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# Wide band observations of the new X-ray burster SAX J1747.0-2853 during the March 1998 outburst

## 1 INTRODUCTION AND OBSERVATIONS

The transient bursting source SAX J1747.0-2853 was discovered during a BeppoSAX observation of the Galactic Bulge with the Wide Field Cameras (WFC, Jager et al. (1997)) between 1998 March 20.3 and 22.1 (in ’t Zand et al. (1998)), at $`0.3\mathrm{}`$ from the centroid position of the X-ray transient GX +0.2-0.2 observed in outburst on 1976 (Proctor, Skinner & Willmore (1978)).

One X-ray burst with a peak intensity of about 1 Crab (2-9 keV) was firstly detected on March 21.51. The source was then observed with the Narrow Field Instruments (hereafter NFI, see Boella et al. (1997) and references therein) on board BeppoSAX on March 23 (Bazzano et al. (1998)) allowing for an improved positioning ($`\alpha =17^h47^m02^s`$ and $`\delta =28\mathrm{°}52.5\mathrm{}`$, equinox 2000.0, $`1.0\mathrm{}`$ error radius) and a wide band spectrum to be obtained. Repeated bursting activity from SAX J1747.0-2853 has been detected during the following WFC observations of April 3-4. On 1998 April 13-15, during a pointed NFI observation centred on 1E1743.1-2843 the new transient source was at $`13\mathrm{}`$ off-axis and imaged with the Medium Energy Proportional Counter (MECS), with a reported flux of $`2\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 in the 2-10 keV band (Sidoli et al. (1998)). This is consistent with a decreasing of about a factor of 10 compared to the first NFI observation and with an outburst exponential decay having an e-folding time of $`8`$ days. A type I X-ray burst was also observed on April 15 (Sidoli et al. (1998)).

The source re-appeared in outburst on 2000, March 2 with an average intensity of $`42`$ mCrab in the 2-10 keV band, increasing up to 140 mCrab on March 7.9 as observed by the RXTE PCA (Markwardt et al. (2000)) and BeppoSAX NFI (Campana, Israel & Stella (2000)).

## 2 DATA ANALYSIS

On 1998, March 23 SAX J1747.0-2853 was strongly detected in all BeppoSAX NFI instruments. We evaluated the source intensity in each energy channel of the concentrators by extracting the counts in a circular region of $`4\mathrm{}`$ radius and scaling for the corresponding effective area. In the Field-Of-View (FOV) of the MECS and of the Low Energy Concentrator Spectrometer (LECS) two additional X-ray sources, coincident with 1E 1743.1-2843 and the Sgr-A complex are clearly detected, along with the diffuse emission component which is present in the vicinity of Sgr-A. In order to properly subtract the background, we extracted the counts from the MECS and LECS from an annulus at a distance of $`6\mathrm{}`$ from the centre of the FOV (thus avoiding the two contaminating point sources) having the same geometric area of the source circle. We then applied the appropriate correction for effective area. The background intensity is low ($`2`$ % respect to the source) and we estimate that the overall systematic error in the net source intensity is not larger than $`1`$%.

The data reduction of the non-imaging instruments, namely the Phoswich Detector System (PDS) and the High Scintillation Proportional Counter (HPGSPC) with an aperture of 1.5 $`\mathrm{°}`$ and 1.4 $`\mathrm{°}`$ respectively, is affected by confusion with nearby sources. In order to assess this, we have first analyzed the MECS X-ray spectrum obtained from 1E 1743.1-2843, which is located at $`13\mathrm{}`$ from SAX J1747.0-2853. This is rather soft and satisfactorily described by a single blackbody component with kT=($`2.10\pm 0.08`$) keV (our fit yields a reduced $`\chi _r^2`$=1.14 for 156 dof). The total 2-10 keV intensity (unabsorbed) is $`10`$ mCrab, consistent with other NFI measurements (Cremonesi et al. (1999)). The contribution of 1E 1743.1-2843 is $`15`$ % of the total energy flux detected by the High Pressure Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter (HPGSPC) in the range 4-25 keV. We then decided not to include the HPGSPC data in our analysis.

Additional contamination at high energies may come from other sources outside the FOV of the concentrators. Among these are A1742-294, a persistent though variable X-ray burster and the microquasar 1E 1740.7-2942, which are $`0.68\mathrm{°}`$ and $`1.16\mathrm{°}`$ off the pointing position, respectively. The intensity from A1742-294 was $`30`$ mCrab in the 2-28 keV energy band as detected by the WFCs on March 21-22, but the extrapolation of its thermal spectrum (Pavlinsky et al. (1994)) to high energies implies only a $`1`$% contamination above $`30`$ keV. 1E 1740.7-2942 has been extensively monitored by RXTE PCA instrument (Main et al. (1999)). Its intensity on 1998, March 23 was $`35`$ mCrab (2-10 keV). This source features a very hard tail, and on the basis of the hardness ratio usually observed we can estimate its intensity being $`50`$ mCrab in the 30-150 keV energy band. Hence its expected contribution to the detected flux in the PDS is $`10`$ % in the whole energy range of the instrument. Activity from the soft transient source KS1741-29, located at $`0.7`$ degrees from SAX J1747.0-2853 was also detected on March 12 (in ’t Zand et al. (1999)) with a 2-10 keV flux of $`9`$ mCrab. The source then declined to $`2`$ mCrab on March 31, and a soft spectrum was measured (Sidoli et al. (1999)). The extrapolation of this spectrum to high energies yields an expected contamination of $`34`$% for the PDS ”on source” data at 30 keV.

Conversely, we note that any contamination in the PDS from a source having an emission spectrum similar to SAX J1747.0-2853 would be negligible as far as we apply the standard procedure of leaving free the PDS normalization relative to MECS, which is done in order to accommodate cross-calibration uncertainties (see e.g., Guainazzi et al. (1998)). The additional systematic error in the spectral channels is then due only to possible differences in spectral shapes. On the basis of the previous assumptions, we estimate this to be less than $`5`$% whereas the overall uncertainty in the high energy flux should be of the order of 10%.

The bandpasses for the spectral analysis were limited to 1.0-3.0 keV for the LECS and 1.8-10.5 keV for the MECS to take advantage of more accurate detector calibrations. LECS data below 1 keV were ignored due to the high absorption and low source flux. The PDS data analysis was limited to energies above 32 keV in order to avoid as much as possible contamination.

## 3 THE WIDE BAND PERSISTENT EMISSION

The WFC-measured outburst light curve of SAX J1747.0-2853 is shown in Fig. 1 (see Jager et al. (1997) for details on WFC data reduction and analysis). The source reached a peak intensity of $`15`$ mCrab with a rather slow rise and apparently rapid decay. SAX J1747.0-2853 was observed by BeppoSAX NFI about 10 days before the outburst maximum. The source intensity is found to increase by $`20`$ % in 20 hours during this observation.

We have analysed the wide band NFI spectrum of the averaged emission in the energy range 1-200 keV. A hard X-ray tail is present (as detected by the PDS up to $`150`$ keV) which can be described by a power law with photon spectral index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.4\pm 0.1`$ and a corresponding intensity of $`5\times 10^{10}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 in the 30-150 keV range. The absorption column is relatively high ($`N_H`$ $``$ 1023 cm-2), consistent with the measured values of the column density in the spectra of sources observed in the Galactic Centre (GC) region (Sidoli et al. (1999)). Modelling the whole X-ray spectrum with an absorbed (Morrison & McCammon (1983)) power law or an exponentially cutoff power law yields to very poor fits (see Table 1 for details), leaving a large residual structure near $`7`$ keV. This can be interpreted either as a broad iron line feature or the lower energy part of an absorption edge. We tried to fit the observed feature adding a broad ’iron like’ line to the continuum, using both exponentially cutoff power law and thermal Comptonization (Titarchuk (1994)). In all cases the fit results imply unacceptably high values of the PDS/MECS normalization.

Modelling the feature with a sharp absorption edge near 7 keV provides an appropriate value of the normalization, but the reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 1.38 is still too high. Conversely, a relatively good fit can be obtained for thermal Comptonization by including an additional soft component ($`\chi ^2`$=1.1), yielding an absorption edge at $`7.5`$ keV.

The details of the fits are given in Table 1. The soft component may be described by blackbody emission with color temperature of $`0.6`$ keV, or by a multi-color disk blackbody (Mitsuda et al. (1984)), with a temperature $`kT_{in}`$ $`0.8`$ keV for the inner disk region. The significance of the soft component is high if one considers the improvement in $`\chi ^2`$ obtained for the Comptonization continuum (from 1.8 to 1.1) whereas no acceptable fit is obtained for the exponentially cutoff power law. A visual inspection of the residuals near 7 keV led us to search for an additional emission line component. Using a gaussian line profile yields a narrow line emission with energy $`E_{K\alpha }`$=($`6.90\pm 0.09`$) keV and an equivalent width of ($`55\pm 14`$) eV, with a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 0.97 over 74 dof.

The significance of this detection is high (the F-test provides a value of 9.9 of the F-statistic, for a null hypothesis probability of $`1.4\times 10^5`$). We caution however, about the presence in this region of a hot thermal plasma with strong line emission from both neutral and ionized species of iron (Koyama et al. (1996)). In fact, the detected line could be partly originated by the plasma emission in the line of sight of SAX J1747.0-2853, or could arise as a systematic effect as far as the intensity of the diffuse component is variable on a spatial scale smaller than our source and background extraction regions.

The unfolded energy spectrum obtained for the blackbody plus Comptonization fit and narrow line is shown in Fig. 2.

## 4 X-RAY BURSTS

In 1998, between MJD 50892.6 and MJD 50911.4 a total of 14 X-ray bursts was observed from SAX J1747.0-2853. All these events show similar time and spectral characteristics, with fast rise, exponential decay and spectral softening. One rather strong event occurred on MJD 50900 with a peak intensity of $`(820\pm 70)`$ mCrab (2-28 keV). For this burst, the time profiles in two different energy bands (2-8 keV, 8-28 keV) are both characterized by fast rise times ($`2`$ s) and longer exponential decays with e-folding times depending on energy band (see Fig. 3). In particular, the high energy time history shows clear evidence for double-peaked profile and its e-folding time is evidently shorter ($`3`$ s) than the one of the low energy profile ($`8`$ s). The average burst spectrum is consistent with absorbed blackbody emission with average colour temperature of $`2`$ keV and the average blackbody radius of the hypothetical emitting sphere is $`7`$ km (assuming 10 kpc distance). The absorption $`N_H`$ was set to $`10^{23}`$ cm-2 as derived from the persistent emission observed by the NFI.

Four time-resolved spectra were accumulated in order to study the time evolution of the spectral parameters. The spectra were subtracted for the source persistent emission, and their time intervals were chosen to match the first-peak, interpeak, second-peak and decay phases in the 8-28 keV burst time profile. Since the obtained emission spectra are all consistent with blackbody, we could determine the time evolution of the radius of the emitting sphere (see lower panel of Fig. 3). The blackbody radii were calculated assuming isotropic emission at a source distance of 10 kpc and not correcting for gravitational redshift and conversion to effective blackbody temperature from colour temperature. A radius expansion by a factor of $`2`$ is observed.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of the spectral and timing properties of the first bursts observed by the WFCs it is clear that the transient source SAX J1747.0-2853 is a type I X-ray burster, thus indicating that the compact object is a neutron star and that the source should be classified as a candidate low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB).

The photospheric expansion observed for the MJD 50900 burst can be interpreted as adiabatic expansion during a high luminosity, Eddington-limited type I burst. Such bursts may be used to estimate the source distance (assuming isotropic burst emission). Given the observed blackbody spectrum, the burst peak intensity corresponds to an unabsorbed bolometric flux of $`(3.18\pm 0.27)\times 10^8`$ erg cm-2 s-1. Using the standard candle luminosity of $`(3.0\pm 0.6)\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1, empirically calculated by Lewin et al. (1995) on a sample of Eddington limited bursters, leads to a distance value $`d=(8.9\pm 1.3)`$ kpc for SAX J1747.0-2853. On the other hand, assuming the theoretical Eddington luminosity for a typical 1.4 $`M_{}`$ NS ($`2.5\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1) and burst isotropy, we obtain $`d=(8.1\pm 0.3)`$ kpc (the error is purely statistical). The calculated distance of $`9`$ kpc implies an average radius of the blackbody emitting region of $`6`$ km as obtained from the observed colour temperature, i.e. without correcting for colour-to-effective temperature ratio which could lead to an underestimate of the observed radius by a factor $`2`$ (Ebisuzaki (1987)).

The wide band NFI spectrum of SAX J1747.0-2853 obtained on 1998, March 23 (when the source was close to outburst maximum) can be explained as being composed of a primary non-thermal component (detected up to $`150`$ keV) which can be fitted by Comptonization of soft photons at $`1.3`$ keV, plus a soft thermal component compatible with blackbody emission at $`0.6`$ keV or disk blackbody with an inner temperature of $`0.8`$ keV. The observed spectral shape (Fig. 2) suggests that SAX J1747.0-2853 was in a typical low/hard state during the 1998 outburst, with a luminosity ratio L/$`L_{Edd}0.025`$. The presence of the soft component, with a total flux of $`3\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 (i.e., $`10`$% of the total 2-10 keV flux) is in line with recent detections of a soft excess in the spectra of a number of type I bursters observed in hard state (e.g., Barret et al. (2000); Natalucci et al. (2000)) with temperatures typically in the range 0.5-2 keV.

The spectrum shows evidence of strong reprocessing, suggestive of Compton reflection and/or absorption of primary X-ray photons on optically thick material (Lightman & White (1988)). This could be an accretion disk around a central hard X-ray source consisting of a hot plasma located either in the inner disk or in a NS boundary layer (Popham & Sunyaev (2000)). The reprocessing of the hard X-rays is clearly revealed by the presence of an iron feature, which can be described as a combination of a rather sharp absorption edge at nearly 7.4 keV and a weak, narrow Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line at $`6.9`$ keV with an equivalent width of 55 eV. The energies of the edge and of the narrow line (see Section 3) seem to suggest that the material is ionized rather than cold (Ross, Fabian & Young (1999)). The presence of ionized material even at low accretion rate can be expected as far as the effective temperature of the inner disk is of the order of 0.5 keV (Ross & Fabian (1993)).

Detections of iron edge features are generally accompanied by a characteristic hardening of the spectrum above 10 keV due to the increase of the scattering opacity at these energies (Compton reflection). In our case the amount of the reflection component is difficult to assess, since we do not have useful data in the range 10.5-32 keV and also due to the uncertain behaviour of the relative PDS/MECS spectra normalization (see discussion in Section 2).

We thank Team Members of the BeppoSax Science Operation Centre and Science Data Centre for continuos support and timely actions for near-real-time detection of new transient and bursting sources and the follow-up TOO observations. The BeppoSAX satellite is a joint Italian and Dutch programme.


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# HI in Early-Type Galaxies

## 1. Introduction

Early-type galaxies are generally considered gas poor, but this does not mean that gas is not important for the evolution of these galaxies. Many early-type galaxies, in particular those in the field, do have a long-lived cool interstellar medium, one that is often very similar to that in spiral galaxies. The main difference is that they galaxies have less of it, typically 1-10% compared to what is present in spirals (e.g. Knapp 1999).

Gas content is one of the key elements for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies. Early-type galaxies constitute quite a heterogeneous group of galaxies. Several of their properties (e.g. stellar rotation, isophotal shape, core properties, ionization characteristics of the ionized gas, star formation history) vary systematically with luminosity and environment. These differences can be partly explained by different amounts of gas present in the formation/evolution. In models for galaxy formation the gas supply is a key factor. To help in understanding the mechanisms and processes behind these systematic differences, it may be worthwhile to study the properties of the neutral hydrogen in early-type galaxies and in particular whether there are systematic differences of the H i properties as function of luminosity and environment.

A few dozen H i data cubes are available now of early-type galaxies, most of them obtained by Van Gorkom and collaborators with the VLA and by us using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, and we will briefly discuss some of the systematics of the H i properties of early-type galaxies.

## 2. Origin

One key question is “where does the H i come from?”. It is generally thought that the H i is due to a recent accretion/merger event. But is this the whole story? If one considers the H i detection rates (e.g. Bregman et al. 1992), one does indeed see that early-type galaxies that, based on their optical morphology, are classified as peculiar, are more often detected than “normal” early-type galaxies. This does indicate that accretion/merging is an important factor. But the statistics also indicate that those early-type galaxies that show some indications for the presence of a (usually small) disk component are more likely to be detected in H i (e.g. Hogg et al. 1993). This suggests that a subgroup of early-type galaxies has regular H i structures. A third factor is also the environment, although there are no good statistics available in order to be able to quantify this.

## 3. Luminous early-type galaxies

The range in H i morphology in the luminous galaxies ($`M_B<19`$) is much broader than that seen in low-luminosity galaxies. In most luminous galaxies the H i shows an irregular morphology, consistent with the idea that the gas is accreting onto the galaxy, or is left over from a recent merger event. Often, these galaxies are found in small groups.

However, as suggested by the detection statistics, there are a few luminous galaxies known that have very regular H i. An example is NGC 807. This galaxy is classified as E4 in the RC3, but is rich in H i. The H i is very extended (going out to several tens of kpc), and shows very regular kinematics. Figure 1a shows the position-velocity plot of the H i along the major axis obtained by us from archival VLA data (Dressel et al.). Another example is NGC 3108 (observed by us with the ATCA and the VLA). Also this galaxy has a H i disk of several tens of kpc in radius. Figure 1b shows the position-velocity map of the H i along the major axis. The H i disk in NGC 3108 has a central hole. Interestingly, this hole is filled up with ionized gas that has the same kinematics as the H i. These data show that the H i in these galaxies is in a regularly rotating disk, that is basically the same as disks in spiral galaxies (including the flat rotation curves). In fact, if one would not know the optical morphology, it would be very difficult to tell from the H i data alone that these are early-type galaxies.

What distinguishes these H i disks from those seen in spiral galaxies is that the surface density of the H i is much lower. The peak surface density is usually below 2 $`M_{}`$ pc-2 and often the H i distribution has a central hole. These low surface densities imply that no large-scale star formation is occurring and the H i disk will evolve very slowly. At most a very faint optical counterpart to the H i disk will form. Some of these galaxies could perhaps be considered as extremely early-type spirals where the characteristics of the H i are such that an optical disk failed to form from the H i disk (“disk-less disk galaxies”).

However, the presence of the H i in these galaxies may still be connected to merging/accretion to some extent. For example, NGC 5266 (Morganti et al. 1997) is a minor-axis dust-lane elliptical with a large amount of H i ($`M_{\mathrm{HI}}/L_B0.2`$). Almost all the H i is in a disk-like structure, with more or less regular kinematics, parallel to the optical major axis. However, in the centre, a small fraction of the H i is rotating parallel to the minor axis and is coincident with the minor-axis dust lane. Faint traces of H i connecting the two H i structures are also seen. Most likely, NGC 5266 is a system where a large amount of H i has been accreted a relatively long time ago and most of the H i has been able to settle in a disk. Perhaps NGC 5266 is an example of the scenario suggested by Hibbard and van Gorkom (1996) that during a merger of gas-rich galaxies, a large fraction of the H i can be transported to large radii as tidal tails, while at a later stage this gas falls back to form a disk. This would suggest that (some of the) early-type galaxies with regular gas disks are very old merger remnants.

## 4. Low-luminosity early-type galaxies

In low-luminosity early-type galaxies the situation is quite opposite to that in luminous galaxies. Almost without exception, in low-luminosity early-type galaxies the H i is in a disk with regular morphology and kinematics. In a way, low-luminosity early-type galaxies are also disky in H i. In most low-luminosity galaxies there is no evidence from the kinematics that a recent accretion has occurred. This points to a different accretion history of the H i. As an example, in figure 3 we give the total H i image and the position-velocity map of the galaxy NGC 2328 ($`M_B18`$). The H i in this galaxy is in a nicely rotating disk, aligned with the optical body.

Only in some galaxies there is some kinematics evidence that (part of) the H i may have been accreted recently. For example, in the galaxies NGC 802 (Sadler et al. 2000) and NGC 855 (Walsh et al. 1990), part of the H i is in a polar ring-like structure.

Another characteristic is that in low-luminosity galaxies the H i is very centrally concentrated and that the central surface densities are much higher that in luminous early-type galaxies. The central surface densities observed are typically 6 $`M_{}`$ pc-2 or higher and significant star formation is occurring in the central regions. In fact, these galaxies follow the radio-FIR correlation observed for spiral galaxies, suggesting that the conditions in the central regions are not too different from those in spiral galaxies.

## 5. Conclusions

Systematics differences are observed between the H i properties of luminous early-type galaxies and those of low-luminosity early-type galaxies. These differences are likely to be connected to systematics differences between the two classes of galaxies seen at other wavelengths and could point to differences in accretion history of the gas and evolution.

## References

Bregman, J.N., Hogg, D.E., Roberts, M.S. 1992, ApJ, 387, 484

Hibbard, J. E., van Gorkom, J. H. 1996, AJ, 111, 655

Hogg, D.E., Roberts, M.S., Sandage, A. 1993, AJ, 106, 907

Knapp, G., 1999, in Star Formation in Early-Type Galaxies, eds. P. Carral and J. Cepa, ASP Conf. Proc. 163, 119

Morganti, R., Sadler, E., Oosterloo, T., Pizzella, A., Bertola, F., 1997, AJ, 113, 937

Sadler, E.M., Oosterloo, T.A., Morganti, R, Karakas, A. 2000, AJ, 119, 1180

Walsh, D.E.P., Van Gorkom, J.H., Bies, W.E., Katz, N., Knapp, G.R., Wallington, S. 1990, ApJ, 352, 532


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# STIS Echelle Observations of NGC 4151: Variable Ionization of the Intrinsic UV AbsorbersBased on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 Introduction

NGC 4151 (cz $`=`$ 995 km s-1) is the first Seyfert galaxy known to show intrinsic absorption that could be attributed to the active nucleus. Oke and Sargent (1968) first reported evidence for nonstellar absorption from He I $`\lambda `$3889, and Anderson & Kraft (1969) discovered H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$ self absorption. The optical absorption was blueshifted with radial velocities up to $``$970 km s-1 with respect to the host galaxy and therefore attributed to mass ejected from the nucleus. Cromwell & Weymann (1970) discovered that the Balmer absorption is variable, and can sometimes disappear altogether.

Ultraviolet observations of NGC 4151 by the IUE (Boksenberg et al. 1978) and subsequent far-ultraviolet observations by the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT, Kriss et al. 1992) revealed a number of absorption lines from species that span a wide range in ionization potential (e.g., O I to O VI), as well as fine-structure and metastable absorption lines. The intrinsic UV absorption was found to be variable in ionic column density, but no variations in radial velocities were detected (Bromage et al. 1985). More recent observations of NGC 4151 were obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) at high spectral resolution ($``$15 km s-1) over limited wavelength regions by Weymann et al. (1997). The GHRS spectra revealed that the C IV and Mg II absorption lines, detected in six major kinematic components, were remarkably stable over the time period 1992 – 1996. The absorption components showed no evidence for variable column or radial velocity, except that a transient feature was detected in the blue wing of the broad C IV emission in one of four GHRS observations, and was attributed to a high-velocity C IV component (Weymann et al. 1997).

In the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) survey of intrinsic UV absorption lines in Seyfert galaxies by Crenshaw et al. (1999), NGC 4151 stood out as an unusual object. Of the ten Seyfert galaxies in this sample with intrinsic absorption, all showed C IV and N V absorption, but only NGC 4151 showed Mg II absorption 111Interestingly, a similar percentage ($``$15%) of broad absorption-line (BAL) QSOs show low-ionization absorption in the form of Mg II (Weymann et al. 1991).. NGC 4151 is also unusual in the sense that it is the only active galaxy known to show metastable C III $`\lambda `$1175 absorption, which is indicative of relatively high electron densities ($``$ 109 cm-3, Bromage et al. 1985).

Due to the unusual nature of the absorption in NGC 4151, we decided to obtain STIS echelle spectra of the UV spectrum from 1150 – 3100 Å at a spectral resolution of 7 – 10 km s-1 to study the intrinsic absorption in detail. These observations are part of a long-term project on NGC 4151 by members of the Instrument Definition Team (IDT) of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on HST. In this letter, we concentrate on the variability of the absorption features in the spectral region surrounding the broad C IV emission. In future papers, we will present results on the entire UV spectrum, the Galactic absorption, and the kinematics and physical conditions in the intrinsic absorbers.

## 2 Observations

We observed the nucleus of NGC 4151 with the medium-resolution echelle gratings of STIS on 1999 July 19/20. Table 1 gives the details of the new observations, as well as previous STIS spectra of the nucleus in the UV that we use for comparison. The slitless G140M spectrum is discussed in Hutchings et al. (1998) and the low-resolution G140L and G230LB spectra are described by Nelson et al. (2000). We reduced the echelle spectra using the IDL software developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for the IDT. The data reduction included a procedure to remove the background light from each order using a scattered-light model devised by Lindler (1999) rather than the standard procedure, which estimates the background from the interorder light directly. Whereas the standard procedure resulted in significant negative fluxes (up to 10% of the continuum) for the troughs of saturated interstellar lines (such as Ly$`\alpha `$ and Si II $`\lambda `$1260.4), the improved procedure brought all of these troughs close to zero (i.e., to within 1% of the continuum flux levels). For display purposes, the individual orders in each echelle spectrum were spliced together in the regions of overlap.

Figure 1 shows the C IV region for the three epochs of STIS observations that cover this region. The major kinematic components of C IV absorption identified by Weymann et al. (1997) in the GHRS spectra are labeled. These components have velocity centroids that range from $``$1575 to $`+`$38 km s-1, relative to the systemic redshift of cz $`=`$ 995 km s-1 (from H I 21 cm observations, see de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991), and appear in all of the GHRS and STIS spectra. As noted by Weymann et al., component B originates in our galaxy and component F probably arises in the interstellar medium and/or halo of NGC 4151. There are no obvious changes in the velocity centroids or widths of the C IV components since the GHRS observations, except for a possible new broad component in the 1540 – 1547 Å region (see Kraemer et al. 2000 for more details).

It is obvious from Figure 1 that the continuum plus broad-line emission decreased considerably over the two-year period of STIS observations. The continuum flux at 1450 Å dropped by a factor of 2.3 between the last two observations (i.e., from 2.45 x 10-13 to 1.06 x 10-13 ergs s-1 cm-2 Å-1 between 1998 February 10 and 1999 July 19). There are no pure continuum regions in the slitless spectrum obtained on 1997 May 25, but the continuum plus broad emission is 1.5 times higher than in 1998. Since the amplitude of continuum variations tends to be larger than that of C IV in this object (Crenshaw et al. 1996, and references therein), it is likely that the UV continuum at 1450 Å decreased by at least a factor of 1.5 from 1997 to 1998, and therefore by at least a factor of 3.5 from 1997 to 1999. This is not unusual for NGC 4151, since IUE observations have shown that the UV continuum can vary by as much as a factor of 10 over a period of 2 – 3 years (Ulrich et al. 1991).

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The Appearance of Low-Ionization Lines

Figure 1 shows an interesting change in the C IV region at the time of the STIS echelle observations, when the continuum and broad-line fluxes are low. A number of new broad (FWHM $``$ 400 km s-1) absorption features appear in the wings of C IV which are not seen at higher states in the previous GHRS and STIS observations (with an exception discussed in Section 3.3); the strongest of these features are at the observed wavelengths of 1529 Å, 1535 Å, 1572 Å, and 1577 Å. These absorption features and others are identified in Figure 2, which gives a wider region of the spectrum near C IV. We confirm Bromage et al.’s (1985) identification of Si IV, Si II, C IV, and Al II absorption in this region, as well as their claim of resonance and fine-structure lines from multiplet UV8 of Fe II. These broad features are primarily due to component D (at a radial velocity of $``$560 km s-1 with respect to the host galaxy), although some lines receive a contribution from component E (at $``$255 km s-1; a full deconvolution will be given in Kraemer et al. 2000).

Many other absorption features are present in the spectrum in Figure 2. We attribute a majority of these features to Fe II multiplets that arise from metastable levels up to 4.1 eV above the ground state (Silvis & Bruhweiler 2000). As shown in Figure 2, the correspondence of the absorption features with expected positions of the Fe II lines at the radial velocity of component D is convincing. Assuming collisional excitation of the metastable Fe II levels, this implies densities of ne $`>`$ 106 cm-3 in this kinematic component (Wampler, Chugai, & Pettijean 1995). This is probably a severe lower limit, since densities on the order of 109 cm-3 have been derived from the presence of metastable C III $`\lambda `$1176 (from a level 6.5 eV above the ground state) at this approximate radial velocity (Espey et al. 1998). A number of lines in Figure 2 remain unidentified, and we suspect that some of these may arise from higher Fe II levels (not on the lists of Fe II multiplets in Silvis and Bruhweiler). We note that the effect of all this absorption is to add structure to the UV spectrum and depress the apparent continuum and broad-line emission in many places. For example, the unusual looking feature between 1593 and 1602 Å is an unabsorbed portion of the broad wing of C IV, located between two Fe II absorption lines from multiplets 44 and EO.

### 3.2 Variable ionization of the absorption

There are two likely sources of intrinsic absorption variations in Seyfert galaxies: 1) changes in the ionization fractions due to ionizing continuum variations, and 2) changes in the total column of gas due, for example, to bulk motion of the gas across the line of sight (Crenshaw et al. 1999, and references therein). The former can be identified from a correlation between continuum and absorption variations. The best case for correlated variations has been established for the neutral hydrogen absorption and low-ionization lines of NGC 4151 on time scales of days (Kriss et al. 1996; Espey et al. 1998).

For the same Seyfert galaxy, we find strong evidence of variability in the ionization state of the absorber on longer time scales in the C IV region, where we have multiple GHRS and STIS observations at high spectral resolutions. The variation is dramatic in the sense that low-ionization lines, such as those from Si II and Fe II, are weak or undetectable when the continuum in NGC 4151 is in a high state, but are strong when the continuum drops to a low state (corresponding to $``$ 1 x 10-13 ergs s-1 cm-2 Å-1 at 1450 Å). Looking back at the IUE observations, low states defined in this manner occured on several occasions over 1 – 2 year periods between 1978 and 1990 (Ulrich et al. 1991), and the published IUE spectra show that the low-ionization lines are strong on these occasions. This impression is supported by the finding of Bromage et al. (1985) that the equivalent widths of the low-ionization lines (e.g., Si II, Mg II) are anti-correlated with continuum flux. Thus, the appearance of low-ionization lines when the continuum reaches a low state is a long-term phenomenon, spanning at least the last two decades.

### 3.3 The transient absorption feature in GHRS spectra

The absorption feature at 1535 Å that Weymann et al. find in epoch 4 of their GHRS spectra and suggest is a “transient” C IV feature at high velocity is actually the D component of the fine-structure Si II $`\lambda `$1533.4 line. This identification is firm, since the velocity centroid and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of this feature are essentially identical in the GHRS epoch 4 and STIS echelle spectra, and match the values determined for the D component from other lines. However, this feature is much stronger at the low continuum level of the STIS echelle spectrum (a hint of this feature can also be seen in the STIS low-resolution spectrum from 1998). The narrow absorption line in the red wing of this feature at 1537.5 Å (see Figure 1) is the E component of Si II $`\lambda `$1533.4 (at $``$210 km s-1) which is identified by Weymann et al. in Mg II but not in C IV (and is also present in Si II 1526.7). Interestingly, the broad E component (at $``$ 255 km s-1) appears to be weak or missing in the Si II and metastable Fe II lines, indicating a lower density for this component.

One puzzling aspect of the Si II absorption in the GHRS spectra is that it is seen in a relatively high state (GHRS epoch 4), similar to that of our 1997 STIS spectrum, and not seen in a lower state (GHRS epoch 2). One possible explanation is that the density of the gas responsible for this absorption is low enough that it has not had time to respond to a previous (unobserved) continuum change. This requires the recombination time scale to be greater than or equal to the time scale for large-amplitude continuum variations, which is $``$2 days (Crenshaw et al. 1996). However, the density of the gas would have to be ne $``$ $`[`$$`\alpha `$rec trec\]-1 $``$ $`[`$(10-12 cm-3 s-1)(1.73 x 105 s\]-1 $``$ 5.8 x 106 cm -3, which is much lower than the derived value of ne $``$ 109 cm -3 for the D component based on the C III metastable line. Another possible explanation is that the EUV and UV continuum fluxes are not well correlated, and therefore the observed UV continuum is not a good indicator of the ionizing flux (at photon energies $``$ 16.4 eV for Si II to Si III). We consider this possibility unlikely as well, since UV, EUV, and X-ray continuum variations appear to be correlated in this object (Edelson et al. 1996) and a number of other Seyfert galaxies (e.g., Chiang et al. 2000, Nandra et al. 2000). Thus, this issue remains open at present.

### 3.4 The C IV satellite lines

A number of IUE observations have shown narrow emission features in the wings of the broad C IV emission line that could not be attributed to typical Seyfert emission lines at the redshift of NGC 4151 (Ulrich et al. 1985; Clavel et al. 1987; Ulrich 1996). These lines were relatively narrow (FWHM $``$ 7 – 16 Å), located on either side of the C IV peak, and designated L1 and L2 at the observed positions of 1518 Å and 1594 Å (Clavel et al. also note a subcomponent L2 located at 1576 Å). These features have been identified as C IV “satellite lines” at relatively large radial velocities, and it was suggested that they may arise from a two-sided jet (Ulrich et al. 1985). Interestingly, the satellite lines were seen primarily in continuum low states, and were not detected in HST spectra (prior to our observations), which were obtained at moderate to bright states.

To investigate this phenomenon, we retrieved an IUE SWP spectrum obtained on 1983 November 19 from the IUE archives. This spectrum was obtained when the continuum flux was low, and shows the satellite lines prominently (Clavel et al. 1987). Figure 3 shows the IUE spectrum in the C IV region, along with the STIS echelle spectrum. To compare the two spectra, we resampled the STIS spectrum to the IUE bin size (1.67 Å per bin) and smoothed it to the IUE resolution ($``$ 5 Å). The binned STIS spectrum is plotted as a dashed line in Figure 3.

Figure 3 demonstrates that the satellite lines (L1, L2, and L2) in the IUE spectra are also present in the binned STIS spectrum. In the original STIS spectrum these lines are seen to be regions of relatively unabsorbed broad-emission plus continuum in the wings of C IV, surrounded by broad low-ionization absorption lines (primarily from Si II and Fe II). The prominence of the “satellite lines” at low continuum states is therefore explained by the increased strength of the surrounding low-ionization absorption lines when the continuum flux is low.

## 4 Conclusions

Our STIS spectra show that the broad low-ionization absorption lines appear in NGC 4151 when the UV continuum flux is low, and are therefore very sensitive to changes in the ionizing flux. This is apparently a long term phenomenon, since evidence for an anti-correlation between the equivalent widths of the low ionization lines and the UV continuum fluxes has been established for IUE observations dating back to 1978 (Bromage et al. 1985). High-ionization lines such as C IV are apparently close to saturation at both high and low states (with evidence for a residual flux in the troughs of these lines which is likely due to scattered light near the nucleus, see Kraemer et al. 2000).

The STIS echelle observations reveal a huge number of previously unidentified broad (FWHM $``$ 400 km s-1) absorption features in the low-state spectrum of NGC 4151. We identify most of these features as Fe II lines from multiplets that arise from metastable levels as high as 4.1 eV above the ground state. Although this type of absorption is rare, it has been seen in a few active galaxies and quasars with higher luminosities (e.g., Mrk 231, Smith et al. 1995; Q0059$``$2735, Wampler et al. 1995; Arp 102B, Halpern et al. 1996), and is indicative of low-ionization gas with at least moderate electron densities (ne $`>`$ 106 cm-3).

The variability of the low-ionization lines helps to explain a couple of puzzling aspects of the UV spectrum of NGC 4151. The transient feature seen in the blue wing of the C IV emission line in GHRS spectra is actually the D component of the Si II $`\lambda `$1533.4 fine-structure line. The C IV “satellite lines” seen in IUE spectra are regions of unabsorbed continuum plus broad C IV emission that become prominent when the low-ionization absorption appears at low continuum levels. The basic nature of this absorption, however, is not well understood; future efforts will concentrate on the kinematics and physical conditions in the UV absorbers in NGC 4151.

We thank Richard Mushotzky and Fred Bruhweiler for helpful discussions and suggestions. This work was supported by NASA Guaranteed Time Observer funding to the STIS Science Team under NASA grant NAG 5-4103.


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# USING THIN FILM TARGETS FOR MUONIC ATOMS AND MUON CATALYZED FUSION STUDIES11footnote 1Talk given at KEK International Workshop on High Intensity Muon Sources, HIMUS-99.

## 1 Introduction

A negative muon can participate in a variety of atomic and molecular processes. When it is introduced into a target, a muonic atom is readily created replacing an electron, which can then form a muonic molecule. The latter in turn can result in fusion reactions between the nuclei if the target consists of hydrogen isotopes, a phenomenon known as muon catalyzed fusion ($`\mu `$CF).

The use of a thin target in muon physics experiments has some notable advantages. One general (and obvious) advantage is that it allows, with high energy resolution, the detection of out-going particles of the reaction, e.g. $`\alpha `$ particles from fusion, or possibly electrons from $`\mu e`$ conversion. Using thin film targets, held in a vacuum without a window, offers additional merits in muonic atom studies. When the layer thickness is small compared to the range of the atom in that medium, it can be extracted from the layer, producing a beam of muonic atoms in vacuum. This allows to isolate the process of interest from the rest of the reaction chains, offering unique advantages over conventional targets in which usually complex and interconnected of processes take place. There exist some disadvantages of thin film methods which include limited statistics due to the small fraction of muon stopping in the thin films, and increased background from the large fraction muon stopping in the target support and the chamber.

New high intensity muon sources, now being actively investigated world-wide, could enhance greatly the advantages of thin targets while alleviating their disadvantages. In this articles, we review the thin film method, and discuss recent results and a future proposal in muonic atom and muon catalyzed fusion experiments at TRIUMF.

## 2 Muonic hydrogen atom beams from thin films

The basic processes involved in creating a beam of muonic hydrogen atoms can be categorized into four step: atomic formation, acceleration, extraction, and moderation. Let us take as an example the production of muonic tritium atom ($`\mu t`$) beam. When a muon is stopped in a thin solid hydrogen target consisting of protium (1H2) doped with a small amount ($`c_t0.1`$%) of tritium, muonic protium atom ($`\mu p`$) is mostly formed (atomic formation). The muon quickly transfers from proton to triton to form $`\mu t`$, the latter more tightly bound due to the reduced mass difference. In the reaction, the $`\mu t`$ gains about 45 eV of recoil kinetic energy, and is thus accelerated. The $`\mu t`$ then slow down from the collisions with the rest of the target nuclei (mostly protons), until it reaches about 10 eV. At these energies, $`\mu t+p`$ elastic scattering cross section drops dramatically due to a phenomenon known as the Ramsauer-Townsend effect,333Elastic scattering cross section goes to zero, when the $`s`$-wave phase shift goes to $`\pi `$ and the contributions from higher partial waves are negligible. making the rest of the target nearly transparent. The $`\mu t`$ atom is thus extracted from the layer into vacuum. The energy of the emitted $`\mu t`$ can be controlled to some extent by placing an additional layer, for example of deuterium, on top of the emission layer (moderation). Creation of muonic deuterium ($`\mu d`$) is possible in a similar manner with a deuterium-doped protium target: in fact, the emission of muonic hydrogen atoms was first discovered in this system.

Unexpected emission of $`\mu p`$ from a pure 1H2 target was observed recently, which indicates the existence of unconventional acceleration and extraction mechanism. Presumably, $`\mu p`$ is accelerated during the atomic cascade to the ground state, while $`\mu p`$ extraction from the layer may be enhanced due to the condensed matter effects in $`\mu p+p`$ scattering. The energy of emitted $`\mu p`$, though it has not been directly measured, is expected to be of order $``$meV given by the Bragg cut-off limit, and its hyperfine state to be in $`F=0`$ due to the high spin exchange rate in the target.

These observations of $`\mu p`$, $`\mu d`$, and $`\mu t`$ emission are not only useful for new type of experiments, but also interesting in its own right in testing the quantum few body calculations. Because of the large mass of the muon, comparable to that of nuclei, reactions of muonic atoms is non-adiabatic in nature, and the corrections due to relativistic and QED effects may be non-negligible in some cases. Measurements reported up to now by the TRIUMF group include, charge exchange processes $`\mu p+dp+\mu d`$, $`\mu p+tp+\mu t`$; elastic scattering processes $`\mu d+p\mu d+p`$, $`\mu t+p\mu t+p`$; spin exchange process $`\mu d^{F=\frac{3}{2}}+d\mu d^{F=\frac{1}{2}}+d`$; molecular formation $`p\mu p`$, $`d\mu d`$; and the astrophysical $`S`$ factor from $`p\mu d`$ fusion. Many of these processes play important roles in $`\mu `$CF as well as in other fundamental muon physics experiments. In the following sections, we focus on two crucial processes, $`d\mu t`$ formation and $`\mu `$-$`\alpha `$ sticking.

## 3 Resonant molecular formation in $`\mu `$CF

Muon catalyzed fusion in the deuterium-tritium system currently has two major bottle-necks in term of achieving high efficiency. One is the rate at which a muon can go through the catalysis cycle (cycling rate), and another is a poisoning process called $`\mu `$$`\alpha `$ sticking in which, with a probability $`\omega _s0.005`$, the muon gets captured to atomic bound states of the fusion product 4He after the fusion reaction, and hence lost from the cycle (see Section 4). The former is limited mainly by the rate of formation of muonic molecule $`d\mu t`$. In fact, a straightforward mechanism for molecular formation via Auger process is much too slow, yielding the fusion efficiency of the order of only one fusion per muon. A resonant mechanism, however, can give much higher rates when the certain condition is satisfied. In the resonant formation, $`\mu t+D_2[(d\mu t)dee]_{\nu K}`$, the reaction product is a hydrogen-like molecular complex $`[(d\mu t)dee]`$ in which $`(d\mu t)^+`$ plays a role of one of the nuclei. The process is resonant, because the energy released upon formation of $`d\mu t`$ plus the $`\mu t`$ kinetic energy has to coincide the ro-vibrational ($`\nu K`$) excitation spectrum of $`[(d\mu t)dee]`$ in the final state. This is only possible due to the existence of a state in $`d\mu t`$ which is bound very loosely (in the muonic scale) with the binding energy smaller than the dissociation energy of deuterium molecules.

Theoretical calculations predict strong enhancement of the formation rate $`\lambda _{d\mu t}`$ at $`\mu t`$ energy of order 1 eV, but direct experimental information on such epithermal resonance is scarce. In conventional $`\mu `$CF experiments, determination of $`\lambda _{d\mu t}`$ is rather indirect and model dependent due to the complexity of muonic reaction cycles in the target. As well, the resonant energies $``$1 eV is difficult to access with the target thermal energy, since it would require a target of several thousand degrees, a formidable task when working with tritium. The use of $`\mu t`$ beam provides some unique advantages in this case: (1) formation process can be isolated, to large extent, from the rest of the cycle, (2) epithermal energies are directly accessible due to the available beam energy, and (3) $`\mu t`$ time of flight across the drift distance provide information of the resonance energies.

Figure 1 (a) illustrates the principle of our method. A beam of $`5\times 10^3`$ $`\mu ^{}`$/s of momentum 27 MeV/$`c`$ from the TRIUMF M20B channel was degraded in a 51 $`\mu `$m gold target support, and stopped in the upstream (US) emission layer. The $`\mu t`$ beam, obtained as described above, were slowed via elastic scattering in a D2 moderation layer from some 10 eV to near 1 eV to better match the resonance energies. The $`\mu t`$, after a few $`\mu `$s time of flight (TOF), is collided with a reaction layer in downstream (DS), separated by the drift distance of 17.9 mm in vacuum. Formation of $`d\mu t`$ molecules is detected by observing 3.5 MeV $`\alpha `$ particles produced in the fusion reaction, $`d+t\alpha +n`$, which follows the formation. Si detectors placed in the vacuum enables the measurement $`\alpha `$ with high energy resolution. The background can be determined accurately by “turning off” the DS fusion reactions using the target without the DS layer. This ability to control a specific process, without affecting the rest, is an advantage of the thin film method. (In conventional targets, changing the target conditions would affect many processes simultaneously).

Because the time between muon stop and the fusion $`\alpha `$ detection is dominated by the $`\mu t`$ TOF, it provides a measure on molecular formation energy, as long as the energy loss of $`\mu t`$, due to elastic scattering before the formation in the DS D2, is small. A thin DS layer ($``$1 $`\mu `$m) was necessary to minimize this energy loss so as not to obscure the time-energy correlation.

The detail of our analysis can be found in Refs. and here we give the resulting DS fusion time spectrum and its comparison with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in Fig. 2, which clearly establishes the resonance structure. From the time-of-flight analysis of $`2036\pm 116`$ DS fusion events, a formation rate consistent with $`0.73\pm (0.16)_{meas}\pm (0.09)_{model}`$ times the theoretical prediction of Faifman et al. was obtained (the first error refers to the measurement uncertainty including the statistics and the second is that in MC modeling). The resonance energies were determined from the fit to be $`0.940\pm (0.036)_{meas}\pm (0.080)_{model}`$ times the theory. Thus, for the first time, the existence of epithermal resonances in $`d\mu t`$ molecular formation was directly confirmed, and their energies measured. For the largest peak at the resonance energy of $`0.423\pm 0.037`$ eV, our results correspond to the peak rate of $`(7.1\pm 1.8)\times 10^9`$ s-1. This is more than an order of magnitude larger than the rates at lower energies, experimentally demonstrating the prospect for high cycling $`\mu `$CF in a high temperature target of several thousand degrees. If one assumes the energy levels of the \[$`(d\mu t)dee`$\] molecule, which have a similar structure to those of ordinary hydrogen, our results imply sensitivity to the binding of energy of the loosely bound $`(d\mu t)_{11}`$ state with an accuracy comparable to the vacuum polarization and other QED corrections, opening up a new possibility of precision spectroscopy in a quantum few body system.

The data have been subsequently collected for $`d\mu t`$ formation in the $`\mu t+HD`$ collision, for which for stronger resonances at lower energies are predicted. The result will be reported in a future publication.

## 4 Direct measurement of $`\mu `$$`\alpha `$ sticking

The process of $`\mu `$-$`\alpha `$ sticking give a stringent limit, independent of the cycling rate, on the number of fusions catalyzed by one muon. As such, great efforts have been made for nearly two decades to understand this process, but discrepancies persist between and theory and experiment (including latest PSI and RIKEN-RAL results), the latter being systematically lower than the former.

Calculations of sticking are challenging, due to the interplay of the Coulomb and strong interactions in a non-adiabatic few-body system, yet recent predictions, including the effects of nuclear structure and the deviations from the standard sudden approximation, They cannot, however, be readily compared to experiment because most measurements are primarily sensitive to final sticking ($`\omega _s^{fin}`$), which is a combination of initial sticking ($`\omega _s^0`$), the intrinsic branching ratio for $`d\mu t\mu \alpha +n`$, and stripping ($`R`$), collisional reactivation of the muon from $`\mu \alpha `$ in the target medium (i.e., $`\omega _s^{fin}\omega _s^0(1R)`$).

Confusing history of experimental sticking results has been in part attributed to the difficulties associated with the conventional neutron method, which include a high model dependence and the need for the absolute neutron calibration. A recent RIKEN-RAL experiment has directly observed, with impressive statistics, X-rays from $`\mu \alpha `$ deexcitaion444Upon sticking a fraction of the muon gets captured into excited atomic states of $`\mu \alpha `$ and can emit X-rays if it deexcites to the ground state. taking advantage of the new intense pulsed muon beam which enabled the large signal enhancement, but unfortunately the determination of the sticking probability has to rely on the models of $`\mu \alpha `$ cascade and stripping, which are yet largely untested.

We propose a new direct experiment of sticking using multi-layer a thin film target. The method is illustrated in Fig 3, and the details are given in Refs. The determination of sticking from the ratio $`\mu \alpha /(\mu \alpha +\alpha )`$ is simple and model independent. Since the stripping in the degrader is small, the measurement is sensitive to the initial sticking, while the stripping itself process can be systematically studied by varying the degrader thickness. Thus experimental separation of initial sticking and stripping will become possible for the first time. The use of very thin ($`<`$ few $`\mu `$m) source layer is essential for minimizing the peak broadening in order to achieve good energy separation of the $`\mu \alpha `$ and $`\alpha `$. The expected precision of $``$5% in initial sticking is limited by the statistics.

## 5 Summary

The thin film methods have yielded unique results in the studies of muonic atoms and muon catalyzed fusion, and offer opportunities for more new experiments. These measurements, because of their thin targets, could further benefit from the advent of high intensity, high quality muon sources.

## Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by Canada’s NSERC. MCF acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada, Green College, Nortel, and JSPS.

## References


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

High redshift radio galaxies ($`z`$0.7, HzRG) show optical regions of ionized gas that extend across tens (sometimes hundreds) of kiloparsecs. These structures are aligned with the radio axis (McCarthy et al. macc87 (1987) , Chambers et al. chamb87 (1987)) and show very irregular and clumpy morphologies. The kinematics is extreme compared to the low redshift counterparts. Line widths (Ly$`\alpha `$ or \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727) as broad as FWHM$``$1000 km s-1 are often measured (McCarthy et al. macc96 (1996), Villar-Martín, Binette & Fosbury villar99 (1999), Baum & McCarthy baum00 (2000)) versus $``$300-400 km s-1 commonly observed at low redshift (e.g. Tadhunter et al. tad89 (1989)). Velocity dispersions range from several hundreds up to 1600 km s-1 and there are velocity shifts between different lines of up to $``$1000 km s-1 (Röttgering et al. rot97 (1997)). Baum & McCarthy (baum00 (2000)) showed that the transition from predominantly quiescent systems to those with extreme motions occurs near $`z`$0.6.

While at low redshift the kinematics of the extended gas in radio galaxies is generally explained in terms of gravitational motions, the mechanism responsible for the extreme motions at higher redshifts is not well understood. The apparent connection between the size of the radio source and the emission line kinematics observed at $`z`$2 (van Ojik et al. ojik97 (1997)) suggests interactions between the radio and optical structures that perturb the kinematics. This is supported by the discovery in some HzRG of haloes of ionized gas extending beyond the radio structures that emit narrow Ly$`\alpha `$ ($``$ 250 km s-1) compared to the inner regions ($``$1200 km s-1) (van Ojik et al. ojik96 (1996)).

Baum & McCarthy (baum00 (2000)) studied a much larger sample covering a wider range in redshift. They find no (or very weak) correlation between the emission line kinematics and the ratio of the radio to nebular size. The authors support a gravitational origin for the kinematics of HzRG. Bipolar outflows (possible consequence of a circumnuclear starburst) have also been proposed by some authors (e.g. Chambers cham98 (1998), Taniguchi & Shioya tan00 (2000)).

Understanding the nature of the kinematics in HzRG will help to answer some open questions related to these galaxies:

* What is the nature of the alignment effect? Scattered light from the hidden AGN is an important contributor (e.g. Cimatti et al. cim97 (1997),cim98 (1998), Fosbury et al. fos99 (1999)). However, the likely influence of radio jet/gas interactions is still not understood.
* The ionization processes in the extended gas of HzRG is clearly related to the nuclear activity, but what is the main mechanism: jet driven shocks or AGN illumination?
* How does the radio source interact with its environment and how does it influence the subsequent evolution of the system?
* Are very distant radio galaxies ($`z`$2) in proto clusters?

To date, the kinematic studies of the gas in HzRG have been done in the optical. The main limitation has been the need for a large collecting area to detect the emission lines with high signal/noise ratio (S/N) in the extended gas. With 3-4m telescopes, only \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727 ($`z<`$1.2) or Ly$`\alpha `$ ($`z`$2) could be used. At ($`z`$2) the uncertainties are important, since Ly$`\alpha `$ is highly sensitive to dust/neutral gas absorption. The strong optical (rest frame) emission lines (\[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007,4959, \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727) are more reliable. However, they are redshifted into the NIR and the need for a large collecting area has constrained the NIR spectroscopic studies of HzRG (and quasars) to the spatially integrated properties (e.g. Jackson & Rawlings jack97 (1997), McIntosh et al. mcin99 (1999), Larkin et al. lar00 (2000))

This is the epoch of the 8-10 meter telescope generation. We are in the position for the first time to study the kinematics of the extended gas in HzRG:

* using UV rest frame lines (redshifted into the optical) other than Ly$`\alpha `$ such as HeII, CIV or CIII\] (see Fig. 1).
* using the optical rest frame lines such us \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007,4949, H$`\alpha `$, etc (redshifted into the NIR). The development of NIR arrays (and large collecting areas) makes this study possible for the first time.

In spite of the opportunities opened by the new technological facilities, the study of the kinematic properties of HzRG is still complex. The goal of this paper is to assess the main sources of uncertainty and provide solutions to solve them.

## 2 The data

We present for illustrative purposes spectra of several high redshift radio galaxies ($`z`$2.5) obtained with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRISp, Oke et al. oke95 (1995)) at the Keck II telescope. Detailed description of the observing runs and data reduction will be presented in Vernet et al. (2001, in prep.).

## 3 Uncertainties on interpreting the kinematic properties of the extended gas in HzRG

The strongest lines in the optical (observed) spectra of HzRG are Ly$`\alpha `$, CIV$`\lambda `$1550, HeII$`\lambda `$1640 and CIII\]$`\lambda `$1909, while \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727, \[OIII\] $`\lambda \lambda `$5007,4959, H$`\alpha `$ dominate in the NIR. There are some physical effects that might make the interpretation of the line profiles and velocity shifts uncertain.

\- Presence of multiple kinematic components

\- Broad scattered lines

\- Resonant scattering of Ly$`\alpha `$ and (maybe) CIV photons

### 3.1 Multiple kinematic components

We mentioned in §1 that the interaction between the radio jet and the ambient gas could be responsible for the extreme motions in HzRG. Other authors favour a gravitational origin for the kinematics of the gas. One interpretation or another has important consequences: if the velocity fields reflect the gravitational potential, the derived dynamical mass turns out to be correlated with redshift and/or radio power (Baum & McCarthy baum00 (2000)). As the authors pointed out, this result is not valid if shocks are responsible for the kinematics.

Villar-Martín et al. (villar99b (1999)) carried out a detailed spectroscopic study of the intermediate redshift radio galaxy PKS2250-51 ($`z=`$0.31) where a strong interaction between the radio and optical structures occurs. The authors resolved two main kinematic components, spatially extended and detected in all optical (rest frame) emission lines. One of the components is narrow ($``$150-200 km s-1), the line ratios are consistent with photoionization and it extends beyond the radio structures. The other component is broad (FWHM as large as 900 km s-1 at some spatial positions), the line ratios are consistent with shock ionization and it is emitted inside the radio structures. The properties of the narrow component suggest that it is emitted by ambient photoionized gas that has not been perturbed, while the properties of the broad component are consistent with shocked gas.

A similar spectroscopic study could prove or disprove shocks as responsible for the kinematics in HzRG. The studies done so far have been based on the emission line kinematics along the radio axis and they have not provided a definitive answer. We propose that the joint study of the line kinematics (with spectral decomposition of the line profiles) and the line ratios may give the answer. If shocks perturb the kinematics in HzRG, then we should expect similar components and with similar flux ratios as those observed in PKS2250-41. With 2D spectrographs it will be possible to extend the kinematic studies to regions far from the radio axis, where the interactions are expected to be non existent. The detection of broad lines far from the radio axis would confirm that jet/cloud interactions are not responsible for the extreme motions.

The spectral resolution we use is crucial to be able to isolate different kinematic components in the extended gas. A velocity resolution of $``$250 km s-1 ($`R=\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$1200) would be ideal since it will allow an accurate decomposition of the emission line profiles. The instrumental profile (IP) is in this case well matched with the expected FWHM of the non perturbed gas (so that we avoid unnecessary instrumental broadening), such as the diffuse haloes extending beyond the radio structures. The study of such haloes can be very useful, since they show the gas properties before any perturbation. With the new 1024$`\times `$1024 NIR arrays it should be possible to cover the interesting spectral range (HeII$`\lambda `$4686 to \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007) for a good number of objects.

#### 3.1.1 Apparent rotation curves

The presence of several kinematic components can lead us to derive false rotation curves.

Fig. 2 shows two examples of HzRG where the emission lines show a resemblance with rotation curves (see also Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 in Villar-Martín, Binette & Fosbury villar99 (1999)). This could be an exciting evidence for merger events (e.g. Hernquist her93 (1993)). However, the apparent rotation is an artifact, consequence of the presence of at least two kinematic components. To illustrate this, we have used the spectrum of the radio galaxy B3 0731+438 (Fig. 1). We have extracted 1-D spectra from those spatial pixels where the abrupt jump in the apparent rotation curve occurs. Fig. 3 shows the Ly$`\alpha `$ spectral profile at each pixel. The profile changes dramatically due to the presence of at least two kinematic components that contribute with different relative intensity at different pixels. Fig. 1 shows clearly the two main components. The fact that they are apparent also in HeII proves that it is not an effect of resonant scattering of Ly$`\alpha `$ and CIV. This makes the Ly$`\alpha `$ velocity centroid change in space, giving the appearance of a rotation curve. If we isolate the two components at every spatial position the rotation curve disappears (see Fig. 4). 111Misleading velocity curves can also be a result of instrumental effects. If the seeing disc is noticeably smaller than the slit width and our object is clumpy (which is the case of HzRG) the clumps occupy different spatial positions in the direction perpendicular to the slit. The centroid of the emission lines will be shifted in the spectral direction. Another negative effect is that the sky or arc lines may not represent the true instrumental profile and therefore we need to derive it from the seeing value or, better, from a point source along the slit.

### 3.2 Broad scattered lines

Many HzRG are highly polarized in the optical due to the scattering of nuclear emission (both continuum and emission lines from the broad line region) by (probably) dust in the extended gas (e.g. Cimatti et al. cim97 (1997),cim98 (1998), Fosbury et al. fos99 (1999)). The radiation from the extended gas is therefore a mixture of direct and scattered light. Can the scattered broad lines affect our conclusions on the kinematic studies if neglected?

As an example we present the spectrum of TXS0211-122 ($`z=`$2.34), one of the most highly polarized (P$``$20% longward Ly$`\alpha `$) radio galaxies at high redshift. We have analysed the profile of CIV, which is efficiently emitted in the broad line region and therefore is subject to scattering. Fig. 5 shows the spectrum in the region of CIV. There is an underlying broad component with FWHM$``$4000 km s-1. Similar FWHM are often observed in high redshift quasars suggesting that it is scattered light.

The fit shows that the CIV line profile is not seriously affected by the underlying broad component due to the prominence of the ”narrow” emission. This is usually the case (also for Ly$`\alpha `$) and the studies that have found FWHM$``$1000 km s-1 in the extended gas of HzRG are not affected by the effects of scattered light (McCarthy et al. macc96 (1996), Villar-Martín, Binette & Fosbury villar99 (1999)). However, we cannot neglect this contribution when studying the line profiles in more detail (looking for different kinematic components, for instance); we would interpret the broad scattered components as due to extreme motions in the extended gas.

The best way to avoid any possible uncertainty on this issue is to compare with lines that are not emitted efficiently in the BLR (and, therefore, they are not scattered), such as HeII$`\lambda `$1640 (Foltz et al. foltz88 (1998), Heckman et al. heck91 (1991)) or optical forbidden lines such as \[OII\] and \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007,4959 (the \[OIII\] lines might have a minor contribution from scattered light, di Serego Alighieri et al. dise97 (1997)).

### 3.3 Resonant scattering of Ly$`\alpha `$ and CIV

Ly$`\alpha `$ and CIV$`\lambda `$1550 are resonant lines and intervening HI and CIV respectively can absorb the emission. Ly$`\alpha `$ is particularly sensitive to this effect. The discovery of absorption troughs in the profile of the line across the whole extension of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emitting gas in many HzRGs has proved that Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption is a common phenomenon (van Ojik et al. ojik97 (1997)) . CIV absorption troughs have aslo been observed (e.g. Binette et al. bin2000 (2000)). Van Ojik et al. found a correlation between the radio size and the occurrence of absorption, suggesting that in radio galaxies with large radio sources the effect is less worrying.

Absorption of Ly$`\alpha `$ photons can modify dramatically the profile of the line (van Ojik et al. ojik97 (1997)). Röttgering et al. (rot97 (1997)) concluded that the effects of associated H I absorption may be responsible for the shift of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line with respect to the high ionization lines in some objects. By using non resonant lines (HeII$`\lambda `$1640, forbidden lines) we will avoid this problem. The CIV doublet, although resonant, is less sensitive and more reliable than Ly$`\alpha `$. The use of high spectral resolution ($``$3 Å) can also help, since we will be able to resolve the absorption troughs (van Ojik et al. ojik97 (1997)).

### 3.4 The line doublets

The comparison between the FWHM of the emission lines provides information about the processes responsible for the line emission and the kinematics. The detection of different line velocity widths for different lines will lead us to the conclusion that different mechanisms are at work and/or there are regions of different physical conditions. As an example, some radio galaxies with radio/optical interactions show that low ionization lines are broader than high ionization lines (Clark et al. clark98 (1998)). This has been interpreted as a consequence of shocks: the shocked gas has lower ionization level and more perturbed kinematics than the non perturbed gas.

In this sense, care must be taken with the doublets (CIV$`\lambda `$1550, CIII\]$`\lambda `$1909 and \[OII\]$`\lambda `$3727). At high redshifts the separation between the two components is large (7 Å at $`z=`$2.5 and 10 Å at $`z=`$4) and the doublet as a whole can show a profile apparently broader than single lines. This will be the case when the lines are similar in (observed) width or narrower than the doublet separation. If the lines are much broader the two components will be severely blended, whatever the resolution we use and the broadening will not be important. This should often be the case since gas motions can produce lines of intrinsic FWHM $``$20 Å at $`z=2.5`$..

## 4 Optical vs. near infrared

The NIR spectral range offers some advantages compared to the optical. The lines (optical rest frame) are less affected by dust extinction. Moreover, we can use the same lines that have provided most of the information about low redshift objects. The comparison is therefore easier and more reliable than comparing the UV rest frame at high redshift with the optical rest frame at low redshift. We can also use the diagnostic tools developed for low redshift objects to investigate the physical conditions and ionization state of the extended gas. Such diagnostic techniques are reasonably well understood, contrary to what happens in the UV rest frame.

The main problems we may find when observing in the NIR are due to the effects of the atmosphere and the thermal emission from the telescope. Due to atmospheric absorption some redshifts are forbidden to study certain emission lines (see Fig. 6).

On the other hand, HzRG are very faint sources and the OH bands (dominant source of sky emission in the NIR) are bright and variable compared to them so that in same cases it will be impossible to obtain enough S/N on the line of interest. Since the FWHM of the object lines is large (e.g. \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007$``$40-50 Å at $`z=`$2.5), the contamination will often be important independently of the spectral resolution we use, unless we work with emission lines that lie far from strong sky lines. This puts constrains on the object redshifts. At longer wavelengths ($``$2.2 $`\mu `$m) the limitations are due to thermal background.

## 5 Summary and conclusions

We have discussed the possible uncertainties and proposed solutions for the interpretation of the kinematics of the extended gas in HzRG using the optical (UV rest frame) and NIR (optical rest frame) emission lines.

* The spectral decomposition of the emission lines will show multiple components. By studying the kinematic, flux and spatial properties of the individual components we can disentangle the mechanisms responsible for the extreme motions.
* The presence of several kinematic components (or absorption in the case of Ly$`\alpha `$) may produce apparent rotation curves.
* Ly$`\alpha `$ aborption by neutral gas/dust can change dramatically the emission line profiles. CIV$`\lambda `$1550 is also resonant, but less sensitive. The detection of non resonant lines with good S/N is important to understand the effects of resonant scattering.
* When scattered broad lines are present, they do not affect the emission line profiles of the brightest lines. However, they must be taken into account when studying different kinematic components, otherwise high velocity motions in the extended gas could be inferred. HeII$`\lambda `$1640 and the forbidden optical lines can help to determine the contribution of scattered light.
* The doublets (CIV, CIII\], \[OII\]) are noticeably broader than simple lines (like HeII) when the gas motions have dispersion velocities similar to the separation between the doublet components.
* NIR observations are better suited for kinematic studies of HzRG since they map optical rest frame lines that are less sensitive to dust and the effects mentioned above. An additional advantage is that this spectral range allows the comparison with studies at low redshift so that we can use powerful diagnostics tools developed for nearby objects. However, the atmosphere sets limitations to this type of observations.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors thank the members of the ‘z2p5’ collaboration A. Cimatti, M. Cohen, B. Fosbury and B. Goodrich for the data presented in this paper for illustrative purposes. We thank Phil Lucas for useful discussions and Callum McCormick for providing Figure 6.