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# Physical interpretation of the UV/X-ray variability behavior of NGC 7469

## 1 Introduction

The broad band opt-UV-X-$`\gamma `$-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies is mainly dominated by two components: an optical/UV bump, which was interpreted early on early as the signature of cold material accreting onto a putative super massive black hole (Shields shi78 (1978); Malkan & Sargent mal82 (1982)), and a broader component, covering the soft-X to the hard-X/soft$`\gamma `$-ray energy band, with a rough power law shape generally cut-off above 100 keV.

These spectra are commonly interpreted in the framework of the reprocessing/upscattering models (e.g. Haardt & Maraschi, haa91 (1991), haa93b (1993)). These models assume the presence of two phases, a cold (generally an accretion disc) and a hot (called the corona) one, radiatively linked one with each other: part of the cold emission, giving birth to the UV bump, is produced by the reprocessing of part of the hot emission. Inversely the hot emission, at the origin of the broad X-ray component, is believed to be produced by Compton upscattering of the soft photons, emitted by the cold phase, on the coronal energetic electrons.

The presence of a high energy cut-off near 100 keV, first detected by SIGMA and OSSE in NGC 4151 (Jourdain et al. jou92 (1992); Maisack et al. mai93 (1993)), appears to be common in Seyfert galaxies (Zdziarski et al. zdz93 (1993); Gondek et al. gon96 (1996); Matt mat01 (2001); Perola et al. per02 (2002)). The presence of this component, and the lack of any annihilation lines (while poorly constrained) are generally believed to be the signature of the thermal nature of the coronal plasma (see however Malzac & Jourdain mal00 (2000)), the cut-off energy being then of the order of the coronal temperature. No cut-off but strong annihilation lines were indeed expected by the different non-thermal models develop in the 80-90s. However when taking better into account the feedback of the accelerated particles on the acceleration process (Done et al. don90 (1990); Henri & Pelletier hen91 (1991); Petrucci, Henri & Pelletier al. pet01 (2001)) non-thermal models also predict spectral shape in agreement with the observations.

Stronger and less ambiguous constraints on the nature of the coronal plasma are expected from variability studies. For example, in the case of a thermal hot corona in radiative equilibrium with the cold phase, the X-ray spectral shape is expected to harden (the photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ decreases) when the corona temperature (and thus the high energy cut-off) increases (Haardt et al. haa97 (1997)). Inversely, in the case of a non-thermal plasma, a softening of the spectrum is expected when the cut-off energy increases to ensure the balance between the accelerated particles and the shocked gas pressures (Petrucci et al. pet01 (2001)).

Such variations of the X-ray spectral shape may be produced by intrinsic changes of the corona properties (for example changes of the heating process efficiency) and/or by variation of the external environment like changes of the soft photons flux (and consequently of the corona cooling) produced by the cold phase. Simultaneous information in the UV and X-ray band are then needed to constrain the nature of the different processes acting in both phases.

Several observations have already suggested a link between the UV and/or the extreme UV and the X-ray emission in Seyfert galaxies (Clavel et al. cla92 (1992); Edelson et al. ede96 (1996); Marshall et al. mar97 (1997); Chiang et al. chi00 (2000); Uttley et al. utt00 (2000); Shemmer et al. she01 (2001)), showing strong correlations (with small or zero time lag) between the different fluxes, in good agreement with the reprocessing/upscattering interpretation. In some cases however, the X-rays and the optical/UV bands appear to be completely disconnected. For instance, the $``$1 month simultaneous IUE/RXTE monitoring campaign on NGC 7469 performed in 1996, showed only poor correlations between the 2-10 keV and UV fluxes (Nandra et al. nan98 (1998), hereafter N98). Strong X-ray variations on small time scale were also detected but none in UV. Similar behavior has been observed in NGC 3516 (Edelson et al. ede00 (2000); Maoz et al. mao00 (2000, 2002)). These last results ruled out apparently, and at least for these sources, the basic interpretation presented above.

The spectral analysis of the 1996 RXTE data of NGC 7469 by Nandra et al. (nan00 (2000) hereafter N00) however permit to resolve these contradictions for this source. These authors indeed found that the X-ray spectral index in NGC 7469 was strongly correlated with the UV flux at zero time lag during the campaign. They interpret this result as a strong support for the X-rays being produced by Compton upscattering of the UV photons. In this framework, the observed variability of the UV flux is expected to directly modify the cooling rate of the hot corona, thus producing the observed X-ray spectral changes. The delays found between the RXTE hard X-rays with respect to the soft ones by Papadakis, Nandra, & Kazanas (pap01 (2001)) also offers additional support to the hypothesis that the X-ray are most likely due to Comptonization of soft photons by hot, thermal electrons. The apparent disconnect between the X-ray and UV fluxes previously reported by N98, was then explained by the narrow band used in the X-ray (2-10 keV), which, in the presence of spectral variability, may result in incoherent behavior with respect to the UV one.

The spectral treatment done by N00 assumed a simple power law shape for the X-ray continuum. It is known however that the real Comptonization spectral shape may be significantly different from a power law (Haardt haa93 (1993); Svensson sve96 (1996); Petrucci et al. pet00 (2000)). Moreover, the interpretation of the spectral variability in term of physical quantities, like the temperature and optical depth of the corona, is not straightforward with a phenomenological power law approximation and requires the use of approximate formulae. The aim of this paper is then to perform a re-analysis of the simultaneous IUE/XTE data by explicitly fitting the UV and X-ray continuum using a realistic Comptonization model. As just said, the first interest of this re-analysis is that we will have direct information on physical quantities characterizing the hot and cold phases. The broad band (from UV to hard X-rays) energy range of the Comptonization spectra also permit to fit simultaneously the IUE and RXTE data and to predict the spectral behavior at high energy (i.e. above 20 keV, the upper limit of our RXTE data) in a completely consistent way.

The paper is organized as follows. We first present the data and the model used in Sect. 2. We then show, in Sect. 3, the results we obtain fitting simultaneously the IUE and XTE data and we also present the most interesting correlations we found between the different model parameters. We discuss these different results in Sect. 4 and then conclude on this work in the last section.

## 2 Observation and data analysis

### 2.1 The data

Many of the details of the RXTE observations are reported in N98 and N00 and the reader can refer to these papers for more details. The “L7+activation” model was employed for the background. The standard selection criteria in the “rex” RXTE processing script has also been applied.

The background subtraction was however unreliable at high energies for sources as weak as NGC 7469 and the spectral analysis was therefore restricted to the 2-20 keV energy band. Different response matrices were calculated for different times of the observation using PCARSP v2.37 but no significant differences were found between the derived spectra. We therefore used a single matrix for the entire observation.

The IUE data used here are described in Wanders et al. (wan97 (1997)). NGC 7469 has also been observed by the HST FOS instrument in the midst of the IUE monitoring (Kriss et al. kri00 (2000)). The better quality of the HST data has allowed to disentangle the UV continuum more accurately from the broad wings of the emission lines and thus to identify four clean continuum windows free of any emission and/or absorption features, and centered on 1315, 1485, 1740 and 1825 Å. We fit the data using XSPECv11.1. Since the XSPEC fitting tools need spectral bin larger than 1 eV, we have rescaled the UV fluxes in order to have 4 windows of 1eV band width. In the following, and to be comparable with the results of Wanders et al. (wan97 (1997)) and Kriss et al. (kri00 (2000)), the UV fluxes are given in erg.s-1.cm-2-1 and are measured in a bandwidth of 21 Å.

Like in N00, the observation have been divided into 30 segments of approximately 1 day duration with sufficient photon statistics to permit precise spectral analysis.

### 2.2 The model

We fit the data using, for the continuum, the thermal Comptonization model in slab geometry developed by F. Haardt (Haardt haa93 (1993); Haardt haa94 (1994); Haardt et al. haa97 (1997)). Hereafter we will refer to this Anisotropic Comptonization Code as AC2. The code treats Comptonization in steady-state, i.e., energy balance is implicitly assumed, so that an unspecified heating term balances radiative losses. Given the temperature and optical depth of the corona, the angle–dependent spectra of a disc–corona system in plane parallel geometry is derived using an iterative scattering method, where the intrinsic anisotropy of the scattering is taken into account only in the first scattering order. The Compton recoil is also treated accurately. It includes also a reflection component described following White, Lightman & Zdziarski (whi88 (1988)) and Lightman & White (lig88 (1988)) and assuming neutral matter. The spectral shape of the reflected photons is averaged over angles. It is multiplied by a first normalization factor which depends on the inclination angle (see Ghisellini, Haardt & Matt ghi94 (1994) for details). In addition, the usual $`R`$ normalization is left free to vary in the fit procedure, so that, for the given inclination angle, $`R=1`$ corresponds to a solid angle, subtended by the reflector, of 2$`\pi `$. The resulting Comptonization spectral shape generally is quite different from the simple cut-off power law approximation generally used to mimic Comptonization spectra. Moreover, due to anisotropy effects, the first scattering order is reduced in comparison to the other orders, and the observed spectral shape is better approximated by a broken power law, the energy of the break depending mainly on $`kT_e`$ and $`kT_{bb}`$. It is expected to be in the 2-10 keV range for the parameter values we used (cf. Petrucci et al. pet00 (2000) for more details).

The fit parameters in AC2 are the temperature of the corona $`kT_e`$, its optical depth $`\tau `$, the temperature of the disc $`kT_{bb}`$ (assumed as a single temperature black body) and the reflection normalization $`R`$. There are then two extra parameters compared to the simple power law + reflection model used by N00. Other natural outputs of AC2 are the total (integrated over the solid angles) X-ray fluxes emitted by the corona (upward toward the observer and backward toward the disc) as well as the total UV flux emitted by the disc and the total flux Compton reflected at the disc surface. Different grids of this model are now available for public use as XSPEC table models111From http://pitto.mib.infn.it/ haardt/ATABLES.

It is important to point out that no links between the Comptonized spectrum and the soft UV disc emission are imposed a priori. The model simply adjusts its parameters to fit the data. It is only a posteriori that the resulting best fit values can be interpreted in a physically motivated scenario. More specifically, the code gives the ratio between an arbitrarily normalized input cooling flux, $`F_{cool}`$, and the total emitted Compton spectrum, $`F_X`$. That ratio can then be related to a specific geometry of the system, e.g. a homogeneous plane parallel disc-corona system in radiative equilibrium as in Haardt & Maraschi (haa91 (1991)), in which case it must be $`F_{cool}F_X`$. This balance is imposed by the feed-back of the corona on the disc and viceversa in the absence of a dissipation mechanism intrinsic to the disc and is independent on the heating rate, provided it heats the electrons in the corona. A doubling of the heating rate doubles $`F_X`$ and $`F_{cool}`$ but does not change their ratio. If $`F_X>F_{cool}`$, a photon starved configuration is required for instance a spherical corona. In the most general case, $`F_{cool}`$ is a fraction of the observed UV flux $`F_{UV}`$. In fact, the condition $`F_{UV}=F_{cool}`$ is strictly valid only if all UV photons cross (and hence cool) the corona. In general $`F_{UV}F_{cool}`$. Thus, once the best fit parameters are obtained, one should seek for a self-consistent (in terms of physics and geometry) configuration of the disc+corona system.

AC2 also does not treat the ionization and thermal balance of the cold phase at all. This has certainly some impact on the broad band spectral shape expected from such a model as shown by Malzac et al. (mal03 (2003)), leading, for instance, to higher corona temperature and harder spectra in comparison to the “blackbody + neutral reflection” approximation used here. We believe however that these effects have no strong influence on the spectral variability behaviors studied in this paper.

We have also the possibility of using a semi-spherical geometry for the corona. We have checked however that the results presented below do not significantly change in comparison to the slab configuration (the main change being the larger value of the optical depth for a given slope of the X-ray power law). We thus restrict our analysis to the slab geometry.

We used the uvred model for the reddening, fixing the extinction to the best fit value of Kriss et al. (kri00 (2000)) i.e. $`E(BV)=0.12`$. We fixed the column density to the galactic one i.e. $`N_H=4.8\times 10^{20}`$cm-2. For the neutral iron line, we simply used a gaussian (zgauss model of xspec), fixing the gaussian energy and width to 6.4 keV and 0.01 keV respectively. The gaussian normalization was let free to vary. Finally we assume a relative normalization of 1 between the IUE and XTE data (we have checked that normalizations of 0.9 or 1.1 do not significantly change the results).

## 3 Simultaneous IUE and XTE fits

### 3.1 Fit results

We have reported in Table 1 the best fit values of the different model parameters, i.e. $`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_{bb}`$ and $`R`$, for 29 daily segments fitting simultaneously the IUE and XTE data. We do not include the first segment obtained at the beginning of the campaign, JD-24400245.104, since no IUE data were available. We have also reported in the table the UV (at 1315 Å) and X-ray (in the 2-10 keV range) fluxes, and the $`\chi ^2`$ values. We have plotted in Fig. 1 the data and the corresponding best fit models for two different states of NGC 7469 (a soft one corresponding to segment 2 and a hard one corresponding to segment 9).

We obtained acceptable fits for each segment and the total $`\chi ^2`$ = 1528 for 1334 dof. The use of the IUE and XTE data provide relatively good constraints on the different parameters of the model. Indeed, the UV data allow to constrain well $`kT_{bb}`$. Moreover, in Comptonization models, and for a given geometry, the ratio between the UV bump maximum and the X-ray “plateau” (i.e. the X-ray flux near 0.1 keV) is mainly controlled by the corona optical depth. Combined with the X-ray slope in the 2-10 keV range it then permits relatively good determination of $`\tau `$ and $`kT_e`$ and thus of the X-ray continuum up to the hard X-ray/soft $`\gamma `$-ray band. Consequently, the reflection component is also well constrained even if the XTE data permit precise spectral study only below 20 keV.

### 3.2 Light curves of fit parameters

We have plotted the light curves of the different model parameters on the bottom part of Fig. 2, as well as the total (above 0.1 keV) X-ray flux predicted by the AC2 code. We have also plotted the 2-10 keV X-ray and UV (at 1315 Å) light curves and the photon index one, obtained by N00, on the top of the figure.

We have tested the significance of the variability of each parameter. Fitting the different light curves with a constant gives a $`\chi ^2`$, for 29 dof, of 57.6, 54.9, 8.3 and 128.5 for $`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_{bb}`$ and $`R`$, respectively. Except $`kT_{bb}`$, the other parameters are thus clearly variable (significant at $`>`$99% confidence).

A more sensitive way to detect parameters variations is the use of the F-test. For that purpose, we fit again the data but fixing each of the parameters ($`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$, $`kT_{bb}`$ and $`R`$) to its weighted average value (i.e. 322 keV, 0.054, 2 eV and 1.1 respectively). By comparing the total $`\chi ^2`$ of these fits to the $`\chi ^2`$ when all parameters were free, we derived F-values of 4.3, 3.9, 1.2 and 4.9 for 29 additional parameters. Again, it implies highly significant changes in $`kT_e`$, $`\tau `$ and $`R`$ ($`>`$99%) but no significant changes for $`kT_{bb}`$. The black body temperature $`kT_{bb}`$ is thus consistent with a constant and we choose to fix it, in the following, to the mean value of 2 eV.

We finally remark that the total X-ray flux (above 0.1 keV) predicted by our model also varies similarly to the observed 2-10 keV flux.

### 3.3 Correlations

We have reported in Table 2 the results of the linear (Pearson) and rank (Spearman) correlation tests between the different model parameters, assuming no time lags.

The X-ray flux is apparently correlated, with significances $`>`$99%, with the coronal optical depth $`\tau `$ and anti-correlated with $`R`$. This anticorrelation was not observed by N00. We also found a correlation between the X-ray and line fluxes but not as strong as N00. Concerning the UV flux, it appears strongly anti-correlated with the coronal temperature $`kT_e`$. Finally, we found a strong anti-correlation between $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$. We have plotted the most significant correlations in Figs. 3 and 4 i.e $`\tau `$ and $`R`$ versus $`F_{210}`$, $`kT_e`$ versus $`F_{1315}`$, and $`kT_e`$ versus $`\tau `$.

As already remarked by N00, the cross correlation of light curves that have a “red noise” character (i.e. where the variability power scales as $`f^\alpha `$), can produce artificially high correlation coefficients values (Welsh wel99 (1999); Maoz et al. mao00 (2000)). We have thus tested the significance of our results by simulating a number of X-ray and UV light curves with “red noise” power spectra. We adopt a value of $`\alpha `$ of 1.3 and 1.9 for the power law index of the X-ray and UV power-density spectra respectively (cf. N98 and N00).

In 200 trials of 29 points, we never obtained Spearman or Pearson correlation coefficients as high as that observed in the real data. We thus conclude that the correlations shown in bold in Table 2 are unlikely to arise by chance. We discuss these different correlations in the following.

#### 3.3.1 $`kT_e`$ versus $`F_{UV}`$

The coronal temperature appears strongly anticorrelated with the UV flux ($`F_{1315}`$ mimics very well the total UV flux variations predicted by our model and in the following we will now only use the term $`F_{UV}`$ instead of $`F_{1315}`$). We found a rank Spearman coefficient of 0.73 while the highest coefficient obtained with our simulations, using 200 trials, was $``$ 0.5 (0.6 for 400 trials). This anti-correlation clearly corresponds to the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ vs. $`F_{UV}`$ correlation found by N00.

These authors interpret this correlation as a strong support for Comptonization models where any ”primary” increase of the UV seed photons (not accompanied by an increase of the coronal heating rate) is generally expected to produce an increase of the cooling of the corona and thus a steepening of the spectrum and a decreasing of the corona temperature. We will see in the following that, in the context of coupled disc-corona models where the UV arises from reprocessing, a geometrical and/or energetic change of the disc-corona configuration is required.

#### 3.3.2 $`\tau `$ versus $`F_{210}`$

We find a strong correlation between the coronal optical depth and the X-ray emission. As already noted in Sect. 2.2, in the code we used there is no link imposed a priori between $`\tau `$ and the total X-ray flux $`F_X`$ and consequently between $`\tau `$ and $`F_{210}`$. Such correlation is not simply explained in the Comptonization model framework and may reflect a process of different nature.

For instance, we expect that part of the X-ray flux produced by the corona illuminates the surrounding cold thick material, seed of soft photons. It is also possible that the hot corona is produced by e.g. evaporation of part of this cold matter or by magnetic buoyancy inside the cold matter (Meyer & Meyer-Hofmeister mey94 (1994); Meyer et al. mey00 (2000); Liu et al. liu02 (2002); Merloni & Fabian mer02 (2002); Merloni mer03 (2003)). Then variations of the X-ray flux may likely modify the properties of the upper layers of the accretion disc, and thus influence the corona formation. For instance, thermal instabilities are known to exist in illuminated plasma (Różańska & Czerny roz96 (1996); Nayakshin, Kazanas & Kallman nay00 (2000)), and the degree of ionization and temperature of the disc surface may rapidly increase in response to an increase of the illuminating flux. It may then favor the evaporation of part of the disc matter, increasing consequently the corona optical depth (but see Sect. 4.3).

#### 3.3.3 $`kT_e`$ vs $`\tau `$

We have reported on Fig. 4 the coronal optical depth $`\tau `$ versus the coronal temperature $`kT_e`$ deduced from our fits. A strong anti-correlation is clearly visible. Such anti-correlation is indeed expected in the case of a corona-disc configuration in radiative equilibrium. It depends however on the real geometry of the system (Haardt & Maraschi, haa93b (1993); Stern et al. ste95 (1995); Malzac et al. mal01 (2001)). The relation expected in the case of a slab corona above a passive disc has been overplotted in solid line in Fig. 4. The data seem to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions, even if they slightly stand above the solid line and present some dispersion.

It is worth noting that in our fitting procedure, we have assumed that all the observed UV emission, whatever its origin, has crossed and cooled the corona. It is however possible that part of the disc emission does not interact with the corona, like in the case of a patchy or spherical corona. We have simulated such a configuration by adding a black body component to the model used to fit the data. Its temperature was fixed to 2 eV and its normalization was fixed so that the corresponding flux (at 1315Å) was half the observed mean UV flux. In this way, we impose that a fixed part of the UV emission does not cross and cool the corona. The corresponding values of $`\tau `$ and $`kT_e`$ have been overplotted with triangles in Fig. 4. We omit the error bars for clarity. The triangles are clearly above the solid line, as expected for a more photon starved configuration. The total $`\chi ^2`$ that we obtained with this model is 1592 still for 1334 dof, slightly larger than without the addition of a black body component, but statistically equivalent. A geometry more photon-starved than the simple slab corona is thus also in agreement with the observations.

It is worth noting that the addition of a constant black body component does not substantially modify the results presented above. In particular, we still found correlation coefficients of the same order of magnitude than those reported in Table 2.

#### 3.3.4 $`F_{K_\alpha }`$, $`R`$ versus $`F_{210}`$

We found only a weak correlation between the line flux and the X-ray flux (cf. NOO who found a stronger correlation) but we did find an anti-correlation, not noted by N00, between $`R`$ and $`F_{210}`$.

It is known that the measurement of the reflection component depends on the assumed model for the continuum. For example, large differences are expected between a simple power law shape and a real Comptonization model (Petrucci et al. pet01b (2001)). It may then explain the difference between our results and those of N00. It does not explain however why $`R`$ is anticorrelated with the 2-10 keV flux. Moreover these results are relatively difficult to explain in the standard view since both the line and the reflection component are expected to arise from the same region and thus to vary in the same way.

It is possible that part of the reflection components is emitted close to the central region while the other part may be produced by a remote reflector (indeed the presence of a distant reflector may explain the $`R`$-$`F_{210}`$ anticorrelation). In this case, and in the presence of flux and spectral variability, like for NGC 7469, the measurement of $`R`$ and $`F_{line}`$ may not be very reliable and meaningful (Malzac & Petrucci mal02 (2002)) especially with the limited band pass and spectral resolution of XTE and the increasing noise at high energy (near 20 keV). In agreement with N00, we thus believe that the derived values of $`R`$ and $`F_{line}`$ may not be truly representative of the strength and spectral shape of the real reflection components in NGC 7469. We will thus not discuss this parameter in the following.

## 4 Discussion

Important results have emerged from this analysis. Firstly, we obtained very acceptable fits, from the UV to the X-ray range, of the 29 daily spectra of NGC 7469 using a realistic thermal Comptonization model. This model is able to explain the spectral shape of the different UV/X-ray daily spectra but also the UV and X-ray flux variability. In agreement with the conclusion of N00 (see also Chiang chi02 (2002)), the absence of a clear correlation between the UV and X-ray fluxes, as reported by N98, was thus clearly misleading. It simply results from the complex flux and spectral variability of this source which may produce, when observed in narrow energy bands, relatively unexpected behaviors. Berkley et al. (ber00 (2000)) have failed to reproduce the UV and X-ray light curves of NGC 7469 using a simple model where an X-ray point source illuminates an infinite accretion disc. This model does not consider spectral changes at all and thus cannot reflect the intrinsic spectral complexity of comptonization models. We believe that this is the main reason of the results they obtained.
We also note at this point that our best fit results reported in Table 1 are quantitatively different from those obtained by Chiang (chi02 (2002)) fitting the same data. We also believe that the differences are certainly due to the approximate model used by this author to mimic thermal Comptonization spectra. For example, for corona optical depth as small as the ones he found (cf. his Fig. 5), a thermal Comptonization spectrum is formed of well separated bumps of different scattering orders and a simple cut-off power law is a really poor approximation.

Secondly, we found very interesting correlations between the UV/X-ray fluxes and the model parameters, the most important one being the anticorrelation between the UV flux and the corona temperature. It is the equivalent of the $`F_{UV}`$-$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ correlation found by N00, fitting the data with a simple cut-off power law model. This anticorrelation can be simply explained in the framework of thermal Comptonization models. Indeed, the increase of the UV soft photons flux, if ”primary”, generally means an increase of the coronal cooling. This then produces a decrease of the corona temperature and a softening of the spectrum as observed.

However, important results stem from this interpretation. First, the decrease of the corona temperature due to the increase of the coronal cooling is completely true in the case of a pair-free corona. Indeed, for a pair-dominated corona, the increase of the cooling would correspond to an increase of the corona temperature rather than a decrease (Ghisellini & Haardt, ghi94 (1994)). As discussed in Sect. 4.4, there are actually strong indications supporting the presence of a pair-free corona in NGC 7469, thus justifying the above interpretation.

More importantly, we note that the $`F_{UV}`$-$`kT_e`$ anticorrelation cannot be reconciled with a fixed disc-corona configuration in radiative balance. As explained in Sect. 2.2, such configuration corresponds to a fixed ratio $`F_X/F_{UV}`$. But there is a priori no link between $`F_{UV}`$ and the corona parameters like its temperature or optical depth. $`kT_e`$ and $`\tau `$ have only to adjust themselves in order to insure a constant heating/cooling ratio (cf. Sect. 2.2). There is thus no reason for $`kT_e`$ and/or $`\tau `$ to change, whatever the value of $`F_{UV}`$.

As discussed in the following sections, the $`F_{UV}`$-$`kT_e`$ anticorrelation necessarily suggests a change of the geometry of the disc-corona configuration.

### 4.1 UV emission dominated by reprocessing

In the Comptonization code we used, there is no constraint, a priori, on the origin of the UV emission. It may be dominated by the intrinsic disc emission, by the reprocessed one, or both may be of the same order. A check can be made a posteriori by comparing the $`\tau `$-$`kT_e`$ values with the theoretical expectations as we have done in Sect. 3.3.3 and Fig. 4. If the intrinsic disc emission were dominant, the corona should be overcooled in comparison to a corona above a passive disc, and the $`\tau `$-$`kT_e`$ values should be in the lower right part of Fig. 4, below the solid line, which is not what we obtain.

Another way to see this is to compare the X-ray flux expected to be reprocessed by the disc, $`F_{rep}`$, and the UV flux which crosses and effectively cools the corona $`F_{cool}`$. The former is simply the difference between the flux emitted by the corona backward toward the disc and the flux Compton reflected by the disc. For the latter, and in the case of a slab corona completely covering the disc, $`F_{cool}`$ is equal to the total disc emission (this does not correspond to the observed UV emission, since part of the disc emission is comptonized in the corona). Both $`F_{rep}`$ and $`F_{cool}`$ are natural outputs of the Comptonization model used to fit the data. We have plotted in Fig. 5, the corresponding ratio $`F_{rep}/F_{cool}`$. This ratio appears to be generally larger than 1. It is also variable between 1 and 1.8 and this point is discussed in the next section. If some part of the UV emission crossing the corona was intrinsic to the disc we would expect this ratio to be smaller than 1 which is not the case.

These results thus suggest that, in the case of NGC 7469, the intrinsic disc emission is negligible in comparison to the reprocessed one. This conclusion is in complete agreement with that of N00. It also agrees with the observed delays, increasing with wavelength, observed between different UV bands and interpreted as the different light travel time between the illuminating X-ray source and the disc reprocessing regions (Wanders et al. wan97 (1997); Kriss et al. kri00 (2000)).

Still concerning Fig. 5, we note that, starting from the epoch (segm n. 15) where the ratio $`F_{rep}/F_{cool}`$ is nearly 1, as expected for the slab configuration, this ratio reaches its maxima in near correspondence with the maxima of the X-ray light curve (near minima for the UV fluxes). One can thus interpret the ”oscillation” as a change in geometry whereby the fraction of reprocessed photons which re-enter and cool the corona varies.

### 4.2 Corona geometry variations as the origin of the observed variability

Simulations of Malzac & Jourdain (mal01 (2001)) show that the time scale for a disc-corona system to reach radiative equilibrium, after rapid radiative perturbation in one of the two phases, is of the order of a few corona light crossing times i.e. well smaller than a day. We can thus (reasonably) assume that each of the 29 daily average spectra and fluxes of the observation of NGC 7469 correspond to a disc-corona system where hot and cold phases are in radiative balance.

We have also shown in the previous section that the disc emission is apparently dominated by the X-ray reprocessing. In this case, a fixed disc-corona configuration in radiative equilibrium should correspond to a constant $`F_X`$/$`F_{UV}`$ ratio (cf. Sect. 2.2) contrary to what we observe in Fig. 5. We are thus bring to the conclusion that the disc-corona geometry necessarily varies during the total observation, producing the observed spectral and flux variability.

It is not clear how the geometry really varies especially since we have no real constraint on the geometry itself. However, the fact that the X-ray emission is apparently the primary source of radiation (the UV being only produced by reprocessing), but also of variability (the total X-ray flux, above 0.1 keV, is indeed predicted to vary along the observation, cf. Fig. 2), naturally suggests that the change of the disc-corona geometry is actually a change of the corona geometry: the larger/smaller the corona, the stronger/weaker the X-ray emission.

We then propose the following scenario. Suppose that the origin of the day time scale variability is indeed a change of the global corona geometry. Suppose for example that the corona, which covers initially a large part of the disc, then becomes more patchy. Then the more patchy the corona, the hotter the mean corona temperature becomes and the harder the X-ray spectrum is. At the same time, the corona covering factor decreasing, the reprocessed flux, and consequently the global UV flux, decreases. This scenario thus simply explains the observed $`kT_e`$ -$`F_{UV}`$ anticorrelation.

Moreover we may naturally expect the optical depth of the corona to depend on the disc X-ray illumination (which mainly occurs below the corona blobs) as already suggested in Sect. 3.3.2. The variation of the X-ray flux impinging on the disc could likely modify the structure of the upper layers of the accretion disc and thus have an impact on the corona formation process. A strong X-ray emission would then help the evaporation of the accretion disc material thus increasing the corona optical depth. This could also explain the correlation between the corona optical depth and the X-ray flux.

We of course do not assert that this scenario is unique. We easily imagine that the change of the disc-corona geometry is certainly more complex, and may also imply changes of the disc itself. For instance, its inner region may become geometrically thick and optically thin, due to thermal instabilities (however see next section), or its inner radius may vary with time. Consequently, it would modify the UV flux entering the corona as well as the reflection component. The time scale for such processes to occur is however expected to be quite long in comparison to what we observe. Anyway, whatever the scenario proposed, the present analysis strongly requires a change of the disc-corona configuration. On the other hand, this appears to be a very plausible origin for the flux and spectral variability observed in NGC 7469.

### 4.3 A magnetically dominated corona in NGC 7469?

The mass of the black hole supposed to be present in the central region of NGC 7469 has been estimated in between $`10^6`$ and $`10^7`$ solar masses. Precise measurements, using different methods, favor a mass of about 7$`\times 10^6M_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Collier et al. col98 (1998); Wandel et al. wan99 (1999)). This corresponds to an Eddington luminosity $`L_{edd}9\times 10^{44}`$erg.s-1.

Our model gives us an estimate of the total luminosity emitted by the central engine in NGC 7469, from the UV to the hard X-rays (if we admit that the UV emission is in large part dominated by the reprocessing of X-rays, it is equal to the downscattered emission emitted by the corona). Assuming a distance of 70 Mpc (with $`H_0`$=75 km.s-1.Mpc-1), the luminosity varies between 2 and 3$`\times 10^{44}`$erg.s-1 i.e. of the order of $`L_{edd}`$, meaning that the source accretes near its Eddington rate.

It is known that for such high accretion rate, the inner part of the accretion disc, which is dominated by the radiation pressure, is viscously and thermally unstable (Lightman & Eardley lig74 (1974); Shakura & Sunyaev sha76 (1976)) and may be subject to violent clumping instabilities (Begelman beg01 (2001); Turner, Stone & Sano tur02 (2002)). If the disc remains geometrically thin, most of the disc mass form very dense clumps embedded in a tenuous hot corona. In this case however, we expect very soft spectra unless the covering fraction of the cold clouds is small which results however in low reflection component (Malzac & Celotti mal02 (2002)). This does not agree with the value of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`R`$ observed in NGC 7469.

A possible solution could be the presence of disc-corona configurations where a major fraction of the accretion power is released in the corona, as those proposed by Svensson & Zdziarski (sve94 (1994)), Merloni & Fabian (mer02 (2002)), and more recently by Merloni (mer03 (2003)). The presence of such strong coronae indeed prevents the development of disc instabilities. Merloni (mer03 (2003)) found for example new thermally and viscously stable optically thick accretion disc solutions for magnetized turbulent flows. Assuming that the magnetic field amplification, via MRI, is balanced by buoyant escape, they obtained high viscosity solutions where a large fraction of the accretion power is liberated in the corona. These solutions appear only above a critical accretion rate of the order of few tenths of the Eddington one, which corresponds to the case of NGC 7469. The disc geometry being conserved in these solutions, we also expect the reflection normalization to be of the order of unity as observed.

If this interpretation is correct, it is likely that parts of the disc involved in the corona formation process are intrinsically weakly luminous, most of the energy being released mechanicly/magneticaly rather than radiatively. The observed UV flux would then be dominated by the reprocessed emission in agreement with the observations. Moreover, it could also explain why the black body temperature $`kT_{bb}`$ deduced from our fits is significantly smaller than the inner temperature (at $``$ 10 Schwarzschild radii) of $``$ 50 eV expected for a standard accretion disc (i.e. without corona) assuming the black hole mass and accretion rate estimates of Collier et al. (col98 (1998)) from optical data analysis.

### 4.4 A pair free corona

As already said, the code we use can give us the total X-ray and UV fluxes (and consequently the luminosity) emitted by the corona and the disc respectively. Now, from the variability in both bands, we can also estimate an upper limit of the size of the emitting regions, $`R_X`$ and $`R_{UV}`$, and consequently a lower limit on the compactnesses $`l_{X,UV}={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _tL_{X,UV}}{m_ec^3R_{X,UV}}}`$.

The X-rays appears to be variable on a timescale of less than 1 day (cf. N98, N00) thus $`l_X>l_X^{min}={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _tL_X}{R_1m_ec^3}}`$ where $`R_1`$ is a 1 light day length. On the other hand the UV vary on a longer time scale of the order of 5 days (Wanders et al. wan97 (1997); N98; N00; Collier & Peterson col01 (2001)). Then the compactness ratio $`CR={\displaystyle \frac{l_X}{l_{UV}}}>CR_{min}={\displaystyle \frac{l_X^{min}}{l_{UV}}}5{\displaystyle \frac{L_X}{L_{UV}}}`$. We have reported in Fig. 6, the $`(CR_{min},l_X^{min})`$ values corresponding to our 29 daily observations. We obtained a slight correlation between these 2 variables. We also note that they only vary by about 50-60% during the campaign.

These results clearly disagree with the pair-dominated expectations computed by Ghisellini & Haardt (ghi94 (1994)). Their Fig. 2 shows that, if the corona of NGC 7469 is pair dominated, its compactness ratio has to decrease and its high compactness to increase (both by a factor $``$ 10) from the softest state ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=2.01, $`kT_e`$=266 keV) to the hardest state ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=1.7, $`kT_e`$=420 keV) reach by the source during the 29 days of observation. It would thus require very large changes (of factor 5 or more) of the characteristic size of both the UV and X-ray emitting regions for our results to be compatible with the pair dominated case. This is in contradiction with the observations. For instance, the observed UV flux varying by only 50-60% imposes the size of the emitting region (assumed to be optically thick) to vary at most by the same amount.

## 5 Conclusion

We have re-analyzed in this paper the simultaneous 30 days IUE/XTE observation of NGC 7469 done in 1996, adopting and fitting directly to the data a detailed model of the Comptonized spectrum. This contrasts with previous spectral analysis where a simple power law was used to model the continuum. We were thus able to fit simultaneously the data from the UV to the hard X-ray band in a self-consistent way and to obtain direct constraints on the physical parameters of the disc-corona system, like the temperature and optical depth of the corona.

The model we use is able to explain well the spectral shape of the different UV/X-ray spectra but also the UV and X-ray flux variability. The absence of a clear correlation between the UV and X-ray fluxes, as reported by N98, was thus clearly misleading. It underlines the importance of the use of consistent models when fitting so intimately related energy bands. In this context, the observed delay of $``$ 0.14 day between the UV and X-ray light curves of NGC 4051, as reported by Mason et al. mas02 (2002), may not correspond to a response delay between the UV and X-ray emitting region.
Concerning NGC 7469, the data appear to be roughly consistent with a slab geometry where all the power is liberated inside the corona and where the UV flux is dominated by the reprocessing. We note however that more photon-starved geometries also agree with the data.

We also find very interesting correlations between the different model parameters as the one between the corona temperature and the UV flux. If it can be easily explained in the framework of thermal comptonization model (an increase of the UV flux means an increase of the corona cooling and thus, in general, a decrease of the corona temperature), it necessarely implies slight changes of the disc-corona configuration during the 29 days of observation. We thus propose a model where the main origin of the variability is a change of the global corona geometry. The more patchy it becomes, the hotter the temperature. In the same time, the reprocessed flux, i.e. the UV emission, decreases.
We also found an interesting correlation between the corona optical depth and the X-ray flux which is, a priori, not expected by Comptonization models and may result from a different, but connected, process linked to the corona formation.

We show that NGC 7469 is apparently accreting at nearly the Eddington rate. The presence of a reflection component of the order of unity and of a relatively hard spectrum suggest the presence of a magnetically dominated disc-corona system in this source where most of the accreting energy is released in the corona. Such solutions have recently been shown to be thermally and viscously stable by Merloni (mer03 (2003)). We finally found strong evidences in favor of a pair free corona.

We note finally that the lack of precise data above 20 keV prevents however any detailed spectral study of the soft $`\gamma `$ emission of the source. For instance, the study of the variability of the high energy cut-off, would have given additionnal constraints on the model parameters, especially on the corona temperature. Such very broad band study would require simultaneous observations with high energy satellites like XMM and INTEGRAL.


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# Phase coherent transport in Kondo/superconducting hybrid structures

## Abstract

We present measurements of the transport properties of hybrid structures consisting of a Kondo AuFe film and a superconducting Al film. The temperature dependence of the resistance indicates the existence of the superconducting proximity effect in the Kondo AuFe wires over the range of $`0.5`$ $`\mu `$m. Electronic phase coherence in the Kondo AuFe wires has been confirmed by observing the Aharanov-Bohm effect in the magnetoresistance of the loop structure. The amplitude of the magnetoresistance oscillations shows a reentrant behavior with a maximum at $``$ 870 mK, which results from an interplay between the Kondo effect and the superconducting proximity effect.

Phase coherence has been a prime subject of interest in mesoscopic systems. The phenomena of electron phase coherence have been widely investigated in low-dimensional structures such as quantum dots Yacoby95 , carbon nanotubes Kong01 , and metal films Mohanty97 . It is well known that phase coherence is affected by the coupling of electrons to an environment. In a system containing magnetic impurities, the coupling between the electron spin and the magnetic impurity spin provides a very efficient source of decoherence. Magnetic impurities of fluctuating spins randomize the phase of electrons during the scattering process. A small amount of magnetic impurities can greatly shorten the phase coherence time, $`\tau _\varphi `$. In a recent experiment Schopfer03  of a mesoscopic dilute-magnetic-impurity system, however, $`\tau _\varphi `$ was seen to be as long as a few nsec at low temperatures. In addition, phase coherence was reported to be preserved in a semiconductor quantum dot in the Kondo regime Wiel00 . Thus, one may expect an observation of the phase coherent transport in a diffusive metallic Kondo wire.

The Kondo effect originates from spin-flip scattering mediated by the exchange coupling between a conduction-electron spin and a localized impurity spin, which leads to a logarithmic increase of the low-temperature resistance. For a dilute-magnetic-impurity system in contact with a superconductor, the Kondo effect can compete with the superconducting proximity effect. The microscopic mechanism of the superconducting proximity effect is the Andreev reflection: an incident electron reflects as a hole at the normal metal/superconductor interface, simultaneously producing a Cooper pair which propagates into the superconductor. Possible coexistence of both effects was studied for systems where the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ was comparable to the superconducting gap energy Buitelaar02 ; Avishai03 .

In this paper we report the observation of phase coherent transport through a mesoscopic Kondo system, to which superconducting wires are connected with high transparency. The Kondo system is a AuFe wire with a Fe concentration of 26 ppm, and Al film is used for a superconductor. The number of Fe ions in the 1-$`\mu `$m-long AuFe wire of this experiment is estimated to be approximately 1800. The Kondo effect is confirmed by logarithmic temperature dependence of the resistivity at low temperatures. In addition, the superconducting proximity effect has been observed in the AuFe wire when the temperature, $`T`$, is lowered below the superconducting transition temperature, $`T_c`$, of the Al films. The resistance starts to drop as the samples are cooled through $`T_c`$ and continuously decreases until $`T`$ reaches $``$ 0.3 K. Phase coherent transport has been confirmed by the magnetoresistance oscillations of the hybrid loop consisting of a AuFe wire and an Al wire. More interestingly, it has been found that the amplitude of the magnetoresistance oscillations shows a strong temperature dependence. The oscillation amplitude initially increases as $`T`$ is decreased, showing a maximum around $``$ 870 mK, and then decreases rapidly as $`T`$ is further lowered. The non-monotonic temperature dependence of the magnetoresistance oscillations is attributed to an interplay between the Kondo effect and the superconductivity.

The samples in this experiment were patterned by using the multilevel electron-beam lithography and lift-off process. In the first lithography step, a 500-Å-thick film was deposited by thermal evaporation of 99.999%-pure Au. After lift-off, the pure Au film was implanted with Fe ions to a concentration of $``$ 26 ppm FeImplant , which was estimated subsequently from the slope of the temperature-dependent resistivity of a control AuFe wire FeConcent . In the second lithography step, a 1200-Å-thick Al film was deposited to make hybrid structures in the middle of the sample wires, the length of which was $``$ 4.7 $`\mu `$m. The area of the interface between the AuFe film and the Al film was approximately 0.12 $`\times `$ 0.14 $`\mu `$m2. The interface resistance was estimated to be $``$ 0.1 $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Figure 1 shows the scanning electron micrographs of two hybrid structured samples. Sample $`A`$ is shown in Fig. 1(a), and sample $`B`$ is shown in Fig. 1(b). In sample $`A`$, a horse-shoe-type Al wire was located at the center of the AuFe wire, making a rectangular hybrid loop composed of a superconductor and a Kondo wire. However, in sample $`B`$, one arm of the rectangular hybrid loop was not lithographically completed, so the Al contacts made two separate interfaces with the AuFe wire.

The samples were measured in a dilution refrigerator using standard lock-in techniques with a four-terminal ac resistance bridge. The four-terminal measurement configurations for the two samples are described in Fig. 1(a) and (b), respectively. The resistivity of the control AuFe wire at 4.2 K was 1.37 $`\mu \mathrm{\Omega }`$cm, and the thermal length of the AuFe wire, $`L_T=\sqrt{\mathrm{}D/k_BT}`$, was $``$ 0.47/$`\sqrt{T[K]}`$ $`\mu `$m at a temperature $`T`$. Here, $`D`$ is the diffusion constant.

Figure 2 shows the zero-magnetic-field temperature dependent resistivity of sample $`A`$, $`B`$, and the control AuFe wire. The control AuFe wire was co-fabricated with samples on the same substrate by using the simultaneous lithographical processes and Fe implantation. The control AuFe wire has the dimensions of 374-$`\mu `$m length and 0.14-$`\mu `$m width. At temperatures above $``$ 7.0 K, where phonon contribution dominates the resistivity, the resistivity of the AuFe wire decreases as $`T`$ is lowered. For $`T`$ below $``$ 7.0 K, the resistivity $`\rho (T)`$ of the control AuFe wire shows the Kondo effect. For the resistivity of dilute magnetic alloys, the lowest-order calculation in the second Born approximation yields a term linear in $`\mathrm{log}T`$. When the Kondo temperature $`T_K`$ is compared to the experimental temperatures, the purely logarithmic dependence is slightly modified. Considering the nature of the spin correlations over the temperature range above and below $`T_K`$, Hamann derived a specific functional form for the Kondo contribution to $`\rho (T)`$ Hamann67 :

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\rho (T)\frac{1}{2}\rho _0\left(1\pm \left[1+\frac{S(S+1)\pi ^2}{[\mathrm{ln}(T/T_K)]^2}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}\right),$$
(1)
where the positive sign is for $`T<T_K`$, the negative sign is for $`T>T_K`$, and $`\rho _0=4\pi c\mathrm{}/ze^2k_F`$ with $`c`$ being the concentration, $`z`$ the number of conduction electrons per atom, and $`k_F`$ the Fermi wave vector. And, $`S`$ is the effective spin of the magnetic impurity in a host metal. The Hamann expression in Eq. (1) readily explains the parabolic dependence of $`\rho (T)`$ for $`TT_K`$. By fitting to Eq. (1), one can determine $`T_K`$ of a dilute magnetic alloy. The solid line in Fig. 2 represents a fit to the Hamann function with $`S`$ = 0.12 and $`T_K`$ = 0.99 K. The magnitude of $`T_K`$ is comparable to the known values from the previous studies on the dilute-magnetic-impurity system of AuFe Daybell73 ; Loram70 .

The resistivity for samples $`A`$ and $`B`$ also increases as $`T`$ is lowered below $``$ 7.0 K, yielding a similar feature of resistivity minimum as in the control AuFe wire. The temperature dependence of $`\rho (T)`$ ensures the presence of the Kondo effect in samples $`A`$ and $`B`$. In addition, however, a sharp drop of $`\rho (T)`$ occurs for both samples as $`T`$ is lowered below $`T_c`$ of the Al film, which is approximately 1.6 K in this experiment. For sample $`A`$, an anomalous peak is observed at temperatures above $`T_c`$. Similar resistance anomalies have been reported near the superconducting transition of mesoscopic Al samples Santhanam91 ; Strunk98 ; Kim94 . Explanations in terms of nonequilibrium charge imbalance around phase-slip centers Arutyunov96  and pinching of the conducting path near the nodes of the voltage leads Kim94  were proposed. In sample $`B`$ the current path does not include the Al wire explicitly, so the resistance anomaly is not observed.

Since Giroud $`et`$ $`al.`$ reported an anomalous temperature dependence in the resistivity of mesoscopic Co/Al hybrid structures Giroud98 , existence of superconducting proximity effect in magnetic systems has been a subject of continuing experimental and theoretical interest Petrashov99 ; Belzig00 . In a highly transparent interface (high conductance), the superconducting pair correlations can penetrate into a magnetic metal and give rise to the proximity effect. For ferromagnetic metals, the proximity effect extends to a distance determined by the exchange field energy, $`\xi _{ex}`$ = $`\sqrt{\mathrm{}D/k_BT_{Curie}}`$, where $`T_{Curie}`$ is the Curie temperature of a ferromagnetic metal. This length scale can be as long as $``$ 10 nm for weak ferromagnetic metals such as Cu-Ni alloys Ryazanov01  or Pd-Ni alloys Kontos01 .

For a dilute-magnetic-impurity system, the superconducting pair correlations are likely to penetrate into a normal metal even longer than for a weak ferromagnetic metal. The proximity effect, which is sensitive to $`T`$, would cause a continuous change of resistance at temperatures below $`T_c`$. Such a temperature dependence of the resistance has been found for both samples $`A`$ and $`B`$, as shown in Fig. 3. The normalized resistance in zero magnetic field begins to decrease rapidly as $`T`$ is lowered below $`T_c`$ of the Al film. Since a part of the AuFe wire in sample $`A`$ is shorted by the superconducting Al arm, a resistance drop of sample $`A`$ is larger than that of sample $`B`$. Following a slow initial decrease, the resistance of sample $`B`$ decreases rapidly below $`T`$ 1.1 K, which may be associated with Josephson coupling between two separate Al contacts in sample $`B`$.

Since an injected electron below the supercondcuting gap energy is Andreev-reflected with phase memory of the superconducting condensate, the resistance of a normal metal wire between two normal metal/superconductor (N/S) interfaces can be modulated by the macroscopic phase of the superconducting condensate. An easy way to manipulate the phase is achieved by applying a magnetic field through the loop geometry. However, a prerequisite for the resistance modulation is phase coherence in the normal metal between the two N/S interfaces. Therefore, the magnetoresistance oscillations in the AuFe/Al hybrid loops provide direct evidence of phase coherent transport in the Kondo AuFe wire. The strong Aharonov-Bohm effect shown in Fig. 4(a) in the magnetoresistance of the hybrid loop (sample $`A`$) presents such evidence. The oscillation period of $`\mathrm{\Delta }B`$ 25.4 G corresponds to the superconducting flux quantum, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_0`$ ($`=h/2e`$), divided by the loop area, which is equal to the area enclosed by the center of the hybrid loop ($`0.80\pm 0.01\mu `$m2).

Figure 4(b) shows the amplitude of the magnetoresistance oscillations for sample $`A`$. The amplitude was determined by the difference between $`R`$ ($`B`$=12.7 G) and $`R`$(0). The amplitude shows a reentrant behavior with a maximum at $`T_m`$ 870 mK. The temperature dependence above $`T_m`$ is related to the superconducting proximity effect, which becomes stronger as $`T`$ is lowered. However, the temperature dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{osc}`$ qualitatively different from the data previously reported for the loops consisting of nonmagnetic metal films and superconducting films Courtois96 ; Chien99 . In the previous reports the oscillation amplitudes were seen to decay as either a power law or an exponential form in temperature. The peculiar temperature dependence above $`T_m`$ in Fig. 4(b) is likely due to the superconducting proximity effect in the presence of spin-flip scattering of the conduction electrons on the magnetic impurities.

At lower temperatures the $`sd`$ exchange coupling between a conduction electron spin and a localized impurity spin makes the spin-flip scattering even more enhanced, leading to the so-called Kondo effect. As the spin-flip scattering increases, electron phase coherence becomes weaker. Consequently the amplitude of the magnetoresistance oscillations decreases as the temperature is further lowered. Assuming that the scattering rate in a dilute magnetic system is decomposed into a term for spin-flip scattering and another for all other processes, one obtains a rough description for the temperature dependence of the amplitude below $`T_m`$ in Fig. 4(b). The scattering rate is given by $`\tau _0^1+b\mathrm{log}(T/T_K)`$, where $`\tau _0`$ represents the effective scattering time originating from all other processes except for the spin-flip scattering, and $`b`$ is a negative constant. Considering spin-flip scattering dominates the low-temperature decoherence, $`\tau _0`$ is assumed to be independent of temperature in our rough estimate. As the scattering rate increases, phase coherence of the conduction electron becomes weaker. The amplitude of the magnetoresistance oscillations, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{osc}`$, is expected to be inversely proportional to the scattering rate: $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{osc}(a+b\mathrm{log}(T/T_K))^1`$. The solid line in Fig. 4(b) represents a fit to the above relation with $`a`$ = 0.57 and $`b`$ = -3.21, keeping $`T_K`$ = 0.99 K for the AuFe wires in this experiment. The fit describes $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{osc}`$($`T`$) reasonably well in the temperature range below $`T_m`$.

Mesoscopic length scales which play an important role in this experiment are the thermal length, $`L_T`$, and the phase coherence length, $`L_\varphi `$. $`L_T`$ of the AuFe wires is estimated to be $``$ 0.47/$`\sqrt{T[K]}`$ $`\mu `$m. Characterized by $`L_T`$, the range of the superconducting proximity effect already extends over the entire AuFe arm ($``$ 0.5 $`\mu `$m long) of the hybrid loop when the temperature reaches $`T_c`$ of the Al film. However, the superconducting proximity effect is also bound by the phase coherence length, $`L_\varphi `$, which is affected by the spin-flip scattering on the magnetic impurities. The Aharonov-Bohm effect in the magnetoresistance is disturbed as $`L_\varphi `$ becomes shorter than the length of the normal arm of a hybrid loop. Although a specific estimate of $`L_\varphi `$ is not available in the present work, the existence of magnetoresistance oscillations indicates that $`L_\varphi `$ in the Kondo AuFe wire below $`T_c`$ is longer than the separation between the two N/S interfaces in sample $`A`$. This is consistent with the previous estimate by Schopfer *et al.* of the phase coherence time in quasi-one-dimensional AuFe wires Schopfer03 . In future studies on AuFe films with various Fe concentrations in close proximity to a superconductor, we expect to elucidate the characteristic interplay between $`L_T`$ and $`L_\varphi `$ in the superconducting proximity effect.

We thank T.-S. Kim and H.-W. Lee for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the KOSEF through the electron Spin Science Center at POSTECH.


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# The Egg Nebula (AFGL 2688): Deepening Enigma

## 1. Key Problems Posed by the Egg

The Egg Nebula (AFGL 2688) has long been regarded as exemplary of objects in transition from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star to bipolar planetary nebula (PN). Recent optical, infrared, and radio observations at high spatial and spectral resolution have revealed a remarkable degree of complexity in this object (for a brief synopsis, see Kastner et al. 2002). We examine here two particularly puzzling and controversial aspects of AFGL 2688 that may provide clues to the origin of axial symmetry in PNs and proto-PNs.
1. An equatorial velocity gradient of magnitude $`1020`$ km s-1 — similar to that observed along the polar axis — has been detected in various molecular tracers. This gradient has been attributed both to multiple, radial outflows (Cox et al. 2000) and to a component of azimuthal velocity (i.e., rotation about the polar axis; Kastner et al. 2001). Each model has problems. The “pure radial outflow” model does not appear viable if the emitting molecular gas is indeed confined to the equatorial plane, while the “rotation” model requires an extremely (untenably?) large reservoir of angular momentum.
2. Near-infrared polarimetric imaging suggests that a luminous source of direct emission lies embedded very near ($`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ from) the central, illuminating star. This object therefore likely constitutes a widely separated ($`a500`$ AU) companion (Sahai et al. 1998; Weintraub et al. 2000), although Goto et al. (2002) argue, on the basis of infrared spectroscopy, that the source is instead a knot of reflecting dust.

## 2. The Equatorial Region: New Revelations from HST

Recently acquired Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of AFGL 2688, obtained during tests of the new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in 2002 October, appear to shed new light on the structure of the equatorial region of the nebula. The images were obtained with the ACS Wide Field Camera (WFC) through polarimetric filters and a broad-band filter centered at 0.606 $`\mu `$m; the pixel scale of the WFC is $`0.05^{\prime \prime }`$ pixel-1. Here, we have averaged the polarized images to form a single, total intensity image of AFGL 2688.

The left panel of Fig. 1 displays the central region of AFGL 2688 in the ACS/WFC image. These images reveal, in unprecedented detail, fine structure in the “dark lane” that marks the equatorial plane of the system. Of particular note is the sharp, sculpted southern boundary of the dark lane. This appearance suggests that the inner region of the southern reflection lobe is being occulted by material that is largely confined to the equatorial plane. Provided that the equatorial regions harbor a dusty disk or torus that is several arcsec (thousands of AU) in radius, such occultation is a natural consequence of the fact that the north lobe is pointed slightly toward, and the south lobe slightly away from, the observer (Sahai et al. 1998, Kastner et al. 2001, and references therein).

The processed image in the center panel of Fig. 1 emphasizes the fine structure in the equatorial regions and, in particular, reveals the faint outline of the equatorial torus. The outline of the torus is most apparent along the sharp southern edge of the dark lane, but also appears as a linear feature extending “behind” the inner north lobe. The latter feature could be interpreted as the outline of the rear-facing edge of the equatorial disk of AFGL 2688.

There is a dramatic correspondence between the faint outline of the equatorial torus in the ACS/WFC image and the distribution of near-IR H2 emission (Fig. 1, right). In particular, the southern edge of the “equatorial” H2 emission (that is, the H2 emission projected along a line nearly perpendicular to the polar lobes) follows the undulations in the southern edge of the dark lane in exquisite detail. Individual H2 knots to the southeast and southwest of the position of the central star have distinct counterparts in the ACS/WFC image. We conclude that the H2 and the obscuring dust are spatially coincident; that is, the H2 emission traces the equatorial plane of the AFGL 2688 system.

As the near-infrared H2 emission east and west of the central star is, evidently, confined to the equatorial regions of AFGL 2688, we conclude that a kinematical model invoking pure radial outflow cannot explain the large-scale east-west velocity gradient previously measured in this and other molecular tracers (wherein emission to the east of the star is predominantly blueshifted, and emission to the west predominantly redshifted; Cox et al. 2000, Kastner et al. 2001, and references therein). Alternative models must be considered. It is conceivable, for example, that the equatorial H2 and CO emission traces molecular jets, or “bullets,” that are initially directed radially outward along the equator of the system and then are redirected toward and away from the observer on the east and west sides of the central star, respectively, by density gradients within the dusty torus. We note, however, that new H2 and CO velocity mapping observations of AFGL 2688 at superior spatial resolution (P. Cox, these proceedings) must be carefully analyzed to determine the detailed structure of the equatorial kinematics.

## 3. Peak A: an Accreting White Dwarf?

We propose that the apparent companion to the central star of AFGL 2688 (“Peak A”; Weintraub et al. 2000) — if it is indeed a self-luminous object — may be an accreting white dwarf (WD) which has undergone one or more thermonuclear bursts. This companion cannot have influenced the formation of bipolar structure in the Egg, as this process requires a close ($`a\stackrel{<}{}50`$ AU) binary system. Thus Peak A, at a projected orbital separation of $`a500`$ AU, most likely would constitute a tertiary member of the progenitor system.

To evaluate the possibility that Peak A is an accreting WD, we first demonstrate that the mass accretion rate by a WD companion at such an orbital separation can provide the requisite mass for a thermonuclear burst(s). At such large separations the relative velocity between the accreting companion and the wind, $`v_r`$, is very nearly the speed of the slow wind, $`v_s`$, where $`v_s10`$ km s-1 along the equatorial plane of AFGL 2688 (Kastner et al. 2001). It is reasonable to scale the WD mass assuming $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}\stackrel{>}{}0.6M_{}`$, as lower mass WDs result either from lower mass stars — which is unlikely for the expired companion to the central star of the Egg Nebula — or from binary interaction. The Bondi-Hoyle accretion rate is then

$$\dot{M}10^8\left(\frac{M_{\mathrm{WD}}}{0.6M_{}}\right)^2\left(\frac{v_s}{10\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^4\left(\frac{a}{500\mathrm{AU}}\right)^2\left(\frac{|\dot{M}_1|}{10^4M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1}\right)M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1.$$

The present mass loss rate of the central, illuminating (F supergiant) star is expected to be well below $`\dot{M}_1=10^4M_{}`$ yr-1. However, in our scenario the accreting WD went through a burst in the last $`<300`$ yr. Because there is a time delay between a mass loss epoch and the accretion epoch of that mass, which for the scaling used above is $`t_d=a/v_s=240`$ yr, and the F supergiant left the AGB $`200`$ years ago (Jura & Kroto 1990), the WD could still be accreting at present.

A WD of mass $`M_{\mathrm{WD}}=0.6M_{}`$ that accretes at a rate of $`10^9`$ to $`10^8M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ will undergo a thermonuclear burst after accreting a mass of $`10^4`$ $`M_{}`$ (e.g., Fujimoto 1982; Iben 1982; Prialnik & Kovetz 1995). From the equation above we find that the Peak A star could have accreted $`10^4`$ of the mass lost by the progenitor of the Egg Nebula. For an envelope mass of $`1`$ $`M_{}`$ on the upper AGB, when the wind speed is low enough to enable substantial accretion, we find the total accreted mass to be $`10^4`$ $`M_{}`$, as required for the burst to occur. We conclude that the Peak A star, if a WD, has plausibly gone through at least one burst. Further details concerning this model will be presented in Kastner & Soker (2003, in preparation).

### Acknowledgments.

We thank Howard Bond and Zolt Levay of Space Telescope Science Institute for providing FITS versions of the new HST/ACS images of the Egg.

## References

Cox, P., Lucas, R., Huggins, P.J., Forveille, T., Bachiller, R., Guilloteau, S., Mallard, J.P., & Omont, A. 2000, A&A, 353, L25

Fujimoto, M. Y. 1982, ApJ, 257, 767

Goto, M., Kobayashi, N., Terada, H., & Tokunaga, A. T. 2002, ApJ, 572, 276

Iben, I. 1982, ApJ, 259, 244

Jura, M., & Kroto, H. 1990, ApJ, 351, 222

Kastner, J.H., Weintraub, D.A., Gatley, I., & Henn, L. 2001, ApJ, 546, 279

Kastner, J.H., Li, J., Siebenmorgen, R., & Weintraub, D.A. 2002, AJ, 123, 2658

Prialnik, D., & Kovetz, A. 1995, ApJ, 445, 789

Sahai, R., Hines, D., Kastner, J.H., Weintraub, D.A., Trauger, J.T., Rieke, M.J., Thompson, R.I., Schneider, G. 1998, ApJ, 492, L163

Sahai, R., & Trauger, J.T. 1998, AJ, 116, 1357

Weintraub, D.A., Kastner, J.H., Sahai, R., & Hines, D. 2000, ApJ, 531, 401


text:
# High-Energy sources before INTEGRAL

## 1 Introduction

One of the main purposes of the INTEGRAL mission is to discover new X-ray/gamma-ray sources, and also to monitor significantly variable sources. When new or transient sources are detected, INTEGRAL is expected to give prompt announcements to the worldwide astronomical community. Near real-time monitoring of the INTEGRAL data, i.e., Quick Look Analysis (QLA), is carried out at the INTEGRAL Science Data Center (ISDC; Courvoisier et al. 2003a). To this end, we need a reliable X-ray/gamma-ray source catalog with which INTEGRAL QLA results can be compared.

Many X-ray/gamma-ray source catalogs have already been published. To make the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog, which we describe in the current paper, we searched the literature, took several high-energy catalogs, combined them and selected sources to suit our needs. Note that the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog is continuously updated for the QLA purpose by incorporating new sources discovered by INTEGRAL and other high-energy satellites. In this paper, we describe all the sources included in the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog at the end of June 2003, except those sources discovered by INTEGRAL.

All the sources in the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog are shown in Figure 1 in Galactic coordinates. Size and color of the symbol indicate approximate fluxes and spectral hardness.

## 2 Method of selecting sources

The idea behind the INTEGRAL Reference Catalog is to put all sources which are possibly detected and identified by INTEGRAL. Corresponding to the expected sensitivity and energy range of INTEGRAL, we select sources that are, or have been at least once, brighter than $``$ 1 mCrab in any energy band from 3 keV to 8000 MeV (energy range covered with JEMX, IBIS and SPI). Thus, for example, historic X-ray novae are included even if they are expected in quiescence when observed with INTEGRAL, since these sources may be detected when brightened. In addition, we include all the EGRET sources in Macomb and Gehrels (1999) even if they have never been detected in the INTEGRAL energy band.

We took all the sources in the following catalogs.

* High-mass X-ray binary catalog by Liu et al. (2000).
* Low-mass X-ray binary catalog by Liu et al. (2001).
* Gamma-ray sources catalog by Macomb and Gehrels (1999).
* The 4th Uhuru catalog by Forman et al. (1978).
* HEAO1 A4 catalog by Levine et al. (1984).
* BATSE observation of the Piccinotti’s sample AGNs.
* ASCA AGN data from the Tartarus database (http://tartarus.gsfc.nasa.gov).
* IAUC circulars until June 30, 2003.

## 3 Information included in the catalog

The INTEGRAL Reference Catalog is published in the electronic form together with the present paper. It is an ASCII file written in the tabular form, so that readers can run and easily print. Since column entries are formatted with fixed-width columns, the file is legible even in the original ASCII format.

The catalog is also available in the html version and FITS version from the ISDC web-site (http://isdc.unige.ch). The FITS version of the catalog is used in the actual QLA operation and INTEGRAL data analysis. In the html version, the source name and the position reference is hyper-linked to its corresponding page in SIMBAD and ADS, respectively.

The following is an explanation of each column in the catalog:

* Catalog source number
* Source name:
Often there are two or more names commonly used for the same source. We take the name which we consider most popular in high-energy astrophysics and is also used as a SIMBAD source identifier. Thus, users can directly put the source name into the SIMBAD query box.
* Right Ascension and Declination in J2000 coordinates:
These are given in “hh mm ss.s” and “deg arcmin arcsec” format, respectively. In most cases, positions are taken from SIMBAD. From time to time, however, we found and adopted a more recent position determination than SIMBAD. Accuracy depends on individual sources, which is reflected in the representation of the source positions. For example, an Uhuru source 4U 1130$``$14 has the source position (11 33, $``$14.9), namely, no accuracy of arcseconds in Uhuru.
* Galactic coordinates
* Reference for the position determination:
This is for readers who need to know the position accuracy and/or position determination method. Often SIMBAD gives the source position reference as well as the position itself, in which case we take both. Otherwise, we searched for proper references by ourselves.
* Spectral Model and Model Parameters:
We put a “typical” spectral model and model parameters, including the model normalization. We follow the XSPEC (Arnaud 1996; http://xspec.gsfc.nasa.gov) format for definition of the models and model parameters. See Section 4 for details.
* Energy fluxes:
Energy fluxes are in ergs s-1 cm-2 and are calculated from the assumed spectral models for several energy bands. We take typical JEMX soft and hard energy bands (3–10 keV and 10–30 keV), and ISGRI soft and hard bands (20–60 keV and 60–200 keV).
* JEMX, ISGRI counting rates:
Using the nominal detector responses, expected JEMX and ISGRI counting rates are calculated for the soft and hard energy bands indicated above. In the actual QLA operation, JEMX and ISGRI source counting rates are measured in these energy bands to compare with the catalog. The following calibration files, most recent ones in July 2003 (but still based on pre-launch calibration), are used in this calculation: jmx2\_rmf\_grp\_0003.fits for JEMX and isgr\_rmf\_grp\_0005.fits and isgr\_arf\_rsp\_0002.fits for ISGRI.

After the launch of INTEGRAL, the pre-launch estimate of the JEMX effective area was revealed to be overestimated by a factor of $`2`$ (P. Kretschmar, private communication). Therefore, we divided the JEMX counting rates calculated using the aforementioned responses by a factor of two. This prescription has been confirmed to be valid from simultaneous INTEGRAL–XTE observations of 3C 273 (Courvoisier et al. 2003b) and Cyg X-1 (Pottschmidt et al. 2003).

For ISGRI, actual observations of Crab pulsar ane other sources confirmed that the pre-launch estimate of the effective area was more or less correct (within $`20`$ % or so).
* Name aliases:
Since there are many varieties of sources, we do not have a consistent rule to decide which aliases to choose. However, we try to put at least one alias directly related to high-energy satellites and/or catalogs. For example, “4U” for 4th Uhuru catalog (Forman et al. 1978), and “2EG” for second EGRET source catalog (Thompson et al. 1995).
* Comment on the nature of the source:
Such as low-mass X-ray binaries, high-mass X-ray binaries, Seyfert-1 galaxy, etc.

## 4 Method to determine the spectral models and fluxes

Except for a small number of sources which are known to be invariable, it is hardly possible to put a single “typical” spectral model for each source to represent its energy spectrum from 3 keV to 8000 keV, In practice, however, we only require rough estimates of the source fluxes for the INTEGRAL QLA operation, in which we want to detect only the very significant flux variations of more than a factor $``$10 with JEMX and ISGRI in 3 to 200 keV. This means that the requirement of the flux estimate in our catalog can be as loose as a factor $``$10 in 3 to 200 keV, which we believe is more or less achieved.

The published catalogs we use provide source fluxes in a very inhomogeneous set of energy bands and units. In order to use this information in our catalog, it is essential to harmonize the available data in the published catalogs. For isolated pulsars (including the Crab pulsar) which are known to be invariable and well approximated with power-law spectra, we adopt the known power-law slopes and normalizations. For other sources, we take a typical spectral model to describe the emission for a class of sources (Table 1), and adjusted only the normalization of the model for each source using the published data. We use the spectral models that are appropriate for the most probable state of any given source (for example, “low” state for Cyg X-1). For X-ray novae, on the other hand, we use the published fluxes obtained when the source is bright. Often there are two or more flux measurements for a given source in the same state; in such a case we adopt the average normalization which best fits all the available measurements.

## 5 Discussion

In Figure 2, we show $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}S`$ curves of the sources in our catalog in 3 – 10 keV and 20 – 60 keV, as well as corresponding JEMX and ISGRI counting rates and sensitivities. The sensitivities are calculated based on the pre-launch estimates available in the IBIS and JEMX Observer’s Manual, Issue 1.

Thanks to the large field of view and dithering strategy, INTEGRAL observations cover vast regions of the sky (IBIS bottom-to-bottom field of view is $`29^{}\times 29^{}`$). Thus the entire sky is expected to be covered during the INTEGRAL mission life, at least with $`10^5`$ sec, which is a standard exposure time. For the Galactic plane region, at least $`10^6`$ sec of exposure is expected because of the Galactic center and plane survey core programs. In Figure 2, we show 5 $`\sigma `$ detection limits for $`10^5`$ and $`10^6`$ sec exposures, respectively. Since our catalog is not complete, we see flattening of the $`\mathrm{log}N\mathrm{log}S`$ curves at around the INTEGRAL detection limit, more conspicuously in JEMX. In any case, our catalog includes $`700`$ and $`400`$ sources, respectively, which are brighter than the JEMX and ISGRI sensitivities with $`10^5`$ sec exposure. We may expect to detect still more sources, which may be transient, or dim persistent sources because of the incompleteness of the catalog. Also, initial operation of ISGRI has already detected several heavily absorbed, transient Galactic sources (e.g, IGR J16318$``$4848 see Walter et al. 2003 and references therein), which may not have been noticed previously below $``$10 keV, but may be discovered with INTEGRAL.

Note that our catalog was made by combining observations of many different instruments; not a single satellite has observed so many sources above 20 keV. One of the main purposes of INTEGRAL is to create a homogeneous and most complete high-energy source catalog above 20 keV.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge all the INTEGRAL team members who gave comments to improve early versions of the INTEGRAL reference catalog. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database operated at CDS (Strasbourg, France), NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Service, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the TARTARUS database supported by Jane Turner and Kirpal Nandra under NASA grants NAG5-7385 and NAG5-7067. We thank Dr. Peter Kretschmar for the information on the latest JEMX effective area calibration.


text:
# On application of multi-colour photometry of 𝛿 Scuti stars

## 1. Introduction

Until now the main application of multi-colour photometry of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars has been the determination of the spherical harmonic degree, $`\mathrm{}`$, of the observed modes (e.g. Balona & Evers 1999, Garrido 2000). The amplitudes and phases from measurements in various passbands do indeed contain a signature of the $`\mathrm{}`$ value, but there is more information to be extracted from these quantities. In principle we may calculate their theoretical counterparts. For this we need appropriate stellar models and a linear nonadiabatic code for calculating model oscillations. From such calculations we derive the complex ratio of the local flux variation to the radial displacement at the photosphere, $`f`$. In the case of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars, however, there is a large uncertainty arising from lack of adequate theory of stellar convection. The uncertainity is reflected in a strong sensitivity of $`f`$ to the mixing-length prameter, $`\alpha `$, which translates to calculated mode positions in the amplitude ratio vs. phase difference diagrams. This strong sensitivity to the treatment of convection is not necessarily bad news, if we can determine simultaneously $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`f`$. For this aim we need data from at least three passbands. If we succeed, then the $`f`$-value yields a useful constraint on convection. In addition, if the identified mode is radial, the multi-passband data may be used to refine stellar parameters. Finally, the use of radial velocity measurements in our method improves significantly determination of $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`f`$.

## 2. Method for inferring $`f`$ parameter from observations

The presented method is based on $`\chi ^2`$ minimization assuming trial values of $`\mathrm{}`$. We regard the $`\mathrm{}`$ degree and the associated complex $`f`$ value as the solution if it corresponds to $`\chi ^2`$ minimum, which is much deeper than at other values of $`\mathrm{}`$. We write the photometric complex amplitude in the form of the linear observational equation for a number of passbands, $`\lambda `$,

$$𝒟_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda (\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }f)+_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda \stackrel{~}{\epsilon }=A^\lambda ,$$
$`(1)`$
where

$$\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }\epsilon Y_{\mathrm{}}^m(i,0),𝒟_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda fb_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda D_{1,\mathrm{}}^\lambda ,_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda b_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda (D_{2,\mathrm{}}+D_{3,\mathrm{}}^\lambda ).$$

On the right-hand side we have measured amplitudes, $`A^\lambda `$, expressed in the complex form. The quantities to be determined are $`(\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }f)`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }`$.

If we have data on spectral line variations, the set of equations (1) may be supplemented with an expression for the first moment, $`_1^\lambda `$,

$$\mathrm{i}\omega R\left(u_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda +\frac{GMv_{\mathrm{}}^\lambda }{R^3\omega ^2}\right)\stackrel{~}{\epsilon }=_1^\lambda .$$
$`(2)`$
For more details and generalization of the method to the case of modes coupled by rotation see Daszyńska-Daszkiewicz et al. (2003).

## 3. Applications

Here we rely on Kurucz (1998) models of stellar atmospheres and Claret (2000) computations of limb-darkening coefficients. For application of the method we used $`uvby`$ Strömgren photometry in all cases.

$`\beta `$ Cas: $`\beta `$ Cas is a near and bright $`\delta `$ Scuti star, therefore we have rather precise parameters for it. Its estimated value of mass is $`1.95M_{}`$. In the left panel of Fig.1 we show $`\chi ^2`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{}`$ obtained for three models. The minimum at $`\mathrm{}=1`$ is the deepest one, particularly at lower $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$. Because the star is a relatively rapid rotator ($`v_{\mathrm{rot}}>70`$ km/s), we have considered the possibility that the mode is an $`\mathrm{}=0`$ and 2 combination resulting from the rotatational coupling. We found, however, that at no inclination is the $`\chi 2`$ value as low as at a single $`\mathrm{}=1`$. Thus, the latter identification is most likely.

In the right panel we show a comparison of the $`f`$ values inferred from observations for $`\beta `$ Cas with the theoretical values calculated with the five indicated values of the MLT parameter, $`\alpha `$. The observed values of $`f_R`$ are closer to those calculated with $`\alpha =0`$, however values of $`f_I`$ require rather higher values of $`\alpha `$.

20 CVn: 20 CVn is a $`\delta `$ Scuti variable regarded to be monoperiodic with a metal abundance of \[m/H\]=0.5 $`(Z0.06)`$. For models on the edges of the error box at $`Z=0.06`$, the minimum of the $`\chi ^2`$ is clearly at $`\mathrm{}=0`$. Having such a mode identification we can refine stellar parameters by fitting them to reproduce the observed period.

In the HR diagram, shown in the left panel of Fig. 2, we plot the error box and the lines of the constant period for radial orders $`n=3,4,5`$ at $`Z=0.06`$. Only models along these lines are allowed. We cas see that we have two possibilities: $`n=3`$ or $`n=4`$. The models yielding the lowest $`\chi ^2`$ are those marked with numbers 1 and 3, both equally probable. In the case of $`Z=0.04`$ only $`n=4`$ is allowed, but the $`\chi ^2`$ is much higher. Thus from our method we have also some constraints on metallicity. In the right panel we compare the empirical and theoretical values of the $`f`$ parameter for models corresponding to the deepest $`\chi ^2`$ minima. The positions are qualitatively similar to those in $`\beta `$ Cas, but considerably higher as a consequence of higher radial order.

1 Mon: 1 Mon has three almost equally distant frequencies. Here we present results for the dominant mode. In the left panel of Fig. 5 we show $`\chi ^2`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{}`$ obtained from $`uvby`$ photometry, for the models on the edges of error box.

In the right panel we have the same, but after including data on radial velocity changes. Discrimination is now much better. Especially the higher values of $`\mathrm{}`$ and some sets of stellar parameters are clearly excluded. The empirical values of the $`f`$ parameter are now very close to those calculated with $`\alpha =0.0`$. We obtained $`f_{\mathrm{obs}}=(4.9\pm 0.7,11.3\pm 0.8)`$ and $`f_{\mathrm{calc}}=(2.4,11.2)`$.

## 4. Conclusions

We have argued that multi-colour photometry of $`\delta `$ Scuti stars may give us useful information not only about the excited modes but also about stars themselves. We believe that the most interesting is the prospect of probing the efficiency of convective transport in outer layers. We also showed that inferrence on mode degree and stellar properties is much improved by supplementing photometric data with radial velocity measurements.

### Acknowledgments.

The KBN grant No.5 P03D 012 20 is acknowledged.

## References

Balona, L.A., Evers, E.A. 1999, MNRAS, 302, 349

Claret, A. 2000, A&A, 363, 1081

Daszyńska-Daszkiewicz, J., Dziembowski, W.A., Pamyatnykh, A.A. 2003, A&A, 407, 999

Garrido, R., 2000, ASP Conf. Ser. 210, Delta Scuti and Related Stars, eds. M. Breger& M.H. Montgomery, (San Francisco ASP), 67

Kurucz, R.L. 1998, http://cfaku5.harvard.edu