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# A Search for Very Extended Ionized Gas in Nearby Starburst and Active Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

The need for a comprehensive survey of the warm ionized medium in the local universe can hardly be overstated. This gas phase may contribute significantly to the local baryon budget (e.g., Fukugita, Hogan, & Peebles 1998), but very little is known about its distribution. While an important fraction of this material is almost certainly in the form of intergalactic clouds not related to any individual galaxy, some may inhabit the dark matter halos of galaxies (e.g., Rauch 1998).

This gas phase is a key witness to galaxy formation and evolution. In a hierarchical CDM universe (e.g., Jenkins et al. 1998) most of the activity associated with galaxy formation takes place at $`z`$ $``$ 1, except perhaps in the outer reaches of galaxies where “primordial” gas may still be accreting today. Some of this material will necessarily be ionized by the metagalactic ionizing radiation, and possibly also by local sources of ionizing radiation such as active galactic nuclei (AGN) and starbursting stellar populations. In this picture, the warm ionized gas on the outskirts of galaxies represents left-over debris associated with galaxy formation (e.g., Bland-Hawthorn 1999; Blitz et al. 1999).

The warm ionized gas is also an excellent probe of the feedback processes taking place in galaxies. Ionizing radiation and mechanical energy from star-forming regions and quasars may severely limit the amount of star formation and affect galaxy evolution. The emerging radiation field defines regions where gas is warm and ionized (e.g., “proximity effect” in quasars and Lyman-break galaxies and “ionization cones” in nearby active and starburst galaxies; e.g., Bajtlik, Duncan, & Ostriker 1988; Steidel, Pettini, & Adelberger 2001; Wilson & Tsvetanov 1994). Galactic winds may blow out through the gaseous halos of galaxies and into the IGM, enriching and heating the intergalactic environment in the process. These winds may be responsible for the well-known mass-metallicity relation in galaxies (e.g., Larson & Dinerstein 1975; Vader 1986; Franx & Illingworth 1990). The discovery of H$`\alpha `$ filaments and diffuse soft X-ray emission out to 11.6 kpc from the prototypical starburst/superwind galaxy M82 (Devine & Bally 1999; Lehnert, Heckman, & Weaver 1999; Stevens, Read, & Bravo-Guerrero 2003) emphasizes the need for surveying large areas around superwind galaxies to constrain the size, energetics, and impact of these superwinds. The large “cavities” in the X-ray surface brightness of several cooling flow clusters with radio-loud cD galaxies (e.g., Böhringer et al. 1993; Fabian et al. 2000; McNamara et al. 2000; Fabian 2001; Quilis, Bower, & Balogh 2001; Heinz et al. 2002) point to equally large zones of influence for AGN-driven outflows. Galactic winds in the early universe are likely to have had an even stronger influence on the environment (e.g., Alderberger et al. 2003; Shapley et al. 2003).

The present paper describes the results from a pilot survey of 10 nearby starburst and active galaxies with the Taurus Tunable Filter (TTF) on the Anglo-Australian and William Herschel Telescopes. The main goals of this survey are to search for warm (T $``$ 104 K) line-emitting gas on the outskirts of these galaxies, and study the properties of this gas to constrain its origin and overall importance. The names, redshifts, and nuclear types of the galaxies in the sample are listed in Table 1 along with a summary of the findings from the TTF survey. These galaxies were selected based on the fact that they all present ionization cones and/or galactic winds on $``$ kpc scale. This method of selection and the small number of galaxies in the sample imply that this sample is probably not representative of the local population of starburst/active galaxies, and therefore should not be used for statistical purposes. Nevertheless, the results from this pilot survey should provide important clues on the range of phenomena taking place in the general local galaxy population.

This paper is organized as follows. In §2, we discuss the methods of observations. The results are described individually for each object in §3. In §4, we summarize the results and discuss future avenues of research. The present discussion complements recent Fabry-Perot searches for warm ionized gas on the outskirts of “normal” galaxies including our own Galaxy (e.g., Bland-Hawthorn et al. 1998; Putman et al. 2003) and several dwarf, spiral, and elliptical galaxies (e.g., Bland-Hawthorn, Freeman, & Quinn 1997a; Meurer et al. 1999; Ferguson, van der Hulst, & van Gorkom 2001; Miller & Veilleux 2003a, 2003b), as well as in isolated extragalactic H I clouds (e.g., Weymann et al. 2001) and a few active galaxies with collimated jet outflows (e.g., Cecil et al. 2000; Tadhunter et al. 2000). The results in the present paper supersede those from Veilleux (2002). The results for two of the galaxies in the sample have already been presented elsewhere (NGC 1482: Veilleux & Rupke 2002; MR 2251–178: Shopbell, Veilleux, & Bland-Hawthorn 1999), but are discussed again in the present paper for the sake of completeness and to add to the discussion (e.g., a new unpublished X-ray map of NGC 1482 are presented here along with a deeper reprocessed H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 image of this object).

## 2 Observations

The TTF on the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) was used for all but one of the observations reported in the present paper. The TTF on the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope (WHT) was used for NGC 1068. The TTF is described in detail in Bland-Hawthorn & Jones (1998) and Bland-Hawthorn & Kedziora-Chudczer (2003). The data acquisition and reduction techniques used to reach low flux levels with the TTF have already been discussed in several papers (e.g., Shopbell et al. 1999; Glazebrook & Bland-Hawthorn 2001; Veilleux & Rupke 2002; Jones, Shopbell, & Bland-Hawthorn 2002; Miller & Veilleux 2003a). The TTF is uniquely suited to carry out deep searches for emission-line gas on the outskirts of galaxies, combining wide field of view ($``$ 10$`\mathrm{}`$) with outstanding narrow-band imaging capabilities over a broad range in wavelength (3500 Å – 1.0 $`\mu `$m) and bandpass (10 – 100 Å). A summary of the TTF observations is given in Tables 2 and 3. Nearly all of the AAT observations were carried out in the “charge shuffling/frequency switching” mode, where the charges are moved up and down within the detector at the same time as switching between two discrete frequencies with the tunable filter. The charges were generally moved every minute and the chip was read after typically spending 32 minutes of integration time (16 minutes on-band and 16 minutes off-band). As a result, the continuum and emission-line images are produced nearly simultaneously, therefore averaging out temporal variations associated with atmospheric lines and transparency, seeing, instrument and detector instabilities. Most of the AAT images were obtained in a straddle mode, where the off-band image is made up of a pair of images that “straddle” the on-band image in wavelength (e.g., $`\lambda _1`$ = 6500 Å and $`\lambda _2`$ = 6625 Å for rest-frame H$`\alpha `$); this greatly improves the accuracy of the continuum removal since it corrects for slopes in the continuum and underlying absorption features. The charge shuffling and frequency switching capabilities were not available at the WHT. The flux levels reached by the TTF observations are listed in the last column of Table 3.

Long-slit optical spectra were also obtained for some of the objects to clarify the origin and source of ionization of the warm ionized material. Tables 2 and 4 summarize the details of these observations. These spectra were reduced using standard IRAF routines. When available, complementary X-ray and radio maps were used to track the hot (X-rays), relativistic (20-cm) and neutral (HI) gas phases in the sample galaxies and allow us to draw a more complete picture of these objects.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 NGC 1068

NGC 1068 is arguably the best studied active galaxy in the local universe. It is a Sb galaxy which is nearly face-on ($`i30`$; de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991) and shows evidence for a $``$ 3-kpc bar (e.g., Scoville et al. 1988; Thronson et al. 1989; Helfer & Blitz 1995). Signs of the AGN in the core of this galaxy are evident at nearly all wavelengths. It was one of the six objects originally studied by Seyfert (1943) with bright optical “emission lines similar to those in planetary nebulae.” Four decades later, spectropolarimetry of NGC 1068 revealed the presence of broad (FWHM $``$ 4,500 km s-1) recombination lines in scattered light, suggesting for the first time that the $``$ pc-scale broad line region in this object is obscured by an optically thick torus (e.g., Miller & Antonucci 1983; Antonucci & Miller 1985; Miller, Goodrich, & Mathews 1991). Indirect evidence for a inner disk structure in NGC 1068 comes from the presence of bright cones of photoionized gas detected at optical wavelengths (e.g., Baldwin, Wilson, & Whittle 1987; Pogge 1988a; Macchetto et al. 1994; Kraemer, Ruiz, & Crenshaw 1998) and also in X-rays (e.g., Young, Wilson, & Shopbell 2001; Kinkhabwala et al. 2002). The ionization cones are roughly aligned with the inner radio jet and large-scale radio structure (e.g., Wilson & Ulvestad 1987; Gallimore et al. 1996). Most of the inner line-emitting clouds originally discovered by Walker (1968) are taking part in a large-scale outflow event (e.g., Cecil, Bland, & Tully 1990; Arribas, Mediavilla, & Garcia-Lorenzo 1996; Crenshaw & Kraemer 2000). Some of the line-emitting material near the nucleus is outflowing at velocities of up to $``$ 3200 km s-1 (Cecil et al. 2002b); this material appears to be accelerated radiatively by the AGN (Dopita et al. 2002). UV line ratios are inconsistent with shock excitation (Groves et al., in prep.).

The anisotropic radiation field from the AGN in NGC 1068 is already known to affect the inner $``$ 10 kpc diameter disk of the host galaxy (Bland-Hawthorn, Sokolowski, & Cecil 1991; Sokolowski, Bland-Hawthorn, & Cecil 1991). Our new data on NGC 1068 now show that the ionization cone extends even further. Figure 1 presents deep H$`\alpha `$ and \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 images obtained with the TTF. A complex of knots and filaments are detected out to $`R`$ 11 kpc along P.A. $``$ 15 – 70. Another fainter complex is seen out to $``$ 10 kpc in the opposite direction at P.A. $``$ 200 – 260. There is a deficit of filaments in all other directions.

Figure 2 compares the locations of the filaments with an unpublished H I 21-cm map graciously provided to us by E. Brinks (2003; private communication). Some of the optical filaments (especially those to the south-west) lie slightly beyond the sharp H I “edge” of NGC 1068. As in the case of NGC 253 (Bland-Hawthorn et al. 1997a), the filaments are too bright to be photoionized solely by the metagalactic ionizing radiation – another source of ionization is needed. The surprisingly bright H$`\alpha `$ emission beyond the H I edge of NGC 253 is probably due to photoionization by hot young stars in the inner disk (Bland-Hawthorn et al. 1997a). We suspect a different origin for the filaments in NGC 1068. As is clearly apparent in Figure 1, these filaments are contained within a biconical region which is roughly aligned with the nuclear outflow/jets and the optical ionization cone seen on smaller scales. Figure 2 also shows that there is a good (though not perfect) match in P.A. between the X-ray emission and the optical filaments on large scale. This biconical geometry on small and large scales strongly suggests that the AGN is responsible for the ionization of the gas on both scales.

The large \[O III\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios ($``$ 1; Fig. 1) observed in the gas within the large-scale cones seem to support this scenario (i.e. the hard radiation field from the AGN contributes to the high ionization level of the gas in this region). Deep MSSSO and AAT long-slit spectra of the north-east filament at $`R`$ 6 – 11 kpc confirm the role of the AGN. The line ratios measured along this filament are plotted in Figure 3. Using the diagnostic tools of Veilleux & Osterbrock (1987), we find that most of the line ratios are Seyfert-like. No obvious systematic gradient in the line ratios is detected along the brighter portion of the filament. The $``$ 100 km s-1 blueshift and slight velocity gradient apparent in the data (particularly in the higher S/N data obtained at MSSSO; see Fig. 4) are consistent with gas in rotation in the P.A. $``$ 79 galactic disk (e.g., Galletta & Recillas-Cruz 1982; Kaneko et al. 1992; Sofue 1997; Sofue et al. 1999). The narrow line widths in the brighter portion of the filament (FWHM $`<`$ 200 km s-1) suggest that quiescent gas from the disk is being photoionized by the central AGN. The apparent broadening in the emission-line profiles extracted from the fainter (southern) portion of the filament (FWHMs reach $``$ 300 – 400 km s-1 in some locations and maybe accompanied by line splitting; see Fig. 4) may indicate that shocks become important or the AGN is photoionizing a spray of gas with a broader range of line-of-sight velocities. The elevated \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ and \[S II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in this region (not shown in Fig. 3 because \[O III\]/H$`\beta `$ is poorly constrained) could be due to either shocks or AGN photoionization with low ionization parameter (= ratio of the density of ionizing photons to that of electrons). Intervening disk material may explain the slightly fainter emission in the south-west cone since the radiation field emerges above the disk in the north-east quadrant and below the disk in the south-west quadrant (e.g., Cecil et al. 1990; Bland-Hawthorn et al. 1997b).

### 3.2 NGC 1365

NGC 1365 is a giant barred Sb galaxy in the Fornax cluster, host to a beautiful grand design spiral structure and a Seyfert 1.5 nucleus. It has been the subject of several spectroscopic studies, including the pioneering work of Burbidge & Burbidge (1960) who were the first to point out the possibility of a large-scale outflow in this object. Line splitting of the \[O III\] profiles observed by Phillips et al. (1983) and Jörsäter, Lindblad, & Boksenberg (1984) confirmed the complex velocity field of the gas in the nuclear region, and revealed the highly ionized state of the outflowing material. Subsequent studies have traced the extent and geometry of the highly ionized outflowing material (e.g., Edmunds et al. 1988; Storchi-Bergmann & Bonatto 1991; Hjelm & Lindblad 1996; Kristen et al. 1997). An accelerated outflow in a hollow biconical structure with opening angle $``$ 100 has been suggested (Hjelm & Lindblad 1996). This structure is roughly aligned with a jet-like radio feature observed by Sandqvist, Jörsäter, & Lindblad (1995) and Morganti et al. (1999).

TTF H$`\alpha `$, \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583, and \[OIII\] $`\lambda `$5007 images were obtained of NGC 1365; they are presented in Figures 5 – 8. The \[O III\] data confirm the presence of the bright south-east plume of \[O III\]-emitting material seen in previous studies, but also show for the first time fainter plumes of material on the opposite side of the nucleus. The fainter \[O III\] emission in the TTF data extends over $``$ 1$`\mathrm{}`$ , and is much less conical than the bright SE plume. The \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in this region are larger than unity, suggesting photoionization by the AGN. Strings of bright H II regions and complex dust lanes bisect the \[O III\] structure and lowers the \[O III\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios along a diagonal line passing immediately north of the nucleus.

The \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ line ratio maps shown in Figures 6 and 8 indicate that the zone of influence of the AGN in NGC 1365 extends further than suspected. \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in excess of unity are seen out to $``$ 1$`\mathrm{}`$ ($``$ 5 – 6 kpc) from the nucleus. Surprisingly, the high-\[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ region appears to be almost rectangular rather than biconical, although the axis of symmetry is the same as that of the high \[O III\]/H$`\alpha `$ structure (P.A. $``$ –45). It is not clear at present whether this fainter material is also taking place in the bright outflow studied by Hjelm & Lindblad (1996), or is simply ambient disk material being illuminated by the central AGN.

### 3.3 NGC 1482

The results from our TTF imaging and optical long-slit spectroscopy of NGC 1482 have already been published in Veilleux & Rupke (2002). These data reveal a starburst-driven wind extending 1.5 kpc above and below the disk of the host galaxy with expansion velocities on the order of $``$ 250 km s-1 and kinetic energy of at least 2 $`\times `$ 1053 ergs. The TTF data are presented again in Figure 9. The \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$ ratio map derived from these data shows that the entrained wind material has \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in excess of unity while the disk material is characterized by H II region-like line ratios indicative of the starburst. Shock ionization is suspected to be responsible for the LINER-like line ratios of the entrained material.

The new X-ray map presented in Figure 9 brings credence to this scenario. This map is based on the unpublished archived 28.56 ks exposure (P.I. D. Strickland) with the ACIS-S3 detector on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. High-background data were filtered out of the original image; the effective exposure time is 24.40 ks. A fixed Gaussian kernel with $`\sigma `$ = 3 pixels (1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5) was used for smoothing. The energy range of the data is 0.2 – 3 keV. The X-ray emission (especially at low energies) is elongated along the minor axis of the galaxy and shows a remarkably good match with some of the extraplanar optical filaments. A tight spatial correlation between X-ray emitting material and optical emission-line gas is also observed in two other well-known galactic winds studied in detail with Chandra: NGC 253 (Strickland et al. 2000) and NGC 3079 (Cecil et al. 2001; Cecil, Bland-Hawthorn, & Veilleux 2002a). In both of these cases, the data suggest that the superwind has driven cool disk gas into the halo, with X-rays being emitted either as upstream, standoff bow shocks or by cooling at cloud/wind conductive interfaces. The same phenomenon appears to be taking place in NGC 1482 (and NGC 6240; see §3.6). Good correlations between extraplanar H$`\alpha `$ and X-ray emission have been known to exist in a number of star-forming galaxies (e.g., Dahlem et al. 2003 and references therein), but the new $`Chandra`$ data now show that this correlation extends down to $``$ 1″ scale.

Reprocessing of the TTF data now reveals that the galactic wind in this galaxy extends much further than first suspected by Veilleux & Rupke (2002; see Fig. 10). The summed H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 image now clearly shows the presence of a filament that extends out to $``$ 7 kpc north-west of the nucleus. Another filament extending out to $``$ 11 kpc north-east of the nucleus is visible in Figure 10, although scattered light from a bright star in the field makes the detection of this filament uncertain. Diffuse emission near the detection limit of our data also appears to be present $``$ 10 kpc south of the nucleus. A high-velocity ($``$ +400 km s-1) emission-line knot located $``$ 3 kpc north of the nucleus is also visible in \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 in the AAT long-slit spectrum (Fig. 11; this knot is also present at H$`\alpha `$ but is near the detection limit of the data). The discovery of these knots and filaments will necessarily increase the energetics involved in the outflow, although the kinematics of the gas on large scale are not yet fully constrained.

### 3.4 NGC 1705

NGC 1705 is a blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy located at 6.2 Mpc (Meurer et al. 1995). It is host to a starburst-driven wind which is responsible for the multiple emission-line loops and arcs seen out to the Holmberg radius, $``$ 2.1 kpc (Meurer et al 1992; Hunter, Hawley, & Gallagher 1993). Line splitting indicative of expansion velocities of order $``$ 100 km s-1 is seen over most of the line-emitting gas (e.g., Meurer et al. 1992; Marlowe et al. 1995). The detection of blueshifted UV absorption lines has confirmed the presence of the wind in this object (Heckman & Leitherer 1997; Sahu & Blades 1997). Recent $`FUSE`$ far-UV spectroscopy has revealed outflowing coronal-phase gas at a few $`\times `$ 105 K, possibly created at the interface of the warm ($``$ $`10^4`$ K) optical line-emitting material and the hot outrushing gas in a blownout superbubble (Heckman et al. 2001).

The line-emitting loops and arcs seen by previous authors are easily detected with the TTF in both H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 (Fig. 12). Surprisingly, the \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratio map shows very little structure across these structures. The \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$ line ratio peaks at a value of $``$ 0.3 near the location of the bright central star cluster (indicated by an arrow in Fig. 12; this star cluster is NGC 1705-1 in the nomenclature of Melnick, Moles, & Terlevich 1985). \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ generally stays below $``$ 0.1 across the remainder of the line-emitting nebula, except perhaps in a few features where the S/N is low and the line ratio less reliable.

This line ratio map is very different from that of NGC 1482, even though both objects host similar starburst-driven winds. As discussed in the previous section, the large \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios detected in the outflowing gas of NGC 1482 are almost certainly due to shock excitation. The fact that we do not detect significant enhancement in the \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ map of NGC 1705 may be due to the fact that the expansion velocities in this dwarf galaxy are considerably smaller than in NGC 1482, so that shock excitation ($`v_{\mathrm{shock}}^3`$) is less important than photoionization by the starburst itself. This result emphasizes an important limitation of the excitation technique suggested by Veilleux & Rupke (2002) to search for galaxies with starburst-driven winds: the results from this search technique will necessarily be biased toward powerful, shock-excited wind structures which show a sharp contrast in excitation properties relative to the star-forming hosts. Winds in dwarf galaxies will be harder to detect with this technique.

### 3.5 NGC 4388

NGC 4388 is a well-known Seyfert 2 galaxy located near the center of the Virgo cluster (e.g., Phillips & Malin 1982). The AGN is responsible for driving a loosely collimated outflow out of the disk of this edge-on galaxy, visible in the radio (Stone, Wilson, & Ward 1988; Hummel & Saikia 1991; Kukula et al. 1995; Falcke, Wilson, & Simpson 1998; Irwin, English, & Sorathia 1999) and optical (e.g., Veilleux et al. 1999 and references therein). A recent $`Chandra`$ study of NGC 4388 by Iwasawa et al. (2003) now shows direct support for the galactic outflow in the X-rays. Their map is reproduced in Figure 13 along with the H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 images obtained with the TTF. Note in Table 3 that the TTF was tuned to a wavelength of 6605 Å near the nucleus of the galaxy – 13 Å below the wavelength of H$`\alpha `$ at systemic velocity – to map the blueshifted gas complex north of NGC 4388. Part of the soft X-ray emission is clearly produced in the disk, while the extraplanar emission is directly associated with the outflowing line-emitting material. This material is highly ionized and therefore presents only modest \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios ($``$ 0.7; Pogge 1988b; Colina 1992; Petitjean & Durret 1993).

A recent study by Yoshida et al. (2002) has revealed emission-line filaments extending out to $``$ 35 kpc from the center of NGC 4388. Although the origin of these filaments is still uncertain, stripping of the interstellar medium of NGC 4388 by the ram pressure of the Virgo intracluster medium is likely to be responsible for some of these features (see also Veilleux et al. 1999). The recent discoveries of an isolated H II region and extended H I gas in the vicinity of NGC 4388 by Gerhard et al. (2002) and Vollmer & Huchtmeier (2003) bring additional support to the ram-pressure stripping scenario. The wide field of view of the TTF allows us to confirm the detection of the filaments (Fig. 14) and provide additional information on the excitation and kinematics of the line-emitting material. The \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in the brighter line-emitting knots beyond a galactocentric distance of $``$ 7 kpc stay below $``$ 0.7 but show no obvious monotonic gradient with distance (Fig. 15). These line ratios do not allow us to identify unambiguously the source of ionization of the gas (low-velocity shocks, AGN with low ionization parameter, or in-situ hot stars), but indicate that the ionization and excitation properties of the brighter line-emitting knots at these large distances are affected by complex variations in the ionization parameter or shock velocity rather than only the distance from the nucleus. The fact that nearly all of the emission features seen in the data of Yoshida et al. (2002) are also detected in our (slightly blueshifted) TTF images suggests that most of these features have velocities $``$ +100 km s-1 near the nucleus of the galaxy and $``$ +250 km s-1 in the outer filaments.

### 3.6 NGC 6240

NGC 6240 is often considered the archetype of luminous infrared galaxies (log\[LIR/L\] = 11.8); it has been studied thoroughly at all wavelengths. NGC 6240 is an early merger with two nuclei separated by $``$ 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 or $``$ 1.28 kpc (e.g., Carral, Turner, & Ho 1990; Beswick et al. 2001; Fried & Schultz 1983; Keel 1990; Bland-Hawthorn, Wilson, & Tully 1991; Tacconi et al. 1999; Scoville et al. 2000; Tezca et al. 2000). Unambiguous signs of an AGN in this system have been detected in the hard X-rays (Iwasawa & Comastri 1998; Vignati et al. 1999). Recent high-resolution images obtained with $`Chandra`$ show that both nuclei are X-ray emitters (Lira et al. 2002) and that both appear to be AGN (Komossa et al. 2003). Surrounding the nuclei is a large-scale soft X-ray nebula possibly powered by a superwind (Schulz et al. 1998; Komossa, Schulz, & Greiner 1998; Kolaczyk & Dixon 2000). Signs for a superwind are also seen at optical wavelengths in the form of a complex of line-emitting filaments and arcs extending over 50 $`\times `$ 60 kpc (Heckman, Armus, & Miley 1987) and often showing violent gas motion and LINER-like line ratios (e.g., Heckman et al. 1987; Heckman, Armus, & Miley 1990; Keel 1990).

Deep H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 images of this object were obtained with the TTF (Figs. 16 and 17). H$`\alpha `$ emission is detected over an area $``$ 70 $`\times `$ 80 kpc centered on the nuclei. The distribution of the \[N II\] emission differs considerably from that of H$`\alpha `$. The incomplete loop and filament located at P.A. $``$ 265 – 275 and $`R1525`$ kpc are clearly detected in the \[N II\] image but are hardly visible in H$`\alpha `$; these features have \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583/H$`\alpha `$ $``$ 1.4 and stand out in the excitation map shown in Figure 16. This large-scale, high-\[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ structure is roughly aligned with a 5-kpc X-ray loop detected by Komossa et al. (2003). Figure 17 also shows that the brighter portion of this loop coincides with a emission-line knot with strongly enhanced ($`>`$ 1) LINER-like \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ line ratios. These results bring further support to the galactic outflow scenario. The line-emitting gas is entrained in the starburst-driven wind. Shocks associated with the interaction between the fast wind and the slow-moving ambient gas contribute to the heating and ionization of the line-emitting material. The good match between optical line emission and X-ray emission suggests once again (see §3.3 and references therein) that the X-rays from this galactic wind are produced either by cooling at the conductive interfaces between the line-emitting clouds and the wind or as upstream, standoff bow shocks.

### 3.7 NGC 7213

NGC 7213 is a nearby (22.0 Mpc; $`H_0`$ = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1; Tully 1988) face-on Sa galaxy which is host to a bright Seyfert 1 nucleus with broad H$`\alpha `$ and strong hard X-ray emission (e.g., Phillips 1979; Filippenko & Halpern 1984). The nuclear spectrum also exhibits narrow LINER-like emission lines produced by the diffuse gas around the Seyfert nucleus. Figure 18 shows deep H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6583 images of this object obtained with the TTF. The TTF data recover the ring of H II regions known to exist around the bright active nucleus of this galaxy (Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1996). The TTF image also reveals the presence of a line-emitting filament located $``$ 19 kpc from the nucleus, well outside the optical radius of this galaxy. This filament was independently discovered by Hameed et al. (2001), who argues that it is the ionized portion of tidal debris from a recent merger.

The TTF data suggest that the \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios in the filament are unlike those typically seen in H II regions (e.g., ring of H II regions near the nucleus). The line ratios measured from a deep long-slit spectrum obtained with the MSSSO 2.3-meter telescope confirm this result and indicate that the emission in the filament is LINER-like, based on the locations of the line ratios in diagnostic diagrams (Fig. 19). Dilute photoionization by a faint and distant AGN with ionization parameter log $`U`$ $``$ –3 (i.e. the density of ionizing photon is 10-3 that of electron) could explain these line ratios (e.g., Ferland & Netzer 1983), although shock ionization cannot be formally excluded (Dopita & Sutherland 1995).

The kinematics of this filament can be used to distinguish between these two scenarios. Multi-line imaging slightly shifted in velocity space suggests that the line-emitting gas is blueshifted by $``$ 150 – 200 km s-1 with respect to systemic velocity. The MSSSO spectrum of the filament confirms this small blueshift (Fig. 20). These measurements indicate that the optical filament coincides not only spatially with the H I feature of Hameed et al. (2001) but also kinematically. Moreover, the narrow line widths ($``$ 80 – 200 km s-1) measured in the optical filament indicate that the gas must not be affected significantly by shocks. This strongly suggests that the line-emitting filament simply represents tidal debris which are being ionized by the AGN in NGC 7213. Only a small fraction of the H I tidal complex is visible in H$`\alpha `$ because the radiation field from NGC 7213 is not isotropic. According to the unified model of Seyfert galaxies, our line of sight to the Seyfert 1 nucleus has to lie within the opening angle of the inner torus/accretion disk. Given the face-on orientation of the host galaxy, this would imply that both our line of sight and the line-emitting filament lie within the ionizing cone of the accretion disk and above the galactic disk of NGC 7213.

### 3.8 Circinus Galaxy

The Circinus galaxy (Freeman et al. 1977) is host to a well-known ionization cone and large-scale outflow visible in the radio (e.g., Elmouttie et al. 1998a), optical (e.g., Marconi et al. 1994; Lehnert & Heckman 1995; Veilleux & Bland-Hawthorn 1997; Elmouttie et al. 1998b; Wilson et al. 2000), near-infrared (Maiolino et al. 1998; Ruiz et al. 2000), and X-rays (Sambruna et al. 2001a, 2001b; Smith & Wilson 2001). The source of the ionization and outflow appears to be the central Seyfert nucleus, although a circumnuclear starburst is also present in this object (e.g., Veilleux & Bland-Hawthorn 1997; Elmouttie et al. 1998b)

A new TTF \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007 image of the Circinus galaxy is presented in Figure 21. This image reaches fainter flux levels than the Fabry-Perot data presented in Veilleux & Bland-Hawthorn (1997). The new data confirm the presence of the bright high-ionization filaments within 0.5 kpc of the nucleus. But the deeper TTF image also reveals unsuspected \[O III\] emission which extends $``$ 1 kpc west and north-west of the nucleus. Very faint, filamentary emission appears to extend out to $``$ 1.2 kpc from the nucleus along P.A. $``$ 315, but this needs to be confirmed with deeper images. The TTF image also shows a few additional knots of emission in the northern/northwestern quadrant and to the south. The southernmost of these features appears to coincide with $`Chandra`$ source F in Smith & Wilson (2001), located $``$ 500 pc due south from the nucleus. This is shown in the lower left panel of Figure 21, where the $`Chandra`$ data are superposed on the TTF \[O III\] image.

### 3.9 ESO484-G036

ESO484-G036 is an edge-on Sb galaxy from the $`IRAS`$ Bright Galaxy Sample (Soifer et al. 1989; F04335–2514). The optical classification of the nucleus of this galaxy is ambiguous due to weak H$`\beta `$ and \[O III\] emission (Kim et al. 1995; Veilleux et al. 1995). Long-slit spectroscopy by Lehnert & Heckman (1995) indicates the presence of large positive gradients in \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$, \[S II\]/H$`\alpha `$ and \[O I\]/H$`\alpha `$ along the minor axis of this galaxy. Conventional H$`\alpha `$ \+ \[N II\] narrowband imaging of this object by these same authors reveals a cross-like structure aligned along the major and minor axes of the disk.

The TTF data confirm the cross-like morphology of the line emission in ESO484-G036 (especially visible in \[N II\]; Fig. 22). The \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratio map also confirms the steep excitation gradient along the minor axis of the galaxy. The disk emission presents a H II region-like \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios of $``$ 0.5 (but note that \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ reaches a minimum $``$ 1 kpc south-west of the nucleus), while the emission 1 kpc above and below the disk have \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ that are in the range $`12.4`$. This line ratio map is reminiscent of that of NGC 1482, but the larger distance of ESO484-G036 ($``$ 60 Mpc instead of 20 Mpc for NGC 1482) makes the extraplanar emission more difficult to resolve in this object. The new TTF data add strong support to the idea that ESO484-G036 is indeed host to a starburst-driven wind (Lehnert & Heckman 1996), and also show the promise of using excitation maps for systematic searches for starburst-driven winds in the local universe (Veilleux & Rupke 2002).

### 3.10 MR 2251–178

In the course of our TTF study, the radio-quiet quasar MR 2251–178 was imaged at H$`\alpha `$. This is the most distant ($`z=0.064`$) object in the sample. The results on this object have already been published by Shopbell, Veilleux, & Bland-Hawthorn (1999); the TTF images are reproduced for the sake of completeness in Figure 23. The TTF data reveal a very extended nebula centered on and photoionized by this quasar. The spiral-like complex is seen extending more or less symmetrically over $``$ 200 kpc. Narrow-band images obtained at slightly different wavelengths reveal a large-scale rotation pattern which is in the opposite sense as that seen in the inner region of the galaxy (see also Bergeron et al. 1983; Nörgaard-Nielsen et al. 1986). As discussed in detail in Shopbell et al., the large and symmetric morphology of the gaseous envelope and its smooth large-scale rotation suggest that the envelope did not originate with a cooling flow, a past merger event, or an interaction with any of the galaxies in the field. Shopbell et al. favor a model in which the extended ionized nebula resides within a large complex of H I gas centered on the quasar. Slightly blueshifted ($``$ 300 km s-1) UV and warm X-ray absorbers are seen in HST and ASCA/ROSAT spectra of MR 2251–178 (Reynolds 1997; Komossa 2001; Monier et al. 2001; Ganguly, Charlton, & Eracleous 2001), but they are presumed to arise from nuclear material near the AGN rather than from gas extending on galactic scale. An error of a factor of 2.25 was recently found in the flux calibration of the TTF data. All fluxes listed in Shopbell et al. (1999) should be scaled down by this factor. This correction does not affect the conclusions of the paper.

## 4 Discussion and Future Avenues of Research

We have presented the results from a deep emission-line imaging survey of 10 nearby starburst and active galaxies using the TTF on the AAT and WHT. The topology and projected cross-section of the line-emitting gas varies widely among the galaxies in the sample. Very large ($``$ 80 kpc) ionized complexes are discovered around NGC 6240 and MR 2251–178. Emission-line knots and wispy filaments are confirmed to be present in the halo of NGC 4388 at distances of up to $``$ 30 kpc from the active nucleus. Diffuse and filamentary gas associated with large-scale (10 – 20 kpc) ionization cones or outflows are detected for the first time in NGC 1068, NGC 1365, and NGC 1482 and confirmed in NGC 7213. Emission-line structures on $``$ kpc scale are revealed in the galactic winds of NGC 1705, Circinus galaxy, and ESO484-G036.

Multi-line imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of the gas found on large scale reveal line ratios which are generally not H II region-like. Shocks often contribute significantly to the ionization of the outflowing gas on the outskirts of starburst galaxies. As expected from shock models (e.g., Dopita & Sutherland 1995), the importance of shocks over photoionization by OB stars appears to scale with the velocity of the outflowing gas (e.g., NGC 1482, NGC 6240, or ESO484-G036 versus NGC 1705; NGC 3079 is an extreme example of a shock-excited wind nebula; Veilleux et al. 1994), although other factors like the starburst age, star formation rate, and the dynamical state of the outflowing structure (e.g., pre- or post-blowout) must also be important in determining the excitation properties of the gas at these large radii (e.g., see discussion in Shopbell & Bland-Hawthorn 1998 and Veilleux & Rupke 2002). When an active nucleus is present, the radiation field from the AGN appears to be the primary source of ionization for the filaments within $``$ 10 – 20 kpc of the nucleus, but the impact of the AGN tapers off at larger distances (e.g., $``$ 30 kpc in NGC 4388), unless the source of radiation is a powerful quasar (MR 2251–178).

Given the small sample size and methods of selection of the sample, no statistical statement can be made on the frequency of occurrence of large-scale nebulae around starburst and active galaxies in general. The objects in our sample were specifically selected to host ionization cones and/or galactic winds on $``$ kpc scale. The high discovery rate of $``$ 10-kpc nebulae in our sample may not be typical of the local population of starburst and active galaxies. It is also not clear at present whether the power and type of AGN (type 1 versus type 2) is important in determining the amount of ionized gas detectable with the TTF. In the matter-bounded scenario (e.g., infinite reservoir of H I gas surrounding the active nucleus in all directions), one would expect a correlation between AGN ionizing power and the detected mass of ionized material – this may be why the largest nebula is found around the most powerful AGN in our sample (MR 2251–178). In this simple scenario, the orientation of the AGN accretion disk to our line of sight (nearly face-on in type 1s versus nearly edge-on in type 2s) should to first order determine the geometry of the ionized material: biconical in Seyfert 2s (e.g., NGC 1068) and more isotropic in Seyfert 1s (e.g., MR 2251–178; see detailed predictions in Mulchaey, Wilson, & Tsvetanov 1996). However, this simple scenario clearly does not apply to all AGNs in our sample (e.g., NGC 7213). The topology and projected cross-section of the warm ionized gas in AGN necessarily also depend on the properties of the host galaxy (e.g., morphological type, gas content) and immediate environment (e.g, presence of a tidal complex as in the case of NGC 7213).

Our pilot survey raises similar questions for starburst galaxies. There is a clear need to expand the starburst sample to look for possible dependence on the age and power of the starburst and the dynamical state of the outflow. These data will provide the material to test the idea of using excitation maps (e.g., \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$) to detect superwind galaxies (Veilleux & Rupke 2002). If found to be successful at low redshifts, this method could be used in the future to more efficiently identify distant galaxies hosting powerful starburst-driven winds.

The advent of tunable filters on 8-meter class telescopes \[e.g., OSIRIS on the GranTeCan (Cepa et al. 2000) and the Maryland-Magellan Tunable Filter on the Baade 6.5-m telescope\] should improve the sensitivity of emission-line galaxy surveys at least tenfold. Measurements with this second generation of tunable filters will provide direct quantitative constraints on the gaseous cross-section of active and star-forming galaxies, and the importance of mass exchange between galaxies and their environment. The detection of warm ionized complexes that extend several tens of kpc over wide opening angles would make them likely candidates for the higher column density Ly$`\alpha `$ cloud population detected in quasar spectra (e.g., Bergeron et al. 1994; Lanzetta et al. 1995; Norman et al. 1996; Steidel et al. 2002). The kinematic information derived from these data will constrain the origin of the gas: is it taking part in an outflow or is it an extension of the HI disk, remnant accreting gas from galaxy formation, or debris from a recent galaxy interaction or ram-pressure stripping episode?

We are grateful to E. Brinks for providing the H I map of NGC 1068 prior to publication and to K. Iwasawa and A. Wilson for the $`Chandra`$ X-ray data of NGC 4388. We thank the referee, Matthias Ehle, for constructive comments. This article was written while S.V. was on sabbatical at the California Institute of Technology and the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; S.V. thanks both of these institutions for their hospitality. S.V. acknowledges partial support of this research by a Cottrell Scholarship awarded by the Research Corporation, NASA/LTSA grant NAG 56547, and NSF/CAREER grant AST-9874973. D.S.R. was also supported in part by NSF/CAREER grant AST-9874973. 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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# Elliptic flow of multi-strange particles: fragmentation, recombination and hydrodynamics

## 1 Introduction

Elliptic flow of hadrons – more precisely defined as the second Fourier coefficient of their azimuthal momentum distribution – has been suggested as a sensitive probe for the buildup of pressure in the early reaction stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions . Data from Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has revealed unexpected features in the behavior of the elliptic flow $`v_2`$ as a function of transverse momentum $`P_T`$: for non-central collisions $`v_2`$ first rises and then saturates at higher $`P_T`$ , the saturation occurring at higher $`P_T`$ and at higher values for $`v_2`$ for baryons than for mesons.

It was first pointed out by Voloshin that this surprising behavior can be explained in a naive parton recombination model for hadronization . Several more detailed studies on elliptic flow based on recombination have been carried out subsequently . In addition to elliptic flow, parton recombination has been very successful in explaining the behavior of particle spectra and ratios at intermediate transverse momenta. The general theory of recombination as a hadronization mechanism in dense parton systems is described in great detail in . In this letter we present quantitative results for the elliptic flow of multi-strange particles in the recombination plus fragmentation approach – the theoretical foundation being based on our previous work in .

At low $`P_T`$ the experimental data show that the elliptic flow of a heavy particle is smaller than that of a light particle. This mass-dependence can be understood in hydrodynamic models where particles with higher mass experience the collective movement of the medium less than lighter species . However, the saturation of $`v_2`$ above $`P_T1.5`$ GeV/$`c`$ and its dependence on the hadron species in this region contradicts a purely hydrodynamic model.

At high $`P_T`$, the energy loss of fast partons in the dense medium has been proposed as a mechanism that can translate the anisotropy in the initial Au+Au system into an momentum anisotropy in the final state as well . The observation of jet quenching at RHIC energies is a strong indication for the existence of partonic energy loss which may lead to such an azimuthal anisotropy .

In the most interesting region of intermediate $`P_T`$, between 2 and 5 GeV/$`c`$, the use of hydrodynamics becomes questionable, since the fundamental assumption of an infinitely small mean free path is not valid anymore. On the other hand, the use of perturbative QCD is not well justified either, since the relevant scale $`P_T`$ is rather small and may lead to uncontrollable higher twist corrections. In addition, the strong energy loss further suppresses the contribution from perturbative parton fragmentation. These considerations suggest recombination as the dominant hadronization mechanism in the intermediate $`P_T`$ region.

To clarify the situation and to establish the dominant mechanism for hadronization and the creation of hadron $`v_2`$ in the intermediate $`P_T`$ domain we propose the measurement of $`v_2`$ for multi-strange hadrons, in particular for the $`\varphi `$ and the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. In a hydrodynamic picture the differences between hadron species are predominantly driven by the mass differences. In the recombination formalism the mass only plays a role at low $`P_T`$, while strong deviations appear at intermediate $`P_T`$ due to the different valence structure of baryons and mesons. Since the mass of the $`\varphi `$ is very close to that of the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, a statistical hadronization scheme as employed by hydrodynamics would predict the $`\varphi `$ to behave similar to the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, while recombination implies that it behaves similar to other mesons, e.g. the kaon.

## 2 Recombination plus fragmentation approach

In  we found that hadron production at intermediate $`P_T`$ is governed by an interplay of fragmentation and recombination. Recombination is more efficient than fragmentation if the parton spectrum is exponential, while fragmentation dominates for the (perturbative) power law tail of the partonic $`P_T`$ spectrum. E.g. for mesons $`M`$ recombining on a hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, the momentum distribution is given by

$$E\frac{N_M}{d^3P}=C_M_\mathrm{\Sigma }𝑑\sigma _R\frac{Pu(R)}{(2\pi )^3}_0^1𝑑xw_a(R;xP^+)|\varphi _M(x)|^2w_b(R;(1x)P^+),$$
(1)
where $`\varphi _M(x)`$ is a wave function for the meson on the light cone, $`x`$ is the momentum fraction of valence quark $`a`$, the $`w`$ are the momentum distributions of the quarks $`a`$ and $`b`$ and $`C_M`$ is a degeneracy factor. We refer the reader to  for more details.

The parton momentum distribution at hadronization is an input in Eq. (1). For quantitative predictions we assume a thermal distribution,

$$w_a(R;p)=\gamma _ae^{pv(R)/T}e^{\eta ^2/2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}f(\rho ,\varphi ),$$
(2)
where $`v(R)`$ is a four velocity and $`\gamma _a`$ is fugacity factor for each parton species $`a`$. The longitudinal and transverse spatial distributions are described by the width $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ for the space-time rapidity $`\eta `$ and a profile function $`f(\rho ,\varphi )`$ for transverse size and azimuthal angle $`\rho `$ and $`\varphi `$. We set $`\mathrm{\Delta }=2`$. $`f(\rho ,\varphi )`$ is impact parameter dependent and is scaled with the volume of the overlap zone of two nuclei in non-central collisions.

We assume that the hadronization process takes place at a temperature $`T=175`$ MeV on a hypersurface $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ given by $`\tau =\sqrt{t^2z^2}=5`$ fm/$`c`$. The radial flow velocity $`v_T`$ is fixed at 0.55$`c`$ for all values of $`\rho `$ and for all impact parameters. These input parameters were determined in  and are consistent with the observed hadron spectra and ratios from PHENIX and STAR. The recombination calculation has to be supplemented by a pQCD calculation using fragmentation functions. However, no information is available concerning the fragmentation functions of strange hadrons beyond kaons and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s.

## 3 Elliptic flow

The azimuthal asymmetry $`v_2`$ is defined by

$$v_2(P_T)=\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{𝑑\mathrm{\Phi }\mathrm{cos}2\mathrm{\Phi }d^2N/d^2P_T}{𝑑\mathrm{\Phi }d^2N/d^2P_T},$$
(3)
where $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the azimuthal angle in momentum space.

At low and intermediate $`P_T`$ the initial geometric anisotropy results in an anisotropic pressure gradient that implies an elliptic flow profile. This is parametrized via an anisotropic parton momentum distribution at the time of hadronization at which partons then hadronize via recombination. We use Eq. (2) together with an elliptic modulation of the transverse rapidity

$$\eta _T(\varphi ,p_T)=\eta _T^0(1F(p_T)\mathrm{cos}2\varphi )$$
(4)
to determine $`v_2`$ for the partons at hadronization. $`\eta _T^0`$ is the rapidity given by the radial flow velocity $`v_T=0.55c`$, so that $`\mathrm{tanh}\eta _T^0=0.55`$. This is inspired by a hydrodynamical description of the parton phase at low $`p_T`$. Hydrodynamics works well to describe the measured $`v_2`$ for hadrons up to $`P_T=1.5`$ GeV/$`c`$ . In order to accommodate the deviation from ideal hydrodynamics at higher $`P_T`$ we assume that $`F(p_T)`$ takes the from

$$F(p_T)=\frac{\alpha }{1+(p_T/p_0)^2},$$
(5)
where for a given impact parameter $`b`$

$$\alpha =\frac{w(b)l(b)}{w(b)+l(b)}$$
(6)
is determined by the collision geometry with width $`w(b)`$=$`R_Ab`$ and length $`l(b)=\sqrt{R_A^2(b/2)^2}`$ of the collision zone. $`R_A`$ is the radius of a gold nucleus.

We assume that $`v_2^u=v_2^{\overline{u}}=v_2^d=v_2^{\overline{d}}`$ and $`v_2^s=v_2^{\overline{s}}`$. The slight difference between light quarks and strange quarks originates from the mass difference. We use constituent masses $`m_{u,d}=260`$ MeV and $`m_s=460`$ MeV. The parameter $`p_0=1.1`$ GeV/$`c`$ was obtained in  by a fit to the elliptic flow of pions obtained by PHENIX  and is also consistent with data on $`v_2`$ for charged hadrons, protons, kaons and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s .

In  we showed that for recombining mesons $`M`$ and baryons $`B`$ the anisotropy $`v_2`$ can be written as

$$v_2^M(P_T)=\frac{𝑑x|\varphi _M(x)|^2[v_2^a(xP_T)+v_2^b((1x)P_T)]k_M(x,P_T)}{𝑑x|\varphi _M(x)|^2[1+2v_2^a(xP_T)v_2^b((1x)P_T)]k_M(x,P_T)},$$
(7)
$$v_2^B\left(P_T\right)=\frac{𝒟x_i\left|\varphi _B\left(x_i\right)\right|^2\left[_{j=a,b,c}v_2^j\left(x_jP_T\right)+3_{j=a,b,c}v_2^j\left(x_jP_T\right)\right]k_B(x_i,P_T)}{𝒟x_i\left|\varphi _B\left(x_i\right)\right|^2\left[1+2_{j=a,b,c}_{\mu j}v_2^\mu \left(x_\mu P_T\right)\right]k_B(x_i,P_T)},$$
(8)
where $`k_M(x,P_T)`$ and $`k_B(x,P_T)`$ are given by

$$k_M(x,P_T)=K_1\left[\frac{\mathrm{cosh}\eta _T}{T}\left(\sqrt{m_a^2+x^2P_T^2}+\sqrt{m_b^2+(1x)^2P_T^2}\right)\right],$$
(9)
$$k_B(x_i,P_T)=K_1\left[\frac{\mathrm{cosh}\eta _T}{T}\underset{j=a,b,c}{}\sqrt{m_a^2+x_a^2P_T^2}\right].$$
(10)
$`a`$, $`b`$ and $`c`$ stand for the valence partons respectively. We use the short notation $`𝒟x_i=_0^1𝑑x_a𝑑x_b𝑑x_c\delta (x_a+x_b+x_c1)`$ in Eq. (8). Using infinitely narrow delta shaped wave functions $`|\varphi |^2\delta `$ that distribute the momentum of the hadron equally to all valence quarks and neglecting higher order terms one obtains the simple scaling law ,

$$v_2^h(P_T)=nv_2^a\left(\frac{1}{n}P_T\right),$$
(11)
where $`n`$ is the number of valence quarks in the hadron.

At high $`P_T`$ the elliptic flow is dominated by the contribution of fragmentation and its value is determined by the azimuthal anisotropy due to jet energy loss. Since fragmentation functions of multi-strange particles are basically unknown, a precise calculation is not possible. However, the energy loss and hence the resulting anisotropy are partonic in nature and one can argue that in the ratio of Eq. (3) the effects of fragmentation functions tend to cancel. Indeed, we have shown in  that for the part of $`v_2`$ coming from fragmentation the difference between different hadron species is numerically negligible. Keeping this in mind we approximate the component of $`v_2`$ coming from fragmentation for baryons and mesons by that of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s and kaons respectively.

The total elliptic flow can be written as

$$v_2(P_T)=r(P_T)v_{2,R}(P_T)+(1r(P_T))v_{2,F}(P_T),$$
(12)
where $`r(P_T)`$ is the ratio recombination / (recombination + fragmentation) for the hadron spectrum as a function of transverse momentum.

## 4 Numerical results

In the following we shall discuss our results for the elliptic flow of (multi-)strange particles. All results shown are for Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s}=200`$ GeV with an impact parameter $`b`$ of 8.0 fm. Starting point of our calculation is a system of constituent quarks prior to hadronization. Figure 1 shows $`v_2`$ of $`u`$ and $`s`$ quarks as a function of $`p_T`$ from Eqs. (3,4,5). The slight difference between $`u`$ and $`s`$ quarks stems from their different masses. The mass effect disappears at high $`p_T`$. The assumption of equal elliptic flow of $`s`$ and $`u,d`$ quarks is well justified given the nearly identical behavior of the kaon and pion elliptic flow as a function of $`p_T`$, as can be seen in . Note that a different value for the $`s`$ quark elliptic flow will lead to a characteristic flavor ordering for the elliptic flow among multi-strange mesons and baryons respectively, depending on their strange quark content . Such an effect has not been observed in the data so far.

Figure 2 shows $`v_2`$ for multi-strange mesons (top frame) and baryons (bottom frame) as a function of $`P_T`$. The experimental data are taken from the STAR collaboration . Thick lines denote the full recombination+fragmentation calculation (labeled as R+F in the figure), whereas thin lines refer to recombination from thermal quarks alone (labeled as R in the figure). Under the assumption that the $`s`$ quark elliptic flow is identical to $`u`$, $`d`$ quark elliptic flow all mesons show the same behavior. The $`v_2`$ for $`\varphi `$ is identical to that of the $`K`$. This is most prominent in the saturation region of $`v_2`$. In the recombination approach the value of $`v_2`$ there is solely determined by the number of valence quarks of the hadron and the partonic $`v_2`$. The mass effect which drives the $`v_2`$ characteristics in hydrodynamical calculations is negligible for the saturation feature. The same systematics can be observed for baryons as well, leading to nearly identical elliptic flow values for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Experimental data confirm our calculation in the R+F approach for kaons, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s and $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ between 1.5 and 6 GeV/$`c`$. We have shown in  that the dependence of elliptic flow on the shape of the wave function used in Eqs. (7,8) is negligible for transverse momenta larger than 2 GeV. For further studies on the influence of the wave function see e.g. .

At $`P_T`$ lower than $`1.5`$ GeV the data exhibit the well known splitting of the $`v_2`$ curves due to the mass of the hadrons. This is only poorly reproduced by the recombination formalism since binding energies are not properly taken into account, whereas hydrodynamic calculations perform very well in this domain.

The fragmentation contribution to $`v_2`$ and the ratio $`r(P_T)`$ for kaons and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$s are taken from . As discussed above we use the values for kaons to estimate both $`v_2`$ from fragmentation and $`r(P_T)`$ for the $`\varphi `$. Moreover we use the values for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ to estimate the corresponding quantities for the $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in the fragmentation process. The tendency of fragmentation functions to cancel in Eq. (3) makes this a good approximation and also makes the difference between mesons and baryons vanish. This implies a universal flat behavior for $`P_T>6`$ GeV/$`c`$ where recombination is suppressed and the azimuthal anisotropy is dominated by pQCD processes and parton fragmentation. The merging of meson and baryon $`v_2`$ into one universal curve at high $`P_T`$ can be seen even better in Fig. 3. Multistrange hadrons with high masses might be disfavored by the fragmentation process. We expect the relative weight of recombination to be even larger for multi-strange particles: $`r_\varphi (P_T)>r_K(P_T)`$, $`r_\mathrm{\Omega }(P_T)>r_\mathrm{\Lambda }(P_T)>r_\mathrm{\Xi }(P_T)`$. Therefore hadrons like the $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ and the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ might reach the universal curve for $`v_2`$ from fragmentation even later than indicated in Fig. 2

Figure 3 elucidates the systematic differences between $`v_2`$ originating from statistical hadronization in a hydrodynamic scenario (blast wave model ) vs. hadron $`v_2`$ generated from a recombination+fragmentation scenario: thin lines represent a hydrodynamic calculation of the elliptic flow of $`\varphi `$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as a function of $`P_T`$. Since the masses of the $`\varphi `$ and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ are similar, their $`v_2`$ is identical as well in the hydrodynamic calculation. Due to its much larger mass the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ exhibits a smaller $`v_2`$, clearly distinct from that of the other two hadron species. The situation reverses in the region where recombination dominates: there the number of valence quarks in the hadron determines the resulting $`v_2`$, leading to a distinct difference in the $`v_2`$ between the $`\varphi `$ and the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, which now coincides with the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. At highest $`P_T`$ all curves merge to the universal $`v_2`$ from fragmentation.

We assume a sudden freeze-out and neglect interactions in the hadronic phase in both descriptions, recombination plus fragmentation and hydrodynamics. This seems to be reasonable for particles with high and intermediate transverse momentum and is supported by the success of the scaling law Eq. (11). The study of resonance particles is particularly important in this case . We will investigate this in a forthcoming publication.

## 5 Conclusion

In brief, we investigated the elliptic flow of multi-strange hadrons in the recombination plus fragmentation approach. We find that the behavior of $`v_2`$ as a function of $`P_T`$ in this approach is dominated by the number of valence quarks of the respective hadron, leading to very similar values of the elliptic flow for all mesons and likewise for all baryons, nearly independent of the hadron mass, as opposed to conventional statistical hadronization in hydrodynamic calculations. In particular we find that $`v_2`$ for $`\varphi `$ mesons is nearly identical to that of kaons above 2 GeV/$`c`$. This uses a parton $`v_2`$ for strange quarks that is for all practical purposes equal to the $`v_2`$ of the light flavors, in accordance with RHIC data. The measurement of $`\varphi `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ elliptic flow will thus permit to distinguish between statistical hadronization as employed by standard hydrodynamic calculations vs. hadron production through parton recombination at intermediate $`P_T`$. At high $`P_T`$ we find the elliptic flow to be dominated by fragmentation, leading to a universal curve above 6 GeV/$`c`$.

## Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by RIKEN, the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and DOE grants DE-FG02-96ER40945 and DE-AC02-98CH10886. S.A.B. acknowledges support from an Outstanding Junior Investigator Award (DOE grant DE-FG02-03ER41239) and R.J.F. has been supported by a Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.


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# Hubble Space Telescope observations of three very young star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud. 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of universities for research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5–26555

## 1 Introduction

The very compact H II regions in the Magellanic Clouds, extremely reddened, yet observable at the optical wavelengths, represent the early evolutionary stage of the cradles of the more recent star formation (SF) (Churchwell, 2002). If the duration of SF episodes is related to the size of the SF regions (Elmegreen, 2000), then the very compact H II regions in the SMC are the ideal probes of recent star formation in a low metallicity environment.

While completing our HST snapshot survey of SMC Planetary Nebulae (PNs; HST Program 8663, Cycle 10; see Stanghellini et al. 2003), we found that two of the target PNs where misclassified in the ground-based catalog (Meyssonnier & Azzopardi, 1993). On the basis of their morphological properties in both the narrow and broad band images we found that these targets are the most compact, most reddened H II regions in the SMC known to date. Furthermore, in one of the H II region frames we serendipitously observed an additional, very compact H II region, previously classified as an emission-line object (and possibly a H II region) by Meyssonnier & Azzopardi (1993). Our broad band and slitless spectra acquired with STIS disclose some extreme properties of these three regions, including extreme extinction, that are worth discussing.

Only a handful of objects similar to the ones presented here are currently known in the Magellanic Clouds (Testor, 2001), and only three of them have been discovered in the SMC (Testor, 2001; Testor & Pakull, 1985; Heydari-Malayeri, Le Bertre, & Magain, 1988). The sample presented in this paper then doubles the existing database of H II regions that are much more compact than the typical Magellanic Cloud H II regions (Copetti, 1990), and that have very high reddening.

In this paper we present the HST stellar and nebular data of MA 1796, MA 1797, and MG 2. In $`\mathrm{\S }`$2 we give an overview of the observing strategy. In $`\mathrm{\S }`$3 we discuss the imaging and spectral analysis, including the determination of the extinction from the nebular Balmer emission, the ionizing flux inferred from nebular Balmer emission, the visual stellar magnitudes of the brightest stars within the regions, and the cluster NIR magnitudes. $`\mathrm{\S }`$4 includes a discussion of our findings in the context of star formation in the SMC.

## 2 Observations

The observations were acquired with STIS. All observations were made with the CCD detector, in direct imaging (50CCD) and slitless mode. The spatial scale of the CCD is 0.051 arcsec pixel-1, corresponding to 0.014 pc pixel-1 at the distance of the SMC. This allows a good spatial resolution to study the H II region structures. Each imaging observation was split in two, to allow easy cosmic rays removal. The slitless spectra were acquired with the G430M and G750M gratings. Observations with the G430M grating cover the range 4818 Å to 5104 Å at 0.28 Å pixel-1, and those with the G750M grating cover the range 6295 Å to 6867 Å at 0.56 Å pixel-1. The exposures where originally planned to get good signal to noise ratio in the brightest emission lines of PNs, thus were not ideally designed with H II regions in mind.

The observing log is reported in Table 1, where we list the targets, their coordinates, the observing date, the data set name, the spectral element used in the observations, and the exposure time and number of exposures obtained.

MA 1796 has been classified as a new SMC PN by Meyssonnier & Azzopardi (1993) (SIMBAD resolver: \[MA93\] 1796). It is located on the outer side of the larger, young stellar cluster NGC 456. MA 1796 and NGC 456 could be physically associated, but our data are not helpful in establishing any connection.

MG 2 is catalogued as a PN in Morgan & Good (1985) (SIMBAD resolver: MGPN SMC 2). There are no published spectra of this object, nor images that resolve the H II region spatially.

MA 1797 (SIMBAD resolver: \[MA93\] 1797) was previously catalogued as a possible H II region by Meyssonnier & Azzopardi (1993), possibly part of the DEM 152 cluster.

The STIS data were calibrated using the standard pipeline system, as in the LMC PN data (Shaw et al., 2001). Figure 1 show the observed H II regions in the three observing modes: broad band CCD, \[Oiii\] , and H$`\alpha `$ images. The images are to scale, to reflect the relative physical scales. The apparent and physical dimensions of the nebulae are listed in Table 2, columns (2) and (3).

Spectral analysis have been performed in the same way to that of LMC and SMC PNs (Stanghellini et al., 2002; Stanghellini, Shaw, Balick, Blades, Mutchler, & Villaver, 2003). The combination of dispersion and spatial scale allows a clear separation of the monochromatic images for the major emission lines. We extract the one-dimensional spectra and applied a photometric calibration using the standard STIS calibration pipeline module x1d (McGrath, Busko, & Hodge, 1999). We used extraction boxes for the regions large enough to encompass the nebular features, but snug enough as to exclude most of the sky background from the extraction. Sky background regions were selected for each object to avoid stray stellar photons from field stars. The background was then averaged and subtracted.

We measured emission line intensities with IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomical Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. splot task, fitting gaussians to individual lines, while estimating the continuum level. In the cases in which the emission lines were notably non gaussian, we estimated the line flux as measured from the area above the continuum.

The measured fluxes are listed in Table 2, columns (4), (6), and (7).

We identified the H$`\beta `$ and the \[Oiii$`\lambda \lambda `$ 4959,5007 lines in the G430M spectrum of MG 2. The H$`\alpha `$ emission is the only nebular feature in the G750M spectrum of this H II region. The given H$`\alpha `$ flux includes the \[Nii\] emission, although the slitless spectrogram suggest that the \[Nii\] contribution to the flux is marginal.

The analysis of the MA 1796 spectra shows the \[Oiii\] and H$`\beta `$ lines detected with a very good signal to noise ratio. The \[Sii\] emission at $`\lambda `$6716,6731 is also detected.

MA 1797 was serendipitously observed at the edge of the field, so the H$`\beta `$ emission does not appear in the G430M spectrum. The H$`\alpha `$ flux is high, comparable with that of the previously observed compact H II regions N 81 and N 88A.

## 3 Data analysis and physical properties

### 3.1 Nebular reddening

We derive the optical extinction from the analysis of the nebular Balmer lines, and we give the logarithmic extinction constants (c) in Table 2, column (5). We assume that the optical extinction law is the same in the Galaxy and the SMC, thus we do not estimate the foreground extinction separately. The derived extinction is rather a lower limit, since we do not consider possible regions whose optical flux is totally absorbed. Our feeling is that the extinction corrections should be higher than what estimated from the nebular lines.

With a H$`\alpha `$ /H$`\beta `$ flux ratio of 8.7, MG 2 is evidently an extremely reddened object. Note that the flux ratio could be off by a factor of two, given the flux uncertainties, and still be extremely high for a compact H II regions. By assuming Te=10,000 K, we estimate the logarithmic optical extinction constant c=1.4 (or EB-V=0.95, Seaton 1979).

The optical extinction constant of MA 1796, c=1.53, is the highest ever measured in a compact SMC H II region. This nebula is a factor of 10 lower in excitation than MG 2.

Given that we do not measured its H$`\beta `$ flux, we could not derive the extinction constant for MA 1797.

### 3.2 Ionizing flux from the nebular Balmer emission

We computed the RMS density of MA 1796 and MG 2, based upon our knowledge of the H$`\beta `$ flux, the average nebular extinction, the known distance to the SMC, and the physical extent of the nebulae, using the formulation:

$$\mathrm{N}_{\mathrm{RMS}}=[(\mathrm{F}_\beta /\mathrm{h}\nu \alpha )(\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{V})]^{0.5}$$
$`(1),`$
where $`\nu `$ is the H$`\beta `$ (or H$`\alpha `$ ) frequency, $`\alpha `$ is the recombination coefficient for H$`\beta `$ (or H$`\alpha `$ ), V is the nebular volume, and W is the geometrical dilution factor. The log density is given in column (8) of Table 2. We also estimated the total number of ionizing photons, QH, for the Strömgren spheres corresponding to the sizes of these nebulae (Osterbrock, 1989), assuming that all ionizing radiation is contained within the regions. The results, in the last column of Table 3, are roughly consistent with a single B0 or a very late O main-sequence star exciting the region (Osterbrock, 1989). The value of QH is very uncertain because it is proportional to the square of the electron density, which itself is very uncertain. It also depends upon the assumption of high optical depth to ionizing radiation, which is probably a reasonable approximation for ultra compact H II regions. We did not attempt an estimate of the fraction of the ionizing radiation absorbed by dust (see discussion of the reddening).

In the case of MA 1797 we perform the calculation of the density and QH from the H$`\alpha `$ flux, uncorrected for extinction. The resulting analysis for this region is extremely uncertain, and it is given in Table 2 only as an indication. In the next section we make use of these approximate values for QH in these nebulae to aid our interpretation of the stellar photometry.

### 3.3 Visual stellar photometry

With the high spatial resolution of HST we can easily resolve the stars individually, thus we can use aperture photometry with confidence. We have measured the magnitudes of the brightest stars within MA 1796 and MG 2. The stellar photometry was performed with the apphot package in IRAF, through a circular aperture of 2 pixels of radius. The averaged sky within an annulus 1 pixel wide adjacent to the position of the star was then subtracted to the stellar measurement. The sky includes the nebular emission as well. The measured instrumental magnitudes (STMAG system) use the zero-point calibration by Brown et al. (2002). The aperture correction has been taken from the curve of encircled energy derived by Brown et al. (2002) for stars near the field center.

The 50CCD mirror has broad-band transmission, and its response curve is far from that of the standard V filter. The transformation between the measured instrumental magnitudes and the standard V magnitudes depends on the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the source, which is determined by the amount of extinction and, to a lesser extent, by the stellar temperature. We do not have the stellar temperatures of the stars, but we know that they are hot enough to ionize H II regions, thus we infer their temperatures to be in the range between 30,000 and 50,000 K. We assume that the extinction toward the stars is the average nebular extinction. We feed these parameters to the IRAF/STSDAS routine synphot, to perform the synthetic photometric modeling necessary to derive the transformation to the standard V magnitudes.

In Table 3 we give the photometric measurements of the three brightest stars in MA 1796, and the 5 brightest stars in MG 2. The quoted errors in the V standard magnitudes include the standard deviation of the transformation for the range of temperatures used. In Figures 2 and 3 we identify the stars with the same numbering than in Table 3, for MA 1796 (Fig. 2) and MG 2 (Fig. 3). We have corrected the V magnitudes for extinction by using the approximate relation between the average logarithmic extinction constant derived for the nebula, c, and the color excess, EB-V (c = 1.47 EB-V, Seaton 1979). The SMC extinction law is very similar to the Galactic law in this wavelength range (Hutchings, 1982), so we have used the Galactic reddening curve law of Savage & Mathis (1979), and assumed that RV = 3.1. The stellar extinction in magnitudes we apply is then AV = 2.1 c.

In order to derive the absolute visual magnitudes, we have used the average SMC distance modulus obtained with the RR Lyrae method (Westerlund, 1997). None of the stellar magnitudes measured and transformed as described above correspond to an O star of any subclass, according to the calibration of Vacca, Garmany, & Shull (1996), the explanation probably lies in the extinction, being higher than measured.

### 3.4 Cluster NIR magnitudes

In order to frame the extinction correction a little better, we have searched the two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) for near Infrared sources within 5” of the central position of MA 1796 and MG 2. We found that each H II region is uniquely associated with one compact object in the 2MASS point source catalogue (All-Sky Point Source Catalog). The J, H, and Ks magnitudes corresponding to these two point sources are listed In Table 4.

In a JHK color-color diagram (e.g. Lada & Adams 1992) MA 1796 and MG 2 would lay outside and to the right of the reddening band, indicating the presence of intrinsic infrared excess. This result alone could have indicated that the objects are not common PNs. Intrinsic infrared excesses are indicative of the presence of circumstellar material. According to Lada & Adams (1992), young stellar objects and Herbig Ae/Be stars populate the part of the Near-Infrared color-color diagram where our sources are located.

## 4 Summary

We have identified two new compact young stellar cluster in the SMC, that were previously classified as PNs. The unique spatial resolution of HST clearly disclose that these objects, merely a few arcsecond across, are not PNs.

Limited analysis of their nebular spectra disclose very high H$`\alpha `$ to H$`\beta `$ ratios, placing them among the extreme compact and reddened H II regions in the SMC, as observed at the optical wavelengths. Imaging and the H$`\alpha `$ flux are also available for a third, larger H II region that was serendipitously observed in the same frame of one of the misclassified PNs.

Studying the IR properties of the regions, we found that they present high IR excess. These excess, together with compactness of the regions, indicate that they are very young star forming regions.

Stellar photometry places the brightest stars in the regions out of the O star domain. The definitive stellar classification is not possible with the present data. If the stars observed near the center of these nebulae are in fact providing all or most of the ionizing photons, then the spectral types inferred from the observed brightness and the bolometric correction are inconsistent with the observed level of nebular ionization. A possible explanation is that the stars suffer greater extinction than is inferred from the nebular Balmer decrement.

We conclude that we observed a few very young clusters of recent star formation, but the details of the populations therein are left to a future investigation. We plan to perform UBV photometry of these regions, possibly with HST resolution, to disclose the true nature of the component stars. Infrared observations at high resolution are also necessary to analyze in detail the reddening structure of these unique H II regions. A small cluster of stars whose few brightest and hottest members are of early B or late O spectral type is consistent both with the level of nebular ionization, and with the small physical size of the nebula.

We also plan to obtain the physical parameters of the gas, such as temperature, density, and abundances, from moderate resolution ground based optical spectra. Such observations will also verify our estimated of the ionizing photons from the embedded stars.

This work was supported by NASA through grant GO-08663.01-A from Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS -26555. This publication made 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.


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# Intrinsic Decoherence and Irreversibility in the Quasiperiodic Kicked Rotor

## Abstract

We show that some classically chaotic quantum systems uncoupled from noisy environments may generate intrinsic decoherence with all its associated effects. In particular, we have observed time irreversibility and high sensitivity to small perturbations in the initial conditions in a quasiperiodic version of the kicked rotor. The existence of simple quantum systems with intrinsic decoherence clarifies the quantum–classical correspondence in chaotic systems.

decoherence, irreversibility, quantum chaos

It is well established, mainly from the important contributions by Zurek and others Zurek , that weak interaction of a quantum system with a noisy environment induces decoherence in the quantum dynamical evolution. Ultimately this effect is behind the emergence of a classical world from the quantum formalism. In the case of quantum systems with chaotic classical analogs, this implies that diffusion, entropy increase, time irreversibility and other typical characteristics of classical chaos emerge as a result from the decoherence induced by noisy environments. Experimental evidence of the effects of the decoherence induced by coupling to noisy environments has been obtained in the case of the quantum kicked rotor using optical atom traps. The effect of decoherence is to destroy dynamical localization and establish a quantum diffusion regime edeco\_qkr . Similar effects have also been observed using trapped ions edeco\_trapions . It is interesting to inquire how essential is the role of the environment in the emergence of classical-like chaotic behavior in quantum systems. Can the same dynamical effects due to a noisy environment be obtained from a modified hamiltonian without coupling to the environment? In other words, can a quantum system develop “intrinsic decoherence”?

In this paper we show that a modified version of the kicked rotor can develop classical–like effects usually associated to environment–induced decoherence. These effects include irreversibility and a high sensibility to small perturbations in the initial conditions. The possibility of the generation of “intrinsic decoherence” in systems isolated from their environment, has recently been suggested in the literature Castagnino ; Gong .

We recall that in the classical kicked rotor, for strong enough kick strengths, there is global chaos in phase space caos  with all its manifestations. This includes exponential sensibility to small perturbations in the initial conditions and time–irreversibility. Despite that the equations of motion are time–reversible, if time is reversed, small errors are exponentially amplified and a new diffusive process takes place. In the quantum mechanical case, the diffusive process in action space is suppressed after a characteristic time due to dynamical localization, a quantum coherence effect. The quantum suppression of chaos due to dynamical localization takes place ultimately due to the discrete nature of the quasienergy spectrum of the kicked rotor Izrailev . If time is reversed, the unitary evolution returns the system to its initial state, in spite of small errors in the initial conditions. This striking manifestation of the quantum suppression of chaos was first shown numerically by Graham and Dittrich Graham .

We now introduce a specific model system, the quasiperiodic kicked rotor. Consider a rotor to which a periodic series of impulsive kicks of strength $`K`$ and period $`T_1`$ is applied. If a second periodic series of kicks with the same strength and a period $`T_2`$ incommensurate with the first, is applied to the rotor the resulting time–dependent hamiltonian is quasiperiodic and can be written as

$$H=\frac{P^2}{2I}+K\mathrm{cos}\theta \left[\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\delta (tnT_1)+\underset{m=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\delta (tmT_2)\right],$$
(1)
where $`P`$ is the angular momentum, $`\theta `$ is the angular position of the rotor and we choose units so that the moment of inertia is $`I=1`$. It has been shown alejo1  that in this system the initial diffusion persists for arbitrarily long times. In fact, this system can be described by a master equation and the entropy increases forever in a way typical of a decoherent evolution alejo2 . It is worth noting that the decoherence we are discussing here is not due to the coupling with a noisy environment, but is due to the dynamical complexity of the hamiltonian. When the second series of kicks is added to the kicked rotor, the underlaying frequency response spectrum changes from a discrete (pure–point) to a dense spectrum alejo1 .

It is interesting to find whether this intrinsic decoherence also implies a time–irreversible quantum dynamics, as it is the case with environment–induced decoherence. If we reverse time in the quasiperiodic kicked rotor, we find that there is no sensitivity to small perturbations in the wavefunction. However, a closer look reveals that perturbing the wavefunction components is not analogous to perturbing the classical phase space coordinates. The classical analog of a perturbation of the wavefunction would be perhaps to perturb the Liouville function of the corresponding classical system. As is well known, the linear nature of the Liouville equation prevents any small perturbation in the distribution function from growing exponentially fast, even under conditions of global chaos. The actual analog of perturbing the classical phase space coordinates, would be to perturb the expected value of some suitable quantum observable. Then, small perturbations in the expectation value of these observables may, under certain circumstances, lead to large variations in the wave function.

We have tested the previous considerations using the quasiperiodic kicked rotor described by (1). In the position representation, the wavefunction is

$$\mathrm{\Psi }(\theta ,t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\underset{\mathrm{}=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_{\mathrm{}}(t)e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }.$$
(2)
The evolution for $`a_{\mathrm{}}(t)`$ is obtained in a straightforward way alejo1  from the quantum map

$$a_{\mathrm{}}(t_{n+1})=\underset{j=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}i^{(j\mathrm{})}e^{i\mathrm{}j^2\mathrm{\Delta }t_n/2}J_j\mathrm{}(K/\mathrm{})a_j(t_n),$$
(3)
where we refer to the instant immediately after the $`n^{th}`$ kick as $`t_n`$, to the time interval between two consecutive kicks as $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_nt_{n+1}t_n`$ and $`J_k`$ is the $`k^{th}`$ order cylindrical Bessel function. The time intervals $`\mathrm{\Delta }t_n`$ are in general different, since they depend on the kick sequence. In fact, they form a dense set. Note that the periodically kicked rotor is also described by the quantum map (3) with a constant time interval between kicks $`\mathrm{\Delta }t=T=1`$.

If a small perturbation is introduced in the angular position, $`\theta \theta +\epsilon `$, the wavefunction (2) becomes

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{\Psi }}(\theta ,t)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\underset{\mathrm{}=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_{\mathrm{}}(t)e^{i\mathrm{}\epsilon }e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\underset{\mathrm{}=\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\stackrel{~}{a}_{\mathrm{}}(t)e^{i\mathrm{}\theta }.$$
(4)
where the transformed coefficients $`\stackrel{~}{a}_{\mathrm{}}=a_{\mathrm{}}e^{i\mathrm{}\epsilon }`$ have acquired a phase. Note that for given $`\epsilon `$, the wave function components with larger $`\mathrm{}`$ undergo larger phase shifts.

We consider the evolution of an initial wavepacket under the quantum map (3). At a certain point $`t^{}`$ the direction of time is reversed, $`tt`$ and a small perturbation $`\epsilon `$ is introduced in the angular position, as described in (4). As shown in figure 1, if the perturbation is above a certain threshold, the system resumes diffusion after a characteristic time which depends on $`\epsilon `$. This can be understood by considering eq. (4) which shows how the perturbation affects the wavefunction. We adopt the following criteria to decide whether a given angular momentum component is present in the wavefunction: consider a small number $`\delta 1`$, then the angular momentum component $`\mathrm{}`$ is present in the wavefunction if the condition $`|a_{\mathrm{}}|^2>\delta `$ is satisfied. We define $`\mathrm{}_{max}`$, as the highest angular momentum component present in the wavefunction. If $`\mathrm{}_{max}\epsilon 1`$, the perturbation will have no appreciable effect on the dynamics and the reversibility associated to a unitary quantum evolution will manifest itself. On the other hand, if $`\mathrm{}_{max}\epsilon 1`$, the perturbation affects strongly the wavefunction and irreversibility will be apparent after a characteristic time. The weaker the perturbation, the larger this characteristic time, as we show in figure 1. For a weak enough perturbation the system will return to its initial state in a way characteristic of time–reversible systems. The threshold value of the perturbation is simply related to the maximum angular momentum present in the wavefunction

$$\epsilon _{th}\frac{1}{\mathrm{}_{max}}.$$
(5)
In this system, as time progresses, diffusion in angular momentum causes progressively higher angular momentum modes to participate in the dynamics, in the sense detailed above. Therefore, the sensitivity of the wavefunction to a given perturbation, as measured by $`\epsilon _{th}`$, increases with time.

In figure 2 we show this increasing sensibility by considering the effect of a given perturbation for different “break times” $`t^{}`$. The time the system takes to resume diffusion decreases as $`t^{}`$ becomes larger, indicating an increasing sensibility to the same perturbation. This is due to the fact that the threshold value $`\epsilon _{th}`$ decreases with time as $`\mathrm{}_{max}`$ increases. This diffuse process continues for arbitrary long times, in the quasiperiodic kicked rotor, a system with a dense frequency response spectrum. That is, the frequencies involved in a Fourier analysis of the dynamical response of the system form a dense set alejo1 . (For non-periodic time–dependent hamiltonians the frequency response spectrum is its natural generalization of the quasienergy spectrum of periodic systems).

It is instructive to consider the case of a discrete spectrum, as that of the periodically kicked rotor. If we consider the effect of time reversal and a perturbation on this system, it is not surprising that for reversal times $`t^{}`$ less than the localization time $`\tau `$, we find that figures 1 and 2 apply also to this system and there is a threshold $`\epsilon _{th}`$ for reversible perturbations. However, in this case the threshold decreases during the quantum diffusion stage, but stops decreasing as soon as the wavefunction becomes exponentially localized because after this point no new angular momentum components are introduced. Therefore, a perturbation $`\epsilon <\epsilon _{th}`$ which takes place at any time after the wave function has localized, will not affect the reversibility of the motion. A side effect of dynamical localization is to “freeze” the sensitivity to perturbations at the value it had at time $`t=\tau `$ when the system localized.

In conclusion, we have analyzed an example of a classically chaotic quantum system, the quasiperiodic kicked rotor, which has a decoherent quantum dynamics without coupling with a noisy environment. We have shown that suitable small perturbations in the initial conditions are amplified in a way similar to the classical case and as a result, the quantum motion becomes irreversible. It should be stressed that by “suitable perturbations” in the quantum mechanical context, we mean a small perturbation in the expected value of an observable and not a small perturbation in the wave function. As we have shown, a small perturbation of the mean value of a quantum observable may imply a large perturbation of the wave function.

In the case of the periodically kicked rotor, the dynamical localization prevents a similar effect to take place. The quasiperiodic kicked rotor has a dense response spectrum alejo1  while the periodically kicked rotor has a discrete spectrum which produces localization. Thus we conjecture that a dense spectrum is necessary in order to observe intrinsic decoherence in classically chaotic quantum systems. We note that this requirement has also been proposed in a cosmological context Castagnino .

The existence of simple quantum systems with intrinsic decoherence and the associated time irreversibility and high sensitivity to small perturbations in initial conditions may help to clarify the quantum–classical correspondence in chaotic systems.

*We acknowledge the support of PEDECIBA (Uruguay). GA and RD acknowledge partial financial support from the Brazilian Millennium Institute for Quantum Information—CNPq (Brazil).*


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# Spectral analysis of a large sample of BeppoSAX Seyfert spectra with Comptonization models: Preliminary results

## 1 The data

We select a large sample of Seyfert galaxies observed by BeppoSAX. The only selection criterium was a sufficiently large S/N ($`>`$ 10) in the PDS band to allow good detection and good spectral fitting up to the highest ($``$200 keV) energy. The names, as well as the Seyfert types and the numbers of BeppoSAX observations, are reported in Table 1 for each object of our sample.

The LECS and MECS event files were downloaded from the BeppoSAX archives. The spectral counts were extracted from a circular region of 4’ for the MECS and 4’ or 8’ for the LECS depending in the source statistics in the LECS band. We used the data of the three (or two, for observations done after May 1997) MECS units merged together to increase the S/N.

The PDS data have been reduced using the mission specific software XAS. Variable Raise Time correction has been applied so to increase the S/N ratio. Source counts time series have been inspected visually to identify and eliminate spurious spikes that could affect the spectral shape especially at the lower end of the PDS useful energy band. The +off and -off background spectra have been checked to test their self-consistency and to exclude significant contamination from unknown sources.

## 2 Models and method used

### 2.1 The models

The main effort in this work, in comparison to comparable studies done in the past on BeppoSAX data (, , ) is that we adopt precise thermal comptonization models to fit the different spectra.

We also used two corona-disc configurations: a slab geometry (code of Haardt ) and a spherical (i.e. Isotropic) geometry (code of Poutanen & Svensson ). Both codes derived the angle–dependent spectra of the disk–corona system using an iterative scattering method. The slab code also treats properly the scattering anisotropy inherent to the slab geometry .

The physical parameters of these models are: the temperature of the corona, $`kT_e`$, the corona optical depth $`\tau `$, the soft photon temperature $`kT_{bb}`$ and the reflection normalization $`R`$.

Most of the objects present Warm Absorber features and/or a Soft excess in the low part (i.e. in the LECS energy band) of their spectra. Good and realistic fits require to take these features into account. Detailed analyses of these different components are however beyond the scope of this paper, which is instead focused on the high energy continuum of the sources. Then, as a first approximation, we have added simple components (edges, gaussian, blackbody…) to the primary continuum to reproduce the main features present in the soft part of the spectra.

The use of the complete BeppoSAX energy band, and especially the soft part, is very important since, in the case of thermal comptonization models, soft and hard X-ray part of the spectra are linked. For example, the presence of a soft excess have some impact on the fit of the 2-10 keV X-ray continuum spectral shape, which strongly depends on $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$. On the other hand the high energy cut-off observed in the hard X-ray/soft $`\gamma `$-ray in a large part of our objects also strongly depends on $`kT_e`$. Thus the way we fit the soft excess may influence strongly our high energy fits. A consistent picture then necessitates the use of

the complete BeppoSAX energy interval.
This work can be seen as the continuation of the work already done for some of the brightest sources of our sample ().

### 2.2 The method

For each observation we check for spectral variability and treat separatly the different spectral states

Since we generally have very few constrains on the soft photon temperature $`kT_{bb}`$, it is fixed in all fits to 10 eV. A first check shows that the use of other values of $`kT_{bb}`$ does not change significantly our results but more precise tests will be done in the future.

All the parameters were let free to vary during the fit procedure but most of them, $`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$ and $`R`$ apart, were fixed for the computation of the contour plots. We use XSPEC (v11.2).

## 3 Preliminary results

Only 13 observations (6 objects) have been treated so far and thus the preliminary results presented here have to be taken with caution:

* The two model geometry give acceptable fits with a total $`\chi ^2`$/dof of 2096/1948 and 2156/1938 for the slab and spherical geometry respectively
* Following the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the distribution of the best fit values of $`\tau `$ and $`R`$ significantly differ for the two geometry (cf. Fig. 1). Following the same test, the distributions of $`kT_e`$ agree at more than 90%. The resulting Compton parameter values are always larger for the spherical geometry. The values of these different parameters thus appear to be strongly model dependent
* We do not find clear correlation between the different parameters (using the Spearman (rank) and Pearson linear correlation test even if a anti-correlation between $`R`$ and $`kT_e`$ is suggested by the data (cf. Fig. 2) . The study of the complete sample will permit to conclude on more firm and solid statistics ground.