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# 1 The CMB angular power spectrum (Eq. ) as a function of multipole moment ℓ∼1/𝜃. Roughly, one degree on the sky today corresponds to ℓ∼10², one arcminute to ℓ∼10³.

TACMB-1: The Theory of Anisotropies

in the

Cosmic Microwave Background:

Martin White and J.D. Cohn

Dept. of Astronomy

601 Campbell Hall

UC Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 USA

Abstract

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the theory of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Journal articles, web pages, and books are cited for the following topics: discovery, cosmological origin, early work, recombination, general CMB anisotropy references, primary CMB anisotropies (numerical, analytical work), secondary effects, Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect(s), lensing, reionization, polarization, gravity waves, defects, topology, origin of fluctuations, development of fluctuations, inflation and other ties to particle physics, parameter estimation, recent constraints, web resources, foregrounds, observations and observational issues, and gaussianity.

Introduction

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is a relic of a time when the universe was hot and dense, and as such it encodes a wealth of information about the early universe and the formation of the large-scale structure we see in the universe today. The very existence of the CMB is one of the four pillars of the hot big bang cosmology. That the spectrum  is the best measured black body spectrum in nature provides stringent constraints on its origin and on any injection of energy at early times . Perhaps the most exciting and active area of CMB research, however, is the study of its anisotropies: the small fluctuations in intensity from point to point across the sky. As we shall discuss below, these anisotropies provide us with a snapshot of the conditions in the universe about $`300,000`$ years after the big bang, when the universe was a simpler place. This snapshot is both our earliest picture of the universe and an encoding of the initial conditions for structure formation.

As a consequence of the hot big bang model, the CMB was predicted for a long time . The history and drama of its discovery  is a full story in and of itself, starting points are the “historical” references . For the anisotropies, although several fundamental calculations were done before 1992, it was with the COBE  detection in 1992 that interest and activity exploded.

Origin of the CMB

If we run the expansion of the universe backwards in time, the universe becomes hotter and denser. Beyond a point when distances in the universe were only $`0.1\%`$ of their current size, the temperature was high enough to ionize the universe, and it was filled with a plasma of protons, electrons, and photons (plus a few He nuclei and traces of other species). This transition from a neutral to an ionized medium is especially important. Before this time the universe could be modelled as a smooth gas of photons, baryons (the protons and electrons) and dark matter. Since the number density of free electrons was so high, the universe was opaque to the microwave background photons: the mean free path for photons to Thomson scatter off electrons was extremely short. Consequently, the photons and baryons could be considered as a single “tightly coupled” fluid . In this fluid, the baryons provide the weight, while the photons provide the pressure (for photons, pressure and density obey $`p_\gamma =\rho _\gamma /3`$). As the universe expands, the wavelengths of photons are stretched out, lowering their energy. Eventually, when the universe had cooled to $`T4,000`$K, the photon energies became too small to ionize hydrogen  ($`kT`$ 0.25 eV, smaller than the ionization energy of hydrogen, 13.6 eV, because the photon to baryon ratio, $`10^9:1`$, is so large that the high-energy tail of the thermal distribution is significant). At this point the protons and electrons (re)combined to form neutral hydrogen and the photon mean free path increased to essentially the size of the observable universe.111The mean free path of photons through the universe must be huge or we would not see galaxies and quasars out to distances of thousands of Mpc (1 Mpc = $`3.3\times 10^6`$ light years \[lyr\]). The photons were set free, and have since travelled almost unhindered through the universe.

Once it started, the recombination of hydrogen was a phase transition, completing very rapidly. We refer to this time as the epoch of recombination. When we observe the universe in the microwave bands we see the photons which last interacted with matter at this epoch. These photons have travelled to us from a sphere, centered on the observer and known as the surface of last scattering, whose radius is essentially the entire observable universe $`10^4`$Mpc or $`10^{10}`$ light years. The photons have continued to lose energy with the expansion of the universe, and now form a black body with a temperature of 2.73K. One can think of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background photons as the temperature of the universe.

Describing CMB anisotropies

Numerous observations of the cosmic microwave background photons support this assumption of cosmological origin : the background is isotropic  and a black body  and has no correlations with local structures in the universe . Upon closer examination the CMB temperature is not uniform across the sky, but has slight fluctuations from place to place. We shall be interested in the fluctuations of the temperature about the mean: $`\mathrm{\Delta }T(\widehat{n})`$ where $`\widehat{n}`$ is a unit vector pointing in a particular direction on the sphere.

The largest anisotropy is a fluctuation of about 1 part in 1000 that forms a dipole pattern across the sky. The reason for this dipole is that the earth is not at rest with respect to the CMB, and we see a Doppler shift in the CMB temperature owing to our relative motion. Since this changes as the earth orbits the sun, this dipole is modulated throughout the year. One of the great triumphs of modern cosmology is that if we take the mass distribution observed around us and compute from this a gravitational acceleration, then multiply this acceleration by the age of the universe, we obtain a good match to both the direction and the amplitude of our velocity vector in the CMB rest frame . However this dipole is clearly of (relatively) local rather than primordial origin, and so we generally subtract it (plus the mean or “monopole”) before dealing with the CMB anisotropy.

After this dipole is taken out, the size of the fluctuations is about 1 part in 100,000. Mathematically we describe these anisotropies by expanding the temperature field on the sphere using a complete set of basis functions, the spherical harmonics

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }T}{T}(\widehat{n})=\underset{\mathrm{}=2}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\underset{m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_\mathrm{}mY_\mathrm{}m(\widehat{n}).$$
(1)
The $`a_\mathrm{}m`$ are a curved-sky version of a Fourier transform of the temperature field. By definition the mean value of the $`a_\mathrm{}m`$ is zero.

As there are no preferred directions cosmologically, theories predict only statistical information about the sky, not that the temperature in a certain direction should have a particular value. For this reason the quantities of interest are statistics of the observed temperature pattern. The most common and useful statistic is known as the correlation function (or $`2`$point function) of the temperature field $`C(\theta )`$. We form this by calculating the average of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T/T(\widehat{n}_1)\mathrm{\Delta }T/T(\widehat{n}_2)`$ across all pairs of points in the sky $`(\widehat{n}_1,\widehat{n}_2)`$ separated by an angle $`\theta `$ (i.e. $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =\widehat{n}_1\widehat{n}_2`$). Under the assumptions that our theory has no preferred direction in the sky (statistical isotropy) and that the fluctuations in temperature have Gaussian statistics, the correlation function encodes all of the physical information in the CMB anisotropies. (For non-Gaussian fluctuations there will be additional information in higher order, e.g. 3-point, correlations.)

Original theoretical calculations and observations were performed almost entirely on the correlation function. However, Wilson and Silk,  introduced the “multipole expansion,” which isolates the physics much more robustly and simplifies the calculations:

$$C(\theta )=\frac{1}{4\pi }\underset{\mathrm{}}{}(2\mathrm{}+1)C_{\mathrm{}}P_{\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{cos}\theta )$$
(2)
where $`P_{\mathrm{}}(\mathrm{cos}\theta )`$ are the Legendre polynomials and the $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ are the quantities of interest known as the multipole moments. In terms of the $`a_\mathrm{}m`$ defined above

$$C_{\mathrm{}}=\underset{m=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_\mathrm{}m^{}a_\mathrm{}m$$
(3)
One can think of $`\mathrm{}`$ as the variable “Fourier” conjugate to angle, $`\mathrm{}\theta ^1`$.

From this description one of the fundamental limitations to the study of CMB anisotropies becomes evident. We are trying to estimate these quantities $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ statistically from a finite number of samples, hence our estimates will be uncertain by an amount proportional to the square root of the number of samples (often called “cosmic variance” since we would need more universes to get a better determination) . Each $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ comes from averaging over $`2\mathrm{}+1`$ modes, and thus the sample variance error on $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ is

$$\frac{\delta C_{\mathrm{}}}{C_{\mathrm{}}}=\sqrt{\frac{2}{2\mathrm{}+1}}$$
(4)
where the $`2`$ in the numerator arises because $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ is the square of a Gaussian random variable ($`a_\mathrm{}m`$) and not the variable itself.222The variance of $`x^2`$ is twice the square of that of $`x`$ if $`x`$ is a Gaussian random variable of zero mean.. If only a fraction $`f_{\mathrm{sky}}`$ of the sky is observed then the error is increased by $`f_{\mathrm{sky}}^{1/2}`$

The physics of CMB anisotropies I: The simplest picture

Current CMB anisotropy measurements are improving rapidly  and a broad outline of $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{}`$ is taking shape. At large angular scales (small $`\mathrm{}`$) there is a flat plateau that rises into a narrow peak at about one degree. On arcminute scales the power has fallen once more and on even smaller scales currently there are only upper limits. In this section we shall describe how we now understand this structure.

Historically the key ingredients were the recognition that in the early universe there was a tightly coupled photon-baryon plasma  that decoupled suddenly  and that in the presence of perturbations the fundamental modes of excitation were sound waves . However the language has changed significantly since those early papers, and the sophistication with which the calculations are performed has improved radically , so below we outline this more modern description, developed in .

This description falls within the current paradigm of cosmological structure formation . When we observe the distribution of galaxies about us we find that they are not arranged at random, but rather cluster together in coherent patterns that can stretch for up to 100Mpc. The distribution is characterized by large voids and a network of filamentary structures meeting in large overdense regions. A great deal of evidence suggests that this large-scale structure arose through the action of gravity on initially small amplitude perturbations in density. As inflation  is the most promising theory for the origin of these primordial density perturbations, we will use its properties for illustrative purposes. Generically inflation predicts that at very early times there were small, almost scale-invariant adiabatic333The term adiabatic implies that a positive fluctuation in the number density of one species is also a positive fluctuation in all of the other species (i.e. more photons means more baryons and more dark matter). A spectrum of fluctuations is scale-invariant if the gravitational potential fluctuation it produces has the same amount of power per logarithmic interval in wavelength. fluctuations in the density of the universe on a wide range of physical scales. A region of space that was initially overdense would give rise to a larger than usual gravitational potential. Surrounding matter would fall into this potential, increasing the overdensity. Similarly matter would flow out of regions of underdensity, increasing the density contrast further. In this way gravity can amplify any already existing density perturbations. Eventually the density contrasts would become so large that we could ignite nuclear fusion and form stars, galaxies, etc.

The CMB anisotropies that we see are a snapshot of the conditions when the universe was 300,000 years old, that is on the surface of last scattering, plus some (small) processing that occurred en route to us. After last-scattering the CMB photons stream essentially freely to us and the density fluctuations are seen as CMB temperature differences (anisotropy) across the sky ($`\delta T/T=\frac{1}{4}\delta \rho _\gamma /\rho _\gamma `$, since $`\rho _\gamma T_\gamma ^4`$). The key concept is that anisotropy on a given angular scale is related to density perturbations on the last scattering surface of a given wavelength. The relevant wavelengths correspond to the length projected by that angle on the last-scattering surface: $`\lambda 200`$Mpc$`(\theta /\mathrm{deg})`$. Phrased another way, multipole moment $`\mathrm{}`$ receives its dominant contribution from Fourier mode $`k`$, where $`\mathrm{}=kr`$ and $`r`$ is the (comoving angular diameter) distance to last scattering.

We show in Fig. 1 a theoretical prediction for the anisotropy spectrum

(i.e. $`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{}+1)C_{\mathrm{}}`$ vs. $`\mathrm{}`$)444It is conventional to plot $`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{}+1)C_{\mathrm{}}`$ rather than $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ because this is approximately the power per logarithmic interval in $`\mathrm{}`$ (or angle). Also, in the simplest possible model of scale-invariant fluctuations from the Sachs-Wolfe effect (see below) $`\mathrm{}(\mathrm{}+1)C_{\mathrm{}}`$ is constant. of a cosmological model with cold dark matter and an initial spectrum as given by inflation. Similar to the current observations mentioned earlier, the spectrum clearly has 3 distinct pieces: at low-$`\mathrm{}`$ (large angular scales) there is a flat plateau that rises into a series of bumps and wiggles that then damp quasi-exponentially on small angular scales. These 3 regimes are separated by 2 angular scales, the first at about 1 degree and the second at a few arcminutes.

To understand the origin of these features let us go back in time to just before recombination. At this time the universe contained the tightly coupled photon-baryon fluid and dark matter, with perturbations in the densities and thus gravitational potentials on a wide range of scales. While perturbations in the dark matter grow continuously as the universe ages, the gravity-driven collapse of a perturbation in the baryon-photon fluid is resisted by the pressure restoring force of the photons. For example, as an overdensity falls into a gravitational potential it becomes more and more compressed. Eventually photon pressure halts the collapse and the mode rebounds, becoming increasingly rarefied. The expansion is slowed and halted owing to the weight of the fluid and the gravitational potential, causing the mode to recollapse once more. In short, an acoustic wave is set up, with gravity the driving force and pressure the restoring force. Mathematically, the Fourier mode $`k`$ of the temperature fluctuation is governed by a harmonic-oscillator-like equation

$$\left[m_{\mathrm{eff}}\mathrm{\Delta }T_k^{}\right]^{}+\frac{k^2}{3}\mathrm{\Delta }T_k=F_k$$
(5)
where $`F`$ is the gravitational forcing term owing to the dark-matter potentials, $`m_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ describes the inertia of the fluid, and primes denote derivatives with respect to (conformal) time ($`\eta =𝑑t/a(t)`$ where $`a(t)`$ is the scale-factor of the universe). The solutions are acoustic waves.

We are now in a position to understand the features in Fig. 1.

The large-angular scale (Sachs-Wolfe) plateau ($`\mathrm{}<100`$) in the angular power spectrum arises from perturbations with periods longer than the age of the universe at last scattering, i.e. $``$ larger than the horizon, scales that can be affected by causal physics at that time. These waves are essentially frozen in their initial configuration and provide us with a probe of the physics that created them, unspoiled by cosmological evolution. Since CMB photons lose energy climbing out of the potential wells associated with these long-wavelength density perturbations, the temperature differences seen on the sky reflect the gravitational potential differences on the last-scattering surface . If the density fluctuations are approximately scale-invariant the plateau in the angular power spectrum is flat.

At scales smaller than the horizon, the baryon–photon fluctuations that produce anisotropy on sub-degree angular scales ($`10^2<\mathrm{}<10^3`$) have sufficient time to undergo oscillation. At maximum compression (rarefaction) the CMB temperature is higher (lower) than average. Neutral compression corresponds to velocity maxima of the fluid, which leads to a Doppler-shifted CMB temperature. The Doppler effect is subdominant because we see only the line-of-sight component of the velocity and the speed of sound is less than the speed of light. Since last-scattering is nearly instantaneous, the CMB provides a snapshot of these acoustic oscillations, with different wavelength modes being caught in different phases of oscillation. Because a given multipole $`\mathrm{}`$ is dominated by the effects of a narrow band of Fourier modes, this leads to peaks and valleys in the angular power spectrum. The peaks are modes that were maximally under or overdense at last-scattering (since the power spectrum is the amplitude squared), and the troughs are velocity maxima, which are $`\pi /2`$ out of phase with the density maxima.

On even shorter scales ($`\mathrm{}\mathrm{}>10^3`$) the finite duration of recombination has an observable effect . During this time the photons can random walk a distance given by the mean free path (which is increasing during recombination) times the square root of the number of scatterings . Thus photons can diffuse out of any overdensity on smaller scales than this. This leads to an exponential damping of the spectrum on small scales (known as Silk damping). If we approximate last scattering as extremely rapid, the damping is exponential with e-folding scale the geometric mean of the horizon and the photon mean free path. The finite duration of last scattering changes this somewhat, and the damping is closer to an exponential of a power of scale .

The physics of CMB anisotropies II: Beyond the simplest picture

While the above picture explains the gross features of Fig. 1, a number of other effects have received detailed study. Here we discuss these effects in the order in which they occur in the evolution of the universe, which is not the historical order in which they were discovered.

At last scattering and since, the photons not only respond to the gravitational potentials caused by dark matter density perturbations, but also to any other perturbations in the space-time metric. Technically, gravitational potentials owing to density perturbations are often referred to as scalar, corresponding to their Lorentz transformation properties (properties under boosts and rotations). Since the metric has more complicated transformation properties (specifically it is a spin-2 tensor), vector and tensor fluctuations are also possible. Vector perturbations, also called vortex perturbations, decay as the universe expands unless they are constantly generated. Tensor perturbations (also called gravity waves) can be generated by quantum fluctuations of the spacetime. These persist and can have an effect in many cases. Tensor perturbations of spacetime do not create the same baryon-photon oscillations, but can contribute a Sachs-Wolfe plateau . Inflationary theories usually produce no vector perturbations, and small tensor perturbations.

As the photons travel through the universe from the surface of last scattering they can interact gravitationally with the matter. If the gravitational potentials are still evolving, additional temperature perturbations are generated by the “integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect” . Schematically a photon falling into a gravitational potential will gain energy. If the potential evolves during the photons’ traverse, the energy lost climbing back out will be different from that gained falling in, leading to a net anisotropy. To linear order in the perturbations the gravitational potential $`\varphi `$ is constant when matter dominates the energy budget of the universe and this phase gives no contribution. However, right after recombination photons still contribute enough to the energy density of the universe that the change in time of the potential, $`\dot{\varphi }`$, is non-zero (the “early ISW effect”) and at very late times if either curvature or a cosmological constant dominate $`\dot{\varphi }0`$ (the “late ISW effect”). Additionally when non-linear structures form the potential can change with time owing to both the growth and movement of bound halos leading to anisotropies through the Rees-Sciama effect . In modern theories this effect is very small, and is not the dominant source of anisotropy on any scale .

In addition to the energy gained and lost by photons, the path a photon takes is altered by non-zero potentials. This gravitational lensing causes the spectrum to be slightly “blurred” , smoothing the third acoustic peak by a few percent and slightly altering the shape of the damping tail. The signature of gravitational lensing may be used to reconstruct the projected gravitational potential along the line-of-sight .

Observations of the spectra of high redshift QSOs indicate that the universe is highly ionized out to redshift $`z5`$. Thus photons can again scatter off free electrons in a second “scattering surface.” Unlike the $`z10^3`$ surface, however, the electron density today is quite low, and the baryons and photons do not become tightly coupled. Because of this the two fluids can have a large relative velocity, which enhances the power of the Doppler effect. Reionization, as this is called, damps power on angular scales smaller than the horizon subtended by the epoch of reionization while generating extra power owing to Doppler scattering . There is also a second order effect known as the Ostriker-Vishniac effect  that affects only the small scale.

It is unlikely that the reionization of the universe will occur uniformly throughout space, so anisotropies will be generated owing to the “patchiness” of reionization. Depending on the redshift of reionization and whether the ionizing sources are quasars or stars, the angular scale of this anisotropy could be quite different. Early analytic attempts to discuss patchy reionization  used crude models to estimate the required correlation functions. Recent numerical simulations  have improved upon these results, but this remains an area of active research at present. Current calculations suggest the patchy reionization will not dominate except on extremely small angular scales.

Finally, once structure formation is well underway, the photons can interact with hot gas in the intergalactic medium . The CMB photons can either be upscattered in energy when interacting with hot gas (the ”thermal” Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect) or have their temperature altered by Doppler scattering from moving gas (the ”kinetic” S-Z effect). For recent reviews see . The thermal SZ effect is probably the largest source of anisotropy on angular scales of a few arcminutes and has been calculated both analytically  and numerically

On top of these effects are “foregrounds” (as the signal is a background) that mask the CMB physics and are the source of many headaches and much work. These include dust, free-free emission, and synchrotron radiation, all of which have estimated dependencies on frequency and angular scale (a summary and comparison of these can be found in , some references are ). Many experiments measure the CMB in many different frequency bands to account for these foregrounds. Some foregrounds, such as point sources, will produce non-gaussian anisotropies. As the simplest inflationary models produce gaussian anisotropies, this also can be used to distinguish them from the desired signal.

Polarization

Not only do the CMB photons have temperatures, as described above, they also are expected to have polarization . The Thomson scattering cross section $`\sigma `$ as a function of solid angle $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ depends on polarization

$$\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}\left|\epsilon _i\epsilon _f\right|^2$$
(6)
where $`\epsilon _{i,f}`$ are the incident and final polarization directions. The scattered radiation intensity peaks normal to, and with polarization parallel to, the incident polarization. If the incoming radiation field is isotropic then orthogonal polarization states balance and the outgoing radiation remains unpolarized. In the presence of a quadrupole anisotropy, however, a linear polarization is generated by scattering.

Since we have observational evidence for anisotropies at last scattering, we expect that the CMB be linearly polarized. The degree of polarization is directly related to the quadrupole anisotropy at last scattering. While the exact properties of the polarization depend on the mechanism for producing the anisotropy, several general properties arise. The polarization peaks at angular scales smaller than the horizon at last scattering (i.e. smaller scales than the first temperature peak) owing to causality. Since only those photons that scattered in an optically thin region near last scattering could have had a quadrupole anisotropy, the polarization fraction is small and dependent on the duration of last scattering. For the standard thermal history it is a few percent of the temperature anisotropy. An additional change in polarization can occur during subsequent interaction with ionized matter (e.g. during reionization as mentioned above ). Gravitational interactions do not generate or destroy polarization.

The formalism for the description of polarized radiation on the sphere has been developed in . In analogy with the temperature, the polarization is expanded in a series of spin-weighted spherical harmonics whose coefficients can be used to define “E-mode” and “B-mode” polarization power spectra555The modes are called “E” and “B” to denote their parity transformation properties; they should not be confused with the electric and magnetic fields of the CMB signal itself. Some authors also refer to these as the “gradient” and “curl” components in analogy with the decomposition of a vector field. that transform into one another under a 45-degree rotation of the polarization. There is additionally a cross-power spectrum between T and E. Density (or scalar) perturbations have no “handedness” and so generate only E mode polarization. Vector and tensor modes create both E and B mode polarization.

Information from polarization is complementary to information from temperature anisotropies. Different sources of anisotropy (scalar, vector, tensor) generate different patterns of polarization  and adiabatic and isocurvature modes generate different polarization spectra . The presence of polarization increases the number of spectra that can be measured from 1 to 4 (temperature, the two polarizations, and the T-E cross spectrum), which allows better constraints on cosmological models . More beneficially, polarization depends on some of the cosmological parameters differently than the temperature anisotropy, allowing degeneracies in the fitted parameters to be removed and improving parameter constraints by a large factor .

What can we learn from CMB anisotropies?

CMB anisotropies represent one of the cleanest astrophysical systems known: the anisotropies arise from electron-photon interactions and weak gravitational fields. Thus the predictions can be calculated accurately and reliably, while at the same time providing us with valuable information about the early universe, the formation of large-scale structure, and the cosmological parameters. Here we discuss what we have already learned and what we hope to learn soon  from a comparison of these calculations with high-precision observations.

To begin with generalities, because the large angle anisotropies are 1 part in $`10^5`$, this constrains the amplitude of the fluctuations in matter densities on the scale of the horizon. Any theory of fluctuation generation and evolution must be normalized to agree with this value . Within the limited statistics currently available the fluctuations appear to be Gaussian , as predicted by the simplest models of inflation.

Comparing the size of these early fluctuations to the size of density perturbations today provides more circumstantial evidence for nonbaryonic dark matter. (Nonbaryonic dark matter was first introduced in other contexts for other reasons.) While a model-independent statement is difficult to make, if there were only baryons, the level of inhomogeneity required to produce the observed large-scale structure through gravitational infall would generally lead to CMB anisotropy that is about ten times larger than that observed .666To get enough large-scale structure power but suppress the large-angle anisotropies there are models with a power-law initial spectrum whose power grows with decreasing length scale. However, then reionization is required to flatten the spectrum at COBE scales. This simultaneously damps the power at degree scales, leading to conflict with observations . A model based on gravitational amplification of initially small adiabatic perturbations in a universe whose dominant matter component is cold and dark manages to reproduce the amplitude of the fluctuations required over many decades in linear scale.

A first acoustic peak has been detected in the CMB temperature anisotropies . The position of this peak is related to the size of the horizon at last scattering and the distance travelled by the photons since this time. This angular scale is sensitive to spatial curvature , appearing smaller if the universe is open (negatively curved) and larger if the universe is closed (positively curved, similar to a sphere). The currently observed position is consistent with the universe being spatially flat.

The amplitude of the peak indicates that either the baryon density is high, or the the matter density of the universe is below critical (or both) . Because we see any CMB signal at all on degree scales means that the photons were able to travel unhindered to us for some time before reionization occurred, i.e. the universe was neutral for a while between $`z10^3`$ and $`z5`$ .

Many of these above features cause difficulties for non-inflationary theories of structure formation. Of the dozens of theories proposed before 1990, only inflation and cosmological defects survived after the COBE announcement, and only inflation is currently regarded as viable by the majority of cosmologists. Cosmological defects are configurations in spacetime of some field, e.g. domain walls, strings, monopoles, or textures, which can be produced as the universe cools through several phase transitions . In contrast to inflation, perturbations caused by defects form continuously, as larger and larger regions come into causal contact and feel the influence of the defects moving around. Calculations with defects are extremely challenging technically, making it difficult to draw robust conclusions. However, several trends emerged early on: defect theories fail to reproduce the observed power in the matter fluctuations when normalized to the CMB , generically produce non-Gaussian fluctuations on degree scales  that are not observed , a high redshift of reionization , and even in the absence of reionization give a very low (or absent) broad peak  around degree scales. In the many cases where detailed temperature anisotropy calculations have been carried out , defect models strongly disagree with observations.

Because the surface of last scattering is a sphere of radius $`10`$Gpc, it is sensitive to any non-trivial topology in the universe. Current measurements indicate that the large-scale structure of space-time appears topologically simple .

More information is hinted at in the current data but not yet as precisely measured. For example, the narrowness of the first peak means perturbations were created a long time ago, for instance laid down early on by inflation . The spectrum of initial perturbations is close to scale-invariant. The position of the damping tail provides a feature in the power spectrum that is almost independent of the source of the fluctuations, depending only on the properties of the fluid at last scattering (e.g. the baryon-to-photon ratio) and the angular diameter distance to last scattering .

Future determinations of the temperature spectrum and detections of the polarization spectrum can provide even more information. The low-$`\mathrm{}`$ shape and relative amplitudes of the polarization power spectra indicate which modes (scalar, vector or tensor) are populated by the source of fluctuations . The relative positions and heights of the peaks can provide a test of inflation  or more generally of an apparently acausal generation of curvature perturbations on super-horizon scales .

If all of our modelling assumptions are borne out, and the angular power spectrum is well fit by an inflationary CDM model, then we can expect to constrain on the order of $`10`$ cosmological parameters to the few percent level from high resolution anisotropy observations, e.g., . Writing the initial spectrum as a power law, more precise constraints on both the power and deviations from power law behavior will be possible .

Generally the CMB constrains quite well the angular diameter distance to last scattering, the physical matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{mat}}h^2`$) and baryon densities ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2`$), and the spectral index of the fluctuations. Here we have written the Hubble constant as $`H_0=100h\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ and the densities as a fraction of the critical density ($`\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}3H_0^2/(8\pi G)`$), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_i=\rho _i/\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}`$. Typically some combinations of the other parameters are well constrained while some are very poorly constrained . To break these parameter degeneracies one needs to include measurements that complement the CMB constraints. For example, the degeneracy between $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{mat}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ that enters into the angular diameter distance to last scattering can be broken with low redshift measurements . An accurate measurement of the Hubble constant $`H_0`$, combined with the accurate determination of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{mat}}h^2`$ mentioned above, also breaks many degeneracies, and this is what large-scale structure surveys or direct $`H_0`$ measurements can provide.

If we are lucky enough that inflation takes place near the GUT scale, then a measurably large gravitational wave component to the anisotropy is predicted . Using both temperature and polarization information, tensor signals as small as $`0.11`$%  of the total anisotropy can be detected, corresponding to $`E_{\mathrm{inf}}>10^{15}`$GeV. Should our luck hold out, and inflation be dominated by a single scalar field, it may even be possible to reconstruct the inflationary potential to some extent from detailed measurements of the scale-dependence of the signals .

Nuts and bolts: Calculating CMB anisotropies

While the CMB anisotropy description above is physically clear, it is very heuristic in comparison to how the calculations are done in practice. One begins with the coupled Einstein, fluid, and radiative transfer equations, expanding about an exact solution and truncating the expansion at linear order . This is consistent as the observed fluctuations are small; in addition, the higher order terms have been calculated and shown to be small as expected . This results in a set of coupled ODEs that describe the evolution of each independent Fourier mode (or its curved-space generalization). While in some cases an analytic solution is possible, the equations are usually numerically integrated from early times until the present .

The formalism for computing the $`C_{\mathrm{}}`$ (or the higher-order moments) for any FRW space-time and any model of structure formation exists  and for many cases of interest can be done with publicly available codes such as CMBFAST  and CAMBfast . These codes incorporate many refinements  and have become quite complex. However, in addition to calculating self-consistency within a given code, calculations have been done (mostly for CDM models) using several independently developed codes, with an agreement found of $`𝒪(1\%)`$. .

Observational Outlook

Since COBE first detected anisotropies, there has been a flurry of observational “firsts” in CMB research. We now have observational evidence for a nearly scale-invariant low-$`\mathrm{}`$ plateau, a peak in power on degree scales and a subsequent fall in power (“damping”) on arcminute scales. As of this writing (Fall 2000), polarization has not yet been detected. Improved ground-based, balloon, and satellite CMB experiments are underway or under construction that will measure a range of properties, from small scale anisotropies on small regions of sky to full sky maps, with and without polarization. The most current information in this rapidly progressing area can be found on the experimental web pages . Recent experiments span a larger range of angular scales than ever before, allowing features in the spectrum to be identified from individual experiments rather than statistical compilations. This minimizes the effect of calibration uncertainties that can offset different experimental results by of order 10-20% in amplitude. Increased sky coverage (to allow calibration off the dipole) and better control of systematics are reducing this uncertainty in the next generation of experiments. Although many early measurements were statistical detections, in current experiments the signal-to-noise on each resolution element is larger than one. The flood of new, higher-resolution, higher signal-to-noise data has required the development of specialized analysis tools to extract the maximum cosmological information. CMB analysis is a flourishing sub-field that we have not attempted to address here.

Summary

Anisotropies in the CMB are one of the premier probes of cosmology and the early universe. Theoretically the CMB involves well-understood physics, in the “linear regime” and is thus under good calculational control. Model independent constraints on the cosmology and the model of structure formation exist. Within any given model parameter extraction can be made very precisely, especially when CMB data is combined with other data (“complementarity”).

Acknowledgements

We thank Douglas Scott for helpful comments. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. M.W. was supported by a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and by a grant from the US National Science Foundation. J.D.C. was supported by NSF-AST-0074728.


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# Quark mass density- and temperature- dependent model for strange quark matter

## I Figure Captions

Fig.1 The total free energy per baryon $`F/A`$ as a function of radius $`R`$, for temperature $`T=0`$(solid line), $`T=50\text{MeV}`$ in QMDD model (dashed line) and $`T=50\text{MeV}`$, $`a=0.65`$ in QMDTD model (dotted line).

Fig.2 The radius $`R`$ as a function of temperature $`T`$ for QMDD model.

Fig.3 The radius $`R`$ as a function of temperature $`T`$ for QMDTD model with various values for the parameter $`a`$ as indicated.

Fig.4 The energy per baryon $`E/A`$ as a function of temperature $`T`$ for QMDTD model with various values for the parameter $`a`$ as indicated.


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# A morphological comparison between the central region in AGN and normal galaxies using HST dataBased on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under the NASA contract NAS5–26555.

## 1 Introduction

An open question in current AGN research is how the central black hole is being fed with matter. The interstellar medium of the host galaxy seems to be a good fuel source since gas and dust is found in large quantities inside galaxies. What is not clear though, is how matter is transported from galactic scales (kiloparsec scales) to the small scales (parsec scales) near the nucleus.

One mechanism that has been proposed for the fueling of the active nucleus is the existence of galactic bars (Shlosman 1990). Many statistical studies have been performed in order to examine this possibility. Among others, Xanthopoulos (1996) analyzed optical (V, R, I) observations of a sample of 27 AGN and concluded that only half of them are barred. Observations of AGN in the near-infrared (NIR) revealed that the fraction of galaxies that host bars is larger than previously thought (e.g. Mulchaey et al. 1997; Márquez et al. 1999). This is mainly because dust and star formation effects can mask the bar structures and thus make them invisible at optical wavelengths while these effects are not very important in the NIR wavelengths. Making use of NIR data, Mulchaey & Regan (1997) concluded that the incidence of bars in Seyfert and normal galaxies is similar, suggesting that Seyfert nuclei do not occur preferentially in barred galaxies.

Another mechanism that has been proposed for the fueling of AGN involves interactions between the host galaxy and companion galaxies. It is argued that a dynamical instability, caused by the tidal field of the companion during a merger may drive a large fraction of the gas into the inner regions of the galaxy (Hernquist 1989). Statistical studies have been made to examine the environments of Seyfert and normal galaxies and the percentage of companions around them. The results have been inconclusive and rather ambiguous. For example, Fuentes–Williams & Stocke (1988) and Bushouse (1986) concluded that there is not a detectable difference in the environments of Seyfert and normal galaxies. Dahari (1984) and Rafanelli et al. (1995) on the other hand, found that Seyfert galaxies have an excess of companions relative to normal galaxies.

Consequently, the observations so far have shown that bars and interactions are not responsible for fueling the AGN in all cases. However, irrespective of the mechanism that transports material close to the central source, there should be enough potential fuel (in the form of interstellar dust and gas) in the circumnuclear region of Seyfert galaxies. Indeed, recent HST observations have shown that the central regions in Seyfert galaxies are rich in gas and dust. Malkan et al. (1998) found fine-scale structures of various morphological types in the central regions of Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies. Regan & Mulchaey (1999) and Martini & Pogge (1999), examined the central morphology of Seyfert galaxies with the use of color maps. They found significant structure, with gas and dust organized mainly in nuclear spiral dust lanes on scales of a few hundred parsec. These spiral dust lanes could be the channels by which the material from the host galaxy is transported into the central engine. Recently, Pogge & Martini (2002) presented archival HST images of the nuclear regions of Seyfert galaxies from the CfA Redshift Survey sample. They found that essentially all the Seyfert galaxies in their sample have circumnuclear structures which are connected with the large-scale bars and spiral arms in the host galaxies and could be related to the fueling of AGN by matter inflow from the host galaxy disks.

The studies mentioned above investigated the circumnuclear morphology in AGNs mainly. In the present work we compare the morphology of the central regions in AGN and non-AGN galaxies in order to search for signatures of the AGN fueling through differences that may exist. This comparison is necessary in order to understand the main reason that makes a galaxy host an active nucleus. There are two obvious reasons that could cause this effect, the first being the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy, and the second is the presence of matter near the central region which could provide the central black hole with the necessary fuel. Since there is now sufficient observational evidence which suggests that the majority (if not all) of the galaxies contain a central black hole (e.g. Kormedy & Gebhardt 2001), it is important to investigate whether the lack of the fuelling material is the main reason for the presence of nuclear activity.

We make use of HST observations of a group of nearby AGN and “normal” (i.e. non-AGN) galaxies which have similar distributions of distance, morphological classification, as well as inclination. Using the “ellipse fitting” technique, we uncover their central, overall morphology. Any localised excesses or deficits of emission (indicative of the presence of significant amount of gas/dust) should show up as deviations from the smooth isophotes. By measuring the average amplitude of these deviations we can investigate, in a quantitative way, whether the central regions of AGNs are significantly more “irregular” than those in normal galaxies.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2 we give information on the sample of the galaxies, and in Sect. 3 we describe the method that we follow in order to uncover the nuclear structure in the galaxies. In Sect. 4 we present our results. A discussion follows in Sect. 5, while a summary of our work is presented in Sect. 6.

## 2 The sample

For the purposes of this study we chose objects from the Palomar optical spectroscopic survey of nearby galaxies (Ho et al. 1995). These authors surveyed a nearly complete sample of 486 bright ($`B_T12.5`$ mag), northern ($`\delta >0^0`$) galaxies using the Palomar 5m telescope and derived a catalogue of emission-line nuclei, including a comprehensive list of nearby AGNs (Ho et al. 1997a). The selection criteria of the survey ensure that the sample is a fair representation of the local galaxy population. Furthermore, the proximity of the objects enables fairly good spatial resolution to be achieved, which is crucial for the objectives of the present work.

Ho et al. (1997a) have classified the galaxies in their sample into various subclasses of emission-line nuclei: H II nuclei, Seyfert nuclei, LINERs and “transition” objects (i.e. composite LINER/H II nuclei). Although a significant fraction of LINERs or transition objects could be genuine AGNs (e.g. Ho 2001 and references therein) we considered only the classical Seyfert 1s and 2s as representatives of the local AGN population. As representatives of the non-AGN population we considered only the H II galaxies and the galaxies that show no emission lines in their spectra. In total, there are 52 Seyfert nuclei and 263 non-AGN galaxies in the Palomar sample.

From this list of 315 objects we chose the galaxies that fulfiled the following criteria: (1) inclination smaller than $`70^{}`$, (2) they were observed with the WFPC2 instrument onboard the HST (before the end of 1999) and their central region was mapped with the Planetary Camera (PC), and (3) their central region was not overexposed. The small inclination criterion was imposed because we are interested in studying the innermost region of the galaxies which, in inclined systems, can be obscured due to projection and/or obscuration effects. Most of the HST observations of the Palomar sample have been performed with the WFPC2 instrument, hence, the choice to study the galaxies which are observed with this instrument. Finally, the requirement of PC observations of the central region was enforced in order to maximize the available spatial resolution (the pixel size of this camera is $`0.0455\mathrm{}`$, while the field of view is $`36\mathrm{}\times 36\mathrm{}`$).

There are 58 galaxies (23 active and 35 non-active) that meet our criteria. Most of them were observed with the F555W and F606W filters (13 and 34, respectively), 10 objects were observed with the F547M filter, and 1 with the F569W filter. The difference between the effective wavelength of the various filters is small and should not influence our results. Table 1 lists the observational details (i.e. filter, exposure times and ID program number of the original observing program) of the 58 galaxies.

In Table 2 (columns 3, 4, 5 and 6) we list the global and photometric properties of the 58 galaxies, i.e. the numerical Hubble type index ($`T`$), their distance, the absolute $`B`$ band magnitude ($`M_B`$), corrected for intrinsic and galactic absorption, and the inclination ($`i`$) (the data listed in this table were taken from Ho et al. , 1997a). The parameter $`T`$ ranges from -5 to 5 with 25 galaxies being early-type ($`T0`$) and 33 galaxies being late-type ($`T>0`$). Column 2 in Table 2 lists the galaxy “activity type”: “A” and “NA” stand for AGN and non-AGN, according to the classification of Ho et al. (1997a) while for AGNs the Seyfert type is also given. Finally, the last column in the same table lists the projected scale in parsecs per PC pixel at the distance of the galaxy.

Although the original sample of Ho et al. (1995) is an almost complete sample of nearby galaxies (see discussion in Ho et al. , 1997b), this is not true for the present sample. Since the main selection criterion is the availability of WFPC2 observations, it is important to examine if sample biases and selection effects are introduced in this way.

Table 3 lists the median global properties of the objects in our sample and Fig. 1 shows the distribution of morphological type, distance, absolute magnitude and inclination for the AGN and non-AGN group of galaxies (filled and open histograms, respectively). The average properties of the galaxies are similar for both groups (Table 3). The exception is the absolute magnitude, with the AGNs being brighter than the non-AGNs by $`0.7`$ mags on average.

Application of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) test (Press et al. 1992) confirms that the distributions plotted in Fig. 1 are similar, apart from the distributions of $`M_B`$. The probability that the sample distributions of $`T`$, distance and inclination are drawn from the same parent population is $`78\%`$, $`15\%`$, and $`37\%`$, respectively (hereafter, when we compare different distributions or compute correlation coefficients, we consider as “statistically significant” these differences or correlations with a probability to appear by chance being less than $`10\%`$). In the case of the distributions of $`M_B`$, the K–S test gives a probability of only $`5\%`$. We conclude that the distributions of distance, morphological classification and inclination of the non-AGN sample match those of the AGN sample. The distribution of the galaxy luminosity is different between the two samples, however, as we discuss in Sect. 4 this does not affect our conclusions.

## 3 The Data and method of analysis

All the WFPC2 images that we used were already processed by the standard STScI reduction pipeline (Biretta et al. 2000). Since we have chosen images with no saturation effects, the only additional processing step required is the removal of cosmic rays. For that reason, we used the filter/cosmic task of MIDAS astronomical package. Any residual cosmic ray events as well as bright foreground stars were removed by hand. For those galaxies with more than one image, we chose to study the one with the largest exposure time which did not cause saturation effects in the central region. If there were two or more images of the same integration time, we analyzed the images (as explained below) and then combined the resulting “variance” values (see below).

Our main aim is to study, in a quantitative way, the irregularities in the morphology of the central region of the galaxies. Our methodology consists of two steps. In the first step, we use the ellipse fitting technique to recover the axisymmetric isophotes around the center of the galaxies. If there are localized regions with excess emission (for example regions of star clusters or H II regions) or deficits (caused by dust absorption), they will show as deviations from the smooth isophotes. Based on this idea, in the second step, we compute the scatter of the pixel values around their mean (i.e. their variance) and use this value as a measure of the amplitude of the central structures. Although it is hard to estimate the significance of the derived amplitudes for each individual galaxy, the comparison of the distribution of the amplitudes for various groups of galaxies can provide us with useful information. For example, one would expect that AGNs, hosting a black hole and a large amount of gas in their nuclear region should show larger amplitude structure (and thus larger variance), on average, when compared with the normal galaxies. We describe below the two steps in more detail.

As mentioned above, first, we perform ellipse fitting to the isophotes of the galaxy image. This choice is motivated by the fact that the isophotes of galaxies, especially elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) as well as the bulge of spiral galaxies, are not far from ellipses. This technique has been widely used in the past by various authors, mainly as a method of retrieving embedded galaxy structures that are hidden by the large-scale distribution of light of the main body of the galaxy. Descriptions of ellipse fitting techniques and their applications to the surface photometry of galaxies can be found in Kent (1983), Jedrzejewski (1987), Bender & Möllenhoff (1987), Wozniak et al. (1995) and Milvang–Jensen & Jørgensen (1999). Using the fit/ell3 task of MIDAS, which is based on the formulas of Bender & Möllenhoff (1987), we fit the isophotes of the galaxy image and construct an artificial image from the fitted ellipses.

As an example, in Fig. 2 we show the central region of NGC 5273 (left panel) together with the “artificial” image from the fitted ellipses (middle panel). In order to recover the morphological features in the innermost part of the galaxy we then divide the galaxy image by the artificial image from the fitted ellipses. In doing so, we normalise the pixel values of the central regions in all galaxies to unity so that the amplitude of the structures in one galaxy can be compared with the amplitude in other galaxies, irrespective of their brightness or exposure time. The resulting image for NGC 5273, which we call the “structure” image, is also shown in Fig. 2 (right panel). If there were no structure in the central region, we would expect a smooth image with all the pixels having a value around $`1`$. On the contrary, the image on the right panel of Fig. 2 shows positive and negative deviations from the smooth isophotes, indicative of localised structures. As an example of a galaxy with no deviations from the underlying galactic isophotes, in Fig. 3 we show the HST image of NGC 4612, together with the image from the fitted ellipses and the resulting image, after dividing the HST image with the image from the elliptical isophotes (left, middle and right panel, respectively). The structure image is almost completely smooth, with an average value of $`1.00\pm 0.05`$ and no obvious deviations from the fitted isophotes.

In the second step, we choose two regions around the center of each galaxy with size of 100 pc and 1 kpc. The regions are defined as orthogonal boxes centered on the galaxy and with their largest side parallel to the major axis of the galaxy. The ratio of the small-to-large side of the box is taken as the cosine of the inclination angle of the galaxy. First, we measure the mean of the pixel values in each region and then their variance by using the statistics/image task of MIDAS. There are two mechanisms that contribute to the variance that we measure. One is the photon noise process and the other is the presence of features/irregularities in the region. Since we are interested in measuring the amplitude of the deviations that are caused by the galaxy micro-structures, we have to correct the estimated variance for the contribution of the photon noise statistics. Let us denote with $`\sigma _R^2`$, $`\sigma _{PN}^2`$, and $`\sigma _S^2`$ the total variance of a region, say $`R`$, the variance that is introduced by the photon noise process, and the variance that is due to micro-structures, respectively. Since the photon noise variations and the variations due to morphological irregularities contribute to $`\sigma _S^2`$ in an independent way, then $`\sigma _R^2=\sigma _{PN}^2+\sigma _S^2`$, or $`\sigma _S^2=\sigma _R^2\sigma _{PN}^2`$. Therefore, we have to subtract the variance that is caused by the photon noise statistics from the total variance of each region in order to compute the variance that is due to real galactic structures. This is an important correction, since the flux (and hence the photon noise statistics) is different for each galaxy due to differences in the exposure time and their magnitude.

The contribution of each pixel to the total variance in each region is $`(x_i\overline{x})^2/N`$, where $`x_i`$ is the pixel value, $`\overline{x}`$ is the mean value of all the pixels in the region and $`N`$ is the total number of pixels. The photon noise process contribution for that pixel is $`(x_ig+RON^2)/N`$, where $`g`$ and $`RON`$ are the gain and read-out noise of WFPC2 ($`7e^{}/DN`$, and $`5e^{}`$), respectively. Therefore, the contribution to the total variance of the photon noise statistics is $`\sigma _{PN}^2=_i(x_ig+RON^2)/N`$, where the summation is over the $`N`$ the pixels of the region. In order to estimate this, we constructed an “error image”, i.e. we multiplied the original image with $`g`$, added the $`RON^2`$ value, and then divided with $`(m_ig)^2`$ in order to take account for the fact that we have also divided the original image with the fitted ellipses ($`m_i`$ is the value of the elliptical isophot at each pixel $`x_i`$). The mean value of the regions in the “error” image which have the same dimensions as the respective regions in the structure image is a good approximation of $`\sigma _{PN}^2`$.

## 4 Results

The estimated values of $`\sigma _S^2`$ for the inner 100 pc and 1 kpc regions of all the galaxies in our sample are listed in Table 4 (columns 2 and 3, respectively). In effect, the variance that we estimate gives a measure of the average amplitude of the deviations from the smooth isophotes in each galaxy. The average $`\sigma _S^2`$ in the innermost 100 pc and 1 kpc regions is $`0.06\pm 0.02`$ and $`0.025\pm 0.006`$, respectively (note that for the nearest galaxies, the 1 kpc region is larger than the field of view of the PC camera; for that reason we could not estimate their $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$). Consequently, the average amplitude of the localised structures in the innermost 100 pc and 1 kpc regions are $`\sqrt{\sigma _S^2}\times 100\%25\%`$ and $`16\%`$ of the underlying galaxy emission, respectively. The fact that the average structure amplitude decreases with distance from the center (i.e. $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2<\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$) implies that most of the structure is concentrated at the center of the galaxies. As a result, consideration of a larger region will tend to dilute the signal, i.e. decrease $`\sigma _S^2`$.

Before comparing the structure amplitudes for the various groups of galaxies, we have to examine whether our results are biased by any observational or global characteristics of the galaxies. First of all, if the central region isophotes are not elliptical then the residuals that we detect could be the result of the failure of the elliptical isophotes to fit properly the underlying starlight distribution. An indication that the “ellipse fitting” method works successfully in suppressing the underlying galaxy distribution and revealing real structures in the central regions of the galaxies is given by the fact that most of the dust/emission structures that we detect are certainly visible in the original images as well. In order to investigate further this possibility, we plotted the fitted ellipses superimposed on the galactic isophotes for all the galaxies in our sample. For galaxies with $`T0`$, the agreement between the overall shape of the isophotes and the fitted ellipses is very good. In many cases the isophotes are not smooth and small-scale departures from the elliptical shape are apparent, indicative of the localised structures that we want to study. For the $`T>0`$ galaxies, in some cases, we do observe systematic deviations of the isophotes from ellipses at large distances from the galactic centers. They are caused mainly by the presence of spiral arms, while in a few cases the presence of an inclined disk causes the isophotes to become more elongated than the fitted ellipses. However, at small radii, the isophotes are well approximated by ellipses, with any deviations being localised and suggestive of small-scale structures.

As a final test of how well the ellipse fitting method detects the underlying morphological signatures, we compared our “structure” images with images obtained by using other techniques. In Fig. 4, we plot the “structure” image of the Seyfert 2 galaxies NGC 5033, NGC 5273 and NGC 3982 (top left, top right and bottom left respectively; note that the structure image of NGC 5273, also presented in Fig. 2, is now fliped and scaled to different brightness levels so that it can be compared with the respective color map image). The central micro-structure in these galaxies have been studied by Martini & Pogge (1999) with the use of ($`VH`$) color maps. These maps are shown in Fig. 4 as well. In the same figure, we also plot the “structure” image of NGC 3516 (a Seyfert 1 galaxy; bottom right panel) together with another structure image which was constructed with the use of the “Richardson - Lucy” (R–L) image restoration technique (Pogge & Martini, 2002). In all panels, the left hand side images are those taken from the literature (downloaded in electronic form from the respective journal site) and the right hand side images are the “structure” images created with the ellipse fitting method presented in this work. The brightness levels and the image scales were adjusted in such a way so that they are roughly comparable with the ones taken from the literature.

Comparison of the “structure” images with the color maps in Fig. 4 shows clearly that the ellipse fitting technique reveals successfully most of the features that appear in the color maps (in some cases, the features appear more enhanced in the “structure” images). There are no additional features that could be identified with ellipse fitting residuals. It is also evident that the bright cores seen in all the galaxies in the color maps are fitted quite well with ellipses. As a result, they do not appear and do not cause any artifacts in the “structure” images. This is true even in the case of NGC 3516. In order to avoid the overexposed bright nucleus which appears in the image of Pogge & Martini (2002), we have used an image of shorter exposure, taken with a different filter. The nucleus is successfully removed, and the same features appear in both images. We conclude that the “ellipse fitting” method works successfully in suppressing the underlying smooth galaxy distribution and revealing real structures in the central regions of the galaxies. However, it is hard to judge whether the $`\sigma _S^2`$ values (of the $`T>0`$ galaxies mainly) are indicative of the real structure amplitudes only, or whether the amplitude of any fitting method residuals contributes significantly as well. Because of this reason, the $`\sigma _S^2`$ values should be considered as a rough estimate of the galactic micro-structure amplitudes.

Furthermore, Fig. 5 (upper panel) shows a plot of $`\sigma _S^2`$ as a function of exposure time, for both the 100 pc and 1 kpc regions. Although we have normalised the structure images to the underlying galaxy isophotes, hence the estimation of $`\sigma _S^2`$ is not affected by differences in the brightness of the galaxies, there is still the possibility that if the signal to noise is small in some cases (due to short exposure time) we may not be able to estimate accurately the amplitude of the central structures. As Fig. 5 shows, this is not the case. There is no correlation between $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ or $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ with exposure time. This result is verified when we use Kendall’s $`\tau `$ nonparametric statistic (Press et al. 1992) in order to investigate, quantitatively, whether there is a significant correlation between the two variables. We find $`\tau =0.05`$ and $`\tau =0.15`$ for the \[$`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$, exposure\] and \[$`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$, exposure\] variables, respectively. The probability that we would obtained these values by chance, if the two variables were uncorrelated, is $`15\%`$ in both cases.

On the other hand, both $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ are correlated with the inclination and distance of the galaxies. Looking at Fig. 5 (second panel from top) we can see a positive correlation between $`\sigma _S^2`$ and inclination: as the inclination increases, so does $`\sigma _S^2`$. The $`\sigma _S^2`$ vs distance plot (second panel from bottom in Fig. 5) shows that $`\sigma _S^2`$ is also correlated with distance. In fact, in this case, an anti–correlation is observed. As the distance decreases, $`\sigma _S^2`$ increases. Computation of Kendal’s $`\tau `$ yielded 0.28, 0.24, -0.16 and -0.23 for the $`\sigma _{S100pc,S1kpc}^2`$ vs inclination, and the $`\sigma _{S100pc,S1kpc}^2`$ vs distance correlations, respectively. The probability that these values would appear by chance if the variables \[$`\sigma _S^2`$, inclination\] and \[$`\sigma _S^2`$, distance\] were uncorrelated is $`0.2\%`$ and $`8\%`$ (in the case of the $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ plots) and $`2\%`$, $`3\%`$ (in the case of the $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ plots) respectively. The dependence of $`\sigma _S^2`$ on distance is easy to interpret. The median distance of all the galaxies is 16.7 Mpc. However, the distance of the nearest galaxy is only 1.4 Mpc, while the most distant galaxy is located at 61.2 Mpc. Any small scale structures will be smoothed out in the more distant galaxies, hence the increase of $`\sigma _S^2`$ with decreasing distance. The dependence of the variance on the inclination is rather unexpected. One would expect that small scale structure would be diminished in inclined systems, while the opposite effect is observed. Visual inspection of the respective structure images shows that the increase of $`\sigma _S^2`$ with increasing inclination is caused by the obscuration effects due to dust, which become more pronounced in inclined systems.

Finally, we also examined whether $`\sigma _S^2`$ depends on the absolute $`B`$ band magnitude of the galaxies (Fig. 5, lower panel). As expected, there seems to be no correlation between the two variables. Indeed, $`\tau =0.07`$ and $`0.15`$ for the \[$`\sigma _{S100pc,1kpc}^2,M_B`$\] variables. The probability that the correlation of two uncorrelated variables would yield these values by chance is $`41\%`$ and $`15\%`$ respectively.

### 4.1 Active vs non-Active galaxies

In Fig. 6 we plot the distribution of $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ for the AGN and non-AGN galaxies in our sample (filled and open histograms, respectively). The two distributions appear to be similar, although the non-AGN galaxies show an excess of larger $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ values. This effect is more pronounced in the plots of the cumulative distribution functions (CDF) of $`\sigma _S^2`$ (shown in the lower panel of Fig. 6). The $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ CDF of the non-AGN galaxies shows clearly an extended tail towards larger values. The K–S test shows that the differences between the two distributions are not statistically significant. The probability that they are drawn from the same population is $`11\%`$ and $`12\%`$ for the $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ distributions respectively. We note that the dependence of $`\sigma _S^2`$ on distance and inclination cannot influence our results since the distributions of inclination and distance are statistically similar for the active and non-active groups of galaxies.

In order to examine whether $`\sigma ^2`$ depends on the galaxy Hubble type and the galaxy activity class, in Fig. 7 we plot the mean $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ for the AGN and normal galaxies as a function of $`T`$. In the $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ vs $`T`$ plot we observe a systematic increase of the structure amplitude with the Hubble type, which is roughly similar for both the AGNs (filled circles) and non-AGNs (open diamonds). This trend is expected, for three reasons. At a distance of 1 kpc, as $`T`$ increases, we start to detect the increasing amplitude of the spiral arms (with respect to the underlying galactic/bulge component). Furthermore, early-type galaxies are less gas–rich than late-type galaxies (Young & Scoville 1991). Therefore, obscuration effects and/or bright H II regions will become more prominent (and hence the variance will increase) as $`T`$ increases. Finally, as we mentioned in Section 4, in late-type galaxies, the presence of an exponential disk can cause fitting residuals to appear, and hence increase the $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ values for these galaxies.

The $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ vs $`T`$ plot shows a similar trend (the variance increases with increasing $`T`$), however there are two important differences as well. Firstly, AGNs appear to have similar $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ values, irrespective of their Hubble type. On the other hand, the early and late normal galaxies show a large difference in their $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$, with the late-type galaxies being much more irregular in their central regions than the early-type galaxies. We would like to emphasize that the differences in the variance of the early and late-type galaxies can not be caused by differences in their distance or inclination, since the distributions of the distance and inclination for the two groups of galaxies are statistically similar (the probability that they are drawn from the same parent population is $`27\%`$ and $`12\%`$, respectively), or by any fitting method residuals, since the overall shape of the galactic isophotes at small radii in both early and late-type galaxies are well approximated by ellipses as we mentioned in Section 4.

### 4.2 Active vs non-Active early and late-type galaxies

We investigated further the comparison between the $`\sigma ^2`$ distributions of the AGN and non-AGN groups of galaxies taking into account the differencies between the early and late-type of galaxies that Fig. 7 revealed. In Fig. 8, we plot the distributions of $`\sigma ^2`$ for AGN and non-AGN considering not the whole samples but only late or early-type galaxies (upper and second from bottom panel, respectively). In the case of late-type galaxies, the distribution of $`\sigma _S^2`$ for normal galaxies extends to much larger values, when compared to the distribution of the AGN. The opposite is true in the case of early-type galaxies. There, the AGN distribution of $`\sigma _S^2`$ shows a tail towards larger values, while the distribution of the normal galaxies is centered around $`0`$.

These results become more pronounced in the plots of the cumulative distribution functions. The CDF plot of $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ for late-type AGN and non-AGN shows clearly that, on average, normal galaxies have $`\sigma _S^2`$ values larger than the AGN (second from top panel in Fig. 8). On the other hand, the CDF of the early-type AGN is shifted to larger values when compared to the CDF of the early type non-AGN galaxies (bottom panel in Fig. 8). Application of the K–S test shows that the distributions shown in Fig. 8 are significantly different. The probability that they are drawn from the same parent population is less than $`0.1\%`$ in the case of early-type galaxies (for both $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ and $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$), and $`0.5\%`$ in the case of the distributions of $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ for late-type AGN and non-AGN. On the other hand, the $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ distributions for the same group of galaxies, are statistically similar, with a probability of being drawn from the same parent population of $`37\%`$.

The difference between the distributions of $`\sigma _S^2`$ of the non-AGN/AGN early and late type galaxies cannot be caused from differences in the distributions of their morphological type or inclination. For example, application of the K–S test shows that the Hubble type index and the inclination distributions of the early type, AGN and non-AGN galaxies are not significantly different. The probability of being drawn from the same parent polution is $`48\%`$ and $`31\%`$ respectively. The only significant difference that we find is between the distributions of distance for the early-type AGN/non-AGN galaxies. AGN have on average larger distance compared to the non-AGN, early-type galaxies. However, this result implies that the difference in the variance between the two groups is actually larger than what is observed in Fig. 8.

## 5 Discussion

We have used archival WFPC2 HST images to study the morphology of 58 nearby galaxies in a quantitative way, i.e. by measuring the variance (that is to say the average amplitude of the deviations from the smooth galactic isophotes), in two regions around the center of each galaxy, one with a radius of 100 pc and the other with a radius of 1 kpc. Our main results are as follows:

1) Taken as a whole, the galaxies show considerable structure in their central regions. The amplitude of the nuclear features is roughly $`25\%`$ and $`15\%`$ of the underlying galactic emission in the inner region of 100 pc and 1 kpc, respectively.

2) When we consider the whole AGN and non-AGN group of galaxies, the distributions of the variances are statistically similar.

3) The central structure tends to increase from early-type towards late-type galaxies.

4) The $`\sigma _{S1kpc}^2`$ increases “smoothly” for both the AGN and non-AGN galaxies with increasing $`T`$ (see Fig. 7). Consequently, the spiral arm structure and large scale dust lane morphology (these two factors contribute most of the large scale structure that we observe) are similar in both groups of galaxies.

5)However, the $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ values show a large, discontinuous increase between the non-AGN late and early-type of galaxies, while they remain roughly constant for active galaxies, both of early and late-type.

Consistent with previous studies (e.g. Malkan et al. 1998, Regan & Mulchaey 1999, Martini & Pogge 1999), we find that all AGN show evidence for significant central structure, irrespective of the host galaxy type. The deviations are caused by localised regions of excess emission or deficits, probably caused by dust absorption. The difference in the morphology of the central region between AGN and non-AGN galaxies is particularly strong in the case of early-type galaxies. The “structure” image of all the early-type, non-AGN galaxies (except from NGC 4649, see below) looks like the structure image of NGC 4612 in Fig. 3 (an early-type galaxy itself). No significant deviations, of any kind, from the fitted ellipses appears in the images of the other normal, early-type galaxies. On the contrary, the structure images of all the early-type, AGN galaxies show significant structures in their central regions. An example is shown in Fig. 2 (NGC 5273 is an early-type, AGN galaxy). The central region (i.e. the innermost $`100`$ pc) shows significant deviations from the isophotes, with many bright and dark regions appearing, in a rather “chaotic” pattern. Large-scale dark “lanes”, which extend up to the innermost region are also evident. The only exception among the early-type, non-AGN galaxies is NGC 4694, an H II galaxy according to Ho et al. (1997a), which shows large amplitude structure in its central regions (in fact, its $`\sigma _{S100pc}^2`$ value is the largest among the early-type galaxies), similar to the structure that is seen in the central region of AGNs. We suspect that this galaxy may have a misclassified Hubble type (indeed it has a much more peculiar shape than the typical $`T=2`$ galaxies) or a misclassified nuclear activity type.

Due to the small size of the early type, AGN and non-AGN galaxy samples, the significant differences that we find in the morphology of their central regions should be considered with caution. For example, although we find no statistically significant difference in the distribution of host type for the two samples, approximately $`44\%`$ of the early-type non-AGN are ellipticals ($`T=5`$), while only $`11\%`$ of the early-type AGN are ellipticals. This could explain in part the observed difference in the distributions of $`\sigma _S^2`$ values. However, only one of the remaining nine non-AGN galaxies (with $`T>5`$ shows central micro-structure (NGC 4694), while all eight early-type, AGN galaxies with $`T>5`$ show significant structure in their central regions. If confirmed with the use of larger samples, this result is consistent with the hypothesis that the presence of an active nucleus in early-type galaxies is associated with the presence of material in them. It is possible that all early-type galaxies host a supermassive black hole, but only in those cases where a sufficient quantity of interstellar material has managed to reach the innermost region (and fuel the central engine), an active nucleus is exhibited.

We find a different picture in the case of late-type galaxies. Almost all of them show large amplitude structure in their central regions. In fact, the average amplitude of the deviations in the 100 pc innermost region of the late-type non-AGN galaxies is larger than the amplitude in the AGN of the same morphological type (see Fig. 7). This is a puzzling result, which implies that the presence of significant structure, and hence of material in the inner region of these galaxies, does not result in the presence of an active nucleus in them.

One possibility is that the mass of the black hole in late-type normal galaxies is small and hence the luminosity of the nucleus is not large enough to be detected. We investigated this possibility by computing the mass of the putative black hole in the center of the galaxies according to the formula

$$M_{BH}=0.78\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}(\frac{L_{bulge}}{10^{10}L_{\mathrm{}}})^{1.08}$$
(1)
given in Kormendy & Gebhardt (2001). This relation between the black hole mass ($`M_{BH}`$) and the $`B`$ band luminosity of the bulge component of the galaxy ($`L_{bulge}`$) is established the last few years from stellar, ionized gas, and maser dynamics observations of many, mainly inactive or weakly active galaxies. Using the values of the absolute bulge magnitude ($`M_{bulge}`$) for our sample of galaxies (taken from Ho et al. 1997a) we calculated the luminosity of the bulge ($`L_{bulge}=10^{0.4(4.79M_{bulge})}`$) and thus the black hole mass $`M_{BH}`$ for each galaxy. We found that the black hole mass for the AGNs in our sample ranges from $`7.4\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ to $`6.8\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}`$ with a median value of $`2.0\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}`$. For the non-AGNs, assuming that they also host an “invisible” black hole, the mass range would be from $`1.0\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ to $`2.2\times 10^9M_{\mathrm{}}`$ with a median value of $`8.2\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$. Hence, on average, the active galaxies host a black hole with a mass which is $``$ 2.5 times larger than the mass of the black hole in the non-AGN galaxies in our sample. However, there is also a considerable overlap between the black hole mass values that we compute for the AGN and non-AGNs. Therefore, we conclude that most of the late-type, non-AGN galaxies in our sample either do not host a supermassive black hole, or, for some reason, although there is enough material in the central region (i.e. within the innermost 100 pc), it cannot fuel the central engine.

In order to investigate possible reasons that could prevent the fueling of the central engine in the galaxies that show the largest amplitude structure in their innermost 100 pc region, we compared the morphology of the circumnuclear structures that we observe in the late-type, AGN and non-AGN galaxies, in trying to find whether there exist any systematic differencies. We could not identify any clear patterns that appear exclusively in one of the two groups of galaxies. There are galaxies in both groups which show nuclear dust spiral formations, which some times appear to connect to larger scale dust lanes. In other cases, irrespective of the galaxy’s activity type, the distribution of the structures follows a chaotic pattern, with no clear, overall formation.

Therefore, the only significant difference that appears to exist between late-type, AGN and non-AGNs is the amplitude of the nuclear structures. Perhaps there exists an active nucleus in the late-type, non-AGN in our sample but, if the larger amplitude structure that we find in these galaxies implies the existence of a larger amount of gas in their central region, then this material, apart from fueling the central black hole, may also obscure the central active nucleus (including the Narrow Line Region) from our sight. At the same time, the large amounts of gas could result in the formation of a large number of star forming regions which make these galaxies look like H II galaxies. As the central gas content decreases, the active nucleus will be revealed and, at the same time, the central black hole will have increased its mass, rendering the galaxy a “normal” AGN.

## 6 Summary

Using archival Hubble Space Telescope images, we examined the central morphology of 58 galaxies (23 AGN and 35 non-AGN). Using the “ellipse fitting” technique, we “uncovered” hidden structures in the innermost parts of the galaxies. In order to compare, in a quantitative way, the structure seen in the samples of AGN and normal galaxies we calculated their variance (a quantity that is proportional to their amplitude normalised to the underlying galactic emission) and compared its distribution for different subgroups of the galaxies. We found that all AGNs show significant structure in their central 100 pc region. The amplitude of the structures is more or less independent of their Hubble type. When grouping the galaxies according to their Hubble type we found that, contrary to early-type AGNs, early-type non-AGN galaxies show no structure at all. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that all early-type galaxies host a supermassive black-hole, but in only those cases where there is significant amount of material in their central regions they host an active nucleus. On the other hand, late-type galaxies show significant nuclear structures irrespective of whether they are AGNs or not. This implies that the presence of material in the inner region of these galaxies does not result in the presence of an active nucleus as well. Either not all late-type galaxies host a central black hole, or, for some reason, contrary to what happens in AGN, the significant amount of material on the scales of tens-of-parsecs does not make it down to the scales of the central black hole. Another possibility is that the large amount of gas and dust in them obscure the nucleus from our sight.

Our results are based on the use of small size samples, because the the number of current HST, WFPC2 images of nearby galaxies that satisfy the criteria listed in Section 2 is small. Obviously, larger samples are needed in order to confirm our results. We plan to repeat the analysis that we presented in this work in the future when a larger number of observations of AGN and non-AGN galaxies will be available, and investigate in greater detail the differencies/similarities in the morphology of the central region in these galaxies.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank the referee (J. Mulchaey) for useful comments and suggestions on the improvement of this paper. This paper has also benefited a lot from discussions with N. Kylafis, J. Papamastorakis, V. Charmandaris and K. Xilouris.