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# Stellar populations in the nuclear regions of nearby radiogalaxies

## 1. Introduction

In recent years new evidence that star formation plays an important role in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) has been gathered:

The presence of strong Ca II $`\lambda \lambda `$8494,8542,8662Å triplet (CaT) absorptions in a large sample of Seyfert 2 nuclei has provided direct evidence for a population of red supergiant stars that dominates the near-IR light (Terlevich, Díaz & Terlevich 1990). The values found in Seyfert 1 nuclei are also consistent with this idea if the dilution produced by a nuclear non-stellar source is taken into account (Terlevich, Díaz & Terlevich 1990, Jiménez-Benito et al. 2000). The high mass-to-light ratios $`L(1.6\mu \text{m})/M`$ inferred in Seyfert 2 nuclei also indicate that red supergiants dominate the nuclear light (Oliva et al. 1995), but a similar conclusion does not hold for Seyfert 1 nuclei.

The absence of broad emission lines in the direct optical spectra of Seyfert 2 nuclei which show broad lines in polarized light can be understood only if there is an additional central source of continuum, most probably blue stars (Cid Fernandes & Terlevich 1995, Heckman et al. 1995). This conclusion is further supported by the detection of polarization levels which are lower in the continuum than in the broad lines (Miller & Goodrich 1990, Tran, Miller & Kay 1992).

Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the Seyfert Mrk 447 reveals that the central UV light arises in a resolved region of a few hundred pc, in which prominent CaT absorption and broad He II $`\lambda `$4686Å emission lines reveal the red supergiant and Wolf Rayet stars of a powerful starburst. The stars dominate the UV to near-IR light directly received from the nucleus (Heckman et al. 1997). At least 50 per cent of the light emitted by the nucleus is stellar, as a conservative estimate. Mrk 447 is not a rare case: a large sample of nearby bright Seyfert 2s and LINERs show similar resolved starburst nuclei of 80 to a few hundred pc in size (Colina et al. 1997, González-Delgado et al. 1998, Maoz et al. 1995, 1998), with some of the Seyfert 2 containing dominant Wolf-Rayet populations (Kunth & Contini 1999, Cid Fernandes et al. 1999).

A starburst–AGN connection has been proposed in at least three scenarios: starbursts giving birth to massive black holes (e.g. Scoville & Norman 1988); black holes being fed by surrounding stellar clusters (e.g. Perry & Dyson 1985, Peterson 1992); and also pure starbursts without black holes (e.g. Terlevich & Melnick 1985, Terlevich et al. 1992). The evidence for starbursts in Seyfert nuclei strongly supports some kind of connection. However, it is still to be demonstrated that starbursts play a key role in all kinds of AGN.

One of the most stringent tests to assess if all AGN have associated enhanced nuclear star formation is the case of lobe-dominated radio-sources, whose host galaxies have relatively red colours when compared to other AGN varieties. In this paper we address the stellar content associated with the active nuclei of a sample of FR II radiogalaxies, the most luminous class of radiogalaxies (Fanaroff & Riley 1974) which possess the most powerful central engines and radio-jets (Rawlings & Saunders 1991). The presence of extended collimated radio-jets, which fuel the extended radio structure over

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absentsuperscript108\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}10^{8} yr, strongly suggests the existence of a supermassive accreting black hole in the nuclei of these radiogalaxies. This test addresses the question of whether AGN that involve conspicuous black holes and accretion processes also contain enhanced star formation.

In section 2 we introduce the sample and detail the data acquisition and reduction processes. In section 3 we provide continuum and line measurements of the most prominent features of the optical spectra of the radiogalaxies. In section 4 we discuss the main stellar populations responsible for the absorption and continuum spectra. In section 5 we offer notes on individual objects. A sumary of the main conclussions from this work is presented in section 6.

## 2. Data acquisition and reduction

Our sample of radiogalaxies was extracted from the 3CRR catalogue (Laing, Riley and Longair 1983) with the only selection criteria being edge-brightened morphology, which defines the FR II class of radiogalaxies (Fanaroff & Riley 1974), and redshift $`z<0.08`$. This last condition was imposed in order to be able to observe the redshifted CaT at wavelengths shorter than $`\lambda `$9300Å, where the atmospheric bands are prominent. Six out of a complete sample of ten FR II radiogalaxies that fulfill these requirements were randomly chosen. In addition to this sub-sample of FR IIs, we observed the unusually luminous FR I radiogalaxy Hydra A (3C 218). This has a radio luminosity of $`P_{178\mathrm{M}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}}=2.2\times 10^{26}`$ W Hz-1 Sr-1, which is an order of magnitude above the typical FR I/FR II dividing luminosity.

Spectroscopic observations of a total of seven radiogalaxies, one normal elliptical galaxy to serve as reference and five K III stars to serve as velocity calibrators were performed using the double-arm spectrograph ISIS mounted in the Cassegrain Focus of the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope111The William Herschel Telescope is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in La Palma during two observing runs, in 1997 November 7–8 and 1998 February 19–20. The first run was photometric but the second was not, being partially cloudy on the 20th. The seeing, as measured from the spatial dimension of spectrophotometric stars, was between $`0.7`$ and $`0.8`$ arcsec throughout the nights.

A slit width of 1.2 arcsec centered on the nucleus of galaxies and stars was used. We oriented the slit along the radio-axis for all radiogalaxies, except for Hydra A, for which the orientation was perpendicular to the radio-axis.

An R300B grating centered at $`\lambda `$4500Å with a 2148x4200 pixel EEV CCD and an R316R grating centered at $`\lambda `$8800Å with a 1024x1024 pixel TEK CCD were used in the 1998 run. The projected area on these chips is 0.2 arcsec/pixel and 0.36 arcsec/pixel respectively. This configuration provides the spectral resolution necessary to resolve the Mg b and CaT features and, at the same time, offers a wide spectral span: $`\lambda `$3350Å$`\lambda `$6000Å at 5.1Å resolution in the blue and $`\lambda `$7900Å$`\lambda `$9400Å at 3.5Å resolution in the red. In the 1997 run, in which we assessed the viability of the project, we used the R600B and R600R gratings instead. This setup covers the $`\lambda `$3810Å$`\lambda `$5420Å and $`\lambda `$8510Å$`\lambda `$9320Å range in the blue and red arm, at 2.6 and 1.7Å resolution respectively. Just one radiogalaxy (DA 240) was observed with this alternative setup. The dichroics 5700 and 6100 were used in 1997 November and 1998 February, and in both runs we used a filter to avoid second order contamination in the spectra.

We obtained flux standards (HZ 44 and G191-B2B) for the four nights and gratings, except in 1998 Feb 20, when we were unable to acquire the red spectrum of the corresponding standard due to a technical failure. One calibration lamp CuAr$`+`$CuNe exposure per spectral region and telescope position was also obtained for all objects.

The total integration times for the radiogalaxies (from 1 to 3 hr) were split into time intervals of about 1200 or 1800 s in order to diminish the effect of cosmic rays on individual frames and allow to take lamp flat-fields with the red arm of the spectrograph between science exposures. The TEK CCD has a variable fringing pattern at the wavelengths of interest, such that the variations are correlated with the position at which the telescope is pointing. Since flat-fielding is crucial for the reddest wavelengths, where the sky lines are most prominent, after every exposure of 20 to 30 min we acquired a flat-field in the same position of the telescope as the one for which the galaxies were being observed. We followed this procedure with all galaxies except with DA 240. The same procedure was also used in the case of the elliptical galaxy, splitting its total integration time in two.

Table 1 summarizes the journal of observations, where column 1 gives the name of the object; column 2 the radio-power at 178 MHz; column 3 the redshift; column 4 the integrated $`V`$ magnitude of the galaxy; column 5 identifies whether the object is a radiogalaxy (RG), a normal elliptical (E) or a star (S); column 6 gives the date of the beginning of the night in which the observations were carried out; column 7 the position angle (PA) of the slit; column 8 the total exposure time; column 9 the grating used; and column 10 the corresponding linear size to 1 arcsec at the redshift of the galaxies (for H$`{}_{\text{0}}{}^{}=50`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 ). The data for the radiogalaxies were extracted from the 3C Atlas (Leahy, Bridle & Strom, http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/) and for the host galaxy of Hydra A from the 3CR Catalogue (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991).

The data were reduced using the IRAF software package. The frames were first bias subtracted and then flat-field corrected. In the case of the red arm spectra, the different flats obtained for a single object were combined when no significant differences were detected between them. However, in several cases the fringing pattern shifted positions that accounted for differences of up to 20 per cent. In these cases we corrected each science frame with the flat-field acquired immediately before and/or afterwards. Close inspection of the faintest levels of the flat-fielded frames showed that the fringing had been successfully eliminated. Wavelength and flux calibration were then performed, and the sky was subtracted by using the outermost parts of the slit.

The atmospheric bands, mainly water absorption at $`\lambda `$8920Å$`\lambda `$9400Å, affect the redshifted CaT region of several radiogalaxies. The bands have been extracted using a template constructed from the stellar spectra obtained each night. The template was built averaging the normalized flux of spectrophotometric and velocity standard stars, once the stellar absorption lines had been removed. The atmospheric bands were eliminated from the spectra of the galaxies dividing by the flux-scaled template. This reduces the S/N of the region under consideration, especially since the bands are variable in time and one of our observing nights was partially cloudy. However, the technique allows the detection of the stellar atmospheric features. The CaT of the elliptical galaxy is not affected by atmospheric absorption.

Figure 1 shows the line spectrum of the sky and, as an example, the atmospheric absorption template of 1998 Feb 19. Water-band correction proved to be critical for the detection of the CaT lines when the atmospheric conditions were most adverse.

Figure 2 shows extractions of the nuclear 2 arcsec of the spectra of the galaxies. This corresponds to 844 to 2020 pc for the radiogalaxies, and 98 pc for the normal elliptical galaxy.

## 3. Line and continuum measurements

### 3.1. CaT index

The CaT was detected in all of the objects, although in three cases (3C 285, 3C 382 and 4C 73.08) it was totally or partially affected by residuals left by the atmospheric band corrections and the measurement of its strength was thus precluded. For the remaining cases, the strength was measured in the rest-frame of the galaxies against a pseudo-continuum, following the definition of the CaT index of Díaz, Terlevich & Terlevich (1989). In Hydra A, 3C 285 and 3C 382, the red continuum band is seriously affected by residuals left from the atmospheric absorption removal. We defined two alternative continuum bands,  8575 Å$`<\lambda <`$ 8585 Å and 8730 Å$`<\lambda <`$ 8740 Å, that substitute the red-most continuum window of the CaT index. We checked this new definition against the original one in the elliptical galaxy, which doesn’t have residuals in its continuum bands, and the agreement between the two systems was good within 5 per cent.

Velocity dispersions were measured by cross-correlating the galaxy spectra with the stellar spectra obtained with the same setup. The errors in the velocity dispersions calculated in this way were less than 10 per cent.

A high velocity dispersion tends to decrease the measured values of indices based on EW measurements. The CaT index has to be corrected from broadening of the absorption lines by the corresponding velocity dispersion. In order to calculate the correction we convolved stellar profiles with gaussian functions of increasing width, and measured the CaT index in them. A good description of the correction found for our data is given by the functional form $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$EW (Å) $`=(\sigma (\text{km s}\text{-1})100)/200`$. The corrections were applied to the values measured in the galaxies, and converted into unbroadened indices.

The values of velocity dispersions ($`\sigma `$), uncorrected EW (CaT$`_\text{u}`$) and corrected EW (CaT), are listed in Table 2.

### 3.2. $`\lambda `$4000Å and Balmer Break indices

Stellar populations can be dated through the measurement of the $`\lambda `$4000Å or Balmer breaks. In intermediate to old populations the discontinuity at $`\lambda `$4000Å results from a combination of the accumulation of the Balmer lines towards the limit of the Balmer absorption continuum at $`\lambda `$3646Å (the Balmer break) and the increase in stellar opacity caused by metal lines shortwards of $`\lambda `$4000Å.

Table 3 lists the values of the $`\lambda `$4000Å break index, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å, measured in the spectra of the 6 narrow-line radiogalaxies and the elliptical galaxy in our sample. This excludes 3C 382, which has a spectrum dominated by a strong blue continuum and broad-emission lines, and shows very weak stellar atmospheric features and no break. We adopted the definition given by Hamilton (1985), which quantifies the ratio of the average flux-level of two broad bands, one covering the break (3750-3950) and one bluewards of the break (4050-4250). Both bands contain strong metallic and Balmer absorption lines in the case of normal galaxies. In active galaxies, the measurement can be contaminated by emission of \[Ne III\]$`\lambda `$3869Å, which in our case is weak. The contamination by high-order Balmer lines in emission is negligible. The net effect of emission contamination is to decrease the Balmer break index. In the radio-galaxies, we have estimated this effect by interpolating the continuum levels below the \[Ne III\] emission, and we estimate that the ratio can be affected by 6 per cent at worst, in the case of 3C 192, and by less than 3 per cent for the rest of the objects. Table 3 lists emission-devoid indices.

Hydra A and 3C 285 have spectra which are much bluer than those of normal elliptical galaxies. In order to quantify better the strength of the break and the ages of the populations derived, we have performed a bulge subtraction using as template the spectrum of NGC 4374, scaled to eliminate the G-band absorption of the radiogalaxies. Since the velocity dispersion of the stars in NGC 4374 and in the radiogalaxies are comparable inside the spectral resolution of our data, no further corrections were needed. The G-band absorption is prominent in stars of spectral types later than F5 and it is especially strong in types K. NGC 4374 is a normal elliptical galaxy, with a spectral shape which compares well with those of other normal ellipticals in the spectrophotometric atlas of galaxies of Kennicutt (1992). Thus, by removing a scaled template of NGC 4374, we are isolating the most massive stars (M

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𝑀1M\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}1M) in the composite stellar population of the radiogalaxies. Figure 3 shows the bulge subtractions obtained on these two radiogalaxies.

We measured on the bulge-subtracted spectra $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å and also the Balmer break index as defined by the classical $`D\lambda _1`$ method of stellar classification designed by Barbier and Chalonge (Barbier 1955, Chalonge 1956, see Strömgren 1963). The latter quantifies the Balmer discontinuity in terms of the logarithmic difference of the continuum levels ($`D`$) and the effective position of the break ($`\lambda _1`$). The method places a pseudo-continuum on top of the higher order terms of the Balmer series in order to measure the effective position of the discontinuity. Figure 4 shows the placement of continua, pseudo-continua and the measurements of $`D`$ and $`\lambda _1`$ for an A2I star from the stellar library of Jacoby, Hunter & Christian (1984). The functional dependences on the effective temperature and gravity of the stars are sufficiently different for $`D`$ and $`\lambda _1`$ to satisfy a two-dimensional classification.

The $`D\lambda _1`$ method could only be reliably applied in the cases of Hydra A and 3C 285. For the other radiogalaxies, the bulge-subtractions led to results that did not allow the identification of the absorption features and/or the break in an unambiguous way due to the resulting poor S/N. Figure 5 shows the $`D\lambda _1`$ measurements performed on the bulge-subtracted spectra of Hydra A and 3C 285. We have placed different continuum levels to estimate the maximum range of acceptable parameters of the stellar populations that are involved.

Table 3 lists the $`\lambda `$4000Å and Balmer break indices measured in both the bulge-subtracted and the original spectra of the radiogalaxies.

### 3.3. Lick indices

The presence of prominent Balmer absorption lines, from H$`\gamma `$ up to H12 $`\lambda `$3750Å, is one of the most remarkable features of the blue spectra of two of the seven radiogalaxies, while H$`\beta `$ and H$`\alpha `$ are filled up by conspicuous emission lines. A clear exception to the presence of the Balmer series in absorption is the broad-line radiogalaxy 3C 382.

In order to estimate the Balmer strength, crucial to date any young stellar population involved, we use the EW of the H10 $`\lambda `$3798Å line, which appears only weakly contaminated by emission in the radiogalaxies. H10 is chosen as a compromise of an easily detectable Balmer line that shows both a minimum of emission contamination and clear wings to measure the adjacent continuum. The Balmer lines from H$`\beta `$ to H9 $`\lambda `$3836Å are contaminated by prominent emission, which in Case B recombination comes in decreasing emission ratios to H$`\beta `$ of 1, 0.458, 0.251, 0.154, 0.102, 0.0709 (Osterbrock 1989); H10 has an emission contamination of $`0.0515\times \text{H}\beta `$. At the same time, the absorption strengths are quite similar from H$`\beta `$ to H10, although the EW(H10) is actually systematically smaller than EW(H$`\beta `$) in young to intermediate-age populations. González-Delgado, Leitherer & Heckman (2000) obtain, in their population synthesis models, ratios of EW(H$`\beta `$)/EW(H10) between 1.3 and 1.6 for bursts with ages 0 to 1 Gyr and constant or coeval star formation histories. Lines of order higher than 10 have decreasing emission contamination, but they also increasingly merge towards the Balmer continuum limit.

A caveat in the use of H10 as an age calibrator comes from the fact that this line might be contaminated by metallic lines in old populations. Although our measurements of H10 in NGC 4374 are around 1.5Å, an inspection of the spectra of three elliptical galaxies (NGC 584, NC 720, NGC 821) observed in the same wavelegth range (but with lower S/N) and archived in the Isaac Newton Group database, indicates that a wide range of EW(H10), from 2 to 4Å, could characterize elliptical galaxies, while their H$`\beta `$ indices are in the 1 to 2Å regime. If confirmed by better data, these results could indicate that although the upper Balmer series is detected in elliptical galaxies, it could indeed be contaminated by the absorptions of other species. Clearly, more work needs to be done in the near-UV spectra of elliptical galaxies before conclusive evidence can be derived for the behaviour of EW(H10) in old stellar systems, and its contamination by metallic lines.

In all the radio-galaxies observed in this work, the H10 profile is narrow and reproduces the shape of the wings of the lower-order Balmer absorption lines. Hydra A and 3C 285 clearly provide the best fittings. As an illustration, Figure 6 shows the estimated absorption line profiles for the H$`\beta `$, H$`\gamma `$ and H$`\delta `$ lines, assuming a constant ratio between their EWs and that of H10, and also a scaled ($`\times 1.4`$) H10 profile for the case of H$`\beta `$ in Hydra A.

We also measured indices that are mostly sensitive to the metal content of the stellar populations involved. The Lick indices of Mg and Fe (e.g. Worthey et al. 1994) serve this purpose. In order to avoid the contribution of \[O III\]$`\lambda `$4959Å to the continuum measurement for the molecular index Mg2, we have displaced the lower continuum band of this index to 4895.125 Å$`<\lambda <`$ 4935.625 Å. This redefinition does not alter the value of the index in the elliptical galaxy, which shows no \[O III\] emission.

Table 4 compiles the EW of H10, and the metallic indices Mg b, Fe5270, Fe5335, \[MgFe\], Mg2 of the Lick system, measured in the rest-frame of the galaxies in our sample. The atomic indices are affected by broadening, like the CaT index, while Mg2 is only affected by lamp contributions in the original IDS Lick system (Worthey et al. 1994, Longhetti et al. 1998). We have calculated broadening corrections as in section 3.1 for the atomic lines, and adopted the corrections calculated by Longhetti (1998) for the molecular lines. The uncorrected values of these indices are denoted with a subindex u in Table 4. The errors of the individual line and molecular indices were estimated adopting continua shifted from the best fit continua by $`\pm 1\sigma `$. This lead to average errors between an 8 and a 10 per cent for individual line and molecular indices, and $`6`$ per cent for \[MgFe\].

The agreement between our measurements of Lick indices and those carried out by other authors (González 1993, Davies et al. 1987, Trager et al. 2000a) on our galaxy in common, NGC 4374, is better than 10 per cent.

## 4. Discussion

### 4.1. Comparison with elliptical galaxies and population synthesis models

The analysis of the spectral energy distributions and colours of elliptical galaxies suffers from a well known age-metallicity degeneracy (Aaronson et al. 1978). However, this is broken down when the strengths of suitable stellar absorption lines are taken into account (e.g. Heckman 1980). The plane composed by the \[H$`\beta `$\] and \[MgFe\] indices, in this sense, can discriminate the ages and metallicities of stellar systems. It is on the basis of this plot, that a large spread of ages in elliptical galaxies has been suggested (González 1993). Bressan, Chiosi & Tantalo (1996) claim, however, that when the UV emission and velocity dispersion of the galaxies are taken into account, the data are only compatible with basically old systems that have experienced different star formation histories (see also Trager et al. 2000a, 2000b). A recent burst of star formation that involves only a tiny fraction of the whole elliptical mass in stars, would rise the \[H$`\beta `$\] index to values characteristic of single stellar populations which are 1 to 2 Gyr old (Bressan et al. 1996).

Most likely, the stellar populations of radiogalaxies are also the combination of different generations. Direct support for this interpretation in the case of Hydra A comes from the fact that the stellar populations responsible for the strong Balmer lines are dynamically decoupled from those responsible for the metallic lines (Melnick, Gopal-Krishna & Terlevich 1997).

This interpretation is also consistent with the modest $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å measurements we have obtained. Figure 7 shows a comparison of the values found in radiogalaxies, with those of normal elliptical, spiral and irregular galaxies, including starbursts, from the atlas of Kennicutt (1992). The radiogalaxies 3C 98, 3C 192, 4C 73.08 and DA 240 have indices of the order of 1.9 to 2.3, which overlap with those of normal E galaxies, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å $`=2.08\pm 0.23`$. These values correspond to populations dominated by stars of ages 1 to 10 Gyr old, if one assumes the coeval population synthesis models of Longhetti et al. (1999). However, Hydra A and 3C 285 have indices in the range 1.4 to 1.6, typical of coeval populations which are 200 to 500 Myr old. Once the bulge population is subtracted, the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å indices of Hydra A and 3C 285 decrease to 1.2 and 1.0 respectively, which are typical of systems younger than about 60 Myr.

Hamilton (1985) measured the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å index in a sample of stars covering a wide range of spectral types and luminosity classes. He found a sequence of increasing $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å from B0 to M5 stars, with values from 1 to 4 mag respectively. A comparison with the sequence he found leads us to conclude that the break in the bulge subtracted spectrum of Hydra A is dominated by B or earlier type stars while that of 3C 285 is dominated by A type stars. The index $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$4000Å does not clearly discriminate luminosity classes for stars with spectral types earlier than G0.

The equivalent width of the H10 absorption line in these two radiogalaxies give further support to the interpretation of the Balmer break as produced by a young stellar population. In Hydra A we find after bulge subtraction EW(H10)$`3.9`$Å, which, according to the synthesis models of González-Delgado et al. (2000) gives ages of 7 to 15 Myr for an instantaneous burst of star formation, and 40 to 60 Myr for a continuous star formation mode, in solar metallicity environments. In the case of 3C 285, EW(H10)$`6`$Å would imply an age older than about 25 Myr for a single-population burst of solar metallicity.

The metallic indices of normal elliptical galaxies range between the values 0.56

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log[MgFe]

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0.66

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0.56MgFe

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0.660.56\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}\log{\rm[MgFe]}\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}0.66 (González 1993), which characterizes oversolar metallicites for ages larger than about 5 Gyr. This is also the typical range of our radiogalaxies, although 3C 285 shows a clear departure with $`\mathrm{log}[\mathrm{MgFe}]0.4`$. However, \[MgFe\] tends to be smaller for populations younger than a few Gyr and similar oversolar metallic content. Since 3C 285 has a clear burst of recent star-formation, we conclude that its overall abundance is also most probably solar or oversolar.

### 4.2. The blue stellar content

A better estimate of the spectral type and luminosity class of the stars that dominate the break in Hydra A and 3C 285 comes from the two-dimensional classification of Barbier and Chalonge. In Figure 8 the solid squares connected by lines represent the maximum range of possible $`D\lambda _1`$ values measured in these radiogalaxies.

The Balmer break index is sensitive to the positioning of the pseudo-continuum on top of the higher order Balmer series lines, which in turn is sensitive to the merging of the wings of the lines, enhanced at large velocity dispersions. In order to assign spectral types and luminosity classes to the stars that dominate the break, therefore, it is not sufficient to compare the values we have obtained with those measured in stellar catalogues. The values measured for the radiogalaxies can be corrected for their intrinsic velocity dispersions; we have chosen instead to recalibrate the index using template stars of different spectral types and luminosity classes convolved with gaussian functions, until they reproduce the width of the Balmer lines observed in the radiogalaxies (FWHM$`12.5`$Å). We used the B0 to A7 stars from the stellar library of Jacoby et al. (1984), which were observed with 4.5Å resolution. The values of the $`D\lambda _1`$ indices measured in these broadened stars are represented in Figure 8 by their respective classification. By comparison we also plot the grid traced by the locus of unbroadened stars, as published by Strömgren (1963). The broadening of the lines shifts the original locus of supergiant stars from the λ1

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subscript𝜆13720\lambda_{1}\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}3720Å range (Chalonge 1956) to the 3720

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3720subscript𝜆1

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37403720\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}\lambda_{1}\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}3740Å range, occupied by giant stars in the original (unbroadened) classification. Giant stars, in turn, shift to positions first occupied by dwarfs. Most dwarfs have Balmer line widths comparable to those of the radiogalaxies, and thus their locus in the diagram is mostly unchanged.

The value of the $`D`$ index indicates that the recent burst in Hydra A is dominated by B3 to B5 stars, and the effective position of the Balmer break ($`\lambda _1`$) indicates that these are giant or supergiant stars, respectively. These stars have masses of 7 and 20M (Schmidt-Kaler 1982). From the stellar evolutionary tracks of massive stars with standard mass-loss rate at Z or 2Z (Schaller et al. 1992, Schaerer et al. 1993, Meynet et al. 1994) we infer that these stars must have ages between 7 to 8 Myr (B3I) and 40 Myr (B5III). Note that the B4V stars in Figure 8, near the location of Hydra A, cannot originate the break and at the same time follow the kinematics of the nucleus (see section 5.3). Any dwarf star located in the stellar disk of Hydra A would show absorption lines that have been broadened beyond the 12.5Å of FWHM we measure in this radiogalaxy, and its position would have been shifted further into larger values of $`\lambda _1`$.

The location in the $`D\lambda _1`$ plane of 3C 285 indicates that the break is produced by A2I stars. These are 15M stars. Again, ages of 10 to 12 Myr are found for the last burst of star formation in this radiogalaxy. The interpretation of the blue excess in terms of A type stars is further supported by the detection of the Ca II H line in the bulge-subtracted spectrum.

### 4.3. The red stellar content

The CaT index in the radiogalaxies has values between 6 and 7Å. Díaz et al. (1989) find that at solar or oversolar metallicities red supergiant stars have CaT indices ranging from 8.5 to 13Å, red giant stars from 6 to 9Å and dwarfs from 4.5 to 8.5Å. The values we find are thus compatible with both giant or dwarf stars. However, we favour the interpretation of giant stars since the old bulge population will be dominated by red giants, as in the case of elliptical galaxies.

We have measured the CaT in a control sample of elliptical galaxies observed by J. Gorgas and collaborators (priv. communication) and combined these measurements with those found by Terlevich et al (1990) in a sample of elliptical, lenticular, spiral, and active galaxies of different kinds. We find that the range of CaT in elliptical galaxies, 5 to 7.5Å, comprises the range of values of the radiogalaxies (see Figure 9).

García-Vargas, Mollá & Bressan (1998) find in their population synthesis models values of the CaT between 6 and 7Å for ages ranging from 100 Myr to 1 Gyr, and larger afterwards, assuming coeval star formation and solar or oversolar metallicity. A revised version of these models by Mollá & García-Vargas (2000) which includes extended libraries of M-type stars, predicts for ages between 2 and 20 Gyr a constant value of 7Å at solar metallicity, and 8.5Å at 2Z. These synthesis models are based on parametric fittings of the CaT strength in NLTE model atmospheres (Jørgensen, Carlsson & Johnson 1992) and in fittings of empirical values measured in stellar libraries (e.g. Díaz et al. 1989; Zhou 1991). The fits work well in the low metallicity regime. However, at metallicities higher than solar, the relationship between metallicity and the CaT index shows a big scatter, and the linear fittings loose any predictive power (see Figure 4 of Díaz et al. 1989).

Red supergiant stars appear in coeval population synthesis models between 5 and 30 Myr, and create a maximum strength of the CaT index (CaT

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absent9\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}9Å) around 6 to 16 Myr for Z and 5 to 30 Myr for 2Z (García-Vargas et al. 1993, 1998; Mayya 1997). Strengths of CaT

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7

>

absent7\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}7Å are characteristic of bursts with ages between 5 and 40 Myr. Leitherer et al. (1999) also find that the total strength of the population depends dramatically on the slope of the initial mass function (IMF) and star formation history. While a coeval burst with a complete Salpeter IMF yields values surpassing 7Å between 6 and 12 Myr, the same IMF in a continuous star formation mode yields values of only 5.5Å maximum. The CaT strength values for coeval star formation derived by Leitherer et al. (1999) differ substantially from those derived by García-Vargas and coworkers (1993, 1998) and by Mayya (1997), most probably due to a different calibration of the CaT index.

Mixed populations of young bursts which contain red supergiants, superposed on old populations can also yield values of the CaT between 4 and 8Å (García-Vargas et al. 1998). Since metal rich giant stars have CaT values ranging from 6 to 9Å we regard our observations of the CaT index in radiogalaxies, as being compatible with ages 1 to 15 Gyr.

## 5. Notes on individual objects

### 5.1. 3C 98

3C 98 shows a double-lobe radio structure which spans 216 arcsec at 8.35 GHz, with a radio-jet that crosses the northern lobe to hit into a bright hotspot. There is little evidence of a southern jet, but a twin hotspot in the southern lobe is also present (Baum et al. 1988, Leathy et al. 1997, Hardcastle et al. 1998).

Broad band imaging of the host of 3C 98 reveals a smooth and slightly elongated elliptical galaxy located in a sparse environment (Baum et al. 1988, Martel et al. 1999). Deeper images reveal a faint shell as a sign of a past disturbance (Smith & Heckman 1989). However, the rotation curves of 3C 98 show that the stellar kinematics has negligible rotation $`<25`$ km s-1 and no anomalies (Smith, Heckman & Illingworth 1990). Although the optical colours of 3C 98 are similar to those of normal elliptical galaxies (Zibel 1996), one should note that the colours are modified by the high Galactic extiction towards the source, $`A_V=0.986`$ (Schlegel et al. 1998). The $`\mathrm{\Delta }4000`$Å and \[MgFe\] indices found in this radiogalaxy are characteristic of old metal-rich populations.

An extended narrow line region with a wealth of structure, and no particular orientation with respect to the radio-axis, is also detected in direct narrow-band images (Baum et al. 1988). The narrow emission lines detected in the optical spectra correspond to highly ionized plasma (Baldwin, Phillips & Terlevich 1981, Saunders et al. 1989, Baum, Heckman & van Breugel 1992).

3C 98 has been detected in X-rays by the Einstein satellite at a flux level $`f(\text{0.5–3keV})=1\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 or $`L_X=4.2\times 10^{41}`$ erg s-1 (Fabbiano et al. 1984). The source detection was too weak to look for any extension to a point source.

### 5.2. 3C 192

3C 192 has an ‘X’ symmetric double-lobe structure which extends 212 arcsec at 8.35 GHz, showing bright hotspots at the end of the lobes (Hogbom 1979, Baum et al. 1988, Hardcastle et al. 1998).

According to Sandage (1972), 3C 192 is a member of a small group of galaxies. Broad band imaging reveals the host of 3C 192 to be a round elliptical galaxy with a companion of similar size 70 arcsec away, and no obvious signs of interaction (Baum et al. 1988, Baum & Heckman 1988). The stellar kinematics shows negligible rotation, $`<30`$ km s-1, and no disturbances (Smith et al. 1990). The spectral shape of 3C 192 also shows a blue excess with respect to our template elliptical galaxy.

Extended narrow line emission is detected, with structures which are co-spatial with bridges and cocoons detected in radio-emission (Baum et al. 1988). The narrow emission lines are highly ionized (Baldwin et al. 1981, Saunders et al. 1989, Baum, Heckman & van Breugel 1992).

The Einstein satellite detected 3C 192 in X-rays at a flux level $`f(\text{0.5–3keV})=1.1\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, or $`1.8\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1. The source is extended at a 97% confidence level, $`0.8_{0.3}^{+1.7}`$ arcmin, but a background object might be contaminating the map (Fabbiano et al. 1984).

### 5.3. 3C 218 or Hydra A

3C 218 is one of the most luminous radiosources in the local ($`z<0.1`$) Universe, only surpassed by Cygnus-A. Although the radio-luminosity of 3C 218 exceeds by an order of magnitude the characteristic FR I/FR II break luminosity, it has an edge-darkened FR I morphology (Ekers & Simkin 1983, Baum et al. 1988, Taylor et al. 1990). The total size of the radio structure extends for about 7 arcmin, such that the radio-jets, which flare at 5 arcsec, are curved and display ’S’ symetry.

3C 218 has been optically identified with the cD2 galaxy Hydra A (Simkin 1979), which dominates the poor cluster Abell 780. This however is an X-ray bright cluster with $`L_\text{X}2\times 10^{44}`$ erg s-1 in the 0.5 – 4.5 keV range, as seen by the Einstein satellite (David et al. 1990). The total bolometric luminosity has been estimated to be $`5\times 10^{44}`$ erg s-1 from 0.4–2 keV ROSAT observations (Peres et al. 1998). The thermal model that best fits the data supports the existence of a cooling flow which is depositing mass in the central regions of the cluster at a rate of $`264_{60}^{+81}`$M yr-1.

Hydra A has an associated type II cooling flow nebula (Heckman et al. 1989), characterized by high H$`\alpha `$ and X-ray luminosities, but relatively weak \[N II\] and \[S II\] and strong \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6300Å emission lines, usually found in LINERs. The H$`\alpha `$ extended narrow line emission (Baum et al. 1988) actually fills the gap between the radiolobes.

The $`\lambda `$2200Å, $`\lambda `$2700Å, $`B`$-band, $`BV`$ and, also, the $`UI`$ continuum colours of the center of Hydra A have been attributed to a $``$ 10 Myr burst of star formation involving $`10^8`$ to $`10^9`$M (Hansen, Jørgensen & Nørgaard-Nielsen 1995, McNamara 1995). This is further supported by the detection of strong absorption lines of the Balmer series in the near-UV spectrum of the nucleus (Hansen et al. 1995, Melnick et al. 1997). We also find strong absorption Balmer lines, which we identify as originating in blue supergiant or giant B stars. One of our best two matches in the $`D\lambda _1`$ classification we use in this work, B3I stars, also indicates ages 7 to 8 Myr.

Heckman et al. (1985) found that the stellar kinematics has negligible rotation ($`13\pm 18`$ km s-1), but their observations were limited to the $`\lambda `$4200 –5700Å region, and did not include the higher Balmer lines in absorption. On the other hand, Ekers & Simkin (1983) report very fast rotating stars in the central 20 kpc of the radiogalaxy. A two dimensional analysis of the blue spectrum shows a tilt of the Balmer absorption lines of $`450\pm 130`$ km s-1 in the central 3 arcsec, while the Ca II H,K lines do not show any displacement (Melnick et al. 1997). This tilt is further confirmed by our data. The conclusion derived by Melnick et al. (1997) is that the young stars have formed a disk which is rotating perpendicular to the position of the radio-axis. The star-formation disk has also been detected in $`U`$-band images (McNamara 1995).

### 5.4. 3C 285

The host galaxy of 3C 285 has been identified with the brightest member of a group of galaxies (Sandage 1972). Optical imaging of the galaxy reveals an elliptical main body and a distorted S shape envelope aligned with a companion galaxy $`40`$ arcsec to the northwest (Heckman et al. 1986). Narrow band imaging shows that the S-shaped extension is due to continuum emitting structures (Heckman et al. 1986, Baum et al. 1988). The narrow emission lines are originated by photoionization with a high ionization parameter (Saunders et al. 1989, Baum et al. 1992).

Sandage (1972) found that the $`BV`$ colour of 3C 285 is much bluer than that of a normal elliptical galaxy. Our observations show that the blue light of the nucleus (inner 2 arcsec) is dominated by a burst which contains A2I stars, and thus has an age of 10 to 12 Myr.

Saslaw, Tyson and Crane (1978) identified a bright blue slightly resolved object halfway between the nucleus and the eastern radio-lobe, which they denoted 3C 285/09.6. Optical spectra and imaging obtained by van Breugel & Dey (1993), showed that the knot is at the same redshift as the galaxy, and its $`UBV`$ colours and 4000Å break are consistent with a burst of 70 Myr, which they interpreted as induced by the radio-jet.

3C 285 is a classical double-lobed radiogalaxy of 190 arcsec total extension at 4.86 GHz, with two hotspots and an eastern ridge showing curvature roughly along the line to the optical companion (Leahy & Williams 1984, Hardcastle et al. 1998).

The source has not been detected by the Einstein satellite in X-rays, at a flux level $`f(\text{0.5–3keV})<1.5\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 or $`L_X=4.4\times 10^{42}`$ erg s-1 (Fabbiano et al. 1984).

### 5.5. 3C 382

3C 382 has a double-lobe structure, with a clear jet in the northern lobe that ends in a hotspot. A hotspot in the southern lobe is also detected, but a counterpart jet is not clear, although a trail of low fractional polarization is detected (Black et al. 1992). The total 3.85 GHz size between hotspots is 179 arcsec (Hardcastle et al. 1998).

Optically, the radiosource is identified with a disturbed elliptical galaxy dominated by a very bright and unresolved nucleus (Mathews, Morgan & Schmidt 1964, Martel et al. 1999), located in a moderately rich environment (Longair & Seldner 1979). The optical spectra shows a strong continuum and prominent broad-lines photoinized by a power-law type of spectrum (Saunders et al. 1989, Tadhunter, Fosbury & Quinn 1989). The stellar population of the host galaxy, as we show in our study, is barely detected in the nuclear regions.

The Einstein satellite detected 3C 382 in X-rays at a flux level $`f(\text{0.5–3keV})=1.3\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, or $`2\times 10^{44}`$ erg s-1 (Fabbiano et al. 1984). The source is resolved in ROSAT/HRI observations but its interpretation is debateable since the luminosity is too strong for a galaxy environment which is only moderately rich (Prieto 2000).

3C 382 is a variable source at X-ray (Dower et al. 1980, Barr & Giommi 1992), radio (Strom, Willis & Willis 1978), optical and UV frequencies (Puschell 1981, Tadhunter, Pérez & Fosbury 1986)

### 5.6. DA 240

This is a double-lobed giant radio-galaxy of 34 arcmin angular size between hotspots and ongoing nuclear activity at 2.8cm (Laing et al. 1983, Nilsson et al. 1993, Klein et al. 1994).

The amplitude of the angular cross-correlation of sources found in optical plates around the position of the radio source is weak, $`A_{\text{gg}}=0.101\pm 0.118`$ (Prestage & Peacock 1988). Abell clusters at the same redshift have values Agg

>

0.3

>

subscript𝐴gg0.3A_{\mbox{\scriptsize gg}}\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}0.3.

The optical spectra shows weak H$`\beta `$ and \[Ne III\] and \[O III\] narrow emission lines, compatible with a higly ionized medium which is obscured. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }4000`$Å and \[MgFe\] indices found in this radiogalaxy are characteristic of old metal-rich populations.

### 5.7. 4C 73.08

4C 73.08 is a giant double-lobed radio-galaxy, with 13 arcmin angular size between hotspots (Meyer 1979, Nilsson et al. 1993).

The environment of the radiogalaxy is also weak, with amplitude of the angular cross-correlation of optical galaxies around the radiosource of $`A_{\text{gg}}=0.203`$ (Prestage & Peacock 1988).

4C 73.08 shows a high excitation spectrum typical of narrow line radio galaxies. The colours of the radiogalaxy and the $`\mathrm{\Delta }4000`$Å and \[MgFe\] indices are comparable to those of our reference elliptical galaxy.

## 6. Conclusions

We have presented spectra of 7 radiogalaxies in the $`\lambda `$3350Å –$`\lambda `$6000Å and $`\lambda `$7900Å –$`\lambda `$9400Å range. All radiogalaxies show either a clear detection or an indication of detection of the Ca II $`\lambda \lambda `$8494,8542,8662Å triplet in absorption, and in 6 of them we detected Balmer absorption lines.

On the basis of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }4000`$Å break measurements, we conclude that 4 of these radiogalaxies contain populations which are typical of normal elliptical galaxies, 2 have populations younger than a few hundrer Myr, and in one its stellar population cannot be characterized.

In the two cases with young bursts, Hydra A and 3C 285, we subtracted the bulge population using a normal elliptical galaxy as a template in order to characterize better the young burst. The $`\lambda `$4000Å and Balmer break index measurements indicate that the young population is dominated by blue giant and/or blue supergiant stars: B3I or B5III for Hydra A, and A2I for 3C 285. The derived age of the burst is beween 7 and 40 Myr for Hydra A, and 10 to 12 Myr for 3C 285.

The CaT strength, invoked to support the detection of young stellar populations in active galaxies, fails to provide a clear conclusion on the nature of the stars that dominate the red light in these radiogalaxies. The CaT could either be due to the red giant stars that dominate old bulge populations, or to the red dwarfs of a young starburst (t

<

7

<

𝑡7t\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$<$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}7Myr), or the red giants and supergiants of a post-starburst (t

>

30

>

𝑡30t\mathrel{\lower 2.5pt\vbox{\hbox{$>$}\hbox{$\sim$}}}30 Myr), or a combination of a bulge population and a recent burst of star formation. A mixed population is again favoured as the interpretation of the red spectra.

It is known that although the hosts of FR II sources look like ellipticals, few of them have true elliptical galaxy properties: magnitudes, colours, and structural parameters show a wider dispersion than in normal ellipticals (Baum et al. 1988, Zirbel 1996). Most of the radiogalaxies in our sample have reported structural disturbances in their optical morphologies, show signs of interactions, have close companions, belong to rich environments and/or have signatures of cooling flows. These are phenomena that facilitate carrying large quantities of gas to the centers of the galaxies and can power the AGN and/or provoke bursts of star formation.

Good quality data in the blue region of this sample is necessary in order to constrain the ages of the young populations involved, especially in the cases of 3C 98, 3C 192, DA 210, 3C 382 and 4C 73.08, where our bulge subtractions led to poor signal-to-noise and therefore unreliable results.

A detailed analysis of the ages of the last burst of star formation will set the relative chronology of the onset of the radio and starburst activity in these galaxies, and shed new light into the relationships between jets, AGN and star formation.

## Acknowledgments

This work has been supported in part by the ‘Formation and Evolution of Galaxies’ Network set up by the European Commission under contract ERB FMRX-CT96-086 of its TMR programme. We thank PATT for awarding observing time. IA, ET and RJT also thank the Guillermo Haro Programme for Advanced Astrophysics of INAOE for the oportunity it gave us to meet and make progress on the project during the 1998 workshop ’The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies’. GC acknowledges a PPARC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and ET an IBERDROLA Visiting Professorship to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. We thank J. Gorgas for providing the CaT spectra of the sample of comparison elliptical galaxies prior to publication, M. García-Vargas for suggestions on how to improve the fringing removal, and an anonymous referee for crucial comments on the relevance of Balmer indices in old populations.


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# Predictions for selfpollution in Globular Cluster Stars

## 1 Introduction

In recent years, determination of chemical abundances in Globular Cluster stars has confirmed the inhomogeneity of their surface composition for what concerns the abundances of the light elements from lithium to aluminium (see, for reviews, Smith 1987 and Kraft 1994). In particular, red giants in some GCs show a Na–O anticorrelation (e.g. Kraft et al. 1997) which seems the clear sign of ‘in situ’ processes, by which some still unexplained deep mixing mechanism brings at the stellar surface the products of complete CNO cycling occurring deep in the stellar interiors (e.g. Langer, Hoffman & Sneden 1993). This hypothesis is until now not confirmed by computation of adequate stellar models. In addition, the deep mixing should take place only in GC stars, as the analogous stars in the field are much more homogeneous in abundances.

Also the lithium abundances at the Turnoff (TO) of some GCs show spreads which are larger than the spread among similar halo stars (King, Stephens & Boesgaard 1998; Pasquini & Molaro 1997 ), which, in the range of GCs metallicities, are known to be very homogeneous ($`\mathrm{log}N(Li)=2.24\pm 0.05`$, Bonifacio & Molaro 1997 ; see also Ryan, Norris & Beers 1999), possibly indicating that we are witnessing the abundance left by the Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Of course, any lithium spread can not be linked with simplicity to advanced nucleosynthesis, being lithium a very fragile element, which would be completely destroyed at the temperature necessary to produce sodium. In addition, for any spread of abundances at the TO, it is not possible to invoke ‘in situ’ mechanisms, apart from gravitational settling and thermal diffusion (e.g. Chaboyer et al. (1992)). In this context, Gratton et al. (2001) have obtained recently very important results: the TO and subgiant stars in the GC NGC 6752 show an oxygen spread anticorrelated with sodium, and a Mg-Al anticorrelation, which certainly can not be explained by any ‘in situ’ process.

A different model for the GC stars inhomogeneities, not necessarily alternative with the ‘in situ’ scenario (see, e.g. Denissenkov et al. 1998), has been put forward in the eighties: the ‘selpollution’ or ‘self-enrichment’ hypothesis. The idea is that the field stars and the GC stars are born in a very different environment which plays a role in their evolution. The surface composition of the GC stars which we see today evolving, in fact, may have been contaminated by accretion from the ejecta of more massive stars which have evolved during the past history of the cluster. Cottrell & Da Costa (1981) suggested that the observed sodium and aluminium variations were the results of reactions occurred in an early generation of intermediate mass stars. These stars are also the best candidates to produce accretion on the already formed stars. In fact, we would not expect accretion on stars from possible supernova ejecta; in addition, we already know that today there is practically no gas or dust in the center of GCs, probably due to the strong UV flux from blue Horizontal Branch and post-AGB stars, which helps in removing the mass lost from red giants (Faulkner & Freeman 1977 ).

However, the intermediate mass stars (M $`36`$$`M_{}`$) lose mass by low velocity stellar winds, which can remain into the cluster, if it is massive enough, and concentrate in the core. These stars, in addition, suffer a very fast evolution through the hot Planetary Nebulae region, before becoming white dwarfs (Wood & Faulkner 1986 , Vassiliadis & Wood 1994), so that their input UV energy is not enough to expell the gas. In these conditions, the low mass stars, passing through the central regions of the GC, may accrete it in appreciable quantities. This hypothesis was put forward first by D’Antona, Gratton & Chieffi (1983). Gratton (2001) has recently elaborated on this idea. An additional important feature of such a model is that the massive AGB stars have a very interesting envelope nucleosynthesis, as the basis of their convective envelopes becomes very hot during the evolution: they suffer ‘Hot Bottom Burning’ (HBB), which mainly produces -and burns- lithium, and cycles the CNO elements.

The interesting novelty in the self-pollution scenario is that today we are able to predict the main composition of the ejecta of the intermediate mass AGBs, as a function of the metallicity, by means of new, sophisticated models. We can in fact model in detail the Thermal Pulse phase, and have developped a code which can follow selfconsistently the chemical mixing and nuclear burning in the envelope. Further, we have been able to calibrate the mass loss during the AGB phase, based on observational properties of such AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Before embarking in a detailed study of the modalities of the gas dynamics and of the accretion process, we first compute the nucleosynthesis expected in these stars, and therefore the possible main elements and isotopic ratios variations as a function of the initial mass and metallicity. We follow the evolution until the envelope mass is reduced to a relatively small fraction of the initial mass, and the models are reasonably close to the planetary nebula phase.

We have specifically computed the evolution of lithium, carbon isotopes, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes for intermediate mass stars (3$`M/M_{}6.5`$), having metals mass fractions from Z$`=2\times 10^4`$ to $`Z=0.01`$. Full description of the results and the elements yields will be given in a forthcoming paper. We describe our models in Section 2, their input physics and important differences with previous computations. Section 3 shortly presents the results and Section 4 summarizes the possible main observational predictions.

## 2 The models

We have developped new models of TP AGB stars in the phase of Hot Bottom Burning (Mazzitelli, D’Antona & Ventura 1999). For a detailed description of the input physics see also Ventura, D’Antona & Mazzitelli (2000). In these models we follow in detail the nucleosynthesis of 14 elements ($`{}_{}{}^{1}H`$, $`{}_{}{}^{2}D`$, $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$, $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$, $`{}_{}{}^{7}Li`$, $`{}_{}{}^{7}Be`$, $`{}_{}{}^{12}C`$, $`{}_{}{}^{13}C`$, $`{}_{}{}^{14}N`$, $`{}_{}{}^{15}N`$, $`{}_{}{}^{16}O`$, $`{}_{}{}^{17}O`$, $`{}_{}{}^{18}O`$, $`{}_{}{}^{22}Ne`$) and 22 associated nuclear reactions. We do not follow therefore the detailed nucleosynthesis of trace elements, but the decrease in the $`{}_{}{}^{16}O`$ abundance, and the increase of $`{}_{}{}^{17}O`$ monitor when the complete CNO Cycle is active. For the phases of Oxygen cycling, the physical conditions at the envelopes bottoms are such that they allow production of sodium by burning of the original $`{}_{}{}^{20}Ne`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{22}Ne`$, and of aluminium through burning of the magnesium isotopes (e.g. Langer et al. 1993), but we cannot give quantitative estimates for the expected anticorrelations O-Na and Mg-Al. We are now planning computations including a network of 30 isotopes to solve the problem selfconsistently.

The detailed lithium nucleosynthesis is followed directly in the evolutionary models, in which first the lithium remnant from the previous possible dilution phases is destroyed, then fresh lithium is produced through the reaction $`{}_{}{}^{3}He+^4He^7Be^7Li`$ (the ‘Cameron Fowler’ mechanism —Cameron & Fowler 1971), and finally it is burnt completely when the $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$ of the envelope is fully depleted. To follow selfconsistently the nuclear evolution, we use a scheme which couples the nuclear burning and chemical mixing in the envelope, as first included in full stellar models by Sackmann & Boothroyd (1992).

These are the first models which provide fully evolutionary results of nucleosynthesis by HBB in AGB for metallicities as low as the GCs metallicities. Detailed results for AGBs of Z=0.02 and Z=0.005 have been published by Forestini & Charbonnel (1997), but they followed explicitly only a few TPs and adopt an extrapolation for the rest of the evolution. Their models differ from ours in the choice of the treatment of convection111We adopt the ‘Full Spectrum of Turbulence’ (Canuto & Mazzitelli 1991 ) convection, in the formulation by Canuto, Goldman & Mazzitelli (1996). This model predicts HBB temperatures larger than in the solar-calibrated Mixing Length model adopted by Forestini & Charbonnel (1997), see D’Antona & Mazzitelli (1996). However, we tested that also MLT models with a solar calibrated mixing length reach very large HBB temperatures for the lowest computed metallicities and deplete oxygen. and of a mass loss formalism, which probably underestimates mass loss. Denissenkov et al. (1998) also consider detailed nucleosynthesis in AGBs as possible source of self-pollution in GCs, but they adopt a ‘parametrized nucleosynthesis’ approach and do not compute full evolutions. The yields obtained do not depend sensibly on the mass loss formulation and on its calibration, apart from the lithium yield. We adopt Blöcker (1995) schematization for mass loss, and have recently sorted out a way of calibrating its free parameter on the basis of the Magellanic Clouds observations (Ventura et al. 2000 ), showing that the lithium yield varies more or less linearly with the mass loss rate. We make here the hypothesis that this calibration holds also for lower metallicity stars.

Among the other elements, we follow the carbon and nitrogen evolution. These abundances are affected by the occurrence of the ‘third dredge up’ (Iben 1975) of carbon from the helium shell. This process produces, at lower luminosities, the phenomenon of Carbon stars. The masses we consider here, due to the HBB, cycle carbon to nitrogen and do not appear as Carbon stars even if the third dredge up is operating. This process is however still not well understood: for the solar chemistry, most models, including ours, need a treatment of overshooting below the formal convective envelope to produce Carbon stars in the range of luminosity and metallicities for which they occurr in nature. We have considered models in which Carbon stars are formed, by allowing a detailed consideration of non-instantaneous mixing by ‘overshooting’ (Ventura, D’Antona & Mazzitelli 1999), but we did not include this treatment in the present models, as at low metallicities the models achieve the third dredge up spontaneously. As we do not include overshooting below the convective bottom, however, our carbon and nitrogen abundances are to be considered as lower limits. Notice that the surface helium in these stars is not particularly peculiar: helium dredge-up in the HBB phase is negligible (contrary to the models in which deep mixing is artificially enforced to explain ‘in situ’ the peculiarities of GC red giants, e.g. Weiss, Denissenkov & Charbonnel 2000). However these stars have suffered the second dredge up, so the helium content of the ejecta is $`Y0.29`$, to be compared with the initial $`Y=0.23`$. Details will be published elsewhere.

## 3 Results

In presenting the results in the figures, we show the physical quantities along the computed evolutions as a function of the total ‘mass’, which is decreasing due to mass loss. In this way, we also have an immediate understanding of how much a phase is important for the chemical yields. Figure 1 shows the temperature at the bottom of the convective envelope ($`T_{bce}`$) along the evolution of models of 4, 5 and 6$`M_{}`$ (Z=0.01, left) and 3, 4 and 5$`M_{}`$ (Z=2$`\times 10^4`$, right).

We notice that $`T_{bce}`$ for the same initial mass is larger the lower is the metallicity. The most massive and metal poor models reach surprisingly large values of $`T_{bce}`$, although we do not allow for any kind of overshooting below the formal convective region. Above $`T_{bce}8\times 10^7`$K the CNO cycle is complete, and oxygen becomes depleted. Fig. 2 shows the evolution of the ratio between the surface oxygen abundance and the initial value for stars of $`5M_{}`$ for the computed metallicities. We see that for Z=0.01 the abundance when the total mass is reduced to $`2M_{}`$ is not different. Depletion is more important for Z=$`4\times 10^3`$ and $`10^3`$. The track of $`2\times 10^4`$ shows an initial reduction by a factor $`100`$, which in later phases is reduced to a factor $`10`$. Although our computations do not include the nucleosynthesis past oxygen, the drastic reduction of $`{}_{}{}^{16}O`$ with the $`{}_{}{}^{17}O/^{16}O`$ increasing up to $`0.17`$, indicates that we are in the presence of a very advanced nucleosynthesis. At these temperature and densities, Na and Al are produced by proton capture on the neon and magnesium nuclei respectively.

Figure 3 shows the surface lithium as a function of the mass for the metallicities Z=$`4\times 10^3`$ and $`2\times 10^4`$. Assuming that all these stars start with an initial abundance equal to the population II abundance $`\mathrm{log}N(Li)=2.2`$, there is a short phase in which lithium is overproduced by a factor up to $`60`$, followed by a more prolonged phase in which it is depleted by a factor $`10^4`$. In the computation of the total yield, however, the phase of production is very important to balance the following total desctruction. As a final result, lithium is depleted with respect to the Big Bang abundance, by a factor 4–5 at the lowest metallicities. At the lowest Z, the phase of $`{}_{}{}^{7}Li`$ production lasts for a shorter time. In addition, the radii are smaller and the mass loss rate is lower. As a result, the total lithium depletion in the ejecta is maximum. In fact, at $`Z=4\times 10^3`$ the expected depletion is by at most a factor 2.

Figure 4 shows the lithium abundance in the ejected envelopes, as a function of the metallicity, including also the models for Z=0.01 computed in Ventura et al. (2000). The horizontal line shows the ‘primordial’ abundance. This should sure apply to the most metal deficient GCs. We see then that for these clusters we expect that the polluted stars (in which oxygen is smaller) should have also a smaller lithium abundance.

For more metal rich GCs, such as, e.g., 47 Tuc, which has a metallicity of $`4\times 10^3`$, the situation is more complex. The scarce available data on lithium (see, e.g., the compilation by Romano et al. 1999) seem to indicate a value somewhat larger than the plateau value ($`2.32.4`$). Of course, the lithium in the halo stars at this metallicity may differ from the value in a GC. If we assume that the initial lithium at Z=$`4\times 10^3`$ is still close to the Spite plateau, we see that the gas of the polluting stars is expected to be of a quite similar or scarcely smaller abundance. Our mass loss calibration must be believed only within a factor two or three, and this would alter the lithium abundances by the same factor, by enhancing or reducing the mass loss rate in the phases of lithium production (Ventura et al. 2000 ). We might then expect in metal rich massive GCs either a lithium spread similar to that expected for low metallicity -if the initial lithium is a bit larger than the plateau value-, or the opposite behaviour: namely that the polluted stars have a lithium abundance larger than the initial one.

Notice that the lithium abundance in the ejecta is never very large, not even for the largest metallicities. This in fact was one of the results of our calibration of the mass loss rate (Ventura et al. 2000 ), and shows that massive AGB stars are not important contributors to the galactic lithium enrichment (Romano et al. 2001).

## 4 Predictions

If the self-pollution model is relevant for GCs, we can derive from our models some predictions:

* Metal poor GCs should show the largest spreads of abundances, and in particular a spread in oxygen, anticorrelated with Na, and probably an anticorrelation Mg–Al also, similar to what would be expected by ‘in situ’ very deep mixing in the advanced giant branch phases.
* Contrary to the expectation of the ‘in situ’ nucleosynthesis, these abundance anomalies are expected to be present also at the main sequence or on the subgiant branch. The results by Gratton et al. (2001) on the anticorrelation oxygen–sodium and magnesium–aluminium for turnoff and subgiant stars in the massive GC NGC 6752 are in agreement with this model.
* An interesting test to understand whether the oxygen variations are due to pollution from the envelopes of intermediate mass stars would be the detection of lithium abundance correlated with the oxygen abundance. The process should in fact produce a spread in the lithium, of the same order, or smaller, than the oxygen variations. Fully CNO cycled stellar matter is characterized by a huge lithium depletion, but the envelopes of the polluting stars have also passed through a phase in which lithium had been extensively produced by consumption of the envelope $`{}_{}{}^{3}He`$, and some of the mass processed in this way has been lost by wind. The ‘normal’ lithium detection of two turnoff stars in 47Tuc (Pasquini & Molaro 1997 ), which have significantly different (anticorrelated) CH and CN, are compatible with this model.
* The most metal rich clusters should be characterized by smaller degrees of elemental variations, but some correlation oxygen – lithium should remain. In fact, as we can not trust completely our mass loss calibration, it is well possible that the polluted stars present a lithium abundance larger than the initial one.

We thank Alessandro Chieffi for useful comments.