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# The correlation exponent 𝐾_𝜌 of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model

(March 19, 2024)

## Abstract

We present results for the correlation exponent $`K_\rho `$ of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid description of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice as a function of conduction electron density and coupling constant. It is obtained from the first derivative of the Fourier transform of the charge-charge correlation function. We also show that the spin correlation function can only be described in this picture if we include logarithmic corrections, a feature that had been previously overlooked. A consistent description of both charge and spin sectors is then obtained. Finally, we show evidence that the spin sector of the dimerized phase at quarter-filling is gapless.

The Kondo lattice model is the simplest model believed to describe the low energy physics of heavy fermion materials.livro  Its one-dimensional version has been thoroughly studied in the last 10 years and a great deal of understanding has been gained. However, some outstanding issues remain, some of which may have implications in the higher dimensional cases. For example, the question of whether the localized spins should be counted in a Luttinger’s theorem determination of the size of the Fermi momentum is still controversial.yamanakaetal ; japas1 ; japas2 ; small ; pivovarovsi  Furthermore, even the phase diagram still presents some novel surprising phases: at quarter conduction electron filling the spins are dimerized and the charge sector is gapped.dimer  The latter phase may be at the origin of the spin-Peierls phase observed in the quasi-one-dimensional organic compounds (Per)2M(mnt)2 (M=Pt, Pd).org  At a *generic incommensurate filling* however, the system is gapless in both the spin and charge sectors and it is reasonable to assumetllnote  that it is a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL).voit  In this paper, we will assume that this is the case. In an attempt to systematically characterize this behavior, we have determined the non-universal TLL exponent $`K_\rho `$ as a function of coupling constant and conduction electron density. We found that a consistent picture of charge and spin sectors can be obtained, only if logarithmic corrections are included in the spin correlations. Moreover, we also show that the spin excitation spectrum of the quarter-filled case is gapless. We give arguments showing that the presence of dimerization and the absence of a spin gap are not mutually exclusive.

We considered the one-dimensional spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ Kondo lattice Hamiltonian with $`L`$ sites

$$H=\underset{\begin{array}{c}j=1\\ \sigma =\pm 1\end{array}}{\overset{L1}{}}c_{j,\sigma }^{}c_{j+1,\sigma }^{}+h.c.+J\underset{j=1}{\overset{L}{}}𝐒_j𝐬_j,$$

where $`c_{j\sigma }`$ annihilates a conduction electron in site $`j`$ with spin projection $`\sigma /2`$, $`𝐒_j`$ is a localized spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ operator and $`𝐬_j=\frac{1}{2}_{\alpha \beta }c_{j,\alpha }^{}𝝈_{\alpha \beta }c_{j,\beta }^{}`$ is the conduction electron spin density operator. $`J>0`$ is the Kondo coupling constant between the conduction electrons and the local moments and the hopping amplitude has been set to unity to fix the energy scale. We studied the model with the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) technique white  with open boundary conditions. We used the finite-size algorithm for sizes up to $`L=120`$ keeping up to $`m=600`$ states per block. The discarded weight was typically about $`10^510^8`$ in the final sweep.

TLL’s with periodic boundary conditions and SU(2) symmetry have charge and spin correlation functions given asymptotically byvoit

$`\delta n\left(0\right)\delta n\left(x\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{K_\rho }{\left(\pi x\right)^2}}+A_1{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(2k_Fx\right)}{x^{K_\rho +1}}}`$ (1)
$`+`$ $`A_2{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(4k_Fx\right)}{x^{4K_\rho }}},`$
$`𝐒^T\left(0\right)𝐒^T\left(x\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\pi x\right)^2}}+B_1{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(2k_Fx\right)}{x^{K_\rho +1}}},`$ (2)
where $`\delta n\left(x\right)=n(x)n(x)`$, $`𝐒^T(j)=𝐒_j+𝐬_j`$, $`K_\rho `$ is the non-universal charge correlation exponent and $`k_F`$ is the Fermi momentum. Local charge perturbations, such as introduced by impurities or boundaries, induce density oscillations, called Friedel oscillations. In the case of a TLL, they take the form varios ; japas1 ; japas2

$$\delta n\left(x\right)=C_1\frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(2k_Fx\right)}{x^{\left(K_\rho +1\right)/2}}+C_2\frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(4k_Fx\right)}{x^{2K_\rho }}.$$
(3)
The main goal of this work is to present $`K_\rho `$ as a function of the conduction electron density and the Kondo coupling $`J`$ for the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model. A previous workjapas2  determined $`K_\rho `$, but only for the density $`n=2/3`$. Besides, in that work, the authors argued that the system has a “large” Fermi surface, with $`2k_F^L=\pi (n+1)(mod2\pi )`$, not a “small” one with $`2k_F^S=\pi n(mod2\pi )`$. Indeed, under some assumptions, the presence of low-lying excitations with momentum $`2k_F^L`$ can be proved.yamanakaetal  Assuming a “large” Fermi surface, the numerical results show that the dominant term in the charge Friedel oscillations is the second one in Eq. (3). From the decay of the envelope function of this term, $`K_\rho `$ was determined at $`n=2/3`$.japas2  However, more recent work has called into question the presence of a “large” Fermi surface, particularly for small $`J`$.small  If the Fermi surface is small, both terms in Eq. (3) oscillate with the same period at $`n=2/3`$ and the envelope function method cannot be unambiguously applied. In order to avoid this ambiguity, we determined $`K_\rho `$ from the first term in Eq. (1), or equivalently, from the derivative of the Fourier Transform of the charge-charge correlation function at $`q=0`$

$$K_\rho =\pi \frac{C(q)}{q}|_{q=0},$$
(4)
where

$$C(q)=\frac{1}{L}\underset{j,k}{}e^{iq\left(jk\right)}\delta n\left(j\right)\delta n\left(k\right).$$

This method has been shown to give very accurate results by Daul and Noack.daulnoack  These authors determined the exponent $`K_\rho `$ (by the DMRG technique) for the one-dimensional Hubbard model and found good agreement with the exact results. For this reason, in the present work we will use this procedure to estimate the exponent $`K_\rho `$.

Haldane has conjectured that the TLL is the generic universality class of one-dimensional gapless systems.haldconj  Although a rigorous proof usually relies on the integrability of the model, renormalization group arguments confirm this conjecture in paramagnetic phases.voit  Much less is known about the case of systems with ferromagnetic ground states.bartoschetal  However, even in this case, the spin sector usually decouples from the charge sector and it is possible for the latter to remain a TLL. The one-dimensional Kondo lattice model is ferromagnetic for sufficiently large $`J`$.rkondo  In Fig. 1 we show its charge gap as a function of system size for $`J=10`$ (inside the ferromagnetic phase) and the densities $`n=0.4`$ and $`n=0.6`$. The extrapolated values suggest that the ferromagnetic phase, like the paramagnetic one, has no charge gap. Thus, it is quite natural to expect that, inside the ferromagnetic phase, the charge sector may also be described as a TLL and we will assume this to be the case. In fact, as we will see below, our results are consistent with this assumption. Note that this appears to happen also in the case of the Hubbard model with next-nearest neighbor hopping.daulnoack

We first focus on the general $`q`$-dependence of $`C(q)`$. In Fig. 2 we present the Fourier transform of the charge-charge correlation function for $`n=0.8`$, $`L=40`$, and several values of $`J`$. We have checked that the *qualitative* behavior of $`C(q)`$ presents no finite size effects, and also observed that the simple sum rule $`C(0)=0`$ is satisfied (within the accuracy of the DMRG) for all values of density and Kondo coupling $`J`$ shown. For small values of $`J`$ and all densities, $`C(q)`$ increases linearly with $`q`$ up to $`q=\pi n`$, and then saturates at $`C(q)=n`$ for $`n<q/\pi <1`$. On the other hand, for large Kondo coupling $`C(q)`$ increases linearly with $`q`$ up to $`q=2\pi n(mod2\pi )<\pi `$ and then saturates at $`C(q)=n`$ ($`1n`$) for $`n<1/2`$ ($`n>1/2`$) and $`2\pi n(mod2\pi )<q<\pi `$.

In order to get some insight into the behavior of $`C(q)`$ we consider free fermions with spin-S in a one dimensional nearest-neighbor tight-binding lattice. In this case, the Fourier Transform of the charge-charge correlation function $`C_0^S(q)`$ is

$`{\displaystyle \frac{C_0^S(q)}{(2S+1)}}=\{\begin{array}{c}q/2\pi 0q/\pi 2m,\\ m2mq/\pi 1,\end{array}`$ (7)
where $`m=\mathrm{min}[n/(2S+1),1n/(2S+1)]`$. We will need two particular cases, with the restriction $`n<1`$. For spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ fermions

$$C_0^{1/2}(q)=\{\begin{array}{c}q/\pi 0q/\pi n,\\ nnq/\pi 1,\end{array}$$
(8)
while for spinless fermions, if $`n<1/2`$,

$$C_0^0(q)=\{\begin{array}{c}q/2\pi 0q/\pi 2n,\\ n2nq/\pi 1,\end{array}$$
(9)
and if $`n>1/2`$,

$$C_0^0(q)=\{\begin{array}{c}q/2\pi 0q/\pi 2(1n),\\ 1n2(1n)q/\pi 1.\end{array}$$
(10)
Our results for $`C(q)`$ in the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model all tend to the free spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ case when $`J0`$ (see Fig. 2), as expected. Besides, for $`J0`$, $`C(q)`$ tends to the $`S=0`$ case, $`C_0^0(q)`$. This is also to be expected, since in this case the conduction electrons form unbreakable mobile singlets with the localized spins, effectively behaving like spinless fermions.rkondo

The cusp of $`C(q)`$ at $`q=2k_F^S=n\pi `$, for small values of $`J`$ is the signature that the charge density oscillations (Eq. 1) are dominated by the $`2k_F^S`$ term. As we increase $`J`$ the cusp moves to $`q=2\pi n(mod2\pi )`$. At first sight, this might seem like an indication that the system crosses over from a $`2k_F^S`$-dominated region to a $`4k_F^S`$-dominated one as $`J`$ increases. Indeed, this is what happens in the Hubbard model when we increase the on-site repulsion $`U`$.rai  However, since $`4k_F^S=2\pi n=4k_F^L(mod2\pi )`$, the change might be due to a phase transition from a small Fermi surface to a large one.pivovarovsi  Indeed, there have been indications of an intervening ferromagnetic phase at intermediate values of $`J`$,phaseferr  which could give rise to this change. Unfortunately, the study of other (spin-spin) correlation functions has not shed any light on the issue:small  the size of the Fermi surface for intermediate values of $`J`$ remains an open question.

In Fig. 3 we show the exponent $`K_\rho `$ calculated through Eq. (4) for several values of $`n`$ and Kondo coupling $`J`$. For all densities we see that $`K_\rho `$ tends to unity when $`J0`$, in agreement with our expectation that the system tends to a non-interacting spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ electron gas with $`K_\rho ^0=1`$. On the other hand, in the strong coupling limit $`K_\rho 0.5`$, as expected for free spinless fermions (cf. Eqs. 4 and 9). We have observed that for densities $`n>1/2`$ and $`J1.5`$, $`K_\rho `$ attains its smallest values. This is a region where charge oscillations are enhanced (see, e. g., Fig. 1 of Ref. japas1, ). Actually, for some values of $`J`$ and $`n>1/2`$ we were unable to determine $`K_\rho `$, as for example at $`J=1.7`$ and $`n=0.9`$. At these points, our data did not satisfy the simple sum rule $`C(0)=0`$ even increasing the truncation $`m`$ up to $`m=600`$. The exponent $`K_\rho `$ also did not converge as a function of $`m`$. A truncation of $`m=600`$ is more than enough to get precise values in other parameter regions. Typically, for small values of $`J`$ and $`L=40`$, $`K_\rho `$ obtained with truncations $`m=400`$ and $`m=600`$ differ by less than $`5.10^2`$ and $`C(0)10^4`$ with $`m=400`$. It is interesting to note that this region where the charge oscillations are strongest corresponds to the ferromagnetic phase at intermediate $`J`$.phaseferr  For completeness, we also show in the inset of Fig. 3 the dependence of $`K_\rho `$ on the density for $`J=0.35`$ and $`J=0.5`$ with $`L=40`$. As we can see, $`K_\rho `$ decreases with increasing $`J`$.

Given this qualitative behavior of $`K_\rho `$ as a function of $`J`$, we now set out to determine some quantitative values of the exponent. For this, we must be careful to take into account finite-size effects. In Fig. 4 we show $`K_\rho `$ for the densities $`n=0.4`$ (circles) and $`n=0.8`$ (squares) as a function of $`1/L`$ at $`J=0.35`$. In order to incorporate the finite-size dependence, we determined the extrapolated exponent assuming that $`K_\rho (L)`$ behaves like

$$K_\rho (L)=K_\rho +a/L+b/L^2.$$
(11)
In Fig. 4 the dashed lines are fits to our data using Eq. 11. The exponents $`K_\rho `$ obtained through the fits are $`0.55`$ and $`0.76`$ for $`n=0.4`$ and $`n=0.8`$, respectively. The values of $`K_\rho `$ shown in the inset of Fig. 3 for small values of $`J`$ and $`L=40`$ should be seen as upper limits. From the uncertainty of about 0.05 in the values of $`K_\rho `$ for fixed $`L`$, we estimate the error in the extrapolated values to be $`0.1`$.

Now that we have accurately determined the exponent $`K_\rho `$ we should be able to describe all correlation functions, since the only parameters needed are $`K_\rho `$ and the Fermi momentum $`k_F`$ ($`K_\sigma =1`$ because of SU(2) symmetry). In particular, we can cross-check our results with the spin-spin correlation function (Eq. 2). Previous work showed that for small values of the Kondo coupling $`J`$ the size of the Fermi surface is small,small  so that $`k_F`$ is fixed (see also Ref. phaseferr, ). To eliminate the effect of the open boundaries on the spin-spin correlation function, we considered a large system and averaged the correlations over pairs of sites separated by a given distance $`j`$ to get $`𝐒^T\left(0\right)𝐒^T\left(l\right)`$, as discussed by other authors.small ; daulnoack ; whitex  In Fig. 5, the circles correspond to this averaged spin-spin correlation function $`P(l)=𝐒^T\left(0\right)𝐒^T\left(l\right)_{aveg}`$ for $`n=0.4`$ and $`n=0.8`$ at $`J=0.35`$ and $`L=120`$. We restricted the values to the interval $`30l90`$, because the TLL description only makes sense asymptotically and large values of $`l`$ may be compromised by the open boundaries. *A direct attempt at fitting the data of Fig. 5 with Eq. 2 yields $`K_\rho <0`$, which is clearly incorrect.* We believe the discrepancy is due to logarithmic corrections, which are well established in other models with SU(2) symmetry, e. g. the Heisenberg model.giamarchi ; hallberg  Thus, assuming a generic form

$`𝐒^T\left(0\right)𝐒^T\left(x\right)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\pi x\right)^2}}+B_1{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{cos}\left(2k_Fx\right)\mathrm{ln}^\alpha x}{x^{K_\rho +1}}},`$ (12)
we can produce an excellent fit to the numerical results *using the exponents $`K_\rho `$ independently obtained before* and only two fitting parameters: $`\alpha =4.0`$ ($`\alpha =5.1`$) and $`B_1=0.17`$ ($`B_1=0.11`$) for $`n=0.4`$ ($`n=0.8`$). This is seen as the dashed line in Fig. 5. Logarithmic corrections thus appear to be crucial for a complete description of the spin correlations of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model. As far as we know, this point has not been stressed before. We note that the above values of $`\alpha `$ differ from the expected values of $`1/2`$.affleckpc  A more accurate determination of the exponent of the log correction may require much larger system sizes.

Finally, we would like to address the quarter-filled case, $`n=1/2`$, which has been shown to exhibit spin dimerization.dimer  At this filling, the system has a charge gap and the charge sector cannot be described as a TLL.dimer  Furthermore, since the spins are dimerized, we would naively expect a finite spin gap, as in the frustrated $`J_1J_2`$ Heisenberg model.haldanedimer  We would now like to show that in fact the spin sector is gapless. In Fig. 6 we show the spin gap as a function of the lattice size $`L`$ for $`J=1.2`$ and densities $`n=0.5`$, $`n=0.8`$, and $`n=1.0`$. We chose to work with a large $`J`$ value in order to produce large spin gaps, since the spin gap generally increases with $`J`$. At half-filling, where the system is known to be fully gapped,rkondo  the data clearly tend to saturate at a non-zero value in the thermodynamic limit. By contrast, at $`n=0.5`$ and $`n=0.8`$ the data strongly indicate that the spin sector is gapless. Thus, the dimerized phase discovered in Ref. dimer,  has a charge gap but no spin gap. In that reference, the effect of dimerization in the localized spin sub-system on the conduction electrons was discussed. If we integrate out the local moments, an effective exchange interaction among the conduction electrons is generated. This is in a sense the “complement” of the RKKY interaction, which induces an effective exchange interaction between local moments once the conduction electrons are integrated out. This effective exchange interaction is proportional to the static spin susceptibility of the dimerized localized spins

$$H_{eff}J^2\underset{jk}{}\chi ^l(jk)𝐬_j𝐬_k.$$
(13)
If only nearest neighbor terms are retained $`\chi ^l(jk)=\delta _{j,k+1}D(j)`$, where $`D(j)(1)^jD_0`$ is the dimer order parameter. This leads to a *staggered exchange interaction* between conduction electron spin densities

$$H_{eff}\underset{j}{}(1)^j𝐬_j𝐬_{j+1}.$$
(14)
This kind of interaction can be analyzed through bosonization.voit  Among the many terms that are generated, those which involve combinations like $`e^{i4k_Fx}\psi _R^{}(x)\psi _L(x)\psi _R^{}(x+1)\psi _L(x+1)`$ will have just the right oscillating factor to cancel the $`(1)^j`$ in Eq. 14, *since $`4k_F=\pi `$ at quarter filling*. One of the terms is $`\mathrm{sin}(2\sqrt{2}\varphi _\rho )`$ (in the notation of Ref. voit, ), which is relevant and opens a charge gap if $`K_\rho <1`$.voit  The DMRG results show that this condition is fulfilled throughout the phase diagram. Thus, the above analysis seems to be consistent with the presence of a charge gap. A term of the form $`\mathrm{sin}(2\sqrt{2}\varphi _\sigma )`$ is also generated. However, it is *marginal* if $`K_\sigma =1`$ and only generates a spin gap if the coefficient has the right sign. We conclude that the presence of a charge gap and the absence of a spin gap we find is consistent with the bosonization analysis.

In conclusion, we have presented a systematic study of the non-universal exponent $`K_\rho `$ in the Kondo lattice model, as a function of the conduction electron density and the Kondo coupling. The qualitative behavior of the charge structure factor $`C(q)`$ in the weak and strong coupling limits could be ascribed to free spin-$`\frac{1}{2}`$ and spinless fermions, respectively. We also showed that the spin correlation function can be described within a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid scheme only if logarithmic corrections are included. Finally, we have demonstrated that, although the charge sector has a gap at quarter filling, there are gapless spin excitations.

We thank A. Villares for useful discussions. This work was supported by FAPESP 00/02802-7 (JCX), 01/00719-8 (JCX,EM), and CNPq 301222/97-5 (EM).


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# Erratum: Nodal Cooper-pair stabilized phase dynamics in granular 𝑑-wave superconductors

Recently, we discovered a mistake in our Letter jj  on phase dynamics in granular $`d`$-wave superconductors, which we corrected in an Erratum published last week jjer . This is an expanded version of the Erratum, containing details and supporting numerical results.

In our Letter, we accounted for weak disorder in $`d`$-wave superconducting state by adding lifetimes to the nodal quasiparticles $`E_𝐤E_𝐤i\gamma `$ ($`\gamma >0`$) when evaluating thermal Green’s functions $`G(𝐤,\tau )`$ and $`F(𝐤,\tau )`$. This naive substitution in thermal Green’s functions leads to $`G_{dis}G\mathrm{exp}(i\gamma \tau )`$ and $`F_{dis}F\mathrm{exp}(i\gamma \tau )`$. However, the exact expressions for thermal Green’s functions at temperature $`T`$ are given by

$`G(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`2T{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(\omega _n+\gamma )\mathrm{sin}\omega _n\tau }{(\omega _n+\gamma )^2+E_𝐤^2}},`$ (1)
$`F(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`2T{\displaystyle \underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤\mathrm{cos}\omega _n\tau }{(\omega _n+\gamma )^2+E_𝐤^2}},`$ (2)
where $`E_𝐤^2=(ϵ_𝐤\mu )^2+\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤^2`$ is the quasiparticle dispersion in the superconducting state, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤=\mathrm{\Delta }_0\mathrm{cos}2\theta _𝐤`$ is the $`d`$-wave superconducting gap, $`\omega _n=T\pi (n+1/2)`$ are fermionic Matsubara frequencies, and we have characterized the self-energy due to disorder as $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Sigma }(i\omega _n)=\gamma \mathrm{sign}(\omega _n)`$.

The thermal Green’s functions, Eqs.(1) and (2), are purely real and satisfy the following relations

$`G(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`G(𝐤,\tau )=+G(𝐤,1/T\tau ),`$ (3)
$`F(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`+F(𝐤,\tau )=F(𝐤,1/T\tau ),`$ (4)
where $`1/T\tau 1/T`$. Consequently, they also satisfy $`G(1/2T\tau )=G(1/2T+\tau )`$ and $`F(1/2T\tau )=F(1/2T+\tau )`$ where $`|\tau |1/2T`$. The Matsubara frequency sums above can be re-expressed in terms of sum-over-residues, and an integral over a branch cut which cannot be performed analytically. In the $`T=0`$ limit, the sums reduce to

$`G(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega }{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{2(\omega +\gamma )\mathrm{sin}\omega \tau }{(\omega +\gamma )^2+E_𝐤^2}},`$ (5)
$`F(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\omega }{2\pi }}{\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤\mathrm{cos}\omega \tau }{(\omega +\gamma )^2+E_𝐤^2}}.`$ (6)
These integrals can be expressed in terms of Sine ($`I_s`$) and Cosine ($`I_c`$) integrals gr

$`G(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\pi }}\left[I_s(\tau ,\gamma iE_𝐤)+I_s(\tau ,\gamma +iE_𝐤)\right],`$ (7)
$`F(𝐤,\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_𝐤}{2\pi iE_𝐤}}\left[I_c(\tau ,\gamma iE_𝐤)I_c(\tau ,\gamma +iE_𝐤)\right].`$ (8)
but the results, Eqs.(7) and (8), are not particularly illuminating. They can be expressed in terms of elementary functions only in the clean limit $`\gamma 0`$, in which case they reduce to standard analytical results.

It is straightforward to evaluate the frequency sums in Eqs.(1) and (2) numerically. Figure 1 shows $`G(\tau )`$ and $`F(\tau )`$ for $`1/T\tau 1/T`$ for different disorder strengths. The Reader can see that the numerical results obey all symmetry properties listed in the last paragraph. At low temperatures, the long-time behavior of the disordered thermal Green’s functions is shown in Fig.2. It is clear that, for $`T\mathrm{\Delta }_0,\gamma `$ and $`\tau T1`$, both $`G(\tau )`$ and $`F(\tau )`$ decay with disorder. We can approximate them as $`G_{dis}(\tau )=G(\tau )\mathrm{exp}(a_G\gamma |\tau |)`$ and $`F_{dis}(\tau )=F(\tau )\mathrm{exp}(a_F\gamma |\tau |)`$, where $`a_G,a_FO(1)`$ (See Fig. 3).

Therefore, although Eqs.(9) and (12) in jj  are correct, our results $`\alpha _{dis}(\tau )=\mathrm{cos}(2\gamma \tau )\alpha (\tau )`$, $`\beta _{dis}(\tau )=\beta (\tau )`$ are incorrect. Instead, we find that the disorder suppresses the power-law correlations in Eqs.(9) and (12) injj ,

$`\alpha _{dis}(\tau )`$ $`(G_LG_R+G_R^{}G_L^{})=`$ $`e^{2a_G\gamma |\tau |}\alpha (\tau ),`$ (9)
$`\beta _{dis}(\tau )`$ $`(F_LF_R^{}+F_RF_L^{})=`$ $`e^{2a_F\gamma |\tau |}\beta (\tau ).`$ (10)
Since the disorder suppresses the long-range phase correlations, it is necessary to exercise caution in using gradient expansion to map the nonlocal imaginary-time phase action (Eq.(4) in jj ) on to a local Lagrangian for a Josephson junction (Eq.(17) in jj ). In particular, the (apparently) divergent contribution to capacitance, which arises from momentum-conserving tunneling term (Eq.(16) in jj ) is incorrect. Instead the junction capacitance is determined by the point-contact tunneling term, $`CA_0\mathrm{\Delta }_0|T_0|^2/\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, and the Josephson energy is determined by the momentum-conserving tunneling term. Subsequently, our prediction that the Josephson plasmon frequency is strongly renormalized due to long-range phase correlations and is not sensitive to disorder, $`\omega _p\sqrt{\mathrm{\Delta }_0T}`$, Eq.(20) in jj  is not valid. The correct dispersion is $`\omega _p\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$ and it is weakly renormalized due to disorder.

Thus, our results on robustness of $`d`$-wave Josephson junctions against disorder and the strong renormalization of the Josephson plasmon frequency are invalid. The clean-limit results in our paper, such as power-law phase-correlations and the subsequent sub-ohmic dissipation, continue to remain valid.

We wish to thank Professor Dmitri Khveshchenko for his questions which led to the discovery of our mistake.


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# HIGH-RESOLUTION NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING AND POLARIMETRY OF FOUR PROTO-PLANETARY NEBULAEThis work was based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

As low- and intermediate-mass stars enter the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) of evolution, they enshroud themselves in dusty cocoons created by heavy mass loss in the form of stellar winds. Such winds gradually deplete the hydrogen envelopes of the stars, exposing their hot cores and causing the stars to increase in temperature. As the envelopes continue to thin as the result of nuclear burning and mass loss, the stellar temperature eventually increases to the extent that significant ultraviolet photons are emitted. The onset of photoionization leads to strong line emission from the circumstellar material, producing a planetary nebula (PN).

In the past 25 years, significant progress has been made in the understanding of both the evolution of the central star and the dynamical evolution of the nebula. It is now believed that, in most cases, the PN central star is powered by hydrogen shell burning, and that the dynamics and the morphology of the nebula are driven by an interacting winds process (cf. Kwok, 2000). While the one-dimensional structures (including shells, crowns, haloes, etc.) can be understood by the coupled stellar and nebular evolution models (Schönberner & Steffen, 2003), the origin of the variety of two-dimensional structures is still an unresolved mystery. The observed morphologies of PN range from round to elliptical to bipolar to point symmetric, whereas their progenitors, the AGB stars, show spherical symmetry in their envelopes (e.g., Neri et al., 1998; Sahai & Bieging, 1993; Lucas et al., 1992). Although it is certain that the interacting winds process plays a role in the shaping of the nebula (Balick, 1987), the exact details on how and when such shaping occurs remain unknown.

The study of proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs), the transitional objects between the AGB and PN phases, is crucial to an understanding of the processes that shape PNs. PN morphologies must be created or enhanced during this transitional phase. PPNs have recently been imaged in visible light with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and found to display many of the same shapes as the PNs (Ueta et al., 1998). Many show bipolar reflection nebulae, some with concentric arcs and “searchlight beams” (Sahai et al., 1998a; Kwok et al., 1998; Su et al., 1998; Hrivnak et al., 1999, 2001). In these, there appears to be a higher density of material in the equatorial region forming an optically-thick dust cocoon, with low-density lobes in the polar directions. The bipolarity observed in PPNs suggests that the shaping of PNs is established early in the transitional phase.

In this paper we present a high spatial resolution, near-infrared HST imaging and polarization study of four PPNs, each of which has recently been studied with high spatial resolution visible imaging. Three of these display a dark lane in the visible images that obscures the central star. In the near-infrared, one can probe the structure of the circumstellar shell closer to the central star than can be done in visible light. One of our observational goals was to detect the central stars and determine their precise locations. With the polarization observations we wanted to investigate the scattering geometry, locate the position of the central star from the polarization vectors, learn about the properties of the dust grains, and see if there was evidence to support the model of a circumstellar torus in the systems. The only PPN for which a detailed high-resolution near-infrared imaging and polarization study has been published is AFGL 2688 (Egg Nebula), and in this case the central star was not seen in the near-infrared (Sahai et al., 1998b; Weintraub et al., 2000). As part of our program of high-resolution near-infrared imaging and polarimetry of PPNs, we have also presented preliminary results for three other PPNs (Sahai et al., 2000). With an increased sample, we hope to better understand the properties of the circumstellar material of PPNs and the cause of the development of asymmetry in PNs.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION

High-resolution near-infrared observations of these four PPNs were obtained in 1998 with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multiobject Spectrometer (NICMOS) on board the HST under General Observer program ID No. 7840 (PI: Kwok). NICMOS camera 2 (NIC2) was used, which has a very high resolution ($`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}076\times 0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}075\mathrm{pixel}^1`$) and a 19$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 $`\times `$ 19$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$3 field of view (Thompson et al., 1998). Observations were made with a broad-band H filter (F160W), a medium-band K filter (F222M), and three 2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ (1.9-2.1 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ ) polarizers (POL0L, POL120L, POL240L). The data were read out using the multiple non-destructive mode (MULTIACCUM) to obtain a high dynamic range without saturating the detector. An observing log, including total exposure times in the individual bandpasses, is given in Table 1. Each target was imaged three successive times in each filter at different positions on the NIC2 array, using a predefined spiral dither pattern. The data from the bad pixels and columns and the area blocked by the coronographic mask were compensated by the three-step dither mode. The data were processed with the standard NICMOS CALNICA pipeline program, which includes bias subtraction, dark subtraction, flat-field correction, cosmic-ray removal, and flux calibration. An additional effect that needed to be corrected is the so-called “pedestal effect” due to residual charge present in certain images (Thompson et al., 1998). Through use of the “unpedestal” program developed by Roeland van der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute, most of this effect was removed.

The dithered images were shifted and coadded manually using median combining. In order to combine the dithered images accurately, we first subgridded each data set by a subsample factor of two so that the peak position of field stars can be measured more precisely. The offsets between dithered images were determined by comparing the peak positions of a number of field stars and obtaining an average offset. The precision in this method of registering the dithered images can be seen from the typical rms values of the offsets in the peak positions of the field stars in an image, which are 0.040 and 0.034 pixels in the X and Y directions, respectively.

The distortion of the NICMOS dewar due to cryogen expansion affected its optical path. This caused the effective focal length, and hence the pixel scale, to change somewhat as a function of time during the initial active lifetime of the instrument. The plate scales were measured every two weeks during the active lifetime; therefore, we adopted a plate scale for each observation using the measurement that was closest to the date of the observation. The NICMOS detector arrays were slightly tilted relative to the focal plane; therefore, when projected onto the sky, the pixels are actually rectangular, not square. The X and Y pixel scale differences need to be corrected to carry out precision astrometry or to accurately register NICMOS images to images taken with other instruments such as the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board HST. These scale differences must also be accounted for when analyzing the orientation of the polarization vectors. The images were thus rescaled spatially when necessary.

To remove (or at least reduce) extended point-spread function (PSF) features of the NICMOS, we have deconvolved the images using an iterative Poisson maximum-likelihood algorithm (task “lucy” in IRAF). The PSFs used in the deconvolution were generated by the TinyTim program v.4.4 (Krist & Hook, 1997). The deconvolved images were only used for display purposes. All scientific measurements were done based on the original images. Specific reduction and analysis of the polarimetric data are discussed separately in Sec. 4.

## 3 F160W AND F222M IMAGES

Photometric measurements were made on the F160W and F222M images of the four PPNs using the calibration values listed in Table 2. The magnitudes determined from the FITS image headers (PHOTFNU and PHOTFLAM) are in the HST STMAG system. Because the NICMOS filter bandpasses do not match those of ground-based filters, it is not straightforward to derive standard infrared magnitudes. Since there are no direct spectrophotometric observations of Vega or other A0V standards through the NICMOS filter system, we used the flux values for a 0.0 magnitude star (Vega) as derived by the NICMOS Instrument Definition Team (IDT; see Table 2). Standard aperture photometry was carried out on the four objects using elliptical apertures that approximately matched the size of the nebulae. Apertures were chosen that were similar in size to the nebular halos measured on the visible WFPC2 images. The several bright field stars inside the apertures were excluded in calculating the total integrated counts. Table 3 lists the results of the photometric measurements and includes the aperture sizes. These magnitudes on the Vega system, mVega(F160W) and mVega(F222M), are all close ($``$ 0.2 mag) to the ground-based H and K measurements, respectively, for these objects. The brightness of each of the central stars was also measured. We used a small aperture (2 $`\times `$ FWHM) and applied an aperture correction based upon the measurement of a bright star in the field of IRAS 17150$``$3224. These approximate values are also listed in Table 3; we estimate the accuracy to be $`\pm `$0.3 to $`\pm `$0.4 mag, the main uncertainty being the contribution of the nebular flux.

The published WFPC2 F606W ($`\lambda _{eff}=`$ 0.58 $`\mu `$m) images of IRAS 17150$``$3224 (Kwok et al., 1998), IRAS 17441$``$2411 (Su et al., 1998), and IRAS 17245$``$3951 (Hrivnak et al., 1999) show a prominent bipolarity in their nebulae, with a dark lane separating two opposite lobes in each. Similar bipolarity is also seen in these new near-infrared images. This indicates that there exists an asymmetry in their circumstellar dust shells, with stellar light escaping from lower density regions to give rise to this bipolar nebulosity. To investigate further the presence of an asymmetry around each of these PPNs, flux-ratio or color maps were computed. For these we included the previous WFPC2 F606W images. These were shifted and rotated in order to align with the F160W and F222M images. This process was done with the IRAF/IMMATCH package, which uses three field stars that appear in all of the images as the reference points to perform geometrical transformations. Since the resolutions at different wavelengths and with different filter widths are not the same, the higher-resolution WFPC2 F606W and NIC2 F160W images were convolved with an extended Gaussian profile to match the resolution in the NIC2 F222M image before computing the flux-ratio maps. These images and flux-ratio maps are presented and discussed for each object in the following subsections.

### 3.1 IRAS 17150$``$3224

Figures 1a and 1b display the deconvolved F160W and F222M images of IRAS 17150$``$3224 (Cotton Candy Nebula). The object consists of two bipolar reflection lobes that have similar sizes in all three bandpasses (F606W, F160W, and F222M). Bright “caps” appear at the ends of the lobes. The presence of these sharp caps strongly suggests that there exists a definite boundary to the material distribution in the polar directions rather than open-ended cavities. The bipolar lobes look like limb-brightened bubbles in the near-infrared images. Thus the density inside the lobes must be very low; they are essentially closed-end cavities.

Superimposed on the bipolar lobes and the surrounding halo is a series of concentric, circular arcs. Six arcs are detected in the F160W image, and these correspond to the inner six arcs previously detected in the WFPC2 F606W image. This correspondence is clearly seen in the radial intensity profiles shown in Figure 2. An average separation of 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$51 was obtained between the six arcs in the F160W image; this value agrees with the separation measured in the F606W image using a similar method. These arcs appear to be portions of incomplete circles.

The central star can clearly be seen in both near-infrared images, in contrast to the visible image in which the lobes were separated by a dark lane with the star obscured. The position of the central star is similar in both, with an average value of R.A.(J2000) = $`17^h18^m19\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}78`$, decl.(J2000) = $`32\mathrm{°}27\mathrm{}21\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}2`$. This agrees with the position of the crossing point of the searchlight beams seen in the F606W image, R.A.(J2000) = $`17^h18^m19\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}77`$ and decl.(J2000) = $`32\mathrm{°}27\mathrm{}21\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}1`$ (Kwok et al., 1998), and confirms that the cavity which produces the beams is centered on the central star.

The inner boundries of the lobes in the near-infrared and visible images appear not to be parallel or axially-symmetric but rather open widely to the SW side (the right side in Figure 1a and 1b). The inner bounderies appear to be brighter than the caps or the rest of the lobes in these near-infrared images. A faint loop extending from the central region toward the ENE and WSW directions is found in each of the near-infrared images; this loop is not seen in the visible image. The loop has an approximately elliptical shape centered at the central star, with a size of 1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$11$`\times `$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$59 (semi-major axis$`\times `$ semi-minor axis) and a position angle (P.A.) of 63°. Note that the major axis of the loop is not perpendicular to the symmetry axis of the bipolar lobes (P.A. = 112°). This kind of loop structure has also been seen in some young PPNs (e.g., Hubble 5) in visible light.

Figures 1c and 1d display the color or flux-ratio maps for F160W/F606W (logarithmic scale) and F222M/F160W (linear scale). The bipolar reflection lobes and the faint arcs have bluer colors than the equatorial regions and the central star. The flux ratios in different parts of the nebula are summarized in Table 4. The bluer colors in the bipolar lobes and the arcs are consistent with the idea that these regions are viewed in light scattered off the dust grains. The fact that the SE cap is redder than the NW cap suggests that the SE lobe is pointed away from us; thus its light is further reddened by passing through more of the halo. This is consistent with the visible image in which the SE lobe is fainter than the NW lobe. The reflected light from the bipolar lobes is mostly singly scattered, as deduced from the high percentage polarization seen at 2 $`\mu `$m (see Section 4.3). This condition can be used to set constraints on the radial extinction of starlight and the line-of-sight scattering optical depth as a function of radius from the central star. The scattering optical depth at any radius can be estimated by comparing the observed scattered light intensity to the incident stellar radiation (e.g., Sahai et al. 1999b). The observed brightness for the brighter NW lobe at 2.22 $`\mu `$m is 3.5$`\times 10^{13}`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 arcsec-2 at the projected radius of 2$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$7. The incident stellar radiation at 2.22 $`\mu `$m (2.85 $`\times 10^9`$ ergs s-1 cm-2 $`\mu `$m-1) can be estimated using the bolometric flux of 5.71 $`\times 10^8`$ ergs cm-2 s-1 (Kwok et al., 1996) and $`T_{eff}=`$ 5500 K. Assuming a 1/r2 density distribution, eqn (1) from Sahai et al. (1999b) gives a line-of-sight optical depth of $`\tau _{los}=`$2.2$`\times 10^2`$, which is about 200 times smaller than we observed ($`\tau _{2.2}`$ = 4.2) based on the flux ratio of the whole nebula (see the calculation below). This suggests that the integrated light from the nebula is mostly reddened due to the radial extinction from the star to the point where it gets scattered, and then slightly blue-ed by the scattering process.

The central star is extremely red, with approximate color indices of (V$``$H) $`>`$ 9 and (H$``$K) $``$ 2.0. The spectral type of the central star, based upon observations of scattered light from the lobes, is G2 I (Hu et al., 1993). The intrinsic color for an unreddened G2 I star is $`(VH)`$=1.5 and $`(HK)`$=0.1; thus the central star is highly reddened. The central star shows a F222M/F160W flux ratio of 1.2, which is significantly larger than that expected (0.46) from its G2 I spectral type and estimated interstellar extinction ($`A_V`$ 1.0 mag; Su et al., 2001). This additional reddening can be attributed to circumstellar material, particularly in the dense equatorial region. By comparing the expected value of the F222M/F160W flux ratio (0.36) from an unreddened G2 I star ($`T_{eff}=5500K`$) to our observed value (1.2), (assuming the standard interstellar extinction curve (Cardelli et al., 1989) for the nebular dust), we find an extinction optical depth at 2.2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ of $`\tau _{2.2}=1.8`$ and at 1.6 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ of $`\tau _{1.6}=3.0`$ toward the central star. However, the total observed flux from the object gives a F222M/F160W flux ratio of 6.3, which gives $`\tau _{2.2}=4.2`$ and $`\tau _{1.6}=7.1`$. The $`\tau _{1.6}/\tau _{2.2}`$ ratio from the central star (1.6) is smaller than that derived from the whole object, suggesting that the extinction curve between 1.6 and 2.2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ for dust grains along the equatorial direction is flatter than the interstellar one. This flatter wavelength dependency on the extinction curve is likely due to larger grain sizes in the equatorial dense region than the typical value (0.1 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ ) for interstellar grains. Other PPNs, like the Egg Nebula (Sahai et al., 1998a) and IRAS 04296+3429 (Sahai, 1999), also show evidence for large grains in their dense equatorial regions.

The flux-ratio maps reveal non-axially symmetric patterns, with the region between the lobes appearing as a red wedge opening to the SW (right side of Figure 1c and 1d). This suggests that the dense equatorial region (torus) is larger in vertical extent on this side. The F222M/F160W flux-ratio map shows a red source at the location of the central star, with additional red regions nearby on each side. To better illustrate the structures in the central part, three intensity cuts (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 wide) through the central red source were made near the x-axis of the F222M/F160W flux-ratio map (Fig. 3). The nearby red regions appear as peaks in these cuts, with two pairs of peaks (radii $``$$`0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ and $``$$`1\mathrm{}`$) and perhaps a third ($``$$`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$) seen, in addition to the central peak. The pair of peaks at radius $``$1″ is associated with the extended loop seen in the near-infrared images. The red color presumably arises from the scattering of the extremely reddened light of the central star. The possible outermost pair of peaks located at r$``$1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6 is seen primarily along one cut. These peaks arise from regions where the S/N is low in both the F160W and F222M images. It is possible that they represent a second, outer loop, but at present we consider the physical reality of the outermost peaks to be uncertain. The inner pair of peaks may represent a cross-section of the torus. However, they have different angular separations from the central star ($``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$34 for NE and $``$0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$52 for SW). If the inner pair represents the dusty torus, the non-equal separations imply that either the star is not at the center of the torus or the torus is not axially symmetric. The former of these can arise if the post-AGB central star is in orbit with a binary companion. (Such a companion would likely be a main-sequence or white dwarf star and therefore much fainter and not visible.) The average separation of the inner peaks translates to 6.4$`\times 10^{15}`$ cm (D/1 kpc).

### 3.2 IRAS 17441$``$2411

Figures 4a and 4b show the deconvolved NIC2 F160W and F222M images of IRAS 17441$``$2411 (Silkworm Nebula). This object showed a pronounced S-shaped nebula in the visible F606W image (Su et al., 1998), and this S-shaped morphology is seen in both of the near-infrared images. This morphology suggests point-symmetry in the nebula. The central star, which was not seen in the visible, is clearly resolved in both of the near-infrared images, with a position of R.A.(J2000) = $`17^h47^m13\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}51`$, decl.(J2000) = $`24\mathrm{°}12\mathrm{}51\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}6`$. This position agrees with the center position of the two pairs of concentric arcs seen in the F606W image, R.A.(J2000) = $`17^h47^m13\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}49`$, decl.(J2000) = $`24\mathrm{°}12\mathrm{}51\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}0`$. The nebula has a similar size in all three bands; this is to be expected when one is seeing scattering from the dense-walled lobes.

Figures 4c and 4d show the flux-ratio maps. The reflection lobes are bluer than the equatorial region, as is the case in IRAS 17150$``$3224. The southern lobe is redder and fainter in visible light than the northern lobe; both of these characteristics suggests that the southern lobe is tipped away. The detailed flux ratios in different regions are listed in Table 5. The central star is very bright in the near-infrared images, resulting in a complex PSF; hence the flux-ratio map of F222M/F160W is complicated and full of PSF features (wings and spikes). In an inset in Figure 4c, the intensity contours around the central star in the F160W/F606W flux-ratio map are shown. These contours appear to show an axisymmetric torus perpendicular to the lobes. Thus, similar to IRAS 17150$``$3224, the color distribution in IRAS 17441$``$2411 supports the model of a circumstellar torus. The central star appears extremely red (presumably as a result of circumstellar extinction), with approximate values of (V$``$H) $`>`$ 9 and (H$``$K) $``$ 2.5.

### 3.3 IRAS 17245$``$3951

Near-infrared images of IRAS 17245$``$3951 (Walnut Nebula) are shown in Figure 5. The central star, which was not seen in the visible, is clearly resolved in both of the near-infrared images, with a position of R.A.(J2000)=$`17^h28^m04\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}59`$, decl.(J2000)=$`39\mathrm{°}53\mathrm{}44\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}9`$. The nebula is small and has a size in the F160W image similar to that seen in the F606W image. However, the nebula is not seen in the F222M image; this may be due to the fact that the image does not go as deep as the other two and partly perhaps to the relatively large effect of the complicated PSF of the bright central star in the F222M image. A jet-like structure seen in the southern lobe in the F606W image (Hrivnak et al., 1999) does not appear in the F160W image.

Figure 5c shows the F160W/F606W flux-ratio map. The bluest colors are associated with the lobes and the reddest colors with a torus perpendicular to the lobes. The northern lobe is bluer than the southern lobe, again consistent with the visible image in which the northern lobe is brighter than the southern lobe. The central star is very red, with (V$``$H) $`>`$ 3.5 and (H$``$K) $``$ 1.6.

### 3.4 IRAS 16594$``$4656

The visible F606W image of IRAS 16594$``$4656 (Water Lily Nebula; Hrivnak et al. (1999)) indicates that the bipolar nebula is oriented at an intermediate inclination, not nearly edge-on as in the other three cases. The central star is seen in the F606W image, and it has been assigned a spectral type of B7 (Van de Steene, Wood, & van Hoof, 2000). It is reddened, with (V$``$H) $``$ 4.2 and (H$``$K) $``$ 0.3. No dark lane is visible. Near-infrared images of IRAS 16594$``$4656 are shown in Figure 6. The nebulosity in the F160W image bears a general resemblance to the one seen in the visible image, but does not show as much faint detail. In the F606W image, included for comparison (Fig. 6c), the main lobes are along the ESE and WNW directions with some extended structures (“petals”) along the NE and SW directions. The nebulosity seen in F160W is also elongated along the ESE and WNW directions, and the petals appear very faintly. Very little nebulosity is detected in the F222M image; this is due in part to the fact that the PSF of the bright central star masks, to some extent, the light of the nebula. In the F160W/F606W flux-ratio map, the faint petals stand out as having a bluer color than the rest of the nebula.

## 4 2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ POLARIZATION IMAGES

### 4.1 Reduction and Analysis Procedures

The NICMOS polarization data of the four PPNs were analyzed using the algorithm developed by Hines et al. (2000) to derive the Stokes images (I,Q,U) and the maps of percentage polarizations (p) and position angles ($`\theta `$). Before constructing the final Stokes images and percentage polarization and position angle maps, there were several additional steps in the data reduction. Any sky background was removed, since this would produce a small DC offset that would introduce some artificial polarization. The sky values in each image were determined by examining several blank sky areas and an average sky value was subtracted from the image. The X and Y pixel scale differences were adjusted to produce square pixels; otherwise, a systematic offset in polarization position angle would have been introduced (Hines et al., 2000). In order to transform the data to square pixels, the flux of each data set was redistributed with a bicubic spline interpolation function using a task called “imlintran” in IRAF. Since the percentage polarization and position angle maps are formed by dividing one image by another image, one must be careful to avoid a run-away error, which can occur when dividing by a very small number with a relatively large uncertainty. Therefore, before calculating the result maps, the three data sets were rebinned by 2x2 pixels to smooth out small fluctuations. Then the threshold value for a real signal was defined as 10 $`\sigma _{sky}`$; any signal below 10 $`\sigma _{sky}`$ was considered as noise with zero percentage polarization.

The actual uncertainties in the polarization will be larger than the Poisson errors. Additional sources in the form of systematic errors include the background subtraction and the image alignment. In order to reduce possible errors in the final percentage polarization and position angle maps, a threshold of S/N = 10 was also set in the final Stokes images. As the following estimations show, with this conservative threshold, the estimated uncertainties are not important. We first added 1 $`\sigma _{sky}`$ noise to the sky-subtracted images (POL0L, POL120L, POL240L) and found the percentage polarization to differ only within $`\pm `$3%. We also computed a new set of polarization maps using un-shifted data and found that the percentage polarization differs by less than 3% within the the S/N=10 threshold region, although it can increase up to 24% outside that boundry. According to the on-orbit calibration of the NICMOS polarimetric capability, a total instrumental polarization of $`<`$ 1% was found (Hines et al., 2000). Since these four objects are all in the general direction of the center of the galaxy ($`l`$: 340$`\mathrm{°}`$ to 4$`\mathrm{°}`$, $`b`$: $``$3.3$`\mathrm{°}`$ to +3.0$`\mathrm{°}`$), a small amount of polarization ($``$5%) may be of interstellar origin. Therefore, we conclude that, after correcting for the projection effect, rebinning, and setting the above thresholds, the uncertainty in the polarization is $`\sigma _p`$ $`5\%`$ and $`\sigma _\theta `$ $`2\mathrm{°}`$ (the later taken from Hines et al. (2000)).

### 4.2 Polarization Structures

The polarization pattern for a simple reflection nebula with a central illuminating source, such as a PPN, is expected to be centrosymmetric about the illuminating star. Even for a slightly more complicated system composed of a mixture of reflected central starlight and line emission from the extended nebulosity, such as is found in a young PN, one still expects to observe this centrosymmetric pattern. This is because the line-emission radiation will be unpolarized and its effect will only be to dilute the polarized scattered light (Scarrott & Scarrott, 1995). The most likely near-infrared emission line in the PPN phase is from $`\mathrm{H}_2`$, and the NIC2 polarizer bandpass may admit as much as 10 % of any $`\mathrm{H}_2`$emission present at 2.12 $`\mu `$m. Among these four PPNs, only IRAS 17150$``$3224 is known to have $`\mathrm{H}_2`$emission. This dilution effect will be discussed in 4.3.

Figure 7 shows the 2 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$ polarization maps for the four PPNs. In this figure, the polarization vectors are plotted as straight lines whose lengths represent the strength of the polarization; these are superimposed on the contour images of the total flux of the light through the three polarizers (Stokes I image). The distribution of the polarization vectors shows a general centrosymmetric pattern around the central source in each of these PPNs. This is consistent with what one would expect from a reflection nebulosity with a central illuminating source. Some departure from a centrosymmetry pattern is found in the equatorial regions. This is commonly seen in the equatorial regions of bipolar reflection nebulae (Kastner & Weintraub, 1995; Scarrott & Scarrott, 1995; Sahai et al., 1998b). In these equatorial regions, the polarization is low ($`<`$ 10 %), as will be discussed below. This suggests that multiple scattering has reduced the strength of the polarization and provides further evidence for the presence of a dense circumstellar torus in these PPNs.

In addition to the centrosymmetry, the polarization vectors also show a strong point symmetry in the distribution of polarization strengths around the central star. This can be seen in plots of the polarization vectors within different ranges of percentage polarization. IRAS 17150$``$3224 shows remarkable point symmetry, as seen in Figure 8. The lobes and the two caps are highly polarized, with $`p>60\%`$. The maximum percentage polarization is found at the edge of the SE lobe (the fainter lobe in the optical image), with $`p76\%`$. In general, the light from the lobes is polarized with $`p>50\%`$ (see the combination of Fig. 8a and 8b). Lower polarization is found along the edges of the lobes. The areas with $`p<10\%`$ are located in the equatorial region. For IRAS 17441$``$2411 (Figure 9), the reflection lobes typically possess $`p45\%`$ polarization. The maximum polarization is found at the bend of the S-shape in the southern lobe (the fainter lobe in the optical image), with $`p60\%`$. Similar to IRAS 17150$``$3224, lower polarization is found along the edges of the lobes and the areas associated with the lowest polarization ($`p<10\%`$) are located in the equatorial region.

For IRAS 17245$``$3951 (Figure 10), the higher polarization ($`42\%>p>30\%`$) is found near the ends of the nebular lobes. Again, the low polarization ($`p<10\%`$) region is associated with the equatorial direction. For IRAS 16594$``$4656 (Figure 11), the higher polarization region ($`59\%>p>40\%`$) is found to be associated with the edges of the nebula and the maximum polarization is found in the eastern lobe. The vectors also show a general centrosymmetric pattern. Since the nebula is oriented at an intermediate inclination (Su et al., 2001), the torus is no longer edge-on and the low polarization ($`p<10\%`$) region is distributed around the central star.

### 4.3 Polarization Discussion

In Figure 12 are shown the percentage polarization maps for the IRAS 17150$``$3224 and IRAS 17441$``$2411. One can clearly see the highly polarized regions at the ends and the edges of the lobes in IRAS 17150$``$3224. Note that $`\mathrm{H}_2`$emission is observed in IRAS 17150$``$3224 (Su et al., 2000). The strongest $`\mathrm{H}_2`$emission is seen from the polar caps, which are among the regions with the largest polarization strength ($``$ 60$``$76 %). However, the total flux contributed by the $`\mathrm{H}_2`$emission is low compared to the total flux through three polarizers ($``$2.3 %). The undiluted percentage polarization should be higher by only $``$1 %.

Comparison of our HST imaging polarimetry with that obtained from the ground shows the advantages of the high HST spatial resolution when observing small nebulae such as PPNs. Gledhill et al. (2000, 2001) carried out ground-based near-infrared (J-band) imaging polarimetry for three of these PPNs. They found the polarization vectors distributed in an elliptical pattern aligned orthogonal to the polar axis of each nebula, rather than in the general centrosymmetric pattern found in these HST NICMOS observations. This can be quite easily understood as the result of the lower spatial resolution (by a factor of five) of their observations, which results in spatial smearing of the vectors (see Lucas & Roche (1998), Fig. 12). Similarly, their values (at 1.25 $`\mu `$m) for the maximum observed polarization are less than these HST values (at 2.0 $`\mu `$m). This is also likely due to spatial smearing of the polarization values and to the greater effect of dilution on the polarization values by the unpolarized light of the central stars in their lower-resolution images. These effects will be greatest for the small nebula of IRAS 17245$``$3951. (This difference in the maximum observed polarization values is not due to the difference in wavelengths observed, since these authors also observed some PPNs in both J and K (2.2 $`\mu `$m) and found the maximum observed polarization at K to be comparable to or less than that at J).

The polarization maps depend on the dust grain properties, in additional to the density structure of the nebulae. We therefore use the Monte Carlo multiple-scattering models developed for bipolar nebulae (Whitney & Hartmann, 1993; Whitney et al., 1997; Lucas & Roche, 1998) around young stellar objects (YSOs), since these are morphologically rather similar to PPNs for which such models are not available. With these we analyze our polarimetric images and infer rough constraints on the dust properties of our PPNs.

First, one can get some constraints on the grain albedo. Lucas & Roche (1998) simulated K-band images for low albedo ($`\omega _K`$ = 0.22) and high albedo ($`\omega _K`$ = 0.8) dust grains (see their Fig. 14). The low albedo image shows pinched-in, bipolar-like intensity contours in the equatorial plane for a near edge-on system, while the high albedo image shows more elliptical-like contours. Since IRAS 17150$``$3224 and IRAS 17441$``$2411 appear bipolar, low albedo grains are likely to be dominant in these two. Furthermore, a lower albedo in the K band is consistent with single scattering of the photons, since a high albedo would lead to multiple scattering and a lower value for the maximum observed percentage polarization. The values of the observed percentage polarization are very high for these PPNs. Both the high values of the observed percentage polarization and the pinched-in morphologies infer that low albedo grains are dominant in these PPNs. A similar result was also found in another PPN, Roberts 22 (Sahai et al., 1999b).

The value of the maximum linear percentage polarization ($`p_{max}`$) is a function of the grain size and thus can be used to constrain the size of the grains present. The value of $`p_{max}`$ is the highest percentage level of polarization that can be produced by single scattering, and the maximum observed value of the percentage polarization provides a lower limit to $`p_{max}`$. In Table 6 are listed the observed maximum values of the polarization ($`p_{max}`$(obs)) for these four PPNs and the Egg Nebula (for comparison). Lucas & Roche (1998) calculated the percentage polarization produced by scattering though 90° using particles of different radii $`a`$ (see their Fig. 13). They found that for spherical silicate grains (with refractive index m = 1.7 $``$ 0.03i), $`p_{max}`$ is 100 % for grains with radii $`a`$ 0.3 $`\mu `$m but then drops off rapidly for larger grains. (For a metallic dust mixture (m = 1.7 $``$ 0.6i) this size constraint is removed since they maintain high polarization for a wide range of sizes.) Thus, if we assume silicate grains (silicate absorption at 9.7 $`\mu `$m is observed in IRAS 17150$``$3224; Kwok et al. (1995)), then these high observed maximum polarization values indicate that the dust must be dominated by small grains in the scattering envelope (the bipolar lobes and halo). Table 6 also includes the location in the bipolar nebulae where the observed maximum polarization is found and the nebular size in visible light. Except for IRAS 17245$``$3951, the observed maximum polarization is found associated with the fainter lobe for each of these bipolar nebulae. In an axisymmetric distribution of dust illuminated by a central source and inclined to our line of sight, if the fainter lobe is more polarized than the brighter lobe, the most likely explanation is that the grains are forward scattering. This is because with forward scattering, the scattered flux is weighted toward small scattered angles (Whitney & Hartmann, 1993). Thus the comparison of these near-infrared images and polarization maps with models developed for YSOs suggests that the dust in the scattering envelope is dominated by small, forward-scattering grains (radii $`a`$ 0.3 $`\mu `$m for silicates) with low albedos.

## 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

A high-resolution near-infrared imaging and polarization study of four bipolar PPNs has been carried out using NICMOS on the HST. In the three nearly edge-on nebulae, the central stars are seen for the first time in these near-infrared images. (This is in contrast to the Egg Nebula, which appears similar in visible light but in which the central star is not seen in the near-infrared.) All four show a general centrosymmetric pattern in their polarization vectors, indicating that one is seeing light from the central star that has been singly-scattered from the dust grains. The nebular size is the same in the near-infrared images as in the previous visible HST images, consistent with scattering from dense-walled lobes. Color maps show that the light from the lobes is bluer than from the central region, and the polarization images show that the lobes are highly polarized ($`>`$40% for IRAS 17150$``$3224 and IRAS 17441$``$2411). These all indicate that the lobes are seen almost entirely in scattered light and that any emission sources in the lobes are faint. The dark region between the lobes is very red in the color maps and the polarization there is weak and deviates from the centrosymmetric pattern; these are consistent with the presence of a dense torus that lies perpendicular to the bipolar lobes and causes multiple scattering in the emergent light.

The limb-brightening of the lobes seen in IRAS 17150$``$3224 suggests that they possess low density and are viewed primarily in light scattered from the cavity walls. Furthermore, the cap structures indicate that these cavities are not open-ended cones. An extended loop was discovered along the equatorial direction in this object.

In addition to the centrosymmetric polarization patterns, point-symmetric patterns are also seen among the polarization vectors for these four PPNs. This is particularly striking for IRAS 17150$``$3224, the largest of the edge-on nebulae, and was seen previously in the Egg Nebula (Weintraub et al., 2000). Such point-symmetric structures resemble the BRET (bipolar, rotating, episodic jets) phenomenon observed in PNs (López et al., 1995), and suggest that the mechanism responsible for producing such structures is already operating in PPNs. Although it is unclear at this time whether the BRET phenomenon is related to the multipolar lobes observed in PN 2440 (López et al., 1998) and in low-excitation (and young) PNs (Sahai & Trauger, 1998), our present data suggest that colliminated bipolar outflows commence early in the post-AGB evolution.

The results in this paper increase the number of detailed high-resolution near-infrared imaging and polarization studies carried out with the HST from one (the Egg Nebula, Sahai et al., 1998b) to five. Our observations confirm the basic model of PPNs in which an equatorial region of enhanced density (torus) obscures the central star in visible light and in which light escaping in the polar directions scatters from the walls of polar cavities carved out by a fast wind. These results agree with other recent observations that show that the morphological shaping of PN occurs early, before the onset of photoionization. This model can be further tested by comparing the high-resolution mid-infrared images of PN and PPNs that are starting to be obtained with the new 8$``$10 m telescopes.

We thank Dean Hines for helpful discussions about the NICMOS polarimetric data reduction and K. Y. L. S. thanks Roeland van der Marel for assistance with the “unpedestal” program. The comments from an anonymous referee have helped to improve the presentation and are appreciated. B. J. H. and R. S. acknowledge support from NASA through grant numbers GO-07840.02-A and GO-07840.01-A, respectively, from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. R. S. also acknowledges support from NASA through an LTSA grant (399-20-61-00-00). S. K. acknowledges support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a Killam Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts.


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# Peculiar Broad Absorption Line Quasars found in DPOSS1footnote 11footnote 1Some of the data presented herein were obtained 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

Quasars have been studied for forty years now (e.g., Sandage 1965), but our understanding of them is still sketchy in many ways. The currently accepted paradigm is that quasars derive their luminosity from accretion onto supermassive black holes (see, e.g., Small & Blandford 1992). However, the detailed structure of the central engine is a mystery: we do not know exactly how matter accretes onto the black hole, though an accretion disk seems likely; we do not know why some quasars have strong jets (or how they are formed); and we do not know exactly how broad absorption line (BAL) outflows fit into the overall quasar model, even though the mass loss rates in such outflows could be comparable to the overall accretion rates (e.g., Scoville & Norman 1995).

BAL quasars show absorption from gas with blueshifted outflow velocities of typically 0.1$`c`$ (for a good overview of BAL quasars see Weymann 1995). Most known BAL quasars are HiBALs, with absorption only from high-ionization species like C iv, but about 15% are LoBALs, which also show absorption from low-ionization species like Mg ii. The rare Iron LoBALs, or FeLoBALs, also show absorption from excited fine-structure levels or excited atomic terms of Fe ii or Fe iii.

Recent spectroscopic surveys for quasars, such as the two degree field survey (2DFQRS; Boyle et al. 1999) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; Schneider et al. 2002), have dramatically increased the number of spectroscopically confirmed quasars. As a direct result, the number of known BALs, and in particular, LoBALs and FeLoBALs, has increased as well, enabling the identification of peculiar quasars, whose BAL outflows show properties never before seen. Due to their peculiar nature, detailed studies of these quasars often provide important insight into the physical characteristics of BAL outflows, and quasar models in general. Before high-resolution spectroscopy can be employed on these systems, however, these peculiar quasars must be found.

Due to their rare nature, identifying candidates of such objects requires large photometric surveys, such as the FIRST radio survey (Becker et al. 1997), the SDSS (York et al. 2000), and the Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DPOSS; Djorgovski et al. 2001). From the catalogs that are generated from these surveys, different selection criteria have been employed to pick suitable candidates for spectroscopic follow-up.

In this paper we present three peculiar BAL quasars that were discovered during a spectroscopic follow-up of color-space outliers from the DPOSS survey. We outline the observations used in § 2, analyze the spectra in § 3, discuss some implications of these objects in § 4, and summarize our conclusions in § 5.

## 2 Observations

The quasars presented in this paper were initially targeted due to their location in the $`gr`$ and $`ri`$ color space as quantified by the Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. The DPOSS survey is detailed extensively elsewhere (Djorgovski et al. 2001, and references therein). In order to clarify the selection of these three sources, however, the rest of this section provides a brief overview of DPOSS.

DPOSS is based on the POSS-II photographic survey (Reid et al. 1991), which covers the Northern sky ($`\delta >3\mathrm{°}`$). The POSS-II plates were obtained at the 48-inch Oschin Scmidt telescope at Palomar in three bands: blue-green, IIIa-J + GC395, red, IIIa-F + RG610, and near-IR, IV-N + RG9. The plates were obtained following a strategy based on 897 fields, where each field is approximately $`6.5\mathrm{°}`$ on a side (i.e., the size of an individual plate) while the individual field centers are spaced $`5\mathrm{°}`$ apart. As a result, nearly half of the total survey area is covered by more than one plate, improving the overall calibration.

The photographic plates were digitized using a modified PDS scanner at STScI (Lasker et al. 1996) producing a digital image that is 23,040 pixels square, with 1$`\mathrm{}`$ pixels. Each image file is approximately one Gigabyte in size, and the total survey is nearly three Terabytes. The digital image files for all scans $`\delta >15\mathrm{°}`$ were processed using the SKICAT software (Weir et al. 1995), producing a catalog of approximately 60 parameters for each object. Object classification was performed using a subset of these parameters as described in Odewahn et al. (2003).

The photographic catalog data was calibrated using CCD calibration data in the $`g`$, $`r`$, and $`i`$ filters (Gal et al. 2003). A second correction was applied to the catalog to correct for plate vignetting (Mahabal et al. 2003). Finally, extinction corrections were applied using the Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis (1998) prescription. The typical limiting magnitudes for the calibrated catalog data are $`g_J20.5^m`$, $`r_F20.7^m`$, and $`i_N20.3^m`$. The three sources presented in this paper are shown in Figure 1, along with random stellar sources with similar magnitudes to the quasars presented herein. In addition, the coordinates, magnitudes and measured redshifts for these sources are provided in Table 1.

### 2.1 Optical Spectroscopy

Discovery spectra of all three objects were obtained at the Palomar Observatory 200-inch Hale telescope, using the Double Spectrograph (DBSP) instrument (Oke & Gunn 1982). All observations used a 2$`\mathrm{}`$ wide, long slit, and in all cases the slit PA was close to the parallactic. Exposures of standard stars from Oke & Gunn (1983) were used to remove the instrument response function and provide at least a rough flux calibration, and exposures of arc lamps were used to derive the wavelength solutions. All data were processed using standard techniques.

Observations of PSS J0052+2405 were made on 02 and 04 September 1997 UT, in non-photometric conditions. A set of exposures with integration times of 200, 400, and 1200 s were obtained. We used a 300 l/mm grating on the blue side of the DBSP, giving a dispersion of 2.17 Å/pixel and a FWHM resolution of 11 Å, covering the wavelength range from $``$ 3360 Å to 6860 Å. On the red side we used a 316 l/mm grating giving a dispersion of 3.06 Å/pixel and a resolution of 11 Å, covering the wavelength range $``$ 6760 Å to 9290 Å. A dichroic with a split wavelength near 6800 Å was used.

Observations of PSS J0141+3334 were obtained on 10 November 1999 UT, in good conditions; exposure times were 120 and 800 s. We used gratings with 600 l/mm (blue) and 158 l/mm (red), covering the wavelength ranges $``$ 3400 to 5200 Å (blue), and $``$ 5120 to 10100 Å (red), and a 5200 Å dichroic. This is the discovery spectrum shown in Figure 6 and used in the analysis presented in this paper.

Observations of PSS J1537+1227 were obtained on 21 May 1996 UT, in mediocre conditions, with exposures of 300 and 900 s. The same gratings, but with a 5500 Å dichroic, and the wavelength coverage $``$ 3900 to 5600 Å (blue side) and $``$ 5550 to 8070 Å (red side). Additional data were obtained on 12 May 1999 UT, but were affected by instrument problems and not used.

Follow-up observations of PSS J0052+2405 were obtained at the WMKO Keck-I 10-m telescope on 04 October 1997 UT, using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS; Oke et al. 1995), in good conditions. A single 1800 s integration was obtained using a 600 l/mm grating centered at $`\lambda 6000`$ Å, and covering a wavelength range of $`4800`$ to $`7300`$ Å, with a dispersion of 1.25 Å/pixel and a FWHM resolution of $`9`$ Å through a 1.5$`\mathrm{}`$ wide slit. These data were superseded by a moderate-resolution spectrum obtained at the Keck-II 10-m telescope on 30 December 1999 UT, using the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI; Sheinis et al. 2002). Exposures of 900 and 1500 s were obtained, in good conditions. The instrument resolution is a constant 11.4 km/s/pixel or FWHM $`74`$ km/s through the 1.0 arcsec slit, and it covers nearly the entire visible light window, from $`3900`$ Å to $`11000`$ Å. This is the discovery spectrum shown in Figure 5 and used in the analysis presented in this paper.

Follow-up observations of PSS J1537+1227 were obtained using LRIS as follows. On 02 April 1998 UT, we obtained two exposures of 600 s, using a 400 l/mm grating covering a wavelength range from $`5850`$ Å to $`9550`$ Å, giving a resolution of FWHM $`13`$ Å through a 1.5 arcsec wide slit. On 03 April 1998 UT, we obtained two exposures of 600 s, using a 300 l/mm grating covering a wavelength range from $`3900`$ Å to $`9000`$ Å, giving a resolution of FWHM $`17`$ Å through a 1.5$`\mathrm{}`$ wide slit. On 12 June 1999 UT, we obtained an additional two exposures of 600 s and two of 900 s using the same grating and wavelength coverage, but with a 1 arcsec wide slit, giving a resolution of FWHM $`12`$ Å. In addition, we also obtained two exposures of 1200 s using a 600 l/mm grating covering a wavelength range from $`5900`$ Å to $`8450`$ Å, giving a resolution of FWHM $`6`$ Å through a 1 arcsec wide slit. The April 1998 data were obtained in photometric conditions, but the June 1999 data were taken through a thin cirrus. All of the LRIS data were reduced and calibrated in a standard manner. This is the discovery spectrum shown in Figure 7 and used in the analysis presented in this paper.

### 2.2 Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

An $`H`$-band spectrum of PSS J1537$`+`$1227 was obtained on UT 1999 August 21 using the facility near-infrared spectrograph NIRSPEC (McLean et al. 1998) on the Keck II telescope. The NIRSPEC detector is an ALADDIN 10242 pixel InSb array. The low-resolution mode was used with an 0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$57 wide (4 pixel) slit, giving a spectral resolution of $`R1500`$. Two exposures of 600 s were obtained on the source, dithered 14$`\mathrm{}`$ along the slit. Two exposures of SAO 101725, an A2IV star, were also obtained at similar airmass to remove the effects of atmospheric absorption. Domeflats were used to correct for the pixel-to-pixel variations in detector quantum efficiency.

Low-resolution spectra from NIRSPEC are rotated by $`5\mathrm{°}`$, as well as having significant distortions relative to perfect alignment with the rows and columns of the detector. To reduce the data, we first identified and interpolated over the obvious bad pixels and cosmic rays in each frame so they would not be smeared out by further processing. The data were then flatfielded with a normalized domeflat and the spectra rotated and chopped to cover the area spanned by the 42$`\mathrm{}`$ long slit. Each frame was corrected using a distortion map made from the night sky OH emission lines.

Individual spectra were extracted across an 11 pixel (1$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6) window using variance weighting in the IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. apextract package. Wavelength calibration was determined from the night sky OH emission lines, which show a residual rms scatter of 0.5 Å. The atmospheric extinction was removed by dividing the spectra by the standard star normalized by a 9730 K blackbody spectrum, corresponding to the standard’s A2IV spectral type, covering the same wavelength range. The two spectra of PSS J1537$`+`$1227 were then averaged. The final near infrared spectrum of PSS J1537$`+`$1227 is shown in Figure 8.

## 3 Peculiar BAL Quasars

In this section we provide an individual analysis for each of the three peculiar BAL quasars presented in this paper. Identification of the absorption lines (using Moore 1950 and Moore 1962) and analysis of the individual spectra follow the techniques outlined in Hall et al. 2002. In particular, for all objects we quote both the traditional balnicity index (BI; Weymann et al. 1991) and the restrictive absorption index (AI; Hall et al. 2002). The AI is designed to include objects with troughs which are relatively narrow or close to the quasar redshift, since detailed studies show that such troughs often share many of the characteristics of BAL troughs.

### 3.1 PSS J0052+2405

PSS J0052+2405 is an FeLoBAL quasar with very broad absorption from many species, presented in Figure 9. We adopt $`z=2.4512\pm 0.0001`$ from narrow Si iv and Al iii$`\lambda \lambda `$1854,1862 absorption. The long-wavelength end of our spectrum is a trough from Fe ii+Mg ii; moving toward shorter wavelengths, the spectrum recovers before encountering another Fe ii trough near 2400 Å, recovers again near C iii\] $`\lambda `$1908 before encountering Al iii$`\lambda \lambda `$1854,1862 absorption, and finally shows a weak recovery at Si iv. C iv is not prominent because of overlying absorption from Fe ii multiplets UV42-46, similar to SDSS 0437$``$0045 (Hall et al. 2002).

Many species are detected at the peak absorption redshift of $`z=2.406`$, including Si iv, Si ii, C iv, Al ii, Al iii, Ni ii, Zn ii, Cr ii, Mn ii, and numerous Fe ii multiplets (including UV42-43, which are likely responsible for the trough at the expected wavelength of He ii$`\lambda `$1640). The highest numbered Fe ii multiplets readily identifiable are UV79 and UV80, which arise from terms $``$1.7 eV above ground. Zn ii and Cr ii are comparably strong at $`z=2.406`$ in this object, indicating little dust. What appears to be additional Zn ii at slightly lower $`z=2.39`$ without accompanying Cr ii is in fact residuals from telluric absorption.

There are only two or three possible continuum windows in our spectrum, so it is impossible to say how much this object might be reddened. We do roughly estimate the BI and AI values from the Al ii trough using the continuum shown in Figure 9. We measure BI=1090 km s-1 and AI=4240 km s-1. The absorption extends to a velocity of at least 7180 km s-1, beyond which there is confusion with a Si ii trough.

### 3.2 PSS J0141+3334

PSS J0141+3334 is a reddened LoBAL quasar at $`z=3.005\pm 0.005`$, as estimated from the red edges of the Si iv, C iv and Al ii absorption troughs, seen in Figure 10. This may be a slight underestimate, as the Al iii and possibly the N v troughs may set in at slightly higher redshift. Al ii has its peak absorption depth at $`z=2.962`$, while the peak depth of Al iii is at higher outflow velocity. There appears to be another trough at 1430 Å (assuming $`z=3.005`$), but its identification is unclear. A S i identification would be surprising given the lack of absorption from other neutral species which are not shielded from ionization by H I. There is also narrow intervening Fe ii absorption in the spectrum at $`z=2.422`$ and Mg ii absorption at $`z=2.3325`$; the latter system may also show weak Fe ii absorption.

The steep continuum of PSS J0141+3334 below $``$2000 Å rest frame is likely due to dust reddening, because there are no plausible transitions which could blanket the spectrum with absorption shortward but not longward of Al iii. The spectrum just longward of C iv at 1550-1600 Å is probably close to the true continuum level, rather than being the bottom of an extended Al ii trough.

We adopt the continuum shown in Figure 10. There may be weak broad C iv emission above this continuum, and broad C iii\] as well, but in general the broad emission in this object appears weak or absorbed. We estimate a SMC extinction law color excess $`E(BV)`$=0.30$`\pm `$0.03 from comparison of our adopted continuum with the composite SDSS quasar of Vanden Berk et al. (2001). We also measure BI=10230 km s-1 and AI=13800 km s-1 from the C iv trough using this continuum and a limiting velocity of 20410 km s-1 to avoid confusion with the 1430 Å trough.

### 3.3 PSS J1537+1227

PSS J1537+1227 is a FeLoBAL with strong narrow Mg ii and Fe ii emission, presented in Figure 11; a less extreme example is FIRST 0840+3633 (Becker et al. 1997). It has a redshift of $`z=1.212\pm 0.007`$ as determined from the broad H$`\alpha `$ line in its $`H`$-band spectrum, shown in Figure 12. H$`\alpha `$ is no doubt blended with \[N II\], but there is no sign of \[S II\] or other, weaker lines in the spectral range covered. The rise at the short wavelength end of the $`H`$-band spectrum is probably not real, as it does not match any known strong line or Fe ii blend.

PSS J1537+1227 has Mgii and Feii UV1 emission (dot-dashed lines) which is much narrower than the H$`\alpha `$ emission. The redshift from Mgii is $`z=1.2025\pm 0.0005`$, which is a blueshift of 1290$`\pm `$950 km s-1 from the H$`\alpha `$ redshift. The absorption troughs appear deepest at $`z=1.187`$, a further blueshift of 2120 km s-1. Blueward of Mg ii, the spectrum includes absorption from Si ii, Al iii, Fe iii UV34 (near 1910 Å), Cr ii+Zn ii, Ni ii and numerous Fe ii multiplets (dotted lines) up to at least UV79 and UV80 ($``$1.7 eV above ground; cf. PSS J0052+2405). Absorption from He i$`\lambda `$3188 and He i$`\lambda `$2946 may also be present, and possibly weak Mg i$`\lambda `$2852. These features are useful diagnostics of physical conditions in the BAL gas, but a higher resolution spectrum is needed to sort out which of them are in fact present.

It is difficult to know where to place the continuum, since the spectrum is a complex blend of Fe ii emission and absorption even longward of Mg ii. There is certainly some Fe ii UV60,61,78 absorption at 2860-3000 Å rest frame, since absorption from multiplets up to UV80 and Opt7 are identifiable elsewhere in the spectrum. In Figure 11 we use dotted lines to show the wavelengths of these strong absorption lines of excited Fe ii, and dot-dashed lines to show emission from multiplets UV1,60,61,78 and Opt1,6,7.

The good agreement of the dot-dashed lines with the emission peaks and the dashed lines with the absorption shows that the spectrum can be understood as emission at $`z=1.2025`$ coupled with absorption which is strongest at $`z=1.187`$. We note that the relative strengths of the UV1, UV61, UV60+78, and Opt7 Fe ii emission peaks may be in better agreement with theoretical models than the spectrum of QSO 2226$``$3905 studied in de Kool et al. 2002. Contrary to their suggestion of a problem with the models, it may just be that the Fe ii emission line regions span a wider range of physical conditions than considered in their modeling. However, it is also true that the relative strengths of the Fe ii lines in PSS J1537+1227 are affected by absorption. In particular, the UV2 and UV62,63 peaks are much weaker here than in theoretical models. More detailed modelling based on higher resolution spectra is needed to determine whether this is a problem with the theory or whether it can be explained by overlying absorption.

There is in fact at least a weak absorption trough in this object that hints that the absorption may be even more complicated than it appears. The $``$2480 Å trough might be explained as Fe i UV9. However, there is no corresponding trough of Fe i UV1 at 2970 Å, which should be at least as strong. In fact, there is a local maximum at the expected wavelength of Fe i UV1. Fe ii emission could conceivably hide a Fe i UV1 trough, but that would require that the true peaks of the emission lines be considerably higher than observed. Nonetheless, we cannot rule out the presence of Fe i without a higher resolution spectrum. Such spectroscopy would constrain the physical parameters of the BAL outflow even if no Fe i is present (e.g., de Kool et al. 2002), but would do so even more tightly if it is. This is because Fe i has an ionization potential less than that of H I, and so is only found in gas with a low ionization parameter, which makes it a very useful diagnostic.

For now, since Fe i is rarely seen in BAL outflows, we conservatively assume that only Fe ii is present in this object, which allows us to make an educated guess about the continuum level. There are no strong Fe ii transitions immediately redward of 2800 Å and 3000 Å, so we adopt those as continuum windows, along with regions near 3350 Å and 3600 Å which are also free of strong Fe ii transitions from terms $``$ 4 eV above ground. Adopting the continuum shown in Figure 11, we find from the Mg ii trough that AI=1780 km s-1 but that the BI is only marginally nonzero (3 km s-1) since the Mg ii absorption trough only extends $``$5035 km s-1 shortward of the systemic redshift.

## 4 Discussion

The three peculiar BAL quasars presented in this paper were selected from the DPOSS survey (Djorgovski et al. 2001) due to their unusual locations within the $`gr`$ versus $`ri`$ color space. While large, multi-band photometric surveys, such as DPOSS, provide great opportunities for improving the statistical quantification of different astrophysical source classes, the challenge of finding novel sources is equivalent to finding needles in a haystack. When the number of detected sources in surveys of this type exceed one hundred million, even well-intentioned color selections can fail to uncover possible interesting sources, and the resulting selection effects can be difficult—if not impossible—to completely characterize.

To demonstrate this difficulty, we examined the locus traced by these quasars in the target color space as their observed emission redshift was synthetically shifted ($`\mathrm{\Delta }z=\pm 0.1`$). This process involved shifting each individual spectrum, both blueward and redward, and convolving the resulting spectrum with the $`g`$, $`r`$, and $`i`$ digital filter curves, obtained from the Palomar Observatory website. In several cases, the shifted spectrum did not completely cover the same wavelength range as one of the two end filters (i.e.$`g`$ or $`i`$). To account for this, the spectrum was extended across the necessary wavelength range, by extrapolating the last flux value. In no case did this small approximation make any significant contribution to the resulting flux measurements (which is obvious since the filters fall sharply at their edges).

The results are shown in Figure 13, where the three quasars presented in this paper are shown along with random sources from the DPOSS survey and other BAL quasars drawn from the Junkkarinen, Hewitt, and Burbidge (1991) compilation, which are displayed using their colors as measured by DPOSS. The BAL quasars, including the peculiar BAL quasars presented herein, are differentiated based on their redshift: $`1z<2`$ ($``$), $`2z<3`$ (), and $`z>3`$ ($``$). The arrows on the three sources presented in this paper show the new location of these quasars after changing their redshift by $`\pm 0.1`$ (lower arrows result from shifting the spectrum to the red and the upper arrows result from shifting the spectrum to the blue). While not shown, we note that for comparison, unusual BAL quasars found within SDSS data (Hall et al. 2001) are considerably redder than normal quasars in $`gr`$, and slightly redder in $`ri`$.

While this figure demonstrates several things, the most important is the sensitivity of the location of these sources within color-space to their actual redshift. Two of these sources, PSS J0052+2405 and PSS J0141+3334, actually disappear into the stellar locus when their spectra are shifted blueward. This raises the possibility of additional peculiar sources lurking amongst the stars. In order to find them, data from multiple surveys (preferably covering different wavelength regions) will need to be federated. This results in a dataset that presents intense computational challenges due to the higher dimensional parameter space through which the algorithms must search. Through collaborations with computer scientists and statisticians, however, new algorithms and approaches (e.g., Connolly et al. 2000) are being developed that provide possible solutions to this technical hurdle.

An additional point of interest is the lack of differentiation between BAL quasars at different redshifts in this two-dimensional parameter space. This degeneracy could potentially be lifted with additional imaging data, and could prove to be an interesting application area for data mining algorithms. This is an area where medium band spectrophotometric surveys (e.g., Combo-17, http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/COMBO/combo\_index.html) or multiwavelength data federation projects (e.g., Brunner 2001) may provide fruitful input datasets.

In order to roughly estimate the rarity of these objects, we consider the following. These quasars have been found in the course of a search for high-$`z`$ and type-2 QSOs, which covered the area of approximately $`10^4`$ $`deg^2`$. At the brightness level of these sources, the spectroscopic follow-up is nearly complete, in the corresponding region of the $`gri`$ color space. Thus, the implied surface density of these objects, down to this magnitude level and within the region of the color space searched, is roughly $`3\times 10^4`$ $`deg^2`$. While we do not have any reliable way of estimating how many more such objects exist outside our region of the color space, it is likely that the total (color-independent) surface density would be a factor of a few higher. While all 3 sources have $`r<19`$ mag, our search was nearly complete down to this flux level. The cumulative surface density of all QSOs down to such magnitude levels is approximately a few times $`10`$ $`deg^2`$ (e.g., Schneider et al. 2002). Thus, we conservatively conclude that $`10^4`$ of all QSOs belong to this peculiar subclass.

To conclude, in this paper we have presented three peculiar BAL quasars from the Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey: PSS J0052+2405, PSS J0141+3334, and PSS J1537+1227.

PSS J0052+2405 is an FeLoBAL quasar at a redshift $`z=2.4512\pm 0.0001`$ with many species detected at the peak absorption redshift of $`z=2.406`$, including Si iv, Si ii, C iv, Al ii, Al iii, Ni ii, Zn ii, Cr ii, Mn ii, and numerous Fe ii multiplets.

PSS J0141+3334 is a LoBAL quasar at $`z=3.005\pm 0.005`$ with several species seen in absorption, including Si iv, C iv and Al ii. There is also narrow intervening absorption at lower redshifts from Fe ii and Mg ii.

PSS J1537+1227 is a FeLoBAL quasar at $`z=1.212\pm 0.007`$, and is an excellent target for high-resolution spectroscopy, as it has very narrow absorption lines and may show absorption from numerous useful diagnostic transitions.

The ability of large velocity width, high covering factor absorption to blanket large regions of the spectrum in BAL quasars raises the possibility that quasar surveys based on blue colors have systematically missed such objects. The true ranges of these and other BAL properties remains to be characterized, most notably upper limits for the column densities of the various ions which can be found in LoBAL outflows (Hall et al. 2003).

RJB acknowledges partial support from NASA ADP (NAG5-10885), NASA AISRP (NAG5-12000), and the Fullam Award. PBH acknowledges financial support from Chilean grant FONDECYT/1010981 and a Fundación Andes grant. The authors gratefully acknowledge those of Hawaiian ancestry on whose sacred mountain we are privileged to be guests. Without their generous hospitality, none of the observations presented would have been possible. The processing of DPOSS and the production of the Palomar-Norris Sky Catalog (PNSC) on which this work was based was supported by generous grants from the Norris Foundation, and other private donors. Some of the software development was supported by the NASA AISRP program. We also thank the staff of Palomar Observatory for their expert assistance in the course of many observing runs. Finally, we acknowledge the efforts of the POSS-II team, and the plate scanning team at STScI.