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# Discovery of very extended emission-line region around the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4388 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It is widely recognized that extended emission-line regions are commonly associated with active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and that most of them are photoionized by the nuclear power-law ionizing continuum. The extended emission-line regions of AGNs are often in the shape of a cone, whose apex corresponds to the nucleus. This trend is generally interpreted as evidence for anisotropy of the nuclear radiation of AGNs (e.g., Pogge 1989; Mulchaey, Wilson, & Tsvetanov 1996; Falcke, Wilson & Simpson 1998).

NGC 4388 is one of the nearest Seyfert 2 galaxies, and the first Seyfert to be found in the Virgo cluster (Phillips & Malin 1982). NGC 4388 is located within 1 of the two cD galaxies, M84 and M86, which lie at the center of the Virgo cluster (Binggeli, Tamman & Sandage 1987). Although the recession velocity of NGC 4388 (2540 km s-1) is substantially larger than the cluster mean velocity of 1100 km s-1, its distance estimated from the Tully-Fisher relation (16.7 Mpc) is close to that of the cluster center (Yasuda, Okamura & Fukugita 1997). The spatial location of the galaxy is thus very close to the core of the cluster. At a distance of 16.7 Mpc, 1′ corresponds to 4.86 kpc.

NGC 4388 is associated with a large, bright optical emission-line region (Pogge 1988; Corbin, Baldwin & Wilson 1988; Ayani & Iye 1989; Veilleux et al. 1999a, hereafter VBCTM, and references therein). The extended emission-line region (EELR) of NGC 4388 is characterized by at least three components: 1) a low-ionization disk component, 2) a high-ionization cone-shaped component extending southwestwards from the nucleus (hereafter referred to as the “SW cone”), and 3) a large high-ionization plume extending northeastwards from the nucleus up to 4 kpc above the plane of the galaxy (hereafter referred to as the “NE plume”) (Pogge 1988; Corbin et al. 1988; Colina 1992; Falcke et al. 1998; VBCTM). The low-ionization component is attributed to a complex of disk H II regions. The excitation properties of the gas in the SW cone and the NE plume resemble those of the nuclear narrow-line region gas, and are consistent with power-law photoionization models, indicating that anisotropic ionizing radiation from the Seyfert nucleus forms these regions (Pogge 1988; Petitjean and Durret 1993). The NE plume extends further than the SW cone, which is in front of the galaxy disk and consequently suffers less from dust obscuration. The shape of the NE plume is remarkable; it extends along P.A.$`30^{}`$ from the nucleus like a wide belt, and curls towards the northwest at a distance of $`3`$ kpc (VBCTM). The total length of the NE plume is up to 4 kpc. The origin of the NE plume is still controversial, although several models have been proposed: tidal debris from a galaxy-galaxy encounter (Pogge 1988), gas stripped from the galaxy disk by ram pressure induced by interaction with the intracluster gas (Petitjean & Durret 1993), ejecta from supernovae in the disk (Corbin et al. 1988), or a nuclear outflow powered by the radio jet (VBCTM).

In this paper, we report the discovery of a very extended emission-line region around NGC 4388, in deep, narrow-band images made with the Subaru telescope. The extension of the emission-line region is more than eight times greater than that of the previously found emission, extending as far as 35 kpc from the nucleus. We describe the observations and data reduction in $`\mathrm{\S }`$2, and present the results in $`\mathrm{\S }`$3. In $`\mathrm{\S }`$4 we briefly discuss possible models for the origin of the emission-line gas and comment on its relationship to the inner emission-line region. We summarize our study in $`\mathrm{\S }`$5.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION

The narrow-band and broad-band imaging observations were made with the Suprime-Cam (Miyazaki et al. 1998; Iye et al. 1997) attached at the prime focus of the Subaru telescope (Kaifu et al. 2000) on 2001 March 24 and 2001 April 24 and 26. In the March run, the camera consisted of 9 CCDs; four SITe 2K $`\times `$ 4K CCDs and five MIT 2K $`\times `$ 4K CCDs. After the March run, all the SITe CCDs were replaced by new MIT CCDs, so 10 MIT CCDs were used in the April run. The pixel size was 15 µm, which corresponds to 0.2 arcsec on the sky. The H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] narrow-band imaging of NGC 4388 was performed on 2001 April 26 with a narrow-band filter whose central wavelength, $`\lambda _0`$, and FWHM were $`6600`$ Å and $`100`$ Å, respectively (filter N-A-L659). The \[O III\] $`\lambda 5007`$ Å imaging was carried out on 2001 April 24, using a filter whose $`\lambda _0`$ and FWHM were $`5020`$ Å and $`100`$ Å respectively (filter N-A-L503). To subtract the continuum component from the narrow-band images so as to extract a pure emission-line image, we obtained $`R_c`$-band and $`V`$-band images, which allowed us to estimate the continuum in the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] image and \[O III\] image, respectively. The broad-band data were taken on 2001 March 24. The observations are summarized in Table 1. The seeing was 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 – 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7 on the nights of the narrow-band imaging observations, and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 – 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 on the nights of the broad-band imaging. The sky was clear, but not photometric, on these nights; however, some photometric standard stars were obtained for rough flux calibration.

Data reduction was performed using IRAF and DASH (Mizumoto et al. 2000; Yagi et al. 2000), which is a pipeline data reduction system in a distributed computing environment. Basic data reduction procedures, i.e., bias and dark subtraction, flat fielding, and distortion correction, were carried out using a data reduction pipeline developed specifically for Suprime-Cam data under the DASH environment. Since significant non-uniformity ($`5\%`$ at peak-to-peak) was found in the flat field frames of the filter N-A-L659, the flat-fielded H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] images have a large-scale non-uniform pattern over a CCD frame. The cause of this non-uniformity has not yet been identified. We fitted the pattern with a cubic polynomial and subtracted the fitted function from the object frames after the ordinary flat-fielding procedure. Therefore, the internal accuracy of photometry in N-A-L659 frames should be at worst $`\pm 5\%`$, which is accurate enough for this study.

The CCD was saturated at and around the nucleus of the galaxy in all the object frames taken. In the narrow-band frames, the region of radius $`r<3`$ arcsec centered on the nucleus was affected by saturation. In the broad-band frames, the saturation was more severe and the whole central region ($`r<15`$ arcsec) could not be used for data analysis (see Figs 1c and 1d). Part of the inner spiral arms was also saturated in the $`R_c`$-band frames (Fig. 1c).

The flat-fielded frames in the same bands were aligned using field stars and co-added to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. For each of the co-added frames a quadratic curved surface was fitted to the sky background well outside the galaxy disk and subtracted from the image. In order to make an uncontaminated H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] image, the $`R_c`$-band frame was scaled so that the average counts in the featureless part of the galaxy disk equaled those in the H$`\alpha `$ frame; this scaled $`R_c`$-band frame was then subtracted from the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] frame. When subtracting, PSF equalization was performed, following the method of Alard and Lupton (1998). The same procedure was applied to the \[O III\] frame and the $`V`$-band frame to extract a pure \[O III\] emission-line image.

Flux calibrations were carried out using our observations of spectrophotometric standard stars. As mentioned above, the observing conditions were not photometric; fluxes of standard stars obtained at similar elevations varied by up to $`10\%`$. Moreover, differences in the effective transmission wavelengths between the narrow and broad observing bands reduce the photometric accuracy in regions, such as the shoulder of the bulge, where large color gradients may exist. For the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] ($`\lambda _0=6590`$ Å) and the $`R_c`$ ($`\lambda _06700`$ Å) bands, the central wavelength difference is small enough that the color difference may be ignored. On the other hand, the color difference between the \[O III\] filter ($`\lambda _0=5020`$ Å) and the $`V`$-band filter ($`\lambda _05500`$ Å) is not negligible. The flux difference between $`\lambda 5000`$ Å and $`\lambda 5500`$ Å for Sb galaxies is $`5\%`$, according to Coleman, Wu and Weedman (1980).

We also examined the amount of emission-line flux that might have fallen outside the filter band pass due to the redshift of the object. We found that the loss of flux is $`20\%`$ at most, even if the recession velocity of emission-line clouds is 300 km s-1 over the systemic velocity of NGC 4388. Combining this uncertainty with the flux calibration error due to the non-photometric conditions, we estimate that the uncertainty in the flux of our narrow-band images is typically $`20\%`$, but could be up to $`50\%`$ at worst. Comparing our data with the spectrophotometric observations of Petitjean and Durret (1993), we found our flux at 35″ away from the nucleus at P.A. $`=55\mathrm{°}`$ to be consistent with theirs to within $`30\%`$.

## 3 RESULTS

The continuum-subtracted H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] and \[O III\]$`\lambda 5007`$ Å images and the broad-band images of NGC 4388 are shown in Figs. 1a – 1d. The H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] image is the deepest emission-line image of NGC 4388 ever taken. The detection limits are as faint as $`3\times 10^{18}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2 for the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] image (Fig. 1a), and $`1\times 10^{17}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2 for the \[O III\] image (Fig. 1b).

A remarkable feature of these images is the large number of extended emission-line filaments that are clearly seen in both the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] and \[O III\] images. (Hereafter, we call the region of these filaments the very extended emission-line region, or VEELR.) The VEELR extends very far outside the galaxy disk ($`r>1`$′) between P.A. $`30\mathrm{°}`$ and P.A. $`65\mathrm{°}`$. A sketch of the VEELR is shown in Fig. 2. The most distant cloud/filament seen in the H$`\alpha `$ image is at $`430\mathrm{}`$ ($`35`$ kpc) northeast of the nucleus. This distant cloud/filament is marginally seen also in the \[O III\] image (Fig. 1b). A close-up view of the VEELR is shown in Fig. 3, where major clouds/filaments are identified by numbers. There seem to be two streams in the VEELR; one starts at 90″ from the nucleus along P.A. $`55^{}`$ and curves smoothly to the north at P.A. $`10\mathrm{°}`$, with a total length of up to 120″, and the other extends between P.A. $`50^{}`$ and P.A. $`65^{}`$ from $`120\mathrm{}`$ from the nucleus out to more than 300″. The latter stream is further divided into two streams at $`200\mathrm{}`$ from the nucleus, one of which is a smooth emission region extended along P.A. $`60^{}`$ (OF-1 in Fig. 3) and the other is a faint string of clouds extended along P.A. $`0^{}`$$`20^{}`$ (C22, C23, C24). At $`300\mathrm{}`$ from the nucleus, there is a large complex of clouds (OF-2), and the stream bends to the north, extending up to $`430\mathrm{}`$ away. The most distant clouds/filament complex (OF-5) is curved like a bow whose string is directed toward the nucleus. The luminosity in H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] of a typical cloud/filament in the VEELR is $`10^{37}`$ erg s-1.

The ionized gas mass of each cloud/filament is calculated using the relation

$$M_{\mathrm{gas}}=VN_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{rms})f_\mathrm{v}^{1/2}m_\mathrm{H},$$

where $`V`$ is the volume of the filament, $`N_\mathrm{e}`$(rms) is the rms value of electron density, $`f_\mathrm{v}`$ is volume filling factor, and $`m_\mathrm{H}`$ is the mass of a hydrogen atom. $`N_\mathrm{e}`$(rms) is derived from the following equation (Yoshida & Ohtani 1993):

$$N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{rms})(\mathrm{cm}^3)=1.2\times \left(\frac{V}{10^6\mathrm{pc}^3}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{L(\mathrm{H}\alpha )}{10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{1/2}.$$

We assumed Case B recombination and the electron temperature $`T_\mathrm{e}=10^4`$ K in this calcuration. Although the volume filling factor $`f_\mathrm{v}`$ is not known for the VEELR clouds, a typical value for such extranuclear emission-line gas is $`10^310^4`$ (Yoshida & Ohtani 1993; Robinson et al. 1994; Aoki et al. 1994). Since the typical H$`\alpha `$ luminosity and size of a cloud/filament in the VEELR are $`10^{37}`$ erg s-1 and a few hundred pc, respectively, its rms electron density is $`0.30.4`$ cm-3, assuming a spherical geometry for the cloud. Therefore, if the local electron density of emission-line clouds is $`N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{local})10`$, we infer $`f_\mathrm{v}`$ $`2\times 10^3`$, because $`N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{local})`$ is related to $`N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{rms})`$ and $`f_\mathrm{v}`$ by the equation $`N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{rms})=f_\mathrm{v}^{1/2}N_\mathrm{e}(\mathrm{local})`$. If this is the case, the mass of a typical cloud is $`10^3`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$.

The sizes, distances from the nucleus, ionized gas masses, and emission-line fluxes of the gas clouds/filaments in the VEELR of NGC 4388 are listed in Table 2. The volume of each cloud/filament was calcurated assuming a ellipsoid whose major axis is the projected major axis of each cloud/filament for compact, bright ones (C1 – C26). We assumed a sheet-like morphology for the diffuse filaments (e.g filaments in OF-1 – OF-5) whose thickness along our line of sight is 100 pc. The total mass of the ionized gas of the VEELR is $`4\times 10^6`$ $`f_\mathrm{v}^{1/2}`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$. This is comparable to that of the NE plume derived by VBCTM, $`10^5`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$, if $`f_\mathrm{v}1\times 10^3`$.

The morphology of the bright part of the emission-line region in our images (the disk H II region, the NE plume, and the SW cone) is similar to that found in previous studies (Pogge 1988; Corbin et al. 1988, VBCTM), but more detailed structure is revealed. Fig. 4 shows a close-up of the NE plume. (In order for the spatial structure of the emission-line region to be clearly seen, PSF equalization, which degrades the spatial resolution of the image, was not performed in making this figure.) The NE plume consists of many filaments whose widths are marginally resolved at our resolution ($`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8`$) and are about 80 – 100 pc ($`1^{\prime \prime }`$).

A map of the emission-line intensity ratio $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\]) is shown in Fig. 5. This map is very useful for investigating the excitation structure of the outer emission-line region, although the detailed structure of the gas excitation distribution near the nucleus is totally lost in this figure, because of severe saturation of the broad-band images. Nevertheless, a distinct cone-like structure of high excitation gas is clearly seen to the south of the nucleus. This “ionization cone” was first found by Pogge (1988) and its structure has been investigated in several studies (Pogge 1988; Falcke et al. 1998, VBCTM). The north side of the ionization cone is traced by the NE plume and a high-ionization cloud located at $`10\mathrm{}`$$`15\mathrm{}`$ northwest of the nucleus. We note that filaments of the inner VEELR ($`10`$ kpc; C1 – C8) also show high ionization, $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$)$`1`$, suggesting that these filaments are also excited by the nuclear ionizing radiation. Interestingly, the filaments at about 11 kpc from the nucleus show an internal excitation gradient; the $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$) ratio smoothly decreases with distance from the nucleus in one filament (C2, C3, C4) (Fig. 5). In addition, we note that a bright filament at P.A.$`=70^{}`$, 11 kpc away from the nucleus (C25) shows quite low excitation ($`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$)$`0.1`$), although its projected distance from the nucleus is the same as those of clouds C9 – C15. There seems to be a sudden change in the excitation state of the gas at around the line of P.A.$`=65^{}`$, which coincides with the extrapolation of the northern edge line of the SW cone. These findings suggest that the nuclear ionization cone excites most of the VEELR gas. The excitation mechanism of the VEELR will be discussed further in the next section.

## 4 DISCUSSION

### 4.1 The excitation mechanism of the very extended emission-line region of NGC 4388

Figure 6 shows the radial variation of the emission-line intensity ratio, $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$). In this figure the H$`\beta `$ flux in the VEELR is derived from the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] flux by assuming that (1) the gas is in Case B recombination with an electron temperature of $`10^4`$ K ($`I`$(H$`\alpha `$)$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) = 2.86; Osterbrock 1989), (2) the $`I`$(\[N II\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$) emission-line intensity ratio is 0.2, and (3) there is no dust extinction. Since most of the VEELR is located well outside the galactic disk of NGC 4388, the above assumptions are adequate to estimate the H$`\beta `$ flux. The $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) ratio decreases with distance from the nucleus.

Although it is impossible to estimate the excitation mechanism of the ionized gas uniquely using only the $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) intensity ratio, the monotonic decrease of this ratio with radius suggests that the same mechanism is responsible for exciting the gas in these regions. The NE plume has a similar emission-line spectrum to that of the nucleus; the spectrum is consistent with power-law photoionization models with an ionization parameter $`U10^3`$ (Pogge 1988; Petitjean & Durret 1993). Since the distance from the nucleus of the VEELR is 3 – 4 times that of the NE plume, the number of ionizing photons from the nucleus that reach the VEELR is smaller by 1/9 – 1/16 times. Thus, assuming that the gas density decreases with $`r^1`$, one finds that $`U`$ for the VEELR is a few times $`10^4`$. Power-law photoionization models predict that $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) $``$ 1 – 3 for such values of $`U`$. This is consistent with the observed values of the emission-line intensity ratio.

In the case of nuclear power-law photoionization, the number of nuclear ionizing photons necessary to ionize the VEELR is estimated by the following relation:

$$Q_\mathrm{u}=4\pi R^2cN_\mathrm{e}U,$$

where $`R`$ is the distance of an VEELR cloud from the nucleus, $`c`$ is the speed of light, $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ and $`U`$ are the electron density and the ionization parameter of the cloud, respectively. Assuming that $`N_\mathrm{e}10`$ cm-3 and $`U10^4`$, one finds that $`Q_\mathrm{u}`$ is a several times $`10^{53}`$ photons s-1 for a cloud at a distance of $`10`$ kpc from the nucleus. The value of $`Q_\mathrm{u}`$ derived above is a typical one of nearby type 1 Seyfert galaxies (e.g. Padovani and Rafanelli 1988; Yoshida and Ohtani 1993; Aoki et al. 1996). Taking into account the anisotropic nature of the nuclear radiation, we conclude that the nuclear power-law continuum of NGC 4388 is capable of ionizing most of the VEELR gas.

The observed values of $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) in the VEELR are, on the other hand, also consistent with expectations for other excitation mechanisms, such as OB star ionization (H II regions) or shock heating. They agree with the predictions of models of H II regions with moderate metal abundances (\[O/H\] $``$ \[O/H\]) (McCall, Rybski & Shields 1985). However, there is no signature of ionizing star clusters near the VEELR. If the VEELR is ionized by UV radiation emanating from the disk star-forming complex, a total of $`2\times 10^2`$ O5 stars are needed to excite a typical H$`\alpha `$ cloud in the VEELR (L(H$`\alpha `$)$`10^{37}`$ erg s-1, the mean distance from the disk $`10`$ kpc, and typical size of a cloud is 300 pc). On the other hand, the total number of ionizing stars estimated from the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of the disk H II complex is $`3\times 10^2`$. These two numbers are consistent with each other. However, the actual number of disk-ionizing stars needed to ionize the VEELR would be much larger than this estimate, because a significant part of the ionizing radiation is exhausted in ionizing the surrounding dense gas from which the stars were born. It is unlikely that such a large star-forming complex resides in the disk of NGC 4388.

Shock heating is another candidate excitation mechanism for the VEELR. Shocks whose velocities are $`100`$ km s-1 can explain the observed $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) ratios of the VEELR (Schull & McKee 1979; Binette, Dopita & Tuohy 1985; Dopita & Sutherland 1995). The kinematics and emission-line intensity ratios of other species, such as $`I`$(\[N II\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$) or $`I`$(\[S II\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$), of the VEELR gas are needed to estimate the contribution from shock heating. Nevertheless, we consider that shock heating is not the main source of the excitation of the VEELR, because the shock heating model cannot explain (1) the smooth radial decrease of the $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\beta `$) ratio or (2) the sudden change of the $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$) ratio between the inside and outside of the ionization cone.

Therefore, it is likely that most of the VEELR is ionized and excited primarily by the nuclear ionizing radiation, although detailed spectroscopic study is needed to determine the excitation source precisely. (Note that the excitation mechanism of the low-ionization filaments outside the ionization cone (C25 and C26) is not identified. The \[O III\] emission is significantly fainter than the H$`\alpha `$ in those filaments, and is not detectable in our images.)

### 4.2 Origin of the very extended emission-line region of NGC 4388

The VEELR is very large ($`>30`$ kpc) and extends only on the northeastern side of the galaxy. Here, we discuss the origin of the VEELR of NGC 4388.

#### 4.2.1 AGN wind

Gas outflow phenomena have often been detected around active galactic nuclei (e.g., Mediavilla & Arribas 1995; Aoki et al. 1996; Arribas, Mediavilla & Garcia-Lorenzo 1996; Veilleux et al. 1998). VBCTM suggested that the most plausible origin of the inner extraplanar ionized nebula of NGC 4388 is a bipolar outflow, which was originally accelerated by the radio ejecta from the nucleus.

Energetically, the radio jet could have accelerated the ionized gas in the VEELR. The total mass of the VEELR gas is of order 105 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$, and its radial velocities should be as fast as those of the NE plume gas, i.e., 100 – 200 km s-1. Thus, the kinetic energy of the ionized gas of the VEELR is $`10^{52}`$ erg. Although the turbulent energy of the VEELR is not known because of a lack of detailed velocity information, it is likely to increase the total kinetic energy of the VEELR by a factor of only two or three. VBCTM argued that the radio jet of NGC 4388 could accelerate material that had a similar level of kinetic energy.

There are some problems in this scheme for the origin of the VEELR of NGC 4388. First, there is a large discrepancy between the P.A. of the radio jet and that of the VEELR. The radio ejecta of NGC 4388 have P.A. $`5\mathrm{°}`$ (Hummel & Saikia 1991; Irwin, Saikia & English 2000), whereas the VEELR is extended in P.A. $`40\mathrm{°}60\mathrm{°}`$. VBCTM suggested that a slight discrepancy between the P.A. of the NE plume and the radio jet can be explained by buoyancy of the jet as a result of a density gradient perpendicular to the galaxy disk. The P.A. discrepancy between the VEELR and the jet is, however, much larger, and buoyancy effects alone cannot explain it. Secondly, there is the size difference between the radio jet and the VEELR. The VEELR is very large, reaching out to 35 kpc from the nucleus, so that its age is of order 108 yr. On the other hand, the radio jet has a length of only 1 kpc. Therefore, the VEELR is more than an order of magnitude older than the radio jet, even if they have similar outflow velocities.

Large precession coupled with intermittent activity, or dense gas that blocks the radio jet, might solve these problems, but we consider attributing such peculiar behavior to the jet as highly speculative. We conclude that a nuclear outflow powered by the radio jet is not a plausible origin of the VEELR gas.

#### 4.2.2 Debris of ancient starburst superwind

Strong starburst activity in the nuclear regions of a galaxy causes a powerful outflow from the galaxy (Heckman, Armus & Miley 1990). Such “superwinds”, induced by the collective effect of supernovae and the stellar winds of OB stars in a starburst region, are sometimes strong enough to blow the interstellar gas in galaxies into intergalactic space. For example, the superwind of the well-studied starburst galaxy M82 has a mechanical luminosity of $`2.5\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1 and a momentum flux of $`2\times 10^{34}`$ dynes (Lehnert, Heckman & Weaver 1999), and optical filaments associated with the wind extend well outside ($`>3`$ kpc from) the galaxy disk (Bland & Tully, 1988; Shopbell & Bland-Hawthorn 1998). Recently, an H$`\alpha `$-emitting region, which may be associated with the superwind, was discovered about 12 kpc to the north of M82 (Devine & Bally 1999; Lehnert et al. 1999). The twin bubble of H$`\alpha `$-emitting gas of Arp 220 has a size of 14 kpc (Armus, Heckman & Miley 1989; Ohyama et al. 2001). The size of the VEELR of NGC 4388 is comparable to, but somewhat larger than, those of the superwinds associated with these powerful starburst galaxies.

In fact, strong star-forming activity is occurring in the disk of NGC 4388, which is traced by all existing H$`\alpha `$ images (Pogge 1988; VBCTM; this study). The total H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of the NGC 4388 disk is $`10^{40}`$ erg s-1, corresponding to a star-formation rate of $`10M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1, which is comparable to that of the prototypical starburst galaxy M82. Thus, it would be natural to consider that NGC 4388 generates a huge outflow due to its strong star-forming activity.

The highly asymmetrical distribution of the VEELR gas is, however, problematic for this superwind scenario. A superwind that is powerful enough to blow the interstellar gas into intergalactic space should blow on both sides of the disk, because the energy injected by the starburst is so high that the hot gas produced by the starburst should expand well beyond the disk scale height (e.g., Chevalier & Clegg 1985; Tomisaka and Ikeuchi 1988; Strickland and Stevens 2000). However, the VEELR is distributed only in the northeast quadrant of NGC 4388. Even if we consider the fact that the gas in the region is excited by the asymmetric nuclear radiation, so that the shape of the line emitting gas traces the path of the radiation, it is difficult to explain the total lack of any extension in the southwestern direction using the superwind model.

#### 4.2.3 Ram pressure stripped gas

NGC 4388 is located close to the center of the Virgo cluster. It has been suggested that it is currently at the bottom of the cluster potential because of its extremely high peculiar velocity, which is over 1000 km s-1 relative to the systemic velocity of the cluster (Yasuda et al. 1997). Together with the H I gas deficiency and the sudden truncation of the H I gas within the galaxy disk, this has led many authors to suggest that the interstellar gas of NGC 4388 is affected by strong ram pressure due to a high-speed interaction with the intracluster medium (ICM), and that the outer part of the interstellar gas is stripped from the galaxy by the ram pressure (Cayatte et al. 1994).

Petitjean and Durret (1993) suggested that the extraplanar gas extending to $`50\mathrm{}`$ away from the nucleus of NGC 4388 (the NE plume) could be this ram-pressure-stripped gas. Here, we examine whether the ram-pressure-stripping model can be applied to the VEELR.

Ram-pressure-stripped gas is blown away from a galaxy preferentially in the opposite direction to the galaxy’s motion relative to the ICM (Abadi, Moor & Bower 1999). NGC 4388 is an edge-on galaxy, whose inclination angle is $`78\mathrm{°}`$; its north side is the near side (Pogge 1988; Ayani & Iye 1989; VBCTM). The VEELR is extended to the northeast of the galaxy. Hence, if the VEELR is the ram-pressure-stripped gas due to the interaction between the galaxy disk and the ICM, NGC 4388 must have quite a large transverse velocity southwestwards in order to blow the interstellar gas to such a high galactic latitude. Considering the large radial component of the velocity relative to the ICM ($`1400`$ km s-1), one finds that NGC 4388 must have a transverse velocity of $`1500`$ km s-1. If this is the case, the total collision velocity of NGC 4388 to the ICM is $`2000`$ km s-1 and its collision angle is approximately 30–40°. Numerical simulations of ram-pressure stripping made by Abadi et al. (1999) suggest that when the collision velocity and the angle are 2000 km s-1 and 45°, respectively, ram-pressure-stripped gas is extended up to 10 – 15 kpc from the galaxy disk after 108 yr has passed since the collision between the galaxy and the ICM (see Figures 3 and 4 of Abadi et al. 1999). Furthermore, the truncation radius of H I gas and the surface density of the disk of NGC 4388 are consistent with their 45° collision model (Abadi et al. 1999). Therefore, the ram- pressure-stripping hypothesis for the origin of the VEELR gas is a promising one, if NGC 4388 indeed has such very large transverse velocity.

However, VBCTM have argued that the transverse velocity of NGC 4388 is rather small with respect to its radial velocity, so that the galaxy is falling into the cluster core almost along our line of sight. In other words, NGC 4388 is colliding with the ICM nearly edge-on. If this were the case, ram-pressure-stripped gas would be blown along the galaxy disk (Abadi et al. 1999), and the VEELR should be a projection of a flow along the disk plane. Since the projected distance of the far-end of the VEELR from the galaxy disk is 10 kpc, the real distance would be as much as $`10\times \mathrm{cos}^1i50`$kpc (due to the inclination of the disk $`i=78\mathrm{°}`$). The morphology of the VEELR strongly suggests that the gas extends perpendicular to the galactic disk, and that such a flat elongation is not likely. Moreover, such extremely elongated filaments in the plane of the galaxy disk could not be illuminated by the nuclear ionization cone indicated by the circumnuclear ionization structure. Consequently, if the transverse velocity of NGC 4388 is small, it is hard to believe that the VEELR gas is the interstellar gas stripped by ICM ram pressure.

Therefore, knowledge of the value of the transverse velocity of NGC 4388 is the key to determining whether the ram-pressure- stripping hypothesis is plausible. It is, however, impossible to measure the transverse velocity directly. Hence, we cannot conclude that ram-pressure stripping is responsible for the VEELR. To investigate this subject further, it would be useful to know the velocity field of the VEELR, which could be measured by deep spectroscopy.

We note that the outer edge of the VEELR may be strongly affected by interaction with the ICM. According to VBCTM, a large Mach cone with an opening angle of $`80^{}`$ is formed around NGC 4388 by the interaction with the Virgo cluster ICM. The apex of the cone is at the leading edge of the H I disk of the galaxy. If this is the case, the height of the contact discontinuity of the bow shock is $`=R_{\mathrm{HI}}\times \mathrm{tan}40\mathrm{°}89`$ kpc above the galaxy plane. This is well inside the extension of the VEELR. Thus, the outer part of the VEELR may be severely affected by the shock. The peculiar morphology of the VEELR, particularly its apparent bending, may be due to this interaction with the ICM.

#### 4.2.4 Tidal debris from galaxy-galaxy interaction

Pogge (1988) suggested that the NE plume of NGC 4388 might be tidal debris from a past galaxy-galaxy interaction, like the Magellanic stream. VBCTM rejected the tidal debris scenario, because they did not detect any distorted kinematic signatures in the disk velocity field, and because it does not explain the correlation between the \[O III\] surface brightness and the kinematics of the NE plume clouds (blue-shifted clouds tend to have high surface brightness). Considering the large size and stream-like morphology of the VEELR, however, we consider that a tidal debris model is a good candidate to explain the origin of the VEELR gas.

NGC 4388 lies near the core of the Virgo cluster (Yasuda et al. 1997), where galaxy-galaxy encounters may be comparatively frequent. Phillips and Malin (1982) discussed the morphological anomaly of the outskirts of the disk of NGC 4388. They commented on a faint envelope surrounding the western edge of the galaxy. We have also found that the disk of NGC 4388 is moderately asymmetrical at a low surface brightness level in our broad-band images, and that a faint hump exists near the southwest edge ($`300\mathrm{}`$ away from the nucleus) of the galaxy (see Figs. 1c and 1d). This hump is seen in both the $`R_c`$\- and $`V`$-band images, and is not found in the pure emission-line image, so that it should be mainly composed of stars. In addition, the bulge of NGC 4388 is boxy (Veilleux et al. 1999b). The features described above are clearly seen in Fig. 7, which shows the isophotes of NGC 4388 made from our $`R_c`$-band images (Fig. 1c). It has gradually come to be recognized that galaxies with boxy bulges have experienced minor merging in the past (Mihos et al. 1995; Walker, Mihos & Hernquist 1996).

The numerical simulations of minor merging carried out by Walker et al. (1996) indicate that a minor merging excites a strong bar mode ($`m=2`$) instability in 1 Gyr after the merging and thickens the disk of the primary galaxy significantly. The edge-on view of the disk and satellite particle 1 Gyr after merging in the simulations of Walker et al. (1996) strikingly resembles our R-band image of NGC 4388. The thick, asymmetric morphology of the disk with faint humps extending perpendicular to the disk plane at its edge, seen in their simulations, are also present in our image, indicating that NGC 4388 may be a minor merger remnant seen $`1`$ Gyr after the beginning of the merger event. If this was the case, and the satellite was a gas-rich dwarf galaxy, a long tidal tail of gas from the satellite would be left along the path of the encounter. In fact, such large tidal tails of gas have been found around some mergers in H I observations (Arp 219, Smith 1994; NGC 7252, Hibbard et al. 1994; Arp 299, Hibbard and Yun 1999). The morphological similarity between the results of numerical simulations (Hernquist & Mihos 1995; Walker et al. 1996) and our R-band image of NGC 4388, together with the stream-like morphology of the VEELR, lead us to a conclusion that NGC 4388 is a minor merger remnant and that the VEELR consists of dense gas clouds in the tidal tails (tidal debris) illuminated by nuclear power-law radiation.

A minor merger also concentrates interstellar gas in the nucleus of the primary galaxy, and may drive nuclear activity. Taniguchi (1999) has argued that minor mergers are one of the most plausible candidate processes for driving Seyfert activity. He proposed that Seyfert 2 galaxies are activated by a minor merger with a highly inclined orbit. If this is the case for NGC 4388, a past minor merger may not only have formed the tidal tail in which the VEELR gas clumps are embedded, but may also have induced its nuclear activity.

## 5 Summary

We have found an very extended emission-line region (VEELR) that extends up to $`35`$ kpc from the type 2 Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4388. This region consists of many faint gas clouds/filaments and extends northeastwards from the galaxy. The map of emission-line intensity ratio, $`I`$(\[O III\])$`/I`$(H$`\alpha `$), suggests that the clouds in the inner ($`r<12`$ kpc) region of the VEELR are excited by nuclear ionizing radiation. Although the excitation mechanism of the clouds in the outer ($`r>12`$ kpc) region is unclear, those clouds might also be excited primarily by the nuclear radiation, since they are within the nuclear ionization cone. We discussed the origin of this ionized gas, and concluded that it is most plausible that the VEELR gas is tidal debris due to a past interaction with a gas-rich dwarf galaxy. If NGC 4388 has a large transverse velocity, of the order 103 km s-1 toward the south of the galaxy, it is also possible that the VEELR was formed by ram-pressure stripping of the disk gas due to a high-speed collision between the galaxy disk and the hot ICM.

In any case, since the VEELR lies at a very high latitude with respect to the disk plane, it is certain that the VEELR contains valuable information about the halo gas of NGC 4388. Deep spectroscopy of the VEELR will not only tell us the nature of the VEELR gas, giving us more reliable information on its kinematics, excitation mechanism, and metal abundance, but will also allow us to consider the origin of the halo gas of NGC 4388. In this context, we emphasize that very extended faint ionized gas that is illuminated by powerful radiation, such as AGN radiation, may provide us with a unique opportunity to investigate the physical state of halo gas around galaxies. Wide-field, deep, narrow-band imaging and deep spectroscopy of the halos of galaxies exhibiting AGN activity will be useful in such studies.

We are grateful to the staff of the Subaru telescope for their kind help with the observations. We thank Y. Taniguchi and T. Nagao for useful discussions. We also thank anonymous refree for her/his comments on the manuscript. In addition, M. Y. thanks the staff of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory for their encouragement during the course of this study. This work was done using the facilities at the Astronomical Data Analysis Center, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service.


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# ON THE FORMATION OF MULTIPLE-SHELLS AROUND ASYMPTOTIC GIANT BRANCH STARS

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The arcs and rings which appear in the images of several planetary nebulae (PNe) and proto-PNe (Sahai et al. 1998b; Kwok, Su, & Hrivnak 1998; Su et al. 1998; Sahai et al. 1999; Bond 2000; Hrivnak, Kwok, & Su 2001, hereafter HKS), as well as in one AGB star (IRC+10216; Mauron & Huggins 1999, 2000), are thought to be concentric (more or less) semi-periodic shells; some shells are complete while other are not. Reviews of the arc and ring properties are given by HKS and Kwok, Su & Stoesz (2001; hereafter KSS). Not all observed arcs and rings are truly concentric, but in all cases their “center” is relatively (to their radius) close to the central star (KSS). I will use the fact that not all arcs are concentric to constrain models for their formation. Like Mauron & Huggins (2000) and to save space, I term these concentric semi-periodic shell multiple-shells, or M-shells. The time intervals between consecutive shells change from system to system and in some cases between shells in the same system, with typical time intervals of $`t_s1001000\mathrm{yrs}`$.

Three classes of models were proposed for M-shells formation. $`(i)`$ Binary models (e.g., Harpaz, Rappaport, & Soker 1997; Mastrodemos & Morris 1999) where the orbital period sets the time interval between the M-shells. The advantage of this kind of model is that the (semi)-periods are exactly in the orbital period range where the binary interaction, being tidal interaction (Harpaz et al. 1997) or accretion (Soker 2001), turns off and on along an eccentric orbit. However, there are strong arguments against binary models (e.g., Soker 2000; Mauron & Huggins 2000). Hence, binary model will not be addressed in this paper, but I do allow for the possibility that a companion plays a passive role, e.g., spining-up the AGB star to initiate magnetic activity. $`(ii)`$ Processes in the circumstellar matter, e.g., instabilities in dust-gas coupling (Deguchi 1997; Simis, Icke, & Dominik 2001). The relevant processes in this type of models occur in regions of size $`r_a`$ which are much larger than the stellar radius, $`r_aR_{}`$. The basic advantage is that the dynamical time $`r_a^{3/2}/(GM)^{1/2}`$, where $`M1M_{}`$ is the stellar mass, can be set to be of the order of the intershell time interval if $`r_a20100\mathrm{AU}`$. In the next section I argue that despite this advantage, there are problems with this class of models. $`(iii)`$ Semi-periodic variations in one or more of the stellar properties, leading to semi-periodic variation in the mass loss rate. Helium-shell flashes are ruled out (Sahai et al. 1998b; Kwok et al. 1998) because their typical inter-flash period is $`10^4\mathrm{yrs}`$, while pulsation periods are too short. This led me (Soker 2000) to suggest that a solar-like magnetic activity cycle in the progenitor AGB star is behind the formation of M-shells (see also Garcia-Segura, Lopez, & Franco 2001).

In the present paper I compare models of the above types ($`ii`$) and ($`iii`$) against properties of M-shells, and show that circumstellar models suffer from severe problems. The stellar semi-periodic variation can account for the M-shell properties, in particular if a binary companion is present.

## 2 CONSTRAINING AND SUPPORTING DIFFERENT MODELS

### 2.1 Radiation Pressure and Opacity

In this subsection I show that any model for the M-shell formation which is based on processes in the circumstellar matter is in conflict with wind acceleration by radiation pressure. The relevant process which forms the M-shells must occur before the wind reaches its high-Mach terminal speed. For simplicity I take a constant acceleration $`a`$ over a radius $`r_a`$ much larger than the stellar radius $`r_aR_{}`$. To form variation over a time interval $`t_s`$, the acceleration time of each mass element should be of that order. The terminal wind velocity is $`v_t=at_s`$, and the wind velocity in the acceleration zone $`R_{}<rr_a`$ is $`v=(2ar)^{1/2}=(2v_tr/t_s)^{1/2}`$. Assuming spherical symmetry, the wind density is

$$\rho =\frac{\dot{M}}{4\pi r^2v}=\frac{\dot{M}t_s^{1/2}}{4\pi (2v_t)^{1/2}}\frac{1}{r^{5/2}},R_{}<rr_a.$$
(1)
Since the material in the acceleration zone expands slowly, it is influenced by the gravity of the central star. The radiation pressure must overcome the gravity, since in the wind zone the pressure gradient is negligible. The total gravitational force on the material in the acceleration zone is

$$F_g=_R_{}^{r_a}\frac{GM}{r^2}\rho 4\pi r^2𝑑r=\frac{GM\dot{M}}{3R_{}^{3/2}}\left(\frac{2t_s}{v_t}\right)^{1/2},$$
(2)
where equation (1) for $`\rho `$ was used in the integration. Radiation can exert a force $`F_{\mathrm{rad}}=\beta L/c`$, where $`c`$ is the speed of light, $`L`$ the stellar luminosity and $`\beta `$ is the effective average number of times a photon is scattered. Substituting typical values, e.g., for IRC+10216 (Winters, Dominik, & Sedlmayr 1994; Mauron & Huggins 2000) we find the constraints on the average number of times a photon is scattered in order to support the extended acceleration zone,

$`\beta _a=2.6\left({\displaystyle \frac{L}{2\times 10^4L_{}}}\right)^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{t_s}{500\mathrm{yr}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{R_{}}{6\mathrm{AU}}}\right)^{3/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{v_t}{15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}}\right)^{1/2}`$
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{M}}{2\times 10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{M}{0.7M_{}}}\right).`$ (3)
In addition to supplying the counter force in the acceleration zone, the radiation supplies the momentum to the wind $`\dot{M}v_t`$. The average number of scattering required here is

$$\beta _w=0.74\left(\frac{L}{2\times 10^4L_{}}\right)^1\left(\frac{\dot{M}}{2\times 10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}\right)\left(\frac{v_t}{15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right).$$
(4)
The total effective average number of times a photon is scattered is $`\beta _t=\beta _a+\beta _w`$. For these parameters $`\beta _t3`$, which requires the wind to be optically thick. Indeed, the optical depth from a radius $`R_d<r<r_a`$ to infinity, where $`R_d10\mathrm{AU}`$ is the dust formation radius, is given by

$`\tau ={\displaystyle _r^{\mathrm{}}}\kappa \rho 𝑑r^{}=26\left({\displaystyle \frac{t_s}{500\mathrm{yr}}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{v_t}{15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}}\right)^{1/2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{M}}{2\times 10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}}\right)`$
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{\kappa }{10\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{g}^1}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{r}{10\mathrm{AU}}}\right)^{3/2},`$ (5)
where $`\kappa `$ is the dust opacity scaled with a typical value for AGB stars (Jura 1986; Winters et al. 2000), and the density was taken from equation (1). Only at $`r100\mathrm{AU}`$ does the wind become optically thin.

Simis et al. (2001) take $`L=2.4\times 10^4L_{}`$ and obtained average mass loss rate and velocity of $`\dot{M}10^4M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ and $`v_t40\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, respectively, which require $`\beta _w=8`$. This is a very high efficiency for wind acceleration, not found usually in AGB stars (Knapp 1986). Such a large average number of times a photon is scattered requires that radiative transfer be followed through the optically thick acceleration zone. Simis et al. (2001) don’t follow the radiative transfer, but rather assume optically thin envelope, making their results questionable. (From the density profile in the model of Simis et al. I find that there is a mass of $`0.2M_{}`$ in the region between the stellar surface, $`R_{}=6\mathrm{AU}`$, and the dust formation radius, $`R_d=15\mathrm{AU}`$. This is more than the envelope mass in their stellar model. It is not clear what is the influence of this unreasonable assumption on their results.)

To summarize, any model based on an extended acceleration zone requires high efficiency of radiation acceleration extending along the entire acceleration zone. However, for typical parameters, most, or even all, of the acceleration zone is optically thick, because the velocity is low and density high. Since radiation reaches outer region only after it is scattered to longer wavelength, acceleration tends to be less efficient in outer regions. I therefore consider unlikely that such models can explain the formation of M-shells. In any case, radiation transfer must be considered in building such models, as well as the stability of the process (Garcia-Segura et al. 2001).

### 2.2 Non-concentric Arcs

In three objects the M-shells are not concentric and/or intersecting each other (HKS): AFGL 2688 (the Egg Nebula), NGC 7027, and IRC+10216. Interestingly, the aspherical dense nebula in the center of each of these objects departs from axisymmetry: In the Egg Nebula the eastern bright region $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ from the center observed in the NICMOS image is more extended than the western bright region on the other side of the central star (Sahai et al. 1998a). The HST images of NGC 7027 (Latter et al. 2000) show a more extended and brighter region to the southwest side along the equatorial plane. The carbon star IRC+10216 contains an inner elliptical structure on a scale of $`10^{\prime \prime }`$ (Kastner & Weinntraub 1994). The variation in the spacing between the contours and polarization vectors (fig. 2 of Kastner & Waintraub 1994) are similar in nature to the variation between the M-shell spacing. The departure from axisymmetry appears also at $`0.1^{\prime \prime }`$ from the center (Weigelt et al. 1998; Haniff & Buscher 1998).

A plausible common explanation for both the non-concentric M-shells and the departure from axisymmetry of the inner bright region is a binary model (Soker & Rappaport 2001). The intersecting shells require the orbital period to be shorter, but not much shorter, than the intershell time interval. Each shell then, is ejected while the mass losing AGB star is at a different orbital phase, hence moving in a different direction. Since in all three objects the M-shells intersect close to the star, the orbital velocity of the AGB star around the center of mass $`v_1`$ can’t be too small (see Soker & Rappaport 2001). If two consecutive shells are ejected when the AGB star moves in opposite directions, i.e., half an orbital period apart, then the shell will collide when at a distance of $`r_i\mathrm{\Delta }Rv_t/(2v_1)`$ from the central star. In other cases they will collide further away. For these objects I find $`r_i510\mathrm{\Delta }R`$, hence $`v_10.10.05v_t`$ ($`v_t`$ is the terminal expansion velocity of the M-shells). I take as typical values $`v_t=15\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and AGB and companion stellar masses of $`M_1=0.8M_{}`$, and $`M_2=0.6M_{}`$ respectively. The constraints on the orbital separation and period are (eqs. 1-2 of Soker & Rappaport 2001) $`a100\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}10^3\mathrm{yr}`$, respectively. This binary model naturally explains the intersecting and/or non-concentric M-shells in models where the M-shells are formed during a short interval close to the AGB star.

This binary model can’t account for the non-concentric M-shells in extended acceleration zone models, where the formation time of each M-shell is about equal to the intershell time interval. The reason is that the required binary orbital period is of the order or shorter than the intershell time intervals. Hence, either each shell will be smeared, or else each shell have the average velocity, which is the binary center of mass velocity, and the shells will not intersect and not be displaced, i.e., they will be concentric. Therefore, another explanation should be found for the presence of non-concentric and/or intersecting M-shells in models based on an extended acceleration zone.

I therefore predict that these three objects contain a binary companion of mass $`0.5M_{}`$, either a white dwarf or a main sequence star, with orbital periods inside the range of $`50500\mathrm{yrs}`$.

### 2.3 Polar-Disccontinueity

In some systems there is a clear difference between the M-shell structure along the symmetry axis and that in the equatorial plane. This is usually attributed to different illuminating radiation, e.g., the searchlight beams in the Egg Nebula. By carefully examining the structure of some M-shells, I find the situation to be more complicated. ($`i`$) The different illuminating radiation can explain the brighter M-shell segments along the polar directions in the Egg Nebula. However, the M-shells in the Egg Nebula split, intersect, and possess irregular spacing along the polar direction much more so than closer to the equator. This is more prominent along the northern search light beams. This effect can’t be attributed to different illumination. ($`ii`$) In IRAS 20028+3910 (HKS) there are three short arcs on each side along the symmetry axis, with the inner one being at $`1^{\prime \prime }`$. However, there is faint nebulosity in other directions from the central star of IRAS 20028+3910, up to $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$ from the central star in the SW direction (Ueta, Meixner, & Bobrowsky 2000), where no arcs are observed (HKS). I therefore argue that the presence of arcs along the symmetry axis but not, or much less prominent, in other direction in IRAS 20028+3910, is real.

The physical differences between equatorial and polar segments of M-shell that I argue for here are very tentative. In any case, it is interesting that magnetic activity, i.e., surface spots, are known to have polar and/or equatorial concentration, as well as uniform distribution (e.g., Schrijver & Title 2001 and references therefin). Magnetic activity can naturally explain polar to equatorial variation (Gracia-Segura et al. 2011), if they turn out to be real.

## 3 SUMMARY

The goal of this paper is to examine two types of models for the formation of semi-periodic concentric multiple shells (termed here M-shells; also called arcs) against observations. The comparison of models with observations suffers from the small number of objects with well defined M-shells. Binary models were not discussed here, as they were found in previous works to suffer from severe problems (Soker 2000; Mauron & Huggins 2000). In particular, the inter-shell time intervals are not constant. The binary model can be ‘saved’ only if another non-periodic component is added to the periodic orbital motion. I know of no mechanism to cause such a non-periodic variation component which can act together with the orbital period (beside the magnetic cycle which can act by itself; see below).

In the present paper I find that models that attribute the M-shells to processes in an extended, up to $`100\mathrm{AU}`$, wind acceleration zone, result in an optically thick acceleration zone. This reduces the acceleration efficiency in the outer parts of the extended acceleration zone, making such models unlikely. Simis et al. (2001) for example, assume that the acceleration zone is optically thin; hence, I consider their results questionable.

Models which attribute the M-shell to semi-periodic variation in one or more stellar properties are most compatible with observations. The departure of the M-shells from being concentric in some systems can be easily explained by an orbital motion of the AGB star around the center of mass with a stellar companion. The stellar companion does not play a dynamical role in the formation process itself, but it may spin-up the AGB star to stimulate an efficient dynamo. The only stellar variation models on time scales of $`501500\mathrm{yrs}`$ that have been suggested are based on a magnetic cycle (Soker 2000; Garcia-Segura 2001). From main sequence stars it is well known that in addition to a, more or less, uniform surface activity, magnetic fields, e.g., spots, can have polar and/or equatorial concentrations. This may explain the tentative claim I made here that in some objects there are structural differences between M-shell segments along the polar directions and equatorial plane. Although the magnetic cycle is an ad-hoc assumption, it fits naturally into the increasingly popular view that magnetic activity plays a role in shaping the wind from upper AGB stars (e.g., Chevalier & Luo 1994; Rozyczka & Franco 1996; Soker 2000; Gardiner & Frank 2001).

I thank Robert Link for comments on the original manuscript. This research was supported in part by grants from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation.


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# Dynamical Modeling of the Stellar Nucleus of M31

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The nuclei of normal galaxies are thought to harbor massive dark objects (MDOs), which could be supermassive black holes. These central regions often possess dense agglomerations of stars, whose structural and kinematical properties appear to be correlated with global galaxy properties (see Gebhardt et al., 1996; Ferrarese & Merritt, 2000; Gebhardt et al., 2000). The imprint of galaxy formation is surely recorded in the nature of stellar orbits. No more unusual examples are, perhaps, known than the nuclei of the galaxies, NGC4486B (in the Virgo cluster) and M31 (our nearest large neighbor). The proximity of M31 has enabled detailed photometric and kinematic observations of its nucleus, beginning with the detection of its asymmetrical shape by Stratoscope II (Light et al., 1974), and its resolution into a double–peaked structure by the HST images of Lauer et al. (1993). The central peak (P2) lies close to the presumed location of the MDO, located in a small region of UV–bright stars (King et al., 1995; Lauer et al., 1998; Kormendy & Bender, 1999). Tremaine (1995) proposed that the off–centered peak (P1) marks the region in a disk of stars, where lie the apoapses of many eccentric orbits. This lopsided structure is expected to rotate steadily with some pattern speed, and remain locked in place by the self–gravity of all the stars. We construct numerical stellar dynamical models, wherein the disk potential is derived directly—after bulge subtraction—from the HST photometry of Lauer et al. (1998). Model construction and comparisons with data make many demands on computational resources. Hence it was not practical to explore the effects of varying values of many of the parameters concerning the bulge and disk; we take many of these values from Kormendy & Bender (1999). However, we do explore the effect of varying the pattern speed. We state our assumptions and give an outline of our method below.

We assumed that the bulge–subtracted light emanated from a steadily rotating, inclined, razor–thin, flat, disk of stars, in orbit about the MDO. The stars compose a collisionless, self–gravitating system. Hence the orbits of individual stars are governed by the combined gravitational attractions of the MDO, and the smooth, self–gravitational potential of all the stars. A bulge–disk decomposition of the V–band image of Lauer et al. (1998) yielded the disk surface density, from which the smooth disk potential was computed. For some chosen value of the pattern speed ($`\mathrm{\Omega }`$), orbits of test stars were integrated numerically in the rotating frame. A selection of prograde and retrograde (quasi–periodic) loop orbits of various sizes composed an orbit library. The orbits were populated with “stars” ($`237,000`$ in all), spaced uniformly in time, and the disk light (in a central region) partitioned into many cells, with more cells than orbits. Determination of orbit masses, from the known luminosities of the cells, required solving an overdetermined problem, involving positive quantities. This was achieved through $`5000`$ iterations of a RL algorithm (Richardson, 1972; Lucy, 1974). The entire procedure was repeated for several values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Comparisons with the kinematic maps of Bacon et al. (2001) followed. Central line–of–sight velocity distributions were calculated to emphasize the regions in velocity space, where retrograde orbits contribute. Following Kormendy & Bender (1999), we assumed a distance to M31 of $`770\text{ kpc}`$ (on the sky, $`1\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to $`3.73\text{ pc}`$), mass of the MDO, $`M=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}3.3}\times 10^7\text{ M}\text{}`$, and mass–to–light ratio of the (bulge–subtracted) nuclear disk equal to $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_V=5.73`$.

## 2 MODEL CONSTRUCTION

### 2.1 Deprojection and Disk Potential

Fig. 1a shows the nucleus of M31, plotted from the V–band, HST observations of Lauer et al. (1998). The UV cluster and the MDO are at the origin. P2 is near the MDO, with sky coordinates ($`0\stackrel{}{.}023,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\mathrm{}`$), and P1 is located at ($`0\stackrel{}{.}48,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}\mathrm{}`$). The bulge was assumed to be spherical, with a Sérsic brightness profile (Sérsic, 1968; Kormendy & Bender, 1999)—see Fig. 1b. The center of mass (COM) of the bulge, disk, and MDO was required to coincide with the bulge center; this common location was determined, by an iterative method, at ($`0\stackrel{}{.}0684,0\mathrm{}`$), in agreement with Kormendy & Bender (1999). With one notable exception, (Bacon et al., 2001), all investigations have assumed that the nuclear disk is coplanar with the much larger galactic disk of M31. We obtained very poor results with this assumption. Therefore, we resolved to determine the inclination and orientation of the nuclear disk, based on the photometry, similar to Bacon et al. (2001). The disk light covered an approximately elliptical region, with a ragged edge. The plane in which the best–fit ellipse (to the edge) deprojected to a circle was defined to be the disk plane; its inclination ($`i`$), and PA of the line of nodes, were $`51.54\mathrm{°}`$, and $`62.66\mathrm{°}`$, respectively. The face–on view of the disk, shown in Fig. 1c, has mass $`2.15\times 10^7\text{ M}\text{}`$.

To minimize edge–effects, the self–gravitational potential was evaluated in the disk plane, at $`10^4`$ grid points within a central square, of side equal to $`2\stackrel{}{.}28`$. However, the Newtonian $`|𝐫𝐫^{}|^1`$ contributions from the entire disk of Fig. 1c, which has diameter $`3\stackrel{}{.}6`$, was used. The grid values were fit to a $`20`$–th order polynomial function of the Cartesian coordinates, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_d(𝒓)`$, a contour plot of which is displayed in Fig. 1d. The polynomial form smoothed the potential, facilitated coding of the integrator, and checking of the integrated orbits in the nearly Keplerian limit (Sridhar & Touma, 1999). Figs. 1c and 1d can be imagined as either snapshots of a rotating configuration, or as steady images in a frame rotating with some angular speed $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, about an axis normal to the disk plane, and passing through the COM. The forces on a test star include the gravitational attractions of the MDO and disk, as well as centrifugal and Coriolis forces. The contribution of the bulge was ignored, because it is so much smaller than the other forces.

### 2.2 The Orbit Library

Orbits were computed in the rotating frame by numerically integrating the equations of motion,

$$\ddot{𝒓}=\frac{GM}{r}\mathbf{}\mathrm{\Phi }_d\mathrm{\Omega }^2𝒓\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}2}\mathrm{\Omega }\left(\widehat{z}\mathbf{\times }\dot{𝒓}\right),$$
(1)
using a $`4`$th–order, adaptive step size, Runge–Kutta scheme. The global structure of orbits was explored by studying Poincaré surfaces of section. The principal families of orbits were lenses and loops. Lens orbits change the sign of their orbital angular momentum (Sridhar & Touma, 1997, 1999). Stars on such orbits will collide with the MDO, in the time it takes an orbit to precess. These time scales do not exceed a million years, even for quite large orbits; dwarf, as well as giant stars on lens orbits will be lost to the MDO (if not tidally disrupted before). Hence lens orbits were excluded from our modeling. Other orbits that were also omitted included chaotic orbits, and those parented by higher order resonances. The loops orbits were of two kinds: prograde and retrograde, some of which are shown in Figs. 2a and 2b; these were the only orbits included in our orbit library. The kinematic model of Tremaine (1995), the Kepler–averaged dynamics of Sridhar & Touma (1999), and studies of slow, linear modes by Tremaine (2001), all suggest the use of the prograde loops as the back bones of the orbit library. The necessity of including retrograde loops is less obvious, and was stimulated by the investigations of Touma (2001). It turned out that the retrograde loops significantly improved fits near P2.

For each value of energy, loops of two or three different “thicknesses” (i.e. deviations from the parent loop) were computed. Each orbit was sampled, and populated with “stars”, spaced apart uniformly in time. All stars in an orbit are accorded the same (unknown) mass; this is not a restriction, because in a collisionless system, the relevant physical quantities are the mass per orbit. The numbers of “stars” in an orbit was chosen proportional to the inverse square of the energy (approximately, square of the “semi–major axis”) of the parent loop; thus $`25`$ stars sufficed for an orbit with $`a=0\stackrel{}{.}02`$, whereas an orbit with $`a=0\stackrel{}{.}6`$ was sampled by more than $`10,000`$ stars. Altogether, the positions and velocities of $`237,000`$ stars, populating $`50`$ prograde orbits and $`20`$ retrograde orbits, were recorded.

### 2.3 Richardson–Lucy Deconvolution

Orbit masses were determined by iteratively imposing on the model, consistency with the bulge–subtracted sky brightness of a region covered by the orbits; the dashed box of Fig. 2c encloses this region. The box was divided into $`112`$ equal square cells, each of side $`0\stackrel{}{.}09`$; each cell was small enough to give good resolution, and large enough (16 pixels) to keep pixel noise levels low. The “observed” mass per cell, $`\mu _j`$ (for $`j=1\mathrm{}112`$), was obtained from the observed light, by multiplication with $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}_V`$; these numbers composed our basic data. We defined $`m_i`$ (for $`i=1\mathrm{}70`$) as the mass of orbit $`i`$, that also lies within the box; the total mass in the orbit exceeds $`m_i`$. We normalized $`_{i=1\mathrm{}70}m_i=_{j=1\mathrm{}112}\mu _j=1`$, to unit mass in the box. A linear relationship, $`\mu _j=_{i=1\mathrm{}70}K(j|i)m_i`$, exists between the “observed masses” $`\mu _j`$, and the unknown masses $`m_i`$. The positive kernel, $`K(j|i)`$, is known from the orbit library. It has the property, $`_{j=1\mathrm{}112}K(j|i)=1`$, for all $`i=1\mathrm{}70`$. An initial guess, $`\{m_i^\mathrm{g}\}`$, was iterated by the RL algorithm (Richardson, 1972; Lucy, 1974). The problem being overdetermined, about $`5000`$ iterations ensured good convergence to some $`\{m_i^\mathrm{f}\}`$. Velocities were then transformed to the inertial frame. Rescaling of $`\{m_i^\mathrm{f}\}`$ to physical values, and including the portions of orbits outside the box, provided a numerical distribution function. The entire process, beginning from the selection of an orbit–library, was repeated for several values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, between $`5`$ and $`25\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}\text{ pc}\text{-1}`$. For any chosen value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the final set of orbit masses, $`\{m_i^\mathrm{f}\}`$, corresponds to a prediction for the cell masses, $`\mu _j^\mathrm{f}=_{i=1\mathrm{}70}K(j|i)m_i^\mathrm{f}`$, which should be compared with the data, $`\{\mu _j\}`$. For models with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\{15,16,17\}`$, the root–mean–squared deviation in mass per cell are, $`\{0.26,0.20,0.28\}`$; other values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ resulted in very poor models.

## 3 COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS

We restored the Sérsic bulge profile, for comparisons with the photometry—see Figs. 2c and 2d, where the $`\mathrm{\Omega }=16\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}\text{ pc}\text{-1}`$ model is compared with the photometry of Lauer et al. (1998). The locations of the peaks agree, although the model runs out of orbits near the edges. For kinematic comparisons, we further assumed that the velocity distribution of the bulge stars was Gaussian, with $`\sigma _v=150\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}`$. Fig. 3 compares the model with the kinematic maps of Bacon et al. (2001). The need to smooth with a beam of $`FWHM=0\stackrel{}{.}5`$, rendered the absence of the outer orbits more acute. However, the zero velocity curves, as well as the orientation of the line joining the maximum and minimum velocities are in agreement (Figs. 3a and 3b); the dispersion maps are reasonably compatible in the region of the peak near P2 (Figs. 3c and 3d). As noted earlier, the best fits obtained for models with $`\mathrm{\Omega }=15,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}16},\text{and}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}17}\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}\text{ pc}\text{-1}`$. In Figs. 4a–4c, these are compared with the photometry of Lauer et al. (1998), and HST STIS kinematics from Bacon et al. (2001). Together, they should give some idea of the deviations from observations. The pattern speed has been variously estimated (Sambhus & Sridhar, 2000; Salow & Statler, 2001; Bacon et al., 2001) to lie between $`3`$ and $`25\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}\text{ pc}\text{-1}`$. Our present estimate, $`\mathrm{\Omega }16\text{ km\hspace{0.17em} s}\text{-1}\text{ pc}\text{-1}`$, is closest to Salow & Statler (2001) who, however, prefer to view the disk at the traditional inclination of $`77\mathrm{°}`$.

We note here some limitations of our dynamical models. A basic assumption of our procedure was that the nuclear disk is razor–thin, and inclined at an angle of $`(77^{}51.54^{})25^{}`$, with respect to the plane of the larger galactic disk of M31. We also ignored the gravitational force of the bulge stars on the nuclear disk, because the net effect of a spherically symmetric bulge would be to only modify the precession rates by a small amount. However, it is known (Kent, 1983, 1989) that the bulge of M31 is flattened, and this can be expected to modify the models in at least two ways. If the flattened bulge were treated as a fixed, external potential, the node of the nuclear disk will precess. The more serious effect arises from the dynamical friction of the bulge, acting on the stars composing the nuclear disk. The torque exerted by a flattened bulge, whose stars could have anisotropic distributions of velocities, could well decrease the inclination of the disk. However, we have not been able to estimate the response of the stellar disk, whose structure is so fundamentally determined by eccentric orbits locked in resonance.

The assumption that the nuclear disk is razor–thin is, of course, unrealistic. Tremaine (1995) estimates that two–body relaxation would thicken the disk significantly, within a Hubble time. Our choice of a razor–thin disk was made primarily for the recovery of a “unique” surface density distribution for the disk in its plane (Fig. 1c), from the observed surface photometry (Fig. 1a). This surface density was then used to calculate the disk self–gravity, possible orbit families for a range of pattern speeds, and then populating the orbit libraries appropriately using the RL algorithm. Consideration of a thick disk would have introduced an infinity of possible choices in the very first step of our procedure, and we wished to avoid it. It should, however, be stressed that an uninclined thick disk could well be compatible with observed photometry. This possibility should certainly be explored, perhaps by including kinematic data as additional constraints. A question that no one, presenting stellar dynamical models, can afford to ignore is whether the system is stable. There appears to be no better route to address this question, than N–body simulations. In this light we should regard the models presented in this paper as plausible guesses for further numerical explorations.

The “eccentricity” profiles of the loop orbits are given in Fig. 5a. The prograde loops have a characteristic non monotonic profile, whereas the retrograde loops have large eccentricites that increase monotonically with size, to the biggest orbits employed in our models. We note that the eccentricity profile of the prograde orbits is quite different from Salow & Statler (2001): in particular, there is no tendency for them to switch apoapses to the anti–P1 side of the MDO. The profiles of the apoapse angles (Fig. 5b) show no evidence for spirality; prograde/retrograde loops have their apoapses on the P1/anti–P1 side of the MDO. The disk mass is $`1.4\times 10^7\text{ M}\text{}`$, with $`3.4\%`$ on retrograde orbits; the central LOSVD in Fig. 4d indicate the positive and negative velocities at which the latter contribute. We have tried models with only prograde loops, but these gave consistently poor fits around P2.

Numerical simulations (Jacobs & Sellwood, 2001), and analytical study (Tremaine, 2001) indicate that nearly Keplerian disks (without counter–rotating streams) are neutrally stable to linear, $`m=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ perturbations. Hence it might appear unlikely that the lopsidedness could have grown spontaneously from an initially axisymmetric disk. Note, however, that in Bacon et al. (2001) there is reference to work, to be reported in the future by Combes and Emsellem, on an $`m=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ instability. Bacon et al. (2001) also suggest that a lopsided mode could have been excited by the passage of a massive object, such as a giant molecular cloud, or a globular cluster. They also report supportive simulations, where excited modes remained undamped for $`7\times 10^7`$ years, with almost constant pattern speed; this is certainly a plausible scenario.

Here we consider an alternative origin of the lopsidedness, based on the presence of the retrograde loops in our models, and recent work by Touma (2001) on a linear instability, in a softened–gravity version of Laplace–Lagrange theory of planetary motions. To the extent that softened–gravity mimics the velocity dispersions of stars (Miller, 1971; Erickson, 1974), this work suggests that even a few percent of mass in counter–rotating orbits could excite a linear $`m=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}`$ overstability. In an axisymmetric nearly Keplerian disk, the apsides of prograde/retrograde orbits have negative/positive precession rates. A resonant response of the retrograde orbits (to a perturbation with positive $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) appears to excite large eccentricities. This compensates for their small mass fraction, allowing them to act so significantly, that the precession of apsides of the prograde loops is locked to that of the retrograde loops. We note that the large eccentricities of our retrograde loops (Fig. 5a), obtained directly from orbit integrations, are suggestive of this possibility. We speculate further that the overstability (as is common in other contexts) is arrested in growth by nonlinearity, and it settles into a nonlinear, neutral mode. The steadily rotating nuclear disk of M31 might well be in such a phase. Material on retrograde orbits could have been accreted by the infall of debris into the center of M31. One possibility is suggested by our estimate of the mass in retrograde orbits in our models, $`5\times 10^5\text{ M}\text{}`$. Tremaine, Ostriker, & Spitzer (1975) have argued that dynamical friction would cause globular clusters to spiral in toward galactic nuclei, and tidally disrupt. We could be witnessing the lopsided signature of such an event.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank Drs. S. Faber and T. Lauer for making available their HST photometry, Dr. E. Emsellem for providing the OASIS kinematic maps, Dr. J. Touma for sharing results and thoughts, and Drs. R. Nityananda and K. Subramanian for advice and comments. We are also grateful to an anonymous referee for thoughtful questions and comments. NS thanks the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India, for financial support through grant 2–21/95(II)/E.U.II.


text:
# GALAXY SPECTRAL TYPES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN THE 2dFGRS

## 1 Introduction

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) is an ambitious project with the aim of mapping the galaxy distribution of the local universe more accurately than ever before . It aims to acquire a complete sample of $``$250,000 galaxy spectra, down to an extinction corrected magnitude limit of $`b_J<19.45`$. The survey is now approaching completion with over 200,000 galaxy redshifts having already been measured (as of October 2001), and is already starting to yield significant scientific results (e.g , , , ).

Apart from the main science goals of quantifying the large-scale structure of the Universe, one of the most significant contributions of the 2dFGRS is to our understanding of the galaxy population itself. Having a data set of 250,000 galaxy spectra allows us to test the validity of galaxy formation and evolution scenarios with unprecedented accuracy. However, the shear size of the data set presents us with its own unique problems. Clearly in order to make the data set more ‘digestible’ some form of data compression is necessary, whether that be in the form of equivalent width measurements, morphological types, colours or some other compression. These quantities can be compared with theoretical predictions and simulations, and hence can set constraints on scenarios for galaxy formation and biasing. The approach we outline here is the development of a spectral classification derived from the distribution of the galaxy spectra themselves, using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Using the PCA as the basis of our classification has distinct advantages over other methods. Most notably the data are allowed to ‘speak for themselves’ rather than having ad-hoc classifications imposed on them. In addition, unlike equivalent widths or colours the PCA uses all the information contained in any given spectrum. The advantage of this is not only the fact that the classification is more informative but also that it is more useful at lower signal-to-noise ratios where individual spectral channels become noisy. Other data-compression and classification methods have been considered recently in other studies (e.g. , , ).

In these proceedings we briefly outline the development of our spectral classification and demonstrate several applications to which it has been put. For more details see .

## 2 Spectral Classification

### 2.1 Principal Component Analysis

Principal component analysis (PCA) is a well established statistical technique which has proved very useful in dealing with highly dimensional data sets. In the particular case of galaxy spectra we are typically presented with approximately 1000 spectral channels per galaxy, however when used in applications this is usually compressed down to just a few numbers, either by integrating over small line features - yielding equivalent widths - or over wide colour filters. The key advantage of using PCA in our data compression is that it allows us to make use of all the information contained in the spectrum in a statistically unbiased way, i.e. without the use of such ad hoc filters.

In order to perform the PCA on our galaxy spectra we first construct a representative volume limited sample of the galaxies. When we apply the PCA to this sample it constructs an orthogonal set of components (eigenspectra) which span the wavelength space occupied by the galaxy spectra. These components have been specifically chosen by the PCA in such a way that as much information (variance) is contained in the first eigenspectrum as possible, and that the amount of the remaining information in all the subsequent eigenspectra is likewise maximised. Therefore, if the information contained in the first $`n`$ eigenspectra is found to be significantly greater than that in the remaining eigenspectra we can significantly compress the data set by swapping each galaxy spectrum (described by 1000 channels) with its projections onto just those $`n`$ eigenspectra.

In the case of galaxy spectra we find that approximately two thirds of the total variance (including the noise) in the spectra can be represented in terms of only the first two projections ($`pc_1`$, $`pc_2`$). So, at least to a first approximation, galaxy spectra can be thought of as a two dimensional sequence in terms of these two projections.

In Fig. 1 we show these first two eigenspectra. It can be seen from this figure that whilst the first eigenspectrum contains both information from the continuum and lines, the second is dominated by the latter. Because of this it is possible to take two simple linear combinations which isolate either the continuum or the emission/absorption line features. In effect what we are doing when we utilise these linear combinations is rotating the axes defined by the PCA to make the interpretation of the components more straightforward. In so doing we can see that a parameterisation in terms of $`pc_1`$ and $`pc_2`$ is essentially equivalent to a two dimensional sequence in colour (continuum slope) and the average emission/absorption line strength.

### 2.2 $`\eta `$ Parameterisation

The 2dF instrument  was designed to measure large numbers of redshifts in as short an observing time as possible. However, in order to optimise the number of redshifts that can be measured in a given period of time, compromises have had to be made with respect to the spectral quality of the observations. Therefore if one wishes to characterise the observed galaxy population in terms of their spectral properties care must be taken in order to ensure that these properties are robust to the instrumental uncertainties.

The 2dF instrument makes use of up to 400 optical fibres with a diameter of 140$`\mu `$m (corresponding to $`2.0^{\prime \prime }`$ on the sky, depending on plate position). The quality and representativeness of the observed spectra can be compromised in several ways and a full list is presented in previous work . The net effect is that the uncertainties introduced into the fibre-spectra predominantly effect the calibration of the continuum slope and have relatively little impact on the emission/absorption line strengths. For this reason any given galaxy spectrum which is projected into the plane defined by ($`pc_1`$,$`pc_2`$) will not be uniquely defined in the direction of varying continuum but will be robust in the orthogonal direction (which measures the average line strength).

This robust axis is simply that shown in Fig.1(b) and we denote the projection onto this eigenspectrum by $`\eta `$,

$$\eta =apc_1+pc_2.$$
(1)
Where $`a`$ is a constant which we find empirically to be $`a=0.5\pm 0.1`$.

The result of this analysis is that we have now identified the single most (statistically) important component of the galaxy spectra which is robust to the known instrumental uncertainties, $`\eta `$. We have therefore chosen to adopt this (continuous) variable as our measure of spectral type. We show the observed distribution of $`\eta `$ projections for the 2dF galaxies in Fig. 2, together with the projections calculated from the Kennicutt Atlas  galaxies which have known morphologies. It can be seen from this figure that a clear trend exists between $`\eta `$ and galaxy morphologies.

Qualitatively, $`\eta `$ is a measure of the relative absorption/emission line strength present in a given galaxies spectrum, and hence can be interpreted as a measure of the relative current star-formation in that galaxy. To highlight this relationship we show in Fig. 2 the strong correlation between the EW(H$`\alpha `$) and $`\eta `$.

It is interesting to note that the distribution displays some degree of bimodality similar to that observed in the Sloan colour distribution .

## 3 Applications

We show below three applications of $`\eta `$. They illustrate how $`\eta `$, which relates to atomic processes, is connected to the global statistic of galaxies and their clustering on the $`10h^1`$ Mpc scale.

### 3.1 Population Mix in 2dF vs. 2MASS

Having a continuous measure of the spectral type of a galaxy allows us to easily compare the population mix of different samples of galaxies. As an example of this we compare the $`\eta `$ distribution of the 2dFGRS with that of the overlapping 2MASS galaxy sample  ($`J_{Kron}<14.45`$) in Fig. 3. It is clear from this figure that the two populations have quite different compositions. The Near-IR selected 2MASS galaxies are dominated by early-type galaxies (the peak roughly corresponds to galaxies with E/S0 morphologies) which make up approximately two thirds of the sample. This contrasts with the $`b_J`$ selected 2dFGRS galaxies which contain a much larger selection of star-forming galaxies.

Such comparisons between samples of galaxies are crucial in order to identify the different selection biases in galaxy surveys, and hence ensure that comparisons of subsequent results (e.g. luminosity functions) are fair.

### 3.2 Luminosity Functions per Spectral Type

Because $`\eta `$ is a continuous measure of the spectral type we are now in a position to develop bivariate formalisms for such applications as the luminosity function $`\varphi (M,\eta )`$. However, in order to simplify our analysis we have instead chosen to divide the distribution in $`\eta `$ into four separate types, as shown in Fig. 2.

Having defined our 4 spectral types we can now proceed to calculate the luminosity function (LF) for each of these types using the standard formalisms of step-wise maximum likelihood  and the maximum likelihood fit of a Schechter function  (more detailed descriptions of this analysis have been given in previous work ). These LFs are plotted in Fig. 4.

A general trend is clear in that galaxies with relatively more current star-formation systematically have a fainter characteristic magnitude and a steeper faint-end slope. It is also interesting to note that whilst the Schechter function provides a good fit to the LFs of the late-type galaxies it does not fit the faint early-type galaxies well, perhaps suggesting the presence of a significant dwarf population. This feature is not evident in the overall LF and so would not have been found without having first performed this classification.

### 3.3 Clustering per Spectral Type

In order to investigate the different clustering properties of different types of galaxies we make use of the two point correlation function . The calculated correlation function is shown in terms of the line-of-sight and perpendicular to the line-of-sight separation $`\xi (\sigma ,\pi )`$ in Fig. 5. In this plot we show the correlation function calculated from the most passively (type 1) and actively (types 3 and 4) star-forming galaxies.

It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the clustering properties of the two samples are quite distinct. The more passively star-forming (‘red’) galaxies display a prominent ‘finger of God’ effect and also have a higher overall normalisation than the more actively star-forming (‘blue’) galaxies. This is a manifestation of the well-known morphology-density relation. This diagram allows us to determine the combination of the mass density and biasing parameter $`\beta =\mathrm{\Omega }_m^{0.6}/b`$ () per spectral type (, )

## 4 Conclusions

The new generation of extremely large astronomical surveys currently taking place is ushering in a new era of precision astronomy. However, in order to reduce the vast quantities of information being produced into more practical data sets one must first address the challenges of compressing the data in a meaningful way.

As an example of this we have demonstrated here in these proceedings how the large number of galaxy spectra being observed in the 2dFGRS can be reduced in the regime of a simple spectral classification, $`\eta `$. We have addressed the issues of ensuring that this classification is meaningful and also robust to the known instrumental uncertainties. In addition we have shown how this classification can be applied to the calculation of luminosity and correlation functions in a way which adds new constraints on scenarios for galaxy formation and biasing.

## 5 Acknowledgements

We thank our 2dFGRS collaborators111The 2dFGRS Team comprises: I.J.Baldry, C.M.Baugh, J.Bland-Hawthorn, T.J.Bridges, R.D.Cannon, S.Cole, C.A.Collins, M.Colless, W.J.Couch, N.G.J.Cross, G.B.Dalton, R.DePropris, S.P.Driver, G.Efstathiou, R.S.Ellis, C.S.Frenk, K.Glazebrook, E.Hawkins, C.A.Jackson, O.Lahav, I.J.Lewis, S.L.Lumsden, S.Maddox, D.S.Madgwick, S.Moody, P.Norberg, J.A.Peacock, B.A.Peterson, W.Sutherland, K.Taylor  for their contribution to the work presented here.


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# The Crab Nebula at 850 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇m

## 1. Introduction

The Crab Nebula ($`=`$G184$``$6$``$5$``$8), the remnant of the SN of AD 1054, shows a centrally brightened morphology, and it the best known of the class of ‘filled-centre’ supernova remnants (or ‘plerions’). It is powered by its central pulsar, and emits synchrotron emission with a relatively flat spectral index at radio wavelengths, with $`\alpha 0.3`$ (with $`\alpha `$ here defined in the sense flux density $`S\nu ^\alpha `$). The Crab Nebula has a high frequency spectral break in the mid-IR range (e.g. Marsden et al. 1984), which is at much higher frequency than that of other filled-centre remnants such as 3C58 ($`=`$G130$``$7$`+`$3$``$1; see Green & Scheuer 1992), which is consistent with the central pulsar in the Crab still being active.

At radio wavelengths there have been several claims of variations in spectral index across the Nebula, but apart from variations close to the pulsar, the other claimed differences (between the filaments and the diffuse inter-filament regions; a systematic steepening of the spectrum towards the edge of the remnant) were not confirmed by Bietenholz et al. (1997). Any variations are difficult to detect over a narrow range of wavelengths, and are more easily detectable if a good sub-mm image of the Crab Nebula is available for comparison with longer wavelength radio observations. Here I present new sub-mm observations of the Crab Nebula.

## 2. Observations and Data Reduction

The Crab Nebula was observed with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) (Holland et al. 1999) using the ‘850 $`\mu `$m’ filter on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on 1999 August 19. The 850 $`\mu `$m SCUBA filter is actually centred at 863 $`\mu `$m (i.e. 347 GHz). At this wavelength SCUBA has 37 bolometers, each with an ideal resolution of 13 arcsec, covering a field-of-view of $`2`$ arcmin. Since the Crab Nebula is significantly larger than the SCUBA field-of-view, the observations were made in the scan-map mode, where the array scans across the source with the telescope continuously ‘chopping’ in a particular direction. A variety of chop-throws and scanning directions were observed, in order to sample structure well in all directions, and on scales missed by any particular chop throw. In total six chop throws were used (30, 44 and 68 arcsec in both RA and DEC), each for three different scanning directions (at PAs of $`15.^{}5`$, $`75.^{}5`$ and $`135.^{}5`$). A region $`9\times 7`$ arcmin2, at a PA of $`45^{}`$, was observed in order to ensure a clear emission-free region around the Crab Nebula was covered. The observations were made in two sessions, over about 4.5 hours, at elevations between $`60^{}`$ and $`80^{}`$. Each session was preceded by observations of the standard source CRL 618, and was preceded and followed by a sky-dip calibration. The observing conditions varied little, as indicated by both the sky-dip observations, and the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory ‘tau-meter’ readings at 225 GHz.

The data were first reduced using a series of standard procedures from the SCUBA User Reduction Facility (SURF) package (see Jenness & Lightfoot 2000). This processing included corrections for the extinction at 850 $`\mu `$m, as measured by sky-dip observations (the observed optical depths varied between 0.19 and 0.21); removal of spikes in the data, both manually and automatically; removal of poorly-performing bolometers; removal of linear baselines; and removal of sky contributions. Finally the data were restored to an image using a MEM algorithm (Pierce-Price 2001). The flux density scale was set by the observations of the calibrator source CRL 618 (with an assumed flux density of 4.7 Jy), and the integrated flux density of the Crab Nebula on this scale was found to be 195 Jy, in good agreement with what is expected. From the CRL 618 observations the beam was fitted with a Gaussian of HPBW of 16 arcsec.

## 3. Results and Discussion

Figure 1 shows the emission from the Crab Nebula at 850 $`\mu `$m from these observations, smoothed slightly to a resolution of 17 arcsec, and a VLA image at 20 cm at the same resolution. The VLA image is from observations made in 1987, and it has been expanded by 1% to correct, simplistically, for the expansion of the Crab Nebula. The contours have been chosen to be at similar relative levels at each wavelength. Note that the 20-cm image is of higher quality, both in terms of its lower noise and the accuracy of the local baselevels. The noise on the 850 $`\mu `$m image, in small regions away from the Crab Nebula, is $`0.015`$ Jy beam-1, with variations in the local baselevel away from the Crab Nebula, up to $`0.05`$ Jy beam-1. The close similarity between these images – which are at wavelengths that differ by a factor of over two hundred – show that there is no strong spectral index variation across the remnant.

Figure 2 shows a spectral index image of the Crab Nebula between 20 cm and 850 $`\mu `$m. The spectral index, $`\alpha `$, has been calculated where the 850-$`\mu `$m emission exceeds 0.2 Jy beam-1. The uncertainty in the derived spectral indices are dominated by the uncertainty in the baselevel of the 850-$`\mu `$m image, and are $`0.05`$ at worst, near the edge of the data shown in Fig.2. Over most of the Crab Nebula the spectral index between 1.5 and 345 GHz is between 0.31 and 0.34, with no obvious indication of spectral steepening towards the edge of the remnant. The main deviations from these typical values for the spectral index occur: i) in the NW and SE of the remnant, which show steeper and flatter spectra respectively; and ii) near the centre of the remnant, where there are regions with slightly flatter spectra than their surroundings (which is similar to the results of Bandiera in these proceedings, who made spectral index comparison of 230-GHz observations with those at lower frequencies). The first of these differences corresponds to a large scale spectral index gradient across the Crab Nebula, which could be due to systematic uncertainties in the 850-$`\mu `$m image. The uncertainties in the 850-$`\mu `$m image include the varying background level, the accuracy of the absolute position of the image, and the fact that SCUBA observations do not well sample the larger scales of the emission from the Crab Nebula. It is not thought possible that systematic uncertainties in the local baselevel and absolute position of the 850-$`\mu `$m image could produce the NW to SE gradient. (Note, however, that the apparently steeper spectrum emission at the extreme southern edge of the Crab Nebula shown in Fig.2 is likely to be due to the low baselevel in this vicinity.) Given the limited sensitivity to large scale structure in SCUBA image, the apparent small spectral index gradient across the remnant may well be due to the different effective sampling of large-scale structures in the 850-$`\mu `$m and 20-cm images. However, if it is real, the variation may be due to differences in the spectra of the particles injected into the NW and SE parts of the Crab Nebula from its central pulsar, or may reflect different environments (e.g. magnetic fields) in the NW part of the Crab Nebula compared with the SE. I note that in X-rays – for example from recent Chandra observations (Weisskopf et al. 2000) – there is also a NW to SE asymmetry (with the NW being brighter), indicating differences in the energetic relativistic particles and magnetic fields responsible for the X-ray emission. The regions of flatter spectrum emission near the centre of the remnant may be indicative of real variations in the spectral index between 1.5 and 347 GHz. However, given the 10 year difference between the observations 850-$`\mu `$m and 20-cm observations, it may instead reflect temporal variations, and further comparisons of the 850-$`\mu `$m image with other, cm-wavelength radio images will be made to investigate this further.

### Acknowledgments.

I am grateful to Michael Bietenholz for kindly providing the VLA image of the Crab Nebula at 20 cm, and Douglas Pierce-Price for the MEM processing of the data. The JCMT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo, Hawaii on behalf of the parent organizations Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council in the United Kingdom, the National Research Council of Canada and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

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