text:
# The Tully–Fisher relation at intermediate redshift Based on observations with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (ESO-VLT), observing run IDs 65.O-0049, 66.A-0547 and 68.A-0013. ,Our full data table is available in electronic form via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr

## 1 Introduction

Ever since the relation between the luminosity $`L`$ and the maximum rotation velocity $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ of spiral galaxies was first observed (Tully & Fisher TF77 (1977)), the physical origin of its slope and scatter, as well as the possible evolution thereof over different cosmic epochs have been subject to debate both in theoretical and observational studies. Within the last few years, the Tully–Fisher relation (TFR) has been put into the framework of a Fundamental Plane (FP) for spiral galaxies that introduces the disk scale length $`r_\mathrm{d}`$ as a third parameter (e.g. Burstein et al. Bu97 (1997)). Similiar to the FP of dynamically hot galaxies, i.e. stellar systems that are stabilized due to random motion (e.g. Dressler et al. Dre87 (1987)), the spiral FP has smaller scatter edge–on than its two–dimensional projections. This may be understood in terms of two dominant parameters for disk galaxies, for example the mass and angular momentum (Koda, Sofue & Wada KSW00 (2000)).

Numerical simulations within hierarchical Cold Dark Matter (CDM)-dominated cosmologies have been successfully used to reproduce the observed slope of the local TFR, whereas the numerical zero points were offset due to dark halos with too high concentrations (e.g. Navarro & Steinmetz NS00 (2000)). The TFR slope is predicted to remain constant with cosmic look–back time in such N-body simulations; nevertheless the modelling of realistic stellar populations at sufficient resolution remains a challenge.

Other theoretical approaches focus more on the chemo–spectrophotometric aspects of disk galaxy evolution. For example, Boissier & Prantzos (BP01 (2001)) used the “hybrid” approach (Jimenez et al. Ji98 (1998)) that relates the disk surface density to the properties of the associated DM Halo, and calibrated it to reproduce the observed colors of local spirals. Compared to these, the authors predict higher luminosities for large disks and lower luminosites for small disks at redshifts $`z>0.4`$. A similiar evolution is found by Ferreras & Silk (FS01 (2001)). By modelling the mass–dependent chemical enrichment history of disk galaxies with the local TFR as a constraint, the authors find a TFR slope that increases with look–back time (i.e., for a parameterisation $`LV_{\mathrm{max}}^\alpha `$, $`\alpha `$ increases with redshift).

In the last decade, many observational studies of the local TFR have produced very large samples with $`N_{\mathrm{obj}}1000`$ (e.g. Haynes et al. Hay99 (1999)), not only to derive the slope and scatter with high accuracy, but also to map the peculiar velocity field out to $`cz15000`$ km s-1 (e.g. Mathewson & Ford MF96 (1996)). Other groups used spirals, partly with cepheid–calibrated distances, to measure the Hubble constant. For example, Sakai et al. (Sa00 (2000)) derived a value of $`H_0=(71\pm 4)`$ km s-1 with this method.

At higher redshifts, robust measurements of rotation velocities and luminosities become increasingly difficult. This is partly because of the low apparent magnitudes of the galaxies, but also due to the limited intrinsic spatial resolution (see Sect. 4 for a more detailed description of this effect). A number of samples with 10-20 objects in the regime $`0.25<z<0.5`$ have been observed in recent years to estimate a possible evolution in luminosity by comparison to the local TFR. The results of these studies were quite discrepant: e.g. Vogt et al. (Vog96 (1996, 1997)) find only a modest increase in luminosity of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B0.5^m`$, whereas Simard & Pritchet (SP98 (1998)) and Rix et al. (Rix97 (1997)) derive a much stronger brightening with $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B2.0^m`$. A study of 19 field spirals by Milvang-Jensen et al. (Mil03 (2003)) reveals a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B0.5^m`$ and shows evidence for an increase with redshift. Another sample of 19 spirals by Barden et al. (Ba03 (2003)) which covers the high redshifts $`0.6<z<1.5`$ yields a value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B1.1^m`$.

It seems likely that some of these results are affected by the selection criteria. For example, Rix et al. selected blue colors with $`(BR)_{\mathrm{obs}}<1.2^m`$, Simard & Pritchet strong \[O II\] emission with equivalent widths $`>`$20Å, while Vogt et al. partly chose large disks with $`r_\mathrm{d}>3`$ kpc. The two former criteria prefer late–type spirals, whereas the latter criterion leads to the overrepresentation of large, early–type spirals. Additionally, due to the small samples, all these studies had to assume that the local TFR slope holds valid at intermediate redshift. We will further discuss this issue in Sect. 8.

Based on a larger data set from the DEEP Groth Strip Survey (Koo Ko01 (2001)) with $`N100`$ spirals in the range $`0.2<z<1.3`$, Vogt (Vog01 (2001)) finds a constant TFR slope and a negligible rest–frame $`B`$-band brightening of less than 0.2 mag. In a more recent publication from this group which investigates the luminosity–metallicity relation, an evolution both in slope and zero point is observed (Kobulnicky et al. Ko03 (2003)), in the sense that the luminosity offsets are largest at the low–luminosity end of the sample and smallest at the high–luminosity end. The authors argue that low–luminosity galaxies could have either undergone a decrease in luminosity or an increase in the metallicity in the last $`8`$ Gyrs.

Preliminary results from our TF project indicating a mass–dependent luminosity evolution of distant field spirals have been presented in a letter (Ziegler et al. Zie02 (2002)). In this paper, we will describe the derivation of the maximum rotation velocities, the galaxies’ structural parameters and the luminosities in more detail and present the data table of the enlarged, full sample. Complementary to our approach in Ziegler et al., the complete analysis will be restricted here to galaxies with rotation curves that extend well into the region of constant rotation velocity at large radii, i.e. spirals that yield robust values of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. In addition, different shapes for the intrinsic rotation curves will be compared. Finally, we will discuss potential environmental effects on the sample and present the galaxies’ virial masses.

The paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, we describe our selection procedure and the observations. Data reduction will be outlined in Sect. 3. The extraction of rotation curves and $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ derivations are described in Sect. 4, followed by the details of the transformations from apparent to absolute magnitudes in Sect. 5 and the presentation of the data table in Sect. 6. We will then construct the distant TFR in Sect. 7 and discuss the results in Sect. 8. A summary is given in Sect. 9.

Throughout this article, we will assume the concordance cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ = 0.3, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ = 0.7 and $`H_0`$ = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1.

## 2 Sample selection and observations

Our sample consists of galaxies in the FORS Deep Field (FDF), a sky region near the south galactic pole with deep $`UBgRIJK`$ photometry and visible completeness limits similiar to the Hubble Deep Fields. For a description of the field selection criteria and the total $`N8750`$ object catalogue of the FDF, we refer to Heidt et al. (Hei03 (2003)).

The basis for spectroscopy target pre–selection was the FDF photometric redshifts catalogue (Bender et al. Ben01 (2001)). To keep the selection function as simple as possible, the only spectrophotometric costraints were that the galaxies should have a spectral energy distribution (SED) later than E/S0 and an apparent total brightness of $`R23^m`$. This limit was chosen to gain S/N $``$ 5 in emission lines at intermediate resolution within 2-3 hours integration time with the Very Large Telescope (VLT). To ensure the visibility of either the \[O II\] 3727 doublet, H$`\beta `$ or \[O III\] 5007 within the wavelength range of the 600R grism of FORS, the upper limit for the photometric redshift was $`z_{\mathrm{phot}}1.2`$. Since the basic aim was to derive spatially resolved rotation curves of the galaxies, (most of the) objects with inclinations $`i<40^{}`$ were rejected.

In Multiobject Spectroscopy (MOS) mode, FORS offers 19 individually moveable slits. The setups were prepared with the FIMS (FORS Instrument Mask Simulator) package. According to the position angles, we subdivided the target galaxy sample into bins of 30 to minimize geometric distortions in the final rotation curves. Thus, a set of 6 MOS masks was necessary to cover all orientations. In the case of some objects, either the inclination limit of 40, the limit of 15 deviation between position angle and slit orientation, or the magnitude limit had to be exceeded to fill all slitlets.

The first observations were carried out with FORS2 mounted on VLT Unit Telescope 2 (UT2) in September and October 2000. Each mask was exposed for 3 $`\times `$ 3000 s. The slit widths were set to one arcsecond and grism 600R with order separation filter GG435 was used, yielding a spectral resolution of $`\mathrm{R}1200`$. FORS was operated in its standard resolution configuration of 0.2″/pixel. The seeing conditions covered the range $`0.43\mathrm{}\mathrm{FWHM}0.81\mathrm{}`$ according to the Differential Image Motion Monitor (DIMM). In October 2001, an additional set of three MOS masks was observed with FORS1 mounted on VLT UT3 with the same instrument configuration as in 2000 with seeing of 0.74″ $``$ FWHM $``$ 0.89″. In total, spectra of 129 spirals out of 156 candidates were taken (the latter number includes targets which slightly exceed the brightness limit).

## 3 Data reduction

The reduction procedures were implemented in the ESO-MIDAS (Munich Image Data Analysis System) environment. For all three observing runs, the bias sets taken at the beginning and end of the night showed a very stable two–dimensional structure, so all bias frames from the nights of the 2000 and 2001 observations were used to generate two master biases. The individual bias frames have been normalized to the same median count rate and were median–averaged, followed by a slight Gaussian filter smoothing ($`\sigma _{x,y}=3`$ pixel). The overscan region of the science frames was used to determine the offset constant for final master bias subtraction. Since the dark current was very uniform across the CCDs, an extra dark subtraction has been neglected.

Spectroscopy flatfield (FF) through–mask exposures with FORS were taken by default with two sets of lamps switched on alternately. Since either the upper or lower half of the frames were not usable due to contaminating light from the gaps between the slits, the appropriate regions from both sets of FF frames were extracted and re–combined after multiplicative normalization and median–averaging. The slit regions of calibration and science frames were then individually extracted. The FF slit exposures were approximated by a polynomial fit of sixth degree in dispersion direction (X axis) to account for the CCD response curve, which was used for normalization prior to the correction of the pixel–to–pixel variations.

In the next step, the geometric distortions caused by the focal reducer were corrected. For the slits at the bottom and top of the CCD, where the distortions were maximum, the curvature of spectral features corresponded to a displacement of up to 5-6 pixel both in X and Y direction (see Fig. 1 for an illustration). A polynomial fit of second degree was fitted to the galaxy spectra in each slit to derive the curvature along the spatial axis. Based on this fit, the science and wavelength calibration spectra were rectified with an accuracy of 0.1 pixel (corresponding to 0.02″). Tests revealed that the flux conservation of this procedure was accurate to within a few percent. The distortions along the X axis could be corrected during standard wavelength calibration. In the calibration exposures, the HgCd lamp was switched on additionally to the He, Ar and Ne lamps in order to gain a sufficient number of emission lines below $``$ 5800 Å. For the two–dimensional dispersion relation, polynomial fits of third and first degree were used in the direction of the X and Y axes, respectively. The typical r.m.s. of the relation was 0.03-0.04 Å at a stepsize of 1.08 Å per pixel.

The night sky emission was fitted column by column with first order fits, unless a galaxy spectrum was located at the extreme edges of the slit. In those cases, zero order fits yielded the best results. Night sky subtraction was performed individually for each mask exposure. Prior to the final addition of the three exposures, the optical center of each galaxy along the Y axis has been determined by fitting a Gaussian. If necessary, the spectra were shifted by integer values (two pixels at maximum in a few cases) to ensure consistent profile centers to within at least half a pixel, corresponding to 0.1″. A weighted addition was used if the average seeing varied by more than $``$ 20 percent between the exposures.

## 4  Rotation velocity derivation

### 4.1 Redshift distribution

Out of the 129 galaxies of which spectra were taken, redshifts could be determined for 113 spirals, including three cases of secondary objects which were covered by a MOS slit by chance. The 16 galaxies without spectroscopic redshifts populate the extreme faint end of our apparent brightness distribution with a median of $`R=22.9^m`$. Since only one of these spirals features colors of a very late–type SED, the S/N of the remainders may be just too low to yield detectable emission lines. According to the photometric redshifts, the \[O II\] 3727 doublet is possibly redshifted out of the wavelength range of the R600 grism in the case of 8 targets, while for 5 other galaxies in the regime $`0.2<z_{\mathrm{phot}}<0.5`$, only \[O III\] or H$`\beta `$ emission is potentielly covered, which is weaker than H$`\alpha `$ or \[O II\] for typical spirals.

Fig. 2 shows the redshift distribution of our sample, restricted to objects with appropriate rotation curves for the TF analysis, see Sect. 4.4 for the constraints. The median redshift is $`z=0.45`$. It is likely that the bimodal shape is a combination of the two following effects.

Firstly, as has been outlined in Heidt et al. (Hei03 (2003)), the southwestern corner of the FDF covers the outskirts of a galaxy cluster at $`z=0.33`$. Allowing a spread in redshift of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=0.01`$, we find that a maximum of 8 galaxies in our sample could be members of this cluster. The small redshift “bump” at $`z0.3`$ can be attributed to these objects.

Secondly, the sample contains relatively few galaxies around redshift $`z0.6`$. For comparison, we also show the distribution of 144 galaxies at $`z<1.1`$ from the FDF high–$`z`$ campaign (Mehlert et al. Me02 (2002), Noll et al. No03 (2004)) which are not contained in our sample. The high–$`z`$ spectra were taken with the same instrument configuration as the TF data, except that the low–resolution grism 150I was used which covers a much broader wavelength range of $``$ 6000 Å in observer’s frame. The large number of galaxies with $`z1`$ which did not enter our TF survey can be attributed to the much fainter brightness limits of the high–$`z`$ study ($`I24.5^m`$), the inclusion of elliptical galaxies and the lack of constraints to the inclinations. It is clear from Fig. 2 that both samples feature the same redshift “gap”.

As a test, we verified our selection criteria on the most recent version of the FDF photometric redshifts catalogue, finding that only a handfull of types later than Sa could have been missed by the original selection. We therefore conclude that the volume probed with the FDF probably contains fewer galaxies at $`z0.6`$ than the neighbouring redshift bins and that the distribution of the TF spirals is unlikely to reflect a selection bias or an observational effect.

### 4.2 Spectrophotometric classification

To gain a classification of our spectra, three criteria were used. The SED model parameter from the photometric redshifts catalogue, which is related to the star formation e–folding time of the fitted templates, can be transformed into the de Vaucouleurs scheme (ranging from $`T=1`$ for Sa to $`T=10`$ for Im). This is useful especially for spectra with very few identifiable lines and/or low S/N, but has the disadvantage that dust reddening might induce a classification of too early a type for highly inclined spirals.

We therefore also performed a comparison to the SED templates in the Kennicutt catalogue (1992a ) with a focus on the relative line strengths of the H$`\beta `$/\[O III\] emission. As a third indicator, the rest–frame \[O II\] 3727 equivalent widths were derived and correlated to type with the values for local spirals given by Kennicutt (1992b ) as a reference.

A combination of these three criteria yielded 14 spirals of type $`T3`$ in the redshift range $`0.11z0.89`$ with a median of $`z=0.42`$, 43 galaxies with $`T=5`$ covering $`0.09z0.97`$ with $`z=0.45`$ and 20 objects with $`T8`$ in the regime $`0.23z0.97`$ with $`z=0.51`$.

### 4.3 Rotation curve extraction

The measurements of the rotation velocity as a function of radius were performed in a semi–automatic manner. In the first step, 100 columns of the spectrum centered on the considered emission line were averaged to get a profile of line plus continuum along the spatial axis. This profile was approximated with a Gaussian to derive the optical center to within 0.1″. For a few objects located very close to the slit edge, the center had to be redefined manually. Then, the emission lines were fitted row by row. To enhance the S/N, three neighbouring rows were averaged prior to the emission line fitting; for very weak lines, this “boxcar” was enlarged to five rows (corresponding to one arcsec). In the case of the \[O II\] 3727 doublet, two Gaussians with equal FWHM and an observer’s frame separation of $`2.75(1+z)`$ \[Å\] were assumed as a line profile approximation, while a single Gaussian was used for \[O III\] 5007, $`H\beta `$ or $`H\alpha `$, with the latter being visible only in four spectra. The red- and blueshifts along the spectral axis due to rotation were measured relative to the observed wavelength of the line at the optical center and converted into velocity shifts after cosmological correction by a factor of $`(1+z)^1`$. This position–velocity information defines an observed rotation curve (RC).

Each curve was visually inspected prior to the RC modelling. Seven objects had too low a S/N to derive spatially resolved rotation velocities. We also rejected RCs with strong asymmetries or other signatures of substantial kinematic disturbances, “solid–body” rotators and objects that did not show any rotation at all within the measurement errors. In total, the RCs of 77 spirals were appropriate for the $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ derivation. We present a range of examples in Fig. 3.

### 4.4 Rotation curve modelling

For distant, apparently small galaxies, the effect of the slit width on the observed rotation velocity as a function of radius, $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}(r)`$, must be considered. At redshift $`z=0.5`$, a scale length of 3 kpc — typical for an $`L^{}`$ spiral — corresponds to approx. 0.5 arcsec only, which is half the slit width used in our MOS observations. Any value of $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}(r)`$ is therefore an integration perpendicular to the spatial axis (slit direction), a phenomenon which is the optical equivalent to “beam smearing” in radio observations. If not taken into account, this effect could lead to an underestimation of the intrinsic rotation velocities.

We overcame this problem by generating synthetic RCs. Our approach is similiar to the procedure described by Simard & Pritchet (SP99 (1999)) but differs from their fitting method in some ways. E.g., the scale length of the emitting gas is a fixed parameter in our algorithm (see below), and the deviation angle between apparent disk major axis and slit direction is taken into account. Moreover, in our approach we do not fit simulated 2D spectra to observed 2D spectra but simulated RCs to observed RCs.

For the simulation, one has to assume an intrinsic rotational law $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{int}}(r)`$. As a first of three variants, we used a simple shape with a linear rise of $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{int}}`$ at small radii, turning over into a region of constant rotation velocity where the Dark Matter Halo dominates the mass distribution. This can be achieved with the parameterisation

$$V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{int}}(r)=\frac{V_{\mathrm{max}}r}{(r^a+r_0^a)^{1/a}}$$
(1)
(e.g. Courteau Cou97 (1997)) with a factor $`a`$ that tunes the sharpness of the “turnover” at radius $`r=r_0`$, and a constant rotation $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{int}}(r)=V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ for $`rr_0`$. We used a range of values for $`a`$ on a set of $``$ 20 RCs and found that $`a=5`$ best reproduced the observed shape of the turnover region. To minimize the number of free parameters, we kept $`a`$ fixed to that value for all objects in the further analysis. However, due to the heavy blurring of the curves, $`a`$ is the least critical parameter in Eq. 1.

The turnover radius $`r_0`$ was assumed to be equal to the scale length of the emitting gas, which is larger than the scale length $`r_\mathrm{d}`$ derived from continuum emission. This is discussed in Ryder & Dopita (RD94 (1994)) and Dopita & Ryder (DR94 (1994)) using observational and theoretical approaches, respectively. Since the structural parameters like the continuum scale lengths were measured in an $`I`$-band VLT image (see Sect. 5.1), we derived the corresponding gas scale length via

$$r_0=(2z/2)r_\mathrm{d}.$$
(2)
This equation yields $`r_02r_\mathrm{d}`$ for the least distant FDF spirals (for which $`I`$ corresponds to rest–frame $`R`$) and $`r_0=1.5r_\mathrm{d}`$ at $`z=1`$, where $`I`$ corresponds to rest–frame $`B`$. In other words, Eq. 2 is used to gain a correlation between rest–frame scale length and gas scale length that is in compliance with the results of Ryder & Dopita. We also tested this equation directly on a few high S/N emission line profiles in our spectra. It should be noted however, that the $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ derivation is much less sensitive to the scale length than to the inclination and the misalignment angle. This is mainly due to the smoothing by the instrumental PSF.

We alternatively used two other templates of intrinsic RC shapes within the Universal Rotation Curve (URC) framework of Persic & Salucci (PS91 (1991), cited as the URC91 hereafter) and Persic et al. (PS96 (1996), URC96 hereafter). The authors introduced a dependence of the RC morphology on luminosity: Only $`L^{}`$ spirals have a constant $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}`$ at large radii, whereas the curves of sub–$`L^{}`$ galaxies are rising even beyond a characteristic radius, and very luminous objects have a negative gradient at large radii. The characteristic radii which define a characteristic rotation velocity that can be used for the TF analysis differ slightly between the two approaches. In the URC91 form, this radius is equal to 2.2 scale lengths, whereas it is as large as 3.2 $`r_\mathrm{d}`$ for the URC96. Throughout the following sections, the quantity $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ will refer to the usage of equation 1, whereas $`V_{2.2}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ denote an input of the URC91 and URC96, respectively.

In the next step of the simulation, the two–dimensional velocity field was generated on the basis of the respective intrinsic rotational law (e.g. Eq. 1 & 2), tilted and rotated according to the observed inclination and position angle of the respective galaxy. The field was then weighted by the normalized surface brightness profile, i.e. brighter regions contribute stronger to the velocity shift at a given radius. Following this, the field was convolved. The Point Spread Function was assumed to be Gaussian with a FWHM determined from the mean DIMM values during the spectroscopy. These values had to be slightly increased depending on the redshifted wavelength of the emission line from which the observed RC was derived. We determined the correlations for this increase by measuring the FWHM on sets of VLT exposures in $`B`$, $`R`$, $`I`$, and comparing these to the according DIMM values. After the double folding, a strip of one arcsecond width was extracted from the velocity field at an angle that matched the slit misalignment in the observation (see Fig. 4). The final computation step was an integration perpendicular to the simulated slit, i.e. the projection of the velocity field strip onto the spatial axis. In all of the following, we will refer to this resulting position–velocity model as the synthetic rotation curve, whereas the rotational law (e.g. Eq. 1) that is used as input for the modelling procedure will be referred to by the term intrinsic rotation curve. The observed RC as described in Sect. 4.3 would directly reproduce the intrinsic RC only for a disk of 90 inclination (i.e., perfectly edge–on) that is observed with an infinitely thin slit at infinitely large spatial and spectral resolution.

In our approach, the intrinsic quantity $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the only free parameter that tunes the reproduction of an observed RC by a synthetic curve. Only in the case of 3 spirals, the gas scale length had to be kept as a second free parameter, since the values based on Eq. 2 were too large. For the complete data set, we derived $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ by a visual comparison of synthetic and observed RC and, alternatively, via a $`\chi ^2`$-fitting procedure based on the errors from the RC extraction. These two methods are compared in Fig. 5. The sample of 77 spirals is subdivided according data quality: Curves which clearly probe the region of constant rotation velocity at large radii are considered high quality ($`N_{\mathrm{obj}}=36`$), whereas RCs with smaller extent or asymmetries are included in the low quality sub–sample ($`N_{\mathrm{obj}}=41`$).

The error on $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is assumed to be

$$\sigma _{V_{\mathrm{max}}}^2=\sigma _{\chi ^2}^2+V_{\mathrm{max}}^2(\mathrm{tan}i)^2\sigma _i^2+V_{\mathrm{max}}^2(\mathrm{tan}\delta )^2\sigma _\delta ^2$$
(3)
Here, the first term on the right hand side is the error from the $`\chi ^2`$-fits of the synthetic to the observed RCs, covering the range 3 km/s $`\sigma _{\chi ^2}`$ 59 km/s. The last two terms are the propagated errors of the respective uncertainties of the inclination and the misalignment angle. To derive the contributions of the errors $`\sigma _i`$ and $`\sigma _\delta `$, we used a simple geometric correlation between the observed and intrinsic rotation velocity,

$$V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{int}}=V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}(\mathrm{sin}i)^1(\mathrm{cos}\delta )^1.$$
(4)
For the high quality sample, the absolute and relative errors on $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ fall in the respective ranges 3 km/s $`\sigma _{V_{\mathrm{max}}}`$ 135 km/s and $`0.03\sigma _{V_{\mathrm{max}}}/V_{\mathrm{max}}0.61`$, with a median $`\sigma _{V_{\mathrm{max}}}/V_{\mathrm{max}}=0.19`$.

As can be deduced from Fig. 5, the by–eye “fits” and the $`\chi ^2`$-fits are consistent within the errors for the majority of the objects. Nevertheless, a systematic trend towards low values of $`V_{\mathrm{max},\chi ^2}`$ with respect to the visually derived $`V_{\mathrm{max},\mathrm{vis}}`$ is evident for slow rotators. An inspection of the observed RCs revealed that the discrepancies mainly arise in cases of asymmetric shapes. The $`\chi ^2`$-fits also are weighted towards the inner parts of the curves by the higher S/N of the emission lines at smaller radii. This is a disadvantage since the outer parts of an observed RC are the most robust source of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ in the modelling procedure. Moreover, we found no correlation between the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ values and our definition of RC quality, except for curves of perfect symmetry. For these reasons, we used the visually derived values for the TF analysis. A further discussion of this topic will follow in Sect. 8.3.

In cases of multiple usable emission features in a spectrum, the RCs based on different lines were mostly consistent within the errors. For these objects, $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ was derived from the curve with the largest covered radius and highest S/N.

We show a consistency check of the three alternatives for the intrinsic RC shape in Figs. 6 and 7. The results using the simple “rise–turnover–flat” shape via Eq. 1 are in agreement with the URC91 to within 5% for 79% of the FDF spirals and to within 10% for 95% of the galaxies, without a detectable dependence on the absolute values. The URC96 yields rotation velocities at $`R_{\mathrm{opt}}3.2r_\mathrm{d}`$ which on the mean are larger by 7% than $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$, with slightly increasing differences towards slow rotation. This partly is an effect of the different characteristic radii in the two parameterisations of the universal rotation curve, which correspond to 2.2 $`r_\mathrm{d}`$ for the URC91 and $`3.2r_\mathrm{d}`$ for the URC96, respectively. However, the slight differences between $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ do not affect the results from our TF analysis, see Sect. 8.3.

## 5 Photometry

### 5.1 Luminosity profiles

Since the FDF imaging had been done under varying seeing conditions (ranging, e.g., from 0.46″ to 0.89″ FWHM in the $`I`$-band, see Heidt et al. Hei03 (2003) for a description of the image stacking), only a limited number of images was used for the measurements of the structural parameters. To combine high spatial resolution with sufficient S/N at the outer isophotes of the TF objects, the 10 $`I`$-band frames with the best seeing were co–added. This yielded a reference image with 3000 s total exposure time, 0.49″ FWHM and a 50% completeness limit of $``$ 25.1m.

The disk light distributions were fitted with exponential profiles. A bulge component could not be accounted for at the given resolution. We considered slight variations of the PSF across the reference frame with six stars in the range $`18<I<20`$. Our algorithm minimizes $`\chi ^2`$ in the parameter space span by inclination, position angle, scale length and central flux. The sample galaxies cover a range of $`25^{}i80^{}`$ with a median of $`i=53^{}`$ and a median error of $`\sigma _i=5^{}`$.

As a test of the accuracy of our ground–based luminosity profile analysis, we also performed measurements on a “VLT simulation” of the Hubble Deep Field North (HDF-N, Williams et al. Wi96 (1996)). The original drizzled images were re–binned to a scale of 0.2″ per pixel and convolved with a Gaussian PSF of 0.49″ FWHM to match the characteristics of our reference $`I`$-band frame. We selected 40 objects with a variety of $`B/T`$ ratios and $`i>30^{}`$ from the electronically available data published by Marleau & Simard (MS98 (1998)). The authors did apply two–component fits to more than 500 galaxies in the HDF-N using the GIM2D package (Galaxy Image Two–Dimensional, Simard et al. Sim02 (2002)). We found that for $`B/T<0.4`$, the mean difference between the inclinations derived from the “VLT simulation” frame and the original GIM2D values was $`\mathrm{\Delta }i=1.8^{}\pm 7.7^{}`$.

The median inclinations of our TF sample sub–divided according to SED type are $`i=51^{}`$ for $`T3`$, $`i=53^{}`$ for $`T=5`$ and $`i=51^{}`$ for $`T=8`$, i.e. potentially unresolved bulge components of early–type spirals in our ground–based imaging did not introduce a detectable bias.

### 5.2 Rest–frame magnitudes

Total apparent magnitudes were derived with the Source Extractor package (Bertin & Arnouts BA96 (1996)). This program offers different algorithms for the photometry. We used the Mag\_auto routine with variable elliptical apertures which is based on the “first moment” algorithm by Kron (Kro80 (1980)) since it best reproduces the total magnitudes of extended sources.

We will now briefly discuss the issue of the $`k`$-correction. If available broad band information is limited to a few filters (in most previous studies two or even only one), the different wavelength ranges covered by a passband in observed frame and rest–frame introduce a strong dependence of the possible $`k`$-correction accuracy on SED type. At redshift $`z=0.6`$, e.g., the difference between $`T=4`$ and $`T=6`$ corresponds to a change of half a magnitude in the transformation from $`B_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ to $`B_{\mathrm{rest}}`$, $`k_B`$ (e.g. Frei & Gunn FG94 (1994)). Values of $`k_B`$ differ even more for earlier types, thus even a slight misclassification can introduce a substantial offset in the derived luminosity if observations are limited to one or two filters. In contrast to this, our TF project greatly benefits from the multi–band imaging of the FDF: The photometry in $`B`$, $`g`$, $`R`$ and $`I`$ enables us to use the filter that best matches the rest–frame $`B`$-band to transform an apparent magnitude $`X`$ into absolute magnitudes $`M_B`$ up to the highest redshifts in the sample.

We computed the $`k_B`$-correction for our objects via synthetic photometry on SEDs in the range $`1T10`$. As templates, we used the spectra published by Möller et al. (Moe01 (2001)) which were generated with evolutionary synthesis models. The SEDs were redshifted by re–calculating the original flux $`F_0`$ at wavelength $`\lambda `$ according to

$$F(\lambda ,z)=\frac{F_0[\lambda /(1+z)]}{(1+z)}$$
(5)
(e.g. Contardo, Steinmetz & Fritze-v. Alvensleben CSF98 (1998)). Transformation from the apparent magnitude of a spectrum of type $`T`$ at redshift $`z`$ observed with a FORS filter $`X`$ to the un–redshifted spectrum in Johnson $`B`$ yields $`k_B(X,T,z)`$. Respective filters used for the input magnitudes were $`B_{\mathrm{FORS}}`$ for $`z<0.25`$, $`g_{\mathrm{FORS}}`$ for $`0.25z<0.55`$, $`R_{\mathrm{FORS}}`$ for $`0.55z<0.85`$ and $`I_{\mathrm{FORS}}`$ for $`z0.85`$. This $`k`$-correction is much less sensitive to spectral type than a transformation $`B_{\mathrm{obs}}B_{\mathrm{rest}}`$, especially at higher redshifts: e.g., $`k_B(R,1,0.6)k_B(R,5,0.6)=0.05^m`$ whereas $`k_B(B,1,0.6)k_B(B,5,0.6)=0.64^m`$.

For testing purposes, we additionally derived the colors of the templates purely within the Johnson-Cousins Filter system and compared them to the values published by Fukugita et al. (Fuk95 (1995)), finding typical absolute deviations of $`0.03^m|\mathrm{\Delta }(XY)|0.08^m`$.

The second critical correction that has to be applied to the observed magnitudes is the inclination–dependent intrinsic absorption $`A_B^i`$ by the dust disks of the objects. Like, e.g., Vogt et al. (Vog96 (1996), Vog97 (1997)) and Milvang-Jensen et al. (Mil03 (2003)), we adopted the approach by Tully & Fouqué (TF85 (1985)). It is based on geometric assumptions and usable for inclinations up to $`i=80^{}`$, i.e. for our complete sample. The dust disk scale height is assumed to be half the scale height of the luminous disk, relative dust content is independent of mass or type, with an optical depth of $`\tau =0.55`$. For the objects in our sample, $`A_B^i`$ spans values from 0.30m at $`i=25^{}`$ to 0.96m at $`i=80^{}`$. We emphasize that the absorption for face–on disks is finite in this convention: $`A_B^i=0.27^m`$ for $`i=0^{}`$. Our multi–band photometry ensures to compute the absorption for the same rest–frame wavelength interval at all the covered redshifts.

For the galactic absorption at the coordinates of the FDF, we adopted the values which are given in Heidt et al. (Hei03 (2003)), ranging from $`A_B^g=0.076^m`$ to $`A_I^g=0.035^m`$. Let $`D_\mathrm{\Lambda }(z,H_0)`$ be the distance modulus (e.g. Peebles Pe93 (1993)) in the concordance cosmology, then the transformation from total apparent magnitude $`m_X`$ to absolute magnitude $`M_B`$ is given by

$$M_B=m_XD_\mathrm{\Lambda }(z,H_0)k_B(X,T,z)A_B^iA_X^g$$
(6)
If one assumes an SED classification error of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=2`$ (i.e., an Sc spiral could be misclassified as an Sb and vice versa), corresponding to an uncertainty of the $`k`$-correction of $`\sigma _k0.1^m`$ for all covered types and redshifts, the errors in absolute magnitude become

$$\sigma _{M_B}^2=\sigma _X^2+\sigma _k^2+\sigma _{A_B^i}^2,$$
(7)
where $`\sigma _X`$ is the random photometric error in the respective filter and $`\sigma _{A_B^i}`$ the uncertainty of the intrinsic absorption correction via error propagation from the inclination error. Thanks to the very deep imaging, the random photometric errors are only $`0.01^m`$ on average and $`0.03^m`$ at maximum for the FDF spirals. Based on a comparison of our calibrations with archived FORS zero points, we estimate the systematic photometric errors to be $`0.01^m`$; these are neglected. The total errors $`\sigma _{M_B}`$ of our complete sample fall into the range $`0.07^m\sigma _{M_B}0.21^m`$.

## 6 The data table

We present the data of the spirals from our sample in Table 1. This table is available in electronic form via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr. The respective columns have the following meaning:

ID — Original entry number from the FORS Deep Field photometric catalogue, see Heidt et al. (Hei03 (2003)) for, e.g., the J2000 positions or aperture magnitudes in $`U`$, $`B`$, $`g`$, $`R`$, $`I`$, $`J`$ and $`K`$.

$`i`$ — Disk inclination derived by minimizing $`\chi ^2`$ of a two–dimensional exponential profile fit to the galaxy image in a coadded $`I`$-band frame with 0.49 arcsec FWHM (see Sect. 5.1). In some cases, our initial constraint of $`i40^{}`$ had to be relaxed.

$`\delta `$ — Absolute misalignment angle between the MOS slit and the apparent major axis. Our initial constraint of $`\delta 15^{}`$ could not always be met during the construction of the setups.

$`r_\mathrm{d}`$ — Apparent disk scale length in arcseconds, derived via the same fits as $`i`$ and $`\delta `$. While tests confirmed that $`r_\mathrm{d}`$ is the least critical input parameter in the $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ derivation process, it is probably the one which is affected the strongest by the limitations of the ground–based imaging. Hence, we recommend not to use these values for applications like the Fundamental Plane of spiral galaxies.

$`z`$ — Spectroscopic redshift.

$`T`$ — SED type in the de Vaucouleurs scheme (see Sect. 4.2 for a description of the classification criteria). $`T=1`$ accounts to Hubble type Sa, $`T=3`$ to Sb, $`T=5`$ to Sc, $`T=8`$ to Sdm and $`T=10`$ to Im.

$`X`$ — Total apparent magnitude derived with the Mag\_auto algorithm of the Source Extractor package (Bertin & Arnouts BA96 (1996)) on the coadded FDF frames. Depending on the galaxies redshift, the filter $`X`$ was chosen to best match the rest–frame $`B`$-band. For the least redshifted spirals with $`z<0.25`$, this was $`X=B`$, for $`0.25z<0.55`$ we chose $`X=g`$, for $`0.55z<0.85`$ we set $`X=R`$, and for the highest redshifts in our sample with $`z0.85`$ we used $`X=I`$.

$`k_B`$ — K–correction for the transformation from the respective filter $`X`$ (see above) to rest–frame $`B`$ as computed via synthetic photometry, see Sect. 5.2 for details.

$`A_X^g`$ — Galactic absorption in the respective filter $`X`$ (see above) as given in Heidt et al. (Hei03 (2003)).

$`A_B^i`$ — Intrinsic inclination–dependent dust absorption in rest–frame $`B`$ following Tully & Fouqué (TF85 (1985)) with the convention of a non–negligible extinction for face–on disks, i.e. $`A_B^i=0.27^m`$ at $`i=0^{}`$.

$`D_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ — Distance modulus in concordance cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ = 0.3, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ = 0.7 and $`H_0`$ = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1.

$`M_B`$ — Absolute $`B`$-band magnitudes computed via $`M_B=Xk_BA_X^gA_B^iD_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. The errors include the uncertainties in $`X`$, $`k_B`$ and $`A_B^i`$, see Sect. 5.2 for details.

$`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ — Intrinsic maximum rotation velocity derived via synthetic velocity fields (see Sect. 4) assuming a linear rise of the rotation velocity at small galactocentric radii and a flat RC at large radii (“rise–turnover–flat” shape). The errors on $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ were computed according to Eq. 3.

$`B`$$``$$`R`$ — Rest–frame color index, corrected for intrinsic absorption. For galaxies with $`z<0.25`$, apparent $`R`$ magnitudes were transformed to rest–frame $`R`$, while apparent $`I`$ magnitudes were transformed to rest–frame $`R`$ for all other objects, see Sect. 8.1 for details.

note — Label indicating the RC quality. High quality curves (“H”) extend well out to the region of constant rotation velocity at large radii. RCs of low quality (“L”) have a smaller radial extent and partly feature signatures of moderate kinematic perturbations like waves or asymmetries.

## 7 The distant $`𝐁`$-band Tully–Fisher relation

To be able to derive the spectrophotometric and/or kinematic evolution of spirals at intermediate redshifts, it is crucial to carefully choose a data set of spirals at low $`z`$ that can be used as reference. Consistency between distant and local data set in terms of the intrinsic absorption correction is one of the key issues. As stated in the introduction, a large number of local samples have been constructed during the last decade, with kinematic data based on radio observations or optical spectra. For our purposes, the term “local” refers to redshifts below $`z0.05`$ corresponding to systematic velocities $`V_{\mathrm{sys}}15000`$ km/s. In Ziegler et al. (Zie02 (2002)), we selected a sample by Haynes et al. (Hay99 (1999)) as a local reference. Here, we will use the data set of Pierce & Tully (PT92 (1992), PT92 hereafter) instead. Our initial choice was basically motivated by the very good statistics of the Haynes et al. sample which comprises approx. 1200 spirals mainly of type Sc, which is also the most frequent SED type in our distant sample.

On the other hand, using the PT92 data makes our results directly comparable to the studies of e.g., Vogt (Vog01 (2001)) and Milvang-Jensen et al. (Mil03 (2003)). Moreover, the TFR of PT92 benefits from the inclusion of spirals with Cepheid–calibrated distances. As for our sample, the photometry has been corrected for dust–reddening via the Tully & Fouqué approach. A difference that has to be accounted for is the convention for face–on extinction (see Sect. 5.2) used by PT92, i.e., an offset of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=0.27^m`$ has to be applied. This way, the local $`B`$-band TFR transforms into

$$M_B=7.48\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}3.52$$
(8)
with an observed scatter of $`\sigma _B=0.41^m`$. This is in good agreement with a bisector fit to the Haynes et al. sample restricted to 1097 galaxies with H I profiles classified as good quality by the authors:

$$M_B=7.85\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}2.78.$$
(9)
Here, we transformed apparent $`I`$-band magnitudes into $`B`$ via colors from Frei & Gunn (FG94 (1994)). The two TFRs are perfectly consistent in the low–mass regime and show only a small offset of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M0.18^m`$ at $`V_{\mathrm{max}}=300`$ km/s.

In Fig. 8, we show the TF diagram of the complete FDF spiral sample along with the local relation from PT92. As in Sect. 4, our sample is sub–divided according to the RC quality. For the high quality data, the curves have a sufficient spatial extent to probe the region of constant rotation velocity at large radii, thereby yielding robust values of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. In the case of the low quality data, on the other hand, we cannot rule out the possibility that at least for a fraction of the objects $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is underestimated, i.e. offsets from the local TFR towards higher luminosities could be overestimated. For this reason, we will use only the high quality data for the following analysis. These spirals cover the ranges $`18.6^mM_B22.2^m`$ in absolute magnitude and $`74\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}295\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}`$ in maximum rotation velocity.

For a given $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$, the difference in luminosity of an FDF object from the local PT92 fit is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=7.48\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}+3.52+M_B.$$
(10)
These offsets are shown as a function of redshift in Fig. 9. Although the scatter of the offsets is reduced from $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }M}=1.32^m`$ to $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }M}=0.97^m`$ when restricting the FDF sample to high quality RCs, this is still over a factor of two larger than for the local data set. We speculate that this partly is an effect of the observational limitations for distant spirals like, e.g., the low intrinsic spatial resolution, but also reflects a broader range of star formation efficiencies than in the local universe. This interpretation is supported by the smaller scatter of the offsets which originates from the uncertainty in $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and amounts to 0.63 mag for the HQ data.

A linear $`\chi ^2`$-fit to the high quality data yields

$$\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=(1.22\pm 0.56)z(0.09\pm 0.24).$$
(11)
For this fit, the error was computed as

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Delta }M_B}^2=\sigma _{M_B^{\mathrm{FDF}}}^2+7.48^2\sigma _{\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}^{\mathrm{FDF}}}^2`$
$`+\sigma _{M_B^{\mathrm{PT}}}^2+7.48^2\sigma _{\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}^{\mathrm{PT}}}^2,`$ (12)
where the second and fourth term are the propagated errors from the uncertainties in $`\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ for the FDF spirals and the PT92 sample, respectively.

As can be deduced from Eq. 11, we observe an increasing brightening with rising look–back time. This is expected as an effect of the younger stellar populations, i.e. a higher fraction of high–luminosity stars than in the local universe. Our result is in agreement with those of Barden et al. (Ba03 (2003), $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=1.1\pm 0.5`$ at $`z0.9`$) and Milvang-Jensen (Mil03b (2003)), who finds $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=(0.9\pm 0.3)z`$, note that the latter correlation would be slightly steeper in the cosmology adopted here. A much smaller brightening of less than 0.2 mag at $`z1`$ is found by Vogt (Vog01 (2001)).

Besides the dependency of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B`$ on redshift, the comparison of our sample with PT92 in Fig. 8 indicates a correlation between the TF offsets and maximum rotation velocity. Even restricting to rotation curves which probe the “flat” region at large radii, a number of distant spirals in the regime $`V_{\mathrm{max}}100`$ km/s are overluminous with $`>`$3 $`\sigma `$ confidence, given the observed scatter of 0.41 mag for the local sample. This can be seen in Fig. 10, where the offsets are plotted against the logarithm of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. A linear $`\chi ^2`$-fit to the high quality subsample with an error estimation as defined in Eq. 7 yields

$$\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=(4.40\pm 0.69)\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}(10.31\pm 1.55),$$
(13)
corresponding to a brightening by more than two magnitudes for the least massive spirals in our sample and negligible offsets at $`V_{\mathrm{max}}220`$ km/s, which on the basis of Eq. 8 is the typical rotation for local spirals of luminosity 2-3$`L^{}`$.

## 8 Discussion

Before interpreting the possible physical implications of Eq. 13, we want to comment on a potential correlation between the TF offsets and the errors in $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. In Fig. 11, the offsets are plotted against the relative errors $`\sigma _{V_{\mathrm{max}}}`$/$`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. Even if only the galaxies with high quality RCs are considered, the overluminosities seem to be higher for objects with larger $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ errors. We see two basic reasons for this slight dependency.

Firstly, the RC quality on the mean is lower for low–mass objects. In particular, the least massive FDF spirals all are classified as low quality data. A lower rotation curve quality in turn leads to higher values of $`\sigma _{\chi ^2}`$ (Eq. 3) and an increased total error of the maximum rotation velocity. And secondly, the errors of the Gaussian fits to the emission lines which are performed in the process of the RC extraction do not depend on the magnitude of the velocity shifts. On the other hand, for a given radius and fit uncertainty, the relative errors on $`V_{\mathrm{rot}}^{\mathrm{obs}}(r)`$ are smaller for fast rotators. Since the observed relative errors contribute to the derived value of $`\sigma _{\chi ^2}`$, this error is on the mean larger for slow rotators.

The combination of these two effects leads to larger relative errors for small values of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$, i.e., for spirals with large TF offsets.

We will now consider potential biases due to galaxy-galaxy interactions or sample incompleteness, the impact of the intrinsic rotation curves shape and the question of different conventions for the intrinsic absorption correction.

### 8.1 A bias due to environmental effects?

To some extent, a correlation between rotation velocity and TF offsets is to be expected from previous studies. Kannappan et al. (Kan02a (2002)) found a color–residuals relation that reflects overluminosities of blue spirals and argued that this could be attributed to enhanced star formation. Since galaxies with blue colors, i.e. late types, feature on the mean lower values of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ than red, early–type spirals (see Sect. 8.5), a correlation between colors and TF offsets should coincide with a relation between the offsets and $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$.

To look into this effect, we computed the $`BR`$ color index of our FDF galaxies in rest–frame. In contrast to the initial derivation of the absolute magnitudes, we did not use total apparent magnitudes but brightnesses that were measured within apertures of two arcseconds diameter on coadded frames which were convolved to the same seeing (see Heidt et al. Hei03 (2003) for details). Similarly to the procedure for the $`B`$-band luminosities, we transformed the observed $`R_{\mathrm{FORS}}`$ into $`R_{\mathrm{Cousins}}^{\mathrm{rest}}`$ only for low–redshift galaxies ($`z<0.25`$) and used the transformation $`I_{\mathrm{FORS}}R_{\mathrm{Cousins}}^{\mathrm{rest}}`$ instead for all objects at larger distances. The absorption coefficients with respect to rest–frame $`R`$ were computed following Cardelli et al. (Ca89 (1989)) using again the intrinsic absorption convention by Tully & Fouqué (TF85 (1985)).

For the purpose of the color–residual relation, we compare our data to the local sample from Verheijen (2001). We show the offsets with respect to the Verheijen TFR

$$M_B=8.1\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}2.07$$
(14)
for our high quality sample in Fig. 12. Only a weak dependence of the offsets on rest–frame color is observed. In contrast to the results for the local spirals, offsets of the FDF spirals almost solely populate the regime of overluminosities with a median of $`0.7^m`$ and 12 out of 36 galaxies feature offsets of more than one magnitude from the local TFR. Note that this is consistent with the offsets from the PT92 relation which have a median of $`0.77^m`$.

The situation is changed if one assumes that the TFR slope and zero point could vary with cosmic time, i.e. if a free fit is applied to the distant sample. On the basis of the high quality data, a bootstrap bisector fit with 100 iterations yields

$$M_B=(4.66\pm 0.67)\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}(10.43\pm 1.50).$$
(15)
To be consistent with the Verheijen sample, we performed the same fit using the intrinsic absorption convention by Tully et al. (Eq. 17) which yielded

$$M_B=(5.22\pm 0.69)\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}(9.08\pm 1.56).$$
(16)
New residuals using this relation for the FDF sample were derived analogous to Eq. 10 and are compared to the initial values in Fig. 12. The residuals computed via Eq. 16 are mainly distributed within the range $`1\mathrm{\Delta }M_B+1`$ around zero, similar to the results given by Verheijen, though the scatter of the distant sample is larger and the correlation between color and residuals relatively weak. We conclude that the large offsets we find using Eq. 10, i.e. under the assumption of the local TFR slope and zero point, can hardly be attributed to the color–residual relation of local spirals.

Alternatively to an evolution of the TFR with look–back time, one possible interpretation could be that a fraction of the distant spirals are subject to galaxy–galaxy interactions, which could result in TF offsets of up to several magnitudes as stated by Kannappan et al. (Kan02b (2003)). To perform a search for galaxy pair candidates within our TF sample, we combined our complete data set (i.e. all galaxies with derived redshifts) with the lower resolution spectra from the FDF high–z campaign (Noll et al. No03 (2004)), yielding a total of 267 galaxies at $`z<1`$. As upper limits on the three–dimensional separation of two pair candidates, we adopted the results of Lambas et al. (La02 (2003)). Based on a data set of $``$ 105 objects from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, the authors found that a projected distance $`D_{\mathrm{proj}}100`$ kpc and a relative radial velocity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_{\mathrm{sys}}250`$ km/s are reliable upper limits to select galaxy pairs with enhanced specific star formation.

12 spirals from the TF sample show spectroscopically confirmed neighbors within these limits. Of these galaxies, two are also possible members of the cluster at $`z=0.33`$ located in the southwestern corner of the FDF. We show the TF offsets of these pair/cluster candidates in comparison to the rest of the sample in Fig. 13. The two sub–samples seem to be similarly distributed. This is also implied by a two–dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov test which yields a propability of 0.31 that both subsamples are drawn from the same distribution function. We only observe a slight overrepresentation of pair/cluster candidates towards low rotation velocities. These are all spirals with RCs classified as low quality data, i.e. with relatively small radial extention and/or asymmetries. In total, only 5 out of 18 (corresponding to 28%) of the pair/cluster candidates have high quality curves, whereas for the rest of the sample this fraction accounts to 53%. This is in agreement with the results of Kannappan et al. (Kan02b (2003)), who find that a fraction of galaxies in close pairs show asymmetric or truncated RCs. We therefore reject the idea that a significant fraction of the galaxies with high quality RCs are subject to interactions.

The nearest neighbor search cannot yield all pairs at $`z<1`$ within the FDF, since we do not have spectroscopic redshifts on all galaxies in this regime (both the TF and the high–z study have a limit in apparent brightness). However, the aim of this test was to clarify whether the candidates which are identified differ from the rest of the sample. Since the five pair/cluster candidates included in the analysis show only moderate TF offsets, we conclude that it is unlikely that our high quality subsample introduces a bias towards overluminosities due to gravitational interactions.

### 8.2 Potential incompleteness effects

In the following, we will adress the question of whether the deficiency of our sample of objects with $`M_B<19`$ and $`\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}>2.1`$ (cf. Fig. 8) may be an observational bias.

For a magnitude–limited TF sample, not all objects within the field–of–view that are geometrically suitable enter the final data set. Towards the faint end of the observed luminosity distribution, the sample therefore is incomplete. At a fixed maximum rotation velocity, this may give rise to a bias against low–luminosity spirals and, in turn, lead to an underestimated TFR slope as pointed out by Giovanelli et al. (Gio97 (1997)).

Our apparent brightness limit of $`R23^m`$ corresponds to a limit in luminosity that is higher for larger redshifts. An impact of the incompleteness bias on our results should therefore coincide with a decrease of the TFR slope with increasing redshift. However, if we split the complete FDF sample into sets for objects with $`z<0.45`$ (41 galaxies) and $`z>0.45`$ (36 galaxies), the bootstrap fit slopes we find for the two are $`a=3.75\pm 0.44`$ and $`a=3.77\pm 0.59`$, respectively.

Potentially, our sample may introduce a bias against fast rotators of low luminosity. This is because the spatially resolved emission lines of large spirals (which on the average have higher $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ values) cover a larger CCD area and thus have lower signal–to–noise ratios per pixel than small spirals. For a given total line flux, the data set could therefore preferably contain slow rotators.

Since late–type spirals on average have stronger emission lines (and lower $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ values, see Sect. 8.5) than early–type spirals, this effect would induce a type–dependency of the TFR slope. For SED types $`T3`$, $`T=5`$ and $`T8`$, we find slopes of $`a=3.74\pm 1.40`$, $`a=5.18\pm 0.63`$ and $`4.78\pm 0.45`$ (the large uncertainty of the first of these fits shows the influence of low number statistics). Although the 14 spirals of type Sb or earlier have a flatter tilt than the two other sub–sets, we do not find a significant correlation between spectrophotometric type and TFR slope within the derived errors of the bootstrap fits.

It is therefore unlikely that the shallower slope of the FDF sample with respect to the local data is an observational effect. We emphasize that, if the observed lack of distant spirals in the regime of low luminosities and fast rotation was due to such a bias, then the intrinsic scatter of the distant TF relation would have to be increased by a significant factor compared to the local universe, which we do not see.

### 8.3 Impact of the intrinsic RC shape

As stated in Sect. 4.4, the rotation velocities derived via the RC modelling are consistent for the “rise–turnover–flat” shape and the universal rotation curve from Persic & Salucci (PS91 (1991)), but slightly different if the URC as given in Persic et al. (PS96 (1996)) is used. However, if we restrict our sample to the high quality data, the difference between $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{opt}}`$ is negligible for spirals with $`V_{\mathrm{max}}>150`$ km/s, and amounts to only 5% in the median for the slow rotators. In effect, the TF offsets would be altered towards lower luminosities by only $``$ 0.15m at $`V_{\mathrm{opt}}=100`$ km/s if the URC96 was used alternatively. None of our results would be affected significantly by such a small difference. For this reason, our analysis will be based on $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ throughout the section.

Another topic that has been referred to earlier are the slight differences between $`\chi ^2`$-fits and “by–eye” fits of the synthetic to the observed rotation curves. Since the former yielded systematically lower maximum rotation velocities than the latter, the TF offsets would be brighter by $`0.25^m`$ at $`V_{\mathrm{max}}=100`$ km/s if the analysis was based on the $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ values from $`\chi ^2`$-fit RC modelling as introduced in Sect. 4.4. Therefore, if one assumes a “rise–turnover–flat” shape of the intrinsic RC, our approach of a by–eye comparsion between synthetic and observed RC yields conservative values of the TF offsets.

### 8.4 Influence of the intrinsic absorption correction

The convention we use for intrinsic absorption is purely inclination–dependent, as the optical depth and fractional dust disk thickness are held fixed for the entire sample. More recently, Tully et al. (Tu98 (1998)) and Karachentsev et al. (Ka02 (2002)) have found evidence for an internal extinction law which also depends on rotation velocity. These observations favour a higher amount of absorption in fast rotators than for spirals of low $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$. If one assumes the relation $`2V_{\mathrm{max}}W_R^i`$ between maximum rotation velocity and H I profile linewidth (see Tully & Fouqué TF85 (1985)), then equation 11 given in Tully et al. transforms into

$$A_B^{V,i}=2.75(\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}1.63)\mathrm{log}(a/b),$$
(17)
where $`a`$ and $`b`$ are the apparent major and minor axes, respectively. E.g., for a highly inclined disk with $`i=80^{}`$, this yields 0.59m at $`V_{\mathrm{max}}=100`$ km/s and 1.35m at $`V_{\mathrm{max}}=300`$ km/s, whereas the initial Tully & Fouqué approach gives a value of $`A_B^i=0.96^m`$ independent of the maximum rotation velocity.

In effect, the slope of any TFR would be steeper if the intrinsic absorption is accounted for based on Eq. 17. But, since this mass–depedency is linear in $`\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}/M_B`$–space, the slope change would affect distant and local sample consistently. This can be quantitatively verified with Eqs. 14 (the local Verheijen TFR) and 16 (the FDF high quality sample) which are both derived using the Tully et al. convention. Neither the median of the FDF spiral offsets from the local TFR (0.7 mag in the Tully et al. convention vs. 0.77 mag in the Tully & Fouqué convention) nor the evidence for a change in the distant TFR slope ($`>`$3$`\sigma `$ confidence level in both conventions) do significantly differ between the two approaches.

Since our results are therefore independent of the intrinsic absorption convention, we used the Tully & Fouqué approach throughout the paper for the sake of direct comparability with the previous studies.

### 8.5 A mass–dependent luminosity evolution?

It is well known that in the local universe, a dependency of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ on galaxy type is observed. Blue, late–type spirals are on average slower rotators than red, early–type spirals (e.g. Rubin et al. Ru85 (1985)). For our sample, sub–divided according to SED type, we find respective median values of $`V_{\mathrm{max}}248`$ km/s for $`T3`$, $`V_{\mathrm{max}}145`$ km/s for $`T=5`$ and $`V_{\mathrm{max}}89`$ km/s for $`T8`$. Since we observe a correlation between the TF offsets and $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$, these $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ distributions imply a dependency of the mean luminosity offsets on SED type as is illustrated in Fig. 14.

A consequence of this is a potential selection effect for small samples which mainly comprise a certain sub–type. If a data set was biased towards late–type spirals due to the target selection on blue colors (like, e.g., Simard & Pritchet SP98 (1998)) or strong emission lines (e.g. Rix et al. Rix97 (1997)), a considerable evolution in luminosity would be derived. On the other hand, if a data set preferably contains early–type spirals, i.e. large disks (Vogt et al. Vog96 (1996)), only a modest luminosity offset from the local TFR will be observed.

A straightforward interpretation of the correlation between the luminosity offsets and the maximum rotation velocity we find could be a change of the TFR slope with look–back time. As given in Sect. 8.1, a bootstrap bisector fit to the high quality FDF data yields a slope of $`4.66\pm 0.67`$, corresponding to $`>`$99% confidence for a shallower slope at intermediate redshift with respect to the local PT92 sample. To verify this with a different fitting method, we estimate the errors of the absolute magnitudes to be

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{TFR}}^2=\sigma _{M_B}^2+7.48^2\sigma _{\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}}^2.$$
(18)
The first term on the right hand side corresponds to Eq. 7 and the second term is the error propagation from the errors in $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ based on the PT92 slope. A linear $`\chi ^2`$ -fit to the high quality FDF then gives

$$M_B=(3.55\pm 0.41)\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}(12.84\pm 0.92),$$
(19)
i.e. the significance for a TFR slope change is even higher than on the basis of a bootstrap bisector fit.

As an explanation for the shallower slope at redshift $`z0.5`$, we will now discuss two alternatives. Firstly, our result may point to a luminosity evolution that depends on the maximum rotation velocity. According to simulations by van den Bosch (vdB03 (2002)), the total mass of a spiral galaxy within the virial radius can be estimated via

$$M_{\mathrm{vir}}=2.5410^{10}M_{}\left(\frac{r_\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{kpc}}\right)\left(\frac{V_{\mathrm{max}}}{100\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}}\right)^2,$$
(20)
i.e. the correlation $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ implies $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B\mathrm{log}M_{\mathrm{vir}}`$. For the spirals with high quality RCs, covering the range $`3.210^{10}M_{}M_{\mathrm{vir}}1.610^{12}M_{}`$ ($`M_{\mathrm{vir}}=2.310^{11}M_{}`$), a linear $`\chi ^2`$-fit yields

$$\mathrm{\Delta }M_B=(1.14\pm 0.27)\mathrm{log}\frac{M_{\mathrm{vir}}}{M_{}}(13.46\pm 3.09).$$
(21)
Although the ground–based luminosity profile fits may place only upper limits on the scale lengths for some of the apparently smallest galaxies, we find evidence for a mass–dependent luminosity evolution which accounts to $``$ 2m in rest–frame $`B`$ for the least massive objects and is negligible for high–mass spirals. This implies that the redshift dependency we observe (Eq. 11) is most probably a lower limit, since low-mass spirals — which show strong evolution in luminosity according to Eq. 21 — at higher redshifts will fall beyond our apparent brightness limit. For the same reason, we cannot speculate on a potential evolution (more precisely, a decrease) of the mean galaxy masses with redshift.

If one assumes that low–mass spirals have not undergone a significant increase of their metallicities since $`z0.5`$, our result is similar to that of Kobulnicky et al. (Ko03 (2003)), who used the distant luminosity–metallicity relation and found $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B`$ $``$ $``$1…$``$2 mag. On the other hand, Vogt (Vog01 (2001)) does not find a TFR slope change with a TF sample from the same survey (DEEP Groth Strip Survey).

Besides a mass–dependent luminosity evolution, a second possible explanation for the flatter tilt of the distant TFR could be a strongly starforming galaxy population within our sample that contributes less to the local luminosity density, i.e. either these galaxies could be overnumerous or overluminous at intermediate redshift. In terms of the luminosity function, this topic is well known as the “faint blue galaxy excess” (see Ellis Ell97 (1997) for an overview). Based on spectroscopic data from the Canada-France-Redshift-Survey, Driver et al. (Dri96 (1996)) found that dwarfs may have faded by over one magnitude between the regime $`0.2<z<0.5`$ and the local universe. These observational findings could be understood in terms of a reionization era between redshifts $`z6`$ and $`z1`$ which suppresses star formation in low–mass dark halos ($`M_{\mathrm{vir}}10^9`$$`M_{}`$, Babul & Rees BR92 (1992)).

However, only a small fraction of the high quality FDF sample could be members of such a blue dwarf population since the former covers the range $`74\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}\mathrm{log}V_{\mathrm{max}}295\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}`$ and the lower virial mass limit of $`310^{10}M_{}`$ also exceeds the dark halo mass range of dwarfs. Furthermore, the star formation rates derived from \[OII\] equivalent widths fall in the range $`0.8M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{SFR}18.3M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, with a median of $``$ 4.5 $`M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, typical for massive local spirals (e.g. Kennicutt Ken83 (1983)).

If our result is interpreted in terms of a decreasing luminosity of low–mass spirals over the past $``$ 5 Gyrs (which accounts to the look–back time at $`z0.5`$), it could be due to a mass–dependent evolution of the mass–to–light ratio, or even a mass–age relation. A direct comparison to predictions of stellar population models is difficult since any evolution of the TFR introduces several competing effects. On the one hand, younger stellar populations coincide with a decrease of the mass–to–light ratio. On the other hand, since less gas has been consumed via star formation, the gas mass fraction most probably increases with look–back time, thereby increasing the mass–to–light ratio. Moreover, within the framework of hierarchical merging, disk sizes should be smaller for a given maximum rotation velocity and masses on the mean lower towards higher redshift (e.g. Mao et al. MMW98 (1998)). Based on the rotation velocity–size relation, i.e. the correlation between $`V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`r_\mathrm{d}`$, our sample shows some evidence for slightly smaller disks at $`z0.5`$ (see Böhm et al. Boe03 (2003)). However, due to the limitations of the ground–based imaging, the significance of this evolution is low.

In effect, a decrease of the disk sizes and an increase of the gas mass fraction would tend to shift distant spirals to the low–luminosity side of the local TFR, whereas a lower stellar mass–to–light ratio would result in a shift to the high–luminosity side. A domination of the first two processes for fast rotators could explain why a fraction of the high–mass FDF spirals are underluminous in the TF diagram.

As already stated, the correlation between luminosity evolution and redshift given in Eq. 11 is probably only a conservative estimate. Because the disk sizes and gas fractions may also evolve, the pure luminosity evolution possibly is larger than approx. one magnitude between $`z=1`$ and the local universe. E.g., chemically consistent evolutionary synthesis models by Möller et al. (Moe01 (2001)) yield a luminosity evolution of $``$ 1.5 mag in rest–frame $`B`$ for an Sc spiral over this redshift range.

Although the mild evolution of the scale lengths that might be deduced from the FDF sample is in compliance with the “bottom–up” scheme of structure growth within the Cold Dark Matter hierarchical model, a luminosity evolution that is larger for low–mass galaxies would be in contradiction to it. If our result is interpreted in terms of younger ages (lower formation redshifts) for lower masses, the contradiction will be even more obvious. This is simply because small Dark Matter Halos should have formed earlier than large ones, and thus the stellar populations in galaxies of low mass should be older than those of high-mass systems. Semi–analytic simulations which account for a mass–dependent evolution of the stellar populations also yield an increase of TFR slope with look–back time (e.g. Ferreras & Silk FS01 (2001)).

On the other hand, it is well established and also valid for our sample that the colors of spirals tend to become redder with mass (beginning of this section) which is not reproduced by simulations within the hierarchical scenario unless the spectrophotometric properties of local spirals are used as a calibration (e.g. Bell et al. Be03 (2003)).

We therefore conclude that, if the TFR slope of our distant sample is related to a mass–dependant luminosity evolution, this would be at variance with the hierarchical merging scenario on small scales.

## 9 Conclusions

Using imaging data and spectroscopy taken with the ESO Very Large Telescope, we have derived structural parameters and resolved rotation curves of a magnitude–limited sample of 77 spiral galaxies in the FORS Deep Field. The objects cover the redshift range $`0.1z1.0`$ and comprise all types from Sa to very late–type. Via a rotation curve modelling that takes into account geometric effects as well as seeing and optical beam smearing, the maximum rotation velocities have been derived and the distant $`B`$-band Tully–Fisher relation was constructed.

We find evidence for a luminosity evolution with look–back time which amounts to a brightening of $`\mathrm{\Delta }M_B1^m`$ at redshift unity. Moreover, we observe a correlation between the luminosity evolution and the total masses. The distant low–mass spirals are brighter by up to two magnitudes than their local counterparts, whereas the luminosity evolution of high–mass systems is negligible. In effect, the slope of the Tully–Fisher relation at intermediate redshift is shallower than for local samples. This may partly be caused by a population of small, starforming galaxies that contribute less to the luminosity density in the local universe. Nevertheless, the vast majority of our objects have virial masses too large to be dwarf galaxies and show star formation rates typical of normal spirals. The flatter tilt we find for the distant Tully–Fisher relation is in contradiction to the predictions of recent semi–analytic simulations.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge the thorough and useful comments of the referee and are grateful for the continuous support of our project by the PI of the FDF consortium, Prof. I. Appenzeller. We also thank ESO for the efficient support during the observations and Drs. B. Milvang-Jensen (MPE Garching) and M. A. W. Verheijen (Potsdam) for helpful comments. Our work was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (I/76 520), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB375, SFB439) and the German Federal Ministry for Education and Science (ID–Nos. 05 AV9MGA7, 05 AV9WM1/2, 05 AV9VOA).


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# References

Comments on astro-ph/0305039 and gr-qc/0309036
A. V. Minkevich

Department of Theoretical Physics, Belarussian State University, av. F. Skorina, 4, 220050, Minsk, Belarus

Abstract.The main results of papers gr-qc/0307026 and gr-qc/0312068 are formulated. These results are opposite to conclusions of paper astro-ph/0305039 and comments gr-qc/0309036.

Our papers  are devoted to study inflationary cosmological models by using cosmological equations for homogeneous isotropic models of gauge theories of gravitation - so-called generalized cosmological Friedmann equations (GCFE). The investigation of homogeneous isotropic models filled by usual gravitating matter carried out in a number of our previous papers (references are given in ) showed that their generic feature is regular bouncing character, if equation of state of gravitating matter at extreme conditions (extremely high energy densities, pressures) and indefinite parameter $`\beta `$ of GCFE satisfy certain restrictions. By including scalar fields mathematical structure of GCFE is essentially changed, namely, particular solution of GCFE determined by equation $`Z=1\beta (\rho 3p)=0`$ ($`\rho `$ is energy density, $`p`$ is pressure) becomes nonstationary, and the bounce point (corresponding to $`Z=0`$ in the case without scalar fields) is transformed into families of bounce curves separated from particular solution. The analysis of GCFE (with $`\beta <0`$) by including scalar fields leads us to the following conclusions:

1. The greatest part of inflationary cosmological solutions including scalar fields and ultrarelativistic matter are regular in metrics and Hubble parameter and have bouncing character ; singular solutions appear because of divergence of particular solution, however, their number is essentially less than the number of regular solutions, namely, infinite number of regular solutions correspond to each singular solution.
2. The problem of excluding noted above singular solutions was analyzed and solved in Ref . It is shown that all inflationary cosmological models including also usual gravitating matter with equation of state $`p_1=p_1(\rho _1)`$ besides scalar fields are regular in metrics and Hubble parameter and have bouncing character, if gravitating matter at extreme conditions satisfies the following restriction $`\frac{1}{3}\rho _1<p_1\rho _1`$. In this case regular inflationary cosmology can be built within the framework of gauge theories of gravitation.

Noted results were obtained for flat, open and closed models in the case of various scalar field potentials applying in chaotic inflation. In particular case of flat models by using scalar field potential $`V=\frac{1}{2}m^2\varphi ^2`$ discussed in Refs  our results have to be valid also.


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# An Observational Diagnostic for Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources

## 1. INTRODUCTION

In the past few years high-angular–resolution observations with Chandra have revolutionized the study of X–ray binaries in nearby galaxies and have revealed whole populations of sources in a variety of galaxy types (for a recent review see Fabbiano & White, 2003). The detected X–ray fluxes have been combined with distance estimates to the host galaxies to infer the apparent X–ray luminosities of the sources, assuming isotropic emission. The inferred X–ray luminosities reveal a distinct class of sources: non–nuclear point sources with apparent X–ray luminosities above the Eddington limit for a $`10`$ M black hole ($`2\times 10^{39}`$ erg s-1), often referred to as ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). The existence of such sources was first noted in EINSTEIN observations (e.g., Fabbiano, 1988). Short-term variability detected in a number of them (see e.g., Matsumoto et al., 2001; Fabbiano et al., 2003) excludes the possibility of source confusion and strongly points towards accretion as the origin of the X-rays. At present the majority of ULXs have been found mainly in young stellar populations and regions of recent star formation, although a few have been identified in elliptical galaxies (e.g., Sarazin, Irwin, & Bregman, 2001; Colbert & Ptak, 2002) with luminosities close to the lower end of the ULX range.

If the apparent X-ray luminosities are indeed the true luminosities of the sources, their high values have very important implications for their accreting compact objects. For sources with X-ray luminosities comparable or in excess of $`10^{40}`$ erg s-1, the Eddington limit gives a lower limit on the mass intermediate between stellar ($`50`$ M) and supermassive ($`10^6`$ M) black holes (BH). ULXs may thus suggest the existence of a new class of compact objects: intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH; Colbert & Mushotzky, 1999).

On the other hand it is still possible that the accreting compact objects in ULXs are of stellar mass ($`20`$ M; see Belczynski, Kalogera, & Bulik, 2002). The high apparent X-ray luminosities can be explained in two different ways: (i) either the Eddington limit (rigorously derived for spherical accretion) is not relevant and in fact can be exceeded (see Ruszkowski & Begelman, 2003) or (ii) the apparent X-ray luminosities overestimate the true source luminosities because the emission is anisotropic (King et al., 2001). Although the theoretical basis for imposing the Eddington limit is somewhat unclear, there is strong support for it partly from observations of X-ray bursts from accreting neutron stars (e.g., Kuulkers et al., 2003; Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam, 1995) and from the current understanding of the evolutionary history of wide binary pulsars (Webbink & Kalogera, 1997) and Cygnus X-2 (where the compact object does not seem to have gained any significant amount of mass; King & Ritter, 1999; Kolb et al., 2000; Podsiadlowski & Rappaport, 2000).

Anisotropic emission is probably associated with X-ray luminosities comparable to the Eddington limit. Binary systems can reach such high luminosities in two different situations (King, 2002): (i) thermal-timescale mass transfer typically occurring when the donor is more massive than the accretor (King et al., 2001). Cygnus X-2 (King & Ritter, 1999) and SS433 (King, Taam, & Begelman, 2000) may be examples of this phase; (ii) X-ray transient outbursts, where the thermal disk instability governs the accretion behavior. The first possibility obviously requires donors more massive than black holes ($`35`$ M), and hence relatively young stellar environments, whereas the second must apply to ULXs in old elliptical galaxies (Piro & Bildsten, 2002).

Although population studies suggest that a large fraction of ULXs must be stellar–mass X–ray binaries (Grimm, Gilfanov, & Sunyaev, 2003), some may contain IMBH. For the ULX in M82, the very high peak luminosity (Matsumoto et al., 2001), the quasi-periodic oscillations (Strohmayer & Mushotzky, 2003), and the detection of an isotropic nebula around it may point away from the anisotropic-emission possibility (although see King & Pounds, 2003). On the other hand, no ULXs are found inside dense clusters, where IMBH are expected not only to form (Portegies Zwart & McMillan, 2000; Miller & Hamilton, 2002) but also remain, as they are much heavier than the average stellar mass in clusters (fast cluster disruption could help, but this issue is beyond the scope of this paper; Gürkan & Rasio, 2003). Thus at present the physical origin of some of these sources is not clear, and there may be ULXs of both stellar and intermediate mass.

In this Letter we suggest that long-term transient behavior (not just flux variability by factors of a few to several) due to the thermal-viscous disk instability (King, Kolb, & Burderi, 1996; King & Ritter, 1998) may distinguish the two possibilities for ULXs in regions of young stellar populations ($`10^8`$ yr). We show that one can define a minimum BH mass $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ for disk instability and thus transient behavior (§ 2). This minimum mass depends primarily on the mass and evolutionary stage of the donor star. We show that, for donor masses $`5`$ M (expected to be the most likely donors in young stellar environments), $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}50`$ M for a large fraction of the mass-transfer phase ($`90`$%). (§ 3). By contrast, thermal timescale mass transfer is expected to be persistent (King et al., 2001). Thus if long–term monitoring reveals a significant transient fraction among ULXs in a young stellar population, these systems would be good candidates for IMBH in a statistical sense; information about the donor star is needed to make this identification secure in any individual case. In § 4 we discuss the observational significance of this diagnostic and the connection to IMBH formation scenarios.

## 2. MINIMUM BLACK HOLE MASS FOR TRANSIENT BEHAVIOR

The thermal–viscous disk instability provides a currently accepted explanation for transient behavior in X–ray binaries. The instability causes the disk to undergo a limit cycle in which the central accretion rate passes through short high states (outbursts) and long low states (quiescence). This picture was originally developed to explain dwarf novae but can be extended to soft X–ray transients by including the effects of disk irradiation (van Paradijs 1996; King, Kolb & Burderi 1996; Dubus et al. 1999; for reviews see Lasota 2001; Frank et al. 2002). The condition for transient behavior is that the disk surface temperature at its outer edge should lie below the hydrogen ionization temperature. This in turn requires the mean mass transfer rate to lie below a critical value $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ (King, Kolb, & Burderi, 1996). This depends primarily on the binary component masses $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$, $`M_2`$ and orbital period $`P`$, and to a lesser degree on the detailed vertical disk structure. The latter is of course uncertain; in this paper we use the form given in (eq. 32 in Dubus et al., 1999):

$`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ $``$ $`6.6\times 10^5M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\mathrm{BH}}}{100M_{}}}\right)^{0.5}`$ (1)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{M_2}{10M_{}}}\right)^{0.2}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P}{1\mathrm{yr}}}\right)^{1.4}.`$
Although the precise conditions assumed by Dubus et al. (1999) (in particular the central mass and vertical structure) probably cannot be extrapolated to all of the cases we shall consider, this equation gives an adequate idea of when transient behavior is likely. Using a somewhat simpler expression King, Kolb, & Burderi (1996) first showed that the condition $`\dot{M}<\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ translates into a minimum BH mass $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ required for the development of transient behavior. Similarly, equation (1) can be used to derive this minimum:

$`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ $``$ $`230M_{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\dot{M}}{10^4M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}}\right)^2`$ (2)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{M_2}{10M_{}}}\right)^{0.4}\left({\displaystyle \frac{P}{1\mathrm{yr}}}\right)^{2.8}.`$
Our aim is to examine whether transient behavior favors a distinct BH mass range. We use mass transfer sequences calculated for a set of initial binary configurations (of varying orbital periods, black hole and donor masses) and we derive $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ for a given donor mass $`M_2`$ and radius $`R_2`$ (i.e., evolutionary state). We then use the dependence of $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ on $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}`$ and disk radius given in (eq. 30 in Dubus et al., 1999) and solve numerically for $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ by setting $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{crit}}`$ equal to the mass transfer rate found from our mass transfer sequences, for given $`(M_2,R_2)`$. If the BH mass used in the mass transfer calculations exceeds this minimum the system will be transient. (Note that for a given sequence, $`\dot{M}`$ depends most sensitively on the donor mass and evolutionary stage at the onset of mass transfer and not so much on the accretor mass.) We examine the range of values for $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ and whether transient behavior can be associated with certain types of BH accretors (§ 3.2).

## 3. MASS TRANSFER SEQUENCES

### 3.1. Stellar Evolution Code

We calculate stellar models and mass-transfer sequences with an updated stellar evolution code described in detail in (Podsiadlowski, Rappaport, & Pfahl, 2002; Ivanova et al., 2003). The current version has been modified to minimize numerical noise in the mass transfer calculations and ensure that the stellar and Roche lobe radii track one another during mass transfer. We use mixing length and overshooting parameters of 2 and 0.25 pressure scale heights respectively. Since we are dealing with massive stars, we account for mass loss due to stellar winds (rates adopted from Hurley et al., 2000). In calculating orbital changes we take account of both mass transfer and wind mass loss with the specific angular momentum of the mass-losing donor. We assume that any mass transfer above the Eddington rate is lost from the binary with the specific angular momentum of the accretor.

We model mass transfer self–consistently following the donor response to the appropriate rate of mass loss. The mass-transfer rate $`\dot{M}`$ is calculated in an implicit manner, so that the donor radius $`R`$ remains equal to the Roche lobe radius $`R_\mathrm{L}`$ (using Eggleton’s approximation; Eggleton, 1983). We consider the radius-mass exponents of the Roche lobe $`\zeta _\mathrm{L}=d\mathrm{ln}R_\mathrm{L}/d\mathrm{ln}M`$ and of the star itself $`\zeta =d\mathrm{ln}R/d\mathrm{ln}M`$ in our solution method. The response of the Roche lobe to the mass transfer is solely a function of the mass ratio, whereas the response of the stellar radius depends on the mass transfer rate. For a given model, we tabulate values of $`\zeta `$ for a range of $`\dot{M}`$ values. We then identify the value of $`\dot{M}`$ for which the Roche lobe radius is equal to the stellar radius (predicted from the value of $`\zeta `$). In some cases, the solution for $`\dot{M}`$ is not unique; we then choose the lowest value to avoid large excursions in the rate. As the donor evolves, the stellar-radius response changes, so we recalculate the table of $`\zeta (\dot{M})`$, if the predicted stellar radius differs from the calculated one by $`\delta \mathrm{ln}R=10^4`$.

### 3.2. Calculations and Results

To investigate the systematics of mass transfer and disk (in)stability we consider a large set of mass-transfer sequences driven by Roche-lobe overflow: binaries with BH masses in the range $`101000`$ M, donor masses in the range $`125`$ M. For each donor mass, we evolve single-star models to different evolutionary stages that cover most of the stellar lifetime: from the Zero-Age to the End of the Main Sequence (ZAMS and EMS), the Hertzsprung gap (HG), and through core helium burning. We consider the possibility of multiple mass-transfer episodes in the evolutionary history of each binary and we evolve each of our models up to carbon ignition.

Every evolutionary sequence of course starts and ends with transient behavior as the mass transfer rate rises from and returns to zero. For episodes of otherwise persistent mass transfer these transient windows form a very small fraction of the total mass transfer lifetime and have very low discovery probability. In terms of the solutions for $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$, this means that at the start and end of every mass-transfer episode the minimum BH mass for transient behavior is very low and certainly enters the stellar-mass range. We eliminate these insignificant (due to their low discovery probability) transient epochs by excluding the first and last 5% of the mass-transfer lifetime.

The behavior of two example mass-transfer sequences is shown in Figure 1. These have been calculated for $`M_{\mathrm{BH}}=`$ 1000 M and donors of $`20`$ M at two evolutionary stages: unevolved (ZAMS) and at the base of the Giant Branch. Our results for the binary orbital period, mass transfer rate, and minimum BH mass for transient behavior are shown as a function of time normalized to the total duration of each mass-transfer episode ($`10^7`$ yr and $`2\times 10^3`$ yr, respectively). Evidently, for most of these episodes (90%-100% of their duration), transient behavior requires BHs in the intermediate–mass range $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}>`$ 50 M and not the stellar–mass range. In reality, for stellar-mass binaries the orbital separation is small enough that the radiation field of the O,B donor is able to keep the disk ionized, and therefore stable. This effect is negligible for the much wider separations of IMBH binaries.

For sequences with donors down to 10 M and 7 M results are very similar to the 20 M sequences, with $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}>`$ 50 M for more than 90% of their duration. We note that ULX luminosities would be reached in outbursts and would then probably reflect the Eddington luminosity rather than the mass-transfer rates shown in Figure 1.

For binaries with more evolved donors (during most of the short phase of core-helium burning when orbital periods are $`10`$ yr), $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values can be $`10`$ M. In these cases accretion disks are so large that their edges are cool and allow the disk instability to develop. However, such binaries are expected to be uncommon in young clusters for two reasons. First, they are too wide to survive stellar interactions; typical interaction timescales are $`10^5`$ yr for stellar densities of $`10^5`$ pc-3 (typical of young stellar clusters in star-forming regions; see § 8.4 in Binney & Tremaine, 1987). Second, our numerical calculations show that their mass-transfer episodes are much shorter ($`10^4`$ yr) than for MS donors ($`10^510^7`$ yr). Therefore for the same formation probability, it is more difficult to detect such short-lived X-ray phases.

Sequences with 5 M donors at different evolutionary stages show a qualitative change in behavior. They straddle along the dividing line between $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values in the intermediate-mass and the stellar-mass range because of a close balance between two effects on $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ (eq. ): the orbital period and the mass trasfer rate at Roche-lobe overflow. As a result a 5 M donor at the ZAMS and beyond the MS gives $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values in the stellar-mass, whereas the same donor filling its Roche-lobe close to the end of the MS leads to $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values in the intermediate-mass range. Sequences with less massive donors always have $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values in the stellar-mass range, i.e., $`<`$ 50 M.

Before drawing firm conclusions from our results, we examine whether the derived $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ values are affected by the fact that we have used an IMBH for the calculations. We have repeated our sequences for a stellar-mass BH (10 M) and found no qualitative or significant quantitative differences, as is evident in Figure 2 for two example sequences with a 10 M donor. These deviations occur because the mass ratio is close to unity in one case, and lead to higher values of $`M_{\mathrm{BH},\mathrm{min}}`$ for BH masses comparable to the donor masses.

Given the qualitatively different results for donors more or less massive than $`5`$ M, we consider their relative probabilities as Roche-lobe filling BH binary companions in young star-forming regions where most ULXs are found. From basic results of stellar dynamics and preliminary calculations of our own (Ivanova, Kalogera, & Belczynski, in preparation) we find that relatively massive companions in are favored for a number of reasons: (i) BHs sink by dynamical friction to the center of young star-forming regions, as do massive stars, and therefore there is more of them in the BH’s vicinity; (ii) massive stars have a higher cross section for capture by a BH and, if exchange into binaries is relevant, lower-mass objects are generally ejected in the interaction; (iii) such stellar interactions strongly favor orbital periods in excess of $`100`$ d, so even, if a low-mass companion were present at some point in the BH dynamical lifetime, it would not fill its Roche lobe in young clusters (requires orbital periods shorter than $`1`$ d).

On the other hand, such relatively massive donors to stellar-mass BH could drive thermal–timescale mass transfer and therefore produce persistent X–ray sources (King et al., 2001). Thus we conclude that, if a substantial fraction of ULXs prove to be transient, then IMBH accretors could be favored.

## 4. DISCUSSION

We have calculated mass transfer driven by relatively massive stars ($`520`$ M) in BH binaries likely in young stellar environments, and derived a minimum BH mass for transient behavior that in the majority of relevant cases is in excess of $`50`$ M. This provides an observational diagnostic that could allow us to distinguish between stellar–mass ($`20`$ M) and intermediate–mass BH binary models for ULXs. We note that in old populations of ellipticals both classes of sources are expected to be transient (Piro & Bildsten, 2002; King, 2002). Hence transient behavior cannot be used as an observational diagnostic in old stellar systems (ages in excess of $`10^8`$ yr).

So far there is only one candidate for a transient ULX. One ($`L_X1.1\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1) is in a starburst galaxy NGC 3628 (Strickland et al., 2001). It may be associated with a ROSAT X-ray source (so the position is not well constrained) that faded below the sensitivity limit by a factor of more than 27 and reappeared in Chandra observations.

Current scenarios for IMBH involve formation in young stellar clusters. One possibility invokes repeated black hole mergers (Miller & Hamilton, 2002), although gravitational radiation recoil (Redmount & Rees, 1989) could prevent this by ejecting merger products from the cluster. Another idea invokes runaway collisions of massive stars and eventual collapse of the massive remnant (provided that stellar winds do not decrease the mass of the collision product; see Portegies Zwart & McMillan, 2000). Then an IMBH may form within the lifetime of the most massive stars ($`3`$ Myr), and it may acquire a binary companion within a cluster relaxation time after BH formation (at $`10`$ Myr), when stars as massive as $`20`$ M are still present. At that time binary separations would still be wide, favoring the formation of IMBH binaries with orbital periods longer than about 100 d. We are currently studying the dynamical evolution of an IMBH in young clusters and the characteristics of IMBH binaries and we expect to present our results in the near future (Ivanova, Kalogera, Belczynski 2003, in preparation).

It is important to realize that the transient behavior we discuss must occur on timescales far longer than an observer’s lifetime. Therefore tests for transient behavior must be carried out in a statistical sense. Any quantitative statement ultimately depends on the duty cycle and the outburst duration. It is also important to remember that such a detection would imply a much larger number $`1/d1001000`$ of quiescent systems of the same type.

We thank J. Miller, R. Taam, and A.Zezas for useful discussions. VK and ARK acknowledge the hospitality and support of the Aspen Center for Physics (Summer 2002). This work is partially supported by a David and Lucile Packard Science & Engineering Fellowship and a Chandra theory grant to VK, a NASA Summer Research fellowship fund to MH. ARK gratefully acknowledges a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, and the hospitality and support of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Northwestern University.