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# HIGH ENERGY EMISSION FROM GALACTIC BLACK HOLE SYSTEMS

## 1 Black Holes in Accreting Binary Systems

Our Galaxy probably hosts a large number of black holes (BH) of stellar mass sizes. Black holes, by definition, are difficult to observe, unless they are associated to a normal star in a close binary system. When in such a binary system transfer of matter occurs from the companion star to the black hole, the system may become a powerful source of X-rays. In the last 12 years (1990-2002) our knowledge of galactic black hole binary systems has increased enormously thanks to the large amount of results obtained in the standard X-ray band with Ginga, Rosat, ASCA, and now Chandra and XMM-Newton, and in the hard X-ray and gamma-ray range with SIGMA/GRANAT, Compton-GRO, Beppo-SAX and Rossi-XTE. Observations have shown that X-ray sources which seem associated to black holes in binary systems are very hard sources and infact often appear the brightest objects at energies between 10 keV - 1 MeV. They are also often observed to emit radiowaves and some of them, the so called microquasars, have been associated to radio-jet sources (Mirabel $`\&`$ Rodriguez 1999).

These systems are powered by accretion of matter provided by the companion star, which releases, by falling into the deep potential well of the hole, gravitational energy in form of high energy radiation. These systems are classified as high mass X-ray binaries (HMXB), when the star is young, massive ($`>`$ 1 M), of early spectral type (O, B), or as low mass binaries (LMXB), when the secondary is old, of low mass ($`<`$ 1 M), and of late spectral type (later than A). HMXB are generally large systems with orbital periods Po $`>`$ 5 days and the accretion usually occurs by the capture of the material from the strong stellar wind of the companion. It is not always clear whether a disk forms. In the small, low period LMXB (Po $``$ few hr - 10 days), instead, the secondary fills the Roche lobe and matter is accreted with large angular momentum, often through an accretion disk.

All these objects are variable but some are visible most of the time (persistent sources) while others rather spend most of their life in a quiescence state, where they are very faint and even undetectable (transient sources). Obviously the classification depends slightly on the level of instrument sensitivity and the boundary between persistent and transient systems is somehow arbitrary. Some transients may reach a state where they are active for long time displaying erratic flux variability (e.g. GRS 1915+105) and some persistent sources may pass large period in very low states (e.g. GRS 1758-258, GX 339-4).

Transients are particularly interesting because during their quiescence period, their mass function can be measured in detail. Optical and infrared (IR) spectro-fotometry observations of binary systems in suitable conditions can provide radial velocity measures of the secondary orbital motion, which allows determination of the mass function of the system. We presently know 14 binary systems in our Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds, whose compact object mass has been determined (or constrained) and results larger than 3 M, the theoretical mass limit of a stable neutron star (NS), implying the presence of a black hole. Out of these dynamically proven BH, 3 are HMXB, the persistent sources Cyg X$``$1, LMC X-1, LMC X-3, the rest are all X-ray Novae. X-Ray Novae (XN), also known as Soft X-ray Transients, are LMXB normally in quiescence state, which undergo sudden few-month-long X-ray outbursts with typical recurrent times of few tens of years (Tanaka $`\&`$ Shibazaki 96). After the flare the systems generally return to the quiescence phase, the disk contribution to optical and IR emisson is reduced and the companion (identified during the outburst) can be studied in detail. That is why many XN have known mass functions and most of them are found to harbour a black hole as primary compact object. The most recent determination of a GBH mass is the one for GRS 1915+105 the first discovered superluminal microquasar, which contains the most massive BH ($``$ 14 M) of the known GBH (Greiner et al. 2001).

When the mass function cannot be determined, X-ray sources can be identified as BH candidate systems on the basis of their X-ray and gamma-ray spectral and variability properties. In particular the lack of distinctive signs of NS system variability (coherent pulsation, type I and II X-ray bursts) and the presence of a strong hard spectral component extending in the range $`>`$ 30 keV (plus signs of fast variability and variable ultrasoft component) are used to search for BH candidates. Several X-ray sources identified as BH candidates using a spectral criterium were later confirmed as BH systems from mass function measures. About 15 sources are considered today on these basis very serious BH candidates. Three of them are persistent sources, the variable source GX 339-4 and the two microquasars of the Galactic Center region 1E 1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258, probably LMXB for which no optical counterpart has been found. The others are member of the X-ray novae class.

## 2 High Energy Spectra of GBH

The prototype of the GBH class is the persistent, very bright and well known source Cyg X$``$1. It is a HMXB with a Po of 5.6 days, a O9.7 Iab companion and an estimated BH mass of more than 6 M. Accretion takes place via the focused stellar wind of the supergiant, generating intense and variable X-ray emission. After its discovery it was remarked that its peculiar spectrum extending in the hard X-ray range with a rather flat power law slope (photon index $`\alpha `$ 1.5-2.0) and an exponential decay at energies $`>`$ 50-100 keV, was remarkably different from the spectra of neutron star binary systems, and could not be explained by thermal models, in particular by those describing optically thick disks. This emission is generally interpreted as due to repeated inverse Compton scattering (Comptonization) of soft photons by the thermal energetic electrons of a hot (kT $``$ 50-100 keV) cloud (or corona) with typical scattering optical depth $`\tau `$ 1. Sunyaev $`\&`$ Titarchuk (1980) described the emergent spectrum in the approximation of $`\tau >`$ 1 and kT$`<<`$ mc2, while later Titarchuck (1994) provided analytical expressions for relativistic case and larger range of kT and $`\tau `$. Observations by ART-P and SIGMA/GRANAT of Cyg X$``$1 spectrum in the range 3-300 keV indeed showed the limitation of the Sunyaev $`\&`$ Titarchuk (1980) approximation (Grebenev et al. 1993) but the data could still be fitted with more realistic approximations of the Comptonization model.

Cyg X$``$1 also occasionally shows a different spectrum which is dominated by a strong ultrasoft thermal component which peaks at energies $`<`$ 1-2 keV and which is generally interpreted as the multicolor black body emission from a geometrically thin and optically thick disk as described by Shakura $`\&`$ Sunyaev (1973). In this spectral state, the power law component is much weaker and steeper ($`\alpha `$ 2.5-3.0) and in some cases absent. In general the variable soft component is found to be anticorrelated to the hard component.

The standard interpretation of these spectra is that the seed photons of the Comptonization come from the disk and, when the accretion rate increases, the emission from the disk also increases, generating the soft thermal component. The large soft photon flux cools down by Compton scattering the hot cloud and quenches the hard component. In the last ten years these two different spectra have been observed in many other BH systems (e.g. Grebenev et al. 1993, Grove et al. 1998, Fig. 1) and infact detection of these two spectral components can be used to identify accreting binaries which probably contain a BH rather than a NS. In spite of the fact that NS binaries show occasionally hard tails or soft components, in general we now know how to recognize BH from from their high energy spectra. The large amount of data collected from these sources have also allowed to characterize their spectral/variability states and the open questions now concern the physical origin and transitions of these states.

## 3 Black Hole Spectral States, State Transitions and Fast Variability

Five canonical states have been identified in BH binaries: the Very High State (VHS), High/Soft State (HS), Intermediate State (IS), Low/Hard State (LS) and Quiescence State (van der Klis 1995, Mendez et al. 1999). These states are characterized by different combination of the ultra-soft, hard and reflection (continuum excess, fluorescence lines and K-edge) components (Fig. 2 left) coupled to different properties of variability and QPOs (Fig. 2 right). The HS is characterized by the strong ultra-soft thermal component along with a very weak and steep (or even absent) power-law extending to high energies. The spectrum of the LS is instead dominated by the hard power law with exponential cut-off as described above. The VHS resembles the HS where the hard component, though steep, is bright (Fig. 1 right) and it extends to high energies without evidence of clear exponential break up to $`>`$ 200-300 keV. The IS is similar to the VHS (both soft and hard component are present) but with a much lower level of emission. Quiescent state is observed in XNs and it is characterized by a very low luminosity ($`<`$ 1033 erg s-1).

During this phase, material is transferred from the companion at a very low rate and it is stored in a low-viscosity accretion disk, without effective accretion into the compact object. The XN outburst is probably initiated by a thermal instability which suddenly produces the fall of the matter accumulated into the disk during quiescence. The effective accretion rate rises to a maximum in few days and decreases over several weeks (often with exponential law) spanning several orders of magnitudes. Thus XN experience different accretion rates and they are often seen over a period of a month or two, to display the different GBH states described above. At the onset of a XN outburst the hard X-rays usually reach the maximum first and then the soft-component develops, the XN enters the very high state, the high/soft state and tends to evolve into the intermediate and the low/hard states before entering again the quiescence phase. The sequence of states seems driven by the accretion rate variation. However, this pattern is not always followed, for example some, even very bright, X-ray Novae have been observed throughout the whole outburst in low/hard state only (e.g. GRO J0422+32 and GRS 1716-249, Fig. 1).

In addition to long term variations, GBH also show rapid aperiodic variability on timescales from several hundred seconds down to milliseconds. BH spectral states are also associated to the specific properties of the fast variability, which is generally described by the power spectral density (PSD) (Fig. 2 right) (van der Klis 1995). In the HS the GBH PSD show a large level of variability (20-35 $`\%`$ rms), with flat slope (red noise) at low frequencies up to a break frequency $`\nu _B`$ ($``$ 0.1-1 Hz) and with a power-law slope of index $``$1 (flickering) at higher $`\nu `$. In the HS the level of variability is very low ($`<`$ 5$`\%`$) and the PSD has a steep power-law slope. In VHS (and IS) two kind of power spectra are observed one similar to the LS but with lower level of integrated rms ($`<`$ 15-20 $`\%`$) and with $`\nu _B>`$ 1 Hz, the other spectrum rather similar to the HS PSD. Features in the PSD, or quasi periodic oscillations (QPO), have also been detected in GBH. Broad QPOs, sometimes referred as peaked noise, are seen at low frequency ($`<`$ 1 Hz) in LHs, while strong and narrow QPO are observed between 1-10 Hz in VHS. Characteristic times ($`\nu _B`$, $`\nu _{QPO}`$) and level of noise seem to vary with source intensity, photon energies and in correlation between them. One important feature which is generally observed is that hard photons lag soft photons with typical time lags of milliseconds-seconds. While the Comptonization can explain in principle the lags, the observed dependency of the lags with frequency requires non homogeneous Comptonizing clouds. The physical link between spectral state and observed variability in BH binaries in still not understood, in spite of the remarkable progresses obtained in the recent past thanks in particular to RXTE results, and the relative succes of shot noise models to interpret the observed PSD (Poutanen et al. 2001).

## 4 Models and High Energy Tails

Different models of accretion flows have been proposed to account for the BH spectra and their state transitions (see e.g. Liang 1998). They differ mainly on the origin and geometry of the comptonizing plasma producing the hard component. One popular scenario is that the optically thick accretion disk extends down to a critical radius which depends on the accretion rate. For rates of the order of the Eddington limit the disk extends down to the marginally stable orbit, the emission from the disk is intense, peaks at energies of $``$ 1 keV and cools the inner hot cloud (HS). At low accretion rates, the disk is truncated at large radii and the plasma flow becomes geometrically thick (an internal torus or quasi-spherical cloud) hot and optically thin in the inner region. The disk emission decreases and the peak shifts towards lower energies. This hot plasma Comptonizes the disk photons and produces the hard component of the LS. Stable hydrodinamical solutions for such a hot flows have been found for low value of the accretion rate, the so called advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF) models, and they have been employed to describe BH state transitions using the mass accretion rate as basic parameter (Esin et al. 1998). The optically thick disk also reflects the hard photons and give rise to the reflection component more visible during HS but also present in LS (Gierlinski et al. 1997, 1999). The reflection component shows a hump around 30 keV, Fe fluorescence line and K-edge feature around 6-8 keV. Correlation between reflection and hard component slope, $`\nu _B`$ and presence of soft component may support the view that reflection is due to the disk view by a inner hot cloud (Gilfanov et al. 1999) and variations are linked to a change in the internal disk radius. However there is not full agreement on this correlation, the VHS does not fit very clearly in this picture as well as the fact that several XN are seen only in LS, even at high luminosities.

Alternative models propose that the hot cloud is rather a corona envelopping the disk. A uniform corona however is ruled out by the relative low level of reflection, and solutions involving patchy or evaporating coronae have been recently proposed (e.g. Malzac et al. 2002). Another model considers the two basic spectral components arising from two distinct flows, one the standard Keplerian disk the other a sub-Keplerian flow heated by shocks within the flow (e.g. at the centrifugal barrier) (Chakrabarti $`\&`$ Titarchuk 1995). In any case several important questions on geometry of the flow (hot inner cloud or corona), hydrodinamics/heating processes (viscous dissipation or magnetic reconnections) and radiation mechanisms (pure thermal or non-thermal processes) remain open (see reviews by Liang 1998, Zdziarski 2000).

Of particular relevance is the problem of the origin of the hard tail during HS or VHS, when the slope of this component is softer than during LS and does not show high energy cut off. One possibility is that the Bulk Motion Comptonization (BMC) of disk low-energy X-rays by free-falling electrons very close to the BH horizon is the dominant mechanism of this steep hard tail during HS (Laurent $`\&`$ Titarchuk 1999). BMC model predicts correctly the power-law slope but also a high-energy cut off ($`>`$ 100-300 keV) which has not been observed yet. In particular, it has been recently repoted a detailed study of all CGRO data concerning Cyg X$``$1 in HS from which it appears that the source is clearly detected in the energy bands 1-3 MeV and 3-10 MeV, with fluxes compatible with simple extension of the power-law at 10 MeV (Mc Connel et al. 2002, Fig. 3 left). A competitive model to the BMC is the hybrid thermal/non-thermal model (Zdziarski 2000) which ascribes instead this tail to emission from an additional non-thermal population of electrons.

Even if the LS hard component seems well explained by thermal Comptonization plus a reflection component, a contribution from non-thermal population has also been considered. Indeed the recent compilation of Comptel/CGRO high energy data on Cyg X$``$1 by Mc Connel et al. (2002) seems to indicate the presence of a hard component at $`>`$ 600 keV, sticking out from the thermal exponential tail, observed from the source in LS. A similar result was obtained with SIGMA and with Compton/GRO data also on the bright XN GRO J0420+32, which was in LS throughout its entire outburst (Roques et al. 1994).

A recent issue connected with the detections of high energy tails is the observed correlation of the LS hard component with radio emission interpreted as thick synchrotron radiation from the base of jets in the source. Recent multi-wavelength observations of BH X-ray binaries, as e.g. for XTE J1550-564, have shown clear presence of flat-spectrum radio emission when they are in low state with positive correlation of the intensities. This suggests a coupling between radio jets and Comptonization, and possibly contribution by the accelerated electrons to X-ray emission via inverse Compton or even synchrotron processes (Fender 2001).

## 5 High Energy Emission Features in GBH

Apart from the persistent high energy tails a number of detections of variable high energy “features” at $`>`$ 300 keV, sticking out from the simple extrapolation of the continuum emission of GBH have been reported. They obviously have attracted interest because of their possible link with electron-positron annihilation, pair plasma and non-thermal radiation processes.

The 1 MeV bump of Cyg X-1 observed with HEAO-3 (Ling et al. 1987) was the first significant report of such events. The feature appeared when Cyg X$``$1 was in its standard hard state during a low level of gamma-ray emission (the $`\gamma `$1 state). The excess was observed during 14 days in the range 400 keV - 1.5 MeV. The feature was never detected again. On the other hand it was recently reported the detection of a gamma-ray transient burst of 10 ks duration, with Ulysses and Konus-Wind from a direction compatible with the Cyg X$``$1 position (Golenetskii et al., IAUC 7840).

A broad emission feature in the 300-700 keV band was detected with the SIGMA/GRANAT telescope in automn 1990 from the hard X-ray source and microquasar 1E 1740.7-2942 (Bouchet et al. 1992). The feature was observed for 1 day at a level of $`>`$ 6 $`\sigma `$, could be fitted with a large Gaussian line, and was not compatible with a narrow 511 keV line even associated to positronium emission (Fig. 3 right). The excess was not present during the observations performed 3 days before and the day after the event. A following detection during fall 1991 at much lower significance level (4 $`\sigma `$) (Cordier et al. 1993) was not confirmed by simultaneous Compton GRO observations.

Another remarkable result obtained with the soft gamma-ray SIGMA/GRANAT telescope was the detection of a high energy variable line feature from the X-Ray Nova Muscae 1991 (GRS 1124-684), a dynamically proven BH, during its main outburst. The emission line was centered at 480 keV with flux of 6 10-3 ph cm-2 s-1 and width of 23 keV, compatible with instrument resolution (Goldwurm et al. 1992) (Fig. 4). The variable line was seen few days after the XN reached the peak of bolometric luminosity when the source was in VHS for about 20 hours. Initially interpreted as red-shifted annihilation line, many unresolved issues about the possible site of annihilation and positron production mechanism remain. The positrons could have been formed in the inner hot part of the accretion disk and then have annihilated in a colder medium, for example in the external part of the disk. However the red-shift would imply an annihilation site very close to the BH and the line should be larger due to Keplerian rotation and to higher temperatures. Moreover if the positrons are produced by $`\gamma `$-$`\gamma `$ interactions, with $`>`$ 511 keV $`\gamma `$-rays from a hot pair plasma or within a jet, an intense $`>`$ 500 keV continuum component should have also been observed. A number of models were proposed in this frame, and recently Kaiser and Hannikainen (2002), making a correlation with the radio flare which intervened few days after, proposed that the line is produced within a jet and the frequency shift is due to doppler effect.

A second feature at $``$ 200 keV seems also present in the spectrum and was interpreted as backscattering of 511 keV from the disk edge (Hua $`\&`$ Lingenfelter 1993) or as result of distorsion of the 511 keV line in a Keplerian disk around a BH (Hameury et al 1994). A different interpretation was proposed when relevant amount of Li was discovered in the secondaries of BH XN. Martin et al (1996) proposed that 478 keV line could arise from decay of excited 7Li produced in $`\alpha `$-$`\alpha `$ reactions directly or from Be decay obtained in spallation processes during the outburst. Certainly suggestive, this view encounters difficulties because this mechanism would also generate excited 7Be which would produce a line at 430 keV with similar intensity, therefore combined 478 and 430 lines would not be so narrow for NaI scintillators instruments like SIGMA. Guessoum $`\&`$ Kazanas (1999), re-discussing a scenario of Li production in hot ADAF proposed by Yi and Narayan (1997) and in general in nucleosynthesis processes in accretion flows around BH, found that Li would be depleted by proton collisions or photodissociation in the hot flow and would not provide detectable fluxes. On the other hand they investigated production of 2.223 MeV gamma-ray line from neutron capture by protons, due to the large neutron fluxes obtained in the hot accretion flows intercepting the secondary.

In any case transient high-energy emission lines of such intensities remain rare events, since neither SIGMA nor CGRO ever detected such features in other X-Ray Novae (Goldoni et al. 1999, Grove et al. 1998, Cheng et al. 1998), even if these results may be due to the non complete coverage of XN in VHS close to peak activity. Upper limits on high energy lines from GBH reported from CGRO data are of the order of 5-15 10-4 ph cm-2 s-1 for one day of data integration.

## 6 New Results and Perspectives

Other recent results obtained in particular with RXTE, Beppo-SAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton, show however that the standard picture and in particular the assumption that state transitions are driven by accretion rate changes, is not fully compatible with the data.

One new important finding of the last years was the discovery with RXTE of high frequency (60 - 450 Hz) QPO in GBH and in particular in the two superluminal microquasars GRS 1915+105 and GRO 1655-40 (Strohmayer 2001). The involved timescales imply emission site very close to the BH horizon and therefore pose strong constraints on the radiation mechanisms and possibly on BH spin and mass of the system (Greiner et al. 2001).

Observations of XN XTE 1550-564 have showns that the source changed state on timescale of days and weeks with no clear correlation with accretion rate (Homan et al. 2001). The authors conclude on this basis and other indications that at least another independent parameter, in addition to mass accretion rate, drives the state transitions in GBH systems.

Another important recent result is the detection of a peculiar low/soft state in the persistent GBH and microquasar GRS 1758-258 (Smith et al. 2001, Miller et al. 2002, Goldoni et al. 2002, Goldwurm et al. 2002) and the fact that in this source, differently than for Cyg X$``$1, the spectral changes seem correlated to flux changes rather then being correlated to intensity itself.

All these results open new questions regarding the physics involved in GBH which definitely require further studies and deeper high energy broad band observations. INTEGRAL, thanks its broad band sensitive range (3 keV - 10 MeV) large sensitivity and spectral/imaging capabilitites will provide new deep insight in the domain of the astrophysics of black hole systems. The persistent GBH and the transient GBH are indeed major target for the mission and we expect that important results will be obtained from the INTEGRAL observation program of these objects, in particular if correlated to multiwavelength observation programs involving soft X-rays, radio, optical/IR telescopes.

## References


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# The Discovery of H2O Maser Emission in Seven AGN and at High Velocities in the Circinus Galaxy

## 1 Introduction

Water maser emission ($`\lambda 1.35`$ cm in the rest frame) is known to trace warm, dense gas at radii of 0.1 to 1 pc in the accretion disks surrounding supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei (e.g., Moran, Greenhill, & Herrnstein, 1999). It can also trace material heated by jet activity (e.g., Claussen et al., 1998) and wide-angle nuclear winds (Greenhill et al., 2001). Emission from disks is visible when they are viewed close to edge-on and amplification paths are longest. Several have been mapped with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI): NGC 4258 (Miyoshi et al., 1995), NGC 1068 (Greenhill & Gwinn, 1997), and the Circinus Galaxy (Greenhill et al., 2001). “Maser disks” may also exist in IC 2560 (Ishihara et al., 2001), NGC 5793 (Hagiwara et al., 2001), and Mrk 1419 (Henkel et al., 2002), though confirmation awaits further study.

Triply peaked spectra characterize emission from accretion disks that are well populated by masers. Emission close to the systemic velocity of the host galaxies (i.e., low-velocity emission) occurs where orbital motion is transverse to the line of sight. High-velocity emission is symmetrically offset by the disk orbital velocities and arises in regions where the disk motion is parallel to the line of sight. Velocities as high as $`1100`$ km s-1 have been observed (i.e., in NGC 4258).

Water maser sources in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are important astrophysical tracers in part because VLBI can provide maps of resolved disk structure (e.g., warping) and dynamics (e.g., rotation curves and proper motions), as in Herrnstein et al. (1999). Unfortunately, only $`30`$ H2O masers are known in AGN, and few of these exhibit triply peaked spectra. The discovery of new masers is a priority and a challenge. First, the emission is typically weak, and surveys must invest substantial time observing each target with the largest available apertures (e.g., 1 hour with a 100 m diameter antenna). Second, mean detection rates in surveys are typically $`10`$% for Seyfert II galaxies closer than $`cz7000`$ km s-1 (Braatz et al., 1997). Third, because the orbital speeds of disks (and concomitant velocity range of maser emission) cannot be known in advance, surveys must have instantaneous bandwidths of thousands of km s-1. Sufficiently broadband observing systems have become available to the general community only recently.

We report the detection of seven new masers obtained in a high sensitivity, broad bandwidth survey of 160 nearby AGN ($`cz<8100`$ km s-1). The survey was unusual for two reasons. First, we used a 70-m antenna of the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to achieve high sensitivity (see also Greenhill et al., 1997a). Second, we used a custom built, portable, 5350 km s-1-wide spectrometer. The survey, which is ongoing at DSN facilities in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and the hardware will be discussed in detail elsewhere.

## 2 Observations

The 70-m DSN antenna located at Tidbinbilla, near Canberra, is equipped with a cooled 18 to 26 GHz HEMT receiver. The left circular polarization channel is limited by a selectable 600 MHz bandpass filter and downconverted to a band centered at 321.4 MHz. A second downconversion and bandpass filter deliver a 400 MHz baseband ($`5350`$ km s-1 at $`\lambda 1.35`$ cm) at the input of a 2-bit, four-level, 4096-lag digital autocorrelator.

Survey observations were conducted between 2002 May and September. The zenith system temperature was typically 40 K under good winter observing conditions, and zenith opacities were typically $`0.05`$. The temperature was calibrated with respect to an ambient load. The peak aperture efficiency was $`48\pm 5\%`$, and we determined its dependence on elevation through antenna temperature measurements of PKS 1830$``$211 ($`6.3\pm 0.3`$ Jy) and PKS 1921$``$293 ($`10.9\pm 0.4`$ Jy). We calibrated these flux densities against 3C286 (2.6 Jy at 21.8 GHz) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) 111The Australia Telescope Compact Array is part of the Australia Telescope, which is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. on 2002 September 9 and 12. We measured and corrected for pointing errors (at the 70-m antenna), which were under most circumstances on the order of $`4^{\prime \prime }`$ or 8% of the half-power beamwidth. As a result, we estimate the flux density calibration of spectra is uncertain by $`10\%`$.

To construct total-power spectra for each AGN, we nodded the antenna between signal and reference positions. Switching times of 30 or 45 s were usually sufficient to produce flat baselines in the spectra. We removed residual fluctuations by subtracting a running mean computed over intervals of 256 channels ($`337`$ km s-1). Heliocentric velocities were computed from sky frequencies determined by the digital tuning of receiver elements, using the radio definition of Doppler shift. This calibration should be accurate to better than 0.1 km s-1. We checked it by observing the H66$`\alpha `$ radio recombination line in W 33, which has a known Local Standard of Rest velocity of $`36.2\pm 0.2`$ km s-1 (Wilson, Bieging, & Wilson, 1979), and for which we measured a velocity of $`36.3\pm 0.2`$ km s-1.

## 3 Detections of New Sources

We observed 160 AGN with the Tidbinbilla antenna and obtained typical noise levels of 10 to 20 mJy ($`1\sigma `$) with 30 minutes of on-source integration. We discovered seven new H2O masers (Table 1, Figure 1). Each detection has been confirmed through observation on more than one day. We have also measured positions for six of the new masers with the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)222The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. or the ATCA. These observing tracks were also used to estimate continuum flux density levels from the underlying AGN at about $`\lambda 1`$ cm (Table 1). Where we detected continuum emission, it was coincident with the maser emission, to within estimated uncertainties ($`0\text{.}^{\prime \prime }2`$).

Six masers lie in Seyfert II objects, and one lies in a nucleus whose classification is ambiguous (NGC 2824; Veron-Cetty & Veron, 2001). The masers in NGC 5643 and NGC 6300 lie in galaxies that had been targeted in previous searches. Greenhill et al. (2002) reported noise levels of 59 to 87 mJy for NGC 5643 and 59 mJy for NGC 6300 in $`0.8`$ km s-1 wide channels, after Hanning smoothing. Braatz et al. (1996) report noise levels of 119 and 109 mJy for the two galaxies respectively, with 0.8 km s-1 wide channels. At the strength we measured ($`300`$ mJy in a 1.3 km s-1 channel without Hanning smoothing), the maser emission in NGC 5643 would have been detected at the 3 to $`5\sigma `$ level by these earlier observations, from which we conclude the maser emission varies significantly with time. The emission in NGC 6300 is sufficiently weak that it would not have been detected by the earlier observations.

Two of the new maser sources exhibit discrete line complexes above and below the systemic velocity, which probably correspond to the high-velocity emission that is a characteristic of maser action in the accretion disks of supermassive black holes. ESO 269-G012 displays red and blueshifted high-velocity emission, symmetrically offset by $`650`$ km s-1 from a narrow line near the systemic velocity of the galaxy (Figure 2). The inferred orbital speed is exceeded only by that of NGC 4258 among known maser hosts. The high-velocity line complexes extend over $`100`$ km s-1, which may be due to the radial distribution of emitting gas. If the rotation curve is “Keplerian” ($`vr^{0.5}`$), then the outer radius of the molecular material in the disk would be $`1.4`$ times the inner radius. NGC 6926 exhibits high-velocity emission that is symmetrically offset by up to $`200`$ km s-1 from the systemic velocity (Figure 1). Because the blueshifted emission is relatively weak, we have used the VLA to confirm it is real. If the masers in ESO 269-G012 and NGC 6926 lie in disks at radii of 0.1 pc, which is the radius of the innermost masers in NGC 4258, then the enclosed mass is on the order of $`10^6`$ to $`10^7`$ M. The corresponding centripetal acceleration in the ESO 269-G012 disk ($`v^2/r`$), which would be manifested by a secular velocity drift in the low-velocity emission, is $`4`$ km s-1 yr-1, which is large enough to measure readily within one year.

The maser in NGC 2824 lies in an early-type galaxy and displays an anomalously broad line profile ($`150`$ km s-1 half power full width). Broad lines are also seen toward other early-type galaxies that host maser sources (e.g., NGC 1052, Mrk 348), where the emission is seen toward radio jets rather than accretion disks (Claussen et al., 1998; Peck et al., 2001). However, any correspondence between Hubble-type and maser characteristics is tentative. For example, the maser in IRAS F01063$``$8034 is broad (Greenhill et al., 2002), but the galaxy is believed to be type Sa (though it is difficult to classify because it is edge-on). In NGC 1386 and IRAS F22265$``$1826, the relative positions of the masers and jets therein are unknown because the jets are undetected at about $`\lambda 1.3`$ cm (Sand, Braatz, & Greenhill, 1999). For NGC 2824, we have established a 1 mJy ($`5\sigma `$) upper limit on continuum emission at $`\lambda 1.3`$ cm (Table 1).

## 4 New High-Velocity Gas in Circinus

Previously reported H2O maser emission in the Circinus galaxy comprises two broad complexes of lines that bracket the systemic velocity ($`439`$ km s-1; Freeman et al., 1977), with spectral features offset by as much as $`200`$ km s-1 (Nakai et al., 1995; Braatz et al., 1996; Greenhill et al., 1997b). VLBI images ($`15`$ mJy $`1\sigma `$ noise) resolve a warped accretion disk and show emission with somewhat larger $`\pm 260`$ km s-1 Doppler shifts (Greenhill et al., 2001, 2003). This is the maximum detected orbital speed, and it corresponds to a radius of $`0.11`$ pc.

We have detected weak ($`0.1`$ Jy) high-velocity emission that establishes a $`50`$ to $`900`$ km s-1 range of emission (i.e., Doppler shifts up to $`460`$ km s-1). The rotation curve of the Circinus accretion disk is approximately Keplerian (Greenhill et al., 2001). If the new emission arises in the accretion disk, then it lies at $`0.03`$ pc radius ($`2\times 10^5`$ Schwarzschild radii for a $`1.7\times 10^6`$ M black hole), and future VLBI studies will be able to map the rotation curve and warp of the accretion disk over an expanded range of radii.

## 5 Summary

We have detected new H2O maser sources in seven AGN, as well as new high-velocity emission components in the Circinus galaxy. Two of the new masers exhibit high-velocity emission, indicative of emission from accretion disks. It should be possible to map these two disks with VLBI, trace their rotation curves, and weigh the central engines that bind them. Ultimately, it may be possible to measure geometric distances to the two host galaxies, which would be significant because both lie in the Hubble Flow. One of the new masers lies in an early-type galaxy, and we speculate that it might therefore be associated with an as yet undetected jet. We have also discovered new high-velocity water maser emission in the Circinus galaxy, VLBI observation of which could greatly improve our understanding of its accretion disk.

We thank C. Timoc and Spaceborne, Inc. for designing and building the correlator, and for technical support in the field. We are grateful for the invaluable support and assistance given by the management, operations, and technical staff of the CDSCC, and in particular thank J. Lauf for his technical assistance with our program early on. We also acknowledge the contributions of C. Garcia-Miro (INTA), J. F. Gómez, E. Jiménez Bailón, and I. de Gregorio-Monsalvo (LAEFF/INTA) to testing of the spectrometer and observing software at the Madrid DSN station prior to the observing season in Australia. This work was supported in part by R&D funds of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.


text:
# Magnetic Vacancy Percolation in Dilute Antiferromagnets

## Abstract

Neutron scattering experiments at the magnetic vacancy percolation threshold concentration, $`x_v`$, using the random-field Ising crystal $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.76}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.24}\mathrm{F}_2`$, show stability of the transition to long-range order up to fields $`H=6.5`$ T. The observation of the stable long-range order corroborates the sharp boundary observed in computer simulations at $`x_v`$ separating equilibrium critical scattering behavior at high magnetic concentration from low concentration hysteretic behavior. Low temperature $`H>0`$ scattering line shapes exhibit the dependence on the scattering wavevector expected for percolation threshold fractal structures.

The dilute, anisotropic antiferromagnet $`\mathrm{Fe}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Zn}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{F}_2`$ is an extensively studied prototype of the three dimensional ($`d=3`$) random-field Ising model (RFIM) b00 . As a result of the magnetic vacancies, the magnetic moment is not uniform and this allows a strong coupling to to an external magnetic field applied along the spin-ordering direction. This constitutes the mechanism for the generation of random fields fa79 . It was shown that such a system is in the same universality class as a pure Ising magnet with random fields imposed c84 . Settling the question of universality of the phase transition does not, however, address the effect of vacancies on microscopic domain formation, which can mask the phase transition in scattering experiments. Such microdomain formation, which occurs since domain walls can take advantage energetically of the vacancies, needs to be well understood in order to properly interpret the RFIM behavior of dilute magnets.

For many years controversy surrounded the interpretation of neutron scattering experiments b00  on the RFIM critical behavior of dilute anisotropic antiferromagnets in external magnetic fields, $`H`$, particularly $`\mathrm{Fe}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Zn}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{F}_2`$ and its less anisotropic isomorph $`\mathrm{Mn}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Zn}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{F}_2`$. All of these studies, regardless of whether traditional scaling or various phenomenological models were used in the interpretations, were done at concentrations $`x0.75`$ brkj85 ; hfbt93 . This was natural since the strength of the random field increases with dilution and available field strengths required high vacancy concentrations to readily create suitably strong random fields. It was, of course, realized that no ordering would take place for magnetic concentration below the magnetic percolation threshold concentration, $`x_p=0.246`$. The magnetic vacancy percolation threshold concentration occurs at $`x_v=1x_p=0.754`$. Below this concentration, vacancies form a cluster that spans the crystal. The significant role of magnetic vacancy percolation in the formation of microdomains was not fully appreciated until recently bb00  and, prior to that, it was widely assumed that microdomain formation was an intrinsic property of the RFIM as realized in dilute antiferromagnets. The microdomain structures for small $`x`$ have been studied extensively hbkn92 ; bjkn87 . It has recently been shown that these structures play a crucial role in exchange-bias structures important to magnetic recording technology mgkbgnu00 ; zdhcc99 . Microscopic domain structure, for which the characteristic length scale is small compared to the instrumental resolution, masks the neutron scattering critical behavior for two reasons. First, the scattering contribution from microscopic domains is superimposed on the scattering from thermal fluctuations, making it futile to separate the two. Second, there is a concomitant decrease in the Bragg scattering, which consequently no longer represents the strength of the RFIM order parameter. This has been particularly frustrating, since characterization of the RFIM transition is important in light of the present disagreements between simulations and experiments bb00 .

The critical behavior of $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.93}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.07}\mathrm{F}_2`$ using neutron scattering techniques provided evidence sbf99  that microscopic domains could be avoided altogether by doing measurements at high magnetic concentrations, although very high quality crystals and high fields are required. Further experiments have been done using $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.85}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.15}\mathrm{F}_2`$ and $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.87}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.13}\mathrm{F}_2`$ ymkyfb02 ; yzllbgl02 . These experiments are providing the avenue for a complete experimental characterization of the RFIM universal critical behavior. It has become quite clear that the behavior at large $`x`$ is quite distinct from that at low $`x`$ which exhibits microdomain structure. Computer simulations bb00  were done to model the behavior of the formation of microdomains and long-range order in $`\mathrm{Fe}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Zn}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{F}_2`$ in an attempt to understand how the behavior crosses from one type of behavior to the other. It is suggested by these simulations that low-temperature metastability and microscopic domain formation vanish abruptly above $`x=0.76`$, which closely coincides with the concentration of the magnetic vacancy percolation threshold concentration, $`x_v=0.754`$. Apparently, the percolating lattice of vacancies results in the instability of long-range order below the transition. In previous experiments, little attention has been paid to the percolation of magnetic vacancies. In light of its importance to the understanding of the RFIM we were motivated to investigate the scattering in $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.76}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.24}\mathrm{F}_2`$, which is very close to the critical concentration $`x_v`$. The concentration was determined using density measurements and the concentration gradient of a few tenths of a percent was determined using room temperature birefringence techniques kfjb88 .

Considerable focus has been given to the study of behavior near the complementary threshold concentration for magnetic percolation, $`x_p=1x_v`$, using neutron scattering, specific heat, linear birefringence, magnetization and ac susceptibility techniques by93 ; mcr89 ; brc00 ; bb00b ; jdnb97 . The value $`x_p=0.246`$ is based on a calculation including only the dominant $`J_2`$ interaction se64 . However, for concentrations close to $`x_p`$, the system is extremely sensitive to very weak interactions that are insignificant away from $`x_p`$. Spin-glass-like behavior at $`H=0`$ has been well characterized. Even far above $`x_p`$, large fields cause a crossover from the low-field microdomain-dominated random-field behavior to the spin-glass-like behavior mkjhb91 ; bmmkje91 ; mltl99 ; mltl98 ; rfm00 ; satk88 .

The neutron scattering experiments were performed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory High Flux Isotope Reactor using a double-axis spectrometer configuration. The beam was horizontally collimated to $`20`$ min of arc before and after the sample and 48 min of arc before the monochromator. The neutron energy was either $`13.7`$ meV on the HB1 spectrometer or $`14.7`$ meV on the HB1A spectrometer. Higher energy neutrons were eliminated using pyrolytic graphite filters. Most of the data were taken with transverse scans about the $`(100)`$ antiferromagnetic Bragg point. The $`\mathrm{Fe}_{0.76}\mathrm{Zn}_{0.24}\mathrm{F}_2`$ crystal has an irregular shape approximately $`4\times 5\times 10`$ mm. It has a resolution limited Bragg peak, but very small secondary peaks appear for $`q>0`$ in the low temperature scans. Near the transition, these tiny peaks are not evident. All the data used in the analysis of the line shapes at low temperatures are on the $`q<0`$ side of the Bragg peak, where no hint of any secondary peaks are observed. The thermometry was based on a commercially calibrated carbon thermometer. Two primary thermal cycling procedures that are often employed to investigate hysteresis in the RFIM include: 1) cooling in the absence of a field, raising the field and warming through the transitions (ZFC); and 2) cooling in the field (FC).

Figure 1 shows scattering intensity vs. q, in reciprocal lattice units (rlu), at $`H=3`$ and $`5`$ T close to the transition temperatures $`T_c=61.6`$ and $`60.4`$ K, respectively. The transition at $`H=0`$ is at $`63.2`$ K. Whereas the critical scattering from samples with $`x<x_v`$ exhibits strong hysteresis, it is clear that the $`|q|>0`$ critical scattering shown in Fig. 1 is free from hysteresis and that indicates there is no microscopic domain structure frozen in upon FC.

For experiments free of extinction effects, the magnetic Bragg scattering intensity is expected to follow the power law behavior

$$I=M_{s}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}|t|^{2\beta }$$
(1)
where $`M_s`$ is the staggered magnetization and $`\beta 0.35`$ for the random-exchange model and $`\beta 0.16`$ the RFIM yzllbgl02 . However, neutron scattering in high-quality bulk crystals can suffer from severe extinction; the beam is depleted of neutrons that satisfy the Bragg condition and the scattering intensity is therefore saturated and cannot exhibit the correct $`T`$ dependence. The extinction effects usually preclude determination of a reliable value of $`\beta `$, the critical exponent for the staggered magnetization, from an analysis of the neutron scattering data in very high quality bulk crystals. The Bragg scattering does show hysteresis, which indicates incomplete FC ordering on very long length scales, relative to the instrumental resolution. Such hysteresis occurs for all $`x`$ and is likely a consequence of the slow activated dynamics f86 ; kmj86 ; nkj91 ; bkk95  of the RFIM very close to $`T_c(H)`$.

The ZFC Bragg intensity, corrected for the background determined at high $`T`$, is shown in Fig. 2 vs. $`T`$ for $`H=3`$ T. The inset of Fig. 2 shows the critical scattering at small $`q`$, but well outside the transverse instrumental resolution where the Bragg intensity is negligible. The scattering line shapes in this sample are complicated by admixture of critical scattering and contributions from the vacancy lattice because of the proximity of this sample to $`x_v`$, as will be discussed. Hence, we could not confidently analyze in detail the critical scattering line shape. Nevertheless, we obtained an approximate accounting of the critical scattering intensity by taking a squared-Lorentzian line shape folded with the appropriate resolution correction. An overall amplitude had to be chosen for the fit shown in the inset. This same amplitude was applied to the $`q=0`$ case and the resulting curve is shown in the main part of Fig. 2 as the solid curves. Subtracting this from the raw data (open symbols) yields the corrected Bragg scattering data (filled symbols). Taking into account the concentration gradient rounding of a few tenths of a percent, it is quite apparent that the Bragg intensity data approach $`T_c(H)`$ with a steep slope, in contrast with scattering experimentsbwshnlrl96  with $`x<x_v`$, where the slope is nearly zero. Although we cannot analyze the data according to Eq. 1 to obtain $`\beta `$ because of extinction, we may still conclude from the shape of the Bragg intensity vs. T that this sample does not form microscopic domain structure. This is consistent with the lack of hysteresis in the critical scattering shown in Fig. 1.

At the percolation threshold concentrations, magnetic sites or magnetic vacancy sites form fractal structures. In either case, scattering from the fractal structure will exhibit a power law behavior sa94 ; iifn95

$$I_fq^{2.53}.$$
(2)
The only difference is that in the case of magnetic vacancies there is also a Bragg scattering peak from the average $`M_s`$. With magnetic site percolation, the average $`M_s`$ is zero at the threshold. Since we believe the $`x=0.76`$ crystal is close to $`x_v`$, we plotted the logarithm of the scattering intensity vs. the logarithm of $`q`$ for $`q<0`$ in Fig. 3. Only some of the scans are shown; data were taken for $`H=0`$ and for $`2T<H<7`$ T in steps of $`0.5`$ T. Several interesting features are evident.

As shown explicitly for two fields, $`H=5`$ and $`7`$ T in Fig. 3, the ZFC line shapes, for $`T=29`$ K or less, are all identical with the $`H=0`$ line shape and are the lowest in intensity. For comparison, a line with a fractal exponent of 2.53 for three dimension, with the spectrometer resolution folded in, is plotted in the graph with the amplitude adjusted to fit the ZFC intensity data. It is clear that the ZFC scattering line shapes for $`x=0.76`$ follow Eq. 2 quite well. To contrast this behavior, we show in Fig. 3 similar data for a sample with concentration of $`x0.87`$ ymkyfb02 , indicated by the solid triangles, for $`T=58.5`$ K, only $`3.4`$ K below the transition. The scattering for this concentration, well above $`x_v`$, shows little evidence of scattering outside the Bragg region as expected since the vacancies do not form large fractal structures at this concentration. The behavior for ZFC shown in Fig. 3 suggests strongly that, for $`x=0.76`$, the scattering is indeed from the vacancy percolation fractal structure under the ZFC procedure.

The FC data for $`x=0.76`$ increase in intensity with the applied field. We compare the data to Eq. 2 by adjusting the amplitude to fit the data at $`q=10^{1.7}`$ rlu. It is quite clear that for $`H>0`$ the line shapes deviate strongly from the behavior in Eq. 2, more so as the field increases. The inset of Fig. 3 shows the deviations of the intensities from the curves representing Eq. 2 at $`q=0.007`$, $`0.009`$, and $`0.012`$ rlu as a function of the applied field. The deviations for $`H6.5`$ T increase smoothly with the field. Two possible sources exist for the excess scattering. One is the relief of extinction. This has been observed for neutron Bragg scattering in the RFIM experiments on bulk crystals b00 , but not for scattering outside the Bragg region. The other possibility, perhaps more significant, is the scattering from domains, which coexist with antiferromagnetic long-range order, that increase in number with increasing applied field. Since the total scattering in FC comes from sources in addition to that of vacancy sites, it is difficult to analyze in detail.

The difference between FC intensities and Eq. 2 at $`H=7`$ T deviate strongly from the smooth curves describing the data for $`H6.5`$ T, as shown in the inset of Fig. 3. This qualitatively new behavior most likely represents a breakdown of the antiferromagnetic long-range structure for $`H>6.5`$ T. In such a case many more domains are introduced into the system, resulting in much more scattering intensity. This field is consistent with the increasing field at which spin-glass-like behavior appears for samples with $`x<x_v`$, as shown in Fig. 4. Apparently, even at low temperatures, long-range antiferromagnetic order for $`x=0.76`$ is stable upon FC for $`H<7`$ T, in contrast to the behavior for $`x<x_v`$, where metastable domains dominate the scattering under the FC procedure. For $`x0.87`$, only a few percent above $`x_v`$, magnetization experiments samb02  indicate that the transition to long-range antiferromagnetic order breaks down only for fields above $`H=18`$ T, nearly three times the field that causes a breakdown in the behavior of the sample with $`x=0.76`$, demonstrating the stability of antiferromagnetic order for $`x>x_v`$.

We have shown that the magnetic concentration range for which equilibrium random field critical scattering is observed for dilute antiferromagnets in an external field has a lower bound at $`x_v`$. Whereas our $`x=0.76`$ crystal shows no critical scattering hysteresis, it is quite evident for slightly smaller magnetic concentrations hfbt93 . Our results suggest that the percolation of vacancy sites occurring for $`x<x_v`$ precipitates the formation of domains below $`T_c(H)`$ in ZFC preparation as well as in FC, corroborating the conclusions drawn from simulations bb00 . A theoretical connection between the one dimensional fractal geometry of vacancy sites at percolation and three dimensional domains has not been adequately explained from a theoretical perspective.

It is now evident that there are three magnetic concentration regimes in $`d=3`$ dilute antiferromagnets separated by the percolation threshold concentrations $`x_p`$ and $`x_v`$. For $`x>x_v`$, long-range antiferromagnetic order is stable up to very large magnetic fields. For $`x_p<x<x_v`$ the system is unstable. At low fields, the formation of microdomain structure takes place upon FC for all $`T<T_c(H)`$ and upon ZFC close to $`T_c(H)`$. A spin-glass-like phase forms at high field. Below $`x_p`$, there can be no long-range magnetic order. It is the geometry of the lattice in question which defines the location of these boundaries, and although we study one particular magnetic lattice type, the body centered tetragonal structure of $`\mathrm{Fe}_\mathrm{x}\mathrm{Zn}_{1\mathrm{x}}\mathrm{F}_2`$, our results should apply more generally to dilute magnets in an applied field.

Interestingly, the specific heat behavior is not dependent in an obvious way on the concentration. Similar hysteresis upon FC and ZFC is observed b00  very close to $`T_c(H)`$ for concentrations above and below $`x_v`$. No specific heat hysteresis is observed at low $`T`$. The contrast between the relative insensitivity of the specific heat techniques with the extreme sensitivity of the scattering techniques is certainly due to the greater dependence of the scattering on long length correlations that are greatly affected by domain formation. The hysteresis in the case of specific heat is related to the activated dynamics very close to $`T_c(H)`$ that affects the behavior at all $`x`$ and not domain formation, which only occurs for $`x<x_v`$.

From the results of this investigation, we conclude that studies of the random-field phase transition should be conducted with magnetic concentrations greater than $`x_v`$. It is advantageous to use concentrations not too much greater than this to maximize the random-fields for available applied fields. However, if the concentration is too close to $`x_v`$, one must take into account scattering from the magnetic vacancy percolation cluster. Recent experiments at $`x=0.87`$ indicate that, at this concentration, such scattering is negligible ymkyfb02 ; yzllbgl02 .

This work was funded by Department of Energy Grant No. DE-FG03-87ER45324 and by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Dept. of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.


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# ATMOSPHERES OF MAGNETIZED NEUTRON STARS: VACUUM POLARIZATION AND PARTIALLY IONIZED MODELS

## INTRODUCTION

Thermal radiation from the surface of isolated neutron stars (NSs) can provide invaluable information on the physical properties and evolution of NSs. Such radiation has been detected in various types of isolated NSs: from radio pulsars (see Becker 2000; Pavlov et al. 2002) to old and young radio-quiet NSs (see Treves et al. 2000; Pavlov et al. 2002) to soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) (see Hurley 2000; Israel, Mereghetti, & Stella 2001; Mereghetti et al. 2002), which form a potentially new class of NSs (“magnetars”) endowed with superstrong ($`B>10^{14}`$ G) magnetic fields (see Thompson & Duncan 1996; Thompson 2001). The NS surface emission is mediated by the thin atmospheric layer (with scale height $`0.110`$ cm and density $`0.1100`$ g/cm3) that covers the stellar surface. Therefore, to properly interpret the observations of NS surface emission and to provide accurate constraints on the physical properties of NSs, it is important to understand in detail the radiative properties of NS atmospheres in the presence of strong magnetic fields.

Steady progress has been made over the years in modeling NS atmospheres (see Pavlov et al. 1995; Ho & Lai 2001, 2003; Zavlin & Pavlov 2002 for more detailed references on observations and on previous works of NS atmosphere modeling). These atmosphere models have played a valuable role in assessing the observed spectra of radio pulsars and radio-quiet NSs. We have studied the H and He atmospheres of NSs with magnetic fields $`B10^{12}10^{15}`$ G and effective temperatures $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}10^510^7`$ K (Ho & Lai 2001, 2003; Ho et al. 2002). Here we briefly discuss our atmosphere model and the effects of vacuum polarization and report on recent work in incorporating hydrogen bound species in the models to produce partially ionized atmospheres.

## ATMOSPHERE MODEL

We consider an isolated NS with a plane-parallel atmosphere. This is justified since the atmospheric scale height $`H<10`$ cm is much less than the NS radius $`R10`$ km. The atmosphere is composed of pure hydrogen. A uniform magnetic field $`𝐁`$, aligned perpendicular to the surface, permeates the atmosphere, and the spectra presented indicate emission from a local patch of the NS surface with the indicated magnetic field strength and effective temperature.

In the highly magnetized plasma that characterizes NS atmospheres, there are two photon polarization modes, and they have very different radiative opacities. The two photon modes are the extraordinary mode (X-mode), which is mostly polarized perpendicular to the $`\widehat{𝐤}\widehat{𝐁}`$ plane, and the ordinary mode (O-mode), which is mostly polarized parallel to the $`\widehat{𝐤}\widehat{𝐁}`$ plane, where $`\widehat{𝐤}`$ specifies the direction of photon propagation and $`\widehat{𝐁}`$ is the direction of the external magnetic field. The O-mode has a significant component of its electric field $`𝐄`$ along $`\widehat{𝐁}`$ for most directions of propagation, except when $`\widehat{𝐤}`$ is nearly parallel to $`\widehat{𝐁}`$, and therefore the O-mode opacity is close to the $`B=0`$ value, while the X-mode opacity is much smaller.

To construct self-consistent atmosphere models requires successive iterations, where the temperature profile $`T(\tau )`$ is adjusted from the previous iteration in order to satisfy radiative equilibrium ($`\tau `$ is the Thomson depth within the atmosphere). We solve the radiative transfer equations (RTEs) for the two coupled photon polarization modes, together with the boundary conditions, by the finite difference scheme described in Mihalas (1978). We use a variation of the Unsöld-Lucy temperature correction method as described in Mihalas (1978) but modified to account for full radiative transfer by two propagation modes in a magnetic medium. The process of determining the radiation intensity from the RTE for a given temperature profile, estimating and applying the temperature correction, and then recalculating the radiation intensity is repeated until convergence of the solution is achieved (see Ho & Lai 2001 for details of our numerical method).

## VACUUM POLARIZATION

It is well-known that polarization of the vacuum due to virtual $`e^+e^{}`$ pairs becomes significant when $`B>B_\mathrm{Q}`$, where $`B_\mathrm{Q}=m_\mathrm{e}^2c^3/e\mathrm{}=4.414\times 10^{13}`$ G. Vacuum polarization modifies the dielectric property of the medium and the polarization of photon modes, thereby altering the radiative scattering and absorption opacities (see Ho & Lai 2003 and references therein). Of particular interest is the “vacuum resonance” phenomenon, which occurs when the effects of the vacuum and plasma on the linear polarization of the modes cancel each other, giving rise to a resonance feature in the opacity at photon energy $`E_\mathrm{V}1.02(Z/A)(\rho /\text{1 g cm}\text{-3})^{1/2}(B/\text{10}\text{14}\text{ G})^1f(B)`$ keV, where $`Z`$ and $`A`$ are the atomic charge and mass of the ion, respectively, $`\rho `$ is the density, and $`f(B)`$ is a slowly-varying function of $`B`$ of order unity.

It was shown in Lai & Ho (2002, 2003) (see also Gnedin et al. 1978; Pavlov & Gnedin 1984) that high energy photons propagating in the atmospheric plasma can adiabatically convert from one polarization mode into another at the vacuum resonance density $`\rho _\mathrm{V}0.96(A/Z)(E/\text{1 keV})^2(B/\text{10}\text{14}\text{ G})^2f(B)^2\text{ g cm}\text{-3}`$. Across the resonance, the orientation of the polarization ellipse rotates by $`90^{}`$, although the helicity does not change (see Figure 1). This resonant mode conversion is analogous to the Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect for neutrino oscillations. Because the two photon modes have vastly different opacities, this vacuum-induced mode conversion can significantly affect radiative transfer in strongly magnetized atmospheres. Figure 2 illustrates the main effect that vacuum polarization has on the atmosphere spectrum. The left side of Figure 2 shows the decoupling densities of the O-mode and X-mode photons (i.e., the densities of their respective photospheres) when the vacuum polarization effect is neglected. The right side of Figure 2 shows that the effective decoupling depths of the photons are changed when the vacuum resonance lies between these two photospheres. We see from Figure 2 that mode conversion makes the effective decoupling density of X-mode photons (which carry the bulk of the thermal energy) smaller, thereby depleting the high energy tail of the spectrum and making the spectrum closer to blackbody (although the spectrum is still harder than blackbody because of non-grey opacities). This expectation is borne out in self-consistent atmosphere modeling presented in Ho & Lai 2003 and illustrated in Figure 3111 All the models presented here use the corrected free-free absorption, which properly accounts for electron-ion collisions (Potekhin & Chabrier 2003; see also Ho et al. 2002).  for the case of $`B=5\times 10^{14}`$ G and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5\times 10^6`$ K.

Another important effect of vacuum polarization on the spectrum, first noted in Ho & Lai 2003 and illustrated in Figure 3, is the suppression of proton cyclotron lines (and other spectral lines; see below). The physical origin for such line suppression is related to the depletion of continuum flux; this depletion makes the decoupling depths inside and outside the line similar.

## PARTIALLY IONIZED ATMOSPHERES

A major complication when incorporating bound species in the atmosphere models arises from the strong coupling between the center-of-mass motion of the atom and the internal atomic structure. Potekhin & Chabrier (2003) have constructed the first thermodynamically consistent equation of state and opacity models of partially ionized hydrogen plasmas in strong magnetic fields. From the work of Potekhin & Chabrier (2003), we obtain tables for the equation of state and absorption opacities of hydrogen, including the bound states. We interpolate between the table values to obtain densities and absorption opacities corresponding to the numerical grid of our models.222 Note that we calculate the polarization vectors of the medium assuming the medium is fully ionized since the abundance of bound species is very low for the cases considered; this is not strictly correct (see Bulik & Pavlov 1996 for the case where the atmosphere is completely neutral). Thus we are able to obtain partially ionized hydrogen atmosphere models (Ho et al. 2002).

Figure 4 shows the spectra of hydrogen atmospheres with $`B=10^{12}`$ G and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5\times 10^5`$ K, along with the non-magnetic hydrogen atmosphere model at the same $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and the blackbody spectrum with $`T=5\times 10^5`$ K. The proton cyclotron line at 6.3 eV is clear in both the fully ionized and partially ionized spectra.333 The width of the proton cyclotron line in all the partially ionized models is due to the finite energy grid of the models and not an indication of the true line width; the true width is narrower. It is clear from Figure 4 that spectral features due to bound species at this field strength lie within the extreme UV ($`E>50`$ eV) to very soft X-ray ($`E<0.2`$ keV) regime and therefore are likely to be unobservable due to interstellar absorption. However, the effect of bound species on the temperature profile of the atmosphere and the continuum flux is significant. In particular, the optical flux is higher for the partially ionized atmospheres compared to the fully ionized atmospheres for the same $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. On the other hand, the partially and fully ionized models both yield very similar (neglecting the spectral features) X-ray flux for a given effective temperature, with the partially ionized model fluxes slightly lower than those from the fully ionized models; thus fitting only the high energy flux with fully ionized models would yield fairly accurate NS temperatures.

Figure 5 compares the partially and fully ionized models (neglecting vacuum polarization) of hydrogen atmospheres with $`B=5\times 10^{14}`$ G and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}=5\times 10^6`$ K. Neglecting vacuum polarization allows us to distinguish features due to neutral atoms in the atmosphere; broad absorption features due to bound-free and bound-bound transitions at $`E0.76`$ keV and 4 keV, respectively, are apparent (the latter is from blending of two bound-bound transitions at 3.4 keV and 6.5 keV). The continuum flux between the models is not significantly different, and as noted in Ho & Lai (2001, 2003) and Zane et al. (2001), the proton cyclotron line is very broad when vacuum polarization is neglected. Figure 6 compares the models with vacuum polarization (complete mode conversion; see Ho & Lai 2003). We see that vacuum polarization softens the high energy tail of the spectrum in the partially ionized model, like the fully ionized model. In addition, we see that vacuum polarization also suppresses spectral features due to the bound species of hydrogen. The reduced width of the proton cyclotron line and spectral features associated with bound transitions makes these features difficult to observe with current X-ray detectors, and we suggest that the absence of lines in the observed spectra of several AXPs (Patel et al. 2001; Juett et al. 2002; Tiengo et al. 2002) may be an indication of the vacuum polarization effect at work in these systems.

## ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the Cornell Hewitt Computer Laboratory for the use of their facilities. This work is supported in part by NASA grant NAG 5-12034 and NSF grant AST 9986740. D.L. is also supported by a fellowship from the A.P. Sloan Foundation. The work of A.Y.P. is supported by RFBR grant 02-02-17668


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# On some questions of Eymard and Bekka concerning amenability of homogeneous spaces and induced representations

## 1. Introduction

Let $`H`$ be a closed subgroup of a locally compact group $`G`$. The homogeneous factor space $`G/H`$ is amenable in the sense of Eymard and Greenleaf , if $`L^{\mathrm{}}(G/H)`$ supports a $`G`$-invariant mean. If $`H=\{e\}`$, one obtains the classical concept of an amenable locally compact group.

A unitary representation $`\rho `$ of a group $`G`$ in a Hilbert space $``$ is amenable in the sense of Bekka  if there exists a state, $`\varphi `$, on the algebra $`()`$ of bounded operators that is $`\mathrm{Ad}G`$-invariant: $`\varphi (\pi (g)T\pi (g)^1)=\varphi (T)`$ for every $`T()`$ and every $`gG`$. For instance, the homogeneous space $`G/H`$ is Eymard–Greenleaf amenable if and only if the quasi-regular representation $`\lambda _{G/H}`$ of $`G`$ in $`L^2(G/H)`$ is amenable.

Let $`F`$ and $`H`$ be closed subgroups of a locally compact group $`G`$, such that $`FHG`$. In 1972 Eymard had asked (, p. 55):

* Suppose the space $`G/F`$ is amenable. Is then $`H/F`$ amenable?

This is of course a classical result in the case $`F=\{e\}`$.

Let $`\pi `$ be a strongly continuous unitary representation of $`H`$. In 1990 Bekka has shown  that, if the unitarily induced representation $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ is amenable, then $`G/H`$ is amenable. He asked the following:

* Does amenability of $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ imply that of $`\pi `$?

(This is a more general version of Eymard’s question Q 1.)

* Suppose both $`G/H`$ and $`\pi `$ are amenable. Is then $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ amenable?

Question 3 was partially answered in the positive by Bekka himself  under extra assumptions on $`H`$. Further discussion can be found in .

We show that in general the answer to all three questions above is negative.

### Remark

In a recent independent work Nicolas Monod and Sorin Popa have also solved Eymard’s problem (and thus Bekka’s Q 2 as well). (See their note  in the same issue.)

## 2. Reminders and simple facts

### 2.1.

A unitary representation $`\pi `$ of a locally compact group $`G`$ in a Hilbert space $``$ is said to almost have invariant vectors if for every compact $`KG`$ and every $`\epsilon >0`$ there is a $`\xi `$ satisfying $`\xi =1`$ and $`\pi _g(\xi )\xi <\epsilon `$ for all $`gK`$.

### 2.2.

If a unitary representation $`\pi `$ of a group $`G`$ (viewed as discrete) almost has invariant vectors, then $`\pi `$ is amenable.

This follows from Corollary 5.3 of , because $`\pi `$ weakly contains the trivial one-dimensional representation, $`1_G<\pi `$. Alternatively, choose for every finite $`KG`$ and every $`\epsilon >0`$ an almost invariant vector $`\xi _{K,\epsilon }`$ as above, and set $`\varphi _{K,\epsilon }(T):=T\xi _{K,\epsilon },\xi _{K,\epsilon }`$. Every weak cluster point, $`\varphi `$, of the net of states $`(\varphi _{K,\epsilon })`$ is a $`G`$-invariant state.

Note that the converse of 2.2 is not true, as for example every unitary representation of an amenable group is amenable by Theorem 2.2 of .

### 2.3.

Let $`H`$ be a closed subgroup of a locally compact group $`G`$. The following statements are equivalent.

1. The homogeneous space $`G/H`$ is amenable.
2. The left quasi-regular representation $`\lambda _{G/H}`$ of $`G`$ in $`L^2(G/H)`$, formed with respect to any (equivalently: every) quasi-invariant measure $`\nu `$ on $`G/H`$, almost has invariant vectors.
3. The left quasi-regular representation $`\lambda _{G/H}`$ is amenable.
4. If $`G`$ acts continuously by affine transformations on a convex compact set $`C`$ in such a way that $`C`$ contains an $`H`$-fixed point, then $`C`$ contains a $`G`$-fixed point.

The equivalences between (i), (ii), and (iv) are due to Eymard , while (iii) was added by Bekka (Th. 2.3.(i) of ). The condition (ii) is an analogue of Reiter’s condition $`(P_2)`$ for homogeneous spaces. (Interestingly, a natural analogue of Følner’s condition for homogeneous spaces fails .)

### 2.4.

Let the homogeneous space $`G/H`$ be amenable, and let $`\pi `$ be a strongly continuous unitary representation of $`G`$. If the restriction of $`\pi `$ to $`H`$ is an amenable representation, then $`\pi `$ is amenable as well.

To prove this statement, denote, following Bekka (Section 3 of ), by $`X()`$ the $`C^{}`$-subalgebra of $`()`$ formed by all operators $`T`$ with the property that the orbit map of the adjoint action,

$$Gg\pi (g)T\pi (g)^1(),$$

is norm-continuous. Then $`G`$ acts upon $`X()`$ in a strongly continuous way by isometries. It follows that the dual adjoint action of $`G`$ on the state space of $`X()`$, equipped with the weak topology, is continuous. Because of the assumed amenability of $`\pi |_H`$, there is an $`H`$-invariant state, $`\psi `$, on $`()`$ and consequently on $`X()`$. Eymard’s conditional fixed point property 2.3.(iv) allows us to conclude that there is a $`G`$-invariant state, $`\varphi `$, on $`X()`$. This in turn implies amenability of $`\pi `$ by Theorem 3.5 of .

### 2.5.

Let $`H`$ be a closed subgroup of a locally compact group $`G`$, and let $`\pi `$ be a strongly continuous unitary representation of $`H`$ in a Hilbert space. By $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ we will denote, as usual, the unitarily induced representation of $`G`$.

### 2.6.

The following is Mackey’s generalization of the Frobenius Reciprocity Theorem (Th eorem 5.3.3.5 of ).

Let $`H`$ be a closed subgroup of a locally compact group $`G`$, and let $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ be finite-dimensional irreducible unitary representations of $`H`$ and $`G`$, respectively. If $`G/H`$ carries a finite invariant measure, then $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ contains $`\rho `$ as a discrete direct summand exactly as many times as $`\rho |_H`$ contains $`\pi `$ as a discrete direct summand.

### 2.7.

Let $`G`$ be a locally compact group, and let $`H,F`$ be closed subgroups of $`G`$ such that $`FH`$. Set $`\pi =\mathrm{ind}_F^H(1_F)`$, where $`1_F`$ stands for the trivial one-dimensional representation of $`F`$. Then $`\pi =\lambda _{H/F}`$ is unitarily equivalent to the quasi-regular representation of $`H`$ in $`L^2(H/F)`$ (, Corollary 5.1.3.6). By the theorem on induction in stages (ibid., Proposition 5.1.3.5), the induced representation $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\lambda _{H/F})`$ is unitarily equivalent to $`\mathrm{ind}_F^G(1_F)`$, which is just the representation $`\lambda _{G/F}`$, the quasi-regular representation of $`G`$ in $`L^2(G/F)`$.

Now assume that the homogeneous factor space $`G/F`$ is amenable. By Bekka’s result mentioned above (2.3.(iii)), this amounts to the amenability of $`\lambda _{G/F}`$.

This argument shows that Eymard’s Q 1 is a particular case of Bekka’s Q 2.

## 3. First example

### 3.1.

Let $`H=F_{\mathrm{}}`$, where $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$ denotes the free non-abelian group on infinitely many free generators $`x_i`$, $`i`$. For every $`n`$, let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ denote the normal subgroup of $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$ generated by $`x_i`$, $`in`$. We will set $`F=\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$.

As the factor space $`H/F=F_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$ is a free group, it is not amenable.

### 3.2.

Let the group $``$ act on $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$ by group automorphisms via shifting the generators:

$$\tau _n(x_m):=x_{m+n},$$

where $`m,n`$ and $`\tau `$ denotes the action of $``$ on $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$.

Denote by $`G=_\tau F_{\mathrm{}}`$ the semi-direct product formed with respect to the action $`\tau `$. That is, $`G`$ is the Cartesian product $`\times F_{\mathrm{}}`$ equipped with the group operation $`(m,x)(n,y)=(m+n,x\tau _my)`$, the neutral element $`(0,e)`$ and the inverse $`(n,x)^1=(n,\tau _nx^1)`$.

Let us show that the homogeneous space $`G/F`$ is Eymard–Greenleaf amenable.

### 3.3.

For every $`n`$,

$`(n,e)F`$ $`=`$ $`\{(n,e)(0,y):yF\}`$
$`=`$ $`\{(n,\tau _ny):y\mathrm{\Gamma }_0\}`$
$`=`$ $`\{n\}\times \mathrm{\Gamma }_n.`$
Let $`SF_{\mathrm{}}`$ be an arbitrary finite subset. For $`n`$ sufficiently large, $`S\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$.

Now for each $`(0,s)S`$,

$`(0,s)(n,e)F`$ $`=`$ $`\{(0,s)(n,z):z\mathrm{\Gamma }_n\}`$
$`=`$ $`\{n\}\times (s\mathrm{\Gamma }_n)`$
$`=`$ $`\{n\}\times \mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$
$`=`$ $`(n,e)F;`$
that is, the left $`F`$-coset $`(n,e)FG/F`$ is $`S`$-invariant.

Consequently, the unit vector $`\delta _{(n,e)F}\mathrm{}^2(G/F)`$ is $`S`$-invariant. We have proved that the $`H`$-module $`\mathrm{}^2(G/F)`$ almost has invariant vectors, and therefore the restriction to $`H`$ of the left regular representation $`\lambda _{G/F}`$ is amenable. Since $`G/H`$ is an amenable homogeneous space ($`H`$ is normal in $`G`$ and the factor-group $`G/H`$ is isomorphic to $``$), we conclude by 2.4 that the left regular representation of $`G`$ in $`\mathrm{}^2(G/F)`$ is amenable, that is, that $`G/F`$ is an amenable homogeneous space.

### 3.4.

The constructed triple of groups $`FHG`$ provides a negative answer to the question of Eymard (Q 1).

In view of the remarks in 2.7, it provides a negative answer to Bekka’s question (Q 2) as well. Take as $`\pi =\mathrm{ind}_F^H(1_F)=\lambda _{H/F}`$ the left quasi-regular representation of $`H`$ in $`\mathrm{}^2(H/F)`$. While $`\pi `$ is not amenable, the induced representation $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )=\lambda _{G/F}`$ is amenable.

### 3.5.

The following way of viewing our example may be instructive.

If considered as a unitary $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$-module, $`\mathrm{}^2(G/F)`$ decomposes, up to unitary equivalence, into the orthogonal sum

$$\mathrm{}^2(G/F)\underset{n}{}\mathrm{}^2(F_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_n).$$

None of the unitary $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$-modules $`\mathrm{}^2(F_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_n)`$ is amenable, yet their orthogonal sum is amenable, because the family $`(\mathrm{}^2(F_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_n))_n`$ “asymptotically has invariant vectors”: every finite $`SF_{\mathrm{}}`$ acts trivially on the Hilbert space $`\mathrm{}^2(F_{\mathrm{}}/\mathrm{\Gamma }_n)`$, provided $`n`$ is large enough so that $`S\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$. (Indeed, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_n`$ are normal in $`F_{\mathrm{}}`$.)

## 4. Second example

### 4.1.

Let $`G=\mathrm{SL}(n,)`$ and $`H=\mathrm{SL}(n,)`$, $`n3`$. Since $`H`$ is a (non-uniform) lattice in $`G`$ (cf. Exercise 7, §2, Chapitre VII of ), the homogeneous space $`G/H`$ is amenable.

### 4.2.

The group $`\mathrm{SL}(n,)`$ is maximally almost periodic (for instance, homomorphisms to the groups $`\mathrm{SL}(n,_p)`$, where $`p`$ is a prime number, separate points in $`\mathrm{SL}(n,)`$). Let $`\pi `$ be a non-trivial (of dimension $`>1`$) irreducible unitary finite-dimensional representation of $`H`$. Being finite-dimensional, $`\pi `$ is an amenable representation; cf. , Theorem 1.3.(i).

### 4.3.

Applying Mackey’s Reciprocity Theorem (quoted above, 2.6) with $`\rho `$ equal to $`1_G`$, a trivial one-dimensional representation of $`G`$, we conclude that the unitarily induced representation $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ has no non-zero invariant vectors.

At the same time, the Lie group $`G=\mathrm{SL}(n,)`$, $`n3`$, has property (T) (see e.g. , Chapitre 2.a, Théorème 4), and the only amenable representations of non-compact simple Lie groups with Kazhdan’s property $`(T)`$, such as $`G`$, are those having a non-zero invariant vector. (, Remark 5.10; cf. also the principal result of .)

### 4.4.

We conclude: $`\mathrm{ind}_H^G(\pi )`$ is non-amenable, even if the unitary representation $`\pi `$ and the homogeneous space $`G/H`$ are both amenable.

This answers in the negative another question posed by Bekka (Q 3).