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# Gravitational Lensing by Dark Matter Halos with Non-universal Density Profiles

## 1 Introduction

Mapping the mass distribution of matter in the universe has been a major challenge for modern observational cosmology. The only direct procedure to weigh matter in the universe is measuring its deflection of light by gravity. The statistics of gravitational lensing can provide us with a very powerful probe of the mass distribution of the Universe. By comparing predicted lensing probabilities with observations, we can examine the mass distributions of dark matter halos, in particular, their inner density slopes. It is well known that the Jodrell-Bank VLA Astrometric Survey (JVAS) and the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (CLASS) (Browne & Myers, 2000; Myers et al., 2003; Browne et al., 2003) have provided us with observations of strong lensing probabilities for small image separations ranging from $`0.3^{\prime \prime }`$ to $`3^{\prime \prime }`$. Based on the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model, which has become the standard theory of cosmic structure formation, the lensing probabilities strongly depend on the density profiles of CDM halos. The lensing model is usually described by a singular isothermal sphere (SIS), the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) model (Navarro et al., 1996, 1997), or generalized NFW (GNFW) density profiles of dark halos (Zhao, 1996). Li & Ostriker (2002) employed a semi-analytical approach to analyze the gravitational lensing of remote quasars by foreground dark halos and checked the plausibility of various lensing models. They found that no model can completely explain the current observations: the SIS models predict too many lenses with large splitting angles, while the NFW models predict too few small splitting angles. They therefore further developed a two-population halo model for lensing: small mass halos with a steep inner density slope and large mass halos with a shallow inner density slope, concluding that a combination of SIS and NFW halo models can reproduce the current observations reasonably well.

Motivated by the sensitivity of the dependence of the image separation distribution of lenses below $`1^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ on both the inner mass profile of galactic halos and the faint end slope of the mass and luminosity functions, Ma (2003) compared the traditional approach that models lenses as SISs and the Schechter luminosity function, with another method that invokes a certain halo mass profile and the Press-Schechter mass function. She found that dark matter halos cannot all be SISs, otherwise, the mass function becomes steeper than the luminosity function and leads to a relatively high lensing rate on smaller angular scales.

Li & Ostriker (2003) further proposed a lensing model based on three populations of halos distinguished by halos mass: Population 1 corresponds to normal galaxies of mass $`10^{10}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}<M<10^{13}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ with centers dominated by baryonic matter and inner density profile slopes of $`\alpha =2`$ (SISs); Population 2 corresponds to groups or clusters of galaxies of mass $`M>10^{13}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$ with centers of dark matter and $`\alpha =1.3`$ (GNFW models); Population 3 corresponds to dwarf galaxies or sub-galactic objects with mass $`M<10^{10}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$, whose centers lack baryons and are also dominated by dark matter, and also described by GNFW models of slope $`\alpha =1.3`$. Their results showed that both LCDM and OCDM cosmological models are marginally consistent with current lensing observations, while the SCDM model can be ruled out.

Besides these semi-analytical approaches, we can directly employ the results of high-resolution simulations for the density profiles of dark matter halos in the calculation of lensing probabilities. Jing & Suto (2000) performed a series of high-resolution N-body simulations to examine the density profiles of dark matter halos. They found a clear systematic correlation between halo mass and the slope of the profile at $`1\%`$ of the virial radius, the slope of which is $``$-1.5, -1.3 and -1.1 for profiles of galaxies, groups and clusters, respectively. They concluded that dark matter density profiles, especially in their inner regions, do not follow universal forms such as the NFW model. Therefore, consideration of the dependence of the slopes of density profiles on the masses of halos in calculating lensing probabilities seems to be necessary and reasonable. In this letter, we generalize Jing & Suto (2000)’s cosmological simulation results for density profiles of dark matter halos using the three-population GNFW models with slopes of $`\alpha `$ -1.5,-1.3 and -1.1 for galaxies, groups and clusters, respectively. This is an alternative and independent way to examine the slopes of density profiles of CDM halos.

## 2 General Formalism for Lensing

### 2.1 Lensing Equation for GNFW models

The GNFW density profile can be expressed in the form $`\rho (r)=\rho _sr_s^3/r^\alpha (r+r_s)^{3\alpha }`$ (Zhao, 1996) where $`0<\alpha <3`$. We generalize the inner slope from the simulation of dark matter halos using the GNFW model with a varying $`\alpha `$ which is dependent of the masses of halos. We take $`\alpha =1.5`$ for $`M<M_{c1}`$, $`\alpha =1.3`$ for $`M_{c1}<M<M_{c2}`$ and $`\alpha =1.1`$ for $`M>M_{c2}`$, respectively, where $`M_{c1}10^{13}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ corresponds to the cooling mass scale (Porciani & Madau, 2000; Kochanek & White, 2001) and $`M_{c2}10^{14}M_{\mathrm{}}`$. The mass of a dark halo within $`r_{200}`$ can be defined as $`M=4\pi _0^{r_{200}}\rho r^2𝑑r=4\pi \rho _\mathrm{s}r_\mathrm{s}^3f(c_1)`$, and $`r_{200}`$ is the radius of a sphere around a dark halo within which the average mass density is $`200`$ times the critical mass density of the universe. The function $`f(c_1)=_0^{c_1}x^2𝑑x/x^\alpha (1+x)^{3\alpha }`$ and $`c_1=r_{200}/r_\mathrm{s}`$ is the concentration parameter

$`c_1(M_{15},z)=c_{\mathrm{norm}}{\displaystyle \frac{2\alpha }{1+z}}[10M_{15}]^{0.13},`$ (1)
where $`z`$ is halo redshift, $`c_{\mathrm{norm}}=8`$ (Bullock et al., 2001) and $`M_{15}=M/(10^{15}\mathrm{h}^1M_{\mathrm{}})`$ is dimensionless halo mass. So $`\rho _\mathrm{s}`$ and $`r_\mathrm{s}`$ can be related to mass $`M_{15}`$ and redshift $`z`$ by

$$\rho _\mathrm{s}=\rho _{\mathrm{c}_0}E^2(z)\frac{200}{3}\frac{c_1^3}{f(c_1(M_{15},z))},r_\mathrm{s}=\frac{1.626}{c_1}\frac{M_{15}^{1/3}}{E^{2/3}(z)}h^1\mathrm{Mpc},$$
(2)
where $`\rho _{c_0}`$ is the critical mass density of the universe today and the expansion rate $`E(z)=\sqrt{\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}(1+z)^3+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$. The lensing equation for the GNFW profile is given by $`y=x\mu _sg(x)/x`$; $`\stackrel{}{\xi }=\stackrel{}{x}r_s`$ and $`\stackrel{}{\eta }=\stackrel{}{y}r_sd_S^A/d_L^A`$ are the position vectors in the lens plane and the source plane respectively, $`g(x)_0^xu𝑑u_0^{\mathrm{}}\left(u^2+z^2\right)^{\alpha /2}\left[\left(u^2+z^2\right)^{1/2}+1\right]^{3+\alpha }𝑑z`$, and

$$\mu _s\frac{4\rho _sr_s}{\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{cr}}}=0.002(\frac{\rho _s}{\rho _{c_0}})(\frac{r_s}{1h^1\mathrm{Mpc}})(\frac{d_R^A}{c/H_0}),$$
(3)
where $`\mu _s`$ is a parameter on which the efficiency of producing multiple images is strongly dependent. Here $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\mathrm{cr}}=\frac{c^2}{4\pi G}\frac{d_S^A}{d_L^Ad_{LS}^A}`$ is the critical surface mass density, and $`d_R^A=d_L^Ad_{LS}^A/d_S^A`$. $`d_S^A`$ and $`d_L^A`$ are the angular diameter distances from the observer to the source and to the lens object respectively, while $`d_{LS}^A`$ is the same quantity but from the lens to the source object. The lensing equation for a GNFW density profile with different $`\alpha `$ and setting $`\mu _s=1`$ is plotted in Fig.1. The curves are symmetrical with respect to the origin. Multiple images can be formed when $`|y|y_{\mathrm{cr}}`$, where $`y_{\mathrm{cr}}`$ is the maximum value of $`y`$ when $`x<0`$ or the minimum value for $`x>0`$. Generally speaking, there exist three images for $`|y|<y_{\mathrm{cr}}`$. We will just consider the outermost two images stretched by the splitting angle $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ when more than two images are formed.

### 2.2 Lensing Probability for GNFW models

We can write the cross-section as $`\sigma (M,z)\pi y_{\mathrm{cr}}^2r_s^2\vartheta \left(\mathrm{\Delta }\theta \mathrm{\Delta }\theta _0\right)`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta >\mathrm{\Delta }\theta _0`$ in the lens plane for multiple images produced by a GNFW lens at $`z`$. $`\vartheta `$ is a step function and the splitting angle $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ is given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta =r_s\mathrm{\Delta }x/d_L^A2x_0r_s/d_L^A`$ where $`x_0`$ is the positive root of the lensing equation $`y(x)=0`$. The lensing probability with image separations larger than $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ is given by Schneider et al. (1992)

$$P(>\mathrm{\Delta }\theta )=_0^{z_\mathrm{s}}\frac{dD_\mathrm{p}(z)}{dz}𝑑z_0^{\mathrm{}}\overline{n}(M,z)\sigma (M,z)𝑑M,$$
(4)
where $`D_\mathrm{p}(z)=c/H_0_0^z𝑑z/(1+z)E(z)`$ is the proper distance from the observer to the lens at redshift $`z`$. The physical number density $`\overline{n}(M,z)`$ of virialized dark halos of masses between $`M`$ and $`M+dM`$ is expressed as $`\overline{n}(M,z)=n(M,z)(1+z)^3`$, where $`n(M,z)=\rho _0f(M,z)/M`$ is the comoving number density (Press & Schechter, 1974). $`\rho _0`$ is the mean mass density of the universe today, and $`f(M,z)=\sqrt{\frac{2}{\pi }}\frac{\delta _c(z)}{M\mathrm{\Delta }}\frac{d\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{\Delta }}{d\mathrm{ln}M}\mathrm{exp}[\frac{\delta _c^2(z)}{2\mathrm{\Delta }^2}]`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }^2(M)=\frac{1}{2\pi ^2}_0^{\mathrm{}}P(k)W^2(kr_\mathrm{M})k^2𝑑k`$ is the present variance of the fluctuations within a sphere containing a mass $`M`$. The power spectrum of CDM density fluctuations $`P(k)=AkT^2(k)`$ is given by Eisenstein & Hu (1999), where $`A`$ is the amplitude normalized to $`\sigma _8=\mathrm{\Delta }(r_\mathrm{M}=8h^1\mathrm{Mpc})`$.

Since the redshift distribution of quasars in the JVAS/CLASS survey is still poorly known, we adopt the mean value of $`z_s=1.27`$ estimated by Marlow et al. (2000). In this letter, we will use spatially flat $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM models characterized by the matter density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$, vacuum energy density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and Hubble constant $`h=0.75`$, and will calculate lensing probabilities with image separations greater than $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$ according to GNFW halo profile models with varying $`\alpha `$. In the definition of cross-section or lensing probability, we will just consider the criterion $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$, and neglect another one $`q_r`$ (the brightness ratio of the outermost two images) which is the ratio of the corresponding absolute values of the magnifications (Schneider et al., 1992). In order to investigate the effect of central black holes or bulges on lensing probability, Chen (2003a, b) introduced $`q_r`$ into the calculation for lensing cross-section. Due to the existence of central black holes or galactic bulges, $`y_{cr}`$ becomes extremely large when $`|x|`$ approaches zero. Thus $`y_{cr}`$ can be determined by the consideration of $`q_r`$ together with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\theta `$. However for GNFW halo models in the absence of central black holes or galactic bulges, we can see in Fig.1 that the lensing equation curves are so smooth that we do not need to define cross-section by $`q_r`$.

Our numerical results are shown in Fig.2 together with the observational ones, which for $`6^{^{\prime \prime }}\mathrm{\Delta }\theta 15^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ from JVAS/CLASS takes the form of an upper limit. Based on the high-resolution simulation results (Jing & Suto, 2000), we adopt a compound GNFW model for dark halos with three populations as described above. For the cosmological models, we first choose the new result from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP): $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.27`$, $`\sigma _8=0.84`$ (Bennett et al., 2003; Spergel et al., 2003) and $`M_{c1}=10^{13}M_{\mathrm{}}`$, the numerical result of which is depicted by a thin solid line in Fig.2. It is clear that the predicted lensing probabilities are much lower than the observed values. Previous works (Chen, 2003a, b) showed that lensing probability is sensitive to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$, $`\sigma _8`$ and $`M_{c1}`$. More specifically, it increases with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$, $`\sigma _8`$ and $`M_{c1}`$. In order to improve the prediction, we take $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$, $`\sigma _8`$ and $`M_{c1}`$ to be the higher values of 0.4, 1.2 and $`5\times 10^{13}M_{\mathrm{}}`$ respectively. As shown by the dashed line in Fig.2, the derived lensing probabilities are still inconsistent with the observations although they have increased greatly compared to the former model. Thus we take the upper limit of 1.6 for $`\sigma _8`$, as used in literature to date without changing the other parameters. The results are shown with a doted line in Fig.2. There is almost no improvement in the small angle separations compared with the case of $`\sigma _8=1.2`$, apart from the increase of the predicted probabilities on large angles. On the other hand, the lensing probabilities for both of cases $`\sigma _8=1.2`$ and $`\sigma _8=1.6`$ lie above the observed upper limit for large angle separations.

## 3 Conclusions and Discussion

We have generalized the density profiles from high-resolution simulations of dark matter halos according to GNFW models with varying $`\alpha `$, and developed a compound model incorporating three populations of matter halos. We choose three typical cosmological models: Model A, the new result of WMAP for model parameters: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.27`$, $`\sigma _8=0.84`$ and $`M_{c1}=10^{13}M_{\mathrm{}}`$; Model B, in which $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}=0.4`$ is the upper limit adopted for the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model, $`\sigma _8=1.2`$ and $`M_{c1}=5\times 10^{13}M_{\mathrm{}}`$; and Model C, which is the same as Model B except that $`\sigma _8`$ is taken to be 1.6, the maximum value used so far in the literature. We have compared our predicted results for lensing probabilities with JVAS/CLASS observations. Current observations for lensing probabilities from JVAS/CLASS only cover lensing events on small angle scales, though they also give the upper limit on separation angles over the range 6$`^{^{\prime \prime }}`$ to 15$`^{^{\prime \prime }}`$. Our numerical results as shown in Fig.2 show that the predicted lensing probabilities of the halos of three populations in current cosmological models do not agree with the JVAS/CLASS observations. For Model A, the predicted probabilities of lensing events lie below the upper limit observed on large angle scales, but is lower than the observational results by a factor of about one order of magnitude on small separation angles. Even when the upper limit value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM cosmology are used for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{m}`$ and $`\sigma _8`$, such as in Models B and C, the predicted lensing probability on small angle scales still do not match the observations. In the calculation of cross section, we have not considered the uncertainties such as the distribution of source redshifts for quasars, the brightness ratio $`q_r`$, the scatter effect of the concentration parameter $`c_1`$ and the variation in $`M_{c2}`$. As discussed above, consideration of the brightness ratio $`q_r`$ does not change our conclusion. As for the scatter in the concentration parameter $`c_1`$, Chen (2003a, b) have investigated its effect on the prediction of lensing probabilities. By averaging lensing probabilities with a log-normal distribution, they found that the scatter in $`c_1`$ only increases the probabilities on larger image separations but has little effect at smaller separations. As for $`M_{c2}`$, any variation only contributes to the predicted lensing probabilities on large angle scales. In addition, for the sources in the JVAS/CLASS survey, the redshift distribution is still poorly understood except for the mean redshift $`<z_s>`$=1.27 as estimated by Marlow et al. (2000). Thus, most of the previous work (Li & Ostriker, 2002; Chen, 2003a) does not consider the redshift distribution of the sources. The prediction of Dunlop & Peacock (1990) model and the CLASS lensing sub-sample redshift measurements suggest that the redshift distribution for CLASS unlensed sources can be modelled by a Gaussian distribution with mean redshift $`<z_s>`$=1.27. However this can not affect the conclusion of our letter. Even so, with the ever increasing number of observed lensing events, we look forward to the day when the redshift distribution derived from lensing observations can be taken into account for other aspects of lensing study.

On the other hand, Klypin et al. (2001) have presented a convergence study of the density profiles of cold dark matter halos simulated with varying mass and force resolutions. They concluded that, on radii larger than the “effective” spatial resolution, the density profiles of dark matter still do not experience any systematical trends even with the further increase of the number of particles or the force resolution. In addition, they also explained the systematic correlation between inner profile slope and halo mass found by Jing & Suto (2000), and pointed out that it is a trend in dark matter halo concentration. Navarro (2003) report recent results of numerical simulations designed to study the inner slopes of density profiles for CDM halos. Their results indicate that the inner slopes of CDM halos are considerably shallower than the asymptotic value of -1.5 proposed by Moore et al. (1999). This point probably indirectly strengthens our argument that the density profiles given by pure numerical simulation for CDM halos are inconsistent with the observational statistics of strong lensing. Therefore, in order to recover the observed strong lensing probabilities from the inner density profiles of mass halos, we can employ the SIS profile with a mass of less than about $`10^{13}h^1M_{\mathrm{}}`$. This is in agreement with previous work such as Li & Ostriker (2002) and references therein.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China under grant No.10273003. I am very grateful to the anonymous referee for many valuable comments that greatly improved the paper. I would also like to thank Da-Ming Chen for useful discussions, Ke-shih Young for much work in editing the manuscript, Xiang-Ping Wu, Bo Qin, Ue-Li Pen and Peng-Jie Zhang for their hospitality during my visits to the cosmology groups of the National Astronomical Observatories of P.R.China and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics(CITA), University of Toronto.


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# Galaxy Pairs in the 2dFGRS II. Effects of interactions on star formation in groups and clusters

## 1 Introduction

Different observations have shown that galaxy interactions are powerful mechanisms to trigger star formation (e.g., Kennicutt et al 1998; Yee & Ellingson 1995). It has been also found that both the rates of interactions and mergers (Le Fevre et al. 2000; Patton et al. 2002) and the comoving star formation rate of the Universe increase at least up to $`z2`$ (Stanway et al. 2003). Barton et al. (2000) and Lambas et al. (2003) have carried out statistical analysis of the star formation in pairs in the field finding that proximity in radial velocity and projected distance could be linked to an increase of the star formation (SF) activity. A similar conclusion is reached by Postman & Geller (1984) from the analysis of galaxies within and around voids. By analyzing 1258 field galaxy pairs in the 100K 2dF public release, Lambas et al. (2003, hereafter PaperI) showed that galaxies with a close companion have significant larger SF than isolated galaxies with similar luminosity and redshift distribution only if they are at a projected distance $`r_\mathrm{p}<25h^1`$ kpc and radial velocity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<100\mathrm{kms}^1`$. These authors also found that more luminous galaxies in pairs are the most affected ones by interactions when compared to isolated galaxies with the same luminosity, expect for similar luminosity pairs where both members have enhanced SF.

Numerical studies of galaxy collisions probe that gas inflows can be triggered during galaxy interactions producing a sharp increase of the star formation activity even before the actual fusion of the galaxies, depending on the orbital parameters and the internal dynamical properties of the systems (e.g., Mihos 1992; Mihos & Hernquist 1994, 1996; Barnes & Hernquist 1996). It is well known that galaxies dominated by a central stellar component are more stable against tidal torques. In this case, tidal interactions are less efficient in inducing star formation during the orbital decay phase (Binney & Tremaine 1987). By using cosmological simulations, Tissera et al. (2002) found that the response of a galactic system to tidal interactions varies along it evolutionary history, expected to be stronger at early stages of evolution when the systems have internal properties not suitable for providing stability.

On the other hand, it is well known that galaxies in groups and clusters have significantly reduced star formation with respect to those in the field and that, the star formation activity depends on the distance to the centre (Martínez et al. 2002; Domínguez et al. 2002). However, it is still uncertain how relevant the global environment is in the regulation of the star formation in galaxies. Loveday, Tresse & Maddox (1999) found that galaxies with prominent emission-lines display weaker clustering than more quiescent galaxies. Tegmark & Bromley (1999) also found that early spectral types are more strongly clustered than late spectral types. Besides, Carter et al. (2001) suggest that the triggering of star formation occurs on a smaller spatial scale and whether a galaxy forms stars or not is strongly correlated with the surrounding galaxy density averaged over a scale of a few Mpc. Lewis et al. (2002) confirmed this last result by studying the environmental dependence of galaxy star-formation rates near clusters, finding that it is insensitive to the global large-scale structure in which the galaxy is embedded. The authors also obtained that the distribution of star-formation rates is correlated with both the distance from the cluster centre and the local projected density (see also Domínguez et al. 2002).

Taking into account these results, in this work we focus on the analysis of galaxy-galaxy interactions within groups and clusters with the aim at assessing if this physical mechanism plays a significant role in star formation triggering. For this purpose we constructed the hitherto largest sample of interacting pairs in groups and clusters from the 2dFGRS. By means of spectroscopy and colour analysis, we explore the dependence of the star formation in galaxy pairs on relative projected separation, radial velocity and groupcentric distance.

## 2 Data and Analysis

### 2.1 Pairs in groups in the 2dFGRS

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey comprises over 220000 spectra of galaxies located in two contiguos declination strips (Colles et al 2001). The spectral properties of 2dFGRS galaxies are characterised using the principal component analysis (PCA) described by Madgwick et al. (2002). This analysis makes use of the spectral information in the rest-frame wavelength range 3700Å to 6650Å, thereby including all the major optical diagnostic between OII and H$`\alpha `$ line. For galaxies with $`z>0.15`$, the relation between the derived star formation rates and the spectral classification can be affected by sky absortion bands contamination of the H$`\alpha `$ line. Consequently, we restrict to galaxy pairs at $`z0.1`$ in order to prevent the results from strong biases. The 2dFGRS spectra are classified by a parameter, $`\eta `$, which is a linear combination of the first and second principal components which isolates the relative strength of emission and absorption lines present in each galaxy spectrum. Physically, $`\eta `$ is related to the specific star formation rate in a galaxy, given the correlation with the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ found in emission lines galaxies (Bland-Hawthorn et al. 2002). Galaxies with low star-formation rates have typical values $`\eta <1.4`$ and actively star forming systems $`\eta >1.4`$ (Madgwick et al. 2002). We study star formation induced by tidal interactions estimating the stellar birthrate parameter, $`b=SFR/<SFR>`$ which indicates the present level of star formation activity of a galaxy related to its mean past history. Following Paper I, throughout this work we use the linear correlation between $`b`$ and $`\eta `$, $`b=0.25\eta +1.06`$, as an estimate of the star formation activity in 2dFGRS galaxies.

In Paper I, we analysed a sample of 1853 galaxy pairs in the 100 K release of the 2dF galaxy redshift survey defined by a projected distance ($`r_\mathrm{p}=100h^1`$ kpc and a relative radial velocity ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V=350\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$. (We adopt in this paper $`H_0=100h\mathrm{kms}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$). These limits proved to be reliable ones to select interacting pairs with enhanced star formation activity. By applying the same selection criteria, we identified a total of 9174 pairs in the 2dFGRS. In order to analyse in detail the properties of galaxy interactions in high density environments we constructed a catalog of pairs in groups by cross-correlating the total galaxy pairs catalog with the 2dFGRS group catalog obtained by Merchán & Zandivarez (2004, in preparation). These authors identified groups by using a slightly modified version of the group finding algorithm developed by Huchra & Geller with a minimum number of 4 members, an outer number density enhancement of 80 and a linking radial cutoff of 200 $`\mathrm{kms}^1`$. The sample in the catalog comprises 6076 groups spanning over the redshift range of $`0.003z0.25`$ with a mean redshift $`z0.1`$. As a result of this cross-correlation we obtain a sample of 4658 galaxies pairs in groups.

Despite of the fact that the 2dF public catalog is not complete, we argue that galaxy pairs searching is not severely affected by completeness effects. This is based on the fact that although the minimum fiber separation for 2dF spectroscopy is approximately 25 arcsec, the survey strategy was to repeat the measurements in each field with new fiber positions in order to achieve the highest completeness. Thus, from this point of view there is no bias against small angular separations which would introduce spurious results, specially at higher redshifts. Therefore, the inclusion of a pair in our catalog depends mostly on the inclusion of each member in the survey, which were randomly selected within the target of each field. We argue that there are not significant selection effects on the pair sample which could bias our statistical results on star formation activity.

Following the procedure outlined of Paper I, we focus our attention on the effects of interactions on star formation by comparing with a suitable control sample which differs from the pair catalog only on the fact that galaxies in groups in the latter have a close companion. Using Monte Carlo algorithm we select for each galaxy pair, two other members of the 2DFGRS group catalog. Therefore, in this paper, the control sample corresponds to 9316 galaxies in groups and clusters which do not have a companion within $`r_\mathrm{p}<100h^1`$ kpc and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<350\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}`$. We stress the fact that this comparison sample of galaxies in groups shares the same environment and has the same redshift distributions than the sample of galaxy pairs in groups.

#### 2.1.1 Testing the effects of spurious galaxy pairs

The selection of galaxy pairs by using projected velocity differences ($`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$) and projected separation ($`r_\mathrm{p}`$) has the drawback that spurious pairs can be included. The use of cut-offs for both variables helps to diminsh the problem, although they do not solve it complete. In particular, the effects of spurious pairs are expected to be stronger in high density regions (Mamon 1986; 1987).

In order to assess the effects of spurious pairs in our observational analysis, we have used the 2dFGRS mock catalog constructed by Merchán and Zandivarez (2002) from a gravitacional numerical simulation of the concordance $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ cold dark matter universe ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3,\mathrm{\Omega }_\gamma =0.7`$, H = $`70\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^3`$ and $`\sigma _8=0.9`$). The authors performed this simulations by using the HYDRA N-body code developed by Couchman, Thomas & Pearce (1995) with $`128^3`$ particles in a cubic comoving volume of 180 $`h^1`$ Mpc per side, starting at $`z=50`$.

¿From the 2dFGRS mock catalog a mock galaxy pair catalog was constructed by applying the same observational cut-offs defined in PaperI: $`r_\mathrm{p}<100h^1`$ kpc and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<350\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$ . Similary, a close mock pair catalog was obtained by requiring: $`r_\mathrm{p}<25h^1`$ kpc and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<100\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The orbital parameters such as major semi-axis, eccentricities, bounded energy, etc., were estimated for both mock pair catalogs by assuming a two-body problem scenario. We adopted $`e<1`$ and negative bounded energy to distinguish between real and spurious pairs.

We found that for the complete mock pair catalog, $`71\%`$ were real pairs while for the close catalog, the percentage was larger: $`79\%`$. We also impossed the condition of an extra neighbour within $`r_\mathrm{p}<400h^1`$ kpc and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<500\mathrm{kms}^1`$ in order to segregate pairs according to environmemt. For galaxy pairs in dense regions, we found that $`73\%`$ and $`79\%`$ were real pairs in all and close pair mock catalogs, respectively. ¿From these estimations, we conclude that although spurious pairs are present, real binary systems cleary dominate the statistics. In agreement with previous work, we found that the contamination is larger in denser regions, however, the differences with that of low density environment are not significant, at least, when our cut-off criteria are adopted. Nevertheless, we have included estimations of the effects of spurious pairs along the paper that can help to further assess their impact on the results.

### 2.2 Position and velocity distribution of galaxy pairs in groups

We firstly investigate whether galaxy pairs have a particular radial location in groups with respect to the control sample. For this purpose, we have analysed the distribution of projected radial distance, $`R_D`$, and relative velocity, $`V`$ , of pairs with respect to the host group centre normalised to the group virial radius ($`R_{\mathrm{Vir}}`$) and group mean velocity dispersion ($`\sigma `$), respectively ($`D=R_D/R_{\mathrm{Vir}}`$ and $`v=V/\sigma `$). We restrict the analysis to groups with more than 10 members for the purpose of avoiding large uncertainties in the determination of group centre, mean velocity and velocity dispersion owing to small number statistics. Since close pairs are the most likely to have tidally enhanced star formation activity we further restrict this analysis to close pairs $`r_p<25h^1`$ kpc. The resulting distributions of close pairs and of other member galaxies are shown in Fig.1 and Fig. 2, from where it can be appreciated that close pairs and the other group members are similarly concentrated and have a comparable relative velocity distribution with respect to the host group centre.

### 2.3 Comparison of the star formation in galaxy pairs and in the control sample

We have also computed the mean star formation birthrate parameter $`b=SFR/<SFR>`$ for different bins of normalized groupcentric distance $`D`$ for the group galaxy pairs, the close pairs and the control sample.

The results from Fig.3 show clearly that the star formation in galaxy pairs and in the control sample strongly increases for larger groupcentric distance, approaching the mean value for field galaxies in the outskirts. The similarity of these trends in both samples shows, on average, that the environment has the same effects in all group members. A similar behaviour is found for the close pairs althought they have larger star formation activity, as expected.

In order to improve our understanding of the star formation properties of galaxy in pairs, we have calculated the fraction of strong star forming galaxies ($`f^{}=N(b>\overline{b}_{\mathrm{con}})`$), where $`\overline{b}_{\mathrm{con}}`$ is the mean birth rate parameter of the corresponding control sample (see also PaperI). In the small box of Fig. 3 we show the corresponding $`f^{}`$ for the galaxy pair, the close pair and the control samples as a function of the galactrocentric distance. This figure agrees with the trend found for the mean $`b`$, indicating that in the central regions the star formation activity is weaker for pair, close pairs and control galaxies.

### 2.4 Star Formation as a function of orbital parameters

We analyse the dependence of star formation on pair relative projected separation $`r_p`$ and relative radial velocity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{V}`$ estimating mean values $`<b>`$ as a function of $`r_\mathrm{p}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{V}`$ for our sample of galaxy pairs in groups.

The results are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. It can be seen that, as it occurs in pairs in the field (Paper I), at $`r_p<25h^1`$ kpc the star formation activity is significantly enhanced over the control sample. Similarly, pairs with smaller relative radial velocity differences have larger mean b values, consistent with the results found for field pairs. This behaviour indicates that the physics of star formation induced by pair interactions operates in a similar fashion in high density environments, although with a lower general level of star formation activity.

Given the reduced star formation activity of pairs in the central regions of groups (Fig. 3), we have carried out a similar analysis adopting the restriction $`R_D/R_{Vir}<0.5`$. The results for this subsample of centrally located pairs are shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 (dashed lines) from which it can be seen the similar behaviour of the centrally located pairs, albeit with an overall weaker star formation activity.

We detect a trend for the mean star formation birth rate parameter $`b`$ of close galaxy pairs to be more densely populated by early type galaxies with respect to the corresponding mean values ($`\overline{b}`$) of the control samples from pairs in the field ($`<b>/\overline{b}_{\mathrm{field}}=1.43\pm 0.14`$) to pairs in the densest regions ($`<b>/\overline{b}_{\mathrm{groups}}=1.09\pm 0.01`$). This trend indicates that tidal torques generated by interactions could be less efficient in pair systems (with similar orbital parameters) in high density regions. The fact that densest regions are more populated by early type galaxies suggests that the different response could due to differences in the dynamics of the galaxies in pairs and the available gas reservoir to form stars in these systems.

We should also take into account the possibility that spurious galaxy pairs which are more probable in denser regions, can contribute to diminish the signal, producing the observed trend. In order to assess the effects of spurious pairs, we use stricter difference velocity cut-offs, similarly to the analysis we carried out in PaperI. As we can see from Fig. 6, as pairs with larger velocity differences are excluded, the mean b values behave similar to close pairs. From this figure, we see that spurious pairs could contaminate the results by reducing the star formation activity signal but, their effects are not significant enough to change the trends. The small box in Fig.6 shows the points distribution of $`b`$ parameter as a functionof projected distance for all galaxies in pairs. ¿From this figure it is clear that at small projected separations there are few points with low star formations activity. Hence, the enhacement of the SF activity for very close pairs seems not to be significantly biased by interpolers which can artificially diminish it.

¿From this analysis, we find no indications for an environmental dependence of the relative separations and relative velocity thresholds for star formation induced by tidal torques. However, our results might indicate a decrease in the efficiency of tidal torques to induce SF as we move to denser environments (see also Section 2.6).

### 2.5 Pair $`b_jR`$ colours in groups

Star formation in galaxies can also be studied by analysing integrated colours which reflect the relative fraction of old and new stellar populations. We acknowledge that metallicity could introduce complications in this direct interpretation, therefore this analysis is complementary of the previous one, serving to deepen our understanding on star formation and galaxy evolution. By providing an estimate of the fraction of new stars, galaxy colours reflect a different timescale than emission lines. For instance, in the case of an ongoing burst of star formation prominent emission lines are expected although the integrated colour is not likely to be affected.

Therefore, one may ask whether the distribution of colour indexes of galaxies in pairs at a given spectral type differs from that of galaxies in the control sample. For this purpose, we have analysed the distribution of $`b_jR`$ colour indexes available in the 2dFGRS data release. In Fig.7 we show the histograms corresponding to $`b_jR`$ colour distributions of pairs, close pairs and control sample galaxies It can be appreciated in this figure that the complete sample of galaxies pairs and galaxies in the control sample have a remarkably similar distribution of $`b_jR`$ colour indexes, but close pairs galaxies restricted to $`r_p<25\mathrm{kpc}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V<100\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}`$ have a distribution shifted to the blue.

In Fig. 8 we display the mean $`b_jR`$ colours in bins of groupcentric distance for galaxy pairs in groups and for the corresponding the control sample. This plot shows that galaxy pairs in groups have similar colours than those without a close companion independently of the distance to the group centre. This result is in agreement with that shown in Fig. 3 where it was found a similar behavior for the mean birth rate parameter $`<b>`$.

Similarly to the estimation of the fraction of actively star forming galaxies, we have calculated the fraction $`f^{}`$ of galaxy in pairs with $`b_jR<\overline{b_jR}_{\mathrm{con}}`$ where $`\overline{b_jR}_{\mathrm{con}}`$ is the mean colour of the corresponding control sample. In the small box of Fig. 8 we show the $`f^{}`$ for galaxies in pairs and the corresponding control sample as a function of the galactrocentric distance.

### 2.6 Results restricted to rich and poor group subsamples

Important observational evidence shows that dense environments can affect many galaxy properties, in particular the star formation rate (Dressler et. al 1985). In studying this point, Domínguez et al. (2002) found a clear distinction between high and low virial mass groups (adopting a mass limit of $`10^{13.5}M_{}`$) in the 2dF release 100 K Group Galaxy Catalog constructed by Merchán & Zandivarez (2002). These authors found that massive groups have a significant dependence of the relative fraction of low star formations galaxies on local galaxy density and groupcentric radius while low virial mass groups show no significant trends.

In this subsection, and in order to have a sufficiently large number of pairs, we have modified the 10 minimum number member condition to 4 members. These enlarged group sample is divided into a poor and rich group subsamples at $`M_{\mathrm{Vir}}=10^{13.5}M_{}`$.

In Fig. 9 we show that, as expected, galaxy pairs in rich groups show a weaker star formation activity than galaxy pairs in the total sample. We see that, in high mass groups, there is no dependence of the mean $`b`$ parameter on $`r_p`$. Conversely, galaxy pairs in poor groups have a higher star formation activity than pairs in the total sample and show a significant dependence of mean $`b`$ parameter on $`r_p`$. A similar behaviour appears for $`b`$ vs $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$ as shown Fig. 10. This weak dependence of $`b`$ on orbital parameters in the high mass group subsample may be associated to a high efficiency of star formation in these regions in the past which leaves little fuel for new bursts. Also, taking into account the correlation between the spectral type $`\eta `$ and morphology showed by Madgwick et al. (2002), the central regions of clusters would be mostly populated by early type galaxies dominated by a central stellar spheroid which can provide stability to the system against tidal torques (e.g., Binney & Tremaine 1987; Mihos & Hernquist 1996; Tissera et al. 2002). Hence, in these systems tidal field could not be that effective to drive gas inflows and trigger starbursts even if there were gas available.

In Fig 11, we show that mean $`b_jR`$ colours of pairs in the rich group subsample are redder than those in the total group sample. It can be also seen a significant decline of the mean $`b_jR`$ colours at small projected separations ($`r_p<25h^1`$ kpc) for the three samples. In Fig. 12 it can be appreciated a similar behaviour for the mean $`b_jR`$ colours as a function of pair relative velocity $`\mathrm{\Delta }V`$.

The $`b`$ parameters derived from the spectral type index $`\eta `$ have no resolution for low star forming galaxies (Madgwick et al. 2002), the majority in high mass groups. Thus, we computed the fractions of star forming galaxies with $`b>\overline{b}`$ which shows similar trends for rich and poor group sub-samples. Fig. 11 shows that closer pairs are systematically red in both sub-samples, if interlopers were a major problem we would not see the decreasing trends with a projected separations ($`r_p`$). Fig. 13 shows the relation between mean $`b_jR`$ colours for galaxies in pairs and the host group virial mass. Also we display the results for the control sample. We can see here that galaxy pairs are systematically redder than those of the control sample. These trends agree with those shown in Fig. 14, from where it can be concluded that galaxies in pairs in rich groups have a present day lower star formation activity than galaxies without close companions. Although effects by spurious pairs should be always taken into account, we argue this result is robust against spurious pairs on the basis of previous discussions (Sections 2..1.1 and 2.4) and the fact that a further restriction to the difference velocity cut-off yields similar relations albeit blueshifted.

The results of confronting the analysis of the pair and control catalogs, suggest that galaxy interactions in rich groups were more efficient in triggering star formation so that currently, these galaxies show less star formation activity and have redder colours than other group members.

## 3 Conclusions

We have analysed the properties of pairs of galaxies in high density environments corresponding to groups and clusters of galaxies with virial masses $`10^{13}10^{15}M_{}`$. We stress the fact that the analysis discussed in this paper is based on the comparison between two galaxy samples which differed between each other only on the fact that one of sample comprises galaxies with close companions, and the other, do not. Hence, we are always estimating the statistical differences in the properties of galaxies introduced by the presence of a companion.

The main conclusions can be summarized as follow:

* We find that the radial and relative velocity distributions of close pairs, normalised to the group virial radius and group mean velocity dispersion, with respect to the group centers are similar to those of group members with no companions indicating a no particular location for galaxy pairs within the groups.
* The general lower efficiency of star formation in dense environments is accompanied by a lower enhancement of the star formation induced by interactions associated to galaxies of early-morphology which mostly populate rich systems.
* Similar relative projected separation and relative velocity thresholds $`r_p25h^1`$ kpc and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V100\mathrm{kms}^1`$ within which star formation is significantly enhanced with respect to galaxies without a close companion, is obtained for pairs in the field and in modest mass groups.
* We find that star formation strongly increases for larger groupcentric distance for both pairs and the control sample in a similar fashion.
* The distribution of $`b_jR`$ colour indexes of galaxies in close pairs are bluer than of galaxies in groups with no close companions.
* For the subsample of pairs in high mass groups, we find a weaker dependence of the star formation birth parameter $`b`$ on relative projected distance and relative velocity. In these massive systems, galaxies in pairs are systematically redder and with a lower present-day star formation activity than galaxies in the control sample.

Galaxies in groups, dominated by a central stellar spheroid would be more stable against tidal torques generated by interactions (Binney & Tremaine 1987; Mihos & Hernquist 1996; Tissera et al. 2002) which would not be very effective in driving gas inflows and triggering starbursts, even if there were sufficient gas available. Also, we may consider the possibility that galaxy interactions have been very efficient in stimulating star formation in the past leaving little fuel for new bursts.

The analysis of a mock catalog of galaxy pairs derived from numerical simulationns to mimic the 2dFGRS catalog showed that the statistics are not dominated by spurious pairs. This finding is supported by the fact that the results are robust against stricter velocity difference cut-offs.

## 4 Acknowledgments

We acknowledge useful discussions with Manuel Merchán and Michael Balogh. We thanks the anonymous Referee for a detail revision that helped to improve this paper. This work was partially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Agencia de Promoción de Ciencia y Tecnología, Fundación Antorchas and Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.


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# Untitled Document

The Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series

Luis C. Ho, Series Editor

On the occasion of the Centennial of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Observatories held a series of four astrophysics symposia in Pasadena from October 2002 to February 2003. The topics of the symposia were:

1. Coevolution of Black Holes and Galaxies \[Ed. L. C. Ho\]
2. Measuring and Modeling the Universe \[Ed. W. L. Freedman\]
3. Clusters of Galaxies: Probes of Cosmological Structure and Galaxy Evolution \[Ed. J. S. Mulchaey, A. Dressler, and A. Oemler\]
4. Origin and Evolution of the Elements \[Ed. A. McWilliam and M. Rauch\]

The invited papers of the symposia, which have been peer-reviewed and carefully edited, will be published in 2004 by Cambridge University Press, as the first four volumes of the Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series. The papers from the contributed talks and posters, along with the full set of the invited papers, are available electronically at

http://www.ociw.edu/ociw/symposia/series/

The purpose of this note is to alert the community of the availability of this resource.


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# Multi-transition VLBA observations of circumstellar SiO masers

## 1. Introduction

General conclusions can be derived from the current theoretical pumping mechanisms of the SiO masers, as the production of masers chains across the same vibrational state, the time variability of the maser features or the location of the SiO layer in the circumstellar envelope. The main difference between the radiative (e.g. Bujarrabal 1994a; 1994b) and collisional (e.g. Locket & Elitzur 1992; Humphreys et al. 2000; 2002) models rests on which is the primary mechanism responsable for the pumping of these masers, which is the IR stellar radiation in the first case and the collisions with the circumstellar gas particles in the second.

We have conducted SiO masers observations in order to compare the different predictions of the theoretical pumping models with the observational results. In particular, we focussed on the comparison of the spatial distribution between the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0, and the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`J`$=2–1 rotational transitions.

## 2. Observations

We have performed sub-m.a.s. resolution observations of the $`J`$=1–0 and 2$``$1 rotational maser lines of 28SiO, at 7mm ($``$ 43 GHz) and 3mm (86 GHz) respectively, in the $`v`$=1 and 2 vibrationally excited states. We have observed three long period variables: IRC +10011, $`\chi `$ Cyg and TX Cam. In table 1 we summarize some characteristics of these sources and the detected transitions in each of them. The stellar phase, $`\varphi `$, at the time of the observation is given with respect to the optical maximum. The asterisk marks lines detected that could not be mapped. At 43 GHz the recorded bandwidth was 8 MHz with a spectral resolution of 0.22 km s-1, while at 86 GHz we use a 16 MHz bandwidth with a resolution of 0.11 km s-1. The integrated intensity maps were obtained following the standard calibration procedure for spectral lines within the AIPS package.

### 2.1. IRC +10011

In Fig. 1, we present the VLBA maps of the two 7 mm wavelength tansitions, $`v`$=1 and $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 (rest frequencies of 43.122 GHz and 42.820 GHz respectively). For these two 7 mm lines, the spatial distribution of the spots is quite similar, but the sizes of the emitting regions slightly differ. We measure a diameter of $``$ 20 m.a.s. for the $`v`$=1 extent and $``$ 18 m.a.s. for the $`v`$=2.

The 3 mm VLBA map of the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=2–1 maser (86.243 GHz) is shown in Fig. 2. We also present, for the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`J`$=2–1 lines, the autocorrelation spectrum of the reference antenna, the cross-correlation or flux recovered after the calibration and imaging, and their flux ratio. We note that at 3 mm, almost the 90% of the flux, as an average, has been lost, while at 7 mm the recovered flux is about a 40% at velocities near the systemic velocity (dotted lines).

The $`v`$=1 $`J`$=2–1 transition presents a completely different distribution compared to the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0, the emitting region being also significantly larger, of about 25–30 m.a.s. (Note that all maps are shown to the same scale to ease a direct comparison).

### 2.2. $`\chi `$ Cyg

The four 28SiO transitions observed (table 1) were detected in $`\chi `$ Cyg although only the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=2–1 are presented in figure 3. The $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 spectrum consists in a single feature, and consistently the map presentes an unresolved single spot. For the $`v`$=2 $`J`$=2–1 transition, imaging was not possible because of the low data quality.

The comparison of the $`v`$=1 VLBA maps of $`\chi `$ Cyg again shows a totally different distribution for these lines. However, in this case, the emitting regions have comparable sizes, $``$ 45–47 m.a.s. for the $`J`$=1–0 and $``$ 45 m.a.s. for the $`J`$=2–1, in contrast with the results for IRC +10011.

### 2.3. TX Cam

We found no emission at the 3 mm transition $`v`$=2 $`J`$=2–1, and for the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=2– 1 we could not calculate the delays as the calibrator was not detected, and so only the 7 mm comparison was possible. The maps of the two $`J`$=1–0 SiO masers are presented in figure 4.

The spatial distribution of the spots for both transitions is similar. The $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 emission appears to be located over a ring structure in a slighter inner region than the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 line. The diameter sizes are $``$ 26 m.a.s. and $``$ 28 m.a.s. respectively, taking into account only the brightest spots. (Note the radial enlongated shape of some features in both maps).

## 3. Conclusions and work in progress

Theoretical models predict that in the case of the 7 mm transitions, i.e., the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0, the ring-like structure sizes are similar (Herpin 1998) or slightly different, appearing to be the $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 emission distributed in an inner region (Humphreys et al. 2000). In the case of the 7 mm and 3 mm comparison, i.e., the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`J`$=2–1, all models predict that both transitions have similar spatial distributions and ring sizes (Locket & Elitzur 1992; Bujarrabal 1994a; Humphreys et al. 2002), as a natural consequence of their mutual reinforcement.

For the $`v`$=1 and $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 comparison we have found for IRC +10011 (figure 1) and TX Cam (figure 4) a similar spatial distribution of the spots of both transitions, being the $`v`$=2 emitting region in an inner region, in agreement with Humphreys et al. (2000). We confirmed the results already measured by Desmurs et al. (2000) in the same two sources. (Note that for $`\chi `$ Cyg, altough the line was detected, only one spot appeared in the $`v`$=2 $`J`$=1–0 map so we could not compare its spatial distribution to the $`v`$=1 one).

However, for the $`v`$=1 $`J`$=1–0 and $`J`$=2–1 map comparison, we have found in our results a contradiction with the models, since, in the case of IRC +10011, we have a different distribution and emitting regions sizes, the $`J`$=2–1 maserspots lying outside the $`J`$=1–0 ones (figure 1 left and figure 2). For $`\chi `$ Cyg, we have obtained similar sizes (figure 3) but a totally different spatial distribution. (A similar study has been recently published by Phillips et al. (2003) where however they found a similar distribution and ring-like structure sizes for the 7 mm and 3 mm maser lines, towards the M-type star R Cas).

Our results are not very surprising since single-dish observations demonstrate that the profiles of the $`J`$=1–0 and $`J`$=2–1 transitions are often very different (Lane 1982), so unlike spatial distributions are expected. The contradiction with the models’ predictions could be due to effects not taken into account in the calculations like line overlapping, which is known to play an important role in the pumping of the $`v`$=2 $`J`$=2–1 line and most of the 29SiO and 30SiO (see e.g. Bujarrabal et al. 1996 and González-Alfonso 1997). Presently, we are investigating the prevalence of our results on a second epoch already observed with the VLBA, in the same sources and in R Leo. Further theoretical development on pumping models is in progress.

## References

Bujarrabal, V. 1994a, A&A, 285, 953

Bujarrabal, V. 1994b, A&A, 285, 971

Bujarrabal, V., Alcolea J., Sánchez-Contreras, C.& Colomer, F. 1996, A&A, 314,883

Desmurs, J.-F., Bujarrabal, V., Colomer, F., & Alcolea J. 2000, A&A, 360, 189

González-Alfonso, E., & Cernicharo, J. 1997, A&A, 322, 938

Herpin. F., 1998, Ph. D. Thesis, Univ. de Bordeaux, France

Humphreys, E. M. L., Gray, M. D., Yates, J. A., et al. 2000, in Proc. 5th European VLBI Network Symp., 197.

Humphreys, E. M. L., Gray, M. D., Yates, J. A., et al. 2002, A&A, 386, 256

Lane, A.P. 1982, Ph. D. Thesis, University of Massachusetts

Lockett, P., & Elitzur, M. 1992, ApJ, 399, 704

Phillips, R. B., Straughn, A. H., Doeleman, S. S. & Lonsdale, C. J. 2003, ApJ, 588, L105


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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

There is growing evidence for the existence of massive dark objects at the centers of galaxies, which are presumably supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of mass $`10^6`$$`10^{10}M_{}`$. The existence of SMBHs was predicted by arguments based on the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasistellar objects (QSOs) energetics and demography . Also a variety of techniques exists in the mean time to detect and weigh SMBHs, using measurements of stellar or gaseous kinematics . This has revealed that many, and may be all, quiescent galaxies host SMBHs as well , including the Milky Way . The mass of a SMBH is always of the order of 0.1% of the galaxy bulge/spheroid mass . An even better correlation exists between the mass of SMBHs and the stellar velocity dispersion in the host galaxy, $`M_{BH}\sigma ^4`$ , which holds 3–4 orders of magnitude.

The origin of SMBHs is far from certain, but several theories have been advanced. The above-mentioned close relationship between BH masses and the stellar velocities dispersion may be interpreted in various ways, and ultimately one is confronted with the problem of what came first, the host galaxy or the SMBHs. It is not inconceivable that SMBHs are purely the result of the galactic dynamics and their merging history; yet no one has proposed a concrete mechanism for converting stellar mass objects into others 6–10 orders of magnitude larger. In particular the paradigm of the formation of SMBHs as a pure result of galactic dynamics is hard to match with the discovery of quasars at redshift $`z6`$ . The point is that the formation of SMBHs through the growth of BH seeds by gas accretion is supported by the consistency between the total density in quasars light and the SMBH mass density in local galaxies, adopting a reasonable accretion rest-mass-to-energy conversion efficiency . From the other side, SMBHs must be present by $`z6`$ to power the above-mentioned QSOs. It has been argued  that if they grew by accretion from smaller seeds, substantial seeds of mass $`10^5M_{}`$ must have been present already at $`z9`$ to have sufficient time to grow up to a typical quasar black hole mass $`10^9M_{}`$. Thus a very massive progenitor at $`z9`$ is very likely. At that epoch large galaxies do not yet exist. In the hierarchical formation scenario, they assemble via infall and merging of small clumps of baryonic gas and dark matter. Under such circumstances it seems that in order to form a huge BH in a gasodynamical process, two generic conditions must be satisfied, namely the gas must be strongly self-gravitating; and star formation must be inefficient, allowing a large supply of cold gas to be converted to a BH. The second constraint is of particular importance, since star formation is a competitor of black hole formation. So it is clear that to prevent the formation of stars, small-scale density perturbations should be effectively washed out or damped. A way to achieve this is not trivial. Indeed the power CDM spectrum for lightest supersymmetric particles, for instance, at subgalactic scales  implies that at $`z>9`$ all fluctuations below the mass scale $`10^8M_{}`$ went to the non-linear regime, requiring some special mechanisms to dilute small scale density perturbations and consequently suppress star formation processes . So, summing up the above arguments it seems appealing that central primordial objects of mass $`10^5M_{}`$ preceded the formation of the first galactic bulges and the beginning of quasar activity.

Previously  we proposed a mechanism for the formation of the massive primordial BHs (PBHs), which opens a possibility that primordial objects of the mass $`10^2M_{}`$ were created before any galaxy formation processes started to develop. The mechanism is based on the fact that BHs can be created as a result of a collapse of closed vacuum walls formed during a second-order phase transition with strongly non-equilibrium initial conditions. The required initial conditions get generated in inflationary dynamics of a scalar field, with a potential possessing an effectively flat valley . A wide class of models possessing that symmetry-breaking pattern can be effectively described by a pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone (PNG) field and corresponds to the formation of an unstable topological defect in the early Universe. In particular, PNG fields received substantial attention in connection with curvaton proposal .

The mechanism  assumes the succession of phase transitions, related with the consequence of spontaneous and manifest U(1) symmetry breaking. The crucial point is that in the considered case spontaneous symmetry breaking takes place during inflation so that neither angular nor radial fluctuations can lead to formation of strings. It makes closed walls the only topological defects, which are formed after manifest breaking of the underlying U(1) symmetry. For a wide range of realistic parameters of the considered model closed walls turn out to be stable relative to the formation of holes bounded by strings in them. The distribution of walls is also practically not changed by wall collisions. It makes possible to deduce the spectrum and space distribution of BHs from the distribution of closed walls formed after the manifest U(1) symmetry breaking.

Actually it has long been known  that the PBH formation is possible in the early Universe. PBH can form if the cosmological expansion of a mass stops within its gravitational radius, which happens when the density fluctuation exceeds unity on a scale between the Jeans length and the horizon size. Other possibilities are related to the dynamics of various topological defects such as the collapse of cosmic strings  from the thermal second–order phase transition or to the collisions of the bubble walls  created at the first–order phase transitions. Formally, there is no limit on the mass of a PBH that forms when a highly overdense region collapses: it is only needed to form, at inflation, the spectrum of initial density fluctuations that provides the proper inhomogeneity at the desired scale . From the other side, to preserve the successful predictions of the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and general features of the standard Big Bang scenario, confirmed by observations (see  for a review), there is no room for significant cosmological inhomogeneity once nucleosynthesis begins; the PBHs therefore seem not to have sufficiently large masses, being more likely to represent the specific form of a modern collisionless dark matter, rather than collecting into a large BH, which could play the role of a seed for the galactic nuclei.

The mechanism described in  offers a way around this, allowing the formation of closed vacuum walls of a size significantly exceeding the cosmological horizon at the moment of their formation. At some instant after crossing the horizon, such walls become causally connected as a whole and begin to contract, owing to their surface tension. This contraction ends up with the formation of a BH with a mass of the same order as that of the wall, when it enters the horizon. Therefore the size distribution of closed vacuum walls gets converted into the mass spectrum of resulting PBHs. Such a spectrum causes no problem for BBN predictions and satisfies all the other restrictions of possible PBHs contributions , while providing a sufficient number of very massive BHs that could seed galactic nuclei111Another possibility of massive PBH formation is considered in ; it involves the blue initial spectrum of fluctuation and subsequent accretion of quintessence. However, the last measurements of cosmological parameters by WMAP  disfavor the blue spectrum of initial perturbations. These measurements do not exclude the possibility of massive PBH formation by spikes on the background of the red spectrum, which can be realized in the mechanism .. The other generic feature of the mechanism  is the fractal structure of initial domain walls, which reproduces itself in a more and more decreasing scale. After the domain walls collapse, their fractal distribution, generated in fact during inflation gets imprinted into space distribution of less massive PBHs around the most massive ones.

In the present paper we develop the ideas firstly revealed in  and investigate the space correlation properties of the distribution of PBHs, which can modify the power spectrum and can lead to the fractal-like correlation properties observed in the galaxy distribution at least up to scales 100 Mpc . The paper is organized in the following way. In the second section we describe the main issues of the mechanism  and discuss observational data in favor of early BH formation. The third section deals with the spatial distribution of the resulting clouds of PBHs. Finally, in section 4 we conclude and discuss possible effects of fractal-like PBH distribution.

## 2  Formation of PBHs in inflationary PNG dynamics

We review here a mechanism of primordial SMBHs  formation. This mechanism is based on the inflationary dynamics of a scalar field with two different vacuum states which get unequally populated after the end of inflation deeply in the Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) epoch. Such a situation can occur quite naturally under the condition that the potential of the scalar fields possess a valley along which the effective mass of the field vanishes comparable to the Hubble rate during inflation. The latter causes a large friction term in the equation of motion of the scalar field making it in fact to be effectively massless during inflation. The subsequent exit from the inflationary regime and further cooling of the Universe lead to decreasing of the expansion rate and therefore making the scalar field moving freely toward the minima of its potential. However it is the ability of quantum fluctuations of effectively massless scalar field on the de-Sitter background  to redistribute the scalar field unequally between two different states. It makes the Universe to contain islands of less probable vacuum, surrounded by the sea of another, more preferable one. This means that once the vacuum states are populated at some time in FRW epoch, closed vacuum walls should appear in the Universe, surrounding the islands of less probable vacuum. When a closed domain wall becomes causally connected, it starts to collapse forming a BH with mass, being equal to that of the progeniting vacuum wall. It was shown in  that this mechanism can provide formation of sufficiently large closed vacuum walls, so that primordial SMBHs cold be formed with masses and abundance satisfying observations.

Below we use the working example of a complex scalar field with the potential

$$V(\phi )=\lambda (\left|\phi \right|^2f^2/2)^2+\delta V(\theta ),$$
(1)
considered in , where $`\phi =r_\phi e^{i\theta }`$. This field is taken to be coexisting with the inflaton that drives the Hubble constant $`H`$ during the inflationary stage. In this paper we accept the value $`H=10^{13}`$ GeV for the Hubble constant during inflation, which is consistent with resent results of WMAP  on the energy scale of inflation. The term

$$\delta V(\theta )=\mathrm{\Lambda }^4\left(1\mathrm{cos}\theta \right),$$
(2)
which reflects the contribution of instanton effects to the Lagrangian renormalization (see for example ), is negligible during the inflationary stage and during some period in the FRW expansion. In other words, the parameter $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ vanishes with respect to $`H`$. The omitted term (2) induces the effective mass of an angular field, and it begins to play a significant role only at the moment, after inflation, when the Hubble parameter is equal to this effective mass in its gradual decrease with time ($`H=1/2t`$ during the radiation-dominated epoch). Also, we assumed in  the mass $`m_r=\sqrt{\lambda }f`$ of the radial field component $`r_\phi `$ to be always sufficiently large with respect to $`H`$, which means that the complex field is in the ground state even before the end of inflation. Since the term (2) is negligible during inflation, the field has the form $`\phi f/\sqrt{2}e^{i\theta }`$, the quantity $`f\theta `$ acquiring the meaning of a massless angular field.

In  we applied the fact that the quantum fluctuations of the phase Sitter background can be pictured as a one-dimensional Brownian motion along the circular valley of the potential (1): the magnitude of $`\theta `$ on the scale of the de Sitter horizon ($`H^1`$) fluctuates by an amount

$$\delta \theta =H/2\pi f$$
(3)
per Hubble time ($`H^1`$). The amplitude of those fluctuations with wavelengths exceeding $`H^1`$ freezes out at its value because of the large friction term in the equation of motion of the phase, whereas its wavelength grows exponentially. Such a frozen fluctuation is equivalent to the appearance after every $`e`$-fold of a classical increment/decrement of the phase by factor $`\delta \theta `$. Therefore assuming that the inflation begins in a single causally connected domain of size $`H^1`$, which contains some average value of phase $`\theta _0<\pi `$ one can conclude that more and more domains appear with time, in which the phase differs significantly from the initial value $`\theta _0`$. A principally important point of  is the appearance of domains with phase $`\theta >\pi `$. Appearing only after a certain period of time ($`e`$-foldings) during which the Universe exhibited exponential expansion, these domains turn out to be surrounded by a space with phase $`\theta <\pi `$.

The potential (1) possesses a $`U(1)`$ symmetry, which is spontaneously broken, at least after some period of inflation. This spontaneous breakdown is provided by the condition of sufficiently large radial mass, $`m_r=\sqrt{\lambda _\varphi }f>H`$. At the same time the condition

$$m_\theta =\frac{f}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}^2H$$
(4)
on the angular mass provides the freezing out of the phase distribution until some moment of the FRW epoch. After the violation of condition (4), the term (2) contributes significantly to the potential (1) and explicitly breaks the continuous symmetry along the angular direction. Thus, potential (1) eventually has a number of discrete degenerate minima in the angular direction at the points $`\theta _{min}=0,\pm 2\pi ,\pm 4\pi ,\mathrm{}`$ . As soon as the angular mass $`m_\theta `$ is of the order of the Hubble rate, the phase starts be oscillating 222The discussion on the coherent phase oscillations in the cosmology of the invisible axion see in  and references therein. Cosmology of rather heavy axion predicted in string theory is discussed in . Variability of $`f`$, induced by inflaton, is discussed in . about the potential minimum, initial values being different in various space domains. Moreover, in the domains where the initial phase is $`\pi <\theta <2\pi `$, the oscillations proceed around the potential minimum at $`\theta _{min}=2\pi `$, whereas the phase in the surrounding space tends to a minimum at the point $`\theta _{min}=0`$. This implies that closed vacuum walls Fig.1 get formed 333The existence of such domain walls in the theory of invisible axion was first pointed out in . separating the island with $`\theta _{min}=2\pi `$ from those with $`\theta _{min}=0`$. The surface energy density of a wall of width $`1/mf/\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$ is of the order of $`f\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$. Those walls, which are larger than the cosmological horizon, still follow the general FRW expansion until the moment when they get causally connected as a whole; this happens as soon as the size of a wall becomes equal to the horizon size $`R_h`$ 444This condition can be violated for very large domains, as discussed in the next section.. Evidently, internal stresses developed in the wall after crossing the horizon initiate processes tending to minimize the wall surface. This implies that the wall tends, first, to acquire a spherical shape and, second, to contract toward the centre 555The motion of closed vacuum walls has been derived analytically in .. Should the wall at the same moment be localized within the gravitational radius, a PBH is formed. The phase distribution generated during inflation is reflected in the size distribution of vacuum walls and hence in the mass distribution of BHs appearing after the walls collapse.

The above considerations are valid under the assumption that $`r_\phi `$ is situated at the vacuum value $`r_\phi =f`$ during the last 60 e-foldings of inflation, so that the only degree of freedom is the massless angular component $`f\theta `$. One can take into account the radial fluctuations which can actually kick $`r_\phi `$ out of the vacuum. The consequence of $`r_\phi `$ being kicked out of the vacuum over the top of the Mexican hat potential $`V(\phi )`$ is that strings get formed along the lines in space where $`r_\phi =0`$. If it is the case the usual thermal scenario of the formation of the system of topological defects walls bounded by strings akin we have in the theory of invisible axion gets realized. Subsequently such structure of walls bounded by strings would disappear rapidly due to disintegration into separate fragments and futher emission of axion-like particles (see for review ). However the situation with radial fluctuations has been investigated both numerically and analytically, using the relevant Langeven and Fokker-Planck equations . In particular it was found that $`r_\phi `$ is kicked out of the vacuum if the Hubble constant during inflation exceeds the radius of the bottom of the Mexican hat potential $`Hf`$. In that case, strings form and the thermal scenario is reproduced. In some sense there is a “Hawking temperature” of order $`H`$ during inflation which takes over to drive thermal-like phase transition. From the other side, as it was found in , $`r_\phi `$ sits in the vacuum whenever $`Hf`$ during inflation. The last case is valid for the reasonable value of $`\lambda 10^2`$ and simplest exponential inflation. Therefore in the regime $`f10H`$ considered in present paper (see numerical parameters in Section 3) the only degree of freedom is the angular component $`f\theta `$, so only closed vacuum walls do form while the formation of strings is prevented.

Generally speaking the domain walls we discuss, can decay by quantum nucleation of holes bounded by strings . Semiclassically, the hole nucleation is described by an instanton and the decay probability can be expressed as

$$P=A\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{16\pi \mu ^3}{3\sigma ^2}\right),$$
(5)
where $`\mu \pi f^2`$ and $`\sigma f\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$ are the string and wall tensions, respectively, while the pre-exponent factor $`A`$ can be calculated by analyzing small perturbations about the instanton . Experessing (5) via parameters of (1) and (2) one can easily see that the probability to create a hole is suppressed by factor $`\mathrm{exp}(10^2(f/\mathrm{\Lambda })^4)`$, which turns out to be very small owing to large hierarchy $`f/\mathrm{\Lambda }10^{11}`$ we use to realize the proposed mechanism (see the next section). Therefore on the timescale of the age of the Universe the walls are effectively absolutely stable relative to quantum nucleation of holes bounded by strings .

There is also very unlikely that the initially closed walls can become open due to their mutual intersections. This argument can be confirmed by numerical analyzes , which demonstrated in the case of parallel sine-Gordon walls that such walls pass freely through one another. So it is unlikely that collisions of the walls leads to formation of holes and that closed walls can become open in such collisions. Due to non-perfect initial form of walls their flattening takes place in course of wall evolution. Such flattening changes the masses of the walls and, consequently, influences the mass distribution of black holes, which we discuss below. However, walls intersections in the course of flattening do not change the topology of walls, they do not convert closed walls into open ones bounded by strings.

In the considered case the first (spontaneous symmetry breaking) phase transition takes place on the inflationary stage and neither angular nor radial fluctuations can provide formation of strings. It makes closed walls the only topological defect solution that can appear after manifest symmetry breaking, when the angular mass is switched on. Such walls are not bounded by strings by construction, and neither quantum hole nucleation nor mutual intersection can change the closed topology of these walls. Domain walls can become open when a string loop that binds a wall inside it hits a larger wall . Then pieces of two walls annihilate and a vacuum hole bounded by string is produced. However as we argued above all the walls are initially closed and have no strings on their boundary, so during intersections they will pass each other without annihilation  thus preserving their closed character.

## 3  Space distribution of PBHs

The general conditions for the formation of primordial black holes have been presented in . In that paper we also performed calculations for formation of walls of smaller sizes inside the wall of larger size. The conclusion is that their total mass is only twice a mass of main wall, which determines the mass of the largest black hole. BHs are formed as the result of the closed walls evolution. Hence, total mass of black holes disposed closely to the largest BH increases weakly its effective mass.

The present section contains calculation of BH spectrum around the main BH. The size of area which we consider is much greater (in orders of magnitude) than the size of the wall progeniting the largest BH. It contains a lot of smaller walls what strongly increase total mass of the BH cluster. So that is of great interest to study the properties of distribution of BHs with intermediate masses around the most massive ones over those scales which can be roughly attributed to the galaxy clusters scale.

General strategy is as follows: we choose the scale of some region containing BH with the given value of mass; then we consider what the value of phase $`\theta _r`$ must have been when this region was in a single horizon. We do that by deciding what value of $`\theta `$ would have (on average) led to a single black hole of the given mass. Then we use that value of $`\theta _r`$ to find the density of BHs of smaller sizes in the considered region.

Let $`M_0`$ be the mass of most massive BH and $`M`$ the integrated mass of the coexisting BHs inside a sphere of radius $`r`$ centered at the most massive BH. It is convenient in our mechanism to trace the space distribution of resulting BHs by the distribution in size of their progenitive closed domain walls. In this sense, there are three scales related to our problem, namely the size of the closed wall $`R_0`$, which finally gets converted into the most massive BH; a size $`R`$ of a closed wall that becomes a BH of intermediate mass inside the above-mentioned sphere; and the radius $`r`$ of the sphere itself. Every mentioned scale can be attributed to the number of $`e`$-foldings left until the end of inflation. We assign these numbers of $`e`$-foldings as $`N_0`$, $`N`$ and $`N_r`$ respectively. It is clear that a region of size $`r`$ formed at the inflationary stage will follow the expansion of the Universe, depending upon the current equation of state, and hence we can approximately admit

$$r=r(N_r,t)=r_U(t)e^{N_rN_U},$$
(6)
where $`r_U(t)`$ is the size of the Universe at time $`t`$. Let us assume that the angular component of our field has the phase $`\theta _r`$, once a region of size $`r`$ leaves the horizon when the Universe still has $`N_r`$ $`e`$-foldings to inflate. So, at some later time, characterized by $`N_0<N_r`$ $`e`$-foldings before the end of inflation, one has already $`e^{3(N_rN_0)}`$ causally disconnected regions inside the volume created at $`e`$-folding $`N_r`$. As we saw in the previous section, the phase $`\theta `$ fluctuates at each $`e`$-folding like a one-dimensional Brownian motion. According to our mechanism, the biggest domain wall is formed once the phase $`\theta `$ overcomes $`\pi `$ for the first time, being initially (at the beginning of inflation) somewhere in the range $`[0;\pi ]`$ (see Fig. 1). It is this wall that collapses into the most massive BH serving as the centre of BHs cluster. By assumption, only one of the above-mentioned domains contains a phase larger than $`\pi `$ at $`e`$-folding number $`N_0`$. So the probability of finding the phase within the interval $`[\pi ;\pi \pm \delta \theta ]`$ in one of the causally disconnected regions at e-folding number $`N_0`$ is equal to $`1/e^{3(N_rN_0)}`$.

On the other hand, the well known formula

$$W(N,\theta )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi \left(N_rN\right)}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{(\theta _r\theta )^2}{2\delta \theta ^2\left(N_rN\right)}\right]$$
(7)
represents the probability to find phase $`\theta `$ in the interval $`[\theta ;\theta \pm \delta \theta ]`$ at arbitrary e-folding number $`N`$ within causally disconnected volumes with the size of order of $`1/H`$ provided they had unique phase $`\theta _r`$ at e-folding number $`N_r`$. The value $`\delta \theta `$ is given by formula (3). Thus the number of causally independent domains acquiring the phase in the interval $`[\pi ;\pi \pm \delta \theta ]`$ just during the e-folding number $`N`$ is

$$K(N)=W(N,\pi )e^{3(N_rN)}.$$
(8)
The value of the phase $`\theta _r`$ can be expressed by equating number of domains containing the phase in the interval $`[\pi ;\pi \pm \delta \theta ]`$ at e-folding number $`N_0`$ to unity (by definition)

$$K(N_0)=1,$$

what gives

$$\theta _r=\pi \delta \theta \sqrt{\left(N_rN_0\right)\left[6\left(N_rN_0\right)\mathrm{ln}(2\pi \left(N_rN_0\right))\right]}.$$
(9)
Combining Eqs. (7), (8), (9) the probability of formation of walls with smaller masses at $`e`$-folding number $`N`$ can be obtained as follows:

$$K\left(N\right)=\frac{\left[2\pi \left(N_rN_0\right)\right]^{\frac{N_rN_0}{2\left(N_rN\right)}}}{\sqrt{2\pi \left(N_rN_0\right)}}\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{3\left(N_rN_0\right)^2}{N_rN}+3(N_rN)\right]$$
(10)
The formulae written above are formally valid for arbitrary parameter $`N_0`$ which is connected with the mass of main BH. The BH of any mass produces cluster of smaller BHs in the manner discussed above. The choice of the mass of main BH could be done using mass distribution of BHs calculated earlier - see Fig.2. One can see from the figure, that amount of BHs with mass $`5\times 10^4\mathrm{M}_{}`$ \- see Fig. 2\- is about $`10^{11}`$, i.e. approximately coincides with the total number of galaxies. To treat the BH cluster structure as the pattern for future galaxy formation we choose below the parameter $`N_0`$, corresponding to this value of mass for the main BH.

Now we shortly remind the connection between mass of black holes and e-folding $`N`$ according to . The mass $`M`$ of a closed wall is connected with its size

$$M4\pi R\left(N\right)^2\sigma ,$$
(11)
where $`\sigma `$ is the surface energy density of the wall.

There are two different scales related to the spherical wall dynamics. The first one $`R_1(N)`$ is determined from the condition that the wall mass (11) is equal to the energy of the plasma contained in the domain bounded by this closed wall at $`t=R`$, $`E_V=\rho \frac{4\pi }{3}R^3,`$ where $`\rho =\frac{\pi ^2}{30}g^{}T^4`$ is the energy density of the plasma with $`g^{}`$ degrees of freedom during the radiation-dominated epoch. Taking into account that

$$\sigma =4\mathrm{\Lambda }^2f,$$
(12)
and equating energies $`E_V`$ and $`M`$ from expression (11), one obtains the scale

$$R=\frac{3\sigma }{\rho },$$
(13)
which also can be expressed through the temperature $`T`$ when the above-mentioned equality was established

$$R=L_U\frac{T_0}{T}e^{NN_U};$$
(14)
here $`T_0`$ and $`L_U`$ are temperature and size of the modern Universe. Combining the formulas written above, one obtains the maximal size of a spherical wall at which it does not influence the law of local expansion, when it enters horizon:

$$R_1(N)\left(\frac{\pi ^2}{90\sigma }g_{}\right)^{1/3}\left(L_UT_0\right)^{4/3}e^{\frac{4}{3}(NN_U)}.$$
(15)
Recall that $`L_UT_02.7\times 10^{29}`$.

Another scale arises if we take into account the internal pressure of the wall. Its influence is developed after the wall comes under the horizon and leads to the termination of the wall growing and its acquiring a spherical shape. This moment is characterized by the instant $`t_2`$ such that

$$l_{hor}(t_2)=R(t_2)R_2,$$
(16)
where the size of the horizon during the radiation-dominated era scales like $`l_{hor}(t_2)=2t_2`$. We also recall that walls get nucleated under the violation of condition (4), which happens once the friction term $`3H\dot{\theta }`$ in the equation of motion for the phase $`\theta `$ becomes comparable with the ’force’ term $`m_\theta ^2\theta `$, i.e. at the moment $`t^{}`$ when

$$H(t^{})m_\theta .$$
(17)
Taking into account the expression for the Hubble parameter $`H=\sqrt{\frac{8\pi }{3}\frac{\rho }{M_P^2}},`$ and the connection of the temperature with time $`T=\left(\frac{45}{32\pi ^2g_{}}\right)^{1/4}\sqrt{\frac{M_P}{t}},`$ one obtains the time moment and the temperature of walls nucleation in the early Universe

$$t^{}=\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{8m_\theta ^2}};T^{}=\left(\frac{45}{4\pi ^3g_{}}\right)^{1/4}\sqrt{M_Pm_\theta }.$$
(18)
Applying these formulas to (16) and taking into account that the seeking scale can be expressed in the same manner as (14), with $`T^{}`$ instead of $`T`$, one can easily find the size of wall when it enters horizon

$$R_2(N)=\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{T_0L_U}{C}\right)^2e^{2(NN_U)},C=\left(\frac{45}{4\pi ^3g_{}}\right)^{1/4}\sqrt{M_P}.$$
(19)
Thus the maximal comoving size of a spherical wall at FRW epoch seeded at $`e`$-folding number $`N`$, is determined from the condition

$$R(N)=\mathrm{min}(R_1(N),R_2(N)).$$
(20)
The condition (20) constrains the size of a spherical wall so that its contribution into the local density does not dominate when it enters cosmological horizon.

Indeed, for a sufficiently big wall, of radius exceeding $`R_{lwd}=\frac{3}{8\pi }\frac{M_p^2}{\sigma }`$, given by the constraint (15), its pieces start to dominate over radiation energy within the cosmological horizon, while the wall is still causally disconnected as a whole. Therefore the local expansion rate in a causally connected area dominated by a piece of the wall turns to be $`a_{loc}(t)t^2`$. Such superluminal expansion makes the successive evolution of this region elusive for the distant observer. It puts the upper limit (15) on the maximal mass of BHs that can be formed by the considered mechanism from a spherically symmetric wall. However account of the non-perfect initial form of the wall and of the effect of crinkle flattening, considered in the next section, offers the possibility to avoid the constraint (15) even for supermassive walls. Then the condition (20) can be relaxed and the maximal size of wall can always be given by the size it has, when enters the horizon. Local crinkle decay dominance (see the next section) leads, however, to deviation of local expansion law from the pure RD case, what modifies the definition (19) for the maximal size of wall.

According to the mechanism under consideration, the energy of the wall with surrounding particles $`E_w`$ will be converted into a BH of mass:

$$M_{BH}(N)E_w$$
(21)
This happens when the gravitational radius $`r_{grav}=2E_w/M_P`$ is larger than the minimal size of contraction of the collapsing wall. This minimal size of contraction does not exceed a few times the wall’s width.

Using formulas (6), (8) and (21) one can calculate the desired distribution of intermediate BHs in the vicinity of the most massive one.

In Fig. 2 following  we present the mass spectrum of BHs produced by the described mechanism. Such spectrum strongly depends on the parameters of the underlying field model. Here these parameters are chosen in such a way that the average number of BHs with mass $`10^4`$ $`M_{}`$, is about $`10^{11}`$ what coincides approximately with a number of galaxies in the visible Universe. It makes the difference of the model in Fig. 2 from the results of .

The mass distribution of intermediate BHs around the most massive one is presented in Fig. 3 for the same parameters of the potentials (1) and (2) as have been chosen to produce the distribution Fig. 2. Actually we always deal with a cluster of BHs centered by the most massive one. This BHs cluster contains from the beginning $`0.3\times 10^{19}`$ BHs of smallest masses about $`10^8M_{}`$ and massive BH with mass $`2.7\times 10^4M_{}`$ in its center. The total mass of the BHs in the cluster is $`0.3\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ and is comparable with the mass of a baryon component in a galaxy. Analysis of Fig. 3 reveals that average density decreases quickly with size growing. For example, average density at the scale 1000 parsec in $`10^4`$ times smaller comparing with average density in the center, at the scale of order 10pc.

## 4  Possible role of crinkles

Let us consider the problem of squaring of a wall surface just after the wall formation. By definition, the spatial position of any wall is determined by the surface with phase value $`\theta =\pi `$. Let we have an approximately flat surface determined as space points containing the phase $`\theta =\pi `$ of size $`1/H_e^2`$ at the $`e`$-folding number $`N.`$ Then, one $`e`$-folding later, the surface will be divided into $`1/e^2`$ parts. Approximately half of them embrace new value of phase $`\theta >\pi `$ while the remaining half acquires the values of phase $`\theta <\pi `$. The total surface of interest, with the phase $`\theta =\pi ,`$ appears to be warped and increases by a factor $`\varsigma `$ varying in the range $`1`$$`2.`$ The following cosmological expansion increases the sizes of crinkles exactly like total size of a closed wall. If this process lasts for, say, $`\stackrel{~}{N}`$ $`e`$-foldings, the surface increases by a factor $`\varsigma ^{\stackrel{~}{N}}`$ in addition to the standard inflationary expansion by a factor $`e^{\stackrel{~}{N}}`$.

Here some explanation is necessary: In the course of inflation the warping goes to smaller scales, so that smoothing of large crinkles beyond the horizon is accompanied by creation of small crinkles within it. It should be reminded that in this process not walls, but physical conditions for their origin are created. This fractal-like process of crinkles formation terminates when the size of the wall becomes comparable with the wall width $`d=1/m_\theta 0`$. The crinkles of sizes smaller than the wall width $`d`$ will be smoothed out during the period of wall formation and their effect could be ignored in the analysis of successive wall evolution. Hence our direct aim is to determine the $`e`$-folding $`N_d`$ at which crinkles of size $`d`$ are still produced.

The scale of the crinkles produced at $`e`$-folding number $`N_d`$ is approximately equal to the wall width $`d`$

$$dl_{crinkle}=r_U(t^{})e^{N_dN_U}=L_U\frac{T_0}{T^{}}e^{N_dN_U}.$$
(22)
This formula immediately leads to the number of $`e`$-foldings we need:

$$N_d=N_U+\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{T^{}d}{T_0L_U}\right].$$
(23)
Therefore the mass of a wall just after its nucleation is given by the expression

$$E_w\sigma 4\pi R\left(N\right)^2\varsigma ^{NN_d}.$$
(24)
Choosing the realistic numbers $`NN_d=10`$$`20`$ and $`\varsigma =1.5`$, one can see that the effective mass of the wall increases at the moment of its formation by a factor $`10^2`$$`10^3`$. Also one has to note that the size $`R_1(N)`$ we have calculated in the previous section should be initially corrected by a factor $`\varsigma ^{\frac{1}{3}(N_dN)}`$ once the effects of crinkles are taken into account.

The internal tension in the wall leads to its local flattening with the growth of the horizon. The released energy is converted into the kinetic energy of the wall and into an energy of outgoing waves, which are predominantly the waves of that scalar field that produces the domain walls. In our case, it is the phase $`\theta `$ that acquires dynamical sense of the angular component of field $`\phi `$.

A typical momentum $`k`$ of the waves is of the order of the inverse wall width $`1/d`$, hence $`km_\theta `$ and the waves are necessary semirelativistic. Their kinetic energy decreases due to the cosmological expansion. So particles of mass $`m_\theta `$ are concentrated in the vicinity of the wall. These particles can further contribute to the process of BH formation. The situation can become more complex if the particles are unstable. In this case, the products of their decay are relativistic and most of the time, they escape capture by the gravitational field of the wall. The main immediate effect of these relativistic products is the local heating of the medium, surrounding the region of BH formation. Their concentration in this region and successive derelativization can later provide their possible contribution to the formation of BHs and BH clusters.

The density of these particles is diluted by cosmological expansion, whereas the wall kinetic energy is mainly redshifted, making the expression (24) approximately valid with $`\varsigma 1`$ in the period of BH formation, when the whole wall enters the horizon.

However, the contribution of crinkles can be significant, in the period when the wall enters the horizon, and its successive evolution proceeds so quickly that the effects of wall flattening are not suppressed by the cosmological expansion. In this period the wall flattening and crinkle decays transform the energy, stored in the smaller-scale crinkles, into the energy of scalar field waves and the kinetic energy of the wall. These products of wall flattening dominate in the local energy density, thus preventing the superluminal expansion of the considered region. If the effect of crinkles is sufficiently strong, the wall dominance may not arise, since the energy released in the flattening is always dominant over that of the negative pressure of the flattened wall within the horizon. The RD (or MD) regime of dominance of the energy, released in the flattening, implies the difference between the expansion law within the considered region and the general expansion; however, being subluminal, it continues until the whole wall enters the horizon.

The longer the period of crinkle-decay-products dominance is, the larger is the overdensity in this region, as compared with the mean cosmological density, $`(\delta \rho /\rho )1`$, when the wall enters the horizon. This difference provides the separation of this region from the general expansion and the effective BH formation in it, similar by to the PBH formation on the RD stage, considered by  (for a review see ). This effects can modify the numerical values in BH distributions presented in the previous section. A special study is, however, necessary to take it into account.

## 5  Discussion

It should be obvious that the mechanism proposed in this article, which explains the formation of PBHs by the pregeneration of objects that build up the mass of SMBHs in the centre of the galaxy, works in reality by production of BHs with smaller masses that accompany the most massive BH. An indirect hint  that a situation of this sort can arise has been found recently in the centre a rather famous blazar, Mkr 501. Namely the combination of observations of the host galaxy allowing a direct measurement of the mass of the central BH in Mkr 501 and those of the modulation of high energy emission might be brought into agreement by assuming a binary system of highly unequal SMBHs hosted in the centre of this blazar. Thus, having BHs of intermediate masses accompanying the most massive ones, which are capable of coupling into binary systems, turns out not to be unrealistic.

We investigated in detail the primordial spatial distribution of BHs with masses in the range $`10^9`$-$`10^5M_{}`$. It was shown that such BHs could concentrate around a massive one in the scale of up to 10 Mpc. The total mass of a group of these primordial BHs can be of the order of a mass of ordinary galaxy clusters. The number of such a groups could be made to coincide approximately with a number of galaxy clusters. Their formation begins at a very early stage, which is characterized by the temperature $`T^{}\sqrt{M_Pm_\theta }10^5`$GeV; for the most massive BHs, it may continue even after the period of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but stop in any case long before star formation. Being compatible with the constraints on the average primordial light element abundance and with the averaged restrictions on the distortions of the CMB black-body spectrum, the formation of PBH clusters around the most massive BH may lead to local peculiarities of pregalactic chemical composition, and to specific effects in the spectrum, angular distribution and polarization of small-scale CMB fluctuations, accessible to the observational test. After recombination of hydrogen at the modern matter-dominated stage, baryons are influenced by the gravitational potential of a primordial BH group, which facilitates galaxy formation. The proposed model can offer the alternative to the standard picture of galaxy formation by the slow growth of baryon–density fluctuations.

To illustrate our approach we considered the simple model of a PNG field in an inflationary Universe. The physically self-consistent realization of the proposed scenario should imply more sophisticated models. Such a realization should provide the compatibility of this scenario with the observational constraints. Namely, the large-scale fluctuations of the PNG field should be suppressed so as not to cause too large CMB anisotropy. Another problem of a realistic scenario will be to satisfy the constraint on the oscillations of the energy density of the PNG field, playing the role of cold dark matter, or to provide a sufficiently rapid decay of PNG particles, if the parameters of the chosen model lead to the contradiction with this constraint.

At the end of the discussion it should be noted that the existence of such systems of primordial BHs correlated in space offers a new element to the standard lambda–CDM model. It could add additional power to the spectrum of density fluctuations on small scales, where the measurements of the Ly$`\alpha `$ forest are relevant . It is important that the described structures of PBHs do not evaporate significantly due to the large amount of their constituents. This fact makes the clusters of PBHs very favorable to being gravitationally bounded during the epoch of galaxy formation, up to the galaxy clusters scales.

## Acknowledgements

The work of M.Kh and S.R. was performed in the framework of the State Contract 40.022.1.1.1106 and was partially supported by the RFBR grant 02-02-17490 and grant UR.02.01.008. (Univer. of Russia).