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# The continuum variability of MCG–6-30-15: A detailed analysis of the long 1999 ASCA observation

## 1 Introduction

In recent years, a self-consistent and robust picture has gradually emerged in order to explain the most important features of AGN X-ray spectra. In the standard model, a central supermassive black hole accretes matter in the form of a cold, optically-thick disk. A hot, optically-thin corona above and below the accretion disk inverse Compton scatters soft optical/UV photons from the disk, producing a power-law continuum in the X-ray band \[Zdziarski et al. 1994\]. At the same time, the corona illuminates the disk, giving rise to a reflection hump at higher energies and a prominent iron K line at around 6.4 keV \[Guilbert & Rees 1988, Lightman & White 1988\].

Extensive observations of MCG–6-30-15, a bright, nearby ($`z=0.0078`$) Seyfert 1, have been especially useful in the study of AGN X-ray spectra. In fact, MCG–6-30-15 is perhaps the most well-studied AGN in the X-ray band, owing to its brightness, strong iron-line, and extreme variability. Because both time-averaged and time-resolved spectral analysis are feasible for this source, its physical properties can be probed in great detail. The many interesting features of the time-averaged spectrum, such as the broad iron line, the reflection continuum, and the warm absorber, have proven to be extremely useful in constraining the geometry and physics of AGN.

The study of spectral variability can provide another window into the interesting properties of AGN, although it is generally much more difficult and ambiguous than the simpler task of describing the time-averaged spectrum. Correlations (and lack thereof) have been observed between many different time-resolved spectral parameters, and there is much debate over the theoretical interpretation. To mention two relevant examples, analyses by Lee et al. (2000) and Vaughan & Edelson (2001) of a long 1997 RXTE dataset detected a steepening of the continuum spectrum with increasing flux in MCG–6-30-15. Meanwhile the iron line flux, though variable, did not appear to be correlated with the continuum flux.

In this paper, we present an analysis of the ASCA 1999 long observation of MCG–6-30-15 in the 3–10 keV X-ray band, investigating both the time-averaged properties of the spectrum and the time-resolved spectral variability. Section 2 briefly describes the details of the 1999 observation and the status of the detector at the time. In Section 3 the analysis of the time-averaged spectrum is outlined. The time-averaged spectrum shows the presence of a strong, relativistically-broadened iron line, confirming the results of earlier analyses on the 1994 and 1997 ASCA data. Section 4 contains the results of the variability studies. The $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation is investigated, and a break in the usual correlation is observed. Iron-line variability with respect to flux is also studied, and in particular, the iron-line and continuum fluxes are found to be uncorrelated. Possible interpretations of the flattening of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are considered in Section 5, including an application of the recently proposed “thundercloud model” of Merloni & Fabian (2001). Finally, Section 6 summarizes the results of the analysis.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

MCG–6-30-15 was observed with ASCA from 1999 July 19 to 1999 July 29. The total integration time was $`910`$ ks. The data were filtered and spectral files were prepared following the method of Iwasawa et al. (1999). The Solid-State Imaging Spectrometer (SIS0 and SIS1) was operated in Faint mode for the duration of the observation, and the Gas Imaging Spectrometer (GIS2 and GIS3) was operated in PH mode. Good exposure time amounted to approximately 440 ks for the SIS and 360 ks for the GIS. The FWHM energy resolutions at 6.4 keV for the SIS and GIS were $``$ 350 eV and $``$ 490 eV, respectively. This represents a degradation of a factor of 3–4 in SIS energy resolution from launch, resulting from radiation damage to the CCD chips. The GIS detectors, on the other hand, being gas-based, are relatively unaffected by the effects of high energy radiation, and so their spectral resolution has remained very stable over time.

## 3 Time-Averaged Spectral Features

The total integrated count rates between 3–10 keV for the current observation were 0.540 and 0.518 cts/s for the SIS and GIS, respectively. The corresponding time-averaged flux in the 3–10 keV band was $`3.20\times 10^{11}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. This represents a $`20\%`$ increase over the 3–10 keV flux in the previous 1997 observation, indicating a significant brightening of the source between the two observations.

The 3–10 keV spectrum of MCG–6-30-15 was described using two xspec model components: pexrav for the power-law continuum and cold reflection from the accretion disk \[Magdziarz & Zdziarski 1995\]; and diskline for the relativistically-broadened iron K$`\alpha `$ line at a rest-frame energy of 6.4 keV from an accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole \[Fabian et al. 1989\]. In addition, pexrav was relativistically blurred using rdblur \[Fabian et al. 1989\], and the entire model was modified by cold Galactic absorption of $`N_\mathrm{H}=4.06\times 10^{20}`$$`\mathrm{cm}^2`$\[Elvis et al. 1989\].

The free parameters consisted of the inner and outer disk radius, disk inclination angle (diskline and rdblur); the total line flux (diskline); and the power-law slope and normalization (defined to be the photon flux at 1 keV of the primary power law) (pexrav). The inclination angle relative to the observer of the reflecting material in pexrav was tied to the corresponding diskline parameter. Since the other pexrav parameters affect primarily the high energy spectrum, which is inaccessible to ASCA, they could not be constrained in this analysis, and so they were kept fixed at values consistent with recent measurements by BeppoSAX and RXTE \[Guainazzi et al. 1999, Lee et al. 1999\]. Thus the pexrav cut-off energy was fixed at 150 keV, the reflection fraction was fixed at $`\mathrm{\Omega }/2\pi =1`$ (where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle subtended by the reflecting material as seen by the primary source), and the iron abundance was fixed at $`1\mathrm{Z}_{}`$.

The model was fit simultaneously to the data from all four detectors between 3–10 keV. A good fit was obtained with $`\chi ^2=1885.8`$ for 1889 degrees of freedom. The best-fit continuum power-law slope and normalization are $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.082\pm 0.009`$ and $`N_{310}=(1.90\pm 0.03)\times 10^2`$ ph s-1 cm-2. The power-law slope is slightly higher than the slope $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{97}=1.94_{0.07}^{+0.06}`$ measured for the 1997 \[Iwasawa et al. 1999\] dataset. The difference in power-law slopes remains at the 2-$`\sigma `$ level even after systematic differences between the two analyses, such as the modification of pexrav with rdblur in this analysis and slightly different fitting procedures, are taken into account.

The best-fit parameters for the diskline model are shown in the first row of Table 1, and the efficiency-corrected iron line profile is shown in Fig. 1. Generally speaking, the diskline parameters agree quite well with the parameters measured in the 1997 observation, confirming not only the presence of a broad iron K line in MCG–6-30-15, but also the properties of the accretion disk responsible for the line emission. It is interesting to note, however, that while the 1997 data preferred an inner radius of $`6.7r_\mathrm{g}`$, here $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ pegs at $`6r_\mathrm{g}`$, the radius of minimum stability for a non-rotating black hole and the lower bound in the diskline model. This, and the relatively high value of $`\alpha `$, suggest the presence of emission from within $`6r_\mathrm{g}`$, which is generally thought to be the signature of a rotating black hole.

To check for the significance of any emission from within $`6r_\mathrm{g}`$, a model for a maximally spinning ($`a=0.998`$) black hole was also fit to the data between 3–10 keV. The model is completely analogous to the one described above for a Schwarzschild black hole, with diskline and rdblur replaced with the xspec model components laor and kdblur, which describe line emission and relativistic blurring from an accretion disk around an extreme Kerr black hole \[Kojima 1991, Laor 1991\]. Again, we obtained an excellent fit with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.096\pm 0.009`$ and $`\chi ^2=1858/1889`$ dof. The best-fit laor parameters are shown in the second row of Table 1. As indicated by the equally acceptable values of $`\chi ^2`$, the time-averaged line profile cannot constrain the spin of MCG–6-30-15 given the current quality of the data. It is worthwhile to note, however, that in the best-fit Laor model, the entire line-emitting region of the accretion disk shifts inward and stretches all the way down to $`2`$ gravitational radii, resulting in a smaller emissivity index, since it is no longer necessary to concentrate as much emission so close to the black hole.

## 4 Time-Resolved Spectral Features: Variability Studies

The background-subtracted SIS 3–10 keV light curve for the 1999 observation is shown in Fig. 2 with 256-s bins. As in 1997, the source appears to be highly variable, with the 3–10 keV count rate changing in the brightest flares by factors of 2–3 on timescales of less than a day.

### 4.1 Hardness Ratios

Hardness ratios provide a straightforward, “zeroth-order” means of investigating spectral variability. Being model-independent, they can provide direct insight into overall time-resolved spectral features. Also, because they do not require any spectral fitting, hardness ratios are free of any biases introduced by a specific fitting procedure. A total of three hardness ratios were examined:

$`R_1`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_{47}}{F_{34}}}`$
$`R_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_{710}}{F_{34}}}`$
$`R_3`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{F_{710}}{F_{47}}}.`$
The hardness ratios were calculated in each orbital period ($`5700`$ s) using the total SIS+GIS count rate in the relevant energy bands. They are shown in Fig. 3 plotted against count rate. $`R_1`$ and $`R_2`$ show a definite negative correlation with count rate ($`\chi ^2=`$ 240.7 and 242.8, respectively, for 158 dof against a constant hypothesis), indicating that the spectrum steepens as the source becomes brighter. On the other hand, $`R_3`$ does not appear to show much evidence for this correlation, although we note that any such correlation could be obscured by scatter due to the significantly poorer signal-to-noise of the $`R_3`$ band.

The hardness ratio trends shown here agree well with those found by Lee et al. (2000) in their recent analysis of the 1997 RXTE observation, suggesting that the observed correlation between spectral steepness and source brightness is an intrinsic and general feature of MCG–6-30-15. Since we expect the spectrum between 3–10 keV to be well-modeled by a simple power-law plus a relativistically broadened iron-line, the observed hardness ratio trends should correspond directly to a positive continuum index vs. count rate correlation. As we shall see in the next section, this is almost what is observed.

### 4.2 The 12 Count-Rate Bins

The study of correlations between various spectral parameters and source flux was carried out using twelve bins defined using horizontal slices of the 3–10 keV light curve of the GIS3 detector. The procedure was as follows: the 3–10 keV GIS3 light curve was binned into orbital periods ($`6\times 10^3`$ s). From this light curve, twelve horizontal slices in count rate were chosen such that each slice contained approximately the same number of counts. These twelve horizontal slices are shown in Fig. 4 along with the GIS3 light curve, binned into orbital periods. The horizontal slices were then converted into timing filters (i.e. a union of disconnected vertical time slices, each with GIS3 count rate within the specified range). Finally, the timing filters were applied to the data from the other three detectors (SIS0, SIS1, GIS2) to produce the desired spectral files.

We decided to use horizontally sliced count-rate bins instead of the more customary vertically sliced time bins for several reasons. First, binning in count rate allowed us to increase signal-to-noise while preserving the large amount of variability observed in the source. Time bins of comparable size would have smeared out most of the interesting flares and minima, thereby destroying the greater part of the correlations to be described below. Secondly, using count-rate bins in some sense averages out the dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and other spectral parameters on properties of the source other than count rate and focuses on the sole determination of these spectral parameters as a function of count rate.

### 4.3 Photon Index vs. Count Rate Correlation

The first correlation we investigated was the standard relation between the continuum photon index ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) and count rate. A positive correlation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and source flux is believed to be a feature common to most Seyfert 1’s (Perola et al. 1986, Nandra et al. 1991, Ptak et al. 1994; see also the review by Mushotzky et al. 1993). Recent studies using high-quality data have firmly established the presence of a correlation in a number of AGN, including MCG–6-30-15 \[Vaughan & Edelson 2001\], NGC 5548 \[Chiang et al. 2000\], NGC 7496 \[Nandra et al. 2000\], and IC 4329A \[Done et al. 2000\]. The 1999 ASCA observation of MCG–6-30-15 is the longest and highest signal-to-noise observation of this source, and as such it offers an unprecedented opportunity to determine the photon index as a function of flux. However, the result of our analysis is surprising. Instead of finding a simple positive correlation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and flux as expected from previous analyses, we report here a new trend: a flattening of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at high count rate.

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ was determined using the blurred power-law plus reflection model described in Section 3. For simplicity, the iron line was not simultaneously determined in these fits, so as to avoid any model degeneracies and biases (e.g. between the power-law slope and the iron-line flux) that might arise due to the reduced signal-to-noise of the time-resolved data. As in the time-averaged fit, the free parameters were $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and the continuum normalization. Fig. 5 shows the best-fit photon indices plotted vs. the average 3–10 keV count rate of each flux bin. Absorption (warm or otherwise) is not expected to play a significant role above 3 keV in this source (although we test this assumption below), and X-ray reprocessing features such as the iron line and the reflection hump are estimated to contribute at most 15% to the total 3–10 keV flux. Therefore the 3–10 keV count rate should accurately reflect changes in the flux of the primary continuum. These changes are seen to result in a positive correlation of photon index with flux when the flux is low, in qualitative agreement with previous analyses of MCG–6-30-15 and other sources. However at higher flux, the photon index gradually levels off to around $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 2.1–2.2. A $`\chi ^2`$-test against a linear correlation gives $`\chi ^2=15.3/10`$ degrees of freedom, corresponding to a rejection of the linear correlation at 88% confidence. The fit is dramatically improved with the power-law functional form $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_0KF^\delta `$, which yields $`\chi ^2=6.65/9`$ dof with a limiting photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=2.12_{0.03}^{+0.12}`$ and a (negative) power-law index of $`\delta =3.9_{1.7}^{+2.0}`$. We believe this to be the first indication in an AGN of a saturation of the photon index at high flux. Should this result prove to be real, it could have serious implications for theoretical models of coronal activity and continuum production, as we shall discuss in Section 5.

We have tested the saturation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(F)`$ at high flux and the result appears to be robust. Varying the fit prescription and frozen model parameters had little effect on the general trend. Similarly, it made little difference to the shape of the correlation whether relativistic blurring of the continuum (rdblur) was included in the fit.

Obvious from inspection of Fig. 5 is the important role played by the highest flux bin ($`F_{310}1.6`$ cts/s) in determining the nature of the relation between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and flux. Excluding the highest flux bin does improve the linear fit to a marginally acceptable $`\chi ^2=11.5/9`$ dof. However, the residuals exhibit additional structure that still suggest a saturating $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$. This is confirmed by the fact that fitting with the power-law functional form results in a best-fit nearly identical to the full 12-bin fit. The stability of the power-law fit, along with the fact we can think of no good physical reason why the highest flux bin should be excluded from the relation, give us confidence that the apparent saturation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is not being caused by a single bin.

Other effects, such as correlated errors and model-specific biases, could be more subtle. MCG–6-30-15 is known to contain a highly variable warm absorber, with the absorption dominated by O vii and O viii edges at 0.74 and 0.87 keV \[Fabian et al. 1994, Lee et al. 2001\]. While the warm absorber is not expected to play a significant role above 3 keV, we have nonetheless tested for the possibility that variable warm absorption could have an effect on the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation. Severe detector degradation below 2 keV due to radiation damage prevented detailed and realistic warm absorber fits from being done in the 1999 observation. Instead, we attempted to model the effect of warm absorption above 3 keV using an additional cold absorption model component (wabs, Morrison & McCammon (1983)). The fits were redone with the column density of this extra wabs left as a free parameter. The fits actually preferred a rather high column density of $`10^{22}`$ cm-2, which resulted in slightly softer photon indices. However, since the amount of absorption was not correlated with flux, the resulting $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation was largely unchanged and still showed the saturation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at high flux.

A systematic study was conducted to ascertain whether there could be any count-rate dependent bias in the determination of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$.111 Strictly speaking, it is not the count rate, but rather the total number of counts (i.e. the signal-to-noise level) in each bin that determines the level of bias in the fit. Since the count-rate bins were defined so as to contain approximately the same number of counts, such a bias should in principle have a minimal effect on the shape of the trend. 10 simulated spectra were produced in each count-rate bin using the best-fit photon index and continuum normalization for that bin. Exposure times, response curves, and background spectra were derived from real data so as to mimic as closely as possible the actual fitting process. $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ was then measured for the 10 simulated spectra in each count-rate bin, and the average $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ was found to differ from the input photon index by less than 1% in every count-rate bin (well within the 1-$`\sigma `$ errors on the actual $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$), with no systematic trend with respect to count rate. Thus the saturation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at high flux cannot be accounted for by a flux-dependent bias in the fitting process.

Finally, a similar analysis was carried out to measure the continuum photon index as a function of flux during the 1997 ASCA observation of MCG–6-30-15. The result agrees remarkably well with that of the present observation, providing further evidence (along with the hardness ratios) that the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux correlation is a general feature of MCG–6-30-15. However, because the source was approximately 20% fainter in 1997, the bulk of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(F)`$ for that observation falls below the saturation regime of $`>`$ 1 ct/s. Indeed, of the three long ASCA observations of MCG–6-30-15 in 1994, 1997, and 1999, only the latter provides the exposure time and average source luminosity necessary to adequately probe the saturation regime of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation.

### 4.4 Iron-line Variability

Temporal variations of the iron-line profile of MCG–6-30-15 in the three long ASCA observations (1994, 1997, and 1999) were previously studied by Matsumoto et al. (2001). They showed using the normalized RMS variability spectrum of the 1999 data that the variability of the line band (5–6.6 keV) decreased faster than that of the continuum band as one moved to longer timescales. This suggests that the line varies on a shorter characterstic timescale than the continuum. In addition, using double gaussian fits to the red and blue wings of the broad line, they found the line flux to be significantly variable during the 1994 and 1997 observations, but not during the 1999 observation. The line equivalent width, however, was variable in all three. The equivalent widths of the red and blue wings showed a very weak positive correlation, with an unacceptably large scatter around a linear best-fit. The total equivalent width tended to be anti-correlated with continuum flux, contrary to the constant behavior that would be expected from the simplest coronal disk-line models.

In this analysis, we have studied in greater detail the relationship, if any, between properties of the iron line and the continuum flux. Detailed fits in the 3–10 keV band using the Laor disk-line plus continuum model described in Section 3 were performed for each of the twelve count-rate bins. The free parameters were the photon index, continuum normalization, inner and outer disk radius, and total line flux. The inclination angle of the disk was frozen at its time-averaged best-fit value (see Table 1), and the rest-energy of the line was fixed at 6.4 keV. The disk emissivity index was also frozen at its time-averaged value, since simultaneous determination of the emissivity index and the disk radii was subject to large degeneracies due to the reduced signal-to-noise of the time-resolved spectra.

Fig. 6 shows the efficiency-corrected iron line profiles obtained in each of the 12 count-rate bins, along with the best-fitting model in each case. The energy and flux scales are the same in each panel. Even with the reduced signal-to-noise of the time-resolved spectra, a very broad iron line can still be clearly resolved in nearly every bin. In most cases, an extended red tail is seen stretching all the way down to (or even below) 3 keV, suggesting the presence of line-emitting matter extremely close ($`r`$ a few $`r_\mathrm{g}`$) to the central black hole at almost all levels of source brightness. Overall, the line appears to be remarkably stable across the flux bins, with the exception of perhaps the highest-flux bin, where the red wing seems to weaken considerably while the narrower blue wing remains at $``$ 6 keV.

The spectral parameters shown in Fig. 7 offer a more precise picture of the variability of the line with flux. The continuum photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ has been plotted in addition to the inner/outer radii and the line flux in order to demonstrate that the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation found in Section 4.3 holds even when the iron-line and continuum are simultaneously fit. Regarding the line parameters, we see that they accurately reflect the apparent stability that was seen in the line profiles of Fig. 6 (excepting the highest-flux bin). At every flux level, $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ is within $`6r_\mathrm{g}`$, the radius of marginal stability for a Schwarzschild black hole. More importantly in the context of coronal models, the fits show that the iron-line flux clearly does not increase with the continuum flux. The iron-line flux is consistent with a constant level ($`\chi ^2=7.2`$ for 11 d.o.f.) over nearly a factor of three change in source count rate. The lack of any positive correlation between line and continuum flux appears to be robust, confirming the previous findings of Lee et al. (2000) and Vaughan & Edelson (2001) for MCG–6-30-15.

The uncorrelated line and continuum fluxes present a serious problem for the simplest coronal models in which the iron line is produced by reflection of the primary continuum off a cold accretion disk, with the continuum generated in a corona directly above the disk. In such a scenario the iron line flux would be expected to respond proportionately to variations in the primary continuum, with the equivalent width remaining roughly constant with respect to the continuum flux. Our findings clearly indicate that the equivalent width of the iron line actually decreases with flux in MCG–6-30-15. Although a positive correlation between line flux and continuum flux has been observed in some AGN, such as NGC 7314 \[Yaqoob et al. 1996\], it appears to be completely lacking in other AGN besides MCG–6-30-15, most notably in NGC 3516 \[Nandra & George 1999\] and NGC 5548 \[Chiang et al. 2000\]. The fact that the line and continuum flux are not correlated in some AGN indicates that the reflection process, at least in these AGN, is more complex than that described by a simple coronal model.

Stronger evidence for variation with flux is found for the outer radius $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$. Since the disk inclination angle has been fixed to its best-fit time-averaged value, $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ is relatively well-constrained by the well-defined peak and maximum energy of the blue wing. A constant level is a poor description of $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ vs. count rate, with $`\chi ^2=27.3/11`$ dof. The fit improves significantly when one fits with a linear relation ($`\chi ^2=16.4/10`$ dof, best-fit slope $`4.4\pm 1.3`$). Excluding the lowest-flux bin leaves the quality of the constant fit virtually unchanged, while the linear fit improves further to $`\chi ^2=4.8/9`$ dof with slope $`8.9\pm 1.9`$. Thus, overall, the outer radius appears to exhibit a significant anticorrelation with source flux, suggesting that the illumination pattern on the disk may shift closer to the black hole when the source brightens. It is intriguing that $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ also appears to exhibit a slight positive correlation with flux, although it is not statistically significant. The trend, if present, along with the anticorrelation of $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ would imply that the line emission originates in a more localized part of the disk when the source is bright. One might expect this sort of behavior if variations in source flux were due to flaring active regions on the disk. The overall trends in $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ could then be understood by assuming that the dominant active region was relatively stable throughout the 1999 observation and was located around 4–5 $`r_\mathrm{g}`$.

A detailed, exhaustive analysis of the many possible degeneracies between various fit parameters is beyond the scope of this paper. Thus we cannot rule out the possibility that the trends shown here are simply a result of correlated errors. Nevertheless, we were able to rule out one of the more obvious possible correlated errors with the following simple check. The plot of line flux vs. source flux in Fig. 7 strongly suggests an anti-correlation between line and source flux. Suppose however that the line flux was actually constant. Then since the count-rate bins contain approximately the same number of continuum counts, the higher count-rate bins, being shorter in duration, would contain less counts from the iron line. Accurate determination of the line parameters would be more difficult, and in particular, the wings of the broadened line would be harder to detect. This would bias the line flux downwards and in addition spuriously narrow the line emitting region. To check that this systematic error due to decreased line counts is not the source of the behavior shown in Fig. 7, we have binned together the last two count-rate bins, and the spectral fits have been redone for this summed spectrum. The spectral parameters obtained for the summed spectrum follow the general trend, and they are found to lie between those of the two last count-rate bins, indicating that at least part of the variation in spectral parameters cannot be explained by a simple decrease in line counts, with the line flux constant.

## 5 Interpreting the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. Flux Correlation

### 5.1 The Two Power-Law Model

We propose two different models that can simultaneously account for the observed saturation of the photon index at high flux and the lack of correlation between the iron-line and continuum fluxes. The first is an ad hoc phenomenological model consisting of two power-law continua, one constant with flux and photon index $`(F_1,\mathrm{\Gamma }_1)`$, and the other variable with $`(F_2,\mathrm{\Gamma }_2)`$. To test this model, a coarse grid in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$ was produced with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ ranging from 1.75 to 2.0 and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$ from 2.2 to 2.3. $`F_1`$ was fixed at 0.54 cts/s (chosen to correspond approximately to the minimum of the 3–10 keV light curve), because $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`F_1`$ proved to be highly degenerate parameters. Simulated spectra for each value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$ were produced in every count-rate bin and were folded through the exposure times, response matrices, and effective areas of the actual detectors. Normalizations were determined in each bin by requiring the overall 3–10 keV count-rates of the two power laws to equal $`F_1`$ and $`F_2=FF_1`$ respectively, where $`F`$ was the average count rate of the actual data in that bin. The simulated spectra were fit with a single power-law model between 3–10 keV to produce $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relations for each value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$. Shown in the left panel of Fig. 8 along with the data is the “best-fit” for our coarse grid ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1=1.85`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2=2.25`$ with $`F_1=0.54`$; $`\chi ^2=10.5/10`$ dof), interpolated using the functional form $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_0KF^\delta `$. The term “best-fit” is slightly misleading, however: for every value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$, there was a value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$ that yielded an acceptable fit. In any event, the two power-law model, although poorly constrained by the data, is clearly capable of reproducing well the observed form of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(F)`$.

Aside from the fact that it models well the measured $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation, the two power-law model is attractive because it offers a chance of decoupling the iron-line and continuum variability. Previous analyses, and the detailed results of Section 4.4, indicate strongly that the iron line flux is uncorrelated with the continuum flux in MCG–6-30-15. As we discussed above, this is very puzzling in the context of simple coronal models in which the line is expected to respond directly to changes in the primary continuum. The two power-law model offers a potential solution to this problem: by associating the iron line with reprocessed radiation from the constant component alone, the continuum is free to vary in response to the variable component without having any effect on the iron line. Although the iron line is known to exhibit significant temporal variability \[Iwasawa et al. 1999, Matsumoto et al. 2001\], we see from Section 4.4 that it is essentially stable across flux bins. Therefore we must consider the possibility that the “constant” $`F_1`$ component varies to some extent as well, but that its variations are smeared out in the $`80`$ ks count-rate bins. This would not change the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation predicted by the model.

At present the two power-law model is basically a phenomenological model, with very little theoretical motivation. We suggest a few possible explanations for the origin of the two power-law components. One possibility is that the “variable” $`F_2`$ power-law component originates in the inner edge of the accretion disk, where the solid angle subtended by the reflecting material is the least; while the “constant” $`F_1`$ power-law is produced farther out (but still in the inner part of the disk). $`F_2`$ could here be associated with magnetized accretion just inside the marginally stable orbit \[Krolik 1999\], as simulations \[Hawley & Krolik 2001\] show that this process can be very noisy. Another possible scenario is that flares occurring at different heights above the corona are responsible for the two power laws. DiMatteo et al. (1999) showed that the spectral properties of the soft-state and hard-state of the GBHC GX 339-4 could be qualitatively explained by flares occuring close to and far above the accretion disk, respectively. Moreover, they found that the ionization state of the disk was quite different depending on the height of the flares, with flares closer to the disk naturally ionizing it more. Therefore associating the $`F_1`$ and $`F_2`$ components with flares high above and close to the disk, respectively, would not only account for the difference in continuum shape, but also, if the flares close to the disk completely ionized away the iron-line, would explain the lack of an iron line accompanying $`F_2`$.

Finally, there is the possibility that a small but non-negligible non-thermal component is present in the corona. A hybrid thermal/non-thermal corona has been explored as a model for the soft-state Cygnus X-1 X-ray spectrum and was found to explain well its overall shape \[Gierlinski et al. 1999\]. Single scattering of disk seed photons off the non-thermal component gives rise to a hard, high-energy power law, while multiple scattering off the thermal part produces a softer power-law tail above the thermal disk emission at lower energies. A similar situation in MCG–6-30-15 would lead to the harder $`F_1`$ (softer $`F_2`$) component of our two power-law model being associated with the non-thermal (thermal) part of the corona, and with the two states varying independently of one another. An obvious problem with this explanation is that strong evidence for a thermal corona in MCG–6-30-15 is provided by observations of a cutoff in the high energy X-ray spectrum \[Guainazzi et al. 1999, Lee et al. 1999\]. We note, however, that even small non-thermal tails in the coronal electron distribution can apparently have sizable effects on the shape and flux of the Comptonized spectrum \[Wardzinski and Zdziarski 2001\]. How well the observations limit the size of any non-thermal tails in the corona of MCG–6-30-15, as well as what affect these might have on the 3–10 keV X-ray spectrum, remains to be seen.

### 5.2 The Thundercloud Model

A more theoretically motivated model of coronal variability that predicts quite generally the saturation of the continuum photon index at high flux was recently proposed by Merloni & Fabian (2001). Their so-called “thundercloud model” was based on the idea that active regions in the corona could, under the right conditions, trigger avalanches of neighboring flares, giving rise to progressively larger “magnetic thunderclouds” that are responsible for inverse Compton scattering soft disk photons into the observed X-ray continuum. Larger active regions tend to be more luminous (since they contain more magnetic reconnection sites) and produce softer spectra. Therefore when the source is bright, the continuum is dominated by soft emission from large active regions. During the largest flares, the active regions approach the limiting case of a slab-like geometry covering the entire disk, resulting in a saturation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at high flux.

In the thundercloud model, the luminosity of an active region is assumed to scale with its size via the relation $`L(r)r^D`$, where $`D`$ is a free parameter of the model which describes both the internal structure of the region (a kind of fractal dimension) as well as any radial dependence there might be in the input radiation from the accretion disk. The number of active regions of size $`r`$ generated at time $`t`$ is chosen from a Poissonian distribution with mean $`n(r,t)`$, which in turn is determined by requiring that the corona be in a stationary state. This gives the relation $`n(r)=n(r,t)t_0(r)`$, where $`n(r)r^p`$ is total number of active regions of size $`r`$ and $`t_0(r)`$ is the typical lifetime of these regions. Here $`p`$ is given by the relation $`p=2D+3\gamma `$, where $`\gamma `$ is the slope of the red noise part of the Power Density Spectrum (PDS). For comparison with MCG–6-30-15, the slope of the PDS was fixed at $`\gamma =1.5`$, in agreement with the literature \[Nowak & Chiang 2000, Matsumoto et al. 2001\]. In addition to $`D`$, the other two free parameters of the model were the covering fraction $`C`$, which determines the total number of active regions; and the optical depth $`\tau `$ of the corona. The mass of the black hole, accretion rate, and maximum/minimum flare size were fixed at $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$, $`\dot{m}=0.1`$, $`r_{\mathrm{min}}=0.02`$, and $`r_{\mathrm{max}}=4`$, respectively. These serve mainly to set the overall luminosity and time scales.

The $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation predicted by the thundercloud model was compared to the data using a grid with optical depth $`0.5\tau 2`$, covering fraction $`1\times 10^4C2\times 10^3`$, and luminosity scaling index $`0.6D1.6`$. In addition to the constraint given by the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation, the overall normalized RMS variance of the model light curve was required to lie within the range 20–30% to match the that of MCG–6-30-15. Shown in the right panel of Fig. 8 is a particularly good description of the data with $`\tau =1.5`$, $`C=0.001`$, and $`D=1.4`$ (the RMS variance was 21%). Overall, the coronal optical depth was the most well-constrained parameter, being required to lie in the range $`1\tau 2`$. The constraint on $`\tau `$ is a consequence of the fact that it determines the limiting value of the photon index: it is essentially the only remaining free parameter at the highest flux levels when the active regions limit to a disk-covering, slab-like geometry.

It is worth considering briefly the physical implications of $`\tau >1`$ for iron-line variability. Since a $`\tau >1`$ corona tends to smother any reflected radiation from the disk, the line should essentially vanish during higher flux states, when the thunderclouds cover most of the accretion disk. Meanwhile, in lower flux states, the more or less continuous series of small, localized flares should lead to a roughly constant line. Referring back to the time-resolved line profiles of Fig. 6 and the iron-line vs. continuum flux plot of Fig. 7, it is intriguing to see that, within the limitations of the poor signal-to-noise, the behavior of the iron-line profile as a function of flux does indeed appear to support this prediction of the thundercloud model.

The covering fraction and scaling index were much more difficult parameters to constrain, as they contribute principally to determining the overall curvature of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(F)`$, which is poorly measured by the present dataset. We can, however, limit these parameters to $`C>0.01`$% and $`D<2`$. These bounds are related, since values of $`C`$ below $`0.01`$% require $`D>2`$ (and vice versa) in order to achieve realistic values of the RMS variance. This can be understood by noting that when the total number of active regions is small, their luminosity must grow quickly with their size in order to produce significant variations in overall luminosity over time. Such large values of $`D`$ in turn require $`p`$ to be large, which gives a corona dominated by very small active regions. This results in a rather unrealistic light curve consisting of long periods of stability due to small active regions, punctuated with the occasional huge flare from a large active region.

## 6 Summary

An analysis of the spectral variability of MCG–6-30-15 during the 1999 long ASCA observation has been presented. The principal findings of the analysis will now be summarized. A model consisting of a power-law continuum, plus reflection and a relativistically broadened iron-line from the accretion disk, gave a good fit to the time-averaged 3–10 keV spectrum. The spectral parameters of the broad iron line were generally in good agreement with the results of previous analyses of MCG–6-30-15. While not statistically significant, the data seemed to prefer an inner radius of the disk within the radius of marginal stability $`r_{\mathrm{ms}}`$ for a Schwarzschild black hole, in contrast to earlier observations which found a best fit inner radius just outside $`r_{\mathrm{ms}}`$.

A study of the time-resolved iron-line profile revealed a complete lack of any positive correlation between iron-line flux and continuum flux, confirming the results of previous analyses. In addition, marginal evidence was found for a narrowing with flux of the line-emitting region on the accretion disk, suggesting that iron-line variability may be due in part to changes in the illumination pattern of the disk.

The power-law continuum was found to exhibit a positive correlation between photon index and source flux that levelled off at high flux, with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ limiting around 2.1–2.2. Two different models were proposed to explain the observed saturation in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, and both were capable of describing the trend well. The first model proposed was a simple phenomenological model consisting of two power laws, one constant with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1.8`$, and the variable with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.2`$. It was also suggested that the lack of correlation between iron-line and continuum flux could be explained with this model by associating the line production with the harder, constant component. Possible origins for the two distinct power laws were considered, and coronal flares of varying heights above the disk and a small non-thermal component in the corona were put forth as viable hypotheses. The second model advanced to explain the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. flux relation was the so-called “thundercloud model” of coronal variability recently proposed by Merloni & Fabian (2001). The thundercloud model also generally predicts a saturation in $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at high flux as the growing thunderclouds approach a slab-like geometry above the accretion disk. A detailed comparison with the thundercloud model constrained the optical depth of the corona to lie in the range $`\tau `$1–2, and a lower limit on the coronal covering fraction of $`C0.01`$% was obtained. In addition, the thundercloud model with $`\tau `$1–2 predicts a pattern of iron-line variability (roughly constant line profile when the continuum flux is low; decreasing line flux when the continuum flux is high) which accords well with the observed behavior of the line.

## Acknowledgements

We thank Andrea Merloni for his assistance with the thundercloud model and Simon Vaughan for many fruitful discussions. DCS thanks the Herchel Smith Fellowship for support. KI thanks PPARC for support. ACF thanks the Royal Society for support.


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# Photometry of symbiotic stars

## 1 Introduction

Symbiotic stars are long-period (typically 1-3 years) interacting binaries consisting of a red giant and a hot compact object. The giant component loses mass, part of which is accreted by its companion. During quiescent phases the hot star ionizes a portion of the giant’s wind, giving rise to nebular emission. During active phases the hot star expands in radius and becomes significantly cooler. An increase in the star’s brightness, typically by 2-3 mag, represents the most impressive face of such active stages.

The primary aim of our monitoring programme is to present LCs of well-studied symbiotic stars, and thus to provide a good basis for their detailed future studies. In this respect, this paper continues the work of Skopal et al. (2000a), Skopal (1998) and other 7 campaign’s papers on the photometry of symbiotic stars, originally launched by Hric & Skopal (1989).

## 2 Observations

The majority of the $`U,B,V,R`$ measurements were performed in standard Johnson system using single-channel photoelectric photometers mounted in the Cassegrain foci of 0.6-m reflectors at the Skalnaté Pleso (hereafter SP in Tables) and Stará Lesná observatories (SL). Larger uncertainties (about 0.1 mag) during some nights are marked in Tables by ’::’. Further details about observation procedure are given in Skopal, Hric & Urban (1990) and Hric et al. (1991).

$`U,B,V`$ observations of RW Hya and IV Vir were secured at the San Pedro Mártir Observatory, Baja California, Mexico (M), during two weeks in June 2001. The 0.84-m Cassegrain reflector equipped with the photon-counting photometer Cuentapulsos (utilizing a RCA 31034 photomultiplier) was used. These observations consisted from 10-second integrations in each filter. They were carefully reduced to the standard $`UBV`$ system and corrected for differential extinction using the reduction program HEC22 rel.13.2 (Harmanec & Horn 1998).

Some observations in the $`B`$ and $`V`$ band were made with the 50/70/172 cm Schmidt telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory Rozhen, Bulgaria (R). A CCD camera SBIG ST-8 and Johnson-Cousins set of filters were used. The chip of the camera is KAF 1600 (16 bit), with dimensions of 13.8$`\times `$9.2 mm or 1530$`\times `$1020 pixels. The size of the pixel is 9$`\times `$9 $`\mu `$m and the scale of 1”.1/pixel. The readout noise was 10 ADU/pixel and the gain 2.3 e-/ADU. All frames were dark subtracted and flat fielded. Photometry was made with DAOPHOT routines.

In addition, 783 and 776 visual magnitude estimates of RW Hya and IV Vir, respectively, were obtained during 1989.0 – 2001.7 by one of us (AJ) with a private 12”.5 f/5 reflector.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 EG And

We measured EG And (HD 4174, BD+39 167) with respect to HD 4143 (SAO 63173, BD+37 2318). To obtain magnitudes in $`B`$ and $`V`$ we used the standard star HD 3914 ($`V`$ = 7.00, $`BV`$ = 0.44) and conversion between both stars, HD4143 – HD3914 = 4.640, 2.722 and 1.563 in the $`U`$, $`B`$ and $`V`$ band, respectively (Hric et al. 1991). For the CCD measurements, stars SAO 36021 and HD 4127 were also used as comparison and check star. The data are compiled in Table 1. Figure 1 shows the phase diagram for magnitudes in the $`U`$ band from Table 1. A modulation displaying a double wave during the orbital period is the most significant feature of the $`U`$-LC. A large amplitude, $`\mathrm{\Delta }U_{max}`$0.5 mag, is difficult to explain by the ellipsoidal variation due to tidal distortion of the red giant component (Wilson & Vaccaro 1997). The nature of such type of variability is probably given by the shape of the nebula in the binary. A small and partially optically thick nebula can cause a double-wave variation in LCs as a function of the orbital phase and thus mimic the ellipsoidal variation (see Skopal 2001 for more detail).

### 3.2 Z And

The results of our photometric measurements of Z And (HD 221650, BD+484093) are in Table 2. Stars SAO 53150 (BD+47 4192; $`V`$ = 8.99, $`BV`$ = 0.41, $`UB`$ = 0.14) and SAO 63189 (BD+47 4188; $`V`$ = 9.17, $`BV`$ = 1.36, $`UB`$ = 1.11), were used as a comparison and a check star, respectively. We obtained the magnitudes of both stars by their long-term measuring (1997 – 1999) with respect to the previous comparison star (SAO 35642; $`V`$ = 5.30, $`BV`$ = -0.06, $`UB`$ = -0.15). Resulting magnitudes of Z And were obtained only by using the first comparison (SAO 53150) as the second one can be variable. CCD measurements were also compared to the star SAO 53150 and, in addition, to SAO 53133. A dominant feature of the presented LCs (Fig. 2) is a strong active phase, which began on 2000 August 31 (Skopal et al. 2000b). The star’s brightness peaked around 8.4 in $`U`$ at the beginning of 2000 December (see also Sokoloski et al. 2001). Consequently, the brightness has been gradually decreasing. Comparing its latest magnitudes, $`U9.7`$, $`B10.8`$, $`V10.0`$, with those observed prior to the outburst ($`U11.5`$, $`B12`$, $`V10.5`$), indicates that Z And still remains at a high level of its activity.

### 3.3 BF Cyg

The photometric measurements of BF Cyg (MWC 315, Hen 1747) are given in Table 3. Stars HD 183650 (SAO 68384, $`V`$=6.96, $`BV`$=0.71, $`UB`$=0.34) and BD+30 3594 (LF2+3011, UBV 16553, $`V`$=9.54, $`BV`$=1.20, $`UB`$=1.70) were used as the comparison and check, respectively. In addition, for our CCD photometry we used the following sequence of standard stars: SAO 87137, BD+29 3581 and GSC 02137-02086. Figure 3 shows the $`U,B,V`$ LCs from 1995.8. Periodic wave-like variation in the optical continuum reflects a quiescent phase of this star. The profile of LCs is not a simple sinusoid through the orbital period, but reflects rather complex shape and variation of the nebula in the binary. For example, the star’s brightness at the light minima gradually decreases. The JD2 450 684.5 minimum occurred at $`U12.5`$, $`B12.9`$, $`V12.4`$, while the recent minimum observed around JD2 452 173 showed magnitudes of $`U12.8`$, $`B13.3`$, $`V12.7`$. In addition, short-term unpredictable fading in the star’s brightness, in all bands was observed at $``$JD2 451 089 ($`\phi 0.55`$) and at $``$JD2 451 700 ($`\phi 0.38`$). This event could be ascribed to an occultation of the hot component by an extra blob of the neutral material from the giant component. Finally, a complex secondary minima can be recognized in $`U,B,V`$ LCs around 1998.6 and 2000.7 (see Fig. 3), when the hot star is in front ($`\phi 0.5`$). Such evolution reflects a shrinking of the nebula that is probably due to a decrease of the ionizing photons producing by the hot star.

### 3.4 CH Cyg

Our new photometry of CH Cyg (HD 182917, BD+49 2999) is listed in Table 4. Measurements were done with respect to the same standard stars as in the PaperIX (Skopal et al. 2000a). Additional comparison stars, SAO 48428, SAO 31628 and BD+49 3005, were used for our CCD photometry. Figure 4 displays the $`U,B,V`$ LCs covering the period from 1995.8. It shows that the recent episode of activity ended in Spring of 2000. A more detailed analysis of this active phase is given by Eyres et al. (2002). Our observations allowed us to determine position of a broad minimum at JD2 451 426$`\pm 3`$, caused by the eclipse of the active star in the inner binary (the symbiotic pair) by the cool giant on the outer orbit. Profile of the $`U,B,V`$ LCs observed after the recent activity, around 2000.7, is similar to that occurred after the previous active phase, around 1996.5. Recent observations indicate a slow increase in the star’s brightness.

### 3.5 V1329 Cyg

Our observations of the symbiotic nova V1329 Cyg (HBV 475) are given in Table 5. The stars BD+35 4290 ($`V`$=10.34, $`BV`$=1.07, $`UB`$=0.88) and BD+35 4294 ($`V`$=10.16, $`BV`$=1.07) were used as the comparison and check, respectively. Figure 5 shows the $`U,B,V`$ LCs from 1987.5. A wave-like variation, which mimics a reflection effect, represents a dominant feature of these LCs. At light maxima the star’s brightness is highest in the $`U`$ band, while at the minima, $`UV`$. This indicates a strong nebular component of radiation in the system resulting from both a high luminosity of the hot ionizing object and a high mass loss rate from the cool component (M6 III giant).

### 3.6 AG Dra

Observations of AG Dra (SAO 16931, BD+67 922) is compiled in Table 6. We used the same standard stars as in the PaperVIII (Skopal 1998a). For the CCD measurements we used an additional standard star, GSC 04195-00369. Our measurements cover the recent two eruptions with maxima at 1998.6 and 2001.8. Figure 6 shows the $`U,B,V`$ LCs covering the recent active phase of AG Dra, which began in 1994.5 displaying a massive eruption. Our data in the figure are compiled with those published by Montagni et al. (1996), Greiner et al. (1997), Mikolajewski (1997), Tomova & Tomov (1998), Petrík et al. (1998) and Tomov & Tomova, (2000). Agreement between all data sets is very good. All eruptions are most pronounced in the $`U`$ band. For example, for the recent 2000.8 small eruption $`\mathrm{\Delta }U1.2`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }B0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V0.2`$ mag. Such behaviour suggests nebular origin of the light during the activity. This is also supported by the SED presented by Greiner et al. (1997), and the fact that the yellow cool giant (spectrum K2) in the system dominates the $`V`$ band.

### 3.7 RW Hya

$`U,B,V`$ measurements of RW Hya (HD 117970) are listed in Table 7. Observation was carried out at the San Pedro Observatory during June 2001 (Sect. 2). Stars HD 118102 (CD-24 10984; $`V`$ = 8.94, $`BV`$ = 0.53, $`UB`$ = 0.11) and HD 117971 (CD-25 9879; $`V`$ = 9.69, $`BV`$ = 0.44, $`UB`$ = -0.03), were used as a comparison and a check star, respectively. Our photoelectric observations are in very good agreement with those published by Munari et al. (1992). This star was also observed visualy during a period of 1989.0 to 2001.7.

Figure 7 shows a phase diagram of our visual observations. It displays a complex wave-like variation throughout the orbital cycle. The data were folded according to ephemeris of the inferior spectroscopic conjunction of the giant star in RW Hya (Schild et al. 1996). We can see that the light minimum precedes the time of the spectroscopic conjunction of the giant (given in the figure by the orbital phase 0 or 1). This is consistent with revealing of Skopal (1998b) that during quiescent phases the light minima occur prior to the time of the inferior conjunction of the cool component. The effect is best seen in eclipsing systems.

### 3.8 AX Per

The recent measurements of AX Per (MWC 411, GCRV 896) in the $`U,B,V,R`$ bands are given in Table 8 and showed in Fig. 8. Also in this case we used the same standard stars as in PaperIX. For our CCD photometry the stars BD+53 340, GSC 03671-00025 and GSC 03671-00791 were used as standards.

Observations of this symbiotics show periodic wave-like variation – a typical feature of a quiescent phase. The minima profiles and their depths are different during different orbital cycles. Recently, a secondary minimum at/around the orbital phase 0.5 was seen best in the $`V`$ and $`B`$ bands. As in the case of BF Cyg, this behaviour reflects evolution in the nebula around the hot ionizing source after the recent active phase, which started at 1988.2. Note that also BF Cyg underwent a phase of activity, which began at 1989.3.

### 3.9 IV Vir

$`U,B,V`$ measurements of IV Vir (BD-21 3873) are listed in Table 9. Observation was carried out at the San Pedro Observatory during June 2001 (Sect. 2). Stars HD 124991 (BD-21 3877; $`V`$ = 8.07, $`BV`$ = 1.05, $`UB`$ = 0.73) and HD 125081 (MX Vir; $`V`$ = 7.27, $`BV`$ = 0.43, $`UB`$ = 0.16), were used as standards. This star was also observed visualy by one of us (AJ) during a period of 1989.0 to 2001.7.

Figure 9 shows a phase diagram of our observations of IV Vir. It displays a double-wave variation throughout the orbital cycle. The data were folded according to the ephemeris of the inferior spectroscopic conjunction of the cool component in the system. The LC profile is similar to that measured in the Strömgren $`y`$ band (Smith et al. 1997). A maximum amplitude ($``$ depth of the primary minimum) is about 0.2 mag, while the secondary minimum is only about 0.15 mag deep. Currently such type of the periodic light variations is attributed to the ellipsoidal shape of the cool component due to the tidal distortions by the companion. A rival interpretation, based on the extent of the nebula, was suggested by Skopal (2001).

Acknowledgements. This research was supported by a grant of the Slovak Academy of Sciences No. 1157, in part through the Alexander von Humboldt foundation (grant SLA/1039115) and by allocation of San Pedro Mártir observing time, from the Czech-Mexican project ME 402/2000 and by the research plan J13/98: 113200004 Investigation of the Earth and the Universe.


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# Thermal lensing in cryogenic sapphire substrates

## 1 Introduction

Thermal lensing is a serious problem for the next generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors. Thermal lensing is an effect of wave-front distortion of laser beam caused by refractive index distribution in the mirrors with temperature distribution due to optical absorption. It causes mode mismatching between beam wave-front and mirror surface, and it finally increases the photon shot noise. Although mono-crystalline sapphire mirror substrate is one of the most effective materials to reduce thermal noise, it has large optical absorption at present stage. Large effort to reduce thermal lensing by reducing optical absorption in sapphire are done by some groups. In this paper, we report the reduction of the thermal lensing in the cryogenic sapphire mirrors, which are planed to be used in the Large scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope (LCGT) project to reduce thermal noise drastically. Firstly, we describe the measurement of key parameters of sapphire substrate at cryogenic temperature, which are needed to estimate wave-front distortion caused by thermal lensing. After then, we discuss the shot noise sensitivity with thermal lensing by using a wave-front tracing simulation (an FFT simulation).

## 2 Measurement of key parameters of sapphire substrate for the thermal lensing at cryogenic temperature

The sagitta of wave-front distortion of laser beam $`ds`$ caused by the thermal lensing depends on three parameters of mirror substrate;

$$ds\frac{\alpha \beta }{\kappa }$$
(1)
where $`\alpha `$ is optical absorption coefficient in the mirror, $`\kappa `$ is thermal conductivity of the mirror substrate and $`\beta `$ is temperature coefficient of refractive index ($`dn/dT`$) of the mirror substrate.

Firstly, we measured optical absorption coefficient in cryogenic sapphire by laser calorimetry method. The sample temperature was 5 K and light wavelength was 1.064 $`\mu `$m (Nd:YAG laser). We measured two sapphire samples, ”CSI white high purity” and ”Hemlite”, both manufactured by Crystal Systems Inc. The size of ”CSI white” is 10 mm in diameter and 150 mm in thickness, and that of ”Hemlite” is 100 mm in diameter and 60 mm in thickness. The results show about 90 ppm/cm optical absorption for both samples. There is also no large difference of optical absorption coefficient at different positions in a sample for both samples. At room temperature, there are several reports for optical absorption in small sapphire samples by photo-thermal method. Although their values scatter in a range from 3 ppm/cm to 550 ppm/cm, typical values are in between 40 ppm/cm and 100 ppm/cm.

Secondly, we measured thermal conductivity of sapphire in a range from 4 K to 40 K. Thermal conductivity of crystals at cryogenic temperature largely depends on sample quality. The ”CSI white” sample, used in optical absorption measurement, was used. The measurement method is the longitudinal heat flow method. The result shows that the maximum thermal conductivity of the sample was $`4.3\times 10^3`$ W/m/K at 20 K. This value is about four times smaller than the value in the data book. However, this value is two orders of magnitude larger than the value at room temperature.

Lastly, we measured temperature coefficient of refractive index $`\beta `$ of cryogenic sapphire by measuring the change of refractive angle of light due to the change of sample temperature. The displacement of transmitted beam $`\delta x`$ caused by change of refractive index is described as

$$\delta x=\mathrm{sin}(\frac{\pi }{2}\theta )\frac{d}{\mathrm{cos}\varphi }\frac{1}{\mathrm{cos}\varphi }\mathrm{tan}\varphi \frac{\delta n}{n},$$
(2)
where $`d`$ is the sample length, $`\varphi `$ is the refractive angle, $`n`$ is the refractive index of the sample at temperature $`T`$ and $`\delta n`$ is the change of the refractive index. Injection beam angle $`\theta `$ of $`60`$ degrees was used, which gave maximum displacement of transmitted beam for sapphire. The ”Hemlite” sample, 100 mm in diameter and 60 mm in thickness, was used. To investigate thermal deformation of the sample, the displacement of reflected beam from the sample was also monitored. Although the measured result was limited by thermal deformation of the sample, the upper limit of $`|\beta |9\times 10^8\mathrm{K}^1`$ was obtained at 1.064 $`\mu `$m in an average between 5 K and 40 K. This value was two orders of magnitude smaller than that at room temperature.

## 3 Thermal lensing in interferometer

Table 1 lists the thermal lensing parameters for fused silica and sapphire. This table shows that thermal lensing in cryogenic sapphire mirrors is at least four order of magnitude smaller than that both in fused silica and in sapphire at room temperature. We can regard the thermal lensing in fused silica at room temperature as almost same as that in sapphire at room temperature.

To estimate the shot noise sensitivity of interferometers affected by thermal lensing, an FFT simulator is useful. The FFT simulator was developed by LIGO. We assumed optical absorption in sapphire substrate of 90 ppm/cm and that in coating of 1 ppm. The LCGT design, the configuration is a power recycled Fabry-Perot Michelson interferometer (Figure 1), the finesse is 100, the recycling gain is 50 and the injection laser power is 100 W, was used in this calculation. The phase maps of wave-front distortion caused by thermal lensing was calculated by Hello’s method (Figure 2 (a)). In the case of cryogenic mirrors, since thermal radiation from the mirrors is very small and the mirrors are cooled only by thermal conduction of suspension fibers, we calculated the phase maps by changing from the boundary condition of Hello’s calculation, which is the thermal radiation, to that of thermal conduction of a fiber (Figure 2 (b)). Where we assumed an axi-symmetric model of thermal conduction as the first approximation. Since the calculation of thermal lensing in the beam splitter has difficulty of axi-asymmetric temperature distribution, we took this effect into the simulation by assuming different thermal lensing between both arms. No compensative technique for wave-front distortion was considered in this calculation.

Figure 3 shows the results of the shot noise sensitivity calculated by using the FFT simulation. This result shows that the shot noise sensitivity in the case that sapphire mirrors are used at room temperature is two times worse than that in the ideal case due to thermal lensing. This sensitivity decline is resulted from the reduction of recycling gain, from 50 to 16. In the case that there are different optical absorption between the both arms, decline of contrast also reduces the sensitivity. On the other hand, the thermal lensing in cryogenic sapphire mirrors is negligible, even if the case of $`\pm 50`$ % asymmetric optical absorption between the both near mirrors. Cryogenic sapphire mirror effectively prevents thermal lensing.

## 4 Summary

We estimated the thermal lensing in cryogenic sapphire mirrors on the basis of measurements. We conclude that cryogenic sapphire mirror is effective for not only reducing thermal noise but also suppressing thermal lensing. As a remaining problem of cryogenic interferometers, there is a cooling problem due to large optical absorption in sapphire substrate, which will be solved in near future.

This study was carried out under the MOU between LIGO and TAMA. We express our appreciation to Dr. B. Bochner, Dr. P. Saha and Dr. Y. Hefetz, the developers of the LIGO’s FFT simulator. We wish to express appreciation to Dr. H. Yamamoto for preparation of the FFT simulator. We also express particular thanks to Dr. P. Hello and Dr. J. Y. Vinet, all the developers of the early FFT simulation code.

## Reference


text:
# Chandra Imaging of the X-ray Core of the Virgo Cluster

## 1 Introduction

The nearest X-ray emitting cluster of galaxies is the Virgo cluster in which the X-ray emission is seen to be sharply peaked towards the cluster center (Schreier, Gorenstein & Feigelson 1982). In the central few tens of kpc the temperature of the cluster gas decreases to $`<3`$ keV (Canizares et al. 1979, 1982; Lea, Mushotzky & Holt 1982; Böhringer et al. 1994; Nulsen & Böhringer 1995; Böhringer et al. 2001; Belsole et al. 2001) and within 10 kpc the cooling time is $`<`$ 1 Gyr (Stewart et al. 1984), suggesting the presence of a 3 – $`20M_{}`$ yr-1 cooling flow (Lea et al. 1982; Canizares et al. 1982). Simple cooling flow models have some problems, however, such as the single temperature phase of the intra-cluster medium in Virgo (Böhringer et al. 2001), and the observed absence of X-ray emitting gas with temperature below 1 – 2 keV in other clusters (e.g. Schmidt, Allen & Fabian 2001; Peterson et al. 2001; Fabian et al. 2001; Tamura et al. 2001). The giant elliptical galaxy and powerful radio source M87 (Virgo A) lies at the core of the Virgo cluster. At radio wavelengths M87 is seen to power spectacular jets and lobes with significant structure extending over many tens of kpc (Owen, Eilek & Kassim 2000). Since M87 and the core of the Virgo cluster are nearby (15.9 Mpc \[Tonry 1991\]), they have a large angular size on the sky ($`1\mathrm{}=77\mathrm{pc}`$) and present an ideal system in which to study the nature of intra-cluster gas and its interaction with the radio source.

The interaction of the radio source with the cluster gas is thought to be important because, at the present epoch, the inferred, model-dependent, kinetic power in the jet is in the range $`10^{4344}`$ erg s-1 (Bicknell & Begelman 1999), which may exceed the total X-ray luminosity of the cooling core ($`10^{43}`$ erg s-1; Fabricant & Gorenstein, 1983). Observations with *Einstein* (Feigelson et al 1987) revealed an “arc” of X-ray emission that is well correlated with the intermediate scale (nuclear distance $`15\mathrm{kpc}3\mathrm{}`$) radio ridges, and subsequent *ROSAT* (Böhringer et al. 1995; Harris, Biretta & Junor 1999) and *XMM-Newton* (Belsole et al. 2001; Böhringer et al. 2001) observations find the gas in this arc to be cooler than surrounding cluster gas. Since the X-ray and radio features are quite well aligned, it is assumed there is some causal connection between them. Models which may account for this connection include those of Churazov et al. (2001), Brüggen & Kaiser (2001) and Reynolds, Heinz & Begelman (2002, hereafter RHB), in which buoyant bubbles of radio plasma interact with the intra-cluster medium. RHB also find that the transient activity of the radio galaxy sends spherical “pulses” into the intra-cluster medium.

We present here our first results on the cluster X-ray emission based on a 40 ks *Chandra* observation of M87 and the core of the Virgo cluster. The Galactic column density towards M87 is taken to be $`N_H(\mathrm{Gal})=2.5\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (Stark et al. 1992).

## 2 X-ray Observations

The core of the Virgo cluster was observed by *Chandra* on 2000 June 29 for 40 ks with M87 at the aim-point of the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), on the S3 chip. After filtering for times of high background the total usable exposure time was 36608 s. The ACIS background was obtained from a compilation of relatively blank fields prepared by Maxim Markevitch111http://hea-www.harvard.edu/$^$maxim/axaf/acisbg, and subtracted from our images and spectra. The images were corrected for variations in the exposure time across the field caused by chip boundaries and telescope vignetting. CIAO 2.1.3 and CALDB 2.7 were used to extract the data and XSPEC 11.0.1 was used to model the spectra.

## 3 Morphology

At radio wavelengths M87 has a hierarchical morphology, with bright inner lobes at a nuclear distance $`2.5`$ kpc ($`30\mathrm{}`$), intermediate ridges at a nuclear distance $`15`$ kpc ($`3\mathrm{}`$) and an outer diffuse “halo” at a nuclear distance $`40`$ kpc ($`8\mathrm{}`$) (we shall refer to these as the “inner” lobes, “intermediate” ridges, and the outer halo, respectively). For reference, each ACIS chip is approximately $`8\mathrm{}\times 8\mathrm{}`$, so we shall concentrate on the morphology on scales comparable to the inner and intermediate radio structures. Nevertheless, the S3 and S2 chips combined cover almost all of the region corresponding to the outer halo radio emission.

Adaptively smoothed 0.5 – 7 keV X-ray images of the core of the Virgo cluster are shown in Fig. 1 for three different spatial scales. There is considerable structure on all scales from arcsecond to tens of arcminutes. Concentrating on the central arcminute or so (bottom panel of Fig. 1), the brightest structure is the nucleus plus famous jet extending towards the northwest (Wilson & Yang 2002; Marshall et al. 2002). The X-ray surface brightness in the central arcminute is very clumpy and a number of point sources are visible. There are also major depressions in the X-ray emission; one to the west of the nucleus just beyond the jet, one immediately to the southeast of the nucleus, and another beyond that (i.e. 15 – $`30\mathrm{}`$ from the nucleus) to the southeast and south.

A morphological comparison between the X-ray, 6 cm radio (Hines, Eilek & Owen 1989) and H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] $`\lambda \lambda 6548`$, 6584 (Sparks, Ford & Kinney 1993) emission of the central $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ is shown in Fig. 2. The radio and X-ray emissions from the jet are well correlated (Wilson & Yang 2002; Marshall et al. 2002). The two inner radio lobes, however, correspond to depressions in the X-ray surface brightness. Such a phenomenon has been seen in other clusters, such as Hydra A (McNamara et al. 2000) and Perseus (Fabian et al. 2000), although on much larger spatial scales. The H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] emission line gas is also excluded from the inner radio lobes with the optical line-emitting gas predominantly on the north side of the radio structure (Sparks 1999). Some knots in the emission line and X-ray gas are associated with each other, especially on the northern and eastern boundaries of the inner eastern radio lobe.

As can be seen in Fig. 1 the decline in X-ray surface brightness with increasing nuclear distance is not smooth. Instead, there are quite abrupt “edges” in brightness at nuclear distances of $``$ 45″ and $``$ 3′. These “edges” may also be seen in a plot of the azimuthally averaged surface brightness vs. nuclear distance shown in Fig. 3. It is notable that these two roughly circular features are just outside the inner radio lobe and at comparable nuclear distance to the intermediate radio ridges, respectively. This correspondence suggests the “edges” may have resulted from time variability in the active nucleus, perhaps being associated with past epochs of jet production. In the model of RHB, a short episode of jet activity eventually produces buoyant bubbles of radio plasma that rise at $`0.60.7`$ times the sound speed, along with a spherical “pulse” that expands at approximately the sound speed. We speculate that the two roughly circular “edges” may correspond to the spherical pulses associated with two earlier jet ejecta. While RHB discuss the results of their simulation in the context of powerful FR-II radio sources, both types of feature – the buoyant bubbles and the spherical pulse – are expected to be present in the late-time evolution of a lower power (FR-I) radio source, such as M87. This model is discussed further in Section 6.2.

The most striking feature on large scales is an X-ray “arc” running from $``$ 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 east of the nucleus, across the central region of M87, to $``$ 4$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$ to the southwest (Figs 1 and 4). On the east side of the nucleus, the arc corresponds to a plume of radio emission (cf. Owen, Eilek & Kassim 2000), and ends at the center of the “ear”-shaped eastern lobe of radio emission. On the west side, the narrow arc passes to the south of the intermediate scale radio ridges 2′ – 3′ west of the nucleus. Further out, the arc follows diffuse filaments of radio emission that connect the intermediate scale radio ridges with the fainter, outer radio halo.

## 4 The Intra-Cluster Medium

To get an idea of the spatial variation of the properties of the intra-cluster medium we first constructed an emission-weighted temperature map. To do this, images were made in soft (0.5 – 0.9 keV), medium (0.9 – 1.2 keV) and hard (1.2 – 4 keV) energy bands. The background subtracted data were then adaptively binned (Sanders & Fabian 2001) to ensure comparable fractional errors per bin in each band. Theoretical color ratio tables were computed as a function of temperature and metalicity using the mekal thermal plasma model in xspec, assuming absorption by only the Galactic column. The color ratios of the data were compared with these theoretically computed color ratios to construct a temperature map of the Virgo cluster (Fig. 5).

A few things are immediately apparent from the emission-weighted temperature map: (i) gas in the X-ray arc is cooler than surrounding intra-cluster gas at a similar nuclear distance, (ii) there is a region of cooler gas immediately surrounding the nucleus extending $`50\mathrm{}`$ to the north and $`25\mathrm{}`$ to the south, corresponding to the region of higher surface brightness around the nucleus (see Fig. 1), and (iii) there is no evidence of strong shock heating associated with the inner radio lobes.

Since a deprojection analysis was not performed, the temperature map shows the emission-weighted mean temperature in each bin. If the gas distribution is approximately spherically symmetric, with the density rapidly increasing inwards, the properties of the gas in a given bin are dominated by the properties of the gas at the same distance from the nucleus as the projected distance of the bin from the nucleus. The azimuthally averaged brightness profile of the inner part of the Virgo cluster is well described (i.e. to within $`10\%`$ at all nuclear distances; see Fig. 3) by an isothermal “$`\beta `$-model” (Sarazin & Bahcall 1977) in which surface brightness $`S(r)(1+[r/r_c]^2)^{3\beta +0.5}`$ with a core radius $`r_c=18\mathrm{}`$ and $`\beta =0.4`$, in good agreement with *ROSAT* HRI results (Böhringer 1999). Thus, the X-ray emission from the Virgo cluster is strongly peaked towards the center with the possible exception of the inner $`20\mathrm{}`$ and the X-ray arcs, so the inferred temperatures are a reasonable approximation to the temperatures of gas at that physical distance from the nucleus.

Motivated by the temperature map (Fig. 5), spectra were extracted from a number of $`25\mathrm{}\times 25\mathrm{}`$ square regions, each containing $`\mathrm{few}\times 10^310^4`$ counts, to compare, in detail, the gas properties in the arc and the ambient intra-cluster medium. An emission-weighted instrument response was made for each region, and the individual spectra were modeled by either (i) a single temperature VMEKAL thermal plasma model or (ii) a two temperature VMEKAL model if the additional component improved the $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. by $`>0.04`$. The abundances of O, Mg, Si, S and Fe were allowed to vary but, if a two temperature model was used, both components were constrained to have the same abundances.

The variation of temperature(s) with nuclear distance for different azimuthal angles is shown in Fig. 6. The arc to the east and southwest is much better described by a two temperature model, with temperatures of $`>2`$ keV and $`1`$ keV. In contrast, the ambient gas is, in general, better described by a single temperature model with the temperature rising outwards from $`1.5`$ keV at 6 kpc to $`2.5`$ keV at $`20`$ kpc. The region within $`6`$ –9 kpc, corresponding approximately to the apparently cooler gas immediately surrounding the nucleus (see Fig. 5), is also better described by a two temperature model, with temperatures of $`1`$ keV and $`>3`$ keV. The properties of the gas in the arc are clearly different from those in the surrounding cluster gas.

Focusing on the cooler region immediately surrounding the nucleus, we see that the coolest gas in the central arcminute is well correlated with optical H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] $`\lambda \lambda 6548`$, 6584 line emission, which is also concentrated to the north of the nucleus (Sparks et al. 1993; our Fig. 2). Moving farther out, there is another small filament of H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] emitting gas located near the northwestern corner of the “ear” (Gavazzi et al. 2000). This filament corresponds to a region of increased X-ray surface brightness (Fig. 1, upper left) and cooler (Fig. 5) gas. The coincidence of the cooler X-ray gas with the H$`\alpha `$ emitting gas suggests these may be regions in which mass is dropping out of the hot intra-cluster medium.

To study the pressure and cooling time in a given bin, the emission measure was converted to an electron density by assuming the path length through the bin is equal to the distance of that bin from the nucleus, an assumption supported by the rapid increase of X-ray surface brightness towards smaller nuclear distances (see above discussion). The electron density (and gas pressure) are $`1/\sqrt{l}`$, where $`l`$ is the path length through the gas so a factor of 2 error in the path length would correspond to only a factor of $`\sqrt{2}`$ error in these quantities. To minimize the error in the assumed path length, we treated the arcs to east and southwest separately and assumed the path length through an arc is 1 kpc for those regions of the arc at a nuclear distance $`<4\mathrm{}`$ ($`<18`$ kpc). The cooling time was computed using the cooling function of Sarazin & White (1987) for solar metallicity gas, correcting for the printing error noted by Westbury & Henriksen (1992). The rate of cooling ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }(T)`$) of solar metallicity gas is faster than zero metallicity gas by factors of $`1.5`$, 2 and 6 at temperatures of 10, 2 and 1 keV, respectively.

The electron density, total gas pressure and cooling time are shown in Fig. 7 as a function of nuclear distance for a number of different azimuthal angles. Away from the arc, the density and pressure decline rapidly with increasing nuclear distance while the cooling time rises. The properties of the gas away from the arc are similar to those previously derived for the cluster as a whole, with the run of temperature with nuclear distance being consistent with *XMM-Newton* (Böhringer et al. 2001) and the run of density with nuclear distance being consistent with *ROSAT* (Nulsen & Böhringer 1995). The gas in the arcs, however, is denser and probably over-pressured with respect to the surrounding cluster gas at a similar nuclear distance; a deprojection analysis of the ambient cluster emission would provide a more accurate estimate of the pressure of the ambient gas, but would be limited by the lack of symmetry of the X-ray emission. In addition, the density and pressure decline more slowly with increasing nuclear distance in the arc than in the surrounding cluster gas, although the slope of this decline is sensitive to the assumed path length through the gas in the arc.

## 5 Metal Abundances

A knowledge of the metal abundances of the cooler gas in the arc and the hotter surrounding cluster gas is important for differentiating between various theoretical models of the arc (see Section 6.3). To study the metal abundances to the east of the nucleus, counts were extracted from two $`25\mathrm{}\times 25\mathrm{}`$ square regions, one centered on the cooler gas $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$ east of the nucleus in the arc (which we refer to as the “arc” gas), and another over the nearby cluster gas $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$ north of that (which we refer to as the “ambient” gas). There are 8667 and 3323 cts in these two regions, respectively. In order to model the spectra, an emission-weighted mean instrument response was used. This procedure does not provide a perfect description of the instrument response, with residuals corresponding to the iridium M-edge (1.8 – 2.2 keV, as noted by Markevitch and Vikhlinin ), and at energies corresponding to uncertainties in ACIS gain maps (1.6 and 2.6 keV222ACIS calibration issue dated 3 Jan 2002 at http://asc.harvard.edu/cal/Links/Acis/acis/Cal\_projects/index.html), the effect of which is to increase both the $`\chi ^2`$ values of our fits and the uncertainty in our determination of the Si and S abundances that have strong emission lines in these energy ranges. The ambient gas to the northeast of the nucleus may be described by a single temperature thermal plasma model (the VMEKAL model in XSPEC) in which the abundances of O, Mg, Si, S and Fe are allowed to vary, with $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 134/110. The parameters of this model are given in Table 1 and the data and model are shown in the left panel of Fig. 8. The spectrum of the arc to the east of the nucleus is more complicated, and is poorly described by a single temperature thermal plasma model, which has a $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 254/136. The arc can be described by a two temperature thermal plasma model, with temperatures of 1.77 keV and 1.07 keV. There is a degeneracy between the relative normalizations and metalicities of the two components, and this can be broken by assuming the warmer component has the same parameters as the ambient gas. The cooler component is then found to have enhanced Mg, Si, S and Fe abundances relative to the ambient gas and comparable O abundance. The model parameters are given in Table 1 and the model fit shown in the right panel of Fig. 8 with a $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 188/136.

To the west of the nucleus, counts were extracted from six $`25\mathrm{}\times 25\mathrm{}`$ square regions, three centered on the cooler gas in the arc $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$ southwest of the nucleus, and three over the nearby cluster gas a similar distance west of the nucleus. There are 18065 and 10815 cts in the three regions over the arc and the three regions over the ambient gas, respectively. These extraction regions are larger than those used to the east of the nucleus because we found that a greater S/N ratio was required to discern variations in the metal abundances. The spectra of the arc and the nearby cluster gas were then analyzed in the same way as the spectra from the regions east of the nucleus. The ambient gas to the west of the nucleus can be described by a single temperature thermal plasma model (see Table 1) with $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 440/362. The spectrum of the arc to the southwest of the nucleus is not well described by a single temperature plasma model ($`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 683/396). The arc can be described by a two temperature thermal plasma model, with temperatures of 2.09 keV and 1.08 keV. If the warmer component has the same parameters as the ambient gas, the cooler component is found to have enhanced Mg and Si abundances than the ambient gas, comparable O and Fe, and comparable or lower S abundance. The model parameters are given in Table 1 with a $`\chi ^2`$/d.o.f. = 557/395.

To summarize, the physical properties of the gas in the X-ray arc are significantly different to those of the ambient cluster gas, in particular an additional cooler thermal component is present. The metal abundances of some of the heavy elements in the cooler gas in the arc, both to the east and west, are consistent with being enhanced relative to those of the ambient gas. Our conclusions are in broad agreement with the *XMM-Newton* observations of M87 (Belsole et al. 2001).

## 6 Discussion

### 6.1 An Estimate of the Minimum Power of the Jet

If we assume the “holes” in the X-ray gas that correspond to the inner radio lobes (see Fig. 2) are cavities created by the radio jet then we can make a crude estimate of the minimum power of the jet. The cavities are approximately spherical with typical diameters $``$ 1.5 kpc and volumes $`V=6\times 10^{64}`$ cm3, and the pressure in the regions around the cavities is $``$ 2 $`\times `$ 10-9 dyn cm-2. An estimate of the age of a cavity can be obtained from the free-fall timescale, $`t_{\mathrm{ff}}=R/c_\mathrm{s}`$ where $`R`$ is the radius of the cavity, $`R=2.3\times 10^{21}`$ cm, and $`c_\mathrm{s}`$ is the sound speed, $`c_\mathrm{s}=3.4\times 10^7(T/1\mathrm{keV})^{1/2}`$ cm s-1. Assuming the gas temperature $`T=1`$ keV gives a jet power $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}2PV/t_{\mathrm{ff}}=3\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1. If the cavities are evacuated faster than $`c_\mathrm{s}`$, then $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}`$ would be higher, although there appear to be no signs of sharp edges in the X-ray image that might be shocks. Our estimate of $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}`$ is at the lower end of previous estimates (e.g. Bicknell & Begelman  find $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}10^{4344}`$ erg s-1), although there are inevitably uncertainties in our estimates of $`t_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ and other quantities. The cavity cannot be inflated much more slowly than the above estimate or it would have risen too far from the nucleus through buoyancy effects. The bubbles are expected to rise at $`0.60.7c_\mathrm{s}`$ (Churazov et al. 2001), and cannot have traveled more than 2 kpc giving a maximum age of $`4\times t_{\mathrm{ff}}`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}>10^{42}`$ erg s-1.

### 6.2 The X-ray “Fronts”

The structure in the radial distribution of X-ray surface brightness (see Figs 1 – 4) could be some effect inherent to a cooling flow. However, we have noted (Section 3) that the two most noticeable sharp declines in azimuthally averaged X-ray surface brightness are just outside the inner radio lobes and at comparable nuclear distance to the intermediate radio ridges. This similarity between the nuclear distances of the radio lobes and the declines in surface brightness suggests instead that the “edges” may be “fronts” in the cluster atmosphere created by earlier ejecta from the active nucleus of M87.

We consider a scenario based on the results of numerical hydrodynamical simulations by RHB of the effects of the jets on the intra-cluster medium. RHB discuss their simulation results in the context of powerful FR-II radio galaxies but the end results are expected to be similar in a weaker FR-I radio galaxy. The end effect of the transient jet activity is that the cluster expands in response to heating of the cluster core. An approximately spherical pulse propagates outwards at the sound speed (see Fig. 6 of RHB), ultimately leaving the core of the cluster at a fractionally lower density and a higher temperature. The amplitude of the density wave in the RHB simulation is $`\pm 10\%`$ which is dependent upon the initial conditions but is large enough to produce the $`10\%`$ fluctuations seen in the azimuthally averaged X-ray surface brightness when compared to the best fitting “$`\beta `$-model” shown in Fig. 3. The fact that the two fronts are at slightly larger nuclear distances than the inner radio lobes and the intermediate ridges suggests that each of these radio features is in the “passive” or buoyant bubble phase that characterizes the late stage of evolution. Such would be consistent with the absence of strong shocks around the cavities inflated by the inner radio lobes. The $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ (12 kpc) separation of successive fronts corresponds to a sound crossing time of $`t_{\mathrm{sc}}=2\times 10^7(T/2.5\mathrm{keV})^{1/2}`$ yrs, and indicates there may be relatively brief periods of jet activity every $`10^7`$ yrs or so. If this is the case, the time-averaged energy injected into the cluster by the jet may be significantly lower than the present instantaneous power of the jet. Further detailed numerical simulations, tailored to the environment of M87, are required to determine whether such a model can indeed reproduce the “fronts” and what conditions are needed. In particular, such simulations are required to find out what effect the putative pulse has on the cluster core. The model of RHB also predicts subtle (tens of per cent) changes in the gas temperature associated with the changes in X-ray surface brightness, and while these changes are too small to be detected in our data set, one could look for them in a future observation with a significantly longer integration time.

### 6.3 The X-ray Arcs

Our observations of the X-ray arcs to the east and southwest and associated with the radio ridges show that they are narrow, with a FWHM of only $`14\mathrm{}`$ (1 kpc). The length to width ratio of the southwestern arc is $`20`$. We have also found (Section 4) that the gas in the arcs is cooler than the surrounding cluster gas, in agreement with previous studies, and appears to contain two components with different temperatures. The cooler component may have some metal abundances enhanced with respect to the warmer gas in the cluster (Table 1, Section 5).

A number of models have been proposed to explain these arcs. Firstly, it should be noted that although the X-ray emissivity of the gas may be enhanced by compression, shocks or cosmic ray heating processes tend to raise the gas temperature rather than lower it, and can be ruled out (Böhringer et al. 1995). Another possibility is that, as the radio ejecta (which are likely to be in the late “buoyant plume” phase \[RHB\]; cf. Section 6.2) pass through a multi-phase cooling flow, they disrupt the “cold” phase (consisting of cold, denser clouds) and mix it with the “hot” phase. This causes a rapid cooling of the hot phase and an enhancement of the density (Böhringer et al. 1995). However, whether the ambient intra-cluster medium is, in fact, multi-phase remains controversial (we are able to adequately describe most of the intra-cluster gas as a single temperature plasma). A further possibility is that cooler, low entropy gas near the nucleus is mixed into the radio plasma, generating buoyant bubbles of gas (Churazov et al. 2001; Brüggen et al. 2002; RHB). These bubbles would rise in the cluster gravitational field and expand until they have a density equal to that of the surrounding medium.

The in-situ disruption of gas in a cold phase, followed by mixing, should leave cooler gas with metal abundances comparable to the surrounding cluster gas. On the other hand, if the cool gas was entrained at a small nuclear distance and carried outwards, the buoyant bubbles of cold gas should have metal abundances appropriate to the cluster core. As discussed above (Section 5), we find that the cooler gas (see Table 1) in the arc probably has a higher metalicity for at least some elements than the ambient gas. These higher abundances favor the buoyant bubble scenario. The morphology of the X-ray arcs (i.e. narrow and well collimated) is consistent with the Churazov et al. (2001) and RHB models in which a narrow column of dense gas is created. The numerical simulations of both Churazov et al. (2001) and RHB assumed axi-symmetry which may artificially stabilize narrow structures elongated along the symmetry axis, although reasonably narrow, dense structures with an aspect ratio of $`10`$ are also produced in the fully 3D simulations of Brüggen et al. (2002). The sound-crossing time from the nucleus to a nuclear distance of $`200\mathrm{}`$ is a $`\mathrm{few}\times 10^7`$ yrs, which is shorter than the cooling time of gas in the arcs, which is $`>5\times 10^7`$ yrs and closer to $`10^8`$ yrs at a nuclear distance of $`200\mathrm{}`$ (see Fig. 7). This means that there is time for cool gas entrained by a buoyant bubble in the nucleus to be carried to the end of the arc before it has cooled completely. If this were not the case, i.e. if the cooling time of gas in the arcs was shorter than the sound-crossing time, then some in-situ heating mechanism would be required, or the cool gas must have been transported faster than the sound speed. The simulation by RHB produces both elongated, buoyant plumes which lift gas from the center of the cluster and approximately spherical pulses traveling at the sound speed that we have identified with the X-ray “fronts”. In this sense, the structure of the intra-cluster medium in the inner part of the Virgo cluster conforms qualitatively to the expected effects of repeated injections of energy over a period of 108 yrs by radio jets from the nucleus of Virgo A.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented the highest resolution X-ray image to date of the core of the Virgo cluster. Structure is observed on all spatial scales, from arcsecond ($`100`$ pc) to ten arcminutes ($`50`$ kpc).

The inner radio lobes are aligned with depressions in the X-ray surface brightness and there is no evidence of shock heating in the X-ray emission immediately surrounding the inner radio lobes, suggesting that the radio plasma has gently pushed aside the X-ray emitting gas. These cavities cannot have been inflated much slower than the sound speed, however, or they would have risen too far from the nucleus due to buoyancy effects. We estimate the jet power to be $`F_{\mathrm{jet}}3\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1.

On larger scales the most striking feature is the X-ray arc running from the east, across the central regions of M87, and off to the southwest. The gas in the arc has at least two temperatures, with one component at the temperature of the ambient intra-cluster medium and a cooler component at $`1`$ keV. The gas in the arcs is probably over-pressured with respect to, and somewhat more metal rich than, the ambient intra-cluster medium.

Abrupt changes in surface brightness or “fronts” are seen at nuclear distances slightly larger than the nuclear distances of the inner radio lobes and intermediate radio ridges. Within the inner front, at nuclear distances $`<45\mathrm{}`$ ($`<3.5`$ kpc) the gas has at least two temperatures, with the cooler component at $`1`$ keV, similar to the X-ray arc. This cooler region is concentrated more to the north than the south of the nucleus and is correlated with the H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[NII\] emission-line distribution.

We suggest that a model based on the hydrodynamical simulations of RHB, scaled to a lower power radio source such as M87, may explain the observed phenomena. Intermittent jet activity has two effects on the cluster. Firstly, it inflates buoyant bubbles of radio plasma that trail cold gas from the central regions in their wakes as they rise at $`0.6`$ – 0.7 times the sound speed, thereby producing the X-ray arcs. The gas dredged up from the nucleus is expected to have higher metal abundances than the intra-cluster medium at large nuclear distances. Secondly, at late times in the evolution of the radio source, the injection of energy into the cluster core produces a “pulse” that expands at the sound speed into the intra-cluster medium as the cluster adjusts to find a new equilibrium. We identify this pulse with the observed X-ray “fronts”. Detailed numerical simulations tailored to the Virgo cluster are required to explore this hypothesis.

We thank W. B. Sparks for providing the H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] map in electronic form and NRAO for supplying the u-v data used to make the 90 cm map. We also thank Chris Reynolds for discussions. This research was supported by NASA grants NAG 81027 and NAG 81755. We are also grateful to D. Harris and S. Virani of the *Chandra* Science Center for their assistance with the observations.