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# REVISED ANALYSIS OF THE SUPERSOFT X-RAY PHASE, HELIUM ENRICHMENT, AND TURN-OFF TIME IN THE 2000 OUTBURST OF THE RECURRENT NOVA CI AQUILAE

## 1 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

The second recorded nova outburst of CI Aquilae was discovered on 2000 April 28 UT by Takamizawa (2000), 83 years after the first recorded outburst in 1917 (Reinmuth, 1925; Williams, 2000). CI Aql now becomes a member of the recurrent nova class. About 300 days after the optical maximum, Hachisu & Kato (2001a) estimated various physical parameters of the CI Aql system from the light curve fitting and elucidated its nature. They derived the white dwarf (WD) mass to be $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2\pm 0.05M_{\mathrm{}}`$, the helium enrichment of the white dwarf envelope to be He/H$`0.25`$ by number, and the mass of the hydrogen-rich envelope on the white dwarf at the optical maximum to be $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}5.8\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$. This envelope mass indicates an average mass accretion rate of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}0.7\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 during the quiescent phase between the 1917 and 2000 outbursts. They finally predicted the turn-off time of 2001 August and, therefore, that the luminous supersoft X-ray source phase lasts until August of 2001.

After Hachisu & Kato (2001a) has been published, some new observational indications appeared concerning the turn-off time of the 2000 outburst. The supersoft X-ray fluxes were too weak during June and August of 2001 (Greiner & DiStefano, 2002), which indicates that the steady hydrogen shell-burning had already vanished. Schaefer (2001b) made optical photometry of CI Aql in August of 2001 and concluded that CI Aql was $`V15.3`$ and almost near its quiescent phase (Mennickent & Honeycutt, 1995). These results contradict the theoretical prediction that, if the hydrogen content of the white dwarf envelope is $`X=0.5`$ by weight, the steady hydrogen shell-burning lasts until August of 2001 (Hachisu & Kato, 2001a). Schaefer (2001c) found on 12 Harvard College Observatory archival photographs the 1941 outburst, the brightness of which is $`B13.8`$ on May 2 of 1941, and suggested that the 1917 discovery could indicate a recurrence timescale of about 20 yrs, with missed outbursts around 1960 and 1980. In this paper, therefore, we reanalyze the light curves of CI Aql, especially reproducing the orbital light curves newly obtained in April/May and August of 2001 (see also Schaefer, 2001a, b).

Additionally, Honeycutt (2002, private communication) has revised Mennickent & Honeycutt’s (1995) photometric data of CI Aql in quiescence. The revised data show about 0.62 mag down in the $`V`$-light curve so that the quiescent level is as low as $`V16.1`$, 0.8 mag fainter than August of 2001. This value is well consistent with Szkody’s (1994) $`V16.2`$ in quiescence (see also Table 2 of Mennickent & Honeycutt, 1995). In this sense, CI Aql did not reach its quiescent level but still showed an activity even in August of 2001. Therefore, taking these new things into account, we have fully reconsidered the CI Aql model.

To summarize the main revised results,
1. The estimated white dwarf mass is the same as the previous result, i.e., $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2\pm 0.05M_{\mathrm{}}`$.
2. Helium enrichment of the white dwarf envelope is estimated to be He/H$`0.5`$ by number, much larger than the previous value.
3. Optically thick winds stopped in early November of 2000 and the estimated turn-off time is not in August of 2001 but earlier than May of 2001, i.e., March or April of 2001. The luminous supersoft X-ray source phase lasted from November of 2000 until March or April of 2001.
4. The mass of the hydrogen-rich envelope on the white dwarf at the optical maximum is more massive, i.e., $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}8.0\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ than the previous result. This envelope mass indicates an average mass accretion rate of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}1.0\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 between the 1917 and 2000 outbursts.
5. These satisfy the conditions of Type Ia supernova explosion if the white dwarf consists of carbon and oxygen.

In §2, we describe our basic model of CI Aql in the late phase of the 2000 outburst and in quiescence. In §3, we have theoretically modeled orbital light curves of CI Aql in the late phase of the 2000 outburst. In §4, the 1917 outburst is numerically re-analyzed, and we re-determine the mass of the white dwarf. In §5, the 2000 outburst is also numerically re-analyzed and the duration of the strong, optically thick wind and the supersoft X-ray source phase are again estimated. Discussion follows in §6.

## 2 BASIC MODEL IN LATE PHASE

Our binary model is illustrated in Figure 1, which consists of a main-sequence star (MS) filling its Roche lobe, a white dwarf (WD) photosphere, and an accretion disk. A circular orbit is assumed. We also assume that the surfaces of the white dwarf, the main-sequence companion, and the accretion disk emit photons as a blackbody at a local temperature which varies with position. For the basic structure of the accretion disk, we assume an axi-symmetric structure with the size and thickness of

$$R_{\mathrm{disk}}=\alpha R_1^{},$$
(1)
and

$$h=\beta R_{\mathrm{disk}}\left(\frac{\varpi }{R_{\mathrm{disk}}}\right)^\nu ,$$
(2)
where $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}`$ is the outer edge of the accretion disk, $`R_1^{}`$ is the effective radius of the inner critical Roche lobe for the white dwarf component, $`h`$ is the height of the surface from the equatorial plane, and $`\varpi `$ is the distance on the equatorial plane from the center of the white dwarf. Here, we adopt $`\varpi `$-square law ($`\nu =2`$) to mimic the effect of flaring-up at the rim of the accretion disk (e.g., Schandl, Meyer-Hofmeister, & Meyer, 1997). These two parameters of $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are determined by light curve fittings.

As the August 2001 orbital light curves show non axi-symmetric shape, we introduce an asymmetric configuration of the accretion disk as done by Schandl et al. (1997). They explained an asymmetric feature in the orbital light curves of the LMC luminous supersoft X-ray source CAL 87. The cause is due to the gas stream from the companion hitting the edge of the accretion disk to make a vertical spray when the mass transfer rate is as high as in the luminous supersoft X-ray sources. We have also introduced the same type of asymmetry of the accretion disk as Schandl et al.’s, i.e.,

$$s=\frac{1\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}}{2\pi \varphi _2+\varphi _1},$$
(3)
$$\zeta _{\mathrm{edge}}=\{\begin{array}{cc}1s(\varphi \varphi _2),\hfill & \text{ for }\varphi _2\varphi <2\pi \hfill \\ \zeta _{\mathrm{low}}+(1\zeta _{\mathrm{low}})\frac{\varphi \varphi _1}{\varphi _2\varphi _1}\hfill & \text{ for }\varphi _1\varphi <\varphi _2\hfill \\ 1s(2\pi \varphi _2+\varphi ),\hfill & \text{ for }0\varphi <\varphi _1\hfill \end{array}$$
(4)
and

$$\frac{z}{h}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}+(\zeta _{\mathrm{edge}}\zeta _{\mathrm{low}})\frac{\xi f_a}{1f_a},\hfill & \text{ for }\xi f_a,\hfill \\ \zeta _{\mathrm{low}}\hfill & \text{ for }\xi <f_a,\hfill \end{array}$$
(5)
where

$$\xi =\frac{\varpi }{R_{\mathrm{disk}}},$$
(6)
and $`\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}`$ is a parameter specifying the degree of asymmetry, $`\varphi _1`$ is the starting angle of the vertical spray, $`\varphi _2`$ is the angle where the vertical spray reaches its maximum height, $`f_a`$ is the starting radius ratio from where the vertical spray is prominent, $`z`$ is the height of the disk surface from the equatorial plane for the asymmetric case. Here, we assume that the accretion disk is symmetric inside $`\varpi <0.8R_{\mathrm{disk}}`$ ($`f_a=0.8`$), and $`\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}=0.25`$, $`\varphi _1=(17/16)\pi `$, $`\varphi _2=(9/8)\pi `$, unless otherwise specified. Such an example of the accretion disk is shown in Figure 1.

The accretion luminosity of the white dwarf (e.g., Starrfield, Sparks, & Shaviv, 1988),

$$L_{\mathrm{WD}}=L_{\mathrm{WD},0}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{GM_{\mathrm{WD}}\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}}{R_{\mathrm{WD}}},$$
(7)
is introduced, where $`L_{\mathrm{WD}}`$ is the total luminosity of the white dwarf, $`L_{\mathrm{WD},0}`$ is the intrinsic luminosity of the white dwarf, and $`R_{\mathrm{WD}}`$ is the radius of the white dwarf (e.g., $`R_{\mathrm{WD}}=0.0068R_{\mathrm{}}`$ for $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ WD). The accretion luminosity is as large as 300 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for a mass accretion rate of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}1\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 onto a $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ WD, although it is negligibly smaller than the luminosity of steady hydrogen shell-burning during the outburst, $`L_{\mathrm{WD}}26,000`$$`54,000L_{\mathrm{}}`$, for a $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ WD.

The viscous luminosity of the accretion disk is also introduced. Then, the original disk surface temperature is given by

$$\sigma T_{\mathrm{disk},\mathrm{org}}^4=\frac{3GM_{\mathrm{WD}}\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}}{8\pi \varpi ^3}.$$
(8)
The temperature of the accretion disk surface is as high as $`T_{\mathrm{disk},\mathrm{org}}8500`$ K at the radius $`\varpi =1R_{\mathrm{}}`$ for $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2M_{}`$ and $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}=1\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1.

The accretion disk is heated by radiation from a luminous white dwarf. Such an irradiation effect is calculated as

$$\sigma T_{\mathrm{disk}}^4\eta _{\mathrm{DK}}\frac{L_{\mathrm{WD}}}{4\pi \varpi ^2}\mathrm{cos}\theta +\frac{3GM_{\mathrm{WD}}\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}}{8\pi \varpi ^3},$$
(9)
where $`\eta _{\mathrm{DK}}`$ is the efficiency of the irradiation and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ is the inclination angle of the surface against light ray from the white dwarf (e.g., Schandl et al., 1997). We assume $`\eta _{\mathrm{DK}}=0.5`$, unless otherwise specified. This means that 50% of the absorbed radiation energy is reemitted from the disk surface while the residual 50% is converted to thermal energy that eventually heats the white dwarf. The irradiation luminosity (or temperature) is much higher than the accretion luminosity (or temperature) during the hydrogen shell burning, i.e., $`T_{\mathrm{disk}}35,000`$ K at the radius $`\varpi =1R_{\mathrm{}}`$ for $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2M_{}`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =0.1`$, and $`L_{\mathrm{WD}}=26,000L_{\mathrm{}}`$.

The outer rim of the accretion disk is not irradiated by the white dwarf photosphere so that the temperature of the disk rim is simply assumed to be uniform, $`T_{\mathrm{disk},\mathrm{rim}}`$, which is one of the parameter determined by fitting.

The surface temperature of the irradiated main-sequence (MS) companion is roughly estimated by

$$\sigma T_{\mathrm{MS}}^4\eta _{\mathrm{MS}}\frac{L_{\mathrm{WD}}}{4\pi r^2}\mathrm{cos}\theta +\sigma T_{\mathrm{MS},\mathrm{org}}^4,$$
(10)
where $`\eta _{\mathrm{MS}}`$ is the efficiency of the irradiation, $`r`$ is the distance from the white dwarf, and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ is the inclination angle of the surface. The irradiated temperature is as high as $`T_{\mathrm{MS}}26,000`$ K for $`\eta _{\mathrm{MS}}=0.5`$, $`\mathrm{cos}\theta =0.5`$, $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ ($`L_{\mathrm{WD}}=26,000L_{\mathrm{}}`$), and $`r4R_{\mathrm{}}`$. Therefore, the effect of the irradiation becomes very important when the irradiated hemisphere faces toward the Earth.

The temperature of each surface patch is determined by calculating all contributions from every patch of the white dwarf surface (see Hachisu & Kato, 2001b, for more detail). We have divided the white dwarf surface into 16 pieces ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =\pi /16`$) in the latitudinal angle and into 32 pieces ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =2\pi /32`$) in the longitudinal angle while the surface of the main-sequence companion is split into $`32\times 64`$ pieces, respectively. The surface of the accretion disk is divided into 32 pieces logarithmically evenly in the radial direction and into 64 pieces evenly in the azimuthal angle. The outer edge of the accretion disk is also divided into 64 pieces in the azimuthal direction and 4 pieces in the vertical direction by rectangles. When the photosphere of the white dwarf becomes very small, e.g., $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}/R_{\mathrm{ph},\mathrm{WD}}>10`$, we attribute the first 16 meshes to the outer region (from $`\varpi =R_{\mathrm{disk}}`$ to $`\varpi =R_{\mathrm{disk}}/\sqrt{10}`$) to avoid coarse meshes in the outer part, and then 16 meshes to the inner region (from $`\varpi =R_{\mathrm{disk}}/\sqrt{10}`$ to $`\varpi =R_{\mathrm{ph}}`$), each region of which is divided logarithmically evenly. The efficiencies of irradiation of the main-sequence companion and of the accretion disk are assumed to be $`\eta _{\mathrm{MS}}=0.5`$ and $`\eta _{\mathrm{DK}}=0.5`$, respectively.

## 3 LATE PHASE ORBITAL LIGHT CURVES

To detect the end of the steady hydrogen shell-burning, we have used photometry of CI Aql in May and August of 2001 (see Figs. 2-4). All photometry was with the 2.1-m telescope at McDonald Observatory with the IGI detector through a $`V`$-filter. The detector is a standard Tektronix 1026$`\times `$1024 CCD chip while the filter is the usual Schott glass sandwich as prescribed by Bessell (1990) hence resulting in a close match to the Johnson $`V`$-filter. Standard IRAF procedures and programs were used to get differential photometry of CI Aql with respect to several calibration stars from Henden & Honeycutt (1995). A total of 118 and 429 magnitudes were obtained in April/May and August 2001, with a typical photometric uncertainty of 0.02 mag. The photometric data are wrapped in one orbital phase, with a new ephemeris obtained by Matsumoto et al. (2001), i.e.,

$$t(\text{HJD})=2,451,701.2086+0.61835\times E,$$
(11)
at eclipse minima.

The orbital light curve of CI Aql in quiescence were obtained by Mennickent & Honeycutt (1995). Recently, Honeycutt (2002, private communication) rectified the data. Essential points are that their new and old orbital light curves are nearly indistinguishable in shape but the new data are about 0.6 mag fainter than the old ones. We have shown these two light curves in Figures 2-4.

To fit our theoretical light curves with the orbital photometry, we have calculated $`V`$ light curves by changing the parameters of $`\alpha =0.5`$—2.0 by 0.1 step, $`\beta =0.05`$—0.50 by 0.05 step, $`T_{\mathrm{MS},\mathrm{org}}=5000`$—10000 K by 100 K step, $`T_{\mathrm{disk},\mathrm{rim}}=4000`$—8000 K by 100 K step, $`L_{\mathrm{WD},0}=0`$—26,000 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ by 100 $`L_{\mathrm{}}`$ step, and $`i=70`$$`90\mathrm{°}`$ by $`1\mathrm{°}`$ step and seek the best-fit model by the visual comparison of the model with the data. After obtaining the best fit model for symmetric configurations, we further seek the best fit model for August 2000 data by changing the asymmetric configuration parameter, $`\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}`$, from 1.0 to 0.05 by 0.05 step. The best fit asymmetric models are also shown in Figures 2-4 only for August 2000 data. Dashed lines indicate the symmetric case while solid lines denote the asymmetric case. The adopted parameters are tabulated in Table 1. Enlargement around the eclipse is also shown in Figure 5 only for the $`1.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ MS companion.

We have calculated the absolute $`M_B`$,$`M_V`$, and $`M_I`$ magnitudes of our model (see Hachisu & Kato, 2001b, in more detail). The direct fit with the observational apparent magnitude, $`m_V`$, gives us a distance modulus, $`(mM)_V`$, as shown in Figures 2-4. Since each direct fit determine a distance modulus, we have several different distance moduli for each light curve. We have to choose the most appropriate distance modulus among them. This value is iteratively sought in such a way that one distance modulus is consistent all among the light curves of the late phase (May/April of 2001), the quiescent phase, the 1917 outburst, and the 2000 outburst as well as the color excess of $`E(BV)`$, all of which will be discussed later in more detail.

The light curves are calculated for three companion masses of $`M_{\mathrm{MS}}=1.0M_{}`$, $`1.5M_{}`$ and $`2.0M_{}`$ as shown in Figures 2-4. Since we have obtained similar light curves for these three cases, we cannot determine the companion mass without additional information. One may distinguish them from the original temperature of the companion in quiescence; it is too high in the case of $`1.0M_{\mathrm{}}`$ ($`7,5007,700`$ K vs. $`T_{\mathrm{ZAMS}}=5,600`$ K) and too low in the case of $`2.0M_{\mathrm{}}`$ ($`6,9006,700`$ K vs. $`T_{\mathrm{ZAMS}}=9,100`$ K) compared with their zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) surface temperature (Bressan et al., 1993). Therefore, we adopt $`M_{\mathrm{MS}}=1.5M_{}`$ in the following discussion.

The mass transfer is as high as $`1\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1, and this indicates a thermally unstable mass transfer (van den Heuvel et al., 1992), which requires $`M_{\mathrm{MS}}/M_{\mathrm{WD}}1.1`$ (Webbink, 1985). Moreover, of our best-fit model, the original surface temperature of the main-sequence companion is roughly consistent with the effective temperature of a $`1.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ zero-age main-sequence star ($`T_{\mathrm{MS},\mathrm{org}}=7,3007,100`$ K vs. $`T_{\mathrm{ZAMS}}=7200`$ K). Since the radius of the $`1.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ ZAMS star is about $`1.45R_{\mathrm{}}`$, this 1.5 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$ main-sequence companion has expanded to fill the Roche lobe of $`1.7R_{\mathrm{}}`$ after the central hydrogen has decreased from $`X=0.7`$ at the zero-age to $`X=0.5`$ at the age of $`1`$ G yr (Bressan et al., 1993). If the companion has already lost significant mass to the white dwarf component, its original zero-age mass might be more massive than 1.5 $`M_{\mathrm{}}`$.

The edge of the accretion disk is not fully occulted by the companion star at eclipse minima as shown in Figure 6. This partial occultation implies a shift of the phase position at eclipse minima. It may advance when the asymmetry of the accretion disk is relatively large and the inner side of the spray is brightly illuminated by the white dwarf. However, our best fit model in Figure 5 shows no significant advance in the orbital phase at eclipse minima mainly because the asymmetry of $`\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}=0.7`$ is not so large.

We are able to estimate the turn-off time of steady hydrogen shell-burning on the white dwarf. The orbital light curve fitting for May 2001 suggests us that the intrinsic luminosity of the white dwarf has already decreased to about $`L_{\mathrm{WD},0}11,000L_{\mathrm{}}`$ from $`26,000L_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the lower limit of steady hydrogen shell-burning. The orbital light curve fitting for August of 2001 indicates that the intrinsic luminosity of the white dwarf has much decreased to about $`L_{\mathrm{WD},0}2,200L_{\mathrm{}}`$. Thus, we have estimated the turn-off time a bit before May of 2001, that is, March or April of 2001. After the turn-off time, the white dwarf began to cool down. It should be noted, however, that hydrogen shell burning does not vanish suddenly, but gradually extinguishes. Then, our theoretical definition of the turn-off time is when the nuclear luminosity decreases below the diffusive luminosity of the white dwarf. In other words, the diffusive luminosity of the white dwarf is almost balanced with the nuclear luminosity before the turn-off time. Nuclear burning still partly contributes to the luminosity of the white dwarf even after the turn-off time. A large part of the luminosity in the cooling phase comes from the thermal energy in the hydrogen-rich envelope and the helium shell (ash of hydrogen burning) of the white dwarf.

We have calculated the color index to estimate the color excess of CI Aql. A rather blue color index of $`(BV)_\mathrm{c}0.0`$ is obtained for the case of a $`1.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ companion as shown in Figure 7. This suggests a large color excess of $`E(BV)=(BV)_\mathrm{o}(BV)_\mathrm{c}1.0`$ with the observed color of $`(BV)_\mathrm{o}1.0`$ (see Table 2 of Mennickent & Honeycutt, 1995), where $`(BV)_\mathrm{c}`$ is the calculated color and $`(BV)_\mathrm{o}`$ is the observed color. This color excess is roughly consistent with $`E(BV)=0.85\pm 0.3`$ estimated by Kiss et al. (2001). Therefore, we adopt $`E(BV)=1.0`$ in this paper.

## 4 THE 1917 OUTBURST

The light curve of the 1917 outburst has also been re-analyzed with the newly obtained system parameters. The Tycho $`B`$ magnitude of the 1917 outburst has been reported by Williams (2000), which is shown in Figure 8 together with our calculated $`B`$ light curves. We have obtained the apparent distance modulus of $`(mM)_B=15.06`$ based on the color excess of $`E(BV)=1.0`$ and the $`V`$-magnitude distance modulus estimation of $`(mM)_V=14.06`$. The numerical method for obtaining light curves is the same as that in our previous one (Hachisu & Kato, 2001a) and it is fully described in Hachisu & Kato (2001b).

Assuming a binary system consisting of a white dwarf with the mass of $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.0`$, 1.1, 1.15, 1.2, 1.3, and $`1.377M_{\mathrm{}}`$ and a $`1.5M_{\mathrm{}}`$ lobe-filling, main-sequence companion, we have calculated the developing of the outburst and obtained $`B`$ light curves for the hydrogen content of $`X=0.7`$. In Figure 8, we do not include the effect of the accretion disk or the irradiation effect of the companion. These irradiation effects do not contribute much to the $`B`$ light until the $`B`$-magnitude decreases to $`B12`$ mag, since the white dwarf photosphere has expanded larger than the binary orbit (Kato & Hachisu, 1994). It is clear that there are no mid plateau phases around $`V13.5`$ for the case of no accretion disk and no irradiation of the companion.

The white dwarf mass is again determined to be $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=1.2\pm 0.05M_{\mathrm{}}`$ from the fitting as seen in Figure 8. The various physical parameters of the outbursts are summarized in Table 2. Here, $`Z`$ is the content of heavy elements by weight, $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the hydrogen-rich envelope mass at the optical maximum, $`\eta _{\mathrm{wind}}`$ is the ratio of the mass lost by winds, $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{wind}}`$, to $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}`$, i.e., $`\eta _{\mathrm{wind}}=\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{wind}}/\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}`$, $`t_2`$ is the time taken to drop 2 mag from maximum, $`t_3`$ is the time to drop 3 mag from maximum, $`t_{\mathrm{wind}}`$ is the duration of optically thick wind phase, and $`t_\mathrm{H}`$ is the duration of steady hydrogen shell-burning.

We are not able to determine the hydrogen content only from the fitting with the 1917 light curve, because much lower contents of hydrogen such as $`X=0.5`$ and $`X=0.35`$ by weight give a similar decline rate ($`t_2`$ or $`t_3`$) of the early phase light curve as listed in Table 2.

## 5 THE 2000 OUTBURST

CI Aql erupted in 2000 April and was densely observed in various optical bands (e.g., Kiss et al., 2001; Matsumoto et al., 2001). We have determined the hydrogen content of the white dwarf envelope from the turn-off time of the 2000 outburst.

We summarize the global feature of the optical light curve: its optical maximum ($`V9`$ mag) was reached on 2000 May 5 (HJD 2451669.5, Kiss et al., 2001). As shown in Figure 9, the visual brightness quickly decreased to 13.5 mag in about 60 days. Then, it stays at $`V14`$ mag, i.e., a plateau phase. This mid plateau phase is very similar to that of U Sco and can also be explained by the irradiation of the accretion disk (Hachisu et al., 2000a, b; Thoroughgood et al., 2001). Therefore, we have reproduced the light curve in the plateau phase by assuming model parameters similar to those of U Sco.

Theoretical light curves in Figure 9 are calculated for a pair of a $`1.2M_{}`$ white dwarf and a $`1.5M_{}`$ main-sequence companion. In the plateau phase, the light curve is determined mainly by the irradiations of the accretion disk and the main-sequence companion, because the white dwarf photosphere becomes much smaller than the binary size. The unheated surface temperatures of the companion are fixed to be $`T_{\mathrm{MS},\mathrm{org}}=7,300`$ K throughout the 2000 outburst and $`T_{\mathrm{disk},\mathrm{rim}}=6,600`$ K at the disk rim, which are the same as the model parameters in the late phase of the 2000 outburst.

The luminosity of the accretion disk depends on both the thickness $`\beta `$ and the size $`\alpha `$. Here, we change $`\alpha `$ by 0.1 step and $`\beta `$ by 0.05 step and seek the best fit model for the wind phase, the steady hydrogen shell-burning phase, and the cooling phase. Finally we have adopted a set of $`\alpha =3.0`$ and $`\beta =0.05`$ during the wind phase to reproduce the orbital modulation observed by Matsumoto et al. (2001), $`\alpha =0.8`$ and $`\beta =0.30`$ in the steady hydrogen shell-burning phase, and $`\alpha =0.8`$ and $`\beta =0.20`$ in the cooling phase. Here, we adopt symmetric configurations of the accretion disk throughout the 2000 outburst.

The decline of the early phase ($`t0`$—70 days) hardly depends on the hydrogen content, $`X`$, of the white dwarf envelope, but the ends of the wind phase and of the hydrogen shell-burning phase depend sensitively on the hydrogen content as tabulated in Table 2. Therefore, we have finally determined the hydrogen content of $`X=0.35`$ and shown calculated light curves in Figure 9 for three different bands of $`B`$, $`V`$, and $`I_c`$.

Here, we have used the apparent distance modulus of $`(mM)_V=14.06`$ for the $`V`$ band. Adopting the color excess of $`E(BV)=1.0`$, we obtain the apparent distance moduli of $`(mM)_B=15.06`$ and $`(mM)_I=12.46`$ for $`B`$ and $`I_c`$ bands, respectively. Here, we adopted the relation of $`E(IV)/E(BV)=1.60`$ (e.g., Rieke & Lebofsky, 1985). Both the $`B`$ and $`I_c`$ light curves are in good agreement with the observational points as shown in Figure 9. This indicates the consistency of our estimated values. Various physical values of the 2000 outburst are summarized in Table 3.

Matsumoto et al. (2001) reported a sharp $`1`$ mag drop of $`R_c`$-magnitude on 23 November 2000 and Kiyota (2001, VSNET archives, http://vsnet.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/vsnet/) also observed a $`1.5`$ mag drop of $`I_c`$-magnitude around the same day as shown in Figure 9. If we attribute this drop to the end of wind phase, the hydrogen content of $`X=0.35`$ is consistent with the drop.

We have re-estimated the luminous supersoft X-ray source phase. No luminous supersoft X-rays are expected in the early decline phase because the photospheric radius of the white dwarf is rather large and the photospheric temperature is relatively low. After the recurrent nova enters the plateau phase, the photospheric temperature of the white dwarf increases enough to emit supersoft X-rays (Kato, 1999). During the massive wind phase, however, we do not expect supersoft X-rays because they are self-absorbed by the wind itself. U Sco was observed as a luminous supersoft X-ray source in the mid plateau phase of the 1999 outburst just after the massive wind stopped (Kahabka et al., 1999; Hachisu et al., 2000a). Our analysis suggests that the massive wind stopped before 23 November 2000. This means that a luminous supersoft X-ray phase started from November of 2000 and continued until March of 2001 as shown in Figure 9. The rather low X-ray fluxes in June and August of 2001 (Greiner & DiStefano, 2002) are also very consistent with our analysis.

## 6 DISCUSSION

The apparent distance modulus is obtained to be $`(mM)_V=14.06`$ by fitting for the late phase of the 2000 outburst. The color excess is also estimated to be $`E(BV)=1.0`$ from the difference between the observed color and the calculated color, and the absorption of $`A_V=3.1`$ from a relation of $`A_V=3.1E(BV)`$ (e.g., Rieke & Lebofsky, 1985). Therefore, the distance to CI Aql is derived to be 1.55 kpc. The distance modulus of $`(mM)_B=15.06`$ is derived from the distance modulus of $`(mM)_V=14.06`$ and the color excess of $`E(BV)=1.0`$, which are also consistent with the $`B`$ light curve of the 1917 outburst. This set of $`(mM)_V=14.06`$ and $`E(BV)=1.0`$ are also in very good agreement with the $`V`$, $`B`$, and $`I_c`$ light curves of the 2000 outburst as shown in Figure 9.

The orbital light curve in August of 2001 shows a significant asymmetry. This indicates that the shape of the accretion disk is changing in time at least in the final decay phase of the 2000 outburst. Assuming the asymmetry of $`\zeta _{\mathrm{low}}=0.7`$ or $`0.75`$, we have calculated a $`V`$ light curve and added it to Figures 2-4 (solid line for August of 2001). On the other hand, the disk shape is almost symmetric for May of 2001 and in quiescence. It should be noted that the model light curve of August 2001 does not reproduce the observational lack of any secondary eclipses even if we introduce asymmetry of the accretion disk shape. It may stem from large time variations of the edge of the accretion disk.

The envelope mass at the visual maximum is estimated to be $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{max}}=8.0\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ for the hydrogen content of $`X=0.35`$, indicating the average mass transfer rate of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}=1.0\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 between the 1917 and 2000 outbursts, or $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}=1.3\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 between the 1941 and 2000 outbursts. This mass accretion rate is a bit higher but almost consistent with our CI Aql model in quiescence (see Figs. 2-4).

On the other hand, if the mean recurrence period is 20 yrs as suggested by Schaefer (2001c), the average mass transfer rate increases to $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}4\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1. This value is high enough to maintain steady hydrogen shell-burning for hydrogen content of $`X=0.7`$ on a $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ WD when the mass transfer is steady. In other words, it is too high to be compatible with our thermonuclear runaway model, unless the mass transfer rate itself rapidly increased just before the outburst. When the hydrogen content of the transferred matter is as low as $`X0.35`$, the lower limit to steady hydrogen shell-burning becomes $`8\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 (see e.g. eq.(7) in Hachisu & Kato, 2001b). Then, the mass accretion rate of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}4\times 10^7M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 can still cause shell-flashes on a $`1.2M_{\mathrm{}}`$ WD, although the orbital modulation of the light curve in quiescence is not consistent with such a high mass transfer rate as shown in Figures 2-4.

About 82% of the envelope mass is lost by the wind ($`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{wind}}=6.6\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$), while the residual 18% ($`\mathrm{\Delta }M_{\mathrm{He}}=1.4\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$) is left and added to the helium layer. The net mass increasing rate of the white dwarf is about $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{He}}=1.7\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 between the 1917 and 2000 outburst or $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{He}}=2.4\times 10^8M_{\mathrm{}}`$ yr-1 between the 1941 and 2000 outburst. These satisfy the conditions of Type Ia supernova explosion if the white dwarf consists of carbon and oxygen (Nomoto & Kondo, 1991). Evolutionary paths to Type Ia supernovae via recurrent novae have been discussed in more detail in Hachisu et al. (1999a, b).

We thank the VSNET members who observed CI Aql and R. K. Honeycutt for his providing us the unpublished data of CI Aql in quiescence. This research has been supported in part by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (11640226) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


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# Cavitation-induced force transition in confined viscous liquids under traction

(May 31, 2002)

## Abstract

We perform traction experiments on simple liquids highly confined between parallel plates. At small separation rates, we observe a simple response corresponding to a convergent Poiseuille flow. Dramatic changes in the force response occur at high separation rates, with the appearance of a force plateau followed by an abrupt drop. By direct observation in the course of the experiment, we show that cavitation accounts for these features which are reminiscent of the utmost complex behavior of adhesive films under traction. Surprisingly enough, this is observed here in purely viscous fluids.

Adhesive materials are often tested by way of the so-called probe-tack test ZOSEL  which tends to mimic the detachment of an adhesive joint. The material is used as a thin film (typically $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ in thickness) deposited on a flat, rigid substrate. A flat, solid punch (also called indenter or probe) is approached and kept in contact with the film for a few seconds. It is then pulled away at some prescribed, constant velocity, while the applied force is recorded. Good adhesives typically yield a force response with the following characteristic features CRETONFABRE ; PHYSTOD : the force increases sharply and reaches a peak, followed by a plateau at a lower value, until it drops quite abruptly to much lower values and finally vanishes when complete separation is achieved. In recent years, direct observation of the film during traction has been conducted CRETON . Meniscus instabilities SHULL ; CHAUDHURY , bubble growth and fibril formation are commonly observed. Some of these phenomena have been associated to particular features of the force response: force peak for the bubble appearance CRETON  and force plateau for the bubble growth CRETON  or fibril elongation ZOSEL . Such behaviors have been attributed to the specific rheological properties of adhesive materials. Otherwise, many studies have been devoted to the instabilities of viscous liquids confined between two parallel plates HELESHAW  under traction, a geometry sometimes named “lifted Hele-Shaw cell”. During the traction, the fluid has to flow inwards. Due to the resulting pressure gradient, the edge of the sample destabilizes from its initial, regular shape through the Saffman–Taylor mechanism SAFFMAN ; MAHER . As these instabilities develop, air fingers grow towards the center of the sample, producing characteristic fingering patterns TARAFDAR . At the end of the traction process, interesting instabilities occur prior to the detachment of the liquid column MCKINLEY .

In the present Letter, we study the force response of viscous liquids in combination with pattern observations. Our aim is to determine which phenomena observed in adhesive materials rely on their specific properties and which of them are more general. We show indeed that the force plateau and subsequent drop observed in adhesives are also present in viscous liquids and that the mechanisms involved are similar.

The apparatus consists in two plane, horizontal plates whose separation can be varied. A drop of liquid is initially deposited on the bottom plate. The glass top plate is slowly approached until the drop is confined into a film of prescribed thickness. The top plate is then pulled at constant velocity $`V`$ (in the range $`1\mu \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}1\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$) while the force is being recorded via a transducer.

Following the mechano-optical design described in Ref. TORDJEMAN , we observe the liquid–glass interface through a built-in internally-reflecting prism used as the top plate WHYTOP . In addition, a picture is made of the patterns left in the liquid on the lower plate after full separation is achieved.

The liquid used is a highly viscous, non-volatile silicon oil (Rhodia 47V1000000, viscosity $`\eta =10^3\mathrm{Pa}.\mathrm{s}`$). In all experiments, the sample volume is kept constant. Initially, the thickness is $`h_0=100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and the diameter of the squeezed drop is $`9\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}`$. The oil has been left in a vacuum chamber (pressure $`10^4\mathrm{atm}`$) for one hour in order to remove entrapped gas bubbles and achieve a reproducible initial sample state.

We plot the force versus the plate separation in a log-log representation. The separation is obtained by subtracting the machine elongation from the nominal separation FRANCISHORN . The machine rigidity $`K=\mathrm{7.5\hspace{0.17em}10}^5\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{m}`$ has been measured separately.

Force-displacement curves obtained at different traction velocities are shown in Fig. 1. Two different types of behaviors for the force decrease are clearly observed. The force decrease is smooth at low velocities. By contrast, a force plateau immediately followed by a sharp drop appears at high velocities, a feature strikingly reminiscent of adhesives. Moreover, a weak noise, resembling the “pop” produced by the opening of a bottle of wine, is heard distinctly in this case. The transition between these two behaviors can be assigned to the first curve that displays an inflection point, namely $`V_c15\mu \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$. Fig. 2 shows pictures of the glass–liquid interface taken during the traction and the associated force curves (lin-log representation), for three different velocities. At low velocity (Fig. 2a, $`V<V_c`$), Saffman–Taylor instabilities develop and the resulting progressive finger growth corresponds to the smooth decrease of the force. At high velocity (Fig. 2c, $`V>V_c`$), cavitation is observed together with the force plateau. More precisely, the pictures show that numerous bubbles appear just before the force peak and that they grow and develop in the course of the plateau. Thus, in purely viscous liquids and in adhesives alike, the existence of a plateau is associated to cavitation CRETON . At $`VV_c`$ (Fig. 2b), one clearly sees the occurence of both fingering and cavitation together, with the growth of a single bubble and its subsequent collapse. This is confirmed by pictures of the sample taken immediately after full separation (Fig. 3): only above $`V_c15\mu \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$ (Fig. 3, top right) do cells appear in the center of the sample, suggesting that cavitation has taken place.

From these observations, we can suggest an interpretation of what happens during the traction over the whole velocity range. The general idea is that as the plates are being pulled apart, volume conservation a priori implies the existence of a radial, convergent flow from the edge of the sample towards the center, which tends to relieve the stress. Fingering instabilities and cavitation compete in further relieving the applied stress. The reason why fingering appears at low velocities while cavitation takes over at high velocities is the lower threshold force for fingering and the higher bubble growth rate for cavitation AILLEURS ; HETEROGENEOUS .

Let us now focus on high velocities and in particular on the unexpected features of the force response: the plateau and the subsequent force drop. As described above, the force plateau corresponds to the bubble growth. The explanation goes as follows. The pressure recorded on the plate is the difference between the atmospheric pressure and the pressure in the sample. In the presence of bubbles, the pressure in the sample is the sum of a contribution from the pressure inside the bubbles and a contribution (which is small in the present situation) from the flow in the liquid that surrounds the growing bubbles DIV . The pressure inside the bubbles results from two possible sources. (i) If gas was present initially in the bubbles, the tremendous volume increase has made its contribution to the pressure to practically vanish. (ii) If the liquid is somewhat volatile or contains a volatile component, the vapor phase may contribute a pressure whose value cannot exceed the saturating vapor pressure $`p_{sat}`$, in which case, the plateau corresponds to a liquid–vapor phase transition. In both cases, the bubble pressure contribution is essentially constant.

At some point of the bubble growth, a few liquid walls between bubbles break, thus allowing air from the outside to suddenly rush into the sample from the edge. This produces the observed abrupt drop of the force, since the interior of the former bubbles now communicates with the outside air, thus relieving the pressure difference. This is also responsible for the “pop” which can be heard distinctly as mentioned above. The total pressure on the plate is thus expected to drop by $`p_{atm}p_{sat}`$ at the end of the force plateau. The curves in Fig. 1 show that the force drop at the end of the plateau is on the order of $`5\mathrm{N}`$, for all separation rates $`V`$ in the high velocity regime ($`VV_c`$). Since the sample diameter is $`9\mathrm{mm}`$, this corresponds to a pressure of about $`1\mathrm{atm}`$.

The pressure difference is now relieved, and there remains the sole contribution from the liquid walls. From basic hydrodynamics LANDAU , the flow is elongational and the force can be expressed as:

$$F(t)=\frac{4\eta \mathrm{\Omega }V}{h^2(t)}$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the total volume of the walls and $`h(t)`$ the plate separation at time $`t`$. Fig. 4, drawn without any adjustable parameters, shows that the estimate of the force is quite good over a velocity range of almost two orders of magnitude.

Let us now turn to the low velocity regime. There is no cavitation. If we neglect fingering instabilities, the flow at early times is radial and convergent, and locally parabolic (Poiseuille flow) LANDAU . The force exerted on the plates is then:

$$F(t)=\frac{3}{2\pi }\frac{\eta \mathrm{\Omega }^2V}{h^5(t)}$$
(2)
Fig. 5 shows that despite the fingering, this law is quantitatively verified at early times for low separation rates, once again without any adjustable parameters. At slightly later times, i.e., as fingers have sufficiently developed, thus relieving the stress, the real force decreases somewhat more rapidly. At even later times, we might expect equation (1) to be valid ($`Fh^2V`$). However, at such low velocities, the corresponding force lies within the experimental resolution and is, furthermore, masked by capillarity AILLEURS .

Let us now compare the behavior of purely viscous liquids to adhesives. The mechanisms related to the plateau and the subsequent force drop are similar CRETON ; CREVOISIER , even though the plateau is generally much higher and much longer in adhesives. The height of the plateau is explained by the contribution from the viscoelastic flow, which is not negligible any more compared to atmospheric pressure. The walls are also more resistant to air penetration, explaining the length of the plateau. As for the force drop, all these observations and interpretations lead us to believe that whatever the material, a sudden air penetration in the sample produces a pressure drop of $`1\mathrm{atm}`$.

By conducting traction experiments on confined, purely viscous liquids, we have observed and interpreted new behaviors, namely cavitation and its competition with fingering instabilities. A remarkable feature of the force response is the appearance of a plateau at high velocities as observed in adhesives. It can be interpreted in terms of the liquid being eventually full of almost empty bubbles. This shows that the bubbles, the force peak and the plateau are far from specific to adhesive materials: only the relative importance of two contributions to the plateau force differs. The appearance of a force plateau for simple liquids is thus interesting not only per se, but also in that it brings new elements to understand what happens in adhesive materials.

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial help from the conseil régional d’Aquitaine, contract number 2000–0201010. This work would not have been possible without the CRPP instrument building team who made the apparatus used for our experiments. We are grateful to Didier Roux for numerous and stimulating discussions.


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# [C II] emission and star formation in late-type galaxies. II A model Based on observations with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA member states (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.

## 1 Introduction

The \[C II\]($`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{P}_{3/2}^{}^2\mathrm{P}_{1/2}`$) ($`\lambda =157.7409\mu \mathrm{m}`$) transition of singly ionized carbon is globally the dominant cooling line in the general diffuse Interstellar Medium (ISM), excluding H II regions (Dalgarno & McCray 1972; Tielens & Hollenbach 1985; Wolfire et al. 1995). Excitation of the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{P}_{3/2}^{}`$ level of $`\mathrm{C}^+`$ is due to inelastic collisions with either neutral hydrogen atoms, molecules or electrons (Dalgarno & McCray 1972; Stacey 1985; Kulkarni & Heiles 1987).

Heating of the neutral interstellar gas is thought to be mainly due to photoelectrons (de Jong 1980) emitted by dust grains and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons that are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from stars, both in the general diffuse ISM (Heiles 1994; Wolfire et al. 1995) and in the denser standard Photodissociation Regions (PDRs), at the interfaces between molecular clouds and H II regions (Tielens & Hollenbach 1985; Bakes & Tielens 1998). This photoelectric effect is essentially due to non-ionizing far-UV photons with $`\mathrm{h}\nu 6\mathrm{eV}`$, as determined by the typical values of the work functions of the grain surfaces. In the field of a galaxy, this radiation is dominated by B3 to B0 stars with $`5\mathrm{M}20\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ (e.g. Xu et al. 1994). In addition, hotter, more massive stars will contribute locally.

Earlier studies of the innermost regions of gas-rich and starburst galaxies (Crawford et al. 1985; Stacey et al. 1991; Carral et al. 1994) have found that the \[C II\] line intensity, $`I_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}`$, is typically a few $`\times 10^3`$ of the far-IR continuum emission from the dust, heated by the stellar continuum emission. This fraction is of the same order of magnitude as the theoretical efficiency of the photoelectric heating, suggesting that the ratio between the far-IR continuum emission from dust and the stellar far-UV emission is constant (e.g. Kaufman et al. 1999).

With the advent of the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) (Clegg et al. 1996) on-board the ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) (Kessler et al. 1996), it has been possible to detect the \[C II\] line emission of large samples of normal, i.e. non AGN-dominated and non-starburst, galaxies (e.g. Malhotra et al. 1997, 2000, 2001; Smith & Madden 1997; Leech et al. 1999). Based on the last two data-sets and on that of Stacey et al. (1991), Pierini et al. (1999 – hereafter referred to as P99) have discovered a non-linear dependence of the ratio between the \[C II\] line intensity and the total far-IR continuum intensity FIR (as defined in Helou et al. 1985), $`I_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/I_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$, on the equivalent width of the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ line emission at $`\lambda =6562.8\mathrm{\AA }`$ ($`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$). The latter is proportional to the ratio between the stellar Lyman continuum and the stellar red continuum and is a tracer of the recent mass-normalized star formation rate (SFR), where mass normalization is in terms of the stellar red luminosity, and is linked to the star formation history of an individual galaxy (Kennicutt et al. 1994). In particular, P99 found that $`I_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/I_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is about $`4\times 10^3`$ in the “normal star-forming” galaxies (with $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}10\mathrm{\AA }`$), while it decreases continuously with decreasing $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ for “quiescent” galaxies (with $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}<10\mathrm{\AA }`$). They qualitatively interpreted this drop in terms of a dominant “\[C II\]-quiet” component of the far-IR emission in quiescent late-type galaxies, which are mainly identified with early-type spirals (cf. Leech et al. 1999). In these galaxies, dust heating is increasingly dominated by the general interstellar radiation field (ISRF), due to stars of low mass ($`\mathrm{M}<5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$) (e.g. Xu et al. 1994). However, stars with $`\mathrm{M}<5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ can not produce any substantial photoelectric effect on dust grains, for physical reasons which have to do with the depth of the Fermi level in the solids that constitute dust grains. In this sense such galaxies are “\[C II\]-quiet”. The scenario of P99 has been recently invoked by Malhotra et al. (2000) in order to explain the low values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ (1.2 – $`2.2\times 10^3`$) of four nearby E/S0 galaxies observed with LWS.

Boselli et al. (2002) discuss the use of the \[C II\] luminosity as a diagnostic of the SFR in non IR-luminous galaxies, in place of e.g. the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ luminosity, on the basis of empirical correlations. Their investigation carries on the seminal study of Stacey et al. (1991) and the later one of P99. They also review the empirical knowledge of the relationship between the \[C II\] line emission and the far-IR continuum emission from dust in different interstellar media and compare the \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratio for different Galactic and extragalactic sources of the \[C II\] line emission in more details than in P99.

In this paper, we present and discuss a simple but nontrivial theoretical model for the global energetics (per unit of galactic mass) of gas cooling via the \[C II\] line emission and dust cooling via far-IR emission in normal galaxies. This model is aimed at interpreting the relationship between global \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratio and massive star formation activity per unit of mass for normal galaxies, as suggested by the results of P99 and Malhotra et al. (2000). In particular, the trend found by P99 holds despite the fact that individual sources of the \[C II\] line emission have different \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratios (Stacey et al. 1991; P99; Boselli et al. 2002). The model presented here is due to H.J. Völk. It employs two moments of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and two corresponding averages of the star formation rate (SFR) per unit of mass. We adopt standard characterizations of the IMF, assumed to be universal, in agreement with much of the evidence available in the literature (e.g. Meyer et al. 2000 and references therein) and with the expectations of self-regulating star formation models of disk-galaxies (e.g. Silk 1997). By its very nature, this model does not account for the dependence of the \[C II\] line emission on the astrophysical properties of the individual sources of this emission, like density of the gas and far-UV intensity of the local radiation field. For this kind of investigations we refer the reader to Heiles (1994), Wolfire et al. (1995) Kaufman et al. (1999) and references therein.

The two samples of Virgo cluster member late-type galaxies observed by Leech et al. (1999) and by Smith & Madden (1997) provide us with a total sample of 24 normal spirals with a large dynamic range in SF history and with homogeneous measurements of the observables of our interest (cf. Sect. 2). These two samples are weakly affected by Malmquist bias, because of the cluster depth (e.g. Gavazzi et al. 1999).

The previous LWS measurements are used to constrain the model, after a correction for the limited aperture of LWS (not introduced by P99), described and discussed in Sect. 2. This correction is admittedly not fully certain but is physically well motivated. In addition, the corrected \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratios are consistent with those determined within the LWS beam area, directly from the previous LWS data and the ISOPHOT (Lemke et al. 1996) data of Tuffs et al. (2002), for 10 of the sample galaxies (cf. Sect. 2). Finally, the correction leads to a result consistent with that of P99, as shown in Sect. 3.

The limited statistics of the data available to us nevertheless do not allow us to definitively confirm or disprove the model and its quantitative consequences for the IMF. However, the model has an intrinsic astrophysical value and larger data sets, which will be available in the near future, will allow a detailed test. Therefore, the reader interested exclusively in the model may skip Sect. 2 and 3 and go directly to Sect. 4, where we introduce the model, and from there to Sect. 5, where we interpret the behaviour of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ with the mass-normalized massive SFR, reproduced in Sect. 3 (see also P99). A discussion of our results is contained in Sect. 6, while Sect. 7 gives a summary of our conclusions.

## 2 The galaxy sample and complementary data

### 2.1 The Sample

The ISO Guaranteed Time program VIRGO combines studies of a deep optically complete, volume-limited sample of spiral, irregular and blue compact dwarf galaxies, selected from the Virgo Cluster Catalogue (VCC) of Binggeli et al. (1985) (Tuffs et al. 2002). In particular, 19 spiral galaxies (18 with $`\mathrm{B}_\mathrm{T}12.3\mathrm{mag}`$, plus NGC 4491 with $`\mathrm{B}_\mathrm{T}=13.4\mathrm{mag}`$) could be observed by Leech et al. (1999 – hereafter referred to as L99) with LWS in the spectral region around the \[C II\] line. Fourteen galaxies were detected in the \[C II\] line at a signal-to-noise ratio above $`3\sigma `$ and upper limits were set to the other 5. Assuming a distance of 21 Mpc from Virgo, the 70″ LWS half power beam-width (HPBW) corresponds to $``$ 7 kpc and encompasses at least one exponential disk scale-length for most of the sample galaxies, with the exception of those with an optical major axis larger than 5 arcmin. We note that a slightly larger (80″) beam size has been determined by Lloyd (2000) for LWS. However, the discrepancy in the adopted LWS beam size does not affect the following results.

Five further VCC spiral galaxies with $`12.5\mathrm{B}_\mathrm{T}13.9\mathrm{mag}`$ were observed by Smith & Madden (1997 – hereafter referred to as SM97) with LWS in the \[C II\] line region. The latter 5 galaxies complement the previous 19, so that the total sample of 24 Virgo cluster member galaxies represents normal spirals with a large dynamic range in mass-normalized massive SFR ($`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}71\mathrm{\AA }`$) and in morphological type (from S0a to Sd).

According to P99, we divide the total sample of galaxies into quiescent and normal star-forming galaxies according to the values of $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}<10\mathrm{\AA }`$ and $`10\mathrm{\AA }`$, respectively. $`\mathrm{H}\alpha +`$\[N II\](6548, 6583 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$) equivalent widths are available for 20 out of 24 (20/24) galaxies either from long-slit (from 3 to 7 arcmin) spectroscopy of their central region (Kennicutt & Kent 1983) or from CCD imaging (G. Gavazzi, private communication).

All the 19 galaxies of the L99 subsample have been imaged by Boselli et al. (1997) in the $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$-band ($`\lambda =2.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and in the H-band ($`\lambda =1.65\mu \mathrm{m}`$). Since the 5 galaxies of the SM97 subsample lack CCD measurements in these two near-IR bands, we convert their VCC total B-band ($`\lambda =0.55\mu \mathrm{m}`$) magnitudes into $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$-band ones via the relation between the colour index $`\mathrm{B}_\mathrm{T}\mathrm{K}^{}`$ and the Hubble type found by Boselli et al. (1997). Furthermore, we convert these $`\mathrm{K}^{}`$-band magnitudes into H-band ones via the average $`\mathrm{H}\mathrm{K}^{}`$ colour of spiral galaxies of all Hubble types (0.26 mag), found by these authors.

18/24 galaxies have total nonthermal radio fluxes at 1.4 GHz, listed in Gavazzi & Boselli (1999). For 21/24 objects, we have selected detections/upper limits for their total IRAS 60 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and 100 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ fluxes from either Rice et al. (1988) or Soifer et al. (1989) or Moshir et al. (1990), according to their relative optical sizes with respect to the IRAS HPBW.

The parameters of the total sample of 24 VCC late-type galaxies observed with LWS, relevant to this analysis, are given in Tab. 1 as follows:
Column 1: the NGC and VCC denominations;
Column 2: the morphological type, as listed in the VCC;
Column 3: logarithm of the length of major axis, as listed in de Vaucouleurs et al. (1991 – hereafter referred to as RC3);
Column 4: logarithm of the axial ratio, as listed in the RC3;
Column 5: the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha +`$\[N II\] equivalent width ($`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ for short);
Column 6: the total H-band magnitude, determined and corrected for Galactic extintion and galaxy inclination according to Gavazzi & Boselli (1996);
Column 7: the total nonthermal radio flux at 1.4 GHz;
Column 8: the total IRAS flux at 60 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$;
Column 9: the total IRAS flux at 100 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$;
Column 10: the observed \[C II\] line flux;
Column 11: references of the \[C II\] data.

In Tab. 1, notes identify the 7 early-type galaxies which are claimed to host nuclear activity typical of a LINER/AGN. The presence of an AGN increases both the \[C II\] line emission and the nonthermal radio emission of these galaxies in a way that is hard to predict quantitatively. As an example, however, an extra nonthermal radio emission due to the production of energetic electrons without star formation by an AGN will lead to secondary electrons on grains which will act like photoelectrons heating the gas. For NGC 4394 (Keel 1983), NGC 4569 and NGC 4579 (Stauffer 1982), claims of non-stellar nuclear activity were raised before the selection and observation of our sample. On the other hand, NGC 4192 (Barth et al. 1998), NGC 4569 and NGC 4579 (Ho et al. 1997) have recently been defined as transition spirals, while NGC 4438 (Ho et al. 1997) seems to be a marginal candidate for non-stellar nuclear activity. The phenomenology of the Virgo cluster spiral galaxy nuclear regions has not yet been established (e.g. Rauscher 1995), since different types of LINER (i.e. photoionized by a stellar continuum or by an active galactic nucleus) can not easily be distinguished from one another (e.g. Alonso-Herrero et al. 2000). Moreover, these 7 galaxies have values of the IRAS far-IR colour f(60)/f(100) in the range 0.28 – 0.58, which indicates dust colour temperatures not particularly warm, and consistent both with the average far-IR colours of AGNs (0.58, with a dispersion of 0.20) and of non-AGN galaxies (0.40, with a dispersion of 0.12) found by Bothun et al. (1989). Given this, we still consider it reasonable to include these 7 VCC galaxies as part of our sample of normal late-type galaxies.

On the other hand, the 8 VCC Sc/Scd galaxies of our sample, detected both in the \[C II\] line and at 1.4 GHz, are not known to host any LINER/AGN activity. These galaxies define the subsample of normal star-forming galaxies.

### 2.2 Data analysis

The best way to get the \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratio on a galactic scale is to integrate over complete maps in each emission. Since this is not possible at the moment of writing, two options are left. One would be to take the \[C II\] pointings, relate the \[C II\] flux in them to the far-IR flux in a similar sized beam and take this ratio as representative of the whole galaxy, as suggested by the referee. IRAS beams are messy, so this is not the best way, but, for 10 of the galaxies listed in Tab. 1 and detected in the \[C II\] line emission (i.e. NGC 4178, 4192, 4293, 4394, 4429, 4438, 4450, 4491, 4569 and 4579), high signal-to-noise strip maps exist at 60 and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$, obtained by Tuffs et al. (2002) with the 40 arcsec HPBW instrument ISOPHOT (Lemke et al. 1996). Tuffs et al. have extracted the ISOPHOT far-IR photometry by fitting a model of the far-IR surface brightness distribution to the data. Thus, for these 10 galaxies, \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratios may be measured within the LWS beam size. However, it is not straightforward to conclude that these ratios represent the true total ratios. The second option is to adopt a \[C II\] line “growth curve”, but such a tool is not available at the moment of writing. A coarse spatial distribution of the \[C II\] line emission is known only for few individual galaxies, where it is found to be complex (e.g. Madden et al. 1993).

We decided that a way out of this “empasse” is to take the IRAS fluxes as the total far-IR ones and determine an aperture correction for the observed \[C II\] line fluxes on the basis of the most commonly accepted physical interpretation of the \[C II\] line emission. We will test the total \[C II\] line-to-far-IR continuum emission ratios obtained with our method from the LWS and IRAS measurements against those obtained with the method suggested by the referee, i.e. from the LWS and ISOPHOT data in our possession.

We adopt a simple analytical formula to extrapolate the total \[C II\] line flux from the observed one, which is based on the assumptions that i) the average ratio between the total \[C II\] line luminosity and the total 1.4 GHz radio continuum luminosity, as results of massive star formation activity, is constant in galaxies of the same Hubble type and that ii) the radial surface brightness profile of the \[C II\] line emission is homologous in galaxies of different Hubble type. We note that at this relatively low frequency, the contribution of the thermal Bremsstrahlung to the radio continuum emission of late-type galaxies is weak (e.g. Gioia et al. 1982).

In the normal star-forming galaxies, almost the same young stellar populations responsible for the gas heating (Sect. 1) dominate the SN rate (cf. X94), and, therefore, the production of Cosmic Ray electrons and nonthermal radio continuum emission. Since the corresponding UV radiation is essentially absorbed inside the galaxy by the dust grains, also the total number of photoelectrons and therefore the gas heating per $`\mathrm{C}^+`$-atom is only dependent on the UV luminosity and thus on the formation rate of massive stars. Almost the same is true for the total nonthermal radio emission (Lisenfeld et al. 1996). This carries over to the quiescent galaxies, although the fraction of SN Ia to SN II plus SN Ib may be larger than in the previous objects (cf. X94). These galaxies are close to becoming or are in fact already “radio-quiet” (Condon et al. 1991) as well as \[C II\]-quiet (P99). Finally, whatever the massive star formation activity of the galaxy is, gas cooling and SNe are disk phenomena in predominantly non-interacting galaxies like ours (cf. the case of the “Antennae” studied by Nikola et al. 1998). These astrophysical considerations support our assumptions.

It may sound dangerous to extrapolate the total \[C II\] line flux from the radio synchrotron emission in order to interpret the total gas-to-dust cooling flux ratio, given the existence of the radio/far-IR correlation (Rickard & Harvey 1984; Dickey & Salpeter 1984; de Jong et al. 1985; Helou et al. 1985; see also Condon et al. 1991; X94). However, the aperture correction is necessary and we consider this extrapolation as a very reasonably physically motivated way to achieve it. This correction has a larger impact for the larger galaxies of our sample, which are expected to have both larger radio and far-IR continuum emissions, as a consequence of well-established scaling effects (e.g. X94). Most of the galaxies largely undersampled by LWS are early-types, as shown by their values of the “coverage factor” $`CF`$ (defined as the ratio between the area of the LWS beam and the projected optical galaxy area, as defined in the RC3) between 10 and 100 per cent (Pierini et al. 2001). Nonetheless, for these objects, the behaviour of the total $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ with the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ (Sect. 3) is consistent with that reported by P99, where no aperture correction to the LWS data was applied. On the basis of this consistency, we conclude that the aperture correction here introduced does not bias our following conclusions.

The LWS beamsize probed the \[C II\] line emission of the 8 VCC Sc/Scd galaxies of our sample up to relatively large galactocentric distances (Pierini et al. 2001). Moreover, there are no existing claims of LINER/AGN activity for these galaxies. For all these reasons, the subsample defined by these 8 Sc/Scd galaxies is adopted to investigate the dependence of the ratio between the \[C II\] line emission (within the LWS beam) and the total radio continuum luminosity, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}`$, on the $`CF`$.

As a functional form for the LWS aperture correction, we adopt the simple linear equation $`y=ax+b`$, where $`y=logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}`$ and $`x=logCF`$. According to our assumptions, $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}`$ is expected to decrease with decreasing values of $`logCF`$ as a consequence only of the reduced fraction of the \[C II\] line emission probed by LWS, so that the parameter $`a`$ is independent of the Hubble type. In contrast, the constant term $`b`$, defining the intrinsic ratio between the total \[C II\] line luminosity and the total 1.4 GHz radio continuum luminosity, depends to first order on the average star formation history of a galaxy, i.e. on the Hubble type of the galaxy (Kennicutt et al. 1994). We may also expect that $`b`$ depends to second order on the presence of an AGN and on the relationship between global properties of the ISM and Hubble type, if any.

Fig. 1 shows the plot of $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}`$ vs. $`logCF`$ for all the galaxies with available obervables, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}`$ being determined from the observed \[C II\] line flux assuming a distance of 21 Mpc for Virgo. Hereafter, quiescent galaxies, normal star-forming galaxies and galaxies without measured $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ are represented by empty circles, filled circles and asterisks, respectively. We also mark those galaxies with claimed non-stellar nuclear activity (cf. Sect. 2.1) by large circles and squares, respectively. In Fig. 1, the solid line reproduces the least-squares fit of equation

$$log\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{L_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}}=0.32(\pm 0.21)logCF+3.57(\pm 0.13),$$
(1)
obtained for the 8 Sc/Scd galaxies.

We note that the parameter $`a`$ is different from 0 only at the $`1\sigma `$ level, maybe as a result of the limited statistics. Nevertheless, we correct the observed \[C II\] line fluxes of all the galaxies (listed in Col. 10 of Tab. 1) to total ones via the multiplicative term $`10^{0.32\times logCF}`$.

The method previously illustrated is admittedly crude but its feasibility may be tested against the data, as previously mentioned. In fact, ratios between the observed \[C II\] line luminosity and the far-IR continuum luminosity FIR (Helou et al. 1985) within the LWS beam may be obtained from the existing ISOPHOT photometry (Tuffs et al. 2002). Tuffs et al. show that the ISOPHOT photometry at 60 and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ is consistent with the analogous IRAS photometry. Thus we have obtained aperture photometry of 10 sample galaxies with available LWS, ISOPHOT and IRAS data (i.e. NGC 4178, 4192, 4293, 4394, 4429, 4438, 4450, 4491, 4569 and 4579) at 60 and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$, after deconvolving the models of Tuffs et al. with the ISOPHOT beam, assumed to be reproduced by a two-dimensional circular gaussian of 40 arcsec full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM).

Fig. 2 shows the comparison between the total \[C II\] line-to-far-IR FIR emission ratios ($`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ on the y-axis) and the \[C II\] line-to-far-IR FIR emission ratios within the LWS beam area ($`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}_{\mathrm{LWS}}}`$ on the x-axis). The total ratio $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is obtained by applying the aperture correction (Equ. 1) to the observed LWS \[C II\] line flux and from the total IRAS fluxes at 60 and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$, according to Helou et al. (1985). Conversely, $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}_{\mathrm{LWS}}}`$ is obtained from the observed \[C II\] line flux and from the integration of the far-IR surface brightness distribution at 60 and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$, as obtained with ISOPHOT, within the LWS beam area. We assume an error of 5 per cent in the model ISOPHOT fluxes and an error of 30 per cent in the ISOPHOT absolute calibration.

The ratios estimated through these two different methods are consistent within the uncertainties and the approximations in both methods, especially when considering the difference between a total value and a rather local one. This is not trivial. Thus, we conclude that most of the emission both in the \[C II\] line and in the far-IR continuum comes from the regions probed by LWS, at least for our sample galaxies, as assumed by P99. “A posteriori” this result supports the assumptions behind the correction for the LWS aperture, especially when considering that 9 of the previous 10 galaxies are not among those used to determine this aperture correction. Thus, we conclude that the estimates of the total \[C II\] line fluxes, obtained through the aperture correction of Equ. 1, are robust.

## 3 $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ vs. $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ in normal late-type galaxies

In Fig. 3a,b, we plot the ratio between the \[C II\] line luminosity and the total far-IR continuum luminosity FIR (Helou et al. 1985), $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$, vs. $`logCF`$ prior to and after the correction for the LWS aperture effects, respectively. Although this correction affects the values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ of individual galaxies, there is no definite global trend of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ with $`CF`$ in Fig. 3a and, a fortiori, in Fig. 3b.

The early-type spiral galaxies with claimed non-stellar nuclear activity (cf. Sect. 2.1) are among those with the lowest values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ in Fig. 3a,b, but their total $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ (Fig. 3b) is on average more than one order of magnitude higher than that of the “\[C II\]-deficient” galaxies identified by Malhotra et al. (1997), with IRAS far-IR colours between 0.6 and 1.4. For the same galaxies, the mean value of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is intermediate between the range 1.2 – $`2.2\times 10^3`$ spanned by 4 nearby E/S0 galaxies observed with LWS (Malhotra et al. 2000) and the mean value of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ of VCC galaxies of later Hubble types (Fig. 3b). This result suggests that the non-stellar nuclear activity claimed for some of our galaxies does not affect systematically their values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$. We conclude that $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is, on average, lower for quiescent galaxies than for normal star-forming ones, even though the scatter is large.

The average ratio between the \[C II\] line emission and the far-IR continuum emission is consistent with the theoretical efficiency of the photoelectric heating of the gas, as found by previous authors (cf. Sect. 1).

Fig. 4 shows the dependence of the total $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ on the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ for the 19/24 galaxies of our sample with available observables. Here, the galaxy out of bounds is NGC 4491, with $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ consistent with $`0\mathrm{\AA }`$.

The distribution in Fig. 4 is much more regular than the one reproduced in Fig. 3b. For the 6 normal star-forming galaxies detected both in the \[C II\] line and in the far-IR, the mean value of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is equal to $`7.9\times 10^3`$ with a dispersion of $`2.1\times 10^3`$. This figure is still consistent with the analogous mean value of $`4\times 10^3`$ obtained by P99 for an heterogeneous sample of normal star-forming galaxies without any kind of aperture correction. For the quiescent galaxies, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ drops continuously with decreasing values of the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$, in agreement with P99. Finally, galaxies with claimed non-stellar nuclear activity do not behave in a peculiar way in Fig. 4.

These results strengthen those obtained by P99. In fact, P99 assumed that the bulk of the IRAS far-IR continuum emission of their VCC galaxies originated within the region sampled by the aperture of LWS (set equal to 80 arcsec) for each galaxy. P99 assumed implicitly that the characteristic FWHM of the IRAS $`60\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`100\mu \mathrm{m}`$ continuum emissions of normal galaxies was defined by the IRAS observations of the nearby Sab galaxy NGC 5713 (see Lord et al. 1996), which indicate that the FWHM of the IRAS $`25\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and $`60\mu \mathrm{m}`$ emissions of this galaxy is about 1/5 of its optical diameter. The LWS HPBW indeed encompasses 1/5 of the galaxy’s optical diameter in VCC galaxies with $`\mathrm{log}\mathrm{D}1.76`$, i.e. for all the objects observed with LWS, with the exception of NGC 4192, NGC 4438 and NGC 4569 (cf. Tab. 1). As seen in Sect. 2.2 this assumption seems to hold for the present case. Conversely, the values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ adopted by P99 for their subsample of galaxies observed by Stacey et al. (1991) did not suffer because of a marked difference in beam size of the \[C II\] and far-IR observations. Here, we confirm that the dependence of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ on the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ found by P99 is not due either to their assumption or to the inclusion of LINER/AGN candidates in their sample.

## 4 The model

P99 interpreted the non-linear relation between $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ and the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ under the assumption that photoelectric heating is the dominant mechanism of gas heating in the diffuse ISM of normal spiral galaxies, on the scale of a galaxy. The existence of a lower characteristic far-UV photon energy threshold for the photoelectric effect on the dust, coupled to the different massive SFRs of galaxies of different morphology (cf. Kennicutt et al. 1994), qualitatively explains why quiescent early-type spiral galaxies have lower values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ than normal star-forming late-type ones.

Here, we introduce a simple quantitative model in order to describe this behaviour, based both on generally accepted concepts of galaxy star formation history and on observations. We adopt mass-normalized quantities, in order to eliminate simple scaling effects among galaxies of different masses. Mass-normalization is in terms of the total near-IR luminosity. The latter is, in fact, a good estimate of the bulk of the mass of the old stellar population, which dominates the mass of the “luminous matter” of giant galaxies (Aaronson et al. 1979).

In our modeling, we adopt the formalism introduced by Xu et al. (1994 – hereafter referred to as X94), in their interpretation of the properties of the radio/far-IR correlation for normal late-type galaxies. We refer the reader to X94 for further details and discussion of the physical justification of the parameterization introduced hereafter.

The galaxy mass $`M`$ is estimated as follows:

$$M=\frac{L_\mathrm{H}}{2.05\times 10^{25}[\mathrm{W}\mu \mathrm{m}^1]}(M_{\mathrm{}}),$$
(2)
where $`L_\mathrm{H}`$ is the H-band luminosity.

The mass-normalized total IRAS far-IR continuum (FIR) emission within the wavelength range of 40 – 120 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ is expressed through the following formula:

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{M}=\zeta _{m_1}^{m_2}\varphi (m)P(m)L(m)\tau (m)\overline{s(\tau (m))}𝑑m,$$
(3)
with $`\zeta =1/1.8`$ denoting the fraction of the FIR emission contained within 40 – 120 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, which is quite a constant factor among galaxies (Helou et al. 1985), $`m_1=1\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ and $`m_2=100\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ specifying the mass range of stars which are responsible for the heating of the dust (we ignore stars less massive than the Sun because they contribute little to the dust heating and take an upper cut-off of the IMF of $`100\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$). The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is denoted by $`\varphi (m)`$, the probability of the light of a star of mass $`m`$ to be absorbed by dust by $`P(m)`$. Finally, $`L(m)`$ and $`\tau (m)`$ are the Main Sequence (MS) luminosity and life time of a star of mass $`m`$, respectively, and

$$\overline{s(\tau (m))}=\frac{_0^{\tau (m)}s(t)𝑑t}{\tau (m)}$$
(4)
is the star formation rate (per unit of mass) averaged over the life time of this star.

The total energy emitted during the MS life of a star of given mass $`m`$, $`L(m)\times \tau (m)`$, is given by:

$$L(m)\tau (m)=\{\begin{array}{cc}10^{9.95}m[\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}]\hfill & 1m<5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\hfill \\ 10^{9.6}m^{3/2}[\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{yr}]\hfill & 5m<100\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}\text{.}\hfill \end{array}$$
(5)
According to X94, 60% of the radiation from stars more massive than $`5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ is absorbed and then reradiated in the far-IR by the dust, while the absorption probability of radiation from stars with $`1m<5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ is 30%.

We consider six different IMFs (Salpeter 1955; Miller & Scalo 1979; Kennicutt 1983; Kroupa et al. 1993; X94; Scalo 1998) and, in each case, we assume that the IMF is universal (cf. Meyer et al. 2000) and independent of the SFR. For each IMF, we calculate the normalization factor from the definition:

$$_{m_{\mathrm{min}}}^{m_{\mathrm{max}}}\varphi (m)m𝑑m=1,$$
(6)
imposing continuity at the values of $`m`$ corresponding to a change of the IMF slope and taking the lower stellar mass $`m_{\mathrm{min}}=1\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$ and the upper stellar mass $`m_{\mathrm{max}}=100\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$.

Thus we rewrite $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}/M`$ as:

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{M}=\frac{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{M}_{\mathrm{loud}}+\frac{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{M}_{\mathrm{quiet}}=as_8+bs_9,$$
(7)
where the suffix “loud” (“quiet”) defines the far-IR component due to stars more (less) massive than $`5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$, which are (are not) responsible for the photoelectric heating (Sect. 1).

The quantities $`s_8`$ and $`s_9`$ (in units of $`\mathrm{yr}^1`$) define the star formation rates (per unit of mass) averaged over times of $`10^8\mathrm{yrs}`$ and $`3\times 10^9\mathrm{yrs}`$, respectively. MS life times shorter than $`10^8\mathrm{yrs}`$ correspond to stars more massive than $`5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$, while MS life times between $`10^8\mathrm{yrs}`$ and few $`\times 10^9\mathrm{yrs}`$ characterize stars with $`1m<5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$. Given the previous assumptions, the quantities $`a`$ and $`b`$ (in units of $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{yr}`$) depend only on the IMF. We discuss this interesting aspect in further detail in Sect. 5.2. In Tab. 2, we show the values of the parameters $`a`$ and $`b`$, obtained from Equ. 3 through 6, corresponding to the adopted IMFs.

The mass-normalized total \[C II\] line luminosity is expressed as follows:

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{M}=cs_8.$$
(8)
The parameter $`c`$ (in units of $`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}\mathrm{yr}`$) is assumed to depend on the IMF and, to second order, on the efficiency of the photoelectric effect in galaxies of different far-UV field strengths (cf. Bakes & Tielens 1994), i.e. of different morphological classification. Eventually, the latter dependence concerns effects due to metallicity and properties of dust and ISM, whether these properties are dependent on Hubble type. This formula provides a physical justification for the use of the \[C II\] line emission as a tracer of star formation in non AGN-dominated and non-starburst galaxies. This aspect is discussed by Boselli et al. (2002) and not here.

Finally, from Equ. 7 and 8 it follows that:

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}=\frac{c}{a}\times \frac{s}{s+\frac{b}{a}},$$
(9)
where

$$s=\frac{s_8}{s_9}.$$
(10)
According to these two equations, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ tends to $`c/a`$ for $`s>>b/a`$ and to $`(c/b)s`$ for $`s<<b/a`$.

## 5 Results

### 5.1 On the relation between gas cooling, dust cooling and star formation history of individual galaxies

In our model, the ratio between gas cooling via the \[C II\] line emission and dust cooling via the far-IR continuum emission depends only on the parameter $`c`$ and on the two average SFRs (per unit of mass) $`s_8`$ and $`s_9`$, once the IMF is chosen. Hereafter, we adopt the X94 IMF for illustrative purposes.

We assume that galaxies of the same Hubble type (HT) have the same characteristic SF time scale. Under the further assumption that $`s_9`$ is the median of the values of $`s_8`$ of individual galaxies of the same morphology (X94), we derive the median values of $`s_9`$ and $`c`$ for each Hubble type as follows:

$$s_9=\frac{<\frac{\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{\mathrm{M}}>_{\mathrm{HT}}}{\mathrm{a}+\mathrm{b}},$$
(11)
$$c=\frac{<\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{M}>_{\mathrm{HT}}}{s_9}.$$
(12)
We remind the reader that the median is especially appropriate as a measure of central tendency of a skewed distribution of data. For the present illustrative purposes, we estimate the mean values of $`L_{FIR}/M`$ and $`L_{CII}/M`$ for any given morphological type represented by the galaxy sample described in Sect. 2.1 instead. This choice allows the comparison of the mean value of $`L_{CII}/L_{FIR}`$ found for the normal star-forming galaxies to that found by P99 for similar objects.

In Fig. 5, we plot the mass-normalized total \[C II\] luminosity vs. the mass-normalized total far-IR continuum luminosity for the 20 Virgo cluster galaxies with available suitable observables. In Fig. 5a,b,c only the 18 objects in the three groups Sa/Sab, Sb/Sbc, Sc/Scd are shown, since only for these three groups of morphological types we can constrain our model.

In Fig. 5d we show all the 20 objects superimposed on the model curve obtained for the Sa/Sab galaxies as a reference. In each panel, the solid line represents the logarithmic value of $`L_{CII}/M`$ obtained as follows:

$$log\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{M}=log(\frac{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}{M}bs_9)+log\frac{c}{a}.$$
(13)
From inspection of Fig. 5, we obtain that:

1. the model relation between $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/M`$ and $`logL_{\mathrm{FIR}}/M`$ is non-linear for any given morphological classification;
2. in the model, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ drops with decreasing values of $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}/M`$, independent of galaxy classification, but this drop takes place at a characteristic value of $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}/Mbs_9`$, increasing with galaxy lateness;
3. $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ tends to first order to the same asymptotic value $`c/a`$ at sufficiently high values of $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}/M`$ for galaxies of different Hubble types;
4. the galaxy distribution shown in Fig. 5 is consistent with the relation between current star formation activity and galaxy lateness (cf. Kennicutt et al. 1994; Boissier & Prantzos 2000), even though the non-linearity of the model is not well covered by the available data points;
5. the statistics are not yet sufficient to characterize the dependence of the model parameters on the galaxy morphology;
6. therefore the statistics are not yet sufficient to derive any quantitative difference induced by the assumed IMF (cf. Sect. 5.2).

We emphasize that only large statistical samples can prove or disprove the validity of the model. Nevertheless these illustrative results are quite encouraging.

### 5.2 A new method of constraining the stellar IMF

The model described in Sect. 4 allows us to express the mass-normalized total \[C II\] and far-IR continuum luminosities in terms of combinations of two star formation rates (per unit of mass), $`s_8`$ and $`s_9`$, averaged over $`10^8`$ and $`3\times 10^9`$ years, respectively, weighted by the two parameters $`a`$ and $`b`$, depending only on the IMF.

Galaxies of a given morphological type distribute along a non-linear relation in the $`logL_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/M`$$`logL_{\mathrm{FIR}}/M`$ plane, according to the ratio between $`s_8`$ and $`s_9`$ in such a way that

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}=\frac{c}{a+b}$$
(14)
when $`s_8s_9`$, and that, conversely,

$$\frac{L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}}{L_{\mathrm{FIR}}}=\frac{c}{a}$$
(15)
when $`s_8`$ is large compared to $`s_9`$.

If the luminosities involved in these two equations were available for a large statistically complete sample of normal galaxies, it would be straightforward to derive an accurate value of $`a/(a+b)`$ from Equ. 14 and 15. Since $`a/(a+b)`$ is sensitive to the IMF (cf. Col. 4 of Tab. 2), one can effectively constrain the stellar IMF via measurements of gas and dust cooling.

## 6 Discussion

According to different studies (de Jong 1980; Tielens & Hollenbach 1985; Bakes & Tielens 1994, 1998; Wolfire et al. 1995; Kaufman et al. 1999), the heating of the interstellar gas is mainly due to collisions with photoelectrons ejected from different dust components, when illuminated by far-UV photons. Contrary to gas heating, dust heating is due also to the general ISRF (e.g. Condon et al. 1991; X94; Popescu et al. 2000), although the consensus is not unanimous.

Early detailed models of gas heating (e.g. Tielens & Hollenbach 1985) considered only the relatively dense atomic interstellar environments dominated by the far-UV field, where dust heating is also dominated by the emission from stars more massive than $`5\mathrm{M}_{\mathrm{}}`$. Therefore, these models naturally interpreted the ratio between gas cooling via the \[C II\] line emission and dust cooling via the far-IR continuum emission as a direct measure of the efficiency of the photoelectric effect on dust grains. In an analogous way, the early studies of the \[C II\] line emission in external galaxies (Crawford et al. 1985; Stacey et al. 1991; Carral et al. 1994) targeted the innermost regions of gas-rich and starburst galaxies, where both the fractional content of molecular gas (e.g. Pierini et al. 2001) and the contribution of the OB associations to the ISRF (e.g. Bronfman et al. 2000) are large. Since these stellar populations are associated with dense PDRs, it is no surprise that the previous models were successful in interpreting the phenomenology and the energetics of gas cooling in most of the galaxies observed in the \[C II\] line region for the first time.

Adopting the PDR models of Kaufman et al. (1999), Malhotra et al. (2001) have found that a significant fraction of the total \[C II\] line emission of normal galaxies is associated with PDRs very close to star formation regions. By contrast, Madden et al. (1993) have shown that the diffuse components of the ISM, associated with the atomic hydrogen, are responsible for the \[C II\] line emission on scales larger than a galactic nucleus. In the inner regions of a galaxy, the contribution of the diffuse ionized medium is also non negligible (Heiles 1994; Negishi et al. 2001). These results have been supported by P99, on the basis of the observations made by L99 and SM97 with LWS, and confirmed by Pierini et al. (2001), via a comparison with models of the diffuse ISM of Wolfire et al. (1995). We believe that the solution to this dilemma rests in the differences not only among the galaxy regions probed by observations (Pierini et al. 2001) but also in the massive star formation activity of the sample objects.

As far as orders of magnitude are concerned, even on a galactic scale the average ratio between the \[C II\] line intensity, as measured by the LWS, and the IRAS far-IR continuum emission FIR (Helou et al. 1985) is consistent with the theoretical efficiency of gas heating via the far-UV light induced photoelectric effect on different dust components (cf. Lord et al. 1996). However, P99 discovered that, to first order, this ratio is a function of the massive star formation activity for normal late-type galaxies. This result holds despite the fact that individual Galactic and extragalactic sources of the \[C II\] line emission show different values of the \[C II\] line-to-far-IR emission ratio (e.g. Stacey et al. 1991; P99; Boselli et al. 2002). In Sect. 5.1 we have reproduced the trend observed by P99 with a model, under the assumption (X94) that the time evolution of the SFR has an exponential law, where the characteristic time scale increases with galaxy lateness. Our parametric model is supported both by theoretical results on galaxy evolution and by observations. As a result, we find that the global $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ is a direct measure of the fractional content of far-UV photons in the ISRF of individual normal galaxies, whatever the components of the ISM (dense PDRs, diffuse atomic/ionized gas), where gas heating takes place, are, and not of the efficiency of the photoelectric heating.

Since massive star formation declines faster with time in spiral galaxies of earlier types, on average, these galaxies are expected to have low values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$. The opposite is true for the late-type spiral galaxies. A particularly low production of far-UV photons (per unit of mass) naturally explains the non-detection of 4 early-type spirals, none of which associated with an AGN, which were observed by L99 with LWS in the \[C II\] line region (cf. Tab. 1 in Sect. 2.1). This scenario has been recently invoked by Malhotra et al. (2000) in order to qualitatively explain the low values of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ (1.2 – 2.2 $`\times 10^3`$) of 4 nearby E/S0 galaxies observed with LWS, in agreement with the earlier interpretation of P99. According to the model, the efficiency of the photoelectric heating (on a galactic scale) may be derived if the absolute value of the global far-UV field strength is known. The latter is not simply proportional to the far-IR emission from dust (Sect. 4), given the relative contributions of non-ionizing UV and the general interstellar radiation field to the dust heating.

## 7 Conclusions

We have investigated the relationship between gas cooling via the \[C II\] ($`\lambda =158\mu \mathrm{m}`$) line emission and dust cooling via the far-IR continuum emission in normal (i.e. non-AGN dominated and non-starburst) late-type galaxies. It is known that to first order the luminosity ratio between total gas and dust cooling, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$, shows a non-linear behaviour with the equivalent width of the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ ($`\lambda =6563\mathrm{\AA }`$) line emission, the ratio decreasing in galaxies of lower global massive star formation activity. This trend holds despite the fact that individual Galactic and extragalactic sources of the \[C II\] line emission show different values of the \[C II\] line-to-far-IR emission ratio.

This non-linear behaviour is reproduced by a simple quantitative model of gas and dust heating from different stellar populations, under the assumption that the photoelectric effect on dust induced by far-UV photons is the dominant mechanism of gas heating in the general diffuse interstellar medium of these galaxies. This model employs two moments of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and two corresponding averages of the star formation rate (SFR) per unit of mass. According to the model, $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ directly measures the fractional amount of the non-ionizing UV light in the interstellar radiation field and not the efficiency of the photoelectric heating.

A sample of 20 Virgo cluster galaxies is used to illustrate the model. The insufficient statistics and the assumptions behind the determination of the global \[C II\] luminosities from the spatially limited LWS data do not yet allow us to definitively confirm or disprove the model. When measurements of the total \[C II\] line emission and of the other quantities invoked by our model will be available for large statistical samples of non-AGN and non-starburst galaxies, we shall be able to characterize the behaviour of $`L_{\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}}/L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ with the $`\mathrm{H}\alpha \mathrm{EW}`$ for each Hubble type and to reproduce it. The same wealth of data will allow us to test the astrophysical assumptions behind our model, via the comparison of the average star formation rates as derived from the \[C II\] line and other line/continuum emissions. Finally, it will also quantitatively constrain the IMF, if universal, given the dependence of the results on the IMF.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful for the support of this work to the *Deutsche Agentur für Raumfahrt Angelegenheiten*, through *DARA* project number 50–OR–9501B. D. P. acknowledges support also through Grant NAG5-9202 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the University of Toledo.
We are indebted to G. Gavazzi for providing us with optical data prior their publication.
We are grateful to the referee, G. J. Stacey, for his useful comments which improved the quality of this paper in its final version.