text:
# A Deep H𝛼 Survey of Galaxies in the Two Nearby Clusters Abell 1367 and Coma

## 1 Introduction

The strong morphology segregation observed in rich clusters of galaxies (Dressler, 1980) testifies the fundamental role played by the environment on the evolution of galaxies. Which physical mechanisms are responsible for such transformations is however still matter of debate. Several processes might alter the evolution of cluster galaxies. Some of them refer to the interaction of the galaxies with the intracluster medium (Gunn & Gott, 1972) and others account for the effects of gravitational interactions produced by the gravitational potential of the cluster (Merritt, 1983) or by galaxy-galaxy interactions (Moore et al. 1996, 1998, 1999). All these mechanisms can produce strong perturbations in the galaxy morphology with the formation of tidal tails, dynamical disturbances which appear as asymmetries in the rotation curves (Dale et al. 2001) and significant gas removal (Giovanelli & Haynes 1985; Valluri & Jog 1990).

Some of these processes are expected to produce changes in the star formation rates of galaxies in clusters. Several studies have addressed the issue of the influence of the cluster environment on the SFR of disk galaxies, however no agreement has been established so far: whereas some authors proposed similar or even enhanced star formation in cluster spirals than in the field (Donas et al. 1990, 1995; Moss & Whittle 1993, Gavazzi & Contursi 1994; Moss et al. 1998; Gavazzi et al. 1998; Moss & Whittle 2000), some others claim quenched SFRs in cluster spirals (Kennicutt 1983; Balogh et al. 1998; Hashimoto et al. 1998). This discrepancy could arise from non-uniformity of the adopted methods (UV vs. H$`\alpha `$ vs. \[Oii\] data) or from real differences in the studied clusters (Virgo, Coma, Abell 1367, clusters from Las Campanas Redshift Survey, clusters at $`z>0.18`$).

In particular, an enhanced fraction of spirals with circumnuclear H$`\alpha `$ emission was found in the highest density regions of some nearby clusters (Moss et al. 1998; Moss & Whittle 2000), whereas no such difference was found for galaxies with diffuse emission. The compact H$`\alpha `$ emission seems associated with ongoing interactions of galaxies, but numerical simulations by Bekki (1999) showed that mergers between clusters and subclusters might produce central starbursts in cluster spirals.

Existing studies of the H$`\alpha `$ properties of galaxies in clusters suffer from various biases: the photoelectric data by Kennicutt et al. (1984) and Gavazzi et al. (1991, 1998) are based on samples of galaxies selected on the basis of their optical properties, independent of their H$`\alpha `$ properties. On the other hand, the objective-prism surveys by Moss et al. (1988, 1998) and Moss & Whittle (2000) are H$`\alpha `$ selected but they are too shallow to allow a determination of the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function as deep as desired.
With the aim of obtaining a reliable determination of the current SFR in nearby clusters of galaxies and to study the spatial distribution of the star formation regions, we undertook a deep imaging survey of a one degree $`\times `$ one degree area of the Coma and Abell 1367 clusters.
Our work provides the first deep and complete study of galaxies in clusters based on their H$`\alpha `$ emission properties.

This paper is arranged as follows: Section 2 contains a description of the observations, of the data reduction and the detection procedures. The H$`\alpha `$ data are presented in Section 3. The H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function and a brief discussion on the contribution of both clusters to the local star formation rate density are presented in Section 4. Conclusions are presented in Section 5. Comments on the most interesting objects as well as the H$`\alpha `$ images of the detected galaxies are given in the Appendix.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

The observations were carried out with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) at the Prime Focus at the INT 2.5m telescope located at Observatorio de El Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma), on April 26th and 28th 2000, under photometric conditions. The average seeing ranged from 1.5 to 2 arcsecs during both nights. Given the mean velocity of the galaxies in the two clusters under study, $`6555\pm 684`$ km sec-1 and $`6990\pm 821`$ km sec-1 for Abell 1367 and Coma respectively111for Abell 1367, we use the average of the redshifts reported in this paper. (Fadda et al. 1996), the narrow-band \[Sii\] filter ($`\lambda _0=6725`$Å, $`\delta \lambda 80`$Å) was used to isolate the H$`\alpha `$ line and the $`r^{}`$ Sloan-Gunn broad-band filter ($`\lambda _0=6240`$Å, $`\delta \lambda 1347`$Å) to recover the continuum. Figure 1 shows the transmitance profiles of both filters. Given the width of the \[Sii\] filter, the \[Nii\]$`\lambda \lambda `$6548,6584Å lines are included in the high transmitance pass-band of this filter, so in what follows we will refer to the combined H$`\alpha `$ $`+`$ \[Nii\] flux and equivalent width, as H$`\alpha `$ flux and equivalent width respectively.

The WFC is composed by a science array of four thinned AR coated EEV 4K$`\times `$2K devices, plus a fifth acting as autoguider. The pixel scale is 0.333 arcsec pixel-1, giving a total field of view of about $`34\times 34`$ arcmin2. Given the arrangement of the detectors, a squared area of about $`11\times 11`$ arcmin2 is lost at the top right corner of the field. The top left corner of detector #3 is also lost because of filter vignetting.

Four fields near the center of each cluster were observed. Three different exposures, slightly dithered to remove cosmic rays, were obtained for each position in each filter, except for the second exposure of the Coma cluster where only one exposure per filter was obtained. Figure 2 shows our surveyed area. Our observations cover mainly the North-East region of the Coma cluster as described by Colless & Dunn (1996), coinciding with the central part of the Godwin catalog of the Coma cluster (Godwin et al. 1983). One of our fields of Abell 1367 (number 1 in Figure 2) is not covered by the Godwin catalog (Godwin & Peach 1982). For comparison the X-ray contour maps of the two clusters (White et al. (1993) for Coma, and Donnelly et al. (1998) for Abell 1367) are plotted in the figure. The galaxies detected in H$`\alpha `$ are marked with filled dots. The diary of the observations is presented in Table 1.

The data reduction was carried out using standard tools in the IRAF222Image Reduction and Analysis Facility, written and supported at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory environment. The astrometric solution was found with the USNO333United States Naval Observatory catalog of stars. The accuracy of this solution was found to be better than 3 arcsecs throughout the frames. Several exposures of standard spectrophotometric stars were taken during both nights. The chip-to-chip differential responses were derived by direct comparison of the photometry measured for the objects, non-saturated stars and galaxies, present in the overlapping regions. Zero-points and extinction coefficients were derived from the calibration equations. Overall, our photometric uncertainty is less than 10%.

In order to properly subtract the continuum from the H$`\alpha `$ frames, we scaled the counts of the continuum frames until (unsaturated) stars and elliptical galaxies reached an average H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] equivalent width of 0 Å. The net H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] photometry of the selected galaxies was performed using the QPHOT command of the APPHOT package in IRAF. Aperture photometry was carried out, in both the ON-band and continuum frames, for each galaxy and subtracted to get the net H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] fluxes.

## 3 Object Selection

We made extensive use of the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED) to search for known galaxies in the area covered by the observations. We measured the H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] fluxes for all galaxies with known radial velocities, thus up to $`r^{}15.5`$ for Abell 1367 and $`r^{}16.5`$ for Coma.

The narrow band filter used did not cover the whole velocity interval of the clusters. In order to avoid large uncertainties in the determination of fluxes and equivalent widths, we measured only galaxies for which the filter transmitance was larger than 0.5.

Visual inspection of the net H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] frames allowed us to identify faint galaxies with non negligible net H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] emission. For these galaxies, there is no estimate of their velocities in NED. A population of faint galaxies ($`r^{}17.2`$) showed up, most of them belonging to Abell 1367. Their H$`\alpha +`$ \[Nii\] fluxes are low ($`15.53<\mathrm{log}F(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})<13.83`$ erg sec-1 cm-2) but their H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width is in the range $`9<EW(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})<418`$Å. The search was performed for all objects visible on the NET-frames, but, in order to avoid spurious detections, we considered only objects with $`F(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})/\sigma _{flux}>5`$ as reliable detections (see Column (9) of Tables 4 and 5 for the definition of $`\sigma _{flux}`$). Since for some of them, their redshift is unknown, both the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes and equivalent widths were computed assuming that their velocity coincides with the average velocity of the cluster444the transmitance peak of the filter is 0.85, and the transmitance for the H$`\alpha `$ lines at the averages velocities of both clusters corresponds to 0.82 and 0.76 for Coma and Abell 1367 respectively,555Contamination due the H$`\beta `$ or \[Oiii\] emission lines of background objects is not important. For some of these objects the redshift was measured and only less than 10% were found to be non members of the cluster.

In total 41 and 22 H$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies were detected in Abell 1367 and Coma respectively. These are listed in Tables 4 and 5, arranged as follows:

* Col (1): Galaxy designation.
* Col (2): CGCG name (Zwicky et al, 1961-1968).
* Col (3): Other source designation.
* Col (4, 5): Celestial coordinates (J2000).
* Col (6): Radial velocity in km sec-1. Galaxies flagged with $``$ are those detected in H$`\alpha `$ but with unknown redshift. For these objects, the mean velocity of the cluster was adopted. Galaxies flagged with $``$ are those for which a spectroscopic follow-up was carried out in order to measure their redshifts (Gavazzi et al 2002, in prep).
* Col (7): Magnitude in the $`r^{}`$ band.
* Col (8): Log of the H$`\alpha +`$\[Nii\] flux, in erg sec-1 cm-2.
* Col (9): Error ($`\sigma _{flux}`$) of the H$`\alpha +`$\[Nii\] flux. The uncertainty includes three contributions: the Poisson photon counts error, the uncertainty on the background and the photometric uncertainty, which is assumed as 10% of the net flux. These errors were determined separately on the ON and OFF-band frames, and combined using the standard error propagation.
* Col (10): H$`\alpha +`$\[Nii\] equivalent width in Å.
* Col (11): Error in the H$`\alpha +`$\[Nii\] equivalent width, computed similarly to $`\sigma _{flux}`$ (Column (9)) except that the error on the absolute flux scale does not affect the equivalent width.

Figure 3 shows the histograms of H$`\alpha `$ fluxes and equivalent widths of the emitting galaxies.

In order to check the quality of the photometry, we compared our fluxes and equivalent widths with those taken from the literature (see Table 6). Figure 4 shows the plots of the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes and equivalent widths reported in other works $`vs`$ ours. The linear regressions found for both plots are the following:

$$\mathrm{log}F(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})_{thiswork}=$$

$$0.34(\pm 0.91)+1.03(\pm 0.07)\times \mathrm{log}F(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})_{literature}$$
(1)
$$\mathrm{log}EW(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})_{thiswork}=$$

$$0.24(\pm 0.11)+0.85(\pm 0.07)\times \mathrm{log}EW(\text{H}\alpha +\text{[N}\text{ii}\text{]})_{literature}$$
(2)
Both plots show a discordant point, which corresponds with galaxy CGCG 097-114. This galaxy was measured by Kennicutt et al. (1984), Moss et al. (1988), Moss et al. (1998) and Gavazzi et al. (1998). There is agreement in the flux between our data and that of Kennicutt et al. (1984) but not in the equivalent width. The measurements by Moss et al. (1988, 1998) are consistent with each other, but not with other sources. The equivalent width by Gavazzi et al. (1998) is fairly consistent with ours.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 The H$`\alpha `$ Luminosity Function

The H$`\alpha `$ luminosity functions were computed separately for the two clusters under study from the measured fluxes. $`H_0=50`$ km sec-1 Mpc-1 is assumed to allow a direct comparison with Gallego et al. (1995).

H$`\alpha `$ fluxes were corrected for \[Nii\] contamination and dust extinction. The first correction is the one proposed by Gavazzi et al. (2002, in prep.), based on the relationship found between the $`H`$ band luminosities and the \[Nii\]/H$`\alpha `$ ratio. After a empirical relationship between the $`H`$ and $`r^{}`$ magnitudes for the galaxies in common in both samples the correction was finally given by:

$$\mathrm{log}[\text{N}\text{ii}]/\text{H}\alpha =1.260.19\times r^{}+0.70\times \mathrm{log}D$$
(3)
$`D`$ being the distance of the galaxies in Mpc.

The morphological type dependent dust extinction correction was taken from Boselli et al. (2001). For galaxies with known morphological type (from NED or other sources), the correction was taken to be

$$\begin{array}{cc}A(\text{H}\alpha )=\hfill & \text{1.1 mag, for type Scd or earlier}\hfill \\ & \text{0.6 mag, for type Sd or later}\hfill \end{array}$$

For unclassified galaxies we adopted $`M_B=18.25`$ as the statistical limiting magnitude for galaxy types intermediate between Scd and Sd, from Sandage et al. (1985).

The contribution of active nuclei to the H$`\alpha `$ detections is negligible because no relevant point-like nuclear features were detected in the H$`\alpha `$ frames.

In order to normalize the luminosity function to a proper volume, angular radii of 3 and 4 degrees were assumed for Abell 1367 and Coma respectively (Gavazzi et al. 1995), corresponding to linear sizes of 4.6 and 6.5 Mpc. The clusters were assumed spherically symmetric, thus the surveyed volume corresponds to the intersection between the solid angle covered by our observations and the sphere containing the clusters.

A statistical correction was applied to account for the incomplete velocity coverage of the adopted \[Sii\] filter. Figure 5 shows the flux distribution of galaxies with known redshift $`versus`$ their radial velocities. The dashed line represents the gaussian distributions of velocities described in Section 2. The shaded regions correspond to the velocity ranges excluded from the filter transmitance window for each cluster. We estimate that about 20% of the velocity distribution for Abell 1367 and 11% for Coma are not within the transmitance window of the narrow band filter. We also corrected in a consistent way the effects of the velocity distribution of the H$`\alpha `$ emitting galaxies with unknown redshift. The correction was performed as follows: first, we randomly distributed the velocities of these galaxies following the gaussian probability density function with mean velocities and dispersions as described in Section 2. New H$`\alpha `$ fluxes were derived for these galaxies, according to the values of the transmitance of the \[Sii\] filter, for the randomly chosen velocities. If the assigned velocity of any of these galaxies gave a transmitance $`<`$50%, the object was discarded. The final correction was performed by assuming that the relationship, if any, between the radial velocities of the galaxies and the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes should be symmetric with respect to the mean velocity of the cluster. We repeated this procedure ten times in order to estimate the statistical uncertainties induced by this effect on the luminosity function. Thus, H$`\alpha `$ luminosity functions were computed with ten different flux distributions for each cluster.

The functional form assumed for the LF is the Schechter (1976) function:

$$\varphi (L)dL=\varphi ^{}(L/L^{})^\alpha \text{exp}(L/L^{})d(L/L^{})$$
(4)
The size of the bins was taken to be $`\delta \mathrm{log}L=1.0`$ in order to minimize the statistical errors. Table 2 shows the number counts per luminosity interval for both clusters, averaged over the different random distributions of velocities for the galaxies with unknown redshift.

Table 3 lists the obtained best fitting Schechter parameters of the upper and lower envelopes for each cluster, as well as the parameters for the average LFs finally adopted.

The upper and lower envelope H$`\alpha `$ LFs of the two clusters are given in Figure 6. Shaded regions between the envelopes show the range of uncertainty of the H$`\alpha `$ LF for each cluster. The points correspond to the mean values listed in Table 2, and the error bars show their typical poissonian uncertainties. As reference, we plot the H$`\alpha `$ LFs of field galaxies obtained by Gallego et al. (1995), Tresse & Maddox (1998) and Sullivan et al. (2000). The lines are truncated at the completeness limits of each sample.

Disregarding non-completeness effects, which should only affect our lowest luminosity bins, the LFs of the two clusters are in fair agreement. The apparent difference with the field LFs is mainly in the normalization since the density of galaxies is several orders of magnitude larger in clusters than in the field. Beside the normalization, the shape of the cluster LFs appears steeper at the bright end and flatter at the faint end. The former derives from undersampling at high luminosity (due to small volume coverage in the two clusters we do not detect any object with $`F(H\alpha )10^{42}`$ erg sec-1 as opposed to Gallego et al. 1996).

The slope of the fitted LFs appear different among clusters and field at the faint end. However the data points, within the completeness limits of each survey, appear in full agreement among each other, as shown in Fig. 7.

In this Figure we scaled the cluster LFs in such a way that they match the field LF at $`\mathrm{log}L(\text{H}\alpha )41`$ erg sec-1. Above $`\mathrm{log}L(\text{H}\alpha )40`$ erg sec-1, where all the samples are complete, there is consistency between the field and the cluster datasets. Nothing can be said for fainter luminosities because the field samples are incomplete or present rather poor statistics, opposite to the present cluster survey which is complete to $`\mathrm{log}L(\text{H}\alpha )39`$ erg sec-1. Deeper H$`\alpha `$ surveys of the field are necessary to assess if the differences at the faint luminosity end are significant.

### 4.2 The Virgo Cluster

It is instructive to compare the H$`\alpha `$ LF of A1367 and Coma with that of the Virgo cluster. Given its large angular size, performing a complete H$`\alpha `$ survey of this cluster would be prohibitive. However H$`\alpha `$ observations of most of the brightest galaxies (230 objects brighter than B=16 mag) are available (Boselli & Gavazzi 2002; Gavazzi et al. 2002). Using these data we construct a ”pseudo” H$`\alpha `$ LF by transforming the B band LF into an H$`\alpha `$ one after having shown that H$`\alpha `$ luminosity and $`M_B`$ are found proportional one-another.

Figure 8 shows the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity $`vs`$ the absolute $`M_B`$ magnitude relationship. Distances are estimated according to the Virgo cluster group membership, as defined in Gavazzi & Boselli (1999). The best fit to the data gives a slope of 0.37, consistent with 0.40 (i.e. a slope of 1 in a luminosity-luminosity plot). For simplicity we adopted this last value, because it allows to transform the observed B band Schechter function into an H$`\alpha `$ LF of the same functional form. Therefore we adopt:

$$\mathrm{log}L(\text{H}\alpha )=0.40\times M_B+33.12$$
(5)
Combining this relationship with the $`B`$ band luminosity function for spirals and irregulars in the Virgo core obtained by Sandage et al. (1985) we obtain an H$`\alpha `$ LF:

$$\varphi ^{}(L)=1.07\times (L/10^{41.2})^{0.8}\text{exp}[(L/10^{41.2})]$$
(6)
Figure 9 shows the Virgo H$`\alpha `$ LF together with the ones obtained for Abell 1367 and Coma. The shaded region reflects the scatter in the relationship between H$`\alpha `$ luminosities and $`M_B`$ found in Virgo. The shape of the Virgo LF appears consistent with that of Abell 1367 and Coma, despite the different nature of the three clusters, Virgo being unrelaxed and spiral rich, Abell 1367 relaxed and spiral rich, and Coma relaxed and spiral poor.

### 4.3 Star Formation Rates in Clusters

The total star formation rate per unit volume for clusters is derived by integrating the best fitting Schechter functions over the whole range of luminosities. To be consistent with Gallego et al. (1995), we convert the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities to star formation per unit time using:

$$L(\text{H}\alpha )=9.40\times 10^{40}\frac{\text{SFR}}{M_{}\text{yr}^1}\text{erg sec}^1$$
(7)
Total integrated SFRs of 2.20 and 1.36 $`M_{}`$ yr-1 Mpc-3 are obtained for Abell 1367 and Coma respectively, i.e. more than two orders of magnitude higher than the value of 0.013 $`M_{}`$ yr-1 Mpc-3 reported for the local Universe by Gallego et al. (1995).

The estimate of the contribution of the clusters to the total SFR per unit volume of the local Universe, is obtained by taking into account the local spatial density of clusters. For Abell type 2 clusters, like Abell 1367 and Coma, this value was reported to be $`1.84\times 10^5`$ Mpc-3 (Bramel et al. 2000), although this number is affected by large uncertainties. We conclude that the typical contribution of Abell type 2 clusters to the SFR per unit volume is about $`3.3\times 10^5`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1, that is 0.25% of the total SFR in the local Universe.

Similarly, by integrating the Virgo H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function, we obtain a total H$`\alpha `$ luminosity density of $`1.56\times 10^{41}`$ erg sec-1 Mpc-3, which gives a SFR of 1.65 $`M_{}`$ yr-1 Mpc-3. Taking into account that the Virgo cluster is classified as Abell type 1 (Struble & Rood 1982), and assuming the spatial density for clusters of this type (Bramel et al. 2000) of $`8.46\times 10^4`$ Mpc-3, we obtain that the contribution of type 1 clusters is $`1.40\times 10^3`$ $`M_{}`$ yr-1 Mpc-3, corresponding to 10.8% of the total SFR density in the local Universe.

## 5 Conclusions

We have carried out an H$`\alpha `$ imaging survey of the central 1 deg2 of the nearby clusters Abell 1367 and Coma. Significant H$`\alpha `$ emission is found associated with 41 galaxies in Abell 1367 and 22 in Coma. These data are used to estimate, for the first time, the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function of 2 nearby clusters of galaxies. These LFs are found consistent with the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity function derived for the Virgo cluster, despite their different nature. The typical Schechter parameters: $`\varphi ^{}10^{0.00\pm 0.07}`$ Mpc-3, $`L^{}10^{41.25\pm 0.05}`$ erg sec-1 and $`\alpha 0.70\pm 0.10`$ are obtained.

The best fitting parameters of the cluster LFs are significantly different from those found for field galaxies, in particular at the faint end where the cluster slope is shallower than the extrapolated slope of the field LF. However it must be stressed that the steep slope found in the field is based on relatively high luminosity points and no data are available below $`\mathrm{log}L(\text{H}\alpha )40`$ erg sec-1 i.e. where the cluster LFs begin to flatten out. After re-normalizing the cluster data on the field ones, the two sets of data points are found consistent within the completeness limit of the field samples. Until a deeper field LF will be available it is impossible to establish whether the apparent underabundance of low luminosity objects in clusters is a real evolutionary effect or it is an artifact due to incompleteness.

By computing the total SFR per unit volume of the cluster galaxies, and taking into account the cluster density in the local Universe, we estimate that the contribution of type 2 and type 1 clusters is about 0.25% and 10.8% respectively of the SFR per unit volume of the local Universe.

###### Acknowledgements.

This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The INT is operated on the island of La Palma by the ING group, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

## Appendix A Comments on Individual Objects

The field around galaxies CGCG 97-114, CGCG 97-120 and CGCG 97-125 deserves special attention. Each one of them shows H$`\alpha `$ emission. However CGCG 97-120 is not listed in Table 4 because its radial velocity, 5595 km sec-1, (de Vaucouleurs, 1991) is out of the transmitance window of the on-band filter. Instead, CGCG 97-114 and CGCG 97-125 have very similar velocities lying in our filter range: 8293 km sec-1 (de Vaucouleurs, 1991) and 8271 km sec-1 (Haynes et al, 1997) respectively. If these galaxies form a sub-group within Abell 1367 ($`<V>=6500`$ km sec-1), this entity must have a very high velocity dispersion. The group coincides in position with the X-ray cluster center (Donnelly et al., 1998). CGCG 97-120 is a very Hi deficient galaxy (def(Hi) = 0.9, Chincarini et al., 1983), indicating that it has passed through the cluster center, while CGCG 97-125 is not (def(Hi) = $`0.21`$, Haynes et al., 1997). No Hi measurement is available for CGCG 97-114,because it lies close (in space and in velocity) to CGCG 97-125.

In between CGCG 97-120 and CGCG 97-125 we found two emission-line dwarf galaxies 114454+194733 and 114451+194713 (labeled as F.O. but not included in our list because its S/N ratio is lower than 5) (see Figure 11) which were already revealed by Sakai et al. (2001). For both galaxies a spectroscopic follow-up gave velocities about 8100 km sec-1, consistent with those of CGCG 97-114 and CGCG 97-125, indicating that they are probably associated with these galaxies.

In addition, our net frame shows the presence of some H$`\alpha `$ emission bridging CGCG 97-114 and CGCG 97-125. Two bright H$`\alpha `$ knots are detected near CGCG 97-125 followed by a filamentary structure near the bright star between the two galaxies. This structure probably indicates a tidal interaction between the two galaxies, consistently with the shells of 1’ diameter seen in the off-band image around CGCG 97-125. In fact N-body simulations (Quinn, 1984; Seguin, 1996) confirm Schweizer (1980) suggestion that shells around early type galaxies result from galaxy collisions. It is not yet possible to decide whether 114454+194733 and F.O. are tidal dwarfs of CGCG 97-125 or patches of star-forming gas stripped from it.


format: text

text:
# Nonaxisymmetric Evolution of Magnetically Subcritical Clouds: Bar Growth, Core Elongation, and Binary Formation

## 1 Introduction

A basic framework has been developed for the formation of low-mass stars in relative isolation (Shu, Adams, & Lizano, 1987). It involves gradual condensation of dense cores from strongly magnetized, background molecular clouds through ambipolar diffusion, followed by dynamic core collapse to form stars. Quantitative studies based on this by now “standard” scenario have been carried out by many authors, with increasingly sophisticated input physics (Mouschovias & Ciolek, 1999). However, with few exceptions (Indebetouw & Zweibel, 2000; Boss, 2000), axisymmetry has been adopted. The adopted symmetry precludes a detailed investigation of cloud fragmentation, generally thought to be a necessary step in the formation of binary and multiple stellar systems; it is in such systems that most stars are found. We seek to improve this situation by removing the restriction of axisymmetry and systematically investigating the effects of the strong magnetic fields envisioned in the standard picture of single star formation on fragmentation and their implications on binary and multiple star formation.

Fragmentation of nonmagnetic clouds has been studied extensively over the years, mostly through numerical simulations (Bodenheimer et al., 2000, and references therein). In the canonical case of a spherical cloud, the fragmentation is mainly controlled by the ratios of the cloud thermal and rotational energy to the gravitational energy, $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$, although the distributions of density and angular momentum also play a role. Molecular line observations (Goodman et al., 1993) suggest that star-forming cores of molecular clouds are far from being rotationally supported, with a typical (low) value of $`\beta 0.02`$. For such slowly rotating cores, the criterion for fragmentation is roughly $`\alpha <0.5`$, if the cores are idealized as spheres of uniform density and rigid rotation (Tsuribe & Inutsuka, 1999). More realistic, centrally peaked density distributions would lower the critical $`\alpha `$ for fragmentation. Such distributions are commonly inferred in the well-observed starless cores such as L1544 (André, Ward-Thompson, & Barsony, 2000; Evans et al., 2001). The central concentration, if taken as an initial condition, tends to make fragmentation more difficult (Boss, 1993).

Fragmentation of strongly magnetized clouds with mass-to-flux ratios below the critical value $`(2\pi )^1G^{1/2}`$ (i.e., subcritical) is expected to be quite different (Galli et al., 2001). Through magnetic braking, the field controls the angular momentum evolution of the cloud, until a supercritical dense core forms (Basu & Mouschovias, 1994); it thus determines the value of $`\beta `$ of the core. More importantly, the field can provide most of the cloud support against self-gravity and thus allow a cloud to have an arbitrarily small thermal energy compared to the gravitational energy and still be in a mechanical equilibrium initially. The low value of $`\alpha `$ is a key ingredient of fragmentation. On the other hand, the presence of a strong magnetic field tends to stifle cloud fragmentation, if the field and matter are well coupled (Phillips, 1986). Indeed, for a frozen-in subcritical field, fragmentation is suppressed altogether (Nakano, 1988). Fragmentation can in principle resume in the part of cloud that has become magnetically supercritical (Boss, 2000), through ambipolar diffusion. It is however difficult to predict a priori how the fragmentation should proceed, if at all, in a cloud that is only partially coupled to a strong magnetic field.

Langer (1978) showed through linear analysis that, in a lightly ionized medium such as a molecular cloud, the Jeans instability is not completely inhibited no matter how strong the magnetic field is; rather, it grows on an ambipolar diffusion, rather than dynamic, timescale. Li (2001) followed the nonlinear evolution of a set of magnetically subcritical, super-Jeans mass clouds assuming axisymmetry and found that either a dense, supercritical core or ring forms as a result of ambipolar diffusion. The supercritical ring is expected to fragment readily into a number of dense cores, producing perhaps a small group of stars. The ring breakup will be studied elsewhere. In this Letter, we shall concentrate on the more subtle problem of the fragmentation of magnetized single cores, with an eye on forming binaries and multiple stellar systems. As is common with numerical studies of cloud fragmentation and binary formation, we focus on the growth of $`m=2`$ (or bar) mode (e.g., Nakamura & Hanawa, 1997; Bodenheimer et al., 2000). In § 2 we describe our formulation of the problem of nonaxisymmetric cloud evolution. Numerical results on bar formation are presented in § 3, and their implications on binary and multiple star formation as well as the observed elongation of dense cores are discussed in § 4.

## 2 Problem Formulation

An ordered, subcritical magnetic field allows cloud material to settle along field lines into a disk-like geometry. We assume that the disk is in hydrostatic equilibrium in the vertical direction, and adopt the thin-disk approximation (Li, 2001). The cloud evolution is followed in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane of a Cartesian coordinate system $`(x,y,z)`$. Outside the disk, the magnetic field is assumed to be current free and uniform far from the cloud. An isothermal equation of state is adopted (unless noted otherwise), so that the pressure and surface density are related through $`P=c_s^2\mathrm{\Sigma }`$, where $`c_s`$ is the (effective) isothermal sound speed. The governing equations are the nonaxisymmetric versions of equations (1) through (7) of Li (2001).

The initial conditions for star formation are not well determined either observationally or theoretically. Following Basu & Mouschovias (1994) we prescribe an axisymmetric reference state for our model clouds with the distributions of mass and magnetic field given by

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{ref}}(x,y)=\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}}}{\left[1+r^2/r_0^2\right]^{3/2}}\mathrm{and}B_{z,\mathrm{ref}}(x,y)=B_{z,\mathrm{}},$$
(1)
where $`r=(x^2+y^2)^{1/2}`$. The background field strength $`B_{z,\mathrm{}}`$ is characterized by the dimensionless flux-to-mass ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=B_{z,\mathrm{}}/[2\pi G^{1/2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}}]`$. The reference clouds are not in an equilibrium state and are allowed to evolve into one with magnetic field frozen-in, before ambipolar diffusion is turned on at time $`t=0`$. At $`t=0`$, we impose on top of the equilibrium surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_0(x,y)`$ an $`m=2`$ perturbation of relative amplitude $`A`$, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(x,y)=\mathrm{\Sigma }_0(x,y)[1+A\mathrm{cos}(2\varphi )]`$, where $`\varphi `$ is the azimuthal angle measured from the $`x`$-axis. A slow rotation is also added to the cloud at this time, according to the prescription

$$V_\varphi (x,y)=\frac{4\omega r}{r_0+\sqrt{r_0^2+r^2}}c_{ms},$$
(2)
where $`c_{ms}=c_s(1+\mathrm{\Gamma }_0^2)^{1/2}`$ is essentially the magnetosonic speed, and $`\omega `$ measures the rotation rate. The subsequent, ambipolar diffusion-driven evolution of the perturbed cloud is followed numerically, subject to the condition of fixed $`\rho `$ and $`B_z`$ at the cloud outer radius, taken to be twice the characteristic radius $`r_0`$. Other choices of the reference state will be explored elsewhere.

Our calculations are carried out using an MHD code based on that of Nakamura & Hanawa (1997). The hydrodynamic part is solved using Roe’s method. The equation for magnetic field evolution has a form identical to that for mass conservation, and is solved in the same manner. Both the magnetic and gravitational potentials satisfy the Poisson equation, and are solved using a convolution method (Hockney & Eastwood, 1981). We refine the computational grids whenever the so-called Jeans condition is about to be violated (Truelove et al., 1997), taking into account the magnetic effect on Jeans condition. The computations are carried out using nondimensional quantities. The units we adopted are $`c_s`$ for speed, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}}`$ for surface density, $`2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}}`$ for gravitational acceleration, and $`B_{z,\mathrm{}}`$ for magnetic field strength. The units for length and time are, respectively, $`L_0c_s^2/(2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$ and $`t_0c_s/(2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }_{0,\mathrm{ref}})`$.

## 3 Numerical Results

The results of our calculations are shown in two figures. In Figure 1, we show the evolution of a “benchmark” cloud with the dimensionless radius $`r_0=7.5\pi `$, initial flux-to-mass ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=1.5`$ and rotation rate $`\omega =0.1`$. The $`m=2`$ perturbation added has a relative amplitude of “merely” $`A=0.05`$. During the initial, quasi-static stage of evolution, a central core condenses gradually out of the magnetically subcritical cloud, with no apparent tendency for the mode to grow. Rather, the iso-density contours appear to oscillate, changing the direction of (slight) elongation along the $`x`$-axis in the disk plane to $`y`$-axis, as evident from panels (a) and (b). (We confirmed that the disk continues to oscillate around the equilibrium state in the absence of ambipolar diffusion.) The period of the oscillation is more or less independent of $`\omega `$ as long as $`\omega `$ is small. After a supercritical core develops, the contraction becomes dynamic, as seen from the velocity field in panel (c). By this time, the $`m=2`$ mode has grown significantly, resulting in a bar-like core at the center with an aspect ratio of roughly 2. As the collapse continues, the bar growth remains relatively modest \[panel (d)\] until the very end of the starless collapse, when the growth rate increases dramatically \[panel (e)\]. Beyond a critical dimensionless surface density of $`1.9\times 10^4`$, corresponding to a volume density of $`n_H=10^{12}`$ cm-3, we change the equation of state from isothermal to adiabatic, with an index of $`5/3`$, to mimic the transition to optically thick regime of cloud evolution. The density distribution and velocity field around the time when an accretion shock begins to develop are shown in panel (f). The bar bound by the shock is analogous to the “first” core of spherical calculations. It has an aspect ratio of about 13. This highly elongated “first” bar is expected to break up into two or more pieces, as discussed further in § 4.

To discuss the bar growth more quantitatively, we plot in Figure 2 the aspect ratio $`R`$ of the darkest region in Figure 1 (with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }10^{1/2}\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$) as a function of the central surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{max}}`$, together with the flux-to-mass ratio $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ at the cloud center. It is clear that the $`m=2`$ mode grows little when the entire cloud remains subcritical (i.e., $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>1`$), as one might expect intuitively. As the central region becomes more and more supercritical, the mode grows significantly, producing a bar of aspect ratio $`2`$. This ratio stays more or less “frozen” during the subsequent evolution, presumably due to the onset of rapid collapse, which leaves little time for the bar to grow. The flux-to-mass ratio does not change much either during this period, also as a result of the rapid collapse which prevents the magnetic flux from leaking out. The fairly strong trapped field (with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>0.5`$) further hinders the bar growth, which picks up speed only towards the end of collapse before forming a singularity, as a result of the Lin, Mestel, & Shu (1965) instability.

We have studied other models with different initial parameters in the range of $`1.25\mathrm{\Gamma }2`$, $`5\pi r_010\pi `$, $`0\omega 0.1`$, and $`0.05A0.1`$. We find that the bar grows more rapidly for a smaller $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0`$, larger $`r_0`$, larger $`\omega `$, or larger $`A`$. For example, if we choose $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_0=1.25`$, $`r_0=7.5\pi `$ (adopted by Ciolek & Basu (2000) for their axisymmetric model of the well-observed starless core L1544), $`\omega =0.1`$, and $`A=0.05`$, then the aspect ratio reaches 33 when the “first” bar forms, as shown in Figure 2. Interestingly, a plateau region is also evident, where the aspect ratio is temporarily “frozen” at $`R2`$, as in the benchmark model. We find that the frozen value of the aspect ratio depends weakly on the initial amplitude of perturbation, which may have observable consequences as we discuss below.

## 4 Discussion and Conclusion

We have followed numerically the growth of $`m=2`$ mode during the ambipolar-diffusion driven evolution of magnetically subcritical clouds. Our main conclusion is that, despite the presence of the strong magnetic field, a perturbation of modest amplitude can grow nonlinearly into a highly elongated bar, which is expected to fragment into small pieces gravitationally. Before discussing fragmentation, we comment on the effects of bar growth on the observed shapes of molecular cloud cores.

Dense cores of molecular clouds are intimately associated with star formation, with roughly half of them already harboring infrared sources (Beichman et al., 1986). The other half are thought to be well on their way to star formation, with the “starless” phase lasting for only a few dynamic times. The cores are observed to have significant elongation, with a typical aspect ratio of 2 (Myers et al., 1991). Statistics of core elongation have been interpreted as indicating most cores have prolate 3-dimensional shape (Ryden, 1996; Curry & Stahler, 2001), although oblate cores formed as a result of settling along magnetic field lines can have a projected aspect ratio similar to that observed (Li & Shu, 1996). Nonlinear growth of the bar mode in a direction perpendicular to the field lines modifies the core shape drastically, making it triaxial in general. Some evidence for the triaxial nature of cores has been marshalled by Basu (2000). We propose that it is due to the significant bar growth during the transition period when $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ decreases from $`1`$ to $`0.5`$, after the core has become supercritical (which makes bar growth possible) but before a rapid collapse sets in (which leaves little time for the bar to grow). The bar growth removes an oft-invoked objection against the standard scenario of ambipolar diffusion-driven core formation based on the elongated or filamentary shape of dense cores (Ward-Thompson, Motte & André, 1999). Indeed, the triaxial nature of the dense cores, coupled with the relatively slow, subsonic infall motion inferred (Lee, Myers & Taffala, 2001), may provide the strongest support yet for the standard scenario.

The continued evolution of bar-like cores, such as the one shown in Figure 1c, would formally lead to a singular filament, if the isothermal assumption is kept. However, it is well known that the equation of state stiffens when the optical depth exceeds unity (see however Masunaga & Inutsuka, 1999). The stiffening slows down the collapse, allowing more time for the elongated bar to fragment gravitationally into small pieces. In fact, the major axis of the bar exceeds twice the critical wavelength for fragmentation of an infinitely-long filament (Larson, 1985) in panels (e) and (f) of Figure 1. Such bar formation is also shown by Matsumoto & Hanawa (1999) and Sigalotti & Klapp (2001) for nonmagnetized clouds. Recent examples of (nonmagnetic) bar fragmentation induced by the stiffening of equation of state are given in Boss et al. (2000) and Sigalotti & Klapp (2001). For magnetized bars, one needs to consider in addition the rapid decoupling of magnetic field from matter, which occurs above a density of order $`10^{10}`$ cm-3 (Nishi, Nakano, & Umebayashi, 1991). The decoupling decreases the magnetic support quickly, and is in some sense equivalent to a sudden cooling. It should make the fragmentation easier.

Boss (2000) studied the fragmentation of 3D magnetic clouds numerically, treating the magnetic forces and ambipolar diffusion in an approximate way. He concluded that magnetic fields can enhance cloud fragmentation, by reducing the tendency for the development of a central singularity, which would make fragmentation more difficult. We also find that magnetic fields can promote fragmentation, but for a different reason. Strong magnetic fields can support clouds of more than one Jeans mass, which provides an initial condition that is conducive to fragmentation once the magnetic support weakens. We believe that it is the multi-Jeans mass nature of the magnetically subcritical clouds that drives the nonlinear growth of the bar (and higher order) mode. We conclude that the magnetically subcritical clouds envisoned in the standard scenario of star formation can produce not only single stars but also, perhaps even preferentially, binary and multiple star systems. A parameter survey will be carried out to firm up this conclusion.


text:
# WFCAM, UKIDSS, and z=7 quasars

## 1. Motivation

Over the past two years the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has had considerable success in searches for quasars of very high redshift $`\mathrm{z}>5`$ (e.g. Schneider, these proceedings). Currently the highest redshift recorded is $`\mathrm{z}=6.3`$ (Fan et al., 2001a). Perhaps the most important motivation for searching for sources at even higher redshifts is the possibility of detecting and studying the epoch of reionisation. Analysis of the optical depth blueward of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line in the spectrum of the $`\mathrm{z}=6.3`$ quasar indicates that we may be on the threshold of this event (Becker et al., 2001). The detection of quasars of higher redshift could probe the neutral IGM during or even before the epoch of reionisation. Although the optical depth in Ly$`\alpha `$ is too high to provide a useful measure of the neutral fraction in the IGM (e.g. Madau, these proceedings), other species, observable with NGST, might provide a measure. Also other probes of the IGM have been suggested (e.g. Loeb and Rybicki, 2000).

## 2. Higher redshifts than SDSS

The multicolour technique for finding high-redshift quasars exploits the break in the spectrum across Ly$`\alpha `$, caused by Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption. The highest redshift quasars in the SDSS are detected in an $`izJ`$ two-colour diagram. A quasar at $`\mathrm{z}6`$ is very red in $`iz`$, but blue in $`zJ`$ relative to other sources with the same $`iz`$ colours i.e. L and T dwarfs. The passbands and depths of the SDSS mean that the survey is unlikely to find any quasars beyond $`\mathrm{z}=6.5`$ because at these redshifts the quasars become too faint to be detected in the $`z`$ band, due to Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption (Fan et al. 2001a).

To reach higher redshifts it is natural to consider shifting the filter set to longer wavelengths, and using the combination $`zJH`$ or $`zJK`$. This does not work however, because the energy peak of cool stars lies in the near-infrared, so that quasars are no longer bluer than cool stars. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 which shows predicted colours of quasars in the redshift range $`5<\mathrm{z}<8`$. The quasars lie close to, or within the stellar locus, and do not emerge until $`zJ>3.2`$. This requires prohibitively deep observations in the $`z`$ band.

## 3. The UKIDSS Large Area Survey

The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS, www.ukidss.org) is the next generation near-infrared sky survey, the successor to 2MASS. The instrument is WFCAM, which is equipped with $`4\times 2048`$ arrays, giving 0.21 sq. degs coverage per exposure. UKIDSS will commence in 2003 and comprises five elements. One of these, the Large Area Survey (LAS), is a wide-field survey over 4000 sq. degs to $`K=18.4`$. This depth is three magnitudes deeper than 2MASS. The UKIDSS LAS will be the true near-infrared counterpart to the SDSS.

The problem in finding $`\mathrm{z}=7`$ quasars is that they have similar colours to brown dwarfs at near-infrared wavelengths. However by introducing a passband between $`z`$ and $`J`$ we can separate out the quasars. UKIDSS will use a filter called $`Y`$ covering the wavelength range $`0.971.07\mu \mathrm{m}`$ (some observers call this wavelength range $`z(ir)`$, but since there is no overlap with the SDSS $`z`$ band we prefer a distinct name). Fig. 2 compares the colours of high-redshift quasars $`5<\mathrm{z}<8`$, with the colours of stars and brown dwarfs. The quasars are well separated from the L and T dwarfs in the redshift range $`5.8<\mathrm{z}<7.2`$.

UKIDSS will use the SDSS data for the short-wavelength band. Either the $`i`$ or the $`z`$ band is equally effective, because the shorter lever arm of the $`zY`$ colour (better for detecting the spectral break) compensates for the greater depth of the $`i`$ band. The SDSS $`i`$ limit is 22.0 which means that using a selection limit $`iY>3`$, as shown in Fig. 2, UKIDSS can detect all quasars in the redshift range $`5.8<\mathrm{z}<7.2`$, and brighter than $`Y=19.0`$. Using the luminosity function of Fan et al. (2001b) we expect to detect about 10 quasars over this redshift range over 4000 sq. degs. These are the very brightest high-redshift quasars, and the most useful for follow-up spectroscopy. However larger numbers could be detected using deeper optical imaging, such as the proposed CFH Legacy Survey (www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Science/CFHLS/).

## References

Becker, R. H., Fan, X., White, R. L., et al., 2001, AJ, 122, 2850

Fan, X., Narayan, V. K., Lupton, R. H., et al., 2001a, AJ, 122, 2833

Fan, X., Strauss, M. A., Schneider, D. P., et al., 2001b AJ, 121, 54

Loeb, A., Rybicki, G. B. 1999, ApJ, 524, 527


text:
# LONG-TERM X-RAY VARIABILITIES OF THE SEYFERT GALAXY MCG-2-58-22 : SECULAR FLUX DECREASE AND FLARES

## 1 INTRODUCTION

X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) show that many of them are variable, over a range of amplitudes, and on many timescales (Lawrence et al. 1985; Grandi et al. 1992; Mushotzky, Done, & Pounds 1993; Nandra et al. 1997; Ulrich, Marachi, & Urry 1997; Ptak et al. 1998; Turner et al. 1999). Variability of the X-ray emission is a powerful probe of physical processes occurring in the inner regions of AGN. In particular, rapid variability is widely thought to be related to the central regions, and it has actually been used to constrain the physical properties of the central engine. For example, the short-time variability amplitudes of Seyfert 1 galaxies are known to be anti-correlated with the source luminosities (Barr & Mushotzky 1986; Nandra et al. 1997; Ptak et al. 1998). This correlation may reflect differences in the masses of the central supermassive black holes (SMBHs). In addition to the short-time variabilities, the study of long-time variabilities is also important since it may bring out other interesting information, such as the global structure of the accretion disk around the central SMBH, or episodic events such as flares and outbursts.

Detailed studies of the long-term X-ray light curves of AGN have begun only recently. Markowitz & Edelson (2001) analyzed 300-day light curves of Seyfert 1 galaxies in the 2$``$10 keV band. They showed that the X-ray variability of Seyfert 1 galaxies is described by a single, universal power-density spectrum (PDS), and that the cutoff moves to longer timescales for sources with higher luminosity. Soft X-ray outbursts, having an amplitude of about 2 orders of magnitude, were observed from NGC 5905 (Bade, Komossa, & Dahlem 1996) and Zwicky 159.034 (Brandt, Pounds, & Fink 1995). Various possible scenarios for such outbursts have been reviewed by Komossa & Bade (1999). However, long-term modulations in AGN light curves, which exceed several years, have mostly been studied in the optical range. For instance, Webb (1990) reported the results of 61 years of optical observations of 3C 120, and claimed the presence of three variability components: a sinusoidal component with a period of 12.43 years, a linear component, and high amplitude flares on much shorter timescales. Peterson et al. (1998) reported the spectroscopic monitoring of nine Seyfert 1 galaxies in the optical band, the aim of which was to determine the size of the broad line emission regions. In order to perform a similar analysis in the X-ray band, we need to collect all available datasets from the various X-ray satellites. Because the different instruments of the satellites have their own individual properties, and cover different energy ranges, careful analysis is required for such studies in the X-ray region.

In this paper, we study the long-term X-ray light curve of MCG-2-58-22, covering more than 20 years, and we discuss the potential origins of the long-term behaviors. In previous work, Choi et al. (2001) analyzed the Ginga, ROSAT, and ASCA data for this source, and noticed flare-like events. This motivated us to perform a thorough analysis of the long-term X-ray flux variations in this source. For this purpose, we have gathered X-ray flux measurements of MCG-2-58-22 from the literature, as well as raw X-ray data from the HEASARC public archives at NASA/GSFC, and from the SIRIUS database at ISAS. The observational data we gathered include those of HEAO-1 (Rothschild et al. 1979), Einstein (Giacconi et al. 1979), EXOSAT (Taylor et al. 1981), Ginga (Turner et al. 1989), ROSAT (Pfeffermann 1986), ASCA (Tanaka, Inoue, & Holt 1994), and RXTE (http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte).

MCG-2-58-22 is a luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy at $`z=0.04732\pm 0.0003`$ (e.g. Huchra et al. 1993). The X-ray luminosity of MCG-2-58-22, $`L_X10^{44}`$ erg s-1, is known to be variable on a timescale of a few times $`10^3`$ seconds to years (Grandi et al. 1992; Nandra & Pounds 1994; Choi et al. 2001). Many observational characteristics are typical of Seyfert 1 galaxies: time variability, a power-law type continuum spectrum, and a soft excess phenomenon (Ghosh & Soundararajaperumal 1992; Nandra & Pounds 1994; Weaver et al. 1995; Nandra et al. 1997; George et al. 1998; Turner et al. 1999). The mass of the putative central SMBH of MCG-2-58-22 is estimated from the UV and optical observations to be a few times $`10^8`$ M (e.g., Padovani & Rafanelli 1988; Wandel 1991). MCG-2-58-22 has also been studied in other wavelength bands. Mundell et al. (2000) observed MCG-2-58-22 using the VLBA at 8.4 GHz, and detected the nuclear radio source, which was without any extended structures, in the parsec-scale image; this suggests that the VLBA radio source could be a “bare” Seyfert 1 nucleus (see also Weaver et al. 1995). In the optical region, this source has displayed a continuum variation on a timescale of $`1`$ year (de Ruiter & Lub 1986; Whittle 1992), as well as a very wide variability in the Balmer line profiles and luminosities (see, e.g., Winkler et al. 1992, and references therein).

## 2 DATA ANALYSIS AND LIGHT CURVE

### 2.1 Data Analysis and Flux Calibration

To make a long-term X-ray light curve, flux data for MCG-2-58-22 have been taken from the literature; the references are listed in Table 1. Since the instruments onboard various observatories span different energy ranges, we convert the fluxes to the corresponding values in the 2$``$10 keV band, which is covered by most of the instruments. Having surveyed the reported flux data, we further collected and analyzed the archival data of MCG-2-58-22 from the HEASARC public archives (e.g., the EXOSAT data of 1983 November to 1984 November, the ROSAT data of 1990 November through 1993 December, the ASCA data of 1993 May through 1997 December, and the RXTE data of 1997 December through 1999 November), and from the SIRIUS database at ISAS in Japan (the Ginga data of 1991 June).

In the analysis of these observations, we apply the standard screening criteria to the raw data, e.g., the rejection of possibly contaminated data from the bright Earth, and also from regions of high particle background, etc. Then, we calculated the X-ray fluxes in the 2$``$10 keV band through a spectral fit to the screened data, and we list these fluxes in Table 1. In the spectral fit, we assumed a power-law model with a photon index of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.75`$, and a hydrogen equivalent absorption column density of $`N_H=3.5\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 (see, e.g., Weaver et al. 1995; Piro, Matt, & Ricci 1997). Until now, various authors have used different models for the energy spectra. Therefore, even though the best-fit parameters are available from the literature, we use the spectral parameters stated above to maintain consistency. Systematic errors associated with our method are evaluated below.

### 2.2 Error Estimates

The calculated X-ray fluxes in the 2$``$10 keV band may include various systematic errors. For example, there could exist contaminating X-ray sources in the vicinity of MCG-2-58-22. We have checked various catalogs, and confirmed that X-ray sources within 3 degrees of MCG-2-58-22 are dimmer than it by at least an order of magnitude. Thus the effect of contaminating sources can be neglected in the present analysis.

Another possible source of error is spectral variability. The power-law slope of MCG-2-58-22 may not be constant, and the energy spectra may include some structure, such as a broad iron line or a Compton reflection hump. The effects of spectral variability on long-term light curves have been evaluated as follows. We first note that the photon indices reported in the literature fall in the range $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.41.9`$ (e.g., Turner et al. 1991; Ghosh & Soundararajaperumal 1992; Nandra & Pounds 1994; Weaver et al. 1995; George et al. 1998), except for the ROSAT observations. Based on this fact, we have checked how the flux estimation is affected, both by the change in the photon indices, and also by the structures which may exist in the energy spectra (e.g., George et al. 1998). As a result, it is found that differences in the spectral slope and structures mostly affect the higher energy spectrum (say $`>`$5 keV), which carries only relatively little flux. Thus, the systematic error associated with these uncertainties turns out to be much smaller than 10 %, for observations covering the 2$``$10 keV band. On the other hand, since the ROSAT PSPC did not cover the 2$``$10 keV range, the calculated ROSAT fluxes may include relatively large systematic errors. In the case of the ROSAT data, it may not be appropriate to assume a simple power-law, because the photon indices are different between the 0.1$``$2 keV ROSAT band ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.1`$) and the typical 2$``$10 keV band ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }1.41.9`$). Piro, Matt, & Ricci (1997) attempted to use various models aimed at simultaneously explaining both the Ginga and ROSAT data. We utilize their models to estimate the systematic error in the flux conversion from the PSPC count rate to the 2$``$10 keV flux. We find that the flux conversion factors change by $``$20 % between the different models, if we take into account the observed range of power-law slopes ($`1.41.9`$) in the 2$``$10 keV band. Thus the converted ROSAT flux may include a systematic error as large as $``$20 %.

In addition to these systematic errors, we also need to consider the cross-calibration error among the instruments. However, accurate instrumental cross-calibration is usually difficult, and quantitative estimations are not available for most of the satellites. Here, we assume 10 % as a representative value. Therefore, if the 2$``$10 keV band is covered by the instruments, the systematic error in the flux conversion is probably dominated by the cross-calibration error among the instruments, and this may be estimated to be $``$10 %. On the other hand, if the 2$``$10 keV band is not covered by the instrument, as in the case of the ROSAT PSPC, the systematic error in the flux conversion is dominated by the uncertainty in the spectral shape, and this may be as large as $``$20 %.

### 2.3 Long-Term X-ray Light Curve

The X-ray fluxes for the long-term light curve of MCG-2-58-22 are compiled in Table 1, and they are plotted in Figure 1 along with the above-estimated error bars. It is readily seen that the light curve shows at least two distinct characteristics, i.e., a gradual and secular decrease of the flux, and occasional abrupt increases, or flares. The flux steadily decreases over a duration exceeding 15 years, from 1977 September to 1993 December. We draw attention to the 3 highest data points, as indicated by the arrows in the light curve, which occurred in 1983 November, 1991 June through November, and 1997 June through December, respectively. They are likely to have been flare events. The data points in 1999 could indicate an onset of another flare, or they could be a part of the 1997 flare. The flux increased by at least a factor of $`24`$ during the flares, as compared to the long-term trend of the secular flux decrease. The flares are not due to an underestimation of the cross-calibration error, since they can be identified even in data from a single satellite (multiple flare events occurred in 1983, 1991, and 1997 for EXOSAT, ROSAT, and ASCA & RXTE, respectively). Furthermore, the flares in 1991 and 1997 were observed by the imaging instruments, ROSAT and ASCA. This strongly suggests that MCG-2-58-22 is indeed the source of these flares. We also checked for whether these events could be due to artificial effects, such as background fluctuations, or solar X-ray contamination. We concluded that these flares are intrinsic to the source.

The flare durations, and the intervening intervals, may give important information on the origin of these events. However, it is difficult to accurately measure the true peak flux, and thus duration, of the flares, because of the sparse data sampling. Using the 1991 flare, whose rise is relatively well sampled, we estimate its likely duration to be $``$2 years. Although the observations may have missed the true peaks, the flare amplitudes, measured relative to the secular decreasing trend, are rather similar, at a level of $`4\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. A further interesting feature is that the flares may have occurred quasi-periodically; the time interval between the first and second flares is $``$8 yrs, and it is $``$6 yrs between the second and third flares. However, because the sampling is sparse, and includes long data gaps, further observations are needed to confirm this quasi-periodicity.

## 3 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

As shown in Figure 1, MCG-2-58-22 clearly shows two characteristic variabilities: the gradual, secular decrease of the X-ray flux, and multiple flares with a representative duration of $``$2 years. These two characteristic variabilities imply that the source undergoes at least two distinctly different physical processes. Magnetic reconnection may be considered as a mechanism for the flares, but it seems unlikely that this process could explain their duration and repetition frequency, since the magnetic field evolution timescale in an accretion disk is of order the dynamical time (Romanova et al. 1998; Poutanen & Fabian 1999). Another possible, and more likely, origin of the variabilities are the instabilities which could arise from the accretion disk. Such instabilities may result in the modulation of the mass-accretion rate, leading then to the observed flux variations.

Disk instabilities which could be appropriate for the variabilities in MCG-2-58-22 are the viscous-thermal and the viscous instabilities. If the disk experiences a viscous-thermal instability caused by a sudden change in the hydrogen ionization state, we estimate the instability timescale to be $`t_{\mathrm{vis}\mathrm{th}}6\times 10^2(\alpha /0.1)^1M_8^{1/3}(\dot{M}/10^4M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1)^{1/3}`$ yr, where $`M_8`$ is the SMBH mass in units of $`10^8`$ M. On the other hand, the viscous timescale near the innermost radius of the standard $`\alpha `$-disk can be a few tens of years for a black-hole mass of $`10^8`$ M. Because these timescales are much longer than the observed duration of the flares, the viscous-thermal and the viscous instabilities are probably not the cause of the flares. However, the gradual and secular decrease of the X-ray flux has a longer timescale, and this slower variation could be caused by these types of disk instability.

Temporal increases of the mass accretion rate could arise, in principle, from other mechanisms. One entertaining possibility is the tidal disruption of stars by the SMBH (e.g., Rees 1988; Lee & Kim 1996; Kim et al. 1999). In this model, the frequency with which a star passes within a distance $`r`$ from the SMBH can be estimated to be $`10^3M_8^{4/3}(N_{}/10^6\mathrm{pc}^3)(\sigma /300\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)(r/r_t)\mathrm{yr}^1`$, where $`N_{}`$ is the number density of the stars, $`\sigma `$ is the virial velocity of the stars, and $`r_t`$ is the tidal radius of the SMBH. Although the number density of the stars and their velocity dispersion near the SMBH are not known, the flare events we observed from MCG-2-58-22 may be difficult to interpret as independent tidal disruption events, because the event rate would then be too high. Instead, the resulting flares may be produced when the bound material from the tidally disrupted star returns to the pericenter, with an orbital period of a few years (Rees 1988; Ulmer 1999). The observed peak luminosity of $`4\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for the flares corresponds to that from the debris of $``$0.1 M being swallowed steadily with 10 % efficiency over a year’s duration. However, it is known that a star may be captured by the SMBH without tidal disruption, provided the SMBH is a Schwarzschild black hole heavier than $`10^8`$ M; this limit is comparable to previous estimates of the SMBH mass in MCG-2-58-22. If we consider a Kerr black hole, the tidal disruption may still be possible, depending on the trajectory of the approaching star (Beloborodov et al. 1992). Moreover, the atmospheres of giant stars could be stripped off before being captured by the SMBH, and this process may be the actual cause of the flares (e.g., Nolthenius & Katz 1982; Carter & Luminet 1983; Rees 1988; Laguna et al. 1993; Ulmer 1999). Thus, the observed flares are not inconsistent with those caused by the tidally disrupted stellar debris near the SMBH, even though the flare properties would depend on many unknown parameters, such as: the type of the disrupted star, the spin of the SMBH, and the minimum radius of the trajectory.

The long-term optical light curve of MCG-2-58-22 was obtained by Winkler et al. (1992), as a result of a 4-year campaign to monitor 35 southern Seyfert galaxies. The campaign period from 1987 through 1990 overlaps with the Ginga observations of 1989 and 1990. During this time, a clear variation of about 0.3 mag is reported in the V-band. Unfortunately, however, the optical light curve does not cover the time periods of the X-ray flares we detect, and it shows only gradual and smooth variations. Over this time, the X-ray flux varied by about 40 %. This is comparable to the 0.3 mag variations in the V-band. Thus, at least the fractional amplitude of the long-term variations may be similar between the optical and X-ray wavelength bands. It is difficult to ascertain whether the optical variation is physically related to that in X-rays, since the optical observation period is too short, compared with that of the X-ray light curve.

The variabilities we detected from MCG-2-58-22 may be reminiscent of the rapid time variations seen in the galactic black hole candidates (GBHCs). Phenomenologically, the presence of a characteristic timescale is known both in GBHCs in the hard state, and in the SMBHs (Hayashida et al. 1998; Markowitz & Edelson 2001). In both kinds of sources, the characteristic timescale corresponds to the cutoff in the PDS, and this timescales may be scaled almost linearly with the black hole mass. The canonical galactic black hole, Cyg X-1, contains about 10 M, and it shows a PDS cutoff at around $``$10 sec. The PDS of Cyg X-1 may be reproduced by the superposition of shot noise impulses, whose typical duration determines the PDS cutoff frequency (e.g. Negoro, Kitamoto, & Mineshige 2001). If we assume that the SMBH in MCG-2-58-22 has a mass of $`10^8`$ M (e.g., Padovani & Rafanelli 1998; Wandel 1991), the characteristic timescale is about a few years. This is just about equal to the duration of the flares we detected. Thus the flares in MCG-2-58-22 may be analogous to the shot noise seen in galactic black holes in their hard state.

In conclusion, we have detected two characteristic variabilities in the long-term X-ray light curve of MCG-2-58-22, by analyzing archival data from various X-ray satellites. One variation is the gradual, secular decrease of the X-ray flux, which may have a timescale of several decades, and the other is the flaring. Although it is difficult to accurately measure the duration of, and intervals between, the flares, due to the sparse sampling in the observational data, a representative duration is $``$2 years, with an intervening interval of $`68`$ years. These two distinct timescales may be accounted for by a model with a supermassive black hole accompanied by an unstable accretion disk; the long-term secular variation would be expected from instabilities in the disk, while the short-term flaring would arise from the tidal disruption of stars by the supermassive black hole. Further observations and spectral analysis in other wavelength bands should be explored, in order to verify this scenario.

C.S.C. is grateful to A. Fletcher (KAO) for his careful reading of this manuscript, as well as for useful discussions. This research has made use of data from the HEASARC on-line service provided by the NASA GSFC, and from the SIRIUS database of ISAS in Japan.


text:
# Angular Ordering in Gluon Radiation

## Figure Caption

* The probability amplitude to have new gluon as functions of gluon momentum. We have fixed $`\mathrm{p}_1=1.0,\mathrm{p}_2=0.3`$ with the angle $`\theta =\frac{\pi }{6}`$. The different curves correspond to different directions.
* Angular variation of the probability amplitude. We fixed the angle $`\theta `$ as $`\frac{\pi }{3}`$ and $`\mathrm{p}_1=1.0`$. The different curves correspond to different values of $`\mathrm{p}_2`$.