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# Two Active Nuclei in 3C 2941footnote 11footnote 1Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposal no. 08315. Based in part on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. Some of the data were also obtained from the Chandra Data Archive, part of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Science Center, which is operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

## 1 Introduction

There are substantial reasons to believe that radio galaxies at high redshifts comprise at least a significant part of the parent population of massive central cluster galaxies at the current epoch. Given that the growth of bulges and the growth of supermassive black holes are likely to be intimately related (Kormendy & Richstone, 1995; Magorrian et al., 1998; Gebhardt et al., 2000; Ferrarese & Merritt, 2000), the most powerful active nuclei will almost certainly be found in massive galaxies. At high redshifts, such galaxies are expected to have formed almost exclusively in regions of high overdensity, in which the processes of galaxy formation will have proceeded most rapidly, and which will also be likely seedbeds for protoclusters.

Recent observational evidence supports this picture (see Best 2000 for a review of earlier results). In particular, although high-redshift radio sources are found in a variety of environments, evidence for clustering around many of them has been found in both optical/IR (e.g., Best et al., 2003) and X-ray (Pentericci et al., 2002) surveys. In some cases, there are indications that the radio source is the central galaxy in the cluster, either from an overdensity of galaxies at small scales around it (e.g., Best et al., 2003), or from the surface-brightness profile of the galaxy itself (Best, Longair, & Röttgering, 1998). This means that the study of the morphologies and other properties of high-redshift radio galaxies that appear to be the dominant members of clusters or protoclusters can give us insights into the formation of the most massive galaxies in the present-day universe.

One such case is the $`z=1.786`$ radio galaxy 3C 294, which Toft et al. (2003) have found to be surrounded by an overdensity of faint red galaxies. This object has been a favorite target for adaptive optics (AO) systems on large telescopes both because it is one of the most powerful radio galaxies in the observable universe and because its optical center lies $`<10`$″ from a 12th mag star. The first AO imaging of this object, using the University of Hawaii curvature-sensing AO system Hokupa‘a on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), was reported by Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway (1999), who found a clumpy structure in the $`K^{}`$ band and suggested that the various clumps might be dusty subunits in the process of merging and illuminated by a hidden nucleus to the south of most of the observed structure. They also emphasized the uncertainty in the position in the nucleus.

Quirrenbach et al. (2001) used the AO system on the Keck II telescope to observe 3C 294 in the $`H`$ and $`K^{}`$ bands. They found an essentially stellar profile ($`<50`$ mas FWHM) for the eastern component, separated by $`1\mathrm{}`$ from the diffuse western component. Taking the USNO-A2.0 position for the AO guide star, they concluded that the active nucleus is coincident with the stellar eastern component. They interpret the structure as an ongoing merger of two galaxies, with the active nucleus associated with the fainter galaxy.

Steinbring, Crampton, & Hutchings (2002) found a position for the radio source similar to that of Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway (1999), but they did not state how they calculated it. Their AO imaging at $`H`$ and $`K`$, obtained with PUEO on the CFHT, showed 3 main components: their component $`c`$ corresponds to the stellar eastern component of Quirrenbach et al. (2001); their $`a`$ and $`b`$ are two subclumps in the diffuse western component. The position they gave for the radio source did not correspond to any of the features visible at $`H`$ or $`K`$.

Although these observations give the highest optical/IR resolutions yet achieved on any powerful high-redshift radio galaxy, the interpretation of the imaging remains ambiguous because the precise location of the radio nucleus remains uncertain. By far the largest part of this uncertainty is that of the position of the AO guide star. This “star” is actually a close double, with a separation of about 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$15 and an intensity ratio of 1.5:1 at $`K^{}`$ (Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway 1999; Quirrenbach et al. 2001; but note that the image of the binary shown in an inset to Fig. 1 of Stockton et al. was inadvertently flipped, so North is at the bottom, East to the left). The 2$`\sigma `$ uncertainty in the center-of-light position of the double (or, equivalently, of either component) is about $`\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ in right ascension and about $`\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$ in declination (Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway, 1999). In this paper, we describe both new AO imaging of 3C 294 and new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Fine-Guidance Sensor (FGS) observations that, together with positions from the new UCAC2 catalog (Zacharias et al., 2000, 2003), allow us to obtain a precise position for both components of the AO guide star and thus align the radio and optical/infrared frames near 3C 294 to much greater precision than before.

## 2 AO Imaging

We obtained new imaging of 3C 294 in the $`K^{}`$ band with the Keck II AO system and the SCAM (slit-viewing camera) of NIRSPEC (McLean et al., 1998) on 2001 May 18 (UT). With a pixel scale of 17 mas, the $`256\times 256`$ HgCdTe array had a total field of 4$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 square. The seeing was generally good, but with variable periods, so we selected for coadding only those images for which the eastern stellar component of 3C 294 had a clear diffraction-limited core. The total exposure for the coadded image was 9000 s.

We also obtained new imaging with IRCS and the AO system on the Subaru telescope on 2003 February 17 (UT), with a total exposure of 2400 s. The main purpose of this imaging was to give an independent check to the offset of various components of 3C 294 from the AO guide star. Accordingly, the guide star was kept within the detector field, and the exposures were adjusted to avoid serious saturation of the two components of the star (while the peak pixels of both components did saturate slightly in most exposures, accurate centroids could still be found to a fraction of a pixel). We also obtained imaging of the close pair of Hipparcos stars HIP63605 and HIP63607 immediately before the 3C 294 observations in order to determine an accurate scale and orientation for the detector. These stars have a separation of 11$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$431. The scale was found to be $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}022516\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}00002`$ per pixel, and the detector had a rotation angle of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}165\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}025`$ with respect to north.

For both of these sets of observations, we used our standard iterative IR-imaging reduction procedure (see, e.g., Stockton, Canalizo, & Close 1998). Figure 1 shows our new Keck and Subaru AO images, together with images from Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway (1999) and Quirrenbach et al. (2001).

## 3 HST Fine-Guidance Sensor Observations

The HST Fine-Guidance Sensor (FGS) observations were undertaken to tie the position of the AO guide star (AO-GS) to the International Coordinate Reference System (ICRS), via the Hipparcos star HIP68851, which could be placed within the same FGS “pickle.” Figure 2 shows the distribution of stars across the FGS1r field of view. The FGS observations were carried out during a single orbit on 2000 December 11 UT. The FGS was used in position mode to determine the centers of HIP68851, AO-GS, and the three reference stars REF1, REF2, and REF3, as well as in transfer mode to measure the separation, position angle, and relative brightnesses of the two components of AO-GS. These measurements establish the radial separations and position angles of the stars relative to HIP68851 in the FGS frame to an accuracy of $`1`$ mas and 0.00006 degrees respectively. Translating these quantities from the FGS frame into celestial coordinates depends critically on our knowledge of the HST roll angle, which could differ from the commanded roll angle by up to $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}04`$. Over the $`15\mathrm{}`$ lever arm to the Hipparcos star, this uncertainty could result in coordinate errors as large 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 in the direction perpendicular to the line from the star in question to HIP68851. We obtain a better estimate of the actual roll angle by comparing the positions found by the FGS observations for the AO-GS, REF2, and REF3 with positions for the same stars from the U.S. Naval Observatory UCAC2 catalog (Zacharias et al., 2000, 2003). REF1 turned out to be too faint for the UCAC2 catalog; it therefore could not be used for the roll determination.

The binary components of AO-GS were well resolved by the FGS in transfer-scan mode. The binary has a separation of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}147\pm 0.001`$, a position angle $`233\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}25\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}38`$, and component brightness difference $`\delta _V=1.41`$.

We have assumed that the UCAC2 coordinates for the AO-GS binary are for the system’s center of light. To allow a direct comparison with the FGS observations, the location of the binary’s center of light in the FGS frame was determined using the binary separation, position angle, and component brightness, as measured in the FGS transfer scan observation, to determine the offset from the primary, whose position was measured by the position mode observations. The UCAC filter half-transmission points were at 5790 and 6420 Å, while those for the FGS were at about 4350 and 7100 Å, so the central wavelengths differed by $`400`$ Å. We estimate the uncertainty introduced by this difference in bandpass to be no more than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$01–0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$02. It is worth emphasizing, however, that this uncertainty does not affect our final astrometry of AO-GS at this level: it enters in quadrature along with the uncertainties in the positions of our two reference stars in the determination of the HST roll angle correction.

Table 1 compares the FGS and UCAC2 determination of the radial separation and position angle between REF2, REF3, and AO-GS and the Hipparcos star. Typical UCAC positions are accurate to 30 to 70 mas, depending upon the object’s brightness and the number of times it was observed. Therefore, we can use the UCAC2 coordinates to determine the various position angles, and when averaged, to determine the correction to the commanded HST roll angle. Finally, with the HST roll angle known, the corrected position angle of each star with respect to the Hipparcos star could be determined from the FGS observations. These position angles, together with the measured radial separations, allowed the right ascension and declination of each star to be determined in the ICRS, which is anchored to the Hipparcos star.

The Hipparcos star has a significant proper motion ($`\mu _\alpha ,\mu _\delta `$) = (+15.1, $`69.6`$) mas yr<sup>-1</sup>. This proper motion has been accounted for in determining its position at the epoch of our observations.

From the PA differences in the last column of Table 1, we determine the error in the HST commanded roll angle to be $`+0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0260\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0005`$.

## 4 Registration of the AO Images of 3C 294 with respect to the AO Guide Star

In order to register the AO images to the radio coordinates, we need two kinds of coordinate data: (1) accurate coordinates of AO-GS in the ICRS reference frame, and (2) the offset between AO-GS and some well-defined feature in the AO images. In addition, we need a precise mapping of the McCarthy et al. (1990) radio coordinates from the B1950 VLA calibrator frame, in which they were given, to the ICRS frame.

### 4.1 The Coordinates of the AO Guide Star

Using the proper-motion-adjusted coordinates of the Hipparcos star to tie the FGS frame to the ICRS, the position of the prime component of the AO binary was determined from its FGS measured separation and position angle (using the HST corrected roll angle) relative to the Hipparcos star. Because of the large ($`15\mathrm{}`$) separation between HIP68851 and AO-GS, this calculation was rigorously performed using great circles on the celestial sphere rather than by approximate planar projection onto the orthogonal ($`\xi `$, $`ϵ`$) coordinate system of the local FGS tangential plane.

This calculation gives $`14^\mathrm{h}06^\mathrm{m}43\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}3601\pm 0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}0007,+34\mathrm{°}11\mathrm{}23\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}389\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}009`$ for the coordinates of the AO primary in the ICRS. Interestingly, the largest contribution to the errors is the uncertainty in the proper motion of HIP68851. The separation and position angle between the AO primary and the Hipparcos star is 908$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3202 and 139$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7806, respectively.

### 4.2 The Offset of the 3C 294 Field from the AO Guide Star

We have two measures of the offset of the apparent stellar eastern component of 3C 294 in the AO images from the center of light of the binary AO guide star: (1) from our previous CFHT imaging (Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway, 1999), and (2) from the recent Subaru imaging. These give, respectively, ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta `$) = (9$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$810, 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$596) and (9$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$784, 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$514). The estimated random errors in both cases are about 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$01 in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha `$ and about 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$015 in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta `$, although there is a possibility of a small systematic error in the position angle in both measurements, which could account for the difference of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}08`$ in the declination offset. We take a simple mean of these two determinations and assume that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =9\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}797\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}02`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta =1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}555\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}05`$. These values are consistent with the rough offset of 9$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7 east and 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 north given by Quirrenbach et al. (2001) for their AO imaging and in reasonable agreement with the offset of $`9\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ east and $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ north they found from their lower-resolution NIRC imaging. In order to use this offset with the FGS coordinates for AO-GS, we convert it from the offset from the center of light of the binary to the offset from the primary (easternmost) component of the binary. The magnitude difference of the components at $`K^{}`$ is 0.44 mag, and we use the accurate separation of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$147 and position angle of 233° determined from the FGS transfer-mode observations. The offset of the stellar object from the AO-GS primary is then $`9\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}750\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}02`$ east and $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}520\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}05`$ north.

Adding this offset to the position of the AO-GS primary found above gives the position of the stellar object near 3C 294 as $`14^\mathrm{h}06^\mathrm{m}44\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}1459\pm 0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}0017,+34\mathrm{°}11\mathrm{}24\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}91\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}05`$.

## 5 The Position of the Radio Nucleus in the AO Imaging Field

The position of the unresolved flat-spectrum radio core of 3C 294 has been given by McCarthy et al. (1990), from their observations at 6 cm with the Very Large Array (VLA) in the A-array configuration. Their position for the core is $`14^\mathrm{h}04^\mathrm{m}34\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}060\pm 0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}005,+34\mathrm{°}25\mathrm{}40\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}00\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}05`$ in the reference frame defined by the VLA B1950 astrometric calibrators. Conversion of these coordinates to the ICRS (J2000) reference frame was kindly carried out for us by Jim Ulvestad. The result is $`14^\mathrm{h}06^\mathrm{m}44\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}074\pm 0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}005,+34\mathrm{°}11\mathrm{}24\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}95\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}05`$. These values are very close to those given by Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway (1999), who used a different procedure, but they should be more accurate; uncertainties introduced by the conversion should be $`<1`$ mas (J. Ulvestad, private communication).

With our precise mapping of the AO imaging onto the ICRS reference frame, we can now locate the position of the radio core on the AO $`K^{}`$-band image. It lies $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}89\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}07`$ west and $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}04\pm 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}07`$ north of the stellar object, as shown in Fig. 3. The radio core, which presumably marks the nucleus, lies very close to one of the brightness peaks of what Quirrenbach et al. (2001) have called “the western component” of 3C 294. On the other hand, this position of the radio core is clearly inconsistent with its being identified with the stellar object, as was suggested by Quirrenbach et al. (2001).

One of the most striking features of Fig. 1 is the difference in appearance of the various AO images. All show a stellar component and a diffuse component about 1″ to the west of it, but there is little detail that convincingly reproduces from image to image. To be sure, panel $`C`$ is a rather noisy image, and panel $`D`$ (Quirrenbach et al., 2001) is an $`H`$-band image (the other 3 are all $`K^{}`$), so we should probably concentrate on comparing the Keck II NIRSPEC image $`A`$ and the Subaru IRCS image $`B`$. These are reproduced in Fig. 3, where we have marked two features that seem to be present in both images. Most of the other apparent features in one or the other of the images are likely due to speckle noise.

The strongest of the “real” features (aside from the stellar object to the east), labeled $`a`$ in Fig. 3, lies within the error bars of the position of the radio core and is plausibly to be identified with the nuclear region of 3C 294. The position of object $`a`$ falls near a local minimum in the $`H`$-band image of Quirrenbach et al. (2001) (see Fig. 1$`D`$; this weakness may indicate that the nucleus is strongly obscured at shorter wavelengths. Such obscuration would be consistent with the conclusion of Fabian et al. (2003) that the central hard X-ray source in 3C 294 is a highly obscured quasar with a luminosity of $`10^{45}`$ erg s$`1`$.

## 6 The Eastern Stellar Object

If the radio nucleus lies within the diffuse nebulosity, what is the nature of stellar object to the east? The density of star-like objects of similar or greater brightness at $`K`$ in the field of 3C 294 is on the order of 10 per square arcmin, so it would be quite unusual for there to be an unrelated object within 1″ of the nucleus of 3C 294. On the other hand, there is no compelling evidence for significant nebulosity associated with the stellar object, so it could be a projected Galactic subluminous star—we are acutely aware of misinterpretations arising from stars projected on, e.g., the radio galaxy 3C 368 (Hammer, Proust, & Le Fèvre, 1991; Stockton, Ridgway, & Kellogg, 1996) and the quasar PKS 2135$``$147 (Canalizo & Stockton, 1997).

In the case of 3C 294, we have some additional evidence on the nature of the stellar object. We have obtained from the Chandra Data Archive the 192 ks integration used by Fabian et al. (2003) on 3C 294 to map the surrounding extended X-ray emission. The region immediately around 3C 294 is shown in Fig. 4$`A`$. A few discrete sources besides the nuclear component are visible, including a faint source at the position of the AO guide star and a bright point source northeast of the nucleus, which Fabian et al. (2003) interpret as a Seyfert II nucleus with a redshift close to that of 3C 294. The distance between the X-ray peaks corresponding to the AO guide star and the nuclear component agrees, perhaps somewhat fortuitously (given the image scale and count statistics) with that determined from the AO imaging to within 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1.

The nuclear component itself appears elongated in the east-west direction. Part of this elongation is due to aberrations because of the off-axis position of the source, as can be seen in the model PSFs shown in the insets to Fig. 4$`A`$, but the subtraction shown in Fig. 4$`B`$ shows that part of the elongation is actually due to a second source centered $`2`$ pixels ($`1\mathrm{}`$) to the east, i.e., essentially coincident with the stellar object.

We have also attempted deconvolution of the X-ray image, using a PSF kernel generated for the position and spectral-energy-distribution of the nucleus over the 0.5 to 6 keV band, using the CIAO<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/ procedure ChaRT to trace the rays and MARX<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3http://space.mit.edu/CXC/MARX/ to generate a pseudo event file. The PSF was generated on a grid subsampled by a factor of 4 with respect to the Chandra ACIS pixel scale. We used the procedure cplucy (Hook, 1999), which carries out a two-channel deconvolution. One channel includes the point sources (in our case, we include only the nuclear and the northeastern sources), which are modeled and removed. The other channel contains the “background,” which includes all sources not designated as point sources. This background channel is deconvolved subject to an entropy constraint. The subsampled deconvolved image was resampled back to the ACIS scale. This result is shown in Fig. 4$`C`$; it also shows a source at the position of the eastern stellar object.

Thus, we have two point x-ray sources within about 1″ of each other, strengthening the likelihood that the objects are closely related. In addition, we can use the X-ray—optical flux ratio to constrain the nature of the eastern component. The flux ratio is defined by $`\mathrm{log}(f_x/f_V)=\mathrm{log}f_x+m_V/2.5+5.37`$, where $`f_x`$ is the X-ray flux in erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> within the 0.3–3.5 keV range. The eastern stellar object has $`K21.2`$ (Quirrenbach et al. 2001 give $`K=21.7`$ but mention some uncertainty due to nonphotometric conditions), and its X-ray flux in the 0.3–3.5 keV band is $`10^{15}`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. Among normal stars, the highest ratios of $`f_x/f_V`$ are found for M stars, for which they range from about 0.001 to about 0.3 (e.g., Maccacaro et al. 1988). If the object were an M star, it would have a $`VK`$ color of $`4`$, so an $`m_V25`$. With the X-ray flux given above, this $`m_V`$ results in $`f_x/f_V2.3`$, well above the likely range for normal stars. While earlier-type stars have less-red colors, so their $`m_V`$ would be smaller, their expected values of $`(f_x/f_V)`$ drop even faster, so the discrepancy would be even larger.

On the other hand, if the object were an AGN at the redshift of 3C 294, it would typically have a $`VK`$ color of $`2`$, so $`m_V23`$ and $`f_x/f_V0.4`$, a ratio that is within the expected range for AGN. The most likely explanation for the duplicity in the Chandra image is therefore that there are two active nuclei associated with 3C 294: one associated with the compact radio nucleus and heavily obscured at rest-frame optical wavelengths and in soft X-rays (Fabian et al., 2003), the other associated with the stellar object 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 ($`8`$ kpc) east of the radio source and intrinsically less powerful, but having relatively little extinction. If we assume no extinction for the eastern nucleus and assume the estimate of Fabian et al. (2003) for the intrinsic X-ray flux of the radio nucleus, the eastern nucleus has an intrinsic X-ray luminosity roughly an order of magnitude lower than that of the radio nucleus. There is no indication of radio emission from this second active nucleus in the 6 cm VLA map of McCarthy et al. (1990), but this fact alone cannot set very stringent limits on its radio/X-ray flux ratio.

## 7 Summary and Discussion

The position of the radio nucleus of 3C 294 determined here places it $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8`$ north of the position given by Stockton, Canalizo, & Ridgway (1999) and $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$ west of the position given by Quirrenbach et al. (2001). Within the errors of the determination, the nucleus is coincident with a modest peak within the diffuse component seen in the $`K`$-band imaging data. While this position of the radio nucleus undercuts the specific argument made by Quirrenbach et al. (2001) that 3C 294 is a merger in progress, since the radio source can no longer be identified with the eastern stellar component, their conclusion is nevertheless reaffirmed by the fact that both the radio nucleus and the eastern stellar object appear to be X-ray sources.

The apparent presence of two active nuclei in such close proximity places 3C 294 within a a small, but important, class. A recent cottage industry has developed in mining surveys for gravitationally lensed QSOs to extract double QSOs that are not the result of gravitational lensing, but, instead, are true binaries (e.g., Mortlock, Webster, & Francis, 1999). Such cases are important for at least two reasons: (1) If they are found as subsets of large survey whose selection properties are well determined, such as the Large Bright Quasar Survey (LBQS) or the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), their statistics can provide evidence for the importance of interactions and mergers in triggering nuclear activity (Djorgovski, 1991; Kochanek, Falco, & Muñoz, 1999); and (2) with a sufficiently large sample, they can provide evidence on mean lifetimes of QSO activity (Mortlock, Webster, & Francis, 1999). 3C 294, with active nuclei at a projected distance $`8`$ kpc, has one of the smallest projected separations yet found. Other examples with good credentials as true close binaries include LBQS 0103$``$2753 ($`z=0.85`$, $`d=0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3=2.3`$ kpc; Junkkarinen et al., 2001), FIRST J164311.3+315618 ($`z=0.59`$, $`d=2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3=15`$ kpc; Brotherton et al., 1999), SDSS J233646.2$``$010732.6 ($`z=1.285`$, $`d=1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}67=15`$ kpc; Gregg et al., 2002), and LBQS 0015+0239 ($`z=2.45`$, $`d=2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2=18`$ kpc; Impey et al., 2002). Smail et al. (2003) have noted that cases of submillimeter-bright galaxies that are detected as pairs of X-ray sources at separations of a few tens of kpc are much more common than would be expected by chance, and they have suggested that these represent early stages of mergers of two galaxies, each of which hosts a supermassive black hole. They also point out that Ravindranath, Ho, & Filippenko (2002) have shown that the flattened stellar distribution seen in the cores of many cluster ellipticals can be produced by the dynamical action of a close supermassive-black-hole binary. Very close pairs of active nuclei, such as 3C 294, likely give us snapshots of stages in this process between that seen in the X-ray double submillimeter sources and the final formation of a tight binary black hole, by which time one or both nuclei may have ceased to show activity. Together with the overdensity of red galaxies around it found by Toft et al. (2003), this result gives us considerable confidence that in 3C 294 we are indeed witnessing a stage in the formation of a dominant cluster galaxy.

We are very grateful to Norbert Zacharias of the U. S. Naval Observatory for providing coordinates from the UCAC2 survey in advance of publication. We are also indebted to Christ Ftaclas, Pat Henry, Mike Liu, and Fred Lo for discussions, to Andi Mahdavi and Andrea Prestwich for advice on using CIAO, and to Jim Ulvestad for the conversion from the VLA B1950 calibrator frame to the ICRS J2000 frame. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Grant No. GO-08315.01-A from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA Contract No. NAS 5-26555. G. C. was supported in part under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48. S. E. R. was supported in part by NASA LTSA grant NAG 5-10762. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.


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# Results from the South Pole InfraRed EXplorer Telescope

## 1. Introduction

The South Pole InfraRed EXplorer (SPIREX) telescope was a prototype system, developed to test the feasibility of building, operating, and maintaining an infrared (IR) telescope during an Antarctic winter. The initial driver for the SPIREX project was to exploit the conditions at the South Pole that make it an excellent site for 3–5 $`\mu `$m observations — that is the high altitude, the low temperatures, low precipitable water vapour content in the atmosphere, and the stable weather conditions (Burton et al. 1994; Marks et al. 1996; Hidas et al. 2000; Marks 2002).

The SPIREX 60 cm telescope began operations at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in 1994 (Hereld et al. 1990). SPIREX was initially used as part of a campaign to measure the South Pole’s thermal background, sky transparency, and the fraction of time useful for IR observations (see e.g. Ashley et al. 1996, Nguyen et al. 1996, Phillips et al. 1996 and Chamberlain et al. 2000 for further details on the IR sky conditions).

Due to the very low thermal background, SPIREX could perform longer integrations in the 3–5$`\mu `$m regime, compared to temperate latitude facilities. In addition to continuum emission which, at these wavelengths pinpoints young embedded objects, there are many astrophysically significant molecular lines accessible; e.g. those from hydrogen and PAH molecules. Observations at 3–5 $`\mu `$m are difficult at most temperate sites, making studies involving these lines limited, and thus the SPIREX dataset unique.

From 1994–1997 SPIREX was equipped with the GRIM (grism imager) camera. This detector contained 128$`\times `$128 pixels and was sensitive from 1–2.5$`\mu `$m. In 1998 the telescope was equipped and with the Abu camera, which incorporated an engineering grade 1024$`\times `$1024 Aladdin detector (Fowler et al. 1998). This camera was sensitive from 2.4–5$`\mu `$m, and provided a 10 field of view image with a 0.6′′ pixel scale. Six science filters were available with SPIREX/Abu. The three narrow-band filters were optimized to isolate emission from molecular hydrogen (H2 at 2.42$`\mu `$m), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs at 3.29$`\mu `$m), and hydrogen line emission (Br $`\alpha `$ at 4.05$`\mu `$m). The three broad-band filters covered the L–, L’– and M–bands. The filter parameters and achieved sensitivities are listed in Table 1 (see Burton et al., 2000).

SPIREX/Abu was well suited for studies of star forming complexes. Young stars containing circumstellar disks have a colour excess in the IR due to the absorption and re-emission of radiation from the central star by the surrounding material. Recent studies have found that the L–band may be the optimal wavelength for detection of star and disk systems. Compared to the (H–K) colour \[$``$ 1.6–2.2$`\mu `$m\], the (K–L) colour \[$``$ 2.2–3.5$`\mu `$m\] is more sensitive to the presence of a disk (Haisch et al. 2000; Lada et al. 2000; Kenyon & Hartmann 1995).

Observations of PAH molecular line emission across star forming complexes, allows one to study their environments. The fluorescent emission from PAH molecules trace regions (known as photodissociation regions or PDRs), where stellar UV radiation is heating the molecular gas (Hollenbach & Tielens 1997). PAH emission delineates externally heated molecular clouds and reveals the interactions between nearby massive stars and any remnant molecular material.

The first astronomical results from SPIREX were obtained when Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in 1994. Using the GRIM camera at a wavelength of 2.36$`\mu `$m, images were obtained at 5 minute intervals and captured 16 of the fragments, showing evidence of impact with Jupiter in 10 cases (Severson 2000). An extended halo around the edge-on spiral galaxy ESO 240–G11 was also imaged using GRIM at 2.4$`\mu `$m (Rauscher et al., 1998), reaching a sensitivity level of 25 mags/arcsec2.

The following sections discuss a sample of data obtained from the two years of operation of SPIREX/Abu (1998–99) at the South Pole. Observations were conducted toward a number of different complexes. The characteristics of these range from young to old, low- to high-mass, and near and far star forming complexes. In particular, results are presented here for NGC 6334, Chamaeleon I, $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis, the Carina Nebula, 30 Doradus, RCW 57, RCW 38, and the Galactic Centre. In addition, SPIREX was used to search for an infrared counterpart to the gamma-ray burst GRB990705 at 3.5$`\mu `$m (Masetti et al., 2000), though no source was detected to a limit of 13.9 magnitudes after 2 hours of integration.

## 2. Data Acquisition and Reduction

For each source position, a series of frames were obtained at the specified integration time and then averaged. These parameters varied depending on the observing wavelength, the properties of the filter (narrow- or broad-band) and the weather conditions. Typical values for each filter are given in Table 1. All observations were conducted by the winter-over scientists at the South Pole station; Rodney Marks (1998) and Charlie Kaminsky (1999).

The sequence for all observations consisted of a set of sky frames followed by two sets of object frames. Each set consisted of five averaged frames offset by $``$ 30′′ from the previous. This sequence was repeated allowing the easy removal of sky emission and artifacts from the array. Archived images were used for dark subtraction and flat-fielding. Observations of standard stars were obtained before and after all on-source observations for flux calibration.

The majority of the data presented here was reduced by Joel Kastner using the SPIREX/Abu data pipeline111See http://pipe.cis.rit.edu/ (the exceptions are NGC 6334 and the Carina Nebula). The data pipeline was a joint project of the Rochester Institute for Technology Center for Imaging Science (RIT CIS), the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) and the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA).

To cover the star forming complexes of NGC 6334 and the Carina Nebula, many adjacent positions were observed. Common stars in adjacent frames were used to align the images and create the final larger mosaic (using IRAF routines written by Peter McGregor222See http://www.mso.anu.edu/observing/2.3m/CASPIR/). The final PAH–band mosaiced image for the Carina Nebula contained a total of 72 individual images, and for NGC 6334 the mosaic PAH–band image contained 304 images.

## 3. Results and Discussion

### 3.1. NGC 6334

NGC 6334 is a young massive star forming region at a distance of 1.7 kpc. It contains seven distinct sites of ongoing star formation along a central molecular ridge. Fig. 1(a) shows the 3.29-$`\mu `$m data toward NGC 6334.

The emission within this band comprises both PAH and continuum emission. A massive embedded star is seen at each of several sites of star formation along the ridge, each $`1`$ pc apart. They are surrounded by complex loops and filaments of PAH emission. These PDRs have formed on the edge of the remnant molecular cloud, as radiation from the young stars carves the material and ionizes their surroundings. Analysis of the PAH emission and PDR features across the central ridge of NGC 6334 have been presented in Jackson et al. (1999) and Burton et al. (2000). The data shown here expand on these studies, and further reveal the PDR structure adjacent to the central star forming ridge.

In addition to the PAH–band images shown here, L–band images were also obtained across NGC 6334. When combined with near–IR data from the 2MASS point source catalog they allow us to produce near–IR colour–colour diagrams (e.g., (J–H) vs. (H–K) and (J–H) vs. (K–L) diagrams). Results presented in Rathborne et al. (2003) find 11 sources with a large IR excess using the (K–L) colour, compared to just a single source using the (H–K) colour excess, confirming that the (K–L) colour is far more sensitive to the detection of circumstellar disks.

### 3.2. Chamaeleon I

Containing in excess of 100 pre-main sequence stars, the Chamaeleon I dark cloud is one of the most active regions of nearby low-mass star formation. The central 0.5 deg 2 of the complex was observed in the L–band using SPIREX/Abu. These images reveal all of the known pre-main sequence stars (to an L $``$ 11).

Kenyon & & Gómez (2001) combined JHK observations obtained at the CTIO with the SPIREX/Abu data, to construct near–IR colour–colour diagrams. They find the fraction of sources with an IR excess to be 58 $`\pm `$ 4% (complete to an L $`<`$ 11). In addition, they also confirm that sources with an IR excess are more easily identified when using the (K–L) colour than (H–K).

### 3.3. $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis

The $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis cluster is one of the nearest to the Sun, lying just 97 pc away. It is also of intermediate age for a pre-main sequence system, $`9`$ Myrs old, and somewhat older than a number of other clusters where the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks has been studied. Importantly, its proximity and compactness mean that there is a complete population census for its members — 15 stars ranging from 0.2 to 3.4 M in mass. Lyo et al. (2003) imaged the cluster using SPIREX/Abu in the L–band, finding 60% of the stars had IR excesses attributable to the presence of disks around them. Of those with disks, half showed a clear relation between the strength of the IR excess at 3.5$`\mu `$m and the equivalent width of the H$`\alpha `$ line emission, implying continuous accretion. The lifetime of the disks in $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis ($``$ 9 Myrs) is significantly longer than in a number of other systems that have been studied, with lifetimes of 3–6 Myrs (e.g., Haisch et al., 2001).

### 3.4. The Carina Nebula

The Carina Nebula is a massive star forming region at a distance of 2.2 kpc. Because no protostellar objects had been found within this nebula, it was thought to be ‘evolved’ and devoid of current star formation activity (e.g., Cox & Bronfman 1995). It does however, contain 53 O–type stars and includes the clusters Tr 14 and Tr 16. At its centre lies the massive star $`\eta `$ Car and the Keyhole Nebula. Optical and near–IR images show a high amount of extinction toward this complex, with many dark lanes, globules, clumps, and filaments. Two large molecular clouds are located at the edges of the complex, in close proximity to the massive stars.

Fig. 1(b) shows the PAH–band emission across the central Carina Nebula (these data are also discussed in Brooks et al. 2000 and Rathborne et al. 2002). When combined with 2.12–$`\mu `$m H2 line emission, MSX 8– and 21–$`\mu `$m images, SEST molecular line maps, and MOST 843 MHz radio continuum images, three different environments are revealed across the complex: (i) the Keyhole nebula containing discreet, dense molecular clumps with PDRs on their surfaces; (ii) PDRs at the edges of both the southern and northern molecular clouds; and (iii) heated dust, intermixed with the PDRs surrounding Tr 14 and the northern molecular cloud. Several 3.29–, 8– and 21–$`\mu `$m point sources were also located across the complex, with spectral energy distributions corresponding to compact H II regions. Interestingly, these were all found on the edges of PDRs which appear to have been carved out by the stellar winds and radiation from the nearby massive stars. These results suggest that star formation is indeed ongoing within the Carina Nebula and may in fact be triggered by the interactions resulting from the nearby massive stars.

### 3.5. 30 Doradus

The 30 Doradus region is the brightest H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It contains a central cluster of massive stars surrounded by extended nebulosity in the near–IR, with many protostellar candidates. To study the nature of the embedded stellar population in more detail, L–band observations were obtained with SPIREX/Abu. The data presented in Fig. 1(c) are the most sensitive ever obtained of the 30 Doradus complex. The faintest start seen in the image, which required 9.25 hours of on-source integration, has L = 14.5 magnitudes. Many sources with an IR excess are revealed when the L–band data are combined with JHK observations. Several embedded massive stars are apparent and in addition, a population census of the young stellar objects can be conducted. This still remains the deepest, wide-field L–band image ever obtained, despite the small size of the telescope, with an extended source sensitivity ($`1\sigma `$) of 18.2 magnitudes per square arcsecond.

### 3.6. RCW 57

RCW 57 is a bright southern H II region. It contains a tight cluster of massive stars and shows extended infrared nebulosity. L–band observations of the central 10 of this complex were obtained with SPIREX/Abu (Fig. 1(d)). This image reveals many point sources, in addition to both bright and diffuse extended emission. Using JHK and the SPIREX/Abu L–band data, studies are currently underway into the star formation history of this complex.

### 3.7. RCW 38

RCW 38 is also a bright H II region containing a tightly packed cluster of stars. Near–IR images of this complex show extended nebulosity, with dust lanes and dark patches. Coincident with many of these features is extended 3.29–$`\mu `$m PAH emission, as shown in Fig. 1(e). These features trace the PDRs and delineate the molecular material. In addition, they wrap around the ionized material seen at 2$`\mu `$m.

### 3.8. The Galactic Centre

Observations of the Galactic Centre obtained with SPIREX/Abu are far less affected by the extinction than at optical and near–IR wavelengths. The 4.05 $`\mu `$m image in Fig. 1(f) clearly demonstrates the advantages of this wavelength regime. Most of the 4.05 $`\mu `$m emission originates from heavily extincted sources, though there is also some Br $`\alpha `$ emission, pinpointing regions of ionized gas. Three sources, of roughly equal brightness, are prominent in the nucleus at 4$`\mu `$m. This is in contrast to the view at 2$`\mu `$m, which is dominated by the source IRS 7. These three sources are each separated by $`7^{\prime \prime }`$ and centred roughly on the presumed nucleus, Sgr A. At the spatial resolution achieved with SPIREX they are associated with the sources IRS 1W, IRS 7/IRS 3 and IRS 13E/IRS 2L, respectively (as imaged by Clenet et al. 2001, in the L–band).

## 4. Conclusions

Although SPIREX/Abu was a prototype facility, it nevertheless obtained deep, high-resolution, wide-field images in the 3–5$`\mu `$m regime toward many star forming complexes. These data are not only unique, but when combined with complementary near–, mid–IR, and radio continuum observations, reveal the inner environments of star forming complexes (by tracing the PDRs), and identify the youngest objects with circumstellar disks (through their high L–band fluxes). The success of the SPIREX/Abu system lends strong support to current plans to build larger IR telescopes on the Antarctic plateau, where they would provide the most sensitive facilities for 3–5 $`\mu `$m observations on the Earth.

## Acknowledgments

The SPIREX project was a collaboration between the USA and Australia, involving the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), the Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (CARA), Boston University, Goddard Spaceflight Center (GSFC), Ohio State University (OSU), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the University of Chicago (UC), the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the Australian National University (ANU) and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). We are indebted to the dedicated efforts of our many colleagues here who together have demonstrated that infrared astronomy can indeed be conducted from the Antarctic plateau.

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# Subaru Deep Spectroscopy of the Very Extended Emission-Line Region of NGC 4388: Ram Pressure Stripped Gas Ionized by the Nuclear Radiation 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on data collected at the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Determination of the environmental effects on the evolution of galaxies has been one of the main subjects of extragalactic astronomy. It is widely believed that phenomena such as morphology segregation and color evolution of galaxies in clusters of galaxies provide important clues to the nature of these environmental effects.

Morphology segregation of galaxies in clusters has been well known since the 1970s (Oemler 1974; Melnick and Sargent 1977), — early-type galaxies are the dominant population at the central region of a cluster, while late-type galaxies are preferentially distributed at the outskirts. Dressler (1980) found a good correlation between galaxy morphology and the number density of galaxies in the local universe and generalized the morphology segregation of cluster galaxies in terms of a density – morphology relationship. Postman and Geller (1984) found that this relationship extends over six orders of magnitude in galaxy density.

Meanwhile, Butcher and Oemler (1978, 1984) reported observational evidence of the increase of blue galaxy fraction at high redshift clusters, which is known as the “Butcher-Oemler effect” (Butcher and Oemler 1978, 1984). In addition, recent deep imaging studies of high redshift clusters performed with the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that the majority of the blue galaxy population of high-$`z`$ clusters consists of star-forming normal late-type disk galaxies (e.g., Dressler et al. 1994, 1997; Couch et al. 1998; Fasano et al. 2000). This population is thought to be made up of field galaxies captured by clusters, in the context of the hierarchical structure formation scenario within a cold dark matter (CDM) cosmology, which is the most successful model of the universe. These findings suggest that galaxies captured by a cluster should change their morphology and color as they fall into the cluster center (Abraham et al. 1996; Oemler, Dressler & Butcher 1997; Poggianti et al. 1999).

Several mechanisms for driving the morphology and color evolution of galaxies in clusters of galaxies have been proposed. These include successive fast, shallow encounters of galaxies (“galaxy harassment”) (Moore et al. 1996; Moore et al. 1998); close galaxy – galaxy interactions, such as mergers (Walker, Mihos, & Hernquist 1996; Kauffmann & Charlot 1998; Okamoto & Nagashima 2001); removal of the halo gas by interactions with the hot intra-cluster medium (ICM) (Larson, Tinsley & Caldwell 1980; Bekki, Couch & Shioya 2002); or ram pressure stripping of the disk gas by the hot ICM (Abadi et al. 1999; Quilis, Moore & Bower 2000; Vollmer, Cayatte, Balkowski, & Duschl 2001 (hereafter referred to as VCBD); Schulz and Struck 2001 (hereafter referred to as SS01)). It is still not clear which of these mechanisms plays the greatest role in the evolution of cluster galaxies, although there have been many observational and theoretical studies. Nevertheless, it is clear that the rapid and drastic consumption of the interstellar matter of a galaxy as it passes though a cluster is the key to its evolution. Thus, detailed observational studies of the sites at which violent gas consumption is occurring, such as large-scale outflows or strong starbursts, would help us to understand this problem.

Recently, Yoshida et al. (2002; hereafter referred to as YOS02) found a very large region of ionized gas extending around a Seyfert 2 galaxy in the Virgo cluster, NGC 4388. This very extended emission-line region (the “VEELR”) has a size of $`35`$ kpc and is located preferentially toward the northeastern side of the galaxy. The region consists of many filaments or clouds, with a typical size of $`100`$ pc. The total ionized gas mass of the VEELR is $`10^5`$ M. The \[O III\]$`\lambda `$5007/H$`\alpha `$ emission-line intensity ratios of the filaments, and the observation that the ratios decrease monotonically with distance from the galactic center, suggest that the primary ionization source of the region may be the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 4388. YOS02 proposed two possible hypotheses concerning the origin of the VEELR gas: it may be either (1) the tidal debris of a past minor merger or (2) the ram pressure-stripped gas due to the collision between the galaxy and the intra-cluster medium (ICM) of the Virgo cluster. In either case, such a large gas flow outside the galaxy disk must be closely related to the evolution of NGC 4388 and the surrounding ICM, and thus detailed investigation of the VEELR should provide important clues regarding the evolution of galaxies and the ICM in clusters of galaxies.

To determine the nature and origin of the VEELR in NGC 4388 in detail, we have carried out deep optical spectroscopic observations of the VEELR filaments using the Subaru Telescope. We adopted a distance of 16.7 Mpc to NGC 4388 (Yasuda et al. 1997) throughout this study.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

The observations were made with the FOCAS (Faint Object Camera And Spectrograph; Kashikawa et al. 2002) attached at the Cassegrain focus of the Subaru Telescope (Kaifu et al. 2000) on 2002 March 11. We used the multi-slit spectroscopy mode of FOCAS to obtain the spectra of as many of the bright filaments of the VEELR as possible, given their complicated spatial distribution. We used two slit masks, “MOS mask 1” and “MOS mask 2,” and obtained the spectra of 40 filaments or clouds within the 6′ field of view of FOCAS. The PA of the slits of MOS mask 1 was 145, and that of MOS mask 2 was $`55^{}`$. The layouts of the slits are shown in Figures 1 and 2.

The width of each slit was 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 on the sky. We used a grating of 300 grooves/mm: the combination of the grating and the slit width gave a resultant spectral resolving power of $`650`$ at 6600 Å. The detector is a mosaic CCD consisting of two 2K$`\times `$4K MIT/Lincoln Lab. CCDs. The pixel scale of the CCDs is 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1 / pixel. We binned 3 pixels in the spatial direction and 4 pixels in the wavelength direction on the chip. Each spectrum covers the wavelength range from 4700 Å to 7500 Å. We obtained six 1800-s exposures and three 1800-s exposures for MOS mask 1 and MOS mask 2, respectively, to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and to allow us to avoid cosmic ray events and bad pixels of the detector by taking median values in combining the spectra. The total exposure times were therefore 3 hours and 1.5 hours for MOS mask 1 and MOS mask 2, respectively.

Unfortunately, one CCD chip of the mosaic CCD has several defects and bad columns and has a problem in charge transfer around the defects, so that some regions of the CCD are covered by strong spurious patterns. Although the total area of these spurious patterns is rather small as a fraction of the total CCD area — less than 1 % —, some spectra were corrupted by this effect. We note all spectra that suffer from this problem in Table 1 below.

We observed a spectrophotometric standard star, BD+33 2642, for flux calibration. In observing the standard star we used a slit 2″ wide. The night was almost completely clear, but some patches of thin clouds occasionally passed in front of the field of view. Seeing during the observing night was stable and around 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7.

## 3 DATA REDUCTION

Data reduction was carried out using a special data reduction package developed within IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. and IDL for FOCAS multi-slit data (Yoshida et al. 2000; Kashikawa et al. 2002). After the bias levels, which were estimated using the over-scan regions of the CCD chips, were subtracted from each frame, flat fielding was performed using the dome flat data. The field distortion of FOCAS was corrected simultaneously with the flat-fielding.

We used the night-sky emission lines as wavelength calibration data for $`\lambda >5700`$ Å, and Thorium arc line data at shorter wavelengths. The wavelength calibration was accurate enough to investigate the kinematics of the VEELR gas near the H$`\alpha `$ line; the r.m.s. calibration error for $`\lambda >5500`$ Å is $`0.2`$ Å, corresponding to 10 km s-1 in radial velocity at $`\lambda =6000`$ Å. The accuracy of absolute wavelength calibration for the shortward wavelengths, i.e., $`\lambda <5500`$Å, was worse than for the red region; the calibration error is about 1 Å r.m.s., because the arc line data were obtained several times during the observation and the positions of the spectra on the CCDs are slightly shifted due to flexure of the FOCAS instrument between the object exposure and the arc line exposure. Hence, we used only H$`\alpha `$ data to measure radial velocities.

After subtracting sky emission from the data, we carried out flux calibration using the standard star data and the standard extinction curve at Mauna Kea. The flux calibration error, which was estimated from the variation of the resultant fluxes of the calibrated spectra of different frames, was sometimes as high as 30 %. Most of this inaccuracy was caused by the unstable sky conditions of the night of the observations, as mentioned in the previous section. The flux calibrated spectra were rescaled with respect to the frames showing the highest count rate, then combined by taking the median value of the frames. We summed the two-dimensional spectrum of each slit along the direction of the slit length and made a one-dimensional spectrum. The integration lengths along the slits are listed in column 3 of Table 1 in units of parsec. In some slits, there are at least two spatially separated gas components, which differ from each other both in kinematics or and in excitation. We extracted such components separately from the two-dimensional spectrum if they were present. Such components are indicated by adding the suffixes “-1,” “-2,” etc. to the slit IDs in Table 1. For example, the spectrum of the slit M1-17 has two components with relative velocities of $`145`$ km s-1 and $`438`$ km s-1, respectively: these are denoted “M1-17-1” and “M1-17-2,” respectively.

The emission-line characteristics (FWHMs, central wavelengths, and intensities) were measured by fitting Gaussian functions. We fitted the H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6548,6584 doublet simultaneously, assuming the same recession velocity and velocity dispersion for the three emission-lines and a fixed emission-line intensity ratio of 3.0 for \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6584/\[N II\] $`\lambda `$6548. We fitted the \[S II\] $`\lambda \lambda `$6717,6731 doublet assuming the same recession velocity and velocity dispersion for the two lines. We made the same assumption with a fixed line intensity ratio of 3.0, for \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007/\[O III\] $`\lambda `$4959 in fitting H$`\beta `$ and \[O III\]$`\lambda \lambda `$4959,5007 doublet. Unfortunately, the \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6300 emission-line of the object falls near a bright sky emission-line of \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6364. The intrinsic weakness of the \[O I\] line, coupled with this problem, prevented us from measuring the \[O I\] emission-line parameters accurately, except in rather bright cases.

## 4 RESULTS

The physical parameters of the VEELR filaments are tabulated in Table 1. The recession velocities of the filaments shown in column 5 are those of H$`\alpha `$. As the spectral resolution of our spectra, $`650`$, is too low to allow accurate measurement of the velocity dispersion of the emission-lines, we list the values for clearly resolved, high signal-to-noise data in column 6. Instrumental broadening of the emission line was roughly corrected using the following simple equation: $`\sigma _{true}=(\sigma _{obs}^2\sigma _{ins}^2)^{1/2}`$, where $`\sigma _{obs}`$ is the observed emission-line width and $`\sigma _{ins}`$ is the instrumental line width. Column 7 of Table 1 shows the names of individual clouds as given by YOS02.

The electron densities $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ were obtained from the intensity ratios of \[S II\] $`\lambda `$6717/\[S II\] $`\lambda `$6731 under the assumption that the ionized gas temperature is 104 K (Osterbrock 1989). We found that the \[S II\] $`\lambda `$6731 lines of most filaments of the VEELR are too weak, relative to the \[S II\] $`\lambda `$6717 line, to allow accurate determination of $`N_\mathrm{e}`$: that is, the $`N_\mathrm{e}`$s of the VEELR filaments are lower than $`50`$ cm-3.

The emission-line intensity ratios of \[O III\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$, \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6584/H$`\alpha `$, \[S II\] $`\lambda `$6717+$`\lambda `$6731/H$`\alpha `$ and \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6300/H$`\alpha `$ are summarized in Table 2.

### 4.1 Velocity field

The velocity field of the VEELR is shown in Figure 3. The velocities of almost all the filaments measured are blue-shifted relative to the systemic velocity of the galaxy. The velocities show a very wide range ($`700`$ km s-1) from $`50`$ km s-1 to over $`700`$ km s-1.

The overall velocity field of the VEELR is quite complicated and could be dominated by significant turbulent motion. There is no smooth velocity gradient across the region. Although we measured only a fraction of the filaments in the region, several kinematic groups seem to be represented (see Figure 4).

First, a string of relatively low velocity, $`50`$ km s-1$`200`$ km s-1, filaments (hereafter referred to as the “LV filaments”) was found along a line originating at around PA 65 and $`r175`$″ (14.2 kpc; M2-10) northeast from the nucleus and extended along PA 55.

Second, a group of high velocity, $`200`$ km s-1$`450`$ km s-1, filaments (hereafter referred to as the “HV filaments”) are distributed over the region. The HV filaments can be broken down into the following three groups: the “NE-HV filaments,” the “N-HV filaments,” and the “W-HV filaments.” The NE-HV filaments are a bow-like string of filaments that extend from the cloud at PA 65, $`r290`$″ (around M2-14) to the north along PA 10. The N-HV filaments are a group of clouds at PA 40, $`r110`$″ (around M1-5 and M2-6), PA 32, $`r170`$″ (M1-9 and M1-10) and PA 45, $`r195`$″ (M1-11 and M2-11). The W-HV filaments consist of a bright, dumbbell-like cloud, corresponding to the “C26” of YOS02, located at PA 95 and $`r125`$″ (M1-1, M1-2 and M2-5), and a bright cloud at PA 70 and $`r155`$″ (M2-9), corresponding to “C25” of YOS02.

Third, there is a group of very high velocity clouds/filaments (hereafter referred to as the “VHV clouds”) around the region where PA$`=40^{}`$, $`r145`$″ (M1-7, M1-8, M2-7 and M2-8). The typical radial velocity of the VHV clouds is $`550`$ km s-1, and one of these clouds even has a velocity of $`750`$ km s-1. The VHV clouds are embedded in a string of filaments that extend from PA 50, $`r70`$″ toward the north-northeast (PA 15). This string of filaments contains the N-HV filaments and the VHV clouds. The morphology of this string suggests that the VHV clouds are part of one stream. If this were the case, the high velocity motion of the VHV clouds could be interpreted as a projection effect of the helical motion of a outflow stream. However, the helical motion velocity of the stream would then reach up to 200 km s-1, which is too fast to maintain the shape of the stream unless there is a very strong confinement force, such as a strong magnetic field. Thus, the greater fraction of their high velocities cannot be interpreted as a projection of a helical motion of the stream. Instead, the VHV clouds must be accelerated radially by some as yet undetermined mechanism.

These names for the groups (the “LV filaments,” “NE-HV filaments,” “N-HV filaments,” “W-HV filaments,” and “VHV clouds”) are given in column 8 of Table 1. In addition, the spectra of the NE plume333The “NE plume” is the bright extra-planar emission-line region extending up to $`5`$ kpc to the northeast of the galaxy (e.g., Pogge 1988; Colina 1992; Petitjean and Durret 1993; Veilleux et al. 1999a). The configuration of the extra-planar emission-line region of NGC 4388 was illustrated in Figure 2 of YOS02. and the galaxy disk are labeled as “NEp” and “disk” in column 8 of Table 1.

The positions and possible extensions of these filament/cloud groups are overlaid on the velocity field of the VEELR in Figure 4. Figure 5 shows a position – velocity diagram for the VEELR. The horizontal axis of this diagram represents the distance from the nucleus in units of kpc. Data points for different filaments/clouds groups are shown as different symbols in this diagram (Figure 5). The groups of filaments mentioned above can be seen to be well separated in position – velocity space.

### 4.2 Excitation of the filaments

The emission-line spectra of the VEELR filaments are characterized by forbidden line enhancement and are very different from those of extragalactic H II regions. Figure 6 shows some examples of the spectra and Figures 7–9 show diagnostic diagrams for optical emission-lines (Veilleux & Osterbrock 1987). Two different ionization model loci are over-plotted in Figures 7–9. The dotted lines represent a power-law photoionization model calculated with the photoionization code CLOUDY (CLOUDY 94.00: Ferland 1996). We used a simple power-law continuum with a spectral index $`\alpha `$ of $`1.4`$ as the incident light, assuming a plane parallel cloud geometry with an electron density $`N_\mathrm{e}`$ of 30 cm-3 and solar metal abundance. The dotted-dashed lines are the loci of the shock ionization model of Dopita and Sutherland (1995). The loci shown here are for a shock only model with no pre-existing magnetic field.

Figures 7–9 show that the emission-line ratios of almost all the filaments are consistent with a power-law photoionization model with solar metal abundance, suggesting that the filaments have approximately solar abundance and are ionized by the power-law ionizing continuum emerging from the nucleus of NGC 4388. This result is consistent with the conclusions regarding the ionization mechanism of the VEELR reported in previous studies (YOS02; Ciroi et al. 2003). The ionization parameter $`U`$, which is the ratio of the number density of ionizing photons to that of electrons, of a typical filament of the VEELR was estimated to be of the order of $`10^3`$ from the diagrams (Figure 7–9). The filaments showing relatively high $`U`$ ($`10^{2.5}`$$`10^3`$) tend to be distributed near the nucleus (i.e NE-plume and inner N-HV filaments), whereas low $`U`$ ($`10^3`$$`10^{3.5}`$) filaments are located far from the nucleus (outer N-HV filaments and VHV filaments). This also supports the AGN photoionization hypothesis.

Some filaments show low excitation spectra. Low excitation emission-lines, such as \[O I\] and \[S II\], are enhanced in the spectra of the W-HV filaments (“C26”). On the other hand, \[O III\] is relatively weak (\[O III\]/H$`\beta `$ $``$ 1) in these filaments, in contrast to other high excitation filaments. The emission-lines of the W-HV filaments are also considerably broad (see the bottom right panel of Figure 6). The data points for these regions are distributed around the model locus of the shock model of Dopita and Sutherland (1995) with a shock velocity of 200 – 300 km s-1. These findings strongly suggest that the W-HV filaments are excited by shocks. The W-HV filaments exist outside the ionization cone of the NGC 4388 nucleus (Falcke, Wilson, and Simpson 1998; Veilleux et al. 1999a, YOS02). YOS02 remarked that the excitation mechanism of these “out of the cone” filaments is a mystery, pointing out that there is no counterpart to C26 in the broad-band images (V and RC images), so that it is not plausible that this filament is a bright H II region at the outskirts of the galaxy disk.

Shock may also contribute to the excitation of the other filaments. Figure 10 shows the \[N II\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratios of the VEELR filaments as a function of velocity. This figure clearly shows that the \[N II\] line is enhanced in the VHV clouds (see also the upper right panel of Figure 6). This velocity – excitation coupling indicates that shocks, induced by the rapid motion, can also play a role in excitation of the filaments.

Ciroi et al. (2003) carried out a detailed analysis of the ionization of the VEELR and the SW cone (Falcke, Wilson & Simpson 1998; YOS02) using a composite model of photoionization and shock heating. They used the photometric data of YOS02 for analysis of the VEELR. The ionization parameters they obtained for the VEELR filaments were distributed in the range 10-3 – 10-5. These values are consistent with our results, although they are slightly lower. This subtle discrepancy may be attributed to the contribution of shock heating to ionization of the filaments. Ciroi et al. (2003) suggested that shock heating gives rise to the ionization of the filaments, and derived shock velocities in the range $`30`$ – 150 km s-1. Note that these values are almost consistent with the shock velocities suggested in the present study for the low excitation clouds of the VEELR.

## 5 DISCUSSION

### 5.1 The origin of the VEELR gas

YOS02 discussed the origin of the gas of the VEELR from a morphological point of view, and concluded that there are two possibilities for the origin of the VEELR: it is either the tidal debris of a past minor merger, or the disk gas of NGC 4388 stripped by the ram pressure of the hot ICM. Here, we examine these two scenarios using our new observational results, and discuss the origin of the VEELR gas.

#### 5.1.1 Minor merger tidal debris hypothesis

As suggested in YOS02, NGC 4388 might have experienced at least one minor merger in the past. A minor merger affects the dynamics of the primary galaxy and leaves some imprints on its morphology (Hernquist & Mihos 1995; Mihos et al. 1995). Peculiar morphological characteristics of NGC 4388, such as its boxy bulge and central bar, and the faint hump and tail that extend outside the disk, could have formed as a result of the dynamic disturbance induced by a minor merger (YOS02). If the VEELR were the tidal debris of a merger of a gas-rich dwarf galaxy and NGC 4388, the gas in the dwarf should have been stripped by the tidal force of NGC 4388 and the stripped gas would have been left near the path of the dwarf’s fall. If this were the case, the velocity of the VEELR gas relative to NGC 4388 should not exceed the infall velocity of the merging dwarf. However, the measured velocities of the VEELR filaments are $`300`$$`400`$ km s-1, and some filaments show much higher radial velocities, up to $`700`$ km s-1. These velocities are well beyond the escape velocity of NGC 4388 ($`\sqrt{2}\times v_{\mathrm{rot}}250`$ km s-1, where $`v_{\mathrm{rot}}`$ is taken to be 180 km s-1, following Veilleux et al. 1999b) and so are too high to apply the tidal debris scenario.

In addition, the turbulent nature of the velocity field of the VEELR is not consistent with the minor merger hypothesis. The tidal tails found in and around merging galaxies have smooth velocity fields and mild velocity gradients of the order of 1 – 10 km s-1 kpc-1 in general (e.g., Smith 1994; Hibberd et al. 1994; Hibberd and Yun 1999). For example, the Magellanic Stream, the nearest example of tidal debris, has a velocity gradient of $`300`$ km s-1 over a few tens of kpc (Mathewson, Cleary & Murray 1974). The velocity field of the Magellanic Stream is also smooth and its kpc-scale velocity dispersion does not exceed $`100`$ km s-1. On the other hand, the VEELR is highly turbulent (see Figures 3, 4). The velocities of the filaments range over 700 km s-1 and abrupt velocity changes, with magnitudes of up to $`300`$ km s-1, are seen over the region.

Further, the emission-line spectra of the VEELR filaments suggest that the metallicity of the VEELR gas is almost at the solar value: there is no evidence that the gas is metal-poor. This is inconsistent with the hypothesis that the VEELR gas was dragged out of a merged gas-rich dwarf galaxy, because a typical gas-rich dwarf galaxy has a metal abundance of 1/10 solar (cf. Vílchez & Iglesias-Páramo 2003).

These results seem to disfavor the minor merger hypothesis. As mentioned above, NGC 4388 might have experienced a minor merger in the past (cf. YOS02), which may have given rise to part of the VEELR. However, it is difficult to explain most of the spectroscopic properties of the VEELR gas only with the minor merger hypothesis. Therefore, we concluded that it is unlikely that the majority of the VEELR gas is tidal debris from a past minor merger.

#### 5.1.2 Ram pressure stripping hypothesis

The characteristics of the VEELR described above can be naturally explained by the ram pressure stripping hypothesis.

As noted in YOS02, the morphology of the VEELR strongly resembles some snapshots from the inclined collision models of ram pressure stripping simulations conducted by Abadi et al. (1999), Quilis et al. (2000), VCBD, and SS01. The one-sided elongation of the VEELR suggests that NGC 4388 has a large transverse velocity toward the southwest. The H$`\alpha `$ gas of the inner disk of the galaxy is abruptly truncated at a distance of 5 kpc from the nucleus on the western side, while on the eastern side of the galaxy faint ionized gas extends to the outside of the stellar disk (Figure 1a of YOS02). The H I gas distribution is also asymmetric in the same manner as the H$`\alpha `$ gas (Cayatte et al. 1990). This peculiar gas distribution supports the hypothesis that the galaxy is moving in a southwesterly direction with a large transverse velocity and the disk gas is blown out by ram pressure induced by this galactic motion.

The velocity field of the VEELR can also be interpreted in the context of the ram pressure stripping scenario. While the recession velocity of NGC 4388 is approximately 1500 km s-1 larger than the systemic velocity of the Virgo cluster, the galaxy is thought to be located at the vicinity of the cluster core. Thus, NGC 4388 is moving in the Virgo cluster ICM with a line-of-sight velocity of $`1500`$ km s-1 relative to the ICM. Hence, the blue-shifted velocity field of the VEELR can be explained naturally: the collision between the galaxy and the hot ICM strips the disk gas and the gas is blown in the direction opposite to the motion of the galaxy. Assuming that the direction of the extension of ram pressure-stripped gas is almost the same as the direction of the ICM wind — in other words, the stripped gas is blown along the wind direction — and that the inclination angle of the VEELR with respect to our line of sight is 45, the transverse velocity is also $`1500`$ km s-1 and the total infalling velocity of NGC 4388 toward the Virgo cluster center reaches $`2300`$ km s-1.

Turbulent nature of the velocity field of the VEELR can also be explained by high speed collision between the galaxy and the hot ICM. Strong ram pressure from the ICM should induce turbulent motion in the stripped gas stream.

As described above, there seem to be a number of groups of kinematically related filaments in the VEELR: the LV filaments, the HV filaments, and the VHV clouds. VCBD presented some results of a series of numerical simulations based on inclined collision models of ram pressure stripping. Edge-on snapshots of a model of VCBD with an inclination angle of 45 and a colliding velocity of $`1000`$ km s-1 show that the disk gas of the primary galaxy forms two streams as it is stripped. One of the streams begins at the disk edge at the nearside of the ICM wind and the other at the far side of the wind. The latter stream is removed from the disk more rapidly than the former. Thus, it is suggested that the LV filaments correspond to the former stream, while the HV and VHV clouds are embedded in the latter.

In addition, ram pressure stripping scnenario has no problem in explaining high metallicity of the VEELR gas. It is natural for the extended gas to have the same metallicity, approximately Solar value, to the galaxy disk, if the gas is stripped from the galaxy by ram pressure.

Therefore, the new spectroscopic data presented here led us to the conclusion that it is most likely that the VEELR gas is the disk gas of NGC 4388 stripped by the ram pressure of the hot ICM. A spatial coincidence between the VEELR and the soft X-ray gas around NGC 4388, which was found recently by detailed analysis of Chandra archival data (Iizuka, Kunieda & Maeda 2003) also supports the ram pressure stripping hypothesis. If this is the case, we have detected ram pressure-stripped gas in the form of warm ($`T10^4`$ K) ionized gas (the VEELR) very far away from a cluster galaxy. The ionization of the stripped gas by a powerful AGN, together with the deep imaging capability of an 8-m class telescope, have made it possible to detect this faint structure.

Although there have been many observational studies of ram pressure stripping phenomena (e.g., Cayatte et al. 1990; Gavazzi et al. 1995; Phookun & Mundy 1995; Ryder et al. 1997; Kenney & Koopmann 1999; Vollmer et al. 2000; Vollmer, Braine et al. 2001; Bureau & Carignan 2002), the present study is the first to have revealed the detailed morphology and kinematics of the ram pressure-stripped gas over a few tens of kpc444Gavazzi et al. (2001) detected very large ($`75`$ kpc) warm ionized gas around the two irregular galaxies in the cluster of galaxies Abell 1367, and concluded that these are ram pressure-stripped material. This material is twice as large as the VEELR of NGC 4388, but its detailed morphology and the kinematics are not known.. In fact, the situation of NGC 4388 is rather special, in that the majority of the stripped gas happens to pass into the ionizing radiation cone of the Seyfert nucleus, and as a consequence a part of the stripped gas is ionized and visible as optical emission-line gas. The case of NGC 4388 provides a rare opportunity to investigate the warm phase of ram pressure-stripped gas in detail.

We discuss the VEELR in the context of the ram pressure stripping hypothesis in the following sections.

### 5.2 The VEELR and intracluster star formation activity

In this section, we briefly discuss the fate of the VEELR gas and examine the possibility of star formation in the VEELR.

The discovery of the VEELR indicates that some part of the ram pressure-stripped gas survives throughout the stripping process and does not evaporate for a significantly long time ($`10^8`$ yr)555The size and the radial velocity of the VEELR are $`35`$ kpc and $`300`$ km s-1, respectively. Assuming that the inclination angle of the VEELR is 45, we estimated the age of the VEELR as $`10^8`$ yr. VCBD pointed out that the disk gas of the galaxy would be stripped in the form of an ensemble of relatively dense cloudlets, each of which would be dense enough to prevent its evaporation in the hot ICM during ram pressure stripping. Those cloudlets would survive in the hot ICM for a long time ($`t>10^8`$ yr). According to VCBD, the stripped cloudlets would cool radiatively and become denser with time, so that molecules would be formed in their cores.

SS01 also pointed out that the radiative cooling of ram pressure-stripped gas could be important in cases in which the stripped gas density is higher than a critical density, which is determined by the strength of the ram pressure. They estimated that the critical density would be of the order of $`1`$ cm-3 for the Virgo cluster (SS01). Although our spectroscopic results did not provide a definite value for the electron densities of the VEELR filaments (they are too low to be derived from \[S II\] emission line ratios) YOS02 estimated the r.m.s. electron density of each filament to be $`0.5`$ cm-3 from H$`\alpha `$ photometry. Hence, assuming a typical volume filling factor of interstellar ionized gas, $`f_\mathrm{v}10^310^4`$ (e.g., Robinson et al. 1994), for the VEELR filaments, we estimate the local densities of the line emitting clouds to be $`10`$ cm-3. This is high enough to make radiative cooling dominant in the thermal balance of the stripped gas. The filamentary structure of the VEELR also suggests that radiative cooling and thermal instability cause the stripped gas to condense.

In the VEELR, there are a number of filaments that could be ionized by the radiative shock induced by a collision between the disk ISM and the hot ICM. Although the main ionization source should be the nuclear power-law radiation, shock waves accompanied with rapid motion could be responsible for the ionization of some HV filaments and VHV clouds. In fact, for some VHV clouds that are distant from the nucleus, low ionization emission-lines, such as \[N II\] or \[S II\], tend to be enhanced, suggesting that shock heating plays some role in their ionization. Successive shocks would condense the filaments significantly. Therefore, the physical state of the VEELR filaments allows them to form molecules internally, and to eventually form stars.

Recently, Gerhard et al. (2002) found an intergalactic compact star-forming region near NGC 4388. The location of the region is about 20 kpc north of the disk of NGC 4388. Although it is far away from the main stream of the VEELR, it is worth noting that its distance from the galaxy is comparable to that of the extension of the VEELR. This region might be a gas clump that has split off from the main stream of the VEELR. If this is the case, this region is the first known example of star formation within ram pressure-stripped gas.

Our data suggest that ram pressure-stripped gas can survive for a long time after stripping and it might be dense enough to cool radiatively. As mentioned above, stars might be formed in such cool gas. It is, however, no better than a speculation. In order to obtain some conclusive results on intracluster star formation and its relationship with ram pressure-stripping phenomenon, deep observations of neutral gas, H I or CO molecule, would be crucial.

### 5.3 Comparison with radio observations: interaction of disk star formation with the VEELR

We compared the deep H$`\alpha `$ and \[O III\] images of NGC 4388 taken by YOS02 with radio observations to investigate how the active star formation of NGC 4388 affects the extra-planar plasma evolution.

Irwin et al. (1999) conducted VLA 20 cm and 6 cm observations of NGC 4388 as a part of a series of studies of extended radio plasma around edge-on galaxies. They found very extended, faint radio emission on both sides of the disk of the galaxy at 20 cm. The morphology of this emission is peculiar: it has a “cracked” X-shape. It extends in three directions from the disk (to the northwest, southeast, and southwest) but not in the northeasterly direction, which is the direction of extension of the VEELR. The radio images of Irwin et al. are overlaid on the H$`\alpha `$ image from YOS02 in Figure 11b. We found faint extra-planar spurs in the H$`\alpha `$ image of NGC 4388 (Figure 11d). The directions of these spurs agree well with the direction of the extended radio emission. On the northeastern side of the galaxy, the bright NE plume and the VEELR prevent the identification of such faint structures.

Irwin et al. (1999) also found, at 6 cm, a striking extension originating on the eastern side of the disk (10″ east of the nucleus) and extending northwards. The size of this extension is comparable to that of the NE-HV filaments, whereas it is located between the complex of the NE-HV filaments and the VHV clouds and the NE plume (see Figure 11c). In other words, the extra-planar radio plasma and the optical emission-line gas seem to be anti-correlated in spatial distribution. This raises the question of the significance of this spatial anti-correlation.

The faint radio emission seen at 20 cm and the northeastern extension detected at 6 cm may be parts of a large X-shaped, starburst-driven superwind (Chevalier & Clegg 1985; Heckman, Armus & Miley, 1990; Strickland & Stevens 2000) from the disk of NGC 4388. To the northeastern side of the outflow, the radio-emitting plasma may be accelerated by the turbulent motion of the ram pressure-stripped ionized gas through some particle acceleration mechanisms such as Fermi acceleration or shock acceleration (cf. Webb et al. 2003; references are therein). The spatial anti-correlation between the emission-line gas and the radio-emitting plasma suggests an interaction between the two components. This effect might change the energy distribution of the radio-emitting plasma toward high energy, causing the spectral index of the northeast extension to become harder than the other wind plasma. Thus, the counterpart of the northeast extension may be lost in the low energy band (i.e., 20 cm).

The interaction between the VEELR gas and the starburst superwind may also accelerate the VEELR gas. The VHV clouds are located just outside of the northeast top of the 6-cm radio emission. This spatial coincidence supports the above suggestion. In other words, parts of the NE-HV filaments may be accelerated by the superwind and form the VHV clouds. This interaction would induce shock-waves in the VHV clouds and the shocks would excite the gas. The shock-like excitation property of the VHV clouds which was mentioned in section 4.2 is naturally explained by this scenario.

An extended X-shaped structure has also been found in soft X-ray emission. The ROSAT HRI image of NGC 4388, reduced by Colbert et al. (1998), shows an X-shaped structure. Although the scale of this emission is considerably smaller than the radio emission, the position angles of the legs of the “X”s are in good agreement. The size and the luminosity of the HRI emission is comparable to those of the HRI emissions of the starburst galaxy NGC 2146 (Armus et al. 1995). Recently, the extra-planar soft X-ray emission is found to be more extended toward the south of the galaxy at very faint level by a deep X-ray image of NGC 4388 taken by Chandra (Iizuka, Kunieda, & Maeda 2003). As mentioned in section 5.1.2., the largest component of this faint X-ray emission is extended toward the north-eastern direction, which is attributed to the ram pressure stripping. The southern extension of this faint X-ray emission is seen like an extension of the central “X” shaped X-ray emission of ROSAT. These X-ray characteristics also suggest that a superwind blows from the NGC 4388 disk and interacts with the VEELR or the hot ICM wind.

The disk radio emission of NGC 4388 should be a result of active star-forming regions in the galaxy disk666Active star-formation in the disk of NGC 4388 is indicated not only by bright H$`\alpha `$ emission but also by many chimney-like structures, whch would be formed by supernovae explosions in the disk (cf. Norman and Ikeuchi 1989), seen in the faint level of the emission-line image (see Figure 5 of YOS02).. SS01 pointed out that the disk gas of the primary galaxy is significantly compressed in the early phase of ram pressure stripping. The mechanism of the compression is as follows: initially the disk gas is moved slightly in the direction of the ICM wind, but then the offset gas experiences the gravitational force of the dark-matter halo and tends to fall back to the galactic plane. Its motion is now in the opposite direction to the ICM wind, so that the ICM wind and the gravitational force compress the disk gas from both sides of the disk. This is the situation for a face-on collision, i.e., one in which the galaxy is exposed to the ICM wind face-on. In the case of an inclined collision, the disk gas is also compressed in the disk plane by ram pressure. VCBD have also discussed gas compression of this kind, occurring before prompt stripping. Further, a third process, the gas “annealing” process discussed by SS01, may be efficient in compressing the inner disk. In this process, angular momentum transport by spiral waves induced in the ram pressure stripping event leads to simultaneous expansion of the outer disk and compression of the inner disk. The models of SS01 suggest that by the time the outer disk has been stripped, the inner disk is significantly compressed.

A combination of the above processes must lead to strong compression of the disk gas of NGC 4388. VCBD estimated the compression factor of the gas surface density to be as high as 1.5 for the case of an edge-on collision. Other studies have also suggested that gas compression by a factor of 2 – 3 should occur in the early phases of ram pressure stripping (e.g., Fujita and Nagashima 1999; SS01). This high compression of disk gas should cause active star formation in the disk. Assuming a Schmidt law777$`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{SFR}=A\times \mathrm{\Sigma }_{gas}^N`$, where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{SFR}`$ is the star formation rate per unit area and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{gas}`$ is the gas surface density. (Schmidt 1959) with a slope $`N1.5`$ (Kennicutt 1998), we find that the star formation rate (SFR) increases by a factor of up to 3 – 5. In fact, the SFR of the NGC 4388 disk, estimated from the H$`\alpha `$ emission, is $`4`$ M yr-1, which is consistent with the above value if we assume that the SFR was $`1`$ M yr-1 before collision with the ICM.

### 5.4 Global Structure and Evolution of the Emission-line Region of NGC 4388

Finally, we discuss the global structure of the extra-planar emission-line region around NGC 4388. The following emission-line regions are found in and around NGC 4388: (1) disk H II regions, (2) the NE plume and the SW cone (see Figure 2 of YOS02), (3) faint extra-planar spurs (Figure 11d), and (4) the VEELR. Here, we propose an evolutionary scenario in which the above emission-line regions can be related to each other.

In this scenario we assume that the prime mover of the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) of NGC 4388 is the fast collision between the galaxy and the hot ICM of the Virgo cluster. Initially, NGC 4388 was captured by the Virgo cluster during the cluster’s mass assembly process and started to fall into the central region of the cluster. Once the galaxy began to experience ram pressure from the cluster ICM, the ram pressure (and the opposing gravitational force) compressed the disk gas. This would have taken place $`10^7`$ yr before the galaxy reached the central region of the cluster. This gas compression caused a starburst in the disk. Successive bursts of supernovae and stellar winds from clusters of young massive stars heated the ISM, causing it to expand into intra-cluster space: i.e., a starburst superwind was formed.

At the same time, the outer disk gas of NGC 4388 began to be stripped by ram pressure. When the galaxy had passed through the cluster center, the ram pressure gradually started to decline and the stripped gas rotated slowly in the rotation direction of the host galaxy as a result of its angular momentum. NGC 4388 probably collided with the ICM to the southwestern side of the disk. As the disk rotation and the ram pressure stripping force had the same direction on the western side of NGC 4388, the western disk gas was the first to be dragged out of the galaxy.

At the eastern side of the disk, where the directions of the disk rotation and the ram pressure force were opposite to each other, the disk gas lost its angular momentum due to deceleration by the ram pressure. This disk gas thus started to fall in toward the nucleus. In fact, this gas infall might have excited the nuclear activity, although the triggering mechanism of AGN is not known in detail and this is just one of several possible hypotheses. Recently, minor merger events have been proposed as a promising mechanism for triggering AGN activity (Taniguchi 1999; Kendall, Magorrian & Pringle 2003). As pointed out in YOS02, the disk of NGC 4388 bears the marks of a past minor merger. Hence, a minor merger might have occurred and triggered the AGN at about the same time that NGC 4388 passed near the cluster center.

To the northeast of the galaxy, the stripped gas formed an elongated filamentary structure as a result of the combination of its rotation and the ram pressure forces it experienced. According to VCBD, the stripped gas forms highly elongated structures like the VEELR $`10^8`$ yr after the time when the ram pressure force reaches its maximum. Therefore, NGC 4388 passed through the cluster central region $`10^8`$ yr ago and is now receding from the center of the Virgo cluster.

The interaction between the stripped gas and the starburst superwind accelerated the gas and changed the energy spectrum of the radio-emitting plasma. The radio jet from the AGN of NGC 4388 was possibly accompanied by a warm gas outflow, and Veilleux et al. (1999a) suggested that this outflow might have formed the NE plume. However, we do not believe that the AGN outflow was the primary factor in forming the NE plume, because (1) there is a large discrepancy between the PA of the radio jet and that of the NE plume, (2) the NE plume has a highly disturbed morphology compared to the winds seen in other AGN wind cases, and (3) the velocity of the NE plume is comparable to that of the NE-HV filaments. In addition, the morphology of the NE plume resembles that of the NE-HV filaments. Therefore, we conclude that most of the structure of the NE plume was formed by ram pressure stripping (cf. Corbin, Baldwin & Wilson 1988; Petitjean & Durret 1993). The AGN outflow possibly contributed to the formation of the NE plume, but if so its contribution must have been small.

In the above scenario, the primary cause of the various phenomena occurring in NGC 4388 is the fast collision of the galaxy with the hot ICM. We summarize the structure of the emission-line regions around NGC 4388 as a schematic drawing in Figure 12. The various phenomena in NGC 4388 — the AGN, the starburst, and the ram pressure stripping — will last for only a comparatively short time. After another several tens of millions of years, these activities will cease or decay significantly. As the velocities of many VEELR filaments exceed the escape velocity of NGC 4388, most of the gas in the VEELR will escape into intracluster space. On the other hand, the gas that is presently in the galaxy disk will remain there, because the ram pressure force acting on it will decay. Therefore, NGC 4388 will be observed as an ‘anemic’ spiral galaxy with no peculiar activity several tens of millions of years from now.

## 6 Summary

Using the Subaru telescope, we carried out deep optical spectroscopic observations of the very extended emission-line region (VEELR) found around the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 4388 in the Virgo cluster. The H$`\alpha `$ recession velocities of most of the filaments in the VEELR are highly blue-shifted relative to the systemic velocity of the galaxy. The velocity field is complicated and the range of velocities is considerably broad ($`700`$ km s-1). There are a number of kinematically and morphologically distinct groups of filaments. We classified the filaments into the following groups: the low velocity (“LV”) filaments, the high velocity (“HV”) filaments, and the very high velocity (“VHV”) clouds. The HV filaments consist of the following spatially separated subgroups: the N-HV filaments, the NE-HV filaments, and the W-HV filaments. The emission-line ratios of the VEELR filaments are well explained by power-law photoionization models with solar abundances, suggesting that the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 4388 is the dominant ionization source of the VEELR and that the VEELR gas has moderate metallicity. Shock heating also contributes to the ionization of some filaments. In particular, the western part of the HV filaments (the “W-HV filaments”) may be excited predominantly by shocks.

We conclude that the VEELR was formerly the disk gas of NGC 4388, which has been stripped from the disk by the ram pressure caused by the interaction between the hot intra-cluster medium (ICM) and the galaxy. The velocity field and the morphology of the VEELR closely resemble snapshots taken from some numerical simulations of this situation. In the case of NGC 4388, the ram pressure-stripped gas, which would ordinarily be seen as extended H I filaments, happens to be exposed and ionized by the AGN light, and so can be seen as optical emission-line gas. This special situation makes it possible to study in detail environmental effects, especially ram pressure stripping by the hot ICM, on the evolution of cluster galaxies and intracluster medium.

Finally, we point out that filamentary/clumpy structure of the VEELR suggests that ram pressure-stripped gas may be cooled radiatively and be condensed to dense, small clouds as being extended into the inter-galactic space. In other words, most of the debris of ram pressure-stripping could be found as an ensumble of small H I filaments, if the filaments are not ionized by some energetic source like AGNs. Thus high spatial resolution, deep H I survey may be important to make statistics of the ram pressure-stripping phenomena and its impact to the galaxy evolution.

We are grateful to the staff of the Subaru telescope for their kind help with the observations. We wish to thank Curt Struck for his useful comments and the referee for a constructive report. In addition, M. Y. thanks the staff of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory for their encouragement during the course of this work. This study was carried out using the facilities at the Astronomical Data Analysis Center, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. This research made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. This work was financially supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 14204018).