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# Semileptonic B Decays from an NRQCD/D234 Action

## 1 Introduction

Several quenched lattice studies of $`B\pi ,l\overline{\nu }`$ semileptonic decays have been completed in recent years . They represent the first steps towards providing experimentalists and phenomenologists with the hadronic matrix elements involving the $`b`$ quark that are necessary to carry out precision consistency tests of the Standard Model. In this article we present further studies of form factor calculations in the quenched approximation. We work with glue and quark actions that are more highly improved than in previous lattice calculations, we employ anisotropic lattices to enhance signal to noise and use constained fits  to extract groundstate contributions to correlators in a controlled way. Simulation details, including the precise form of the action employed, can be found in . We work at 5 values of the light quark mass spanning $`0.7m_{strange}m_q1.3m_{strange}`$ and at one value of the heavy quark mass tuned to the $`b`$ quark mass using the $`B_s`$ meson. Results are then extrapolated to the chiral limit.

## 2  Fitting Three-point Correlators

The starting point for a form factor calculation on the lattice is the three-point correlator,

$`C_\mu ^{(3)}(\stackrel{}{p}_B,\stackrel{}{p}_\pi ,t_B,t)={\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{x}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{y}}{}}e^{i\stackrel{}{p}_B\stackrel{}{x}}e^{i(\stackrel{}{p}_B\stackrel{}{p}_\pi )\stackrel{}{y}}`$
$`0|\mathrm{\Phi }_B(t_B,\stackrel{}{x})V_\mu ^L(t,\stackrel{}{y})\mathrm{\Phi }_\pi ^{}(0)|0.`$ (1)
$`\mathrm{\Phi }_\pi ^{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_B^{}`$ are interpolating operators used to create the pion or $`B`$ meson respectively. $`V_\mu ^L`$ is the dimensionless Euclidean space lattice heavy-light vector current. The continuum Minkowski space $`V_\mu `$ is related to $`V_\mu ^L`$ via

$$V_\mu =a_s^3Z_{V_\mu }\xi _\mu V_\mu ^L.$$
(2)
$`\xi _\mu `$ is the conversion factor between Minkowski and Euclidean space $`\gamma `$-matrices and $`Z_{V_\mu }`$ is the heavy-light current matching coefficient. We work with $`B`$ mesons decaying at rest ($`\stackrel{}{p}_B=0`$). $`t_B`$ is held fixed and we vary $`t`$, the location of the current insertions. The quantity $`\xi _\mu C_\mu ^{(3)}`$ is fit, using constrained (Bayesian) fits, to the form,

$$\xi _\mu C_\mu ^{(3)}(p_\pi ,t)=\underset{j}{\overset{N_B}{}}\underset{l}{\overset{N_\pi }{}}A_{jl}e^{E_\pi ^{(l)}t}e^{E_B^{(j)}(t_Bt)}$$
(3)
Constrained fits allow for multi-exponential fits to a single correlator without loosing stability. One augments the conventional $`\chi ^2`$ with a term, $`\chi _{prior}^2`$, which prevents fit parameters that are not constrained by the data from taking on “unreasonable” unphysical values and thus destabilizing the fit.

$$\chi ^2\chi _{aug}^2\chi ^2+\chi _{prior}^2,$$
(4)
with

$$\chi _{prior}^2\underset{j}{}\frac{(\alpha _j\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_j)^2}{\stackrel{~}{\sigma }_j^2}.$$
(5)
One can check that those parameters, such as groundstate energies and amplitudes, that are well determined by the data, are only minimally affected by $`\chi _{prior}^2`$. In Figs. 1 and 2 we show fit results for the groundstate amplitude $`A_{11}`$ for $`V_0`$ as a function of the number of exponentials $`N_\pi `$. $`N_B`$ is held fixed at 1 or 2 and fits are carried out to all data points between $`t_{min}=1`$ and $`t_{max}=1722`$. The numbers below data points give the $`\chi _{aug}^2/d.o.f.`$ of the fits. One sees that fit results, including errors, stabilize once $`N_\pi >2`$. The fancy stars give bootstrap results at fixed $`N_\pi =3`$ which we used in our final analysis (see references  for a description of constrained bootstrap fits).

## 3 Results for Form Factors and Comparisons with Previous Work

The groundstate amplitudes $`A_{11}(V_\mu ^L)`$ extracted from three-point correlators are straightforwardly related to the continuum matrix element of interest.

$$\pi (p_\pi )|V^\mu |B=\frac{A_{11}(V_\mu ^L)}{\sqrt{\xi _\pi ^{(1)}\xi _B^{(1)}}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\sqrt{E_\pi M_B}Z_{V_\mu }$$
(6)
$`\xi _\pi ^{(1)}`$ and $`\xi _B^{(1)}`$ are fixed from $`\pi \pi `$ and $`BB`$ two-point correlators. Fig. 3 shows results for the form factors $`f_+(q^2)`$ and $`f_0(q^2)`$ with the light quark mass around the strange mass. Errors reflect only statistical errors. Fig. 4 shows results after chiral extrapolation to the physical final state pion. One sees that errors have increased considerably.

In Fig. 5 we compare our results with those of other collaborations. Despite large differences in sources of systematic errors, one sees general agreement between all groups, especially for the form factor $`f_+`$. All calculations suffer from large errors. In most cases, in particular in the present study, systematic errors are dominated by the chiral extrapolation uncertainties.

Acknowledgements : This work was supported by DOE Grant DE-FG02-91ER40690 and by PPARC and NSF.


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# Criteria for spectral classification of cool stars in the near-IR GAIA wavelength region

## 1. Introduction

The GAIA Cornerstone mission by ESA (Perryman et al. 2001), scheduled for launch around 2010, will record during its 5-year lifetime an average of $``$100 spectra for each of all the stars brighter than $`V`$17.5 mag ($`3\times 10^8`$ objects), over the wavelength range 8480–8740 Å and at a resolution 10 000$`<\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda <`$ 20 000, corresponding to dispersions 0.22 $`<`$ Å/pix $`<`$ 0.44 in the Nyquist FWHM=2 pix sense. The main aim of such spectra is to support the mission micro-arcsec accurate astrometry with the 6th component of the phase-space via determination of the radial velocities. However, this huge number of spectra will not only provide radial velocities but will also carry the whole usual astrophysical content (Munari 2002), which will be pretty large given the adopted high spectral resolution and the diagnostic potential of this wavelength region dominated by the CaII triplet, the head of the Paschen series, multiplet #1 and #8 of NI, and a forest of FeI, TiI lines and of many other metals.

The study of the cool component of symbiotic stars will particularly benefit from the choice of this wavelength region for the GAIA mission, as much as the spectral observations performed from the ground (cf. Marrese et al., this volume). In fact, the 8480–8740 Å region is the only astrophysically relevant wavelength interval longward of H$`\alpha `$ free from telluric absorption interference (cf. Munari 1999), and is within the reach of many of the currently available high-resolution spectrographs.

We have identified and calibrated, over this wavelength interval, a family of diagnostic line ratios that provide good estimate of temperature (spectral type) and surface gravity (luminosity). The whole set of ratios will be described elsewhere, with only a sample of them presented here. Other diagnostic ratios have been presented by Munari (2002).

The line ratios have been investigated on the available high-resolution spectral atlases in this region, both observational (Munari and Tomasella 1999) and synthetic (Munari and Castelli 2000, Castelli and Munari 2001) ones. The relations here presented come entirely from observational material, mainly referring to MKK standards (thus bright, solar neighborhood stars).

Figure 1 presents temperature (spectral type) sensitive indicators for supergiant, giant and dwarf cool stars, built on the ratio of equivalent widths. To Blend 8680 contribute mainly lines of FeI (8679.638), SI (8678.927, 8679.620, 8680.411) and NI (8680.282), and the extremes for equivalent width integration extends from 8678.0 to 8681.6 Å. The extremes for CaII 8542 extend from 8522.0 to 8565.0 Å, to fully cover the line wings (even if including several weak metallic lines). Those for FeI 8675 go from 8673.0 to 8676.5, for TiI 8683 from 8681.6 to 8684.0, for FeI 8688 from 8688.5 to 8690.5 Å.

Figure 2 offers surface gravity (luminosity class) sensitive indicators for supergiant, giant and dwarf cool stars, built on the ratio of equivalent widths. The extremes for equivalent width integration of FeI 8688 and FeI 8675 are the same for in Figure 1, while for TiI+MgI 8735 it is 8734.3–8737.7, for SiI+FeI 8728 is 8726.7–8729.5, for FeI 8514 is 8512.5–8515.8 and for TiI 8518 it is 8516.6–8519.6 Å.

## References

Castelli F. & Munari U. 2001, A&A, 366, 1003

Munari U. 1999, Baltic Astron. 8, 73

Munari U. 2002, in GAIA: An European Space Project, Les Houches, O.Bienaymé and C.Turon ed.s, EAS Pub. Series, EDP Sciences, pag. 39

Munari U. & Castelli F. 2000, A&AS, 141, 141

Munari U. & Tomasella L. 1999, A&AS, 137, 521

Perryman M.A.C. et al. 2001, A&A, 369, 339


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# Fine Structure in the Circumstellar Environment of a Young, Solar-like Star: the Unique Eclipses of KH 15D

## 1 Introduction

Planets are believed to form during the first $``$100 My of a star’s life from matter in a circumstellar disk (Chambers and Wetherill, 1998). The initial stages of that process have been viewed with increasing clarity in high-resolution images of young stars obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. These have revealed complex disk structures on scales of tens to hundreds of AU around $``$1 My old objects (O’dell, 2001; Krist, Stapelfeldt and Watson, 2002). Probing the inner parts of disks, where terrestrial planets formed in our solar system and where giant planets are found in many exo-solar systems (Marcy and Butler, 2000; Vogt et al., 2002), however, is still well beyond the reach of the current generation of telescopes. Here we report observations of a remarkable eclipsing solar-like star at an age of $``$3 My, which is providing a glimpse of the structure and possibly evolution of circumstellar matter on scales as fine as 0.01 AU. This is possible because of its unique geometry that results in the star being periodically eclipsed by extended non-luminous matter in its vicinity. No other object in the history of astronomy has been found to behave in quite the same way.

The star in question, KH 15D ($`\alpha =6^h41^m10.18^s`$, $`\delta =9\mathrm{°}28\mathrm{}35.5\mathrm{}`$, epoch 2000; see Hamilton et al. (2001) for an identification chart), was first noticed in 1997 as a unique and potentially important object during a photometric monitoring program of young clusters undertaken with a small telescope at Van Vleck Observatory (VVO) on the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT (Kearns et al., 1997; Kearns and Herbst, 1998). It undergoes a very deep ($``$3.5 mag) eclipse every 48.3 days and remains in the faint state for about 18 days, suggesting that the eclipsing body is non-luminous circumstellar matter. Remarkably, there is a central reversal of variable height that sometimes returns the star to its out-of-eclipse level (and once to an even brighter level) for a brief time near mid-eclipse. A follow-up study by Hamilton et al. (2001) revealed that the star has a mass of 0.5 - 1 solar masses, and a radius of about 1.3 solar radii, indicating that it is still in its contraction phase towards the main sequence and has not yet initiated hydrogen burning in its core. Its pre-main sequence status is confirmed by the presence of Li I in its spectrum and its membership in the young open cluster NGC 2264, which has an age of 2-4 My and a distance of 760 pc (Sung, Bessel and Lee, 1997). No other star, among the thousands monitored in the VVO program or elsewhere over more than a decade (Stassun et al., 1999; Herbst et al., 2000; Rebull, 2001; Herbst, Bailer-Jones and Mundt, 2001) has behaved in similar fashion. The closest analogues we can find in the astronomical literature are $`ϵ`$ Aur, an F-type supergiant which is eclipsed every 27 years by dark circumstellar matter (Lissauer et al., 1996), and BM Ori, an early B star which is eclipsed every 6.5 days by something dark orbiting it (Popper and Plavec, 1976). Neither star is solar-like nor are the eclipses even remotely similar to those of KH 15D.

## 2 Observations

To investigate this phenomenon in more detail, we organized, during the 2001/2002 observing season, an international campaign aimed at obtaining precision photometry with the highest possible time resolution over the longest possible time interval. A full report on this effort will be given elsewhere (Hamilton et al., 2002). Here we provide a brief overview of the phenomena and an ephemeris to facilitate observations. The principal sources of optical photometric data were telescopes of 0.6-1.5 m aperture at the U. S. Naval Observatory’s (USNO) Flagstaff Observing Station in Arizona, Maidanak Observatory in Uzbekistan, Wise Observatory in Israel, Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and VVO. Additional contributions, some at earlier epochs, came from Calar Alto Observatory in Spain, the European Southern Observatory in Chile and a campus telescope at Colgate University in New York. Differential photometry relative to a grid of local comparison stars was used to establish zero points and combine the data. Photometric accuracy is $``$0.02 mag out of eclipse but, because of the faintness of the star and its proximity to a much brighter cluster member, declines to $``$0.1 mag during eclipse. Most observations were obtained in the I band of the Cousins system but some other filters were used, as discussed below. We obtained some data on all five eclipses that occurred during the observing interval 11 Sept. 2001 to 3 April 2002; excellent coverage was obtained on the last three eclipses, in Dec., Jan.-Feb., and Mar., respectively.

A portion of the light curve, including the three well-sampled eclipses of last season, is shown in Fig. 1. The basic features, including a rapid ingress and egress phase, a deep, structured minimum with central reversal, and an eclipse duration of about 40% of each cycle are evident. Combining these data with what has been observed over the six year interval since its discovery, we have derived a new ephemeris for mid-eclipse:

$$\mathrm{JD}(\mathrm{mideclipse})=2452352.26+48.36\mathrm{E}.$$

The current width of the eclipses, measured at the 16.25 mag. level is almost exactly 0.4 in phase, or 19.3 days. Ingress and egress begin approximately 1.5 and 1.9 days before or after the 16.25 mag level, respectively. The rate of decline becomes much shallower about 0.5 days after that level is reached, and the deepest minimum may not occur until many days later. There were also subtle variations from eclipse to eclipse last season, as may be noticed by close inspection of Fig. 1. In fact, while this requires verification, it appears quite possible that the true period for this star is not the average interval between eclipses (48.36 days), but twice that, 96.72 days. In particular, the “central” reversals of alternate eclipses are slightly offset from mid-eclipse by similar amounts but in opposite direction while the adjacent minima are symmetric, but in mirror image fashion.

A second remarkable result from last season’s intensive monitoring effort is that the breadth of the eclipse and height of the central reversal have continued to evolve in secular fashion (see Fig. 2). Phasing all of the photometry obtained over the six year interval since its discovery with the 48.36 d period, we see that the most recent data define the outer limits of the eclipse in phase. That is, at earlier epochs, eclipses were clearly of shorter duration and the central reversals often reached much brighter levels, sometimes climbing to the out-of-eclipse level or, in one case, slightly brighter. Fig. 2 may represent the first detection of changing structure in the circumstellar disk of a young star and provides a serious challenge to models of the system. It is currently impossible to predict how the eclipses will evolve with time, but the fact that they are changing so dramatically on human time scales underscores the necessity to keep monitoring this star.

Ingress and egress are remarkably smooth and have shapes that are well represented by the steady advance or retreat of a “knife-edge” across a limb-darkened star. In the case of ingress this takes $``$1.9 d, while for egress it is slightly longer – $``$2.4 d. A comparison between the knife-edge models and the data, phased with the 48.36 d period, is shown in Fig. 3. A standard limb-darkening law,

$$I(\theta )=I(0)\mu +\mu cos\theta $$

with $`\mu =0.3`$, appropriate to a star of effective temperature 4000 K, was assumed (Dorren, 1987). The shape of the model light curve is quite insensitive to the value of $`\mu `$. It derives primarily from the geometric feature that near the halfway point the edge is cutting longer chords of the star. It is important to note that the duration of ingress and egress are much longer than the expected transit time ($``$0.5 d) of an object on a Keplerian orbit about the star with a period of 48 or 97 days.

During totality, which lasts about 18 days, the system is still visible, but at about 5% of its out-of-eclipse intensity. The spectrum and color (Fig. 4) during this time indicate that we are seeing reflected starlight from the circumstellar matter. The knife-edge model (Fig. 3) includes this component as a constant addition at all phases. In fact, the “central” reversals and short time scale fluctuations during minima indicate that variable amounts of reflected light are present. More detailed modeling and, in particular, polarization measurements should ultimately provide important constraints on the detailed distribution of circumstellar matter. The fact that successive ingress and egress data do not match precisely indicates that there are fine scale opacity variations in the edge itself. It is also likely that the stellar surface is inhomogeneous to some extent, since stars of this mass and age commonly have dark (magnetic) or bright (accretion) spots. Detailed photometric and spectroscopic monitoring during ingress or egress should reveal much about the structural and optical properties of the obscuring matter and perhaps also the stellar surface.

Optical photometry in bluer bands (B, V and R) was obtained at a number of phases, permitting us to study the color behavior of the star. These data indicate, remarkably, that there is no reddening of the star, even as it fades by more than 3 magnitudes (see Fig. 4). This means the eclipsing object is, indeed, a very sharp knife-edge with no detectable optically thin transition zone or that the optically thin “atmosphere” is devoid of small dust grains (which invariably produce reddening in the interstellar medium). During minimum there is large scatter in the color data, owing to the faintness of the star, but the median color is bluer by $``$0.1 mag than when out of eclipse. This presumably indicates that at least some small dust grains are present in the circumstellar matter and that we are seeing the star partly or entirely by scattered radiation near minimum light. There are real variations by up to 20% in the brightness of the star which occur on time scales as short as one hour during minima, indicative of changing orientations of the star and scattering clouds. The short time scales imply length scales for the variable features of less than 0.01 AU, or one solar diameter, assuming they are in Keplerian orbits with periods of 48 or 97 d.

In an attempt to detect the circumstellar matter of KH 15D by its emission, we have obtained near-infrared and millimeter wavelength observations of the star at the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory millimetre-wave array in California, respectively. The near-infrared (JHKL) colors both in and out of eclipse are consistent with an unreddened K7 star exhibiting no infrared excess attributable to a disk. The mm wavelength observations did not detect a source at the optical position. Unfortunately, neither of these results provides a strong constraint on the possible mass of a disk. The upper limit on the mm emission translates to a mass limit of about 7 Earth masses of dust at a temperature of about 500 K, while the lack of detectable infrared excess may simply reflect the fact that the putative disk is practically edge-on and opaque at these wavelengths.

Spectra with a resolution of $``$40000 covering the range 478 - 690 nm were obtained on three nights with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory on Mt. Paranal in Chile. Spectra were obtained on UT 29 Nov (just prior to ingress), 14 Dec (near central minimum), and 20 Dec (during the early part of egress), 2001. A full account of the information contained in these data will be given elsewhere (Hamilton et al., 2002). They show, however, that the spectrum during eclipse is basically an attenuated version of the bright state, except for the emission lines. Near minimum and during egress, the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width is substantially larger ($``$30 and 50 Å, respectively) than when the star is at maximum light ($``$2 Å). Essentially, the spectrum makes a transition from one characteristic of non-accreting or low accretion rate “weak-lined” T Tauri stars to one characteristic of “classical” T Tauri stars (CTTS), objects with clear evidence for active accretion of gas from a circumstellar disk. In particular, broad wings, extending to several hundred km s-1 are seen on the H$`\alpha `$ (and H$`\beta `$) lines during minimum light and during egress, indicating that the star may still be in an active accretion stage.

A cross-correlation of the 29 Nov and 20 Dec spectra yields a radial velocity difference (in the sense Nov. minus Dec.) for the star between those two dates of +3 $`\pm `$1 km s-1. The interpretation of this result is complicated by the fact that the line profiles change shape during the eclipse, presumably due to the selective elimination of direct radiation from parts of the star’s surface as well as an increased contribution of scattered light to the spectrum. Hamilton et al. (2002) will explore these issues further. Here we note that, if the K7 star were orbiting the center of mass of the system with a 48.36 d period in response to a planet embedded in the obscuring matter, it would have yielded a negative value for the velocity difference on those dates. Therefore, assuming that the line profile effects are small, we can place a limit of $``$10 Jupiter masses on any mass associated with a single obscuring clump orbiting with a 48 d period. With only three spectra currently available we cannot, of course, rule out the possibility of additional significant mass(es) in the system orbiting with a 97 d (or other) period. However, there is no evidence in the spectrum for such a companion so it is unlikely to be comparable in mass to the visible K7 star. A radial velocity study spanning at least one season with a precision of at least 1 km s-1 is clearly required and is underway in collaboration with G. Marcy of U.C. Berkeley.

## 3 Discussion

KH 15D is a unique and amazing object that promises to tell us much about conditions in the inner circumstellar region of a solar-like star of planet-forming age. The principle purpose of this contribution is to summarize the available observations of the star with the hope of stimulating additional observations, and to support those by providing an updated ephemeris and description of the phenomena. However, a brief discussion of possible models is in order, based on the information currently available. These fall into two categories, depending on whether the K7 star is the dominant mass in the system or not. If it is, then the basic model involves occulting matter orbiting the star. If it is not (i.e. if KH 15D is a binary star system and the unseen component has a mass comparable to or larger than the K7 star), then the observed phenomena could be caused wholly or in part by the motion of the visible star with respect to a circumbinary disk. We discuss the “single star” interpretation first, noting that it also applies to binary models in which the K7 star is the dominant mass.

Assuming that the eclipse is caused by a feature or features orbiting the K7 star with a period of 48 or 97 days, we can apply Kepler’s third law to derive a semi-major axis for the orbit of the occulting matter of 0.21 or 0.32 AU, respectively. Therefore, if this model is correct, we are probing a region of the circumstellar environment closer to the star than Mercury is to the Sun. The occulting feature appears to have a very sharp edge, such that a knife-edge model fits the data well. However, the transit time for an object orbiting at 0.2-0.3 AU from the K7 star is only $``$0.5 d, much less than the time of ingress or egress ($``$2-2.5 d). Therefore, if the star is eclipsed by a sharp-edged orbiting feature, its occulting edge must be inclined by about 15$`\mathrm{°}`$ to its direction of motion. A sketch of what this would look like during the early stages of ingress is shown in Fig. 5. Such an eclipsing structure could be caused by density waves or a corrugation of a disk driven by an embedded planet or brown dwarf, as Bryden et al. (2000) for example, have modeled. Alternatively, the features could be associated with a resonance of a yet undetected mass. During the eclipse, the system is seen primarily or entirely by reflected light from the circumstellar matter. Models such as these have many attractive features, including the potential to explain the central reversal as back scattering off the wave on the far side of the star or as a local minimum in the opacity near the location of an embedded planet or proto-planet.

If KH 15D is a binary in which the K7 star moves substantially with respect to the center of mass of the system, then an entirely different explanation of the observed phenomena is possible. Namely, one could imagine the K7 star passing above (and, possibly, alternately below) the plane of an occulting (presumably circumbinary) disk. In other words, it would be primarily the motion of the star, in this model, that was causing the eclipse, not the motion of the occulting matter. As noted previously, this appears less likely at present for two reasons. First, there is only evidence for a single stellar spectrum from the system at any phase, even when the photosphere of the K7 star is completely occulted. Second, there is very little difference in the radial velocity of the K7 stars on two dates separated by 21 d. Neither of these arguments is sufficient, however, to rule out a binary model. For example, if the visible K7 star were on an eccentric orbit about a slightly more massive star and the orbit was properly inclined to the plane of a circumbinary disk, one could reproduce most or all of the observations, including the central peaks and the ingress/egress time scales. A comprehensive radial velocity study, as is under way, is clearly required to make progress. We note that, regardless of whether KH 15D proves to be a single or binary star, its unique orientation provides us with a powerful tool for studying the structure and evolution of circumstellar matter close to a young star on an unprecedented fine scale.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of NASA through its Origins of Solar Systems program, Sigma Xi, and Mt. Holyoke College for this work. We also thank D. Lin, G. Bryden and M. Kucher for useful conversations regarding the interpretation and P. D. Drager for creating Fig. 5.


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# Carbon cage-like materials as potential low work function metallic compounds: Case of clathrates.

## Abstract

We present an ab-initio calculation of the electronic affinity of the hypothetical C-46 clathrate by studying its bare and hydrogenated (100) surfaces. We show that such a system shares with the diamond phase a small electronic affinity. Further, contrary to the diamond phase, the possibility of doping endohedrally these cage-like systems allows to significantly raise the position of the Fermi level, resulting in a true metal with a small work function. This is illustrated in the case of the Li8@C-46 doped compound. Such a class of materials might be of much interest for the design of electron-emitting devices.

There is a strong incentive in trying to synthesize materials which could be used as efficient electron-emitters for vacuum electronic devices. While alkali metals display the lowest work function (W$``$2-3 eV) of all elemental metals, their poor mechanical and chemical properties (melting temperature, resistance to ionic bombardment, etc) forbid their use in actual devices, and therefore metals with much higher work function such as tungsten or molybdinum (W$``$4.5 eV) are preferred for their superior mechanical and chemical properties.

A promising class of materials which have been extensively studied are carbon diamond based systems. Due to their large gap, carbon diamond based systems have been shown to display a small, or even negative, electronic affinity Weide94 ; Pickett94 . Further, their mechanical properties are superior to the one of any existing metal. However, the difficulty of doping them ”n-type” in order to obtain a significant density of emitting electrons limits their efficiency as good emitters.

In the last few years, a novel structure has attracted much attention for its specific structural and electronic properties. Column-IV clathrates Kasper65  are cage-like materials composed of face-sharing X20, X24 and X28 clusters (where X=Si,Ge). All atoms are in the same sp3 environment as in the diamond phase, but the network is composed of 87$`\%`$ of pentagonal rings. As a result, it has been shown in particular that Si clathrates present a band gap which is $``$ 0.7 eV larger than the one of the diamond phase Adams94 ; Gryco00 . Furthermore, the possibility of filling each cage by a dopant atom allows to significantly raise the position of the Fermi level to yield a metallic system with a large density of states (eDOS) at the Fermi level (EF) Saito95 ; Smelyansky97 .

The possibility of efficiently doping such systems has incited us to study the case of the hypothetical carbon clathrates. Even though such phases have not been synthesized so far, the reports on the synthesis of connected C36 clusters Piskoti98 , of diamond-like thin films synthesized by deposition of small carbon clusters Paillard93  or even of polymerized C60 suggests that the synthesis of such phases might be at hand or that the results presented below may apply to the above-mentioned existing phases.

We present in this Letter an ab-initio study of the electronic properties of C-46 and Li8@C-46 within the density functional theory (DFT) Hohen-Kohn-Sham . We study in particular the C-46 (100) bare and hydrogenated surfaces and analyze the effect of doping on the position of the Fermi level, the affinity of the system and the density of states at EF. We show that under doping such a class of materials are true metals with a low work function, thus combining the advantages of diamond-like systems with a large carrier concentration.

The local-density approximation (LDA) CA-PZ  was used for all calculations and a pseudopotential approach was adopted TM-KB . We used the Siesta package siesta , which is a self-consistent DFT code, employing numerical atomic-like orbitals (NAO) as a basis set. A well-converged basis set, consisting of doubled {s,px,py,pz} orbitals plus polarization d-orbitals was applied. Some of the calculations were also performed using a standard plane-wave (PW) basis set. All systems studied below were fully relaxed, both with respect to cell size and atomic positions. To perform the electronic affinity analysis, we calculated the plane-averaged self-consistent potential in the direction perpendicular to the surface for each of the slabs. The positions of the valence-band maximum (VBM) and conduction-band minimum (CBM) were found by adding the energy difference between the average self-consistent potential in the bulk and the VBM (CBM) in the bulk to the average self-consistent potential inside the slab.

Before studying the C-46 clathrate phase, we have tested the method by exploring the electronic and structural properties for the well-known bare and hydrogenated diamond (100) surfaces. Following Ref.Weide94, , we have adopted a slab geometry with 10-layers but with 2-atoms per layer. The $`𝐤`$-point sampling was thus increased to a 4$`\times `$4$`\times `$1 special grid MonkPack . A vacuum of 10 Å was kept between neighboring slabs.

The results for PW and NAO-basis are reported in Table 1. As in Ref.Weide94, , we observe that the hydrogenation, by building a surface dipole, leads to a negative affinity system. Our results are in good agreement with those previously published Weide94 , and the NAO-basis calculations reproduce within $``$ 0.15 eV the results of the PW calculations.

As the DFT-LDA is well known to underestimate the band gap of insulators, we have performed further a quasiparticle study within the GW approximation Hybertsen  for the bulk diamond and C-46 phases. Such an approach is known to yield quasiparticle energies to within 0.1 eV as compared to experimental photoemission data. More details about the formalism and results will be provided elsewhere xblase . The main outcome of such calculations is that the quasiparticle correction to the DFT-LDA eigenstates are very similar in both systems and that the CBM is pushed to higher energy by $``$ 0.7 eV in both phases (while the VBM is corrected down by $``$ 0.8 eV). This allows to correct the calculated affinity as reported in the right column of Table 1.

The stability and electronic properties of C-34 and C-46 clathrates have already been discussed in some details at the DFT-LDA level Adams94 ; Nesper93 ; SanMiguel99 ; Saito97 . In particular, it has been shown that for the C-34 and C-46 clathrates, the cohesive energy, bulk modulus and band gap are respectively $``$ 0.1 eV/atom, $``$ 10 $`\%`$ and $``$ 0.2 eV smaller than those of the diamond phase. As such, the stability and mechanical properties of carbon clathrates are close to those of the diamond phase. In the present work, we obtained for the lattice parameter, bulk modulus and band gap the values of 6.64 Å, 376 GPa and 3.75 eV respectively with both NAO and PW basis sets, which is in good agreement with previously reported results. Within the GW approximation, the gaps increase to 5.55 and 5.35 eV for the diamond and clathrate phases respectively.

We now study the C-46 (100) surface represented in Fig.1. There are several non-equivalent (100) surfaces and we adopt a surface consisting of ”half emerging” C24 clusters. After structural relaxation, we find that the emerging semi-clusters hardly reconstruct besides a slight contraction inward of the three-fold coordinated surface atoms, leading to a minimum C-C distance of 1.40 Å on the surface. Hydrogen coverage is performed by ”passivating” these surface three-coordinated atoms. We note at this point that the results presented below may certainly change quantitatively with the chosen surface but the purpose of the present paper is to illustrate on this specific example the potentialities of such novel systems. Fig.2 shows the calculated plane-averaged, self-consistent potential for bare and hydrogenated C-46 (100) surfaces. The electronic affinity is reported in Table 1.

The results obtained for the undoped compounds suggest that carbon clathrates are a priori less favorable for emission than, say, the (100) diamond surface, taking the electronic affinity as the only relevant criteria. However, we emphasize again that clathrates, contrary to the diamond phase, can be efficiently doped Saito97 ; Bernasconi00  by intercalating one atom in each cage in order to obtain a true metallic system with a large density of electrons available for emission. This is a crucial advantage as compared to the diamond phase.

By analogy with the existing doped Si clathrates and intercalated carbon graphitic systems, we study the n-doped Li8@C-46 phase. The corresponding bulk eDOS is represented in Fig.3 where we have arbitrarily aligned the eDOS to the top of the C-46 valence bands for sake of comparison. As can be readily seen, intercalation of Li atoms leads to the filling of the conduction bands of the host carbon matrix by Li 2s electrons. The system becomes metallic with the Fermi level located near a peak in the density of states, which is in excellent agreement with previous work Saito97 .

As in the case of diamond surfaces, hydrogenation leads to a significant decrease in the electronic affinity of the empty phase. We now explore the effect of doping on the electronic affinity (Table 1) of the hydrogenated surface. The important finding is that Li doping leads to the formation of a true metallic system with a quite low work function ($``$ 1.5 eV GW value). This work function is significantly lower than the one of alkali metals and much lower than the one of e.g. tungsten. The eDOS for states located around EF can be further shown to have a strong weight on both bulk and surface atoms, a factor which is crucial for emission. One can conclude that doped carbon clathrates are potentially true metals with a work function lower than the lowest affinity of all elemental metallic systems but with much superior mechanical properties.

It is interesting to note that the work function of the Li-doped clathrate is actually larger than the electronic affinity of the empty phase, despite the raise of the Fermi level under doping. This means that the entire band structure is shifted to lower energy with respect to the vacuum level under doping. This shift can originate in two effects: a decrease of the average potential inside the slab (bulk effect) and an increase of the surface dipole barrier (surface effect). An analysis of both effects show that in the present case it is mainly a bulk effect.

In conclusion, we have shown that doped carbon clathrates are potentially true metallic systems with a work function significantly lower than the one of alkali metals but with a stability typical of the carbon diamond phase. This opens new perspectives for the making of efficient electron-emitters. An alternative choice of dopant atom and/or surface treatment (e.g. cesium coverage) may lead to even smaller work function.

###### Acknowledgements.

Computations have been performed on the supercomputer facilities (IDRIS) at the French ”Centre National de Recherche Scientifique” (CNRS). One of the authors (VT) acknowledges a “Région Rhône-Alpes” Postdoctoral Fellowship. The authors are indebted to Stephen Purcell and C. Constancias (OpsiTech, Grenoble, France) for stimulating discussions.


text:
# CHANGE OF PRIMARY COSMIC RADIATION NUCLEAR COMPOSITION IN THE ENERGY RANGE 10¹⁵-10¹⁷ eV

## 1 Introduction

In  \-  we quoted some results which enable to suppose the existence of the PCR nuclei spectra cutoff in the energy range $`10^{15}10^{17}`$ eV. In  the analysis was based on the investigation of high energy muon groups in EAS. The sharp decrease of the energy and intensity of high energy muon groups in EAS of primary energy higher than $`210^{16}`$ was discovered. In  and  the fluxes of the EAS hadronic component energy $`E_h`$ were analyzed . The essential irregularities of the type of strict deeps in hadronic component energy fluxes were discovered in the region of EAS particle numbers $`N_e>210^6`$, corresponding to the primary energies $`E_0>510^{15}`$ eV.

Analysis of this phenomenon leads to the conclusion of the existence of PCR nuclei spectra cutoff in the primary energy region $`10^{15}10^{17}`$ eV  \- . In  and  the interpretation of this phenomenon was given - it can be explained by the destruction of PCR nuclei on some monochromatic background of interstellar medium, consisting of the light particles of mass $`<30`$ eV.

The aim of this work is to carry out the investigation of EAS hadronic component energy flux using the additional statistical material, obtained at different configurations of the experimental apparatus and at different triggering and selection conditions. Thereby the aim was to compare the results of independent experiments.

Usage of essentially improved algorithms of data handling and increased capacity of computers made it possible to establish the EAS parameters with sufficiently high accuracy and to set much more rigid conditions at selecting the events in each separate case. This in turn enabled us to extract efficiently the peculiarities in $`E_h`$($`N_e`$) behavior and increase the accuracy of their localization along the $`N_e`$ axis. The above mentioned earlier results and conclusions were confirmed with high reliability.

## 2 Installation and experimental material

The archive material obtained by means of the hadron calorimeter of Tian - Shan high mountain installation was used for the analysis. The Tian - Shan EAS complex installation is located at the height of 3335 $`m`$ above sea level. The detailed description of the installation can be found in . The data bank was created in 1980 and its description is provided in . The information concerning the EAS parameters was obtained by means of the part of the installation consisting of a central ”carpet” of scintillators (64 x 0.25 $`m^2`$ ), of 8 groups of scintillators with a total area of 22 $`m^2`$ , situated symmetrically at the distances of 15 and 20 $`m`$ from the center of installation and of a group of scintillators with a total area of 10 $`m^2`$ at the distance of 73 $`m`$ from the center of installation. The accuracy of the EAS coordinate estimation rises with the increase of EAS age parameter and of $`N_e`$ . At $`N_e=10^5`$ the error is approximately 0.6 - 0.7 $`m`$ . Taking into account that in our consideration the most important region of $`N_e`$ is higher than $`410^5`$ , the corresponding error will not exceed the above mentioned value. The energy flux of EAS hadronic component was measured by means of a multilayer ionization calorimeter with the area of each layer 36 $`m^2`$. At different stages of the experiment the calorimeter contained from 16 to 19 layers of ionization chambers with the total number of chambers from 768 to 912 correspondingly. Between the layers of chambers lead filters of the total thickness $`1050g/cm^2`$ were situated.

As is well known the data obtained with the ionization calorimeter at the energies under consideration do not allow for distinguishing the separate hadrons, especially in the central parts of EAS. One can judge about the number of particles and about their individual energies only approximately, by indirect methods. Therefore we analyze immediately the energy fluxes of hadrons inside the fixed circle of a fixed radius around the center of EAS as a function of the particle number $`N_e`$ in EAS or of the primary energy $`E_0`$ .

The importance of the precise measurement of the distance from the hadron energy registration point to the EAS axis is obvious. Consequently the analysis was focused on the investigation of the energy flux through each separate chamber of the calorimeter in each event. For each single chamber the distance from its geometrical center to the shower axis was measured taking into account the axis inclination angle. The whole interval of investigated distances was divided into sections of the $`Rcm`$ length. $`R=20cm`$ when working inside the $`14m`$ diapason of core distances (the basic working diapason) and $`R=1.0m`$ when working inside the $`70m`$ diapason. In each separate event the contribution of energy flux through each chamber to the energy flux for each section of distances was taken into account. The measured part of the EAS spectrum was also divided into small intervals with respect to the $`N_e`$ (providing the optimal statistics for each of the intervals). For each interval of $`N_e`$ the mean value (over all events of this interval) of the energy flux density at the given distance from the EAS axis was derived. The result was multiplied by the area of $`R`$ cm width ring of the mean radius equal to given distance. After this procedure it becomes possible to estimate the flux of hadron energy for each interval of $`N_e`$ within the desired intervals of core distances.

The whole experimental material was processed in the computing centers of the Institute of Physics of the Geogian Academy of Sciences, of the Ministry of Communications of Georgia and in the computer firm Mantex ltd. (Tbilisi).

As compared with  the body of processed statistical material was increased essentially and further improvement of algorithms and data handling methods was carried out. As well as increased precision this gave us the possibility to widen the diapason of $`N_e`$ under investigation.

The data of the different runs of experiment were analyzed. These runs differed by configuration of calorimeter (number of layers and presence or absence of target), by triggering conditions and by criteria of preliminary selection of events. As it was said above, at different runs of the experiment calorimeter contained from 16 to 19 layers of ionization chambers. Above the calorimeter was placed or was absent the carbon target which was 800 $`g/cm^2`$ thick. The triggering conditions also might differ in different runs. In accordance with this the whole analyzed material may be naturally divided in parts, in frames of which the configuration of the calorimeter, triggering criteria and selection conditions remained stable. The triggering conditions and conditions of event registration are described in detail in .

The events registered at different configurations of installation and at different triggering conditions were selected according to the following conditions:

a) One part of the used archive bank contains the events which were subjected to preliminary selection at time of the creation of the bank. The requirements of selection were: the density of electrons at the distance $`73m`$ from the center of installation greater then 0.45 particles/$`m^2`$ ; X,Y coordinates of EAS axis intersection with the plane of the central scintillator carpet less then $`7.0m`$; EAS age parameter $`0.4<s<1.6`$; total number of particles in EAS $`N_e>1.310^5`$ . By reprocessing of these data under the new conditions a part of the calculated parameters shifted in one or another direction, often by a rather large factor.

b) Another part of the bank is constituated of events which were not subjected to the preliminary selection procedure. According to the conditions of recent processing of the data the selected events would satisfy the following requirements: at least one particle must be registered in each group of scintillators at distances 15, 20 and $`73m`$ and in the central carpet; X,Y coordinates of EAS axis intersection with the plane of the central scintillator carpet less then $`100m`$; age parameter $`0.3<s<1.9`$. Namely under these conditions were reprocessed the events of ”a)” above as well. Criterion ”b)” is much more liberal then criterion ”a)” however the data handling process itself is carried out with the maximum accuracy achievable to-day.

At the final stage of analysis an additional restrictions were put on the diapason of distances, on age parameter $`s`$ and on the precision and reliability of fitting of all basic parameters in each separate event.

In such a way the analysis was carried out using the criteria ”a)” and ”b)” for the 16-layer calorimeter without target and using criterion ”b)” for the 19-layer calorimeter with the target and without it. Moreover, the statistically greater material, obtained by means of the 16-layer calorimeter without the target, was divided into two parts of almost equal bodies with different diapasons of registration zenith angles of 0 - 20 and 20 - 30 degrees. The aim was the same - to check the presence and localization of peculiarities of $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ behavior at different zenith angles of event registration.

200 000 events were selected out of the whole body of bank - 350 000 events, according the above quoted criteria. In the final results 51 000 events contributed due to screening by the conditions of the diapason of distances, of age parameter and of EAS parameters fitting the accuracy requirement needed.

## 3 Experimental results and discussion

The specific energies $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ of EAS hadronic component for the above quoted configurations of installation and selection conditions are given in Fig.1:

curve 1 - 16 layer calorimeter, without target. The material not subjected to preliminary selection was handled according to criterion ”b)”, 37000 events in total. The diapason of registration zenith angles 0 -30 degrees.

curve 2 - 16 layer calorimeter, without target. The material subjected to preliminary selection, was then handled according criterion ”b)”, 8 000 events in total. The diapason of registration zenith angles 0 - 30 degrees.

curve 3 - 19 layer calorimeter, with target.

The material subjected to preliminary selection, was handled according to criterion ”b)”, 6 000 events in total. The diapason of registration zenith angles 0 - 30 degrees.

curves 4 and 5 - the material constituating the curve 1 is divided in two parts according to the diapason of registration zenith angles - 0 - 20 degrees (19 000 events) and 20 - 30 degrees (18 000 events) correspondingly.

The lower borders by $`N_e`$ are determined by the material available to-day and by triggering conditions (curves 1, 4 and 5) or by conditions of preliminary selection (curves 2 and 3). The upper borders are determined by statistical restrictions due to high steepness of EAS spectrum $`I(N_e)`$. The error bars allow for statistical errors. The errors of $`N_e`$ determination are of the order of 10 %. The difference of mean slopes of the curves to the left from the values $`N_e<10^6`$ is easy to explain by the difference in triggering conditions $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ and of selection criteria. The solid curves - splain, drawn through the experimental points.

In the region of $`N_e>510^5`$ the deeps on dependence $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ are observed. Most clearly these irregularities are revealed in the region $`N_e>210^6`$ , where the identical localization of these phenomena on all shown curves may be easily traced. The indicated deeps in $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ dependence are located in the regions of the same values of $`N_e`$ , regardless of experimental material used and of triggering and selection conditions (curves 1, 2 and 3). Moreover, the localization of these deeps does not depend on the zenith angle of event registration (curves 4 and 5).

In the region of relatively low values of $`N_e`$ , namely at $`510^5<N_e<210^6`$ the mutually equivalent irregularities may be seen as well. Here however the further increase of accuracy and of statistics is required. In the region $`N_e<510^5`$ at this stage of investigation the $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ dependence behavior reveals as completely smooth.

Actually here we are dealing with the results, obtained in several independent experiments. So at the given stage of data processing one can regard the existence of irregularities on $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ dependence as reliably established one.

Apparently the nice possible explanation for the creation of such behavior of EAS hadronic component flux can be given if one supposes the existence of PCR nuclei spectra cutoff in the primary energy region $`>10^{16}`$ eV. The destruction of PCR nuclei is caused by their interactions with some light particle (component of nonbaryonic dark matter ?) forming the monochromatic low temperature background in the interstellar space .

According to this picture the cutoffs of PCR nuclei spectra have a threshold character and depend on the primary energy of the nucleus and on the energetic threshold of its destruction. For the heavy nuclei of Fe group this phenomenon takes place at $`N_e`$ -s higher then $`1.510^7`$ , which correspond to primary energies of the order of $`2.610^{16}`$ eV. The deeps at the $`N_e`$ values higher than $`210^6`$ and $`610^6`$ are reflecting the destruction of He group and of middle group nuclei. At the energies higher then $`510^{16}`$, at which the nuclei of Pb group are destructed (the last deep on the curve 1), the protons are dominating in the composition of PCR, may be with exception of small part of survived nuclei and of the most heavy nuclei like Uranium. The latter are destructed at the energies of the order of $`10^{17}`$ eV.

## 4 The mechanism of the irregularities formation

The essence of the deep formation mechanism on $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ dependence is as follows.

At a fixed value $`E_0`$ of primary particle energy the number $`N_e`$ of particles in EAS fluctuates within a rather wide range with the certain mean value $`N_e`$’ , and vice versa, the certain value of $`N_e`$ can be registered in EAS initiated by the primary particle of the energy wedged within a rather wide interval of primary energies with the certain mean value E’. There is some balance of contributions in showers of the given $`N_e`$ from primary particles of different energies, depending on the slope of their spectrum.

Let the spectrum of the given certain component of PCR have the form $`I(E)=K^r`$. Now let the spectrum of a given component of PCR be cut off above some fixed value of primary energy $`E^{}`$ (cutoff energy), i.e. at primary energies higher then E\* the flux of this component of PCR sharply decreases (the value of coefficient $`K`$ falls sharply). It is clear that the spectrum of the corresponding EAS will not be cut off above the value $`N_e^{}`$ since the showers of the sizes $`N_e>N_e^{}`$ will still be registered due to fluctuations of $`N_e`$ in the showers of total energy $`E_0<E^{}`$. The showers initiated by the primary particles (of the PCR component under consideration) of the energy $`E_0>E^{}`$ will be present in extent of the new value of coefficient $`K`$. It is established that $`E_h`$ rises in average with the rise of $`E_0`$ (and thus with the rise of $`N_e`$). Besides, at the fixed energy $`E_0`$ the anticorrelation of $`E_h`$ and $`N_e`$ fits naturally with the account of the approximate conservation of the sum of $`e`$\- and $`h`$-component energies. It follows here from, that in the case of spectrum cutoff the flux of hadron energy in EAS of $`N_e>N_e`$* will decrease in average as compared with the case of the absence of cutoff, since the EAS for such $`N_e`$-s now will be generated by the primary particles of the energies $`E_0<E^{}`$. The balance of contributions in showers of some given $`N_e`$ generated by primary particles of different energies will be violated. The width of the interval in which this effect does occur will be of the order of width of the fluctuations of $`N_e`$ . At higher $`N_e`$-s exceeding the frames of this interval, all manifestations of the flux of this component will decrease sharply. However above the indicated interval the balance of contributions restores again and the mean energy of hadrons in EAS reaches its previous level. In the case of complete cutoff of the spectrum EAS from this component will vanish completely. For the mixed composition of PCR the spectra of different components will be cut off at different $`E^{}`$ -s  and one has to expect deeps on the $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ plot near the corresponding values of $`N_e`$ \- s. The widths of these deeps are determined by the ranges of $`N_e`$ fluctuations.

This mechanism of $`E_h(N_e)/N_e`$ dependence formation is analyzed in detail in , where the principles and results of the calculation of its expected features are given. It is to be noticed however, that the level of data processing and analysis in  was lower then reached to day, so the numerical values of model parameters and the localization of the signals along the $`N_e`$ axis differ remarkably from the present results. New parameters, corresponding to recent level of data handling are in preparation and will be published soon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their deep gratitude to O.V.Kancheli for numerous fruitful discussions and advise. The authors are sincerely grateful to Yu.D.Kotov for discussion, V.P.Pavluchenko and V.I.Iakovlev for useful discussions concerning the data bank and installation, N.R Tkeshelashvili, D.R .Tomaradze and A.G.Mulkidjanian - the members of the staff of the Ministry of communications of Georgia - for their assistance in primary treating of the data array, J.M.Henderson - for interest to this investigation and his assistance in preparation of this paper.

This investigation is in part supported by a grant from the Georgian Academy of Sciences and by the firm Mantex ltd. (Tbilisi).


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# A Search for Active Galactic Nuclei in Sc Galaxies with H II Spectra

## 1 Introduction

Most nearby normal and active galaxies with bulges appear to have supermassive black holes at their centers (see Kormendy & Gebhardt 2001 for a review), and the masses of these black holes ($`10^6M_{}`$$`10^9M_{}`$) seem well correlated with the galaxy bulge masses as inferred from the bulge luminosities (Magorrian et al., 1998). In fact, the relation of black hole mass to bulge stellar velocity dispersion is a correlation with far less scatter than that derived from the bulge luminosity (Ferrarese & Merritt, 2000; Gebhardt et al., 2000a; Tremaine et al., 2002). The black hole masses from this relation are consistent with those derived from the widths of broad emission lines and their distances from the black hole as derived by reverberation mapping (Gebhardt et al., 2000b; Ferrarese et al., 2001). The relation of black hole mass to bulge mass appears confirmed in at least one bulgeless galaxy, the nearby spiral M33, where an upper limit of 1500–3000$`M_{}`$ has been found for the black hole mass (Gebhardt et al., 2001; Merritt, Ferrarese, & Joseph, 2001).

Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent (1995, 1997a, 1997b) used the Palomar 200 inch telescope to perform a spectroscopic survey of 486 bright, nearby galaxies selected from the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies (Sandage & Tammann, 1981), in order to conduct a census of the population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the nearby universe. Fifty-two Seyfert galaxies were found in that survey, and 82% of the objects in a statistical sample of 45 of these Seyferts were detected using the Very Large Array (VLA) at 6 cm, with observations of 15–18 min in length (Ho & Ulvestad, 2001; Ulvestad & Ho, 2001). The detected radio sources in these low-luminosity Seyferts typically are associated with the AGNs, implying the presence of massive black holes powering the active nuclei.

In addition to the 52 Seyferts identified by Ho et al. (1997a), 206 galaxies from the Palomar sample were reported to contain H II nuclei: galaxy nuclei with optical line ratios consistent with ionization by young, massive stars. As a general (though not universal) rule, the AGNs (Seyferts and LINERs) are found in early-type galaxies (earlier than Sbc), while the H II nuclei are found in galaxies of type Sb or later.

Although the late-type galaxies in the Palomar sample that are classified as H II galaxies appear to be dominated by star formation, it also is possible that they contain weak AGNs whose optical signature has simply been overpowered by the more dominant signal from nuclear H II regions. The presence of an AGN typically requires two constituents: a massive central black hole and a supply of gas to “feed” that black hole. Since galaxies with H II spectra generally harbor copious supplies of gas, the question of whether H II-dominated objects contain observable AGNs then may be equivalent to the question of whether these galaxies contain massive central black holes. Good discriminators for the presence of an AGN include the presence of a compact source of hard X-rays or radio

emission identified with the galaxy nucleus. Here, we report on a study of a subsample of H II nuclei in Sc galaxies from the Palomar bright galaxy sample, in which we test for the presence of weak AGNs and central black holes by searching for radio emission from the galaxy nuclei.

## 2 Sample Selection and Observations

In order to provide a uniform sample, we chose the 57 objects classified as Sc ($`T`$ = +5) in the Ho et al. (1997a) catalog of H II galaxies. Due to the constraints of limited observing time, we selected a distance-limited sample of 41 of these galaxies lying within 30 Mpc. In this sample, 15 objects had 6-cm data

at $``$1″ resolution in the VLA archive, from observations made in the high-resolution A and B configurations, or the hybrid BnA configuration with a long north arm (see Thompson et al. 1980). Data for these objects were extracted from the archive. Twenty-five sample galaxies, as well as one galaxy at a distance slightly greater than 30 Mpc (IC 467), were observed by us on 16 October 2000, using the VLA A configuration. All new observations were centered at a frequency of 4.86 GHz, with a total bandwidth of 100 MHz in each of two circular polarizations. One galaxy that met our selection criteria, NGC 3430, was not observed because of the apparent presence of data in the VLA archive, but we later found that there were no usable archive data.

Approximately 3.5 minutes were spent integrating on each of the newly observed galaxies, providing a detection threshold about 2.2 times higher than for the Seyfert galaxies observed by Ho & Ulvestad (2001). For the archive data, total integration times ranged from a few minutes to more than two hours. Table 1 summarizes the new and archival observations of the galaxies, including the nominal positions for the galaxy nuclei that were used for imaging. For the seven detected galaxies (see Section 3), the listed positions are those of the peaks of the radio sources apparently associated with the galaxies. All images covered fields of at least 100″ in both right ascension and declination, usually centered at the nominal galaxy positions at the times of the observations. In two galaxies, NGC 3666 and NGC 5907, the currently accepted positions for the galaxy nuclei are more than 15″ from the original pointing positions, so the data for these sources were phase-shifted to the more accurate galaxy positions in order to center the images on the nuclei.

Processing of both new and archival data sets was similar, and was performed in the NRAO Astronomical Image Processing System (van Moorsel, Kemball, & Greisen, 1996). The flux-density scales were set by observations of 3C 48 and 3C 286, using the scale of Baars et al. (1977), with slight adjustments for variability that have been found by VLA staff. A local calibrator was observed for each galaxy, in order to transfer the amplitude scale from the primary flux calibrators and to provide a local phase calibration, removing the effects of electronics and atmosphere. If more than one data set was available from the archive for a given galaxy, each data set was calibrated individually and then combined. Bad data were identified and flagged, and deconvolution and imaging then was performed on the calibrated data sets. All data sets were imaged with “natural” weighting in the (u,v) plane in order to provide the best possible sensitivity. For data sets with excess noise or obvious stripes in the images, confusing sources were imaged and self-calibrated in order to reduce the noise level. The $`1\sigma `$ rms noise was 100 $`\mu `$Jy beam-1 for all the new observations, and varied depending on data quality and quantity, as well as array configuration for the archival data (see Table 1). Synthesized beam sizes were 0.′′4–0.′′5 for the new A configuration data, and 0.′′4 to as much as 2″ for the archival data.

## 3 Results

The range of resolutions and galaxy distances (typically 15–30 Mpc) provides linear resolutions in the range of 40 to 300 pc, sufficient to isolate the galaxy center from the rest of the galaxy. None of the 26 newly observed galaxies was detected, with a $`5\sigma `$ upper limit of 0.5 mJy beam-1 for each. For the 15 galaxies whose archival data were analyzed, seven were detected: NGC 864, 1073, 3359, 3877, 4123, 4535, and 5907. The flux densities and powers of the detected galaxies are summarized in Table 2, while the positions of their radio peaks were given in Table 1.

The noise levels for the archival data often were lower than for the new data due to longer integration times, but only one of the detections was weaker than the upper limit for the new data. However, the archival galaxies often contain significant amounts of data from the larger B configuration, sensitive to more extended structures of lower surface brightness than for the new A configuration data. The beam area in the larger configuration typically is 10 times larger than the beam area in the smaller configuration; the respective beam diameters are $`130`$ pc and $`40`$ pc at the median galaxy distance of 17 Mpc. If the radio sources tend to be resolved on scales of 100–200 pc, an increased peak flux density would be seen in the lower resolution data, perhaps moving the galaxies above our detection threshold. This possibility is supported by the fact that the detected nuclear radio sources in three galaxies are partly resolved

by the VLA (see Section 4.1 for more details).

## 4 Origins of the Radio Emission

### 4.1 Locations of the Detected Radio Sources

In this section, we consider primarily the H II galaxies that were detected by the VLA. Only three of those galaxies have radio detections consistent with the positions of their nuclei as given in the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED) and confirmed with the measurements of Cotton, Condon, & Arbizzani (1999). The three nuclear detections are in the galaxies

NGC 864, NGC 4123, and NGC 4535. NGC 1073 has two sources detected in the field, one associated with a background quasar identified by Colbert & Ptak (2002); the other detection may be associated with the galaxy, but is located approximately 30″ from the nucleus at position angle 37, and is not coincident with either of the intermediate-luminosity X-ray objects shown by Colbert & Ptak (2002). NGC 3359 has a detection about 9.′′5 south of the nucleus, and NGC 5907 has a detection nearly an arcminute away from the nucleus, possibly associated with the disk of the edge-on host galaxy. Finally, the only source detected in NGC 3877 is at the location of the Type IIn supernova SN 1998S, whose radio detection using the same data was reported previously by Van Dyk et al. (1999).

Figure 1 shows the radio images of the three nuclear radio sources found in our survey. All three are resolved and appear somewhat diffuse (as opposed to “jet-like”), with diameters of $`300`$ parsecs. This radio emission may be associated with starbursts, but the unresolved components of the core radio emission conceivably may be associated with AGNs. For these three nuclear radio sources, NGC 864 and NGC 4535 contain only data from the B configuration of the VLA, whereas NGC 4123 has data from both the A and B configurations. To test the effects of resolution on galaxy detectability, we have made images of NGC 4123 containing only the A configuration data and only the B configuration data. The peak flux density of the nuclear source is a factor of 3 higher in the B configuration image than in the A configuration image (4.4 mJy beam-1 vs. 1.4 mJy beam-1), as expected from inspection of Figure 1. If the same ratio had held for NGC 864 and NGC 4535, NGC 864 would not have been detected in our short A configuration integrations, whereas NGC 4535 would have been marginally detected. Therefore, the generally higher sensitivity to extended structures in the archival galaxies accounts for at least some of the increased detection probability for these objects. In fact, it may be that a significant fraction of the galaxies that were not detected in the October 2000 observing run would have been detected using a more compact VLA configuration.

### 4.2 Radio Emission Associated with Star Formation

A young starburst typically can give rise to thermal radio emission from collections of H II regions or super star clusters,

or to nonthermal radio emission from collections of supernova remnants. Such radio emission, with varying ratios of thermal and nonthermal components, is observed in starburst galaxies such as NGC 253 (Antonucci & Ulvestad 1988; Ulvestad & Antonucci 1997; Johnson et al. 2001), M82 (Kronberg, Biermann, & Schwab, 1985; Muxlow et al., 1994), Henize 2-10 (Kobulnicky & Johnson, 1999; Beck, Turner & Gorjian, 2001), and NGC 5253 (Turner, Beck, & Ho, 2000; Gorjian, Turner, & Beck, 2001), or in merger galaxies such as NGC 4038/9 (Neff & Ulvestad, 2000). The three H II galaxies with nuclear radio detections that are shown in Figure 1 have radio sizes of a few hundred parsecs, indicating that any intense star formation must be confined to the near-nuclear regions of the galaxies.

The 4.9-GHz radio sizes of NGC 864, NGC 4123, and NGC 4535 are quite similar to the 500–600 pc nuclear starburst in the nearby Sc galaxy NGC 253 (Antonucci & Ulvestad, 1988; Ulvestad & Antonucci, 1997). NGC 253 has a total 5-GHz flux density of 2.4 Jy integrated over the entire galaxy (Griffith et al., 1994). However, the flux density found by integrating over the central NGC 253 starburst in the 4.9-GHz image shown by Ulvestad & Antonucci (1997) is only 1.3 Jy, corresponding to a radio power of $`9.6\times 10^{20}`$ W Hz-1. The three H II nuclei whose detections are reported here have radio powers ranging from a factor of 2 (for NGC 4123) to a factor of 15 (for NGC 864) lower than this central starburst in NGC 253. Thus, it is entirely possible that the detected H II galaxies harbor nuclear star formation somewhat weaker than that in NGC 253. Supporting this possibility, Figure 2 shows the 6-cm image of NGC 253 (Ulvestad & Antonucci, 1997), as it would appear at a distance of 20 Mpc instead of at 2.5 Mpc, having the flux density reduced by a factor of 64, and angular resolution degraded by a factor of 8 in each dimension. The radio morphology of this degraded NGC 253 image looks similar to the H II galaxies in Figure 1, except that the respective peak and total flux densities are somewhat higher, at 8.2 mJy beam-1 and 20 mJy.

The archival 6-cm data for NGC 864 and NGC 4535 were taken in the B configuration, and we also have measured a flux density from the B configuration 6-cm data for NGC 4123 (total flux density given in Table 2). Comparing the 6-cm values with the 20-cm A configuration flux densities (at similar angular resolution) published by Hummel et al. (1987) indicates that the resolved nuclear sources in NGC 4123 and NGC 4535 have respective two-point spectral indices (using $`S_\nu \nu ^{+\alpha }`$) of $`0.51`$ and $`0.02`$; due to its non-detection at 20 cm, the spectral index of NGC 864 is limited to a value greater than $`0.27`$. The relatively flat spectra of at least two of the objects may be indicative of radio emission dominated by optically thin thermal emission from star formation regions.

For a thermal radio source, both the hydrogen emission lines and the free-free radio emission are powered by ionizing photons from hot young stars. The radio power and H$`\alpha `$ luminosity are related by (Filho, Barthel, & Ho, 2002)

$$P_6(\mathrm{W}\mathrm{Hz}^1)10^{20}L_{\mathrm{H}\alpha }(\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1).$$
(1)
For all 40 H II galaxies observed in our distance-limited sample (those in Table 1 except for IC 467), Figure 3 plots the radio power against the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity given by Ho et al. (1997a)111As explained in Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent (2002), some of the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities published in Ho et al. (1997a) have been updated with more accurate values from the literature. These are listed in Ho et al. (2002).. This figure shows that three of the five galaxies with the highest

H$`\alpha `$ luminosities harbor detected nuclear radio sources. Furthermore, these three detected galaxies fall near the relation given by Equation 1, supporting the inference (from their spectra) that their radio emission has a significant thermal component. We note that the radio upper limits for some of the undetected galaxies actually are below the predictions based on the nuclear H$`\alpha `$ luminosity, with the largest discrepancy existing for NGC 3877. Since the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities were measured with a 2″ by 4″ aperture, it may be that nuclear thermal radio sources have been over-resolved by the higher resolution VLA imaging.

If the radio emission is thermal and related to starbursts, the inferred star formation rate also can be computed. Kennicutt (1998) gives the following formula for the star formation rate inferred from the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity, assuming a Salpeter mass function for 0.1–100$`M_{}`$ and solar metallicity:

$$\mathrm{SFR}(M_{}\mathrm{yr}^1)=7.9\times 10^{42}L(\mathrm{H}\alpha )(\mathrm{ergs}\mathrm{s}^1).$$
(2)
For our three detected nuclei, the H$`\alpha `$ luminosities range from $`10^{40}`$ ergs s-1 to $`10^{41}`$ ergs s-1 so the inferred nuclear star formation rates that could account for the H$`\alpha `$ luminosity would be $`0.080.8M_{}`$ yr-1. Alternatively, using the formalism given by Condon (1992), the inferred star formation rates in stars above $`5M_{}`$ are only $`0.020.2M_{}`$ yr-1.

Another possible result of a circumnuclear starburst would be a compact radio source with a steep spectrum, made up of complexes of supernova remnants that are unresolved by the VLA. Examples of these have been imaged at higher resolution by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), in Arp 220 (Smith et al., 1998) and Mrk 231 (Taylor et al., 1999). The total radio powers can be used to estimate the associated supernova rates that would be required to account for the radio sources. We use the formalism for an object whose total radio emission is dominated by cosmic rays accelerated in supernova remnants, but not identifiable with specific remnants. In this case, for a spectral index of $`0.5`$, Equation (18) of Condon (1992) becomes

$$\left(\frac{P_{20}}{10^{22}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{Hz}^1}\right)11\left(\frac{\nu _{\mathrm{SN}}}{\mathrm{yr}^1}\right).$$
(3)
For the nuclear radio sources, we can use the 20-cm radio emission found by Hummel et al. (1987) to estimate the nuclear supernova rates if the nuclear emission were entirely nonthermal (although the spectra appear thermal in two cases), and find values less than 0.01 yr-1 for all three galaxies. We also can compute the total supernova rates for the entire galaxies by using the galaxy flux densities determined from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (Condon et al., 1998); this implies required supernova rates for the galaxies ranging from 0.01 yr-1 (NGC 864) to 0.03 yr-1 (NGC 4535). Results of the two different computations are summarized in Table 3. The star formation rates in stars above $`5M_{}`$ (Condon, 1992) required to account for the radio emission (presumed nonthermal) for the entire galaxies range from $`0.3M_{}`$ yr-1 to $`1M_{}`$ yr-1. These values are roughly an order of magnitude higher than those required for the nuclear sources, whether they are dominated by thermal or nonthermal emission. However, they are consistent with predictions for the entire galaxies that are based on the far-infrared fluxes measured by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (Soifer et al., 1989; Moshir et al., 1990), converted to star formation rates using the formulation summarized by Kennicutt (1998).

### 4.3 Radio Emission Associated with Active Galactic Nuclei

The other possibility for the radio sources in the H II nuclei of Sc galaxies is that they have radio cores associated with AGNs and supermassive black holes. There has been considerable discussion in the literature about whether the core radio emission might be correlated with black hole masses in these cases (e.g., Franceschini, Vercellone, & Fabian 1998; Laor 2000). In fact, Ho (2002) contends that any correlation for weakly active galaxies is an indirect consequence of a more fundamental relationship between radio luminosity and optical bulge luminosity (or mass) as well as the established relationship between bulge luminosity and black hole mass.

Since Sc galaxies such as those in our H II sample generally have no well-defined bulges whose luminosities can be measured, and no known black holes, direct predictions of radio power cannot be made based on such properties. Instead, as a comparison, we have plotted a histogram of 6-cm nuclear radio powers for the 40 H II galaxies in our statistical sample in Figure 4, and compared the results to a similar plot for the statistical sample of 45 Seyfert nuclei (39 with galaxy types earlier than Sc) that was published by Ulvestad & Ho (2001). Application of the Gehan’s Generalized Wilcoxon Test (Isobe & Feigelson, 1990; LaValley, Isobe, & Feigelson, 1992) indicates that the probability that the Seyferts and H II galaxies were drawn from the same parent population in radio luminosity is less than $`10^4`$. This result would be expected even if the H II galaxies contain AGNs, since they have faint or non-existent bulges, and there are no active galaxies with faint bulges that have high radio powers (Ho, 2002).

In general, the radio sources in low-luminosity AGNs are quite compact. For the Seyferts from the Palomar sample, Ho & Ulvestad (2001) showed that about half the objects have diameters of $`100`$ pc or less. In the case of LINERs, Nagar et al. (2000) demonstrated that those with flat radio spectra typically have AGN radio cores with diameters less than 25 pc, and Falcke et al. (2000) used the VLBA to show that these cores typically are parsec-scale or smaller. The radio peaks of NGC 864, NGC 4123, and NGC 4535, having size limits less than 50–150 pc, are consistent with the presence of AGNs but are not required to be black-hole powered. Instead, the trend of decreasing peak flux density with higher resolution seen in NGC 4123 (see Section 4.1) indicates that those peaks probably would be resolved if somewhat smaller spatial scales (longer baselines) were sampled. If so, AGNs are unlikely to contribute much to the currently unresolved radio emission. If there really are weak AGNs causing the most compact radio emission, they should be detectable with the VLBA, as are many other low-luminosity AGNs (Falcke et al., 2000; Nagar et al., 2002).

## 5 Summary

We have searched for nuclear radio sources in a statistical sample of 40 Sc galaxies hosting H II nuclei, using imaging of new and archival VLA data at 6 cm. Only three such sources were detected, in galaxies among those with the largest H$`\alpha `$ luminosities in the sample. The radio powers and morphologies are consistent with the association of the detected radio sources with nuclear starbursts similar to that in NGC 253, rather than being caused by active galaxies powered by massive black holes. The ratio of radio power to H$`\alpha `$ luminosity is generally consistent with thermal radio emission from nuclear starbursts, and the detected central sources could produce such thermal emission for star formation rates of only $`0.080.8M_{}`$ yr-1. However, nonthermal emission from supernova remnants also could contribute to the detected nuclear sources, requiring supernova rates of well under 0.01 yr-1 and star formation rates of $`0.1M_{}`$ yr-1.

To the extent that radio cores are a common feature in low-luminosity AGNs, the nondetection of radio cores in H II nuclei strongly suggests that they intrinsically lack AGNs, and, by inference, massive black holes. This is not to say that late-type galaxies never host AGNs. Indeed, $``$15% of the Seyfert nuclei and $``$10% of all AGNs in the Palomar survey are hosted in galaxies with Hubble types Sc or later. In terms of AGN demographics, the present results imply that the existing statistics of AGNs in late-type galaxies based on optical searches (Ho et al. 1997b) are likely to be robust. There is not a large population of AGNs hidden among late-type galaxies that have H II spectra.

We thank the anonymous referee for extremely useful comments that helped clarify and focus the paper. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. In addition, this research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. The work of L. C. H. is partly funded by NASA grants awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.