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# Diffuse X-ray emission in spiral galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Results from both Einstein and ROSAT have shown that spiral galaxies emit soft X-rays ($`0.12.4`$ keV) with luminosities of $`10^{38}10^{40}`$ erg s<sup>-1</sup> (Fabbiano et al., 1992; Read et al., 1997; Cui et al., 1996). Before the launch of Chandra, the study of the diffuse X-ray emission from spiral galaxies was seriously impeded by lack of spatial resolution. Point sources could not be well separated from the diffuse thermal gas, making it difficult to compare the morphology of the X-ray emission to that in other bands. Study of the morphology of diffuse emission from the disks of spiral galaxies was therefore possible only for some nearby galaxies (e.g., M101, Snowden & Pietsch 1995; M51 Ehle et al. 1995, NGC 891 Bregman & Houck 1997).

The spatial resolution of Chandra not only allows separation between diffuse emission and point sources, but also allows a more precise morphological study of the diffuse emission. Among normal galaxies, recent Chandra imaging has shown that the diffuse emission can have different types of morphology: X-ray emitting gas above the plane of the galaxy that has been interpreted to be caused by winds escaping the galaxy due to mechanical energy output from massive stars and supernovae (e.g., Strickland et al. 2003b; Wang et al. 2001); coronal X-ray emitting gas associated with galactic fountains (e.g., Fraternali et al. 2002 in NGC 2403; Kuntz et al. 2003 in M101). The diffuse hot gas is due to thermal emission from a fairly cool $`kT0.2`$ keV ($`T10^6K`$) component (Read et al., 1997; Strickland et al., 2003a).

The gas detected in X-rays is suspected to be associated with supernovae and winds from young massive stars. Since supernovae generate metals, the transport of this hot gas is key toward understanding the metallicity evolution of galaxies (e.g., Edmunds 1990). Superwinds are of cosmological interest as they can transport large amounts of gas, in particular newly synthesized heavy elements, and energy into the intergalactic medium (IGM). However, if this gas cannot escape from the disk into the halo region, it will fall down onto the disk. In a galactic fountain model, the hot gas escaping from the disk cools quickly because of adiabatic expansion. Anomalous high velocity HI clouds are suspected to represent such an infalling phase of the galactic fountain, whereas the hot X-ray emitting gas would pertain to the initial outgoing phase of it (Bregman, 1980; de Avillez, 2000; Norman & Ikeuchi, 1989). When the star formation rate is sufficiently high, largescale energetic outflows are predicted (Chevalier & Clegg, 1985; Heckman et al., 1990). These “superwinds” may account account for the X-ray emission seen well above the planes of edge-on starburst galaxies and are potentially capable of enriching and heating the IGM (e.g., Martin et al. 2002).

The morphology and quantity of the hot X-ray emitting gas is therefore related to the general problem of understanding the scales (spatial and temporal) over which metal enrichment takes place in spiral galaxies. X-ray emission associated with spiral structure should trace local relatively short timescale galactic fountain type of metallicity enrichment due to the movement of the spiral density wave, whereas larger scale superwinds are more likely to be relevant to the enrichment of the IGM.

Many Chandra observing programs have focused their studies on individual galaxies, or on the populations of unresolved sources in these galaxies. Only in the last year have sufficient number of deep Chandra images of galaxies become available, enabling us to carry out a comparative study of the diffuse components. The recent study of Strickland et al. (2003a, b) focuses on edge-on galaxies. Here we carry out a complimentary study by focusing on low or intermediate inclination galaxies. These galaxies allow us to compare the X-ray morphology to the distribution of stellar components (bulge and spiral arms) and sites of active star formation.

In §2 we describe the sample of galaxies and our procedure for producing images that highlight the diffuse component. We also describe comparison data used to probe for correlations between galactic components. In §3 we compare X-ray fluxes and morphology to those observed at other wavelengths. A summary and discussion follows in §4.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 The Sample

We searched the Chandra X-ray archive for intermediate or low inclination nearby galaxies, observed in imaging modes with ACIS-S at exposure times that are longer than 20 ks. Shorter exposures are not capable of detecting sufficient numbers of photons from a diffuse component to enable a good study of its morphology. We found 12 galaxies that met our criteria; they are listed in Table 1 along with additional descriptive information. NGC 1068 and NGC 4258 were omitted from the sample because of their bright Seyfert nuclei.

### 2.2 Diffuse X-ray emission maps

Reduction of Chandra ACIS-S images was done with CIAO2.3. Light curves were constructed from the entire S3 chip to allow detection and removal of background flares. Because the diffuse emission component is soft we removed photons with estimated energies greater than 1.5keV. This high energy cut increased our ability to detect the diffuse component against hard background events, which were possibly from low-level flares that were not detected from the lightcurves. To ensure that we were justified in making such an energy cut, we made color maps of all galaxies with respect to the estimated photon energy. The color maps were split into red (0.3 to 1.5 keV), green (1.5 to 2.5 keV), and blue (2.5 to 8.0 keV). The background contained points of all three colors, while the diffuse X-ray emission from the galaxies was mostly red, confirming that it is soft.

Point sources were identified from the Chandra event files by masking elliptical areas around each source. Each region was identified by the CIAO routine wavdetect and was then visually inspected to enlarge, if necessary, the masking area or to determine if diffuse emission had been misidentified as point sources, especially in crowded regions. Pixels inside the ellipses were filled in based on local background values using the CIAO routine dmfilth. We used the DIST method to fill in the background because the count rates were not sufficiently high to use the POISSON method. After point sources were removed we smoothed the images using the adaptive routine csmooth with a maximum smoothing length of 20 pixels. Images were corrected for the exposure time and effective telescope area using the CIAO routine mergeall to build the final fluxed images which are shown in Figure 1. The smoothed images shown in Figure 1 were used for morphological comparisons. However, to measure fluxes from particular regions, we used the unsmoothed images.

### 2.3 Comparison images

To identify what processes are affecting the distribution of X-ray gas we searched for images of our sample galaxies at other wavelengths. Many of these galaxies were also observed in CO(1-0) tracing the molecular gas component as part of the BIMA-SONG survey (Helfer et al., 2003). We also downloaded near-infrared H-band images tracing the stellar component from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). We searched NED for narrow band images of the H$`\alpha `$ emission line and mid-infrared images at 12 or 15$`\mu `$m from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) that provide tracers of recent star formation.

For NGC 2403, NGC 3184, NGC 6946 and M83 we use H$`\alpha `$ images by Larsen & Richtler (1999); for NGC 4579 and NGC 4303 those by Koopman et al. (2001); for NGC 4736, NGC 5055, and M101 those by Wong & Blitz (2002). Mid-infrared at 12 or 15$`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ images observed by the instrument ISOCAM are those made available on the NASA extragalactic database (NED) by Roussel et al. (2001); Bendo et al. (2002). For NGC 7331 we downloaded the 15$`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ discussed by (Smith, 1998) from the ISO archive. The comparison images are shown in Figure 1 with the X-ray images of the diffuse emission in each galaxy.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission

In comparing the diffuse X-ray images with the images of other wavelengths, we see that the H$`\alpha `$ and mid-infrared emission are coincident each other and with the diffuse X-ray images (see M83 for example). The mid-infrared emission is comprised of both continuum and PAH components and scales with the rate of star formation (Roussel et al., 2001; Bendo et al., 2002), as would be expected by dust reprocessing the interstellar radiation field. The images showing the molecular gas (CO) distribution, from which the stars are formed, also tend to be coincident with the diffuse X-ray, though not as closely as the H$`\alpha `$ and mid-IR images.

The correlation between the diffuse X-ray morphology and that seen in H$`\alpha `$ is consistent with previous studies (e.g., Strickland et al. 2003a; Fraternali et al. 2002). However, most previous studies have focused on individual H II regions, or filaments associated with coronal emission and outflows in edge-on galaxies (e.g., Fraternali et al. 2002; Strickland et al. 2003a; Wang et al. 2001). Because we have focused on spiral galaxies that are not at high inclination (except for NGC 7331), we are better able to view the changes in morphology across the disks of the galaxies. We find a clear correspondence between the morphology of the diffuse X-ray emission and the specific locations of active sites of star formation.

Except for NGC 2403, which is irregular, all the galaxies in our sample emit diffuse X-rays from their centers. Galaxies NGC 3184, NGC 4303, NGC 4736, M51, M83, and M101 show spiral structure in the diffuse X-ray emission, coinciding with star formation in the spiral arms, as traced in either H$`\alpha `$ or in the mid-infrared ISOCAM images. The emission from the galaxy centers is almost round, whereas that from the spiral arms is located in linear features lying along the arms. Because we see a difference in X-ray morphology between the spiral arms and the galaxy centers, we compare the two type of regions separately.

### 3.2 The diffuse X-ray emission in the spiral arms

Most but not all of the spiral galaxies display X-ray emission along spiral arms. Galaxies NGC 3184, NGC 4303, NGC 4736, M51, M83, and M101 show prominent spiral structure in the diffuse X-ray emission, coinciding with star formation in the spiral arms, as traced by H$`\alpha `$ or mid-infrared emission. NGC 4303, NGC 4736, and M101 show weaker spiral structure whereas that in in M51, M83, and NGC 3184 is particularly strong and open (not tightly wound). Little diffuse X-ray gas was detected in the outer regions of NGC 6946; however, NGC 6946 has a high Galactic absorption column, which may have affected our ability to detect the soft diffuse X-ray emission. NGC 6946 also has a low star formation rate in its outer disk compared to the other grand design galaxies in our sample.

Previous studies have shown that the soft X-ray luminosity of entire spiral galaxies is proportional to the total infrared luminosity (Read & Ponman, 2001; Strickland et al., 2003b), a direct indicator of the current star formation rate (Kennicutt, 1998). Because we can observe the spatial distribution of both the diffuse X-ray emission and the current sites of star formation, we can compare the X-ray and mid-IR fluxes measured at different regions in each galaxy. Because longer-wavelength infrared data lacks sufficient spatial resolution, we opt to use the mid-infrared ISO images. However, the total far-infrared bolometric flux used in previous studies can be estimated from the mid-infrared flux and is about 14 times the mid-infrared flux at $`12\mathrm{\mu m}`$ (estimated as $`\nu F_\nu `$) (Spinoglio et al., 1995). We have opted to use the mid-infrared ISOCAM images as a tracer of recent star formation rather than the H$`\alpha `$ images because they were observed in a similar fashion with the same camera on the same telescope and so are more uniform in their calibration than the available H$`\alpha `$ images. The mid-IR images also have the advantage that they do not require correction for extinction.

In Figure 5 we plot X-ray and mid-infrared fluxes measured in $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ radius apertures at different locations along the spiral arms of these galaxies. Good quality spectra could not be extracted from the outer parts of these galaxies because of the low count rates, so we could not determine conversions between fluxes and count rates based on individual fitted emission models. Consequently we fit spectra extracted from the brighter (central) components of a few galaxies and used the resulting model to convert between counts and flux for other regions. To convert between counts cm$`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{s}_{}^{1}`$ and unabsorbed 0.1-2.0 keV flux, we used a XSPEC MEKAL model with $`kT=0.45`$ keV and an abundance of $`0.1`$ solar, which provided a reasonable fit to spectra extracted from the brighter central components of M51, M83, NGC 5055, NGC 4736 and NGC 7331. When Chandra spectra of diffuse emission in nearby galaxies are fit with single component hot plasma models, they have been better fit by those with extremely low abundances. This problem has been discussed by Strickland et al. (2000); Wang et al. (2001) and others. Here we do not attach any undue significance to the parameters of these fits, but use them to derive conversion factors which we use to estimate physical quantities. We have noted that the conversion factors are insensitive to the value of the abundance used.

Background subtracted fluxes were corrected for Galactic absorption based on Galactic H I column depth in the direction of each galaxy but not for absorption internal to each galaxy. The data points used in Figure 5 are listed in Table 2.

From Figure 5 we see that the X-ray flux in different regions along the spiral arms of these galaxies is correlated with that in the mid-infrared. We find that the correlation between X-ray emission and star formation previously seen on whole galaxy scales also exists on smaller scales along individual spiral arms. NGC 4579 is the only galaxy with a significantly higher X-ray to infrared flux ratio, which is probably due to its AGN (discussed recently by Eracleous et al. 2002). Activity from the AGN has probably increased the quantity of diffuse X-ray emission at distances 3 to 7 kpc from the nucleus. Because of this large distance from the nucleus, we infer that the X-ray gas must have been heated mechanically rather than radiatively. Since the surface brightness of the diffuse X-ray emission is much lower than that seen in the Seyfert galaxies NGC 1068 and NGC 4258, we support the conclusions of Young et al. (2001) who found that the starburst is not the dominant source of soft extended X-ray emission in Seyfert galaxies.

In the spiral arms of the other galaxies, the flux of X-ray emission is about 4 orders of magnitude lower than the mid-infrared emission. Using the mid-infrared fluxes to estimate the total infrared bolometric fluxes, we estimate that the X-ray fluxes are 5 orders of magnitude below that comprising the bolometric far-infrared fluxes. This is one order of magnitude below the correlation found by Read & Ponman (2001); Strickland et al. (2003b). Part of the discrepancy between our estimated X-ray to infrared ratio and previous work could be due the temperature we assumed to convert between counts and flux. Alternately, the soft X-ray to infrared flux ratio could also be slightly dependent upon luminosity.

### 3.3 Nuclear diffuse X-ray emission

Except for NGC 2403, which is irregular, all the galaxies in our sample emit diffuse X-rays from their centers. With the exception of NGC 7331, the nuclei of these galaxies are also sites of star formation. NGC 7331 has a star forming region ring at about 8 kpc from its nucleus and little star formation within this ring. However the X-ray emission peaks at the galaxy nucleus and not at the location of the molecular ring. In NGC 7331, the X-ray emission could be associated with the bulge of the galaxy, the star forming ring or its faint Seyfert 2 nucleus. The bulge in the X-ray emission map north east of the nucleus which resembles cones seen in other edge-on galaxies (e.g., Strickland et al. 2003a), suggests that some of the X-ray emitting gas was heated in the galaxy center, by the AGN or a past episode of star formation.

We can consider three possible dominant energy sources resulting in the presence of hot X-ray emitting gas in the centers of these galaxies: supernovae associated with an old bulge population, superwinds driven by active star formation, and an active galactic nucleus. Since the X-ray emission is not closely associated with individual spiral arms in the centers of these galaxies, and the morphologies are nearly round, a galactic fountain type scenario is unlikely. To discriminate between the possible energy sources, in Figure 6 we plot diffuse X-ray fluxes compared to those in the same apertures at H-band (based on the 2MASS images), in CO (based on the BIMA-SONG data) and at 12 or 15$`\mu `$m (based on the ISOCAM images). Apertures were adjusted to include the entire central diffuse X-ray component and have radii which range from 10 to $`25^{\prime \prime }`$. The 0.1-2.0keV unabsorbed X-ray fluxes have been measured in the same way as those along the spiral arms (see previous subsection) and are listed in Table 3.

If supernovae associated with older stars were responsible for the X-ray emission in the nuclear regions of these galaxies then we would expect a correlation between the nuclear X-ray flux and that at 1.6 $`\mu `$m in H-band, tracing the old stellar population. To test this possibility we show in Figure 6a a comparison between the nuclear X-ray fluxes and the H-band magnitude measured from the 2MASS images in the same regions. The X-ray fluxes range over 4 orders of magnitude while the H-band fluxes range over 2 orders of magnitude. The range of these numbers is not strongly affected by the scatter in distances since the nearest galaxy in our sample is only 3 times nearer than the farthest one. We find a correlation between the two fluxes, suggesting that an old stellar population may be associated with the diffuse X-ray emission. Either supernovae from an old stellar population contribute to the X-ray emitting gas or the mass of the bulge provides a gravitational potential well that keeps the X-ray gas from escaping the galaxy.

ROSAT studies of early type galaxies confirmed the correlation between optical and X-ray luminosity previously revealed by Einstein studies (Brown & Bregman 1998), finding that the X-ray luminosity was about 4-5 orders of magnitude fainter than the optical luminosity. The points in Figure 6a are consistent with this, suggesting that the diffuse emission in bulges could be an extension of that seen in early type galaxies.

Figure 6b shows the X-ray and mid-infrared fluxes from the galaxy cores in the same apertures as for 6a. We see a larger scatter in the X-ray and mid-infrared fluxes in the cores than in the spiral arms. Most of the galaxies are consistent with the average mid-infrared to X-ray flux ratio seen in the spiral arms (see Figure 5); however, there are some outlying points. NGC 4579, again, has a higher X-ray to emitted infrared flux ratio, which is very likely due to the proximity of the AGN. NGC 6946 has an X-ray/infrared flux ratio of $`10^5`$, two orders of magnitude below the mean seen in the spiral arms. NGC 6946’s low level of diffuse central X-ray emission is either due to its small bulge, or because it had been quiescent until recently. Prior star-forming activity could affect the total quantity of diffuse nuclear X-ray emission.

Since we see that the diffuse X-ray flux correlates with the infrared flux (and so the star formation rate), it should also be correlated with the quantity of molecular gas. Figure 6b shows X-ray and CO fluxes for the galaxy cores, using the same apertures. The CO fluxes were calculated using CO images from the BIMA-SONG survey and are also listed in Table 3. The fluxes are similarly scattered as in a), forming a weak correlation with two outlying points, again corresponding to NGC 6946 (upper left) and NGC 4579 (lower right). Two of the galaxies in our sample were not included in the BIMA-SONG survey, and as such, are not included in this graph: M83 and NGC 2681.

To test the dependence of diffuse X-ray emission on supernovae from older stars and starburst activity, we plotted the ratio of mid-infrared to 1.6$`\mu `$m flux vs. the ratio of X-ray to 1.6$`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ flux (Figure 6d). The lack correlation shown in the plot suggests that current star formation is not the only factor affecting the quantity of diffuse X-ray flux. Unfortunately many of the high points in Figure 6d are also high in Figures 6a,b implying that the galaxies with brighter X-ray nuclear components have bigger bulges and also higher levels of active star formation near their centers. This makes it difficult to discriminate between scenarios for producing the X-ray gas. We checked the nuclear spectral classification (listed in Table 1) of the galaxies in this plot and found no obvious correspondence between nuclear type and X-ray/infrared color.

In short we find weak correlations between central diffuse X-ray flux and bulge brightness and between the X-ray flux and the current rate of star formation. The correlation between the X-ray flux and mid-IR flux is weaker than seen in the spiral arms, suggesting that other factors are affecting the X-ray luminosity. These other factors could include the depth of the bulge potential, supernovae from bulge stars, AGN activity and previous episodes of star formation.

### 3.4 Constraints on the volume filling factor, electron density and cooling time of the X-ray emitting gas

As we mentioned above, we used the Sherpa analysis program to fit single component hot plasma MEKAL models to spectra extracted from the brighter galaxy nuclei. The MEKAL normalization, $`K=\frac{10^{14}}{4\pi D_{cm}^2}n_en_H𝑑V`$, required to fit these spectra, can be used to place constraints on the emission integral of the X-ray emitting gas and consequently on its volume filling factor, $`f_v`$, and electron density $`n_e`$. The electron density can be estimated from the normalization factor

$$n_e=0.13\mathrm{cm}^3f_v^{1/2}\left(\frac{h}{\mathrm{kpc}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{K}{10^4A}\right)^{1/2}$$
(1)
by assuming that the emission integral $`EI=n_en_H𝑑Vn_e^2f_vh`$. Here $`A`$ is the aperture area in square arcseconds where we measured the count rate. We have scaled the above expressions assuming a typical scale height $`h1`$ kpc corresponding to $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ for a nearby galaxy at a distance of 10 Mpc. This size scale would be appropriate for the central components of our galaxies if the central X-ray emission filled a spherical volume.

Estimated electron densities in the nuclear regions range from $`n_e0.016\mathrm{cm}^3f_v^{1/2}\left(\frac{h}{1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}\right)^{1/2}`$ in the center of M101 to $`n_e0.11\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (same scaling) in the center of M83. The irregular galaxy NGC 2403 has a somewhat lower $`n_e0.012`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> and NGC 4579 which contains a bright AGN is higher with $`n_e0.19`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>.

Given an estimated electron density and our assumed temperature we can estimate a radiative cooling time for the hot gas, $`t_{cool}10^7n_e^1\mathrm{yr}`$ where $`n_e`$ is in cm<sup>-3</sup>. This results in a cooling time of $`t_{cool}4.5\times 10^7f_v^{1/2}\left(\frac{h}{1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}\right)^{1/2}`$yr for the gas near the center of NGC 4579 and $`t_{cool}7\times 10^8`$yr for NGC 2403 and M101. These times are quite short, and would be shorter if the filling factor or scale heights were lower. This suggests that the X-ray emission from the brighter galaxy centers has a fairly high volume filling factor and a large scale height, not inconsistent with previous studies of edge-on galaxies (Strickland et al., 2003a).

Following the same procedures as we previously used for the nuclear regions, we can estimate the electron density and cooling time for the diffuse X-ray emission in the spiral arms. The count rates in the arms using 20<sup>′′</sup> apertures average around 10<sup>-6</sup> cnts cm<sup>-2</sup>s<sup>-1</sup>, corresponding to an average electron density $`n_e0.006\mathrm{cm}^3f_v^{1/2}\left(\frac{h}{1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}\right)^{1/2}`$, and an associated cooling time of $`t_{cool}1.4\times 10^9`$yr $`f_v^{1/2}\left(\frac{h}{1\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}\right)^{1/2}`$.

The electron densities in the spiral arms are naturally lower than those in the galaxy centers. However, the diffuse X-ray emission in the outer parts of the galaxy is mostly located in the spiral arms and not in between the arms. For the hot gas to be confined to regions near the spiral arms, we require that hot gas produced in the arms cool off before it rotates away from the spiral arms. Secondly, less hot gas can be produced interarm.

Hot gas produced in the arms can cool radiatively or by adiabatic expansion. In either case, the cooling time must not be longer than the time it takes for the spiral pattern to travel a large angle through the galaxy. For a galaxy rotating at 200 km/s the rotational period is 0.3 Gyrs at a radius of 10 kpc from the galaxy nucleus. Spiral patterns rotate at an angular rotation rate that is approximately the same size as the angular rotation rate. For the X-ray emission to appear in the spiral arms and be absent between them, the hot gas produced in the arms must cool faster than the rotational period. Since our estimated radiative cooling time was much larger than the angular rotation rate for $`f_v1`$ and $`h1`$ kpc, we infer that the scale height and volume filling factor are probably lower than these values.

We now consider cooling by adiabatic expansion. If the gas expands by a factor of 3 then the intensity of the X-ray emission can drop by an order of magnitude and so become undetectable interarm. The time for expansion depends on the sound speed $`300`$ km/s, $`t_{exp}\frac{3f_vh}{300\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}}10\mathrm{Myr}f_vh_{kpc}`$. A time period of 10 Myr would cause the hot gas to lag the spiral arms. This suggests that even if cooling took place through adiabatic expansion, to keep the detected hot gas confined to the spiral arms, we would require a low volume filling factor and scale height $`f_vh1`$ kpc.

This conclusion is not inconsistent with the narrow appearance of the spiral arms, which implies that the hot gas is not in hydrostatic equilibrium. Because the ratio of the sound speed in $`10^6`$K gas to the rotational velocity is nearly one, gas in hydrostatic equilibrium would necessarily have $`h/r1`$. If the volume filling factor is indeed lower than 1, then the density in the X-ray emitting medium could be high enough $`n_e1`$cm<sup>-3</sup> to correspond to what we might expect from X-ray gas originating from supernovae in dense environments. To be consistent with such an electron density, we would infer that $`f_v0.01`$.

In summary, the high emission measures in the centers of these galaxies suggest that the volume filling factor and scale heights of the X-ray emitting gas are high ($`h`$ a few kpc), whereas those in the spiral arms suggest the opposite, that the volume filling factor and scale heights are low ($`h`$ less than a few kpc). It is tempting to consider a picture where a galactic fountain type scenario operates in the outer parts of these galaxies, and superwinds are driven from galaxy centers.

### 3.5 Comparison of diffuse X-ray emission and star forming regions with the predictions of population synthesis models

We now consider the predictions of population synthesis models. In the spiral galaxies the star formation rate is highest just after a spiral arm passes through the ISM. H$`\alpha `$ and mid-infrared emission peak where the massive young stars are formed. Population synthesis models (e.g., Leitherer & Heckman 1995; Cervino et al. 2002) of instantaneous bursts predict a peak in H$`\alpha `$ that lasts $`3\times 10^6`$ years until the most massive stars leave the main sequence. The energy deposition rate from subsequent supernovae rises at this time and remains fairly flat until $`3\times 10^7`$ years after the onset of the burst. This gives a characteristic timescale for the expected production of X-ray gas. Spiral arms contain H II regions as well as star clusters so clearly there is a range of ages along the arm (or widths if we think of the spiral arm as a pattern passing through the disk of the galaxy). So we can’t think of the arm as a wave where at each point we see one and only one age after the burst. However, because H II regions can only last a few million years and the mechanical energy deposition from supernovae takes place over a timescale 10 times as long, we do expect a difference between the morphology seen in H$`\alpha `$ or mid-IR compared to that seen in X-ray. In particular we expect that the X-ray emission will lag or be offset from the H$`\alpha `$ and mid-infrared emission in the spiral arm.

The angular size of the lag depends on the timescale for supernovae to occur and the angular rotation rate of the disk compared to the spiral pattern. We expect larger angular offsets or lags in the center of the galaxy where the rotation periods are fast compared to the outer parts. At a distance of 5 kpc from the nucleus and with a typical circular velocity of 200 km/s the rotational period of a star is 150 Myr. The timescale for supernovae to inject energy is about 30 million years. This is one fifth of the rotational period and so would correspond to an angular width of 70 degrees. For radii twice this the corresponding angular width would be 45 degrees, large enough to be easily detectable in our figures that compare the X-ray emission to that seen in H$`\alpha `$ or the mid-IR.

Visually inspecting the images in Figure 1, there does not appear to be any such lag between the diffuse X-ray and the H$`\alpha `$ or mid-IR emission in any of the images. The diffuse X-ray emission images have been smoothed to enhance the faint diffuse features; however, this should not affect the location of the diffuse emission. When we ran the adaptive smoothing routine, we restricted the maximum smoothing scale to be $`20^{\prime \prime }`$. The smoothing would not have moved the centroid of the X-ray emission, but only degraded the spatial resolution. We note that we saw no obvious visual evidence for fine structure in the diffuse X-ray emission in the non-smoothed maps. Higher signal to noise images would probably reveal more structure in the diffuse component, but we still expect that the hot gas is distributed over fairly large regions.

In Figure 8, we show diffuse X-ray contours on top of grayscale images of the H$`\alpha `$ and mid-IR emission for each of the three galaxies M51, M83, and NGC 3184 that show strong, open spiral structure in all three wavelengths. In M83 and M51 it appears that the X-ray emission in some regions extend to somewhat larger radii than the mid-IR emission. However, there is no such extension seen in NGC 3184 where the X-ray contours are nearly centered on the regions of star formation.

While there is some difference between the distribution of hot gas and that seen in H$`\alpha `$, mid-IR, and diffuse X-ray emission, there is no clear lag between the X-ray emission and that tracing massive star formation. The only major difference is that the X-ray emission is more diffuse than the H$`\alpha `$ emission. This would be expected if the X-ray emission arose from a somewhat larger scale height above the plane of the galaxy than the H II regions.

Population synthesis models for the X-ray luminosity are also dependent upon an efficiency factor $`ϵ`$ that represents the fraction of mechanical energy that heats the ambient gas to X-ray emitting temperatures. The adiabatic phase for an individual phase depends on the density of the ambient medium and would be shorter in a denser medium, but the X-ray luminosity could be higher in such a medium because the density of shocked material would be higher. Supernovae that occur in denser regions probably produce more X-ray emission (Smith & Cox, 2001). Our observations suggest that $`ϵ`$ is dependent upon environment and is higher near sites of massive star formation than in lower-density inner-arm regions. Because the X-ray emission along the spiral arms is quite narrow, we infer that supernovae from interarm regions must produce less soft X-ray emission than those that explode near the sites of massive star formation.

### 3.6 Comparison of diffuse X-ray emission and star forming regions with galactic fountain models

The narrowness of the X-ray emission associated with the strong spiral arms can be used to place a limit on the vertical scale height of coronal gas. The vertical scale height is likely to be smaller than the width of the features as seen on the sky. The width of the features seen in X-ray is typically less than $`50^{\prime \prime }`$ wide, implying that the vertical scale height of the hot gas is likely to be less than 1-2 kpc for these galaxies. Since this emission is located at 5-10 kpc from the galaxy centers, this implies that the aspect ratio of the coronal emission $`h/r4`$. The X-ray gas at large radii in these galaxies is likely to be in a fairly thin layer. While the hot gas is likely to be above the H I disk, it is not likely to be more than a few kpc above the plane of the galaxy. We see no evidence for a bright X-ray halo component at large radii in these galaxies. Even in the starburst galaxy M83, the fact that the X-ray emission is associated with the spiral arms in the outer part of the galaxy suggests that it is tied to the disk and not part of the halo. This would suggest that a galactic fountain can operate at fairly high levels of star formation.

There is however a change in morphology seen in the X-ray emission from disk emission associated with spiral structure in the outer region to a more round distribution in the center of these galaxies. The edge-on galaxies atlas by Strickland et al. (2003a) also suggests that large scale outflows are primarily a phenomenon restricted to the central few kpc of galaxies. This suggests that many galaxies undergo a transition at some radius between low scale height hot gas disk, associated with a ‘galactic fountain’ to a more spherical distribution that might be associated with an outflow. At smaller radii the angular rotation rate is higher, so star formation associated with spiral arms will heat the ISM more frequently. If the gas cannot cool before the next spiral wave passes by then each wave additively inputs energy into the hot component of the ISM. If this scenario was correct then the radius at which the galaxy undergoes a transition in X-ray morphology could depend on the angular rotation rate and on the cooling time of the hot gas. Because the angular rotation rate is dependent upon the mass distribution (and bulge) this could in part explain the weak correlation seen between the central X-ray and bulge surface brightnesses (Figure 6a). Alternatively hot gas from type I supernovae associated with an old bulge stellar population could facilitate the driving of a superwind.

## 4 Summary and Discussion

In this paper we have carried out a study of the diffuse soft X-ray emission in a sample of nearby low and moderate inclination spiral galaxies. By using the high angular resolution possible with Chandra, we were able to separate between the diffuse component and that associated with point sources. We have compared the morphology of the diffuse emission with that at other wavelengths, finding the closest correspondence between the diffuse emission and indicators of massive star formation such as H$`\alpha `$ emission or mid-infrared emission. In the spiral arms, the 0.1-2 keV X-ray energy flux is correlated with that in the mid-infrared tracing recent star formation, and is about 5 orders of magnitude below that in emitted in the far-infrared.

The outer regions of these galaxies show that X-ray emission is closely associated with star formation lying in linear features following the spiral arms. Most of the galaxies also exhibit diffuse X-ray emission in the centers; however, the morphology of this component is nearly round. The level of central X-ray emission is correlated with that seen in the mid-infrared and that from bulge stars in the near-infrared, though the correlation between the X-ray and mid-IR is not as tight as seen in the spiral arms. It is likely that more than one process is contributing to the level of diffuse X-ray emission in these galaxy centers.

The narrow size of the X-ray emission in the spiral arms and estimated emission measures imply that the volume filling factor $`f_v0.01`$ and the scale height $`h`$ is less than a few kpc. Consequently the X-ray gas in the spiral arms is probably associated with a galactic fountain and not part of a superwind. By a similar argument we reach the opposite conclusion for the hot gas in these galaxy centers, suspecting that the scale heights are larger than a few kpc and the filling factors are larger. The X-ray emitting gas in these galaxy centers could be associated with galactic scale winds originating from the galaxy nucleus.

Contrary to the predictions of simple population synthesis models, the X-ray emission in the spiral arms does not lag the mid-IR or H$`\alpha `$ emission. The narrowness of the X-ray emission implies that the X-ray gas produced in the arms must cool off quickly enough that it is not detected interarm, and that X-ray gas is not efficiently produced outside of spiral arms. This suggests that the fraction of mechanical energy from supernovae that heats the ambient gas to X-ray emitting temperatures is dependent on environment and is higher in near the sites of massive star formation.

In this paper we have compared the X-ray morphology to tracers of current star formation. However, future work could probe the dependence of X-ray luminosity and morphology on the past star formation history by comparing these observations to optical and near-infrared spectroscopic observations. Future studies could also probe the relation between the LINER classification and the X-ray properties of galaxies.

We acknowledge helpful discussions with Margaret Drenner, Alaina Henry, Don Garnett, Chip Kobulnicky, Kip Kuntz, Jessica Almog, and Richard Mushotsky. We are grateful to Tony Wong for providing us with H$`\alpha `$ images. We acknowledge support from the REU program NSF grant PHY-0242483, and Chandra GO grant GO0-1146X. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


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# Oscillating cosmological solutions within gauge theories of gravity

## 1 Introduction

In conventional cosmological scenario the Universe has a beginning in time, so called Big Bang, associated with initial singularity of Friedmann equations . Singular state with infinite values of energy density and curvature is unacceptable from physical point of view and possibly marks the edge of applicability of General Relativity (GR). In spite of some progress in last decades, attempts to resolve this problem within GR had no success ,.

Correct description of the early Universe when the energy density was very high should be given by particle physics . Unfortunately experimental and observational data are still insufficient to discriminate between different models of elementary particles physics. However in most models scalar fields play an important role. One of the main discovery in modern cosmology is a possibility to explain a number of puzzles of Big Bang model by inclusion of short stage of exponential expansion of the Universe, so called inflation ,. During this stage the energy density of the Universe is dominated by scalar field (or fields) and transition to usual hot Universe is achieved by creation of relativistic particles at the end of inflation .

Unfortunately even in inflationary models there is little chance to avoid cosmological singularity. The evolution of the Universe is usually considered from the planckian moment when description in terms of classical theory of gravitation becomes possible. At contraction stage the singular state is unavoidable in most models ,. Some nonsingular solutions exist - but they are not of great interest since their measure is equal to zero and they cannot be used to construct viable nonsingular cosmological models.

Alternative way to resolve problems of Big Bang model could be so called oscillating model  where the Universe never reaches singularity. In the recent literature such models are debated in connection in particular to ekpyrotic  and cyclic Universe models .

From the other hand, deviations from Riemannian geometry can occur at very high energy density. In the case of more general spacetime GR should be replaced by gauge theories of gravity (GTG) that are natural generalizations of GR . It was shown that nonsingular cosmological solutions within GTG exist in the case of spinning matter, usual matter  and matter in the form of scalar field . Moreover, when energy density drops enough the deviation from GR becomes negligible and at late stages the Universe can be described by Friedmann equations that possess to generalize standard cosmology and resolve the problem of initial singularity.

In this paper we present new type of nonsingular cosmological solutions for the Universe filled by nonlinear scalar field within gauge theories of gravity. We show that our solutions have some advantages with respect to previously known nonsingular solutions. The paper is organized as follows. In section 2 cosmological equations of GTG are given. In section 3 oscillating nonsingular solutions are presented. In section 4 stability of our solutions is discussed. In section 5 discussion is given. The last section contains conclusions.

## 2 Cosmological equations

Homogeneous isotropic models in GTG are described by generalized Friedmann cosmological equations  that were obtained first within framework of Poincare gauge theory of gravity. Same equations are valid in metric-affine gravity. They read

$$\frac{k}{R^2}+\left\{\frac{d}{dt}\mathrm{ln}\left[R\sqrt{\left|1\beta \left(\rho 3p\right)\right|}\right]\right\}^2=\frac{8\pi }{3M_p^2}\frac{\rho \frac{\beta }{4}\left(\rho 3p\right)^2}{1\beta \left(\rho 3p\right)},$$
(1)
$$\frac{\left[\dot{R}+R\left(\mathrm{ln}\sqrt{\left|1\beta \left(\rho 3p\right)\right|}\right)^{}\right]^{}}{R}=\frac{8\pi }{6M_p^2}\frac{\rho +3p+\frac{\beta }{2}\left(\rho 3p\right)^2}{1\beta \left(\rho 3p\right)}.$$
(2)
where $`R(t)`$ is the scale factor in the Robertson-Walker metric, $`k=1,0,+1`$ for open, flat and closed models respectively, $`M_p`$ is planckian mass, $`\rho (t)`$ and $`p(t)`$ are energy density and pressure, $`\beta `$ is indefinite parameter, and a dot denotes the differentiation with respect to time111Hereinafter the system of units with $`\mathrm{}=c=1`$ is used..

These equations contain the only indefinite parameter $`\beta `$ that is a combination of gravitational lagrangian coefficients, having a dimension of inverse energy density. Solutions of cosmological equations have essentially non-einsteinian behavior when the energy density exceeds the critical value $`\beta ^1`$. Experimental constraints on parameter $`\beta `$ are very poor and one can say only that $`\beta ^1M_p^4`$.

Besides equations (1-2) gravitational equations of GTG lead to the following relation for torsion function $`S`$ and nonmetricity function $`Q`$

$$S\frac{1}{4}Q=\frac{1}{4}\frac{d}{dt}\mathrm{ln}[1\beta (\rho 3p)].$$
(3)
In Poincare gauge theory of gravity $`Q=0`$ and equation (3) determines the torsion function. In metric-affine theory of gravity equation (3) may describe three kinds of models: in the Riemann-Cartan spacetime $`Q=0`$, in the Weyl spacetime $`S=0`$, in the Weyl-Cartan spacetime ($`S0,Q0`$), the function $`S`$ is proportional to the function $`Q`$ .

The conservation law has the usual form

$$\dot{\rho }+3H(\rho +p)=0,H(t)\frac{\dot{R}}{R},$$
(4)
where $`H(t)`$ is a Hubble parameter.

In the case of nonlinear scalar field minimally coupled to gravity the energy density and pressure are

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \rho =\frac{1}{2}\dot{\phi }^2(t)+V(\phi ),p=\frac{1}{2}\dot{\phi }^2(t)V(\phi ),& & \end{array}$$
(5)
where $`V(\phi )`$ is effective potential of the scalar field $`\phi (t)`$.

Then taking into account (4-5) the cosmological equations (1-2) can be rewritten in the following way ,,

$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{k}{R^2}+\left[H\left(13\beta \dot{\phi }^2Z^1\right)3\beta V^{}\dot{\phi }Z^1\right]^2=\hfill \\ \frac{8\pi }{3M_p^2}\left[\frac{1}{2}\dot{\phi }^2+V\frac{\beta }{4}\left(4V\dot{\phi }^2\right)^2\right]Z^1,\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
$$\begin{array}{c}\dot{H}\left(13\beta \dot{\phi }^2Z^1\right)+H^2\left(1+15\beta \dot{\phi }^2Z^118\beta ^2\dot{\phi }^4Z^2\right)+\hfill \\ \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}12}\beta \dot{\phi }V^{}Z^1\left(13\beta \dot{\phi }^2Z^1\right)H\hfill \\ \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}3}\beta Z^1\left(V^{\prime \prime }\dot{\phi }^2(V^{})^2+6\beta \dot{\phi }^2(V^{})^2Z^1\right)=\hfill \\ \frac{8\pi }{3M_p^2}\left[V\dot{\phi }^2\frac{\beta }{4}\left(4V\dot{\phi }^2\right)^2\right]Z^1,\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
where $`Z(t)=1+\beta \left[\dot{\phi }^2(t)4V(\phi (t))\right]`$, $`V^{}=\frac{dV(\phi )}{d\phi }`$, $`V^{\prime \prime }=\frac{d^2V(\phi )}{d\phi ^2}`$.

The conservation law (4) in the case under consideration is reduced to the scalar field equation

$$\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill \ddot{\phi }+3H\dot{\phi }=V^{}.& & \end{array}$$
(8)
## 3 Oscillating solutions

Numerical investigation of nonsingular solutions of equations (6-8) was carried out in ,,,. It was shown in particular that it is possible to obtain nonsingular solutions if parameter $`\beta `$ is negative and potential energy of the scalar field dominates its kinetic energy at the bounce. In the following we shall assume simple effective potential usually considered in inflationary models

$$V(\phi )=\frac{1}{4}\lambda \phi ^4,$$
(9)
where $`\lambda `$ the a coupling constant.

The constant $`\lambda `$ must satisfy the condition $`\lambda 10^{12}`$  to obtain density fluctuations after inflation as small as $`\frac{\delta \rho }{\rho }10^4`$.

The typical solution in the case of closed model is shown at fig.1. Initial conditions for this solution are $`\lambda =10^{12},\phi _0=\sqrt{2}10^3M_p,\dot{\phi }_0=0,\beta =10^{25}M_p^4.`$ The duration of expansion is $`510^9M_p^1`$.

Initially the scalar field is placed at some distance from the value $`\phi =0`$ and the kinetic part of the energy density is zero. Therefore at the beginning the effective equation of state is $`p\rho `$ that is one of requirements for inflation. At the same time the Hubble parameter is zero and its derivative is positive that means transition from contraction to expansion. In course of evolution the scalar field goes to zero; potential energy is transformed into kinetic one. The Universe expands.

When the scalar field reaches the minimum of effective potential $`V(\phi )`$ its energy is equal to the kinetic energy. The expansion is replaced by contraction in that moment. Then the scalar field slows down and the energy density is transferred back to the effective potential and we arrive to the initial state. The function (3) oscillates with the same frequency and sign as Hubble parameter.

Oscillations of the scalar field are usual for inflationary models in the framework of GR, but the stage of oscillations has nothing to do with inflation itself. It corresponds to the stage of reheating after inflation during which usual particles are created from the scalar field . In our case however oscillations in scalar field occur together with oscillations of the whole Universe.

Note, that in the model under consideration, condition of inflation $`\dot{H}H^2`$ is satisfied during expansion. The duration of the phase of expansion, however, is close to the inverse Hubble parameter, i.e. to the age of the Universe. Thus, the expansion rate is very small to allow one to speak about the real inflation.

It is clear, that usual mechanism of reheating cannot work in this model because it was developed for monotonically varying background. However, recently a very efficient mechanism of preheating was found , when the only one oscillation is necessary for particles to be created. If some mechanism produce scalar field at the stage of contraction, the solution will describe the regular cosmological model in which very rapid transition from contraction to expansion appears when the energy density of the Universe is concentrated in the scalar field. The rest of the time the Universe is usual Friedmann one.

It is necessary to note that particular form of the effective potential (9) is not so important. As numerical calculations show oscillating solutions are quite generic feature for GTG. The only restrictions are that there must be a local minimum of the effective potential and it should be sufficiently flat.

## 4 Stability with respect to initial conditions

In this section we show using intuitive approach that our solutions have one advantage with respect to known solutions obtained in GR as well as GTG, namely our solutions are stable on the stage of contraction.

With this goal we vary initial conditions, namely values of $`\phi _0`$, $`\dot{\phi }_0`$ and $`H_0`$ at the beginning (starting at some moment on contraction stage) and see what happens with solutions. Example is given at fig.2 for finite time intervals222It can be seen that the amplitude of oscillations of cosmological parameters is decreasing in time. If one follows solutions for a longer time it can be found that the amlitude itself oscillates reminding modulations. The frequency of modulations is typically $`10^3`$ times smaller than the amplitude of oscillations.. Both solutions are bounded, so singularity never appears. They are most sensitive to variation of initial value of the derivative $`\dot{\phi }_0`$ but if condition $`\frac{1}{2}\dot{\phi }_0V(\phi _0)`$ is satisfied solutions look very similar. Sensitivity to initial value of the Hubble parameter is very weak. Note that the frequency of oscillations depends on initial conditions even for small variations of $`\phi _0`$.

In general case together with our oscillating solutions singular solutions are present. However ranges for initial conditions allowing bounded solutions are finite although quite narrow (at least in $`\dot{\phi }_0`$ direction). These finite regions represent ’islands of stability’ were nonsingular solutions exist.

Finally we plot 3-dimensional phase trajectories for our solutions with varying initial conditions. It is clear that phase trajectories lay at some 2-dimensional hypersurface (probably slice). Each trajectory is a closed curve that means that solutions are indeed oscillating. These closed curves do not remind circles and therefore oscillations are not harmonic and likely cannot be described by analytical functions.

## 5 Discussion

In this section we would like to carry out comparison to existing nonsingular solutions obtained previously within framework of GR as well as GTG for cosmological models with single scalar field.

Nonsingular cosmological solutions for the Universe filled by scalar field within GR are known since a long time  and are discussed in recent paper ,. It was shown that such solutions exist in GR only for closed models. Unfortunately their measure is equal to zero and moreover on the stage of contraction they are unstable ,. For most solutions in course of contraction effective equation of state becomes $`p=\rho `$ and this leads to singularity. Therefore such solutions are of certain interest in connection with the initial singularity problem but they do not cure for final singularity.

Moreover, on the stage of expansion there is transition from vacuum dominated expansion regime to Friedmann expansion due to particle creation process. It is well known that such process is irreversible . Appearing and subsequent domination of the scalar field on contraction stage is an obscure question.

Nonsingular inflationary solutions with nonlinear scalar field were obtained within framework of GTG first in  in the case of initial conditions used in chaotic inflation . In subsequent papers , such solutions were discussed to some extent. The crucial property of such solutions is presence of inflationary stage during expansion; at the same time quasi-de-Sitter contraction stage is present in all of them.

It is necessary to stress that similar solutions exist within the framework of GR  most of them are singular on contraction stage since equation of state $`p=\rho `$ is much more probable. Careful investigation of this problem for the case of flat cosmological models with massive scalar field in GTG  lead to similar conclusions333However effective equation of state is $`p=\frac{\rho }{3}`$ in this case.. One can perform simple numerical analysis similar to ours and change values of $`\phi _0`$, $`\dot{\phi }_0`$ or $`H_0`$ on contraction stage. It can be shown that even little changes lead to unbounded solutions. This is a typical property of nonlinear equations. Therefore in our opinion oscillating solutions have important advantage although there is no inflation on expansion stage.

Finally it should be stated that our solutions can be obtained in the wide regions of initial conditions. Moreover, since maximal value of energy density depends on parameter $`\beta `$, oscillating solutions can be obtained for the case when $`\rho M_p^4`$, the Universe can never enter epoch of quantum gravity and can be described by classical theory of gravitation.

## 6 Conclusions

In this paper we give a new type of cosmological solutions of GTG for the Universe filled by nonlinear scalar field. Numerical analysis shows that these solutions are stable on contraction stage unlike solutions with inflationary stage. If any mechanism of reheating can work in our case, it can be possible to build nonsingular cosmological model on the basis of our solutions.


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# Assortative model for social networks

## Abstract

In this paper we present a new version of a network growth model, generalized in order to describe the behavior of social networks. The case of study considered is the preprint archive at cul.arxiv.org. Each node corresponds to a scientist, and a link is present whenever two authors wrote a paper together. This graph is a nice example of degree-assortative network, that is to say a network where sites with similar degree are connected each other. The model presented is one of the few able to reproduce such behavior, giving some insight on the microscopic dynamics at the basis of the graph structure.

Networks B85 ; re3  are present in different phenomena. The Internet FFF99 ; CMP00  is a graph composed by different computers, connected by cables; the WWW HA99 ; BAJ99  is a graph composed by HTML documents connected by hyperlinks, even social structures N01 ; ASBS00  can be described as graphs. In the latter case the nodes are individuals connected by different relationships. Even if the degree probability distribution $`P(k)`$ (i.e. the frequency to find a number $`k`$ of links per node) is very often scale-free (i.e. $`P(k)k^\gamma `$), other quantities allow to distinguish between the various cases. For such purpose, one of the most interesting is the assortativity by degree. Assortativity can be defined as the tendency for nodes in a social network to form connections preferentially to others similar to themNewman . This mechanism has been proposed as the key ingredient for the formation of communities in networksVespignani ; NEW1 . Using this quantity, it is possible to distinguish the technological networks, where instead, the behavior is rather degree-disassortative, so that vertices tend to be linked to others different from them. Despite the relative simplicity of such behavior few modelsBB01 ; CCDM02 ; Calla  of network growth are able to reproduce the formation of communities and no one explains the difference between social and technological networks.

Here we analyze a specific case of social network, namely the ArXiv:cond-mat repository of preprints at cul.arxiv.gov collected by Mark NewmanN01 . The nodes are the authors of the various papers and a link is present between them whenever they wrote at least one paper together. We are able to reproduce most of the features of such network by a suitable modification of a model presented in Ref.GUIDO . The quantities we measured in the real data and in the model are the degree probability distribution, the degree correlation between neighbor sites, the clustering and the site betweenness probability distribution. A summary of the results is reported in Tab.1.

The degree is the number of links per node. As expected, the degree probability distribution of the cond-mat data show a power law behavior of the kind $`P(k)k^\gamma `$ with $`\gamma =3`$ (see diamonds in Fig.1).

We then measure the degree correlation between nodes. This is done by introducing the quantity $`Knn(k)`$, giving the average degree of the site neighbors of one site whose degree is $`k`$. $`Knn`$ increases if nodes are correlated by degree (assortative networks). It decreases if they are anti-correlated (disassortative networks). It is flat if they are uncorrelated (for example, in the BA modelAnnd ). $`Knn`$ in the data has an increasing trend, consistent with our expectation for an assortative network. A power law seems to be an appropriate fit in the region of growth $`Knn(k)k^\varphi `$ where $`\varphi `$ is about $`0.2`$ (See diamonds in Fig. 2). Another measure of assortativity we considered is the assortativity coefficient $`r`$. A complete definition of this quantity can be found in ref.NEW3 , here we can say that it is proportional to the connected degree-degree correlation function. In this paper we find that both $`r`$ and $`\varphi `$ have the same behaviour by varying the parameters of the model. We therefore focus our analysis only on the $`\varphi `$.

Clustering coefficient $`c_i`$ for every site $`i`$ gives the probability that two nearest neighbors of vertex $`i`$ are also neighbors each other. $`cc(k)`$, is the average clustering coefficient for sites whose degree is $`k`$, and it measures the tendency to form cliques where each nearest neighbor of a node (with degree $`k`$) is connected to each other. In real networks this usually decreases with a power-law $`cc(k)k^\psi `$ ($`\psi =0.8`$ for the data we analyzed) because hubs tend to play the role of connections between separate clusters in the graph, i.e. clusters that have few other interconnections than the ones passing through the hub. Then the high degree node tends to have low clustering coefficient.

The betweenness $`b_i`$ of a vertex $`i`$ gives the probability that the site $`i`$ is in the path between two other vertices in the graph. Therefore it might be interpreted as the amount of the role played by the vertex $`i`$ in social relation between two persons $`j`$ and $`k`$. This quantity behaves as a power law both in its distribution $`P(b)b^\eta `$ ($`\eta =2.2`$) and in dependence upon $`k`$. Analogously to the clustering case we defined the average betweenness $`b(k)`$ for vertices whose degree is $`k`$. From Fig. 3 we find $`b(k)k^\epsilon `$ with $`\epsilon =1.81`$.

The model we defined in order to reproduce the data is inspired to the preferential attachment oneBAJ99 . The main variation consists in allowing growth by addition of new links between old nodes. More particularly at every step of growth:

1. with probability $`p`$ a new node is wired to an existing one; the choice of the destination node is left to Barabási-Albert preferential attachment rule(’rich gets richer’). Thus the probability of adding a new node and connecting it to an old node $`i`$ is

$$p\frac{k_i}{_{j=1,N}k_j}.$$
(1)
2. with probability $`(1p)`$ a new edge is added (if absent) between two existing nodes. These are chosen on the basis of their degree. In other words, the probability of adding an edge between node $`1`$ and node $`2`$ is a $`\stackrel{~}{P}(k_1,k_2)`$. This can be written as $`P_1(k_1)P_2(k_2|k_1)`$, being the second factor a conditioned probability. $`P_1(k_1)`$ is the rule for choosing the first of the two nodes, and again it is determined by the preferential attachment. The functional form of $`P_2(k_2|k_1)`$ can be chosen so as to favor links between similar or different degree. In this way, the probability of adding a new edge and connecting two old non-linked nodes is

$$(1p)\frac{k_i}{_{j=1,N}k_j}P_2(k_2|k_1)$$
(2)

In the limit of $`p=1`$ the model reduces to a traditional BA tree. In order to reproduce the assortative behavior we have explored two different functional forms: an inverse dependence

$$P_2(k_2|k_1)\frac{1}{|k_1k_2|+1}$$
(3)
and an exponential dependence, which clearly has a stronger effect

$$P_2(k_2|k_1)e^{|k_1k_2|}.$$
(4)
Results of simulations for the various values of $`p`$ are summarized in Tab.1, where the fitted exponents of the distributions and the global quantities describing the networks are reported. As $`p`$ grows from $`0.1`$ to $`1.0`$ the change in the statistical properties is consistent with the rough estimate for the degree distribution exponent given in Ref.GUIDO

$$\gamma (p)=2+\frac{p}{2p}$$
(5)
As $`p`$ tends to 1.0, the exponent approaches the value 3 of the BA model. A radically different behavior appears in the exponential case. While for high $`p`$ we still have scale-free distribution, as $`p`$ decreases a structure in $`k`$ emerges. Two regimes become visible: a power-law distribution for low $`k`$ and a peaked distribution for high $`k`$.

Similar behavior is evident for all the quantities depending on $`k`$. The transition happens around $`p=0.5`$. This behavior can be explained as follows. Edges are added mainly between high degree nodes because of the ’preferential attachment option’ adopted in the choice of the first vertex. Moreover, the strong assortativity deriving from the exponential form imposes an high degree to the second node as well. Therefore, when the ’wiring component’ of the growth prevails ($`p`$ below $`0.5`$), a cluster of hubs appears. Their degrees are sharply distributed around a high value. Thus a strong assortativity can break up the self-similar structure of the graph, superimposing a distribution with a typical scale on the scale-free one. This highlights the typical aspect of an assortative network, where the hubs (highly connected nodes) connect with other hubs, generating a core-periphery structure. This structure is emphasized in the exponential case, where assortativity becomes so large to induce a phase transition from a scale-free graph to a network with a characteristic scale for high degrees.

The slope of $`Knn(k)`$ grows as the assortativity is increased, moving from the inverse to the exponential form, and reducing the value of $`p`$. The slight inversion in the growth of the exponent visible at small $`p`$ can be explained as a finite size effect, highlighted by the intense assortativity for very low values of the parameter $`p`$. The BA limit is visible as well, being the distribution roughly flat for $`p=1.0`$. By measuring $`\varphi `$ and $`r`$ we note that their trends, as the parameters change, are analogous. Reasonably enough, we can conclude that, at least for our model, the exponent and the coefficient carry the same information.

The clustering coefficient distribution versus the degree fails to reproduce the real trends. These are usually decreasing with a power-law; the model, instead, generates increasing trends. We fit them with a power law with positive exponent. We can explain qualitatively such incongruence by taking into account high degree vertices. In real networks hubs tend to play the role of connections between separate clusters in the graph, with few links between each other (apart from the ones attached to the hub). Therefore this nodes tend to have low clustering coefficient. In our model, on the other hand, all the hubs are aggregated together. Thus, even producing an assortative network it cannot reproduce a network with $`cc(k)`$ decreasing with $`k`$. We comment that such behavior in the real data is due to the different areas of expertise of various authors, such that the most productive scientists in one discipline do not collaborate with the top scientists of other disciplines within cond-mat. Imposing such separation on the hubs produced by the model reproduces the correct behavior of data (or rather analyzing the data by dividing the papers according to the fields).

As regards the betweenness, $`b(k)`$ is an increasing function of $`k`$ (hubs are crucial in the exchange of information). On the other hand its slope decreases as p is reduced. In a tree like structure ($`p=1.0`$), hubs are play the role of bottlenecks for the flow of information between separate parts of the networks. Therefore, they have very high site betweenness. Approaching to a core-periphery structure, each node of the core becomes approximately as good as the others in performing this job. Therefore the site betweenness of high degree nodes decreases.

The site betweenness distribution $`P(b)`$ or is plotted after integration in Fig.3. We obtain a power-law with an exponent not depending significantly on $`p`$. Its averaged value is 2.0, that is equal to the measured value for a BA tree goh . It is interesting to notice that also here a characteristic scale appears at high values of the site betweenness. This is visible in the bump that distorts the scale free nature of the integrated distribution. Notice that we would see a similar distorted trend if we integrated the degree distribution.

In ref.goh2  the following scaling relation is demonstrated for the BA model

$$bk^{(\gamma 1)/(\eta 1)}$$
(6)
Thus, the exponent of the site betweenness plotted versus $`k`$ is related to the previous two by the equality

$$\epsilon =(\gamma 1)/(\eta 1)$$
(7)
This relation stands for disassortative and not assortative networks, while deviations are shown for assortative ones in ref.goh3 . By computing this difference we noticed a slightly growing trend, as $`p`$ is decreased, giving further evidence that assortativity breaks the scaling relation.

The qualitative agreement between the distribution of the real data and the simulation shows that our model is able to catch the basic aspects of the real graph, with the only above mentioned exception of the clustering coefficient versus $`k`$. A quantitative comparison suggests that the exponential form is too strong to describe existing networks. In fact, the appearance of a characteristic-scale structure like the one foreseen in our model has not been observed in any of the real assortative networks studied until now. One must notice as well the slight difference in the exponents of the site betweenness distribution (2.0 for the simulation and 2.2 for cond-mat). Following ref.goh , networks should be divided in two classes of universality according to the exponent of their site betweenness distribution. In fact this seems to assume always one of the two values 2.0 and 2.2. Co-authorship networks fall in the second class. Therefore, if the hypothesis of ref.goh  were confirmed, our model would fail guess the correct universality class for the networks that it is thought to represent. However, this would be reasonable, since the model can be reduced to a BA tree, which falls in the first class.

In conclusion, we have studied a generalized graph growth model, where by tuning a parameter $`p`$, it is possible to weight the role of growing (addition of new nodes) and mixing (addition of new edges) in the microscopical behavior of the network. The assortativity can be controlled as well by fixing a functional form for the wiring probability. Macroscopic characteristics of the network, i.e. statistical distributions, have been derived by simulations in the assortative case. The results reveal the effects of assortativity on the topology of a network, that can be as dramatical as a phase transition. Moreover, the simulation succeed in reproducing most of the features of real assortative networks. Future work could focus on many aspects: new nodes could be added carrying $`2`$ edges instead of one, in order to have a BA graph rather than a BA tree in the $`p=1.0`$ limit; the rate of addition of new nodes and of new links could be measured for real networks to have a fine tuning of the parameter $`p`$; more general functional forms for the wiring could be investigated, and even the preferential attachment choice could be changed, in order to have a significant wiring also for low degree nodes. Further extensions are possible because of the rich flexibility of the model.

We thank the FET Open project IST-2001-33555 COSIN.