text:
# The correlation of line strength with luminosity and redshift from composite QSO spectra

## 1 introduction

The correlation of QSO emission line properties with luminosity is a straightforward yet potentially highly informative test of standard physical models for AGN. Since the discovery of an anti-correlation between the equivalent width ($`W_\lambda `$) of the C IV $`\lambda `$1549 emission line and continuum luminosity ($`L`$) by Baldwin (1977), a significant amount of effort has been expended quantifying this relationship (hereinafter referred to as the Baldwin effect), and investigating similar correlations with other QSO emission lines (Baldwin, Wampler & Gaskell 1989; Zamorani et al. 1992; Green, Forster & Kuraszkiewcz 2001). The results have revealed that the anti-correlation with luminosity is relatively weak, typically $`W_\lambda L^\beta `$, with $`\beta =0.2`$ and large scatter. Similar correlations have been seen in most other broad emission lines including Mg II $`\lambda `$2798, C III$`\lambda `$1909, Si IV+O IV\] $`\lambda `$1400 and Ly$`\alpha `$ with $`0.4<\beta <0.1`$ \[Green et al. 2001\]. It has also been claimed \[Green et al. 2001\] that the Baldwin effect may be dominated by an even stronger anti-correlation with redshift. However, in the magnitude-limited QSO samples that have been studied to date, it is extremely difficult to disentangle the effects of redshift and luminosity. It it typically only possible to access 1–1.5 magnitudes at any given redshift, given the steep slope of the QSO luminosity function for magnitude-limited samples with $`B<19.5`$ (Boyle, Shanks & Peterson 1988).

A further limitation of existing studies is that it is difficult to study the correlation with luminosity and/or redshift for weaker lines, in particular the narrow line region (NLR). The spectra used in such analyses are typically ’survey’ quality, i.e. relatively low signal-to-noise ratio ($`SNR510`$) and thus narrow emission lines can be difficult to detect in individual spectra.

Composite QSO spectra have been generated from most large QSO surveys over the past decade \[Boyle 1990, Francis et al. 1991\], providing a detailed picture of the ensemble average spectral properties of the QSO sample. Typical $`SNR`$s in these spectra approach or even exceed 100, with even relatively weak emission lines (e.g. \[Ne V$`\lambda `$3426) easily detectable. However, previous surveys have been too small (comprising 1000 QSOs or less) to generate composite spectra as a function of both luminosity and redshift with which to examine correlations. With the recent advent of much larger QSO surveys such as the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ, Croom et al. 2001) and and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, Vanden Berk et al. 2001; Schneider et al. 2002) we may now use composite, rather than individual spectra, to investigate the correlation of QSO spectral properties with luminosity and redshift in much greater detail that has hitherto been possible.

In this paper we describe the result of an analysis of composite QSO spectra based on the almost 22000 QSOs observed to date (January 2002) in the 2QZ. The bulk of these objects lie around the break in the luminosity function, thus providing a better sampling in luminosity at any given redshift than QSO surveys at the bright end of the LF (e.g. the Large Bright Quasar Survey; Hewett, Foltz & Chaffee 1995). Moreover, we have also included a few hundred brighter QSOs observed with the new 6-degree Field (6dF) multi-object spectrographic facility on the UK Schmidt Telescope (Croom et al. in preparation) to increase the luminosity range studied at any given redshift to typically 3–4 magnitudes. As well as providing a wide baseline over which to study correlations such as the Baldwin effect, this sampling of the QSO $`(L,z)`$ plane provides an opportunity to disentangle the effects of luminosity and redshift.

In Section 2 we describe the data used in our analysis, while in Section 3 we discuss the methods used to generate the composite spectra and measure the spectral line equivalent widths. In section 4 we present the results of our analysis, we then discuss these in the context of theoretical models in section 5.

## 2 Data

### 2.1 Generation of composite spectra

The data used in our analysis is taken from the 2dF and 6dF QSO Redshift Surveys (2QZ, Croom et al 2001; 6QZ Croom et al. in preparation). QSO candidates were selected for observation based on their stellar appearance and blue colours found from APM measurements of UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) photographic plates and films in the $`u`$, $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ and $`r`$ bands. The 2QZ/6QZ area comprises 30 UKST fields arranged in two $`75^{}\times 5^{}`$ declination strips centred on $`\delta =30^{}`$ and $`\delta =0^{}`$. The $`\delta =30^{}`$ strip extends from $`\alpha =21^h40`$ to $`\alpha =3^h15`$ in the South Galactic Cap and the equatorial strip from $`\alpha =9^h50`$ to $`\alpha =14^h50`$ in the North Galactic Cap. The 2QZ and 6QZ sources were selected from the same photometric data, the only difference being their ranges in apparent magnitude: $`18.25<b_\mathrm{J}<20.85`$ (2QZ) and $`16.0<b_\mathrm{J}18.25`$ (6QZ). The combined datasets thus produce a uniform QSO sample over a wide range in luminosity. Details of the candidate selection can be found in Smith et al. (2002).

The 2QZ objects were observed over the period October 1997 to January 2002 using the 2dF instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Observations were made with the low dispersion 300B grating, providing a dispersion of 178.8 Å mm-1 (4.3 Å pixel-1) and a resolution of $`8.6`$ Å over the range 3700–7900Å. Typical integration times were 55 minutes, in a range of observing conditions (1–2.5 arcsec seeing) resulting in median $`SNR5`$ per pixel. The brighter 6QZ objects used in the present paper were observed in September 2001 using the 6dF facility at the UKST. A low dispersion 250B grating was used to provide a dispersion of 286 Å mm-1 (3.6 Å pixel-1) and a resolution of $`11.3`$ Å over the range 3900–7600Å. Exposure times were typically 100 minutes resulting in median $`SNR15`$ per pixel.

Data from both 2dF and 6dF were reduced using the pipeline data reduction system 2DFDR \[Bailey et al. 2002\]. Identification of spectra and the determination of redshifts was carried out by a automated program, AUTOZ (Croom et al. 2001; Miller et al. in preparation). Each spectrum was checked by eye by two members of the team. In our analysis below we only include quality class 1 identifications (96 per cent reliable identification), these being the best quality spectra. We also only take the best spectrum (based on quality class and then $`SNR`$) of each object in the case where there is more than one spectrum available. The combined 2QZ/6QZ dataset provides us with 22041 independent QSO spectra.

Typical redshift errors are $`\sigma _\mathrm{z}=0.003`$ and photometric errors in the $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ band are $`0.1`$ mag. Absolute magnitudes were computed from the observed photographic $`b_\mathrm{J}`$ magnitude, after correction for Galactic extinction \[Schlegel et al. 1998\], using the K-corrections found by Cristiani & Vio (1990). Throughout we assume a flat cosmological world model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$, $`\lambda _0=0.7`$ and $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1.

## 3 Method

We have generated composite QSO spectra in discrete absolute magnitude ($`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=0.5`$mag) and redshift ($`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.25`$) bins. The bin widths were chosen to give good resolution in luminosity and redshift, whilst typically retaining over 100 QSOs in at least 5 magnitude bins (a factor of 10 in luminosity) at each redshift (see Table 1). Once QSOs identified as broad absorption line (BAL) QSOs had been removed, there remained a total of 21102 QSOs with which to generate the composite spectra. The most important issue relating to the construction of the composites was that the spectra were not flux calibrated. The effects of differential atmospheric refraction, corrector chromatic aberration and fibre positioning errors makes obtaining even a relative flux calibration for sources extremely challenging. We therefore chose not to attempt flux calibration of our spectra. We did however correct for absorption due to the atmospheric telluric bands (the optical fibres also provide some absorption in these same bands). We summed all the spectra in a single observation in order to obtain a mean absorption correction which was then applied to the data. Also, pixels which had anomalously high variance due to residuals of night sky emission lines were flagged as bad and discarded from our analysis.

As the spectra were not flux calibrated we decided to normalize each spectrum to a continuum level as a function of wavelength. This allows us to measure equivalent widths, line widths and line centres, however we lose any information concerning continuum shape and absolute line strengths. Fitting the continuum relies on defining line-free parts of the spectrum. This is not always possible, particularly in regions of the spectrum dominated by weak Fe II emission. Our approach, therefore, was to remove all strong emission line features, interpolating linearly between pseudo-continuum bands defined on each side of the line. The strong features removed, and the continuum bands defined are listed in Table 2. After removing these strong lines, a 4th order polynomial was fit to each spectrum, which was then used to divide the spectra, providing an approximate continuum normalization. In a second step to remove residual large-scale features in the spectrum, each spectrum was divided by a median filtered version using a wide box-car filter of width 201 pixels (each spectrum containing 1024 pixels or 1032 pixels for 2dF and 6dF data respectively). At the edges of the spectrum the filter was reduced in size to a minimum half-width of 5 pixels.

The above processing was all carried out in the observed frame. After continuum normalization the spectra were shifted to the rest frame, interpolating linearly onto a uniform scale of 1Å $`\mathrm{pixel}^1`$. Finally the composite spectra were produced by taking the median value of each pixel. For each pixel the median $`z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ of the contributing QSOs was also determined. We can then determine apropriate values for each feature, and not just each composite. The values of $`z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ assigned to each feature are the average, over the wavelength range of the feature, of the pixel median $`z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ values. We derived errors for each composite by looking at the distribution of values to be medianed for each pixel. The 1$`\sigma `$ errors were taken to be the 68% semi-interquartile range of the pixel values divided by the square root of the number of objects contributing. We have constructed composites in $`zM_\mathrm{B}`$ and also composites binned in absolute magnitude only. One final composite was made from all the spectra (see Fig. 1). The resulting composites are normalized to the pseudo-continuum over most parts of the spectrum, except for the 2000–3500Å region where our procedure treats the Fe II emission bands as though they were continuum. Therefore, in our subsequent analysis of these spectra we are unable to deduce any results concerning these broad Fe II features.

The composites in Fig. 1 (and subsequent figures) are plotted when at least 10 individual QSOs contribute to the spectrum. It can be seen that as the number of QSOs is reduced the $`SNR`$ declines. From this plot a number of trends can already be seen, with the narrow \[Ne V\], \[O II\] and \[Ne III\] showing an anti-correlation of line strength with luminosity. The broad emission lines of C IV, C III\] and Mg II also show a similar correlation, appearing to confirm previous detections of the Baldwin effect. A further graphical representation of these (and other) correlations is shown in Fig. 2 which shows the luminosity segregated composites divided by the mean composite. This confirms that anti-correlations with luminosity are seen for a wide variety of emission lines. An anti-correlation is also seen between the strength of the Ca II H and K absorption lines and QSO luminosity, consistent with a picture where the host galaxy luminosity of QSOs is only weakly correlated with QSO luminosity. Finally we note that the Balmer series (in particular H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$) appears to show a positive correlation with luminosity, in contrast to the other emission lines. We will analyse these apparent correlations in a quantatative manner below.

In Fig. 3 we show examples of the composites divided into absolute magnitude and redshift bins. These allow us to decouple the effects of redshift and luminosity. Figs. 3a and b show composite spectra with a fixed luminosity over a range of redshifts. There is no obvious evidence for emission features varying with redshift in these plots. Figs. 3c and d show composites in a fixed redshift interval over a range in luminosity. In this case we do see an apparent correlation between luminosity and some lines (C IV, \[Ne V\], \[O II\], \[Ne III\], Ca II K), with the lines is question becoming weaker with increasing luminosity. To investigate the nature of these correlations, in particular whether they are primarily a function of luminosity or redshift, we will carry out detailed fitting of the spectral features, followed by a correlation analysis.

### 3.1 Line Fitting Procedure

The composite spectra exhibit a number of spectral features, both in emission and absorption, which their high $`SNR`$ allow us to fit. Twelve of these features, including 3 narrow (forbidden) lines, 7 broad (permitted) emission lines, one semi-forbidden line (C III\]) and one absorption feature (Ca II K), were selected for detailed study. These features were chosen because they exhibit large equivalent widths (e.g. Ly$`\alpha `$, C IV) and, in the case of the narrow emission lines, are relatively free from contamination by other emission lines.

The local pseudo-continuum on either side of each spectral feature was fitted with a straight line, using a linear least-squares method, and subtracted from the spectrum. This continuum was by no means the ’true’ continuum as the emission lines in QSOs often lie on top of other emission lines, in particular broad Fe II features. It was, however, relatively flat and close to the feature of interest. The majority of the strong emission lines in QSO spectra are blended with other, weaker, emission lines, usually from different elements. Additionally, permitted emission lines such as the Balmer series often exhibit both a broad and a narrow component which are emitted from physically distinct regions. It is therefore necessary to model and remove the contribution from these different lines to obtain an accurate measurement of the line widths and equivalent widths.

The overlapping lines contributing to each spectral feature were modelled using multi-component Gaussian fits as listed in Table 3. We note, however, that assuming a Gaussian form for the features in our spectra may be a gross over-simplification, and future work will endevour to define non-parametric measurements of line properties as well as these Gaussian fits. Each component was fitted with a Gaussian of the form

$$F(\lambda )=ae^{\frac{(\lambda _\mathrm{c}\lambda )^2}{\sigma ^2}},$$
(1)
where $`a`$ is the peak emission, $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}`$ is the wavelength of the peak emission and $`\sigma `$ is the width of the line. When possible the number of independent parameters in the model was reduced by linking some of them together. For example, since the \[O III$`\lambda `$$`\lambda `$5007,4959 and narrow H$`\beta `$ emission arises from the same region of the QSO (the narrow line region) it is reasonable to assume that the emitting gas will have similar velocity shifts and dispersions. The central wavelengths and line widths of the \[O III$`\lambda `$4959 and narrow H$`\beta `$ emission were therefore tied to those of the \[O III$`\lambda `$5007. Columns 8, 9 and 10 in Table 3 show how features were tied together. For example, all the components of the broad H$`\beta `$ line are free, while the line centres ($`\lambda _\mathrm{c}`$) and widths ($`\sigma `$) for the two \[O III\] lines and the narrow H$`\beta `$ line are tied together.

The narrow emission lines were modelled as single Gaussians and were restricted to velocity widths $`<1500`$ km s-1. Adequate fits to the Ca II absorption feature and the broad Balmer emission lines (H$`\beta `$, H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\delta `$) were also obtained using a single Gaussian, although there is some evidence (see Fig. 4) from these high SNR spectra that the broad H$`\beta `$ has an asymmetric non-Gaussian profile. The broad UV lines, i.e. from Mg II $`\lambda `$2798 blue-ward, display emission line profiles with very broad bases which cannot be adequately modelled by a single Gaussian. They were therefore fitted with two components; a very broad Gaussian (FWHM $`10000`$ km s-1) and a narrower component (FWHM $`20004000`$ km s-1). This narrower component is not believed to be emission from the narrow line region since its velocity dispersion is much larger than that measured in the narrow lines (e.g. \[O II$`\lambda `$3727 and \[O III$`\lambda `$5007) which is typically $``$ 800km s-1. When two broad components were fitted to a broad emission line, the central wavelengths of the Gaussians were tied together as we found no evidence for a velocity shift between the components. Systematic shifts between different components, have been seen by other authors \[Brotherton et al. 1994\], and potential line shifts will be investigated in detail by Corbett et al. (in preparation). The only line in which the broad components were not tied was Ly$`\alpha `$, because absorption to the blue side of the line resulted in an asymmetric profile and it was necessary to allow a velocity shift between the two components to fit the line profile. Previous studies \[Wills et al. 1993, Brotherton et al. 1994, Brotherton et al. 1994\] have highlighted the fact that the broad line region can be well described by two components, often described as the intermediate line region and the very broad line region. It is clear that the broad UV lines in our composite spectra show these two components, however we reserve detailed discussion of line shapes for the forthcoming paper, Corbett et al. In all cases the best fit to the spectral feature was found using $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques.

The broad Balmer emission line H$`\gamma `$ proved difficult to de-blend as it is contaminated by emission from both \[Fe II\] $`\lambda `$4358 and \[O III$`\lambda `$4363 as well as narrow H$`\gamma `$ emission. Since the \[Fe II\] and \[O III\] emission are within 6Å of each other they are not resolved in the 2dF spectra and were therefore modelled as single narrow component centered between the two lines. The fit was further constrained by fixing the velocity width of the narrow H$`\gamma `$ and the combined \[Fe II\] and \[O III\] lines to that obtained for the \[O III$`\lambda `$5007 emission. It was not possible to de-blend the O IV\] $`\lambda `$ 1402 multiplet emission from the Si IV $`\lambda `$$`\lambda `$1393,1402 emission and hence the equivalent width calculated for Si IV also contains emission from O IV\].

Once the spectral feature had been modelled, the fits to the contaminating line emission were subtracted, leaving only the line of interest. The total flux in the line was measured by integrating the flux over a wavelength range defined as $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}\pm 1.5\times \mathrm{FWHM}`$, where $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}`$ is the central wavelength and the FWHM is that of the broadest Gaussian component fitted to the line. The equivalent width of the emission (or absorption) was defined as

$$W_\lambda =\frac{F_{\mathrm{line}}}{F_{\mathrm{cont}}}\mathrm{\AA },$$
(2)
where $`F_{\mathrm{line}}`$ is the integrated flux in the emission/absorption line and $`F_{\mathrm{cont}}`$ is the continuum flux measured in a 1Å bin about the central wavelength of the fit to the line. By using the integrated residual flux in the spectral feature rather than the Gaussian fit to calculate $`F_{\mathrm{line}}`$, we avoid introducing errors due to the fact that the line emission may not be perfectly fit by a Gaussian (e.g. H$`\beta `$). There is, however, an uncertainty in $`F_{\mathrm{line}}`$ due to the modelling and subtraction of the contaminating line emission and continuum which we have taken into account when calculating the errors in $`W_\lambda `$. In general, the multi-component fits to the C III\] line were degenerate, and so we also calculate the equivalent width of the total spectral feature, which is used in the analysis below.

### 3.2 Correlation analysis

Once the widths, equivalent widths and line centres were measured for all lines fitted above, we tested the data for correlations between the line parameters and redshift and luminosity. In this paper we report the results for $`W_\lambda `$. Discussion of line widths and centres will be reported elsewhere. We have carried out non-parametric rank correlation analysis, deriving the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, $`\rho `$. We a priori select 99% to be confidence level at which we will claim significant correlations. Specifically we will test for an $`W_\lambda z`$ correlation by correlating $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ with $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$, as evolutionary parameters for QSOs are generally an approximate power law in $`(1+z)`$, in particular, QSO luminosity evolution \[Boyle et al. 2000\]. In testing for $`W_\lambda M_\mathrm{B}`$ correlations we will correlate $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$.

A particularly important issue is to deduce whether $`z`$ or $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ is the primary parameter with which $`W_\lambda `$ correlates. We approach this problem in two ways; the first is to carry out correlations in separate $`z`$ or $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ intervals, removing any possible spurious correlations with the second independent variable. The second approach is to use partial Spearman rank correlation (e.g. Macklin 1982) to derive the correlation coefficient holding one independent variable constant:

$$\rho _{\mathrm{AX},\mathrm{Y}}=\frac{\rho _{\mathrm{AX}}\rho _{\mathrm{XY}}\rho _{\mathrm{AY}}}{\sqrt{(1\rho _{\mathrm{XY}}^2)(1\rho _{\mathrm{AY}}^2)}},$$
(3)
where $`X`$ and $`Y`$ are two independent variables (e.g. $`z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$) and $`A`$ is the dependent variable (e.g. $`W_\lambda `$). $`\rho _{\mathrm{AX}}`$, $`\rho _{\mathrm{AY}}`$ and $`\rho _{\mathrm{XY}}`$ are the Spearman correlation coefficients for the separate correlations between two variables. The significance of $`\rho _{\mathrm{AX},\mathrm{Y}}`$ is given by

$$D_{\mathrm{AX},\mathrm{Y}}=\frac{\sqrt{N4}}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{1+\rho _{\mathrm{AX},\mathrm{Y}}}{1\rho _{\mathrm{AX},\mathrm{Y}}}\right),$$
(4)
which is distributed normally about zero with unit variance \[Macklin 1982\], where $`N`$ is the size of the sample. In using this partial rank correlation approach we are testing the null hypotheses that i) the $`W_\lambda z`$ correlation arises entirely from the $`W_\lambda M_\mathrm{B}`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}z`$ correlations, and ii) the $`W_\lambda M_\mathrm{B}`$ correlation arises entirely from the $`W_\lambda z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}z`$ correlations. If the coefficients for the $`W_\lambda z`$ correlation are larger than those for the $`W_\lambda M_\mathrm{B}`$ correlation, this would imply that $`W_\lambda `$ is primarily correlated with $`z`$.

To determine the slope of any measured correlations we also carry out fits to the data using the non-linear Levenberg-Marquardt method. This method was used in order to fit a power law while still properly taking into account the errors on the $`W_\lambda `$ measurements (which is not possible in a standard linear least-squares approach). As will be seen below, the errors in the individual $`W_\lambda `$ measurements were often much smaller than the scatter about the best fit line. This could reflect the fact that parameters other than those fitted are introducing extra dispersion and/or the power law is not a adequate fit to the data. To obtain a realistic error on the fitted parameters, we repeat the fitting procedure, rescaling the errors such that the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ is exactly one in each case, noting the specific cases where the data diverge significantly from a power law.

## 4 results

We derive both the bivariate and partial Spearman rank correlation coefficients for the correlation of $`W_\lambda `$ with $`z`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. Our primary aims in doing this are to i) test for the existence of any significant correlations, and ii) determine if those correlations are primarily with $`z`$ or $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. This second point is important given the recent claim \[Green et al. 2001\] that the Baldwin effect is primarily a correlation with redshift.

### 4.1 Bivariate and partial Spearman rank correlation

We select the strongest and cleanest spectral features to test for correlations. In cases where there is significant contamination by other features the Gaussian fits for these have been subtracted off the summed flux to provide a clean estimate of line flux. This has not been done in a few cases, where the separate components cannot be clearly distinguished. In particular, we use the summed flux of all components in the Si IV+O IV\] complex, and do not subtract off narrow components from H$`\delta `$ or H$`\gamma `$ (including \[O III$`\lambda `$4363). Note, however that we combine together broad and intermediate components of the same line (in particular for all the broad UV lines).

We carry out the correlations first for $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. The resulting correlation coefficients are listed in Table 4. The number of points used in the correlations ranges from 17 to 49 with a median of 22. Table 4 first lists the full bivariate correlation coefficients and probabilities for the $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ correlations with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$. These do not take into account any potential spurious correlation caused by the correlation of $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$. We find that a number of lines show significant ($`P<0.01`$) correlations. The C IV, C III\]+Al III, Mg II, \[Ne V\], \[O II\], Ca II K, H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\beta `$ lines all show significant correlations with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. We find that less lines, only Ly$`\alpha `$, C III\]+Al III, \[Ne V\] and \[O II\], show correlations with $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$. The data (filled and open circles) and best fit correlations (solid lines) are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

We then derive the partial Spearman rank correlation coefficients of $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$, which are listed in the last four columns of Table 4. In all but two cases (Ly$`\alpha `$, C III\]+Al III) the significance of the correlation is larger for $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ than $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$. The strongest partial correlations with $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ are for \[O II\] and Ca II K which are also the lines showing the steepest correlations with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. This is consistent with these $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ correlations being due to the luminosity distribution of the QSOs, within a given luminosity range, changing with redshift. Our partial correlation analysis demonstrates that the correlations seen are primarily with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ rather than redshift, in disagreement with the previous results of Green et al. (2001).

### 4.2 The correlation of $`W_\lambda `$ and redshift

To further investigate the finding that $`W_\lambda `$ primarily correlates with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ and not $`z`$ we now use the separate luminosity intervals of width $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_\mathrm{B}=0.5`$ to search for correlations with redshift. In a given luminosity interval there are up to eight $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.25`$ redshift intervals sampled. For each measured emission line we test for a correlation between $`W_\lambda `$ and $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ independently within each luminosity interval using Spearman rank correlation. In some luminosity intervals there may be only a small number of redshift intervals in which a particular line is present. This is particularly true for lines such as H$`\beta `$ and \[O III\] near the edge of the spectrum, which are only present in 3 redshift intervals. In the Spearman rank correlation analysis we limit ourselves to examining luminosity intervals which contain at least 5 separate measurements. This is because the significance of $`\rho `$ is derived from $`t=\rho \sqrt{(N2)/(1\rho ^2)}`$ which is approximately distributed as Student’s distribution. However this breaks down for small $`N`$, as it predicts zero probability for $`\rho =\pm 1`$, whereas the true likelihood of this occurring is ($`2/N!`$). Only the Si IV, C IV, C III\]+Al III and Mg II lines have 5 or more measured equivalent widths in a given luminosity interval, hence only these lines are sensitive to tests for $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ vs. $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ correlations in each luminosity interval. No significant correlations are found for any of these lines, supporting the above finding that the correlations are primarily driven by luminosity. Fig. 5 shows the distribution $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ vs. $`\mathrm{log}(1+z)`$ for all the lines. The symbols (circles) are larger for brighter luminosity intervals, and in a number of cases (e.g. \[O II\]) we see that the correlation could potentially be due to intrinsically fainter (small circles) sources having larger equivalent widths. The above partial correlation analysis confirms this impression.

### 4.3 The correlation of $`W_\lambda `$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$

We now correlate $`W_\lambda `$ with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ in separate redshift intervals of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.25`$. Again, only intervals with 5 or more $`W_\lambda `$ measurements are tested for correlations, however each line has at least one redshift interval with 5 or more points. Fig. 6 shows the results of this analysis. We find that all of the lines which show significant correlations over the entire redshift interval also show significant correlations in at least one individual redshift interval. In fact, C IV, C III\]+Al III, Mg II, \[O III\] and Ca II K all show significant correlations with $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ in two or more redshift intervals.

We note the odd behaviour of the Mg II equivalent width in the lowest redshift interval, exhibiting a trend with luminosity in the opposite sense to the other redshift ranges. It is difficult to ascribe this to a selection effect; any Malmquist bias in the measurement of the equivalent width (occurring when a particular line is the dominant or only line responsible for the identification of a quasar at a particular redshift e.g. Mg II) would likely give rise to the opposite effect i.e. a tendency to over-estimate the mean equivalent width at the faint magnitudes (lowest luminosities) in the sample.

Indeed, some Malmquist bias may be present in the data, although we have confirmed that the results presented here are robust against the inclusion/exclusion of the faintest 0.5 mag interval in absolute magnitude. Moreover, the fact that a range of slopes are found for the correlation between equivalent width and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ (both positive and negative) further suggests that any Malmquist bias plays a small role.

In Table 5 we list the parameters of all the significant correlations, including their significance and best fit parameters for the fit to $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda =A+BM_\mathrm{B}`$. From Table 5 we can see that there are significant differences between gradients of the different lines. The strongest correlation is found in the Ca II K line with a gradient of $`0.218\pm 0.022`$. The Balmer lines are the only ones to show a negative correlation with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ (a positive correlation with luminosity), which confirms the visual impression gained from Fig. 2. We discuss the physical significance of these correlations below.

### 4.4 The correlation of $`W_\lambda `$ with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ in luminosity only divided bins

Given that the above analysis appears to suggest that the dominant correlation is with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ we now derive correlations between $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ for the composites sub-divided only on the basis of luminosity (Fig. 1). This can potentially reduce the noise and scatter in the correlations if $`W_\lambda `$ is truly only correlated with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. The resulting correlations are shown in Fig. 7. The correlation coefficients and best fit parameters are listed in Table 6. We see evidence of significant correlations in many lines, with some exceptions. The lines which do not show correlations are Ly$`\alpha `$, N V, Si IV, \[Ne III\], H$`\delta `$ and \[O III\]. We also note that in some cases, most notably C IV, C III\]+Al III and Mg II, the dispersion about the best fit correlation is much larger than would be expected give the errors on individual points. This suggests that other parameters may cause extra dispersion in the relation, or that a simple power law fit is not actually a good description of the underlying physics.

## 5 Discussion

We now attempt to understand the above measured correlations in the context of simple physical models for AGN emission and host galaxy properties. We will start by considering the host galaxy, and then look at the narrow line and broad line regions in turn.

### 5.1 Host galaxy properties

The Ca II K absorption line is possibly the most simple to interpret, as it can only be due to the stars present in the host galaxy of the QSO. We clearly see that as the AGN luminosity increases, the strength of the Ca II K declines, consistent with a picture in which the host galaxy does not increase in luminosity as fast as does the AGN. If the host galaxy was constant in luminosity, the slope of the correlation between $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ would be 0.4. Our best fit slope is $`0.208\pm 0.023`$, which is therefore consistent with host galaxy luminosity increasing slowly. In this analysis we make the assumption that the average spectral properties of the AGN host galaxies do not change significantly with luminosity (or redshift). We also assume that there is no significant aperture effect introduced by the 2-arcsec diameter of the 2dF fibres used to obtain the spectra. Based on the imaging results of Schade, Boyle & Letawsky (2000), we expect that galaxy hosts for QSOs in this luminosity range ($`21>M_B>24`$) will be bulge-dominated with effective radii ranging from 1 – 2 kpc for QSOs at $`z0.15`$ and 3 – 6 kpc for QSOs with $`z0.6`$. In both cases the projected size of the bulges are is approximately the same size on the sky ($``$ 0.75 – 1.5-arcsec diameter) and significantly less than the fibre diameter.

If we also assume that the majority of the continuum emission is due to the QSO, we can derive a simple relation for the expected correlation between $`W_\lambda `$ and $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. We can set $`L_{\mathrm{line}}L_{\mathrm{gal}}L_{\mathrm{QSO}}^\alpha `$, that is, the QSO luminosity is proportional to the host galaxy luminosity to some power. If $`\alpha =0`$ then the host galaxy has a constant luminosity. Converting to magnitude and $`\mathrm{log}W_\lambda `$ we then find

$$\mathrm{log}W_\lambda =0.4(1\alpha )M_\mathrm{B}+Const.$$
(5)
Taking our fitted value for the slope of the correlation we find that $`\alpha =0.48\pm 0.06`$. This then implies that QSO and host galaxy luminosity are correlated. This has in fact been found from direct imaging studies of QSO host galaxies. Schade et al. (2000) find $`L_{\mathrm{gal}}L_{\mathrm{QSO}}^{0.21}`$ for a sample of low redshift X-ray selected AGN, with large scatter. This is a somewhat shallower slope than we find, however, we are in fact deriving the slope for the relation $`L_{\mathrm{gal}}L_{\mathrm{Tot}}^\alpha `$, not $`L_{\mathrm{gal}}L_{\mathrm{QSO}}^\alpha `$. We can instead construct a model which assumes an exact power law correlation between $`L_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ and $`L_{\mathrm{QSO}}`$. However this does depend on us having some knowledge of the expected equivalent width for Ca II K in the host galaxy, without the AGN component. We cannot make an accurate assessment of the spectral properties of the host galaxy, as we have only fit one feature. Instead we use a Ca II K line strength derived from the mean galaxy spectrum in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey \[Baldry et al. 2002\]. This has an equivalent width for Ca II K of $`7.3\pm 0.2`$Å. The maximum $`W_\lambda `$ found for Ca II K in our analysis is $`45`$Å, thus at the faintest luminosities the the host galaxy could be contributing a significant fraction of the continuum. If the equivalent width of the line in the galaxy spectrum is $`W_{\lambda \mathrm{gal}}`$, then

$$W_\lambda =\frac{W_{\lambda \mathrm{gal}}}{L_{\mathrm{Tot}}/L_{\mathrm{gal}}}=\frac{W_{\lambda \mathrm{gal}}}{10^{0.4(M_{\mathrm{Tot}}M_{\mathrm{gal}})}},$$
(6)
where $`M_{\mathrm{Tot}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ are the absolute B-band magnitudes from the total (AGN+host) and host components. Assuming a linear relation between $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{QSO}}`$ such that $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}=A+BM_{\mathrm{QSO}}`$ implies that

$$M_{\mathrm{gal}}=A2.5B\mathrm{log}(10^{0.4M_{\mathrm{Tot}}}10^{0.4M_{\mathrm{gal}}})$$
(7)
which can be solved numerically for $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}`$, and substituted into Eq. 6. The resulting best fit is

$$M_{\mathrm{gal}}=(11.10\pm 0.97)+(0.417\pm 0.045)M_{\mathrm{QSO}},$$
(8)
which is shown in Fig. 8 (solid line). This fit is very similar to the previous power law fit (dotted line), only diverging at faint magnitudes. Also plotted is the relation found by Schade et al. (2000) of $`M_{\mathrm{gal}}=17.25+0.21M_{\mathrm{QSO}}`$, this is clearly discrepant with our data. Reducing the intrinsic strength of Ca II K to $`4.5`$Å does not remove this discrepancy. We note that Schade et al. have demonstrated that for low redshift AGN ($`z0.1`$) at about $`L^{}`$ the host galaxies are in almost all respects no different to normal galaxies. The one difference found is a bias towards spheroidal morphologies. This could imply that the stellar populations in AGN host galaxies are older than in average galaxies, but this is by no means certain given that AGN activity could also be accompanied by enhanced star formation.

It is also possible to use the measured Ca II K line together with a mean galaxy spectrum to determine the expected spectral properties of other features not produced by the AGN, in particular, the narrow forbidden oxygen emission lines. In the mean 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey spectrum the flux emitted in \[O III$`\lambda `$5007 is about a factor of two lower that the flux absorbed in Ca II K. However, even in our faintest composites where the host galaxies contribute the most, the \[O III\] line has an $`W_\lambda `$ a factor of over 4 greater than Ca II K. Thus, assuming that the host galaxy SED is similar to that of a normal galaxy implies that the \[O III\] emission is coming from the AGN, rather than the host galaxy.

The situation regarding the \[O II$`\lambda `$3727 line is different. In the mean galaxy spectrum the line has a relative flux which is similar to that in the Ca II K line, and has an equivalent width of $`10.7\pm 0.3`$Å. Comparing the correlations of Ca II K and \[O II\] we find that close to the faint end of the distribution, at $`M_\mathrm{B}=20`$, the \[O II$`W_\lambda `$ is 70–100% of what would be predicted from the host galaxy. As the \[O II\] correlation with $`W_\lambda `$ is flatter than that of Ca II K the simple assumption of a constant host galaxy SED would predicit that the increased fraction of the \[O II\] flux is emanating from the AGN at higher luminosities ($`65`$% at $`M_\mathrm{B}=24`$). However, the difference is not as large as in the case of the \[O III\] line and it is possible to speculate that the \[O II\] line is formed in powerful star-forming regions and the star-formation rate in the host galaxy is increasing with AGN luminosity. In this case, all the \[O II\] emission could be due to the host galaxy. The \[O II\] line would then provide a very useful diagnostic tool for the study of star formation in high redshift QSOs. A further test of this would be to investigate the velocity distribution of the different narrow lines. If, for example, the \[O II\] line has a significantly lower velocity dispersion, more consistent with typical galaxies, than \[O III\] this would be good evidence of for the \[O II\] being due mostly to the host galaxy. Here we proceed by assuming that a major fraction of the \[O II\] line emission originates in the NLR of the AGN. The former possibility of the starburst origin will be investigated further by Corbett et al. (in preparation).

### 5.2 The narrow-line region

The lines that are thought to be emitted within the NLR of the AGN are \[O II\], \[O III\], \[Ne III\] and \[Ne V\] (see however comment about \[O II\] in the previous section). Of those, only \[O II\] and \[Ne V\] show clear and significant correlations with $`M_\mathrm{B}`$. The partial correlation anaylsis for both lines is consistent with the hypothesis that the correlation is solely due to variations in $`M_\mathrm{B}`$, with no correlation with redshift. The slope of the \[Ne V\] correlation for the magnitude only divided composites is $`0.095\pm 0.016`$, consistent with the correlation found in the $`M_\mathrm{B}z`$ composites, which has a slope of $`0.101\pm 0.012`$. This line has the highest ionization potential (here and below we consider the lower ionization potential; the energy required to ionize the lower ionization ion) of any of the narrow lines we investigate (126.21 eV). The \[O II\] line has the lowest ionization potential and the other two have intermediate values: 63.45 eV for \[Ne III\] and 54.93 eV for \[O III\]. The \[Ne III\] line shows only a marginal detection of a correlation (97% significant) and has a significantly flatter slope, $`0.031\pm 0.017`$. The \[O III\] line shows no evidence of a correlation and all the measured equivalent widths in the $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ composites are within a range of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{log}W_\lambda =0.15`$. Plotting the measured slope as a function of ionization energy for these narrow lines (open triangles in Fig. 9) we see no obvious trend. However, if much of the \[O II\] emission is due to star formation, as suggested in the earlier section, there may be a correlation in a sense that a steeper slope corresponds to higher ionization energy. Given the small number of points and the additional assumption about \[O II\], we cannot use this trend to infer the NLR physics.

Previous analyses have tentitively detected correlations between narrow line strength and luminosity \[Green et al. 2001\]. However, these were generally in data sets with a large fraction of non-detections, as they used single objects instead of composite spectra. The suggested correlation of line intensity with luminosity in \[O III\] demonstrated in Fig. 2 does not appear to be borne out in the correlation analysis involving equivalent width measurements. The apparent variation could be due to a real variation in the velocity width of the \[O III\] lines while the total flux remains approximately constant.

A simple interpretation of the \[Ne V\] and \[O II\] correlation involves the ’disappearing NLR’ model. This idea is based on the fact that the NLR size scales with the source luminosity to some power

$$R_{\mathrm{NLR}}=R_0(L/L_0)^\beta ,$$
(9)
which is reasonable given the similar correlation found for the broad line region (BLR) \[Kaspi et al. 2000\] and the actual observed NLR size in a number of sources. Luminosity scaling suggests $`0.5<\beta <0.7`$ where the lowest value is obtained from the similarity of the narrow line spectrum in low and high luminosity AGN (e.g. Netzer 1990) and the $`\beta =0.7`$ is the value obtained by Kaspi at al. (2000) for the BLR. For nearby low luminosity Seyfert 1s, $`R_0500`$ pc. Thus, the 5 magnitude range in $`M_\mathrm{B}`$ observed in our sample translates to $`R_{\mathrm{NLR}}=513`$ kpc for the highest luminosity AGN, i.e. the scale of the entire galaxy, and indeed, recent HST imaging of the NLR in several radio-loud quasars shows equation (9) to hold for RNLR up to $``$10 kpc with $`\beta `$=0.5 \[Bennert et al. 2002\]. It is therefore possible that the NLR gas, if was there in the first place, has long left the galaxy and most high luminosity AGN contain weak or non-existent NLRs. Moreover, if $`\beta =0.7`$ as suggested here, and if the NLR density is independent of size, we can perhaps explain the decreasing equivalent width of \[Ne V\] as due to a decreasing ionization parameter with luminosity.

The \[Ne III$`W_\lambda `$ correlation with luminosity is marginal although with the right trend (Fig. 7). However, the above simplified model does not explain the different behaviour of the \[O III\] line that shows no obvious correlation. We note, however, that the \[Ne III\], \[Ne V\] and \[O II\] lines are measured over a larger magnitude range, compared with \[O III\], because the \[O III\] lines are lost off the red end of the spectrum at much lower redshifts (and hence lower luminosities in a flux limited sample) than the other emission lines. Thus, the reality of the model will have to be tested when more \[O III\] line measurements of higher luminosity AGN are available. Needless to say, if the model suggested here is confirmed by future observation, it will have serious implications for searches for luminous type 2 QSOs which simply may not have luminous narrow emission line regions.

### 5.3 The broad line region

Lastly we consider emission from the BLR. Most of the strong emission lines we analyze emanate from this region and we will discuss each of the lines in turn.

The Ly$`\alpha `$ line is the only one to show a clear correlation with redshift (top left plot in Fig. 5). We see an increase in Ly$`\alpha `$ strength with redshift. However, this is likely to be due to a combination of increased Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorption and our normalization of the continuum. As we have no knowledge of the continuum shape of our spectra, we cannot extrapolate a power law slope from the red to the blue side of Ly$`\alpha `$. Thus, if absorption increases, our continuum point on the blue side of the line will be increasingly depressed, resulting in an over-estimate of the line flux. The N V line, close to Ly$`\alpha `$ will also be effected by this problem, and is generally dominated by the errors in subtracting the Ly$`\alpha `$ components. Previous work \[Francis & Koratkar 1995\] has found correlations between the strength of Ly$`\alpha `$ and redshift, with higher redshift QSOs having weaker Ly$`\alpha `$. Francis & Koratkar attribute this largely to an increase in Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorption in their flux calibrated spectra. In our composite spectra, which are continuum divided, this same Ly$`\alpha `$ forest absorption causes an underestimate of the continuum level. This in turn produces the positive correlation of $`W_\lambda `$ with redshift.

The Si IV+O IV\] lines had to be fit as one feature, as they could not be de-blended. Apart from this they are relatively clear of contamination. This blend shows no evidence whatsoever for any correlation with luminosity, with equivalent widths which are constant to $`15`$% over a factor of $`40`$ in luminosity. This is in disagreement with Green et al. (2001) who find a significant correlation with $`W_\lambda L^{0.30\pm 0.08}`$. We find a shallower slope which is consistent with zero. We note that Green et al. measure their correlation over a range which is only a factor of $`10`$ in luminosity.

The C IV line shows a highly significant correlation of equivalent width with luminosity, $`W_\lambda L^{0.128\pm 0.015}`$. The C III\] blend (C III\], Al III and Si III\]) correlation is flatter, with $`W_\lambda L^{0.070\pm 0.008}`$. However, this blend also shows apparent significant correlations with redshift which could be, in some part, due to the combination of lines taken. For Mg II, we find $`W_\lambda L^{0.058\pm 0.013}`$ with significant departures away from the correlation at low luminosity, $`M_\mathrm{B}>22`$. Checks of the individual line fits show no obvious systematic problems, and it appears that these deviations from the simple power law are real. If they were also present in the C IV or C III\] lines and occurred at the same luminosity we would not see the effect as the faintest QSOs which have these lines visible are too bright ($`M_\mathrm{B}=23`$ to $`24`$). An alternative cause is a change in the SED, e.g. of the host galaxy, but this effect is not seen in the narrow \[Ne V\] emission line which spans a similar range in luminosity. However, we also note that the Mg II emission line lies on top of the broad Fe II emission feature which we have treated as continuum. This Fe II emission may contribute a significant proportion ($``$25%) of this continuum emission and hence any variation in the strength of the Fe II emission as a function of luminosity will affect the Mg II equivalent width measurements.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this analysis is the Balmer line correlation which is markedly different to that of the broad UV emission lines. Although the broad H$`\delta `$ line shows no significant correlation, the equivalent widths of the H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\beta `$ lines show a positive correlation with luminosity. There is a hint that the strength of the correlation increases for lower order Balmer lines with $`W_\lambda L^{0.160\pm 0.020}`$ and $`W_\lambda L^{0.185\pm 0.030}`$ for H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\beta `$ respectively. This inverse Baldwin effect has not been seen before. Note that for the H$`\gamma `$ line we included the narrow component and the \[O III$`\lambda `$4363 line in the equivalent width, while for H$`\beta `$ we subtract of the narrow component. However, the positive correlations with luminosity remain if the narrow H$`\gamma `$ component is subtracted from the emission line or the narrow H$`\beta `$ component is included.

We plot the measured slopes of equivalent width dependence on luminosity against the ionization potential (filled circles in Fig. 9) for all the major emission lines in this study. Excluding the \[O II\] line, which could be contaminated by emission from the host galaxy, we see a correlation between the slope of the Baldwin relation and the ionization potential.

A possible explanation for this effect is that the SED of the ionizing continuum may steepen towards lower energies with increasing luminosity, resulting in more photons being available to ionize hydrogen but relatively fewer with energies greater than 64eV available to ionize C IV. Alternatively, the ionization parameter may change as a function of luminosity, as discussed below.

On the other hand, the correlations we measure between equivalent width and luminosity may be caused by changes in the continuum flux under the lines rather than the line flux itself. We plot the slope of the equivalent width dependence on luminosity vs. the rest wavelength of the features in question (Fig. 10). In this case, there may be a trend for the slope of the Baldwin relation to increase with decreasing wavelength. However, the broad lines show a much flatter correlation with wavelength than the narrow lines (even excluding \[O II\]); arguing against an effect caused by simple continuum variation.

Our results imply that either (a) L(H$`\beta `$)/L(C IV) increases with luminosity, (b) L(4860Å)/L(1550Å) decreases with luminosity or a combination of the two. We have no way of directly answering this question since our data are not flux calibrated and we cannot measure the above luminosity ratios. However, we can refer to earlier findings discussing the line and continuum luminosities in smaller, less complete samples.

Earlier studies of AGN SEDs (e.g. Vanden Berk et al. 2001 and references therein) show that the slope of the power law continuum changes dramatically near to the H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\beta `$ lines. Blue-wards of about 4500Å the continuum slope has $`\alpha 0.5`$, while red-wards of this point the slope is more like $`\alpha 1.6`$. This has been interpreted as due to the different continuum processes contributing to the SED at different wavelengths \[Laor 1990\]. At short wavelengths most of the emission is due to accretion disks (e.g. Laor & Netzer 1989, and references therein) while at longer wavelengths dust emission, combined with non-thermal emission in radio-loud sources, is more important. Having this in mind we can speculate that the relative contribution is luminosity dependent in a sense that the accretion disk contribution is more important at long wavelengths in higher luminosity sources. This is exactly the trend observed by Laor (1990) in his study of the continuum emission in high luminosity AGN. Other ideas are related to the accretion disk inclination \[Netzer 1985, Netzer et al. 1992, Wilkes et al. 1999\], changes in the ionizing luminosity as a function of luminosity \[Espey & Adreadis 1999, Green 1998, Korista et al. 1998, Wandel 1999\] (considered above) or emission by optically thin gas \[Shields et al 1995\]. Most of these models predict a similar trend for all lines albeit with a different slope. No existing model, except for the one involving changes in the relative luminosity of the two components, can explain the observed difference between C IV and H$`\beta `$.

Another possibility is to test the dependence of optical and UV line ratios, such as L(H$`\beta `$)/L(Ly$`\alpha `$), on luminosity and continuum shape as was done for example by Netzer et al. (1995) for a small (20) sample of radio loud AGN. That study shows a clear correlation of L(H$`\beta `$)/L(Ly$`\alpha `$) with L(4861Å)/L(1216Å). However the small size of the sample, and the small luminosity range, prevents any clear conclusion.

Finally, we note that the H$`\beta `$ luminosity range and the C IV luminosity range are very different, with almost no overlap, because of the $`zM_\mathrm{B}`$ correlation in our sample. It is therefore possible that the real Baldwin relationship for all lines is more complicated than previously assumed, showing both rising and falling branches. This may be related to the unusual shape of the $`M_\mathrm{B}W_\lambda `$ curve of the Mg II line seen in Fig. 7. This idea can only be studied by obtaining good H$`\beta `$ measurements in high luminosity AGN.

## 6 Conclusions

We have used composite QSO spectra to make the most accurate determination of line and continuum correlations to date. We see the Baldwin effect in a number of lines. In general the equivalent width correlations are primarily with luminosity and not redshift. The broad UV lines generally show strong anti-correlations with luminosity, although somewhat flatter than previous determinations. The Balmer line equivalent widths, in contrast, show an inverse Baldwin effect, and are positively correlated with luminosity. We postulate that this difference could be due to a different combination of disk and non-disk components in AGN of different luminosity.

Some, but not all, narrow forbidden lines also show anti-correlations with luminosity. A possible explanation is that the NLR becomes more extended, and fainter by comparison, at high luminosity. This has important implications concerning the possible detection of type 2 QSOs at high redshifts. By comparing the strength of the Ca II K absorption line to the \[O II\] emission line via a mean galaxy spectrum we find that at low luminosities most, if not all, of the \[O II\] flux could come from the host galaxy and not the AGN. This raises the possibility that a large fraction of the observed \[O II\] in high luminosity AGN is due to enhanced nuclear star-formation. Using the Ca II K line and assuming a constant SED for the host galaxy, we are able to derive the correlation between host galaxy and AGN luminosity which is $`L_{\mathrm{gal}}L_{\mathrm{QSO}}^{0.417\pm 0.045}`$.

A number of areas have still to be investigated. First is the detailed shapes and positions of the lines, which will be discussed in a forthcoming paper (Corbett et al. in preparation). Secondly, after looking at the mean properties as a function of redshift and luminosity, we should also investigate the variance about this mean by fitting individual spectra.

## Acknowledgments

The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey was based on observations made with the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the UK Schmidt Telescope. We warmly thank all the present and former staff of the Anglo-Australian Observatory for their work in building and operating the 2dF and 6dF facilities. KR was supported by an AAO summer vacation studentship during the course of this work. HN thanks the director and staff of the AAO for their hospitality and support during a two month sabbatical visit in early 2002.


format: text

text:
# Weak radiative hyperon decays

## 1 Introduction

The puzzle of weak radiative hyperon decays dates back to the 60’s, when experiment  suggested large asymmetry in the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ decay, contrary to the expectations based on Hara’s theorem . The size of the asymmetry was subsequently confirmed, the PDG average now being $`0.76\pm 0.08`$. Recently new information has been supplied by the NA48 measurement of the asymmetry of the related $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ decay , which is crucial for theoretical considerations.

Hara’s theorem states that the parity-violating (p.v.) amplitude of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ decay must vanish in the limit of exact SU(3). If the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ parity-conserving (p.c.) amplitude is not small as the size of the branching ratio suggests, the asymmetry should deviate from zero due to SU(3) breaking. Since the latter is usually not large, a small asymmetry of $`\pm 0.2`$ was expected. The problem was confounded by the violation of Hara’s theorem in the quark model and other calculations. Since the only explicit assumptions of the theorem are CP- and gauge-invariance, the origin of the latter results proved hard to understand at hadron level. With the quark model suggesting violation of the theorem, the question seemed to be whether large $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ asymmetry is a sign of a strong SU(3) breaking or that of a true violation of Hara’s theorem.

The measurement of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\gamma `$ branching ratio provided the first piece of information to guide the theory: the observed relative size of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ ($`suuduu\gamma `$) and $`\mathrm{\Xi }^{}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}\gamma `$ ($`ssdsdd\gamma `$) branching ratios excludes the possibility that single quark transition $`sd\gamma `$ is dominant. The main contribution to the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ decay has to come from the two-quark ($`W`$-exchange) process $`suud\gamma `$, as the single-quark term is 100 times weaker.

## 2 Approaches with built-in Hara’s theorem

The standard approach to WRHD was proposed by Gavela et al , who presented a pole model analogous to their model of nonleptonic hyperon decays (NLHD) . In the latter paper the p.v. NLHD amplitudes were given in terms of the current algebra (CA) commutator plus a correction term originating from the excited negative parity $`1/2^{}`$ baryons in intermediate states (parallelling the dominance of the ground-state baryons in the p.c. amplitudes, the $`1/2^{}`$ baryons were considered here the most important contribution). In  WRHD amplitudes were described in an analogous way (the p.c. amplitudes specified by the pole model with intermediate ground-state baryons, while the p.v. amplitudes calculated from the model with intermediate negative parity ($`1/2^{}`$) baryons). Parity-violating transitions between the ground-state and the $`1/2^{}`$ baryons were driven by $`W`$-exchange only. With SU(3) broken, ref. obtained a large asymmetry

$$\alpha (\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma )=0.80_{0.19}^{+0.32}.$$
(1)
Among other results of , the most important one is the prediction of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ asymmetry:

$$\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )=0.78$$
(2)
Calculations using the chiral perturbation theory proved to have little predictive power . This conclusion was corroborated recently by Borasoy and Holstein, who had to discard their ChPT approach and adopt a pole model similar to ref.. Their approach (see eg. ) yields

$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`0.49`$
$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`1.0`$ (3)
when the singlet assignment of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }(1405)`$ intermediate state is used. Note the size and the negative sign of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ asymmetry.

Results of the application of the QCD sum rules  were not conclusive (see Table 1), with no prediction of  for the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ asymmetry.
x

Table 1
Predictions of QCD sum rules
asymmetry ref. ref.    $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma )`$ $`+0.8`$ $`0.85\pm 0.15`$  $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ $`+0.9`$ $``$

## 3 Quark model and vector-meson dominance

In 1983 Kamal and Riazuddin (KR) found that in the constitutent quark model (CQM) the $`W`$-exchange diagrams produce a p.v. $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ amplitude which does not vanish in the limit of exact SU(3) . The KR calculation has been often dismissed as erroneous, possibly violating gauge invariance. Independent checks have confirmed its technical correctness, however. The question that remained unanswered was what conclusions should be drawn from the KR result.

An experimental way of deciding whether the CQM result constitutes an artefact of the model or a real effect was pointed out in ref.. It was observed that in approaches violating Hara’s theorem a large and positive $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ asymmetry is predicted, in marked contrast to the Hara’s-theorem-satisfying case. In particular, in the phenomenological extension of the KR paper, Verma and Sharma  obtained:

$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`0.56`$
$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`+0.68`$ (4)
In an attempt to avoid the concepts of the CQM, ref. proposed a hadron-level approach in which spin-flavour symmetries are combined with the idea of vector meson dominance (VMD). The approach was based on the SU(6)-based extension of NLHD amplitudes to describe vector-meson p.v. couplings to nucleons, as proposed by Desplanques, Donoghue, and Holstein (DDH)  for the description of nuclear parity violation. It turned out that the approach of  (here dubbed DDH+VMD) leads to the violation of Hara’s theorem as well. The origin of this result is readily traced: the p.v. coupling of vector meson to nucleon in DDH is of the form $`\overline{u}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5uV^\mu `$. When combined with VMD, the coupling $`\overline{u}\gamma _\mu \gamma _5uA^\mu `$ is generated. As the latter coupling is not gauge-invariant by itself, violation of Hara’s theorem in the DDH+VMD approach was blamed on gauge noninvariance of VMD. The issue of gauge invariance of VMD is more subtle, however. In 1967 Kroll, Lee, and Zumino proposed that the VMD prescription consitutes an approximation to a fully gauge-invariant quark-level contribution (KLZ) . Following their ideas, ref. accepted that the quark model and VMD are essentially equivalent gauge-invariant approaches, and that the CQM result of  should be viewed as complementary to that of DDH+VMD. The latter approach predicted :

$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`0.95`$
$`\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ $`=`$ $`+0.8`$ (5)
Similarity of Eqs. (4,5) is striking. Nonetheless, violation of Hara’s theorem in CQM/DDH+VMD approaches was still often blamed on gauge-noninvariance.

In order to exhibit gauge invariance of the CQM calculations, and to clarify the possible physical origin of the violation of Hara’s theorem, CQM calculations were recently performed  in a different way, keeping gauge-invariance manifest till the very end. Moreover, CQM descriptions of NLHD and WRHD were discussed alongside current algebra and VMD. The calculation was deliberately formulated in a way fully analogous to the standard CQM calculations of baryon magnetic moments. Its first step consisted in the evaluation of the modifications of the three-quark states by the perturbing p.v. hamiltonian $`H^{p.v.}`$, which admixes $`q\overline{q}`$ pairs into $`qqq`$ baryon states:

$`H^{p.v.}|qqq`$ $`=`$ $`|qqq\overline{q}q`$ (6)
so that the $`qqq\overline{q}q`$ admixture has parity $`P=1`$.

Thus, evaluation of photon (vector-meson) interaction with quarks in a baryon in the presence of weak interaction proceeds according to the standard CQM rules by sandwiching the interaction with photon ($`A_\mu V_\mu `$ for vector meson) between appropriate quark states (Fig. 1):

$`qqq|\overline{q}\gamma _\mu qA^\mu |qqq\overline{q}q`$
$`qqq\overline{q}q|\overline{q}\gamma _\mu qA^\mu |qqq`$ (7)
The above prescription is manifestly gauge-invariant and shows that photon and vector-meson couplings to baryons should be proportional to each other. Calculation performed along these lines demonstrates once again that in the CQM the p.v. $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ amplitude is nonzero in the SU(3) limit. At the same time, the symmetries of the CA commutator are reproduced with standard pseudoscalar interaction $`\overline{q}\gamma _5qP`$.

## 4 $`𝚵^\mathrm{𝟎}\mathbf{}𝚲𝜸`$

With the old value of $`\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ being $`+0.43\pm 0.44`$ as measured by , and the models predicting this asymmetry to be $`0.8\pm 0.2`$ for Hara’s theorem satisfied and $`+0.8\pm 0.2`$ for Hara’s theorem violated, the latter possibility was discussed at length by the author. Since violation of Hara’s theorem in the CQM cannot be blamed on the lack of gauge invariance , its origin must be different. The latter was identified as genuine nonlocality of the p.v. photon-baryon coupling in the CQM . In essence, violation of Hara’s theorem appears directly connected to the old quark model question of why magnetic moments of quarks can be added as if the quarks were free and hence completely independent particles which might be infinitely far apart from each other.

Fig. 1 Photon (meson) emission in CQM with $`W`$-exchange-induced admixtures
x

The p.v. amplitudes of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\gamma `$ decays each receive nonzero contributions from a different type of diagram (see Table 2, where relevant SU(6) factors $`b_{1(2)}`$ are shown). Thus, the relative sign between the contributions from (b1) and (b2) in Fig. 1 can be measured by comparing the asymmetries of these two decays.

This relative sign determines whether in $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ the contributions from diagrams (b1) and (b2) add, or completely cancel (Table 2). Detailed considerations show that Hara’s theorem is satisfied (violated), if $`\alpha _{exp}(\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )`$ is negative (positive).

The new NA48 result  of

$$\alpha (\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma )=0.65\pm 0.19$$
(8)
permits the following conclusions:

1. Hara’s theorem is satisfied

2. theoretical arguments against Hara’s theorem are invalid.
x

Table 2
Theoretical SU(6) factors $`b_{1(2)}`$ for p.v. amplitudes (b1) and (b2) and experimental asymmetries for selected WRHD (using ref.)
X decay $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\gamma `$  I asym. $`0.76\pm 0.08`$ $`0.65\pm 0.19`$ $`0.63\pm 0.09`$    j $`+b_1+b_2`$ $`\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}`$ $`0\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}`$ $`+\frac{1}{3}+0`$  $`\frac{1}{j}`$ $`b_1+b_2`$ $`+\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}`$ $`0\frac{1}{3\sqrt{3}}`$ $`\frac{1}{3}+0`$    x

Consequently, CQM calculations are unphysical: while hadron-level spin-flavour symmetries of the CQM are correct for individual amplitudes (b1) and (b2), the CQM connection between the latter two is not. Moreover, since VMD+DDH also leads to the violation of Hara’s theorem, either VMD is not universal or the DDH approach is not fully correct.

## 5 Proposed resolution

The p.v. NLHD amplitudes can be expressed either as sums of contributions from the CA commutator and a correction term proportional to pion momentum $`q`$, or as sums of amplitudes corresponding to single-quark and two-quark diagrams ($`c`$\- and $`b`$\- type respectively):

$`A_{NL}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{comm}.+R_\mu q^\mu `$ (9)
$`=`$ $`A_{NL}(b)+A_{NL}(c)`$
Symmetry considerations require that the contribution from the commutator be proportional to the sum of SU(6) factors $`b_1`$ and $`b_2`$, while the correction term be proportional to their difference:

$`A_{NL}(b)`$ $`=`$ $`(b_1+b_2)b_{com}+(b_1+b_2)b_{cor}`$ (10)
$`=`$ $`b_2(b_{com}+b_{cor})b_2b_{NL}`$
The second line follows since for NLHD all $`b_1`$’s are zero. The NLHD data fix the two parameters defining the size of $`b`$\- and $`c`$\- amplitudes as:

$`b_{NL}=`$ $`510^7`$
$`c_{NL}=`$ $`+1210^7`$ (11)
($`A_{NL}(c)`$ is proportional to $`c_{NL}`$), or equivalently,

$`d_S`$ $`=`$ $`b_{NL}`$ (12)
$`f_S`$ $`=`$ $`b_{NL}+2c_{NL}/3`$ (13)
corresponding to the $`f_S/d_S=2.6`$ ratio for the S-waves. However, precisely because all $`b_1`$’s are zero, these data do not allow one to fix the size of $`b_{com}`$ and $`b_{cor}`$ separately.

For WRHD the contribution from single-quark diagrams is negligible. Furthermore, there can be no $`b_1+b_2`$ terms (Hara’s theorem is satisfied). Thus, the WRHD amplitudes are proportional to the differences of SU(6) factors $`b_1`$ and $`b_2`$:

$$A_{WR}=(b_1+b_2)b_{WR}e/g$$
(14)
where factor $`e/g`$ converts between strong ($`g`$) and electromagnetic ($`e`$) couplings, so that the spin-flavor symmetry link for the $`b_1+b_2`$ terms in NLHD and WRHD has the simple form:

$$b_{cor}=b_{WR}$$
(15)
Previous successful description of the branching ratios of $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ and $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\gamma `$ decays (see ) indicates that, numerically,

$$|b_{WR}|510^7=|b_{NL}|$$
(16)
If $`b_{WR}b_{NL}`$, Eqs. (11,15) imply that $`b_{com}=0`$, which follows from CQM if Hara’s theorem is to be satisfied . Since in this case positive $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0(\mathrm{\Lambda })\gamma `$ asymmetries are predicted in disagreement with experiment, this possibility has to be rejected. The only other possibility is $`b_{WR}b_{NL}`$. This leads to correct negative $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0(\mathrm{\Lambda })\gamma `$ asymmetries. One concludes that $`b_{com}=2b_{NL}`$.

Single-quark contributions to the NLHD amplitudes obtained by symmetry from WRHD should be negligible, ie. $`c_{NL}=c_{com}`$. The $`f/d`$ ratios for the S- and P- waves of NLHD amplitudes appear therefore different, since for the P-waves one obtains

$`d_P=`$ $`b_{com}`$ $`2b_{NL}`$ (17)
$`f_P=`$ $`b_{com}+2c_{com}/3`$ $`2b_{NL}+2c_{NL}/3`$
leading to a resolution of the S:P problem in NLHD:

$`d_P/d_S`$ $``$ $`2`$
$`f_P/f_S`$ $``$ $`1.4`$
$`f_P/d_P`$ $``$ $`1+c_{NL}/(3b_{NL})=1.8`$ (18)
In Table 3 we compare the WRHD data with the predictions of Gavela et al . The last column gives the branching ratios and asymmetries for the decays of $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0`$ in an SU(6) symmetric approach just discussed. The relevant entries are obtained from those given in  by just reversing the sign of the $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ amplitude. (Description of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decays requires inclusion of SU(3) breaking and more modifications than a simple sign reversion).
x

Table 3
Comparison of branching ratios and asymmetries
x

Branching ratios
decay exp   modif.    $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ $`1.23\pm 0.06`$ $`0.92_{0.14}^{+0.26}`$ not simple  $`\mathrm{\Lambda }n\gamma `$ $`1.75\pm 0.15`$ $`0.62`$ not simple  $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ $`1.06\pm 0.16`$ $`3.0`$ $`0.91.0`$  $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\gamma `$ $`3.56\pm 0.43`$ $`7.2`$ $`4.04.1`$
Asymmetries
decay exp   modif.    $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ $`0.76\pm 0.08`$ $`0.80_{0.19}^{+0.32}`$ not simple  $`\mathrm{\Lambda }n\gamma `$  $`0.49`$ not simple  $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ $`0.65\pm 0.19`$ $`0.78`$ $`0.8`$  $`\mathrm{\Xi }^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\gamma `$ $`0.65\pm 0.13`$ $`0.96`$ $`0.45`$

## 6 Conclusions

The new NA48 result confirms Hara’s theorem. Consequently, large SU(3) breaking is needed to describe the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^+p\gamma `$ asymmetry. Furthermore, the CQM result appears as an artefact of the model. Thus, the CQM constitutes an abstraction from spin-flavor symmetries of hadronic amplitudes that goes too far. Since Hara’s theorem violation was also predicted in a symmetry-based framework which combined current-field identity with an approach describing p.v. couplings of vector mesons to nucleons (used in explanations of nuclear parity violation ), it follows that either current-field identity is not universal, or our present understanding of nuclear parity violation is not fully correct.

The proposed resolution of the problem of NLHD-WRHD symmetry connection implies that symmetry should be imposed at the level of axial/vector currents (and not between the couplings of pseudoscalar and vector fields to baryons if VMD is to hold) . When this is done, the old S:P problem in NLHD is explained automatically.


text:
# submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters What Can We Learn from the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Dust Disks?

## 1 Introduction

Over the past 2 decades, impressive evidence has been assembled for the existence of circumstellar dust disks around main-sequence (MS) stars as well as pre-MS stars (T Tauri stars and Herbig Ae/Be stars), post-MS stars (red giants), and a white dwarf (see Zuckerman 2001 for a review). A wide variety of observational techniques have been employed to study the formation/evolution and physical/chemical properties of dust disks: optical and near-infrared (IR) imaging of scattered stellar light, photometric measurements of dust thermal emission from near-IR to submillimeter, spectroscopic observations of mid-IR dust emission features and gas emission lines and ultraviolet (UV) and visible gas absorption lines. The spectral energy distribution (SED) is of particular interest in inferring the size and composition of dust grains and the disk structure (dust spatial distribution). However, the limitations of this method have not been adequately explored; for example, in modelling the $`\beta \mathrm{Pictoris}`$ SED, Li & Greenberg (1998) found that the dust spatial distribution is coupled with the distribution of dust sizes, i.e., the distribution of dust in the disk and dust sizes cannot be uniquely determined simultaneously by the SED alone.

It is the aim of this Letter to quantify the limitations on the information derived from the SED modelling concerning the dust properties (composition and size) and disk structure. We take the SED of $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$, a nearby (distance to Earth $`d67\pm 3\mathrm{pc}`$) young MS star (age $`8\pm 3\mathrm{Myr}`$) of spectral type A0 V (effective temperature $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}9500\mathrm{K}`$) for comparison with model results. $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ has the largest fractional IR luminosity relative to the total stellar luminosity ($`L_{\mathrm{IR}}/L_{}5\times 10^3`$) among the $`1500`$ A-type MS stars in the Yale Bright Star Catalogue (Jura 1991). The dust disk in orbit around $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ has been extensively studied, both observationally and theoretically (see Zuckerman 2001 and references therein). With its relatively well determined dust and disk properties, $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ serves as a good comparison basis for the SED modelling efforts described in this Letter. We stress that the main purpose of this Letter is not to carry out a detailed study of the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ dust disk which we defer to a subsequent paper (A. Li & J.I. Lunine 2002, in preparation). We will first outline our approach in §2. We then discuss in §3 the degeneracy between the dust spatial distribution and dust sizes under the assumption of pure silicate dust. In §4 we show that the dust composition is not well constrained by the observed SED unless mid-IR spectroscopic dust emission features are available. We discuss in §5 the possible dust composition and morphology from the evolutionary point of view that circumstellar dust disks around (pre-)MS stars are formed through the coagulation of interstellar solids. We also summarize our major conclusions in §5.

## 2 Modelling the Dust IR Emission

Grains in the optically thin dust disk of $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ absorb the stellar UV/optical photons and then re-radiate them in the IR. Very small grains or large molecules (with spherical radius smaller than 100$`\mathrm{\AA }`$) which are subject to single-photon heating (Draine & Li 2001) will not be considered here although their presence in the disk can not be ruled out (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules are seen in the disk of HD 100546 through their 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ emission features \[Malfait et al. 1998\]). For grains $`100\mathrm{\AA }`$ we first use Mie theory to calculate absorption cross sections assuming a spherical shape. We then calculate grain equilibrium temperatures (and corresponding IR emission) by balancing absorption and emission. For a given dust size distribution and a given disk structure (dust spatial density distribution), the emergent IR emission spectrum can be obtained by integrating over the dust size range, and over the entire disk.

We have the following parameters to be specified or constrained: (1) dust composition – we will consider amorphous silicate, amorphous carbon, and cometary grains (porous aggregates of small silicate and carbon dust; Greenberg 1982); (2) dust sizes – we will consider a power law dust size distribution $`dn(a)/daa^\alpha `$ characterized by the lower-cutoff $`a_{\mathrm{min}}`$, upper-cutoff $`a_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and power-law index $`\alpha `$ (where $`a`$ is the spherical radius); (3) dust spatial density distribution – we will consider two dramatically different distribution functions: a power law distribution $`dn(r)/drr^\beta `$ and a Gaussian distribution $`dn(r)/dr\mathrm{exp}[4\mathrm{ln}2\{(rr_0)/\mathrm{\Delta }\}^2]`$, the former is characterized by the disk’s inner boundary $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$, outer boundary $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$, and power-law index $`\beta `$; the latter is characterized by the radial position $`r_0`$ where $`dn(r)/dr`$ peaks and the full width half maximum (FWHM) $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$.

Jura et al. (1995, 1998) and Augereau et al. (1999) estimated that grains with radius exceeding a few micron are stable against radiation pressure. Telesco et al. (2000) estimated the “characteristic” radius for the 10–20$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ mid-IR-emitting grains to be $`11.5\mu \mathrm{m}`$. We therefore adopt $`a_{\mathrm{min}}=1\mu \mathrm{m}`$. We take $`a_{\mathrm{max}}=1\mathrm{cm}`$ (this is a noncritical parameter since grains larger than $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ are like blackbodies and their IR emission spectra are size-insensitive).

To be conservative, we first set the inner boundary at $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$ inside of which micron-sized silicate and carbonaceous grains would be heated to $`1500\mathrm{K}`$ and evaporate. The outer boundary is taken to be $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$ which is expected from the disk truncation caused by the tidal effects of $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{B}`$, a companion star of $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ (Jayawardhana et al. 1998). Other values for $`r_{\mathrm{in}}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}`$ estimated from the near- and mid-IR imaging observations will also be discussed (see §3). For the Gaussian-type dust spatial distribution, we take the peak distance (from the central star) of the distribution to be $`r_0=70\mathrm{AU}`$ as reflected from the near-IR imaging of scattered starlight (Schneider et al. 1999) and mid-IR imaging of dust thermal emission (Jayawardhana et al. 1998; Koerner et al. 1998; Telesco et al. 2000). Therefore, we are only left with two free parameters: the dust size distribution power index $`\alpha `$ and the dust spatial distribution power index $`\beta `$ or the FWHM $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ of the Gaussian-type spatial distribution.

## 3 Dust Spatial Distributions and Dust Sizes

We first consider compact silicate grains. We adopt the indices of refraction of the Draine & Lee (1984) “astronomical” silicate. We approximate the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ radiation field by the Kurucz model atmosphere spectrum for A0 V stars (Kurucz 1979). We will compare our model results with the available photometric data compiled by Augereau et al. (1999) for the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk.

Assuming a power-law dust spatial distribution for $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$, the best fit to the observed SED is provided by $`\alpha 3.8`$ and $`\beta 1.6`$ (see Figure 1) – the density of dust increases outward from the star through the whole disk. Since various studies suggest that the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk has an inner hole at $`r4060\mathrm{AU}`$ and an outer edge sharply truncated at $`80130\mathrm{AU}`$ (Jura et al. 1993; Jura et al. 1995; Jayawardhana et al. 1998; Koerner et al. 1998; Schneider et al. 1999; Wyatt et al. 1999; Telesco et al. 2000), we also consider models with $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=40\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=130\mathrm{AU}`$. To obtain a satisfactory fit to the observed SED, an even steeper outward increase of dust distribution is needed (for enhancing the amount of warm dust). In Figure 1 we also present the best-fit model spectrum for $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=40\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=130\mathrm{AU}`$ obtained from $`\alpha 3.6`$ and $`\beta 2.7`$. We have also modelled the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED in terms of broken power-laws for both the dust spatial distribution and dust sizes: $`dn(r)/drr^{\beta _1}`$, $`dn(a)/daa^{\alpha _1}`$ for $`r_{\mathrm{in}}rr_0`$ and $`dn(r)/drr^{\beta _2}`$, $`dn(a)/daa^{\alpha _2}`$ for $`r_0rr_{\mathrm{out}}`$. These 2-power-law models also require $`\beta <0`$ and we do not see significant improvements compared with single-power-law models.

Motivated by the NICMOS (Near-IR Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) discovery that the surface brightness of the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk’s scattered light sharply peaks at $`70\mathrm{AU}`$ (Schneider et al. 1999), we adopt a Gaussian function peaking at $`r_0=70\mathrm{AU}`$ for the dust spatial distribution. As long as the FWHM $`\mathrm{\Delta }30\mathrm{AU}`$, the bulk of the dust lies at $`40r130\mathrm{AU}`$ and we expect little difference between the $`[r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU},r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}]`$ model and the $`[r_{\mathrm{in}}=40\mathrm{AU},r_{\mathrm{out}}=130\mathrm{AU}]`$ model. Therefore, for the Gaussian-type distribution, we only consider $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$. Figure 1 plots the best-fit spectrum calculated from $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$, $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$, $`r_0=70\mathrm{AU}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=20\mathrm{AU}`$, and $`\alpha =3.5`$. This appears to be consistent with the NICMOS detection of a sharply bounded and narrow ($`\mathrm{\Delta }17\mathrm{AU}`$) ring-like disk (Schneider et al. 1999).

It is seen in Figure 1 that, although the dust spatial distributions are strikingly different, all three models are able to provide similarly good fits to the observed SED except the IRAS \[Infrared Astronomical Satellite\] 60$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ data (we note that the IRAS photometric uncertainty given by Augereau et al. (1999) might have been underestimated \[Beichman et al. 1989\]), provided that the dust sizes are different.

## 4 Dust Composition

We have seen in §3 that pure solid silicate grains with various sizes and spatial distributions are successful in reproducing the SED of $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$. Similarly, the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED can also be fitted by pure solid amorphous carbon grains using the index of refraction of Rouleau & Martin (1991). For illustration, we present in Figure 1 the best-fit single-power-law model spectrum calculated from $`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$, $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$, $`\beta =5.0`$, and $`\alpha =4.2`$. Although it is unlikely that (proto)planetary disk dust is mainly made of carbonaceous material, the observed SED alone is unable to rule out the pure carbon dust model unless the 9.7$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ Si-O and 18$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ O-Si-O features are detected.111The 8–13$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectroscopic observations of the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk show that the thermal emission in the silicate feature is very weak (Sitko, Lynch, & Russell 2000).  We will discuss this further in §5.

Jura et al. (1998) argued that the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk are composed of cometary icy grains. The $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED was closely reproduced by Augereau et al. (1999) in terms of a cold interstellar dust component and a hot cometary dust component. In this Section we also model the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED by cometary grains. Following Greenberg (1982), we model cometary dust as fluffy aggregates of interstellar silicate and carbonaceous grains.222In the framework of the Greenberg comet model (Greenberg 1982, 1998; Greenberg & Li 1999), the silicate dust and carbon dust are physically related through a core-mantle structure. In this work the physical relationship between the silicate dust and carbon dust does not matter since the Bruggeman effective medium theory employed to calculate dust optical properties does not distinguish inclusions from matrix (Bohren & Huffman 1983). Therefore, the Greenberg comet model is not just limited to the core-mantle interstellar dust model (Li & Greenberg 1997), but also applicable to other popular dust models such as the separate silicate/graphite model (Mathis, Rumpl, & Nordsieck 1997, Draine & Lee 1984, Weingartner & Draine 2001, Li & Draine 2001) and the composite dust model (Mathis 1996). However, in the dense protostellar environment, it is possible that graphite grains may be destroyed by chemical attacks of O, H2O (Draine 1985).  We take the grain porosity (the volume fraction of vacuum) to be 0.6 (Augereau et al. 1999). The volume ratio of the silicate component to the carbonaceous component is taken to be 1.0 as derived from the in situ measurement of the coma dust of comet Halley (Kissel & Krueger 1987). We use Mie theory and the Bruggeman effective medium theory (Bohren & Huffman 1983) to calculate the absorption cross sections for porous cometary grains. Similar to the pure solid silicate dust model (see §3), the cometary dust model is also able to provide reasonably good fits to the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED with various dust sizes and dust spatial distributions. In Figure 2 we show the model spectra calculated from cometary grains with a power-law size distribution and a power-law or Gaussian spatial distribution: (1) $`\alpha =3.9`$, $`\beta =2.0`$ and $`r[0.15\mathrm{AU},250\mathrm{AU}]`$; (2) $`\alpha =3.6`$, $`\beta =3.7`$ and $`r[40\mathrm{AU},130\mathrm{AU}]`$; (3) $`\alpha =3.5`$, $`r_0=70\mathrm{AU}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=15\mathrm{AU}`$ and $`r[0.15\mathrm{AU},250\mathrm{AU}]`$.

## 5 Discussions

It is shown in §3 and §4 that models with various compositions, sizes, and spatial distributions are able to reproduce the observed SED of the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk reasonably well. It was also shown by Jura et al. (1998) that icy grains with a typical radius near 100$`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ are able to explain the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ SED. Dust thermal emission depends on its absorption and emission properties which are determined by its size and optical properties. It would not be surprising for a wide range of dust materials with properly chosen sizes to be able to fit the SED. However, we should not be too pessimistic: such spectrum will be useful when combined with other constraints on the composition of the dust in circumstellar disks around (pre-)MS stars. The coagulation of interstellar grains that results in fluffy and inhomogeneous aggregates occurs in cold, dense molecular clouds and protostellar and protoplanetary dust disks and plays an important role in the formation of planetary systems (Weidenschilling & Cuzzi 1993). We can therefore approximately derive the proportional composition of the dust in circumstellar disks from the abundances of the condensable elements (C, N, O, Si, Fe, and Mg),333Some H will be present, mostly in combination with O, C, and N.  assuming protostellar activities impose little modification on protostellar grain compositions (see Beckwith, Henning, & Nakagawa 2000).

Let $`\left[\mathrm{X}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}`$ be the cosmic abundance of X relative to H (we assume the cosmic elemental abundances are those of the solar values: $`\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}391`$ parts per million (ppm), $`\left[\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}85.2\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}545\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}34.5\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}34.4\mathrm{ppm}`$, and $`\left[\mathrm{Si}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}28.1\mathrm{ppm}`$ \[Sofia & Meyer 2001\]); $`\left[\mathrm{X}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}`$ be the amount of X in gas phase ($`\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}140\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}61\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}310\mathrm{ppm}`$; Fe, Mg and Si are highly depleted in dust; see Li & Greenberg 1997 and references therein); $`\left[\mathrm{X}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}`$ be the amount of X relative H locked up in dust ($`\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}=\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}251\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}24.2\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}235\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}34.5\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}34.4\mathrm{ppm}`$, $`\left[\mathrm{Si}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}28.1\mathrm{ppm}`$). Assuming a stoichiometric composition of MgFeSiO4 for interstellar silicates, the total mass of silicate dust per H atom is $`m_{\mathrm{sil}}\left[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _{\mathrm{Fe}}+\left[\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _{\mathrm{Mg}}+\left[\mathrm{Si}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _{\mathrm{Si}}+\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{sil}}\mu _\mathrm{O}5.61\times 10^3\mu _\mathrm{H}`$ where $`\mu _\mathrm{X}`$ is the atomic weight of X in unit of $`\mu _\mathrm{H}1.66\times 10^{24}\mathrm{g}`$, and $`\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{sil}}4(\left[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}+\left[\mathrm{Mg}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}+\left[\mathrm{Si}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}})/3129\mathrm{ppm}`$ is the amount of O in silicate dust per H atom (i.e., we assign 4 O atoms for the average of the Fe, Mg, and Si abundances). The carbonaceous dust component is dominated by C, with little H, N, and O (we assume H/C=0.5, O/C=0.1). The total mass of carbon dust per H atom is $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _\mathrm{C}+\left[\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _\mathrm{N}+0.5\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _\mathrm{H}+0.1\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}\mu _\mathrm{O}3.88\times 10^3\mu _\mathrm{H}`$. The C, O, and N atoms left over after accounting for the silicate and carbon dust components are assumed to condense in icy grains in the form of H2O, NH3, CO, CO2, CH3OH and CH4 (following Greenberg , we assume CO:CO2:CH3OH:CH4:H2CO=10:4:3:1:1). The total mass of icy grains per H atom is $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}m_{\mathrm{ice}}^\mathrm{C}+m_{\mathrm{ice}}^\mathrm{N}+m_{\mathrm{ice}}^{\mathrm{water}}`$, where the mass of C-containing ice $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}^\mathrm{C}\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}\mu _\mathrm{C}+\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}(22\mu _\mathrm{O}+18\mu _\mathrm{H})/192.87\times 10^3\mu _\mathrm{H}`$; the mass of NH<sub>3</sub> ice $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}^\mathrm{N}\left[\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}(\mu _\mathrm{N}+3\mu _\mathrm{H})4.10\times 10^4\mu _\mathrm{H}`$; the mass of water ice $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}^{\mathrm{water}}\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{water}}(\mu _\mathrm{O}+2\mu _\mathrm{H})4.12\times 10^3\mu _\mathrm{H}`$; $`\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{water}}\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{}\left[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{sil}}0.1\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{dust}}22\left[\mathrm{C}/\mathrm{H}\right]_{\mathrm{gas}}/19229\mathrm{ppm}`$ is the amount of O locked up in H2O ice (we assume H2O contains all the remaining available O).

Therefore, as a first approximation, we may assume a mixing ratio of $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}0.7`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}/(m_{\mathrm{sil}}+m_{\mathrm{carb}})0.8`$ for cold regions (for hot regions where ices sublimate the dust can be simply modelled as porous aggregates of silicate and carbon particles with $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}0.7`$). This does not deviate much from the in situ measurements of cometary dust ($`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}0.5`$, $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}/[m_{\mathrm{sil}}+m_{\mathrm{carb}}]1.0`$; see Greenberg & Li 1999 and references therein) which is often suggested as porous aggregates of unaltered interstellar dust (Greenberg 1982; Greenberg & Li 1999). The porosity is a free parameter ranging from that of diffuse cloud interstellar dust ($`0.45`$, Mathis 1996) to that of very fluffy cometary dust ($`0.9`$, Greenberg & Li 1999). For illustration, we plot in Figure 2 the model spectrum calculated from a Gaussian distribution ($`r_{\mathrm{in}}=0.15\mathrm{AU}`$, $`r_{\mathrm{out}}=250\mathrm{AU}`$, $`r_0=70\mathrm{AU}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }=15\mathrm{AU}`$) of grains with (1) a power law size distribution ($`a_{\mathrm{min}}=1\mu \mathrm{m}`$, $`a_{\mathrm{max}}=1\mathrm{cm}`$, $`\alpha =3.6`$), (2) $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}=0.7`$ and a porosity of $`P=0.6`$ for $`r<30\mathrm{AU}`$; and (3) compact icy grains with $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}=0.7`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}/(m_{\mathrm{sil}}+m_{\mathrm{carb}})=0.8`$ (porous grains of $`P=0.6`$ become compact after filled with ices of an amount of $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}/[m_{\mathrm{sil}}+m_{\mathrm{carb}}]=0.8`$) for $`r>30\mathrm{AU}`$. This will be discussed in detail in a subsequent paper (A. Li & J.I. Lunine 2002, in preparation).

The fact that pure amorphous carbon grains are also able to account for the observed SED (see §4) reinforces the importance of combining observations with theoretical calculations of dust composition in the context of the formation and evolution of dust disks. We note that the non-detection of the silicate emission features in the $`\mathrm{HR}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}4796}\mathrm{A}`$ disk (Sitko et al. 2000) does not necessarily imply the predominance of non-silicate dust in the disk. It may just imply the lack of small and hot silicate grains. On the other hand, the contradistinction between the various dust spatial distributions, which all provide a reasonably good fit to the observed SED (see §3 and §4), indicates the importance of direct disk imaging.

In summary, the spectral energy distributions of dust disks alone are not necessarily able to constrain the dust compositions, sizes, and spatial distributions. The dust spatial and size distributions are coupled. Caution should be taken in discussing the presence/absence of planets, comets, and asteroids in the disk solely based on the observed SED. We argue that grains in circumstellar disk around (pre-)MS stars are composed of silicate, carbonaceous dust (and ices in cold regions) and vacuum with a mixing ratio of $`m_{\mathrm{carb}}/m_{\mathrm{sil}}0.7`$ and $`m_{\mathrm{ice}}/(m_{\mathrm{sil}}+m_{\mathrm{carb}})0.8`$. A combination of compositional considerations, SED, mid-IR spectroscopy, coronagraphic near-IR imaging of scattered starlight and mid-IR imaging of dust thermal emission will allow us to better understand the properties of circumstellar dust disks.

We dedicate this paper to Prof. J. Mayo Greenberg who passed away on November 29, 2001. A. Li thanks the University of Arizona for the “Arizona Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Astrophysics”. This research was supported in part by NASA grant NAG5-10450.