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# IMPLICATIONS OF THE X-RAY PROPERTIES OF PULSAR NEBULAE

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Beginning with the Crab Nebula, extended sources of X-ray synchrotron emission have been observed around a number of pulsars. The power for the relativistic particles and magnetic fields is thought to be the spin-down power of the pulsar, $`\dot{E}`$. In cases where $`\dot{E}`$ can be measured, there is a relation between the X-ray luminosity, $`L_x`$, and $`\dot{E}`$. On the basis of $`\mathrm{𝐸𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑖𝑛}`$ data, Seward & Wang (1998) found a relation of the form $`\mathrm{log}L_x=1.39\mathrm{log}\dot{E}16.6`$, where $`L_x`$ is the X-ray luminosity in the 0.2–4 keV range and $`\dot{E}`$ is the pulsar spin-down power in ergs s-1. The X-ray luminosity of the central pulsar is included in addition to the extended nebula. On the basis of $`\mathrm{𝐴𝑆𝐶𝐴}`$ data, Kawai, Tamura, & Shibata (1998) found the relation $`\mathrm{log}L_x=(33.42\pm 0.20)+(1.27\pm 0.17)\mathrm{log}(\dot{E}/10^{36})`$, where $`L_x`$ is now the nebular luminosity in the 1–10 keV range. Expressions like these have been widely used to estimate $`\dot{E}`$ in X-ray synchrotron nebulae where a pulsar has not been detected.

The objects considered by Kawai et al. (1998) cover a range of $`\dot{E}`$ of $`4\times 10^{33}5\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and include symmetric objects like the Crab Nebula, which may be interacting with supernova ejecta, and the CTB 80, which appears to be a bow shock nebula interacting with a supernova remnant. A compelling model for the optical/X-ray properties of the Crab Nebula was developed by Rees & Gunn (1974), Kundt & Krotscheck (1980), and Kennel & Coroniti (1984a, 1984b; hereafter KC84a and KC84b). In this model, the central pulsar generates a highly relativistic, particle dominated wind that passes through a shock front and decelerates to match the expansion velocity set by the outer nebula. The electrons and positrons in the wind acquire a power law energy spectrum in the shock front and radiate synchrotron emission in the downstream region. KC84b showed that this model is able to account for the basic high energy properties of the Crab, including the position of the wisps, the spectrum of the nebula, and the size of the nebula at different wavelengths. They were able to assume a steady state flow because the particle lifetimes to synchrotron losses are less than the age of the Crab Nebula. The model parameters are the Lorentz factor of the wind, $`\gamma _w`$, the energy spectral index of the particles accelerated at the shock front, $`p`$, and the magnetization parameter of the wind, $`\sigma `$, which determines the magnetic field strength in the extended nebula.

Here, I develop a simplified version of the shocked wind model for the Crab Nebula which captures the essential features for estimating the X-ray luminosity and spectrum (§ 2). The model can be compared to the properties of other pulsar nebulae in order to investigate the implications for the model parameters (§ 3).

## 2 X-RAY EMISSION MODELS

The model developed here is similar to that of KC84a and KC84b, but is a one zone model that does not attempt to account for the spatial structure of the nebula. The pulsar spin-down energy is assumed to go into a highly relativistic wind with Lorentz factor $`\gamma _w`$. As noted by KC84a, the magnetization parameter in the wind, $`\sigma `$, must be small ($`<0.1`$) in order to have a high efficiency of wind power into synchrotron radiation. With these approximations, we have

$$\dot{E}4\pi n_1\gamma _w^2r_s^2mc^3,$$
(1)
where $`n_1`$ is the proper density in the wind just before the shock front, $`r_s`$ is the shock wave radius, $`m`$ is the electron mass, and $`c`$ is the speed of light.

At the shock front, the wind particles acquire a power law energy distribution of the form $`N(\gamma )\gamma ^p`$ for $`\gamma \gamma _m`$, where $`n=N(\gamma )𝑑\gamma `$ is the density of relativistic particles and $`\gamma `$ is the particle Lorentz factor. I assume that $`p>2`$ and that the particle spectrum extends to higher energies than those of the X-ray emitting particles. In the first model, the particles responsible for X-ray emission rapidly lose their energy to synchrotron radiation so there is a steady state. The balance between injection from the shock front and synchrotron losses leads to a constant number of emitting particles. The basic simplification made here is that the emitting region can be treated as one zone. The energy density in the zone is approximately determined by the shock jump conditions. The particle pressure behind a highly relativistic shock wave is $`2n_1mc^2\gamma _w^2/3`$ and the dynamic pressure is $`n_1mc^2\gamma _w^2/3`$ (KC84a). The flow decelerates downstream from the shock front, so that $`n_1mc^2\gamma _w^2`$ is an estimate of the pressure and $`3n_1mc^2\gamma _w^2`$ is an estimate of the energy density. I assume that the energy density in the emitting region is divided between a fraction $`ϵ_e`$ in particles and a fraction $`ϵ_B`$ in the magnetic field. These parameters, which sum to unity, replace the wind magnetization parameter, $`\sigma `$, of KC84a. In the flow model of KC84a, $`\sigma `$ is small but the compressive flow downstream from the shock front builds up the magnetic field to close to equipartition. The behavior of the magnetic field in the downstream region is not well understood. The toroidal field structure of the KC84a model is likely to be unstable (Begelman 1998), and polarization observations of the synchrotron emission in the Crab Nebula show that the field structure is complex. In the relativistic blast wave model for gamma-ray burst afterglows, some form of magnetic field enhancement in the postshock region is required and it is often characterized by an efficiency factor $`ϵ_B`$ like that defined above (e.g., Sari, Piran, & Narayan 1998).

With these assumptions, the magnetic field in the emitting region is

$$B=\left(\frac{6ϵ_B\dot{E}}{r_s^2c}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(2)
The postshock density in the shock frame is $`3\gamma _wn_1`$ for a strong relativistic shock, so that the postshock particle distribution function is $`N(\gamma )=(p1)3\gamma _w\gamma _m^{p1}n_1\gamma ^p`$. The expression for the energy density then leads to

$$\gamma _m=\left(\frac{p2}{p1}\right)ϵ_e\gamma _w.$$
(3)
The number of radiating particles at a particular $`\gamma `$, $`𝒩(\gamma )`$, is determined by a balance between the rate at which particles are injected at the shock front, $`\dot{𝒩}(\gamma )`$, and synchrotron losses. The radiation power of an electron with Lorentz factor $`\gamma 1`$ is

$$P(\gamma )=\frac{4}{3}\sigma _Tc\gamma ^2\frac{B^2}{8\pi }\beta B^2\gamma ^2,$$
(4)
where $`\sigma _T`$ is the Thompson cross section and $`\beta =1.06\times 10^{15}`$ cm3 s-1. The total rate at which particles are injected is $`\dot{E}/(\gamma _wmc^2)`$, so that

$$\dot{𝒩}(\gamma )=(p1)\gamma _m^{p1}(\gamma _wmc^2)^1\dot{E}\gamma ^p$$
(5)
for the spectrum determined above. The balance between injection and synchrotron losses can be expressed as

$$\frac{1}{mc^2}\frac{𝒩\beta B^2\gamma ^2}{\gamma }=\dot{𝒩}(\gamma )$$
(6)
with the solution

$$𝒩(\gamma )=\gamma _m^{p1}(\gamma _w\beta B^2)^1\dot{E}\gamma ^{(p+1)}.$$
(7)
I assume that the electron energy is radiated at its critical frequency

$$\nu (\gamma )=\gamma ^2\frac{q_eB}{2\pi mc}\xi \gamma ^2B,$$
(8)
where $`q_e`$ is the electron charge and $`\xi =2.80\times 10^6`$ in cgs units. The luminosity of radiating particles in the range $`\gamma `$ to $`\gamma +d\gamma `$ is $`\beta B^2\gamma ^2𝒩(\gamma )`$, which leads to a luminosity per unit frequency

$$L_\nu =\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{p2}{p1}\right)^{p1}\left(\frac{6\xi ^2}{c}\right)^{(p2)/4}ϵ_e^{p1}ϵ_B^{(p2)/4}\gamma _w^{p2}r_s^{(p2)/2}\dot{E}^{(p+2)/4}\nu ^{p/2}.$$
(9)
This expression is valid provided the X-ray frequency of observation, $`\nu _X`$, is greater than the cooling frequency $`\nu _c`$ and $`\nu _m`$, corresponding to $`\gamma _m`$, and is less than $`\nu _{max}`$, corresponding to the maximum $`\gamma `$ in the power law spectrum. The cooling frequency corresponds to the $`\gamma `$ at which the electrons are able to radiate their energy in the age of the wind nebula, $`t`$, and is

$$\nu _c=\frac{\xi }{B^3}\left(\frac{mc^2}{\beta t}\right)^2=\xi r_s^3\left(\frac{mc^2}{\beta t}\right)^2\left(\frac{c}{6ϵ_B\dot{E}}\right)^{3/2}.$$
(10)
In the case of a bow shock nebula, the flow time past the nebula may be the relevant value of $`t`$ rather than the total remnant age. The other critical frequency is

$$\nu _m=\left(\frac{p2}{p1}\right)^2\frac{ϵ_e^2\gamma _w^2\xi }{r_s}\left(\frac{6ϵ_B\dot{E}}{c}\right)^{1/2}.$$
(11)
The steady state assumption requires that the observing frequency, $`\nu _o`$, be $`>\nu _c`$. If $`\nu _c<\nu _o<\nu _m`$, then $`\dot{𝒩}(\gamma )=0`$ in eq. (6), which has the solution $`𝒩(\gamma )\gamma ^2`$. This yields $`L_\nu \nu ^{1/2}`$ (see also Sari et al. 1998). The constant of proportionality is determined by joining the solution onto the $`\nu _o>\nu _m`$ solution.

Observations of the compact nebula around the Vela pulsar indicate $`\nu _c>\nu _X`$ and a different model is needed (see § 3). The Vela case is apparently a bow shock nebula created by the proper motion of the pulsar (Markwardt & Ögelman 1998). The nebula age is then $`tr_s/v_p`$, where $`v_p`$ is the transverse pulsar velocity. Because $`t`$ is less than the time since the birth of the pulsar, the assumption of constant $`\dot{E}`$ is adequate. The number of radiating particles is $`𝒩(\gamma )=\dot{𝒩}(\gamma )t=(p1)\gamma _m^{p1}(\gamma _wmc^2)^1\dot{E}r_sv_p^1\gamma ^p`$ and the luminosity is

$$L_\nu =\frac{1}{2}\frac{(p2)^{p1}}{(p1)^{p2}}\frac{6^{(p+1)/4}}{mc^{(p+9)/4}}\beta \xi ^{(p3)/2}ϵ_e^{p1}ϵ_B^{(p+1)/4}r_s^{(p1)/2}v_p^1\gamma _w^{p2}\dot{E}^{(p+5)/4}\nu ^{(p1)/2},$$
(12)
which yields a lower luminosity than eq. (9) because of the limited number of radiating electrons.

## 3 THE CRAB AND OTHER PULSAR NEBULAE

Detailed models have been produced for the Crab Nebula, so it provides a point of reference for the approximate model developed here. The X-ray spectrum of the Crab is a power law with photon index 2.1 (e.g., Pravdo & Serlemitsos 1981), which corresponds to $`p=2.2`$ in the present cooling model. With this value of $`p`$, equation (9) becomes

$$L_\nu =0.084ϵ_e^{1.2}ϵ_B^{0.05}\gamma _w^{0.2}r_s^{0.1}\dot{E}^{1.05}\nu ^{1.1},$$
(13)
where cgs units are used. The values $`r_s=3\times 10^{17}`$ cm and $`\dot{E}=5\times 10^{38}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ are determined by observations of the Crab Nebula and its pulsar (see KC84b). The efficiency factors, constrained by $`ϵ_e+ϵ_B=1`$, are not well determined. In the model of KC84a, the particles and magnetic field come into approximate equipartition ($`ϵ_e=ϵ_B=0.5`$), although the field is initially weaker. The need for a particle dominated shock wave suggests that $`ϵ_e0.5`$. The quantity $`ϵ_e^{1.2}ϵ_B^{0.05}`$ is 0.42 in equipartition, rises to 0.81 for $`ϵ_B=0.05`$, and slowly drops to 0.63 for $`ϵ_B=10^4`$; there is little sensitivity to this parameter. I set it to 0.5. The value of $`\gamma _w`$ depends on features in the nebular spectrum and cannot be determined just from X-ray observations. KC84b use $`\gamma _w=3\times 10^6`$ in their Fig. 13. When these parameter values are substituted into eq. (13), the result at $`\nu =10^{18}`$ Hz is $`\nu L_\nu =1.0\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$, which compares well to the detailed model presented by KC84b in their Fig. 13. The model $`0.24`$ keV luminosity is $`2.6\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

Although the luminosities agree, there are differences between the models. In the present one zone model, the synchrotron burn-off leads to a steepening of the frequency spectral index by 0.5, the standard result. In the model of KC84b, the particles initially move out through a region in which $`Br`$ if the wind magnetization parameter is small. If the synchrotron burn-off occurs in this region, the index steepens by $`(p+7)/18`$, which is $`>0.5`$ for $`p>2`$. The additional steepening occurs because at a high frequency, the particles typically radiate in a lower magnetic field and higher $`\gamma `$ particles are observed. The fact that there are fewer of these particles steepens the spectrum. However, for $`p=2.2`$, the steepening is by 0.51, very close to the one zone model. For the above Crab Nebula parameters, eq. (10) gives $`\nu _c=4.2\times 10^{12}`$ Hz for $`ϵ_B=0.5`$ and eq. (11) gives $`\nu _m=1.3\times 10^{14}`$ Hz. The fact that $`\nu _c<\nu _m`$ implies that a spectrum of the form $`L_\nu \nu ^{0.5}`$ should occur between these frequencies. Fig. (13) of KC84b shows that such a region does appear to be present at optical wavelengths.

Table 1 gives a summary of well-established X-ray nebulae around pulsars. Kawai et al. (1998) list 6 additional nebulae, but Becker et al. (1999) and Pivovaroff, Kaspi, & Gotthelf (2000) do not confirm the diffuse emission seen with ASCA in 5 of the cases. The value of $`\dot{E}`$ is determined from $`\dot{E}=I\mathrm{\Omega }\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$, where $`I=10^{45}`$ g cm2 is the assumed neutron star moment of inertia and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the pulsar spin rate. The X-ray luminosities are mostly from the Einstein observatory and cover the energies 0.2–4 keV. Several of the photon indices are from ASCA because of its relatively broad energy coverage. Two spectral indices are listed for G11.2–0.3; this remnant shows thermal and nonthermal emission and the first one fits the lines with Gaussians, while the second uses a non-equilibrium ionization model (Vasisht et al. 1996).

N158A has properties that are very close to the Crab Nebula, but N157B has a lower value of $`L_x/\dot{E}`$. The observed photon index for N157B implies $`p3`$ if it is in the cooling regime. With $`p=3`$, $`ϵ_e=ϵ_B=0.5`$, and $`\gamma _w`$ and $`r_s`$ as for the Crab Nebula, eq. (9) yields $`L_x(0.24\mathrm{keV})=3\times 10^{36}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The lower efficiency is naturally produced; the discrepancy with the observed luminosity is not a problem because the higher value of $`p`$ leads to a greater sensitivity to the model parameters.

The compact nebula around the Vela pulsar has an especially low value of $`L_x/\dot{E}`$ and a relatively flat spectrum. The value of $`L_x`$ I have listed here is lower that often quoted because I have taken a distance of 250 pc, as advocated by Cha, Sembach, & Danks (1999) and others; even at 500 pc, it is a low luminosity object. The properties of the nebula indicate that it is not in the cooling regime, i.e. $`\nu _c>\nu _x`$ for Vela. de Jager, Harding, & Strickman (1996) note that the nebular luminosity out to 0.4 MeV is 0.1% $`\dot{E}`$, implying a high value of $`\nu _c`$ ($`10^{20}`$ Hz). The value of $`r_s`$ for Vela can be estimated from the size of the compact nebula, which appears to be a bow shock nebula (Markwardt & Ögelman 1998). At 250 pc, the radius is $`2\times 10^{17}`$ cm. The proper motion of the pulsar (Ögelman, Koch-Miramond, & Aulière 1989) gives a transverse velocity of $`45\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ so that $`t=r_s/v_p=4.4\times 10^{10}`$ s. The age of the Vela remnant is $`10^4`$ yr, so eq. (12) should be applicable and yields $`L_x(0.24\mathrm{keV})=2\times 10^{34}(ϵ_B/10^4)^{0.83}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The non-cooling behavior requires $`\nu _c10^{20}`$ Hz or $`ϵ_B10^4`$. In a similar argument, de Jager et al. (1996) set $`t=r\sqrt{3}/c`$ as the escape time and thus found a limit on the magnetic field close to equipartition. The model here assumes an MHD flow through a bow shock region, which gives a longer residence time for the particles. The present model implies considerable variation in $`ϵ_B`$ among nebulae; such variation has little effect on $`L_\nu `$ in the cooling case (see eq. ).

CTB 80 appears to be in the same class as the Vela nebula; it has a bow shock structure (Safi-Harb, Ögelman, & Finley 1995) and has a relatively hard spectrum and low efficiency of conversion to X-ray emission (Table 1). W44 also has a bow shock nature (Harrus, Hughes, & Helfand 1996), but the spectrum and X-ray luminosity are too uncertain to draw clear conclusions.

The other 2 objects in Table 1 have $`L_x/\dot{E}0.01`$. If the nebulae have $`p2.2`$ and rapid cooling in the X-ray regime, the weak sensitivity to the parameters in eq. (13) makes it difficult to reduce $`L_x/\dot{E}`$ by the required factor of 5 compared to the Crab. However, MSH 15-52 appears to have a flatter X-ray spectrum than the Crab. du Plessis et al. (1995) find that there is steepening of the X-ray spectrum, consistent with $`p=2.2`$ and a synchrotron cooling break at $`6`$ keV. A cooling time $``$ the age of the remnant is also indicated by the large size of the X-ray nebula (Seward et al. 1984b). The lack of rapid cooling can account for the lower efficiency of X-ray production. G11.2–0.3 may also have a relatively flat spectrum (Vasisht et al. 1996), but there is insufficient information to draw firm conclusions on this source.

The observed spectral index of the Crab Nebula is consistent with injection at the shock front with $`p=2.2`$. This value of $`p`$ is consistent with expectations for particle acceleration in a highly relativistic shock front; Bednarz & Ostrowski (1998) found that $`p2.2`$ in the limit of a high Lorentz factor shock wave. However, N157B does have a steeper spectral index, which suggests $`p3`$, and $`p=2.2`$ does not appear to apply to some of the other objects. In the context of the present model, detailed spectral study of X-ray pulsar nebulae will be valuable for the determination of the particle spectrum created in a relativistic shock front. The same uncertainty is present in models of GRB (gamma-ray burst) afterglows. The model presentation here was chosen to parallel that for GRB afterglows (e.g., Sari et al. 1998) in order to show the similarities.

The present models can be used to predict the spin-down power of the putative pulsars in wind nebulae where a pulsar has not yet been observed. The value of the models over a purely empirical $`L_x\dot{E}`$ relation is that additional information about the nebula should allow a more precise determination. An excellent example is provided by the Chandra observations of G21.5–0.9 (Slane et al. 2000). Slane et al. find a photon index $`\alpha _X1.5`$ for an inner core and $`\alpha _X2.0`$ for the whole wind nebula. The spectral steepening is that expected for synchrotron burn-off. A model like that for the Crab Nebula should apply, with high efficiency of conversion of spin-down power to X-ray emission. For a distance of 5 kpc, the observed X-ray luminosity is $`2.1\times 10^{35}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Slane et al. 2000), from which I estimate $`\dot{E}5\times 10^{36}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$, as compared to $`\dot{E}3.5\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ deduced by Slane et al. (2000). Detection of a pulsar will allow a test of this prediction.

Support for this work was provided in part by NASA grant NAG5-8130.


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# THERMAL AND NONTHERMAL X-RAY EMISSION IN SNR RCW 86

## 1 RCW 86 AND ITS X-RAY SPECTRUM

RCW 86 (G315.4–2.3) is a shell-like supernova remnant (SNR) in the southern sky, 42′ in angular size, and 35 pc in linear size at a kinematic distance of 3 kpc found from optical observations by Rosado et al. (1996). (The distance estimate is uncertain, and values as low as 1 kpc cannot be excluded according to Smith 1997). Optical emission from radiative shocks is present at various locations along its shell, with by far the brightest complex of optical filaments in the SW. This bright complex, to which the optical designation “RCW 86” actually refers, has been generally interpreted as the result of the interaction of the blast wave with a dense ($`10`$ cm-3) interstellar cloud (e. g., Rosado et al. 1996; Smith 1997). The slow ($`100`$ km s-1) radiative shocks are thought to have been driven into the cloud by the blast wave impact. Optical, Balmer-dominated emission from faster nonradiative shocks was also detected (Long & Blair 1990), and Smith (1997) found that Balmer-dominated optical filaments almost completely encircle RCW 86. This is presumably a blast wave propagating into a low-density ($`0.2`$ cm-3, Long & Blair 1990) interstellar medium (ISM). Its velocity is in the range of 400–900 km s-1, found from the width of the broad H$`\alpha `$ component (Long & Blair 1990; Ghavamian 1999; Ghavamian et al. 2000). The remnant’s age is $`10^4`$ yr, derived from the remnant’s angular size of 42′, its distance of 3 kpc and the known shock speed (Rosado et al. 1996). (However, note that RCW 86 may be as young as 2000 yr if it is located at distance of 1 kpc.) As expected, thermal X-ray emission produced behind fast shocks (Pisarski, Helfand, & Kahn 1984), nonthermal radio synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons (Whiteoak & Green 1996: Molonglo catalog), and strong IR emission from collisionally heated dust (Dwek et al. 1987; Arendt 1989; Greidanus & Strom 1990; Saken, Fesen, & Shull 1992) are all present. RCW 86 was thought to be a remnant of SN 185 (Clark & Stephenson 1977), but even the existence of this SN has been questioned (Chin & Huang 1994; Schaefer 1995).

RCW 86 is clearly an interesting SNR, seen across the wavelength band from radio to X-rays, with both slow and fast shocks present. But the most interesting is its peculiar X-ray spectrum as revealed by the ASCA Performance Verification (PV) observations (Vink, Kaastra, & Bleeker 1997). The X-ray lines are generally much weaker than expected from a normal (solar) abundance plasma, with the exception of the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line at 6.4 keV. Vink et al. (1997) fitted ASCA data with two-temperature nonequlibrium ionization (NEI) models and found strongly subsolar abundances (except for Fe in their hot temperature component) and extremely low ($`10^{10}`$ cm-3 s) ionization timescales $`n_et`$. These results are clearly unphysical, and Vink at al. speculated that perhaps they are caused by strong deviations from the Maxwellian electron distribution for low-temperature plasmas. A more recent study of RCW 86 by Bocchino et al. (2000), based on BeppoSAX satellite data, confirmed the weakness of emission lines (other than the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line), although the authors attributed this effect to elemental depletion onto dust.

The goal of this paper is to explain the puzzling X-ray spectrum of RCW 86, based on new, high signal-to-noise (S/N) ASCA observations. These new observations are presented and briefly discussed in § 2, while in § 3 we analyze these observations in detail and show that they can be succesfully explained as a combination of thermal emission and nonthermal synchrotron emission. In § 4, we summarize our results and discuss prospects for further progress.

## 2 1997 ASCA OBSERVATIONS OF RCW 86 AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

Three long observations of RCW 86 were performed by ASCA in 1997 (Table 1). The data were processed under standard Revision 2 Data Processing (REV2) and screened according to the following criteria: elevation angle greater than 10 degrees, geomagnetic field structure with cut-off rigidity greater than 6, observations outside South Atlantic Anomaly, stable pointing, and stable internal background (from monitored Gas Imaging Spectrometers count rates). The effective exposure times after screening are typically about 40 ks as shown in Table 1. Note that the effective exposure time of the PV observations used by Vink et al. is only 14 ks. The long exposure times of the new observations resulted in good S/N spectra, leading to a significant improvement over the PV observations, particularly at intermediate and high photon energies. This allowed us to separate thermal and nonthermal contributions to the X-ray spectrum.

Fields of view of solid-state imaging spectrometers (SIS) and gas-imaging spectrometers (GIS) for the first two observations listed in Table 1 (sequences 55045000 and 55046010) are plotted on the ROSAT PSPC image of RCW 86 (Figure 1). The third pointing in the SW (sequence 55046000) is not shown, because its SIS field of view is centered outside the remnant. However, this pointing contains useful GIS data on the SW part of the remnant. These three long pointings provide high S/N images and spectra of the brightest part of RCW 86. GIS and SIS images are shown separately in Figures 2 and 3, respectively, while a GIS hardness map defined as the soft ($`<3`$ keV) to hard ($`>3`$ keV) count rate ratio is shown in Figure 4. The GIS hardness map is affected by the difference in the SIS and GIS point spread functions. Significant spectral variations are readily apparent in this map, in accord with findings of Vink et al. (1997) which were based on PV observations with a much lower S/N ratio. The bright “knee” in the SW corner of the remnant exhibits striking variations in the hardness ratio, with the soft vertical arm and the progressively harder horizontal arm as one moves away (to the west) from the “knee” bend. The 0.843 GHz radio contours shown in Figures 2 and 3, from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) catalog (Whiteoak & Green 1996), demonstrate that the X-ray hardness is positively correlated with the radio/X-ray brightness ratio.

SIS spectra (Figure 5) of three rectangular regions shown in Figure 4 demonstrate spatial variations quantitatively. Spectra of the vertical and horizontal arms, which we label the Soft and the Hard Regions, respectively, differ dramatically. The Soft Region is brighter at low energies, while the situation reverses at high energies. The Medium-Hard Region at the knee bend is intermediate in its hardness. Lines from O, Ne, and Mg may be discerned in these spectra at low energies, although they are apparently weak. Their presence indicates that X-ray spectrum of RCW 86 is at least partially of the thermal origin.

We first test the hypothesis that X-ray spectra in Figure 5 are produced entirely by thermal plasma, using a set of nonequlibrium ionization (NEI) models developed by us and publicly available in the XSPEC v11 software package. (For introduction to XSPEC, see Arnaud 1996 or visit the web site at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov.) Thermal NEI models are based on an updated Hamilton & Sarazin (1984) spectral code, which includes recent atomic calculations for Fe L-shell lines by Liedahl, Osterheld, & Goldstein (1995). These models are discussed in more detail by Borkowski, Lyerly, & Reynolds (in preparation). We used Sedov models with the variable metal abundances (but with their relative abundances fixed in solar ratios) to fit these spectra, with the best fit models shown in Figure 6. Shock temperatures, postshock electron temperatures, and SNR ionization timescales (equal to the product of postshock electron density and the remnant’s age) are: 1.4, 1.2, and 2 keV; 1.3, 1.2, and 0.7 keV; and $`5.0\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s, $`5.4\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s, and $`8.9\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 s, for the Hard, Medium-Hard, and Soft Regions, respectively. In all three regions we arrived at the absorbing column number density $`N_H`$ of $`3\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2. Metal abundances in these models are low (0.2, 0.4, and 0.55 solar for the Hard, Medium-Hard, and Soft Regions, respectively), and spatially varying. Spatial abundance variations at the periphery of RCW 86 are not expected, and something is obviously wrong with these models. Fits with thermal models with variable abundances presented by Vink et al. (1997) also lead to strongly subsolar abundances of heavy elements and extremely low ionization timescales. As these authors pointed out, this is clearly unphysical, and they also concluded that standard thermal models do not provide a satisfactory description of the X-ray spectrum of RCW 86.

The weakness of spectral lines suggests the presence of nonthermal X-ray continuum in RCW 86, as has been recently inferred for SN 1006 (Koyama et al., 1995), Cas A (Allen et al., 1997), G347.5-0.2 (Slane et al., 1999), and possibly even in RCW 86 itself based on its high-energy spectrum obtained by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (Allen, Gotthelf, & Petre 1999). The spatial correlation between the radio and X-ray emission noted above suggests that this continuum may be produced by synchrotron X-ray emission from relativistic electrons. In order to test this hypothesis, we modeled SIS spectra as a sum of nonthermal and thermal emission (plus interstellar absorption). We used a simple nonthermal model with a power-law electron energy distribution and an exponential cutoff at high electron energies (the srcut model in XSPEC v11, see Reynolds 1998 and Reynolds & Keohane 1999 for more details) and a thermal Sedov model. The srcut model is parameterized by a 1 GHz flux density (in Jy) and spectral index, and a break frequency which is the peak frequency emitted by electrons with the $`e`$-folding energy of the exponential cutoff (at which the spectrum has dropped by a factor of about 3.7). Abundances were assumed to be 2/3 solar as appropriate for the ISM in the solar neighbourhood (e. g., Snow & Witt 1996; Mathis 1996). Nonthermal models were normalized by the 1 GHz radio flux obtained by integrating 0.843 GHz radio emission over the SIS extraction regions and extrapolating to 1 GHz using the observed radio spectral index of 0.6 (Green 1998). However, for the fitting, the radio-to-X-ray spectral index was allowed to vary. Resulting fits are shown in Figure 7. The quality of the fits is better than for the pure thermal models, although they are still not statistically acceptable. But unlike for pure thermal fits, parameter values of these mixed thermal and nonthermal models are physically reasonable. The Sedov model parameters are very similar in all three regions: shock temperatures in the range from 1.0 to 1.4 keV, low ($`<0.2`$ keV) postshock electron temperatures, and ionization timescales in the range from $`1.4\times 10^{11}`$ cm-3 s to $`1.8\times 10^{11}`$ cm-3 s. For the nonthermal srcut models we obtain break frequencies of $`7.5\times 10^{16}`$, $`8.2\times 10^{16}`$, $`2.5\times 10^{17}`$ Hz for the Hard, Medium-Hard, and Soft Regions, respectively, and radio spectral frequencies in the range from 0.62 to 0.67, in surprisingly good agreement with the (uncertain) observed RCW 86 spectral index of 0.6. The lower electron temperatures are a natural result of attributing some of the continuum to nonthermal emission, but we stress that these models are not well constrained and this may be an artifact.

But the actual situation is more complex than described above, because a weak Fe K$`\alpha `$ line at 6.4 keV seen in the SIS spectrum of the Medium-Hard Region is not present in the models. This line, already noted by Vink et al., is most likely produced by a high-temperature thermal plasma. In order to investigate this line in more detail, we combined available GIS2 data to construct a high S/N spectrum (Figure 8), which clearly shows Fe K$`\alpha `$ line. At high energies above 5.5 keV, these data are fit well by a bremsstrahlung continuum with electron temperature $`kT_e=5.3`$ keV (with 3.7–8.8 keV 90% confidence interval) plus a narrow Gaussian line at 6.42 keV (with 6.35–6.45 keV 90% confidence interval). Such a low energy of the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line suggests a very low ionization timescale of the hot plasma. This is confirmed by fitting a single ionization timescale, single temperature thermal NEI model (vnei model in XSPEC, with variable Fe abundance and solar abundances for other heavy elements) to our GIS data above 5.5 keV. We obtain plasma temperature of 5.3 keV (with 3.6–8.6 keV 90% confidence interval), a very low ionization timescale of $`5.2\times 10^8`$ cm-3 s (less than $`6.7\times 10^9`$ cm-3 s with 90% confidence), and Fe abundance of 3.5 solar (with 1.2–3000 90% confidence interval). Model parameters and confidence intervals depend quite sensitively on the chosen energy range, resulting in progressively lower electron temperatures as lower energy photons are included in the fits. Atomic data for Fe K$`\alpha `$ line emission produced by electron excitation of low-ionization stages of Fe are poor, further contributing to uncertainties in derived parameter values, the Fe abundance in particular. It is also possible that Fe K$`\alpha `$ is produced in dust grains (Borkowski & Szymkowiak 1997), which would make our estimates of the ionization timescale unreliable. In this situation, the true confidence intervals for all model parameters are certainly much larger that the confidence intervals just quoted. In particular, approximately solar abundance of Fe is consistent with the current data.

The best-fit thermal bremsstrahlung and nei models produce similar spectra across the GIS spectral range (Figure 8), without any prominent emission lines except for the fluorescent Fe K$`\alpha `$ line. In the nei model this is caused by an extremely low ionization state of the gas, where all heavy elements have not yet been ionized to their H- and He-like stages (in the case of Fe even M-shell electrons must still be present because of the apparent absence of the Fe L-shell emission). The presence or absence of lines depends very sensitively on the ionization timescale of the gas. If we assume that the ionization timescale is equal to $`6.7\times 10^9`$ cm-3 s (the upper 90% confidence limit in our fits), and fit the nei model to the GIS2 data above 5.5 keV, the lines are already very prominent (Figure 8). This extreme sensitivity to the ionization timescale means that the contribution of the high-energy thermal component to the X-ray spectrum at low photon energies is not well constrained by the data, although in all cases this contribution is not negligible and must be included in spectral modeling.

The presence of a poorly-constrained high-temperature thermal component in RCW 86 significantly complicates analysis of its X-ray spectrum, and our previous arguments about the necessity of the nonthermal component need to be reexamined. Is it possible that a mixture of gas with standard ISM abundances but with widely different temperatures results in the observed weakness of the lines? The answer seems negative, according to Vink et al. (1997), and according to Bocchino et al. (2000) who fitted BeppoSAX spectra of the SW region of RCW 86 with a two-component NEI model. Bocchino et al. (2000) derived the following parameters for the high-temperature component: $`kT_e=5.7`$ keV, ionization timescale of $`1.9\times 10^8`$ cm-3 s, and the Fe abundance of 3.0 with respect to solar, in excellent agreement with our results. But the derived abundances in the low-temperature (1.0 keV) NEI component are again strongly (0.25) subsolar. We also attempted to fit two-component (Sedov and nei) thermal models to our ASCA SIS spectra, but the the derived abundances in Sedov models are again strongly subsolar and spatially varying. Although this result does not rule out the possibility of the pure thermal explanation, it demonstrates that such an alternative is unlikely, in accord with Vink et al. (1997). Another alternative explanation for the apparent subsolar abundances, elemental depletion onto dust (Bocchino et al. 2000), is not supported by the abundance patterns derived from ASCA and BeppoSax observations. In view of these findings, we now present our efforts to construct a physically reasonable model for the X-ray spectrum of RCW 86, in which we allow for a simultaneous presence of nonthermal synchrotron emission and thermal emission from multi-temperature plasma.

## 3 X-RAY SPECTRA OF RCW 86 AS A MIXTURE OF THERMAL AND NONTHERMAL EMISSION

We begin with the analysis and modeling of the brightest extraction region, the Medium-Hard Region at the knee bend (see Figure 4). In addition to the SIS spectra described in the previous section, we also use the GIS spectrum extracted from the same spatial region in order to improve S/N ratio at higher photon energies. Below 1.2 keV, the PV SIS spectra are used instead of the newer SIS and GIS data because of their superior spectral resolution and good S/N ratio. These three data sets are shown in Figure 9. We always include these data sets together in our analysis, by performing joint fits to the PV SIS data, and the 1997 SIS and GIS data. In order to allow for mismatch between normalizations of individual data sets, we allowed them to vary when performing joint fits to the data.

The thermal plasma emission is modeled as a sum of low-temperature and high-temperature components. For the low-temperature component, we use either a simple plane-parallel shock model with constant electron temperature $`kT_e`$ and ionization age $`\tau `$ (the pshock model in XSPEC) or a much more complex spherically-symmetric shock with unequal ion and electron temperatures (the Sedov model) which was already described previously. The high-temperature component is described by a simplest NEI model, a single ionization timescale model nei. The nonthermal synchrotron emission is modeled by the srcut model, using the observed radio flux and its spectral index, and allowing the break frequency to vary. (If a power law is used instead of the scrut model, the separation between the thermal and nonthermal components becomes more difficult, and the fitted power-law index and normalization of the power-law component are also difficult to interpret.)

Because of the presence of synchrotron emission, the chemical abundances cannot be reliably determined from the observed spectra, so that we assumed 2/3 solar abundances in the low-temperature thermal component. Furthermore, the S/N ratio of the current data sets at high photon energies is not adequate for a unique separation between the high-temperature thermal component and the nonthermal synchrotron emission. In this situation we assumed that all emission above 5.5 keV is thermal, and used parameters of the high-temperature thermal component obtained by fitting spatially-integrated GIS spectra above 5.5 keV (see § 2). The normalization of this component was obtained by fitting this thermal model alone to the spectral data above 5.5 keV. The modeling results for the two models described above are tabulated in Table 2.

We generally obtain similar results for our two types of models, pshock+nei+srcut and Sedov+nei+srcut, although fits are always better for the former. The best-fit pshock+nei+srcut model for the Medium-Hard Region is shown in Figure 9. The low- (high-) temperature thermal component dominates at low (high) energies, and the nonthermal synchrotron emission is most important in the intermediate energy range. However, the nonthermal component contributes at all energies, accounting for 22% of the total detected flux in the 0.5 – 10 keV range (this fraction is shown in the last row of Table 2). The top panel in Figure 9, with the high-quality PV SIS data, shows most clearly how strong nonthermal emission leads to low equivalent widths for the prominent Mg and Si lines.

Modeling of the Soft and Hard Regions is done in exactly the same way as for the Medium-Hard Region, except that we do not use PV SIS data because of their lower S/N. (For the Hard Region and the Sedov+nei+scrut model, the shock temperature and the postshock electron temperature in the Sedov model could not be determined independently, so that we fixed the postshock electron temperature to a low value of 0.05 keV, similar to the postshock electron temperatures found in the Medium-Hard and Soft Regions.) Our SIS and GIS data for the Soft Region, together with the best-fit pshock+nei+srcut model fom Table 2, are shown in Figure 10. As expected, the low- (high-) temperature thermal component dominates again at low (high) energies, but the nonthermal component contributes only 1.8% to the total flux in this model.

The situation is very much different in the Hard Region (Figure 11), where nonthermal emission is very prominent, contributing 33% of the total flux. Again, emission at high energies is dominated by the high-temperature thermal component with an Fe K$`\alpha `$ line clearly seen at 6.4 keV, and faint lines with low equivalent widths at low energies are produced by the low-temperature component. But the emission measure of the latter is at least twice as low as in the Medium-Hard and Soft Regions (see Table 2). At the same time, the nonthermal component appears to be at the same intensity level as in the Medium-Hard Region, leading to the increased fraction of the nonthermal emission in the Hard Region.

The nonthermal synchrotron emission is strongly correlated with the radio emission. In the pshock+nei+srcut model, after correction for absorption, we obtain the total 0.5–10 keV X-ray synchrotron fluxes of $`9.5\times 10^{12}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, $`6.1\times 10^{13}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1, and $`8.1\times 10^{12}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 for the Medium-Hard, Soft, and the Hard Regions, respectively. The corresponding 1 GHz radio fluxes are 4.5 Jy, 0.57 Jy, and 3.2 Jy. The low synchrotron X-ray flux is accompanied by the low radio flux in the Soft Region, while an order of magnitude increase in the nonthermal X-rays in the Medium-Hard and Hard Regions is matched by a similar increase in the radio flux. Note that such drastic changes are not seen in the thermal X-ray flux in the 0.5–10 keV range, which varies by only 20% between the regions. Such strong positive correlation between nonthermal X-ray and radio emission is seen in the prototypical synchrotron-dominated remnant of SN1006. The presence of this correlation in RCW 86 strongly supports the synchrotron nature of the nonthermal emission in this remnant.

Our fitted values for the break frequency are all in the range $`\nu _c(1.54)\times 10^{16}`$ Hz. The energy of an electron producing its peak synchrotron radiation at $`\nu `$ in a magnetic field $`B`$ is given by

$$E_m=45\left(\frac{\nu _c}{3.7\times 10^{16}\mathrm{Hz}}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{B}{10\mu \mathrm{G}}\right)^{1/2}\mathrm{erg}.$$
(1)
Our values for $`E_m`$ then range from 14 to 45 erg (9 to 28 TeV), at the low end of the range of upper limits to $`E_m`$ found for bright Galactic remnants by Reynolds & Keohane (1999).

Since RCW 86 is a more highly evolved remnant than other objects in which synchrotron X-rays have been discovered, it is likely that the mechanism causing the rolloff in the electron distribution above $`E_m`$ is synchrotron (and inverse-Compton) losses. Reynolds (1998) gives expressions for the maximum electron energy producible by shock acceleration limited by radiative losses, assuming that the electron mean free path is a factor $`\eta `$ times the gyroradius. In the strong-turbulence (Bohm) limit, $`\eta 1`$. For such conditions, with a shock compression ratio of 4, we have

$$E_m50\eta ^{1/2}\left(\frac{B_1}{3\mu \mathrm{G}}\right)^{1/2}u_8\mathrm{erg}$$
(2)
where $`B_1`$ is the upstream magnetic-field strength and $`u_8`$ the shock velocity in units of $`10^8`$ cm s-1. Since optical inferences (Ghavamian 1999; Ghavamian et al. 2000) give nonradiative-shock velocities in the range of 400 to 900 km s-1, we find predicted values for the loss-limited break energy quite close to the break energies we infer from the fits, for $`B_1`$ of a few microgauss and $`\eta 1`$. A loss-limited spectrum will not have the exact shape of the srcut spectrum, but will roll off more slowly. However, given the limited spectral range of the fits, we cannot distinguish that difference, which in any case is less than the difference between the srcut spectrum and a straight power-law. The coincidence between expected and observed cutoff energies, while not an ironclad conclusion, adds circumstantial support to the idea that synchrotron X-rays are present in RCW 86. The electron-acceleration properties do not appear to vary much among the three regions we have studied; the primary difference in the nonthermal emission is just the overall strength of the emission, perhaps as a result of differences in magnetic-field strength.

The thermal X-ray emission consists of two distinct components: a low-temperature component responsible for X-ray lines at low energies and a high-temperature plasma where Fe K$`\alpha `$ line is produced. The ratio of their emission measures systematically varies from a high ($`10`$) value in the Soft Region, through intermediate (4-5) values in the Medium-Hard Region, and attains the lowest (2) value in the Hard Region. The high- and low-temperature plasma should be in an approximate pressure equilibrium, $`n_{el}T_{el}n_{eh}T_{eh}`$, where $`n_{el}`$ and $`n_{eh}`$ are electron densities in the low- and high-temperature components, and $`T_{el}`$ and $`T_{eh}`$ are their electron temperatures. For the Medium-Hard Region and the pshock+nei+srcut model, $`T_{el}=0.75`$ keV and $`T_{eh}=5.3`$ keV, and the assumption of a pressure balance gives a density ratio $`n_{el}/n_{eh}7`$. But their emission measures differ by only a factor of 4, which suggests that the filling fraction $`f_h`$ of the high-temperature component is much higher that the filling fraction $`f_l`$ of the low-temperature component. If we assume that the hot gas fills most of the volume of the Medium-Hard Region, very approximately equal to $`6^3`$ pc (where 6 pc is the linear size of the ASCA extraction region at the assumed distance of 3 kpc), then we arrive at $`n_{eh}0.2\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (where $`f_h`$ was set to 1), based on the emission measure of the hot component listed in Table 2. Similarly, the low-temperature component has density $`n_{el}0.44/f_l^{1/2}`$ cm-3, while we obtain $`n_{el}=1.6`$ cm-3 by assuming a pressure balance between the high- and low-temperature components. In order to make these estimates consistent, a low filling fraction of 0.075 is required for the low-temperature component. A low filling fraction $`f_l`$ is indeed suggested by a highly filamentary morphology of this region of the remnant seen in the archival HRI ROSAT images (Bocchino et al. 2000). The thickness of sharpest filaments seen in the HRI images is of the order of 10″ or even less, which is much smaller than the 7′ $`\times `$ 7′ angular size of the Medium-Hard Region.

The low-temperature X-ray component is most likely produced in the blast wave propagating into the ambient medium. The electron temperature $`T_{el}`$ of 0.8 keV in the pshock+nei+srcut models implies a shock speed of 800 km s-1 if electrons are fully equilibrated with ions. In the absence of electron-ion equilibration, the shock speed might be even higher, above 1000 km s-1 as suggested by mean postshock temperatures in excess of 1 keV in the Sedov+nei+srcut models. The 800 km s-1 shock velocity is at the upper velocity range of nonradiative, Balmer dominated shocks seen in RCW 86 (Long & Blair 1990; Ghavamian 1999; Ghavamian et al. 2000). The preshock density $`n_0=n_{el}/4.80.3`$ cm-3 is also in accord with estimates of the preshock density in fast nonradiative shocks in RCW 86. For example, Ghavamian (1999) finds preshock density of 1 cm-3 for a $`600`$ km s-1 shock located at the southern boundary of the Hard and Medium-Hard Regions. The shock age, $`t\tau _l/n_{el}=3,600`$ yr, is in reasonable agreement with the remnant age estimated at $`10^4`$ yr by Rosado et al. (1996) from standard arguments based on the Sedov dynamics, and at 4,300 yr by Petruk (1999) whose estimates were based on 2-D hydrodynamical simulations. This agreement further supports the identification of the low-temperature thermal component with the material shocked by the blast wave. Bocchino et al. (2000) also attributed the low-temperature component to the shocked ambient gas based on analysis of BeppoSAX and ROSAT data.

The high-temperature thermal component is produced by hot, tenuous gas in the remnant’s interior. The best evidence for this is provided by the BeppoSAX hardness map (Bocchino et al. 2000), which shows that the hard X-ray emission is located interior to the soft X-ray emission. The high (5.3 keV) temperature of the hot component suggests that this material was thermalized in fast, several thousand km s-1 shocks at earlier stages of evolution of RCW 86. As determined by fitting GIS data in § 2, its ionization age is less than $`6.7\times 10^9`$ cm-3 s at the 90% confidence level, which in combination with its electron density of $`n_{eh}=0.2`$ cm-3 leads to an upper limit of 1000 yr for its age. However, if Fe resided in dust grains instead of gas, this upper limit would be several times higher, and entirely consistent the blast wave age derived previously. The Fe abundance in the hot gas is uncertain, but may be enhanced with respect to the solar Fe abundance. If real, this would imply the presence of heavy-element SN ejecta in the hot thermal component, as already suggested by Bocchino et al. (2000). This component might have originated in the interaction of the blast wave with a low-density cavity created by the SN progenitor prior to its explosion (Vink et al. 1997). It cannot be the normal hot interior of a Sedov blast wave, at least for the Sedov profile corresponding to the current blast-wave conditions, or our previous Sedov fitting would have accounted for it.

Because of the simultaneous presence of two (or more) thermal components and of the nonthermal continuum, the separation of the X-ray spectrum of RCW 86 into individual components is difficult and uncertain. The separation of thermal emission into a low-temperature single shock component and a single ionization timescale component with high (and constant) temperature is certainly a reasonable first approximation, but one might expect that such a simple model would not be able to provide a perfect match to the observed X-ray spectrum. This is indeed the case because our best fits are not statistically acceptable at low photon energies, where ASCA provided a high-quality X-ray spectrum with the excellent S/N ratio. We speculate that these problems stem from the simultaneous presence of shocks with different velocities in our extraction regions. Optical observations indicate presence of shocks in a wide range of shock velocities from $`100`$ km s-1 to 900 km s-1 in various regions of RCW 86. Both slow ($`100`$ km s-1) and fast ($`800`$ km s-1) shocks are within the extraction regions, as evidenced by the presence of radiative optical filaments and by the ASCA spectra, respectively. While $`100`$ km s-1 shocks cannot produce X-ray emission, intermediate-velocity ($`600`$ km s-1) shocks capable of producing X-ray emission are present at the southern boundary of the Medium-Hard and Hard Regions (Long & Blair 1990; Ghavamian 1999; Ghavamian et al. 2000). X-ray emission from such intermediate-velocity shocks might have been already detected in the ROSAT PSPC spectra of RCW 86 by Bocchino et al. (2000), who reported the presence of very low (0.29 keV) temperature gas in the SW region of RCW 86. X-ray emission from these intermediate-velocity shocks is not accounted for in our simple decomposition of the X-ray spectra. Our derived model parameters must then be considered as preliminary rather than as robust estimates. In particular, low postshock electron temperatures in Sedov models (Table 2) might be an artifact of the model used instead of a measurement of the postshock electron temperature. In view of the limited spatial and spectral resolution of the ASCA satellite and its detectors, it would be premature at this time to construct a more sophisticated thermal models with multiple shock components.

## 4 DISCUSSION

Detailed modeling of X-ray spectrum of RCW 86 revealed the presence of the nonthermal synchrotron emission, in addition to high- and low-temperature thermal components. This nonthermal emission is strongly correlated with the radio emission, and the derived break frequency $`\nu _c`$ of $`24\times 10^{16}`$ Hz is consistent with the maximum electron energy producible by shock acceleration limited by radiative losses. The presence of nonthermal synchrotron emission explains why previous attempts to model X-ray spectrum of RCW 86 in terms of pure thermal emission led to puzzling results.

The nonthermal synchrotron emission is most important at intermediate (1–3 keV) photon energies, while at low (high) energies the ASCA X-ray spectrum is dominated by a low- (high-) temperature thermal component. This is a more complex behavior than seen in remnants such as SN1006 where thermal emission dominates at low energies, while nonthermal emission is most pronounced at high energies. To model the nonthermal component, a physically reasonable description is necessary, as much for the implied inferences about the thermal emission as for the synchrotron emission itself. We do not expect power-laws in X-ray synchrotron emission as we are always observing the high-energy rolloff; using power-laws for modeling, while perhaps allowed by the data in some cases, can lead to misleading inferences about spectral-line equivalent widths. For the srcut model with a break frequency of $`3.7\times 10^{16}`$ Hz, a power-law tangent to that model at 2.1 keV (in the region where synchrotron emission dominates in RCW 86) overpredicts the continuum at 6.4 keV by 50% compared to srcut – so the equivalent width of the Fe K$`\alpha `$ line would be considerably underestimated by a power-law fit.

The nonthermal spectrum traverses the IR and optical on its way from radio to X-ray wavelengths. Since all the fitted break frequencies are well above the frequency of the center of the $`V`$ band ($`5.5\times 10^{14}`$ Hz), we can assume a straight extrapolation from radio frequencies with a slope of $`0.6`$. If the 4.5 Jy at 1 GHz we attribute to the $`7^{}\times 7^{}`$ Medium-Hard region were spread uniformly, they would imply a surface brightness at $`V`$ of about 29m arcsec-2. However, the morphology should be identical to the radio; in particular, the radio emission is concentrated in quite thin filaments, so that the peak brightness is larger than average by at least a factor of 10, raising the prediction to $`26^\mathrm{m}.5`$ arcsec-2, perhaps attainable. At 2 microns, surface brightness would be almost a magnitude brighter.

The derived blast wave velocity of 800 km s-1, the estimated preshock density of $`0.3`$ cm-3, and the shock age of $`4\times 10^3`$ yr are consistent with previous estimates, although a low (0.075) filling fraction for the gas shocked by the blast wave seems to indicate that emission is dominated by denser than average material. The enhanced X-ray emission and the presence of radiative shocks in the bright SW section of the remnant have been attributed to the interaction of the blast wave with a dense ($`10`$ cm-3) interstellar cloud. Our findings support this interpretation. The presence of a very hot ($`5`$ keV) gas with a large filling fraction, with the emission measure far in excess of that expected in a standard Sedov model, indicates that the SN progenitor most likely exploded within a low-density cavity. This suggests that RCW 86 is a remnant of a core-collapse SN, whose progenitor was perhaps a member of an OB stellar association seen at a distance of 2.5 kpc in this region of the sky (Westerlund 1969).

The presence of nonthermal synchrotron emission in RCW 86 is certainly one of the most interesting aspects of this well-studied remnant. Energetic electrons producing this emission have been presumably accelerated in the blast wave, so it would be of great interest to study in greater detail the relationship between the thermal and nonthermal emission, and between optically-emitting shocks and the nonthermal emission. The correlation of both thermal and nonthermal X-ray emission with the strong far-IR emission from collisionally heated dust grains seen in RCW 86 (Dwek et al. 1987; Arendt 1989; Greidanus & Strom 1990; Saken et al. 1992) is also important in view of the crucial role of dust grains in acceleration of cosmic rays (Meyer, Drury, & Ellison 1997; Ellison, Drury, & Meyer 1997). Such studies would allow for better understanding of the shock acceleration process. Unfortunately, the quality of the present X-ray observations does not allow for a unique separation between the thermal and nonthermal emission. In order to achieve this separation, future observations of RCW 86 with a spatial and spectral resolution higher than that of ASCA are necessary, for example with the XMM-Newton or Chandra satellites. XMM-Newton should provide high S/N CCD spectra with a moderate spatial resolution, while Chandra might be able to resolve even the most compact X-ray filaments seen in the ROSAT HRI images. The brightest X-ray filament seen in the ROSAT HRI image of the SW region of RCW 86 (Bocchino et al. 2000) is of particular interest, because it coincides with the brightest nonradiative shock in RCW 86 whose shock velocity and the preshock density was already determined from the optical spectroscopy (Ghavamian 1999). It is also critical to obtain higher spectral resolution data, at the resolution provided by the X-ray microcalorimeter onboard of the failed Astro-E satellite. Such observations would allow for determination of gas temperature from line diagnostics, and hence for unambiguous separation of thermal and nonthermal components. Once these components are separated, one can combine information from both components to learn about acceleration of energetic (TeV) electrons in SNRs. Maybe we can then find out why the nonthermal contribution is so important in RCW 86, and relatively weak in some SNRs.

We thank Parviz Ghavamian for providing us with useful information about nonradiative shocks in RCW 86 in advance of publication. This research has made use of data obtained from the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), provided by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. We acknowledge the use of MOST radio images of RCW 86. The MOST is operated by the University of Sydney with support from the Australian Research Council and the Science Foundation for Physics within the University of Sydney. Support for this work was provided by NASA under grants NAG5-7406, NAG5-7153, and NGTS-65.


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# Sacrificial Learning in Nonlinear Perceptrons

## 1 Introduction

The learning of noisy examples by a nonlinear perceptron is a frustrating process, in the sense that competing information extracted from the training examples needs to be processed . Since learning usually involves minimizing a cost function, the learner often has to choose between interpolating the conflicting examples or sacrificing some in favor of satisfying others, so as to attain a minimum overall cost. This kind of competition is especially marked in nonlinear perceptrons.

This sacrificial effect is an important issue. As we shall see, it will lead to a gap in the activation distribution of the examples. The activations of the sacrificed examples are separated from those of the satisfied ones by a wide margin, and different choices of partitioning the sacrificed and preferred examples correspond to different local minima in the energy landscape. The appearance of a multiplicity of local minima leads to the roughening of the energy landscape, rendering the learning processes prone to being trapped before reaching the global minimum.

The effect is best understood using the cavity approach . It uses a self-consistency argument to consider what happens when a new example is added to the training set. When the learner adopts a sacrificial learning strategy, learning the added example may lead to different choices of the sacrificed examples in the background, causing a shift of the global energy minimum among a number of local minima.

The cavity method yields identical macroscopic predictions with the replica method . The assumption of a smooth energy landscape corresponds to the replica symmetric ansatz in the replica approach. Instability appears in the ansatz when the Almeida-Thouless condition is violated , beyond which replica symmetry breaking solutions have to be introduced, corresponding to a rough energy landscape. As we shall see, the appearance of the gap is closely related to the Almeida-Thouless line.

In this paper, we analyze the learning of noisy examples by a nonlinear perceptron using the cavity method. We study the activation distribution of the training examples and find parameter regimes with gaps in the distribution. Simulation results show that the assumption of a smooth energy landscape works well when no gaps are present, but fails when gaps appear.

## 2 The cavity method

### 2.1 Formulation

The rule to be learned is generated by a teacher perceptron with $`N`$ weights $`B_j`$, $`j=1,\mathrm{},N`$ and $`B_j^2=1`$. The student perceptron, with $`N`$ weights $`J_j`$, $`j=1,\mathrm{},N`$, tries to model the teacher by learning from a set of $`p`$ examples. Each example, labeled $`\mu `$ with $`\mu =1,\mathrm{},p`$, consists of an input vector $`𝝃^\mu `$ and the noisy output $`O_\mu `$ of the teacher. The input components $`\xi _j^\mu `$ are random variables, with $`\xi _j^\mu =0`$ and $`\xi _j^\mu \xi _k^\nu =\delta _{jk}\delta _{\mu \nu }`$.

The teacher output $`O_\mu `$ is a nonlinear activation function of the teacher activation $`y_\mu 𝑩𝝃^\mu /\sqrt{N}`$, corrupted by a Gaussian noise $`\eta _\mu `$ with $`\eta _\mu =0`$ and $`\eta _\mu ^2=1`$. That is, $`O_\mu f(y_\mu +T\eta _\mu )`$, where $`T`$ is the noise level, and here we use the sigmoid function $`f(x)=[1+e^x]^1`$. Correspondingly, the student models the teacher outputs by $`f_\mu f(x_\mu )`$, where the student activation is $`x_\mu 𝑱𝝃^\mu /\sqrt{N}`$.

Learning is attained by minimizing the energy function which consists of the errors of the student in reproducing the teacher’s outputs for the training set, as well as the penalty term for excessive complexity. Hence we use the energy function

$$E=\frac{1}{2}\underset{\mu }{}(O_\mu f_\mu )^2+\frac{\lambda }{2}\underset{j}{}J_j^2,$$
(1)
where $`\lambda `$ is the weight decay strength. Minimizing the energy function by gradient descent, the student reaches the equilibrium state

$$J_j=\frac{1}{\lambda \sqrt{N}}\underset{\mu }{}(O_\mu f_\mu )f_\mu ^{}\xi _j^\mu .$$

### 2.2 Adding an example

If an example 0 is fed to the student, the activation

$$t_0\frac{𝑱𝝃^0}{\sqrt{N}}$$

is called cavity activation. Since the student $`𝑱`$ has no information about the example, the cavity activation is a Gaussian variable for random inputs $`\xi _j^0`$. Its mean, variance and covariance with the teacher activation of example 0 are given by $`t_0=0`$, $`t_0^2=q`$ and $`t_0y_0=R`$ respectively, where $``$ denotes the ensemble average, and the parameters $`q`$ and $`R`$ are defined by

$`q=J_j^2`$ $`\mathrm{and}`$ $`R=J_jB_j.`$ (2)
Hence in the large $`N`$ limit, the cavity activation can be expressed as $`t_0=Ry_0+\sqrt{qR^2}\zeta _0`$, where $`\zeta _0`$ is a Gaussian variable with mean 0 and variance 1.

Now compare the student $`𝑱`$ with another one which incorporates example 0 in the training set, denoted by $`𝑱^0`$. The generic student activation $`x_0𝑱^0𝝃^0/\sqrt{N}`$ is no longer a Gaussian variable. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to expect that the difference between the students $`𝑱`$ and $`𝑱^0`$ is small. Following the perturbative analysis in , we conclude that $`x_0`$ is a well defined function of $`t_0`$, given by

$$t_0=x_0\gamma (O_0f_0)f_0^{},$$
(3)
where $`\gamma `$ is the local susceptibility given by

$$1\gamma \lambda =\alpha 1\frac{x_\mu }{t_\mu }_\mu ;\alpha =\frac{p}{N}.$$
(4)
For the nonlinear perceptron, it is possible that for sufficiently large $`\gamma `$, the generic activation $`x_0`$ is a multi-valued function of the cavity activation $`t_0`$. In this case we have to choose the one which minimizes the energy function in (1). The cavity method shows that the energy increase on adding example 0 is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E=\frac{1}{2}(O_0f_0)^2+\frac{1}{2\gamma }(x_0t_0)^2.$$
(5)
The first term is the primary change due to the added example, and the second term is due to the adjustment of the background examples. In the multi-valued region one needs to compare those solutions whose values of $`x_0`$ are closer to $`t_0`$ (therefore favorable in the background adjustment) with those whose outputs $`f_0`$ are closer to the teacher’s outputs $`O_0`$ (therefore favorable in the primary cost). This competition leads to a discontinuity in the range of the activation $`x_0`$ when the cavity activation $`t_0`$ varies, accompanied by the appearance of gaps in the activation distribution.

### 2.3 Adding an input

Similarly, the cavity method can be used to analyze the changes when an input 0 is added to the rule. In this case, the teacher outputs are given by $`O_\mu ^0f(y_\mu +B_0\xi _0^\mu /\sqrt{N}+T\eta _\mu )`$, where $`y_\mu `$ is the original teacher activation with $`N`$ inputs. If the student has inputs 1 to $`N`$ only, the resultant student perceptron is given by $`J_j=_\mu (O_\mu ^0f_\mu )f_\mu ^{}\xi _j^\mu /(\lambda \sqrt{N})`$.

We may construct the weight 0 for the student perceptron using the same prescription, namely

$$Z_0=\frac{1}{\lambda \sqrt{N}}\underset{\mu }{}(O_\mu ^0f_\mu )f_\mu ^{}\xi _0^\mu .$$

However, this is not the generic weight since in the activation functions $`f_\mu `$, the arguments $`x_\mu `$ do not contain the input 0; nor is the information fed from input 0 ever being utilized in the learning of $`x_\mu `$. Hence $`Z_0`$ is called the cavity weight.

Now compare the student with another one with inputs 0 to $`N`$, and which incorporates input 0 in all the training examples. Its weights are denoted by $`J_j^0`$ for $`j=1,\mathrm{},N`$ and $`J_0`$ for input 0. $`J_0`$ is different from $`Z_0`$. Nevertheless, it is also reasonable to expect that the difference between the students $`J_j`$ and $`J_j^0`$ is small. Using the perturbative analysis, we conclude that $`J_0`$ is a well defined function of $`Z_0`$, given by

$$J_0=\gamma \lambda Z_0.$$
(6)
The cavity weight distribution $`P(Z_0|B_0)`$ is a Gaussian with mean and variance given by

$$Z_0=\frac{\alpha }{\lambda }\frac{O_\mu ^{}f_\mu ^{}}{1+\gamma [f_\mu ^2(O_\mu f_\mu )f_\mu ^{\prime \prime }]}_\mu B_0,$$
(7)
$$Z_0^2Z_0^2=\frac{\alpha }{\lambda ^2}(O_\mu f_\mu )^2f_\mu ^2_\mu .$$
(8)
### 2.4 Macroscopic parameters

Making use of the relation (6), we can obtain the self-consistent equations for the macroscopic parameters $`\gamma `$, $`R`$ and $`q`$ in (4) and (2),

$`1\gamma \lambda `$ $`=`$ $`\alpha \gamma {\displaystyle \frac{f^{}(x)^2[f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]f^{\prime \prime }(x)}{1+\gamma \{f^{}(x)^2[f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]f^{\prime \prime }(x)\}}\mathrm{D}u\mathrm{D}v},`$ (9)
$`R`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha \gamma {\displaystyle \frac{f^{}(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f^{}(x)}{1+\gamma \{f^{}(x)^2[f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]f^{\prime \prime }(x)\}}\mathrm{D}u\mathrm{D}v},`$ (10)
$`qR^2`$ $`=`$ $`\alpha \gamma ^2{\displaystyle [f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]^2f^{}(x)^2\mathrm{D}u\mathrm{D}v},`$ (11)
where D$`u`$d$`u\mathrm{exp}[u^2/2]/\sqrt{2\pi }`$ and D$`v`$d$`v\mathrm{exp}[v^2/2]/\sqrt{2\pi }`$ are two independent Gaussian measures. Both the noise-corrupted teacher activation and the cavity activation are Gaussian distributed and determined from $`u`$ and $`v`$ via

$$y+T\eta =\sqrt{1+T^2}u\mathrm{a}ndt=\frac{R}{\sqrt{1+T^2}}u+\sqrt{q\frac{R^2}{1+T^2}}v,$$
(12)
and the generic activation $`x`$ is given by the solution of

$$t=x\gamma [f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]f^{}(x).$$
(13)
The progress of learning is monitored by the training error $`ϵ_t`$ and the generalization error $`ϵ_g`$, which are respectively the root mean square errors for a training example and an arbitrary example,

$`\epsilon _t^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle [f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f(x)]^2\mathrm{D}u\mathrm{D}v},`$ (14)
$`\epsilon _g^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \left[f(\sqrt{1+T^2}u)f\left(\frac{R}{\sqrt{1+T^2}}u+\sqrt{q\frac{R^2}{1+T^2}}v\right)\right]^2\mathrm{D}u\mathrm{D}v}.`$ (15)
### 2.5 Stability condition

The validity of the perturbation approach can be checked by considering the stability condition of the equilibrium state. When example 0 is added, the amplitude of the change in the student vector is given by

$$\underset{j}{}(J_j^0J_j)^2=\frac{(x_0t_0)^2}{1\alpha \left(1\frac{x_\mu }{t_\mu }\right)^2_\mu }.$$
(16)
Hence the stability condition is

$$\alpha \left(1\frac{x_\mu }{t_\mu }\right)^2_\mu <1.$$
(17)
This is identical to the stability condition of the replica-symmetric ansatz in the replica approach, the so-called Almeida-Thouless (AT) condition. In particular, we note that when a gap is present in the activation distribution, $`x_\mu `$ is a discontinuous function of $`t_\mu `$ and the system becomes unstable.

## 3 The activation distribution

Gaps in the activation distribution appear for values of local susceptibility $`\gamma >16.6`$, when a single value of the cavity activation in (3) may map onto multiple values of the generic activation, corresponding to different energy minima. When the energy minimum favors the generic activation to take a value closer to the teacher activation than the cavity activation, the example is satisfied. Otherwise, when the generic activation is closer to the cavity activation, the example is sacrificed.

As shown in Fig. 1(a), sacrificial learning first occurs at the extreme values of the teacher output $`O`$. This is because in nonlinear perceptrons, changes in the student activation around these extreme values of $`O`$ do not result in significant changes in the training error of an example, and if the cavity activation is very different from the teacher’s, it is more economical to keep the student activation close to the cavity activation, so that the background adjustment remains small. Hence sacrificial learning is a unique consequence of the nonlinearity of the perceptron output. In contrast, no sacrificial learning is present in linear perceptrons, even when perfect learning is impossible .

In Fig. 1(a), no values of the student output in the shaded region exist. For $`O<0.078`$, student activations to the left of the shaded region correspond to the satisfied examples, whereas those to the right correspond to the sacrificed ones. For intermediate values of $`O`$, the competitive effects are less, and there are no gaps developed.

Figure 1(b) shows the regions for the existence of gapped activation distributions. They are closely related to the unstable regions which violate the condition (17). The gapped regions lie inside the unstable regions, since the development of a gap is already sufficient to cause an uncontrollable change when a new example is added. However, provided that $`\alpha `$ is not too small, the boundaries of the gapped and unstable regions are very close to each other.

Figure 1(b) shows that frustration is serious when the training set size is small, leading to gapped activation distributions. When the training examples are sufficient, the underlying rule can be extracted with confidence, thereby restoring the continuous distribution. Furthermore, increasing the data noise broadens the gapped region. Indeed, noisy data introduces competing information to be learned by the student, and hence increases the degree of frustration. On the other hand, the gapped region narrows with increasing weight decay strength. Arguably, weight decay restricts the flexibility in the weight space, thus reducing the tendency for multiple minima.

Figure 2(a) shows a typical activation distribution in the region of continuous distribution, where $`\gamma =11.1`$ and the stability condition (17) is fulfilled. Comparing with the simulation result, we see that the assumption of a smooth energy landscape used in the present work is valid in this region. The theoretical and simulational results of $`ϵ_t`$ and $`ϵ_g`$ also agree. In contrast, the gapped distributions in Fig. 2(b) show that the assumption does not well describe the simulation result when $`\gamma =18.6`$ and the stability condition (17) is violated. There are prominent differences of $`ϵ_t`$ and $`ϵ_g`$ between theoretical and simulational results. To improve the agreement, a rough energy landscape as discussed in  must be introduced.

## 4 Conclusion

We have demonstrated the existence of band gaps in the activation distribution, and attributed them to frustrations arising from the competition of conflicting information inherent in noisy data, and the nonlinearity of the student perceptron. Activations corresponding to sacrificed or satisfied examples during learning are seperated by band gaps. The existence of band gaps necessitates the picture of a rough energy landscape. In the picture of the replica approach, it corresponds to the replica symmetry breaking ansatz beyond the Almeida-Thouless line.

We remark that the sacrificial effects are common in many other cases, such as multilayer perceptrons  and weight pruning . It may also exist in Support Vector Machines (SVM) when examples are noisy and insufficient . They may create local minima which complicate the convergence of learning processes. Hence it is an issue that should be considered both theoretically and practically.

#### Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong (HKUST6157 /99P).


text:
# Probing the Atmospheres of Planets Orbiting Microlensed Stars via Polarization Variability

## 1 Introduction

With recent technological advances it has become possible to detect extra-solar planets via their gravitational influence on their host stars. Inducing velocity shifts of tens to hundreds of meters per second, accurate Doppler measurements have successfully identified $`30`$ such systems (Mayor & Queloz 1995; Marcy & Butler 1998) 111http://www.physics.sfsu.edu/$``$gmarcy/planetsearch/. While uncovering the existence of planetary systems, such techniques do not probe directly the physical properties of the planets. Rather, the conditions of the planet are inferred from the orbital parameters. However, monitoring the change in stellar brightness as a planet transits a star reveals the planetary radius, an observation successfully undertaken on HD 209458 (Charbonneau et al. 2000; Henry, Marcy, Butler, & Vogt 2000). Furthermore, a novel approach has recently detected the Doppler-shifted light reflected from a massive, gas-giant planet orbiting $`\tau `$ Boötis. Utilizing high resolution optical spectroscopy, the variability of observed spectral features have provided an estimation of the planet’s size, assuming a Jupiter-like albedo (Collier Cameron, Horne, Penny & James 1999: CCHPJ99).

These approaches are currently only applicable to stars within a few tens of parsecs of the Sun. Gravitational microlensing, however, has the potential to detect planetary systems at several kiloparsecs. The search for microlensing by MACHOs within the Galactic Halo, proposed by Paczyński (1986) and first detected by Alcock et al. (1992), has become an veritable astronomical cottage industry, with several groups monitoring stars towards various sources 222See http://wwwmacho.anu.edu.au/ for a description of the MACHO group and links to the other teams.. These studies have proved to be very successful, identifying $`>400`$ candidates. A substantial fraction of these events display complex light curves, characterized by rapid and multiple fluctuations, indicative of microlensing by a binary pair of compact objects (Alcock et al. 2000). When the mass ratio between the two microlensing bodies is very much different from unity, as is the case with planetary systems, the result is less dramatic with the resultant light curve exhibiting the general isolated body bell-shaped profile, with the addition of a relatively short time scale additional fluctuation (e.g. Mao & Paczyński 1991; Gould & Loeb 1992; Wambsganss 1997). Several halo microlensing light curves are seen to possess such fluctuations, indicative of the existence of planetary mass companions of the MACHO bodies (e.g. Bennett et al. 1999; Rhie et al. 1999; Alcock et al. 2000), although the interpretation of these events still remains controversial (Albrow et al. 2000).

These approaches focus upon the perturbative effects induced by planets orbiting the MACHO lensing objects induce on the caustic structure. Here we consider instead planets orbiting the microlensing sources, namely stars in the LMC, SMC and the Galactic Bulge, and examine how large magnifications, induced when the planetary systems is swept by a fold caustic, can probe the physical properties of the planet.

During the final stages of the preparation of this paper, the recent work of Graff & Gaudi (2000) was brought to our attention. They too consider the discovery of planets in the Galactic Bulge via the identification of additional photometric features due to caustics sweeping across the planetary system. Their results and those presented here for the photometric light curves are in excellent agreement.

## 2 Gravitational Microlensing

The mathematical basis to the simple microlensing seen in the Galactic halo has been presented elsewhere, and will not be reproduced here. The reader is directed towards the excellent review article by Paczyński (1996). The important scale length, the Einstein radius in the plane of the lensing masses, is defined to be

$$R_E=\sqrt{\frac{4GM}{c^2}\frac{D_{ls}D_{ol}}{D_{os}}}=8.09\left[\frac{M}{M_{}}\frac{D_{os}}{8kpc}\left(1d\right)d\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}AU,$$
(1)
where $`D_{os}`$, $`D_{ls}`$ and $`D_{ol}`$ are the distances between the source ($`s`$), lens ($`l`$) and observer ($`o`$), and $`d`$ is $`D_{ol}/D_{os}`$. For a solar mass star located midway between the Earth and the Galactic Bulge ($`D_{os}=8kpc`$), $`R_E=4.05AU`$. The corresponding value for microlensing of sources in the Magellanic Clouds ($`D_{os}=55kpc`$) is $`10.62AU`$.

### 2.1 High Amplification Events

A single, isolated mass produces a very simple point-like caustic structure, and for a source to be significantly magnified it must be extremely well aligned with this caustic feature. When, however, the lens consists of a binary pair of masses, the combination of the two lensing potentials unfolds the point-like caustic structure into a more complicated, extended form (Schneider & Weiss 1986). This caustic structure is dominated by ‘fold catastrophes’, for which the magnification is singular along a line, as opposed to a point for the isolated mass case. Due to their extended nature, fold caustics are powerful probes of emission structure in a source, and can potentially unravel the complex structure of the central regions of active galaxies on a scale far smaller than the resolution of current optical telescopes (Wambsganss & Paczyński 1991; Lewis & Belle 1998; Belle & Lewis 2000). They can also reveal important details of stellar surfaces, such as the extent of limb darkening and polarization distribution (e.g. Simmons, Willis & Newsam 1995; Simmons, Newsam & Willis 1995).

The magnification induced as a point source is crossed by a fold caustic is given by

$$\mu =\mu _o+\frac{k}{\sqrt{xx_c}}H\left(xx_c\right),$$
(2)
where $`xx_c`$ is the distance from the source to the caustic and $`H(x)`$ is the Heaviside step function (Schneider, Ehlers & Falco 1992). The ‘strength’ of the caustic is denoted by the flux-factor $`k`$ and typically has a value of unity (Kayser & Witt 1989; Witt 1990; Witt, Kayser & Refsdal 1993).

### 2.2 Source Model

Of the sample of extra-solar planets known currently, all are at least a substantial fraction of a Jupiter mass. All are seen to orbit close to their host star, with the majority of semi-major axes being less than $`1AU`$. Such a distribution may be the result of observational selection effects, because it is these massive, close orbiting planets that would produce the largest Doppler reflex. For the purposes of this study, the source is taken to be similar to the recently identified $`\tau `$ Boötis planetary system (CCHPJ99).

$`\tau `$ Boötis, an F7V star, has a mass of 1.2$`M_{}`$ and a luminosity of 3.5$`L_{}`$. The Doppler reflex motion of amplitude $`152\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and a period of $`3.3`$ days suggests a planetary companion of 8$`M_J`$, orbiting at $`4.62\times 10^2AU`$ (neglecting inclination effects). With such a proximity to its host star, the planet can be expected to reflect a nonnegligible fraction of light towards an observer, and CCHPJ99 measure $`ϵ2\times 10^4`$ of the flux from $`\tau `$ Boötis is light reflected from the planet (but see also Charbonneau et al. 1999 & Burrows et al. 2000). With this, the planet has an inferred radius of 1.8$`R_J`$ (for CCHP99’s preferred albedo). While the characteristics of the planet orbiting $`\tau `$ Boötis may be extreme, it will serve to illustrate the details of the microlensing model.

### 2.3 Maximum Magnifications

The magnification of a point-like source is singular at a caustic. Such singularities are, however, integrable for any extended source, resulting in a finite magnification. The maximum by which a source is enhanced as a caustic sweeps across it is given by (Chang 1984);

$$\mu _{max}\frac{fk}{\sqrt{R_s}}$$
(3)
where $`R_s`$ is the effective radius of the source in units of the Einstein radius, $`k`$ is the flux-factor (Equation 2) and $`f`$ is a form factor which is dependent upon the surface brightness distribution of the source \[$`f`$ is typically $`1.5`$, being 1.39 for a uniform disk (Kayser & Witt 1989)\]. For a given caustic, smaller sources can be enhanced to a greater degree. Sources with a radius of $`1R_{}`$, located in the Galactic Bulge, are subject to a maximum magnification of $`\mu _{max}70`$, while for a body of radius $`1.8R_J`$ (equivalent to the planet orbiting $`\tau `$ Boötis), this value increases to $`161`$. Here, the flux-factor is assumed to be 1.2 (Wook, Chang & Kim 1998). Taking account of the relative distances the corresponding values of magnification for sources in the Magellanic Clouds are $`62\%`$ larger.

When observing a microlensing event the light detected is a blend of the star and the reflected light from the planet. In this situation, the maximum fluctuation induced in a light curve as a caustic sweeps across a planet is given by

$$\delta M_{max}2.5\mathrm{log}\left(1+ϵ\frac{kf}{\sqrt{R_s}}\right).$$
(4)
Employing the parameters for the $`\tau `$ Boötis system described above, $`\delta M_{max}0.035`$. The corresponding value for a planetary system located in the LMC/SMC is $`\delta M_{max}0.055`$

### 2.4 Microlensing Light Curves

Combining the microlensing and planetary model, a schematic picture of the microlensing configuration of interest can be drawn (Figure 1). It is assumed that the star is observed near the end of a binary microlensing event, recognized through its distinctive light curve, and that the star has moved out of the caustic structure. Here it is magnified by $`\mu _o1`$. The caustic has, however, yet to fully leave the stellar system and has yet to cross the planetary companion.

Sweeping a caustic across the model $`\tau `$ Boötis system produces the light curve presented in Figure 2. The upper abscissa is in units of Einstein radii for a Solar mass star, and the ordinate is the change in brightness of the microlensed source. The caustic moves from left to right, first crossing the primary star and producing a fluctuation of more than four magnitudes. After this, the caustic moves on over the planet at $`x=0`$. Due to its smaller size, it undergoes a sharper, stronger magnification, although as it is much fainter than its host star, it produces a much smaller change in magnitude 333The lensing situation described above is, of course, fully time reversible. Given an initial alert at the start of a binary event, however, later high magnification crossings can be predicted and detailed observations scheduled..

The conversion of the abscissa in Figure 2 into observed time is given by:

$$t_E=\frac{R_E}{v_m},$$
(5)
where $`v_m`$ is the transverse velocity of the microlenses. For a source in the Galactic Bulge, with the microlenses located midway between the source and the observer, and assuming a transverse velocity difference of $`100v_{100}\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, $`t_E=70v_{100}^1`$ days; this has been used to normalize Figure 2 and represents the lower abscissa coordinates. For the Magellanic Clouds, where we can assume a higher velocity of $`200v_{200}\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, the corresponding value is $`t_E=92v_{200}^1`$ days. Following Figure 2, as the caustic sweeps across the planetary system it first crosses the host star, strongly magnifying it for several hours, with the apparent brightness dropping rapidly after the caustic has completely transited the star. The light curve is then quiescent as the caustic travels the distance from the star to the planet. The semi-major axis of the $`\tau `$ Boötis planet is inferred to be 0.0462AU; projecting into the plane of the microlensing mass, this corresponds to $`5.7\times 10^3R_E`$ $`(2.2\times 10^3R_E)`$ for the Galactic Bulge (Magellanic Clouds), and the time taken for the caustic to sweep across this distance is 9.6$`v_{100}^1`$hrs (4.8$`v_{200}^1`$hrs. After this time scale, the region of strong magnification associated with the caustic reaches the planet, and the planet undergoes strong magnification $`(\stackrel{>}{}50)`$ for 1-2 hours. Again, once the caustic has completely transited the planet its apparent brightness falls rapidly. Given the relatively short duration of such a planetary microlensing ‘event’, orbital motion of the planet has been neglected.

## 3 Photometric and Polarmetric Monitoring

Graff & Gaudi (2000) have considered the identification of the photometric variability induced by the presence of a planetary companion of a microlensed source in the Galactic Bulge, demonstrating that monitoring on a 10-m class telescope, with 5-minute temporal resolution, would provide a detection with a $`S/N20`$. While revealing the planet’s presence, however, determining its physical properties is much more difficult, as any spectroscopic study would be swamped by the flux from the host star and observations to separate the two components would require integration times much longer than the time scale of any variability.

Recently, Seager, Whitney & Sasslov (2000) investigated the potential nature of the planetary atmospheres, focusing on the particles responsible for reflecting the light from the host star. This material also acts to polarize the reflected flux, with the degree of polarization being highly dependent upon the particle size and composition, and hence the physical conditions, in the planetary atmosphere. In practice, however, the degree of polarization is very small, ranging up to $`10^5`$, dependent on the model geometry and the dominant particle size in the planetary atmosphere. These polarization values are small due to the dominating presence of the unpolarized flux from the host star. Flat-fielding uncertainties coupled with inevitable variable seeing limit the accuracy of polarization measurements, and as Seager, Whitney & Sasslov (2000) conclude, the expected values are well below the capabilities of current observational techniques, even for nearby systems.

Can gravitational microlensing boost the polarization to a more observable level? Considering a planetary system which induces a fractional polarization of $`P_o`$, the value observed when the planet is magnified by a factor $`\mu `$ is

$$P_\mu =\mu \frac{1+ϵ}{1+\mu ϵ}P_o.$$
(6)
Using the maximum magnification of planets described in Section 2.3, the maximum observed fractional polarization during a microlensing event is $`156P_o`$ for a $`\tau `$ Boötis-like system in the Galactic Bulge. The corresponding number for the Magellanic clouds is $`247P_o`$ and so the apparent flux from the systems is substantially more polarized during a planetary microlensing event.

Scaling the Seager, Whitney & Sasslov (2000) fractional polarization estimates from their 51Peg model to $`\tau `$ Boötis the maximum intrinsic V-band polarization will be $`P_o=1.5\times 10^5`$. Thus the magnified fractional polarization will be $`0.23\%`$ for Galactic Bulge sources, and $`0.37\%`$ when microlensing sources are in the Magellanic Clouds. While these values focus upon the ‘best-case’, an examination of Fig 2. reveals that the planet will be significantly magnified for an extended period (by $`\stackrel{>}{}50`$ for an hour in the Galactic Bulge) and so deeper limits can be reached with extended integration times.

It is currently routine to measure polarization at the 0.1% level, and polarimeters are now available on large telescopes, making such measurements possible even for faint sources. With the FORS1 polarimeter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, a $`400`$ sec exposure at two position angles is sufficient to detect $`0.23\%`$ fractional polarization in the V-band at the $`3\sigma `$ level on a $`\mathrm{V}=18`$ source (corresponding to the the apparent magnitude of $`\tau `$ Boötis at the distance of the Galactic Bulge). Including the effects of extinction, assuming an $`A_v1.25`$, the integration needs to be increased to $`700`$ sec to achieve the same detection. Figure 2 reveals that, for the Galactic Bulge, the magnification exceeds 65 for $`35`$ mins, and hence the polarization exceeds $`0.1\%`$ over the same period. As there will be a distribution in the luminosity of the sources under consideration, the observing strategy can be ‘tuned’ to provide significant detections/limits. For $`\tau `$ Boötis-type systems in the Magellanic Clouds ($`\mathrm{V}22`$), however, the detection of the expected polarization appears unfeasible with current instrumentation, as the required integration times become comparable to the planet crossing time.

## 4 Conclusions

This paper has considered the identification of planets orbiting the sources (rather than the lenses) monitored by the gravitational microlensing experiments, namely stars in the Galactic Bulge and the Magellanic Clouds. In this case it is the light reflected from the planetary surface that undergoes significant magnification when crossed by a caustic. A close-in extrasolar giant planet, such as that identified orbiting $`\tau `$ Boötis, would induce a fluctuation of $`\delta M_{max}0.035(0.055)`$ into a microlensing light curve of a source in the Galactic Bulge (Magellanic Clouds), easily identifiable a few hours before or after maximum magnification with a monitoring program on a 10-m class telescope; such photometric variations will be observable in both the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds. It should be noted that, with the photometry limits available with current telescopes, the latter case is restricted to luminous stars, such as evolved giants. The determination of the physical properties of the planet is, however, more difficult due to the relatively short duration of the planetary event and the overwhelming flux from the host star.

The light reflected from close-in extrasolar giant planets is expected to be polarized, due to the presence of particles in the planetary atmosphere. The degree of polarization is strongly dependent upon the composition and particle size and hence the physical conditions of the atmosphere. If unmagnified, this induced polarization is small, well below the detection capabilities of modern telescopes.

As a gravitational microlensing caustic crosses the planet, the expected degree of induced polarization can be brought to levels now detectable with 10-m class telescopes. Seager, Whitney & Sasselov (2000), however, concede that significant uncertainties still remain in their modeling of the fractional polarization induced by the presence of a planetary companion. Additional effects, such as multiple scattering and blending in crowded fields, which act to reduce the polarization to even smaller values, may take the proposed probe of planetary atmospheres out of reach with current observational techniques. Nevertheless, the huge gain in contrast in the flux of a planet compared to that of its host during a caustic crossing will likely make this an attractive strategy for future investigations. While such observations of the Magellanic Clouds are currently beyond current techniques, the polarmetric monitoring of microlensing events in the Galactic Bulge may reveal more clues to the physical conditions of close-in extrasolar giant planets than studies of planetary systems much nearer to the Earth.

## Acknowledgments

We thank E. Corbett and J. Bailey for very useful discussions. The anonymous referee is thanked for providing useful comments on the original version of this manuscript.