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# The POINT-AGAPE Survey I: The Variable Stars in M31. Based on observations made through the Isaac Newton Group’s Wide Field Camera Survey Programme with the Isaac Newton Telescope operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

## 1 Introduction

Hodge (1992) reports in his book on the Andromeda Galaxy that *“the variable stars of M31 have been the subject of a number of rather limited studies. The very brightest are fairly well understood, but only a few areas have been searched deeply. There is still an immense amount of information about this component of the Andromeda Galaxy that remains untouched.”*

There is early work on Cepheids in M31 by Baade & Swope (1963, 1965). They found and studied $``$400 Cepheids, primarily for the purpose of estimating the distance modulus for M31. A modern day successor to this pioneering work is the DIRECT project (Stanek et al. 1999; Mochejska et al. 2000; Bonanos et al. 2003). They have been searching M31 (and M33) for detached eclipsing binaries and Cepheids to refine the extragalactic distance ladder. They analysed five 11′$`\times `$11′ fields in M31 and found a total of 410 variables of which roughly half were Cepheids. There is also a substantial body of work on classical novae. Positions, magnitudes and light curves already exist for $``$300 classical novae in M31 (Rosino 1973; Rosino et al. 1989; Ciardullo, Ford & Jacoby 1983). Despite all this, the underlying truth of the quotation from Hodge’s book is evident. The Andromeda galaxy is sufficiently close that the variable star populations can be studied in enormous detail – and with much greater ease than those in our own Galaxy, for which an all-sky survey would be needed.

Interest in the variable stars of M31 was re-kindled by influential papers by Crotts (1992) and Baillon et al. (1993) on the possible microlensing signal of the halo. The high inclination of the M31 disk ($`i77\mathrm{°}`$) means that lines of sight to sources in the far disk are longer and pass closer to the denser central parts of the halo than lines of sight to sources in the near disk. In other words, there is a strong gradient in the microlensing signal across the disk, if the events are caused by objects in a spheroidal halo. Early on, it was argued that the stellar populations of M31 are well-mixed and so no variable star population would show this behaviour (Crotts 1992). Thus, it seemed that the strategy in the experiment was straightforward; first, microlensing candidates should be identified on the basis of achromaticity and goodness of fit to a Paczyński curve, and second the gradient of detected candidates should be measured and confronted with theoretical models. The asymmetry in microlensing rate between the near and the far disk therefore seemed an unambiguous way of diagnosing events caused by lenses in the halo, as opposed to stellar lenses, and thus resolving the ambiguity in the results of the experiments monitoring the Large Magellanic Clouds. Accordingly, a number of groups began intensive monitoring of M31 with the aim of detecting microlensing events, including the POINT-AGAPE (Aurière et al. 2001; Paulin-Henriksson et al. 2002, 2003; Calchi Novati et al. 2003; An et al. 2004), WeCAPP (Riffeser et al. 2001, 2003) and MEGA (de Jong et al. 2004) collaborations.

The first hint that this was not the case came when Burgos & Wald-Doghramadjian (2002), working with data taken by the POINT-AGAPE collaboration, showed that the numbers of variable stars in symmetrically positioned fields in the near and far disk were not equal. The implication of this finding made the microlensing experiments much more difficult, as the asymmetry in the variable stars needs to be studied and measured as a function of brightness and period. Accordingly, the analysis of the variable star database in the microlensing experiments towards M31 is interesting from the standpoint of the light it throws on stellar populations in M31 and is crucial for a successful conclusion to the microlensing experiments.

The purpose of this paper is to present the variable star catalogue of the POINT-AGAPE survey. This gives the position, period and brightness of 35414 variable stars with high signal-to-noise lightcurves uncovered during the three-year duration of our survey. The variable star catalogue forms a subset of the grand total of 97280 lightcurves that show variations. The paper is arranged as follows: § 2 describes the acquisition of the data, § 3 discusses the images of M31 and the detection of resolved stars, § 4 outlines the construction of the lightcurves and the selection of the variable stars for the catalogue, § 5 studies the properties of the variable stars, whilst § 6 analyses the asymmetry signal and discusses the consequences for the microlensing surveys.

## 2 Data Acquisition

Observations of M31 were obtained using the Wide Field Camera (WFC) mounted on the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) located at La Palma, the Canary Islands, Spain, over three observing seasons, from 1999 August to 2002 January. Three broad-band filters, $`g`$, $`r`$ and $`i`$, were employed. The combination of the filters and the response of the thinned EEV 4k$`\times `$2k CCDs of the WFC produce overall pass-bands similar, but not identical, to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey $`g^{}`$, $`r^{}`$ and $`i^{}`$ bands. The $`r`$ band images were taken throughout the 3-year campaign. Initially, a mix of both $`g`$ and $`i`$ band images were also obtained, but the $`g`$ band monitoring was discontinued at the end of the first season. Weather and technical conditions allowing, observations in the second and third seasons consisted of both $`r`$ and $`i`$ band exposures in each of the two M31 fields.

The data analysed here consist of the $`r`$ and $`i`$ band exposures obtained over all three seasons. The location of the two fields, to the north and south of the nucleus of M31 can be seen in Figure 1 (see also Fig. 5 of Paulin-Henriksson et al. 2003). Typically, pairs of exposures were obtained in each band in each field in the sequence $`r`$ field 1, $`i`$ field 1, $`r`$ field 2 and $`i`$ field 2. Exposure times, normally 320 s in both $`r`$ and $`i`$ bands, were chosen to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio of each exposure, while ensuring that two exposures in each band could be obtained within the 3600 s allocated to the monitoring of M31 on each night. Advantages of acquiring two exposures per band per field included the ability to identify cosmic rays and to avoid saturation in exposures obtained in the $`i`$ band during full moon.

A standard observing script was invoked to perform the observations and the data are generally of high quality. The on-chip seeing achieved falls predominantly in the range 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3-2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$0, which is well-sampled by the 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$33 pixels of the WFC. Observations on a small number of nights were affected by technical problems that resulted in frames with highly elongated images. Such frames were excluded from the analysis described here.

Monitoring of M31 was possible only when the WFC was mounted on the INT and when the telescope was scheduled for use by either the United Kingdom or Netherlands time allocation committees. We were fortunate to also obtain occasional monitoring observations from a few Spanish-scheduled observers. The monitoring schedule was further enhanced through observations obtained by INT staff and others during nights scheduled for engineering activities and service-observing.

The cooperation of astronomers and staff at the INT resulted in a total of 71 $`g`$, 316 $`r`$, and 254 $`i`$ band for the northern field and 67 $`g`$, 293 $`r`$, and 232 $`i`$ band for the southern field monitoring observations that produced frames suitable for analysis. However, the vagaries of the weather, combined with the rigid schedule for mounting of the WFC, means that the monitoring time-series consists predominantly of relatively well-sampled periods, typically of duration 7-14 days, interspersed with periods, typically of duration 7-21 days, in which there are very few data. A summary of the observations taken is publicly available over the World Wide Web.111http://cdfinfo.in2p3.fr/Experiences/Agape/point-agape\_log.html

All frames were processed using the pipeline processing software (Irwin & Lewis 2001) developed for the reduction of the data obtained as part of the Wide Field Survey (WFS) undertaken with the WFC. The pipeline includes procedures to de-bias, trim and flatfield the frames. Additionally, protocols to perform non-linearity corrections, flag bad pixels, and apply gain corrections are applied. Master calibration frames (bias and flatfields, for $`r`$ and $`i`$ exposures, and fringe frames, for $`i`$ exposures) necessary to reduce the observations, were constructed from all the suitable calibration frames obtained during the relevant 14-21 day period that the WFC was mounted on the INT. On a few occasions, insufficient calibration frames were obtained to construct an adequate master flatfield or fringe frame. In these cases the best master calibration frames from an adjacent period, when the WFC was mounted, were used.

The WFS pipeline proved entirely satisfactory with the exception of the defringing correction necessary for the $`i`$ band frames. The WFS defringing scheme was developed to cope with exposures whose background is dominated by sky. In the case of our M31 exposures the “background” includes a significant contribution from M31 itself. Furthermore, the relative contribution of M31 to the background varies from CCD to CCD and between the exposures of the northern and southern fields. The variable sky brightness over a lunation also complicates the situation, as the contrast between M31 and the underlying sky-background changes.

Investigation of the amplitude of the defringing correction made by the WFS pipeline to remove the fringing from frames taken away from M31 showed a well-defined correlation with the background surface brightness. Small, $`<10\%`$, systematic offsets in the amplitude of the scaling applied to the master fringe frames from CCD to CCD were also evident. Comparison of the underlying sky-brightness in frames (away from M31) taken immediately prior or subsequent to the M31 monitoring showed that an accurate estimate of the underlying sky-brightness in the M31 frames could be obtained using the far south-eastern corner of CCD 1 in the southern field. Thus, the amplitude of the defringing correction applied to both the northern and southern M31 frames was derived using the estimate of the sky-brightness from the south-eastern corner of CCD 1 in the southern field, allowing for the well-determined small systematic offsets from CCD to CCD.

## 3 The surface brightness and the resolved stars of M31

Figure 2 shows a $`gri`$ (which is close to the standard $`VRI`$) image of M31, together with the $`gr`$ and $`ri`$ (close to $`VR`$ and $`RI`$ respectively) colour maps. These are constructed by median filtering the images with a 49 pixel (16$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3) square box and re-sampling with a 10″ grid. The filtering is done to remove graininess in the images, while the re-sampling is done to enable a fair comparison with maps of the variable star distribution which will be presented later. The colour maps clearly delineate the dust lanes. It is evident that the dust distribution is asymmetric with the north-western parts of M31 being dustier. This is already worrisome, as it may muddle any intrinsic microlensing asymmetry.

We also construct a catalogue of 119303 resolved stars – namely, all stars detected by the task daofind in IRAF at 5$`\sigma `$ above the background noise in the $`r`$ band reference image list in Table 1. For the detected stars, the $`r`$ magnitudes are converted into standard Cousins $`R`$ magnitudes. Figure 3 shows the break-down of the 119303 resolved stars into magnitude bins. Stars with $`R18`$ are predominantly foreground objects, as evidenced by their homogeneity. For $`18R20`$, we can see a mixture of M31 stars – which are predominantly young, massive supergiants – together with some contamination from the foreground and from unresolved globular cluster cores and blended stars. The supergiant population is concentrated in star-forming regions associated with the spiral arms, which are clearly seen in Figure 3 and coincide with the blue region in Figure 2.

For $`R20`$, the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars start to make their appearance, while the red giant branch (RGB) stars are somewhat fainter and do not appear at least up to $`R21`$. With the absolute magnitude of the tip of the RGB being $`M_I4.0`$ (Bellazzini, Ferraro & Pancino 2001), and the distance modulus of M31 being $`(mM)_{\mathrm{M31}}24.5`$ (Holland 1998; Stanek & Garnavich 1998), the brightest RGB stars are around $`R21.5`$, assuming the colour $`RI1.0`$. The brightest AGB stars are around a magnitude or so brighter. Again, on comparing Figure 3 with Figure 2, we see that there is a clear depression in the distribution of AGB stars (with $`20<R21`$) coincident with the prominent dust lane in the north-west of the galaxy.

The limiting magnitude of field 1, CCD 2 seems to be somewhat shallower than the other CCDs. We can also see some evidence of variation of the limiting magnitude with surface brightness near the central bulge and near M32. This therefore raises the worry that variations in the limiting magnitude from CCD to CCD, caused by the choice of reference images with different background and exposure, may be producing artificial gradients. To investigate this, we plot in Figure 4 the distribution of resolved stars in different magnitude bins, or the observed luminosity function. Here, the two pairs of fields (N1, S1 and N2, S2) are chosen to be symmetric with respect to the centre of M31, as illustrated in the side-panel of the figure. For each field, two nearly-superposed histograms are shown, one for a bin-size of 0.1 mag, one for a bin-size of 0.05 mag. The excellent correspondence between the histograms shows that the bin-size is not influencing the results.

The luminosity functions in all four fields turn over at $`R20.5`$, and are in good agreement for $`R<20`$. The turn-over in the luminosity function is almost certainly due to incompleteness. However, we are interested primarily in comparisons between the northern and southern fields, and so provided we believe that roughly the same fraction of stars is missing, we can go deeper than the turn-over.

For $`R20`$, the luminosity function in the southern fields (S1 and S2) is higher than in their northern counterparts (N1 and N2). For higher surface brightness, the detection limit should be shallower. However, the reverse is true here, as the southern fields are brighter – not fainter – than the northern ones. This is circumstantial evidence that the relatively low normalisation of the northern field luminosity function is a real effect, rather than an artefact of differing efficiency. Note that this rules out the lower sensitivity of CCD 2 as a cause of any asymmetry, as we would then expect more stars in N1 than S1, which is not seen. However, it is still possible that CCD 2 in field 1 alone is the cause of the problem because of the underlying surface brightness structure in that field. Part of the low normalisation is probably caused by the prominent dust lane and enhanced extinction in the northern field. Additionally, the slope of the falling parts of each pair of histograms at least for $`R22`$ in Figure 4 is the same. If the underlying true luminosity function has the same slope, then this can be explained very naturally by assuming that the same fraction of stars is missing at each magnitude, irrespective of whether the field is north or south.

For the purposes of our analysis, it is helpful to convert the spatial distribution shown in Figure 3 into smooth maps of the surface number density. This is achieved by counting the number of resolved stars within a suitable window function. In Figure 5, this is done for three different magnitude bins. In the left panel corresponding to resolved stars with $`R20`$, the window function is a square box of size 3′. For the other two panels, the square box has size 2′. The re-sampling is done in the same way as described for Figure 2. Again, for $`R<20`$, we see the prominent ring (possibly a spiral arm) associated with the supergiant population. Some of the dust structures visible in the colour maps of Figure 2 can be traced in the surface density maps of the fainter stars. There are also artefacts – such as the deficiency in resolved stars with $`R>20.5`$ in field 1, CCD 2 – that are manifest in the Figure.

To conclude, there is clear asymmetry in the resolved star distribution, and some of this is certainly due to bias during the data reduction. However, the similar patterns caused by dust lanes clearly visible in the surface brightness map, the colour maps and the resolved star maps argue that there is a real asymmetry caused by variable extinction. This hypothesis could be confirmed by examination of the colour-magnitude diagrams in the northern and southern fields, which should show differing positions for the RGB stars.

## 4 Construction of the Variable Object Catalogue

The M31 fields are composed of largely unresolved stars, and so the effects of seeing are significant. In order to build lightcurves, we need to develop an algorithm for which the same fraction of flux falls within the window function, irrespective of seeing. The superpixel method provides a linear transformation between the flux measurements with different seeing (Melchior et al. 1999; Ansari et al. 1999; Le Du 2000). The basic idea is to calibrate the frames so that they have the same large-scale average surface brightness and then to adjust any spatial flux variations to the same seeing.

The observed flux $`\varphi `$ within the window function at a given position is a convolution of the intrinsic surface brightness $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ with the point-spread function (PSF) $`P`$ and the window function $`W`$. Assuming that the PSF is flux-conserving, the large scale average flux $`\overline{\varphi }=\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}W`$ is independent of the PSF. Here, $`\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$ is the large scale average of the intrinsic surface brightness. Furthermore, the spatial fluctuation of the flux is also related to the intrinsic spatial surface brightness fluctuation via the same convolution, viz.

$$\varphi \overline{\varphi }=(\mathrm{\Phi }\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }})PW.$$
(1)
Taking Fourier transforms, the convolutions become products, and so we have

$$\{\delta \varphi \}=\{\delta \mathcal{\Phi }\}\{𝒫\}\{𝒲\},$$
(2)
where $``$ denotes the Fourier transform. The effects of the shape of the PSF near the centre are unimportant, if the characteristic scale of the window function is chosen to be large enough. On the other hand, for any reasonable PSF, the wings behave in a similar manner to lowest order. Then, taking the ratio of equations (2) for two epochs implies that the Fourier transforms of the flux variations are linearly related. Consequently, the flux differences at different epochs are also linearly related. The superpixel method provides an empirical way of calculating the coefficients of this linear transformation. Note that this linearity is only true in lowest order, and so the method fails for large seeing variations or near very bright stars.

The original pixel size (0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$33) over-samples the seeing disk ($`\text{FWHM}1\mathrm{}`$), and thus the relative amplitude of the flux variations due to seeing variation is quite large even for moderate variation of seeing. This leads us to associate a superpixel flux $`\varphi `$ with each pixel. This is derived by summing fluxes from several adjacent pixels that fall within a pre-defined “superpixel” window (in other words, $`W`$ is a top-hat function defined over a square box). The size of this superpixel is chosen to ensure that it under-samples the seeing disk.

Next, the data are smoothed by a median filter with a window size that is sufficiently large so as not to be affected by small-scale fluctuations. This gives the median superpixel flux $`\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}`$ at each point. This median flux is subtracted from the superpixel flux.222In our application, the median flux $`\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}`$ is used instead of the mean $`\overline{\varphi }`$ in eq. (1). The quantity $`\varphi \varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}`$ represents a variation in flux with respect to the same underlying median surface brightness. It changes with the seeing. Empirically, we find that the flux differences at different epochs are linearly related to each other, as shown in Figure 6. By recalibrating the flux differences, we obtain superpixel lightcurves which represent the intrinsic variation at fixed seeing. In practical implementation, we find the slope $`\alpha `$ and the intercept $`\beta `$ of the regression line on the cigar shape depicted in Figure 6, namely

$$\varphi (t_i)\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_i)=\alpha (t_i)\left[\varphi (t_{\mathrm{ref}})\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_{\mathrm{ref}})\right]+\beta (t_i),$$
(3)
and the subsequent recalibration follows as

$$\varphi ^{}(t_i)=\frac{\left[\varphi (t_i)\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_i)\right]\beta (t_i)}{\alpha (t_i)}+\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_{\mathrm{ref}}).$$
(4)
If the background subtraction is sufficiently accurate and if the fluxes represent the intrinsic, physical surface brightnesses, then the median flux must be constant, $`\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_i)=\varphi ^{\mathrm{med}}(t_{\mathrm{ref}})`$. In this case, the linear relation will become a proportionality ($`\beta =0`$), while the coefficient $`\alpha `$ will be solely a function of the seeing difference (in particular, if the images at $`t_i`$ and $`t_{\mathrm{ref}}`$ are taken in the same seeing, then $`\alpha `$ will be unity).333Even if the photometric calibration is imperfect, then the seeing correction (4) will still give the correct results but with non-vanishing $`\beta `$. For best results, the reference image is chosen to be one taken in the median seeing. We note that the linear relation shown in Figure 6 is not a perfect one-to-one correspondence, but is rather an (albeit tight) statistical correlation with a scatter. In other words, this procedure of stabilising the seeing variation introduces an additional uncertainty. Therefore, the error bar on the $`i`$-th flux measurement, corrected for seeing, is

$$\sigma _i^2=\frac{1}{\alpha ^2}\sigma _{\gamma }^{}{}_{i}{}^{2}+\sigma _{\mathrm{see}}^2,$$
(5)
where $`\sigma _\gamma `$ is the photon noise in the original image and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{see}}`$ is the additional uncertainty caused by the recalibration. This is empirically estimated from the width of the cigar shape in Figure 6 using the method of maximum likelihood.

In the implementation of the method here, the median flux is computed over a 41$`\times `$41 pixel field. The method is not too sensitive to the size of the field, provided it is big enough that even bright resolved stars disappear from the median image. There is an optimum size to the superpixel. If the superpixel is too small, the algorithm fails because the seeing disk is over-sampled. However, as the superpixel gets larger, the photon noise increases and the sensitivity drops. We choose the superpixels to be 7$`\times `$7 pixels in size. This is because typical poor seeing at the INT site is $``$2″ so that a star with a Gaussian PSF is contained up to a 1$`\sigma `$ distance in the 7$`\times `$7 superpixel centred on it. The reference images used for the $`r`$ band data are the same as the image on which the detection of resolved stars has been performed (Table 1).

The WFC has 2k$`\times `$4k pixels in each chip. There are 4 chips and 2 fields, giving $`6.4\times 10^7`$ superpixel lightcurves for each passband. The selection procedure is carried out on the $`r`$ band data alone. For each lightcurve, the first step is to determine the baseline flux $`\mu `$. This is calculated iteratively by computing the median, deleting all points 3$`\sigma `$ above (but not below) the baseline and repeating until convergence. This is tailored for microlensing events, which are positive excursions above the baseline, but fails for eclipsing binaries or transits. Any lightcurve that has at least 3 consecutive points at least 3$`\sigma `$ above the baseline is selected as a fluctuation. For each variable object, there is a cluster of associated superpixel lightcurves. The likelihood $`L`$ of variation for every superpixel position is calculated by

$$\mathrm{ln}L=\underset{i\mathrm{fluct}}{}\mathrm{ln}P(\varphi _i),$$
(6)
with

$$P(\varphi _i)=\frac{1}{(2\pi )^{1/2}\sigma _i}_{\varphi _i}^{\mathrm{}}d\varphi \mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{\varphi \mu }{\sigma _i}\right)^2\right].$$
(7)
For each superpixel, a likelihood map is constructed over the field and the optimum position of each variable source is extracted from it using SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996).

We select a total of 97280 lightcurves by the procedure outlined above. However, many lightcurves in this list are spurious; most of the artefacts are caused by a bright resolved star lying near the edge of a given superpixel, which induces a non-linear response of the adjacent superpixel flux level depending on the variation of seeing. Since the seeing varies without any significant coherence on a nearly daily basis, the resulting lightcurves appear almost like white noise although the amplitude can be many times larger than the typical photometric uncertainty of the superpixel flux. Such artefacts can be recognised easily by eye. It is however clearly preferable to devise an objective criterion. Referring to Figure 7, we see that the there is an excess of variables around 2.5 and 5 pixel distance from resolved stars, which corresponds to the concentration of artefacts. These can be removed by construction of a suitable mask consisting of annuli around resolved stars and known CCD defects. This is done for the selection of microlensing candidates in a later publication. In this paper, however, we use a different (but related) criterion, which is explained in the next section.

## 5 The Properties of the Variable Stars

We characterise each variable lightcurve by two numbers, its period $`P`$ and the “pseudo-magnitude” $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$. The period is computed using Lomb’s periodogram (e.g., Press et al. 1992), which is appropriate for unevenly sampled datastreams. The algorithm works by calculating the power spectrum over a discrete frequency interval. The frequency at maxmimum power is converted into the period for the lightcurve. Therefore, the absolute uncertainty in the period scales quadratically with the period itself and so the computed value may not be precise when $`P150\text{days}`$. In principle, there are other methods of computing a more precise period, but Lomb’s periodogram suffices for the purpose of classification.

As a measure of the brightness of each variable, we define the “pseudo-magnitude”. Because the fraction of light contributed by the variable object to the total superpixel flux at a given epoch is not known, it is not possible to find the real magnitude of the variable. Under these circumstances, we first measure the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$, which is the flux variation between minimum and maximum in ADU s-1. Then, we convert $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ into magnitudes by $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)=r_02.5\mathrm{log}_{10}(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$, which we subsequently employ as a proxy for the underlying brightness of the variable. Here, $`r_0`$ is the zeropoint, that is, the $`r`$ band magnitude of a star whose flux is 1 ADU s-1 in the reference image. Henceforth, we refer to this quantity $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ – or $`i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$, $`g(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ and so on where appropriate – as a pseudo-magnitude. We note that it is not the same as the variable amplitude in magnitudes (that is $`\mathrm{\Delta }rr_{\mathrm{min}}r_{\mathrm{max}}=2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}[1+(\mathrm{\Delta }f/f_{\mathrm{min}})]`$ where $`r_{\mathrm{min}}`$ and $`f_{\mathrm{min}}`$ are the magnitude and the flux at minimum, and $`r_{\mathrm{max}}`$ is the magnitude at maximum). Rather, the pseudo-magnitude is related to the magnitude of variable and the variable amplitude via

$`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ $`=`$ $`r_{\mathrm{max}}2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}[110^{0.4\mathrm{\Delta }r}]`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`r_{\mathrm{min}}2.5\mathrm{log}_{10}[10^{0.4\mathrm{\Delta }r}1].`$
Therefore, as $`\mathrm{\Delta }r`$ becomes larger, $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ approaches the true magnitude at maximum $`r_{\mathrm{max}}`$ of the variable. \[If $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=0.5`$, then $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)r_{\mathrm{max}}+1.1`$. On the other hand, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }r=1.0`$, then $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)r_{\mathrm{max}}+0.55`$.\] Note that our use of superpixels in the variable lightcurve detection mechanism implies that our detection is nominally more sensitive to relatively faint but large amplitude variables than bright but small amplitude variables. Hence, we argue the pseudo-magnitude is a reasonably good approximation for the real magnitude at maximum for our sample. In addition, the majority of the variables in our sample is believed to be AGB/RGB variables such as Miras and semi-regular variables (see below), and their amplitudes are known to be quite large (e.g., $`2.5\text{mag}`$ for Miras, Whitelock 1996). This also supports the view that the pseudo-magnitude is in fact a reasonable alternative for the magnitude of variable for most of our lightcurves.

Each superpixel contains many variables and so it might be thought that the period and pseudo-magnitude derived from the lightcurves may be misleading. We expect this not to be the case because it is very rare for two comparably bright variables to contribute to the same superpixel. This can be seen on computing the mean distance between our detected variables, which is $``$50 pixels or $``$7 superpixels.

The analysis of the spatial distribution of variables is based on the catalogue of objects selected by Lomb’s periodogram as having a significant coherent behaviour. Datapoints lying more than 4 standard deviations from the arithmetic mean are discarded to minimise the effects of outliers in the periodogram. Given any sampling, there is a correspondence between the peaks of the power spectrum and the significance level. Specifically, we insist that the strongest periodic signal has a false alarm probability of less than $`10^7`$. This effectively removes all the spurious lightcurves – as can be seen in Figure 7, in which the variables that pass this criterion are shown as crosses. Additionally, we require that the period be less than 800 days, roughly corresponding to the baseline of the experiment. Only lightcurves with $`18<r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)23`$ are included. The rationale for these limits is that $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)=23`$ roughly corresponds to our detection limit, while variations with $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)<18`$ are most likely foreground contaminants. This gives a variable star catalogue with 38779 members, which still has a number of duplicate entries. These are removed using the following algorithm. First, all the pairs of variable objects within 6 pixels are located, and their lightcurves correlated. If the correlation coefficient is larger than 0.75, then the lightcurve with lower significance is removed from the catalogue. This leaves 35414 variable objects. The positions, periods and pseudo-magnitudes of these variables are available as an accompanying electronic table.

Figure 8 shows the locations of the variables in the period-$`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ plane. We can quite easily divide the objects in this space into several distinct groups, loosely corresponding to some familiar variable star classes. For comparison, Figure 9 shows the locations of some common classes of variable stars in the similar period-$`R(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ plane, drawn from the General Catalogue of Variable Stars444http://www.sai.msu.su/groups/cluster/gcvs/gcvs. Here, $`R(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ is the $`R`$ band flux difference between the maximum and the minimum converted into magnitudes by the similar manner. Here, the variable stars primarily reside in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and so there is a vertical offset corresponding to the differences in distance modulus and extinction. Clearly picked out in both Figures 8 and 9 are sequences corresponding to the period-luminosity relations of population I and II Cepheids. Both semi-regular and Mira variables are clustered together at longer periods than the Cepheids.

This motivates us to group the variables in Figure 8 into the following four divisions:

1. $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)+3\mathrm{log}_{10}P25`$ and $`\mathrm{log}_{10}P2`$,
2. $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)+3\mathrm{log}_{10}P>25`$ and $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)+6\mathrm{log}_{10}P32.2`$ and $`\mathrm{log}_{10}P2`$,
3. $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)+6\mathrm{log}_{10}P>32.2`$ and $`\mathrm{log}_{10}P2`$,
4. $`2<\mathrm{log}_{10}P2.9`$.

The period is measured in days. Comparison between Figures 8 and 9 suggests the following rough identifications. The variables in group 1 are mainly population I Cepheids pulsating in either the fundamental or the first overtone modes. In fact, the tracks on which the variables in group 1 reside are suggestive of the classical Cepheid period-luminosity relationships. This group also includes a distribution of variables with periods shorter than 3 days. These are either eclipsing binaries or population II Cepheids pulsating in the first overtone mode, sometimes called BL Her or CWB stars (Feast 1996). The variables in group 2 also cluster on a period-luminosity relationship and are mainly population II Cepheids in the fundamental mode (W Vir or CWA stars). Group 3 is composed mainly of semi-regular and Mira variables with rather short periods or incomplete sampling, while those in group 4 are a mixture of semi-regular and long period Mira variables. Typical lightcurves of objects in all four groups are given in Figures 10-13.

In addition to the 35414 variables in the catalogue with reasonably well-determined pseudo-magnitude and period, there are further variables for which the reported period is longer than 800 days. We classify these as group 5. The determined period and pseudo-magnitude are not reliable since a whole cycle is not covered by the experiment. A number of these are associated with CCD defects and can be rejected with a suitable mask. This leaves 2243 variables with ill-determined or incomplete periods after removing duplicate entries. Some examples of lightcurves in this group can be found in Figure 14 while the data are available as an accompanying electronic table. Variables in this group are not included in subsequent calculations of statistical quantities.

### 5.1 Colours

For $`r`$-band selected variables, we examine the $`g`$ and $`i`$ band lightcurves and, if they contain noticeable variations, we derive pseudo-magnitudes $`g(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ and $`i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$. These can be used to build an analogue of the colour-magnitude diagram, as shown in Figure 15. Note that the $`i`$ band data are largely restricted to the last two seasons, so variables with period longer than 1 yr are not plotted.

The first thing to notice is that different groups of variable stars are clearly separated. The variables in groups 1 and 2 are bluer than those in groups 3 and 4. This is expected because Cepheids are F or G (super)giants, whilst Miras are M (super)giants. As the variables in group 1 are primarily population I Cepheids, their positions mark the location of the instability strip. The positions of groups 3 and 4 indicate the location of the RGB and AGB of varying ages and metallicity in this analogue of a colour-magnitude diagram. They are segregated according to their periods, with the longer period variables being brighter in $`i`$ and so redder in colours involving $`i`$. However, this is not the case for the $`g(\mathrm{\Delta }f)r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ (not shown), as, along the sequence of M stars, the $`ri`$ becomes redder, whilst the $`gr`$ stays the same (e.g., Margon et al. 2002; Szkody et al. 2003). Figure 16 shows the period plotted against $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ for groups 3 and 4 with $`P1\text{yr}`$. This shows a moderately strong correlation, which is analogous to the similar period-($`H_pK`$) colour correlation for Mira and semiregular variables (Whitelock, Marang, & Feast 2000). Here, $`H_p`$ is the Hipparcos broad-band magnitude. This relation is also presumably related to the well-known period-$`K`$ band luminosity relation for Mira variables (e.g., Feast et al. 1989; Noda et al. 2002; Glass & Evans 2003; Kiss & Bedding 2003), as the redder evolved AGB stars are typically brighter in near infrared bands. The secondary clump centred on $`\mathrm{log}_{10}P2.2`$ and $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)1.8`$ may be an artefact caused by half-year sampling gaps combined with incompleteness of our period determination, as it is displaced from the main correlation by almost $`\mathrm{log}_{10}2`$. However, Whitelock et al. (2000) found a similar “secondary clump” in their AGB period-($`H_pK`$) colour relation and suggested that Miras with $`P<225\text{days}`$ are divided into two groups depending on their $`H_pK`$ colour or spectral types. As the transformations from our observables to these colours are unknown, the answer to whether the secondary clump in Figure 16 is real and indeed an analogue to that found by Whitelock et al. (2000) is inconclusive at the moment. Nevertheless, we note that $`\mathrm{log}_{10}2`$ separation may also be explained physically by invoking pulsations on the overtone mode.

Figure 17 shows analogues of the same $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ colour versus $`i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ magnitude diagram for only groups 3 and 4 with $`P1\text{yr}`$, along with the $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ colour versus $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)`$ magnitude diagram. We note that there is a strong cut-off in the bright end, namely $`i(\mathrm{\Delta }f)20`$ and this presumably corresponds to the tips of the AGB and RGB with different ages and metallicities. The locuses are most likely to be caused by the differences in metallicity and ages of the AGB and RGB populations, with the redder side younger and more metal-rich. We note that, along the locus, as the stars get redder, they become fainter in $`r`$, but maintain more or less the same $`i`$ (psuedo-)magnitude.

### 5.2 Spatial Distribution

Next, we investigate the spatial distribution of the groups of variable stars on the WFC fields. Figure 18 shows the distributions of groups 1 to 5 of variable stars, together with the set of all the 35414 variable stars with well-determined periods (groups 1-4 combined). Figure 19 shows the distributions of variables in group 4, further sub-divided by their period and pseudo-magnitude.

Most obviously, variables in group 1 follow the same pattern as the bright supergiant population already seen in the top rightmost panel of Figure 3. Both populations seem to be associated with the spiral or ring-like structure. This reinforces our identification of group 1 as population I Cepheids, because the latter are known to occur preferentially in spiral arms (Magnier et al. 1997; Mel’Nik, Dambis & Rastorguev 1999). Any spirality is much less evident in groups 2, 3 and 4, as would be expected for population II Cepheids, semi-regular variables and Miras, which are found in both the halo and the old disc populations of M31 (Hodge 1992).

The variables in group 4 follow the same pattern as the AGB stars already seen in the lower three panels of Figure 3. This reinforces the identification of group 4 as predominantly semi-regular or Mira variables, as these correspond to pulsating AGB and RGB stars. One can discern a number of trends in Figure 19. First, for all but the faintest and longest period variables, there is an overall depression of objects in the north-west, which coincides with the prominent dust lane visible in the colour map of Figure 2. Second, the central concentration of objects varies noticeably, with the brighter (and probably shorter period) variables being more centrally concentrated. While the depression of detected variables with $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)>22`$ near the bulge is probably caused by the decline of detection efficiency due to high surface brightness, one can still observe the clear trend of a flattening in the number density gradient as the variation becomes fainter (and longer). This is also illustrated in Figure 20, which shows the logarithm of the surface density plotted against distance along the major axis for the subdivisions of group 4 variables. The period of a Mira is believed to be an indicator of the population to which it belongs (Whitelock 1996). Miras with periods less than 200 days are thought to be primarily denizens of the halo, whilst those of longer period are more massive and/or more metal-rich. The longer period Miras – being more massive and/or more metal-rich – are therefore associated with younger populations. In other words, the spatial distribution of the younger Miras is more extended than that of the older ones. The same conclusion can be drawn from the variation of central concentration according to the brightness. The AGB is redder and therefore optically fainter for a metal-rich population. This is consistent with the idea that the visually brighter Miras represent older populations. All this is consistent with the fact that the disk scalelength of M31 is larger in the blue than the red (e.g., Walterbos & Kennicutt 1988). It is also consistent with a division of M31 stars into two populations, younger and bluer ones in the disk (Population I), older and redder ones in the bulge and spheroid (Population II), as discovered by Baade (1944).

We examine the distributions of variable stars broken down into different pseudo-magnitude and period bins. For comparison purposes, this is done for the same symmetrically positioned fields as used for the resolved stars (N1, S1 and N2, S2 illustrated in the side-panel of Fig. 4). Figure 21 shows the numbers of variables with periods less than 800 days in each magnitude bin. By a slight abuse of terminology, we refer to these distributions as “luminosity functions”. For the exterior fields (N1 and S1), the luminosity functions are in good agreement for $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)<22`$. Note that, even up to $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)=22`$, the luminosity functions are still rising. This suggests that incompleteness in our variable star detection is not a substantial problem at least up to $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)=22`$ for these exterior fields. For the interior fields (N2 and S2), there is a difference in the overall normalisation causing the luminosity functions to be offset. This is most likely due to the dust lane in the N2 field. The luminosity functions for the interior fields rise more steeply than for the exterior fields. This is probably caused by underlying differences in the stellar populations, as the bulge contribution dominates in the interior fields. The luminosity functions for the interior fields also start to decline at $`r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)=21.5`$. This can be understood by the higher surface brightness in the bulge, which in turn means that the detection efficiency is lower. Figure 22 shows the numbers of variables with $`18<r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)23`$ as a function of the logarithm of the period. The bin size is 0.1 dex. For the exterior fields, there is a good agreement between the two distributions. The distribution is flat ($`dn/dPP^1`$) between periods of 1 and 40 days, reflecting predominantly the properties of the Cepheid population. Between 40 days and 0.5 yr, the population is made up mainly of semi-regular variables and Miras and the distribution is well-approximated by a power-law ($`dn/dPP`$). The fall-off for longer periods may be caused by the decline in detection efficiency because of incomplete sampling. For the interior fields, there is a depression in the distribution derived for the N2 field as compared to the S2 around periods of 100 days. This in turn suggests that it is fewer objects with $`P100\text{days}`$ that are responsible for the smaller number of detected objects in the N2 field.

As for the resolved stars discussed in § 3, we construct smooth surface number density distributions of the variable stars. Here, we use a window function that is a square box of size 3′. The result is compared with the surface brightness map and the resolved star ($`R21`$) density map in Figure 23. None of the three images show any sign of CCD to CCD or field to field overall scale variation. This is very reassuring as it suggests that our variable star detection is not systematically biased. Second, the resolved star distribution shows a much more prominent ring-like structure (possibly just the spirality) than the variable star distribution. Third, the projected shape of the triaxial bulge is much less evident in the variable star map than in the other two maps.

## 6 The Asymmetries of the Variable Stars

To examine the asymmetry of these distributions, we construct division images – that is, each image is divided by a copy of the image which is rotated by 180° with respect to the M31 centre. The resulting division maps are displayed in Figure 24. In all three cases, it is clear that the far side (south-east) is brighter or has more detected objects than the near side (north-west). More importantly, the asymmetry pattern of all three images quite closely follow each other, with the dust lane in the north-west clearly visible in all cases. It is therefore clear that a crucial assumption underpinning the microlensing experiments towards M31 – namely, that the variable star population is unlikely to show an asymmetry between the near and far side (Crotts 1992) – is unfortunately not correct. The intrinsic distributions are probably well-mixed, but the effects of differential extinction and the prominent dust lanes associated with the spiral structure in M31 cause all the observed distributions, whether of resolved stars or of variable stars, to be markedly asymmetric.

Any axis through the centre divides the galaxy into two parts. The ratio of the mean density on each side changes as the axis changes. We call the direction in which this ratio is maximised the asymmetry axis. To find the asymmetry axis, we construct the logarithm map of the division image and compute the ratio of the mean density of each side as a function of the position angle of the axis, measured anti-clockwise from north through east. The results are shown in Figure 25. The long-dashed line is for the brightest resolved star ($`R20`$) density, while the dotted line is for the intermediate brightness resolved star ($`20<R21`$) density. The two solid lines are derived from the $`r`$ band image. The curve showing the larger asymmetry amplitude assumes the minimum contribution from the sky, while the smaller amplitude curve assumes the maximum contribution, and thus the reality should be somewhere in between. The maximum contribution is inferred from the reduced images without sky-subtraction, while the minimum contribution is derived from the south-east corner of field 2, CCD 1, which is assumed to contain no contribution from M31. Finally, the short-dashed line shows the asymmetry of the variables. This can be divided into the contributions from the bulge and disc respectively, by crudely dividing into two samples according to the projected distance $`d`$. The asymmetry of the whole variable sample follows that of the disc variables alone. This is because the asymmetry signal is weighted according to projected surface area, and so the effect of the bulge is minimal. Note that the contribution from M32 and a $``$7th magnitude star (HD 3914) lying just at the southern edge of the southern field CCD 2 is corrected for by excising a comparable area (7′$`\times `$7′ mask) in both fields. In any case, their effects are minimal, again because they occupy very little of the total area.

The asymmetry of the brightest resolved stars – most likely young, massive supergiants – is virtually negligible. The asymmetry of the resolved stars with $`20<R21`$ is quite noticeably enhanced compared to the total surface brightness. Some of this may be caused by the varying detection efficiency of the CCDs which is related to the choice of different reference images, as discussed in § 3. However, the fact that the pattern of the curve follows that for the surface brightness suggests that the effect is real, even if the magnitude is exaggerated. Such artifical enhancement is not expected for the variable stars, as the choice of reference image plays a less crucial role in the variable star detection algorithm. The resolved stars are searched for on different reference images, which can have different photometric conditions, whereas the variables are searched for using the entire lightcurves and so the photometric conditions average out. In addition, both the magnitude of the asymmetry and the shape of the curve emphasise the fact that the variable star asymmetry is clearly associated with the underlying surface brightness. The maximum asymmetry occurs around $``$40°, while the symmetric division is around $``$180°, which is more or less an east/west division. For comparison, the position angle of the major axis of the outer disk is $``$38° (de Vaucouleurs 1958), while the position angle of the bar is between 45° and 50° (Hodge & Kennicutt 1982). The fact that the maximum asymmetry occurs when the division lies almost parallel with the major axis provides further evidence that the asymmetry is mainly caused by the dust lane, as this too lies almost parallel with the major axis (see Fig. 2).

The asymmetry of the variable stars according to their group, period and pseudo-magnitude can be studied by exactly the same method. The results are shown in Figures 26 and 27. Since the effects of M32 and HD 3914 are not corrected for, the asymmetry is a bit larger than for the entire set of 35414 variables. We notice that the asymmetry signal of variables in group 1 (predominantly Population I Cepheids) is similar to that of the supergiant stars in Figure 25. Also, we deduce that the variable star asymmetry follows the asymmetry of the long period variables with $`100\text{days}<P1\text{yr}`$ and with $`21<r(\mathrm{\Delta }f)22`$. These are about $``$40% of the variable star catalogue. There is a mild suggestion from the Figures that the asymmetry is larger for brighter variables, which is consistent with the enhanced asymmetry of the resolved star density between $`20<R21`$. Probably both of these populations correspond to the brightest end of the AGB.

## 7 Correlations with Other Catalogues

It is useful to compare our catalogue of variable stars with other surveys and archives of M31. Here, we correlate the catalogue with the discrete X-ray sources and the known novae.

### 7.1 X-ray Catalogues

M31 has recently been surveyed by both the XMM-Newton and Chandra satellites (Osborne et al. 2001; Kong et al. 2002). In particular, Chandra surveyed the inner 17′$`\times `$17′ and found 204 discrete X-ray sources. Our WFC fields are separated by a gap of $``$2′, and so the very centre of M31 is not covered. This gap is rich in discrete X-ray sources, and so only $``$140 of the objects listed in Kong et al. (2002) lie within our WFC fields.

Figure 28 correlates the variable sources in our catalogue with the discrete X-ray sources. To allow for possible identification with poorly sampled or sporadic optical sources, the primitive version of the catalogue with 97280 lightcurves is used. The figure shows the cumulative distribution of the separation distances. Of course, some accidental alignments are expected. To estimate how serious this problem is, we also show curves of the cumulative distributions with the optical positions shifted by 42 pixels north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west (Hornschemeier et al. 2001). This corresponds to a shift of 30 pixels in each compass direction. The claimed accuracy of the astrometry in both our and Kong et al.’s (2002) catalogue is 1″. This suggests that objects can be identified if their positions coincide within an error circle of 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$4 or $``$5 pixels. Judging from Figure 28, the number of accidental alignments is $``$25, whereas the actual number of correlations is $``$40, which suggests that $`15\pm 8`$ identifications are physically meaningful.

Some of the identifications are due to globular clusters. Whilst some of the globular clusters are indeed optically varying, the core of an unresolved globular cluster may also be misreported as a resolved star and this may cause spurious lightcurves in the catalogue. A handful of the identifications may be due to cataclysmic variables and soft X-ray transients. These are binary systems with a compact degenerate object and a low-mass star. Typically, they are undetectable in quiescence ($`V=2830`$) but brighten dramatically in outbursts ($`V=2022`$) and so may then be present in the survey.

Fourteen of the 40 correlations coincide with the positions of semi-regular variables, although for two of these instances, our sampling does not allow us to rule out the possibility of a bursting rather than pulsating star. Semi-regular variables are not expected to emit X-rays, unless they are the binary companion to a compact object. Hence, some of these alignments may well correspond to cataclysmic variables. Lightcurves for 6 of these objects are shown in Figure 29. We note that the lightcurves of r3-43 and r3-46 (in the notation of Kong et al. 2001) have an X-ray outburst $`50`$ days before the optical maximum. A further two objects, r3-87 and r3-48, coincide with optical variables showing a linear fall in the first two seasons. One of these is the lightcurve labelled 19755 shown in the top-left panel of Figure 14.

### 7.2 Nova Alerts

Nova alerts are published regularly in IAU Circulars. There are 14 nova alerts in M31 during the period that spans our WFC observations. We look for detections in our primitive variable star catalogue within a 3″ error circle of the reported nova position. This yields 12 matches to nova-like lightcurves. Both missing cases, EQ J004249+411632 (Filippenko et al. 1999) and EQ J004241+411624 (Fiaschi et al. 2002), lie very close to the centre of M31 and fall in the gap between the two fields. Table 2 gives the position, time of burst and reference of the 12 candidates, whilst the lightcurves are shown in Figure 30. All 12 detections are located within a few arcminutes of the centre of M31 and are either of fast or moderately fast speed class, presumably reflecting the experimental setup of the observers who issued the IAU Circulars. In addition, we find one further nova (CXOM31 J004318.4+410950) by correlating with the X-ray catalogue of Kaaret (2002). We note that another nova (EQ J004244+411757) also lies within 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 of the position of an X-ray point source in the same catalogue. The X-ray counterparts of both novae have been claimed as super-soft X-ray sources by Di Stefano et al. (2003). A more detailed and homogeneous selection of novae using POINT-AGAPE data is performed in Darnley et al. (2004), who find 7 of the novae in Table 2. Darnley et al. (2004) also identify 13 other novae present in M31 further from the bulge and with longer durations and slower speed classes.

## 8 Discussion

Figure 31 shows the locations of 17 reported microlensing candidates (taken from Paulin-Henriksson et al. 2003, Riffeser et al. 2003 and de Jong et al. 2004) overplotted on the $`gr`$ colour map. There is a clear asymmetry, as de Jong et al. point out. However, the origin of the asymmetry is difficult to say, as there are no events where the galaxy is dusty and a preponderance of events in the bright spiral arms. The early papers on microlensing towards M31 made the assumption that variable star populations would show no signs of asymmetry between fields north and south of the major axis. Microlensing, on the other hand, will show a substantial asymmetry if the lensing population resides in a spheroidal halo. Early on, it therefore seemed that an asymmetry in the locations of a sample of microlensing events would be enough to identify the lensing population conclusively with the dark halo of M31. The work in this paper has demonstrated that this is not the case. All the variable star distributions are asymmetric in the sense that the far side (or south-east) is brighter or has more detected objects than the near side (or north-west). This is caused primarily by the effects of variable extinction and the prominent dust lanes associated with the spiral structure. Therefore, the near-far asymmetry signal of microlensing is unfortunately mimicked in the variable star populations, in the underlying surface brightness and in the resolved star catalogue. This makes an accurate measurement of the asymmetry signal caused by microlensing more difficult. This paper has measured the size and direction of the asymmetry signal as a function of the period and pseudo-magnitude of the variable stars. These data form the zero-point of the asymmetry scale. Microlensing by a dark halo is a possible explanation if the sample of microlensing candidates of given amplitude and period is more asymmetric than the corresponding variable stars.

Theoretical calculations of the expected magnitude of the near-far asymmetry signal from microlensing (e.g., Kerins et al. 2001, 2003) assume that the source population shows no preference between the near and far side. However, as the resolved star distribution is also asymmetric, it is clear that this assumption is questionable as well. The source population for the identifiable microlensing events is typically bright (though unresolved) stars, and so it too is likely to be asymmetric. Hence, the magnitude of the near-far asymmetry signal as calculated theoretically needs to be amplified by an additional factor. The values of the asymmetry reported in Kerins et al. (2003) must now be taken as lower limits.

For a spherically symmetric halo, Kerins et al. (2003) found that the underlying pixel-lensing rate in the far-disk of M31 is already more than 5 times the rate of near-disk events. Clearly, a still more substantial asymmetry is expected when the effects reported in this paper are included. However, successful measurement of the component of any asymmetry signal caused by microlensing is now much more difficult. In principle, the additional effects can be modelled and corrected for, but in practice this will make the results less robust. One way to overcome the difficulties is to limit the study to microlensing events of sources only brighter than some fixed magnitude at baseline. Analysis of the microlensing asymmetry as a function of the source flux will however require a large sample of events with high signal-to-noise ratio.

Another way of overcoming the difficulties is to look for an east-west asymmetry rather than a near-far asymmetry. Both the resolved stars and the various groups of variables are more-or-less symmetric about an axis running north-south, as seen in Figures 25 and 26. So, this suggests that the underlying populations of variables are indeed well-mixed and that their asymmetry has a common origin in the dust distribution and possibly some intrinsic disk surface density asymmetry. If so, we can correct for it by choosing the north-south axis as our reference axis. Even though the east-west microlensing asymmetry is less than the near-far asymmetry in the absence of dust problems, it is still asymmetric, as the eastern side contains much of the far disk. This effect should be detectable in cases when the halos contains a high fraction of massive compact objects.

## 9 Conclusions

The POINT-AGAPE collaboration has constructed a catalogue of the locations, periods and brigtness of 35414 variable stars in M31. This is a by-product of our microlensing search. The variable stars have been classed into four groups – roughly corresponding to population I and II Cepheids, semi-regular and Mira variables of short period and long period Miras. The spatial distribution of the variable stars shows a number of interesting trends. In particular, the brighter and shorter period Miras are more centrally concentrated than their fainter and longer period counterparts. This suggests that the younger populations of AGB stars are more extended than the older one. The variable star catalogue has been correlated with the X-ray point source catalogue available from surveys with the Chandra satellite. After taking into account accidental alignments, we find that there are $``$15 physically meaningful identifications. This finding will lead to additional complications in the measurement of any asymmetry due to microlensing. In particular, it may be advantageous to look for an east-west asymmetry rather than a near-far asymmetry.

## Acknowledgements

The data were taken through the Isaac Newton Group’s Wide Field Camera Survey Programme. This research has made used of the SIMBAD database operated at Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France. We thank Albert K. H. Kong for providing us with the unpublished lightcurves of selected X-ray point sources in M31 and Vasily Belokurov for guidance on variable star catalogues. Work by JA and YT has been supported through a grant from the Leverhume Trust Foundation. NWE thanks the Royal Society (UK) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK) for support. SCN was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and by the Tomalla Foundation. AG was supported by grant AST 02-01266 from the National Science Foundation (US).


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# References

Coherency is the ether of XXI century.

V.A.Kuz’menko

Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research,

Troitsk, Moscow region, 142190, Russian Federation.

## Abstract

The concept of coherent states in explanation of a nature of nonlinear phenomena in optics will be inevitably replaced by the concept of inequality of forward and reversed transitions.

PACS number: 42.50Gy, 42.50.Hz

The concept of ether exists for many centuries. But in the twentieth century its necessity practically comes to the end and for most physicists this idea remains only as a historical curious thing.

In substantial degree similar future, obviously, wait for the concept of coherency, which now widely used for explanation of nonlinear phenomena in optics. Formerly such effects usually are explained as a nonlinear response of substance on high intensity laser radiation . In fact this is not an explanation, but only a certification of result: if the substance has high nonlinear optical susceptibility coefficient of second, third or higher order, then the high intensity laser radiation will give corresponding nonlinear effect. The Maxwell-Bloch equations or the rotating wave approximation is usually used for mathematical description of nonlinear phenomena. This mathematical model in many cases gives good description of nonlinear effects, but it does not have clear physical sense and the physical origin of nonlinear phenomena should be explained independently.

The concept of coherency now plays a main role in explanation of origin of laser-driven nonlinear optical effects. It is supposed, that laser radiation creates a so-called coherent states. Those states have specific properties and can interfere. As a result the nonlinear phenomena appear, like as coherent population trapping , electromagnetically induced transparency , amplification without inversion , etc. Although it is not sufficiently clear what is the nature of coherent state and how its can interfere, such explanation looks likely. It is assumed that collisions must destroy coherent states. And really the experimentalists observe, that collisions destroy the discussed nonlinear effects. As a result, the concept of coherency become all pervasive in the field of laser and quantum optics .

However, a skilled theoretical analysis had discovered the inward defect in the coherency concept . It has been shown that the inability to measure the absolute phase of an electromagnetic field prohibits the existence of coherent states. In fact it means that the using of concept of coherent states for explanation of nonlinear phenomena does not have physical sense. This result is a shock for experimentalists. It robs and nothing gives in exchange for their favorite toy. The experimentalists can not agree with such situation. They exert strong pressure on theorists. As a result, some attempts to revise this theoretical conclusion appear. The work  contains excellent description of the situation as a whole and makes attempt to save the concept of coherent states by searching the weak point in arguments of works .

The goal of this note is not to discuss the arguments. The goal is to point out that we do not need to save the concept of coherent state. There exists alternative concept, which better suit for explanation of nature of nonlinear effects. We keep in mind the concept of inequality of forward and reversed optical transitions, which corresponds to concept of time invariance violation in electromagnetic interactions .

The orthodox point of view claims, that the time invariance violation is absent in electromagnetic interactions. This point of view does not have experimental proofs, but it has a long historical tradition . In contrast, the experimental proofs for the opposite point of view appear recently. First of all this is an experimental study of forward and reversed transitions in optics. Seemingly, it is very simple to test the invariance of a photon absorption process: we should measure the parameters of photon absorption process (spectral width and cross-section) and compare its with the measured parameters of the reversed stimulated emission process. But really the situation is not so simple. Both processes take place simultaneously. Furthermore, the spectral width of laser radiation or optical transition are usually connected accordingly with the pulse length and life time of excited states toward a spontaneous emission. All this reasons make so entangled situation, that reliable measurement and comparison of the necessary parameters of forward and reversed processes become perfectly problematic.

However, in one unique for present day case this problem is easily overcame. This is the case of the so-called line wings in the absorption spectrum of polyatomic molecules . This physical object has unusual properties: long lifetime of excited states toward a spontaneous emission is combined with extremely large homogeneous spectral width of optical transition. In this case simple pump-probe experiments in a molecular beam conditions clearly show, that the spectral width for the reversed transition is in several order of magnitude smaller, than those for the forward transition, accordingly, the cross-section of the reversed transition is in several order of magnitude grater, than the cross-section of the forward transition .

For present day there is the first and the most clear and reliable experimental proof of time invariance violation in optics. Other experimental proof was obtained recently in the study of interaction between light and metallic planar chiral nanostructures . Besides that, the quite formal fresh sight analysis of high order nonlinear phenomena in optics shows theirs violation of time reversal symmetry .

Time invariance violation is very good foundation for explanation of physical origin of nonlinear effects. Inequality of forward and reversed transitions endows atoms and molecules the properties of memory about the initial state and aspiration to return in this state. This properties look like very similar to those properties of coherent states: the memory also must be destroyed by collisions. This properties allow to give simple and clear explanation of physical origin of most nonlinear phenomena .

So, we believe, that the concept of inequality of forward and reversed transitions will inevitably replace in nonlinear optics the concept of coherent states. Because of:

1) it much better explain the nature of most nonlinear phenomena,

2) in contrast to the concept of coherent states, it has a real physical base ,

3) in contrast to the concept of coherent states, it has direct experimental proofs .

There is possible other way also. Because of the myths (like as the ether or the coherent states) have not usually a strict definition, we can preserve the brand of the concept, but substitute for it contents. Coherent states can be defined as a specific states of atoms and molecules after forward optical transitions. However, such variant may be inconvenient because of it makes some mishmash for readers (such situation exists now in rather similar case with the concept of the ”quasicontinuum” of vibration states of polyatomic molecules ).

In conclusion, the orthodox point of view is very strong now. The experimentalists are afraid to work in the new direction. They need to be aimed by the theorists. But the theorists use their efforts now for saving the hopeless idea. So, dear colleagues, look around and let us begin to work in the right direction at last.


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# Photoproduction of 𝐾^∗ for the study of Λ(1405)

## Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. T. Nakano for suggesting this work to us. We also thank Dr. D. Jido for useful comments and discussions. This work is supported by the Japan-Europe (Spain) Research Cooperation Program of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), which enabled T. H. and A. H. to visit IFIC, Valencia and M.J.V. V. visit RCNP, Osaka. This work is also supported in part by DGICYT projects BFM2000-1326, and the EU network EURIDICE contract HPRN-CT-2002-00311.


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# THE ANDROMEDA STREAM

## 1 Introduction

$`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM has become the preferred model of cosmological structure formation, providing a convincing description of the large scale distribution of matter in the Universe. On galactic scales, however, this paradigm has proved somewhat unsatisfactory, predicting a myriad of satellite systems accompanying the Milky Way which do not appear to be there (Klypin et al. 1999). One clear prediction of this model, however, is that large galaxies like the Milky Way grew over time via the accretion of smaller systems.

Numerical simulations of such accretion events reveal that they leave long lived fossil signatures within the halo of the cannibalizing galaxy in the form of extensive tidal streams that can completely wrap the host (e.g. Johnston 1998). The detection and characterisation of this fossil record will unravel the recent accretion history of a galaxy. While there is some evidence that the Magellanic Clouds may represent a case of ongoing accretion, displaying an extensive gaseous tail, the first clear detection of current cannibalization in the halo of the Milky Way came with the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy in 1994 (Ibata, Gilmore & Irwin 1994). Since its initial detection, studies have revealed more and more stellar debris located farther and farther from the main body of the dwarf (e.g. Majewski et al. 1999) . Ibata et al. (2001) found a stream of carbon stars lying over a great circle on the sky which intersects with the current location of the Sagittarius Dwarf. Furthermore, this stream is also aligned with Sagittarius’s proper motion, clearly demonstrating it represents material associated with the dwarf galaxy. Intriguingly, the collimated nature of the stream strongly suggests that the dark matter halo is spherical, at odds with theoretical expectations of a strongly flattened, triaxial distribution. These results were recently confirmed by Majewski et al. (2003) using a larger sample of stars drawn from the 2-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS).

While the study of Sagittarius has proved quite successful, our location within the Milky Way limits our observational prospects, with any tidal debris presenting an extremely low stellar density on the sky. Furthermore, it is very important to know if the situation of the Milky Way is unique or if its current appetite is representative of galaxies in general. We need, therefore, to turn our attention to the search for tidal features in external galaxies. While this increases the apparent stellar density of tidal debris, distance rapidly blurs individual stars into uniform surface brightness and dynamical measures become extremely time consuming. Hence, the search for tidal debris should be aimed at our nearest companions if we are to use their structural and kinematic properties in a fashion similar to that of the Sagittarius stream.

## 2 The Andromeda Stream

### 2.1 Wide Field Photometry

M31, being our extragalactic neighbour, has been the target of numerous observational programs. With the advent of CCDs earlier work focused on deep pencil-beam studies which indicated a complex metallicity mix in M31’s halo. In contrast, this present study employed the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope to obtain a deep but panoramic survey of the stellar populations in the halo of M31. Covering 0.3 deg2 per pointing, the initial survey in the year 2000 tiled a region out to 4o (55kpc) of the Southern portion of the halo of M31, covering an area of $``$10deg2 to $`i=23.5`$ and $`V=24.5`$ (Ibata et al. 2001).

An examination of the halo stellar density by eye clearly reveals that it is not smooth, showing significant substructure, particularly an apparent stream of stars stretching to the south of the main body of Andromeda. This feature is significantly enhanced if a selection is made of metal rich red giant branch (RGB) stars (see Figure 1; note, this figure contains further observations with the INT WFC, mapping out the northern sector of the halo also). As well as the prominent tidal stream, these data also reveal complex structure in the halo of M31, including the northern spur and a significant over density of stars in the vicinity of the giant globular cluster G1 (Ferguson et al. 2002). The extensive substructure suggests that M31 may have undergone more recent accretion events, resulting in the rather complex metallicity distribution within its halo.

### 2.2 The distance to the Stream

In unraveling the history of the stream, it is important to determine its three-dimensional structure. To this end, the stream was targeted with the 12K camera on the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFH12K). Covering a total of $``$3deg2, 14 fields were obtained, starting $``$5 degrees below the plane of M31, and ending $``$2.5 degrees above the plane (Figure 2). An examination of colour-magnitude diagrams of the CFH12K fields clearly reveal the presence of the tidal stream of stars as a distinct feature to the very southern extremity of the survey. The situation is, however, different in the north where the signature of the stream quickly peters out, disappearing in the northernmost field; this reflects the structure seen in the INT imaging survey described previously.

The superb quality of the CFH12K data, however, provided an opportunity to measure the distance to the stream at various locations along its length. This was achieved by first determining the location of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) in the main body of M31 at a range of metallicities. By comparing the location of the TRGB in the fields along the stream with the main body of M31, the position of each field relative to M31 could be measured via a cross-correlation of the stellar luminosity functions, as any offsets would primarily be due to a difference in distance (McConnachie et al. 2003). The results of this study are presented in Figure 3, revealing that the Andromeda stream curves away from us below the disk of M31. The most southern extremity of the survey lies at a distance of $``$900kpc from us, 120kpc farther than M31 itself. In the North, the fields are actually in front of M31, but are curving away from us northwards.

### 2.3 Stellar Velocities

While the spatial structure of the Andromeda Stream reveals important clues to its origin and evolution, fully unraveling its dynamical history requires a measurement of the stellar kinematics. As the wide field imaging has resolved the stream into individual stars the determination of stellar velocities is possible with 8-m class telescopes. To this end, a series of observations were undertaken using the DEIMOS spectrograph on the 10-m Keck2 telescope. Employing multislit masks, resulting with $`100`$ spectra over a $`16^{}\times 5^{}`$ region, four fields along the stream were targeted. The RGB sources possessed $`20.5<i<22.0`$, resulting in a velocity accuracy of 5-10km/s.

These observations revealed a strong velocity gradient along the stream, with the southernmost region of the stream traveling toward us at the systemic velocity of M31, while in the vicinity of M31 it is approaching at 300km/s with respect to M31 (Ibata et al., submitted). Coupled with the distance determinations outlined above, these kinematics provide strong constraints on the orbital properties of the stream; Figure 4 presents two preliminary orbit fits to the extant kinematic and spatial data of stars in the stream.

### 2.4 Interpretation

The stream orbits allow us constrain the mass distribution in the M31 halo. A full analysis will require N-body simulations to be carried out in different halo potentials, with the resulting stellar stream compared to the observed position, distance and velocity data. However, a good approximation can be obtained by simply comparing the locus and velocity profile of test particle orbits, a task which is computationally much cheaper. For this approximation to work, the dwarf galaxy progenitor of the stream must be of relatively low mass $`<10^9M_{}`$, for the self-gravity of the stream to be unimportant. By comparing the best-fit orbit to the data as a function of halo potential, the most likely value of the total mass of M31 is $`M_{tot}=6.5\pm 1.6\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ out to $`145kpc`$. With this, Andromeda has a very similar halo mass to the Milky Way. However, this result is somewhat uncertain; using only the southern data to contstrain the form of the potential reduces the halo mass by a factor of $`4`$ \[see Ibata et al. (Submitted) for more details\].

## 3 Future Observations

In September 2003, further DEIMOS spectroscopy was undertaken at Keck2. To increase the observational multiplexing to roughly 1000 stars per mask, a narrow-band filter was employed to capture only the region of the CaII NIR triplet. In this manner we targeted a total of $`2\times 10^4`$ stars. This data will be supplemented with a CFHT/MEGACAM survey of the southern quadrant of M31, covering a total of almost 80 square degrees, calibrating the entire extent of the tidal stream and allowing us to probe the halo between M31 and M33.

This extensive dataset will allow a more complete determination of the orbital properties of the Andromeda stream and characterise its dynamical evolution and ultimate demise. As with the studies of the Sagittarius tidal stream (e.g. Ibata et al. 2001), this approach will reveal the form of the dark matter halo of M31.

## Acknowledgments

GFL thanks Swinburne University’s Astronomy Group for hosting a fun and informative meeting, although Sydney would have been warmer.

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