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# HST observations of the metal rich globular clusters NGC 6496 and NGC 6352Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA for NASA under contract NAS5-26555

## 1 Introduction

Since the work of Zinn & West (1984), Armandroff & Zinn (1988) and Armandroff (1989), the disc population of the Galactic globular clusters (GC) has been recognised as a different subsystem, both dynamically and chemically, compared with that of the halo clusters. A detailed knowledge of these subsystems is important for our understanding of the fundamental properties of GC such as the concentration parameter, the shape of the mass function (MF), their age and chemical composition, since they correlate with the Galactocentric distance (Meylan & Heggie 1997) and/or height above the Galactic plane. Studying the disc GC, although difficult because of the foreground star contamination and high extinction due to their low Galactic latitude, could shed light on the disruption mechanisms by dynamical friction and bulge shocks, which deeply modify their MF in time. Furthermore, investigating the physical differences between their stellar population and that of the halo clusters could improve our understanding of the formation process of our Galaxy. In this paper, we present the analysis of the deep CMD of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, two clusters in the direction of the bulge and putative members of this subgroup, based on observations collected with the WFPC2 on board the HST.

NGC 6496 was originally believed to be a member of the disc system of GC, but Richtler et al. (1994) questioned this classification. They suggested instead that NGC 6496, together with two other clusters, NGC 6624 and NGC 6637, could be halo clusters with strongly inclined orbits. NGC 6496 lies in the Southern sky at $`\alpha _{2000}=17^o59\mathrm{}02\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta _{2000}=44^015\mathrm{}54\mathrm{}`$. Its Galactic coordinates are $`l=348.02^o`$ and $`b=10.1^o`$. A distance of $`R_G=4.3`$ kpc from the Galactic centre and $`Z_G=2.0`$ kpc below the Galactic plane (Harris 1996), place this object at the edge of the bulge. Notwithstanding the fact that the surrounding field shows no strong stellar foreground variation, its low Galactic latitude has hampered the observation of this cluster from the ground. Indeed, most of the contradictory estimates as to its metallicity, reddening, and Galactocentric distance probably arise mainly from the difficulty of observing objects through the dusty and crowded Galactic disc.

Armandroff (1988) presented the first CMD of NGC 6496 in which the photometry reached $`2`$ magnitudes below the horizontal branch (HB), disclosing for the first time the usual red arm of the metal-rich clusters. The extinction towards NGC 6496 is uncertain, with estimates ranging between $`E(BV)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.09}`$ and $`E(BV)=0.24`$ (Armandroff 1988; Zinn & West 1984; Burstein & Heiles 1982; Richtler et al. 1994).

The metal content of NGC 6496 has also been controversial for a long time. Friel & Geisler (1991), in their work on the disc GC based on Washington photometry, used the reddening value of $`0.19`$ by Armandroff (1988) and derived for NGC 6496 a metallicity of \[Fe/H\]$`=1.05`$. Richtler et al. (1994) measured its metallicity on the basis of the morphological characteristics of the CMD, obtaining \[Fe/H\]$`=1.0`$. Their value is in agreement with the metallicity coming from Washington photometry, but substantially lower than that given by Zinn & West (1984), i. e. \[Fe/H\]$`=0.48`$, and adopted by Armandroff (1988). The discrepancies in the metallicity scale amongst different authors might be explained by the intimate connection between reddening and metallicity estimates.

NGC 6352 is located at $`\alpha _{2000}=17^o25\mathrm{}29\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta _{2000}=48^o25\mathrm{}22\mathrm{}`$. Its Galactic coordinates ($`l=341.4^o`$, $`b=7.2^o`$) and distance from the Galactic centre and plane ($`R_G=3.3`$ kpc, $`Z_G=0.7`$ kpc; Harris 1996) place this objects at the edge or within the bulge. Based on this information and on radial velocity and metallicity measurements, NGC 6352 has been recognised, since Zinn (1985) and Armandroff (1989), as an unambiguous member of the disc group of globular clusters. Sarajedini & Norris (1994) presented CCD ground-based photometry for NGC 6352 reaching $`2`$ magnitudes below the level of its HB, disclosing the red clumped morphology typical of metal-rich clusters. By simultaneous estimate of both metallicity and reddening, using theoretical stellar evolutionary tracks, they obtain $`[Fe/H]=0.51`$, in the Zinn & West metallicity scale, and $`E(BV)=0.24`$.

Fullton et al. (1995) observed NGC 6352 with the WFPC1 on board HST, obtaining a CMD reaching $`3`$ magnitudes below the MS TO. Their main results are that NGC 6352 is slightly more metal rich than 47 Tuc and that it has the same age as 47 Tuc within the errors of their photometry. These results imply that the primordial gas might have collapsed in a disc configuration at an early epoch of the formation of our Galaxy.

In light of all the uncertainties affecting the determination of the extinction, distance and metallicity of these clusters, the skeptical reader might wonder as to how meaningful and practically useful it is to classify these objects as being members of one or another subgroup of the GC. We believe that the availability of new, powerful instruments such as the HST and VLT should call for a critical re-evaluation of the semi empirical methods on which such classifications were based. In the following sections we provide solid observational data in the form of high precision CMD of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, covering almost the full range of stellar masses from the TO to $`0.2M_{}`$. We compare them with the CMD of the archetype, well-studied metal-rich globular cluster 47 Tuc (NGC 104) and address the issue of their metallicity in a way so far never attempted, yet robust in light of its simplicity. Furthermore, from the LF we derive the best fitting underlying PDMF to test the hypothesis as to whether the IMF could be metal dependent and, therefore, differ here from that of the metal-poor halo clusters studied by Paresce & De Marchi (2000).

## 2 Observations and data analysis

All the exposures of both clusters NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, as summarised in Table 1, have been taken in fine lock mode, with the WFPC2 camera on board the HST, through the F606W and F814W broad-band filters.

The images of NGC 6496 were obtained by targetting a region located $`1.3\mathrm{}`$ East of the cluster centre, at coordinates $`\alpha _{2000}=17^o59\mathrm{}12\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta _{2000}=44^o15\mathrm{}59\mathrm{}`$. The field imaged in our programme is close to the half-light radius ($`r_h=1\stackrel{}{.}9`$; Harris 1996), where the local MF is expected to be less affected by mass segregation resulting from internal dynamical evolution (Richer et al. 1991).

The field observed in NGC 6352 is located at $`\alpha _{2000}=17^o25\mathrm{}29.2\mathrm{}`$ and $`\delta _{2000}=48^o25\mathrm{}20.2\mathrm{}`$, or about $`2\mathrm{}`$ North of the cluster centre, at a distance corresponding to the half-light radius ($`r_h=2\stackrel{}{.}0`$; Harris 1996). The mosaic images of the fields observed in NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively, and are based on two $`40`$ sec F814W exposures (see Table 1).

The raw images were processed using the standard HST pipeline calibration. The long exposures taken through the same filter were combined to remove cosmic ray hits and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the data. The total equivalent exposure time of the combined images of NGC 6496 corresponds to $`7400s`$ in each band. As regards NGC 6352, the total exposure time equals $`10400s`$ in the F606W band, and $`10200s`$ in F814W. The same procedure has been applied to the short exposures, thus producing two $`70s`$ images in both bands for NGC 6496 and two $`130s`$ images in both bands for NGC 6352.

Due to the large number of pixel affected by cosmic rays, satellite tracks and detector defects that affected the raw frames of NGC 6352, however, we decided to derive the final scientific frames for these observations by taking their median rather than the usual mean. As is well known (see for instance the DAOPHOT users’ manual; Stetson 1987), the median is very effective in removing outliers, but from a statistical point of view the median of $`n`$ frames is roughly comparable to the mean of only $`2/3`$ of the frames. Therefore, as far as the star detection algorithm is concerned, our effective exposure time was reduced to $`6930s`$ and $`6800s`$ in F606W and F814W, respectively, compared to the ones obtained simply by summing all available frames. The ensuing reduction in the SNR is more than compensated by the higher accuracy achieved in the photometry, resulting in a cleaner CMD and tighter MS.

Photometry was carried out using the standard IRAF DAOPHOT package. The automated star detection routine daophot.daofind was applied to the averaged frames, by setting the detection threshold at $`5\sigma `$ above the local background level. We have then visually examined all the detected objects in this way. False identifications, due essentially to the diffraction spikes of a number of saturated stars, were removed from the output list. In this way, concerning the long exposures data set, in the NGC 6496 field a total of $`650`$, $`2070`$, $`1500`$, $`2300`$ objects were detected, respectively in the $`PC`$, $`WF2`$, $`WF3`$, and $`WF4`$ chips. As regards NGC 6352, the detected objects were $`379`$, $`1443`$, $`1279`$, and $`1216`$.

The photometric routines phot and allstar were used to measure the fluxes on the combined frames. The PSF was modelled by averaging moderately bright stars. We calculated the aperture corrections for the four chips, by using a diameter of $`0.5\mathrm{}`$ and translated the final instrumental magnitudes into the VEGAMAG photometric system by adopting the updated zero points listed in the March 1998 edition of the HST Data Handbook. It should be noted that, thanks to the low level of crowding in these images, aperture photometry would have provided equally robust results.

## 3 The colour–magnitude diagram

Figure 3 shows the $`m_{814}`$, $`m_{606}m_{814}`$ CMD of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, for all the objects measured in the combined short and long exposures. The photometry reaches $`m_{814}25.5`$ and the MS of the clusters are sharp, well defined and stand out clearly from the background contamination down to $`m_{814}24`$.

In the long exposures, saturation occurs at $`m_{814}<19.5`$ in the WF chips and at about one magnitude brighter for the PC (thanks to the higher plate-scale of this camera). Above these brightness limits, the data in Figure 3 come therefore from the short exposures. The MS changes slope at $`m_{814}23`$ for NGC 6496 and $`m_{814}22`$ for NGC 6352, where it becomes slightly steeper. The change of slope of the MS is due to the effect of dissociation of $`H_2`$ molecules in the envelope of the star, and to the consequent lowering of the adiabatic gradient (Copeland et al. 1970). This has already been extensively discussed by D’Antona (1995) and D’Antona & Mazzitelli (1996).

Although the F606W and F814W filters are not the ideal choice for estimating the age of the clusters, the area around their TO is well reproduced by a 14 Gyr old isochrone by Girardi et al. (2002) for a metallicity of $`Z=0.008`$ and Helium content $`Y=0.25`$ (see Figure 3). This fit suggests a distance modulus $`(mM)_o=14.8\pm 0.1`$ for NGC 6496 and $`(mM)_o=14.6\pm 0.1`$ for NGC 6352, respectively, with colour excess $`E(BV)=0.25`$ for both clusters. The distance modulus of NGC 6496 is consistent with that of Richtler et al. (1994), whereas that of NGC 6352 complies with the value published by Harris (1996) for this cluster. The extinction in the F606W and F814W bands has been approximated following the law of Cardelli et al. (1989) and the uncertainties around the colour excess towards the two clusters is discussed in detail in Section 4. The CMD of NGC 6496 reveals a short, stubby horizontal branch (HB) at $`m_{814}15.5`$, a characteristic which is typical of metal rich clusters and is well reproduced by the theoretical HB track of a $`0.69M_{}`$ star as shown by the isochrone.

To determine the MS fiducial points, we have calculated the mean $`m_{606}m_{814}`$ colour for each 0.5 mag bin along the MS, clipping all the objects lying farther than $`\pm 2.5\sigma `$ from the mean colour value, and then recomputed the mean colour until the convergence was reached and a fiducial MS mean ridge line was finally defined. Table 2 and 3 list, respectively for NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, the average MS colour and the associated standard deviation ($`\sigma `$) as a function of the $`m_{814}`$ magnitude, together with the corrected stellar counts per bin, and the completeness fraction. The faint end of the MS of NGC 6352 is about one magnitude brighter than that of NGC 6496, due to the shorter equivalent exposure time of the NGC 6352 median averaged frames.

The MS TO of NGC 6496 lies at $`m_{814}19.25`$. Based on the transformations linking Johnson’s photometry in the $`B`$ and $`V`$ bands to the HST photometric system (Holtzman et al. 1995), one should expect the TO to be located at $`V20.15`$, i.e. the same value found by Richtler et al. (1994) in their ground-based photometry of NGC 6496. For NGC 6352 one finds, after correction for reddening and the transformation to the Johnson’s system, that the TO is at $`V18.8`$, in excellent agreement with the value by Fullton et al. (1995).

## 4 Metallicity and reddening of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352

Published values of the metallicity of NGC 6496 cover a wide range from $`[Fe/H]=0.48`$ (Zinn & West 1984) to $`[Fe/H]=1.05`$ (Friel & Geisler 1991). This is, however, hardly surprising, since, as discussed by Richtler et al. (1994), the metallicity estimated by CMD morphological indicators is usually significantly lower than that obtained through integrated aperture photometry. (Note, however, that whilst true at the time when it was made, this statement does not apply to the comparison of the MS fiducial lines that we discuss below and which is far more reliable than any integrated property.) On the other hand, metallicity and reddening estimates are strictly connected. If we consider an increase of reddening from $`E(BV)=0.19`$ to $`E(BV)=0.23`$, the metallicity evaluated by Friel & Geisler (1991) would increase to $`[Fe/H]=0.8`$, in better agreement with the estimates based on CMD features which depend on metallicity, such as the slope $`S`$ of the red giant branch (Hartwick 1968). If estimated through the IR maps of Schlegel et al. (1998), the reddening of NGC 6496 is $`E(BV)=0.24`$.

The metallicity and reddening estimates of NGC 6352, according to all the available measurements based on different methods (Zinn & West 1984; Gratton 1987; Geisler at al. 1991; Da Costa & Armandroff 1991; Fullton et al. 1995; Carretta & Gratton 1997) indicate that it is closer in Iron abundance to NGC 6496 than to 47 Tuc. Following the metallicity scale of Carretta & Gratton (1997), the Iron abundance of NGC 6352 is $`[Fe/H]=0.64`$, whereas for 47 Tuc they give $`[Fe/H]=0.7`$. All the reddening estimates are in the range $`E(BV)=[0.21,0.24]`$, except for the one of Schlegel et al. (1998) which, in the direction of NGC 6352, yields $`E(BV)=0.34`$.

To learn more about the physical properties of the stars in these clusters, we compared the CMD of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 with that of a reference cluster, i.e. one with known reddening, metallicity, distance and age, such as NGC 104 (47 Tuc). Further information can be derived from the features of the CMD which reflect specific stellar properties and their evolution and which can be compared with theoretical isochrones of various chemical composition and ages as calibrated through field sub-dwarfs. Figure 4 shows the fiducial MS lines of NGC 6496 (squares) and NGC 6352 (crosses) as compared with that of 47 Tuc (circles), whose photometry comes from De Marchi & Paresce (1995b). The dashed line represents the 10 Gyr isochrone from the models of Baraffe et al. (1998) for metal content \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ in the VEGAMAG photometric system (Isabelle Baraffe 1998, private communication). For sake of comparison, we also show the 14 Gyr isochrone of Girardi et al. (2002) for metallicity $`Z=0.008`$ and $`Y=0.25`$. The distance modulus and extinction for NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 are those given above (respectively $`(mM)_o=14.8`$ and $`E(BV)=0.25`$, $`13.6`$ and $`0.25`$), whereas for 47 Tuc we have adopted $`(mM)_o=13.25`$ and $`E(BV)=0.04`$ from Percival et al. (2002). There is overall agreement between the models and the observed sequences for absolute magnitude brighter than $`M_{814}6.5`$. The deviation of the Baraffe et al. (1998) models close to the TO is probably due to the younger age of the adopted isochrone, whilst the discrepancies between the two sets of models and between these and the data below $`M_{814}7`$ most likely arise because of the uncertainties in the treatment of the opacity in the atmospheres of these high metallicity cool stars. Nevertheless, the isochrone of Baraffe et al. (1998) better approximates the observed loci of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352. We shall, therefore, adopt the corresponding M/L relation to derive a MF from the observed LF.

Interestingly, since the MS of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 lie in the same place of the diagram and have an almost identical shape, one must conclude (see e.g. Cassisi et al. 2000), that these clusters have the same chemical composition. Indeed, it is well known that the slope of the very low mass end of the MS depends strongly on the metallicity of the stars. More importantly, however, the comparison in Figure 4 is insensitive to errors in the distance and/or reddening, in that none of them could alter the shape of the MS but only shift it solidly in the colour–magnitude plane. On this basis, one is forced to exclude the high reddening value of $`E(BV)=0.34`$, suggested by the IR dust maps of Schlegel et. al. (1998), as this would imply that the metallicity of NGC 6352 is considerably higher than that of NGC 6496, at variance with the overall agreement shown in Figure 4. However, the large value of $`E(BV)`$ measured by Schlegel et al. (1998) is probably due to dust behind the cluster or some diffuse infrared background in the direction of NGC 6352.

The fiducial line of 47 Tuc (circles) is reasonably well fitted by the \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ isochrone by Baraffe et al. (1998) and is at least $`0.1`$ mag bluer than those of the two other clusters at bright magnitudes (the difference grows larger still at lower masses) thus witnessing its lower metal content. This conclusion is further strengthened by the different slope of the MS of 47 Tuc down to $`M_{814}6`$. Such an empirical estimate can be checked against the predictions of the most recent theoretical models, as we do in Figure 5, where we compare the MF of NGC 6496 (thick solid line) and the isochrones of Baraffe et al. (1998) for a stellar population of 10 Gyr of age. The dashed lines represent, from left to right, three 10 Gyr isochrones of metal content, respectively, \[M/H\]$`=1`$, $`0.5`$ and and $`0.0`$. Only the latter (short dashed line) takes the updated TiO opacities into account (see below).

Firstly, we note that the \[M/H\]$`=1.0`$ isochrone dose not fit at all the position nor the shape of the NGC 6496 fiducial line, so the hypothesis of an intermediate metal content for this cluster (Richtler et al. 1994) is inconsistent with the present observational and theoretical results. It is, therefore, extremely unlikely that NGC 6496 is a halo object.

The \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ isochrone, which corresponds to \[Fe/H\]$`0.7`$ when taking into account the overabundance of $`\alpha `$-elements (Ryan & Norris 1991), fits the upper part of the MS rather well, yet it fails to reproduce the lower portion. The deviation of the models from the observed stellar locus at the bottom of the MS is a well known limitation of the theory and most probably stems from the lack of a proper treatment of the TiO molecular opacity, as extensively discussed in Baraffe et al. (1998; see also Chabrier 2001). Although a proper correction is currently not available, we show in the next section that the adoption of the theoretical \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ mass-luminosity (M–L) relation will still provide, in the F814W band alone, reliable results. Nevertheless, Figure 5 allows us to conclude that the true metal content of NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 — i.e. \[M/H\], not just \[Fe/H\] — must be at least $`0.20.3`$ dex higher than that of 47 Tuc.

## 5 The luminosity and mass functions

Tables 2 and 3 list, for each magnitude bin, the completeness fraction, the corrected LF and the corresponding rms errors coming from the Poisson statistics of the counting process (all values have been rounded off to the nearest integer). In order to derive the LF, and thus infer the PDMF of the clusters, we must correct the observed counts for the incompleteness of the sample due to crowding and to saturated stars, whose bright halo can mask possible faint objects in their vicinity. Completeness corrections have been estimated by running artificial star tests in both bands and in the combined images for each chip. For each $`0.5`$ magnitude bin we have carried out 10 trials by adding a fraction of 10 % of the total number of objects in that bin (see Section 2), and using the PSF from the co-added frames. These trials were followed by running the tasks daophot.daofind and daophot.allstar, with the same parameters used in the reduction of the scientific images to assess the fraction of the objects recovered by the procedure and the associated photometric errors.

We have divided the MS into magnitude bins, each spanning $`0.5`$ mag from $`m_{814}=18`$ to $`m_{814}=25.5`$, and from $`m_{814}=17`$ to $`m_{814}=24.5`$ for NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, respectively. By adopting a sigma clipping criterion (De Marchi & Paresce 1995b), from the CMD of Figure 3 we have measured the LF by counting the objects in $`0.5`$ mag bins and within $`\pm 2.5`$ times the $`m_{606}m_{814}`$ colour standard deviation ($`\sigma `$) around the MS ridge line. As regards the decontamination of the LF from the field stars, we have assumed that the field objects fill uniformly the colour range $`0.3<m_{606}m_{814}<3`$. For each magnitude bin, we have estimated the number of stars with colour in this range, but outside the $`5\sigma `$ wide MS belt. By dividing the measured value by the corresponding colour range and multiplying the result by the MS colour width, we have obtained the number of field stars inside the MS. The LF corrected for incompleteness and field star contamination is shown in Figure 6, together with that of 47 Tuc, as a function of the absolute $`M_{814}`$ magnitude. The LF of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 rise continuously, all the way up to $`M_{814}9`$, where they reach their maximum, and drop to the detection limit at $`M_{814}10`$. Taken at face value, after its peak the LF of NGC 6352 seems to decrease somewhat more steeply than that of NGC 6496, as indicated by the $`1\sigma `$ error bars. We should note, however, that the difference between the two LF in practice vanishes if we consider the uncertainty brought about by our $`0.5`$ mag wide bins along the abscissa. Moreover, if we had assumed for the distance modulus of NGC 6496 the canonical value of $`(mM)_I=15.5`$ as given by Harris (1996), the LF of the two clusters would have been in reasonable agreement with one another (see dashed line in Figure 6). The value of $`(mM)_I=15.2`$ that we have used was suggested by the remarkably good match between the MS fiducial lines of the two clusters that it would provide in the CMD (see Section 4). The value $`(mM)_I=15.5`$ would imply that NGC 6496 should be slightly more metal rich than NGC 6352, a hypothesis that we cannot certainly rule out at the present level of accuracy. We, therefore, conclude that the LF of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 are substantially the same.

To best fit the LF of the three clusters under examination, we have to fold an input MF through the derivative of the M–L relation appropriate for the cluster metallicity. We adopted the M–L relation obtained from the $`10`$ Gyr isochrones of Baraffe et al. (1998) with \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ and $`Y=0.25`$ in the F814W filter for the reasons outlined above. When looking at the admittedly rather poor fit of the theoretical isochrones to the MS loci of these clusters in Figure 3 below $`M_{814}7`$, it is fair to wonder whether the resulting M–L relations are reliable at all. We have, thus, examined how an improvement in the treatment of the TiO opacity could alter the M–L relation and give a better fit. For the solar mixture, Baraffe et al. (1998) provide isochrones with and without TiO opacity enhancement. We obtained M–L relations with and without this TiO effect and realised that the resulting MF were substantially the same, thus suggesting (although not proving) that in the case of \[M/H\]$`=0.5`$ as well the adoption of the uncorrected M–L should give reliable results. Moreover, the quoted numerical experiments show that the effects of the uncertainty of the TiO opacity values on the M–L relation should be negligible when compared to the smoothing of the observed LF caused by the $`0.5`$ magnitude binning.

We compare in Figure 7 the observed LF with that obtained when a model MF is folded through the M–L relation. The squares and crosses refer, respectively, to NGC 6496 and NGC 6352. We have made here the simplifying assumption that the MF of the stellar population near the cluster half-mass radius is represented by a power-law, i.e. that the mass distribution function takes on the form $`dN/dmm^\alpha `$, finding that values of $`\alpha =0.7\pm 0.1`$ and $`0.6\pm 0.1`$ are adequate for NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, respectively. As a short-dashed line in Figure 7 we also show the model LF that best fits the observations of 47 Tuc, the prototypical cluster of intermediate metallicity. It is well known that a simple power-law MF cannot adequately reproduce the MS LF of 47 Tuc over the whole observed range of luminosity and that a log-normal distribution in mass (Paresce & De Marchi 2000) or a tapered power-law function (De Marchi et al. 2003) give a better fit over the whole mass range. Nevertheless, for the sake of the discussion that follows, it is sufficient to limit the comparison amongst the three MF within the range $`0.3<m/m_{}<0.8`$, where a single exponent power-law is the simplest and, hence, the preferred assumption. Figure 7 leaves no doubt that the MF of 47 Tuc, with $`\alpha =1.4`$, is twice as steep as that of the other two clusters.

## 6 Discussion and conclusions

To the expert eye, this discrepancy would probably not come as a surprise, since it is the natural consequence of the already different LF seen in Figure 6. To be precise, however, the difference in the LF per se would not necessarily imply that also the underlying MF should be different since 47 Tuc has a lower metal content than the other two objects. Thus, stars of equal mass would appear slightly brighter in 47 Tuc due to the different M–L relation, therefore changing the shape of the observed LF. In fact, it is well understood that the most notable feature in the LF of a cluster, i.e. the brightness at which it peaks, shifts to fainter magnitudes with increasing metallicity (see e.g. D’Antona 1998; Kroupa & Tout 1997; von Hippel et al. 1996; De Marchi & Paresce 1995b) to the point that, if the distance to a cluster were known, the magnitude of the peak could be used as a metallicity indicator.

The application of the M–L relations appropriate to each cluster has, however, removed the signature of the metallicity. As explained in Section 5, although some uncertainties exist as to the exact shape of the M–L relationship in the range $`0.5<[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]<0.0`$ (Baraffe et al. 1998), they cannot be held responsible for the large discrepancy in the MF seen in Figure 3. We must, therefore, accept that NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 have MF which are inherently different from that of 47 Tuc and from the dozen lower metallicity halo clusters studied to date in detail with the HST (Paresce & De Marchi 2000).

The effects of energy equipartition and the resulting mass segregation have been observed and studied in detail in several clusters and can be modelled satisfactorily (47 Tuc, Paresce et al. 1994; NGC 7078, De Marchi & Paresce 1996; NGC 6397, King et al. 1995, De Marchi et al. 2000; NGC 6121, Pulone et al. 1999; NGC 6656, Albrow et al. 2001). It is today understood that, near the cluster’s half-mass radius, the local MF faithfully reflects the global MF of the whole cluster (as originally suggested by Richer et al. 1991). Since the observations of NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 on which we here report were conducted at their half-mass radius (see Section 2), the effects of internal dynamics can be safely excluded from the picture.

On the other hand, the action of the Galactic tidal field can be equally strong in reshaping the MF of a cluster through disc and bulge shocks during its repeated passages at the perigalacticon. For example, the MF of NGC 6712 measured near the half-mass radius (De Marchi et al. 1999; Andreuzzi et al. 2001) bears no resemblance to that of any other cluster studied so far, in that if falls steeply with decreasing mass. Pal 5 (Grillmair & Smith 2001) and E 3 (van den Bergh et al. 1980) might have undergone a similar, although less severe fate. It is, thus, fair to wonder whether the MF of NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 were similarly affected by the Galaxy.

Gnedin & Ostriker (1997) and Dinescu et al. (1998) used the mass, size and space motion parameters of most Galactic globular clusters to infer the magnitude of their past dynamical interaction with the potential field of the Galaxy. They define a useful parameter, the time to disruption ($`t_d`$), which should directly correlate with the strength and extent of the overall tidal interaction and, thus, ultimately with the shape of the present day MF. However, whilst it is true that for NGC 6712 they predict a probability of disruption about two orders of magnitude higher than average, Paresce & De Marchi (2000) have shown that no correlation exists between $`t_d`$ and the shape of the MF of the 12 clusters that they studied in detail with the HST. The value of $`t_d`$ must thus be used with care and we shall do so here to show, with a very simple reasoning, that neither NGC 6352 nor NGC 6496 can have been severely affected by tidal stripping. If the theory of Gnedin & Ostriker (1997) is indeed correct, the destruction rate for NGC 6496 is about 300 times larger than that of NGC 6352, yet the two clusters have the same global MF! So, if we want these clusters to have had an IMF originally as steep as that of 47 Tuc, we cannot hold tidal stripping accountable for the alleged flattening. Moreover, postulating that the two IMF were originally different from one another but that, through dynamical evolution, they have been brought into agreement would look highly contrived, in light of the widely different dynamical histories of the two clusters. Lacking any other viable explanation, it is more logical to conclude that the IMF of these clusters did not change with time, i.e. that it was already flatter at birth and the same for both.

This conclusion, however, does still not explain why the IMF of NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 should be flatter than that of the less metal rich GC unless, of course, it is the metallicity itself that governs the shape of the IMF. Claims of an apparent correlation between the shape of the MF and cluster metallicity have been put forth in the past by McClure et al. (1986), who analysed a set of nine, relatively deep GC LF obtained from the ground and noticed a shallower slope for richer clusters, in the same sense that we report here. More recent data, however, do not confirm these results (Paresce & De Marchi 2000). Von Hippel et al. (1996) went even further and studied how metallicity affects the shape of the IMF of clusters of various ages (from young open cluster to globulars), concluding in favour of an invariant IMF.

Whether stars form through the hierarchical fragmentation of a proto-stellar cloud (Elmegreen 1999) or through the accretion of smaller clumps (Bonnell et al. 2001), once the pre-MS phase begins, the metallicity and ensuing atmospheric opacity will eventually determine the limiting mass for stable Hydrogen burning (see e.g. D’Antona & Mazzitelli 1996) and, thus, the value of the IMF peak mass. In other words, the metal content of the natal cloud will affect its temperature and pressure, on which the characteristic mass eventually depends (Larson 1998). If turbulent fragmentation prevails below $`1`$ M, its dependence on the cooling rate and, hence, on the metallicity could affect the shape of the IMF, but no clear prediction as to the results of this process exists (Larson 2002). Moreover, the observational evidence seems overwhelming that the IMF is universal and independent of the total mass, density, age and metallicity of the stellar population (Scalo 1998; Gilmore 2001; but see also the cautionary remark in Kroupa 2001).

NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 would seem, at least apparently, to violate this rule. We have, however, so far ignored the important contribution of binaries (Kroupa 2001). Other examples exist of relatively old and metal rich systems that display a rather flat MF: the bulge (Holtzman et al. 1998; Zoccali et al. 2000), the spheroid (Gould et al. 1997) as well as the Galactic disc in the solar neighbourhood (Kroupa et al. 1993; Ried & Gizis 1997; Gould et al. 1997). In all cases, the MF of these systems, as derived directly from the observed LF, is rather flat if no account is taken of the presence of binaries: for instance, for stars less massive than $`0.5`$ M Gould et al. (1997) find $`\alpha =0.56`$ in the disc and $`\alpha =0.75`$ in the spheroid. Ignoring the binaries, however, results in the underestimate of the real IMF slope by an amount that depends on the slope itself and on the binary fraction (Sagar & Richtler 1991; Kroupa 2001) and which can be of order $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 0.5`$ or higher. As Holtzman et al. (1998) show, a measured MF slope of $`\alpha 0.7`$ can be in reality as steep as $`\alpha 1.3`$ if the binary fraction is of order 50 %.

The age and metallicity of the stellar population in NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 should be rather similar to those of the stars in the bulge, as one can judge for instance from the similarity of their CMD and particularly of their curved red giant branch and clumped horizontal branch (Richtler et al. 1994; Fullton et al. 1995; Zoccali et al. 2000). It is, then, reasonable to apply to their MF a correction similar to that derived by Holtzman et al. (1998), which would in turn bring them into good agreement with that of 47 Tuc and of the other, lower metallicity halo clusters (Paresce & De Marchi 2000).

At this juncture, one might wonder whether a similar correction for binaries should be applied to all GC, including 47 Tuc. Albrow et al. (2001), however, have recently conducted high precision differential time series photometry on $`46,000`$ stars in the core of this cluster and have concluded that the binary fraction is on average $`13\%`$ within $`4`$ core radii ($`r_c`$), with indications that it drops to $`8\%`$ or less outside of $`2.5r_c`$. A correction to the IMF in this case is, therefore, not necessary. The only notable signature of binaries on the observed CMD is a vertical broadening of the MS (of up to $`0.75`$ mag along the magnitude axis for equal mass systems), which should be best observed where the MS slope is not too steep in the CMD, or where it changes abruptly near the MS kinks due to changes in the main source of opacity (see, e.g., the CMD of NGC 6752 by Rubenstein & Bailyn 1997). With the advent of high precision HST photometry, this test has become possible (De Marchi & Paresce 1995b; Elson et al. 1995; Cool et al. 1996) and has revealed the paucity of these objects. Yet, in only a few cases, for example NGC 6752 (Rubenstein & Bailyn 1997), has the photometry been sufficiently precise to detect this binary sequence.

The MS of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 is, however, much steeper than that of NGC 6752 in the magnitude range where the photometric uncertainty would allow us to see the effects of a broadening. Below $`m_{606}23`$ the MS of NGC 6496 flattens out, but here the photometric uncertainty dominates (see Table 2). Furthermore, since the vertical displacement of a binary with respect to the MS in the CMD depends on the mass ratio $`q=m_2/m_1`$, it will be easier to detect nearly equal mass systems, which are however believed to be a small fraction of the total, at least according to Duquennoy & Mayor (1991). These authors investigate the multiplicity of nearby G dwarfs and find that the secondary mass distribution peaks at around $`q0.25`$, where the solar neighbourhood’s IMF has its maximum (Kroupa et al. 1993), thereby suggesting that binaries should form some time after the formation of single stars. If the same mass distribution applies to the binaries in NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, their signature on the MS will remain undetected, at least at the present level of photometric accuracy, since a typical $`0.25`$ M companion would add insignificantly to the brightness of a more massive primary. Although for late M dwarf primaries the $`q`$ distribution seems somewhat flatter than for G stars (Fischer & Marcy 1992), again in agreement with a binary formation scenario through random sampling from the same IMF, our photometric uncertainty, the contamination due to field objects and the steepening of the MS in the CMD plane prevent us from reliably probing this region of the parameter space.

Whilst NGC 6352 and NGC 6496 are the only two clusters in the bulge for which a deep MF has been measured so far, at this stage one could tentatively conclude that the main effect of the metallicity difference between these and the halo clusters may indeed be the binary frequency. The proposed universality of the IMF would not seem to be affected by this conclusion, but it must not be disconnected from the process of binary formation. In order for the final stellar IMF to be the same regardless of the metal content, it would require that stars are all born single and that only later they aggregate in multiple systems within the natal cloud (where they are observed), in a way which however depends on the metallicity. That the properties of binaries can be better explained through a “two step” IMF has been discussed recently by Durisen et al. (2001). Thus, it cannot be excluded, for instance, that the stronger UV flux and more powerful winds of OB stars in metal poor clusters would not only hinder the formation of low mass objects (Larson 1998), but also discourage their interaction and aggregation into multiple systems. This scenario agrees with the finding (Duquennoy & Mayor 1991; Fischer & Marcy 1992) that, in the solar neighbourhood, binary formation seems to happen through random association of two stars drawn from the same IMF. An alternative proposal is also possible in which, after the initial collapse, clumps form which further fragment into single stars or multiple systems depending on the cloud’s metallicity. This hypothesis would, however, be less favoured because in order to conserve the uniformity of the stellar IMF with metallicity the fragmentation mechanism should adapt itself to the metal content in a way which is presently not understood.

In spite of the rather speculative nature of the previous paragraph, we stress here that our result is the first tentative indication of a large fraction of binaries in some globular clusters.

## 7 Summary

The main results of this paper can be summarised as follows:

1. Two regions located at the respective half-light radius of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 were observed with the WFPC2 on board the HST. The photometry of the WF chips, carried out in the F814W and F606W bands, extends down to $`m_{814}25.5`$ corresponding to $`M_{814}10.5`$ with completeness in the raw data always above $`50\%`$.
2. The MS fiducial lines of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 show a similar shape within the measurement errors, thus strongly suggesting a similar metal content, which appears at least $`0.20.3`$ dex higher in \[M/H\] than that of 47 Tuc. Accordingly, neither object should be considered a member of the halo Galactic globular cluster system.
3. No theoretical M–L relationships are available that reproduce the shape of the MS fiducial line over the whole range of luminosity spanned by the observations. According to Baraffe et al. (1998), the offset observed at low luminosities (and masses) is a shortcoming reflecting the inadequate treatment of the TiO molecule, which becomes important for metallicity higher than \[M/H\]$`0.5`$. This effect is less severe in the reddest bands.
4. The I-band LF of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, obtained from the CMD using both the colour and magnitude information and corrected for incompleteness were compared to the LF of 47 Tuc. Although all three LF feature a peak at a similar magnitude level ($`M_{814}9`$), that of 47 Tuc rises more steeply to the maximum.
5. Using the M–L of Baraffe et al. (1998), the power-law MF that best fit the observations in the range $`0.3<m/m_{}<0.8`$ are derived and compared, finding an index $`\alpha =0.7`$ and $`0.6`$ for NGC 6496 and NGC 6352, respectively. The MF of 47 Tuc is twice as steep over the same mass range, with $`\alpha =1.4`$ and similarly steep is the MF of other halo GC.
6. We investigate the origin of this discrepancy and conclude that a dynamical origin for it is highly unlikely if present theories are correct. We suggest instead that it could be the result of a large binary fraction amongst the stars of NGC 6496 and NGC 6352. A binary fraction of $`50\%`$ would produce a stellar MF in agreement with that of 47 Tuc and of the low metallicity halo clusters. Because of their location and chemical properties, both NGC 6496 and NGC 6352 are likely members of the bulge, where such a binary fraction is accepted (Holtzman et al. 1998). If this result is confirmed, it would imply that the metallicity affects the way in which binaries form and aggregate, but not the fragmentation process of the natal cloud. A larger sample of intermediate and high metallicity GC is needed to address these issues in more detail.

###### Acknowledgements.

It is our pleasure to thank I. Baraffe for useful discussions. L. Pulone is grateful to ESO, where he conducted part of this work, for the hospitality of their visitor programme. We are very thankful to an anonymous referee whose comments have considerably improved the presentation of this paper. This work has been partly supported by MURST/COFIN 2000 under the project: “Stellar observables of cosmological relevance.”


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# Probing Broad Absorption Line Quasar Outflows: X-ray Insights

## INTRODUCTION

Recent studies of the strong correlations between black hole masses and the properties of their hosts’ galactic bulges (e.g., Ferrarese and Merritt, 2000; Gebhardt et al., 2000) demonstrate clearly the intimate interrelation between the growth of black holes and their host galaxies. This connection implies a physical mechanism for regulating the coeval development of these structures. During the bulk of their accretion phases, supermassive black holes apparently reveal themselves as luminous quasars (e.g., Yu and Tremaine, 2002), and thus quasar winds are likely to provide a primary source of feedback. These winds are directly observed in the population of Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasars, $`10\%`$ of the quasar population that exhibit deep, broad absorption lines from high-ionization UV resonance transitions. Such blueshifted absorption features are understood to arise along lines of sight which pass through radiatively driven winds with terminal velocities reaching 0.1–0.3$`c`$. These energetic outflows are important components of quasar environments; mass ejection is apparently fundamentally linked to active mass accretion. X-rays, generated in the innermost region surrounding accreting black holes, travel through the nuclear environments to the observer. X-ray studies of BAL quasars thus offer a privileged view through the wind.

The challenge of accelerating gas to the high velocities observed in BAL quasars led Murray et al. (1995) to a picture similar to that presented in Figure 1. In this model, at radii starting at $`10^{16}`$ cm for a $`10^8`$ $`M_{}`$ black hole, radiation and gas pressure lift material from the disk photosphere where it is struck by light from the inner accretion disk and corona. The wind, initially co-rotating with the disk, is accelerated radially by the momentum of UV line photons; the material launched from the innermost radii reaches the highest terminal velocities. In order to launch the wind at such small distances, a thick layer of “shielding” gas, highly ionized plasma with $`N_\mathrm{H}=10^{22}`$$`10^{24}`$ cm-2, was introduced to protect the wind from becoming completely ionized by soft X-rays. In the subsequent hydrodynamical modeling of line-driven quasar winds by Proga, Stone, and Kallman (2000), this layer of shielding gas arose naturally from the simulations. This scenario produces several predictions for X-ray observations of BAL quasars:

* BAL quasars should have intrinsic X-ray continuum shapes (with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.0\pm 0.3`$; e.g., George et al., 2000) and spectral energy distributions typical of radio-quiet quasars.
* All BAL quasars should be X-ray weak, i.e., have values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$$`\stackrel{<}{}`$$`2.0`$,111The quantity $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ measures the relative flux densities at rest-frame 2 keV and 2500 Å. For reference, a sample of low-redshift radio-quiet quasars without known absorption has $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$$`=1.56\pm 0.14`$ (Brandt et al., 2001); more negative values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ indicate a quasar is X-ray weak relative to its UV power. as a result of large column densities of absorbing gas. Furthermore, with data of sufficient quality, the spectra will show the signatures of absorption by highly ionized gas.
* A correlation between the minimum absorption velocity and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ is likely to arise due to effects of orientation. For example, a line of sight close to the accretion disk will pass through more X-ray absorbing gas, and the minimum observed UV absorption velocity will be close to zero as the gas outflow is primarily transverse to the line of sight.

The sample of BAL quasars observed by *Chandra* and *XMM-Newton* is steadily growing, and the current X-ray data are now of sufficient quality to investigate these predictions directly. In this paper, we summarize the insights offered from both exploratory and spectroscopic X-ray surveys of BAL quasars to the understanding of quasar winds.

## RESULTS FROM EXPLORATORY SURVEYS

Given the extreme faintness of BAL quasars in the soft X-ray regime (e.g., Kopko et al., 1994; Green and Mathur, 1996), obtaining detailed spectroscopic information requires a significant commitment of observatory time. In this situation, only a small fraction of the population will have data of spectroscopic quality, and there is a legitimate danger that the conclusions drawn from such limited, potentially biased samples will not be representative of the population as a whole. Pursuing an alternate strategy of exploratory observations enables much larger numbers of BAL quasars to be observed with the goal of measuring X-ray flux, hardness ratio, and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ for each object. The low background and excellent spatial resolution of *Chandra* allow short, exploratory observations of 5–7 ks to reach sensitive flux limits of $`\stackrel{<}{}10^{14}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 in the 0.5–8.0 keV band (Green et al., 2001; Gallagher et al., 2002a).

We are in the process of compiling the largest exploratory survey to date, with a well-defined sample of BAL quasars drawn from the Large Bright Quasar Survey (LBQS; Foltz et al., 1989; Hewett et al., 1995). This sample of $`z>1.35`$222At $`z>1.35`$ blueshifted C iv absorption, the definitive BAL quasar signature, enters the observed LBQS wavelength range. BAL quasars is comprised of 22 objects with publicly available rest-frame UV spectroscopy from Weymann et al. (1991). To date, 15 of the 20 objects observed have been detected, and the remainder have tight upper limits on both X-ray flux and $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ (Gallagher et al., 2002a, in prep.).

Though the BAL quasars in our sample are indeed weak in X-rays with a median value of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$$`=2.2`$ (see Figure 2), they are generally detectable with the current generation of X-ray observatories. For those objects that are detected, a measurement of the hardness ratio333The hardness ratio is defined as $`HR=(hs)/f`$ where $`h=2`$–8 keV counts, $`s=0.5`$–2.0 keV counts, and $`f=0.5`$–8.0 keV counts. indicates what fraction of the full-band (0.5–8.0 keV) counts are coming from hard band (2–8 keV) X-rays. Absorbed quasar spectra will have larger values of the hardness ratio as the cross-section for photoelectric absorption in the X-ray band decreases rapidly with increasing energy. The trend of increasing hardness ratio with decreasing $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ illustrated in Figure 3 is therefore consistent with the understanding that X-ray faintness arises from intrinsic absorption. While this result is not new, it supports the idea that $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ can be used in a rough sense to indicate the extent of absorption. Following this premise, $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ might be expected to correlate with UV absorption properties such as C iv absorption-line equivalent width, as demonstrated by Brandt et al. (2000) for their sample of Palomar-Green quasars. To complement Brandt et al. (2000) we are probing the extreme end of this parameter space with the BAL quasars. In this regime, there are no apparent correlations between $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ and several absorption-line properties for the BAL quasars , most significantly the minimum velocity of C iv absorption shown in Figure 3.

Furthermore, the large column densities of absorbing gas implied by values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$$`\stackrel{<}{}2.0`$ coupled with the blue UV continua of the majority of our sample imply that the X-ray absorbing gas contains little dust, at least as we know it. This is consistent with the X-ray absorber being located within the dust sublimation radius. Alternatively, the bulk of the X-ray absorption may lie interior to the UV emission region, though this implies even smaller radii for the absorption.

We also confirm the result of Green et al. (2001) that the BAL quasars with broad Mg ii absorption, the LoBAL quasars, are notably X-ray weaker than those with only high-ionization BALs. In fact, only one of the LoBAL quasars in our sample was actually detected (see Figure 2). Given that LoBAL quasars generally have reddened optical and UV continua, it is unclear whether the extreme X-ray absorption that they suffer is occuring on the small scales inferred for the high-ionization BAL quasars. However, X-ray variability of the LoBAL quasar Mrk 231 suggests that a substantial X-ray absorber is located within $`10^{15}`$ cm of the X-ray continuum source (Gallagher et al., 2002c).

## RESULTS FROM X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY

Though exploratory surveys are essential for determining the general X-ray properties of the population as a whole, spectroscopic investigations are also required to obtain more detailed information on the X-ray continuum shape and absorption properties. Gallagher et al. (2002b) gathered together 8 spectroscopic-quality observations to investigate general trends from these data. In general, they found that the underlying X-ray continua are consistent with normal radio-quiet quasars, with significant, complex absorption. Possible sources of the observed complexity (illustrated in Figure 4) include partial covering of the X-ray continuum, ionized gas, and velocity structure similar to that seen in the UV regime. Furthermore, normalizing the power-law continua above 5 keV to correct for absorption resulted in typical radio-quiet quasar values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$. All of these results are consistent with the Murray et al. (1995) picture.

However, some unexpected results have also arisen. Among the most interesting is the observation of two absorption lines in the spectrum of APM 08279+5255, apparently from highly ionized Fe outflowing with speeds of $`0.2`$ and $`0.4c`$ (Chartas et al., 2002). In radiatively driven flows, such high terminal velocities occur in gas launched at much smaller radii than the UV BAL wind, which has terminal velocities of $`12,000`$ km s-1. In addition, when compared with an *XMM-Newton* observation of this object taken $`12`$ rest-frame days later (Hasinger et al., 2002), there is a clear indication of variability in the absorber properties. APM 08279+5255 is not unique; similar absorption lines have also been seen in PG 1115+080 (Chartas et al., in prep.). These results are challenging for models in which the X-ray and UV absorption arise in the same medium and are predicted to have the same velocity structure (e.g., Elvis, 2000). Significant iron emission has also been observed in some objects including H 1413+117 (Oshima et al., 2001; Gallagher et al., 2002b).

In another unanticipated result, the formerly X-ray brightest BAL quasar PG 2112+059 (Gallagher et al., 2001) exhibited significant variability between the *ASCA* observation of Oct 1999 and the *Chandra* observation of Sep 2002. In the most recent *Chandra* data, the power-law continuum normalization dropped by a factor of a few while the measured column density of the absorber increased significantly. Notably, concurrent *HST* STIS data of the C iv absorption line showed no large changes from earlier UV observations. For PG 2112+059 at least, evidence for distinct X-ray and UV absorbers is mounting.

## IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORETICAL MODELS OF QUASAR OUTFLOWS

In general, X-ray studies are providing support for the family of radiatively driven wind models. BAL quasars are generally X-ray weak with values of $`\alpha _{\mathrm{ox}}`$ indicating a significant reduction in observed X-ray flux relative to the UV continuum. When sufficient data are available, the intrinsic X-ray power, corrected for absorption, is typical of normal radio-quiet quasars. The complexity in the X-ray absorbers is consistent with highly ionized gas as predicted for the shielding gas; however the ionization state cannot be constrained given the current data quality.

Though the wind models have had some success, the lack of any apparent correlation between the UV absorption-line and X-ray properties is contrary to the model predictions. While certainly X-ray and UV absorption are found together in the same objects, the connection between the two is not straightforward. This is perhaps not unexpected given the complexity of the UV BALs and potential quasar-to-quasar variations in wind properties. The assertion of Elvis (2000) that the UV and X-ray absorption arise from the same medium is not easily reconciled with the lack of connection between X-ray and UV variability seen in PG 2112+059 and the mismatch in X-ray and UV absorption properties seen in APM 08279+5255. In addition, the large-velocity outflows seen in APM 08279+5255, which imply a much smaller launching radius that for the BAL gas, do not fit within the Elvis (2000) picture with a narrow range of launching radii for the outflow.

One of the problems for theoretical wind models with small launching radii is the lack of variability in velocity structure in the UV absorption lines on observed-frame timescales of years (e.g., de Kool, 1997). However, the most comprehensive absorption-line variability investigation to date, the 3 yr study of Barlow (1993), was not long enough for a conclusive test; the hydrodynamic wind models of Proga et al. (2000) generated instabilities on rest-frame timescales of $`3`$ yr. With longer time baselines, velocity increases have been seen for at least one object (Vilkoviskij and Irwin, 2001), and an extended study is certainly warranted to investigate this issue further. If the bulk of the X-ray absorbing gas is on smaller scales than the BAL gas, it is also possible that X-ray absorption variability on shorter timescales may regularly occur, as seen for PG 2112+059 and APM 08279+5255. To make accurate predictions for such events, the hydrodynamic models may need to be extended to smaller radii ($`<10^{15}`$ cm) with higher resolution, and also more explicitly include the effects of Compton pressure. For highly ionized gas, this will dominate the radiation force (D. Chelouche, priv. comm.). Additional items for an X-ray observer’s wish list from theoretical modeling are specific predictions for the strength and profiles of Fe emission and absorption lines.

An outstanding issue for future investigations concerns the velocity of the X-ray absorbing gas in most BAL quasars; is it stalled, outflowing, or inflowing? Proga et al. (2000) claimed that highly ionized gas should be inflowing or stalled, but the evidence from APM 08279+5255 and PG 1115+080 suggests otherwise. An X-ray gratings observation of a BAL quasar offers the potential for a qualitative advance in this field. The improved resolution of gratings data, from $`\mathrm{\Delta }v20,000`$ km s-1 for CCD data to $`<1300`$ km s-1, would enable a more penetrating and subtle investigation into the connection between UV and X-ray absorption. In particular, significant constraints could be placed on the velocity, column density, and ionization state of the X-ray absorbing gas. These values can then provide information on the location of the X-ray absorber and the mass-outflow rate, parameters of fundamental physical importance.

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Sera Markov, Bev Wills, and Doron Chelouche for helpful discussions. This work was made possible by *Chandra* X-ray Center grants GO1-2105X and GO2-3129A as well as NASA grant NAS 8-38252 for the ACIS instrument team.

Email address of S.C. Gallagher: scg@space.mit.edu.


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# CDM Substructure in Gravitational Lenses: Tests and Results

## 1 Introduction

It is a generic feature of CDM (cold dark matter) halo simulations that a significant fraction of the halo mass remains in the form of satellites (e.g. Kauffmann et al. 1993, Moore et al. 1999, Klypin et al. 1999). The exact mass fraction remains somewhat unclear, but the global mass fraction is of order 5–10%, and the projected fraction inside cylinders of radius $`R5h^1`$kpc is of order 1%. These mass fractions are significantly higher than are observed in satellites of the Galaxy, suggesting a conflict between CDM models and observations. Three general classes of solutions have been proposed. First, the satellites can be made invisible by suppressing star formation (Kauffmann et al. 1993; Bullock et al. 2000). Second, they can be destroyed by normal dynamical processes or abnormal ones such as self-interacting dark matter (Spergel & Steinhardt 2000; Yoshida et al. 2000; Colín et al. 2002; D’Onghia & Burkert 2002). Third, their formation might be avoided by significantly reducing the amplitude of the power spectrum on the relevant scales (Kamionkowski & Liddle 2000; Colín et al. 2000; Bode et al. 2001; Avila-Reese et al. 2001). The problem, of course, is that it is difficult to distinguish between undetectable and absent satellites.

It was realized early in the debate (see Moore et al. 1999) that gravitational lensing provided a means of resolving the issue because it could detect the gravitational perturbations created by substructure. It was already known that satellites provided a means of solving the “anomalous flux ratio” problem seen in some gravitational lenses (Mao & Schneider 1998). An example of such a problem is shown in Fig. 1, where the close image pair would be expected to have very similar fluxes for any lens model where the gravitational potential can be well-represented by a low-order Taylor series expansion near the images. Metcalf & Madau (2001) and Chiba (2002) pointed out that such anomalies should be common given the predicted CDM substructure fractions. Mao & Schneider (1998), Keeton (2001), Bradac et al. (2002), and Chiba (2002) explored how substructure could explain the anomalous flux ratios in several lens systems. Metcalf & Zhao (2001), Keeton, Gaudi & Petters (2002) and Evans & Witt (2002) explored whether the model for the primary lens galaxy could be modified to explain the anomalous flux ratios, with mixed results which we will discuss in detail below. Our contribution in Dalal & Kochanek (2002, DK02 hereafter) was to analyze the data to make an experimental determination of the substructure fraction, finding it to be in the range $`0.006<f_{sat}<0.07`$ (90% confidence) based on a sample of radio lenses. This is in good agreement with the expectations for CDM, and well above standard estimates for the mass fractions in normal satellites.

Our review of the problem will cover three basic topics. First, we will discuss the problem of distinguishing CDM substructure from other possible origins for the anomalous flux ratios. In particular, we introduce a simple statistical test for substructure in the gravity as compared to either propagation effects in the interstellar medium of the lens galaxy or poorly modeled contributions to the smooth gravitational potential of the lens galaxy. In §3 we review our estimate of the substructure mass fraction and its relation to simulations. Finally, in §4 we discuss the future of the method.

## 2 Testing for Substructure

Most of the existing studies of the anomalous flux ratio problem have focused on demonstrating that the problem can be explained by CDM substructure. The next problem is to demonstrate that they cannot be explained by other effects. We can divide the other possibilities into three categories. First, propagation effects in the interstellar medium of the lens galaxy could produce the observed anomalies. Second, the flux ratio anomalies could be created by problems in the models for the smooth potential of the primary lens. Third, we could be misinterpreting a microlensing effect created by the normal stellar populations of the lenses with the effects of more massive satellites. Since we will focus on radio lenses, where microlensing effects must be small because of the large source sizes (Koopmans & de Bruyn 2000), we will not discuss this effect in detail.

Here we explore the first two problems – distinguishing substructure from propagation effects or modeling errors. The first approach we could take is to argue individual cases. For example, almost all propagation effects should show a strong frequency dependence. One way to explore the required properties of the ISM is to assume an optical depth, $`\tau =\tau _5(\nu /5\text{GHz})^\alpha `$, for the radio lenses normalized by the optical depth $`\tau _5`$ at $`5`$ GHz and with a spectral index $`\alpha `$ for the frequency dependence. Fig. 1 shows the results of fitting such an ISM model to the radio lenses in DK02 where flux measurements were available at both 5 GHz and either 8 or 15 GHz. Common ISM effects, such as refractive scattering or free-free absorption, would show a spectral index of $`\alpha 2`$, while the optical depth function needed to explain the data has almost no frequency dependence ($`\alpha 0`$). In short, explaining the anomalous flux ratios with the ISM requires the radio equivalent of the “gray dust” sometimes suggested to change the cosmological conclusions from Type Ia supernovae (Aguirre 1998).

Similarly, Metcalf & Zhao (2001), Keeton, Gaudi & Petters (2002) and Evans & Witt (2002) explore whether changes to the smooth potential can explain the problem. The basic result from these studies is that they cannot. Although Evans & Witt (2002) give an anti-substructure tenor to their results, we would argue that they have actually produced further arguments in favor of substructure. First, for the two lenses from DK02 they analyze, they can only explain the anomalous flux ratio of one system despite using lens models with essentially arbitrary angular structure. In fact, when we use similar models to analyze the full sample from DK02, we find that of the 6 systems (out of 7) which arguably have anomalous flux ratios, the more complicated models can successfully fit 2–3, at the price of having amplitudes for the higher order perturbations that are significantly larger than are generally observed for either the stars or in dark matter simulations. Second, the other two lenses Evans & Witt (2002) analyze are known from time variability studies to be microlensed (i.e. containing substructure but on a smaller mass scale), so the success of the Evans & Witt (2002) models at explaining the flux ratios in these systems shows that sufficiently complex macro models can mask the presence of substructure even when it is known to be present. This leaves us with a basic ambiguity of course, since standard models (ellipsoidal lens models combined with external tidal shear fields) cannot explain the anomalous flux ratios, while models with very complicated potentials can explain some, but not all, anomalous flux ratios, but can also do so in systems where they should not.

Fortunately, we need not live with these ambiguities, because low optical depth substructure has a unique property that allows us to statistically distinguish substructure from either the interstellar medium or problems in the smooth potential. The images of a lens can be assigned a parity depending on whether they are saddle points or minima of the virtual time delay surface (e.g. Schneider et al. 1992), and the four images alternate their parities as we go around the Einstein ring (saddle-minimum-saddle-minimum). Given a sample of lenses, we can divide the images into four separate classes (brightest saddle, faintest saddle, brightest minimum, faintest minimum) based on their parities and fluxes. As we now discuss, the effects of substructure depend on the image type, while the effects of the ISM and errors in the macro model generally do not.

Both microlensing by the stars (Schechter & Wambsganss 2002) and lensing by extended substructures (Keeton 2002) distinguishes between images based on their parities when the optical depth is low. The sense of the effect is to preferentially demagnify saddle points (negative total parity) compared to minima (positive total parity). The most magnified images are also affected more than the least magnified images because the high magnification makes them sensitive to smaller perturbations in the potential (Mao & Schneider 1998). We can study this effect by examining the distributions of the residuals, $`\mathrm{log}(f_{obs}/f_{mod})`$, between the model fluxes $`f_{mod}`$ and observed fluxes $`f_{obs}`$ for both the data and for different theories as to the origin of the anomalous flux ratios for the 4 different image types found in a quad lens (brightest saddle, faintest saddle, brightest minimum, faintest minimum). The top panel of Fig. 2 shows the distributions we find after fitting the 8 available radio quads using our standard model for the smooth potential (one or more singular isothermal ellipsoids in an external tidal shear field), and the middle panel shows the distribution predicted in a Monte Carlo simulation of a lens sample with a 5% substructure mass fraction. As expected from the previous theoretical studies, the simulation shows an offset of the distribution for the brightest saddle points from the distribution for the other images, in the sense of preferentially demagnifying the saddle point.

The ISM, for example, makes a very different prediction. It is the clumpy, high density components of the ISM which will modify flux ratios, and this has two important consequences. First, propagation effects should preferentially modify the fluxes of the least magnified images, because they have the smallest intrinsic angular sizes. The more magnified images have larger angular sizes and will more effectively smooth out any effects of a clumpy ISM. Second, a clumpy ISM cannot distinguish between images of differing parities because the ISM properties are locally determined while the image parity is not – the magnification tensor depends on the projected surface density, the projected shear component of the gravity and the source and lens redshifts. Thus, in a statistical sample, the ISM might systematically perturb the fainter images more than the brighter images, but it will not distinguish between saddle points and minima.

The macro model also will have difficulty systematically perturbing images of a particular parity. Qualitatively this can be understood by the symmetry of merging image pairs from the point of view of the central potential – any slope in the curvature needed to produce a change in the magnification of the saddle point can just as easily appear with the opposite sign so as to produce the opposite change. While we lack a mathematical proof to this effect, it certainly holds in Monte Carlo simulations of lenses produced by potentials with complicated, higher order angular structures (as in Evans & Witt 2002) that are then modeled using standard ellipsoidal potentials. In Fig. 2 we show an example of the distribution of residuals expected for a population of lenses with a large, unmodeled $`\mathrm{cos}4\theta `$ perturbation to the potential. Unlike the distributions expected for substructure shown in Fig. 2, we see that there is no distinction in the model residuals for the different images.

This then leads to a simple test for substructure – do the distributions of residuals from standard ellipsoidal models distinguish between the image types or do they not? We can immediately see the answer in Fig. 2 – the distribution of residuals for the brightest saddle point differs from that of the other three images just as expected for substructure. Quantitatively, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test probability that the model residuals for the brightest saddle points have the same distribution as for the other images is $`<0.1\%`$. Other phrasings of the test, bootstrap resampling of the data, null tests with the image identifications randomly assigned all support the results that the statistical properties of the saddle points are fundamentally different from that of the other images. And this distinctiveness is the tell-tale sign that the anomalous flux ratios are due to substructure in the gravity rather than the ISM or problems in the smooth potential model for the lens galaxy.

## 3 Implications for CDM

If substructure is the explanation, then the next objective is to estimate the satellite mass fraction $`f_{sat}`$. Here we review the method and results of DK02. We modeled the substructure as tidally truncated singular isothermal spheres, with a critical radius scale $`b=0.^{\prime \prime }001`$ and a tidal radius $`a=(bb_0)^{1/2}`$ where $`b_01.^{\prime \prime }0`$ is the critical radius of the primary lens galaxy. When the dominant effect of the substructure is to perturb magnifications rather than image positions, we can only measure the mass fraction $`f_{sat}`$ of the satellites with reasonable accuracy. The mass scale or mass function of the satellites is difficult to constrain unless there are significant astrometric perturbations. In outline, our approach was to take each lens and its standard model and then add random substructure realizations in order to determine the probability of finding an improved fit as a function of the parameters describing the substructure (principally the mass fraction, $`f_{sat}`$). Because the “macro” model for the smooth potential masks some of the effects of substructure, it is necessary to reoptimize the parameters of the “macro” model for every trial. We applied the method to a sample of 7 four-image lenses.

We can illustrate our method with Monte Carlo simulations. Fig. 3 shows the results for Monte Carlo simulations of our sample either with or without substructure. If we add no substructure, then we typically obtain an upper limit of $`f_{sat}<0.004`$ given the properties of our lens sample. This sets a lower limit for our detection threshold somewhat above the substructure fraction which would be associated with the visible satellites in the Galaxy. If we put $`f_{sat}=0.05`$ of the mass into substructure, then we recover the input fraction reasonably accurately. Of the eight Monte Carlo trials shown in Fig. 3, four agree with the input value to within the 68% ($`1\sigma `$) confidence region, and six agree to within the 90% confidence region. If we combine all 8 simulations into a synthetic sample of 56 lenses, we estimate that $`f_{sat}=0.034`$ with a 90% confidence range of $`0.023f_{sat}0.048`$ that marginally excludes the true value. Similarly, if we attempt to recover the deflection scale of the substructure, the error bars are worse but the results do converge to the input value when we model a large enough sample of lenses.

Fig. 4 shows the results for the real data. The biggest systematic uncertainty in the data is the level of systematic uncertainty in the flux ratio measurements, so we show the results for 5%, 10% and 20% uncertainties in flux measurements. We adopt 10% as our standard value – the measurements probably are not as accurate as 5%, they probably are more accurate than 10%, and they certainly are more accurate than 20%. With the 10% flux uncertainties we find a substructure fraction of $`0.006<f_{sat}<0.07`$ (90% confidence) that is in good agreement with the expectations for CDM models. We obtain a very poor estimate of the characteristic deflection scale, finding $`0.^{\prime \prime }0001<b<0.^{\prime \prime }007`$, which for a substructure mass function $`dn/dMM^{1.7}`$ implies an upper end to the substructure mass function of $`10^6M_{}`$-$`10^9M_{}`$ that is in crude accord with our expectations. The degenerate direction in the error contours of Fig. 4 correspond to keeping the magnification perturbations nearly constant while varying the astrometric perturbations.

## 4 In The Future

The future of the substructure question will be driven by further observations, both to clarify the origins of the anomalous flux ratios and to obtain improved estimates of the substructure mass fraction and mass function.

It is relatively straight forward to finish eliminating the ISM as a source of concern with new observations. In the radio this means measuring flux ratios at still higher frequencies (e.g. 43 GHz flux ratio measurements at the VLA) to constrain the frequency dependence of any propagation effect still more tightly. In the optical this means measuring flux ratios over long wavelength baselines to measure any dust extinction (e.g. Falco et al. 1999). Mid-infrared (5–10$`\mu `$m) flux ratios, where the wavelength is far to short to be bothered by electrons and far too long to be bothered by dust, are difficult to measure but completely insensitive to the ISM. Observations to find additional lensed structures in the systems with anomalous flux ratios are the best direct route to determining whether more complicated lens potentials are needed. In particular, very clean constraints on the strengths of any more complicated angular structure than is included in the standard ellipsoidal models can be obtained by analyzing the shapes of the Einstein ring images of the host galaxies (see Kochanek et al. 2001). Such data can be obtained for any lens through deep HST/NICMOS imaging of lens systems.

Improving estimates of the substructure parameters or the statistical case for (or against) substructure requires larger samples of lenses to include in the analysis. The primary problem in expanding the sample is the need to separate the effects of stars and satellites in the optically-selected lenses. The flux ratios of the optical quasars are affected by both substructure and stellar microlensing because the optical continuum emitting regions of accretion disks are so compact (see Schneider et al. (1992) for a general review of microlensing). By measuring the flux ratios of these lenses in either the mid-IR, where the emitting region is a large dust “torus,” or in the emission lines, where the emitting region is the relatively large broad/narrow emission line region, we can separate the effects of the stars from the effects of substructure (e.g. Moustakas & Metcalf 2002). While mid-IR imaging is difficult except for the brightest quasar lenses (see Agol et al. 2000), the advent of high spatial resolution integral field spectrographs on many 8m-class telescopes will make it relatively easy to measure emission line flux ratios.

Our analysis methods also need to be improved. In particular, we need to properly treat the highest mass satellites, both to constrain the satellite mass function and to better estimate the mass fraction. In the DK02 analyses, we included the highest mass satellites as part of the macro model because they have such an enormous effect on the models that it is impossible to produce a reasonable model without including them. One example is the small satellite in MG0414+0534 (Object “X”; Schechter & Moore 1993), which at H-band has only 10% the luminosity of the main lens and in models has only 12% the critical radius of the main lens, but even when fitting only the positions of the quasar images produces a $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2100`$ improvement in the fit once it is included (Ros et al. 2000).

We can also search for the astrometric equivalents of anomalous flux ratios so as to provide better constraints on the mass scale of the substructure (e.g Wambsganss & Paczynski 1992, Metcalf 2002). One example is the lens MG2016+112 (see Fig. 5) where in VLBI maps the C image is seen to be a pair of merging images each of which is composed of two VLBI components (Koopmans et al. 2001). For the same reasons that we would expect a merging image pair to have similar fluxes, we would expect them to have similar separations, so the very asymmetric separations of the VLBI components C<sub>11</sub>–C<sub>12</sub> as compared to C<sub>13</sub>–C<sub>2</sub> is the astrometric equivalent of an anomalous flux ratio. In this case, as in MG0414+0534, the culprit is a visible satellite G1 sitting to the south of the C image complex. It has only 1-2% the H-band luminosity and $`8\%`$ the deflection scale of the main lens, and is known to lie at the same redshift as the lens galaxy. The VLBI data has sufficient resolution to detect a satellite with a deflection scale nearly 10 times smaller. The holy grail of searching for CDM substructure in gravitational lenses would be to find an astrometric anomaly similar to that in MG2016+112, so that there is compelling evidence for the existence of a satellite, but for which no luminous counterpart can be detected.

N.D. gratefully acknowledges the support of NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant #HST-HF-01148.01-A awarded by STScI, which is operated by AURA for NASA, under contract NAS 5-26555. CSK is supported by the Smithsonian Institution and NASA grant NAG5-9265.