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# The massive star IMF

## 1. Introduction

The stellar initial mass function (IMF) describes the relative distribution of stars with different masses after their formation. This basic quantity determines the relative radiative, chemical and mechanical “production” of stars of different masses/types. It is is therefore of fundamental importance for a variety of issues in astrophysics, such as the understanding of stellar populations and the star formation history of the Universe, studies of the chemical evolution of galaxies, the interactions between stars and the interstellar medium etc.

The most fundamental question concerning the IMF is of course that of its physical origin, which remains largely unknown today. This issue, including e.g. competing theories tracing the IMF back to fragmentation properties, negative feedback, or competitive accretion, is beyond the scope of the present review. Other questions include the existence of lower and upper mass limits of the IMF (e.g. does an upper mass limit Mup exist ? If so, is it “intrinsic” – e.g. due to fragmentation properties – due to stellar self-limitation, or both ?), and the possible dependence of the IMF on “environmental” conditions (e.g. metallicity, gas pressure, stellar density, background radiation, etc.). Several of these questions are addressed in the recent proceedings edited by Gilmore et al. (1998).

The more “empirical” approach taken here is mainly to review our current knowledge on the IMF, its functional behaviour (single/multiple power law, or other), constraints on the upper and lower mass limits, and also techniques used to derive these quantities. Although observations of resolved stellar populations are briefly discussed (Sect. 2), the main focus of the review is on the massive star IMF in unresolved stellar populations, including especially massive star forming regions of various scales, i.e. from giant H ii regions to full blown starburst galaxies. Another recent review on the IMF in starbursts is found in Leitherer (1998).

The following notation will be used subsequently. The IMF $`\chi `$ is defined by $`dN=\chi (m)dm`$, which gives the number of stars with initial mass in the interval $`[m,m+dm]`$. Generally the IMF is described by a powerlaw $`\chi =Am^\alpha `$, where the Salpeter (1955) slope is given by $`\alpha =2.35`$. Other frequently used exponents are related to $`\alpha `$ by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=x=1+\gamma =1\alpha `$.

## 2. The IMF in the local Universe – resolved populations

Let us briefly recall what is known about the IMF from studies of resolved stellar systems in the local Universe.

Star counts in Galactic and Magellanic Cloud (MC) clusters/associations reveal an IMF with a slope close to Salpeter ($`\alpha =2.3\pm 0.3`$) above $``$ 1 Mand two turn-overs below, as summarised in the detailed review of Kroupa (2002). Using a correction for binaries according to Sagar & Richtler (1991), Kroupa (2002) lists $`\alpha =2.7\pm 0.3`$. However, the reliability of this correction method for the massive star IMF, especially for masses $`>`$ 10 M, is not established. According to Kroupa (2002) no statistically significant variation of the slope is found, except seemingly for the Arches cluster analysed by Figer et al. (1999, cf. Figer these proceedings).

Recent studies of starburst like objects (e.g. giant H ii regions R136 in 30 Dor, NGC 3603) have shown that low mass stars with masses down to $``$ 0.1–0.6 M are also formed in such environments (e.g. Brandl et al. 1999, Sirianni et al. 2000). So far, no change of the lower mass cut-off compared to more quiescent star forming regions has thus been found.

The determination of Mup (if such a limit exists) from stellar counts requires sufficient statistics. The minimum required stellar mass $`M_{\mathrm{tot}}`$ of a cluster in order to contain at least 1 star with mass $`M_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is given by $`M_{\mathrm{tot}}(23)\times 10^3(M_{\mathrm{max}}/100M_{})^{1.3}`$ M. The range indicated here is valid for a slope $`\alpha =2.3`$ and Mlow=1 M or for the Kroupa (2002) IMF and Mlow=0.01 M. E.g. in clusters with $`M_{\mathrm{tot}}10^4`$ M one expects thus one star of $``$ 250 M. Therefore a determination of the upper mass limit above $``$ 100 M is indeed not possible for most Galactic and MC clusters/associations (Massey 1998). However, in the few most massive clusters (e.g. Arches, R136, Cyg OB2), provided they are also very young, this should in principle be possible. At the present stage, we simply note that stars with masses of the order of $``$ 100 M exist (cf. special session: Moffat & Puls, these proceedings).

Local studies have also found no dependence of the IMF on metallicity (Massey et al. 1995, Massey 1998).

## 3. The IMF measured in super star clusters

The determination of dynamical masses of super star clusters (SSC), based on velocity dispersion and cluster size measurements, has been pioneered by Ho & Filippenko (1996ab). So far such mass determinations have been achieved for seven SSCs (Ho & Fillipenko 1996, Smith & Gallagher 2001, Mengel et al. 2002, Gilbert & Graham 2001) Together with an age determination, the comparison of their mass/light ratio to predictions from evolutionary synthesis models can be used to constrain the IMF. This technique provides likely the most direct/best available constraints on the IMF among the studies dealing with integrated light measurements.

The current studies suggest diverse results (see overview in Mengel et al. 2002): four SSCs tend to show L/M ratios compatible with IMF slopes close to Salpeter, two SSCs lying in the interaction region of the Antennae galaxies indicate a steeper IMF ($`\alpha 3`$), and one SSC (M82-F) shows a flatter IMF, implying a dissolution over $`<`$ 2 Gyr ( Smith & Gallagher 2001). No simple picture emerges from this small sample. Given the importance of such combined dynamical and integrated light studies, it is likely that much larger samples will be studied in the near future.

## 4. UV, optical, and IR studies of starbursts

### 4.1. Starbursts and high-z galaxies in the UV

Numerous studies have analysed the rest-frame UV spectra of starbursts from nearby objects to high redshift. Among the stellar features detected (cf. review by Schaerer 2000), the strongest ones (UV wind lines of Si iv $`\lambda `$1400, C iv $`\lambda `$1550, N v $`\lambda `$1240 and lines in the FUSE domain) can be used to constrain the parameters of the integrated population, such as age, SF history, and IMF, by means of evolutionary synthesis techniques. The most up-to-date model suited to such analysis is Starburst99 (Leitherer et al. 1999, de Mello et al. 2000).

Summarised in one sentence ($`\mathrm{}`$) the main result of these studies is that all the objects contain young populations ($`<`$ 10–20 Myr) characterised by continuous star formation or instantaneous bursts – the distinction being often difficult to draw – which are populated with a rather normal Salpeter-like IMF with stars up to Mup $``$ 60 – 100 M. In a recent study Tremonti et al. (2001) examine the stellar populations in the field of NGC 5253 and find a possible indication for a steeper IMF, although other explanations (e.g. dissolution of clusters) are possible.

The similarity of the spectra of many high redshift galaxies (e.g. Lyman break galaxies) with local starbursts is well recognised and offers many exciting possibilities. For example, from the beautiful spectrum of the lensed z $``$ 2.7 Galaxy MS 1512-CB58 of Pettini et al. (2000) these authors and de Mello et al. (2000) derive a constant star formation, and IMF slope between Salpeter and $``$ 2.8. A spectral analysis of the lensed galaxy S2 by Le Borgne et al. (2002) also finds compatibility with a Salpeter IMF although time dependent dust obscuration (cf. Leitherer et al. 2002) may need to be invoked. Analysis from overall SEDs do not provide strong constraints on the IMF (Papovich et al. 2001).

### 4.2. Optical studies of H ii galaxies and alike objects

The optical spectra of massive star forming regions show both nebular and stellar lines and provide thus indirect (nebular) and direct (stellar) information on their stellar content, and thus information on the IMF. The former case is discussed in Sect. 5.

Among the stellar features detected in the optical (for a review see Schaerer 2000) are the Wolf-Rayet features (broad emission lines of He ii $`\lambda `$4686, C iv $`\lambda `$5808, C iii $`\lambda `$5696, possibly also N iii $`\lambda `$4512, Si iii $`\lambda `$4565) which are observed in objects covering a large range of metallicity ($`1/50<Z/Z_{}<2`$). Catalogues of these “WR galaxies” have been compiled by Conti (1991) and Schaerer et al. (1999b). Studies on WR galaxies (mostly BCD, Irr, spirals) are summarised in the reviews of Schaerer (1999ab).

Including the detections of spectral signatures from both WN and WC stars in a fair number of objects covering a large metallicity range, the following overall conclusions emerge from the studies of Schaerer et al. (1999a) and Guseva et al. (2000). Except possibly at the lowest metallicities a good agreement is found between the observations and the evolutionary synthesis models of Schaerer & Vacca (1998). From this comparison one finds clear indications for short bursts ($`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ 2-4 Myr) in objects with subsolar metallicity, an IMF compatible with Salpeter, and a large upper mass cut-off of the IMF, in agreement with several earlier studies (Mas-Hesse & Kunth 1999, Schaerer 1996). In addition, the observed WC/WN star ratios provide new constraints for mass loss and mixing scenarios in stellar evolution models (Schaerer et al. 1999a), which should soon be confronted with predictions from rotation stellar models (cf. Maeder, Meynet, these proceedings).

New results on the IMF metal-rich starbursts have recently been obtained. They are summarised in Sect. 6.

### 4.3. Near-IR studies

Observations at longer wavelengths are of great interest, as massive star formation occurs frequently in regions hidden behind significant amounts of dust at UV-optical wavelengths.

Pioneering work on prototypical nearby starburst galaxies such as M82 (distance 3.3 Mpc, where 1 arcsec corresponds to 15 pc) has been undertaken by Rieke et al. (1980, 1993), who measured a dynamical mass, the K-band and IR luminosities, $`L_K`$ and $`L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$, and the number of ionising photons of the nuclear region ($``$ 30 arcsec). From the relatively low $`M/L_K`$, and the large 2 $`\mu `$m and UV flux, they concluded from synthesis modeling that an IMF favouring stars in the mass range 3-6 $`<M/M_{}<`$ 10 over lower masses was required. Other indirect indications for such a so-called “top-heavy” IMF have e.g. been found for M82 by Doane & Matthews (1993).

Subsequent observations at high spatial resolution have been obtained by several groups. E.g. Satyapal et al. (1995, 1997) have obtained 1” resolution Fabry-Perot observations of Paschen-$`\alpha `$, Brackett-$`\gamma `$, and CO bandheads, showing a strong spatial variation of extinction (with $`A_V`$ varying from $``$ 2–12) and on average a smaller extinction than determined from the large aperture in the Rieke et al. studies. From their analysis they conclude that there is no need for an IMF differing from the Salpeter IMF.

K-band integral field spectroscopic observations of a 16x10 arcsec region of M82 has been obtained by Förster-Schreiber et al. (2000, 2002). A complex spatial structure including clusters of different ages and varying spatial extinction (whose derived amount is dust geometry dependent) is found. These studies illustrate the potential difficulty of obtaining robust conclusions from large aperture observations and the use of “global models”.

### 4.4. The IMF in nuclear starbursts and LIRG

CO absorption features, H recombination line fluxes, and near-IR photometry have been used to study the stellar populations in luminous IR galaxies (LIRG, defined by $`L>10^{11}L_{}`$). Generally theses objects show a relatively weak recombination line spectrum and soft spectra, and RSG features indicative of star formation over $``$ 107–108 yr (Goldader et al. 1997). As the apertures sample rather large regions, it is thought that the overall activity can reasonably be represented by constant star formation.

Using a standard Salpeter IMF, evolutionary synthesis models have difficulties in reproducing simultaneously the low Br$`\gamma `$ equivalent width and the CO strength; fitting the latter implies an overproduction of ionising photons. This result is interpreted as a possible reduction of the upper mass cut-off of the IMF (values of $`30M_{\mathrm{up}}<100M_{}`$) and/or a steeper IMF slope (Goldader et al. 1997). Similar observational trends and results are obtained for nuclear starbursts by Coziol et al. (2001).

If true, it is not clear what causes this deviation of the IMF from the otherwise seemingly “universal” Salpeter IMF. Is this related to a higher metallicity (cf. however Sect. 6), which could be expected in such evolved regions of galaxies, or possibly related to a high ISM pressure due to interactions in LIRGs?

Potential problems affecting the analysis include underlying populations which dilute/reduce $`W(\mathrm{Br}\gamma )`$ (there are good indications for this, cf. Coziol et al. 2001), absorption of ionising photons by dust (however, absorption of more than 50 % would be needed to reproduce the observed $`L_{\mathrm{Br}\gamma }/L_{\mathrm{IR}}`$), and mixed stellar populations or discontinuous SF. However, to date no alternative solution to the above near-IR analysis of LIRG and nuclear starbursts is known.

We note also that contradictory results were obtained from a detailed optical study of the massive star content of 6 metal-rich nuclear starbursts (Schaerer et al. 2000).

## 5. Stellar populations and the IMF from nebular studies

For many years optical studies have been used to reconstruct the stellar content of giant H ii regions, H ii galaxies or alike objects from their emission line spectra, including recombination lines and forbidden metallic transitions (e.g. reviews by Stasińska 1996, García-Vargas 1996).

The development of extended grids of combined starburst and photoionisation models at various metallicities has allowed to reproduce the main observed emission line trends and the observed increase of the electron temperature with decreasing metallicity. Concerning the IMF such comparisons have in particular shown a compatibility of the Salpeter IMF for metallicities down to $``$ 1/50 Z(the metallicity of I Zw 18), and a presence of massive stars with Mup$`>`$ 80 M (García-Vargas et al. 1995, Stasinska & Leitherer 1996).

Other advances e.g. in the understanding of nebular diagnostics, the origin of the emission line sequences, and the presence of underlying populations have been made by such extensive studies; also some interesting unsolved questions remain (cf. Stasińska et al. 2001, Moy et al. 2001, Kewley et al. 2001, Stasińska & Izotov 2002).

### 5.1. ISO observations

Interesting advances have been made with the advent of mid-IR spectroscopic observations of starbursts and LIRGs observed with ISO in the 4-200 $`\mu `$m range and apertures typically between 14-30 arcsec (SWS/LWS). This wavelength range is in particular rich in atomic fine structure lines originating in the ionised gas.

A case study of M82 using LWS (40-200 $`\mu `$m) spectra was undertaken Colbert et al. (1999), who find that the observed EL spectrum of M82 is compatible with an instantaneous burst at ages $``$ 3–5 Myr, a Salpeter IMF, and a high upper mass cut-off. However, as already pointed out earlier (Schaerer 2000), the shorter wavelength (SWS) data is clearly incompatible with the Colbert et al. model predicting too hard a spectrum; their photoionisation model is underconstrained.

A different approach was adopted by Förster-Schreiber (1998) and Thornley et al. (2000), who aim at an interpretation of the observed relatively low excitation as traced by the \[Ne iii\] 15.5 / \[Ne ii\] 12.8$`\mu `$m line ratio. In their model the ensemble of clusters / H ii regions and the gas clouds in M82 are described by a single “effective” ionisation parameter, whose value is adopted as typical for a sample of 27 starbursts in the starburst and photoionisation models of Thornley et al. (2000). From their modeling they conclude that the observations are compatible with a high upper mass cut-off ($`M_{\mathrm{up}}`$ 50–100 M). However, to reproduce the relatively low average \[Ne iii\]/\[Ne ii\] ratio, short timescales of SF (attributed to possible negative feedback) are required.

This result could also be affected by several uncertainties. E.g. how reliable/appropriate is the use of a single mean ionisation parameter for such a diversity of objects ? Also, metallicity variations, which – as shown by Martin-Hernandez et al. (2002) – are known to affect the Neon line ratio, are not taken into account. Finally, it is well possible that physically unrelated regions, all included in the large ISO aperture, contribute to the emission of Ne2+ and Ne+. Future high spatial resolution observations (ground-based and with SIRTF) should help to establish the reliability of mid-IR diagnostics and allow many interesting applications.

### 5.2. Metal-rich H ii regions

Emission lines in low excitation H ii regions have e.g. been used to study the properties of metal-rich regions in spiral galaxies. From their analysis of the emission line trends, the observed \[O ii\]/\[O iii\] ratio, and He i $`\lambda `$5876/H$`\beta `$ Bresolin et al. (1999) found indications for a limitation of the upper mass cut-off of the IMF of Mup $`<`$ 35 M.

However, such indirect diagnostics depend strongly on the adopted stellar tracks (e.g. outdated tracks from 1991 in the above study) and model atmospheres (cf. Schaerer 2000, and special session summarised by Schaerer, Crowther & Oey, these proceedings). In fact, new sophisticated non-LTE line blanketed atmosphere models for O and WR stars predict a softening of the radiation field, as required to reconcile the photoionisation models and a higher value of Mup with the observations (Smith et al., 2002, and these proceedings). However, whether this can fully reproduce the observed line trends with a “normal” IMF at high metallicities remains to be shown.

We now discuss a direct approach to constrain the IMF in metal-rich environments.

## 6. New light on the IMF in metal-rich environments

To probe the upper end of the IMF in metal-rich environments we have recently undertaken FORS1/VLT observations of 5 relatively nearby galaxies targeting known metal-rich H ii regions in their disks (Pindao et al. 2002). The nuclei were avoided due to the complex mix of their stellar populations.

Spectra of $``$ 90 H ii regions with a mean metallicity close to solar ($`12+\mathrm{log}(O/H)8.9\pm 0.2`$) were obtained. As suspected, we found stellar signatures of WR (WN and WC) stars in a large number of regions, i.e. 27 regions plus 15 candidate WR regions. Including previous studies (Castellanos 2001, Bresolin & Kennicutt 2002, Castellanos et al. 2002) our observations now nearly quadrupel the number of metal-rich H ii regions where WR stars are known. The salient result concerning the IMF is the following (see Pindao et al. 2002 for details).

The large sample of WR regions allows us to derive fairly model independent constraints on Mup from the maximum observed H$`\beta `$ equivalent width of the WR regions. Independently of the exact tracks and metallicity we derive a lower limit for Mup of 60–90 M in the case of a Salpeter slope, and larger values for steeper IMF slopes. This constitutes a lower limit on Mup as all observational effects known to affect potentially the H$`\beta `$ equivalent width (loss of photons in slit or leakage, dust inside H ii regions, differential extinction, underlying population) can only reduce the observed $`W(\mathrm{H}\beta )`$. This result is also consistent with our previous analysis of 6 metal-rich nuclear starbursts with WR features indicating Mup $`>`$ 35-50 M (Schaerer et al. 2000). From these analysis we conclude that the most direct stellar probes show no deficiency of massive stars at high metallicity.

## 7. Summary and conclusions

In short, our current knowledge on the IMF in nearby environments, massive star forming regions, starbursts and alike objects reviewed above can be summarised as follows:

* Resolved stellar populations show a general consensus with a Salpeter-like IMF for masses $`M>`$ 1 M and the existence of stars with masses of $``$ 100 M or more. Given these strong indications one may consider that the burden of proof is now reversed for studies from integrated light!
* Analysis of Super Star Clusters including dynamical mass measurements yield ambiguous conclusions on the slope of the IMF. Few cases are, however, observed so far.
* UV-optical studies of stellar populations in HII galaxies and alike objects generally show IMFs compatible with Salpeter and a large upper mass cut-off Mup.
* Near-IR studies of nuclear starburst and LIRG show indications of a lower Mup and/or a steeper IMF slope. No alternate explanation for the relatively weak recombination line spectrum and soft spectra has so far emerged.
* Nebular studies (optical to mid-IR) of HII galaxies and starbursts show no variation of the IMF from $`1/50Z/Z_{}<1`$. Indications of a lower value of Mup at high metallicity from nebular lines are probably due to inadequacies in the adopted stellar evolution / atmosphere models.
* Direct probes of WR stars in metal-rich HII regions show no deficiency of massive stars at high metallicity. A lower limit on Mup $`>`$ 60–90 M has recently been derived from a such large sample.

In most cases a seemingly “universal” IMF, with a powerlaw slope close to the Salpeter IMF is thus found. As for the physics of star formation, its origin remains largely unknown.

How universal is such a “universal” IMF ? Does this behaviour only break down at very low metallicities, such as encountered in the earliest phases of the Universe, and suggested by several investigations on the formation of Population III objects (cf. also Abel these proceedings) ? These, and other challenging questions are likely to remain unanswered for several more years.

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# A Test of Newton’s Law of Gravity in the Weak Acceleration Regime

## 1. Introduction

Newton’s law of gravity is routinely used to describe galaxies, even though its validity has been fully verified only within the solar system, in regimes of acceleration orders of magnitude stronger than the ones typical of galaxies. Though we have plenty of reasons for trusting Newton’s law also in these weak regimes, there are strong observational evidence that all spacecrafts in the periphery of the solar system are experiencing an anomalous, unexplained acceleration toward the sun (Anderson et al. 1998). Moreover, the modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND; Milgrom 1983, Sanders & McGaugh 2002), which posit a breakdown of Newton’s law of gravity below few times $`a_010^8`$ cm s-2, succeeds in explaining many properties of galaxies and other astrophysical phenomena without invoking non-baryonic dark matter (DM).

Because of these empirical evidence, we decided to perform an experiment to test Newton’s law of gravity. We focused on globular clusters (GC) because they are the smallest virialized structure believed to be DM free. This ensures GC’s internal dynamics should follow precisely the prediction of newton’s law for any acceleration, in particular below $`a_0`$. In the case a discrepancy would be found, then DM can not be invoked to explain it, and Newton’s law would be falsified.

## 2. Results for a Pilot Experiment on $`\omega `$ Centauri

We studied the outskirt of the GC $`\omega `$ Cen, which was selected for having known internal proper motion (van Leeuwen et al. 2000) and because visible from Paranal. To reach gravitational acceleration below $`10^7`$ cm s-2, we have selected 91 stars from van Leeuwen et al. (2000) at distance $`>30`$ pc from the center and membership probability $`>90`$%. Radial velocities with average accuracy of 0.8 km s-1 were subsequently obtained at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) with UVES. Of the selected candidates, 75 were found to be cluster members.

Combining our data with data from literature we trace the velocity dispersion $`\sigma `$ profile up to 45 pc from the center, finding $`\sigma `$ remains large and basically constant at large radii (Fig. 1). Has evident from Fig. 1, the cluster is isotropic so the use of radial velocity only to derive $`\sigma `$ does not limit the generality of our result. The profile flattens out for $`r>25`$ pc, equivalent to an acceleration of gravity of $`10^7`$ cm s-2 (for cluster mass $`4.2\times 10^6`$ M ). This is comparable to the acceleration regime for which dark matter starts to be relevant in galaxies.

The large $`\sigma `$ can be the result of tidal heating, or can be due to a large number of binary stars in our sample. Alternatively, if $`\omega `$ Cen were a galaxy (Hilker & Richtler 2000), our result may indicate a substantial amount of DM survived all the tidal stripping that transformed the galaxy into the cluster we see today. Though none of this possibility can be ruled out by present data, all requires fine tuning of the relevant parameter to explain the flattening of the velocity dispersion profile. It is striking that $`\omega `$ Cen is hundreds of times smaller than a galaxy and still its dispersion profile mimics precisely the one observed in elliptical galaxies and explained invoking DM (Carollo et al. 1995).

Interestingly, for the GC Pal 13 a mass-to-light ratio $`M/L\stackrel{>}{}11`$ has been reported (Meylan 2001). Such high $`M/L`$, unique among GCs, can be explained if Pal 13 is out of dynamical equilibrium. In view of the result just found for $`\omega `$ Cen, we suggest the large $`M/L`$ is another manifestation of a breakdown of Newton’s law. For $`M/L=3`$ the acceleration of gravity is below $`10^7`$ cm/s2 all the way to the cluster center. It is therefore not surprisingly that Pal 13 appears dominated by DM.

As a whole, we believe our result for $`\omega `$ Cen, the one for Pal 13, and the anomalous acceleration experienced by spacecrafts in the solar system, all suggest a breakdown of Newton’s law of gravity in the weak acceleration regime.

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Anderson J. D., Laing P. A., Lau E. L. et al. 1998, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2858

Carollo, C. M., de Zeeuw, P. T., van der Marel, et al. 1995, ApJL 441, 25

Meylan, G. 2001, Extragalactic Star Clusters, IAU Symposium Series, Vol. 207

Meylan, G. and Mayor, M. 1986, A&A 166, 122

Meylan, G., Mayor, M., Duquennoy, A., and Dubath, P. 1995, A&A 303, 761

Milgrom M. 1983, ApJ 270, 365

Hilker, M. and Richtler T. 2000, A&A 362, 895

Sanders R. H. and McGaugh S. S. 2002, ARA&A 40, in press (Astro-ph/0204521)

van Leeuwen, F., Le Poole, R. S., Reijns, et al. 2000, A&A 360, 472


text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Quantum gravitational effects are expected to modify the nature of singularities that arise as the end state of the classical gravitational collapse of a compact object. A concrete analytical model of classical spherical collapse is the Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) dust solution of Einstein equations, which shows that the singularity forming in the collapse could be either naked or covered, depending on the choice of initial conditions .

Treating this dust collapse model as a classical background, one can quantize a massless scalar field on this space-time using standard techniques . When the classical collapse ends in a black hole, the quantization of the scalar field yields the emission of Hawking radiation from the black hole, as expected. However, a strikingly different result is obtained when the scalar field is quantized on a classical background which ends in a naked singularity. It turns out that during the period of validity of the semi-classical approximation (curvatures should be less than Planck scale), the collapsing cloud emits only about one Planck unit of energy . Moreover, because the back-reaction does not become important so long as gravity can be treated classically, it follows that the future evolution of the star is governed by quantum gravitational effects and it is impossible to say, from the semi-classical approximation, whether the star radiates away its energy on a short time scale or settles down into a black hole state. This is completely different from the black hole case where essentially the entire star evaporates via Hawking radiation during the semi-classical phase.

A full understanding of the gravitational collapse, both in the naked and in the covered case, requires the application of quantum gravity. Given our limited understanding of quantum gravity at present, perhaps the theory which is currently most suited for addressing dynamical quantum collapse and questions regarding its final state is canonical quantum general relativity. Although limited in its ultimate scope as a theory of quantum gravity, the canonical theory can meaningfully address the issue of singularities in minisuperspace and midisuperspace models, so long as one can tackle questions relating to operator ordering and regularization, and provide a notion of time evolution in the theory.

The minisuperspace quantization of a collapsing null dust shell was analyzed in  where it was shown how the classical singularity can be avoided in the quantum theory. In this model, the avoidance is a direct consequence of the unitary time evolution – since the wave-function vanishes at $`r=0`$ for early times, it does so at any time. As a consequence, an ingoing quantum shell develops into a superposition of ingoing and outgoing shell. Such a scenario has interesting physical features that cannot be seen in a semi-classical approximation: no event horizon can form, and there is neither an information loss nor a naked singularity.

A midisuperspace program to study the canonical quantum dynamics of the LTB dust collapse has been developed during the last two years , following earlier pioneering work by Kastrup and Thiemann  and Kuchař  on the quantization of the Schwarzschild geometry. Here one sets up a canonical description of the collapse, using the dust proper time, the area radius and the mass function of the cloud as canonical configuration variables. The evolution is recorded by the dust proper time. One then develops the quantization via the momentum constraint and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, to which a solution for a general mass function has been found using an ad hoc delta-function regularization used by DeWitt . We show below that this regularization scheme is equivalent to the WKB approximation. (A similar analysis has also been carried out for null dust  although the constraints that are obtained in this case are linear and there is no need for regularization.)

The Schwarzschild black hole can be viewed as a LTB model with a constant mass function. We have applied  the program described above to this particular case and shown how the horizon area quantization and entropy of the eternal black hole can be understood in terms of quantized shells of matter that are trapped inside the horizon.

The purpose of the present paper is to show that the WKB solution is able also to describe an eternal black hole in equilibrium with a thermal bath at Hawking temperature, if the mass function is chosen appropriately. We argue that Hawking radiation may be understood as a combination of the WKB and the Born-Oppenheimer approximations on the full quantum wave-functional. It reinforces our belief in the overall consistency of the program and, in particular, suggests that our proposed choice of operator ordering and our definition of the inner product on the Hilbert space of wave-functionals capture features of the full theory. As we will see below, the definition of the inner product enters crucially in the calculation of the Hawking radiation.

In Section 2, we briefly recall key results from our previous paper on quantum dust collapse , leading up to the WKB solution of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. In Section 3, this solution is specialized to the case of matter around a black hole, and shown to describe Hawking radiation.

## 2 Canonical quantization of dust collapse

The spherical gravitational collapse of a dust cloud having energy density $`ϵ(\tau ,\rho )`$ in an asymptotically flat space-time is described in comoving coordinates $`(\tau ,\rho ,\theta ,\varphi )`$ by the LTB metric

$$ds^2=d\tau ^2\frac{\stackrel{~}{R}^2(\rho ,\tau )}{1+f(\rho )}d\rho ^2R^2(\rho ,\tau )d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(1)
and the Einstein equations

$$ϵ(\tau ,\rho )=\frac{\stackrel{~}{F}}{R^2\stackrel{~}{R}},R^{}(\tau ,\rho )=\pm \sqrt{f+F/R}.$$
(2)
Here, $`F(\rho )`$ is twice the mass to the interior of the coordinate $`\rho `$ and $`R(\tau ,\rho )`$ is the area radius of the shell labeled $`\rho `$ at the dust proper time $`\tau `$. A tilde and an asterisk denote partial derivatives with respect to $`\rho `$ and $`\tau `$, respectively. (Throughout this paper, the gravitational constant is set equal to one.)

The canonical dynamics of the collapsing cloud is described by embedding the spherically symmetric ADM 4-metric,

$$ds^2=N^2dt^2L^2(drN^rdt)^2R^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(3)
in the LTB space-time (1), and by casting the action for the Einstein-dust system in canonical form. The phase space of non-rotating dust is described by the dust proper time, $`\tau `$, and its conjugate momentum, whereas the gravitational phase space consists of the configuration space variables $`(R,L)`$ and their conjugate momenta. Using a version of the canonical transformation developed by Kuchař , the configuration variable $`L`$ is replaced by a new variable $`F`$ (the mass function). In terms of the new chart $`(\tau ,R,F,P_\tau ,P_R,P_F)`$, the momentum and the Hamiltonian constraints read

$$H_r=\tau ^{}P_\tau +R^{}P_R+F^{}P_F0,$$
(4)
$$H=P_\tau ^2+P_R^2\frac{F^2}{4}0.$$
(5)
Here, $`1F/R`$. The Hamiltonian constraint shows that on the effective configuration space $`(\tau ,R)`$, the DeWitt super-metric is just $`\mathrm{diag}(1,1/)`$. This is a flat metric, therefore a redefinition of the area coordinate according to

$$R_{}=\pm \frac{dR}{\sqrt{||}},$$
(6)
where the positive sign refers to the region exterior to the horizon ($`R>F`$) and the negative sign to the region interior to the horizon ($`R<F`$), brings the super-metric to manifestly flat form. In terms of the momentum $`P_{}`$, conjugate to $`R_{}`$, the Hamiltonian constraint reads

$$H=P_\tau ^2\pm P_{}^2\frac{F^2}{4}0.$$
(7)
Quantization is implemented by raising the momenta to operator status and requiring the physical state, $`\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R_{},F]`$, to be annihilated by the constraints. In this way, the time evolution of $`\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R_{},F]`$ is determined by the Hamiltonian constraint,

$$\left[\frac{\delta ^2}{\delta \tau ^2}\pm \frac{\delta ^2}{\delta R_{}^2}+\frac{F^2}{4}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }(\tau ,R,F)=0$$
(8)
(where the positive sign before the second term refers to the region outside the horizon, and the negative sign to the region inside), while invariance under spatial diffeomorphisms is implemented by the momentum constraint,

$$\left[\tau ^{}\frac{\delta }{\delta \tau }+R_{}^{}\frac{\delta }{\delta R_{}}+F^{}\frac{\delta }{\delta F}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R,F]=0.$$
(9)
In the region exterior to the horizon, Eq. (8) is no longer hyperbolic, in contrast to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation on the original configuration space. The reason lies in the canonical transformations performed, which lead to a new effective configuration space.

To complete the quantum theory, one must define an inner product on the Hilbert space of wave-functionals. In , we defined it in a natural way by exploiting the fact that the DeWitt super-metric is manifestly flat in the configuration space $`(\tau ,R_{})`$,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_1|\mathrm{\Psi }_2=_{R_{}(0)}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑R_{}\overline{\mathrm{\Psi }}_1\mathrm{\Psi }_2.$$
(10)
Note that this inner product is defined on a $`\tau =`$ constant hypersurface. We emphasize that this inner product is in general $`\tau `$-dependent. The reason is that the Wheeler-DeWitt equation preserves a Klein-Gordon type of inner product, not a Schrödinger-type of product . However, as has been shown in , the Schrödinger inner product is approximately conserved in the highest orders of a semiclassical approximation. Since we shall deal here with WKB states only (Sec. 3), quantum-gravitational correction terms to this conservation do not play any role here. Equations (8)–(10) clearly imply a specific choice, albeit a natural one, of operator ordering. We will see below that this choice is sufficient to reproduce the Hawking effect.

The momentum constraint is obeyed by any functional that is a spatial scalar and, in particular, by the functional

$$\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R,F]=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑rF^{}(r)𝒲(\tau (r),R(r),F(r))\right],$$
(11)
provided that $`𝒲`$ has no explicit dependence on the radial label coordinate, $`r`$. Our choice, while not unique, is dictated by the knowledge that $`F^{}`$ is the proper energy density of the collapsing cloud. When (11) is substituted in the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (8) one finds, on using DeWitt’s $`\delta `$function regularization ($`\delta (0)=0=\delta ^{(n)}(0)`$ $`n𝐍`$), that $`𝒲`$ obeys

$$\frac{F^2}{4}\left[\left(\frac{𝒲}{\tau }\right)^2\pm \left(\frac{𝒲}{R_{}}\right)^2+\frac{1}{}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }=0.$$
(12)
We emphasize again that this regularization prescription is at this stage completely ad hoc, and could only be justified from an understanding of the full theory. It is even imaginable that, analogous to string theory, Schwinger terms may arise in the commutation relations of the constraints that could forbid the implementation of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation . Fortunately, however, for our present purpose of recovering Hawking radiation it is not necessary to resolve this issue.

Equation (12) yields the solution

$$𝒲=i\tau \pm 2i\sqrt{F}\left[\sqrt{R}\sqrt{F}\mathrm{tanh}^1\sqrt{\frac{F}{R}}\right]$$
(13)
outside the horizon, and

$$𝒲=i\tau 2i\sqrt{F}\left[\sqrt{R}\sqrt{F}\mathrm{tanh}^1\sqrt{\frac{R}{F}}\right]$$
(14)
inside.

## 3 Origin of Hawking radiation

We begin by noting that the quantum constraint (12), which has been written using DeWitt’s delta-function regularization, is the same equation as one would get by writing the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (8) in the highest-order WKB approximation. The reason is that this prescription effectively suppresses the (divergent) WKB prefactor. To show this, let us expand the wave-functional $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ of (8) (with $`\mathrm{}`$ being re-inserted) in a power-series in $`\mathrm{}`$,

$$\mathrm{\Psi }\mathrm{exp}(iS/\mathrm{})\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2\mathrm{}}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑rF^{}(r)𝒮(\tau (r),R(r),F(r))\right],$$
(15)
$$𝒮(\tau ,R,F)=𝒮_0+\mathrm{}𝒮_1+\mathrm{}^2𝒮_2+\mathrm{}.$$
(16)
Substituting this expansion in (8) and retaining only the leading order, $`\mathrm{}`$-independent, terms gives

$$\frac{F^2}{4}\left[\left(\frac{𝒮_0}{\tau }\right)^2\pm \left(\frac{𝒮_0}{R_{}}\right)^2\frac{1}{}\right]\mathrm{\Psi }=0.$$
(17)
Comparison with (12) shows that the WKB solution is the same as one would get by doing the delta-function regularization in the original Wheeler-DeWitt equation (after the identification $`𝒲=i𝒮_0`$). (For a similar discussion of WKB states for the Schwarzschild black hole see  and for two-dimensional dilaton gravity see ).

We will now show that the wave-functional (11), along with the solutions (13) and (14), yields Hawking radiation when it is applied to a matter distribution that is appropriate to a massive black hole surrounded by dust whose total energy is small compared with the mass of the black hole. For this purpose, let us assume that the mass function $`F(r)`$ is of the form

$$F(r)=2M\theta (r)+f(r),$$
(18)
where $`\theta (r)`$ is the Heaviside step-function, and $`f(r)`$ (not to be confused with $`f(\rho )`$ occurring in (1)) is differentiable, representing a dust distribution with $`f(r)/2M1.`$ This mass function is interpreted as the presence of a Schwarzschild black hole of mass $`M`$ at the origin, and $`f(r)`$ is a dust matter perturbation on the black hole, which, as we now show, can be related to Hawking radiation. In a sense, it plays the role of the quantum field used in standard derivations of Hawking radiation.

Inserting this mass function in the wave-functional (11) gives (setting $`\mathrm{}=1`$ again)

$$\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R,F]=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑r[2M\delta (r)+f^{}(r)]𝒲(\tau (r),R(r),F(r))\right]$$
(19)
or

$$\mathrm{\Psi }[\tau ,R,F]\mathrm{exp}\left[M𝒲_0(\tau ,R,F)\right]\times \mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑rf^{}(r)𝒲^f(\tau (r),R(r),F(r))\right]$$
(20)
where $`𝒲_0(\tau ,R,F)𝒲(\tau (0),R(0),F(0))`$. The first exponent on the right-hand side is the WKB wave-functional representing the black hole at the origin, as shown in . The second term, up to order $`f(r)`$, represents a matter distribution that propagates in this background, if we take $`F(r)2M`$ in $`𝒲^f`$. Thus we have

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{bh}}\times \mathrm{\Psi }_f,$$
(21)
where

$`\mathrm{\Psi }_{\mathrm{bh}}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[M𝒲_0(\tau ,R,F)\right],`$
$`\mathrm{\Psi }_f`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{exp}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑rf^{}(r)𝒲^f(\tau (r),R(r),F(r))\right].`$ (23)
The solution $`\mathrm{\Psi }_f`$ is known from (11), (13) and (14) above and given by

$$𝒲_{\mathrm{out}}^f=i\left[\tau 2\sqrt{2M}\left(\sqrt{R}\frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{R}\sqrt{2M}}\right]\right)\right]$$
(24)
outside the horizon, and

$$𝒲_{\mathrm{in}}^f=i\left[\tau \pm 2\sqrt{2M}\left(\sqrt{R}\frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{2M}\sqrt{R}}\right]\right)\right]$$
(25)
inside the horizon.

We would like to rewrite the expressions for $`𝒲^f`$ in terms of the Killing time $`T`$. For the Schwarzschild background being considered for the distribution $`f(r)`$ and for contracting clouds, we have the following relation between the proper time and the Killing time (see e.g. ),

$`\tau `$ $`=`$ $`T+\sqrt{2M}{\displaystyle 𝑑R\frac{\sqrt{R}}{R2M}}`$ (26)
$`=`$ $`T+2\sqrt{2M}\left[\sqrt{R}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{R}\sqrt{2M}}}\right)\right].`$ (27)
Thus, in terms of $`T`$, there are two possibilities for $`𝒲_{\mathrm{out}}^f`$,

$$𝒲_{\mathrm{out}}^f=\{\begin{array}{cc}iT,\hfill & \\ i\left[T+4\sqrt{2M}\left(\sqrt{R}\frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{R}\sqrt{2M}}\right]\right)\right].\hfill & \end{array}$$
(28)
The wave-functional that corresponds to an infalling wave at $`T\mathrm{}`$ and $`R\mathrm{}`$ is the one with $`𝒲_{\mathrm{out}}^f`$ given by the second of the above. We will therefore concentrate on

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_f=\mathrm{exp}\left[i𝑑rf^{}(r)\left(T+4\sqrt{2M}\left(\sqrt{R}\frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{R}\sqrt{2M}}\right]\right)\right)\right].$$
(29)
Defining $`Z=4\sqrt{2MR}`$ we find that as $`R\mathrm{}`$ this wave-functional approaches

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_f^{}\mathrm{exp}\left[i𝑑rf^{}(r)[T+Z]\right]$$
(30)
which undergoes rapid oscillations except when $`T\mathrm{}`$, that is on $`^{}`$. When $`T\mathrm{}`$, in order for the phase to be not large we see that $`R2M`$, i.e. $`Z8M`$. In this limit we have

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+=\mathrm{exp}\left\{i𝑑rf^{}(r)\left(T+\left[Z4M\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{Z+8M}{Z8M}\right)\right]\right)\right\}$$

$$\mathrm{exp}\left\{i𝑑rf^{}(r)\left(T+4M\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{Z8M}{16M}\right)\right)\right\}.$$
(31)
This is similar to what happens in the geometric optics approximation. The simple looking phase on $`^{}`$ has scattered through the geometry to turn into the complicated looking phase on $`^+`$ near the horizon.

Equation (30) represents infalling waves. We can think of it as a product over plane waves, one at each label $`r`$, as follows:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^{}=\underset{r}{}e^{i\omega (r)[T(r)+Z(r)]}.$$
(32)
This should represent a complete set of infalling modes at each label $`r`$, if we think of the $`\omega (r)`$ as the frequency of the modes. In other words, we allow all possible $`\omega (r)=\mathrm{\Delta }f(r)`$.

A complete set of outgoing modes on $`^+`$ would likewise be given by the functional

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+=\underset{r}{}e^{i\omega (r)[T(r)Z(r)]}.$$
(33)
This is because the transformation from the dust proper time to the Killing time is now obtained by matching an expanding (rather than contracting) dust cloud to a Schwarzschild exterior, for which one gets, instead of (27), the relation

$`\tau `$ $`=`$ $`T\sqrt{2M}{\displaystyle 𝑑R\frac{\sqrt{R}}{R2M}}`$ (34)
$`=`$ $`T2\sqrt{2M}\left[\sqrt{R}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2M}}{2}}\mathrm{ln}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{R}+\sqrt{2M}}{\sqrt{R}\sqrt{2M}}}\right)\right].`$ (35)
It is then easily shown that as $`R\mathrm{}`$, the asymptotic form of the wave-functional is as in (33).

Now we ask the question: what is the projection of our solution (31) on the negative frequency modes of the outgoing basis on $`^+`$. For this purpose we must consider the inner product of states on a hypersurface of constant Schwarzschild time $`T`$. Thus we must transform from the Euclidean flat metric on the $`(R_{},\tau )`$ plane of Eqn. (8) to the metric in the $`(R,T)`$ coordinates. Using the relations (6) and (27) we get

$$g_{RR}=\left(\frac{R_{}}{R}\right)^2g_{R_{}R_{}}+\left(\frac{\tau }{R}\right)^2g_{\tau \tau }=\left(\frac{R}{R2M}\right)^2$$

(Note that in (8) the positive sign holds outside the horizon, so that $`g_{R_{}R_{}}=+1`$.) The required inner product on a constant $`T`$ hypersurface then is

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega |\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+=\underset{r}{}\sqrt{g_{RR}}𝑑R(r)\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+(Z(r),T(r),\omega (r))\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+(Z(r),T(r),f(r))$$

$$=\underset{r}{}𝑑R\frac{R}{R2M}\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+(Z(r),T(r),\omega (r))\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+(Z(r),T(r),f(r))$$

$$=\underset{r}{}𝑑Z\frac{Z^3}{16M(Z^264M^2)}\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+(Z,T,\omega )\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+(Z,T,f)$$

$$\underset{r}{}𝑑Z\frac{2M}{Z8M}\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+(Z,T,\omega )\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+(Z,T,f).$$
(36)
This projection represents the negative frequency modes present in the solution. We are interested in $`|\mathrm{\Psi }_\omega ^+|\mathrm{\Psi }_f^+|^2`$ because these are the analogs of the Bogoliubov coefficients, $`|\beta (f,\omega )|^2.`$ If we think of $`\beta (f,\omega )`$ as

$$\beta (f,\omega )=\underset{r}{}\beta (f(r),\omega (r)),$$
(37)
we have

$$\beta (f(r),\omega (r))2M_{8M}^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dZ}{Z8M}e^{i\omega Z}e^{4iM\mathrm{\Delta }f\mathrm{ln}(\frac{Z8M}{16M})}$$

$$=\frac{2M}{\left(16M\right)^{4iM\mathrm{\Delta }f}}_{8M}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑Z\left(Z8M\right)^{14iM\mathrm{\Delta }f}e^{i\omega Z}.$$
(38)
Substituting $`u=Z8M`$ and integrating we find

$$\beta (f(r),\omega (r))=\frac{2Me^{8Mi\omega }}{\left(16M\right)^{4iM\mathrm{\Delta }f}}\left[\mathrm{\Gamma }(i\sigma )\omega ^{i\sigma }e^{\sigma \pi /2}\right],$$

where $`\sigma =4M\mathrm{\Delta }f`$. This gives

$$|\beta (f,\omega )|^2=\underset{r}{}\frac{2\pi M}{\mathrm{\Delta }f}\left[\frac{1}{e^{8\pi M\mathrm{\Delta }f}1}\right].$$
(39)
This is interpreted as the eternal black hole being in equilibrium with a thermal bath at the Hawking temperature $`(8\pi M)^1.`$ Our derivation provides a functional Schrödinger picture for dust Hawking radiation, consistent with the WKB wave-functional which solves the Wheeler-DeWitt equation.

## 4 Concluding remarks

In this paper we have obtained a derivation of Hawking radiation for dust matter, starting from the WKB wave-functional which satisfies the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for quantum spherical dust collapse. The fact that such a derivation could be found should be treated as support for the validity of the inner product defined in Equation (10).

A functional description of Hawking radiation can also be given within a Born-Oppenheimer type of approximation to quantum gravity. Instead of our wave function $`\mathrm{\Psi }_f`$, one has there a Gaussian quantum state for a quantum field. Evolving this state through the background of an object collapsing to a black hole, one finds that it encodes information about the Hawking radiation similar to our $`\mathrm{\Psi }_f`$ .

The present analysis also suggests that an exact treatment of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation (8) which goes beyond the WKB approximation should yield corrections to Hawking radiation, and provide a better understanding of the end state of gravitational collapse. This could perhaps be done along the general lines presented in  in which corrections to the semiclassical limit have been calculated from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. These issues are at present under investigation.

## Acknowledgments

The visit of T.P.S. to the University of Cologne was supported by DFG grant KI 381/3-1. C.V, T.P.S. and L.W. acknowledge the partial support of FCT, Portugal under contract SAPIENS/32694/99. L.W. was supported in part by the Department of Energy, USA, under Contract Number DOE-FG02-84ER40153.


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# The Submillimeter Properties of Extremely Red Objects

## 1. Introduction

Extremely Red Objects (EROs) have been the subject of many studies since their discovery (e.g., Cowie et al. 1990; Hu & Ridgway 1994). Two scenarios can explain the unusally red colors of the EROs: old stellar populations at $`z>1`$ (e.g., Dunlop et al. 1996; Spinrad et al. 1997; Soifer et al. 1999; Cimatti et al. 2002) or dust-enshrouded galaxies (e.g., Graham & Dey 1996; Cimatti et al. 1998; Smith et al. 2001). The starlight from dusty galaxies is reprocessed and reemitted in the rest wavelength far-infrared band. For high redshift sources, this light is redshifted into the submillimeter. Recently, a number of possible ERO counterparts to submillimeter detected sources have been discovered (e.g., Smail et al. 1999, 2002; Barger, Cowie, & Richards 2000; Ivison et al. 2002).

The COBE satellite found that the submillimeter extragalactic background light (EBL) has approximately the same integrated energy density as the optical EBL (Puget et al. 1996; Fixsen et al. 1998); thus, a large fraction of starlight is reradiated by dust. To determine the high-redshift star formation, the sources that comprise the submillimeter EBL need to be determined. Here we use deep submillimeter and near-infrared (NIR) imaging of three massive lensing cluster fields to determine the submillimeter properties of the ERO population. Two advantages of observing cluster fields are that background sources are magnified and mean source separations on the sky are increased.

In § 2 we briefly describe our $`I`$, $`J`$, $`K^{}`$, and 850 $`\mu `$m data. The $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ beam size of SCUBA (Holland et al. 1999) on the 15 m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope111The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and the Canadian National Research Council prohibits us from making individual matches between submillimeter and optical/NIR sources. However, in § 3 we analyze our data statistically and find that EROs, as a class, have a significant submillimeter flux and produce much of the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL. In § 4 we use our NIR photometry and lensing corrections to calculate the ERO surface densities to $`K^{}=24`$. We analyze where in $`K^{}`$ magnitude the 850 $`\mu `$m flux arises. Using the $`I`$, $`J`$, $`K^{}`$ colors, we differentiate between evolved galaxies and dust-reddened starbursts to show that the 850 $`\mu `$m light primarily arises in the latter class of object.

## 2. Data and Sample Selection

We constructed $`K^{}`$ catalogs for our three cluster fields using data obtained with the Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS (CISCO; Motohara et al. 1998) on the Subaru222The Subaru telescope is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. 8.2 m telescope. The detector is a $`1024\times 1024`$ HgCdTe HAWAII array with a $`0.111^{\prime \prime }`$ pixel scale and an $`2^{}\times 2^{}`$ field-of-view. The $`K^{}`$ exposures are 15.4 ks (A370), 3.84 ks (A851), and 15.4 ks (A2390). $`J`$-band data were also obtained with the same instrument. Details of the observations and data reduction can be found in Cowie et al. (2001; A370 and A2390) and L. L. Cowie et al., in preparation (A851). The image quality of the $`K^{}`$ images is $`0.66^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM. We used $`K^{}`$ magnitudes measured in $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ diameter apertures to determine colors, and we used isophotal magnitudes to 2% of the peak surface brightness for total magnitudes. We estimated the noise in the images by measuring aperture magnitudes at a number of blank sky positions. The $`5\sigma `$ limit for the shallowest of the fields is $`K^{}=21.25`$; we adopt this limit for the entire $`K^{}`$ sample selection.

We measured $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ diameter aperture $`I`$-band magnitudes for the $`K^{}`$ samples from images obtained with either the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS; Oke et al. 1995) or the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI; Epps & Miller 1998) on the Keck333The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. 10 m telescopes. The data are described in Cowie et al. (2001; A370 and A2390) and Smail et al. (1999; A851). The $`2\sigma `$ limit for the shallowest of the fields is $`I=26`$; we adopt this limit for the entire sample.

Finally, we measured 850 $`\mu `$m fluxes at the $`K^{}`$ source positions from ultradeep SCUBA jiggle maps. We used beam-weighted extraction routines that include both the positive and negative portions of the beam profile. The total exposure times are 133.1 ks (A370), 59.3 ks (A851), and 78.1 ks (A2390). The $`1\sigma `$ sensitivities, including both fainter sources and correlated noise, are 0.45 mJy (A370), 0.87 mJy (A851), and 0.71 mJy (A2390). The data are described in Cowie, Barger, & Kneib (2002).

## 3. Submillimeter Properties of EROs and their Contribution to the Submillimeter EBL

Figure 3 shows the $`IK^{}`$ versus $`K^{}`$ color-magnitude diagram. Most of the sources are cluster members. The cluster color-magnitude relationship is clearly visible and matches the measured relations for clusters at these redshifts (e.g., Kodama et al. 1998). Thirty-eight galaxies have $`IK^{}>4`$, classifying them as EROs, and fifty-five have $`IK^{}>3.5`$. We classify galaxies with $`3.5<IK^{}<4`$ as Very Red Objects (VROs). The 11.5 arcmin2 area covered by the $`K^{}`$ data is somewhat smaller than the 18.9 arcmin2 area covered by the submillimeter data. A disproportionate number of the EROs and VROs lie in the A2390 cluster field (26 of the 38 sources with $`IK^{}>4`$, and 32 of the 55 sources with $`IK^{}>3.5`$). The excess may be associated with a very high-redshift, evolved cluster lying behind A2390, as we discuss in § 4.

The $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ SCUBA beam size means that we cannot be certain which $`K^{}`$-selected galaxy is the true counterpart to a submillimeter source. However, by determining the error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m flux of the $`K^{}`$ sources, we can make statistically significant statements regarding the relationship between submillimeter flux and source color. This is analogous to what Peacock et al. (2000) did for optical starbursts.

In Fig. 3a we plot submillimeter flux versus $`IK^{}`$ color, and in Fig. 3b we plot error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m flux per color bin. Because submillimeter sources are not removed from the jiggle maps, the complex beam profile produced by the nod and chop observing pattern (there are twice as many negative as positive response points, but at half the sensitivity) means that the submillimeter flux distribution is non-Gaussian with an extended negative tail. A negative submillimeter flux will be measured for a $`K^{}`$-selected source positioned in the negative portion of the beam profile corresponding to a submillimeter source. Thus, there are more high negative flux measurements in Fig. 3a than would be expected based on a simple Gaussian model with the quoted errors. The average signal of a set of random sources should, however, be zero, and the significance of the result can be determined from sets of Monte Carlo simulations of the same number of points randomly distributed in the fields (more details can be found in Cowie et al. 2002).

At low values of $`IK^{}`$ the error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m fluxes are consistent with zero; however, as $`IK^{}`$ increases, there is a corresponding increase in the means (see Fig. 3b). The $`IK^{}>4`$ galaxies have an error-weighted mean of $`1.58\pm 0.13`$ mJy. The formal error is based on the assumption of Gaussian statistics and may underestimate the true error, but the result is highly significant: 10000 Monte Carlo simulations yielded only one case where the same number of randomly positioned objects had a value equal or above the observed value. We tested whether the signal is arising from a small number of objects by eliminating the positive and negative tails: if the two (five) most positive and two (five) most negative sources are removed from the $`IK^{}>4`$ sample, the signal becomes $`1.40\pm 0.14`$ mJy ($`1.48\pm 0.15`$ mJy). The $`IK^{}>4`$ objects in the A2390 field have a value of $`1.41\pm 0.18`$ mJy, while those in the A370 and A851 fields have a value of $`1.80\pm 0.20`$ mJy, so the mean submillimeter flux per ERO is consistent, even if we break down the sample. The $`3.5<IK^{}<4`$ galaxies have an error-weighted mean of $`1.32\pm 0.19`$ mJy; here 10000 simulations yielded only 85 cases with values at or above this level.

Since the sky surface brightness is conserved by the lensing process, we find the ERO population contributes $`1.88\pm 0.16\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 to the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL. This value is $`61`$ percent of the total 850 $`\mu `$m EBL if the Puget et al. (1996) value of $`3.1\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 is assumed, or $`43`$ percent if the Fixsen et al. (1998) value of $`4.4\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 is assumed. When the galaxies with $`3.5<IK^{}<4`$ are included, the contribution increases to $`2.59\pm 0.19\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 (83 or 59 percent of the total, respectively). Thus, the majority of the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL arises from the relatively small number of sources with $`IK^{}>3.5`$.

However, there may be systematic errors arising from clustering. For the individual fields, the EBL contributions from the $`IK^{}>3.5`$ sources are $`0.81\pm 0.14\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 (A370), $`6.82\pm 0.42\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 (A851), and $`3.49\pm 0.55\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 (A2390). Although A2390 has the largest number of $`IK^{}>3.5`$ objects (see § 4), A851 has a higher mean submillimeter signal per object. If we exclude A2390 because of the anomalously high number of red objects in this field, then the $`IK^{}>3.5`$ population contributes $`1.94\pm 0.15\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 to the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL. While the $`IK^{}>3.5`$ populations in all three cluster fields are significantly detected, it is clear that a large number of fields would have to be averaged to produce a high precision estimate of the EBL contribution, and the systematic errors in the present estimate may be as high as a factor of 2.

## 4. The Breakdown of the ERO Contributions

We now analyze the ERO number counts to determine how representative our fields are and to estimate the ERO surface densities to fainter magnitudes than has previously been possible. The methodology used is described in more detail in Smith et al. (2002), who analyzed 10 cluster fields observed to shallower $`K`$ limits.

We used the LENSTOOL software package to determine the amplifications of the EROs, assuming they were located at $`z=2`$. (The amplification varies only weakly with redshift for any source beyond $`z=1`$ that has a modest amplification.) LENSTOOL uses multiple-component mass distributions that describe the extended potential wells of the clusters and their more massive individual member galaxies (Kneib et al. 1996). Details for the A370, A851, and A2390 clusters can be found in Kneib et al. (1993), Seitz et al. (1996), and J.-P. Kneib et al., in preparation, respectively.

We also used LENSTOOL to determine the areas in the source plane over which an object with a given source plane magnitude would be seen. We created grids the size of our cluster field $`K^{}`$ images with $`1^{\prime \prime }\times 1^{\prime \prime }`$ grid elements and treated the grid points as objects in the source plane at $`z=2`$. We brought the grids through the cluster mass distributions to determine the magnifications at each point. Since each point represents one square arcsecond, the associated source plane area for a given magnitude is the sum of the points where an object of that magnitude could be detected.

To compute the ERO surface densities, we summed the reciprocals of the associated areas for all the sources in each magnitude bin. (Multiply imaged sources are correctly handled since the source plane area is proportionally increased relative to the number of images.) The results are shown in Fig. 4, where surface density per square degree per magnitude is plotted versus lensing-corrected (i.e., source plane) isophotal $`K^{}`$ magnitude. The fact that Fig. 4 flattens at faint magnitudes indicates that by $`K^{}=24`$ we have already seen most of the $`K^{}`$ light density in the ERO population.

At brighter $`K^{}`$ magnitudes our surface densities are higher than those determined by Smith et al. (2002) and by previous blank field surveys (e.g., Barger et al. 1999; Daddi et al. 2000). To $`K^{}=21.6`$ we find a cumulative surface density of 8.0 (6.6, 9.4) EROs per square arcminute, where the parentheses show the $`1\sigma `$ limits. This is slightly more than three times the Smith et al. value of $`2.5\pm 0.4`$ arcmin-2. (Our $`IK^{}=4`$ criterion is very similar to their $`RK>5.3`$ criterion.) The reason for the excess lies in the large population of EROs in the A2390 field, where the surface density is 19.7 (15.6, 23.8) arcmin-2 to $`K^{}=21.6`$. If we restrict our analysis to the A370 and A851 cluster fields (the open diamonds in Fig. 4), the surface density drops to 3.4 (2.3, 4.8) arcmin-2 to $`K^{}=21.6`$, which is comparable to the Smith et al. value.

Inspection of the $`K^{}`$ image of A2390 suggests that the ERO excess in this field corresponds to a cluster of galaxies centered on a bright red galaxy in the northwest corner of the image; this galaxy is an X-ray point source (Fabian et al. 2000) with a spectroscopic redshift of $`z=1.467`$ (Cowie et al. 2001). A second X-ray source in the southwest corner has a similar probable spectroscopic redshift (Cowie et al.). If we assume that the excess of EROs is associated with this cluster, then the cluster contains roughly 20 EROs to $`K^{}=21.6`$, making it an extremely large concentration of evolved galaxies at this redshift.

The error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m flux per source decreases (though slower than linearly) with increasing source plane $`K^{}`$ magnitude: at mean $`K^{}`$ magnitudes of (16.9, 18.8, 20.6, 22.4) we find error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m fluxes of ($`5.18\pm 0.38,1.55\pm 0.29,1.22\pm 0.14,0.47\pm 0.20`$) mJy. Although submillimeter flux depends only weakly on redshift, such that higher redshift sources fade in $`K^{}`$ but not in 850 $`\mu `$m flux, sources that are fainter in $`K^{}`$ luminosity may be intrinsically fainter in 850 $`\mu `$m luminosity. The dependence of 850 $`\mu `$m flux on ERO $`K^{}`$ magnitude means that brighter submillimeter surveys are more likely to identify ERO counterparts.

The observed decrease in 850 $`\mu `$m flux with increasing $`K^{}`$ magnitude, combined with the flatness of the ERO counts at the fainter magnitudes seen in Fig. 4, implies that the largest contribution to the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL arises near the point at which the ERO number counts begin to flatten—around $`K^{}=20`$. In the present data half of the 850 $`\mu `$m light arises in sources with source plane magnitudes $`K^{}<20`$, and half arises in fainter sources, placing the median 850 $`\mu `$m source at $`K^{}=20`$. If A2390, with its larger number of bright EROs, is excluded, the split occurs at $`K^{}=20.3`$. When sources fainter than $`K^{}=24`$ are included, the split will occur at a fainter magnitude, but the effect will be small.

We may also try to determine if the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the sources correlate with the 850 $`\mu `$m fluxes. If the 850 $`\mu `$m signal arises primarily from dust-reddened starbursts rather than from old elliptical galaxies, then we would expect objects with a smoother NIR SED to be the primary source of the signal. (The red $`IK^{}`$ colors of old evolved galaxies are in large part due to the 4000 Å break, which produces a discontinuity in the NIR SEDs.) As illustrated in Fig. 4, we have used the criterion $`IJ=1.8(JK^{})1.2`$ to separate redder $`IJ`$ galaxies that follow the unevolved elliptical galaxy track from bluer $`IJ`$ galaxies that lie in the dust-reddened starburst region (see Pozzetti & Mannucci 2000 for other color selection criteria). Sources in the starburst region could also be more recently formed galaxies or galaxies with some residual star formation.

Of the 55 galaxies with $`IK^{}>3.5`$ in our sample, 39 have measured $`J`$ magnitudes. The error-weighted mean 850 $`\mu `$m flux for all 39 objects is $`0.90\pm 0.12`$ mJy. The 17 (44 percent) that satisfy the elliptical galaxy criterion have $`0.32\pm 0.18`$ mJy. In contrast, the 22 that lie on the dusty starburst side have $`1.38\pm 0.16`$ mJy. Thus, the bulk of the signal does appear to arise in the smaller number of galaxies that could be dusty starbursts.

## 5. Summary

From an optical, NIR, and submillimeter survey of three massive lensing cluster fields we find that VROs and EROs mark, on average, strong submillimeter emitters. The $`IK^{}>3.5`$ population contributes $`1.94\pm 0.15\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 to the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL if we exclude the A2390 field because of the anomalously high number of red objects, and $`2.59\pm 0.19\times 10^4`$ mJy deg-2 if we include the A2390 field. These contributions are, respectively, $`4462`$ percent and $`5983`$ percent of the 850 $`\mu `$m EBL (the ranges depend on the measurement of the EBL assumed) and are much larger than the $`1216`$ percent from galaxies containing bright AGN (Barger et al. 2001). ERO clustering is an important effect that must be accounted for if we are to obtain a better estimate. The median magnitude of the sources giving rise to the EBL is $`K^{}=20`$ to $`K^{}=20.3`$, depending on the cluster sample used. The 850 $`\mu `$m EBL contribution primarily arises in the subset of the population corresponding to dusty starbursts.

We thank an anonymous referee for helpful comments. AJB gratefully acknowledges support from NSF grant AST-0084847 and from the University of Wisconsin Research Committee with funds granted by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.


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# FIRST J102347.6+003841: The First Radio-Selected Cataclysmic Variable

## 1 Introduction

Most of the known cataclysmic variables (CVs) were originally discovered because of their dramatic optical variability, exemplified by the outbursts of dwarf novae and classical novae. More recently, however, ultraviolet and X-ray sky surveys have led to discoveries of many new CVs, including members of subclasses that have less spectacular optical light variations (e.g., the novalike variables).

Follow-up investigations at radio wavelengths have led to detections of a few well-known, mostly nearby, CVs as radio sources. In this paper we report what we believe to be the first case in which the sequence of discovery has been reversed: we have detected a new CV during a radio survey, with the subsequent confirmation having been made in the optical band.

## 2 The Discovery of FIRST J1023+0038

The FIRST (“Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters”) survey is aimed at producing a deep radio map of 10,000 square degrees at the north and south galactic caps (see Becker, White, & Helfand 1995; White, Becker, Helfand, & Gregg 1997). The survey is being carried out at 1.4 GHz with the Very Large Array (VLA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and can be thought of as a radio analog of the optical Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS). Source positions are provided to better than $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ accuracy, and the sensitivity limit is about 1 mJy.

The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey (FBQS; Gregg et al. 1996, White et al. 2000; Becker et al. 2001) is a follow-up effort aimed at finding large numbers of QSOs and characterizing their properties. The FBQS candidates are FIRST radio sources that have a stellar-appearing optical counterpart in the APM catalog, which is based on Automatic Plate Measuring machine scans of the POSS-I plates (McMahon & Irwin 1992; McMahon et al. 2002). The majority of FBQS candidates are found to be QSOs, BL Lac objects, or other extragalactic sources. Only 8% of the candidates turn out to be Galactic stars, the bulk of which are merely chance coincidences of unrelated, ordinary foreground stars with the radio positions. Actual radio emission from Galactic stars is exceedingly rare, even at the 1 mJy limit of the FIRST survey, as discussed in detail by Helfand et al. (1999).

It was thus a surprise when one of the faint FBQS candidates proved to be a Galactic star with an unusual spectrum, which clearly showed it to be a previously unknown CV. This source, cataloged with a 1.4 GHz radio flux density of 3.58 mJy, lies at the J2000 coordinates given in the first line of Table 1. Lying $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$ away from the radio source, at the coordinates listed in the second line of Table 1, is a faint stellar object contained in the APM catalog. Also listed in the bottom line of Table 1 are the coordinates and magnitudes of a nearby comparison star, used in the CCD observations described in the next section. Figure 1 presents a finding chart for the optical candidate, with the radio contours superposed. The radio source is designated FIRST J102347.6+003841 (but hereafter the name will be shortened to FIRST J1023+0038).

Figure 2 shows the discovery spectrogram, which was obtained on 2000 May 6 by Mark Lacy with the Lick Observatory 3-m telescope. The spectrum is dominated by a blue continuum, with superposed emission lines of the Balmer series, He I, and He II. The spectrum is fairly typical of a CV in quiescence (see, for example, the spectroscopic atlas of Williams 1983). However, the lines of He I and especially of He II are rather stronger than in most dwarf novae, and suggest that the object may be more closely related to the subset of magnetic or AM Herculis-type CVs. The spectrum is, in fact, rather similar to that of AM Her itself, as illustrated in Williams’ Figure 13.

As this paper was being prepared for publication, we realized that the source lies within the area of the sky covered by the June 2001 Early Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; Stoughton et al. 2002). Inspection of the data archive (maintained at STScI) shows that both photometry and a spectrum are available. Table 2 gives the SDSS astrometry and photometry for both the CV candidate and the comparison star. The SDSS position is $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}1`$ away from the radio position. The SDSS spectrum is quite similar to our Lick spectrum shown in Figure 2, although the equivalent widths of the emission lines appear to be slightly lower. Moreover, the emission lines are incipiently resolved into double-peaked profiles. This would suggest that there is an accretion disk present in the system, and that therefore it may be a DQ Herculis-type magnetic CV, rather than a full-fledged AM Herculis system (in which an accretion disk would be lacking).

## 3 Optical Photometry

If the optical candidate counterpart of FIRST J1023+0038 is a CV, then it would be expected to exhibit rapid optical variability. In order to search for such variations, H.E.B. and M.S.O. obtained photometric observations on five nights in 2000 November and December, using the 2.1-m reflector at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO). A Tektronix $`2048\times 2048`$ CCD was used, with $`2\times 2`$ on-chip binning. In order to maximize the signal, we used a Schott BG39 glass filter, which yields a broad-band blue bandpass. Only a $`512\times 512`$ pixel subraster was read out, in order to reduce the read-out time between exposures but still produce a large enough field to contain both the target and a nearby comparison star. Even with this CCD setup, however, the readout time was still 25 s with the KPNO data acquisition system. Exposure times of 30-60 s were used in 2000 November, and were shortened to 10 s for all of the 2000 December observations.

Table 3 contains a log of the CCD observations. As noted in the table, none of the nights were photometric, but accurate differential photometry is readily possible under non-photometric conditions, as has been shown by Grauer & Bond (1981), Ciardullo & Bond (1996), and many others. We performed standard aperture photometry on the frames, and reduced the data to differential magnitudes of the target with respect to the comparison star. In order to set an approximate photometric zero point, we adopted the blue magnitude of 16.14 given for the comparison star in the APM catalog.

Figure 3 shows our resulting light curves from the five nights of photometry. The differential magnitudes are generally accurate to better than 0.01 mag (i.e., smaller than the size of the plotting points), except on the very cloudy night of 2000 Dec 24 where the errors were typically several hundredths of a magnitude.

The object indeed shows variability on both slow and rapid timescales, confirming its classification as a CV. Although generally maintaining a level around magnitude 17.5, it showed a flare of $``$0.8 mag lasting about 20 min (apart from one rapid dip back to the baseline level) on 2000 December 23. On December 24 the target was more active, being initially about 0.5 mag brighter than on previous nights, declining briefly, and then ramping up by about 1 mag over about half an hour and remaining at that level for over an hour (apart from two rapid dips).

The object also shows short-timescale flickering, which gives the light curves a noisy appearance. On the first four nights, and on the fifth night when the star was near its baseline level, the light curves show a curious “bimodal” appearance, i.e., the magnitudes tend to cluster near either “high” or “low” levels but rarely in between. We suspect that this appearance arises from our sparse sampling of a light curve that may have flickering with a timescale of approximately 10 s; we are thus missing about 2/3 of the points that we would have obtained with uninterrupted 10-s integrations.

Power spectra were calculated for all of the light curves, but revealed no significant coherent signals; of course, we were not able to test for signals with periods shorter than $``$70 s, such as are seen in some of the DQ Her-type subset of magnetic CVs (Patterson 1994), because of the $``$35 s interval between integrations.

We see no evidence, in our fairly limited data set, for eclipses or other repetitive phenomena occurring on an orbital timescale. Determination of the orbital period of the system will require additional photometry or a radial-velocity study.

## 4 Radio Variability

A strong confirmation that the optical CV is indeed the counterpart of the radio source would come from variability of the radio source.

We therefore searched the FIRST database for evidence of such variability. The FIRST survey is based on data collected by the VLA on a hexagonal grid of field centers spaced by about $`26^{}`$, and an object can thus appear in overlapping images from several adjacent fields (Becker, White, & Helfand 1995). The FIRST source catalog is constructed by summing the overlapping fields to get uniform sensitivity on the sky, and does not contain information on source variability. However, a sufficiently bright radio source can be detected by inspecting the individual grid images before they are coadded. The sensitivity in each observation is a function of the distance of the source from the field center.

Table 4 lists details of the three VLA observations of fields that contained FIRST J1023+0038. The successive columns give the observation date and time, followed by the position of the field center. Col. 5 gives the distance of the source from the field center, and col. 6 contains the primary beam response of the VLA at that radius. (Note, for example, that the response drops to 0.5 of its value at the field center at a radius of $`15^{}`$.) Finally, in cols. 7 and 8, $`F_{\mathrm{obs}}`$ is the measured flux density (mJy) for the source (or the $`5\sigma `$ upper limit in the case of non-detection), and $`F_{\mathrm{corr}}`$ is the true flux density after correction for the primary beam response.

As Table 4 shows, FIRST J1023+0038 was detected in only one of the three observations, on 1998 August 10. At that time, the implied true flux density of 6.6 mJy was well above the $`5\sigma `$ upper limits of the two earlier observations. The source is therefore definitely variable at 1.4 GHz by a factor of 3 or more over a period of only a few days. The source was also not detected in the 1.4 GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey, carried out between 1993 and 1996, with a 50% completeness limit of 2.5 mJy (Condon et al. 1998). Variability at this level among FIRST radio sources is extremely rare, and makes it virtually certain that the variable radio source is the counterpart of the optical CV.

## 5 Discussion

The first CV to be detected at radio wavelengths was the prototypical magnetic CV AM Herculis, whose emission was discovered at the VLA by Chanmugam & Dulk (1982). They detected a flux density of 0.67 mJy at 4.9 GHz, and suggested that the emission is from mildly relativistic electrons trapped in the magnetosphere of the white dwarf. Subsequent observations by Dulk, Bastian, & Chanmugam (1983) led to detection of a strong flare from AM Her, which lasted about 10 min and reached a peak of 9.7 mJy at 4.9 GHz; Dulk et al. were also able to set an upper limit on the quiescent flux density of AM Her at 1.4 GHz of 0.24 mJy.

The magnetic DQ Her-type system AE Aqr has also been detected as a variable radio source, with the initial discovery having been made at the VLA by Bookbinder & Lamb (1987); they found a flux density at 1.4 GHz varying from 3 to 5 mJy. Other radio detections of AM Her- and DQ Her-type CVs have been reported by Pavelin, Spencer, & Davis (1994) and references therein. By contrast, non-magnetic CVs in general are not detectable radio sources (Nelson & Spencer 1988), strongly suggesting that a highly magnetic white dwarf is a key element in the production of radio emission. For further information, the reader is directed to the summary of radio emission from CVs by Mason, Fisher, & Chanmugam (1996).

We thus strongly suspect that FIRST J1023+0038 is a new magnetic CV, either of the DQ Her or AM Her variety. Our detection of a 6.6 mJy flare at 1.4 GHz is remarkable because, with a quiescent optical magnitude near 17.5, FIRST J1023+0038 is so optically inconspicuous. (By comparison, AE Aqr is an 11th-mag object, and AM Her lies generally around 12th-13th mag, although with occasional drops to “low” states below 15th mag). It remains to be seen whether the flare that led to our serendipitous discovery of FIRST J1023+0038 was simply a very rare and unusually energetic one, or whether this object is indeed much more radio luminous than the typical magnetic CVs.

We urge follow-up observations at radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths. Optical spectroscopy should reveal the orbital period, and might provide direct evidence for a strong magnetic field. Polarimetry would determine whether the object is a highly magnetic AM Her system. A search of archival plate collections, and future long-term photometric monitoring, might reveal either dwarf-nova outbursts, or AM Her-like low states, although the object is rather faint.

H.E.B. acknowledges the inspiration of his friend and colleague G. Chanmugam. We thank Mark Lacy for obtaining the Lick spectrogram. R.H.B. acknowledges support from NRAO, NSF (grant AST-00-98355), and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (operated under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48). Kitt Peak National Observatory is operated by AURA Inc., under contract with the National Science Foundation. The Digitized Sky Surveys were produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166.


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# The Search for Brown Dwarfs around White Dwarfs

## 1. Description of the Current Survey

We are conducting a proper motion survey at $`1.25\mu `$m for low mass stellar and substellar companions to nearby white dwarfs. The advantage of such a search is that white dwarfs are faint in the infrared, enabling discovery of brown dwarf companions even relatively close to the primary (Zuckerman & Becklin 1987 & 1992; Becklin & Zuckerman 1988). The current wide field survey has been conducted mainly at the Steward Observatory beginning in 1991. There on the 2.3m Bok telescope we have used a NICMOS array and a camera developed by Rieke & Rieke (Rieke et al. 1993). With a 3 square arcminute field of view, we can detect faint companions $`290^{\prime \prime }`$ from the primary white dwarf. We acquire five dithered 90 second images at $`J`$ band which enables detection of objects as faint as $`J=19`$ in the best observing conditions.

Generally we acquire two epochs for each field surrounding the primary white dwarf. The typical white dwarf in our sample has a small known proper motion around $`0.10.2^{\prime \prime }`$/yr. Since the mid 1990’s, the white dwarfs will have moved $`0.51.0^{\prime \prime }`$ relative to background stars and galaxies. We have found that when there are more than 5 objects which appear in both epoch fields, the scatter in their measured positions is approximately $`0.2^{\prime \prime }`$. Thus, we can easily detect a $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ displacement of the primary relative to background objects in the field. Hence with a baseline $`5`$ yrs between epochs, companions that move with the primary will stand out well against background objects.

The white dwarfs chosen for our survey come from the catalog of McCook & Sion (1999). Our targets consist mainly of white dwarfs with modest known proper motions selected from the Lowell & Luyten surveys along with some objects from the Palomar-Green survey. The reason for choosing white dwarfs with smaller proper motions is that stars with smaller U,V space velocities are statistically more likely to be members of the young disk (Eggen 1996) and brown dwarfs are brightest when they are young. White dwarfs are evolved but not necessarily old; a $`3M_{}`$ A0 star can evolve into a white dwarf in only 0.6 Gyr. Hence by selecting slow movers there is a greater likelihood that we are looking around younger white dwarfs. The distance to a typical white dwarf in our sample of $`240`$ targets is around 50 pc.

## 2. Discoveries

GD165B was discovered in the very first incarnation of the search for brown dwarfs around white dwarfs conducted by Becklin & Zuckerman (1988). It still remains the only known possible brown dwarf companion to a white dwarf and the only known companion to a white dwarf with spectral type later than M. Zuckerman & Becklin (1992) discovered or measured over 20 M dwarf companions to white dwarfs in near field searches conducted at the IRTF and UKIRT of about 200 white dwarf primaries.

In the current wide field survey, approximately 100 of our white dwarfs have been analyzed and we have found 10 previously unrecognized proper motion companions to their respective primaries. Hence at present we are finding about 10% of our sample have wide companions. Three of these companions are likely M dwarfs and the other seven are either confirmed or likely white dwarfs. It appears that none of these companions are substellar candidates. Thus we conclude that not only is there a brown dwarf desert around white dwarfs at close separations but our data analyzed so far indicates that this trend likely persists at wider separations as well.

## 3. Implications for Star/Brown Dwarf Formation

One possible explanation for the apparent deficit of substellar companions to white dwarfs is that binary star formation may favor equally massive components. There exist models which favor two accreting protostellar components in a binary system equilibrating in mass as they form. One model even predicts that unequal mass binaries are more likely to form at wide separations due to accretion issues (Bate 2000). Yet there are many known WD/RD pairs at close as well as wide separations (Zuckerman & Becklin 1992; Silvestri et al. 2001). These systems would have had very unequal mass components when on the zero age main sequence. Radial velocity searches indicate that brown dwarf companions to main sequence stars are rare at separations of less than 5 AU. Results from 2MASS and other studies indicate that brown dwarf companions may be more common at wide separations (Gizis et al. 2001).

Companions to white dwarfs suffered a change in their orbital separations since the time when the primary was on the main sequence. For companions separated by less than a few AU when the host star ascends the AGB common envelope interaction will cause the orbit to decay into an even closer system. For companions outward of 3 AU, the orbit will expand by a factor of $`M_{\mathrm{ms}}/M_{\mathrm{wd}}`$ (Jeans 1924). Thus one can expect wide binary systems with one white dwarf component to have separations that are roughly 2 to 7 times larger than when both components were on the main sequence. A system with a white dwarf and a widely separated brown dwarf companion may be vulnerable to disintegration through close encounters with nearby molecular clouds or other stellar systems over a few billion years due to the low mass nature of brown dwarfs.

Because brown dwarfs continue to grow dimmer as they age, we must consider the limits of our sensitivity. The ages of white dwarfs are still being refined and the refinements tend to make them older than previous models predicted. For example, the difference in predicted cooling times of a typical mass white dwarf with a pure carbon core versus a pure oxygen core can be as much as 2 Gyr. What this means for our search is that it is possible that the ages of white dwarfs could be pushing brown dwarf luminosities past our sensitivity limits into the late T dwarf regime and beyond. Based on their space motions and model predicted cooling times however, the total age of a typical white dwarf in our sample is $`13`$ Gyr, assuming average masses. Hence if the models are correct, we don’t expect the age of our sample to play a factor in detecting brown dwarfs down to about 30 $`M_\mathrm{J}`$ for the youngest white dwarfs in our sample.

## 4. Conclusions

The search for brown dwarfs around white dwarfs is of continuing interest for several reasons. One is that do not yet know which temperature / spectral class is the lower cut off for a minimum mass star. Until we start to discover and study more companions which straddle and cross the stellar / substellar boundary, the model predicted minimum temperature value is the only way we can judge whether an object is a brown dwarf or a low mass star if an accurate age is not known. Second, by searching for M, L, and T-type companions to white dwarfs, we are probing ages when brown dwarfs have cooled significantly and low mass stars of course have not. When our search or future searches begin to find low temperature (L-type) companions around old stars such as some white dwarfs, we can then better constrain stellar / substellar cooling model temperatures, ages and masses. Also by conducting this kind of search we want to shed light on the formation of companions to intermediate mass stars, the progenitors of the white dwarfs we see today.

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