text:
# Pulling Hairpinned Polymers

## Abstract

We introduce a model of thermalized conformations in space of RNA -or single stranded DNA- molecules, which includes the possibility of hairpin formation. This model contains the usual secondary structure information, but extends it to the study of one element of the ternary structure, namely the end-to-end distance. The computed force-elongation characteristics is in good agreemement with some recent measurements on single stranded DNA molecules.

Recent progress in the manipulation of single biomolecules is making gradually accessible a wealth of interesting physical information. One of the basic investigations concerns the force-elongation characteristics: its measurement in double stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecules has provided very interesting results in the last few years, going from a detailed characterization of the elastic properties of the molecules to the existence of new phases of dsDNA in various regimes of tension and overcoiling .

While the force-elongation characteristics of dsDNA is rather well understood, the corresponding knowledge on single stranded DNA (ssDNA) is poorer: although in some ionic conditions it may be characterized by a simple freely jointed chain (FJC) with elastic bonds , this description is not valid when one changes the ionic concentrations . This discrepancy is probably due to the formation of secondary structures in the ssDNA molecule , which can bend back onto itself and form local helices where complementary bases A-T and G-C are paired, gaining an energy of several $`kT`$ per pair.

The formation of secondary structures is a crucial step in the folding of proteins and single stranded nucleic acid polymers. Its importance stems from the rather large values of the binding energy involved in this formation, compared to the much smaller energy scale of the interaction between secondary structures which govern the final three-dimensional shape of the molecules (the ternary structure). As discussed recently , the formation of secondary structures in RNA (which is very similar to the one in ssDNA) provides a wonderful laboratory for detailed studies of some of the basic mechanisms at work in heteropolymer folding.

In this paper we modify and extend the previous studies on RNA or ssDNA secondary structures in order to include one simple aspect of the ternary structure, namely the thermal fluctuations of the end-to-end distance, and its dependence on the pulling force. Our model, which is solved exactly with generating function techniques, provides a detailed description of the elastic properties of these polymers. It involves three parameters: the persistence length of the molecule, the elastic constant characteristic of bond stretching, and the pair binding energy.

In the simplest approximation, the backbone of the polymer is described by a FJC with $`N`$ elastic bonds. At thermal equilibrium, the probability distribution of a bond to be equal to the vector $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ is given by

$$\mu (\stackrel{}{r})=C\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{(|\stackrel{}{r}|b)^2}{2\mathrm{}^2}\right),$$
(1)
where $`b`$ is the persistence length and $`\mathrm{}`$ is a length which characterizes the elasticity of the bond. For RNA or ssDNA, one expects $`b`$ to be of the order of a few times the distance between successive bases, and $`\mathrm{}/b`$ to be much smaller than one. The spatial conformation is thus described by the positions $`vecr_i`$, ($`i\{1,\mathrm{},N+1\}`$) of the $`N+1`$ nodes which are the articulation points of the chain. The attraction between complementary bases creates an effective potential $`ϵ_{ij}(\stackrel{}{r}_i\stackrel{}{r}_j)`$ between nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$ (arbitrarily far away from each other along the backbone) which involves a short ranged attraction and a core repulsion. We perform a standard virial expansion of the partition function in terms of the quantities $`f_{ij}(\stackrel{}{r})=\mathrm{exp}(ϵ_{ij}(\stackrel{}{r})/kT)1`$ which vanish for $`|\stackrel{}{r}|>a`$, where $`a`$ is the range of the interaction. The secondary structure is characterized by the set of node pairs $`i,j`$ such that $`f_{ij}0`$.

Our main approximation for describing the secondary structure is the standard one in which one keeps only the nested diagrams , which are defined as follows:

* Each node can be paired to at most one other node.
* Two node pairs $`i<j`$ and $`k<l`$ (with say $`i<k`$) can coexist only if they are either independent ($`i<j<k<l`$) or nested ($`i<k<l<j`$).

This condition neglects the formation of pseudo-knots, which are known to be rare in RNA folding. This is thus the simplest approximation, one in which one adds to the basic elastic model (here for instance the FJC) the possibility of formation of hairpins, consisting of helices, and helices within helices organised in a hierarchical way. In the future it should be possible to generalize our model in order to include some sets of pseudo-knots, as was done for instance in simulations in . Including more refined potentials to get a better description of the secondary structure is also possible

The hierarchical structure of the retained diagrams makes it possible to write a recursion relation for the partition function $`Z_{j,i}(\stackrel{}{r})`$ which describes the set of nodes $`k\{i,i+1,\mathrm{},j\}`$, with an end-to-end distance $`\stackrel{}{r}_j\stackrel{}{r}_i=\stackrel{}{r}`$. The recursion is explained in fig. 1 which shows that, when $`ji3`$:

$`Z_{j,i}(\stackrel{}{r})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{u}\mu (\stackrel{}{u})Z_{j1,i}(\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{u})}+f_{ji}(\stackrel{}{r}){\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{u}_1\mu (\stackrel{}{u}_1)𝑑\stackrel{}{u}_2\mu (\stackrel{}{u}_2)Z_{j1,i+1}(\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{u}_1\stackrel{}{u}_2)}`$ (2)
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k=i+1}{\overset{j2}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=1}{\overset{3}{}}d\stackrel{}{u}_m\mu (\stackrel{}{u}_m)d\stackrel{}{v}f_{jk}(\stackrel{}{v})Z_{j1,k+1}(\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{u}_2\stackrel{}{u}_3)Z_{k1,i}(\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{u}_1\stackrel{}{v})}`$ (3)
This recursion relation provides the definition of our model for RNA or ssDNA folding. It modifies the recursions which have been written previously in the studies of RNA secondary structures  in two aspects. On the one hand it includes the spatial structure, i.e. the positions of the nodes. Secondly it uses the virial expansion in which the interaction term between $`i`$ and $`j`$ is given by $`f_{ij}(\stackrel{}{r})`$. This is needed in order to get back the usual FJC in the limit where the interaction potential $`ϵ`$ vanishes.

As a first step in the study of this model, we investigate in the following the case where the interaction energy $`ϵ_{ij}(\stackrel{}{r})`$ is independent of the pair $`i,j`$. This amounts to using an effective interaction, averaged over the several bases included within the persistence length $`b`$, in which the only effect of the sequence which is kept is the global concentration in the various base pairs. This rough approximation turns out to be good enough for computing global properties of the polymer like the force elongation characteristics. The effect of sequence heterogeneities, which is crucial for dyanmical properties, is left for future studies.

In the homogeneous case the partition function $`Z_{j,i}(\stackrel{}{r})`$ depends only on $`n=ji`$, and is denoted by $`Z_n(\stackrel{}{r})`$. We introduce the Fourier transform of the generating function of the $`Z_n^{}s`$:

$$\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p})=𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\left(\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}Z_n(\stackrel{}{r})\zeta ^n\right)e^{i\stackrel{}{p}.\stackrel{}{r}},$$
(4)
which is expressed in terms of the Fourier transforms:

$`\sigma (\stackrel{}{p})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\mu (\stackrel{}{r})e^{i\stackrel{}{p}.\stackrel{}{r}}}`$ (5)
$`f(\stackrel{}{p})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\left[\mathrm{exp}(\beta ϵ(\stackrel{}{r}))1\right]e^{i\stackrel{}{p}.\stackrel{}{r}}}.`$ (6)
Using $`Z_0(\stackrel{}{p})1`$ and $`Z_1(\stackrel{}{p})\sigma (\stackrel{}{p})`$ one derives from the recursion relation (3) the functional equation:

$$\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p})=\frac{1}{\zeta }\frac{\omega (\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p})}{1\sigma (\stackrel{}{p})\omega (\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p})},$$
(7)
where the kernel $`\omega `$ satisfies the integral equation:

$$\omega (\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p})=\zeta +\zeta ^3\frac{d^3q}{(2\pi )^3}f(\stackrel{}{p}\stackrel{}{q})\sigma (\stackrel{}{q})^2\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta ,\stackrel{}{q}).$$
(8)
The force-elongation characteristics for a chain with $`N`$ bonds can be deduced from the partition function in presence of a force:

$$Z_N^\stackrel{}{F}=𝑑\stackrel{}{r}Z_N(\stackrel{}{r})e^{\beta \stackrel{}{F}.\stackrel{}{r}}.$$
(9)
Its generating function is nothing but $`\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p}_F)`$, where $`\stackrel{}{p}_F`$ is an imaginary momentum given by $`\stackrel{}{p}_F=(0,0,i\beta F)`$ for a force $`F`$ pulling in the third direction. For a long chain, $`N>>1`$, one expects a partition function behaving as $`Z_N^\stackrel{}{F}A\mathrm{exp}(\beta N\varphi (F))/N^\alpha `$. The free energy per bond $`\varphi (F)`$ determines the radius of convergence of the series defining the generating function $`\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta ,\stackrel{}{p}_F)`$. It is thus equal to $`\varphi (F)=(1/\beta )\mathrm{ln}(\zeta ^{})`$, where $`\zeta ^{}`$ is the singularity of $`\mathrm{\Xi }(\zeta )`$ which is the nearest to the origin. From the free energy per bond one deduces the elongation $`L`$ along the axis of the force: $`L=N\varphi /F`$, as well as the average fraction of pairings $`n_p`$ (defined as the number of pairings divided by $`N`$): $`n_p=\mathrm{ln}(\zeta ^{})/\mathrm{ln}(\gamma )`$.

The integral equation (7) is easily solved in the case where the range of the interaction potential is small compared to $`b`$ (this approximation is again valid when $`b`$ is much larger than the interbase distance). One can then neglect the momentum dependence of $`f`$ and substitute $`f(\stackrel{}{p})`$ by the constant $`\gamma b^3`$, where $`\gamma `$ is a dimensionless number characteristic of the strength of the pairing and defined by $`\gamma =f(\stackrel{}{0})/b^3=𝑑\stackrel{}{r}/b^3\left[\mathrm{exp}(\beta ϵ(\stackrel{}{r}))1\right]`$. The kernel $`\omega `$ is then momentum independent. The relation (8) between $`\zeta `$ and $`\omega `$ can be written as $`\omega =\zeta +\zeta ^2A(\omega )`$, where the function $`A(\omega )`$ is monotonously increasing and such that $`A^{}(\omega =1)=\mathrm{}`$. One can then show that $`\omega (\zeta )`$ has a second order branching point at $`\zeta _{\mathrm{bp}}`$ and is analytic for $`|\zeta |<\zeta _{\mathrm{bp}}`$, where $`\zeta _{\mathrm{bp}}`$ is the maximum of the function $`(1+\sqrt{1+4\omega A(\omega )})/(2A(\omega ))`$.

The singularities of $`\mathrm{\Xi }`$ which control the large $`n`$ behavior of $`Z_n`$ are the branching point of $`\omega (\zeta )`$ at $`\zeta _{\mathrm{bp}}`$ and the pole at $`\zeta _\mathrm{p}(\stackrel{}{p})`$ determined by the vanishing of the denominator of equation (7), when the momentum is equal to $`\stackrel{}{p}_F`$: $`\omega (\zeta _\mathrm{p})\sigma (\stackrel{}{p}_F)=1.`$ For purely elastic bonds with $`\mathrm{}<<b`$, one finds $`\sigma (\stackrel{}{p})\left[\mathrm{sin}(pb)/pb\right]\mathrm{exp}(p^2\mathrm{}^2/2),`$ and the pole is located at:

$$\omega (\zeta _\mathrm{p})=\frac{\beta Fb}{\mathrm{sinh}(\beta Fb)}e^{\beta ^2F^2\mathrm{}^2/2}.$$
(10)
To each of the two singularities is associated one phase of the model. The “hairpinned” phase corresponds to the branching point singularity. As far as we neglect the momentum dependence of $`\omega `$ (i.e. for small interaction radius) the free energy per bond $`\varphi (F)=(1/\beta )\mathrm{log}\zeta _{\mathrm{bp}}`$ is force independent. The length of the polymer is thus of order $`N^0`$ in the long chain ($`N\mathrm{}`$) limit. A fraction $`n_\mathrm{p}`$ of nodes is paired with $`n_\mathrm{p}`$ independent on the applied force. The chain is bent in a few, i.e. $`O(N^0)`$, hairpins, each one involving $`O(N)`$ bonds. The “elongated” phase corresponds to the pole singularity. The free energy $`\varphi (F)=(1/\beta )\mathrm{log}\zeta _\mathrm{p}(\stackrel{}{p}_F)`$ is force dependent and the elongation is extensive (proportional to $`N`$). This can be written as: $`L(F)=n_{\mathrm{free}}(F)L_{FJC}(F)`$ where $`L_{FJC}(F)`$ is the elongation without interaction (i.e. in the case $`\gamma =0`$) and $`n_{\mathrm{free}}(F)`$ the fraction of nodes which do not belong to any hairpin. The fraction of pairings rapidly decreases with the applied force. The number of hairpins is $`O(N)`$.

In our model there exists a second order phase transition between the hairpinned phase at low force and the elongated phase at high force. This phase transition is a robust feature of the model which does not depend on the details of the interaction potential and of the bond stretching potential: the branched point singularity, associated with the hairpinned phase, is present as soon as $`\sigma (\stackrel{}{p})1\kappa \stackrel{}{p}^2`$ for small $`|\stackrel{}{p}|`$, which is the generic situation. The pole singularity, associated with the elongated phase, is always present. The boundary between the two phases occurs at a critical force $`F_c(\gamma )`$ which increases monotonically with $`\gamma `$. Slightly above the threshold the elongation grows linearly with the force: $`L(F)FF_c(\gamma )`$. The asymptotic behaviors of the dimensionless critical force are:

$`\beta bF_c(\gamma )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{log}(\gamma )\text{for}1\gamma e^{b^2/\mathrm{}^2}`$ (11)
$`\beta bF_c(\gamma )`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma }{8\pi \kappa ^2}}\text{for}\gamma 1`$ (12)
Notice that the linear dependence of $`F_c`$ at small $`\gamma `$ a prediction which is independent of the detailed form of the bond probability distribution (1).

Equations (8) and (10) can be easily solved numerically. We compared our theoretical predictions with the experimental data presented in Ref.  on the $`\mathrm{ln}`$ force versus elongation characteristic for a charomid-ssDNA at room temperature under different salinity conditions. Using the elastic model for bond stretching (1), our three fitting parameters are: the persistence length $`b`$, the elasticity $`\mathrm{}`$, the interaction parameter $`\gamma `$.

As shown in fig.2, we obtain a good agreement with the experimental curve at the highest salt concentration ($`10`$ mM PB, $`5`$ mM Mg). The small elongation region ($`L/L_0<.1`$) of the experiment was not considered since the interactions of the molecule with the glass plate cannot be ignored (this forbids a study of the critical force region with the present data). The fitting parameters are: the persistence length $`b`$, the elasticity $`\mathrm{}`$, the interaction parameter $`\gamma `$. The number of bonds was fixed as in  such that $`Nb=1.6875L_0`$, where $`L_0`$ is the crystallographic length of the double stranded DNA. A least square fit, yields the following results: $`b=19.2\mathrm{\AA }`$, $`\gamma =1.89`$, $`\mathrm{}=1.01\mathrm{\AA }`$. The orders of magnitudes of the various parameters are correct. The persistence length is of the order of three times the interbase distance $`b_0`$ (our approximation of a large value of $`b>b_0`$ is marginally self-consistent and should be improved upon in the future). The value of $`\mathrm{}`$, when expressed in terms of the enthalpic elasticity $`S`$ as in , corresponds to $`S=b/(\beta \mathrm{}^2)1000pN`$, typical of the values measured at higher forces; the approximation $`\mathrm{}<<b`$ is valid. The value of $`\gamma `$ is characteristic of the strength of the interaction. For a potential well of width $`a`$ and depth $`ϵ_0`$, one has $`\gamma (a/b)^3\mathrm{exp}(\beta ϵ_0)`$, which is compatible with some typical values such as $`a4\mathrm{\AA }`$, $`ϵ_02.9kT`$.

From our computation one can deduce the pairing fraction $`n_p`$ in the conditions of the experiment. This is plotted in Fig. 3. It is clear that in the region of forces above $`10pN`$ there is no pairing. This is consistent with the measurements of ref.  which showed that the charcteristics of two different ssDNA’s with different G-C concentration merge in that region. One should keep in mind that the two fitting parameters $`b`$ and $`\mathrm{}`$ are basically fixed by this high force region where there is no pairing. The low force part with pairing is the one which fixes the binding parameter $`\gamma `$.

When the salinity is lowered some new physical effects become relevant. The electrostatic interactions between the bases are less effectively screened, and probably the FJC is not a good model. Our model should still give a reasonable account of the effect of secondary structures on the elongation. One possibility to test it is to use, instead of the elastic FJC, the experimental force elongation characteristics measured on a molecule exposed first to a chemical treatment (for instance glyoxal) which destroys the ability of the bases to pair. Our model should then allow to deduce from two experimental curves (one with glyoxal, the other without) the effect of the secondary structures .

In this paper we have introduced a solvable model of the structure of ssDNA or RNA molecules which includes, together with the secondary structure, one important element of its ternary structure. The model gives a general framework for including the effect of hairpin formation in the elongation properties of the molecules. When used with a simple FJC model for the polymer without hairpins, it is in good agreement with the experimental data at high ionic concentration. Several extensions of this study are natural. The description of data obtained at smaller ionic concentration requires to go beyond the FJC approximation. Another natural extension of our study, also possible within this model, is to study the effects of the disorder in the sequence of bases.

Acknowledgements: It is a pleasure to thank D. Bensimon and V. Croquette for many useful discussions and for providing us their data.


format: text

text:
# Spectroscopic Gravitational Lens Candidates in the CNOC2 Field Galaxy Redshift Survey

## 1 Introduction

Gravitational lensing of one galaxy by a foreground galaxy can provide unique insight into the mass distribution of the deflector galaxy and the morphology of the source galaxy when the lensed emission extends over a range of radii (Kochanek 1995; Kochanek et al. 2000a). Radially extended emission occurs in the form of full or partial Einstein rings which are formed when the background galaxy is of order $``$1 arcsec in size, comparable in size to the inner (diamond) caustic of a typical deflector galaxy. Miralda-Escude & Lehar (1992) pointed out that a large population of optical Einstein rings should exist if the background density of faint galaxies is high enough. The first such (partial) optical Einstein ring was discovered in a spectroscopic survey of $`z`$$``$0.4 early-type galaxies (Warren et al. 1996, 1999), and another has since been discovered in the same survey (Hewett et al. 1999). The main advantage of spectroscopic galaxy-galaxy lens searches is that the source and deflector redshifts, and thus the basic lensing geometry, are determined upon discovery (though further observations are needed to obtain the exact lens morphology and possibly additional confirmation of the objects’ lensing natures). In contrast, galaxy-galaxy lens candidates selected from direct imaging can suffer from confusion with morphologically complex galaxies even when high resolution images are available (Ratnatunga et al. 1999), and while radio-selected lenses have high-resolution discovery images, they often suffer from faint optical counterparts which make redshifts difficult to obtain (Tonry & Kochanek 2000).

In this paper we present a sample of candidate gravitational lenses identified spectroscopically during the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (CNOC2) and a subsequent followup project. Each consists of a putative deflector galaxy (the CNOC2 target galaxy) whose flux dominates the spectrum and yields a secure redshift, plus a discrepant emission line from a putative source galaxy lensed by, or projected onto, the target galaxy. Existing broadband imaging shows no firm morphological evidence for lensed emission, but high-resolution narrowband imaging should reveal that the real gravitational lenses among these candidates are full or partial Einstein rings. We assume $`H_0`$=100 km s-1 Mpc-1 ($`h`$=1), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$=0.2 and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$=0.

## 2 Data

The CNOC2 dataset is discussed in Yee et al. (2000) and only relevant details are summarized here. $`UBVR_cI_c`$ imaging and spectroscopy were obtained using the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The survey covers a total area of 5434 arcmin2 divided among four patches on the sky, each of which is a mosaic of 17 to 19 contiguous MOS fields of size $``$9′$`\times `$8′. Spectroscopy was obtained for two slit-masks per field (denoted A and B), with two exposures per mask (each typically 20 minutes long for the A masks and 40 minutes for the B masks), east-west slits of width 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 and minimum length 10$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5, and typically $``$100 objects per mask. The final rebinned 1-D spectra cover 4390 to 6292 Å at 4.89 Å/pixel and resolution $``$14.8 Å. They are thus capable of detecting Ly$`\alpha `$ at $`2.620<z<4.167`$ and \[O ii\] at $`0.181<z<0.685`$. In addition, followup red spectroscopy was obtained in 1999 August to measure the Balmer decrements of a subset of CNOC2 galaxies with known redshifts (Morris et al. 2000). These spectra cover 5000 to 9000 Å at 5 Å/pixel and resolution $``$17 Å. Redshifts were determined by cross-correlation with a set of three templates: one absorption-line (spectral class Scl=2; E galaxy), one emission+absorption (Scl=4; Sbc galaxy), and one emission-dominated (Scl=5; Scd galaxy). The choice of template to use, and thus the spectral class and redshift assigned to the galaxy, was made after a visual review which usually involved examining the direct and spectroscopic images and the final 1-D spectra. The CNOC2 catalog used in this paper (2000 April version) contains 6130 spectroscopically identified galaxies.

## 3 Selection of Spectroscopic Lens Candidates

During the visual redshift assignment review for five CNOC2 targets and one followup target, we noted the presence of a strong unidentified emission line discrepant from the adopted redshift. The redshifts for these targets were determined from multiple spectral features and have $`R_{cor}4`$, where $`R_{cor}`$ is the SNR of the redshift correlation peak (Yee et al. 1996). Figure 1 shows the observed spectra of the candidate lenses (in all our discussions we present the candidates in decreasing order of deflector galaxy redshift). Each candidate’s ID number is its CNOC2 catalog number (Yee et al. 2000), consisting of a four-digit patch code plus a six-digit field+object code after a decimal point. All of the discrepant lines are significant detections and are present in both exposures of each mask in which they were observed. The possible causes of spurious lines (including zeroth order emission, cosmic rays, spatially and spectrally adjacent slit overlaps, and flatfield residuals) are ruled out in each case by visual inspection of the two-dimensional (2-D) spectroscopic images. When the spectra are examined in the rest frame of the target galaxy, none of the discrepant lines match the wavelength of any emission line seen in the 719 local galaxies studied by Sandage (1978), nor the wavelength of any feature which mimics an emission line as empirically observed in the CNOC2 absorption-line galaxy spectra. Also, in the five of these six objects with more than one observed emission line, the wavelength ratios of the lines do not match any known or reasonable pair of UV or optical lines at any $`z`$ (but see §4.3.2 below). Thus, these objects are best described as candidate gravitational lens systems, having one set of spectral features plus a discrepant emission line which is almost certainly either \[O ii\] or Ly$`\alpha `$ (see discussion in Warren et al. 1996). Table 1 and Table 2 give the spectroscopic and photometric parameters, respectively, for these candidate lenses.

Figure 2 shows the observed spectra of the candidate lenses in the putative deflector galaxy rest frame. Five of the six lens candidates have emission lines at the deflector galaxy redshift in addition to the discrepant emission line. For targets such as these where the redshift was determined from an emission line template, it is relatively easy to spot even weak discrepant emission lines during the visual redshift assignment review. However, it is possible that discrepant but weak emission lines were ignored during this step if the redshift was assigned from an absorption line template. Thus the final 1-D spectra for all $``$2350 galaxies with redshifts assigned from the absorption line template or the emission+absorption line template were re-examined by eye for discrepant emission lines. No additional candidates were found with confirmed lines as strong as in the original five CNOC2 candidates. Therefore we are confident that in the CNOC2 database there are no other candidate spectroscopic lenses with discrepant lines as strong as these five ($`510^{17}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 or equivalent width $`10`$ Å) and with observed wavelengths visible in CNOC2.

It is worthwhile to note that we found only one strong candidate among objects with purely absorption line spectra, despite the fact that such objects are typically bulge-dominated galaxies which are more efficient lenses than disk-dominated galaxies. We feel this is probably not a significant result for several reasons. First, our sample is only six objects. Second, morphologically most of them appear to be bulge-dominated (§4.3). Third, the distribution of spectral classes of our candidate deflector galaxies reflects not only lensing efficiency but also the fraction of each spectral class in the primary $`R21.5`$ CNOC2 spectroscopic sample (25% absorption line objects, 20% emission+absorption and 55% emission line). Fourth, Schade et al. (1999) find \[O ii\] emission in one-third of a sample of $`z`$$`<`$1 galaxies classified as bulge-dominated using $`HST`$ images.

Assuming the discrepant line is Ly$`\alpha `$, none of the candidates exhibit a significant Lyman break or significant emission from Ly$`\beta `$/O vi$`\lambda `$1034, N v$`\lambda `$1240, O i$`\lambda `$1302, C ii$`\lambda `$1335 or Si iv/O iv\] $`\lambda `$1400. This is not surprising, since some of these emission lines are only strong in AGN and since star-forming galaxies can have extremely strong Ly$`\alpha `$ relative to their continua (Stern et al. 2000).

## 4 Discussion

The five candidate lenses from the original CNOC2 survey form a unique sample from a survey with well-understood selection effects (the sixth lens was identified from an ongoing and thus statistically incomplete survey, and is excluded from the following discussion). The selection biases for these lens candidates are: the deflector galaxy must give a secure redshift; the source galaxy must be at $`2.620<z<4.167`$ for Ly$`\alpha `$ or $`0.181<z<0.685`$ for \[O ii\]; and the source galaxy must have an emission line strong enough to be visible.111The bias toward deflector galaxies with secure redshifts means that a system with a source at $`2.620<z<4.167`$ and a deflector at $`z0.6`$ could have been misidentified as an \[O ii\] emission-line galaxy in the CNOC2 database. We now attempt to account for these biases and estimate the number of projected \[O ii\]-emitting galaxies (foreground or background to the CNOC2 target galaxies) which could contaminate the lens sample from the original CNOC2 survey. We defer a discussion of the expected number of lenses in the survey to §4.4.

### 4.1 Estimated Number of Projected \[O ii\]-emitting Galaxies

Since we cannot yet definitively identify the discrepant lines observed in these objects as arising from lensed galaxies, we now consider the possibility that they are \[O ii\] from galaxies seen in projection along the line of sight. We adopt 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3$`\times `$1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 (4.694 10-4 arcmin2) as the area within which a galaxy would have to be projected to produce a discrepant line in our spectra, since we use 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 wide slits and the typical seeing is better than 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0. The spectral profiles along the slits and the imaging data on individual objects discussed in §4.3 rule out larger projected separations. The expected number of chance projections in the CNOC2 sample which might explain these objects is then just this area times the surface density of galaxies which have properties consistent with the putative \[O ii\] emitters. The imaging data discussed in §4.3 rules out projected galaxies with magnitudes comparable to the target galaxies. We adopt bright magnitude limits for potential projected galaxies 2$`\stackrel{\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 fainter than the target galaxy (i.e. ten times lower flux). A conservative faint magnitude limit can be estimated by assuming the discrepant line flux comes from an object whose \[O ii\] rest-frame equivalent width (REW) is 100 Å, the maximum value observed even in starburst galaxies (but see Stern et al. 2000). The galaxy surface density in these magnitude ranges (typically $`R=22.524`$) is 10.22 arcmin-2 on average. Since $`0.181z0.685`$ is required for \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727 to be seen in CNOC2, we multiply by a correction factor $`f_z`$, the fraction of galaxies predicted to have $`0.181z0.685`$. These predictions are taken from the model of Gladders & Yee (2000a), which uses extrapolated CNOC2 luminosity functions (Lin et al. 1999) to simultaneously fit numerous observational constraints. On average, $`f_z0.32\pm 0.12`$. We also need to multiply by an additional correction factor $`f_{\mathrm{OII}}`$, the fraction of galaxies in these magnitude and redshift ranges with \[O ii\] emission strong enough to match the observations. This fraction depends on magnitude since fainter galaxies must have higher \[O ii\] REW to explain the observed line flux. Even at our assumed bright magnitude limit, the required \[O ii\] REW is $``$25 Å. Approximately $``$35% of $`R23`$ galaxies with $`0.181z0.685`$ have \[O ii\] REW$`>`$25 Å in the sample of Hogg et al. (1998), but only $``$2% have REW$`>`$100 Å. We assume $`f_{\mathrm{OII}}0.2`$ averaged over our magnitude ranges.

We use all these numbers to estimate the total number of galaxies which could explain the observed discrepant emission lines. We obtain $`1.9\pm 0.7`$ total chance projections using the formula $`NAnf_zf_{\mathrm{OII}}`$ with $`N=6130`$ CNOC2 galaxies with redshifts, $`A=4.69410^4`$ arcmin2/galaxy, $`n=10.22`$ candidate projected galaxies/arcmin2, $`f_z=0.32\pm 0.12`$ and $`f_{\mathrm{OII}}=0.2`$. Using Poisson statistics with this mean, we estimate that there is only a 3% chance that all five candidates from the original CNOC2 survey are projections.

A firm upper limit to the number of projected \[O ii\]-emitting galaxies can also be made from the CNOC2 data itself. We calculate $`nf_zf_{\mathrm{OII}}`$ independently by measuring, in the appropriate magnitude range $`22.5<R<24`$, the surface density of all galaxies times the fraction of CNOC2 targets with redshifts $`0.181z0.685`$ from emission or emission+absorption line templates. This method yields an estimate of $`3.1\pm 0.6`$ total chance projections, higher than above but within the uncertainties. This is expected to be an overestimate because it does not account for the fact that some of these galaxies have weak \[O ii\] which would not be detected at a significant level if the galaxy was projected atop a brighter galaxy.

### 4.2 Estimated Einstein Radii

The cross-section for lensing scales as $`\pi \theta _E^2`$ (Blandford & Narayan 1992). Thus the estimated Einstein radii of our candidate deflector galaxies can be used as a consistency check on the probability of detecting such lenses. For a singular isothermal sphere, the Einstein radius $`\theta _E=1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}455\sigma _{225}^2D_{LS}/D_{OS}`$, where $`\sigma _{225}`$ is the central dark matter velocity dispersion in units of 225 km s-1 and $`D_{OS}`$ and $`D_{LS}`$ are the angular diameter distances to the source from the observer and the deflector (lens) galaxy, respectively (Kochanek et al. 2000b). Kochanek (1994) found that for a sample of local early-type galaxies, $`\sigma _{225}=\left(L/L_{}\right)^{0.24}`$, where $`L_{}`$ is the luminosity corresponding to $`M_B=19.9+5\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{g}\left(h\right)`$. We use these two equations to calculate $`\theta _E`$ for our candidate lenses for each possible discrepant line identification for each object. However, to ensure that our galaxies’ $`M_B`$ values are directly comparable to those of the Kochanek (1994) galaxies, we need to make two corrections to the $`M_B`$ values in Table 2 before using them in these equations. The Kochanek (1994) galaxies are local ellipticals with insignificant levels of blue light from star formation, but our galaxies have considerable blue light, as seen in their spectra and indicated by their spectral and SED classes. The lensing cross-section will be overestimated directly in proportion to the fraction of excess blue light. To account for this bias, we recomputed $`M_B`$ by normalizing to the observed $`I`$ band flux and assuming an SED class of 0.38, equal to the earliest type observed among the candidates. We then correct for the passive evolution observed in the population of galaxies with early-type SEDs in CNOC2. This is parametrized as $`M_B\left(0\right)=M_B\left(z\right)+Qz`$ (Lin et al. 1999), with $`Q=1.07`$ from an analysis of the full CNOC2 sample using evolving GISSEL models to define the galaxy SED types (Lin et al. 2000). The $`M_B`$ now represent our best estimates of the magnitudes the “old population” light in these galaxies would have at $`z=0`$, and we use them to calculate $`\theta _E`$(Ly$`\alpha `$) and $`\theta _E`$(\[O ii\]). The results are given in Table 2 and discussed in the next section.

### 4.3 Notes on Individual Candidates: Projections or Lenses?

Since the cross-section for lensing scales as $`\pi \theta _E^2`$, lenses with small $`\theta _E`$ are much rarer than lenses with large $`\theta _E`$. Our survey is sensitive to lenses of any $`\theta _E`$ (unlike imaging surveys for morphologically selected lenses), but we are still sensitive to this cross-section bias against the existence of small-$`\theta _E`$ lenses. Given this bias, our estimated $`\theta _E`$ values are about as large as expected for galaxies which are acting as gravitational lenses, except for 2148.150598 and 0223.110191. These objects have inferred masses too low to have a high probability of lensing. This finding of one or two probable superpositions from lensing probability considerations agrees well with the estimate of $`1.9\pm 0.7`$ total chance projections (in the original CNOC2 survey) of objects which could explain the discrepant emission lines (§4.1). This agreement suggests that the other candidate lenses are probably real gravitational lenses. Further confirmation is clearly necessary, but in the meantime in this section we outline the probable natures of the individual candidates.

We also discuss the spectra and morphology of each candidate lens. The seeing in the relevant direct and spectroscopic images is between 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 and 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. However, the MOS imaging has a coarse pixel scale and significant defocusing across the chip, resulting in image quality and resolution that is not particularly good in general. Where possible, we instead discuss the morphology of our lens candidates on higher quality V, R, and z′ images obtained using the CFH12k mosaic CCD camera on CFHT as part of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (Gladders & Yee 2000b; Gladders et al. 2000). These images are at least a magnitude deeper than the CNOC2 imaging, have better seeing (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6$``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$8 FWHM), and are better sampled (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2/pixel). We also make use of $`R`$ data obtained at the WHT (Hoekstra et al. 2000) which is deeper than the MOS data but of comparable seeing and sampling. Figure 3 shows $`R`$ images of the the six lensing galaxies (all from CFH12k except for the image of 0920.180194). Figure 4 shows an example of our two-dimensional spectra.

#### 4.3.1 0920.180194 (CNOC2 J092123.3+363613)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

This candidate lens appears slightly asymmetric in the direct MOS images. The deflector galaxy redshift is secure from \[O ii\] emission plus CN and Ca H+K absorption. In the spectral image, the discrepant emission line is less spatially extended than the \[O ii\] line, but about as extended as the continuum emission. Spectra for this object were taken through only one mask. The apparent broad line in the blue is a flatfield artifact.

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

The discrepant line is either lensed Ly$`\alpha `$ or projected \[O ii\], but probably the former (see the first paragraph of section §4.3). Lensed \[O ii\] can be ruled out because if the discrepant line is in fact \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727, its redshift is lower than that of the CNOC2 target galaxy whose spectral features dominate the observed spectrum. Projected Ly$`\alpha `$ can be ruled out in this and all other cases of potential Ly$`\alpha `$ emission except 2148.150598, since discrepant line emission is seen at a projected spatial separation of less than $`\theta _E`$ from the center of the putative deflector galaxy continuum. For Ly$`\alpha `$ emission to be seen at this observed position, it must be lensed (Blandford & Narayan 1992).

#### 4.3.2 0223.191225 (CNOC2 J022336.4$``$000602)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

\[O ii\] emission plus Ca H and H$`\delta `$ absorption provide a secure deflector galaxy redshift for this target. The discrepant emission line is present in spectra obtained with two different masks on two different nights. Note that the wavelengths of the two emission lines visible in the spectrum (Figure 1) match the expected ratio for \[N i\] $`\lambda `$5199 and \[He ii\] $`\lambda `$4686 at $`z=0.08931`$, but this AGN identification is extremely unlikely since no \[O iii\] or H$`\beta `$ is seen when they should be at least 10 times stronger (Osterbrock 1989), and since it does not explain the observed Ca H and H$`\delta `$ absorption. As with 0920.180194, if the discrepant emission line is in fact \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727 its redshift is lower than that of the CNOC2 target galaxy whose spectral features dominate the observed spectrum, and thus this system would have to be a superposition rather than a lens. The CFH12k Rz′ images of this field (§4.3) show that this is a disk galaxy with a prominent bulge. The galaxy is asymmetric in the $`R`$ image: the disk emission is stronger to the W of the bulge than the E and the bulge appears offset to the N of the disk, probably due to an inclination effect. Since the discrepant line lies blueward of the $`R`$ band, this asymmetry cannot be identified as arising from it alone (and vice versa).

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

The discrepant line is either lensed Ly$`\alpha `$ or projected \[O ii\] but probably the former (see the first paragraph of this section). As with 0920.180194, lensed \[O ii\] can be ruled out because if the discrepant line is \[O ii\] it is from a galaxy with a lower redshift than the CNOC2 target galaxy.

#### 4.3.3 1447.111371 (CNOC2 J144958.6+085447)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

This candidate lens has a close neighbor galaxy of unknown redshift located 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 to the W and 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$9 to the N. The deflector galaxy redshift is secure from \[O ii\] emission plus CN, H8, and Ca H+K absorption. The discrepant emission line is present in spectra obtained with four different masks on two different nights. There appears to be a variation in the strength of the line relative to the \[O ii\] emission line and the continuum in one of the observations, but a ratio of that spectrum to the others shows that the variation is within the expected noise level. If the discrepant line is \[O ii\], the velocity separation from the CNOC2 target galaxy would be $``$4000 km s-1. On the CFH12k VRz′ images of this field (§4.3), the candidate appears elongated E-W in the nuclear regions, somewhat different from the NE-SW major axis of the outer regions. This is confirmed by the WHT $`R`$ images (§4.3). The elongation may be intrinsic (e.g. a bar) or from a very close ($`<`$1″) projected neighbor.

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

If the discrepant line is \[O ii\], it is almost certainly not from a lensed galaxy since $`\theta _E=0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}06`$ in that case. Thus the line is either lensed Ly$`\alpha `$ or projected \[O ii\].

#### 4.3.4 2148.130358 (CNOC2 J215031.8$``$053504)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

On the CFH12k VRz′ images of this field (§4.3), this candidate lens is circularly symmetric with no signs of any morphological peculiarity. The deflector galaxy redshift is secure from Ca H+K and G-band absorption. The discrepant emission line is present in spectra obtained with two different masks on two different nights. Its strength relative to the continuum is the same in both.

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

The estimated $`\theta _E`$ for this system is large enough that the discrepant line must be from a lensed galaxy regardless of whether it is Ly$`\alpha `$ or \[O ii\].

#### 4.3.5 0223.110191 (CNOC2 J022552.1$``$000018)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

This candidate lens was identified in the CNOC2 red spectroscopy followup. The discrepant line has the highest flux and equivalent width in our sample. The deflector galaxy redshift was originally obtained only from \[O ii\] but is confirmed by H$`\beta `$, \[O iii\], and H$`\alpha `$ in the followup spectroscopy. The discrepant line is confirmed to be \[O ii\] at $`z=0.806`$ by the detection of H$`\beta `$ at the same redshift (visible in Figure 2, redward of H$`\alpha `$ from the CNOC2 target galaxy). On the CFH12k Rz′ images of this field (§4.3), the object is compact but nonetheless more extended in the NNE-SSW direction than other nearby compact objects and probable point sources. The object is too compact to draw any further conclusions.

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

Since lensing probability goes as $`\theta _E^2`$, the small value of $`\theta _E`$ means that the discrepant line is probably from a projected galaxy rather than a lensed galaxy. It is also worth noting that the high REW of the discrepant \[O ii\] line suggests that the $`z=0.806`$ system contributes half of the observed luminosity even if its \[O ii\] REW is 100 Å, the maximum typically seen (§4.1).

#### 4.3.6 2148.150598 (CNOC2 J215057.9$``$055139)

##### Morphology and Spectrum:

On the CFH12k VRz′ images of this field (§4.3), this faint galaxy is slightly asymmetrically extended to the SE at essentially all isophotes. This is confirmed by the WHT $`R`$ images (§4.3). From visual inspection of the available images, however, it does subjectively appear to be a single galaxy rather than a close projection. The deflector galaxy redshift is less secure than the others, being based on strong \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007 plus weak \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$4959 and H$`\beta `$ emission, but the $`R_{cor}`$ value of the cross-correlation is above the cutoff for CNOC2 emission line galaxies. Also, the two strong lines do not match any pair of known emission lines. The discrepant emission line is present in spectra obtained with two different masks (but on the same night). The relative strengths of the two observed emission lines agree very well between the two observations. The apparent line at 4444 Å (observed) is spurious.

##### Discrepant Line Identification:

Given the small $`\theta _E`$ estimated for this object, the discrepant line here is very probably either Ly$`\alpha `$ from a projected $`z=3.97`$ galaxy or \[O ii\] from a projected $`z=0.62`$ galaxy. The first possibility is unlikely: the projected galaxy is estimated to have $`I23.2`$, at which the surface density of $`z4`$ Lyman-break galaxies is only $``$14 deg-2, of which only $``$50% have Ly$`\alpha `$ in emission (Steidel et al. 1999a). The line flux of 5.4 10-17 ergs cm-2 s-1 would also be rather high for an unlensed $`z=3.97`$ galaxy. Steidel et al. (1999b) do find 3 galaxies of comparable Ly$`\alpha `$ flux in a 78 arcmin2 narrowband survey, but the redshift targeted was one at which the observed field was known to be overdense in Lyman-break galaxies by a factor $``$6. Thus we conclude that the discrepant emission line in 2148.150598 is most likely projected \[O iiat $`z=0.62`$. The slightly asymmetric morphology of this source lends a posteriori support to this conclusion, although a priori we did not believe it indicated a projected galaxy.

### 4.4 Projections or Lenses?

Estimating a robust expected number of lenses in the CNOC2 survey requires a complicated calculation that would produce only an uncertain estimate. This is because the magnification of a lens (and thus the surface density of the faint galaxy population which could be responsible for our candidate lenses) depends very sensitively on the impact parameter between the source and deflector galaxies. Our observed lensing frequency from the original CNOC2 survey is $``$1 good lens candidate per 1500$``$2000 galaxies to $`R21.5`$. This is a lower limit due to limited line detectability and redshift coverage. The correction for limited line detectability will be at least a factor of two, since only $``$50% of $`z3`$ galaxies show Ly$`\alpha `$ in emission (Steidel et al. 1999b). We ignore lensed $`z1`$ galaxies since higher-$`z`$ lenses dominate the lensing cross-section (cf. the values of $`\theta _E`$(\[O ii\]) and $`\theta _E`$(Ly$`\alpha `$) in Table 2). The correction for limited redshift coverage is complicated since the source magnitude and the lensing cross-section are correlated with the source redshift, but it is also likely to be at least a factor of two for the following reason. CNOC2 is sensitive to source galaxies only over a redshift range of $`\mathrm{\Delta }z=1.55`$ ($`2.62<z<4.17`$), again ignoring the less common $`z1`$ lenses. There is an adjacent redshift range of similar $`\mathrm{\Delta }z`$ at lower redshifts where CNOC2 should have detected a similar number of lenses if it had had the appropriate spectral coverage, since our observed candidate deflector galaxies have roughly the same Einstein radii for source galaxies at such redshifts. In other words, the lensing probabilities for source galaxies at those lower redshifts — whose line emission would be detectable in data of CNOC2 quality, unlike emission from objects at redshifts higher than those to which CNOC2 is sensitive, which is likely to be too faint to be detected — are roughly the same as for the redshifts observable in CNOC2. Our resulting estimated lens frequency of 1 in $``$ 400$``$500 is consistent with the approximately 1 in 600 frequency of radio rings in the MGV survey (Miralda-Escude & Lehar 1992).

## 5 Conclusion

In the course of the CNOC2 field galaxy redshift survey and subsequent followup, we have identified six spectroscopically-selected gravitational lens candidates. Each exhibits a firm redshift from multiple spectral features, plus a discrepant emission line. Ly$`\alpha `$ or \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727 are the only reasonable identifications for the discrepant lines. Based on the estimated Einstein radii of the putative deflector galaxies, four of the discrepant lines are more likely to be lensed Ly$`\alpha `$ than lensed \[O ii\], and the remaining two are unlikely to be lensed Ly$`\alpha `$ or lensed \[O ii\] and are therefore probably \[O ii\] from projected $`z<1`$ galaxies. In one case the \[O ii\] identification is confirmed by the detection of H$`\beta `$. We estimate that there should be only $`1.9\pm 0.7`$ chance projections of objects which could explain the observed discrepant emission lines in the original CNOC2 sample. Thus there is only a 3% chance that all five of the original CNOC2 survey candidates are projections, and it is likely that three or four of our six candidates are real gravitational lenses.

Galaxy-galaxy lenses can be used to constrain the mass distributions of the deflector galaxies. While our sample is small, only two such systems have previously been reported (Warren et al. 1996; Hewett et al. 1999). Unlike Warren et al. (1996), we do not preselect for red, early-type deflector galaxies and thus the two samples may probe the masses of different galaxy types. In addition, more galaxy-galaxy lenses are needed to search for rare but valuable cases where two or more galaxies at different redshifts are lensed by the same object. Such systems may be able to simultaneously constrain $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ since all lensed sources must share the same relation between angular size distance and redshift (Link & Pierce 1998).

Further observations of these systems are therefore warranted. High spatial resolution narrow-band imaging can provide the surface brightness distributions of the lensed emission, needed to constrain the deflector galaxy mass distributions. Forthcoming integral field spectroscopy should confirm the discrepant lines, determine the emission line region morphologies, estimate the velocity dispersion of the deflector galaxies, reveal if the discrepant emission lines have the redward-asymmetric profile common to Ly$`\alpha `$ at high redshift, and possibly detect other emission or absorption lines from the source galaxies such as H$`\beta `$/\[O iii\] at low redshift or C iv at high redshift. For high-$`z`$ source galaxies, near-IR spectroscopy can study the rest-frame optical emission lines to constrain masses from the observed linewidths, to compare star formation rate estimates from Ly$`\alpha `$, \[O ii\] and H$`\beta `$, and to compare line ratios with star-forming galaxies at lower redshifts.

We thank CTAC and the CFHT for generous allocations of telescope time, the CFHT operators for their dedicated assistance during observing, D. Balam for assistance with the astrometry, C. Burns for helpful discussions, H. Hoekstra for the use of WHT images of some CNOC2 patches, and the referee for helpful comments. CNOC was supported by a Collaborative Program grant from NSERC, as well as by individual NSERC operating grants to HY and RC. HL acknowledges support provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant #HF-01110.01-98A awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA under contract NAS 5-26555.


text:
# Untitled Document

Radion stabilization in the Randall-Sundrum model

with quadratic and quartic potentials

Uma Mahanta

Mehta Research Institute

Chhatnag Road, Jhusi

Allahabad-211019, India

Abstract

In this report we investigate the Goldberger-Wise (GW) mechanism of radion stabilization with quartic potential on the hidden brane and quadratic potential on the visible brane. The advantage of our simplified scenario over the original GW mechanism is that the modulus potential can be evaluated for finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$. This enables us to probe how the modulus potential behaves over the entire range of $`\lambda _h`$. By staying away from the GW limit of $`\frac{k}{\lambda _vv_v^2}`$0 and $`\frac{k}{\lambda _hv_h^2}`$0 we show that it is possible to choose the parameters of the model so that the potential exhibits a minimum at $`kr_c`$ 12 and this adjustment does not involve any extreme fine tuning of parameters.

Several radical proposals based on higher dimensional theories have been recently put forward to explain the large hierarchy between the weak scale and the Planck scale. Among them the Randall-Sundrum (RS)  scenario is particularly attractive since it explains the hierarchy in trems of a small extra dimensions. Unlike theories with large extra dimensions, in the RS model there is no large hierarchy between the compactification scale $`\frac{1}{r_c}`$ and the fundamental Planck mass M. The reason behind this difference is that the hierarchy is explained in terms of an exponential warp factor that appears in the non-factorizable metric of the five dimensional RS world.

$$ds^2=e^{2kr_c|\varphi |}\eta _{\mu \nu }dx^\mu dx^\nu r_c^2d\varphi ^2.$$
$`(1)`$
Here k is a parameter of the order of M. $`\pi \varphi `$ is the coordinate of the single $`\frac{S_1}{Z_2}`$ orbifold extra dimension. The points $`(x,\varphi )`$ and $`(x,\varphi )`$ are therefore identified. The hidden 3 brane is located at $`\varphi =0`$ and the visible brane is located at $`\varphi =\pi `$.

In the RS scenario the compactification radius $`r_c`$ was associated with the vacuum expectation value (vev) of a four dimensional massless scalar field T(x). However T(x) had zero potential and $`r_c`$ was not stabilized by some dynamics. Goldberger and Wise (GW)  showed that it is possible to generate a potential $`V(r_c)`$ for the modulus field by introducing a bulk scalar field $`\chi (x,\varphi )`$ with interaction potentials localized on the two branes. They also showed that the minimum of the modulus potential can be adjusted to occur at $`kr_c`$ 12 without fine tuning the parameters of the model. In their original proposal GW assumed the interaction potentials on the two branes to be quartic functions of $`\chi `$. As a result they could determine the modulus potential $`V(r_c)`$ only in the limit of infinite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$. For large but finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ the shifts in the vevs $`\delta \chi (\pi )`$ and $`\delta \chi (0)`$ from their values $`v_v`$ and $`v_h`$ at infinite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ are given by

$$\delta \chi (\pi )=\frac{k}{\lambda _vv_v^2}(v_vv_he^{ϵkr_c\pi }).$$
$`(2a)`$
$$\delta \chi (0)=\frac{k}{\lambda _hv_h^2}e^{(4+ϵ)kr_c\pi }(v_vv_he^{ϵkr_c\pi }).$$
$`(2b)`$
Therefore the GW limit assumes that $`\frac{k}{\lambda _vv_v^2}`$ and $`\frac{k}{\lambda _hv_h^2}`$ have been tuned to very small values which may not stable under fluctuations in the background metric or quantum corrections. It is therefore worthwhile to avoid this fine tuning and determine the modulus potential for finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$. However for quartic brane potentials with finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ it is difficult to determine the background field configuartion $`\chi (\varphi )`$ that satisfies the appropriate boundary conditions on the branes analytically. Therefore in this report we shall consider a simplified scenario with quartic interaction potential for $`\chi `$ on the hidden brane and quadratic potential on the visible brane. This set up will enable us to determine the modulus potential analytically for finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$. We find that the modulus potential $`V(r_c)`$ for this scenario can be adjusted to yield a minimum both for finite and infinite $`\lambda _h`$ at $`kr_c`$ 12 without fine tuning the parameters of the model.

The action for our scenario is given by

$$S_b=\frac{1}{2}d^4x_\pi ^\pi 𝑑\varphi \sqrt{G}(G^{AB}_A\chi _B\chi m^2\chi ^2).$$
$`(3a)`$
$$S_h=d^4x𝑑\varphi \sqrt{g_h}\lambda _h(\chi ^2v_h^2)^2\frac{\delta (\varphi )}{r_c}.$$
$`(3b)`$
$$S_v=d^4x𝑑\varphi \sqrt{g_v}\lambda _vv_v^2(\chi ^2v_v^2)\frac{\delta (\varphi \pi )}{r_c}.$$
$`(3c)`$
In this work we shall ignore the variation of $`\chi `$ parallel to the 3 branes. This is justified since we are interested only in the stability of the size of the extra dimension or the interbrane separation. It can be shown that away from the boundaries $`\varphi =0,\pi `$ the classical configuration of the bulk field $`\chi `$ is given by

$$\chi (\varphi )=Ae^{(2+\nu )\sigma }+Be^{(2\nu )\sigma }.$$
$`(4)`$
where $`\sigma =kr_c|\varphi |`$ and $`\nu =\sqrt{4+\frac{m^2}{k^2}}`$. In particular we shall consider the case $`mk`$ so that $`\nu 2+ϵ`$ where $`ϵ\frac{m^2}{4k^2}`$. The constants A and B are determined by the boundary conditions imposed by the interaction potentials on the two branes. Using the relations $`\chi ^{}(0+ϵ)=\chi ^{}(0ϵ)`$ and $`\chi ^{}(\pi +ϵ)=\chi ^{}(\pi ϵ)`$ the boundary conditions can be written as

$$k[(2+\nu )e^{(2+\nu )kr_c\pi }A+(2\nu )e^{(2\nu )kr_c\pi }B]+\lambda _vv_v^2\chi (\pi )=0.$$
$`(5)`$
and

$$k[(2+\nu )A+(2\nu )B]2\lambda _h\chi (0)[\chi ^2(0)v_h^2]=0.$$
$`(6)`$
Here $`\chi (0)=A+B`$ and $`\chi (\pi )=Ae^{(2+\nu )kr_c\pi }+Be^{(2\nu )kr_c\pi }`$. In order to solve (5) and (6) for A and B we shall assume that $`kr_c>1`$ so that we can neglect higher powers of $`e^{2\nu kr_c\pi }`$. We then get

$$A=\pm \sqrt{a}be^{2\nu kr_c\pi }[1+\{c(1+\frac{2+\nu }{ϵ})1\}be^{2\nu kr_c\pi }].$$
$`(7)`$
and

$$B=\pm \sqrt{a}[1+\{c(1+\frac{2+\nu }{ϵ})1\}be^{2\nu kr_c\pi }].$$
$`(8)`$
where $`a=v_h^2\frac{kϵ}{2\lambda _h}`$, $`b=\frac{kϵ\lambda _vv_v^2}{k(2+\nu )+\lambda _vv_v^2}`$ and $`c=\frac{kϵ}{4\lambda _h}\frac{1}{v_h^2\frac{kϵ}{2\lambda _h}}`$. Putting the solution (4) back into the action and integrating over $`\varphi `$ yields the following four dimensional potential for the modulus

$$V(r_c)=kϵ(v_h^2\frac{kϵ}{4\lambda _h})+ka[(2+\nu )b^2ϵ(1+2b)]\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{4+2ϵ}+\lambda _vv_v^2[(1+b)^2\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{4+2ϵ}v_v^2\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^4].$$
$`(9)`$
where $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }=e^{kr_c\pi }`$ In the above expression for $`V(r_c)`$ we have retained only terms up to order $`e^{2\nu kr_c\pi }`$. Since $`e^{2\nu kr_c\pi }1`$ even for $`kr_c`$ 1 we can trust the above expression for $`V(r_c)`$ as long as $`kr_c`$1. Note that as $`\lambda _v\mathrm{}`$, $`b(1\frac{(2+\nu )k}{\lambda _vv_v^2})`$ and $`\chi (\pi )0`$. The visible brane potential therefore approaches the value $`\lambda _vv_v^4`$. Since the visible brane potential becomes unbounded from below for $`\lambda _v\mathrm{}`$ we shall restrict ourselves to finite values of $`\lambda _v`$ only.

The above expression for $`V(r_c)`$ will exhibit a non-trivial minimum provided the coefficient of the $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{4+2ϵ}`$ term is positive. In this case as $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$ increases from zero the $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^4`$ term first dominates causing $`V(r_c)`$ to decrease from its value $`kϵ(v_h^2\frac{kϵ}{4\lambda _h})`$ at $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }=0`$. However with gradually increasing $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }`$, the $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{4+2ϵ}`$ term ultimately begins to dominate causing $`V(r_c)`$ to increase and exhibit a non-trivial minimum. In the following we shall assume that $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ are finite. In particular we shall consider the case where $`kϵover\lambda _vv_v^2`$ and $`\frac{kϵ}{\lambda _hv_h^2}`$ are of order unity. In other words we shall study the minima of $`V(r_c)`$ by staying away from the GW limit of $`\frac{k}{\lambda _vv_v^2}`$0 and $`\frac{k}{\lambda _hv_h^2}`$0.

Let us choose the parameters so that $`v_h^2=2kϵ\lambda _h+O(ϵ^2)`$ and $`v_v^2=2kϵ\lambda _v+O(ϵ^2)`$. It then follows that $`a\frac{3kϵ}{2\lambda _h}+O(ϵ^2)`$ and $`b\frac{ϵ}{4}+O(ϵ^2)`$. Neglecting terms of $`O(aϵ^2)`$ and higher the modulus potential under this condition takes the following form

$$V(r_c)\frac{3k^2ϵ^2}{4\lambda _h}+kϵ[a\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{4+2ϵ}v_v^2\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^4].$$
$`(10)`$
The above expression for $`V(r_c)`$ exhibits a minimum at $`\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^{2ϵ}\frac{v_v^2}{a}`$ or $`2ϵkr_c\pi \mathrm{ln}\frac{3v_h^2}{4v_v^2}`$. For $`kr_c`$ 12 and $`ϵ`$.01 we need to adjust $`v_v`$ and $`v_h`$ so that $`\frac{v_h^2}{v_v^2}`$ 2.8, a condition that does not involve a large hierarchy between $`v_v`$ and $`v_h`$ and hence no fine tuning. On the other hand for $`ϵ`$ .1 the minimum of the potential would occur naturally at $`kr_c`$1. We would like to note that the natural order of magnitude value of $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ is $`k^2`$. Under this condition $`\frac{v_v^2}{k^3}O(\frac{v_h^2}{k^3})O(ϵ)1`$ and the back reaction of the bulk scalar field on the background metric can be neglected . The mass of the stabilized radion can also be derived from (10). It can be shown that

$$m_\varphi ^2=\frac{1}{f^2}\frac{^2V}{\stackrel{~}{\varphi }^2}16ϵ^3\frac{k^2}{f^2\lambda _v}e^{2kr_c\pi }.$$
$`(11)`$
. If $`\lambda _vk^2`$ then $`m_\varphi \sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}ϵ^{\frac{3}{2}}ke^{kr_c\pi }.8`$ GeV.

If we let $`\lambda _h\mathrm{}`$ keeping all other parameters fixed then $`av_h^2`$. The condition for getting a mimimum at $`kr_c12`$ for $`ϵ`$ .01 then becomes $`\frac{v_h^2}{v_v^2}`$ 2.1. The requirement for minimum at $`kr_c12`$ for $`ϵ.01`$ therefore does not change significantly as $`\lambda _h\mathrm{}`$ starting from some finite value.

We shall now determine the form of the modulus potential for $`kr_c`$1. Although a minimum at $`kr_c1`$ may not be useful from the point of view of generating the weak scale-Planck scale hierarchy it would be useful for comparing the condition for minimum at small $`kr_c`$ with that for large $`kr_c`$ particularly with regard to their compatibility. In this case one can expand the exponentials as a power series in $`kr_c`$ and keep only the leading terms. We find that the constants A and B to leading order in $`kr_c`$ are given by $`A\frac{ϵ}{4}\sqrt{\frac{ϵk}{\lambda _h}}(1\frac{3}{2}x)`$ and $`B\sqrt{\frac{ϵk}{\lambda _h}}(1+\frac{x}{2})`$. Here $`x=\nu kr_c\pi `$ 1. The modulus potential to leading order is given by

$$V(r_c)\frac{k^2ϵ^2}{\lambda _h}(2x^2+34x)4\frac{k^2ϵ^2}{\lambda _v}(12x).$$
$`(11)`$
The above expression for modulus potential exhibits a local minimum for $`kr_c1`$ provided $`\lambda _v>2\lambda _h`$ and the minimum occurs at $`x=12\frac{\lambda _h}{\lambda _v}`$. In order to prevent any minimum from occuring at small $`kr_c`$ we could choose $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ so that $`\lambda _v<2\lambda _h`$. This choice will still allow a minimum at $`kr_c`$12 without any fine tuning.

In conclusion in this report we have studied the GW mechanism of radion stabilization for quadratic potential on the visible brane and quartic potential on the hidden brane. We have determined the form of the modulus potential both for small and large $`kr_c`$. By choosing $`v_v^2\frac{2kϵ}{\lambda _v}+O(ϵ^2)`$ and $`v_v^2\frac{2kϵ}{\lambda _v}+O(ϵ^2)`$ we then showed that the minimum of the potential can be arranged to occur around $`kr_c`$12 without fine tuning the parameters of the model. We have also shown that by adjusting $`\lambda _v<2\lambda _h`$ it is possible to exclude the possibility of any minimum from occuring at small $`kr_c`$. Our simplified model allows us to determine the modulus potential for finite values of $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ in contrast to their infinite values assumed in the original GW model. Since our model is quite close to the original GW model our work provides some indication that it might be possible to obtain a minimum at $`kr_c`$ 12 for finite $`\lambda _v`$ and $`\lambda _h`$ even with quartic potentials on both branes. However as mentioned earlier an analytic solution then becomes quite difficult.

Note added: While this work was in progress Ref.  appeared which discusses GW mechanism with quadratic potential on both branes. This set up is even simpler than ours and a bit more distant from the GW model.

References

1. L. Randall and R. Sundrum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 3370 (1999); Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4690 (1999).

2. W. D. Goldberger and M. B. Wise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4922, (1999); Phys. Rev. D. 60, 107505 (1999).

3. O. De Wolfe, D. Z. Freedman, S. Gubser and A. Karch, hep-th/9909134.

4. J. M. Cline and H. Firzoujahi, hep-ph/0005235.


text:
# ON THE NATURE OF THE FBS BLUE STELLAR OBJECTS AND THE COMPLETENESS OF THE BRIGHT QUASAR SURVEY. II.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

In Paper I, by comparing the FBS (Markarian et al. 1989) and BQS (Green et al. 1986) surveys in their area in common, we derived a completeness of $``$70% for the BQS. A number of bright AGNs have since been discovered in the area which, together with our new spectroscopic observations, allowed us to refine our previous estimate of the BQS completeness.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

We have obtained new spectra for 11 FBS objects. The observations were carried out on November 25, 1998 and January 14–15, 1999 at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) and at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP), respectively. The journal of observations is given in Table 1, together with relevant data.

Seven of the newly observed objects are stars, including FBS 2308$`+`$425 (at $`b=`$16.3) which is associated with a ROSAT RASS (Voges et al. 1999) X-ray source (Table 2, Paper I).

FBS 0950$`+`$664 (RXS J09540$`+`$6608) has been identified on an objective prism plate as an AGN (Bade et al. 1998); our spectrum shows it to be a Seyfert 1 at $`z=`$ 0.172. Our new spectra of FBS 1235$`+`$699 and FBS 1324$`+`$448 confirm their redshift ($`z=`$ 0.521 and 0.331 respectively). FBS 1715$`+`$406 is Zw 225.094 or MCG 07.35.061, a 15.4 mag galaxy at $`z=`$ 0.030 (Marzke et al. 1996); according to Abramian & Mickaelian (1994), it is an emission line galaxy; our spectrum shows that it is an absorption line galaxy, with a weak \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6583 line in emission at $`z=`$ 0.029.

The spectra of the four extragalactic objects are displayed in Fig. 1.

## 3 NEW PUBLISHED DATA

Since the publication of Paper I111In Paper I, we claimed that the position accuracy of the FBS objects in the last seven papers by Abramian & Mickaelian is much better than in the first four papers of the series; in fact, the objects #924 to #939 in paper IX (Abramian & Mickaelian 1994) have an accuracy as poor as in the first four papers. 51 new bright ($`B<`$ 17.0) AGNs have been discovered, at $`|b|>`$ 30, in the subarea of the FBS survey studied in this paper, bringing the total number of known such objects to 108.

### 3.1 MAGNITUDE ESTIMATE

We have extracted, when available, the $`O`$ magnitudes of these 108 objects from the APS database (Pennington et al. 1993); these magnitudes are missing for five objects only (all at $`\delta >`$ 63). We have also extracted the $`O`$ magnitudes from the USNO-A2.0 catalogue (Monet et al. 1996) which, as the APS, is based on measurements of the $`O`$ plates of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey I (POSS-I).

To estimate the accuracy of these magnitudes, we have proceeded as for the APS $`O`$ magnitudes (see Paper I): we have compared the differences between the USNO $`O`$ and photoelectric $`B`$ magnitudes of 102 PG UV-excess stars vs their photoelectric $`UB`$ colours (Fig. 2); we found a negligible colour equation, a rms dispersion of 0.31 mag, compared to 0.25 mag for the APS magnitudes, and a relatively large offset $`<`$$`OB`$$`>`$ $`=`$0.38 mag (to be compared with $`<`$$`OB`$$`>`$ $`=`$0.16 mag for the APS). Fig. 3 shows a comparison of the APS and USNO $`O`$ magnitudes for the bright AGNs; they are in reasonable agreement, except for five objects for which the USNO magnitudes are brighter by more than one mag than the APS magnitudes; these five objects are low luminosity Seyfert 1 galaxies at relatively small redshifts ($`z<`$ 0.13) which probably explain the large magnitude differences; it seems that the USNO magnitudes for extended objects are grossly underestimated.

In Table 2, we list all bright ($`B<`$ 17.0) AGNs found in the FBS subarea at $`|b|>`$ 30 with their APS and USNO $`O`$ magnitudes (when available) and the absolute $`B`$ magnitudes computed222assuming $`H_\mathrm{o}=`$ 50 km s-1 Mpc-1 using the APS $`O`$ magnitudes increased by 0.16 mag (or the USNO $`O`$ magnitudes increased by 0.4 mag), excluding the bright QSOs of our “complete” sample (listed in Table 3).

In the case of RXS J12110$`+`$7005 for which the APS magnitude is not available, Schwope et al. (2000) give $`B=`$ 17.0, while the USNO $`O`$ magnitude is 14.3; but this object has a moderate redshift ($`z=`$ 0.127); moreover its APM $`O`$ magnitude (Irwin et al. 1994) is 17.66; we therefore adopted the Schwope et al. mag and excluded it from the “complete” sample.

### 3.2 THE NEW RADIO AND X-RAY BRIGHT QSOs

The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey (FBQS) was built by matching the VLA FIRST survey with the Cambridge Automated Plate Measuring Machine (APM) catalog of POSS-I objects (Irwin et al. 1994); it covers an area of 2 682 deg2 in the north Galactic cap; it contains 1 238 objects brighter than 17.8 mag on the POSS-I $`E`$ plates (White et al. 2000). About 1 180 square degrees are within the FBS area; they contain 38 FIRST radio sources identified with an AGN brighter than $`B=`$ 17.0 at $`|b|>`$ 30; nine are bright QSOs ($`O_{\mathrm{APS}}<`$ 16.0), three (CSO 900, FIRST J1306$`+`$3915 and RXS J17102$`+`$3344) being new. Although the numbers are small, this suggests that the “complete” sample we built in Paper I is only 67$`\pm `$15% complete.

According to White et al. (2000), QSOs with radio emission above the FIRST 1 mJy limit constitute about 25% of all QSOs brighter than $`B`$ 17.6, but for QSOs brighter than $`B=`$ 16.4, the FBQS QSO density is indistinguishable from the density of optically selected QSOs. Nevertheless, of the 15 bright QSOs known prior to the FIRST survey in the area common to the FIRST and FBS surveys, only six (40%) have been detected as FIRST radio sources; therefore the complete identification of the FIRST sources with bright starlike objects could not yield a complete survey of bright QSOs.

A number of recent papers are devoted to the optical identification of RASS sources (Beuermann et al. 1999; Cao et al. 1999; Grazian et al. 2000; Schwope et al. 2000; Wei et al. 1999; Xu et al. 1999). One of the new identifications is RXS J12043$`+`$4330, a QSO at $`z=`$ 0.663 (Xu et al. 1999); it is also FBS 1201$`+`$437 (FBS #302) or PG 1201$`+`$436, which had been classified as a DC white dwarf by Green et al. (1986). Its APS $`O`$ magnitude is 16.23; it is therefore not bright enough to be included in our “complete” sample.

Nineteen RASS sources are now identified with a bright QSO in the area discussed in this paper (including the three new FIRST QSOs); of the 17 FBS or BQS bright QSOs in our sample (Table 3), 12 (70%) are ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) X-ray sources, suggesting that the total number of bright QSOs is equal to 19/0.70 $`=`$ 27 (if all optically bright, X-ray sources have been discovered).

## 4 DISCUSSION

Our “complete” sample of bright QSOs (Table 3) contains 29 objects brighter than $`B=`$ 16.16 ($`O_{\mathrm{APS}}<`$ 16.00), three of them (indicated by a “N” in the last column of Table 3) are not within the PG area. The area common to the PG and FBS surveys at $`|b|>`$ 30 ($``$2 250 deg2) contains 26 bright QSOs (13 PG QSOs and 13 others) (but there are 17 PG QSOs with $`B_{\mathrm{PG}}<`$ 16.16 in the area; this larger number is probably due to the Eddington (1940) effect, the PG magnitudes being affected by relatively large errors, $`\sigma `$ 0.37 mag). From these data, we derive a surface density of 0.012 deg-2, which is to be compared with the original value of the PG survey: 0.0064 deg-2, implying a maximum completeness of 53$`\pm `$10% for the PG survey.

Grazian et al. (2000) have cross-correlated the RASS with photometric databases in an 8 164 deg2 area of the northern sky at $`|b|>`$ 30, selecting all coincidences brighter than $`R`$ 15.4; from this, they derive a surface density of bright ($`B<`$ 15.5) QSOs (defined as AGNs with $`M_B<`$23.0) of 10$`\pm `$2 10-3 deg-2 and conclude that the true surface density of such objects is about three times larger than that derived from the PG survey. However, they do not specify how the $`B`$ magnitude of their objects was derived. Their sample contains 46 QSOs; 15 of them have $`z>`$ 0.20; we have extracted from the APS catalogue the $`O`$ magnitudes for 12 of them (for the three others, these magnitudes are unavailable); it turns out that only one (J172320.5$`+`$341756) has $`O<`$ 15.34, corresponding to $`B<`$ 15.5, suggesting that the $`O`$ magnitudes used by Grazian et al. are underestimated and, consequently, the surface density overestimated.

Lamontagne et al. (2000) claim that they found a surface density of bright QSOs three times larger than the PG value. They have searched for UV-excess stellar-like objects with $`B<`$ 16.5 and $`UB`$ $`<`$0.6 in a 840 deg2 area covering the south Galactic cap; the errors in the $`B`$ magnitudes are estimated to be 0.30 mag rms. They have found 228 such objects which have all been spectroscopically identified; 32 are AGNs, out of which only eleven are brighter than $`B=`$ 16.16 and $`M_B=`$24.0 (including 0117$``$2837 which, according to Grupe et al. (1999), has a redshift of 0.349 rather than 0.055). We derive a surface density or 0.013 deg-2, in agreement with our value and only twice the PG value.

## 5 CONCLUSION

In Paper I, we compared the surface density of QSOs in the Bright Quasar Survey and in the First Byurakan Survey and concluded that the completeness of the BQS is of the order of 70%; Wisotzki et al. (2000) have found that the BQS is 68% complete from a comparison with the Hamburg/ESO survey, in agreement with our previoys estimate. Based on a number of recently published data, as well as on our own new observations, we redetermined the surface density of QSOs brighter than $`B=`$ 16.16 in the BQS area to be $``$0.012 deg-2, implying that the completeness of the BQS is 53$`\pm `$10%. It should be stressed however that the numbers involved are quite small, and that larger areas should be investigated before a definitive value of the surface density of bright QSOs could be determined.