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# An Extended Burst Tail from SGR 1900+14 with a Thermal X-ray Spectrum

## 1 Introduction

Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) are a small class of astrophysical objects (currently four confirmed sources and one candidate source \[Hurley 2000\]) discovered by their emission of bright bursts of soft gamma-rays (with peak luminosities ranging between $`10^{38}10^{44}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$). The SGR quiescent counterparts have X-ray luminosities $`10^{34}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and their energy spectra are generally well-fitted with a power-law model (index $`2.2`$) attenuated by interstellar absorption; however, SGR 1900$`+`$14 has shown clear evidence for an additional blackbody component with $`kT0.5`$ keV (Woods et al. 1999a, 2001; Kouveliotou et al. 2001). Coherent pulsations have been detected in the persistent emission of two sources (SGR 1806$``$20 at 7.5 s \[Kouveliotou et al. 1998\] and SGR 1900$`+`$14 at 5.2 s \[Hurley et al. 1999b\]) with a spindown rate of $``$10-10 s s-1 (Kouveliotou et al. 1998 and 1999). The Galactic SGRs (three) are located very close to the plane of the Galaxy, indicating that SGRs belong to a young star population. Furthermore, two of these SGRs may be associated with clusters of very massive stars (Fuchs et al. 1999; Vrba et al. 2000; Eikenberry et al. 2001), strengthening the claim that these are young objects.

The burst repetition timescale for these sources varies from seconds to decades, while the bursts themselves are typically brief (durations $`0.1\mathrm{s}`$ \[e.g. Göğüş et al. 2001\]). In contrast to these common brief bursts, two SGRs have each emitted one large long duration burst. These large bursts, or “giant flares” as they are sometimes called, are distinguished by their extreme energies ($`10^{44}`$ ergs), their hard spectra at the onset, and their coherent pulsations during the decaying tail (lasting several minutes), reflecting the spin of the underlying neutron star (Mazets et al. 1979; Hurley et al. 1999a; Feroci et al. 2001).

It is generally accepted today that SGRs are young, isolated, magnetized neutron stars. Both magnetic and gravitational (i.e. accretion) energy have been proposed as the source of the burst and persistent emission; however, the accretion models have difficulty explaining several properties of the burst emission (Thompson et al. 2000) as well as the lack of optical counterparts, particularly in the case of SGR 0526$``$66 (Kaplan et al. 2001). This source is located outside the Galactic plane and has a relatively small column density in its direction, while the other three confirmed sources all lie near the Galactic plane, where optical extinction is significant. A more convincing model is that the SGRs are magnetars, i.e., highly magnetized neutron stars (B$`10^{14}10^{15}\mathrm{G}`$) where magnetism is the largest source of free energy in the system (Duncan & Thompson 1992). In the magnetar model, the strong magnetic field of the neutron star powers the persistent emission through low level seismic activity and heating of the stellar interior (Thompson & Duncan 1996) as well as the burst emission through large-scale crust fractures driven by an evolving magnetic field (Thompson & Duncan 1995). The super-Eddington burst fluxes are possible in the presence of such a strong field because of the suppression of electron scattering cross sections for some polarizations (Paczyński 1992).

In this paper we focus on SGR 1900$`+`$14 which has been the most prolific SGR in the last three years. SGR 1900$`+`$14 is the source of one of the giant flares that was recorded on 1998 August 27 (Hurley et al. 1999a; Mazets et al. 1999; Feroci et al. 1999, 2001). Following the flare, the persistent X-ray flux of SGR 1900$`+`$14 increased dramatically and decayed over the next $``$40 days as a power-law in time with an index $``$0.7 (Woods et al. 2001). Nineteen days into the tail of this event, pointed X-ray observations revealed that the enhancement in flux was contained within the non-thermal component of the spectrum. In addition to this event, two other high-fluence events have shown extended X-ray tails directly following the burst. These two events were recorded on 1998 August 29 (Ibrahim et al. 2001) and more recently on 2001 April 18 (Guidorzi et al. 2001; Kouveliotou et al. 2001; Feroci et al. 2002; Woods et al. 2003).

Here we present results on the spectral evolution and temporal decay of the X-ray tail of a burst recorded on 2001 April 28, ten days after the intense April 18 event. Using data acquired with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Proportional Counter Array (PCA), we fit several spectral models to the tail flux to constrain the radiative mechanism that governs its emission. We further study in detail the evolution of the source pulse properties (pulse shape and fraction) during this decay and compare the energetics of all four events from SGR 1900$`+`$14 with extended tails. We discuss the implications of these results on the current models for SGR emissions.

## 2 2001 April 28 Burst

The reactivation of SGR 1900$`+`$14 on 2001 April 18 triggered a series of observations of the source with several satellites (BeppoSAX, RXTE/PCA, Chandra). We observed the source with the RXTE/PCA several times during the subsequent two weeks and discovered an intriguing discontinuity in the source flux between consecutive RXTE orbits on April 28 (see Fig. 1). This trend was a strong indication of burst activity during earth occultation of the source, since it was similar to the one observed during the 1998 August 29 event (Ibrahim et al. 2001), in which the decaying tail extended over multiple RXTE orbits. A search in Ulysses and Wind/Konus data revealed an intense burst on 2001 April 28, peaking approximately 121 seconds before our RXTE observations of the source resumed at a higher flux level. The Fourier spectra of the RXTE data provided an additional confirmation of the origin of the emission; the spin period of SGR $`1900+14`$ is prevalent during the tail orbit, while undetectable in the previous (quiescent) orbit.

### 2.1 Gamma-ray Observations

On 2001 April 28, Ulysses and Wind/Konus observed a burst whose triangulated position (an annulus) contained SGR 1900$`+`$14. Its time history was unusual in that it had a duration of $``$2 s (Fig. 1), compared to the more common, short duration SGR bursts. The KONUS energy spectrum was well fitted by a power-law times an exponential function ($`dN/dEE^{0.5}\mathrm{exp}(E/kT)`$) with $`kT=21.2`$ keV. We estimated the ($`25100\mathrm{keV}`$) source fluence and peak flux (over 0.0625 s) to be $`8.7\times 10^6`$ ergs cm-2 and $`6.5\times 10^5`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, respectively. The corresponding burst energy is $`2.0\times 10^{41}`$ ergs (assuming a source distance for SGR 1900$`+`$14 of 14 kpc; Vrba et al. 2000).

### 2.2 X-ray Observations

### 2.3 Spectral Analysis

We removed all bursts, the Galactic ridge component, quiescent SGR flux, and other discrete X-ray sources for the spectral analysis of the X-ray tail emission as follows. We first subtracted the instrumental and RXTE orbital background from the source spectrum of the two orbits prior to the burst using PCABACKEST (see http://heassarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and links therein). We then fitted the residual spectrum (2$``$30 keV), which is dominated by the Galactic ridge emission (Valinia & Marshall 1998), with a two-component function (power-law plus Gaussian iron line). The width of the iron line was fixed at 0.4 keV, while the other parameters were allowed to vary in this fit. Using this model, we obtained a good fit to the data ($`\chi _\nu ^2=`$ 1.17 for 52 degrees of freedom \[dof\]; see Table 1 for fit parameters). Please note that this spectral fit is not entirely the quiescent spectrum of the SGR, but is rather the sum of the SGR quiescent spectrum with the Galactic ridge and other discrete X-ray sources in the PCA field-of-view. This is a key point as we are interested in fitting the spectrum of the SGR tail emission and not the sum of the tail plus quiescent SGR flux.

For the spectral analysis of the burst X-ray tail, we used the PCABACKEST background together with the spectrum defined above as our “total background.” More specifically, we defined a two part model, where one component is the presumed tail spectrum and the second (fixed) part is the remaining background as defined above (see Tables 1 and 2 for a summary of fit parameters). We have fitted several spectral functions to the time-integrated burst tail (900 s from the time the RXTE data start, see Fig. 2): bremsstrahlung, power-law, and blackbody (each with interstellar absorption) yielding $`\chi ^2`$ values of 71.15, 119.7, and 21.24, respectively (29 dof for each). Clearly the simple blackbody is the best fit to the data (0.85 chance probability of measuring $`\chi ^2`$ this large). We measure a temperature $`kT=2.35(5)`$ keV, a radius $`r=1.74(9)`$ km (assuming a 14 kpc distance) and an effective hydrogen column density $`N_H=0.2(9)\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. We attempted to fit two component models (blackbody plus power-law and bremsstrahlung plus power-law) to the spectrum, but the bremsstrahlung plus power-law failed to give a statistically acceptable fit to the data ($`\chi _\nu ^2=2.7`$) and the inclusion of the power-law component in the blackbody plus power-law model was formally not required as evidenced by an F-test (probability = 0.915).

To study the spectral evolution of the tail, we divided the data into eight intervals with nearly equal number of counts in each and fitted them with the model determined above. We find that the column density ($`N_H`$) does not vary significantly across the tail, while the temperature ($`kT`$) decreases monotonically. Forcing the column density to be the same in each interval results in an $`N_H=0.5(8)\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The RXTE/PCA has low sensitivity below 2 keV and therefore has difficulty measuring low column densities. Hence, we fixed the column density at the value ($`N_H=2.4\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^3`$) measured during Chandra observations (Kouveliotou et al. 2001) that bracketed our PCA observations. Both the temperature and normalization (i.e. emitting area) decrease modestly through the tail (Fig. 3).

Finally, we performed phase-resolved spectroscopy on the data during the tail. For the first $``$900 s of the tail (minus bursts), we accumulated spectra for ten phase bins by folding the data on the spin ephermeris of the star (Woods et al. 2003). The background subtraction was handled in the same manner as before. We performed a simultaneous fit to the ten phase binned spectra using the blackbody model, again holding the $`N_H`$ fixed. We find a marginally significant (1.5 $`\times 10^3`$ chance probability) variation in $`kT`$ versus pulse phase (Fig. 4).

### 2.4 Temporal Analysis

Using the blackbody spectral fit defined above, we measured the flux in four energy bands (2$``$5 keV, 5$``$10 keV, 10$``$20 keV, and 2$``$20) to characterize the flux decay as well as to determine the total fluence contained in the extended tail emission. The errors in the flux are underestimated, since we equate the relative error in the count rate to the relative error in the flux. We fitted a power-law ($`Ft^\alpha `$), a broken power-law ($`Ft^{\alpha _1}`$ for $`t<t_b`$ and $`Ft^{\alpha _2}`$ for $`t>t_b`$), and a power-law times exponential, \[$`Ft^\alpha \mathrm{exp}(t/\tau )`$\]. In each case $`\alpha `$ is the power-law decay index and $`F`$ is the flux. The fit parameter $`t_b`$ in the broken power-law case is the time of the “break” in the flux decay. We found that with the exception of the 2$``$5 keV energy band (which was best fit by a single power-law) the decay was equally well fitted by either power-law times exponential or broken power-law. We show the power-law times exponential fit in Figure 5 and the power-law index and exponential decay constant in Table 3 for each energy band. We find that the exponential decay constant decreases with energy and the power-law index steepens with energy, each indicative of spectral softening with time. Since the tail is still detectable at the end of our observations, we quote a lower limit of $``$3.5 ksec for the tail duration. The power-law times exponential function rapidly turns over after about 5 ksec and so integrating over longer timescales does not contribute significantly to the fluence. We thus integrate the power-law times exponential function over 5 ksec and find the fluence to be $`3.0\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ in the 2$``$20 keV tail and $`2.1\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ in the 2$``$10 keV tail. The corresponding energies are $`7.0\times 10^{39}\mathrm{ergs}`$ and $`4.9\times 10^{39}\mathrm{ergs}`$ in the 2$``$20 keV and 2$``$10 keV energy band, respectively.

In addition to the temporal characteristics of the flux decay, we studied the pulse properties of SGR 1900$`+`$14 during the X-ray tail. The precise ephemeris was determined elsewhere (Woods et al. 2003) from the complete RXTE/PCA data taken during the 2001 April reactivation. We folded seven time intervals during the decaying burst tail as well as the two orbits prior to the burst for comparison, all using 2$``$10 keV data.

An accurate measure of the background level is required to measure the pulse fraction of the SGR during this epoch. Under normal circumstances, when the SGR is in quiescence, we cannot use the PCA data to determine the absolute level of the source flux because the contribution of the Galactic ridge is not well known and thereby introduces a systematic error in the absolute background determination that is comparable to the SGR count rate. However, the PCA cosmic background can be approximated during transient SGR flux enhancements (e.g. following strong bursts) under certain assumptions: $`i`$) the PCA cosmic background is constant over this brief time interval, $`ii`$) PCA data prior to the flux increase are present, and $`iii`$) the pulse fraction of the SGR directly before the burst is known.

Chandra and BeppoSAX observations indicated that the level of the RMS pulse fraction (2$``$10 keV) increased directly after the April 18 flare to $``$18% and subsequently decayed to $``$14% by May 1 (Kouveliotou et al. 2001; Woods et al. 2003). The pulse fraction is independent of energy in the 0.5$``$10 keV band during each of these epochs and the pulse shape does not change significantly between epochs (Woods et al. 2003). From these data, we interpolated a pulse fraction of $``$14.3% for the pre-April 28 burst PCA data (i.e. the two orbits prior to the burst). We used this pulse fraction to determine the PCA cosmic background level during the pre-burst data on April 28 and assumed that this remains constant during the 0.2 day observation of the tail. Using the constant cosmic background level we then measured the pulse fraction during the tail of the burst. The RMS pulse fraction during the seven intervals of the tail and the inferred level (dashed line) are shown in Figure 6. We find that the pulse fraction increases significantly after the burst to $``$33%. For completeness, we performed the same analysis assuming the pre-burst pulse fraction was equal to the nominal quiescent value of $``$11% (Fig. 6, dotted line). This systematically lowers the measured pulse fractions by $``$1.5% and thus does not change our results significantly.

We find no evidence for a systematic shift in phase of the pulse maximum or the slope of the phases (i.e. pulse frequency) relative to the pre-defined ephemeris, i.e., the pulse phase remained steady during the tail. Figure 6 exhibits the pulse profiles for seven intervals used in this analysis; we find that the shape is constant, with marginal changes (i.e., low-level phase noise).

Further, we investigated the phase occurrence of the burst itself. We first transformed the time history as observed with Konus to the solar system barycenter (SSB) using mission specific tools. This transformation was confirmed by checking the alignment of an earlier burst observed from this source on 1998 August 29 recorded with Konus, the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), and several other instruments (see §3). We have used the BATSE time history for comparison because of its similar energy bandpass, good time resolution and sensitivity. The BATSE time history of the August 29 burst was converted to the SSB using tools developed specifically for the BATSE mission (Wilson et al. 1993). A cross correlation between the BATSE and Konus time histories shows that the relative transformation is accurate to within 14 msec for this event. The absolute timing accuracy of Konus has been shown to be better than 5 msec through extensive testing within the Interplanetary Network. We will adopt 14 msec as our error in temporal precision (or $`2.7\times 10^3`$ cycles in phase for SGR 1900$`+`$14) for the 2001 April 28 light curve.

The April 28 burst covers approximately 40% of the SGR 1900$`+`$14 pulse cycle (Fig. 7). The burst begins near pulse minimum and terminates at pulse maximum. The combined timing analysis results (pulse fraction, pulse shape, pulse phase, and burst phase) place significant constraints on the radiation mechanism during the tail (see §4).

## 3 1998 August 29 Burst

BATSE and RXTE/PCA observed another relatively intense event from SGR 1900$`+`$14 on August 29, 1998 (Ibrahim et al. 2001). Similar to the 2001 April 28 event, it occurred in the days following a more energetic burst (on 27 August 1998) and exhibited a long duration X-ray tail. Unlike the April event, the August event had complete coverage with the RXTE/PCA (Fig. 8). To compare the tail characteristics for both events, we analyze below the August event using the same techniques that were implemented for the April event. We have defined the ‘tail’ emission onset as the time where the bulk of the burst emission exhibits an abrupt decrease in flux ($`3\mathrm{s}`$ after $`t=0`$ in Fig. 8). As discussed in Ibrahim et al. (2001), an abrupt change in the bremsstrahlung temperature is seen at the same time.

### 3.1 Spectral Analysis

We first quantified the PCA cosmic background (including the Galactic ridge), by fitting $``$1000 s of pre-burst data. As in the April 28 tail we find that a power-law plus Gaussian iron line were sufficient to model the background spectrum. The width of the iron line was again fixed at 0.4 keV, while the rest of the parameters were allowed to vary in the fit (see Table 1). This model was removed from the data (i.e. added as a fixed model) for all subsequent spectral fitting of the August 29 X-ray tail.

For the August 29 event, we fitted bremsstrahlung, blackbody, power-law, and blackbody plus power-law models, all having photoelectric absorption, to the entire first orbit of the tail spectrum. Consistent with the results of Ibrahim et al. (2001), only the bremsstrahlung and blackbody plus power-law models provided statistically acceptable fits to the data. In light of the April 28 tail results we adopt the blackbody plus power-law model for this analysis. We measure a blackbody temperature $`kT=2.2(2)`$ keV, a radius $`r=1.2(4)`$ km (assuming a 14 kpc distance), a power-law photon index $`\alpha =2.1(2)`$, and an effective hydrogen column density $`N_H=10(2)\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

Following the method of analysis in the April event, we divided the data into eleven segments with nearly equal counts, starting at the beginning of the tail. Since the August event had complete coverage by the PCA, we were able to look at four additional intervals earlier in the tail. We simultaneously fitted all eleven intervals to a blackbody plus power-law fit and found the column density consistent with being constant. We also find that the photon power-law index is constant throughout the tail and thus we force the column density and power-law index to be the same in each interval ($`N_H=10(2)\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`\alpha =2.3(3)`$, respectively). The blackbody temperature shows a stronger decay than the April 28 event; however, the emitting area shows first a marginal decrease then a slight rise to a larger final area than beginning area (see Fig. 9). We note that the blackbody radius of the August 29 burst tail is mildly correlated with power-law spectral parameters in the fit, unlike the April 28 X-ray tail where no power-law component was detected. Therefore, the modest evolution we observe in the radius may be an artifact of this cross-correlation and these small changes could possibly be attributed to unmeasureable changes in the photon index. However, the observed changes in the blackbody temperature are too large to be accounted for from this effect. All of our spectral results on the August 29 burst tail are consistent with those found by Ibrahim et al. (2001).

### 3.2 Temporal Analysis

As in the April event we used the best-fit spectrum to determine the flux in each time interval for four energy bands (2$``$5 keV, 5$``$10 keV, 10$``$20 keV, and 2$``$20). Again, the errors in the flux are underestimated, since we equate the relative error in the count rate to the relative error in the flux. We find that for all energy bands the decay is best fit equally well by the broken power-law and power-law times exponential. We show in Figure 10 the power-law times exponential fit for each energy band with fit parameters given in Table 3. We also show in Figure 10, the ratio of the power-law flux in the 2$``$10 keV energy band to bolometric blackbody flux. The ratio shows that at early times the blackbody component dominates, while at later times the ratio increases to around 1 consistent with the results of Marsden and White (2001). Similar to the April 28 event the exponential decay constant decreases with energy and the power-law index steepens with energy, indicating spectral softening with time.

In the RXTE orbit directly following the August burst, the SGR count rate (2$``$10 keV) remained significantly higher ($`>5\sigma `$) than the measured pre-burst background. During the subsequent orbit, the count rate was consistent with the pre-burst background, thus we estimate the duration of this tail to be $``$8 ksec, or the end of the last orbit in which the tail was detected. Integrating the fit over 8 ksec yields a fluence and energy in the 2$``$20 keV tail of $`6.4\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`1.4\times 10^{40}\mathrm{ergs}`$, respectively, and in the 2$``$10 keV tail $`4.8\times 10^7\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`1.1\times 10^{40}\mathrm{ergs}`$, respectively.

We then measured the pulse fraction for the August 29 event using the same technique as before. Unfortunately, we do not have pulse fraction measurements closely bracketing this event; the closest reliable RMS pulse fraction was measured with BeppoSAX at 12% on September 15-16 1998 (2$``$10 keV). Using this value as the “background”, we find for eight intervals during the tail that the pulse fraction increased to a maximum of $``$20% at $`200\mathrm{s}`$ after the burst peak and returned to the pre-burst value after several thousand seconds (Fig. 11). If we vary the assumed pre-burst pulse fraction to 8% and 16%, the resulting maximum pulse fracion values measured during the tail change to $``$17% and $``$22%, respectively. Independent of the assumed value of the pre-burst pulse fraction the increase of the pulse fraction from pre-burst to post-burst remains highly significant.

Pulse shape changes are more prevalent during the tail of this event. We note that the centroid of the primary peak is shifted in phase and the width of the pulse broadens relative to the pre-burst pulse profile during the first $``$30 s. After the first thirty seconds, the phase and shape of the profile returns to the pre-burst profile as the pulse fraction rises. Thereafter, the phase of the average profile remains steady, although some low-level noise in the shape of the profile persists.

We next investigated the phase occurrence of the August 29 burst. The time history of the August 29 burst as observed with BATSE was transformed to the SSB and converted to pulse phase for SGR 1900$`+`$14 according to the spin ephemeris found from previous work (Woods et al. 1999b). The BATSE light curve and PCA (2$``$10 keV) folded pulse profile from August 29 (minus bursts) are shown in Figure 12. The burst peak at gamma-ray energies lags slightly behind the centroid of the X-ray pulse maximum ($``$0.1 cycle), although the onset of the primary burst emission coincides with pulse maximum to within the errors.

## 4 Burst Comparison

The 1998 August 29 and 2001 April 28 bursts occur under very similar conditions and originate at the same source, SGR 1900$`+`$14. They both occur within days of much larger bursts or flares (1998 August 27 and 2001 April 18). We therefore searched for similarities in temporal, spectral, and pulse properties between these two events. We have shown that the X-ray tails in both cases demonstrate spectral softening as the flux decays. The RMS pulse fraction in both events was shown to rise by about a factor $``$2$``$3 during the tails of each event while the phase of the pulsations remained more or less steady. Finally, the bursts themselves cover separate regions of pulse phase. The start times of these two bursts in gamma rays are $``$180 degrees out of phase from one another.

Since the August 29 event showed clear evidence of a power-law component, we investigated whether the absence of the power-law component in the April 28 burst tail was due to lack of sensitivity or a significantly reduced relative contribution from a hypothetical power-law component. If the April 28 burst tail contained the same relative contribution of power-law to total flux as the August 29 burst, then the expected power-law flux in the time integrated 2$``$20 keV April 28 tail would be $`1.5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$. We proceeded to fit the time integrated April 28 burst tail to a blackbody plus power-law model. All parameters were allowed to vary, except the power-law photon index, which was fixed at the best fit value for the August 29 burst tail ($`\alpha =2.1`$). Fixing the photon index was required to obtain convergence in the fit. As expected, the power-law flux was consistent with zero having an upper limit of $`8.0\times 10^{11}\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ (90 % confidence), a factor of 2 lower than the expected flux. We conclude that the April 28 burst tail is exclusively thermal and intrinsically different than the August 29 burst tail.

We have estimated the energies in the tails of both the 2001 April 28 burst and 1998 August 29 burst in the previous sections. We find that the ratio of energy output in the tail versus burst energy are very similar for these two bursts (0.024 and 0.025, respectively). In Table 4 we include energy estimates of the X-ray tails following the 2001 April 18 (Feroci et al. 2003) and the 1998 August 27 flares from SGR 1900$`+`$14 as well and find similar tail to burst energy output ratios. For the April 18 flare, we have assumed the power-law fit to the X-ray tail plus persistent emission when calculating the tail energy. Due to the poor temporal coverage for this event and the presence of a bump in the tail decay, the tail energy of this event is poorly determined (Feroci et al. 2003).

For the August 27 flare, the X-ray tail remains above the nominal persistent emission level for $``$40 days (Woods et al. 2001). Unfortunately, the coverage of this tail is not as complete as it is for the August 29 and April 28 bursts. Therefore, in order to estimate the tail energy from the limited information available, we must assume the 2$``$10 keV spectrum and pulse fraction remain constant throughout the decay of the tail. Each of these assumptions is consistent with the published work on this X-ray tail. The 2-10 keV pulse fraction measured at 19 days into this tail was found to be consistent with the quiescent pulse fraction of $``$11% (Woods et al. 2001). Furthermore, the 2$``$5/5$``$10 keV pulsed amplitude softness ratio of SGR 1900$`+`$14 (a coarse measurement of the spectrum within 2$``$10 keV) during this tail was found to show only modest ($``$25%) variations (Göğüş et al. 2002). To estimate the X-ray energy in the tail of the August 27 flare, we integrated a power-law fit to the pulsed flux measurements in the 2$``$10 keV band (Woods et al. 2001) between the end of the burst as observed in $`\gamma `$-rays (Feroci et al. 2001) and 40 days following the flare minus the persistent emission flux over the same time interval. We measure a tail fluence of $`1.5\times 10^4\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ or an isotropic energy of $`3.5\times 10^{42}d_{14\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}^2`$ ergs.

The burst and tail energies of the four tails are plotted in Figure 13. The data agree remarkably well with a constant tail to burst energy fraction (i.e. consistent with the dotted line which has a fixed slope of unity). The average ratio of tail to burst energy for these four bursts from SGR 1900$`+`$14 is $``$2%. Note that this fraction reflects the ratio over finite, yet consistent energy bands.

## 5 Discussion

We have detected, for the first time, a cooling, exclusively thermal X-ray tail following a burst from SGR 1900$`+`$14 recorded on 2001 April 28. During the first $``$1 ks of the X-ray tail, we measure a 35% decrease in the blackbody temperature and a 30% reduction in the emitting area. At all times, the inferred emitting area encompasses a small fraction of the neutron star surface assuming a 10 km radius neutron star. We have confirmed earlier work (Ibrahim et al. 2001) that showed a strong cooling blackbody present in the August 29 burst tail. These observations of enhanced thermal emission during burst tails provides strong evidence for burst induced surface heating in SGR 1900$`+`$14.

The pulse properties of these tails further constrain the location of the heating on the stellar surface following the bursts. In quiescence, SGR 1900$`+`$14 has a pulse fraction of 11 %. In order to increase the pulse fraction without changing the shape or phase of the pulse profile, one requires that the additional emission that increases the pulse fraction come from the same region of the stellar surface that is responsible for the peak of the quiescent pulsations. For the sake of argument, we will assume this region to be the polar cap. For example, suppose a region of the stellar surface were heated and its location was at the same magnetic longitude, but different latitude than the polar cap. For small offsets in latitude angle, this scenario could account for a similar pulse profile, constancy of the pulse phase from pre-burst to post-burst and, depending upon the observer’s geometry, an increase in pulse fraction. For large offsets, all three observables will be altered in a manner opposite to what is observed. Alternatively, one could have a small hotspot emerge at a different longitude, but the same latitude. For small offsets in longitude angle this is compatible with observations. However, large offsets in longitude will present a phase lag (or lead) in the pulse maximum, a change in pulse profile and a decrease in pulse fraction. Considering these two scenarios, we conclude that the observations restrict the region of enhanced emission to be located within an ellipse surrounding the polar cap. Note that there are no stringent constraints on the altitude of the excess emission, only the angular position relative to the magnetic axis. Quantifying the restrictions in magnetic longitude and latitude is difficult as it will depend upon the observer’s geometry, gravitational light bending, beam geometry, and so on.

We have shown that the August 29 and April 28 events began approximately 180 degrees apart in phase. Earlier work by Palmer (2000) showed that the occurrence in phase of bursts from SGR 1900$`+`$14 during late August and early September 1998 were random. This was true for all bursts as well as subsets of bursts at different energies. The random occurrence of bursts in pulse phase indicates that the bursts themselves are not localized near the region contributing to the pulsed emission; however, the ensuing flux enhancements (well-correlated with burst activity \[Woods et al. 2001\]) indicate localized heating near the putative polar cap.

With these observational constraints in mind, we now consider the magnetar model. In this model, it is postulated that the build up of magnetic stresses within the neutron star crust are sufficient to overcome the tensile strength of the crust and crack it (Thompson & Duncan 1995). Fracturing the stellar crust perturbs field lines and ultimately leads to a trapped pair-photon fireball. Thompson & Duncan (1995) considered the likelihood of heating of the neutron star surface by the resultant trapped fireball suspended above the fracture site. For shallow heating, they estimated the cooling time scale to be equivalent to the burst duration. In this time scale estimate, however, they did not account for the possibility of vertical expansion against gravity in the atmosphere which could extend passive surface cooling up to $``$103 sec (Thompson, Lyutikov & Kulkarni 2002). Lyubarsky, Eichler, & Thompson (2002) also showed that longer time scale cooling can also be achieved through deep heating of the crust that leads to a longer conduction time of the heat to the surface and that the temporal evolution of cooling after deep crustal heating could resemble a power-law in time with a decay index $``$0.7. This picture fits nicely with the cooling thermal components observed during these X-ray tails.

One requirement of this model with regards to these data is that the burst fracture site be located at or very near one of the magnetic poles. The proximity of the fracture site (i.e. burst) to the polar cap vicinity is required to satisfy the constraints introduced by the pulsed flux observations. For this model to work, however, the bursts themselves must be visible at all rotational phases (i.e. even when the polar cap is facing opposite the observer). This suggests that the light emitted from the burst originate at sufficiently high altitudes or must be scattered as has been suggested for the persistent emission from these sources (Thompson et al. 2002). However, the trapped fireball for most bursts is held close to the surface and it is questionable whether strong scattering can occur at much higher luminosities than the persistent X-ray luminosity and for higher photon energies, particularly without substantial spectral variations in the bursts with pulse phase.

An alternative to explain these observations would be that the bursts have a magnetospheric origin (Lyutikov 2002). Here, we consider a concentric sphere surrounding the neutron star at a large radius ($`R>10R_{}`$) where magnetic reconnection is occurring and giving rise to SGR bursts. The high altitude allows bursts to be observed for nearly all rotational phases. Moreover, the field lines permeating this surface are preferentially concentrated at the magnetic poles. Hence, particles accelerated along these field lines will impact the stellar surface at the polar cap regions. This scenario we have outlined is qualitatively compatible with the observations, although, further quantitative modeling is needed with regards to surface heating/cooling by ablation, burst timescales, burst spectra, etc. before it can be considered further.

Finally, the observation that the ratio of tail to burst energy is consistent with being constant between the four events from SGR 1900$`+`$14 is an intriguing one. However, we would like to stress that this result is based upon a small number of events and some using predominantly inferred fluxes from the measured pulsed intensity, therefore, we regard this currently as a tentative result. In addition to potentially confirming this result, the detection of several more SGR burst tails will provide useful diagnostics for the burst mechanism as shown from this work. Assuming the observed conversion of burst to tail energy extends to lower energy burst events, X-ray tails can be observed from the more plentiful low-energy SGR bursts (down to $``$$`2\times 10^{39}d_{14\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}^2`$ ergs) with sensitive, low background X-ray telescopes such as Chandra and XMM-Newton.

Acknowledgments – We thank Marco Feroci for useful comments and suggestions regarding the temporal fits to the X-ray tails. GL acknowledges support from NASA’s Michigan Space Grant Consortium seed grant program, Hope College, and an ADP grant (NAG 5-11608). PMW and CK would like to acknowledge support from NASA through grants NAG 5-11608 and NAG 5-9350. JG is grateful for the Sherman Fairchild Foundation support of Hope College’s REU program. KH is grateful for Ulysses and Ineterplanetary Network support under JPL Contract 958056 and NASA Grant NAG 5-11451.


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# Microwave Resonance of 2D Wigner Crystal around integer Landau fillings

Current address: \]Agere Systems, 555 Union Blvd., Allentown PA 18109

## Abstract

We have observed a resonance in the real part of the finite frequency diagonal conductivity using microwave absorption measurements in high quality 2D electron systems near integer fillings. The resonance exists in some neighborhood of filling factor around corresponding integers and is qualitatively similar to previously observed resonance of weakly pinned Wigner crystal in high $`B`$ and very small filling factor regime. Data measured around both $`\nu =1`$ and $`\nu =2`$ are presented. We interpret the resonance as the signature of Wigner crystal state around integer Landau levels.

Two dimensional electron systems(2DES)2d  subjected to perpendicular magnetic field $`B`$ have been observed to display a remarkably rich array of phases in different regimes of filling factor $`\nu =nh/eB`$, where $`n`$ is the 2D electron density. These phases include the renowned integer and fractional quantum Hall effects (QHE) qhereview , discovered more than two decades ago. The integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE), with $`\nu `$ taking integer values, has been explained by a disorder induced one-particle localization mechanism; whereas the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), with $`\nu `$ being certain fractions, is strictly a many-particle phenomenon. At small $`\nu `$, following the termination of FQHE series in the lowest Landau level (LLL), the ground state for a sufficiently clean system is believed to be a Wigner crystal(WC)lozoviketc ; willet  and disorder would pin the crystal, rendering it insulatingwcreview . One of the experimental supports for such Wigner crystal phase in LLL is the recent observations of sharp resonance in the real part of frequency($`f`$) dependent diagonal conductivity Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}(f)`$\] measured by microwave absorption wcres ; peide .

In this letter we report the observation of similar resonances around integer Landau fillings, which we interpret as also coming from a Wigner crystal state, formed around integer fillings by electrons/holes in the top Landau level. This also indicates that pinning of a many-particle ground state, such as Wigner crystal, can be relevant even for IQHE.

We have performed our study using high quality 2DES in a GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well(QW) structure grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The QW is 300 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ wide and located 2000 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ beneath the surface. The 2DES has as-cooled density $`n=3.0\times 10^{11}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and 0.3 K mobility about $`2.4\times 10^7\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{V}^1\mathrm{s}^1`$. A metal film coplanar waveguide (CPW)engel  of straight line shape was patterned onto the sample surface by photolithography. A schematic of the sample and measuring circuit is shown in the inset of Fig. 1(A). A network analyzer generates a microwave signal propagating along the CPW, which couples capacitively to the 2DES, then measures the relative power transmission $`P`$. The real part of the diagonal conductivity, Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}`$\], simply referred to as “conductivity” hereafter, can be related to $`P`$ as Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}`$\] $`=\frac{w}{2l\mathrm{Z}_0}\mathrm{ln}|P/P_0|`$ , where $`l=2\mathrm{m}\mathrm{m}`$ is the length of the CPW, $`w=20\mu \mathrm{m}`$ its slot width, $`Z_0=50\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the line impedance in the absence of 2DES and $`P_0`$ is the power transmission in the limit of vanishing 2DES conductivityengel . Normalizing $`P`$ by $`P_0`$ gets rid of the non-flat $`f`$-dependence of microwave attenuation not associated with the 2DES, mainly that due to the coaxial cable. While the total depletion of 2DES is not possible for our sample, $`P_0(f)`$ is estimated from the power transmission measured under certain reference condition, such as at IQHE minimum, at half filling (for example $`\nu =3/2`$), at high power, or at high temperature. Specific examples of references are given below. We have used different references to check our experimental findings and found negligible difference in the results.

In Fig. 1(A) we display an example of $`B`$-dependent conductivity measured at a fixed frequency (200 MHz) and $``$80 mK. We can readily resolve such FQHE states at 6/5, 4/3, 7/5, 8/5, 5/3, 7/3 and 5/2, attesting to the high quality of the sample. Panel B shows the $`B`$-dependent conductivity measured at three different frequencies, in field range of 8 to 14 T, through $`\nu =1`$. We see the peak-like “wing” (for example the one near 11T in the middle trace) on the side of $`\nu =1`$ has a small amplitude in the 300 MHz trace (bottom), but is greatly enhanced in the 1.2 GHz trace (middle), and reduces to small amplitude again in the 2 GHz trace (top), thus displaying a resonating behavior. Such behavior is most clearly seen through the $`f`$-dependent conductivity spectrum Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}(f)`$\]. Panel C shows four spectra measured at $`\nu `$=1, 3/2, 1.1 and 1.85 (from bottom to top) respectively, all acquired at about 50 mK and in the low microwave power limit. The reference spectrum is taken at a much higher power at $`\nu =1`$. Both spectra at $`\nu =1`$ and $`\nu =3/2`$ are flat within experimental tolerance and can actually be used as alternative references($`P_0`$), giving at most a constant offset in the conductivity obtained but otherwise having little influence in the results. In contrast, the spectrum at $`\nu =1.1`$($`B`$=11.3T) shows a strong resonance (near 1.3 GHz) of height more than 10 $`\mu S`$ and quality factor $`Q`$ (peak frequency divided by FWHM(full width at half maximum)) almost 3. Similarly, the spectrum at $`\nu =1.85`$($`B`$=6.7T) also displays a strong resonance, near 1.7 GHz.

This resonance in $`f`$-dependent conductivity happens for $`\nu `$ near integers and has been observed around $`\nu =1`$, 2, 3 and 4. In this paper we focus mostly on the resonances around $`\nu =1`$ and $`\nu =2`$. The resonances around $`\nu =3`$ and 4 behave similarly to those around $`\nu =1`$ and 2, but are much weaker and will be treated in detail in a future publication. All data shown in Figures. 2 to 4 below are measured on an adjacent sample from the same wafer, at $``$50 mK (except otherwise noted), and in the low power limit.

Fig. 2(A) shows Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}(f)`$\] spectra measured at 45 filling factors ranging from 0.78 to 1.22, in equal increments of 0.01. When $`\nu `$ is sufficiently far from 1 ($``$0.8 and 1.2) the spectrum is flat with no resonance. A resonance starts to develop when $`\nu `$ is around 0.84-0.85 (for $`\nu `$ below 1) and 1.15-1.16 (for $`\nu `$ above 1) at frequencies below 1 GHz. The resonance sharpens with increasing peak frequency as $`\nu `$ approaches 1 (from both sides) till becoming sharpest around $`\nu =0.9`$ (resonating around 1.2 GHz) and $`\nu =1.1`$ (resonating around 1.4 GHz). As $`\nu `$ further approaches 1 the resonance weakens but its peak frequency continues to increase; the last visible resonance is around $`\nu =`$0.95-0.96 and 1.04-1.05 with frequency reaching nearly 2 GHz. In the immediate vicinity of $`\nu =1`$ ($`0.96<\nu <1.04`$) the spectra are again flat. In panel B and C of Fig. 2 we plot the peak frequency, $`f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$, and the full width at half maximum, $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$, of the resonance as functions of $`\nu `$. Here $`f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ are extracted by fitting the resonance to a Lorentzian: $`A_0+A_1/(A_2+(ff_{\mathrm{pk}})^2)`$, with $`\mathrm{\Delta }f=2\sqrt{A_2}`$. While $`f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ monotonically increases as $`\nu `$ moves closer to 1, $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ reaches minima when $`\nu `$ is about 0.1 away from 1, where the resonance has quality factor $`Q=f_{\mathrm{pk}}/\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ of more than 3.

In Fig. 3(A) we display Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}(f)`$\] spectra measured at 51 filling factors between 1.75 to 2.25, again in 0.01 increment of $`\nu `$. The strongest resonance on each side of $`\nu =2`$ occur at $`\nu 1.85`$ (with peak frequency about 1.8 GHz) and $`\nu 2.12`$ (resonating at below 1 GHz); the peak frequency of the resonance always increases as $`\nu 2`$. The qualitative features of the resonance are similar to those around $`\nu =1`$; however we notice an evident asymmetry between the two sides of $`\nu =2`$, possibly related to the different wave functions in different orbital Landau levels (whereas both sides of $`\nu =1`$ belong to the same orbital Landau level). The $`f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ of the resonance are extracted as in Fig. 1 and plotted in panel B and C respectively.

The most natural interpretation of our data is that the resonance we observe is due to a Wigner crystal phase formed around integer Landau fillings. For clean enough 2DES, Wigner crystal has been theoretically assumed to be the ground state of the system for filling factor $`\nu =K+\nu ^{}`$ with sufficiently small $`|\nu ^{}|`$, where $`K`$ is some positive integerwchllth . Such considerations are often based on the simple physical picture that electrons (or holes, for negative $`\nu ^{}`$) in filled Landau levels can be assumed to be “inert” and the remaining electrons/holes of “effective filling factor” $`\nu ^{}`$ and density $`n^{}=(n/\nu )\nu ^{}=n\nu ^{}/(K+\nu ^{})`$ should Wigner-crystallize when the size of their localized wave function (on the order of the magnetic length $`l_B=\sqrt{\mathrm{}/eB}`$) becomes small compared to their average spatial separation. Due to interaction with weak disorder such a crystalline phase is pinned, rendering the top Landau level insulating, and supports a pinning modefulee  that gives rise to the observed resonance.

Our resonance is qualitatively similar to the resonance previously observed at small filling factors in the LLL Wigner crystal regime of both electrons and holeswcres ; peide ; ccli , as well as recently discovered resonance from the “bubble” crystal phase in high ($`\nu >4`$) Landau levelsbubble , all thought to be caused by the pinning mode of crystalline domains in the 2DES oscillating in impurity pinning potential. The many-particle nature of such a pinning mode is reflected in several features of our observed resonance. For example, the resonance at 14 T, $`\nu =0.89`$ is observed up to nearly 200 mK, much higher than the temperature scale corresponding to its resonating frequency($``$1 GHz$``$50 mK). This rules out the picture of individual particles trapped by disorder giving the resonance. Furthermore, the resonance (at lowest temperature) can have quality factor $`Q`$ more than 3. The collective motion of a large region of particles can average disorder and allow such high $`Q`$ ff .

Additional insights about our observed resonance in support of the pinned Wigner crystal picture can be gained by integrating the spectrum to extract the oscillator strength $`S`$oscdef . Previous theory by Fukuyama and Lee gives fulee ; foglersay  $`S/f_{\mathrm{pk}}=|n^{}e\pi /2B|=|(e^2\pi /2h)\nu ^{}|`$ for pinned 2D WC with density $`n^{}`$ and effective filling factor $`\nu ^{}`$ under perpendicular $`B`$. Fig. 4 (A) and (B) display $`S/f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ calculated for the resonance in Fig. 2 (around $`\nu =1`$) and Fig. 3 (around $`\nu =2`$) respectively. We see indeed the data follow a straight line over most of its range. We remark here that the magnitudes of the resonance and $`S`$ are found to have some significant variations (up to factor of 2) for different cool-downs and samples (from the same wafer), but such linear-like behavior in $`S/f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ versus $`\nu ^{}`$ is always observed.

An important feature of our resonance, as already seen in Fig. 2(B) and Fig. 3(B), is that the peak frequency of the resonance always monotonically increases with decreasing effective density $`n^{}`$. This is a key character of the “weak-pinning” pictureccli ; bvarnote .

From the data presented in this paper, we notice that the observed resonance is mostly visible in a $`\nu ^{}`$ range of $`\nu _l^{}<|\nu ^{}|<\nu _u^{}`$ (this range depends on the specific integer filling and even the sign of $`\nu ^{}`$). The existence of an “upper limit”, $`\nu _u^{}`$ , analogous to the case in LLL Wigner crystal, is probably because WC is not the ground state of our 2DES at large enough $`\nu ^{}`$. For example, away from $`\nu =1`$, as $`\nu 4/5`$ or $`\nu 6/5`$, the system would enter the FQHE state, which is an incompressible liquid. This kind of “quantum melting” of the WC state would account for the observed weakening of the resonance and the drop of $`S/f_{\mathrm{pk}}`$ at large $`|\nu ^{}|`$ seen in Fig. 4. The existence of a “lower limit”, $`\nu _l^{}`$, also corresponding to a “lower limit” for density $`n_l^{}=(n/\nu )\nu _l^{}`$, possibly indicates the “carriers” (electrons/holes) are individually localized by disorder for densities $`n^{}`$ below $`n_l^{}`$. This lower limit of $`n^{}`$ would also imply that higher density samples may allow such resonance to be observable around higher integer fillings. Preliminary studies performed on a lower density sample ($`7\times 10^{10}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ with mobility $`5\times 10^6\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{V}^1\mathrm{s}^1`$) have only found relatively weak resonance around $`\nu =1`$ and none around higher integer fillings.

For more disordered 2DES, theories of frequency-driven variable range hoping conduction in IQHEhopth  predict a linear dependence of Re\[$`\sigma _{xx}`$\] on frequency, which has been confirmed in recent experimentshopexp  on samples of mobilities up to $`5\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{V}^1\mathrm{s}^1`$. No resonance were seen in these experiments.

Around $`\nu `$ = 1 a “Skyrme” crystal has been proposedskycth  and there are some recent experiments hinting its existenceskycex . We note that the “Skyrme” crystal cannot explain our observed resonance around $`\nu =2`$, where Skyrmions do not exist. Moreover the resonance we observe shows major similarities around $`\nu =1`$ and 2 in contrast to the experiments in skycex , both of which showed a response in their measured quantity that has orders-of-magnitude difference between near $`\nu =1`$ and near $`\nu =2`$.

In summary, we have observed a microwave resonance around integer Landau fillings ($`\nu =K+\nu ^{}`$) in high quality 2DES. At either side of each integer filling $`K`$ with such observable resonance, the peak frequency monotonically increases with decreasing $`|\nu ^{}|`$, whereas the resonances are strongest at certain fillings away from $`K`$. We interpret the resonance as caused by the pinning mode of a Wigner crystal phase of density $`n^{}=(n/\nu )\nu ^{}`$ formed by electrons/holes in the top Landau level, around the corresponding integer fillings.


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# Small scale structure in molecular gas from multi-epoch observations of HD 34078Based on observations made at Observatoire de Haute Provence (France) and McDonald Observatory.

## 1 Introduction

While the existence of AU-scale structure is relatively well established in atomic gas (see e.g., Dieter et al., (1976), Diamond et al., (1989), Frail et al., (1994), Lauroesch et al., (1999), Faison & Goss, (2001), Welty & Fitzpatrick, (2001)), the reality of such tiny fluctuations within molecular gas is still questionable. Indeed, only minor species can be easily observed towards molecular clouds and their spatial distribution might not reflect that of H2 if “chemical structure” were present. H2CO, HCO+ and OH apparently display column density fluctuations reaching 5 to 15% along lines of sight separated by about 10 AU (Marscher et al., (1993), Moore & Marscher, (1995), Liszt & Lucas, (2000)), while dust grains appear to be more smoothly distributed (Thoraval et al., (1996)). At larger scales (about 10,000 AU), Pan et al. (2001) find significant differences in CN, CH and CH+ absorption lines.

If marked enough, small scale structure within molecular gas might notably affect its time evolution, fragmentation and then utimately, star formation. It is therefore important to characterise the properties of such media, identify the parameters displaying fluctuations and quantify their amplitude and scalelength. To this aim, we have selected a bright O9.5 runaway star, HD 34078 (AE Aur), seen through a translucent cloud with $`E`$($`BV`$) = 0.52 (Diplas & Savage, (1994)). Thanks to its large transverse velocity, about 100 km s-1 for an assumed distance of 530 pc, the comparison of spectra taken at one year intervals provides a measurement of column density variations at a scale of 17 AU (assuming a cloud distance of 400 pc: Brown et al., (1995)). To complement ongoing FUSE observations designed to investigate in a direct way small scale variations of the H2 column density (and then study density structure within molecular gas), we have undertaken repeated ground-based observations of CH, CH+and CN absorption lines and diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) towards HD 34078.

These optical spectra complement the FUSE UV data in several important respects:

\- since CH is seen to correlate well with H2 over large scales (e.g., Federman, (1982)), it should be a good indicator of cloud structure. On the other hand, the abundance of CH+ is largely independent of H2 column density, $`N`$(H2); the large abundance of this species is still poorly understood and hot pockets of gas (e.g., shocks or vortices as proposed by Falgarone & Puget, 1995) could be the formation site. Then, CH+ observations may reveal the structure of these presumably very small regions where energy is actively dissipated. Finally, CN depends nonlinearly on H2 and is thus an indicator of gas density (Federman et al., (1994)).

\- given the brightness of HD 34078, high S/N spectra can be obtained easily to search for very small fluctuations which would be difficult to detect in FUSE spectra,

\- spectral data in the visible range can be acquired much more easily than in the far UV, and therefore, it is possible to control the time (i.e., spatial) sampling and to accumulate a larger number of spectra. Moreover, several visible observations of HD 34078 have been performed in the past 10 years, thus giving access to large scale variations. A broad range of scales can then be explored through visible observations.

\- high resolution observations providing information on the velocity distribution and its possible variations are feasible in the visible, but not in the FUSE range.

In this paper, we present observations made specifically for this project together with a comparison with older data. The whole set of spectra is used to search for time variable absorption and infer the structure implied for CH, CH+, CN and diffuse bands carriers. Sect. 2 presents the observations and the methods used to analyse the data. In Sect. 3, we give the results obtained for CH, CH+, CN and some selected DIBs. Since most observations have been obtained at low resolution, we mainly consider equivalent width variations. High resolution observations of CH and CH+ are then used to infer velocity distributions and translate variations in equivalent width into column density variations for these two species. The implication of our results for the existence of AU-scale structure in the distribution of these tracers is discussed in Sect. 4.

The analysis of Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 FUSE data will be presented in a separate paper (Boissé et al., 2002; see also Boissé et al., 2001 and Le Petit et al., 2001 for a preliminary report). Our ultimate goal is to correlate the variations seen for H2 and those of other tracers like CH, CH+ and CN in order to improve the description of the structure.

## 2 The Data

### 2.1 The Available Spectra

Spectra acquired at various observatories have been used for this study. In the following, these are named according to the observer and year of data taking. We obtained specifically for this project a series of nine spectra at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP) (R99-02). In addition, high resolution spectra were recently recorded at McDonald Observatory (F02). The motivation was twofold. First, as we are interested in column density variations, we need to translate the observed changes in equivalent width, $`W_\lambda `$, into changes in $`N`$ (i.e., determine $`N`$ and d$`N`$/d$`W_\lambda `$). Since the lines are not optically thin, the conversion requires a good knowledge of the velocity distribution. This point is especially important for CH $`\lambda `$4300 because this feature is in fact a blend of two transitions and the analysis can be notably affected by the splitting if the $`b`$ parameter is less than 2 km s-1 (Lien, (1984)). Second, only high resolution observations allow us to determine whether or not line shapes have changed, and they possibly reveal profile variations not associated with equivalent width changes.

HD 34078 was observed several times since 1991 by one of us (S. Federman at McDonald Observatory: F93a, F93b). Spectra of HD 34078 were also acquired by M. Allen (KPNO: A91), P. Jenniskens and F.X. Désert (at OHP: J91), J. Krelowski, G. A. Galazutdinov & F. A. Musaev (at Terskol Observatory: K97a, K97b) and G. Herbig (at the Keck telescope: H98) who kindly provided their data, so that we could analyze them in the same way as our own and search for variations by direct comparison of the spectra. Note that in his study, Herbig (1999) searched for changes in line position with respect to the spectrum obtained by Adams (1949) and thus investigated the velocity structure of the foreground gas; no significant variation was observed.

Table 2 summarises all these observations and gives the date, resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. The transitions (from CH, CH+, CN or DIBs) contained in the observed wavelength range are indicated. These data altogether provide a sort of 1D cut through the cloud, the sampling of which is illustrated by Fig. 1. Below, we give some details concerning the observations of HD 34078 used in this paper and not previously published.

### 2.2 OHP Observations

The spectra were obtained using the fiber-fed echelle spectrograph Elodie (Baranne et al., (1996)) mounted on the 1.93 m telescope (R99-02). The resolution is about 32000. Initially, a spectrum was taken each month in order to probe very small scales. Since this series did not reveal significant variations, only two spectra were taken during the next winters. The range covered is 3906 Å - 6811 Å and includes lines from CH (4300 Å), CH+ (3957 and 4232 Å) and DIBs. For all spectra, the integration time is about 1 hour, split in 2 to 3 successive exposures of 30 or 20 minutes each in order to check the stability of the instrument and robustness of our analysis on independent spectra. The corresponding S/N ratio is typically 150 per resolution element. Some examples of CH and CH+ lines detected in OHP spectra are shown in Fig. 2. The spectra have been extracted and wavelength calibrated using the automatic on-line data reduction program attached to the instrument (see Baranne et al., (1996) for details); the wavelength calibration is based on Thorium lamp spectra.

### 2.3 McDonald Observations

Three data sets were acquired since the last published results (Federman et al., 1994) by one of us (S.R.F.). Two of the new sets utilized the 6 foot camera and the 2dcoude spectrograph on the 2.7 m telescope. A standard observing strategy, with bias frames, flat fields, and a Th-Ar comparison spectrum, was employed (see Knauth et al., 2001 for details of similar measurements). Individual orders containing CH+ $`\lambda `$4232 and CH $`\lambda `$4300 were imaged with the 6 foot camera in 1993. The nominal resolution was 1.5 km s-1. In 2002, spectra of CN, CH and CH+ were acquired at a single setting of the 2dcoude spectrograph. Here, the resolution was about 1.9 km s-1. Also in 1993, the Sandiford echelle spectrograph on the 2.1 m telescope (McCarthy et al., 1993) was used for measurements on various species in a similar fashion. One setting, centered on 3990 Å, provided data on CN, CH $`\lambda \lambda `$3878,3886,3890 and CH+ $`\lambda `$3957. The second setup at 4300 Å measured absorption from CH+ $`\lambda `$4232 and CH $`\lambda `$4300. The widths of Th-Ar lines indicated a resolution of $``$ 7.5 km s-1 for these spectra. All data were reduced and analyzed with the IRAF package.

### 2.4 Analysis of the Data

In most of the available HD 34078 spectra, the profiles are not resolved. We shall then look primarily for variations in $`W_\lambda `$.

We have been particularly careful in placing the continuum in a consistent manner for all epochs and also in estimating properly the uncertainty in $`W_\lambda `$. For some species, several lines are observed, e.g., at 3957 Å and 4232 Å for CH+. Similarly, a few observations of the CH lines at 3878, 3886 and 3890 Å are available for comparison with the 4300 Å results. This redundancy is useful as a means to assess the robustness of our analysis and validate the error estimates.

We have developed an automatic procedure based on the MIDAS package alice in order to fit the continuum in a user-independent way and to measure $`W_\lambda `$ values. Several “clean” windows (generally two, located on both sides of the line) are selected; a polynomial fit with a degree ranging from 1 to 3 and depending on the shape of the spectrum is then performed. This provides a good estimate of the continuum in the interval covered by the absorption feature (see Fig. 2). One $`\sigma `$ uncertainties in $`W_\lambda `$ can be estimated as the quadratic sum of $`ϵ_n`$ and $`ϵ_c`$, the pixel-to-pixel noise and the uncertainty in the continuum level in the normalised spectrum respectively. The latter are given by

$`ϵ_n`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma _F\times \delta \lambda \times \sqrt{N},\mathrm{and}`$ (1)
$`ϵ_c`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{line}\times 1F,`$ (2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{line}`$ is the total width of the absorption feature, $`\delta \lambda `$ is the pixel size and $`N`$ the number of pixels covered by the line ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda _{line}=N\delta \lambda `$). The average (Eq. 2) and the r.m.s. (Eq. 1) of the normalised flux, $`F`$, are computed along the windows adjacent to the line. The robustness of the fitting procedure and the estimates for uncertainty have also been checked against synthetic spectra including absorption lines with known $`W_\lambda `$, a signal-to-noise ratio comparable to that in our data, and various continuum shapes.

Some transitions present difficulties. CH+$`\lambda `$4232 is blended with a shallow stellar feature (from Fe II, see Fig. 2b) and the above procedure cannnot be applied. Similar problems are encountered with the R(0) CN line at 3876 Å. In such cases, the $`W_\lambda `$ is measured using the command integrate/line from MIDAS (an order 2-3 is chosen for the polynomial used to fit the spectrum immediately adjacent to the line) and the uncertainties are determined from successive measurements.

The high resolution profiles have been fitted using VPFIT (Carswell et al., (1987)). No attempt was made to look for velocity shifts (the question addressed by Herbig, 1999).

## 3 Results

We now present the results obtained for CH, CH+, CN and some selected DIBs. For CH and CH+, we first discuss the homogeneous set of data obtained after November 1999 which probe time scales ranging from one month to 2.5 years (corresponding to 1.5 - 40 AU). The whole set of available observations made in the past 11 years are presented next. Finally, we discuss the high resolution data and their implications for velocity structure and column density variations.

### 3.1 Structure in CH

#### 3.1.1 Small scale variations

Fig. 3a displays the evolution of the equivalent width as a function of time for the 4300 Å line. The variation since 1999 is fitted with a linear form $`W_\lambda =W_{\lambda ,0}+\alpha (tt_{\mathrm{med}})`$ where $`t_{\mathrm{med}}`$ is the median of observing times (December 2000). The data points are weighted according to signal-to-noise ratio in all fits performed in this paper. The contours of the reduced $`\chi ^2(W_0,\alpha )`$ are plotted in Fig. 4a (dashed lines) for the linear case. A constant value is rejected only at the 1$`\sigma `$ level. The best fit, $`W_0=56.6`$ mÅ and $`\alpha =0.98`$ mÅ yr-1 corresponds to $`\mathrm{\Delta }W_\lambda `$ 2.2 mÅ between November 1999 and February 2002. It is overplotted in Fig. 3a (dotted line). Large variations at this scale are excluded since $`1.8<\mathrm{\Delta }W_\lambda <6.3`$ mÅ at the 3$`\sigma `$ level.

The linear fit is not fully satisfactory since residuals correspond to $`2\sigma `$. This suggests that small additional erratic variations in $`W_\lambda `$ may be present. The observed amplitude is 1.50 mÅ ($`rms`$) about the linear fit (and 1.56 mÅ about a constant value; the maximum difference is 4.8 mÅ). A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (Miller, 1956) shows that these values are too small compared to observational errors to indicate with certainty that we are detecting fluctuations in $`W_\lambda `$(CH). However, the reality of the latter is supported by the fact that similar variations are observed for CH+ lines (see below).

#### 3.1.2 Large scale variations

Results for the full set of observations are given in Table 3 and shown also in Fig. 3a. A significant increase is apparent. Fitting again with a linear variation (with $`t_{\mathrm{med}}`$ = April 1996) gives a total increase of $`\mathrm{\Delta }W_\lambda `$ = 8 mÅ or 16% between 1992 and November 2001, consistent with the slope derived from the small scale data alone (see Fig. 4). The 3$`\sigma `$ limit is $`4.2<\mathrm{\Delta }W_\lambda <13`$ mÅ. However, the fit is even less satisfactory than for the recent data alone since the minimum $`\chi ^2`$ is larger than $`3\sigma `$. The assumption of a linear increase is somewhat arbitrary and visual inspection of Fig. 3 suggests that a step function might also provide an acceptable fit. The minimum $`\chi ^2`$ is not significantly lowered, $`2.6\sigma `$. The date at which the step occurs is well constrained by K97 and H98 measurements. The amplitude ($`\mathrm{\Delta }W_\lambda 7`$ mÅ) is similar to the total increase inferred from the linear fit. To assess the reality of an increase in $`W_\lambda `$(4300) regardless of any assumption on its form, we performed a Pearson test to investigate the correlation between $`W_\lambda `$ and time. An uncorrelated evolution of CH $`\lambda `$4300 with time is rejected at the 4 $`\sigma `$ level.

Other CH lines at 3886 and 3890 Å have been observed in 1990, 1993 and 1998. Their variation should be consistent with the increase seen in CH $`\lambda `$4300. Given the weakness of these lines and the S/N attained, we find that even the strongest feature at 3886 Å does not bring useful additional constraints.

#### 3.1.3 High resolution observations

We first discuss the highest signal-to-noise ratio observation of CH $`\lambda `$4300, performed in 2002 at McDonald (F02). The profile was fitted using VPFIT, taking into account the doublet structure of the CH ground level (Lien, 1984). Both levels are assumed to have the same column density. Three components are needed: two narrow ones reproduce the slightly asymmetric core of the absorption line and a much broader and fainter one accounts for the wings which are present on both sides of the core. The resulting fit and the three components are shown in Fig. 5 and the parameters of the fit are given in Table 1. There is no doubt about the reality of the broad component since it is clearly seen in all spectra with the appropriate S/N ratio (A91, F93a, F02) and for both the 3886 and 4300 Å lines (H98). It is noteworthy that, although barely noticeable, it contains no less than 28% of the total CH column density. As a consistency check, we verified that $`W_\lambda `$ values measured for all CH lines detected in Herbig’s spectrum are consistent with the velocity distribution derived from the F02 spectrum. We note, however, that different 3-component solutions for the latter are also acceptable (in particular, one in which the strongest narrow component is the red one). Nevertheless, since the optical depth remains moderate, this degeneracy does not result in larger uncertainties on $`N`$(CH). Moreover, very recent observations of the CO(2 - 1) emission line at 1.3 mm towards HD 34078 performed at the 30 m IRAM telescope give a velocity profile in excellent agreement with that shown in Fig. 5 (E. Roueff and M. Gerin, private communication).

If we now fit independently the F93a profile, a slightly different solution is obtained. The parameters are less accurate due to the lower signal-to-noise ratio $``$ see Table 1. The reality of profile variations is difficult to assess from comparison of the F93a and F02 parameters because the decomposition is not unique; we give in Table 1 solutions with the lowest $`\chi ^2`$ but relatively different solutions cannot be rejected. We then perform a more direct comparison of profiles and find that multiplication of the F93a optical depth by 1.34 provides an acceptable fit to the F02 profile (Fig. 6; the slightly different spectral resolutions of the two spectra have been taken into account). Therefore, we conclude that the velocity distribution has remained roughly constant between 1993 and 2002 and that the observed line variation is essentially due to an increase by the same factor of the column density for each of the three components.

For the velocity profile obtained above, the ratio ($`\delta N/N`$)/($`\delta W_\lambda /W_\lambda `$) needed to translate equivalent width variations into $`N`$ variations increases from 1.37 to 1.50 between $`W_\lambda =48`$ and $`W_\lambda =60`$ mÅ. For a single component profile, these ratios equal 1.36 and 1.49 respectively, showing that in our optical depth regime, ($`\delta N/N`$)/($`\delta W_\lambda /W_\lambda `$) depends very weakly on the exact model chosen to fit the profiles. This implies an increase of $`\mathrm{\Delta }N/N=22\%`$ in either the step function fit or in the linear fit (between 1992 and 2001). In this latter case, bounds of $`12\%<\mathrm{\Delta }N/N<38\%`$ are obtained at the 3$`\sigma `$ level. The higher (34%) increase in $`N`$(CH) between F93a and F02 corresponds to a 12 mÅ increase in $`W_\lambda `$.

### 3.2 Structure in CH+

CH+ transitions are observed at 3957 Å and 4232 Å in the OHP data; some additional lines are detected at shorter wavelengths in G. Herbig’s spectrum. The absorption line at 3957 Å is free of blending and the continuum can be accurately determined. Although the 4232 Å line is more difficult to measure, the S/N ratio in this region is higher and thus comparable accuracy is obtained for the two lines.

#### 3.2.1 Small scale variations

Both lines appear to be roughly constant in equivalent width (Fig. 3b, c). Erratic variations still seem to be present, although the larger errors yield an acceptable value of $`\chi ^21`$ for the best fit. In particular, the pattern characterising the time variations is similar for both CH+ lines and for the CH $`\lambda `$4300 transition. This is especially clear for the last four OHP measurements, marked with letters A to D in Fig. 3. We also note that the F02 measurement, which has been made in completely independent conditions, apparently displays this coherent CH/CH+ behavior. Finally, it appears in Fig. 3a and Fig. 3b that closely-spaced measurements (made during winter 1999-2000) display relatively smaller scatter, indicating a possible cut-off in the structure at scales below 1 - 2 AU.

Such a coherent variation could be an artefact due to instrumental effects (e.g., if changes in the background were not taken into account properly). We searched for any dependence on the observing conditions (e.g., high or low sky background) and found none. We also selected a few narrow stellar lines near 4300 Å for which the continuum level is well defined and measured their equivalent width; no significant variations of the kind observed for CH or CH+ are observed. Finally, we checked that the depth of the stellar H$`\gamma `$ absorption is stable as it should be in the absence of uncontroled variations of the zero level.

We therefore strongly suspect that stochastic correlated fluctuations of $`N`$(CH) and $`N`$(CH+) are present, although more accurate measurements (especially for CH+) would be useful to establish more firmly their reality and to characterise their properties. Among measurements performed after November 1999, the r.m.s. fluctuation of $`W_\lambda `$(4300) is 1.5 mÅ while that of $`W_\lambda `$(4232) is 1.8 mÅ (the corresponding fluctuations in $`N`$ are discussed below).

#### 3.2.2 Large scale variations

Fig. 4b shows the result of a linear fit to the whole set of data for CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$4232. The minimum $`\chi ^2`$ is again close to 1. Although the best fit is a slow decrease, $`dW_\lambda /dt=0.4`$ mÅ yr-1, a constant value, $`W_\lambda 4043`$ mÅ, cannot be rejected at the 1.5$`\sigma `$ level. We obtain the following 3$`\sigma `$ bounds: $`1.2<dW_\lambda /dt<0.45`$ mÅ yr-1. Clearly, the variation observed for CH+ is quite different from that seen for CH.

Consistent results are obtained from CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$3957. The ratio of the two total CH+ equivalent widths, $`W_\lambda `$(3957)/$`W_\lambda `$(4232), is found to be constant at a value of 0.65 $`\pm 0.05`$, indicating that these lines are nearly optically thin (ratio of 0.60). The best linear fit is also decreasing, although a constant value for both $`W_\lambda `$(3957) or $`W_\lambda `$(4232) cannot be ruled out.

#### 3.2.3 High resolution observations

CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$4232 has been observed twice at high resolution (F93a and F02). To fit these profiles, we first remove the blended stellar line using a specific Gaussian profile. The CH+ line in F02 is asymmetric, as was the CH $`\lambda `$4300 one, but now it is the blue wing which is more extended. A good fit is obtained with 3 components; parameters are summarised in Table 1 and shown in Fig. 7.

The F93a and F02 profiles are almost identical. The same components fit both observations with a residual less than 1.5 and 1.0 $`\sigma `$, respectively. If the F93a spectrum is analysed separately, a good fit is obtained with two narrow components only, but this is just due to the lower signal-to-noise ratio. The third broad component is also apparent in the H98 spectrum for both the CH+ lines at 3957 and 4232 Å.

In summary, the CH+ line profiles have been stable between 1990 and 2002. For the model derived from the F02 profile and the CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$4232 data, one gets $`\delta N/N=1.3\delta W_\lambda /W_\lambda `$ in the range $`\delta W_\lambda =10\mathrm{to}10`$ mÅ. We then derive an upper limit for the annual variation of the column density from 1990 to 2002 of $`3.9<\delta N/N<1.45\%`$ per year at the 3$`\sigma `$ level. Tighter constraints can be obtained by combining CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$3957 and CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$4232 measurements. For all epochs, we derive $`N`$(CH+) and $`\sigma (N)`$ from each transition; estimates drawn from CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$4232 appear to be, in average, slightly lower than those inferred from CH$`{}_{}{}^{+}\lambda `$3957, presumably because the blend with the stellar feature induces an underestimate of $`W_\lambda `$(4232). We thus apply a small positive and constant offset to $`W_\lambda `$(4232) measurements in order to get the same $`<N>`$ for both transitions and finally compute the ($`\sigma (N)^2`$ weighted) average for each epoch. The best fit corresponds to $`\delta N/N=0.65\%`$ per year and the 3$`\sigma `$ bounds are $`1.5`$ and $`0.27\%`$ per year (a non varying $`N`$(CH+) is rejected at the 2$`\sigma `$ level); these values clearly exclude an increase as large as that seen for CH.

Let us now compare the velocity profiles of CH and CH+ absorptions. Fig. 8 shows the apparent optical depth versus velocity for both species. It can be seen that no systematic shift is present; observed profiles are quite similar although the asymmetry of CH and CH+ lines is reversed. This is clearly seen when comparing the two narrow components needed to fit the profiles. (A comparison of the broad components would be meaningless because the CH+ one is ill-defined due to blending with the adjacent stellar absorption.) The CH and CH+ components have the same velocities but different CH+/CH ratios, as often observed (see e.g., Crawford, (1989) and the $`\xi `$ Per profiles given by Crane et al. 1995).

### 3.3 Structure in CN

Because CN is expected to respond strongly to density changes, the behavior of this species can give useful clues concerning the nature of the CH variations (Pan et al., 2001). The available observations were taken in 1993 (F93b), 1998 (H98) and 2002 (F02). Unfortunately, when seen towards hot stars, the R(0) line is blended with stellar features from O II and C II (Fig. 9; see Meyer & Jura, 1985). As a result of the possibility of blending, we remeasured the line in a consistent manner. In practice, this is not easy because the resolution differs from one spectrum to another and further, the broad stellar feature appears to vary in time. Results are given in Table 3; the larger value quoted by Herbig (1999) for the R(0) line is likely due to inclusion of the stellar feature.

#### 3.3.1 Analysis of G. Herbig’s spectrum

Since the Keck data have the highest S/N ratio, we first discuss this spectrum and its implication on the CN column density, velocity distribution and excitation. The R(0), R(1) and P(1) lines are clearly detected, as shown on Fig. 9.

To our knowledge, there exist no high resolution observation with adequate S/N of the CN lines towards HD 34078 that would allow us to measure their optical depth and investigate saturation effects in a direct way. Classically, the latter are estimated by comparing the relative strengths of the R(1) and P(1) lines (Meyer & Jura 1985). However, these CN absorptions are quite weak in the HD 34078 spectrum ($`W_\lambda `$ = 2.6 $`\pm `$ 0.1 mÅ and $`W_\lambda `$ = 1.5 $`\pm `$ 0.1 mÅ respectively, while for the R(0) line, $`W_\lambda `$ = 5.7 $`\pm `$ 0.2 mÅ), and the equivalent width ratio poorly constrains the $`b`$ value. Indeed, only values smaller than 0.1 km s-1 can be rejected (at the 2 $`\sigma `$ level); thus, within errors, the equivalent width ratio is consistent with CN lines being optically thin.

Another way to estimate the optical depth of the 3874.6 Å R(0) line is to compare its equivalent width to that of the R(0) line from the (1,0) vibrational band at 3579.96 Å (Meyer et al., 1989). In Herbig’s spectrum, a weak feature is present at the expected position with $`W_\lambda `$ = 0.55 $`\pm `$ 0.15 mÅ; in the optically thin limit, a value $`W_\lambda `$ = 0.50 $`\pm `$ 0.02 mÅ would be expected. Again, within errors, the relative strengths of the two R(0) features are consistent with the assumption that these two lines are thin and only a lower limit on $`b`$ can be obtained: $`b>`$ 0.2 km s-1 (2 $`\sigma `$ limit).

In the optically thin limit, the observed $`W_\lambda `$ ratio for R(0) and R(1) implies an excitation temperature $`T_{exc}`$ = 3.6 $`\pm `$ 0.2 K (following the same method as Meyer & Jura, 1985) , significantly above the value expected $`T_{exc}`$ = $`T_{CMB}`$ = 2.73 K if the excitation were due only to interaction with CMB radiation. As discussed above, the available data yield only loose constraints on $`b`$(CN) and if the latter were small enough, saturation effects might affect the determination of $`T_{exc}`$. To assess the importance of these effects, we compute $`T_{exc}`$ assuming $`b`$ = 1, 0.5, 0.25, 0.20 km s-1 and get $`T_{exc}`$ = 3.5, 3.4, 3.0 and 2.8 K respectively. For lines of sight with similar extinction, $`b`$(CN) is observed to be about 1 km s-1 and values as low as 0.2 km s-1 appear unlikely in comparison with available determinations (Crawford, 1995). Such low values for $`b`$ would also be at odds with the results for CH $`\lambda `$4300 ; no component in CH, that is associated with CN, has such a low $`b`$-value. We conclude that $`T_{exc}`$ very likely exceeds $`T_{CMB}`$, implying that collisions with electrons contribute significantly in populating the $`N`$ = 1 level (Black & van Dishoeck, (1991)). If $`b`$(CN) = 1 km s-1, $`T_{exc}`$ would be among the highest values quoted by Black & van Dishoeck (1991).

#### 3.3.2 McDonald 2002 and 1993 spectra

Very recently, the CN (0,0) lines have been reobserved at McDonald (R = 170 000) (Fig. 9). The stellar feature around the R(0) line is not well defined due to limited signal to noise; apparently, it is weaker than in Herbig’s spectrum. The R(0) and R(1) lines are clearly detected with $`W_\lambda `$ = 6.3 $`\pm `$ 0.5 mÅ and $`W_\lambda `$ = 2.6 $`\pm `$ 0.4 mÅ respectively. These values are compatible with the 1998 ones. On the other hand, the 1993 (F93b) spectrum yields $`W_\lambda `$ = 5.1 $`\pm `$ 0.2 mÅ and $`W_\lambda `$ $`<`$ 2.0 mÅ (2 $`\sigma `$ limit) for the R(0) and R(1) lines, implying $`T_{exc}<3.1`$ K. Altogether, the data suggest that both the $`N`$ = 0 and $`N`$ = 1 CN column densities have increased, even if the variation is only marginally significant ($`\mathrm{\Delta }N/N=12\pm 6`$%). Therefore, the CN variation could be as high as that for CH, but not much larger.

### 3.4 Structure in DIBs Carriers

The OHP spectra acquired for our study of CH and CH+ contain several strong DIBs. We now use these data together with older spectra to investigate the spatial distribution of DIBs carriers. Some of them are known to behave differently with respect to the abundance of CH (Krelowski et al., (1999)). Then, an immediate goal is to determine whether the kind of small and large scale variations seen for CH are also present for DIBs.

Among all detected DIBs, we initially selected those at 5780, 5797, 6196, 6284 and 6614 Å which are relatively strong (opacity reaching 6%) and narrow. For broader ones, the continuum level and shape is difficult to determine and only large variations could be seen. Among the five features quoted above, we find that the sensitivity needed to detect variations with an amplitude comparable to that of the observed CH changes can be obtained only for the 5780 and 5797 Å features. We then focus on these two DIBs. Since they are fully resolved (except possibly for some substructure), we can perform a direct comparison of the absorption profiles, once the spectra have been brought to a common wavelength scale. Equivalent width measurements would not be appropriate due to large continuum placement errors.

We first discuss variations at the scale of 0.5 - 1 year ($``$ 10 AU) among the spectra taken at OHP. Since the latter have been taken with the same instrument, the shape of the continuum adjacent to the DIBs considered is very stable, rendering the intercomparison much easier. We selected pairs of spectra (October 2000/March 2002 and February 2001/October 2001) in which $`W_\lambda `$(4300) measurements show the largest difference (about 5.3% which corresponds to relative variations in $`N`$(CH) of 7.2%). No significant variation is detected at the level of 10 and 15% for the 5780 and 5797 Å DIBs, respectively. To derive these upper limits, we artificially increase/decrease the strength of the DIB considered in the epoch 1 spectrum and then compare the latter to epoch 2 data. Then, the sensitivity reached is not large enough to detect variations as faint as those displayed by $`N`$(CH) over a period of about one year.

To study variations at larger scales, we use the spectrum obtained by Jenniskens et al. (1992) and compare it to the average of all our OHP spectra. The ratio of the two smoothed spectra is computed, and to ensure a good “relative normalisation”, we fit values taken by this ratio in a few windows adjacent to each DIB with a polynomial of order 1 or 2. We then divide the first spectrum by this relative normalisation. The spectra thus obtained are shown in Fig. 10 and show no variation of the 5780 and 5797 Å DIBs at respective levels of 10 and 20%. Since both DIBs are optically thin, these upper limits are to be compared to the relative variation in $`N`$(CH) which is estimated to be 20% over the same period. We then conclude that the 5780 Å DIB at least has varied less than CH.

### 3.5 Summary of observational results

The main results that emerge from observations are the following:

\- over the past 12 years (or scales of 100-200 AU in the foreground cloud), the CH column density has increased by 12-38%. A linear form (with $`dN/(Ndt)`$ = 1.4% yr-1) or a step function ($`\mathrm{\Delta }N/N`$ = 22% in 1998) can both fit this overall variation. Over the same period, the CH+ column density displays a markedly different behavior (a slow decrease with $`dN/(Ndt)`$ = -0.65% yr-1).

\- on the scale of a few months ($``$ 5 AU), correlated fluctuations in $`N`$(CH) and $`N`$(CH+) are strongly suggested by the data. A rough estimate of their amplitude over the period November 99 - March 02 can be inferred from the r.m.s. scatter of $`W_\lambda `$ measurements: $`\sigma `$($`N`$(CH))/$`N`$(CH) $``$ 3.6% and $`\sigma `$($`N`$(CH+))/$`N`$(CH+) $``$ 5.8%.

\- CH and CH+ velocity profiles show no significant time variation.

\- CN observations indicate a moderate increase of $`N`$(CN) but a higher excitation temperature in 1998 and 2002, as compared to 1993. The recent $`T_{exc}`$ value is significantly above that expected from excitation by CMB radiation alone.

\- The 5780 and 5797 Å DIBs have been stable and the former has varied by no more than half that seen in CH.

### 3.6 Discussion

#### 3.6.1 AU scale structure and CH+ production

We now discuss structure in the gas containing CH and CH+ at the 1 - 10 AU scale as probed by the homogeneous observations performed since 1999. We found indications for fluctuations of CH and CH+ absorptions: first, the scatter is relatively large and second, CH and CH+ fluctuations are apparently correlated. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that these variations are quite small. Indeed, part of the observed scatter can be attributed to measurement errors and the real scatter in $`N`$(CH) or $`N`$(CH+) cannot exceed a few %. This is much smaller than the H2CO variations described by Moore & Marscher (1995), which attain 17% and smaller than $`N`$(H i) fluctuations seen in the atomic phase over similar scales. In a simple model where most of the CH or CH+ gas is comprised of identical discrete entities, the number of such “clumps” must exceed 103 to get fluctuations that weak.

If the erratic variations seen since 1999 reflect the geometry of localised regions where CH+ molecules are produced, then it is natural to detect associated variations of CH since about 30% of the CH molecules in a given sight line form from CH+ but the fraction approaches 100% for gas with densities less than about 100 cm-3 (Gredel et al., (2002)). Presently, it is difficult to check the consistency of this picture because the relative amplitudes of the CH and CH+ fluctuations are poorly constrained by the available data. Alternatively, in a picture where CH+ is produced throughout the low density medium (e.g., Draine & Katz, 1986, Pineau des Forêts et al., 1986, Spaans, 1995, Federman et al., 1996), the correlation between CH and CH+ could be due to a physical mechanism which induces local density enhancements for all species. For instance, compression in regions where chaotic flows happen to converge has been invoked to account for the AU-scale structure in atomic gas (Jenkins & Tripp, (2001), Hennebelle & Pérault, (1999)) and could also be effective in molecular gas. If the lifetime of these transient fragments is small enough, such a process would lead to comparable values for $`\delta N/N`$(CH) and $`\delta N/N`$(CH+); otherwise, the higher density might result in efficient CH+ destruction through reactions with H2 and rather produce an anticorrelation. One way to disentangle the above two scenarios in which small scale structure is either related to chemically active regions or just to pressure fluctuations would be to study the behavior of other species whose chemistry is not directly linked to that of CH and CH+.

#### 3.6.2 The long-term CH variation: evidence for a dense fragment ?

Over larger scales (100 - 200 AU), CH and CH+ clearly display distinct behaviors. Given the number of independent measurements and consistency among results, we consider that this difference is well established, even if the form of the CH increase is not well understood. In particular, we cannot exclude an abrupt variation by 20% occurring in 1997 - 1998. The corresponding CN absorption has increased only modestly ($`\delta N/N`$ = 12 $`\pm `$ 6%) between 1993 and 1998, but the data strongly suggest a change in excitation from $`T_{exc}`$ $`<`$ 3.1 K in 1993 to $`T_{exc}`$ = 3.6 $`\pm `$ 0.17 K in 1998. The 1998 value is quite high in comparison with results quoted by Black & van Dishoeck (1991) for other lines of sight, implying a high electron density. The fact that the ratio $`N`$(CN)/$`N`$(CH) has remained roughly constant while $`N`$(CH) and $`N`$(CN) have increased, the ratio indicates that little change in gas density has accompanied the fluctuations in columns (see Pan et al., 2001).

Consider a model in which the increase in $`N`$(CH) by about 20% over a time interval of 1 to 10 years is due to a newly intervening clump. $`N`$(CH) is known to vary linearly with $`N`$(H2) with a ratio $`N`$(CH)/$`N`$(H2) $``$ 4.0 10-8 (Federman, 1982, Roueff, 2001), Towards HD 34078, a value larger by a factor of four is inferred (see Fig. 2 from Roueff, 2001). Assuming that such a ratio is still valid at the scales considered here, one can easily compute the associated increase in $`N`$(H2): 1.1 1020 cm-2. Assuming an intermediate value of 50 AU for the transverse scale \[$`N`$(CH) has remained at its “high” value at least for 4 years\] and a comparable size along the line of sight, the implied density for that hypothetical fragment is around 1.5 $`\times `$ 105 cm-3. In such a dense fragment, very little CH+ is expected to be present due to reactions with H2, accounting for the absence of an associated increase in $`N`$(CH+). Similarly, the stability of the 5780 and 5797 Å DIBs can be understood in this scenario since DIBs carriers are known to lie preferentially in diffuse media. However, the CN/CH ratio is expected to be large at these densities and the relative increase of $`N`$(CN) should be much larger than that of CH, contrary to what is observed. The density quoted above could be lowered if the structure were elongated along the line of sight (cf. the model proposed by Heiles (1997) for atomic gas), but a very large (and unrealistic!) aspect ratio would be needed to bring it to values typical for that kind of material (a few times 102 cm-3). In particular, Federman et al. (1994) estimated $`n_{tot}`$ $``$ 200 cm-3 from $`N`$(CN)/$`N`$(CH) and C2 observations, at a time when $`N`$(CH) had its low value, but the column density ratio has not changed appreciably since then. While it is not clear which CH component contains CN as well, the current version of the chemical model (Knauth et al., 2001, Pan et al., 2001) gives similar densities.

Another problem with this model (in addition to understanding how the large overpressure inside the clump can be generated and maintained long enough) is related to the change in the excitation of CN suggested by the data. Since the variation in $`N`$(CN) has been quite limited (at most 20 to 30%), the higher $`T_{exc}`$ value estimated for the whole gas in 1998 and 2002 implies an even larger $`T_{exc}`$ in the clump if the rest of the gas has remained at $`T_{exc}`$ $``$ 2.7 K. Again, this points towards a large clump density or electron fraction.

A last difficulty involves the observed velocity distribution. The presence of an additional fragment on the 2002 line of sight should have resulted in a new velocity component, but the whole distribution (in particular the two narrow components) has varied globally, without any noticeable change in shape. One could imagine that the additional component is very narrow and does not show up at R = 200 000, but such a feature would be atypical with respect to profiles observed at very high resolution.

#### 3.6.3 Contribution from gas located near HD 34078 ?

The difficulties encountered above when attempting to account for the CH - CN variations might be related to several peculiarities of the HD 34078 line of sight: i) the large amount of highly excited H2, ii) the large CH/H2 and CH+/H2 ratios (note however that the CH/CH+ ratio is in good agreement with the CH - CH+ correlation observed by Gredel (1997)), and iii) the large $`T_{exc}`$ value for CN. Since point i) is attributed to the influence of the UV bright star upon nearby material (Le Petit et al., 2001, Boissé et al., 2002), one might wonder whether the properties observed for CH, CH+ and CN could also be the result of this interaction. In this model, CH, CH+ and CN are expected to be largely photodissociated in the PDR where H2 is excited to high energies.

Then, to account for the observed CH and CH+ amounts, one may imagine that CH+ production occurs in the PDR itself, as has been suggested for the Pleiades (White, 1984) and IC 348 (Snow, 1993). In this scenario, CH+ is the result of reactions between C+ and H2 in gas at elevated temperatures caused by enhanced H2 photodissociation. The large amount of CH then arises from the synthesis of CH+and the increase in $`T_{exc}`$ occurs because there is enhanced ionization produced by the star’s UV radiation. One potential difficulty involves the velocity distribution which appears to be quite narrow (except for the broad component) and stable (cf. Herbig 1999). This suggests quiescent absorbing material rather than gas located near a bow shock around a O9 star moving at more than 100 km s-1. Possibly, we are seeing ”composite absorption” from both pieces of gas, one located close to HD 34078 and strongly influenced by it, and the other consisting of more distant material where the radiation field is enhanced by only a factor of a few relative to the average galactic field.

#### 3.6.4 Prospects

Let us now suggest a few prospects concerning additional observations that might clarify the situation. First, we wish to stress the importance of data other than those considered in this paper that could have been taken before 1999, especially spectra obtained in 1997 - 1998, which would be very useful in constraining the shape of the long-term variation in CH. We thus prompt any reader who would have such data in hand to contact us. Evidently, it is important to continue the CH and CH+ observations with increased S/N ratio in order to characterise better the properties of erratic fluctuations on timescales of about one year. At the same time, these data would give information on the shape of the long-term variation of CH and CH+ absorptions.

To date, FUSE observations have provided 4 spectra, all taken after 1999; their analysis indicates that $`N`$(H2) variations - if any - are smaller than about 5% (Boissé et al., 2002). If $`N`$(CH) keeps increasing, we shall be able to verify whether the CH - H2 correlation still holds at the 10 -100 AU scales since the expected increase in $`N`$(H2) will exceed our detection limit. The behavior of other species like C I and CO can be investigated also using these spectra. However, this can be done with better sensitivity with HST thanks to higher S/N and spectral resolution. HST/STIS spectra would provide invaluable information on the density via C I fine structure transitions and C2 lines and allow us to follow with improved accuracy the small and large scale variations of many species (C I, H I, excited H2, CO, C2…). Repeating the C2 visible observations reported by Federman et al. (1994) could also give direct evidence for the high clump density quoted above.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the astronomers and staff who obtained the OHP spectra, M. Allen, F.X. Désert, G. Herbig, J. Krelowski, G. Galazutdinov and F. Musaev who kindly provided their data, and E. Roueff and M. Gerin for obtaining an IRAM CO spectrum. We acknowledge fruitful discussions with J. Black, P. Hennebelle and G. Pineau des Forêts and thank S. Thoraval for his initial participation in this program. S.R.F. was supported in part by NASA LTSA grant NAG5-4957.

## Appendix A Tables…