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# The eclipsing massive X-ray binary M33 X-7: New X-ray observations and optical identificationThis work is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).

## 1 Introduction

M33 X$-$7 (hereafter X$``$7) was detected as a variable source with a luminosity brighter than $`10^{38}`$ erg s-1 in Einstein observations (Long et al. 1981; Markert & Rallis 1983; Trinchieri et al. 1988a, b). Peres et al. (1989) suggested that the X$``$7 variability pattern can be explained by an eclipsing X-ray binary (XRB) with an orbital period of 1.7 d and an eclipse duration of $`0.4`$ d. This finding was the first identification of a close accreting binary system with an X-ray source in an external galaxy other than the Magellanic Clouds. It was confirmed combining Einstein observatory and first ROSAT data (Schulman et al. 1993, 1994). With the inclusion of more ROSAT and ASCA data (Larson & Schulman 1997; Dubus et al. 1999, hereafter D99) the orbital period turned out to be twice as long. The shape of the eclipse could be described by a slow ingress ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{ingress}}=0.10\pm 0.05`$), an eclipse duration of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{eclipse}}=0.20\pm 0.03`$, and a fast eclipse egress ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{egress}}=0.01\pm 0.01`$) with an ephemeris for the mid-eclipse time of HJD 244 8631.5$`\pm `$0.1 + N$`\times `$(3.4535$`\pm `$0.0005). In addition, D99 discovered evidence for a 0.31 s pulse period. The orbital period, pulse period and observed X-ray luminosity are remarkably similar to those of the Small Magellanic Cloud neutron star XRB SMC X$-$1 (Liu et al. 2000). However, if the pulse period of X$``$7 can not be confirmed, the source could also resemble high mass black hole XRBs (BHXB) like LMC X$-$1 or LMC X$-$3. It would be the first eclipsing object within this rare class of XRBs.

The position of X$``$7 correlates with the dense O–B association HS13 (Humphreys & Sandage 1980) and therefore no individual counterpart could be identified based on position only. However, its location in HS13 is consistent with the expectation of a massive companion. As D99 point out, the optical counterpart is likely to show ellipsoidal and/or X-ray heating variations (Tjemkes et al. 1986) which can be used for the optical identification.

Variable optical sources within M33 were systematically searched for in the DIRECT project (see e.g. Mochejska et al. 2001b, hereafter M01b). Many eclipsing binaries, Cepheids, and other periodic, possibly long-period or nonperiodic variables were detected. X$``$7 is located in DIRECT field M33B. The variability of the optical counterpart was not detected in the previous analysis due to the limitations of the variable search strategy for such small amplitude variables in crowded regions.

As a follow-up of our study of the X-ray source population of M33 based on all archival ROSAT observations (Haberl & Pietsch 2001, hereafter HP01), we planned a deep XMM-Newton raster survey of M33 based on 22 Telescope Scientist guaranteed time (proposal no 010264) and AO2 (proposal no 014198) observations, each with a duration of about 10 ks (for first results see Pietsch et al. 2003). X$``$7 was covered in 13 of these observations at varying off-axis angles and covering different orbital phases.

In this paper we report on time and spectral variability of X$``$7 within the XMM-Newton raster survey. We add results from an archival Chandra observation, which covered the source, and a dedicated timing analysis of the DIRECT data of the HS13 region.

## 2 X-ray observations and results

For the detailed analysis of X$``$7 we mostly used data from XMM-Newton EPIC. From the M33 observations in the Chandra archive only the observation with identification no 1730 covered the X$``$7 field. Table 1 summarizes the observation identifications (Col. 1), observation dates (2), elapse time (3), extraction radius $`R_{\mathrm{ext}}`$ used for count rates, light curves, and spectra (4), X$``$7 raw count rates in the 0.5–4.5 keV band (5), hardness ratios (6), and luminosities in the 0.5–4.5 keV band (7). For the XMM-Newton observations, values in columns 4 to 7 correspond to the EPIC PN detector if not indicated differently, since it gives about twice the number of photons than the EPIC MOS cameras. Off axis angle of X$``$7 (8) and phase coverage within the binary orbit according to the ephemeris of D99 (9) are also given. As hardness ratio (HR) we use the ratio of the counts in the 1.2–3.0 keV band to the counts in the 0.5–1.2 keV band. Luminosities were determined from thermal bremsstrahlung spectra (see Sect. 2.3). During observations 0102640101 and 0102641101 X$``$7 was in low state and source statistics did not allow us to derive hardness ratios. For these observations we assumed that the source spectrum was similar to the spectrum during observation 0102642301 and scaled the source luminosity from the vignetting corrected count rates.

In the XMM-Newton observations (Jansen et al. 2001) the EPIC PN and MOS instruments (Strüder et al. 2001; Turner et al. 2001) were mostly operated in the full frame mode resulting in a time resolution of 73.4 ms and 2.6 s, respectively. Only for the first two observations in Table 1, the PN detector was operated in the extended full frame mode (time resolution 200 ms) and during observation 0102640101 the MOS detectors were operated in the small window mode (0.3 s time resolution for the inner CCDs). The medium filter was in front of the EPIC cameras in all but the first two observations which were performed with the thick filter. We used all EPIC instruments for imaging, position determination and for the timing and spectral investigations of X$``$7. In most of the observations the source is located at high off-axis angle (see Table 1), and could be outside of the field of view in some of the cameras. Also, the cameras normally cover different times. The XMM-Newton point spread function (PSF) required extraction radii $`R_{\mathrm{ext}}`$ larger than 22$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5 to encircle $`>80\%`$ of the source photons. Depending on the location of the source, counts could be missing due to CCD gaps. Many of the XMM-Newton observations suffer from times of high particle background. To be able to also use these times to cover as much as possible of the X$``$7 binary orbit, we restricted the energy band for light curve and hardness ratio analysis to 0.5–3.0 keV where the source is brightest.

Four Chandra ACIS observations (Weisskopf et al. 2000) of M33 were obtained from the Chandra Data Archive (http://asc.harvard.edu/cgi-gen/cda). However, only the ACIS I observation 1730 (see Table 1) covered the X$``$7 field. The instrument was operated in the full frame mode (3.2 s time resolution). X$``$7 is positioned in the outer corner of the front-illuminated CCD chip I2 during the observation.

The deep space orbits of the satellites XMM-Newton and Chandra led to long continuous observation times of X$``$7. The low earth orbits of the Einstein, ROSAT, ASCA and BeppoSAX observatories on the other hand, led to observations split in many short intervals of typically less than 1 500 s.

The data analysis was performed using tools in the SAS v5.4.0, CIAO v2.3, EXSAS/MIDAS 1.2/1.4, and FTOOLS v5.2 software packages, the imaging application DS9 v2.1b4 , the timing analysis package XRONOS v5.19 and spectral analysis software XSPEC v11.2.

For the time variability investigations all X$``$7 event times were corrected to solar system barycenter arrival times.

### 2.1 Time variability

The X-ray light curve of X$``$7 was sampled with a time resolution of 1000 s for EPIC PN and with 2000 s for MOS. While we give raw count rate in Table 1, the light curves in Fig. 1 and 4 are corrected for vignetting and EPIC MOS count rates for the difference in instrument efficiency compared to EPIC PN (i.e. increased by a factor of 2.5). The vignetting corrections for far off-axis positions is up to a factor of 3.5 and may include systematic errors of up to 20%. The source extraction radii chosen assure that more than 80% of the PSF are covered. EPIC PN as well as MOS show X$``$7 at low intensity for XMM-Newton observations 0102640101 and 0102641101 which covered binary phase 0.01 to 0.16 according to the ephemeris of D99. During the other XMM-Newton observations (covering binary phase 0.18 to 0.85 according to the ephemeris of D99, see Fig. 1 and 4), the source was in high state. The high state intensity did not vary by more than $`\pm 20\%`$ between the observations. Within the observations the intensities changed by up to 30% on time scales as short as 1000 s (see Fig. 1). No significant variability in hardness ratio was detected between the observations. However, there seems to be variability on shorter time scales. Some of the observations suffer from strong particle background flares which show vignetting effects by the telescope mirrors. We did not exclude these times from the light curves but tried to correct by subtracting this variable background determined as close to X$``$7 as allowed by CCD configuration and emission from other nearby sources. Our selection of the background regions should minimize spurious effects on source count rate and hardness ratio. Nevertheless, residual effects may explain the count rate increase in observation 0141980701 around binary phase 0.55 seen in Fig. 4.

The light curve for the Chandra observation 1730 shows the source out of eclipse. While the count rate in the 0.5–3.0 keV band decreased during the observation by about 20% and there is also variability down to the the sampling time scale of 2000 s, the hardness ratio did not change significantly (Fig. 2).

One has to keep in mind that the EPIC MOS count rates and HRs of X$``$7 can not directly be compared to the PN one as they originate from a CCD with a different energy response function. The same is even more true if one wants to compare Chandra and XMM-Newton count rates and HRs.

Figure 3 shows images (3′ to a side) of the X$``$7 area in the 0.5–4.5 keV band during the high and low state ( XMM-Newton EPIC cameras are combined). X$``$7 is clearly detected also during the low state ($`3\%`$ of the average high state emission).

We searched for pulsations within the bright state XMM-Newton low background observations and the Chandra observation in the frequency range 10-3–4 Hz following the Rayleigh Z$`{}_{\mathrm{n}}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$ method (Buccheri et al. 1983) as described in Haberl & Zavlin (2002). No signal was found with more than 94% ($`<2\sigma `$) confidence level. This includes the previously suggested period of 0.31 s (D99) although the time resolution of 0.073 s of the PN detector in the full frame mode may not be sufficient to clearly detect such a short period.

### 2.2 Improved position

HP01 give the position of X$``$7 with a 90% error radius of 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0 which is fully determined by the assumed remaining systematic error of 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0. The much higher number of photons detected with the Chandra ACIS I detectors and the good PSF even at an off-axis angle of 8$`\stackrel{}{.}`$6 allow us to determine a significantly improved source position in observation 1730. Systematic errors can be reduced by adjusting the positions using the well determined radio position of a supernova remnant (SNR) close to X$``$7 (source 57 in Gordon et al. 1999) which is also detected in X-rays (X67 in HP01, ), the X-ray source $`1\stackrel{}{.}5`$ to the NNW of X$``$7 in Fig. 3. We get a significantly improved position for X$``$7: $`\alpha `$=01h33m34$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$21, $`\delta `$=$`+`$30°32′11$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7 (J2000), with a remaining error radius of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 mainly determined from the statistical uncertainty of the X67 position.

Several XMM-Newton EPIC observations cover X$``$7 and in addition X67. The integration times of the individual observations are much shorter than for the Chandra observation and the XMM-Newton PSF is worse. XMM-Newton determined positions of X$``$7 have individual error radii of 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0 or greater for the PN and MOS cameras and are within the errors consistent with the Chandra position. See Fig. 5 for an overlay of the improved position on a deep optical $`V`$-band image.

### 2.3 Energy spectra

Spectra for the low background XMM-Newton EPIC observation 0102642301 and for the Chandra observation were approximated with simple spectral models (see Table 2). Individual EPIC PN and MOS spectra were simultaneously fitted with the same model parameters correcting for vignetting and the fraction of the PSF covered by the source extraction area. Energy independent normalization factors for each spectrum separately take into account possible differences in source coverage. Model components were the fixed Galactic foreground absorption plus additional absorption within M33 or in the immediate surrounding of the source using XSPEC model component WABS. A thin thermal (MEKAL) model could be rejected due to the high $`\chi ^2/\nu `$, and also a power law (POWL) model still shows large residuals. Bremsstrahlung (BREMS) and also variable temperature disk blackbody (DISKBB) models on the other hand yield acceptable $`\chi ^2/\nu `$ values. We used the latter models to fit all high state observations of X$``$7 (see Table 3). For all observations, absorbed BREMS or DISKBB models give acceptable fits. The BREMS model needs comparably high absorption outside the Galaxy. The model temperatures are the same within the errors. For the DISKBB model, on the other hand, the additional absorption is very low or absent and inner disk temperatures also don’t vary significantly.

## 3 Optical observations and results

### 3.1 Observations

The data were obtained as part of the DIRECT project111For information on the DIRECT project see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kstanek/DIRECT/. (Mochejska et al. 2001a, c, M01b) at the Kitt Peak National Observatory222Kitt Peak National Observatory is a division of NOAO, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. 2.1m telescope during two separate runs, from September 29th to October 5th, 1999 and from November 1st to 7th, 1999. The telescope was equipped with a Tektronix $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD (T2KA camera) having a pixel scale $`0.305\mathrm{}/pixel`$. We collected $`74\times 600`$ s exposures in the $`V`$ filter and $`30\times 600`$ s in $`B`$. The exposure times varied slightly to compensate for the changes of seeing conditions. The typical seeing was 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5.

### 3.2 Data reduction and calibration

The preliminary processing of the CCD frames was performed with the standard routines in the IRAF ccdproc package.333IRAF 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 NSF. The data were corrected for CCD non-linearity at this stage, as described by Mochejska et al. (2001a).

Photometry was extracted using the ISIS image subtraction package (Alard & Lupton 1998; Alard 2000). A brief outline of the method is presented here. For a more detailed description of the reduction procedure the reader is referred to Mochejska et al. (2001a).

The ISIS reduction procedure consists of the following steps: (1) transformation of all frames to a common $`(x,y)`$ coordinate grid; (2) construction of a reference image from several best exposures; (3) subtraction of each frame from the reference image and (4) extraction of profile photometry from the subtracted images.

All computations were performed with the frames internally subdivided into four sections (sub\_x=sub\_y=2). Differential brightness variations of the background were fit with a second degree polynomial (deg\_bg=2). A convolution kernel varying quadratically with position was used (deg\_spatial=2). The PSF width (psf\_width) was set to 15 pixels. We used a photometric radius (radphot) of 3 pixels.

Due to residual non-linearity, our photometry could not be calibrated from observations of standard stars. The coefficients for the color terms of the transformation were derived from the comparison of our NGC 6791 photometry with the data from the KPNO 0.9m telescope (Kaluzny & Udalski 1992). The offsets were determined relative to 735 stars above $`V=20`$ mag from the DIRECT catalog of stellar objects in M33 (Macri et al. 2001). The calibration coefficients can be found in M01b.

The transformation from rectangular to equatorial coordinates was derived using 894 transformation stars with $`V<19.5`$ from the DIRECT catalog of stellar objects in M33 (Macri et al. 2001). The average difference between the catalog and the computed coordinates for the transformation stars was 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$06 in right ascension and 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$06 in declination.

### 3.3 Results

We have searched within a radius of 36″ around the SIMBAD position of X$``$7 for stars with a period of around 3.45 d. From the 715 stars examined only one was a binary with a period of about 3.46-3.48 days. It is a star at position $`\alpha `$=01h33m34$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$20, $`\delta `$=$`+`$30°32′11$`\stackrel{}{.}`$08 (J2000), with an average V magnitude of 18.86, and an amplitude of variation in this band of about 0.11 mag. From the images it seems to be located in a small star cluster (see Fig. 5). Measured V and B magnitudes are given in Table 4.

The binary light curve in the V band using the ephemeris of D99 (Fig. 4) shows two maxima and minima of different depth as expected for an ellipsoidal and X-ray heating light curve for a high mass XRB (HMXB) together with a double-sinusoidal fit to the data (average V magnitude of $`18.862\pm 0.001`$, amplitude $`(33\pm 1)\times 10^3`$ mag). The phase of the shallower minimum is shifted by $`+0.0956\pm 0.0028`$ with respect to the eclipse center of D99 in the same direction as also indicated by the X-ray light curve (see Sect. 2.1). The double-sinusoidal fit is only a crude approximation to the data and the model parameters certainly are affected by non-uniform sampling of the optical light curve. The data suggest a deeper secondary minimum (around phase 0.6) which according to Tjemkes et al. (1986) might point at the effect of an accretion disk in the system. V magnitude and B–V color at X-ray eclipse are 18.890 and -0.005.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Improved ephemeris

D99 determined the eclipse parameters for X$``$7 using in total 50 ks and 325 ks of archival ROSAT PSPC and HRI data, respectively, integrated over one satellite orbit ($``$3 ks time bins). The XMM-Newton and Chandra low and high state observations of X$``$7 can naturally be explained by finding the source within and out of eclipse. Unfortunately, neither of the observations covered eclipse ingress or egress. However, from the XMM-Newton light curves we can deduce that the eclipse egress lasts $`<0.02`$ and the ingress $`<0.16`$ in phase (well within the parameter range given by D99). These values are only poorly determined due to gaps in the phase sampling over the orbit. More observations are needed to further constrain the binary ephemeris.

Nevertheless, we can restrict the time of eclipse egress to HJD ($`\mathrm{245\hspace{0.17em}1760.935}\pm 0.035`$) assuming that it is constrained by the end of observation 0102640101 (when X$``$7 is still in eclipse) and the beginning of observation 0141980501 (when, 261 binary orbits later, X$``$7 is already out of eclipse). With the eclipse shape parameters of D99 we then derive a mid-eclipse epoch of HJD ($`\mathrm{245\hspace{0.17em}1760.61}\pm 0.09`$). The new X-ray mid-eclipse time corresponds to binary phase 0.07 in Fig. 4. Combining this result with the mid-eclipse epoch of D99 we get an improved orbital period for X$``$7 of ($`3.45376\pm 0.00021`$) d well within the period errors given by D99.

### 4.2 The optical companion

The spectral classification of the optical companion can be deduced from the absolute optical magnitude and color during X-ray eclipse when we see the optical surface that is mostly undisturbed by gravitational effects, an expected accretion disk and heating by the X-ray source. To derive the absolute magnitude the measured brightness has to be corrected for the distance (-24.502 mag for the assumed distance of 795 kpc) and for interstellar extinction, the color has to be corrected for reddening. These corrections can be estimated from the Galactic $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ in the direction of X$``$7 as $`A_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{Gal}}=0.36`$ mag and $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{Gal}}=0.12`$ (Predehl & Schmitt 1995). The $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ column depth of the M33 disk in the direction of X$``$7 is varying significantly on small scales. X$``$7 is not located in one of the H i holes catalogued by Deul & den Hartog (1990). The absorbing column within M33 can be determined to $``$2.2$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 from a $`47\times 93`$ arcsec half power beam width H i map (Newton 1980). The absorbing columns derived from the spectral fits to the X-ray spectra indicate half or less than this absorbing column depending on the spectral model. Assuming that we see X$``$7 through half of this column and that the same conversion applies as used above, we get $`A_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{M33}}=0.62`$ mag and $`E(BV)_{\mathrm{M33}}=0.21`$. The companion star therefore should have an absolute V magnitude of -6.0 to -6.6 and (B-V)0 of -0.12 to -0.33, which would correspond to a star of spectral typ B0I to O7I and masses $`M_2`$ of 25 to 35 M (see e.g. Aller et al. 1982). Optical companions of similar spectral type were proposed by D99 based on binary orbit and eclipse length, assuming a 1.4 M neutron star as the compact object.

### 4.3 M33 X$-$7, an eclipsing black hole XRB?

We can use the mass of the optical companion as determined in the previous subsection and the mass ratios determined from binary orbit and eclipse length (see D99 and Paczyński 1971; Eggleton 1983) to determine the mass $`M_\mathrm{X}`$ of the compact object. For a binary inclination of 90°, the mass ratio q($`=M_\mathrm{X}/M_2`$) is 0.085 yielding $`M_\mathrm{X}`$ of 2.1–3.0 M, significantly higher than expected masses of neutron stars. For an inclination of 70°, q is 0.036 and $`M_\mathrm{X}=0.91.2`$ M well in the range of typical neutron star masses. The inclination can not be constrained by our measurements and the mass estimates above do not exclude a neutron star for the compact object in the system.

Further information on the nature of the compact object may be infered from the X-ray spectrum. Before XMM-Newton and Chandra, the X-ray spectrum of X$``$7 was investigated using ROSAT and BeppoSAX observations. HP01 found that the X$``$7 spectrum in the ROSAT band can be described by an absorbed power law ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ = (1.9$`\pm `$0.9)$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.86\pm 0.52`$). Thin thermal plasma models did not give acceptable fits. Parmar et al. (2001) reported that BeppoSAX detected X$``$7 in the 2–8 keV band. The spectrum could be described equally well by a power law ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ $`<`$ 9.8$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 and photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.9_{1.3}^{+1.7}`$) or a Bremsstrahlung model ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ $`<`$ 11$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 and k$`T=3.7_{2.4}^{+97}`$). If the absorption is fixed to 5.6$`\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, the power law photon index is constrained to 1.7$`\pm `$0.6 and the Bremsstrahlung temperature to $`<`$3.7 keV. Keeping in mind the large uncertainties in the parameters, these results are consistent with the XMM-Newton and Chandra spectra reported for this persistent source in Sect. 2.3. In the following we therefore concentrate on these higher quality spectral results.

Thermal Bremsstrahlung and disk blackbody models yield acceptable fits to the XMM-Newton and Chandra spectra (see Sect. 2.3). For the first model an absorbing column comparable to half the H i values at the position of X$``$7 within M33 (see above) is needed to fit the X$``$7 spectra. The second model only allows us to determine upper limits for the M33 absorbing column in front of X$``$7 which are smaller than half the M33 column depth at that position. The X$``$7 X-ray spectra are steeper in the 2–10 keV band than typical for HMXB (flat power law shapes with photon indices of $`0.8<\mathrm{\Gamma }<1.5`$, White et al. 1983) and better resemble the spectra of persistent black hole XRBs like LMC X$-$1 and Cyg X$-$1 (see e.g. Cui et al. 2002).

Therefore, the spectral results, our unsuccessful search for X-ray pulsations and the high mass estimate of the compact object, infered from the identified optical companion indicate a black hole as the compact object. These findings make M33 X$-$7 a very interesting source for further investigation as it could be the first eclipsing HMXB with a black hole as the compact object.

## 5 Conclusions

XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of the persistent eclipsing HMXB M33 X$-$7 allowed us to improve on the orbital period and investigate the X-ray spectrum in unprecedented detail. No X-ray pulsations were detected. A special investigation of the optical variability of DIRECT data of the region revealed in the optical the orbital light curve of a high mass companion. X-ray and optical data point at a black hole as the compact object in the system. Optical spectroscopy and high sensitivity X-ray pulsation searches are needed to clarify the situation.

###### Acknowledgements.

The XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF/DLR), the Max-Planck Society and the Heidenhain-Stiftung.


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# Discovery of Intergalactic H ii Regions

## 1. Introduction

Isolated H ii regions in the extreme outskirts of galaxy halos (Gerhard et al., 2002) and in gaseous tidal debris (Ryan-Weber et al., 2003c; Oosterloo et al., 2003) have recently been discovered. Isolated H ii regions indicate the formation of OB stars in atypical environments. Their existence poses questions about the conditions required to form stars. Star formation usually occurs in the inner parts of galaxies and is aided by a high density of gas that is unstable against gravitational collapse and shielded from the extragalactic ionizing background.

Here we discuss five small isolated H ii regions. The H ii regions were discovered in the NOAO Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG). SINGG is an H$`\alpha `$ survey of an H i-selected sample of nearby galaxies. The survey is composed of nearly 500 galaxies from the H i Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS, Meyer et al., 2003), of these about 300 have been observed in H$`\alpha `$. The H ii regions appear as tiny Emission Line dots (ELdots) at projected distances up to 30 kpc from the apparent host galaxy and at least beyond two R25 (R-band isophotal radii with $`\mu _R=`$ 25 $`\mathrm{mag}\mathrm{arcsec}^2`$). This is typically much further from the apparent host than outer disk H ii regions in spirals (Ferguson, 1998b). Isolated H ii regions are described as ‘intergalactic’ as they lie well beyond the main optical radius of the nearest galaxy, but may or may not be kinematically bound to it.

## 2. Observations

Continuum R-band and narrow band H$`\alpha `$ images of local gas-rich galaxies were taken with the CTIO 1.5m telescope as part of SINGG. The candidate isolated H ii regions were identified as unresolved high equivalent width (EW) sources outside the optical disk of each galaxy. The isolated H ii regions have H$`\alpha `$ fluxes in the range $`9.7\times 10^{16}`$ to $`2.1\times 10^{15}`$ erg s-1cm-2. Assuming the distance to the isolated H ii regions is the same as that of the host galaxy in each system, the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities are in the range $`6.9\times 10^{36}`$ to $`3.5\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1. In most cases the isolated H ii regions are barely detected in continuum emission in the SINGG R-band images with a typical 5$`\sigma `$ detection limit of $`10^{18}`$ erg s-1cm-2Å-1.

Spectra of isolated H ii region candidates were obtained with the double beam spectrograph (DBS) on the RSAA 2.3m telescope in September 2002. The 5 detected isolated H ii regions were confirmed as H$`\alpha `$ (6563 Å) emission line systems, with recessional velocities close to that of their respective host galaxies. Some isolated H ii regions were also detected in \[O iii\] (5007 Å). The presence of both H$`\alpha `$ and \[O iii\] lines places the isolated H ii regions at comparable recessional velocities to the galaxy (or galaxies) in each field, and rules out the possibility that they are background emission line systems. In addition to the H$`\alpha `$ images and spectra, Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) H i maps are available for two systems, NGC 1533 and ESO 149-G003. The ATCA data reduction is detailed in Ryan-Weber et al. (2003b).

## 3. Three Systems with Confirmed Isolated H ii Regions

### 3.1. NGC 1533

Figure 1 shows a DSS image of NGC 1533 overlaid with ATCA H i contours. The H i distribution around NGC 1533 consists of two major arcs, the NW cloud and the SE cloud. No obvious optical counterpart to this H i feature is seen in the DSS nor R band SINGG image. The total H i mass of the system is 7$`\times 10^9`$ M. The SE cloud contains around one third of this total H i mass. The projected distance between the H i arcs and the optical centre of NGC 1533 ranges from 2 to 11.7 (12 and 70 kpc). The velocities of the three confirmed isolated H ii regions compare well with the velocity of NGC 1533 and lie within the range of H i velocities in the SE cloud (883 km s-1 with a width at 50% peak, $`w_{50}=71`$ km s-1). The peculiar distribution of H i is thought to arise from the destruction of a galaxy to form a tidal remnant around NGC 1533. N-body/SPH numerical simulations showing the orbital evolution of a LSB galaxy in NGC 1533’s gravitational potential support this hypothesis Ryan-Weber (2003a).

Are these isolated H ii regions progenitors to a tidal dwarf galaxy? Since the gas and isolated H ii regions are bound to the galaxy, it is likely that the stars formed will also remain bound in the tidal debris. There is certainly a reservoir of gas from which more stars could form, so it is possible in this case that a tidal dwarf galaxy could emerge. Interestingly, the isolated H ii regions do not appear to be correlated with the densest regions of H i and are located in the SE cloud only. At this resolution ($``$6 kpc) the densest region of H i is the center the NW cloud. The stellar concentration of a tidal dwarf galaxy is usually located in the densest regions of H i, mapped in 21-cm at similar resolutions ($``$ 4kpc, e.g. Duc et al. 2000).

### 3.2. HCG 16

The isolated H ii region in the compact group HCG 16, shown in Figure 2, is near the two galaxies NGC 835 and NGC 833. The velocity of the isolated H ii region (3634 km s-1) sits on the lower edge of the H i emission measured by HIPASS (velocity = 3917 km s-1, $`w_{50}=`$ 288 km s-1) and below the optical velocities of NGC 835 and NGC 833 (4073 and 3864 km s-1 respectively, from NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, NED). Verdes-Montenegro et al. (2001) have published a VLA map of HCG 16, showing H i in NGC 835 and 833 with a large tidal feature to the NE (overlapping the isolated H ii region position) that joins other group members several arcminutes away to the east.

### 3.3. ESO 149-G003

The velocity of the isolated H ii region near the irregular galaxy ESO 149-G003 (see Figure 3) is quite offset from its apparent host galaxy (314 km s-1, assuming the single emission line is indeed H$`\alpha `$). The narrow ($`w_{50}=39`$ km s-1) H i spectrum of the galaxy shows no anomalous velocity gas. Follow-up ATCA observations show no H i emission at the velocity and position of the isolated H ii region to a $`3\sigma `$ limit, assuming a distance of 6.5 (12) Mpc of MHI $`=8\times 10^5`$ ($`3\times 10^6`$) M. The spatial and kinematic evidence suggests that the isolated H ii region is perhaps a chance object in the field, rather than an associate of ESO 149-G003. If the emission line is H$`\alpha `$, this object holds interesting implications for the census of intergalactic matter. It could be sub-galactic halo forming its first generation of stars. However, since only one emission line (H$`\alpha `$) is detected in this case, the possibility that this candidate isolated H ii region is a background emission line source cannot be ruled out, for example H$`\beta `$ at z$``$0.3 or \[O iii\] at z$``$0.2.

## 4. Underlying Stellar Population

The H$`\alpha `$ luminosities indicate that each isolated H ii region is illuminated by the equivalent of $`0.28`$ O5V stars each (Vacca et al. 1996). The least luminous isolated H ii region could be ionized by a single O8 star. The isolated H ii regions could be ionized by a single massive star, or by the massive star or stars in a cluster. The very low continuum emission does rule out a significant underlying stellar population and suggests that isolated H ii regions are due to newly formed clusters where no stars existed previously. The low continuum emission also separates isolated H ii regions from H ii galaxies and tidal dwarf galaxies. Three of the 5 isolated H ii regions have EW(H$`\alpha `$)$`>`$1000 Å. By comparison, H ii regions in the outer arms of spiral galaxies (beyond the B-band 25th-magnitude isophote) measured by Ferguson (1998a) have an average EW(H$`\alpha `$)=364 Å. Furthermore, most of the group of star forming dwarf galaxies in A1367 have EW(H$`\alpha `$)$`<`$100 Å (Sakai et al., 2002).

## 5. IGM enrichment

As they evolve, OB stars increase the metal abundance in their local environment. Absorption line studies show that the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galaxy halos, including our own, are enriched (e.g., Tripp et al., 2002; Collins et al., 2003). Isolated H ii regions provide a potential source for this enrichment. In situ star formation in the IGM offers an alternative to galactic wind models to explain metal enrichment hundreds of kilo-parsecs from the nearest galaxy.

Although the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities are small, an estimate of the Star Formation Rate (SFR) can be obtained by a standard relation (Kennicutt, 1998). Summing the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities from the 5 isolated H ii regions in the NGC 1533 system, the SFR $`=3\times 10^3`$ Myr-1. The total yield of metals for a normal stellar cluster is $``$0.025 (Maeder, 1992). Simulations of the dynamical evolution of H i gas around NGC 1533 show that it could last up to 1$`\times 10^9`$ yrs (Ryan-Weber 2003a). This is considered an upper limit since no consumption of gas due to the formation of stars in taken into account. If the SFR is maintained for 1$`\times 10^9`$ yrs, metals will pollute the 2.4$`\times 10^9`$ M of H i in the SE cloud, resulting in a metallicity of $`12\times 10^3`$ solar. Alternatively if the SFR was not continuous and corresponded to a single population of stars only, the resulting metallicity would be negligible ($`4\times 10^6`$ solar).

How does this compare to the abundances seen in Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption line systems? H i in the vicinity of the NGC 1533 isolated H ii regions has $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ $`=14\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2, similar to damped Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption (DLA, $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}`$ $`2\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2). The metallicity of DLA gas at low redshift varies from 0.01 solar (e.g I Zw 18, Aloisi et al. 2003) to solar. Depending on the initial metallicity, the isolated H ii regions would enrich the NGC 1533 system by 20 percent at the most. At higher redshifts however, this increase in metallicity could be more significant. Prochaska et al. (2003) find a DLA ‘metallicity floor’ at $`1.4\times 10^3`$ solar, over a redshift range from 0.5 to 5. Intergalactic star formation may have contributed to this. In addition, since collisions and tidal disruptions of galaxies were more common at higher redshifts, the amount of high $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}`$-gas outside galaxies was greater and therefore the intergalactic star formation rate could have been higher in the past.

#### Acknowledgments.

Thanks to the SINGG team for the images. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) material (UKST/ROE/AAO/STScI) is acknowledged.

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text:
# Elementary Particles and Spin Representations

Nowadays, it is largely accepted that at some intermediate energy scale elementary matter and non-gravitational fundamental interactions should go through an $`SO(10)`$ grand unification . While it is open the question on what the detailed dynamics at that scale should be, we are very confident that the group theoretical framework is correct. Our belief mainly grounds on the fact that the complicated family structure reorganizes in a single (spin) representation. This simplicity is a primary attractive of the model. Unfortunately, $`SO(10)`$ only offers a partial answer to the unification quest: 1. the family representation has to be supported by its complex conjugate to take into account antiparticles; 2. the couple of family/anti-family representations has to be replicated —at least three times— to take into account generations; 3. last but not the least, elementary fermions transform as composite objects under space-time and internal gauge transformations, a signal that gravity has not been taken into account. Over the years, many different ideas have been proposed to overcome this situation . This paper presents an original viewpoint. We emphasize that the group-theoretical considerations leading to unification of electro-weak and strong matter filed components naturally extend to space-time components, providing a truly unified description of all fundamental fermions in terms of a single chiral spin representation of a fourteen dimensional pseudo-orthogonal space-time group. Our consideration are mainly of cinematical nature, only providing a general framework in which the whole unification issue may possibly be reconsidered. We will only touch on the dynamical problem. In order to better illustrate our viewpoint, we start by focusing on the family structure and resume the key observations that lead to treat leptons and quarks on a similar footing.
Pati-Salam  idea of lepton number as a fourth color is briefly summarized by recalling that the chiral spin representations111Throughout this paper we use the common notation of labelling representations by their dimension (in boldface). Negative chirality Weyl representations are distinguished by a prime  or a bar $`\overline{}`$ when conjugate to the positive chirality ones. $`\mathrm{𝟐}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟐}^{}`$ of $`SO(4)SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2)`$ respectively transform as $`\mathrm{𝟏}+\mathrm{𝟏}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟐}`$ under the subgroup $`SU_L(2)`$, while the chiral spin representations $`\mathrm{𝟒}`$ and $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟒}}`$ of $`SO(6)SU(4)`$ respectively transform as $`\mathrm{𝟏}+\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}}`$ and $`\mathrm{𝟏}+\mathrm{𝟑}`$ under the regularly embedded $`SU(3)`$. By inspecting product representations

$$\begin{array}{c}(\mathrm{𝟐},\mathrm{𝟒})=(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}})\hfill \\ (\mathrm{𝟐},\overline{\mathrm{𝟒}})=(\mathrm{𝟐},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟐},\mathrm{𝟑})\hfill \\ (\mathrm{𝟐}^{},\mathrm{𝟒})=(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑})+(\mathrm{𝟏},\mathrm{𝟑})\hfill \\ (\mathrm{𝟐}^{},\overline{\mathrm{𝟒}})=(\mathrm{𝟐},\mathrm{𝟏})+(\mathrm{𝟐},\overline{\mathrm{𝟑}})\hfill \end{array}$$
(1)
we realize that the complicated $`U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(3)`$ Standard Model matter representation appears much simpler in terms of $`SO(4)\times SO(6)`$ (hypercharge also can be accommodated). The enlargement of the gauge group —without addition of matter freedoms— produces a remarkable simplification in the theory’s structure, allowing to treat leptons and quarks on the very same ground. Yet, the situation is not completely satisfactory. The elementary matter representation still is composite and the gauge group still has a direct product structure. The problem was overcome by Georgi , essentially by recalling that the chiral spin representations of the ten dimensional orthogonal group $`SO(10)`$ —also the ones of the pseudo-orthogonal group $`SO(4,6)`$ do— transform as

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}=(\mathrm{𝟐},\mathrm{𝟒})+(\mathrm{𝟐}^{},\overline{\mathrm{𝟒}})\hfill \\ \overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}}=(\mathrm{𝟐},\overline{\mathrm{𝟒}})+(\mathrm{𝟐}^{},\mathrm{𝟒})\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
under the regular subgroup $`SO(4)\times SO(6)`$. The further enlargement of the gauge group, still without addition of matter freedoms, produces unification inside each family. All left-handed matter fields $`\nu _{R}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$, $`(\nu ,e)_L`$, $`e_{R}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$, $`u_{R}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$, $`(u,d)_L`$ and $`d_{R}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$ appear as components of the single irreducible representation $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}`$ while all right-handed matter $`\nu _R`$, $`(\nu ,e)_{L}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$, $`e_R`$, $`u_R`$, $`(u,d)_{L}^{}{}_{}{}^{c}`$ and $`d_R`$ makes up its conjugate $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}}`$. The gauge group is no longer a direct product. As far as electro-weak and strong interactions are concerned and regardless to the problems mentioned above, $`SO(10)`$ grand unification appears so natural to seem unavoidable.

Besides indices labelling particles properties under internal gauge transformations, elementary matter fields carry space-time indices. In the framework discussed above, left-handed matter transforms according the chiral spin representation $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟐}}`$ of the space-time Lorentz group $`SO(3,1)`$ and —independently— according the chiral spin representation $`\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}`$ of the grand unified gauge group $`SO(10)`$; right-handed matter transforms according $`\mathrm{𝟐}`$ under space-time transformations and according $`\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}}`$ under internal gauge transformations. In this prospective the theory does not look much unified. Rather, its structure resembles the one of the $`SO(4)\times SO(6)`$ model before $`SO(10)`$ grand unification: the elementary matter representation is composite and the group of allowed transformations present the direct product structure $`SO(3,1)\times SO(10)`$. A possible objection is that, unlike in the Pati-Salam model, the two groups play different roles. The gauge group only acts on matter filed components $`\delta \psi =\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{ij}\mathrm{\Sigma }^{ij}\psi `$ not involving coordinate transformations. The space-time group involves both, field components and coordinates transformations. In the special relativistic context, in which GUTs are in general considered, the theory is assumed to be invariant under the combined Lorentz transformation $`\delta x^\mu =ϵ_\nu ^\mu x^\nu +\tau ^\mu `$, $`\delta \psi =\frac{1}{2}ϵ_{\mu \nu }\mathrm{\Sigma }^{\mu \nu }\psi `$ with identical infinitesimal parameters $`ϵ^{\mu \nu }`$. Taking into account gravity is equivalent to gauge the Lorentz group  by considering the generalized transformations in which the parameters $`ϵ^{\mu \nu }`$ ad $`\tau ^\mu `$ become arbitrary functions of the coordinates. It is then possible to regard as independent $`ϵ^{\mu \nu }`$ and $`\xi ^\mu ϵ_\nu ^\mu x^\nu +\tau ^\mu `$. In this way, we can consider generalized transformations with $`\xi ^\mu =0`$ but arbitrary $`ϵ^{\mu \nu }`$. In the general relativistic context, coordinates and Lorentz field transformations become completely independent. The action of SO(3,1) on matter field components is absolutely analogue to the one of an internal gauge group.
It looks then natural to pursue a unified description of elementary matter by recalling that the left-handed chiral spin representation of the fourteen dimensional pseudo-orthogonal group transforms as

$$\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}=(\overline{\mathrm{𝟐}},\mathrm{𝟏𝟔})+(\mathrm{𝟐},\overline{\mathrm{𝟏𝟔}})$$
(3)
under the regular subgroup $`SO(3,1)\times SO(10)`$. For the signature a few different choices are possible. We can add the 10 Euclidean directions to the 3 space-like ones or the to single time-like one. Moreover, since we have to deal with a non-compact group anyway, there is no longer reason to prefer $`SO(10)`$ to $`SO(4,6)`$ in unifying $`SO(4)\times SO(6)`$. In this case we also can add the 4 to the 3 and the 6 to the 1 or the 4 to the 1 and the 6 to the 3. In brief, the fourteen dimensional pseudo-orthogonal groups

$$SO(13,1),SO(9,5),SO(7,7),SO(3,11)$$
(4)
present $`SO(3,1)\times SO(4)\times SO(6)`$ as regular subgroup and correctly contain all generation degrees of freedoms —space-time and gauge, particles and antiparticles— in their self-(pseudo)conjugate left-handed chiral spin representation. A generation of elementary particles is described by a single filed $`\psi _{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}}(x)`$ living in $`\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}`$.222Some of these degrees of freedom have to be identified with ordinary spin. The eventual enlargement of the gauge group produces a genuine unification inside each generation, still without addition of matter freedoms.
At least from the group-theoretical viewpoint, these considerations give a satisfactory solution to the first and third problem we mention in the introduction. The second problem, concerning families replication, apparently remains unsolved. Should we further extend the gauge group to include the missing degrees of freedoms? In order to answer this question we leave for a while the problem of elementary matter unification and turn our attention to fundamental interactions. The gauge groups of gravitational, hyper, weak and strong forces are regular subgroups of the fourteen dimensional pseudo-orthogonal groups (4) and their embedding is in some sense minimal. After symmetry breaking, four directions —identified with the physical space-time— transform under the Lorentz group; the remaining four+six —corresponding to an unphysical internal space— are respectively needed to realize $`SU(2)SO(4)`$ and $`SU(3)SO(6)`$ transformations (hypercharge is related to the relative rotation of weak and strong directions). From the point of view of fundamental interactions a further extension of the gauge group is unnecessary, if not undesirable. On the other hand, we still have to specify the sense in which the unified group has to be understood as gauge group. Given the pseudo-orthogonal structure and the fact that four of its defining directions form the physical space-time, the only reasonable choice seems that of accepting the remaining ten directions as more physical dimensions. We are lead to a fourteen dimensional space-time  with a pseudo-Euclidean geometry described by one of the groups (4). To make contact with low energy physics it is convenient to introduce local coordinates $`x^\mu `$, $`\mu =0,1,2,3`$ and $`\xi ^i`$, $`i=1,2,\mathrm{},10`$, respectively parameterizing directions transforming under the subgroups $`SO(3,1)`$ and $`SO(4)\times SO(6)`$. The former are identified with ordinary space-time coordinates, the latter parameterize extra dimensions. Let us now go back to elementary matter and the families replication problem. At low energies a generation of elementary particles is described by a filed $`\psi _{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}}(x)`$ only depending on ordinary space-time coordinates. In the higher dimensional model such a filed simply is a left-handed space-time spinor, but —as any other higher dimensional filed— this filed depends on all the space-time coordinates, the ordinary $`x`$ and the extra $`\xi `$

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}}(x,\xi )$$
(5)
For every given value of extra coordinates $`\psi _{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{},\xi }(x)\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}}(x,\xi )`$ exactly contains the fields describing a generation of elementary particles. The whole left-handed space-time spinor includes infinite many copies of the generation structure. The realization of the unified group as space-time symmetry makes unnecessary any further enlargement of the gauge group. All fundamental fermions are placed in a single representation of the space-time group.
The extension of space-time offers a non-group-theoretical explanation of the existence of many copies of the generation structure, addressing a possible solution of the families replication problem. The crucial point remains that of understanding how many of these copies survive when space-time symmetry is broken and the number of dimensions is effectively reduced to four. The answer depends on the particular dynamical mechanism employed in breaking the symmetry and goes beyond the goal of the this paper. We note however, that the needed symmetry breaking can occur in the fermion-fermion operator. The product of two left-handed spinors decomposes as

$$\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}\times \mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}=\mathrm{\Lambda }_1+\mathrm{\Lambda }_3+\mathrm{\Lambda }_5+\mathrm{\Lambda }_7^{}$$
(6)
in terms of $`k`$-forms $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_k`$, the 7-form being anti-self-dual. The associated curvature forms —respectively the closed 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-forms constructed by exterior differentiation— foliate space-time in 2-, 4- and 6-dimensional hyper-surfaces. This is exactly what we need to break the space-time group down to an effective $`SO(3,1)\times U(2)\times U(3)`$ through a Freund-Rubin  like mechanism.333The 14-dimensional space-times group can be broken in different ways in direct products of (pseudo)orthogonal and (pseudo)unitary symmetries; (pseudo)unitary groups are obtained when the 2-form survives on 4- and 6-hyper-surfaces, providing a complex structure. In addition equation (6) indicates that chiral fourteen-dimensional spinors are massless. In brief, the 14-dimensional left-handed space-time spinor (5) might be the right object describing elementary matter. In addressing a dynamical model different options are open. A particulary intriguing one is to assume that $`\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}}`$ is the only elementary filed, while the higher dimensional metric structure —hence the low energy graviton and gauge bosons— arises as a collective excitation of fermion-fermion pairs.

We conclude by considering the problem of discerning among the four possible choices of unified gauge group. A partial answer comes from the inspection of spin representations properties . For signatures (13,1) and (9,5) the spin representations carry a quaternionic structure. On $`\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}`$ it only is possible to define a pseudo-conjugation $`\stackrel{~}{𝒞}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{𝒞}^2=1`$, commuting with the action of the group. For signatures (7,7) and (3,11) the spin representations carry a real structure instead. A genuine operation $`𝒞`$ of complex conjugation, $`𝒞^2=1`$, is defined. It is compatible with the group action and commutes with the chiral operator. As a consequence the real and imaginary parts of $`\mathrm{𝟔𝟒}^{}`$ transform independently, forming irreducible real (Majorana) representations of the group. Particles and antiparticles live in a superposition of real and imaginary parts and the ones appear as the complex conjugate of the others. This is the common situation dealt with in field theory. The absence of a properly defined complex conjugation makes $`SO(13,1)`$ and $`SO(9,5)`$ not particularly attractive as unified groups —if not ruling them out. On the other hand, the spin representations of $`SO(7,7)`$ and $`SO(3,11)`$ are algebraically undistinguishable and a preference can not be expressed merely on this ground. From a purely aesthetical viewpoint, the total symmetry between components with opposite signature makes of $`SO(7,7)`$ a preferential candidate. In spite of technical problems, the idea of a space-time with an equal number of space and time dimensions, therefore treating space and time really on the same ground, appears particularly attractive.


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# Comments on ”Geometric Phase Associated with Transformations of Optical Beams Bearing Orbital Angular Momentum”

The first direct measurement of the geometric phase acquired by the light beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) has been reported by Galvez et al 1 . The closed path traversed by the optical beams is the space of modes of Laguerre-Gaussian beams 2 . Modes $`LG_p^l`$ carry OAM of $`l\mathrm{}`$ per photon, where $`l`$ is the azimuthal index, and $`p`$ is the radial index. In the experiments, a geometric phase on a $`LG_0^1`$ beam is introduced, changed, and interfered with a reference $`LG_0^0`$ beam. Authors conclude the paper with the statements: ”All of these geometric phases arose from transformations involving a change in the OAM of the modes. They support the conjecture that geometric phase arises from the exchange of angular momentum between the light and optical system ”. Ref.13 in 1  is an interesting work by van Enk,here after referred at 3 . In the present note I make following comments:

* The connection of angular momentum to the geometrical phase in optics was vaguely hinted at in 4 . In 1992 plausible arguments were presented to propose that the physical mechanism of geometrical phase in optics was the transfer of angular momentum between the light and optical elements 5 . This conjecture was theoretically supported by van Enk 3  ,and later by Banerjee 6 . In 3  van Enk considered LG beams for the geometric phases.
* In 1994, LeFloch showed interest to verify this conjecture in his laboratory, however the extreme difficulty in the measurement of angular momentum transfer was pointed out by him 7 . The present work measures geometric phase, and is significant; however the direct demonstration of angular momentum exchange remains elusive. I believe a direct experimental verification of this relationship, and measurement of angular momentum exchange would have far reaching implications on the nature of light and crystal optics 8 .

Acknowledgement

The library facility of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi is acknowledged.


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# The origin of H I-deficiency in galaxies on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster

## 1 Introduction

Radio observations at 21cm have revealed that spiral galaxies within clusters are deficient in neutral Hydrogen (e.g. Chamaraux, Balkowski, & Gérard 1980), and their H I-deficiency, normalized to their optical diameter and morphological type, is largest for the spirals near the cluster center (Haynes & Giovanelli 1986; Cayatte et al. 1990; Solanes et al. 2001). Chamaraux et al. (1980) suggested that the H I-deficiency of cluster spirals was caused by the ram pressure stripping of their interstellar Hydrogen by the hot intracluster gas that emits in X-rays. Galaxies falling face-on into a cluster experience a ram pressure that scales as $`\rho _{\mathrm{cl}}v^2`$ (Gunn & Gott 1972), where $`\rho _{\mathrm{cl}}`$ is the cluster gas density and $`v`$ is the relative velocity of the spiral galaxy in its cluster. Therefore, ram pressure stripping requires the large infall velocities present in rich clusters.

Solanes et al. (2002) recently discovered deficient spirals in the periphery of the Virgo cluster, with several ones typically over 5 Mpc in front or behind the cluster core. In an ensuing study, Sanchis et al. (2002) could not discard the possibility that some of these galaxies could have passed through the cluster core and in the process had their interstellar gas swept out by the ram pressure caused by the intracluster hot diffuse gas.

The idea of galaxies beyond the virial radius having passed through the main body of a cluster in the past has been addressed by Balogh, Navarro, & Morris (2000) in the context of the discovery of reduced star formation rates on the outskirts of clusters in comparison with the field (Balogh et al. 1997). Using cosmological simulations, Balogh et al. analyzed 6 clusters within a sphere of 2 times their final virial radius and found that $`54\pm 20\%`$ of the particles between $`r_{200}`$ and $`2r_{200}`$ (where $`r_{200}`$ is the radius where the mean density of the cluster is 200 times the critical density) have actually been inside the virial radius of the main cluster progenitor at some earlier time. Unfortunately, Balogh et al. do not provide any precision on the maximum distances that such particles that were once within a cluster progenitor can move out to. Furthermore, one needs to check if $`2r_{200}`$ represents a sufficient distance for particles bouncing out of virialised structures to explain the H I-deficient galaxies on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster.

In this paper, we ask whether the H I-deficient galaxies on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster have previously passed through the core of the cluster, using both analytical arguments and the output of cosmological $`N`$-body simulations. In Sect. 2, we describe the $`N`$-body simulations analyzed in this paper. Next, in Sect. 3, we study the structure in radial phase space of dark matter halos of the simulations. In Sect. 4, we compute the maximum rebound radius, both analytically, making use of the turnaround radius of cosmological structures, which we compute in an appendix, and by studying the structure of our simulated halos in radial phase space, as well as analyzing the orbital evolution of particles in the cosmological simulations of Fukushige & Makino (2001). In Sect. 5, we estimate the virial radius and other virial parameters of the Virgo cluster to permit the estimation of the Virgo rebound radius in physical units. We discuss our results in Sect. 6.

In a companion paper (Sanchis et al. 2003), we discuss in more detail the origin of the H I-deficiency in galaxies on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster, by analyzing 2D slices of the 4D phase space (right ascension, declination, distance and radial velocity) and comparing them with the cosmological $`N`$-body simulations used here.

## 2 $`N`$-body simulations

The $`N`$-body simulations used here to find $`N`$-body replica of the Virgo cluster were carried out by Ninin (1999, see Hatton et al. 2003) in the context of the GALICS (Hatton et al.) hybrid $`N`$-body/semi-analytic model of hierarchical galaxy formation. Here we are basically interested in the density and velocity fields directly traced by dark matter particles. The $`N`$-body simulation contains $`256^3`$ particles of mass $`8.3\times 10^9M_{}`$ in a box of 150 Mpc size and it is run with a softening length amounting to a spatial resolution of 29 kpc. The simulation was run for a flat universe with cosmological parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.333,\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.667`$, $`H_0=66.7\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, and $`\sigma _8=0.88`$. Once the simulation is run, halos of dark matter are detected with a ‘Friends-of-Friends’ (FoF) algorithm (Davis et al. 1985), with a variable linking length such that the minimum mass of the FoF groups is $`1.65\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ (20 particles) at any time step. With this method, over $`2\times 10^4`$ halos are detected at the final timestep, corresponding to the present-day ($`z=0`$) Universe. The GALICS halo finder does not allow halos within halos, so that a cluster, to which is assigned a massive halo, cannot contain smaller halos within it.

## 3 Halo structure in radial phase space

Fig. 1 shows the radial phase space diagrams, i.e. radial velocity vs. radial distance, both relative to the halo center, for 4 massive halos. We have studied the final output of the simulation at $`z=0`$. The centers of the isolated halos shown in Fig. 1 are provided by the simulation output and correspond to the barycenter of the FoF groups of particles. Radial distances are normalized to the virial radius $`r_{100}`$, corresponding to the radius where the mean density is 100 times the critical density of the Universe. We use $`r_{100}`$ instead of $`r_{200}`$ because the former represents better the virial radius in universes with non zero cosmological constant (Kitayama & Suto 1996). Velocities are normalized to the respective circular velocities at $`r_{100}`$.

Most of the massive halos in the simulation have a phase space diagram similar to those for the 4 halos shown in Fig. 1, once scaled to the virial radius and circular velocity at the virial radius. In particular, all plots show a virialized region for radii smaller than the $`r_{100}`$ (although this virialization is not perfect, for example see the excess of positive velocity particles in the lower left plot, presumably caused by a large group that is bouncing out of the cluster), and an infalling region with velocity increasing with radius and asymptotically reaching the (linear) Hubble flow. One clearly notices groups or small clusters of particles in the outer regions (e.g. at $`r=3r_{100}`$ in the upper right plot), which display *Fingers of God* patterns in phase space. The material within 1 or $`2r_{100}`$ that bounces out of the cluster should form a pattern symmetric to the infalling pattern relative to the zero velocity line. It is smeared out by numerical two-body relaxation (S. Colombi informed us that the rebounding region is seen more sharply when simulations are run with increased potential softening lengths that reduce the numerical relaxation). The global aspect of these phase space plots is similar to those shown by Fukushige & Makino (2001, Fig. 21), at various epochs of their cosmological simulations (run with a standard — $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0`$ — CDM cosmology).

## 4 Maximum rebound radius

An inspection of Fig. 1 shows that dark matter particles beyond the virialized core and outside the infalling/expanding zone of phase space can reach 2 or 2.5 times the virial radius, but not any further, and moreover come in groups of particles which appear to be tidally shredded in phase space. In other words, *particles that cross through the core of a cluster cannot bounce out beyond 2.5 virial radii*.

Now galaxies are not just particles, but arise within particle condensations known as dark matter halos, which should arise as vertically-elongated (Fingers of God) particle condensations in phase space, and therefore ought to avoid the fairly sparse regions of phase space where the outermost outgoing particles are seen. The open circles in Fig. 1 indicate the halos without galaxies within them in GALICS. The absence of galaxies within halos is a feature of GALICS for halos that cross a larger one (its galaxies become part of the larger halo). Empty halos can also occur in GALICS for isolated halos in which galaxies have not yet had time to form. The empty halos outside the infalling/expanding region do not extend beyond $`1.7r_{100}`$ (upper left and lower right panels, with the former possibly a member of the group at $`1.9r_{100}`$). In contrast, the normal halos (filled circles in Fig. 1) outside the infalling/expanding region do not extend as far from the main halo. The positions of the empty circles in Fig. 1 therefore suggests that halos crossing the main halo do not bounce out further than $`1.7r_{100}`$.

This maximum rebound radius is consistent with a close inspection of the right panel of Figure 20 from Fukushige & Makino (2001), which shows that the largest rebound radii in one of their cosmological simulations, i.e. the largest radii of a particle that has experienced at least one pericenter, is 2 Mpc, occurring at the present epoch, for a cluster whose present-day virial radius ($`r_{200}`$) is at 1.7 Mpc (see their Table 2). Hence for that particular shell, the rebound radius is only 1.2 times $`r_{200}`$ and an even smaller factor times $`r_{178}`$ (the canonical radius for the cosmology used). Given the $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1`$ cosmology used, for which the spherical infall model yields scale-free growth, the rebound radius should be proportional to the turnaround radius, which itself should be proportional to the virial radius, with a time growth of $`rt^{8/9}`$ (Gott 1975). We checked that the other rebound radii occurring earlier were even smaller than the scaled expectation of a 2 Mpc radius today.

One can confirm this result through simple analytical arguments. First, if one identifies the virial radius to the radius where infalling shells meet the rebounding shells, this will be very close to the rebound radius itself, defined as the radius where a shell reaches its second apocenter (see Fig. 1 of Mamon 1992), so that the rebound radius will be very close to $`r_{100}`$.

Moreover, one can estimate the rebound radius for a flat cosmology in the following manner. To begin, assume that the rebound radius is $`\stackrel{~}{r}`$ times smaller than the turnaround radius (the first apocenter of the shell), and occurs at a time equal to $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ times the epoch of turnaround. The mass within a shell that has reached its second apocenter will be close to but greater than the mass $`M`$ within the same shell at turnaround, since some additional matter will be infalling for the first time. We write this as

$$\rho _{\mathrm{reb}}(t_0)>\stackrel{~}{r}^3\rho _{\mathrm{ta}}(T_{\mathrm{ta}}),$$
(1)
where the rebound density is for the present epoch, while the turnaround density is for the epoch of a shell’s first apocenter given that its second apocenter is today. Given that the mass within the shell at turnaround is

$`M`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3}}(1+\delta _i)\rho _ir_i^3`$ (2)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi }{3}}\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _0}{1+z_i}}\right)\rho _0r_0^3,`$
where we used equations (20) and (27), We then obtain a mean density within the turnaround radius that satisfies

$$\frac{\rho _{\mathrm{ta}}}{\rho _0}=\left(1+\frac{\delta _0}{1+z_i}\right)\frac{1}{y_{\mathrm{ta}}^3}\frac{1}{y_{\mathrm{ta}}^3}.$$
(3)
Equations (1) and (3) lead to

$$\rho _{\mathrm{reb}}>\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{r}}{y_{\mathrm{ta}}}\right)^3\mathrm{\Omega }_0\rho _{\mathrm{c},0},$$
(4)
where $`\rho _{\mathrm{c},0}`$ is the present day critical density. Inverting mean density into mass, assuming $`d\mathrm{ln}\rho /d\mathrm{ln}r=\alpha `$, leads to

$$\frac{r_{\mathrm{reb}}}{r_{\mathrm{vir}}}<\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Delta }}\right)^{1/\alpha }\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{r}}{y_{\mathrm{ta}}}\right)^{3/\alpha },$$
(5)
where the virial radius $`r_{\mathrm{vir}}`$ is defined such that the mean density within it is $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ times the critical density. For Navarro, Frenk, & White (1995, hereafter NFW) density profiles, with concentration parameters $`c6`$, as found by Bullock et al. (2001) in recent $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmological simulations, using $`\mathrm{\Delta }100`$, we obtain a slope $`\alpha =2.4`$ at the virial radius.

There are two ways one can reach a large rebound radius today: either with a large ratio of rebound to turnaround radius for a given shell (i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{r}`$ as small as possible, but it cannot be smaller than unity), or with a turnaround as late as possible (i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{t}`$ as small as possible), which implies a lower turnaround density, hence a lower rebound density (for given $`\stackrel{~}{r}`$).

In the first case, the rebound radius could be equal to the initial turnaround radius, i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{r}=1`$. One then expects that a shell that is presently at its second apocenter, should have reached turnaround at epoch $`t_0/3`$, i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{t}=3`$. We make use of the reasonably simple expression for the turnaround radius versus time obtained in the Appendix. Solving equation (31) for $`\delta _0`$, using equations (28) and (29) for $`y_{\mathrm{ta}}`$ and $`(\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3,\lambda _0=0.7)`$, yields $`\delta _0=2.69`$ and $`y_{\mathrm{ta}}=0.229`$. Equation (5) and $`\alpha =2.4`$ then lead to $`r_{\mathrm{reb}}<1.8r_{100}`$.

Second, in the spirit of the shell rapidly virializing through violent relaxation at full collapse, one can assume that the shell reaches its second apocenter right after its first pericenter (full collapse), i.e. $`\stackrel{~}{t}>2`$, with a radius near half its turnaround radius ($`\stackrel{~}{r}=2`$). This yields (not surprisingly) $`r_{\mathrm{reb}}=1.03r_{100}`$. The very best case requires $`\stackrel{~}{r}=1`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{t}=2`$, and leads to $`r_{\mathrm{reb}}=2.46r_{100}`$. Table 1 summarizes these estimates of the rebound radius, where $`\delta _0`$ and $`y_{\mathrm{ta}}`$ come from equations (28), (29) and (31) and $`r_{\mathrm{reb}}/r_{100}`$ from equation (5). The last four lines are for the four particle orbits from the simulations of Fukushige & Makino (2001) that rebound within the last 7 Gyr, and for these $`\delta _0`$ is computed so that the epoch of the second apocenter is the present time, hence the epoch of turnaround is $`t_0/(t_{\mathrm{reb}}/t_{\mathrm{ta}})`$.

Although, the uncertain effects of relaxation as the shell crosses through the virialized region lead to uncertain values of the ratios of rebound to turnaround radius ($`\stackrel{~}{r}`$) and time ($`\stackrel{~}{t}`$), *in the most favorable spherical infall model, the rebound radius cannot be greater than 2.5 times the virial radius*. The cosmological simulations of Fukushige & Makino suggest rebound radii of order of $`r_{100}`$, but recall that they are for a different cosmology ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1,\lambda _0=0`$). The use of real simulations has the added advantage of incorporating the effects of two-body encounters that can push material beyond the theoretical rebound radius. However, it is not always easy to distinguish in a given snapshot of phase space (e.g. Fig. 1) the material that is bouncing out of a structure with material that is infalling for the first time (except that the former particles are in halos without galaxies), and the analysis of particle histories, done for the simulations of Fukushige & Makino, is beyond the scope of this paper for the GALICS simulations.

## 5 Virial radius, mass and velocity of the Virgo cluster

For the application of results of Sect. 4 to the Virgo cluster, we require an estimate of the virial radius of the cluster. We estimate $`r_{100}`$ through the large-scale X-ray observations of the Virgo cluster obtained with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey by Schindler, Binggeli, & Böhringer (1999). The peak of the X-ray emission in Virgo coincides with the position of the giant elliptical M87, and we use the integrated mass profile around M87 obtained by Schindler et al. to derive the virial radius. With their isothermal approximation for the total mass profile (their Fig. 11a), $`M(r)/r`$ is independent of radius for $`rr_c`$ and also of the assumed distance to Virgo, yielding

$$\frac{GM(r)}{r}=3\beta \frac{kT}{\mu m_p},$$
(6)
where $`\beta =0.47`$ is the shape parameter of the X-ray gas density profile, $`kT=2.7\mathrm{keV}`$ and $`\mu m_p`$ is the mean particle mass, generally assumed for a hot plasma to be roughly $`0.6m_p`$, where $`m_p`$ is the proton mass. The virial radius, $`r_{100}`$, is then obtained through

$$\overline{\rho }=\frac{3M_{100}}{4\pi r_{100}^3}=\mathrm{\Delta }\frac{3H_0^2}{8\pi G},$$
(7)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }=100`$ is the spherical overdensity at the virial radius. Solving equations (6) and (7), one obtains

$`r_{100}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{H_0}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3\beta kT}{\mu m_p}}}=1.65h_{2/3}^1\mathrm{Mpc},`$ (8)
$`M_{100}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{GH_0}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{\mathrm{\Delta }}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{3\beta kT}{\mu m_p}}\right)^{3/2}`$ (9)
$`=`$ $`2.30\times 10^{14}h_{2/3}^1\mathrm{M}_{},`$
$`v_{100}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{GM_{100}}{r_{100}}}}=\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{3\beta kT}{\mu m_p}}}=780\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1,`$ (10)
where $`v_{100}`$ is the circular velocity at $`r_{100}`$ and $`h_{2/3}=H_0/(66.7\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1)`$.

The Virgo cluster is believed to have a complex structure, as it may be composed of several subclusters (Binggeli, Tammann, & Sandage 1987) around the elliptical galaxies M87 (NGC 4486), M86 (NGC 4406), and M49 (NGC 4472). The virial radius of $`1.65h_{2/3}^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ is such that the important substructure surrounding M86 is well within it, at a distance of 0.23 (projected) and 0.44 (3D) times $`r_{100}`$ (converted to $`H_0=70\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$) of M87. Similarly, the important substructure around M49 lies just within the virial radius, at a distance of 0.82 (projected) and 0.88 (3D) times the virial radius of M87. Among the other Messier galaxies in Virgo, which all have fairly secure distances, M60 is well within the virial radius, M89 lies just at the virial radius, while M59 is outside.

Analyzing the X-ray emission of the intra-cluster gas, Schindler et al. (1999) found that the M49 subcluster is 2.4 times less massive than the M87 subcluster. The ratio of masses between the M87 and the M86 subclusters is even larger (Böhringer et al. 1994). It therefore appears that the structure surrounding M87 is by far the most massive component in the Virgo cluster, and it is not a bad approximation to choose a single halo to represent the cluster, so we can apply the results of Sect. 4.

## 6 Discussion

The analysis of Sect. 4 indicates that the *maximum rebound radius is between 1 and 2.5 times the virial radius*. Given the virial radius of 1.65 Mpc for the Virgo cluster, which we derived in Sect. 5, and the maximum rebound radius derived in Sect. 4, galaxies passing through the Virgo cluster core in the past cannot lie further than $`(12.5)\times 1.65=1.74.1`$ Mpc from the cluster center.

Balogh et al. (2000) found that a very significant fraction of particles at a distance between 1 and $`2r_{200}`$ from the centres of cosmologically simulated clusters have passed through the main body ($`r<r_{200}`$) of a cluster progenitor at some earlier epoch. Note that although the analysis of Balogh et al. was performed in terms of $`r_{200}`$, they would have very probably gotten similar results had they scaled their clusters *and progenitors* with $`r_{100}`$ instead. As mentioned in Sect. 1, it is not clear from their analysis if particles can escape beyond $`2r_{200}`$ or even beyond, say, only $`1.5r_{200}`$. Also, it is easier to displace out to large distances particles rather than large groups of particles representing a galaxy (or subhalo). In any event, the result of Balogh et al. is consistent with our analysis of Sect, 4.

An examination of Fig. 2 of Solanes et al. (2002) indicates $`3\sigma `$ H I-deficient galaxies lying between 9 and 30 Mpc from the Local Group, and in particular galaxies at 10 and 28 Mpc from the Local Group, whose distance error bars do not reach the wide range of distances to the Virgo cluster found in the literature (14 Mpc by Ciardullo et al. 1998 to 21 Mpc by Ekholm et al. 2000). Therefore, it appears very difficult to explain such H I-deficient galaxies over 5 Mpc in front or behind the cluster center as having crossed through the center of the cluster and bounced out if their distance estimates are accurate. This would suggest that the H I-deficient galaxies in the outskirts of the Virgo have not had their interstellar gas ram pressure stripped by the intracluster diffuse hot gas.

An alternative explanation to the presence on the outskirts of clusters of H I-deficient spirals, as well as to the decreased star formation rates and redder colours of galaxies in these regions, relative to field galaxies, is that the three effects of H I removal, decreased star formation and redder colours, all intimately linked, may be caused by a significant enhancement of massive groups of galaxies at the outskirts of clusters, as expected from the statistics of the primordial density field (Kaiser 1984) applied to small groups versus rich clusters (Mamon 1995). If this is the case, we would then expect a correlation between H I-deficiency and X-ray emission from the intragroup gas. However, while tidal effects, which to first order depend on mean density, regardless of orbit eccentricity (Mamon 2000), are similar between less massive groups and more massive clusters, ram pressure stripping effects, which also depend on the squared velocity dispersion of the environment, will be much reduced in groups relative to clusters (e.g. Abadi et al. 1999).

In the companion paper (Sanchis et al. 2003), we consider different explanations to the origin of the H I-deficiency of these outlying galaxies: 1) incorrect distances, so these objects would in fact lie close enough to the cluster core to be within the rebound radius and their gas could have been removed by ram pressure stripping, 2) incorrect estimation of the H I-deficiencies and 3) tidal perturbations (stripping or heating) by nearby companions or within groups.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank Stéphane Colombi, Yehuda Hoffman, and Ewa Łokas for useful discussions and François Bouchet, Bruno Guiderdoni and coworkers for kindly providing us with their $`N`$-body simulations, and Jeremy Blaizot for answering our technical questions about the design and access to the simulations. We also thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments. TS acknowledges hospitality of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris where most of this work was done, and she and GAM acknowledge Ewa Łokas for hosting them at the CAMK in Warsaw, where part of this work was also done. TS was supported by a fellowship of the Ministerio de Eduación, Cultura y Deporte of Spain.

## Appendix A Radius, time and density of turnaround in a flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology

In this appendix, we compute the parameters of shells at *turnaround*, i.e. reaching their first apocenter, in a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM Universe without quintessence ($`w_Q=1`$).

In a non-quintessential Universe with a cosmological constant, the equation of motion of a shell of matter is

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}^2R}{\mathrm{d}t^2}=\frac{GM(R,t)}{R^2}+\frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3}R,$$
(11)
where the first term on the right hand side is the gravitational force and the second term is the repulsive effect of the cosmological constant $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. A given shell of matter that first expands with the Universe and then turns around and collapses will begin to cross shells that have already settled in a structure only slightly before its own collapse. Therefore, during the expansion phase, there is no shell crossing and hence $`M(R,t)=\text{cst}`$.

The equation of motion can then be easily integrated to yield the energy equation

$$E=\frac{1}{2}\dot{r}^2\frac{GM}{r}\frac{1}{6}\mathrm{\Lambda }r^2=\frac{1}{2}\dot{r}_{i}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\frac{GM}{r_i}\frac{1}{6}\mathrm{\Lambda }r_i^2,$$
(12)
where $`E`$ is the energy per unit mass of the shell, and where the $`i`$ subscript refers to a very early time $`t_i`$, corresponding to redshift $`z_i1`$ (e.g. $`z_i=1000`$). It is convenient to use the quantities

$$\mathrm{\Omega }\frac{8\pi G\rho }{3H^2},\text{and}\lambda \frac{\mathrm{\Lambda }}{3H^2},$$
(13)
which represent the dimensionless mass density and dark energy of the Universe at any epoch, and we will use subscripts ‘0’ to denote the present epoch ($`z=0`$). In the case of a flat Universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0+\lambda _0=1`$), as confirmed with the WMAP CMB experiment by Spergel et al. (2003), mass and energy conservation applied to the Universe lead to (e.g. Richstone, Loeb, & Turner 1992)

$$H_i^2=H_0^2\left[\mathrm{\Omega }_0(1+z_i)^3+\lambda _0\right]$$
(14)
At time $`t_i`$, the mass enclosed within radius $`r_i`$ is

$$M=\frac{4\pi }{3}\left(1+\delta _i\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_i\rho _{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{i}}r_i^3=\frac{1}{2}\left(1+\delta _i\right)\mathrm{\Omega }_iH_i^2\frac{r_i^3}{G},$$
(15)
where $`\delta _i`$ is the relative overdensity within radius $`r_i`$ at time $`t_i`$ (normalized to the density of the Universe at that epoch), and where we made use of the critical density of the Universe at $`t_i`$:

$$\rho _{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{i}}=\frac{3H_i^2}{8\pi G}.$$
(16)
With a dimensionless radial growth factor $`u(r,t)=r/r_i`$, the first energy equation can be expressed as

$$\dot{u}=H_i\sqrt{\frac{2E}{H_i^2r_i^2}+\frac{(1+\delta _i)\mathrm{\Omega }_i}{u}+\lambda _iu^2},$$
(17)
where we made use of equations (12), (13), (14), and (15). The energy $`E`$ of the shell is obtained by expressing equation (17) for the epoch $`t_i`$, yielding

$$\frac{2E}{H_i^2r_i^2}=\frac{\dot{u_i}^2}{H_i^2}\left[(1+\delta _i)\mathrm{\Omega }_i+\lambda _i\right].$$
(18)
The second equality of equation (13) yields

$`\lambda _i`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{H_0}{H_i}}\right)^2\lambda _0=\left({\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\lambda _0}}(1+z_i)^3+1\right)^1`$ (19)
$`=`$ $`O\left((1+z_i)^3\right)1.`$
Mass conservation amounts to a mean density of the Universe that varies as

$$\rho _i\rho (z_i)=\rho _0(1+z_i)^3,$$
(20)
where $`\rho _0`$ is the present-day mass density of the Universe. This then yields

$`\mathrm{\Omega }_i`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0(1+z_i)^3\left({\displaystyle \frac{H_0}{H_i}}\right)^2`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`\left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda _0}{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}}(1+z_i)^3\right]^1=1\lambda _i`$
Inserting equations (18), (19) and (21) into equation (17) yields

$$\dot{u}=H_i\sqrt{\frac{\dot{u_i}^2}{H_i^2}+\frac{1+\delta _i\lambda _i}{u}+\lambda _iu^2(1+\delta _i)},$$
(22)
where we discarded terms in $`o(\lambda _i)`$. Now, as pointed out by Chodorowski (1988), Bartelmann, Ehlers, & Schneider (1993) and Padmanabhan (1993), one should not assume that the initial flow is a pure Hubble flow ($`\dot{u}_i=H_i`$), but incorporate the peculiar motion acquired before $`z_i`$. Using the Zeldovich (1970) approximation, Chodorowski and Bartelmann et al. show that

$$\dot{u}_i=H_i\left(1\frac{\delta _i}{3}\right).$$
(23)
Inserting equation (23) into equation (22) and discarding high order terms in $`(1+z_i)^1`$ and $`\lambda _i`$ — writing $`\delta _i=O(1/(1+z_i))=\delta _0/(1+z_i)`$ — yields

$$\dot{u}=H_i\sqrt{\frac{5}{3}\delta _i+\frac{1}{u}+\lambda _iu^2}.$$
(24)
The turnaround radius is obtained by solving for $`\dot{u}=0`$, i.e. solving

$$\lambda _iu_{\mathrm{ta}}^3\frac{5}{3}\delta _iu_{\mathrm{ta}}+1=0$$
(25)
for $`u_{\mathrm{ta}}`$. Łokas & Hoffman (2001) found the same solution without the 5/3 term, as their $`\delta _i`$ refers to the total initial density, whereas our $`\delta _i`$ refers to the growing mode only. We can go further than Łokas & Hoffman by expressing and solving a cubic equation *in terms of present-day quantities*. With equation (19), equation (25) reduces to solving

$$\frac{1\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\mathrm{\Omega }_0}y_{\mathrm{ta}}^3\frac{5}{3}\delta _0y_{\mathrm{ta}}+1=0$$
(26)
for $`y_{\mathrm{ta}}=u_{\mathrm{ta}}/(1+z_i)=r_{\mathrm{ta}}/r_0<1`$, where

$$r_0=r_i(1+z_i)$$
(27)
is the comoving radius of the initial perturbation. The smallest real positive solution of the cubic equation (26) is

$`y_{\mathrm{ta}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{5}}{3}}\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\delta _0\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{1\mathrm{\Omega }_0}}}\mathrm{cos}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\varphi +\pi }{3}}\right)`$ (28)
$`\varphi `$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}^1\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{729}{500}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{\left(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right)/\mathrm{\Omega }_0}{\delta _0^3}}\right]}`$ (29)
for $`\delta _02^{1/3}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}9}/10\left[\left(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right)/\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right]^{1/3}`$.

The time of turnaround is then obtained by integrating equation (24) and writing $`u=(1+z_i)y`$, yielding

$$\frac{H_iT_{\mathrm{ta}}}{\left(1+z_i\right)^{3/2}}=_0^{y_{\mathrm{ta}}}\frac{\sqrt{y}\mathrm{d}y}{\sqrt{1(5/3)\delta _0y+\left[\left(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right)/\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right]y^3}}.$$
(30)
The starting point of the integration is taken at 0 instead of $`1/(1+z_i)`$, which corresponds to adding the negligible time between the $`t=0`$ and $`t_i`$. With equation (14), equation (30) becomes

$$H_0T_{\mathrm{ta}}=_0^{y_{\mathrm{ta}}}\frac{\sqrt{y}\mathrm{d}y}{\sqrt{\mathrm{\Omega }_0(5/3)\delta _0\mathrm{\Omega }_0y+\left(1\mathrm{\Omega }_0\right)y^3}}.$$
(31)
For $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$, $`\lambda _0=0`$, we get $`y_{\mathrm{ta}}=3/(5\delta _0)`$, $`H_0T_{\mathrm{ta}}=(\pi /2)[3/(5\delta _0)]^{3/2}`$, so that a shell that collapses today, hence turns around at $`H_0T_{\mathrm{ta}}=H_0t_0/2=1/3`$, requires a linearly extrapolated density contrast of $`\delta _0=(3/5)(3\pi /2)^{2/3}=1.686`$, as expected.


text:
# High Velocity Gas in the Halos of Spiral Galaxies

## 1. Introduction

In recent years, deep H I surveys of nearby spiral galaxies, viewed at different inclination angles, have been obtained to study the gas outside the plane of the disk. Edge-on galaxies have been used to investigate the vertical distribution and rotation velocity and face-on galaxies to study the distribution in the plane and the vertical motions.

The pioneering study of the edge-on galaxy NGC 891 (Swaters, Sancisi & Van der Hulst 1997) revealed an H I halo ($``$15% of the total H I mass) extended up to 5 kpc from the plane and having a mean rotation velocity 25$``$100 km s-1 lower than that of the disk. This velocity gradient has also been observed in the ionized gas (e.g. NGC 5775; Rand 2000). More recently, detection of extra-planar H I has been reported for other edge-on systems such as the superthin galaxy UGC 7321 where there is also the indication of a rotation velocity gradient (Matthews & Wood 2003).

Several studies of face-on galaxies have shown the presence of high velocity gas complexes and of holes in the H I distribution (e.g. Ho II, Puche 1992). In some cases the high velocity gas is associated with the H I holes (e.g. M101, Kamphuis, Sancisi & Van der Hulst 1991) and thus possibly caused by star formation activity. In others, it is probably due to accretion of material from the intergalactic medium (e.g. Van der Hulst & Sancisi 1988).

## 2. The spiral galaxy NGC 2403

NGC 2403 is a non-interacting (Sc) spiral galaxy, very similar to M 33 and located at a distance of about 3 Mpc. Deep H I observations with the VLA (Fraternali et al. 2002a) have revealed the presence of a gas component with anomalous kinematics, not expected for a thin disk (Figure 1). The anomalous H I in NGC 2403 forms a thick (scale-height$``$1$``$3 kpc) layer with a mass of 3 $`\times `$ 108 $`M_{}`$ (1/10 of the total H I mass) and a mean rotation velocity 20$``$50 km s-1 lower than that of the gas in the disk. It is the analogous of the H I halo found by Swaters et al. (1997) in NGC 891. Part of the anomalous gas, located in the inner parts of the galaxy, shows large non-circular motions with projected differences of up to 150 km s-1 from rotation (300 km s-1 if it is moving vertically). High velocity complexes are also observed outside the bright optical disk, the most remarkable being an 8 kpc long filament with a mass of about 107 $`M_{}`$. The halo gas in NGC 2403 also shows the indication of a radial infall (of 10$``$20 km s-1) towards the centre of the galaxy (Fraternali et al. 2001).

The origin of the anomalous gas in NGC 2403 is uncertain. It may be explained by a galactic fountain mechanism (Shapiro & Field 1976). The discovery of hot, diffuse, X-ray emitting gas with $`Chandra`$ (Fraternali et al. 2002b) seems to support this interpretation. However an external (accretion) origin can not be excluded.

## 3. The edge-on galaxy NGC 891

NGC 891 is a nearby (Sbc) spiral galaxy seen almost perfectly edge-on (i$``$88.6; Rupen et al. 1987). It is located at a distance of 9.5 Mpc and it is considered very similar to the Milky Way. A recent H I study of this galaxy has shown the presence of an extended H I halo rotating more slowly (25$``$100 km s-1) than the disk (Swaters et al. 1997).

We have re-observed NGC 891 with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) with about 200 hrs of integration (Oosterloo et al., in preparation). The high sensitivity and long integration of these new observations have permitted the detection of H I gas at distances of about 10$``$15 kpc from the plane. Figure 2 shows a comparison between the total H I map of NGC 891 published by Swaters et al. (1997) and the one produced with the new WSRT data. Our new observations are about a factor 5 better in sensitivity and reveal an H I layer much more extended in the vertical direction (about $`\times `$2) while the on-plane size is almost unchanged.

Swaters et al. have modelled the H I layer of NGC 891 and excluded the possibility that the extra-planar gas could be produced by a warp along the line of sight or an imperfectly edge-on orientation of the system. Our modeling analysis confirms these results. Moreover we have made a more detailed study of the halo gas. In Figure 3 we show the observed channels maps of NGC 891 (right hand column) compared with several models of the H I layer. The flare model (column 1) shows the effect of an increase of the H I scale-height (up to FWHM$``$6 kpc) in the outer disk. The corotating halo model (column 2) is a 2-component model formed by a thin disk plus a thicker disk (FWHM=6 kpc), comprising about 20% of the total H I mass, with the same rotation curve as the disk. These two models fail to reproduce the thin channels at high rotation velocities (275.5 and 308.5 km s-1). The other three models are made with 2 components: disk and lagging halo. The halo has a constant rotation velocity of 185 km s-1(about 35 km s-1 lower than the disk). In the lagging flare, the extra-planar gas is mainly located in the outer parts of the disk, and in the other two models it has a distribution (in R) similar to that of the gas in the thin disk. In the last model (column 5) the halo gas also has a radial infall motion (of 20 km s-1), similar to that found in NGC 2403. All the models with lagging halos are acceptable with some preference for models in column 4 and 5.

From this analysis we can conclude that the extra-planar H I in NGC 891 is rotating more slowly (mean velocity of about 35 km s-1) than the gas in the plane. It is distributed in a thick (FWHM$``$6 kpc) layer with a radial profile similar to that of the disk. Moreover, the data are consistent with a radial inflow of halo gas toward the centre of the galaxy.

## 4. The nearly face-on galaxy NGC 6946

NGC 6946 is a nearby Scd spiral galaxy, viewed at an inclination angle i$``$30 and located at a distance of 5.9 Mpc. It has been studied in H I by Kamphuis (1993) and this revealed an extended H I disk (about twice the size of the optical) and the presence of several H I holes.

NGC 6946 has recently been re-observed in H I with the WSRT (Boomsma et al., in preparation). Figure 4 shows the total H I map obtained from these new data, the ellipse outlines the area inside R25=5.5. The H I disk is extended far beyond the optical radius out to $``$13$``$22 kpc. The H I distribution clearly shows a spiral pattern and numerous holes, mostly confined to the inner (bright optical) part of the disk.

High velocity gas is detected all over the disk of NGC 6946, in some cases associated with H I holes. In Figure 4 (right panel) we show a position-velocity diagram taken roughly along the major axis (indicated by the line on the total H I map). This diagram illustrates the variety of features which are detected in NGC 6946. There is clearly anomalous (halo) gas similar to that found in NGC 2403. However, in this case, part of the anomalous gas is also observed on the high velocity side of the diagram (showing the presence of vertical motions). Moreover, in NGC 6946 clouds at very high velocity are observed (see the one at projected velocity of 150 km s-1). Surprisingly, some of these are detected outside the bright optical disk (Boomsma et al., this conference) and seem therefore not to be related with star formation.

## 5. Discussion and conclusions

The study of spiral galaxies viewed at different inclination angles is needed to reconstruct the 3D distribution and kinematics of the halo gas. The three galaxies shown here are good complementary candidates for such a study. What we learn about the halo gas from these three studies can be summarized as follows:

1. Distribution: Spiral galaxies have thick components (halos) of H I gas with typical FWHMs of a few kpc. H I clouds are detected up to distances of 10$``$15 kpc from the plane of the disk (NGC 891). The typical mass of the H I halo is about 10$``$20% of the total H I mass of the galaxy. The typical masses of individual clouds are a few 106 $`M_{}`$, very similar to some of the HVCs in the Milky Way (e.g. complex A, Van Woerden et al. 1999).
2. Overall kinematics: The halo gas is rotating more slowly (20$``$50 km s-1) than the gas in the plane. The difference in rotation velocity seems to increase in the central regions (NGC 2403). The halo gas in NGC 2403 also shows a radial infall towards the centre.
3. High Velocity Clouds: Several gas components with high (vertical?) velocities have been found (NGC 2403, NGC 6946). The difference between their velocities and the regular rotation velocity reaches values of 200$``$300 km s-1. The largest differences are observed in the inner regions (NGC 2403). In some cases (not always) they are associated with holes in the H I distribution.

The origin and nature of the halo gas remain uncertain. The rotation velocity gradient, the diffuse hot gas found in NGC 2403, and the concentration of the high velocity clouds in the central (star forming) part seem to indicate that it is produced by a galactic fountain process (e.g. Bregman 1980). Other facts such as the presence of massive, filamentary complexes (NGC 2403; M 33, J.M. van der Hulst, private communication) and the presence of high velocity clouds beyond the optical disk (NGC 6946, NGC 2403) have no obvious explanations in a galactic fountain model and may point at an external origin.

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