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# Low temperature superlattice in monoclinic PZT

## Abstract

TEM has shown that the strongly piezoelectric material PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 separates into two phases at low temperatures. The majority phase is the monoclinic phase previously found by x-ray diffraction. The minority phase, with a nanoscale coherence length, is a slightly distorted variant of the first resulting from the anti-phase rotation of the oxygen octahedra about . This work clears up a recent controversy about the origin of superlattice peaks in these materials, and supports recent theoretical results predicting the coexistence of ferroelectric and rotational instabilities.

Ferroelectric ceramics of PbZr1-xTixO3 (PZT) with compositions around x=0.50 display anomalously high dielectric and piezoelectric responses, which are related to the ”morphotropic phase boundary” (MPB), the steep boundary separating the rhombohedral (zirconium rich) and tetragonal (titanium rich) phases of the phase diagram Jaf1 . The technological relevance of PZT as the active element in electromechanical transducers has motivated a large amount of fundamental research in the last fifty years, aimed at revealing the nature of the MPB and the origin of the outstanding physical properties of these materials, which to this date are still not well understood.

Recently, a monoclinic phase with space group (s.g) Cm, has been discovered by x-ray powder diffraction at the MPB of PZT Noh1 ; Noh2 ; Noh3 , in between the rhombohedral (R) and tetragonal (T) phases, as shown in Fig. 1. The importance of this new phase (called MA after ref.Van1 ) is remarkable because, due to the lack of a symmetry axis, it allows for the rotation of the ferroelectric polarization between the polar axes of the R and T phases Noh2 ; Bel1 . The remaining symmetry element is a mirror plane, the pseudo-cubic ($`\overline{1}`$10) plane,which is also common to T and R (with s.g. P4mm and R3m, respectively). Due to the near degeneracy of the different phases at the MPB, the polarization rotation can also be easily achieved by applying an electric field, which induces the monoclinic phase, and thus explains the high electromechanical response observed in PZT Guo1 ; Bel2 .

First principles calculations have been able to reproduce the intermediate monoclinic phase observed in PZT in excellent agreement with the experiments, provided that the atomic disorder in Zr/Ti site is taken into account Bel1 . Furthermore, they have shown that this phase is directly related to the very high electromechanical response of the ceramic material (single crystals of PZT are not available) mainly due to the d15 component of the piezoelectric tensor, which indicates the easy rotation of the polarization in the monoclinic plane Bel1 . From a phenomenological point of view, it has recently been shown that the monoclinic phase can be derived from the Devonshire expansion of the free energy to eighth-order, while a twelfth-order expansion would be needed to derive the lowest symmetry triclinic perovskites Van1 . All the above is a clear indication of the very high anharmonicity of the energy potentials in PZT, that is also present in other related systems Kia1 .

With decreasing temperatures PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT48) transforms from a cubic to a tetragonal phase at about 660K, and from a tetragonal to a monoclinic phase at about 300K Noh2 ; Noh3 . X-ray diffraction reveals no further phase transformation down to 20K Noh2 . The reported MA cell is rotated $`45^o`$ about the $`c`$-axis with respect to the tetragonal one and is double in volume, with $`a_m`$ $``$ $`b_m`$ $``$ $`a_p`$$`\sqrt{2}`$, and $`c_m`$$``$ $`a_p`$, $`a_p`$ $``$ 4 Å being the length of the cubic cell. However, recently, Ragini et al. Rag1  have observed superlattice (sl) reflections at low temperatures by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) that are not consistent with the MA phase. These sl reflections are also observed by neutron diffraction Noh3 ; Raj1 ; Fra1 , but are not seen in the x-ray diffraction patterns Noh2 ; Rag1 .

The appearance of a superlattice is a common phenomenon in pervoskites, related in most cases to the softening of one or more $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$25 zone-corner (R-point) phonons Shi1 , which involves rotations of the oxygen octahedraGla2 . In ferroelectric perovskites, the octahedra tilts occur independently of the cation displacements (associated with the softening of the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$15 zone-center mode) and therefore do not essentially affect the ferroelectric properties. In PZT, such rotations have been observed in the rhombohedral region of the phase diagram (see Fig. 1) Gla1 . At low temperatures, in the RLT phase, in addition to the cation displacements along the pseudo-cubic  direction, there is a tilt of the oxygen octahedra about the  axis. This rotation doubles the unit cell Gla1 ; Gla2  and produces sl reflections of the $`1/2\left\{hkl\right\}`$ type ($`h`$,$`k`$,$`l`$ all odd) Note1 , with an intensity approximately proportional to the tilt angle.

To explain the sl reflections recently observed in monoclinic PZT, Rajan et al. Raj1 , based on a Rietveld analysis of neutron powder diffraction data, have proposed that the MA phase transforms, at low temperatures, into a different monoclinic phase, with space group Pc, in which the MA unit cell is doubled along the $`c`$-direction due to an anti-phase octahedral tilt about the $`c`$-axis. However, Rietveld analysis of disordered systems with low symmetry is not unambiguous due to the number of constraints that need to be included. For example, similar neutron patterns have also been successfully modelled by Frantii et al. Fra1  in terms of the coexistence of monoclinic MA and rhombohedral RLT phases. In this letter we clarify this controversy by means of TEM measurements on a PZT48 sample at low temperatures. We show that the MA phase persists at low temperatures and that the observed superlattice originates from nanoregions of the sample that undergo rotations of the oxygen octahedra along the  direction, without altering the cation distortion.

TEM experiments were carried out using a JEOL 300kV field-emission microscope equipped with an energy filter and low temperature stages. Diffraction and image data were recorded using parallel beam on either imaging plates or CCD cameras. The same ceramic pellets of ref. Noh2  were used in these experiments. The excellent quality of the samples was established in previous x-ray diffraction work Noh2  that showed very narrow Braggs peaks and very sharp and well-defined phase transitions. TEM samples were prepared using a standard thinning procedure, i.e. first mechanical polishing down to less than $`10\mu m`$, then ion-milling to perforation with low-energy ion-guns. The thickness of the samples usually ranged from 50-100nm. To minimize multiple scattering, thinner regions ( 5-10nm) were also used. Electron diffraction presents the advantage of simultaneously acquiring dozens of reflections from a local area and reaching far out in reciprocal space due to the high energy of the incident electrons. In the presence of domain variants and twins, formed due to the reduction of crystal symmetry, electron diffraction can unambiguously reveal the change of the crystal symmetry, including those caused even by an extremely small lattice distortion, by the splitting of high-order Bragg reflections.

Diffraction patterns containing sl reflections of the $`1/2\left\{hkl\right\}`$ ($`h,k,l`$ all odd) type (pseudocubic indexing will be used unless stated otherwise) were observed in PZT48 at low temperatures, in agreement with Ragini et al. Rag1 . However, such reflections were also found to vary in intensity along the sample. Figs. 2a-b show two diffraction patterns, both taken in the pseudo-cubic $`<`$110$`>`$ zone of the reciprocal space at 87 K, corresponding to two different sample areas. While the sl spots are clearly visible in Fig. 2a, they are very weak and difficult to detect in Fig. 2b. The dark-field images formed by the sl reflections in both areas are presented in Figs. 2c-d. The dark background and the bright spots correspond to the simple-lattice and the superlattice, respectively. These figures clearly show that the sample consist of two phases and that only one of them displays superlattices, contrary to the previously proposed models Raj1 . A series of dark field images shows that the volume fraction of the superlattice phase varies in different areas of the sample from 0 to about 30% of the total volume, clearly showing its minority character. Furthermore, these images reveal a coherence length as short as 3nm for the superlattice phase (see Fig. 2c).

Fig. 3a shows the pattern expected in the $`<`$110$`>`$ zone of a pseudo-cubic perovskite phase. The tetragonal, T, rhombohedral RHT and monoclinic MA phases of PZT show similar patterns, since the distortion from the cubic phase is very small. None of these phases have a sl of the type observed in Fig. 2. However, as mentioned above, the RLT phase of PZT (with s.g. R3c) is known to display similar sl reflections Vie1 ; Ric1 , which, together with its proximity in the PZT phase diagram (see Fig. 1) makes this phase a good candidate to check Note1 .

Fig.4a shows the diffraction pattern in the ¡211¿ zone at around 87 K. It is seen that both the fundamental and sl reflections split along the ¡111¿ direction (see insets). Dynamic diffraction analysis shows that none of the twin variants for crystals with a rhombohedral symmetry (s.g. R3c) yield this type of splitting Wu1 ; Ten1  and, thus, it is possible to reject the presence of the RLT phase. The split is, however, consistent with the monoclinic distortion. Moreover, the fact that both main and sl reflections show the same kind of splitting clearly indicates that both phases share the same fundamental lattice (otherwise extra spots arising from a second cell would be observed in inset 2).

Fig. 4b shows an electron diffraction pattern in the $`<`$110$`>`$ zone at the same temperature. The main reflections are seen to split into three spots (see inset 4) consistently with the monoclinic symmetry, and with the reported MA phase Noh2 . It can also be noticed that the sl spots in this zone do not split (see inset 3), which indicates that only one of the three observed twins is responsible for the sl phase and, therefore, confirms the two-phase scenario. Further information can yet be extracted from the diffraction experiments: The extintion rules show that the mirror plane of the MA phase is not present in the sl phase. Furthermore, the experiments give extra information about the symmetry of this phase by showing that the three-dimensional reciprocal lattice is face-centered, the real lattice being therefore body centered.

Although other effects could also produce a superlattice (i.e. cation ordering or anti-parallel cation displacements.), the fact that the sl reflections are observed with neutrons and not with x-rays indicates that they are due to rotations of the oxygen octahedra, for which x-rays are not very sensitive. Bearing all the above in mind, we propose a model for the minority sl phase in which the cations keep the MA distortion, while the oxygen octahedra are rotated in an anti-phase fashion about , as in the RLT phase. Fig. 3e shows the projection of the octahedra framework on the pseudo-cubic ($`\overline{1}`$10) mirror plane. The MA lattice vectors $`\stackrel{}{a}_m`$ and $`\stackrel{}{c}_m`$ are contained in the plane, while $`\stackrel{}{b}_m`$ is perpendicular to it. After the tilting, the unit cell doubles along $`c`$ (dashed lines), similar to the RLT-RHT phase transition for smaller Ti contents, and the cell becomes body centered (s.g. Ic). A unit cell can be chosen to keep the standard c-centered space group Cc as represented by the thick solid lines in the figure.

The sl reflections expected in the $`<`$110$`>`$ zone for the new Cc phase are depicted in Fig. 3b, and are in perfect agreement with experiment (see Fig. 2) Note2 . The minority character of the tilted phase, and the broadening effects associated with the small size of the tilted regions, explains the low intensity on the sl reflections in the neutron diffraction patterns Raj1 ; Fra1 . Moreover, according to our model, the structure factor of the $`1/2\left\{hhh\right\}`$ reflections is much smaller than that of the $`1/2\left\{hkl\right\}`$ ones, which also explains why the $`1/2\left\{111\right\}`$ sl peak is not observed with neutrons. The monoclinic space group Pc recently proposed Raj1 , in which the oxygen rotations are along the  axis, can be discarded since it would give rise to patterns like those shown in Figs. 3c-d, which contain sl reflections that were not observed (open circles).

The evolution of the sl reflections was monitored as a function of temperature. They started to disappear at T= 150 K in certain areas of the sample, but were still visible in other areas at T= 200K. At about T= 230K no superlattice could be found, in agreement with Ragini et al. Rag1 . This behavior suggests that local internal inhomogeneities or local stresses (most likely originating from cation disorder) cause phase separation by favoring the octahedra tilts in certain regions of the sample, at low temperatures, and that the transition temperature between the tilted and non-tilted phases depends to a large extent on the local environment. This is in perfect agreement with calculations by Fornari and Singh, who predict an instability of the rotational degrees of freedom, comparable to the ferroelectric one, as well as a strong pressure dependence of these For1 . Further studies need to be done to clarify whether the tilts are associated with Zr/Ti-rich regions.

In summary, our results clearly show that the MA phase, which is known to be directly related to the unusual piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of PZT and related systems, remains stable at low temperatures, contrary to recent reports. Some areas of the sample, as small as 3nm, undergo rotations of the oxygen octahedra about the  direction, similar to those of the neighboring RLT phase, that lower the symmetry but do not modify the fundamental lattice, therefore keeping the ferroelectric properties basically unaltered. The temperature evolution of the tilted regions supports the theoretical results of Fornari and Singh that predict the possible coexistence of ferroelectric and rotational instabilities due to local stress fields For1 .

Acknowledgments

The authors are specially grateful to D.E. Cox, G. Shirane and T. Vogt for very insightful discussions that have helped improve this manuscript considerably, to P. Gehring for useful discussions, to J. Frantii for providing the results of his unpublished neutron diffraction work and for helpful discussions, to R. Guo and S.-E. Park for supplying the samples, and to J. Li for assistance in the experiments. Financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 is also acknowledged.


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# Probe-Configuration-Dependent Decoherence in an Aharonov-Bohm Ring

## Abstract

We have measured transport through mesoscopic Aharonov-Bohm (AB) rings with two different four-terminal configurations. While the amplitude and the phase of the AB oscillations are well explained within the framework of the Landaur-Büttiker formalism, it is found that the probe configuration strongly affects the coherence time of the electrons, i.e., the decoherence is much reduced in the configuration of so-called nonlocal resistance. This result should provide an important clue in clarifying the mechanism of quantum decoherence in solids.

In mesoscopic physics, it is well known that probes for transport measurements greatly affect the electronic states of the samples. Particularly in single-electron phenomena, a low-impedance probe introduces coupling of the system to an electromagnetic environment and causes the degradation or even disappearance of the single-electron charging effect WatanabePRL2001 . In coherent transport, where probes and samples are strongly coupled, it was also recognized in early studies that “sample” and “leads” are hardly distinguishable UmbachAPL1987 .

In the coherent regime, however, unlike the case of single-electron phenomena, the quantum coherence of electrons has been believed to be independent of the probe configuration, that is, the selection of the pairs of voltage and current probes in a four-terminal measurement. This assumption is likely to be true for the diffusive transport regime because the electrons experience many elastic scatterings in traversing the sample from one probe to another, which would work as buffers to the environment. Actually, it has been verified both theoretically and experimentally that the phase coherence time ($`\tau _\varphi `$) in this regime is the same regardless of their probe configurations HauckePRB1990 . On the other hand, in ballistic transport, electrons go into samples directly from the probes, making the boundaries more obscure. In such circumstances, the probes would affect the quantum coherence in the sample by “observation” of electrons through the probes.

Quantum decoherence in solids is now one of the most important issues in physics. Mohanty et al. examined the temperature dependence of $`\tau _\varphi `$ in various references and pointed out that saturation of $`\tau _\varphi `$ at the lowest temperatures is observed in all cases MohantyPRL1997 . Subsequent studies have revealed that this saturation is dependent not only on the materials GougamJLTP2000  but also on the sample geometry NatelsonPRL2001 , even in the diffusive regime. These suggest a possibility that the saturation is due to some extrinsic effects.

In this Letter, we show that in the ballistic regime the coherence of electrons greatly depends on the probe configuration, through a four-terminal measurement of the same sample with two different probe configurations. First, we show that the Landauer-Büttiker (LB) formalism, which was constructed for coherent transport with all the probes treated on an equal footing ButtikerPRL1986 , successfully describes the qualitative features of the present experiment. Next, this analysis is shown to lead to an inevitable conclusion that the decoherence is dependent on the probe configuration.

We prepared an AB ring shown in Fig. 1 (a) in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure (mobility of 9$`\times `$105 cm2/Vs and sheet carrier density of 3.8$`\times `$1011 cm-2) by electron-beam lithography and wet etching. The Fermi wavelength $`2\pi /k_\mathrm{F}`$ is estimated to be 40 nm. The electron mean free path $`l_e8`$ $`\mu `$m is longer than the arms of the ring $`L2`$ $`\mu `$m, ensuring that the motion of electrons in the ring is quasi-ballistic. The Au/Ti metallic gates with the width of $`W100`$ nm were deposited on the ring to control the AB phase and one specific gate marked “G” in Fig. 1 (a) was used, with the others being kept open in the present study.

In AB oscillation measurements, electric current is usually passed across the ring and the voltage drop between probes positioned along the current direction is measured, as illustrated in Fig. 1 (b). Henceforth, we use the notation $`R_{ij,kl}`$ for the “resistance” measured with the probe pair $`(i,j)`$ as current probes and the pair $`(k,l)`$ as voltage probes. Thus, the resistance measured in the configuration in Fig. 1 (b) is denoted as $`R_{14,23}`$ and is referred to as the “local” setup. Another probe configuration possible for the same sample is the so-called transfer-resistance configuration shown in Fig. 1 (c), where the current flow is localized at one end of the ring and the voltage appearing in the probe pair at the opposite end is measured ($`R_{12,43}`$ and “nonlocal” setup).

In order to minimize the difference due to the instrumental effect, the same setup and parameters were adopted for both configurations except the current amplitudes, which were 3 nA and 15 nA for the local and nonlocal setups, respectively. It was confirmed that these currents do not cause a Joule heating effect. The resistances were measured by the standard lock-in technique. A cryogenic low-pass filter was inserted into every lead at the 1 K stage. Two samples (#1 and #2) with almost the same geometry were measured, yielding essentially the same results.

The curves shown in the upper parts of Figs. 2 (a) and (b) are the raw magnetoresistance traces for the local and nonlocal setups, respectively. The AB resistance oscillations with a period $`\mathrm{\Delta }B_{\mathrm{AB}}=3.1\pm 0.5`$ mT, consistent with the ring size, are superposed on the slower aperiodic fluctuation which arises from small conductance loops within branches. The lower parts of Figs. 2 (a) and (b) present the AB component ($`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{\mathrm{AB}}`$) extracted through fast Fourier transform (FFT). In the local setup, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{\mathrm{AB}}`$ is only approximately 2 % of the total resistance, which is a typical value for the oscillation amplitude seen in many previous AB experiments. By contrast, in the nonlocal setup, it averages up to 20 % with a maximum of $`75`$ %. This is the largest AB amplitude ever reported.

We also performed electrostatic control of the electronic phase through the voltage of the gate G ($`V_\mathrm{G}`$). The gray-scale plots in Fig. 3 show the gate-voltage-induced variation of the AB oscillation at 30 mK. The variation of the electrostatic potential energy by $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ results in that of the kinetic energy, and hence the wave number of the electrons which traverse the region underneath the gate electrode.

Now we demonstrate that the qualitative features of the above results at lowest temperatures are well explained within the LB framework. The LB formula gives $`R_{mn,kl}=(h/2e^2)(T_{km}T_{ln}T_{kn}T_{lm})/D`$, where $`T_{ij}`$ $`(0)`$ is the transmission coefficient from terminal $`j`$ to $`i`$ and the denominator $`D`$ is a quantity including all of the $`T_{ij}`$’s ButtikerPRL1986 . Here, we note that this formula, which was originally applied to perfect coherent transport ButtikerPRL1986 , can be generalized to include incoherent transport ButtikerIJRD . The generalized LB formula is expressed by the transmission coefficients that are the sum of a coherent part and an incoherent part, and has the same functional form as the original one. Thus the effect of decoherence is appropriately taken into account through the amplitude of the interference term in the transmission coefficients in the LB formula.

From the sample geometry shown in Fig. 1 (a), it is natural to make the approximation that $`T_{12}=T_{21}=T_{34}=T_{43}T_0`$, $`T_{14}=T_{41}=T_{23}=T_{32}T_1`$ and $`T_{13}=T_{31}=T_{24}=T_{42}T_2`$. In order to take the decoherence into account, transmission coefficients for those paths traversing the ring ($`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$ in the present case) are taken as $`T_{ij}=\alpha _{ij}+\beta _{ij}\mathrm{cos}(2\pi \varphi /\varphi _0+\delta _{ij})`$, where $`\beta _{ij}`$ represents the AB amplitude, $`\alpha _{ij}`$ the other part of the transmission, $`\varphi `$ the magnetic flux which threads the ring, and $`\varphi _0h/e`$ the flux quantum. $`\delta _{ij}`$ is the phase due to the difference between the paths. Although $`\alpha _{ij}`$ also depends on the magnetic field and contains the terms due to the interference, $`|\overline{\beta _{ij}}/\overline{\alpha _{ij}}|`$ serves as a good measure of the coherence of traversing electrons, where the bars denote the average over a certain range of magnetic field.

In the above approximation, the LB formula gives the resistances

$$R_{14,23}=\frac{h}{2e^2}\frac{T_0T_2}{(T_0+T_1)(T_1+T_2)}\frac{h}{4e^2}\frac{1}{T_1+T_2},$$
(1)
$$R_{12,43}=\frac{h}{2e^2}\frac{T_1T_2}{(T_0+T_1)(T_0+T_2)}\frac{h}{4e^2}\frac{T_1T_2}{T_0^2},$$
(2)
where we further approximate that $`T_0T_1,T_2`$. Note that the information on the phase of the AB oscillation has been neglected in this approximation because of the symmetric assumption $`T_{ij}=T_{ji}`$ ButtikerIJRD . Equation (1) indicates that the ratio of the AB oscillation in $`R_{14,23}`$ directly reflects $`\overline{\beta }/\overline{\alpha }`$ while in Eqn. (2) the incoherent parts in $`T_1`$ and $`T_2`$ cancel each other by subtraction and the AB amplitude is emphasized in the magnetoresistance. This is the qualitative explanation for the results shown in Fig. 2.

Next, the phase modulation by the gate voltage $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ in Fig. 3 is explained as follows. The applied gate voltage modulates the potential of electrons and hence their wave numbers, which results in the variation of $`\delta _{ij}`$. According to a capacitance model between the gate and the 2DEG YacobyPRL1991 , the equi-phase curve of the AB oscillation in the $`B`$-$`V_\mathrm{G}`$ plane should take the form $`B=\mathrm{\Delta }B_{AB}(Wk_\mathrm{F}/2\pi (1|V_\mathrm{G}/V_C|)^{1/2}+N)`$ $`(N=0,\pm 1,\mathrm{})`$, where $`V_C`$ is the pinch-off voltage ($`0.435`$ V for the present case). This curve satisfactorily explains the overall trend of the phase shift in the nonlocal case as indicated by the white dashed lines in Fig. 3 (b) (the curves for $`N=1,0`$, and $`1`$ are plotted). The phase jumps observed in a few regions are due to the intermixing effect of the conduction channels CernicchiaroPRL1997 .

On the other hand, the phase variation in the local case differs greatly from the above. It was established by early studies that in the LB framework a two-terminal resistance $`R_{tt}`$ must be an even function of the magnetic field, i.e., $`R_{tt}(B)=R_{tt}(B)`$ due to Onsager’s reciprocal theorem $`T_{ij}(B)=T_{ji}(B)`$ and current conservation ButtikerIJRD . The reciprocal theorem appears in four terminal resistances as $`R_{kl,mn}(B)=R_{mn,kl}(B)`$ and $`R_{kl,mn}`$ itself is not necessarily even with $`B`$. Hence, it is natural that the phase varies continuously with $`V_\mathrm{G}`$ in the nonlocal setup. Actually, we experimentally confirmed that $`R_{12,43}(B)=R_{43,12}(B)`$ holds. In the local setup, the current and voltage probes are placed crossing the ring part, which brings the situation close to the two-terminal case and imposes the symmetry for the magnetic-field reversal. This results in the symmetric pattern with respect to $`B=0`$ as shown in Fig. 3 (a). As reported previously CernicchiaroPRL1997 , the phase jump by $`\pi `$ occurs at several values of $`V_\mathrm{G}`$. Also, the fluctuation of the AB period due to the mixing of conduction channels causes the quasi-continuous shift of the oscillation though the symmetry for $`B=0`$ still holds.

Thus far, we have seen that the LB formula successfully describes the qualitative profiles of the results, which leads us to believe that the quantitative outcome of the formula can be used as a basis for the comparison between the two configurations. In order to estimate the classical $`T_{ij}`$’s, we measured the resistances for all of the possible probe configurations at 4.2 K where the quantum interference effect is small. By combining these values with the AB oscillation measured at various temperatures presented in Figs. 4 (a) and (b), we obtain the temperature dependence of the portion of the interference term in the transmission coefficient $`\delta T_1/T_1`$ as shown in Fig. 4 (c). A striking difference between the local and the nonlocal setup is observed: The ratio of the coherent term to the total transmittance is much higher in the nonlocal probe configuration and it is much more robust against thermal disturbance. As shown in Fig. 4 (c), the consistency of results between the two different samples with the same geometry strongly indicates that this observation is not sample-specific but is due to the measurement configuration.

Two factors are important for the reduction of the AB amplitude with temperature. One is the thermal broadening of the electron wave packets, which is expressed in the ballistic case as $`\beta _{ij}\mathrm{exp}(\tau _Lk_\mathrm{B}T/\mathrm{})\mathrm{exp}(\tau _L/\tau _{\mathrm{th}})`$, where $`\tau _L=L/v_\mathrm{F}`$ ($`v_\mathrm{F}`$: the Fermi velocity). The other is the quantum decoherence, which contributes as $`\beta _{ij}\mathrm{exp}(\tau _L/\tau _\varphi (T))`$ SeeligPRB2001 . As shown by the solid lines in Fig. 4 (c), the present data indicate $`\beta \mathrm{exp}(aT)`$, implying that $`\tau _\varphi `$ is negligible or is also proportional to $`T^1`$. The obtained values of $`a`$ are 0.72 and 1.0 K-1 for the nonlocal results, while $`a=2.3`$ and 2.5 K-1 for the local ones. The thermal broadening affects as $`\mathrm{exp}(\tau _L/\tau _{\mathrm{th}})\mathrm{exp}(bT)`$ with $`b1`$ K-1 in the present case, which would be sufficient to explain the temperature dependence of the nonlocal result. Since the thermal broadening is an intrinsic effect, we attribute the observed probe-configuration-dependent effect to the difference in $`\tau _\varphi `$.

Then the next problem is the origin of the difference in $`\tau _\varphi `$ between the two setups, or rather the suppression of $`\tau _\varphi `$ in the nonlocal setup. Here, we would like to note that the electric current flows differently in that electrons run quasi-ballistically between terminals 1 and 4 in the local setup, while no net current enters the interferometer in the nonlocal setup. In the LB method, zero net current is the consequence of the cancellation of back and forth currents through a sample, but these “currents” are merely means for the calculation and are not physical entities. What actually happens and what the LB formula actually describes in the nonlocal setup is that an electrostatic charge up occurs between electrodes 3 and 4, which prevents the current flow.

We list here two candidates for the origin. The first is that the electrons in the local setup suffer extra decoherence due to the charge fluctuation. It is proposed that in a ballistic AB ring the charge fluctuations caused by a nearby capacitor such as metallic gates result in decoherence expressed as $`\tau _\varphi T^1`$ SeeligPRB2001 , which is in agreement with our observation. A similar observation was reported by Hansen et al. HansenPRB2001 . In the local setup, charge fluctuation, which originates from shot noise ReznikovSLMS1998  due to the nonequilibrium current in the interferometer, is possible to play a significant role when the net current exists. In the nonlocal setup, this mechanism is expected to be suppressed. The second mechanism is based on the deduction that in the local setup injected electrons traverse the ring quasi-ballistically and may retain some traces that can tell “which path they went through” to the circumambient electrons in 2DEG BuksNature1998 . In other words, the interference does not complete at the outlet of the sample locally. This should lead to a loss of coherence through the process discussed by Stern et al. SternPRA1990 . In the nonlocal setup, the electrons in the ring are comparatively isolated from the leads by the electrostatic barrier formed by the charge up. This mechanism may be reduced by making the outlet narrower to prevent the leakage of the “which path” information.

In conclusion, we have observed that the quantum decoherence in a ballistic AB ring is dependent on the probe configuration. While $`\tau _\varphi `$ behaves as $`T^1`$, in both local and nonlocal setups, the coherence survives at much higher temperatures in the nonlocal setup. We believe that the key difference is the amplitude of the net electric current, and plausible mechanisms are discussed. While theoretical effort is necessary to clarify this issue, the LB formula successfully describes the qualitative profiles of the results, such as the large amplitude of the AB oscillation in the nonlocal setup or the phase tuning by electrostatic potential.

We thank H. Ebisawa and H. Fukuyama for helpful discussion. This work is partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research and by a Grant-in-Aid for COE Research (“Quantum Dot and Its Application”) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.


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# A systematic correlation between two-dimensional flow topology and the abstract statistics of turbulence

## Abstract

Velocity differences in the direct enstrophy cascade of two-dimensional turbulence are correlated with the underlying flow topology. The statistics of the transverse and longitudinal velocity differences are found to be governed by different structures. The wings of the transverse distribution are dominated by strong vortex centers, whereas, the tails of the longitudinal differences are dominated by saddles. Viewed in the framework of earlier theoretical work this result suggests that the transfer of enstrophy to smaller scales is accomplished in regions of the flow dominated by saddles.

Two-dimensional (2D) turbulence is a fascinating problem with relevance in areas as wide-ranging as the dynamics of energy transfer in atmospheric and geophysical flows McWilliams94b ; Shivamoggi98a  to the basic statistical mechanics of interacting vortices Couder86a ; Benzi92a ; Dritschel95a . Three decades of theoretical and numerical work starting from the seminal ideas of Kraichnan Kraichnan67a ; Kraichnan75a  and Batchelor Batchelor69a  have provided a picture of 2D turbulence based upon the scaling laws of abstract statistical quantities. This description remains strikingly incomplete. For example, there is still no clear physical understanding of the mechanisms by which energy and enstrophy are transferred between different length scales in a turbulent flow; nor is there a conclusive picture of how the intense coherent structures that dominate the statistics are formed and evolve.

The challenge is to establish a connection between the statistical measures of turbulence and the physical dynamics of the turbulent flow field. In the current work, we demonstrate that by considering correlations between local flow topology Okubo70a ; Weiss91a ; Helman91a ; Vorobieff98a ; Rivera01a  and velocity difference probability distributions (PDFs) Frisch95a ; Sreenivasan96a ; Eyink96a ; Smith97a ; Paret98a ; Vorobieff99a , we can make this important connection. The wings of the distributions of the transverse and longitudinal velocity differences are found to be associated with very different structures: vortex centers and saddles, respectively. As a consequence, it will turn out that the transfer of enstrophy must be accomplished near saddle points. This transfer is the result of a topological asymmetry in the turbulent flow manifest in the longitudinal velocity difference PDFs. Furthermore, since the wings of the longitudinal velocity differences are dominated by strong saddles, a complete understanding of intermittency in 2D must include a motivation for the formation of these structures. This powerful technique can be extended to other statistical quantities to infer correlations between flow topology and turbulent dynamics.

Local flow topology is characterized by the four first-order derivatives in the expansion of the vector velocity,

$$\widehat{m}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}_xv_x& _yv_x\\ _xv_y& _yv_y\end{array}\right).$$
(1)
The determinant of this Jacobian matrix,

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }=det(\widehat{m})=\frac{1}{4}(\omega ^2\sigma ^2),$$
(2)
represents a local balance between the vorticity and strain rate. A continuum of structural possibilities exists as the relative magnitude of these terms is varied; from a symmetric saddle when the strain rate dominates; to a linear shear region when the two are of equal magnitude; to an axisymmetric vortex center when the enstrophy dominates; see Fig. 1a-d. Rivera, Wu, and Yeung Rivera01a  showed that the probability distribution of the Jacobian determinant is non-analytic at $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$, since centers and saddles are topologically distinct, and asymmetric, with vortex centers being significantly more likely than saddles of comparable strength; see Fig. 2a.

A statistical correlation between the local flow topology and the velocity differences is constructed from data obtained from a 2D flowing soap film experiment, the configuration of which is described in Ref. Rutgers01a  with an effective injection scale of 2 cm. The Jacobian determinant at each location is calculated from the matrix, $`\widehat{m}`$, averaged over a disk, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, with center halfway between the two velocity measurements and radius, $`r_\mathrm{\Omega }`$, equal to $`r/2`$. That is, $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=det(\widehat{M})`$, where

$$M^{\alpha \beta }=\frac{_\mathrm{\Omega }m^{\alpha \beta }𝐝r}{_\mathrm{\Omega }𝐝r}.$$
(3)
By performing the average in this manner a scale-dependence of the quantity is maintained, allowing the method to probe different regions of the enstrophy cascade. Here, however, we will be reporting results for only one separation, $`r=0.4`$ cm. This average over the smaller scales in the flow is permissible in the enstrophy cascade since enstrophy transfer through a given scale depends only on larger scales and not on these smaller structures Falkovich94a .

There is some sensitivity to flow inhomogeneities in this measurement since we are averaging over a macroscopic region of the flow. The inhomogeneity is characterized by a 25% variation in the turbulence intensity across the 2.0 cm wide measurement area. This variation is due to the particular turbulent forcing mechanism used (a pair of combs arranged in an inverted wedge Rutgers98a ). Nevertheless, over a 0.28 cm wide stripe down the central region of the channel where we gather statistics the turbulence intensity varies by less than 1%. Further, a simple line average between the two points at which the velocity is measured—less affected by cross-stream inhomogeneity—produced the same results.

A rigorous connection between the abstract velocity difference statistics and the concrete flow topology is established through multivariate probability distributions of the form $`P(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\delta v_i(r))`$, where $`i`$ represents either the transverse, $`T`$, or longitudinal component, $`L`$, of the velocity difference. The form of these distributions differs significantly between the longitudinal and transverse velocity increments as a result of the different symmetries of the saddle and center; see Figs. 2 and 3. The wings of the longitudinal velocity difference PDF are dominated by strong saddles, whereas, the wings of the transverse velocity difference are dominated by strong centers. To understand the reason for this distinction we examine the distribution of the velocity differences about these two first-order structures in some detail.

We begin with an examination of a saddle point. The symmetry of a saddle is such that the distribution of the longitudinal and transverse velocity differences about it is the same. If the matrix, $`\widehat{m}`$, is parametrized as

$$\widehat{m}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\lambda & \mathrm{\Delta }+\omega \\ \mathrm{\Delta }\omega & \lambda \end{array}\right),$$
(4)
the radial and angular components of the velocity about a saddle (described by the symmetric part of $`\widehat{m}`$) are given by $`v_r=\left[\lambda \mathrm{cos}(2\theta )+\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{sin}(2\theta )\right]r`$ and $`v_\theta =\left[\lambda \mathrm{sin}(2\theta )\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{cos}(2\theta )\right]r`$, respectively. As long as $`\sigma ^2=\lambda ^2+\mathrm{\Delta }^2`$ is held constant, the relative magnitudes of $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ serve only to vary the spatial orientation of the saddle. We can, therefore, make the simplifying assumption that the saddle is described by $`\sigma ^2=\lambda ^2`$. Using $`P(v_r(\theta ))\left[_\theta v_r(\theta )\right]^1|_{\theta (v_r)}`$ and $`P(v_\theta (\theta ))\left[_\theta v_\theta (\theta )\right]^1|_{\theta (v_\theta )}`$ in the longitudinal and transverse cases respectively, we obtain probability distributions of the form

$$P(\delta v_i(r)|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }})=\frac{2}{\pi \sqrt{r^2\mathrm{\Lambda }^2\delta v_i^2}},$$
(5)
regardless of which velocity increment is examined. Here we have let, for example, $`\delta v_\mathrm{L}=2v_r`$, and replaced the independent variables $`\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ by an equivalent pair expressing the saddle strength, $`\sigma ^2`$, and orientation. Because of this similarity, it’s not surprising that the appearance of the multivariate distributions, $`P(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\delta v_T(r))`$ and $`P(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\delta v_L(r))`$, are, at first order, identical for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}0`$ (where $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}(1/4)\sigma ^2`$). The velocity differences of maximum likelihood for a given saddle strength follow the curve $`\delta v_i=\pm r\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$ for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}<0`$, independent of which velocity difference is being considered (the dashed lines for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}<0`$ in Figs. 2b and 3). Note that the assumption that the dominant topology takes the form of a saddle is not valid as $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ nears zero. In this regime, Fig. 4 shows that the expected values of the squared strain rate and squared vorticity become of comparable magnitude. The form of the $`P(\delta v_i(r)|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }})`$ is, therefore, distorted as the topological features themselves are stretched (recall Fig. 1).

Although the distributions of the longitudinal and transverse velocity differences are identical across a saddle, the distribution of these two quantities about a vortex center differs dramatically. Across an axisymmetric vortex center the longitudinal velocity difference is precisely zero (since the radial component of the velocity itself is zero). For positive values of the Jacobian determinant, points in the distribution $`P(\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }},\delta v_L(r))`$ which lie away from $`\delta v_\mathrm{L}=0`$ do so either as the result of first order contributions from the strain rate or through higher order corrections to the flow field. Since the magnitude of the longitudinal velocity difference across a vortex center is, thus, constrained to be small, it is saddle-like regions of the flow which play the dominant role in the wings of the longitudinal velocity difference PDFs and, correspondingly, in the higher order longitudinal structure functions. A clear picture of intermittency in 2D must, therefore, include an understanding of the formation of unusually strong saddle points in addition to coherent vortex centers.

On the other hand, vortex centers do support significant transverse velocity differences. In fact, vortex centers with $`\delta v_\mathrm{T}=0`$ cannot exist as a consequence of Stoke’s law: $`_Cv_\theta r_\mathrm{\Omega }𝑑\theta =_\mathrm{\Omega }\omega _z𝑑\mathrm{\Omega }`$, where $`C`$ traces the perimeter of the disk, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, and for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}>0`$, the sign of $`v_\theta `$ is the same about the entire perimeter. As the magnitude of the transverse velocity goes to zero, so must the magnitude of the vorticity. The shape of the distribution is obtained under the assumption that for locations in the flow with $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}0`$ the topology is dominated by the vorticity. Setting $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=(1/4)\omega ^2`$, $`v_\theta =\omega r_\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`\delta v_\mathrm{T}=2v_\theta `$, and letting $`r_\mathrm{\Omega }=r/2`$, we find that the transverse velocity difference varies as a function of the local Jacobian determinant according to $`\delta v_\mathrm{T}=\pm r\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$ for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}>0`$ (the dashed line in Fig. 3). The finite spread in the distribution results both from higher order corrections to the shape of the vortex centers as well as from the fact that in actuality there are finite contributions from first-order saddles, that is, $`\sigma ^2/e_s`$ is of order 0.2 for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}>0`$.

Because of the larger propensity for strong vortex centers to form relative to saddle points of comparable magnitude (recall Fig. 2a), the maximum transverse velocity difference found about centers in the flow is significantly greater than that found about saddles (compare Fig. 3 for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}<0`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}>0`$). The wings of the transverse velocity difference PDF in the enstrophy cascade are, therefore, dominated by contributions from vortex centers. Because of this clear segregation between the structures which play the dominant role in the transverse and longitudinal velocity differences, it would not be surprising if the higher order moments of these two quantities differed.

These rudimentary observations have certainly not expended the usefulness of this technique. It is, first of all, interesting that the ratio $`\sigma ^2/\omega ^2`$ tends toward zero for $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}1`$. This implies that the strongest vortex centers are nearly axisymmetric, Fig. 1b rather than 1d. This was not seen in the earlier continuously forced experiment of Rivera et al.Rivera01a . These axisymmetric centers are the likely predecessors of the coherent structures found in the latter stages of 2D turbulent decaySmith97a ; Bracco00a . They are stable McWilliams84a ; Whitaker94a ; Kimura01a , steady-state solutions of the Euler equation in which there is no nonlinear transfer of enstrophy, and hence, no enstrophy cascade Babiano87a .

Furthermore, a key feature is still missing from the first order distribution, $`P(\delta v_\mathrm{L}(r)|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }})`$. It is a well know result in turbulence theory that the rate of enstrophy transfer depends on an odd moment of the longitudinal velocity difference Bernard99a , $`S_3^{(\mathrm{L})}(r)=(1/8)\eta r^3`$, and, hence, on an asymmetry in the distribution of these velocity differences. This asymmetry is missing in Eq. (5), where $`P(\delta v_\mathrm{L}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }})=P(\delta v_\mathrm{L}|\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Lambda }})`$. In fact, any asymmetry is explicitly prohibited by incompressibility in the linear field approximation. Second order terms, as well, of the form $`(_{xx}v_y)x^2`$ and $`(_{yy}v_x)y^2`$ are even under the operations $`xx`$ and $`yy`$ so that the contribution to the velocity on opposite sides of the structure is of the same magnitude and sign. Incompressibility inextricably links the remaining $`_{xy}`$ terms. The result is that no contribution to the longitudinal asymmetry is possible at order two. It is necessary to go to at least third order to explain the asymmetry in $`P(\delta v_\mathrm{L})`$, where the $`_{xxx}v_x`$ and $`_{yyy}v_y`$ terms—and through incompressibility the $`_{xxy}v_y`$ and $`_{xyy}v_x`$ terms—result in an asymmetric saddle; that is, one in which the magnitude of the velocity in the incoming and out-going jets differs. The longitudinal velocity difference about such a structure is asymmetric, whereas, positive and negative transverse velocity increments continue to exist with equal likelihood. A systematic correlation between these higher order topological structures and the velocity differences is beyond the limits of the current data set, but future work will explore these connections.

We would like to thank Michael Rivera, Robert Ecke, and Michael Chertkov for many insightful conversations. The present work was supported by the Petroleum Research Foundation, The Ohio State University, and the U.S. Department of Energy (W-7405-ENG-36).


text:
# Associated Absorption Lines in the Radio-Loud Quasar 3C 351: Far-Ultraviolet Echelle Spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It has been recently appreciated that the ionized (or so-called “warm”) gas that produces intrinsic absorption in the X-ray spectra of low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) (e.g., Seyfert 1 galaxies) is an important, newly recognized component of their near-nuclear structure. Recent X-ray spectroscopic observations indicate that more than half of Seyfert 1 galaxies show K-shell absorption edges of warm oxygen (O VII and O VIII) characteristic of photoionized gas (Reynolds 1997; George et al. 1998). Moreover, a similar fraction show intrinsic absorption associated with their active nuclei in their ultraviolet (UV) spectra, and there appears to be a one-to-one correspondence between objects showing X-ray and UV absorption, suggesting that these two phenomena are related (Crenshaw et al., 1999).

The amount and presence of intrinsic absorption are found to depend upon either the luminosity or radio properties of AGNs: the narrow “associated” ($`z_{ab}z_{em}`$) UV and X-ray “warm” absorbers are rare in high-luminosity and radio-loud quasars (Nicastro et al., 1999). Among high-luminosity quasars, intrinsic broad absorption lines (BALs) spanning up to tens of thousands of km s-1are seen in about 10-20% of quasars, with a decrease in outflow velocity in the radio-loud quasars (Becker et al., 2001). BAL quasars are also deficient in X-rays (Green et al. 2001; Gallagher et al. 2002). The luminous radio-loud quasars with narrow absorption lines (NALs) appear to bridge the Seyfert warm absorbers and the BAL quasars, and may possess different physical conditions. This category includes two well studied radio-loud quasars, namely, 3C 351 (Fiore et al., 1993), and 3C 212 (Mathur et al., 1994), which are found to have ionized absorbers. In the current paper we pursue more detailed investigations of the the associated UV absorbers in 3C 351 based on a high-resolution far-UV spectrum.

Observationally, the radio-loud quasar 3C 351 ($`z_{em}=0.3721`$; Marziani et al. 1996) is very lobe-dominated with only 0.65% of the flux density from the compact core at 6 cm (Kellermann et al., 1989), showing two opposite jets of similar angular extent. This FR II source has a steep radio spectrum and a low ratio of radio core luminosity at 5 GHz to optical V-band continuum luminosity ($`logR_V`$ 0.73; Brotherton 1996), indicating an edge-on geometry of the central engine. Additionally, 3C 351 is also rather X-ray-“quiet” with a factor of $``$ 5 lower X-ray flux than the average radio-loud quasar (Wilkes et al., 1994). Its effective optical-to-X-ray slope $`\alpha _{ox}`$ is 1.55 (Tananbaum et al., 1986), as compared to $`\alpha _{ox}=1.3`$ for an average radio-loud quasar. Even though 3C 351 is X-ray quiet, among radio-loud quasars known to have ionized absorption, it is one of the most X-ray luminous($`L_{0.12keV}=2.3\times 10^{45}`$ ergs s-1; Fiore et al. 1993), and therefore it is an excellent test case for studying the kinematics and physical conditions of the absorbing outflow associated with the nucleus of a radio-loud quasar.

The ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) observations show that the dominant feature in its X-ray spectrum is a strong O VII and/or O VIII absorption edge. A factor of 1.7 change in flux was found between observations in 1991 October and 1993 August, which stimulated a test of ionization models for the warm absorber in 3C 351, under the simplest photoionization equilibrium (Nicastro et al., 1999). Moreover, as a part of the Quasar Absorption Lines Key project (Bahcall et al., 1993), an intermediate-resolution (R $``$ 1300) UV spectrum of 3C 351 was taken with the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) of the HST . As a result, a strong absorption system at $`z=0.3646`$ was found in the high-ionization doublets of O VI, N V, and C IV, as well as in the Lyman series from Ly$`\alpha `$ to Ly$`\delta `$. It was suggested by the authors that these UV absorption lines are due to an associated cluster of galaxies. However, no compelling evidence of the cluster was found in follow-up studies (Ellingson et al., 1994; Lanzetta, Bowen, Tytler, & Webb, 1995; Le Brun, Bergeron, & Boisse, 1996). In this paper we provide profound evidence that this associated absorption system is an intrinsic absorber located close to the QSO nucleus.

To what extent do the UV and X-ray absorbers arise in the same regions? This is an important question for understanding the structure of quasar nuclei. In the case of 3C 351, Mathur et al. (1994) proposed a simple one-zone photoionization model and claimed that the UV absorption features are due to the same material detected in the X-ray observations. To answer this question, quasi-simultaneous high-resolution UV and X-ray spectra of intrinsic lines should be taken. We notice that the UV absorptions presented in previous studies are typically comprised of multiple kinematic components (Crenshaw et al., 1999; Kriss et al., 2000). High-resolution spectroscopic observations allow accurate determination of absorption width and resolve multiple components, which is the key in determining the column density and velocity structure along the line of sight.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) was installed during the second servicing mission of HST, and the high-resolution E140M and E230M echelle modes of this instrument are ideally suited for the study of associated UV absorbers. In this paper we present a high-resolution, far-UV STIS spectrum of 3C 351 covering the O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038, N V $`\lambda \lambda `$1238,1242 and the Lyman series (§2). We focus on resolving the kinematic components in the associated absorption (§3), and interpret the spectral features with the assistance of photoionization models (§4). Then, we discuss our findings together with previous results for a better understanding of the ionized outflow of 3C 351 (§5). Finally, a summary is given (§6).

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

High-resolution echelle spectra of 3C351 were obtained with STIS on four occasions between 1999 June 27 and 2000 July 25. A brief log of the observations is provided in Table 1 including the date, total exposure time, and HST archive identification codes for each observation. Individual exposure durations ranged from 2230 to 2500 seconds, and wavelength calibration exposures were obtained between the individual observations of the quasar. All of the observations employed the intermediate-resolution E140M echelle mode of STIS with the $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2\times 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}06`$ slit; this mode provides a resolution of 7 km s-1(FWHM) with nearly complete wavelength coverage from 1150 $``$ 1710 Å (There are only four small gaps between orders at $`\lambda >`$ 1634 Å). A complete description of the design of STIS has been provided by Woodgate et al. (1998), and Kimble et al. (1998) assess the on-orbit performance of the instrument.

The data were reduced at the Goddard Space Flight Center with the software developed by the STIS Investigation Definition Team (IDT). Individual exposures were extracted following standard procedures for flatfielding and flux and wavelength calibration. Scattered light was removed using the scattered light correction developed by the STIS IDT, which accounts for echelle scatter as well as other sources of scattered light. Then the individual exposures were coadded weighted by their inverse variances averaged over a large region of one of the central orders. Finally, overlapping regions of adjacent orders were coadded again weighted by the inverse variance in each pixel, but in this case the variance vector was smoothed with a 5-pixel boxcar before being used for determination of the weighting so that noise fluctuations do not lead to inappropriate over or under-weighting. We initially reduced the data from the four observation dates separately. Careful inspection of the resulting four individual spectra reveals no significant variability. Consequently, we elected to coadd all of the data to obtain a single, high signal-to-noise spectrum. The total exposure time of the final spectrum is 78,198 seconds.

The overall appearance of the final spectrum of 3C351 is shown in Figure 1 (nine-pixel smoothing is used for this display, and the 1$`\sigma `$ flux uncertainty is given). The broad O VI and Ly$`\alpha `$ emission lines are readily apparent. In this paper, we are mainly interested in the strong associated O VI and Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption lines visible on the blue side of the emission lines, as well as the associated N V lines near 1700 Å. The spike at 1216 Å is the geocoronal Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line, and the broad trough at 1216 is the damped Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption line due to H I in the Milky Way ISM. Some of the absorption lines in this spectrum are due to the low-redshift Ly$`\alpha `$ forest; investigation of these lines is valuable for understanding the nature and properties of the intergalactic medium in the nearby universe (e.g., Davé & Tripp 2001).

## 3 SPECTRAL MEASUREMENTS

### 3.1 Continuum and Emission Features

We used the $`IRAF`$ task specfit (ver8.6) (Kriss, 1994) to fit the STIS far-UV spectrum. The continuum was modeled as a power law, and only a Galactic extinction correction of $`A_B=0.097`$ (Schlegel et al., 1998) was applied by using the reddening curve of Cardelli et al. (1989) with $`R_V=3.1`$. The power-law index obtained is $`\alpha =0.0\pm 0.029`$, where $`F_\lambda \lambda ^\alpha `$. The observed flux in the continuum at 1500 Å is $``$ 1.5 $`\times `$ 10-14 erg s-1 cm-2 Å-1. The doublet O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 emission features are each fitted with a double Gaussian profile: a broader (FWHM $``$ 21,000 km s-1) component with a redshift of 0.3796 and a narrower (FWHM $``$ 2400 km s-1) component at $`z=0.3698`$. The main fraction of the recombination emission originates in clouds in the broad emission-line region (BELR) that are optically thick in the ionizing continuum. The doublet flux ratio is found to be about 1:1 for both the broader and narrower components of the broad lines, which is reasonable for the optically thick physical conditions of the BELR (Hutchings et al., 2001). The doublet N V $`\lambda \lambda `$1238,1242 is located at the red edge of the STIS spectrum and separate emission-line components were not required in our fitting model.

For the strong Ly$`\alpha `$ emission profile, two Gaussians are used to give a good fit, one broad (FWHM $``$ 15,000 km s-1) and one narrow (FWHM $``$ 3600 km s-1). We also searched for emission lines from other Lyman lines, but if any are present they are very broad and weak (Our formal result finds only a broad emission component of Ly$`\gamma `$). For a clear physical picture of dynamics of the broad and narrow components in the BELR, we adopt the same rest-frame velocities for Ly$`\alpha `$ as those detected in the O VI doublet during the fitting of emission-line profiles. The radial velocities for the broad and narrow emission-line components with respect to the systemic redshift, $`z_{em}=0.3721\pm 0.0003`$ (2$`\sigma `$), obtained by Marziani et al. (1996) from the analyses of $`FOS`$ UV spectra and ground-based optical spectroscopy (Boroson & Green, 1992), are 1639 and -450 km s-1, respectively. The emission fluxes and observed central wavelengths are listed in Table 2.

### 3.2 Associated Absorption Components

The high resolution and good S/N of this far-UV spectrum makes it possible to resolve unambiguously intrinsic absorption components in the O VI, N V and Lyman lines. In order to show all the distinct components of associated absorption, we present the blue wings of the high-ionization doublets O VI and N V in Fig. 2(a), and a similar diagram for the Lyman series in Fig. 2(b), where the fluxes are plotted as a function of the rest-frame velocity. There are in total 15 components detected in the associated absorption features (alphabetically, A – O), among which component G, with a relative velocity of -1699 km s-1(i.e., $`z=0.3644`$), is the most striking one of either the high-excitation doublets or the Lyman series. An unusually strong metal line absorption system with a very close redshift ($`z=0.3646`$) to component G was detected by Bahcall et al. (1993) in the intermediate-resolution ($`R1300`$) FOS spectroscopy, and it contains contributions from many of the components we resolve at 7 km s-1resolution. The FOS spectrum covers a wider wavelength range from 1180Å to 3270 Å, and this strong metal absorption system is also seen in the C IV doublet $`\lambda \lambda `$1548,1550 at 2112.8 and 2116.6 Å, respectively. The STIS spectrum has such good resolution that component G in Ly$`ϵ`$ is unblended with the Ly$`\gamma `$ absorption from the intervening system at $`z=0.3175`$, and even the weak narrow associated absorption components, such as components K, M, N, and O, can be clearly resolved. We notice that components A (at $`z=0.3719`$) and G appear in the Lyman series, O VI, and N V. The very narrow intrinsic components K, N and O are found only in O VI, and components B and J can be seen only in the Lyman series.

Additionally, the intergalactic metal-line absorption system at $`z=0.2210`$ detected by Boissé et al. (1992) and Bahcall et al. (1993) is confirmed by the STIS spectrum. The line Si IV 1393Å of this intergalactic system appears in the domain (at 1701.8Å) of the N V doublet, and therefore is excluded in our measurement.

#### 3.2.1 Associated Absorption Lines in the Doublets of O VI, N V and the Covering Factors

The intrinsic absorbers near the QSO might cover only part of the continuum or broad-line emitting sources along our line of sight (Hamann et al., 1997), and the covering factors could differ between ions and vary with velocity across the line profiles. The column density will be underestimated if this effect is not accounted for. In the case of single absorption lines (e.g., one component of Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption), we can derive a lower limit to the covering factor, $`C_f`$, along the line of sight from the residual flux, $`I_0`$, in the core of the normalized absorption line at a particular radial velocity by $`C_f1I_0`$. For component B, the complete absorption in Ly$`\alpha `$ shows its covering factor is nearly 100% (i.e.,$`I_00`$) (see Fig. 4). In practice, the actual value of the covering factor for a component can be determined only from a doublet, assuming both absorption lines of the doublet are unblended with other lines (Crenshaw et al., 1999). For the doublets O VI and N V in the STIS far-UV spectrum, the expected ratio of the optical depths of the doublet is $``$ 2.0, and the covering factor $`C_f`$ can be derived by

$`C_f`$ $`=`$ $`\{\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{I_1^22I_1+1}{I_22I_1+1}\hfill & \mathrm{for}\hfill & I_1>I_2I_1^2,\hfill \\ 1\hfill & \mathrm{for}\hfill & I_2<I_1^2,\hfill \\ 1I_1\hfill & \mathrm{for}\hfill & I_2I_1,\hfill \end{array}`$ (4)
where $`I_1`$ and $`I_2`$ are the normalized intensities in the weaker (e.g., O VI $`\lambda `$1037.6) and stronger (e.g., O VI $`\lambda `$1031.9) line troughs, respectively. In most cases, the value of $`I_2`$ is between $`I_1^2`$ and $`I_1`$. If $`I_2`$ is outside of this range, it should be due to measurement uncertainties. The corresponding line optical depths of this doublet, ($`\tau _1,\tau _2`$), are

$`\begin{array}{ccccc}\tau _2\hfill & =\hfill & 2\tau _1\hfill & =\hfill & 2ln\left(\frac{C_f}{I_1+C_f1}\right).\hfill \end{array}`$ (6)
To determine the covering factor of each component, we choose the high-ionization doublet O VI to start our fitting because it is continuous and has a higher signal-to-noise ratio as compared with the N V doublet. The absorption lines are treated as Gaussian profiles in optical depth $`\tau (v_r)`$, and the ratio of optical depths for this doublet is fixed at 2:1, assuming that the O VI and N V absorption lines are fully resolved. Most of the broad and smooth components appear to be well resolved in the STIS spectrum. However, there are also narrow components that could, in principle, contain unresolved absorption. Theoretically, only components with temperatures less than 17,000 K would be still unresolved at 7 km s-1resolution.

Component A of Ly$`\beta `$ is blended with the broad absorption component H of O VI, and its width and location are well constrained by its corresponding absorption profiles in O VI and Ly$`\alpha `$. Since the width of component G is constrained by the corresponding spectral profiles of Ly$`\beta `$ and Ly$`\gamma `$, the broadest absorption troughs in the O VI and Ly$`\alpha `$ lines around component G cannot be fitted by a single component, so components F and H were introduced. The associated absorption features in O VI were carefully deblended with 13 components (namely, A,C $``$ I,K $``$ O), and the resolving process is unambiguous. Fig. 3 shows the best fit to the O VI emission and absorption features. A strong narrow absorption is found at 1421.5Å, just between components A and C, and the possibility of being associated with 3C 351 can be ruled out. If it were an O VI $`\lambda 1038`$ absorption line, a stronger line of O VI $`\lambda 1032`$ should appear at 1413.3Å (see Fig 2a). Absence of the corresponding doublet absorption indicates that this feature is probably Lyman $`\alpha `$ in the intergalactic medium at $`z=0.1693`$. Additionally, two narrow absorption lines resulting from intervening Ly$`\alpha `$ clouds can be found in the O VI region at 1413.938 and 1420.226 Å.

The STIS far-UV spectrum of the N V doublet at $``$ 1700 Å has poorer S/N, as it appears on the red edge of the effective wavelength range. As seen in Fig. 2, only the strong associated components can be detected. We adopt the same values of rest-frame velocity, width, and covering factor for each component in N V as in O VI because both of these two species probably co-exist in the same high-ionization material. We achieved a good (in the $`\chi ^2`$-sense) fit of the N V absorption features.

For fully resolved lines that have Gaussian distributions of optical depth, the column densities $`N_{ion}`$ (in cm-2) can be derived by integrating the line optical depths across the absorption profiles by

$$\begin{array}{ccc}N_{ion}\hfill & =\hfill & \frac{m_ec}{\pi e^2\lambda _0f}\tau (v_r)𝑑v_r=\left(\frac{m_ec}{\pi e^2}\right)\left(\frac{\pi }{4ln2}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{\tau _0W}{\lambda _0f}\right)\hfill \\ & =\hfill & 4.0108\times 10^{14}\times \left(\frac{\tau _0W}{\lambda _0f}\right)(\mathrm{cm}^2),\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
where $`\lambda _0`$ and $`f`$ are the transition wavelength (in Å) and oscillator strength, which are cataloged by Morton (1991), $`\tau _0`$ and $`W`$ are central optical depth and width (i.e., FWHM in km s-1) of the absorption line (Savage & Sembach, 1991; Arav et al., 2001). The function ‘ptauabs’ in the latest version of the specfit task is used to parameterize absorption with partial covering of the continuum and BEL sources.

Table 3 presents the measurements of the associated absorption lines in these two doublets. We give the column density, line width (FWHM), rest-frame velocity, and covering factor for each component. The broadest component, E, is found to have the smallest covering factor in the O VI and N V doublets, and its column densities are even larger than those of component G. We emphasize that the column density $`N_{ion}`$ and central optical depth $`\tau (v_r)`$ depend heavily upon the covering factor, as shown in equations (2) and (3). It is well known that spectral resolution is crucial for accurate measurement of the associated absorption components in the doublets. Previous studies which are based on low-resolution (R $``$ 1000) spectroscopic observations may have severe biases in column density determinations, since the blended complex of components in doublets in lower resolution spectra cannot be expected to result in any useful information about the covering factors.

#### 3.2.2 Associated Absorption Lines in the Lyman series

Absorption features of the associated systems can be found in the Lyman lines, including all the major components (i.e., FWHM $`>`$ 20 km s-1) that appear in the high-ionization O VI doublets. For these components we adopt the same values of the rest-frame velocity and width as those derived from the O VI fitting. The covering factors of absorption components in principle can be variable between different lines of the Lyman series since the BELR may be uncovered and each transition could therefore cover a different fraction of the total continuum plus emission line flux. However, permitting this extra freedom in the fitting could compromise the consistency of the results and so we initially set all lines to have the same covering factor. Some strong absorption components are found to have cores that are much deeper than the continuum flux levels (e.g., components A and B in Ly$`\alpha `$), indicating that the regions responsible for the associated absorption lines lie completely outside of the BELR.

We fit the higher order Lyman lines (Ly$`\beta `$, Ly$`\gamma `$, Ly$`\delta `$ and Ly$`ϵ`$) simultaneously with Ly$`\alpha `$ since each is determined by the same neutral hydrogen column density and known oscillator strengths. We notice that there are strong emission features in Lyman $`\alpha `$ and O VI, whereas there are no obvious emission features in the higher order Lyman lines. Keeping in mind that the BELR may influence the covering factors for the associated Ly$`\alpha `$ absorbers, we force Ly$`\alpha `$ to have the minimum covering factor smaller than or equal to those of the higher order Lyman lines. In practice, we initially set the same values of the covering factors for the Lyman lines as those derived from O VI fitting, then permit the covering factors to vary only for the components whose fitting significantly deviates from the observed absorption features after adjusting the parameters of column density.

Table 4 lists the results of fits for the Lyman series, giving the column density, width, rest-frame velocity and covering factors in Lyman lines through Ly$`ϵ`$ for each kinematic component. Fig. 4 shows the best fit to Ly$`\alpha `$ emission and the associated absorption lines. For component A, the width (i.e., FWHM) is restricted to be 23 km s-1by the narrower absorption profile in O VI $`\lambda `$1038, and its column density from the Lyman lines is also constrained by the corresponding unsaturated absorption features in Ly$`\delta `$ and Ly$`ϵ`$. This modeling fails to produce a good fit for component A in Ly$`\alpha `$, but does fit the higher order Lyman lines very well. This might indicate that there exists additional low column density or low-ionization gas with a larger velocity dispersion at the same velocity, resulting in excess absorption seen only in Ly$`\alpha `$.

Generally speaking, to model the same strength of absorption feature, absorbing gas with a smaller covering factor is required to have a higher column density. The covering factor of component E is held to be 100% for the Lyman lines, since its H I column density is strictly constrained by the fact that its corresponding absorption feature cannot be found in the Ly$`\beta `$ or Ly$`\delta `$ lines. There is a deep trough at component G in Ly$`\gamma `$, even deeper than the corresponding troughs in Ly$`\alpha `$ and Ly$`\beta `$, so it is unlikely to result from only the material responsible for component G in Ly$`\alpha `$ and Ly$`\beta `$. This is likely to be an intergalactic Lyman$`\alpha `$ line at $`z=0.0915`$ messing up this trough, so we excluded component G in Ly$`\gamma `$ from our fit.

In addition to the components found in the O VI and N V lines, components B and J are detected in the Lyman lines. Only weak lower limits on their covering factors can be estimated from the residual flux at the absorption centers, and we assume their covering factors are 100% in our fitting.

## 4 PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF THE ABSORBERS

It is well known that the ionization structure of photoionized gas is largely dependent upon the strength and shape of the incident continuum over a complete wavelength range, from the millimeter to X-ray bands. 3C 351 is a radio-loud and soft X-ray weak quasar whose spectral energy distribution (SED) is significantly different from the standard AGN continuum. Fortunately, a great volume of observational data in a variety of wavebands has been obtained for this quasar, which allows a more realistic modeling of the photoionized gas. Following Mathur et al. (1994), we use the continuum data from Elvis et al. (1994). The presence of the ionized absorber leads to uncertainty in determining the intrinsic X-ray spectral index $`\alpha `$ (for a power-law $`f_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$). The extrapolation of the IR continuum is strongly limited by 1.3 mm observations (Antonucci & Barvainis, 1988), and the slope in the submillimeter region is $`5/2`$, similar to that of radio-quiet quasars. A detailed comparison of the observed continuum with the so-called “standard” AGN continuum can be found in Mathur et al. (1994).

To investigate the physical conditions of the intrinsic absorbers with photoionization models, we used the latest version of Cloudy (C94) (Ferland et al., 1998) in a similar way to Brotherton et al. (2002). A hydrogen volume density of $`10^9`$ cm-3 and solar chemical abundance are assumed in our modeling. Based on the observed column densities of H I, N V and O VI for a specified kinematic component, we try to determine the total hydrogen column ($`N_H`$) and the ionization parameter ($`U`$) which is defined as

$`U={\displaystyle \frac{Q}{4\pi r^2n__Hc}},`$ (8)
where $`Q`$ is the total number of ionizing photons per second, and $`n__H`$ is the total number density of hydrogen. This method can lead to a unique solution for the major components which have measurements of column density ratios of both N(O VI)/N(H I) and N(N V)/N(H I), namely components A, C, D, E, F, G, H and I. For components L and M which have only N(O VI)/N(H I) measurements, the lack of a detectable N V line provides an upper limit for the column density, logN(N V)$`<`$14.0, which restricts double-valued solutions to the lower ionization parameter.

Instead of directly creating a large grid of models, we used the OPTIMIZE command in our computation to search for the model with the best fit of observed columns in an efficient way. We tried to test the dependence upon the hydrogen volume density $`n__H`$, and found that the modeling is not sensitive to the value of hydrogen density at all. Physical parameters for some absorption components are shown in Table 5. Note that most components have relatively low total column densities and ionization parameters.

### 4.1 Broad Absorption Features

The associated absorption features are dominated by the broad (FWHM $``$ 60 km s-1) components with centroids shifted roughly from $``$781 to $``$2206 km s-1. These components are marked above the spectrum in Fig. 3, including C, D, E, F, G and I. It is clear that all these broad components are found to have partial covering of the O VI line emission, which largely favors an intrinsic origin for the associated absorption systems. Note that most components are found to have ionization parameters of $`0.13<U<0.32`$, and total hydrogen columns of order $`10^{19}`$ cm-2. Compared with the $`ROSAT`$ PSPC values for the X-ray warm absorbers, $`N_H1.4\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 and $`U6.7`$ (Mathur et al., 1994), the UV absorbing gas with physical conditions inferred from the STIS spectrum seems not to represent the same gas that is seen as the X-ray warm absorber.

In the STIS spectrum, component E has the widest velocity coverage (i.e., FWHM $``$ 381 km s-1) and largest column densities for the O VI and N V doublets. It is also found to have the largest column density ratio of N(O VI)/N(H I), which yields the highest ionization parameter of 0.32 and total hydrogen column of 1.55 $`\times 10^{19}`$ cm-2. Similarly, component D has a higher column density ratio of N(OVI)/N(HI), and the resulting ionization parameter is also relatively high. Component G, with a width of 99 km s-1and a rest-frame velocity of $``$1699 km s-1, is found to have the largest column density for Lyman lines. This component has a comparatively smaller ratio of N(N V)/N(H I) and a higher total hydrogen column density. Note that its covering factors are different for the high-ionization doublets($``$ 80%), Ly$`\alpha `$ ($``$65%), and higher order Lyman lines ($``$100%).

Component C is measured to have the largest column density ratio of N(N V)/N(H I), with a covering factor of $``$ 67%, but its physical condition is similar to components F, H, and I, with lower ionization parameter and total hydrogen column density. In addition, component L seems to be absent in N V $`\lambda \lambda `$1238,1242, and its column density ratio of N(O VI)/N(H I) is smaller. The corresponding absorber is modeled to have a lower ionization parameter of 0.095, under the constraint of N(N V) $`<10^{14}`$ cm-2.

### 4.2 Narrow Absorption Features

Component A appears in the Lyman lines and both high-ionization doublets, with the smallest outflow velocity, $``$ -37 km s-1. The complete absorption at the line cores in Ly$`\alpha `$ and O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 might indicate that the absorber is located completely outside of the continuum and BELR of 3C 351. The ISM of the host galaxy is likely to be responsible for this narrow absorption component. However, the resulting lowest ionization parameter of 0.069 and its small rest-frame velocity might suggest that it is associated with the low-ionization gas in a putative rotating disk near the center of 3C 351. The absorption features in the Lyman lines at this component velocity cannot be well fitted by a single component with the same width of $``$23 km s-1as that of the O VI lines (see Fig. 4). The accretion disk might be the host of the inferred additional low-ionization absorbing gas.

Components K and M are clearly shown in the O VI doublet, and their covering factors for the O VI lines are determined to be 45% and 81%, respectively. The covering factor of component M for the Lyman lines is changed to 47%, and a lower ionization parameter is obtained with the constraint of N(N V) $`<10^{14}`$ cm-2. Component K is strongly blended with components M and L in Ly$`\alpha `$ and Ly$`\beta `$, and it is possible that some of the H I absorption that should have been assigned to component K was inadvertently assigned to components L or M instead. Additionally, components N and O may be present in Ly$`\alpha `$ line, but they fall in the low sensitivity or gaps between orders. We exclude these three components in our measurement. Taking the components B and J seen only in the Lyman lines into account, there are five components (plus K, N and O) with unkonwn relative ratios of N(O VI)/N(H I) and N(N V)/N(H I).

## 5 DISCUSSION

Based on the HST STIS spectrum of 3C 351, we derived the column density, covering factor, total hydrogen column and ionization parameter for each kinematic component. These quantities can help us determine if the gas responsible for the UV absorption features can also account for the X-ray absorption. As one of the very few X-ray-quiet quasars with an X-ray flux sufficient to obtain a spectrum with $`ROSAT`$, 3C 351 has been observed twice with the PSPC (Nicastro et al., 1999), and an ionized absorber is present, whose dominant feature is a strong O VII/O VIII absorption edge. The best fit to the PSPC spectrum taken on 1991 October, taking the preferred folded model with a break at 0.37 keV, leads to an ionization parameter log$`U`$ of $`0.781.08`$ and a total column density $`N_H`$ of $`12\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 (Mathur et al., 1994). This ionization parameter $`U`$ differs by a factor of $``$ 30 from that inferred from the STIS far-UV spectrum, and the difference in total column density is much larger. The multiple kinematic components, low ionization parameters and total hydrogen column densities for most of the UV absorption indicate that the UV and X-ray absorption is unlikely to arise in the same material. Of course, there would be a possibility that the X-ray absorber was much weaker when the STIS observations were obtained, since the X-ray and STIS observations were taken years apart.

For the narrow absorption components B, J, K, N and O, for which the available absorption species are limited, we still can model the physical conditions, albeit with lower reliability. Component B is found to have only the low ionization solution: $`\mathrm{log}U1.24`$ and $`\mathrm{log}N_H18.11`$. However, two solutions, one with lower $`U`$ and $`N_H`$, and another with higher $`U`$ and $`N_H`$, are found with acceptable $`\chi ^2`$ values for components J, K, N and O. For these four components, we put the additional limit of log N(C III) $`<`$ 12.5 in the modeling, considering the non-detection of the C III $`\lambda `$ 977 line, and two-fold solutions are still obtained. Therefore, it is possible that a unified UV-X-ray absorber still hides in these components. Components J and K are found to have similar higher ionization solutions of log$`U`$ $``$ 1.25 and log$`N_H`$ $``$ 20.66, as well as the lower ionization solutions: log$`U`$ $``$ -1.00 and log$`N_H`$ $``$ 18.00 for component J; log$`U`$ $``$ 0.03 and log$`N_H`$ $``$ 18.02 for component K. Components N and O seem to have similar high ionization solutions: log $`U1.29`$ and log$`N_H20.72`$, and their low ionization solutions show the low ionization parameters, log $`U1.20`$ for component N and log$`U1.17`$ for component O. The physical conditions for these four absorbers may be compatible with the X-ray warm absorber at this epoch, so the possibility that some UV and X-ray absorption arises in the same gas cannot yet be completely ruled out. Nevertheless our study suggests that the absorbers associated with quasars are complex outflows and that the UV and X-ray absorbing material are not identical for most individual kinematic components. This picture is consistent with the model proposed by Krolik & Kriss (2001), for which material with a wide range of physical conditions is stable.

As mentioned in §1, the radio properties of 3C 351 indicate an edge-on orientation of the accretion disk, which seems to be consistent with the unified geometry of the NAL and BAL absorbers detailed by Elvis (2000). According to this geometry, we look across the flow direction in NALs, while we look down the length of the flow in BALs (see Fig. 3 in Elvis 2000). The highest rest-frame velocity of the outflowing ionized gas along the line of sight reachs -2800 km s-1, so the absorbing gas outflowing approximately perpendicular to the accretion disk can be expected to have a much higher ejection velocity as shown in BALs ($`0.1c0.2c`$; Weymann et al. 1991).

There are techniques to derive additional information about the physical characteristics of the UV absorber. The density and distance to the central source of the associated absorber can be directly derived from time variability of absorption lines (Hamann et al., 1995), but this technique can not be applied for 3C 351 because it is a mildly variable quasar in the optical band, with a factor of $`2`$ variability on time scales of $`510`$ yr (Grandi & Tifft, 1974). In the X-ray band, a factor of 1.7 change in flux within the nearly 2 years between repeated $`ROSAT`$ PSPC observations is detected (Mathur et al., 1994). The four runs of STIS observations for 3C 351 failed to reveal signification UV variability over their time-frame, but some exploration is still possible. From the definitions of column density and ionization parameter $`U`$ of the absorber (Eq. 4), the thickness and the distance to the central engine can be estimated from the gas density $`n__H`$. If some absorbers lie outside of the BELR, the constraints on the gas density can be used. As a result, we find that the UV absorbers may be close to the central engine of $``$ 1 pc and a typical thickness of $`10^{12}`$ cm.

It is interesting to point out that all the broad absorption components (FWHM $`>`$ 60 km s-1) appeared in both the O VI and N V lines (i.e., components C, D, E, F, G, H and I) and have higher ionization parameters, ranging from 0.13 to 0.25, than those of the narrow components. This might indicate that the absorbing gas responsible for these broad absorption components is closer to the central emission source. The turbulence in rest-frame velocity might be an indicator of the location of the absorbing gas. However, we can’t find a similar tendency in the UV spectra of other AGNs.

Strong associated metal line absorption has been observed in AGNs with soft X-ray absorption (Brandt, Laor, & Wills, 2000). However, the disparity between the UV and X-ray absorbing gas has been illustrated clearly in a handful of Seyfert galaxies with both UV and X-ray observations. Only a small fraction have the UV absorber identified with the X-ray absorber. For example, one of seven components of intrinsic absorption in Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 509 is likely to be associated with the warm X-ray-absorbing gas, and the associated X-ray absorption for the other six components is negligible (Kriss et al., 2000). The high-resolution X-ray spectrum for another well-studied Seyfert 1 galaxy, NGC 5548, taken with the Low Energy Transmission Grating (LETG) on $`Chandra`$, shows strong narrow absorption lines with a blueshift of $`280\pm 70`$ km s-1, which may be identified with the UV absorbing gas responsible for either component 3 (Mathur et al., 1999) or 4 (Brotherton et al., 2002). However, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy using $`Chandra`$ has not yet been published for 3C 351, so the kinematic link of the UV components with the X-ray absorbers is not yet established.

We note the intriguing agreement in velocity among pairs of components in the O VI doublet. The short-wavelength member of component A is nearly centered in the long wavelength member of broad component G. Similarly, the $`\lambda `$1038 lines of components N and O are superposed on the broad $`\lambda `$1032 feature of component D. Line-locking is a possible cause of these velocity alignments (Srianand, 2000), although chance superpositions in such a complex configuration must also be probable.

Though multiple kinematic components have been resolved in this STIS spectrum, the physical conditions of the absorbing gas are still poorly determined from absorption lines studies in the UV band alone. To unambiguously identify the UV absorption components with the X-ray warm absorbers, simultaneous high-resolution spectroscopic observations are still needed for 3C 351. The lack of X-ray spectroscopy of 3C 351 is currently a limit to better understanding the relation between the warm absorbers and the UV associated absorbing gas.

## 6 SUMMARY

The $`HST`$ STIS spectroscopy of 3C 351 provides a good chance to investigate the kinematic structure and physical conditions of the associated absorbers. The high-resolution far-UV spectrum of the radio-loud and X-ray-weak quasar 3C 351 shows strong emission lines from the O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038 and Ly$`\alpha `$ lines, each of which can be resolved into two Gaussian profiles, one broad and one narrow. Kinematically complex associated absorption in 3C 351 is present on the blue wings of the high-ionization emission doublets O VI $`\lambda \lambda `$1032,1038, N V $`\lambda \lambda `$1238,1242 and Lyman lines through Ly$`ϵ`$. These absorption lines are resolved into several distinct kinematic components, spanning a rest-frame velocity range from $``$37 to $``$2800 km s-1. All the broad absorption components are found to have partial covering of the background continuum source and the BELR, which strongly supports the intrinsic absorption origin and rules out the suggestin that the absorption arises in some associated cluster of galaxies. The column density ratios of N(O VI)/N(H I) and N(N V)/N(H I) are used to derive the physical conditions for some major associated absorbers, based on photoionization models. We find that all far-UV associated absorption components have low values of the ionization parameter and effective hydrogen column density, of which the higher ionization parameters are found for the absorbers responsible for the broad (FWHM $`>`$ 60 km s-1) absorption components. Although the low spectral resolution in the X-ray band in previous studies prevents a detailed comparison of the high-ionization resonance lines in the far-UV and X-ray spectra, we still can conclude that the UV and X-ray absorption are unlikely to arise in the same material, based on the multiple kinematic components, low ionization parameters and total hydrogen column densities we inferred for most of the UV absorbers.

The STIS observations were obtained for the STIS Instrument Definition Team. QY, RFG, TMT, and MEK acknowledge NASA support for IDT analysis. Additional support has been provided by NASA contract NAS5-30110. QY wants to acknowledge the financial support provided by the China Scholarship Council during the NOAO visit, the National Key Base Sciences Research Foundation under contract G1999075402, and the Chinese NSF No.19833008, 19873018.