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# Time Series Photometry of Variable Stars in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The inner region of the nearby post-core-collapse globular cluster NGC 6397 has been the target of several surveys aimed at the identification of rare or unusual stars likely to be created as the result of stellar interactions in its dense cluster core (Coll & Bolton (2002) and references therein). Recently Grindlay et al. (2001) reported the detection with $`Chandra`$ of 25 X-ray sources within 2$`\mathrm{}`$ of the cluster center. Optical searches for variable stars in the inner regions of globular clusters, particularly those with strong central density cusps, have been hindered by crowding. Image subtraction techniques in such strongly crowded fields have been successful in locating and studying variables (Olech et al. 1999; Kaluzny, Olech & Stanek 2001), especially when the data are taken with a fine plate scale with a stable and uniform point-spread function.

In this paper we present the analysis of ground-based time series CCD photometry which was obtained to study the light curves of the optical counterpart to the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1740-5340 (D’Amico et al. 2001b; Ferraro et al. 2001). Our results for the binary pulsar are given elsewhere (Kaluzny et al. 2002). In this contribution we report on the results obtained for other variable stars located in the central part of the cluster. Light curves for a total of 16 variables are presented and discussed. Nine of these objects are new identifications.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

The photometric data were obtained with the 2.5-m du Pont telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. A field of $`8.65\times 2.60`$ arcmin2 was observed with the TEK#5 CCD camera at a scale of 0.259$`\mathrm{}`$/pixel. This present analysis is limited to a sub-field $`2.60\times 2.60`$ arcmin2 centered approximately on the cluster core. Most of the data were obtained on 6 nights during the period from UT May 1 to 8, 2002, with additional data obtained on UT June 3, 2002. Conditions were non-photometric on all but one night with average seeing of 1.0$`\mathrm{}`$ in the $`V`$-band.

The cluster was observed for a total of 32 hours through $`BVI_\mathrm{C}`$ filters. Exposure times were typically 30 sec ($`B`$), 15 sec ($`V`$), and 10 sec ($`I`$). Frames were were co-added, and the total number of stacked images used in the present study was 69 ($`B`$), 196 ($`V`$), and 59 ($`I`$). For a few of the variables discussed below we have also extracted $`V`$-band time-series photometry from images with the best seeing, selecting 1176 out of the total of 1256 available. Our observing material and photometric calibration procedure are described in detail in Kaluzny et al. (2002).

## 3 IDENTIFICATION OF VARIABLES

Two methods were used to detect potential variable stars. Both of them make use of the ISIS-1.2 image subtraction package (Alard & Lupton 1998; Alard 2000).

The first method is based on examination of images created by combining individual residual images, and relies entirely on tools included in the ISIS package. This method is well suited for the detection of variables with a high duty cycle 111By ”duty cycle” we mean the fraction of time in which a given star shows luminosity other than its median luminosity. An example of an object with low duty cycle is an eclipsing binary with narrow eclipses. and/or showing significant changes of flux (bright variables or faint variables with large amplitude light curves). An advantage of this method is that it permits the detection of variables which cannot be resolved with classical profile photometry in crowded fields.

The second method relies on the examination of the light curves of all objects which could be measured on a reference frame with profile fitting software. For each filter a reference frame was constructed by averaging several stacked images of the best quality. The detection of stellar objects and the extraction of photometry was accomplished using the DAOPHOT/ALLSTAR software package (Stetson 1987). The total of 4336 stars were measured on the $`V`$-band reference image. The limiting magnitude depends very much on the distance from the cluster core. The faintest measured stars have $`V21.3`$ and the observed luminosity function starts to diminish at $`V19.0`$. The $`phot`$ procedure in the ISIS package was used to extract differential light curves at the position corresponding to each star detected with the DAOPHOT/ALLSTAR package. Differential light curves were then transformed to magnitudes and checked for variability. The light curves were searched for the presence of any periodic signal with the $`AoV`$ algorithm (Schwarzenberg-Czerny 1989; Schwarzenberg-Czerny 1996) and were reviewed for possible eclipse-like events.

A total of 16 variables were identified. Nine of these are new detections. Information on these variables is presented in Table 1. Column 1 gives an assigned name following Clement et al. (2001), followed by the right ascension and declination of the variable 222Clement et al. (2001) list 12 variables in NGC 6397, V1-V12. Four variables listed in Table 1 are present in the Clement et al. paper, and we copy their name assignments (V7, V10, V11 and V12). Variables V13-V24 are not in the Clement et al. catalogue.. Column 5 gives alternate designations for the variables, many of which have been previously identified as blue stragglers, UV bright objects, and/or candidate cataclysmic variables.

Table 1 also gives positional information for all 16 variables. Columns 2 and 3 list equatorial coordinates, while column 4 lists pixel coordinates of the variables as found on $`HST`$ archive image u5dr0401r for 12 of the 16 variables. The equatorial coordinates were derived from the frame solution included in the $`HST`$ image header. We derived equatorial coordinates for the four variables laying outside the $`HST`$ field from an astrometric solution to our $`V`$ band reference image based on 1022 stars with equatorial coordinates adopted from Kaluzny (1997). This solution has residuals not exceeding 1$`\mathrm{}`$ when compared to the $`HST`$ astrometric solution. Finding charts for variables V10, V22 and V23 can be found in Lauzeral et al. (1992; stars 11, 8 and 16 in their Fig. 1), and a finding chart for variable V24 is shown in Figure 1.

Basic information on the photometric properties of the 16 detected variables is presented in Table 2. Column 1 lists the variable name, followed by a classification of the light curve, the period of variability, mean $`B`$, $`V`$, and $`I`$ magnitudes, and the $`V`$-band full amplitude of variability. Positions of the variables in the cluster color-magnitude diagram are shown in Fig. 2. The ellipsoidal variable V16 is the optical counterpart to the millisecond binary pulsar J1740-5340 (D’Admico et al. 2001; Ferraro et al. 2001). Photometry of this variable is discussed in Kaluzny et al. (2002).

## 4 ANALYSIS OF PHOTOMETRY

### 4.1 Cataclysmic Variables

Grindlay et al. (2001) detected 9 possible cataclysmic variables (CV) in the central region of NGC 6397 with the $`Chandra`$ telescope, naming the objects CV1 - CV9. They identified the optical counterparts of CV1 - CV5 based on observations reported by Cool et al. (1995, 1998), Grindlay (1999), and unpublished HST H-$`alpha`$ observations (Grindlay et al. 2001).

Variable V12 can be unambiguously identified with CV1 using positional data provided in Cool et al. (1998; see their Table 1). From an examination of the HST archive image u5dr0401r at the equatorial coordinates of V13 we conclude that this star is the optical counterpart of CV6. On the $`HST`$ image V13 is visible as an isolated object with a closest neighbor at a distance of $`d0.8\mathrm{}`$.

Variables CV2 - CV5 and CV7 - CV9 could not be resolved on our reference images. We attempted to extract differential light curves using the ISIS package at the known positions of these stars. The light curves suffered from large photometric errors and showed no sign of any periodicity. The large errors result from the effects of several relatively bright stars near the variables.

#### 4.1.1 CV1

Examination of the light curves of V12 = CV1 reveals the presence of a sine-like periodic modulation. The power spectrum calculated from the $`V`$ filter time series photometry based on individual exposures is presented in Fig. 3. Two maxima of comparable strength are present at frequencies corresponding to periods of 0.4712 and 0.2356 days. Grindlay et al. (2001) report that CV1 showed one total eclipse in X-rays through the 0.567 days observation obtained with $`Chandra`$, and therefore we may eliminate the shorter period from consideration. Nightly light curves of CV1 phased with the period of 0.4712 days are displayed in Fig. 4. The average value of the formal error of a single data point is 0.042 mag. It is worth noting that the shape of the light curve as well as the average luminosity of the system are relatively stable over the interval covered by our observations. Figure 5 shows phased $`BVI`$ light curves corresponding to photometry extracted from averaged images. Neither the amplitude nor the shape of the light curves change noticeably with band-pass. The light curves are quite symmetric with two maxima of comparable height separated by half of the period. The two observed minima have comparable depths although the minimum occurring at phase zero is slightly sharper. These properties of the light curves of CV1 suggest that the observed variability is dominated in optical domain by the ellipsoidality effect caused by rotation of the Roche lobe filling component, and that the 333For cataclysmic variables it is conventional to call the degenerate component the ”primary” and its companion the ”secondary”, independent of the actual mass ratio of a given system. secondary dominates optical flux of the system. Such an interpretation is consistent with the relatively red colors of CV1. The variable is located about 0.1 mag to the blue of the cluster main sequence on the $`V/BV`$ plane and it is located slightly to the red of the main sequence on the $`V/VI`$ plane (See Fig. 2). At the time of our observations the optical flux generated by the accretion process apparently contributed a small fraction of the total optical luminosity of the binary.

Another interesting property of CV1 is its relatively long orbital period. Among 318 cataclysmic variables which are listed in Ritter & Kolb (1998) there are only 14 objects with periods longer than 0.47 days. It is possible to get a robust and reliable estimate of the average density of the secondary component of CV1 from the formula in Faulkner et al. (1972) and Eggleton (1983):

$`<\rho >=107P^2`$ (1)
where the period P is in hours and the density $`\rho `$ is in $`\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$. We obtain $`<\rho >=0.83`$ $`\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$. The binary is located well below the cluster turn-off and therefore we may expect that mass of the secondary does not exceed $`0.8M_{}`$. Theoretical models published recently by Bergbusch & VandenBerg (2001) give an average density $`<\rho >=3.52`$ $`\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$, for a ZAMS model of a 0.8 solar mass star with $`[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=2.0`$. For a mass lower than $`0.8`$ m the expected density is even higher as $`<\rho >m^2`$. We conclude that the secondary component of CV1 is noticeably over-sized compared to a normal low-mass main-sequence star.

Knowing the distance modulus of the cluster we may derive an absolute luminosity of the variable. For $`(mM)_\mathrm{V}=12.69\pm 0.15`$ and $`E(BV)=0.18`$ (Reid & Gizis 1998) we obtain $`<M_\mathrm{V}>=4.7`$ for the average absolute magnitude of CV1 in the $`V`$-band. It is tempting to use that information to derive the radius of the secondary star but we feel that uncertainties in relative intensity of the accretion generated flux to the total observed luminosity are too large. Such uncertainties affect not only the estimate of the flux from the secondary but also any estimate of its effective temperature. These problems can be greatly reduced by observing the binary at near-IR wavelengths where the total flux of the system should be strongly dominated by the secondary star.

We conclude this part of the discussion by noting that X-ray observations presented by Grindlay et al. (2001) are consistent with the identification of CV1 as either an ordinary dwarf nova or a magnetic CV.

#### 4.1.2 CV6

The power spectrum of the $`V`$ band light curve of V13 = CV6 shows strong peaks at periods of 0.1176 and 0.2352 days. An examination of the light curves from individual nights indicates that they exhibit two minima of different shape separated by about 0.12 days. This is particularly clear in the light curve extracted from individual images collected on the night of UT May 1, 2002, which is presented in Fig. 6. The $`BVI`$ light curves of CV6 phased with a period of 0.2352 days are shown in Fig. 7. They are based on photometry extracted from averaged images. The shape and mean level of the light curves were quite stable during our observations. As for CV1 the variability of CV6 seems to be dominated by the ellipsoidality effect. The minimum occurring at phase 0.0 is narrower than the minimum at phase 0.5. We interpret this as evidence that the bright accretion region surrounding the primary component of the binary is eclipsed at phase 0.0. The variable is located about $`0.15mag`$ to the blue of the cluster main sequence in the $`V/BV`$ plane (see Fig. 2) and in the $`V/VI`$ plane it is located at the red edge of the cluster main sequence.

Assuming cluster membership for CV6 we estimate $`M_\mathrm{V}=6.2`$. The average density of the secondary component is $``$ $`3.4\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$, consistent with the density expected for a slightly evolved Pop II main sequence star of mass $`0.7m_{}`$. In particular, models published by Girardi et al. (2000) predict $`<\rho >=3.2\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`M_\mathrm{V}=6.2`$ for 0.7 solar mass star of age 11 Gyr.

### 4.2 Eclipsing Binaries

Our sample of variables includes four eclipsing binaries. In this section we comment briefly on their properties, a detailed analysis will require spectroscopic observations.

Variable V7 was identified as a W UMa variable by Kaluzny (1997). This star has two close visual companions with $`V=18.31`$ and $`V=19.07`$ located at angular distances of $`0.54\mathrm{}`$ and $`0.56\mathrm{}`$, respectively. Despite the proximity of the companions the pixel scale of the observations together with the high signal-to-noise data meant that photometry could be measured for both companions in our $`V`$ band data. Only the brighter companion could be measured while extracting photometry for the $`B`$ and $`I`$ bands. Both companions were unresolved in the photometry reported by Kaluzny (1997), leading to an overestimation of the luminosity of V7 as reported in that paper. Variable V19=PC-1 was identified by Taylor et al. (2001) in a photometric survey for objects with excess $`\mathrm{H}\alpha `$ flux. They also detected V7 in the course of their survey. V19 has a close visual companion of $`V=17.22`$ at angular distance of $`0.5\mathrm{}`$. That companion is measured in our photometry for all bands.

Phased $`V`$-band light curves of V7 and V19 are shown in Fig. 8. Some intrinsic night-to-night changes of the shape of the light curve were observed for V7. Such behavior is not unusual for W UMa type systems. There is some indication that the secondary minimum of V7 exhibits a ”flat-bottom” indicating that this eclipse is total. For W UMa type systems with total eclipses one may obtain reliable light curve solutions as totality removes the degeneracy between the mass ratio and inclination of the system (Mochnacki and Doughty 1972). These two contact binaries have similar colors and lie about $`0.7`$ mag above cluster main sequence on the color-magnitude diagram, suggesting that that they are most likely members of NGC 6397.

Variable V14 is a relatively faint eclipsing binary located about 0.1 mag to the red of the cluster main sequence. Its phased light curve is presented in Fig. 9, two shallow minima of different depth are seen. Main sequence binaries with periods below 0.35 days almost always show ordinary EW type light curves, a signature of a contact configuration. If V14 is a member of NGC6397 then its red color and faint magnitude would suggest the components are of late spectral type with low masses and radii. In this case V14 could be a close but non-contact binary despite its short period.

Variable V18 is by far the most interesting of the four eclipsing binaries included in our sample. It is not only a likely blue straggler but it also shows a very unusual light curve (see Fig. 10). At first glance it resembles the light curves of ordinary W UMa type contact binaries. However the light curve of V18 shows clear signatures of eclipse ingress and egress, not observed in contact binaries. We conclude that V18 is a detached or semi-detached system composed of stars with very similar surface brightness. The light curve is similar in all 3 filters with some indication that eclipses become progressively shallower from the $`B`$ to the $`I`$ band by $`0.02`$ mag.

Examination of $`HST`$ images of the cluster shows that V18 possesses a close visual companion at an angular distance of 0.19 $`\mathrm{}`$. It has not been resolved in our profile photometry and hence its flux acts as a ”third” light in the photometry of V18. We have identified the companion as star 200338 in the data base published by Piotto et al. (2002), with $`V=18.631`$ and $`B=19.338`$. We adjust these magnitudes to $`V=18.613`$ and $`B=19.281`$ to take into account differences in the zero points of the two sets of photometry of $`0.018`$ and $`0.057`$ for the $`V`$ and $`B`$ filters, respectively (our magnitudes are brighter). Since $`I`$-band data are not included in the Piotto et al. (2002) study we estimate $`I`$-band photometry from the fact that the V18 companion lies on the cluster main sequence. From the $`VI`$ photometry of NGC 6397 published by Alcaino et al. (1997) we estimate that for $`V=18.61`$ the companion has $`I17.52`$. Light curves presented in Fig. 10 as well as magnitudes listed for V18 in Table 2 are corrected for the contribution of the nearby companion.

Attempts to derive a reliable light curve solution for V18 are hampered by the lack of vital information on the mass ratio of the binary. We have calculated a grid of solutions for a wide range of assumed values of the mass ratio $`q=m_2/m_1`$. Index ”1” refers to star eclipsed at phase ”0”. The $`V`$-band light curve was was solved using Wilson-Devinney code (Wilson 1979) embedded in the MINGA minimizing package (Plewa 1988). Our preliminary results can be summarized as follows. For $`0.08<q<2.35`$ solutions imply a detached configuration with an inclination in the range $`61<i<74`$ deg. The ratio of component radii is constrained to the range $`0.83<r_2/r_1<1.17`$. For $`q>2.35`$ solutions converge to semi-detached configurations with the less massive component filling its Roche lobe. The $`\chi ^2`$ statistic measuring the quality of fit of the synthetic light curve to the observations has a minimum near $`q=0.20`$. A solution for that specific value of the mass ratio gives inclination $`i=71`$ deg and average relative radii of the components $`r_1=0.22`$ and $`r_2=0.24`$. If the mass ratio is close to 0.2 and the system is detached, then one may wonder why both components have very similar effective temperatures. Note that the color of the variable is essentially constant over the whole orbital period. However, if the mass ratio is close to unity then we face difficulty trying to explain how this blue straggler can be composed of two stars both of which are significantly bluer and more luminous than stars at the cluster turnoff. Spectroscopic data providing information about mass ratio of the binary are needed to reliably determine its geometrical and absolute parameters.

### 4.3 SX Phe Stars

SX Phe type variables are short period pulsating stars which can be considered Pop II counterparts of more metal rich $`\delta `$ Sct type stars. It is not unusual to find them among blue stragglers in globular clusters (Rodriquez & López-Gonzáles 2000). Variables V10 and V11 were originally identified as SX Phe stars by Kaluzny (1997). Here we add three more objects to that group. Light curves of all five variables show modulation of shape and amplitude indicating the presence of multimodal pulsations. A detailed analysis of these data will be published in a separate paper (Schwarzenberg-Czerny et al.; in preparation). Here we note only that variables V10 and V15 have extremely short dominant periods, at 0.0215 days V15 has the shortest period known for an SX Phe star. No SX Phe stars with periods below 0.030 days are listed in the recently published catalog of Rodriquez & López-Gonzáles (2000). We considered the possibility that V15 is not an SX Phe type star but rather a pulsating hot subdwarf. However its $`BV`$ color is too red to be a bright sdB/O star (note the position of V15 in Fig. 2).

### 4.4 Other Variables

In this section we discuss briefly four variables which cannot be classified with confidence based on the available data.

Variable V20 is one of the brightest blue stragglers identified in the cluster core by Lauzeral et al. (1993). The power spectrum of its light curve shows two major peaks at periods of 0.861 and 0.436 days, with the higher peak corresponding to the longer period. The $`V`$ band light curves of V20 phased with each of these two periods are shown in Fig. 11. For the longer period the light curve has two minima, and this suggests that V20 is a low amplitude W UMa type system. The feature visible at the second quadrature arises from a different light level observed on the single night of June 3, roughly one month after the first observing run when most of the data were collected. The period of 0.861 days is relatively long for a contact binary belonging to a globular cluster (Rucinski 2000). Yet another possibility is that V20 is a close binary with variability due to the ellipsoidality effect. The light curve phased on the shorter period is slightly more noisy with a single minimum. The period of 0.436 days is far too long to classify V20 as a pulsating SX Phe star. The variable is too hot to show spot-related activity as is observed for FK Com or BY Dra type stars. However, it can be related to $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars, as it is discussed below for two other variables.

Phased $`V`$-band light curves for variables V17 and V24 are presented in Fig. 12. They both show low amplitude, sine-like modulation, with periods of 0.457 days and 0.525 days for V24 and V17, respectively. On the color-magnitude diagram the stars are located about 0.15 mag to the red of the cluster turnoff. We propose that V17 and V24 are Pop II counterparts of $`\gamma `$ Doradus variables. The $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars have often multiple periods between 0.4 and 3 days and show sinusoidal light curves with amplitudes – in optical domain – of the order of 0.01 mag (Zerbi 2000; Henry & Fekel 2002). Their variability is due to non-radial $`g`$-mode pulsations and they are usually subgiants or, less frequently, main sequence stars of spectral type F0-F2. The red edge of the instability strip for Pop I $`\gamma `$ Doradus variables is located at $`(BV)0.37`$ (Henry & Fekel 2002). The dereddened colors of V17 and V24 are $`(BV)_0=0.45`$ and $`(BV)_0=0.37`$, respectively. Henry & Fekel (2002) note that $`\gamma `$ Doradus variables show average $`A(B)/A(V)`$ amplitude ratios of $``$ 1.3. This distinguishes them from ”spotted” variables which have amplitude ratios of $``$ 1.1 and from ellipsoidal variables for which the ratio is $``$ 1.0. From our data we obtain $`A(B)/A(V)=1.09\pm 0.21`$ and $`A(B)/A(V)=1.25\pm 0.14`$ for V17 and V24, respectively. More extended time series would allow a more accurate estimate of the $`A(B)/A(V)`$ ratio for both variables and would also help to search for multiperiodicity in the light curves. The stability of $`\gamma `$ Doradus light curves 100-200 cycles also distinguishes these stars from ”spotted” variables.

Variable V22=BS8 is a bright blue straggler which was identified in the cluster core by Lauzeral et al. (1993). The light curve of V22 cannot be phased with a single period although during May run we observed four minima occurring in 1 and 2 day intervals. The light curve extracted from observations obtained on nights of 9 and 10 July, 1995 (Kaluzny 1997) shows variations with $`\delta V0.12`$ and a possible period of about 0.75 days. However that period does not fit the 2002 data. It is possible that V22 is a pulsating multiperiodic variable related to $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars or that it is a distant RR Lyr variable of RRd type. In Fig. 13 we show light curves from two nights on which the observed variations were most pronounced.

## 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS

We have used time series photometry obtained with a medium sized telescope to look for short period variables in the central part of the post-core-collapse cluster NGC 6397. We show that by applying the image subtraction technique that it is possible not only to detect variable stars in very crowded fields but also to measure accurate light curves for objects with amplitudes as small as 0.01 mag. Photometry of NGC 6397 obtained with $`HST`$ imaging (Piotto et al. 2002) allows a check and, if necessary, a correction for contamination from possible visual companions which are unresolved in ground-based data.

We present the first complete light curves and derive orbital periods for two cataclysmic variables in NGC 6397. The total flux and variability of both of these CV’s is dominated by the secondary components.

Several new variables have been identified among the cluster blue stragglers, including one detached binary and three objects being possible Pop II counterparts of $`\gamma `$ Doradus stars.

The determination of cluster membership of the detected variables has relied on their positions in the cluster CMD. While the cluster is located on the sky near the Galactic bulge at $`l=338`$ deg and $`b=12`$ deg, in the central region cluster stars must prevail strongly. However we cannot exclude the possibility that some of the variables are field interlopers. The publication of proper motion catalogs (Cool & Bolton 2002) will be exceptionally useful in resolving issues of cluster membership.

JK was supported by the Polish KBN grant 5P03D004.21 and by NSF grant AST-9819787. IT was supported by NSF grant AST-9819786. We would like to thank Alex Schwarzenberg-Czerny for providing us with his excellent period finding programs.


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# The Formation of Nuclear Rings in Barred Spiral Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Nuclear rings are regions of high star formation rates in the centers of barred spiral galaxies. This enhancement in the star formation rate can be high enough that these rings contain a majority of the current star formation in the entire galaxy (Garcia-Barreto et al., 1991). These rings affect the evolution of their host galaxy through a variety of mechanisms. For example, models of gas flow in barred galaxies show that gas driven toward the nucleus of a barred spiral galaxy can be interrupted by a nuclear ring (Piner, Stone, & Teuben, 1995) preventing the fueling of an active galactic nucleus by the bar. On the other hand, the formation of new stars in the nuclear ring of the galaxy can affect the Hubble type of the galaxy. If enough new stars form from gas brought to the central regions by the bar, a galaxy could evolve to an earlier Hubble type (Norman, Sellwood, & Hasan, 1996). Therefore, we need a detailed theory of how and why these rings form to quantify both the interaction of bar driven gas inflow and nuclear rings and its effect on galaxy evolution and the fueling of active galactic nuclei.

Although the conventional wisdom is that nuclear rings are associated with the Inner Lindblad Resonance (ILR) of the large scale bar (see review by Buta & Combes (1996) and references therein), the details of this association vary between various theories. All of these theories explain the formation of the rings in a qualitative way rather than from first principles. This lack of detail in the theories is manifested in their inability to explain why some galaxies which meet the criteria of the theories for ring formation have nuclear rings while others that meet the criteria do not have nuclear rings.

The most widely accepted theory for nuclear ring formation is that the gas in the nuclear ring is trapped either between an inner ILR (IILR) and an outer ILR (OILR) or at a single ILR if the potential only has one ILR (Combes, 1996; Buta & Combes, 1996). This theory is based on the claim that the torque on the gas changes sign at each resonance (Combes, 1996). This implies that for the case of a single ILR, gas inside the ILR feels a positive torque and thus gains angular momentum and moves outward, while gas between the ILR and corotation receives a negative torque and flows inward, forming a ring at the ILR. When there are two ILRs Buta & Combes (1996) state that gas will accumulate at the IILR. They invoke two possible reasons for this, either that gas dissipation causes the gas to flow inward to the IILR or that transient spirals forming between the ILRs are dominated by leading spirals which cause the gas to flow inward. Because of the predicted change in sign of the torque on the gas, if this theory is correct, all galaxies with gas and one or more ILRs should form nuclear rings.

Another theory is that nuclear rings form in the central regions of barred galaxies because the torque from the large scale bar weakens near the center of the bar (Shlosman, Begelman, & Frank, 1990). The overall potential becomes less bar-like as the influence of the more axisymmetric bulge begins to dominate the disk potential containing the bar perturbation. This theory claims that ring-like gas distributions result at the positions of resonances because at the resonances no net gravitational torques are applied to the gas.

An alternative explanation to nuclear rings being a feature of the bar and the gravitational potential is that they are the remnants of a nuclear starburst (Kenney, Carlstrom, & Young, 1993). Because the surface density of gas is higher in the central regions of nuclear starbursts and the star formation rate is proportional to the gas surface density to a power greater than one, the expectation is that this region would use up its fuel faster, leaving the nuclear ring as a remnant.

These various theories of ring formation have been explored primarily using numerical simulations of gas flow in barred galaxies. The majority of these simulations used a ballistic cloud or sticky particle model of the interstellar medium (ISM) and a fixed gravitational potential (Schwarz, 1981, 1984; Combes & Gerin, 1985; Byrd et al., 1994; Rautiainen & Salo, 2000). This type of modeling of the ISM has the advantage of low numerical viscosity and relatively high spatial resolution. The low viscosity allows the rings to form in the simulations without being quickly driven to the center of the galaxy by the lost angular momentum due to numerical viscosity (a problem which plagued early grid-based methods). It has the disadvantage of its rather ad hoc modeling of the ISM as a collection of a low number of collisional particles rather than as a gas. While these studies investigated all types of rings (outer, inner, and nuclear), they all associated the formation of nuclear rings with the existence of an ILR. Even so, Rautiainen & Salo (2000) found evidence that more than just an ILR is required to form a nuclear ring when strong bars in their simulations did not form rings.

The first study to use a grid-based ideal gas hydrodynamic model of the ISM that was able to form a nuclear ring was by Piner, Stone, & Teuben (1995). The problem of numerical viscosity was solved by using higher order solutions to the hydrodynamic equations, which became practical with faster processors; the numerical viscosity in this simulation was too low to be measured. The needed spatial resolution was obtained by switching to a cylindrical coordinate system, which allowed more resolution than a Cartesian grid in the nuclear region where the rings form. Note that subsequent hydrodynamic models with higher resolution Cartesian grids have also been able to create nuclear rings (van Albada 1996, private communications). From their hydrodynamic simulations, they predicted where nuclear rings would form and how strong they would be. First, they claimed that the higher the peak of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ curve is above the pattern speed of the bar, the stronger the ring will be. They also claimed that the ring will form at the radius that corresponds to the peak of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ curve. Even so, these predictions are based on models of only a few different potentials. In an additional study that explored more parameter space using the same code, Sheth et al. (2000) found that the ring did not always form at the location of the peak of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ curve but that the radius of the nuclear ring was proportional to the radius of the outer ILR.

The diversity and inconsistencies of theories, all of which lack a firm quantitative theoretical foundation for why and where nuclear rings form, led us to investigate the formation of nuclear rings in more detail. One piece of evidence for the formation was already provided by Athanassoula (1992b) who showed that the existence of offset bar dust lanes is related to the existence of stable stellar bar orbits whose major axis is perpendicular to the major axis of the bar (x2 orbits in the nomenclature of Contopoulos & Papayannopoulos (1980)). Because nuclear rings in all of the hydrodynamic and sticky particle models almost always have offset dust lanes, we would expect there to be a similar relationship between x2 orbits and nuclear rings. To show the relationship between the major families of bar orbits we plot a subset of the orbits in each family in Figure 1. The fact that gas trapped near these x2 orbits cannot co-exist at radii where there is gas on the orbits elongated parallel to the bar major axis (x1) led us to investigate the relationship between x2 orbits and nuclear rings. We find that, rather than the existence of an ILR causing nuclear rings to form, the existence of x2 orbits is the true cause of nuclear rings. Only when a threshold fraction of phase space is occupied by x2 orbits do rings form, and they initially form at the radius of the x2 orbit with the largest extent along the bar major axis.

## 2 Hydrodynamic Modeling of Ring Formation

We have chosen to simulate the ISM using a hydrodynamic model because it provides a better match to kinematic observations of the gas in barred spiral galaxies than the sticky particle model (Regan, Vogel, & Teuben, 1997; Regan, Sheth, & Vogel, 1999). Past hydrodynamic studies investigating the gas flow in a barred potential have either explored a large region of parameter space but with poor resolution in the nuclear region (Athanassoula, 1992b) or simulated only a few potentials with high spatial resolution (Piner, Stone, & Teuben, 1995). To disentangle the various possible characteristics of a barred potential, some of which are not orthogonal, that affect nuclear ring formation requires a large range of parameter space to be explored. In addition, relatively high spatial resolution is needed to resolve the nuclear rings which can have widths measured in tens of parsecs. To investigate this parameter space we ran a series of two-dimensional high resolution hydrodynamic models using the code of Piner, Stone, & Teuben (1995). The only change to the hydrodynamic code was to check the gas surface density in each cell at every time step, and if it fell below a threshold ($`10^6`$ M$`_{\mathrm{}}`$ pc-2), mass was added to bring it back up to that threshold. This change was needed to prevent floating point underflows for some of the strong bar potentials. The net mass added to the simulation is not significant, and the actual minimum gas surface density of the ISM in the central regions of galaxies is probably much higher.

The potential that was used was the same one as that used by Athanassoula (1992a) and Piner, Stone, & Teuben (1995). The potential is made up of three parts: a disk, a bulge, and a bar. The disk is a Kuzmin-Toomre disk (Kuzmin, 1956; Toomre, 1963) with a surface density of

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }(r)=(v_0^2/2\pi Gr_0)(1+r^2/r_0^2)^{3/2}$$
(1)
where v0 = 200 km s-1 and r0=14.1 kpc. The bulge has a volume density of

$$\rho (r)=\rho _b(1+r^2/r_b^2)^{3/2}$$
(2)
where $`\rho _b`$ is the central density of the bulge and rb is the scale length of the bulge. The bar is modeled as a Ferrers ellipsoid along the y axis with a volume density of

$$\rho (g)=\{\begin{array}{cc}\rho _0(1g^2)\text{ for }g<1\hfill & \\ 0\text{elsewhere}\hfill & \end{array}$$
(3)
where $`\rho _0`$ is the central density of the bar, $`g^2=y^2/a^2+x^2/b^2`$ and $`x`$ and $`y`$ are the Cartesian coordinates. By holding the total mass inside of 10 kpc constant, the potential can be described by four free parameters: the corotation radius, the axis ratio of the bar, the quadrupole moment of the bar, and the central concentration (Piner, Stone, & Teuben, 1995). To limit the exploration of parameter space to the fast bars that create offset dust lanes (Athanassoula, 1992b), we have set the corotation radius to be 1.2 times the radius of the bar; for these simulations we have held the bar radius fixed at 5 kpc.

Fixing the corotation radius leaves us with three free parameters which we explored through all combinations. We used five values for the bar axis ratio: 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, and 3.5. For the central concentration we used six different values: (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5) x 1010 M kpc-3. For the bar quadrupole moment we used (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10, 12.5) x 1010 M kpc2. All combinations of these three parameters yields 150 unique potentials but 12 of these potentials are not physical. These non-physical potentials result for the cases with a bar axis ratio of 1.5 and bar quadrupole moments of 10 and 12.5 x 1010 M kpc2. These cases require more mass in the bar than there is in the entire disk. Therefore, these 12 cases were not run leaving 138 unique potentials.

All the hydrodynamic simulations were run at what Piner, Stone, & Teuben (1995) termed high resolution. At this resolution there are 251 radial zones and 154 angular zones in one-half of the bar. At the inner boundary of the simulation (r=100 pc) the zones are 2x2 pc and at the end of the bar they are 100x100 pc. The bar was slowly added into the potential over the initial 100 Myr of the simulation to minimize transient effects. In Figures 2-6 we show the gas surface densities as gray scales for the inner 5 kpc at a time of 250 Myr. The reason for showing these surface densities at this relatively early time is explained in §3.1 below.

For the case of the bar axis ratio equal to 1.5, we find that the central morphology looks more like tightly wound spiral arms rather than a nuclear ring. This is because the density in the ring shows a large variation with azimuth. The density is highest at the end of the bar dust lanes along the bar minor axis, while along the bar major axis the ring becomes very diffuse.

The rings that form when the bar axis ratio is larger than 1.5 have a more constant density as a function of azimuth. For these higher axis ratios the galaxy does not always form a ring. The overall pattern of the simulations is that nuclear rings are easier to form when the bar axis ratio is smaller. In addition, increasing central mass concentration seems to favor nuclear ring formation. In contrast, increasing the bar quadrupole moment seems to inhibit nuclear ring formation.

## 3 Nuclear Rings and Inner Lindblad Resonances

We can use the hydrodynamic simulations to test some of the theories for the formation of nuclear rings. In particular, the results of the simulations allow us to investigate the relationship between ILRs and nuclear rings.

### 3.1 The Time Evolution of the Radii of Nuclear Rings

If, as is the expected understanding, nuclear rings are related to a resonance, then in our simulations the radius of the ring would remain constant with time. This is because our potentials do not change with time, keeping the locations of any resonances constant. In fact, our simulations show the ring migrating inward with time. To show this, we let one of our simulations run 2 Gyr and at every 10 Myr we take a snapshot of the density in the disk. We then average the densities at each radius and plot the average density at each radius as a function of time in Figure 7. From the initially smooth density distribution the ring forms at a radius of around 0.5 - 0.7 kpc. As the simulation evolves, the radius of the ring decreases until after about 1 Gyr it is in the range of 0.2 - 0.3 kpc. This decrease of the radius of the nuclear ring with time has been seen in other simulations (Piner, Stone, & Teuben, 1995; Rautiainen & Salo, 2000). Piner, Stone, & Teuben (1995) claimed that the ring evolved inward until it was at the peak of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-$`\kappa `$/2 curve but this was based on only one simulation. Rautiainen & Salo (2000) were concerned that this decrease in the ring radius was a problem with the sticky particle method in a high density environment. In our simulations all of the rings migrate inward with time showing that this phenomenon is neither a special case nor a numerical simulation problem.

This change of the ring radius with time implies that one cannot use the radius of a nuclear ring to infer anything about the rotation curve. This means that an observation of the radius of a ring does not tell you where resonances or other features of the rotation curve are located. The migration also provides evidence that the ring is not in an equilibrium state. Instead something happens with time that forces the ring inward.

The inward migration of the ring is caused by gas flowing down the dust lane on x1-like streamlines (Regan, Vogel, & Teuben, 1997). This is shown in Figure 8 where we modified the hydrodynamic simulation to lower the surface density of gas at all radii greater than 1 kpc to be less than 1$`\times 10^5`$M$`_{\mathrm{}}`$pc-2 after 300 Myr. We waited for 300 Myr to let the ring form, and then, by lowering the density outside of the nuclear region, we cutoff the inflow of gas. Figure 8 reveals that the radius of the ring remains constant for 1.7 Gyr when there is no addition of gas to the ring. This constant radius with time also rules out numerical viscosity as the cause of the inward migration.

The inward migration of the ring is the reason why we show the gas density at 250 Myr in Figures 2-6. If we had shown the gas density at some later time when the gas flow has settled down more, the rings would have evolved to smaller radii. Note that this inward migration of the rings means that the gas flow and morphology never reach a steady state.

### 3.2 ILRs and Nuclear Rings

If nuclear rings form as the result of an interaction with the ILR then one would expect a relationship between the existence and radii of the ILRs and the existence and radii of nuclear rings. In Figures 9-13 we overlay on the gas densities from the hydrodynamic simulations the radii of what are commonly referred to as the inner ILR and the outer ILR. We have calculated these radii using the average radius of the ILRs found from “rotation curves” along the bar major and minor axes. We find only a weak relationship between the radii and existence of nuclear rings and the radii and existence of ILRs.

If nuclear rings form due to a resonance at the ILR, then potentials with ILRs should have nuclear rings. In fact, we find that ILRs *do* exist for almost all of the potentials that do *not* have nuclear rings. Although there are double ILRs in 136 out of the 138 potentials, we find nuclear rings in only 72 of the potentials. The existence of ILRs and rings does seem to follow the same general trend in that both seem to avoid potentials with large bar quadrupole moments and small central mass concentrations. However, the predicted ILRs exist over a much larger region of parameter space than the rings.

When a nuclear ring does form there is only a weak relationship between the radii of the two ILRs and the radius of the ring. Although when rings form they are always between the two ILRs, the radius of the ring relative to the two ILRs changes in the different potentials. There is a general trend that as the bar quadrupole moment increases the ring radius becomes smaller relative to the ILRs. The relative ring radii range from the case with the smallest nuclear ring (a/b =3.0, Qm= 10, $`\rho _{cen}`$=3.5, run 114), where the nuclear ring radius is only slightly larger than the IILR, to elliptical rings which extend out along the bar minor axis to $``$90% of the OILR radius ($``$3 times the IILR radius, a/b =1.5, Qm= 2.5, $`\rho _{cen}`$=2.0, run 3). This variation of the ring radius relative to the IILR is not consistent with the predictions of Buta & Combes (1996) that the nuclear ring forms near the IILR.

## 4 X$`2`$ Orbits and Nuclear Rings

### 4.1 X2 Orbit Extent

Given the strong relationship between offset bar dust lanes and the existence of x2 orbits (Athanassoula, 1992b), and the fact that these dust lanes intersect nuclear rings at the bar minor axis (Figures 2-6), we decided to investigate the relationship between nuclear rings and x2 orbits. We find that, unlike ILRs, the radii and existence of x2 orbits are strongly related to the radii and existence of nuclear rings.

For each of the 138 potentials we determined the existence and extent of the periodic x2 orbits. Periodic x2 orbits do not exist in all barred galaxies and when they do exist they have a limited range of radii over which they extend. To find the x2 orbit family for each potential we began by searching for the x2 orbit with the smallest energy. An x2 orbit was defined as an orbit with an axis ratio of less than 0.97; this criterium was found to uniquely identify x2 orbits in surfaces of section of both x1 and x2 orbits. If an x2 orbit was found, it would be the one with the smallest radius. Using this orbit as a starting point we used the PERORB routine of NEMO (Teuben, 1995) to find all the periodic orbits in the family. An example of an x2 orbit family is shown in Figure 1.

In Figures 9-13 we overlay on the gas surface density from the hydrodynamic simulations three x2 orbits: the orbit with the largest extent on the bar minor axis, the orbit with the largest extent on the bar major axis, and the orbit with the smallest extent on the bar minor axis. There is an excellent correlation between the x2 orbit with the largest extent along the bar major axis and the radius of the nuclear ring. In all cases when there are no x2 orbits, nuclear rings do not form. The overall pattern that emerges from the combination of x2 orbits and hydrodynamic simulations is that the nuclear ring initially forms at the location of the x2 orbit with the largest extent along the major axis of the bar. In some cases where the ring is not circular it extends further along the minor axis, but it never has the axis ratio of the most elliptical of the x2 orbits. Therefore, the nuclear ring is forming at the interface of the x1 and x2 gas at the largest radius that x2 orbits can exist without crossing other x2 orbits.

In weak bars, van Albada & Sanders (1982) have shown that x2 orbits exist at radii where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b<\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b`$ is the bar pattern speed, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular frequency of a circular orbit, and $`\kappa `$ is the radial epicyclic frequency. Our simulations also show that this is true for weak bars. Hereafter, we will refer to the radius where the above equation predicts the smallest radius x2 orbit as the Inner Epicyclic x2 Radius (IEX2R) and the radius where the above equation predicts the largest x2 radius as the Outer Epicyclic x2 Radius (OEX2R). Note that we prefer this new nomenclature rather than the standard IILR and OILR due to the arguments in §5.4. Therefore, the blue circles in Figures 9-13 are really the locations of the IEX2R and the OEX2R rather than the IILR and OILR. Figures 9-13 show that for cases where the bar axis ratio is not large (a/b = 1.5 or 2.0), the x2 orbit with the largest extent along the bar minor axis extends out to the OEX2R. This approximation breaks down as the bar axis ratio and quadrupole moment increase. Also, in many cases with large quadrupole moments and low central mass concentrations there is a region where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b<\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ but no x2 orbits exist.

There do exist cases at the boundary between no nuclear ring and clear rings at almost all values of the bar axis ratio where there are x2 orbits but nuclear rings do not form. In these cases Figures 9 \- 13 provide evidence that there are relatively few x2 orbits. This can been seen by the small difference between the smallest radius of x2 orbits and the largest radius. This implies that not enough gas can exist on these x2 orbits to prevent the gas on x1 orbits from flowing right through the x2 region.

To better quantify the minimum amount of x2 orbits needed for a nuclear ring to form we have calculated for each potential the relative amount of phase space that can be occupied by x2 and x1 orbits. We find that although x2 orbits must exist for there to be a nuclear ring, if the available phase space for x2 orbits is not large enough nuclear rings do not form. For each energy where a x2 orbit exists we found the non-closed x2 orbit that occupied the largest area in the surface of section. All other x2 orbits lie within this region of the surface of section, while the x1 orbits occupy the rest of the surface of section. We then normalized this area by dividing it by the total area of the surface of section for this energy. We then summed this unit-less relative area of x2 orbits over all energies at which x2 orbits exist. The resulting sum has the units of the energy step size over which the sum was taken or 2000 (km s-1)2. The final sums are printed in the upper left of each panel in Figures 9 -13. We see that the threshold for the formation of nuclear rings is approximately 0.7 to 0.9 (2000 km s-1)2 of total phase space volume.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Why do Nuclear Rings form?

Figures 9-13 show the strong relationship between the x2 orbits and nuclear rings. But what is the reason that nuclear rings form? There are several pieces of evidence that the rings form due to the dynamic interaction of gas on x1-like streamlines and gas on x2-like streamlines.

The closed orbit families shown in Figure 1 were for stars where the crossing of x1 and x2 orbits does not cause collisions due to the low probability that two stars will actually be at the intersection of their orbits at the same time. But gas cannot exist on both x1-like streamlines and x2-like streamlines that intersect. Therefore, when x2 orbits exist, gas can only be on either the x1-like streamlines or the x2-like streamlines in the region where both are stable. The simulations show that when enough phase space exists for the x2 orbits, the gas will settle on the x2 orbits. The settling onto x2 orbits is consistent with the empirical rule of van Albada & Sanders (1982) that gas is trapped on the orbit that is most nearly circular; in this region of barred galaxies this is the x2 orbit. The most likely reason for this is that at any given radius the x2 orbit always has lower energy than the x1 orbit (Athanassoula, 1992a). Even so, clearly this is not a simple equilibrium situation.

The fact that the ring is not in an equilibrium state was shown by Figure 7 where the radius of the ring decreases with time. In addition, the simulations show that gas is accumulating in the ring as time progresses because gas is flowing down the bar dust lanes along x1-like streamlines (Regan, Vogel, & Teuben, 1997). It is either the accumulation of this low specific angular momentum gas in the ring or the dissipation at the contact point of the inflowing gas and the nuclear ring that causes the radius of the ring to decrease with time. For example, for the simulation shown in Figure 7 the angular momentum inside of 1 kpc increases by only 12% from 300 Myr to 2 Gyr. But the mass inside of 1 kpc increases by a factor of 3.3. Also, the requirement that there must be a threshold amount of phase space of x2 orbits for a nuclear ring to form implies that, below this threshold, gas on x1 orbits can prevent the ring from forming.

Figure 7 also shows that the inward migration slows dramaticly when the ring reaches the major axis of the smallest x2 orbit at around 1 Gyr. After that the ring begins to extend over a larger range in radius and seems to oscillate as the radius of the ring approaches the inner radius of x2 orbits.

Even though the lack of star formation in the models leads to the mass of the ring increasing with time, the rate at which the model rings accumulate gas ($``$1 M yr-1) is approximately the same as the rate of star formation seen in nuclear rings (Maoz et al., 2001). Even so, the net decrease of the specific angular momentum of the gas in nuclear rings of real galaxies would still cause the radius of rings to decrease with time. This implies that the lifetime of the ring is inversely related to rate of mass inflow into the ring. Therefore, early Hubble type galaxies with low net inflows of gas may have longer lived rings than later Hubble types due to less gas being available to flow into the ring.

### 5.2 The Kinematics of the Gas and Stars in Nuclear Rings

Because the gas in nuclear rings is being confined there due to the interaction between gas on x1-like streamlines exterior to the ring and x2-like streamlines interior to the ring, it is not in a simple stable orbit. To show the kinematics of the gas in the nuclear ring, in Figure 14 we plot the radial and tangential velocity along the major and minor axes of the bar for run 100. The figure shows that along the major axis of the bar, kinematics do not show any strong transition at the nuclear ring. This can also be seen morphologically in many of the simulations where the outer boundary of the ring is diffuse along the bar major axis. On the other hand, on the bar minor axis the kinematics are strongly affected by the nuclear ring. The radial velocity changes from +40 km s-1 to -70 km s-1 from the inner to the outer edge of the ring. The tangential velocity shows an even stronger effect when it quickly changes from 170 km s-1 interior to the ring to 370 km s-1 exterior to the ring.

Because stars, unlike the gas, are not affected by pressure forces, stars formed in nuclear rings with the initial velocities of the gas will not stay in the nuclear ring. In Figure 15 we plot the initial orbits of stars that form at either the bar major axis or the bar minor axis. In both cases the stellar orbits diverge from the nuclear ring to the outside after about one-fourth of a rotation. This divergence occurs over a period of 10 Myr which is well within the lifetime of an HII region.

### 5.3 Comparison to Observations

The model long slit spectra shown in Figure 14 reveal that the optimum observations to test these simulations would be to observe gas kinematics along the minor axis of the bar. It would be best to have the bar minor axis align with either the major or minor axes of the galaxy to simplify the interpretation. The strongest signature is in the tangential velocity so the optimum galaxy would have the minor axis of the bar along the major axis of the galaxy. The spatial resolution needs to be high enough to prevent beam smearing from destroying the signal ($``$100 pc).

Our prediction of the young stars migrating to the exterior of the gas in the nuclear ring is consistent with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of nuclear rings. In NGC 1512, NGC 5248 (Maoz et al., 2001), and NGC 4314 (Benedict et al., 2002), the dust ring is interior to the clumps of star formation. Combes et al. (1992) also reported that the CO ring in NGC 4314 is interior to the radio continuum ring. Although they attributed this to the ring shrinking with time, our models show that even without shrinking the star formation should be exterior to the gas. In addition, in a large survey of Seyfert and quiescent galaxies using HST optical and near infrared observations Martini et al. (2002) found seven nuclear ring galaxies, all of which show the star formation exterior to the dust.

The fact that young stars are seen exterior to the rings of dust and gas in almost all the observations of nuclear rings is strong evidence against the theory that nuclear rings are the remnant of a nuclear starburst (Kenney, Carlstrom, & Young, 1993). If this theory were correct, then the star formation would be seen interior to the dust and gas. This is because the starburst would have started in the nucleus and proceeded to larger radii. Therefore, the unconsumed gas would always be at larger radii that the current star formation.

### 5.4 Inner Lindblad Resonances in Bars

When Lindblad developed the theory of resonances in a rotating disk he was working on spiral arm theory (Lindblad, 1964). The spiral potential is a small perturbation to the underlying axisymmetric potential and, thus, the orbits are all nearly circular and, except at resonances, are not closed in the reference frame of the rotating potential. Over time this approximation has been expanded to extend to strong bars where: there exist orbit families that are closed over a large range of radii (x1 and x2), the radial excursions from a circular orbit are a relatively large fraction of the radius, and the perturbation to the underlying axisymmetric potential is large. In this regime the concept of an ILR does not apply.

For spiral arms the orbits are all nearly circular with an azimuthal frequency of a circular orbit, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. A particle on a circular orbit that undergoes a small perturbation in a potential that is nearly axisymmetric will oscillate radially around the circular orbit center with a frequency of $`\kappa `$. When $`\mathrm{\Omega }\pm \kappa /n`$ is equal to the pattern speed of the potential, where n is some integer, there is a resonance and the orbits will be closed in the rotating reference frame of the potential. The resonance is known as an inner Lindblad resonance when $`\mathrm{\Omega }\kappa /2`$ equals the pattern speed of the potential. Both $`\kappa `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ vary as a function of the radius based on the rotation curve. At the radius where the conditions for the ILR are met, a test particle will exhibit exactly two radial oscillations per orbit in a reference frame rotating with the potential. It will, therefore, form a closed orbit in the rotating reference frame and it will be in the same location relative to the potential after each orbit. Thus, it will be in an assumed unstable resonance with the potential.

It is important to look at the concept of the ILR relative to the families of closed bar orbits. Under the definition of an ILR that the test particle will perform two radial oscillations during each orbit, both the x1 and x2 orbits are in an ILR-like resonance because all the orbits in both families perform two radial oscillations per orbit. If one looks at the set of x1 orbits that exist in a bar and overlays the first order approximation of the ILR radii (Figure 16 lower panel), it is clear that the x1 orbits are unaffected by the “resonance”. On the other hand, Figure 16 (upper panel) shows that the OEX1R (OILR) is a rough approximation of the largest extent of x2 orbits along the minor axis of the bar.

If ILRs do not apply to strong bars, why are they invoked so often to explain the formation of nuclear rings? Early work on bar orbits started with the assumption that the bar perturbation was small relative to the axisymmetric component (Contopoulos & Mertzanides, 1977). In this case, the x2 family of orbits does extend from the IEX2R (IILR) to the OEX2R (OILR). Over time, this approximation has been extended to stronger bars where it does not apply. For a weak bar, our results are consistent with Contopoulos & Mertzanides (1977); Figure 9 shows that the x2 orbit extents and the IEX2R (IILR) and OEX2R (OILR) match well for weak bars. However, it is important to remember that the axisymmetric locations of ILRs in strong bars are not really resonances but merely an approximation of the radii where x2 orbits become stable. From Figures 10-13 it is also clear that this approximation breaks down for strong bars and/or thin bars. This breakdown in the approximation is well known (van Albada & Sanders, 1982; Contopoulos & Grosbol, 1989; Athanassoula, 1992a), but many authors who do not directly work on bar orbits seem to be unaware of it. The general misunderstanding arises when authors assume that the bar ILRs are resonances in the sense that something unstable happens at these radii. That is clearly not the case, and, for strong bars, the radii of the predicted ILRs are meaningless. Thus, we prefer to refer to the epicyclic predictions of x2 orbital extents rather than the ILRs.

In summary, for a strong bar the inner Lindblad resonance does not exist since there is no resonance with the rotating potential at this radius. In fact, the entire x1 and x2 orbit families are in resonance with the potential over their entire extent. Although the axisymmetric epicyclic predictions of x2 orbit extent (IEX2R and OEX2R) provide a good estimate of the radial extent of the x2 orbits for weak bars, this approximation breaks down for strong or thin bars.

## 6 Conclusions

We have shown that nuclear rings result from the interaction of gas on x1-like and x2-like streamlines. These rings only occur when a threshold amount of phase space is occupied by x2 orbits. The initial radius of the nuclear ring is at the radius of the x2 orbit with the greatest extent along the bar major axis. In general, we find that potentials with low quadrupole moments and strong central concentrations favor nuclear ring formation.

We have shown the radius of nuclear rings decreases with time either because the rings accumulate lower specific angular momentum gas or because of dissipation at the contact point of the bar dust lane and the nuclear ring. This decrease of the ring radius with time shows that the nuclear ring is not in equilibrium. Over a Hubble time, nuclear rings could have disappeared in some galaxies. This also implies that galaxies with low accretion rates of material onto their nuclear rings may have longer lived rings. Also, because there are a range of radii over which a ring could be observed for a given potential, one cannot directly relate the radius of the ring to any feature of the rotation curve.

We have also shown that the standard assumption that nuclear rings are related to inner Lindblad resonances is based on the approximation that the radial extent of the x2 orbit family is from the IILR to the OILR. We have shown that a better name for these radii is the inner epicyclic x2 radius (IEX2R) and the outer epicyclic x2 radius (OEX2R). This epicyclic approximation breaks down for strong or thin bars. In addition, we have shown that the ILR is not a resonance at all in barred galaxies. No resonance occurs at these radii; instead, confusion has developed between the orbit family transition that occurs at these radii in weak bars and a true resonance.

From the gas kinematics in the models, we have predicted the orbits of stars that form in the nuclear rings. We have also compared these predictions with Hubble Space Telescope observations of star forming nuclear rings and shown that in all cases the star forming regions are exterior to the nuclear rings of dust and gas as our simulations predict.

The authors would like to thank Glen Piner and Jim Stone for providing the hydrodynamic simulation program that we used in this paper. The authors also would like to thank the anonymous referee for comments that improved the paper.