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# The peculiar circumstellar environment of NGC2024-IRS2

## 1 Introduction

NGC 2024 is one of the four major nebulae in the nearby giant star forming complex Orion B. Located at about 363 pc (Brown et al. 1994) this nearby H ii region is particularly active in star formation and has therefore been extensively studied at many wavelengths. The optical image of NGC 2024 (the Flame Nebula) shows a bright nebulosity with a central elongated obscuration in the north-south direction. The heavy extinction renders most of the nebula unobservable, from the UV to about one micron.

The ionizing source of NGC 2024 was unknown until very recently (Bik et al. 2003), although numerous secondary indicators suggested that the dominant source must be a late-O main-sequence star (e.g. Cesarsky 1977). The ionizing star was searched for in the near-infrared where it was expected to be the brightest source in NGC 2024. This led to the discovery of IRS2 by Grasdalen (1974). IRS2 has been extensively studied in the near-infrared (Jiang, Perrier & Léna 1984; Black & Willner 1984; Chalabaev & Léna 1986; Barnes et al. 1989; Nisini et al. 1994), although it was eventually recognized that it is incapable of powering the H ii region (e.g., Nisini et al. 1994). NGC 2024 hosts the strong IRAS source 05393-0156 whose colors fulfill the criteria of Ultra-Compact H ii (UCHii) regions as defined by Wood & Churchwell (1989). Kurtz et al. (1994) and Walsh et al. (1998) identified the compact radio source G206.543-16.347, 72.8 ″ from the IRAS source, but coincident with IRS2.

The dominant ionizing source of NGC 2024 has recently been identified as IRS2b. IRS2 is only 5″ away from IRS2b, for which an extinction has been reliably determined (Bik et al. 2003). We address the nature of the circumstellar material of IRS2 in light of this discovery. If IRS2 is not the dominant source of ionization of NGC 2024, what makes it so bright at infrared wavelengths? Is the star surrounded by a dust shell and/or a circumstellar disk? Is IRS2 a massive young stellar object, and if so, do we observe remnants from the star formation process?

In this study, we make use of spectroscopic observations obtained with The Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) and photometric measurements from the literature. The paper is organized as follows: In Sect. 2 we describe the new spectroscopic observations. We present the flux density distribution in Sect. 3 and propose a set of diagnostics to investigate the circumstellar material of IRS2 in Sect. 4. We employ and discuss the merits of three simple models to fit the observations in Sect. 5. We summarize our findings in Sect. 6.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 Observations and data reduction

A 2.08-2.18 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectrum of IRS2, with a spectral resolving power $`R\mathrm{8\hspace{0.17em}000}`$ and signal-to-noise ratio S/N $``$ 130, was obtained using the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) at the VLT on March 20, 2000. The spectrum was reduced using standard procedures. Telluric absorption lines were removed using the A2 V star HD 39908 observed under identical sky conditions as IRS2. Over the wavelength range of the Br$`\gamma `$ line, we substituted a spectrum of telluric features in place of the standard spectrum, instead of interpolating across the Br$`\gamma `$ line of the standard star as is usually done. As we are interested in the broad features in the line profile in IRS2, we prefer to have easily recognizable residuals from narrow telluric lines rather than broad residuals from the inaccurate removal of the broad Br$`\gamma `$ line of the standard star.

L-band spectra of both IRS2 and IRS2b were obtained using ISAAC on February 22, 2002, with a resolving power $`R\mathrm{1\hspace{0.17em}200}`$ . The response function was derived by dividing the spectrum of an A6 II star (HD 73634), observed under similar conditions, by a synthetic spectrum compiled from a marcs model atmosphere with parameters $`\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 8 100 K, $`\mathrm{log}g`$ = 2.76, and \[Fe/H\]=0.00 (L. Decin priv. comm.). The model assumes plane-parallel layers and solar abundances. For the synthetic spectrum calculations the atomic line list of J. Sauval (Decin 2000) and the H-line list of Kurucz (1991) were used. For more details about the atmosphere models, see Decin et al. (2000) and Plez et al. (1992).

The L’-band (3.5-4.1 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$) spectrum was obtained on December 23, 2000 (UT), using the Cooled Grating Spectrometer 4 (CGS4; Mountain et al. 1990) on UKIRT. CGS4’s 40 l/mm grating was used in first order with the 300 mm focal length camera and the 0.6″ wide slit, giving a nominal resolving power R$``$1500. The array was stepped to provide two data points per resolution element. A signal-to-noise ratio of $``$ 100 was achieved on the continuum. We used the Starlink Figaro package for data reduction. Wavelength calibration was done using the second order spectrum of an argon arc lamp. The spectrum was reduced using the F0 V standard BS 1474 and the spectrum of a star of the same spectral type observed at similar spectral resolution with the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS, de Graauw et al. 1996) on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO, Kessler et al. 1996). We built a responsivity curve by dividing the L’-band spectrum of the standard star by the ISO spectrum of this F0 V star and used it to reduce the spectrum of IRS2.

### 2.2 Line properties and identifications

The 2.08-2.18 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and 3.5-4.1 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectra of IRS2 are presented in Figs. 1 and 2. The spectra only include emission lines, mainly from hydrogen. We identified two lines of Mg ii and possibly one line of Fe ii at $`\lambda `$2.089 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, one line of Mg i at $`\lambda `$3.866 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and one line of He i at $`\lambda `$4.038 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. The Mg ii and Fe ii lines indicate the presence of very high density and fairly cool gas close to the star (e.g. Hamann & Simon 1987). The 2.08-2.18 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectrum of IRS2 is similar to the spectra of Group 3 Be stars as proposed by Clark & Steele (2000), having spectral types in the range B1–B4. That group contains five stars all showing Mg ii and Br$`\gamma `$ in emission and no He i; four of them also show Fe ii in emission. The He I 2.06 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ line, usually the strongest line in the K-band, is not covered in our spectrum, but is not present in the K-band spectrum of IRS2 obtained by Thompson et al. (1981). The equivalent width (EW) of the Br$`\gamma `$ line is larger than 8 Å in all Group 3 stars, but is somewhat less in IRS2 (5.3 $`\pm `$ 0.1 Å).

The Mg ii, Pf$`\gamma `$ and Humphreys series lines are fairly broad with full widths at half maximum (FWHMs) of about 400 km s-1. The Brackett lines are much narrower, with deconvolved FWHMs of 145 km s-1 for Br$`\gamma `$ and 200 km s-1 for Br$`\alpha `$. The values in Table 1 are not deconvolved by the instrumental profile, but deconvolution has only a small effect except for Br$`\alpha `$. The difference in FWHM between the Brackett and other hydrogen lines is investigated further in Sect.4.2.

Previous near-infrared spectroscopic observations of recombination lines in NGC2024 IRS2 have been reported by Thompson et al. (1981), Smith et al. (1984), Chalabaev & Léna (1986), Geballe et al. (1987a), Maihara et al. (1990), and Nisini et al. (1994). Both the line fluxes and line profiles have shown significant variations. Only small variations in the line fluxes were observed between 1980 and 1989. In 1991, however, the line fluxes increase greatly (up to 10 times for Br$`\alpha `$; Nisini et al. 1994). The proportional increase was larger for Br$`\alpha `$ than for Br$`\gamma `$ and Pf$`\gamma `$. The increase was followed by a decrease during the period 1992–1994. There have been no reported measurements of these lines since 1994.

High-resolution spectroscopy ($`R`$ 10 000) by Smith et al. (1984) and Chalabaev & Léna (1986) showed that the peaks of the Br$`\alpha `$, Pf$`\gamma `$, and Br$`\gamma `$ lines were at velocities in the range $`20<v_{\mathrm{lsr}}<50`$ km s-1 and that the lines had extended blue-shifted wings. In 1992 all three lines peaked at $`v_{\mathrm{lsr}}`$ = -25 km s-1 and had extended red-shifted wings (Nisini et al. 1994). Our 2000 spectrum shows the peak of Br$`\gamma `$ near $`v_{\mathrm{lsr}}`$ = 0 km s-1 and a very extended wing on the red side of the profile (see Fig. 3). The widths of the lines, both at half maximum and at zero intensity (FWZI), are comparable in 1984, 1992 and 1993 and are about 100 and 250 km s-1, respectively. However, in 2000 all three lines had much larger widths. The measured FWZI of $``$ 600 km s-1 for the Br$`\gamma `$ line is much larger than has previously been seen in any of the lines. The large width is mainly due to the red wing.

Both the ISAAC and UKIRT measurements are in smaller apertures than all previous observations. The narrower profiles measured by Smith et al. (1984), Chalabaev & Léna (1986) and Nisini et al. (1994) might result from a larger contribution from extended gas with lower velocity dispersion. Our new high-resolution observations demonstrate that eight years after the outburst the lines have not returned to their pre-outburst width, shape, and peak velocity. Therefore we question if $`v_{\mathrm{lsr}}`$ = 40 km s-1 is the actual systemic velocity for IRS2. We note that the extended molecular cloud of NGC 2024 has $`v_{\mathrm{lsr}}`$ of 6 km s-1 in the region surrounding our program star (Krügel et al. 1982). IRS2 likely has a similar velocity. We do not pursue on the nature of the observed line variability as this requires consecutive observations on timescales much shorter than are available. This variability was already pointed out by Nisini et al. (1994), who also suggest several explanations for the line behaviour between 1981 and 1994.

## 3 The spectral energy distribution

In Fig. 4 we display the spectral energy distribution (SED) of IRS2 from the near-infrared to the radio domain. The SED is based on photometric data compiled from the literature plus spectra obtained using the SWS and LWS instruments on ISO. The interpretation of the plotted data is not straightforward, as measurements have been obtained with widely different apertures. We provide information on all data points in the figure, including beam sizes, measured magnitudes and fluxes, as well as the observational technique (when non-photometric) in tables 2, 3 and 4 in appendix.

### 3.1 Contribution of IRS2 to the observed spectral energy distribution

Variations between different observations at the same wavelength can be noticed, the most striking being in the range of 3 to 30 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. It is crucial to determine the dominant cause of these variations in order to measure the flux directly attributable to IRS2. The variations could be due to intrinsic variability of IRS2, to the extended background, or to other discrete sources. The region surrounding IRS2 is far from empty at infrared wavelengths (cf. Bik et al. 2003) and we thus expect some dependence of the observed flux on aperture size. In the following we separately discuss four wavelength ranges: the near-infrared (1-10 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$), the mid-infrared (10-25 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$), the far-infrared to sub-millimeter (25 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ \- 0.2 cm) and the radio domain (0.2 - 6 cm).

Most of the near-infrared observations were made with beam sizes less than or equal to 15″; only the data observed by Frey et al. (1979) were obtained through a larger aperture (63″). The aperture used by Grasdalen (1974) is not specified, however the bolometer systems they used on the 1.3m and 2.1m telescopes at Kitt Peak had aperture diameters less than 12″ (D. Joyce priv. comm.), the ones they used likely being smaller than 8.5″ (G. Rieke priv. comm.). The fluxes observed through apertures less than or equal to 20″ (including the ISO/SWS spectrum) do not show any trend with aperture size. The higher values obtained by Nisini et al. (1994), which were observed with simultaneous line enhancement and shift, most likely originate from variations close to or in IRS2. The J-band measurement of Grasdalen (1974) is brighter than other observations by 0.8 mag. It is difficult to attribute this value to source variability as it is the only band affected by this discrepancy. We conclude that IRS2 is the dominant source in the 1-10 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ region through aperture diameters less than or equal to 20″.

The mid-infrared SED consists of four data sets. Grasdalen (1974) and Walsh et al. (2001) observed similar fluxes at $``$ 10 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ through small apertures. The ISO/SWS flux is higher than the other mid-IR values suggesting that IRS2 is not the dominant source in the mid-infrared within the 14$`\times `$20″ ISO beam. The IRAS fluxes are 20 and 600 times larger than the ones of Grasdalen (1974) at 12 and 25 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ respectively, and are obtained through much larger apertures. Moreover, there is a large offset of 72.8″ between the position of IRS2 and IRAS 05393-0156; this IRAS point source has commonly been associated with IRS2 (e.g. Kurtz et al. 1994 or Walsh et al. 1998), but is actually closer to FIR5 (Mezger et al. 1988), supporting the view that IRS2 is not the dominant source in the IRAS beam.

The IRS2 region has not been observed at far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths with aperture sizes smaller than 40″. ISO/LWS observed three different sources between 43 and 197 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ within NGC 2024: IRS2, FIR3 and FIR5. The beams including IRS2 and FIR3 overlap by about 50% whereas the beam of FIR5 has only a very small fraction in common with the others. The three spectra are very similar suggesting that at these wavelengths the emission is coming from the extended surroundings and not from individual sources (see Giannini et al. 2000).

In the radio domain we only consider data obtained with interferometers, i.e. with small beam sizes. After inspection of the original data, we feel that the 6 cm data point of Snell & Bally (1986; 2.8 mJy) is too low and that the 1.3 cm point (Gaume et al. 1992; 19 mJy) suffers from significant uncertainties. Recalibrated values are given in Table 3 together with other reported fluxes and VLA archival data. Data taken between May 1994 and January 1995 all show similar flux levels. Observations by Kurtz in 1989 and by Walsh in 1994 both show smaller fluxes by about a factor of three to four. The flux differences cannot be attributed to differences in beam size. Radio variability and spectral index is discussed in Sect 4.1.

We conclude that the bulk of the mid- and far-infrared emission observed in large apertures and peaking at $``$ 100 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ is not associated with the nearby circumstellar medium of IRS2, but arises from a more diffuse source. Therefore, one cannot use the IRAS color-color criteria for UCHii regions (Wood & Churchwell 1989) to conclude that IRS2 is a massive star surrounded by a dust cocoon. This weakness of the infrared criterion for UCHii was already pointed out by Codella et al. (1994) and Ramesh & Sridharan (1997). Except for the shortest infrared wavelengths, only small aperture observations ($``$ 20″) are relevant in probing the nature of IRS2 and its immediate circumstellar environment. Large aperture measurements will not be considered further in this paper.

### 3.2 Extinction

Estimates for the extinction towards IRS2 are very uncertain and range between $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ = 12 and 32 mag (Thompson et al. 1981, Grasdalen 1974). The identification of IRS2b as the ionizing source of the Flame Nebula, 5″ away from IRS2 (Bik et al. 2003), allows for the first time an independent determination of the interstellar extinction caused by the elongated structure obscuring the center of NGC 2024. Applying the synthetic extinction law of Cardelli et al. (1989), Bik et al. (2003) find an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 24 $`\pm `$ 0.5 mag towards IRS2b, taking RV = 5.5. Note that the value of RV is relevant for the absolute value of the extinction, but has only a weak effect on the slope of the near-infrared spectrum. IRS2 and IRS2b are most likely located in the H ii region behind the cold obscuring dust bar and in front of a warm molecular cloud (Barnes et al. 1989). The 2.08-2.18 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectrum of IRS2b does not show any evidence of circumstellar extinction (Bik et al. 2003), implying that the obscuration is dominated by the cold foreground molecular cloud.

To compare the interstellar extinction towards IRS2 and IRS2b, we have inspected the strength of the 3.0 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ water ice absorption seen towards both sources. Whittet et al. (1988) and Teixeira & Emerson (1999) present evidence for a linear relation between the optical depth in the ice band and the visual extinction. The parameters of this relation is expected to depend on the physical and chemical properties of the intervening medium, and thus may vary from cloud to cloud. The main uncertainty in the extinction determination is the uncertainty in the continuum flux level near the ice feature. The top panel of Fig. 5 shows normalized L-band spectra of both IRS2 and IRS2b. The spectrum of IRS2 stops at 3.5 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ due to saturation effects; that of IRS2b extends out to 4.0 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. IRS2 has been observed by ISO/SWS. This allows a reliable determination of the continuum in our L-band spectrum, as the ISO spectrum covers a much broader wavelength interval. The normalization of the spectrum of IRS2b is problematic. First, the spectrum starts at 2.9 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$, which is somewhat inside of the ice feature. Therefore, we cannot use the short wavelength side of the profile to define the continuum. Second, just outside of the feature at the long wavelength side the spectral slope shows a kink at about 3.5 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. We consider the two limiting cases: IRS2b1, in which the continuum is based on a slope measurement in the 3.4 to 3.5 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ region, and IRS2b2, in which the continuum is derived from the 3.5 to 4.0 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ interval. The lower panel of Fig. 5 shows the ratio of the L-band spectra of IRS2 and IRS2b for these two cases.

For both normalizations the ice band absorption in IRS2 is found to be stronger than in IRS2b, showing that more interstellar ice is present in the line of sight towards IRS2. Using $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ = 24 mag for IRS2b, we arrive at a propotional $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 27 (using IRS2b1) to 41 mag (using IRS2b2) for IRS2. If we require an intrinsic spectral index of two, the upper limit can be adjusted down to $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ = 36.5 mag (for RV = 5.5). We conclude that the visual extinction towards IRS2 is between 27 and 36.5 mag.

## 4 Diagnostic tools

We discuss a number of independent diagnostic methods that may help to constrain the geometry of the circumstellar material around IRS2. First, we use the radio slope to determine the gradient in the radial density structure. We compare this slope with values typical for spherical outflows and disks. Second, we apply a technique developed by Lenorzer et al. (2002a) in which the flux ratio of lines in the L’-band are used to determine whether the material is distributed in a spherically symmetric or disk-like structure. Third, we briefly summarize the important observational and modeling findings made on CO band-head emission about IRS2.

### 4.1 Radio slope

The radio observations are listed in Table 3 (in appendix) and plotted in Figs. 6 and 7. Discarding the problematic points taken in 1981-83 (Snell & Bally 1986) and 1989 (Gaume et al. 1992) (see Sect. 3), flux variations of up to about a factor of three are observed on timescales of years, and variations of roughly a factor of two on timescales of months. Data prior to 1994 indicate relatively low flux densities, whereas the 1994-1995 dataset suggests a significant brightening of the source, followed by a possible relaxation in 2002. The nature of this variability is not understood, however it may suggest some sort of flaring event. The spectral indices $`\alpha \mathrm{log}_\nu /\mathrm{log}\nu `$ derived from simultaneous measurements suffer from large uncertainties, but do not show a trend in time, nor do they depend on frequency base. Simultaneous observations yield spectral indices ranging from 0.75 to 1.33, with a weighted average of $`\alpha `$=1.25 $`\pm `$ 0.06.

The radio spectral index can be used as a diagnostic of the density structure in a circumstellar medium. For a spherical, isothermal stellar wind that has reached its terminal velocity it can be shown (Wright & Barlow 1975; Panagia & Felli 1975; Olnon 1975) that $`\alpha =2/3`$, neglecting a very modest dependence of the Gaunt iii factor on frequency. The observed slopes are somewhat steeper, suggesting either that the ionized region is sharply bounded (Simon et al. 1983), or that the radial density distribution $`\rho (r)r^m`$ has a gradient steeper than that for a constant velocity wind, $`m=2`$. For the wind model described in Sect. 5 with $`m=2`$, two free parameters essentially determine the radio spectrum: the electron density at the stellar surface and the recombining radius. Recent observations by L. F. Rodríguez (priv. comm.) have resolved the radio source, its diameter is 0.8 ″ at 3.6 cm, corresponding to a radius of 145 AU. This outer radius and the flux measured by Rodríguez require an electron density of $`n_{}=10^{11}`$ cm-3 (solid line in Fig. 6). Data obtained at different epochs are matched by roughly similar combinations of outer radius and $`n_{}`$ (see also Fig. 6).

In the more general case that a spherically symmetric density distribution is given by a power-law, the spectral index is given by $`\alpha (m)=(4m6)/(2m1)`$ where again the Gaunt iii dependence on frequency is neglected. To match the observations one finds $`m=3.17`$ for $`\alpha =1.25`$. The $`\alpha (m)`$ relation also holds when the gas is in a disk with a constant opening angle, if the density still has a symmetric radial dependence. Disk models applied to different epochs are presented in Fig. 7 for an opening angle of 5 degrees. The free parameters of these models are (again) the electron density at the stellar surface and the disk radius. The electron density required to match the flux density is high (between 1.8 and 6.7 $`\times `$ 1016 cm-3 at the stellar surface). Waters et al. (1991) observed six classical Be-stars at millimeter wavelengths and found their spectral indices to be in the range $`0.94\alpha 1.45`$. These values are comparable to the ones for IRS2. However, typical densities for these “classical disks” are several orders of magnitude lower than what is required for IRS2.

The present data do not allow us to conclude whether the observed radio variability is due to changes in the ionization and/or density structure. In Sect. 5 we will use the overall SED to further constrain the circumstellar environment.

### 4.2 Infrared hydrogen recombination lines

Lenorzer et al. (2002a) recently developed a tool to investigate the geometry of the circumstellar material around hot stars. A diagram using hydrogen lines from different series, all observable in the L’-band, allows one to separate sources in which the circumstellar material is distributed roughly spherically (e.g. LBV stars) from sources in which it is more disk-like (e.g. Be stars). The diagram (Fig. 8) is based on 21 spectra obtained by ISO/SWS (Lenorzer et al. 2002b). It shows that both line flux ratios Hu(14-6)/Pf$`\gamma `$ and Hu(14-6)/Br$`\alpha `$ increase from LBV to B\[e\] to Be stars. This trend can be understood in terms of the span in absorption coefficients of these lines. In an optically thin medium one expects the flux ratios to follow Menzel Case B recombination theory. At the other extreme, in an optically thick medium, the ratios become independent of the absorption coefficient as the flux in any line is determined by the size of the emitting surface. Some limitations of this diagnostic tool are to be expected, as the correlation between geometry and optical depth is established from objects for which the geometry of the circumstellar material is reasonably simple. Deriving the geometry of objects that might have multi-components and vary on short timescales is not trivial and requires additional diagnostics, e.g. the modeling of the line profiles.

To investigate the effect of extinction the diagram includes the line flux and EW ratios. The EW diagram is calibrated on the line flux diagram such that P Cygni, which has negligible extinction, is at the same location in both diagrams. Fig. 8 shows that IRS2 falls in the upper right part of the diagram, close to the B\[e\] star GG Car. This position indicates that its lines are predominantly formed in optically thick gas. This situation likely arises in a disk-like geometry. The position of the line flux ratio of IRS2 corrected for an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 30 mag (Sect. 3.2) is also indicated in the figure. There is a close agreement between the de-reddened line flux ratio and the EW ratio of IRS2. The large shift observed for B\[e\] stars is not predominantly caused by extinction (all plotted sources have very moderate $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$), but by a rising dust continuum reducing their spectral indices. We conclude that the continuum of IRS2 is not affected by a dust continuum strongly rising between 3.74 and 4.05 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$.

To further constrain the geometry of the circumstellar material, we investigate the line widths. The Humphreys lines as well as the Pf$`\gamma `$ line have FWHMs of about 400 km s-1; the S/N of the L’-band spectrum is too low to derive any trend in the widths of these lines. The Brackett lines are narrower with FWHMs of about 200 km s-1 (Sect. 2.2), suggesting a different line forming region for intrinsically stronger lines.

The ratio of the FWHMs of Pf$`\gamma `$ and Br$`\alpha `$ is about 2.0. For typical Be stars like $`\gamma `$ Cas, HR4621, $`\kappa `$ Cma or in the B\[e\] star GG Car, close to the position of IRS2 in the diagram, this ratio lies between 1.1 and 1.3, whereas it is less than 1.0 for wind sources like P Cyg. The fact that the Brackett lines are much narrower than the other hydrogen lines suggests that they have a significant contribution from low density gas close enough to the star to be observed in our narrow-slit spectrum. The FWHM of this optically thin component can be estimated from the high-resolution spectrum of the Br$`\gamma `$ line as $``$ 130 km s-1. The infrared recombination lines observed in IRS2 are mainly produced in a high velocity (400 km s-1) optically thick medium, with a small contribution from a lower velocity ($``$ 130 km s-1) optically thin medium. The high velocity contribution in itself would give IRS2 a position in Fig. 8 that is closer to the Be stars.

### 4.3 CO band-heads

CO band-head emission at 2.3 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ was first detected in NGC 2024/IRS2 by Geballe et al. (1987b). Its presence attests of the existence of high-density and warm molecular gas. CO is largely dissociated at T $``$ 5 000 K, while for T $``$ 2 000 K the upper vibrational levels will not be excited frequently by collisions. In addition to the proper temperature range, a density of at least 1010 cm-3 is required to maintain the population of the excited vibrational levels, which radiatively decay rapidly via fundamental band transitions. The 2-0, 3-1, 4-2 and 5-3 band-heads were observed by Geballe et al. at a resolution of $``$ 460 km s-1, insufficient to resolve the individual CO lines. ¿From the relative band-head intensities they estimated an excitation temperature of about 4 000 K. From the intensity of the 2-0 band-head they found a minimum area of the CO line emitting region of 2.8 $`\times `$ 1024 cm2, assuming that the lines close to the band-heads are optically thick.

Chandler et al. (1993, 1995) observed the 2-0 band-head at high spectral resolution and proposed two models to explain the observations: an accretion disk and a neutral wind. The accretion disk model requires an extinction in the K-band of about 4.4 mag, corresponding to $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ $``$ 33.0 mag (for RV = 5.5). The best fit values in the case of a disk are: an inclination angle of 33 degrees (i.e. rather face on), and $`\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}=5\times 10^7`$ M yr-1. Assuming a stellar mass of 15 M the emission arises between 60 and 180 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ where Keplerian velocities are 130-220 km s-1. The wind model requires a mass-loss rate of about 10-5 M yr-1 and maximum velocities of 100 to 500 km s-1.

## 5 Discussion

In this section we discuss three simple configurations that may reproduce the observed SED and investigate their relevance based on the diagnostic tools presented in Sect 4. We evaluate the contribution of emission from an ionised wind and disk, as well as that of dust. We end the section with a discussion on the nature of IRS2.

For the emission from ionized gas we use a basic disk model, consisting of isothermal hydrogen in Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE) and consider bound-free and free-free emission. We assume the density distribution to be a power-law, i.e.

$$\rho (r)=\rho _{}\left(r/r_{}\right)^m\mathrm{or}n(r)=n_{}\left(r/r_{}\right)^m$$
(1)
within the disk, where the density $`\rho `$ and the electron density $`n`$ have the value $`\rho _{}`$ and $`n_{}`$ at the stellar surface. The disk has a constant opening angle $`\theta `$. The total bound-free and free-free optical depth for a beam passing the disk in the direction perpendicular to the mid-plane is given by

$$\tau _\nu ^{\mathrm{bf}+\mathrm{ff}}(T,r)=2\kappa _\nu ^{\mathrm{bf}+\mathrm{ff}}(T)_0^{\mathrm{r}\times \mathrm{tan}(\frac{\theta }{2})}\rho (r)^2𝑑z$$
(2)
It follows that in the part of the spectrum produced by a partially optically thick medium, the spectral index is given by $`\alpha =(4m6)/(2m1)`$ (see Waters 1986).

We adopt an opening angle of $`\theta =5`$ degrees, consistent with the small opening angles derived from spectropolarimetric observations of gaseous disks around classical Be stars (e.g. Putman et al. 1996). Note that this parameter influences the flux level similarly to $`\rho _{}`$. The adopted gas temperature is 10 000 K. The free parameters of this model are then the density at the stellar surface $`\rho _{}`$, the density gradient index $`m`$, and the outer radius of the disk $`\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{disk}}`$. The density parameter $`\rho _{}`$ fixes the total flux while $`m`$ determines the spectral index. The outer radius sets the wavelength at which the break occurs in the spectral index. The spherical wind model is very similar to the disk model, except for the difference in geometry, and the use of a fixed density gradient $`m=2`$.

We remark that for a dense disk the assumption of an isothermal medium is likely to break down, leading to lower temperatures in the midplane region as a result of self-shielding. This is not expected to change the predicted disk energy distribution significantly as this is set by emission from the disk surface layers, which can be illuminated directly and therefore have a high temperature.

Finally, dust emission, which cannot arise in the ionized region, is modeled as black-body emission at temperature $`\mathrm{T}_\mathrm{d}`$.

There is very little known about the stellar content of IRS2. From radio observations of the compact radio source associated with IRS2, Kurtz et al. (1994) derive an ionizing source corresponding to a B3 V star. K-band spectroscopy is consistent with an early B star. In the following, we assume the central object is a single early-B main-sequence star.

### 5.1 Model A: a gaseous disk

We first consider the case in which the entire spectral energy distribution is produced by one gaseous component (i.e., no dust). This model requires an interstellar extinction high enough to account for the sharp turn down observed at near-infrared wavelengths. This is achieved for $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ $``$ 31.5 mag. After dereddening, the best fit to all data points yields a spectral slope $`\alpha =1.09`$, corresponding to a density gradient $`m=2.7`$. The steep gradient favors a disk-like geometry. Matching the overall flux level requires an electron density $`n_{}=10^{15}`$ cm-3. The radio data do not show a break in the spectral index down to 6 cm, implying an outer radius of at least 100 AU. The best fit model is plotted in the top panel of Fig. 9. The model corresponds to a hydrogen disk mass of $`M_{\mathrm{disk}}`$=3.0 $`\times `$ 10-6 M and a disk luminosity $`\mathrm{log}`$($`L_{\mathrm{disk}}`$/$`\mathrm{L}_{}`$) = 4.6.

To investigate if such a very dense gaseous disk allows the excitation of CO band-heads, as is observed, we determine self-consistently the temperature throughout the disk using a technique developed by Millar & Marlborough (1998). This method adopts a Poeckert-Marlborough disk model assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. The continuity equation fixes the radial density gradient (see Marlborough 1969 and Poeckert & Marlborough 1978). The state of the gas is solved subject to statistical and radiative equilibrium. The final result is a set of self-consistent temperatures. For additional details of the temperature calculation we refer to Millar & Marlborough (1998, 1999a, 1999b) and Millar, Sigut, & Marlborough (2000).

The adopted parameters are $`n_{}=3.33\times 10^{14}`$ cm-3 in the equatorial plane at the stellar surface and a scale height rising from 0.1 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ at the stellar surface to 34.75 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ at a radial distance of 100 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$. Note that this disk structure is somewhat different from that of our simple model, but close enough for the qualitative purposes. Fig. 10 shows the temperature structure calculated for a central star having $`\mathrm{T}_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ = 25 000 K, $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ = 10 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$, and $`\mathrm{log}g_{}=3.67`$ ( representative of a B1 V star). The global-average kinetic temperature of the disk gas is 13 700 $`\pm `$ 4 000 K. The temperature at the surface of the disk decreases from 15 000 K close to the star to 12 000 K over most of the surface. Mid-way between disk surface and equatorial plane the temperature rises above that of the surface. At radial distances beyond 15 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ the temperature reaches approximately 17 000 K. In the equatorial plane however, the temperature drops drastically at around 10 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$ from 20 000 to 5 000 K, decreasing outwards to 3 000–4 000 K. This is due to a large optical depth for photo-ionizing stellar radiation. Note that our detailed temperature computation assumes a pure hydrogen disk. Additional and more efficient cooling from metals and molecules at these temperatures would likely result in even lower temperatures. It is therefore plausible that the observed CO band-heads, representative of a 4 000 K medium, originate from inside a dense gaseous disk. The observed CO emission does not necessarily require the molecules to be shielded by a dusty medium. The position of IRS2 in the line-flux ratio diagram (see Fig. 8) can be explained qualitatively with a massive Be-like disk, the shape of the lines, however, require a more complex geometry.

Model A is fairly compatible with the diagnostic tools discussed in Sect. 4, namely the observed radio slope, the infrared hydrogen recombination lines and CO band-heads, as well as with the extinction determination. The main shortcoming of this model is that it overestimates the observed mid-infrared flux in the 8-20 micron range. Also, the disk luminosity is a sizeable fraction of the luminosity of a main sequence star (about 50 %). For an active disk, i.e. a disk that has an extra source of heating, (e.g. from accretion) this fraction would decrease. To get a rough idea, for a star of 15 M and an accretion radius of 10 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$, the disk luminosity corresponds to an Eddington accretion rate of the order of 10-3 M yr-1. Such accretion rates may perhaps occur in hot molecular cores, but seem unrealistically high for IRS2.

### 5.2 Model B: a stellar wind and optically thin dust

In the model discussed above, we assumed that one component is responsible for the entire SED. As can be seen from Fig. 9, Model A overestimates the mid-infrared flux. This wavelength range is also observed to have a spectral index of about 2, different from the radio range. In Model B we ascribe much of the infrared continuum emission to a different origin than the radio emission, i.e. we assume the radio flux to originate in a dense ionization bounded wind, while a dust shell gives rise to the near- and mid-infrared flux.

In the middle panel of Fig. 9, we show a wind model with an electron density at the stellar surface of $`n_{}=10^{11}`$ cm-3 and outer radius of 145 AU by a dotted line (cf. Sect. 4.1). The mass of hydrogen contained in this wind is $`M_{\mathrm{wind}}=7.6\times 10^7`$ M yielding a mass-loss rate of about $`\dot{M}=1.1\times 10^6`$ M yr-1 (adopting a terminal wind velocity of 1000 km s-1). This mass-loss rate is about four times larger than predictions for early-B main-sequence stars by Vink et al. (2001). Assuming Baker & Menzel (1938) Case B, we find that the above wind density structure and outer (recombination) radius are appropriate for a B1 V star adopting ionizing fluxes by Panagia (1973).

We model the near-infrared part of the SED by a simple black-body. Strictly speaking, this is only allowed if the dusty medium is optically thick. However, for dust temperatures near 1 500 K (which are required; see below) dust extinction will be dominated by species that have a rather grey extinction behaviour at near-infrared wavelengths, such as carbon grains. In that case, the assumption of black-body emission also holds for an optically thin, isothermal dusty medium. The monotonic slope of the SED in the 5-20 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ region is quite insensitive to extinction and shows that if dust is to contribute, it must have a temperature higher than 1000 K. The highest dust evaporation temperatures are around 1 500 K and result in a peak flux density at 3.4 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. To have the flux peak at this wavelength requires an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 20 mag; cooler dust requires less extinction. This extinction is less than the derived minimum extinction towards IRS2 of 27 mag. Any contribution to the extinction by circumstellar dust only aggravates the problem. To minimize the extinction problem we model the dust emission using a blackbody of 1 500 K (see dashed line in middle panel of Fig. 9). The properties of the central star require this dust to be at about 240 stellar radii. The observed flux density at near-infrared wavelengths then implies that this dust is optically thin. The single temperature blackbody is slightly broader than the observed emission, a problem that cannot be solved using a temperature distribution to represent the dust as that would only broaden the emission further. A higher extinction (than $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ = 20 mag) allows a broader intrinsic near- and mid-IR flux distribution. However, it would simultaneously shift the peak emission towards shorter wavelengths. This would require dust at temperatures in excess of 1 500 K, which is not physical.

The near-infrared hydrogen recombination lines could, in principle, originate in a recombining wind with parameters similar to those derived above and an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 20 mag (Maihara et al. 1990). The main problem of model B is that it is incompatible with the minimum extinction of 27 mag towards IRS2. For this reason the optically thin hot dust model proposed by Jiang et al. (1984) cannot be supported.

### 5.3 Model C: a wind plus a gaseous disk

Finally, we consider a model in which the radio emission originates in a recombining wind, and the infrared component in a gaseous disk. The wind component has the same characteristics as in Model B. Matching the mid-infrared part of the SED with a gaseous disk requires an extinction of 31.5 mag, similar to Model A. The mid-infrared spectral index is close to $`\alpha =2`$, i.e. to the value expected for an optically thick isothermal medium The dereddened mid-IR observations can be fitted by a blackbody of at least 5 000 K, the flux level constraining the size (i.e. surface area) of this component. If the temperature is higher, the same extinction allows the near-infrared part of the SED to be partially optically thin.

Lacking a constraint on the density gradient, we use $`m=2.0`$. We retain the disk geometry assuming an opening angle of 5 degrees and a temperature of 10 000 K. We obtain $`n_{}=1.8\times 10^{14}`$ cm-3 and an outer radius of $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}=140.0`$ $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$. This component is plotted in the bottom panel of Fig. 9 with a dashed line. It corresponds to $`M_{\mathrm{disk}}=2.5\times 10^7`$ M and a $`\mathrm{log}(L_{\mathrm{disk}}/\mathrm{L}_{})=4.5`$.

The infrared recombination lines are easily explained by this model. The broad optically thick portions of the lines would originate in the disk and the optically thin contributions would be produced in the outer wind. The CO band-heads likely originate from the equatorial plane and outer part of the disk, as the high densities and low temperatures (due to the shielding) can provide the required physical conditions for the existence of CO and for excitation of the band-heads (see Sect. 5.1). This location is also in agreement with results of CO band-head modeling by Chandler et al. (1995) (see Sect. 4).

In conclusion, model C fulfills all the observational diagnostics and fits the observations best. Similarly to model A, model C implies a disk luminosity that is comparable to the stellar luminosity of a B0 V star for which $`\mathrm{log}(L_{\mathrm{disk}}/\mathrm{L}_{})=4.86`$ (Smith et al. 2002). In principle this is possible, though it implies that the total opening angle of the disk should be $``$ 45 degrees. If we have underestimated the stellar luminosity then the disk could have a smaller opening angle. Alternatively, the disk could have an intrinsic energy source, e.g. as a result of accretion (cf. Sect. 5.1) providing (part of) the disk luminosity.

### 5.4 The nature of NGC2024/IRS2

The location of IRS2 in the star-forming complex Orion B suggests it is a young object, perhaps even in a pre-main sequence stage of evolution. Objects similar to the Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object in Orion, which reside in cores of molecular clouds, have been proposed to represent deeply embedded massive YSOs. Therefore, we compare the properties of IRS2 with those of BN-like objects (see Henning & Gürtler 1986 for a review).

Both IRS2 and the BN-like objects are very compact sources in the near- and mid-IR as well as in the radio, with sizes of about 10 to 100 AU. For an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 31.5 mag and the adopted distance of 363 pc, we find a minimum luminosity for IRS2 of 104 $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$, corresponding to a B0.5 V star. This is in reasonable agreement with that of the BN-like objects, which have integrated luminosities in the range of $``$ 103 to 104 $`\mathrm{L}_{}`$. The near-IR hydrogen recombination lines in BN-like objects, like in IRS2, have extended wings (with FWHM of several hundreds of kilometers or more) and have flux ratios which are not consistent with Case B recombination. Also, both the BN-like objects and IRS2 show CO band-heads, implying dense and warm neutral gas. However, the BN-like objects show evidence for an optically thick dust cocoon as well as for a cold molecular surrounding. Both are absent in IRS2. Perhaps IRS2 is in a similar evolutionary stage as the BN-like objects, but somehow has its circumstellar cloud disrupted by another more evolved source (such as IRS2b). More likely, the star is more evolved. This would be supported by the apparent absence of dust in the system. If the disk in IRS2 would represent a remnant of the stellar formation process, one would expect dust to be present as it is a constituent of the molecular cloud material that is accreted.

## 6 Conclusion

We have investigated the near-infrared and radio source NGC 2024-IRS2/G206.543-16.347 focusing on K-, L’ and L-band spectroscopy and on a reconstruction of the spectral energy distribution from near-IR to the radio wavelengths. The primary goal was to obtain better insight into the nature of the central star and its circumstellar medium. Simple models were used to test a number of diagnostics, notably the slope and flux level at radio wavelengths, the flux ratios of near-IR hydrogen lines, and the CO band-head emission.

Previously, IRS2 has been associated with the IRAS source 05393-0156, and, on the basis of this was found to satisfy the color-color criteria for UCHii regions. We show from beam-size arguments that the large infrared flux peaking around 100 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ does not originate from a dusty cocoon confining the ionized gas around IRS2, but rather from a background. This is consistent with the offset of 72.8” between IRS2 and the IRAS source 05393-0156. Therefore, IRS2 may not be interpreted as a ‘cocoon’ star, i.e. as the object usually depicted as an UCHii region.

To gain a better understanding of the nature of the circumstellar medium we compared our observations with a number of relatively simple models: a dense gaseous disk; a stellar wind plus a dust shell; and a stellar wind plus a gaseous disk. The last model fits the observational constraints best. New spectra and the models allow one to draw a number of conclusions concerning the properties of the central star and of the ambient medium of IRS2. These conclusions are:

1. Both the radio flux and the 2.08-2.18 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ spectrum are consistent with an early-B spectral type for the central star.
2. Based on a comparative study of the ice-band optical depth in IRS2 and in IRS2b the visual extinction towards IRS2 is constrained to be between 27 and 36.5 mag, with a preference for an $`\mathrm{A}_\mathrm{V}`$ of 31.5 mag based on the shape of the SED.
3. The presence of dust cannot be completely excluded, although emission from dust cannot be the dominant source of radiation in the infrared. A Significant amount of dust can only be present in the equatorial plane of an optically thick gaseous disk, where it would be unable to contribute much to the infrared spectrum.
4. The infrared recombination lines observed in IRS2 originate for the most part in a high velocity (400 km s-1) optically thick medium, likely distributed in a disk, and to some extent in a lower velocity ($``$ 130 km s-1) optically thin medium.
5. Mg ii and possibly Fe ii lines are observed, implying the presence of a dense and warm medium with velocities of about (400 km s-1), similar to the hydrogen lines.
6. The CO band-head emission originates in a high density region, where the temperature must drop to about 4 000 K and where velocities are about 200 km s-1. For such relatively low temperatures to arise close to the star requires shielding. We have shown that this shielding may be provided by high density gas located within some ten stellar radii from the star.
7. The radio data are best described by a stellar wind model with a mass-loss rate of $`1.1\times 10^6`$ M yr-1 recombining at 145 AU. The radio emission is variable on short timescales (months), its spectral index might also vary. These variations may be explained by changes in the ionization and/or density structure; however, non-thermal radiation cannot be excluded.
8. The origin of the infrared SED is best described by a high density disk-like gaseous medium that is optically thick in the mid-infrared and extends to about 15 $`\mathrm{R}_{}`$.
9. The luminosity emitted by the circumstellar material is comparable to the total luminosity of an early-B main-sequence star. It is possible that either the star has a higher luminosity, which would be consistent with the high mass-loss rate derived from radio observations, or part of the luminosity is supplied by the disk e.g. through accretion.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank the Observatory Staff of UKIRT and of the VLT. We are grateful to L. Decin for her help in the data reduction, to S. Hony and C. Neiner for useful and repeated discussions. M. Marlborough and A. Sigut are acknowledged for their help with the temperature model. We thank R. Gaume for his willingness to share the archival VLA data. UKIRT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the U.K. Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. TRG’s research is supported by the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy on behalf of the international Gemini partnership of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

## Appendix A


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# ARPES on Na0.6CoO2: Fermi surface, extended flat dispersion, and unusual band splitting

## Abstract

The electronic structure of single crystals Na0.6CoO2, which are closely related to the superconducting Na0.3CoO2.$`y`$H2O ($`T_c5K`$), is studied by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. While the measured Fermi surface is found to be consistent with the prediction of a local density band theory, the energy dispersion is highly renormalized, with an anisotropy along the two principle axes ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$). Our ARPES result also indicates that an extended flat band is formed slightly above $`E_F`$ along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$. In addition, an unusual band splitting is observed in the vicinity of the Fermi surface along the $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ direction, which differs from the predicted bilayer splitting.

The recent discovery of superconductivity in NaxCoO2.$`y`$H2O ($`T_c`$ 5 $`K`$) Discovery  has generated great interests in the condensed matter physics community due to its potential connection to the high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity. Over the past 17 years, the study of high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity has focused on copper oxide compounds (cuprates). The unexpected finding of superconductivity in cobalt oxide (cobaltates) has raised the hope that it may help solve the high-$`T_c`$ problem. Similar to the cuprates, NaxCoO2 has a layered structure. However, unlike the cuprates that have a square lattice in the plane, the cobaltate has a hexagonal lattice. For the electronic structure, both compounds have partially filled 3$`d`$ orbitals, which form the low-energy excitations. In cuprates, Cu2+ has 3$`d^9`$ configuration, and forms the highest $`e_g`$ ($`d_{x^2y^2}`$) band near $`E_F`$, with a strong hybridization to O 2$`p`$ orbital. In cobaltates, the electronic configuration of Co4+ is 3$`d^5`$, which occupies three lower $`t_{2g}`$ bands, with the topmost band being $`A_{1g}=(d_{xy}+d_{yz}+d_{zx})/\sqrt{3}`$. The hybridization to the O 2$`p`$ is greatly reduced due to the weaker overlap of the triangular bonding and the fact that the relevant orbitals in cobaltates are $`t_{2g}`$ rather than $`e_g`$ as in the cuprates.

In addition to these similarities in crystal structure and band orbitals, another important connection between the two materials is that both of them have strong electron correlations. It is widely believed that the physics of the high-$`T_c`$ cuprates is that of a doped Mott insulator. It is believed that the cobaltate is also an electron-doped Mott insulator. The spin configuration in the frustrated half-filled triangular lattice may favor a RVB state Baskaran , and superconductivity in the vicinity of such the RVB state may prefer a $`d`$-wave order parameter Wang , similar to the cuprates. Moreover, the superconducting phase diagram of NaxCoO2.1.3H2O is found to have a dome-shape phasediagram , which is also similar to the cuprates.

There also exist similarities between NaxCoO2 and another layered oxide superconductor Sr2RuO4 (ruthenate), which is believed to be a $`p`$-wave superconductor. The two materials have similar behaviors in transport and magnetic susceptibility Terasaki ; Maeno . In addition, both materials posses ferromagnetic fluctuations at low temperatures Imai ; Ishida , which are believed to be responsible for the $`p`$-wave pairing in the ruthenate. Thus a $`p`$-wave triplet superconducting state has been suggested for the cobaltate Singh2 . In addition, we note that both materials have the same electron filling level ($`\frac{4}{3}`$) for the maximum superconductivity. This is further away from half-filling than cuprates, in which the filling number of 1 $`\pm `$ 0.16 is usually regarded as the optimal doping level.

Band structure and Fermi surface (FS) topology are known to be important for understanding unconventional superconductivity. Different electronic structures may induce different fluctuations, which can lead to different pairing symmetry. In this Letter, we report an angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) study on Na0.6CoO2 single crystals. Although Na0.6CoO2 is not a superconductor, a reduction of Na concentration and proper hydration can turn this material into a superconductor Discovery . It is worth mentioning that Na0.5CoO2 has a large thermoelectric power ($`S`$ 100 $`mV/K`$ at 300 $`K`$), which is one order of magnitude larger than a typical $`S`$ of metals and high-$`T_c`$ cuprates Terasaki . In our ARPES study, we observe clear band dispersion and FS crossings in Na0.6CoO2. While the observed FS location is in a good agreement with the one predicted by LDA band theory Singh\_FS , the observed bandwidth for the near-$`E_F`$ band is renormalized and anisotropic along the two principle axes ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$). The low-energy dispersion along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ can be described by a simple tight binding fit with a hopping integral $`t`$ 44 $`meV`$. The dispersion along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ is more complicated, with an extended flat band slightly above $`E_F`$ and a break in dispersion around 70 $`meV`$. A tight binding fit yields $`t`$ 12 - 26 $`meV`$, indicating a mass renormalization of a factor of 5 - 10. In addition, we observe an unusual band splitting along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ , which is however absent along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$.

High-quality NaxCoO2 single crystals are grown using the floating-zone method. The Na composition $`x`$ 0.6, determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. ARPES experiments are performed at the Synchrotron Radiation Center, Wisconsin. High-resolution undulator beamlines and Scienta analyzers with a capability of multi-angle detection have been used. Most spectra are measured using 22 $`eV`$ photons. The energy resolution is $``$ 10 - 20 $`meV`$, and the momentum resolution $`0.02`$ Å-1. Samples are cleaved and measured *in situ* in a vacuum better than $`8\times 10^{11}`$ $`Torr`$ at low temperatures (20 - 40 $`K`$) with a flat (001) surface. The sample is stable and shows no sign of degradation during a typical measurement period of 12 hours. The sample is oriented according to its Laue diffraction pattern, which shows a clear hexagonal lattice. LEED images obtained on fresh surface of cleaved samples also display a good hexagonal symmetry Zhang .

In ARPES, a sign of a good surface is a clear valence band dispersion, which is observed in this material, as shown in Fig. 1. We measure the valence band at a number of photon energies, ranging from 16 - 110 $`eV`$. We find that, at low photon energies, the band dispersion is clearly visible, as shown in Fig. 1a where a set of energy distribution curves (EDCs) along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }K`$ are measured with 22-$`eV`$ photons. In Fig. 1b, we plot the intensity of the second derivatives of the measured EDCs to display band dispersion. It can be seen in Fig. 1b that the extracted band dispersion has many similarities with the calculated band structure Singh\_FS . However, the dispersion of the valence bands becomes less observable at relatively high photon energies ( $`h\nu >`$ 70 $`eV`$). In Fig. 1c, we integrate spectra over a large $`k`$-space to mimic the density of states (DOS) for two different photon energies (22 and 70 $`eV`$). Four peaks can be identified at binding energies of 5.9, 4.6, 2.8, 0.7 $`eV`$ respectively, matching well with the band calculation shown in Fig. 1c Singh\_FS . The band calculation shows that O 2$`p`$ bands (2 to 7 $`eV`$) and Co 3$`d`$ bands (below 2 $`eV`$) are well separated due to a weak Co $`d`$ \- O $`p`$ hybridization. This is clearly reflected in Fig. 1c. In addition, a large enhancement of intensity for the 0.7-$`eV`$ peak with 70-$`eV`$ photons supports the Co 3$`d`$ characters for this peak, since 70 $`eV`$ is just slightly above the Co 3$`p`$ \- 3$`d`$ resonant excitation ($``$ 63 $`eV`$).

By examining the spectra in the vicinity of $`E_F`$, as shown in Fig. 1d, one can observe a weak but discernible peak sitting on a large “background” which is mainly a tail of the 0.7-$`eV`$ peak, similar to an earlier ARPES measurement in a similar material Valla . According to the band calculation, this peak is the Co $`A_{1g}`$ band which is at the top of Co $`t_{2g}`$ manifold and forms a Fermi surface, and the large background is mostly $`t_{2g}`$ bands. We find, as shown in Fig. 1d, that the Co 3$`p`$ \- 3$`d`$ resonant excitation does not help the enhancement of the $`A_{1g}`$ peak since the resonance also enhances the background which has the same Co 3$`d`$ character. Experimentally, we find that 22-$`eV`$ photons yield the best result in identifying this near-$`E_F`$ band.

Figure 2 shows dispersing spectra along a principle axis $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$, or (0,0) - (0,$`\frac{4}{3}`$), in the hexagonal reciprocal lattice. The unit of $`k`$, used throughout this article, is $`\pi /a`$, where $`a`$ (2.84 Å) is the nearest Co-Co distance. As seen in Fig. 2a, a “shoulder-like” peak centered around $``$ 65 $`meV`$ starts to emerge at $`k`$ (0, 0.66). With decreasing $`k_y`$, this peak disperses toward $`E_F`$, and seems to cross $`E_F`$ at $``$ (0, 0.5). Note that another broad peak around 160 - 200 $`meV`$ emerges at $`k_y>0.8`$, which has no smooth connection to the $`A_{1g}`$ band. A careful examination of the spectra indicates that there is a “break” in dispersion, as shown in Fig. 2b. Comparing to the calculated band dispersion along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$, this “break” occurs at almost the same $`k`$-location where the $`A_{1g}`$ band intersects with another $`t_{2g}`$ band. Therefore, this “break” might be a consequence of the mixing of the two bands. The second $`t_{2g}`$ band is predicted to cross the Fermi energy and form a small Fermi surface pocket near the $`K`$ point. However, no evidence of this FS crossing is observed in our experiment, which could easily result from a slight shift in the chemical potential. Another possible explanation for the “break” in dispersion is that the electron band interacts with collective modes, such as phonon modes. Three phonon modes, with the energy of $``$ 55 - 75 $`meV`$, have been observed by a Raman experiment Iliev .

To see the low-energy excitation more clearly, we subtract the large “background” from an EDC. One example of the subtraction is demonstrated in Fig. 2c where an almost straight line is used for the background. The background-subtracted EDCs along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ are plotted in Fig. 2d. One can clearly see that an asymmetrical peak disperses toward $`E_F`$ while its lineshape sharpens up. At $`k`$ (0, 0.5), the peak experiences a substantial reduction in its intensity, indicating that the peak is crossing $`E_F`$ and the sharp Fermi function removes most of spectral weight above the $`E_F`$. After the crossing, a small peak near $`E_F`$ persists for a extended range of $`k`$, from $``$(0, 0.5) to (0,0). This indicates that there is an extended flat band just above the $`E_F`$. The small peak is the leftover intensity from the Fermi function cutoff. We note that there is an extended flat band in both cuprates (i.e. Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8) and ruthenate Sr2RuO4. While the influence of the flat band to superconductivity is still under debate, the enhanced DOS near $`E_F`$ would certainly enhance spin and charge fluctuations, which are found to be strong in all of the three materials.

ARPES spectra along another principle axis $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$, or (0,0) - ($`\frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}`$, 0), are plotted in Fig. 3. Symmetric dispersion can be observed along a long cut in $`k`$ over different Brillouin zones (BZs). We observe some differences for spectra between $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$. One major difference is that there is a band splitting along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$. This splitting can be easily seen if we zoom in at the band crossing, as shown in Fig. 3 (c) to (e) where we plot an intensity plot, EDCs, and momentum distribution curves (MDCs) in the vicinity of the band splitting. From these three displays, we observe two nearly parallel bands in the vicinity of $`k_F`$ with an energy separation of $``$ 60 $`meV`$ and a momentum separation of $``$ 0.1 $`\pi /a`$.

We summarize our ARPES results in Figure 4. In Fig. 4a, we plot the FS crossings (FSCs) in the hexagonal BZ. For comparison, the calculated FS of Na0.5CoO2 is also plotted in Fig. 4a Singh\_FS . We have measured many samples on several photon energies, with consistent results. All the FSCs shown in Fig. 4a are extracted directly from measurements, and no symmetry operations have been applied here. Note that the FSCs with same symbols over different BZs are obtained from a same sample during a short time interval. This eliminates potential problems from sample misalignment and surface contamination, and helps to accurately determine the size of the FS. As seen from Fig. 4a, the size of measured FS in Na0.6CoO2 is slightly larger than the calculated one in Na0.5CoO2. We also notice that in a recent ARPES study for a more Na-doped sample (Na0.7CoO2), the observed hole-like FS appears larger than the one observed here Hasan . The conclusion of having a smaller occupied area for more doped electrons from Na apparently violates the Luttinger theorem. It is possible that some electron carriers become localized at higher Na doping levels, resulting a reduction in the number of itinerant electrons which contribute the area of the FS. This might also explain the unusual ferromagnetic transition observed in highly Na-doped samples Motohashi ; Gavilano .

We extract band dispersion from peak positions in MDCs. The extract band positions along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ are plotted in Fig. 4b and c. Reliable values of the dispersion can be extracted from $`E_F`$ to $``$70 meV since beyond this energy the spectral linewidth becomes so broad that its position is ill-defined. As seen in Fig. 4b, the measured band dispersion along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`M`$ is nearly linear for the 70-$`meV`$ range, with a Fermi velocity $`v_F`$ 0.41 $`eV`$Å. We use a simple tight binding band for the triangular lattice to fit the measured band dispersion for the outer band,

$$ϵ_k=2t(\mathrm{cos}k_x+2\mathrm{cos}\frac{k_x}{2}\mathrm{cos}\frac{\sqrt{3}k_y}{2})\mu $$
(1)
where $`t`$ is the nearest neighbor hopping integrals, and $`\mu `$ the chemical potential. The fitting result yields $`t`$ 44 $`meV`$ (with a negative sign) along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$. The measured dispersion along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ is more complicated, as shown in Fig. 4c. In addition to the “flat dispersion” around 70 $`meV`$ due to the “break”, the dispersion changes its slope at $``$ 20 $`meV`$. This slope change may be a consequence of the flat band observed in Fig. 2. While a tight binding fit for the range between $`E_F`$ and 20 $`meV`$ yields $`t`$ 12 $`meV`$ and $`v_F`$ 0.12 $`eV`$Å, another fit for the range between 20 to 70 $`meV`$ produces $`t`$ 26 $`meV`$ and $`v_F`$ 0.24 $`eV`$Å. Both values of $`t`$ are smaller than the one along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$. The different values of $`t`$ along the two principle axes are unexpected from a simple tight binding fit or LDA band theory. This indicates that either $`t`$ is $`k`$-dependent, or there may be other factors that modify the band dispersion, such as low-lying modes or energy gaps.

The small value of $`t`$, especially along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ ($`t`$ 12 - 26 $`meV`$), is puzzling. It is estimated that the super exchange interaction $`J`$ is 12 and 24 $`meV`$ in NaxCoO2 Wang . Apparently, the small $`t`$ observed here is the effective $`t_{eff}`$, which is renormalized from the original band $`t`$, estimated to be $``$ 130 $`meV`$ (the total band width is 12$`t`$ $``$ 1.6 $`eV`$) Singh\_FS ; Kunes . The reduction of $`t`$ indicates a strong mass renormalization of a factor of 5 - 10, which is likely due to the strong correlation in this material. A similar mass renormalization ($``$ 7) is also suggested by a large electronic specific heat coefficient $`\gamma `$ ($`48mJ/molK^2`$) observed in this material Ando ; Chou . We note that both the flat section of the FS and the extended flat band observed along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ would make it the dominant direction in contribution to the DOS. Therefore, $`t`$ along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$-$`K`$ is more relevant to the specific heat result.

Perhaps more surprising finding from this study is a relatively large band splitting along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }M`$. While band theory predicts a bilayer splitting resulting from the two CoO2 planes per unit cell Singh\_FS , we cast some doubts to this assignment due to the following reasons. (1) In the case of the bilayer splitting, the $`c`$-axis hopping integral $`t_{}`$ would be 30 $`meV`$, similar to the in-plane $`t`$. This is inconsistent with the large transport anisotropy ($`\sigma _{ab}/\sigma _c200`$ at 4 $`K`$) Terasaki . (2) Perhaps more importantly, the two CoO2 layers in a unit cell have identical geometry for Co atoms, and this would not generate a bilayer splitting for the Co $`A_{1g}`$ band near $`E_F`$ which has very small overlap with oxygen orbitals. In support of this, we note that the band calculation shows no discernable gap at the zone boundary of the doubled unit cell Singh\_FS . This suggest that the band can be unfolded to yield a $`c`$-axis dispersion rather than a splitting. (3) No band splitting is observed along $`\mathrm{\Gamma }K`$, which is not consistent with a simple bilayer splitting, although different $`k_z`$ may modify the the size of splitting. It is known that other phenomena, such as itinerant ferromagnetism, can also cause band and FS splitting. Several experiments have detected ferromagnetic fluctuations at low temperatures in this material Ishida ; Jin . Although speculative, it is possible that this fluctuation may order on the surface, causing a ferromagnetic band splitting. More studies are necessary in order to resolve this issue.

We thank M. Fisher, C. Gundelach, and H. Hochst for technical support in synchrotron experiments, P.D. Johnson, P.A. Lee, N.P. Ong, D.J. Singh, and J.D. Zhang for useful discussions and suggestions. This work is supported by NSF DMR-0072205, DOE DE-FG02-99ER45747, Petroleum Research Fund, Sloan Foundation. The Synchrotron Radiation Center is supported by NSF DMR-0084402. Oak Ridge National laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.