text:
# How and in What Sense Can the Entropy Be Measured?

## 1 Introduction

Among the branches of classical physics, thermodynamics and statistical physics should be the most fantastic ones, which have attracted so many great minds to devote their lives and energy to investigating every topic in these fields. Perhaps among the branches of classical physics, they are the only ones that leave so many open questions, not only in the field of application, but also in their foundations.

In the last century, most of the physicists were attracted to the quantized physics, which can be viewed as the opposite side of classical physics. Although quantization has been the principal melody of physics ever since then, thermodynamics and statistical physics are still vivid with their own open questions. And, even in the so-called modern physics, shadows of thermodynamics and statistical physics are also seen: In the black hole theory, black holes are endowed with the temperature and the entropy. Ideas and concepts of thermodynamics and statistical physics are also applied to the condensed matter theory and the string theory. In fact, the history of quantum theory can be traced back to thermodynamics and statistical physics, where M. Planck use the famous assumption $`E=h\nu `$ to derive Planck’s formula, the spectral energy distribution of black bodies.

On the other hand, there are so many open questions in thermodynamics as well as statistical physics — there are even no universal theories, neither thermodynamic nor statistical, for non-equilibrium systems. Thus the foundations of thermodynamics, which are claimed to be valid for arbitrary thermal systems and arbitrary processes, could not be tested by comparing the experimental data with the predictions from a universal thermodynamics. This sounds not so nice to the society of physics.

It will benefit us greatly if we exam the foundations of thermodynamics carefully, no matter theoretically or experimentally. For example, if we were able to measure the entropy of a system in an arbitrary given state, it would be a piece of good news. However, whenever we try to fulfill such a scheme, we always find that there are some confusing points or experimental obstacles in thermodynamics, standing in the way to prevent us from approaching to our goal.

In this paper, a method is given as how to measure the entropy of a system in an arbitrary given state. In order to simplify our discussion, we assume it to be a gas system consisting of only one kind of molecules, with equilibrium states being labeled by its temperature $`T`$, its volume $`V`$ and the amount $`n`$ of its molecules measured in the unit of moles. As implied, such a system is an open system.

According to thermodynamics, a reversible process is adiabatic if and only if the entropy of the system is “conserved”, or, invariant, in the process. This statement is theoretically explicit, but it is hard to be applied in experiments. Usually a process is judged to be adiabatic empirically or a priori. In a thermodynamic measurement, one often wants to assure that a process is adiabatic, or that certain a system, which may consist of the system to be measured as well as some part of its surroundings, is thermally isolated from other surroundings. Hence, in thermodynamics, the error in a measurement concerning heat or thermodynamic functions are hard to be estimated quantitatively.

The situation becomes rather worse in the case of open systems because the concept of an adiabatic process is much far away from our heuristic ideas. Whenever the amount of molecules is changed in a reversible process, the entropy accompanying the molecules that is brought into or out of the open system accounts for certain part of the change of the entropy of the open system. As a matter of fact, an adiabatic reversible process, namely, a reversible process which remains the entropy invariant, will be peculiar from the point of view of empiricism: A reversible process that seems not to absorb or emit heat is not adiabatic provided the amount of molecules is changing. The detailed analysis is presented in §2.2, implying that there are serious problems in the theory of thermodynamics. But this will not be the topic of this paper.

The concept of heat thus is made confusing. It arises to be a question whether we can measure the heat correctly if one of the amounts of the components of a system is changed in a process. If there is no problem, then the method in this paper can be applied to measure the entropy of a system state by state.

This paper is organized as in the following. In §2, some points that might cause confusion or arguments are made clear first. Especially, the entropy of an open system, as well as the heat absorbed by it, is analyzed. It seems that the theory of thermodynamics of reversible processes is not compatible with the thermodynamic laws. It is indeed the case, but this is not the topic of this paper. In §3, we first outline of the method of how to measure the entropy of an equilibrium gas system. Then the formulas are derived in details. In §4, conclusions and further discussions are given.

For those who are interested in the measuring methods, §3.1 is what the wanted. Those who want to see the detailed derivation may find it in §3.2. If there is any question about these contents, then §2 is referred to.

## 2 Problems That Should Be Made Clear

Before we start to discuss how the entropy could be measured, some problems should be made clear because the author astonishingly finds that there are so much misunderstanding when the topic of this paper is discussed. Those who does not want to quarrel with me, when he or she is reading the next section, may safely skip the following contents in this section. But when he or she feels eager to quarrel with me, I beg him or her to read this section carefully before he or she comes up to me.

In this paper, we only discuss the open systems consisting of one kind of molecules, with the amount denoted by $`n`$ in the unit of moles. For simplicity, we assume that the system is a fluid system.

First let me emphasize that the correctness of thermodynamics of reversible processes should never be questioned in this paper, because I am trying to give some possible experimental methods, in its framework, of how to measure the entropy of a system in an equilibrium state. From the discussions, it can be revealed that there are some serious questions rooted deeply in thermodynamics. However, in order for the outline of this paper to be clear, the correctness of thermodynamics should never be suspected.

### 2.1 The Absolute Entropy and the Third Law of Thermodynamics

Perhaps someone wants to remind me that, in thermodynamics, functions such as the internal energy $`U`$ and the entropy $`S`$ can be determined only up to a constant, hence it should be suspected immediately that the absolute entropy, while not the change of it, could be measured.

However, one should recall that it is not the case, at all. When any one of the thermodynamic potentials such as the internal energy $`U`$, the enthalpy $`H=U+pV`$, the Helmholtz free energy $`F=UTS`$ or the Gibbs free energy $`G=U+pVTS`$, et al, is assumed to be additive and to be a homogeneous function of the first degree in its corresponding extensive variables, the arbitrariness of all the constants in these potentials and the entropy function ends up. For example, when $`G(T,p,n)`$ is assumed to be a homogeneous function of the first degree in $`n`$, it can be obtained that

$$G=\mu n$$

by using Euler’s theorem for homogeneous functions. Hence $`U`$, $`H`$ and $`F`$ are all obtained as in the following:

$`U(V,S,n)=pV+TS+\mu n,`$ (1)
$`H(p,S,n)=TS+\mu n,`$
$`F(T,V,n)=pV+\mu n.`$
Since $`\mathrm{d}F=p\mathrm{d}VS\mathrm{d}T+\mu \mathrm{d}n`$, the entropy

$$S=\left(\frac{F}{T}\right)_{V,n}=S(T,V,n)$$
(2)
is also determined111 To be more confirmative, suppose that $`S^{}=S+S_0`$ is another possible entropy for the same system in the same state, with $`S_0`$ a constant. Then we obtain another Gibbs free energy $`G^{}=GTS_0=\mu nTS_0`$, which is no longer a homogeneous function in $`n`$ whenever $`S_00`$. Constants in other functions can be similarly discussed. , being a homogeneous function of the first degree in $`V`$ and $`n`$. Such an entropy is what is suggested to be measured in this paper.

Someone may argue that this would make the third law of thermodynamics unnecessary. Is that true? Of course, no, because this is not the business that third law of thermodynamics can do. There are other conclusions, such as that the absolute zero of temperature cannot be reached by any finite process, that are not available without the third law.

Since there are various versions of the third law in literature, it is not strange that there are lots of gentlemen who think that the third law can be used to determine the integral constants in entropy222 For example, it is written in the famous book of L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, saying that the entropy of any system vanishes at the absolute zero of temperature. According to A. Sommerfeld, however, W. Nernst disliked the concept of entropy. If so, it seems that the description of Nernst’s theorem in  is not a faithful version of Nernst’s original statement. And, whatsoever speaking, Sommerfeld’s description is the representative of the version that is widely accepted, although, in spirit, it is equivalent to Landau and Lifshitz’s statement in . As for the reason why they are equivalent, see the next two paragraphs. . Here we state the third law as that in : For a system, the limit $`S_0=\underset{T0}{lim}S`$ is a constant value that is independent of any variables such as the volume $`V`$, the pressure $`p`$ and the amount $`n`$, et al. It is in this sense that the determination of $`S_0`$ is not the business of the third law only.

The third law of the thermodynamics concerns only the asymptotic behavior of the entropy. It is a relatively independent thing to determine the constant $`S_0`$ for a system. Unfortunately, in the literature it is often boldly assumed that $`\underset{T0}{lim}S=0`$ as soon as the third law has been described. Even Sommerfeld could not prevent from doing so. One may ask the author who did so: Dose $`\underset{T0}{lim}S=0`$ contradict with the assumption such as that the Helmholtz free energy $`F`$ is a homogeneous function of the first degree in extensive variables $`V`$ and $`n`$, et al? If no, is such an assumption independent of the third law?

In fact, $`\underset{T0}{lim}S=0`$ is a corollary of such an assumption together with the third law: According to eq. (2), $`S_0(V,n)=\underset{T0}{lim}S(T,V,n)`$ is a homogeneous function of $`V`$ and $`n`$, say. At the same time, it is a constant as asserted by the third law of thermodynamics. Hence, using Euler’s theorem, we obtain

$$S_0=\frac{S_0}{V}V+\frac{S_0}{n}n=0.$$

To my opinion, the assumption that a particular thermodynamic potential is a homogeneous function in its corresponding extensive variables is and *must be* independent of the third law. One may name such an assumption as the fourth law of thermodynamics, if he likes to. As a consequence, *the belief that each of thermodynamic potentials as well as the entropy can be determined only up to a constant333 Strictly speaking, the potentials $`F`$ and $`G`$ both have two constants before they are fixed. For example, let $`S`$ and $`S^{}=S+S_0`$ describe the same system in the same state, and let the internal energies $`U`$ and $`U^{}=U+U_0`$ describe also the same system in the same state. Then the corresponding Helmholtz free energies will be $`F=UTS`$ and $`F^{}=U^{}TS^{}=F+U_0TS_0`$, respectively. The same thing happens in the Gibbs free energy: $`G^{}=G+U_0TS_0`$. Rigorously, all the potentials can be determined up to at most two constants before they are fixed: One comes from the internal energy, and the other comes from the entropy.  is incorrect.*

### 2.2 The Entropy and the Heat

How to calculate the heat that is absorbed by an open system? If the process is reversible, then, according to thermodynamics, the heat absorbed by the open system is $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=T\mathrm{d}S`$ where $`\mathrm{d}S`$ is the total differential of the entropy of that open system. The answer is so simple that it seems absurd to ask such a question. However, the following analysis indicates that the so-called adiabatic process, which is a reversible process with the entropy $`S`$ remaining to be constant, is not a process as we have expected from the word adiabatic.

First let us consider a simple example.

Suppose that there is a fluid system consists of one kind of molecules amounted as $`n_0`$. The system is in equilibrium at a temperature $`T`$ and a volume $`V_0`$. Then, according to the zeroth law of thermodynamics, there should be no heat transferred from one part of it to another. Meanwhile, the internal energy of this system is $`U_0=pV_0+TS_0+\mu n_0`$ where $`S_0`$ is the entropy of the system, as indicated by eq. (1).

Now let us consider a subsystem of it which has a virtual boundary that separates the subsystem from the whole. Suppose that the virtual boundary of the subsystem expands slowly such that the center of mass remains unchanged and the process can be considered as reversible. The subsystem is obviously an open system, whose state is denoted by $`(T,V,n)`$ with an entropy $`S=S(T,V,n)`$.

Since the virtual boundary and the process are just imaginary, the intensive quantities $`p`$, $`T`$ and $`\mu `$ are constant. Assume the initial and the final states of the subsystem are $`(T,V_1,n_1)`$ and $`(T,V_1+\mathrm{\Delta }V,n_1+\mathrm{\Delta }n)`$, respectively, then

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }V}{V_0}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }S}{S_0}=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }n}{n_0}.$$
(3)
Hence, according to the formulism of thermodynamics, certain amount of heat $`Q=T\mathrm{\Delta }S0`$ must be absorbed by the subsystem after its virtual expansion. In other words, as a virtual closed surface moves in an equilibrium system, one has to admit that certain an amount of heat as $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=T\mathrm{d}S`$ has been transferred through it, *accompanying* the substance that goes through the surface, even though the system is in equilibrium.

Then questions arise immediately. First, we have seen that the above subsystem, separated by a virtual surface, does absorb some heat if its volume has been changed. On the other hand, however, the zeroth law of thermodynamics should have repelled such a possibility, because heat will not be transferred between two systems or two parts of a system provided there is no difference of temperature. Secondly, ever since the first law of thermodynamics was accepted, heat has been treated as a form of energy transfer, being no longer anything accompanying the ordinary substance as that was insisted in the caloric theory. Now it seems that the caloric theory is somehow restored in thermodynamics.

So, there are serious questions in thermodynamics. We leave these questions to be discussed in . However, we must make our view points to these questions clear before we perform further discussions.

(1) For a system, the heat absorbed by it in a reversible process is always calculated to be $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=T\mathrm{d}S`$, no matter whether it is an open system or not. To say a reversible process is adiabatic, it is equivalent to say that $`\mathrm{d}S=0`$ in the process. As a consequence, in order that a reversible process is adiabatic if certain a number of molecules have been brought into the system, it must emit a suitable quantity of heat into the surroundings, because the newly added molecules always tend to increase the total entropy of the open system. Therefore the concept of adiabatic processes is far away from what we have expected intuitively. *As for how a process can be identified to be adiabatic in the experiments, it is not the topic of this paper.*

(2) For simplicity, we only discuss open systems consist of only one kind of molecules. When the amount $`n`$ of the molecules in the open system are changed, the contribution of the newly added molecules to the entropy has been included in $`\mathrm{d}S`$, because $`S`$ depends on $`n`$, too, as shown in eq. (2). If the amount of molecules in the system remains constant, the change of entropy in a reversible process is given by

$$\left(\frac{S}{T}\right)_{V,n}\mathrm{d}T+\left(\frac{S}{V}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V.$$

For a reversible process in which the amount $`n`$ is changing, the contribution of the added molecules is

$$\left(\frac{S}{n}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n,$$

and the total differential of the entropy, $`\mathrm{d}S`$, is the sum of the above two parts. In terms of $`\mathrm{d}S`$, the contribution of the added molecules needs not to be considered any more.

As an example, let us consider the fluid system with an open subsystem enclosed by a virtual boundary, as introduced formerly. When the virtual boundary is changed, the total change of the entropy of the subsystem consists of two parts:

$$\left(\frac{S}{V}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V+\left(\frac{S}{n}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n.$$

Due to the fact that $`\frac{\mathrm{d}V}{V}=\frac{\mathrm{d}n}{n}`$ where $`V`$ and $`n`$ are the volume and the amount of molecules of the subsystem, respectively, one needs not to know the details of the entropy function, yielding

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V+\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n`$ $`=`$ $`\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\right)_{T,n}{\displaystyle \frac{V}{n}}\mathrm{d}n+\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n`$
$`=`$ $`\left[V\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\right)_{T,n}+n\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\right)_{T,V}\right]{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}n}{n}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\mathrm{d}n={\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\mathrm{d}V.`$
Since both $`\frac{S}{n}=\frac{S_0}{n_0}`$ and $`\frac{S}{V}=\frac{S_0}{V_0}`$ remain constant in the process, we can integrate the above to give

$$\mathrm{\Delta }S=\frac{S_0}{n_0}\mathrm{\Delta }n=\frac{S_0}{V_0}\mathrm{\Delta }V,$$

coinciding with eqs. (3). Obviously, if one is about to consider the contribution of the molecules that flows into the subsystem once again, he is definitely doing something wrong.

(3) Is heat a kind of substance accompanying ordinary matter, as it was said in the old-fashioned caloric theory, or just the energy transferred from one body to another as the result of the difference of temperature? As we know, thermodynamics has chosen the latter. But the following consideration will make thermodynamics to sink into trouble.

As what happens in $`\mathrm{d}S`$, whenever a process is reversible, the heat

$`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q`$ $`=`$ $`T\mathrm{d}S=T\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{T}}\right)_{V,n}\mathrm{d}T+T\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V+T\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`C_{V,n}\mathrm{d}T+T\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{V}}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V+T\left({\displaystyle \frac{S}{n}}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n`$
consists of two parts: the ordinary part $`C_{V,n}\mathrm{d}T+T\left(\frac{S}{V}\right)_{T,n}\mathrm{d}V`$ and the heat “brought into the system by $`\mathrm{d}n`$”, $`T\left(\frac{S}{n}\right)_{T,V}\mathrm{d}n`$. The latter makes the heat something like the companion of the ordinary substances. Thus, reasonably, some of us will feel uncomfortable because the spirit of the caloric theory is found wandering in thermodynamics. But we do not want to discuss it, but leaving it into .

## 3 How to Measure the Entropy

### 3.1 The Outline of the Measuring Methods

For simplicity we only consider the gas systems, each of which consists of only one kind of molecules. For such a system, its equilibrium state can be specified by three variables, the absolute temperature $`T`$, the volume $`V`$, and the amount $`n`$ of the molecules, say. Then there are the equations of state for such a system. One of these equations is $`p=p(T,V,n),`$ which can be obtained state by state. The partial derivatives of $`p`$ with respect to $`T`$, $`V`$ and $`n`$, respectively, can also be measured state by state.

In order to measure the entropy $`S=S(T,V,n)`$ of such a system in a given state $`(T,V,n)`$, suppose that there is a reversible isothermal process

$$T=\mathrm{constant},V=V(n).$$
(5)
Let $`(T,V,n)`$ and $`(T,V+\mathrm{d}V,n+\mathrm{d}n)`$ be the states in the above process, with $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q`$ the heat that is absorbed by the system. Then the entropy of the system in the state $`(T,V,n)`$ is

$$S(T,V,n)=\frac{n}{T}\frac{\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q}{\mathrm{d}n}+\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\left(Vn\frac{\mathrm{d}V}{\mathrm{d}n}\right).$$
(6)
Therefore the entropy can be obtained provided that $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q`$ has been obtained. Especially, if the process is both isothermal and adiabatic, namely, $`T=\mathrm{constant}`$ and $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=0`$, the entropy in the state $`(T,V,n)`$ will be

$$S(T,V,n)=\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\left(Vn\frac{\mathrm{d}V}{\mathrm{d}n}\right).$$
(7)
### 3.2 The Principles of the Experiment

As we know, for a gas system, the first law of thermodynamics can be written in the form of

$$\mathrm{d}U=p\mathrm{d}V+T\mathrm{d}S+\mu \mathrm{d}n.$$

A Legendre transformation gives the differential of the free energy as

$$\mathrm{d}F=p\mathrm{d}VS\mathrm{d}T+\mu \mathrm{d}n,$$
(8)
where the free energy is defined as $`F=UTS.`$ Being a homogeneous function of the first degree in $`V`$ and $`n`$ for any given temperature $`T`$, Euler’s theorem for homogeneous functions of the first degree must be satisfied, in which the temperature is treated as a parameter, giving

$$F=pV+\mu n.$$
(9)
The optional form of the above equation can be $`U=pV+TS+\mu n`$ for the internal energy, or $`G=\mu n`$ for the Gibbs free energy, as what have been mentioned in §2.1.

One of the most important consequences of the above equations is that the intensive quantities $`p`$, $`T`$ and $`\mu `$ are not functionally independent, namely, their differentials are constrained by an equation

$$\mathrm{d}\mu =\frac{V}{n}\mathrm{d}p\frac{S}{n}\mathrm{d}T.$$
(10)
In fact, it can be obtained by the comparison of the differential of eq. (9) with eq. (8). The above equation implies that the chemical potential $`\mu `$ is a function of the intensive variables $`p`$ and $`T`$. Since the pressure $`p`$ can be viewed as a function of the variables $`T`$, $`V`$ and $`n`$, we can obtain

$$\left(\frac{\mu }{T}\right)_{V,n}=\frac{V}{n}\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\frac{S}{n}$$
(11)
by using the chain rule of partial derivatives.

By virtue of the above equation, the heat that is absorbed by an open system in a reversible process reads

$$\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=T\mathrm{d}S=C_{V,n}\mathrm{d}T+T\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\mathrm{d}V+\frac{T}{n}\left[SV\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\right]\mathrm{d}n,$$
(12)
in which the partial derivatives of the entropy $`S`$ with respect to $`V`$ and $`n`$, respectively, have been replaced by the partial derivatives of $`p`$ and $`\mu `$, both with respective to $`T`$, according to Maxwell’s relations

$$\left(\frac{S}{V}\right)_{T,n}=\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n},\left(\frac{S}{n}\right)_{T,V}=\left(\frac{\mu }{T}\right)_{V,n}.$$
(13)
As we know, the heat capacity $`C_{V,n}`$ in eq. (12) is defined as

$$C_{V,n}=T\left(\frac{S}{T}\right)_{V,n}.$$

For an isothermal reversible process (5), we obtain the equation

$$\frac{\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q}{\mathrm{d}n}=T\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\frac{\mathrm{d}V}{\mathrm{d}n}+\frac{T}{n}\left[SV\left(\frac{p}{T}\right)_{V,n}\right]$$

from eq. (12). Hence eq. (6) can be obtained. If the process (5) is not only isothermal, but also adiabatic, then $`\overline{}\mathrm{d}Q=0`$. Thus eq. (7) can be obtained.

## 4 Conclusions and Discussions

In §2.1, it was concluded that the concept of abstract entropy makes sense in thermodynamics. So there should be some methods to measure the entropy. The method presented in this paper is one of them.

As we have indicated in §3, were it possible that (1) we can design an infinitesimal reversible process that is isothermal with the amount $`n`$ of molecules being changed and that (2) we can measure the heat absorbed by the open system in this process, then the entropy of the system can be measured. If, (3) in addition, the infinitesimal process is adiabatic, it could not be better.

However, we have seen in §2.2 that the concept of heat in thermodynamics is not so simple as it looks. It seems to be a question whether we can measure the heat if, in the process, any one of the amounts of the components is changed. This is due to the fact, in thermodynamics, that the molecules that are brought into or out of an open system are accompanied with certain a quantity of heat, as shown in the example of the subsystem of an equilibrium fluid system (see, §2.2). As a consequence, it can be asked whether the method presented in this paper is practical.

We must notice that, in order to measure the entropy $`S(T,V,n)`$ in a given state $`(T,V,n)`$, one process satisfying the conditions (1) and (2) in the above is sufficient. If there is no such a reversible process, we may refer to thermodynamics as a theory speaking of nothing. As long as we believe in thermodynamics, we have to admit that the method of measuring the entropy is reasonable and practical.

It is in this sense that the entropy can be measured.

Acknowledgments

The author wants to thank Prof. H. Y. Guo, Prof. Z. Zhao and Prof. H. Y. Wang for helpful discussions on such topics. He is also thankful to Dr. Xin Wang, Dr. Yu-Guang Wang, and Dr. Lian-You Shan for stimulating discussions. Special appreciations are given to Ji-Jun Li, whose effort on thermodynamics several years ago is a historical background as why the author paid his attention to these topics.


format: text

text:
# Near and mid-infrared colours of star-forming galaxies in European Large Area ISO Survey fields

## 1 Introduction

There has been determined effort over the past several years to understand the history of luminous matter in the Universe. Ultimately, one wishes to have a consistent understanding which would tie together the detailed physical processes at work in stars and ISM in the Milky Way and local galaxies with the integrated properties of more distant systems. The spectral properties and energy budget of the distant galaxies in turn are crucial in understanding the universal history of star formation, the very faintest source counts, and the extragalactic background radiation.

In particular, the infrared and sub-mm regimes have become the focal point of interest in studies of galaxies, both normal and extreme objects. The near-infrared is an important region for galaxy evolution studies for several reasons. Dust extinction is significantly less hampering here than in the optical, and the light mostly comes from a relatively stable old population of late-type stars making galaxy colours, counts, and K-corrections easier to predict and interpret. It is also in the near-IR that the energy output of a galaxy starts to shift from normal starlight to emission re-radiated by interstellar matter. By $`5\mu `$m the dust emission has taken over from radiation from stellar photospheres, except in most ellipticals.

Apart from the $`[12/25]f_\nu (12\mu \mathrm{m})/f_\nu (25\mu \mathrm{m})`$ colours of IRAS galaxies, the mid-infrared truly opened up for study only with the ISO-mission (see reviews by Genzel & Cesarsky 2000, Helou 1999). Many studies (e.g. Mattila, Lehtinen & Lemke 1999, Helou et al. 2000) have confirmed the complex nature of spectral energy distributions of disk galaxies in the $`320\mu `$m range. In addition to a continuum due to hot (or warm) dust there are bright IR-bands at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3, and $`12.7\mu `$m – these are often called the Unidentified Infrared Bands (UIBs), due to the lack of understanding of their carriers. These broadband aromatic features are proposed to be the signature of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH; Léger & Puget 1984).

The PAHs are an essential component in forming the mid-infrared $`[6.7/15]`$ colour ratio which is emerging as a tracer of star forming activity in galaxies (Vigroux et al. 1996, 1999, Sauvage et al. 1996, Dale et al. 2000, Roussel et al. 2001a, Helou 2000). The value $`[6.7/15]1`$ is expected in quiescent medium and PDRs, while HII regions have $`[6.7/15]<0.5`$ (e.g. Cesarsky et al. 1996). The $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio thus remains close to unity for quiescent and mildly star forming galaxies, while it starts to drop for those with more vigorous star formation activity. This mid-IR flux ratio has been also shown to correlate with the IRAS $`[60/100]`$ colour ratio, which is a well known indicator of activity level in galaxies (Helou 2000, Dale et al. 2000, Vigroux et al. 1999). A two-component model of a galaxy as a linear combination of differing amounts of cold dust in cirrus clouds and warmer dust in HII regions has been seen as the explanation for the IRAS and IRAS-ISO colour-colour diagrams (Helou 1986, Dale et al. 1999, 2000). On the other hand, the situation might be more complicated (see e.g. Sauvage & Thuan 1994), and for example it is possible that the proportion of star formation in the disk relative to the central region of a galaxy plays a dominant role (e.g. Vigroux et al. 1999, Roussel et al. 2001b).

On another front, deep ISO galaxy counts (e.g. Oliver et al. 1997, Taniguchi et al. 1997, Elbaz et al. 1999a, Aussel et al. 1999, Flores et al. 1999, for ISOCAM counts) have produced surprising results. The differential $`15\mu `$m counts show a remarkable upturn below flux densities of 3 mJy and then a rapid convergence at approximately 0.4 mJy. This peak clearly requires strong (luminosity) evolution and can be a result of strong mid-IR emission features, a new population of sources, or some combination of these (Xu 2000, Elbaz 1999b, Genzel & Cesarsky 2000). To understand these results and to develop a coherent picture of early galaxy evolution, it is imperative to learn as much as possible about the more local galaxies.

The ELAIS project (Rowan-Robinson et al. 1999, Oliver et al. 2000) stands as a bridge between the very deep galaxy surveys in the infrared mentioned above, and nearby galaxy surveys (e.g. Boselli et al. 1998, Dale et al. 2000, Roussel et al. 2001a). ELAIS was the largest open time ISO-project with the driving ambitious goal to study the un-obscured star formation out to redshifts of $`z1`$. Source counts in the mid-IR have been published in Serjeant et al. (2000) and the far-IR counts in Efstathiou et al. (2000).

The aims of this paper are as follows: In Section 2 we present a subset of the ISOCAM ELAIS survey with near-IR follow-up observations. A central new result of this paper, the calibration of the ELAIS data is performed in Section 2.6 and in the Appendix using the stars detected in our fields. In Section 3 various near- to mid-IR colour-colour diagrams of the ELAIS galaxies are constructed and compared to evolutionary models including the UIB features in the mid-IR, and to a local ISO galaxy sample. In Section 4.1 we attempt to classify sources based on their NIR-MIR colours. Classifications such as this are expected to be helpful in the future, eg. with SIRTF and ASTRO-F data, when large numbers of galaxies with near-IR and mid-IR fluxes become available without high-resolution spectra accompanying them at least in the first instance. In Section 4.2 we discuss star formation properties of the ELAIS galaxies, and the mid-IR and near-to-mid-IR colours as tracers of star formation. Finally, active galaxies and extreme objects are discussed in Section 4.3.

## 2 Observations and Data

### 2.1 ISO data

The mid-IR ELAIS ISO-observations were made with the ISOCAM LW2 ($`6.7\mu `$m) and LW3 ($`15\mu `$m) filters, covering ranges 5 – 8.5 $`\mu `$m and 12 – 18 $`\mu `$m, respectively. For a description of the observations, data reduction, and source extraction we refer the reader to Oliver et al. (2000) and Serjeant et al. (2000). At present the final reduction products are available only for the southern ELAIS fields (Lari et al. 2001) and thus we use here the preliminary analysis v.1.3 ELAIS ISOCAM catalogue source list. This is somewhat deeper than the publicly available v.1.4 catalogue111Available at http://athena.ph.ic.ac.uk/elais/data.html but otherwise equivalent (the latter is a subset of v.1.3). At this stage the detections are classified as ‘secure’ (REL=2) or ‘likely’ (REL=3). However, to have a reliable source list, we will consider only those detections with near-IR matches, as discussed below. Reliability and completeness in general of these versions of ELAIS catalogues will be discussed in more detail in Babbedge & Rowan-Robinson (2002, in preparation). Part of our near-IR survey is in the N1 ELAIS region, which was not observed at 6.7 $`\mu `$m.

### 2.2 Near-Infrared data

The near-IR observations were carried out using the STELIRCam instrument at the 1.2-m telescope of the F. L. Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins. A description of these $`J`$\- and $`K`$-band data (taken during 21 nights between April 1997 and May 1999), reduction, as well as photometry is found in Väisänen et al. (2000). The survey area is approximately 1 square degree, two thirds of it is in the ELAIS N2 region (centered at RA=16h36m00s, DEC=$`41\mathrm{deg}06\mathrm{}00\mathrm{}`$) and the rest in N1 (RA=16h09m00s, DEC=$`54\mathrm{deg}40\mathrm{}00\mathrm{}`$). There is a small offset between the simultaneously observed FOVs in the $`J`$ and $`K`$ bands, resulting in slightly different source catalogues in the respective bands.

The 2MASS 2nd incremental data release (Cutri et al. 2000) partially covers the N1 and N2 regions. This allows us to directly cross-check our bright ($`K<14.5`$) photometry with 2MASS. This is important also because we will later use 2MASS data in connection with a comparion sample of nearby galaxies from the literature. The ’default’ photometry of 2MASS was found to agree very well with our photometry for both stars and galaxies. Our data from Mt.Hopkins (while deeper due to longer integration time) are, in fact, taken with a very similar telescope and instrument than the 2MASS data.

### 2.3 Matching of mid- and near-IR data

The ELAIS ISOCAM catalogue has 1322 and 2203 sources in total for all ELAIS regions in the 6.7 and 15 $`\mu `$m bands, respectively. These were matched with our near-IR catalogue, which comes from a much smaller area. The ELAIS v.1.3 catalogue includes many double, or even multiple, detections from the edges of neighbouring individual rasters and repeated observations – thus we had to purge the catalogue. We searched for ISOCAM objects separated initially by 1″, then 3″, and finally 6″ – at each step neighbours were merged if they had the same near-IR counterpart. Ultimately, the matched and purged catalogue consists of 217 and 158 NIR sources matched with the LW2 and LW3 ELAIS catalogue, respectively. Of these, 53 are common to both ISOCAM filters, and due to LW2 coverage they are all in the N2 region. Table 1 gives the total number of ISO sources, the NIR indentifications and their classification per field, filter, and reliability class. Notably, all those ISOCAM sources detected in both filters were identified, as well as all LW2 sources with REL=2.

The probability of a chance appearance of eg. a $`K=17`$ mag object within the 6″ search radius is 0.03, estimated from surface densities of near-IR objects (eg. Väisänen et al. 2000). More than 90 per cent of the matches are brighter than $`K=16.5`$ mag – we thus conclude that the purely positional matching is highly accurate. And since we will be using only those mid-IR sources with a near-IR counterpart, we consider the sourcelist to be very reliable.

The ELAIS fields were surveyed also with ISOPHOT at 90 and 175 $`\mu `$m. Since the mid- to far-IR colours of ELAIS sources are discussed in another work (Morel et al. 2002, in preparation), we do not discuss them further here, except to note that 8 of our 29 galaxies with data from both ISOCAM bands and near-IR photometry, also have 90 $`\mu `$m fluxes available. In addition, 20 of the 29 are included in the ELAIS VLA catalogue (Ciliegi et al. 1999).

### 2.4 Photometry

Since in this work we need to compare fluxes between nearby and distant galaxies, total fluxes are required for both the near and mid-infrared. In Väisänen et al. (2000) we found the ‘BEST’ magnitudes from SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996) to be the most robust and accurate over a wide range of magnitudes and source profiles. The Kron-type ‘BEST’-magnitudes are presented in Table 2, but we calculated also various aperture magnitudes and there is no difference in any final results if large enough apertures are used.

The ISO-fluxes are measured from characteristic temporal signatures of individual pixels, as described in Serjeant et al. (2000). Instead of conventional aperture photometry the value of the peak pixel is corrected to total flux using PSF modeling. The adopted correction factors were 1.54 at $`6.7\mu `$m and 2.36 at $`15\mu `$m. The correction for the LW2 filter is more uncertain due to much undersampled PSF. Strictly, this correction is appropriate for point sources only, which results in a potentially serious underestimation of fluxes for extended objets. However, the size of the ISOCAM pixel is 6″, and the large majority of our sources are smaller than this and we trust that the point source aperture correction gives an accurate value for them. Nevertheless, we examined the largest ELAIS galaxies individually (using their NIR half-light radii and testing with different apertures) to get an estimate of correction factors to the mid-IR fluxes. We conclude that only 4 of the galaxies, all of which are included in Fig. 1, definitely need a significant aperture correction. For the largest galaxy in our sample (ELAISC15 J163508+405933), referred to as ‘B’ in Table 2 and Fig. 1, we adopt fluxes from Morel et al (2002, in preparation), modified in accordance with our new calibration (Section 2.6). The correction is very large, approximately a factor of 4. The other three galaxies labeled ‘A’, ‘C’, and ‘D’, respectively, are significantly smaller, and for these we adopt an approximate correction factor of 1.5.

### 2.5 Star/galaxy classification

We plot the NIR/MIR ELAIS data in Figs. 2 and 3 as a function of $`K`$-magnitude, using all the matched near-IR and ISOCAM detections. We also matched all the sources in our field with optical data from POSS plates using the Automated Plate Scanner database (APS; Pennington et al. 1993), which includes morphological star/galaxy separation. Those objects with a stellar classification are identified as crosses in the two plots.

Stars clearly seem to lie in regions $`[2.2/6.7]>2`$ and $`[2.2/15]>10`$. We checked individually all objects in these regions using our NIR data and were able to correct several ambiguous and erroneous APS-classifications (typically optically faint, red objects). There are more stars in the $`6.7\mu `$m matches, as expected, and there is more overlap between separate populations in the $`[2.2/6.7]`$-plot. We verified that several galaxies, likely to be nearby ellipticals, lie in this overlap region which is shown in more detail in the inset of Fig. 2. Henceforth, those objects which were morphologically verified as stellar by near-IR and/or optical data, and have either $`[2.2/6.7]>2`$ or $`[2.2/15]>10`$, are defined as stars. The rest are then classified as galaxies.

Several sources in the galaxies sample have a stellar APS classification. While we did not attempt a comprehensive morphological classification of the faintest near-IR sources, many of them are obviously extended objects in the NIR data, and the erroneous APS classification is just due to faintness of objects. Some of them are however point-like also in our data, and thus are potentially interesting cases, to which we will return in Section 4.3. However, this group might still include rare dust-shell stars.

It is interesting to note the proportions of stars and galaxies (see Table 1): in the near- and mid-IR matched catalogue 81 per cent of the 6.7 $`\mu `$m sources are stars. At 15 $`\mu `$m only 21 per cent of the objects are stars.

### 2.6 Flux calibration of ISOCAM ELAIS data using stars

Before removing the stars from further consideration in this paper, we use them for an accurate flux calibration of the ELAIS ISO-data. We match observed near-IR and mid-IR colours to corresponding model colours of infrared standard stars, and are able to derive the flux calibration for the ELAIS ISOCAM data with better accuracy than done previously. The derivation is performed in the Appendix A: we adopt values of 1.23 and 1.05 ADU/gain/s/mJy for the LW2 and LW3 filters, respectively, i.e. the catalogue v.1.3 values for LW2 and LW3 have to be multiplied by these factors to have fluxes in mJy. Note that the factors were not included in Figs. 2 and 3 above. (The LW3 calibration is in disagreement with the one performed in Serjeant et al. (2000), where a value of 1.75 ADU/gain/s/mJy was found.) Our values are in good agreement with the ISOCAM handbook values of 2.32 and 1.96 ADU/gain/s/mJy (Blommaert 1998), where an additional factor of 2 correction for signal stabilization has been included (see Appendix for details). This lends strong support for the accuracy of the reduction and photometric techniques used in the creation of the ELAIS Preliminary catalogue.

Furthermore, we can use the bright stars to estimate the completeness of the ELAIS ISOCAM catalogue. Using the mean MIR/NIR flux ratio for stars (see Appendix and also Figs. 2 and 3) we calculate the expected mid-IR fluxes of all bright near-IR stars in our field, and then check whether they actually are included in the ELAIS catalogue. The results are as follows: the 15 $`\mu `$m catalogue is essentially complete above 2 mJy. Below this the completeness begins to drop rapidly. Six stars out of 20 between 1.0 and 2.0 mJy are detected. The 6.7 $`\mu `$m band is essentially complete above 1.5 mJy. The completeness above 1 mJy is 80 per cent, while only 18 out of 73 stars between 0.5 and 1.0 mJy are detected. These numbers are consistent with those derived by Serjeant et al. (2000) who find the 50 per cent completeness limits for the whole ELAIS survey to be $`1`$ mJy for both bands (using the calibration of this paper for the 15 $`\mu `$m data).

## 3 Colour-colour distributions

### 3.1 Models

The detailed modeling of NIR/MIR colour-colour distributions and resulting interpretations of physical properties and star formation rates of the galaxies have to wait for more comprehensive spectral and redshift data. However, it is very informative to check the expected redshift effects on the colour-colour diagrams. We chose to use a set of models from the GRASIL code222Libraries of selected models are publicly available at http://grana.pd.astro.it/grasil/modlib/modlib.html (Silva et al. 1998). We used four evolving GRASIL SEDs (elliptical, Sa, Sb, and Sc) to compute K- and evolutionary corrections and observed colours as function of redshift, for our $`J`$\- and $`K`$-bands as well as the ISOCAM filters. Appropriate filter curves were used to convolve the SEDs, and a colour-correction was performed in case of ISOCAM to be consistent with the convention of measurements (see Blommaert 1998). These four models are used in the following to compare with the data. In addition, to represent a starburst, we simply took the SED of an early-type spiral at the age of 2 Gyr, and held it constant at all epochs. In the wavelength range considered here the SED is similar to that of M82 and also not too unlike Sc’s in general (see Silva et al. 1998, Schmitt et al. 1997). The cosmology used in the plots is $`q_0=0.15`$ and $`H_0=50\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$, though changing this does not have significant effects in the redshift ranges considered. It should also be kept in mind, that the models represent total luminosity of a galaxy, while the observations in practice are performed with a given aperture (although ‘total flux’ in photometry is attempted, as discussed above).

### 3.2 NIR-MIR colours of ELAIS galaxies

In general, the emission from galaxies in near-IR bands is due to the stellar contribution, the $`6.7\mu `$m carries information on the PAH contribution, and any strong $`15\mu `$m emission would indicate warm dust. There are thus several colour indices which may be useful in studying the relative strengths of these components and processes. For example, the $`6.7/15\mu `$m flux ratio is expected to trace activity in the ISM of galaxies.

Figs. 4 and 5 show the $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio against $`[2.2/15]`$ and $`[6.7/15]`$. The first compares the relative strength of the stellar and warm ISM component. Objects to the right are dominated by stellar emission, and those to the left by warm dust, while the vertical axis tells about the heating activity and the relations of PAHs and warm dust. The second figure depicts the stellar vs. PAH contribution. To further study the $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio, the ISOCAM bands are plotted against each other in Fig. 6, normalizing with the NIR flux, which in addition to stellar light is expected to be a good measure of stellar mass in a galaxy (e.g. Kauffmann & Charlot 1998). The implications of this will be discussed more in Section 4.

Models presented in Section 3.1 are overplotted in all the colour-colour figures for a range $`z=01`$. Note that the UIB features move rapidly beyond the $`6.7\mu `$m filter with redshift, which results in decreasing $`[6.7/15]`$ in models including strong PAH emission (especially Sc and starbursts). The colour of Sa type galaxies, on the other hand, starts to change only at $`z0.75`$. Ellipticals at zero-redshift occupy the same region as red stars, as expected.

Most of the ELAIS galaxies with data in both mid-IR bands appear to group at a region where the models predict low-redshift, $`z=0.10.4`$, late-type Sc spirals. According to the models, the near- to mid-IR SEDs of all spirals would look fairly similar at $`z1`$. However, it is unlikely that such objects are detected to the ELAIS survey limits. AGN on the other hand are expected to lie at the extreme upper right in Fig. 6 due to their steeply rising continuum (e.g. Laurent et al. 2000).

The two mid-IR filters detect surprisingly different populations. As can be seen from Table 1, of the 97 identified galaxies which are from an area covered with both mid-IR bands, only 29 are common to both LW2 and LW3. There are 55 galaxies detected only at $`15\mu `$m, and 13 galaxies detected only at $`6.7\mu `$m. For those ISOCAM sources with a detection in only one mid-IR band the $`JK`$ colour might provide additional clues. For example, starbursting galaxies should have very red $`JK`$ colours. Fig. 7 plots the $`[2.2/15]`$ against $`JK`$. While there are a number of sources with a red $`JK`$, they do not constitute a large population. More strikingly, compared to Figs. 4 and 6, there are many more sources at a low $`[2.2/15]`$ ratio.

While the most extreme sources are too faint to acquire any definite morphological information from our data, we can constrain the nature of the sources missed in the 6.7 $`\mu `$m band by examining detections limits. Since the 15 $`\mu `$m fluxes of the missed 51 galaxies range from 1 to 3 mJy, typical $`[6.7/15]`$ ratios should be around 0.45 to be consistent with the 80 per cent LW2 completeness limit detection limit. This implies Sc galaxies or starbursts around $`z0.15`$ or Sb’s at $`z0.5`$. Accordingly, most $`[2.2/15]`$ ratios of the missed sources (empty squares in Fig. 7) do lie by the Sc and starburst model curves. We also derived a rough estimate for the expected 6.7 $`\mu `$m flux from a mean correlation of $`[15/2.2]`$ with $`[6.7/2.2]`$, using the ELAIS sources in Fig. 6 and also a comparison sample discussed below in Section 3.3. The derived $`f_\nu `$(6.7$`\mu `$m) are shown in Fig. 8. Galaxies with the lowest $`[2.2/15]`$ ratios fall below the LW2 detection limit while still being detected in LW3. It is thus clear that the faintest late type spirals and starbursts make up the majority of LW2-missed sources. However, statistically we should find only approximately 5 sources with LW2 fluxes between 1 and 2 mJy in the figure. There are around 20, many of them with a $`[2.2/15]`$ ratio typical of earlier type spirals (Sb’s). These might harbour some form of activity resulting in a lower than expected $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio.

The objects seen in $`6.7\mu `$m but not in $`15\mu `$m are plotted in Fig. 9. As seen there and in Fig. 8, almost half of the LW3-missed objects appear to be ISM-deficient early types. However, since the LW3 catalogue should be more than 90 per cent complete above 2 mJy, the derived $`f_\nu `$($`15\mu `$m) at least for some of the galaxies might be too high. Surprisingly, two confirmed QSOs are among LW3-missed objects (see Section 4.3). However, numbers are small, and the 6.7 $`\mu `$m fluxes are low, close to the detection limit, so it is difficult to conclude anything definite.

### 3.3 Comparison sample

In order to compare our resulting ELAIS near- to mid-IR colours to a local sample of galaxies observed with ISO, and to discuss how well the galaxy types can be separated with near- and mid-IR colours, we made use of the data-sets of Roussel et al. (2001a), Dale et al. (2000), and Boselli et al. (1998). Naturally, there exists a large body of work performed with IRAS galaxies establishing near- and mid-IR databases (e.g. Spinoglio et al. 1995) – however, to avoid complications of band conversions we restrict ourselves only to recent ISO-data. The Roussel et al. set consists of nearby spirals, and it includes a subset of the Boselli sample, which are Virgo cluster galaxies. The Dale et al. sample are galaxies from the ISO U.S. Key Project ‘Normal Galaxies’.

The main difficulty in the comparison are the various photometric techniques used both in the near-IR and ISO data (see e.g. Spinoglio et al. 1995). A large number of the nearby galaxies have near-IR data available from NED. However, to have consistent photometry we decided to only use those galaxies for which there were 2MASS data available from the 2nd incremental data release. The 2MASS catalogue lists numerous magnitudes of which we used the default ‘fiducial circular magnitudes at 20 mag/sq.arcsec’, because of the wide range of sizes and shapes of the galaxies in the comparison sample.

Boselli et al. (1998) give their own near-IR photometry. We performed a cross-check of their $`K`$-band photometry between 2MASS values and found a fairly good consistency: apart from some Sc-type galaxies 2MASS isophotal magnitudes were 0.15 mag fainter than the Boselli values, with a scatter of 0.31 mag. That the level of Boselli and 2MASS magnitudes are so close, and that the sizes of galaxies in the other two samples are not significantly different from the Boselli galaxies, gives us confidence to use 2MASS magnitudes for the nearby comparison galaxies, and to directly compare them to the ‘total magnitudes’ of the ELAIS objects. Nevertheless, for consistency reasons with Dale and Roussel samples, we decided to use only those galaxies from Boselli et al. which had 2MASS photometry available. In the following, with the Dale and Roussel samples we mean those galaxies from the respective original works for which we found 2MASS magnitudes. Our Boselli sample means those galaxies from Boselli et al. with 2MASS photometry, and those galaxies excluded, which already are included in the Roussel sample.

As for the ISO-data, the standard CAM Interactive Analysis (CIA) packages were used for pre-processing of raw data in all of the comparison data here, as well as the ELAIS data. The ISO-fluxes of all the comparison samples are calculated from maps resulting from the application of CIA/IDL procedures (see Roussel et al. 2001a for a detailed description of the reduction process). Fluxes in all these comparison samples were calculated using various apertures, and all claim their fluxes to represent total values at better than 20–30 per cent accuracy. There is a systematic difference by approximately a factor of 1.4 in fluxes of some galaxies common to the Roussel et al. and Dale et al. catalogues (see Roussel et al. 2001a), none of these are however included in our subsamples. The mid-IR fluxes in Boselli et al. (1998) are not published apart from SED plots; the values were provided by A. Boselli.

As mentioned earlier, in contrast to the photometry of these comparison samples, the mid-IR ELAIS fluxes are values derived from peaks in time histories of individual pixels and corrected for PSF effects. However, we are confident that the ELAIS ISOCAM fluxes are close to the true total values (see Sections 2.4 and 2.6 and the Appendix A).

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Classifying ELAIS galaxies

Unfortunately at present we do not have optical imaging to definitely classify our ELAIS galaxies. Classification with the help of GRASIL models was briefly discussed along with NIR/MIR colours in Section 3.2. How accurate can the classification of normal galaxies be using near and mid-IR colours? For example, Sauvage & Thuan (1994) find only loose correlations between IRAS colours and morphological type in their large sample. There would be interest in having a NIR/MIR photometric classification, in anticipation of forth-coming very large galaxy surveys by e.g. SIRTF. Here we will investigate whether the comparison sample presented above has correlations between morphology and NIR/MIR properties and see what these would imply for our ELAIS galaxies.

Figure 10 shows the Roussel and Boselli samples in a MIR/NIR two-colour diagram along with ELAIS sources. There is clear trend: the type of galaxy becomes systematically later upward along the diagonal. This should not be a great surprise, since essentially the progression shows the overall amount of emission from the ISM in the galaxy increasing. The average $`[15/2.2]`$ for early types (Sa and earlier) is 0.2 whereas for the late types (Sc and later) $`[15/2.2]2.2`$.

Figure 11 shows the Dale sample in the same fashion. The sample covers a wide range of morphological types, but it is evident that barred galaxies are plentiful and especially galaxies which have been attached with a peculiar (‘p’) morphology in addition to a regular Hubble type. The trend seen in the Roussel and Boselli samples is not clear at all. The whole sample groups strongly towards the Sc-model colour, including the morphological early type galaxies. The peculiars (’p’ and purely ‘Pec’) and irregulars tend to have highest MIR/NIR ratios.

The Dale sample also has many more galaxies with significantly lower $`[6.7/15]`$ compared to the Roussel/Boselli sample. The difference mainly comes from galaxies with high MIR/NIR ratios. This is true regardless of the $`40`$ per cent discrepancy in the photometry mentioned earlier. The Boselli and Roussel galaxies on the other hand are strongly concentrated along the one-to-one correlation line where $`[6.7/15]1`$, where the galaxies are supposedly dominated by quiescent ISM. We will return to this point in Section 4.2.2.

As can be seen in Figs. 10 and 11, we have divided the diagram into four regions with the dotted lines: the areas roughly correspond to low-redshift early-types, Sab spirals, Scd’s, and ’AGN’ (the latter class includes several types of active sources e.g. QSOs, Seyfert nuclei, ULIRGs, strong starbursts). The dividing lines in the figures can be obtained from $`\mathrm{log}[15/2.2]=\mathrm{log}[6.7/2.2]+b`$ where is $`b=1.0,0.3`$, and 1.67 starting from the lower left, respectively. The Roussel and Boselli galaxies fall very well into their areas. Disregarding BCDs, there are only 6 galaxies out of 34 in a ‘wrong’ area, and of these, 5 are very close to the border-lines. This classification does not work as well for the Dale sample though. We conclude that according to the nearby comparison sample the NIR/MIR two-colour diagrams do discriminate between types of normal galaxies, especially those which have $`[6.7/15]1`$.

Where are our ELAIS galaxies in this classification? The ELAIS sample as a whole clearly groups towards the late Hubble types. However, as seen above, NIR/MIR flux ratio may not be a good indication of morphological type for those galaxies with low $`[6.7/15]`$. Nevertheless, of the 29 galaxies in Table 2 (see Fig. 6) there are 21 galaxies in the Scd-region and 5 in the Sab-region. Two are found in the upper-most region in the far right – in Section 4.3 they are shown to be potential AGN. Only one galaxy seems to be an early type, though it does have excess $`15\mu `$m flux. Indeed, early-type galaxies have been shown to have widely differing amounts of dust (see Madden, Vigroux & Sauvage 1999, and references therein). ‘Traditional’ ellipticals, with no significant ISM presence, would not have been seen at all by the LW3 filter in the ELAIS survey. As shown in the inset of Fig. 2, there are several probable ellipticals which are detected only in LW2.

All the largest galaxies which show clear morphology in our data (Fig. 1, i.e. those labeled in Fig. 6) are in consistent classification areas: ’A’ is the early type galaxy and the rest are spirals. Object E is a disk galaxy with a very bright compact nucleus. It has the lowest $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio of these five bright galaxies, indicating star-formation, as will be discussed next.

### 4.2 Tracing star-formation activity

#### 4.2.1 Star-formation tracers

Much discussed tracers of star-formation include the H$`\alpha `$ emission of a galaxy, the UV-continuum, and total far-IR luminosity. It is also well-known that star-formation in galaxies occurs in two very distinct places: in the disks of spirals and in compact circumnuclear regions (for a comprehensive review, see Kennicutt 1998). In principle the mid-IR could help in solving some of the uncertainties related to the mentioned diagnostics: eg. mid-IR is certainly less prone to extinction than UV and H$`\alpha `$ studies; it could also help in determining the heating source of IR emission, which affects the accuracy of the FIR diagnostic. The FIR tracer is known to work well for circumnuclear starbursts – it is in the disks of normal galaxies, where help would be needed.

If the mid-IR is to be useful as a star-formation rate (SFR) indicator, calibrators with the other methods are necessary due to the complexity of theoretically deriving an accurate relation between mid-IR emission and amount of young stars. Indeed, H$`\alpha `$ emission has been shown to correlate with mid-IR luminosity in the disks of spiral galaxies (Roussel et al. 2001b, Vigroux et al. 1999, Cesarsky & Sauvage 1999). Also far-IR seems to correlate linearly with mid-IR and H$`\alpha `$ if only disks are considered, and SFR can thus be estimated (Vigroux et al 1999, Roussel et al. 2001b). The relations do not hold in regions of more intense star-formation (eg. nucleus), and thus nuclear star-formation could confuse a global SFR determination. Vigroux et al. and Roussel et al. argue that this precisely is the reason for non-linearity in global far-IR vs. H$`\alpha `$ relations. Thus, only limits to SFR can be calculated from integrated mid-IR luminosity, and the need for information on the proportions of disk and nuclear IR-emission is high-lighted.

#### 4.2.2 Clues from $`f_\nu (6.7\mu \mathrm{m})/f_\nu (15\mu \mathrm{m})`$ and near-IR to mid-IR

The mid-IR flux ratio is helpful in tracing the star-forming activity, as discussed before. We also expect the near-IR to add to the information. To illustrate these effects, Fig. 12 shows all those galaxies from the comparison sample discussed in Sections 3.3 and 4.1, which had IRAS fluxes available. The upper left panel shows an IRAS-colour diagram and upper right the ISO-IRAS colour distribution. The lower panels plot the NIR/MIR colours against the IRAS $`[60/100]`$ colour. The galaxies are differentiated by morphology to ellipticals/lenticulars, disks, and irregulars/peculiars – a galaxy may have both a lenticular or disk and a peculiar classification.

The previously observed trend (Helou 1999, 2000, Dale et al. 2000, Vigroux et al. 1999), that $`[6.7/15]`$ first remains fairly constant and starts to drop only at a higher $`[60/100]`$ level, is evident. While there is more scatter between galaxies in the NIR/MIR ratios at low $`[60/100]`$ values, the $`[2.2/15]`$ value does (anti)correlate closely with $`[60/100]`$. In contrast, the slope of $`[2.2/6.7]`$ has a break. Empirically, examining the lower panels, it is clear that the drop in $`[6.7/15]`$ is caused by the stronger increase of 15 $`\mu `$m emission relative to that at 6.7 $`\mu `$m. Also, the $`[6.7/15]`$ and $`[2.2/6.7]`$ slopes have almost exactly inverted shapes, which results in the linear $`[2.2/15]`$ vs. $`[60/100]`$ relation.

What then do the slopes of colour indices tell us? First of all, the nearly constant $`[6.7/15]`$ at $`[60/100]<0.4`$ heating regime might imply that both MIR bands are dominated here by emission from a common source, namely the UIBs, as suggested by Roussel et al. (2001b). On the other hand, since the 11.3 and $`12.7\mu `$m UIB bands contributing to the LW3 filter are thought to be weak, it might also be a common site of the emission, rather than common physical origin, which is more important. Nevertheless, at higher heating levels the global levels of 6.7 and 15 $`\mu `$m emission clearly behave differently. A simple and common interpretation of the drop in the $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio has been that after a threshold, the heated continuum from very small grains enters the 15 $`\mu `$m band. But if this were the only effect one should expect also a break in the $`[2.2/15]`$ slope, which is not seen. And since the strength of PAH emission would be expected to follow the interstellar radiation field (ISRF), the break in $`[2.2/6.7]`$ could be taken to indicate the depletion of UIBs in galaxies with hottest $`[60/100]`$ (see Cesarsky et al. 1996 for the effect in localized intense radiation environments). The ISO-IRAS diagram must then be explained by both the increasing 15 $`\mu `$m emission and decreasing (relative to ISRF) 6.7 $`\mu `$m emission.

Are these effects driven mainly by differing amounts of quiescent and active media in the galaxy as a whole (as in the two-component model, Helou 1986, Dale et al. 1999), by different proportions of star-formation happening in the disk vs. the central parts (e.g. Roussel et al. 2001b, Vigroux et al. 1999), or something else? To study this in detail is out of scope of the present paper, and in any case cannot be done only with integrated, global values. However, it is interesting to note the trends with the morphologies. The galaxies with constant $`[6.7/15]1`$ are mainly normal disk galaxies, and, in fact, their spread in $`[2.2/15]`$ and $`[2.2/6.7]`$ is correlated with their Hubble type as already seen in Section 4.1. Those with higher $`[60/100]`$ span all morphological types, but stand out by having been classified as peculiar one way or another (more actice nuclear regions?). Thus, it appears, that at lower heating levels ($`[60/100]0.4`$) the NIR/MIR (and FIR) colours of galaxies are driven by morphology, i.e. by the spatial distribution of ISM. At higher $`[60/100]`$ the trends on the other hand follow closely the increasing radiation field, the warming dust continuum, and (possibly) the destruction of PAH carriers. This is in agreement with the MIR/FIR studies of Sauvage & Thuan (1994), who find the FIR colours along the Hubble sequence to be driven by both star-formation efficiency and spatial distribution of dust.

#### 4.2.3 Nuclear star-formation

As seen in Fig.12, there are several early type galaxies in the high $`[60/100]`$ region of the panels. These must have strong nuclear star formation since the MIR and FIR colours of the galaxies are totally dominated by a starburst. However, it is interesting that the inclusion of near-IR photometry distinguishes several galaxies with high NIR/MIR ratios which otherwise are tightly placed within the main group of points in the IRAS and ISO-IRAS-plots. These are also all early types, but apparently not true starbursts. They simultaneously have relatively high heating levels (especially one at $`[60/100]0.8`$, NGC 1266) and high NIR/MIR ratios, typical of more normal lenticulars. This may suggest, for example, that centrally concentrated dust is heated by the high ISRF environment found in the centres of ellipticals and lenticulars (Sauvage & Thuan 1994). However, we also note that all six galaxies at $`[2.2/6.7]>2`$ (after excluding one elliptical) have signs of nuclear activity: 5 are LINERs and one has a Sy2 nucleus. It thus seems that the use of the NIR/MIR ratio picks out galaxies with weak active nuclei from the MIR/FIR sequence. Galaxies which are fully dominated by an AGN are expected to have a much higher $`[60/100]`$. For example, the most extreme source at lower right in Fig. 12 is an AGN (NGC 4418; Spoon et al. 2001, Roche et al. 1986).

We also note that the four Dale galaxies with the lowest $`[6.7/15]`$ ratios are all barred early type spirals (SB0 to SBa). They have on average $`[6.7/15]0.4`$, while the overall average is $`0.6`$. Two out of five of the strongly barred early type galaxies have quite normal $`[6.7/15]`$. Though the statistics are weak, this fits very well with the findings of Roussel et al. (2001c), from a different galaxy sample, that in some early-type barred galaxies there is excess $`15\mu `$m flux due to recent star-formation triggered by bar-driven gas inflows. Barred galaxies in general however do not seem to have greater star-forming activity than the non-barred cases.

#### 4.2.4 Star formation in ELAIS galaxies

The ELAIS galaxies have on average $`[6.7/15]0.67\pm 0.27`$, which indicates that the majority of them seem to be star-forming. While some of the sources might be at redshifts which warrant a significant correction to acquire the true ratio, most of the objects are expected to lie at small redshifts, $`z<0.3`$. This is strongly suggested by Figs. 4 and 5 (see discussion in Section 3.2). The same redshift range can also be derived from typical NIR and MIR fluxes. The median $`K`$-magnitude of the galaxies with detections in both mid-IR filters is 14.1 mag which gives an expected median redshift of $`z0.15`$ (Songaila et al. 1994). Flores et al. (1999) obtained spectroscopy for a deeper sample of 15 $`\mu `$m ISOCAM galaxies and found a median redshift of $`z0.7`$. Our galaxy sample is an order of magnitude brighter thus indicating typical redshifts of $`z0.2`$ or less. If only identified LW3 ELAIS galaxies are considered, the median redshift could maximally be at $`z0.3`$. As seen e.g. from Fig. 4, K-corrections of Sc’s and starbursts decrease the $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio by a factor of $`2`$ out to a redshift of $`z0.4`$. The effect is much smaller for earlier types. The redshift-corrected $`[6.7/15]`$ ratios are thus likely to stay below the quiescent $`[6.7/15]1`$ value. The lowest detected $`[6.7/15]`$ are at $`0.3`$, which would indicate significant dust heating: $`[60/100]0.60.9`$, allowing for redshift effects in the $`6.7\mu `$m band.

A rough estimate of star formation rates (SFR) expected can be made utilizing relations in Roussel et al. (2001b). They found a good correlation between mid-IR emission and $`H\alpha `$, and thus SFR. The correlation holds only in disks of spirals, however, or globally only in galaxies where the integrated flux is dominated by the disk. From our sample, we selected quiescent and likely disk-dominated sources, i.e. those with $`[6.7/15]`$ close to unity and falling which fell to the ’Scd’ area in our classification. There are eight such sources, six of which with $`K14`$ mag. Assigning these a redshift of $`z=0.17`$ and using blindly the SFR relations from Roussel et al. (2001b), with assumptions and filterwidths therein, the average SFRs translate to $`1530M_{}/yr`$. Some of the fainter ELAIS galaxies would get SFRs several times this value; however, the application of the relation is highly uncertain without more information of the sources. The two remaining objects of the selected eight are those labeled ’C’ and ’D’, the bright galaxy pair in Fig. 1. These lie at about $`z=0.03`$, and would come out with SFR($`M_{}/yr`$) $``$ 7 and 3, respectively.

Finally, we note that many of the ELAIS sources (as the pair just mentioned) appear to be part of a double or multiple system, some with disturbed morphology. Tidally triggered star-formation clearly plays an important role in mid-IR studies of galaxies. We have verified this trend with deeper near-IR follow-up observations of the faintest (and blank field) ISO-detections using the IRTF; the results will be discussed elsewhere.

### 4.3 Quasars, AGN, and EROs

As shown e.g. in Laurent et al. (2000), the signature of AGN is a strong rising continuum starting already at 3 $`\mu `$m. Returning to Figs. 7, 9, and 6, we further investigated the sources with low NIR/MIR ratios, in order to check the capability of NIR/MIR for AGN/QSO detection.

Making use of the APS colours, Fig. 13 shows the $`RJ`$ colour (R being the POSS ‘E’ magnitude) against $`JK`$. The solid symbols are the near- and mid-IR ELAIS galaxies, while we have also marked the stars with small symbols. This plot is equivalent to those used in optical/near-IR searches for (obscured) QSOs (the ’KX-method’; see Warren, Hewett & Foltz 2000; Francis, Whiting & Webster 2000; Barkhouse & Hall 2001). In general, QSOs tend to have red $`JK`$ colours in contrast to a blue $`RJ`$ (or $`B`$ or $`V`$ instead of $`R`$).

We first selected from our galaxy sample those objects which had a stellar or ambiguous morphology from APS (20 objects in total; see also Figs. 2 and 3). We checked each of these individually from our near-IR data and many turned out to be galaxies. Several were, however, either point-like or too faint to classify: these ‘potential QSOs’ are overplotted with large diagonal crosses in Fig 13, and also in Figs. 7 and 9. It is quite interesting that the majority of these do, indeed, fall by the NIR/MIR colours predicted for QSOs/AGN (note that the selection was done only by optical/near-IR colours and morphology). All the 5 potentials with $`6.7\mu `$m flux have a very steep $`K`$ to $`6.7\mu `$m gradient. Since the selection here required a POSS detection, the faintest NIR objects are excluded – for example, the three lowest empty squares in Fig. 7 at $`JK>1.3`$ are also point-like to our resolution, and have near- and mid-IR characteristics similar to the ‘potential QSOs’.

Part of our N2 region is covered by Crampton et al. (1988) quasar catalogue. Three of the ‘potential QSOs’ are found in the catalogue (and are marked with a large asterisk in the figures mentioned), which demonstrates the usefulness of the KX-method. Note that this does not rule out that other potentials, specifically among those 7 with $`JK>1.4`$, could not be QSOs due to only a partial overlap with the quasar catalogue. The two points at $`RJ>2`$ are optically faint, near the APS limits, and are brought down to the ‘QSO area’ when using NIR/MIR. Three of the potentials have a very blue, star-like, $`JK`$ – on the other hand they have clear mid-IR excess as evidenced by LW3.

Oddly, only two of these ‘potential QSOs’ have both ISOCAM filter data available – in Figs. 4 and 5 these two are the points with the smallest NIR/MIR ratios. As seen in Fig 6, they are indeed the two ELAIS objects which fall on the ‘AGN-area’ of our classification system (Section 4.1). The $`[6.7/15]`$ ratio alone does not separate them from late-type galaxies. Those of the QSO potentials which have a LW3 detection only, are also likely candidates for Seyfert 2’s, which seem to have a suppressed $`612\mu `$m continuum (Spinoglio et al. 1995). Overall, QSOs have quite a large range of spectral shapes in the mid-IR (Haas et al. 2000) making detailed predictions difficult.

The reddest source in Fig. 7 has $`JK2.5`$, which would qualify it as a extremely red object (ERO) candidate (eg. Cimatti et al. 1999; Scodeggio & Silva 2000; Pozzetti & Mannucci 2000) – it does not have any optical counterpart to the POSS limits, making it at least $`RK>5`$. It has only a LW3 detection, but this is due to lacking coverage with LW2. Thus far EROs have been selected and studied in the optical and near-IR, and there is an interesting degeneracy in explaining their nature: their colours could signify either an old elliptical at $`z>1`$, or a young, dusty star-forming galaxy. According to the GRASIL models, an elliptical would have $`JK2.5`$ at $`z>2`$. Ellipticals, especially distant ones, would not have been seen by the ELAIS survey, and in any case the low $`[2.2/15]0.1`$ colour shows the presence of significant dust emission. Thus, the mid-IR can break the degeneracy of ERO observations. A detailed search for red objects using deeper optical imaging and our near-IR data, accompanied with the mid-IR ISO-data, is thus of high importance.

## 5 Conclusions

1. We have presented photometry of a subsample of the ISOCAM ELAIS survey from the N1 and N2 fields. Our near-IR survey reaches down to $`J19`$ and $`K17.5`$. All of the $`6.7\mu `$m (LW2) REL=2 sources are identified to these limits, as well as 84 per cent of $`15\mu `$m (LW3) REL=2 sources. The detection efficiencies for REL=3 sources are 88 and 35 per cent at LW2 and LW3 bands, respectively.

2. The near- and mid-IR stars were used, along with stellar models, to perform an accurate new calibration of the ELAIS ISOCAM data at both 6.7 and 15 $`\mu `$m.

3. Stars were separated from galaxies using near- to mid-IR colours. At 6.7 $`\mu `$m, 80 per cent of the identified ELAIS objects are stars. In contrast, at 15 $`\mu `$m, 80 per cent of the near-IR identified ELAIS sources are galaxies.

4. Only one third of LW3 galaxies are also detected in LW2, while two thirds of LW2 galaxies are seen in LW3. The mid-IR survey as a whole mainly detects late type spiral galaxies and starbursts. The faintest population of these is missed by the LW2 filter. The few objects missed by the longer mid-IR filter are most probably early type galaxies. Simple arguments indicate that typical redshifts of the sample seen with both mid-IR bands are $`z0.2`$.

5. We have presented several colour-colour plots useful in studying the relative emission strengths of stellar, PAH, and warm dust components in galaxies and we discuss galaxy classification and star formation properties using the diagrams. In a $`[15/2.2]`$ vs. $`[6.7/2.2]`$ plot the Hubble type of a galaxy can be roughly estimated from its position along the diagonal ($`[6.7/15]=1`$), which is a measure of the proportion of ISM in the galaxy. Of the near-IR-identified galaxies detected with both mid-IR filters, 75 per cent fall in the Scd-group. However, some of these might be earlier morphological types with significant nuclear star formation.

6. In the same $`[15/2.2]`$ vs. $`[6.7/2.2]`$ plot the quiescent galaxies fall on the diagonal (where $`[15/6.7]1`$) with increasing star formation activity raising the galaxies above the one-to-one curve. The ELAIS galaxies are found to have significant star-formation, as indicated by the $`[6.7/15]`$ tracer ($`f_\nu (6.7\mu \mathrm{m})/f_\nu (15\mu \mathrm{m})=0.67\pm 0.27`$) as well as by estimates from published relations between mid-IR luminosity and SFR. Redshift information and resolved imaging is however needed to better quantify SFRs and to decide whether the ELAIS galaxies are powered by strong nuclear starbursts or otherwise high star formation activity in the disk.

7. In quiescent galaxies, as indicated by their $`[60/100]`$ IRAS colour, $`[6.7/15]`$ remains very constant. These are also the galaxies where the classification of galaxies using NIR/MIR ratios works the best. The MIR ratio starts to drop at hotter $`[60/100]`$. Using NIR/MIR colours we find support for the view that both the increase of $`15\mu `$m emission and an apparent depletion of emission at $`6.7\mu `$m are responsible for the effect. At these higher $`[60/100]`$ levels, both $`[6.7/15]`$ and $`[2.2/15]`$ ratios (anti)correlate well with the $`[60/100]`$ activity level indicator, thus making them useful tracers of star-formation.

8. The ELAIS survey covered here detects several active galactic nuclei. By selecting objects using a ‘KX-method’ (considering optical to near-IR properties only) we pick out sources from our catalogue, whose mid-IR fluxes are consistent with the objects being AGN/QSOs.

## 6 Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Kalevi Mattila for very useful discussions and suggestions, and an anonymous referee for thoughtful and valuable criticism. We thank A. Boselli for providing his mid-IR fluxes. 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. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. This research has made use of the APS Catalog of POSS I, which is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and and the University of Minnesota. The APS databases can be accessed at http://aps.umn.edu/.

## Appendix A Calibration of ISOCAM fluxes using infrared stars

The ELAIS catalogue v.1.3 uses a one to one conversion of ADUs/gain/s to mJy fluxes. The ISOCAM handbook values are 2.32 and 1.96 ADU/gain/s/mJy for the 6.7 and $`15\mu `$m filters, respectively (Blommaert 1998) – the reason for a factor of $`2`$ difference is the lack of source stabilization correction in ELAIS data as detailed in Serjeant et al. (2000) (see also Blommaert 1998 – it is noted therein, that the stabilization correction remains the largest single uncertainty in ISOCAM flux calibration). In other words, starting from the handbook value of $`2`$ ADU/gain/s/mJy and correcting for the loss of flux resulting from lack of stabilization, the conversion becomes $`1`$ ADU/gain/s/mJy.

However, in case of the LW3 data Serjeant et al. (2000) find a discrepancy of a factor of 1.75 after a cross-correlation with 22 bright stars in the ELAIS fields – in that paper all 15$`\mu `$m fluxes are thus multiplied by a factor of 2. The publicly available v.1.4 ELAIS catalogue uses the factor of 1.75 in $`15\mu `$m fluxes. In Missoulis et al. (1999) mid-infrared fluxes were derived for the same stars using B and V-band bolometric magnitudes from Hipparcos and SIMBAD, along with blackbody approximations. Correlating with observed fluxes, sensitivity factors of 0.56 and 0.70 ADU/gain/s/mJy were obtained for 6.7 and $`15\mu `$m, respectively.

With good-quality near-IR data, rather than optical data, we potentially have a better chance of deriving the calibration factor for ELAIS data using the stars in our survey area. We would greatly reduce the uncertainty of extrapolating the optical magnitudes into mid-IR, as well as the required precision in the spectral types of stars.

To compare with observations, we make use of observationally based stellar spectra used for the extensive ISOCAM and ISOPHOT calibration programs333see http://www.iso.vilspa.esa.es/users/expl\_lib/ISO/wwwcal/
cam.html/. We calculated near- and mid-IR colours of stars with a range of spectral types from these spectra. The models are estimated to be accurate within 5 per cent. In the mid-IR the fluxes were colour-corrected (maximally a 7 per cent effect) following the convention of ISO-fluxes which are determined using a constant energy spectrum (note that for LW3 the ‘reference wavelength’ is 14.3 $`\mu `$m).

From our own sample of stars, defined in Section 2.5, we use only those with the REL=2 status. In addition, we exclude stars which have $`K<8`$ mag, because of probable saturation in our near-IR images. Fig. 14$`a`$ shows the stars detected at $`6.7\mu `$m plotted as $`[2.2/6.7]`$ vs. $`JK`$, with the model stars overplotted as solid symbols. From the model points one can notice a slight colour-term, where the later spectral types with redder $`JK`$ have slightly lower $`[2.2/6.7]`$. Ignoring the negligible colour-term, from the average difference of $`[2.2/6.7]`$ ratios of observations and models, we derive a correction of 1.22 to the $`6.7\mu `$m fluxes of the v.1.3 ELAIS catalogue. Fig. 14$`b`$ shows the equivalent plot for the $`15\mu `$m stars – there are much less stars here, but the overall calibration of the v.1.3 ELAIS catalogue seems quite accurate. We derive a 1.05 ADU/gain/s/mJy calibration for the LW3 data. Specifically, we do not find evidence for the factor of 2 (or 1.75) scaling used in Serjeant et al. (2000). Since we are using the same ELAIS data, from the same reduction process and the same photometric aperture corrections, the discrepancy has to come from the adopted method of extrapolating near-IR (our case) or optical magnitudes to the mid-IR. The $`J`$-band data can be used as well: panels $`c`$ and $`d`$ show the equivalent colour-colour plots with $`J`$-flux. The calibration factors are confirmed, as we find 1.24 and 1.06 ADU/gain/s/mJy for the LW2 and LW3 filters, respectively.

To compare with figures in Missoulis et al. (1999) and Serjeant et al. (2000), Fig. 15 shows the predicted 6.7 and $`15\mu `$m stellar fluxes (derived from the observed $`K`$-magnitude of the star using the corresponding model colour ratio) against the observed and re-calibrated ELAIS 6.7 and $`15\mu `$m fluxes. The scatter is seen to be very small, and the relation highly linear over two orders of magnitude. We are thus confident of an accurate calibration for the ELAIS ISOCAM data.

In summary, in this paper we use the catalogue v.1.3 values for LW2 and LW3 multiplied by 1.23 and 1.05, respectively, to have the values in mJy (averages from $`K`$ and $`J`$ determination taken). The correction to conversion for LW3 is, in fact, smaller than the uncertainties related to the observed spread in mir-IR fluxes and the models, but we use it for consistency. Note that the v.1.4 ELAIS catalogue has the LW3 fluxes multiplied by 1.75, which needs to be taken into account if compared with results and plots in this paper.


text:
# Improving the Success Probability for Shor‘s Factoring Algorithm

## Preprocessing for Shor‘s Algorithm

The following lemma is the starting point of our discussion:

###### Lemma 1

Let $`n=pq`$ with $`p,q`$ prime. Then at least half of the $`y_n^{}`$ satisfy the following conditions:

$`\text{The order }r\text{ of }y\text{ is even, i.e. }k\text{ with }r=2k`$ (1)
$`y^k1(modn)`$ (2)
If $`p1=2^ns`$ and $`q1=2^ms`$, with $`m,s`$ odd, the probability is exactly given by

$$2^{(m+n)}\left(1+\underset{j=0}{\overset{min\{m,n\}1}{}}4^j\right)\frac{1}{2}.$$

The easy but helpful observation in order to improve this lower bound is the following lemma.

###### Lemma 2

Let $`p`$ be a prime and $`a`$ a non-square in $`_p^{}`$. Then the order of $`a`$ is even.

Proof: Let $`g`$ be a generator of $`_p^{}`$ and $`a=g^s`$. As $`a`$ is a non-square it follows that $`s`$ is odd. The order of a satisfies $`\text{ ord}_p(a)s=0modp1`$ i.e. $`\text{ ord}_p(a)s=k(p1)`$, and that means that $`\text{ ord}_p(a)`$ has to be even.

An element $`y`$ in $`_n^{}`$ has even order, if $`y`$ has even order in $`_p^{}`$ or $`_q^{}`$. This yields to the following corrolary:

###### Corollary 3

Let $`y`$ be any element in $`_n^{}`$. Then

$$\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1k\text{ such that }\text{ }\text{ord}_n(y)=2k$$

As the Jacobi-Symbol is efficiently computable, we now have a sufficient criterion for an element to have even order.

Putting this together with the condition that $`y^k1`$ we get our main theorem:

###### Theorem 4

The probability that a random $`y_n^{}`$ with $`\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1`$ satisfies

$$\text{ }\text{ord}_n(y)=2k\text{ and }y^k1(modn)$$

is at least $`\frac{3}{4}`$.

To proof the theorem we need:

###### Lemma 5

Let $`p`$ be prime with $`p1=2^mx`$, $`x`$ odd. Further let $`g`$ be a generator of $`_p^{}`$ and $`b_p^{}`$.

1. For $`k\{1,\mathrm{},m\}`$:

$$\text{ }\text{ord}_n(b)=2^kw\text{,w odd }b=g^{2^{(mk)}v}\text{,v odd }$$

In particular there are $`2^{k1}x`$ elements of this form.
2. The order of $`b`$ is odd, if and only if $`b=g^{2^mw}`$ with $`1wx`$ in $`_p^{}`$. There are exactly $`x`$ elements with odd order.

Proof:

1. Let $`b=g^s`$ and $`t`$ be the order of $`b`$. This is equivalent with $`st=0mod(p1)`$, $`t`$ minimal. That means,

$$t=\frac{p1}{\mathrm{gcd}(p1,s)}.$$

If $`t`$ is of the form $`2^kw`$ ($`w`$ odd), $`2^{mk}`$ divides $`s`$ but $`2^{mk+1}`$ does not.This proves the statement.
2. The order $`t`$ is odd, iff $`2^m`$ divides $`s`$, and this means that $`s`$ is $`s=2^mw`$ with $`1wx`$.

Proof of the theorem: We are going to count the elements $`y_n^{}`$ with $`\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1`$ not satisfying the condition (2). Due to corollary 3 we know that the order of $`y`$ in $`_n^{}`$ is even, i.e. $`\text{ ord}_n(y)=2k`$. We denote $`s=\text{ ord}_p(y)=2^iv`$ and $`t=\text{ ord}_q(y)=2^jw`$ with $`v,w`$ odd. In particular $`2k=2^{\mathrm{max}\{i,j\}}\text{ lcm}(v,w)`$. The $`y`$ we are counting fulfill $`y^k=1modn`$ and this is equivalent to $`y^k=1modp`$ and $`y^k=1modq`$. But this means that neither $`s`$ nor $`t`$ divides $`k`$ (because otherwise for example $`y^k=y^{cs}=1modp`$) and it follows that $`i=j`$. $`\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1`$ means, that $`\left(\frac{y}{p}\right)=1`$ and $`\left(\frac{y}{q}\right)=1`$ or $`\left(\frac{y}{p}\right)=1`$ and $`\left(\frac{y}{q}\right)=1`$. W.l.o.g we assume the first case is true:

Let $`p1=2^{m_1}x_1`$ and $`g_p`$ be a generator of $`_p^{}`$, then $`\left(\frac{y}{p}\right)=1`$ if and only if $`y=g_p^{t_1}`$ for odd $`t_1`$. So we have to count all the odd $`t_1`$, such that the order of $`y=g_p^{t_1}`$ is of the form $`2^iv`$, $`v`$ odd. With lemma 5 we conclude that only for $`i=m_1`$ such values $`t_1`$ can exist, and in this case all odd values between $`1`$ and $`p1`$ lead to such an element.

Now we have to discuss the elements with respect to $`q`$. Let $`q1=2^{m_2}x_2`$ and $`g_q`$ be a generator of $`_q^{}`$. We have to count all the even values $`t_2`$ where the order of $`g^{t_2}`$ if of the form $`2^{m_1}w`$. When $`m_1>m_2`$, there are no such values because the order of $`g^{t_2}`$ has to divide $`q1=2^{m_2}x_2`$.If $`m_1=m_2`$ there are no even solutions for $`t_2`$. So the only case remaining is $`m_1<m_2`$. Due to lemma 5 the solutions are exactly the $`t_2`$ of the form $`2^{m_2m_1}u`$ for $`u`$ odd. Here $`u`$ can be any odd value between $`1`$ and $`2^{m_1}x_21`$, so this gives exactly $`2^{m_11}x_2`$ solutions.

For the second case $`\left(\frac{y}{p}\right)=1`$ and $`\left(\frac{y}{q}\right)=1`$ we get the same result, so in the case $`m_1m_2`$ we can assume $`m_1<m_2`$ w.l.o.g..

Summing up all these values not satisfying the conditions (1) and (2) when $`m_1m_2`$ we get:

$`A(n)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p1}{2}}2^{(m_11)}x_2={\displaystyle \frac{p1}{2}}{\displaystyle \frac{2^{m_2}x_2}{2^{(m_2m_1+1)}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}(p1)(q1){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{(m_2m_1)}}}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\phi (n){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2^{(m_2m_1)}}}`$
The number of elements with $`\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1`$ is $`\frac{1}{2}\phi (n)`$ and so the probability we where looking for is:

$$P(n)=1\frac{A(n)}{\phi (n)}=1\frac{1}{2^{(m_2m_1+1)}}\frac{3}{4}.$$

The case $`m_1=m_2`$ is even better, because here the probability is $`1`$ that means that $`y`$ with $`\left(\frac{y}{n}\right)=1`$ always satisfies both conditions (1) and (2).


text:
# Equilibrium Distribution and Tune Shift of Beams in a Linear Collider

## I Beam Evolution

The beam-beam force due to the first (second) beam on the second (first) one is given by

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dy_{1,2}^{}}{ds}}={\displaystyle \frac{4\pi Nr_e}{L_x\gamma }}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}sgn(y\overline{y}){\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}^{}\psi _{2,1}(\overline{y},\overline{y}^{})`$ (1)
where $`N`$ is the particle density in a bunch and $`r_e`$ the classical radius of the electron. The distributions of the beams $`\psi _1`$ and $`\psi _2`$ are normalized to unity, i.e.

$`{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}^{}\psi _{1,2}(\overline{y},\overline{y}^{})=1`$ (2)
and are assumed to be one-dimensional with horizontal width $`L_x`$. Motion is considered only in the vertical direction. Then $`\psi _{1,2}`$ satisfy the Vlasov equations

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\psi _{1,2}}{s}}+y^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\psi _{1,2}}{y}}\left(K(s)y+{\displaystyle \frac{4\pi Nr_e}{L_x\gamma }}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}sgn(y\overline{y}){\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}^{}\psi _{2,1}(\overline{y},\overline{y}^{},s)\right){\displaystyle \frac{\psi _{1,2}}{y^{}}}=0`$ (3)
## II Equilibrium Distribution

We are interested in finding an equilibrium (i.e. time-independent) distribution $`\psi _0`$. The ansatz

$`\psi _1(y,y^{},s)=\psi _2(y,y^{},s)=\psi _0(y,y^{})`$ (4)
simplifies eqn. 3 significantly.

$`y^{}{\displaystyle \frac{\psi _0}{y}}\left(K(s)y+{\displaystyle \frac{8\pi Nr_e}{L_x\gamma }}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^y}𝑑\overline{y}{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}}𝑑\overline{y}^{}\psi _0(\overline{y},\overline{y}^{})\right){\displaystyle \frac{\psi _0}{y^{}}}=0`$ (5)
This equation can be solved easily for a constant focusing function $`K(s)=K`$ :

$`\psi _0(y,y^{})=f\left(y^2+Ky^2+{\displaystyle \frac{16\pi Nr_e}{L_x\gamma }}{\displaystyle 𝑑y_{\mathrm{}}^y𝑑\overline{y}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}𝑑\overline{y}^{}\psi _0(\overline{y},\overline{y}^{})}\right)`$ (6)
where $`f`$ is any arbitrary function whose derivative exists. This equilibrium distribution $`\psi _0`$ must satisfy the normalization condition eqn. 2. We choose an exponential function because the beams going into the collision from a damping ring have an approximately Gaussian distribution. Dividing both sides by the derivative with respect to $`y^{}`$ and taking the derivative with respect to $`y`$ we obtain the following ordinary differential equation

$`{\displaystyle \frac{^2Y}{y^2}}Y\left({\displaystyle \frac{Y}{y}}\right)^2=2aY^2\left[K+\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\pi }{a}}}\xi Y\right]`$ (7)
where $`YY(y)`$, $`\xi \frac{8\pi Nr_e}{L_x\gamma }`$ and the ansatz

$`\psi _0(y,y^{})=Y(y)e^{ay^2}`$ (8)
has been used. The function $`Y(y)`$ satisfies the integral relation

$`{\displaystyle ^{Y(y)}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\zeta \sqrt{4\xi \zeta \sqrt{a\pi }4aK\mathrm{ln}(\zeta )+c_1}}}𝑑\zeta =y+c_2`$ (9)
Depending on the constants $`Y(y)`$ describes single Gaussian-like functions, a nearly periodic sum of Gaussian-like functions or oscillating functions. Because Gaussian beams enter the collision, we are interested in the case of a Gaussian-like $`Y(y)`$. Thus, we choose the ansatz

$`\psi _0(y,y^{})={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi \sigma }}e^{\frac{J}{\sigma }}`$ (10)
where $`J`$ is defined for a constant focusing function $`K=\frac{1}{\beta _0^2}`$ as

$`J={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}y^2\beta +{\displaystyle \frac{y^2}{2\beta }}`$ (11)
This leads to the identification $`\sigma =\frac{\beta }{2a}`$. $`\psi _0`$ satisfies the normalization condition eqn. 2. Substituting eqn. 10 into eqn. 7 yields a relation for the tune shift

$`\beta _0={\displaystyle \frac{\beta ^{3/2}(2\pi \sigma )^{1/4}\sqrt{\sqrt{2\pi \sigma }\xi \beta ^{3/2}e^{\frac{y^2}{2\sigma \beta }}}}{\sqrt{2\pi \beta \sigma }\xi \beta ^2e^{\frac{y^2}{2\sigma \beta }}}}=\beta \sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2\pi \sigma }}{\sqrt{2\pi \sigma }\xi \beta ^{3/2}e^{\frac{y^2}{2\sigma \beta }}}}}`$ (12)
If $`\xi `$ is sufficiently high the expression inside the root will become negative or - at a particular $`\xi `$ \- the denominator will vanish. Therefore, $`\xi `$ has to obey the inequality

$`\xi <\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2\pi \sigma }{\beta ^3}}}`$ (13)
since the design tune has to be finite and real.

## III Acknowledgments

As always we would like to express our gratitude to Alex Chao from SLAC for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation.