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# Grating X-ray Spectroscopy of High-Velocity Outflows from Active Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

Outflows are observed to be ubiquitous in active galactic nuclei (AGN), being seen in objects spanning a range of $`10,000`$ in luminosity. They have been studied in the most detail via observations of ultraviolet (UV) resonance lines from moderately ionized gas. In luminous Broad Absorption Line quasars (BALQSOs), outflows are observed to reach velocities up to a few $`10^4`$ km s-1, and they subtend $``$ 10–30% of the sky as viewed from the central source. In lower luminosity Seyfert galaxies, outflows are observed $`\stackrel{>}{}50`$% of the time although they have velocities up to only $`10^3`$ km s-1. These outflows are a major component of the nuclear environment, and they may carry a significant fraction of the accretion power. They may also be important in regulating the growth of the black hole and its host galaxy (e.g., Silk & Rees 1998; Fabian 1999) as well as in injecting matter, energy, and magnetic fields into the intergalactic medium (e.g., Turnshek 1988; Wu, Fabian, & Nulsen 2000; Furlanetto & Loeb 2001; Elvis et al. 2002). The observed outflows are photoionized by the radiation from the central source, and they are probably driven by radiation pressure. Despite their ubiquity and importance, their physical location and origin in the AGN system remain unclear; outflows may arise from winds driven off the surface of an accretion disk (e.g., Murray et al. 1995; Proga, Stone, & Kallman 2000; Elvis 2000), a dusty torus (e.g., Voit, Weymann, & Korista 1993; Krolik & Kriss 1995), or perhaps stars in the nucleus (e.g., Scoville & Norman 1995; Netzer 1996).

Ionized absorption in the X-ray band has been intensively studied in bright, low-redshift AGN for over a decade (e.g., the “warm absorbers” in Seyfert galaxies; Reynolds 1997; George et al. 1998). The luminous X-ray source in the nucleus acts as a “flashlight” allowing observers to “X-ray” material along the line of sight. However, prior to the launches of Chandra and XMM-Newton, such investigations were limited by a lack of spectral resolution. Over the past three years, the X-ray grating spectrometers on these two missions111The relevant instruments are the Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS; C.R. Canizares et al., in preparation), the Chandra Low-Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (LETGS; Brinkman et al. 1997), and the XMM-Newton Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS; den Herder et al. 2001). have enlarged the number of spectral features available for study by a factor of $`50`$ (see Fig. 1; from 2–3 to more than 140). They have improved the velocity resolution available to observers from $`15,000`$ km s-1 to $`400`$ km s-1. They have thereby provided qualitatively new information on the physical conditions, kinematics, and geometry/location of the absorbing material.

At present, efficient grating X-ray spectroscopy is possible only for $`20`$ bright, low-redshift (mainly $`z<0.1`$) AGN, mainly Seyfert galaxies. Even for these, the required observation lengths are typically $`\stackrel{>}{}`$ 1–2 days; the spectrum of NGC 3783 shown in Fig. 1 required a 10.4-day exposure with Chandra. Of necessity, the discussion below applies predominantly to this fairly small sample of objects. Highly luminous and distant quasars, for example, may have significantly different X-ray absorption properties. Furthermore, the discussion below will be closely tied to the X-ray observations, without detailed descriptions of theoretical models. For further information on theoretical models, the reader should consult one of the current reviews (e.g., Netzer 2001; Krolik 2002; and references therein).

## 2 Some Key Results from X-ray Gratings Studies

The spectral features seen in the current X-ray gratings studies include absorption lines \[sometimes in unresolved transition arrays (UTAs)\], emission lines, absorption edges (from gas and perhaps dust), and radiative recombination continua (RRCs).222See the conference papers by E. Behar and T. Kallman for further discussion of some of these features. The X-ray absorption lines are the most numerous features and are from H-like and He-like ions of C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Al, Si, and S. Inner-shell absorption lines from lower ionization ions, Fe L-shell lines, and Fe M-shell lines are also seen. Fig. 2 illustrates the observed features in the spectrum of NGC 3783. Taken together, these features are sensitive to a wide range of ionization parameter and column density, and they also provide useful temperature and density diagnostics. Furthermore, the ionizing continuum is directly visible (unlike the case for UV absorption lines, where the ionizing continuum is displaced in wavelength), and X-rays are relatively immune to dust extinction effects that can hinder studies at other wavelengths.

### 2.1 Physical Conditions in Outflows

Gratings observations have clearly established that a uniform, single-component model for the X-ray absorbing material in the outflow is too simple. Outflows contain gas with a wide range of ionization parameter. Fig. 3, for example, shows X-ray absorption lines from the wide range of ions observed in NGC 3783. It is not possible to fit both the low-ionization and high-ionization absorption lines simultaneously with a single “zone” of photoionized gas (e.g., Kaspi et al. 2002; Blustin et al. 2002). Similar results have been found for several other AGN (e.g., Sako et al. 2001; Kaastra et al. 2002). Current models for the outflow usually assume the absorbing gas is in photoionization equilibrium. This is a plausible assumption for some AGN, such as NGC 3783, that exhibit fairly slow and small-amplitude X-ray variability. However, AGN with more rapid and large-amplitude variability (e.g., NGC 4051 and other “Narrow-Line Seyfert 1” galaxies) may contain non-equilibrium X-ray absorbers (e.g., Nicastro et al. 1999; Collinge et al. 2001).

Early photoionization modeling of the ionized absorbers in Seyfert galaxies suggested that they have temperatures $`(T)`$ of a few $`10^5`$ K. The gratings data now confirm the expected temperatures. In NGC 3783, for example, modeling of the O vii and N vi RRCs indicate $`T\stackrel{>}{}6\times 10^4`$ K, and constraints from He-like triplet emission lines require $`T\stackrel{<}{}10^6`$ K (Kaspi et al. 2002).

Column densities for some of the stronger absorption lines detected from AGN outflows can be estimated via “curve of growth” analyses. However, in such analyses, it is essential to avoid lines that are saturated. The identification of saturated lines can be difficult, since they need not appear “black” (i.e., drop to zero intensity) due to the presence of nuclear X-ray scattering or multiple, unresolved line components (compare Hamann 1998 and Arav et al. 1999). Lines representing transitions to high atomic levels are the least likely to be affected by saturation (due to their lower oscillator strengths), and analyses of such lines indicate O vii and O viii column densities of a few $`10^{18}`$ cm-2. The corresponding total hydrogen column densities, assuming solar abundances and a reasonable ionization correction, range from a few $`10^{21}`$ cm-2 to $`10^{22}`$ cm-2. Considering the statistical and systematic uncertainties currently present in curve of growth analyses, solar abundances usually appear consistent with the data. Some AGN outflows may also contain significant column densities of metals in the form of dust grains; X-ray gratings studies offer the exciting possibility of detecting these grains directly and measuring their chemical composition (e.g., Lee et al. 2001).

### 2.2 Kinematics of Outflows

The most important, basic result on kinematics from X-ray gratings studies is that the X-ray absorbing gas is generally in a state of outflow with a bulk velocity of a few hundred km s-1 (as derived from the blueshifts of X-ray absorption lines). Prior to Chandra and XMM-Newton, it was not possible to speak reliably about the X-ray absorber as an outflow! In several cases, it has also now been possible to resolve the X-ray absorption lines. X-ray absorbing outflows can have velocity dispersions comparable to their bulk velocities, perhaps due to acceleration of the outflow or turbulence. Furthermore, in a few cases, multiple kinematic components in a single ion have been discovered (e.g., see Fig. 4). As illustrated in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, different ions can have different kinematic properties; ionization level and kinematics are therefore connected. It is important to note that there may be systematic errors in velocity measurements derived from X-ray absorption lines. For example, some X-ray lines show “P Cygni” profiles where the emission line partially fills the red side of the absorption line. If this (geometry dependent) effect is not properly modeled, velocity measurements can be biased to be too large (because the effective centroid of the fitted absorption line is shifted blueward). This effect appears to be present in the 10.4-day Chandra HETGS spectrum of NGC 3783 (Kaspi et al. 2002; although alternative interpretations are possible), and it may well be present but difficult to correct in X-ray gratings spectra with lower signal-to-noise.

The outflow velocities measured from X-ray absorption lines often agree with those measured from UV absorption lines such as C iv, N v, and H i (e.g., see Fig. 4 and Fig. 5), supporting the general existence of a connection between these two types of absorption (e.g., Mathur, Elvis, & Wilkes 1995; Crenshaw et al. 1999). The exact nature of this connection, however, depends upon details of the modeling and remains debated (e.g., Crenshaw & Kraemer 1999; Arav, Korista, & de Kool 2002; and references therein).

### 2.3 Geometry and Radial Location of Outflows

From the relative strengths of the emission and absorption lines in the AGN with X-ray gratings spectra, the global covering factor of the X-ray absorbing outflow appears to be large.333The global covering factor is the fraction of the sky, as seen from the central source, covered by the X-ray absorbing outflow. The outflow covers $`\stackrel{>}{}50`$% of the sky that is not already covered by the torus of AGN unification schemes. This direct constraint on the global covering factor agrees well with the indirect constraint derived from counting the fraction of local Seyfert 1 galaxies with ionized X-ray absorbers. The line-of-sight covering factor also appears to be large in at least a few AGN; it can be constrained by measuring the extent to which saturated lines appear black.444The line-of-sight covering factor is the fraction of the line-of-sight to the central source covered by the X-ray absorbing outflow. In reality, there may be multiple lines of sight to the central source if it has physical extent or if X-ray scattering is present. In NGC 3783, for example, the Fe xx lines near 12.8 Å (see Fig. 1) limit any electron-scattered X-ray contribution to be $`\stackrel{<}{}15`$% (Kaspi et al. 2002).

The most important remaining uncertainty about X-ray absorbing outflows is their radial location; this key quantity is not directly constrained by a single observation of an AGN. Possible radial locations range from $`10^{16}`$ cm (e.g., an accretion disk wind) to $`10^{18}`$ cm (e.g., a torus wind), and there may be absorbing material across this entire range of radii. Knowledge of the radial location is essential for determining the mass outflow rate, the kinetic energy of the outflow, and the overall importance of the outflow in the AGN system. One physically appealing possibility is that the material in the X-ray absorbing outflow is the same material that scatters radiation to the observer in Seyfert 2 galaxies (e.g., Krolik & Kriss 1995; Krolik & Kriss 2001), but this connection cannot be firmly established until the radial location of the X-ray absorbing outflow is known. Variability studies combined with improved density diagnostics may allow the radial location to be determined (e.g., Krolik & Kriss 2001; Netzer et al. 2002), but this will require expensive Chandra and XMM-Newton observations at multiple epochs.

## 3 Possible Future Directions

### 3.1 The Need for Better X-ray Spectral Resolution

While the new data from Chandra and XMM-Newton represent an enormous advance, it is likely that X-ray spectroscopy of AGN outflows is still limited in some fundamental ways. One possible problem is illustrated in Fig. 6, where Chandra, HST, and IUE spectra of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4051 are compared. Given the results from UV observations, it appears at least plausible that the ionized X-ray absorbers in AGN have significant velocity structure that cannot be resolved with current X-ray instruments. The velocity structure currently apparent in the X-ray spectra (e.g., Fig. 4 and Fig. 5) may just be the “tip of the iceberg.” An optimist might argue that the high-temperature X-ray absorbing material will tend to be more volume filling than the lower temperature UV absorbing material, and therefore that it will be less clumpy. However, FUSE spectra of lines from the high-ionization ion O vi still show velocity structure finer than can be resolved with current X-ray instruments (e.g., Gabel et al. 2002).

If the X-ray absorption lines indeed possess significant unresolved structure, this will lead to systematic errors when attempting to derive column densities, ionization levels, and other physical parameters. Some line components may be saturated even though the unresolved average “line” does not appear black. A velocity resolution of $`100`$ km s-1 or better will probably be required to resolve the X-ray lines. Such a resolution would also be valuable for addressing numerous other astrophysical issues (e.g., Elvis 2001). To our knowledge, no X-ray missions with the requisite resolution are currently scheduled for launch.

### 3.2 The Need for Higher Throughput

As mentioned above, efficient grating X-ray spectroscopy is presently possible only for $`20`$ bright, low-redshift (mainly $`z<0.1`$) AGN. Photon starvation has limited our ability to perform grating X-ray spectroscopy of more luminous but more distant AGN, such as BALQSOs. This is unfortunate, since the outflows in these objects are faster and probably more powerful than those in local AGN (e.g., see Laor & Brandt 2002 and references therein). The current X-ray spectra of BALQSOs, obtained with Charged Coupled Device (CCD) detectors, show that heavy X-ray absorption is often present (e.g., Green et al. 2001; Gallagher et al. 2002). In most cases, however, the dynamical state of the X-ray absorbing gas is unknown. One notable exception appears to be the gravitationally lensed BALQSO APM 08279+5255 at $`z=3.91`$. Chartas et al. (2002) have recently claimed the detection of X-ray BALs from iron K$`\alpha `$ that imply outflow velocities of $``$ (0.2–0.4)$`c`$ (Fig. 7; also see Hasinger, Schartel, & Komossa 2002 for additional X-ray observations and an alternative interpretation).

High-throughput spectroscopy with enough resolution to determine the velocities of the X-ray absorbers in BALQSOs should provide a qualitative advance in our understanding of BALQSO outflows. Without basic kinematic information on the X-ray absorber, it is impossible to determine the total mass outflow rate and the kinetic energy of the outflow. Extremely high spectral resolution is probably not required for this science due to the high velocities observed in the UV; a velocity resolution of $`1000`$ km s-1 should be sufficient to allow major progress. Long XMM-Newton observations of 1–3 of the X-ray brightest BALQSOs can provide crucial information, but missions such as Constellation-X and XEUS will be needed to make high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of BALQSOs routine.

We thank all our collaborators, and we thank the conference organizers for a stimulating conference. We gratefully acknowledge support from NASA LTSA grant NAG5-8107 (WNB, SK), CXC grant GO1-2103B (WNB, SK), CXC grant GO0-1041X (WNB), and the Israel Science Foundation (SK).

## 4 References

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# Evidence for Extremely High Dust Polarization Efficiency in NGC 3184

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It has long been understood that dust in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way (MW) is responsible for the linear polarization of starlight from intrinsically unpolarized Galactic stars (see, e.g., Greenberg 1968, and references therein). The accepted model for the origin of the interstellar polarization (ISP) is linear dichroism (directional extinction), which results from aspherical dust grains aligned by some mechanism such that their optic axes have a preferred direction. By means of Mie theory computations (e.g., Greenberg 1968), the extinction efficiency factors for a specific grain size, shape, and refractive index may be calculated. Typically, the dust grains are modeled as dielectric cylinders with refractive index near $`1.6`$, the value for silicates. The basic result is that an aspherical dust grain extinguishes slightly more light that is propagating with electric vector parallel to its long axis than it does light with electric vector perpendicular to its long axis. The resulting polarization direction is therefore perpendicular to the direction of the grain’s alignment.

The predicted degree of polarization produced by linear dichroism is strongly wavelength dependent, with maximum polarization occurring when the characteristic size of the grains (the cylinder’s radius) is of the same order as the wavelength of the light. Unlike the behavior of dust extinction, the expected spectral dependence of the ISP therefore rapidly decreases towards either longer or shorter wavelengths away from the peak. Such dust polarization models have been quite successful at reproducing the empirically derived “Serkowski law” ISP curve (Serkowski 1973; Wilking, Lebofsky, & Rieke 1982; Whittet et al. 1992) in the optical and near-infrared bandpasses (see, e.g., Mathis 1986).

Naturally, the same dust that polarizes the light is expected to redden it as well, a prediction observationally verified for MW stars. The degree of polarization produced for a given amount of extinction (or reddening) is referred to as the “polarization efficiency” of the intervening dust grains. The most efficient polarization medium conceivable is obtained by modeling the dust grains as infinite cylinders (length $``$ radius) with diameters comparable to the wavelength of the incident light, perfectly aligned with their long axes parallel to one another and perpendicular to the line-of-sight (l-o-s). For such a model, Mie calculations place a theoretical upper limit on the polarization efficiency of the grains due to directional extinction at visual wavelengths of (Whittet 1992, and references therein)

$$\frac{\mathrm{ISP}}{E(BV)}<R_V\times 13.82\%\mathrm{mag}^1,$$
(1)
where $`\mathrm{ISP}`$ is the maximum degree of interstellar polarization measured in the optical band, $`E(BV)`$ is the reddening, and $`R_V`$ is the ratio of total to selective extinction (e.g., Savage & Mathis 1979). This upper limit on the polarization efficiency does not vary greatly with the refractive index of the grains considered, and is therefore rather insensitive to uncertainty in grain composition (Spitzer 1978, p. 175). Adopting the canonical value of $`R_V=3.1`$ for MW dust leads to a maximum theoretical polarization efficiency along typical lines of sight in the MW of $`\mathrm{ISP}/E(BV)<43\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$. This may be compared with the empirically derived upper bound (Serkowski, Mathewson, & Ford 1975) resulting from polarization studies of reddened Galactic stars of

$$\frac{\mathrm{ISP}}{E(BV)}<9.0\%\mathrm{mag}^1.$$
(2)
The fact that the observed polarization efficiency in the MW is more than a factor of 4 less than theory allows is generally taken as evidence that the alignment of dust grains is not total (or has multiple preferred orientations due to non-uniformity of the magnetic field along the l-o-s), and/or that the grains are only moderately elongated particles (rather than infinite cylinders) that may be irregularly shaped.

The empirical limit given by Equation (2) is found to hold for thousands of lines of sight to Galactic stars. To be sure, there are several stars in the comprehensive stellar polarization catalog by Heiles (2000) that exceed this limit (indeed, several polarized stars have claimed values of $`E(BV)0.0`$ mag, formally creating an infinite polarization efficiency), but the colors and spectral types of the stars are not generally thought to be determined with sufficient accuracy to claim a clear violation of the inequality given by Equation (2).

Somewhat surprisingly, there have been very few measures of the polarization efficiency of dust in external galaxies. By far the best way to determine the polarization efficiency of dust in an external galaxy is to measure the ISP along the l-o-s to a discrete source with a well-determined reddening. Although this has been a very rare exercise (see Hough 1996 for a review of the four studies known at that time, and Rodrigues et al. 1997 for a subsequent study of the polarization and reddening of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud), the results of the investigations that have been carried out are generally consistent with the upper limit given by Equation (2); while a few of the Large Magellanic Cloud stars studied by Clayton, Martin, & Thompson (1983) do exceed the limit, the discrepancy has been attributed to incorrect spectral classification or intrinsic colors (Hough 1996).

As part of a campaign to study the physical geometry of young supernovae (SNe; Leonard, Filippenko, & Matheson 2000b; Leonard et al. 2000a, 2001, 2002a), Leonard & Filippenko (2001; hereafter LF01) present a single epoch of optical spectropolarimetry of the bright, Type II-plateau supernova (SN) 1999gi in NGC 3184 during the late photospheric phase (107 days after discovery). They find an extraordinarily high degree of linear polarization, $`p_{\mathrm{max}}=5.8\%`$, where $`p_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the highest level of polarization observed in the optical bandpass. If intrinsic to SN 1999gi, such polarization is without precedent for this type of event (see Wheeler 2000; Leonard et al. 2001; LF01). It implies an enormous departure from spherical symmetry, since even the most strongly aspherical theoretical models (axis ratio of 5-to-1, favorably viewed edge-on) of Höflich (1991) fail to produce polarizations of more than $`5\%`$. However, there is compelling evidence that much of the observed polarization is, in fact, due to interstellar dust. One clue pointing toward an interstellar origin is that the polarization is not flat with wavelength, but rather has a broad, asymmetric peak that gently decreases on either side (Fig. 1). This is unlike the wavelength-independent polarization expected from an aspherical electron-scattering supernova atmosphere, but is very similar to the polarization observed for reddened Galactic stars (Serkowski 1973; Wilking et al. 1982; Whittet et al. 1992). Since the same dust that polarizes the SN light should also redden it, the natural expectation is for significant reddening. But, the Galactic foreground reddening being only $`E(BV)=0.017`$ mag (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis 1998), LF01 contend that nearly all of the dust along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi must reside in the host galaxy, NGC 3184.

Leonard et al. (2002c; hereafter L02) present optical spectra and photometry of SN 1999gi spanning the first six months after discovery as part of a study to derive the distance to SN 1999gi through the expanding photosphere method. Surprisingly, L02 conclude that SN 1999gi is only minimally reddened: Estimates resulting from five independent techniques are all consistent with a hard upper limit of $`E(BV)<0.45`$ mag established by comparing the early-time color of SN 1999gi with that of an infinitely hot blackbody, and yield a probable reddening of $`E(BV)=0.21\pm 0.09`$ mag.

In this paper, we further investigate the nature of the observed polarization of SN 1999gi reported by LF01 in light of the recent evidence for low reddening found by L02. In § 2 we present new spectropolarimetric observations of four distant Galactic “probe” stars close to the l-o-s of SN 1999gi in order to test the assertion by LF01 that the polarization is not due to Galactic dust, and discuss the results in § 3.1. In § 3.2 we consider alternatives to ISP as the cause of the polarization, and introduce a new technique to quantify the component of SN polarization that lies in the direction perpendicular to the ISP direction in the Stokes parameter $`q`$-$`u`$ plane. In § 3.3 we derive the polarization efficiency for dust in NGC 3184 along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi. We discuss the results in § 4 and summarize our conclusions in § 5.

## 2 Observations and Results

In order to investigate the contribution of Galactic ISP to the high polarization reported by LF01 for SN 1999gi, we obtained spectropolarimetry of four distant Galactic “probe” stars close to the l-o-s of SN 1999gi: BD $`+42^{}2113`$, HD 89572, and two “local standard stars” used by L02 to calibrate the photometry (labeled B and C in Fig. 2). The data were obtained on 2001 October 25 (BD $`+42^{}2113`$ and HD 89572) and 2002 January 8 (Stars B and C), using the Kast double spectrograph (Miller & Stone 1993) with polarimeter at the Cassegrain focus of the Shane 3-m telescope at Lick Observatory. The data were reduced according to the methods detailed by Leonard et al. (2001), and the results are given in Table 1.

To determine the polarization angle (P.A.) offset between the half-wave plate and the sky coordinate system on 2001 October 25, we observed the polarized standard star BD $`+59^{}389`$ and set its $`V`$-band polarization position angle (i.e., $`\theta _V`$, where the $`V`$ subscript denotes the debiased, flux-weighted average over the wavelength range $`50505950`$ Å; see Leonard et al. 2001) equal to $`98.09^{}`$, the value cataloged by Schmidt, Elston, & Lupie (1992). To check the precision of the P.A. offset we also observed the polarized standard star HD 19820 on this night, and found its polarization angle to agree to within $`0.2^{}`$ of the value measured by Schmidt et al. (1992). The observed null standard, BD $`+32^{}3739`$ (Schmidt et al. 1992), was found to be null to within $`0.1\%`$.

To determine the P.A. offset on 2002 January 8, we observed HD 58624 and set $`\theta _V`$ equal to $`26.9^{}`$ (Mathewson & Ford 1970). To check the precision of the P.A. offset on this night we also observed the polarized standard stars HD 43384 and HD 245310. For HD 43384, $`\theta _V`$ was measured to be $`170.8^{}`$, which agrees to within $`\pm 0.3^{}`$ of the value cataloged by Mathewson & Ford (1970). However, the $`V`$-band polarization angle of HD 245310 was found to be $`148.0^{}`$, which disagrees by $`2^{}`$ with the value ($`\theta _V=146^{}`$) reported by Hiltner (1956). While a $`2^{}`$ disagreement is not very alarming (and, in fact, is not that uncommon when comparing with older catalogs), it is also possible that a small amount of instrumental polarization existed on this night: the observed null standard, HD 57702, was measured to have $`p_V=0.17\%`$, which is $`0.13\%`$ higher than the value reported by Mathewson & Ford (1970).

The slight polarization for the null standard on 2002 January 8 could also be explained by systematic uncertainty. From repeated observations of a single standard star, Leonard et al. (2001) estimate the systematic uncertainty of the Lick polarimeter to be $`0.05\%`$ in a Stokes parameter, or roughly $`0.1\%`$ in the determination of $`p_V`$. In addition, Leonard et al. (2001) show that the uncertainty rises for objects with complex backgrounds, such as SNe in dusty galaxies or Galactic stars superposed on such backgrounds. Repeated observations of SN 1999em, in fact, show disagreements in a single Stokes parameter of up to 0.2%. Given these uncertainties, we shall consider any measured polarization that is $`<0.2\%`$ to be effectively null. Fortunately, although uncertainty at this level certainly places a cautionary note on the interpretation of very low polarization measurements, it does not significantly hamper the interpretation of large polarization values, such as that measured for SN 1999gi.

In order to serve as good probes of interstellar dust polarization, it is clearly necessary to observe stars that lie significantly above (or below) the Galactic plane and close to the l-o-s of the SN. Applying the criterion of Tran (1995) that a good MW “probe” star should be more than 150 pc from the Galactic plane, the Galactic latitude of SN 1999gi ($`b55^{}`$) necessitates using stars that are at least 183 pc away, a criterion that all but one of our probe stars (HD 89572, $`d=170\pm 40`$ pc) definitely meets (see Table 1). We estimated the probe star distances through spectroscopic parallax, with the spectral types and apparent magnitudes for BD $`+42^{}2113`$ and HD 89572 taken from the Simbad Astronomical Database.111http:simbad.u-strasbg.fr/Simbad To determine the spectral types of the two “anonymous” local standard stars we compared their observed colors, corrected for a Galactic reddening of $`E(BV)=0.017`$ mag (Schlegel et al. 1998; $`[BV]=0.69\mathrm{and}0.57`$ mag for Stars B and C, respectively), with the values tabulated by Binney & Merrifield (1998, p. 107) for luminosity class V dwarfs. (Note that if either of the probe stars is in fact more intrinsically luminous than a class V dwarf, it would serve to increase the inferred distance, which only enhances their efficacy as probe stars). We also verified this approximate classification through examination of their spectra (Fig. 3). With the possible exception of HD 89572, then, all of the probe stars lie considerably farther away than the Tran (1995) criterion requires, and are sufficiently close to the l-o-s to SN 1999gi to serve as good probes of the Galactic ISP.

## 3 Analysis

### 3.1 Galactic Polarization

From Table 1 we see that all of the probe stars are effectively null, confirming the suspicion of LF01 that the cause of the high polarization is not local to the MW, but rather resides in the host galaxy, NGC 3184. This is also consistent with the low Galactic reddening ($`E[BV]=0.017`$ mag) reported by the dust maps of Schlegel et al. (1998). Since Stars B and C are located on either side of SN 1999gi (Fig. 2) and are only $`0.04^{}`$ away from each other, this constrains the possible radius of an undetected polarizing spherical Galactic dust blob (or one dimension of a filamentary structure) that covers only SN 1999gi and neither probe star to values less than $`0.13`$ pc, assuming that the undetected blob resides within 150 pc of the Galactic plane. While such tiny concentrations of dust may be possible (e.g., the outer edge of a Bok globule, or a thin filamentary dust structure), the chance for such an alignment is certainly quite remote. We therefore feel confident in asserting that Galactic dust is not responsible for the polarization of SN 1999gi.

### 3.2 Alternatives to ISP

Before concluding that the high polarization of SN 1999gi is due to ISP from dust in NGC 3184, however, we consider three alternatives.

1. The polarization is due to newly formed dust in the expanding SN ejecta. It is now generally accepted that dust formation is a natural process in evolved SN atmospheres (e.g., Gerardy et al. 2000). However, there are several objections to this proposal for SN 1999gi at the epoch studied here, about 111 days after the explosion (L02). First, the temperature of the ejecta at the observed phase, including the inner regions in which the dust is thought to ultimately form (e.g., Wooden 1997; Clayton, Deneault, & Meyer 2001), is greatly in excess of the $`2000`$ K evaporation temperature of iron-rich grains (Wooden 1997), making it a very hostile environment for dust survival (Rank et al. 1988; Dwek 1991; Wooden et al. 1993). Indeed, the detailed study of SN 1987A by Wooden (1997) shows that the earliest possible epoch for dust to have formed in that event is about 350 days after explosion. In addition, the spectral and photometric evolution of SN 1999gi do not exhibit any of the telltale optical signatures of dust formation in the time leading up to the spectropolarimetric observation, such as an accompanying drop in optical luminosity or the onset of asymmetric line profiles (e.g., SN 1998S; Leonard et al. 2000). Dust formation in the ejecta of SN 1999gi can therefore be confidently eliminated as a possibility at this comparatively early evolutionary phase.

2. The polarization is produced by dust reflection by one or more off-center dust blobs in NGC 3184 near to the l-o-s of SN 1999gi. Reflection by dust is highly polarizing, and certainly could produce the average level of polarization seen in SN 1999gi. However, reproducing the observed Serkowski-law dependence, while surely possible given all conceivable dust-blob orientations and distances, would certainly require some fine-tuning of the model since simple reflection (i.e., single scattering) off grains of typical size produces polarization that increases at blue wavelengths due to the greater scattering efficiency there (e.g., Miller & Goodrich 1990; Miller, Goodrich, & Mathews 1991; see Kartje 1995 for a discussion of how multiple scatters could alter this). While computing a detailed light-echo model (e.g., Wang & Wheeler 1996) is beyond the scope of this study, we consider the possibility of dust reflection mimicking a Serkowski-law ISP curve to be quite remote.

3. The observed polarization is intrinsic to SN 1999gi itself. It is clear that SN 1999gi has some intrinsic polarization. The distinct spectropolarimetric features seen in Figure 1 correspond directly to strong features in the total flux spectrum; such sharp polarization modulations are not characteristic of ISP and must belong to the SN. There are, however, several reasons to believe that the intrinsic SN polarization component is relatively minor compared with the ISP.

To start with, the strength of the line features relative to the continuum polarization is quite small. The basic paradigm used to interpret polarization changes across P-Cygni line features is that polarization peaks are naturally associated with absorption minima due to selective blocking of forward-scattered (and hence less polarized) light in P-Cygni absorption troughs and polarization minima are associated with emission peaks due to the dilution of polarized continuum light with unpolarized line emission (e.g., McCall 1984; Jeffery 1991a; LF01; Leonard et al. 2002a). In fact, the polarization level in the emission components of strong lines (e.g., H$`\alpha `$, Ca II infrared triplet) has been used in several previous studies to define the ISP level (e.g., Trammell, Hines, & Wheeler 1993; Leonard et al. 2001, 2002a; Kawabata et al. 2002). For SN 1999gi, the lack of any strong polarization change across the H$`\alpha `$ emission component suggests that the ISP level is not significantly different from the observed polarization. In the absorption troughs, we see modest modulations at the locations of Ba II $`\lambda 4554`$, H$`\beta `$, Na I D, and possibly Fe II $`\lambda 5169`$ as well (Fig. 1). Curiously, the polarization changes in the troughs are observed to be decreases rather than the expected increases; we shall discuss the implications of this unusual behavior later in this section. For now, we note that LF01 find the strength of the modulations to be consistent with other SNe II-P having low intrinsic continuum polarization, and conclude that they are consistent with an intrinsic continuum polarization as low as $`p_{\mathrm{SN}}0.3\%`$ for SN 1999gi.

Another argument against high intrinsic SN polarization is that the continuum polarization shape is not flat with wavelength, as would be expected for an aspherical electron-scattering atmosphere, but rather approximates a Serkowski law ISP curve. In Figure 1 we show one possible Serkowski law fit to the data, determined by finding the best agreement (lowest $`\chi ^2`$) between a Serkowski law ISP curve (Whittet et al. 1992) and the observed spectropolarimetry in wavelength regions not obviously affected by line-trough features (we chose to fit the regions 4600–4810 Å, 5000–5100 Å, 5230–5670 Å, and 6070–6460 Å). The derived Serkowski law ISP curve shown in Figure 1 is certainly not a unique solution: the spectral regions that were fit were chosen somewhat arbitrarily (indeed, the “best” fit presented in Fig. 1 is slightly different from that derived by LF01, due largely to the different spectral regions that were fit) and some intrinsic SN polarization definitely exists, which makes the true ISP level and spectral shape slightly different from that to which we fit. Nonetheless, the good qualitative agreement between the overall shape of the observed polarization and a Serkowski law ISP curve, and its incompatibility with wavelength-independent polarization, is quite suggestive that ISP, and not intrinsic SN polarization, dominates the observed polarization.

The constancy of the polarization angle with wavelength across the optical spectrum ($`\theta `$ never strays by more than $`2^{}`$ from $`154^{}`$; see Fig. 8 of LF01) also casts doubt on large intrinsic SN polarization since, unless the SN polarization P.A. is either parallel or perpendicular222Recall that $`\theta 1/2\mathrm{arctan}(u/q)`$, so that a P.A. difference of $`90^{}`$ corresponds to a $`180^{}`$ orientation difference in the $`q`$-$`u`$ plane. to the ISP P.A., a somewhat unlikely chance occurrence, significant variation in the polarization angle with wavelength would be observed. To quantify this assertion, we consider the representation of polarization data in the $`q`$-$`u`$ plane (Fig. 4). Unlike the wavelength-independent nature of intrinsic SN continuum polarization, which will produce a spherical cluster of points in the $`q`$-$`u`$ plane, a Serkowski law wavelength-dependence of ISP should produce points that are spread out along a given P.A.; due to noise, systematic uncertainty, and the effect of line features, the points will not all lie exactly on a line, but will instead have some scatter about it. In the case of pure, undiluted ISP from a single source, we would expect the best-fitting line to the points to intersect the origin in the $`q`$-$`u`$ coordinate system, since this is the definition of having a single P.A. If another source possessing a significant polarization component at $`\pm 45^{}`$ to the ISP P.A. is contributing, then the best-fitting line will not intersect the origin. Under the simple paradigm of a single ISP P.A. and wavelength-independent SN continuum polarization, in fact, the amount by which the best-fitting line misses the origin reveals the component of SN polarization oriented at $`\pm 45^{}`$ to the ISP P.A. (i.e., $`p_{}\sqrt{q_{}^2+u_{}^2}`$, where $`q_{}`$ and $`u_{}`$ are the points of intersection in the $`q`$-$`u`$ plane between the line defined by the polarization data and the line perpendicular to it that passes through the origin).

Figure 4 shows the polarization data for SN 1999gi, where each of the 25 points represents a $`100`$ Å bin in the $`q`$ and $`u`$ Stokes parameters. The best-fitting line, determined by a uniform-weight least-squares fit, is seen to miss the origin by only $`p_{}=0.29\%`$. The statistical uncertainty of the individual points are clearly insufficient to explain the scatter about the best-fitting line, which is likely produced by the effect of low-contrast line features in the spectropolarimetry (Fig. 1). Therefore, to determine the uncertainty in the value of $`p_{}`$, we employed the technique of bootstrap resampling (Press et al. 1992), in which new data sets of 25 points were created by randomly drawing data values from the original 25 data points with repetition of values allowed. We then computed $`p_{}`$ for 1000 data sets resampled in this way and found the $`1\sigma `$ scatter of the results to be $`0.43\%`$, which we adopt as the $`1\sigma `$ uncertainty on the value of $`p_{}`$. This convincingly demonstrates that significant (i.e., more than $`1.5\%`$) wavelength-independent intrinsic SN polarization must have a polarization angle either coincident with, or perpendicular to, the ISP direction.

With this in mind, we now return to the curious observation that the observed polarization of SN 1999gi decreases in the absorption troughs of strong lines in the total flux spectrum (see Fig. 1), contrary to what is expected theoretically and also to what has been observed in the spectropolarimetry of other core-collapse SNe (e.g., SN 1987A \[Jeffery et al. 1991b, and references therein\]; SN 1993J \[Tran et al. 1997; Höflich et al. 1996\]; SN 1997ds \[LF01\]; SN 1999em \[Leonard et al. 2001\]; SN 2002ap \[Leonard et al. 2002a; Kawabata et al. 2002\]). The explanation for such atypical behavior is straightforward, however, if ISP dominates the observed polarization and the SN polarization has a P.A. that is oriented perpendicular to the P.A. of the ISP (as we suspect may be the case from the earlier $`q`$-$`u`$ plane analysis). That is, if the intrinsic SN polarization has a P.A. that lies along the best-fitting line in Figure 4, but in the upper left quadrant of the $`q`$-$`u`$ plane (i.e., at P.A. $`64^{}`$, perpendicular to the ISP P.A. of $`154^{}`$), then intrinsic SN polarization level increases would become polarization decreases in the observed spectropolarimetry due to the ISP. The unusual polarization decreases in the line troughs may therefore be only an artifact of a much stronger contribution from the ISP to the overall polarization level.

A final argument against large intrinsic SN polarization is the fact that no SN II-P has ever been found to be intrinsically polarized at more than 1.5% (Wheeler 2000; LF01; Leonard et al. 2001). Indeed, in the detailed multi-epoch spectropolarimetric study by Leonard et al. (2001) of SN 1999em, shown by L02 to be a spectral and photometric twin of SN 1999gi, the polarization does not rise above $`p_V=0.5\%`$ in the epochs studied (days 7, 40, 49, and 159 after discovery).

The preceding discussion therefore presents a choice: either SN 1999gi has the highest intrinsic polarization (by far) of any core-collapse SN yet observed, a continuum polarization shape that is unlike the wavelength-independent polarization expected from, and previously observed in, SNe II, and line polarization features unlike those observed in any previous SN II (i.e., polarization decreases in absorption troughs), or there is a large ISP component. The simplest explanation, and one that also restores normalcy to all of the peculiarities of the observed polarization, is that SN 1999gi possesses only minimal intrinsic polarization, and that a large ISP dominates. From the analysis of the line polarization and continuum shape, as well as the historical evidence against SNe II-P possessing high intrinsic polarization, we conclude that SN 1999gi is very likely to be intrinsically polarized in the range $`0.3p_{\mathrm{SN}}1.5\%`$. We also note that if the majority of the intrinsic SN polarization is indeed oriented perpendicular to the P.A. of the ISP as we suspect, then the true ISP level is even greater than the level observed, due to the vector nature of polarization addition.

### 3.3 Polarization Efficiency of Dust in NGC 3184

The most viable production mechanism for the bulk of the polarization observed in SN 1999gi is therefore directional extinction by interstellar dust grains along the l-o-s in NGC 3184. Assuming the wavelength of maximum ISP to be $`\lambda _{\mathrm{max}}5100`$ Å (§ 3.2; Fig. 1) and adopting the empirical correlation between the wavelength of maximum polarization and $`R_V`$ found by Whittet & van Breda (1978), we derive $`R_V=2.9`$ for the dust polarizing the light of SN 1999gi (cf. LF01). The theoretical upper bound on the dust polarization efficiency from Equation (1) is therefore

$$\frac{\mathrm{ISP}}{E(BV)}<40\%\mathrm{mag}^1.$$
(3)
If the dust has a polarization efficiency similar to typical MW dust, of course, then the empirical upper limit given by Equation (2) is expected to hold.

From the limits on the intrinsic SN polarization established in § 3.2 as well as the null results for the Galactic probe stars, we conclude that the polarization contributed by dust in NGC 3184 likely lies in the range $`4.3\%\mathrm{ISP}7.3\%`$. (We note that the nature of the line trough polarization discussed in § 3.2 actually favors restricting the ISP even further, to values greater than 5.8%; for the purpose of calculating the range of possible polarization efficiency, however, it seems prudent to adopt the most liberal limits.) When combined with the reddening of $`E(BV)=0.21\pm 0.09`$ mag (L02), we derive a polarization efficiency333Due to the non-Gaussian nature of the ISP probability distribution (i.e., it is flat between the end points), the quoted values for the polarization efficiency and uncertainty were derived through a Monte Carlo simulation. We first randomly selected 10,000 values from a Gaussian-weighted distribution for the reddening ($`E[BV]=0.21\pm 0.09`$ mag) and a flat probability distribution for the ISP ($`4.3\mathrm{ISP}7.3`$). From physical considerations (i.e., dust is never observed to deredden light) we did not allow negative reddening. So that the distribution of reddening values would remain symmetric about $`E(BV)=0.21`$ mag, we also did not allow reddenings above $`0.42`$ mag. This latter restriction is quite justifiable as well from the upper limit of $`E(BV)<0.45`$ mag derived by L02. We therefore replaced any reddenings that were not within the range $`0.0<E(BV)<0.42`$ mag with ones drawn randomly from the Gaussian-weighted reddening distribution that do fall within the allowed range. We then computed the polarization efficiency for the 10,000 sets of values. The resulting probability distribution is not normally distributed, but rather has positive skewness and a few extraordinarily large values resulting from very small (but allowable) reddenings. These outlier points bias both the mean and the standard deviation to large, non-robust values (i.e., they cannot be reproduced from one simulation to the next). Our quoted result is therefore the median of the probability distribution, and the lower and upper values of the uncertainty mark the locations of the 16th and 84th percentile points, respectively, of the simulated set of data (i.e., the $`68\%`$ confidence bounds). for the dust in NGC 3184 of $`31_9^{+22}\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$. Figure 5 displays the range of possible values for the ISP and reddening for the dust in NGC 3184 along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi, with the empirical and theoretical limits prescribed by Equations (2) and (3), respectively, indicated as well. For lack of a clear physical motivation for favoring a specific ISP value within the allowed range, we nominally place it at $`\mathrm{ISP}=5.8\%`$, the observed polarization value.

The range of possible ISP and reddening values shown in Figure 5 is inconsistent with the maximum observed Galactic polarization efficiency. Our nominal value is three times the empirical limit, and the upper end of the range extends beyond the theoretical maximum given by Equation (3). Even the limiting values of $`E(BV)=0.45`$ mag and ISP = 4.3% produce a polarization efficiency above (but just barely) the Galactic limit, and these limiting values are thought to be quite unlikely. Therefore, unless the estimate of the reddening or the allowed range of the ISP are grossly in error, this measurement is the highest polarization efficiency yet confirmed for a single sight line in either the MW or an external galaxy.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Galactic ISP Models

What does the high polarization efficiency tell us about the dust in NGC 3184? Does it suggest an unusually high degree of grain alignment? An unusually strong magnetic field? Grain shapes that actually resemble infinite cylinders? To gain insight we briefly discuss the various grain-alignment mechanisms that have been proposed for the MW over the years.

First, it is clear that the Galactic magnetic field plays a leading role in grain alignment, since the optical polarization position angles in the MW of the most distant stars (e.g., Mathewson & Ford 1970) are generally found to parallel the Galactic magnetic field direction inferred from other independent studies, largely at radio wavelengths (see, e.g., Heiles 1996 for a detailed comparison among the magnetic field directions derived from starlight polarization, pulsar rotation measure data, and synchrotron emission). Similar results have also recently been obtained using optical and infrared polarimetry of the integrated starlight of a limited number of external galaxies as well, such as NGC 4565, a normal spiral, in which the radio continuum (Sukumar & Allen 1991), optical polarimetry (Scarrott, Rolph, & Semple 1990), and infrared polarimetry (Jones 1989) are all consistent with a magnetic field lying in the plane of the galaxy.

The classic mechanism by Davis & Greenstein (1951) achieves alignment through paramagnetic relaxation of the thermally rotating grains in the presence of an external magnetic field. This mechanism, however, predicts a strong correlation between the degree of alignment and magnetic field strength (e.g., Aannestad & Purcell 1973; Johnson 1982), which is not observed (see, e.g., Heiles 1987 and references therein). For this and other reasons, the classic Davis-Greenstein mechanism is no longer seen as the most likely candidate for alignment, although a modification of the basic idea is still favored (e.g., Jones 1996 and references therein).

In recent years, the trend has been toward deemphasizing the role that magnetic field strength plays in grain alignment and instead focusing on its direction. In fact, a very successful recent model by Jones, Klebe, & Dickey (1992) posits no correlation of alignment with magnetic field strength at all (assuming, of course, that some nonzero field exists). Rather, the Jones et al. (1992) model assumes complete alignment of the large aspherical component of the grain population at all times (i.e., independent of the magnetic field strength), but with equal mixing of random and constant directional components to the magnetic field. That is, the model envisages a uniform Galactic magnetic field pervading an interstellar medium that itself is made up of individual cells containing superposed, randomly oriented magnetic field vectors with a strength comparable to that of the Galactic field. The random components have the effect of causing the polarization angle of the net field to vary from cell to cell, thereby reducing the overall polarization efficiency of the ISM.

The Jones et al. (1992) model successfully explains the correlation of polarization strength with extinction at 2.2 $`\mu `$m (i.e., the K band), where it is possible to study stars that suffer over 100 mag of visual extinction. In addition to favoring equipartition between the random and constant components of the magnetic field, a prediction that is also in good agreement with radio observations (e.g., Heiles 1987, 1996), this model finds the extent of the cells to be dictated not by size, but, rather, by extinction. Specifically, the best agreement with the observations results when the random magnetic field component decorrelates over a path length of $`A_V1`$ mag, a result found to be valid for both diffuse gas and dense clouds. One implication of this is that stars with $`A_V1`$ mag should have higher polarization efficiency, on average, than those with greater extinction. High polarization efficiency, therefore, should prefer the very low-extinction regime, where the effect of only a single cell polarizes the light.

Within the context of the Jones et al. (1992) model, then, we might be able to explain the high polarization efficiency, the surprising polarization angle (i.e., that it is not aligned with the spiral arm; see, e.g., Scarrott et al. 1990, 1991), and the nearly constant wavelength dependence of the polarization angle if the bulk of the polarization of SN 1999gi is produced by a single dust cell of highly aligned grains with $`lr`$ whose orientation is determined primarily by a local, randomly oriented magnetic field. Even with these specifications, however, it is possible that an unusually regular magnetic field and/or different alignment mechanism may be required to explain such high polarization efficiency.

### 4.2 The Polarization Efficiency of Galactic Dust

Although the low-extinction regime is only sparsely sampled by the data of Jones et al. (1992; only 3 of the 99 stars studied have $`A_V1`$ mag, and none is found to violate the empirical Galactic limit set by Equation ), it is instructive to review the low-extinction polarization data that are available for Galactic stars, to see if the extraordinary polarization efficiency indicated by SN 1999gi is unique.

The most complete collection of stellar polarization data is the agglomeration of stellar polarization catalogs by Heiles (2000), which contains polarization and, where available, reddening data for 9286 Galactic stars; in nearly all cases, the quoted stellar reddening was derived in the original catalog by comparing a star’s intrinsic color (estimated from its spectral type) with the observed color. An investigation of the low-extinction regime of the Heiles (2000) catalog is given by Fosalba et al. (2002), in which only stars with listed degrees and angles of polarization, as well as positive extinctions, are studied (several stars in the Heiles (2000) catalog have negative reddenings, since these values were reported by the original catalogs from which Heiles’ data were drawn); this subsample constitutes $``$ 60% of the stars in the Heiles (2000) catalog. When looking at the average polarization properties of the stars, Fosalba et al. (2002) indeed find evidence for increasing average polarization efficiency with decreasing reddening in the reddening range $`E(BV)<1.0`$ mag: $`P_{\mathrm{avg}}/P_{\mathrm{max}}=0.39E(BV)^{0.2}`$, where $`P_{\mathrm{avg}}`$ is the average value of the polarization and $`P_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the empirical limit given in Equation (2) for each reddening. Although a few dozen stars are found to exceed the Serkowski et al. (1975) limit, Fosalba et al. (2002) pass over these violations without comment, perhaps due to the inherent uncertainties in the techniques used to gauge stellar reddenings (e.g., Teerikorpi 1990), a difficulty that has added caution in the interpretation of polarization efficiency deduced by other researchers as well (e.g., Berdyugin, Snåre, & Teerikorpi 1995). An additional challenge when interpreting polarization data in the very low-extinction regime is the bias toward high polarizations that results from the positive-definite definition of polarization (i.e., $`p=\sqrt{q^2+u^2}`$) as well as the positive skewness exhibited by its probability distribution (e.g., Miller et al. 1988; see Leonard et al. 2001 for a thorough discussion of these issues).

To more securely investigate possible violations of Equation (2) at low reddenings, the recent dust maps of Schlegel et al. (1998) offer a useful alternative to extinctions estimated by stellar color excess. First, they provide reddenings along Galactic lines-of-sight accurate to $`16\%`$. Second, they represent the reddening produced by the total Galactic dust column along a particular l-o-s, so that the value serves as a natural upper bound on the reddening to any Galactic star. Using the Schlegel et al. (1998) reddening values will therefore result in lower bounds on the derived polarization efficiencies of Galactic stars. Thus, any star whose polarization efficiency is found to significantly violate Equation (2) when calculated in this way can be flagged as a potential exception to the Serkowski et al. (1975) limit. One point that must be kept in mind, however, is that the Schlegel et al. (1998) maps have a resolution of $`6\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}1`$ which, though capable of resolving quite small-scale features, certainly leaves open the possibility of unresolved dust filaments. Nonetheless, the exercise is worthwhile as a preliminary investigation.

Figure 6 shows the results of applying the Schlegel et al. (1998) reddenings to the polarization data of Heiles et al. (2000) in the low-extinction regime, and several stars clearly do violate the Serkowski et al. (1975) limit. Although we did not conduct a detailed investigation of all of these stars, we did attempt to further investigate the most egregious violators, for which the observed polarization exceeds the empirical limit by more than 2% (stars 3200, 3340, 3355, 3366, 3530, 3543, and 5997 in the Heiles 2000 list; note that the dust along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi likely violates the empirical limit by $`2.5\%`$). Unfortunately, the source of the data for all of these exceptional stars is an unpublished catalog by A. Goodman (see Heiles 2000 and references therein) for which only positions and measured polarizations, and no uncertainties or reddenings, are given. This catalog contains stars primarily in, near, or behind star-forming molecular clouds, where the density of $`\mathrm{H}_2`$ molecules exceeds $`10^210^3\mathrm{cm}^3`$; such regions are noticeable as dark patches of extinction on optical photographs and are therefore often referred to as “dark clouds”. From the given positions we determined that all but the last star (Star 5997) lie in the vicinity of the dark cloud L1755, a star-forming region in Ophiuchus, for which additional information for two of the stars, numbers 3530 and 3543, are given by Goodman et al. (1990) as $`p=5.87\pm 0.12\%`$ and $`p=6.02\pm 0.13\%`$, respectively. The polarization values and stated uncertainties certainly place these stars well above the empirical limit for their Schlegel et al. (1998) reddenings (0.38 mag and 0.40 mag for Star 3530 and Star 3543, respectively).444Note that the stars studied by Goodman et al. (1990) were specifically chosen to be coincident, in projection (i.e., they are most likely background stars), with the periphery of the extinction associated with the dark clouds. Such a selection criterion should naturally yield a sample with low inferred reddening. At an estimated distance of $`160`$ pc to the L1755 cloud (Bertiau 1958) the dust maps of Schlegel et al. (1998) are capable of resolving structures of $`0.3`$ pc in size, which is sufficient to resolve the L1755 cloud itself, estimated to have a physical size of $`6`$ pc $`\times 0.7`$ pc (Goodman et al. 1990). Certainly, though, it is conceivable that unresolved substructure exists in such an environment, and it is unfortunate that no specific extinction information exists for these stars.

Although the lack of specific reddening estimates precludes a definitive statement, the possibility certainly exists that violations of the empirical limit given by Equation (2) do occur in the MW. Additional studies of the low-reddening regime are needed before more can be said about Galactic violations of Equation (2), however. Until such studies are carried out, though, our measurement of the polarization efficiency of dust in NGC 3184, $`\mathrm{ISP}/E(BV)=31_9^{+22}\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$, serves as the highest polarization efficiency yet confirmed for a single sight line in either the MW or an external galaxy.

## 5 Conclusions

The single spectropolarimetric epoch obtained for the Type II-P SN 1999gi by LF01 indicates a very high observed polarization ($`p_{\mathrm{max}}=5.8\%`$), with a shape that is well characterized by a Serkowski law ISP curve. The null result obtained by spectropolarimetric observations of four Galactic stars near to the l-o-s to SN 1999gi and sufficiently distant to fully sample Galactic dust convincingly eliminates Galactic ISP as a significant contributor to the observed polarization. It is also difficult to reconcile intrinsic SN polarization, newly formed dust in the ejecta, or dust reflection by off-axis dust blobs with the observed polarization characteristics. We therefore conclude that ISP produced by dust in NGC 3184 is largely responsible for the observed polarization, and that it lies in the range $`4.3\%\mathrm{ISP}7.3\%`$. Since L02 find SN 1999gi to be only minimally reddened, $`E(BV)=0.21\pm 0.09`$ mag (with all reddening estimates supporting a firm upper limit of $`E[BV]<0.45`$ mag, which was derived through the comparison between the early-time continuum shape with that of an infinitely hot blackbody), we derive a polarization efficiency for the dust along this l-o-s in NGC 3184 of $`31_9^{+22}\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$. Even by assuming the limiting reddening value of $`E(BV)=0.45`$ mag and the lower ISP limit of ISP = 4.3%, the derived polarization efficiency does not conform to the empirical Galactic limit of $`\mathrm{ISP}/E[BV]<9\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$, and these limiting values are thought to be extremely unlikely. Therefore, unless the estimates for the ranges of either the reddening or the ISP are grossly in error, this measurement is the highest polarization efficiency yet confirmed for a single sight line in either the MW or an external galaxy.

Although the polarization efficiency for dust along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi is inconsistent with the empirically derived maximum observed Galactic polarization efficiency, it can be accommodated by the maximum theoretical efficiency derived from Mie scattering considerations ($`\mathrm{ISP}/E[BV]<40\%\mathrm{mag}^1`$). In addition, the dust grain polarization model of Jones et al. (1992) predicts high polarization efficiency for lines of sight to sources with low reddening ($`A_V<1`$ mag). From an examination of the Galactic stellar polarization agglomeration catalog of Heiles (2000), we also find some evidence for unusually high polarization efficiency for dust in dark clouds, although the current lack of specific extinction information for these regions precludes definitive conclusions. Since the low-reddening regime has been only sparsely sampled by previous studies, increased scrutiny of the polarimetry of discrete Galactic and extragalactic sources with low reddening certainly seems warranted to test whether the polarization efficiency inferred for dust along the l-o-s to SN 1999gi in NGC 3184 is indeed common in the low-reddening regime.

This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and was supported in part by NASA through the American Astronomical Society’s Small Research Grant Program. Our work was also funded by NASA grants GO-8648, GO-9114, and GO-9155 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Additional funding was provided to A. V. F. by NASA/Chandra grant GO-0-1001C, by NSF grant AST–9987438, by the Guggenheim Foundation, and by the Sylvia and Jim Katzman Foundation. KAIT was made possible by generous donations from Sun Microsystems, Inc., the Hewlett-Packard Company, AutoScope Corporation, Lick Observatory, the National Science Foundation, the University of California, and the Katzman Foundation.


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# Topological Borsuk problem

## 1 Introduction

This paper is based on my lecture at the US-Canada Mathcamp-2002 in Colorado Springs. The text is very elementary (it was designed for advanced high school students). At the same time the main problem about the topological Borsuk number for $`𝐑^n,n>2`$ remains open since 1977.

I thank the organizers of the Mathcamp-2002 for inviting me to give lectures.

## 2 Borsuk conjecture and topological Borsuk number

Famous Borsuk conjecture says that any compact $`F`$ in $`𝐑^n`$ can be partitioned into $`n+1`$ closed subsets of smaller diameter. The conjecture is true for $`n=2`$ and $`n=3`$ as well as for all $`F`$ having smooth boundary. The latter result is topological. It is based on the following Borsuk theorem: if the standard sphere $`S^{n1}𝐑^n`$ is represented as a union $`F_1F_2\mathrm{}F_n`$ of $`n`$ closed subsets then at least one $`F_i`$ contains a pair of antipodal points $`x`$ and $`x`$.

General Borsuk conjecture was disproved in \[KK\]. Let us call $`b_{𝐑^n}(F)`$ the minimal number of parts of smaller diameter necessary to partition $`F`$. Then Kahn and Kalai constructed such $`F`$ that

$$b_{𝐑^n}(F)>(1.2)^\sqrt{n}.$$

The counterexample (as well as many of its simplifications) has combinatorial nature and deals with specific properties of the Euclidean metric in $`𝐑^n`$.

Topological version of the Borsuk problem was formulated around 1977 (see \[So\]). We recall it below.

Let $`(X,\rho _0)`$ be a metric space ($`\rho _0`$ is the metric). For any compact $`FX`$ we denote by $`b_{(X,\rho _0)}(F):=b_X(F)`$ its Borsuk number, i.e. the minimal number of parts of smaller diameter necessary to partition $`F`$. We denote by $`B(X,\rho _0)`$ the Borsuk number of the metric space $`X`$. By definition, any compact in $`X`$ can be partitioned into $`B(X,\rho _0)`$ parts of smaller diameter, but there exist compacts which cannot be partitioned into $`B(X,\rho _0)1`$ such parts.

Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _0)`$ be the set of metrics on $`X`$ which define the topology equivalent to the one given by $`\rho _0`$. We will call elements of this set $`\rho _0`$-equivalent metrics.

The number $`B(X,\rho )`$ can change as $`\rho `$ varies inside of $`\mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _0)`$.

###### Example 1

Let $`\rho _0`$ be the standard Euclidean metric in $`𝐑^2`$ and $`\rho `$ be the Minkowski metric, i.e. $`\rho ((x_1,y_1),(x_2,y_2))=|x_1x_2|+|y_1y_2|`$ in coordinates. Clearly $`\rho \mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _0)`$. Then the classical result, which goes back to 1950’s, says that $`B(X,\rho )=4`$. On the other hand $`B(X,\rho _0)=3`$.

The following definition was given in \[So\].

###### Definition 1

Topological Borsuk number of $`(X,\rho _0)`$ is defined as

$$B(X)=min_{\rho \mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _0)}B(X,\rho ).$$

Topological Borsuk Problem. Estimate $`B(X)`$ for the Euclidean space $`X=𝐑^n`$.

In particular, is it true that $`B(𝐑^n)n+1`$? More speculatively, is it true that $`B(𝐑^n)`$ is bounded from below by $`B(𝐑^n,\rho _0)`$, where $`\rho _0`$ is the standard Euclidean metric?

## 3 2-dimensional case

In order to prove that $`B(X)m`$ it suffices to prove that for any metric $`\rho \mathrm{\Omega }(\rho _0)`$ there exists $`c>0`$ and a finite subset $`IX`$ consisting of $`m`$ elements such that $`\rho (i,j)=c`$ for all $`ij`$. If $`X=𝐑^n`$ and $`\rho =\rho _0`$ is the standard Euclidean metric then one can take $`c=1,m=n+1`$ and $`I`$ be the set of vertices of the regular simplex. It is not obvious that such $`I`$ exists for other $`\rho _0`$-equivalent metrics. In the case $`n=2`$ the answer is positive due to the following theorem.

###### Theorem 1

(\[So\]) Topological Borsuk number of the Euclidean $`𝐑^2`$ is equal to $`3`$.

The proof presented below is basically the same as in \[So\].

Proof. Let $`\rho `$ be a metric on $`X=𝐑^2`$ which defines the topology equivalent to the standard one. Let us consider the map $`f:X^3𝐑^3`$ such that

$$f(x_1,x_2,x_3)=(\rho _{12},\rho _{23},\rho _{13}),$$

where $`\rho _{ij}=\rho (x_i,x_j),ij`$.

By our assumption the map $`f`$ is continuous. It suffices to prove that the image of $`f`$ intersects the line $`l=\{(\rho _{12},\rho _{23},\rho _{13})|\rho _{12}=\rho _{23}=\rho _{13}\}`$ besides the obvious point $`(0,0,0)`$ which is the image of the diagonal $`x_1=x_2=x_3`$.

Notice that $`f`$ is equivariant with respect to the natural actions of the cyclic group $`𝐙/3`$ on $`X^3`$ and $`𝐑^3`$ (view $`𝐙/3`$ as the subgroup of the symmetric group $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_3`$ acting by permutations of coordinates).

It suffices to prove that there is no continuous $`𝐙/3`$-equivariant map between $`X^3f^1(0)`$ and $`𝐑^3l`$.

Since $`X^3=𝐑^6`$ and $`f^1(0)=\{(x_1,x_2,x_3)|x_1=x_2=x_3\}`$ the set $`X^3f^1(0)`$ is equivariantly homotopic to the $`3`$-dimensional sphere $`S^3`$ (which can be considered as a $`𝐙/3`$-invariant subset of the plane $`x_1+x_2+x_3=0`$). Similarly, $`𝐑^3l`$ is equivariantly homotopic to the $`1`$-dimensional sphere $`S^1`$ considered as a $`𝐙/3`$-invariant subset of the plane $`\rho _{12}+\rho _{23}+\rho _{13}=0`$. Notice that the natural action of $`𝐙/3`$ is free on both spheres. It is enough to prove that there is no $`𝐙/3`$-equivariant map between $`S^3`$ and $`S^1`$. It was done in \[So\] by using the notion of the category (genus) of a topological space. Here we will use its modern version called the $`G`$-index of a topological space where $`G`$ is a group acting on the space (see \[M\]). In our case $`G=𝐙/3`$.

###### Definition 2

Let $`G`$ be a non-trivial finite group. An $`E_nG`$-space is a $`G`$-space $`Y`$ such that

a) $`G`$ acts freely on $`Y`$;

b) $`Y`$ is $`n`$-dimensional;

c) $`Y`$ is $`(n1)`$-connected.

If $`X`$ is a $`G`$-space then $`ind_G(X)`$ (the $`G`$-index of $`X`$) is the minimal $`n`$ such that there exists a $`G`$-equivariant map $`XE_nG`$ (the index can be infinite).It is easy to see that $`ind_G(E_nG)=n`$. One can prove (see \[M\], 6.2.5) that there is no $`G`$-equivariant continuous map $`E_nGE_{n1}G`$ (Borsuk-Ulam type theorem). More generally, there is no $`G`$-equivariant continuous map $`f:XY`$ between $`G`$-spaces $`X`$ and $`Y`$ such that $`ind_G(X)>ind_G(Y)`$.

On the other hand, if $`p`$ is a prime number then any odd-dimensional sphere is a $`𝐙/p`$-space. Indeed, the group $`𝐙/p`$ acts on $`S^{2n1}=\{(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)𝐂^n|_i|z_i|^2=1\}`$ via $`(z_1,\mathrm{},z_n)(z_1exp(2\pi i/p),\mathrm{},z_nexp(2\pi i/p))`$. Taking $`p=3`$ we finish the proof of the theorem. $`\mathrm{}`$

## 4 Conclusion

The proof above uses only elementary algebraic topology and very little information about the metric. The proof does not work when we replace $`𝐑^2`$ by $`𝐑^n,n>2`$. In that case we have a $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n+1}`$-equivariant continuous map $`(𝐑^n)^{n+1}R^{n(n1)/2}`$. Although arising topological spaces are still spheres, the natural actions of various subgroups of the symmetric group $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{n+1}`$ are not free on the target. Perhaps one needs new ideas in order to estimate the topological Borsuk number of $`𝐑^n`$.

References

\[KK\] J. Kahn, G. Kalai, A counterexample to Borsuk’s conjecture. Bull. AMS, 29(1993), 60-62.

\[M\] J. Matousek, Topological Methods in Combinatorics and Geometry (book, to appear).

\[So\] Y. Soibelman, Calculation of a topological invariant connected with the partitioning of figures into parts of smaller diameter. (Russian) Mat. Zametki 27 (1980), no. 4, 647–649, 671. English Translation in Math. Notes 27 (1980), 3-4, 317-318.

Address: Department of Mathematics, KSU, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA

soibel@math.ksu.edu


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The composition of the jets observed in Galactic X-ray transients, either electron-positron or electron-proton plasma, is still not fully established.

Here we review the arguments presented in  where we proposed that the annihilation line features observed in the hard X-ray spectra of some X-ray transients arise from pairs in a bipolar outflow. At the time of annihilation, this outflow is already accelerated to relativistic bulk speeds causing a significant Doppler shift of the frequency of the annihilation lines. We also showed that the subsequent emission of radio synchrotron radiation from the outflow may be caused by only a small fraction of pairs escaping from the annihilation region. We apply this idea to radio and hard X-ray observations of Nova Muscae 1991. The energy requirements for this source rule out a large contribution of protons to the outflow.

## 2 Doppler-shifted annihilation lines

Conditions for a strong, narrow annihilation line. The direct annihilation of an electron-positron pair results in the production of two $`\gamma `$-ray photons, each with an energy of 511 keV in the rest-frame of the annihilating particles. In non-thermal plasmas relativistic electrons or pairs may be injected into the plasma. The injected pairs and those produced in the plasma may cool to sub-relativistic energies and thermalize before annihilating, thus leading to a narrow annihilation line . If the line is strong, it can rise above the Comptonization spectrum and becomes detectable. This requires a high pair yield, $`Y`$, defined as the ratio of the energy converted to pairs and the energy supplied to the plasma. The highest pair yields can be achieved when the plasma is ‘photon-starved’, i.e. when the number of injected relativistic photons strongly exceeds that of the injected soft photons . In this case, $`Y0.25`$ and a strong, narrow annihilation line above the Comptonization continuum becomes observable.

The observation of a narrow annihilation line most likely indicates a plasma with strong injection of non-thermal electrons or pairs. The injection of leptons into a spherical volume of radius $`R`$ is characterised by the compactness (e.g. ) $`l_\mathrm{e}=L_\mathrm{e}\sigma _\mathrm{T}/Rm_\mathrm{e}c^3`$, where $`\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$ is the Thomson cross-section and $`L_\mathrm{e}`$ is the power of the electron injection, $`L_\mathrm{e}=(4\pi R^3/3)m_\mathrm{e}c^2Q_\mathrm{l}(\gamma )\left(\gamma 1\right)𝑑\gamma `$. Here, $`Q_\mathrm{l}(\gamma )`$ is the rate of injection of leptons with Lorentz factor $`\gamma `$ per unit volume per unit time per unit $`\gamma `$. If the compactness $`l_\mathrm{e}`$ can be inferred from the observations of an annihilation line, then the above equations can be used to constrain $`Q_\mathrm{l}(\gamma )`$.

Relativistic Doppler-shifts. Any emission of relativistically moving material is Doppler-shifted in its frequency. For material moving with bulk velocity $`v_\mathrm{b}=\beta c`$ at an angle $`\theta `$ to the line of sight to the observer, the observed frequency, $`\nu `$, of radiation emitted at frequency $`\nu ^{}`$ in the rest-frame of the material is given as

$$\nu =\frac{\nu ^{}}{\gamma _\mathrm{b}\left(1\pm \beta \mathrm{cos}\theta \right)}=\nu ^{}\delta _\pm ,$$
(1)
where $`\gamma _\mathrm{b}`$ is the Lorentz factor corresponding to the velocity $`\beta `$ (e.g. ). The upper signs correspond to material receding along the line of sight to the observer while the lower signs indicate approaching material. From Equation (1) it is clear that radiation of material receding from an observer is always redshifted. However, for approaching material the emission may be blueshifted or redshifted, depending on the combination of $`\beta `$ and $`\theta `$. Solving Equation (1) for $`\beta `$ we find that for $`\beta >2\mathrm{cos}\theta /\left(1+\mathrm{cos}^2\theta \right)`$ the annihilation line arising from the approaching jet material will be redshifted. The range of velocities which result in such a Doppler redshift is largest for angles to the line of sight close to $`90^{}`$.

## 3 The case of Nova Muscae

Nova Muscae (GRS 1124$``$684) was discovered on 1991 Jan 8 by Granat (, ) and Ginga . During monitoring observations, a strong, narrow line near 500 keV was detected on Jan 20–21 which had not been noted before. The line flux was observed to increase during the observation within the space of a few hours. Unfortunately, the observations stopped before the line flux decreased again, implying a lifetime of the line emission of at least 10 hours. Simultaneously to the strong line near 500 keV, there was also increased emission detected near 200 keV. The spectrum obtained with Granat during 1991 Jan 20–21 is shown in Figure 1.

The original discovery also triggered a radio monitoring programme using the Molongolo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) at 843 MHz (, ).  note four distinct features in the lightcurve. There is a general decay of the radio flux from the very beginning of the programme continuing until about January 22. There is another flare observed from January 31 until around February 5. Finally, a short flare lasting only one day was observed by MOST at 843 MHz on January 24 with a measured flux density of 24 mJy. In the following we will concentrate on the detection of the $`\gamma `$-ray lines on January 21 and the brief radio flare on January 24. We speculate that the same ejection event is responsible for the emission at opposite ends of the electromagnetic spectrum observed on the two days.

Constraints from the annihilation line. We assume here that the two $`\gamma `$-ray lines observed in the spectrum of Nova Muscae arise from pair annihilation in a relativistic bipolar outflow from the very centre of the system. In this model, the line at 474 keV is associated with the approaching component while that at 194 keV arises from the receding component. We find $`\theta =60^{}\pm 7^{}`$ for the angle to the line of sight of the component motion and $`\beta =0.84\pm 0.02`$ for the bulk velocity of the components. This corresponds to a Lorentz factor of $`\gamma _\mathrm{b}=1.86\pm 0.12`$.

The rate of annihilation implied by the line flux ($`(6.6\pm 3.6)\times 10^3`$ photons s-1 cm-2) is $`\dot{N}_+2\times 10^{43}`$ pairs s-1 for a distance of 5.5 kpc . This enormous rate is sustained for at least 10 hours . It is therefore very unlikely that this feature at 474 keV arises from a large number of pairs formed practically instantaneously and then slowly annihilating away. This would imply a short-lived flash of annihilation photons with a fast, exponential decay contrary to the lifetime of the annihilation features of at least 10 hours. A more promising approach is to assume that the pair producing plasma is in equilibrium, i.e. the annihilation losses are balanced by pair creation. We fit the spectrum using the model NTEEA within the XSPEC package which is an implementation of the model developed in . The only free parameters in this fit were the compactness of the non-thermal electron injection, $`l_\mathrm{e}`$, and the compactness of injected soft photons, $`l_\mathrm{s}`$. Figure 1 shows our best fit with a reduced $`\chi ^2`$-value of 1.35 (for 84 d.o.f). The free parameters, $`l_\mathrm{e}3000`$ and $`l_\mathrm{s}50`$, imply a strongly photon-starved plasma. However, the values of the model parameters are not well-constrained and reasonable fits to the data can be obtained for $`l_\mathrm{e}>100`$. Re-arranging the equation above yields $`L_\mathrm{e}=Rm_\mathrm{e}c^3l_\mathrm{e}/\sigma _\mathrm{T}`$. Substituting in our lower limits for $`R`$ and $`l_\mathrm{e}`$, we find $`L_\mathrm{e}7\times 10^{30}`$ W. It follows that $`Q_0=9\times 10^{26}`$ m-3 s-1 for this lower limit. The rate at which relativistic electrons are injected is then $`\dot{N}_{\mathrm{inj}}=3\times 10^{43}`$ particles s-1. This is comparable to the observed annihilation rate of $`2\times 10^{43}`$ particles s-1.

Implications of a bipolar flow. In the case of an ejection event shorter than 10 hours, the annihilation rate would decrease dramatically as the ejected material travels outwards and expands. In the model presented here we argue that the bulk of the outflow containing the pairs is already accelerated when they annihilate, thus explaining the redshifts of the two observed lines. The velocity of the outflow is then 0.84 c.

The energy required to drive the outflows is enormous. As the relativistic electrons necessary for pair production are highly relativistic, their mass in the rest frame of the outflow material is given by $`\gamma m_\mathrm{e}`$. Therefore, the total kinetic power of the relativistic electrons, as measured in the source rest frame, injected into the outflow can be approximated as $`\dot{E}_{\mathrm{kin}}=VQ_0m_\mathrm{e}c^2\left(\gamma _\mathrm{b}1\right)\gamma ^{1p}𝑑\gamma 6\times 10^{31}\mathrm{W}`$. In this estimate we have used the limiting values for the electron compactness, $`l_\mathrm{e}=100`$, and the size of the emission region, $`R=2\times 10^5`$ m. Any increase in these parameters will also cause the energy estimate to rise. Therefore, the lower limit on $`\dot{E}_{\mathrm{kin}}`$ corresponds already to about 80% of the Eddington luminosity of a 6 M black hole. Balance of electrical charge requires the presence of positively charged particles in the outflow. If these are protons with negligible thermal energy but travelling at the necessary bulk velocity, then another $`4\times 10^{33}`$ W in kinetic energy are required. This is at least a factor 50 more than the Eddington luminosity. This energy injection into the outflow has to be sustained for more than 10 hours and thus makes a large proton content in the jet very unlikely.

The only alternative is then that from the very beginning of the ejection the outflow material in the annihilation region consists of virtually a pure pair plasma. This removes the requirement of relatively inefficient pair production from relativistic electrons. The pairs must be injected into the relativistic bulk flow with a relativistic velocity distribution to explain the strength of the annihilation line , the cooling within the outflow and then annihilation at a rate of $`2\times 10^{43}`$ s-1. In this case, the required kinetic power is about $`6\times 10^{30}`$ W, or 8% of the Eddington luminosity.

## Acknowledgments

We thank Marat Gil’fanov for providing us with the original Granat data.