Wandel (1999) sample of about $`10^{10.6}`$ solar mass. However, the bulge velocity dispersion derived from the \[OIII\] width of IC 4329A is one of the largest. The small bulge mass but large bulge velocity in this object compared with others in the Wandel (1999) sample is in contradiction with the Faber-Jackson relation. The high resolution radio map of IC 4329A consists of a compact core and with extended component to several kpc (Unger et al. 1987). If the extended component is the radio jet, then the large \[OIII\] width can be due to the non-virial component (Nelson & Whittle 1996). This object will also be removed from the sample in the following analysis.

Considering both the NL Seyfert 1 galaxies and NL QSOs in VVG and BL AGN in the Nelson (2000) sample, a Spearman rank correlation tests gives a strong correlation between $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ for 78 AGN with a correlation coefficient of $`R_\mathrm{s}=0.613`$ corresponding to a probability of $`P_\mathrm{s}=2.4\times 10^9`$ that the correlation is caused by a random factor, which can be fitted by a line with a slope of $`3.64\pm 0.21`$ using an ordinary least-squares (OLS) bisector111 One should be cautious, as the use of OLS can be very misleading: linear fits not accounting for errors are known to underestimated the true slope of the relation. Merritt & Ferrarese (2001a), for example, have argued that the shallower slope found for the M-$`\sigma `$ relation by Gebhardt et al. (2000) is due mostly to a bias introduced by neglecting the observational errors. In our sample, however, it is hard to assign errorbars to the BH masses and velocity dispersions for galaxies. (Isobe et al. (1990)) (represented by the solid line in the left panel of Figs. 1 and 2). This slope agrees well with the one defined in nearby hot galaxies derived by Gebhardt et al. (200a), but deviates from the one derived by Merritt & Ferrarese (2001a), and the MBH mass in AGN seems smaller than the one in nearby hot galaxies by 0.5 dex. If we only consider NL Seyfert 1 galaxies and NL QSOs (51 objects), the correlation is also moderately significant with $`R_\mathrm{s}=0.553`$ ($`P_s=2.6\times 10^5`$), which can be fitted by a line with a slope of $`2.70\pm 0.28`$ using the OLS bisector (represented by the dotted line in the left panel of Figs. 1 and 2). Compared with the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation defined by nearby hot galaxies (Gebhardt et al. 2000a), we find the MBH mass in NLS1s is smaller than that in nearby hot galaxies by $`0.5`$ dex. However, we may not be able to draw a conclusion that the MBHs in NLS1s (or AGN) are systematically smaller than that in nearby hot galaxies at a given bulge velocity dispersion if the uncertainties in the estimation of MBH mass (about 0.5 dex) and possible overestimation of the \[OIII\] width (see following paragraph) are considered.

As discussed in § 2.2, the low spectral resolution could introduce an overestimation of the \[OIII\] width, probably by a factor of 1.2—1.5. The relationship between $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ are re-plotted in the right panel of Figure 2 by correcting this overestimation of a moderate factor 1.3 for NLS1s in VVG. Now, the correlation between $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ becomes very strong with a coefficient $`R_s=0.730`$ ($`P_s=3.8\times 10^{14}`$) for the combined sample (78 AGN), and can be fitted (using the OLS bisector) by

$$M_{\mathrm{BH}}=10^{(7.78\pm 0.005)}M_{}\left(\frac{\mathrm{FWHM}_{[\mathrm{OIII}]}/2.35}{200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{3.32\pm 0.38},$$
(2)
as shown by the solid line in the right panel of Figures 1 and 2. As seen in Figures 1 and 2, three objects, Mrk 382, Mrk 734 and PG 1448+273, which have the smallest \[OIII\] widths, deviate from the other NL objects. The reason that they have somewhat larger MBHs than others is not known. However, if excluding them, the correlation becomes even stronger with $`R_s=0.762`$ ($`P_s=2.0\times 10^{15}`$), which can be fitted (using OLS bisector) by

$$M_{\mathrm{BH}}=10^{(7.81\pm 0.006)}M_{}\left(\frac{\mathrm{FWHM}_{[\mathrm{OIII}]}/2.35}{200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{3.70\pm 0.51},$$
(3)
as shown by the dotted-long dashed line in the right panel of Figures 1 and 2. The scatter is large for this relation, which should be due to large uncertainties in both variables. Whether we exclude Mrk 382, Mrk 734 and PG 1448+273 or not, the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation for AGN (both NL and BL AGN) is consistent with that defined in nearby hot galaxies. It seems also that the slope of the fit agrees with the one found by Gebhardt et al. (2000a) for nearby hot galaxies and Nelson (2000) for AGN (see Fig. 2), but is different to the one derived by Merritt & Ferrarese (2001a) of 4.72 (see Fig. 1); more conclusive result needs precise measurement of both the MBH mass and bulge velocity dispersion. Again, the difference from the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation (Gebhardt et al. 2000a) in Log10$`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ or Log10$`\sigma `$ is about -0.5 or 0.1. The consistency of the MBH mass in NL Seyfert 1 galaxies and NL QSOs with the bulge velocity dispersion supports the result of Ferrarese et al. (2001) that the two NLS1s with measured MBH masses (by the reverberation mapping method) and bulge velocity dispersions (from stellar absorption lines) are consistent with $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation defined by nearby hot galaxies.

## 3 Discussion and Conclusion

In this paper, we find that there is no clear difference in the relation between $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ (the bulge velocity dispersion is represented by the \[OIII\] width for AGN) for both NL and BL AGN from the same relation defined by nearby hot galaxies (Gebhardt et al. 2000a; Ferrarese & Merritt 2000). Furthermore, the MBH masses and bulge velocity dispersions of NLS1s are thought to be consistent with the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation for other galaxies if we consider the overestimation in the \[OIII\] line width. This consistency suggests that NLS1s have small MBHs compared with BL AGN with similar non-thermal luminosity simply due to their host galaxies having small bulges compared to that of BL AGN. This may support one of the competing model of NLS1s, i.e., the low-mass/high accretion rate interpretation.

A simple evolutionary scenario proposed by Mathur (2000) is that NLS1s are likely to represent a crucial early and more obscured phase in the evolution of active galaxies based on the observational properties of NLS1s, such as super-solar metallicities and are unusually luminous in the far-infrared band etc. This evolutionary view has also been frequently suggested by other authors (Law-Green et al. (2000)). Although it is tentative that the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`\sigma `$ of NLS1s is consistent with the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation (Gebhardt et al. 2000a, Ferrarese & Merritt 2000), we cannot rule out the possibility that the MBHs in NLS1s are smaller than those in BL AGN or nearby hot galaxies at a given bulge velocity dispersion by a factor of several (say, 3), which means that Mathur’s scenario cannot simply be ruled out by our results. However, the claim of Mathur et al. (2001) that NLS1s have a significantly smaller MBH to bulge velocity dispersion ratio, which may be caused by some non-virial component in their \[OIII\] line width measurements, is discredited by our results.

Now we have more confidence in applying the reverberation mapping method to measure the masses of MBHs in AGN, since the MBH masses from reverberation mapping are consistent with the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation recently discovered for local galaxies (Gebhardt et al. 2000b ; Ferrarese et al. (2001); Nelson (2000)). Krolik (2000) pointed out, however, this consistence could be due to fortuitous mutual canceling of the systematic errors$``$including overestimation of the MBH mass by a fixed ratio by interpreting the emission line kinematics as gravitationally bound and underestimating the mass for planar-like BLR cloud distribution. If the narrowness of the permitted line width of NLS1s is due to a planar-like BLR viewed nearly “pole-on” (the “orientation model”: Osterbrock & Pogge 1985; Goldrich 1989; Puchnarewicz et al. 1992), the estimated MBH masses would be systematically smaller than the real one. Since the orientation is a random effect, we would expect that the estimated MBH masses in BL AGN are systematically larger than those in NLS1 by a similar factor of 10, considering of NLS1s broad line width are around $`1000`$ km s-1 while BL objects are typically about $`30005000`$ km s-1 (which means that the velocity of broad-line-emitting clouds would be underestimated by a factor of about 3 if both NLS1s and BL objects have a similar central engine and a flat broad line geometry), at a given stellar velocity dispersion. As we can see in Figure 1 and 2, masses of NL objects at a given bulge velocity dispersion are consistent with the trend of BL objects, which suggests that at least not all NLS1s can be regarded as “orientation” dependent.

It is generally believed that the activity in galactic nuclei is closely linked with the galaxy and bulge formation. Silk & Rees (1998) proposed that the powerful wind from the central engine can blow away the cold gas from the galaxy and terminate the accretion process when the output kinetic energy is comparable with the bound energy of the total gas in the galaxy. This results in a relation of the MBH mass to the stellar velocity dispersion of the form $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma ^5`$. The typical duration of the bright QSOs phase is required to be only about few $`10^7`$ yr from fitting the optical QSOs luminosity function by the mass function of dark matter halos predicted by standard hierarchical cosmogonies (Haehnelt et al. (1998)). It suggests that MBHs may grow at an accretion rate far above the Eddington rate before this brief optical bright phase and/or at a very low accretion rate via advection-dominated accretion flows lasting a Hubble time after this phase. Fabian (1999) further incorporated the Silk-Rees scenario in a model of obscured growth of MBHs. In his model, a MBH in the center of a galaxy accretes the surrounding material and emits a QSO/AGN-like spectrum which is absorbed by surrounding gas and dust. The wind from the central engine exerts a force on the gas and pushes it outwards. The central engine emerges when the Thomson depth in the $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation for bright AGN or NL objects is similar to that of the galaxies. Our result of a consistent $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}\sigma `$ relation in NLS1s favors the model of Fabian (1999).

Many works have been done on the relation between $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{bulge}}`$. There is still controversy about whether Seyfert galaxies have a small $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ to $`M_{\mathrm{bugle}}`$ ratio compared with local galaxies or not (Wandel 1999, McLure & Dunlop 2000). Czerny et al. (2000) claimed that NLS1s, at least, have a smaller $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ to $`M_{\mathrm{bugle}}`$ ratio, which could be due to nuclear star burst (or stellar formation and evolution) in NLS1s leading to a small mass to light ratio of bulges.

In the present paper, there are some caveats for both the estimation of the MBH mass and the bulge velocity. First, the empirical $`R_{\mathrm{BLR}}`$-$`L`$ relation is not fully tested for NLS1s. This relation is derived from a moderate-size sample of AGN, composed mainly of BL AGN (Kaspi et al. (2000)). Three of the four NLS1s in this sample closely follow the $`R_{\mathrm{BLR}}`$-$`L`$ relation. The lowest luminosity object, NGC 4051, shows a larger size of BLR than this empirical relation predicted. There is, at least, no obvious evidence against this empirical relation, although further confirmation is needed. Second, Nelson & Whittle (1996) identified two cases in which the \[OIII\] width can be significantly larger than the bulge velocity dispersion, i.e., presenting kpc linear radio sources or displaying distorting morphology. Though lacking in systematic study, NLS1s tend to possess similar radio properties to average radio-quiet Seyfert galaxies (Ulvestad et al. (1995)). Zheng et al. (1999) found that NLS1s in their sample are morphology relaxed. We also note that two NL objects included in the sample of Nelson & Whittle (1995) do not show systematic deviation. Also, the non-virial component of \[OIII\] lines has been subtracted for VVG objects. Therefore, our results should not be affected by the possible linear radio source in some objects.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments and suggestions. TW thanks the financial support from Chinese NSF through grant NSF-19925313 and from Ministry of Science and Technology. YL acknowledges the hospitality of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University.


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# Untitled Document

Angular Correlation in Double Photoionization of Atoms and the Role of the Observer

Dipankar Chattarji and Chiranjib Sur

*Department of Physics, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan 731 235, INDIA*

The problem of angular correlation in the double photoionization (DPI) of rare gas atoms is considered in some depth. We refer particularly to the efficiency operator for the detection of an electron by a detector having the shape of a right circular cylinder. The different factors in the efficiency operator are discussed in detail keeping in mind the fundamental epistemological question of the role of the observer ( or his equipment) in such experiments.

PACS No : 32.80.H, 32.80.F, 03.65.T,79.20.F

In this paper we wish to consider in some depth the problem of angular correlation between the two electrons emitted by an atom when it is doubly ionized by a photon.

Consider a randomly oriented rare gas atom in a $`{}_{}{}^{1}S_{}^{e}`$ state. The atom absorbs a photon and after a certain time interval emits a photo-electron from one of the inner shells giving a singly ionized atomic state. This intermediate ionic state now de-excites by emitting an Auger electron, typically from an outer shell, giving rise to a two-vacancy final atomic state. We can denote this sequence of events as follows.

$$h\nu +𝐀𝐀^++e_1^{}𝐀^{++}+e_1^{}+e_2^{}.$$
(1)
A polar plot of the observed distribution of coincidences between the two emitted electrons as a function of the angle between their directions of emission shows a clear periodic behaviour . The question we ask is: what is the origin of this angular correlation? Could it have anything to do with the equipment used to detect the electrons? On the face of it, this last question may not seem so obvious. It will, however, become clearer as we proceed with our discussion.

Double photoionization (DPI) occurs when an atomic target like the one described above is irradiated with a monochromatic photon beam from an advanced light source, e.g. a synchrotron. Along with single photoionization (PI), there may be events in which two electrons are emitted by an atom in quick succession. In case the time interval between the successive emission of the two electrons is substantially longer than the time taken by the first electron to leave the interaction zone, DPI may be regarded as a two-step process . In other words, the emission of the two electrons may be regarded as being clearly separated in time. This in its turn will depend on the energy imparted to the atom by the incident photon.

We wish to obtain an angular correlation function for the two emitted electrons in terms of the angle between their directions of emission. We shall do this by considering an ensemble of such atomic systems belonging to all possible quantum mechanical states $`Q`$. Each state $`Q`$ is labeled by the total angular momentum $`J`$, its projection $`M`$, and the remaining set of quantum numbers $`\alpha `$.

The angular correlation function $`W(\theta )`$ for the two emitted electrons is the probability that the angle between their directions of emission is $`\theta `$. Evidently this is a statistical quantity, and $`W(\theta )`$ would have to be the ensemble average of the above probability.

Now, how do we determine this probability? Hopefully, we let the atomic system attain the final state given in Eq.(1), we set up two detectors at a suitable distance from the reaction zone with their axes making an angle $`\theta ^{}`$ with each other, and we try to detect coincidences between the photo- and Auger electrons. The number of coincidences we can hope to detect will depend on two distinct factors.

(i) There is a certain probability for the atomic system to attain the final state. This is described by the appropriate matrix element of the density or statistical operator $`\rho `$ .

(ii) Even if the system goes over to the final state, because of the finite size of the detecting equipment and other limiting factors, a coincidence event may or may not be detected. There is thus a finite probability $`ϵ(0ϵ1)`$ that the event will be detected. This probability is represented by the efficiency operator $`\epsilon `$. It will depend on the size, position and geometrical configuration of the detecting equipment, but not its internal physical or chemical nature provided that there is full absorption of an electron within the material of the detector . The emphasis is on those geometrical properties of the detecting system which enable it to accurately determine the direction of emission of an electron.

Obviously, $`W(\theta )`$ will be given by the joint probability of the formation of the final state and its detection by the detecting equipment, i.e. by the product of $`\rho `$ and $`\epsilon `$. For a given state $`Q`$ this joint probability will be $`\rho \epsilon `$ . The average probability $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ for the ensemble will be given by the trace of the product matrix. We write

$$\begin{array}{cc}\overline{\epsilon }& =_Q\epsilon _QQ\left|\rho \right|Q\\ & =_Q\epsilon _Q\rho _{QQ}\\ & =Tr(\epsilon \rho )\\ & =Tr(\rho \epsilon ).\end{array}$$
(2)
Here $`\epsilon _Q`$ is the efficiency or probability of detection of the state described by the quantum numbers $`Q`$, and $`\rho _{QQ}`$ the probability of the system being in the particular state $`Q`$ . Both $`\epsilon `$ and $`\rho `$ are tensor operators.

Since the angular correlation function happens to be the trace of a matrix , it will be invariant under a unitary transformation in Hilbert space.

Another property of the system arises from the random orientation of the rare gas atoms. The electrons emitted by them are unpolarized and will, on the average, have spherical symmetry. Spherical symmetry will also hold *effectively* if the detector is insensitive to polarization. Hence the angular correlation function itself can depend only on scalar invariants formed of the unit momentum vectors of the two emitted electrons $`\widehat{𝐩_1}`$ and $`\widehat{𝐩_2}`$. These invariants are given by the scalar product of spherical tensors , as follows:

$$\begin{array}{cc}𝐂_k(\widehat{𝐩_1})𝐂_k(\widehat{𝐩_2})& =_mC_{km}(\widehat{𝐩_1})C_{km}^{}(\widehat{𝐩_2})\\ & =P_k(\widehat{𝐩_1}\widehat{𝐩_2})=P_k(cos\theta ).\end{array}$$
(3)
In Eq.(3) $`P_k(cos\theta )`$ is a Legendre polynomial. The index $`k`$ will be restricted to the allowed values of the resultant of the angular momenta $`j_1`$ and $`j_2`$ of the two emitted electrons. Out of these, odd values of $`k`$ will drop out because they would give odd parity.

Now, from the elements of statistical mechanics, we know that $`\overline{\epsilon }`$ is the expectation value (or average value) of the efficiency operator $`\epsilon `$ . It needs to be pointed out that this expectation value is a function of $`\theta `$. Thus the angular correlation function $`W(\theta )`$ is, to within a multiplying factor, just the expectation value of the efficiency operator for a given value of $`\theta `$. To be more precise, it represents the angle-dependent factor in the expectation value of the efficiency operator.

Now, based on physical considerations, can we find an expression for the efficiency operator?

We begin by noting that the efficiency operator represents the attenuation of the probability of detecting a particle (in our case it is an electron) caused by certain geometrical properties of the detecting system. Some of these factors were mentioned above. Let us now try to write down an expression for the efficiency operator for an electron in terms of those factors.

Obviously, a co-ordinate representation would be the most appropriate for the discussion of these factors. But what kind of co-ordinate system shall we use?

Because of the spherical symmetry of the system as discussed above, we use spherical polar co-ordinates. However, as soon as an emitted electron begins to interact with a detector, the spherical symmetry is lost. This is because, regardless of the type of counter used, the geometry is usually that of a right circular cylinder. Hence as the unpolarized electrons enter the detection zone they acquire an axial symmetry about the detector axis. This change in the symmetry of the system as we go from the reaction zone to the detection zone will have some bearing on our expression for the efficiency operator for unpolarized electrons.

In Fig.1, $`A_1`$ is the direction of the axis of a cylindrical detector, say a Geiger-Muller counter, of radius $`r`$ and thickness $`t`$ . The base of the detector is placed at a distance $`h`$ from the centre of the reaction zone, $`h`$ being parallel to $`A_1`$. The angular width of the detector as seen from the centre of the target is $`2\gamma `$, where $`tan\gamma =\frac{r}{h}`$. On a rough estimate, $`h`$ is usually about 10 cm.

Let $`A_1`$ represent the axis of the detector set up to detect the photo-electron, and $`A_2`$ the axis of the detector receiving the Auger electron. As shown in Fig. 1, the angle between the two axes is $`\theta ^{}`$. The directions $`D_1`$ and $`D_2`$ are the directions of emission of the photo- and Auger electrons respectively, their azimuthal angles measured with respect to the detector axes being $`\beta _1`$ and $`\beta _2`$.

We can now go back to the form of the efficiency operator corresponding to a single detector detecting an electron. It is a tensor operator of rank $`n`$ with $`(2n+1)`$ components. We assert that a reduced matrix element of the component labeled by $`\nu `$ of the tensor is given by

$$\epsilon _{n\nu }(jj^{})=\underset{\nu ^{}}{}z_nc_{n\nu ^{}}(jj^{})D_{\nu \nu ^{}}^n(\mathrm{}).$$
(4)
Here $`\nu `$ and $`\nu ^{}`$ are projection quantum numbers corresponding to the angular momentum $`n`$. $`z_n`$ is the attenuation factor due to the finite size of a detector. It is different for different values of $`n`$. $`D_{\nu \nu ^{}}^n(\mathrm{})`$ is an element of the rotation matrix for the three-dimensional rotation $`\mathrm{}=(\theta _1\theta _2\theta _3)`$, $`\theta _1,\theta _2,\theta _3`$ being Euler angles. $`\mathrm{}`$ represents an effective rotation of the observed direction of emission of the detected electron due to the finite angular size of the detector. And the factor $`c_{n\nu ^{}}(jj^{})`$ arises from the change of symmetry as the electron goes to the detection zone from the reaction zone.

Now let us try to understand the genesis of each of these factors.

(a) *Attenuation due to absorption in a detector of finite size*. Let $`x(\beta )`$ be the distance traversed in a detector by an electron incident on its base at an angle $`\beta `$ with the axis. Let $`\tau `$ be the absorption coefficient of the material inside the detector. Then the absorption will be proportional to $`(1exp(\tau x(\beta )))`$. Since this depends on the azimuthal angle $`\beta `$, each term in the Legendre polynomial expansion of the angular correlation function will get multiplied by a different attenuation factor due to absorption.

Let us first consider the case of a single detector detecting, say, a photo-electron. Here we can think in terms of an angular distribution measurement. The angular distribution too can be written out as a Legendre polynomial expansion. The attenuation factor multiplying $`P_n(cos\beta )`$ will be ,

$$z_n=\frac{J_n}{J_0},$$
(5)
where

$$J_n=_o^\gamma P_n(cos\beta )(1exp(\tau x(\beta )))sin\beta 𝑑\beta .$$
(6)
For an angular correlation experiment with two detectors having finite size attenuation factors $`z_n(1)`$ and $`z_n(2)`$ the total attenuation factor for the $`n`$th term will be

$$Z_n=z_n(1)z_n(2).$$
(7)
(b) *Rotational attenuation due to finite angular size of the detector*. Let $`D_1`$ be the direction in which the photo-electron is emitted by the rare gas atom. As shown in Fig.1, $`D_1`$ makes an angle $`\beta _1`$with the axis $`A_1`$ of the detector. But, whatever be the value of $`\beta _1`$, the observer will take the direction of emission of the photo-electron to be given by $`A_1`$. In other words, there will be an effective rotation of the direction of emission. Denoting this rotation by $`\mathrm{}_1`$, the corresponding factor in the expression for the efficiency operator of the detector receiving the photo-electron will be $`D_{\nu \nu ^{}}^n(\mathrm{}_1)`$.

For an angular correlation experiment such as ours, the directions of emission of the photo- and Auger electrons will undergo the effective rotations, say, $`\mathrm{}_1`$ and $`\mathrm{}_2`$ respectively. The corresponding factor in the expression for the resulting efficiency operator will be $`D_{\nu _2\nu _1}^n(\mathrm{}_2^1\mathrm{}_1)`$ .

( c ) *Attenuation factor corresponding to the state of polarization*. We have already discussed the axial symmetry acquired by unpolarized electrons as they enter the detection zone. What does this do to their quantum mechanical state?

Let us first consider the semi-classical vector model. Axial symmetry about the detector axis implies that the angular momentum vector of an electron can only lie in the plane perpendicular to that axis, i.e. the $`xy`$ plane. Obviously, the $`z`$-component of its angular momentum will be zero. Now going over to quantum mechanics, only those states will survive for which $`\nu =0`$. This calls for a projection operator having the form

$$c_{n\nu }(jj^{})=N_{jj^{}n}C_{\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{2}0}^{jj^{}n}\delta _{\nu 0},$$
(8)
where $`N_{jj^{}n}`$ is a normalizing factor which turns out to be $`\frac{\sqrt{2j+1}\sqrt{2j^{}+1}}{4\pi }(1)^{j\frac{1}{2}+n}`$ . In other words, only the factor $`c_{n0}(jj^{})`$ enters into our expression for the efficiency operator.

A formal derivation of this result is given in our paper under reference . However, that derivation does not quite relate to the attenuation properties of a detector. On the other hand, we feel that our present approach is physically more transparent. It also has the virtue of throwing some light on a couple of questions of fundamental epistemological interest. Does the observer (or his equipment) have a role in this type of experiment? If so, what is that role like? Obviously, such questions can be important from the standpoint of the theory of measurement.

Calculation of the angular correlation function can now go through as in reference . We finally get

$$\begin{array}{ccc}W(\theta )& =& _kz_k(1)z_k(2)(1)^{j_1+j_2}c_{k0}(j_1j_1^{})c_{k0}^{}(j_2j_2^{})\\ & & \times w(J_bJ_b^{}j_1j_1^{},kJ_a)w(J_bJ_b^{}j_2j_2^{},kJ_c)P_k(cos\theta ),\end{array}$$
(9)
where the $`w`$’s are Racah coefficients, $`j_1`$ and $`j_2`$ are angular momenta of the photo- and Auger electrons, $`J_a,J_b,J_c`$ the angular momenta of the atom in its initial, intermediate and final states respectively. Here $`k`$ is an even integer ranging from $`0`$ to $`k_{max}`$, $`k_{max}`$ being defined as follows. Let $`\{\left\{j_1+j_1^{}\right\}_{max},\left\{j_2+j_2^{}\right\}_{max}\}_{min}=p`$. Then

$$\begin{array}{ccc}k_{max}& =& pifpiseven,\\ & =& (p1)ifpisodd.\end{array}$$

The set of primed angular momentum quantum numbers represent virtual states which may arise from possible interaction with other atoms and electrons.

Our results for the double photoionization of xenon are discussed in reference  in some detail.

One of the authors (CS) in indebted to the University Grants Commission of India for support in the form of a junior research fellowship.

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Rabindranath Tagore, whose discussion with Albert Einstein on the epistemology of science may be recalled in this connection .

\________________

1. B. K$`\ddot{a}`$mmerling and V. Schmidt, J.Phys.B 26, 1141(1991)
2. D. Chattarji and C. Sur, J. of Electron Spect. and Rel. Phen. 114-116, 153(2001)
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5. M. E. Rose, Phys. Rev. 91, 610(1953)
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8. D. M. Brink and G. R. Satchler, Angular Momentum, 2nd ed., 55(Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1968)
9. D. ter Haar, Elements of Statistical Mechanics, 150 (Holt, Reinhart and Winston, New York, 1960)
10. D. Chattarji and C. Sur, submitted to Phys. Rev. A (2001)
11. Dmitri Marianoff, The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 10, 1930

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Fig 1 : Geometrical arrangement of the detectors


text:
# Green fluorescent proteins as optically-controllable elements in bioelectronics

11footnotetext: E-mail: vp@sns.it

## Abstract

A single-biomolecule optical toggle-switch is demonstrated based on a mutated green fluorescent protein (GFP). We have exploited molecular biology techniques to tailor GFP molecular structure and photophysical properties and give it optically-controlled bistability between two distinct states. We present optical control of the fluorescence dynamics with two laser beams at 476 and 350 nm down to the ultimate limit of single molecules. These results indicate that GFP-class fluorophores are promising candidates for the realization of biomolecular devices such as volumetric optical memories and optical switches.

PACS numbers: 85.65.+h; 87.15.Mi; 81.07.Nb

The optical control of the molecular structure of materials is an attractive way to store and manipulate data at high spatial resolution . Promising candidates for this application are photochromic molecules that exhibit photoinducible isomerization between forms with different optical properties. The potential of photochromism has generated a large interest in the synthesis of new photosensitive materials and in the development of new techniques for their use . In this framework, some biological systems, like bacteriorhodopsin and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) of the Aequorea victoria jellyfish, are offering naturally-evolved optimized structures with unique properties that can be further tailored for specific applications by genetic engineering . While bacteriorhodopsin has already been the subject of an intense research effort and was proposed for a broad range of bioelectronic applications , GFP potential for bioelectronics is still largely unexplored in spite of the advantage of a very efficient fluorescence emission that allows detection down to the single-molecule level .

GFP has emerged in recent years as a unique fluorescent marker in molecular and cell biology . Molecular engineering is playing a fundamental role in designing GFP mutants with modified spectral characteristics, enhanced brightness, photostability, quantum yield, and other properties tailored for different applications. GFP fluorescence dynamics is characterized by transitions between bright and dark states which, at the single-molecule level, leads to reversible turning on and off (blinking) and ultimate switching off (photobleaching) of the emission .

The availability of distinct ground states is a requirement for the development of high-density volumetric optical memories and optical switches. Other important issues, however, must be addressed such as efficient control of the photoconversion between these different states and achievement of high spatial resolution. A first important step in this direction was the observation of photobleaching reversal in two yellow-shifted GFP mutants by means of prolonged (5 min) irradiation at 405 nm by a Hg arc lamp . Control of photoconversion between dark and bright states is not achievable with other GFP mutants like the F64L/S65T GFP (enhanced GFP, EGFP), one of the most common optical markers in biology .

In this letter we demonstrate that one specific point mutation (T203Y, threonine into tyrosine at position 203 in the amino-acid sequence) enables the optical control of transitions between two distinct states down to the ultimate limit of single molecules. We show that it is possible to induce unlimited optically-controllable cycles between fluorescent and dark configurations by means of two laser beams at the wavelengths of 476 and 350 nm. Additionally a model for the observed photophysics is suggested based on the selectivity of photoconversion on the excitation wavelength.

EGFP and T203Y EGFP (E2GFP in the following) molecules  were obtained as recombinant proteins and studied both in solution and trapped in polyacrylamide (PAA) gel films ($``$10 $`\mu `$m thick) . Gel preparation provided pore sizes small enough for immobilization of proteins while maintaining their native conformation . At sufficiently low fluorophore concentration (around 5 ng/cm2), optical emission from isolated single molecules and cluster could be observed. Clusters originate from unavoidable inhomogeneities of the PAA gel that act as localization centers for the fluorophores . By comparing fluorescence intensities of single molecules (see below) and clusters, we could establish that clusters are typically composed of approximately one hundred molecules. For both molecules, room-temperature fluorescence was excited by an Argon-ion laser at 476 nm. Radiation at 406 nm and 350 nm was provided by an Argon/Krypton-ion laser. The two lasers were focused onto a circular field of view of $``$10 $`\mu `$m2 in PAA gels by a 100$`\times `$ 1.3 N.A. oil-immersion objective and GFP molecules were imaged by an intensified CCD camera (0.1 s integration time).

E2GFP absorption measurements were performed on 300 $`\mu `$l solution (70 $`\mu `$M) prepared from PBS (phospate buffered saline) at pH=7.0 and display an equilibrium between two states (see Fig. 1 upper panel, dotted line) analogous to that of wild-type GFP . The absorption peaks at 400 and 515 nm suggest that these states (A and B) are associated to the protonated neutral and deprotonated anionic form of the chromophore, respectively . On the contrary, EGFP shows a very different equilibrium strongly favoring state B (see Fig.1 lower panel, dotted line). Fluorescence after excitation of state B is shown in Fig.1 for both mutants (solid lines). In the case of E2GFP, fluorescence peaks at 523 nm and is red-shifted with respect to EGFP (512 nm). Excitation of state A in both molecules produces a similar but weaker fluorescence signal which was interpreted in wild-type GFP in terms of excited-state photoconversion from A to B through a proton-transfer process .

Single-molecule studies were performed in gel-trapped samples. We observed blinking and photobleaching into a long-lasting dark state (state C in the following) within few seconds after excitation at 476 nm. The top histogram of Fig. 2, however, shows that photoconversion from state C back into state B of E2GFP is possible and can be driven by irradiation at 350 nm. The histogram reports the fluorescence intensity of an E2GFP cluster in PAA gel composed of approximately 50 molecules after alternate 10 s-long excitation at 476 nm and 2 s at 350 nm (0.2 kW/cm2 at both wavelengths). The measurements are an extract of an arbitrarily-extendable experiment and show photobleaching by excitation at 476 nm and efficient photoconversion from C to B by irradiation at 350 nm. In order to rule out possible changes in the ground-state configuration after excitation in the UV, we also analyzed the E2GFP emission lineshapes after photoconversion. The lineshapes (data not shown) are identical to that reported in Fig.1 confirming that the 350 nm irradiation indeed converts the protein back to the original state B. In addition, we noted selectivity of photoconversion on wavelength: radiation at 406 nm (from 0.1 to 10 kW/cm2) instead of 350 nm favored E2GFP photobleaching indicating that state C is distinct from state A. The bottom histogram shown in Fig. 2 presents the analogous experiment for an EGFP cluster. Following the initial photobleaching, no significant recovery is observed. This shows unambiguously that photoconversion originates from the single point-mutation T203Y.

States B and C thus encode a (0, 1) bit that can be stored and manipulated in the protein. However, in a memory device we must be able to write, read and erase data. These operations can be accomplished with E2GFP. One possible implementation is to exploit photoconversion from C to B with irradiation at 350 nm (WRITE), fluorescence emission following weak excitation at 476 nm (READ) and photobleaching (B to C) (ERASE). The last process can be induced by intense or prolonged excitation at 476 nm.

One important issue for advanced bioelectronic applications concerns the possibility to address the protein state at the single-molecule level. To this end we investigated the limit for the observation of E2GFP optical switching presented above. Individual E2GFP molecules in state B were imaged as bright spots at the resolution limit of the optical setup ($``$0.3 $`\mu `$m). The fluorescence intensity of single spots ($``$300 CCD counts) was similar to EGFP and displayed the characteristic signatures of single-molecule emission. Most of the molecules, in fact, blinked and then photobleached within 10 s under excitation at 476 nm. However, compared to EGFP, we typically observed longer duration of E2GFP emission. Blinking events were detected at longer times (up to $``$1 min). Figure 3 shows that controlled photoconversion is achieved both on E2GFP clusters and E2GFP single molecules. In this latter case, the same molecule (three lower images) was repeatedly photobleached by excitation at 476 nm (ERASE), photoconverted with 350 nm laser irradiation (WRITE) and its fluorescent emission detected with 100 ms integration time (READ). The three upper images of the figure show efficient photoconversion for a cluster of around one hundred molecules and confirm the behavior of the histograms shown in the top part of Fig. 2.

In order to rationalize the observed differences between E2GFP and EGFP, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of the whole proteins using the AMBER suite of programs . Figure 1 shows our results for anionic states B in the two mutants (chromophores and their immediate environment). Similarly to other T203Y mutants, tyrosine at site 203 interacts with the chromophore through $`\pi `$-stacking . In E2GFP, this $`\pi `$-stacking and the peculiar hydrogen bonding around the chromophore phenolic ring cause the red-shift and destabilize state B in favor of state A as observed in the absorption and emission spectra reported in Fig. 1 . These simulations suggest that the peculiar hydrogen-bond network resulting from the point mutation at position 203 is responsible for the photoconvertibility between bright (B) and dark (C) states. Photobleaching and photoconversion most probably involve a change in the protonation state of the chromophore, i.e. a proton transfer. The inset in the top panel of Fig.2 describes a working model of E2GFP photophysics based on these results. The equilibrium between states A and B as schematically indicated by the arrows follows the results of Ref. . Our data indicate that we must include two additional distinct states responsible for blinking and photobleaching. The zwitterion was indicated as the chromophore form associated to the blinking dark state Z . The latter reference also discusses the equilibrium between Z and B states. Additionally our experiments show photoconvertibility of E2GFP from C to B following absorption at 350 nm (i.e. from the C\* excited state to B) and from B to C following absorption at 476 nm (i.e. from the B\* excited state to C). We should like to underline that this situation differs from what observed in yellow-shifted GFP mutants . In the latter case photoconversion was reported between states A and B without invoking an additional chromophore state. Further analysis based on ab-initio calculations is required to identify the nature of C and the precise mechanism of conversion among the different configurations. We do expect that this analysis will make it possible to suggest new mutations able to further tune the potential barriers separating different states.

In conclusion, we demonstrated that a single point mutation T203Y of the enhanced green fluorescent protein yields a photochromic behavior and an optically controlled molecular toggle-switch by means of two focused laser beams at different wavelengths. We showed that controlled and efficient photoconversion between two distinct ground states is possible down to the ultimate limit of the single molecule. We argue that this process can represent the basis for the implementation of dense volumetric GFP-based optical memories that exploit the fluorescent properties of single proteins. Finally we note that the photoconversion of E2GFP opens the way to advanced biological applications where prolonged monitoring of GFP-tagged molecules in live cells is required. This may lead to a new level of resolution in the study of biomolecular processes.

Acknowledgements. Work at Scuola Normale Superiore was funded in part by MURST. We thank Valentina Tozzini for useful discussions.