text:
# Complex X-ray spectral behaviour of NGC 4051 in the low flux state

## 1 Introduction

NGC 4051 is a low luminosity (typically few $`10^{41}`$ erg s-1) Narrow Line Seyfert 1 (NLS 1) AGN which shows extreme X-ray flux variability and associated strong spectral variability (e.g. 1996,2003), on both long and short time-scales. In particular, the source shows unusual low flux states, lasting weeks to months, during which the X-ray spectrum becomes extremely hard (photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }1`$) above a few keV but is dominated by a much softer component ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }3`$) at lower energies (1998, 1999). Previously, we reported results of a Chandra CCD observation of NGC 4051 in the low flux state (2003, henceforth U03) which revealed that, even in the low state, the hard and soft components were significantly variable and correlated with one another, and so could not originate primarily in extended emission, such as reflection from a torus and extended scattering medium. The Chandra image also clearly ruled out any significant extended emission on $`100`$ pc scales (confirming an earlier result based on a Chandra grating observation obtained in a normal flux state, 2001). In U03 we further noted that the unusual curvature at harder energies in the Chandra spectrum, when compared with a spectrum of the low state obtained by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), was consistent with the presence of a very prominent gravitationally redshifted diskline, suggesting that the reflection features from close to a black hole may remain constant in flux in NGC 4051 despite large changes in the continuum flux, as appears also to be the case in MCG–6-30-15 (2003,2003).

In U03 we suggested that the unusual spectral shape of the low state was simply a continuation to low fluxes of the normal spectral variability, i.e. with the spectrum hardening towards lower fluxes. In other words, the low flux state is probably not a physically distinct state, in the sense used to describe the states of e.g. X-ray binaries, and the extreme long-term X-ray spectral variability of NGC 4051 is likely produced by the same physical process as the short-term spectral variability. Using a model-independent method, the ‘flux-flux’ plot, (2003) find that the spectral variability of NGC 4051 in the 2-15 keV band is best explained by pivoting of the power-law continuum about an energy of $`100`$ keV, in addition to a hard constant component. This result contrasts with the X-ray spectral variability of other Seyferts, which is best explained by a constant hard component together with a variable component which does not pivot but maintains a constant shape (2003, 2003).

Observations of NGC 4051 in the low state allow us to test the limits of the spectral pivoting model suggested by (2003). In this paper, we present the results of an XMM-Newton Target of Opportunity Observation (TOO) of NGC 4051 obtained towards the end of a recent low state. We first demonstrate the complex spectral variability in the low state and then combine the low state data with data obtained during a normal state, to make a ‘flux-flux’ plot (, 2003) to test the pivoting model and determine whether the low state spectrum is consistent with spectral pivoting down to the lowest observed fluxes. We also investigate the presence of reflection features in the hard spectrum obtained during the low state, and then combine these results with the inferences we make from the flux-flux plots, to construct a simple broadband spectral model which can explain the observed spectral shape and variability of NGC 4051. Using spectral fits, we demonstrate how our model can explain the complex spectral variability observed within the low state. We will present spectral fits of our model over the entire observed flux range of NGC 4051 (i.e. including the normal state) in a future paper (Taylor et al., in prep.).

## 2 Observation

Our continuing RXTE monitoring observations showed that NGC 4051 entered a low state, characterised by low flux and a small variability amplitude, for about a month in 2002 October-November (Fig. 1). On detecting that the source was in a low state with RXTE, we triggered a TOO observation with XMM-Newton, which observed the source on 2002 Nov 22, towards the very end of this low state. Although the 2-10 keV X-ray flux at the time is higher than observed earlier in the state, at $`6\times 10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 it is comparable to that observed by Chandra during the 2001 Feb low state (U03). XMM-Newton observed NGC 4051 for $`50`$ ks with all instruments, but due to background flaring only the central 33 ksec of data was useful. We therefore extracted EPIC-pn data (both single and double pixel events) in this useful time range from a 42 arcsec radius circle centred on the X-ray source, as well as a source-free box outside the source region on the same chip for background subtraction. The EPIC instruments were operated using the Medium filter and the EPIC-pn was operated in Large Window Mode throughout the observation, and due to the faint nature of the source pileup effects are negligible. We do not use EPIC-MOS data in this analysis, in order that we may directly compare the EPIC-pn data obtained during the low state with that obtained during a normal state at an earlier epoch before the recent change in EPIC-MOS response. The EPIC-pn and EPIC-MOS cross-calibration shows systematic discrepancies (up to 10%) between the instruments below 1 keV, so that it is unclear which gives the best representation of the spectral shape at these low energies. We note however that as a consistency check we have also carried on the EPIC-MOS data the same spectral fits carried out on EPIC-pn data in Section 5, and the results of these fits do not change the basic conclusions we present here (i.e. the same model is found to apply although specific model parameters change slightly). A detailed analysis of the RGS spectrum of NGC 4051, obtained during the XMM-Newton observation of the low state is presented in a separate paper (Page et al., in prep.).

## 3 Lightcurves and broadband spectra

In Fig. 2 we show the background-subtracted EPIC-pn light curves of NGC 4051 in two energy bands (0.1-0.5 keV, which we shall call soft and 2-10 keV, which we shall call hard). We also show the varying softness ratio (soft/hard) of the two bands. The source shows clear flux variability and interesting spectral variability during the low state. In particular, during the large ‘flare’ early in the observation, the softness ratio does not change substantially, and similar behavior can be seen during a second weaker flare at $`22`$ ks. However, towards the end of the observation (after $`26`$ ks), when the source is fainter in both bands the source softens, as the hard flux decreases substantially while the soft flux barely changes. The source also hardens slightly in reponse to small hard ‘flares’ in the period between the two larger flares.

In order to investigate the spectral variability in more detail, we plot in Fig. 3 the unfolded (relative to a simple power-law) EPIC-pn spectra corresponding to the epochs delineated in Fig. 2, which correspond to three of the four distinct periods discussed above, and which we refer to as high1, medium, and low flux spectra. For clarity, we do not plot the high2 spectrum, which is somewhat intermediate in shape between the high1 and medium flux epoch spectra. The spectra have been unfolded through the instrument response with respect to a simple power-law ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2`$) absorbed by Galactic neutral absorption ($`N_\mathrm{H}=1.3\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, 1989). As noted in U03, although unfolded X-ray spectra are always model-dependent, in the case of relatively high resolution CCD instruments such as the EPIC-pn, only sharp features such as edges are significantly misrepresented, while the general continuum shape is fairly well represented by the unfolded spectra. It can be seen immediately that the high flux epoch corresponds to an increase in the soft flux, below $`0.7`$ keV, with little difference in the soft spectral shape between low, medium and high flux epochs at those low energies. Above $`2`$ keV, the spectral shape varies significantly. Interestingly, in all epochs there is little change in the continuum around $`1`$ keV.

Clearly the spectral variability cannot be explained by any simple spectral model. For example, the constancy in flux around 1 keV might suggest some kind of pivot point around that energy, however the soft spectral shape at lower energies appears to be constant and is inconsistent with any low energy pivot. Also, the high and medium flux epoch spectra appear to converge above 5 keV, despite both spectra showing quite different soft normalisations. In order to clarify the nature of the spectral variability, and place it into context with the spectral variability seen at higher fluxes, we now apply the flux-flux plot method to the data.

## 4 Flux-flux plots

(2003) used a simple, model-independent technique, the ‘flux-flux’ plot, to examine the nature of the X-ray spectral variability of Seyfert galaxies. Specifically, by plotting the flux in a hard band versus flux in a soft band, a linear relationship reveals that the data are consistent with a simple two-component model, where one component varies in flux but not in spectral shape, while the other component remains constant in spectral shape and flux (see also 2003, 2002). The spectral variability is then produced by a change in the relative normalisations of the two components, with hardening at low fluxes corresponding to a soft component varying in normalisation with respect to a constant (or at most weakly-varying) hard component. On the other hand, a power-law flux-flux relationship implies spectral pivoting of the varying component (so that the spectral variability is intrinsic to the varying continuum).

In order to examine the form of the continuum spectral variability of NGC 4051, and test whether the low state spectrum is consistent with that expected from the spectral variability seen at higher fluxes, we can produce a combined flux-flux plot of EPIC-pn fluxes obtained during the low state TOO observation and an earlier (2001 May) $`100`$ ksec XMM-Newton observation of NGC 4051, obtained during its normal, higher flux state. The normal-state data is described in more detail in (2002), (2003) and see also (2003) and Salvi et al. (in prep.) for an alternative spectral analysis of this data. For both low and normal states, we obtained 500 s resolution light curves in the 0.1-0.5 keV soft and 2-10 keV hard bands (see Section 3), as well as an additional 0.8-1.2 keV medium band. Since the normal state EPIC-pn observation was obtained in Small Window Mode, we renormalised the count rates in both sets of light curves by livetime fraction, to account for the different readout times used in the two observations. We plot the resulting hard vs. soft (HS) and medium vs. soft (MS) flux-flux plots in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively.

### 4.1 Hard vs. soft flux-flux relation

We first examine the unbinned HS flux-flux relation (left panel in Fig. 4). We note two main points. First, the overall distribution of points clearly does not follow a linear relationship. Second, the distribution of low state data seems to join smoothly on to the distribution of normal state data: the normal state distribution bends towards low fluxes and this bending continues in the low state data. Hence we conclude that the same process which causes the spectral variability in the normal state continues to even lower fluxes in the low state. There is significant intrinsic scatter in the relation (which was also observed in the flux-flux relations plotted by 2003), which implies that there is also spectral variability which is not correlated with flux variations. Note that this scatter increases towards higher fluxes (see Appendix A). To remove the scatter and so find the functional form of the HS flux-flux relation, we followed the method of (2003) and binned the data into 15 flux bins (minimum of 10 data points per bin), which in this case are logarithmically spaced in order to maximise the usefulness of the low state data to constrain the flux-flux relation (error bars are standard errors determined using the spread of data points in each bin). We use a general power-law plus constants model (Taylor et al. 2003) to describe the relationship of binned hard ($`F_h`$) and soft ($`F_s`$) fluxes:

$$F_h=k(F_sC_s)^\alpha +C_h$$
(1)
We find a good fit to the data ($`\chi ^2=10.8`$ for 11 d.o.f.) for a power-law index $`\alpha =0.57\pm _{0.04}^{0.07}`$ with constant offsets on the hard and soft axes of $`C_h=0.1\pm _{0.1}^{0.25}`$ and $`C_s=1.62\pm _{0.07}^{0.3}`$ respectively111Unless otherwise noted, all errors quoted in this paper represent 90% confidence limits for one interesting parameter, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=2.71`$.. The binned HS flux-flux plot and best-fitting power-law plus constants model are plotted in the right panel of Figure 4. To demonstrate that this pivoting model is not simply a result of the low-state and normal states following different, linear relations, we also made and fitted a binned HS flux-flux relation for the normal state data only (i.e. excluding the data points from the low state TOO observation). A linear plus constants model fit to the normal state HS flux-flux relation is a very poor fit ($`\chi ^2=44`$ for 11 d.o.f.), while a much better fit is obtained with the power-law plus constants model ($`\chi ^2=12`$ for 9 d.o.f.), for power-law index $`\alpha =0.63`$, consistent with our interpretation that the hard spectral shape in the low state is a continuation of the spectral variability process seen at higher fluxes.

Using xspec simulations we find that the 90% confidence range of indices $`\alpha `$ corresponds to a pivoting model with a pivot energy between 75-300 keV, consistent with the estimate of 100 keV obtained from the RXTE data (, 2003)222We point out here that the value of pivot energy of 300 keV quoted by us in Taylor et al . (2003) is a typographical error. A 100 keV pivot energy is in fact a better match to the observed flux-flux relation slope, as can be seen from Fig. 1 in Taylor et al. 2003. The positive offset on the soft axis of the present flux-flux plot (which uses a lower soft energy band than the 2-5 keV band used by Taylor et al.) implies a significant constant soft component which counteracts the effect of the hard constant component detected at higher energies (, 2003) to produce an offset on the soft axis.

### 4.2 Medium vs. soft flux-flux relation

We now consider the unbinned MS flux-flux relation (left panel in Fig. 5, and see right panel for the binned up relation). The relation appears close to linear during the normal state but seems to flatten off in the low state (corresponding to the weak variability in the medium band seen in Fig. 3). Binning up and fitting only the normal state data (i.e. the nearly linear portion of the plot) with Equation 1 used above, we obtain a good fit ($`\chi ^2=5.9`$ for 9 d.o.f.) for an index $`\alpha =0.97\pm 0.06`$. Simulations show that if we assume the 75-300 keV range of acceptable pivot energies implied by the fit to the HS flux-flux relation, the slope of the MS relation should be 0.78-0.82. Therefore it is likely that some other varying component (in addition to the pivoting power-law), is present in both the medium and soft bands, in order to wash out the effect of pivoting between the two bands. The simplest possibility, implied by the apparent lack of spectral-shape variability below 0.7 keV (Fig. 3) is that this component has a constant spectral shape. The shape of the soft excess flattens towards low energies, which suggests that the additional soft spectral component in NGC 4051 is thermal, rather than a power-law (2001, U03), so one possible configuration is that the pivoting power-law is attached to a variable soft thermal component of constant shape (although note that 2003, and Salvi et al., in prep., explain this flattening in the soft excess by invoking an extreme relativistic Oviii diskline in addition to a steep power-law continuum). One might then ask why the MS flux-flux relation flattens at low fluxes. As discussed by (2003), the gradient of a flux-flux plot for a variable spectral component with a constant spectral shape is equivalent to the hardness ratio of that component. Therefore the flattening of the flux-flux plot at low fluxes can be caused by a strong softening of the varying spectral component in the energy range covered by the plot. Such an effect could be caused if the variable component of emission is largely removed by absorption in the 0.8-1.2 keV band, but not in 0.1-0.5 keV (e.g. if the absorber is ionised). This possibility is consistent with the spectra in Fig. 3: the high flux spectrum appears to converge with the lower flux spectra above $`0.7`$ keV, an effect which could be caused by absorption, if the expected edges (e.g. due to Ovii) are partly filled in by a constant, unabsorbed soft continuum component. The fact that the spectral shape below 0.5 keV appears not to vary with flux (see Fig. 3) suggests that the constant and variable soft components have a similar spectral shape, at least at low energies.

## 5 Spectral modelling

We now apply the physical interpretation of the spectral variability of NGC 4051 inferred from the flux-flux plots to construct a broadband model which can fit the flux-dependent spectra shown in Fig. 3. First however, to complete our picture of the appropriate spectral components for our broadband spectral fit, we examine the spectrum (obtained over the entire useful exposure) in the 3-12 keV band.

### 5.1 Hard spectrum

In Fig. 6 we plot the ratio of the 3-12 keV spectrum to a simple power-law model, which is fitted only over the 3-4 keV and 9-12 keV ranges (i.e. excluding the region where significant emission features may be expected). Clear broad residuals can be seen, in addition to a narrow iron emission line observed at $`6.4`$ keV. Consequently, a power-law plus narrow, unresolved Gaussian fitted to the data is a very poor fit (reduced chi-squared, $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.94`$ for 120 d.o.f.). We find that adding a pexrav reflection component333Similar to the procedure in U03, apart from reflection scaling factor $`R`$, which is free, reflection model parameters are fixed to those corresponding to the values from the best-fitting pure reflection model used in (1999), i.e. cut-off energy 100 keV, inclination angle 30, fixed illuminating power-law photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.3`$ and normalisation at 1 keV $`A=0.01`$ photon cm-2 s-1 keV-1. Leaving these parameters free does not improve the fit significantly. to the model improves the fit substantially ($`R=2.4\pm _{0.7}^{0.5}`$), and an edge at $`7.9\pm 0.15`$ keV (optical depth $`\tau =0.5\pm _{0.15}^{0.25}`$) is also formally required (resulting $`\chi _\nu ^2=0.91`$ for 117 d.o.f). The observed edge energy corresponds to the K-shell photoionisation edge expected from Fexvii. Removing the edge and including a Laor diskline (as suggested by the spectral modelling of U03), worsens the fit ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=+13`$ for one less degree of freedom). Adding the 7.9 keV edge in addition to the diskline does not improve on the reflection+edge fit significantly ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=3`$ for three fewer degrees of freedom). Worse fits are obtained in each case by including a diskline from a non-rotating black hole. Therefore we conclude that a diskline is not formally required to fit the low state spectrum, and so for the purposes of our broadband spectral fit we will use the simple reflection plus edge model to account for the broad residuals in the hard spectrum. Note however that we regard this model for the hard spectral shape as a phenomenological and not necessarily a physically motivated representation of the hard spectrum (see the Discussion for further details of the model interpretation). The narrow iron line ($`E_{\mathrm{Fe}}=6.42\pm 0.01`$ keV) contributes a flux of $`(1.3\pm 0.2)\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1, consistent with the flux observed by Chandra in 2000 April (, 2001) and 2001 February (U03). It is likely that this line is constant and originates some distance from the continuum source, as implied by the narrow velocity width observed by the Chandra HETG (, 2001).

### 5.2 The model

We now apply the information gained from the flux-flux plots, together with the model for hard spectral features, to construct our broadband spectral model. Our xspec model is: phabs $`\times `$ (zedge $`\times `$ zedge $`\times `$ zedge $`\times `$ (pegpwrlw \+ pexrav \+ compbb) + compbb \+ zgauss \+ zgauss \+ zgauss \+ zgauss \+ zgauss \+ zgauss). Note that although the model appears to be complicated, many of the model parameters are fixed (for example, all the Gaussian line parameters). Furthermore, the same model is used to simultaneously fit the spectra from all four flux epochs within the low state, with only a small subset of parameters left free to vary between the spectra, and most parameters forced to find the same best fitting value for all four spectra (see descriptions below). We now describe the model components, and the rationale for including them:

1. Galactic neutral absorption ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ fixed at $`1.31\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, 1989) and edges fixed (in the source rest frame, $`z=0.0023`$) at 0.74 keV (Ovii), 0.87 keV (Oviii) and 7.9 keV (probable Fexvii). The 7.9 keV edge is required by the fit to the hard spectrum and we include the two oxygen edges (which are also suggested by (2001), to fit a Chandra grating observation of NGC 4051 at higher fluxes), to represent (in simple terms) the ionised absorber which may be required to explain the shape of the MS flux-flux relation at low fluxes. The optical depths of the edges are free, but forced to be identical between spectra. Note that other absorption features, such as the unresolved transition array (UTA) of Fe (Page et al. in prep.) may also contribute significantly to absorption above $`0.7`$ keV, but for simplicity we only model absorption in terms of the O edges.
2. A pivoting power-law (xspec model pegpwrlw), with pivot energy fixed to 100 keV and normalisation at the pivot energy fixed to 0.078 $`\mu `$Jy (determined from the RXTE flux-flux plot, Taylor et al. 2003). This component is required to simply explain the shape of the HS flux-flux plot, and the flux-flux relation at higher energies reported by (2003).
3. A reflection component (pexrav) with parameters fixed to those used in Section 5.1 and normalisation fixed to be the same in all fitted spectra (i.e. to approximate the constant hard component suggested by Taylor et al. 2003).
4. A constant Comptonised blackbody which is unabsorbed by the oxygen edges. This component is used to represent the soft constant component which is required by the flux-flux relations. The normalisation, blackbody temperature, electron temperature and optical depth are free but forced to be identical between spectra. Note that a Comptonised blackbody is the best fitting model we have found to describe the soft component. See Section 5.3 for details of fits using other models to describe the soft emission.
5. A variable Comptonised blackbody which is absorbed by the oxygen edges. This component represents the variable soft component of constant shape which can explain the form of the MS flux-flux relation, together with the apparent lack of spectral variability below 0.7 keV. The lack of spectral variability at low energies also suggests that the variable soft component has a similar shape to the constant soft component, so we allow the normalisation of the variable Comptonised blackbody component to be free between spectra while forcing the blackbody temperature, electron temperature and optical depth to be the same as for the constant Comptonised blackbody (component iv).
6. A narrow 6.4 keV iron K$`\alpha `$ line (unresolved Gaussian, fixed flux $`1.3\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1), to represent the line observed in the hard spectrum. Additional prominent soft emission lines (e.g. see 2001) (as unresolved Gaussians), with fixed fluxes are required to represent the most prominent features observed in the RGS spectrum (fluxes fixed at those observed in the RGS spectrum, Page et al. in prep.): 0.739 keV Ovii RRC ($`1.9\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1), 0.725 keV Fexvii ($`4.1\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1), 0.654 keV Oviii Ly $`\alpha `$ ($`7.2\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1), 0.56 keV blend of Ovii x+y, z ($`7.2\times 10^5`$ photon cm-2 s-1). A number of lines are also seen in the RGS spectrum around 0.9 keV, including Neix and the Oviii RRC, however these lines alone do not replicate a broad bump in the spectrum around 0.9 keV, which may possibly be a blend of iron emission or an unusual continuum shape (see Page et al., in prep.). Therefore we include a broad Gaussian ($`\sigma =0.05`$ keV, flux $`1.52\times 10^4`$ photon cm-2 s-1) at 0.91 keV to crudely represent these combined features.

The model is fitted simultaneously to all the spectra from low, medium and both high flux epochs, so that in total there are 16 free parameters. To reiterate, these free parameters are the optical depths of the three edges (fixed to be identical between spectra), the temperature, electron temperature, and optical depth of the Comptonised blackbodies and the normalisation of the constant Comptonised blackbody (also fixed to be identical between spectra), the normalisation (here we use the scaling factor $`R`$) of the constant reflection component, four different normalisations (between spectra) of the variable Comptonised blackbody and four different indices (between spectra) of the pivoting power-law.

### 5.3 Fit results

The best fitting model yields $`\chi _\nu ^2=1.37`$ for 1159 d.o.f., for model parameters which are shown in Table 1. Data/model ratios are plotted in Fig. 7. Significant residuals still exist (see the Discussion for consideration of the causes of these residuals), although the model can reproduce the general spectral shape and variability reasonably well. Note that the apparent ‘absorption trough’ observed at $`1.6`$ keV in the second high flux epoch spectrum does not correspond to the probable weak systematic feature in the detector response observed at $`1.8`$ keV in the EPIC-pn spectrum of MCG–6-30-15 (, 2003). However, since this 1.6 keV feature in the EPIC-pn spectrum of NGC 4051 is not replicated in the EPIC-MOS spectra from this epoch it is likely to be a statistical artefact. Although the fit is not formally acceptable, the model appears to give a reasonable description of the overall spectral variability.

To demonstrate the effects of the different model components on the spectral variability, we plot the unfolded models and spectra for the low, medium and both high flux epochs in Fig. 8. A more detailed plot of the unfolded model fit to the high1 spectrum is also shown in Fig. 9, with the various continuum components made more distinct to allow easier interpretation. We note that the model can explain the complicated spectral variability reported in Section 3 as being largely due to the variation of the hard and soft variable components relative to the constant components in the respective bands. In other words, the effect of power-law pivoting dominates the overall spectral variability of the source (i.e. across the entire observed flux range, as revealed in Fig. 4), but within the low state where the varying continuum flux is small, spectral variability due to the presence of constant components is much more important. For example, the hardening in response to small flux increases occurs when the soft variable thermal component is very weak compared to the constant soft component, so that the flux variation is primarily in the hard band, associated with the pivoting power-law (which though weak is still significant compared with the constant reflection component in that band). On the other hand, a large flux increase (e.g. the flare early in the observation) corresponds to the flux of the variable thermal component also increasing significantly, in addition to the hard power-law flux, so that the soft/hard flux ratio does not change. Note also that the divergence of the medium and high flux spectra below $`5`$ keV is explained by the model as being due to the larger Comptonised thermal component in the high flux spectrum. At the lowest fluxes the power-law contribution to the EPIC-pn spectrum is negligible, i.e. the spectrum is probably dominated by the constant thermal and reflection components.

For completeness, we also substituted different soft spectral models for the constant and variable soft components used in the fit. Subsituting the Comptonised blackbody spectra with a diskpn model (, 1999) for a pure disk blackbody spectrum modified by a pseudo-Newtonian potential (to take account of relativistic effects), we obtain a much worse fit ($`\chi _\nu ^2=3.1`$ for 1160 d.o.f.). If we instead substitute simple steep power-laws, the fit is poorer ($`\chi _\nu ^2=1.52`$ for 1161 d.o.f., for photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }3`$) than obtained using Comptonised blackbodies, with the main residuals corresponding to a flattening of the observed spectrum below 0.5 keV. We conclude that, of the simple models tested here the Comptonised blackbody provides the best description of the soft component spectra (although see 2003, 2003 and Salvi et al., in prep., for an alternative description invoking a relativistic Oviii diskline and a steep power-law).

## 6 Discussion

We have demonstrated that the information gained from flux-flux plots can be used to infer the form of a spectral model which is relatively successful at replicating the seemingly complex X-ray spectral behaviour of NGC 4051 observed in the low state. Of course, significant residuals still remain in our model fits, and so our model should be considered only as an approximation to the true spectral behaviour. In this section, we will discuss some of the implications of our results and describe some of the practical and theoretical aspects of improving our model in relation to these implications.

### 6.1 The variable continuum components

The flux-binned 0.1-0.5 keV vs. 2-10 keV flux relation is well fitted by a power-law plus constant model, implying that the relation between these two bands, and the bulk of the spectral variability observed in NGC 4051 (over its entire flux range), is caused by the spectral pivoting of the power-law, also observed in the 2-15 keV band (, 2003). The presence of a constant-shape thermal component (which we model here with a Comptonised blackbody), which dominates the continuum at low energies, suggests that the pivoting power-law must be ‘attached’ to the thermal component, thus producing the observed flux-flux relation and the good correlation observed between extreme UV and medium energy X-ray fluxes (, 2000). An obvious physical realisation of this model is that the thermal component represents a directly observed variable source of seed-photons, which are upscattered in the corona to produce the variable power-law emission. In fact the observed blackbody temperature is close to the $`0.1`$ keV temperature expected from the small black hole mass of $`3\times 10^5`$ M, inferred for NGC 4051 from both reverberation mapping (, 2003) and the X-ray variability power spectrum (, 2003). The spectrum of NGC 4051 may then be unusual in this regard, since most AGN have larger black hole masses and hence their disk blackbody emission will not be directly observable in the soft X-ray band.

The fact that NGC 4051 appears to show a very strongly varying thermal component indicates a highly unstable accretion disk. Recent interpretations of AGN X-ray variability in terms of fluctuations in the accretion flow (implied by the observed ‘rms-flux’ relation and the similarity with X-ray binary systems, 2001, 2003) suggest that the accretion flow is geometrically thick, so that perturbations can propagate from a range of radii into the inner X-ray emitting regions. For AGN variability dominated by intrinsic variability of the power-law emission and not varying thermal emission, a geometrically thick but optically thin coronal accretion flow or advection dominated flow may suffice to explain the variability. However in the case of NGC 4051, where the thermal emission appears to drive the pivoting of the power-law (see below), the optically thick accretion disk must itself be geometrically thick in order for the model of propagating perturbations in the accretion flow to work (e.g. see Appendix to 2001). This situation can be realised at high accretion rates (e.g. 1992). The long-term average 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity of NGC 4051 from RXTE monitoring (e.g. 2003) of $`3\times 10^{41}`$ erg s-1, corresponds to about 1% of the Eddington luminosity for the black hole mass given above. Depending on the assumed bolometric correction, the total luminosity is likely to be of the order of a few tens of % of Eddington, possibly sometimes reaching close to the Eddington rate, so a thick disk seems a likely configuration for the accretion flow in NGC 4051.

The physical connection between the thermal and power-law components will determine the shape of the spectrum in the intermediate energy range (perhaps 0.5-3 keV) where both components contribute significantly. For example, we might expect a rather smooth join between the components, with a shape determined by the underlying thermal spectrum and the temperature distribution of the Comptonising electrons, as well as other factors (e.g. geometry of the emitting regions). Therefore it is not surprising that our rather crude best-fitting model, which treats both components separately, is still not a very good fit to the data, especially in that intermediate energy range, where notable residuals can be seen. Additional complexities might exist, for example are there two populations of Comptonising electrons (as suggested by our model which includes both a hard pivoting power-law and a steeper Compton tail to the thermal component), or do the electron populations merge (e.g. as in a hybrid thermal-non-thermal plasma, 1999)? Spectral modelling with a more detailed theoretical underpinning may help answer these questions by providing much better fits to the data.

The pivoting power-law can be interpreted simply in terms of models where the luminosity of the X-ray emitting corona is constant and seed photons are varying (see 2002 and discussion in 2003). However, we note that there is intrinsic scatter in the unbinned flux-flux plots, implying an additional source of spectral variability which is independent of flux. We note that various spectral timing properties of NGC 4051 imply an additional variability process in the hard band which applies on short time-scales only (e.g. the flattening of the power spectrum at higher energies and the decrease in coherence between bands on short time-scales; 2003), which is likely to be the origin of much of the scatter in the HS flux-flux plot. (2003) suggested that the intrinsic scatter in the flux-flux plots may be due to weak variability of the hard component (possibly reflection) which is uncorrelated with the strongly variable power-law component. However, the fact that the scatter increases towards higher fluxes, as is shown in Appendix A, implies that the additional variable process is ‘aware’ of the large amplitude flux variability and hence is likely to be intrinsic to the variable power-law (note that this effect is related to the rms-flux relation observed in NGC 4051, 2003). Such additional variability in the power-law could arise from events which heat the corona on short-time-scales (e.g. magnetic flares) independent of the variations in seed photon flux which may be due to accretion instabilities.

### 6.2 Reflection, absorption and the nature of the constant continuum components

A strong reflection component (which we assume is constant) seems to be required to explain the data. The normalisation of the reflection component corresponds to a typical illuminating continuum 2-10 keV flux of $`3\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 for a reflector covering $`2\pi `$ steradian solid angle, as seen from the illuminating source (compare with the RXTE-observed average 2-10 keV flux since 1996 of $`2.2\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1). One might assume therefore that the constant reflection could originate from a distant reflector. However, the reflection required to fit the 2002 low state spectrum is a factor$`>2`$ larger than than that used to explain the May 1998 spectrum observed by BeppoSAX and RXTE (, 1999), while the narrow 6.4 keV line flux is not larger than observed in May 1998, suggesting that a significant component of the reflection is not directly coupled to the narrow line flux and may not arise in a distant reprocessor. Furthermore, we point out that according to Fig. 1, at earlier epochs in the 2002 low state the 2-10 keV source flux dropped to significantly lower levels than we observed with XMM-Newton. Since our spectral fits suggest the source to be reflection dominated at the lowest fluxes observed by XMM-Newton, this suggests that the some significant fraction of the reflection component may itself vary on time-scales of weeks or less.

Weak variability of a reflection component, which is independent of the illuminating continuum flux is also implied by fitting a two-component model to data from MCG–6-30-15 (, 2003). Puzzlingly however, a diskline appears not to be required in NGC 4051, perhaps suggesting that more realistic models than we use here are required to explain the reflection, i.e. taking full account of relativistic smearing, disk ionisation or more complex reflection geometries (e.g. 2002). We note here that (2003) demonstrate in the specific case of NGC 4051 how strong, almost constant reflection can be produced by the effects of strong gravitational light bending on X-rays illuminating the disk from a source of variable height close to the black hole. (2003) point out that in low flux states (when the source is closest to the black hole, and hence light bending and relative reflection is most extreme), the inner disk is likely to be highly ionised, with attendant effects on the line strength and profile. Indeed the extreme variability of the thermal component in the spectrum of NGC 4051 (which may drive the spectral pivoting) further suggests that the inner accretion disk in NGC 4051 is very unstable, which may carry implications for the formation of prominent iron disklines.

We also detect a strong ($`\tau 0.4`$) absorption edge at $`7.9`$ keV, possibly due to Fexvii. The presence of such a strong edge is puzzling, because it corresponds to an absorbing column of Fe $`>10^{19}`$ cm-2, i.e. a hydrogen column $`>10^{23}`$ cm-2 assuming Solar abundances. In the absence of a large overabundance of iron, it is difficult to imagine how such a large absorbing column could remain hidden at lower energies. This is because even if it is highly ionised (e.g. ionisation parameter $`\xi 10^3`$$`10^4`$), such a large column of gas would produce strong edges in lower-$`Z`$ elements which are not observed in the XMM-Newton grating spectrum of NGC 4051 in the normal state (, 2003). One cannot also simply argue that the column of gas in the line of sight is much larger in the low state, because the resulting discontinuity in the effects of absorption would not produce the gentle bending of the HS flux-flux relation between the normal and low state seen in Fig. 4. Note that these arguments appear to rule out the recent partial ionised absorber explanation for the spectral variability of NGC 4051 suggested by (2003), but these arguments also impose strong constraints on our interpretation of the edge at 7.9 keV detected in the low state. An alternative interpretation of the 7.9 keV edge is that it originates in reflection, rather than absorption, i.e. it may originate from the possibly constant reflection component. This interpretation would help to explain why this edge is not readily apparent in the normal state spectra (e.g. it is not reported by 2003), since it would be diluted by the higher continuum level in that state. Unfortunately, the spectra from different flux epochs within the low state do not have sufficient high energy signal-to-noise to test the flux dependence of the depth of the edge, but our hypothesis at least appears to be consistent with the lack of evidence for a very large column of absorbing gas at lower energies.

The presence of an absorption edge of Fexvii in reflection is consistent with a mildly ionised reflector with $`\xi 100`$. Such a reflector would also produce edges of Ovii and Oviii and it is tempting to equate these features with the strong absorption edges ($`\tau 1`$) we use to fit the low state data, which are required by the model in conjunction with a constant soft continuum component, in order to explain the lack of variability above $`0.7`$ keV and the resulting flattening of the MS flux-flux relation at low fluxes. In fact, one might explain both the soft absorption features and the constant soft component in terms of reflection of the primary continuum (in this case a Comptonised blackbody plus power-law), from different locations of an ionised disk. For example, if at low fluxes (where the constant, unabsorbed soft component dominates) only the innermost, heavily ionised regions of a disk are illuminated, then the reflected spectrum will be almost featureless and match closely the illuminating soft spectral shape. However, if the geometry of the source changes, so that at slightly higher fluxes the source height increases or the source becomes more vertically extended, the outer, less heavily ionised regions of the disk will also be illuminated and edges will be imprinted on the reflected spectrum. Or alternatively, at higher illuminating fluxes the outer disk may become sufficiently ionised to allow reflection in soft X-rays together with the accompanying edges, without requiring a change in source geometry. At even higher fluxes, those edges may be reduced by further ionisation (and hence do not appear in the normal state) or they may be diluted if the soft component of reflection somehow remains constant at higher fluxes, which is possible if the soft reflection has the same origin as the constant reflection component observed at harder energies. The basic physical picture we propose above to explain the constant soft component and possible edges may be consistent with the model of (2003), if it is extended to treat reflection from an ionised disk. However, it is unclear whether our interpretation that the variable thermal emission drives the power-law pivoting could apply in the model of (2003), since in that model the continuum variability is explained as being predominantly due to gravitational effects coupled with variations in height of a constant source.

An alternative explanation of the O edges (and/or possible Fe UTA) required by our model is that they represent simple absorption of the varying component of emission. In this case, the constant soft component is unabsorbed. This picture represents something like the partial covering scenario envisaged by (2003), albeit without the requirement of such a large column denisty of material, which seems problematic (as noted above). The optical depth of O edges required by our model correspond to ionic column densities of $`10^{19}`$ cm-2 which are not easy to reconcile with the column densities observed in grating data of the normal state ($`2\times 10^{17}`$ cm-2, 2003), even given a large drop in ionisation parameter. However the predicted total column in this case is $`10^{22}`$ cm-2, lower than the value estimated by (2003), and may be consistent with the lack of strong edges observed at higher fluxes in the normal state. The requirement of only partial covering in this scenario remains difficult to explain however.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented an analysis of EPIC-pn data from an XMM-Newton observation of NGC 4051 in the low state in 2002 November. We reach the following conclusions:

1. The spectral variability observed in NGC 4051 in the low state is complex (see Section 3). However, flux-flux plots show that the overall spectral shape in the low state is consistent with an extrapolation of the spectral pivoting of a power-law continuum observed at higher fluxes (Section 4), confirming the interpretation of earlier Chandra data by Uttley et al. (2003).
2. At softer energies, the variable spectrum is reasonably well described by a thermal component with a constant, Comptonised blackbody shape, which in order to explain the spectral variability, may be absorbed in the $`0.7`$–1 keV range, perhaps by photoelectric edges of Ovii/Oviii and/or unresolved transition arrays of Fe, which may possibly be associated with reflection features also seen at higher energies. The blackbody temperature ($`kT0.1`$ keV) of this Comptonised thermal component is consistent with the low black hole mass of NGC 4051 ($`3\times 10^5`$ M, 2003), and the strong variability of this component, correlated with the power-law pivoting at harder energies, suggest that it is the source of seed photons for the power-law continuum.
3. A constant reflection component and Fexvii edge can explain the hard spectral features (in addition to the pivoting power-law continuum), although a prominent diskline is not required. However, the apparent lack of long-term coupling between the reflection amplitude and the narrow iron line flux, together with the possible variability of the reflection component on time-scales of weeks suggest that some kind of disk reflection cannot be ruled out. The Fexvii edge requires an absorbing column of $`N_\mathrm{H}>10^{23}`$ cm-2, but due to the lack of evidence for such a large absorbing column at lower energies we suggest the edge is observed in reflection.
4. A constant soft spectral component is also required to explain the spectral variability of NGC 4051. This constant soft component likely has a spectrum similar to that of the variable component, but without any absorption. The constant soft component might be related to the constant hard reflection component if the reflector is ionised, in which case a model similar to that of (2003) may help to explain the unusual spectral variability properties of NGC 4051 in the low state. Alternatively, partial covering of the emission by ionised gas of column density $`10^{22}`$ cm-2 may explain the data.

### Acknowledgments

We thank the anonymous referee for a number of helpful comments which improved this paper. This work was supported by grants from the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) including PPA/G/S/2000/00085. IMcH also acknowledges the support of a PPARC Senior Research Fellowship. The work reported here is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).

## Appendix A Scatter in the HS flux-flux relation

By assuming the best-fitting power-law plus constants model, we can determine the spread in data points around the binned HS flux-flux relation as a function of flux, and so confirm that the scatter does increase towards higher fluxes. We demonstrate this result in Fig. 10, which shows the rms spread in the flux bins used to plot the binned HS flux-flux relation. The spread in hard fluxes in a bin, $`\sigma _h`$ is determined using the equation:

$$\sigma _h=\sqrt{\frac{1}{n1}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}(H_ih_i)^2}$$
(2)
where there are $`n`$ individual hard-flux measurements ($`h_i`$) in the bin, and for each individual measurement $`H_i`$ is the hard-flux predicted from the observed soft flux by the best-fitting power-law plus constants model. Of course, some scatter in the relation can be caused by photon counting noise in both the hard and soft bands (which moves the data points on the flux-flux plot in vertical and horizontal directions respectively). The effect of this noise on the scatter is dependent on the form of the flux-flux relation and so is not a simple function of flux. For example, since the fitted flux-flux relation is a power-law with index$`<1`$, any scatter due to noise in the soft band is magnified at low fluxes, because the flux-flux relation is steeper, so that a horizontal shift in a data point at low fluxes will have a larger effect than the same shift at high fluxes. Therefore, to take account of the effects of photon counting noise, we used a simple bootstrap-type technique, assigning a hard flux value to each observed soft flux value using the best-fitting model for the binned HS flux-flux relation (i.e. assuming no intrinsic scatter) and then shifting each simulated data point in both the hard flux and soft flux directions by a zero-mean Gaussian deviate with standard deviation equal to the corresponding error bars, to produce a new realisation of the unbinned flux-flux plot. By simulating 1000 such realisations and measuring the scatter as a function of flux in each, we could estimate the distribution of the rms spread expected from photon counting noise only, in the absence of any intrinsic scatter. The resulting 90% confidence upper limit on the expected rms spread due to noise is shown as a dotted line in Fig. 10. Clearly the observed scatter and the increase in scatter with flux are highly significant.


format: text

text:
# Comment on “Is Tsallis Thermodynamics Nonextensive?” by E. Vives and A. Planes [cond-mat/0106428]

## Abstract

We comment on letter “Is Tsallis Thermodynamics Nonextensive?” by E. Vives and A. Planes \[Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 020601 (2002) cond-mat/0106428\]. It is pointed out that the Euler and Gibbs-Duhem equations derived in the letter can serve to justify an appropriate form for the Lagrange parameters controlling thermal equilibrium, without need of any change of variables. This leads to a framework for Tsallis Thermodynamics which is free from recent criticisms raised by Nauenberg \[Phys. Rev. E 67, 036114 (2003) cond-mat/0210561\] and Gross \[Physica (Amsterdam) 305, 99 (2002) cond-mat/0106496\]. This is accomplished through a direct connection with Hill’s Nanothermodynamics.

In a recent letter Vives  Vives and Planes (VP) discuss Tsallis Thermodynamics (TT) deriving a generalization of the Gibbs-Duhem (GD) equation which reduces to the traditional one when the entropic parameter $`q`$ tends to unity. The authors suggest a change of variables that allows to recover standard Thermodynamics, proposing expressions for the Lagrange parameters (LPs) which are supposed to be those controlling mutual equilibrium between thermodynamic systems. Although the approach leading to Eq. (9) in Vives  is correct and insightful, the change of variables and subsequent analysis is unnecessary and leads to controversial analytical expressions for the LPs that have been the kernel of the main criticisms raised against TT Nauenb . We point out here that Eqs. (4), (8) and (9) in Vives  can serve as a basis to justify that the LPs $`y_\alpha `$ in Vives  are the *physically meaningful ones* contrarily to what is suggested by the authors and other practitioners in the field (see Refs. $`[12]`$ and $`[13]`$ in Vives ). This leads us to establish equilibrium properties for TT overcoming previous difficulties Nauenb . The $`y_\alpha `$ can be viewed as the LPs controlling (nano)thermodynamic equilibrium and, contrarily to what is claimed by the authors, these are then intensive variables. To proceed further let us introduce Hill’s formalism of Nanothermodynamics (NT)Hill0 ; Hill . Hill’s NT is a rigorous extension of standard thermodynamics to systems that experience equilibrium fluctuations of arbitrary strenght (“small systems”) in which all quantities involved have a clear physical meaning. We provide next a connection between TT and NT. It is interesting to note that the (entropic) Euler and GD equations in NT (see Eqs. (1-72) and (1-75) in Ref. Hill ) are, respectively (rewritten here in VP notation)

$`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}y_{\alpha ,H}X_\alpha _H=S𝒥`$ (1)
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\alpha }{}}X_\alpha _Hdy_{\alpha ,H}=d𝒥`$ (2)
Subindex $`H`$ means “Hill’s variables” which are the physical (averaged) extensive ($`X_\alpha `$) and intensive ($`y_\alpha `$) ones. $`S`$ is the physical entropy for *one* system and $`𝒥`$ is the subdivision (entropic) potential. $`𝒥`$ is an intensive variable and the number of systems $`\lambda `$ is its conjugate extensive one (in our case, as in Vives , we are dealing with only one system and $`\lambda =1`$ is implicitly considered in these equations). By differentiating Eq.(1) and using Eq.(2) it can be seen that the entropy for one system $`S`$ satisfies the differential equation $`dS=_\alpha y_{\alpha ,H}dX_\alpha _H`$ which is formally identical to Eq.(4) in Vives . It is clear that the structure of VP equations and those of Hill is the same and the former can be obtained from the latter if $`S𝒮^{}`$, $`y_{\alpha ,H}y_\alpha `$, $`X_\alpha _HX_\alpha _q`$ and the following correspondence is made

$$𝒥𝒮^{}\left[1+(1q)𝒮^{}\right]\frac{\mathrm{ln}\left[1+(1q)𝒮^{}\right]}{1q}$$
(3)
Here Tsallis entropy is not only the physical one: its nonextensivity property (see Eq. (2) in Vives ) is also the basis for the subdivision entropic potential $`𝒥`$ which is found to be necessary to explain the thermal behavior of small systems (at least). TT describes, thus, the most general thermal equilibrium, the nanothermodynamic equilibrium Chamber , in which the new potential $`𝒥`$ plays a decisive role. $`𝒥`$ vanishes for a macroscopic (extensive) system, for which one has also $`q=1`$ in Eq.(3), and is a measure of the degree of fragmentation of a system in smaller (nonextensive) subsystems. Through the correspondence established above and from Hill’s NT, it is now known that the $`y_\alpha `$ must be equal for different systems put in contact at equilibrium. *The $`y_\alpha `$ are then the physically meaningful* LPs. The main additional feature is that the potential $`𝒥`$ must also be equal for systems at equilibrium. This implies in TT that, for two different systems $`A`$ and $`B`$

$`𝒮_A^{}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1q_A}}\left[1+(1q_A)𝒮_A^{}\right]\mathrm{ln}\left[1+(1q_A)𝒮_A^{}\right]`$
$`=𝒮_B^{}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{1q_B}}\left[1+(1q_B)𝒮_B^{}\right]\mathrm{ln}\left[1+(1q_B)𝒮_B^{}\right]`$
This is to be considered an additional equilibrium condition that nonextensive systems must meet. When $`q_A`$ and $`q_B`$ tend to unity both sides of this equation vanish and the standard thermodynamic equilibrium (controlled only by the LPs $`y_\alpha `$) is regained. This condition, besides some VP results and the connection with NT, allows to establish equilibrium TT, which is now free from recent criticisms Nauenb  arising from the use of inappropriate LPs.


text:
# Perhaps they are not globular clusters after all

## 1. Dynamical Analysis and Stellar Populations

Internal velocity dispersions of the UCDs and a comparison dE,N (FCC303) have been measured using the VLT and Keck Telescopes (Drinkwater et al.2003). The velocity dispersions of the UCDs range from 24 to 37 km s-1, considerably higher than those of Galactic GCs. The UCDs lie well off the globular cluster L $``$ $`\sigma `$1.7 relation in a previously unoccupied region. This supports the “galaxy threshing” model in which the UCDs are the remnant nuclei of infalling dE,Ns which have been tidally disrupted by the cluster cD galaxy (Bekki et al. 2001). Removing the halo of the dE,N galaxy reduces the total luminosity by about a factor of 100 but barely changes the central velocity dispersion. We obtained deep multicolour imaging (u,g,r,i) of the core of the Fornax Cluster taken with the CTIO MOSAIC camera. The colours of the UCDs were compared with a sample of NGC 1399 globulars (Mieske et al. 2003) and the nuclei of cluster dE,Ns. Preliminary analysis suggests that the UCDs have colours similar to the nuclei of the brightest dE,Ns and GCs.

Acknowledgements
This work was done in collaboration with M. J. Drinkwater, M. D. Gregg and M. Hilker.

## References

Bekki, K., Couch, W.J., Drinkwater, M. J., 2001, ApJ, 552, L105

Drinkwater, M. J., Gregg, M. D., Hilker, M., Bekki, K., Couch, W. J., Ferguson, H. C., Jones, J. B., Phillipps, S., 2003, Natur, 423, 519

Mieske, S. Hilker, M. Infante, L., 2002, A&A, 383, 823


text:
# A Subarcsecond Companion to the T Tauri Star AS 353BBased on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The T Tauri star AS 353A (HBC 292) was first recognized as an H$`\alpha `$ emission object by Merrill & Burwell (1950) and Iriarte & Chavira (1956). AS 353A is particularly interesting, partly because it is one of the visually brightest known T Tauri stars ($`V`$ $``$ 12.7), but especially because it drives the prominent Herbig-Haro (HH) flow HH 32 (Herbig 1974; Herbig & Jones 1983; Mundt, Stocke, & Stockman 1983; Solf, Böhm & Raga 1986; Hartigan, Mundt, & Stocke 1986; Curiel et al. 1997). The optical spectrum of AS 353A is discussed in detail by Herbig & Jones (1983), Böhm & Raga (1987), and Eislöffel, Solf, & Böhm (1990), who find that it is heavily veiled with a rich emission-line spectrum and powerful H$`\alpha `$ emission. Furthermore, AS 353A is detected in the radio continuum (Anglada et al. 1998), as is common for HH driving sources. The star displays considerable variability (e.g., Fernandez & Eiroa 1996), and is also known as V1352 Aql.

AS 353A has a fainter ($`V`$ $``$ 14.6) companion star, AS 353B (HBC 685), about 5$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 to the south. In marked contrast with the many studies of the A-component, this companion has been only poorly studied. It is a weak-line T Tauri star with a spectral type estimated to be M0 by Cohen & Kuhi (1979) and M3 by Prato, Greene, & Simon (2003). Both stars are located in a cloud cavity, whose edges are illuminated by the two stars, as seen well in the Hubble Space Telescope images of the region by Curiel et al. (1997).

In this paper, we present near-infrared adaptive optics observations of the AS 353A/B pair. Our motivation for undertaking these observations was to search for a companion to AS 353A. We were unsuccessful in this, but we found AS 353B to be a subarcsecond binary (independently discovered by White et al. 2002).

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

Diffraction-limited imaging of AS 353 A and B was obtained with the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (IRCS) instrument at the Subaru Telescope (Tokunaga et al. 1998; Kobayashi et al. 2000) on 2001 July 12 UT. The IRCS was used with the Subaru Telescope adaptive optics system (Takami et al. 1998; Gaessler et al. 2002) using AS 353A as the reference star for the wavefront sensor. Images were taken at $`H`$ (1.63 µm), $`K`$ (2.19 µm), and $`L^{}`$ (3.72 µm) with the isophotal wavelengths are given in parentheses. The pixel scale was 22.560 $`\pm `$ 0.059 milliarcsec pixel-1. The Mauna Kea Observatories near-infrared filters described by Simons & Tokunaga (2002) and Tokunaga, Simons, & Vacca (2002) were used. The observations were made with a box-shaped five-image dither pattern with a separation of 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0. The total integration time for the $`H`$, $`K`$, and $`L^{}`$ images were 100, 75, and 180 s, respectively.

Although our objective was to determine if AS 353A is a binary star, we instead discovered that AS 353B is a binary. There is no evidence in our images that AS 353A has a companion with a separation greater than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. Figure 1 shows the $`L^{}`$ image of the AS 353 system.

The Strehl ratio was estimated from the ratio of the peak flux to that of the total flux and comparing these values to a theoretical diffraction-limited image. The Strehl ratio was found to be 0.09 at $`H`$, 0.21 at $`K`$, and 0.51 at $`L^{}`$.

The images were reduced using IDL procedures. Aperture photometry was performed on AS 353A with a radius of 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6. The conversion from ADU s-1 to magnitudes was determined from the zero point magnitude derived previously since a photometric standard was not observed due to time limitations. The airmass during the observations ranged from 1.16 to 1.28. The sky conditions were good, and the atmospheric extinction coefficients from Krisciunas et al. (1987) were adopted. Relative photometry of the components of A, Ba, and Bb was obtained using an aperture radius of 5 pixels (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$11). The magnitudes for AS 353Ba and Bb were then obtained from that of AS 353A, and the photometric results are shown in Table 1.

The uncertainties in Table 1 were obtained from the variations in the photometric counts from frame to frame. Additional systematic uncertainties arise from the use of the photometric standard of another night and the adopted zero magnitudes based on the available photometric observations. The systematic uncertainties are approximately 0.05 mag.

We obtained spectroscopic observations of AS 353Ba and Bb in the $`H`$ and $`K`$ bands on 2002 May 26 UT using the IRCS in the grism mode with a 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$15 slit. The resolving power was 610 and 640 at $`H`$ and $`K`$, respectively. As with the imaging, the Subaru adaptive optics system was used, and the slit was aligned along the Ba and Bb components. The object was nodded along the slit by 3$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0 in two positions. A set of four spectra (two in the positive beam and two in the negative beam) was obtained at both the $`H`$ and $`K`$ bands. The total integration time was 120 s at $`H`$ and 240 s at $`K`$. The spectra were reduced using IDL routines and the “optspec” procedure provided by M. Buie.111http://www.lowell.edu/users/buie/idl/idl.html

The A0 star HD 189411 was used to correct for telluric absorption. The typical method of obtaining the spectrum of an object is to divide by the telluric standard and multiply by a Planck function that approximates the continuum of the standard. However, we employed an alternative method described by Vacca, Cushing, & Rayner (2003) of using the known spectral type of the telluric standard and the measurement of at least one of its absorption lines to model both the continuum and line absorption. The instrumental profile and atmospheric absorption can then be derived, and these are used to obtain the spectrum of AS 353Ba and Bb. The primary advantage of this method is that the spectral lines in the telluric standard are removed to a greater degree than is possible by other methods. The resulting spectra are shown in Figure 2.

## 3 DISCUSSION

### 3.1 The AS353B Binary

Figure 1 shows the $`L^{}`$ image of AS 353A/B, and it is apparent that AS 353B is resolved into a subarcsecond binary, where we denote the brighter component as Ba and the fainter as Bb. It has a separation of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$24 $`\pm `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$01 with a position angle of 107$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 $`\pm `$ 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 as measured from AS 353Ba. The separation of AS 353A and Ba is 5$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$63 $`\pm `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$01 with a position angle of 174$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1 $`\pm `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 as measured from AS 353A. The uncertainties in separation are derived from the standard deviation of the individual frames. The uncertainty in the position angle does not include the uncertainty in mounting the instrument onto the telescope (estimated to be $`\pm `$ 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1). These values improve upon those of Chelli, Cruz-Gonzalez, & Reipurth (1995), since the A–B separation is more precisely measured now that we have resolved the components of AS 353Ba and Bb.

The spectral type of AS 353A is K2 (Basri & Batalha 1990). Prato et al. (2003) show a spectrum of AS 353A in which He I and strong Br$`\gamma `$ emission is seen. The spectrum of AS 353Ba and Bb combined is M0–M3 (Cohen & Kuhi 1979; Prato et al. 2003), and as can be seen in Figure 2, the spectra of AS353 Ba and Bb are very similar. We compare the spectrum of AS353 Ba to the standard star spectra of Wallace & Hinkle (1997) and Meyer et al. (1998) in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. For this comparison, we have converted to Fλ (W m-2 $`\mu `$m-1) and wavelength units, and smoothed the spectra to match that of our AS 353Ba spectrum.

Figure 3 shows that in the $`K`$ band the spectrum of AS 353Ba resembles that of an M dwarf star since the CO absorption at 2.3–2.4 $`\mu `$m is too strong in the spectra of the giants. The Mg I line at 2.28 $`\mu `$m is a good indicator of the spectral type. We see that this line is nearly absent by spectral type M2V. $`K`$-band spectra obtained by J. Rayner (2003, private communication) show that AS 353Ba is similar to a M1.5V main-sequence star but not later. This conclusion is also consistent with comparison to the spectral standards shown by Ali et al. (1995). Our spectral type estimate is a little earlier but consistent with the spectral type of M3 $`\pm `$ 2 obtained by Prato et al. (2003).

Figure 4 shows that the spectrum of AS 353Ba is not a good match to the spectra of either dwarf or giant stars. The Mg I (1.58 $`\mu `$m) and CO band (1.62 $`\mu `$m) are best matched to a giant spectrum earlier than M1. However the Mg I (1.71 $`\mu `$m) line is best matched to a dwarf spectrum of M1.5V or later. Thus the $`H`$-band spectrum shows spectral characteristics of both dwarfs and giants. Evidence that premain-sequence stars show spectral characteristics intermediate between dwarfs and giants has also been presented by Luhman (1999).

The straight continuum at 2.0–2.5 µm is also an indication of an early M spectral type. Comparison of the continuum shapes to the M dwarf spectral library of Leggett et al. (2002)222 Spectra available at anonymous ftp site: ftp.jach.hawaii.edu, cd /pub/ukirt/skl.  indicates that the spectral type is about M1 or later. Therefore, our best estimate is that the spectral types of both AS 353Ba and Bb are about M1.5.

The $`HK`$ and $`KL^{}`$ colors can be used to roughly classify the objects in terms of infrared excess, extinction, and spectral type. In Figure 5 we show the position of AS 353A, Ba, and Bb in a color-color diagram. We see that AS 353A and Ba have infrared excesses and follow the classical T Tauri line derived by Meyer, Calvet, & Hillenbrand (1997). The difference in brightness between Ba and Bb may result from the infrared excess of component Ba, or alternatively from variability.

Our magnitudes for AS 353A at $`H`$ and $`K`$ are within $`\pm `$0.3 of those presented by Cohen & Schwartz (1983) and by Prato et al. (2003), and our $`L^{}`$ magnitude is 0.1 brighter than found by Cohen & Schwartz (1983). We note that Fernandez & Eiroa (1996) show that the visual magnitude of the AS 353 system (A, Ba, and Bb) varies by $`\pm `$0.5 mag. The combined magnitude of Ba and Bb are within $``$0.07 mag of that reported by Cohen & Schwartz (1983) and within 0.3 mag of Prato et al. (2003). The $`HK`$ color of AS 353A and AS 353B (combined) are within 0.05 and 0.1 mag, respectively, of the colors derived from the data of Cohen & Schwartz (1983) and by Prato et al. (2003).

AS 353Bb has colors similar to that of an M0 star. Combined with the spectral type of AS 353Bb obtained above, we infer that the extinction of AS 353Bb is nearly zero in the near infrared. Note that Prato et al. (2003) obtained a visual extinction of 2.1 $`\pm `$ 0.8 for the combined light from Ba and Bb. However, if we apply such a correction to AS 353Bb, the resulting colors would be inconsistent with the early M spectral type found above. Thus the visual extinction value obtained most likely pertains to Ba, the brighter component.

Cohen & Kuhi (1979) reported that the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths for AS 353A and AS 353B (combined) were 124 Å and 4.4 Å respectively. AS 353A is redder and has more thermal emission than the binary companion, and within the binary system, AS 353Ba has detectable thermal emission but AS 353Bb does not. Coupled with the H$`\alpha `$ emission, this is evidence for emission from an accretion disk in both AS 353A and AS 353Ba.

AS 353A is clearly the most active member of the system, since the outflow is emanating from this component and it has strong emission lines. Duchêne et al. (1999) found evidence that, in binary systems where both stars are still accreting material, the more massive star has the larger accretion rate as measured by the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity. This is consistent with the picture that AS 353A is the most massive object in the system and that it has a very red $`KL^{}`$ color due to an accretion disk. The AS 353 system fits the trend reported by Duchêne et al. (1999) that the more massive object has the higher accretion rate in binaries.

The distance to AS353 is uncertain. Herbig & Jones (1983) estimated the distance to be 300 pc, but they emphasized the uncertainty of this determination and noted that their astrometric distance methods tend to overestimate the derived distances. Prato et al. (2003) adopt a distance of 150 $`\pm `$ 50 pc following the estimated distances of Edwards & Snell (1982) and Dame & Thaddeus (1985), who obtained distances of $``$150 pc and 200 $`\pm `$ 100 pc, respectively. However, the Edwards & Snell distance estimate does not take into account the now-known binarity of AS 353B, and they also assume that the AS 353B component is a single main-sequence star. The Dame & Thaddeus distance estimate is for that of the Aquila Rift. They note that the distance estimates range from 150 pc near $`\mathrm{}`$ = 20 to $``$300 pc near $`\mathrm{}`$ = 40. Since AS 353A is at $`\mathrm{}`$ = 46.5 and the visual extinction is about 2.1–2.9 (Prato et al. 2003; Cohen & Kuhi 1979), it is likely that AS 353A is in the foreground to the Aquila Rift and at a distance of $``$ 300 pc. Prato et al. (2003) find that a distance of 150 pc gives a reasonable age for the AS353B component, and this is the best estimate of the distance at this time.

For a distance of 150 pc, the absolute $`K`$ magnitude of AS 353Ba and Bb separately is approximately 3.2 mag. This is about 2.6 mag brighter than the absolute magnitude of a main-sequence M2V star.

The projected separation between AS 353Ba and Bb is only 36 AU. It is interesting to note that Jensen, Mathieu, & Fuller (1996) find that binaries with separations between a few and about 100 AU have low submillimeter continuum emission. This suggests to them that such binaries do not have circumbinary disks. The large $`KL^{}`$ color for AS 353A and small $`KL^{}`$ for AS 353B is consistent with the results of Jensen et al. (1996). In addition, White et al. (2002) find that close binaries in triple systems are always the nonaccreting component. In the case of AS 353, there is some accretion in AS 353Ba, but it is small in comparison to AS 353A.

### 3.2 An Evolutionary Scenario

AS 353A is associated with the well-known HH 32 flow333 The HH 32 flow has an inclination of about 70 with respect to the plane of the sky, and so is significantly foreshortened (e.g., Herbig & Jones 1983; Curiel et al. 1997). A faint group of HH knots, HH 332, is found 68′′ SSW of AS 353A (Davis, Eislöffel, & Smith 1996), and it could well be the fading remnants of a terminal working surface of the HH 32 flow. However, there is an approximately 40 angle between lines from AS 353A to HH 32 and HH 332, which is a substantial difference, even considering that HH flow axes are known to vary with time. But when we take into account the 70 inclination of the HH 32 flow, the angle between the actual directions from AS 353A to HH 32 and HH 332 reduces to about 13 degrees, which is commonly seen in giant HH flows. If this is so, the physical length of the HH 32/HH 332 large-scale flow, assuming a distance of 150 pc, is 30,000 AU, or 0.15 pc. While this would in itself not be considered a giant flow, it does indicate that the HH 32 flow may be much larger than its currently recognized extent would suggest. Since HH 32 is a redshifted HH object, a prediction of the connection with HH 332 would be that this HH flow should also be redshifted. In contrast, the large majority of HH flows are blueshifted, due to selection effects related to dust obscuration. . In the last few years, it has been recognized that HH flows may commonly attain very large, parsec-scale dimensions (e.g., Reipurth, Bally, & Devine 1997; Gómez, Kenyon, & Whitney 1997). Such giant HH flows provide a fossil record of the mass-loss activity and accretion history of their driving sources. Detailed studies of 14 sources of giant HH flows have revealed an observed binary frequency of about 80%, of which half are higher order multiples, leading Reipurth (2000) to postulate the stellar dynamics jet hypothesis, in which dynamical decay of triple or multiple systems leads to strong outflow activity that manifests itself in the multiple shock structures observed in giant HH flows.

The stellar dynamics jet hypothesis predicts that the HH 32 source should be part of a triple or multiple system that has recently gone from a nonhierarchical configuration to a hierarchical one. Our observations indeed show AS 353A/B to be a hierarchical triple system. However, since the HH 32 flow unquestionably arises in AS 353A, and not in AS 353B, we would expect AS 353A to be a binary as well.

We thus speculate that the AS 353 AB system is not only a triple system, as observed, but also a quadruple, with AS 353A being an unresolved close binary. If so, this would make it very similar to UZ Tau, where one component is a close visual binary (Simon et al. 1992) and the other is a spectroscopic binary (Prato et al. 2002). This configuration can arise from an initial nonhierarchical quadruple system. Such systems are unstable, and subsequent dynamical interactions would transform this system within about a hundred crossing times (Anosova 1986; Sterzik & Durisen 1995). This can occur in one of several ways. Ejections can lead to (1) the escape of two stars; (2) one star escaping and another placed in a distant orbit; (3) a binary being placed in a distant orbit. In all such scenarios, the most massive member remains a binary that becomes tighter by the ejection process. The members that either escape or are placed into a distant orbit will likely have some of their disks truncated in the process, or at least will be displaced from the center of the potential well, leading to less accretion. In either case the outlying component(s) should have less circumstellar material than the inner dominant binary (e.g., Bate & Bonnell 1997; Bonnell et al. 2001; Bate, Bonnell, & Bromm 2002).

It is tempting to interpret AS 353, and other premain-sequence binaries like UZ Tau, in terms of case 3. If this is so, then AS 353A itself should be a close binary surrounded by substantial amounts of circumstellar material. Figure 5 shows that AS 353A has a very substantial infrared excess, in contrast to the Ba and Bb components. Binary motion in such a viscous environment may lead to rapid spiraling-in of the components, suggesting that at present the binary would be much closer than the Ba/Bb pair, consistent with our upper limit of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1 (15 AU in projection) for the presence of any companion.

## 4 CONCLUSIONS

1. Adaptive optics imaging of AS 353A reveals that its companion 5$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$63 to the south is a close binary system with a separation of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$24. AS 353A itself did not show any companion with a projected separation larger than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. Thus the AS 353 system is a hierarchical triple system.
2. The components of the close binary system, AS 353Ba and Bb, have nearly identical spectral types of approximately M1.5. At an assumed distance of 150 pc, the absolute $`K`$ magnitude of Ba and Bb places them well above the main sequence. The spectra of Ba and Bb have spectral characteristics of both dwarfs and giants.
3. AS 353A and Ba show infrared excesses that are typical for T Tauri stars, but AS 353Bb does not. The infrared colors and spectra of AS 353Bb show that the extinction to this source is nearly zero.
4. We suggest that the present AS 353 system evolved dynamically from an unstable nonhierarchical quadruple system and predict that AS 353A is a close binary.

We thank the staff and crew of the Subaru Telescope for their invaluable assistance in obtaining the observations reported here. We are grateful to J. Rayner and S. Leggett, who made available their M dwarf spectral libraries to us, and to W. Vacca and M. Cushing for providing their version of the ‘xtellcor’ program prior to publication. We thank G. Herbig for helpful comments on the spectrum of AS 353A. ATT was supported by NASA Cooperative Agreement no. NCC 5-538.

(a) The 1 $`\sigma `$ uncertainties for $`H`$, $`K`$, and $`L^{}`$ are
0.03, 0.03, and 0.06 mags, respectively.


text:
# Case Studies of Mass Transfer and Star Formation in Galaxy Collisions

## 1. Introduction: The Case for Case Studies

There are two general approaches to the study of the complex effects of galaxy collisions. The first is statistical, such as the study of particular properties of a reasonable sample of interacting galaxy systems, or a grid of numerical models covering some range of initial conditions. The second approach is the case study, the detailed investigation of a particular collisional system.

The first approach is the path more frequently followed, in the literature. A great deal can be learned from observations of the global properties of many systems, which are easier to acquire (individually), than the high sensitivity, high resolution, multi-wavelength data needed for a good case study. In the realm of simulations, the statistical approach also has many attractions. For example, in many regions of parameter space the model outcomes are quite sensitive to collision parameters, so converging on the correct parameters can be a prolonged task. (At the same time, such sensitivities can go a long way toward guaranteeing the uniqueness of a successful model.)

One of the greatest successes of the statistical approach (spurred by IRAS results) in the last two decades is an understanding of how gas is redistributed in major mergers, and how ultra-luminous, super-starbursts result. Insights obtained from numerical models (e.g., Barnes and Hernquist 1972) also played a crucial role.

Statistical studies also provide important inputs to the topics of mass transfer and induced star formation (SF) in galaxy collisions. Even aside from studies of luminous major merger remnants, there has been much work on the questions of whether and by how much SF is enhanced by interactions. The early color analysis of Larson and Tinsley (1978), suggested color dispersion enhancement, rather than bluer colors. The nuclear spectrophotometry by Keel et al. (1985, also Kennicutt et al. 1987) suggested enhancement of nuclear SFRs.

More recently, Bergvall et al. (2003 and earlier work cited therein) find no difference in the broadband colors of sample of 59 interacting systems relative to a control sample of 38 galaxies. They do find a moderate increase in central SF and far-infrared emission in the interacting sample. They argue that earlier work, claiming greater enhancements was biased towards IR luminous merger remnants, in contrast to their sample. Barton, Geller & Kenyon (2003a, and Barton Gillespie, Geller & Kenyon 2003b) obtained B and R band photometry and optical spectroscopy of 190 galaxies in pairs and compact groups. They also found enhanced core SF, and a number of post-starburst, as well as starburst cores. In addition they found an anti-correlation between galaxy separation and SF, and suggested starbursts were preferentially triggered at closest approach, decaying thereafter.

These statistical studies shed the most light on nuclear SF, suggesting that it has a short duty cycle, and perhaps requires a relatively strong disturbance to funnel the gas fuel inward (Keel 1993). In this symposium we have seen some beautiful observations of SF in tidal structures. The statistical studies suggest that such SF does not add up to a very large amount. This echos the result of the statistical study of Schombert, Wallin & Struck-Marcell (1990) on the colors of tidal bridges and tails. Yet, in tails it is the nature, rather than the quantity of SF that is of interest. Case studies with more details on the SF history, as well as instantaneous rates in individual SF regions are needed to address the many unanswered questions.

The processes of tidal or splash mass transfer are very hard to study either individually, or statistically. We can observe the amount of gas between or outside the interacting galaxies, but how much has been transferred already, and how much will yet be pulled out? The statistical question can be addressed with models, but there have been few such studies. Wallin & Stuart (1992) gave us a survey and analysis of 1000 restricted 3-body encounters with mass transfer from a particle disk around the primary. These models evenly sampled a number of collision parameters, and quantified dependences, such as inclination, some of which had been known since Toomre and Toomre 1972 (see Struck 1999, Sec. 4.1). Howard et al. (1993) published a nice atlas of 86 N-body simulations (with rigid halos) of the effects of encounters on (2-d) disks. I produced a small model grid to study the hydrodynamics of colliding gas disks (Struck 1997).

Statistical studies show us the big picture, and give the average answer to big picture questions, but often leave us wondering about the specific mechanisms. Case studies provide detailed answers to some of those questions, but they require a large amount of high quality observational data, and a substantial modeling effort to interpret it. As yet, not many have been published. However, we can now optically resolve individual star clusters in nearby interacting systems, map tenuous gas distributions, and we have the computer power to do the modeling, so it is a great time for case studies. I will justify that statement with two examples.

## 2. Case 1: Arp 284 (NGC 7714/15)

Bev Smith and I have been working for some years on this beautiful system (see Figure 1, and Smith & Wallin 1992, Smith et al. 1997, Struck & Smith 2003).

It is an asymmetric collisional ring galaxy, with a substantial bridge connecting it to a nearly edge-on companion, and it also contains some distinctive tidal tails. It has a variety of features that make it an especially interesting ’case’ for the study of induced SF and mass transfer. The primary has a prototypical starburst nucleus, but their is little evidence for recent SF in the ring wave, in contrast to most gas-rich collisional ring systems (see Appleton and Struck-Marcell 1996). The companion has a post-starburst spectrum. There are intriguing knots of recent SF in one of the countertails, and roughly in a line on the north side of the bridge. More than half of the gas mass is located outside the main disks, in the bridge and tails (Smith et al. 1997). In the bridge, there is an offset between the center line of the old stars, and that of the gas.

Lançon et al. (2001) have published detailed spectral evolutionary models of HST observations, so we have a good picture of the SF history of the nucleus of NGC 7714. In a word, this history seems to be characterized by repetitive bursts. Unfortunately, high resolution HST spectra are not available for extra-nuclear regions, or for the companion. (A. Lançon is working to obtain VLT data, however.)

We have recently published N-body hydrodynamic (SPH) models of this system that can account for nearly all of the observed morphological and kinematic features (Smith & Struck 2003). Successful models require a high inclination collision, which is somewhat prograde for galaxies. Such an orbit allows the simultaneous production of a complete ring, and the tails.

In terms of mass transfer we found that we could indeed fling a large fraction of the gas out of the two disks in such model collisions, and without unusual initial conditions, like especially extended gas disks. Specifically, our models put a somewhat large gas fraction than observed into the great HI loop to the north, somewhat less than observed in the bridge, and a good deal in the companion countertail. This last feature is not isolated in the observations, except as a slight eastern extension of the companion disk. The models suggest that it lies behind both the companion disk and the bridge, and cannot be easily distinguished.

Interestingly, we found that the bridge consists of several superposed, but dynamically distinct components. In addition to the two usual tidal components stretching from the near side of each galaxy towards its companion, there is also the superposed countertail of NGC 7715, and the remnants of an old tail winding around from the far-side of NGC 7715 to the primary (NGC 7714). Mass transfer onto the primary from this old bridge started before closest approach. Some of the early transfer material was incorporated into the primary disk, or in a plane very close to it, and subsequently flung out (again!) as the inner SW countertail. This feature, and the fact that the location and mass of some of the bridge components are very sensitive to initial collision parameters, illustrate the intricacies of mass transfer that can be found in detailed case studies.

Our models include simple feedback prescriptions that can tell us something about induced SF. The gas compression history can also suggest SF phenomena even when we don’t really have enough particles to fully resolve them. Examples of the latter include the result that the (star-forming) inner SW countertail of NGC 7714 may consist of mass transferred material that has been compressed in the primary disk. Similarly, the models show that the old bridge component is overrun and shocked by a newer bridge component. This might account for the line of young star clusters on the north side. The feedback model further suggests that the companion experienced a starburst at closest approach, consistent with its post-starburst spectrum. It also suggests multiple bursts have occurred in the core of the primary, in agreement with the spectral synthesis results.

However, the exact timing and number of these bursts are not completely predictable. The models suggest that they could be driven by compressions from the (m=0) ring wave component of the disturbance, and fed by inward mass transfer resulting from the spiral component. On the other hand, repetitive starbursts in the gas-rich core are driven by the feedback terms even without an external disturbance. (This result derives from control runs and other unpublished modeling.) It is likely that the gas density in the core or its susceptibility to SF was less than in the models.

## 3. Case 2: NGC2207/IC2163

I have been working on this galaxy with the ’ocular’ galaxy collaboration (see Elmegreen et al. 1991, 1995a,b, 2000, 2001, Kaufman et al. 1997). The Hubble Heritage image of this graceful pair has been often reproduced. The models suggest that it has been one of the gentlest close interactions known. They further suggest that the companion approached from slightly above the primary (in the west), interacting with its outer edge, and then moving slightly below and to the north and then east of the primary. The encounter is retrograde relative to the primary, so its optical disk is not greatly perturbed, though its larger HI disk is.

The encounter is prograde and nearly in-plane relative to the companion, which is estimated to be about 60-80% of the mass of the primary. Encounters that strongly torque the disk produce long tidal tails, and also the transient ocular (eye-shaped) morphology from material that loses angular momentum (Elmegreen et al. 1991). This system is a prototypical example of that process of disk rearrangement. In addition, the models suggest that there is some moderate mass transfer from the companion to the primary, both presently and earlier in a glancing interaction on the west side. They also suggest that the collisional perturbation did not produce the spirals in the primary; they were almost certainly pre-existing.

Observationally, the recent star formation in this system is mostly extended (and beautiful!) with no excess in the galaxy cores. Specifically, the young star clusters are concentrated in the long spiral arms. In the companion, the young clusters are concentrated on the rim of the ocular. The tidal tail is younger and shorter than many we have seen at this symposium and is not presently the site of active SF. The models, projected into the future, indicate that it will grow!

The feedback models yield a bit more SF in the core of the primary than observed, but otherwise with the same widely distributed SF in the primary, and concentration of SF in the ocular and tidal tail of the companion. The models suggest some interesting patterns in the SF in the primary over the course of the interaction, but these must be further analyzed.

## 4. Conclusions

What have we learned from these and other published case studies, and how do they complement the statistical studies? In the area of mass transfer, the generally good agreement between model and observational gas distributions in two very different cases - Arp 284 (extreme gas removal from the disks) and NGC 2207 (little perturbation of the primary disk) - is very encouraging. These general results also agree with expectations derived from exploratory model grids. The more detailed comparisons to observation in these two systems give us confidence that hydrodynamic models can quite accurately reproduce details of collisional morphology and kinematics on scales of about a few kpc. This could motivate further checks of model predictions, e.g., a metallicity study of the countertails of NGC 7714 to see if there is evidence of differences that might be expected if the inner tail gas came from the companion. Such specific predictions are not possible without detailed modeling of individual systems.

In terms of SF, case studies are required to model modes of SF that are either unique to a specific system, or nearly so. Possible examples from the cases above include the inner SW tail of NGC 7714 and, the line of SF regions on the northern edge of the Arp 284 bridge. Less unique examples, but still with system specific characteristics include the absence of SF in the NGC 7714 ring, SF in the rim of the IC 2163 ocular, and the scattered SF in the NGC 2207 disk.

The bulk of interaction induced SF in the universe occurs in merger remnants and the cores of unmerged collision partners. Statistical studies are ideal for studying the mean characteristics of this type of SF, and case studies would contribute little if this SF has a large stochastic component. However, understanding anomalous SF, like the examples of the previous paragraph, may be essential to understanding the formation of globular clusters and tidal dwarfs. These are minority populations, but still very interesting. In fact, answering the questions of how tidal dwarfs and globulars form, and also understanding the sytematics of wave induced SF in disks will require many detailed case studies.

## References

Appleton, P. N., & Struck, C. 1996, Fund. Cos. Phys., 16, 111

Barnes, J. E., & Hernquist, L. 1992, ARA&A, 30, 705

Barton, E. J., Geller, M. J., & Kenyon, S. J. 2000, ApJ, 530, 660

Barton Gillespie, E., Geller, M. J., & Kenyon, S. J. 2003, ApJ, 582, 668

Bervall, N., Laurikainen, E., & Aalto, S. 2003, astro-ph 0304384 (A&A in press)

Elmegreen, B. G., et al. 1995a, ApJ, 453, 139

Elmegreen, B. G., et al. 2000, AJ, 120, 630

Elmegreen, D. M., et al. 1995b, ApJ, 453, 100

Elmegreen, D. M., et al. 2001, AJ, 121, 182

Elmegreen, D. M., et al. 1991, A&A, 244, 52

Howard, S., Keel, W. C., Byrd, G., & Burkey, J. 1993, ApJ, 417, 502

Kaufman, M., et al. 1997, AJ, 114, 2323

Keel, W. C. 1993, AJ, 106, 1771

Keel, W. C., et al. 1985, ApJ, 90, 708

Kennicutt, Jr., R. C., et al. 1987, AJ, 93, 1011

Lançon, A., et al. 2001, ApJ, 552, 150

Larson, R. B., & Tinsley, B. M. 1978, ApJ, 219, 46

Schombert, J. M., Wallin, J. F., & Struck-Marcell, C. 1990, AJ, 99, 497

Smith, B. J., Struck, C., & Pogge, R. W. 1997, ApJ, 483, 754

Smith, B. J., & Wallin, J. F. 1992, ApJ, 393, 544

Struck, C. 1997, ApJS, 113, 269

Struck, C. 1999, Physics Reports, 321, 1

Struck, C., & Smith, B. J. 2003, ApJ, 589, 157

Toomre, A., & Toomre, J. 1972, ApJ, 178, 623

Wallin, J. F., & Stuart, B. V. 1992,ApJ, 399, 29