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# The UZC-SSRS2 Group Catalog

## 1 Introduction

Catalogs of loose groups have long been a fundamental resource for the study of these abundant systems. Early catalogs constructed with a variety of selection criteria were based on positions of galaxies on the sky (de Vaucouleurs, 1974; Turner & Gott, 1976; Materne, 1978). There has been a steady evolution toward groups selected from redshift surveys of the local universe (Huchra & Geller, 1982; Vennik, 1984; Nolthenius & White, 1987; Tully, 1987; Maia et al., 1989; Ramella et al., 1989; Gourgoulhon et al., 1992; Garcia, 1993; Ramella et al., 1997; Trasarti-Battistoni, 1998; Ramella et al., 1999; Giuricin et al., 2000; Tucker et al., 2000; Carlberg et al., 2001), with the notable exception of White et al. (1999) who use the Turner & Gott (1976) algorithm to select groups projected on the sky starting from the CGCG (Zwicky et al., 1961—1968).

Here we discuss the group catalogs for the UZC (Falco et al., 1999) and SSRS2 (da Costa et al., 1998) redshift surveys which cover 4.69 steradians of the sky to a limiting m$`{}_{B(0)}{}^{}15.5`$. To identify the groups we apply a standard friends-of-friends algorithm (Huchra & Geller, 1982). Analyses based on preliminary versions of this catalog are already in the literature. Girardi et al. (2000) and Padilla et al. (2001) compute the group correlation function. Trasarti-Battistoni et al. (1997) identify groups in the Perseus-Pisces region and computes the group correlation function (Trasarti-Battistoni, 1998). Mahdavi et al. (2000) cross-correlate a portion of the catalog with the Rosat All-Sky Survey to identify systems which have associated extended x-ray emission. Frederic (1995a, b) and Diaferio et al. (1999) compare the properties of these systems with the predictions of n-body simulations. Issues including spectroscopic and morphological types of galaxies in nearby groups remain to be investigated.

There is wide variation in the group selection algorithms. This variation affects the fraction of galaxies assigned to groups. It also affects the derived physical parameters (Pisani et al., 1992). Frederic (1995a, b) discussed the sensitivity of group identification to the algorithm. A similar discussion is beyond the scope of this paper: all of the redshift survey data are publicly available for examination of these issues.

Here we provide lists of groups and group members to enable reproduction and extension of published results along with comparisons to other group catalogs. We include cross-references to our previous catalogs constructed from partial versions of the UZC and SSRS2. We refer to the entire group catalog discussed in this paper as the UZC-SSRS2 Group Catalog which we abbreviate as USGC. Section 2 reviews the redshift surveys and compares the UZC with the SSRS2 in the region of overlap. Section 3 describes the group selection algorithm. Section 4 discusses the homogeneity of the group catalog across the two underlying redshift surveys. We also examine the physical properties of the optically selected groups and compare them with the x-ray emitting subset. In Section 5 we conclude by comparing the USGC with similarly constructed catalogs based on distinct redshift surveys including the ESO Key Programme (Ramella et al., 1999) and the LCRS (Tucker et al., 2000).

## 2 The Data

We derive the group catalog from the official distributions of the UZC (http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~falco/UZC/) and SSRS2 catalogs. We retrieve the SSRS2 from CDS using VizieR (Ochsenbein et al., 2000). In the UZC catalog (Falco et al., 1999) we use only the $`>`$98% complete region limited by $`2.5^{}\delta _{1950}50^{}`$ and $`8^h\alpha _{1950}17^h`$ in the North Galactic Cap and by $`20^h\alpha _{1950}4^h`$ in the South Galactic Cap. We discard the regions $`13^{}b13^{}`$ and $`\alpha _{1950}3^h`$ in the southern galactic region because of the greater galactic absorption there (Padmanabhan et al., 2001). We consider only galaxies with $`cz<15000`$ km s-1. There are 13333 galaxies in the subset of the UZC catalog we analyze.

The boundaries of the SSRS2 (da Costa et al., 1998) are $`40^{}\delta 2.5^{}`$ and $`b_{II}40^{}`$ for SSRS2 South and $`\delta 0^{}`$ and $`b_{II}35^{}`$ for SSRS2 North. Here, too, we consider only galaxies with $`cz<15000`$ km s-1. The UZC and SSRS2 catalogs have slightly different magnitude systems, $`m_{Zw}`$ and $`m_{SSRS2}`$ respectively. Detailed discussions comparing $`m_{Zw}`$ and $`m_{SSRS2}`$ are in Alonso et al. (1994) and, more recently, in Marzke et al. (1998). We use magnitudes as listed within the UZC and SSRS2 catalogs and apply the appropriate luminosity functions.

The SSRS2 and UZC overlap in the declination range $`3.8^{}<\delta _{1950}0^{}`$ and $`140^{}<\alpha _{1950}<240^{}`$. In this region the UZC contains 472 galaxies, about twice as many galaxies as SSRS2 (260 galaxies). Out of the 472 UZC galaxies in the Overlap Region (OR), 223 appear in both catalogs (we call this set of galaxies Uboth ; and the remaining 249 galaxies UZC galaxies make up the sample Uonly ). We use the DSS to verify that the UZC objects omitted from the SSRS2 are galaxies. We note that 37 SSRS2 galaxies have no UZC counterpart. Of these 37 galaxies, 10 are very bright NGC galaxies also within UZC, but outside the half arcminute radius we search for UZC counterparts. These 10 galaxies are so bright and rare that they do not enter the magnitude comparison below. Extending our search to a 6 arcmin radius does not yield counterparts for the remaining 27 galaxies. These 27 galaxies have apparent magnitudes spread throughout the SSRS2 range; the sample of these galaxies is too small to draw any statistically interesting conclusions and they have little effect on the analysis below.

The issue of completeness to the magnitude limit is of obvious importance for the normalization of the luminosity function and potentially for the determination of large-scale structure parameters. Several authors have addressed the problem of the “quality” of $`m_{Zw}`$(Huchra, 1976; Bothun & Cornell, 1990; Takamiya et al., 1995; Grogin & Geller, 1999; Gatzañaga & Dalton, 2000) and of $`m_{SSRS2}`$(Alonso et al., 1993, 1994). Most of these authors use CCD photometry to calibrate either mZw or mSSRS2. The task is difficult because the CCD photometric samples are limited and there are biases that can be introduced by the selection of the calibrating galaxies and by the choice of photometric techniques. It is perhaps not surprising that results are mostly discordant.

Given the lack of a “final word” on the two magnitude systems, it is worth investigating the difference between galaxy counts in the OR. For the 223 galaxies in the Uboth sample, we can compare $`m_{SSRS2}`$to $`m_{Zw}`$directly; this sample is similar in size to those in previous studies. Of course, extension of the conclusions throughout the catalogs may not be warranted.

The 223 Uboth galaxies are brighter, on average, than the Uonly galaxies: only 25 Uboth galaxies are fainter than $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.20; 170 Uonly galaxies are fainter than this limit. The distribution of $`m_{Zw}`$in the OR is very similar to the distribution of $`m_{SSRS2}`$in the same region. The only significant difference occurs at the magnitudes fainter than $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.2, more frequent among Zwicky magnitudes.

We suggest that $`m_{SSRS2}`$and $`m_{Zw}`$are not equivalent and that SSRS2 magnitudes are systematically brighter than UZC magnitudes, at least in the OR. A least squares fit to the relationship $`m_{Zw}`$vs. $`m_{SSRS2}`$for Uboth galaxies yields $`m_{Zw}`$= 0.78 $`m_{SSRS2}`$\+ 3.16. We use this relation to transform $`m_{SSRS2}`$into new magnitudes, $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$, that can be compared directly to $`m_{Zw}`$. The new magnitude limit is $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$= 15.25. This brighter limit is the true limit that should be used for $`m_{Zw}`$when comparing SSRS2 and UZC magnitudes.

Remarkably, the magnitude limit $`m_{Zw}`$$`15.25`$ leaves 277 UZC galaxies in the OR, very close count the 260 SSRS2 galaxies. Furthermore, a KS test shows that the distributions of $`m_{Zw}`$and $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$have a probability greater than 98% of having been drawn from the same parent population.

The results we obtain in the OR may be valid everywhere else in the two surveys. In fact, the distributions of $`m_{SSRS2}`$and $`m_{Zw}`$within the OR do not differ significantly from the magnitude distributions of the entire SSRS2 and UZC, respectively. If we set $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.25 as the new magnitude limit for the whole UZC, there are 4842 galaxies in the UZC; there are 4824 SSRS2 galaxies. The solid angle of both regions of the sky is about 1.6 sr. Thus the angular number densities of galaxies in the two surveys coincide. With the original fainter UZC limiting magnitude, the angular densities of the UZC and SSRS2 are 5200 galaxies sr-1 and 3090 galaxies sr-1 respectively.

Our analysis of the OR indicates that the UZC is a deeper survey than the SSRS2 and that a linear transformation is needed to make $`m_{Zw}`$and $`m_{SSRS2}`$comparable. We note that Alonso et al. (1994) also analyze galaxies in common between Zwicky’s CGCG (Zwicky et al., 1961—1968) and SSRS2. However, these authors focus on the Uboth sample and ignore the presence of the large sample of Uonly galaxies. Without taking the Uonly galaxies into account, and ignoring possible scale errors, they conclude that the average difference between $`m_{SSRS2}`$and $`m_{Zw}`$is of the order of 0.1 mag and that it can be ignored in the analyses of UZC and SSRS2. Because we cannot verify that the results of our analysis of the OR can be extended robustly over the entire UZC or SSRS2, we do not attempt to unify selection functions but rather use the appropriate selection function in each survey. Relative to their selection functions, groups in the two surveys have similar properties. Indeed, we will show below that the number of groups relative to the underlying galaxy distribution and their main physical parameters are not significantly different within the UZC and SSRS2 surveys. If the transformation between $`m_{Zw}`$and $`m_{SSRS2}`$is correct throughout the catalog, some “absolute” properties of groups will differ somewhat in the approach we take here. For example, the average galaxy density within individual groups will be slightly different in the UZC and SSRS2. We note, however, that other uncertainties than magnitude scale errors may dominate the identification of physically bound systems of galaxies and the determination of their masses. We do not know either the “true” distances of galaxies independent of their velocities and thus we do not have an estimate of the “true” spatial galaxy density. It is beyond the scope of this paper to determine the ultimate underlying reason for the discrepancy between the two catalogs in the overlap region. It is also difficult to evaluate the propagation of these differences. Progress will be made with large digital sky surveys, like 2MASS and the on-going SDSS, which will provide homogeneous and uniform CCD photometry and galaxy catalogs over large regions of the sky. Here we discuss groups that have been used in a number of different analyses, we take the magnitudes in the two catalogs at face value and make no transformation. We use the UZC catalog in the overlap region. The difference in selection of galaxies within UZC and SSRS2 in the overlap region confuses the definition of groups at the border between the two surveys; to avoid this problem we introduce a half degree gap between the two surveys. In conclusion, the SSRS2 catalog we analyze consists of 4824 galaxies.

Figure 1a shows the distribution on the sky of the UZC and SSRS2 galaxies included in our analysis. We also plot (large dots) the position of the Abell/ACO clusters within the volume of the survey (Andernach, 1991). We download Andernach’s updated electronic table from CDS using VizieR (Ochsenbein et al., 2000). Several Abell/ACO clusters lie just outside the border of the SSRS2 survey. We discuss the consequences of omission of these dense regions below.

## 3 The Algorithm

Friends-of-friends algorithms (FOFA) are now a standard approach to identifying systems of galaxies in a redshift survey. We apply the FOFA originally proposed by Huchra & Geller (1982) as implemented by Ramella et al. (1997). The “linking” parameters $`D_L`$ and $`V_L`$ characterize the FOFA search: for each galaxy in the catalog, the FOFA identifies all other galaxies with a projected separation

$$D_{12}(V_1+V_2)\mathrm{sin}(\theta /2)/H_oD_L(V_1,V_2,m_1,m_2)$$
$`(1)`$
and a line-of-sight velocity difference

$$V_{12}|V_1V_2|V_L(V_1,V_2,m_1,m_2).$$
$`(2)`$
Here, $`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$ are the velocities of the two galaxies in the pair, $`m_1`$ and $`m_2`$ are their magnitudes, $`\theta `$ is their angular separation, and $`H_o`$ is the Hubble constant. We assume a Hubble constant $`H_{}=100h`$ km s-1 Mpc-1 with $`h=1`$ when an explicit value is required. All pairs linked by a common galaxy form a “group”.

We estimate the limiting density contrast as

$$\frac{\delta \rho }{\rho }=\frac{3}{4\pi D_o^3}\left[_{\mathrm{}}^{M_{lim}}\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑M\right]^11.$$
$`(3)`$
Here $`\mathrm{\Phi }(M)`$ is the luminosity function for the sample, $`M_{lim}`$ is the faintest absolute magnitude at which galaxies in a sample with magnitude limit $`m_{lim}`$ are visible at a fiducial velocity $`V_F`$ = 1000 km s-1 , and $`D_o`$ is the linking parameter $`D_L`$ at $`V_F`$ (Ramella et al., 1989). We scale scale $`D_L`$ and $`V_L`$ to keep the number density enhancement, $`\delta \rho /\rho `$, constant. The scaling is

$$D_L=D_oR$$
$`(4)`$
and

$$V_L=V_oR,$$
$`(5)`$
where

$$R=\left[_{\mathrm{}}^{M_{lim}}\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑M/_{\mathrm{}}^{M_{12}}\mathrm{\Phi }(M)𝑑M\right]^{1/3}$$
$`(6)`$
and

$$M_{12}=m_{lim}255\mathrm{log}((V_1+V_2)/2H_o)$$
$`(7)`$
The ratio $`D_L/V_L`$ is constant.

We define an association of three or more galaxies as a “group”. We consider only groups with mean velocities in the range 500 km s-1 $`<V<12000`$ km s-1 . This value allows a straightforward comparison with the majority of published results on subsamples of CfA groups. For the UZC, the Schechter (1976) form of the galaxy luminosity function (LF) has $`M_{}=19.1`$, $`\alpha =1.1`$, and $`\varphi _{}=0.04h^3`$ Mpc-3. We obtain these values of the parameters by convolving an 0.3 magnitude Gaussian uncertainty with the LF determined by Marzke et al. (1994) for a very similar sample. There is no significant difference between the old Ramella et al. (1997) groups the new UZC groups where these two samples overlap. Any differences result from the use of the more accurate UZC coordinates and redshifts. For the SSRS2, the luminosity function parameters are $`M_{}=19.73`$, $`\alpha =1.2`$, and $`\varphi _{}=0.013h^3`$ Mpc-3. We obtain these parameters by convolving the 0.3 magnitude uncertainty with the LF determined by Marzke et al. (1994).

We set $`D_0`$ to correspond to a density contrast threshold $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ = 80 within both the UZC and SSRS2. Because the luminosity functions differ slightly for the two catalogs, the linking parameters differ somewhat at the reference velocity, $`V_F`$. For both surveys, the fiducial linking parameters are approximately $`D_0=0.25h^1`$ Mpc and $`V_0=350`$ km s-1 at $`V_F=1000`$ km s-1 . Ramella et al. (1997) discuss how group catalogs vary with $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ and $`V_0`$ . They conclude that group properties are statistically stable for $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ in the range 80 to 160. The choice $`\delta \rho /\rho `$ = 80 guarantees inclusion of the loosest systems and minimzes the chance splitting of the richest systems. The choice of $`V_0`$ is more critical. Ramella et al. (1997) adopt the value we use here based on the following considerations: a) for this choice of $`V_0`$, the velocity dispersions of the richest systems identified with FOFA match the dispersions obtained from much larger samples (e.g. Zabludoff et al. (1993)), b) observations show that groups obtained with $`V_0=350`$ km s-1 are stable against inclusion of fainter members (Ramella et al., 1995, 1996), c) analysis of the performances of FOFA on cosmological n-body simulations show that $`V_0=150`$ km s-1 biases velocity dispersions toward low values and that $`V_0=550`$ km s-1 produces highly inaccurate groups (Frederic, 1995a).

In a group catalog selected from a redshift survey with a FOFA, some fraction of the groups are accidental superpositions. We have two measures of the fraction of true physical systems in the USGC catalog. Ramella et al. (1997) use geometric simulations of the large-scale structure in the Northern UZC region to demonstrate that at least 80% of the groups with five or more members are probably physical systems. Diaferio et al. (1999) find similar results in their analysis of mock CfA surveys extracted from n-body simulations. Mahdavi et al. (2000) cross-correlate a large fraction of these richer groups with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS). A total of 61 groups, the “RASSCALS”, in the Mahdavi et al. (2000) sample have associated extended x-ray emi+ssion. The presence of hot x-ray emitting gas bound in the group potential well is a confirmation of the physical reality of the system. Mahdavi et al. (2000) use the groups detected in the x-ray to show that a minimum fraction of 40% of the groups in the subsample are similar x-ray emitting systems undetectable with the RASS; thus they set a lower limit of 40% on the fraction of real physical systems in the group catalog. We conclude that 40-80% of the groups with five or more members are real and it is thus reasonable to use their properties to derive physical constraints on the nature of groups of galaxies. Of course, the statistical reliability is substantially less for the 3 and 4 member groups. We include these systems as a finding list.

## 4 The Group Catalog

The USGC catalog contains 1168 groups, with the UZC and SSRS2 regions containing 864 and 304 groups with a total of 5242 and 1604 member galaxies, respectively. For each group, Table 1 lists the group ID number, the number of members within the survey, $`N_{mem}`$, the mean coordinates (J2000), the mean heliocentric radial velocity, an unbiased estimate of the velocity dispersion (Ledermann, 1984) corrected for measurement errors and reduced to the source redshift (Danese et al., 1980), the virial radius, the virial mass, the logarithm of the mass-to-light ratio, the logarithm of the observed luminosity and the logarithm of the total luminosity corrected for the unseen luminosity to M$`{}_{Z}{}^{}w`$ = -13.0 assuming a simple extrapolation of the relevant luminosity function. We note that Table 1 lists the virial radius $`R_{vir}=2R_hN_{mem}/(N_{mem}1)`$ (see e.g. Jackson, 1975; Rood & Dickel, 1978); Ramella et al. (1997) actually list $`R_h`$, the harmonic radius. Only the beginning of Table 1 is included here; the entire table is available electronically.

Table 2 is a sample of the list of group members; again the full list is available electronically. For each member we list the ID number of the parent group, the galaxy coordinates (J2000) and magnitude as in the UZC or SSRS2, the heliocentric velocity, and the velocity error.

We cross-identify groups in the USGC catalog with the $`N_{mem}5`$ member groups in Ramella et al. (1997) and with the x-ray detected RASSCALS. Small changes in the original galaxy catalogs and improved luminosity functions have small statistical effects on the membership and/or physical parameters of the groups. Table 3 lists the cross-identifications with Ramella et al. (1997); Table 4 contains cross-identifications with the RASSCALS. All of the RASSCALS detected in the x-ray are also in the USGC.

## 5 Properties of Groups

Because of its size, the USGC catalog offers an opportunity to study a broad range of physical properties of groups as a class of systems. We consider the velocity dispersion, mass, and mass-to-light ratio here. Girardi et al. (2000) evaluate the group correlation function. Mahdavi et al. (2000) consider the x-ray properties of groups in this sample. Pisani et al. (2002, in preparation) evaluate the multiplicity function.

Although the combined catalog covers 4.69 steradians, the sampling of the distribution of rich clusters of galaxies is limited to a few systems. For the SSRS2 which covers 1.56 steradians, the problem of the small number of systems with large velocity dispersion is most serious. In their study of the pairwise velocity dispersion for the CfA (a subset of the UZC) and SSRS2 South surveys, Marzke et al. (1995) show that the dominant source of variance in $`\sigma _{12}`$ from one subsample to another is shot noise contributed by dense virialized systems with large velocity dispersion. We thus expect to uncover similar limitations in our examination of the properties of groups. In Section 5.1 we use the entire USGC catalog with three or more members to show that selection of groups is homogeneous across the two catalogs. In section 5.2 we specialize to the higher confidence groups with more than five members to discuss the typical physical properties of the systems. In section 6 we show that the groups identified as extended x-ray sources have similar properties in both the UZC and in the SSRS2. We conclude that, in spite of the differences between the underlying galaxy catalogs, the group catalog is reasonably homogeneous across the two surveys and provides a useful foundation for the study of properties of these systems at low redshift.

### 5.1 The Number of Group Members

Table 5 lists the number of groups, members, non-members ($`cz12000`$ km s-1 ) and galaxies within the USGC. We also list these quantities separately for the two surveys. From Table 5, we conclude that the UZC projected angular density of groups, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{UZC}=276`$ sr-1, is 1.4 times larger than the SSRS2 projected angular density, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{SSRS2}=195`$ sr-1. The Poisson uncertainty on the angular densities is of the order of 10 groups sr-1; thus the difference between $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{UZC}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{SSRS2}`$ is significant. In principle, the group-group correlation function increases the uncertainty relative to the Poisson estimate. However, the amplitude of the angular group-group correlation function, $`s_0=8h^1`$ Mpc (Girardi et al., 2000), is small compared with the size of the two surveys. Therefore we expect that the effect of the the group-group correlation function on the uncertainty is negligible.

Our discussion of the UZC and SSRSS2 magnitude scales in Section 2, indicates that the UZC is deeper than the SSRS2 and that a transformation between the two magnitude systems may be required. In the spirit of that discussion, we ask what happens to the relative surface number densities of groups if we simply drop UZC galaxies fainter than $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.25 and construct a catalog with $`N_{mem}`$ $``$ 3. The group angular densities come into much better agreement, with 160 and 190 groups sr-1 within UZC and SSRS2 respectively Shifting the limiting magnitude from $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.25 to $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.30 yields exactly the same angular densities. Although this apparently improved agreement is enticing, we have no clear justification for extrapoolating the results from the overlap region to the entire survey. The definition of survey boundaries may introduce bias in the survey. Several ACO clusters are just outside the boundary of SSRS2 (see Figure 1a). Because the correlation length of the richest systems is much larger than for groups (e.g. Bahcall & West, 1992; Borgani et al., 1999), we consider the projected angular density of poor systems as a standard for comparing the two catalogs (without any correction for possible differences in the magnitude systems) . To estimate a “richness”, we set all groups at the same fiducial velocity $`V_F`$ = 1000 km s-1. We then use the relevant luminosity function normalized to the observed $`N_{mem}`$ to compute the expected number of members with $`M_{Zw}14.5`$, the absolute magnitude corresponding to $`m_{lim}=15.5`$ at $`V_F`$. We thus obtain a corrected number of members for each group, $`N_{mem,V_F}`$. The upper quartile of $`N_{mem,V_F}`$ is $`N_{UQ}=110`$ members. The projected angular densities of groups poorer than $`N_{UQ}`$ are $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{poor,UZC}=188\mathrm{sr}^1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{poor,SSRS2}=173\mathrm{sr}^1`$, in reasonable agreement even under the conservative hypothesis of Poisson uncertainties. The result is insensitive to the exact choice of $`N_{UQ}`$. This result suggests that, as in the analysis of Marzke et al. (1995), the richest systems account for the different group abundances within the UZC and SSRS2.

To examine the homogeneity of the entire groups catalog further, we examine the ratio between the number of groups, $`N_{gr}`$, and the number of galaxies, $`N_{gal}`$. In the redshift range $`0`$ km s$`{}_{}{}^{1}<cz<12000`$ km s-1, there are 4484 galaxies within the SSRS2 and 12186 galaxies within the UZC yielding $`N_{gr}/N_{gal}`$ = 0.068 and 0.071 respectively, with a Poisson uncertainty of order $`\pm `$ 0.004. Figure 2 shows that these ratios are approximately constant for the two surveys over a wide range of redshifts. At radial velocities $`10000`$ km s-1, groups become relatively less abundant within the SSRS2, but the significance of the difference is low. The $`\pm 1\sigma `$ Poisson error bars in Figure 2 are underestimates because groups and galaxies are clustered. Figure 2 supports the hypothesis that $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{UZC}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{SSRS2}`$ differ only because of “fair sampling” issues: relative to the number of galaxies in each survey, the abundance of groups is essentially the same.

The number of members relative to the galaxy population in the two surveys gives another measure of the similarity of the group catalogs. In principle, even if our test of the number of groups is satisfactory, the distribution of “richness” could differ in the two surveys.

To explore this issue, we consider the fraction of galaxies in groups. There is a total of 5242 member galaxies in the UZC groups, corresponding to a fraction $`f_{UZC}=\mathrm{\Sigma }_iN_{mem}^i/N_{gal}=0.430\pm 0.005`$ of the total number of galaxies within $`0`$ km s $`{}_{}{}^{1}<cz<12000`$ km s-1. In the SSRS2, $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_iN_{mem}^i=1604`$ and $`f_{SSRS2}=0.358\pm 0.009`$. Taken at face value, these fractions imply a difference between the SSRS2 and the UZC. From previous analyses of these catalogs we suspect that the source of the difference here is shot noise in the abundances of the richest systems in the two underlying redshift surveys. To investigate this possibility, Figure 3 shows the fraction of galaxies in groups, $`f(cz)`$, in redshift bins (we count all members of a group within the redshift bin containing the group mean velocity): from 2000 km s-1 to 12000 km s-1 $`f_{UZC}(cz)`$ (thick solid line) is increasingly larger than $`f_{SSRS2}(cz)`$ (thin solid line). Because the width of the redshift bins is relatively close to the correlation length of groups, we do not use Poisson error estimates. We estimate the 1-$`\sigma `$ error-bars in Figure 3 by running a bootstrap procedure 10000 times in each $`cz`$ bin. For each bootstrapped sample we compute the total number of members and compute $`f^i(cz),i=1,..,10000`$. Error-bars in Figure 3 are 1-$`\sigma `$ of the bootstrapped distribution of $`f(cz)`$. To see whether the difference in $`f(cz)`$ for all groups is attributable to the richest systems, Figure 3 also shows $`f(cz)`$ for the poor groups with $`N_{mem,V_F}^i<110`$. Without the rich systems, $`f_{UZC}(cz)`$, filled circles, and $`f_{SSRS2}(cz)`$, empty circles, are in reasonable agreement.

We conclude that groups within the SSRS2 and UZC are very similar for both their abundance and membership relative to the galaxy distribution. If we exclude the richest systems, the fraction of galaxies identified as group members is the same at any redshift in both surveys. This result indicates that observational biases in the UZC relative to the SSRS2 do influence the identification of groups significantly.

### 5.2 The physical properties of groups

To examine some of the physical properties of groups, we restrict the analysis to higher confidence systems with at least five observed members. There are 313 such groups in the UZC and 98 in the SSRS2. Table 6 lists the median and 90% confidence levels of the velocity dispersion, $`\sigma _{cz}`$, the virial radius, $`R_{vir}`$, the mass, $`M_{vir}`$, and the mass-to-light ratio, $`M/L`$. We compute the luminosity from the original Zwicky magnitudes for the UZC; we use the SSRS2 catalog magnitudes for SSRS2 groups. In combining the catalogs we ignore possible differences between the two magnitude systems. We list the median properties for the combined group sample and for the individual UZC and SSRS2 samples.

Table 6 shows that, in spite of differences in the construction of the UZC and SSRS2, the median properties of groups are the same. We use KS tests to compare the distributions of these properties of groups within the UZC and SSRS2. We find that, nothwhistanding the almost coincident medians, the distributions of $`\sigma _{cz}`$ and $`M`$ within UZC and SSRS2 are unlikely to be drawn from the same parent distribution (at the $`>`$99% confidence level).

To assess the source of the results for the $`\sigma _{cz}`$ and $`M`$ distributions, Figure 4 shows the integral distributions of $`\sigma _{cz}`$ for systems within the UZC (thick histogram) and the SSRS2 (thin histogram). Again we see the issue we have uncovered before: groups with high velocity dispersion explain the difference between the two distributions.

To explore this issue further we divide the group catalog into rich and poor subsamples. Again, we divide the sample based on the third quartile of the corrected richness appropriate for groups with five or more members, $`N_{UQ,5}=200`$ (see section 5.1), we drop eight groups with $`cz1000`$ km s-1 (these systems are within the Local Supercluster). Figure 4 compares the integrated distributions of $`\sigma _{cz}`$ for the poor subsamples of groups. A KS test shows that these subsamples are unlikely to be drawn from different distributions (P(KS) = 39%). The situation is similar for the distribution of $`M`$. Table 6 explores the variation in median physical parameters of the four poor/rich group subsamples (excepting the small subsample of five SSRS2 rich groups). The median quantities for the poor subsamples are in excellent agreement with the full SSRS2 sample but differ from the total UZC. As expected, the rich UZC groups have a significantly larger median $`\sigma _{cz}`$ and $`M`$. In contrast the median $`M/L`$ is remarkably consistent for all subsamples.

We conclude that both the UZC and SSRS2 provide fair samples of poor systems. These systems have similar statistical properties in the two catalogs.

## 6 X-ray groups

A subsample of 61 groups in the USGC are extended x-ray sources detected in the RASS (Mahdavi et al., 2000). These groups are an important subset because the x-ray emission from gas presumably held in the potential well of the group guarantees that these groups are real physical systems. It is therefore interesting to compare their physical parameters to those for all groups in the catalog. Of the 61 groups, 16 are within SSRS2 and 45 within UZC. Therefore about $``$ 15% of the groups in both samples are detected in the RASS. Among the x-ray emitting groups, 41 are poor according to the definition in section 5.2. Table 6 lists the physical parameters of the entire x-ray-emitting subsample. It is not surprising that median $`\sigma _{cz}`$ is intermediate between the rich and poor subsamples. The x-ray detected groups are systematically more massive than the typical system in the poor groups catalog. One concern is that this difference is simply a selection effect; the x-ray identification might pick out more distant, richer groups. However, a KS test demonstrates that the velocity distribution of the poor groups detected in the x-ray poor groups is consistent with the entire poor USGC sample. This consistency is reassuring; it indicates that the sample of poor groups with five or more members provides a foundation for the assessment of the physical properties of these systems and their member galaxies.

## 7 Conclusion

The UZC and SSRS2 redshift surveys provide the basis for the USGC catalog which covers 4.69 steradians to 12000 km s-1 . The FOFA identifies a homogeneous set of 411 systems with more than five observed members. For completeness and for verification of the uniformity of the catalog we include all 1168 groups with 3 or more members.

For poor systems in the first three quartiles of the “richness” distribution, the surface number density of groups, the fraction of galaxies in groups, and the properties of groups are essentially the same for both the UZC and for the SSRS2 . In the upper quartile, the catalogs differ: only the UZC contains a substantial number of these systems. As in Marzke et al. (1995) we attribute this difference to shot noise in the sampling of the most massive systems in the smaller SSRS2 survey. Both the UZC and the SSRS2 appear to be large enough to yield a fair sample of poor systems. The UZC and SSRS2 catalogs overlap in a region which covers $`0.11`$ sterad. In this region, the UZC contains almost twice as many galaxies than SSRS2. We obtain a linear transformation between $`m_{Zw}`$and $`m_{SSRS2}`$for galaxies that have both magnitudes. The new $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$is directly comparable to $`m_{Zw}`$, and its faintest value is $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$= 15.25. Cutting the UZC at this shallower limit brings the UZC and SSRS2 catalogs into remarkable agreement in the overlap region.

If we extend the limit $`m_{Zw}`$= 15.25 to the whole UZC, the global angular number densities of galaxies in the UZC and SSRS2 become comparable. The angular number density of groups in the shallower UZC catalog is essentially the same as for the SSRS2. However, the main physical properties of groups do not change with re-identification within the shallower UZC or within SSRS2 using $`m_{SSRS2,new}`$instead of $`m_{SSRS2}`$. In these modified catalogs it remains true that the UZC has a larger number of rich, high velocity systems than SSRS2 and that the $`\sigma _{cz}`$distributions of “poor” groups in the two surveys are likely to be drawn from the same parent distribution.

Extended x-ray emission associated with a subset of the USGC with more than five observed members provided reassurance that a large fraction of the systems we identify are true physical associations. Statistical comparison of the x-ray and optical selection suggests that at least 40% of the groups we identify have x-ray properties similar to the RASS sample. Geometric analyses of a portion of the UZC suggest that $`80\%`$ of the groups are true physical systems. Comparison with n-body simulations confirm this upper limit.

Ramella et al. (1999) used the same procedure we apply here to derive a group catalog from a deeper redshift survey of an independent region, the ESO Slice Project (ESP). The ESP group catalog includes a remarkably similar fraction of the galaxies in the redshift survey. Furthermore, the median velocity dispersion of groups with five or more members is 272 km s-1 with an interquartile range of (178, 379) km s-1 essentially the same as the comparable USGC sample with a median velocity dispersion of 264 km s-1 and an interquartile range of (150, 407) km s-1 . Other physical properties of the groups in this deeper catalog are also similar to those for the USGC. Tucker et al. (2000) compare the properties of groups derived from the Las Campanas Redshift Survey (Lin et al., 1996, LCRS;) with a broad range of catalogs including the subset of the USGC discussed by Ramella et al. (1997). Tucker et al. (2000) conclude that the properties of their groups at median redshift $`z0.1`$ are similar to the systems in the nearby samples. Groups have traditionally provided a basis for estimating the mean mass density of the universe. Now there are better methods of approaching this issue (e.g. Riess et al., 1998; Perlmutter, S., et al., 1999; Balbi et al., 2000; de Bernardis et al., 2000; Melchiorri et al., 2000). However, the existence of algorithms which produce uniform catalogs of systems, many of which are true physical associations, is a basis for exploration of groups as environments for galaxy evolution and for investigation of groups as tracers of large-scale structure in the universe. The USGC provides an extensive low redshift baseline for these studies.

We thank Antonaldo Diaferio, Scott Kenyon, Michael Kurtz, and Andisheh Mahdavi for discussions and inspiration to complete the catalog. We thank the ananymous referee for urging us to clarify a number of issues thus strengthening the paper. We acknowledge the Space Telescope Science Institute for the usage of the DSS database. The Smithsonian Institution, the Italian MIUR, and the Regione F.V.G. supported this research.


text:
# The stellar mass to light ratio in the isolated spiral NGC 4414

## 1 Introduction

The presence and nature of Dark Matter (hereafter DM) is one of if not the major problem in modern Astrophysics. There is evidence for DM at the scale of individual galaxies, in clusters, and in the universe as a whole (see reviews by Ashman 1992; Sofue & Rubin 2001, and references therein), although a cosmological constant may replace DM at the largest scale. Recent results (Alcock et al. 1998; Renault et al. 1998) make it appear unlikely today that all dark matter could be baryonic, although a large fraction if not all of the DM currently ”observed” in galaxies could be baryonic. Estimating the content and distribution of DM in spiral galaxies is actually very difficult. The first essential step to understand the role of DM in galaxies is to successfully identify the mass contributions of the visible – stellar and gaseous – components. That is the subject of this work.

To do this properly, one must measure the rotation curve in a spiral with extended atomic hydrogen (HI). The rotation curve must be observed with high spatial resolution near the center to avoid beam-smearing effects. Because the visible matter dominates the mass in the central regions of spiral galaxies (even in Cold Dark Matter, hereafter CDM, simulations), the central part of the rotation curve can be used to estimate the mass-to-light (M/L) ratio of the stellar component. To minimize stellar confusion and galactic absorption, our galaxy of interest should be as far as possible from the galactic plane. The last requirement is that the galaxy be at a well known distance. An Sc type would be ideal because they are the most numerous and the mass and luminosity of the bulge are low compared to the disk, making mass-modeling in principle simpler. The galaxy presented here, NGC 4414, satisfies all of these criteria. NGC 4414 is an isolated object and its dynamics are not perturbed by gravitational encounters with other visible galaxies.

One of the most important questions to resolve is the value of the stellar mass-to-light ratio (M/L) of the galactic disk. In order to model rotation curves of spiral galaxies, the stellar light distribution in a given band is often scaled by the highest M/L ratio possible without generating higher rotation velocities than are actually observed in the inner disk – the so-called maximum disk model. This underlines the need for spatial and spectral resolution. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is an ideal tracer of the rotation curve in the disk because the CO emission comes from the cool dense gas which is naturally closer to the galactic plane and dynamically cold. The lines are much narrower than the H$`\alpha `$ (or H$`\beta `$ etc.) lines and do not suffer from extinction. The molecular gas, traced by the CO lines, has higher column densities than the HI and can be observed at higher angular resolution. We present high resolution observations of the CO lines obtained with the IRAM interferometer. Earlier interferometric CO observations of NGC 4414 were presented by Sakamoto (1996) and Thornley & Mundy (1997b). The large scale molecular emission has been discussed in Braine et al. (1993, 1997); Braine & Hughes (1999), in which the $`N(\mathrm{H}_2)/I_{\mathrm{CO}}`$ ratio and its variation with galactocentric radius have been estimated. The H$`\alpha `$ emission, tracing star formation and ionized gas, was measured by Pogge (1989).

Our goal is to strongly constrain the M/L ratio in the disk of NGC 4414 using a combined interferometric CO (inner part) and HI (outer part) rotation curve. NGC 4414 was part of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cepheid key project (Turner et al. 1998) and thus very deep and detailed images are available in the B, V, and I bands. In addition the distance is known to within about 10%. We have chosen the I-band ($`0.8\mu `$m) as our reference stellar brightness because the longer wavelength should better trace the stellar mass and is less affected by extinction than the B or V bands.

An absolute distance D is a necessary parameter to estimate the M/L ratio. The luminosity is determined as $`L=S\times 4\pi \times D^2`$, where S represents a flux, whereas the mass M is proportional to the galactocentric distance: $`MR\times V^2\theta D\times V^2`$ where $`\theta `$ is the angular distance to the point whose rotation velocity is $`V`$. Thus, $`\frac{M}{L}D^1`$ so D must be known.

In Section 2 we present the new observational data - the HST B-V-I data and the CO(1-0) Plateau de Bure observations. In Section 3 we describe our gravitational potential model, based on the interferometric CO observations and the HST light profiles, to calculate (Sect. 4) the M/L ratio in the B, V, and I bands after subtraction of the gaseous mass. Our results are compared to the rather rare literature estimates of stellar M/L values and to the so-called “maximum disk” method.

In a companion paper we discuss the dark matter distribution in NGC 4414 based on our knowledge of the underlying visible mass and on various spherical and disk DM distributions, particularly those proposed by Navarro et al. (1996) and Moore et al. (1998, 1999) derived from simulations of galaxy formation in a CDM (or $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM) universe. Whether Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND, Milgrom 1983) can explain the rotation curve of NGC 4414 without DM is also addressed in the companion paper.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

### 2.1 HST BVI Observations

#### 2.1.1 Data Reduction

The optical observations presented in this paper have been retrieved from the HST public archive (see Table 2 and Turner et al. (1998)).

We used WFPC2 automatic calibrated data corrected for ADC errors, bias and superbias levels, superdarks, obturation and pixel surface. The classical reduction procedure was applied using the IRAF software. We first corrected all the images for hot pixels, then cosmic rays were eliminated by combining consecutive exposures of a same field.

After this corrective stage, a mosaic of the 4 fields could be retrieved, or we could treat each field separately. Our goal was to obtain a complete mosaic of the galaxy, with the North (1996 HST Key Project) and South (1999 Hubble Heritage Project) part processed independently.

The next step was to estimate the shift between each image before adding them. The procedure is quite simple, only requiring selection of a few stars in each band. Because we calculate the shift and the rotation simultaneously, the stars must be sufficiently bright and homogenously spread over the whole image. This calculation was made using the GEOMAP procedure which models a polynomial transfer function between the reference image and each of the other images. All images in each band were then combined and rotated to obtain the B-V-I mosaics. (see Fig. 1)

#### 2.1.2 Luminosity in the outer part of the galaxy

A bias problem appeared in the HST photometry data as the surface brightness observed far away from the center of the galaxy was abnormally strong. Such a luminosity could not have a physical meaning as it was more than an order of magnitude higher than expected. Because of the size of the galaxy it was not possible to calculate the sky background directly from the HST images.

Optical observations of numerous spiral galaxies, including NGC 4414, were made by Héraudeau & Simien (1996) in order to determine reliable luminosity profiles. Conveniently, they deduced luminosity profiles in the B, V and I bands. We chose to calculate the surface brightness $`\mu `$ (in $`mag.sec^2`$) 100 arcseconds from the center on the major axis of the galaxy. We subtracted a constant value to set the brightness in each band of the HST data at $`100^{\prime \prime }`$ to the surface brightness given by Héraudeau & Simien (1996). The uncertainties for their photometry are quite low and the HST brightness profile after subtraction shows no odd bumps nor negative values. At higher brightness this problem becomes irrelevant and the agreement between the Héraudeau & Simien (1996) and the uncorrected HST data is good.

The conversion of instrumental magnitude to physical magnitude in the V band is immediate because it corresponds to the Johnson-Morgan photometric system (Holtzman et al. 1995). In the other bands we have to take into account the galaxy colors, presented as the colors of specific stellar populations. To identify the most representative spectral type of stars in the galaxy we compared the B-V and U-B colors of NGC 4414, $`BV0.8`$ and $`UB0.1`$, to the colors of the stellar populations given in Table 3-3 of Mihalas & Binney (1981). Around these values, the corrections remain small for stars of spectral types between roughly F2 and M0; it is only for the spectral types O5 and M6 that the corrections can reach 0.1 or 0.2 magnitudes. For G0 and K0 the corrections remain nearly constant and we adopt these values (Table 3).

#### 2.1.3 Solar luminosity

To determine the solar luminosity in each WFPC2 optical band we integrated a synthetic solar spectrum (Hauschildt et al. 1999) over the bandpass of each HST filter. The results are given in Table 4. We can now express the surface brightness for each band from the flux per unit wavelength or per unit frequency.

### 2.2 IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer CO(1-0) observations

We observed the $`J=10`$ emission line of the $`{}_{}{}^{12}CO`$ in NGC 4414 using the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer between May 1996 and April 1997. The five antennas of the array were equiped with dual-band SIS receivers yielding SSB receiver temperatures around 40 K at the observing frequency. The spectral correlator backend was centered at 114.996 GHz with a total bandwith of 360 MHz. The system temperature varied from about 300K to 400K (Table 5).

The phase and amplitude calibrations were done in the antenna based mode using the strong quasars 3C273 and 1156+295 (Table 5). The data were corrected for residual atmospheric phase fluctuations. The flux density of the calibrators was determined from IRAM measurements and used to derive the absolute flux density scale in our map. The accuracy of the flux density scale was around 10%.

A mosaic map was made from our observations of six fields separated by 21′′ and covering the CO-bright disk of the galaxy. The image reconstruction was done using the GILDAS software. Several visibility tables were created each 2.5 MHz wide; the channel separation was thus 6.5 km.s-1. Natural weighting was used with no taper to Fourier transform the visibilities into images.

The six maps were combined to a single dirty mosaic (256 $`\times `$ 256 pixels with 0.45” sampling), then deconvolved and corrected from primary beam attenuation. The final dirty mosaic was cleaned with the CLARK method and restored with a 3.28” $`\times `$ 3.0” gaussian beam (PA = $`35^{}`$). To reduce contamination of adjacent fields in the cleaning phase due to border effects, each field was truncated where the primary beam power reaches a level of 10 %.

#### 2.2.1 Rotation curve

The rotation velocity of the molecular gas was calculated from the first moment of the Plateau de Bure interferometer CO(1–0) data cube (Fig. 2). Rather than using all channels in our calculations of the velocity at each position, a process which brings in noise because the signal is typically only present in a few channels at any given position, we used the fact that the rotation velocities were roughly known in advance.

The circular velocity $`V_m`$ given by our initial mass model gives us the approximate central velocity at each position and we have integrated the data over a total of 21 channels (136 km s-1) surrounding the model velocity.

$$V(x,y)=\frac{\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{i=V_m10}{S_iS_0}}{\overset{i=V_m+10}{}}V_iS_i}{\underset{\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{i=V_m10}{S_iS_0}}{\overset{i=V_m+10}{}}S_i}$$
(1)
The validity of this method was checked by looking at a very large number of spectra ”by hand”. The linewidths are much smaller than 21 channels so we are sure that we have included all possible velocities where emission could be present and thus that our moment calculation is not biased towards the model. In the central regions where the line widths are broad we have integrated over a much larger range.

### 2.3 The large-scale gaseous component

Before comparing the model mass density with the stellar luminosity profiles, we should subtract all of the visible non-stellar mass; namely the gas. In Paper II, we presented CO(1–0) and CO(2–1) observations over almost the entire optical disk of NGC 4414. 13CO observations were also made over a large part of the disk in both lines. Using the CO($`\frac{21}{10}`$) line ratio to estimate the gas excitation temperature, we used the Virial theorem to estimate the $`N(\mathrm{H}_2)/I_{\mathrm{CO}}`$ factor to convert CO intensities into H2 mass densities. As explained in detail in Braine et al. (1997), our estimates were also supported by the 13CO and 1.2mm thermal dust emission maps. We use these results, corrected slightly by the results of our ISO LWS observations (Braine & Hughes 1999), to derive the molecular gas surface density. The total molecular gas mass (including the He in the molecular clouds) is about $`6.5\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$.

To determine the atomic gas surface density, we have re-reduced the Thornley & Mundy (1997b) HI observations made with the VLA in the C and D configurations. Using uniform weighting the C configuration data were Fourier transformed and cleaned retaining high angular resolution, $`\theta _{\mathrm{fwhp}}=13.1^{\prime \prime }\times 12.5^{\prime \prime }`$. The D configuration data were naturally weighted to obtain high surface brightness sensitivity. The C and D configuration data were combined in the image plane in a flux-conserving way to maintain high angular resolution where the signal is strong and retain the sensitivity to low surface brightness features in the outer regions where angular resolution is not as important. A very simple method was used: when the brightness of the low resolution map exceeded a certain value, the output map was a linear combination

$$S=(1\eta )\times C+\eta \times D$$
(2)
for each pixel where $`\eta =1`$ below the threshold and $`\eta =exp^{aN_\mathrm{D}}`$ where C and D are the C and D array maps and $`N_\mathrm{D}`$ is the HI column density of the pixel in the D configuration map and $`a`$ is a constant chosen such that the C array dominates ($`\eta 0.1`$) in the highest brightness regions. The maximum HI column density in the C array map is $`3\times 10^{21}`$cm-2 and the total mass of the atomic gas (HI plus associated He) is $`8.4\times 10^9\mathrm{M}_{}`$. The total neutral gas mass (HI + H2 and associated He) is then $`1.5\times 10^{10}\mathrm{M}_{}`$, which we have taken to be the total gaseous mass, neglecting the likely insignificant mass of ionized gas.

The HI and H2 column density maps were then used to construct the radial surface density profile shown in Fig 3. With the gaseous surface density known at each radius, we could easily subtract its contribution to the total mass. The high-resolution Plateau de Bure data are not used here because such high angular resolution is not necessary for azimuthally averaged surface densities while it is important not to resolve out flux as is the case for interferometric CO maps of galaxies.

## 3 Gravitational Potential Model

In this section we describe the axisymmetric part of the gravitational potential of the flocculent galaxy NGC 4414. Axisymmetry is a good approximation given the morphology of NGC 4414. The asymmetries are relatively small, reaching 20% in the K band image of Thornley & Mundy (1997a) over only a very small fraction of the disk; this justifies our approach.

To characterize the gravitational potential, we have used the Miyamoto & Nagai (1975) potential which is a particularly flexible and simple analytic potential-density pair. We compared with an exponential disk which allows us to retrieve the rotation curve as well as our model, but not better. However the exponential disk model has two dimensions, whereas our model is in three dimensions and can mimic an exponential disk or more spherical forms.

The Miyamoto-Nagai (hereafter M-N) gravitational potential is:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(R,z)=\frac{GM}{\sqrt{R^2+(a+\sqrt{z^2+b^2})^2}}$$
(3)
The M-N potential is free from any singularities and composed of elementary functions. The linearity of Poisson’s equation allows us to sum several components correponding to different regions of the galaxy, such as the nucleus and disk.

$`\mathrm{\Phi }(R,z)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1(R,z)+\mathrm{\Phi }_2(R,z)+\mathrm{}`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{GM_i}{\sqrt{R^2+(a_i+\sqrt{z^2+b_i^2})^2}}}`$
$`a=0`$ and $`b=0`$ correspond to the spherical Plummer potential and the thin-disk Kuzmin potential cases, respectively. To estimate the mass M and to calculate the density $`\rho (R,z)`$, the Laplace equation has to be solved:

$$\frac{1}{R}\frac{}{R}\left(R\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{R}\right)+\frac{^2\mathrm{\Phi }}{z^2}=4\pi G\rho (R,z)$$
(5)
Yielding

$$\rho (R,z)=\frac{b^2M}{4\pi }\frac{aR^2+(a+3\sqrt{z^2+b^2})\left(a+\sqrt{z^2+b^2}\right)^2}{\left(z^2+b^2\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}\left(R^2+\left(a+\sqrt{z^2+b^2}\right)^2\right)^{\frac{5}{2}}}$$
(6)
The parameters for this kind of model are $`a`$, $`b`$ and $`M`$, where $`a`$ is the dimension of the galaxy (or given component of the galaxy), $`b`$ the thickness, and $`M`$ the mass of the galaxy or component described by $`a`$ and $`b`$. The ratio $`\frac{a}{b}`$ is a measure of the flatness of the component which becomes a sphere for $`\frac{a}{b}=0`$.

The in-plane circular velocity $`v_c(R)`$ of a single component is then given by:

$$v_c(R,z=0)=\frac{R\sqrt{GM}}{\left(R^2+\left(a+b\right)^2\right)^{\frac{3}{4}}}$$
(7)
or, for several components $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i`$ as in all real cases:

$$v_c^2(R)=\underset{i}{}\left(R\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_i}{R}\right)_{z=0}=\underset{i}{}\left[\frac{R^2GM_i}{\left(R^2+(a_i+b_i)^2\right)^{\frac{3}{2}}}\right]$$
(8)
If the disk is now inclined by an angle $`\alpha `$ from the line of sight, we could integrate the volumic density $`\rho `$ along the line of sight, to obtain the surface density. As the volumic density is proportional to the mass of the component under consideration, the surface density is too.

Our choice of components was guided by the CO(1–0) high-resolution rotation curve and by the fact that the mass profile should follow the HST I-band light in the center, which is relatively unobscured by gas and dust. In the outer regions, beyond the interferometer observations, we have been guided by the fact that the lower resolution observations show a much lower amount of gas and dust. We chose the I-band (F814W) surface brightness because: ($`a`$) the light is less biased to the young stellar population, which represents a small fraction of the mass in a spiral galaxy, and ($`b`$) the absorption of light by dust is less than in the B or V-bands (F439W and F555W).

Initially, two components were chosen to represent the dynamics of the galaxy, a small bulge component and a thin disk component for the rest. The very high central peak brightness required us to have two central components in the end, even if we could not constrain this region dynamically because no molecular gas is present in the nucleus. We would like to stress that the decomposition into M-N components provide mainly convenient analytic expressions for the potential and density following the rotation curve and light profiles in the appropriate regions. The components adopted for the “best” model are given in Table 7. The central components occupy the region with little or no gas and dust and follow the stellar brightness. Virtually all of the visible mass is in a single component which represents the disk, essentially stellar but including the gas as well. A ”negative” component with obviously no physical meaning was added in order to make the model fit to the stellar luminosity better in the outer disk; the effect of this component on the velocities within the visible disk is negligible (less than 5%) and is of course included in the calculations.

All of the components are disk-like although the light distribution is slightly “thicker” in the inner few arcseconds. The shape of the smallest component is influenced only by the light because it is so small ($`a=0.7^{\prime \prime }`$) that at radii $`r\stackrel{>}{}`$ few arcseconds the rotation velocity is affected only by its mass and not shape. The two inner components ($`a=0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ and $`a=4^{\prime \prime }`$) enable us to fit the steep rise of the rotation curve. Two M-N components are used to model the stellar + gaseous disk but this should really be viewed as a single structure of mass $`7\times 10^{10}M_{}`$ whose mass density drops off more quickly with radius than a single M-N component ($`a=2500`$pc). This disk simultaneously reproduces the inner rotation curve and the luminosity profile at larger radii, where the dust obscuration is known to be lower. It also reproduces the observed disk thickness and inclination. While other, probably more complicated, mathematical formulations could certainly be used, they would have to yield the same result.

To better compare our model to the CO data, we smoothed the model rotation curve using the CO synthesized beam parameters, a $`3.28\mathrm{"}\times 3.0\mathrm{"}`$ gaussian beam with a position angle of $`35^{}`$. The observed and model rotation curves are shown in Fig. 5. An image of the projected surface density of the mass model we have adopted is shown in Fig. 6. Comparison with the observed HST light profiles is shown in Fig. 7.

At this stage, our model only contains visible mass components and these are shown to dominate at radii less than about 10 kpc ($`100^{\prime \prime }`$). This enables us to determine the mass-to-light ratio within the optical disk (next section).

## 4 The M/L ratio

The mass in the central regions of a spiral galaxy is completely dominated by the stellar mass. For NGC 4414 this can be readily seen by taking the dark mass necessary to fit the outer point in the HI rotation curve – roughly $`1.5\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ within the last radius and for a spherical distribution – and assuming a shape for the halo. For a rather concentrated “CDM” $`\rho r^1`$ halo (Navarro et al. 1996), $`\rho (R)=M_{\mathrm{tot}}/2\pi R^36\times 10^4M_{}`$pc-3 where $`R`$ is the outer radius of the rotation curve (Fig. 4). At a radius of 10pc, the density is then about 2Mpc-3 and the mass at $`r<10`$pc is about $`10^4`$M. The stellar luminosity is about $`10^5`$ Lpc-2, yielding a luminosity in the same region of $`3\times 10^7`$ L. Even for an M/L of unity, the dark matter provides less than 0.1% of the mass in the nucleus. For $`\rho r^{1.5}`$ in the halo (Moore et al. 1998, 1999), the dark mass is still only a few percent of the luminous mass. Clearly, with less centrally concentrated haloes, as is typically suggested by observations (Côté et al. 2000; Salucci 2001; de Blok et al. 2001), the central contribution of the dark matter will be even less.

All the conditions are therefore met to derive the stellar M/L ratio in NGC 4414: $`(a)`$ the distance is known to within $`10`$%; $`(b)`$ the central stellar luminosity is well known and not greatly obscured (we know this from the CO, HI, and SCUBA observations); $`(c)`$ all of the other mass components – dark matter, neutral gas, ionized gas, have been shown to be negligible compared to the stellar mass. For all halo profiles yielding the observed outer rotation curve, the luminous mass dominates out to beyond 10 kpc (about $`100^{\prime \prime }`$), enabling the stellar M/L ratio to be determined as for the center, the gaseous component being sufficiently well quantified. Following the same calculation as in the previous paragraph, $`\rho r^1`$ and $`r^{1.5}`$ dark matter profiles yield dark masses of $`34\times 10^9M_{}`$ and $`68\times 10^9M_{}`$ within radii of 5 and 7 kpc respectively. This is much less than the stellar mass and thus can not significantly affect our estimates of M/L.

The stellar M/L ratio is then the mass model (after subtraction of the small gaseous component – Sect. 2.3), which is dominated by a single component of scale length 2.5 kpc, divided by the stellar luminosity and is shown in Fig. 9. In the B and V bands the M/L ratio is between 1.5 and 2 except for radii $`5^{\prime \prime }<r<50^{\prime \prime }`$ where it reaches about 4 in solar units. The same structure is seen in the I band but with lower amplitudes – M/L is about 1.5 reaching slightly over 2. It is immediately apparent that the high M/L ratios in the $`B`$ and $`V`$ bands at radii $`5^{\prime \prime }<r<50^{\prime \prime }`$ are due to extinction by the very abundant dust (Papers I,II,III and Braine et al. in prep.). The intrinsic M/L ratio is about or over unity in each of these bands. The gas mass has been subtracted from the mass model before calculating the M/L. This has no effect in the central regions but becomes important at larger radii (compare gas-subtracted and total mass model curves in Fig. 7 for M/L=1.5 in the I band).

The increase in M/L at very small radii is not significant. The HST images of the nucleus of NGC 4414 are all, or nearly all, saturated. When combined and reduced to a common $`0.1^{\prime \prime }`$ pixel size, the central flux is underestimated. To illustrate this, we compare the central portion of the $`I`$-band profile shown in Fig. 7 with a cut across the nucleus in a single relatively short F606W filter image where the nucleus falls in the PC portion (Fig. 8). For similar fluxes at $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ from the center, the short exposure has 5 times the central flux. Even in this 160 second image, the two central pixels are identical and only 8% below the saturated flux of the star about $`11^{\prime \prime }`$ away so this image may be slightly saturated as well.

The fact that we see the nucleus of NGC 4414 is an important aid because one is then not tempted to invoke an unknown bulge component which, although only a small contributor over the whole disk could well change the shape of the rotation curve in the inner few kpc. The inner region is crucial because it is where we are sure that the stellar mass dominates the dark mass and where our new high-resolution data provide the necessary information. If the center were covered by dust, it would be very difficult to estimate the bulge component because beyond the central region the bulge light would have to be separated from disk light, introducing serious uncertainties. Seeing the rapid decline in the central luminosity allows us to determine the central light profile.

### 4.1 Comparison with other estimates of M/L

Few reliable M/L values are available. Pryor & Meylan (1993) studied the mass-to-light ratios for 56 Galactic globular clusters using King-Michie dynamical models. They found a median value of the $`M/L_V`$ ratio of 2.3. Dubath & Grillmair (1997) derived a similar medium value for 9 globular clusters in M31. This value is slightly higher than ours ($`M/L_V2`$) in the region where dust is less obstructing, and clearly consistent with ours because the stellar population of globular clusters is older than that of the galactic disk.

In Figure 9 we show K’ band mass to light ratio variations in the galactic disk. The value is nearly constant, $`M/L_K^{}0.5`$, and close to the near infrared mass to light ratio given by Olling & Merrifield (2001) for the Milky Way disk, $`0.3<M/L_K<0.7`$ in solar units, and well within the range found by Bell & de Jong (2001) through population syntheses. The K’ band M/L ratio is low because of the contribution of giants which have a particularly strong effect due to intrinsically low M/L and their very red colors. The K’ band variations are the same as in the optical bands, but with weaker amplitudes, about 10 % in the K’ band, 40 % in the I band and reaching factors of 2 - 2.5 in the V and B bands. These variations result from absorption of the starlight by dust so fluctuations appear in the same regions of the galaxy for each band. The longer wavelength emission suffers less from the extinction so the variations decrease with wavelength.

The mass to light ratio we show in Fig 9 can be compared with estimates for other spiral disks, typically obtained through mass modeling with a constant M/L (usually B band) and yielding results equivalent to maximum disk (next subsection). Hoekstra et al. (2001) find B band M/L ratios from 1.2 to 5.8, with an average of 3.5 for full-sized spirals. The extreme values are not outliers but the whole range is covered, which intrinsically would not be expected for spiral disks. We suspect that the large range mostly reflects the different coverage by dust.

### 4.2 Comparison with maximum-disk model

In a maximum disk model (van Albada & Sancisi 1986; Palunas & Williams 2000) the mass distribution follows the light distribution, the M/L ratio being constant along the luminous disk. The disks are called maximum because as much mass as possible is attributed to the stellar disk without generating circular velocities greater than observed. Typically, the band used is either B or V. To compare with our gravitational model we made a maximum disk model by fitting the HST V-band luminosity curve. We used four Miyamoto-Nagai components to fit the V-band luminosity curve. A very similar fit is obtained in B band. We tested two different values of $`M/L_\mathrm{V}`$. $`M/L_\mathrm{V}=1.7`$ fits the inner part of the rotation curve at about 5′′ (a true maximum disk model) and $`M/L_\mathrm{V}=3.5`$ fits the peak of the rotation curve at about 35′′. To correctly compare model and observations, we smoothed the velocity field with the same parameters as described in Section 3, i.e. a $`3.28\mathrm{"}\times 3.0\mathrm{"}`$ gaussian beam with a position angle of $`35^{}`$. To complete this study of the maximum disk we included a $`\rho r^{1.5}`$ spherical halo of Dark Matter. The mass of the halo was calculated from the Hi data taking a $`1.6\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ (M/L = 1.7) or $`1.1\times 10^{11}M_{}`$ (M/L = 3.5) sphere with an outer radius of 33.5 Kpc (i.e. 360 ”). A $`\rho r^1`$ provides a worse fit but the results in this section are quite independant of the dark matter halo.

It appears clearly that the velocities generated by a maximum disk (M/L = 3.5) are too high from about 5” to 15” (500 to 1500 pc) and that the dark matter halo provides no solution to the problem. The difference is much greater than the observational uncertainties. Lowering the M/L ratio to fit the velocities at small radii (M/L = 1.7), say 500 pc, requires a very unphysical dark halo shape.

This shows that a constant M/L ratio, particularly in a short wavelength band such as B or V, is inappropriate. Were the nucleus covered or partially covered by dust, and thus less luminous, we might not have been able to show that M/L cannot be constant.

### 4.3 The intrinsic M/L ratio

The near constancy of M/L at 2.1 $`\mu `$m suggests that the underlying M/L ratio is single-valued over the disk. This is supported by the fact that the increases in K’ band M/L occur at the same positions as in the B and V bands, with a much lower amplitude as expected for extinction, so the overall K’ band M/L is very close to its value where less extinction is present, about \[M/L\]$`{}_{\mathrm{K}^{}}{}^{}0.5`$. Below we attempt to estimate the intrinsic M/L ratio of the stellar population of the disk of NGC 4414.

The M/L ratios in all bands reach roughly constant levels at radii $`r\stackrel{>}{}50^{\prime \prime }`$, outside of the star-forming molecular ring. Without prior knowledge of the intrinsic (unreddened) colors, the best way to estimate the extinction is through the atomic gas column density. The HI column density at these radii is about $`2\times 10^{21}`$cm-2 (Thornley & Mundy 1997b), such that on average the stellar light will be extincted by about $`10^{21}`$cm-2. From Fig. 8 of Draine & Lee (1984), we estimate $`\tau _{\mathrm{ext}}2.3\times 10^{26}N_\mathrm{H}/\lambda `$ at the wavelength of the F814 filter and with $`\lambda `$ expressed in cm, $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ in cm-2. This leads to an I band (F814) extinction of about 0.3 in the regions where the I band M/L reaches a plateau at 1.4.

From Draine & Lee (1984) we estimate the extinction ratio between the HST I and V bands to be about 0.56, between the values given by Rieke & Lebofsky (1985) and Cohen et al. (1981). Similarly, the HST B to V band extinction ratio should be about 1.3, again between the values given by Rieke & Lebofsky (1985) and Cohen et al. (1981). We estimate the ratio between K’ and V band extinctions to be about 0.09, slightly lower than in Rieke & Lebofsky (1985) and in agreement with Cohen et al. (1981). Using these extinctions to correct the observed mass to light ratios leads to M/L ratios of roughly unity in the B,V, and I bands. The results are summarized in Table 8.

These values should be viewed as upper limits, although they are likely quite close to the reality, because extinction due to molecular gas has not been included. Molecular clouds are smaller denser objects that HI clouds and are closer to the galactic plane. Thus, they may very strongly obscure a small fraction of the starlight, causing a minor overestimate of the mass to light ratio. At smaller radii the covering fraction of the clouds is certainly significantly higher.

In the molecular ring, the extinction is roughly 1.6 mag in B, 1.3 in V, 0.9 in I, and 0.2 in $`K^{}`$, assuming that the corrected M/L ratios given above are accurate. In upcoming papers we plan to determine the extinction more accurately by avoiding the azimuthal symmetry hypothesis and studying the whole galaxy point by point. Population syntheses may also help to constrain the intrinsic colors and M/L ratios, using the values here as a starting point. These issues are beyond the scope of this paper.

## 5 Conclusion

This work leads to the following conclusions:

\- The mass model is constrained by the light distribution in the central few hundred parsecs (r $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ 4”) and at large radii (r $`\stackrel{>}{}`$ 50”) and by the high-resolution rotation curve at intermediate radii. A single component dominates the mass over the whole disk so the agreement between the outer light distribution and rotation curve at smaller radii is natural.

\- Because the central few hundred parsecs are not covered by dust, we are able to unambiguously show that a constant M/L ratio in the B or V bands is highly incorrect due to extinction at radii of 5” $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ r $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ 50”. A low M/L (1 or 2) requires an enormous, unphysical, DM contribution at radii greater than 15” (1.5 kpc). A higher M/L (e.g. 3) gives far too much mass to the bright central region such that the calculated rotation velocities are far greater than observed at 5” $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ r $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ 20”.

\- The M/L ratio, shown in Fig. 9, reaches about 4 in the highly obscured radii 5” $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ r $`\stackrel{<}{}`$ 50” in the B and V bands but is below 2 in the center and the less obscured outer regions. The I band M/L ratio shows the same structure as in B and V but only varies between 1.4 and 2. At the longer K’ (2.1 $`\mu `$m) wavelength, the M/L ratio is almost constant at about 0.5 M/L$`_{,K^{}}`$ but again shows the same absorption regions as in B,V and I.

\- The intrinsic stellar M/L ratio, corrected for extinction, is close to unity in the B, V, and I bands, and only 0.4 or so in $`K^{}`$ band (Table 8). If the recent Freedman et al. (2001) distance is correct, then the M/L given here should be raised by 8.5%, well within the uncertainty of this work.

All of our conclusions deal with the optical disk of NGC 4414 where the visible matter dominates the rotation velocities, such that the uncertainties linked to the DM distribution have no effect on these conclusions. In a companion paper we use our knowledge of the visible mass distribution to constrain the shape of the dark matter envelope.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank Michele Thornley for providing us with her K’ band image. We would also like to thank the referee, G.D. Bothun, for his helpful remarks.


text:
# A Unique Oscillation Solution to the Solar Neutrino Problem?

## 1 Introduction

Neutrino flavor oscillations are currently the most favored way to understand the larger solar 8B neutrino interaction rate measured by Super-Kamiokande (SK) with respect to the 8B rate reported by the SNO-collaboration. The SNO rate includes only $`e`$-type 8B neutrinos while SK measures solar neutrinos via neutrino-electron elastic scattering which has a small sensitivity to other (active) flavors as well. The SK excess is then interpreted as a hint for appearance of other active flavors in the 8B neutrino flux (born in the sun as purely $`e`$-type). Neutrino oscillations also explain the deficit of both rates as well as the deficits of the “Chlorine rate” (Homestake) and the “Gallium rates” (Gallex/GNO, SAGE) with respect to the Standard Solar Model (SSM). Chlorine and Gallium rates include only $`e`$-type solar neutrinos.

The large neutrino flavor mixing between the second and third generation inferred from atmospheric neutrino data and the absence of an oscillation signal in the CHOOZ reactor neutrino experiment requires the neutrino flavor mixing between the first and third generation to be small. Solar neutrino oscillations can therefore be approximated by a two-neutrino description with the parameters $`\theta `$ (mixing angle) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ (difference in mass2). The mixing angle ranges between 0 and $`\pi /2`$, since $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ is defined to be positive. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ between $`10^8`$eV2 and $`10^3`$eV2, the matter density in the sun and earth can strongly affect the oscillation probability. For $`\theta <\pi /4`$, resonant enhancement of the oscillations (MSW effect) can occur in the sun. On the “dark side” of the parameter space ($`\theta >\pi /4`$), an anti-resonance can suppress the oscillations. Below $`10^9`$eV2 (quasi-vacuum/vacuum region), the oscillation probability is more affected by the oscillation phase than by matter effects.

## 2 Parameter Estimation for Two-Neutrino Oscillations

The simplest way to constrain the oscillation parameters is a $`\chi ^2`$ fit to all $`e`$-type neutrino rates, that is Gallex/GNO and SAGE (combined into a single “Gallium” number), Homestake and SNO. The dotted lines of figure 1a) show the allowed regions at 95% C.L. (which can be understood as an “overlay” of the allowed regions from the three experimental rates mentioned above and their SSM-based predictions). The area above $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^210^5`$eV2 near maximal mixing is called the Large Mixing Angle (LMA) solution. The Small Mixing Angle Solution (SMA) is located between $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^210^6`$eV2 and $`10^5`$eV2 at $`\mathrm{tan}^2\theta 10^3`$. The LOW solution is the large $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ part of the extensive region(s) between $`10^7`$eV2 and $`10^9`$eV2. The lower part of this region is called the quasi-vacuum (quasi-VAC) solution. The vacuum solutions (VAC) are below $`10^{10}`$eV2. All regions have similar $`\chi ^2`$ (LOW fits slightly worse).

To break the degeneracy in $`\chi ^2`$ of these regions, more information is needed than provided by the suppression of the $`e`$type rates. Indeed, neutrino oscillations not only cause a ‘disappearance’ of the $`e`$type fluxes but also produce other neutrino flavors (appearance). Furthermore, they can induce distortions of the neutrino spectrum and time variations of the solar neutrino fluxes. In the MSW region, the time variations arise from matter effects inside the earth (daily variations). In the vacuum regions, the time variations are the consequence of the change of the oscillation phase due to the yearly variation of the oscillation baseline (distance between sun and earth).

SK can search for spectral distortions through analysis of the spectrum of the recoiling electron as well as daily or yearly time variations. The analysis of the shape of the SK “zenith angle spectrum” combines spectrum and daily variation analyses. Neither spectral distortion nor daily variation was found. The centerpiece of this work is the preliminary SK zenith angle spectrum based on the entire SK data set (1496 days). The numerical results are listed in tables 2 and 2. Figure 1a) shows the excluded regions (dark-grey) from the SK zenith angle spectrum (for an explanation of the fit method see Appendix, eq. 2). The SMA and VAC regions are excluded since they require a distorted 8B neutrino spectrum. The lower part of the LMA and the upper part of the LOW solution predict daily variations and are therefore disfavored. The excluded areas are independent of the SSM neutrino fluxes. The SK zenith angle spectrum shape is best described by quasi-VAC solutions.

If combined with the SNO rate of $`0.346_{0.028}^{+0.029}\times `$SSM (Appendix, eq. 3), the SK rate provides a probe for the appearance of other neutrino flavors. The SK rate of $`0.465_{0.013}^{+0.015}\times `$SSM (see table 2) exceeds the $`e`$-type rate inferred from the SNO measurement by more than $`3\sigma `$. If this is interpreted as appearance, the other flavors contribute about 25% to the SK rate and 70% to the 8B flux (the SK cross section for the other flavors is six to seven times smaller than for $`e`$-type neutrinos). The two light-grey allowed regions of figure 1a) are based on the combined fit to the SK zenith angle spectrum and the SNO rate. One region contains the upper part of the LMA solution, the other region contains the lower part of the LOW solution and the quasi-VAC solutions (best-fit). The allowed areas are still independent of the SSM neutrino fluxes.

The Appendix (eq. 4) explains the method to add the Gallium ($`74.8_{5.0}^{+5.1}`$SNU or $`0.584_{0.039}^{+0.040}\times `$SSM) and Chlorine rates ($`2.56\pm 0.23`$SNU or $`0.337\pm 0.030\times `$SSM) to the fit. The allowed areas of this global fit (shown in figure 1b) look quite different when compared with the $`e`$type rate fit: Only the upper part of the LMA survives (and two tiny quasi-VAC solutions). The disappearance of the LOW solution is due to predicted daily variations. The SK rate requires a larger 8B flux than the Chlorine rate allows, so almost all the quasi-VAC regions disappear. The fit does not depend on the 8B and hep neutrino flux predictions by the SSM, which suffer from the largest uncertainties. However, it depends on the other SSM neutrino fluxes, in particular the 7Be flux (10% uncertainty) and the neutrino fluxes of the CNO cycle ($`20\%`$ uncertainty). Those fluxes contribute about 15%(7Be) and 6%(CNO) to the Chlorine rate and 27%(7Be) and 7%(CNO) to the Gallium rate in the SSM.

## 3 Results of the global fit

Table 3 compares the four smallest local minima of the $`\chi ^2`$ describing the fit. The best-fit is located in the upper LMA area. The 8B flux resulting from this fit is somewhat higher than expected by the SSM ($`5.05_{0.81}^{+1.01}\times 10^6/(`$cm2s)) but well within the uncertainty. The hep flux is considerably higher than expected by the SSM ($`9.3\times 10^3/(`$cm2s)); however, the uncertainty of this prediction is thought to be very large. The fit agrees with the SK zenith angle spectrum moderately well. Figure 2a) shows the SK zenith angle spectrum and this best fit. Figure 2b) gives a magnified view of the LMA region (in a linear scale of $`\mathrm{tan}^2\theta `$). The $`1\sigma `$ (black) and $`3\sigma `$ (light grey) contours are also shown. The fit accommodates well the Gallium, SK and SNO rates, however the predicted Chlorine rate is about $`2\sigma `$ too high. This worsens the otherwise very good best-fit $`\chi ^2`$. As a consequence, quasi-VAC solutions, which don’t fit well the interaction rates in general, appear at 95% C.L.

The quasi-VAC solution describes the SK zenith angle spectrum slightly better than the LMA. The fit is helped by a statistical up-fluctuation of the last two bins (see figure 3). Together with a down-shift of energy scale and 8B spectrum, the required oscillation minimum can be ‘generated’ in the data. The rates, however, do not fit well. The fit struggles to accommodate both the Chlorine and SK rate. In this region Chlorine and SK disagree by $`3\sigma `$ about the 8B flux (which in the un-oscillated SSM contributes about 76% of the Chlorine rate). The resulting best-fit 8B flux falls $`1.7\sigma `$ short of the SSM prediction. Even though the quasi-VAC solution has an overall ‘C.L. threshold’ of 8%, it is considerably disfavored, when thus checked in detail. The surviving (at 98% C.L.) LOW solution fits the rates about as poorly as the quasi-VAC solution. The SK zenith angle spectrum fits somewhat worse than either LMA or quasi-VAC. The lack of zenith angle variation in the SK data reduces the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2`$ (usually around $`10^7`$eV2) and worsens the LOW best-fit which is already under pressure from the rates. Figure 2d) shows an enlarged view of the LOW and quasi-VAC region.

A “smaller-than-small mixing angle” solution appears just left of the SMA at about the $`3\sigma `$ level (see figure 2c). The SMA region is defined by the crossing of the Gallium and the Chlorine allowed area (for a given 8B flux). It therefore fits those two rates very well. The SK zenith angle spectrum, however, fits the worst of all solutions: The SK spectral data lack the predicted distortion. The SNO rate is more than $`3\sigma `$ above the measurement, the SK rate is too low (2$`\sigma `$). The 8B flux required is very low ($`3\sigma `$).

The 8B flux comparisons above refer to the SSM value. A recent precision measurement of the cross section of the 7Be(p,$`\gamma `$)8B fusion reaction by Junghans et al. implies (see ) a flux of $`5.93_{0.89}^{+0.83}\times 10^6/(`$cm2s). If the fit is confined to this flux, then all solutions other than LMA are further disfavored.

## 4 Conclusion

A global fit to all solar neutrino data was performed using a two-neutrino oscillation model. At 95% C.L. only the upper LMA solution and two tiny quasi-VAC regions are still allowed. The quasi-VAC regions are disfavored at more than 92% C.L. caused by a disagreement about the 8B flux between SK and the Chlorine rate of $`3\sigma `$; the resulting quasi-VAC 8B flux fit is $`1.7\sigma `$ smaller than the Standard Solar Model. The LMA solutions above $`\mathrm{\Delta }m^2=310^5`$eV2 are therefore the only viable solution at 95% C.L.

## Acknowledgments

This analysis relies crucially on Super-Kamiokande data. The author acknowledges the extensive help and cooperation of the Super-Kamiokande collaboration as well as the Kamioka Mining and Smelting Company. The Super-Kamiokande detector has been built and operated from funding by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

## Appendix: Fitting Method

To estimate and limit oscillation parameters, a $`\chi ^2`$ describing the shape of the SK zenith spectrum is extended to take into account the measured neutrino interaction rates by various experiments. Using oscillation probabilities (obtained as in ) and SSM neutrino fluxes, the expected interaction rates $`B_{i,z}^{\text{osc}}`$ (due to 8B neutrinos) and $`H_{i,z}^{\text{osc}}`$ (due to hep neutrinos) in energy bin $`i`$ and zenith-angle bin $`z`$ are calculated. These rates as well as the SK measurements $`D_{i,z}`$ are then normalized by the SSM expectations without oscillations:

$$b_{i,z}=\frac{B_{i,z}^{\text{osc}}}{B_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}+H_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}}\text{ , }h_{i,z}=\frac{H_{i,z}^{\text{osc}}}{B_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}+H_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}}\text{ , }d_{i,z}=\frac{D_{i,z}}{B_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}+H_{i,z}^{\text{SSM}}}.$$
(1)
The zenith components of the flux difference vector $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Delta }_i}`$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_{i,z}(\beta ,\eta )=\left(\beta b_{i,z}+\eta h_{i,z}\right)\times f(E_i,\delta _B,\delta _S,\delta _R)d_{i,z}$$

allow for arbitrary neutrino fluxes (through the free parameters $`\beta `$ and $`\eta `$). The combined rate prediction is modified by the energy-shape factors

$$f(E_i,\delta _B,\delta _S,\delta _R)=f_B(E_i,\delta _B)\times f_S(E_i,\delta _S)\times f_R(E_i,\delta _R)$$

with $`\delta _B`$ describing the 8B neutrino spectrum shape uncertainty, $`\delta _S`$ describing the uncertainty of the SK energy scale (0.64%) and $`\delta _R`$ describing the uncertainty of the SK energy resolution (2.5%) (The shapes $`f_B,f_S,f_R`$ are given in table 2). All three uncertainties affect the bins of the SK zenith angle spectrum in a correlated way. The $`7\times 7`$ matrices $`V_i`$ describe statistical and energy-uncorrelated uncertainties; the latter are assumed to be fully correlated in zenith angle. For any given parameters $`\delta _k`$, the $`\chi ^2`$

$$\chi _0^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{8}{}}\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Delta }_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{\Delta }_i}=\chi _{0,m}^2+\left(\stackrel{}{\varphi }\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}\right)C_0\left(\stackrel{}{\varphi }\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}\right)$$

$$\text{with}C_0=\underset{i=1}{\overset{8}{}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}\stackrel{}{b_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{b_i}& \stackrel{}{h_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{b_i}\\ \stackrel{}{h_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{b_i}& \stackrel{}{h_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{h_i}\end{array}\right)\text{ and }\stackrel{}{\varphi }=\left(\begin{array}{c}\beta \\ \eta \end{array}\right)$$

can be written as a quadratic form of $`\stackrel{}{\varphi }`$ and the curvature matrix $`C_0`$. The minimum is

$$\chi _{0,m}^2=\underset{i=1}{\overset{8}{}}\stackrel{}{d_i}V_i^1\stackrel{}{d_i}C_{0,m}\text{with}C_{0,m}=\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}C_0\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}.$$

If the minimum flux vector is scaled by $`\alpha `$ ($`\stackrel{}{\varphi }=\alpha \times \stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}`$) then $`\chi _0^2`$ constrains $`\alpha `$ to be $`\alpha =1\pm \sqrt{1/C_{0,m}}`$. To take into account the systematic uncertainty of the SK combined rate $`\sigma _{SK}=_{2.6}^{+2.9}\%`$ (which is completely correlated in zenith-angle and energy), $`\chi _0^2`$ is modified to

$$\chi _1^2=\chi _{0,m}^2+\left(\stackrel{}{\varphi }\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}\right)C_1\left(\stackrel{}{\varphi }\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{0,m}\right)\text{with}C_1=\frac{1/\sigma _{SK}^2}{C_{0,m}+1/\sigma _{SK}^2}\times C_0.$$

$`\chi _1^2`$ constrains $`\alpha `$ to be $`\alpha =1\pm \sqrt{1/C_{0,m}+\sigma _{SK}^2}`$, that is, the minimum is unchanged, but the allowed parameter range for $`\beta `$ and $`\eta `$ is larger. The total $`\chi ^2`$ for the SK zenith spectrum shape is then

$$\chi _{\text{SK}}^2=\text{Min}\left(\chi _1^2(\beta ,\eta ,\delta _B,\delta _S,\delta _R)+\left(\frac{\delta _B}{\sigma _B}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\delta _S}{\sigma _S}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\delta _R}{\sigma _R}\right)^2\right)$$
(2)
where all $`\delta _k`$ as well as $`\beta ,\eta `$ are minimized.

A combined fit with the rate measured by the SNO collaboration can be done by defining $`b_{\text{SNO}},h_{\text{SNO}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{\text{SNO}}(\beta ,\eta )`$ in a similar way as in (1) and form

$$\chi _{\text{SK-SNO}}^2=\text{Min}\left(\chi _1^2+\left(\frac{\delta _B}{\sigma _B}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\delta _S}{\sigma _S}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\delta _R}{\sigma _R}\right)^2+\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }_{\text{SNO}}(\beta ,\eta )}{\sigma _{\text{SNO}}}\right)^2\right)$$
(3)
To add the radio-chemical rate measurements of Homestake, Gallex/GNO, and SAGE (all “Gallium” rates are combined into a single rate), the $`\chi ^2`$

$$\chi _{\text{RC}}^2(\beta ,\eta )$$

takes into account the correlations between Gallium and Chlorine measurements. The 8B and hep fluxes are constrained by the minimization of $`\chi _{\text{SK-SNO}}^2`$, not by the Standard Solar Model. The total $`\chi ^2`$ is then a simple addition

$$\chi ^2=\chi _{\text{SK-SNO}}^2+\text{Min}\left(\chi _{\text{RC}}^2(\alpha \beta _{\text{min}},\alpha \eta _{\text{min}})+\left(\frac{\alpha 1}{\sigma _\alpha }\right)^2\right)$$
(4)
where $`1/\sigma _\alpha ^2=C_{\text{SK-SNO,m}}=\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{\text{SK-SNO,m}}C_{\text{SK-SNO}}\stackrel{}{\varphi }_{\text{SK-SNO,m}}`$. Numerically, $`\sigma _\alpha `$ is found to be about 2.7% (The accuracy of SK and SNO combined)