text:
# Tracing the Magnetic Field in Orion A

## 1 Introduction

The determination of the orientation of the magnetic field in molecular clouds and their surroundings is important for the assessment of its role and relative importance in the evolution of the clouds and in the process of star formation. Numerous scenarios have been proposed concerning the different stages involved in the birth of stars from primordial clouds (Shu et al., 1987; McKee et al., 1993; Heiles et al., 1993; Mouschovias & Ciolek, 1999; Williams et al., 2000). But, whatever the details, they all seek to describe at some level or another the interaction of the magnetic field with its environment and its influence during gravitational collapse. The magnetic field will resist and slow down the collapse and perhaps even shape the structures observed within the clouds themselves (Fiege & Pudritz, 2000; Matthews, Wilson & Fiege, 2001). Conversely, measurements of the orientation of the magnetic field in molecular clouds and prestellar cores can tell us something about the ways in which cores form; e.g., an hourglass geometry is usually interpreted as a sign of the magnetic field having been dragged by the gas during its collapse (see for example Schleuning (1998)). In that respect, data obtained from polarimetry measurements at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths which trace the orientation of the projection of the magnetic field in the plane of the sky (Hildebrand, 1988) are essential for this task and for creating, testing and refining models (Matthews, Wilson & Fiege, 2001).

Recently, Houde et al. (2002) have proposed a new technique that would allow for a more complete determination of the orientation of the magnetic field in that it renders possible the measurement of the inclination or viewing angle that the field makes relative to the line of sight. This is accomplished by combining polarimetry data and ion-to-neutral line width ratios obtained from the spectra of coexistent molecular species. The technique was first applied to the M17 molecular cloud using an extensive 350 $`\mu `$m Hertz polarimetry map and HCO+/HCN spectroscopic data (Houde et al., 2000a, b, 2002), all obtained at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO).

We pursue a similar task in this paper where our goal is primarily to use polarimetry and spectroscopic data (as well as continuum maps) to trace the orientation of the magnetic field along the integral-shaped filament (ISF; see Bally et al. (1987)) of the Orion A molecular cloud (OMC). We will use the 350 $`\mu `$m polarimetry maps obtained with the Hertz polarimeter (Dowell et al., 1998), superposed on SHARC II continuum maps at the same wavelength (Dowell et al., 2003), to study the orientation of the projection of the magnetic field in the plane of the sky along with HCO+ and HCN spectra to evaluate the inclination of the field relative to the line of sight.

## 2 Observations

The core of the data presented in this paper comes from extensive 350 $`\mu `$m polarimetry maps obtained with the Hertz polarimeter (Dowell et al., 1998) during numerous nights of observations at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. In all, seven different regions of the Orion A molecular cloud were studied. They are from north to south: *i)* IRAS 05327-0457, observed on 2002 February 17-18, *ii)* OMC-3 MMS 1-6, observed on 1997 September 19, 1998 February 15, 1999 January 27 and 2002 February 18, *iii)* OMC-3 MMS 8-9, observed on 2002 February 18, *iv)* the neighborhood of OMC-2 FIR 3-4, observed on 1997 September 19, 1998 February 15 and 1999 January 27, *v)* the neighborhood of OMC-2 FIR 6, observed on 2002 February 18, *vi)* OMC-1, observed on numerous nights from 1998 February to 2002 February, and finally *vii)* OMC-4, observed on 2001 April 16 and 2002 February 18. Although Hertz data provide both polarimetry and continuum maps, we use a SHARC II map for illustrations of the 350 $`\mu `$m continuum (Dowell et al., 2003). SHARC II has a better spatial resolution than Hertz ($`12\mathrm{}`$ compared to $`20\mathrm{}`$) and the data obtained with it and presented here continuously cover all of the regions mentioned above, unlike the Hertz maps. The SHARC II data were obtained on three separate nights: 2002 November 24, 2003 March 1 and 2003 April 16.

The Hertz data were acquired with conventional azimuth chopping and nodding. The chopper throw ranged from $`5\mathrm{}`$ to $`8.4\mathrm{}`$, and we made attempts to avoid chopping into known emission sources by choosing the hour angle of the observations. The SHARC II data were acquired with crossing linear scans without chopping the secondary mirror. The data analysis technique subtracts from the source emission a model for the atmospheric emission which is improved through iterations. The total integration time was 3.7 hours in conditions with moderately low zenith opacity ($`\tau _{350\mu \mathrm{m}}1.5`$).

We present in Figure 1 the northern portion of the data where the polarimetry measurements for IRAS 05327-0457 and OMC-3 are plotted on top of the SHARC II continuum map. Figures 2, 3 and 4 present the same type of data but for the OMC-2, OMC-1 and OMC-4 regions, respectively. For each of these figures, the thick (thin) polarization vectors have a polarization level and uncertainty such that $`P3\sigma _P`$ ($`P2\sigma _P`$), circles indicate cases where $`P+2\sigma _P<1\%`$ and $`P<2\sigma `$, and the darker polarization vectors and circles denote positions where spectroscopic data were also obtained. The beam widths are shown in the lower left corner, with the solid and open circles for SHARC II and Hertz, respectively. The complete unbroken SHARC II continuum map can be seen in Figure 10. Because of the very low levels of polarization observed on some of the sources studied in this paper, we have decided to include data points that have an uncertainty in their polarization level better or equal to $`2\sigma `$ instead of the usual $`3\sigma `$ common to Hertz papers (see for example Houde et al. (2002)). The set of polarization angles measured for these $`2\sigma `$ points have an uncertainty $`15^{}`$, as opposed to $`10^{}`$ for $`3\sigma `$ points, and agree well with adjacent points of lower uncertainty. Their inclusion will not affect the conclusions drawn later. Details of the polarimetry data will be found in Tables 2 to 5.

We have also measured HCN and HCO+ spectra in the $`J=43`$ transition at different positions along the ISF; these are necessary to evaluate the inclination angle of the magnetic field relative to the line of sight. In all, twenty-seven such pairs of spectra were obtained using the 300-400 GHz Receiver of the CSO: three in the Bar, seven in the northeastern part of OMC-1, seven in OMC-2 FIR 4, five in and around OMC-3 MMS 6 and five in OMC-3 MMS 8-9. In the latter, two of the five points do not have corresponding polarimetry vectors with $`P2\sigma _P`$ or $`P+2\sigma _P<1\%`$ and are identified with dark dots in Figure 1. Typical examples of measured HCN and HCO+ spectra, along with a fit to their profiles, can be found in Figure 5. This set of data was obtained during numerous nights of observation at the CSO on 2002 September, 2002 December, 2003 January to 2003 April and 2003 August.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The 350 $`\mu `$m SHARC II map

Although our analysis will concentrate on the nature of the magnetic field in Orion A, it is appropriate at this point to say a few words concerning the 350 $`\mu `$m SHARC II continuum map presented in Figure 10. The Orion A molecular cloud has been mapped at several wavelengths in the past and we do not intend to repeat the work presented in other papers. For example, Lis et al. (1998) also published a 350 $`\mu `$m map of this region, obtained with SHARC, and gave a detailed analysis of the physical conditions found in the different parts of the cloud as well as a list (in their Table 1) of the sources that can be found in OMC-2 and OMC-3 (see also Chini et al. (1997) for observations at 1.3 mm of the OMC-2 and OMC-3 regions). Our map covers the same area as that of Lis et al. (1998) but also extends further both north of OMC-3 and south of OMC-1, and is wider in its east-west coverage. More precisely, our map includes the neighborhood of IRAS 05327-0457 (Makinen et al., 1985; Mookerjea et al., 2000a, b) which extends some $`4\mathrm{}`$ north of OMC-3 MMS 1. It is in fact seen to be an extension of the OMC-3 MMS 1-6 filament that branches off to the north in a region of higher flux located at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 3\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 17\mathrm{}`$ on Figure 10. This extension then turns southeast in a direction parallel to the OMC-3 MMS 1-6 complex and ends up at the CSO 1 condensation of Lis et al. (1998) at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 3\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 14.4\mathrm{}`$ (better seen on Figure 1). This IRAS 05327-0457 region was also part of an extensive 850 $`\mu `$m SCUBA map published by Johnstone & Bally (1999) and our results are seen to be in qualitative agreement with theirs. The same can be said of the V-shaped OMC-4 region (Johnstone & Bally, 1999), located some $`13\mathrm{}`$ south of the KL Nebula of OMC-1, and of the whole extent of the two maps, i.e., theirs and ours, which have a similar coverage.

The sensitivity varies somewhat across the SHARC II image due to variable integration time and weather conditions. For most of the regions including OMC-1, OMC-2 and OMC-3, the RMS is approximately $`1\mathrm{Jy}/12\mathrm{}`$ beam, with higher noise at the edges of the rectangular region of coverage. For the IRAS05327-0457 and OMC-4 fields, the RMS is approximately $`0.3\mathrm{Jy}/12\mathrm{}`$ beam.

### 3.2 The polarimetry data

#### 3.2.1 The IRAS 05327-0457 and OMC-3 regions

Figure 1 shows a close-up of the IRAS 05325-0457 and OMC-3 fields from the SHARC II map along with the Hertz polarization vectors obtained in three different regions: IRAS 05327-0457, OMC-3 MMS 1-6 and OMC-3 MMS 8-9. One thing to notice about the first two regions is that the general orientation of the polarization vectors is in both cases well aligned with, or similarly that the magnetic field is practically perpendicular to the local filaments. Indeed, if we visually estimate the orientation of the filaments, we find that both IRAS 05327-0457 and OMC-3 MMS 1-6 are aligned at approximately $`132^{}`$ (east from north, as will always be the case for all angles measured in the plane of the sky). On the other hand, a simple arithmetic mean of the polarization angle ($`PA`$) of the vectors in both regions gives $`142^{}\pm 18^{}`$ for IRAS 05327-0457 and $`137^{}\pm 9^{}`$ for OMC-3 MMS 1-6, respectively. These values are practically unchanged if we instead average the Stokes parameters from the same ensembles of points, we then get $`PA143^{}\pm 3^{}`$ for IRAS 05327-0457 and $`PA136^{}\pm 1^{}`$ for OMC-3 MMS 1-6, respectively. Since these two types of averages usually agree well, and that we will later deal with objects exhibiting low polarization levels, we will for now on only use Stokes averages. The difference between the orientation of the polarization vectors and the local filaments is on average only approximately $`5^{}`$ to $`10^{}`$ for these two regions, i.e., they are well aligned with each other. A similar result has already been reported for the OMC-3 MMS 1-6 region by Matthews, Wilson & Fiege (2001) using SCUBA at 850 $`\mu `$m (see their Figure 2). The fact that the same is true for IRAS 05327-0457 adds credence to their suggestion that perhaps the ordered structure of the magnetic field has not been disturbed or deflected by the gravitational collapses of the protostellar cores present in these regions (Chini et al., 1997).

OMC-3 MMS 8-9 is the third region in Figure 1 where we have obtained polarimetry data. As was noticed by Matthews, Wilson & Fiege (2001) at 850 $`\mu `$m, we find that, as compared to the case of OMC-3 MMS 1-6, the orientation of the polarization vectors has significantly changed in relation to the local filament. This part of the ISF is oriented at $`8^{}`$, roughly a $`60^{}`$ shift relative to OMC-3 MMS 1-6. The polarization angle calculated with the average of the Stokes parameters yields $`PA122^{}\pm 2^{}`$. But since OMC-3 MMS 8-9 exhibits a significant amount of flux both east and west of the main core, a case could be made in favor of limiting ourselves only to vectors located strictly in the core (i.e., the polarization vectors situated on the ten positions of highest local flux around $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 2\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 7.5\mathrm{}`$) before calculating the Stokes averages. It turns out, however, that the change is not significant when we do so as we then obtain $`PA129^{}\pm 3^{}`$. Therefore, depending on which number we use we find that the vectors are misaligned by approximately $`114^{}`$ to $`121^{}`$ in relation to the filament. This is somewhat more than the mean of $`86^{}`$ measured by Matthews, Wilson & Fiege (2001) at 850 $`\mu `$m; the difference may lie in the fact that our vectors located east of the main core do not change appreciably from those located in the core, as seems to be the case for the SCUBA data. At any rate, this represents a significant change when compared to what was obtained in IRAS 05327-0457 and OMC-3 MMS 1-6.

But perhaps the most important thing to stress from these results is that the average polarization angle does not change much from IRAS 05327-0457 to OMC-3 MMS 1 to OMC-3 MMS 8- 9. Indeed the change is only $`13^{}`$. Since it is believed that, at the wavelengths dealt with here, the orientation of the magnetic field projected in the plane of the sky is perpendicular to that of the polarization vectors (Hildebrand, 1988), the same can be said of the projected direction of the field. One must somewhat temper this assertion as there is some indication from the 850 $`\mu `$m data of Matthews, Wilson & Fiege (2001) that the orientation of the polarization vectors measured between OMC-3 MMS 6 and OMC-3 MMS 7 follows the changing orientation of the filament. This could increase the dispersion in the orientation of the polarization vectors when measured over the field presented in Figure 1.

Finally, we end this section with a few words concerning the polarization levels detected in these parts of the ISF. We find that the percentage of polarization is typical of what is usually observed with Hertz at 350 $`\mu `$m as $`0\%P5\%`$, with the highest levels detected in IRAS 05327-0457 and the lowest levels in OMC-3 MMS 8-9. This is also reflected in the Stokes averaged polarization levels, which are $`2.33\%\pm 0.37\%`$, $`1.55\%\pm 0.12\%`$ and $`1.02\%\pm 0.10\%`$ for IRAS 05327-0457, OMC-3 MMS 1-6 and OMC-3 MMS 8-9, respectively.

#### 3.2.2 The OMC-2 region

We present with Figure 2 the section of the SHARC II map that is centered on the OMC-2 region along with the polarization data obtained with Hertz in and around OMC-2 FIR 3-4 and FIR 6. This region is characterized, amongst other things, by a gradual change in the orientation of the filament. While in the northern part of the map the filament makes an angle of $`160^{}`$ relative to north, it goes through the north-south orientation at OMC-2 FIR 4 and ends at $`35^{}`$ (or $`215^{}`$) at OMC-2 FIR 6. A visual inspection of the map allows us to quickly evaluate the general characteristics of the polarimetry data. First, just north of OMC-2 FIR 4 the polarization vectors seem to be well aligned with the filament but not with the vectors measured in the OMC-3 field. Second, OMC-2 FIR 4 displays very little polarization which at first renders it impossible to safely determine any relative alignment in this region. This is probably the object which exhibits the lowest levels of polarization amongst all of those observed with Hertz so far. Although a strong depolarization effect, defined by a systematic decrease in polarization level with increasing continuum flux, is commonly seen in this type of study (Dotson, 1996; Matthews, Wilson & Fiege, 2001; Houde et al., 2002), this is probably the most severe case to date. Finally, the orientation of the vectors changes one more time around OMC-2 FIR 6 where they appear to be perpendicular to the filament.

We can quantify these observations by, once again, calculating the averaged Stokes parameters (it would be unwise to attempt anything else with the OMC-2 FIR 4 data) and deriving values for the polarization angle in these parts of the ISF. We find that $`PA175^{}\pm 3^{}`$ for the region adjacent to and north of OMC-2 FIR 3 (for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta >3.4\mathrm{}`$), $`PA121^{}\pm 5^{}`$ for the core of OMC-2 FIR 4 (for $`2.8\mathrm{}<\mathrm{\Delta }\delta <3.4\mathrm{}`$) and $`PA115^{}\pm 6^{}`$ for OMC-2 FIR 6. These give the following differences between the mean orientation of the vectors and the filament: $`15^{}`$, $`59^{}`$ and $`80^{}`$, in the same order.

It is interesting to note that there appears to be a relatively sharp transition close to the position of peak intensity of OMC-2 FIR 4 ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 3.1\mathrm{}`$) where the polarization angle changes abruptly from its FIR 6 value ($`115^{}`$, i.e., almost perpendicular to the local orientation of the filament) to the FIR 3 value ($`175^{}`$, i.e., almost parallel to the local orientation of the filament). One might hope to explain the unusually low level of polarization measured at OMC-2 FIR 4 by combining the measurements obtained on either side of this boundary. We could expect, for example, a drop in the polarization level at OMC-2 FIR 4 if the polarization patterns north and south of it preserve their relative orientation to the filament as they merge toward it (for comparable polarized flux). The Stokes averaged polarization levels calculated for OMC-2 FIR 6 and OMC-2 FIR 3 are $`0.91\%\pm 0.28\%`$ and $`0.73\%\pm 0.14\%`$, respectively; we were unable to reproduce the result obtained for FIR 4 ($`0.35\%\pm 0.08\%`$) by combining them (along with their corresponding mean polarization angle and flux).

As was the case for the OMC-3 region, we find that the orientation of the average polarization angle does not vary much between OMC-2 FIR 4 and OMC-2 FIR 6 ($`6^{}`$) and is also not very different to the values measured in OMC-3. In fact, neglecting the field adjacent to and north of OMC-2 FIR 3, we find a smooth decrease from the north of OMC-3 (or IRAS 05327-0457) to the south of OMC-2.

We note finally that the boundary where the jump in the orientation of the polarization angle occurs is almost coincident with a region in the vicinity of OMC-2 FIR 3 where intense outflow activity is detected. According to Williams et al. (2003), this source is composed of a binary which drives a pair of criss-crossed flows oriented at $`30^{}`$, similar to the orientation of the projection of the magnetic field in the plane of the sky at and south of OMC-2 FIR 4. Moreover, there is also some evidence for another flow, in the same neighborhood, oriented at $`80^{}`$ in the plane of the sky (J. P. Williams, private communication), this is again very close to the orientation of the field at and north of OMC-2 FIR 3.

#### 3.2.3 The OMC-1 and the Bar regions

We present in Figure 3 a section of the SHARC II map centered on the OMC-1 region along with the polarization data obtained with Hertz superposed on the continuum. A quick glance will suffice to convince the reader of the totally different orientation of the polarization vectors measured in this field when compared to those of the OMC-3 and OMC-2 regions. A small subset of the polarimetry data, centered in the neighborhood of the KL Nebula (at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 0.7\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 9.4\mathrm{}`$ on Figure 3), has already been published by Schleuning (1998) along with an extensive 100 $`\mu `$m map, albeit at a lower resolution, of the OMC-1 cloud. The polarization pattern was then interpreted as being consistent with that produced by a magnetic field shaped like an hourglass (see Figure 4 of Schleuning (1998)) resulting from the gravitational distortion caused by the IRc 2 Ridge. Eight positions in OMC-1 have also been measured in polarimetry by Vall e & Bastien (1999) at 760 $`\mu `$m. The polarization angles are quite comparable, within uncertainties, except for two positions which do not agree. Usually, the polarization levels are also similar, or somewhat larger at 760 $`\mu `$m (within a beam width of $`14\mathrm{}`$).

Although our 350 $`\mu `$m polarimetry map qualitatively agrees well with the 100 $`\mu `$m counterpart, there are a few differences and features in the new set of data that complicate the interpretation. This is especially true in the southern part of the map, most notably in and around the Bar where there is a significant change in the orientation of the vectors (more on this below) that does not fit with the hourglass interpretation. There is also a difference in the region east of the Ridge where the magnetic field on our map appears to be basically aligned along an east-west axis. But, all in all, there is an unmistakable pinch in the orientation of the magnetic field in the neighborhood of the Ridge with the region of largest curvature located just north of the KL Nebula. But as was stated by Rao et al. (1998), caution must be used in interpreting the orientation of the magnetic field from polarimetry data in regions of high outflow activity, as is the case for the Ridge. This is owed to the possibility that, in the presence of outflows, grains can be aligned with their long axis parallel to the magnetic field through the Gold alignment mechanism (Gold, 1952; Lazarian, 1994, 1997). Incidentally, our data also show the existence of the “polarization hole” in the vicinity of the KL Nebula that was shown by Rao et al. (1998) to be caused by an abrupt and small scale $`90^{}`$ change in the orientation of the polarization vectors and presumably caused by the presence of outflows, as was just mentioned. This, however, is not the only place where a local decrease of the polarization level is seen. The same is true, for example, in the neighborhood of *i)* the Bar, *ii)* in a relatively large region in the south of the map, and west of the Bar, centered at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 1.0\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 12.4\mathrm{}`$ or again *iii)* some $`2\mathrm{}`$ north of KL at $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 0.2\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 7.5\mathrm{}`$ (a local peak in the continuum flux).

As was said earlier, the overall orientation of the polarization vectors in OMC-1 is totally different from what we have seen so far in Orion A. By doing averages of Stokes parameters on small ensembles of points we find that the polarization angle changes significantly as one moves about the cloud. Although in the north of the map the vectors converge to an orientation of $`40^{}`$ (somewhat different from the $`30^{}`$ measured around the KL Nebula, in agreement with previous results (see Table 1 of Schleuning (1998)), the polarization angle is seen to cover values anywhere from $`0^{}`$ east of the Ridge to $`60^{}`$ in the northwestern corner of the map to $`160^{}`$ in the southwestern corner. The southern part of the map, and the Bar in particular, is where we find the most abrupt changes in the orientation of the vectors. A Stokes average of eighteen data points located in the Bar gives a mean polarization angle of $`PA82^{}\pm 4^{}`$.

The polarization levels also greatly vary across OMC-1. The lowest levels are found in the south of the map where a few positions with no polarization (i.e., where $`P+2\sigma _P<1\%`$ and $`P<2\sigma _P`$) are found. The mean polarization level found in the Bar, using the same eighteen points as before, is $`P=0.76\%\pm 0.14\%`$. Schleuning (1998) interpreted this low level as being caused by a local orientation of the magnetic field along the line of sight as a result of being pushed out of the M42 H II region. But as will be discussed in section 3.3.1, our measurements for the inclination of the magnetic field in this region are not in agreement with this interpretation. An alternative explanation could reside in the fact that the dust is colder in the Bar than in other regions of higher flux in OMC-1, thus its lower levels of polarization would be consistent with the hypothesis that cooler dust is intrinsically less polarized (Vaillancourt, 2002). On the other hand, we also find in OMC-1 some of the largest polarization levels ever detected with Hertz at 350 $`\mu `$m. For example, the group of dark colored vectors in the northeastern part of Figure 3 have levels that can reach as high as $`10`$%. These levels are found in a region of relatively low flux where the depolarization effect is minimal and will be useful for our measurement of the angle of inclination of the magnetic field that will soon follow.

#### 3.2.4 The OMC-4 region

Finally, as far as the polarimetry data are concerned, we show in Figure 4 the Hertz polarization vectors superposed on the SHARC II continuum map of OMC-4. It is located some $`13\mathrm{}`$ south of the KL Nebula in OMC-1 and is seen to be of relatively low intensity ($`10`$ Jy in $`12\mathrm{}`$). An average of the Stokes parameters for a few vectors gives a polarization level of $`1.5`$% and a polarization angle of $`165^{}`$. Although the amount of polarization measured is similar to what was found in IRAS 05327-457 and OMC-3 MMS 1-6, the orientation of the vectors exceeds what is found there by some $`20^{}`$ to $`30^{}`$. Moreover, their orientation does not follow the general orientation of the local filament which makes an angle of approximately $`25^{}`$.

### 3.3 The spectroscopic data - the inclination angle of the magnetic field

In this section we will make use of the technique put forth by Houde et al. (2002) that allows for a measurement of the inclination of the magnetic field relative to the line of sight. We present in Figure 5 typical spectra (although see section 3.3.3) taken in four of the five regions where we have sought and obtained spectroscopic data: the northeastern part of OMC-1, and the neighborhoods of OMC-3 MMS 6, OMC-3 MMS 9 and OMC-2 FIR 4. The technique relies on comparisons of line profiles of coexistent neutral and ion molecular species and we have chosen the $`J43`$ transition of HCN and HCO+, respectively. The telescope beam width was $`20\mathrm{}`$ for these observations, similar to that obtained while observing with Hertz.

#### 3.3.1 Calibration of the ion-to-neutral line width ratio and the calculation of the inclination angle

As was explained by Houde et al. (2002), the evaluation of the inclination angle of the magnetic field necessitates the combination of spectroscopic and polarimetry data. This is done by effectively calibrating the ion-to-neutral line width ratio, calculated a priori from the HCO+ and HCN spectra, with the corresponding polarimetry data. In doing so, one tries to determine the most suitable of a family of curves, pertaining to the propensity of alignment between the magnetic field and neutral flows, to apply to the region under study (see the models of Figures 2, 4 and 5 of Houde et al. (2002)). For the present case of Orion A, ideally one would like to determine such a curve for each region where one desires to locally evaluate the inclination angle (which will be labeled $`\alpha `$, along with $`\beta `$ for the angle made by the projection of the magnetic field on the plane of the sky). Unfortunately, the strong amount of depolarization encountered in most of the regions studied here renders this task impossible. This can be asserted from Figure 6 where we plotted the polarization level against the 350 $`\mu `$m continuum flux for the polarimetry data shown for the OMC-3 and OMC-2 fields of Figures 1 and 2, respectively. Since our spectroscopic data had to be taken in locations of high enough intensity, the corresponding polarimetry points are all significantly affected by the depolarization effect.

Faced with this, one could reasonably choose an arbitrary curve corresponding to the aforementioned set of models (defined by the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ parameter of equation (11) of Houde et al. (2002), which quantifies the level of collimation of the neutral flows to the magnetic field). Although this would bring some uncertainty in the evaluation of $`\alpha `$, it should give a reasonably good estimate. This is especially true if $`\alpha `$ covers a set of values that are close to the lower and upper limits of its available range (i.e., $`0^{}`$ and $`90^{}`$, respectively; see the discussion in section 5 of Houde et al. (2002)). There was, however, another option available to us. Although the OMC-1 field is also severely depolarized at places, there exists regions away from the core where the flux is high enough and the depolarization weak enough to allow us to use the polarization levels measured there to calibrate the data for all of Orion A. In fact, as stated before, OMC-1 presents us with some of the highest polarization levels ever measured with Hertz. We, therefore, chose for this seven such points for which the corresponding polarization vectors were plotted in a darker color in Figure 3 (around $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 1.5\mathrm{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 7\mathrm{}`$). The result of the calibration is shown in Figure 7 where we have set the maximum level of polarization $`P_{max}`$ to $`10\%`$. Houde et al. (2002) had chosen $`P_{max}=7\%`$ in their study of the magnetic field in M17, but we obviously had to update this parameter in view of our more recent data. This parameter, just as $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$, has been shown not to have a significant impact on the results. The model that best fits our data, using a non-linear least-squares technique, has $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =28.3^{}`$ as shown in Figure 7.

This analysis allows us to give a set of average values for $`\alpha `$ in the five regions studied here. More precisely, we obtain from simple averages $`\alpha 72.6^{}\pm 4.4^{}`$, $`73.7^{}\pm 5.2^{}`$, $`79.8^{}\pm 4.0^{}`$, $`65.1^{}\pm 9.9^{}`$ and $`49.1^{}\pm 8.7^{}`$ for OMC-3 MMS 6, OMC-3 MMS 9, OMC-2 FIR 4, OMC-1 (northeast), and the Bar, respectively. One should not give too much significance in the dispersions quoted above in view of the small numbers of points available in each region. Moreover, the errors thus calculated result from the uncertainties present in the fit for the spectra only and do not take into account the uncertainty in the selection of the model for Orion A shown in Figure 7 and discussed above. However, because of the large values calculated for the inclination angle, the latter could amount to at most a few degrees in the majority of cases.

#### 3.3.2 The origin and nature of the neutral flows and the ion line narrowing effect

Our capacity to evaluate the inclination of the magnetic field to the line of sight rests almost entirely on the effect originally discussed by Houde et al. (2000a) concerning the narrowing of the line profiles of molecular ions when compared to coexistent neutral species. In turn, it is believed that this effect depends on the existence of turbulence in the regions studied; more precisely, the presence of turbulence in the neutral component of the gas (which we model through the existence of a large number of neutral flows). It has also long been assumed that this same turbulence is at the origin of the fact that the line profiles observed in molecular clouds, like in Orion A, are usually much broader than their thermal width (Zuckerman & Evans, 1974; Falgarone & Phillips, 1990). The division of a given line width into thermal and non-thermal parts shows that, for clouds of sufficient mass or luminosity, the later quickly becomes the dominant component (see for example Myers, Ladd, & Fuller (1991)). Although this turbulent behavior is implied and fully taken advantage of in the present and previous analyses (Houde et al., 2002; Lai, Velusamy, Langer, 2003), the causes and origins of the neutral flows postulated therein have not been discussed.

Given the different scales encountered in molecular clouds (i.e., velocities, spatial dimensions) and the fact that a flow will become turbulent at large Reynolds numbers, a turbulent regime should easily be established in a cloud whenever there are bulk motions of matter. One can, therefore, think of or propose different physical mechanisms through which this can happen. Perhaps one of the most natural way of inducing bulk motions is through gravitational interaction. This could happen, for example, in the case of a cloud or a fragment of cloud that has reached supercriticality and where the neutral component of the gas is allowed to collapse through the magnetic field (Mouschovias & Ciolek, 1999). There is, in fact, observational evidence of supercriticality for many molecular clouds (Crutcher, 1999). Another mechanism can involve the presence of protostellar (bipolar) or stellar outflows by which the (mostly neutral) circumstellar environment is stirred and entrained. High velocity outflows can also be the source of shocks that can drive the neutrals through the magnetic field and the ions. Alternatively, it is possible that the source for the turbulence of the neutral component of the gas originates outside from its immediate environment. For example, a neighboring ionized (H II) region harboring violent magnetohydrodynamic processes (e.g., Alfv n wave generated winds) could, at the frontier linking the two regions, mechanically transmit a portion of its turbulent energy to the neutral gas of an adjacent molecular cloud. It is likely that other mechanisms exist and can help in accounting for the presence of the turbulence in the neutral component of the gas necessary to explain the large line profiles of the neutral molecular species. The few examples presented here are all likely to play a role in this. As far as the Orion A complex is concerned, the multiple outflow nature of this region is well known (Williams et al., 2003) and the combination of turbulent flows, shocks and stellar outflows at various directions and speeds projected on the line of sight will sum to a line shape for neutrals of considerable width.

The turbulence (and neutral flows) resulting from the aforementioned physical mechanisms will compete with the local magnetic field in dictating the dynamics of the ions. A comparison of the strength of magnetic force acting on the ions with that of the friction force they are also subjected to (resulting from their collisions with the particles composing the neutral gas) indicates that the ions are effectively trapped by the magnetic field (Mouschovias & Ciolek, 1999; Houde et al., 2000a). This restricts their motion in directions perpendicular to the field and removes many velocity components from their common observed line shape that are otherwise present in the spectral profiles of the coexistent neutral species (that fully take part in the turbulent regime). Moreover, under a condition of equilibrium where an equipartition of energy has been attained between the colliding partners (i.e., ions and neutrals), it is found that the mean gyration velocitiy of an ion around a guiding center will be less than that of a typical neutral flow (it can be shown to scale as the square root of the ratio of the (smaller) neutral mass to the ion mass (Houde et al., 2000a, b)). This will result, in general, in narrower molecular ion line profiles and explain the significant amount of ambipolar diffusion thus observed (Houde et al., 2002).

#### 3.3.3 A word of caution about outflows

In evaluating the line widths of the HCN and HCO+ spectra and, subsequently, their ratio care must be taken that the spectra studied are obtained in region suitable to this type of analysis. For example, the line width calculations and the models proposed by Houde et al. (2002) (see their equations (9) and (10) and Figure 2) make certain assumptions concerning the distribution of the neutral flows in velocity space. One consequence is that, ideally, the spectra should be even around the mean velocity. Although this will rarely be the case in turbulent molecular clouds, one should be careful that the departures from this idealization are not extreme. Such an example is shown in Figure 8 where we show a pair of HCN and HCO+ spectra taken in the OMC-3 MMS 6 region. We can see the clear signature of a one-sided outflow in the neutral line profile that is, however, missing from the ion spectrum. Although the presence of unresolved (bipolar) outflows within the telescope beam is not un-welcome when trying to calculate the orientation of the magnetic field, it does not make sense, for example, to discuss differences between line widths of coexistent neutral and ion species within a resolved outflow. The most that one can do in such cases is to look for similarities or differences in the line profiles and draw appropriate conclusions from them (Houde et al., 2001). For the case at hand, the inclusion of the outflow in the line width calculations brings an artificial reduction in the value of the line width ratio. More precisely, we have found two more positions of similar occurrences in OMC-3 MMS 6 (none in the other sources) where the presence of the one-sided outflow lowers the local HCO+ to HCN line width ratio and brings the corresponding mean inclination angle to $`82.2^{}`$. In analyzing the data presented in the previous section, we have carefully removed the effect of the outflow, after fitting the spectra with Gaussian profiles, to ensure that we are within confines relevant to the model of Houde et al. (2002). After doing so, for the example shown in Figure 8, the line width ratio jumped from 0.34 to 0.87. This new ratio is very similar to that obtained in OMC-3 MMS 9, a region which exhibits line profiles that are alike to those found for OMC-3 MMS 6 when no outflows are present (see Figure 5). Moreover, it is seen that this apparently significant change has a relatively mild effect on the value of the inclination angle; as stated before, the latter has a revised value of $`72.6^{}`$. This is not surprising considering the fact that the field appears to lie close to the plane of the sky where $`\alpha `$ is quite insensitive to such changes. No matter which value for the ratio is used, the conclusion is still that the field is severely inclined in relation to the line of sight.

#### 3.3.4 An early assessment of our $`\alpha `$-measuring technique

Without the existence of an independent method for measuring the inclination angle of the magnetic field, it is difficult to determine the level of success attained using our technique. It is, however, possible to get an early assessment on its viability by combining the data presented in this paper with the earlier set for M17 published by Houde et al. (2002). Since M17 exhibits relatively low polarization levels ($`4\%`$) while Orion A (more precisely OMC-1) covers a range that goes as high as $`10\%`$, a combination of both sets of data will allow us to see how well our technique performs over a large range of polarization levels. Despite the strong depolarization observed in regions of higher flux, measurements obtained on the edges of the clouds where we find the most significant levels of polarization, should trace differences in the inclination angle from one cloud to the other.

We produced in Figure 9 a graph of the combined sets of data with the normalized polarization level plotted against the inclination angle. Also shown is a theoretical curve relating the two parameters (as would be the case in the absence of depolarization). As can be seen, there is a good correspondence between low (high) polarization levels and small (large) inclination angles. The polarization data for M17 are confined to a range where $`\alpha 60^{}`$ whereas the Orion A data set mostly covers $`\alpha 60^{}`$, with most points being pushed down “under” the curve via the depolarization effect. Moreover, only three data points are located to the left of the theoretical curve. This is a good indication that the vast majority of pairs of polarization/line-width-ratio measurements fall within a domain that is predicted by our technique. Indications to the contrary could imply some shortcomings in our model and cast doubts on its adequacy. The results obtained so far are consistent with expectations.

## 4 Discussion

The results presented in Table 1 give us a glimpse into the orientation of the magnetic field in Orion A and can form the basis for an interpretation of its interaction with its environment. A few characteristics are easily noticeable upon studying Table 1. First, the inclination of the magnetic field varies little as one proceeds north to south along the ISF, this is especially true north of OMC-1. Second, the orientation of the magnetic field in the plane of the sky also shows little variations north of OMC-1 while it significantly changes direction at and within this high mass cloud. On the other hand, the orientation of the filament varies by some $`60^{}`$ in the OMC-3 region alone, and by $`80^{}`$ overall.

While it is true that in some parts (i.e., IRAS 05327-457, OMC-3 MMS 1-6 and north of OMC-2 FIR 3) the projection of the magnetic field is almost perpendicular to the local filament, and though this could be significant in itself (Matthews, Wilson & Fiege, 2001), we cannot say that there is a systematic trend for this. Similarly, there does not seem to exist a tendency for alignment as this is observed only in OMC-2 FIR 6 (see the last column of Table 1). Future polarimetry measurements which could fill the gaps in our coverage might, however, alter this picture. But for the present, it is perhaps more important to note that the absolute orientation of the sky-projected magnetic field changes by a relatively small amount over a large extent. In fact, from our data we see only one region north of OMC-1 (OMC-2 FIR 3) where there is an important deviation in the value of $`\beta `$ as compared to the other regions observed in OMC-3 and OMC-2. Neglecting OMC-2 FIR 3, we find that $`\beta `$ diminishes smoothly as one goes southward from IRAS 05327-457 to OMC-2 FIR 6, covering values ranging from $`50^{}`$ to $`25^{}`$. It is only when we reach the vicinity of the high mass star-forming region of OMC-1 that the orientation of the field varies considerably.

We could interpret these results as being consistent with a picture where the magnetic field is relatively unaffected by the presence of the concentrations of lower mass that characterize the OMC-3 and OMC-2 fields (Figures 1 and 2), adopting there an orientation similar to that which it may have on the larger scale. This aspect of the orientation of the magnetic field in connection to the larger scale will be treated in an upcoming paper by Poidevin and Bastien (in preparation). Moreover, the small changes in the inclination of the magnetic field to the line of sight in these parts of Orion A only reinforces the idea of a relatively unaffected magnetic field. The only significant variations in the value of $`\alpha `$ happen in OMC-1 (northeast) and in the Bar where it decreases to $`65^{}`$ and $`49^{}`$, respectively, from $`80^{}`$ in OMC-2 FIR 4. This is also accompanied by significant changes in $`\beta `$. This, in itself is not surprising for one would expect the magnetic field to be strongly perturbed by the presence of the large concentrations of mass found within OMC-1 and the greater amount of recent star formation in this region. The radiation and strong stellar winds emanating from the stars of the Trapezium must also affect the local magnetic field through their impact on the ionization fraction. The orientation of the magnetic field is indicated for five different positions along the ISF on the SHARC II map of Figure 10.

Finally, OMC-1 is one of the few clouds where there exists a Zeeman detection in CN. Crutcher (1999) reported a line-of-sight magnetic field strength of 360 $`\mu `$G at a position $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha 10\mathrm{}`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta 20\mathrm{}`$ away from IRc 2. If we assume that our value of $`\alpha 65^{}`$ obtained in OMC-1 (northeast) applies equally well at this location, we calculate a magnitude of $`850\mu `$G for the magnetic field. This is not too far from that which was used by Crutcher (1999), based on statistical arguments, and therefore corroborates the conclusions reached there. More precisely, OMC-1 is magnetically supercritical with a mass-to-flux ratio $`M/\mathrm{\Phi }_B2.6`$, and magnetic-to-gravitational and kinetic-to-gravitational energy ratios of $`0.26`$ and $`0.30`$, respectively. The combination of the magnetic and internal motion energies can therefore provide a significant amount of support against gravitation.

We thank Min Yang and Attila Kovacs for their assistance in collecting and analyzing the SHARC II images. The Caltech Submillimeter Observatory is funded by the NSF through contract AST 9980846 and the observations made with Hertz were supported by NSF Grants AST 9987441 and AST 0204886.


format: text

text:
# Cosmic Matter Distribution: Cosmic Baryon Budget Revisited

## 1. Introduction

The evolution of the Universe and the formation of cosmic structure redistribute dark matter and baryons. Thus the present day distribution of the matter reflects the history of the Universe, and gives us information as to how the cosmic structure formed. For this reason the matter distribution is taken as a useful constraint for models of formation of large-scale structure and galaxies. We have published an accounting of the cosmic baryon budget in 1998 (Fukugita, Hogan & Peebles 1998, hereafter FHP). Since then, much progress has been made in relevant observations, which include the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS: York et al. 2000), Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP: Bennett et al. 2003), several HI surveys, and others. In this talk, I attempt to update the present-day baryon budget using modern data, and discuss some issues relevant to cosmic structure formation. We write the Hubble constant as $`H_0=100h`$ km s-1Mpc-3, but adopt $`H_0=72`$ km s-1Mpc-1 when $`h`$ is not explicitly denoted.

## 2. Baryons in stars

The basic data used to estimate baryons in stars are the luminosity function (LF) and the stellar mass to light ratio ($`M_s/L`$) of galaxies. The most accurate LF was derived from the SDSS for five colour bands (Blanton et al. 2001; 2003; Yasuda et al. 2003). The first LF from the SDSS given by Blanton et al. (2001) is based on earlier data for the northern equatorial stripe of approximately 200 square degrees, giving the global luminosity density $`_r=(2.58\pm 0.28)\times 10^8hL_{}`$(Mpc)-3. It turned out, however, that the surface density of galaxies in this region for $`r<17.9`$ mag is somewhat overdense compared to the mean. The First Data Release of the SDSS (Abazajian et al. 2003) now covers 2200 square degrees, and the LF derived from these data gives a somewhat smaller value $`_r=(2.32\pm 0.25)\times 10^8hL_{}`$(Mpc)-3 (Yasuda et al. 2003; see also Blanton et al. 2003) in the $`r`$ band. The corresponding luminosity density in the $`z`$ band is $`_z=(3.9\pm 0.6)\times 10^8hL_{}`$(Mpc)-3.

The most extensive analysis for the stellar mass to light ratio is that by Kauffmann et al. (2003) using $`10^5`$ SDSS galaxies. The estimate of the stellar mass using a population synthesis model depends on metallicity, age, and the star formation history, and also on the initial mass function (IMF). They estimated the probability distribution of each parameter in terms of the Bayesian analysis using five colour photometric data. In our consideration we limit to bright ($`r<15.9`$) galaxies, the median redshift of which is 0.05. The value of $`M/L_z1.85`$ for luminous galaxies with $`M_z<M_z^{}0.8`$, and it decreases gradually to 0.65 for galaxies with $`M_zM_z^{}+3`$. The LF-weighted mean is $`M/L_z1.5`$ to which a 20% error is alloted.

There is still a significant uncertainty in the IMF, especially for the subsolar mass. Kauffmann et al. assumed the IMF of Kroupa et al. (2001). Another typical IMF is that of Reid et al. (1999) from DENIS and 2MASS surveys. The former shows an increase of the IMF down to $`M=0.1M_{}`$, whereas the latter flattens at $`M1M_{}`$. This leads to a 40% difference in the integrated mass. We take the geometric mean of the two as our central value, allowing for $`\pm 20`$% errors. The Kennicutt (1983) IMF gives the integrated mass close to our adopted value. The IMF for $`<0.1M_{}`$ is even more uncertain, but the contribution from this region is small ($`<4`$%), provided that the IMF declines towards smaller masses (e.g., Burgasser et al. 2003). The value adopted here is 1.10 times that used in FHP, which employed the subsolar mass IMF of Gould, Bahcall & Flynn (1996). The Salpeter IMF, when cut off at $`0.1M_{}`$, gives the integrated mass 1.50 times the adopted value.

Assembling these inputs we obtain

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{star}}=0.0025\pm 0.0008,$$
(1)
which includes dead stars. This value is compared to 0.0019$``$0.0057 of FHP. The error arises from the luminosity density ($`\pm 15`$%), from $`M/L`$ ($`\pm 20`$%) and from IMF ($`\pm 20`$%), which are added in quadrature.

## 3. Metal abundance in stars

In the analysis of Kauffmann et al. (2003), the metallicity is also an output, but the results are not available. We here use the oxygen abundance determined from HII regions for nearby galaxies compiled by Kobulnicky & Zaritsky (1999). The metallicity shows a correlation with the luminosity of galaxies. Using oxygen as the metallicity indicator, integration over the LF in the $`B`$ band yields,

$$Z=10^{6.6\pm 0.15}M_{}\mathrm{Mpc}^3,$$
(2)
where the solar composition is assumed. The zero point is set by the solar value, log\[O/H\]+12 = 8.83 at $`(Z/X)_{}=`$0.0230 (Grevesse & Sauvel 2000), or $`Z_{}=0.0163`$ using $`X=0.71`$.

There is an additional storage of heavy elements in white dwarfs, which are liberated only by Type Ia supernovae. From the abundance of white dwarfs (Bahcall & Soneira 1980), we estimate the heavy element (C+O) abundance as

$$Z=10^{7.6}M_{}\mathrm{Mpc}^3,$$
(3)
which is much larger than (2). Heavy elements frozen in neutron stars are also a large amount $`10^{6.9}M_{}`$ Mpc-3.

## 4. Neutral and molecular gas mass

FHP adopted the HI observation of optically selected galaxies by Rao and Briggs (1993), which yielded $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{HI}}=(2.1\pm 0.6)\times 10^4`$ at $`h=0.72`$. Since then, a number of blind HI surveys were carried out. Among them the largest sample (1000 galaxies) was obtained by the HIPASS survey (Zwaan et al. 2003), which gives $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{HI}}=(4.2\pm 0.7)\times 10^4`$, twice higher than the value of Rao & Briggs. With the correction for helium (for both HI and H2), the amount of atomic gas is

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{HI}+\mathrm{HeI}}=(6.2\pm 1.0)\times 10^4.$$
(4)
The molecular hydrogen abundance is estimated from the CO survey of Keres, Yun & Young (2003):

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{H}_2}=1.6\pm 0.6\times 10^4.$$
(5)
This is compared to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{H}_2}=2.1\pm 0.6\times 10^4`$ (FHP) obtained by summing the mean H2 abundance for each morphological class of galaxies (Young & Scoville 1991) weighted by the abundance of morphologically classified galaxies.

## 5. Hot gas in clusters

In FHP the hot gas abundance in clusters was estimated by integrating the cluster abundance for mass $`M>1\times 10^{14}hM_{}`$ (Bahcall & Cen 1993) and multiplying the gas fraction obtained from X ray observations. The cluster mass was defined by the Abell radius. Now, the advancement in cluster studies allows us to use the mass within $`r<r_{200}`$, where $`r_{200}`$ is the radius at which matter density $`\rho =200\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}`$. From a theoretical ground this may give a better measure for the mass of the virialised system. Reiprich & Böhringer (2002) estimated from ROSAT All-Sky Survey that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{cl}}=0.012\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{+0.003}{0.004}`$ for clusters with mass larger than $`M=4.5\times 10^{13}M_{}`$, which are visible with X rays.

The cosmic value of the baryon to total mass ratio from the WMAP (Spergel et al. 2003) is

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_b/\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.178(1\pm 0.09).$$
(6)
We estimate the ratio of the stellar to total mass from the mean value of $`M/L_B=(450\pm 100)h`$ and $`M_s/L_B=4.5(1\pm 0.20)`$, giving $`M_s/M_{\mathrm{tot}}=0.014(1\pm 0.30)`$. This is somewhat larger than the stellar mass density (1) divided by the total matter density from WMAP $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.26\pm 0.05`$: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{star}}/\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.010\pm 0.004`$. Assuming that the baryon to dark matter ratio in clusters agrees with the cosmic value and subtracting the stellar mass from the total baryonic mass, we estimate the hot gas abundance:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{cl}\mathrm{gas}}=0.0020\pm 0.0006.$$
(7)
The significant downward shift compared with FHP is due to the different definition of the radius with which the cluster mass is defined.

## 6. Warm and cool plasma

FHP inferred the presence of copious warm and cool plasma based on the universality of the baryon to dark matter ratio at large scales, and suggested that this component fills the gap between the cosmic baryon abundance from Big Bang nucleosynthesis and that estimated from observed baryons in the local Universe. The evidence for abundant warm gas around galaxies was presented by the detection of O VI absorption in the UV spectrum (Tripp, Savage & Jenkins 2000). This year, WMAP gave an accurate estimate for the baryon abundance, which agrees with the value from the deuterium and helium abundance in Big Bang nucleosynthesis. This erases any doubts concerning the estimate of the cosmic baryon abundance from the nucleosynthesis argument.

We may estimate the abundance of baryons associated with galaxies from the the mean $`M/L`$ ratio and the LF of galaxies, assuming that the baryon to dark matter ratio is universal when averaged over large scales. The $`M/L`$ of Milky Way is known to be $``$100 at 200 kpc (e.g., Kuijken 2003). The analysis of Prada et al. (2003) (see also Zaritsky et al. 1997) using the motion of 3000 satellites around host galaxies derived from the SDSS yielded $`M/L=120h`$ at the ‘virial radius’. The least model-dependent method to measure the mass associated with galaxies is to use gravitational lensing shear around those with known redshifts. McKay et al. (2001) estimated the galaxy mass using the SDSS sample, giving $`M/L_r=(170\pm 21)h`$ for $`R<260`$ kpc from the $`r`$ band data. (The $`i`$ band data give a smaller value, and $`g`$ band data give a larger value.)

These $`M/L`$ values are significantly (by about a factor of 2) smaller than those for clusters. Taking the lensing value of $`M/L_r=(170\pm 20)h`$ and the $`r`$ band luminosity density, we estimate $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.14\pm 0.02`$ for the matter associated with galaxies (within the virial radius). This leads to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_b=0.025`$ when multiplied by the universal value of (6). Subtraction of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_s`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{HI}+\mathrm{HeI}+\mathrm{H}_2}`$ gives

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{w}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{gas}}=0.022\pm 0.005$$
(8)
for the warm baryon component around galaxies.

An alternative path to estimate the warm/cool baryon abundance is to subtract stars, neutral and hot ionised gas from the global baryon amount, which is accurately known after the WMAP observation:

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{w}/\mathrm{c}\mathrm{gas}}=0.0440.00250.00200.0008=0.039\pm 0.004.$$
(9)
The discrepancy of (8) and (9) implies ‘missing baryons’: the gap between the two estimates suggests the presence of baryons that are not immediately associated with galaxies. We do not count in (9) cool ($`10^4`$K) baryons in Lyman $`\alpha `$ clouds, which were estimated to give $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.002\pm 0.001`$ (FHP), but this contribution is much too small to fill the gap. These missing baryons may be in the vicinity of galaxies beyond a few hundreds of kpc, or associated with dark clumps which do not shine as galaxies, as they occur in CDM simulations (Ostriker et al. 2003). The two possibilities may not be necessarily exclusive to each other. A possibility is not excluded that the missing baryons are present as a highly ionised diffuse component, though this is not very likely (see below).

There is also a gap in the dark matter abundance between the cosmic value $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{dm}}=0.22`$ and the amount associated with galaxies $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{dm}}0.12`$. According to the hierarchical clustering calculation, we anticipate 15% of baryons are unbound ($`M<10^6M_{}`$) and 25% are in clumps of mass $`10^6M_{}<M<10^{10}M_{}`$. CDM simulations (Ostriker et al. 2003) predict a lot of dark, low mass clumps.

It would be interesting to note that if we adopt $`M/L_r320h`$ ($`M/L_B450h`$) of clusters as the universal $`M/L`$ of galaxies to estimate the global mass density, we would obtain $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m0.27`$ which is consistent with the cosmic mass density from WMAP. This implies that dark clumps are integrated into clusters, leading to a large $`M/L`$ ratio, compared to that for galaxies, for which those dark components are excluded from accounting. This suggests that the majority of dark clumps reside in outskirts of galaxies, or in filaments and groups of galaxies, so that dark matter component that is not counted in the estimate of $`M/L`$ is localised, rather than smoothly distributed through the Universe, and so are baryons.

## 7. Metal abundance outside stars

Taking the metallicity of interstellar gas given in sect. 2, we find $`Z1.5\times 10^6M_{}`$. For the cluster gas, we infer $`Z1.6\times 10^6M_{}`$, adopting 1/3 solar. Very little is known for warm and hot plasma. If we assume the heavy element abundance of 0.01 solar as in globular clusters, or in typical Lyman $`\alpha `$ clouds, we get $`Z(0.50.9)\times 10^6M_{}`$. Therefore, the metal abundance is dominated by that in dead stars in galaxies.

## 8. Summary

In this report I have presented an updated accounting of the cosmic baryon budget, and have given an estimate for the heavy element abundance. The summary of the cosmic baryon budget is shown in Table 1. Each entry does not differ greatly from that given in FHP, but an increased accuracy reveals a missing baryon component which amounts to $`(0.370.22)/0.4435`$% of the total. This would provide an interesting test for cosmic simulations of the structure formation.

I would like to thank Jim Peebles for valuable discussions. The work is supported in part by Grant in Aid of the Ministry of Education.

## References

Abazajian, K. et al. 2003, AJ, 126, 2081

Bahcall, N. A. & Cen, R. 1993, ApJ, 407, L49

Bahcall, J. N. & Soneira, R. M. 1980, ApJS, 44, 73

Bennett, C. L. et al. 2003, ApJS, 148, 1

Blanton, M. R. et al. 2001, AJ, 121, 2358

Blanton, M. R. et al. 2003, ApJ, 592, 819

Burgasser, A. J. et al. 2003, AJ, 125, 850

Fukugita, M., Hogan, C. J. & Peebles, P. J. E. 1998, ApJ, 503, 518

Gould, A., Bahcall, J. N., & Flynn, C. 1996 ApJ, 465, 759

Grevesse, N. and Sauvel, A. J. 2000, Origin of Elements in the Solar System: Implications of Post-1957 Observations, ed. O. Manuel (Dordrecht: Kluwer), 261.

Kauffmann, G. et al. 2003, MNRAS, 341, 33

Kennicutt, R. C. 1983, ApJ, 272, 54

Keres, D., Yun, M. S. & Young, J. S. 2003, ApJ, 582, 659

Kobulnicky, H. A. & Zaritsky, D. 1999, ApJ, 511, 118

Kroupa, P. 2001, MNRAS, 322, 231

Kuijken, K. 2003, in Proc. ESO Workshop, The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift, ed. R. Bender & A. Renzini (Berlin: Springer), 1

McKay, T. A. et al. 2001, astro-ph/0108013

Ostriker, J. P., Nagamine, K., Cen, R. & Fukugita, M. 2003, ApJ, 597, 1

Prada, F. et al. 2003, astro-ph/0301360

Rao, S. & Briggs, F. 1993, ApJ, 419, 515

Reid, I. N. et al. 1999, ApJ, 521, 613

Reiprich, T. H. & Böhringer, H. 2002, ApJ, 567, 716

Spergel, D. N. et al. 2003, ApJS, 148, 175

Tripp, T. M., Savage, B. D. & Jenkins, E. B. 2000, ApJ, 534, L1

Yasuda, N. et al. 2003, in preparation

York, D. G. et al. 2000, AJ 120, 1579

Young, J. S. & Scoville, N. Z. 1991, ARA& A, 29, 581

Zaritsky, D., Smith, R., Frenk, C. S. & White, S. D. M. 1997, ApJ, 478, 39

Zwaan, M. A. et al. 2003, AJ, 125, 2842


text:
# The VIRMOS deep imaging survey: III. ESO/WFI deep U-band imaging of the 0226-04 deep field. Based on observations carried out at the ESO MPI 2.2m telescope located at La Silla, Chile.

## 1 Introduction

The VIMOS imaging survey (Paper I) represents the preparatory step of the deep redshift survey, which is now being carried out with the VIMOS spectrograph at the VLT UT3 at Paranal, Chile, by the VIMOS consortium. This preparatory multi-wavelength imaging survey has been done at the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) for the $`BVRI`$ bands (Le Fèvre et al. 2003, Paper I hereafter; McCracken et al. paperII (2003), Paper II hereafter), and at the ESO NTT telescope for the K imaging (Iovino et al. 2003, in prep). The near ultraviolet part of this survey was carried out at the ESO MPI 2.2m telescope with the WFI 8kx8k camera, in the framework of an approved ESO Large program (164.0-0089) scheduled since Period 63 in 1999, both in visitor and service mode.

The survey aims at covering $`16\mathrm{deg}^2`$ in $`UBVRI`$ with a 5 $`\sigma `$ limiting magnitude $`I_{AB}24.5`$, and a smaller $`1.2\mathrm{deg}^2`$ area reaching $`I_{AB}25`$, i.e. the VIMOS deep field. In the $`U`$band, expected 5 $`\sigma `$ limiting magnitudes are $`U_{AB}24`$ mag for the wide survey, $`U_{AB}26`$ mag for the deep survey. In total the survey contains over $`10^6`$ galaxies in five colors and represents a major advance over other previous deep multicolor surveys, probing structures on scales of $`20h^1`$ Mpc at $`z1`$.

Surveys in the radio continuum (Bondi et al. bondi (2003)) and with XMM (Pierre et al. pierre (2003)) were carried out on the deep field of the VIMOS imaging survey. The catalogs from the $`U`$ and $`BVRI`$ deep field are also foreseen to be used for the optical identification of the radio continuum survey (Ciliegi et al. in prep).

Until the availability of data from ground-based (e.g. the CFHLS and VST surveys) or space (e.g. the GALEX project) surveys, wide-field $`U`$band data with medium depth and large sky coverage are not available yet. The $`U`$band is essential to study the star formation properties of field galaxies in the nearby universe, and is also particularly suited to identify starburst galaxies, AGN, and QSO at moderate redshift. These aspects, as well the determination of the $`U`$band luminosity function and the analysis of the morphological properties of galaxies compared to other bands, will be the subject of separate papers.

Compared to other existing $`UBVRI`$ surveys, the VIRMOS F02 deep field offers a good compromise between covered area and depth. The ESO imaging survey (EIS) in the Chandra Deep Field South (Arnouts et al. arnouts (2001)) is comparable in depth to our F02 deep field but covers a smaller area ($`0.25\mathrm{deg}^2`$). The Canada-France Deep Field survey (McCracken et al. cfdf (2001)) consists of four independent fields of $`0.25\mathrm{deg}^2`$ each, and the $`U`$band limiting magnitude is $``$ 1 mag deeper than the VIRMOS deep field. The Combo-17 survey (Wolf et al. wolf (2003)) covers three fields with a total area $`0.78\mathrm{deg}^2`$ and is comparable in depth to the F02 deep field in the $`U`$band. Deeper surveys (e.g. the William Herschel Deep Field, Metcalfe et al. metcalfe (2001) or more recently the FORS Deep Field, Heidt et al. heidt (2003)) were carried out on smaller areas ($`7\times 7\mathrm{a}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}^2`$) only.

In this paper we will describe the observations, photometric calibration, catalogue extraction and validation for the deep field. The calibration steps are strongly related to those followed in the case of the overlapping deep $`BVRI`$ filters, which are described in Paper II. We refer to this paper for a detailed discussion of calibration issues when they are the same and emphasize those aspects that are peculiar to the $`U`$band data.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe the observations for the deep pointings, the observing strategy and data reduction issues (pre-reduction, astrometric and photometric calibration). Catalog extraction is discussed in Section 3. Validation of the catalogs through a number of tests (comparison of stellar and galaxy colors with simulations, number counts) is done in Section 4. Conclusions are drawn in Section 5.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

### 2.1 Observations

The $`U`$band deep pointing was observed during several observing runs since 1999 with the aim of covering $`1\mathrm{deg}^2`$ of the multiwavelength deep field planned within the VIMOS deep redshift survey. This deep field is centred at $`\alpha `$(J2000)=02h26m00s and $`\delta `$(J2000)=-0430′00″(see Fig. 1) and observations were carried out with the Wide-Field Imaging (WFI) mosaic camera mounted on the ESO MPI 2.2m telescope at La Silla, Chile. The camera was mounted at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope, giving a field of view of 34$`\times `$33 arcmin. It consists of a mosaic of 8 CCD detectors with narrow inter-chip gaps, yielding a filling factor of 95.9 % and a pixel size of $`0.24\mathrm{}`$. The WFI CCDs have a read-out noise of 4.5 e- pix-1 and a gain of 2.2 e- ADU-1.

The area covered for the $`U`$ deep field consists of three pointings partially overlapping (see Fig.1). When this survey started in 1999, a standard $`U`$band Johnson filter was not available at the ESO MPI 2.2m telescope, so our team borrowed the one available at the Loiano observatory, and used this till a suitable $`U`$band filter was acquired by ESO. One pointing was therefore imaged using the Loiano $`U`$ filter, which is a circular filter partially vignetting the field. Pointings 2 and 3 were imaged with the ESO U/360 filter.

The filter transmission curves are shown in Fig. 2; central wavelengths and FWHMs are given in Table 1, together with covered area and exposure times for each pointing. Note that, compared to the ESO filter, the Loiano filter is shifted to the red and also has a red leak at $`\lambda 7000`$Å.

The efficiency during the observing campaign was hampered by bad weather conditions and a problem at the primary mirror support system which caused strong astigmatism on some images.

The exposure time for each individual frame was usually 2000s, and 1000s when astigmatism of the ESO MPI 2.2m telescope was severe. The total exposure time was 13.9 hrs for pointing P1, 20.3 hrs for pointing P2, and 17.8 hrs for pointing P3; see Table 1 for additional information on the observing log.

For each pointing, the sets of exposures were acquired in a dithered elongated-rhombi pattern. This sequence of dithered exposures ensures the removal of CCD gaps in the final coadded image, better flat fielding correction, efficient removal of bad pixel and columns and a more accurate astrometric solution in the final coadded image. The total area covered by the three pointings is $`0.93\mathrm{deg}^2`$. The effective area is actually smaller, $`0.71\mathrm{deg}^2`$, since: (a) a fraction of P1 is overlapping with P2 and P3; (b) the border regions of the images were masked when the noise was significantly higher due to either vignetting (P1) or the dithering steps; (c) a small fraction of the area in P2 and P3 is not covered in $`BVRI`$ and therefore was not taken into account when catalogs were built.

The atmospheric turbulence produced an average seeing of approximately $`\mathrm{FWHM}1.3\mathrm{}`$.

### 2.2 Data reduction

Pre-reductions were carried out using the MSCRED package in IRAF. The CCD mosaic frames were bias and dark corrected, and flatfielded. Flatfield images were constructed combining a whole series of twilight sky images, taken during each observing night. Once the images were flatfielded, we noticed the presence of residual structures in the background sky, which should be treated in order to get a flat sky background in the final coadded images. A “super-flatfield” image was constructed from all the dataset for each pointing, using a 3-$`\sigma `$ rejection algorithm, for the removal of sources in the field. The procedures for astrometry, photometry and coaddition were approximately the same as those adopted in the analysis of $`BVRI`$ data. More details are given in Paper II; a short description follows where details peculiar to $`U`$band data are emphasized.

#### 2.2.1 Astrometry

Astrometry was performed using the astrometrix tool, which is part of the WIFIX111The WIFIX package was developed by M.R. in cooperation with the TERAPIX team; it is freely available at http://www.na.astro.it/$``$radovich.  package developed for the reduction of wide-field images. Astrometrix allows to compute an astrometric solution using both an external astrometric catalog and the constraint that the position of overlapping sources in different CCDs must be the same (global astrometry).

One of the main goals of this survey was to provide $`U`$band fluxes of the sources detected in the $`BVRI`$ images. As described in more detail in Paper II, source detection for the $`BVRI`$ images was done as follows. A single $`\chi ^2`$ image was first built from the $`BVRI`$ images, source detection was then done using SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts bertin (1996)) in dual mode. This requires that source positions in all the images match at a subpixel level. Such level of accuracy was achieved as outlined in Paper II. The astrometric solution was first computed for the $`I`$band image taking the USNO A-2 (Monet et al. 1998) as the astrometric reference catalog. A catalog of sources was then extracted from the resampled $`I`$band image and used as reference catalog for the other bands ($`UBVR`$). During the astrometric procedure, the offset of $`U`$band detected sources with respect to those matched in the $`I`$band catalog was first computed for each CCD separately. This allowed to correct the displacement introduced by atmospheric refraction from the $`I`$ to the $`U`$ band. Finally, in the global astrometry step the astrometric solution was constrained for each CCD by both the positions from the $`I`$band catalog and those from overlapping sources in all the other CCDs. Even if the three pointings were then resampled and coadded separately, in the global astrometry we used positions from all of them to increase the astrometric internal accuracy by using the position of the same source in the overlapping region of two different pointings (see Fig. 1).

To compute an accurate astrometry for $`U`$band data is somewhat more difficult than for $`BVRI`$ data because of the smaller number of bright stars in the $`U`$band. This implies that the astrometric solution may heavily rely on extended sources, for which the emission may peak at different positions in different bands. The achieved RMS astrometric accuracy, measured using $`I`$band selected point-like sources only, is $`<0.2\mathrm{}`$ (see Fig. 3). The internal RMS, computed from overlapping sources in different exposures, is much smaller, $`0.07\mathrm{}`$.

#### 2.2.2 Photometry

Photometric calibration was done taking several Landolt fields, so that we had at least one Landolt star in each CCD. Landolt fields were imaged also in $`B`$,$`V`$ to derive the filter color term, for each $`U`$band filter used.

The calibration equation becomes:

$$Uu=\alpha (UB)+\beta ϵX,$$
(1)
Landolt fields were taken at different airmasses (*X*) during the night for all pointings with the exception of P2; (U-B) colors of the Landolt stars used in the calibration are in the range $`0(UB)1.5`$. This allowed us to compute the extinction coefficient $`\epsilon `$: a value close to that expected for La Silla was obtained. For P2 this was not possible, so we took the average La Silla extinction coefficient for that period. Zero points, color terms and extinction coefficients computed for each pointing are given in Table 2. Recent photometric investigations (Manfroid, Selman & Jones manfroid (2001)) showed that the zero point changes across the WFI mosaic with a maximum difference of $``$ 0.08 mag as a consequence of non-uniform illumination and scattered light. As the Landolt fields are not wide enough to cover the whole WFI area and hence to compute one zero point for each CCD independently, the zero points we obtained represent an average over the whole mosaic from the different observed Landolt fields. The photometric accuracy in our data is therefore limited to $`0.05`$ mag, corresponding to about half the maximum difference in zero points over the entire WFI mosaic.

From the knowledge of the system transmission curves we then computed the AB corrections, that are displayed in the last column of Table 2.

To account for changes in airmass and atmospheric transparency, we used the Photometrix package in WIFIX. This package first applies the astrometric solution found for each CCD and then looks for overlapping sources in different CCDs. It then computes *for each mosaic* (defined as the set of 8 CCDs taken for each exposure) an additional term to the zero point ($`z_{r,i}`$) such that the average differences in fluxes of overlapping sources are minimized. An exposure taken in photometric conditions was chosen as reference, so that for it $`z_{r,i}`$=0: this image was taken in the same night as the Landolt fields used to make the photometry calibration. Since the P2 and P3 pointings are not connected, and P1 was taken with a different filter, we needed to run this step for each pointing separately.

#### 2.2.3 Coaddition

After the astrometric solutions and flux scaling factors were computed, image coaddition was done using the SWarp tool developed by E. Bertin 222SWarp is part of the TERAPIX software suite, available at http://terapix.iap.fr/soft. SWarp allows to subtract the background, resample the images according to the astrometric solution, apply the flux scaling factor, and finally combine them. As in the case of the $`BVRI`$ images, resampling was done using a ”Lanczos-3” interpolation kernel, which corresponds to a sinc function multiplied by a windowing function. The coaddition was done computing the median of the images to optimize the rejection of spurious sources as cosmic rays or satellite tracks. As a consequence of the use of two different filters for the P1 and P2, P3 pointings, it was not possible to produce a single coadded image for the whole field. We therefore produced one image for each pointing; the size, pixel scale (0.205$`\mathrm{}`$ pix-1) and orientation of each image was the same as that of $`BVRI`$ data so that catalogs can be extracted with the same $`\chi ^2`$ technique (see Paper II). This allows to extract catalogs using SExtractor in dual mode, with the $`\chi ^2`$ image as reference. In SWarp, each image may be associated to a weight-map to properly weight pixels during the coaddition step. This was particularly useful in the case of the Loiano filter, due to vignetting in the outer regions. Weight maps were first created using normalized flat fields; pixels flagged in the Bad Pixel Maps provided for WFI by ESO333http://www.eso.org/science/eis/eis\_soft/soft\_index.html were then set to 0 in the weight map. For the pointing P1, we also set to 0 those pixels with a value $`<0.6`$ in the normalized flat field, thus allowing us to remove in the coaddition the regions affected by vignetting. Fig.4 shows the coadded weight map for P1.

## 3 Preparation of the catalogs

### 3.1 Photometric properties

A first estimate of the detection limiting magnitude for point-like sources was done on the background RMS map: this map was extracted for each pointing using SExtractor and the median background RMS ($`\sigma `$) was then computed. The limiting magnitude at 3$`\sigma `$ and 5$`\sigma `$ levels is mag$`(n\sigma )=\beta 2.5\mathrm{log}(n\sigma \sqrt{A})`$ where $`n=3,5`$, $`A`$ is the area of an aperture whose radius is the average FWHM of point-like sources, $`\beta `$ is the zero point (Eq. 1). We obtained $`U_{AB}`$ 25.8 at 5$`\sigma `$ and $`U_{AB}`$ 26.4 at 3$`\sigma `$.

Because of their definition, these values for the limiting magnitudes refer to the unrealistic case of objects with a flat radial surface brightness profile. A more accurate determination of the photometric limits of the survey was then done as follows. Catalogs were first extracted using SExtractor, where source detection was optimized using simulations of point-like sources. A background image was computed as outlined in Arnaboldi et al. (2002); a population of 2000 point-like objects with the same PSF of bright isolated stars in the field was added on this image, following a flat magnitude distribution (20.5 $``$ mag $``$ 27) and a random spatial distribution: the tasks in the ARTDATA package in IRAF were used. SExtractor was then run on that image and it was measured how many objects were detected and the faintest magnitude reached for a given detection threshold. The number of connected pixels required for source detection was set to 9 pixels: this gives a minimum signal to noise ratio of $``$ 3$`\sigma `$ for a detection threshold $``$ 1. The same process was repeated 20 times, giving a total of 40 000 sources and around 1500 sources per 0.25 magnitude bin. At the same time, we monitored the number of spurious sources, by matching the output catalogue from SExtractor with the input catalogue. The optimal threshold was the one that minimized the number of spurious detections with $`U_{AB}<26`$, without loosing input sources. Following these tests, we set the detection threshold to $`0.7\sigma `$ for the P1 pointing and $`0.9\sigma `$ for P2 and P3, over at least nine connected pixels.

Fig. 5 shows the results of the simulations (detected/input sources). In Table 3 we list the magnitude of completeness ($`>`$ 90% of the modeled objects in the input catalog are retrieved) and the limiting magnitude (50% of the modeled objects retrieved). The depth of P1 is comparable to that of P2 and P3 even if the exposure time is lower, since the Loiano filter is redder than the ESO filter and is thus somewhat more efficient, after convolution with the atmosphere. In order to check how many spurious detections should be expected at different magnitudes, we then run SExtractor on the background image before simulated sources were added. The result is displayed in the histograms in Fig. 5, which show that there are no spurious detections for magnitudes brighter than the 90% completeness magnitude; the peak occurs for magnitudes fainter than the detection limit ($`U_{AB}26`$) 444Spurious detections with magnitudes in the range $`28<U_{AB}<30`$ are mainly due to correlated noise.. Residual spurious detections for magnitudes close to the 50% limiting magnitude are later removed by the cross correlation with the catalog derived from the $`\chi ^2`$ image.

Similar simulations were done using extended sources, to compute the completeness and limiting surface brightness. Galaxies with De Vaucouleurs and exponential surface brightness laws were used as input sources to simulate elliptical and spiral galaxies respectively; total magnitudes of these sources were in the range $`20<U_{AB}<26`$. The same procedure as above was then followed, but this time we measured the peak surface brightness (defined as the surface brightness of the brightest pixel) of the simulated and detected sources. The so obtained values are also given in Table. 3.

### 3.2 Catalog extraction

In order to easily combine the catalogs derived from the $`U`$ and $`BVRI`$ images, it was decided to use the $`BVRI`$ $`\chi ^2`$ image catalogue as reference for the extraction of sources in the $`U`$band.

The $`BVRI`$ $`\chi ^2`$ image catalogue is significantly deeper than the catalogue which can be derived using only the $`U`$band image; the relative depths of the two catalogues can be judged by comparing the surface densities of objects, $`10^5`$ per square degree in the $`\chi ^2`$ image catalogue (Paper II), and $`10^4`$ per square degree in the $`U`$ band catalogue. On the other hand, we would measure positive (spurious) flux in the background-subtracted $`U`$ frame at the position of sources detected in the $`\chi ^2`$ image even if no significant $`U`$ source is detected (by definition a positive flux would be measured in about 50% random positions). To remove these spurious detections we adopted the following strategy. For each pointing (P1, P2 and P3), we extracted two catalogs:

* One catalog was extracted using SExtractor in the “dual image mode”, taking as input catalogue the one obtained from the $`\chi ^2`$ image of the $`BVRI`$ dataset (see Paper II).
* One catalog was extracted in single-image mode, using a filtering Gaussian kernel and the detection threshold set as discussed above.

For both catalogs, Kron (magauto) magnitudes and aperture magnitudes at diameters of 15 pixels ($`3\mathrm{}`$) and 25 pixels ($`5\mathrm{}`$) were computed. As it concerns the required number of contiguous pixels, we used the same value that was adopted for the $`BVRI`$ images (see Paper II).

A cross-correlation was then done between coordinates of sources in the two catalogs; a maximum distance of $`2\mathrm{}`$ was adopted for matching. In addition, aperture magnitudes ($`5\mathrm{}`$ diameter) were also used as a further constraint in the cross-correlation: matching sources were rejected when the difference of $`U`$band magnitudes obtained from the $`\chi ^2`$ and single image catalogues was $`>0.5`$ mag.

After the cross correlation we computed the average difference between the magnitudes measured in the single and $`\chi ^2`$ images: for all the three pointings we obtain $`\mathrm{\Delta }U0.02`$ mag with RMS values which change from $`<0.05`$ mag for bright sources ($`U_{AB}<22`$) to $`0.1`$ mag for fainter magnitudes. Considering (1) the different depths of the $`U`$band and $`\chi ^2`$ images and (2) the fact that for extended sources the peak of the emission may be different in the $`U`$band compared to the $`BVRI`$ bands, we decided to keep in the final catalog the magnitudes measured on the single image rather than those computed using the parameters from the $`\chi ^2`$ image.

As a consequence of the dithering strategy, regions close to the border of the image are covered by a small number of exposures: spurious sources are therefore produced either by a bad rejection of cosmic rays or by the high noise. We therefore removed from the catalogs all the sources located within a given distance from the border. $`U`$band magnitudes were assigned to sources in the $`\chi ^2`$ catalog only when they were detected in the single-image catalog with a magnitude brighter than the $`3\sigma `$ limiting magnitude, $`U_{AB}=26.4`$. For magnitudes brighter than the completeness limit, unmatched sources are mainly false detections (e.g. halos around bright stars) or sources not found in the $`\chi ^2`$catalog (e.g. because of cosmetic defects). For fainter magnitudes, spurious detections due to correlated noise are more important in the single-image catalog (see Fig. 5) but are removed by the cross correlation with the $`\chi ^2`$ catalog. The requirement on the magnitude helps to reject these spurious detections, removing $``$ 6% of sources for $`U<25`$ mag, $``$ 10% for fainter magnitudes.

The separation of extended vs. point-like sources was done on the $`I`$band catalog, and is described in Paper II: such classification was done in the range $`18<I_{AB}<21`$, that is between the $`I`$band saturation limit and the magnitude beyond which the separation between resolved and unresolved sources is less reliable. We verified on the half-light radius versus $`U`$band magnitude plots that sources classified as point-like fall on the expected locus. The same plots were also used to estimate the average seeing in each pointing that is given in Table 1. In addition, bright nearby galaxies which are saturated in the $`I`$band but not in the $`U`$band were flagged as extended.

Finally, we computed for each filter the correction to bring the magnitudes to the AB system (see Table 2) and the Galactic extinction correction. The F02 field is characterized by a low interstellar extinction (see Paper I); according to the Schlegel et al. (schlegel (1998)) maps555The dust map was downloaded from:
http://astron.berkeley.edu/davis/dust/data/data.html. $`0.023<E(BV)<0.040`$, with an average value $`E(BV)0.027\pm 0.002`$ mag. This translates to an average correction for extinction $`A_U0.14`$ mag.

### 3.3 Color correction of the Loiano filter to the ESO filter

After catalogs were extracted, for each pointing we assessed the problem of bringing the $`U`$band photometry to a single photometric system. We decided to convert the magnitudes measured in P1 with the Loiano filter to the ESO photometric system, since the latter is closer to the Johnson system. The advantage of doing so, rather than using Eq.1 to transform both magnitudes to the Johnson system and then computing the internal offset, is given by the fact that we can later use the ESO system transmission curve e.g. for comparison with model predictions.

As shown in Fig.1, the P2 and P3 fields taken with the ESO filter partially overlap with P1. For the overlapping sources, we therefore have photometry for both the $`U`$band filters; in addition, $`B`$band photometry is available from the CFHT data. We first extracted from the catalog bright ($`20<U<22`$) point-like sources; 35 and 46 sources were found for P2 vs. P1 and P3 vs. P1 respectively. From these we solved Eq.1 with no airmass ($`ϵ=0`$), taking the ESO filter as reference (magnitudes not including the AB correction were used). Similar results were obtained for both P2 and P3: hence we merged the two sub-catalogs and finally obtained $`\alpha =0.178`$, $`\beta =0.08`$ in Eq.1. The color term, as expected, is intermediate between the values found for the two filters from the calibration with standard stars (see Table 2). In Fig.6 we show the differences in magnitudes of both point-like and extended sources in the overlapping areas of the two filters before and after color correction. The average offset in magnitude after the correction is -0.01 mag (P1 vs. P2) and 0.04 mag (P1 vs. P3), with an RMS $`0.1`$. The same plot also provides an indirect check that photometry in P2 and P3 is consistent, as each of them is consistent with the P1 photometry in the overlapping areas.

The consistency with magnitudes obtained in the Johnson system by applying the color terms listed in Table 2 was checked as follows. Both the ESO and Loiano magnitudes were first transformed to the Johnson system. The same procedure as above was then followed to compute the offset between the Loiano and ESO photometry: we found $`\alpha =0`$ as expected and $`\beta =0.1`$ mag. Loiano magnitudes were then transformed to the ESO system as discussed above, and then to the Johnson system. The agreement is within $`0.08`$ mag in the range $`2<(UB)<2`$.

## 4 Data quality assessment

In order to check the data quality of the $`U`$band photometry, we performed a series of tests where we (i) compared colors of point-like and extended sources to those expected for stars and field galaxies; (ii) checked the number counts of galaxies and compared them with existing data in literature. In this analysis, magnitudes in the P1 pointing were first transformed to the ESO filter photometric system as described in Sec. 3.3; for those sources which were observed with both the Loiano and the ESO filter, the latter magnitude data were taken. In the final catalog, magnitudes are corrected for Galactic extinction.

### 4.1 Stellar colors

We first compared the colors of bright ($`U_{AB}<23.5`$) point-like sources with those obtained from the convolution of stellar templates (Pickles pickles (1998)) with the system transmission curves (filter + telescope \+ CCD + atmosphere). No correction for Galactic extinction is applied in this case. The result is displayed in Fig. 7: it can be seen that the agreement is good only for $`(BV)`$ 0.7. This is expected since for bluer colors the low-metallicity stellar population from the halo dominates over the disk population with solar metallicity. We therefore computed the colors produced using the Kurucz model atmospheres (Kurucz kurucz (1979)) with $`\mathrm{log}g=4.0`$ and \[M/H\]=0.0, -5.0 to reproduce solar and sub-solar metallicities (see also Lenz et al. Lenz (1998)). As displayed again in Fig. 7, the apparent excess in $`(UB)`$ is in agreement with the colors produced by the low-metallicity model. The absence of observed stars at redder colors ($`(UB)>2.5`$) is due to the cut in the $`U`$band magnitudes, as it is explained later in more detail. Most of the sources outside the stellar locus with an ultraviolet excess ($`(UB)<0.6`$) are likely to be quasars at $`z<2.2`$.

In order to verify whether the color distribution we obtained is consistent with that expected in our Galaxy, we show in Fig.8 (top) the synthetic color-magnitude (CM) diagram ($`(BV)`$ vs. $`I`$) for a region of sky centered on P1 and a size of 0.9 $`\mathrm{deg}^2`$ (Degl’Innocenti & Cignoni, Private Communication). The code and recipes described in Castellani et al. (castellani (2002)) were used to this aim: the code provides $`BVRI`$ magnitudes for a Galactic stellar population model, including halo, disk and thick disk components.

We selected from the simulations those sources with $`18<I_{AB}<21`$ as this is the range where the point-like classification was done in our data. We expect to find only halo stars (i.e. metal poor objects) around $`(BV)0.5`$, a mix of halo and thick disk stars in the interval $`0.5<(BV)<1.4`$, and mainly disk stars (metal rich objects) around $`(BV)1.4`$. Fig.7 shows that $`(UB)>2`$ when $`(BV)>1`$: therefore, when we compare simulated and observed color distributions we need to take into account the selection introduced by the cut in the $`U`$band magnitude, $`U_{AB}<23.5`$. As the models do not provide $`U`$band magnitudes, we proceed as follows. The limits $`(UB)>2`$ and $`U_{AB}<23.5`$ imply that $`B_{AB}<21.5`$. From $`(BV)>1`$ we obtain $`V_{AB}<20.5`$. Finally, Fig. 15 in Paper II shows that $`(VI)>1`$ when $`(BV)>1`$: we therefore obtain $`I_{AB}<19.5`$.

The same diagram is plotted in Fig.8 for the point-like sources in the VIRMOS deep field which were detected in the $`U`$band. An exact match with the number of disk stars can not be expected as the selection due to the cut in the $`U`$band was taken into account in an approximate way. The position of the two clumps centered at $`(BV)0.5`$ and $`(BV)1.4`$ is clearly visible (Fig 8, bottom). This confirms that the $`(UB)`$ excess seen in Fig. 7 is due to the halo stars in the F02 field.

### 4.2 Field galaxy colors

$`(UB)_{AB}`$ and $`(VI)_{AB}`$ colors were compared with those obtained from model galactic spectra convolved with the system transmission curves. This was done using the make\_catalog tool which is part of the HYPERZ package (Bolzonella et al. bolzonella (2000)): we used the built-in set of templates for early to late- type galaxies computed from the GISSEL98 spectral evolution library of Bruzual & Charlot (bruzual (1993)). As in Paper II, we divided our catalog of $`U`$band detected extended sources in different bins of $`I_{\mathrm{AB}}`$ magnitude. Late-type galaxies are expected to increasingly dominate in the color distribution as we go to fainter magnitudes: early-type galaxies with faint $`I`$ magnitude are too faint to be included in the $`U`$band catalog.

(i) $`I_{AB}<18`$. The brightest galaxies are clearly dominated by a low redshift population, $`z<0.2`$, of early to late-type galaxies (Fig. 9a).

(ii) $`18<I_{AB}<20`$. In Paper II it is shown that $`(BV)`$ vs. $`(VI)`$ colors for these galaxies are in agreement with those expected for a population of galaxies with $`z`$ = 0.0 - 0.5. The median redshift expected for this magnitude range is $`z0.2`$, according to spectroscopic surveys like the CFRS (Crampton et al. crampton (1995)). Consistent results are found looking at the $`(UB)`$ vs. $`(VI)`$ colors (Fig. 9b), where early to late type galaxies are all seen to contribute to the observed colors.

(iii) $`20<I_{AB}<22`$. The colors are well reproduced by a population dominated by late type galaxies with $`z`$ 0.0 - 0.8, with a peak at $`z0.35`$ (Fig. 9c).

(iv) $`22<I_{AB}<24`$. The limiting magnitude $`U_{AB}`$ $``$25 implies that in this range we mainly select galaxies with bluer colors ($`(UB)_{AB}<0.2`$): most of these are likely to be late type galaxies at $`z<1`$, with some contribution from higher redshift galaxies (Fig. 9d). Note that in this magnitude range less than 30% of the galaxies are detected in the $`U`$band.

### 4.3 Number counts

The comparison of number counts of galaxies with literature data provides a good check for both the efficiency of the star-galaxy separation (done in the $`I`$band in our case) and the quality of our photometry. For $`U`$band data, this is complicated by the few published number counts and by the heterogeneity of the data (e.g. different photometric systems, no correction for galactic reddening). A collection of $`U`$band number counts is provided in the Vega-system by N. Metcalfe’s (http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/$``$nm/, see also Metcalfe et al. metcalfe (2001)); we selected only those measurements from CCD observations. They are displayed in Fig.10. The offset among the different measurements is due to both the different $`U`$band filters and the absence of reddening correction for some of the literature number counts. For example, in the case of Metcalfe’s WHDF data $`E(BV)_{WHDF}0.02`$, so that after dereddening the WHDF number counts should be shifted by $``$ -0.1 mag (Heidt et al. heidt (2003)).

The $`U`$band VIRMOS number counts were normalized to the area covered by the unmasked regions, taking into account the overlapping regions ($`0.7\mathrm{deg}^2`$). Number counts not corrected for incompleteness are displayed as filled circles in Fig.10. Our data are in very good agreement with those of Arnouts et al. (arnouts (2001)), which were also taken with ESO/WFI. A least-squares fit in the range $`18.5<U<22.5`$ gives a slope d(log N)/dm = 0.54$`\pm `$0.06. The histogram in Fig.10 shows the number counts corrected for the ratios of input to detected sources displayed in Fig. 5 (Sec. 3.1): after this correction, number counts are in agreement with the extrapolation from brighter magnitudes up to $`U24.5`$ ($`U_{AB}25.5`$).

## 5 Summary

$`U`$band data obtained in the framework of the VIRMOS preparatory imaging survey for the F02 deep field were presented in this paper, as a complement to the $`BVRI`$ data presented in Paper II. Observations, data reduction and catalog extraction issues were first discussed. Various quality assessment tests were then performed. A good agreement is found between the observed stellar colors and those computed from the Kurucz model atmospheres; a component with sub-solar metallicity is required to fit the halo stellar population which dominates over the disk population for $`(UB)<1.5`$. This is confirmed by the comparison with the color distribution of stars in our Galaxy based on the Castellani et al. (castellani (2002)) model. The colors of extended sources were compared with those obtained from template spectra of galaxies. These tests also allowed to check the photometric consistency of $`U`$band and $`BVRI`$ data. Number counts for extended sources were finally computed and compared with other $`U`$band data in literature.

###### Acknowledgements.

We wish to thank Scilla Degl’Innocenti for having kindly provided to us the simulated data for the Galactic stellar population. We also thank Fernando Selman and the ESO La Silla 2.2m team who sent us the transmission curve of the Loiano filter. Data analysis and plots were done using the Perl Data Language (PDL), which is freely available from ”http://pdl.perl.org”; PDL is a powerful vectorized data manipulation language derived from perl. This paper made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. M.R., Y.M. and E.B. were partly funded by the European RTD contract HPRI-CT-2001-50029 ”AstroWise”. Part of this work was also supported by the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MURST) under the grant COFIN-2000-02-34.