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# Electromagnetic signals from planetary collisions

## 1. Introduction

More than 100 extra-solar planets have been detected. The growing sample allows us to study the properties of these extra-solar planetary systems, and sheds light on the origin of our own solar system. At the same time, our understanding of astrophysical phenomena has been greatly boosted through studying cataclysmic transient events such as supernovae, X-ray bursts, gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows. Here we discuss another type of electromagnetic transient events that arises from collisions of extra-solar planets. Such giant impacts have been long predicted within the theories of planet formation (e.g. Wetherill 1990). Giant impacts have been invoked to interpret the formation of the Earth-Moon (Wetherill 1985; Benz, Slattery & Cameron 1986; Canup & Asphaug 2001) and the Pluto-Charon (Stern 1992 and references therein) systems, as well as the anomalous obliquities of Uranus and some other solar giant planets (e.g. Slattery, Benz & Cameron 1992). Collisions are also expected in mature planetary systems due to slow onset, secular dynamical instabilities, although these collisions are less frequent than in dynamically young systems. The probability of collisions is enhanced in white dwarf planetary systems because of the perturbation caused by drastic mass loss during the formation of the white dwarfs (Debes & Sigurdsson 2002). Accompanying an impact event, a prompt transient electromagnetic signal and a fading afterglow are expected, but these signals have so far been sparsely studied. Even before the discovery of planetary systems around main sequence stars, Stern (1994) discussed the frequency and infrared (IR) signals of planetary collisions. In this Letter, we will sketch the likely electromagnetic signals from planetary collisions (§2). We will estimate the possibility of directly detecting such collisional events and their remnants, and discuss the observational strategies (§3).

## 2. EUV-soft-X-ray flashes and IR afterglows

As an example, we consider a Jovian planet (primary) with mass $`M_1=10^{30}\mathrm{g}m_J`$ and radius $`R_1=7.0\times 10^9\mathrm{cm}r_J`$ being hit by a terrestrial planet (secondary) with mass $`M_2=6\times 10^{27}\mathrm{g}m_{}`$ and radius $`R_2=6.4\times 10^8\mathrm{cm}r_{}`$, where $`m_J`$ and $`r_J`$ are the mass and radius in units of the Jupiter values, while $`m_{}`$ and $`r_{}`$ are the mass and radius in units of the Earth values, respectively. The reasons to choose a Jupiter-sized object being the primary are several folds. (1) Over 100 extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) have been detected, so that we know they are definitely there; (2) The signal is the strongest for these impacts because of their large masses (and hence higher Eddington luminosities); (3) Because of their larger gravitational potential and larger cross-sectional area, the chance of collision per planet is higher at higher masses. Since the main emission quantities scale with masses and radii, the discussion below can be straightforwardly generalized to collisions between planets with other parameters (e.g. EGPs).

The probability of a glacing event is $`R_2/R_1`$ for a gravitational-focused system, or $`(R_2/R_1)^2`$ when the colliding velocity largely exceeds the escaping velovity of the primary. For our parameters, the case is marginal for both regimes, and the probability for glacing is between $`9\%(r_{}/r_J)`$ and $`1\%(r_{}/r_J)^2`$, which is negligible. Hereafter we will assume head-on collisions throughout111We note that for collisions between planets with similar masses, the chance of glacing events is much larger, which leads to warm planets rather than the signals discussed in this Letter.. Assuming zero velocity at infinity, the total energy of the collision is $`EGM_2M_1/R_16\times 10^{40}\mathrm{erg}(m_{}m_J/r_J)`$, and the relative velocity upon impact is $`v45\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1(m_J/r_J)^{1/2}`$. Earthquake data reveal that the average p-wave speed interior of the earth is $`10\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Dziewonski & Anderson 1981), so we can generally define a sound speed $`C_s10\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1c_s`$, with $`c_s1`$ for terrestrial planets. Since $`vC_s`$, strong shocks will propagate into both colliders, converting most of the kinetic energy into internal energy and accelerating non-thermal electrons. The shock crossing time for the impactor, i.e., the terrestrial planet in our case, is

$$\tau _{sh}R_2/C_s640\mathrm{s}(r_{}/c_s).$$
(1)
This defines the rising timescale of the collision-induced electromagnetic flash. The energy deposit rate during this stage is $`\dot{E}E/\tau _{sh}9\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1(m_{}m_J/r_J)(r_{}/c_s)`$. This is $`1.8\times 10^3`$ times the Eddington luminosity of the Jovian planet, $`L_{\mathrm{Edd}}=4\pi cGm_pM/\sigma _T5\times 10^{34}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1m_J`$ (where $`c`$, $`G`$, $`m_p`$, $`\sigma _T`$ are the speed of light, gravitational constant, proton mass, and Thomson cross section, respectively). About one half of the collisional energy is converted to internal energy, of which only a small fraction is radiated promptly, while a large fraction is sunk as latent heat. The other half of the energy is initially in kinetic form, driving a radiation-supported expanding envelope and inducing oscillation and convection within the giant planet interior. This kinetic energy will be thermalized later and radiated away over a longer period of time along with the latent heat, as an IR afterglow (see below). In the prompt phase, photons must be trapped by the high opacity in the regions where the heat is initially deposited, and the peak bolometric luminosity is

$$L_{pk}=\eta L_{\mathrm{Edd}}5\times 10^{34}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\eta m_J13L_{}\eta m_J,$$
(2)
where $`L_{}=3.8\times 10^{33}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is the solar luminosity, $`\eta 1`$ is a factor correcting for less than optimal emission geometry and other radiative inefficiencies. Since $`\dot{E}L_{\mathrm{Edd}}`$, $`\eta 1`$ is likely achieved. The spectrum is essentially thermal from a hot spot222The hot spot will eventually expand via a subsonic excavation flow (Melosh 1989) or a convective flow, but the timescale for this to happen is $`1`$ day, much longer than the flash timescale discussed here (eq.). with radius $`R_2`$, with a non-thermal hard tail caused by Comptonization of the thermal photons by the non-thermal electrons accelerated from the shocks. The typical thermal temperature at the peak time is

$$T_{pk}=\left(\frac{L_{pk}}{4\pi R_2^2\sigma }\right)^{1/4}1.1\times 10^5\mathrm{K}\eta ^{1/4}m_J^{1/4}r_{}^{1/2},$$
(3)
which is insensitive to both the planet mass and the unknown radiation efficiency (i.e. $`\eta ^{1/4}m_J^{1/4}`$). The peak frequency is $`\nu _{pk}=6.6\times 10^{15}\mathrm{Hz}\eta ^{1/4}m_J^{1/4}r_{}^{1/2}`$ (wavelength $`450\mathrm{\AA }`$ and energy $`28`$ eV). This is in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) band. The peak flux is

$$F_\nu (pk)=\frac{h\sigma T^3}{2.8k}\left(\frac{R_2}{D}\right)^2=60\mu \mathrm{Jy}\eta ^{3/4}m_J^{3/4}r_{}^{1/2}\left(\frac{D}{10\mathrm{k}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}}\right)^2,$$
(4)
where $`h`$, $`k`$, and $`\sigma `$ are the Planck’s, Boltzmann’s and Stefan-Boltzmann constants, respectively. The hard non-thermal tail is expected to extend into the soft-X-ray band.

For the thermal spectrum, the flux around $`\nu `$ could be estimated as $`F(\nu )(R/D)^2B_\nu (T)\nu `$, where $`B_\nu (T)`$ is the Plank function, $`R`$ is the emission radius, and $`D`$ is the distance to Earth. One can define a ratio $`f(\nu )F(\nu ,p)/F(\nu ,)`$ as the flux contrast between the planet and the star at a certain frequency $`\nu `$, where $`F(\nu ,p)`$ and $`F(\nu ,)`$ are the fluxes of the planet and the star in the band around $`\nu `$, respectively. At the flash peak time, the EUV flare can greatly out-shine a main-sequence host star later than B5, or a white dwarf host star. In the optical and IR bands, high contrasts are also achievable for late-type host stars. For example, for a G2 (solar-type) star, the U, V, and I bands contrasts at the peak time are $`f(\mathrm{U},\mathrm{pk})0.2`$, $`f(\mathrm{V},\mathrm{pk})0.02`$, and $`f(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{pk})0.008`$, respectively. Even higher contrasts are achievable when a cooler star is adopted. For $`f0.01`$, the flare is detectable with photometric monitoring of ground-based telescopes (e.g. Borucki et al. 2001).

Fixing a particular band, a lightcurve could be depicted. The rising lightcurve is very steep, with a time scale of $`\tau _{sh}10`$ minutes. The decay time scale after the peak is likely not very long, based on existing observational data of other related phenomena, e.g. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 vs. Jupiter collision (Orton et al. 1995), X-ray bursts in accreting neutron stars (Lewin, van Paradijs & Taam 1993) and soft gamma-ray giant flares from magnetars (Feroci et al. 2001). The prompt radiation pressure would drive a fraction of the impacting materials outwards, so that initially the Eddington-limited photosphere expands and then cools. As the radiation pressure gradually drops, the photosphere contracts and the materials falls back onto the Jovian planet surface. This fallback refreshes the surface heating, leading to continually refreshed electromagnetic flashes with descending magnitudes. A best guess is that the prompt flash will follow a decaying tail extending up to several 10’s of the rising time scale. The typical timescale for the prompt flash during which the emission luminosity is above, say $`50\%`$ of $`L_{pk}`$ could be estimated

$$\tau _110\tau _{sh}2\mathrm{hr}(r_{}/c_s),$$
(5)
with the averaged bolometric luminosity $`\overline{L}_{bol}^{flash}10L_{}\eta m_J`$. This is the first important time scale in the problem.

The total radiated energy during this prompt flash stage is $`E^{flash}\overline{L}_{bol}^{flash}\tau _13\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}`$, which is much less than the total impact energy, i.e. $`E6\times 10^{40}`$ ergs. So the bulk of the collision-deposited energy is not radiated promptly. Rather, it is mixed into deep inside of the planet and stored as heat. It is released during a much longer time scale through a decaying thermal-radiation afterglow. Model simulations reveal that at later times a Jovian planet follows an empirical bolometric luminosity law (Black 1980; Saumon et al. 1996), i.e., $`L/L_{}10^5m_J^{2.35}t_6^{1.22}`$, and $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}860\mathrm{K}m_J^{0.51}t_6^{0.28}`$, where $`t_6`$ is the age in unit of Myr, and the relations are valid for $`t_6>1`$. Notice that the luminosity decaying index $`1.22>1`$, so that the total energy released during $`t>10^6`$ yr is negligible compared with the energy released during the early epoch. At earlier times, generally we expect a luminosity decaying law $`L=L_0(t/t_0)^a`$ with $`a<1`$, where $`t_0`$ and $`L_0`$ are the time and luminosity when such a steady fading phase begins. The duration of the bright afterglow (the second timescale in the problem) can be estimated as $`\tau _2=\tau _{ag}=[(1a)E/L_0t_0]^{1/(1a)}t_0`$. The values of $`t_0`$, $`L_0`$ and $`a`$, are unknown, and $`a`$ may also change during the decay. In principle, these should be calculated from the giant planet models. As a crude estimate, we take $`(t_0,L_0)=(1\mathrm{yr},3.6\times 10^4L_{})`$. The $`L_0`$ value corresponds to an initial temperature of $`T_0`$2500 K (e.g. Stern 1994 and references therein) emitting from the full giant planet surface with the normalized radius $`r_J=1`$. Given such an initial condition, $`a<1/4`$ is required in order to have $`L(t_6=1)>10^5L_{}`$. The bright afterglow duration is therefore

$$1.4\times 10^3\mathrm{yr}(m_{}m_J)r_J^3\left(\frac{T_0}{2500\mathrm{K}}\right)^4\stackrel{<}{}\tau _2\stackrel{<}{}10^4\mathrm{yr},$$
(6)
where the lower and the higher limits correspond to $`a=0`$ and $`a=1/4`$, respectively, and for the lower limit, the explicit dependences on the model parameters have been introduced. The peak of this bright afterglow is in the IR band, and it is more favorably discovered in longer wavelengths. For example, for a G2 host star, the typical I- and K-band planet-to-star flux contrasts are $`f(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{ag})2.6\times 10^4`$ and $`f(\mathrm{K},\mathrm{ag})1.7\times 10^3`$ (see also Stern 1994).

Between the prompt flash and the onset of the later shallow-decay long-term afterglow, the bolometric luminosity has to drop by 5 orders of magnitude with a decay index $`a>1`$. This would nicely match the $`(t_0,L_0)`$ initial condition adopted in the above discussion. In the above estimate we have assumed that the prompt flash radiation is released from the hot spot, while the long-term afterglow emission is emitted from the full surface. It is inferred that the Jupiter interior must be convective (Hubbard 1968; Bishop & DeMarcus 1970). Thus the collision-deposited energy should be rapidly transported to the planet bulk during tens or hundreds of the convective overturn time scale. The depth into which the impactor velocity is reduced to 1/2 is $`2.5\times 10^9`$ cm, i.e., the depth where the impacted mass equal to the mass of the impactor, which is about 1/3 of the Jovian planet radius333The penetration depth at which most of energy is deposited is even deeper, especially when the mantle of the terrestrial planet is stripped (Canup & Asphaug 2001), but not much larger than the value quoted here.. This length scale may be adopted as the convective mixing-length. The convective speed is less clear due to the unknown interior viscosity. Nonetheless it should be subsonic, and we take $`v_c1\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1v_{c,0}`$ for the following discussions. This gives a convective overturn timescale $`\tau _{conv}0.3v_{c,0}^1`$ days. The timescale for the excavative flows (Melosh 1989), if any, is longer than this. Taking a typical overturn number of $`N_c=100N_{c,2}`$ to achieve a full-surface isothermal state, we estimate a third timescale

$$\tau _31\mathrm{month}N_{c,2}v_{c,0}^1.$$
(7)
Since the typical spin period of giant planets is $`P_p<1`$ day $`\tau _3`$, one expects a periodic luminosity modulation on the EUV-Soft-X-ray lightcurve, caused by the expanded hot spot (about $`3\%`$ of the full surface) entering and leaving the line-of-sight, over a time scale of $`\tau _3`$. This may be also detectable in the U, B bands or even in the V band through photometry.

During the vigorous convective epoch, it is likely that the convection-induced turbulence would amplify the magnetic field to higher values than conventional (e.g. sub-Gauss for Jupiter). The fast relativistic electrons accelerated from the shocks or from magnetic reconnections would radiate coherently, giving rise to a radio flare similar to the Type-II solar radio flares (but with much higher amplitudes). For a flare with brightness temperature $`T_b>10^{15}`$ K, the flux would out-shine the host star, and is $`1\mu `$Jy at a distance of 10 kpc. Only very nearby events (e.g. within 1 kpc) are favorable for radio observations.

## 3. Detectability and searching strategy

Numerical simulations (Chambers, Wetherill & Boss 1996; Ford, Havlickova & Rasio 2001) suggest that collisions of the type we are discussing are plausible. The basic picture is that there are secular perturbations of the inner planets, which over time scales comparable to the age of the system (Quinlan & Tremaine 1992) lead to large changes in eccentricity and semi-major axis for one or more planets, leading to a large probability of collision. This is even favorable for those EGPs that are found much closer to the host star than Jupiter. Current theories conjecture that these EGPs migrate towards the host star within the gas disk from which they were born (Lin, Bodenheimer & Richardson 1996). The disk dissappears in about 10 million years. Recent meteorite isotope studies suggest that terrestrial planets form in a mean time scale of 10 million years (Yin et al. 2002; Kleine et al. 2002; Jacobsen 2003), so that they could be available for the collisions we conjecture444In case of a late formation epoch for terrestrial planets (Wetherill 1985), a proto-terrestrial planet gives a smaller total impact energy and a shorter IR afterglow, but the prompt, Eddington-limited, flash luminosity essentially remains the same (eq.). .

Considering an ensemble of stars with an average age $`\overline{t}`$, in order to detect one event with duration $`\tau `$ (e.g. $`\tau _1`$ for the prompt flash and $`\tau _2`$ for the afterglow) after a continuous observation time of $`t_{obs}`$, the critical number of stars in this ensemble that have to be searched is

$$N_{}=(f_p\overline{N}_c)^1\frac{\overline{t}}{\mathrm{max}(\tau ,t_{obs})},$$
(8)
where $`f_p`$ is the fraction of the stars in the ensemble that have planets, and $`\overline{N}_c`$ is the average total number of collisions during the lifetime of a typical star in the ensemble. Evidence suggests that $`f_p`$ could be close to unity (e.g. Lineweaver & Grether 2003; Bary, Weintraub & Kastner 2002), and we will assume this most optimistic case. $`\overline{N}_c`$ could be roughly estimated as the number of planets in the dynamical system (which is greater at earlier epochs since each dynamical interaction destroys one planet) multiplied by the probability of direct collisions (rather than dynamical ejections), which is in the $`40\%`$ to $`80\%`$ range (Ford et al. 2001). The high eccentricity of some EGP orbits may be caused by dynamical ejection of another EGP. Although no collision is involved in such events, the eccentric orbits they result more likely lead to strong secular perturbations of the remaining planets on a longer time scale, particularly so if we assume inclinations are increased as well. These actually increase the probability of future collisions with planets that might otherwise be unperturbed. A good portion of collisions should happen in dynamically young systems (which associate with star forming regions), but there could be also some collisions occuring in mature planetary systems. For an old planetary system like our Solar system, a typical value of $`\overline{N}_c5`$ may be reasonable555Although the lack of a major planet in the asteroid belt and the relatively small mass of Mars may be attributed to Jupiter’s perturbations that inhibited the growth of a terrestrial planet near Jupiter required for collision, we note that the solar system might be atypically stable (as compared with other extrasolar systems discovered) for anthropic reasons., while for dynamically young systems, one may adopt $`\overline{N}_c3`$. A large fraction of stars are in binaries or multiples. Many of these are either detached or very compact, allowing for the presence of planets orbiting one or both stars (Holman & Wiegert 1999; Hatzes et al 2003). Planets may be less common around stellar binaries, but those systems may contribute disproportionately to the net collision rate, as a stellar companion can drive long term secular instabilties among multiple planet systems, increasing the collision rate per system.

Besides $`N_{}`$, one can also define a characteristic flux $`f_{\nu ,c}`$ of the collisional events. Given a number density $`n_{}`$ of the stars with the average age $`\overline{t}`$, one can estimate a critical distance one has to search in order to find one collisional event, i.e., $`D_c(N_{}/n_{})^{1/3}`$. The typical flux can be then estimated with $`D_c`$. Although $`N_{}`$ is sensitive to the average age $`\overline{t}`$ of the ensemble of stars being investigated, $`D_c`$ and $`f_{\nu ,c}`$ are essentially independent of the ensemble adopted, given a constant birth rate of stars.

For the prompt flashes, since there are considerably fewer point sources in the EUV and soft X-ray sky and since the collisional events out-shine the host stars, one does not need to monitor the individual stars in order to identify a collisional event. The characteristic flux $`f_{\nu ,c}`$ is relevant to discuss the detectability. The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) performed a one-year EUV all-sky survey (Bowyer et al. 1994) and subsequently conducted the serendipitous observations with the Right Angle Program (RAP) (McDonald et al. 1994; Christian et al. 1999; Christian 2002) for 8 more years. The RAP field of view is $``$ 20 square degrees. So the combined observation is equivalent to a one-year monitoring with $`9\times (20/720)=1/4`$ full-sky coverage. The total number of stars with $`\overline{t}10^{10}`$ yr, for which one collisional event is expected to have occurred in the EUVE field of view, is $`8\times 10^9`$. The typical distance of such an event is $`1020`$ kpc, so that the critical peak flux is $`f_{\nu ,c}(1560)\mu `$Jy peaking around 450$`\mathrm{\AA }`$. This is the band for which the ISM opacity is the largest. At shorter wavelengths where opacity is much lower, e.g., 50-100$`\mathrm{\AA }`$ ($`0.10.2`$ keV), the flux does not drop rapidly due to the non-thermal tail. Even for a flux two orders of magnitude lower than the peak flux (a very conservative estimate), i.e., $`(0.150.6)\mu `$Jy, this corresponds to $`(170680)\mathrm{counts}\mathrm{ks}^1`$ at 100$`\mathrm{\AA }`$ for EUVE (Bowyer et al. 1994), which is well above the survey sensitivity threshold (McDonald et al. 1994). So at least one flare event with such a flux level should have been detected. Since during $`10`$ yrs, $`10\times 10^{11}/(10^{10}/5)500`$ collisional events should have occurred in the Milkyway Galaxy ($`50`$ per year), about 10 more events with lower flux levels might have also been caught by EUVE, although with less significance. The predicted flux level is also well above the sensitivity of soft X-ray detectors, such as ROSAT, Chandra, and XMM-Newton, so that there might be such events recorded in their archival data as well. A future dedicated wide field detector sensitive to (50-200)$`\mathrm{\AA }`$ would be able to detect 10’s of EUV-soft-X-ray flares per year. The great opacity in the star forming regions would reduce the flux level and even the detectable event rate in the softer bands, but some events should be directly detected, especially for those collisions outside of the star forming regions.

Another approach to identify prompt flashes is through photometrically monitoring a huge number of stars over a long period of time. As discussed above, during the flare, a 2-20% percent increase of the fluxes are expected for the late type stars in the V band and bluer, which could be easily detected. Such a photometric search could be achieved by future missions such as GAIA (e.g. Perryman et al. 2001). Close monitoring $`10^9`$ stars for several years should lead to detection of several collisional events.

The event rate of the IR afterglows is much larger thanks to their much longer durations. Due to small flux contrasts ($`10^3`$ in K-band), one has to monitor the stars individually. The most economic way is to search in the star forming regions (Stern 1994). For an ensemble of stars with $`\overline{t}5\times 10^7`$ yr, one IR afterglow remnant would be found by searching for $`N_{}^{ag}1.7\times 10^3f_p^1(\overline{N}_e/3)^1(\overline{t}/5\times 10^7)\tau _{2,4}^1`$ young stars, where $`\tau _{2,4}=\tau _2/10^4`$ yr. The signals could be identified through unresolved spectral measurements or direct interferometric imaging (Stern 1994). Existing groundbased IR interferometers have 1 mas resolutions (J. Ge, personal communication), which corresponds to 0.13 AU at a distance of 130 pc, the distance of the nearest star forming region. This is well adequate to resolve bright planets from their host stars.

## 4. Summary and discussion

We have outlined the electromagnetic signals that would accompany with an event of collision between a Jovian planet and a terrestrial planet, and discussed the strategy of possibly detecting these events. The collision itself results in a bright EUV-soft-X-ray flare lasting for hours. EUVE and some soft X-ray detectors might have detected some of these flares. They may be also identified through monitoring a huge number of stars with future missions such as GAIA, or through future synoptic all–sky surveys. After detecting an EUV-soft-X-ray flare, a search of its optical counterpart through photometric monitoring (like catching afterglows in gamma-ray burst study) is desirable. A planetary-rotation-period modulated fading signal would be an important clue. Doppler radial velocity measurements and IR monitoring may be performed later for the collision candidate to verify the existence of the planet(s). Each collisional event would leave a bright remnant glowing in IR. The duration of the afterglow is thousands of years. Such afterglows could be directly searched in the nearby star forming regions, and the planets could be directly imaged. The current planet-searching has been focused on the planets on stable orbits (Perryman 2000). Searching for planetary collisional events will open a new window in the planetary science. It allows us to witness the gigantic events that are believed to have happened in the early history of our solar system, and to directly test the planet-moon-formation theories (see also Stern 1994).

We are grateful to Alan Stern, Damian Christian, Jian Ge, David Weintraub and Kai Cai for helpful comments and discussions, and to the referee for insightful comments that lead to improvement of the manuscript. B.Z. acknowledges NASA NAG5-9192 for support. S.S. is supported by NSF grant PHY-0203046, the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics (which is supported by the NSF under co-operative agreement PHY 01-14375), and the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center.


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# Collective Oscillations of Vortex Lattices in Rotating Bose-Einstein Condensates

## Abstract

The complete low-energy collective-excitation spectrum of vortex lattices is discussed for rotating Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) by solving the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation, yielding, e.g., the Tkachenko mode recently observed at JILA. The totally symmetric subset of these modes includes the transverse shear, common longitudinal, and differential longitudinal modes. We also solve the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii (TDGP) equation to simulate the actual JILA experiment, obtaining the Tkachenko mode and identifying a pair of breathing modes. Combining both the BdG and TDGP approaches allows one to unambiguously identify every observed mode.

Owing to their fundamental significance for superfluidity, quantized vortices have attracted widespread interest in many different physical systems ranging from superconductors, superfluid 3He and 4He, to neutron stars donnelly  and extending to cosmology. Recently, vortices have been created in dilute alkali-atom gases using three different methods: phase imprinting nist , topological phase engineering mit  and optical spoon stirring ens . The former two were first predicted theoretically holland ; nakahara . Several groups are now able to routinely prepare a vortex array with hundreds of vortices in a BEC.

In the mid 1960’s, Tkachenko tkachenko  predicted that a vortex lattice would sustain a collective vortex-oscillation mode in which the vortex cores move elliptically around the equilibrium positions. Subsequent theoretical advances were made baym ; fetter ; campbell ; donnelly ; sonin . In superfluid 4He, the Tkachenko modes were first observed in 1982 andereck .

Recently, Coddington et al. coddington  succeeded in observing the Tkachenko mode (TK) in a rotating BEC of 87Rb. The TK wave was excited by removing condensate from the central region of the rotating cloud. They created the lowest and second-lowest TK modes and measured their energies $`\omega _{1,0}`$ and $`\omega _{2,0}`$ as functions of the rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. They also discovered various new phenomena, some of which were explained by two groups anglin ; baym2 : Anglin and Crescimanno anglin  extended the previous hydrodynamic description for infinite systems to a finite harmonically trapped system, and Baym baym2  discovered subtle effects due to the finite compressibility.

Here we choose a different approach to this problem: We wish to treat the whole low-lying collective-excitation spectrum of trapped BECs; not only the TK mode but also the other important modes and their intrinsic relationships. We construct a first-principles theory, namely the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation (BdG) coupled with the Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GP). The set of equations within the Bogoliubov framework is regarded as the fully microscopic theory of dilute Bose gases, in the sense that there remain no adjustable parameters once we have fixed the atomic species and the atomic number. Thus it is quite reasonable to expect that this formalism must well apply to analyzing the TK mode and also to provide the complete spectral features of the low-energy excitations, beyond any limitations of hydrodynamics which has thus far been the only way to describe the TK mode. We can then better characterize the various modes, such as the three classes of compressional modes: the transverse, common longitudinal and the differential longitudinal waves. These are characteristic to the two-component system consisting of a vortex lattice and the superfluid. Some of the selected common longitudinal modes in a vortex lattice (the breathing and quadrupole modes) have been recently examined stringari  within hydrodynamics. This theory may help one to gain improved understanding of related problems, such as vortex pinning and vortex melting in superconductors which have thus far only been analyzed phenomenologically.

In a frame rotating with the frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation (TDGP) may be expressed for the condensate wavefunction $`\psi `$ leggett  as

$`i\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}\psi =\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\widehat{𝒑}^2(\mathrm{\Omega })}{2m}}+V_{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })\mu +g|\psi |^2\right]\psi ,`$ (1)
where $`\widehat{𝒑}(\mathrm{\Omega })=i\mathrm{}m\mathrm{\Omega }\widehat{z}\times 𝐫`$ and the effective confining potential is $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })=\frac{1}{2}m(\omega _r^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2)r^2`$ with the radial trap frequency $`\omega _r`$.

In order to study the collective oscillations of vortex lattices microscopically, we first consider the equation of motion for a small perturbation around the stationary state $`\varphi _g`$, i.e., $`\psi (𝐫,t)=\varphi _g(𝐫)+u_𝐪(𝐫)e^{i\omega _𝐪t}v_𝐪^{}(𝐫)e^{i\omega _𝐪t}`$, where the equilibrium state $`\varphi _g`$ is determined by the stationary GP equation. By retaining terms up to first order in $`u`$ and $`v`$, we derive the BdG equation:

$`\left(\begin{array}{cc}(𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })& g\varphi _g^2(𝐫)\\ g\varphi _g^2(𝐫)& (𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{c}u_𝐪(𝐫)\\ v_𝐪(𝐫)\end{array}\right)=\mathrm{}\omega _𝐪\left(\begin{array}{c}u_𝐪(𝐫)\\ v_𝐪(𝐫)\end{array}\right),`$ (8)
where $`(𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })=\widehat{𝒑}^2(\mathrm{\Omega })/2m+V_{\mathrm{eff}}(𝐫,\mathrm{\Omega })\mu +2g|\varphi _g(𝐫)|^2`$. We consider the JILA experiment with $`2.0\times 10^6`$ atoms of 87Rb confined in a trap with the radial frequency $`\omega _r/2\pi =8.3`$ Hz and an axial one $`\omega _z/2\pi =5.2`$ Hz coddington . Employing Thomas-Fermi (TF) theory and the assumption of solid-body rotation, the condensate aspect ratio is given as $`\lambda _{\mathrm{TF}}R_{\mathrm{TF}}/Z_{\mathrm{TF}}(\omega _r^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2)^{1/2}`$ where $`R_{\mathrm{TF}}`$ and $`Z_{\mathrm{TF}}`$ are the condensate lengths along the $`r`$\- and $`z`$-axes. This relation allows one to assume the system to constitute a two-dimensional geometry at high rotation frequencies. Under this assumption, we introduce the linear density $`n_z(\mathrm{\Omega })`$ along the $`z`$ axis. Therefore, the equilibrium state $`\varphi _g`$ must fulfill the normalization condition $`n_z(\mathrm{\Omega })=|\varphi _g|^2𝑑x𝑑y`$, where the linear density is obtained as $`n_z(\mathrm{\Omega })=R_{\mathrm{TF}}^4/16ad_r^4`$, with $`a`$ an $`s`$-wave scattering length, and $`d_r^2\mathrm{}/(m\sqrt{\omega _r^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2})`$. We discretize the two-dimensional space typically into a $`300^21000^2`$ mesh to solve the TDGP and BdG equations.

Here, since we consider a vortex array with sixfold symmetry, the wavefunction of the stationary state obeys the condition, $`\varphi _g(R^n𝐫)=\varphi _g(𝐫)e^{in\pi /3}`$, where $`R^n𝐫`$ describes a rotation $`n\pi /3`$ ($`n`$ integer) around the center of the trap, i.e., $`R^n𝐫=(x\mathrm{cos}(n\pi /3)y\mathrm{sin}(n\pi /3),x\mathrm{sin}(n\pi /3)+y\mathrm{cos}(n\pi /3))`$. We then obtain the following relation from Eq. (8): $`u_{𝐪,m}(R^n𝐫)=u_𝐪(𝐫)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{in\pi }{3}(m+1)\right]`$ and $`v_{𝐪,m}(R^n𝐫)=v_𝐪(𝐫)\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{in\pi }{3}(m1)\right]`$, where $`m=0,\pm 1,\pm 2,3`$. In order to classify the collective excitations, we introduce the following classifying function: $`F_𝐪^{(u)}(m)=𝑑𝐫u_𝐪^{}(𝐫)\left[_{n=0}^5u_{𝐪,m}(R^n𝐫)\right]/𝑑𝐫|u_𝐪(𝐫)|^2`$, which tends to $`1`$ for a suitable $`m`$ and 0 for the others. Furthermore, we define the average angular momentum as $`q_\theta [L_z_u+L_z_v\widehat{L}_z_{\varphi _g}]/𝑑𝐫[|u(𝐫)|^2+|v(𝐫)|^2]`$, where $`L_z_{\varphi _g}𝑑𝐫\varphi _g^{}\widehat{L}_z\varphi _g/𝑑𝐫|\varphi _g|^2`$, and $`L_z_u𝑑𝐫u^{}\widehat{L}_zu`$ isoshima . In an axisymmetric situation, $`m`$ and $`q_\theta `$ merge into the same integer quantum number.

The low-energy excitations are illustrated in Fig. 1. Here, the equilibrium states are found numerically via imaginary time propagation of Eq. (1); $`t\tau =it`$. The initial vortex configuration is taken as a regular array with sixfold symmetry. The resulting configuration at $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.7\omega _r`$ is formed by 37 vortices, displayed in Fig. 1(a). In Fig. 1(b), the excitation energies up to $`\omega =3.5\omega _r`$ are shown as functions of the average angular momentum $`q_\theta `$. Each collective mode is classified by a symmetry index, $`m`$, obtained from the above function, $`F_𝐪^{(u)}(m)`$, which characterizes the oscillation pattern. For example, the breathing (BR), dipole (DP), and quadrupole (QP) modes have $`m=0`$, $`\pm 1`$, $`\pm 2`$, respectively. The branch extending from the origin towards higher $`q_\theta `$-values consists of surface modes which are spaced periodically with $`m`$ (mod 6), where the outer condensate surface oscillates, the vortex cores being almost stationary at their equilibrium positions. The other branch situated at higher energies and starting at $`\omega =2\omega _r`$ represents another class of surface modes characterized by a node along the radial direction. The energy spectra for the low-lying modes are depicted in Fig. 1(c) as functions of the symmetry index $`m`$. These low-lying eigenstates are the lattice-oscillation modes coupled with the condensate motion and lead to the distortion of both the lattice and the condensate surface towards an $`m`$-fold symmetric shape. In addition to the lowest and second-lowest TK with $`m=0`$, embedded among the other modes, we found a parallel-precession mode with $`m=1`$ and having the lowest energy where all the vortices precess in phase. For increasing energy, the modes for each $`m`$ feature nodes along $`r`$ and/or $`\theta `$. The TK mode (with $`m=0`$) is selectively excited by the Gaussian laser beam with $`0`$-fold symmetry in the experiment coddington . Likewise, a mode with $`m=\pm \mathrm{}`$ may be excited by a disturbance (e.g., magnetic) with $`\mathrm{}`$-fold symmetry memo .

Figure 2 describes the oscillation patterns for selected collective modes obtained from a linear fluctuation $`\delta \psi (𝐫,t)`$: The lowest TK mode $`\omega _{1,0}`$ is shown in Fig. 2(a) where the empty (filled) circles indicate the equilibrium (quarter-period) positions of the vortex cores. The line is a fitted sinusoidal modulation wave (for clarity, the amplitude is magnified by a factor of $`30`$). It is observed that the modulation displays a node at $`r_{\mathrm{node}}0.64R_{\mathrm{TF}}`$, which is in fair agreement with the JILA data of $`r_{\mathrm{node}}=0.665R_{\mathrm{TF}}`$. The second TK mode $`\omega _{2,0}`$ is shown in Fig. 2(b). It is seen that in contrast to the first TK mode whose core modulation is almost purely transversal, the second TK contains a longitudinal component, in addition to the transverse one. Thus, the core executes elliptic motion around its equilibrium position. This behavior coincides with the general trend for the ellipticity of a TK mode, namely the expression for the amplitude ratio of the longitudinal and transverse components $`\delta _\mathrm{L}/\delta _\mathrm{T}1/\sqrt{\mathrm{\Omega }}k_{\mathrm{TK}}`$, where $`k_{\mathrm{TK}}`$ is the wavelength of the TK mode donnelly . Therefore, the second TK with a shorter $`k_{\mathrm{TK}}`$ exhibits more pronounced longitudinal motion. We also point out that via encountering the condensate radius in Figs. 2(a) and 2(b), the TK modes tend to accompany the condensate motion. We also observe that the ratio of the energies for these TK modes is $`\omega _{2,0}/\omega _{1,0}=1.56`$ at $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.7\omega _r`$, which compares favorably with the experimental data of $`1.8\pm 0.2`$ at $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.95\omega _r`$ coddington  and with the value 1.63 obtained by Anglin and Crescimanno anglin , who assert that it would be independent of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$.

As typical vortex-lattice oscillations apart from the TK, we now consider two contrasting compressional modes which belong to the totally symmetric ($`m=0`$) “breathing” branch. Figures 2(c) and 2(d) depict the oscillation patterns for the lowest (1BR) and the second-lowest (2BR) breathing modes in Fig. 1(b). The former (latter) BR mode executes mutual in-phase (out-of-phase) motion between the cores and the condensate surface, as indicated with the two parallel (opposite) arrows in the figure. The inner (outer) arrow denotes the motion of the cores (condensates). Therefore, the former belongs to the common longitudinal mode and the latter to the differential longitudinal mode. It should be pointed out that the inner core motion in Figs. 2(c) and 2(d) is predominantly transversal; consequently, even in the nominally longitudinal BR mode all the vortex motion is not necessarily purely longitudinal. This may be related to the ‘$`s`$-bending’ coddington  of the third observed mode.

Having obtained the complete spectrum of the low-lying excitations, let us now proceed to extend the analysis into nonlinear dynamics with real-time evolution simulated with the TDGP Eq. (1). Since Coddington et al. excite the TK mode by shining resonant laser light in the center of the BEC to produce an inward flow, we introduce a Gaussian potential $`V(𝐫)=\mathrm{}\omega _re^{r^2/(R_{\mathrm{TF}}/2)^2}`$ localized in the center of the trap for a certain period and follow the time evolution according to Eq. (1).

We illustrate the resulting oscillation patterns and their Fourier analyses in Fig. 3. At $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.7\omega _r`$, the 37 vortices shown in Fig. 1(a) form a concentric regular lattice around the central vortex, consisting of three circles, $`j=1,2,3`$. We analyze the transverse vortex motion $`𝐫_{j,n}(t)=(x_{j,n}(t),y_{j,n}(t))`$ in terms of the averaged angle $`\theta _j(t)=\frac{1}{6}_{n=0}^5[\mathrm{arctan}(y_{j,n}(t)/x_{j,n}(t))\mathrm{arctan}(y_{j,n}(0)/x_{j,n}(0))]`$ where $`n`$ denotes the vortices aligned along the line and extending the angle $`n\pi /3`$ from the vertical, see Fig. 1(a). It is apparent in Fig. 3(a) where we plot the time dependence of the vortex motion for each circle, $`j=1,2,3`$, that (i) there exist several superposed oscillations. (ii) The outermost vortices ($`j=3`$) are in opposite phase with the inner vortices ($`j=1,2`$). This result coincides with the above calculations based on the BdG equations. In fact, the nodal positions obtained from both calculations agree quite well.

In Fig. 3(b), the Fourier analyses of these transverse oscillations, $`\theta _j(t)`$, and the longitudinal motions, $`r_j(t)=\frac{1}{6}_{n=0}^5|𝐫_{j,n}(t)|`$, are depicted. It is seen that the sharp peak at $`\omega =0.16\omega _r`$ precisely coincides with the first TK mode $`\omega _{1,0}`$ identified above, see Fig. 1(c). The second peak at $`\omega =2.0\omega _r`$ corresponds to the 1BR mode, belonging to the common longitudinal modes. The third peak at $`\omega 3.1\omega _r`$ may be identified as the 2BR mode, see Figs. 1(b) and 2(d), and as a differential longitudinal mode. These three collective modes closely match the observed characteristics. In particular, the third mode which was tentatively assigned by Cozzini et al. and Choi et al. stringari , independently, as a higher-order hydrodynamic mode, is now identified above. It should be noted that the resonances of these three modes for a Gaussian potential have been numerically reproduced over a wide range of rotation rates $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.70.92`$, corresponding to $`37121`$ vortices.

In Fig. 4, we plot the first TK energy $`\omega _{1,0}`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{\Omega }/\omega _r`$ together with the experimental data coddington  and a hydrodynamic prediction by Anglin and Crescimanno anglin . There prevails close quantitative overall agreement between our results and the experimental data. We emphasize that our calculations contain no adjustable parameters and also that our computations within the BdG and TDGP approaches agree within numerical accuracy $`10^3\omega _r`$ below $`\mathrm{\Omega }0.8\omega _r`$. Calculations for larger rotation rates, where BdG cannot be feasible from a numerical point of view, are done with TDGP, which enables us to extrapolate the BdG results to larger rotation rates. The inset in Fig. 4 describes the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ dependence of the 1BR and 2BR modes. It is known that the former is consistent with an earlier prediction by Pitaevskii and Rosch pitaevskii , who point out that the 2D BR mode features the universal eigenfrequency $`\omega =2.0\omega _r`$. Our result reproduces this result and further explains the observation mentioned above that the second peak in Fig. 3(b) is indeed the 1BR mode. As for the third peak in Fig. 3(b), previously identified as the 2BR mode, it is reckoned from this inset that the observed value $`18.5\pm 0.3`$Hz ($`2.2\omega _r`$) appears accountable, judging from the overall $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ dependence towards $`\mathrm{\Omega }_c`$.

In summary, we have discussed the complete low-energy excitation spectrum in a vortex lattice by solving the BdG equations. The $`m=0`$ subset of these solutions includes the transverse shear, common longitudinal, and differential longitudinal modes. We have also succeeded in simulating the actual experimental results, identifying a new pair of modes.

The authors thank V. Schweikhard, I. Coddington, and M. Ichioka for useful conversations and communications. KM is grateful to G. Baym, J. R. Anglin, S. Stringari, and A. L. Fetter for enthusiastic discussions on the Tkachenko mode at the Aspen Center for Physics.

During the preparation of this manuscript, we learned about two closely related preprints baksmaty  and simula . The former (latter) presents BdG (TDGP) treatments of the TK mode.


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# Acknowledgments

## Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to T. Klose, J. H. Schwarz, D. Serban and M. Staudacher for useful discussions. Ich danke der *Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes* für die Unterstützung durch ein Promotionsförderungsstipendium.


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# The INTEGRAL ground segment and its science operations centre

## 1 Introduction

The INTEGRAL Ground Segment is divided into operational and science components and the overall structure and interfaces are illustrated in Fig. 1. The Operational Ground Segment comprises of the INTEGRAL Mission Operations Centre (MOC) located at ESOC in Darmstadt (Germany), two ground stations and the communications system. The INTEGRAL Science Operations Centre (ISOC) located at ESTEC in Noordwijk (Netherlands) and the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre (ISDC) located at Versoix (Switzerland) together form the Science Ground Segment. The scientific community interacts directly with both components of the Science Ground segment. The two segments are described in more detail below.

## 2 The INTEGRAL operational ground segment

The MOC is responsible for the operation of the spacecraft and instruments, for ensuring the spacecraft safety and health, for the maintenance of the satellite’s on-board software, for the provision of flight dynamics support including determination and control of the satellite’s orbit and attitude and for provision of the telemetry and auxiliary data to the ISDC. The MOC is the sole interface to the spacecraft and all commands to be sent to the spacecraft or instruments are generated at the MOC.

INTEGRAL operations are executed using an automated timeline. The timeline is generated on a revolution by revolution basis, i.e. one timeline covers the period from perigee passage to the next perigee passage, which is approximately three days. Although there are already activities much before (the planning of ground station resources commences a year before), the actual planning process starts when the MOC sends Planning Skeleton Files to the ISOC about one month before observation execution. The Planning Skeleton Files define the time intervals reserved for dedicated spacecraft operation, instrument activation and de-activation, handovers between the ground stations and for scientific observations. Using these as input, the ISOC generates Planned Observation Sequence (POS) files which are then sent to the MOC. POS files contain the times when the astronomical targets selected for a particular revolution will be observed, the target pointings and instrument configurations, together with time windows for other necessary spacecraft activities. The time at which an approved target will be observed by INTEGRAL depends on INTEGRAL’s celestial viewing constraints, on whether it is a fixed time observation and on the overall efficiency at which it fits into the observing programme. After a POS has been received by the MOC its correctness is verified and the high-level information is converted into command sequences and parameter settings which are retrieved from an operational data base, which is under configuration control. Finally, an operational timeline is generated and a summary is sent to the ISOC for confirmation. The approved command schedule is then loaded into the command system at MOC during the ground station outage at the satellite’s perigee passage before the orbital revolution concerned. The commands are then executed automatically by the command system, and manual commanding is only envisaged under special circumstances such as contingencies.

Since INTEGRAL is controlled in real-time from the ground, a network of stations has been implemented which allows permanent contact with the satellite during the scientifically useful part of the orbit. This consists of two ground stations, one located at Redu in Belgium (provided by ESA), and one at Goldstone in California, USA (provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory). The MOC receives all satellite telemetry from the ground stations. Based on spacecraft and instrument housekeeping data real-time monitoring of the operation and of the safety and health aspects of the spacecraft and instruments are performed at the MOC. All telemetry and auxiliary data required to evaluate the scientific data are routed to the ISDC in real-time.

The MOC maintains the onboard software and the operational database and is responsible for the short- and long-term archiving of the telemetry, telecommands and of the auxiliary data. The archive is regularly consolidated (filling of data gaps) with the satellite playback telemetry received from the ground stations after each pass. The consolidated data are written to CDs within days of a particular orbit’s completion and are sent to the ISDC.

## 3 The INTEGRAL science ground segment

The science ground segment consists of the ISDC and the ISOC. Both elements are in contact with the scientific community. The ISOC is mainly involved in the uplink part of the system and the ISDC with the downlink part.

### 3.1 The INTEGRAL science operations centre

The ISOC tasks can be summarized as follows:

* to prepare the Announcements of Opportunity for observations, receive proposals, assess their technical feasibility and to make these assessments available to an INTEGRAL Time Allocation Committee.
* to assume the overall responsibility for the mission planning (scheduling) and for the implementation of the observing programme.
* to coordinate and schedule payload engineering and calibration observations.
* to assume the responsibility for the definition of scientific operations including the instrument configuration for each observation.
* to decide on the generation of an alert for Targets of Opportunity in order to change/interrupt the observing programme (responsibility of the Project Scientist).
* to operate the INTEGRAL help-desk in collaboration with the ISDC.
* to maintain an archive of all scientific data as created and populated by the ISDC.

The ISOC issues the Announcements of Opportunity for observing time. The proposals are submitted to ISOC using the Proposal Generation Tool developed at ISOC. The received proposals are stored in the central ISOC database. The proposals are technically evaluated by ISOC staff for visibility and for adequate observation duration using the Target Visibility Tool and the Observation Time Estimator. Both tools are also accessible to the science community when writing the proposals. All proposals for observing time are assessed and rated by an independent Time Allocation Committee. The accepted proposals are then processed at the ISOC into an optimized observing plan, consisting of a sequence of target positions together with the corresponding instrument configurations. As part of this optimization process the ISOC checks for targets close together in the sky which can be observed in a single observation - so saving observing time. This is particularly important for INTEGRAL, where the observations are generally long and the fields of view of the $`\gamma `$-ray instruments are large. The optimized observing plan sequences are forwarded to the MOC for creation of the corresponding timelines. Both a long-term and a detailed short-term schedule are made available on the ISOC Web page (http://www.rssd.esa.int/Integral). The ISOC routinely receives feedback from the ISDC on the status of the executed observations. In case of fully (or partly) unsuccessful execution, rescheduling of the observation is considered.

The ISOC stays in close contact with the instrument teams and the MOC in order to coordinate any changes to the instrument configurations and to plan, coordinate, and schedule payload engineering (e.g. SPI annealing) and calibration observations (e.g. OMC flat field sequences).

A Target of Opportunity (ToO) Observation requires special treatment by the ground segment. A ToO may be discovered using INTEGRAL itself, or by other satellites or ground-based observatories. Requests for a ToO observation can be made by either the ISDC, or the astronomers who made the discovery, using the dedicated INTEGRAL ToO Alert Web page. The Project Scientist then decides on the basis of scientific merit whether to proceed with the ToO request. If the request is granted, the already planned sequence of INTEGRAL observations will be interrupted within 20 to 36 hours and the ISOC will generate a new observing sequence, which will be forwarded to the MOC for validation and execution.

There is one central help-desk dealing with all questions to the INTEGRAL mission. The help-desk is operated jointly by ISOC and ISDC staff. Questions on proposals, observing modes, scheduling and on INTEGRAL in general are handled by ISOC staff and questions on INTEGRAL data, instrument calibration and data shipment are handled by ISDC staff. This split is transparent to the user of the help desk.

The ISOC also maintains a mirror of the scientific data archive populated by the ISDC. This archive is currently restricted to internal ISOC use and it is not foreseen that it will be accessible by the outside world. It does, however, also act as a backup of the ISDC archive. It would become fully operational in case of an anomaly where the ISDC archive is off-line for an extended time period. The ISOC archive guarantees that ESA can satisfy its obligation to ensure the long-term availability of the INTEGRAL data.

The smooth operation of INTEGRAL is reflected in the steady progress of the observation programme. Despite the execution of additonal PV observation in the period from December 17 to 30, 2002 and the long period spent on the essential Crab calibration (from February 5 to 27, 2003) already 44 individual AO-1 observations were observed up to May 16, 2003, i.e. until five month after the end of the commissioning phase. 18 out of these 44 observations were ToO observations and required a deviation from the long term observation plan. 50% of the scheduled AO-1 time was associated with fixed time observations. The expected number of 19 Galactic Plane Scans were executed and 46% of the Galactic Center Deep Exposure time was already spent. In total $`4.8\times 10^6`$s and $`2.8\times 10^6`$s were spent on open and core programme time respectively up to mid May 2003. The share of the core programme time on the total observing time (36.8%) is already very close to the 35% it should be at the end of the first year of operation.

The overall efficiency of the INTEGRAL operation is excellent and higher than was expected before launch. The current scheduling efficiency is 93%, i.e. on average 93% of the time outside the radiation belts is used for science observations, the remaining time is spent on slews or reaction wheel biases.

### 3.2 The INTEGRAL science data centre

The ISDC is responsible for searching for gamma-ray bursts and other phenomena in the real-time telemetry, for scientific processing of the satellite telemetry, for the archiving of the mission’s scientific products and the distribution of the data to the science community. A detailed description of the ISDC is given by Courvoisier et al. (2003tc (2003)).

## 4 Summary

The INTEGRAL ground segment is distributed over three different main sites with well defined tasks. Operations have proceeded remarkably smoothly since launch with $`>`$95% of the planned operations being executed (with an average of 97 %) and $`>`$95% of real-time telemetry being received by the ISDC. The good performance of the ground segment is contributing to the overall scientific success of the mission and has validated the design of the overall system and has confirmed its robustness. It demonstrates that the INTEGRAL ground segment is well equipped to fulfill its tasks.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors wish to thank C. Breneol, N. Dean, F. Jacobs, A. Jeanes, N. Trams, J. Treloar and R. Zondag for their support in the development and operations of the INTEGRAL mission at ISOC.


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# The distance to the LMC cluster NGC 1866; clues from the cluster Cepheid population

## 1 Introduction

Two recent papers considered the distance to the young LMC cluster NGC 1866 based on empirical and theoretical Main-Sequence (MS) fitting techniques, and on the Red Clump (RC) distance to the LMC field around the cluster. Walker et al. (2002) used a MS-fitting method employing theoretical isochrones to derive a distance modulus (DM) to the cluster DM = 18.35 $`\pm `$ 0.05, and a reddening of $`E(BV)`$ = 0.060-0.064. Salaris et al. (2003a, hereafter S03) employed the same cluster photometry to derive DM = 18.33 $`\pm `$ 0.08 (for an adopted reddening of 0.064) using a completely empirical MS-fitting method, based a large sample of local subdwarfs with accurate parallax and \[Fe/H\] determination; however, when they applied the RC method (following the procedure by Alves et al. 2000 and the population corrections by Salaris & Girardi 2002) for deriving the distance to the surrounding LMC field, it resulted a distance modulus DM = 18.53 $`\pm `$ 0.07 (a similar value of 18.47 $`\pm `$ 0.05 is obtained by Pietrzyński & Gieren 2002 using the RC in the $`K`$-band). This DM discrepancy $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM) = 0.20 $`\pm `$ 0.10 between RC and MS-fitting distances reflects the more general dichotomy in the LMC distance estimates found in the literature (see, e.g., Benedict et al. 2002 for a recent summary of the LMC distance determinations). S03 discussed possible reasons for this occurrence, as an underestimated cluster metallicity, a photometric zero point error, the possibility that the cluster is located about 5 Kpc closer than the underlying field population, but no definitive conclusion was reached.

NGC 1866 contains a sizable Cepheid population, and therefore an independent distance estimate is potentially available. Shapley & Nail (1950) and Thackeray (1951) independently discovered the first Cepheids in NGC 1866, and first photometry and periods were published by Arp & Thackeray (1967; hereafter AT67); from Period-Luminosity ($`PL`$) and Period-Luminosity-Colour ($`PLC`$) relations with the then available calibration they derived a DM to the cluster of 18.44 $`\pm `$ 0.15 (for a reddening of $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06). After the publication by Walker (1987, hereafter Wa87) of the first CCD light curves for seven cluster Cepheids, Storm et al. (1988) report the discovery of 10 new Cepheid candidates. Welch et al. (1991; hereafter We91) present new CCD photometry and radial velocity measurements of these new and previously known objects. For a reddening of $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06, and an assumed $`PLC`$-relation they derive DM = 18.57 $`\pm `$ 0.01 (internal error only). These data were then used by Côte et al. (1991) for a Baade-Wesselink analysis to derive effective temperatures and radii, and DM = 18.6 $`\pm `$ 0.3. Gieren, Richtler & Hilker (1994) derived an improved DM = 18.47 $`\pm `$ 0.20 from the first $`VRI`$-based Baade-Wesselink analysis of 3 cluster Cepheids. Gieren et al. (2000a; hereafter G2000) report extensive new $`BVRI`$ photometry for seven Cepheids and provide improved periods, and at the same time Gieren et al. (2000b) discuss the application of the infrared surface brightness Baade-Wesselink method on a Cepheid (HV 12198) in the cluster. From this one star, they determine DM = 18.42 $`\pm `$ 0.10.

It is clear that today extensive photometry for many of the Cepheids in NGC 1866 does exist. Single-epoch infra-red data are also potentially available from the 2mass survey. Current Cepheid-based distance estimates date back to more than 10 years ago, i.e. in the era before the Hipparcos based calibration of the ZP of the Galactic $`PL`$-relation, and before the huge datasets of field Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds, discovered by the microlensing surveys. The aim of the present paper is therefore to combine all available data for the Cepheids in NGC 1866 with our current knowledge of field LMC and Galactic Cepheids, in order to shed some light on the dichotomy of distances estimated from MS-fitting and the RC-method. In Sect. 2 we discuss the available Cepheid photometric data; inferences from their $`PL`$ relationships will be analysed in Sect. 3, and a discussion about the implications for the cluster distance follows in Sect. 4.

## 2 Photometry of NGC 1866 Cepheids

We considered the photometry ($`V`$, and when available $`B`$ and $`I`$) from G2000, We91, Wa87 and AT67. As previously noted and discussed in the relevant papers, there is for some stars a small difference between the different sets of photometry (e.g., see the phase diagrams by G2000). Furthermore, the photometry in AT67 is made of photographic magnitudes whereas data in the other papers are obtained using CCDs. Lastly, G2000 and We91 quote (internal) errors while Wa87 and AT67 do not. On the other hand we want to use as much data as possible with representative errors to make full use of all available information. It should also pointed out that crowding is a potential problem for the Cepheids closer to the centre of the cluster (in particular the Cepheids with the $`V`$ prefix in their name) and new photometry under excellent seeing conditions would be valuable.

In order to do so we took a two-step approach. As a first step, we fixed the periods to the most accurate known values (i.e. as quoted in the paper based on the single dataset with most observations, hence G2000 in most cases). For each dataset we then solved for the amplitude and phase, using the numerical code “Period98” (Sperl 1998). We also considered lightcurves with a suitable number of harmonics (typically 3 to 5), solving again for the amplitudes and phases, the relevant output quantities being the mean magnitude and the r.m.s. The difference between the mean magnitudes obtained with different datasets gives an indication of the photometric offsets, and the rms gives an indication of the error in an individual measurement.

Based on this exercise, an error of 0.008 mag was assigned to Wa87 data, and 0.05 to the $`V`$-band data in AT67. In addition, the following offsets were added to the published photometries in order to put them on the same system as G2000: +0.039 mag ($`I`$, Wa87, HV 12197), +0.082 mag ($`V`$, We91, HV 12200), $`0.066`$ mag ($`I`$, Wa87, HV 12203), and to the photographic $`V`$-band in AT67 we added +0.095 mag for HV 12197, 12198, 12199, 12205, +0.212 mag for HV 12202 and +0.079 mag for HV 12203.

In case of the $`B`$-band we added +0.04 mag (Wa87, HV 12197), $`0.06`$ mag (We91, HV 12197) +0.02 mag (Wa87, HV 12199), +0.02 mag (We91, HV 12199), +0.15 mag (We91, HV 12200), $`0.02`$ mag (Wa87, HV 12202), +0.05 mag (We91, HV 12202), +0.06 mag (Wa87, HV 12203), +0.03 mag (We91, HV 12203) and $`0.02`$ mag (We91, V7).

HV 12204 was not considered as it is likely a non-member based on its radial velocity (Wa87).

In a second step we combined all datasets (with offsets and proper weighting applied) and performed a Fourier analysis solving for the primary frequency, amplitudes and phases. The results are listed in Tables 1, 2 and 3. When fitting the $`B`$ and $`I`$-band lightcurve the frequencies where fixed to that determined from the $`V`$-lightcurves. Also listed is the rms in the final fit. This number will be used in the next section to characterise the error in the mean magnitude when using the $`PL`$-relationship.

In the case of the $`B`$-band, keeping the frequency also as a free parameter resulted in a different frequency by (1-3) $`10^6`$ cycles/day at most, and no significant change in the mean magnitude and rms values. For the stars in common, the periods derived here and those quoted in G2000 agree within their respective 2$`\sigma `$ error bars.

The quantities $`R_{21}=A_2/A_1`$ and $`\varphi _{21}=\varphi _22\varphi _1`$ (where $`A_i`$ and $`\varphi _i`$ represent the amplitude and phase of the (i-1)-harmonic in the Fourier expansion) can be used to distinguish fundamental (FU) from first overtone (FO) pulsators (e.g. Udalski et al. 1999b); when applying this technique we found that Cepheid V8 is a first overtone pulsator (We87 already suggested this purely on the basis of its short period). For V4 the situation is ambiguous and it is kept as a FU pulsator. In case of V6, although the amplitude ratio suggests it is a FU, the object is treated as a FO pulsator for reasons given below (note that We87 also suggested it to be a probable FO pulsator). When plotted on a $`V`$-band $`PL`$-diagram (like Fig. 3 below), it would stand out as a clear outlier at its observed period of 2.05 days, being about 0.4 mag brighter than the mean relation at that period, a deviation by many sigmas. At the same time, it falls almost exactly in the middle of datapoints of FO pulsators in the LMC field at that period (Udalski et al. 1999a). In addition, the number of field LMC Cepheids in the period range 2.03 $`<P<`$ 2.07 $`d`$ is 0 FU and 15 FO, and in the extended range 2.00 $`<P<`$ 2.10 $`d`$ is 4 FU and 33 FO. This statistical argument (in the hypothesis that cluster and field Cepheids share the same properties), and the fact that it is located on top of the $`V`$-band $`PL`$-relation of LMC field FO Cepheids, make us believe that V6 is an overtone pulsator. If this object is excluded from our analysis, the results we present in the following are completely unaffected. All other Cepheids in our sample appear to be FU pulsators.

For the FO variables V6 and V8 the observed period ($`P_1`$) has been transformed into the corresponding fundamental one ($`P_0`$) according to (Feast & Catchpole 1997):

$$P_1/P_0=0.7160.027\mathrm{log}P_1$$
(1)
In addition to $`B`$, $`V`$ and $`I`$ data, single-epoch $`JHK`$ photometry was collected from the 2mass all-sky release (Cutri et al. 2003). Accurate coordinates are not immediately available in the literature for the Cepheids, and therefore coordinates were retrieved using a fits image containing the necessary WCS (World Coordinate System) keywords and the finding charts in AT67, Storm et al. (1988) and We91. The photometry with errors and the coordinates, as given by 2mass, are listed in Table 4. In general, the stars are faint (for 2mass) and the error bars are substantial. Monitoring these stars in the infrared with modern instrumentation would be valuable. It is immediately evident that the photometry for HV 12200 is very different from all others. Possibly, we have identified the wrong star, or there is an unnoticed problem with the 2mass photometry for this object. This star was not used when fitting the $`K`$-band $`PL`$-relation.

## 3 Analysis

The previous study of the available Cepheid photometry has provided us with mean $`B`$,$`V`$ magnitudes for 11 objects, $`K`$ single epoch magnitudes for 10 objects, and $`I`$ mean magnitudes for 7 objects; from the $`V`$ and $`I`$ magnitudes we computed the corresponding values of the reddening independent Wesenheit index $`W=I1.55(VI)`$, like in Udalski et al. (1999a, hereafter U99). In Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 we display the $`PL`$ relationships for the cluster Cepheids in $`V`$, $`I`$, $`B`$ and $`W`$; we fitted to the data, as customary, a $`PL`$-relation of the type

$$m_\mathrm{c}=(\mathrm{slope})\times \mathrm{log}P+\mathrm{ZP}$$
(2)
with the index $`c`$ being $`W,I`$, $`B`$ and $`V`$. We obtained slopes equal to $`3.47\pm `$ 0.48 in $`W`$, $`2.94\pm `$ 0.17 in $`I`$, $`2.40\pm `$ 0.50 in $`B`$ and $`2.52\pm `$ 0.33 in $`V`$. Due to the small number of objects the error on the slopes is substantial, but it does still allow interesting inferences. First of all, we have compared these slopes to the corresponding values for the LMC field Cepheids as obtained by Groenewegen (2000) from the data by U99, i.e., $`3.337`$, $`2.963`$, $`2.352`$111For this passband the slope was not given in Groenewegen (2000) but has been determined for the present paper in an identical way. and $`2.765`$ in $`W`$, $`I`$, $`B`$ and $`V`$ respectively, with very small errorbars. It is evident that the cluster $`PL`$ slopes are in formal agreement with the field ones.

We have then compared the cluster slopes with the recent results by Tammann, Sandage & Reindl (2003) for Galactic Cepheids; the authors re-calibrated the Galactic $`PL`$ relationship by combining absolute magnitudes of Cepheids in open clusters (distances obtained from the MS-fitting technique) with absolute magnitudes of other Cepheids obtained from surface brightness methods, and obtained slopes equal to $`2.757\pm 0.112`$, $`3.408\pm 0.095`$ and $`3.141\pm 0.100`$ in $`B`$, $`I`$ and $`V`$, respectively. These values are significantly different from the results for the field LMC Cepheids, pointing out to a clear dependence of the slopes of the $`PL`$ relationships on the Cepheid metallicities. It is also evident that the cluster $`PL`$ slopes are significantly different from the Galactic ones, even accounting for their associated large error. Fouqué, Storm & Gieren (2003) provide an alternative calibration for the Galactic Cepheids slopes, based on surface brightness methods: $`3.57\pm `$ 0.10 in $`W`$, $`3.24\pm `$ 0.11 in $`I`$, $`2.72\pm `$ 0.12 in $`B`$, and $`3.06\pm `$ 0.11 in $`V`$; again, the slopes in $`B`$, $`V`$ and $`I`$ are different than in case of the LMC field Cepheids, and are also different from the NGC 1866 results at more than 1$`\sigma `$ level. The result that Galactic Cepheids have a different $`PL`$ slopes compared to the LMC ones contradicts the standard assumption of universality of the $`PL`$ relationship; if confirmed, this occurrence allows one to firmly exclude a solar metallicity for NGC 1866 (one of the possible explanations for the distance discrepancy mentioned in S03).

As for the $`PL`$ relationship in $`K`$ (Fig. 5) the data are very much scattered, and do not allow a meaningful determination of the $`PL`$ slope in this photometric band.

The second step in our analysis has been the determination of the distance of NGC 1866 from the LMC main body by using Cepheid stars. Due to the statistical agreement between the $`PL`$ slopes (in $`W`$, $`I`$, $`B`$ and $`V`$) for the cluster and the field, and the similarity between the spectroscopic \[Fe/H\] determination for the cluster–\[Fe/H\] = $`0.5\pm 0.1`$ according to Hill et al (2000)–and the mean \[Fe/H\] of LMC Cepheids and supergiants–\[Fe/H\]$``$0.4 according to Luck & Lambert (1992)–we can safely assume for the cluster Cepheids the very accurate slopes obtained for the field LMC objects. First, we fitted the $`W`$ $`PL`$ relationship for the field LMC Cepheids to the cluster objects; this relationship is reddening independent, therefore we do not have to use any information regarding the cluster $`E(BV)`$. Adopting the ZP for the LMC field Cepheids from Groenewegen (2000), we obtained a relative distance modulus of 0.04 $`\pm `$ 0.03 mag with respect to the LMC one, implying that the cluster is slightly more distant than the LMC main body. In order to establish a connection between this result and the distance between the cluster and its surrounding LMC field, one needs a model for the geometry of the LMC. There is a general consensus about the fact that the LMC is a disk galaxy with an approximately planar geometry; the two basic parameters to be evaluated are the inclination angle $`i`$ and the position angle $`\theta `$ of the line of nodes (the intersection of the galaxy plane and the sky plane), for which different estimates exist in the literature, as reported in Table 5. These different values for $`i`$ and $`\theta `$ imply different distances between the field around NGC 1866 and the LMC centre, as displayed in Table 5. For a distance modulus of $``$18.50 mag to the galaxy centre, the distances reported in Table 5 correspond to a difference between $``$0.07 and $`+`$0.04 mag around this value. By interpreting the cluster distance modulus offset by 0.04$`\pm `$0.03 mag with respect to the galaxy main body as the distance between NGC 1866 and the LMC centre, we obtain a difference of the distance moduli to the cluster and the surrounding field $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM) ranging between zero and $``$0.11 mag (the field being closer), depending on the accepted values of $`i`$ and $`\theta `$. This result definitely rules out the possibility that the value $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM) = +0.20 $`\pm `$ 0.10 obtained by S03 can be attributed to the cluster being closer.

At this point we can also redetermine the cluster reddening by imposing that the distances obtained from the $`B`$, $`V`$ and $`I`$ $`PL`$ relationships (which depend on the assumed cluster reddening) must provide the same relative distance from the LMC main body as obtained from $`W`$. We do not use the $`K`$-band to derive $`E(BV)`$, due to the large spread of the cluster data in this $`PL`$ plane and its weak sensitivity to the reddening; however, we will employ $`K`$ data (with the $`PL`$ slope fixed by the LMC field Cepheids, as determined by Groenewegen 2000) as a sanity check for the results obtained from $`V`$ and $`I`$.

In our analysis we will use the following extinction ratios:

$$A_B=4.32E(BV)$$

$$A_V=3.24E(BV)$$

$$A_I=1.96E(BV)$$

$$A_K=0.35E(BV)$$

following Schlegel et al. (1998), homogeneously with the OGLE-II (Udalski et al. 1999b) extinction maps; we recall that the zero point of the LMC $`PL`$ relationships is derived from U99 data and the OGLE-II extinction maps, which provide an average reddening $`E(BV)`$ = 0.15 for the LMC Cepheids.

By assuming the canonical value $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06, the cluster results to be more distant than the LMC main body by 0.31 mag in $`B`$, 0.22 mag in $`V`$ and 0.18 mag in $`I`$. Obviously, this dependence on colour suggests an incorrect reddening, and in fact we obtain agreement between the distances in $`B,V,I`$ and $`W`$ only when the reddening is higher than the canonical value. More in detail, we compute various distances cluster–LMC main body, by fixing the reddening each time at a different value. For each reddening selection a distance with its associated 1$`\sigma `$ error is obtained. Typical errors obtained from the fitting procedure are $`\pm `$0.02 mag in $`I`$, $`\pm `$0.05 mag in $`V`$ and $`\pm `$0.07 mag in $`B`$; we then enforce the condition that the ’true’ cluster reddening has to provide the same (within the respective error bars) relative distance in all of the three photometric bands, equal to the value obtained from the reddening free $`W`$ index. We obtain $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 $`\pm `$ 0.02, where the error bar is basically determined by the more precise $`I`$-band data.

This is an important result, because it points out to a severe underestimate of the cluster reddening, with relevant implications for the MS-fitting distance. This reddening is also consistent (in the limit of the large dispersion of the $`K`$-band data) with the constraint imposed by the $`K`$-band data.

We have also performed, as a consistency check, a comparison between the positions of the cluster and field Cepheids in the $`(VI)_0I_0`$ Colour Magnitude Diagram (the $`V`$\- and $`I`$-band $`PL`$ relationships for the cluster Cepheids are the best defined ones), to verify if the cluster Cepheids are within the Colour Magnitude Diagram instability strip of the LMC field objects. Only FU field objects are displayed, since all cluster Cepheids with $`I`$ photometry available happen to be FU pulsators. We have used $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 for the cluster, the OGLE-II reddenings for the field Cepheids, and we have applied a correction of $``$0.04 mag to the $`I`$ magnitudes of the cluster objects, to account for their distance to the main body of the LMC derived before. Figure 6 displays the result of this comparison, and shows clearly that $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 for NGC 1866 is compatible with the location of the instability strip at the LMC metallicity.

As a final step we can try to derive an absolute value for the distance to NGC 1866 by applying a calibration for the absolute magnitude of the zero point of the Cepheids $`PL`$ relationship. The release of the $`Hipparcos`$ database has prompted a calibration of the zero point based on parallaxes of Galactic Cepheids by means of the reduced parallax method (see, e.g., Feast & Catchpole 1997, Groenewegen & Oudmaijer 2000, Groenewegen 2000); the basic assumption in this calibration is that the slope of the Galactic $`PL`$ relationships are the same as in the LMC, where they can be accurately determined. The results by Tammann et al. (2003) and Fouqué et al. (2003) mentioned before seem to clearly point out to a dependence on metallicity, at least for the slope, whereas the situation about the zero point is not clear; therefore LMC distance estimates obtained with this kind of calibrations are affected by some uncertainty. Nevertheless, we applied the Groenewegen (2000) calibration of the absolute magnitude zero point of the reddening independent Wesenheit $`PL`$ relationship to our NGC 1866 sample, obtaining a cluster distance modulus DM = 18.65 $`\pm `$ 0.10. Clearly, on the basis of the previous discussion, the reddening dependent distances obtained from the $`V`$, $`I`$ (and $`K`$) $`PL`$ relationships would provide a consistent result when $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 $`\pm `$ 0.02 is assumed. Based on the geometrical corrections in Table 5, the field surrounding NGC 1866 is located between DM = 18.65 and DM = 18.54. Notice how this last value agrees well with the RC distance estimated by S03.

## 4 Discussion

In the previous section we have obtained important results from the analysis of NGC 1866 Cepheid population. First, we have been able to derive a reddening independent relative distance between the cluster and the surrounding field, that goes in the opposite way with respect to what is necessary to explain the discrepancy found by S03. Cluster Cepheids provide a difference between the distance to the field around NGC 1866 and the distance to the cluster, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM), ranging between zero and $``$0.11 (depending on the exact geometry of the LMC disk), whereas S03 found $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM) = +0.20 $`\pm `$ 0.10.

Second, from the observed $`PL`$ relationships in $`V`$ and $`I`$ we have obtained a new estimate of the cluster reddening, $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 $`\pm `$ 0.02, which is on the same scale as the OGLE-II extinction maps of the LMC. This reddening is about twice the canonical value used for the cluster.

Third, in the assumption of universality of the Cepheid $`PL`$ relationships, we have obtained a cluster distance modulus DM = 18.65 $`\pm `$ 0.10. Based on the geometrical corrections reported in Table 5, this Cepheid distance implies that the field surrounding NGC 1866 is located at a distance between DM = 18.65 and DM = 18.54.

The new result about the cluster reddening has very important implications for the distance discrepancy discussed in S03; first of all, let us reexamine those results. The RC distance to the field surrounding NGC 1866 derived by S03 is DM = 18.53 $`\pm `$ 0.07, and the simultaneous reddening determination provided $`E(BV)`$ = 0.05 $`\pm `$ 0.02. In a very recent paper Salaris, Percival & Girardi (2003b) have studied in detail the systematic errors involved in the RC distance method, when one takes into account current uncertainties in the determination of the star formation history of the LMC, which is a crucial input parameter for applying the method. Based on Salaris et al. (2003b) results, one should revise the error bar on the previous estimate, obtaining DM = 18.53 $`\pm 0.07(random)_{0.05}^{+0.02}(systematic)`$ and $`E(BV)=0.05\pm 0.02(random)_{0.04}^{+0.06}(systematic)`$, where the systematic error is due to the uncertainty in the LMC star formation history. The MS-fitting distance to the cluster is DM = 18.33 $`\pm `$ 0.08 when using a reddening $`E(BV)`$ = 0.064 $`\pm `$ 0.011 and the spectroscopic metallicity \[Fe/H\] = $`0.5\pm `$ 0.1.

Our new determination of the cluster $`E(BV)`$ provides a higher value, which implies a longer cluster distance from the MS-fitting technique, and therefore a potential solution to the distance problem found by S03. In light of the importance of this issue, we have reexamined the existing case for the canonical value $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06 for the cluster.

The most direct empirical estimate of the cluster reddening before our analysis was based on photoelectric $`UBV`$ photometry of 4 stars observed by Walker (1974). The author compared the position of these 4 stars in the $`(UB)(BV)`$ plane with a not clearly specified standard Pop I MS, and obtained (assuming $`E(UB)`$ = 0.72$`E(BV)`$) a value quoted as $`E(BV)`$ = 0.061 $`\pm `$ 0.0008 averaging over the individual determinations made for the 4 stars (3 of them with 2 independent measurements, one with just one measurement); the formal error is extremely small, and it is possibly due only to the propagation of the internal error on the individual photometric data. However, the individual reddening estimates show a dispersion of $``$0.035 mag around this mean value, which we believe is a better estimate of the error. Here, we have redetermined the cluster reddening (see Fig. 7) using the same method and cluster data, but using the standard MS Pop I sequence as reported in Table 3.9 of Binney & Merrifield (1998). We have preliminarily checked two important effects. The first one is that the cluster Cepheids have metallicity lower than solar, the second one is that the observed 4 stars are most likely evolved off the Zero Age MS, whereas the standard Pop I sequence represents the Zero Age MS. In order to check the error introduced by these two factors, we used as a guideline the behaviour of theoretical isochrones (Girardi et al. 2000) of ages between 100 and 200 Myr (the typical age of the cluster) in the $`(UB)(BV)`$ plane, and found that both effects are practically negligible for the objects observed in NGC 1866. We then obtained from the colour-colour diagram a reddening $`E(BV)`$ = 0.08 $`\pm `$ 0.03, comparable with the Cepheid estimate. In addition, from the $`(BV)`$ and $`(UB)`$ colours of one blue MS star reported by Wa87, we obtained $`E(BV)`$ = 0.10 $`\pm `$ 0.02 by applying the same method.

The second evaluation used to support the canonical $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06 was performed by van den Bergh & Hagen (1968). They determined the reddening for a number of LMC clusters by comparing their integrated colours with a standard sequence of intrinsic colours of Galactic open clusters (based on results by Gray 1965 and Schmidt-Kaler 1967), in the $`(UB)(BV)`$ plane. They provide $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06 for the cluster; the error bar on the individual estimate is unspecified but they clearly state that ’it should be emphasised that individual reddening values are quite uncertain’. Moreover, they did not take into account the effect of a possible metallicity difference between NGC 1866 and Galactic open clusters. We redetermined the cluster reddening using this same procedure, and both the colours provided by van den Bergh & Hagen (1968) and the recent redetermination by Bica et al. (1996), which is 0.01 mag bluer in $`(BV)`$ and 0.04 mag redder in $`(UB)`$. We have used two alternative colour-colour standard sequences for the Galactic open clusters (see Fig. 8); the first one is the relationship given by Eq. (2) of Schmidt-Kaler (1967), which provides $`E(BV)`$ = 0.14$`\pm `$0.02 and $`E(BV)`$ = 0.10$`\pm `$0.02 from the van den Bergh & Hagen (1968) and Bica et al. (1996) colours, respectively. In case of using the standard sequence reported in Eq. (6) of van den Bergh & Hagen (1968), we obtain $`E(BV)`$ = 0.06$`\pm `$0.02 and $`E(BV)`$ = 0.01$`\pm `$0.02. The error bar on the individual determinations is due to the photometric error only, and not to the error associated to the determination of the standard sequences. It has been possible also to estimate the effect of the chemical composition, by using the theoretical results by Girardi et al. (1995). In the hypothesis that the Galactic standard sequence has solar metallicity, for a typical cluster age of 100 Myr and \[Fe/H\] = $`0.5`$ the estimates given above should be reduced by about 0.02 mag.

It is evident, on the base of this discussion, that the cluster integrated colours do not provide strong constraints on the cluster reddening due especially to the uncertainty in the standard Galactic sequence, and are not in clear contradiction with the reddening obtained from the Cepheids.

As a further check we have compared the cluster reddening with determinations of $`E(BV)`$ for the surrounding field. As discussed before, the multicolour RC method gives $`E(BV)`$ = 0.05 $`\pm 0.02(random)_{0.04}^{+0.06}(systematic)`$ which, within the non negligible error bar, is not inconsistent with the Cepheid cluster value. We have in addition used the same OGLE-II technique to derive the reddening for the field around the cluster. The method is based on the assumption that the observed RC brightness in the $`I`$-band is constant in the LMC (at least for the bar-inner disk fields observed by OGLE-II) – due to similar Star Formation Histories – and therefore differences in its apparent $`I`$ magnitude correspond to extinction (hence reddening) differences when geometrical effects are negligible or accounted for. The zero point of the reddening (with an associated uncertainty by $`\pm `$0.02) is fixed by other independent calibrators and confirmed by the recent work by Tammann et al. (2003). By comparing the RC apparent $`I`$ magnitude given by S03 for the field around the cluster, with the OGLE-II fields close to the LMC centre, we obtain $`E(BV)`$ = 0.11 $`\pm `$ 0.02. An additional systematic error by $`{}_{0.020}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.036}`$ has to be added to this value, due to the uncertain geometric correction to the observed field, thus providing $`E(BV)`$ = 0.11$`{}_{0.03}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.04}`$, consistent with the cluster reddening.

All this analysis is clearly based on the assumption that the extinction laws in the Galaxy and the LMC are the same in the $`B`$, $`V`$, $`I`$ wavelength range. It is not completely clear if there are differences for these photometric bands, but very recently Gordon et al. (2003) have published an average LMC extinction law which is slightly different from the Galactic one used in our study. More in detail, from Gordon et al. (2003) paper one obtains $`A_B=4.41E(BV)`$, $`A_V=3.41E(BV)`$ and $`A_B=2.14E(BV)`$; with these ratios the Wesenheit reddening free index becomes $`W=I1.69(VI)`$ and one also finds that $`E(UB)=0.88E(BV)`$. We have therefore redetermined the cluster reddening and the distance between the cluster and the LMC main body by using this LMC extinction law. Of course, this test overestimates the net effect of the LMC reddening law, because part of the extinction towards the cluster and the LMC field is due to the Galaxy (hence one should use the Galactic extinction law), and part to the LMC internal extinction.

First of all, we have considered the Wesenheit index, and obtained a cluster distance modulus relative to the LMC main body equal to 0.05 $`\pm `$ 0.03 mag, almost the same value as for the case of using Galactic extinction ratios. We have then re-estimated the cluster reddening from its Cepheid population by using the same procedure discussed in the previous section. As a first step we redetermined the zero points of the OGLE-II reddening maps using the Gordon et al. (2003) LMC extinction law; we found that the $`E(BV)`$ zero points are changed by at most 0.01 mag (in the direction of increased reddening). We then corrected appropriately the individual field Cepheid reddenings by considering a zero point E(B-V) higher by 0.01 mag and employing the LMC extinction ratios; we redetermined the field $`PL`$ relationships, that show an unchanged slope and zero points slightly brighter than what used in the previous chapter. These relationships have been then fitted to the cluster data (using again the above mentioned LMC reddening law) and, using the same procedure as before, we obtained a cluster reddening that is within 0.01 mag of the value 0.12$`\pm `$0.02 estimated before.

It appears therefore that changes in the extinction ratios consistent with available observations do not influence appreciably our determination of the reddening to the cluster. Also the estimates based on the colour-colour diagrams discussed before are not altered by more than 0.01 mag when using these LMC extinction ratios.

We can now conclude by studying the effect of this new reddening determination on the MS-fitting distance modulus222Also these results are not affected appreciably if we use the LMC average extinction law by Gordon et al. 2003 instead of the Galactic one.. When the Cepheid-based $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 $`\pm `$ 0.02 is employed, and assuming the same spectroscopic metallicity \[Fe/H\]$`=0.5\pm 0.1`$ as in S03, the cluster DM is increased by 0.25 mag with respect to S03 results, giving DM = 18.58 $`\pm `$ 0.08; when compared to the RC distance of the surrounding LMC field, this distance provides $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$(DM) = $`0.05\pm 0.10(random)_{0.05}^{+0.02}(systematic)`$, in agreement with the values inferred from the Cepheids plus the geometrical corrections. The absolute values of the distance to the LMC obtained from both the RC method and the cluster MS-fitting are therefore consistent. It is interesting to notice that, within the 1$`\sigma `$ error bar, this MS-fitting distance is consistent with the result by Gieren et al. (2000b), based on the infrared surface brightness technique applied to one cluster Cepheid, which provides DM = 18.42 $`\pm `$ 0.10. This latter determination, albeit based at the moment on just one object, is largely insensitive to uncertainties in the adopted reddening and extinction ratios, and therefore provides an independent check for the consistency of our reddening and distance estimates333Gieren et al. (2000b) used a reddening of $`E(BV)`$ = 0.07 in their analysis, and the $`F_\mathrm{V}(VK)`$ surface-brightness relation of Fouqué & Gieren 1997. When using our derived reddening of $`E(BV)`$ = 0.12 and the latest calibration by Nordgren et al. 2002 we estimate the surface-brightness based DM will go up to 18.46..

Our revised MS-fitting cluster distance is also in agreement, within the corresponding 1$`\sigma `$ error bars, with the distance obtained from the Wesenheit $`PL`$ relationship applied to the cluster Cepheid population, in the assumption that it does not depend on the metallicity. By fixing the $`PL`$ slope to the value observed in the LMC and calibrating its zero point absolute magnitude on Galactic Cepheids with $`Hipparcos`$ parallaxes (Groenewegen 2000), this $`PL`$ relationship provides DM = 18.65 $`\pm `$ 0.10 for the cluster. This implies that within the period range spanned by the cluster Cepheids considered in our analysis, the metallicity effects on the Wesenheit $`PL`$ relationship appear to be small, and probably in the direction of slightly overestimating the cluster (which is on average more metal poor than local Cepheids) distance.

###### Acknowledgements.

This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. We thank an anonymous referee for his/her comments and suggestions, which improved the presentation of our results.