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# Giant Ly𝛼 nebulae associated with high redshift radio galaxiesBased on observations made at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

## 1 Introduction

High redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs; $`z>2`$) are great beacons for pinpointing some of the most massive objects in the early universe, whether these are galaxies, super-massive black holes or even clusters of galaxies (van Breugel et al., 2002).

Powerful, non-thermal radio sources are uniqely associated with massive, multi $`L_{}`$ elliptical galaxies. At low redshifts this has been known since the first optical identifications of extra-galactic radio sources were made possible using radio interferometers (Cygnus A; Carilli & Barthel, 1996). The large, twin-jet, double-lobe morphologies and enormous radio luminosities ($`P_{178\mathrm{MHz}}5\times 10^{35}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Hz}^1`$) suggested already early on that such galaxies must have spinning, super-massive black holes (SMBHs) in their centers (Rees, 1978; Blandford & Payne, 1982). We now know that the masses of the stellar bulges of galaxies and their central black holes are closely correlated ($`M_{SMBH}0.006M_{bulge}`$; Magorrian et al., 1998; Gebhardt et al., 2000; Ferrarese & Merritt, 2000), indicating a causal connection and it is no longer a surprise that their parent galaxies occupy the upper end of the galaxy mass function ($`2\times 10^{11}`$$`\mathrm{M}_{}`$).

At high redshifts the evidence is more recent but equally compelling. The combined near-infrared “Hubble” $`Kz`$ relation for radio and field galaxies (De Breuck et al., 2002a; Jarvis et al., 2001) shows that radio-loud galaxies are the most luminous at any redshift $`0<z<5.2`$. This is despite considerable changes in their rest-frame morphologies from smooth ellipticals at $`z1`$ (Best, Longair, & Röttgering, 1998) to large ($`5070`$ kpc) multi-component, structures aligned with the radio source at $`z>2`$ (Pentericci et al., 1999; van Breugel et al., 1998).

Evidence that the HzRGs are young forming galaxies has been provided by the direct detection of absorption lines and P Cygni-like features from young hot stars (Dey et al., 1997) and strong sub-mm continuum emission (Dunlop et al., 1994; Ivison et al., 1998; Archibald et al., 2001; Reuland et al., 2003a). The sub-mm observations imply “hyper” luminous rest-frame far-infrared luminosities ($`L_{FIR}10^{13}\mathrm{L}_{}`$) and huge ($`>1000\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$) star formation rates (SFRs). Large amounts of star formation are also indicated by the recent detections in several HzRGs of very extended ($`3050`$ kpc) molecular gas and dust clouds (Papadopoulos et al., 2000; De Breuck et al., 2002b), showing that the star formation in these systems occurs on galaxy wide scales.

There are great practical advantages in using HzRGs to study the formation and coevolution of massive galaxies and their central black holes. Radio source identifications are unbiased with respect to heavy obscuration by dust, which is especially important in young galaxies with large amounts of star formation. Furthermore, HzRGs are the most extended and luminous galaxy-sized structures at many wavelengths and can therefore be studied in great detail over nearly the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Some specific questions that one might hope to address are: Do the stellar bulges of massive elliptical galaxies form mostly during one major, “monolithic” collapse or over a longer period through the merging of smaller components? Does outflow and radiation from starburst and AGN affect the galaxy formation process? Are active, massive forming galaxies capable of enriching the intra-cluster media with metals and thus affect cluster evolution?

It is well established that radio galaxies at low to moderately high redshifts ($`z<2`$) often have bright, extended ($`100200\mathrm{kpc}`$), emission line nebulae which are aligned with the radio sources (see McCarthy, 1993, and references therein). The morphologies, kinematics and ionization of these nebulae have been studied extensively (e.g., van Breugel et al., 1985; Baum, Heckman, & van Breugel, 1992; McCarthy, 1993; van Ojik et al., 1997; Villar-Martín et al., 1999; Best, Röttgering, & Longair, 2000b; Tadhunter et al., 2000; Inskip et al., 2002a). From this work one can conclude that (i) the gas is probably leftover material from earlier galaxy merging events which involve at least one gas rich galaxy, (ii) the kinematics of the gas along the radio source axes is disturbed due to interaction with the radio lobes and jets, (iii) the merging events may have triggered star formation and radio AGN activity at the galaxy centers, and (iv) the gas is ionized in part by shocks induced by the radio sources and in part by photoionization from the AGN (Villar-Martín et al., 1999; Tadhunter et al., 2000; Best, Röttgering, & Longair, 2000a, b; Inskip et al., 2002a, b).

Few images exist of extended emission-line (Ly$`\alpha `$) nebulae at much higher redshifts ($`z>3`$). Most known nebulae are radio-loud, being associated with radio galaxies, but some are radio-quiet (Steidel et al., 2000; Francis et al., 2001). Nearly all these nebulae were imaged with 4 m class telescopes and little morphological detail can be discerned because of limited signal-to-noise and often moderately poor seeing. Higher quality images are of great interest because of the potential diagnostics they may provide about the very early stages of galaxy formation, and about starburst/AGN feedback and chemical enrichment during this process.

For example, the existence of radio-quiet Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae without obvious central sources of ionization and/or outflow suggests that they may be due to accretion of cooling gas in the gravitational fields of CDM halos (Steidel et al., 2000; Chapman et al., 2001; Fardal et al., 2001; Francis et al., 2001). Such nebulae might be the very first stage in the formation of large galaxy, or its building blocks, a group of smaller galaxies. The radio-loud Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae could be the next phase, during which the central galaxy developes a large scale starburst as a result of galaxy merging and a super-massive black hole is activated. The ensuing outflow and ionizing radiation might then heat and expel the accreting gas, while adding enriched material from the central starburst to the mix, effectively stopping further galaxy growth until starburst and AGN activity subside. Such a self regulated process of galaxy growth has been invoked as a possible explanation for the surprisingly tight SMBH/stellar bulge correlation (Silk & Rees, 1998; Haiman & Rees, 2001). Could it be that in the case of radio galaxies, which are the most massive systems at any redshift, this process is further aided by radio jets and lobes?

To investigate the nature of Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae associated with HzRGs and exploit their diagnostic value we have obtained deep narrow-band Ly$`\alpha `$ images of three $`3<z<4`$ radio galaxies using the W.M. Keck Observatory 10 m telescopes. Here we discuss the morphologies of these nebulae, their relationship to other pertinent imaging data (radio, infrared, mm), and the possible implications for understanding the formation and coevolution of massive galaxies and super-massive black holes.

Our paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe the target selection, observations and data analysis. The observational results for the individual objects are presented in Section 3 and some physical parameters are deduced. In Section 4, we discuss possible scenarios for the origin of the outer nebulae and the features in the central region. We summarize our conclusions in Section 5. Throughout we adopt a flat universe cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{M}=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, and $`H_0=65\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$. Note that at the high redshifts of our targets a slightly different choice of cosmological parameters can make a significant difference to the derived parameters. To emphasize this we quote our numbers while retaining the scale factor $`h_{65}=1`$. At the redshifts of our galaxies ($`z=3.43.8`$) and using the adopted cosmology we find look-back times $``$12.8 $`h_{65}^1`$ Gyr, galaxy ages $``$1.7 $`h_{65}^1`$ Gyr, and angular scales of $``$7.6 $`h_{65}^1`$$`\mathrm{kpc}\mathrm{arcsec}^1`$.

## 2 Sample Selection and Observations

The observations presented here include sensitive optical narrow-band and broad-band imaging of three $`z>3`$ radio galaxies using the Keck telescopes and previously unpublished Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging of 4C 60.07. Our targets were selected on the basis of their high redshifts and the availability of data at many other wavelengths.

### 2.1 Sample Selection

4C 41.17

4C 41.17 at $`z=3.798`$ was chosen because its Ly$`\alpha `$ halo is one of the most luminous and extended known. Previous imaging observations showed a bright elliptical-shaped Ly$`\alpha `$ halo with a major axis of $`15`$″ directed along the radio axis (Chambers, Miley, & van Breugel, 1990; Hippelein & Meisenheimer, 1993; Adam et al., 1997; Rocca-Volmerange, 1999), and spectroscopic evidence indicated that the Ly$`\alpha `$ might extend to $`18\mathrm{}`$ (Dey, 1999). The radio source has a multiple component, asymmetric, “double-double” FR II morphology, with the radio axis of the inner source having a position angle different from the outer source (Chambers, Miley, & van Breugel, 1990; Carilli, Owen & Harris, 1994). It was the first HzRG in which a large dust mass has been detected through sub-mm observations (Dunlop et al., 1994), implying a large SFR in the range of $`20003000\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$.

The galaxy has a clumpy rest-frame UV morphology, with the brightest components aligned with the inner radio source (van Breugel et al., 1999). This light is unpolarized between $`\lambda _{\mathrm{rest}}14002000`$ Å, and thus not due to scattering from a hidden quasar-like AGN (Dey et al., 1997). Instead, the observations show absorption line features from young hot stars which resemble those seen in $`z23`$ star-forming galaxies and nearby starburst systems. Dey et al. derive a SFR of $`1401100\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ for the central $`10\mathrm{kpc}\times 20\mathrm{kpc}`$ of 4C 41.17 or $`4003200\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ after correction for local extinction. These values are consistent with those derived from the sub-mm observations. In this radio source aligned star formation is thought to have been triggered by radio jets colliding with a large, dense cloud in the forming galaxy (Dey et al., 1997; van Breugel et al., 1999; Bicknell et al., 2000).

4C 60.07

4C 60.07 ($`z=3.791`$; Chambers et al., 1996) is close to the Galactic plane (bII = 12$`^{}`$) and suffers significant Galactic extinction (see, Table 1). Despite this unfortunate circumstance, we selected 4C 60.07 as one of our targets because its redshift is close to that of 4C 41.17 and it is a strong sub-mm emitter and one of only three HzRGs in which CO has been detected (Papadopoulos et al., 2000; De Breuck et al., 2002b). The large extent (7″ $`50h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$) and dynamical mass ($`17\times 10^{11}\mathrm{M}_{}`$) of the cold gas are some of the best evidence that 4C 60.07 is indeed a massive forming galaxy. A low signal-to-noise image of 4C 60.07 shows a 2″ Ly$`\alpha `$ feature aligned with the radio source. The source displays a simple edge brightened FR II morphology (Fanaroff & Riley, 1974), unlike the other two objects in our sample (Carilli, Owen & Harris, 1994; Chambers et al., 1996).

B2 0902+34

Our third target, B2 0902+34 ($`z=3.395`$; Lilly, 1988), was selected because of its extended, very diffuse optical morphology (Eisenhardt & Dickinson, 1992), which is very unlike that of the elongated, radio source aligned structures seen in 4C 41.17 and 4C 60.07. It is also the only HzRG for which 21 cm neutral hydrogen has been detected in absorption against the radio continuum (Uson, Bagri, & Cornwell, 1991; Briggs, Sorar, & Taramopoulos, 1993). No other evidence for cold gas or dust has been found in B2 0902+34. No strong absorption in the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission has been detected through spectroscopy (Martín-Mirones et al., 1995) and no significant sub-mm signatures of thermal dust emission have been found (Archibald et al., 2001). Eisenhardt & Dickinson (1992) published a shallow Ly$`\alpha `$ image for B2 0902+34 that showed its halo to be relatively bright but did not reveal much detail. They argued that it is a true protogalaxy, based on its relatively flat UV-optical spectral energy distribution, indicative of a dominant population of young stars. The radio structure resembles that of quasars with a flat spectrum nucleus, a bright knotty jet with a sharp 90$`^{}`$ bend in the north, and a disembodied double hotspot to the south. Carilli (1995) explained its unusual properties, inferring that the radio axis is close to the line of sight.

### 2.2 Keck Imaging

#### 2.2.1 Ly$`\alpha `$ imaging

We observed 4C 41.17, 4C 60.07 and B2 0902+34 using two custom-made, high throughput narrow-band filters. The central wavelengths and bandpasses were chosen to cover redshifted Ly$`\alpha `$ within a velocity range of $`\pm `$1500$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for each object, which is the typical maximum width of the emission lines of HzRGs (e.g., Dey et al., 1997; van Ojik et al., 1997). 4C 41.17 and 4C 60.07 are close in redshift and fit in the same filter, although for 4C 60.07 emission at velocities larger than 1000$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ blueward from the systemic velocity falls outside the bandpass. The transmission curve of this filter ($`\lambda _\mathrm{c}=5839.0`$ Å and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =65.0`$ Å) averages $`84`$% over the bandpass. The narrow-band filter for B2 0902+34 has $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}=5342.4`$ Å and a FWHM of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =56.8`$ Å, with an average transmission of 73%. The fields of view through the 10 cm $`\times `$ 10 cm filters were vignetted slightly, resulting in an useful sky coverage of $`2\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0\times 1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$.

The observations were made during the nights of UT 2000 December 27, 28 and UT 2001 February 25 using the Echelle Spectrograph and Imager (ESI; Sheinis et al., 2000) at the Cassegrain focus of the Keck II 10 m telescope in imaging mode. The detector used is a high-resistivity MIT-Lincoln Labs 2048 $`\times `$ 4096 CCD, has a plate scale of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$154 pixel-1, and is only partly illuminated in imaging mode. Exposures were broken into integrations of 1200 seconds and we performed 15″ offsets between each integration. This facilitated removal of cosmic rays and bad pixels on the CCD. The data were taken during photometric conditions and good seeing (FWHM $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}60\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}8`$ in the co-added images) and were reduced using standard methods in IRAF (including registering and stacking the individual integrations). Flatfielding was done with twilight sky flats only (as opposed to creating field flats from unregistered images) to prevent suppression of faint diffuse emission.

The data were flux calibrated using the spectrophotometric standard stars Feige 34, PG 1121+145, and PG 1545+035 (Massey et al., 1988). All magnitudes and colors quoted in this paper are on the AB system and the individual calibrations agree to within approximately 10%, which we take to be the systematic photometric uncertainty. We corrected for Galactic extinction using the E(B$``$V) values based upon IRAS 100$`\mu `$m cirrus emission maps (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis, 1998) and extrapolating following Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis (1989). A summary of the total integration times, surface brightness limits, and Galactic extinction corrections is given in Table 1. With 1$`\sigma `$ surface brightness limits of NB $`2930`$ mag within an aperture of the seeing disk ($`0.7\mathrm{}`$) these are the deepest narrow-band exposures of Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae ever obtained.

#### 2.2.2 Broad-band imaging

We also obtained emission line free $`R`$-band images during the same nights to allow continuum subtraction from the narrow-band exposures and create pure Ly$`\alpha `$ images. For 4C 41.17 and 4C 60.07 the $`R`$-band ($`\lambda _c=6700`$ Å; FWHM = 1400 Å) is just redward of Ly$`\alpha `$ and free of strong emission lines (all emission lines that fall within the filter bandpass have observed equivalent widths $``$ 10 Å; Dey et al., 1997, Reuland et al. in preparation). In the case of B2 0902+34 the $`R`$-band contains the C IV $`\lambda \lambda 1548,1551`$ doublet and He II $`\lambda 1640`$. The spectrum by Martín-Mirones et al. (1995) shows that C IV and He II have observed equivalent widths of $``$ 55 Å, and $``$ 40 Å, respectively. The average total contribution of these emission lines to the total flux received in the broad-band filter is $`7`$% indicating that they are only minor contaminants. However, the relative contribution could depend on the region of interest. There is no easy way to correct for this, but compared to the large equivalent width Ly$`\alpha `$ line continuum subtraction is only a small correction and does not change any morphological features of interest for this paper. These $`R`$-band images have fields of view of $`3\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}3\times 1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}7`$, were broken into 400 s exposures and were reduced following standard methods.

### 2.3 HST Imaging

4C 60.07 was observed during Cycle 6 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2; Trauger et al., 1994) on the HST. The object was placed on the PC chip, which utilizes an 800 $`\times `$ 800 pixel Loral CCD as detector with a plate scale of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$0455 pixel-1. In two pointings 9 broad-band exposures of 2900 s each were obtained for a total exposure time of 26.1 ks through the F702W filter, which has a central wavelength $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}=6944.3`$ Å and a FWHM of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =1384.7`$ Å. For 4C 60.07 this filter includes the C IV doublet with a combined observed equivalent width of $`300`$ Å (Reuland et al. in preparation), but is free from other strong emission lines. After cosmic ray removal these images were co-added. The data were severely affected by light scattering off of the Earth atmosphere. However, the scattered light pattern was fixed with respect to the CCD. This allowed for using the small offsets between the unregistered images of the two pointings to construct a scattering model. After subtraction of this model, the resulting image was virtually fully corrected.

Deep (21.6 ks) F702W observations of 4C 41.17 were obtained using the PC section of WFPC2 (for details see van Breugel et al., 1999; Bicknell et al., 2000). Observations with the F702W filter are slightly contaminated by the C IV doublet, which has a combined observed equivalent width of $`104`$ Å (Dey et al., 1997).

Eisenhardt and Dickinson observed B2 0902+34 during Cycle 4 for 21.6 ks using the PC of WFPC2 with the filter F622W, which is centered at $`\lambda _\mathrm{c}=6189.6`$ Å, has a FWHM of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda =917.1`$ Å, and is free of emission from the Ly$`\alpha `$ and C IV lines. These data were obtained from the archives.

### 2.4 Relative Astrometry

Astrometric calibration of the Keck images was performed using the USNO-A2.0 catalog (Monet, 1998). For the broad-band images 15 catalog stars were typically available in each field, of which about 10 were unsaturated and suitable for astrometry. In all cases this resulted in astrometry accurate to approximately 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$15 rms with respect to the USNO catalog. The catalog itself has a rms uncertainty of $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}25`$ with respect to the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), while the astrometric uncertainties of the radio images are $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$ with respect to the ICRF (for a concise discussion of relative astrometric uncertainties see De Breuck et al., 2002a, and references therein). The narrow-band image of B2 0902+34 contains only few stars and the astrometry had to be bootstrapped from the broad-band image which has more stars in the field. To do this, the narrow-band image was registered relative to the $`R`$-band image to better than a fraction of a pixel using a second order polynomial function. Similarly, the HST images were matched to the respective Keck images resulting in relative optical astrometry better than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1 rms, and astrometry relative to the radio maps of comparable accuracy as for the Keck imaging.

Generally, for the 5 GHz and 8 GHz VLA radio images (Carilli, Owen & Harris, 1994; Carilli, 1995; Carilli et al., 1997), we used the astrometry as given by the observations of the phase calibrators. However, in the case of 4C 41.17 there was a faint optical counterpart with a well defined centroid to the serendipitous source to the SE in the 5 GHz map (Source E in Chambers et al., 1996). We used this source to register the radio and optical images to better than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1. A change of only $`+`$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$15 in right ascension and $`+`$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$2 in declination was required to align the images. These shifts agree with typical uncertainties in the match between the optical and radio reference frames as cited above. Therefore, we believe that, generally, relative astrometry between the radio and optical is better than $`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}35`$ rms, while it is better than 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$1 rms in the case of 4C 41.17.

### 2.5 Continuum subtraction

Pure emission line images were constructed as follows: First, the point spread functions (PSFs) of the narrow-band images were matched to the broader PSFs of the $`R`$-band images. For this we selected a suitable star close to the galaxy in both images and calculated a convolution kernel using the IRAF task psfmatch. Subsequently, the Ly$`\alpha `$ image was convolved with this kernel to obtain a new image with a PSF similar to the $`R`$-band image.

The registered $`R`$-band images were then divided by a scaling factor, and subtracted from the narrow-band images in order to remove continuum emission. This scaling factor was determined for each radio galaxy by convolving high quality spectra (Dey et al., 1997, Reuland et al. in preparation), after removal of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line, with the $`R`$-band and narrow-band filter curves. For each galaxy this resulted in an expected ratio of continuum flux densities within both filters. These expected ratios are based only on the filter curves, while telescope and CCD efficiencies should be taken into account as well. We corrected for this by adjusting the scaling factor by $`10\%`$, which was the difference between the predicted and observed ratios for the spectrophotometric standards.

## 3 Results

Our narrow-band images show unprecedented detail in the spectacular nebulae that surround the radio galaxies. The nebulae extend over more than 100 kpc and display complex morphologies such as filamentary structures, conical shapes, and distinct regions of high and low intensity. Grayscale representations (colorcycled to show both low and high surface-brightness regions) of the pure emission line images and contour plots of the narrow-band images (including continuum) are shown in Figures 1$``$8. In the following, we discuss the morphological features of the nebulae in detail. A summary of their global properties is given in Table 2. This table also gives estimates for the mass of the ionized gas and star formation rates. Despite being subject to considerable uncertainties these might help provide some insight in the nature of the nebulae.

### 3.1 4C 41.17

The co-added continuum-subtracted narrow-band image for 4C 41.17 overlaid with a 5 GHz VLA radio map (Carilli, Owen & Harris, 1994) is shown in Figure 1, while Figure 2 shows the same image overlaid with a Keck $`K`$-band image (Graham et al., 1994). Figure 3 shows an overlay of the HST image with the narrow-band image (including continuum). The Ly$`\alpha `$ nebula is seen to extend over 25″$`\times `$ 17″ ($`190h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}\times 130h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$), nearly twice the size previously seen in the images obtained with 4m class telescopes, and shows a wealth of structure.

Central region
The bright inner region was observed and discussed in detail by Chambers, Miley, & van Breugel (1990). It is aligned with the inner radio source and of approximately the same size, while the radio core is located in a central dip in the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission. This has been noticed before (Hippelein & Meisenheimer, 1993; Adam et al., 1997), and Hippelein & Meisenheimer (1993) interpret the dip as absorption by a foreground Lyman-forest cloud unrelated to the radio galaxy. However, as proposed by Dunlop et al. (1994), it seems more likely that the absorption is due to a dust lane orthogonal to the major axis of the galaxy and its radio source, obscuring the center of the galaxy near the position of the radio core. This would provide a natural explanation for both the observed sub-mm emission and the gap in the UV continuum seen in the HST image (Fig. 3). Graham et al. (1994) also mention that their $`K`$-band image (Fig. 2; strongly contaminated with \[O III\] and H$`\beta `$) shows evidence for a double peaked structure. They could not ascertain whether this was also true for a line-free $`Ks`$ image.

Galaxy scale
The Keck $`K`$-band and HST F702W “R”-band images (rest-frame B-band and 1500Å respectively) show a multi-component galaxy spread out over a region of 9″ $`\times `$ 5″ ($`68h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}\times 38h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$) near the center of the Ly$`\alpha `$ nebula. A Ly$`\alpha `$ tongue sticks out just SE of the nucleus and overlaps with continuum emission seen in the Keck and HST images. The HST image shows that this is a small group of kpc-sized clumps, embedded in low surface brightness emission of $`12`$$`h_{65}^1`$ kpc diameter, which appears to be unaffected by the radio source. From the total UVrest continuum for this region van Breugel et al. (1999) derive a star formation rate of $`33\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$ (for the cosmological parameters used in the present paper). For this same region we derive from our Keck observations an integrated Ly$`\alpha `$ flux of $`3\times 10^{16}`$ $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, or $`L_{\mathrm{Ly}\alpha }=5\times 10^{43}`$ $`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

We can convert the Ly$`\alpha `$ luminosity into an estimate of the star formation rate if we make a few assumptions. With the assumption that all the Ly$`\alpha `$ is due to Case B recombination of photoionization by stars we obtain $`SFR8.12\times 10^{43}f_{\mathrm{esc}}^1L_{\mathrm{Ly}\alpha }`$. This assumption, while unlikely to be correct for most of the halo, may be reasonable for the undisturbed region. The estimated $`SFR`$ constitutes a lower limit as it assumes that a fraction $`f_a=1`$ of the ionizing photons will be absorbed. The typical escape fraction found locally is $`f_{\mathrm{esc}}0.1`$ (Leitherer et al., 1995). However for the $`z3`$ Lyman break galaxy (LBG) population (Steidel et al., 1996) $`f_{\mathrm{esc}}0.51.0`$ is typically found (Steidel, Pettini, & Adelberger, 2001) and these LBG values may be more appropriate for HzRGs.

From the inferred $`L_{\mathrm{Ly}\alpha }`$ we obtain a lower limit to the star formation rate of $`40f_{esc}^1\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$, rather similar to the estimate based on the UV continuum. However, both the UV-continuum and Ly$`\alpha `$ based SFR estimates are probably lower limits since they assume no extinction, which may very well be important given the detection of dust in 4C 41.17.

Outer region and filamentary structure
Perhaps the most striking morphological feature of the 4C 41.17 Ly$`\alpha `$ nebula is the cone-shaped structure emanating from the center of the galaxy, with long filaments and a crescent-shaped cloud with horns. The SW outer radio lobe is located within the cone and extends further from the core than its, much fainter, NE counterpart. It suggests that the SW radio lobe may have encountered less dense material on its way out. This also agrees with the emission-line and radio surface brightness asymmetry near the center: the line emission and radio emission of the inner radio source are brighter on the NE side. Such optical/radio asymmetry correlations have also been seen in nearby radio galaxies (McCarthy, Spinrad, & van Breugel, 1995). They are thought to be due to local gas density asymmetries, with denser gas blocking radio jets, resulting in brighter line and radio emission.

The filamentary/plume features of the nebula are probably caused by AGN acivity and/or the radio source: the long SW filament ($`8\mathrm{}`$, 60 $`h_{65}^1`$ kpc) is about the same size as the distance between the nucleus and the SW hotspot, the NE lobe appears to be embraced by two short “plumes” of enhanced Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, and the apex of the two $`4\mathrm{}`$ (30 $`h_{65}^1`$ kpc) SW cloud horns projects close to the nucleus.

Another point of interest is the absence of Ly$`\alpha `$ emission near several faint $`K`$-band companions around 4C 41.17 (Fig. 2; Graham et al., 1994). Based on their red colors ($`RK_s45`$) Graham et al. concluded that these are probably multiple $`L_{}`$ galaxies at the same redshift as 4C 41.17. Graham’s objects 4, 9 and 12 are all near Ly$`\alpha `$ “gaps”. It suggests that they are dusty galaxies in the local foreground to the Ly$`\alpha `$ nebula, absorbing the Ly$`\alpha `$ photons along the line of sight. If the sizes of the gaps are larger than the $`K`$-band objects this could be evidence for galactic envelopes (e.g., Chen, Lanzetta, & Webb, 2001). This is hard to test, given the limited signal-to-noise of the $`K`$-band objects, but visual inspection of Figure 2 shows that they are consistent with having similar sizes. The scale of the Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption halos ($`15h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}<D<25h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$) suggests that these represent objects which have already collapsed to “normal” galaxian dimensions by this redshift.

The 4C 41.17 field also shows an over-density of dusty galaxies on a much larger scale ($`2.5\mathrm{}`$ diameter, $`1`$ $`h_{65}^1`$ Mpc; Ivison et al., 2000), suggesting that 4C 41.17 may be at the center of a “proto-cluster”.

### 3.2 4C 60.07

In Figure 4 we show the continuum-subtracted image of 4C 60.07 overlaid with the 5 GHz VLA radio map of Carilli et al. (1997). Contour overlays of the narrow-band image and 1.25 mm Plateau de Bure map (Papadopoulos et al., 2000) on top of the newly obtained HST image are shown in Figure 5. A zoomed-in version of this HST image with a high resolution 8 GHz VLA map is shown separately in Figure 6 to better bring out the morphological details.

Central region
The radio core appears to fall into a gap in the bright central Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, and is possibly coincident with a lack of UV continuum emission in the HST images (Figs. 5,6) similar to 4C 41.17. There is enhanced emission on either side of the nucleus, and the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is brightest between the nucleus and the eastern lobe which is closest to the nucleus. This emission-line/radio asymmetry correlation is again similar to 4C 41.17 and other radio galaxies.

Galaxy scale
The HST images shown in Figures 5 and 6 show a string of knots subtending at least 5″($`38h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$). The two brightest knots appear to be on either side of the radio core. There is a prominent Z-shaped structure, both ends of which approximately point toward the radio lobes, making it a typical case of the radio-optical alignment effect. By comparing the HST morphology with the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission, it seems that the Z-shaped structure goes around the western peak of the halo (Fig. 5).

Outer region and filamentary structure
On a larger scale the halo extends over approximately 9″ $`\times `$ 7″ ($`68h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}\times 53h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$) and shows a cone shaped structure bounded on one side by a 10″ ($`76h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$) long filament. The maximum projected sizes of the Ly$`\alpha `$ and radio structures are fairly similar, although the filament extends beyond the radio hotspot by 4″ (30 $`h_{65}^1`$ kpc). The tip of the filament is co-spatial with a galaxy (Fig. 5). Although it is tempting to infer a connection between the two, spectroscopic observations show that the galaxy is foreground at $`z=0.891`$ (Reuland et al. in preparation) and cannot be related. There is also a hint of a filament extending out to the SE.

Interestingly, the mm emission shown in Figure 5 seems almost completely anti-correlated with the Ly$`\alpha `$. The Ly$`\alpha `$ cone and filament appear nearly orthogonal to the cold gas and dust. This morphology seems indicative of an outflow as it resembles luminous starburst galaxies such as M 82. In starburst galaxies this is usually interpreted as being caused by a starburst driven superwind which blows out stellar debris and interstellar gas and dust from the central part of the galaxy (e.g., Strickland & Stevens, 2000; Ohyama et al., 2002).

### 3.3 B2 0902+34

Figure 7 shows the Ly$`\alpha `$ image and radio map overlay of B2 0902+34. The HST image with narrow-band contours is shown in Figure 8.

Central region
Unlike in 4C 41.17 and 4C 60.07 the central part of the Ly$`\alpha `$ and continuum emission in B2 0902+34 is not dominated by a high surface brightness elongated, radio-aligned structure. Instead the overall morphology appears more diffuse and bimodal, surrounding the radio core and a curved jet to the north (consistent with Carilli, 1995; Pentericci et al., 1999; Fabian, Crawford, & Iwasawa, 2002). Figure 8 shows that while there is faint continuum emission to the west co-spatial with the lower luminosity Ly$`\alpha `$ peak, there seems to be little continuum emission associated with the brightest peak. Dust is not likely to be an important factor in obscuring any continuum on the E, because the Ly$`\alpha `$ should then be completely extinguished in contrast to the observations and because Archibald et al. (2001) did not find strong signatures of thermal dust emission in the sub-mm. Therefore, the source of ionization in this region remains somewhat unclear, reminiscent of the radio-quiet Ly$`\alpha `$ halos but with the important distinction that there is a luminous AGN nearby. Given that the radio axis of the source is oriented close to the line of sight (Carilli, 1995), beaming effects are expected to be important. A possibility is that the bright Ly$`\alpha `$ is due to scattered light from the AGN or the result of collisional excitation. Based on the relatively flat UV-optical spectral energy distribution, Eisenhardt & Dickinson (1992) argued for the presence of a large population of young stars. Both the inner Ly$`\alpha `$ morphology and the HST continuum might be better understood as being due to a shocked cocoon of gas and possibly shock-induced star formation associated with the approaching radio lobe.

Outer region and filamentary structure
The extended emission line region subtends approximately 10″ $`\times `$ 8″ on the sky ($`80h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}\times 64h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$). Again the radio and Ly$`\alpha `$ structures are roughly comparable in size, and the brightest radio and line emission are on the same side of the core. However, the radio emission near bright Ly$`\alpha `$ emission is strongly polarized, unlike 4C 41.17 and 4C 60.07. This could be understood if the radio jet in B2 0902+34 is pointed towards us. The shorter line of sight through the gaseous medium would cause less depolarization (the Laing-Garrington effect; Garrington & Conway, 1991), and at the same time would boost the core and jet emission due to relativistic beaming.

There are few signs of large scale filamentary emission in B2 0902+34. They could be hidden if the filaments preferentially follow the radio axis and are similarly elongated along our line of sight.

## 4 Discussion

Our deep, sub-arcsecond seeing narrow-band imaging observations show previously unknown, complex morphologies in giant Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae around three HzRGs. Since the nebulae are centered on masssive forming galaxies these structures may provide new insights about this galaxy formation process and the importance of starburst/AGN feedback. We will discuss some of the general conclusions that can be drawn from these data. A more in-depth understanding of the nature of the nebulae will require analysis of spectroscopic observations, which will be presented in a following paper. For now we note that these and other spectroscopic evidence for HzRGs show that the nebulae, at least along the major axes of the radio sources, are enriched and ionized i.e. are not composed of pure primordial (H, He) gas and not due to Ly$`\alpha `$ scattering off cold gas (HI). This is based on the detection of C and O along the radio sources over many tens of kpc (e.g., Overzier et al., 2001; Maxfield et al., 2002; van Breugel et al., 2002; Jarvis et al., 2002; Villar-Martín et al., 2002), including evidence for enriched material C IV in undisturbed regions beyond radio hotspots (Maxfield et al., 2002; Villar-Martín et al., 2002).

Some of the properties of radio galaxy Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae, to the extent that they could be studied with mostly 4 m class telescopes, have been discussed by others (e.g., Chambers, Miley, & van Breugel, 1990; Eisenhardt & Dickinson, 1992; Hippelein & Meisenheimer, 1993; McCarthy, 1993; van Ojik et al., 1996, 1997; Rocca-Volmerange, 1999; Venemans et al., 2002). Here we will focus on the newly discovered features in our images: the very large low surface brightness outer regions, the long radial filaments and cone-shaped structures, and the (indirect) evidence for extended Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption. It is important to reiterate that radio-quiet Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae also exist (Steidel et al., 2000; Francis et al., 2001). It is not known whether the gas in these nebulae is enriched or not, and the available images are of insufficient detail to determine whether they exhibit similar filamentary structures as the HzRG nebulae.

A plausible scenario for explaining the origin of Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae is one in which cold gas from the “Dark Ages” is accreted in large Cold Dark Matter halos. In contrast to the classical picture of gas cooling from the virial temperature, $`T10^6`$ K for a typical dark matter halo, recent theoretical models predict that most of the infalling gas may not heat to virial temperatures but remains at $`T10^4`$ K because of efficient Ly$`\alpha `$ cooling (Fardal et al., 2001; Haiman, Spaans, & Quataert, 2000). There is strong evidence that HzRGs reside in (proto)-clusters (e.g., Pentericci et al., 2000; Venemans et al., 2002), and a viable scenario to explain these nebulae might then be that they are signatures of cooling flows.

As the gas accretes it will condense into stars and galaxies, and thus cooling flow and star formation are intimately linked. The Ly$`\alpha `$ emission associated with the release of gravitational potential energy is expected to be more spatially extended than emission related to the starburst and they are expected to be of similar magnitude in the most luminous objects (Fardal et al., 2001). The fairly smooth and very extended outer regions orthogonal to the radio sources suggest that these could be the remnants of these initial, undisturbed accretion flows. The surface brightness profile in the outer parts of the SE corner of 4C 41.17, which appears to be the least disturbed part of the nebula, drops of with radius as approximately $`I(r)r^2`$ and would be consistent with theoretical predictions for cooling halos (Haiman, Spaans, & Quataert, 2000).

What about the radial filamentary and cone-shaped structures? How did these form in such a scenario? Here some lessons might be learned from nearby cooling flow clusters, Abell 1795 (Fabian et al., 2001) and NGC 1275 (Conselice, Gallagher, & Wyse, 2001; Fabian et al., 2001), starburst superwinds such as in M 82, Arp 220 (e.g., Heckman, Armus, & Miley, 1990), and Seyfert II’s (NGC 1068; Dopita et al., 2002).

### 4.1 Cooling flows and radio lobes

In Abell 1795 there is a long, $`80`$ kpc (projected size), radially directed emission-line and X-ray filament associated with the central cD galaxy. Fabian et al. (2001) consider several possible scenarios to explain this, including a “contrail” induced by ram pressure from the radio source. However, based on kinematic and cooling time considerations, and the fact that the cD galaxy is not quite centered at the X-ray halo, Fabian et al. conclude that the simplest explanation would be that the filament is a cooling wake behind the galaxy as it moves within the X-ray halo. It is possible that the bright, single filament in 4C 60.07 might be explained in this way but we consider this unlikely because of evidence for a very low surface brightness cone-like structure (Fig. 4). The multiple radially directed filaments in 4C 41.17 would also be inconsistent with such a model.

In NGC 1275 numerous radial emission-line filaments are found up to $`50`$ kpc from the central AGN, with some tangential features at large radii. These features overlap with a large radio halo centered on the galaxy. The fairly constant surface brightness along the lengths of the filaments and inferred physical parameters suggest that the filaments formed as a result of compression of the intracluster gas by the expanding radio source (Conselice, Gallagher, & Wyse, 2001). The correlation between emission-line and radio source asymmetries in each of the three radio galaxies shows that radio jets and lobes must indeed have a significant impact on the ambient gas emissivity and emission-line morphology. Also, the eastern radio lobe of 4C 41.17 appears to have associated “plumes” of enhanced emission straddling the lobe at both the SW and SE, and the sizes of the radio structures are comparable to those of the emission line gas.

We note that even if the filaments are at a significant distance from the observed radio source components, such as the SW lobe of 4C 41.17, there still is a good reason to believe that they may be causally related, in particular if there is supporting kinematic evidence (see 4C 29.30 for a nearby example; van Breugel et al., 1986). In the canonical picture of radio sources the hotspots and lobes are surrounded by bowshocks and cocoons of radio quiet, shock heated gas with scale sizes wich are significantly larger than the observed radio emission (Carilli, Perley, & Dreher, 1988; Begelman & Cioffi, 1989). The emission-line filaments are then located at the interface of the cocoons and the ambient gas and are not in direct contact with the radio lobes or hotspots and can even extend beyond radio hotspots (Figs. 1,4; Maxfield et al., 2002) if one accounts for projection effects and the fact that the radio observations only show the highest surface brightness regions.

### 4.2 Starburst superwinds

Although HzRGs may not resemble “normal” starburst systems in the strictest sense, it seems reasonable to explore whether galactic superwinds can explain the emission-line morphologies. Observations of low redshift starburst galaxies show weakly collimated bipolar outflows of gas with outflow velocities of several hundred $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and up to scales of $`10\mathrm{kpc}`$ (Heckman, Armus, & Miley, 1990). H$`\alpha `$ emission line observations that trace this gas show filaments and arclike structures which are possibly not too dissimilar from the filaments that we can discern in the higher redshift Ly$`\alpha `$ nebulae. Spectroscopic evidence for galactic outflows has been found also at high redshifts (e.g., Pettini et al., 1998, 2001; Dawson et al., 2002) from metal absorption lines that are blue-shifted by a few hundred to a few thousand $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ relative to the estimated systemic velocity of the galaxies. Recent observations of C IV absorptions systems along the lines of sight to QSOs indicate enrichment of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) even at redshifts higher than $`z5`$ (Rauch, Sargent, & Barlow, 2001) which may have been caused by these outflows.

For a galactic outflow powered by a superwind to occur, the star formation rate per unit area $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}`$ must satisfy the empirical relation $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}0.1\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{kpc}^2`$ (e.g., Heckman, 2001). As we have argued above, based on sub-mm detections and direct observations of stellar absorption lines, HzRGs are massive star forming systems, with SFRs of approximately 1000$``$2000$`\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1`$. This implies SFR surface densities of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}0.4\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{kpc}^2`$ for the regions corresponding to the extent of the $`K`$-band (restframe $`B`$) continuum. Therefore, the minimum condition for an outflow can be satisfied easily. Similarly, the SFR surface density based on the UV flux and extent of the “undisturbed” southern region in 4C 41.17 $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}33\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1/100\mathrm{kpc}^20.3\mathrm{M}_{}\mathrm{yr}^1\mathrm{kpc}^2`$ would also support a galactic wind.

Models show that starburst outflows fill an over-pressured cavity of hot gas and expand into superbubbles, but they are usually not energetic enough for the bubbles to burst and the gas to escape from the host galaxy (Heckman, 2001). This means that for the massive HzRGs this material is likely to reside at large radii but still within the potential well of the galaxy. Taniguchi & Shioya (2000) modelled the outflow of gas and find the following relation for the radii of the shells:

$$r_{\mathrm{shell}}110L_{\mathrm{mech},43}^{0.2}n_{\mathrm{H},5}^{0.2}t_8^{0.6}\mathrm{kpc},$$

with $`L_{\mathrm{mech}}10^{43}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{M}_{}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$ the mechanical luminosity released by supernovae in the starburst, $`n_{\mathrm{H},5}`$ the hydrogen density in units of $`10^5\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`t_8`$ the age of the starburst in units of $`10^8`$ yr. Dey et al. (1997) modelled the stellar population of 4C 41.17 with a starburst of duration $`1.6\times 10^7`$ yr and an older population of stars younger than $`6\times 10^8`$ yr. This gives a lower and upperlimit for $`t_8`$ and Chambers, Miley, & van Breugel (1990) estimated $`n_\mathrm{H}n_ef_\mathrm{v}`$ with $`n_e`$ the electron density and $`f_\mathrm{v}`$ the volume filling factor of the clouds to be of order $`20\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}^3`$. Applying these estimates to 4C 41.17 we obtain: $`20\mathrm{kpc}r_{shell}170\mathrm{kpc}`$, resulting in a characteristic extent of the superwind shells $`l=2r_{shell}150\mathrm{kpc}`$, consistent with the sizes for the nebulae presented here.

### 4.3 Radiation pressure driven outflows

Recently, Dopita et al. (2002) presented a model to explain the origin and kinematics of the narrow line regions in Seyfert Galaxies. In this model ionized gas and dust are electrically locked together and streaming from ionization fronts around photo-evaporating clouds located in the ionization cones of the AGN. A similar process might be envisaged in HzRGs. If the dust is destroyed somewhere along the outflow, then the gas will continue to flow outward from the cloud, but radiation pressure will no longer dominate the dynamics. Aguirre et al. (2001) also found that dusty outflows might be radiation pressure driven and can reach distances of up to a few 100 kpc. These models suggest that radiative ablation by the central source may be a significant if not dominant contributor to outflows.

Such a scenario would explain why the filaments are all oriented radially, and why the focal point of the tails of the SW emission line cloud in 4C 41.17 seems to be the radio core while there is no obvious connection with the radio emission.

### 4.4 Obscured AGN

For all three galaxies in the sample, and for 4C 23.56 which was extensively studied by Knopp & Chambers (1997), the radio core appears to be located in a hole or at least a depression in the bright central part of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line emission. The best example of this is 4C 41.17 where the UV continuum also shows a gap of approximately 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$4 ($`3h_{65}^1\mathrm{kpc}`$). Because the dips are also apparent in the UV continuum and because there appears to be very bright emission on either side, the gap must be due to an obscuring medium of high optical depth. MRC 1243+036 is the only HzRG with a well studied Ly$`\alpha `$ halo for which the radio core appears associated with a peak in Ly$`\alpha `$ (van Ojik et al., 1996). However, the central shape of MRC 1243+036 bears close resemblance to the central cone shapes of 4C 60.07, and it is quite possible that the central region would show two distinct components with the radio core being in between if it were observed at higher resolution.

Hippelein & Meisenheimer (1993) were the first to notice the gap in the Ly$`\alpha `$ image of 4C 41.17 and interpreted it as being due to a foreground absorber being part of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest. The strong sub-mm dust detection of 4C 41.17 led Dunlop et al. (1994) to speculate that this gap might rather be due to a dusty disk. While this remains a viable option, in the case of 4C 60.07 which shows a similar UV continuum and emission line dip, sub-mm observations show that most of the dust is located “outside” the galaxy.

At least two of the three radio galaxies that we present here, show a distinct biconical shape in the brightest parts of their nebulosities. This morphology suggests that the nucleus contributes significantly to the photoionization, and is surrounded by an obscuring torus which we observe under an angle as favored by the quasar-radio galaxy unification scheme (Barthel, 1989). This putative torus would be much larger than what is traditionally assumed and it would be more appropriate to refer to this feature as a dust lane. Dust lanes have been studied in nearby FR I radio galaxies (Verdoes Kleijn et al., 1999), and appear to be orthogonal to the radio axis independent of the orientation of the galactic disk. Verdoes et al. found that these features typically range from 200 pc to 4.5 kpc, while features larger than $`1\mathrm{kpc}`$ show peculiar morphologies and are possibly still settling towards stable orbits. This suggests that the large sizes seen in HzRGs might be the result of the availability of substantial amounts of debris and that the torus/dust lane is still forming and has not yet reached its final configuration.

## 5 Conclusions

We have presented a morphological study of the Ly$`\alpha `$ emission line nebulae of three radio galaxies at redshifts $`z3.43.8`$.

Our new findings are that the emission line nebulae show giant, 100 - 200 kpc low surface brightness emission and large (up to $`80\mathrm{kpc}`$) filamentary and cone-shaped structures, which are even more extended than known previously. We have also found indirect evidence for extended Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption due to neighboring galaxies in the local foreground to the 4C 41.17 nebula and, in all three cases, that the AGN appear obscured by surrounding dust.

In order to explain these observations, we have presented a scenario in which primordial cooling flows in Cold Dark Matter halos form multiple stellar systems which merge, building the stellar bulges of future massive galaxies and triggering (radio-loud) SMBH activity. The radio jets, starburst superwinds and radiative ablation from the AGN may all contribute to cause the observed radially directed filamentary structures, in at least two of the three objects studied, and may provide a feedback mechanism which regulates stellar bulge and SMBH growth. To study these processes will require further observations of the physical properties of the gas, and numerical simulations of the effects of jets and AGN radiation on dusty, astrophysical plasmas. Some regions of the outermost halos appear unaffected by any radio/AGN activity. This suggests that this gas must either be infalling for the first time or be a remant of previous outflows.

Deep spectroscopy targeting non-resonant emission lines are important to constrain the various scenarios, and determine the gas kinematics, metallicities and sources of ionization. The observations presented here also show that filamentary structure is not always aligned with the radio axis, and that long slit spectroscopy can easily miss large, bright filaments. Therefore, to fully exploit narrow-band emission-line images as a tool for studies of galaxy formation requires the use of “3-Dimensional” (2-D spatial + 1-D spectral) imaging devices on large telescopes (van Breugel & Bland-Hawthorn, 2000). Several such devices are currently being build, including the LLNL Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (Wurtz et al.2001), and the OSIRIS imaging spectrograph for the Spanish 10.4 m telescope GTC at La Palma (Cepa et al.2001).

It is a pleasure to thank Chris Carilli for making available the VLA radio maps, Padeli Papadopoulos for providing us with the PdB images, Björn Heijligers for IDL tips and tricks, and the staff at W.M. Keck Observatory for their efficient assistance. We thank the referee, Montse Villar-Martín for many helpful suggestions that improved the manuscript. The work of M.R., W.d.V., W.v.B., A.S., and M.L. was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract No. W-7405-Eng-48. W.v.B. also acknowledges NASA grants GO 5429, 5765, 5940, 6608, and 8183 in support of HzRG research with HST at LLNL. M.L. performed part of this work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. M.D. acknowledges the support of the ANU and the Australian Research Council (ARC) for his ARC Australian Federation Fellowship, and also under the ARC Discovery project DP0208445. This research has made use of the USNOFS Image and Catalogue Archive operated by the United States Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station (http://www.nofs.navy.mil/data/fchpix/), and 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.


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# 1 Gauge principle: received and passive view

## 1 Gauge principle: received and passive view

The received view of gauge theories and their underlying gauge principle is that we are able to derive the coupling of a formerly free field to an interaction field from the requirement of local gauge covariance. The usual derivative $`_\mu `$ must be replaced by a covariant derivative

$$D_\mu =_\mu iqA_\mu (x),$$
(1)
where $`A_\mu `$ is a Lie algebra-valued 1-form—mathematically a connection in a principal fiber bundle, physically the gauge potential of an interaction field. However, this gauge argument would be close to a miracle, if the connection, which arises from the local symmetry requirement, were non-flat (i.e. with non-vanishing curvature).

But this, of course, is not—and can hardly be—the case. What rather happens is that we explicitly allow for a freedom in the choice of the position representation of the wave function (figuring as a free Schrödinger or Dirac field in the matter field equation from which the gauge principle starts). To see this immediately, consider a system of vectors $`\left\{|\varphi \right\}`$ spanning an abstract Hilbert space $``$, such that a wave function in the position representation $`|x`$ simply reads $`\mathrm{\Psi }(x)=x|\varphi `$. Accordingly, local gauge transformations are expressed as $`|x^{}=e^{i\chi (x)}|x=\widehat{U}|x`$. Such a change of representation must apply as well to all operators $`\widehat{O}`$ acting on $``$, viz. $`\widehat{O}^{}=\widehat{U}\widehat{O}\widehat{U}^+`$. In particular, for the derivative operator we get

$$D_\mu =_\mu i_\mu \chi (x).$$
(2)
Identifying the gradient of the phase with the gauge potential $`A_\mu `$ (multiplied by some charge $`q`$ in order to get the units111If not otherwise stated we set $`c=\mathrm{}=1`$ throughout this paper. straight)

$$_\mu \chi (x)=qA_\mu (x)$$
(3)
leads to (1). Obviously, $`A_\mu `$ is a flat connection.

Thus, the celebrated gauge principle is not sufficient to ‘derive’ the coupling to a new interaction-field, but rather makes the built-in covariance under local gauge transformations explicit. We are, from the mere logic of the argument, not enforced to consider the connection term non-flat. Moreover, the Noether current connected to the covariance of the Dirac Lagrangian under global $`U(1)`$ transformations is just the probability density current $`S^\mu =\overline{\psi }\gamma ^\mu \psi `$ and not the charge current $`j^\mu =qS^\mu `$, since there simply is no charge occurring in the Dirac equation. Again, in the standard textbook presentation the charge is put in by hand by means of (3). Call all this the passive view on the gauge principle, since local gauge transformations are treated in full analogy to coordinates—coordinates, however, in the fiber bundle rather than in the space-time base space. The analogy is complete if we draw a comparison to the Levi-Civita connection in General Relativity. Here, Christoffel symbols already occur in the geodesic equation simply because of curvilinear coordinates in flat Minkowski space—without entailing a real gravitational field, i.e. non-vanishing Riemann curvature.

## 2 The non-observability of local phase transformations

Let us now consider the gauge principle’s local phase transformations (a.k.a. gauge transformations of the first kind) in more detail. Under such transformations the wave function yields

$$\psi (x)\psi ^{}(x)=\psi (x)e^{i\chi (x)}.$$
(4)
Thus, we obtain $`_\mu \psi (x)_\mu \psi ^{}(x)=e^{i\chi (x)}\left(_\mu +i_\mu \chi (x)\right)\psi (x)`$, which confirms the covariant derivative (2), i.e. Dirac equations $`(i_\mu \gamma ^\mu m)\psi (x)=0`$ and $`(iD_\mu \gamma ^\mu m)\psi ^{}(x)=0`$ are equivalent. We also get with $`\widehat{p}_\mu =i_\mu `$ and $`e^{i\chi }=e^{ipx}`$ the phase transformation behavior $`\chi \chi _\mu \chi (x)x^\mu `$, which leads to the holonomy

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\chi =_\mu \chi (x)dx^\mu .$$
(5)
Of course, written as such and provided that spacetime is simply connected, expression (5) is trivial and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi =0`$. We will come back to this point in a moment.

As an intermediate step, let us ask for the possibility to observe local phase transformations. A widespread argument says that—in contrast to the passive view—the phase transformed wave function leads to new expectation values. We get, for instance, for the momentum operator $`\widehat{p}_\mu \psi ^{}=(p+_\mu \chi )\psi ^{}`$ as opposed to $`\widehat{p}_\mu \psi =p\psi `$. But this is of course misleading since we must use the transformed momentum operator $`\widehat{P}_\mu =\widehat{p}_\mu _\mu \chi `$ corresponding to (2) and, thus, $`\widehat{P}_\mu \psi ^{}=\widehat{p}\psi ^{}`$. Indeed, just like their global counterparts local phase transformations do not change any expectation values at all.

Another argument can be found in ’t Hooft (1980), who considers an ordinary double-split experiment showing an interference pattern. Inserting a phase shifter behind the slit in one of the two paths results in a corresponding shift of the interference pattern—which can be calculated from (5). ’t Hooft now argues that the phase shifter can be seen as a realization of a local phase transformation. But this is impossible since local phase transformations would then change the holonomy, which is, however, invariant under (global and local) $`U(1)`$. What is rather observed in this case is the relative phase shift. Let $`\psi =\psi _I+\psi _{II}`$, where $`\psi _I`$ and $`\psi _{II}`$ are the two partial wave functions on the two paths $`I`$ and $`II`$, then, say, a $`\lambda /4`$-phase shifter in path $`I`$ corresponds to $`\psi _I\psi _Ie^{i\lambda /4}`$ and hence $`\psi \stackrel{~}{\psi }=\psi _Ie^{i\lambda /4}+\psi _{II}`$, where $`\psi `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\psi }`$ obviously do have different expectation values in general (cf. Brading and Brown 2003). We must therefore very well distinguish between relative phase shifts and local phase transformations. The former are observable, the latter clearly are not.

## 3 “Phase charges” and Aharonov-Bohm effect

As already mentioned, only non-trivial holonomies are of interest. In this case the loop cannot be contracted to a point and the underlying fiber bundle is non-trivial, too. The double-slit experiment or the Mach-Zehnder interferometer are cases at hand. Another example is provided by the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect. Here we have an observable effect despite the fact that the connection is flat. At first glance, this seems to contradict the passive view statement from Sect. 1, where we made the claim that from flat connections alone the physical situation can hardly be changed. However, the ultimate cause of the AB effect is of course the magnetic field confined to the region of the solenoid in the experimental setting. Nevertheless, there is no magnetic field in the region of the electron (the configuration space of the electron). Here the connection is flat, but the non-trivial holonomy of this connection causes observable effects. Thus, the lesson of the AB effect decidedly is that we must consider the holonomy outside the solenoid as a real entity! This conclusion is inevitable if we want to avoid an interpretation that either considers gauge-dependent quantities as physically real—such as the gauge potential—or does not conform to the idea of local action—which happens in the case where we allow for a non-local interaction between the confined magnetic field and the electron wave function (Eynck, Lyre, Rummell 2001).

As a real entity, the holonomy couples to some property of the electron, and this, in the usual picture, is just the charge $`q`$. We shall, however, rather write $`q^{(p)}`$ (the superscript will become clear soon). In the AB case there is, indeed, more to (3) than a mere rewriting of the phase function, since from (5) together with (3) we get the observed phase shift as a function of $`q^{(p)}`$ and the magnetic flux

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\chi \stackrel{(\text{3})}{=}q^{(p)}A_\mu 𝑑x^\mu =q^{(p)}F_{\mu \nu }𝑑x^{\mu \nu }=q^{(p)}\mathrm{\Phi }_{mag}.$$
(6)
But what really is the origin of the charge $`q^{(p)}`$ in (6)? Obviously, it is a certain property of the electron, but it is not the property of a ‘usual’ charge being the source and drain of the electromagnetic field, since there is no field in the configuration space of the electron (or, at least, we may abstract from it). The AB effect itself has its origin in the topological nature of the non-trivial holonomy, since mappings $`𝕊^1𝕊^1`$ from the electron’s configuration space to the gauge group are non-trivial and constitute the fundamental group $`\pi _1(U(1))=`$. This holonomy now, as a physical entity, couples in some way to the electron, so we may very well interpret $`q^{(p)}`$ as the coupling strength between the electron wave function and the holonomy.

Let us call the ‘usual’ charge—the source and drain of the field—the active or passive field charge $`q^{(f)}`$—in full analogy to the active or passive gravitational mass (the charge of the gravitational field). By way of contrast, $`q^{(p)}`$ can be called the phase charge, since it originates from the phase factor of the wave function only. A first argument for this conceptual maneuver of distinguishing two different kinds of charges is that we have in fact no a priori reason to identify them. A more compelling physical argument is that $`q^{(p)}`$ is in principle measurable in a isolated experiment. Whereas $`q^{(f)}`$ is tested whenever we perform measurements where charges figure as sources or drains of the electromagnetic field (e.g. in measuring the Coulomb force between two electrons), $`q^{(p)}`$ only becomes visible, if we consider (5) and its observable consequences. And this is exactly what happens in the AB effect.

All this leaves us with a remarkable conclusion: It might very well be the case that particles with one and the same field charge do have different phase charges and, therefore, show different AB effects. This can clearly be seen from (6). We have (on the l.h.s.) the observable shift of the interference pattern, which is proportional to the phase charge $`q^{(p)}`$ and the magnetic flux $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{mag}`$ (on the r.h.s.). The latter can be measured independently by testing, for instance, the Lorentz force of the magnetic field on electrons and muons (which is obviously the same, because of their common field charge). However, from the way (6) was derived, we have no reason to expect the same interference shift in an AB experiment for electrons as compared to muons.

Note that the claim is not that in an actual experiment electrons and muons will show different AB effects. One would, in fact, expect the same $`q^{(p)}`$ for both. The above arguments are rather intended to show that there is no theoretical principle in our known physics which precludes the possibility of differing phase charges. Insofar as $`q^{(p)}`$ and $`q^{(f)}`$ are conceptually different, their equivalence

$$q^{(p)}=q^{(f)}$$
(7)
must be tested experimentally. Therefore the real claim here is that some of our Standard Model’s experiments—involving topological effects from flat connections—are in fact “null experiments” on the equivalence principle of field and phase charge.

## 4 A gauge theoretic equivalence principle

In Lyre (2000) the attempt was made to propose a gauge theoretic generalization of the equivalence principle. The analogy is indeed striking: Field charges and gravitational mass appear in the field equations of a field theory (e.g. Maxwell or Einstein equations), whereas phase charges and inertial mass appear in the corresponding equations of motion (e.g. Dirac or geodesic equations).222The presentation in Lyre (2000) was insufficient, since no isolated experiment for $`q^{(p)}`$ was proposed. This is the main task of the present paper. A rather rhetoric move is to rename the misleading term ‘inertial charge’ of the former paper into ‘phase charge’ here. The generalized equivalence principle is then intended to fill the explanatory gap in the architecture of a gauge theory arising from the mere passive view of the gauge principle. This gap is simply the following: Let $`_D=\overline{\psi }(i_\mu \gamma ^\mu m)\psi `$ be the Dirac Lagrangian and $`_{coup}=j_\mu A^\mu `$ the inhomogeneous ‘coupling’ part of the Lagrangian

$$_D^{}=_D+_{coup},$$
(8)
which arises due to the replacement of the usual derivative by the covariant derivative (based on the requirement of local gauge covariance). As we have seen, however, the covariant derivative (2) only entails a flat connection in $`_{coup}`$. There is, on the other hand, the Maxwell theory with the Lagrangian

$$_M^{}=_M+_{coup}.$$
(9)
Here $`_M=\frac{1}{4}F_{\mu \nu }F^{\mu \nu }`$ is the kinetic term of the free Maxwell field and $`_{coup}`$ the inhomogeneous term including field charges. In this case the connection in $`_{coup}`$ is non-flat.

In order to arrive at the full Lagrangian of the Dirac-Maxwell gauge theory (or QED, analogously), we have to combine $`_D^{}`$ and $`_M^{}`$ in order to get

$$_{DM}=_D+_{coup}+_M.$$
(10)
But, obviously, $`_{coup}`$ figures in two different meanings here. Because of its mere passive nature, the gauge ‘principle’ does not allow to generalize from a flat connection in (8) to a non-flat connection in (9). Thus, the two $`_{coup}`$-terms cannot simply be identified.

There is, however, the possibility of non-trivial holonomies with a phase charge $`q^{(p)}`$ in the inhomogeneous term in (8), which we therefore indicate as $`_{coup}^{(p)}`$ as opposed to $`_{coup}^{(f)}`$ in (9). From the equivalence of field and phase charges (7) we then get

$$_{coup}^{(p)}=_{coup}^{(f)}_{coup}$$
(11)
and, thus, the desired Lagrangian (10). The $`U(1)`$ gauge theory is therefore not based on the physically vacuous gauge ‘principle’, a mere passive symmetry requirement, but on the gauge theoretic equivalence principle, which in the form of (7) must be verified empirically.

## 5 Discussion and conclusion

The concept of a phase charge and, hence, the gauge theoretic equivalence principle is based on the existence of a non-trivial holonomy. Unfortunately, there are no AB effects for higher $`SU(n)`$ groups, since $`\pi _1(SU(n))=1`$. As far as other topological effects in gauge theories are concerned (e.g. instantons or $`\theta `$-vacua), it is not so clear whether they do perhaps only arise because of some clever approximations (e.g. the assumption of *vanishing fields* in the infinity of *Euclidean spacetime* for $`SU(2)`$-instantons). In these cases the holonomy should not be considered a really existing entity. This then means that our considerations only apply for $`U(1)`$ and that no simple extension of the gauge theoretic equivalence principle to the general Yang-Mills case will be possible.

One should also mention that the analogy between the gauge theoretic and the usual gravitational equivalence principle, striking as it may be, is of course only a heuristic one. As already mentioned, it certainly breaks down if we compare the concepts of phase charge and inertial mass. The reason for this might very well be seen in the classical nature of the latter and may perhaps be overcome in a future theory of quantum gravity.

In this respect the similarity of the above proposal of phase charges to Anandan’s conception of gauge fields as “interference fields” should perhaps be emphasized. For the particular case of general relativity, Anandan (1979) has shown that the “gravitational phase” is $`\mathrm{\Delta }\chi =\frac{mc}{\mathrm{}}g_{\mu \nu }𝑑x^{\mu \nu }`$, that is the spacetime distance measured in Compton wavelengths and, hence, $`m`$ being the inertial mass! The same is true for neutron interferometry, the famous COW experiments. Here the phase shift is actually proportional to the product of inertial and gravitational mass, since the gravitational potential includes the latter (cf. Greenberger 1983).

A possible objection against the phase charge proposal is that, in order to experimentally realize non-trivial bundles with flat connections, a region with a non-flat connection (i.e. a real field and, hence, field charges) must exist simultaneously. This seems to show that we cannot observe $`q^{(p)}`$ independently from $`q^{(f)}`$. But again: the two charges are of different origin in the sense that we take, for instance, the electron’s field charge to realize the electric current in the solenoid, but may perform the AB experiment with electrons, muons or tauons to measure their phase charge. Moreover, strictly speaking we cannot make an independent measurement of the inertial mass either. We always have to make the idealization of neglecting the gravitational masses of the measuring devices.

The reader may finally ask what the world were looking like if the proposed equivalence between phase and field charge would empirically be violated. The astonishing answer is that this would not change so much the phenomenology of our elementary particles world, since the violation only becomes visible in experiments where non-trivial holonomies with flat connections are involved. Conceptually, however, such a violation would leave us with a serious puzzle, since then—again—the explanatory gap in the logical structure of the empirically so eminently successful gauge theories persists. This gap is certainly not filled by the gauge ‘principle’, but may perhaps be construed as an equivalence principle between phase and field charges.

### Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Harvey Brown and Alfred Pflug for helpful comments.

## References

Anandan, J. (1979). Interference, gravity and gauge fields. Nuovo Cimento, 53 A(2):221–249.

Brading, K. and Brown, H. R. (2003). Observing gauge symmetry transformations? The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, fortcoming.

Eynck, T. O., Lyre, H., and Rummell, N. v. (2001). A versus B! Topological nonseparability and the Aharonov-Bohm effect. (PITT-PHIL-SCI00000404).

Greenberger, D. M. (1983). The neutron interferometer as a device for illustrating the strange behaviour of quantum systems. Reviews of Modern Physics, 55(4):875–905.

Lyre, H. (2000). A generalized equivalence principle. International Journal of Modern Physics D, 9(6):633–647. (gr-qc/0004054).

’t Hooft, G. (1980). Gauge theories of the forces between elementary particles. Scientific American, 242(6):104–138.


text:
# Crab Pulsar Photometry and the Signature of Free Precession

## 1 Introduction

More than seven years ago we began an investigation of the optical light curve of the Crab pulsar. We tentatively identified a peak in Fourier spectra of the light curve at a frequency $`1/60`$Hz (Čadež & Galičič c4 (1996) a, c5 (1996) b, c6 (1996) c). Later observations slightly enhanced the signal to noise ratio of the suggested peak. We suspected that it was the signature of free precession of the pulsar and thus in c7 (1997) proposed a simple model. We tested it by predicting the free precession frequency of the Earth and showed that it also reproduces well the measured ellipticities of the planets (Čadež et al c7 (1997)). The former test was based on the argument that the relative rigidity of the pulsar is at least as strong as that of the Earth. This allowed us to apply the same model to calculate the free precession frequency of pulsars. We found that the observed $`1/60`$Hz frequency is consistent with a $`1.3`$M pulsar model based on the tensor interaction equation of state. As a further check we proposed to measure the slow-down rate of free precession. In the past years we gathered more data, building a set of more than 3.400 images, which cover more than 20 hours of photometry spanning a period of almost nine years. It is appropriate to confront these data with the proposed test.

## 2 Calibrations and data sets

Our photometry was done in the stroboscopic mode. This type of photometry was introduced previously (Čadež & Galičič c6 (1996)) in order to increase the signal to noise ratio of measured pulsed emission from pulsars. The method is based on the fact that the arrival time and duration of pulses can be calculated quite precisely. Thus we introduced the stroboscope - a phase controlled shutter (rotating wheel), which passes light to the CCD detector only during the time intervals when the pulsar (main pulse) is “on”. Therefore, images obtained behind this shutter receive all light emitted by the pulsar, but the much brighter emission from the surrounding nebula, is reduced by the ratio of the expected main pulse duration to the pulse period (set to 0.1 by our stroboscope). In our case this noise reduction ratio is about a factor of 2. In stroboscopic photometry the timing is crucial, so we spent a considerable effort checking it. The whole stroboscopic setup together with the CCD has been periodically tested at the Hewlett-Packard calibration laboratory in Ljubljana, where an artificial pulsar has been pulsed by a cesium clock (Galičič c9 (1999)). All tests confirmed that the stroboscopic wheel correctly follows the frequency and phase of the input signal111During the observations abbreviated by $`As`$ we had some timing problems which were traced to a software bug in calculating the proper date, so that the calculated barycentric frequency set on the timer was slightly off, resulting in slow phase slippage of the stroboscope with respect to the pulsar. The slippage was slow enough that we could calculate its effect and correct for it. .

Photometric data were taken with four different telescopes and exposure times between 4 and 15 seconds222The 4 seconds sampling rate of the HST data is not intrinsic to the high speed photometer but rather to our processing procedure. and sampling rates beween 4.0 and 26.7 seconds. The data are of a somewhat varying quality depending on the telescope and on respective observing conditions. In Table 1 we list the dates, telescopes, durations of observation and sampling rates of all runs. The abbreviations HST (Percival et al. c13 (1993)) CE, As and GH stand for Hubble space telescope, the 1.82 m telescope of the Asiago observatory, the 1.22 m telescope of the Asiago observatory and the 2.12m telescope of the Guillermo Haro observatory respectively.

In Fig. 1 and 2 we show the light curves of a field star, which is used for calibration and the contemporeneous light curves of the Crab pulsar. The photometry was done by using IRAF/DAOPHOT and previously DAOPHOT routines333Until 1998 the DOS version of DAOPHOT available at www.fiz.uni-lj.si/astro/daophot.html and later IRAF V2.11 has been used..

## 3 Data analysis and results

In order to search for a possible common modulation frequency in all Crab light curves, we construct a matrix with components $`M_{jk}(\omega )`$, which are Fourier transforms of cross-correlation functions between light curves, i.e.:

$$M_{jk}(\omega )=|F_j(\omega )F_k(\omega )|,$$
(1)
and $`F_k(\omega )`$ is the Fourier transform of the $`k^{th}`$ light curve:

$$F_k(\omega )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi T_k}}\underset{l}{}m_k(t_l)e^{i\omega t_l}\frac{t_{l+1}t_{l1}}{2}.$$
(2)
Here $`m_k(t_l)`$ is the magnitude as measured from the $`l^{th}`$ image of the kth light curve taken at time $`t_l`$ (with respect to the beginning of the $`k^{th}`$ set) and $`T_k=t_{l_{max}}t_{l_{min}}`$ is the total duration of the kth set of measurements. $`F_k(\omega )`$ is considered as a continuous function defined first at discrete frequencies $`\omega _s=\frac{2\pi }{T_k}s`$, where s is an integer belonging to the interval $`0s(l_{max}l_{min})/2`$, and then extended so that $`|F_k(\omega )|=|F_k(\omega _s)|`$ on the interval $`\frac{2\pi }{T_k}(s\frac{1}{2})\omega <\frac{2\pi }{T_k}(s+\frac{1}{2})`$.

We first test statistical properties of the $`M_{jk}`$ components on light curves of the field star, i.e. we test the hypothesis that all noise in the light curve is white Gaussian noise. If this hypothesis is correct, then (for each $`\omega `$) $`M_{ij}`$ ($`ij`$) may be considered as a realization of a random process $`\mu `$ distributed according to:

$$W(\mu )=\frac{\mu }{\sigma ^4}K_0\left(\frac{\mu }{\sigma ^2}\right),$$
(3)
and $`M_{ii}`$ belongs to a random process $`\nu `$ distributed according to

$$U(\nu )=\frac{1}{2\sigma ^2}e^{\nu /(2\sigma ^2)},$$
(4)
where444The average is taken over all k and $`\omega `$ and, since noise is considered as white, all $`F_k`$ belong to the same random process. $`\sigma ^2=|F_k(\omega )|^2`$ is the spectral density of noise in measuring the magnitude, $`K_0(x)`$ is the modified Bessel function (Galičič c9 (1999)) and $``$ indicates the average over frequencies (higher than 0.005Hz to exclude the 1/f noise at the low end). In order to detect a periodic component in the light curve we construct two quantities555In fact, since the light curves are of varying quality, we define $`\overline{M}`$ and $`\sigma _M`$ as weighted averages, where the weight of each component $`M_{jk}(\omega )`$ is $`\frac{1}{\sigma _j^2\sigma _k^2}`$, where $`\sigma _{j(k)}`$ is the average of $`\sigma (\omega )`$ corresponding to the $`j^{th}`$($`k^{th}`$) light curve.:

$$\overline{M}(\omega )=\frac{1}{N^2}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}M_{ij}(\omega )$$
(5)
and

$$\sigma _M(\omega )=\sqrt{\frac{1}{N^2}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}M_{ij}^2(\omega )\overline{M}^2(\omega )},$$
(6)
which in case of white Gaussian noise average to:

$$\overline{M}(\omega )=\frac{\pi N(N1)+8N}{2N(N+1)}\sigma ^2$$
(7)
and:

$`\sigma _M(\omega )=`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{(16\pi ^2)N^2+2(32+\pi ^28\pi )N+(16\pi 16\pi ^2)}}{2(N+1)}}\sigma ^2.`$
In Fig. 3 we plot $`\overline{M}(\omega )`$, $`\sigma _M(\omega )`$ and $`\frac{\overline{M}(\omega )}{\sigma _M^{}(\omega )}`$ calculated from the 12 light curves of the field star as plotted in Fig. 2. Here $`\sigma _M^{}(\omega )=\sigma _M(\omega )`$ if $`\sigma _M(\omega )>\sigma _M(\omega )`$ and $`\sigma _M^{}(\omega )=\sigma _M(\omega )`$ if $`\sigma _M(\omega )\sigma _M(\omega )`$. The average $`\overline{M}(\omega )`$ = 0.00091$`\frac{mag^2}{Hz}`$ and $`\sigma _M(\omega )`$ = 0.00054$`\frac{mag^2}{Hz}`$. Thus, from eq.7 we deduce $`\sigma =0.023\frac{mag}{\sqrt{Hz}}`$ and eq.3 gives $`\sigma =0.020\frac{mag}{\sqrt{Hz}}`$. Both numbers are consistent with each other and with average dispersion estimates from IRAF ($`\sigma _{IRAF}=\sigma /\sqrt{\tau };\tau =\mathrm{𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒}\mathrm{𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒}`$). Therefore, we conclude that the test star data conform with the statistical assumptions described above.

The result of a similar analysis for 16 Crab light curves is shown in Fig. 4. It is apparent that $`\sigma _M(\omega )`$ is almost the same for the Crab and the test star; however the average $`\overline{M}(\omega )`$ for the Crab is 1.5 times that of the test star. The process $`M_{ij}(\omega )`$ can, therefore, not be considered as white Gaussian noise, but it can be understood by assuming that it is the sum of a stationary “signal” $`M_{ij}^0(\omega )`$ and white Gaussian noise $`M_{ij}^n(\omega )`$ with the same spectral density as that of the test star. We considered the possibility that the “signal” is connected to a spurious phase modulation in stroboscope timing, but lab tests have set the upper limit for such a modulation some 100 times lower (Galičič c9 (1999)). We therefore conclude that the Crab pulsar light curve is intrinsically intensity modulated at the level of about 0.03$`\frac{mag}{\sqrt{Hz}}`$. The signal to noise ratio of this modulation measure is presently too low to reveal more about its nature.

To test for the slow down of the purported free precession we recalibrate frequencies in $`F_k(\omega )`$ to the same date according to an assumed power law dependence of the free precession frequency with time, i.e. we introduce the recalibrated frequency $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }=\omega (\frac{\nu _{ref}}{\nu _k})^p`$, where $`\nu _{ref}`$ and $`\nu _k`$ are the rotation frequencies of the pulsar at the reference date (Jan.1.1996) and at the date when the kth light curve was obtained. The above analysis has been repeated for different powers $`p`$ between 0 and 4. A 5.3 $`\sigma `$ peak stands out in $`\overline{M}(\stackrel{~}{\omega })/\sigma _M^{}(\stackrel{~}{\omega })`$ and is found at $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }=\frac{2\pi }{59.93s}`$ for $`p`$ around 1, as shown in Fig.5 and 6. Note that in the free precession model $`p`$ is expected to be 1 if the time for the pulsar to relax its internal stress is much longer than the total observation period ($`9`$years). It is expected to be 3, if this relaxation time is considerably shorter. Short relaxation times would point to externally driven precession.

## 4 Discussion

The question whether pulsars free precess was raised soon after pulsars were identified as rotating neutron stars. However, more than twenty years later most astronomers would agree with Trimble and McFadden’s (c19 (1998)) somewhat humorous reference to our paper suggesting that Earth is the only known free precessing body in the Universe. We believe that pulsar free precession has evaded detection and/or identification for two main reasons. 1) Most researchers assume that neutron star matter is in a complex superfluid state, which provides an excuse to evade the question: what is the inertial eccentricity of a rotating neutron star? As a result, the range of predicted or “identified” free precession frequencies in the literature is almost without bounds, although Pines and Shaham (c16 (1974)) estimated that the Crab pulsar would wobble with a period $``$ 5 minutes if it had a solid core. 2) As Alpar and Ögelman (c1 (1987)) correctly point out, free precession is a motion characteristic of rigid rotators. In a plastic rotator, free precessing motion is damped out by viscous losses - in pulsars this should happen on a time scale of years or thousands of years. Therefore, unless pulsars are exposed to reasonably large external torques, they are not expected to free precess. In our earlier paper (c7 (1997)) we tried a naive approach: starting with the observation that the Earth free precesses but taking into account the possibility that it may not be quite rigid with respect to free precession. We analysed the relation between the Earth’s inertial eccentricity, free precession frequency, rotation frequency and obliquity. We found that the Earth’s shape and that of other planets is quite similar to the equilibrium shape of rotating polytropes with no shear stress. The Earth’s free precession frequency can be fairly accurately calculated on the basis of these assumptions. We argue that a pulsar’s crust is relatively more rigid and thick than the Earth’s. Therefore, argument for planets can also be used to calculate a pulsar’s free precession frequency. For the fast Crab pulsar we found a free precession frequency on the order of $`minutes^1`$ and in particular the theoretical value $`\frac{1}{59.1sec}`$ was found for a $`1.3`$M pulsar model based on the tensor interaction equation of state. Surprisingly, the 35 day period of HerX-1 fits the same formula almost exactly666Note that our argument differs from those of D’Alessandro and McCulloch (c8 (1997)), who rely on Shaham’s (c17 (1977)) superfluid vortex theory in estimating that the angular momentum interplay between superfluid interior and the rigid crust is the most important mechanism determining the free precession frequency, and that of Melatos c12 (2000), who argues that $`\omega _{fp}=ϵ\omega _{rot}`$ “where $`ϵ`$ is the non-hydrostatic ellipticity”.. Our much larger dataset for the Crab pulsar strenghtens evidence for the 60 seconds period and also suggests that this period is increasing with time at almost the same rate as the rotation frequency of the pulsar. We also found that different combinations of smaller data sets consistently produce a peak at $`\stackrel{~}{\omega }=\frac{2\pi }{59.93s}`$ (of course with a correspondingly smaller signal to noise ratio). In Fig. 7 we plot the Fourier amplitude of the signal in the expected frequency channel (assuming the frequency power law with $`p=1`$) as a function of time together with errorbars (calculated from 10 neighbouring amplitudes). Single data points are clearly very noisy, therefore, not much can be said about the time dependence - in particular the glitch of July 1996 (Jodrell Bank Crab Pulsar Monthly Ephemeris c11 ) did not leave a clear mark. The best linear fit to our data points gives an amplitude of $`\mathrm{\Delta }m(t)=(0.0045\pm 0.0006)(0.00029\pm 0.00026)t`$, where $`t`$ is expressed in years since 1996.0.

Does the pulsar free-precess? We presented all the evidence that we have and are inclined to believe that it does point to an affirmative answer. Open questions remain such as: 1) does the amplitude of the free precession really change with time? and 2) on what time scale does the pulsar relax its internal stress? Observation of pulsar free precession can teach us much about pulsar physics. As shown by Čadež, Galičič and Calvani c7 (1997), the free precession model can quite sensitively (if something is known about the state of internal stress) distinguish between different neutron matter equations of state. Observing the change in free precession amplitude and frequency can allow one to learn about external torques on the pulsar (jets may produce them) and also about exchange of angular momentum between the crust and the neutron superfluid. Many questions regarding the $`\frac{1}{60sec}`$ period remain open and, given the relevance of those questions to our understanding of pulsar physics and their interaction with neighbouring plasma, it would be important if other research groups could extend our analysis and observations.

## 5 Acknowledgements

We are grateful to many people who made these observations possible and who kept our sometimes dwindling spirits up. The Padua Observatory is among our staunchest supporters - in particular Massimo Calvani was supporting and stimulating our observations from the very beginning, Ulisse Munari granted us one of his nights at the 1.82m telescope and prof. Roberto Barbon was very helpful during our 1997 observations. We thank Boris Hrib for his help in the HP calibration lab and Jurij Kotar, Dick Manchester and David Nice for help with the TEMPO program. The support of the technical staff of the Guillermo Haro observatory at Cananea is kindly acknowledged. It is a pleasure also to thank Jack Sulentic for his help in making the text more readable. This program was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia.