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# Microvariability in the optical polarization of 3C279Based on observations made at the Complejo Astronómico El Leoncito, which is operated under agreement between CONICET and the National Universities of La Plata, Córdoba, and San Juan, as well as at the Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, LNA-CNPq, Brazil.Table 2 is available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsar.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/.

## 1 Introduction

The blazar 3C279 ($`z=0.538`$) is a strong source across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and one of the best studied extragalactic objects. Simultaneous multiwavelength observations from radio to gamma-rays (e.g. Maraschi et al. 1994; Hartman et al. 1996) show a spectral energy distribution dominated by two non-thermal contributions interpreted as synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation from relativistic electrons in the jet (e.g. Hartman et al. 2001a). The jet itself is well-resolved in multiepoch VLBI observations that allow to determine its kinematics and the evolution of the superluminal components (e.g. Carrara et al. 1993; Piner et al. 2000; Wehrle et al. 2001; Piner et al. 2003).

3C279 is extremely variable at all wavelengths. At optical bands it has shown fast and significant outbursts in a single night (e.g. Miller & Noble 1996). Rapid variations have been observed also at IR, UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray energies by many authors (e.g. Fan 1999; Pian et al. 1999; Kniffen et al. 1993; Hartman et al. 2001b). Despite these studies, very little is known about the short term polarization behaviour of this source. In this paper we present, for the first time, optical polarization curves with high temporal resolution for 3C279. We have found strong variations on timescales of days superposed on a smaller amplitude flickering of both the modulus and the angle of the $`V`$-band radiation polarization vector. We also present new IR observations of this blazar that shed light on the overall behaviour of the source on longer timescales.

The structure of the paper is as follows. In the next section we present a description of the polarimetric observations and the data analysis. In Section 3 we describe the main results on the polarization. Section 4 presents the infrared data. In Section 5 we discuss the origin of the observed variability. Finally, we close with the conclusions in Section 6.

## 2 Polarimetric observations and data analysis

The observations were made using the CASPROF polarimeter on the 2.15-m CASLEO telescope at El Leoncito, San Juan, Argentina during 4 consecutive nights, March 09–12, 2002. CASPROF was built at CASLEO, based on the designs of the previous MINIPOL and VATPOL instruments (see Magalhães et al. 1984; Martínez et al. 1990). It is a rotating plate polarimeter with a Wollaston prism that divides the incident light beam into two components, each one directed to a different photomultiplier. The instrument has an $`UBVRI`$-system filter wheel and a second wheel with diaphragms of different apertures. The observations were carried out using the Johnson $`V`$ filter and the $`11.3`$ arcsec aperture diaphragm. Weather conditions were photometric, except for the second night (March 10), when the observations were made through thin cirrus.

Standard stars were observed to determine the zero point for the polarization angle and the instrumental polarization (although the latter was found to be practically zero). These stars were chosen from the catalog by Turnshek et al. (1990); their parameters are given in Table 1.

In Table 2 we present polarimetric data obtained for 3C279 during our campaign. Column (1) gives the Julian Date corresponding to each observation. Columns (2) and (3) give the degree of polarization and its associated error. Columns (4) and (5) present the position angle and its error. Finally, in columns (6) and (7), we list the normalized Stokes parameters.

## 3 Variability results

Figure 1 presents the variation of the degree of polarization (top panel) and position angle (bottom panel) during the four nights of our campaign (time begins at $`\mathrm{UT}=0`$ hs on March 09, 2002). After a first glance, we can see that there are two different components in the variability with timescales of hours and days, respectively. During the first three nights, the degree of polarization drops from $`17\%`$ to $`8\%`$, whereas in the last night it rises from $`8\%`$ to $`10\%`$. With regard to the polarization angle, it also presents superposed variations with different timescales. In this case, however, during the first three nights the position angle shows no large-amplitude changes, remaining between $`51^{}`$ and $`53^{}`$, while in the fourth night there is a sudden increase up to $`63^{}`$.

A detailed curve for each night is given in Figure 2 $`a`$ to $`d`$, where the short timescale variations can be appreciated. These can be described as a $`1`$ % flickering in $`P_V`$ and variations of up to $`5`$ degrees in $`\theta _V`$ within a few tens of minutes.

After discarding a few data points affected by moonlight contamination and/or lightnings near the horizon during one night, we made two different sets of data reductions. In a first approach each data point corresponds to an individual integration. This method, however, yields large error bars. As an alternative, we averaged each pair of consecutive observations (in the $`QU`$ plane), in order to improve the statistics. General trends were similar to those obtained using the direct reduction, although the errors were smaller. The rest of our analysis is thus based on these averaged data.

Since the polarimeter measures the ordinary and extraordinary rays almost simultaneously, it is assumed that its results are immune to air transparency and seeing changes. However, a possible error source lies in the sky subtraction procedure. To measure the polarization of the radiation emitted by a source, two integrations are required: one with the object in the center of the diaphragm, and the other of the sky near the source. Then, the brightness and polarization vector for the sky are subtracted from the corresponding source observation.

Large and/or rapid variations in the sky polarization due to the presence of the Moon are expected. Since this factor affects both the object and the sky, this systematic error should be removed when the data are reduced, provided that each sky measurement is made near (both in time and position) to the corresponding source observation. The Moon was above the horizon only at the end of each observing night; however, we checked for any residual systematic error by plotting the behaviour of the polarization of the object with respect to the polarization and magnitude of the sky. No spurious variation seems to be present due to this effect, neither for the polarization percentage nor for the position angle.

In order to assess whether a source presents variability from a formal and quantitative point of view, we followed the criterion of Kesteven et al. (1976) which has been used by several authors in variability studies (Altschuler 1982; Romero et al. 1994). The variability, both in amplitude and timescale, is quantified by the following parameters: the fluctuations index $`\mu `$, the fractional variability index of the source $`FV`$, and the time interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ between the extrema in the polarization curve. The corresponding formulae are as follows:

$$\mu =100\frac{\sigma _\mathrm{s}}{S}\%,$$
(1)
$$FV=\frac{S_{\mathrm{max}}S_{\mathrm{min}}}{S_{\mathrm{max}}+S_{\mathrm{min}}},$$
(2)
$$\mathrm{\Delta }t=|t_{\mathrm{max}}t_{\mathrm{min}}|.$$
(3)
Here $`\sigma _s`$ is the standard deviation of one observation, $`S`$ is the mean value of the polarization or the position angle measured during the observing session, $`S_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`S_{\mathrm{min}}`$ are, respectively, the maximum and minimum values for the polarization or the position angle, $`t_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`t_{\mathrm{min}}`$ are the times when the extreme points occur. Regarding the significance of the variability, a source is classified as variable if the probability of exceeding the observed value of

$$X^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}ϵ_i^2(S_iS)^2$$
(4)
by chance is $`<`$ 0.1 %, and non-variable if the probability is $`>`$ 0.5 %. If the errors are random, $`X^2`$ should be distributed as $`\chi ^2`$ whit $`n1`$ degrees of freedom, where $`n`$ is the number of points in the distribution.

In Tables 3 and 4 we show the values of the variability parameters for the polarization percentage and the position angle, respectively. Column 1 gives the Julian Date, Column 2, the number of points for each night, Column 3 presents the value of $`\mu `$, Column 4, $`FV`$, Column 5, $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, Column 6 gives the mean polarization (mean angle) for each night, Column 7, the value of $`\chi ^2`$, and Column 8 shows the variability class (V: if the source is variable, NV: if it is not variable). The last row in each table shows values for the whole four nights observing run.

### 3.1 Stokes parameters

An alternative way to present the results is through the Stokes parameters. We shall consider, as usual, normalized dimensionless parameters $`U/I`$ and $`Q/I`$.

In Figure 3, we present the 3C279 data in the $`U/I`$$`Q/I`$ plane for the whole campaign. We can describe this pattern like a random walk in this space. Figures 4 $`a`$ to $`d`$ show details for each night. In this expanded view we can also see that there is no systematic pattern in the $`QU`$ plane, suggesting a chaotic (turbulent) origin for the phenomenon.

### 3.2 Visual Magnitude

Additional information is provided by the visual magnitude of the source, which was obtained simultaneously to each polarimetric measurement. However, the intranight trend in the $`V`$ magnitude is within the expected variations due to instrumental and atmospheric errors. In any case, no strong correlation with the observed variations in polarization degree and position angle is clearly evident.

On the other hand, there is a hint for an inter-night magnitude variation. We calculated the mean value of $`m_V`$ for each night and for the whole campaign. These mean values for the photometric nights are as follows: first night, $`m_V`$ = 15.0; third night, $`m_V`$ = 15.1; last night, $`m_V`$ = 15.1; then the source dimmed by $`0.1`$ mag. at the V band during the four nights. Our mean magnitudes for 3C279 are thus consistent with those obtained by Shrader et al. (1994) during an outburst occurred in June 1992.

## 4 Infrared observations

The data in the near-infrared range ($`J`$ and $`H`$ filters) were taken with the 1.6-m telescope at the LNA (Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica, Brazópolis, Brazil), using the CamIV, an infrared camera with a hawaii $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel HgCdTe detector (18.5 $`\mu `$m pixel-1). The field of the resulting frames has 4 arcmin on each side, with a scale of 0.24 arcsec pixel-1. We obtained two frames of 120 seconds of total integration time each, with one arcmin offset between them, to subtract the emission from the sky. Because of the poor weather conditions, the observations were made only for a few hours in the nights of March 9 and 11, 2002. Hence, a full lightcurve for the entire period covered by the polarimetric campaign is not available, unfortunately.

The reduction of the near infrared observations was made with the iraf111iraf is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. tasks developed for the CamIV data analysis by F. Jablonski (private communication, 2001). The two offset frames were combined after correcting them by flat field, dark contribution and possible bad pixels in the detector. The instrumental magnitudes were calculated using the apphot task for aperture photometry, with an aperture of three or four times the FWHM.

The lightcurves were constructed in differential mode, with different field stars of similar magnitude to the object used for control and comparison purposes (see Cellone et al. 2000, for a detailed discussion of the procedure). The fluctuations in the lightcurves that could be interpreted as intranight variations are within the estimated errors. However, a brightness decrease between the two nights could be observed, amounting to 0.13 mag in $`J`$ and 0.19 mag in $`H`$. The differential lightcurves can be seen in Figure 5, where the error bars correspond to the dispersion of the control lightcurve. 3C279 is the only object in the field to show this inter-night variation, which guarantees the confidence of the detection. It is interesting to notice that the general trend of the infrared variability mimics the behaviour of the degree of polarization, with a qualitatively similar decrease.

The variability criterion adopted is the one used by Jang & Miller (1997), Romero et al. (1999), and others: we calculated a parameter $`C=\sigma _T\mathrm{}\sigma `$, where $`\sigma _T`$ is the standard deviation of the target differential lightcurve and $`\sigma `$ is the standard deviation of the control lightcurve. A source can be classified as variable with $`99\%`$ confidence level if $`C2.576`$. The analysis for data taken with both filters in the infrared yields that the source formally classifies as non-variable at all timescales except for averaged values from night to night. Stars from Persson et al. (1998) were observed for flux calibration and spectral index calculation. After correction for redenning, we found that the near-infrared spectral index remained constant in these two nights, as shown in Figure 6, with $`\alpha _{ir}=0.80\pm 0.01`$ (considering $`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$).

Since at the final of the coordinated campaign 3C279 showed an increase in the degree of polarization as well as a sudden change in the polarization angle, we decided to follow up its near-infrared behavior in the subsequent months. The observations were carried out with the CamIV installed in the 0.6-m B&C telescope at LNA (field of view of 8’ x 8’, with 0.47 arcsec pixel-1 resolution) for about one hour per night in three campaigns during March 30 to April 2, April 26 and 29, and May 18-19. The resulting light curves in $`J`$ and $`H`$ bands can be seen in Figure 7, which includes the first two nights (March, 9 and 11) observation. The control light curves are also shown for the two filters. The stars used for comparison were not the same for all campaigns. As we already described above, in the first observing run we used the 1.6 m telescope, with a small field of view. In the subsequent campaign, the 0.6 m telescope was used and the larger field allowed the use of a better sampled star. The star chosen in campaigns 2 and 4 were not in the field in campaign 3, and for that reason, a third comparison was used. In the figure, the C1-C5 and C1-C6 control light curves were arbitrarily shifted in relation to C1-C3 for better visualization. Finding charts with the indications of the reference and control stars are available upon request. The maximum brightness variation of 3C279 detected in long time scales was about 0.4 magnitudes in the two filters, between March 10 and April 29. In time scales of days, the object infrared brightness decreased by 0.3 magnitudes between April 26 and 29.

In general, the behavior of $`J`$ and $`H`$ light curves was similar, except in May, 2002, when the $`J`$ magnitudes increased in 0.3 magnitudes relative to its value is April 29, while the H magnitude did not vary in the same period. This behavior was not observed in the control light curves, which indicates that it must be real.

## 5 Discussion

The polarized optical emission is expected to be synchrotron radiation originated in the relativistic jet of 3C279. The rapid variability, with timescales from minutes to hours, seems to favor models based on the interaction of a relativistic shock with some obstacles along the inner jet (e.g. Gopal-Krishna & Wiita 1992).

Small variations in the direction of the shocks that propagate down the relativistic jet can produce large variations in the observed flux and polarization. Recent evidence for changes in the trajectory of superluminal components in 3C279 has been found by Homan et al. (2003) at kpc-scales. These changes can be quite frequent in the turbulent environment of the inner pc-scale jet.

The fractional polarization of the shock as a function of the angle with the line-of-sight affected by the relativistic aberration, $`\theta ^{^{}}`$, the compression factor of the plasma, $`k`$, and the spectral index, $`\alpha `$, is (Hughes et al. 1985, e.g.):

$$\mathrm{\Pi }=\frac{1\alpha }{5/3\alpha }\frac{(1k^2)\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ^{^{}}}{2(1k^2)\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ^{^{}}}.$$
(5)
The relation between $`\theta ^{^{}}`$ and the actual viewing angle, $`\theta `$, is given by:

$$\mathrm{cos}\theta ^{^{}}=\frac{\mathrm{cos}\theta \beta }{1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta },$$
(6)
where $`\beta =(1\mathrm{\Gamma }^2)^{1/2}`$ is the relativistic velocity of the shock and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the Lorentz factor of the shocked plasma.

In the case of a perpendicular, relativistic strong shock, the factor by which the jet plasma is compressed by the shock, $`k`$, can be written as (Blandford & McKee 1976):

$$k^1=\frac{n_{\mathrm{ps}}}{n_\mathrm{j}}=\frac{\widehat{\gamma }\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{ps}}+1}{\widehat{\gamma }1}.$$
(7)
In this expression, $`n_{\mathrm{ps}}`$ and $`n_\mathrm{j}`$ are the particle densities in the shocked gas and in the underlying jet, respectively, $`\widehat{\gamma }`$ is the adiabatic index, which has a value $`\widehat{\gamma }=13/9`$ for a gas with equal fractions of relativistic electrons and non-relativistic protons, and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{ps}}`$ is the Lorentz factor of the shocked gas measured in the frame of the unshocked gas. If we take the same velocity for the shock and the shocked plasma in order to simplify the equations, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{ps}}`$ can be expressed as (see Romero et al. 1995):

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{\mathrm{ps}}\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }\gamma _\mathrm{j}(1\beta ^2)}{\sqrt{2}}.$$
(8)
Here $`\gamma _\mathrm{j}`$ is the Lorentz factor of the underlying jet. Since the superluminal components are expected to be extremely relativistic even respect to the jet, we adopt a mild value $`\gamma _\mathrm{j}2`$ for the stable, underlying flow (Marscher & Gear 1985; Romero et al. 1995).

In the particular case of 3C279, we assume an average value of $`\alpha =0.95`$ for the spectral index at optical wavelengths (de Pater & Perley 1983). Concerning the Lorentz factor, we adopt as an average value the result of the fit of superluminal components with the precessing jet model proposed by Abraham & Carrara (1998). This model yields $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=13`$ for $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. We consider values of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of $`8`$, $`12`$, $`13`$ and $`16`$. The aberrated viewing angle at the present epoch is $`\theta ^{^{}}26\mathrm{deg}`$, which is in good agreement with the value given by Piner et al. (2003), once the aberration is corrected (i.e. $`\theta 2\mathrm{deg}`$).

In Figure 8 we show the evolution of the fractional polarization in the observer system with the viewing angle. The angle is corrected for aberration. In the zoom-in panel we show the detail of the changes for small viewing angles as expected for 3C279. It can be seen that just a small change in the orientation of the shock velocity can produce a large change in the degree of polarization. In order to get a rapid variation of $`10`$ % as we observed, a change of $`2\mathrm{deg}`$ is enough. The dependence on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is not very strong for small angles. A deviation of the shock on small timescales can be the effect of an helical magnetic field produced by the jet precession (Roland et al. 1994).

Alternatively to the purely kinematic model of Gopal-Krishna & Wiita (1992), rapid changes in the polarization might result from turbulent effects that introduce rapid changes in the compression factor $`k`$ (Marscher 1992). In Figure 9 we show the fractional polarization $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ as a function of $`k`$ for different aberrated viewing angles. From the figure it is clear that even very strong variations in $`k`$ cannot produce large changes in $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$. Hence we favor a kinematic model with a changing viewing angle as the best explanation for the observed behaviour of the polarization at internight timescales. Nonetheless, the rapid intranight flickering can be the effect of turbulence (and the consequent fluctuation of the compression ratio) in the post-shock region.

The sudden change in the polarization angle observed between the nights of March 11 and 12, 2002, might be the result of the injection of a new shock in the jet. The shock compresses the magnetic field parallel to the shock front producing a sudden change in the position angle of the polarized synchrotron flux. The infrared observations show a decrease of the flux that accompanies the decrease in the degree of polarization. If a new shock was injected in early March 12, then the flux should have raised afterwards. Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, no observations were possible that night at LNA Observatory. However, the achromatic 0.4 magnitudes variation in the near infrared flux 0.4 magnitudes observed in April, 26 and the chromatic variations in May 18-19, are compatible with short lived shocks, with relatively high formation rates.

## 6 Conclusions

We have carried out polarization observations with very high time resolution of the OVV blazar 3C279. A large variation of $`10`$% in the degree of linear polarization was observed on internight timescales. More rapid flickering, with timescales from minutes to hours, was also present within each single night. Simultaneous infrared observations indicate that the total synchrotron flux was decreasing while the fractional polarization was also decreasing. This overall behaviour and IR observations on larger time scales seems to agree with what is expected from a relativistic shock that changes mildly the viewing angle. The rapid flickering might be due to turbulence in the post-shock region. New simultaneous multiwavelength and polarization observations of this extremely active source can shed further light on the interactions of relativistic shocks with small features or bends in the inner jet.

###### Acknowledgements.

Research on AGNs with G.E Romero is mainly supported by Fundación Antorchas. Additional support was provided by the Agencies CONICET (PIP 0430/98) and ANPCT (PICT 98 No. 03-04881). GER thanks the kind hospitality of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (Heidelberg) where the final part of this work was completed. TPD and ZA acknowledges FAPESP support (98/07491-8 and 00/06769-4) and CNPq (306062/88). We thank constructive comments by Dr. L. Takalo.


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# Evolution of the Nuclear Accretion Disk Emission in NGC 1097: Getting Closer to the Black Hole

## 1 Introduction

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1097 was the first example of a LINER (low-ionization nuclear emission-line region; Heckman 1980) to display broad, double-peaked Balmer lines. The double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ line (FWHM $`7500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) was discovered by Storchi-Bergmann, Baldwin, & Wilson (1993; hereafter SB93) after a careful subtraction of the starlight from the nuclear spectrum. The broad line was not easily recognizable in the original spectrum because its contrast against the continuum from the underlying stellar population was fairly low. This discovery was followed by other examples, all of them in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spectra taken through narrow apertures in which starlight from the host galaxy is largely excluded. These examples include M81 (Bower et al. 1996), NGC 4203 (Shields et al. 2000), NGC 4450 (Ho et al. 2000), and NGC 4579 (Barth et al. 2000).

Comparison of the double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ spectrum of NGC 1097 with earlier observations, as well as the later evolution of the double-peaked profile, led to the conclusion that the broad Balmer lines were associated with a transient event (e.g., SB93, Eracleous et al. 1995; Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1995, 1997; hereafter SB95, SB97), presumably an episode of mass accretion onto the nuclear supermassive black hole (SMBH).

The recent findings of a proportionality between the masses of galactic bulges and that of the SMBH in galaxies that are close enough to allow the SMBH’s detection via stellar kinematics (e.g., Ferrarese & Merritt 2000; Gebhardt et al. 2000) supports their presence in the nucleus of most present-day galaxies. Such a SMBH will eventually accrete mass, such as via the capture of a star passing closer to the black hole than its tidal radius. If the SMBH has a mass smaller than $`10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$, a solar-mass star will be tidally disrupted before it is accreted, leading to the formation of an accretion disk or ring. As argued by SB95 and SB97, such a process is the preferred interpretation for the double-peaked lines of NGC 1097 and may also be applicable to some of the other LINERs mentioned above. It is thus possible that we have begun to witness such tidal disruption events, which have long been predicted by theory (see review by Rees 1988).

Monitoring the variability of the double-peaked profiles provides useful constraints on the above scenario. Therefore, we have been following the evolution of the H$`\alpha `$ profile of NGC 1097 since it was first discovered in 1991. In this paper we present the result of 11 years of monitoring and use the profile observations to constrain and refine scenarios for their origin, such as the precessing elliptical ring suggested by Eracleous et al. (1995) and SB95.

In §2 we describe the observations and analysis of the data, in §3 we present the results, and in §4 we discuss their interpretation and present two possible accretion disk models to reproduce the profile variations. We explore in §5 the significance of our findings and compare them with those for other objects. The conclusions of this work are presented in §6.

## 2 Observations

We observed the nuclear spectrum of NGC 1097 from 1991 to 2002, up to several times a year, using mostly the CTIO 4m Blanco and 1.5m telescopes, and the KPNO 2.1m telescope. We also obtained a few spectra with the Keck II, Lick 3m, MDM 2.4m, and ESO NTT telescopes. The log of observations is given in Table 1, where we also list the slit and extraction window widths.

The first observations (SB93, SB95, SB97) were obtained through a 2″ slit and an extraction window of 4″. We later used a narrower slit of 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 for the observations with the large telescopes (3.6m and 4m) in order to improve the contrast between the double-peaked profile and the starlight spectrum, but keeping it wide enough to avoid spurious variations due to seeing differences. We have also kept the extraction window large enough to allow the normalization of the double-peaked broad line flux using the fluxes of the narrow emission lines, as discussed below.

In order to isolate the double-peaked profile, we subtracted the contribution of the stellar population, as described in SB93, SB95, and SB97. In the case of the observations with the Blanco and NTT telescopes, the stellar population spectrum was extracted from windows adjacent to the nuclear window, typically from regions between 3″ and 6″ from the nucleus. The nuclear spectrum is redder than that of the stellar population at these windows. Attributing the difference in color to reddening by dust, we estimate a value of $`E(BV)0.05`$ mag. We have thus reddened the stellar population spectra accordingly and normalized them to the flux of the continuum in the nuclear spectrum. In addition, we have excized the residual narrow-line emission from the stellar population spectra (using as a reference spectra of disk galaxies free of emission lines), and have subtracted it from the nuclear spectrum. The spectra obtained with the smaller telescopes (CTIO 1.5m and KPNO 2.1m) have a signal-to-noise ratio too low outside the nucleus to allow the extraction of a population template; for these we used the starlight spectra extracted from the CTIO 4m observations to subtract the stellar population contribution. The same was done for the Keck and MDM spectra. The process of starlight subtraction is more important in the most recent spectra because the double-peaked line is fading (see discussion below) and its contrast to the stellar population spectrum is decreasing. Thus a careful match of the stellar population spectrum is necessary before the subtraction.

The last step was to normalize the broad-line flux, which we have done using the fluxes of the narrow emission lines H$`\alpha `$, \[N II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6548, 6584, and \[S II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6717, 6731, under the assumption that they have not varied during the 11 years of observations. This is a reasonable assumption, considering that the average extraction windows correspond to $`150\times 300`$ pc2 at the galaxy. For the normalization we used as reference the spectrum of 1996 Jan. 24, as follows. For each spectrum we determined the average ratio of the \[N II\] + H$`\alpha `$(narrow) and \[S II\] fluxes with respect to the 1996 Jan. 24 spectrum and multiplied the spectrum by this average ratio. This scaling factor is listed for each spectrum in the last column of Table 1. The success of this procedure is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows that profiles obtained approximately at the same epoch (within two months of each other) using different telescopes match each other very well after the above normalization. This result also shows that the small differences in apertures of the different spectra does not significantly affect the normalization.

The Keck spectra are the only exceptions, as we had to “re-normalize” them to $``$80% of the resulting flux after the normalization described above, to allow an agreement with the spectra obtained at approximately the same epoch with the other large telescopes. We attribute this result to the narrower slit used in the Keck spectra ($`1^{\prime \prime }`$), suggesting that the narrow-line emission extends beyond 1″ although not much more, as the normalization works for the larger apertures. The scaling factors listed in the last column of Table 1 for the Keck spectra are already corrected for this additional normalization.

After normalization, Figure 1 shows that there is reasonable agreement between the CTIO 4m and KPNO 2.1m spectra of 1997 Sep. There is excellent agreement between the spectra with the best signal-to-noise ratios: Keck (thin continuous line; epochs 1998 Jan. and 1999 Jan.) and CTIO 4m (thick continuous lines; epochs 1998 Feb. and 1998 Dec.). In comparison, the MDM spectrum of 1998 Dec. shows a broad dip around 6530 Å which is not present in the Keck and CTIO spectra. There is also good agreement between the Keck spectra of 2000 Oct. and the KPNO 2.1m spectra of 2000 Sep. The spectra obtained with the CTIO 1.5m have the poorest signal-to-noise ratios: the profile from 1998 Jan. has very little flux and is not compatible with the profiles measured both with the Keck and CTIO 4m at approximately the same epoch. On the other hand the 1.5m profile of 1998 Oct. agrees with that of the KPNO one of 1998 Sep. and with the CTIO 4m one of 1998 Dec.

On the basis of Figure 1 we conclude that we should give more weight in our analysis to the results based on the Keck, CTIO 4m, and NTT 3.6m spectra relative to the ones obtained with the smaller telescopes. This figure also illustrates that changes in the shape of the double-peaked profiles seem to occur on time scales longer than a few ($``$ 3–4) months.

## 3 Results

In Figures 2 and 3 we show a sequence of selected H$`\alpha `$ profiles, from 1991 Nov. 2 to 2002 Oct. 10. Our criteria for the selection was to obtain the most complete time coverage using the available data, but using spectra having the highest signal-to-noise ratios in cases of multiple spectra at a given epoch, as discussed above.

During the evolution of the double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profile shown in Figures 2 and 3, the most noticeable changes occur in the relative strengths of the blue and red peaks. The profile starts with the red peak stronger than the blue in 1991 Nov. and evolves to similar strengths of the two peaks in 1994 Jan., then to the blue peak stronger than the red in 1996 Jan. The spectrum of 1997 Sep. shows again the red peak stronger than the blue, then the two peaks show similar strengths by mid 1998, and then the blue peak is stronger than the red by 1999. In the observation of 2001 Sep. the blue and red peaks have similar strengths, and in 2002 Oct. the blue peak is stronger again. Another important change that could only be noticed after accumulating data over so many years is a decrease of the broad-line flux at the same time as the blue and red peaks are moving progressively farther apart, as indicated by the measurements below.

In order to quantify the observed variations, we measured the wavelengths of the blue and red peaks, their peak flux densities, and the flux of the broad line, which we list in Table 2. The wavelengths of the blue and red peaks ($`\lambda _B`$ and $`\lambda _R`$) and corresponding peak flux densities ($`F_B`$ and $`F_R`$) were obtained by fitting Gaussians separately to the blue and red peaks of the profiles and measuring the central wavelengths and peak fluxes. These measurements were only possible in the large-telescope spectra, as the fits to the blue and red peaks did not consistently converge to a unique central wavelength in spectra with low signal-to-noise ratio. The flux of the broad line ($`F_{broad}`$) was measured by integrating the flux of the broad plus the narrow emission lines and then subtracting the fluxes of the narrow lines. Uncertainties in the wavelengths and fluxes were estimated by repeating the fits several times after changing by a few angstroms the limits of the windows used to fit the Gaussians and to measure the broad-line flux. The resulting average uncertainties are $`5`$ Å for $`\lambda _B`$ and $`\lambda _R`$, $`5\times 10^{17}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{\AA }^1`$ for $`F_B`$ and $`F_R`$, and $`2\times 10^{14}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ for $`F_{broad}`$.

Figure 4 shows the temporal variations of the blue and red peak velocities ($`V_B`$ and $`V_R`$), obtained from $`\lambda _B`$, $`\lambda _R`$, and the average wavelength of the narrow H$`\alpha `$ line as reference (6591.7 Å), as well as the temporal variation of $`V_RV_B`$ and of $`F_{broad}`$. We observe a blueshift of the blue peak from $`2800\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the first years to $`4500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 2001, and a redshift of the red peak from $`3500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to $`4500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ over the same period. The resulting $`V_RV_B`$ increases from $`6000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to $`9000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. In Figure 5 we show the temporal variation of $`F_B/F_R`$.

## 4 Interpretation and Comparison With Models

### 4.1 Preliminary Inferences from the Data

The continued variation of $`F_B/F_R`$ and, in particular, the strong red peak observed in 1997 Sep. still support the origin of the profile in an accretion disk that is not axisymmetric. The asymmetry could be the result of an eccentricity (e.g., Eracleous et al. 1995; SB95), or a circular disk with a disturbance, such as a bright spot (Newman et al. 1997; Zheng, Veilleux, & Grandi 1991) or spiral arm (e.g., Chakrabarti & Wiita 1993; Gilbert et al. 1999). The precession of the elliptical disk or of the disturbance in the circular disk would be the origin of the variation of $`F_B/F_R`$ with time.

The increasing separation of the blue and red peaks (§3) indicates that the bulk of the broad-line emission is coming from regions of successively larger velocities. In the accretion disk scenario, this means that the bulk of emission is coming from successively smaller radii. The above result could suggest at first glance that we are witnessing the infall of matter toward the SMBH. Unfortunately, this seems not to be possible over ten years of observations. A noticeable decrease in radius should occur in the viscous time scale, which should be larger than 104 years in the case of NGC 1097 (Frank, King, & Raine 1992, p. 99, using the black hole mass obtained in Sec. 5.2).

An alternative possibility is borne out by the observation that, at the same time that the profile is getting broader, the line flux is decreasing (in 2001 Sep. the broad H$`\alpha `$ flux is $``$1/3 of the flux of 1991 Nov.), which suggests that the ionizing source is getting dimmer. Thus, a more plausible interpretation is that the dimming of the ionizing source is causing the region of maximum emission to come closer to the center, to regions of larger velocities and thus giving rise to broader profiles.

Inspection of Figure 4 shows that there seems indeed to be an inverse correlation between $`V_RV_B`$ and $`F_{broad}`$, not only as a general trend along the 11 years covered by the observations, but also from epoch to epoch. For example, in 1996 Jan. the flux of the line showed an increase relative to the two previous epochs, while $`V_RV_B`$ decreased. The same seems to have happened in Sep.–Oct. 2000. This inverse correlation can be better observed in Figure 6, where we plot $`V_RV_B`$ against $`F_{broad}`$.

The above effect (the inverse correlation between the ionizing flux and width of the profile) has been previously discussed by Dumont & Collin-Souffrin (1990). These authors explain the existence of a “radius for maximum emission” or “saturation radius” as follows. In the line-emitting region of the accretion disk there are two effects contributing to the line intensity: the increase of the emitting surface with distance from the center, and the decrease of the intensity of ionizing radiation with radius. The ionizing flux can become quite high close to the center, leading to ionization of the disk and saturation of the line emission (cooling is mainly due to free-bound and free-free processes and not to lines). The radius at which this saturation sets in is the radius of maximum emission.

Finally, we notice that in Figure 4, the velocity of the blue peak shows a steeper variation (blueshift) than that of the red peak (redshift), implying a net blueshift of the center between the two peaks of $`450\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ between 1991 Nov. and 2001 Sep. One possibility is that this blueshift is due to a wind originating in the disk, which would be consistent with observations of Fe II absorption lines in a recent HST spectrum of NGC 1097 (Eracleous 2002) which indicate the presence of an outflow.

With these considerations in mind, we have tried to fit the variable line profiles with two different models, as we describe in detail below. Both models rely on a non-axisymmetric disk structure and its precession to reproduce the changes in the relative strengths of the two peaks. However, this mechanism cannot explain the increasing separation of the two peaks. The latter effect requires us to change the radius of maximum line emission in the disk by adjusting the prescription for the disk emissivity.

### 4.2 Elliptical Disk Model

In Eracleous et al. (1995) we showed that an elliptical accretion ring model could reproduce the broad double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profile of NGC 1097, as observed in 1991 Nov. After following the variations of the line profile from 1991 to 1996 (SB97), we developed the model further so that the plane of the ring was inclined at $`i=34^{}`$ to the line of sight, and its line-emitting part corresponded to a range of pericenter distances between $`\xi _1=1300`$ and $`\xi _2=1600`$, where $`\xi `$ is expressed in units of the gravitational radius $`r_gGM/c^2`$. The ring was circular up to a radius $`\xi _c=1400`$, and from there the eccentricity increased linearly from $`e=0`$ to 0.45. The ring had a broadening parameter $`\sigma =1200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and an emissivity varying as $`ϵ(\xi )=ϵ_0\xi ^q`$. The variation of the observed line profiles from 1991 to 1996 were reproduced by the precession of the ring with a period of of 25 years, which led to an estimate of the central black hole mass of $`9\times 10^5\mathrm{M}_{}`$.

We tried to use the same elliptical ring model to reproduce all the double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profiles observed from 1991 to 2002, by changing only the orientation angle, $`\varphi _0`$, under the assumption that the precession continued. However, we were not able to reproduce the line profiles observed after 1996; continued precession alone could explain the variation in the relative heights of the two peaks, but not the observed velocity shifts of the blue and red peaks. After exploring the effect of other parameters on the shape of the line profile, we found that only changes in the inner pericenter distance of the ring (from $`\xi _1=1300`$ to 450) could lead to the observed increase in the separation of the two peaks, $`\lambda _R\lambda _B`$. Such a dramatic change in the physical location of a given volume of gas could not occur on a time scale of 5 years, however, as we noted in the previous section. Rather, the emission properties of the ring must have changed so that the radius of maximum emission became smaller. Therefore, to produce a self-consistent and physically plausible scenario for the entire set of observations, we were led to revise the model parameters. This revision represents a refinement of earlier models, which is possible only after following the variability of the line profile over a baseline of 10 years. We now propose that the ring has always had a smaller inner radius of $`\xi _1=450`$ (and now resembles a disk more than a ring), and that the increasing width of the profile is due to a change in emissivity such that, in more recent epochs, the inner regions of the disk make a more significant relative contribution to the total line emission. This picture is also consistent with the observational result that the flux of the broad line is decreasing, as discussed above.

To explain the increasing separation between the two peaks, we experimented with several emissivity laws. We found that we could best reproduce the observations with a broken power law, such that inside a radius $`\xi _q`$ the power-law index is $`q_1=1`$ and outside this radius $`q_2=1`$. This means that the emissivity increases with radius from $`\xi _1`$ to $`\xi _q`$ and then decreases with radius beyond $`\xi _q`$. These $`q`$ values are also physically motivated: in the “saturation” region, the increase in emissivity is due to the increase in the area of the ring, while beyond $`\xi _q`$, the decrease can be understood as due to the radiation field dropping off as $`r^2`$ and the increase of the emitting area as $`r^1`$.

In this parameterization of the disk emissivity, varying the “break radius” $`\xi _q`$ allows us to reproduce the shifts of the blue and red peaks. In particular, allowing the “break radius” to decrease with time shifts the region of maximum emission closer to the center and results in an increase in the separation between the two peaks. At the same time, since the relative heights of the two peaks have continued to change, we allow the disk to precess (as in SB97).

To fit individual line profiles we fixed the inner and outer pericenter distances of the line-emitting disk to $`\xi _1=450`$ and $`\xi _2=1600`$ (respectively), the inclination angle to $`i=34^{}`$, and the broadening parameter to $`\sigma =1200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The eccentricity was allowed to increase linearly with radius, from $`e(\xi _1)=0`$ to $`e(\xi _2)=0.45`$. The emissivity of the disk ($`ϵ\xi ^q`$) was set to increase with radius in the inner disk (i.e., $`q_1=1`$ up to a radius $`\xi _q`$) and then decrease ($`q_2=1`$). The orientation angle of the disk, $`\varphi _0`$, and the emissivity break radius, $`\xi _q`$, were the only parameters allowed to vary to represent a precession of the disk and a decline in the illumination. We first searched for models that could reproduce the primary observables, namely the velocities and relative strengths of the two peaks. The best-fitting models resulting from the above procedure are compared with the observations in Figures 7 and 8, and the model parameters are summarized in Table 3.

In the last epochs, beginning in 1998 Dec., the fits of the model to the data show some improvement if we allow a small blueshift of the central wavelength of the profile ($``$10Å) relative to the wavelength of the narrow H$`\alpha `$ line (6591.7 Å — which we have so far adopted as the center of the broad line in the models). We show these improved fits as dotted lines in Figure 8. This blueshift of the broad line was already detected in the observed evolution of the blue and red peak velocities (Fig. 4), and was discussed at the end of the previous subsection.

The evolution of $`\xi _q`$ and $`\varphi _0`$ are shown in Figure 9. There is very little change in $`\xi _q`$ until 1996, but then in 1997 it begins to decrease, causing the relative contribution of the inner parts of the disk to become more important and producing the broadening of the profile. The orientation angle of the disk, represented by $`\varphi _0`$, shows a small range of values, $`131<\varphi _0<209`$, as listed in Table 3. Noticing that changes in orientation by half a revolution result in very similar (although not identical) model profiles, we have exploited this property in order to construct a series of models that would approximately represent a precession of the disk. The best compromise we could obtain between a good fit of the profiles and the precession scenario is illustrated in the bottom panel of Figure 9. Assuming that the precession rate of the disk is constant, we carry out a linear least-squares fit to the precession phase shown in Figure 9. We adopt a functional form given by

$$\frac{\varphi _0}{2\pi }=\frac{tt_0}{P_{\mathrm{prec}}},$$
(1)
where $`t`$ is the time in years, $`t_0`$ is an arbitrary zero point of the precession cycle, and $`P_{\mathrm{prec}}`$ is the precession period. The best fit, shown as a solid line in Figure 9, yields $`t_0=1990.8`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{prec}}=7.1`$ years, which implies that the disk has completed almost two revolutions since the epoch of the first observation as one would expect from the behavior of the peak strength ratio, $`F_B/F_R`$, shown in Figure 5. In Figure 10 we show a cartoon of the accretion disk in two epochs, the first (1991.8) and last (2001.7) fitted by the model, illustrating the change in the disk emissivity in 10 years.

In conclusion, we note that even though models that represent a smooth precession of the eccentric disk are preferable on physical grounds, they do not provide as good a description of the line profiles as the models whose parameters are listed in Table 3.

### 4.3 Circular Disk Plus Spiral Arm Model

An alternative to the elliptical disk model is a model that invokes a non-axisymmetric perturbation of the emissivity of a circular disk. Models of this type were applied to the variable H$`\alpha `$ profile of 3C 390.3 by Zheng, Veilleux, & Grandi (1991; a “bright sector” in the disk) and by Gilbert et al. (1999; a single-arm spiral, inspired by the work of Chakrabarti & Wiita 1993, 1994). An important feature of these models is that the perturbation spans a relatively wide range in radius (and projected velocity), which leads to a modulation in the relative strengths of the two peaks of the line profile without creating a “third peak” that moves across the profile. Spiral arm models have additional appeal because spiral arms are known to exist in other astrophysical disks, such as the disks of spiral galaxies and the accretion disks of some cataclysmic variables (e.g., Steeghs, Harlaftis, & Horne 1997; Baptista & Catalán 2000; Patterson, Halpern, & Shambrook 1993).

We adopt the formulation of Gilbert et al. (1999), according to which the line-emitting portion of the disk is circular, has an inclination angle $`i`$, and is bounded by inner and outer radii $`\xi _1`$ and $`\xi _2`$. Superposed on the axisymmetric emissivity pattern ($`ϵ\xi ^q`$) there is an emissivity perturbation which has the form of a single spiral arm. We adopted a single-arm pattern after experimenting with patterns having two or more spiral arms. We found that two or more spiral arms could not reproduce the changing asymmetry of the H$`\alpha `$ line profile of NGC 1097, a conclusion also reached by Gilbert et al. (1999) for 3C 390.3.

The prescription for the total emissivity of the disk is given by

$$ϵ(\xi ,\varphi )=ϵ_0\xi ^q\left\{1+\frac{A}{2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{4\mathrm{ln}2}{\delta ^2}(\varphi \psi _0)^2\right]+\frac{A}{2}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{4\mathrm{ln}2}{\delta ^2}(2\pi \varphi +\psi _0)^2\right]\right\},$$
(2)
where the two exponentials represent the decay of the emissivity of the spiral arm with azimuthal distance on either side of the ridge line. The parameter $`\delta `$ represents the azimuthal width of the spiral arm (FWHM), while the quantity $`\varphi \psi _0`$ is the azimuthal distance from the ridge of the spiral arm, which is defined by

$$\psi _0=\varphi _0+\frac{\mathrm{log}(\xi /\xi _{sp})}{\mathrm{tan}p},$$
(3)
where $`p`$ is the pitch angle and $`\xi _{\mathrm{sp}}`$ is the innermost radius of the spiral arm (also used as a fiducial radius for normalization; the spiral arm is set to begin at the outer radius of the disk, $`\xi _2`$). The parameter $`A`$ represents the brightness contrast between the spiral arm and the underlying, axisymmetric disk, while $`\varphi _0`$ sets the azimuthal orientation of the spiral pattern.

To fit individual line profiles, we followed the procedure described in §4.2. We found that we could keep the inner and outer radii of the disk at the values of the inner and outer pericenter distances of the elliptical disk model, namely $`\xi _1=450`$ and $`\xi _2=1600`$. We also kept the inclination at $`i=34\mathrm{°}`$ and the broadening parameter at $`\sigma =1200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The only parameters we needed to vary in order to reproduce the evolution of the profiles were $`q`$, $`A`$, and $`\varphi _0`$. The remaining spiral arm parameters were kept at the following values: $`\xi _{sp}=\xi _1`$, $`p=50^{}`$, and $`\delta =70^{}`$. As in the case of the elliptical disk model, the variation of $`\varphi _0`$ can explain the modulation of the relative strengths of the two peaks of the H$`\alpha `$ line but not the increasing separation between them. Therefore, in the spirit of the discussion of §4.1, we allowed the emissivity power-law index to vary so as to shift the region of maximum emission to smaller radii.

The best-fitting models are compared to the observed line profiles in Figures 11 and 12, while the corresponding parameter values (for $`A`$, $`q`$, and $`\varphi _0`$) are listed in Table 4. The spiral arm contrast, parameterized by $`A`$, has decreased from 3 to 2 since the first observations, while $`q`$ has increased, favoring the emission of the inner part of the disk relative to that of the outer parts in the later epochs and producing the broadening of the profile. The $`\varphi _0`$ values were constrained to allow a monotonic precession of the spiral pattern, as illustrated in Figure 13, where we show how $`q`$ and $`\varphi _0`$ evolve with time. The latter figure shows that the spiral model accomodates better a monotonic precession (of the spiral pattern) than the elliptical model. The solid line in the lower panel of Figure 13 is a fit to the precession phase following Eq. (1), yielding $`t_0=1991.3`$ and $`P_{\mathrm{prec}}=5.5\pm 0.3`$ years. Such a period implies, again, that the disk has completed almost two revolutions since the epoch of the first observation as one would expect from the behavior of the peak strength ratio ($`F_B/F_R`$) shown in Figure 5.

In Figure 14 we illustrate a cartoon of the disk in the first and last epochs fitted by the model. Notice that the spiral arm is quite “broad” and hard to observe in the last epoch due to the low contrast relative to the disk as implied by the best-fitting parameters (Table 4).

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Comparison With Studies of Other Objects

The variation of the relative strengths of the two peaks of the H$`\alpha `$ line of NGC 1097 appears to follow the same trend as in broad-line radio galaxies. Examples include 3C 390.3 (Zheng, Veilleux, & Grandi 1991; Gilbert et al. 1999), 3C 332 (Gilbert et al. 1999), Pictor A (Eracleous & Halpern 1998), and Arp 102B (Newman et al. 1997). On the other hand, drifts in the peak wavelengths of double-peaked profiles are seldom observed. One case previously reported is that of the radio galaxy 3C 390.3, for which Gaskell (1996), Eracleous et al. (1997), and Gilbert et al. (1999) found a drift in the velocity of the blue peak between 1970 and 1996. But in 3C 390.3, Eracleous et al. (1997) found that the two peaks moved together, unlike what is observed in the case of NGC 1097, in which the two peaks move apart from each other.

On the other hand, Shapovalova et al. (2001), using observations of the H$`\beta `$ profile of 3C 390.3 from 1995 to 2000 (later than those reported by Eracleous et al. 1997), claim to have found drifts of the two peaks in opposite directions (or velocities), arguing that the difference between the velocities of the blue and red peaks is inversely correlated with the continuum flux. They note that when the H$`\beta `$ flux decreases, the radial velocity difference between the red and blue peaks increase, while when the H$`\beta `$ flux increases, the velocity difference between the two peaks decreases. We point out, however, that the measurement of the wavelength of the red peak of the H$`\beta `$ line in 3C 390.3 is quite uncertain because this peak is severely contaminated by the \[O III\] $`\lambda \lambda `$ 4959, 5007 emission lines.

The behavior of the 3C 390.3 broad H$`\beta `$ profile as described by Shapovalova et al. (2001) would be similar to the case of NGC 1097 reported here (as discussed in Sec.4.1), and they have proposed a similar interpretation: the flux increase of H$`\beta `$ is due to the increase in the source luminosity, which thus ionizes regions farther from the nucleus (lower velocity); the flux decrease of H$`\beta `$ is due to a decrease in the ionizing luminosity, which shifts the region of maximum line emission closer to the center of the disk (higher velocity).

### 5.2 Implications of the Observational Results and Models

The pattern precession period inferred from the model fits can be connected to the mass of the central black hole. Although eccentric disks and spiral arms are related structures (see, for example, the illustration in Adams, Ruden, & Shu 1989), in our application the precession rates are set by different mechanisms.

In the case of an eccentric disk, the precession rate is controlled by the relativistic advance of the pericenter. Therefore, we adapt the formula given by Weinberg (1972, p. 197), which we write as

$$P_{\mathrm{prec}}=\frac{2\pi }{3}\frac{1+e}{(1e)^{3/2}}\frac{GM}{c^3}\xi ^{5/2}=10.4\frac{1+e}{(1e)^{3/2}}M_6\xi _{3}^{}{}_{}{}^{5/2}\mathrm{years},$$
(4)
where $`M_6`$ is the mass of the black hole in units of $`10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and $`\xi _3`$ is the pericenter distance of the orbit in units of $`10^3r_\mathrm{g}`$. If the outer, most eccentric ring of the disk is precessing as prescribed by the advance of pericenter, then $`\xi _3=1.6`$, $`e=0.45`$, and, for a period of 7.1 years obtained in §4.2, the resulting black hole mass is $`6\times 10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$. If the inner rings impose a faster precession rate, the resulting mass will be somewhat larger, with an upper limit corresponding to the innermost radius of $`\xi _3=0.45`$ and $`e=0`$, which yield a black hole mass of $`5\times 10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$.

In the case of the precessing spiral pattern, we can connect the precession period to the black hole mass using the results of Laughlin & Korchagin (1996), who find that the pattern period is several times to an order of magnitude longer than the dynamical time. An extreme upper bound to the pattern period is the sound-crossing time of the disk. The dynamical and sound-crossing time scales are respectively given by

$$\tau _{\mathrm{dyn}}=2M_6\xi _3^{3/2}\mathrm{days}$$
(5)
$$\mathrm{and}\tau _\mathrm{s}=8M_6\xi _3T_5^{1/2}\mathrm{months}$$
(6)
(adapted from Frank et al. 1992), where now $`\xi _3`$ is the radius in the disk in units of $`10^3r_\mathrm{g}`$ and $`T_5`$ is the temperature in units of $`10^5`$ K. By comparing these time scales with the precession period of 5.5 years inferred in §4.3, we estimate a black hole mass in the range $`10^7`$$`10^8\mathrm{M}_{}`$.

Another scenario discussed briefly in SB97 involves the precession of a radiation-induced warp in the disk (Pringle 1996). In Eq. (4) of SB97 we estimated a precession period of the order of a decade assuming a black hole mass of $`10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ and a mass of the accretion disk of $`10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$. Since this disk mass is, in fact, a lower limit (see SB97), the precession period determined earlier implies an upper limit on the black hole mass of $`M<10^6\mathrm{M}_{}`$ in the context of this picture.

All of the above scenarios can be assessed using a black hole mass derived from the velocity dispersion of the stars in the nucleus of NGC 1097. Emsellem et al. (2001) measure a velocity dispersion of $`160\pm 20\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in the inner 300 pc of the bulge of NGC 1097. Using the mass-velocity dispersion relation of Tremaine et al. (2002), we infer a black hole mass in the range $`(29)\times 10^7\mathrm{M}_{}`$, where the uncertainty is dominated by the dispersion about the best-fitting relation (see Figure 8 of Tremaine et al.). This black hole mass disfavors both the elliptical disk and precessing warp scenarios, leaving the spiral arm scenario as the best candidate. The spiral arm scenario is also favored by the fact that it provides the best description of the variable line profiles, by better “accommodating” the precession scenario, as described in §4.

## 6 Summary, Conclusions, and Open Questions

We have used spectroscopic observations of the broad double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profile of the nucleus of NGC 1097 spanning the period between 1991 Nov. and 2002 Oct. in order to constrain and refine models for the variability of the line profile. The profiles display the following types of variations over these 11 years.

1. A smooth, long-term variation in the relative strengths of the blue and red peaks.
2. A decrease in wavelength of the blue peak and a corresponding increase in wavelength of the red peak — in other words, a broadening of the double-peaked profile, suggesting that the bulk of the emission is shifting inward to gas that is moving at higher velocities.
3. A decrease in the integrated luminosity of the line, so that in 2001 Sep. it was approximately 1/3 of its value of 1991 Nov.
4. An inverse correlation between the width and luminosity of the line.
5. A shift of the central wavelength of the profile (defined as the average wavelength of the two peaks) from approximately zero velocity relative to the narrow lines in 1991 to about $`450\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in 2001.

The evolution of the double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ profile of NGC 1097, described above, lends additional support to our earlier suggestion that the variations are a result of a precessing, non-axisymmetric pattern in an accretion disk (Eracleous et al. 1995; SB95; SB97). We have compared the observed line profiles with models of an eccentric (elliptical) disk and a disk with a spiral arm and have shown that both models can reproduce the data. However, we favor the spiral arm model because (1) it can reproduce the evolution of the double-peaked profile as due to the precession of the spiral arm, while the elliptical disk model cannot reproduce a smooth precession; and (2) it implies a black hole mass that is consistent with what is inferred from the radial velocity dispersion of the stars in the nucleus, while the elliptical disk model requires a mass which is an order of magnitude lower.

We have further found that the dimming of the broad double-peaked H$`\alpha `$ line is coupled with the increasing separation of the blue and red peaks. We have interpreted this behavior as a result of the dimming of the source of ionizing radiation, which makes the maximum emission region of the disk to drift inward, and thus to regions of higher orbital velocities. This dimming of the central source is progressing independently of dynamical phenomena in the disk, which is a reasonable outcome of the tidal disruption scenario that explains the abrupt appearance of the double-peaked lines. The coupling between the luminosity and width of the line seems to hold also at shorter time scales: an increase in the flux of the line is associated with a decrease in the line width, while a decrease in flux is associated with an increase in line width.

In the process of studying the evolution of the H$`\alpha `$ profile and fitting disk models to them we found a gradual blueshift, especially at later epochs. This blueshift manifests itself as a gradual shift of the average wavelength of the two peaks. We have not attempted to model this effect since our data so far cannot yield strong constraints. Nevertheless, we speculate that this blueshift may be associated with the onset of an accretion disk wind (Elvis 2000). Outflows with typical velocities of 1000 km s-1 — consistent with the blueshift of $``$400–500 km s-1 we have measured for NGC 1097 if we consider the inclination of $`34^{}`$ for the disk — have been frequently observed in the spectra of Seyfert galaxies as absorption lines in the UV (e.g., Kraemer, Crenshaw, & Gabel 2001) and X-rays (the “warm absorber”), as well as in the emission lines of the narrow-line region. Models for these outflows attribute their origin in the accretion disk, as, for example, a hydromagnetically driven wind of discrete clouds (Emmering, Blandford, & Shlosman 1992), or radiatively driven continuous winds (Murray et al. 1995; Proga, Stone, & Kallman 2000). The presence of an outflow in the case of NGC 1097 is also consistent with observations of Fe II absorption lines in a recent HST UV spectrum (Eracleous 2002). Future observations of the variability of the Balmer-line profiles should shed more light on the issue of the possible wind.

We thank Steinn Sigurdsson and Mario Livio for useful discussions on issues related to accretion disk dynamics. We acknowledge the Brazilian Institutions CNPq, CAPES, and FAPERGS for partial support. This research was also supported in part by NASA through grant NAG-81755 to the University of Maryland. A.V.F.’s work is supported by NASA through grant GO-8684 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. We thank the staffs of the observatories used to obtain the spectra in this paper, as well as many associates who helped with the observations and reductions. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA; the observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.


text:
# Statistical significance of fine structure in the frequency spectrum of Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations.

## Abstract

We discuss a statistical analysis of Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations measured in a two-dimensional ring, in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Measurements performed at different values of gate voltage are used to calculate the ensemble-averaged modulus of the Fourier spectrum and, at each frequency, the standard deviation associated to the average. This allows us to prove the statistical significance of a splitting that we observe in the $`h/e`$ peak of the averaged spectrum. Our work illustrates in detail the role of sample specific effects on the frequency spectrum of Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations and it demonstrates how fine structures of a different physical origin can be discriminated from sample specific features.

The investigation of Aharonov-Bohm (AB) conductance oscillations in mesoscopic devices permits to study different aspects of phase coherent transport of electrons. One of the aspects that has recently attracted considerable attention is the effect of the electron spin Loss-Stern . It has been theoretically predicted that in the presence of spin-orbit interaction (SOI), the electron spin modifies the properties of AB conductance oscillations in an observable way A-LG ; Engel-Loss .

Experimental attempts have been reported in which features observed in either the envelope function of the AB oscillations or their Fourier spectrum were attributed to the presence of Rashba SOI Morpurgo ; Shayegan . In a few cases Shayegan  these claims were based on the interpretation of single magneto-conductance measurements. The interpretation of such experiments is difficult, however, due to the sample specific nature of the $`h/e`$ oscillations. In particular, a certain scatter configuration in the ring might cause features that are similar to those due to SOI. In the analysis of past experiments this possibility has not been considered thoroughly.

In this paper we show experimentally how sample specific effects in the Fourier spectrum (FS) of the AB oscillations can be quantifiably suppressed in a controlled way. In particular, we perform a statistical analysis of the ensemble averaged FS. At each frequency, the mean Fourier amplitude and standard deviation are calculated. We find features in the averaged FS that are significantly larger than the standard deviation. These features can therefore be discriminated from remnant sample specific effects and their origin attributed to a different physical phenomenon.

The AB oscillations used in our analysis have been measured in a two dimensional ring fabricated using an InGaAs-based heterostructure (Fig. 2, bottom inset), in which Rashba SOI is particularly strong Nitta (Fig. 2, top inset); $`\alpha 0.810^{11}`$ eVm. The mean radius and width, respectively 350nm and 180nm, are smaller than the mean free path ($`1\mu m`$) and transport is quasi-ballistic fabrication . A gate electrode covering the ring permits to change the Fermi energy as well as the strength of the SOI (the maximum expected gate induced change is 20%-30%) Nitta .

The magneto-conductance of the ring ($`G(B)`$) was measured at different values of the gate voltage ($`V_g`$) ranging from -55mV to 195mV at a temperature of 300mK. Three $`G(B)`$ curves, measured at different $`V_g`$, are shown in the left column of Fig.1. Clearly visible in each $`G(B)`$ curve are a background increasing with magnetic field (due to the classical dynamics of the electron in a laterally confined geometryBeenakker-VanHouten ), aperiodic conductance fluctuations, and periodic AB oscillations WAL . The middle column shows the AB oscillations obtained by subtracting the background from the $`G(B)`$ curve. Due to the small period of the oscillations, only the envelope function is visible. The right column shows the $`h/e`$ peak in the FS.

Both the envelope function of the AB oscillations and its FS depend strongly on $`V_g`$. This strong $`V_g`$ dependence is expected and well-known for random interference of electronic waves and shows that in a single $`G(B)`$ trace sample specific effects dominate the behavior of the measured AB oscillations. This precludes the attribution of a special meaning to any feature observed in a single measurement, since features appear and disappear randomly with $`V_g`$. Therefore, in practice, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions about the effect of SOI on the AB oscillations from a single $`G(B)`$ measurementShayegan .

In order to put in evidence subtle effects possibly present in the AB oscillations, it is necessary to suppress sample specific features in a controlled way. This can be achieved by studying an ensemble of measurementsMorpurgo , i.e. by averaging the modulus of the Fourier spectrum, $`|G(\nu )|`$, over different scatterer configuration. The ensemble averaged FS, $`|G(\nu )|`$, is expected to be a smooth function, peaked at the frequency that corresponds to the mean radius of the ring. Superimposed on top of this smooth function, spin (or other) effects may show up as a splitting or another well-defined structure.

Theoretically it has been proven that a (sufficiently large) change in Fermi energy is equivalent to a complete change in impurity configuration, insofar as the conductance oscillations are concerned Altshuler . For this reason we study the statistical properties of quantities averaged over an ensemble that consists of $`G(B)`$ curves measured at different gate voltage.

To show experimentally the statistical independence of $`G(B)`$ curves measured at different values of $`V_g`$ we calculate the mean amplitude of the $`h/e`$ oscillations upon averaging an increasing number $`N`$ of $`G(B)`$ traces. The $`h/e`$ oscillation amplitude in the averaged $`G(B)`$ is expected to be suppressed as $`1/\sqrt{N}`$, provided that the curves are statistically independentWashburn-Webb . Fig. 2 shows that this is indeed the behavior observed experimentally normalization . We have checked that also the aperiodic conductance fluctuations exhibit the same behavior, i.e. their amplitude decreases as $`1/\sqrt{N}`$ as well.

We note that in order to acquire the largest possible number of independent $`G(B)`$ curves, and therefore to obtain the largest suppression of sample specific effects, the entire range of $`V_g`$ studied is rather large. This results in a sizeable (up to roughly a factor of 2) change of electron density and possibly also in a change of SOI strength, which may affect the shape of the averaged modulus of the FS, $`|G(\nu )|`$. For this reason, we will first discuss the average over the whole $`V_g`$ range, and then compare it to the average over a smaller $`V_g`$ range. As we will show, the final results are similar for the two different $`V_g`$ ranges, which suggests that the precise extension of the $`V_g`$ range used in the experiments is not very critical.

Figure 3 shows a typical FS of a single $`G(B)`$ trace (upper graph), and the result of two different kinds of ensemble averaging, using the total set of 49 $`G(B)`$ curves measured from $`V_g`$= -55mV to 195mV. Specifically, the middle graph is a plot of the modulus of the FS of the average magneto-conductance, obtained by first averaging the magneto-conductance curves and then calculating the modulus of the FS ($``$ $`|G(\nu )|`$). This quantity has been studied extensively in the past, and was shown to result in a suppression the $`h/e`$ oscillation amplitudeWashburn-Webb . For this reason, the relative size of the sample specific structure in the FS does not decrease upon averaging, as it is apparent from the comparison of the upper and middle graph in Fig. 3. Therefore, this way of ensemble averaging does not allow the observation of subtle features possibly present in the $`h/e`$ peak in the FS.

The bottom graph in Fig. 3 shows the ensemble average of the absolute value of the FS, $`|G(\nu )|`$. This way of averaging does not suppress the $`h/e`$ oscillations, since the phase information is discarded by taking the modulus of the FS of individual $`G(B)`$ traces before performing the average. This procedure results in a suppression of random features in the averaged FS, over the whole frequency range, as it is obvious from Fig. 3.

It was argued in ref  that this way of ensemble averaging provides information that is not easily accessible otherwise. The enhanced visibility of the third harmonic of the AB oscillations gives a direct experimental demonstration of this statement. This $`h/3e`$ peak is not observable in the FS of any single $`G(B)`$ curve nor in the FS of the averaged magneto-conductance, but it is clearly visible in the averaged modulus of the FS, $`|G(\nu )|`$.

The insets in Fig.3 zoom in on the $`h/e`$ peak. It is apparent again that, in comparison to the upper two graphs, the sample specific ”noise” is largely suppressed in the averaged modulus of the FS (bottom graph). In this quantity, a small splitting remains visible in the averaged $`h/e`$ peak. Note that also the $`h/3e`$ peak in the bottom main figure shows a similar structure.

Without any further analysis, it is difficult to conclude what the origin of these features is. Specifically, this is because experimentally we only average over a finite number of scatter configurations so that the splitting may simply be some remnant sample specific structure. Only by quantifying the magnitude of these remnant features we can conclude if the splitting has physical significance.

We quantify the size of the remnant sample specific structure in terms of a frequency dependent standard deviation. This is obtained from the same set of $`N`$ curves that we use to calculate the average modulus of the FS, $`|G(\nu )|`$. At each fixed frequency $`\nu `$, this set of curves corresponds to a set of $`N`$ values of which we calculate the standard deviation $`\sigma _{dis}(\nu )`$. The statistical error associated with the average modulus of the FS at frequency $`\nu `$ is then $`\sigma _{mean}(\nu )=\sigma _{dis}(\nu )/\sqrt{N}`$ (central limit theorem). For an ideal ensemble average $`N=\mathrm{}`$ and $`\sigma _{mean}(\nu )=0`$, i.e. sample specific effects are completely suppressed. However, if $`N`$ is finite, $`\sigma _{mean}(\nu )`$ is also finite.

The upper panel of Fig. 4 shows the $`h/e`$ peak of the averaged modulus of the FS and, for each frequency, $`\sigma _{mean}(\nu )`$, plotted as an error bar. In the main panel the average has been performed on $`N=16`$ curves (with $`V_g`$ ranging from -55mV to 95mV) and in the inset on $`N=49`$ ($`V_g`$ ranging from -55mV to 195mV). In both cases the size of the splitting is 3 to 4 times larger than $`\sigma _{mean}`$. The splitting is therefore statistically significant, and it is not due to remnant sample specific structureanalysis . The size of any other structure observed in these averaged quantities is too small compared to $`\sigma _{mean}(\nu )`$ to exclude remnant sample specific effects as their origin. This is also true for the splitting in the $`h/3e`$ peak visible in the bottom panel Fig. 3.

We have also performed the same statistical analysis for the Fourier power spectrumpowerspectrum . The ensemble averaged Fourier power, $`|G(\nu )|^2`$, and the associated statistical error, $`\sigma _{power}(\nu )`$, are shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 4 for $`N=16`$ (main figure) and $`N=49`$ (inset). Also here a statistically significant splitting is present in both cases.

The results shown in Fig.4 indicate that the presence of a statistically significant splitting in the $`h/e`$ peak is a robust feature. It does not depend on the precise gate voltage range used in our analysis, nor on the specific quantity analyzed, i.e. the modulus of the FS or the power spectrum. The result is also robust against different procedures used to calculate the Fourier spectra from the experimental data. We have analyzed our data with and without removing the background in the magneto-conductance in different ways and using different kinds of windowing procedures. In all cases the final results shows a similar, statistically significant splittingchecks .

Our results confirm the conclusion of Ref. , namely that the $`h/e`$ peak in the averaged FS is split in the presence of SOI, and put it on firmer grounds for two reasons. First, because the statistical analysis of the significance of the splitting had not been previously performed. Second, because the same effect is observed in a different material system.

The size of the splitting measured here is roughly 3/T, smaller than the one found in Ref.  (approximately 12/T). A direct comparison of the two results is however difficult, because the heterostructures used in the two experiments are different, as well as the radius of the rings (0.35 $`\mu m`$ versus 1.05 $`\mu m`$). It was argued in Ref  that the splitting may be a manifestation of the geometrical Berry phase. Subsequent theoretical works seem to consistently conclude that the effect of Berry phase alone is too small to account for the magnitude of the previously observed splittingaveraged FS . This is also true for the magnitude of the splitting observed here, whose precise origin remains to be identified. More experimental work is needed to discriminate between different possible mechanisms capable of accounting for the experimental results (such as SOIaveraged FS ; Engel-Loss  or ZeemanEngel-Loss ). The work presented in this paper demonstrates a well-defined experimental procedure on which future experiments can be based.

In conclusion we have discussed in detail the statistical properties of experimentally measured Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations and shown how random sample specific effects can be suppressed in a quantifiable way, up to a level that permits to reveal features of a different physical origin.

We would like to acknowledge Dr. Y. Nazarov and Dr. Y. Blanter for discussions and Dr. H. Takayanagi and the Stichting FOM for support. FEM is grateful to NTT for hospitality and financial support, which made this work possible. The work of AFM is part of the NWO Vernieuwingsimpuls 2000 program.


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# Does the 𝚺(𝟏𝟓𝟖𝟎){𝟑/𝟐}⁻ resonance exist?

Crystal Ball Collaboration

## Abstract

Precise new data for the reaction $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ are presented in the c.m. energy range 1565 to 1600 MeV. Our analysis of these data sheds new light on claims for the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonance, which (if it exists with the specified quantum numbers) must be an exotic baryon because of its very low mass. Our results show no evidence for this state.

The $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonance was first reported in 1973 as a narrow $`I=1`$ structure in a preliminary analysis of high statistics measurements of $`K^{}p`$ and $`K^{}d`$ total cross sections Li73 . It was subsequently observed in $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ by Litchfield who identified it as a $`\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ state with mass $`1582\pm 4`$ MeV, width $`11\pm 4`$ MeV, and amplitude at resonance $`0.10\pm 0.02`$ Litchfield74 . For his analysis, Litchfield used the only experimental data then available in the c.m. energy range 1560 to 1600 MeV, which were the bubble-chamber measurements of Armenteros et al. Armenteros70 . Some details of his analysis will be presented below. The final analysis of the total $`K^{}`$-nucleon total cross sections yielded mass $`1583\pm 4`$ MeV, width 15 MeV, and $`(J+1/2)x=0.06`$, where $`x`$ is the $`\overline{K}N`$ branching fraction Carroll76 .

The $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonance, if confirmed, would be of strong theoretical interest because it cannot be accommodated as an ordinary $`q^3`$ state due to its very low mass. More specifically, this state would necessarily be the lowest $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ with $`J^P=\frac{3}{2}^{}`$. One expects such a state to be the octet partner of the $`N(1520)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$. However, that partner is well established as the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1670)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$, in good agreement with quark-model predictions Capstick86 . The next $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{}`$ with the right quantum numbers is expected to lie about 100 MeV higher than the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1670)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$.

Two bubble-chamber experiments Engler76 ; Cameron78  that studied the analog reaction $`K_L^0p\pi ^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ were performed subsequent to Litchfield’s analysis. The results of these two experiments did not require the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ but neither was it ruled out. In this Letter, we present precise new experimental results of the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reaction in the c.m. energy range 1565 to 1600 MeV.

Our measurements of the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reaction were conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) with the Crystal Ball (CB) multiphoton spectrometer, which was installed in the C6 beam line of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron Olmsted01 . The experiment was performed with a momentum-analyzed $`K^{}`$ beam incident on a 10-cm-long liquid hydrogen target located in the center of the CB. While measurements were performed at eight different beam momenta, this Letter reports only on the lowest three momenta: 514, 560, and 581 MeV/$`c`$. We plan a more extensive report on the full data set at a later date.

The Crystal Ball consists of 672 optically isolated NaI(Tl) crystals, shaped like truncated triangular pyramids and arranged in two hemispheres that cover 93% of $`4\pi `$ steradians. The event trigger was a coincidence of the beam trigger and a CB signal that required the total energy deposited in the crystals to exceed some threshold. Our trigger for neutral events required, in addition, that there was no corresponding signal from the system of scintillation counters surrounding the target. We achieved a typical energy resolution for electromagnetic showers in the CB of $`\mathrm{\Delta }E/E=0.020/E[\mathrm{GeV}]^{0.36}`$. Shower directions were measured with a resolution in $`\theta `$, the polar angle with respect to the beam axis, of $`\sigma _\theta =2^{}\text{}3^{}`$ for photon energies in the range 50 to 500 MeV, assuming that the photons were produced in the hydrogen target. The resolution in $`\varphi `$ was $`2^{}/\mathrm{sin}\theta `$. Our resolution for the momentum determination of individual beam particles was about 0.6%, whereas the uncertainty of the mean momentum of the beam on target was about 0.3%. The momentum divergence of the kaon beam on target was about 2%. To illustrate the CB mass resolution, we show in Figs. 1a-c the invariant mass spectra for the experimental events that were selected by kinematic fit to three hypotheses: $`K^{}p\pi ^0\pi ^0\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`K^{}p\gamma \gamma \mathrm{\Lambda }`$, and $`K^{}p\pi ^0\gamma \mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperon was identified by its decay into $`\pi ^0n`$. The spectra shown were obtained for a beam momentum of 750 MeV/$`c`$, which is above the threshold for $`K^{}p\eta \mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The invariant mass of the $`3\pi ^0`$ peak from $`\eta `$ decays has a root-mean-square width $`\sigma _m(3\pi ^0)5`$ MeV in comparison with $`\sigma _m(2\gamma )6`$ MeV for $`\eta \gamma \gamma `$. Since the constraint on the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ hyperon mass was used in the kinematic fit for the secondary vertex determination, we cannot illustrate the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ mass resolution. Instead, we show in Fig. 1c the $`\gamma \mathrm{\Lambda }`$ peak from $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ decays, which has $`\sigma _m(\gamma \mathrm{\Lambda })6`$ MeV. More details on the CB apparatus, trigger conditions, and the absolute cross-section determination can be found in Refs. etalam ; eta\_slope ; nakorn .

To select candidates for the reaction

$$K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^0\pi ^0n4\gamma n,$$
(1)
we used the neutral 4- and 5-cluster events. A “cluster” is a group of neighboring crystals in which energy is deposited from a single-photon electromagnetic shower. The neutral clusters have a 20-MeV threshold in software and were analyzed as single photons. We assumed that all photons produced electromagnetic showers in the CB and that the neutron was either the missing particle (for 4-cluster events) or that it was detected by the CB.

The hypothesis of reaction (1) was tested by a kinematic fit for all possible pairing combinations of four photon clusters to yield two $`\pi ^0`$’s, with one of them being the $`\pi ^0`$ from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay. The measured parameters in the kinematic fit included five for the beam particle (momentum, $`\theta _X`$ and $`\theta _Y`$ angles, and $`X`$ and $`Y`$ coordinates on the target) and three for each photon cluster (energy, $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ angles). When the neutron was the missing particle, its energy and $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ angles were free parameters of the fit. If the neutron was detected by the CB, its $`\theta `$ and $`\varphi `$ angles were used as the measured parameters. The $`Z`$ coordinate of the primary vertex and the decay length of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ were also free parameters of the kinematic fit. Since we have three constraints on the masses of the two $`\pi ^0`$’s and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, in addition to the four main constraints of the kinematic fit (energy and 3-momentum conservation), the total number of constraints in the hypothesis of reaction (1) is seven. The effective number of constraints is this total less the number of free parameters of the fit; it results in 2-C and 4-C fits for 4- and 5-cluster events, respectively. In the case of 4-cluster events, we have three possible pairing combinations to yield the two $`\pi ^0`$’s; this becomes six combinations when we further allow the choice of each $`\pi ^0`$ to be from the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay. For 5-cluster events, the number of pairing combinations is five times larger, as the neutron is also involved in the cluster permutations.

Those events in which at least one pairing combination satisfied our hypothesis at the 5% C.L. (i.e., with probability $`>`$ 5%) were accepted for further analysis. The pairing combination with the largest confidence level was used to reconstruct the kinematics of the reaction. Additional selection criteria (on the primary vertex, the decay length of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, and confidence level of other possible hypotheses) were also applied for better suppression of background processes. The largest background turned out to be from processes that were not kaon beam interactions in the liquid hydrogen target. The major part of these background events were $`K^{}`$ decays in the beam. Such events were analyzed with “empty-target” samples and then were subtracted from the experimental distributions. These events did not survive the kinematic fit C.L. plus other selection criteria. The fraction of this background subtracted from the selected events of reaction (1) comprises 6–9%.

Another significant background could arise from the misidentification of $`K^{}pK_S^0n\pi ^0\pi ^0n4\gamma n`$ events as our $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reaction. To suppress this background, we fitted our events to both the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`K^{}pK_S^0n`$ hypotheses and applied the following selection criterion on the largest probabilities of the kinematic fits: $`P(K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda })>2\times P(K^{}pK_S^0n)`$. This enabled us to decrease the $`K_S^0n`$ background to a level less than 4%. Background from $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0\pi ^0\gamma \mathrm{\Lambda }5\gamma n`$ events was found to be less than 2%. For one momentum, we simulated large statistics for the $`\pi ^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and $`K_S^0n`$ backgrounds according to their differential cross sections. The subtraction of these backgrounds with their small weights did not change the shape of the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ differential cross sections, it was just made smaller by the percent of the events subtracted; consequently, for the other momenta, the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ differential cross sections were just corrected by the fraction of $`\pi ^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ and $`K_S^0n`$ backgrounds, without the direct subtraction as was done for the empty-target background.

The experimental number of the selected events was 3539, 6741, and 10046 for beam momenta of 514, 560, and 581 MeV/$`c`$, respectively. About 20% of these events were reconstructed from the 5-cluster sample (i.e., with the neutron detected in the CB). The combinatorial background in our $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ events was estimated to be not larger than 1–2%. Reconstructed $`\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ events comprised about 0.2% of all neutral-trigger events collected in the given momentum range.

Acceptance corrections were based on a Monte Carlo simulation of the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ reaction for each momentum, which was performed according to phase space by using the experimental beam-trigger events as input for kaon beam distributions. Specifically, the phase-space Monte Carlo simulation produced the $`\pi \mathrm{\Lambda }`$ state with an isotropic angular distribution with respect to the beam direction; further, the decay of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ in its rest frame was also assumed to be isotropic. The CB neutral trigger and resolution conditions for data sets of each beam momentum were properly reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulations. The simulated and experimental distributions for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay length were in good agreement, and comparable to those shown in Fig. 12 of Ref. etalam , which shows the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay-distance distributions for $`K^{}p\eta \mathrm{\Lambda }`$. Our Monte Carlo simulations used the PDG decay length $`c\tau =7.89`$ cm. From our simulation of $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ events, we determined that the primary vertex resolution was $`\sigma _z=1.9`$ cm, the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay length resolution was $`\sigma _{\mathrm{decay}}=3.0`$ cm, and the c.m. $`\theta `$ resolution for outgoing neutral pions was $`\sigma _\theta 0.06`$ rad (or $`3.4^{}`$). Our mean detection efficiency for the $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^0\pi ^0n`$ events was about 28%. The typical CB acceptance for the $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ distribution is shown in Fig. 1d. For the calculation of the cross sections, we used the PDG branching ratio for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\pi ^0n`$ decay of 0.358$`\pm `$0.005 PDG . The effective proton density in the target times the effective target length was $`(4.05\pm 0.08)\times 10^4`$ mb<sup>-1</sup>. An additional systematic uncertainty in the obtained cross sections, which comes mostly from the calculation of the kaon beam monitor number and from the evaluation of the fraction of useful events lost due to pile-up in the CB, was estimated to be less than 7%. This contribution was not included in the quoted final uncertainty. The pile-up events (clusters) were easily removed using the measured TDC information.

The polarization of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ was measured via its decay asymmetry:

$$P(\mathrm{cos}\theta )=3\left(\underset{i=1}{\overset{N(\theta )}{}}\mathrm{cos}\xi _i\right)/(\alpha _\mathrm{\Lambda }N(\theta )).$$
(2)
Here $`\theta `$ refers to the direction of the outgoing $`\pi ^0`$ (not from $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay) with respect to the incident $`K^{}`$ meson in the c.m. system. $`N(\theta )`$ is the total number of $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ events in the $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ bin, and $`\alpha _\mathrm{\Lambda }=+0.65`$ is the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ decay asymmetry parameter. The angle $`\xi `$ was defined for the $`i`$-th event in the $`\mathrm{cos}\theta `$ bin by $`\mathrm{cos}\xi =\widehat{𝑵}\widehat{𝒏}`$, where $`\widehat{𝒏}`$ is a unit vector in the direction of the decay neutron (in the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ rest frame) and $`\widehat{𝑵}`$ is a unit vector normal to the production plane: $`\widehat{𝑵}=(\widehat{𝑲}^{}\times \widehat{𝝅}^0)/|\widehat{𝑲}^{}\times \widehat{𝝅}^0|.`$ Finally, the vectors $`\widehat{𝑲}^{}`$ and $`\widehat{𝝅}^0`$ are unit vectors in the direction of the incident $`K^{}`$ and the outgoing $`\pi ^0`$ meson, respectively.

Our Monte Carlo simulations for $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ were generated with no polarization for the produced $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$; however, simulations with a nonzero $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ polarization were performed for the reaction $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ to investigate possible acceptance effects in the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ polarization. These studies suggest a possible acceptance effect of about 10-15% of the polarization value. It is notable that our polarization measurements are in good agreement CB-01-010  with the bubble-chamber results of Armenteros et al. Armenteros70  where both experiments have enough statistics (e.g., at 750 MeV/$`c`$) to make a sensible comparison. One expects acceptance effects to be very small in bubble-chamber experiments. For the results discussed in this Letter, statistical uncertainties were the main contributions to the total uncertainties in our $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization measurements.

For the comparisons required in this work, it was necessary to rebin our data into smaller momentum intervals. This was made possible because we measured the deviation from the nominal beam momentum for each event. The size of these bins was limited by the precision of the relative $`K^{}`$ momentum determination, which was $`\pm 2`$ MeV/$`c`$ etalam . Data at the beam momentum 514 MeV/$`c`$ were rebinned into two intervals with mean momenta of 506 and 523 MeV/$`c`$. Data at 560 MeV/$`c`$ were rebinned into three intervals (544, 560, and 576 MeV/$`c`$), and data at 581 MeV/$`c`$ were rebinned into two intervals (571 and 591 MeV/$`c`$). Figure 2 shows our representative data for $`d\sigma /d\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization in $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ at 560 and 591 MeV/$`c`$. Our measurements are in good agreement with older measurements Armenteros70 , although our results are of much higher statistical precision. In particular, our results for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization are a dramatic improvement over older measurements Armenteros70 . Additional illustrations of the good agreement of our results with older measurements can be found in a CB internal report CB-01-010 .

The differential and transversity cross sections ($`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization times differential cross section) were expanded in terms of Legendre polynomials and associated Legendre functions, in the usual way:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}=\mathrm{\lambda ̄}^2A_0{\displaystyle \underset{L=0}{\overset{N}{}}}(A_L/A_0)P_L(\mathrm{cos}\theta ),`$ (3)
$`P{\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{\Omega }}}=\mathrm{\lambda ̄}^2A_0{\displaystyle \underset{L=1}{\overset{N}{}}}(B_L/A_0)P_L^1(\mathrm{cos}\theta ).`$ (4)
Coefficients with $`L>4`$ were consistent with zero.

Figures 3 and 4, respectively, show experimentally determined values (open circles) of the $`A_L/A_0`$ and $`B_L/A_0`$ coefficients from the analysis of Litchfield Litchfield74 . Our new results are shown by solid squares. Open squares denote the $`K_L^0p\pi ^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ measurements by Cameron et al. Cameron78 . Older $`K_L^0p\pi ^+\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ results by Engler et al. Engler76  are not shown since they have comparable precision to those from the Litchfield analysis and do little to resolve the issue. Table 1 gives our results for the fitting coefficients shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The dashed curves in the figures show the results of Litchfield’s first fit to the measured coefficients determined from the rebinned data of Armenteros et al. Armenteros70 . This fit was made with constant S11, P11, and P13 amplitudes together with the tails of the D13 $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1660)`$ and D15 $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1765)`$ resonances. The solid curves show Litchfield’s second fit, which added a resonant D13 amplitude. The parameters of the added D13 resonance were found to be $`M=1582\pm 4`$ MeV, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=11\pm 4`$ MeV, and $`\sqrt{xx^{}}=0.10\pm 0.02`$. It is evident from these figures that our results disagree strikingly with the solid curves that reflect inclusion of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonance. More generally, our results show no rapid variation to suggest the presence of any narrow resonance in the c.m. energy range 1570 to 1600 MeV.

We have presented precise new results for the reaction $`K^{}p\pi ^0\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ spanning the c.m. energy range 1565 to 1600 MeV. Our results are compared with older data and with the partial-wave analysis that introduced the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ resonance. One may use flavor-symmetry arguments or quark-model calculations to rule out such a state as an ordinary $`q^3`$ baryon. Our measurements, especially when taken together with the earlier results of Cameron et al. Cameron78 , find no evidence for the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(1580)\frac{3}{2}^{}`$ state.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported in part by DOE, NSF, NSERC of Canada, and the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology. We thank SLAC for the loan of the Crystal Ball. The assistance of BNL is also gratefully acknowledged.