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# The complex soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151

## 1 Introduction

Prior to the advent of XMM-Newton and Chandra, the origin of the soft X-ray emission from heavily obscured AGN remained very uncertain. Recently, however, observations with XMM-Newton and Chandra have revolutionized our understanding of heavily obscured AGN (for a complete description of XMM-Newton, Chandra and their relative capabilities see Jansen et al. 2001, Weisskopf et al. 2002 and references therein). The combination of the high spatial resolution afforded by Chandra, the large collecting area of XMM-Newton and the high spectral resolution X-ray spectroscopy capabilities (in the form of X-ray grating and CCD instruments) of both missions across the 0.1-12 keV band is beginning reveal many new details of the X-ray emission from heavily obscured AGN, particularly with regard to the soft X-ray emission from these objects. Chandra observations of several heavily obscured AGN have revealed considerable extended soft X-ray emission in each source, that is tightly correlated with the O\[III\]($`\lambda `$5007) emission observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST; NGC 1068 - Young et al. 2001; Mrk 3 - Sako et al. 2000; NGC 4151 - Ogle et al. 2000; Circinus - Sambruna et al. 2001). In several of these sources (e.g. NGC 1068 - Young et al. 2001), the extended X-ray emission and the O\[III\]($`\lambda `$5007) emission clearly traces the spiral arms and other large-scale structures out to a considerable distance from the active nucleus of the galaxy. Similarly recent spectral observations of these AGN with the X-ray grating instruments on Chandra (NGC 1068 - Brinkman et al. 2002, Ogle et al. 2002; Mrk 3 - Sako et al. 2000; NGC 4151 - Ogle et al. 2000; Circinus - Sambruna et al. 2001) and XMM-Newton (Kinkhabwala et al. 2002) have revealed soft X-ray spectra dominated by prominent emission lines from a range of light elements (e.g. C, N, O, Ne etc). These observations constitute a growing body of evidence that suggests that the soft X-ray emission from heavily obscured Seyferts is largely composed of soft X-ray emission lines that originate in gas that is photoionized (and photoexcited) by the central AGN.

The Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 4151 was identified as an X-ray source over thirty years ago (Gursky et al. 1971). One of the brightest AGN accessible in the X-ray band, NGC 4151 has been extensively studied by missions such as EXOSAT, Ginga, ROSAT, ASCA, CGRO and more recently RXTE, BeppoSAX, Chandra and XMM-Newton. This observational focus has revealed that the spectrum of NGC 4151 from 0.1-100 keV is comprised of a complex mixture of emission and absorption components, probably originating in a variety of locations from the innermost parts of the putative accretion disk in NGC 4151, out to the extended narrow-line region of the galaxy. Despite the relatively poor quality of the spectra, previous observations (particularly observations with ASCA) did tentatively reveal several unresolved soft X-ray features, suggesting that the soft X-ray emission was somewhat more complex than had been previously suggested. The most prominent feature found with ASCA was at an energy of $``$0.88 keV and was tentatively associated with O VIII Ly$`\alpha `$ RRC (Weaver et al. 1994; Griffiths et al. 1998). The detailed nature of the soft X-ray emission in NGC 4151 has only recently been revealed through a Chandra HETG observation (Ogle et al. 2000, Yang et al. 2001). This observation demonstrated that the soft X-ray spectrum was composed almost entirely of emission lines and RRC, with little or no detected continuum emission of any form (and hence no absorption features). Utilizing the excellent spatial resolution of Chandra, Ogle et al. (2000) resolved $``$70% of the soft X-ray emission as extended emission, originating up to 11.5′′ from the AGN, that demonstrated an excellent correspondence with the bi-conical O\[III\]($`\lambda `$5007) emission previously imaged with the HST (Evans et al. 1993). The Chandra observation was even capable of resolving the spatial profiles of several of the brightest emission lines (including the iron K$`\alpha `$ emission line) showing that the individual line emission was genuinely extended along the direction of the optical ionization cones. The Chandra observation dramatically confirmed that the hard X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 is strongly cut-off below 2 keV and that the soft excess is not predominantly produced by electron scattering of the hard X-ray continuum. The Chandra analysis finds evidence for both photoionized and collisionally ionized (thermal) gas in the ENLR, however many of the details of the ionized medium remained elusive, due to the large number (33 in total) and low significance of the features detected.

This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 details the XMM-Newton observations of NGC 4151. Section 3 presents the XMM-Newton RGS spectra and discusses the spectral modelling in terms of emission from an ionization cone. Section 4 compares the RGS spectra of NGC 4151 with the soft X-ray spectra of NGC 1068 and Mrk 3. Section 5 presents a preliminary look at the correspondence between the XMM-Newton RGS and the XMM-Newton EPIC soft X-ray spectra of NGC 4151.

## 2 The XMM-Newton observations

NGC 4151 was observed with XMM-Newton five times during December 21st-23rd, 2000. The RGS instruments were active for all five observations and the data were processed with the standard RGS pipeline processing chains incorporated in the XMM-Newton SAS v5.4.1. Dispersed source spectra and background spectra were extracted with the automated RGS extraction tasks in the SAS. The SAS filters the RGS events in dispersion-channel vs CCD-pulse-height space to separate the data from the different spectral orders. Investigation of the individual spectra indicate that the 2nd order RGS spectra contain a negligible amount of information (a count rate of $``$10% of that in the 1st order spectra, despite having $``$60% of the effective area below 10Å) and as a result only the 1st order spectra are presented here. The resulting spectra have a total effective exposure time of $``$128 ks and $``$125 ks for the RGS 1 and 2 instruments respectivly. A previous investigation of the XMM-Newton EPIC spectra confirms that the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 remained relatively constant for the duration of the observation (Schurch et al. 2003). The spectra from the five observations were co-added to produce a single high signal-to-noise source spectrum and a single background spectrum for each RGS instrument. The full spectra and individual lines were analyzed with both maximum likelihood and $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques. For the maximum likelihood analysis the spectra were left unbinned however, for the $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques (which, in general, are not particularly well-suited to fitting the sharp features observed in this and similar high resolution soft X-ray spectra) the spectra were binned to a minimum of 20 counts per spectral channel. Investigation of the spatial extent of the X-ray emission observed by XMM-Newton reveals that the soft X-ray emission is not significantly extended on scales greater than the mirror PSF, consistent with the details of the previously reported Chandra observation of NGC 4151 (Ogle et al. 2000).

## 3 Modelling the RGS spectra

Figure 1 shows the XMM-Newton RGS spectra from the combined observations of NGC 4151. The spectrum is completely dominated by line emission and radiative recombination continua (RRC). Line emission is clearly detected from hydrogen-like and helium-like ionization states of neon, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon and in many cases the line emission associated with these ions is not limited to the Ly$`\alpha `$ (2p-1s) transition but includes higher order resonance transitions (np-1s) labeled $`\beta `$-$`\epsilon `$ for the different hydrogen-like and helium-like species respectively. Much of the unidentified line emission below $``$16Å can be associated with a multitude of unresolved iron L-shell emission lines, along with some contribution from hydrogen-like and helium-like silicon and magnesium. The spectra show no significant continuum emission and no fluorescent line emission (there may be a marginal detection of silicon K$`\alpha `$ fluorescence at $``$7.1Å, however without a good knowledge of the iron L-shell emission in this region it is not possible to measure the line cleanly).

### 3.1 The emission lines

The spectrum is remarkably similar to the soft X-ray spectrum of the archetypal bright Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 1068, reported by Kinkhabwala et al. (2002). Both sources show strong emission line triplets from helium-like nitrogen and oxygen, with a similar pattern of resonance, intercombination and forbidden line strengths. Following the analysis of the XMM-Newton RGS observation of NGC 1068 presented in Kinkhabwala et al. (2002), line fluxes, centroid energies and line widths were determined for the bright, unambiguously identified, emission lines observed in the spectra. The spectral fits quoted here for individual strong line features were performed with $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques (and correspondingly the data were binned to a minimum of 20 counts per spectral channel). An examination of the fit properties using maximum likelihood fitting techniques for individual lines reveals that the best-fit parameters are not significantly different using these statistical techniques in comparison with the $`\chi ^2`$ fits, as expected given the bright nature of the features examined here. The intrinsic profiles of the emission lines are represented by a line model with a Gaussian profile (we caution, however, that the original line profile may in fact not be Gaussian, although it does appear to be a good approximation for the lines presented here) which allows the determination of accurate line centroid energies, fluxes and, in some cases, line widths. The results of fitting this profile to the brightest emission lines are given in Table 1.

The measured fluxes take account of the Galactic column density (2.1$`\times 10^{20}cm^2`$; Warwick et al. 1995) using the tbabs model in XSPEC, and the line shifts are measured with respect to the source redshift of z=0.00332. The systematic uncertainty on measuring the centroid line energies of the lines is estimated to be $``$8$`\times 10^3`$Å (which corresponds to about 150 km s-1; XMM Users Handbook v2.1, 2002). The quoted errors are 90% confidence levels as defined by a $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\chi `$2=2.71 criterion (i.e. assuming one interesting parameter) and include the systematic uncertainty added in quadrature. Most of the measured line centroid energies are consistent with a mild blueshift, of between $``$100-1000 km s-1, with respect to the systemic velocity of the lines. This implies a line-of-sight outflow velocity for the ionized material of $`<`$1000 km s-1, consistent with the line shifts of the absorption lines observed in the UV spectrum of NGC 4151 ($``$600 km s-1; Kriss et al. 1995). Many of the observed line widths are largely unconstrained, with the spectral fitting only yielding upper limits (these are not quoted in Table 1); however the seven line widths that are constrained by the spectral fitting appear to show a bimodal distribution with the shorter wavelength lines having an average line width of $`\sigma `$$``$0.025 Å($``$1000 km s-1 FWHM) and the longer wavelength lines having an average line width of $``$0.005 Å($``$200 km s-1 FWHM). The observed line widths imply that the intrinsic velocity dispersion of the outflowing material is $`<`$1000 km s-1 which is somewhat lower than the line widths of the absorption lines observed in the UV (1000-2500 km s-1; Kriss et al. 1995). The bimodal distribution of the line widths as a function of the wavelength of the line is suggestive of a scenario in which individual clouds of emitting material close to the source of the ionizing continuum are moving more rapidly than clouds further from the continuum source. The large majority of the soft X-ray flux of NGC 4151 as measured by Chandra is not extended on scales larger than $``$2′′, demonstrating that the reported extended soft X-ray flux will not contribute considerably to the line widths measured in the RGS spectrum.

### 3.2 Temperature diagnostics with Radiative Recombination Continua

The radiative recombination continua (RRC) identified in the RGS spectra are the result of a free electron recombining directly into a bound state of an ion. Recombination to the ground state represents the dominant transition and is the only transition considered during the spectral modelling. The free electrons can have any energy above the recombination threshold and hence the feature produced is neither symmetrical or narrow. The energy of the electrons prior to the recombination process is dependent upon the electron temperature of the emitting plasma and hence the width of the RRC features provides a direct measurement of the recombining electron temperature, $`T_\mathrm{e}`$ (Liedahl & Paerels, 1996; Liedahl 1999). RRC originating in hot plasmas are broad and often subtle features however, RRC from cool plasmas are narrow, prominent, features. The velocity dispersion of the emitting material will affect the RRC in exactly the same manner as it affects the emission lines discussed previously, however this effect is negligible here due to the low velocities of the ions involved compared to that of the electrons. RRC from hydrogen-like and helium-like ionization states of Ne, O, N and C are clearly identifiable in Figure 1. Electron temperatures were determined for the bright, unambiguously identified, RRC (Table 2) using the RRC profiles generated by the ’ionization cone’ model discussed in Section 3.4 fit, using $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques, to the individual RRC. Again, an examination of the fit properties using maximum likelihood fitting techniques for individual features reveals that the best-fit parameters are not significantly different using these statistical techniques in comparison with the $`\chi ^2`$ fits. The derived electron temperatures imply electron temperatures of $``$2-4$`\times 10^4`$ K. The association of high-ionization emission lines (e.g. O VIII, Ne X etc; identified in the previous section) with such a low temperature plasma is strongly indicative of a plasma whose ionization state is governed by photoionization as opposed to collisional ionization.

### 3.3 Plasma diagnostics with helium-like triplets

The three most prominent X-ray emission lines from helium-like ions correspond to transitions from the n=2 shell to the n=1 shell and are the resonance (1s2p 1P1$``$1s2 1S0), intercombination (1s2p 3P2,1$``$1s2 1S0) and forbidden (1s2s 3S1$``$1s2 1S0) line transitions (Pradhan et al. 1981). Ratios of the measured line fluxes for the recombination, intercombination and forbidden lines from helium-like ions provide a diagnostic of the electron density and temperature in hot plasmas. Gabriel & Jordan (1969) were the first to recognise the importance of the helium-like triplet lines and used line strength ratios to analyze the solar corona spectra in detail. The ratio of the intensity of the forbidden line to the intensity of the intercombination line (R, where R=f/i) is sensitive to the electron density of the plasma and the ratio of the sum of the intensities of the forbidden and intercombination lines to the intensity of the resonance line \[G, where G=(i+f)/r\] is sensitive to the electron temperature of the plasma. For a detailed discussion of the manner in which the ratios depend on the electron density and the plasma temperature see Pradhan et al. (1981), Porquet & Dubau (2000), Porquet et al. (2002) and references therein.

The R and G ratios for the Ne, O and N triplets observed in the RGS spectrum of NGC 4151 are given in Table 3. The G-values imply an electron temperature of $`<`$$`10^5`$ K, consistent with the electron temperatures implied from the properties of the observed RRC and consistent with photoionization being the dominant ionization mechanism in the plasma (Porquet & Dubau, 2000). The R-values imply electron densities of $``$108-109 cm-3 in nitrogen and oxygen and $``$1010-1011 cm-3 from neon (Porquet & Dubau, 2000). In particular the ratios calculated from the oxygen triplet (which is both the strongest and the least confused of the helium-like triplets) strongly imply a photoionized plasma however, extracting detailed values of density and temperature for the emitting material is complicated by the possibility that a strong radiation field (i.e. photoexcitation) can mimic the effect that a relatively high density has on the line strengths. In such a situation the electron density, and to a lesser extent, the electron temperature can be overestimated (Porquet et al. 2002). We note that the expected contribution of blended dielectronic satellite lines to these ratios has not been taken into account in the values quoted here. For the N and O triplets this contribution is negligible; however the Ne triplet is significantly affected. For a high temperature, collisionally dominated, plasma the additional contribution can result in an error of $``$1% and $``$9% for the R and G ratios respectively, however for a photoionized plasma, where the temperatures are several orders of magnitude lower, this effect can be considerably greater (Porquet et al. 2002).

### 3.4 The ionization cone model

Given the similarity between the RGS spectra of NGC 1068 and NGC 4151, we utilize the ‘ionization cone’ model developed by Kinkhabwala et al. (2002) in their analysis of the RGS spectrum of NGC 1068, to fit the RGS spectrum of NGC 4151. This model, which was incorporated into XSPEC for ease of spectral fitting, reproduces the hydrogen-like and helium-like line emission, and the associated RRC, from an irradiated cone of optically thin plasma (c.f. the ionization cones observed in O\[III\] by HST) shown schematically in Figure 2. The model includes the effects of both photoionization and, crucially, photoexcitation. Photoexcitation is the process by which the absorption of a photon with insufficient energy to ionize the atom, results in the transition of an inner-shell electron to a higher energy level within the atom. The excited electron will rapidly undergo one or more radiative transitions, decaying back to its original energy state. For each atomic species, photoexcitation is expected to enhance the intensity of the higher order resonance transition lines relative to the 1st order resonance line. Photoexcitation was observed to play a significant role in the spectrum of NGC 1068 where the Ly$`\beta `$, Ly$`\gamma `$ and Ly$`\delta `$ lines were significantly stronger than predicted by models based on pure photoionization or collisional ionization.

Here, as with NGC 1068, the plasma is irradiated by the unabsorbed intrinsic power-law continuum, the slope of which in the case of NGC 4151 is fixed at $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=1.65, based on the analysis of the hard X-ray XMM-Newton EPIC spectrum presented in Schurch et al. (2003). The luminosity of the central source, LX, and the covering fraction of the cone, f, are fixed at LX=6$`\times 10^{43}`$ erg s-1 and f=0.1, respectively. The modelling includes both Galactic column density (2.1$`\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2; Warwick et al. 1995) using the tbabs model in XSPEC and a source redshift of z=0.00332. The electron temperatures for each atomic species were fixed at the temperatures found from the analysis of the RRC (Table 2), where possible, and the remaining RRC temperatures were fixed at the temperatures identified for NGC 1068 by Kinkhabwala et al. (based on the similarity between the observed bright RRC in NGC 4151 and the corresponding RRC in NGC 1068). The remaining free parameters of the model are the transverse velocity distribution of the lines, $`\sigma _v^{obs}`$, the radial velocity distribution of the lines, $`\sigma _v^{rad}`$, and the radial column density of each individual atomic species, N$`{}_{ion}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{rad}`$. The modelling presented in the next section includes a significant contribution from iron L-shell emission lines. Iron L-shell emission, known to be present in the soft X-ray spectrum of both Mrk 3 and NGC 1068, will contribute significantly between $``$9-16Å(0.75-1.4 keV) and will results in an artificially high measure of the ionic column densities of Neon and Magnesium if it is not incorporated in the modelling.

### 3.5 Fitting the ionization cone model to the RGS spectra

The ionization cone model was fitted to the RGS spectra in XSPEC for simplicity. We note that the $`\chi ^2`$ minimization techniques, used earlier in the paper to fit specific bright spectral features, are, in general, not well-suited to fitting wide-band X-ray grating spectra which often incorporate many additional low-significance spectral features. With this in mind, the ionization cone model is fit to the RGS spectra of NGC 4151 using maximum likelihood fitting techniques. The complexity of this specific model makes the accurate determination of individual parameter errors problematic. Despite this caveat, the model provides a “good fit” to all the hydrogen-like and helium-like line emission and RRC observed in the RGS spectra. Here, the term “good fit” here refers only to a set of parameters that correctly reproduces the distinct features observed in the spectrum (i.e. it is not a statistical measure of the goodness of fit of the model). Because of this, statistical errors are not quoted for either the column densities or the velocity measurements. Figure 3 shows the best-fit of the ionization cone model to all the hydrogen-like and helium-like emission lines and RRC in the RGS spectrum of NGC 4151. The best-fit radial ionic column densities and the associated RRC electron temperatures are given in Table 4; $`\sigma _v^{obs}`$ has a best-fit value of $``$400 km s-1 and $`\sigma _v^{rad}`$ has a best-fit value of $``$330 km s-1. We do not quote any specific best-fit values for the ionic column densities of iron responsible for the iron L-shell emission (Fe XVI-XXIII) due to the unresolved nature of the specific iron L-shell lines. Typically the ionic iron column densities are of the order of $``$few $`\times `$1016 cm-2.

Both the velocity measurements are in reasonable agreement with the average line widths and line shifts measured from the individual line centroid energies. Kinkhabwala et al. (2002) quote, based on the NGC 1068 data, an estimate for the uncertainties on the individual model parameters of approximately a few tens of percents for the ionic column densities and approximately a factor of 2 for the transverse and radial velocities. Here, the data are of somewhat worse statistical quality than the NGC 1068 spectra and so we expect the parameters to be less well constrained. NGC 1068 is a factor of $``$3 times brighter than NGC 4151 and hence the errors on the fit parameters from the NGC 4151 spectrum will be a factor of $``$2 times greater than the errors estimated for the NGC 1068 fit parameters. Using a fractional ionic abundance of 0.5 for O VIII, the column density of O VII quoted in Table 4 yields an equivalent hydrogen column density of NH$`>`$2$`\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2.

## 4 A comparison with NGC 1068 and Mrk 3

The archetypal Seyfert 2 galaxies, NGC 1068 and Mrk 3 have both been the targets of recent X-ray grating observations. The soft X-ray emission in both of these sources is extremely similar to the soft X-ray emission from NGC 4151; it is extended on scales of hundreds of parsecs, shows a strong correlation with the optical ionization cones identified in HST O\[III\]($`\lambda `$5007) images (Young et al. 2001; Sako et al. 2000) and the soft X-ray spectra are all dominated by similar emission lines and RRC.

### 4.1 The comparison with the XMM-Newton RGS spectrum of NGC 1068

The soft X-ray XMM-Newton RGS spectrum of NGC 4151 is remarkably similar to that of NGC 1068. Both sources show strong hydrogen-like and helium-like line emission and RRC from carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, magnesium and silicon. The resemblance between the spectra is apparent in the details of the spectra as well as on a more general level. For example, both sources show similar patterns of resonance, intercombination and forbidden line strengths for the helium-like triplets of nitrogen and oxygen and both show significant (but unresolved) iron L-shell emission. The properties of the detected emission lines are remarkably alike in the two sources, both in terms of the lines present and the scale of their energy shifts. In both sources the prominent emission lines are blue-shifted by $`<`$1000 km s-1 with average line shifts of 305 km s-1 and 375 km s-1 for NGC 4151 and NGC 1068, respectively (Kinkhabwala et al. 2002). The line widths measured for NGC 1068 do not show the bimodal distribution observed in NGC 4151. However, since only 7 lines have constrained line widths in the NGC 4151 spectrum, compared to 23 lines with constrained widths in the NGC 1068 spectrum, caution should be strongly emphasized in interpreting the validity of the distribution of line widths in NGC 4151. Interestingly the average line width found in the NGC 1068 data ($``$1100 km s-1 FWHM) is comparable to the average line width of the group of broader lines in the NGC 4151 spectrum ($``$1000 km s-1 FWHM). It is tempting, based upon a comparison of the helium-like triplet plasma diagnostic ratios (R and G; Section 3.3) to infer that the ionization cones in NGC 4151 have a somewhat lower electron temperature and a somewhat higher electron density than those in NGC 1068 (Kinkhabwala et al. 2002). Unfortunatly the situation may not be a clear as cut as this simple comparison suggests, primarily due to the unknown effect of photoexcitation on the diagnostic ratios (discussed previously in Seciton 3.3). The best-fit ionic column densities for NGC 1068 were found to be similar to those observed in absorption for Seyfert 1 galaxies, implying either radially stratified ionization zones or, more likely, a broad distribution of densities at any given radius. An inspection of the radial column densities fit to the RGS spectrum reveals that NGC 4151 appears to have less ionized material in its ionization cones, by a factor of $``$3.5 on average. The best-fit ionic electron temperatures, based on the widths of the RRC features, are also extremely similar between NGC 4151 and NGC 1068 (although the comparatively large errors on these temperatures prevents any definite conclusions being drawn regarding this similarity). The ionic column densities are dependent on a combination of factors including, cone length, density, ionization parameter and the filling factor of the material. Lower ionic column densities could be the result of lower ionizing flux or less material in the ionization cones, however a somewhat more plausible explanation, in line with the smaller R-values from the helium-like line triplets, could be that the material in the ionization cones of NGC 4151 is rather more dense than the material in the ionization cones of NGC 1068. Since the recombination rate is dependent on the density of the material, this can result in a smaller ionized fraction for a similar ionizing continuum.

### 4.2 The comparison with the Chandra HETG observation of Mrk 3

The Chandra HETG observation of Mrk 3 was the first published high resolution soft X-ray spectrum of a Seyfert 2 galaxy and showed unambiguously that the soft X-ray emission in Mrk 3 is composed almost entirely of emission lines and RRC, with little or no continuum emission. The soft X-ray spectrum of Mrk 3 is, again, remarkably analogous to the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151, though with somewhat less statistical significance due to the rapidly decreasing effective area of the HETG instrument at wavelengths above $``$9Å. In both sources there is strong evidence to suggest that the observed emission lines are produced in a photoionized and photoexcited plasma (Sako et al. 2000). The importance of photoexcitation in the spectrum of Mrk 3 is highlighted by the observed weak iron L-shell emission, rather than by the enhanced higher order resonance transitions, rejecting explanations from a recombination dominated or a collisionally dominated plasma. Despite this impressive spectrum, the Chandra observation of Mrk 3 only partially resolves two of the helium-like line triplets detected in the RGS spectrum of NGC 4151 (oxygen and neon), due to the limited number of photons in each feature, and as a result many of the properties of the plasma are not well constrained. In particular, the resonance and intercombination lines of these triplets cannot be separated and as a result Sako et al. (2000) quote a different diagnostic line ratio (i.e. (r+i)/f) to the line ratios used here.

At wavelengths shorter than $``$9Å the Chandra spectrum shows evidence for a reflection dominated continuum along with clear detections of emission lines that are either extremely difficult or impossible to detect with the RGS (given its limited spectral bandpass), namely Fe XXVI, Fe XXV, Fe K$`\alpha `$, S XVI, S XV, S K$`\alpha `$, Si XIV, Si XIII, Si K$`\alpha `$, Mg XII and Mg XI (Sako et al. 2000). This plethora of lines highlights the complimentary capabilities of XMM-Newton and Chandra and strongly supports future observations of bright, heavily obscured AGN with both Chandra (using the HETG) and XMM-Newton, to obtain the highest possible resolution X-ray spectra over the widest possible energy range. The line ratios calculated from the Chandra detections of the helium-like silicon and magnesium line triplets (i.e. Si XIII and Mg XI) are all inconsistent with the expected values for a collisionally ionized plasma and are marginally consistent with the predictions from a photoionized plasma, similar to the conclusions from the triplet ratios for both NGC 4151 and NGC 1068.

## 5 A brief comparison with the XMM-Newton EPIC spectra

One of the strengths of XMM-Newton is that all the science instruments operate simultaneously during each observation, allowing a direct comparison between the high resolution spectra from the RGS instruments and the lower resolution spectra from the EPIC CCD detectors. This comparison is particularly useful in exposing features in each source spectrum that the other detectors struggle to detect. For example, broad features present in the 0.3-2.5 keV range are not easily identified in RGS spectra, but will be more clearly observed by the EPIC instruments. Conversely, features that appear to be broad in the EPIC spectrum may be resolved into a set of individual narrow lines by the RGS instruments. Conclusions from the process of comparing the EPIC and RGS spectra are complicated by the need for good calibration and cross-calibration for each instrument involved.

Figure 4 shows the full window mode EPIC PN spectra fit with a model that combines the best-fit of the hard X-ray model developed in Schurch et al. (2003) and the best-fit of the ‘ionization cone’ soft X-ray model presented in Section 3.4. In addition to the hard X-ray model and the ionization cone model, a silicon K$`\alpha `$ line was included in the fitting. The energy of the line was fixed at 1.73 keV and the line width was fixed to be the same width as the iron K$`\alpha `$ line width. The line flux was fixed to be 5% of the flux contained in the iron K$`\alpha `$ line, in keeping with the ratio of the iron K$`\alpha `$ to silicon K$`\alpha `$ line fluxes measured in the high resolution Chandra spectrum of Mrk 3. Initially the column densities of the hydrogen and helium-like atomic species were fixed to be the values measured by the RGS data. Key parameters in the hard X-ray model (e.g. ionization parameter, iron K$`\alpha `$ line flux etc; see Schurch et al. 2003 for details) were free parameters in the fit, but no contributions from iron L-shell transitions were included in the fit. This highly restricted model does not provide a good fit to the EPIC spectrum, with considerable residuals remaining below 2 keV. Relaxing the constraints of the model by incorporating a contribution from iron L-shell emission, improves the fit considerably and results in similar values for the column densities of iron ionization states from iron XVI-XXIII to those found with the RGS. Despite the improvement, the overall fit remains poor with considerable residuals still remaining across the soft X-ray region. Relaxing the constraints of the model more considerably by allowing the column densities of the hydrogen and helium-like atomic species to be free parameters in the model fit, provides a reasonable fit to the broadband X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 ($`\chi ^2`$=2709 for 2194 d.o.f) however residuals remain in the fit below 2 keV at a level of $``$10% (Figure 4). The best-fit column densities for the hydrogen and helium-like atomic species are typically within a factor of $``$3 of the best-fit column densities determined from the RGS modelling. We do note quote these values here because the relatively poor spectral resolution of the EPIC instruments result in considerable degeneracy between the column densities measured for specific atomic species making any specific values at best unreliable and at worst misleading. Despite this caveat, we note that the best-fit column densities of Nitrogen VII, Neon X and Silicon XIV measured in the EPIC data are considerably lower in comparison with those measured in the RGS Data (factors of 3.5, 40, and 16 respectively). The modelling is not significantly improved by the addition of either a soft X-ray power-law (representing a scattered fraction of the underlying continuum) or blackbody emission (to represent the canonical ’soft X-ray excess’ often observed in Seyfert 1 galaxies). Considerably more detailed modelling of the RGS spectrum utilizing the additional data from the most recent XMM-Newton observations of NGC 4151, coupled with improvements in the relative instrument calibrations, is required before any firm conclusions on the nature of the remaining fit residuals can be determined.

## 6 Synopsis

We present a detailed analysis of the RGS spectrum of NGC 4151 from a total of $``$125 ks of XMM-Newton observations. The EPIC spectra from these observations are presented in Schurch et al. (2003). The analysis uses the high spectral resolution of the RGS instruments to characterize the nature and origin of the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151.

* The soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 (Figure 1) is completely dominated by line emission and radiative recombination continua. Line emission, including higher order ($`\beta `$-$`\epsilon `$) resonance transitions, is clearly detected from hydrogen-like and helium-like ionization states of neon, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Much of the unidentified line emission below $``$16Å can be associated with a combination of iron L-shell emission and lines from hydrogen-like and helium-like silicon and magnesium.
* The RGS spectra show no significant continuum emission and no fluorescent line emission associated with neutral material.
* The measured line centroid energies are consistent with a blueshift of between $``$100-1000 km s-1, with respect to the systemic velocity of NGC 4151. The seven observed line widths that are constrained by the data tentatively suggest a bimodal distribution, with average line widths of $``$1000 km s-1 and $``$200 km s-1 (FWHM). The measured line blueshifts are generally consistent with the outflow velocities of the absorption lines observed in the UV spectrum of NGC 4151 (Kriss et al. 1995), implying that the UV and X-ray line features originate in the same material.
* Plasma diagnostics, based on the ratios of the resonance, intercombination and forbidden lines of the observed helium-like triplets, imply electron temperatures of $``$1-5$`\times 10^4`$ K and electron densities of $``$108 cm-3 in nitrogen and oxygen and $``$1010 cm-3 from neon (Porquet & Dubau 2000) We note again that the effects of photoexcitation may have a considerable effect on the values of electron temperature and density determined by these diagnostic ratios (see Section 3.3). The wide range of the calculated electron densities is suggestive of either a ‘clumpy’ extended NLR or a region in which the material has grossly non-solar elemental abundances.
* The soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 is remarkably similar to the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 1068 (Kinkhabwala et al. 2002). The correspondence between the two source spectra is evident on the general scale from the strong emission lines and RRC associated with the same ionic species, which dominate the spectra of both sources. The resemblance of the NGC 4151 and NGC 1068 soft X-ray spectra is also apparent in the details of the spectra (i.e. the similar helium-like triplet ratios and RRC temperatures).
* The ‘ionization cone’ model, developed by Kinkhabwala et al. (2002) to model the RGS spectra of NGC 1068, reproduces all of the hydrogen-like and helium-like emission features observed in the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151 in detail. The best-fit radial and transverse velocities of the material in the ionization cones agree well with the blueshift and velocity dispersion measured from the individual line centroid energies, and are similar to the radial and transverse velocities measured from the soft X-ray spectrum of NGC 1068. The individual ionic column densities are somewhat smaller than those measured for NGC 1068, which, in combination with the plasma diagnostic ratios from the helium-like triplets, suggests that the material in the ionization cones of NGC 4151 may be somewhat denser than the material in the ionization cones of NGC 1068.

## 7 Acknowledgments

NJS gratefully acknowledges financial support from PPARC and, with REG, also acknowledges the support of NASA grant NAG5-9902. It is a pleasure to thank Keith Arnaud for his help with XSPEC. This work is based on observations obtained with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and the USA (NASA). The authors wish to thank the XMM-Newton team for the hard work and dedication that underlies the success of the mission. This research has made extensive use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service.


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# Chemical and mass evolution of galaxies

## 1. Introduction

In the local Universe we see a variety of galaxy types that can be distinguished both by their morphology and their internal kinematics. The two main families are the spiral galaxies in which stars and gas rotate around the center in a disk and the elliptical galaxies that are gravitationally stabilized by the random motion of the stars within a triaxial body. Some kind of intermediate class are the lenticular or S0 galaxies with central bulges surrounded by disks. In addition, we observe irregular galaxies with many different structures.

One of the main tasks of extragalactic research is to understand why the galaxies appear in such different types. Is the structure of a galaxy already fixed at the time of its formation? Or does it change during the time of its evolution and is it subject to external influence? The vastly accepted paradigm of galaxy formation is nowadays the theory of the hierarchical growth of all structure in the Universe. Large galaxies are built up via the merging of smaller systems. In such events, the disk structure of the progenitors is transformed into a spheroidal shape. An important ingredient of the theory is the dominance of cold dark matter and the main prediction is that the total mass of galaxies is growing during the evolution.

A first step to quantify galaxy evolution is to study the luminosity of galaxies up to high redshifts with deep photometric observations. Well-known deep imaging are the Hubble Deep Fields (Williams et al. 1996; Casertano et al. 2000) but their major drawback is their very small field size. Therefore, the Fors consortium111Institutes in Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Munich under the PI Prof. Appenzeller. made the effort to observe a comparable deep but larger field with the Fors instrument at the VLT. Consuming some 72 hours pure integration time, deep images were taken in the $`UBgRIz`$ filters, supplemented by $`J`$ and $`K`$ near-infrared exposures with the NTT (Heidt et al. 2003). With the aid of photometric redshifts, number counts and luminosity functions can be constructed up to redshifts $`z5`$ in this Fors Deep Field (FDF; Gabasch et al. 2004).

But a more robust test of the Cold Dark Matter theory would be the measurement of the mass and size of distant galaxies, because the brightness of galaxies is subject to star formation processes. A rather quiescent luminosity evolution of the stellar population of a galaxy can get quickly wiped out by any contemporary star burst even if it involves only a small fraction in mass. From pure photometry it is very difficult to judge whether any galaxy within a sample is undergoing such an event.

With 10m-class telescopes it is nowadays possible to take spectra with sufficient spectral and spatial resolution of faint galaxies down to $`23R`$ mag reaching the necessary $`S/N`$ within reasonable exposure times. Analyzing spectral lines, the characteristic velocity of the stars and gas within a galaxy can be determined which is a measure for its total mass. For elliptical galaxies, the width of absorption lines reflects the internal velocity dispersion, while for spiral galaxies, the Doppler shifts of emission lines trace the rotational speed. The characteristic size of distant galaxies can be determined in spatially highly resolved images as they can be obtained either with the HST or groundbased telescopes equipped with adaptive optics. Important tools for the quantitative investigation of galaxy evolution are scaling relations because entire samples of galaxies can be compared with each other rather than just individual galaxies. Such scaling relations are, for example, the Fundamental Plane of ellipticals (e.g. Bender, Burstein, & Faber 1992) or the Tully–Fisher relation (TFR) of spirals (e.g. Pierce & Tully 1992 \[PT92\]).

## 2. Evolution of the Tully–Fisher relation

As one example, the TFR of galaxies up to $`z1`$ corresponding to a lookback time of $`8`$ Gyr or half the age of the Universe222The “concordance” cosmology is used with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{matter}}=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\lambda =0.7`$, and $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. is shown in Figure 1. Only emission–line galaxies that exhibit a rotation curve (RC) which turns into a flat regime with constant velocity are suitable for display in such a TF diagram. The maximum rotational speed ($`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$) in such a case is then a measure for the total mass of the galaxy including its Dark Matter. Distant galaxies impose difficulties on the analysis of RCs not only due to their faintness but because their small sizes limit strongly the spatial extent of any emission line. From a sample of 113 spirals in the FDF, we were able to determine $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$ for 77 galaxies with $`0.1z1`$.

Comparing the restframe $`B`$ magnitudes for fixed $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$ between the distant FDF sample and a local sample by PT92, we find a substantial increase in the luminosity for small galaxies but very similar brightnesses for large ones (Ziegler et al. 2002; Böhm et al. 2004). Such a mass-dependent evolution is not easily explained by CDM theory since it involves the modeling of stellar populations. First simulations indicate that the efficiency, strength and duration of star formation in a galaxy may depend on its total mass. For a better understanding, spectroscopic observations of many more distant galaxies are needed, too, as it will be possible with SALT. This becomes even more obvious when we try to subdivide the emission–line galaxies into different types as in Figure 1a. Looking into such subsamples will allow to investigate the impact of varying global parameters like star formation rates or mass-to-light ratios.

## 3. Environmental dependence of galaxy evolution

Looking at the distribution of different galaxy types, it becomes obvious that the average mean distance between galaxies must play a role in shaping a galaxy’s structure. This morphology–density relation manifests itself most clearly in the prevalence of early–type galaxies in the center of rich clusters of galaxies (Dressler 1980). At the same time, interactions between cluster galaxies and the hot X-ray emitting intracluster gas or the cluster potential indicate phenomena specific to clusters (e.g. van Gorkom 2003). We also observe evolution in the galaxy population of clusters, i.e. the mixture of the various types. Distant clusters at $`z0.5`$ have, for example, a greatly reduced fraction of S0 galaxies that dominate the bright population locally while the number of ellipticals stays nearly constant (Dressler et al. 1997). These findings have provoked the question whether field spirals falling into a cluster could get transformed into S0 galaxies during the time due to clusterspecific processes. Another environmental dependence is given for the global star formation as it is observed to be largely suppressed in cluster members (e.g. Gómez et al. 2003). Investigating galaxies in densities intermediate between the field and cluster environments reveals that at least two different interaction processes on different timescales must be responsible for transforming galaxy structure and suppressing star formation, respectively (e.g. Balogh et al. 2002).

Interactions can also affect a galaxy’s internal kinematics creating asymmetric RCs, for example, or totally corrupted velocity fields (e.g. Rubin, Waterman, & Kenney 1999). In a Universe with hierarchically growing structure, it is predicted that the galaxy merger rate and frequency of infalling galaxies increases with redshift. Observations should therefore investigate the internal kinematics of galaxies in clusters up to $`z1`$ as it is now possible with the big telescopes like SALT. Indeed, spirals in clusters with $`0.3<z<0.6`$, which we studied with Fors, display peculiar RCs (Figure 2; Ziegler et al. 2003). On the other hand, several cluster members have undistorted RCs with an outer flat part. These galaxies can be compared to field galaxies in a TF diagram allowing to investigate whether they might be under- or over-luminous for their measured $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$. Truncation of star formation in a cluster member leads to a dimming, whereas interaction-induced star bursts results in a brightening of the galaxy. Our cluster targets are distributed very similar to the distant FDF spirals, so that their stellar populations are momentarily not suspect to any changes (Figure 1b). But it may well be that those galaxies with distorted RCs in our sample have star formation rates which got affected by the same interaction process that produced the kinematic peculiarity. Much larger samples of distant cluster galaxies are needed to robustly investigate these issues.

## 4. Evolution of the stellar populations

Another important tool next to scaling relations for the quantitative measurement of galaxy evolution are diagnostic diagrams where absorption line strengths are plotted versus each other and compared to a model grid. A widely used application is the Lick/IDS system, in which Balmer lines (in particular H$`\beta `$) are taken as age sensitive indicators whereas the metallicity (\[Z/H\]) is measured by combining Mg and Fe lines (e.g. Faber et al. 1985). More sophisticated stellar population models can nowadays also distinguish between different enrichment histories for various elements and are no longer fixed to the solar abundance (e.g. Thomas, Maraston, & Bender 2003 \[TMB03\]). This opens the possibility for another important test of CDM theory. It is predicted that large elliptical galaxies in high-density peaks corresponding to rich clusters are formed in a very short time ($`<1`$ Gyr) with the bulk of their stars created in a vigorous star burst, whereas ellipticals in the field get assembled all the time by major mergers of spirals that already had an extended star formation history (e.g. Kauffmann 1996). The stellar populations of ellipticals in different environments should therefore have different enrichment histories for the Mg or $`\alpha `$ elements and the Fe-peak elements which can only be measured by spectroscopy. This comes about, because these element families are to first order mainly produced by supernovae of type II and type Ia, respectively, which have very different timescales. SN IIs are exploded massive stars which have a lifetime of only a few Myrs. SN Ia are the endproducts of a binary stellar system with an evolutionary time of $`1`$ Gyr. If a cluster elliptical ended its star burst within a few Myrs, then it should be deficient in Fe leading to Mg/Fe ratios much larger than the solar mix or than in field ellipticals. Since an accurate measurement of the absorption line strengths needs a minimum S/N of $`30`$, spectroscopy of distant faint galaxies is only feasible with the 10m-class telescopes like SALT.

As an example, two diagnostic diagrams are shown in Figure 3 for early–type galaxies in the Coma cluster (Kuntschner et al. 2001) together with field ellipticals from the FDF (Ziegler et al. 2004) and cluster ellipticals (Ziegler & Bender 1997) both samples having $`z0.4`$. Since absorption lines of distant galaxies can be corrupted if they are redshifted to a region with strong terrestrial emission or absorption, the number of galaxies is different for the two panels, and we do not use the classical combination of Fe lines but only the Fe5270 index for the assessment of Fe abundance. The bulk of the data in Panel a) can be modeled with old ages with the distant galaxies being younger by $`4`$ Gyr on average than Coma compatible with the lookback time. Three of the FDF field objects have luminosity-weighted ages of $`2`$ Gyr and solar metallicity which may indicate that these galaxies are the endproducts of a recent merger between spirals. None of the distant field ellipticals reach the peak values in metallicity of the cluster members. The majority of the $`z0.4`$ galaxies exhibit a super-solar Mg overabundance relative to Fe like the local reference (Panel b).

### Acknowledgments.

Most of the work presented here stems from my Volkswagen Foundation Junior Research Group “Kinematic Evolution of Galaxies” that includes Dr. I. Berentzen, Dr. A. Böhm, A. Fritz, B. Gerken, and Dr. K. Jäger. I fully acknowledge their permission to show the results of their research here. I also acknowledge the very fruitful collaborations within the Fors consortium and with the University of Durham. This work has been supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (I/76 520).

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# A Photometric Study of Stars in the MBM 12 Association

## 1 Introduction

Photometric variability is a well known characteristic of young, low mass stars. Irregular variations of up to several magnitudes are seen as a result of accretion and, perhaps, occultation events within the dusty and gaseous disks surrounding classical T Tauri stars (CTTS). This behavior can persist for as long as $``$10 My as the example of TW Hya (Alencar & Batalha, 2002) illustrates. One also sees variations of typically a few tenths of a magnitude or less in weak-line T Tauri stars (WTTS) that may be largely or entirely attributed to cool (magnetic) spots on the stellar surfaces (Herbst et al., 1994). If the spot patterns persist for many rotations it is often possible to derive rotation periods for the stars by monitoring their photometric variations. Recent accounts of this type of work and its value have been given for the Orion Nebula cluster by Herbst et al. (2002), for the larger Orion association by Stassun et al. (1999), Carpenter, Hillenbrand, & Skrutskie (2001) and Rebull (2001), for the young cluster IC 348 by Cohen, Herbst & Williams (2003) and for NGC 2264 by Lamm et al. (2003).

MBM 12 (Magnani, Blitz & Mundy, 1985) is a nearby complex of dark clouds which has given birth to a small number of relatively low mass stars (Luhman, 2001; Ogura et al., 2003) known as the MBM 12 association, or MBM 12A. The distance was originally thought to be only 65 pc (Hearty et al., 2000a, b), which would make MBM 12 the closest known star forming cloud. Recent studies, however, indicate much larger values near 300 pc (Luhman, 2001; Straizys et al., 2002; Andersson et al., 2002). At the larger distance, the stars must be well above the main sequence and, therefore, extremely young ($``$1-5 My). The recent discovery of an edge-on disk around an association member (Jayawardhana et al., 2002; Chauvin et al., 2002) supports this view, as does the detection of millimeter wavelength radiation from some members (Itoh et al., 2003). Our interest in the association came from its inclusion on a list of possible targets for a Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) satellite study to detect extra-solar planets by astrometric means (Beichman, 2001). While it may be too distant for that purpose, we have carried out a photometric study of nine of the twelve known members in four fields and report the results here. They provide some new insight into the nature of MBM 12A as well as some information on its members, including several rotation periods.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

The observations were obtained on $``$30 nights between 8 Nov 2001 and 8 March 2002 with a 1024$`\times `$1024 Photometrics CCD attached to the 0.6m telescope at Van Vleck Observatory, located on the campus of Wesleyan University. The field of view is 10.2$`\mathrm{}`$ on a side and the size of a pixel is 0.6$`\mathrm{}`$. Four fields (designated A, B, C and D) were chosen to include the largest number of MBM 12A members possible from the list of twelve given by Luhman (2001). On each clear night, a sequence of 5 one-minute exposures was taken through the Cousins I filter for each field, as well as twilight flats, bias frames, and dark frames. These were combined into an image of effectively 5 minutes duration but with a greater dynamic range than would have been possible with a single exposure. Also, any effects of non-uniform tracking by the telescope are removed by this procedure. Preliminary reductions were done with standard IRAF tasks. Aperture photometry was performed on all uncrowded stars clearly visible on the images using the APPHOT package in IRAF. An aperture radius of 7.5 pixels was adopted and an annulus with inner and outer radii of 10 and 15 pixels respectively was used to determine the sky level.

Differential magnitudes on the instrumental system, which is close to Cousins I but was not transformed to it (since we had no color data) were computed for all stars by identifying a group of non-variable comparison stars. This was done by simply choosing the brightest few stars and averaging their magnitudes, taking care not to include any known association members or field variable stars. Variables reveal themselves by their larger than expected scatter relative to the comparison set during this process and may easily be weeded out. Only one such star was found in our four fields. Using this technique we found that the average error of a single photometric measurement was about 0.005 mag for bright stars and deteriorates to about 0.1 mag near the measuring limit. In Fig. 1 we show the standard deviation ($`\sigma `$) computed for each star over the season in each field versus its average instrumental magnitude. Note that it is not possible to combine data from different fields because we have no absolute calibration of our instrumental magnitudes. However, all of the fields show the same expected form for the errors and it is rather easy to identify true variables on these figures.

Variable stars may be identified on these plots by their location significantly above the line defined by the bulk of the field stars. It is clear that seven of the nine program stars (plotted as diamonds on Fig. 1) are variable stars, while two are not. These two lie among the sequences defined by the field stars. We have also found one bright field star (plotted as a square in the figure) which is clearly variable (and periodic, as is shown below). One other bright field star, the brightest object in field C, appears to have a large value of $`\sigma `$ for its brightness. However, it is the brightest star in our sample by about a magnitude and turns out to be close to the saturation limit of the CCD chip near the peak of its point spread function on nights of good seeing. We attribute the star’s apparent variability to this phenomenon and regard it here as likely to be a non-variable. There is also no indication of periodicity in its variations. In Table 1 we provide data and results on the nine known members of MBM 12A which were within the boundaries of these fields and on the one variable “field” star. Data in the first six columns are taken from Luhman (2001). The seventh column indicates whether the star can be identified as clearly variable based on it location on the plots shown in Fig. 1. The last four columns give the values of $`\sigma `$, full range of variation (in mag), period of the variation if it is identified as cyclic and false alarm probability (see next section).

The variable field star that turned up by chance in our photometry has H$`\alpha `$ in absorption, so it has not been considered a candidate member of MBM 12A. However, it has been identified as a probable X-ray source by Hearty et al. (2000a); it is star 38 in their study. By request, Hearty (private communication) re-examined his spectrum of the star and discovered an error in the published data. The correct spectral type (K3) and equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ are given in our Table 1. The star does not have a detectable Li absorption line. It is undoubtedly a rather young star, but not young enough to be considered a potential member of MBM 12A, as we discuss further below.

The two association members (MBM 12A-7 and MBM 12A-11) that were not detected as variable are also the two faintest and latest-type (M6) stars in this sample. Both factors could be involved in our lack of detection of variability. Obviously, the increasing importance of measurement errors as the stars become fainter makes it increasingly difficult to identify true variables as stellar brightness declines. Also, since it is presumably cool spots which produce the variations in most cases, the increasing lack of contrast between the extremely cool stellar photospheres of these M6 stars and their spot regions, if they have any, might make it more difficult to detect rotation-induced variations. Further observations with better signal-to-noise or at more favorable wavelengths are obviously required to reveal any small photometric variations that may be present in these stars.

To summarize this section, seven of the nine previously identified members are found to be variable stars in this study. This reinforces the view that photometric variability can be a very useful criterion in identifying members of young stellar groups. Of course, the numbers in this association are small but, where they are larger (e.g. IC 348, ONC and NGC 2264), the result is the same. Virtually all pre-main sequence stars in clusters (at least earlier than M6) are variable stars at detectable levels (a few hundredths of a mag. or more) and it appears that the stars in this loose association are no different from their cluster counterparts in that regard.

## 3 Periodicity

The periodogram technique of Scargle (1982), as formulated by Horne & Baliunas (1986) was used to search for periodicity in our data. We did this for every star measured, not just for known members of the association or obvious variable stars. The reason is that the periodogram technique is actually much more sensitive to true variability (if it is periodic) than the method of simply calculating a standard deviation since, for periodic stars, the signal is concentrated into a narrow band in frequency space while the noise is not. In other words, it is easier to detect low amplitude variability when it is periodic than when it is stochastic. As it turns out we did not, in fact, discover any star in these fields as being periodic which had not already revealed itself as a variable. However, by not limiting our photometry to known association members we did, at least, discover that the variable field star is indeed periodic.

Periodogram functions for the nine association members and the one variable field star are shown in Fig. 2. Four of these ten stars show what we regard as significant peaks in their power spectra indicating the presence of true periodicity. These are marked on the figure and the periods (in days) given there and in Table 1. Based on their power levels one can estimate a false alarm probability (FAP) following the prescription given by Horne & Baliunas (1986). As they discuss, however, their formulation only applies if each data point is independent of the others. This is not true in our original time series since we have more than one measurement at a closely spaced interval on some nights. To use the Horne & Baliunas formula we must, therefore, average data obtained within the same night. The FAP values calculated by this means are given in the last column of Table 1 for the stars identified as periodic. In all four cases, the chance of finding a peak in the periodogram of the given height in a random data set is less than 0.03, and in three cases it is less than 0.01.

One star (MBM 12A-5) with a rather significant peak (FAP = 0.02) is not included in our list of positive detections because its period is 0.505 days. If this star is truly periodic with that period it would be impossible for us to discern it with confidence based on the current observations. The reason is that they were not frequent enough during any particular night to clearly distinguish such a putative cycle from an harmonic of the typical sampling interval of 1 day. Future observations with a higher cadence may reveal whether this star is, in fact, a cyclic variable with a period near 0.5 d. Another possibly periodic star (MBM12A-2), with FAP = 0.07, is noted in the table and discussed further in the next section.

It may be noted that all of the stars identified as periodic have more than one significant peak in their periodograms. The reason is quite simple: nightly observations from a single longitude introduce a sampling frequency of about one day into the data. When a truly periodic star is observed, the actual period “beats” with the sampling interval to create an alias or “beat” period. One can easily see that there are complementary peaks in the power spectra of all of these stars which are separated in frequency space by 1 $`\pm `$ 1/P where P is the true period. Identifying which is the true period and which is the beat period is not always easy, but there is little ambiguity for the four stars in this sample. In three cases, one of the peaks is significantly higher and the light curve phased with that period significantly less scattered than the other. In the case of MBM12A-4 there are two peaks of nearly equal height but the light curve phased with a period of 2.603 days looks better than the one phased at 0.722 days. Of course, it is possible that variations in light curve shape during an observing season could cause us to mistake the beat period for the true period but in samples where this can be tested (e.g. the ONC) it happens less than 15% of the time, and usually with less well-defined light curves than are seen here (Herbst et al., 2000). We conclude that the periods of these four stars are known with reasonable confidence, although v sin i measurements might be helpful in confirming them.

Phased light curves for the four periodic stars are shown in Fig. 3. In all respects, the three known association members are representative in their properties of what is found for T Tauri stars in young clusters and associations such as Tau/Aur, IC 348, NGC 2264 and the ONC. In particular, the periods, amplitudes and shapes of the light curves are quite typical. In MBM 12A we find periods of 2.6 and 6.2 days for the two periodic K stars. The more populous clusters such as the ONC and NGC 2264 show peaks in the frequency distribution of rotation periods for these more massive stars (corresponding to spectral types earlier than M2) at around 1 and 4 days (NGC 2264) or around 2 and 8 days (ONC), as Lamm et al. (2003) have shown. Lower mass stars (with spectral types later than M2) rotate faster in both clusters, and the period of the one mid-M star detected here (1.2 days) is in agreement with that trend. It is also numerically representative of values found in the extremely young clusters for such very low mass stars. If the possible 0.5 day period for MBM 12A-5 (a K star) were confirmed, that would be somewhat unusual, although perhaps the star could be understood as a slightly older, contracted and spun-up version of what is found in IC 348 and other extremely young clusters (see next section).

Typical amplitudes for stars in extremely young clusters are several hundredths to a few tenths of a magnitude in Cousins I, similar to what is seen here. This is somewhat larger than is characteristic of older (30-100 My) clusters, where amplitudes above a few hundredths of a mag are unusual (Barnes et al., 1999). It appears that the spots are simply larger or cooler on the extremely young stars, possibly reflecting a gradual decay in magnetic activity with age (in spite of their expected spin-up with contraction). It is also possible that the younger stars are simply more likely to maintain extremely non-axisymmetric spot distributions which give rise to their larger amplitudes.

The situation is illustrated more quantitatively in Fig. 4 where data from a $``$3 My old cluster, IC 348 (Cohen, Herbst & Williams, 2003) and from a $``$30 My old cluster, IC 2602 (Barnes et al., 1999) are compared. The V magnitude data for IC 2602 has been transformed to I assuming a typical ratio of amplitudes (in the sense of I to V) of 0.7 for spotted variables from Herbst et al. (1994) and full ranges are plotted, as opposed to half-ranges or amplitudes. It is clear that stars of different age occupy distinctly different, although adjacent, regions of this diagram. It is also clear that the MBM 12A stars with definite rotation periods (large squares on the figure) resemble the IC 348 stars much more so than they resemble the IC 2602 stars. Note that the fastest rotator in MBM 12A is an M5 star, which is of later spectral class than any star in IC 348 with a known rotation period. Since lower mass (M2 and later) stars in the ONC and in NGC 2264 are known to spin faster, as a group, than their more massive (K-M2 type) counterparts (Herbst et al., 2001; Lamm et al., 2003), the location of this star to the left of the IC 348 cluster sequence is not surprising. Periods for such low mass stars in IC 348 are not yet available because the cluster, although comparable in distance to MBM 12, is more highly reddened and its low mass stars are below the magnitude limit for period detection at Van Vleck Observatory.

It is also interesting to find that the field X-ray source, RX J0255.9+2005, lies among the IC 2602 stars on the plot in Fig. 4. Its photometric properties are, therefore, consistent with the spectral data discussed above and given in Table 1. This is apparently a fairly young, but not extremely young star probably comparable in age to IC 2602 which is unlikely to be associated with MBM 12. To summarize, the MBM 12A stars do seem to be quite similar in period and amplitude to the other extremely young clusters we have monitored. In general, our periodic sample (small though it is) is much more representative of clusters of 1-5 My age such as IC 348, the ONC and NGC 2264 than it is of clusters of 30-100 My such as IC 2602 or the Pleiades. The periodic field star, on the other hand, has properties consistent with a significantly older population.

## 4 The Large Amplitude Variables

It is unusual to find WTTS with ranges exceeding $``$0.5 mag in Cousins I, although V410 Tau is one exception (Herbst et al., 1994). It is also unusual to find periodicity in large amplitude CTTS although, again, there are exceptions. It is, therefore, somewhat surprising to find two large amplitude variables in this small sample, both of which may be periodic. The case of the WTTS MBM 12A-5 was mentioned briefly in the previous section, where it was noted as a possible cyclic variable with a period close to 0.5 days. This could be an analog of V410 Tau, which is a relatively rapidly rotating WTTS (period $``$ 1.8 days) that appears to be viewed close to edge on (Herbst, 1989; Stelzer et al., 2003). The other alternative is that the star is actually an accreting CTTS which happened to be observed in a low accretion state. It has recently been claimed (Littlefair et al., 2003) that there are T Tauri stars which move from WTTS to CTTS. It is interesting that the star appears to have a K-L excess (Luhman, 2001) but is also a close binary with the companions differing by only 0.5 mag in K (Chauvin et al., 2002). It appears that this star will remain a bit of a puzzle until further observations are obtained.

The other large amplitude variable is the CTTS MBM 12A-2 (LkH$`\alpha `$ 262), which was by far the most photometrically active star in our sample during the monitoring epoch. A light curve for the star is shown in Fig. 5. It is representative of the irregular light curves often displayed by CTTS. In particular, there is an epoch of relative stability (the early part of the observing season) followed by an epoch of more erratic behavior. There are both high frequency oscillations and slower drifts of mean brightness. The amplitude, 1.14 mag in Cousins I, is large but not highly unusual for a CTTS (Herbst et al., 1994). Normally, this type of variation (Type II) is attributed to the rotational modulation of hot accretion spots or zones (rings?) which vary due to unsteady accretion on typical time scales of days or less. Since the spots are usually not stable for as long as one rotation period, the variations are normally irregular. Sometimes they may be stable for up to a few rotation periods so that a period may be found in the photometry. This is referred to as Type IIp (for periodic) variability.

It is possible that MBM12A-2 is a Type IIp variable. Its periodigram (Fig. 2) shows a fairly high peak at a period of 3.13 days. The false alarm probability is 7% so it does not rise to the usual level that we would accept for definite periodicity. Since the light curve changed its basic appearance between the beginning and end of the monitoring time we searched for periods independently within these two time intervals. Nothing more significant was found by this process. As is typical of light curves with normalized powers of only a little more than 6, there is considerable scatter and the phased light curve does not look convincing. In a sample of 10 stars we would expect one to show a false alarm period of about this light curve quality, so the variations may actually be truly stochastic. On the other hand, since Type II variables can change rapidly from cycle to cycle the period could be real but hard to see because of the “noise” injected by the the variations in the spots. Unfortunately, there is no clear conclusion that can be reached on the basis of the present data. We can only say that the star is a large amplitude variable typical of CTTS in other young stellar groups and that it may have a period of 3.13 days. This is the type of star that would benefit from more intensive monitoring than is possible at Wesleyan due to the inevitable interruptions caused by clouds.

The rather low amplitude (non-periodic) variability of the other CTTS in MBM 12A (star 3 = LkH$`\alpha `$ 263) is not surprising. Many CTTS show only small amounts of variability at certain times (or ever). It is well known that there is no tight correlation between H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width and amplitude of variability for a set of young stars (Herbst et al., 1994) and none is seen here. For particular stars with Type II characteristics there is a good correlation between brightness in the V band and H$`\alpha `$ flux (Batalha & Basri, 1993; Herbst et al., 1994) but there is no correlation that extends across a group. It is unclear whether the non-simultaneity of the photometric and H$`\alpha `$ measurements contributes to the lack of a correlation in the present data. As Table 1 shows, there can be quite a range of H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths measured for the same star at different times. Unless values appropriate to the time of photometric monitoring are used, it is probable that any existing correlation would be hidden by the effects of non-simultaneity.

To summarize this section, we find two large amplitude variables in MBM 12A both of which are somewhat unusual. MBM 12A-5 is a WTTS which possibly has a very short period and could be a V410 Tau analog. It is unusual to find such a large amplitude for a WTTS. MBM 12A-2 is a CTTS and has the variability characteristics of a Type II star, but has a possible period, which would make it a Type IIp star. These are fairly rare. In IC 348, for example, Cohen, Herbst & Williams (2003) found rotation periods for more than two dozen WTTS, none of which had large amplitudes, but did not find periods for any of the 20 CTTS in their monitored field. A more complete comparison of the variability properties of IC 348 and MBM 12A is interesting and we turn to that in the final section of the paper.

## 5 Discussion and Summary

We may compare the variability characteristics of the MBM 12A stars, as a group, to those of the well known and well studied young cluster IC 348, which has been monitored photometrically at Wesleyan for five years (Herbst, Maley & Williams, 2000; Cohen, Herbst & Williams, 2003). Since the distance (260-320 pc) and age ($``$1-3 My) of IC 348 (Herbig, 1998; Luhman et al., 1998, 2003) are quite similar to MBM 12A, this is an interesting comparison to make. Limiting ourselves to the brightest stars (I $`<`$ 14.3) where, in both clusters, we have the most complete and sensitive survey of variability characteristics, and to K or M spectral classes, we find that 19/21 such stars are detected as variable in IC 348, compared to 7/7 in MBM 12A. Periodicity is found in 14/21 of the cluster stars and in 3/7 of the association members. Large amplitude ($`>`$0.5 mag) irregular variability is found in 2/21 of the cluster stars and 1/7 of the association members (possibly 2/7 if you count star 5, which may not actually be periodic). Even though the numbers are small, there is a clear sense that the overall variability properties of stars in the MBM 12A association compare well with those in IC 348, supporting the view that we are viewing stellar groups of about the same evolutionary status.

Periods range from 2.2 to 16.4 d for the 14 bright K and M stars in IC 348, whereas they are 1.2,2.6 and 6.2 days for the three periodic stars in MBM 12A. This is marginally surprising and would be a more significant difference if MBM 12A-5 is confirmed to have a period as short as 0.5 d. In general, it would appear possible that the MBM 12A stars, as a group, do tend to spin a bit faster than the IC 348 stars. This would not be unexpected if there is an age difference. In fact, Lamm et al. (2003) have recently shown that the stars in NGC 2264 spin faster (by about a factor two) than their ONC counterparts because they are a bit older. During the first few million years, radius (R) depends on age (t) for K and M-type PMS stars as R $``$ t$`^{\frac{1}{3}}`$, so if angular momentum is conserved one finds P $``$ R<sup>2</sup> $``$ t$`^{\frac{2}{3}}`$ (Choi & Herbst, 1996; Herbst et al., 2002). An age difference of a factor of three between IC 348 and MBM 12A in the sense that MBM 12A is older would lead, therefore, to shorter periods for the association stars by about a factor of 2 compared to the cluster, as may be suggested by our small data sample.

There is one other small difference which may or may not be of importance between these groups and their variability characteristics. In IC 348 it is quite striking that every periodic star is a WTTS, not a CTTS. In MBM 12A, on the other hand, two of the three periodic stars have H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths which qualify them as CTTS, even at the lowest points in their ranges. We have no idea whether this is significant or, if so, how it could arise and simply note it here as a curious outcome of our work. Perhaps related to it is the also curious fact that in this MBM 12A sample 4/7 stars are CTTS, whereas in the corresponding bright IC 348 sample the fraction of CTTS is 5/21. One purely speculative cause of this could be that disks generally survive longer in loose associations than in denser clusters.

To summarize, we find that every bright member of MBM 12A is a photometric variable and that three of them are definitely periodic. The photometric properties of this small sample of association stars are, in most respects, indistinguishable from stars in the extremely young cluster IC 348, suggesting a similar age of $``$few My. The periodic stars occupy a clearly different region of period-amplitude space than an older comparison group (IC 2602). We also find one CTTS (LkH$`\alpha `$ 262) which has a large amplitude, and one possibly cyclic variable of large amplitude and very short period (MBM12A-5). With such a small sample of stars it is impossible to make finer distinctions with certainty but the indications are that, if anything, the MBM 12A stars spin slightly faster than the IC 348 stars suggesting they might be a bit older, perhaps by as much as a factor of three. Clearly, however, based on their photometric properties alone they are in the 1-10 My range and not as old as 30 My. A field periodic variable discovered serendipitously, which is associated with an X-ray object (RX J0255.9+2005), appears to be a representative of an older (perhaps 30-100 My) population in the same direction and is unlikely to be associated with the MBM 12 dark cloud complex.

We thank the referee, J. Stauffer, for his helpful report and K. Luhman for additional useful comments on the first draft of this manuscript. We also thank T. Hearty for the revised data on RX J0255.9+2005. We thank the W. M. Keck Foundation for their support of the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium. It was under its auspices that W. Hawley spent the summer of 2003 at Wesleyan working on this project. We thank the large number of Wesleyan students who contributed to this project by obtaining the data on our campus telescope. This investigation was supported by grants from the NASA-Origins program.

Fig. 2. (cont.) In four cases, the power is sufficiently high that the existence of a true period is quite certain, and these are indicated on the figures. One star (MBM 12A-5) with rather high power at a period of 0.5 days was deemed not believable on the basis of the similarity of the period to an harmonic of a sampling interval. Another star (MBM 12A-2) has a marginally significant peak at a period of 3.13 days.