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# HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M331footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341.

## 1 Introduction

The nucleus of M33 houses the most luminous persistent X-ray source in the Local Group (Long et al., 1981; Markert & Rallis, 1983; Long et al., 1996). The nuclear X-ray source is about 8 times brighter than any other X-ray source in M33, and significantly brighter than any source in the nuclear region of M31 (Supper et al., 2001). That the brightest source in the Local Group would be located in the nucleus of M33 was, and remains, surprising because there is no evidence that M33 contains a large central mass concentration (Kormendy & McClure, 1993; Merritt, Ferrarese, & Joseph, 2001; Gebhardt et al., 2001).

Since visible light from the nucleus of M33 is most likely dominated by late type stars, searches for the optical counterpart to the X-ray source seem most likely to succeed at UV wavelengths. To test this idea, (Dubus, Long, & Charles, 1999, hereafter DLC) imaged the nuclear region of M33 with HST. These observations showed that in the UV, the nucleus is both brighter than expected from its optical color temperature and more compact than at long wavelengths, as might be expected if one were observing the accretion disk of a compact binary X-ray source. About half of the total UV luminosity of $`3\times 10^{38}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ comes from the inner 0.14 arcsec. However, because the angular size of the nucleus is relatively close to the limiting angular resolution of HST, it was not possible to determine whether the emission observed at the center is from a true point source or simply a more concentrated, bluer stellar population (see also Lauer et al., 1998; Matthews et al., 1999).

O’Connell (1983) made one of the first attempts to understand the stellar population history of the M33 nucleus partly in response to the discovery of the nuclear X-ray source. While the appearance and mass of the nucleus resembles a globular cluster in some ways, he concluded that about 50% of the visible light from the nucleus arises from stars of $`<`$1 Gyr in age, and that the youngest stars are likely to have been formed about 50 Myrs ago. Most subsequent studies have added credence to this suggestion. For example, Schmidt, Bica, & Alloin (1990) found that the visible UV portion of the spectrum is dominated by a near solar abundance population of stars aged less than 500 Myrs, while at longer wavelengths an intermediate and then older populations become progressively more important. More recently Gordon et al. (1999), modelling both broad band photometry from FUV to NIR wavelengths, as well as optical and NIR spectra of M33, have suggested that nearly all of the light arises from a burst of star formation 70 Myrs ago “enshrouded by a shell of MW-style dust with $`\tau _\nu 2`$”.

In an attempt to identify the optical counterpart to the bright nuclear source in M33 and also to better characterize the source populations in the nucleus of M33, we have now carried out spectroscopic observations of the nucleus using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on HST (Woodgate et al., 1998) covering the wavelength range 1150 - 5700 Å. The remainder of this paper describes the results of this investigation.

## 2 Observations

The STIS observations of the nucleus of M33 are summarized in Table 1. As indicated, the spectra were acquired in two “visits”, one lasting 4 orbits in 1999 October, covering the FUV (1150-1730 Å), and the other a year later lasting 2 orbits, covering the NUV (1570-3180 Å) and “visible” (2900-5700 Å). These gratings were selected to cover the full wavelength range with moderate resolving power (500-1400 depending on wavelength), sufficient to resolve broad lines that might be expected if the nucleus housed a mini-AGN or stars with strong P Cygni profiles and to perform stellar population synthesis. All of the observations were carried out with the 0.1” x 52” slit in order to isolate as much as possible the point source in the nucleus. The orientation of the slit was carefully set so that spectra were obtained of not only the nucleus, but also a 19th magnitude star NNW of the nucleus. This was the only source, other than the nucleus, detected within a few arcsec of the nucleus in the 1600 Å (F160BW) image. (See Figure 1 of DLC.) The acquisition images indicate that the slit was accurately centered on the nucleus for both observations. From 2 to 8 spectra were obtained at each grating setting; none shows evidence of any temporal variability. In short, all of the observations appear to have been nominal.

All of the observations described here were processed using the standard STIS pipeline and calibration files available in 2000 December. Spectra of the nucleus and the star were extracted from the individual exposures and combined to produce overall spectra shown in Figures  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341. and  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341.. The spectra from the different grating settings appear well-matched where they overlap.

The $`F_\lambda `$ spectrum of the nucleus peaks in the UV, and shows a prominent Lyman $`\alpha `$ absorption profile and narrow absorption lines from a variety of ions including C II, III, and IV, Si II, III, and IV, and Mg II. The Balmer jump is well defined, as had been expected from ground-based observations. But there is no evidence either of wind-features (P Cygni profiles) in the spectra, nor is there evidence of obvious dust absorption in the form of a 2200 Å absorption dip. The spectrum contradicts the suggestion by Gordon et al. (1999), based on assembling a broad-band spectrum from UIT and HST imaging data, that a strong 2200 Å feature is evident in the light of the nucleus.

The spectrum of the star is much bluer than that of the nucleus. The low ionization state lines in the spectrum, Si II, C II $`\lambda 1334`$, and Mg II have similar strengths and widths to those in the nuclear spectrum, suggesting they are predominantly interstellar in both spectra. On the other hand, the highest ionization state lines, N V $`\lambda \lambda 1239,1243`$, Si IV $`\lambda \lambda 1394,1403`$, and C IV $`\lambda \lambda 1548,1551`$, all show P Cygni profiles, indicating that the star has a massive wind.

In the spectra shown in Figures  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341. and  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341., the standard extraction widths were used (0.26 arcsec for the FUV and NUV spectra and 0.35 arcsec for the “visible” spectra). An examination of the profiles of the nucleus and the star along the slit shows that the nucleus is extended compared to the star, as was anticipated. (Unfortunately the nucleus is not sufficiently extended to easily extract multiple spectra of the nucleus along the slit.) The flux from the nucleus observed through the 0.1” slit is considerably less than the flux estimated for the entire nucleus from the broad band filters on WFPC2 (see, e.g. Gordon et al., 1999, DLC). The ratio of flux varies from 1/3 at 1600 Å to 1/5 at 5500 Å. In contrast, the STIS fluxes for the star agree within 25% of the broad band fluxes reported by DLC, and there is no obvious trend with increasing wavelength. While it is worthwhile to ask whether this is evidence for variability in the nucleus, we view this as very unlikely. In fact, the fluxes that we observe with STIS are fully consistent with the results of DLC and other investigators showing that $``$50% of the UV flux arises within 0.14” of the center of the nucleus and that the size grows at longer wavelengths. We have also extracted spectra of the nucleus using extraction boxes which are somewhat larger than those provided by the STSDAS pipeline. The flux is somewhat (10%) larger at all wavelengths. Given that the nucleus is somewhat less concentrated at longer wavelengths, one might have expected some change in the spectral shape using larger apertures. However, there is little, if any, change observed, and therefore we have used the standard extractions in the analysis which follows.

## 3 Analysis

The spectra of both the nucleus and the star lack dramatic features in the UV to make identification of the source of X-rays from the nuclear region obvious. However, to understand whether there are more subtle features that signify the optical counterpart to the X-ray emission, a more detailed analysis is required.

### 3.1 Stellar Synthesis of the Nucleus

Our STIS spectra comprise the first high quality UV spectra of the nucleus of M33. In an attempt to model the spectra we have made use of models generated with Starburst99 (Leitherer et al., 1999). In this initial reconnaissance, we have concentrated on the overall shape of the spectrum. We have primarily considered models consisting of one or two bursts of star formation, although we also looked at models of continuous starbursts. We have considered models with a Salpeter initial mass function and upper mass cutoffs 100 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and 30 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$. Within the context of Starburst99, we have considered models in which the metallicities used to evolve the stellar populations range from 0.001 to 0.08. Comparisons of the models to the data were made using $`\chi ^2`$ minimization routines. Our approach was to begin with pre-calculated models that are available from the Starview99 web site and to use the results as guidance for calculating new models with the version of the software and associated data available in the spring of 2001. Starburst99 produces two sets of spectra, one with relatively modest resolution of $``$10 Å covering a wide wavelength range, and one with a resolution of 0.75 Å covering the range 1205-1850 Å. The first set of spectra are generated with abundances that are based on model atmospheres and are matched to that of the stellar evolution synthesis; the second are based on the observed spectra of stars and are available only for solar and LMC-like abundances. Except where noted we have used the coarser spectra in the discussion which follows. Because the spectra have relatively high S/N, we did not anticipate that $`\chi ^2`$ minimization would allow a strict statistical comparison of the data or evaluation of the errors associated with any particular model. However, it does provide a means for finding the best parameters for a particular model, and a qualitative measure of the degree to which the model approximates the data.

We began with a consideration of single bursts or continuous star formation, and attempted to fit all the data from 1200-5600 Å using the pre-calculated models, the coarser wavelength model spectra, and a Galactic extinction law, specifically that of Seaton (1979). However this combination never produces qualitatively good fits to the data. The “best fit” was a low-metallicity (z=0.004) instantaneous starburst model with an age of 163 Myrs and an E(B-V) of 0.23. In model fitting of this type, the procedure selects parameters, an age, a normalization, and the reddening, that match the continuum, including in this case the Balmer jump. Indeed, the model approximates the spectrum longward of 3000 Å fairly well, and also produces approximately the correct flux in the FUV region. The narrow lines, including the Balmer lines, are not reproduced, but this is directly attributable to the spectral resolution of the models. As shown in Figure 3, the basic problem with this (and all other simple models using a Galactic absorption law) is the absence, or near absence, of a 2200 Å absorption feature in the data. It is primarily this feature that results in a $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 17.8.

Galactic absorption along the line of sight to M33 is thought to be relatively small (E(B-V)$``$0.07; van den Bergh, 1991), and there is no guarantee, or possibly even expectation, that the absorption law in M33 has a 2200 Å feature as prominent as that represented by a Seaton law with E(B-V) of 0.23. Differences in the absorption law arise both from differences in the grain size distribution, and in extended sources from scattering and multiple optical depths within the source itself (Calzetti, Kinney, & Storchi-Bergmann, 1994). Therefore we have considered two other absorption laws, neither of which exhibits a significant 2200 Å bump. The first of these extinction laws is that proposed by Calzetti, Kinney, & Storchi-Bergmann (1994). This extinction curve was developed to account for the fact that the 2200 Å feature is missing from the UV spectra of many starburst galaxies, even though there is ample evidence for absorption from emission line ratios. The second is for the Small Magellanic Cloud, long known to have a smooth, but highly absorptive UV extinction curve. Here we use the average parameters derived by Gordon & Clayton (1998) for the bar of the SMC .

Allowing for all three extinction laws, the best-fit single component model was the same z=0.004 instantaneous starburst model, with a very similar age 143 Myrs, and a Calzetti, or starburst, absorption law with E(B-V) of 0.22. The fit is insensitive to the mass cutoff of 30 or 100 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$, but models based on evolutionary tracks for higher metallicity stars result in higher $`\chi _\nu ^2`$. An instantaneous burst is better than any of the simple continuous star formation models we tried. As shown in Figure  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341., the model fit is greatly improved with a good match to the spectrum longward of 2300 Å, and relatively good approximation to the broad band FUV continuum. The value of $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ improves to 13.4, reflecting the higher quality of the overall fit. The main problem qualitatively is the structure of the spectrum shortward of 2000 Å, which is smoother in the model than in the observed spectrum. Simple fits made with an SMC-like absorption curve were generally poorer than those made with a starburst absorption law, often worse in fact than those made with a Galactic curve. The underlying reason for this appears to be associated with the fact that the UV absorption is so strong that very low values of E(B-V) result from the model fits, but this results in a spectral slope in the NUV and visible that does not match the data.

The quality of the fit can be improved significantly by allowing for two distinct bursts. The best fit model in this case is a model synthesized from solar abundance (z=0.02) tracks and a starburst absorption law with E(B-V) of 0.06. A relatively recent starburst aged 70 Myrs dominates the UV light and competes with an older burst aged 1.1 Gyrs at visible wavelengths. The improvement in the fit to $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 11.9 reflects primarily a better approximation of the model to the FUV portion of the spectrum. The reason that the spectrum is better approximated in the FUV compared to the single starburst model can be traced directly to the spectra of the higher mass stars in a younger starburst. Two component models using either a Galactic ($`\chi _\nu ^2=13.8`$) or an SMC ($`\chi _\nu ^2=12.3`$) curve yield similar parameters. But a 2200 Å problem is evident in the fits using a Galactic absorption curve.

We have also experimented with models with three separate components. None of these models improved the fits significantly in a qualitative or quantitative way and all indicated that the youngest stellar component had an age of 40-60 Myrs.

Since the two-component models described above seem to favor models with abundances that are close to solar, we then considered models in which the higher resolution UV stellar spectra were substituted for the coarser model-atmospheres generated spectra in the UV. The best fit two component model has a starburst absorption law with E(B-V) of 0.06, a recent starburst of 50 Myrs and an older one of 1 Gyrs. The value of $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ drops to 9.1. Qualitatively, the fit is quite good as indicated in Figure  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341.. The improvement in $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ is clearly due to the incorporation of higher resolution, observation-based data in the UV range. Most of the improvement in $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ is due to spectral resolution, although some appears due to differences between the model-based and observation-based stellar spectra that were used to synthesize the nuclear spectrum models. (In fact, we have conducted experiments in which we have resampled the data on the wavelength grid of the models, and then attempted to fit the original data using the resampled data as the “model”. The $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ that results is of about 8.)

One of the remaining systematic departures now appears at between 2000 and 2400 Å, where the model and data are discrepant at a level of about 10% of the continuum. This can be eliminated if we allow for Galactic absorption with E(B-V) of 0.07 (van den Bergh, 1991). In that case, we find the age of the more recent starburst drops to 40 Myrs, while the older populations is characterized by an age of 1 Gyr, and $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ of 9.0. The M33 reddening, parameterized in terms of a starburst absorption curve, remains small, but is actually somewhat higher E(B-V)=0.11 than in the case in which Galactic reddening is ignored. As shown in figure  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341., there are no large departures between the model and the data that cannot be directly attributed either to the interstellar lines, e.g. Mg II, which are not part of the model, or the coarseness of resolution of the model spectra. In these final fits, about 10% of the mass of the nucleus would have been involved in the recent starburst. The masses required in the 10 Myr and 1.1 Gyr starbursts are about 9000 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and 76,000 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$.

To summarize, our analysis implies that there are at least two stellar populations in the nucleus and that the younger of these has an age of 40-50 Myrs. The younger population completely dominates the FUV light from the nucleus of M33 and contributes almost half the visible light from the (central part of the) nucleus. This analysis therefore generally confirms those of O’Connell (1983) and Schmidt, Bica, & Alloin (1990) based on optical spectra and limited UV data.

There is no need, based on the HST spectra, to invoke a large amount of internal reddening in the nucleus, as suggested by Gordon et al. (1999). This is not quite the same, however, as proving that there is no M33 reddening, since the our best-fit model using a starburst absorption law suggests that only 38% and 66% of the light emitted at 2000 and 5700) Å emerges from M33. If the absorption is between the nucleus of M33 and ourselves, the implied optical depth is less than 1 at 2000 Å and 0.4 at 5700 Å. But if the the absorption is within the nucleus itself then the optical depth through the entire nucleus can approach 1 at visible wavelengths.

The stellar population history of the region surrounding the nucleus of M33 is complex, as evidenced by the studies of Minniti, Olszewski, & Rieke (1993) and Mighell & Rich (1995). There are OB associations with ages of about 5 Myrs, a group of luminous AGB stars formed of order 1 Gyrs ago, as well as a considerably older ($`>`$10 Gyr) metal poor population. Schmidt, Bica, & Alloin (1990) argued for three similar populations in the nucleus, one aged less than 5 Myrs, a second 1-5 Gyrs, and a third $`>`$10 Gyrs, and so it is possible, perhaps likely, that there is a close connection between the history of the the nucleus and the nuclear region. But definitive proof of that assertion will likely require a more sophisticated modelling of the HST spectra than in our first reconnaissance, with stellar models constructed at the resolution of the HST data and probably the inclusion of comparable quality data of the nucleus at longer wavelengths.

### 3.2 Classification of the Blue Star

The nature of the star NNW of the nucleus is important for our purposes because the astrometric accuracy of all X-ray telescopes, with the possible exception of Chandra, is not sufficient to distinguish a nuclear source and a source 1 arcsec away. Indeed most if not all X-ray imaging surveys of M33 have used the nuclear X-ray source to register the other sources in the field.

In an attempt to establish the spectral type of the star near the nucleus of M33, we first compared the UV spectrum to those found in IUE spectral atlases of O and B stars (Walborn, Nichols-Bohlin, & Panek, 1985; Walborn, Parker, & Nichols, 1995). These visual comparisons suggest a spectral classification between O8 and B0. Stars of spectral type earlier than O8 show much more prominent N V and Si IV profiles that are very different in strength from those observed in the star in M33. Stars later than B0 have weaker line profiles than is observed in the M33 star. Assuming a spectral type of B0, a luminosity class between II and III was indicated, based on the IUE spectra of HD43818 and HD48434. Main sequence stars have lines that are generally narrower than those observed in our star. Similar results are obtained from a comparison to the atlas used by Leitherer et al. (1999) for spectral synthesis. As indicated in Figure  HST Spectroscopy of the Nucleus of M33111Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal # 8341., which is a comparison between the reference spectral template for an O9 III, the UV spectrum of the star is not unusual for a late type O giant.

Massey et al. (1996) used the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) on the Astro-2 space shuttle mission along with ground-based and HST observations to construct a catalog of 356 sources in M33 that is thought to be complete to Fλ of $`2.5\times 10^{15}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{\AA }^1`$, about 3 times that of the star in M33. (Given that our star is about 3 times fainter than the completeness limit and that the angular resolution of UIT was several arcsec, it is not surprising that our star is not in that catalog.) There are no late O or early B giants in this survey; the 5 O9-B0 supergiants have visual magnitudes that range from 16.8-18.2, which should be compared to the visual magnitude of our star of 19.25 from our earlier HST imaging observations or 19.45 from these STIS observations. The magnitude difference is roughly that expected for a late O or very early B giant (II-III). Equivalently, the absolute visual magnitude (ignoring reddening) of $``$5.2, given a distance modulus of 24.5$`\pm `$0.2 (van den Bergh, 1991), is consistent with a late O or very early B giant (see, e.g. Allen, 1973). Thus we can be reasonably confident of the classification of the star.

## 4 Discussion

Our initial impulse to obtain a spectrum of the nucleus was motivated by a desire to identify the optical counterpart to the X-ray source in M33. Neither the spectrum of the nucleus nor, for that matter, the spectrum of the nearby star show direct indication of X-ray activity.

A number of suggestions have been made over the years as to the nature of the X-ray source at the heart of M33. These have included a very low luminosity active galaxy, collections of neutron star binaries with high or low mass companions (Markert & Rallis, 1983; O’Connell, 1983), and, more recently, a binary star system containing an Eddington-limited 10 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ black hole (Takano et al., 1994). This last explanation is clearly the favored explanation today as more point-like, super-Eddington sources have been found in and out of the nuclei of normal galaxies (see, e.g. Makishima et al., 2000), since they were originally noted by Long & van Speybroeck (1983). The X-ray spectrum of the M33 source is similar to these other sources.

### 4.1 A mini-AGN?

Despite recent suggestions of a jet emerging from the nucleus of M33 (Matthews et al., 1999)222Our inspection of the HST images of the “jet”, which was identified in V and R, indicates that it is almost certainly a small number of stars, one of which is the blue star whose spectrum we discuss here., the existence of mini-AGN such as NGC4395 (a Sd galaxy with a Seyfert nucleus with an $`L_X`$ of $`10^{38}`$ergs s-1; Lira et al., 1999), and clear evidence of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of our Galaxy , there is little to support a mini-quasar interpretation of M33 X-8:

(1) There is no indication whatsoever of AGN-like activity in our FUV spectra. There is no evidence of broad emission lines, nor for any blue bump which one might associate with the accretion disk. Based on the observed X-ray flux ($`7.6\times 10^{12}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{keV}^1`$ in the 0.1-2.4 keV band; Long et al 1996), we would expect a far-UV flux of $`16\times 10^{15}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{\AA }^1`$ for an assumed X-ray/optical spectral slopes $`\alpha _{ox}`$ of 0.65–1 (Wilkes & Elvis, 1987). This would represent a significant fraction of the observed flux and yet the UV spectrum is entirely consistent with that of normal early-type stars. Values of $`\alpha _{ox}`$ in this range would be expected from a direct extrapolation of the X-ray-derived spectral index on quasars (Wilkes & Elvis, 1987). But in fact, such an extrapolation is conservative; the observed X-ray/optical spectral slopes for quasars and Seyfert 1 galaxies are more typically 1.5 (Mushotzky & Wandel, 1989), implying a larger amount of quasar-associated UV light. Lower luminosity AGN, including NGC4395, tend, if anything, toward slightly higher spectral indices (Lira et al., 1999). The amount of absorption along the line of sight to M33 X-8 based on our analysis of the UV/optical spectra of the nucleus and X-ray estimates of the column density of NH of $`10^{21}cm^2`$ to M33 X-8 itself (e.g. Long et al., 1996), and so emission from a mini-AGN would seem to be difficult to hide.

(2) Furthermore the mass contained within the M33 nucleus is simply too small to power a mini-AGN. Even a decade ago Kormendy & McClure (1993) had limited the mass of any central SMBH to $`<5\times 10^4M_{\mathrm{}}`$ from the velocity dispersion of the nucleus. More recently, Lauer et al. (1998) reduced this limit to $`<2\times 10^4M_{\mathrm{}}`$ with higher spatial resolution HST imagery, and most recently Gebhardt et al. (2001) lowered it further to $`<1500M_{\mathrm{}}`$! Hence the M33 nucleus is totally unlike the SMBH in the center of our Galaxy.

### 4.2 Or Black-Hole X-ray Binary/ULX?

Therefore, we believe that a single X-ray binary must provide the explanation for X-8. It cannot be multiple because, using data obtained over 5 years with ROSAT, we discovered a 20% modulation of the nuclear X-ray flux with a period of 106 d (Dubus et al., 1997). Assuming the LX of $``$1039erg s-1 is produced by an Eddington-limited source, a compact object mass of $`10M_{\mathrm{}}`$ is required. This is in the middle of the range of dynamically-determined masses for the black-hole X-ray binaries (see, e.g. Charles, 2001). If this is correct, then M33 X-8 is analogous to the large number of comparably bright (but off-nuclear) sources now being found by Chandra and XMM within nearby spirals (see, e.g. King et al., 2001), rather than an AGN nucleus.

However, the great majority of the BHXRBs have low-mass stellar donors (and hence are LMXBs) and are X-ray transient sources (see e.g. King, 2000), a behavior very different from the remarkably steady (on a $``$20 year timescale) X-ray output of M33 X-8. This suggests that the companion may be massive, in which case the source is more analogous to Cyg X-1, which is of comparable mass and not transient. Cyg X-1 also has a “superorbital” period of 142$`\pm `$7 d, which is interpreted as precession of the disk in the system (Brocksopp et al., 1999). As a result, we suggested that the BH companion is a giant orbiting with a period of $``$10 days and the 106 d modulation is “superorbital” (Dubus et al., 1997).

A HMXB might also be expected given the existence of a cluster of early-type stars in the M33 nucleus resulting from recent starburst activity. There would have been about 200 stars more massive than 8 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ created in the 40 Myr starburst that exists in M33. If this picture is correct, then the location of M33 X-8 in the nucleus may be fortuitous, and of more importance is the association with recent star formation.

In this case, the history of the binary system forming M33 X-8 is more akin to the ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX) identified with young associations in e.g. the Antennae (Fabbiano, Zezas, & Murray, 2001). However, M33 X-8 is one of the lower luminosity ULX sources, since many of them approach $``$1040erg s-1, for which compact object masses of $``$100 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ are being inferred (e.g. Makishima et al., 2000). There are several points to be made about these mass estimates, which are based upon an Eddington-limiting luminosity for a uniformly radiating source:

(1) As noted by Makishima et al. (2000) and Watarai, Mizuno, & Mineshige (2001), although multi-color disk models provide good fits to X-ray spectra of ULX sources, the disk temperatures are in the range 1.1–1.8 keV, which is much too high for $``$100$`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ BHs. King et al. (2001) have proposed a specific model involving mild beaming (essentially the opening cone angle of the inner accretion disc) to reduce the implied compact object mass.

(2) There are also clearly some sources that exceed the Eddington limit. For example, we already know that neutron star XRBs, such as A0538-66, the periodically recurrent transient in the LMC, are capable of reaching $``$1039 erg s-1 (see e.g. Charles et al., 1983). And since this is a fast X-ray pulsar ($``$70 ms) this is presumably associated with the highly non-spherical magnetic accretion of the neutron star geometry. (We note in passing that there are several other XRBs in the LMC that are more luminous than their galactic counterparts. For example Clark et al. (1978) have suggested that this is associated with the lower metallicity of the LMC.)

The micro-quasar X-ray transient GRS 1915+105 may be the closest analogue to M33 X-8 in our Galaxy. While GRS 1915+105 is labelled as a “transient” X-ray source, it has actually been “on” now for a decade, and we believe that the few decades lifetime of X-ray astronomy is much too short to make clear-cut distinctions in the “steady/transient” label for many objects.

Early high mass estimates for the BH in GRS 1915+105 now appear to be incorrect. Greiner, Morgan, & Remillard (1998) showed with RXTE X-ray spectroscopy that this source with a peak X-ray luminosity of $``$7$`\times `$1039 erg s-1 in the 1-200 keV band (or even greater if the lower limit for the energy band was taken down to 0.1 keV) fully qualifies as an ULX with an implied luminosity-estimated mass of order 70 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$. Gliozzi, Bodo, & Ghisellini (1999) pointed out that the minimum bulk kinetic power of $`>`$3$`\times `$1040 erg s-1 during the jet ejection events far exceeded the observed peak X-ray luminosity, and hence inferred a very massive compact object as the energy source. Furthermore the observation of 67 Hz X-ray QPOs in GRS 1915+105 was interpreted as evidence for a $``$33$`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ compact object (Morgan, Remillard, & Greiner, 1997). However, following their identification (Greiner et al., 2001) of the spectral type of the mass donor in GRS 1915+105, Greiner, Cuby, & McCaughrean (2001) announced the discovery of the orbital period (33.5 d) and radial velocity curve of the IR counterpart to the X-ray source. This implies a compact object mass of 14$`\pm `$$`M_{\mathrm{}}`$, very similar to, but at the upper end of, the masses of the other BHXRBs. It should be noted that Greiner’s IR spectrum implies a low-mass ($`1.2`$ $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$) but evolved (K-M giant) companion, not the early-type companion that had been suggested in previous studies.

Consequently, we suggest that the properties of M33 X-8 and GRS 1915+105 can be used to draw useful comparisons with the ULX population. Based on the evidence at hand, all may be explainable as $``$10–20$`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ BHs.

### 4.3 But is it possible that the O star near the nucleus is the optical counterpart?

Our bias is to associate the M33 X-8 with the nucleus of M33, rather than the O star located NNW of the nucleus. Our bias, as has been the bias of most if not all of those interested in M33 X-8, is based upon its positional coincidence with the nucleus and the fact it is so luminous compared to other sources in M33 (and the local group). The spectra we have obtained of the O star have not provided evidence that undercut our prejudices on this issue. There are a large number of late O stars spread over M33; there remains only one nucleus.

If the star were the optical counterpart, the X-ray to optical luminosity ratio of $``$30 would be extreme for an X-ray system involving a high mass companion and therefore one might expect that the effect of the X-ray source on the companion would also be extreme. But most optical counterparts are revealed by time variations in either the broad band continuum due to heating of the companion’s photosphere or to phase-dependent variations in line profiles produced by ionization of the companion’s wind (see, e.g. van Loon, Kaper, & Hammerschlag-Hensberge, 2001). As we noted, the spectrum of the star NNW of the nucleus appears normal for a late type O giant. But our observations were not structured for searches for orbital phase dependent effects, given typical orbital period of massive X-ray binaries, and therefore it is not possible to completely rule out the O star as the optical counterpart.

The question of where M33 X-8 is located could and should be solved using Chandra, although not with the existing CCD observations, which are saturated at the position of the nucleus (Jonathan McDowell 2001, private communication).

## 5 Conclusions

In summary, we have carried out the first high S/N UV and FUV spectroscopic study of the nucleus of M33. Our analysis confirms that at least two populations of stars exist in the nucleus, and that star formation occurred in the nucleus 40-50 Myrs ago. The X-ray source in the nucleus of M33 does not affect the UV spectrum significantly, all of which is consistent with the absence of a supermassive black hole or mini-quasar at the center of the nucleus, and the hypothesis that the brightest X-ray source in the Local Group is a BH with a high-mass companion. M33 X-8 will remain interesting as the nearest ULX, even though it is hidden at UV and visible wavelengths in the light of the relatively unreddened nucleus of M33.

This work was supported by NASA through grant G0-6544 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. GD acknowledges additional support from NASA grants NAG5-7007 and NAG5-7034. Brian Monroe, a Data Analyst at STScI, helped us to reduce the data for this project.


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# The van der Waals Potential between Metastable Atoms and Solid Surfaces: Novel Diffraction Experiments versus Theory

## Abstract

Highly polarizable metastable He\* ($`2^3\mathrm{S}`$) and Ne\* ($`2^3\mathrm{P}`$) atoms have been diffracted from a 100 nm period silicon nitride transmission grating and the van der Waals coefficients $`C_3`$ for the interaction of the excited atoms with the silicon nitride surface have been determined from the diffraction intensities out to the 10th order. The results agree with calculations based on the non-retarded Lifshitz formula.

The van der Waals (vdW) force between atoms, molecules and solid surfaces is of far reaching importance in many branches of physics, chemistry, and biology . For larger distances, retardation due to the exchange of virtual photons has to be included, while for distances much smaller than the smallest wavelength a non-retarded approach can be used. The theoretical foundations for atom-surface interactions were laid in the pioneering work of Lifshitz . In this case the non-retarded vdW potential has the form $`C_3/l^3`$ in leading order, where $`l`$ is the atom-surface separation and $`C_3`$ depends on the atom, its electronic state, and on the electronic states of the solid.

For groundstate rare gas atoms the $`C_3`$ coefficients have recently been measured with good accuracy . Less is known about the van der Waals interactions of electronically excited metastable and Rydberg atoms, in particular the $`C_3`$ coefficient is not accurately known. Some time ago, transmission through narrow channels  and level shifts in closed or semi-infinite cavities  have been studied. Recently, inelastic electronic transitions on passage over a metal edge  and reflection from surfaces and (reflection) gratings  have been measured. Currently there is great interest in these potentials, in particular for metastable helium which is widely used in atom optics  as well as in surface physics  and for which Bose-Einstein condensation has recently been achieved . The atom-surface van der Waals potentials could soon become relevant in guiding slow metastable rare gas atoms along microstructures  or in studying collective effects of Bose-Einstein condensed metastable He\* atoms in contact with a surface.

From a theoretical point of view atoms in excited states are of particular interest. Their polarizability $`\alpha `$ is expected to increase as $`n^7`$, with correspondingly much stronger interactions . Therefore it is not obvious whether approximate formulae for the groundstate atom-surface vdW potential are still applicable for excited atoms. Moreover, with the much stronger vdW interaction new effects such as higher multipole coefficients  can be expected.

In this article, an effective but simple experimental method is used to determine the atom-surface vdW coefficient $`C_3`$ for metastable rare gas atoms. It is based on diffraction of an atomic beam from a nanostructured transmission grating with a period of only 100 nm. Modifications in the hierarchy of the intensities of the higher order maxima in the diffraction pattern have been shown to be directly related to the strength $`C_3`$ of the atom-surface vdW potential. In these experiments only the non-retarded regime is probed since the slit widths of about 50 nm are less than the distance at which retardation effects become significant.

The main difference to the case of rare gas groundstate atoms is the fact that for the theoretical evaluation of the experimental data the very convenient notion of an “effective” slit width can no longer be employed, due to the much stronger surface interaction. Therefore a new approach is presented which can also be applied to other atoms and molecules and materials .

The diffraction apparatus has already been described in Ref. . The metastable atoms are produced by a discharge in the free-jet expansion zone inside a sapphire nozzle (aperture diameter $`160\mu \mathrm{m}`$) . The He\* in the beam is 98% in the 3S1 state and 2% in the 1S0 state  and the Ne\* is 85% in the 3P2 state and 15% in the 3P0 state . The stable operation of the discharge limits the source pressure $`P_0`$ to the range $`0.53\mathrm{bar}`$, with the consequence that the atomic beams have a rather broad velocity distribution with $`\mathrm{\Delta }v/u13.3\%`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$ and $`u`$ denote the full half width and the mean velocity, respectively. The effective velocity spread could be reduced to about $`\mathrm{\Delta }v/u3\%`$ by extracting the diffraction pattern for a given flight time “slice” through time-of-flight (TOF) spectra measured at closely spaced diffraction angles. After passing through the $`0.72\mathrm{mm}`$ diameter skimmer the beam is collimated by two 5 mm high, 20 micron (150 mm from the source) and 10 micron (1000 mm from the source) wide slits, before illuminating about $`N=100`$ slits of the silicon nitride transmission diffraction grating with a calibrated period of 100 nm, placed $`150\mathrm{mm}`$ behind the second collimation slit. The depth $`t=53\mathrm{nm}`$ and wedge angle $`\beta =11^{}`$ of the trapezoidally shaped grating bars were determined from transmission measurements  and the slit width at infinite velocity was measured to be $`s_0=66.8\mathrm{nm}`$ . Although the relative population of metastable atoms is only about 10-5 for both He\* and Ne\* the groundstate atoms are entirely suppressed by the channel electron multiplier detector, mounted at a distance of $`730\mathrm{mm}`$ from the grating. The diffraction pattern is recorded by rotating the channeltron in angular steps of about 0.1 $`\mu `$rad with respect to an axis passing through the grating bars. The $`25\mu \mathrm{m}`$ wide detector slit, $`r=430\mathrm{mm}`$ downstream from the grating, provides an angular resolution of $`100\mu \mathrm{rad}`$. TOF distributions were measured at each detector position for 5 (He\*) and 8 minutes (Ne\*). The peak shapes were fitted with a Gaussian to determine the peak areas $`I_n`$, which were normalized to the total over all peaks $`I_{\mathrm{tot}}`$. Fig. 1 shows typical angular distributions for He\* at a time slice corresponding to 2347 m/s (de Broglie wavelength $`\lambda =42.5\mathrm{pm}`$) and for Ne\* at 873 m/s ($`\lambda =22.6\mathrm{pm}`$).

In the Fraunhofer limit $`rd`$ the intensities of the $`n`$th order maxima in the diffraction pattern are given by

$$I_n\left|\frac{\mathrm{sin}(\frac{Nkd}{2}\mathrm{sin}\vartheta _n)}{\mathrm{sin}(\frac{kd}{2}\mathrm{sin}\vartheta _n)}f_{\mathrm{slit}}(\vartheta _n)\right|^2,$$
(1)
where the atom momentum is $`mv=\mathrm{}k=\frac{h}{\lambda }`$ and the $`n`$th order diffraction angles are given by $`\mathrm{sin}\vartheta _n=\frac{n\lambda }{d}`$. At high velocities (small $`\lambda `$) small anomalies in the observed peak shapes at higher diffraction orders, which were attributed to Fresnel effects, were shown to have no significant influence on the interpolated Gaussian peak shapes. The slit function $`f_{\mathrm{slit}}(\vartheta )`$ has the form

$$f_{\mathrm{slit}}(\vartheta )=\frac{2\mathrm{cos}\vartheta }{\sqrt{\lambda }}\underset{0}{\overset{s_0/2}{}}d\zeta \mathrm{cos}\left[k\mathrm{sin}\vartheta \left(\frac{s_0}{2}\zeta \right)\right]\tau (\zeta ),$$
(2)
where the integration is over half the slit opening from the edge ($`\zeta =0`$) to the center ($`\zeta =s_0/2`$) with $`\zeta `$ as impact parameter with respect to the grating bar edge. In the usual Eikonal approximation  the amplitude $`\tau (\zeta )`$ at different positions in the slit becomes

$$\tau (\zeta )=\mathrm{e}xp\left(\frac{\mathrm{i}}{\mathrm{}v}\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{+\mathrm{}}{}}dzV_{\mathrm{att}}(z,\zeta )\right),$$
(3)
where the $`z`$-axis is in the beam direction. The attractive potential $`V_{\mathrm{att}}`$ is $`C_3/l^3`$ for a plane. For a grating bar, due to its finite extent, minor corrections occur which are taken into account here. Integration along a straight line trajectory for a given $`\zeta `$ yields, after some calculation,

$$\tau (\zeta )=\mathrm{e}xp\left(\frac{\mathrm{i}C_3t}{\mathrm{}v\zeta ^3}\frac{1+\frac{t}{2\zeta }\mathrm{tan}\beta }{(1+\frac{t}{\zeta }\mathrm{tan}\beta )^2}\right).$$
(4)
Because of the much larger value of $`C_3`$ the cumulant expansion of Eq. (2) used in Ref.  was found not to converge for metastables so that the convenient notion of an effective slit width and the formula of Ref.  for $`I_n/I_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ are no longer applicable. Thus it was necessary to calculate $`I_n/I_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ from Eqs. (1)-(4) with $`C_3`$ as a parameter and use a least-square fit to the experimental values. This procedure is more complicated and more sensitive to experimental and numerical errors than that based on effective slit widths. Unlike Ref.  the best fit was obtained without a Debye-Waller damping factor to account for surface roughness . The lack of sensitivity to these defects for He\* and Ne\* is attributed to the greater range of the potential, so that their effect is smeared out.

The experimental results $`C_3`$(He\*)$`=(4.1\pm 1.0)`$ meV nm3 and $`C_3`$(Ne\*)$`=(2.8\pm 1.0)`$ meV nm3 are, as expected, more than an order of magnitude larger than the corresponding values of $`C_3(\mathrm{He})=(0.10\pm 0.02)`$ meV nm3 and $`C_3(\mathrm{Ne})=(0.21\pm 0.04)`$ meV nm3 for the groundstate atoms .

Present approximations of atom-surface vdW forces are based on the expression of Lifshitz ,

$$C_3=\frac{\mathrm{}}{4\pi }\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}d\omega \alpha (\mathrm{i}\omega )g(\mathrm{i}\omega ),$$
(5)
where $`\alpha (\mathrm{i}\omega )`$ is the dynamic polarizability of the atom and $`g(\mathrm{i}\omega )`$ is the corresponding response of the electrons of the solid which is related to the dielectric function $`ϵ`$ by

$$g(\mathrm{i}\omega )=\frac{ϵ(\mathrm{i}\omega )1}{ϵ(\mathrm{i}\omega )+1}.$$
(6)
Unfortunately, $`\alpha `$ and $`g`$ are not known in general. Vidali and Cole have studied a model in which the partners are treated as single oscillators of frequencies $`E_\mathrm{a}/\mathrm{}`$ for the atom and $`E_\mathrm{S}/\mathrm{}`$ for the solid, i.e.

$$\alpha (\mathrm{i}\omega )\frac{\alpha (0)}{1+(\mathrm{}\omega )^2/E_\mathrm{a}^2}$$
(7)
and

$$g(\mathrm{i}\omega )\frac{g_0}{1+(\mathrm{}\omega )^2/E_\mathrm{S}^2}.$$
(8)
It has been shown earlier by Tang  that the one-oscillator approximation Eq. (7) is correct to within a few percent for the metastable atoms under consideration, and that

$$E_\mathrm{a}=\frac{4C_6}{3\alpha ^2(0)},$$
(9)
where $`C_6`$ is the interatomic vdW coefficient which is well known for He\* and Ne\* from recent calculations  and gives $`E_a=1.18`$ eV for He\* and $`E_a=2.04`$ eV for Ne\*. The static polarizability $`\alpha (0)`$ for He\* and Ne\* is given in the standard literature as $`\alpha (0)=46.8`$ Å3 and $`\alpha (0)=27.6`$ Å3, respectively. For the grating material, $`g_0`$ and $`E_\mathrm{S}`$ are not known, but $`g(\mathrm{i}\omega )`$ can be determined via Eq. (6) and Kramers-Kronig relations , once the imaginary part $`ϵ_2(\omega )`$ of the dielectric function is given.

From optical measurements  on the low-pressure chemical vapor deposited (LPCVD) silicon nitride material of the grating in use, $`ϵ_2(\omega )`$ has been determined from 1 eV to about 6 eV. It has been shown recently that for LPCVD SiNx $`ϵ_2(\omega )`$ over all frequencies is essentially given by the Tauc-Lorentz formula

$$ϵ_2(\omega )=\mathrm{\Theta }(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{T})\frac{A\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Gamma }(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{T})^2}{[(\omega ^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2)^2+\mathrm{\Gamma }^2\omega ^2]\omega },$$
(10)
where $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the step function, $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{T}`$ represents the optical band gap of the material, $`A,\mathrm{\Omega },\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are the strength, frequency, and spectral width, respectively, of the characteristic electronic transitions within the solid. The $`ϵ_2(\omega )`$ that results from the optical measurements  is perfectly described by Eq. (10), with $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{T}=2.29\mathrm{eV}`$, $`\mathrm{}A=74.5\mathrm{eV}`$, $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Omega }=7.17\mathrm{eV}`$, and $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Gamma }=7.62\mathrm{eV}`$.

With the response function $`g(i\omega )`$ of the solid determined from $`ϵ_2(\omega )`$ as described above and using for $`\alpha (\mathrm{i}\omega )`$ the approximate Eq. (7), the Lifshitz formula Eq. (5) yields $`C_3(\mathrm{He}^{})=(3.9\pm 0.1)`$ meV nm3 and $`C_3(\mathrm{Ne}^{})=(3.6\pm 0.1)`$ meV nm3, in agreement within errors with the present experimental values $`C_3`$(He\*)$`=(4.1\pm 1.0)`$ meV nm3 and $`C_3`$(Ne\*)$`=(2.8\pm 1.0)`$ meV nm3.

Since for He\* the dynamical polarizability at imaginary frequencies $`\alpha (\mathrm{i}\omega )`$ is known over nearly the entire frequency range from theoretical calculations , the single oscillator approximation Eq. (7) can be checked with the more exact $`\alpha `$ in Eq. (5) which leads to $`C_3`$(He\*)$`=(4.0\pm 0.1)`$ meV nm3 – only a 3% correction, as expected from Ref..

Identifying in Eq. (8) the oscillator strength $`g_0`$ with the static limit $`g(\mathrm{i}\omega 0)=0.588`$ of Eq. (8) that is extracted from the optical data, and the theoretical values of $`C_3`$ are reproduced to within less than 10% by the formula

$$C_3^{1\mathrm{o}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{c}}=\alpha (0)g_0\frac{E_\mathrm{a}E_\mathrm{S}}{8(E_\mathrm{a}+E_\mathrm{S})},$$
(11)
which corresponds to Eq. (5) with the one-oscillator approximations, Eqs. (7),(8), if one assumes for $`E_S`$ a value of 13 eV.

Table I summarizes the above results and Fig. 2 displays the newly found values of $`C_3`$ for the metastable atoms together with those measured earlier for groundstate atoms , plotted versus the static atomic polarizability.

In summary, accurate atom-surface van der Waals coefficients $`C_3`$ for the highly polarizable metastable excited He\* 3S1 and Ne\* 3P2 atoms have been determined for the first time, using atomic diffraction off a silicon nitride transmission grating with a new theoretical approach. The experimental results are in agreement with the theory of van der Waals forces according to Lifshitz within the experimental errors. The present experimental approach can be refined to measure higher-order multipole moments of the long-range potential between the atom and the surface. In the future we plan to insert a grating into one of the beams of a Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer in order to measure atom-surface vdW potentials with interferometric precision.

We are extremely grateful to Tim Savas and Hank Smith (both MIT) for providing the SiNx grating which has made these experiments possible. We thank L. Bruch and K. T. Tang for valuable discussions. This research has been supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

FIG. 1. Experimental diffraction patterns of (a) He at $`v=2347\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$ and (b) Ne at $`v=873\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$. The beam divergence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\vartheta =0.1\mathrm{mrad}`$ and the small effective velocity spread of $`\mathrm{\Delta }v/u=3\%`$ allow ten principal maxima to be recorded. The background signal in both cases is about 10 counts/s. Solid lines have been added to guide the eye.

FIG. 2. Comparison of measured ($`\times `$) and theoretical values for $`C_3`$. $``$: Eq. (5) with $`\alpha `$ from Eqs. (7) and (9); $`\mathrm{}`$: Eq. (5) with $`\alpha `$ exact . The data points on the straight line (Hoinkes approximation ) are for groundstate particles , namely, with increasing $`\alpha `$: He, Ne, D2, Ar, Kr.


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# Occupation of a resonant level coupled to a chiral Luttinger liquid

## Abstract

We consider a resonant level coupled to a chiral Luttinger liquid which can be realized, e.g., at a fractional quantum Hall edge. We study the dependence of the occupation probability $`n`$ of the level on its energy $`\epsilon `$ for various values of the Luttinger-liquid parameter $`g`$. At $`g<1/2`$ a weakly coupled level shows a sharp jump in $`n(\epsilon )`$ at the Fermi level. As the coupling is increased, the magnitude of the jump decreases until $`\sqrt{2g}`$, and then the discontinuity in $`n(\epsilon )`$ disappears. We show that $`n(\epsilon )`$ can be expressed in terms of the magnetization of a Kondo impurity as a function of magnetic field.

The transport of electrons in low-dimensional structures is strongly affected by electron-electron interactions. This effect is particularly strong in one-dimensional (1D) systems, where the interacting electrons form the so-called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid Mahan . The main feature of this system is the power-law suppression of the tunneling density of states at low energies. This effect has been recently observed experimentally in 1D electron systems realized in quantum Hall edges Chang , carbon nanotubes Bockrath ; Yao , and quantum wires Auslaender .

A generic property of mesoscopic devices is the presence of imperfections that affect the transport of electrons. The most important are the defects that form energy levels near the Fermi level and give rise to strong scattering of electrons. In this paper we consider a single level coupled to a 1D system exhibiting Luttinger liquid behavior. Experimentally the level can be formed either by a random impurity or by an artificially created quantum dot in the vicinity of the 1D system. In recent experiments Grayson ; Auslaender  resonant tunneling via such a level has been observed. The theory of resonant tunneling via a level coupled to two 1D conductors was developed in Refs. Kane ; Chamon ; Furusaki .

In contrast to the previous theoretical work Kane ; Chamon ; Furusaki , we study a resonant level coupled to a single 1D conductor. The main quantity of interest is the occupation probability $`n`$ of the level as a function of its energy $`\epsilon `$ (measured from the Fermi level). Clearly, at large positive energy $`\epsilon `$ the level is empty, $`n=0`$, and at large negative energy it is filled, $`n=1`$. If the level is coupled to a Fermi-liquid lead, the occupation probability changes continuously from 0 to 1 when the energy $`\epsilon `$ is within the level width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ from the Fermi level:

$$n(\epsilon )=\frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{\pi }\mathrm{arctan}\frac{\epsilon }{\mathrm{\Gamma }}.$$
(1)
We show below that the dependence $`n(\epsilon )`$ is modified significantly in the case of coupling to a Luttinger-liquid lead. Most importantly, if the interactions are strong enough, $`n(\epsilon )`$ has a discontinuity at $`\epsilon =0`$.

We model the level coupled to a 1D conductor by the Hamiltonian $`H=H_0+H_t`$, where

$`H_0`$ $`=`$ $`\epsilon a^{}a+{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}v}{4\pi }}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{d\phi }{dx}}\right)^2𝑑x,`$ (2)
$`H_t`$ $`=`$ $`t(a^{}\psi +\psi ^{}a),\psi =\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{D}{2\pi \mathrm{}v}}}e^{i\phi (0)/\sqrt{g}}.`$ (3)
The first term in Eq. (2) describes the resonant level with energy $`\epsilon `$; the fermion operator $`a^{}`$ creates an electron in this state. The second term in Eq. (2) describes the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid in the lead in terms of a chiral boson field $`\phi (x)`$ with commutation relations $`[\phi (x),\phi (y)]=i\pi \text{sgn}(xy)`$. The chiral Luttinger liquid model is the most natural description of fractional quantum Hall edge states Wen . In the case of a non-chiral 1D system coupled to the level at only a single point $`x=0`$ one can neglect the “odd” bosonic modes and convert Matveev  the Hamiltonian to the chiral form (2). The Hamiltonian $`H_t`$ describes the tunneling of the electron between the level and the point $`x=0`$ in the 1D system. We use the standard bosonized expression for the annihilation operator $`\psi `$ of an electron in the chiral Luttinger liquid in terms of the field $`\phi (x)`$, the Luttinger-liquid parameter $`g`$, the bandwidth $`D`$ and the Fermi velocity $`v`$. In this paper we only consider the case of spinless electrons. Many of our results, including the existence of the discontinuity in $`n(\epsilon )`$ at $`g<1/2`$, are not sensitive to this assumption. Also, in the case of tunneling into edge states of quantum Hall system with filling factor $`g<1`$ all electrons are spin-polarized by the magnetic field. In other cases the level can be polarized by applying the magnetic field.

We first calculate the occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ in the second-order perturbation theory in $`H_t`$. At $`\epsilon >0`$ the result has the natural form

$$n(\epsilon )=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\pi \nu _1(0)}_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{\nu _g(\omega )}{(\omega +\epsilon )^2}𝑑\omega .$$
(4)
Parameter $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=t^2/2\mathrm{}v`$ has the physical meaning of the level width in the Fermi-liquid case $`g=1`$. The tunneling density of states $`\nu _g(\omega )`$ of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid has the well-known form

$$\nu _g(\omega )=\frac{1}{2\pi \mathrm{}v\mathrm{\Gamma }(g^1)}\left(\frac{|\omega |}{D}\right)^{\frac{1}{g}1}e^{|\omega |/D},$$
(5)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(x)`$ is the Gamma function. Due to the electron-hole symmetry of the problem, the occupation probability at negative energies can be found as $`n(\epsilon )=1n(\epsilon )`$. At $`g=1`$ the expression (4) coincides with expansion of the Fermi-liquid result (1) at $`\epsilon \mathrm{\Gamma }`$.

At $`g>1/2`$ the integral in Eq. (4) diverges at $`\epsilon 0`$. This means that in order to find $`n(\epsilon )`$ near the Fermi level one has to sum up the whole series of the perturbation theory in $`t`$. On the other hand, at $`g<1/2`$ the integral is convergent at all $`\epsilon `$, i.e., for a weakly coupled level the second-order perturbation theory is sufficient to describe $`n(\epsilon )`$ at any energy. For instance, at $`\epsilon +0`$, we find

$$n(+0)=\frac{g^2}{\pi (1g)(12g)}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{D}.$$
(6)
At $`\epsilon D`$ the occupation probability approaches its limit (6) following a power-law dependence:

$$n(+0)n(\epsilon )=\{\begin{array}{cc}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\pi D}|\mathrm{\Gamma }(\frac{2g1}{g})|\left(\frac{\epsilon }{D}\right)^{\frac{1}{g}2},\hfill & \frac{1}{3}<g<\frac{1}{2}\text{,}\hfill \\ \frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\pi D}\frac{\epsilon }{D}\mathrm{ln}\frac{D}{\epsilon },\hfill & g=\frac{1}{3}\text{,}\hfill \\ \frac{2g^3}{(1g)(12g)(13g)}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }}{\pi D}\frac{\epsilon }{D},\hfill & g<\frac{1}{3}\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
Since $`n(+0)n(0)1n(+0)`$, the system reaches two different ground states at $`\epsilon \pm 0`$, and the occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ experiences a finite discontinuity at the Fermi level: $`\mathrm{\Delta }n(0)n(+0)`$. The divergence of the perturbation theory at $`g>\frac{1}{2}`$ indicates that in this regime the coupling of the level to the lead is a relevant perturbation that should lift the degeneracy of the ground state at $`\epsilon =0`$, resulting in continuous $`n(\epsilon )`$. This can be shown formally using the mapping to the Kondo problem discussed below.

As the coupling $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the level to the 1D system grows, the magnitude of the jump $`\mathrm{\Delta }=12n(+0)`$ at $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$ decreases. We will now show that at a sufficiently strong coupling the jump disappears. Let us consider a semi-infinite quantum wire in the region $`x>0`$ with a scatterer at point $`x=L`$. The system is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger model with a scatterer:

$$H=\frac{\mathrm{}v}{2\pi }_0^{\mathrm{}}\left[\frac{1}{g}\left(\frac{d\theta }{dx}\right)^2+g\left(\frac{d\varphi }{dx}\right)^2\right]𝑑xw\mathrm{cos}(2\pi N).$$
(8)
Here $`N=[k_FL+\theta (L)]/\pi `$ is the number operator of electrons in the region $`0<x<L`$. The fields $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ satisfy the commutation relation $`[\theta (x),\varphi (y)]=(i\pi /2)[1+\text{sgn}(xy)]`$ and the boundary condition $`\theta (x=0)=0`$.

If the scatterer is very strong, $`w\mathrm{}`$, it effectively cuts the region $`0<x<L`$ from the wire. This region becomes a quantum dot, coupled to the rest of the wire by tunneling through the barrier created by the scatterer. At large $`w`$ the field $`\theta `$ at point $`x=L`$ is pinned at one of the values $`\theta (L)=\pi mk_FL`$, where integer $`m`$ is the number of electrons in the dot. The ground state energy of the dot is then $`E_m=(\mathrm{}v/2\pi gL)(\pi mk_FL)^2`$. For a given $`L`$ the number of electrons in the dot that minimizes $`E_m`$ is the integer nearest to $`k_FL/\pi `$. One can easily check that at $`k_FL/\pi =M+\frac{1}{2}\frac{gL}{\pi \mathrm{}v}\epsilon `$ with integer $`M`$ and positive $`\epsilon `$ the ground state of the dot has $`m=M`$ electrons, and the energy of adding $`(M+1)`$-st electron is $`E_{M+1}E_M=\epsilon `$. Thus at large $`w`$ the Hamiltonian (8) is equivalent to the model (2) and (3) of a resonant level coupled to a 1D system 111 The Hamiltonian (8) describing non-chiral bosons can be converted by a transformation $`\phi (x)=\sqrt{g}\varphi (|x|)+\text{sgn}(x)\theta (|x|)/\sqrt{g}`$ to a chiral form similar to Eq. (2)..

One can now increase the coupling by lowering $`w`$. In the limit of very strong coupling, $`w0`$, the scattering term in the Hamiltonian (8) can be accounted for in first-order perturbation theory. In an infinite 1D system the thermal average of the scattering potential shows power-law behavior at low temperatures as $`(T/D)^gw\mathrm{cos}(2k_FL)`$. However, if the distance $`L`$ from the scatterer to the end of the wire is finite, the renormalization of the scattering potential is cut off at the low energy scale equal to the level spacing in the dot, $`\mathrm{}v/L`$. Although the renormalization of the scattering potential in a semi-infinite wire may be large, it remains finite, and at sufficiently small $`w`$ one can use the first-order result $`\delta E_0(\mathrm{}v/LD)^gw\mathrm{cos}(2k_FL)`$. Thus at strong coupling the energy is an analytic function of $`k_FL`$ which shows no singularities at degeneracy points $`k_FL=\pi (M+\frac{1}{2})`$ where $`\epsilon =0`$. The analyticity of $`E_0(\epsilon )`$ means that the ground state is non-degenerate, and the occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )=E_0/\epsilon `$ (see Eqs. (2) and (3)) is continuous.

From the perturbative calculations in the weak- and strong-coupling limits we deduce a schematic phase diagram, Fig. 1. The occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ is a continuous function of $`\epsilon `$ at $`g>\frac{1}{2}`$ (including the Fermi-liquid case $`g=1`$) and also at $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$, if the coupling to the lead is sufficiently strong. On the other hand, if $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$ and the coupling is weak, $`n(\epsilon )`$ has a discontinuity at $`\epsilon =0`$. As the coupling is increased at $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$, the discontinuity $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ decreases until the phase boundary is reached, above which $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$. We now show that $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is not a continuous function of the coupling strength, and that just below the boundary $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\sqrt{2g}`$.

Let us consider a level relatively weakly coupled to the lead with $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$. The presence of a jump in the occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ means that at $`\epsilon =0`$ the ground state of the system is degenerate. One could expect that tunneling term (3) that couples the two degenerate states by moving an electron from the level to the lead would lift the degeneracy. This does not always happen because the tunneling of an electron into a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid is suppressed at low energies, leading to the renormalized level width $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Gamma }}(\epsilon )\epsilon ^\gamma `$. Thus at $`\gamma >1`$ the coupling is irrelevant, as it is much smaller than the level separation $`\epsilon `$. In the opposite case of $`\gamma <1`$ the width is much larger than the level separation at $`\epsilon 0`$, so the degenaracy of the ground state is lifted. Thus at the phase boundary in Fig. 1 the exponent $`\gamma =1`$.

At $`t0`$ the suppression of tunneling manifests itself in the power-law behavior of the density of states (5). Thus the exponent $`\gamma =\frac{1}{g}1`$, and the condition $`\gamma >1`$ of the degenerate ground state reproduces our earlier result $`g<\frac{1}{2}`$. At $`t0`$ the virtual hopping processes smear the quantization of the charge, and at low energies the perturbation $`H_T`$ transfers only a fraction $`\mathrm{\Delta }=n(0)n(+0)`$ of an electron charge into the lead. Mathematically this can be accounted for by a renormalized coupling term $`\stackrel{~}{H}_Tt[a^{}e^{i\phi (0)\mathrm{\Delta }/\sqrt{g}}+\text{h.c.}]`$, c.f. Eq. (3). Thus the exponent of the tunneling density of states becomes $`\gamma =\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }^2}{g}1`$ when only a fraction $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the electron charge is transferred. At the phase boundary the condition $`\gamma =1`$ is then equivalent to $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\sqrt{2g}`$.

The phase diagram Fig. 1 and the critical value of the jump $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\sqrt{2g}`$ at the phase boundary are the main results of this paper.

One can also study how $`n(\epsilon )`$ approaches the discontinuity at $`\epsilon =0`$ anywhere below the phase boundary in Fig. 1. The discussion is essentially identical to the one leading to Eq. (7) at $`t0`$. By substituting $`\nu (\omega )\omega ^\gamma `$ instead of (5) into (4), we find at small positive $`\epsilon `$,

$$\frac{1\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}n(\epsilon )\epsilon ^{\mathrm{min}\{(\mathrm{\Delta }^2/g)2,1\}}\text{for}\mathrm{\Delta }>\sqrt{2g}.$$
(9)
Additional support for the above results is found by mapping our model to two well-known problems: a two-level system with Ohmic dissipation and the Kondo problem. Let us define a unitary operator $`U_1=\mathrm{exp}[i\phi (0)S^z/\sqrt{g}]`$, where $`S^z=a^{}a1/2`$. Unitary transformation of the Hamiltonian (2) and (3) yields the Hamiltonian of the two-level system

$$U_1^{}HU_1=H_0+t\sqrt{\frac{2D}{\pi \mathrm{}v}}S^x\frac{\mathrm{}v}{\sqrt{g}}S^z\frac{d\phi (0)}{dx}+\text{const},$$
(10)
where $`S^x=(a+a^{})/2`$. The second term describes hopping of a particle between the two levels, $`S^z=\pm \frac{1}{2}`$, and the third term is the coupling to harmonic oscillators with dissipation strength $`\alpha =1/2g`$ Leggett . It is known that there is a quantum phase transition between a phase where a particle is localized in one of the two levels and another phase where it is delocalized. In the limit $`t0`$ the transition occurs at $`\alpha =1`$ Leggett , in agreement with our weak-coupling result Buttiker . Our analysis suggests that as the coupling $`t`$ is increased in the localized phase, the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the averages $`S^z`$ over the two ground states at $`\epsilon =0`$ will decrease from 1 to $`\sqrt{2g}=\alpha ^{1/2}`$, after which the system will suddenly delocalize, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0`$. To the best of our knowledge, only a brief discussion Chakravarty  can be found in the literature on the $`\epsilon `$ dependence of the ground-state average $`S^z`$ at $`\alpha =1\eta `$, and the result is consistent with $`\mathrm{\Delta }=\alpha ^{1/2}`$ to linear order in $`\eta `$.

To understand the connection to the Kondo problem, let us introduce another operator $`U_2=U_1\mathrm{exp}[i\sqrt{2}\phi (0)S^z]`$. Unitary transformation yields

$`U_2^{}HU_2`$ $`=`$ $`H_0+t\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{D}{2\pi \mathrm{}v}}}\left(S^+e^{i\sqrt{2}\phi (0)}+S^{}e^{i\sqrt{2}\phi (0)}\right)`$ (11)
$`\mathrm{}v\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{g}}}\sqrt{2}\right)S^z{\displaystyle \frac{d\phi (0)}{dx}}+\text{const},`$
where $`S^+=a^{}`$ and $`S^{}=a`$. Equation (11) is also obtained by bosonizing the anisotropic Kondo model describing electrons scattered by a spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ impurity,

$$H_K=ϵ_ka_{k\mu }^{}a_{k\mu }𝑑k+J_iS^i\sigma _{\mu \nu }^ia_{k\mu }^{}a_{k^{}\nu }𝑑k𝑑k^{}+\epsilon S^z,$$

where $`ϵ_k=\mathrm{}vk`$, $`\sigma ^i`$ is the Pauli matrix, and summation over repeated indices is assumed ($`\mu ,\nu =,`$ and $`i=x,y,z`$). The Kondo couplings $`J_i`$ are given by

$$J_{}=t\sqrt{\frac{2\pi \mathrm{}v}{D}},J_z=2\pi \mathrm{}v\left(1\frac{1}{\sqrt{2g}}\right),$$
(12)
where $`J_x=J_y=J_{}`$. The occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ is directly related to the magnetization $``$ of the impurity spin $`𝑺`$ coupled to the Zeeman field $`\epsilon `$: $`n(\epsilon )=(\epsilon )+1/2`$. The phase diagram Fig. 1 is easily understood from the renormalization-group flow diagram of the Kondo problem. The phase of a smooth $`n(\epsilon )`$ curve corresponds to the antiferromagnetic Kondo coupling, $`J_z>|J_{}|`$. In this case the impurity spin is completely screened as the magnetic field $`\epsilon `$ is turned off: $`(\pm 0)=0`$. At $`g\frac{1}{2}1`$ in the weak-coupling limit, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }D`$, one can easily obtain $`n(\epsilon )`$ from the Bethe ansatz results Bethe  for $`(\epsilon )`$.

The phase of a discontinuous $`n(\epsilon )`$ curve in Fig. 1 corresponds to the ferromagnetic Kondo case, $`J_z<|J_{}|`$, where the spin flip coupling $`J_{}`$ is renormalized to zero. One might then naively expect full moment to appear: $`=\text{sgn}(\epsilon )/2`$. This is not correct, however, as we have seen in Eqs. (6) and (7). In the weak-coupling regime we may use one-loop scaling equations for $`j_i=J_i/(2\pi \mathrm{}v)`$,

$$\frac{dj_{}}{dl}=2j_{}j_z,\frac{dj_z}{dl}=2j_{}^2,\frac{d}{dl}=2j_{}^2,$$
(13)
where $`dl=d\mathrm{ln}D`$. For $`|j_{}|j_z`$ we integrate them to $`l=\mathrm{ln}(D/\epsilon )`$ with initial condition $`=1/2`$. We find $`2(\epsilon )=\mathrm{exp}(j_zj_z^{})`$, where

$$\frac{j_z^{}}{c}=\frac{j_zc+(c+j_z)(\epsilon /D)^{4c}}{cj_z+(c+j_z)(\epsilon /D)^{4c}},c=\sqrt{j_z^2j_{}^2},$$
(14)
in agreement with Ref. Anderson . To lowest order in $`\frac{1}{2}g`$, this one-loop result is consistent with Eq. (9). In particular, at the transition point $`j_{}=j_z`$, the magnitude of the magnetization jump $`\mathrm{\Delta }=(0)(+0)=1+j_z`$ agrees with our conjecture $`\sqrt{2g}=(1j_z)^1`$ in the first order in $`j_z`$. Approach to the zero-field value is logarithmically slow at the transition point: $`(\epsilon )(+0)1/\mathrm{ln}\epsilon `$ for $`\epsilon >0`$. It is worth mentioning that in the ferromagnetic case the magnetization is a nonuniversal quantity. In particular, models with different bandwidth cutoffs have values of $``$ different by $`j_z^2`$. To be precise, our mapping is to the bosonized Kondo model (11).

The magnetization jump in the ferromagnetic Kondo model is also related to the problem of a classical Ising chain with inverse-square interaction Anderson , whose reduced Hamiltonian is $`\beta H_I=K_{i>j}s_is_j/|ij|^2`$, $`s_i=\pm 1`$. The connection is established by expanding the partition function of the Kondo model in powers of $`J_{}`$, which is then identified with that of the Ising chain at $`K=1/4g`$ with additional short-ranged irrelevant interaction that depends on $`J_{}`$ and bandwidth cutoff. The 1D Ising model with $`1/r^2`$ interaction has a finite-temperature phase transition Anderson . Below the transition temperature, or when $`K>K_c`$, the Ising spins are ordered with a nonvanishing order parameter $`\mathrm{\Psi }Ks_i^2`$. The order parameter vanishes discontinuously as the coupling $`K`$ is reduced through the $`K_c`$, a 1D analog of the universal jump at the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition. It has been shown rigorously that $`\mathrm{\Psi }1/2`$ in the ordered phase Aizenman . Although unproved rigorously yet, it is believed that $`\mathrm{\Psi }=1/2`$ at $`K=K_c`$, which has been confirmed recently by a large-scale numerical simulation Luijten . This means that $`(0)(+0)=s_i=\sqrt{2g}`$, in agreement with our analysis. Note that the external parameter driving the phase transition is $`K`$ in the Ising model whereas it is $`\mathrm{\Gamma }/D`$ in our model of a level coupled to a 1D lead.

So far we have ignored Coulomb repulsion between the resonant level and the 1D lead. Assuming that the interaction is short-ranged due to screening effects, we may model it by $`H_u=uS^z\frac{d\phi (0)}{dx}`$. Since the unitary transformation gives $`U_2^{}H_uU_2=H_u+\text{const}`$, the effect of the Coulomb repulsion is to change the Kondo coupling, $`J_zJ_z+2\pi u`$. This gives rise to a shift of the phase boundary in Fig. 1 towards smaller $`g`$. In particular, at $`t0`$ the phase boundary is at $`g=\frac{1}{2}(1+\frac{u}{\mathrm{}v})^2`$. Physically, this shift is due to Mahan’s excitonic effect Mahan  that enhances tunneling probability.

It was recently demonstrated Berman ; Duncan  that the charge of a quantum dot coupled to a Fermi-liquid lead can be measured with the aid of an electrometer based on a single electron transistor. To test our theoretical predictions one could perform a similar experiment with a lead in the Fractional Quantum Hall regime. A small dot coupled to the edge state in the lead would then play the role of the resonant level. In this setup one can vary the parameter $`g`$ of the chiral Luttinger liquid in the edge state by adjusting the magnetic field. The strength of coupling of the dot to the edge state in a GaAs heterostructure can be tuned by changing the appropriate gate voltage.

In conclusion, we have shown that in the region of parameters shown in the phase diagram Fig. 1 the occupation probability $`n(\epsilon )`$ of a resonant level of energy $`\epsilon `$ coupled to a Luttinger-liquid lead is a discontinuous function of $`\epsilon `$. The height of the discontinuity in $`n(\epsilon )`$ at $`\epsilon =0`$ reaches $`\sqrt{2g}`$ at the phase boundary. This picture is supported by mapping to a Kondo model, and interesting connections can also be made to the problems of the dissipative two-level system and the classical Ising chain with inverse-square interaction.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to S. Katsumoto for valuable discussions and to the Aspen Center for Physics where part of the work was performed. The work of AF was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 11740199 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). KAM acknowledges the support of the Sloan Foundation, the JSPS, and NSF Grant DMR-9974435.


text:
# The Structure of the Oxygen-rich Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8 from Chandra X-ray Images: Shocked Ejecta and Circumstellar Medium

## 1  INTRODUCTION

G292.0+1.8 is a bright Galactic SNR, discovered in the radio surveys of the southern sky (Milne, 1969; Shaver & Goss, 1977). The radio morphology is centrally-peaked with an extended fainter plateau (Lockhart et al., 1977; Braun et al., 1986) and the radio spectral index is intermediate between shell and plerion type SNRs (Goss et al., 1979). The detection of strong O and Ne lines in the optical spectrum (Goss et al., 1979; Murdin & Clark, 1979) classified G292.0+1.8 as an O-rich SNR, of which there are only two other examples in the Galaxy: Cassiopeia A and Puppis A. G292.0+1.8 is a young SNR ($`<`$ 1600 yr) (Murdin & Clark, 1979), making it useful for studying the processes by which SN ejecta mix with the ambient ISM.

G292.0+1.8 was first detected in X-rays with HEAO-1 (Share et al., 1978) and a central bar-like structure surrounded by an ellipsoidal disk was observed with Einstein (Tuohy et al., 1982). X-ray spectra taken with Einstein and EXOSAT revealed strong atomic emission lines from highly ionized Mg, Si, and S (Clark et al., 1980; Claas, 1988). Hughes and Singh (1994) performed a nonequilibrium ionization (NEI) analysis of the X-ray spectrum of G292.0+1.8, which determined that the SNR was significantly enhanced in O, Ne, and Mg and that the pattern of elemental abundances agreed well with the nucleosynthesis expected from a massive star (20$``$25 $`M_{}`$) core collapse supernova.

The superb high angular resolution of the Chandra X-ray Observatory (Weisskopf et al., 1996) allows us to study the complex structure of the ejecta and the surrounding medium. It also allowed us to discover a hard point-like source near the center of the remnant, as reported elsewhere (Hughes et al. 2001a, ) (H01a, hereafter). Here we report the first Chandra imaging results on the diffuse thermal emission from G292.0+1.8. A subsequent Letter describes our spectral analysis of the SNR (Hughes et al. 2001b, ) (H01b, hereafter).

The observation is described in §2. Data analysis and results are presented in §3 and the implications are discussed in §4. A summary is presented in §5.

## 2  OBSERVATION & DATA REDUCTION

G292.0+1.8 was observed with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) on board Chandra on 2000 March 11 as part of the Chandra Guaranteed Time Observation program. The angular size of G292.0+1.8 is slightly larger than the 8 size of a single CCD chip; the ACIS-S3 chip was chosen because it has the best energy resolution over the entire CCD. The pointing was selected to place most of the SNR on the S3 chip.

We have utilized new data reduction techniques developed at Penn State for correcting the spatial and spectral degradation of ACIS data caused by radiation damage, known as Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) (Townsley et al., 2000). The expected effects of the CTI correction include an increase in the number of detected events and improved event energies and energy resolution (Townsley et al., 2000, 2001). We screened the data with the flight timeline filter and then applied the CTI correction before further data screenings by status, grade, and the energy selections. “Flaring” pixels were removed and ASCA grades (02346) were selected. Events with inferred energies between 0.3 keV and 8.0 keV were extracted for further data analysis. The overall lightcurve was examined for possible contamination from time variable background and no significant variability was found. After data processing $``$43 ks of effective exposure was left.

## 3  X-ray Images & Equivalent Width Maps

Figure 1 shows an X-ray “true-color” image of G292.0+1.8, with red indicating the lowest energies and blue for the highest. The deep blue region south of the central belt is the presumed pulsar wind nebula, dominating above 2 keV (H01a). Below 2 keV, the SNR is dominated by a complex network of knots and filaments (yellow and green) on angular scales down to the instrumental resolution. The striking color contrasts in this filamentary structure indicate spectral variations in this material, produced by varying line strengths. These knots and filaments are bounded by shell-like circumferential filaments surrounding most of the SNR, outside of which is faint diffuse emission. These features are soft, as indicated by the red colors.

The overall ACIS spectrum (H01a) shows broad atomic emission line complexes from the elemental species O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Ar, while little emission from Fe is observed. In order to trace the elemental distribution across the SNR, we constructed equivalent width (EW) images by selecting photons around the broad line complexes (Table 1), using a technique pioneered by Hwang et al. (2000). Line and continuum bandpasses were selected for each spectral line of interest. Images in these bands were extracted with 2$`\mathrm{}`$ pixels and smoothed with a Gaussian with $`\sigma `$ = 7$`\mathrm{}`$. The underlying continuum was calculated by logarithmically interpolating between images made from the higher and lower energy “shoulders” of each broad line. The estimated continuum flux was integrated over the selected line width and subtracted from the line emission. The continuum-subtracted line intensity was then divided by the estimated continuum on a pixel-by-pixel basis to generate the EW images for each element. In order to avoid noise in the EW maps caused by poor photon statistics near the edge of the remnant, we have set the EW values to zero where the estimated continuum flux is low. We also set the EW to zero where the integrated continuum flux is greater than the line flux.

The EW maps for O, Ne, Mg, and Si are presented in Figure 2 with overlaid contours from the 0.3 $``$ 8.0 keV band image for morphological comparison between the elemental distribution and the surface brightness. (The S and Ar EW maps are too noisy to be useful. High Mg EW values in the extreme north and south edges of the SNR are due to low continuum and are insignificant.) The overall spectrum exhibits two broad-line features for Ne (He$`\alpha `$ at $``$0.93 keV and Ly$`\alpha `$ at $``$1.05 keV) (H01a), and we separately present those two line components in the EW maps. The morphology of the EW maps depends on the species, and does not necessarily trace the overall broad-band morphology. To investigate the possibility that complex broad line features might have resulted in contamination of the estimated underlying continuum, we have compared the O EW map with the optical OII $`\lambda `$ 3727$`\AA `$ line data (Tuohy et al., 1982). The O EW enhancements in the southeast area of the SNR are in good spatial agreements with the optical data, supporting the reliability of the EW maps. We also extracted a few sample spectra from small regions across the SNR in order to make a more realistic test for the overall validity of the metallicity structure of the SNR implied by the EW maps. The metallicity distributions implied by the EW maps are in good agreement with the actual spectra (Figure 3). For example, the spectrum in Region 1 shows weaker Ne lines compared with those from Regions 3 and 4, in agreement with the EW maps. The spectrum of Region 2, which sits on a peak in the Si EW map, is dominated by bright Si and S lines. We thus conclude that our EW maps are reliable despite the inherent uncertainties in the continuum subtraction. Further quantitative support for the validity of our EW maps is given in H01b.

The EW maps reveal a variety of chemical structures and ionization states within the SNR, which vary with the species. The O EW map indicates strong O emission throughout the SNR, particularly in the southeastern quadrant, consistent with the previously-known O-rich nature. The Ne EW maps are particularly interesting. Both Ne maps are enhanced within the circumferential filaments, suggesting that the material interior to these filaments is dominated by ejecta. The bright, broad ridge of emission in the northwest corner of the Ne Ly$`\alpha `$ map lies to the outside of the corresponding feature in the Ne He$`\alpha `$, indicating a progression in ionization state with distance from the shock boundary in this portion of the SNR. This may be attributed to the progressive ionization by the reverse shock as seen in SNR 1E0102.2$``$7219 (Gaetz et al., 2000; Flanagan et al., 2001). In the southeastern quadrant, O and Ne He$`\alpha `$ are both strong, while Si and Ne Ly$`\alpha `$ are relatively weak, again suggesting large-scale variations in ionization state and elemental abundance within the ejecta. The central bar that is prominent in the broad-band images is either a trough or completely absent in the EW maps, indicating that this feature is not related to the ejecta, but is a structure in the shocked circumstellar material (CSM). The thin circumferential filaments are also absent from the EW maps, indicating a CSM origin. Finally, the region of the pulsar wind nebula surrounding the bright point-like source is dominated by synchrotron emission (H01a), and is therefore dark in the EW maps.

## 4  DISCUSSION

The most interesting result from the EW and the surface brightness maps is the inferred CSM origin of the bright belt-like structure as observed in the broad-band image. Tuohy et al. (1982) suggested that the central “bar-like” enhancement results from the equatorial expulsion of O-rich ejecta from a rotating massive progenitor to form an expanding ring of such ejecta. Our results from this Chandra observation indicate that instead of being O-rich, the material associated with the belt is actually O-poor compared with the rest of the remnant. This equatorial belt is most likely emission from the normal composition material into which the blast wave is expanding, as suggested by the EW maps, and is strong evidence for the existence of a non-spherically symmetric CSM produced by the stellar winds from the massive progenitor (Blondin et al. 1996 and references therein). Such asymmetric wind structures have been invoked to explain complex biannular structure in some radio SNRs (Manchester, 1987), including G296.8-00.3 (Gaensler et al., 1998). The apparent belt-like morphology for G292.0+1.8 suggests that the presumed asymmetric CSM may be “ring-like”, reminiscent of the well-known optical ring of SN 1987A (Luo & McCray, 1991), but seen edge-on and on much larger spatial scales. Assuming that the apparent “length” of the equatorial belt represents the diameter of such a circumstellar ring, the current size of the belt is $``$3 pc in radius at the distance of 4.8 kpc. This is comparable with the observed sizes of the circumstellar nebulae from massive stars ($`<`$ a few pc in radius depending on their masses and the evolution history; e.g., Chu 2001 and references therein).

Another interesting feature is the soft circumferential filaments that nearly enclose the ejecta-dominated portion of the SNR. Although the material just interior to these filaments shows strong lines of O, Ne, and Si, the circumferential filaments themselves are absent from the EW maps, indicating low line strength. This is consistent with an origin in the CSM, but several scenarios may be invoked to explain this large-scale feature. The low abundances and thin shell suggest the possibility that these filaments represent a relic structure in the CSM, perhaps a shell at the boundary of a red supergiant wind with a subsequent blue supergiant wind, that has been over-run by the blast wave. Numerical simulations of such CSM/blast wave interactions (e.g., Franco et al. 1991) have shown that the observed structure can be produced if the mass of the shell is low. Alternatively, it could represent the outer shock itself. This interpretation would require that the low surface-brightness emission exterior to these filaments, results from projection effects, which could happen if one hemisphere of the remnant was expanding into a lower density medium, producing a morphology similar to VRO 42.05.01 (Landecker et al., 1982; Pineault et al., 1987; Burrows & Guo, 1994), but seen face-on.

We note that H01a has attributed the $``$1 offset of the pulsar position from the geometrical center of the SNR to either high transverse velocity of the pulsar or slower expansion of the SNR toward the southeast. Our results suggest advanced ionization state in the northwest and thus likely a higher ISM density there, which would support the high pulsar velocity interpretation.

## 5  SUMMARY

We have presented results from the Chandra/ACIS observation of the Galactic O-rich SNR, G292.0+1.8. The high resolution ACIS images resolve the complex filamentary structure in the soft band while revealing a pulsar and its wind nebula in the hard band. The EW maps indicate variable elemental abundance and ionization across the SNR. Based on the surface brightness images and the EW maps, we propose that the equatorial belt in the broad band images is emission from the shocked non-spherically symmetric CSM, produced by slow stellar winds from the massive progenitor in the red supergiant phase, rather than from metal-rich ejecta. We also suggest that the origin of the soft shell-like structure around the outer boundary of the SNR may be emission from the shell of the stellar winds over-run by the blast wave, or the shock front itself if the X-ray emission of larger radii comes from portions of the remnant seen in projection along the line of sight. The distribution of the ejecta implies a complex evolution for G292.0+1.8, such as an asymmetric SN explosion and highly clumped ejecta interacting with non-uniform ambient ISM (Braun et al., 1986).

We resolve the complex X-ray structure of G292.0+1.8: i.e., metal-rich ejecta, shocked dense asymmetric CSM, and the shocked stellar winds or ISM with the high resolution ACIS data. We should note, however, that EW depends not only on the abundance, but also on the temperature and ionization state, so that direct spectral analysis is needed to confirm the inferred metallicity distributions by the EW maps. Further progress on the origin of the equatorial belt and the soft shell-like structure at the SNR’s periphery will benefit from follow-up optical spectroscopy and detailed X-ray spectral analysis (H01b).

The authors thank L. Townsley and colleagues in the department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at Penn State University for developing the software for the CTI correction of the ACIS data. We also thank K. Lewis for her help at the early stage of this work. This work was funded by NASA under contract NAS8-38252 to Penn State, NAS8-39073 to CfA and Chandra grant GO0-1035X to Rutgers University.