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# Design Study of CANGAROO-III, Stereoscopic Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes for sub-TeV Gamma-ray Detection

## 1 Introduction

CANGAROO-III is an Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope (IACT) array observing very high-energy (sub-TeV) gamma-rays from the universe. The four 10 m diameter telescopes can operate independently or as an array.

The CANGAROO experiment is located in Woomera, South Australia. It started from a 3.8-m telescope (CANGAROO-I) in 1992. The second stage, CANGAROO-II, commenced in 1999 with the construction of a 10 m telescope mount with a mirror initially of 7 m diameter. The mirror was extended to 10 m in 2000 . CANGAROO-III will be an array of four telescopes, with the existing CANGAROO-II telescope being the first of these.

We studied the basic design parameters for the next three telescopes using the Monte Carlo technique. Similar studies have been carried out previously, for example by the VERITAS  and HESS  groups. We started from optimized parameters obtained by a previous study and our experience with CANGAROO-I, and verified those results. The pixel size and the telescope spacing were optimized. Also, some studies concerning the geomagnetic field effects and the possibility of large zenith angle observations were included.

## 2 Monte Carlo

Electromagnetic and hadronic shower simulations in the air using a Monte-Carlo code were conducted based on GEANT3.21 . In this method, the atmosphere is divided into 80 layers of equal thickness ($`12.9g/cm^2`$). Each layer corresponds to less than a half radiation length. The dependence of results on the number of layers was checked by halving the number of layers and was confirmed to be less than a 10% effect. The lower energy threshold for particle transport was set at 20 MeV, which is less than the Cherenkov threshold of electrons at normal temperature and pressure (NTP). Most Cherenkov light is emitted higher in the atmosphere, i.e., at less pressure and a higher Cherenkov threshold. The geomagnetic field at the Woomera site (South Australia) was included in the simulations (0.253 gauss in horizontal and 0.520 gauss in vertical directions, and 6.8 degrees off from south).

In order to save CPU time, Cherenkov light was tracked in the simulations only when it was initially directed to the mirror area. The average mirror reflectivity and the measured photo-multiplier (PMT) quantum efficiency were multiplied by the Frank-Tamm equation to derive the total amount of light and its wavelength dependence. A Rayleigh-scattering length of $`2970(\lambda /400nm)^4`$ $`[g/cm^2]`$ was used in transport to the ground . No Mie scattering was assumed in this study. The contribution of Mie scattering is thought to be at the 10–20% level, and we therefore consider this study to have uncertainties at at least this level. When Rayleigh scattering occurred, we treated it as absorption. The diameter of each spherical mirror segment is 80 cm. We assumed a perfect spherical shape (i.e., no deformation and no blur spot) with the CANGAROO-II geometry . The main telescope parameters are listed in Table 1.

The average measured reflectivity of 80% at 400 nm was adopted. The curvature of the mirror segments is 16.4 m. In total, 114 mirrors were aligned in a parabolic shape with a focal length of 8 m.

For the simulations, we tried the use of four different camera designs:

Five hundred and seventy-six 1/2′′ PMTs of the same type as the CANGAROO-II camera . With a pixel spacing of 0.112, the total field of view (FOV) was $`2.7^{}\times 2.7^{}`$ square.

Five hundred and seventy-six 3/4′′ PMTs. A pixel spacing of 0.168 yields a FOV of 4 square.

Two hundred and fifty-six 3/4′′ PMTs, with a FOV of 2.7 square.

Five hundred and seventy-six 3/4′′ PMTs with a smaller PMT separation than in setup 2: a pixel spacing of 0.147 and a FOV of 3.5.

The shape of the photocathodes was assumed to be circular. Each PMT had a light guide above the surface of the photo-cathode. The gain in light yield was assumed to be 1.6 compared to the case without it.

In order to simulate cosmic-ray background events, we generated only protons with a differential energy spectrum of $`E^{2.7}`$. The minimum and maximum energies of the generated range were 100 and 5000 GeV, respectively, in the case of zenith injection. For the large zenith angle study, we increased the maximum energy to 20 TeV. The maximum core distance of simulated showers was 300 m in radius for the zenith injection. We also increased it for the large angle injection. For example, we used 1000 m for 55 injection. The maximum offset angle for cosmic-ray showers was 5 degrees. We generated typically 100,000 events for each setup.

For gamma-ray cascades, we chose $`E^{2.5}`$ spectrum (Crab-like spectrum ). The minimum and maximum of the generated energies were 50 and 5000 GeV, respectively, for cascades from the zenith, with the maximum increased for the low elevation simulations.

Finally, electronics noise was added and the timing responses were smeared using Gaussian of 4 nsec ($`\sigma `$). We also added Night Sky Background (NSB) photons, conservatively selecting to double Jelley’s value of $`2.55\times 10^4erg/cm^2/sec/sr`$ (430-550 nm) .

## 3 Analysis

First, we applied a threshold for the PMT pulse-heights. The threshold was set at 5 photoelectrons. This greatly reduced the effect of NSB photons. Second, we applied a clustering cut. Only PMTs exceeding the threshold (“hits”) and having more than two adjacent hits were selected (t3a clustering). A hit map of an event is shown in Figure 1.

The left figures are for telescope-1 and the right are for telescope-2. The spacing of the telescopes was 100 m. The box sizes are proportional to the number of photoelectrons. The upper figures were obtained without this clustering and the lower ones used this clustering cut. Isolated pixels triggered by NSB photons were all removed by this operation.

The selection of gamma-ray events was carried out using the standard imaging analysis technique. The imaging analysis was based on parameterization of the Cherenkov light image by its “width,” “length,” “conc” (shape), “distance” (location), and the image orientation angle ($`\alpha `$) . The energy dependence of some parameters is shown in Figure 2.

For example, “length” has a linear correlation with the logarithm of energy. We, therefore, used a linearly corrected “length” instead of the original one. We applied similar corrections to the other parameters.

Using these parameters, except for $`\alpha `$, we carried out a likelihood analysis in order to separate gamma-ray–like showers from hadron-like showers . In order to make a probability density function (PDF), we generated two kinds of Monte Carlo event samples. The gamma-ray sample was made assuming the primary flux to be proportional to $`E^{2.5}`$ (the spectrum of the Crab pulsar ). The hadron sample assumed a spectrum of $`E^{2.7}`$. Using these two samples, we made PDFs from histograms of the shower parameters. We calculated the probability on an event-by-event basis of the event being due to a gamma-ray using

$$Prob=\mathrm{\Pi }\{Prob(i,\gamma )/(Prob(i,\gamma )+Prob(i,p))\},$$

where the suffix i refers to the shower parameters. A cut was subjected to the parameter $`\chi ^2`$s, which is $`2\mathrm{ln}(Prob)`$, as shown in Figure 3.

The smaller $`\chi ^2`$ events are likely to be gamma-ray events. The blank histograms are for gamma-ray events and the hatched one for hadrons. The left hand figure is for a single-telescope analysis, and the right one is for a stereo (two telescope) analysis. In analyzing the stereo case, the probability was calculated by $`Prob(telescope1)\times Prob(telescope2)`$. The signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) were greatly improved by stereoscopic observations while maintaining shower detection efficiency when both telescopes have analyzable images.

## 4 Pixel Size

The present pixel spacing of the CANGAROO-II camera is 0.112 . This is based on the use of 1/2′′ PMTs and is the setup 1 described previously. This setup has a FOV of 2.7 square. With this FOV, we are forced to conduct so-called “Long ON/OFF” mode for observations . For example, a 3 hr “ON” source observation and a 3 hr “OFF” source observation may be made during one night. This operation reduces the observation period significantly — by a factor of two. In order to carry out ON and OFF source observations simultaneously, we need a FOV of approximately 4. As the major part of shower images for gamma-rays are typically contained within a 1 circle, we investigated the use of setup 2, with a larger PMT size (3/4′′ circular photocathode). Because of the weight limitation due to the telescope structure, we can not increase the camera weight very much . We compared the shower image parameters for both cases, as shown in Figure 4.

The deterioration of $`\alpha `$ resolution is very small, as shown in Figure 4c). The width deteriorates slightly due to the pixel-size effect, but not that greatly (Figure 4b). The length, however, changed significantly (Figure 4a). In order to check the FOV effect, we tried setup 3, i.e., the same PMT size as setup 2 but the same FOV as setup 1. From Figure 4a it is apparent that the deterioration in length is due to the change in the FOV. We conclude that the smaller FOV deforms the length distribution and that setup 2 is preferred.

A 3/4′′ PMT has a diameter of $`18.6\pm 0.7`$ mm. In setup 2, the spacing of the PMTs was 24 mm. A clearance of 5 mm was kept. We tried setup 4 with a spacing of 21 mm (clearance of 2 mm). Comparisons in Figure 5 show that the difference is sufficiently small.

We again concluded that the setup 2 is a reasonable choice. In the real design of the CANGAROO-III camera, we have selected a “hexagonal” arrangement of PMTs with alternate rows offset by half a pixel.

## 5 Telescope Spacing

### 5.1 Stereo Mode

With a likelihood analysis and the above-mentioned camera design (“setup-2”), we proceeded to design a stereoscopic telescope system. Previous studies have investigated the effect of the telescope spacing . These indicated that a spacing within a range of 80 to 120 m is best. We, therefore, tested the range between 60 and 140 m. Here, we assumed two telescopes. We started from calculations of “effective area” versus the incident gamma-ray energy. Gamma-rays of various energies from the zenith were generated. The results are shown in Figure 6.

Here, the effective area is the product of the “real” effective area ($`m^2`$) and the Crab-like spectrum $`(E/GeV)^{2.5}`$ in order to show the effective threshold. Those curves were obtained after smoothing. They peak at around 200 GeV and are a decreasing function of the telescope spacing. The light pool on the surface has a radius of approximately 100 m. The coincidence rate of the two telescopes, therefore, decreases as the spacing increases.

In the stereoscopic mode, the images from the two telescopes should point to the same direction, i.e., to the source direction. The angular resolution of this method should improve with a larger telescope spacing due to the larger opening angles of images. This is shown in Figure 7.

In the figure, the curves “wiggle” below 100 GeV due to the lack of Monte-Carlo statistics, but the general trend of worsening angular resolution with decreasing energy is clear. This has an opposite energy dependence compared with that of the effective area. Typically, at around the threshold ($``$200 GeV), the angular resolution is 0.2 per shower.

For a point-source observation, we can define the following figure of merit (FOM) using the above two parameters:

$$FOM=\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}effectivearea\mathrm{"}/\sqrt{angularresolution}[m^2GeV^{2.5}(degree)^{0.5}].$$

This value is proportional to the statistical significance of the observations. The energy dependence of the FOM for various telescope spacings are plotted in Figure 8.

The FOM is maximized at the 80 m spacing. The dependency on the spacing, however, is small within this range. Also, the energy threshold for the stereoscopic mode was obtained to be 200 GeV. In conclusion, telescope spacings of between 60 and 140 m are all acceptable. We selected a 95–100 m spacing for the CANGAROO-III experiment.

### 5.2 Monocular Mode

We can operate multi-telescopes independently. We assumed that data from each telescope were recorded whenever it triggers, and that “stereo” triggering is done later in software analysis. We call this the “Monocular Mode”. In this mode, when all telescopes have the same pointing direction, we expected a much improved effective area, especially at low energies. The calculated effective area for the monocular mode is shown in Figure 9.

It was obtained under the trigger condition, in which one of two telescopes satisfies the analysis conditions. The gain in the effective area at lower energies is very much improved. The energy threshold of this mode was obtained to be 100 GeV. We hope that this mode will work as a “discovery mode”. At higher energies, such as 1 TeV, the effective areas for both the stereo and monocular modes coincide.

### 5.3 Large Angle Observation

It is well known that observations at large zenith angles (i.e., low elevation angles) are effective for higher energy measurements . This is due to an increase in an effective area because of the inclined injection of gamma-rays to the atmosphere. For example, we show the light pool on the Earth’s surface of a gamma-ray shower which is injected 55 inclined from the zenith (Figure 10 lower plot). The azimuthal direction of this injection is north-west. The camera of the setup-2 was used.

Here, we also used an 80-layer atmosphere and the GEANT package. Gamma-rays from the zenith make light pools with the density peaking at a radius of 120 m. The light profile is enlarged by a factor of $``$4, most notably in the longitudinal direction but also in the transverse direction. The upper plots are the focal-plane images of this shower. The drawback with this technique is that shower images shrink. The gamma/hadron discrimination, therefore, using shower parameters, deteriorates, reducing the S/N ratio and the $`\alpha `$ resolution is also worsened. Although the detection possibility for low elevation observing was proved by CANGAROO-I in observations of the Crab , we can justify the use of this technique even for stereoscopic modes. The differences in the shape parameter distributions are shown in Figure 11:

for distance, length, width, and $`\alpha `$. The $`\alpha `$ distribution still has a peak, as shown in Figure 11d. The other parameters also have differences between gamma-rays and hadrons. Although the gamma-ray images shrink, the hadron images shrink in the same way and it is still possible to discriminate between them.

In the case of a largely inclined shower, the geomagnetic effect becomes comparable with the intrinsic shower-image size in the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. In that direction, a deterioration of the angular resolution is expected . This means that a difference is introduced whether the telescopes are separated east-west or north-south. The difference in the angular resolutions is shown in Figure 12.

Clearly, an east-west setup is better than north-south. The second CANGAROO-III telescope will be built at a position 100 m West of the existing CANGAROO-II telescope.

Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of the large zenith angle stereoscopic observations in the case of the east-west setup. The FOM is shown in Figure 13.

Again, the spacings between 60 and 140 m are all acceptable. The FOM for the 100 m spacing is located near the maximum. The energy threshold of this mode at the zenith angle of 55 was obtained to be 700 GeV. At 700 GeV, the angular resolution obtained was 0.43 per shower. The effective area was $`1.2\times 10^5m^2`$ at 700 GeV.

## 6 Discussion

Considering the values obtained by this study, we determined the design of the second CANGAROO-III telescope. The location of the second telescope is 100 m west from the present CANGAROO-II telescope. The third and fourth telescopes will be located north and south from the baseline of the first two telescopes, i.e., at the corners of a diamond shape. The camera pixel spacing was determined to be 0.168 using 3/4′′ PMTs. A hexagonal alignment was adopted. The total field of view is a hexagonal shape approximately 4 across. The second telescope is scheduled to be built in 2001.

## 7 Conclusion

A design study of the CANGAROO-III telescope system was carried out using the Monte Carlo technique. The optimized pixel spacing is 0.168 with use of 3/4 inch PMT’s. This was carried out for gamma-rays from zenith positions. The telescope spacing for stereoscopic observations was optimized to be 100 m. The energy threshold at zenith was determined to be 200 GeV with an effective area of $`2.4\times 10^4m^2`$. The angular resolution per shower for stereo observations was 0.2 at 200 GeV, event by event bases. With this advantage, we can analyze profiles of the broad gamma-ray sources. For the monocular mode of the two-telescope system, the effective area was determined to be $`1.8\times 10^4m^2`$ with a threshold energy of 100 GeV. Low elevation observations, at a zenith angle of 55, were investigated and an effective area of $`1.2\times 10^5m^2`$ with an energy threshold of 700 GeV obtained. The angular resolution for stereo observations was 0.43 per shower at 700 GeV. CANGAROO-III will be constructed using these design parameters.

## Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Center of Excellence, and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture.


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# Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Gravitationally Lensed Cloverleaf Broad Absorption Line QSO H1413+1143: Imaging Polarimetry and Evidence for Microlensing of a Scattering Region1

## 1 Introduction

Broad absorption line (BAL) QSOs comprise $``$ 10% of the objects in optically selected QSO samples. Their defining characteristics are deep, high-velocity (usually $`<0.1c`$) absorption troughs blueward of high-ionization broad emission lines (BELs) in species such as Si IV, C IV, N V, and O VI (e.g. Turnshek 1988 and Weymann et al. 1991). They also have a distribution of linear polarizations which peaks at a significantly higher polarization in comparison to non-BAL radio-quiet QSOs (Schmidt & Hines 1999; Hutsemékers, Lamy & Remy 1998; Goodrich 1997; Turnshek 1988); indeed the origin of much of the polarization in most non-BAL QSOs is probably the Galactic interstellar medium.

The observed polarization properties of BAL QSOs depend on, and therefore contain relevant astrophysical information on, the geometries and physical properties of the inner regions of these QSOs (i.e. the narrow emission-line region, the dusty torus, the BAL region, the BEL region, any scattering regions, the thermal accretion disk, and any region producing non-thermal emission). Recent studies on the polarization properties of BAL QSOs (Schmidt & Hines 1999; Hutsemékers et al. 1998; Ogle 1998; Goodrich 1997) have shown that: (1) their continuum polarizations are, on average, significantly higher than non-BAL radio-quiet QSOs, with the degree of polarization rising mildly toward shorter wavelengths, (2) the BALs are more highly polarized than the continuum, with position angle rotations observed in the BAL troughs, (3) BELs in some BAL QSO spectra are polarized, but the degree of polarization is lower than in the continuum and the polarization position angles are not necessarily similar, and (4) there is some evidence that the degree of polarization is positively correlated with the BAL QSO’s balnicity index (defined by Weymann et al. 1991) and the presence of low-ionization BALs, with objects having higher balnicity indices and/or low-ionization BALs being more polarized on average.

While it is generally agreed that the scattered continuum is, in large part (if not totally), responsible for the observed net polarizations observed in BAL QSOs (e.g. Goodrich & Miller 1995; Ogle 1998; Schmidt & Hines 1999), the size-scales and geometries of the regions containing scattering particles (i.e. electrons and/or dust particles) are not yet well constrained. However, the gravitationally-lensed Cloverleaf BAL QSO H1413+1143 ($`z_{em}2.55`$) is at present a unique laboratory for study of the polarization mechanism. Its four components are known to have a combined net continuum polarization which has varied between $`1.53.5`$% over a decade (Goodrich & Miller 1995) and one of the four components (component D) shows evidence for microlensing in the form of light variability (see Angonin et al. 1990, Arnould et al. 1993, Remy et al. 1996, Ostensen et al. 1997, and new evidence presented here) and differences in BEL and BAL profile characteristics (Chae & Turnshek 1999 and references therein).

We know that, in principle, microlensing could alter the net polarization of a single gravitationally-lensed component, since this process selectively produces additional magnification of a small region of an Einstein ring radius on the source plane. The resulting polarization properties during microlensing would depend on the detailed geometry of the region where the polarized light originates (see Belle & Lewis 2000 for examples). Consequently, the observed component polarization properties during microlensing can be used to constrain the projected sizes of the scattering regions and their projected distances from any central black hole (i.e. the central region of the accretion disk).

In this Letter, we report the results of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) broadband F555W and F702W photometric and F555W polarimetric observations of the Cloverleaf. We find new evidence for microlensing of component D and show that component D has significantly different relative polarization properties than the other three components. In §2 we describe our observations and data analysis; in §3 we present the results; and in §4 we discuss the implications for models of the production of polarized light in BAL QSOs. We note that this paper is the fifth in a series of HST results on the Cloverleaf by members of our group. Earlier results include constraints on the sizes and shapes of absorbing regions producing the BALs (Turnshek 1995), constraints on the component image locations and magnifications (Turnshek et al. 1997), constraints on the properties of the intervening absorbers seen in the component spectra (Monier, Turnshek & Lupie 1998), and implications for gravitational-lens models of the Cloverleaf, including a constraint on BEL region size scales (Chae & Turnshek 1999).

## 2 Observations and Data Analysis

For this study the Cloverleaf QSO was observed at two closely-spaced epochs, 15-16 March 1999 and 23-24 June 1999. Broadband F555W filter observations were made with the Wide Field Camera 2 (WFC2) with either no polarizer or one of four polarizers (POLQ, POLQN18, POLQN33, POLQP15). Also, F702W filter observations were made with the Planetary Camera 2 (PC2) and no polarizer. The observations are summarized in Table 1 and numbered as a referencing convenience. Each F555W observation consisted of taking two sets of four dithered images. The pixel position of component A in the second set was chosen to coincide with that of component D in the first set. In addition to the normal procedures for identifying cosmic ray contamination of WFPC2 images, all pipeline processed images were also individually examined. Cosmic rays present near the Cloverleaf components were removed interactively and the data were replaced using interpolation. After sky subtraction, each set of images was combined via the variable-pixel linear reconstruction algorithm, or the “drizzling” algorithm (Fruchter & Hook 1998; Fruchter et al. 1997). Point spread function (PSF)-fitting photometry showed that the photometric results of the two sets for each observation were consistent with each other. Finally, all eight images in the two sets were drizzled to form one image. The procedure of taking dithered images and combining them via drizzling partially restores the PSF, thereby facilitating more accurate PSF-fitting photometry. Using the final drizzled image for each observation, an empirical PSF was constructed iteratively from the Cloverleaf components themselves, and then the Cloverleaf components were fitted simultaneously using this empirical PSF.111We could not use the “Tiny TIM” software to generate PSFs since it does not have the capability of incorporating the effects of the polarizing filters. We found that all individual images taken with the POLQN33 polarizer (for both epochs) and the POLQP15 polarizer (for the March epoch) had substantially modified PSFs in terms of FWHM and peak pixel value in comparison to images taken without polarizers. For the above procedures, the Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF) packages DAOPHOT and STSDAS were used. The reliability of the above PSF-fitting photometry was tested by visually examining the PSF-subtracted region and computing pixel statistics within the subtracted region; the mean pixel data number (DN) value within the region was $`|\overline{DN}|0.1\sigma `$ in all cases.

The observations were photometrically and polarimetrically calibrated using the standard “pipeline” calibration procedures implemented at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The goal of our program was not to make absolute measurements, but to detect any relative changes among the components and between the two epochs. Thus, the errors we quote based on our differencing procedures are statistical in nature. Our relative measurements and the resulting interpretation should not be affected by a small systematic error in the pipeline calibration.

The derived F555W photometric results without polarizers (i.e. observation numbers 1, 2, 3 and 11, 12, 13) were found to be highly consistent with one another. This served as an independent test, confirming the reliability of our method of photometry. The F702W photometric observations without polarizers (i.e. observation numbers 4, 5, 6 and 16, 17, 18) allowed us to fill up the remaining time available for exposures in a number of the orbits using a filter that had previously been used to observe the Cloverleaf, but without the goal of deriving photometry using drizzling. We found the statistical errors to be considerably reduced using the drizzling method.

In order to determine the Stokes parameters (I, Q, U), the F555W observations with polarizers were incorporated into the WFPC2 polarization calibration model (Biretta & McMaster 1997). The Stokes parameters are related to the degree of polarization ($`p`$) and the position angle ($`PA`$) via the relations $`p=(u^2+q^2)^{1/2}`$ and $`PA=(1/2)\mathrm{tan}^1(u/q)+n\pi /2`$ where $`qQ/I`$, $`uU/I`$, and $`n=0,1,2`$ for $`u0`$ and $`q0`$, $`u0`$ and $`q0`$ (or, $`u<0`$ and $`q<0`$), and $`u0`$ and $`q0`$, respectively. For the March epoch, six observations were incorporated simultaneously using a $`\chi ^2`$ fitting technique to determine the Stokes parameters.222For the March data we did not use the web-based WFPC2 polarization calibration tool or the IRAF $`IMPOL`$ package, since the former can take only three relative counts at one time while the latter takes the images themselves as input using only aperture photometry, which is less accurate for the “crowded” Cloverleaf field. It was possible to use the web-based WFPC2 polarization calibration tool for the June data. The $`\chi ^2`$ is defined by

$$\chi ^2=\underset{i}{}\left(\frac{C_i^{\text{obs}}C_i^{\text{mod}}(I,Q,U)}{\sigma _i}\right)^2,$$
(1)
where $`i=7,8,9,10,11,12`$ are the March observation numbers, $`C_i^{\text{obs}}`$ and $`C_i^{\text{mod}}`$ are the observed and calibration-model-predicted counts, respectively, and $`\sigma _i`$ are the statistical errors in the observed counts. The minimum $`\chi ^2`$ value was $`\chi _{\text{min}}^2<7`$, with 3 degrees of freedom for all components, indicating that there is a reasonable match between the model and the data. The $`1\sigma `$ statistical errors for each Stokes parameter were estimated using $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=\chi ^2\chi _{\text{min}}^2=1`$ (e.g. Press et al. 1992), and the statistical errors for $`p`$ and $`PA`$ were estimated assuming Gaussian error propagation. For the June epoch ($`i=19,20,21`$), the Stokes parameters were determined by solving $`C_i^{\text{obs}}=C_i^{\text{mod}}(I,Q,U)`$ for I, Q and U,5 with the statistical errors for the Stokes parameters being estimated using Gaussian error propagation of the photometric errors via these equations.

The results for the June epoch are much less reliable in comparison to the March results. There are two reasons for this. First, the June measurements were made at only three polarization angles, while the March measurements were made at six polarization angles. Second, according to the pipeline calibration, the degree of polarization is evidently smaller in June 1999, which gives rise to a lower signal-to-noise ratio for a fixed photometric error. Thus, the June results should not be given high weight. Since the March data show the polarization of components A, B and C to be similar, for the June epoch we report only the results for the combined measured polarization of components A, B and C, and we report the measured polarization of component D separately.

## 3 Results

Below we consider the results of our WFPC2 observations in two separate parts. First, we consider any evidence for photometric variations among the four lensed components of the Cloverleaf between the June 1999 and March 1999 epochs (§3.1, Table 2a,b). Second, we consider any evidence for differences in the linear polarization among the four lensed components (§3.2, Table 3).

### 3.1 Brightness Variation of Component D: Evidence for Microlensing

The photometric observations of the Cloverleaf without polarizers were used to search for and measure any brightness variations over the time baseline ($`100`$ days) which separated the two epochs of observation. As noted earlier, the individual F555W photometric results for each epoch were very consistent with one another; the average F555W photometric results for each epoch are reported in Table 2a,b. The average F702W photometric observations are also reported in Table 2a,b, but are less accurate. The photometric results are shown in Figure 1. They clearly indicate that component D decreased its brightness over the $`100`$ day time baseline, while the other three components either remained about the same brightness (i.e. components B and C) or slightly increased their brightness (i.e. component A). Assuming an insignificant wavelength dependence to the brightness variation over the F555W and F702W passbands, using variance-weighting we find $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_D=0.074\pm 0.004`$ mag and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_A=0.023\pm 0.004`$ mag. Evidence for brightness variations in components B and C are at the 2$`\sigma `$ level of significance or less.

Recent detailed work on modeling the Cloverleaf lens and time delays (Chae & Turnshek 1999) suggests that in all reasonable models component C is the leading component and component D is the trailing component, with the maximum time delay being model-dependent and lying in the range $`741`$ days. However, the predicted time delays between components C and A or components C and B are always a significant fraction (at least $`30`$%) of the predicted time delay between components C and D. Given these lens models and observations of brightness variations in other BAL QSOs (Sirola et al. 1997), we believe that these new photometric data on the Cloverleaf are not likely to be consistent with simply an intrinsic variation in the source BAL QSO’s brightness coupled with time delays among the four components. The most likely cause of the light variation of component D is microlensing, which is consistent with the findings of others who have studied brightness variations in the Cloverleaf (Angonin et al. 1990; Arnould et al. 1993; Remy et al. 1996; Ostensen et al. 1997).

### 3.2 Polarimetric Results

For the March 1999 and June 1999 epochs of observation, Table 3 gives the measured normalized Stokes parameters $`q`$ and $`u`$, the degree of linear polarization ($`p`$), the corrected degree of linear polarization ($`p_{\text{corr}}`$) which takes into account the bias toward measuring higher polarization in low signal-to-noise data (Wardle & Kronberg 1974), and the polarization position angle ($`PA`$). For the March observations the derived $`q`$ and $`u`$ Stokes parameters are shown in Figure 2, and it is seen that the polarizations of components A, B and C differ from the polarization of component D.

The main points of the polarimetric results are: (1) The polarizations of components A, B, and C in March 1999 have no appreciable differences. (2) As is clearly seen in Figure 2, in March 1999 component D has a significantly different relative polarization in comparison to the other three components. The relative normalized Stokes parameters between component D and the combination of the other components in March 1999 is $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}=1.26\pm 0.54\%`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}=2.32\pm 0.61\%`$ (Table 3), which is a difference in polarization at a level of significance of 4.5$`\sigma `$. (3) The pipeline calibrated data suggest that the net polarization of the Cloverleaf changed between the March 1999 and June 1999 epochs, with the polarization being smaller during the June epoch.

## 4 Discussion

These results are the first observational ones which address resolved polarization measurements in a gravitationally-lensed QSO and, owing to our interpretation (§3.1 and below), the first to report evidence for microlensing of a polarized-light region in a QSO.

Before we examine the implications of our interpretation, we should comment on some issues which can affect the interpretation. For example, polarization induced by any dust which is present along the sight-line toward the Cloverleaf is unlikely to be responsible for the added component of polarization that appears to be present in component D.333Interstellar polarization within the Milky Way is not significant for the Cloverleaf (e.g. Hutsemékers et al. 1998). There are several reasons for this. First, multicolor (F336W, F702W, F814W) HST WFPC2 observations have shown that differential dust reddening is, in fact, present across the Cloverleaf components. Component B is the most reddened and component C is the least reddened, with the F336W$``$F814W color index being $`0.56\pm 0.04`$ mag between components B and C. The reddening of components A and D are intermediate (see figure 3 in Turnshek et al. 1997). The source of this differential reddening may be dust in the interstellar medium of the lensing galaxy. However, since interstellar polarization is normally proportional to the amount of reddening, we would not expect the change in polarization of component D to be related to the reddening. Second, if the source of the polarization was the lens, it would seem unlikely that the induced polarization would be different only for component D. Third, interstellar polarization would not be expected to be time-variable, but the observations indicate that the polarization changed between the March 1999 and June 1999 epochs. Fourth, Faraday rotation due to Galactic or cosmologically intervening plasma that may be present along the sight-line to component D could not reasonably give rise to any rotation in the polarization position angle. The observed change in position angle for component D, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =32\pm 7`$ deg at $`\lambda =5300`$ Å (for the F555W filter), would require a medium with a rotation measure of $`\text{RM}=(2.0\pm 0.4)\times 10^{12}`$ radians m-2; however, for example, this is eight orders of magnitude larger than one of the highest values ever measured for an extragalactic radio source (e.g. 3C 295, Perley & Taylor 1991).

Consequently, we have argued that the $`0.07`$ mag relative decrease in brightness of component D over the $`100`$ day interval between March 1999 and June 1999 (Figure 1) is evidence for microlensing of component D. In this scenario, component D evidently faded due to the motion of a microlens, causing it to be less magnified in June 1999. This is consistent with the earlier conclusions of Chae & Turnshek (1999, also §3.2), who interpreted the lower equivalent widths of the BELs in component D (observed with HST FOS in both June 1993 and December 1994) as evidence for microlens magnification of just the continuum of component D (not the BELs). Now, relying on the new results presented here, we can refine some of the conclusions of Chae & Turnshek (1999), and place better qualitative constraints on the size-scale of the polarized scattered-light region in relation to our understanding of the size-scales of the BEL and continuum-producing regions in QSOs.

We should point out that in all published individual spectra of the Cloverleaf components, the equivalent widths of the BELs in component D are smaller than observed in the other components. The first of four sets of component spectra were obtained in the spring of 1989 (Angonin et al. 1990) and this trend continues up until at least the spring of 2000, when HST-STIS spectra taken by Monier (PI) and several of the authors continued to show component D to have BELs with lower equivalent widths. This suggests that some level of microlens magnification of the continuum-producing region (but not the BELs) of component D is common over a relatively long time baseline.

The Cloverleaf’s macrolens by itself achromatically amplifies all light lying within $`10^{1920}`$ cm of the central source into four point-like image components (see figure 1 of Chae & Turnshek 1999). Observations indicate that the macrolensed region includes the BEL region. This is consistent with expectations since the size of the region producing BELs like C IV and Ly$`\alpha `$ is estimated to be $`10^{18}L_{46}^{0.5}`$ cm from the central photoionizing source (Murray & Chaing 1998; Kaspi et al. 2000), where $`L_{46}`$ is the lensed QSO luminosity in units of $`10^{46}`$ ergs s-1. The source QSO luminosity in the Cloverleaf is not well-constrained because observations only provide results on the relative component amplifications; however, the lens models suggest that the luminosity is likely to be of order $`L_{46}`$. Evidently the Cloverleaf is polarized because an asymmetric continuum scattering region also lies within the macrolensed region. The asymmetry is a requirement since the net polarization is non-zero. This region is not static; changes in parts of it must give rise to the variable continuum polarization which is seen. The fact that we have evidence for a variation in the net polarization over a $`100`$ day interval in the observed frame ($`30`$ day interval in proper time) suggests that the size scales involved which lead to changes in polarization are $`<10^{17}`$ cm. However, each part of this asymmetric scattering region by itself would be expected to give rise to highly-polarized continuum light ($`p_{scatt,cont}>10`$%), but when averaged over the entire asymmetric region there would be a much smaller net polarization.

For the purpose of illustration we note that if $`80`$% of the flux of component D was composed of the continuum plus BELs (as seen in the nearly identical spectra of components A, B and C), and the remaining $`20`$% of the flux of component D was solely composed of microlensed scattered continuum (i.e. no BEL flux), then the polarization of the scattered continuum component would have to be $`p_{scatt,cont}13`$% at $`PA117`$ deg to match the observations. This degree of polarization is reasonable for scattering.

Owing to the fact that the BEL equivalent widths in component D are observed to be smaller in comparison to the other components, the observed microlensed scattered-light region evidently does not scatter appreciable BEL flux. This suggests that the size-scale of the polarized scattered-light region ($`R_{scatt}`$) must be less than the size-scale of the region producing BELs, i.e., $`R_{scatt}<10^{18}L_{46}^{0.5}`$ cm. At the same time, in order to produce the observed change in the polarization of component D relative to the other three components, the polarized scattered-light region must lie beyond the inner continuum-producing region which it reflects, far enough so that the inner continuum-producing region is not microlensed. This is because, if the entire scattering region were to lie within the microlensed region, there would be a near constant magnification across the region during microlensing, the continuum light and scattered continuum light would be similarly amplified, and the polarization would remain unchanged among the four components during microlensing. Note that microlensing of an unpolarized central continuum-producing region (e.g. the continuum from the thermal accretion disk) is also not a possibility, since this would reduce the polarization in component D, which is not observed. These constraints are new; they were not addressed in the discussion of Chae & Turnshek (1999) because component polarization information was unavailable.

The size of the microlensed region on the source plane will be of order the Einstein ring size. Following Chae & Turnshek (1999), the Einstein ring size on the source plane produced by a microlensing star is given by $`\eta _02\times 10^{16}(M/M_{})^{0.5}h_{75}^{0.5}`$ cm, where $`M`$ is the mass of the microlens. This is $`8`$ light-days for a solar mass star, which is larger than the expected size of the continuum emitting region from any accretion disk. We would expect the size of the microlensed polarized scattering region to lie beyond this region.

Taken together our results therefore suggest that the size-scale of the polarized scattered-light region in the Cloverleaf is

$$2\times 10^{16}(M/M_{})^{0.5}h_{75}^{0.5}<R_{scatt}<10^{18}L_{46}^{0.5}cm.$$
(2)
From these results it is clear that a more rigorous future program dedicated to monitoring (photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric) the Cloverleaf would hold promise for providing valuable constraints on models of the inner regions of QSOs (i.e the BAL region, the BEL region, and the scattered-light region producing the polarization).

We are grateful for helpful communications throughout the course of this work from Drs. S. Casertano, J. Krist, P. Massey, E. Monier, and J. Walsh. We also thank Dr. S. Mao for helpful discussions regarding microlensing and comments on the manuscript.

Table 1. WFPC2 Photometric and Polarimetric Observations

|  | Observation | Exposure | Filter, | PA\_V3 | Relative |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | Number | Time (sec) | Polarizer | (deg) | Orient (deg) |
|  |  |  | 15-16 Mar 1999 |  |  |
|  | 1 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 57 | N/A |
|  | 2 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 98 | N/A |
|  | 3 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 100 | N/A |
|  | 4 | $`1\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 57 | N/A |
|  | 5 | $`2\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 98 | N/A |
|  | 6 | $`1\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 100 | N/A |
|  | 7 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN18 | 98 | 14 |
|  | 8 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN18 | 100 | 16 |
|  | 9 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQ | 98 | 77 |
|  | 10 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQP15 | 98 | 92 |
|  | 11 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN33 | 57 | 138 |
|  | 12 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN33 | 98 | 179 |
|  |  |  | 23-24 Jun 1999 |  |  |
|  | 13 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 279 | N/A |
|  | 14 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 320 | N/A |
|  | 15 | $`8\times 40`$ | F555W, none | 322 | N/A |
|  | 16 | $`1\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 279 | N/A |
|  | 17 | $`1\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 320 | N/A |
|  | 18 | $`1\times 70`$ | F702W, none | 322 | N/A |
|  | 19 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN33 | 279 | 0 |
|  | 20 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQN18 | 322 | 58 |
|  | 21 | $`8\times 100`$ | F555W, POLQ | 320 | 119 |

Table 3. F555W Relative Polarimetric Results for the Cloverleaf Componentsa

|  | Parameter | A | B | C | D | $`\overline{\text{ABC}}^b`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  | 15-16 Mar 1999 |  |  |  |
|  | $`q`$ (%) | $`1.35\pm 0.43`$ | $`1.42\pm 0.46`$ | $`1.42\pm 0.46`$ | $`2.65\pm 0.47`$ | $`1.39\pm 0.26`$ |
|  | $`u`$ (%) | $`0.78\pm 0.49`$ | $`1.76\pm 0.52`$ | $`1.10\pm 0.53`$ | $`1.13\pm 0.53`$ | $`1.19\pm 0.30`$ |
|  | $`p`$ (%) | $`1.56\pm 0.45`$ | $`2.27\pm 0.50`$ | $`1.79\pm 0.49`$ | $`2.88\pm 0.48`$ | $`1.83\pm 0.28`$ |
|  | $`p_{\text{corr}}`$ (%) c | 1.49 | 2.21 | 1.72 | 2.84 | 1.81 |
|  | PA (deg) c | $`75.0\pm 8.8`$ | $`64.5\pm 6.1`$ | $`71.0\pm 8.0`$ | $`101.5\pm 5.2`$ | $`69.7\pm 4.4`$ |
|  | $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`1.26\pm 0.54`$ | $`0`$ |
|  | $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`2.32\pm 0.61`$ | $`0`$ |
|  |  |  | 23-24 Jun 1999 |  |  |  |
|  | $`q`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`0.91\pm 0.61`$ | $`0.88\pm 0.34`$ |
|  | $`u`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`0.43\pm 0.62`$ | $`0.11\pm 0.35`$ |
|  | $`p`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`1.00\pm 0.61`$ | $`0.89\pm 0.34`$ |
|  | $`p_{\text{corr}}`$ (%) c |  |  |  | 0.79 | 0.82 |
|  | PA (deg) c |  |  |  | $`103\pm 18`$ | $`87\pm 11`$ |
|  | $`\mathrm{\Delta }q_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`0.03\pm 0.70`$ | $`0`$ |
|  | $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_{\text{D,}\overline{\text{ABC}}}`$ (%) |  |  |  | $`0.54\pm 0.71`$ | $`0`$ |

a Quoted errors are relative statistical errors.
b The combined result of components A, B, and C.
c We use the formula of Wardle & Kronberg (1974) to correct the bias toward higher polarization degree in low S/N ratio data:

$$p_{\text{corr}}=p\left[1\left(\frac{\sigma _p}{p}\right)^2\right]^{1/2}.$$

Our derived errors in $`PA`$ are in good agreement with their general prescription for estimating the $`PA`$ errors under such conditions: $`\sigma _{PA}28.65\sigma _p/p`$ deg.


text:
# Searches at HERA

## 1 Introduction

### 1.1 HERA

HERA is the first and only existing lepton-proton collider. Between 1994 and 2000 it has delivered an integrated luminosity of more than 130 pb-1 available for physics to each experiment. Leptons (electrons or positrons) have an energy of 27.6 GeV and protons have an energy of 920 GeV (or 820 GeV), this gives an energy in the centre of mass ($`\sqrt{s}`$) of 318 GeV (or 300 GeV). The HERA collider is now shut down for a luminosity upgrade.

### 1.2 Physics at HERA

One of the major Standard Model (SM) physics processes at HERA is deep inelastic scattering (DIS) where the incoming lepton exchanges a gauge boson with a quark of the proton. Neutral Current (NC) events result from the exchange of a neutral ($`\gamma `$,$`Z^0`$) boson and yield an electron and a recoil jet in the final state, Charged Current (CC) events result from the exchange of a charged ($`W^\pm `$) boson and yield a neutrino and a recoil jet in the final state.

## 2 Inclusive NC DIS events at high $`Q^2`$

Phenomena characterised by a mass scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ larger than HERA’s kinematic limit ($`\sqrt{s}318`$ GeV) can be parameterised by four-fermion interactions which could affect the cross-sections for DIS observed at HERA via contact interactions. Comparisons of the cross-section predicted by the SM and those observed at high $`Q^2`$ at HERA have been made by both collaborations . No deviations have been observed for $`Q^2`$ up to 10,000 GeV2. Thus, exclusion limits in various contact interaction models can be set on $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ up to 9 GeV with the usual coupling strength convention of $`\sqrt{4\pi }`$. Limits on large extra dimensions have also been set by H1 and exclude scale parameters ($`M_s`$) lower than 0.63 TeV and 0.93 TeV for positive and negative interference, respectively.

## 3 Leptoquarks

Leptoquarks are scalar or vector bosons which couple to a quark and a lepton via a Yukawa coupling $`\lambda `$. They can be resonantly produced at HERA. Their final topology is the same as NC or CC events but their angular distribution can be used to optimise the signal significance.

It had been shown earlier  that the HERA data collected in 1994-97 showed an excess of electron-quark masses greater than 200 GeV (figure 1, left). This excess is not confirmed in the new data collected by both experiments (figure 1, right).

As no excess is seen, limits have been derived by both collaborations. The results have been interpreted in the model of Buchmüller, Rückl and Wyler (BRW)  where the leptoquark branching ratios are fixed. The upper plot of figure 2 shows the limits set by both collaborations in the BRW framework. The lower plot shows the limits derived in a more general model for fixed values of the coupling.

## 4 $`\mathit{}_p`$ supersymmetry

$`R_p`$-violating squarks can be produced at HERA up to the kinematic limit in the same way as leptoquarks. They would have many possible decay modes and many different topologies, including some very striking, almost background-free, topologies such as events with a lepton whose charge is opposite to that one of the incoming lepton, or with multileptons.

The signal was looked for in almost all decay modes and no excess was observed . Upper limits on the Yukawa coupling $`\lambda _{1j1}^{}`$ have been obtained as a function of the squark mass (see figure 3, left), by performing a scan in the parameters of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). For a coupling of the electromagnetic strength, squark masses below 258 GeV are ruled out. Constraints on the parameters of the mSUGRA model are also shown in figure 3 (right) for specific values of the Yukawa coupling.

## 5 Excited fermions

Compositeness could manifest in excited states of fermions. The single production of excited fermions is considered at HERA. An effective Lagrangian  describes the production and decay of excited fermions. In this Lagrangian, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the compositeness scale and $`f`$, $`f^{}`$ and $`f_s`$ are form factors which determine the couplings of a fermion to its corresponding excited states and to the bosons associated to the three gauge groups (SU(2), U(1) and SU(3)).

The search in the data collected at $`\sqrt{s}=300`$ GeV between 1994 and 1997 has been completed  and no signal was found, thus limits have been inferred (see figure 4). By assuming $`\frac{f}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=\frac{1}{M^{}}`$ one can exclude excited electrons of mass $`M^{}`$ lower than 229 GeV and excited quarks of mass lower than 203 GeV.

The production cross-section for excited neutrinos ($`\nu ^{}`$) is higher (by two orders of magnitude for a $`\nu ^{}`$ of 200 GeV) in $`e^{}p`$ data than in $`e^+p`$ data. Preliminary results show that no evidence for $`\nu ^{}`$ production has been found by either collaboration  in the recently taken $`e^{}p`$ data. Limits have thus been inferred (see figure 5). By assuming $`\frac{f}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=\frac{1}{M^{}}`$ one can exclude excited neutrinos of mass below 150 GeV for $`f=f^{}`$ and below 134 GeV for $`f=+f^{}`$. As one can see on the figures 4 (center) and 5, the limits set at HERA reach higher energies than those set at LEP. On figure 4, the plot on the right shows that for small $`f_s`$ HERA can extend the limits set at the TeVatron on the excited quark coupling.

## 6 Events with an isolated lepton and missing transverse momentum, FCNC

Puzzling events with high $`P_t`$ isolated lepton and missing transverse momentum have been previously observed at HERA. In the SM, such final states mainly come from W production. Both collaborations have a comparable analysis  (see table 1). H1 still sees a deviation from the SM prediction whereas ZEUS does not and this needs to be resolved with more statistics. Beyond the SM, an explanation of these events could be flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) leading to single top production which is highly suppressed in the SM. Limits on this phenomena have been set by both collaborations  (see figure 6).

## 7 Conclusion

Searches have been performed for contact interactions, extra dimensions, leptoquarks, $`\mathit{}_p`$ supersymmetry and excited fermions and no evidence was found for any of these processes. Limits have thus been derived and are comparable to those set at LEP or the TeVatron. The isolated lepton events observed by H1 are still puzzling. HERA is currently being upgraded to produce 5 times more luminosity starting this autumn (2001), thus searches have an exciting future at HERA.

## Acknowledgments

I wish to thank all my ZEUS and H1 colleagues who have contributed to the results discussed here.


text:
# Ultraviolet Broad Absorption Features and the Spectral Energy Distribution of the QSO PG 1351+64 Based on observations made for the Guaranteed Time Team by the NASA-CNES-CSA FUSE mission, operated by the Johns Hopkins University under NASA contract NAS5-32985, and observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities of Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Approximately 10% of QSOs at intermediate and high redshift show strong blueshifted absorption from ionized gas, which is being ejected, perhaps by radiation pressure from the central continuum source. Ejection velocities as large as $`5\times 10^4`$ km s-1 lead to broad absorption troughs and a classic broad-absorption-line QSO spectrum (BALQSO, Turnshek (1988); Weymann (1995)). Most absorption features are present below 1600 Å in the rest frame. A difficulty with studying this phenomenon in high-luminosity QSOs is the severe overlapping of the broad troughs that even mask the underlying continuum. The UV spectra obtained with IUE and HST open new windows, enabling one to study the absorption features at wavelengths well below 1200 Å (Turnshek et al. (1996); Korista et al. (1992)). In low-luminosity QSOs, the velocity range is smaller, up to $`4000`$ km s-1. Indeed, the absorption features in these objects may not be considered as ”broad” when compared with those in high-luminosity counterparts (Weymann et al. (1991)), but they are significantly broader amd more displaced than the intrinsic absorption features in Seyfert-1 galaxies. Thus, these mini-BAL objects offer a possible extension of the BALQSO sample into the low-redshift domain (Malkan, Green & Hutchings (1987); Turnshek et al. (1995)). The relatively low velocity structure makes separating and identifying individual components in the absorption trough much easier. At low redshifts, there is less confusion from intervening lines.

The nature and location of the absorbing gas is not known. Since the cores of emission lines are sometimes completely absorbed, the absorbers must lie at least somewhat beyond the broad emission-line region. If the absorption covering fraction with respect to the nuclear continuum is near 100%, the BAL phenomenon would be unique to a special group of objects, which would be physically different from all other “normal” active galactic nuclei (AGN). Conversely, if the covering factor is small, it is possible that most QSOs contain such outflows. They are then only recognized as BALQSOs if our line of sight to the central continuum source happens to pass through the outflow (Weymann (1995); Murray & Chiang (1995)). However, Becker et al. (2000) found that the distribution of BAL in their radio-selected sample is not consistent with a simple unified model in which BALQSO are seen edge on.

The broad-band energy distribution of BALQSOs has special characteristics. It has been known that BALQSOs are not powerful radio sources (Stocke et al. (1992)). Becker et al. (2001) found that the number of high-ionization BALQSOs drops significantly for QSOs with a radio-loudness parameter $`R^{}>100`$. Richards (2001) found a small excess of narrow absorption toward radio-loud QSOs and toward lobe-dominant QSOs. There is also a small excess of high-velocity C iv absorbers in radio-quiet QSOs as compared to radio-loud quasars. BALQSOs are weak in the X-ray band (Green et al. (1995); Gallagher et al. (1999); Brandt, Laor, & Wills 2000). The average power-law index $`\alpha _{ox}`$ ($`f_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) derived between 2500 Å and 2 keV is $`\stackrel{>}{}1.9`$, as compared to $`1.5`$ for other low-redshift QSOs (Yuan et al. (1998)). Thus the X-ray level in BALQSOs is about one order of magnitude weaker than average (Green & Mathur (1996)). The nature of such distinctions is poorly understood, and further studies may reveal special physical conditions that are intrinsically associated with the BAL phenomenon.

PG 1351+64 (z=0.088) is one of the few mini-BAL QSOs identified at low redshifts. Its IUE spectrum (Brosch & Gondhalekar (1984)) displays significant broad absorption in Ly$`\alpha `$ and C iv. A tentative analysis of the HST Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) spectra identifies at least three absorption components in the blue wings of C iv, Ly$`\alpha `$, and other UV lines (Granados et al. (1993)). This object exhibits a weak X-ray flux around 1 keV, with a power-law index of $`\alpha _{ox}=1.9`$ (Tananbaum et al. (1986)).

In this paper we present the far-UV spectrum of PG 1351+64 obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), along with the FOS and STIS spectra obtained with the HST, and optical spectra. The moderate O vi absorption and the lack of other significant broad low-ionization absorption features suggest a moderate ionization state in the absorber. The O vi emission is exceptionally weak, consistent with the prediction of photoionization models with a soft UV-X-ray continuum shape.

## 2 DATA

FUSE is an instrument dedicated to high-resolution spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet spectral region, and it was launched on 1999 June 24. It features multiple mirrors, Rowland-circle spectrographs and two-dimensional detectors. The LiF-coated optics yield a wavelength coverage of $`9791187`$ Å, and the SiC-coated optics cover $`9051104`$ Å. For a full description of FUSE, its mission, and its in-flight performance, see Moos et al. (2000), and Sahnow et al. (2000).

The FUSE observations of PG 1351+64 were carried out between 2000 January 18 and 20, for a total exposure time of 70 ks. The observations were made with the $`30^{\prime \prime }\times 30^{\prime \prime }`$ low-resolution aperture. Because of a slight mis-alignment between the optical systems, not all detector channels record signals that are of photometric quality. Some data in this observation suffer from unexpected abnormalities that have not been fully understood during the calibration process.

We first combined all the raw data to produce four images in different detector segments. Two spectra were extracted from the two-dimensional data on each segment. These eight extracted spectra were dark subtracted and corrected for the background stray light. Flux and wavelength calibrations were carried out with the standard FUSE calibration pipeline, which assumes a constant value of dark counts. To obtain the best estimate of the zero flux level, we used the Galactic absorption feature C ii 1036 Å, which appears in all four channels, as a calibrator: i.e., the very bottom of this absorption feature represents a completely absorbed region, therefore a zero flux level. We estimate that the flux scale is accurate to $``$10%, and that wavelengths are accurate to $``$15 km s-1.

We have studied all the sections of data from every channel, and only chosen those that are free of abnormalities. The data near the edge of the detector segments often show an abnormal rise in flux and therefore cannot be used. The spectra were binned by 5 pixels, to preserve the full spectral resolution of $`20\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for this observation. The spectrum shown in Fig. 1 is produced by binning the data by 20 pixels (0.12 Å) to show the overall appearance of the spectrum. The S/N level around 1080 Å is considerably poorer, because of gaps in the wavelength coverage from the various detectors.

As part of a joint FUSE-HST project, two complementary HST STIS snapshot observations were made on 1999 October 28. The exposure was 600 s for the observation with the G140L grating, and 300 s with G230L. Due to the short exposures and low source flux, the STIS spectra do not have an adequate S/N level for fitting line profiles. We therefore retrieved archival FOS spectra of PG 1351+64, which has a spectral resolution of $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 1300`$. The HST spectra between 1150 and 3300 Å of PG 1351+64 were obtained on 1991 September 5. The exposure time for the G130H, G190H, and G270H spectra were, respectively, 3200, 3000, and 1400 s. The flux levels of the STIS and FOS spectra match each other to within 10%.

We used the IRAF task specfit (Kriss (1994)) to fit the FUSE and FOS data. The wavelength scale of FOS data was slightly shifted with respect to the Galactic absorption features in the spectra, and we made a correction for the offset. The O vi emission features (see Fig. 1) were fitted with four Gaussian profiles: a narrow doublet and a broad doublet. For the Ly$`\beta `$, Ly$`\alpha `$, N v, C iv and Mg ii emission lines, a narrow component and a broad one were assumed for each. Other emission lines were fitted with one Gaussian profile. We fixed the widths and velocities of the two components of Ly$`\beta `$ to that of Ly$`\alpha `$, and linked N v with that of C iv (see Table 1). The absorption lines were treated as Gaussians in optical depth, and they were allowed to partially cover the emission components. Note that the covering factor is along the line of sight, not the overall value around the source as described in section 1. The wavelengths of the O vi doublets were linked at the ratio of their laboratory values, and their relative optical depths were fixed at a 2:1 ratio. We used five (A, B, C, D & E) components to fit the O vi absorption doublets, and fixed the widths and covering factors of the other absorption lines to that of O vi, linking the velocities to that of O vi (a small linear shift in wavelength is permitted for lines from different detectors). The only exception is component E: its covering factor cannot be well constrained by O vi as it is too weak. We derived the covering factor for component E from the C iv absorption features in the FOS data. Component E of Ly$`\beta `$ is apparently narrower than its counterparts in other lines, so we set it free to vary. Because of different data quality, the FUSE data and FOS spectra were fitted separated, with only several linked parameters as discussed above. Galactic Lyman-line absorption was modeled with the best estimated hydrogen column density and a varying Doppler parameter. An extinction correction of $`E_{BV}=0.05`$ was applied using the estimated Galactic hydrogen column density of $`2.5\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 (Lockman & Savage (1995)), and the correction curve of Cardelli, Clayton & Mathis (1989) with $`R_V=3.1`$. The spectrum between 1100 and 1140 Å is plotted in Fig. 2 to show details of the O vi features and the goodness of the fit.

We obtained optical spectroscopy of PG 1351+640 using the GoldCam spectrograph mounted on the 2.1-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. GoldCam currently uses a Ford 1000 $`\times `$ 3000 pixel CCD detector, with a useful area of 400 $`\times `$ $``$2400 pixels in which a long slit spectrum is focused and can be well calibrated. The blue spectrum ($``$3200-5900 Å useful coverage) was obtained through a wide slit (6′′) and using a 500 l mm-1 grating blazed at 5500 Å (resolution $``$9 Å) for 300 s on 2000, February 25 (UT). Weather conditions were generally good on that night, but variable seeing (up to 3′′) and some thin clouds resulted in non-photometric spectra. The red spectrum ($``$5800-9800 Å useful coverage) was formed by combining narrow slit (1$`^{\prime \prime }.`$5) observations from two nights, both taken using a 400 l mm-1 grating blazed at 8000 Å (resolution $``$12 Å) and an OG 550 order-blocking filter: the exposure time on February 25 was 400 s, and on February 26 900 s. The spectra were weighted by their counts in the combination. Standard stars were used to divide out atmospheric absorption, but the air masses were not well matched and the division is imperfect. The red spectrum flux level was scaled to match that of the blue, which in turn was scaled up by a factor of 1.67 to match that from the HST spectrum (although the signal-to-noise ratio in the region of overlap was only 3, making the absolute scaling factor uncertain). We employed standard data reduction techniques within the NOAO IRAF package.

Archival ROSAT Position-Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) data were retrieved from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. We use the data taken in 1993 October, with an exposure time of 3776 s. The ROSAT spectrum was fitted using xspec (Arnaud (1996)) with a single power law and Galactic absorption. The fits generated satisfactory results ($`\chi _r^2<0.8`$) for most spectra. Our results yield a photon power index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.69\pm 0.2`$ for a fixed column density of $`2.6\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, in good agreement with Rush & Malkan (1996). Dual power laws produced only minimal improvements, and therefore they were not used in the final results. Fig. 4 shows the unfolded spectrum with error bars that reflect the combined contributions from propagation errors, known flux variations, and the uncertainties of the Galactic column density ($`10^{19}`$ cm-2).

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 Emission Lines

Fig. 5 displays the profiles of seven major UV emission lines and the H$`\alpha `$ line. The fitted parameters for the UV lines are listed in Table 1. We will focus our discussion on the features longward of 1050 Å because of their higher signal-to noise ratios.

The most significant finding is the weak O vi emission: its intensity measured on the red wing is only about 28% of that of C iv or 8% of that of Ly$`\alpha `$, which is among the lowest in all AGN and QSOs. The O vi/Ly$`\alpha `$ ratio in the QSO composite spectrum of Zheng et al. (1997) is only $`0.19\pm 0.02`$. Fig. 2 shows the full profile of the O vi emission. The broad O vi component appears to be even weaker: the O vi/Ly$`\alpha `$ ratio between the broad components is only $`0.02`$.

There is an excess of flux on the blue wings of the Balmer lines, as shown in Fig. 5. Such a bump is also seen in another published spectrum (Corbin & Boroson (1996)). We fitted each of the Balmer lines with Gaussian profiles, which are a poor match. The fitted profiles are displayed with dashed curves. The excess blue flux may be due to electron scattering or from the outflowing matter that is part of the broad-line region.

The FUSE spectra reveal two emission lines at $`1160`$ and 1168 Å, and we tentatively identify them as S iv $`\lambda `$$`\lambda `$1062,1073. Such a feature has been noticed, but without a firm identification, by Laor et al.  (1994, 1995), and Hamann et al. (1998). It is also noted as absorption in the spectrum of NGC 4151 (Kriss et al. (1995)). The wavelength of 1168Å coincides with the second-order feature of the terrestrial airglow line He i, but the feature is much broader than any airglow line. At lower spectral resolution, such features may have been found as part of the red wing of the O vi profile in the HST QSO composite spectrum (Zheng et al. (1997)).

The fitted He ii emission component is very broad, and it includes blended features such as an unidentified component at $`1620`$Å (Laor, et al. 1994, 1995).

### 3.2 Absorption Lines

In Table 2 we list the measurements of major absorption lines, named as components A, B, C, D, and E. The absorption present in the FUSE data is also obviously present in the FOS spectrum. For components A, B, C, D, the line velocities and widths derived from the FUSE data can also fit the FOS data well, but the derived H i column densities are quite different (higher than FOS). This may well be due to the lower resolution of FOS data, and saturation in the Ly$`\alpha `$ profile. The presence of Mg ii absorption is highly uncertain as no individual components can be seen.

To determine physical conditions in the absorption components, we used CLOUDY (Ferland et al. 1998) to calculate models. In a grid of photoionization calculations, we vary the ionization parameter $`U`$ from 0.001 to 30. We used a broken power-law ionizing continuum with indices of $`\alpha =1.9`$ and 0.7 between 13.6 eV-2 keV and 2-10 keV, respectively, and assumed a hydrogen density of $`10^{10}`$ cm-3 and solar abundances. However, variations of these parameters do not affect the results significantly.

Because the FOS and FUSE data were not obtained simultaneously, and because of the higher spectral resolution of the FUSE data, we will focus on FUSE data. For components A, B, C, D, we detected obvious O vi and Ly$`\beta `$ absorption. From our grid of photoionization models, we determine the total column density and the ionization parameter $`U`$ based on the observed relative H i and O vi column densities. With no other constraints, this method can lead to double-valued results for the ionization parameter and column density since the ratio of O vi to H i will rise to a peak and then decline when $`U`$ increases. However, we note that the presence of clear C iii absorption in components A, C, D restricts the solutions to the lower ionization parameter in these cases, thus yielding small ionization parameters ($`U<0.3`$), and a total column density $`<10^{20}`$ cm-2. Even if we choose a model with a high ionization parameter, the total column density is on the order of $`10^{21}`$ cm-2, insufficient to cause significant X-ray obscuration. Table 3 lists the column densities derived ionization parameters for the five absorbers.

### 3.3 Continuum

The continuum in the FUSE data is fitted with a power law of $`\alpha =3.92\pm 0.05`$. The fitted power-law index for the FOS data is $`\alpha =1.69\pm 0.01`$, which is considerably flatter than that for the FUSE data. This suggests a change in the continuum shape around 1050 Å in the rest frame, consistent with but even more dramatic than that found in typical QSOs (Zheng et al. (1997); Kriss et al. 2000$`a`$). To make sure that this is not an extinction effect, we carried out a continuum fit to the combined FUSE-FOS spectrum in the wavelength region below 2000 Å. A simple power law with variable extinction yields a significantly poorer fit (best fitted value $`E_{BV}=0.06`$) than a broken power law with a fixed Galactic extinction ($`E_{BV}=0.05`$). Therefore, the break in the continuum is intrinsic.

Zheng et al. (1997) suggested that Compton scattering in a hot corona above the disk modifies the exponential turnover of the thermal disk spectrum into a power law in the EUV band. In the case of PG 1351+64, a corona with lower temperature than average may produce the steep EUV/soft X-ray power law. The extrapolation of the soft FUSE continuum leads to the weak X-ray level that has been observed. Rush & Malkan (1996) observed a weak X-ray flux level and a steep X-ray spectrum (photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.6`$) in their ROSAT observations pf PG 1351+64, which is consistent with an extrapolation of our FUSE spectrum. The continuum between the UV and soft X-ray bands can be approximated with a power law with $`\alpha _{ox}=1.9`$ (Tananbaum et al. (1986)). The short baseline in the sub-Ly$`\alpha `$ region does not allow us to assess whether the far-UV and the soft X-ray continuum can be approximated with a single power law. However, to a first approximation, such a soft EUV continuum may be common among low-luminosity AGN with broad absorption. Another similar QSO, PG1411+44, shows an even softer X-ray to UV flux ratio with $`\alpha _{ox}=2.1`$ (Laor et al. (1997)). Green & Mathur (1996) suggested that a torus of total column density of $`N>>10^{22}`$ cm-2 may produce a significant depression of the soft X-ray flux. But in PG 1351+64, the weak soft-X-ray flux is consistent with the far-UV continuum shape. Furthermore, we do not see signs for obscuring material of such high column density in the UV or in the optical data.

Green et al. (1995) analyzed the data of all BALQSOs in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and found that they are either highly absorbed or underluminous in the soft X-ray bandpass. They suggest that the weak X-ray level may be due to heavy obscuration. Brandt, Laor & Wills (2000) find a significant correlation between the X-ray weakness in AGN and the strength of the C iv absorption and suggest that absorption may be the cause of the weak X-ray flux. In the case of PG 1351+64, the photoionization calculations and the lack of an intrinsic Lyman edge suggest that the total nucleon column density is less than $`10^{22}`$ cm-2. This is not sufficient to obscure the X-ray continuum, and the soft UV-X-ray continuum is probably intrinsic.

### 3.4 Comparison with Other AGN and QSOs

It has been suggested that radio-quiet QSOs with weak \[O iii\] and strong Fe ii emission spectra form a class of QSOs that has a high probability of exhibiting BAL in their spectra (Boroson & Meyers (1992); Turnshek et al. (1997)). In the two BALQSOs 0759+65 (Turnshek et al. (1997)) and 1700+51 (Turnshek et al. (1995)), significant Mg ii absorption and continuum extinction are also present. In this regard, PG 1351+64 does not fit this category: its \[O iii\] intensity is about the same as the H$`\beta `$ line, the intensity of its optical Fe ii emission is only moderately weak, and no Mg ii absorption is obvious in PG 1351+64 (Fig. 5).

In terms of UV spectral features, PG 1351+64 bears a strong resemblance to PG1411+44. Their nearly identical redshifts make the two spectra remarkably alike. There are significant spectral differences however: (1) PG 1411+44 has weaker O \[iii\] emission, by a factor of about four, with respect to the H$`\beta `$; and strong optical Fe ii features are present; and (3) PG 1411+44’s soft-X-ray flux level is significantly lower (by a factor of three or more); and (4) its He ii $`\lambda `$1640 emission is exceptionally strong, suggesting a harder ionizing continuum in the EUV band. Laor et al. (1997) found that the X-ray spectrum of PG1411+44 above 2 keV exhibits a significant upturn, suggesting strong obscuration in the soft X-ray band. Since PG 1351+64 does not present such characteristics, it may belong to a different group despite the similarity of its Ly$`\alpha `$ and C iv absorption to that of PG1411+44.

The ionization structure of the absorbers in PG 1351+64 seems to be comparable to the UV absorption components seen in many Seyfert-1s (e.g., NGC 4151: Kriss et al. 1995; NGC 3516: Kriss et al. 1996$`a,b`$; Mrk 509: Kriss et al. 2000$`b`$) and with those observed in many high-redshift objects (Turnshek (1988); Korista et al. (1992)), albeit at a smaller ejection velocity. Most of these objects do not show broad Mg ii absorption lines, and the C iv, N v, and O vi column densities are at a comparable level to PG 1351+64. More work is needed, however, to understand the difference in their X-ray properties.

## 4 Summary

PG 1351+64 is one of the handful of mini-BALQSOs. The FUSE spectrum allows us to identify and measure five kinematically distinct components. Model calculations with multiple species suggest column densities on the order of a few $`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 for the absorbing clouds. These clouds would not produce significant absorption in the soft X-ray band. Therefore the object’s weak X-ray flux may be intrinsic unless there is significant absorption from more highly ionized material. Additional evidence in support of an intrinsically weak X-ray flux exists from the very weak O vi emission, as well as the significant downturn of the far-UV continuum shortward of 1050 Å.

This work is based on data obtained for the Guaranteed Time Team by the NASA-CNES-CSA FUSE mission operated by the Johns Hopkins University. Financial support to U.S. participants has been provided by NASA contract NAS5-32985. Additional support for this work is provided in part by NASA through Long Term Space Astrophysics grant NAGW-4443 and through grant AR-7977.01-96A, GO 8144 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities of Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. We thank the referee, Dr. Fred Hamann, for constructive comments. Arthur F. Davidsen was a pioneer in ultraviolet astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University, especially in far-UV observations of extragalactic objects. He passed away on 2001 July 19, the same day that this paper was accepted for publication. Among his many prominent roles, he was the Principal Investigator for the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, which obtained the first far-UV spectrum of PG1351+64 in 1995 March during the Astro-2 mission aboard the space shuttle.

Figure Captions