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# SPECTRAL: New Evolutionary Synthesis code. An application to the irregular galaxy NGC 1560

## 1 Introduction

The study of the history of the evolution of galaxies includes three important issues: spectral, dynamical, and chemical evolution. Since these three different parts of the galaxy evolution are very difficult to study in simple models. Different authors has been focused to one of these parts. Although several efforts have been devoted by different authors (for example Tinsley (1972) and Vazdekis (1996)) to build complete spectro-chemical evolution codes. It has been difficult to incorporate the new releases in stellar models (structure evolution, stellar yields and stellar atmospheres) to the complexity of galaxy evolution models. The last reason has resulted in the division of the study of the spectro-chemical galaxy evolution in two complementary ways. While the chemical evolution models are the independent variable in the complete spectro-chemical evolution, the spectral evolution codes, which use population synthesis or evolutionary synthesis are left to use simple star formation histories to constrain the results and to be independent models.

In this way, we find sophisticated chemical evolution models. But, the most part of spectral evolution models consider the star formation in a simple star-burst, and a complicated star formation history can be modeled by many star-bursts of different metallicities and star formation rates. Thus, instead of studying a broad range of galaxies using simple star-burst models, it is preferable to develop spectro-chemical evolution models of neighboring galaxies using constrains to model the systems, and after that use the models to galaxies at higher red-shifts.

The new code (SPECTRAL) presented here has two important contributions to the evolutionary synthesis models: the first one is the consideration of a more complete set of evolutionary tracks from the Geneva group, adding tracks from Chabrier & Baraffe (1997) to the very low mass range; the second one is the construction of synthetic populations following the chemical evolution model in order to derive the spectral properties for systems with arbitrary enrichment history.

In this paper we initially use simple star formation scenarios to test the new evolutionary synthesis code, and then we proceed to more complete chemical evolution models to constrain the age of stellar population in the irregular galaxy NGC 1560.

In Section 2 we illustrate how the tracks are assembled to built a complete set of tracks for either the high mass loss rates, or the normal mass loss rates, and we describe the spectra library used in our code. In Section 3, we describe the process followed to built the evolutionary synthesis code, and the transformation to the observational plane of the variables. In Section 4 we test and compare SPECTRAL with others codes commonly used in the field and we present a first application by predicting spectral variables for the irregular galaxy NGC 1560. Finally, we discuss our conclusions.

## 2 Stellar Tracks

We have incorporated all the tracks from the Geneva group: Schaller et al. (1992, I), Schaerer et al. (1993a, II), Charbonnel et al. (1993, III), Schaerer et al. (1993b, IV), Meynet et al. (1994, V), Charbonnel et al. (1996, VI), Mowlavi et al. (1998, VII) and Charbonnel et al. (1999, VIII); together with tracks from Chabrier & Baraffe (1997, CB) for the very low mass stars, in order to assemble a complete dual grid of evolutionary tracks for the spectral code. One set with higher stellar mass loss and the other with normal mass loss as showed in Table 1. All these tracks are published in such way that each evolutionary point over each track has an equivalent evolutionary point in the rest of the tracks except for tracks from CB. This can be seen from the first line in the Table 1 because the tracks have the same number of evolutionary points (51). This is a very important aspect, because it is the basis of our evolutionary synthesis code.

We have chosen tracks with overshooting to be assembled by using linear and bilinear logarithmic interpolation when it is possible and the final result is shown in Table 2. The process to assemble the tracks is described below, and all parameters are logarithmic.

First of all, we completed phases covered at each metallicity. This means that tracks, which do not have post-main sequence evolution for masses in the range $`m_i/M_{}1.7`$ ($`m_i`$ is the initial mass, mass on main sequence) were completed to get 51 evolutionary points covering phases from the post-main sequence RGB, HB, and AGB.

We have used a IDL code to visualize each interpolation in tracks, using weights for linear interpolations defined:

$$wf_1=\frac{(f_xf_{j1})}{(f_jf_{j1})},wf_0=1.0wf_1,$$
(1)
where $`f_x`$ is the desired variable for which the properties are calculated when we interpolate in mass, metallicity or evolutionary phase. The sub-indices mean adjacent variables in tracks for the interpolation. New variables ($`V`$) were calculated using the equation:

$$V(f)=V(f_{j1})\times wf_0+V(f_j)\times wf_1.$$
(2)
Phases beyond RGB were not present for stars in the mass range $`1.0m_i/M_{}1.7`$, and post-main sequence phases were not present for stars in $`0.8m_i/M_{}<1.0`$ at some metallicities. The first step in the new set of tracks was to complete tracks up to RGB for those masses in $`0.8m_i/M_{}1.7`$ using the last equations.

The second step was to add phases as HB and AGB for the range in masses $`0.8m_i/M_{}1.7`$. To do the interpolation and extrapolation in this phases we used tracks from two sets at metallicities $`Z=`$ 0.001 and 0.02 mentioned in the tracks group VI in Table 1. In this way, it was necessary to interpolate and extrapolate this phases in metallicity. We followed in this part the shape of tracks in groups I, II, III, IV, and VII for the RGB to add the other two phases HB and AGB in the next form:

We completed the evolutionary points for the RGB in the tracks group VI up to 30 instead of original 3 using the fact that luminosity grows in this phase linearly as explained in I. We did the same for the rest of tracks for masses $`m_i/M_{}1.7`$ in groups I, II, III, IV, and VII to get 81 evolutionary points for tracks instead of 51 in the first group.

Furthermore, to interpolate and extrapolate the post-RGB phases for the rest groups in metallicity we use the next method:

The metallicity against the shape of each stellar variable ($`age`$, current mass $`(m_c)`$, $`L/L_{}`$, and $`T_{eff}`$) is fitted for linear functions $`f_1(Z)`$ and $`f_2(Z)`$ for both groups of tracks I, II, III, IV, VII, and VI, respectively, by using the metallicities at which both groups coincide, in this case $`Z=`$0.001 and 0.02.

Then, we defined $`Q(Z)=f_1(Z)/f_2(Z)`$, as the factor to convert the shape of $`f_1(Z)`$ in to $`f_2(Z)`$ shape, or vice versa. Actually, we used the last point in RGB for the first tracks group as the first point in the new set of tracks and we interpolate in metallicity $`\mathrm{\Delta }(age)`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(m_c)`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(L/L_{})`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }(T_{eff})`$ from the second group of tracks with the last method. Then, the second point in the new set of tracks is the last point in the RGB plus the first $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ interpolated, and so on.

The final step to assemble the tracks was to incorporate the very low mass stars by using models from CB. An interpolation in metallicity has been done to put these tracks as the same metallicities than Geneva tracks. Then, we have identified over the four evolutionary points of tracks, ZAMS points and pre-main sequence points to obtain in the full new set of tracks 84 equivalent evolutionary points from pre-main sequence up to AGB.

For comparison we show in the Figure 1 and Figure 2 Geneva tracks and the new set of tracks with new phases, and new stellar tracks for very low masses with normal mass loss rate, respectively.

We can see in Figure 2 the pre-main sequence phases included for masses $`m_i/M_{}0.7`$. In the same way, tracks for $`Z=0.1`$ are very poorly interpolated because these tracks are originally incomplete, and have been completed with tracks with $`Z=0.04`$ for masses $`m_i/M_{}>60`$. Finally, it has been obtained two homogeneous grids to interpolate the stellar variables in time, mass, and metallicity either, one with normal mass loss ($`\dot{M}Z^{0.5}`$) and second one using tracks from the V group for masses in the range $`12.0m_i/M_{}120.0`$ in the Table 1 with high mass loss ($`\dot{M}5\times Z^{0.5}`$), and stars in the range of $`m_i/M_{}<12.0`$ completed in the same way as the set with normal mass loss showed in Figure 2.

## 3 The Evolutionary Synthesis Code SPECTRAL

### 3.1 The Input and Synthetic Stellar Populations

The evolutionary synthesis code has been developed in such away that it is possible to use the output of chemical evolution models taking from these models the following parameters:

-Duration of star formation, $`t_{SFH}`$.

-Star Formation Rate, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$.

-Metallicity of interstellar gas at time $`t`$, $`Z(t)`$.

The code needs the number of stars $`n(m_i,t)`$ formed at any time in the interval $`m_lm_i/M_{}m_h`$ defined as follows:

$$n(m_i,t)=\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)\mathrm{\Psi }(t)\text{}$$
(3)
where $`m_l`$, $`m_h`$ are the limits in mass and $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)`$ is the initial mass function.

$`Z(t)`$ is the metallicity of gas at which a new stellar population is born. Therefore, the new stars have a different metallicity or at least equal, predicted by the chemical evolution model.

When we see the synthetic stellar population formed over the whole continuous star formation history from $`t=0`$ up to $`t_{SFH}`$ at $`Age`$ of 10.0 Gy for instance, we need to calculate how many stars are still alive since they have formed in each step of time with the SFR (in this case those stars in the tip of AGB). If $`t_{SFH}=Age`$ then the result of this procedure is that most of the stars formed in the first generation have died after 10.0 Gy, and just the very low mass stars are alive. The last generation formed at 10.0 Gy is complete and the age for this population ($`A_s`$) is zero. This means:

$$A_s=Aget$$
(4)
where $`t`$ runs from 0.0 up to $`t_{SFH}`$ which could be the same as $`Age`$.

The final result at 10.0 Gy is a mix of populations after the chemical evolution has regulated the SF.

One of the problems in the evolutionary synthesis codes is the oscillations in the evolution of spectral parameters, because the post main sequence phases are not well sampled, due to the faster evolution of stars after the hydrogen burning phase. As shown in the Section 2, the problem is solved by interpolating in phases (evolutionary points) over the post hydrogen burning evolution, and interpolating in time and mass over main sequence phases.

To calculate which stars are alive at $`Age`$ in the post-main sequence region, we first calculate the masses of stars at each evolutionary points since the turn off point up to AGB using relations $`ta(Z,m_i,j)`$ vs $`m_i`$ (where $`ta`$ is the age of each evolutionary point $`j`$ over each track and initial mass $`m_i`$). If those ages satisfy the condition

$$ta(Z,m_i,j)A_sta(Z,m_i,j+1),$$
(5)
this means, 70 ages every time step, which cover exactly important post-main sequence evolutionary phases. The interpolation in phases is extended to metallicity using equation (1) and (2) to obtain:

$$\begin{array}{c}ta(Z,m_i,j)=ta(Z_0,m_i,j)\times wZ_0+\hfill \\ ta(Z_1,m_i,j)\times wZ_1,\hfill \end{array}$$
(6)
which represents the age of each 70 evolutionary points $`ta`$, at required metallicity for all masses in tracks $`m_i`$. Masses at each 70 evolutionary points at required $`A_s`$ are calculated using equation (1) for the time $`ta(Z,m_i)`$ in the following way:

$$\begin{array}{c}m_i(Z,ta)=m_i(Z,m_{i_0},ta)\times wt_0+\hfill \\ m_i(Z,m_{i_1},ta)\times wt_1\hfill \end{array}$$
(7)
where weights in time ($`wt_0`$ y $`wt_1`$) use $`ta(Z,m_i,j)`$ and $`A_S`$.

To sample those masses in main sequence and pre-main sequence phases, we divide the mass range $`m_lm_im_{Toff}`$, where $`m_{Toff}`$ is the mass in the turn off point, in 80 masses to get a 150 masses for the synthetic population for each time step of evolution.

Once obtained this masses, we can calculate the stellar properties like $`m_c`$, $`L/L_{}`$, $`T_{eff}`$ interpolating in time, mass, and metallicity by using the equations (1) and (2) shown in Section 2.

### 3.2 Transformation from theoretical to observational plane

The stellar parameters in the synthetic population are transformed to the observable parameters by using the calibration of Lejeune et al. (1997), and Lejeune et al. (1998) which includes low resolution spectral energy distribution’s (SED’s) and broad band colors. Table 3 shows the grid of parameters covered by this library.

Following the same procedure as in tracks, we interpolate linearly over this grid using the same equations described in the Section 2, but now for $`[M/H]`$, $`T_{eff}`$, and $`log(g)`$ (gravity), where $`[M/H]=log(Z/Z_{})`$, with $`Z_{}=0.02`$. Besides the spectrum, and broad band colors, we have included the Lick indices Worthey et al. (1994) using the routine developed by J.J. Gonzalez in González (1993).

To integrate the observable variables for all alive stars we have to transforms in light or flux those variables given in magnitudes like colors and indices. In this way, we use the formalism described in González (1993) to integrate the Lick indices, and

$$L_{f_1}=L_{f_0}\times 10^{0.4\times (f_1f_0)},$$
(8)
where $`f_1`$ can be the $`V`$ filter, and $`f_0`$ the bolometric correction, for instance, and we follow the same procedure for the rest of filters using the rest of colors.

The spectral variables are weighted by the star number and the average values are:

$$<L_f>=\frac{_0^{Age}_{m_l}^{m(t)}L_f(Z,m^{},t^{})w(m^{},t^{})𝑑m^{}𝑑t^{}}{_0^{Age}_{m_l}^{m(t)}w(m^{},t^{})𝑑m^{}𝑑t^{}}$$
(9)
where the weights to obtain the average are defined

$$w(m^{},t^{})=\{\begin{array}{c}n(m^{},t^{})\times F_C\text{ For indices}\hfill \\ n(m^{},t^{})\times L_{bol}\text{ For colors}\hfill \\ n(m^{},t^{})\text{ For spectra,}\hfill \end{array}$$
(10)
and, $`L_f(Z,m^{},t^{})`$ is the stellar variable to integrate, $`L_{bol}`$ is the bolometric luminosity and $`m(t)`$ is the mass of star, which is alive at time $`t`$.

Finally, integrated variables are obtained by using :

$$<(f_1f_0)>=2.5\times log(\frac{<L_{f_1}>}{<L_{f_0}>}),$$
(11)
for indices and colors, and

$$<mag_f>=2.5\times log(<L_f>),$$
(12)
in the case of magnitude indices.

## 4 Evolution Models

### 4.1 Tests for the Evolutionary Synthesis Code

We have used instantaneous star-burst models to test and compare our code with others commonly used.

In the first part, we test colors and spectral indices; in the second part spectra for young and old populations.

#### 4.1.1 Colors and Spectral Indices

For the first part we assume the next set of conditions:

An $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)m^\alpha `$, with $`\alpha =2.35`$, low mass limit, $`m_l=0.1`$, and high mass limit, $`m_h=100.0`$; and for SPECTRAL, we use Geneva tracks with normal mass loss rate.

1) In the first model we compare the evolution of colors at $`Z=Z_{}`$ with those obtained from PEGASE97 (Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1997), FR) and GISSEL96 (Bruzual & Charlot (1993), BC). The Figure 3 shows this comparison.

We can see from the Figure 3, that there is a good agreement between the three models for colors. The differences are due to the use of different spectral library (PEGASE97), or different stellar tracks (GISSEL96). In the same Figure 3 it is possible to see a pick in the $`(VK)`$ color, around $`log(Age[Gy])=1.0`$, which is produced by thermal pulses generated by stars in range ($`5.0m_i/M_{}10.0`$), explained by FR. For a young population (around $`log(Age[Gy])=2.0`$) we can see an agreement between our model and that from FR in colors, and the agreement occurs with colors from BC in the inverse case when we compare old populations (around $`log(Age[Gy])=1.0`$).

2) In the second model we compare the same colors showed in Figure 3 for different metallicities with those obtained from GISSEL96 (Figure 4). In the same way we compare the evolution of two Lick indices $`H_\beta `$ y $`Mg_b`$ in Figure 5.

In the plot (a) of the Figure 4 we have compared models for the lowest metallicity reached linearly by our code with models at lowest metallicity in Padova tracks used by GISSEL96. There is a good agreement between models with different metallicities except for those at $`Z=0.1`$ in plot (f) because the original tracks are incomplete.

In the case of indices, our models predict a flat and constant evolution for young populations (around $`log(Age[Gy])1.0`$), while indices from BC present variations. The differences are due to they extend linearly to high temperatures the fitting functions (depending on $`T_{eff}`$, $`log(M/H)`$, and $`log(g)`$), which predict the value of each index, and we use the original fitting functions with temperature limit around 13,000 K. There is an agreement between both models for populations in the range of $`log(Age[Gy])>1.0`$.

#### 4.1.2 Spectra

We have tested spectra in a different way. We have divided the test for two ranges, for young stellar populations and for old stellar populations. Both ranges were subdivided in three metallicities. We use instantaneous star-bursts as the star formation rate.

For young populations we assume the next set of conditions:

An $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)m^\alpha `$, with $`\alpha =2.35`$, low mass limit, $`m_l=1.0`$, and high mass limit, $`m_h=100.0`$, and for SPECTRAL we use Geneva tracks with high mass loss rate.

1) In the first model we compare our spectra with different ages in the range of $`10^3t/Gy0.9`$ at $`Z=Z_{}`$ with spectra produced by STARBURST99 (Leitherer et al. (1999)). Figure 6 shows quantitative differences taking the $`log(L_{S99_k}/L_{S_k})+0.5k`$ ($`k=1,13`$), where $`L_{S99}`$ is the luminosity from STARBURST99’s spectra and $`L_S`$ from SPECTRAL. All models from STARBURST99 used here are without nebular emission.

There is a very good agreement, and it is comprehensive, because both of codes use the same spectra library and the same stellar tracks. There is a contribution in the UV part of spectra for ages at 3 and 5 My because the WR phases at that ages, that is the reason why the luminosity increase in UV part and the rate of luminosities between both sets of models is higher. The same features are not visualized in our spectra because the library for massive stars with strong stellar winds are not considered in our spectra library. This increase of luminosity in UV part appears for STARBURST99 models at high metallicity, but not for low metallicity and the rate of luminosities is lower for low $`Z`$.

2) In the same way, the second model compares spectra with different ages at $`Z=0.001`$. Figure 7 shows quantitative differences of these models.

3) The final comparison is done for spectra at $`Z=0.04`$. Figure 8 shows quantitative differences.

These three sets of models show a very good agreement with models from Leitherer et al. (1999). The same features for the case at $`Z_{}`$ remain in models (2) and (3). This agreement shown in three different star-burst populations at different metallicities is present in the rest of metallicities of Geneva tracks as showed in Vázquez (2001).

For old populations we assume the next set of conditions:

An $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)m^\alpha `$, with $`\alpha =2.35`$, low mass limit, $`m_l=0.1`$, and high mass limit, $`m_h=100.0`$; and for SPECTRAL we use Geneva tracks with normal mass loss rate.

1) In the first model we compare our spectra with different ages in the range of $`1.0t/Gy20.0`$ at $`Z=Z_{}`$ with spectra produced by GISSEL96 (BC). Figure 9 shows quantitative differences taking the $`log(L_{G96_k}/L_{S_k})+k`$ ($`k=1,6`$), where $`L_{G96}`$ is the luminosity from GISSEL96’s spectra and $`L_S`$ from SPECTRAL.

It is easy to see some differences from Figure 9, which are due to the stellar tracks used for each code, Padova (GISSEL96) and Geneva (SPECTRAL), respectively. The considered spectral library is the same, but not the same version, which is a source of differences as well. The main differences are in the blue part of the spectra, where we find a contribution in UV due to old stars in phases like HB and planetary nebula predicted by additional stellar library used by GISSEL96, and there is not a counterpart in our models. Again, this is the reason why the rate of luminosities is higher for those models from GISSEL96.

2) In the same way, the second model compares spectra with different ages at $`Z=0.004`$. Figure 10 shows quantitative differences of these models.

3) The final comparison is done for spectra at $`Z=0.05`$. Figure 11 shows quantitative differences.

The features shown in models (2) and (3) are explained in the same form as those with $`Z_{}`$. The rest of models at different metallicities are shown in Vázquez (2001).

### 4.2 Models for the irregular galaxy NGC 1560

Carigi, Colín & Peimbert (1999) discussed the chemical evolution of three irregular galaxies: NGC 1560, II Zw 33 and a mean irregular galaxy. In the attempt to apply spectro-chemical evolution models to this three galaxies, we look for spectro-photometric measurements of these galaxies in the literature. In this work, we compute spectro-chemical evolution models only to NGC 1560 because: i) For NGC 1560 and II Zw 33 the nonbaryonic dark matter inside the Holmerg Radius is known, which constrains the chemical evolution models. ii) For NGC 1560, but nor for II Zw 33, neither the sample galaxies that form the mean irregular galaxy, there are photometric measurements to constrain the spectral models.

We have used close box models from Carigi, Colín & Peimbert (1999) updated with yields from Maeder (1992) and van den Hoek & Groenewegen (1997) to be consistent with stellar evolution models with normal mass loss rate used by our code. Chemical evolution models reproduce two constraints O/H abundance (Richer & McCall, (1995)) and $`\mu =M_{gas}/M_{total}`$ (Walter et al. (1997), Broelis (1992)). Three models with different ages and star formation rates to match the gas metallicity observed are not able to give us information about the age of star formation history. Colors of this galaxy may constrain the age if we use evolutionary synthesis.

These three chemical models results were used by our code to constrain the stellar population age which dominates the light in the irregular galaxy NGC 1560.

These models use the basic form for the IMF from Kroupa, Tout & Gilmore (1993), in the range of $`0.01m_i/M_{}120.0`$ as follow:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)\{\begin{array}{c}m_i^\alpha \text{ }if0.01m_i/M_{}<0.5,\hfill \\ m_i^{2.2}\text{ }if0.5m_i/M_{}<1.0,\hfill \\ m_i^{2.7}\text{ }if1.0m_i/M_{}<120.0\hfill \end{array}$$
(13)
where $`\alpha `$ depends on chemical constraints and age of the model, and had three different values for every model:

$$\alpha =\{\begin{array}{c}2.21\text{ 0.1 Gy Model}\hfill \\ 2.24\text{ 1.0 Gy Model}\hfill \\ 2.27\text{ 10.0 Gy Model}\hfill \end{array}$$
(14)
We use $`\mathrm{\Phi }(m_i)`$, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(t)`$, and $`Z(t)`$ from chemical models in SPECTRAL to produce a set of models. The set was produced by using tracks with the normal mass loss rate. Figure 12 shows the evolution of some broad band colors predicted for this galaxy.

The rest of broad band colors and Lick index for this set of models are shown in Vázquez (2001). The mean spectra produced for the models are shown in Figure 13.

The main goal in this work is to compare our predictions for this galaxy with those obtained observationally. For this galaxy we have obtained $`(UB)_0`$ and $`(BV)_0`$ from the de Vaucouleurs RC (3), which are mean values. The evolution and the comparison is shown in Figure 14.

Figure 15 shows that the model which has a star formation age of 10.0 Gy fits in the best way the observations, it does not occur with younger models.

A better fit would be obtained if there were more colors, indices or the full spectrum in the literature.

## 5 Conclusions

We have extended the tracks from the Geneva group, producing two sets of tracks, one with high mass loss rate for masses in the range of $`12.0m_i/M_{}120.0`$ and the other with normal mass loss rate in the range of $`0.08m_i/M_{}120.0`$. These sets of tracks are complete and consistent for metallicities in the range $`0.001Z0.04`$, they cover phases from main sequence up to asymptotic giant branch in the range $`0.8m_i/M_{}120.0`$, and pre-main sequence and main sequence for masses in $`0.08m_i/M_{}0.7`$. Together with the spectral library, the code SPECTRAL is able to predict the spectral properties from stellar populations under a wide variety of conditions.

With this code, it is possible to build synthetic populations as the sophisticated chemical evolution models predict, as long as metallicity is in the range $`0.001Z0.04`$.

Results for star-burst evolution in broad band colors, spectral indices and spectra from our code fit very well with the same results obtained with other codes. SPECTRAL could be used in young stellar populations like in star-burst or blue galaxies, or stellar populations inside cores of AGN’s. In the same way, the code could be used for old stellar populations like those in early type galaxies and all galaxy types in the middle of young and old stellar populations.

In applying just chemical models using observational constraints mentioned here for NGC 1560 it is not easy to distinguish what it is the age of the population. But using observed colors for this galaxy a spectro-chemical evolution model can be fitted and a population around 10 Gy and mean metallicity of stars $`Z=0.002`$ are predicted with our model.

In the same way, from Figure 14, the evolution of colors for the 10.0 Gy model is possible to see that colors match the box error at 5 Gy. Furthermore, we might say that star formation history age for the mean stellar population is between \[5.0,10.0 Gy\], though we do not have chemical model for 5 Gy.

We have obtained success in reproducing the values for many simple star formation scenarios, and finally, we have matched very closely the values observed for two broad band colors in NGC 1560.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is part of the PhD thesis developed by Gerardo A. Vázquez in the IA-UNAM who thanks to Gustavo Bruzual made an extensive review to the code developed in his thesis. Gerardo is similarly indebted to Gloria Koenigsberger for the final push to finish his PhD. We thank the Instituto de Astronomía UNAM for financial support of Gerardo with a fellowship, resources and travels obtained through the projects PAPIIT, IN126098 and IN109696. We thanks to Gloria Koenigsberger, Luc Binette and Claus Leitherer for reading the manuscript.


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# On the accretion mode of the intermediate polar V1025 Centauri

## 1 Introduction

The magnetic cataclysmic variables are close binary stars in which one can study the interaction of an accretion flow with a magnetic field. Where the accreting white dwarf is only weakly magnetic ($``$ $`<`$105 G) an accretion disc disc in a manner little different from that in non-magnetic systems. Stronger fields ($``$ $`>`$107 G) lock the spin of the white dwarf to the binary orbit and dominate the accretion flow, forcing it to accrete along field lines. The intermediate case is less clear, and systems in this category (refered to as intermediate polars or IPs) display a range of behaviours depending on the mass-transfer rate, field strength and white-dwarf spin period. Among the possibilities are (1) a partial disc which is disrupted when the magnetic pressure exceeds the ram pressure, giving way to magnetically channelled flow inside the magnetosphere; (2) a partial disc, but with some of the accretion stream overflowing the disc to interact directly with the magnetosphere (e.g. Hellier 1991); (3) discless accretion in which the flow can be regarded as diamagnetic, intermediate between the purely ballistic and magnetically channeled flows (e.g. King 1993; Wynn & King 1995); (4) models in which the propeller effect of a rapidly spinning field prevents accretion (e.g. Wynn, King & Horne 1997). Recent reviews of these possibilities are presented in Hellier (2001), chapter 9, and Wynn (2001).

Of particular relevance to this paper is the ratio of the spin period of the white dwarf to the orbital period of the binary. Most IPs have $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$/$`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$$``$ $`<`$0.1, and indeed no system can both possess an accretion disc and be in equilibrium unless this inequality holds. This condition is equivalent to the condition $`R_{\mathrm{co}}`$$``$ $`<`$$`R_{\mathrm{circ}}`$ where $`R_{\mathrm{co}}`$ is the corotation radius (the radius at which the magnetic field corotates with a Keplerian flow) and $`R_{\mathrm{circ}}`$ is the circularization radius (the radius at which a circular orbit has the same angular momentum as the stream from the inner Lagrangian point). However, King & Wynn (1999) discovered that a discless system can reside on a continuum of equilibria with $`R_{\mathrm{circ}}`$$``$ $`<`$$`R_{\mathrm{co}}`$$``$ $`<`$$`b`$, where $`b`$ is the distance to the Lagrangian point. Such a system would have a longer spin period, with 0.1 $``$ $`<`$$`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$/$`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$$``$ $`<`$0.7. At the time only one IP (EX Hya, with $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$ = 67 mins and $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ = 98 mins) was known to have a secure $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$/$`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ ratio greater than $``$0.1. The purpose of this paper is to (1) confirm earlier indications that V1025 Cen is a second system in this category, and (2) analyse spectroscopic observations to investigate whether the accretion flow is better described by the partial-disc model or by the diamagnetic-flow model.

Buckley et al. (1998)’s discovery paper on V1025 Cen (RX J1238–38) and follow-up X-ray observations (Hellier, Beardmore & Buckley 1998) found a spin period of 2147 s (revealed by an optical and X-ray pulsation), and suggested an orbital period near 85–90 mins, and thus a $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$/$`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$ ratio of $``$0.4. The star is also notable for showing a 1860-s optical and $`J`$-band periodicity (Buckley et al. 1998). Given the above spin and orbital periods, the only plausible identification is with the first harmonic of the beat cycle between the orbital and spin cycles \[i.e. the frequency 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) where $`\omega `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ are the spin and orbital frequencies respectively\]. Note, though, that no other IP shows a lightcurve containing 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) but not $`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Other than this, V1025 Cen is little studied, with, as yet, no ephemerides for the periodicities, no estimate of the field strength, and no determination of the binary inclination or of the component masses. Note that a possible grazing eclipse reported by Allan et al. (1999) was an artefact of incorrect data reduction.

## 2 Observations and data

We observed V1025 Cen with the 3.9-m AAT and the RGO spectrograph plus a TEK CCD. A 1200 lines mm-1 grating gave a resolution of 1.4Å, covering the range H$`\gamma `$ to H$`\beta `$. Observing for 2 h, 4 h & 3.5 h on the three consequtive nights 1996 May 10–12 we obtained 320 integrations of 100 s each, thus covering $``$7 orbital cycles and $``$16 spin cycle of this star. The summed spectrum, containing He i and He ii lines in addition to the Balmer lines, is shown in Fig. 1. It is interesting to note that the spectrum is similar to that of EX Hya (e.g. Hellier et al. 1987), in that the lines are broader than in most IPs.

As a first look at the data we computed the equivalent widths and the V/R ratios for the lines in each spectrum (V/R being the ratio of the equivalent widths on either side of the rest wavelength). The Fourier transforms of these quantities for H$`\beta `$ are shown in Fig. 2.

Following Buckley et al. (1998) we identify the V/R periodicity near 0.2 mHz with the orbital cycle. From our data, though, we cannot determine which of two 1-d aliases at 5090 $`\pm `$ 30 and 5410 $`\pm `$ 30 s (85 and 90 mins) is the true period. However, Buckley et al. used the proposed identification of the 1860-s photometric period with 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) to derive (given the 2147-s spin cycle) an orbital period of 5077 s, thus favouring the 85-min alias. We therefore adopt 5077 s as the orbital period, though its 1-d alias should be borne in mind.

The 2147-s spin period is prominent in both the V/R ratios and the equivalent widths. The V/R ratios also show power at 2$`\omega `$ and possibly, though nearer the noise level, at 2$`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. A peak near $`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is also clearly above the noise, but is shifted significantly (by 0.7 per cent) from the expected frequency. We discuss this later (Sections 5.2 & 6.1).

## 3 Orbitally resolved line profiles

In Fig. 3 we show the line profiles of H$`\beta `$ folded on the orbital (5077-s) period. Each spectrum was first normalised to the continuum level, so that the plot shows quasi equivalent widths (these are more robust than fluxes in narrow-slit spectroscopy). In constructing the fold we are assuming that line-profile variations on the spin or other cycles will smear out into a phase-invariant profile. Thus, to emphasize the varying component, we additionally show the data after subtracting the phase-invariant profile. Also in Fig. 3 is the Doppler tomogram of the subtracted profiles, computed using the back-projection technique (see Marsh & Horne 1988). We present all plots with phase 1 corresponding to a guess at when inferior conjunction of the secondary occurs, but note that we have no secure knowledge of this.

In the line center is an S-wave with a projected velocity of $``$350 km s-1, phased with maximum redshift at $``$0.15 in our (insecure) convention, and appearing as the brightest region of the tomogram. Such as S-wave would conventionally be interpreted as arising from the heated face of the secondary, or from the accretion stream, particularly where it hits an accretion disc.

There is also an ill-defined higher-velocity feature which has a maximum blueshift near phase 0.4, when its velocity appears to be centered at $``$900 km s-1. It is too ill-defined to allow us to measure the amplitude of its orbital motion, but in the tomogram it gives rise to a brightening in the lower-left quadrant.

There is weak evidence for a double-peaked structure, as would arise from a disc. This would form a ring-structure in the tomogram, centered on the velocity of the white dwarf. It is possible to interpret the tomogram in this way, though the ring is ill-defined and incomplete.

## 4 Line profiles over spin phase

Fig. 4 shows the variation of the line profiles over spin phase, again displayed as quasi equivalent widths. There is a prominent variation in equivalent width with the whole line becoming brighter at phase 1 (the phasing adopted is arbitrary, as we do not yet have an ephemeris to link it to the photometric or X-ray pulses). Since the spin-cycle variation is primarily a change in equivalent width, rather than velocity, it violates the constant-flux assumption of tomography and the resulting tomogram is not useful \[see Hellier (1999) for the tomogram and further discussion of this issue\].

The spin-resolved line profiles look similar to those in EX Hya (e.g. Hellier et al. 1987), and thus we adopt essentially the same interpretation (see also Buckley et al. 1998; Hellier 1999). In this model the spin-varying emission comes from the accretion curtains of magnetically trapped material falling onto the magnetic poles. The simultaneously bright red and blue wings and the general symmetry of the profile then implies that we are seeing emission from both upper and lower poles. The brightest emission (phase 1) probably occurs when the upper pole points away from the observer, and the view of the white dwarf is unobscurred, allowing us to see the bright, high-velocity regions of curtain near the white dwarf. Half a cycle later, the outer regions of the upper curtain are in front of the white dwarf, obscurring the bright regions, resulting in the fainter line seen at phase 0.5.

However, the lines are not symmetric, having a brightening in the blue wing at phases 0.6–0.8 that is not seen in the red wing. Thus the curtains of material must be asymmetric or twisted; this might result from the fact that, as discussed next, the field lines must rotate more slowly than the inner edge of any disc.

## 5 A conventional model?

We first try to interpret the above results in the context of the conventional model of an IP: one that accretes through a partial disc which feeds field lines from its inner edge. Given the exceptionally long spin period of V1025 Cen, the system cannot be in equilibrium in this model, and the field lines must rotate more slowly than the Keplerian motion at the inner disc edge (if this were not the case the magnetosphere would extend beyond the circularisation radius and the angular momentum of the disc would dissipate).

The timescale for spinning up the white dwarf to equilibrium is 106–107 yrs (assuming an accretion rate of 1016 g s-1, typical of systems below the period gap), which is much shorter than the $``$ $`>`$108-yr evolutionary timescale. Thus we would require an explanation for EX Hya and V1025 Cen being far from equilibrium. The most plausible explanation is a change in the mass-transfer rate. For instance, if mass transfer shut off for a long period, the spin period could lengthen and become locked to the orbit, in the manner of an AM Her star; a resumption of mass transfer would then spin up the white dwarf again, heading for $`P_{\mathrm{spin}}`$$``$0.1 $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}`$. Note that the white dwarf in EX Hya is currently spinning up on a timescale of 4$`\times 10^6`$ yrs (e.g. Jablonski & Busko 1985), in line with this picture, although with only a 30-yr span of observations we can’t distinguish between a sustained spin-up and a short-term fluctuation.

### 5.1 The line profiles and tomogram

The orbital tomogram shows that the high-velocity emission is not symmetric about the white dwarf, being enhanced in the lower-left quadrant. Thus the higher-velocity regions (the inner disc or magnetosphere) are not symmetric over orbital phase. Since V1025 Cen is not eclipsing, it is unlikely that this is due to obscuration of the inner regions by disc structure. Thus the only likely possibility is that the accretion stream overflows the outer disc and continues into the inner disc, where it creates a disturbance localised in orbital phase. This has previously been proposed in IPs to explain X-ray beat periods (e.g. Hellier 1991) and might be occurring in non-magnetic cataclysmic variables such as SW Sex stars (e.g. Hellier & Robinson 1994). The idea also has theoretical support (e.g. Armitage & Livio 1996; 1998).

In the SW Sex stars the high-velocity line wings are at maximum redshift at orbital phase $``$0.9 (e.g. Thorstensen et al. 1991; Hellier 1996), which matches that in V1025 Cen with our adopted phasing. The brightest region in the V1025 Cen tomogram is then at the right phase to correspond to emission from either the secondary star or the bright spot where the stream hits the disc (or a mixture of these; the phase uncertainty prohibits a secure distinction between the possibilities). Weaker emission is then seen looping leftwards towards the higher-velocity feature, and could be emission from the overflowing stream.

We don’t have sufficient information (masses and inclination) to interpret the velocities in the tomogram directly, but we can perform a plausibility check. The high-velocity wings in eclipsing SW Sex stars extend to velocities of $``$1400–1600 km s-1 in stars such as SW Sex itself (Dhillon, Marsh & Jones 1997) and V1315 Aql (Hellier 1996); the equivalent component in V1025 Cen extends to $``$1300 km s-1 in data with a comparable signal-to-noise ratio. These velocities match if V1025 Cen has an inclination of $``$60, or a $`\mathrm{sin}i`$ of $``$0.87.

Further, adopting a white-dwarf mass of 0.7 M and a red-dwarf mass of 0.1 M implies that the red dwarf has an orbital velocity of $``$440 km s-1, that the Lagrangian point orbits at $``$290 km s-1, and that the outer edge of the disc (assuming it is located at the tidal limit) orbits at $``$650 km s-1 (see Warner 1995, chapter 2, for the relevant formulae). These values compare with the observed S-wave amplitude of 350 km s-1, or $``$400 km s-1 with the above $`\mathrm{sin}i`$. Thus the S-wave is compatible with arising from the secondary or the early part of the stream, but less compatible with arising from the stream–disc impact (unless the inclination or the white-dwarf mass are lower than adopted above). Thus, overall, the line profiles are consistent with the stream-overflow idea, in that both the lower-velocity S-wave and the line wings have compatible velocities.

### 5.2 The periodicities

A crucial observation for models of V1025 Cen is that the X-ray lightcurve varies only with the 2147-s spin period, and not with the orbital cycle nor the orbital sidebands of the spin period (Hellier et al. 1998). This implies that the accreting material loses knowledge of orbital phase before attaching to field lines. This, in turn, suggests that, if the stream-overflow model is correct, the overflowing stream does not travel far enough to encounter the magnetosphere, but instead re-impacts the disc further out. This contrasts with suggestions for other IPs, for instance FO Aqr, where the interaction of the overflowing stream with the magnetopshere was invoked specifically to explain an X-ray beat pulse (Hellier 1993; Beardmore et al. 1998). Two caveats should be made. First, the overflow might be intermittent, and might not have been occurring during the X-ray observations. Indeed, the X-ray beat pulse in FO Aqr is variable and sometimes absent. Secondly, we should consider whether the 2147-s period is misidentified, and is actually the beat ($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) period. This, though, would imply a spin period of 1509 s, and no such periodicity has ever been seen in V1025 Cen; and further, other observed periodicities, such as the 1860-s modulation, would then have no natural identification.

There is, however, a significant beat-cycle modulation in the line V/R ratios (Section 2). This can be explained in the standard way for optical beat periods, namely irradiation of structure fixed in the binary frame (secondary or stream) by the spin-pulsed X-ray beam. However, the period of the observed modulation differs from the expected value by 0.7 per cent. Over the 2-d span of the observations this amounts to a shift of 0.35 cycles. A possible explanation is that over the 2-d interval the X-ray beam switched from illuminating (predominantly) the secondary, to illuminating (predominantly) the structure formed where the overflowing stream re-impacts the disc. As can be seen from the tomogram, these two regions are separated by $``$0.35 in orbital phase. If correct, this again sugggests that the overflow is intermittent, occuring only some of the time.

One puzzle for the above model is the observation of the 1860-s photometric modulation, identified with 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$), when $`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is not seen. Reprocessing of X-rays would likely result in an optical $`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ modulation, as is observed in many IPs, but not 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$). One plausible explanation, that the illuminating X-ray beam is double-peaked, resulting in reprocessing at 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$), is contradicted by the fact that the observed X-ray pulse is nearly sinusoidal (Hellier et al. 1998). Thus, this explanation only works if the X-ray pulse is beamed such that it is double-peaked in the orbital plane but sinusoidal from our line of sight, which is unlikely.

## 6 A discless model?

Having considered a model for V1025 Cen based on the conventional partial disc, we now consider the alternative discless model based on a diamagnetic flow. This model was proposed by King (1993) and Wynn & King (1995), see also Wynn (2001). It treats the accretion flow as a set of diamagnetic blobs, and represents these by the particles in a hydrodynamical code, with the addition of a magnetic drag term which acts like the tension of the magnetic field lines. This term is proportional to the rate at which particles cross field lines, giving an acceleration

$$𝒂_{\mathrm{mag}}=k[𝒗𝒗_\mathrm{f}]_{}$$

where $`𝒗`$ and $`𝒗_\mathrm{f}`$ are the velocities of the material and field and the symbol $``$ indicates the component perpendicular to the field lines. The parameter $`k`$ is dependent on factors such as the the local field strength, blob density and Alfvén speed. The net effect is that particles orbiting outside the corotation radius gain angular momentum from the field, and can be pushed outwards, while particles orbiting inside the corotation radius lose angular momentum to the field and so accrete onto the white dwarf.

King & Wynn (1999) proposed that this model can explain the anomalously long spin periods of EX Hya and V1025 Cen, suggesting that the systems are in an equilibrium where $`R_{\mathrm{co}}`$ $``$ $`b`$. Using this model we have computed simulations of the accretion flow appropriate to V1025 Cen. We assume white-dwarf and red-dwarf masses of 0.7 and 0.1 M respectively. Using an orbital period of 5077 s we then tweak the $`k`$ parameter until we get a spin period of 2147 s. This requires a magnetic timescale, $`k^1`$, of a few seconds. We can combine this with estimates for the density and blob-length in the stream \[10-9 g cm-3 and 109 respectively, see King & Wynn (1999)\] to find a magnetic moment of $``$5$`\times 10^{32}`$ G cm3 (equating to a field of $``$ 1 MG).

In this model the flow alternates between episodes of accretion and ejection, according to the beat phase between the orbital cycle and the white-dwarf rotation. Accretion events occur when one of the magnetic poles points towards the accretion flow, allowing the blobs to flow down field lines; they thus occur twice per beat cycle. Between each accretion event, when the magnetic poles are on the white-dwarf limb as seen from the approaching flow, the blobs are expelled outwards, and may be swept up by the secondary.

Most of the flow ($``$ $`>`$90 per cent) accretes, but the expulsion of the remaining $``$10 per cent, with a high specific angular momentum, allows the system to maintain equilibrium at a far longer spin period than would be possible in a disc-fed system. Illustrations of the flow in this model are presented in Fig. 5.

### 6.1 Sideband pulsations in the diamagnetic-flow model

Perhaps the biggest difficulty in applying this model to EX Hya and V1025 Cen is that it predicts an accretion rate modulated on the beat cycle (e.g. fig. 3 of King & Wynn 1999), whereas the hard-X-ray lightcurves of both stars are modulated only at the spin frequencies (e.g. Córdova, Mason & Kahn 1985; Hellier et al. 1998). The current models calculate only the blob-accretion rate and don’t yet predict X-ray lightcurves — this would involve factors such as the optical depth in the accreting regions, which could modulate the flux at the spin frequency. However, the lightcurve would still be expected to show the hallmarks of discless accretion, namely pulsations at $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, $`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and/or $`2\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ (e.g. Wynn & King 1992), whereas none of these are seen in the $`>`$ 2 keV X-ray lightcurves of either star. This argument is supported by V2400 Oph, an IP which is almost certainly discless, whose X-ray lightcurve is dominated by the beat pulse (Buckley et al. 1997; Hellier & Beardmore 2002).

Having said the above, the simple magnetic-drag prescription adopted in the current model may not be appropriate close to the white dwarf, since it ignores magnetic pressure and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities. Also, the equilibria of EX Hya and V1025 Cen require only $``$10 per cent of the flow to be ejected back towards the secondary. It is thus conceivable that the bulk of the flow circularizes into a azimuthally symmetric, structure around the white dwarf, which could then result in a dominant spin-cycle pulsation. In particular, if there were a range of blob densities, the denser blobs would be less affected by the field, and circularise into a disc more easily. The equilibrium could then be sustained by the ejection of less-dense blobs.

Optical beat-cycle pulsations are less diagnostic, since they can be created by other mechanisms, including the irradiation of structure fixed in the orbital frame by spin-pulsed X-rays. As discussed in Section 5.2, this is likely to explain the optical beat-frequency pulsation seen in V1025 Cen, and applies equally well to the diamagnetic-blob model. Again, the 0.7 per cent difference in the observed frequency from the true frequency requires that the illuminated structure changes location from day to day — and might be expected as the stream is being buffeted by a varying magnetic force. On the other hand, the detection of the 1860-s optical pulsation identified with 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) strongly supports the diamagnetic-blob model. The key feature of this model, ejection events twice per beat cycle, offers a straightforward explanation of an optical 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$) periodicity.

### 6.2 Tomographic comparison

The diamagnetic-blob model can be used to predict line profiles simply by adding up the number of blobs in each velocity bin. Although this ignores all radiative transfer effects, it is still a useful comparison with the data. Fig. 6 shows the trailed spectra from the model, computed for an inclination of 90, along with an orbital-cycle tomogram. The trailed spectrum shows similarities with the data in Fig. 3, in that both have a lower-velocity S-wave accompanied by higher-velocity emission phased 0.2–0.3 earlier.

In the tomogram both the data and the model show a ‘hook’ structure, which is brightest near the secondary, and curls anti-clockwise before petering out in the lower-right quadrant. Note that the velocities of the hook feature in the model are lower than expected for disc emission, since they arise from material being ejected back towards the secondary. If V1025 Cen is at a relatively high inclination, so that the $`\mathrm{sin}i`$ factor is $``$1, then the model and observed velocities match well.

This similarity in tomograms is, along with the explanation for the long spin period, the strongest evidence for a discless flow in V1025 Cen. However, as discussed above, a discless flow is dependent primarily on the beat cycle, rather than the orbital or spin cycles. Thus we can go further and compare orbital-cycle tomograms that are sampled from particular beat phases, an analysis technique that has been used previously for FO Aqr data (Marsh & Duck 1996).

Before proceeding we should express a strong caveat about any such method. Given a particular orbital and beat phase, the spin phase is entailed. Thus if there are variations that are intrinsic to the spin cycle, from magnetically threaded material near the white dwarf, then these will not smear out in the analysis, but will be systematically folded in, appearing as structure in the orbital tomogram, varying according to the beat phase of the sample.

Thus the beat-phase-resolved orbital tomogram will have superimposed on it the tomogram of the spin cycle (see Hellier 1999 for spin-cycle tomograms of IPs) and this superimposed, spin-cycle tomogram will rotate anti-clockwise as the beat phase of the sample increases. Thus we expect to find changes in the orbital tomogram as a function of beat phase, even if there are no intrinsic variations on the beat cycle! In the case of V1025 Cen, the change over the spin cycle is mainly in equivalent width, rather than velocity, and this will reduce the contamination. In the case of FO Aqr, the lines vary over the spin cycle in both equivalent width and velocity (e.g. Hellier, Cropper & Mason 1990) and the contamination will be severe. More generally, there is no model-independent way of attributing variations to the beat cycle rather than the spin cycle, once these are allowed to be functions of orbital phase.

A further caveat is a standard one applying to tomography, in that it assumes that optical depth effects are not changing the intensity of line emission over the different cycles. From the large changes in equivalent width, particularly over the spin cycle (Fig. 2), we know that this assumption is violated in V1025 Cen.

In Fig. 7 we present beat-phase-resolved, orbital-cycle tomograms of the V1025 Cen data. The changes in features over beat phase will be caused by (1) components whose velocities genuinely vary with beat phase, (2) components whose velocities vary with spin phase, and (3) material whose illumination by EUV and X-ray photons is a function of beat phase. For comparison, Fig. 8 shows the equivalent tomograms computed from the diamagnetic-blob model. These will contain the effects 1 and 2 just mentioned, but not effect 3, since irradiation is not included.

Both the data and the model tomograms show the hook-like features varying with beat phase. In the model, the ‘tail’ of the hook becomes less pronounced during the ejection events, re-forming during accretion episodes. This disappearance and re-forming is also seen clearly in the data. However, the variation is greater in the data, and occurs once per beat cycle, whereas in the model it occurs twice per beat cycle. The difference can plausibly be explained by the lack of X-ray irradiation in the model. Given the sinusoidal X-ray spin pulse, regions fixed in the orbital frame will receive a sinusoidal cycle of irradiation over the beat cycle, enhancing the line emission once per beat cycle. Given that irradiation is not included in the model, and the other caveats expressed above, it is not surprising that there are major differences between the data and the current model.

To complete the discussion of the beat-resolved tomograms (Fig. 7) we should consider how they could be interpreted in the partial-disc model. The emission near velocity (0, 300) km s-1, seen at all beat phases, would likely be from the secondary star. The ‘hook’ feature would be due to the stream flowing from the Lagrangian point, colliding with the disc (near velocity –500, 400 km s-1), and then overflowing the disc (moving to the lower-left quadrant of the tomogram). The fact that the velocities in the lower-left quadrant are only about half those of a free-falling stream means that the overflowing stream would have to be slowed by its interaction with the disc, though this is in line with theoretical findings (Armitage & Livio 1998).

The stream would be illuminated once per beat cycle by the spin-pulsed X-ray beam, and this would explain why it is seen only for particular beat phases. However, we don’t have an ephemeris for the X-ray pulse and so cannot reliably predict which phases these are.

## 7 Conclusions

We have presented phase-resolved spectroscopy of the intermediate polar V1025 Cen. We summarise here the strengths and weaknesses of the two models proposed for this system.

### 7.1 Partial-disc model

The strengths of the model are: (1) Disc-fed accretion explains an X-ray lightcurve varying only at the spin period. (2) The line-profile variations can be plausibly explained by invoking stream–disc overflow, in a manner seen in SW Sex stars (although a weak X-ray beat pulsation might then be expected). (3) The beat-resolved tomograms can be interpreted as showing structure from the stream overflowing the disc, illuminated once per beat cycle by the X-ray beam.

The weaknesses are: (1) There is no explanation for the anomalously long spin period of V1025 Cen, except to claim that the system is not in equilibrium. (2) There is no easy explanation for the 1860-s optical pulsation.

### 7.2 Discless model

The strengths of the model are: (1) Explains the long spin period of V1025 Cen. (2) Explains the hook-like features in the tomograms, and the changes in the feature over beat-cycle phase (though there are still differences with the data). (3) Explains the 1860-s optical pulsation as ejection events occurring at 2($`\omega `$ – $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$). The main weakness is the fact that the X-ray lightcurve varies only at the spin frequency, and not at the orbital and beat frequencies, which argues against stream-fed accretion.

### 7.3 Further work

The summary above shows that we can’t yet decide between the two models. Note that there is also a scenario in which both may be ‘right’: if V1025 Cen had been discless for most of the past 106–107 y, this would explain the long spin period, even if a disc had formed more recently.

Observations needed to make further progress include a determination of the inclination of V1025 Cen, allowing us to match the observed line velocities to the models. Developments to the theory could include the addition of radiation processes to the diamagnetic-blob model, allowing a better comparison with line profiles, and computations of the predicted X-ray lightcurves. Also useful would be deeper searches for polarisation, following the initial work by Buckley et al. (1998). In the diamagnetic-flow model the field is likely to be an order-of-magnitude stronger than in a disc-fed system of the same orbital period (fig 7 of King & Wynn 1999), and further the polarised light would not be diluted by a bright disc, leading to a greater likelihood of detecting polarisation in these systems than in most IPs.


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# An X-ray view of the active nucleus in NGC~4258Based partly on observations with XMM-Newton, an ESA Science Mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA).

## 1 Introduction

NGC~4258 (M106) is a BT = 8.5 mag nearby (distance of 7.2 Mpc, i.e. 1$`\mathrm{"}35`$ pc, Herrnstein et al. 1999), highly inclined (72°, Tully 1988) SABbc spiral spectroscopically classified as a 1.9 Seyfert galaxy (Ho et al. 1997). The strong polarization of the relatively broad optical emission lines (Wilkes et al. 1995) further supports the existence of an obscured active nucleus in NGC~4258. Water maser line emission of rotating gas near the center of NGC~4258 is modeled by a 3.6$`\times 10^7`$ M mass within 0.13 pc of the nucleus, indicating a massive nuclear black hole inside a highly inclined (83°) thin gaseous disk (Miyoshi et al. 1995; Greenhill et al. 1995b, a).

Turner & Ho (1994) detected a very bright radio continuum nuclear source, showing, in observations from March 1985 through to May 1990, long term time variability by 47% both at 6 and 20 cm (Hyman et al. 2001).

In X-rays ROSAT PSPC and HRI observations of NGC~4258 (Pietsch et al. 1994; Cecil et al. 1995; Vogler & Pietsch 1999) resolved diffuse emission mostly connected to the “anomalous” arms and emission from NGC~4258 point sources. However, due to the soft energy band (0.1–2.4 keV) only upper limits could be derived for emission from the nucleus. ASCA observations of NGC~4258 were of reduced spatial resolution but extended the energy coverage to 10 keV with improved spectral resolution. Makishima et al. (1994) reported, as well as soft emission components, a hard, highly absorbed point-like component that could be modeled by an absorbed power-law ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ $`1.5`$$`\times 10^{23}`$ cm-2, photon index $``$1.78, unabsorbed luminosity 4$`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1 in the (2–10) keV band) and an iron K emission line with an equivalent width of (250$`\pm `$100) eV. Further ASCA observations improved on the spectral parameters of the hard component, confirming a narrow iron K$`\alpha `$ emission line at ($`6.45_{0.07}^{+0.10}`$) keV with an equivalent width of ($`107_{37}^{+42}`$) eV, and showing time variability of the (5–10) keV flux and probably also the absorbing column of the hard component (Reynolds et al. 2000). BeppoSAX observations extended the spectral coverage of the power-law component to 70 keV (Fiore et al. 2001). Wilson et al. (2001) have recently reported the results of a Chandra observation optimized to investigating the X-ray emission from the “anomalous arms”. The region around the nucleus showed two compact sources, a bright heavily absorbed source coincident with the radio nucleus and the nuclear H2O maser source, and a second fainter source offset to the SW by 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5. While the nuclear source is heavily piled-up, debilitating the determination of reliable spectral parameters, the spectrum of the weaker source is well described by an absorbed power-law ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ $`2`$$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, photon index $``$1.5, unabsorbed luminosity 5$`\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1 in the (0.5–4.5) keV band), and is most likely an X-ray binary within NGC~4258 itself.

An XMM-Newton observation of NGC~4258 was carried out to investigate the different emission components. In this paper we will concentrate on the hard X-ray emission from the active nucleus and defer an analysis of the NGC~4258 diffuse emission and extra-nuclear point sources to a later paper. We also analyzed a short Chandra ACIS-S observation from the Chandra archive adding to the nuclear point source interpretation of the hard emission.

## 2 XMM-Newton observations and results

NGC~4258 was observed with XMM-Newton (Jansen et al. 2001) on December 8/9, 2000 during orbit 183. The observations with the EPIC PN (Strüder et al. 2001) and MOS (Turner et al. 2001) detectors were of $``$16.5 ks and $``$20.6 ks respectively, with the PN in Extended Full Frame mode (thin filter) and MOS1 and MOS2 both in Full Frame mode (medium filter). Calibrated EPIC event files were created with the XMM-Newton SAS (Science Analysis Software) version 20010512\_0642. X-ray events corresponding to patterns 0–4 (singles and doubles) were then selected for the PN camera for spectra and images; for the MOS cameras patterns 0–12 were used. Known hot or bad pixels were removed during screening. High background times at the end of the observation were rejected from the spectral fitting analysis, reducing usable integration times for spectra to 13.8, 19.9, and 20.0 ks for PN, MOS1 and MOS2, respectively.

An EPIC PN color image of the NGC~4258 nucleus and inner disk area was created with contours of the 2–10 keV emission superimposed (Fig. 1). Red, green and blue show respectively the ROSAT-equivalent (0.2–0.5) keV, (0.5–0.9) keV and (0.9–2.0) keV bands. The image is dominated by complex unresolved emission in the soft bands with an extent of at least 6′ and a bright nuclear point source in the hard band. In addition there are several fainter point-like sources distributed over the NGC~4258 disk.

To characterize the nuclear emission, we extracted PN spectra from different extraction radii separately for single events and double events. For MOS1 and MOS2 spectra, we added together single, double, triple and quadruple events. As expected from Fig. 1, the contribution of the extended emission to the soft band strongly decreases for smaller extraction radii. Due to the different spectral shape, the soft contributions clearly separate from the harder nuclear emission and do not contribute above $``$2 keV. We therefore restricted our spectral modeling to energies above this threshold. Figure 2 shows spectra integrated for the different EPIC detectors and pattern selections using a source extraction radius of 15″ which covers $``$80% of the integrated point spread function PSF (Aschenbach et al. 2000), and background spectra from a 50″radius area free of extended emission $``$4$`\stackrel{}{.}`$2 to the NE of the nucleus. For clarity, the MOS1 and MOS2 intensities have been shifted down by 0.5 and 1 decade respectively. Spectra were binned to a minimum of 30 counts per bin in order to have sufficient statistics in the individual bins for $`\chi ^2`$ minimum fitting. For spectral fits we used the most recent response matrices for PN singles and doubles (epn\_ff20\_sY9\_thin.rmf and epn\_ff20\_dY9\_thin.rmf, Mar 2001) and MOS1 and MOS2 (m1\_medv9q19t5r4\_all\_15.rsp and m2\_medv9q19t5r4\_all\_15.rsp, Feb 2001). If not quoted otherwise errors are at the 90% confidence level (e.g. $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi ^2=2.7`$ for one interesting parameter).

A highly absorbed power-law model ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ = (8.0$`\pm `$0.4)$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2, photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = 1.64$`\pm `$0.08) yielded an acceptable fit (reduced $`\chi ^2=0.98`$ for 336 degrees of freedom, dof; see Fig. 2). The normalization factors of 1.10$`\pm `$0.04 and 1.14$`\pm `$0.04 between MOS1 and PN and MOS2 and PN respectively, are caused by differences in the PSF of the instruments as well as absolute calibration uncertainties. The resulting absorbed and unabsorbed fluxes in the hard (2–10 keV) band are 7.6 and 12.1$`\times 10^{12}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 respectively, corresponding to luminosities of 4.7 and 7.5$`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1. As one might expect due to the limited energy range, a hard thermal bremsstrahlung model was equally acceptable ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$ = 7.4$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2, $`kT=21.7`$ keV, reduced $`\chi ^2=0.95`$ for 336 dof).

The residuals of the data versus the power-law model in the energy band around the iron K$`\alpha `$ line energy (5.5–7.8 keV, see Fig. 3) do not support any emission line in this energy range, specifically not a narrow iron line around 6.45 keV as reported by ASCA. From the XMM-Newton data we determined the 90% upper limit for the photon flux of a narrow emission line around 6.45 keV to be 4.2$`\times `$10-6 photons cm-2 s-1 (corresponding to an equivalent width of $``$40 eV). This upper limit is much lower than the values reported from the ASCA detections.

We searched for time variability of the nuclear source in the 2–10 keV band. To do so we extracted EPIC light curves of the nuclear source with a time resolution of 200 s. There is no long term trend within the observation. We also find no flux changes greater than $``$20% from the observation average on shorter time scales down to our sampling of 200 s.

## 3 Chandra observations and results

Data (cleaned event files, images and aspect offset files) from a short exposure Chandra ACIS-S observation of NGC 4258, performed in March 2000, were obtained from the Chandra Data Archive (http://asc.harvard.edu/cgi-gen/cda). No flaring in the data was observed, and so the data over the full integration time (1205 s) were used to create images and spectra.

Figure 4 shows raw ACIS-S images in the (top) soft band (below 2 keV) and the (bottom) hard band (above 2 keV). The images are 30″ to a side, equivalent to the 30″ diameter extraction circles used in the creation of the XMM EPIC NGC 4258 nuclear spectra.

A dominant source is detected at $`\alpha `$=12h18m57$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$53, $`\delta `$=+47°18′14$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7 (J2000), lying 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7 from the NGC 4258 central radio source of Turner & Ho (1994), and is very prominent in the hard band image. Though it is also visible in the soft band image (though less so), what is most striking is the appearance of a soft companion $``$3″ to the southwest. This companion is just about a factor of 2 fainter than the nuclear source in the soft band, whereas in the hard band it is fainter by a factor of more than 100.

As this short Chandra observation had not been optimised to study the “anomalous arms” (as had the longer observation presented in Wilson et al. (2001)), no significant pile-up is seen from the nuclear source, and the Chandra spectrum from the NGC~4258 nucleus can be studied for the first time. Programs within the Chandra data analysis suite CIAO were used to extract a spectrum from a 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0625 radius circle about the position of the bright source. Similarly, a background spectrum was extracted from a source-free 9$`\stackrel{}{.}`$375 radius circle some 13″ away to the northeast. Once response matrix files and ancillary response files were created (again using CIAO), the spectra were binned to a minimum of 30 counts per bin. Fitting of an absorbed power-law model to the data between 1 and 10 keV (see Fig. 5) gives rise to results entirely consistent with those obtained with XMM EPIC: $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ = (7.2$`\pm `$1.8)$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ = 1.4$`\pm `$0.5, with a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 1.36. The large errors are due to the poor statistics obtained over such a short integration time. Note the $``$1$`\sigma `$ suggestion of an iron-like feature at around 6.5 keV.

Assumption of this model gives rise to absorbed and unabsorbed hard band, (2–10) keV fluxes of 1.44 and 2.12$`\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 respectively, corresponding to luminosities of 0.89 and 1.32$`\times 10^{41}`$ erg s-1.

## 4 Discussion

ASCA observations of NGC~4258 established a heavily absorbed hard component in the overall X-ray spectrum which was attributed to the nucleus and confirmed by BeppoSAX (Makishima et al. 1994; Fiore et al. 2001). The ASCA and BeppoSAX observations of the hard emission of NGC~4258 however, suffered from instrument PSFs of more than an arcminute, and only higher resolution instruments such as XMM-Newton and Chandra were thought able to confirm a nuclear origin to the hard emission. Even the XMM-Newton observations do not resolve the nuclear emission from that of another reasonably bright nearby point source, most likely an X-ray binary, that is resolved by Chandra (see Sect. 3). Wilson et al. (2001), analysing a deeper Chandra observation, report this source to be at a projected distance from the nucleus of 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5 (87 pc) and characterize its spectrum as an absorbed power-law ($`N_\mathrm{H}=(2.0_{1.1}^{+1.2})`$$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.49_{0.37}^{+0.50}`$, absorption corrected luminosity 5.1$`\times 10^{38}`$ erg s-1), similar in slope but much less absorbed than the nuclear spectrum. Fortunately, the source is rather faint (less than 1% in flux) compared to the nuclear emission and cannot significantly influence the XMM-Newton results. Also we detect no other hard bright point-like sources within an arcmin of the nucleus that could significantly contribute to the ASCA and BeppoSAX emission, which therefore really has to originate from the nucleus.

In Table 1 we give an historical record of the NGC~4258 nuclear spectrum. The XMM-Newton power-law spectral parameters are within the range of the other measurements. The photon index is on the hard side but compatible within the errors of the ASCA results. Only the BeppoSAX index pointed at a somewhat softer spectrum. The absorbing column ($``$8$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2) seems to have not varied significantly since the first ASCA measurements that pointed at an absorption a factor 1.5–2 higher. The luminosity however, seems to have varied on a timescale of several years by a factor of about two starting from low values in 1993 with a maximum in 1996 to 1998. The XMM-Newton measurements indicate that in December 2000 the nuclear luminosity was again at a lower level. Fiore et al. (2001) report variability of a factor of about 2 on half-day timescales as well as smaller scale variations (10%–20%) on timescales as short as 1 hr. During the XMM-Newton observations the source did not show any variability at similar amplitudes. With its absorption-corrected (2–10) keV luminosity of typically 7$`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1, the AGN in NGC~4258 is presently not very active compared to other Seyfert galaxies. Risaliti et al. (1999) report luminosities from Seyfert galaxies ranging from 3$`\times 10^{40}`$ erg s-1 to 2$`\times 10^{44}`$ erg s-1.

The high X-ray absorption of the nuclear component in NGC~4258 is expected, given the optically-derived Seyfert 1.9 classification of the galaxy, using the so-called “unified model” (Antonucci 1993). This model assumes that the engine is at work in all active galactic nuclei and differences between type 1 and type 2 AGN are ascribed solely to orientation effects, i.e. that our line of sight is (type 2) or is not (type 1) obscured by optically thick material. Risaliti et al. (1999) showed that most “strict” Seyfert 2 nuclei are highly obscured ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$$`>`$$`10^{23}`$ cm-2) or even Compton thick($`N_\mathrm{H}`$$`>`$$`10^{24}`$ cm-2). Intermediate type 1.8–1.9 Seyfert galaxies on the other hand are characterized by an average $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ much lower than “strict” Seyfert 2 galaxies. The absorption of the NGC~4258 nuclear spectrum of $``$8$`\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 fits into this scenario.

From the first reports of hard X-ray emission from NGC~4258, a narrow iron K$`\alpha `$ emission line was always needed to model the spectra. According to Table 1, the strongest line compared to the continuum was needed for the 1993 ASCA data. With XMM-Newton we do not detect a line, and our EW upper limit is more than a factor of 6 below the Makishima et al. (1994) initial ASCA detection and still a factor of more than 2 below the later ASCA and BeppoSAX values (Reynolds et al. 2000; Fiore et al. 2001). Note that Makishima et al. (1994) report that no background was subtracted from the May 1993 ASCA raw spectra and therefore, one might have doubts regarding the line strength in this analysis if the background contains contributions from an intrinsic iron feature. It must be stated however, that the existence of the line was clearly demonstrated in the later ASCA observations. The BeppoSAX equivalent width from December 1998 is, due to the large errors, compatible with both the ASCA results from May 1999 and with our XMM-Newton upper limit from December 2000.

There are at least two possible explanations for this result: (1) The difference could be caused by the larger sky area used to accumulate the ASCA and BeppoSAX spectra. In this way an extended component from the NGC~4258 disk could be picked up that would not be covered by the much smaller spectral extraction region used here with XMM-Newton . We tried to rule out this explanation by extracting XMM-Newton spectra from a comparably large area. In these spectra we did not detect any iron line emission. The upper limit to the equivalent width however is similar to the measurements by earlier satellites. (2) The most straightforward explanation however, is that the line intensity is varying with time.

Several groups have calculated the contribution of an obscuring torus to the X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies using Monte Carlo simulations (e.g. Awaki et al. 1991; Leahy & Creighton 1993; Ghisellini et al. 1994). They find strong dependence of the iron line EW at 6.4 keV on the absorbing column and geometrical factors. For the relatively low nuclear absorption in NGC~4258, EWs of $``$100 eV or less are expected. This is compatible with our findings. These simple models therefore would be sufficient to explain the XMM-Newton data and we would not need to invoke additional reflection components. Such a component is for instance needed to explain the iron line EW of $`>`$2 keV measured by Chandra in the Seyfert 2 nucleus of M 51 (Terashima & Wilson 2001).

According to Table 1, the iron line varied in absolute flux by a factor of at least 2 in 18 months (from May 1999 to December 2000) setting an upper limit on the size-scale of the fluorescing region of 0.5 pc. This seems to argue against a torus origin for the iron line which would imply a significantly larger size scale. Instead, it favours an origin of the line in the accretion disk much closer to the nucleus. If the line originated in the outer regions of the accretion disk as proposed by Reynolds et al. (2000) using different arguments, its variability could reflect intensity changes of the nuclear power law source (that may not have been covered directly by the observations listed in Table 1). Alternative explanations for the line variability might be changes in the disk (e.g. the “inner” edge of the optically thin disk, or the ionization structure of the disk surface).

The - up till now - sparse data on the NGC~4258 6.4 keV line seem to indicate a correlation between the amount of absorption and the EW of the line. However, an anticorrelation of the line EW with the nuclear luminosity can also not be ruled out. More high quality spectra are clearly needed to clarify the behaviour, and such results may then force revisions and improvements to the simple unification picture.

## 5 Summary

The XMM-Newton observations of the Seyfert 1.9 galaxy NGC~4258 show a hard nuclear point source with a spectrum that can be modeled by a highly absorbed power-law. The analysis of a short archival Chandra observation constrains the hard emission to a point source coincident with the radio nucleus. During the XMM-Newton observation the nuclear emission flux remained constant. Our upper limit to narrow iron K$`\alpha `$ line emission is significantly lower than earlier detections by ASCA and BeppoSAX and indicates time variability of this component. Simple absortion models would be sufficient to explain the reported line fluxes and upper limits. The suggested long term line variability, however, seems to point at a more complex scenario including reflection from the accretion disk and/or variability of the disk geometry and ionization.

The detailed analysis of XMM-Newton data from the extranuclear point sources as well as from the diffuse emission from the “anomalous” arms and the interstellar medium in the disk and halo of NGC~4258 will be published in a following paper.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the referee (Christopher Reynolds) for helpful comments. The XMM-Newton project is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (BMBF/DLR), the Max-Planck Society and the Heidenhain-Stiftung.