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# A possible new dipping X–ray source in the field of M31

## 1 Introduction

Being the closest large spiral (Sb) galaxy to our own, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) provides us with a prime opportunity to study X–ray emission in a Galaxy similar to the Milky Way both in morphology and size. The sources in M31 are observed at the nearly uniform and well known distance of $``$780 kpc (Stanek & Garnavich staga98 (1998); Macri et al. macri01 (2001)). Moreover, owing to its inclination angle of $`77^{}`$ and high galactic latitude ($`l`$II$`=121.174312,b`$II$`=21.573022`$) sources are viewed through a substantially lower absorption column ($`N_\mathrm{H}7\times 10^{20}`$ cm2, Dickey & Lockman dilo90 (1990)) than for sources in the Galaxy. Because of this moderate and fairly uniform extinction, M31 sources can be studied and compared over an extended low energy band. Moreover, different stellar populations in the bulge, spiral arms and halo can be easily distinguished based on their location.

The XMM–Newton mission (Jansen et al. jansen01 (2001)) yields an unprecedented opportunity to study the time variability and spectral properties of individual X–ray sources in nearby galaxies with increased throughput. Previous observations of M31 performed with Einstein (Trinchieri & Fabbiano trifab91 (1991); van Speybroeck et al. vanspey79 (1979)) and ROSAT (Primini, Forman & Jones prifojo93 (1993)) revealed many point-like X–ray sources in its core ($`r<5^{}1.1`$ kpc), but were too insensitive for their precise characterization. The two deep and extensive ROSATPSPC surveys of the entire M31 disk (Supper et al. supper01 (2001); Supper et al. supper97 (1997)), though effective in mapping the Globular Cluster (GC) and Supernova Remnant (SNR) populations, proved inadequate for a detailed study of point sources in the core of the galaxy because of the limited spatial resolution. Spatial resolution was the main limitation also in the study of the bulge of M31 carried out with Beppo–SAX, the first to image M31 up to energies of $``$10 keV (Trinchieri et al. trinch99 (1999)).

The observations of the central part of M31 with the Chandra X–Ray Observatory (Weisskopf weiss88 (1988)) resolved the nuclear source seen with the Einstein and ROSATHRI into five point sources (Garcia et al. garcia00 (2000)) and detected and localized bulge point sources down to luminosities of $`2\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1 in the 0.3–7 keV band, with positional errors of less than 1′′ (Kong et al. kong02 (2002); Di Stefano et al. diste02 (2002); Kaaret kaaret02 (2002)). None of these observations, however, was long enough for a detailed timing analysis. The large collecting area and bandpass of XMM–Newton afforded a more accurate characterization of both the global properties of the X–ray emission from M31 (Shirey et al. shirey01 (2001)) and individual X–ray sources in its bulge (Osborne et al. osborne01 (2001); Barnard, Kolb & Osborne bakosb02 (2002); Trudolyubov et al. trudo02 (2002)). M31 was selected as an XMM–Newton Performance Verification target (Jansen et al. jansen01 (2001)) and subsequently observed within the Guaranteed Time Program. The XMM–Newton observations of M31 (see section 2) are among the M31 X–ray observations with the longest total exposure; they are eminently suited for timing and spectral analysis. We started a program of systematic search for periodicities with Fourier techniques among all bright ($`\stackrel{>}{}`$$`5\times 10^{35}`$ erg s-1) point-like X–ray sources detected in the XMM–Newton archival observations of M31. Our search strategy is aimed at detecting periodic signals over the widest possible period range (see section 3).

In this paper we report the discovery of a 107 min dip-like modulation (nearly 100% amplitude) in the 2002 January 6 light curve of the source XMMU J004308.6+411247. The same modulation is clearly seen also in other XMM–Newton observations of M31 and in the ACIS–S Chandra observation of 2001 October 5 (see section 4.1).

In the following sections we describe the set of data we analysed (section 2), summarise the periodicity search technique (section 3) and illustrate the properties of the dip we discovered in the light curve of XMMU J004308.6+411247 (section 4). Our results are discussed in section 5.

Throughout the paper we adopt a distance to M31 of 780 kpc (Stanek & Garnavich staga98 (1998); Macri et al. macri01 (2001)) and a Galactic column density in the direction of M31 of $`7\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 (Dickey & Lockman dilo90 (1990)).

## 2 Observations and data analysis

We used the four archival XMM–Newton observations of the core of M31 listed in Table 1. The 2000 June 25 observation (observation 1 in Table 1) was part of the Performance Verification Program (Jansen et al. jansen01 (2001); Shirey et al. shirey01 (2001); Osborne et al. osborne01 (2001)). The other three observations (observations 2,3,4) were carried out on 2000 December 28, 2001 June 29 and 2002 January 6 respectively as a part of Guaranteed Time Program. We used data from the three European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) instruments at the focus of the three co–aligned 1500 cm2 X–ray telescopes on board XMM–Newton: two EPIC MOS detectors (Turner et al. turner01 (2001)) and one EPIC PN detector (Strüder et al. struder01 (2001)). Each MOS detector is sensitive in the 0.2–10 keV band, while the PN detector is sensitive in the 0.1–15 keV band. In all observations, the three quoted detectors were operated in the full window mode ($`30^{}`$ diameter field of view) with medium (observations 1, 2 and 3) and thin (observation 4) optical blocking filters. We reduced EPIC data with the XMM–Newton Science Analysis System (SAS) version 5.4.1, by performing standard screening of the EPIC data in order to exclude time intervals with high background levels and/or solar flares. This resulted in shortened exposures of observations 1 and 3 as indicated in Table 1. We applied the automatic source detection and analysis pipeline summarised in the following section to all the four observations. Observations 1, 3 and 4 have high enough statistics to carry out a detailed timing analysis of more than half of the individual point sources in them. Observation 2 has a somewhat lower exposure. Thus, section 4 present only the results we obtained from observations 1, 3 and 4.

In Fig. 1 the central part of the MOS1 image of M31 extracted from the 2002 January 6 observation is shown.

## 3 Search strategy

For each observation listed in table 1 we filtered PN, MOS1 and MOS2 events in the energy band 0.2–15 keV, and merged the events of the two MOS detectors into a single MOS1+MOS2 event list (task merge). We then produced images of the PN and MOS1+MOS2 fields binned in square pixels of $`2^{\prime \prime }\times 2^{\prime \prime }`$. Note that this is smaller than the FWHM of the point spread function in the center of the field for both PN and MOS, which is $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ for the PN and $`4^{\prime \prime }`$ for the MOS (XMM–Newton Users’ Handbook V2.1 XMMhandbook (2003)). We detected all sources above the $`5\sigma `$ threshold in the two images (task ewavelet). For a description of the wavelet based source detection algorithm used by the task ewavelet see Damiani et al. damiani97 (1997). For every detected source this task yields the source position and extension, corresponding to the standard deviation of an equivalent Gaussian luminosity profile, i.e. the radius containing $``$66% of the source counts. In the longest exposure observation (observation 4) we found $`350`$ sources in the PN image and $`180`$ in the MOS image. We removed from the source lists some spurious sources close to the image edge, CCD borders and bad pixel lines (this was important especially in PN images).

After that we extracted light curves of all detected point sources and applied the barycentric correction to the photon arrival times. We used an extraction radius of two times the source extension calculated by ewavelet (i.e. $`2\sigma `$ of the equivalent Gaussian luminosity profile; this contains about 98% of the source counts) whenever there was no superposition with nearby sources, and an extraction radius of one time the source extension in all other cases.

Finally we considered all extracted light curves containing more than 200 photons (including background) in order to have enough statistics for timing analysis. In this way, for instance, we reduced the total number of analysed sources to $``$140 (PN) and $``$90 (MOS) in observation 4. Detailed discussion on the complete set of sources that we analysed will be presented in a forthcoming paper.

The light curves obtained were searched for pulsations by using the power spectrum technique developed by Israel & Stella (giallo96 (1996)). In order to maximize signal detection sensitivity we calculated a single power spectrum with the highest Fourier resolution $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu =1/\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ (with $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ the time span covered by the observation). In each power spectrum we searched for peaks above the detection threshold up to the Nyquist frequency $`\nu _{\mathrm{Nyq}}=1/2\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, with the binning time $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ equal to the intrinsic time resolution of the EPIC cameras (i.e. 73.4 ms for the PN and 2.6 s for the MOS). The detection threshold for peaks in a single power spectrum containing $`N_{trial}=\mathrm{\Delta }T/2\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ frequencies was set such that the probability of exceeding it by chance in a total number of trials equal to $`N_{trial}`$ times the number $`n`$ of light curves analysed in the image was $`ϵ=nN_{trial}ϵ_{singletrial}`$, with $`ϵ=2.326\times 10^4`$ (corresponding to $`3.5\sigma `$ in a Gaussian approximation). Thus, the detection threshold for the analysis of a single power spectrum was given by $`ϵ/n`$. In this way, the minimum detectable amplitude (or pulsed fraction) for a sinusoidal signal (i.e. the sensitivity of the search to coherent periodic signals) for each source can be derived according to the prescription given by Vaughan et al. (vaughan94 (1994)).

## 4 Results

### 4.1 Timing analysis

The systematic search described in section 3 revealed both the 865 s pulsation of the transient super-soft source XMMU J004319.4+411759 (Osborne et al. osborne01 (2001)) visible in the 2000 June 25 observation (observation 1) and quiescent in all other archival XMM–Newton observations, and the 2.78 hr dips in the 2002 January 6 observation (observation 4) of XMMU J004314.1+410724 in the globular cluster Bo 158 (Trudolyubov et al. trudo02 (2002)).

We also found a significant peak at $`1.525879\times 10^2`$ Hz in the power spectrum of XMMU J004308.6+411247 extracted from observation 4 MOS data. The source position we obtained, RA = 00h43m08$`\stackrel{s}{.}`$611 DEC = 4112′47$`\stackrel{}{.}`$58 (equinox 2000), is to be considered accurate to better than 4′′. The power spectrum peak has a significance of $`4.3\sigma `$ after taking into account the number of trial frequencies for this source, as well as for the other sources in the MOS image of observation 4 for which the periodicity search could be carried out. Visual inspection of the power spectra of the 2002 January 6 MOS and PN light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247 clearly reveals the presence of the second and the third harmonics of the signal. As a further confirmation, we calculated the power spectrum of the combined PN and MOS light curves (using the XRONOS package, version 5.19) and obtained a significant increase in the power of the signal and its harmonics. In Fig. 2 the power spectrum of the PN+MOS light curve of XMMU J004308.6+411247 is shown. The signal fundamental plus two harmonics can be easily seen. An epoch folding search was carried out on the PN, MOS and PN+MOS light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247 from 2002 January 6 observation aiming at a more accurate determination of the period value. Following the prescription of Leahy (leahy87 (1987)) we obtained an average best period of $`6420\pm 80`$ s (error estimate at 67% confidence level).

For the background count rate estimation we used an annular region around the extraction circle of XMMU J004308.6+411247 (see also section 4.2). The background subtracted PN+MOS light curve folded at a period of 6420 s is shown in Fig. 3 (panel a). The reference epoch $`T_0`$ corresponding to the minimum of the modulation is given in Table 2, together with the source count rate. The minima are consistent with a zero count rate. The dips last $``$25% of each cycle and their fall and rise are fairly continuous. A fit of the folded light curve in Fig.3 with a simple model consisting of a constant and a Gaussian with negative normalization centered at the minimum gives a nearly 100% amplitude of the dip with respect to the out-of-dip intensity and a $`\sigma =(8.3\pm 1.2)\times 10^2`$ (phase units). See Table 2. The same results are obtained from the combined PN+MOS light curve restricted to the 0.2–1 keV and 1–15 keV energy bands and folded at the 6420 s period (see Fig. 3, panels b and c). The fit to the folded light curve gives a dip amplitude of 104%$`\pm `$27% and 95%$`\pm `$12% in the 0.2–1 keV and in the 1–15 keV energy band respectively, fully compatible with the 98%$`\pm `$11% amplitude obtained in the 0.2–15 keV energy band. We thus conclude that the data provide no evidence for an energy dependence of the modulation.

We searched for a modulation at a period around 6420 s also in all the other XMM–Newton observations of XMMU J004308.6+411247, using combined PN+MOS light curves of the source in all cases in order to improve statistics. An epoch folding search yields a best period of 6400$`\pm `$440 s in observation 1 and 6425$`\pm `$200 s in observation 3. The errors are a factor 3–5 larger than in observation 4 and the best period values are consistent with one another. Therefore we are justified in adopting the same period of 6420 s to fold all the light curves. We folded the XMMU J004308.6+411247 light curves extracted from XMM–Newton observations 1 and 3 at the 6420 s period and fitted the folded light curve with the same model used for observation 4 (a constant and a Gaussian with negative normalization). We confirmed the presence of the signal at the same period and with a modulation amplitude compatible with that previously found. Results are shown in Fig. 4 (panels a and b) and summarised in Table 2.

In order to further investigate XMMU J004308.6+411247 we used archival Chandra and ROSAT observations of M31. We selected the archival Chandra observations with the longest exposure, i.e. that carried out on 2001 October 5 with the Imaging Spectrometer ACIS–S (Garmire et al. garmire92 (1992); Bautz bautz98 (1998) and references therein) for an effective exposure of $``$37.7 ks and the 2001 November 1 observation with the HRC–I in imaging mode for an effective exposure of $``$46.8 ks (Murray et al. murray97 (1997)). We used standard event processing and filtering procedures in the CIAO package, Version 2.2.1, and extracted light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247 from circular regions of diameter about twice the FWHM of the local Point Spread Function (PSF), in the 0.3–10 keV band. We folded the XMMU J004308.6+411247 light curves obtained from Chandra data at the 6420 s period. The dips are clearly detected in the ACIS–S Chandra observation carried out on 2001 October 5 (see panel c in Fig. 4) and their properties are consistent with those of the XMM–Newton observations (see Table 2). The best period obtained with an epoch folding search on the ACIS–S Chandra observation of 2001 October 5 is 6437$`\pm `$200 s, consistent with the period during observation 4. There is marginal evidence for the 107 min signal also in HRC–I Chandra observation of 2001 November 1 (see Fig. 5) though the epoch folding search do not show any significant peak.

We then considered the longest exposure ROSAT archival observations of M31 containing XMMU J004308.6+411247 within ten arc–minutes from the center of the field of view. These are the 1996 January 7 HRI observation (85.5 ks exposure) and the 1991 July 27 PSPC observation (30 ks exposure). The ROSAT light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247 obtained contain too few photons ($`60`$ and $`80`$ net source counts respectively) to confirm the presence of the dips.

Note that the four folded light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247 obtained from the XMM–Newton and Chandra data can be reasonably well fitted also by a square–wave. For this we adopted a model of the form $`Y(F)=D\left[\mathrm{arctan}(A(F_1F))/\pi +\mathrm{arctan}(A(FF_2))/\pi \right]+C`$, where $`A`$, $`F_1`$, $`F_2`$, $`D`$ and $`C`$ are the parameters of the model and $`F`$ represent the phase. For very large values of $`A(F_2F_1)`$ ($`>1000`$) this expression produces an eclipse-type behaviour with sharp ingress and egress at phases $`F_1`$ and $`F_2`$, respectively. When $`A(F_2F_1)`$ is smaller the ingress and egress become progressively smoother, $`F_1`$ and $`F_2`$ being the half depth phases. When $`A(F_2F_1)\stackrel{<}{}100`$ the profile turns into a dip–like one with no flat minimum phase interval.

We fit all our folded light curves to the square–wave model with $`A`$ frozen to $`10^4`$, the $`\chi ^2`$ being insensitive to changes in $`A`$ within one order of magnitude from this value. The results are shown in Fig. 6. The square–wave model fit provides a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ slightly closer to 1 than the Gaussian fit, but uncertainties in the parameters D and C (needed for the eclipse depth estimation) are large. According the square–wave model fit the XMM–Newton 2002 January 6 light curve profile shows an eclipse lasting 0.19$`\pm `$0.03 phase units with a 92%$`\pm `$38% decrease of the source flux during the eclipse (90% confidence level errors). In the XMM–Newton 2000 June 25 light curve the eclipse lasts 0.21$`\pm `$0.06 phase units and produces a 84%$`\pm `$45% flux decrease; in the XMM–Newton 2001 June 29 it lasts 0.125$`\pm `$0.005 and gives a 104%$`\pm `$60% flux decrease and finally, in the Chandra 2001 October 5 observation the eclipse lasts 0.21$`\pm `$0.03 and gives an 89%$`\pm `$49% flux decrease.

Because of these results we conclude that poor statistics does not allow us to distinguish between a smooth profile of the folded light curve profile (as the one represented by the Gaussian model) or a sharp eclipse–like light curve profile.

### 4.2 Spectral analysis

We extracted phase-averaged spectra of XMMU J004308.6+411247 in the 0.2–15 keV energy band from the PN and MOS data of all the XMM–Newton observations in which the 107 min modulation was detected (observations 1, 3 and 4). We generated the relevant spectral response matrices (SAS tasks rmfgen and arfgen). The background spectrum was extracted from the same annular region around the source extraction circle used for the background count rate estimation. These spectra were analysed simultaneously by fitting the following spectral models: absorbed power law, absorbed power law and blackbody, absorbed power law with exponential cut off, absorbed thermal bremsstrahlung, absorbed Comptonization model (Titarchuk tit94 (1994); Titarchuk & Lyubarskij tit95 (1995)) with spherical or disk geometry. Given the relatively poor statistics of our spectra, it is perhaps not surprising that a simple absorbed power law provides a statistically acceptable fit (see below). Nonetheless we fit also a larger sample of two components spectral models that are often used to describe the spectra of various classes of Galactic pulsating X–ray sources in order to try to draw some closer analogies. The spectral fitting was performed using the same model parameters for the PN, MOS1 and MOS2 phase-averaged spectra. We allowed for independent normalizations of the three spectra in order to account for calibration differences between the EPIC cameras. Results from the spectral fitting are given in Table 3. Only models yielding a reduced $`\chi ^2`$ less than 2 are reported. The model consisting of an absorbed power law with an exponential cut off was rejected because it yields a cutoff energy greater than 100 keV, i.e. a spectrum virtually indistinguishable from a power law in the XMM–Newton energy band. Note that the absorbed Comptonization model (Titarchuk tit94 (1994)) gives an acceptable fit only by assuming a disk geometry for the Comptonising region.

The model consisting of a simple absorbed power law, gives the best reduced $`\chi ^2`$ in all observations, but provides an upper limit to the absorption column at 95% confidence level that is lower than the Galactic value of $`7\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 derived from the HI distribution map by Dickey & Lockman dilo90 (1990). The latter has a very limited angular resolution ($`1^{}\times 1^{}`$). It was estimated that small scale structure in the HI distribution in the sky introduces errors in the column density estimates of $`\pm 1\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 (90% confidence level, see Elvis et al. elvis86 (1986), Appendix B). The upper limits to $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ derived from the absorbed power-law fit are below the 90% confidence interval for the Galactic value. The fits with the Comptonization model has the same problem in two out of three observations. The inclusion of a black body component in the absorbed power law model (this is done in analogy with the X–ray spectra modeling used for several Galactic dipping sources, see e.g. XB 1916–053, Church et al. church97 (1997); XB 1254–690, Smale, Church & Bałucińska–Church smale02 (2002); X 1624–49, Church & Bałucińska–Church churchbalu95 (1995)) gives plausible upper limits to the absorption column, but is not required statistically since the power-law fit is already acceptable. The phase-averaged spectra of XMMU J004308.6+411247 obtained from the 2002 January 6 observation are shown in Fig. 7.

In order to investigate further the low–level absorption indicated by the above fits, we also fit groups of PN, MOS1 and MOS2 phase-averaged spectra with the three above-discussed models, while freezing $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ at the Galactic value (which is to be considered a lower limit to the absorption for a source located in M31). We obtain reduced $`\chi ^2`$ values of 1.2 (power law), 1.03 (power law plus blackbody) and 1.1 (comptonization) for observation 1, of 1.4, 0.96 and 1.2 for observation 3 and of 1.3, 0.76 and 1.06 for observation 4 respectively and parameter values consistent with the corresponding ones listed in Table 3 to within the errors. Note also that the upper limits to $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ increases considerably (up to values consistent with the Galactic value in some cases) when allowing for independent absorption columns in the PN, MOS1 and MOS2 spectra. The 2002 January 6 PN, MOS1 and MOS2 phase-averaged spectra fit in this way with the absorbed power–law model gives a $`\chi ^2`$ of 48.1 (47 d.o.f.), a photon index of $`0.79_{0.09}^{+0.1}`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}<4\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the PN spectrum, $`N_\mathrm{H}<6.8\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the MOS1 spectrum, $`N_\mathrm{H}<1.4\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the MOS2 spectrum. Fitting again the three spectra with the absorbed Comptonization model (disk geometry), we obtain a $`\chi ^2`$ of 37.20 (45 d.o.f.), an input photon temperature of $`kT_0<0.12`$ keV, Comptonising electron temperature of $`kT_e=3.3_{0.8}^{+2.6}`$ keV, and optical depth $`\tau =12.5_{1.75}^{+1.8}`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}<6.8\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the PN spectrum, $`N_\mathrm{H}<11.5\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the MOS1 spectrum, $`N_\mathrm{H}<1.7\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 for the MOS2 spectrum. Based on this analysis we conclude that the low 95% upper limits to $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ obtained may be related to calibration uncertainties of the EPIC cameras. It is worth noting that XMMU J004308.6+411247 is not the only source we found showing this anomalous behaviour. Also the bright source XMMU J004232.0+411314 show spectra with typical photon index $`1`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}<0.6\times 10^{20}`$ cm2 at 95% confidence level in the 2002 January 6 observation. In this case the upper limit to $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ grows to $`0.9\times 10^{20}`$ cm2 and to $`1.2\times 10^{20}`$ in MOS1 and MOS2 spectra respectively when allowing for independent $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ parameters in the fit (we did not extract PN spectra because in the PN image the source is more than 50% covered by CCD edges and hot pixel lines). XMMU J004232.0+411314 corresponds to source r2-32 in the ACIS–I Chandra catalogue by Kong et al. (kong02 (2002)). In the quoted paper (Table 8) the source was listed among the 20 brightest sources in M31 and its spectrum was well represented by a power–law spectral fit in the 0.5–10 keV band with photon index $`1.3_{0.1}^{+0.2}`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}<5\times 10^{20}`$ cm2 at the 95% confidence level, i.e. an upper limit to the absorption column lower than the Galactic value.

Based on the absorbed flux values in the 0.3–10 keV band given in Table 3, we can conclude that the luminosity of XMMU J004308.6+411247 was roughly constant over the $`1.5`$ yr time span covered by XMM–Newton observations, at a level of $`1\times 10^{37}\left(d/d_{\mathrm{M31}}\right)^2`$ erg s-1, where $`d`$ is the actual distance of XMMU J004308.6+411247 from us and $`d_{\mathrm{M31}}`$ the M31 distance.

In order to investigate changes in the energy spectrum during the dips, we divided the PN, MOS1 and MOS2 events into two phase intervals corresponding to the out-of-dip (from phase 0.1 to phase 0.85) and dip intensity (from phase 0.85 to 0.1). We extracted spectra from events in the two quoted phase intervals, thus obtaining out-of-dip and dip spectra. The MOS1 and MOS2 dip spectra of observations 1 and 3 had less than 30 counts each (including background) and therefore were not used in any spectral fit. For each observation we fit the PN out-of-dip and dip spectra simultaneously with the phase-averaged spectrum, using two different models: an absorbed power law and an absorbed Comptonization model. Independent normalizations and absorption columns for the three spectra were used, while the other parameters were frozen to the best fit values in Table 3. To within the obvious statistical limitations this approach is justified by the fact that simultaneous fits of the PN, MOS1 and MOS2 out-of-dip spectra alone give results consistent with those obtained for the phase-averaged spectra listed in Table 3. A similar check cannot be done with dip spectra alone because of poor statistics, and the usage of the same spectral model fitting out-of-dip and phase-averaged spectra represents the simplest assumption. Results are shown in Table 4. Note that for the 2002 January 6 observation also the MOS1 and MOS2 phase-averaged, out-of-dip and dip spectra were fit simultaneously to the PN data. In this case we used nine independent normalizations for the nine spectra and three independent $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ parameters, one for the three (PN, MOS1 ans MOS2) phase-averaged spectra, one for the out-of-dip spectra and one for the dip spectra. The PN dip and out-of-dip spectra from the 2002 January 6 observation are shown in fig. 8 together with their best fit power law model. The resulting 95% confidence upper limit on the average increase in the (neutral) absorbing column density $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ during the dips was $`9.7\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2 in observation 1, $`9\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 in observation 3 and $`2\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 in observation 4. (The tighter limit obtained for observation 4 clearly reflects the longer exposure time in that observation). However the above limits should be taken as indicative, since in order to increase the S/N of the dip spectrum was integrated over the whole duration of the dips (as opposed to a shorter phase interval around the dip minimum).

### 4.3 Other Observations

An X–ray source with a position consistent with that of XMMU J004308.6+411247 was detected with the ROSATHRI (source \[PFJ93\]74, Primini, Forman & Jones prifojo93 (1993)), ROSATPSPC (sources 2RXP J004308.5+411251 and 2RXP J004308.3+411249 in the Second ROSAT PSPC Catalogue; source RX J0043.1+4112 in the M31 second ROSAT PSPC survey Supper et al. supper01 (2001)), and Chandra (source CXOM31 J004308.4+411247 in Kaaret kaaret02 (2002), source CXOM31 J004308.6+411248 in Kong et al. kong02 (2002), source CXOM31 J004308.6+411250 in Williams et al. williams03 (2003)).

The observed flux of XMMU J004308.6+411247 from the latter experiments is roughly constant over a 10 years time span. ¿From the published values of the source luminosity we derive values of the integrated unabsorbed flux in the 0.3–10 keV band of $`3.5\times 10^{14}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 from ROSATHRI 1990 July 25 observation (Primini, Forman & Jones prifojo93 (1993)), $`1.0\times 10^{13}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 from Chandra–ACIS 1999–2000 observations (Kong et al. kong02 (2002)), $`8.5\times 10^{14}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 from Chandra–HRC 1999–2001 observations (Williams et al. williams03 (2003)), $`3.4\times 10^{14}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 from Chandra–HRC 2001 October 31 observation (Kaaret kaaret02 (2002)). Note that both Primini, Forman & Jones (prifojo93 (1993)) and Kaaret (kaaret02 (2002)) use a thermal bremsstrahlung distribution to fit the spectra, with temperature $`kT=5`$ keV and 2 keV and absorption column $`N_\mathrm{H}=7\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 and $`6.66\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2 respectively, while Kong et al. (kong02 (2002)) and Williams et al. (williams03 (2003)) use a power law with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=1.7`$ and absorption column $`N_\mathrm{H}=10^{21}`$ cm-2. These values are within a factor five from the observed flux of $`1.7\times 10^{13}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 we obtain from XMM–Newton observations in the 0.3–10 keV band (see Table 3 and section 4.2). This indicates that XMMU J004308.6+411247 is a fairly stable X–ray source, and it is not an X–ray transient.

## 5 Discussion

The unprecedent throughput of XMM–Newton led to the detection of a 107 min modulation from the X–ray source XMMU J004308.6+411247 in the field of M31. This source is very likely the ROSAT–HRI source \[PFJ93\]74 (Primini, Forman & Jones prifojo93 (1993)). The modulation is confirmed also by Chandra archival observations of the source. The source flux was at a nearly steady level of $``$1.7$`\times 10^{13}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 in the 0.3–10 keV band throughout all XMM–Newton observations. This value is within a factor five from flux measurements obtained by other missions spanning the previous decade. The flux above corresponds to a luminosity of $`1\times 10^{37}\left(d/780kpc\right)^2`$ erg s-1, where $`d`$ is the distance of XMMU J004308.6+411247 from us. The source spectrum is well fit by an absorbed power law model with a photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }0.8`$, but is also compatible with an absorbed Comptonization model ($`kT_e3`$ keV and $`\tau 13`$). No other simple single-component spectral model succeeds in fitting the XMM–Newton data. Owing to poor statistics the $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ value could not be measured from the XMM–Newton spectra and only upper limits were derived.

The 107 min modulation is due to a dip in the light curve that covers about one fourth of the cycle with an energy-independent intensity decrease compatible with 100% at dip minimum. The apparent smoothness of XMMU J004308.6+411247 light curves might be due to poor statistics. An eclipse–like behaviour is also compatible with the folded light curve of XMMU J004308.6+411247. In this case, however, the “eclipse” duration would be of 0.12 phase units during the XMM–Newton observation of 2001 June 29, inconsistent with the $`0.2`$ duration obtained for the other three observations. This indicates that the observed modulation might not be compatible with a true eclipse by a companion star.

The possibility that XMMU J004308.6+411247 is foreground source in the Galaxy cannot be ruled out at present. Indeed the somewhat lower value of $`N_\mathrm{H}`$, compared to the galactic $`N_\mathrm{H}`$, that we inferred from the analysis of the X–ray spectrum would appear to favor this possibility.

### 5.1 Galactic scenario

For an assumed distance of 1 kpc, roughly corresponding to the thickness of the Galaxy in the direction of M31, the 0.3–10 keV luminosity of XMMU J004308.6+411247 would be $`2\times 10^{31}`$ erg s-1, close to the low–end of (but still compatible with) the quiescent X–ray luminosity of magnetic cataclysmic variables (CVs; Ramsay et al. ramsay94 (1994), Ramsay & Cropper ramcro03 (1994)). The period of the X–ray modulation of XMMU J004308.6+411247 is suggestive of the orbital period of a polar or intermediate polar (IP). Orbital periods of polars and IPs are mostly concentrated in the in the 1–10 hr range (Downes et al. downes01 (2001)). Current limits on the magnitude of any optical counterpart to XMMU J004308.6+411247 (V $`>`$ 21.7, R $`>`$ 20.2, see Kong et al. kong02 (2002); Haiman et al. haiman94 (1994)) are also compatible with a magnetic CV interpretation (see Downes et al. downes01 (2001)).

Dip-like X–ray modulations and/or on/off shaped eclipses reflecting the orbital motion of the binary are seen in both classes of polars and IPs. Examples of this are Fo Aqr, AO Psc (Hellier, Garlick & Mason hellgarmas93 (1993)) and XY Arietis (showing eclipses, Hellier hellier97 (1997)) among IPs; 2A0311-227 (EF Eri, Beuermann, Thomas & Pietsch beu91 (1991)), DP Leo (showing eclipses, Schwope et al. schwope02 (2002)) and, to lesser extent, AN UMa (Ramsay et al. ramsay94 (1994)) among polars.

However, the longest duration of an eclipse obtained through occultation of a compact accreting X–ray source by a donor star filling its Roche-Lobe of radius $`r_L`$ in a binary system with orbital period $`P`$, binary separation $`a`$ and mass ratio $`q=M_{donor}/M_X<1`$ can be calculated as $`\frac{1}{P}2r_L/\frac{2\pi a}{P}=\frac{r_L}{\pi a}`$ (in phase units). Using the relation of Eggleton (eggle83 (1983)) to express the dependence of the Roche-Lobe radius of the donor $`r_L`$ on $`q`$ we derive an upper limit to an eclipse duration of $`0.4/\pi 0.13`$ phase units. A 0.2 phase units eclipse of the X–ray source cannot be due to occultation by the companion star. Thus, in any interacting binary interpretation, the observed X–ray modulation of XMMU J004308.6+411247 cannot be explained as due to a true eclipse.

If the dip ingress/egress in the XMMU J004308.6+411247 light curves sharp on the basis of the square–wave fit, a more plausible explanation for the observed modulation would be that of eclipses by the accretion column in a Polar. In this case no limit to the eclipse duration would be expected and occasional variations in the light curve profile may occur (see the case of EP Dra, Bridge et al. bridge03 (2003)).

The alternative scenario for XMMU J004308.6+411247 X–ray modulation at the orbital period would be occultation of an IP by the plasma bulge due to impact of the accretion stream on the accretion disk. Such a mechanism, at work both in IPs and low mass X–ray binaries (LMXRBs), might produce a relatively long dip which, when averaged, has often a fairly smooth profile, consistent with the Gaussian fit to the folded light curves that we described in section 4.1. The apparent energy–independence of the dips (to within the uncertainties) might be accounted for if the plasma cloud producing the dips had a very high degree of ionization, and the flux reduction were due to Thomson scattering rather than photo-electric absorption. In the IP scenario the ionization front due to the central X–ray source cannot reach the edge of the accretion disk: to produce the $`>90`$% energy independent decrease of the source luminosity, an electron column $`N_e`$ of more than $`3.5\times 10^{24}`$ cm-2 would be required. In order to have this amount of ionized matter (with solar composition) in a cloud of thickness $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ at a distance R from the central source emitting an X–ray luminosity $`L_X`$, the ionization parameter $`\xi =\frac{L_X\mathrm{\Delta }R}{N_eR^2}`$ should be larger than 1000 (Tarter, Tucker & Salpeter tartuck69 (1969); Hatchett, Buff & McCray hatchbuffmccray76 (1976)). We define $`ϵ=\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }R}{R}`$, i.e. the depth of the material that produces the dips expressed as a fraction of its distance from the source. We conservatively assume $`ϵ=1`$. Thus, in the case of XMMU J004308.6+411247 the distance from the central X–ray source of the material causing the dips should be $`R=\frac{L_Xϵ}{N_e\xi }<10^3\frac{L_X}{N_e}`$. For an X–ray luminosity of $`L_X2\times 10^{31}`$ erg s-1 this maximum distance amounts to less than 1 km, i.e. orders of magnitude lower than the radius of any bulge in the accretion stream/disk interaction.

Most IPs display soft X–ray modulation at the white dwarf (WD) spin period (33 s to 2 h, but always shorter than the orbital period, Patterson patterson94 (1994)) with energy–dependent amplitudes in the 10-40% range. No evidence was found for such a distinct X–ray modulation (possibly, in the soft X–ray range) resulting from the white dwarf rotation as observed in a number of IPs, in the case of XMMU J004308.6+411247. We note, however, that X–ray pulsations with amplitude $`<`$30% would have remained undetected in the XMM–Newton light curves of XMMU J004308.6+411247.

A final possibility, producing a relatively smooth modulation in the X–ray light curve, is a self–eclipse of the hot emitting region on the polar cap of a highly magnetic WD (polar) in synchronous rotation with a low mass companion from which it accretes matter via Roche-Lobe overflow without accretion disk formation. In this case the profile and duration of the eclipse would be due to the shape and extension of the hot polar cap periodically hidden at the WD spin period, equal to the orbital period. The energy independence of the eclipse depth would be also explained.

If XMMU J004308.6+411247 were a Galactic CV as suggested by its low X–ray luminosity for a 1 kpc distance scale, the folded light curve modulation would be clearly more suggestive of an accretion stream eclipse or a self eclipse of the WD in binary system of the polar class.

However, evidence against the magnetic CV interpretation derives from the analogy with the spectral characteristics observed from Polars and IPs. In both cases the observed spectra are compatible with a thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum with temperature in excess of tens of keV, plus (in many cases) a very soft spectral component consistent with a blackbody of temperature in the 10-50 eV range. The bolometric luminosity in this component is from one to several hundreds times higher than the thermal bremsstrahlung component in Polars (Ramsay & Cropper ramcro03 (1994)), while it ranges from zero (i.e. the component is not detected) to several tens of times the thermal bremsstrahlung component in IPs.

The spectral characteristics of XMMU J004308.6+411247 are at variance with those of magnetic CVs. The X–ray spectrum of XMMU J004308.6+411247 has a characteristic temperature 2–3 keV (that of the Comptonising electrons) and, in any case, cannot be fit with a thermal bremsstrahlung spectrum. The addition of a soft blackbody component with temperature of 50 eV or less produces a bolometric blackbody flux comparable to the bremsstrahlung, but the fit should be discarded because of reduced $`\chi ^2`$ of 1.6 (in the best case).

Finally we note that, in the Galactic interpretation, the X–ray luminosity and spectrum of XMMU J004308.6+411247 would be similar to those observed from quiescent soft X–ray transient low mass binaries hosting a neutron star (see e.g. Campana & Stella camste00 (2000)). X–ray eclipses have so far been observed only in a very low luminosity state of MXB 1659-29 (Wijnands et al. wijnands03 (2003)); no evidence for a dip–like modulation of the X-ray flux at the orbital period has yet been found in any quiescent neutron star soft X–ray transient. Therefore, while in principle viable, the possibility that XMMU J004308.6+411247 is a dipping quiescent soft X–ray transient is not especially appealing. On the other hand the interpretation of he X-ray modulation of XMMU J004308.6+411247 in terms of eclipses by the companion star is untenable because of the eclipse duration exceeds the maximum allowed duration (see above).

### 5.2 Extragalactic scenario

As an M31 source, the nearly steady luminosity of XMMU J004308.6+411247 ($`10^{37}`$ erg s-1 (0.3–10 keV) would be similar to that of moderately bright LMXRBs (White, Stella & Parmar whitestella88 (1988)). The shape of the 107 min periodic modulation, comprising a fairly flat on-phase lasting for about 3/4 of the cycle and a relatively long and smooth dip (1/4 of the cycle) reaching (nearly) zero flux over some 1/10 of the cycle, is clearly reminiscent of X–ray dipping LMXRBs seen from high inclinations.

The possibility that the observed modulation is due to true eclipses of a compact central X–ray source by the companion star (supported by the square–wave fit of the folded XMMU J004308.6+411247 light curves shown at the end of section 4.1), can be simply ruled out because the observed eclipse duration is incompatible with the geometry of the binary system (see section 5.1).

LMXRB dips are believed to arise from absorption and/or Thomson scattering of X–rays coming from a central source by a bulge in the outer regions of the accretion disk, where the stream from the Roche-Lobe filling companion impacts the outer disk rim. The dipping phenomenon reflects the orbital period of the system, as demonstrated by a few systems which display both X–ray dips and eclipses from the companion stars (e.g. MXB 1659–298, Cominsky & Wood comwood84 (1984), Cominsky & Wood comwood89 (1988), Wijnands et al. wijnands03 (2003); EXO 0748–676, Parmar et al. parmar86 (1986); GRS 1747–312, into Zand et al. zand00 (2000), in’t Zand et al. zand03 (2003)). Despite some jitter in phase and the common presence of pronounced dip variability, the position of the bulge must remain (nearly) fixed in phase (Frank, King & Lasota frakila87 (1987)). It is estimated that the dip phenomenon occurs in systems with an inclination greater than $`70^{}`$. Some 20 dipping LMXRBs are currently known in the Galaxy. Only one of these (X 1916–053) has an orbital period shorter than $``$2 hr (White & Swank whiteswank82 (1982)), while two (4U 1755–338 and 4U 1630-47, in Mason et al. mason85 (1985) and Tomsik, Lapshow & Kaaret tomsik98 (1998) respectively) likely host an accreting Black Hole Candidate (BHC). Most dipping LMXRBs are type I X–ray bursters and thus contain an accreting neutron star.

In the dipping LMXRB interpretation XMMU J004308.6+411247 would be a compact binary, the second dipper with a period below the period gap.

The spectra of high luminosity ($`>`$ $`10^{37}`$ erg s-1) LMXRBs hosting a central neutron star are usually well fit e.g. by a Comptonization model plus a blackbody component (White, Stella & Parmar whitestella88 (1988); for a review of other models see e.g. Di Salvo & Stella disalvo02 (2002)). When required, the blackbody component has a temperature around 1.5 keV and it accounts for $``$10–30% of the total 1–10 keV flux. For both low/high luminosity sources, Comptonization parameters are $`y24`$, optical depths $`\tau 1015`$ and electron temperatures $`T_e24`$ keV. Spectra of (soft state) Black Hole Candidates in LMXRBs are well fit by Comptonization model too, but with a somewhat higher scattering depth ($`\tau >15`$) and lower electron temperature ($`T_e`$1 keV; White, Stella & Parmar whitestella88 (1988)). LMXRBs with somewhat lower luminosity ($`<10^{37}`$ erg s-1) are often dominated by a power law with photon index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }\stackrel{>}{}2`$ (Christian & Swank chriswank97 (1997); Schulz schulz99 (1999); Church & Bałucińska–Church churchbalu01 (2001)).

In the case of XMMU J004308.6+411247, the XMM–Newton spectra are reasonably well fit by a power law or a Comptonization model (see Table 3). The power-law fit gives a photon index ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }<1`$), i.e. harder than that found in LMXRBs. The addition of a blackbody component to the power law, though not required from the statistical point of view, implies too high a blackbody temperature ($`2.3`$ keV) and fraction of the total luminosity ($`70`$%) as compared to typical values for LMXRBs. On the contrary the thermal Comptonization model discussed in section 4.2 yields an electron temperature of $`3`$ keV and an optical depth $`13`$ consistent with high luminosity LMXRBs hosting a neutron star.

In this interpretation other relevant features of XMMU J004308.6+411247 are

(i) the $``$25% duty cycle of the dips; this is in agreement with those observed in Galactic dipping sources: the duty cycle of the dips varies from source to source and is typically 10%–40%. Sources showing dips with a $``$20% duty cycle are, for example, 4U 1755–338 (Mason et al. mason85 (1985)), XB 1254–690 (Courvoisier et al. cour86 (1986)), MXB 1659–29 (Cominsky & Wood comwood84 (1984))

(ii) the shape of the dips, consistent with a relatively smooth average profile; this is common in Galactic dipping sources as well, despite the fact that individual dips often display pronounced irregular variability. Owing to poor statistics, individual dip variability would not be revealed in XMMU J004308.6+411247.

(iii) the very high degree of modulation, nearly 100%; in turn this is not unusual in LMXRBs: e.g. 4U 1916–053 and XB 1254–690 often display more $`>90`$% modulated dips; MXB 1658–298 presented $``$90% modulated dips in the Beppo–SAX observation of August 2000 (Oosterbroek et al. ooster00 (2000)); the dips of EXO 0748–676 occasionally reach a depth of 80% (Parmar et al. parmar86 (1986)).

(iv) the absence of a conspicuous increase in $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ during dips. The most constraining upper limit to the average absorption column of the obscuring bulge producing the dips we got from XMM–Newton observations of XMMU J004308.6+411247 is rather low: $`<2\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 (at 95% confidence level; see Table 4). However, we reiterate that the dip spectra were extracted over a fairly large phase interval (1/4 of a cycle), which samples predominantly the relatively shallow stages of the dip (this was done in order to increase the S/N). For this reason the upper limit we derived might underestimate the actual limit on the increase of $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ around dip minimum.

(v) the energy independence of the modulation (to within the uncertainties). We have already discussed this point in section 5.1 (5th paragraph). As in the IP case, this may be accounted for if the disk bulge producing the dips were ionized by the central X–ray source and the flux reduction mechanism at work was Thomson scattering and not (as often happens) photo-electric absorption.

Following the same line of reasoning of section 5.1 we conclude that for an X–ray luminosity $`L_X1\times 10^{37}`$ erg s-1 the distance from the central X–ray source of the material causing the dips should be $`R\stackrel{<}{}3\times 10^9`$ cm, since only material closer than $`3\times 10^9`$ cm from the X–ray source will be significantly ionized. By contrast, for a 107 min binary period the binary separation of the system is expected to be $`a5.2\times 10^{10}M_X^{1/3}(1+q)^{1/3}`$ cm, with $`M_X`$ the mass of the compact object in solar units, and $`q`$ the mass ratio of the donor star and the accreting star. Thus, the accretion disk is expected to have a radius of $`0.3a\stackrel{<}{}2\times 10^{10}M_X^{1/3}`$ cm for stellar masses with ratio $`q\stackrel{<}{}1`$ (Whitehurst & King whitehurst91 (1991); Eggleton eggle83 (1983)). This requires, for ionization to be important, that the disk is at least one order of magnitude smaller than expected or the material responsible for the dips is located further inside the edge of the disk, both of which seem unlikely. We note that also in the case of 4U 1755–338 the ionization hypothesis leads to the same difficulties (Mason et al. mason85 (1985)).

Another possibility to interpret the energy independent dips of XMMU J004308.6+411247 would be the eclipse by the companion star of an extended source of X–rays of comparable size, such as that originating from electron scattering in an Accretion Disk Corona (ADC). Besides the energy-independence, this would explain the smooth ingress and egress of the dips as well as the (nearly) 100% reduction of the observed X–ray flux. In this hypothesis, however the central X–ray source should be completely hidden by the accretion disk rim in order to explain the absence of sharp eclipses. In analogy with known ADC sources we would thus expect that the true luminosity of XMMU J004308.6+411247 is one or two orders of magnitude higher than that observed, i.e. $`10^{38}`$$`10^{39}`$ erg s-1. This in turn would suggest a BHC accreting at very high rates; however the observed source spectrum is considerably harder than that expected from such a BHC.

## 6 Conclusion

We discovered 107 min periodic dips in the X–ray light curve of XMMU J004308.6+411247. The dip profile and amplitude, and average spectra of XMMU J004308.6+411247 are consistent with a accreting neutron star in a short period LMXRB seen at a high inclination and located in M31. The apparent energy-independence of the dips is more difficult to interpret in this scenario. If this interpretation was correct, XMMU J004308.6+411247 would be the second dipping source discovered in M31 (after XMMU J004314.1+410724 in the globular cluster Bo 158, Trudolyubov et al. trudo02 (2002)).

The possibility that XMMU J004308.6+411247 is a foreground magnetic CV cannot be ruled out at present, but appears to be less likely.

###### Acknowledgements.

We acknowledge a number of useful exchanges with F. Fiore, J. Osborne and A. Tiengo on the analysis of XMM–Newton data. The comments from an anonymous referee helped improving the analysis and the presentation of the data. This work was partially supported through ASI and MIUR–COFIN grants.


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# Optical spectroscopy of microquasar candidates at low galactic latitudes

## 1 Introduction

Microquasars are X-ray binary systems with relativistic jets that behave as small scale replicas of quasars. The interest in such sources for high energy astrophysics has been reviewed by several authors (e.g., Mirabel & Rodríguez mirabel99 (1999)). The reader is also referred to Castro-Tirado et al. (castro01 (2001)) and Durouchoux et al. (durouchoux02 (2002)) for updated accounts of the recent findings. Microquasars provide excellent laboratories for the study of the physics of accretion/ejection phenomena and strong gravity, on time-scales more readily accessible to observers.

The number of confirmed microquasars currently known in the Galaxy is still relatively small: as of June 2002, only 14 objects were confirmed members with their jets being resolved (Ribó ribo02 (2002)). Their population includes systems as famous as Scorpius~X-1 (the first extrasolar X-ray source discovered) and Cygnus~X-1 (the first dynamic black hole candidate). The production of relativistic jets may be either persistent (e.g. Cygnus~X-3, LS~5039, etc.) or transient (GRS~1915+105, V4641~Sgr, etc.). The relativistic ejecta have been observed to move at apparent superluminal speeds in a few systems. Moreover, both high and low-mass X-ray binaries have been found to behave as microquasars. In this context, the rather heterogeneous properties of microquasars as a group make it difficult to derive statistically robust results. In this respect, the discovery of new sources is required to drive a deeper understanding of the phenomema.

We searched for new microquasar systems in the Galaxy by cross-identification techniques between X-ray and radio catalogs, namely the ROSAT all sky Bright Source Catalog (RBSC, Voges et al. voges99 (1999)) and the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS, Condon et al. condon98 (1998)). The selection criteria and the list of candidates have been described extensively in Paredes, Ribó & Martí (paredes02 (2002)), hereafter PRM02, where the search was initially limited at low galactic latitudes $`|b^{II}|5\mathrm{°}`$. In this paper we present optical spectroscopy for six of the priority targets reported in PRM02, which were also observed with the EVN and MERLIN by Ribó et al. (2002a ). These spectroscopic observations provide a crucial test to discern whether a candidate is actually of stellar nature, as expected for a microquasar, or an extragalactic object. For genuine microquasars, we expect to detect either emission lines or absorption features of stellar photospheric origin, both with a relatively small Doppler shift due to an eventual radial velocity of the optical companion. Alternatively, the detection of any emission or absorption features with a clear cosmological redshift would indicate an extragalactic source (a quasar or other AGN).

As described herein, most of our candidates turned out to have featureless continua; no new microquasar has been positively confirmed so far. Additional observations are still necessary before the spectroscopic study of the full sample is completed. Nevertheless, the negative results to date would suggest that persistent microquasars are not a prolific nor long-lived state of Galactic binaries.

## 2 Observations

The spectroscopic observations were carried out with the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory in Canary Islands (Spain) in both visitor and service mode. The ISIS double-armed spectrograph was used with different gratings in the red and blue arms, for a resolution of 5 to 10 Å. The technical details of this instrument are described in the ISIS manual (Carter et al. carter94 (1994)). The main observations of this paper were conducted in 2002 December 2, 3, 4 and 8, with the last night being in service mode. The observing log is listed in Table 1, which contains the source name, the observation date, the ISIS grating used and the integration time.

Further WHT data were also obtained on 2002 January 24, February 3 and 2003 January 21 for preliminary or verification purposes. Additional data were also taken with the 6.5 m Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) and its spectrograph in Mount Hopkins (Arizona, USA). On the MMT, we used the Blue Channel Spectrograph with a 300 gpm grating and a $`2\times 180^{\prime \prime }`$ slit, for a resolution of about 6.2 Å. The spectra covered about 4800 Å, centered on 5900 Å, and the $`3072\times 1024`$-pixel ccd22 was used as a detector.

For each target, we obtained a series of two or three WHT spectra, with exposure times of 1800–2000 s, with the idea of combining them during the reduction process. The wavelength calibration was performed using arc frames taken with Copper-Neon & Copper-Argon lamps at the same telescope position of the target. Arc frames were obtained before and after the science frames. A wide range of air masses, atmospheric transparency and seing conditions was experienced on the different nights. A similar strategy was followed at the MMT, where we acquired the data at airmass $``$1.3 with seeing of about $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$, under photometric conditions. For each target, we obtained $`2\times 1800`$ s integrations; we used Helium-Neon-Argon calibration lamps before and after each exposure.

The data reduction was carried out using the IRAF package of NOAO including bias subtraction, spectroscopic flat fielding, optimal extraction of the spectra and interpolation of the wavelength solution. A few spectroscopic standards were also observed and used to remove the spectral response and to flux-calibrate the data. Unfortunately, the non-photometric conditions on several nights precluded a good absolute calibration and this is most likely accurate only within $`\pm `$0.3 magnitudes in some spectra.

The extracted spectra are presented in Figs. 1 to 6. The discussion for each individual target is given in the following section. The blue arm data of ISIS have not been included in some spectral plots due to problems in connecting the red and blue flux calibrated data. This occurred specially on 2002 December 2 due to bad sky transparency conditions, thus resulting in a higher extinction at shorter wavelengths.

## 3 Results on individual sources

Due to visibility constraints when our WHT observing time was allocated, only the sources with Right Ascension in the 0–8 h range could be observed, i.e., those that were also observed with the VLA in our original paper and with the EVN and MERLIN in Ribó et al. (2002a ).

### 3.1 1RXS J001442.2+580201

This is the weakest optical source in our sample with $`I20`$ mag. 1RXS~J001442.2+580201 was originally considered to be a promising candidate because of its two-sided relativistic radio jets (with $`\beta >0.2`$) detected in the EVN observations by Ribó et al. (2002a ), as well as possible evidence of radio proper motion of the core close to the 3$`\sigma `$ level. However, its optical spectrum in Fig. 1 failed to reveal clear emission lines or stellar photospheric features. This statement applies to both the WHT and MMT spectra plotted in this figure. A simple continuum with a possible interstellar and other atmospheric absorptions is detected instead. The nature of this target remains still unknown although a galactic stellar origin seems to be ruled out unless it is a strongly reddened star (see discussion in Sect. 4.1). A second epoch of WHT observation, obtained in service mode in 2003 January 21, confirmed the featureless spectrum of this object at a comparable emission level.

Interestingly, the MMT spectrum of 1RXS J001442.2+580201 taken on 2002 October 6 clearly indicates that the brightness of the source was significantly fainter by a factor of $``$2. The reality of this variability, on time scales of months, could be affected by possible slit losses and other absolute calibration uncertainties. However, if confirmed, such variations would not be unusual for an extragalactic source.

### 3.2 1RXS J013106.4+612035

This source was observed to exhibit a relativistic one-sided radio jet in the EVN maps (with $`\beta >0.3`$). Possible proper motion of the core at the 4$`\sigma `$ level was also reported, although Ribó et al. (2002a ) were very cautious about this claim. Its spectrum in Fig. 2 taken in service mode displays a featureless continuum heavily absorbed at shorter wavelengths. Only interstellar and atmospheric absorption features are detected. An MMT spectrum is also consistent with these statements, but we do not show it here due to likely contamination by a nearby star in the slit already present in optical images (see Fig. 2 of PRM02). The one-sided jet and the featureless continuum point to a possible blazar interpretation for 1RXS~J013106.4+612035. Thus, a stellar origin does not seem appropriate for this source which is most likely extragalactic. Nevertheless, a highly reddened star cannot be completely excluded as in the previous case. The equivalent width (about 0.9 Å) of the Na i interstellar feature (5890.0–5895.9 Å), well visible for this source, does point toward a high extinction value according to the Munari & Zwitter (mc97 (1997)) calibration ($`A_V4.5`$ mag).

### 3.3 1RXS J042201.0+485610

The spectrum of this source in Fig. 3 clearly shows strong emission lines that we identify as redshifted H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\], \[O iii\] and H$`\beta `$. The H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] blend has a broad Full Width Zero Intensity of $``$20 000 km s-1. Using all identified lines, the redshift is consistently estimated to be $`z=0.114\pm 0.002`$. An extragalactic origin is therefore confirmed. This was already suspected in PRM02 given the Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) $``$15% greater than point like sources in optical images. The broadness of the hydrogen lines suggests that this is a likely Seyfert 1 galaxy seen through the Galactic Plane. The observed spectrum is actually very similar to that of the Seyfert 1 galaxy and hard X-ray source GRS~1734$-$292 behind the Galactic Center (Martí et al. marti98 (1998)).

### 3.4 1RXS J062148.1+174736

This source does not have any remarkable feature in the spectrum shown in Fig. 4 excluding atmospheric and weak interstellar absorptions. Such featureless continuum suggests a non-stellar origin and hence 1RXS~J062148.1+174736 is likely an extragalactic object. This was already indicated by a FWHM $``$30% larger than point-like objects in the optical images by PRM02 thus excluding possible reddening effects on a stellar continuum.

### 3.5 1RXS J072259.5$``$073131

A relativistic one-sided radio jet (with $`\beta >0.3`$) has been detected from this source at both arcsecond (PRM02) and sub-arcsecond scales (Ribó et al. 2002a ). The bending of the jet in the EVN maps was reminiscent of the ones seen in blazar sources. The featureless continuum typical of blazars that appears in the optical spectrum of Fig. 5 is also in agreement with this interpretation. 1RXS~J072259.5$-$073131 is therefore a likely extragalactic source. The possiblity of a stellar reddened continuum does not seem likely as the object appears significantly blue.

### 3.6 1RXS J072418.3$``$071508

This source was considered a candidate when we first performed VLA and optical observations at the early stages of our research. However, around this epoch the source was classified as a flat spectrum radio quasar by Perlman et al. (perlman98 (1998)) with a redshift of $`z=0.270`$. Our spectrum in Fig. 6 shows the presence of strong, redshifted emission lines of H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] and \[O iii\] for this relativistic one-sided radio jet source with $`\beta >0.5`$ (Ribó et al. 2002a ). We derive a redshift estimate of $`z=0.280\pm 0.001`$, not very different from the previous finding. The small discrepancy is probably due to the different signal-to-noise ratio between our spectrum and that of Perlman et al. (perlman98 (1998)). H$`\alpha `$+\[N ii\] were noticeably stronger at the epoch of our observations. The presence of Ca ii absorption lines close to their rest wavelength in Fig. 6 could be explained if a late type star is almost superposed on the quasar line of sight. The presence of this star is inferred from the double appearance of this source in CCD optical images (see Fig. 2 of PRM02).

## 4 Discussion

The selection of microquasar candidates by PRM02 was mostly sensitive to persistent systems, especially in high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). Indeed, the selection algorithm recovered well known microquasars such as SS~433, Cygnus~X-3 and LS~5039, as well as the Be HMXB LS~I~+61~303 (also a source of relativistic jets as observed with the EVN and MERLIN; Massi et al. massi01 (2001); Massi et al. massi03 (2003)). The selection algorithm did not recover any low mass X-ray binary (LMXB). This can be understood because LMXBs tend to be transient sources at both X-ray and radio wavelengths, hence not being generally present in the NVSS nor the RBSC.

Unfortunately, however, none of the six priority candidates in PRM02 appears to be clearly of galactic stellar nature. One of them is a Seyfert galaxy and another a significantly redshifted quasar. The other four exhibit a featureless continuum with only interestellar absorption lines superimposed on it, reminiscent of BL Lac objects or blazars. Such extragalactic interpretation seems more likely for 1RXS~J062148.1+174736 and 1RXS~J072259.5$-$073131, whose spectra have a relatively good signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of about 30 and 50, respectively. Indeed, at this SNR, a stellar spectrum should normally be recognizable and even a stellar spectral type derived. This is clearly not the case for these two objects.

Nevertheless, it could still be possible that the remaining two featureless sources are highly reddened stars seen through the disc of the Galaxy, as already advanced in the previous section. This statement applies to 1RXS~J001442.2+580201 and 1RXS~J013106.4+612035 whose observed spectra are of poorer quality.

### 4.1 Highly reddened stars?

In order to consider the possibility just quoted above, we have carried out the exercise of reddening the optical spectrum of a HMXB microquasar such as LS~I~+61~303 in a progressive way. The intrinsic reddening towards this system is assumed to be $`E(BV)=0.93`$ mag, equivalent to a visual extinction of $`A_V=2.88`$ mag (Hutchings & Crampton hc81 (1981)). The IRAF task deredden was used for this purpose. The original spectrum of LS~I~+61~303 was taken using the WHT with the same instrumental setup as for our candidate sources. In Fig. 7, we display the different spectra of this microquasar as seen with increasing values of extinction. Noise was artificially added with the IRAF task mknoise to approximately simulate the decaying SNR expected while the flux density decreases progressively with reddening. Exposure time is assumed to remain constant. It is clear from this plot that the many photospheric lines of the early type star become less and less evident as $`A_V`$ increases, specially in the blue part of the spectrum. The most reddened spectra in Fig. 7 have a SNR$``$10 in this region, i.e., comparable to that of 1RXS~J001442.2+580201 and 1RXS~J013106.4+612035 in our real observed spectra. Therefore, we cannot strictly rule out the possibility of highly reddened stars in addition to the BL Lac interpretation for these two featureless sources. Addtional spectroscopic observations, with higher SNR (or at infrared wavelenghts), would be necessary to distinguish between the two interpretations.

### 4.2 The extragalactic alternative

If the ambiguous sources are not highly reddened stars, then all our candidates would turn out to be extragalactic sources and no new microquasar would be present among them. Although some secondary candidates remain to be explored, a non-detection of new microquasars is nevertheless noteworthy.

Assuming that all our sources are extragalactic, it is possible to estimate an upper limit for the density of new persistent microquasar systems in the Galaxy. In order to do so, we need to assess the galactic regions accessible to our search as follows. The NVSS and the RBSC come from surveys obtained in different epochs separated by few years. Hence, a microquasar is most likely to be present in both of them in case it is a persistent source over the years. The NVSS was conducted at the 20 cm wavelength with the VLA and its brightness limit is such that sources with flux density of $``$2.5 mJy are the weakest reliable detections.

The RBSC was compiled using PSPC data from the ROSAT satellite, in the energy range 0.1–2.4 keV, and its brightness limit is about 0.1 count s-1. This limit corresponds to an unabsorbed energy flux that depends on the source spectrum and the amount of hydrogen column density $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ towards it. The column density can be estimated using the Predehl & Schmitt (predehl95 (1995)) relationship with the extinction at visual wavelengths $`A_V`$. We will further assume a crude but plausible value of 1.9 mag kpc-1 for the total absorption of star light near the galactic plane (Allen allen73 (1973)), that is:

$$N_\mathrm{H}=1.79\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2A_V=3.40\times 10^{21}D\mathrm{cm}^2$$
(1)
where $`D`$ is the distance to the source in kpc.

A persistent microquasar like Cygnus~X-3 typically has a 20 cm flux density of $``$100 mJy at about 10 kpc from the Sun. Therefore, it would be detected in the NVSS up to a distance $`63`$ kpc since the Galaxy is almost transparent at cm wavelengths. The situation is more restrictive in the ROSAT energy range. Here, the plausible persistent X-ray luminosity of a Cygnus~X-3 system would be $`L_\mathrm{X}10^{37}`$ erg s-1 and we will further assume a power law index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=+2`$. For such object to appear detected in the RBSC above the 0.1 count s-1 level, its distance needs to be $`15`$ kpc. This number has been derived using the web based tool PIMMSv3.3d originally developed by Mukai (mukai93 (1993)) for flux and count conversion between different X-ray observatories. To do so, from Eq. 1, the plausible hydrogen column density at 15 kpc is crudely estimated as $`N_\mathrm{H}=5.1\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. Then, the unabsorbed energy flux corresponding to 0.1 count s-1 according to PIMMSv3.3d is $`4.2\times 10^{10}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, which is consistent with the assumed X-ray luminosity when multiplied by $`4\pi D^2`$.

By imposing a detection at both radio and X-rays, the microquasar search using the PRM02 criteria is sensitive to Cygnus~X-3 like systems within the second (smaller) distance limit of $`D=15`$ kpc. This includes a substantial volume of the Galaxy, which can be estimated as:

$$V=\frac{4\pi }{3}\eta D^3\mathrm{sin}|b^{II}|_{\mathrm{max}},$$
(2)
where $`\eta `$ is the fraction of the Galactic Plane sampled in our search and $`|b^{II}|_{\mathrm{max}}=5\mathrm{°}`$ its limit in galactic latitude. The fraction $`\eta `$ is set mainly by the declination limit ($`\delta 40\mathrm{°}`$) in PRM02, which only allowed to search within galactic logitudes $``$13.3°$`l^{II}`$259.2°. This represents 75.7% of the Galactic Plane. However, our search close to the Galactic Center (roughly $`1\mathrm{°}l^{II}1\mathrm{°}`$) is severely affected by source confusion specially in the NVSS. This reduces the sampled fraction by 0.55% only, but it is very likely that many interesting sources have been missed in these central regions of the Galaxy. Excluding this caution, we have $`\eta 0.75`$ and consequently $`V920`$ kpc3. The fact that not even one Cygnus~X-3-like system has been apparently discovered suggests that bright (and persistent) microquasars are probably not very abundant in the galactic disc. The corresponding upper limit for new Cygnus~X-3 systems ($`1/V`$) is about $`1.1\times 10^{12}`$ pc-3.

There is, of course, the alternative of a persistent but fainter microquasar population which could have been missed by our search. In this case, how far away could we detect such systems? Let us assume that these objects are comparable to LS~5039, which is a relatively faint system at both X-ray ($`L_\mathrm{X}5\times 10^{34}`$ erg s-1) and radio ($``$20 mJy at 20 cm) wavelengths at $`2.9\pm 0.3`$ kpc from the Sun (Paredes et al. paredes00 (2000), Ribó et al. ribo99 (1999), 2002b ).

Under such assumptions, and proceeding just as above, such faint and persistent microquasars would be detected in the NVSS for distances $`8.5`$ kpc and in the RBSC for distances $`4`$ kpc. A simultaneous detection, in both surveys, would be thus possible only for relatively nearby systems within $`D=4`$ kpc from the Sun. Again, no new system of this kind has been apparently discovered in our search. If they exist, their population in the vicinity of the Sun does not seem to be very numerous as well, at least close to the galactic plane. Using again Eq. 2 we have a sampled volume of $`V18`$ kpc3 in this case, with the corresponding density upper limit for new LS~5039-like systems being $`5.6\times 10^{11}`$ pc-3.

However, there may be several faint and persistent microquasars at larger distances in the Galaxy where our search is not sensitive to them. On the other hand, it may also well happen that nearby systems are naturally located at galactic latitudes higher than what we have been searching for and a more extended search is then necessary. Similarly, higher galactic latitudes for LS~5039-like systems appear also conceivable as they may be runaway microquasars escaping from the galactic disc (Ribó et al. 2002b ).

In this context, we have just started to expand our cross-identification studies to $`5^{}|b^{II}|10\mathrm{°}`$. This is not a simple task considering the increasing amount of sky to be covered, which provides a large number of sources to be explored. Results from this expanded search will be reported in other papers. Future searches would also benefit from sensitive surveys in gamma and hard X-rays, such as the current INTEGRAL Galactic Plane Survey and the planned EXIST mission.

## 5 Conclusions

1. Spectroscopic observations have been reported for six of the high priority microquasar candidates reported in PRM02 within galactic latitude $`|b^{II}|5\mathrm{°}`$. Two of them are clearly extragalactic objects while the remaining four display a featureless continuum in their spectra.
2. The four candidates with featureless spectra are reminiscent of BL Lac or blazars and would be therefore extragalactic sources as well. However, the possibility that two of them (1RXS~J001442.2+580201 and 1RXS~J013106.4+612035) are highly reddened stellar systems cannot be completely excluded based on the present data.
3. Assuming that none of our candidates is galactic, it appears that the population of new and persistent microquasars is not very numerous in the Galaxy. The corresponding density of new Cygnus~X-3 and LS~3039-like system is constrained to be $`1.1\times 10^{12}`$ pc-3 and $`5.6\times 10^{11}`$ pc-3, respectively.

###### Acknowledgements.

The William Herschel Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. J. M., J. M. P. and M. R. acknowledge partial support by DGI of the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain) under grant AYA2001-3092. J. M. has been also aided in this work by an Henri Chrétien International Research Grant administered by the American Astronomical Society. J. M. is also supported by the Junta de Andalucía (Spain) under project FQM322. M. R. acknowledges support from a Marie Curie individual fellowship under contract No. HPMF-CT-2002-02053. J. S. B is partially supported by a discrentionary grant from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and also thanks the University of Barcelona for a generous travel grant. We thank as well A. Soderberg for kindly taking some imaging data at the Palomar 60-inch and J. E. McClintock for useful comments to the manuscript. We finally wish to acknowledge X. Barcons (CSIC-UC), and the service observers of the Isaac Newton Group, for kindly obtaining some of the spectra for this work. Finally, P.-A. Duc (CEA/Saclay) and M. Sánchez Gómez (UJA) are also acknowledged for useful comments in the data analysis.


text:
# Average Angular Velocity

## 1 Introduction

The motion of a rigid body is completely characterized by its (center of mass) translational velocity and its angular velocity which describes the rotational motion. Rotational motion as a phenomenon is, however, not restricted to rigid bodies and it is then a kinematic problem to define exactly what the rotational motion of the system is. This paper introduces the new concept of ‘average angular velocity’ as the solution this problem and discusses some applications briefly.

The average angular velocity concept is closely analogous to the concept of center of mass velocity. For a system of particles the center of mass velocity is simply the mass weighted average of the particle velocities. In a similar way the average angular velocity is the moment of inertia weighted average of the angular velocities of the particle position vectors.

The separation of rotational motion from the internal degrees of freedom of a system is of interest in a wide variety of applications. Among the more obvious are vibration-rotation coupling in polyatomic molecules and the understanding of biomechanical phenomena involving falling cats, figure skaters, springboard divers etc. The basic theoretical work on the subject is Carl Eckart’s (1935) whose work has been extended and elucidated by many authors, for example Sayvetz (1939) and Essén (1979). Biomechanical aspects have been discussed by Frohlich (1979) from a multibody dynamic point of view, and by Essén (1981) from the Eckart point of view.

Considering the maturity of the subject one might think that all basic theoretical results are quite old, but a letter on the subject was published as late as 1989 by Jellinek and Li (1989). They showed that one can define an angular velocity vector and separate out a rotational part of the energy, for an arbitrary (nonlinear) system of particles, without the use of the rigid reference configuration that is needed in the Eckart construction.

In this paper I present some new developments based on ideas related to those of Jellinek and Li. In particular I introduce the concept of average angular velocity as the weighted average of particle angular velocities with moments of inertia as weights. Especially for the elementary, but pedagogically important, case of fixed axis rotation this leads to simple and conceptually powerful results. The relevance of these results to spinning athletes and turning cats are briefly indicated.

Later sections of the paper treat the three dimensional case. It is shown that the separation of a rotational part of the kinetic energy can be done in a way closely analogous to the well known split of the kinetic energy to an overall center of mass translational part plus the kinetic energy of internal motion relative to the center of mass system. A second split is thus done, now to an overall rotational energy plus a remaining part corresponding to motions in a rotating center of mass system, the rotation of which is given by the average angular velocity.

Throughout this paper I consider a system of $`N`$ particles with masses $`m_k`$ and position vectors $`𝐫_k`$ ($`k=1,\mathrm{},N`$). A distance from the $`Z`$-axis is denoted by $`\rho `$, and a distance from the origin by $`r`$, the azimuthal angle is $`\phi `$ and the angle to the positive $`Z`$-axis is $`\theta `$.

## 2 Average Angular Velocity Around a Fixed Axis

The $`z`$-component of the angular momentum, $`L_z`$, is by definition

$$L_z=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k(𝐫_k\times 𝐯_k)\text{e}\text{z}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k(x_k\dot{y}_ky_k\dot{x}_k).$$
(1)
Here the $`Z`$-axis has a fixed direction and is either fixed in an inertial system or fixed in the center of mass of the system. We now introduce cylindrical (polar) coordinates $`\rho `$, $`\phi `$, and $`z`$. In terms of these we have for the position vectors $`𝐫_k=\rho _k𝐞_{\rho _k}+z_k\text{e}\text{z}`$ and for the velocities $`\dot{𝐫}_k=\dot{\rho }_k𝐞_{\rho _k}+\rho _k\dot{\phi }_k𝐞_{\phi _k}+\dot{z}_k\text{e}\text{z}`$. This gives us

$$(𝐫_k\times 𝐯_k)\text{e}\text{z}=[(\rho _k𝐞_{\rho _k}+z_k\text{e}\text{z})\times (\dot{\rho }_k𝐞_{\rho _k}+\rho _k\dot{\phi }_k𝐞_{\phi _k}+\dot{z}_k\text{e}\text{z})]\text{e}\text{z}=\rho _k^2\dot{\phi }_k,$$
(2)
so that

$$L_z(t)=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\rho _k^2(t)\dot{\phi }_k(t).$$
(3)
If we now define the average angular velocity of the system, around the $`Z`$-axis, by

$$\omega _{\mathrm{av}}(t)\dot{\phi }(t)_t=\frac{_{k=1}^Nm_k\rho _k^2(t)\dot{\phi }_k(t)}{_{k=1}^Nm_k\rho _k^2(t)}$$
(4)
and the (instantaneous) moment of inertia, with respect to the $`Z`$-axis, by

$$J_z\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\rho _k^2$$
(5)
we see that we get

$$L_z=J_z\omega _{\mathrm{av}}.$$
(6)
If all particles have the same angular velocity, $`\dot{\phi }`$, then, of course, $`\omega _{\mathrm{av}}=\dot{\phi }`$. This happens, in particular, if the system of particles is rigid and rotates around the $`Z`$-axis, but also more generally for any type of motion that obeys $`\dot{\phi }_k=\dot{\phi }`$ with arbitrary $`\dot{\rho }_k`$ and $`\dot{z}_k`$. For these cases one gets the standard result that $`L_z=J_z\dot{\phi }`$.

We can now apply these results to the $`z`$-component of the angular momentum principle ($`\dot{𝐋}=𝐌`$) in the form

$$\dot{L}_z=M_z.$$
(7)
The general result is that

$$\dot{J}_z\omega _{\mathrm{av}}+J_z\dot{\omega }_{\mathrm{av}}=M_z.$$
(8)
If the angular velocity is well defined we can replace $`\omega _{\mathrm{av}}`$ by $`\dot{\phi }`$ in this expression. If we furthermore assume that the body is rigid so that $`J_z=`$constant, equation (8) reduces to the standard result $`J_z\ddot{\phi }=M_z`$.

If there is no external moment (or ‘torque’) with respect to the $`Z`$-axis, so that $`M_z=0`$, then the $`z`$-component of the angular momentum vector will be conserved, $`L_z=`$constant, and, in view of equation (6), we find that

$$J_z(t)\omega _{\mathrm{av}}(t)=\text{constant}.$$
(9)
This then says that a large moment of inertia implies small average angular velocity and vice versa. Here it is not assumed that there is rigidity or even a definite angular velocity. It is this more general form of the standard text book formula, $`J_z\dot{\phi }=`$constant, that is actually ‘used’ by springboard divers and figure skaters.

## 3 The Cat Landing on its Feet

For some arbitrary quantity $`\gamma _k`$ the averaging of equation (4) can be written

$$\gamma (t)_t\frac{_{k=1}^Nm_k\rho _k^2(t)\gamma _k(t)}{_{k=1}^Nm_k\rho _k^2(t)}.$$
(10)
A question of interest is to what extent the average angular velocity can be understood as the time derivative of the ‘average angle’, $`\phi _t`$, of the system. The subscript $`t`$ on the averaging bracket is meant as a reminder that the weights in the averaging, $`m_k\rho _k^2(t)`$, are time dependent and this means that the time derivative of an average will not be the same as the average of a time derivative.

If we take the time derivative of

$$\phi _{\mathrm{av}}\phi _t$$
(11)
a simple calculation shows that

$$\omega _{\mathrm{av}}=\frac{d\phi _{\mathrm{av}}}{dt}+2\frac{\dot{\rho }}{\rho }(\phi _{\mathrm{av}}\phi )_t.$$
(12)
The average angular velocity is thus not simply the time derivative of the average angle. This is, of course, essential if a cat, dropped upside-down, is to be able to land on its feet. Equation (9) shows that if $`\omega _{\mathrm{av}}=0`$ initially, it will remain zero in the absence of external torque. The above equation reassures one that the cat, nevertheless, can change its average angle by a proper combination of angular and radial motions.

## 4 The Average Angle Concept

The concept of an ‘average angle’ requires some comment. The value of this angle will, of course, depend on the direction of the fixed reference direction (the $`X`$-axis). It will also depend on whether one thinks of $`\phi `$ as going from $`\pi `$ to $`\pi `$ or if it goes from $`0`$ to $`2\pi `$, when one assigns initial values to the $`\phi _k`$. That is, $`\phi _{\mathrm{av}}`$ depends on whether the necessary $`2\pi `$ jump comes at the negative or at the positive $`X`$-axis, respectively. For a cylinder the initial average angle will be zero in the former case and $`\pi `$ in the latter. The actual value of the average angle therefore has little physical meaning; its significance comes from the fact that it defines a reference direction in the particle system. Then, when the system has moved, it will tell how large, on average, the net turn has been.

The time dependence of the averaging naturally vanishes if the radii, $`\rho _k`$, are constant. It is interesting to note that it also vanishes in the more general case when the time dependencies of the (cylindrical) radii are of the form

$$\rho _k(t)=f(t)d_k,$$
(13)
where $`f(t)`$ is some (positive) function of time and the $`d_k`$ are constants. The average then becomes

$$\gamma (t)_t=\frac{_{k=1}^Nm_kf^2(t)d_k^2\gamma _k(t)}{_{k=1}^Nm_kf^2(t)d_k^2}=\frac{_{k=1}^Nm_kd_k^2\gamma _k(t)}{_{k=1}^Nm_kd_k^2}=\gamma (t).$$
(14)
For this case then, when the cylindrical radial motion is a common ‘scaling’, the time derivative operator commutes with the operation of taking the average. Consequently the average angular velocity will be the time derivative of the average angle and similarly for angular acceleration.

## 5 König’s Theorem

The kinetic energy of an $`N`$-particle system is given by the sum

$$T=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{𝐫}_k\dot{𝐫}_k.$$
(15)
If one introduces the center of mass position vector

$$𝐑\frac{_{k=1}^Nm_k𝐫_k}{_{k=1}^Nm_k},$$
(16)
and then re-writes the position vectors of the particles as

$$𝐫_k=𝐑+𝐫_k^{},$$
(17)
the kinetic energy is seen to fall into two parts. One part corresponds to the motion of the center of mass of the system while the remaining part is due to the motion of the particles relative to the center of mass system:

$$T=\frac{1}{2}m\dot{𝐑}\dot{𝐑}+T^{}.$$
(18)
Here $`m=_{k=1}^Nm_k`$ is the total mass and $`T^{}`$, which is given by

$$T^{}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{𝐫}_k^{}\dot{𝐫}_k^{},$$
(19)
vanishes if the particles do not move relative to a reference frame in which the center of mass is at rest. The absence of cross terms is due to the fact that the sums, $`_{k=1}^Nm_k𝐫_k^{}=_{k=1}^Nm_k\dot{𝐫}_k^{}=\mathrm{𝟎}`$, over the center of mass system position vectors and velocities, vanish. This result is sometimes called König’s theorem (see Synge and Griffith 1970), or the ‘law of the two parts of the kinetic energy’, if it is given any name at all. It is this result that can be taken a step further according to Jellinek and Li (1989) in the sense that $`T^{}`$ can be split into two parts, one corresponding to an overall rotation and the rest corresponding to the motion relative to the rotating system. This is shown in the next section.

## 6 The Average Angular Velocity Vector

The quantities of this section may be thought of as referring to the center of mass system but we will drop the primes of the previous section. Introduce spherical coordinates $`(r_k,\theta _k,\phi _k)`$ for particle $`k`$ and corresponding moving basis vectors $`(𝐞_{r_k},𝐞_{\theta _k},𝐞_{\phi _k})`$. The position vector, $`𝐫_k`$, of particle $`k`$ is then

$$𝐫_k=r_k𝐞_{r_k}.$$
(20)
and the velocity of the particle is

$$\dot{𝐫}_k=\dot{r}_k𝐞_{r_k}+𝝎_k\times 𝐫_k.$$
(21)
Here $`𝝎_k`$ is the angular velocity of the position vector of particle $`k`$. It is given by

$$𝝎_k=\dot{\phi }_k\mathrm{cos}\theta _k𝐞_{r_k}\dot{\phi }_k\mathrm{sin}\theta _k𝐞_{\theta _k}+\dot{\theta }_k𝐞_{\phi _k}=\dot{\phi }_k𝐞_z+\dot{\theta }_k𝐞_{\phi _k}.$$
(22)
The kinetic energy of the $`N`$-particle system is now

$$T^{}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k(\dot{r}_k𝐞_{r_k}+𝝎_k\times 𝐫_k)(\dot{r}_k𝐞_{r_k}+𝝎_k\times 𝐫_k)$$
(23)
$$=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{r}_k^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k(𝝎_k\times 𝐫_k)(𝝎_k\times 𝐫_k)$$
(24)
$$=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{r}_k^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k𝝎_k$$
(25)
where $`\widehat{J}_k`$ is the contribution of particle $`k`$ to the (instantaneous) inertia tensor $`\widehat{J}`$ of the system. The matrix components of the inertia tensor $`\widehat{J}_k`$ in the basis $`(𝐞_{r_k},𝐞_{\theta _k},𝐞_{\phi _k})`$ are given by

$$\widehat{J}_k=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0& 0& 0\\ 0& m_kr_k^2& 0\\ 0& 0& m_kr_k^2\end{array}\right)$$
(26)
Using this one easily verifies that the sum of the $`k`$th terms of the sums of formula (25) gives the usual expression for the kinetic energy of particle $`k`$ in spherical coordinates: $`T_k=\frac{1}{2}m_k[\dot{r}_k^2+r_k^2(\dot{\phi }_k^2\mathrm{sin}\theta _k+\dot{\theta }_k^2)]`$.

Below we will need to manipulate sums of terms like those in the above expression for the kinetic energy. One must then remember that the position dependent basis vectors $`(𝐞_{r_k},𝐞_{\theta _k},𝐞_{\phi _k})`$ are different for each particle (as indicated by the index $`k`$). In order to proceed we therefore return to a common Cartesian basis in the expression $`\frac{1}{2}_{k=1}^N\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k𝝎_k`$. The inertia tensor $`\widehat{J}_k`$ will then have the matrix components

$$\widehat{J}_k=m_k\left[\left(\begin{array}{ccc}r_k^2& 0& 0\\ 0& r_k^2& 0\\ 0& 0& r_k^2\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}x_kx_k& x_ky_k& x_kz_k\\ y_kx_k& y_ky_k& y_kz_k\\ z_kx_k& z_ky_k& z_kz_k\end{array}\right)\right]$$
(27)
and the sum of these gives

$$\widehat{J}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\left(\begin{array}{ccc}y_k^2+z_k^2& x_ky_k& x_kz_k\\ y_kx_k& x_k^2+z_k^2& y_kz_k\\ z_kx_k& z_ky_k& x_k^2+y_k^2\end{array}\right)$$
(28)
i.e. the usual (instantaneous) inertia tensor for the system of particles.

We now define the average angular velocity vector, $`𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}`$, by

$$\widehat{J}𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k,$$
(29)
as the inertia tensor weighted average of the individual particle angular velocity vectors. Here it is necessary that $`\widehat{J}`$ is invertible so that one can solve for $`𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}`$ by multiplying to the left by $`\widehat{J}^1`$. This means that the particles of the system may not lie on a line since then the inertia tensor is singular.

If we now denote by $`𝝎_k^{}`$ the angular velocity vector of particle $`k`$ relative to the reference system that rotates with the average angular velocity we have

$$𝝎_k=𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}+𝝎_k^{},$$
(30)
since angular velocity vectors are additive. These relative angular velocities fulfill

$$\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k^{}=\mathrm{𝟎},$$
(31)
so a calculation completely analogous to that leading to König’s theorem gives

$$T^{}=\frac{1}{2}\widehat{J}𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}+T^{\prime \prime }.$$
(32)
Here

$$T^{\prime \prime }=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{r}_k^2+\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k^{}𝝎_k^{}=\frac{1}{2}\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k𝐯_k^{\prime \prime }𝐯_k^{\prime \prime }$$
(33)
is the kinetic energy relative to a reference frame that rotates with the average angular velocity (around the fixed center of mass) and $`𝐯_k^{\prime \prime }`$ is the velocity of particle $`k`$ as measured in this frame.

## 7 Remarks on the Conservation Laws

One notes that formula (29) is nothing but the total angular momentum, L, of the system (with respect to the center of mass):

$$\widehat{J}𝝎_{\mathrm{av}}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}\widehat{J}_k𝝎_k=𝐋.$$
(34)
It is thus analogous to the formula

$$m\dot{𝐑}=\underset{k=1}{\overset{N}{}}m_k\dot{𝐫}_k=𝐩$$
(35)
for the total linear momentum, p, of the system. Using the linear and angular momenta the total kinetic energy of a system can now be written

$$T=\frac{1}{2m}𝐩𝐩+\frac{1}{2}\widehat{J}^1𝐋𝐋+T^{\prime \prime }.$$
(36)
Here $`m`$ is the total mass, which is always constant, and p the total linear momentum, which is constant in the absence of external force. Thus in the absence of a net external force on the system the first term in this expression for $`T`$ is constant. What about the second term? In the absence of a net external moment (of force) on the system L is constant, but the (inverse) inertia tensor $`\widehat{J}^1`$ is, in general, not since it depends on the ‘shape’ of the system.

In an isolated body, such as a star or planet, one can expect that internal dissipative forces, in the long run, will make the internal relative motions zero so that $`T^{\prime \prime }0`$. Such bodies will thus end up having only center of mass translational and average rotational energy and both will then be constant.

## 8 Conclusions

The fixed axis formalism at the beginning of this paper is simple and useful enough to be included in even fairly elementary texts, though I believe it is presented here for the first time in the international literature. I have introduced part of it in course notes that are used in the school of engineering physics at KTH. The point of view that the Jellinek and Li (1989) separation of a rotational part of the kinetic energy is analogous to the well known separation of center of mass translational energy, is pedagogically useful at higher levels, and the general ideas deserve to be better known. It is the opinion of the author that most of the equations and results of this paper, in fact, belong in a comprehensive advanced mechanics course.

Acknowledgments
This work has been supported by the Swedish Research Council for Engineering Sciences (TFR) and the Göran Gustafsson Foundation.