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# Probing the X-ray Variability of X-ray Binaries

## 1. Introduction

Kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs) in the X-ray flux of about 20 neutron star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) (see van der Klis 2000 for a recent review) are suggested to be the indicator of the orbital frequency at the inner disk edge (Strohmayer et al. 1996; Miller, Lamb & Psaltis 1998; Titarchuk, Lapidus & Muslimov 1998; Stella, Vietri & Morsink 1999;). One of the evidence for this, in addition to the millisecond time scales themselves, is that there are correlations between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray flux in these neutron star X-ray binaries on time scales from hours to days (e.g. Yu et al. 1997; Mendez et al. 1998; Zhang et al. 1998). Especially in the two neutron star soft X-ray transients (SXTs) 4U 1608-52 and Aquila X-1, the correlation holds in a large flux range up to an order of magnitude (Mendez 1999/astro-ph/9903469). The correlation forms the so-called “parallel tracks” in the plot of kHz QPO frequency vs. X-ray flux in “atoll” sources. For those “Z” sources the correlation in the plot of kHz QPO frequency vs. X-ray flux may appear as negative correlation, depending on the source branch it stays (Wijnands et al. 1997; Yu, van der Klis & Jonker 2001). These seem consistent with the general idea that an increase of the mass accretion rate (thus an increase/decrease of the X-ray flux) will cause the inner disk edge at radius $`R_{in}`$ approach closer to the neutron star, which would introduce an increase of the orbital frequency $`\nu _O`$ at the inner disk edge, and vise versa. The response of the inner disk radius to the mass accretion rate through the disk has been widely accepted in both theory and observations.

Under the assumption that the source movements on those correlation tracks are because of the variation of the mass accretion rate at the inner disk, and the kHz QPO frequency is an indicator of the orbital frequency at the inner disk edge (notice that the kHz QPO frequency is not necessary to be the orbital frequency itself), the correlation between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray flux on each correlation track then probably represents the correlation between the inner disk radius and the mass accretion rate through the inner disk. Thus the X-ray flux variabilities on each track which occurs on time scales of hours to days could be an accretion mode. Similar variability modes on shorter time scales of accretion origin will probably introduce the same correlation between the inner disk radius and the X-ray count rate on its time scale. This then leads to the same correlation between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray count rate as that on the long-term tracks, but on a shorter time scale. Usually the X-ray variability of the neutron star X-ray binaries contain a few simultaneous variability components, e.g. continuous noise components and QPOs, covering a large range of time scales from mHz to kHz. The correlation between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray count rate tracking a certain variability component then could be a diagnostic of the variability mode and answer whether it is the same as that forms the long-term correlation tracks.

## 2. Observations and Results

The “parallel tracks” are usually observed in those “atoll” sources such as 4U 1608-52 (Yu et al. 1997; Mendez et al. 1998), Aquila X-1 (Zhang et al. 1998; Mendez et al. 1999), and 4U 1728-34 (Mendez & van der Klis 1999). In those “Z” sources, the correlation between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray count rate is complicated. For example, on the Normal Branch (NB) of Sco X-1, the kHz QPO frequency appears anti-correlated with the X-ray count rate, but correlated to the inferred mass accretion rate (Yu, van der Klis & Jonker 2001).

### 2.1. mHz QPO in the “Atoll” source 4U 1608-52

4U 1608-52 is an X-ray burster and a soft X-ray transient (SXT). In the observations of its outburst decay by the Rossi X-ray timing explorer, kHz QPOs were observed showing its frequency correlated with the X-ray count rate on the time scales of hours to days but not longer (eg. Yu et al. 1997; Mendez et al. 1998). More recently, simultaneous with the kHz QPOs, millihertz QPOs at a frequency of 7-9$`\times `$$`10^3`$ Hz in the X-ray flux of 4U 1608-52 were observed. They are associated with the soft X-ray photons below 5 keV and probably have close relationship with the type I X-ray bursts. This leads to the speculation that the mHz QPO is caused by a mode of nuclear burning at the neutron star surface (Revnivtsev et al. 2001). The corresponding kHz QPO frequency evolution in 4U 1608-52 in response to the mHz pulses was studied with a peak-aligned method after removing the long-term trend by Yu & van der Klis (2002). They found that the kHz QPO frequency is anti-correlated with the mHz QPO flux which can be tracked by the average mHz QPO count rate of 12 seconds. The kHz QPO frequency shift in response to the mHz QPOs is about 0.6 Hz.

### 2.2. Variability modes in the plot of kHz QPO frequency vs. X-ray count rate

To compare the X-ray count rate variation on a certain QPO time scales with that on longer time scales which forms “parallel” tracks in the plot of kHz QPO frequency vs. X-ray count rate, we show both the tracks and the branch corresponding to mHz QPOs showing the anti-correlation between the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray count rate in Fig.1. On each correlation trackes, each data point represents the kHz QPO frequency and the X-ray count rate measured in 128 seconds. In the interval corresponding to the mHz QPOs, each data point represents that obtained in 32 seconds.

It is clearly visible that opposite to the overall positive correlation between kHz QPO frequency and X-ray count rate on longer time scales of hours, which forms two trackes from data on March 3, 1996 and March 6 , 1996, respectively, the kHz QPO frequency is anti-correlated with the X-ray count rate on the interval corresponding to the mHz QPOs. On this mHz QPO interval, the mHz QPO dominates the X-ray count rate variation. Thus from the plot of kHz QPO frequency vs. the X-ray count rate, we can discriminate the mHz QPO mode from that of the “parallel” tracks.

## 3. Discussion and Conclusion

Here I show that the mHz QPOs in 4U 1608-52 can be identified in the plot of the kHz QPO frequency vs. the X-ray flux or by studying their correlation on a certain timescale corresponding to the mHz QPOs. This can be applied to the X-ray variability components we know in both neutron star X-ray binaries and possibly black hole X-ray binaries. The application to the noise components and other QPOs in neutron star X-ray binaries is straight forward and we may be able to determine the origin of those variability modes.

W.Y would like to thank Prof. Michiel van der Klis for comments which has been included in the above arguments. W.Y. also would like to acknowledge partial support by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) under grant 614.051.002 and partial support from NSFC (19903004). This work has made use of data obtained through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, provided by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

## References

Mendez, M. et al. 1998, ApJ, 505, L23

Mendez, M. 1999, astro-ph/9903469

Mendez, M. & van der Klis, M. 1999, ApJ, 517, L51

Miller, M. C., Lamb, F. K. & Psaltis, D. 1998, ApJ, 508, 791

Revnivtsev, M. et al. 2001, å, 372, 138

Stella, L., Vietri, M.& Morsink, S. M. 1999, ApJ, 524, L63

Strohmayer, T. et al., 1996, ApJ, 469, L9

Titarchuk, L., Lapidus, I. & Muslimov, A. 1998, ApJ, 499, 315

van der Klis, M. 2000, ARA&A, 38, 717

Wijnands, R. et al. 1997, ApJ, 490, L157

Yu, W. et al. 1997, ApJ, 490, L153

Yu, W., van der Klis, M. & Jonker, P. 2001, ApJ, 559, L29

Yu, W. & van der Klis, M. 2002, ApJ, 567, L67

Zhang, W. et al. 1998, ApJ, 495, L9


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# 1 The function 𝑚(𝑡) in eq.(26) and the l.h.s. of eq.(27) are plotted against 𝑡 for 𝑐₁=1 and 𝛼=0.92 and are given respectively by solid and dashed lines.

## Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Debades Bandyopadhyay for his generous help to plot the functions in figs.1,2. I would also like to thank Nobuyoshi Ohta and Mattias Wohlfarth for very useful correspondences.


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# A search for Low Surface Brightness galaxies in the near-infrared

## 1 Introduction

The present paper is part of a series presenting the results of a multi-wavelength (near-infrared, 21-cm H i line and optical) search for Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies using the 2MASS all-sky near-infrared survey. For further details on the sample and other publications in this series, we refer to Monnier Ragaigne et al. (2003a, Paper I).

### 1.1 Low Surface Brightness galaxies

Observational bias in the selection of galaxies dates back to Messier and Herschel. Galaxies are diffuse objects selected in the presence of a contaminating signal: the brightness of the night sky. The night sky acts as a filter, which, when convolved with the true population of galaxies gives the population of galaxies we observe. In the past few decades, observations of the local universe have shown the existence of galaxies well below the surface brightness of the average catalogued galaxy.

At present, the LSBs constitute the least well known fraction of galaxies: their number density and physical properties (luminosity, colours, dynamics) are still quite uncertain. This is, per definition, mainly due to the fundamental difficulty in identifying them in imaging surveys and in measuring their properties. In order to further investigate the often baffling properties of the LSB class of galaxies we selected a sample of them from the 2MASS database, accessing a wavelength domain (the near-infrared) hitherto only scarcely explored in the study of LSBs.

There is no unambiguous definition of LSB galaxies, although ones in common use are based on (1) the mean blue surface brightness within the 25 mag arcsec-2 isophote, (2) the mean surface brightness within the half-light radius, or (3) the extrapolated central surface brightness of the disc component alone after carrying out a disc-bulge decomposition. For 2MASS galaxies, we used the mean $`K_s`$-band magnitude within a fixed aperture to identify a sample of galaxies with relatively low infrared surface brightness. Because galaxies typically have $`(BK)3.5`$–4 (see below) we selected galaxies in which the central surface brightness within a 5′′ radius circular aperture was fainter than 18 mag arcsec-2in $`K_s`$. This criterion corresponds roughly to the disc-component definition of LSB galaxies which have a blue central surface brightness $`\mu _{B_0}>22.0`$ mag arcsec-2. Our sample galaxies can have even lower disc surface brightness levels if the bulge component is significant, but since we average over a fixed angular aperture, we may also include some higher central surface brightness sources that are more distant so that the aperture includes more of the disc. In this paper, we examine the properties of our sample based on 2MASS and HyperLeda data and compare it to optically-selected galaxy samples.

LSBs have remarkable properties which distinguish them from high surface brightness spirals, notably:

* LSBs seem to constitute at least 50% of the total galaxy population in number in the local Universe, which may have strong implications for the slope of the galaxy luminosity function, on the baryonic matter density and especially on galaxy formation scenarios (O’Neil & Bothun 2000);
* LSBs discs are among the less evolved objects in the local universe since they have a very low star formation rate (van der Hulst et al. 1993; van Zee et al. 1997; van den Hoek et al. 2000);
* LSBs are embedded in dark matter halos which are of lower density and more extended than the haloes around High Surface Brightness (HSB) galaxies, and they are strongly dominated by Dark Matter at all radii (de Blok et al. 1996; McGaugh et al. 2001).

The star formation history of LSBs has been the subject of recent debate. The LSBs best studied in the optical and in the near-infrared are blue (e.g., Bergvall et al. 1999), indicating a young mean stellar age and/or metallicity. Morphologically, most studied LSBs have discs, but little spiral structure. The current massive star formation rates in LSBs are an order of magnitude lower than those of HSBs (van Zee et al. 1997); H i observations show that LSBs have high gas mass fractions, sometimes exceeding unity (Spitzak & Schneider 1998; McGaugh & de Blok 1997). All these observations are consistent with a scenario in which LSBs are relatively unevolved, low mass surface density, low metallicity systems with roughly constant star formation rate. However, this scenario has difficulty accomodating giant LSBs like Malin 1 (Bothun et al. 1987).

This study of infrared LSBs was also intended to investigate the possibility of there being a substantial population of red LSBs like those reported by O’Neil et al. (1997). Follow-up studies initially indicated that these red LSBs had rapid rotational speeds exceeding 200 km s-1 and they did not seem to follow the ‘standard’ Tully-Fisher relation, in the sense that they appeared to be severely underluminous for their total mass (O’Neil et al. 2000). More recent observations by Chung et al. (2002) indicate that the rotational properties of these red LSBs were mismeasured due to confusion with neighbouring galaxies. An infrared-selected sample should allow us to identify whether there is a significant population of very red LSBs.

In the present paper a result of 21-cm H i line observations made at Arecibo is given, while in paper I in the series a description of the 2MASS LSB galaxy sample selection is given, 21-cm H i line observations from Nançay will be presented in Paper III (Monnier Ragaigne et al. 2003b), optical $`BVRI`$ CCD surface photometry of a sub-sample of 35 2MASS LSB galaxies will be presented in paper IV (Monnier Ragaigne et al. 2003c), models of the star formation history of these, and an analysis of the full data set will be presented in paper V. Models of the evolution of the 2MASS galaxies presented in paper IV and of other samples of LSB galaxies are presented in Boissier et al. (2003).

The 2MASS LSB galaxies sample selection is described in Section 2. Observations and data reduction are presented in Section 3, and the results in section 4 and the conclusions in section 5.

### 1.2 The 2MASS all-sky near-infrared survey

The Two Micron All Sky Survey, 2MASS, has imaged the entire celestial sphere in the near-infrared J (1.25$`\mu `$m), H (1.65$`\mu `$m) and $`K_s`$ (2.16$`\mu `$m) bands from two dedicated, identical 1.3-meter telescopes. The 2MASS data have a 95% completeness level in $`J`$, H and $`K_s`$ of 15.1, 14.3 and 13.5 mag, respectively, for ‘normal’ galaxies (Jarrett et al. 2000a); for LSB and blue objects the completeness limits are not yet known). The Extended Source Catalog (XSC) will consist of more than 1.4 million galaxies brighter than 14th mag at $`K_s`$ with angular diameters greater than $``$6 arcsec. The photometry includes accurate PSF-derived measures and a variety of circular and elliptical aperture measures, fully characterizing both point-like and extended objects. The position centroids have an astrometric accuracy better than $``$0.5 arcsec. In addition to tabular information, 2MASS archives full-resolution images for each extended object, enabling detailed comparison with other imaging surveys. Initial results for galaxies detected by 2MASS are described in several publications (Schneider et al. 1997; Jarrett et al. 2000a, 2000b; Hurt et al. 2000).

Although relatively less deep than some of the dedicated optical imaging surveys made of LSB galaxies over limited areas of the sky, the 2MASS survey allows the detection of LSB galaxies with a central surface brightness in the $`K_s`$ band of $``$18-20 mag arcsec-2, corresponding to about $``$22-24 mag arcsec-2 in $`B`$, extending over the entire sky. The near-infrared data will be less susceptible than optical surveys to the effects of extinction due to dust, both Galactic and internal to the galaxies.

In the present paper the H i line observations made at Arecibo of the sample of 2MASS near-infrared selected LSB galaxies is presented. The sample selection in described in Section 2. The observations and the data reduction are presented in Section 3, and the results in Section 4. A brief discussion of the results is given in Section 5. An analysis of these observations, and of others made for the study, will be given in a future paper (paper V).

## 2 Sample selection

We have selected 2MASS LSB galaxies using the following two galaxy search routines. For a more complete description of the selection procedures we refer to Paper I. The selected LSB objects lie outside the ZoA ($`|`$b$`|`$$`>`$10), but we have also observed 116 objects within this zone (see Section 4.6).

$``$ The first is aimed at selecting relatively high signal-to-noise low central surface brightness (LCSB) galaxies, with a mean central $`K_s`$ surface brightness in the inner 5′′ radius of $`K_5`$$``$18 mag arcsec-2, among the extended sources picked out from the survey data by the standard 2MASS algorithms (Jarrett et al. 2000).

$``$ The second is aimed at finding lower signal-to-noise LSB galaxies among those sources which were not recognized as such during the standard extended source selection described above. This requires masking all sources detected by the former method, spatially smoothing the remaining data and running the extended source recognition scheme again on the masked images.

In order to decide which of these faint, fuzzy 2MASS sources really are LSB galaxies, additional data were required like those listed in online databases such as NED (NASA Extragalactic Database) \[http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu\], LEDA (Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database) – recently incorporated in HyperLeda \[http://www-obs.univ-lyon1.fr/hypercat/\] – and Aladin of the Centre de Donnés astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) \[http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr\] and by inspecting Digital Sky Survey (DSS) images. Using this selection procedure, a total of 3,800 candidate 2MASS LSB galaxies were found.

The source selection for our survey was made with the 2MASS working database available in late 1999, when work on it was still in full progress. The sources we observed at Arecibo contain only 2 “Small” sources (with isophotal radii 10′′$`<`$$`r_{K_{20}}`$$`<`$20′′, see Section 4.1), S721N and S1090O, that are not found in the subsequent, more reliable, 2MASS public data releases (see paper I for details). Their names have been put in parentheses in the Tables. The sample also contains 2 Faint sources (F1N and F10N) that are not found in subsequent public data releases, which not surprising considering they were detected by a dedicated LSB galaxy search method and that they were not included in the working database.

Due to constraints in the telescope time scheduling and in the declination range accessible with the instrument, the area of the sky observed at Arecibo for our survey ranges from 20h00m to 06h30m in right ascension and between 12 and 39 in declination. Within this area, we selected for observation, in order of decreasing priority: (1) all objects with known velocity, (2) objects without known velocity, whether previously catalogued or not, in order of decreasing diameter.

## 3 Observations and data reduction

### 3.1 Observations

We observed a sample (see Section 2) of 367 2MASS LSB galaxies using the refurbished 305-m Arecibo Gregorian radio telescope in November 2000 and January 2001, for a total of 125 hours observing time. Data were taken with the L-Band Narrow receiver using nine-level sampling with two of the 2048 lag subcorrelators set to each polarization channel. All observations were taken using the position-switching technique, with the blank sky (or OFF) observation taken for the same length of time, and over the same portion of the Arecibo dish (as defined by the azimuth and zenith angles) as was used for the on-source (ON) observation. Each ON+OFF pair was followed by a 10s ON+OFF observation of a well calibrated, uncorrelated noise diode. The observing strategy used was as follows: First, a minimum of one 3 minute ON/OFF pair was taken of each galaxy, followed by a 10s ON/OFF calibration pair. If a galaxy was not detected, one or more additional 3 minute ON/OFF pairs were taken of the object, if it was deemed of sufficient interest (e.g., large diameter, known optical velocity). If a galaxy’s velocity was known a priori, it was observed with each of the four 12.5 MHz bandpass subcorrelators being centred at the redshifted H i line of the galaxy. All galaxies without known velocities were observed in velocity search mode. In this mode the subcorrelators were set to 25MHz bandpasses. Both subcorrelators with the same polarization were set to overlap by only 5MHz, thereby allowing a wide velocity search while ensuring the overlapping region of the two boards was adequately covered. Two different velocity searched were made – first in the velocity range -500 to 11,000 km s-1 and subsequently in the range 9,500 to 21,000 km s-1(assuming the galaxy was not detected in the lower velocity range, the interest of the particular object and observing time permitting). The instrument’s HPBW at 21 cm is $`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.6}`$$`\times `$$`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.6}`$ and the pointing accuracy is about 15′′.

### 3.2 Data reduction

Using standard data reduction software available at Arecibo, the two polarizations were averaged, and corrections were applied for the variations in the gain and system temperature of the telescope with zenith angle and azimuth using the most recent calibration data available at the telescope. Further data analysis was performed using Supermongo routines developed by one of us (SES). A baseline of order zero was fitted to the data, excluding those velocity ranges with H i line emission or radio frequency interference (RFI). Once the baselines were subtracted, the velocities were corrected to the heliocentric system, using the optical convention, and the central line velocity, line widths at, respectively, the 50% and 20% level of peak maximum (Lewis 1983), the integrated flux of the H i profiles, as well as the rms noise of the spectra were determined. All data were boxcar smoothed to a velocity resolution of 14.3 km s-1 (velocity search) and 16.4 km s-1 (known velocity) for analysis.

The stability of the chain of reception of the Arecibo telescope is known to be good. This is shown by the observations we made of strong continuum sources and of a calibration galaxy with a strong line signal: the latter showed a $`\pm `$6% standard deviation in its integrated line flux.

## 4 Results

The global Arecibo H i line data for the observed sample, together with their global near-infrared and optical data, are listed in Tables 3a,b for clearly detected objects, in Tables 4a,b for marginal detections and in Tables 5a,b for undetected objects. A description of all parameters listed in the Tables is given below in Sections 4.1-4.4. The near-infrared data listed were taken from the 2MASS catalogue and the optical data were taken from the online NED and LEDA databases, as indicated.

The H i spectra of the clearly detected galaxies are shown in Figure 2 and the marginal detections are shown in Figure 3; for cases where 2 line profiles were detected in the same spectrum, designated by ‘a’ and ‘b’ after the 2MASS sourcename, see Sect. 4.5.

The distribution of the integrated line fluxes and FWHM’s of the clear and marginal detections is shown in Figure 4. Also plotted in this Figure is a straight line indicating the 3 $`\sigma `$ detection limit for a 250 km s-1 wide, flat-topped spectral line based on the average rms noise level of the data. The data quality and the rms noise of the Arecibo observations are rather uniform.

### 4.1 Names, positions and distances

$``$ Number: we have divided the selected 2MASS sources according to two criteria: size and algorithm. This division is indicated by two characters in the galaxy designations which we will use throughout this series: an entry starting with ‘L’ indicates a ‘Large’ object with an isophotal $`K_s`$-band radius $`r_{K_{20}}`$ (see Sect. 4.2) larger than 20′′, an ‘S’ a ‘Small’ one with a radius between 10′′ and 20′′ and an ’F’ a galaxy selected using the LCSB source processor, while following the source number an ‘O’ indicates a previously catalogued object, a ‘P’ one with a PGC entry only and an ‘N’ a previously uncatalogued one.

$``$ Identifications: for each of the 2MASS sources we queried the NED and LEDA databases for a cross-identification of its position with other catalogues. For previously catalogued objects we list the most commonly used identification besides the 2MASS identification;

$``$ Positions: the column headed ‘2MASSXi J’ gives the 2MASS source designations, which are the right ascensions and declinations of their centre positions, for epoch J2000.0. These were used as the pointing centres for the H i observations;

$``$ Distances: for each detected galaxy, a distance $`D`$ was calculated using radial H i velocities corrected to the Galactic Standard of Rest, following the RC3 and assuming a Hubble constant of $`H_0`$=75 km s-1 Mpc-1.

### 4.2 Near-infrared data

$``$$`K_{20}`$ is the total magnitude measured within the $`r_{K_{20}}`$ isophotal aperture (see below);

$``$$`JK`$ is a near-infrared colour of the source, based on magnitudes measured in the $`J`$ and $`K_s`$ bands within their respective isophotal semi-major axes at the 20 mag arcsec-2 level;

$``$$`\mu _{K5}`$ is the mean central surface brightness (in mag arcsec-2) measured within a radius of 5 arcsec around the source’s centre;

$``$$`b/a`$ is the infrared axis ratio determined from an ellipse fit to the co-addition of the $`J`$-, $`H`$-, and $`K_s`$-band images. The fit is carried out at the 3-$`\sigma `$ isophotal level relative to the background noise in each image. The 2MASS F (LCSB sources) sample was not measured in this way because of the low signal-to-noise levels of the emission;

$``$$`r_{K_{20}}`$ is the fiducial aperture (in arcsec) in the $`K_s`$ band. Essentially, it is the aperture size for a surface brightness of 20 mag arcsec-2;

$``$$`L_K`$ is the absolute magnitude in the $`K_s`$band (in $`L_{,K}`$), calculated using an absolute solar $`K_s`$-band magnitude of 3.33 (Allen 1973).

### 4.3 Optical data

$``$$`Type`$ is the morphological type, as listed in NED or LEDA (the latter are between parenthesis)

$``$$`V_{opt}`$ is the mean heliocentric optical radial velocity (in km s-1), as listed in LEDA;

$``$$`D_{25}`$ is the isophotal $`B`$-band diameter (in units of arcmin) measured at a surface brightness level of 25 mag arcsec-2, as listed in LEDA;

$``$$`B_{T_c}`$ is the total apparent $`B`$-band magnitude reduced to the RC3 system (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991) and corrected for galactic extinction, inclination and redshift effects (see Paturel et al. 1997, and references therein), as listed in LEDA;

$``$$`\mu _{B_{25}}`$ is the mean $`B`$-band surface brightness (in mag arcsec-2) within the 25 mag arcsec-2 isophote, as listed in LEDA;

$``$$`L_B`$ is the absolute magnitude in the $`B`$ band (in $`L_{,B}`$), calculated using the $`B_{T_c}`$ magnitude and an absolute solar magnitude in the $`B`$ band of 5.48 (Allen 1973), as listed in LEDA.

### 4.4 H I data

The global H i line parameters are directly measured values; no corrections have been applied to them for, e.g., instrumental resolution or cosmological stretching (e.g., Matthews et al. 2001).

$``$$`rms`$ is the rms noise level in a spectrum (in mJy);

$``$$`I_{HI}`$ is the integrated line flux (in Jy km s-1). The upper limits listed are 3$`\sigma `$ values for flat-topped profiles with a width of 250 km s-1, a representative value for the galaxies detected;

$``$$`V_{HI}`$ is the heliocentric central radial velocity of a line profile (in km s-1), in the optical convention. We estimated the uncertainty, $`\sigma _{V_{HI}}`$ (in km s-1), in $`V_{HI}`$ following Fouqué et al. (1990), as $`\sigma _{V_{HI}}=4R^{0.5}P_W^{0.5}X^1`$, where $`R`$ is the instrumental resolution (16.4 km s-1 for galaxies with previously known velocity and 14.3 for velocity searches ), $`P_W`$=($`W_{20}`$$`W_{50}`$)/2 (in km s-1) and $`X`$ is the signal-to-noise ratio of a spectrum, which we defined as the ratio of the peak flux density and the rms noise.

$``$$`W_{50}`$ and $`W_{20}`$ are the velocity widths (in km s-1) at 50% and 20% of peak maximum (km/s), respectively. According to Fouqué et al. (1990), the uncertainty in the linewidths is 2$`\sigma _{V_{HI}}`$ (see above) for W50 and 3$`\sigma _{V_{HI}}`$ for W20.

$``$$`M_{HI}`$ is the total H i mass (in $`M_{}`$), $`M_{HI}`$= 2.356 $`10^5D^2`$ $`I_{HI}`$, where $`D`$ is in Mpc and $`I_{HI}`$ in Jy km s-1;

$``$$`M_{HI}/L_B`$ is the ratio of the total H i mass to the $`B`$-band luminosity (in $`M_{}`$/$`L_{,B}`$);

$``$$`M_{HI}/L_K`$ is the ratio of the total H i mass to the $`K_s`$-band luminosity (in $`M_{}`$/$`L_{,K}`$);

### 4.5 Notes on individual galaxies

In order to identify sources whose H i detections could have been confused by nearby galaxies, we queried the NED and HyperLeda databases and inspected DSS images over a region of 10 radius surrounding the 2MASS position of each source. Although the telescope’s HPBW is $`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.6}`$ only, an analysis we made of its beam pattern at the time of our observations shows that in the first sidelobe, at 6 radius, an estimated 20% of the line flux would be picked up of a 1 diameter galaxy, whereas at about $`9^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.5}`$ radius this percentage has dropped to 0. We also queried these databases for published H i line data of the target galaxies. For further information on galaxies with published H i line parameters, see Section 5.2. Quoted values are weighted averages from the HyperLeda database, unless otherwise indicated.

L12O: 2MASX J00234816+1441026 = UGC 226: UV excess galaxy Mrk 338 (Mazzarella & Balzano 1986), = IRAS F00212+1424.

L19O : 2MASX J00323244+2323424 = UGC 321: 5 previous H i detections at Arecibo (see Table 2). Optical H$`\alpha `$ rotation curve in Mathewson & Ford (1996).

S298P: 2MASX J01512494+2235396 = PGC 212849: our H i spectrum ($`V_{HI}`$=9894 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=2.3 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=348 km s-1) is confused with that of NGC 695, a $`B_T`$=13.9 mag, $`D_{25}`$=$`0^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.5}`$ S0?pec galaxy with $`V_{opt}`$=9680$`\pm `$100 km s-1 at $`2^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.6}`$ separation, for which average H i parameters of $`V_{HI}`$=9737 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=5.0 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=250 km s-1 are listed in HyperLeda, which are based on the Arecibo spectra of Garwood et al. (1987), Giovanelli et al. (1986), Lewis (1987) and Mirabel & Sanders (1988). We estimate that about 60% of its line flux will be detected at the position of the target galaxy.

S301O: 2MASX J01545765+3720346 = UGC 1380: detected previously in H i at Arecibo (Haynes et al. 1997). $`H`$-band photometry (Boselli et al. 2000; Gavazzi et al. 2000).

L81O: 2MASX J01553966+3702188 = CGCG 522-068: $`H`$-band photometry (Boselli et al. 2000; Gavazzi et al. 2000). Not detected in our survey.

S490P: 2MASX J03084665+2420483 = PGC 1705247: H i profile partially outside our search range.

L224O: 2MASX J04013761+2449189 = FGC464 / FGC 464b: our H i spectrum of the target galaxy, NGC 464, shows two detections, at 5803 and 6673 km s-1, like the Arecibo spectrum of Giovanelli et al. (1997). At $`0^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$ from the edge-on Sc galaxy lies another, somewhat smaller, edge-on spiral, FGC 464b. It is impossible to assign the detections to the objects, as neither has a known optical redshift. For the distance dependent parameters listed for L224Oa and L224Ob in Table 4b.1 it was assumed that the H i is associated with NGC 464.

S662P: 2MASX J04040187+1959363 = PGC 1612699: our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=6553 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.4 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=230 km s-1) is not expected to be significantly confused with that of the S0 IC 358($`V_{opt}`$=6760$`\pm `$50 km s-1), at $`7^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.4}`$ separation, since only an estimated 8% of its line flux will be detected at the position of the target galaxy. The Arecibo H i profile of IC 358 (from Giovanelli & Haynes 1993) shows $`V_{HI}`$=6770 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=3.6 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=638 km s-1.

S686O: 2MASX J04140133+2645003 = FGC 470: detected in H i at Nançay (Matthews & van Driel 2000).

L253P: 2MASXI J0447309+242207 = PGC 1705745: H i profile partially outside our search range.

S868P: 2MASX J05221999+1749137 = PGC 1542586: at $`2^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$, i.e. 1.3 times half the telescope’s HPBW from the target galaxy lies IRAS 05192+1745, an Sbc spiral with $`V_{opt}`$=5892$`\pm `$60 km s-1, $`B_T`$=16.65 mag and $`D_{25}`$=$`0^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$. As our H i profile parameters are $`V_{HI}`$=5559 km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=303 km s-1, it does not appear to be confused with the nearby IRAS galaxy.

S766N: 2MASX J04431049+2901446: our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=6505 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.1 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=131 km s-1) is not expected to be significantly confused with that of the S0/a UGC 3142 ($`V_{opt}`$=6592$`\pm `$43 km s-1), at $`8^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.7}`$ separation, since only about 2.5% of its line flux would be detected at the position of the target galaxy. The Arecibo H i profiles of UGC 3142 (from Lu et al. 1990 and Pantoja et al. 1997) show $`V_{HI}`$=6496 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=5.1 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=288 km s-1.

L313O & S1017O: 2MASX J07111558+3110140 & 2MASX J07112782+3111218 = CGCG 146-033 & 146-036, respectively: the two target galaxies are members of an isolated triplet of galaxies, together with CGCG 146-034. Our two H i profiles do not appear to be confused. CGCG 146-034, at $`V_{opt}`$=7433$`\pm `$60 km s-1, has been classified as an elliptical and is therefore likely to be devoid of H i. The $`2^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.9}`$ separation between the two target galaxies is relatively large compared to the telescope’s half HPBW of $`1^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$, and their optical velocities (7515 and 7203 km s-1, respectively) are separated by 313 km s-1. Our H i profiles obtained pointing towards the centres of CGCG 146-033 and CGCG 146-036 in fact do not overlap in velocity: they have, respectively, $`V_{HI}`$=7496 and 7228 km s-1, corresponding well to the optical systemic velocities, and $`W_{50}`$=163 and 197 km s-1. The emission seen in spectrum of CGCG 146-036 at $``$7450-7600 km s-1 may be due to CGCG 146-033. The two target 2MASS galaxies are included in the catalogue of nearby poor clusters of galaxies of White et al. (1999).

S1017O: 2MASX J07112782+3111218 = CGCG 148-26: it is quite unlikely that our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=7181 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.4 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=146 km s-1) of the $`B_T`$=16.1 mag target galaxy, without know optical redshift, is confused by the somewhat brighter ($`B_T`$$``$15.6) galaxies CGCG 148-33 and 148-34, at about 3 distance, as their optical redshifts of 7516$`\pm `$45 and 7433$`\pm `$60 km s-1, respectively, are significantly higher. No H i data are available on these two objects.

S1025P: 2MASX J07154721+1930583: it is not possible to determine if our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=5207 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=0.43 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=134 km s-1) of the target galaxy is confused with that of a galaxy of similar optical size and brightness, 2MASX J07160231+1932242, at $`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$ distance, since neither has a known optical redshift. At this separation, we estimate that about 30% of line flux of the latter object would be detected at the target position.

S1062O: 2MASX J07471628+2657037 = IC 746: our H i detection appears to be of nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2449, rather than of the target 2MASS object. Our spectrum centered on the 2MASS galaxy shows $`V_{HI}`$=4776 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.4 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=248 km s-1, while its optical redshift is 229 km s-1 higher, 5005$`\pm `$39 km s-1. NGC 2449, which lies only $`1^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.5}`$ from the target galaxy and well within the Arecibo HPBW, is an Sab spiral of $`B_T`$=14.13 mag and $`D_{25}`$=$`1^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.4}`$, with $`V_{opt}`$=4817$`\pm `$34 km s-1. A detection of NGC 2449 at Arecibo (Bicay & Giovanelli 1986), shows $`V_{HI}`$=4778 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=2.0 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=221 km s-1. Two other galaxies of similar redshift, NGC 2449 ($`V_{opt}`$= 4801$`\pm `$33 km s-1) and IC 2205 ($`V_{opt}`$=4726$`\pm `$43 km s-1), both about one magnitude fainter in $`B`$ than NGC 2449, lie about 6 from the target galaxy. No H i observations are published of these objects. The target galaxy is included in the catalogue of nearby poor clusters of galaxies of White et al. (1999).

L324O: 2MASX J07480326+2801422 = CGCG 148-26: our H i profile ($`V_{HI}`$=8041 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.7 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=153 km s-1) of the target galaxy ($`V_{opt}`$=8111$`\pm `$60 km s-1, $`B_T`$=16.4) may in principle be confused by a nearby ($`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$ separation), somewhat more luminous galaxy galaxy, CGCG 148-28 ($`V_{opt}`$=8163$`\pm `$43 km s-1, $`B_T`$=15.6), both without published morphological type. At this separation, we expect that about 40% of the line flux of the latter would be detected at the position of the target galaxy.

S1080O: 2MASX J07551046+1422131 = CGCG 58-70: there will be no confusion of our detection at $`V_{HI}`$=13,446 km s-1 of the target galaxy ($`V_{opt}`$=13,447 km s-1) with the three similarly bright galaxies at about 4 to $`7^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.5}`$ distance (CGCG 58-68, -69 and -71), since these all have optical redshifts of $``$8750 km s-1.

L363O: 2MASX J09030837+1739356= FGC 828: since none have optical redshifts, it is impossible to determine if our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=8832 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.0 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=158 km s-1) of the target galaxy, with $`K_{20}`$=12.5, is confused by 2 smaller nearby 2MASS galaxies, 2MASX J09030383+1741336 of $`K_{20}`$=12.8 at $`2^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$ distance, and 2MASX J09031111+1740431 of $`K_{20}`$=14.4 at $`1^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.4}`$ distance. At these separations, we estimate that about 70% to 90/The galaxy pair CGCG 90-59, at $`6^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.5}`$ distance, has a much higher redshift of about 16,000 km s-1.

S1283O: 2MASX J09223543+2051068 = PGC 86616: detected previously in H i at Arecibo (Schombert et al. 1992).

S1317O: 2MASXI J0939167+321838 = NGC 2944 pair: interacting galaxy pair (= Arp 63). The separation of NGC 2944 into two galaxies is best seen on the 2MASS images, where the projected distance of their nuclei is 16′′, as the DSS image is saturated in the inner regions. The selected 2MASS source corresponds to the centre of the least bright, W nucleus. Optical spectroscopy (Maehara et al. 1987) only showed H$`\alpha `$+$`[`$Nii$`]`$ emission lines, with an equivalent width of 57Å for H$`\alpha `$. 28′′ SE of the centre of the NGC 2944 pair lies PGC 27534, a $`B_T`$=16: object of $`D_{25}`$=$`0^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.2}`$ without published optical redshift. NGC 2944 was detected previously in H i at Arecibo (Williams & Kerr 1981) and at Nançay, (Chamaraux 1977). The central H i velocities measured at the two telescope differ significantly: 6783 and 6753 km s-1 at Arecibo compared to 6831 km s-1 at Nançay. The much higher Nançay $`I_{HI}`$ of 13.6 Jy km s-1 compared to the 4.0 Jy km s-1 we measured at Arecibo can be explained partially by confusion within the larger Nançay beam with the interacting UGC 5146 pair (=Arp 129), at $`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.7}`$ separation, for which Bicay & Giovanelli (1986) measured at Arecibo $`V_{HI}`$=6862, $`I_{HI}`$=4.8 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=163 km s-1. The $`W_{50}`$ width we measured at Arecibo is almost twice the value measured by Williams & Kerr, 149 /kms.

L388O: 2MASX J09403295+2529255 = UGC 5156: its optical redshift is 10,028$`\pm `$43 km s-1. It was detected previously in H i at Arecibo (Bicay & Giovanelli 1986), at $`V_{HI}`$=9953 km s-1, 174 km s-1 higher than our central velocity, which appears to be due to the fact that our H i profile lies partially outside the search range. At $`5^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$ distance lies a galaxy of similar redshift ($`V_{opt}`$=10,082$`\pm `$43 km s-1), size, magnitude and high inclination, CGCG 122-47. The H i profiles may in principle be confused by this object, as we estimate that about 25% of its line flux would be detected at the target position.

S1342O: 2MASX J09501016+3424534 = KUG 0947+346: its optical velocity, 6590$`\pm `$47 km s-1 (Kowal et al. 1974) is about 1000 km s-1 lower than our H i velocity, 7571 km s-1. At $`7^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.1}`$ distance lies a somewhat brighter Sc spiral, KUG 0946+346, of unknown redshift. Since we estimate that only about 15% of its line flux would be detected at the target position, it does not seem likely that the H i profile is confused by it.

S1357O: 2MASX J09560425+1630537 = LSBC F637-01: our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=3825 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.2 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=130 km s-1) is not expected to be significantly confused by the SBa NGC 3053 ($`V_{opt}`$=3774$`\pm `$60 km s-1), at $`8^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$ separation, since only an estimated 2.5% of its line flux will be detected at the target position. The Arecibo H i profiles of NGC 3053 (Chengalur et al. 1993 and Giovanardi & Salpeter 1985) show $`V_{HI}`$=3730 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=4.3 Jy km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=409 km s-1.

S2687P: 2MASX J22401444+3438401 = PGC 2052363: our H i profile ($`V_{HI}`$=8404 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=2.6 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=226 km s-1) may in principle be confused by the galaxy 2MASX J22404656+3437520 at $`6^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.4}`$ distance, which is 1.2 mag brighter in the $`K_s`$ band. Neither have an optical redshift. Only about an estimated 15% of its line flux would be detected at the target position.

S2730P: 2MASX J22551306+3248080 = PGC 2012878: our H i profile may be a detection of nearby galaxy Ark 569, an SBbc spiral with $`B_T`$=15.6 and $`D_{25}`$=$`0^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.8}`$ without a known optical redshift. At $`4^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$ distance, we estimate that about 30% of its line flux would be detected at the target position. An Arecibo detection (Giovanelli & Haynes 1985) of Ark 569 shows $`V_{HI}`$=6000 km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=266 km s-1, values very close to the $`V_{HI}`$=6018 km s-1 and $`W_{50}`$=270 km s-1 we measured pointing towards the 2MASS object. The integrated H i line flux we measured towards the 2MASS galaxy, 0.4 Jy km s-1, is 10 times smaller than the 4.0 Jy km s-1 measured towards Ark 569.

L802P: 2MASX J22580271+3227586 = PGC 2800849: detected previously in H i at Arecibo (Cabanela & Dickey 1999), with $`V_{HI}`$=6588 km s-1 and $`I_{HI}`$=1.5 Jy km s-1, and an average of the $`W_{50}`$ and $`W_{20}`$ line widths of 283 km s-1. Surprisingly, the object was not detected in our survey, with an rms noise level of 1.19 mJy. For a flat-topped profile with width of 283 km s-1, this would imply a 3$`\sigma `$ upper limit to $`I_{HI}`$ of 1.0 Jy km s-1, well below the value measured previously.

L807O: 2MASX J22594147+2404297 = UGC 12289: our H i profile of the target galaxy ($`V_{HI}`$=9986 km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=217 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=4.3 Jy km s-1), with $`V_{opt}`$=10,160$`\pm `$42 km s-1, lies partially outside our search range, which explains the 174 km s-1 difference with the optical redshift and the Arecibo detection by Giovanelli et al. (1986), which shows $`V_{HI}`$=10,160 km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=218 km s-1 and $`I_{HI}`$=3.1 Jy km s-1. The profile is not expected to be confused significantly by the $`B_T`$ 16.1 SBab spiral UGC 12283, with $`V_{opt}`$=9949$`\pm `$60 km s-1, which was detected at Arecibo by Giovanelli et al. (1986), who found $`V_{HI}`$=9949 km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=274 km s-1 and $`I_{HI}`$=0.7 Jy km s-1. At $`5^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.3}`$ distance, we estimate that about 25% of its line flux would be detected at the target position.

L815O: 2MASX J23145953+1459192 = MCG 02-59-12: our H i detection ($`V_{HI}`$=11,908 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=0.95 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=48 km s-1) of the target galaxy, which has an optical redshift of 12,182$`\pm `$60 km s-1, may in principle be confused by two nearby objects: a $`B`$=16 mag object without a PGC entry at 23h15m$`12^s.2`$, 145822′′ at 12,182 km s-1 and $`3^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.2}`$ distance, and $`B_T`$=16.2 mag Sc spiral UGC 12448 at 11,955 km s-1 and $`6^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.4}`$ distance. At these separations, we estimate that about 40% and 20%, respectively, of their line fluxes would be detected at the target position.

S2817O: 2MASXI J2323068+124955 = KUG 2320+125: $`B`$ and $`R`$-band CCD imaging and long-slit spectroscopy (Grogin & Geller 1999, 2000).

L829O: 2MASXI J2347570+280747 = FGC 2536: detected in H i at Nançay (Matthews & van Driel 2000).

S2834O: 2MASX J23343591+2353362 = KUG 2332+236: two H i lines were detected in our spectrum, at 5615 and 9802 km s-1, respectively. The $`B_T`$=16.5 Sc-type target galaxy has no known optical redshift. For the distance dependent parameters listed for S2834Oa and b in Table 4b.2 it was assumed that the H i is associated with the target galaxy. Our lower velocity detection ($`V_{HI}`$=5615 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=0.9 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=298 km s-1) will be completely confused by two nearby galaxies, both without known optical redshift, which were detected in H i at Arecibo by Spitzak & Schneider (1998): the $`B_T`$=17.3 mag PGC 169947 ($`V_{HI}`$=5603 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=1.7 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=162 km s-1) at $`2^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.1}`$, and the $`B_T`$=17.6 mag PGC 169948 ($`V_{HI}`$=5558 km s-1, $`I_{HI}`$=2.7 Jy km s-1, $`W_{50}`$=109 km s-1) at $`5^{}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}.1}`$ distance. We estimate that about 75% of the line flux of the former and about 25% of the flux of the latter would be detected at the target position, i.e. in total about 2 Jy km s-1\- twice the total flux we measured.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Comparison with published H I data

Of the 127 galaxies we detected at 21 cm, 10 were detected previously in H i (see Sect. 4.5 and Table 2). Of these, 7 were detected at Arecibo only, one at both Arecibo and Nançay (NGC 2944) and 2 at Nançay only (FGC 470 and 2536). Basically all published Arecibo measurements were made before its major upgrade, while ours were made after. A comparison of these data with ours generally shows good agreement, except for the case of the confused Nançay profile of the interacting pair NGC 2944 (S1317O) and for UGC 12289 (L807O), where our profile lies partially outside the band (see Section 4.5). Excluding NGC 2944 and UGC 12289, the average absolute value and its $`\sigma _N`$ deviation of the differences between our radial velocities and the published H i velocities is 25$`\pm `$21 km s-1, compared to the average estimated uncertainty of 6 km s-1 in the values we measured for these objects, while the average ratio of our $`W_{50}`$ line widths and the published values is 1.02$`\pm `$0.06, and the ratio of the integrated line fluxes is 0.82$`\pm `$0.17.

### 5.2 Radio Frequency Interference (RFI)

As a consequence of their high sensitivity, radio astronomy telescopes are vulnerable to radio frequency interference (RFI), with signal strengths usually greatly exceeding those of the weak celestial radio sources being observed. Broad-band RFI raises the noise level of the observations, while narrow-band RFI may mimic spectral lines like the H i lines from galaxies that are being searched for in the present study.

It should be noted that in the ITU-R Radio Regulations (2001), with which all users of the radio spectrum are obliged to comply, astronomical H i line observations are only protected from “all emissions” up to a redshift of about 4300 km s-1, while for observations further out to $``$19,000 km s-1 “\[national frequency\] administrations are urged to take all practicable steps to protect the radio astronomy service from harmful interference”. These regulatory provisions for the protection of the Radio Astronomy Service clearly cannot guarantee a completely RFI-free environment for the kind of survey we performed.

Though care was taken to make the renovated Arecibo telescope more robust for unwanted radio interference (RFI), and to coordinate its operation as well as possible with the frequency plan and emission periods of local radar installations, persistent RFI signals with strengths that make the detection of faint H i line signals impossible were present during a significant fraction of the observations.

In order to examine during what percentage of time which radial velocity ranges are interfered with, considering the faintness of the line signals we are searching for, we flagged all channels in all spectra made in the velocity search mode (see Sect. 3.1) showing signals with a flux density exceeding the 20 mJy level after baseline fitting – a level exceeded by only two of our 107 detected galaxies: S622P at 11,711 km s-1 and L807O at 9986 km s-1. Plots of the relative number of times such signals occurred during the November 2000 and January 2001 observing runs are shown in Figure 1, in bins with a a width of 25 km s-1 (about 10 channels). Besides RFI, the plots show the omnipresent Galactic H i emission around 0 km s-1. The most troublesome RFI signal in the velocity searches, of which about 85% were made in the -500 to 11,000 km s-1 range, are the intermittent GPS L3 emissions in the $``$81500-8700 km s-1 range (around 1381 MHz): 12% of all spectra showed RFI exceeding the 20 mJy level in this range.

## 6 Conclusions

Of the 367 galaxies observed, 127 (35%) were clearly detected, 66 of which did not have a previously known radial velocity. The detection statistics as function of type (previously catalogued , PGC entry only or uncatalogued) and size or selection algorithm (large/small/faint) are listed in Table 1. For the Large objects ($`r_{K_{20}}20^{\prime \prime }`$) the global detection rate (for both previously catalogued and uncatalogued objects) is 79%, while for the small objects ($`20^{\prime \prime }r_{K_{20fe}}10^{\prime \prime }`$), the global detection rate is much lower, 26%.

###### Acknowledgements.

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. We also wish to thank the Arecibo Observatory which is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. This research also has made use of the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA), recently incorporated in HyperLeda, the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Aladin database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. We acknowledge financial support from CNRS/NSF collaboration grant No. 10637 and from the ASTE of CNRS/INSU.


text:
# Metastable bound state of a pair of two-dimensional spatially separated electrons in anti-parallel magnetic fields

## 1 Introduction

During last ten years a possibility to measure the effects caused by an interaction of spatially separated carriers in low-dimensional systems has been demonstrated in a number of experiments. An undoubted evidence for such effects was obtained in drag experiments in which a voltage in one conducting layer caused by an electric current in the adjacent layer (separated from the first one by a dielectric layer) was observed. The drag effects have been registered in bilayer systems with the conductivity of the same type in both layers (for instance, the electron-types) and in the layers with the conductivity of the opposite types (electron-type in one layer and the hole-type in the other one) . In the last case the interaction between spatially separated electrons and holes may result not only in the drag effect but also in an electron-hole pairing. The electron-hole pairs may condense into a specific superfluid state in which a supercurrent in one layer is accompanied by a supercurrent in the adjacent layer and these currents have the same absolute value but the opposite directions .

The most favorable conditions for the electron-hole pairing are achieved in a case when a strong (quantizing) perpendicular to the layers magnetic field is applied to a bilayer electron-hole  or electron-electron system  (with the total filling factor $`\nu _T=1`$ in the last case). The experimental discovery of the superfluidity of the pairs in such systems has been already reported .

The possibility of pairing of spatially separated electrons and holes looks quite natural since there are Coulomb attraction forces between an electron and a hole. Unexpected and less obvious phenomenon consists in that in a strong magnetic field the Coulomb repulsion between spatially separated equally charged carriers may result in a formation of metastable bound pairs. Such an effect takes place in a situation when the magnetic fields applied to the first and the second layer of bilayer electron (or hole) system are antiparallel to each other. This possibility was predicted in our paper , where we assume that together with the antiparallel perpendicular to the layers magnetic fields the antiparallel to each other and parallel to the conducting layers electric fields are applied to the system. The disadvantage of the situation considered in  is that the presence of the electric fields may result in an instability of the system with a macroscopic number of the pairs.

In this paper we show that a formation of a metastable bound state of spatially separated electrons (or holes) can emerge without the electric fields applied to the system and formulate the conditions of appearance of such a bound state.

## 2 Electron-electron pair in antiparallel magnetic fields

Let us consider two two-dimensional electron layers with the interlayer distance $`d`$ embedded in a dielectric matrix with the dielectric constant $`\epsilon _0`$. Let the magnetic field in the top layer (layer 1) is $`𝐁_1=(0,0,B)`$ and the magnetic field in the bottom layer (layer 2) is $`𝐁_2=(0,0,B)`$ (the $`z`$ axis is chosen perpendicular to the layers). The possible way of realization of such a configuration of magnetic fields will be discussed in the end of the paper. We specify the case when there is one electron belonging to the zero Landau level in the layer 1 and one electron belonging to the first Landau level in the layer 2. In the symmetric gauge the vector potential in the layer 1 is equal to $`𝐀_1(𝐫_1)=(By/2,Bx/2,0)`$ and in the layer 2 $`𝐀_2(𝐫_2)=(By/2,Bx/2,0)`$. The Hamiltonian of a pair of interacting electrons has the form

$$H=H_1+H_2+V_C(|𝐫_1𝐫_2|),$$
(1)
where

$$H_1=\frac{\left(\widehat{p}_{1x}+\frac{eB}{2c}y_1\right)^2}{2m_1}+\frac{\left(\widehat{p}_{1y}\frac{eB}{2c}x_1\right)^2}{2m_1},$$
(2)
$$H_2=\frac{\left(\widehat{p}_{2x}\frac{eB}{2c}y_2\right)^2}{2m_2}+\frac{\left(\widehat{p}_{2y}+\frac{eB}{2c}x_2\right)^2}{2m_2},$$
(3)
$$V_C=\frac{e^2}{\epsilon _0|𝐫_1𝐫_2|}=\frac{e^2}{\epsilon _0\sqrt{(x_1x_2)^2+(y_1y_2)^2+d^2}}.$$
(4)
Here $`𝐫_1`$, $`𝐫_2`$ are the two-dimensional vectors. We set the electron charge equals to $`e`$.

In a strong magnetic field the Bohr radiuses of the electrons $`a_B^{(1)}=\epsilon _0\mathrm{}^2/m_1e^2`$, $`a_B^{(2)}=\epsilon _0\mathrm{}^2/m_2e^2`$ can be much larger then the magnetic length $`\mathrm{}_0=(c\mathrm{}/eB)^{1/2}`$. In this case the Coulomb interaction can be taken into account as a perturbation. It is known that the quantum problem of a particle in a quantizing magnetic field has a large degeneracy (in the symmetric gauge with respect to the quantum number $`m`$, the $`z`$ projection of the angular momentum). Therefore, the common formulation of the theory of perturbations should be based on a solution of a secular equation. But such an approach is not an optimal method for the study of this problem. Here we use another approach based on the projection of the Hamiltonian (1) into the subspace of the states of the pair of electrons in which the electrons in the layer 1 and 2 are frozen on the zero and the first Landau levels, correspondingly (it is just the approach used in the theory of the quantum Hall effect). Then the kinetic energy operator for the electron in the layer 1

$$H_1=\frac{(\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x})^2+(\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y})^2}{2m_1}=\mathrm{}\omega _1(a_1^+a_1+\frac{1}{2})$$
(5)
is projected to $`\overline{H}_1=\mathrm{}\omega _1/2`$ (here and further the bar symbols indicate the projected operators) which is constant. We will omit this constant in the further consideration. In (5) $`\omega _1=eB/m_1c`$ is the cyclotron frequency for the electron in the layer 1, $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x}p_{1x}+\frac{eB}{2c}y_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y}p_{1y}\frac{eB}{2c}x_1`$, the electron kinematic momentum components, $`a_1^+=\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}\sqrt{2}}(\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x}i\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y})`$, $`a_1=\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}\sqrt{2}}(\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x}+i\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y})`$, the creation and the annihilation operators for the electron 1 on a zero Landau level. It follows from the commutation relation for $`\mathrm{\Pi }_i^1`$ ($`[\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x},\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y}]=i\mathrm{}^2/\mathrm{}_0^2`$) that $`[a,a^+]=1`$ as it should be. Analogously, for the electron in the layer 2 one can find

$$H_2=\frac{\mathrm{\Pi }_{2x}^2+\mathrm{\Pi }_{2y}^2}{2m_2}=\mathrm{}\omega _2(a_2^+a_2+\frac{1}{2})$$
(6)
and $`\overline{H}_2=3\mathrm{}\omega _2/2`$.

To project out the $`V_C(|𝐫_1𝐫_2|)`$ operator it is convenient to rewrite it in a Fourier-representation form (we follow the procedure )

$$V_C=\frac{e^2}{2\pi \epsilon _0}d^2k\frac{\mathrm{exp}(k|d|)}{|k|}\mathrm{exp}\left(ik_x(x_1x_2)+ik_y(y_1y_2)\right),$$
(7)
where $`|k|=\sqrt{k_x^2+k_y^2}`$.

The coordinates of the electron in the layer 1 can be presented as

$$x_1=X_1\frac{\mathrm{}_0^2}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y},y_1=Y_1+\frac{\mathrm{}_0^2}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x},$$
(8)
where $`X_1`$, $`Y_1`$ are the coordinates of the centers of its orbit in the magnetic field. The operators $`X_1`$ and $`Y_1`$ satisfy the following commutation relations: $`[X_1,Y_1]=i\mathrm{}_0^2`$. Besides that, $`X_1`$ and $`Y_1`$ commute with the momenta components $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y}`$. Analogously, for the electron in the layer 2 we have

$$x_2=X_2+\frac{\mathrm{}_0^2}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{2y},y_2=Y_2\frac{\mathrm{}_0^2}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{2x},$$
(9)
where $`[X_2,Y_2]=i\mathrm{}_0^2`$. Now the projection of the operator $`V_C`$ is reduced to the independent projection of two commuting operators $`U_1`$ and $`U_2`$:

$$\widehat{U}_1\mathrm{exp}\left(ik_x\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1y}+ik_y\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1x}\right)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\sqrt{2}}(ka_1^+\overline{k}a_1)\right],$$
(10)
$$\widehat{U}_2\mathrm{exp}\left(ik_x\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{2y}ik_y\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Pi }_{2x}\right)=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mathrm{}_0}{\sqrt{2}}(\overline{k}a_2^+ka_2)\right],$$
(11)
where the notation $`kk_x+ik_y`$ is used. The projection of these operators can be easily done:

$$\overline{U_1}=0|\widehat{U}_1|0=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{|k|^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{4}\right),\overline{U_2}=1|\widehat{U}_2|1=\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{|k|^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{4}\right)\left[1\frac{|k|^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}\right].$$
(12)
Substituting Eq. (12) into Eq. (7) we arrive to the following expression for the operator $`\overline{V}_C`$

$$\overline{V}_C=\frac{e^2}{2\pi \epsilon _0}d^2k\frac{e^{|k|d}}{|k|}e^{\frac{|k|^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}}\left[1\frac{|k|^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}\right]e^{ik_x(X_1X_2)+ik_y(Y_1Y_2)}.$$
(13)
Since the operators $`X_1X_2`$ and $`Y_1Y_2`$ commute with each other and with the Hamiltonian (1) these operators are the integrals of motion. The appearance of the integrals of motions in the problem considered is not accidental. The point is that the Hamiltonian (1) and the Hamiltonian of the electron-hole pair coincide with each other up to a sign of the Coulomb interaction. In the last (electron-hole) case there is the integral of motion - the momentum of the pair $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$

$$\stackrel{}{𝒫}=\left(i\mathrm{}\frac{}{𝐫_1}+\frac{e}{c}𝐀_1\right)+\left(i\mathrm{}\frac{}{𝐫_2}\frac{e}{c}𝐀_2\right)\frac{e}{c}\left[𝐁\times (𝐫_1𝐫_2)\right].$$
(14)
In our problem the momentum of the pair $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$ is also the integral of motion. Comparing Eq. (14) with Eqs. (8) and (9) we find the relation between the components of the momentum $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$ and the operators $`X_1X_2`$ and $`Y_1Y_2`$:

$$𝒫_x=\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{}_0^2}(Y_2Y_1)\mathrm{and}𝒫_y=\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{}_0^2}(X_2X_1)\mathrm{or}\stackrel{}{𝒫}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{\mathrm{}_0^2}(𝐑_2𝐑_1)\times e_z,$$
(15)
where $`e_z`$ is the unit vector in $`z`$-direction. Taking Eq. (15) into account we rewrite the energy of the electron pair as the function of its momentum $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E_{01}(\stackrel{}{𝒫})=\frac{e^2}{2\pi \epsilon _0}d^2k\frac{e^{|k|d}}{|k|}e^{\frac{ik_x\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}𝒫_y\frac{ik_y\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}𝒫_x}e^{\frac{k^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}}\left(1\frac{k^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}\right).$$
(16)
Prior to analyze Eq. (16) we note the following.

1. Using the method presented here one can also find the dependence of the energy of the pair on its momentum $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$ in a general case, when the electron in the layer 1 is ”frozen” on the $`n_1`$-th Landau level and the electron in the layer 2 - on the $`n_2`$-th level. The final result is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E_{n_1n_2}(\stackrel{}{𝒫})=\frac{e^2}{2\pi \epsilon _0}d^2k\frac{e^{|k|d}}{|k|}e^{\frac{ik_x\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}𝒫_y\frac{ik_y\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}𝒫_x}e^{\frac{k^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}}L_{n_1}\left(\frac{k^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}\right)L_{n_2}\left(\frac{k^2\mathrm{}_0^2}{2}\right),$$
(17)
where $`L_n(x)`$ are the Laguerre polynomials.

2. The variant of the theory of perturbations used here allows to solve the problem also in the case when the condition $`a_B\mathrm{}_0`$ is satisfied only for the one particle in the pair, while the Bohr radius for the other particle can be of order $`\mathrm{}_0`$. Such a situation may take place if the effective masses of the carries differ considerably from each other ($`m_1m_2`$), see .

Returning to the analysis of the result (16) we consider only the simplest case $`d0`$. The results obtained below remain qualitatively correct if $`d\mathrm{}_0`$. At $`d=0`$ the integral in the r.h.s. of Eq. (16) is calculated analytically. The result is

$$\mathrm{\Delta }E_{01}(p)=\frac{e^2}{\epsilon \mathrm{}_0}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2}}\frac{1}{2}\left[\left(1\frac{p^2}{2}\right)\mathrm{I}_0\left(\frac{p^2}{4}\right)\frac{p^2}{2}\mathrm{I}_1\left(\frac{p^2}{4}\right)\right]e^{\frac{p^2}{4}},$$
(18)
where $`p=𝒫\mathrm{}_0/\mathrm{}`$ is the dimensionless momentum of the pair, $`\mathrm{I}_0(x)`$ and $`\mathrm{I}_1(x)`$ are the modified Bessel functions of the zero and the first order, correspondingly. Using the asymptotic expressions for $`\mathrm{I}_0(x)`$ and $`\mathrm{I}_1(x)`$ one can find from Eq. (18) the dependence $`\mathrm{\Delta }E_{01}(p)ϵ(p)`$ at small and large $`p`$.

1) At $`p1`$

$$ϵ(p)E_0+\frac{\mathrm{}^2p^2}{2M_{}\mathrm{}_0},$$
(19)
where the energy $`E_0`$ and the effective mass of the pair $`M_{}`$ read as

$$E_0=\frac{e^2}{2\epsilon _0\mathrm{}_0}\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2}},\mathrm{and}M_{}=\left(\frac{2}{\pi }\right)^{1/2}\frac{4\epsilon _0\mathrm{}^2}{e^2\mathrm{}_0}.$$
(20)
One should note that in the approximation used the effective mass $`M_{}`$ is determined only by the interaction between electrons. The bare masses $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ do not enter into the expression for $`M_{}`$. The bare masses determine only the Larmour frequencies $`\omega _1`$ and $`\omega _2`$.

2) At $`p1`$

$$ϵ(p)\frac{4}{\sqrt{2\pi }}\frac{E_0}{p}.$$
(21)
As it follows from Eq. (20) and (21) the energy of the electron pair as the function of the momentum $`p`$ increases at small momenta and decreases at large $`p`$. Numerical estimates show that the function $`ϵ(p)`$ reaches its maximum $`ϵ_m=1.148E_0`$ at $`p=p_m=1.194`$. The dependence $`ϵ(p)`$ is shown in Fig.1.

## 3 Discussion

The existence of the local minimum of $`ϵ(p)`$ at $`p=0`$ is the main result. It has important consequences. There are simple and transparent reasons for the appearance of the local minimum in the case when the electron in one layer belongs to the zero Landau level and the electron in the adjacent layer - to the first Landau level. The wave functions are shown schematically in Fig. 2 (rigorously speaking, the electron density distributions in the layers are presented in this figure).

It is physically evident that in the case when the centers of the orbits of both electron coincide ($`p=0`$) the energy of the Coulomb repulsion is smaller (local minimum) than at small displacements from this configuration. One should note that the interaction energy $`ϵ(p)`$ is positive at all $`p`$, which is natural since the repulsion forces act between the electrons. But the presence of the minimum gives an evidence of a formation of a metastable bound state of two electrons from the adjacent layers. Actually, it is easy to find the average distance between the electron of the pair with the momentum $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$

$$r\left(\psi |(r_1r_2)^2|\psi \right)^{1/2}=\mathrm{}_0(4+p^2),$$
(22)
where $`|\psi `$ is the wave function of the pair with the momentum $`\stackrel{}{𝒫}`$. Therefore, these is a one to one correspondence between the momentum and the size of the pair. If the pair has the momentum $`𝐩=0`$ then the average distance is $`r=2\mathrm{}_0`$. To separate the electrons on the infinite distance from each other (when $`ϵ(p=\mathrm{})=0`$) the energy barrier $`ϵ(p_m)ϵ(0)=0.148E_0`$ should be overcome. It means that the electron pairs with small momenta $`p`$ are in the quasibound state stable against different scattering processes in which the shift of the momentum of the pair is smaller then $`p_m`$. The bound electron pairs are the bosons and, therefore, in the system of such pairs one can expect the transition into the superfluid state if the density of the pair is quite large. Since the pairs are charged this state should be superconductive one. Strictly speaking, the problem of a transition of the electron pairs into the superfluid state in the system studied requires further analysis. Since the bound state of the pairs does not correspond to the true minimum of the energy the thermodynamic arguments cannot be used to establish the conditions of the existence of the superfluid state. To clarify this question the probability of the transition from the state with a given number of the pair with zero or small momenta should be found. We expect that due to the presence of the barrier for pair decoupling in the two-particle problem a barrier for the destruction of the coherent state will exist in the many-particle problem as well. Therefore, at the temperature smaller then the value of the barrier the time of life of the coherent state will be large.

In conclusion, we discuss shortly the question about the possibility to realize the magnetic field configuration required. This question is not so simple from the experimental point of view. Actually, the fields should be of order of $`1÷10`$ T. But we think this obstacle can be overcome. We propose two ways of possible solution of this problem. First, the required (antiparallel) configuration of the magnetic fields can be realized using the magnetized stripes of magnetically-hard materials (like Dy) deposited on the bilayer structure. In Ref.  such a method was used for designing periodic magnetic fields with $`B_{max}=1`$ T with the aim to study the conducting properties of a two-dimensional electron gas in such fields. Another possible way to create antiparallel magnetic field configuration can be based on using antiferromagnetic systems in which the spins in each layer are ferromagnetically ordered while they are directed antiparallel in adjacent layers. For example, such properties demonstrate the layered manganites (LaSr)n+1MnnO3n+1, the compounds widely studied now (see, for instance, review ).

This work is supported by the INTAS grant No 01-2344.