text:
# Infrared Hall angle in the 𝑑-density wave state: a comparison of theory and experiment

## I Introduction

An ordered state known as the $`d`$-density wave (DDW) has been proposed as the origin of the pseudogap phase of the cuprates.ck ; clmn  A variety of experiments have been explored from this perspective. These include the superfluid density and the resonance peak in neutron scattering,Sumanta  the Hall number,nHall  angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES),ARPES  the specific heat,hykee1 ; chakravarty  the quasiparticle charge,hykee2  and the direct signature of DDW in polarized neutron scattering.neutron1 ; neutron2 ; neutron3  In addition, it has been explored how the notion of this competing order, when combined with interlayer tunneling, and the doping imbalance of the multilayered cuprates, can result in the striking systematics of the layer dependence of the superconducting transition temperature $`T_c`$.ILT  In all cases, the theory is consistent with the existing observations.

In this paper, we will address the zero-temperature infrared (IR) Hall angle $`\mathrm{\Theta }_H`$ as a function of the hole-doping $`x`$, because we are encouraged by the recent measurements of Rigal et al.Rigal  There are two specific reasons: (1) The DDW state predicts hole pockets as Fermi surfaces in the underdoped cuprates, which should have important experimental consequences. ARPES experiments can only detect half of each of these pockets,ARPES  which therefore appear as Fermi arcs.foot1  Thus an important prediction of our theory remains untested, except through its indirect signature in the doping dependence of the superfluid density. A measurement of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_H`$ can, in principle, clarify this issue, and we believe that it has.Rigal  (2) The DDW theory also predicts a quantum critical point at a doping $`x=x_c`$ within the superconducting dome and it has been argued that this should be visible in the Hall number, $`n_H`$,nHall  if superconductivity is destroyed by applying a magnetic field. There is some experimental evidence of this effect.Boebinger  The difficulty with this experiment is that it needs to performed in a field as high as 60 T, which is experimentally quite demanding. We believe that a measurement of $`\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )`$ at high frequencies in the pseudogap state above $`T_c`$ should have a similar behavior at $`x_c`$ as $`n_H`$ does. We expect that the high frequency behavior at $`T>T_c`$ will be similar to the $`T=0`$ behavior with superconductivity destroyed by a magnetic field if both experiments probe the same underlying state – which we believe is the DDW state – which causes the pseudogap and coexists with superconductivity in the underdoped superconducting state.

## II Mean field formalism of the DDW state

Given that the DDW state is a broken symmetry state with a local order parameter, it should be describable by a mean field Hartree-Fock theory and its consequent elementary excitations. This is precisely the approach we shall assume in the present paper. The mean field Hamiltonian for the DDW state is

$$H=\underset{𝐤,\alpha }{}[\left(ϵ_𝐤\mu \right)c_{𝐤\alpha }^{}c_{𝐤\alpha }+(iW_𝐤c_{𝐤\alpha }^{}c_{𝐤+𝐐\alpha }+\text{h. c.})],$$
(1)
where $`c_𝐤`$ is the annihilation operator for an electron of spin $`\alpha `$ in the $`z`$-direction and momentum $`𝐤`$, $`\mu `$ is the chemical potential, and the vector $`𝐐=(\pi ,\pi )`$. The lattice spacing will be set to unity. We ignore the residual interactions between quasiparticles; the principal effect of electron-electron interactions is to produce non-zero $`W_𝐤`$.

The single particle spectrum on the square lattice with nearest-neighbor hopping $`t`$ and next-neighbor hopping $`t^{}`$ is

$$ϵ_𝐤=2t(\mathrm{cos}k_x+\mathrm{cos}k_y)+4t^{}\mathrm{cos}k_x\mathrm{cos}k_y.$$
(2)
The $`d`$-wave order parameter of the DDW state is

$$W_𝐤=\frac{W_0(x)}{2}(\mathrm{cos}k_x\mathrm{cos}k_y),$$
(3)
where the amplitude $`W_0(x)`$ is a function of doping.

We can express the Hamiltonian in terms of a two-component quasiparticle operator: $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{𝐤,\alpha }^{}=(c_{𝐤\alpha }^{},ic_{𝐤+𝐐\alpha }^{})`$, and then diagonalize this $`2\times 2`$ Hamiltonian to get

$`H={\displaystyle \underset{𝐤,\alpha }{}}\chi _{𝐤,\alpha }^{}\left(\begin{array}{cc}[E_+(𝐤)\mu ]& 0\\ 0& [E_{}(𝐤)\mu ]\end{array}\right)\chi _{𝐤,\alpha }.`$ (6)
The two-component quasiparticle operator $`\chi _{𝐤\alpha }`$ is unitarily related to $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{𝐤\alpha }`$, and the sum is over the reduced Brilloun zone (RBZ). $`E_\pm (𝐤)=ϵ_{2𝐤}\pm \sqrt{ϵ_{1𝐤}^2+W_𝐤^2}`$ are the two bands of the ordered DDW state, with $`ϵ_{1𝐤}=2t(\mathrm{cos}k_x+\mathrm{cos}k_y)`$ and $`ϵ_{2𝐤}=4t^{}\mathrm{cos}k_x\mathrm{cos}k_y`$.

## III Calculation of the infrared Hall angle

For a system of DDW quasiparticles in the presence of a magnetic field $`𝐇`$ in the $`z`$-direction, and an electric field $`𝐄`$ in the $`xy`$ plane, $`\mathrm{\Theta }_H`$ is the angle between $`𝐄`$ and the current $`𝐣`$: $`\mathrm{tan}\mathrm{\Theta }_H=E_y/E_x=\sigma _{xy}/\sigma _{xx}`$. We will compute the necessary conductivities, $`\sigma _{xy}`$ and $`\sigma _{xx}`$ in the framework of Boltzmann theoryZiman  applied to the DDW mean-field hamiltonian. Since we consider a non-interacting model, this semiclassical approach easily generalizes to finite frequencies as well. A number of comments regarding the validity of our Boltzmann approach are in order.

1. In a normal metal, it is well known (see Ref. Peierls, ) that the external frequency $`\omega `$ and wavevector $`q`$ must satisfy $`\omega \mu `$ and $`qk_F`$, where $`k_F`$ is the Fermi wavevector. Although we must have $`k_Fl1`$ for localization effects to be neglected ($`l`$ is the mean free path), there are no further restrictions on the product $`\omega \tau `$, where $`\tau `$ is the lifetime due to impurity scattering.
2. In a superconductor, the same conditions apply at high frequencies, unless we want to capture interesting order parameter disequilibrium effects, such as charge imbalance etc., whence we must satisfy $`\omega \mathrm{\Delta }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the superconducting gap.Tinkham
3. For a particle-hole condensate, such as DDW, the condition for the validity of the Boltzmann equation should be the same as in a normal metal. The diagonalization in Eq. (6) does not mix particles and holes and, therefore, we can apply the Boltzmann formalism to DDW quasiparticles, which have relatively simple, particle-number conserving scattering terms.
4. We assume that DDW quasiparticles have only one scattering time, though it may vary along the Fermi surface.stime ; Abrahams  This assumption is clearly supported by experiments, at least in the pseudogap regime of YBCOy for $`y=6.456.75`$.Ando1  It surprisingly appears to be true for even very lightly doped sample of $`y=6.30`$.Ando2  The alternate view that for each $`𝐤`$, there are two scattering timesAnderson  $`\tau _HT^2`$ and $`\tau _{tr}T^1`$ appears to be untenable in this regime. (Above the DDW ordering temperature, the situation may, of course, be more complicated.)
5. Further complications from interband transitions will be neglected, because, to a first approximation, the effect of these high frequency processes will be simply to renormalize the effective single band parameters.

The longitudinal and Hall conductivities, $`\sigma _{xx}(\omega )`$ and $`\sigma _{xy}(\omega )`$, are:

$`\sigma _{xy}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2e^3H}{\mathrm{}^4c}}{\displaystyle _{\text{RBZ}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^2k}{(2\pi )^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\tau _𝐤}{1i\omega \tau _𝐤}}\right)^2{\displaystyle \frac{E_+(k)}{k_x}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{E_+(k)}{k_y}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2E_+(k)}{k_xk_y}}{\displaystyle \frac{E_+(k)}{k_x}}{\displaystyle \frac{^2E_+(k)}{k_y^2}}\right]\delta (E_+(k)\mu )+(E_+E_{})`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2e^3H}{(2\pi )^2\mathrm{}^4c}}I_{xy}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤],`$
$`\sigma _{xx}(\omega )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2e^2}{\mathrm{}^2}}{\displaystyle _{\text{RBZ}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^2k}{(2\pi )^2}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\tau _𝐤}{1i\omega \tau _𝐤}}\right)\left({\displaystyle \frac{E_+(k)}{k_x}}\right)^2\delta (E_+(k)\mu )+(E_+E_{})={\displaystyle \frac{2e^2}{(2\pi )^2\mathrm{}^2}}I_{xx}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤].`$ (8)
Here, we have defined $`I_{xy}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]`$ and $`I_{xx}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]`$ for later reference. In the equation for $`\sigma _{xy}(\omega )`$, we have made the approximation $`_𝐤\mathrm{ln}\tau _𝐤0`$, which is very reasonable so long as $`\tau _𝐤`$ is large and varies smoothly.

Thus, the finite frequency Hall angle is given by,

$$\mathrm{tan}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )=\frac{\sigma _{xy}(\omega )}{\sigma _{xx}(\omega )}=\frac{eH}{\mathrm{}^2c}\frac{I_{xy}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]}{I_{xx}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]}.$$
(9)
At finite frequency $`\omega `$, $`\mathrm{tan}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )`$ becomes complex. In the limit that $`\omega \tau _𝐤1`$, the imaginary part can be determined without the complicationsAbrahams  of the unknown anisotropic $`\tau _𝐤`$. Thus,

$$\text{Im}[\mathrm{cot}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )]=\frac{\omega }{\omega _H},$$
(10)
where $`\omega _H`$, the Hall frequency, is defined as

$$\omega _H=\frac{eH}{\mathrm{}^2c}\frac{I_{xy}^0}{I_{xx}^0},$$
(11)
where $`I_{xy}^0`$ and $`I_{xx}^0`$ are the same as the integrals $`I_{xy}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]`$ and $`I_{xx}[\omega ,\tau _𝐤]`$, except that the factor $`\left(\tau _𝐤/[1i\omega \tau _𝐤]\right)`$ is replaced by unity. The imaginary part of $`\mathrm{cot}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )`$ can therefore be determined in a largely model-independent manner – in this limit, it is essentially a measure of Fermi surface geometry Beaulac  – while the real part of $`\mathrm{cot}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )`$ involves the unknown parameter $`\tau _𝐤`$ which can depend on many details.

If we had replaced $`\tau _𝐤`$ by its $`𝐤`$ average over the Fermi surface, $`\tau `$, the expression for $`\text{Im}[\mathrm{cot}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )]`$ would have been exactly the same as in Eq. (10), regardless of the magnitude of the product $`\omega \tau `$,foot2  but now there would have been a dissipative real part containing $`\tau `$, that is, within this approximation:

$$\mathrm{cot}\mathrm{\Theta }_H(\omega )=\frac{1}{\omega _H\tau }i\frac{\omega }{\omega _H}$$
(12)
## IV Results

With Eq. (11) in hand, we can now calculate $`\omega _H`$ as a function of $`x`$ in the DDW state. We choose a representative set of values for the needed parameters. In keeping with our analysis for the related quantity, $`n_{Hall}`$, nHall  we choose $`t=0.3`$ eV, $`t^{}/t=0.3`$. For a comparison with experimental data, it is necessary to choose an appropriate relation between the chemical potential $`\mu `$ and the doping $`x`$. Physically, this relation can be exceedingly complex in the underdoped regime, where a plethora of competing charge and spin ordered states can intervene as $`x0`$. We, therefore, do not discuss the behavior in this heavily underdoped regime, although in the past we have attempted to describe this regime by arguing that the chemical potential is perhaps pinned to zero.Sumanta  Between the overdoped ($`x0.2`$) and the moderately underdoped regime ($`x0.07`$), we make the simplest possible assumption that $`\mu `$ is a smooth function of $`x`$. The actual function is not very significant, but to be concrete, we choose the relation implied by the band structure. To discuss the nonanalyticity close to $`x_c`$, we neglect the $`x`$ dependence of the chemical potential for simplicity, as the doping dependence of $`W_0(x)`$ is much more important. For illustrative purposes, we take

$$W_0(x)=0.03[(1x/x_c)+(1x/x_c)^{1/2}]\text{eV}$$
(13)
with $`x_c=0.2`$. This form gives mean-field-like nonanalyticity at $`x_c`$. (The exponent $`1/2`$ can be replaced if, for instance, $`3D`$ Ising behavior is preferred.) It is also a reasonable representation of the form suggested in Ref. Loram, . We believe, however, that the final result is not strongly dependent on this particular detailed form of Eq. (13).

Before doing an explicit calculation, it is revealing to plot the hole pockets as the amplitude of the DDW gap $`W_0(x)`$ is increased for $`\mu `$ varying smoothly as a function of doping $`x`$, in particular we show the results for a fixed value of $`\mu `$ in Fig. 1. One can see that the hole pockets become less elliptical as $`W_0`$ is increased at constant $`\mu `$. So, even though $`\mu `$ is kept constant, with increasing $`W_0`$ below $`x_c`$, the curvature of the holepockets increases where the Fermi velocity is largest, Beaulac  consequently $`I_{xy}`$ increases, and the perimeter decreases, so that $`I_{xx}`$ decreases. Beaulac  The net result is an increase of $`\omega _H`$. This is a robust explanation of the increase of $`\omega _H`$ as the system is underdoped in agreement with Rigal et al.Rigal

To be quantitative, we explicitly calculate $`\omega _H`$ using Eq. (13) and the band structure parameters given above. Concomitantly, as mentioned above, $`\mu `$ was determined from the band structure. The results are shown in Fig. 2. The results are clearly consistent with the experiment of Rigal et al.Rigal  The enhancement, as the system is underdoped, is significant, even though its actual magnitude is perhaps a factor of two smaller. Moreover, the absolute magnitudes are well captured. Beyond this, it is difficult to compare in detail. The experiment was performed on thin films of YBCO for which we do not have the precise knowledge of the doping levels, nor do we have a good criterion to relate the doping with the chemical potential. To complicate matters further, the chain contributions in YBCO are not included in our calculation, and these contributions were not subtracted in their experimental results. The parameters used here are generic; it is possible to improve the agreement with the experiment by adjusting them, but we do not find this to be a very meaningful exercise.

We then explore more closely the signature of the quantum critical point in the infrared Hall angle, which is already evident in Fig. 2. To demonstrate the robustness of the quantum critical point, we set $`\mu `$ to be a constant, equal to $`t=0.3\text{eV}`$ and use the mean field ansatz $`W_0(x)=W_0(1x/x_c)^{1/2}`$. For a representative value, we take $`W_0=0.03\text{eV}`$ and $`x_c=0.2`$. These are identical to our previous parametrizations.nHall  The results are shown in Fig. 3.

By examining the integrals $`I_{xy}`$ and $`I_{xx}`$ in more detail, we find that, close to the critical doping, $`\omega _H(x)=C_1+C_2W_0(x_cx)^{1/2}`$, where $`C_1`$ and $`C_2`$ are constants, and the slope diverges at the transition. (At finite temperature, this will be rounded.) We emphasize that although the hot spots determine the critical singularity close to $`x_c`$,nHall  the increase of $`\omega _H`$ is determined by the evolution of the hole pockets and the gapping of the Fermi surface as the doping is decreased.

## V Conclusion

The Hall angle measurements of Rigal, et al. Rigal  are strong evidence for the existence of hole pockets in the underdoped cuprates. We believe that DDW order is the simplest explanation which is also consistent with the absence of hole pockets in ARPES. Consistency with both of these experiments (and the Hall number measurement of Ref. Boebinger, ) is a strong challenge of other proposals for the pseudogap. Our analysis opens a number of interesting directions for future research. Our calculation could be extended using the Kubo formalism, which would have a wider region of validity. A more careful comparison between theory and experiment could be made with a better model for the chemical potential at the precise doping levels of the experiment. Finally, further exploration of the putative quantum critical point at $`x=x_c`$ at which DDW order vanishes could more firmly establish its existence and its properties.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank H. D. Drew for drawing our attention to their experiments and also for useful discussions. We are also grateful to N. P. Armitage, D. Basov, and S. Kivelson for helpful comments. C. N. has been supported by the NSF under Grant No. DMR-9983544 and the A.P. Sloan Foundation. S. C. has been supported by the NSF under Grant No. DMR-9971138. S. T. has been supported in part by the NSF under Grant No. DMR-9971138, and in part by DMR-9971138. J. F. was supported by the funds from the David Saxon chair at UCLA.


format: text

text:
# A Phenomenological Model for QSOs

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Since their discovery, different models have been proposed for explaining the observational properties, the origin and the evolution of QSOs. Among them, the remarkable models are: the standard model, Terlevich Melnick (TM) model and Field Colgate (FC) model . Besides the difficulties existing with each model, a considerable knowledge about these objects is established upon them. These models emphasize on two main points: a) the origin and evolution of QSOs and b) their inherent properties. Here we combine a generalized version of the FC model  called GFC model with the TM model. Both of these are starburst models and have some conceptual features in common. The difficulties that an individual model are faced on, is removed for combined model. The by products of the resultant model are: a) the decay mechanism which is shown to be supported by observations using LBQS data the study of comoving density versus redshift satisfies the luminosity dependent density evolution (LDDE) for QSOs, c) a unified aspect for the origin and the evolution of QSOs and the ordinary galaxies is another implication of the combined model considering the cosmic evolution of the star formation rate (SFR) for these objects. In sec.2 we give a brief review of the existing models for QSOs. In sec.3 the combined model is described and sec.4 is ordered to observational investigation of evolution of QSOs and their correlation with galaxies. In sec.5 the concluding remarks are given.

## 2 A BRIEF REVIEW OF EXISTING MODELS

The early days of AGN research, produced a wide variety of remarkable models that were designed to explain the enormous amount of energy output of QSOs. However most of this models have failed in one way or another to explain for various QSO characteristics. Here we present a brief review of the most important models such as standard model, TM model and FC model. Most researchers agree that the energy source in QSOs is primarily gravitational and involves large concentrations of matter such as super massive stars or massive black holes. These has shifted the aim of theoretical and observational works towards the study of the properties of such objects and their environments. They have designed a model in base of accretion discs circling massive black holes. In this model mass of the central black hole for a QSO with typical luminosity, $`10^{46}ergs^1`$ is assumed to be about $`10^8m_{}`$. They also postulate the existence of small high density clouds very close to the nucleolus where only broad permitted lines (BLR) are formed and a more extended system of low density filaments where narrow forbidden and permitted lines are formed (NLR). The line widths of the BLR (up to 10000 $`Kms^1`$ FWHM) are assumed to reflect the motions of the ensemble of cold ($`T10^4K`$) and dense ($`n10^{10}cm^3`$)clouds moving in the gravitational field of the massive central object. The ionizing spectrum is assumed to follow a power law of the form $`f_\nu =\nu ^{1.0}`$ up to a few hundred KeV. Other typical parameters of these clouds, also derived from the photoionization models (e.g. Collin-Souffrin 1990), are the ionization parameter $`U2\times 10^3`$ and column density $`\sigma 10^{23}cm^2`$. While the black hole model for the QSO central engine is successful in accounting for many of the observed properties of the BLR of QSO, it remains unsatisfactory in that it requires a large number of arbitrary parameters which can not be predicted from theory and are freely adjusted to match the observations . Meanwhile existing the accretion disk, the ubiquitous component of this model has not been proved through the polarization studies on both sides of the Lyman limit for intermediate-redshift QSOs observed by HST.

Another model which has not been definitively discredited is the model proposed by Terlevich and collaborators. The model is based on the nuclear starburst scenario. They assume that the observed activity of QSOs is the direct consequence of the evolution of a massive young cluster of coeval stars in the high metal abundance HII regions of early type galaxies . In the other words, QSOs are postulated to be the evolutionary phase of elliptical galaxies. During this phase, most of the bolometric luminosity is emitted by the young stars, while the broad permitted emission lines and their variability are mainly due to rapidly evolving compact supernova remnants (SNR). Theoretical computations of the evolution of SNR in dense molecular clouds show that after sweeping up a small amount of gas and when their sizes are only few light weeks across, these remnants become strongly radiative. They deposit most of their kinetic energy in very short time scales, thus reaching very high luminosity. Because of the large shock velocities, most of the energy is radiated in the extreme UV and X ray region of the spectrum . Terlevich *et al* studied the evolution of SNR in a high density medium ($`n10^7cm^3`$) the observed values of parameters of the BLR with density of the medium as the free parameter. But some problems exist with this starburst model. The rapid variability of the X ray radiation is not derived from this model. Further, the size of a typical QSO is assumed to be equal to the size of the core of a typical elliptical galaxy that have a radius of about 200Pc . But imaging studies with HST show that AGNs remain unresolved at the highest currently attainable spatial resolution 0.05”.

Other astronomers not only do not consider the QSOs as an evolutionary phase of early type galaxies, but also consider them as an extreme case of galaxies with independent evolutions. According to this idea, Field and Colgate propounded a starburst model, in which, galaxies and QSOs were different aspects of a same phenomenon. One generally believes that the galaxies, as separate units, are originated through some sort of gravitational instability. Moreover a fluctuation in density either developed or pre existed in the proto galaxies from which the galaxies were start to form. As a fluctuation grew in mass, it collapsed under the action of gravity, cooled and eventually a galaxy was formed. If one accepts that QSOs are extreme case of galaxies, one must seek for some characteristic physical parameters which are responsible for the observational differences of these objects with the galaxies. Field and Colgate  considered the angular velocity of proto galaxies as a characteristic parameter. The FC model assumes that the size of the galaxies, average mass of their constituent stars and their total energy output depend on the rotation rate of the proto galaxies or equally on the balance of the gravity with the centrifugal force at the end of the collapsing process. As an example assume two proto galaxies with the same initial masses and sizes, but one with an angular velocity ten times that of the other. The centrifugal force will then be hundred times weaker for the slowly rotating proto galaxy. Such an object will eventually be about hundred times smaller in size and have, on the average, stars of about fifty times more massive than that of the fast rotating one. Assuming that their constituent stars are of main sequence type, the compact object will generate about $`2.5\times 10^3`$ times more energy than the extended one. According to the FC model, the compact and extended sources in the preceding example are the representatives for a QSO and an ordinary galaxy, respectively. While the FC model as a starburst model was able to describe energy problem and size of the QSOs, it could not explain most of their observed properties such as variability, their radio emission, unresolved images, the forbidden emission lines in the spectra and their intensity ratios. However, as mentioned before, the TM model, in spite of the fact that it could not satisfy the observed sizes of QSOs, was able to explains the other properties, satisfactorily. A claim which may arise here is the possibility of combining the FC and TM models as two starburst models, to reduce their individual problems. The authors recently have generalized the FC model by assuming the specific angular momentum (SAM) as the characteristic parameter for proto galaxies . This quantity which mainly excludes the effect of the initial mass of the proto galaxies is assumed to be constant during the contraction procedure and is replaced by the angular velocity in the FC model. They called it generalized FC or GFC model and showed that the expected relation between the SAM and specific luminosity (SL) predicted by GFC model is satisfied by observations. They used the LEDA database for galaxies with different morphological types and showed as SL increases the SAM decreases. A by product of GFC model is the so called ”decay mechanism” for QSOs. If we assumes that the QSOs are evolved from the slowly rotating proto galaxies, and therefore, posses much massive stars, one should accept that they must evolve faster than the ordinary galaxies as well. Thus, the QSOs formed in this way would have a half life proportional to the inverse square of their masses if presumably populated by the main sequence type of stars. They will evolve about $`10^4`$ times faster than the correspondingly ordinary galaxies. The QSOs populated, on the average, by stars with the masses greater than eight solar mass, may eventually disappear from the contact with the rest of the universe as a result of collapse after consuming their energy sources. This process, if done, may lead to an evolutionary decay mechanism working for these objects in the course of time. We will examine this phenomenon in Sec.3 using observational data. In addition, using the same database, the plots of the number of compact (C) and the diffuse (D) galaxies versus their absolute magnitude shows that, as the object gets to be more and more compact becomes more and more luminous. As outlined before, the dynamical aspects of the FC model is not capable of explaining some other observational properties of QSOs. The same weakness already exist for GFC. To remedy this problem will propose another model on the basis of GFC and TM considerations in the next section.

### 2.1 THE COMBINED MODEL

One may use the common features of the GFC and TM models, to obtain a new starburst model which includes the advantages and excludes the disadvantages of the previous models. In this respect, the following points are noteworthy:
a) In the TM model, QSOs are considered as an evolutionary phase of elliptical galaxies, whereas, in the GFC model galaxies and QSOs are different manifestation of the same phenomenon that evolve independently biased by different initial conditions.
b)Either GFC or TM model, assumes the massive stars as the source of the bolometric luminosity of QSOs. However, the BLR and NLR in the spectrum of the QSOs, their intensity ratios and variability could not be interpreted by GFC model. While in the TM model, thier observational properties are explained by assuming SNR interacting with a relatively dense interstellar medium.
c) Although the TM model is successful in accounting for many of the observed properties of the BLR of QSOs, with only one free parameter, it is not capable of describing the small size of these objects. This is because of the considerations of QSOs as the core of elliptical galaxies with typical size$`200pc`$ (about hundred times more than observed values), in an evolutionary stage of the same galaxies. Whereas in the GFC model, the size difficulty does not exist. Here one can adjust the initial SAM of proto galaxies to arrive finally with the observed size of QSOs.

Therefore, it is seen that except for the initial considerations not only there is not a discrepancy between this two models, but also they complement each other. So it seems that a combined form of them may be more efficient model in explaining the observed properties of QSOs. Thus, one can assume, as mentioned before, the QSOs are eventually made from the proto galaxies with relatively low initial SAM compared with that of the proto galaxies which evolve finally to ordinary galaxies. Note that in the combined model two independent parameters, i.e. the SAM assumed by GFC model and the interstellar density conveniently chosen by TM model, determine the final state of the proto galaxy.

## 3 THE COMBINED MODEL AND PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESULTS

The observational implications of the combined model may be examined using the available complete surveys. Here we have used the Large Bright QSO survey (LBQS) containing 1055 QSOs in the magnitude range of $`16.0<m_{B_j}<18.85`$ and redshift range of $`0.2<z<3.4`$. The proposed combined model may have the following predictions,
1. Decay mechanism,
2. Galaxy QSO
unification. In the following subsections we explain the above results separately.

### 3.1  DECAY MECHANISM

According to the combined model the QSOs must evolve faster than the ordinary galaxies. This is due to the high rate of energy production of their constituent massive stars. Therefore, one expects that the nearby QSOs must disappear from the contact of the rest of the universe by the known massive stars evolution scenario. Moreover, the disappearance must be most pronounced for luminous QSOs. To check the above prediction one possible way is to consider the space distribution of QSOs. By considering the look back time effect on relatively distance objects such as QSOs, the above arguments lead to a nonuniform space distribution for them. In the other words, the plot of comoving number density versus redshift should reveal relatively more QSOs at far distances (i.e. at very long times ago). This is not satisfied by fig.1, that shows more or less uniform distribution for collective data of LBQS. To obtain the comoving density, we assumed $`H_0=75Kms^1Mpc^1`$ and $`q_0=0.0`$. However the discrepancy maybe removed by dividing the full range of magnitudes of a complete sample of QSOs into different luminosity groups. To do this, we have classified the data into 4 luminosity groups, where the absolute magnitude increases with increasing the order of groups. The group ranges are: ( 25.5, 23.0), ( 27.0, 25.5), ( 28.5, 27.0), ( 30, 28.5). The corresponding distributions are plotted in figs. 2 to 5. As an overall view, it is clear from these figures that the decay mechanism exists and is more pronounced for the luminous quasars. The comoving density of QSOs associated with the 1st group, i.e. the dimmer QSOs are plotted in fig.2. They belong to redshift range of $`0.2<z<0.93`$. It shows that, when we go to the redshifts higher than z = 0.2, the comoving density decreases so that after $`z0.93`$, no QSOs with this luminosity is seen. This may be due to seeing restrictions of these dimmer group of QSOs. Also it is seen that the decay rate goes rather slowly for this group. The situation is different for 2nd group (fig.3). The comoving density is distributed in the redshift range of $`0.4<z<1.53`$, and nothing is observed in the redshift range of $`0.2<z<0.4`$. The lack of observation of QSOs for 3rd group corresponding to $`0.72<z<2.53`$ is enhanced and nothing is seen for $`z<0.72`$. For the most luminous QSOs, i.e., the 4th group, decay mechanism has been going more rapidly. So that no QSOs is observed for $`z<1.08`$. Note that, decreasing the comoving density of QSOs with increasing the group order for lower redshifts is not due to the instrumental and seeing limitations, because these kind of limitations become unimportant at high luminosities. The results obtained above, may be interpreted from the point of view of luminosity function of QSOs. For each group one can assume a distinct pure density evolution (PDE). However, the behavior of PDE is considerably different for different groups. Thus, for the collective LBQS data the luminosity dependent density evolution (LDDE) is more convenient.

### 3.2 QSOs AS EXTREME CASE OF GALAXIES

It is shown by Boyle and Terlevich that the cosmological evolution of star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies are almost similar to the luminosity density evolution of QSOs. Franceschini *et al*, recently have shown that the similarity between luminosity density of QSOs and SFR in elliptical galaxies are more remarkable. Thus, it seems that there exist a relation between SFR and evolution of QSOs, indicating that a nuclear starburst is powering much of the QSOs luminosity as assumed in combined model. By the above arguments, one expects the evolution rate decreases from QSOs to elliptical galaxies and then to spirals. In the other words, QSOs evolve rapidly compared with the galaxies and among the galaxies, the ellipticals evolve faster than the spirals.

### 3.3 CONCLUDING REMARKS

The generalized form of FC model is combined with TM model to obtain a combined model for QSOs. The resultant model is capable of explaining the most observational properties of these objects such as energy production, size, BLR, NLR, variability, etc. The model assumes QSOs as evolved form of slowly rotating proto galaxies. A decay mechanism, acquired by this assumptions, is supported by LBQS data classified by different luminosity groups. On the other hand the ordinary galaxies are assumed to evolve from relatively rapidly rotating galaxies, which is a motivation for considering the QSOs as extreme case of galaxies. Thus in the framework of the combined model QSOs and the galaxies of different morphologies are considered to have the same origin with different initial conditions which affect their evolution rate at the later times. The investigation of behavior of the comoving density in terms of redshift for different luminosity groups supports the luminosity dependent density evolution for QSOs.


text:
# Simultaneous optical and X-ray high speed photometry of Cyg X-2

## 1 Introduction

Observations of low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) show that strong emission at X-ray energies $`100\mathrm{keV}`$ is nearly ubiquitous in these systems (e.g. Done 2002). The standard optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disc (Shakura & Sunyaev, 1973) cannot explain X-ray emission beyond a few keV. Thus, the observed hard X-rays as well as strong evidence for extended “coronal” emission in eclipsing LMXBs (van Paradijs & McClintock 1995) require more elaborate accretion flow models. A popular scenario, inspired by the solar corona, suggests that the cool Shakura & Sunyaev disc is sandwiched between two layers of hot plasma heated by reconnection of magnetic field loops anchored in the disc (Galeev, Rosner & Vaiana, 1979; Haardt & Maraschi, 1991). The presence of such a magnetically-heated corona would not be surprising, considering that angular momentum in discs is most likely transported outwards by turbulent magnetic stresses (Balbus & Hawley 1998). In the context of this model the observed X-ray spectra are interpreted as time-averaged emission from multiple coronal flares, while the characteristic X-ray time variability seen both in neutron star and black hole systems (e.g., van der Klis 2000) is then related to a distribution of flare strengths and durations.

In our Sun, bursts of hard X-ray emission from coronal flares are accompanied by simultaneous H$`\alpha `$ line emission when the beam of electrons accelerated during reconnection is thermalised in the photosphere (e.g., Dulk 1985). If the origin of X-ray emission is similar to that in solar flares, correlations between H$`\alpha `$ and X-ray emission should occur on timescales ranging from the rise time of the flares ($`0.01`$s) to their life time (either the dynamical time of the accretion disc at the radius where a flare occurs, or the thermal time needed to dissipate the energy of the wound-up magnetic field, up to $``$ tens of seconds at the outer edge of the disc). In the optical spectra of LMXBs, H$`\alpha `$ is the strongest line (EW $``$ 1–10 Å, FWHM $``$ 1000–3000 km s-1) and its double-peaked emission profile is an unambiguous signature of the accretion disc (van Paradijs & McClintock, 1995). The disc is optically thick, so the line has to be produced in a thermally inverted layer, presumably located above the photosphere. However, if we pursue the analogy with the Sun, the heating source of this disc chromosphere, be it coronal flares, viscosity, reprocessing of X-rays or MHD waves, has yet to be understood.

A significant fraction of the optical flux in persistent LMXBs comes from the reprocessing in the disc of high energy photons produced in the inner parts of the accretion disk, or in the NS boundary layer (van Paradijs & McClintock 1995; O’Brien et al. 2002). This effect is most clearly demonstrated by the optical echoes of NS X-ray bursts observed in some systems. A few second delay between these optical echos and the X-ray bursts is interpreted as the light travel time to the reprocessing site (e.g., O’Brien et al., 2002). This delayed heating of the disk by non-local radiation can in principle be distinguished from quasi-instantaneous local heating by particles accelerated in flares using high time resolution simultaneous X-ray and optical observations.

While the X-ray timing properties of LMXBs are well established, little is known about short-timescale non-orbital variations in the optical. On timescales $`1`$ min flickering in white light (characterised by erratic flux changes by factors $`2`$) is a common occurrence in both persistent and transient LMXBs. The NS LMXB Sco X-1 shows intermittent correlated X-ray/optical flares related to non-local reprocessing (Ilovaisky et al. 1980; Petro et al. 1981). LMC X-2 also displays similar behaviour (McGowan et al., 2003). Recent monitoring of low-luminosity black hole LMXBs has revealed intriguing optical flares on timescales of tens of seconds (Hynes et al., 2003b). On the other hand, on timescales $`1`$ min, the variability of the optical continuum or H$`\alpha `$ emission in LMXBs and its correlation with X-rays are still largely unexplored; such studies are hampered by the faintness of most systems, even when in outburst. Only two LMXBs have well established X-ray/optical continuum correlated behaviour on very short timescales (down to a few ms): GX 339-44 (Motch et al. 1983) and XTE J1118+480 (Kanbach et al. 2001; Hynes et al. 2003a). In both the variable optical flux has been interpreted as synchrotron emission from energetic flares (Fabian et al. 1982; di Matteo, Celotti & Fabian 1997).

In this paper we report on simultaneous X-ray and H$`\alpha `$/white light high time resolution observations of Cyg X-2, an optically bright ($`V`$ 14.8) persistent LMXB with a neutron star primary (e.g., Orosz & Kuulkers 1999). Cyg X-2 has rapid (hour–days) X-ray spectral variations closely related to the timing properties: the slope/amplitude of the power law and the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs, $`\nu `$1-20 Hz) seen in the power spectrum vary with the X-ray colours (e.g., Wijnands et al. 1997). The optical flux varies by $`1`$ mag on timescale of hours to days, and flickering is reported in the brightest state. An ellipsoidal modulation on the orbital period of 9.8 days is observed with a $`V`$ band amplitude of 0.1 mag. The donor star contributes about 50–70% of the total optical flux. H$`\alpha `$ is known to vary on timescales of hours to days (see §4), but no systematic study of the H$`\alpha `$ line variability has ever been undertaken. Here, we describe our search for correlated rapid variations between the X-ray and optical fluxes of Cyg X-2.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

We studied the variability of the optical continuum, H$`\alpha `$ line emission and X-ray flux of Cyg X-2 at frequencies $`100\mathrm{Hz}`$ using simultaneous data obtained on 2–4 August 2001 (UT) at the Hale 200-inch at Palomar and with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE).

### 2.1 X-ray data

Cyg X-2 was observed with RXTE/PCA (Swank et al. 1996) on three consecutive nights (2–4 Aug 2001), for three consecutive orbits on each night. Data were analysed using FTOOLS v5.0. For all nine separate observations, we used data types collected by the Experiment Data System (EDS) in three modes (SB\_125us\_0\_13\_1s, SB\_125us\_14\_17\_1s, SB\_125us\_18\_23\_1s), which collected counts of 2.0-5.7 keV (centroid energies), 6.1-7.4 keV, and 7.8-9.8 keV. We made use of event mode data (E\_125\_64M\_24\_1s) in the 9.5-20 keV energy range. The time-tags associated with the counts were corrected to the solar-system barycenter in the DE405 time system using axbary.

We extracted a spectrum from the Standard 2 EDS mode data from the first night’s observation. Examination of this spectrum showed that the countrate in excess of the background by a factor of 2-3 orders of magnitude up to 10 keV, and by a factor of 2-10 in the 10-20 keV energy range. We neglected the background for the spectral analyses herein. The 2.0-9.8 keV lightcurves (rebinned on 32 s from the original resolution of 1/256s) for each of the 9 visits are shown in the bottom panel of Fig. 1. The dip in countrate during the third visit is typical of the flaring branch (see §3.1).

### 2.2 Optical data

High-speed optical photometry of Cyg X-2 was obtained using a CCD in a multiple frame-transfer observing mode. The detector used is a SITe SI-502A thinned, AR-coated, back-illuminated 512$`\times `$512-pixel CCD. The F/9 Cassegrain focus of the Palomar 200-inch telescope illuminated a 200$`\times `$4 arcsec slit, which was re-imaged onto the uppermost rows of the CCD. The image was demagnified to a plate scale of 0.4 arcsec/pixel, yielding a slit size of 500$`\times `$10 pixels. The un-illuminated portion of the CCD was used as storage, allowing 50 images to be accumulated before reading out the entire CCD. The transfer time, the time required to shift an image from the illuminated region of the CCD into storage, is short, so the shutter remained open during the accumulation of all 50 images, and was only closed during readout.

The timing of the images in a single frame was controlled by a GPS receiver and time-code generator. The GPS timing allowed control of the start time (and duration) of each image to an accuracy of 1 $`\mu `$s. The transfer time is 420 $`\mu `$s (42 $`\mu `$s per row shift), which occurs immediately following the start of a given image. The effective exposure time is the same for every image on the CCD except for the first and last few images. The first image or images have an effective exposure time that is reduced by the time it takes the shutter to open, which is approximately 13 ms. The last image has an effective exposure time that is increased by the time it takes the shutter to close, although the readout takes place during this time, resulting in some smearing. For this reason, the first image or images and the last image are discarded in the photometric analysis.

CCD pixels can be digitized in 22.4 $`\mu `$s, or discarded in 2.4 $`\mu `$s. To minimize the time spent reading the CCD, two windows are defined, which mark ranges of columns in which the pixels are digitized, with pixels in all other columns discarded. Each window was 40 pixels wide, which allowed the entire CCD to be read out in 1.5 s. Overhead in the computer operating system added up to one second to the total time required for each frame. The exposure times used in these observations were 5 ms, 10 ms, and 100 ms per image, giving duty cycles of approximately 10%, 20%, and 65%, respectively.

The long slit, with two windows defined, ensured that each image included a bright comparison star. The comparison star used is the photometric standard 35 of Henden & Honeycutt 1997 ($`V=13.498\pm 0.001`$, $`BV=1.194\pm 0.004`$) situated $``$ 1′ NNW of Cyg X-2. This star has been extensively monitored, and has shown no intrinsic variability down to 0.001 mag. Roughly half of the data was taken with a 3 nm FWHM filter centred on H$`\alpha `$ and the remainder in white light (see Tab. 1). The seeing over three nights ranged from 0.8 to 1.2 arcsec FWHM in H$`\alpha `$, and from 1.2 to 1.6 arcsec FWHM in white light.

Lightcurves were constructed for each observation sequence using square photometric apertures ranging in size from 1$`\times `$1 to 11$`\times `$11 pixels (0.4$`\times `$0.4 to 4.4$`\times `$4.4 arcsec). While the use of square photometric apertures, rather than circular apertures, is not conventional, there is little difference for apertures composed of a small number of pixels. For the larger apertures, there was no measurable difference in S/N when circular apertures were used, so for consistency, all photometric apertures used were square.

For each image the aperture is placed at the centroid of Cyg X-2, known to a fraction of a pixel. The comparison star aperture is placed at the (fixed) mean distance from Cyg X-2 to compensate for aperture losses. We checked that the PSFs of the two stars were similar and not affected by instrumental effects. Because every image includes both Cyg X-2 and the nearby comparison star, observed simultaneously under identical observing conditions, differential photometry allows the removal of temporal photometric throughput variations. We do not correct for extinction hence the broad band white light data can be subject to an airmass-correlated variation due to the colour difference between Cyg X-2 and the comparison star. However, since all our observations were done at airmass $`<`$1.2, with two-thirds of the data taken at airmass $`<`$ 1.1, we feel this will have a negligible influence on the short timescale variability study.

We ignored images for which the centroiding algorithm had failed, a cosmic ray had been tagged inside the aperture, or (more commonly) those images in which the photometric aperture extended outside the unvignetted slit edges. The background in each window of each image was calculated as an average over the window, for pixels more than 10 pixels (4 arcsec) from the window center. We then computed the signal-to-noise ratio of the flux from Cyg X-2 as a function of aperture. The maximum S/N was obtained for an aperture of 7$`\times `$7 pixels in white light and 3$`\times `$3 pixels with the H$`\alpha `$ filter. The comparison star data was extracted using the same aperture and the flux ratio computed to correct for lost flux and atmospheric variations. The final lightcurve is therefore the differential magnitude between Cyg X-2 and the comparison star. The S/N, chosen aperture, total number of measurements and number of measurements kept in each observation sequence can be found in Tab. 1.

The lightcurves, rebinned with 32 s resolution, are shown in Fig. 1. Note that 32 s is an elapsed time and that the actual exposure time and S/N in each bin varies with the observational setup. The 1$`\sigma `$ error for each bin is obtained from the standard deviation of the averaged data points, hence implicitly assuming that the measurements are independent. Typical error values are given in column 4 of Tab. 2.

## 3 Analysis and Results

### 3.1 X-ray data

To characterise the overall behaviour of Cyg X-2 in X-rays, a colour-intensity diagram was plotted using 32 s flux averages (Fig. 2). This diagram suggests that Cyg X-2 was on the normal branch during visits 1 and 2 (Aug 2), on the flaring branch during visit 3 (Aug 2) and on the horizontal branch during the visits of Aug 3 and 4. Power density spectra (PDS, see van der Klis 1989) were then constructed for each visit using all the detected photons. The high frequency (1 Hz–128 Hz) part of the PDS is the average PDS of 1 s long segments with a binsize of 1/256 s. The low frequency part ($`10^4`$–0.5 Hz) is computed from a 1 s rebinned lightcurve. The PDS are normalised to units of r.m.s.2 Hz-1, i.e., fractional variance per unit frequency, and the expected Poisson measurement noise bias was subtracted. No corrections were made for background and PCA dead time, which are negligible.

The resulting PDS confirm that Cyg X-2 moved through the different branches of the Z track during the observations. On Aug 2, the absence of detectable broad band variability at frequencies above 1 Hz except for a weak QPO at 6$`\pm `$1 Hz during the second visit (1.3$`\pm 0.2`$% r.m.s.) is typical of the normal/flaring branch. The Aug 3–4 PDS are typical of the horizontal branch with strong broad band variability peaking around 10 Hz and two QPOs varying between $``$24–34 Hz (3.1$`\pm `$0.2% to 4.4$`\pm `$0.2% r.m.s.) and $``$50–63 Hz (2.2$`\pm `$0.3% to 2.3$`\pm `$0.3% r.m.s.). In addition, low frequency variability is present in all the observations at frequencies below 0.1 Hz. These results are in line with previous, more extensive X-ray timing studies of this source (e.g. Wijnands et al. 1997; Kuulkers, Wijnands & van der Klis 1999; Wijnands & van der Klis 2001). We show in Fig. 3 some of the logarithmically rebinned X-ray PDS obtained on different nights.

### 3.2 Optical data

The 32 s binned optical lightcurves (Fig. 1) show variations above the measurement noise on timescales of minutes to hours. Quantitatively, the binned white light (resp. H$`\alpha `$) lightcurves have standard deviations of up to 0.04 mag (resp. 0.06) compared to the measurement noise of $``$ 0.003 mag (resp. 0.017; see §2.2). The values for each observation are in Tab. 2. Plotting the optical fluxes against the simultaneous X-ray fluxes, we find no obvious correlations between the two; but we note that the average white light flux was highest (by about 0.15 mag, second night), when the X-ray count rate was also highest (close to the vertex of the horizontal branch).

PDS were constructed for the optical data using a slight modification to the standard technique used for X-ray timing. For the optical data, we found the white noise level empirically instead of using Poisson statistics. The data were (fast) Fourier transformed and normalised by multiplying the amplitudes by 2/Var($`f`$), where Var($`f`$) is total variance of the data $`f`$. This ensures the powers follow a $`\chi _2^2`$ distribution when the lightcurve is dominated by (measurement) white noise (i.e., each point is independent and randomly taken from the initial flux distribution). The optical power spectra typically showed power at low frequencies and white noise at high frequencies. In these cases we divided by the average power at the frequencies where measurement noise dominates to recover the $`\chi _2^2`$ statistics. The Fourier amplitudes give the fractional variance per frequency bin and, after subtraction of the constant white noise component, we plot the power $`\times `$ frequency in (dimensionless) units of r.m.s.2 to highlight the timescales with significant variability and ease comparison with the X-ray PDS (Fig. 3).

The low duty cycle of the data acquisition scheme introduces large amounts of spurious power in a Fourier transform covering several frames. To circumvent this problem, we separated the calculation of the power spectrum into two parts so that the transformed lightcurves had duty cycles close to 100%. At high frequencies, we computed a power spectrum of the images in each frame separately, then averaged the power spectra of all the frames. Since there are between 46 to 48 images (photometry points) in each frame with a time resolution of 5 ms (white light) to 100 ms (H$`\alpha `$), the resulting frequency range is about 5–100 Hz (white light) or 0.2–4.8 Hz (H$`\alpha `$), depending upon the observational setup (see Tab. 2). At lower frequencies we took the average flux of each frame (the sum of all images in a frame) and computed the power spectrum of the resulting lightcurve. The resulting frequency range is about $`10^3`$–0.05 Hz (see Tab. 2). The combined power spectrum is free of power leakage at the expense of a loss in frequency resolution and coverage. At high frequencies, the averaging of the individual spectra diminish the measured power from a highly coherent signal, because the contributions from each frame are not summed in-phase.

Significant power is present in all of the datasets at very low frequencies (below $`3\times 10^3`$ Hz in white light and $`10^3`$ Hz in H$`\alpha `$) except during the short August 3 H$`\alpha `$ observation. The total r.m.s. of the flickering is estimated by integrating over the frequencies where power is detected above the 3$`\sigma `$ single trial level. We obtain values of 1–3% r.m.s. (see Tab. 2) which are consistent with the standard deviation of the 32 s binned lightcurve. The optical variability is about an order of magnitude smaller than that seen in the X-ray lightcurves on the same frequency range.

At higher frequencies, statistically significant power is detected in the white light observation of Aug. 3, when Cyg X-2 was on the horizontal branch with a high X-ray flux. The total r.m.s. is about 1% (0.02–0.07 Hz). Unfortunately, this is the only detection of optical variability at high frequency in our limited dataset. Independent confirmation would be desirable. The very low frequency power in both optical and X-rays is reasonably approximated by $`P_\nu \nu ^2`$ (i.e., $`\nu P_\nu \nu ^1`$ in Fig. 3). We obtained an upper limit to the flickering power in the cases where none was detected by calculating the total r.m.s. of power with this particular shape that would have yielded a 3$`\sigma `$ detection (typically a few %, see Tab. 2). We also computed 3$`\sigma `$ upper limits to the r.m.s. of a sinusoidal signal. Both of these upper limits take into account the number of trials in the frequency range. All of the results may be found in Tab. 2.

### 3.3 Cross-correlation

We cross-correlated each of the nine simultaneous X-ray and optical datasets (Tab. 1). The X-ray data, which have the highest time resolution, were corrected to the local Palomar time and rebinned in an identical way to the optical data set, yielding two continuous lightcurves with the same resolution ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t=`$ 5, 10 or 100ms). The cross-correlation function at a lag $`k\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is defined as (e.g. Edelson & Krolik 1988):

$$C(k\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{1}{M}\underset{ji=k}{}\frac{(o_i\overline{o})(x_j\overline{x})}{\sigma _\mathrm{X}\sigma _{\mathrm{opt}}},$$
(1)
where $`o`$ is the optical lightcurve, $`x`$ the X-ray, the bar symbolises the average of the dataset and $`\sigma `$ are the standard deviations. $`C(k\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$ is an average over the $`M`$ pairs of points which are $`k\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ apart. The variance of the $`M`$ averaged discrete correlations gives an estimate of the error on $`C`$. The above is efficiently computed in Fourier space for continuous lightcurves with the same $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$:

$$C(k\mathrm{\Delta }t)=\frac{1}{\sigma _\mathrm{X}\sigma _{\mathrm{opt}}}\left\{\frac{\mathrm{F}^1(\mathrm{F}_o\mathrm{F}_x^{})}{\mathrm{F}^1(\mathrm{F}_{w_o}\mathrm{F}_{w_x}^{})}\right\}_k,$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{F}`$ is the (fast) Fourier transform, $``$ is the conjugate and the $`w`$ are window functions (a timeseries with value 1 when data are taken, 0 elsewhere).

There were no obvious trends on timescales $``$10 min where the datasets are not long enough to clearly establish correlations. For the cross-correlations below 10 min, we subtracted piecewise linear fits in 600 s increments to the datasets to smooth out any underlying long timescale variation. The X-ray and optical data did not show any significant correlations down to 5 ms (100 ms). Cross-correlating with different energy selected X-ray lightcurves (2.0–5.7 keV, 5.7–9.8 keV, 9.8 keV and above) gave identical results.

## 4 Discussion

Our dataset is consistent with previous studies reporting variations in the optical continuum of Cyg X-2 of $``$0.5 mag in days, $``$0.1 mag in hours and $``$0.05 mag in minutes (Kristian et al. 1967; Kruszewski et al. 1974; Kilyachlov 1978; Beskin et al. 1979). Orbital ellipsoidal modulation aside, there are few well-established features in the optical variability of Cyg X-2. There is a trend for the continuum to become bluer in $`U`$-$`B`$ as Cyg X-2 becomes brighter ($`B`$-$`V`$ staying $``$ constant; Lyutyi & Sunyaev 1976; Basko et al. 1976). Varying fluxes and FWHM on timescales $``$ 1 hr were also noticed early on in H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, Heii $`\lambda `$4686 and the Bowen blend (Johnson & Golson 1969; Cowley et al. 1979).

The evolution from the horizontal to the flaring branches in Cyg X-2 like sources has been proposed to reflect an increasing mass accretion rate in the disc (see discussion in Homan et al. 2002). This could be due to fluctuations in the mass transfer rate from the donor star or to fluctuations in the angular momentum transport processes, presumably on the disc viscous timescale. Interestingly, H$`\alpha `$ is sometimes in absorption (Chuvaev 1976): in dwarf novae, the Balmer lines evolve from emission to absorption during the rise to outburst when the mass accretion rate increases (e.g. Szkody, Piché & Feinswog 1990). However, mass accretion rate changes are hard to reconcile with rapid (hours) variations changes unless they originate in the inner disc where the timescales are short.

Variations in the inner region can affect the optical output of the disc via non-local irradiation. The observed correlation between high ionisation line fluxes (Heii, Ciii/Niii) and the optical continuum of Cyg X-2 does suggests that reprocessing plays a major role (Ilovaisky et al., 1979; van Paradijs et al., 1990; O’Brien, 2001). Some of the long timescale X-ray fluctuations of Cyg X-2 have been argued to be due to varying obscuration, perhaps by an inner disc warp (Kuulkers & van der Klis 1995; Kuulkers, van der Klis & Vaughan 1996; Vrtilek et al. 1990, 2003). Changes in the albedo or geometry of reprocessing would lead to complex correlations between X-rays and optical (Esin, Lasota, & Hynes, 2000). O’Brien (2001) found that the optical and X-ray fluxes were correlated on the horizontal branch, but anticorrelated on long timescales in the normal and flaring branches. Curiously, on shorter timescales ($``$1 min), the X-ray and optical on the flaring branch were correlated. O’Brien proposed that several components with different intrinsic timescales contribute to the optical emission. Our observation of an order of magnitude lower variability in optical compared to X-rays on long timescales (§3.2) is consistent with reprocessing of a fraction of the X-rays, but we did not find significant correlations to support this.

As argued in §1, variability and X-ray/optical correlations on short timescales could provide constraints on emission sites in Cyg X-2. Previous studies found no variability in the optical continuum below $`1`$ min (Chevalier et al. 1976; Auriemma et al. 1978; Ilovaisky et al. 1978). With a factor 2–5 better sensitivity and a longer dataset, we find some evidence for broad band variability at frequencies of few Hz in the continuum when Cyg X-2 was optically bright and on the horizontal branch; but we find no correlations with the X-ray noise component that peaks at $`10`$ Hz in this state. For rapid line variability, Canizares & McClintock (1975) give an upper limit of 8% to the pulsed fraction of the Heii flux between 0.1 and 125 Hz. We do not find variability in the H$`\alpha `$ line on timescales shorter than 1 min.

In contrast with Cyg X-2, the other optically bright Z source, Sco X-1, shows correlated X-ray and optical flares on a 1–60 s timescale when it is on the flaring branch (Ilovaisky et al. 1980; Petro et al. 1981). The optical flares are 20 s filtered versions of the X-rays, probably as a result of non-local reprocessing. Similar behaviour is not seen in Cyg X-2, although the X-ray flux and variability are comparable. A different irradiation geometry, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, might explain their absence.

We did not find evidence for correlated X-ray – H$`\alpha `$ variations due to solar-like flares. However, H$`\alpha `$ emission could be powered by flares that are too weak to be detected individually and occurring at a fast enough rate that correlations are lost. For instance, Poutanen & Fabian (1999) discuss a model for the X-ray timing characteristics of Cyg X-1 in which the rapid variability is due to flare avalanches in the disc. Only rare large flares from the high luminosity end of the distribution function can be distinguished in the X-ray flux of Cyg X-1 (Gierliński & Zdziarski, 2003).

Calculating the thin disc response to irradiation by high energy electrons produced in flares, Williams & Maletesta (2002) find that an avalanche model can explain the H$`\beta `$ emission and the optical continuum flickering observed in cataclysmic variables (which have accretion discs comparable to those in LMXBs). Only 4% of the flare energy is used to produce the variable $`V`$ band flux. A similar model might apply to Cyg X-2 with, perhaps, more of the flare energy deposited in the disc to take into account the higher optical/X-ray flux ratio. The high number of active regions required is likely to have a significant impact on the X-ray spectral properties (e.g., di Matteo, Celotti & Fabian 1999). X-ray emission by bremsstrahlung or Compton upscattering is not modelled by Williams & Maletesta (2002). If flares give rise to the broad band X-ray noise (with r.m.s. levels of a few %) then our upper limit of $`3`$% r.m.s is too high to detect their H$`\alpha `$ signature.

## 5 CONCLUSION

We obtained H$`\alpha `$ or white light lightcurves of Cyg X-2 with high time resolution simultaneously with X-ray data. Two (mutually non exclusive) mechanisms may link the two wave bands: non-local reprocessing of X-ray photons emitted close to the compact object or local reprocessing of particles accelerated in magnetic flares. We find broad band variability on timescales longer than a minute and some evidence on sub-second timescales in one white light observation. No correlations are found. Our observations cannot be used to distinguish between non-local or local reprocessing. The lack of correlations could be explained either by unfavourable irradiation circumstances (non-local case) or because large, identifiable magnetic flares are scarce (local case).

The prospects offered by rapid optical photometry have proven difficult to fulfill. Part of the difficulty lays in assembling a large, coherent, simultaneous X-ray and optical dataset with secure calibrations from which trends can emerge (i.e., the strategy behind the success of X-ray timing studies). More problematic are the small amplitude of the expected variability and limited number of bright enough objects for which sensitive enough observations and comparisons can be made. In principle, the present generation of 8–10 m class telescopes could remedy that.

## acknowledgments

We thank Jean Swank for approving the observation for simultaneous observing with Palomar 5m. This work was supported by a Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowship grant #PF8-10002 awarded by the Chandra X-Ray Center, which is operated by the SAO for NASA under contract NAS8-39073.


text:
# CO emission associated with a cooling flow

## 1 Abstract

The existence of cooling flows in the center of galaxy clusters has always been a puzzle, and in particular the fate of the cooling gas, since the presence of cold gas has never been proven directly. X-ray data from the satellites Chandra and XMM-Newton have constrained the amount of cooling, and it was realized that feedback and heating from a central AGN and its jets could reduce the amount of cold gas. Recently, a few central galaxies of cooling flow clusters have been detected in the CO lines. For the first time, we show IRAM interferometer maps of CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission in a cooling flow, showing a clear association of the cold gas (at about 20K) with the cooling flow. This shows that although the AGN provides a feedback heating, the cooling phenomenon does occur, with about the expected rate.

## 2 Recent results on cooling flows

Cooling flows are suspected to occur in the center of rich galaxy clusters, since the cooling time of the hot gas is shorter than Hubble time. Until recently, large flow rates were expected, of the order of 100 to 1000 M/yr. But the fate of the cooled gas has always been a mystery, the gas or the stars formed out of it could not be seen. Attempts to observe this cold gas either in HI (Shostak et al 1983, Dwarakanath et al 1995) or CO (McNamara et al 1994, Braine & Dupraz 1994, O’Dea et al 1994), have always obtained upper limits. Only in NGC1275 (Perseus A) has molecular gas been detected (Lazareff et al 1989), but being associated to merging galaxies, its origin was ambiguous. Recently, CO emission has been detected in 3C31 (RXJ0107+32) and 3C264 (A1367) at the center of cooling flows (Lim et al 2001), and towards 16 central galaxies of clusters (Edge 2001).

One of the main results of the X-ray satellites Chandra and XMM-Newton was to change considerably our view on cooling flows: the deduced cooling rates have been reduced by at least one order of magnitude; the old view of quiet and regular, quasi-spherical cooling has given place to partial and intermittent cooling, perturbed by re-heating processes, feedback due to the central AGN, and associated shocks, jets, sound waves, bubbles… A recent spectacular illustration of this perturbed cooling is the Chandra image of the cooling flow in Perseus, with bubbles, gas streaming up and down from the center, and ripples looking like emitted sound waves (Fabian et al. 2003).

## 3 Detection of CO emission

We have undertaken a survey of CO emission in central galaxies of cooling flow clusters (Salomé & Combes 2003a), with the IRAM-30m telescope. The clusters were selected from their previously derived cooling rates, and their observed H$`\alpha `$ luminosities. It is indeed expected that the H$`\alpha `$ emission is also related to the cooling, either diretly or because gas is photoionised by stars formed in the cooling. Out of 32 galaxies observed, between 6 and 10 detections were obtained (according to whether both CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) detected, or a tentative single one). Masses between 3 108 and 4 1010M are found. The excitation derived from the ratio of the two first rotational lines of the CO molecule is compatible with optically thick cold gas (beam corrected ratio close to 1, within the uncertainties).

Figure 1 reveals a correlation between the H2 mass detected toward cooling flows, and their H$`\alpha `$ luminosity. This may be interpreted in terms of common excitation mechanisms, H$`\alpha `$ is either shocked gas from cooling flows or gas photo-ionized by the young stars formed out of the cooled gas.

It is also interesting to compare the amount of gas detected to what is expected from the cooling flow. With respect to the cooling rates deduced from Einstein (White et al 1997), the CO gas reaches about 10% of the expected value. We have to note that the region observed with the IRAM beam is only the center of the cooling flow. The cooling region extends up to 10 times its radius, and the cooling mass inside a given radius grows linearly with radius. The H2 gas detected corresponds to cooling rates during 1 Gyr about 10 times less than the previously computed value.

Our results do not show any clear correlation with the radio flux at 1.4 GHz. However, it is clear that cooling flows help to fuel the central black hole, when there is one. About 71% of cD galaxies with cooling flow have an AGN, while only 23% of cD without cooling flow have one. It is important to try to derive the gas-to-dust ratio in the cooled gas, since dust is expected to be destroyed in the hot gas by sputtering. The cooled gas should be dust depleted. We have derived the dust mass from IRAS data (assuming a dust temperature of the order of 35K), and indeed, the dust-to-gas ratio was small. Cold dust observed at 1mm would yield clearer results, due to the lower temperature sensitivity, in the Rayleigh-Jeans domain.

## 4 Abell 1795 cooling flow

The Abell 1795 cluster (z=0.063) has a conspicuous cooling wake at its center in the form of a long (80kpc) North-South filament (Fabian et al 2001). The cooling time is about 300 Myr, and the cooling rate $``$ 100 M/yr within 200kpc (Ettori et al 2002). The filament presents also H$`\alpha `$ line emission (Cowie et al 1985), at the velocity of the cluster. The central cD galaxy is moving at V=374km/s with respect to the cluster, and this central oscillation is probably the origin of the wake.

We have mapped CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission with the IRAM interferometer with 3.2” and 1.8” beams respectively. The cold gas is clearly coincident with the cooling gas, both in X-ray and H$`\alpha `$, but not with any galaxy (Salomé & Combes 2003b). 3mm continuum emission is detected at the position of the AGN, with a flux of 7mJy corresponding to a synchrotron spectrum with slope -0.98. Figure 2 shows the very good coincidence between CO(2-1) and H$`\alpha `$ line emission, and its avoidance of the radio jets. Cold gas may have deflected the expanding radio lobes, alternatively the jet creates a hole (bubble) in the hot gas, which is compressed at the boundaries, cools down and condenses in molecular gas.

The interferometer retrieves only 20% of the 30m flux, which means that there exists an important extended CO emission, in addition to the mapped features. The total H2 mass is 4.8 109 M. The CO kinematics confirm the association of the molecular gas with the cooling flow. The CO velocity is not associated to the central galaxy, but to the cluster (-350km/s), as is the H$`\alpha `$.

## 5 Conclusions

Out of 32 cooling flow galaxies observed, 6-10 were detected, with H2 masses up to 1010M, increasing the total number to 23 (Edge 2001). The interferometer map of Abell 1795 shows CO clearly associated to the cooling wake, and not in rotation around the cD galaxy. The CO emission is closely associated to H$`\alpha `$, confirming the global CO-H$`\alpha `$ correlation found with the single dish. The H2 mass found corresponds to what is expected from the cooling rate, 100 M/yr within 200kpc. There is tight coupling between the AGN and the cold gas. The AGN creates cavities in the hot gas. Cooling occurs along the edges of cavities, where CO and H$`\alpha `$ are observed.

## Index

* Perseus §2