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# Imaging of z∼2 QSO host galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) Inc, under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 Introduction

There have been several investigations of QSO host galaxies at redshift 2 and higher, using 4m class telescopes (with and without adaptive optics image correction), and with the Hubble Space Telescope. Many of these are reviewed by Hutchings (2001a). Heckman et al (1992) and Lehnert et al (1992) were the first to discover that high redshift QSO hosts were both large and luminous (particularly of radio-loud QSOs), and unlike galaxies in the present-day universe. However, there is a range of host galaxy sizes and luminosities, and it is not easy to study their detailed morphology and colour because of size, redshift dimming, and the presence of the bright central QSO nuclei. In general, however, the QSO hosts become more luminous and compact with increasing redshift, and are found in regions of enhanced faint galaxy counts. There have been claims regarding the host morphology, based on fits to luminosity profiles of the hosts after removal of the central source (e.g. Kukula et al 2001, McLure et al 1999).

The host galaxies of higher redshift QSOs are of interest for several reasons. QSOs show strong cosmic evolution in their population, luminosity, and radio morphology, and we wish to see how the triggering and fuelling of the QSO episodes causes this evolution. Seen over large redshift ranges, the QSO hosts must undergo significant evolution as galaxies, and offer an opportunity to study evolution of galaxy star-formation, stellar populations, merging, and morphology changes in addition to the nuclear activity. It is clear from local galaxy studies that the central black hole mass is closely related to the spheroidal stellar population, so that we may seek to understand how this population forms and evolves, as well as how the central black hole forms and grows with time. We may also measure the central mass independently by the width of the broad emission lines in the QSO nucleus, providing another link to galaxy and black hole evolution.

The results reported here are from a program proposed in 1995, when these studies were new, with a small total sample. As table 1 shows, the observations were not performed until several years later, and other studies had been undertaken. The sample chosen was intended to cover a range of luminosities in both optical and radio, with some complementary ground-based coverage, and restricted to a small redshift range close to 2. We describe below further details of the observational procedure. We are particularly concerned with accurate modelling and removal of the central point spread function (PSF), on which many of the above conclusions rest.

## 2 Observations

The observations were carried out as a delayed cycle 6 HST program, and are listed in Table 1. The QSOs were centred in the PC CCD of the WFPC2, and exposed for about 5000 sec in each of the F606W and F702W filters, using several readouts at each filter, to enable cosmic ray removal and to avoid saturation in the nuclear pixels. The rest wavelengths sampled with the filters are in the range 1800 to 2300Å, so are sensitive to young stellar populations. In this paper we refer to the filters and magnitudes as R and I, since the conversions are within the measuring errors of our results.

The images from each QSO were combined and cosmic rays removed in the usual way. No unusual problems were encountered and there were few saturated pixels to deal with. These occurred in the image centres where we have no resolved information. The pixels were replaced with values from scaled PSF images, and were given zero weight in the PSF removal process described below. Obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray pixels were interpolated across in the QSO images.

In addition to the QSOs, a set of PSF observations was made of the star Feige 23, chosen to have an SED in the optical similar to the redshifted QSOs in the program. The PSF observations involved a range of exposure times and dither positions around the centre of the PC field, and were used to generate a model for the PSF for the QSOs.

The PSF observations consisted of four sequences of exposures of a star in each of the two filters. These four sequences were at four field positions: the center and the vertices of a triangle surrounding the nominal PC chip position for the QSOs. The triangle was $``$3 arcsec on a side, to match the nominal positioning accuracy of targets on the WFPC2 focal plane, oriented at an angle with respect to the CCD rows and columns, to provide both minimum overlap of PSF diffraction features and maximum prescription retrieval fitting leverage in determining alignment parameters. Each exposure sequence contained pairs of exposures with durations of 0.23 sec, 4 sec, and 100 sec. The sequences were chosen to avoid pixels affected by the residual image from previous saturated exposures.

The paired exposures were used to both minimize the effect of noise in the prescription retrievals and to identify cosmic ray events. The shorter exposures were designed to properly expose the PSF core and enable accurate registration of the PSF with the QSO cores. The 0.23 seconds is the minimum WFPC2 exposure for which the PSF characteristics are unaffected by the shutter flight time. This range of exposure times provided measurements of PSF features over the dynamic range of interest in the the science observations; PSF features that are factors of 104 and 105 weaker than the core were measured at S/N approximately 35 and 8.5 respectively.

## 3 Point spread function removal

The PSF modelling work required for this project was carried out as described in detail by Dumont et al. (2001). We also constructed empirical PSFs from the Feige 23 observations, and Tiny Tim PSF models for the QSO locations in the PC (Krist 1995). However, our analysis was done entirely with the Dumont et al. model PSFs, as these resulted in significantly cleaner removal of PSF structures.

The Dumont et al PSFs use a hybrid approach to modelling the HST optical system and WFPC2 PC camera, by combining prescription retrieval to solve for the primary optical components, and phase retrieval to compute a ”mirror map” giving deviations in the HST primary mirror from the nominal prescription. The initial prescription (low-order Zernike coefficients) and mirror map were estimated using a series of out of focus images (generated by relocating the secondary mirror) obtained from the HST archive. The prescription was refined by refitting parameters known to vary (secondary mirror position) and known to be dependent on the particular observation (object position in field of view, object intensity, background) and taking into account the object’s spectral type and filter bandpass.

The actual PSF models used were ultimately chosen by matching the inner structure and main diffraction spikes in the PSF models with those in the QSO images, as described below. The models were computed with a pixel size eight times smaller than the actual observations, allowing us to make sub-pixel offsets without introducing sampling errors. The final parameters that were adjusted in the PSF models were a) the SED and emission line flux of the program QSOs within each filter bandpass, based on published spectra or the broad-band colours and a ‘standard’ QSO spectrum, and b) the optical offset of the secondary mirror.

It was found that the flux distribution within the filter bandpass is not a critical PSF issue, with very small changes betwen a flat SED and one that reflects the continuum and emission lines within the bandpasses. The principal differences between the filter bandpasses are the scale changes in the PSF structure that are caused by the mean wavelength of the bandpass.

On the other hand, the optical offset of the HST secondary mirror does make a major difference to the detailed intensities of the inner PSF structure and the relative intensities of the main diffraction spikes (see Figure 1). The PSF has three distinct ‘zones’: the inner very bright few pixels, a ring of 12 complex knots and ‘streamers’ out to radii of about 0.3 arcsec (at our filter wavelengths), and four diffraction spikes that are seen to large radii. In our PSF-fitting, we found the inner few pixels cannot be fit well, partly due to saturation effects in the data, and anyway contain no resolved information. Thus, the criteria for choosing the PSF model are the relative brightnesses of the ring of knots and the long spikes. A best model was selected from a grid of secondary mirror offsets for each QSO and filter. The model grids were done with a coarse grid and a finer grid near the best-looking value. The PSF model selection was done by inspection and then by minimising the residual structure in the PSF-subtracted QSO images. It was found that the same model offsets (close to 1mm in both x and z) were selected for all QSOs and both filters, independently by the first two authors. These were significantly better than Tiny Tim or a simple mean PSF from our grid of observations, in matching the detailed structure seen in the QSO images.

After selecting the best-looking PSF model, it was block-averaged by a factor 8, using a grid of 8 x 8 single (fine) pixel offsets. This enabled us to match the pixel sampling of the QSO, which was judged by the sampling of the four triple-stripe diffraction spikes. These spikes are about one PC pixel wide. This was the PSF used with matched sampling to the data, for subtraction from the QSO images. We found that the subtraction results do not change rapidly within 1mm offset steps, so that selection of the ‘best’ model was not critical within a range of about 0.3mm in the offsets.

The PC-pixel sampled PSF was then scaled and subtracted from the QSO image. In all cases a grid of scale factors (and pre-block-averaging PSF shifts) was used to decide which was the best PSF subtraction. In choosing the best subtraction, the subtracted image was modelled for its fit to exponential and de Vaucouleurs law azimuthally averaged profiles. The subtracted images were characterised by using the ‘ellipse’ task in IRAF, centred on the nucleus position. The fits were judged by minimising profile differences from the two types of model - i.e. linearity in log(signal) against radius or radius1/4. We gave zero weight to the innermost 4 pixel radius (about 0.65 in R1/4 in Figure 3), which lie inside the resolution of the images and where there are saturated pixels; and a weight inversely proportional to the error bars calculated from the image by the ellipse task. In the diagrams and plots, we have interpolated across the low pixels in the inner 4 pixel radius, resulting in an apparent excess of unresolved flux in the central pixels. We stress that there is no information in these pixels and they are not taken into account in the measured quantities. Best fit models are extrapolated into the central few pixels in deriving the quoted host galaxy fluxes.

We also inspected the 2-dimensional subtracted images for residual PSF structure. This was already minimised in morphology by the PSF model selection, but visal inspection is sensitive to under- or over-subtraction that might not show up in azimuthally averaged profiles. The final adopted subtractions were a mean of the profile fits and image structure inspection values for scaling, but these were always the same within a few percent in the final resolved flux estimates.

Finally, the sensitivity to the PSF models, positions, and scaling were tested by finding best fits over a range of each of these parameters. The PSF-subtracted fluxes were robust to within 10% - i.e. for the range of fits that are acceptable by the above criteria. The host galaxy structures outside radii of 0.5 arcsec are not sensitive to any of the fit parameters explored, while structures and total signal level inside this depended on the relative nuclear to host flux ratio, as discussed individually below.

Figure 2 shows an example of PSF-subtraction from a PSF-star image. The diagram illustrates that the central region is not properly modelled (by choice, as noted above), and that no detectable flux is seen in the subtracted image beyond radius 0.35”. This PSF fit is not as good as those for the QSOs, as the short PSF-star exposures suffer from telescope breathing and worse read noise than the longer QSO integrations, and are from different places on the detector, so we did not attempt very detailed modelling for the individual PSF observations. Neverthless, we note that all the QSOs showed more extended and significant resolved structure than the star image in Figure 2.

For each PSF-subtracted QSO image, we calculated (and tabulate) the total flux from the best-fit model, which interpolates across the central pixels as shown in the diagrams. The values agree well with the summed image signal within the radius limits of good fit. In all cases we found much better fits for the inner host galaxies with a de Vaucouleurs model, but in most cases this did not fit well beyond a radius of about 0.8 to 0.9 arcsec. Beyond this, we applied an exponential model fit: a different de Vaucouleurs model fit as well, but gave about the same total flux, and we consider the outer galaxy more likely to be an exponential anyway. We also note that the images show that the host galaxies are not at all symmetric ellipses, so that we are using the de Vaucouleurs models as flux estimators rather than morphology discriminators.

We describe the results for each QSO in the sections below. Table 2 summarizes the adopted best-fit subtractions and the measured or model quantities from them. The diagrams show subtracted images and luminosity profiles for all the objects. The plots have limiting surface brightness of about 27 mag/arcsec2. With smoothing it is possible to go about a magnitude fainter at radii about 3 arcsec, but the signal is poor and very sensitive to the sky level uncertainty. Note that we have used cosmological parameters H0=100 and q0=0.5 in quoting absolute magnitudes, with no K-correction applied.

We recorded the fluxes and positions of all galaxies measurable in both filters in the PC field surrounding the QSO. As all exposures and QSO redshifts are similar, this is a reasonably good comparison of the galaxy environments of the sample QSOs, in terms of richness and galaxy colours, down to F602W magnitude $``$26. However, this part of the work is not a rigorous or flux-limited investigation of the QSO companions, as we were unable to measure fainter or LSB objects that were visible in some fields.

## 4 Notes on individual QSOs

### 4.1 0033+098

The QSO is radio-loud (460mJy at 5 GHz: Pauliny-Toth et al 1972), but with no known radio structure. The QSO was fainter than the catalogued V=17.5 (Hewitt and Burbidge 1993) suggests, with R=18.9 and I=18.6. We have measured several nearby faint galaxies, and most have similar colours (see Table 2).

Figures 3 and 4 show the images and luminosity profiles for the QSO. The best-fit de Vaucouleurs model is shown, as discussed in the previous section. In fact, the QSO host galaxy appears to be asymmetrical and to contain knots, so the assumption of a smooth de Vaucouleurs profile is not necessarily the best way to measure the host galaxy. The ‘ellipse’ IRAF task used can be used to fit an ellipse to successive mean radii with a free centroid, so that the effect of departures from azimuthal symmetry are minimsed, while allowing us to quantify deviations from central symmetry by the migration of successive ellipse centroids.

In both F606W and F702W images, the de Vaucouleurs fit was good out to a radius of about 1”. Beyond that, there is excess light that may be approximated better by an exponential disk (or different de Vaucouleurs model), out to about 2” radius. Beyond that, the signal is too weak to measure. This illustrates a generic point well: HST has good resolution and signal in the radius range 0.2” to 1.0”. Ground-based observations with larger telescopes reveal flux extending to several arcsec in many such objects. Thus, HST is measuring the central spheroidal-like population of the host galaxy, but may fail to detect a more extended disk, arms, or halo. Our deep HST images just cover the transition between these regions.

The host galaxy does have asymmetrical structure that is seen (Figure 1) as an extension to the top of the image, plus a separate knot to the left side. The fitted ellipses have centroids that move systematically by several pixels from the nucleus to the outer contours, reflecting this. Note too that the visible structures lie within the radius fit by the de Vaucouleurs model, so that the ‘bulge’ model fit does not imply the presence of a smooth bulge in the conventional sense. These structures are faint, but the overall resolved flux from the host galaxy indicates a high luminosity, which is several magnitudes brighter than any of the nearby galaxies, and corresponds to absolute magnitude M$`{}_{R}{}^{}`$-25. This is similar to measurements of other radio-loud QSO hosts at redshift near 2.

Table 2 summarizes the measurements of this and the other QSO fields. Other galaxies seen in the PC frame are faint and compact, and are generally blue, with two exceptions at R-I = 1.6. In all the QSO fields we have not counted galaxies redder than R-I=1.0 in Table 2. The other fields have only one such red galaxy each, so they form a minor part of the companion totals. The flux from the extended structure to the N of the QSO, measured on its own, is also blue, with R-I close to 0.0. The ‘companions’ range in luminosity from our Galaxy to the LMC if at the QSO redshift. They are all blue enough to be star-forming at the QSO redshift or higher. Sizes range from small to moderate (0.3 to 1.5 arcsec) to the brightness level detected. The space density at the QSO redshift is high.

### 4.2 0225$``$014

This is a radio-loud QSO (4C 01.11: 300mJy at 2.7GHz,150mJy at 5GHz: see e.g. Barthel et al 1990). It has C IV absorption at z=2.0. It is a triple radio source (17” long) with a 35o bend, and an overall spectral index fairly steep at 1.1. Table 2 shows the measured quantities for the QSO and associated objects. The QSO host galaxy is resolved and has quite asymmetric structure. The PSF removal works well outside the central 6-7 pixel diameter, and is shown in Figures 3 and 4.

The azimuthally averaged profile from fitting ellipses to the PSF-subtracted QSO fits a spheroidal model fairly well, but there are significant bumps and dips in the profile. The outer parts (beyond radius 0.8”) in the F606W image can be fit to an exponential profile, and the spheroid model does not fit in the F606W filter. Thus, there may be a faint halo or ‘disk’ that we are just detecting. In the F702W image, the arm is less conspicuous and the disk component is not indicated: a spheroidal model fits to the radius limit of the image. We stress that these model fits are useful in estimating the resolved total luminosity but do not indicate the presence of normal bulge or disk morphology. The resolved flux is one-sided and contains a curved bright arm that extends almost 1” from the nucleus. The centroids of the ellipses move some 0.2” from the nucleus to mean radii of 0.7” as they include this arm.

The radio structure has only 1.4” resolution but shows an extended core (jet?) whose direction is along the brightest HST diffraction spike residual. Thus, our host galaxy detection is poorest along this line. The curved arm of the host galaxy appears to originate at this angle. The radio lobe peaks lie within the surrounding group. The NW lobe is along the jet direction and is further from the nucleus by about a factor 2. It does not correspond with any detected optical source. The SE lobe is extended perpendicular to the radius to the QSO and lies near the edge of the group of galaxies, close to (but not on) a diffuse large faint galaxy.

The QSO lies in a field of faint companions. 26 are seen in the PC chip (although only 16 were measured reliably in both filters), which is about double that seen in others in the sample. The companions are grouped within the PC field, with the QSO off-centre. Only one or two have colours that suggest they are foreground - the rest are very blue and thus may be star-forming at high redshift. The galaxies range from very compact to small and nucleated, many with very asymmetrical structure. Unusually, there are also several (7) which are large, LSB, and not nucleated at all. The largest is blue and quite luminous.

The QSO appears to be part of a group of young galaxies or protogalaxies and to be in a host galaxy that is large and irregular, with low surface brightness features. In view of the absorber seen at the slightly lower redshift of 2.0, some (or all?) of the resolved structure and of the companion galaxies may lie in this group at a few thousand km/s lower redshift than the QSO.

### 4.3 0820+296

This is a radio-loud QSO that has been imaged with the CFHT in earlier work (see Hutchings 1995 a,b and references therein). The ground-based visible imaging at 0.6” FWHM resolution indicated that the QSO is extended azimuthally at radii 1.5” to 4”. The QSO was also found to have a high count of nearby galaxies at projected distances 20-30”, with magnitudes complete to about R=24. Many of them are blue, and were discussed in terms of star-forming companions at redshifts similar to the QSO. The QSO spectrum contains absorptions at z$``$2.05, so the galaxies may be part of that absorbing group.

The resolved light in the F606W filter has a ring-like structure, somewhat offset and with brightness that changes around the ring. The F702W image shows this less clearly but has more resolved light overall. Figure 2 shows the luminosity plots and the adopted spheroidal models that fit them best (but with significant irregularity in the profile). The F702W image also has a halo or outer disk beyond a radius of 0.9”. This is seen less significantly and with less light in the F606W image. It is possible that this galaxy has a ring of new star-formation plus an older population, indicating an event that triggered the QSO episode.

The WFPC2 images show fainter galaxies than the ground-based (about 1 magnitude, where they are compact). This changes the selection criteria for galaxy counts from those in the CFHT study. There are 12 measured in both colours on the PC chip, plus one star which is the brightest and reddest object. One galaxy is red (and bright) and is likely to be foreground. The rest are all blue and thus possibly star-forming at high redshift, as noted in the CFHT study.

### 4.4 1338+277

The QSO is radio-quiet, discovered in the Crampton et al (1995) survey. They note it is extended. The QSO was imaged with the CFHT (Hutchings 1995 a,b) with 0.8” FWHM image quality. The azimuthally averaged profile is resolved at radii 1-3”, and a knot 1.2” to the North is noted. There appears to be some excess of galaxies to R=24 around it to radii approx 30”.

The new data show the QSO is faint (about 21.5 magnitude) and the HST images have little visible PSF structure. The QSO is non-circular down to very small radii (0.2”), and has faint flux with elliptical contours out to some 0.6”. The images also clearly show a jet-like extension at some 60o to the inner structure, extending some 1.4” and ending at a brighter knot (see Figure 3). The knot is more compact in F606W and there is an apparent gap between the ‘jet’ and knot.

The elliptical inner host extension is blue and the inside part of the jet is red. The QSO has R magnitude 1.6 fainter than the catalogued V value of 20. The jet is 26.7m and the blue region comparable. The ‘bulge’ component is as shown by the plotted models and the ‘disk’ is an additional exponential beyond radius 0.7”. These fits produce reliable total flux values, but are clearly not good fits to the morphology.

The PC chip contains 12 companion objects, measured in both filters. The QSO is the brightest object in the PC chip. The companions are small and faint, with 2 exceptions, but all could be galaxies at the QSO redshift. All but one (which is also one of the two larger ones) are blue objects, so consistent with their being true companions. The area of sky covered by this group is within the PC field - about 180 Kpc on a side - so that this is a high concentration. The galaxies have luminosities like the LMC or M33 if at the QSO redshift and with low k-correction.

### 4.5 2244$``$010

This is an LBQS object (Foltz et al 1989), so has a luminous nucleus, and is the brightest in our sample by over a magnitude. It has associated absorption in the C IV and L alpha profiles (not BAL, but narrower). Little else seems to be known, and no radio detection is reported.

The HST images show very little structure and the bright nucleus makes imperfections in the PSF modelling and subtraction more significant. Our best PSF subtractions suggest a small compact knot about 2.5arcsec to the West, but otherwise no obvious structure beyond diffuse extended light through the PSF features. Figure 4 shows that there is no good fit to a spheroidal model, especially at the shorter wavelengths. An exponential works moderately well beyond radii of 0.8 arcsec. The host galaxy light is redder than the nucleus, and similar to other faint galaxies in the field.

There are several faint and compact companions, all blue enough to be at the QSO redshift. One galaxy is red (and larger) and is presumably foreground. One other largish (chain?) galaxy is blue and quite luminous if at the QSO redshift. The spatial distribution is even over the PC chip, and thus not obviously clustered around the QSO. The companions range from very compact to diffuse with no nucleus (but still small).

## 5 Discussion

Our new PSF models have been instrumental in achieving improved resolution and modelling of the inner parts of high redshift QSO hosts. However, there are still PSF artifacts that are not properly removed, most obviously in the brightest of our targets. It is not straightforward to quantify our errors. We have covered a wide range of PSF shifts and scale factors, as well as PSF models in this work, and consider that the resolved flux values quoted are robust to a level of 10% in all cases.

Table 2 compares the principal results for the sample. Since the QSOs are all at similar redshift and have similar exposures, the spatial scales and apparent colours may be compared directly, as well as properties of companions. In the Table 2 summary, we have removed all companion galaxies that are redder than R-I=1 mag, supposing that they may be foreground objects. There are few of these and the average numbers are little affected by their removal.

In all cases, the bulk of the resolved light is best fit by a spheroidal type of profile, but in all cases this requires an extra component which we have modelled with an exponential, beyond radii of about 0.8” (corresponding to about 4Kpc in the adopted cosmology). This statement is robust against uncertainties in the sky level, which affects only the outermost 2 or 3 points in our plots. The exponential light is faint and only its innermost parts are detected in our data. In ground-based observations with larger telescopes (e.g. Hutchings 1995a), the faint outer light is often resolved out to several arcsec, further reinforcing the model of a two-part light distribution for these galaxies, which we can ‘fit’ with spheroidal and disk models. However, the morphology is in all cases irregular within the radius of bulge model fit, and indeed some of the luminosity profiles themselves are irregular, so we do not simply interpret the azimuthally averaged profiles in terms of bulge and disk components seen in regular galaxies in the local universe, and do not conclude that the host galaxies are all ‘elliptical’. We also note that less deep HST imaging would fail to detect any of the outer ‘disk’ light. As noted by Hutchings (2001a,b) we should thus be cautious of claims that HST data reveal that high redshift QSO hosts are all ‘elliptical’.

The resolved flux, however, is quite well measured by these models, and is 2-3 magnitudes more luminous than L\* in the local universe. The colours are blue, and with rest wavelengths in the NUV, indicate that the light is dominated by massive young stars. Note that the k-corrections for a young population at this redshift are negative, but the amount depends on the age (and reddening) of the young stellar population present. Thus, comparison with present epoch standard galaxy luminosities is not very meaningful. If free of dust, and evolving passively without further merging events, the QSO host galaxies would become present day galaxies of about L\* luminosity.

There is no difference between radio-loud and radio-quiet QSO hosts in our small sample, but the two radio-quiet QSOs are the brightest and faintest of the group, and their discovery techniques (LBQS and faint optical search) certainly bias the comparison. The QSO R and I magnitudes of four of the group are sufficiently fainter than their catalogued V magnitudes, that they must have varied. Overall, the resolved light lies close to 10% of the QSO for all objects, averaging the V, R, and I values.

The relationship between bulge luminosity and central black-hole mass in galaxies in the local universe has been used to claim that high mass black holes are required for radio-loud QSOs (e.g. McLure and Dunlop 2001a,b, Dunlop et al 2001). Since the epoch of initial formation of the black hole and the ‘bulge’ population are both unknown, as well as their subsequent change with time, this too should be treated with caution. In addition, there is evidence that there is a continuum of radio power in lower redshift QSOs (Lacy et al 2001), as well as systematic changes in radio morphology with redshift (Neff and Hutchings 1990), so a simple dichotomy may not apply at high redshift either. Perhaps a more direct indication of black hole mass is the broad-line width, but here too we need to understand the kinematics of BLR, as well as its cosmic evolution.

The irregular morphology of 4 of the five objects suggests that the host galaxies may be in the process of heirarchical formation, or other tidal events, as well as associated with very active star-formation. This is similar to the conclusions of other investigations of z$``$2 QSOs. The HST data have revealed structure of subarcsecond size, within 1-2 arcsec of the QSO nucleus that support and add to this scenario. These results reinforce the caveats noted above.

To the extent that the central black hole mass is related to the initial stellar population in a galaxy (which in the present day universe is the spheroidal, or non-disk, part of all galaxies), we may expect the entire QSO host galaxy luminosity to be related to the central black hole mass, at these redshifts where galaxies are very young, regardless of whether the morphology is strictly spheroidal. However, the proportionality factor of stellar luminosity to central mass may well change as the galaxy evolves (and undergoes merging) over its lifetime. We expect the spheroidal population luminosity to decline with time, with possible boosts by major mergers, while the black hole mass can only increase - perhaps by a large factor.

One way to check this independently is the widths of the nuclear broad emission lines, as discussed by McLure and Dunlop (2001a), among others. In our sample, there are 3 with published spectra, and these are not of very good quality for line width measures. The spectrum of 2244-010 (Foltz et al 1989) shows it to have significant shortward absorptions to the broad lines, but we estimate the width of the unabsorbed emission to have FWHM of 7000 km.s-1. We measure profiles in 0033+098 (Steidel and Sargent 1991) and 0820+296 (Maoz et al 1993) to have FWHM 5400 and 3900 km.s-1 respectively. In this small sample we see no correlation with the host galaxy luminosity, or radio luminosity.

The distribution of faint blue galaxies near the QSOs is similar for all, with the exception of 0225-014, which has a much higher fraction of companions within 10 arcsec (Table 2 gives the galaxies within the entire $``$37 arcsec field of the PC). As a rigorous investigation of the distribution and detection criteria for companions seems unprofitable, we have not pursued these statistics further.

Further progress awaits a large and uniform investigation of high redshift QSO hosts, with high sensitivity as well as spatial resolution. New instrumentation on HST as well as 8m class ground-based telescopes, offer excellent opportunities for such studies.

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Captions to figures

1. PSF models with different offsets of HST secondary mirror. The offset difference is 2 mm. Note the significant changes in the brightness of the inner ring of spots and the components on the main diffraction spikes. A grid of these models was used to match the structure seen in the QSO images.

2. PSF-star images to illustrate subtraction. The PSF model and star image are shown in the top row, matched in pixel sampling, and the subtracted image is below. The images are 3.2 arcsec on a side. The text notes that this PSF subtraction is not as good as for the QSO images.

3. Images of the program QSOs, 2.8 arcsec on a side. These are after optimal PSF subtraction, as described in the text, and are combined from the two filter images. The images have been smoothed with a 0.037 arcsec gaussian to reduce pixel noise. The saturated inner cores in most of them are dominated by PSF artifacts but the core of the faint QSO 1338+277 is resolved. Note the asymmetric structures, the knot to the left of 0033+098 and the ‘jet’ of 1338+277. Faint traces of the diagonal diffraction spikes are seen in some images. North is 126o clockwise of up for 0033+098; 17o anticlockwise for 0225-014; 85o clockwise for 0820+296; 100o clockwise for 1338+277; 30o clockwise for 2244-010.

4. Luminosity profiles of sample QSOs. Top left shows full QSO image showing it is resolved compared with the PSF. The other profiles are after PSF subtraction. Lowest levels plotted are close to 27 mag per square arcsec. The excess light within r$`{}_{}{}^{1/4}`$0.65 is not significant and ignored in estimating the host galaxy fluxes. The dotted lines are the spheroidal models used to calculate the ‘bulge’ fluxes. Excess light above these lines at larger radii is fitted with an exponential to calculate the detected ‘disk’ components.


text:
# Hierarchy of quantum explicitly solvable and integrable models

## 1. Introduction

Special quantum fields that first appeared in the literature (see, e.g. ) under the name “massless two-dimensional fermionic fields,” are known for decades to be useful tool of investigation of completely integrable models in quantum (fermionization procedure ) and in classical (symmetry approach to KP hierarchy ) cases. Already in  it was shown that when bosonic field of the quantum version of some integrable model is considered as a composition of fermions, the most nonlinear parts of the quantum bosonic Hamiltonian becomes bilinear in terms of these Fermi fields. In  the same property was proved for the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation and some integrable models of statistical physics, where fermionic fields naturally appeared in the so called limit of the infinite interaction, i.e., again as describing the most nonlinear part of the Hamiltonian. Quantization of the KdV equation is based on analogy of the Gardner–Zakharov–Faddeev (GZF)  and Magri  Poisson brackets with the current and Virasoro algebras , , . In  we proved that quantization of any of these brackets for the KdV equation by means of fermionization procedure can be performed on the entire $`x`$-axis and the Hamiltonian is given as sum of two terms, bilinear with respect to either fermionic or current operators. We also proved that the quantum dispersionless KdV equation generates linear evolution equation for the Fermi field. Thus this equation is explicitly and uniquely solvable for any instant of time (in contrast to the classical case).

In this article we construct hierarchy of nonlinear interactions for the bosonic quantum field $`v(x)`$ that obey the following properties:

* All equation of this hierarchy are completely integrable in the sense that they have infinite set of local, polynomial (with respect to $`v`$ and its derivatives) commuting integrals of motion.
* All equations of this hierarchy are explicitly solvable in the following sense. Let $`v`$ be realized as current of fermionic field $`\psi `$. Then all these nonlinear equations for $`v`$ lead to linear evolution equations for $`\psi `$.
* In the limit $`\mathrm{}0`$ this hierarchy reduces to the dispersionless KdV hierarchy.

The paper is as follows. In Sec. 2 we present some well-known results on the “two-dimensional massless” fermions. In the Sec. 3 the hierarchy is derived and its properties are studied. In Sec. 4 we demonstrate by means of the modified KdV equation that results of our construction can be applied to quantization of the generic integrable models. Discussion of the classical limit of the hierarchy and some concluding remarks are given in the Sec. 5.

## 2. Massless two-dimensional fermions

Here we introduce notations and list some standard properties of the massless Fermi fields (see, e.g., ). Let $``$ denote the fermionic Fock space generated by operators $`\psi (k)`$ and $`\psi ^{}(k)`$, where $``$ means Hermitian conjugation, and that obey canonical anticommutation relations,

(2.1)
$$\{\psi ^{}(k),\psi (p)\}_+=\delta (kp),\{\psi (k),\psi (p)\}_+=0.$$

Let $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ denote vacuum vector and $`\psi (k<0)`$ and $`\psi ^{}(k>0)`$ be annihilation operators,

(2.2)
$$\psi (k)\mathrm{\Omega }|_{k<0}=0,\psi ^{}(k)\mathrm{\Omega }|_{k>0}=0,$$

whereas $`\psi (k>0)`$ and $`\psi ^{}(k<0)`$ are creation operators. Fermionic field is the Fourier transform,

(2.3)
$$\psi (x)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi }}𝑑ke^{ikx}\psi (k),$$

and obeys relations

(2.4) $`\{\psi ^{}(x),\psi (y)\}_+=\delta (xy),\{\psi (x),\psi (y)\}_+=0,`$
(2.5) $`(\mathrm{\Omega },\psi (x)\psi ^{}(y)\mathrm{\Omega })=(\mathrm{\Omega },\psi ^{}(x)\psi (y)\mathrm{\Omega })={\displaystyle \frac{i\epsilon ^2}{xyi0}},`$
where we denoted $`\epsilon =(\sqrt{2\pi })^1`$. This notation is convenient as in order to restore the Plank constant $`\mathrm{}`$ we need not only to substitute all commutators and anticommutators $`[,][,]\mathrm{}^1`$, but also put
(2.6) $`\epsilon =\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2\pi }}}.`$
The current of the massless two-dimensional fermionic field is given by the bilinear combination

(2.7)
$$v(x)=\epsilon ^1:\psi ^{}\psi :(x),$$

where the sign $`:\mathrm{}:`$ denotes the Wick ordering with respect to the fermionic creation–annihilation operators, for example, $`:\psi ^{}(x)\psi (y):=\psi ^{}(x)\psi (y)(\mathrm{\Omega },\psi ^{}(x)\psi (x)\mathrm{\Omega })`$ and $`:\psi ^{}\psi :(x)=lim_{yx}:\psi ^{}(x)\psi (y):`$, etc. Current is a self-adjoint operator-valued distribution in the space $``$ obeying the following commutation relations:

(2.8) $`[\psi (x),v(y)]=\epsilon ^1\delta (xy)\psi (x),`$
(2.9) $`[v(x),v(y)]=i\delta ^{}(xy).`$
The charge of the fermionic field, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=𝑑xv(x)`$, is self-adjoint operator with spectrum $`\epsilon ^1`$.

Commutation relation (2.9) suggests interpretation of $`v(x)`$ as bosonic field that obeys quantized version of the GZF bracket (, see also (4.2) below). In what follows, we use the decomposition

(2.10)
$$v(x)=v^+(x)+v^{}(x)$$

of this field, where positive and negative parts equal

(2.11)
$$v^\pm (x)=\frac{\pm 1}{2\pi i}\frac{dyv(y)}{yxi0}$$

and admit analytic continuation in the upper and bottom half-planes of variable $`x`$, correspondingly. They are mutually conjugate and

(2.12)
$$v^{}(x)\mathrm{\Omega }=0.$$

Let

(2.13)
$$v(k)=𝑑xe^{ikx}v(x),$$

so that $`v^\pm (x)=(2\pi )^1𝑑ke^{ikx}\theta (\pm k)v(k)`$, where $`\theta (k)`$ is step function. Then

(2.14)
$$v^{}(k)=v(k),v(k)\mathrm{\Omega }|_{k<0}=0.$$

Thus $`v(k>0)`$ and $`v(k<0)`$ are bosonic creation and annihilation operators, correspondingly, that are bilinear with respect to fermionic ones. One can introduce the bosonic Wick ordering for the products of currents, which we denote by the symbol $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{}`$, that means that all positive components of the currents are placed to the left from the negative components, for instance,

(2.15)
$$\mathrm{}v(x)v(y)\mathrm{}=v^+(x)v^+(y)+v^+(x)v^{}(y)+v^+(y)v^{}(x)+v^{}(x)v^{}(y)$$

and again $`\mathrm{}v^2\mathrm{}(x)=lim_{yx}\mathrm{}v(x)v(y)\mathrm{}`$. We can also use equality

(2.16)
$$\mathrm{}v(x)v(y)\mathrm{}=v(x)v(y)(\mathrm{\Omega },v(x)v(y)\mathrm{\Omega }),$$

where

(2.17)
$$(\mathrm{\Omega },v(x)v(y)\mathrm{\Omega })=\left(\frac{i\epsilon }{xyi0}\right)^2.$$

Fermionization procedure is essentially based on the relation between these two normal orderings. The bosonic ordering $`\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{}`$ can be extended for expressions that include fermionic field:

(2.18)
$$\mathrm{}v(x)\psi (y)\mathrm{}=v^+(x)\psi (y)+\psi (y)v^{}(x).$$

Then by (2.8) and (2.11),

(2.19)
$$\mathrm{}v(x)\psi (y)\mathrm{}=:v(x)\psi (y):+i\epsilon \frac{\psi (x)\psi (y)}{xy},$$

so that this expression as well as its derivatives w.r.t. $`x`$ and $`y`$ are well-defined in the limit $`yx`$. In this limit one uses the obvious fact that under the sign of the fermionic normal product any expression of the kind $`:\mathrm{}\psi (x)\mathrm{}\psi (x)\mathrm{}:`$ equals to zero. In particular, we get relation

(2.20)
$$\mathrm{}v\psi \mathrm{}(x)=i\epsilon \psi _x(x),$$

that results in the bosonization of fermions . More exactly, one can integrate this equality and write (at least formally) that

(2.21)
$$\psi (x)=\mathrm{}e^{i\epsilon ^1^xv(x)𝑑x}\mathrm{}e^{i\epsilon ^1^xv^+(x)𝑑x}e^{i\epsilon ^1^xv^{}(x)𝑑x},$$

where in the second equality definition of the bosonic normal product was used for the exponent. Relation (2.21) needs special infrared regularization of the primitive of the current, $`^xv(x)𝑑x`$, and its positive and negative components. This procedure can be performed, say, like in , and it leads to a special constant operator conjugated to the charge $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, that must be included in the r.h.s. of (2.21).

## 3. Hierarchy of explicitly solvable models

Problems of interpretation of Eq. (2.21) do not appear if we deal with bilinear combinations of fermionic fields of the type (2.7). In this case neither infrared regularization, nor the above mentioned auxiliary operator are needed and product of Fermi fields is given directly in terms of the current. An analog of such relation is known in the literature on the symmetries of the KP and KdV hierarchies (see ) in the sense of formal series.

###### Theorem.

For any real $`x`$ and $`y`$ the identity

(3.1)
$$\epsilon ^1:\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy):=\epsilon \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{exp}\left(i\epsilon ^1{\displaystyle _{xy}^{x+y}}𝑑x^{}v(x^{})\right)\mathrm{}1}{2iy}$$

holds in the sense of operator-valued distributions of spatial variable $`x`$ that smoothly depend on parameter $`y`$.

Proof. Thanks to (2.18) and (2.20) we have that

$`i\epsilon {\displaystyle \frac{}{y}}\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)=`$
$`=v^+(x+y)\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)+\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)v^{}(xy)+`$
$`+\psi ^{}(x+y)(v^{}(x+y)+v^+(xy))\psi (xy)`$
$`(v^+(x+y)+v^+(xy))\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)+`$
$`+\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)(v^{}(x+y)+v^{}(xy))+`$
$`+[\psi ^{}(x+y),v^+(xy)]\psi (xy)+\psi ^{}(x+y)[v^{}(x+y),\psi (xy)]`$
Taking (2.8) and (2.11) into account we get

(3.2) $`i\epsilon {\displaystyle \frac{}{y}}\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)=`$
$`=\left(v^+(x+y)+v^+(xy)+{\displaystyle \frac{i\epsilon }{2(yi0)}}\right)\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)+`$
$`+\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)\left(v^{}(x+y)+v^{}(xy)+{\displaystyle \frac{i\epsilon }{2(yi0)}}\right)`$
Let

(3.3)
$$F(x,y)=\epsilon ^1:\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy):,$$

i.e., $`F`$ denotes the l.h.s. of (3.1). Then by definition of the fermionic Wick ordering we get $`\psi ^{}(x+y)\psi (xy)=\epsilon F(x,y)i\epsilon ^2(2yi0)^1`$. We substitute $`\psi ^{}\psi `$ in (3.2) by means of this equality and take into account that powers of distributions $`(yi0)^1`$ are well defined. Then we get the following differential equation for $`F(x,y)`$:

$$\frac{F(x,y)}{y}=\frac{i}{\epsilon }\mathrm{}\left(v(x+y)+v(xy)\right)F(x,y)\mathrm{}+\frac{v(x+y)+v(xy)2F(x,y)}{2(yi0)}.$$

At the same time by (2.7) and (3.3) at $`y=0`$

(3.4)
$$F(x,0)=v(x),$$

so the $`i0`$ term in the denominator can be omitted and we get

(3.5)
$$\frac{F(x,y)}{y}=\frac{i}{\epsilon }\mathrm{}\left(v(x+y)+v(xy)\right)F(x,y)\mathrm{}+\frac{v(x+y)+v(xy)2F(x,y)}{2y}.$$

It is easy to check directly that the r.h.s. of (3.1) obeys the same differential equation with respect to $`y`$ and the same boundary condition (3.4), that proves (3.1).

Thanks to (3.3) it is obvious that $`F(x,y)`$, indeed, is operator-valued distribution with respect to $`x`$ that is smooth, infinitely differentiable function of $`y`$. Then the same are properties of this function when it is given by the r.h.s. of (3.1) as

(3.6)
$$F(x,y)=\epsilon \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{exp}\left(i\epsilon ^1{\displaystyle _{xy}^{x+y}}𝑑x^{}v(x^{})\right)\mathrm{}1}{2iy},$$

that completes proof of the theorem.

Let us introduce

(3.7)
$$F_n(x)\left(\frac{\epsilon _y}{2i}\right)^nF(x,y)|_{y=0}=\frac{\epsilon ^{n1}}{(2i)^n}D^n(:\psi ^{}\psi :)(x),$$

where in the second equality we used notation for the Hirota derivative , that in the generic case of two functions $`f(x)`$ and $`g(x)`$ reads as

(3.8)
$$D^n(fg)(x)=\underset{y0}{lim}\frac{^n}{y^n}f(x+y)g(xy),n=1,2,\mathrm{}.$$

In particular, by (3.4) we get that

(3.9) $`F_0(x)=v(x),`$
(3.10) $`F_1(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2i}}D(:\psi ^{}\psi :)(x),`$
that are current and energy–momentum density of the massless fermi-field, correspondingly. Thus Eq. (3.1) gives relation of the Hirota derivatives of the fermionic fields with polynomials of the current and its derivatives. All $`F_n(x)`$ by (3.7) are self-adjoint operator-valued distributions on the Fock space $``$ and by (3.6) we get recursion relations

$`F_{2n+1}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2n+2}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(i\epsilon /2)^{2m}(2n+1)!}{(2m)!(2(nm))!}}\mathrm{}v^{(2m)}(x)F_{2(nm)}(x)\mathrm{},`$
(3.11) $`n=0,1,2,\mathrm{},`$
and
$`F_{2n}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2n+1}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{n1}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(i\epsilon /2)^{2m}(2n)!}{(2m)!(2(nm)1)!}}\mathrm{}v^{(2m)}(x)F_{2(nm)1}(x)\mathrm{}+`$
(3.12) $`+\left({\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon }{2i}}\right)^n{\displaystyle \frac{v^{(2n)}(x)}{2n+1}},n=1,2,3,\mathrm{},`$
where $`F_0`$ is given in (3.9). The lowest simplest examples are as follows:

(3.13) $`F_1(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{}v^2\mathrm{}(x),`$
(3.14) $`F_2(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\mathrm{}v^3\mathrm{}(x){\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^2v_{xx}(x)}{12}},`$
(3.15) $`F_3(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}\mathrm{}v^4\mathrm{}(x){\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^2}{4}}\mathrm{}v(x)v_{xx}(x)\mathrm{},`$
(3.16) $`F_4(x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{5}}\mathrm{}v^5\mathrm{}(x){\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^2}{2}}\mathrm{}v^2(x)v_{xx}(x)\mathrm{}+{\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^4v_{xxxx}(x)}{80}}.`$
By definition (3.3) operator $`F(x,y)`$ obeys commutation relation

(3.17) $`[F(x,y),F(x^{},y^{})]=`$ $`\epsilon ^1\delta (xx^{}+y+y^{})F(x+y^{},y+y^{})+`$
$`+\epsilon ^1\delta (xx^{}yy^{})F(x^{}+y,y+y^{})+`$
$`+i{\displaystyle \frac{\delta (xx^{}+y+y^{})\delta (xx^{}yy^{})}{y+y^{}}},`$
that generates corresponding commutation relations for $`F_m`$ (closely related with a representation of the $`𝔤𝔩_{\mathrm{}}`$-algebra). Only the lowest terms, $`F_0`$ and $`F_1`$, form closed subalgebras:

(3.18) $`[F_0(x),F_0(x^{})]`$ $`=i\delta ^{}(xx^{}),`$
(3.19) $`[F_0(x),F_1(x^{})]`$ $`=i\delta ^{}(xx^{})F_0(x^{}),`$
(3.20) $`[F_1(x),F_1(x^{})]`$ $`=i\{F_1(x)+F_1(x^{})\}\delta ^{}(xx^{}){\displaystyle \frac{i\epsilon ^2}{12}}\delta ^{\prime \prime \prime }(xx^{}),`$
while commutators of the type $`[F_m,F_n]`$ include $`F_j`$’s till $`F_{m+n1}`$.

Operator $`F(x,y)`$ admits integration with respect to $`x`$ along the entire axis and result of integration is well defined operator in the fermionic Fock space $``$. Indeed, by (2.3) and (3.3)

(3.21)
$$𝑑xF(x,y)=\frac{1}{\epsilon }\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑k\left(e^{2iky}\psi ^{}(k)\psi (k)e^{2iky}\psi (k)\psi ^{}(k)\right),$$

where expression in the r.h.s. is normally ordered and has creation$`\times `$annihilation form, so that thanks to (2.2)

(3.22)
$$𝑑xF(x,y)\mathrm{\Omega }=0$$

for any $`y`$. From here we derive that all operators

(3.23)
$$H_n𝑑xF_n(x)=\frac{1}{\epsilon }\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑k(\epsilon k)^n\left(\psi ^{}(k)\psi (k)(1)^n\psi (k)\psi ^{}(k)\right)$$

are well defined and self-adjoint. For odd $`n`$ they are positively defined. At the same time by (3.17) we get

(3.24)
$$[𝑑xF(x,y),𝑑x^{}F(x^{},y^{})]=0$$

for any $`y`$ and $`y^{}`$. This means in particular that all

(3.25)
$$[H_m,H_n]=0,m,n=0,1,\mathrm{}$$

In other words, these operators define commuting flows on the space $``$ and we can introduce hierarchy of integrable time evolutions by means of commutation relation

(3.26)
$$v_{t_m}(x)=i[H_m,v(x)],m=0,1,\mathrm{},$$

so that by (3.25): $`(_{t_m}_{t_n}_{t_n}_{t_m})v(x)=0`$ for any $`m`$ and $`n`$ (we do not indicate the time dependence in all cases where it is not necessary). On the other side, by (3.17)

(3.27) $`[{\displaystyle 𝑑xF(x,y)},v(x^{})]=\epsilon ^1\left[F(x^{}+y,y)F(x^{}y,y)\right]`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2iy}}\left\{\mathrm{}\mathrm{exp}\left(i\epsilon ^1{\displaystyle \underset{x^{}}{\overset{x^{}+2y}{}}}𝑑\xi v(\xi )\right)\mathrm{}\mathrm{}\mathrm{exp}\left(i\epsilon ^1{\displaystyle \underset{x^{}2y}{\overset{x^{}}{}}}𝑑\xi v(\xi )\right)\mathrm{}\right\},`$
that leads to highly nonlinear (polynomial) dynamic equations for $`v(x)`$ in all cases with exception to $`t_0`$ and $`t_1`$. Thanks to (3.7), (3.23), and (3.26) we have:

(3.28) $`v_{t_0}(x)=0,`$
(3.29) $`v_{t_1}(x)=v_x(x),`$
and in the generic situation
(3.30) $`v_{t_n}(x)={\displaystyle \frac{}{x}}{\displaystyle \underset{m=0}{\overset{\left[\frac{n1}{2}\right]}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{(i\epsilon /2)^{2m}n!_x^{2m}F_{n2m1}(x)}{(n2m1)!(2m+1)!}},n=1,2,\mathrm{}.`$
The simplest examples are as follows:
(3.31) $`v_{t_2}(x)=_x\mathrm{}v^2\mathrm{}(x),`$
(3.32) $`v_{t_3}(x)=_x\left(\mathrm{}v^3\mathrm{}(x){\displaystyle \frac{\epsilon ^2}{2}}v_{xx}(x)\right),`$
(3.33) $`v_{t_4}(x)=_x\left(\mathrm{}v^4\mathrm{}(x)2\epsilon ^2\mathrm{}vv_{xx}\mathrm{}(x)\epsilon ^2\mathrm{}v_x^2\mathrm{}(x)\right).`$
These polynomial interactions are closely related to the KdV hierarchy: the second evolution is just dispersionless quantum KdV (cf. ), the third evolution coincide with the modified KdV equation for some specific value of the interaction constant, and so on. In the next section we discuss the case of mKdV equation in more detail. Here we emphasize that in spite of the highly nonlinear form of all these equations in terms of the field $`v`$, all of them give linear evolutions for fermions. Indeed, introducing the time dependence of $`\psi (x)`$ in analogy with (3.26) as $`\psi _{t_m}=i[H_m,\psi ]`$, we get by (3.23)

(3.34)
$$\psi _{t_m}(x)=\frac{1}{i\epsilon }(i\epsilon _x)^m\psi (x),$$

or by (2.3) $`\psi _{t_m}(k)=(i\epsilon )^1(\epsilon k)^m\psi (k)`$. Let now $`\psi (t_m,x)`$, $`v(t_m,x)`$, and $`F(t_m,x,y)`$ be operators with time evolution given by some $`H_m`$ and determined by the condition that at $`t_m=0`$ they equal to $`\psi (x)`$, $`v(x)`$, and $`F(x,y)`$, correspondingly. Thanks to (3.22) the definitions of the both normal products do not depend on time. This means that these operators are related at arbitrary value of $`t_m`$ by means of the same Eqs. (2.7), (3.3), (3.6), and (3.9) as at $`t_m=0`$. In particular, by (3.3)

(3.35)
$$F(t_m,x,y)=\frac{1}{\epsilon }:\psi ^{}(t_m,x+y)\psi (t_m,xy):.$$

Then, thanks to (2.3), (3.3), and (3.34) we get explicit expression for $`F(t_m,x,y)`$ in terms of its initial value $`F(x,y)`$:

(3.36) $`F(t_m,x,y)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle }dx^{}{\displaystyle }dy^{}{\displaystyle }dk{\displaystyle }dpF(xx^{},yy^{})\times `$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left(i(kp)x^{}+i(k+p)y^{}+i\epsilon ^{m1}(k^mp^m)t_m\right).`$
Thanks to (3.7) and (3.9) we obtain for $`y=0`$:
(3.37) $`v(t_m,x)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle }dx^{}{\displaystyle }dy^{}{\displaystyle }dk{\displaystyle }dpF(xx^{},y^{})\times `$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left(i(kp)x^{}i(k+p)y^{}+i\epsilon ^{m1}(k^mp^m)t_m\right).`$
Substituting here $`F(x,y)`$ by means of (3.6) we get solution of the $`m`$’s equation of the hierarchy (3.26) in terms of the initial data $`v(x)`$:
(3.38) $`v(t_m,x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^2}}{\displaystyle }dx^{}{\displaystyle }dy^{}{\displaystyle }dk{\displaystyle }dp{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}\mathrm{exp}\left(i\epsilon ^1{\displaystyle _{xx^{}\epsilon y^{}}^{xx^{}+\epsilon y^{}}}𝑑x^{\prime \prime }v(x^{\prime \prime })\right)\mathrm{}1}{2iy^{}}}\times `$
$`\times \mathrm{exp}(ikx^{}ipy^{}+i{\displaystyle \frac{t_m}{2^m\epsilon }}[(p+\epsilon k)^m(p\epsilon k)^m)]).`$
Generalization to the case where time evolution is determined by a linear combination of Hamiltonians $`H_m`$ is straightforward.

Thus we see, that all these models are not only completely integrable, but also explicitly solvable in the fermionic Fock space $``$. On the other side, taking into account that thanks to (3.25) and (3.28) the charge operator $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=H_0/\sqrt{2\pi }`$ commutes with all Hamiltonians and $`v(x)`$, one can reduce bosonic equations to the zero (or any other, fixed) charge sector of $``$, that is exactly the standard bosonic Fock space. In that case all relations of the type (3.6) and (3.37) remain valid and give explicit solution of the hierarchy (3.26) in the bosonic Fock space.

## 4. The modified KdV equation

The modified Korteweg–de Vries (mKdV) equation

(4.1)
$$v_t=_x\left(gv^3\frac{v_{xx}}{2}\right)$$

for the real function $`v(t,x)`$ is well known example of the completely integrable differential equation. If $`v(x)`$ is a smooth real function that decays rapidly enough when $`|x|\mathrm{}`$, the Inverse Spectral Transform (IST) method (see  and references therein) is applicable to Eq. (4.1). Constant $`g`$ in this equation is an arbitrary real parameter and properties of solutions essentially depend on its sign. In particulary, the soliton solutions exist only if $`g<0`$.

The mKdV equation is Hamiltonian system with respect to the GZF bracket ,

(4.2)
$$\{v(x),v(y)\}=\delta ^{}(xy),$$

so that Eq. (4.1) can be written in the form $`v_t=\{H,v\}`$, where Hamiltonian

(4.3)
$$H=\frac{1}{4}𝑑x\left(gv^4(x)+v_x^2(x)\right)$$

The direct quantization of the mKdV equation on the whole axis requires some regularization (e.g., space cut-off) of the Hamiltonian in order to supply it with operator meaning. Any such regularization is incompatible with the IST already in the classical case: the continuous and discrete spectra of corresponding linear (Zakharov–Shabat) problem become mixed and the most interesting, soliton solutions cease to exist.

Here we show that realizing $`v(x)`$ as in (2.7), i.e., as a composition of fermionic fields we can avoid any cut-off procedure in (4.3), because the Hamiltonian becomes well-defined in the fermionic Fock space $``$.

We choose the quantum Hamiltonian to be bosonically ordered expression (4.3),

(4.4)
$$H=\frac{1}{4}𝑑x\mathrm{}gv^4(x)+v_x^2(x)\mathrm{}.$$

Then, thanks to (3.15) we get

(4.5)
$$H=gH_3+\frac{1g\epsilon ^2}{4}𝑑x\mathrm{}v_x^2\mathrm{}(x),$$

where (3.23) for $`n=3`$ was used. Thus, in analogy with the KdV case (see ), the most singular part of the Hamiltonian (4.4) that was of the fourth order with respect to bosonic operators is only of the second order with respect to fermions. Taking into account that by (2.13)

(4.6)
$$𝑑x\mathrm{}v_x^2\mathrm{}(x)=2\underset{0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}𝑑kk^2v(k)v(k)$$

we get that both terms in (4.5) are bilinear in either fermionic, or bosonic creation–annihilation operators, they are normally ordered and have a diagonal form, i.e., they include “creation$`\times `$annihilation” terms only. Correspondingly, both these terms are well defined self-adjoint operators in $``$ and under our quantization procedure no any regularization of the Hamiltonian is needed. In particular, by (2.14) and (3.22)

(4.7)
$$H\mathrm{\Omega }=0$$

and by (3.23) and (4.6) the Hamiltonian (4.5) is positively defined when $`\epsilon ^2g0`$.

It is clear that time evolution given by the Hamiltonian (4.4),

(4.8)
$$v_t=i[H,v]_x\left(g\mathrm{}v^3\mathrm{}\frac{v_{xx}}{2}\right),$$

is exactly the quantum version of the Eq. (4.1) normally ordered with respect to the bosonic operators. Thanks to (3.14) we can exclude the $`v^3`$-term and get the quantum bilinear form of the mKdV equation in terms of the fermionic fields:

(4.9)
$$v_t(x)=\frac{}{x}\left(3gF_2(x)+\frac{g\epsilon ^22}{4}v_{xx}(x)\right),$$

that can be considered as a quantum Hirota form of the mKdV equation.

In order to derive time evolution of the fermionic field $`\psi `$ it is reasonable to rewrite the second term of (4.5) by means of the fermionic normal ordering. Omitting details we get by definitions of the both normal orderings and Eqs. (2.7) and (3.3) the equality

(4.10)
$$\mathrm{}v(x)v(y)\mathrm{}=:v(x)v(y):+\epsilon \frac{F({\displaystyle \frac{x+y}{2}},{\displaystyle \frac{xy}{2}})F({\displaystyle \frac{x+y}{2}},{\displaystyle \frac{yx}{2}})}{i(xy)},$$

that after differentiation gives in the limit $`yx`$

(4.11)
$$\mathrm{}v_x^2\mathrm{}(x)=:v_x^2:(x)+\frac{1}{2}_x^2F_1(x)+\frac{2}{3\epsilon ^2}F_3(x),$$

where (3.7) was used and where by (2.7) $`:v_x^2:(x)=2\epsilon ^2:\psi _x^{}\psi ^{}\psi _x\psi :`$. Thus we can write (4.5) as

(4.12)
$$H=\frac{5g+\epsilon ^2}{6}H_3+\frac{\epsilon ^2g}{2}𝑑x:\psi _x^{}\psi ^{}\psi _x\psi :(x),$$

and thus time evolution of the fermionic field, $`\psi _t=i[H,\psi ]`$ is given by equation

(4.13)
$$\psi _t(x)=\frac{5g\epsilon ^2+1}{6}\psi _{xxx}(x)+\frac{g\epsilon ^21}{2i\epsilon }:v_{xx}\psi :(x),$$

that is, of course, nonlinear when $`g\epsilon ^2`$.

Investigation of the spectrum of the quantum Hamiltonian deserves the separate studying. But like in the  it can be shown that in the fermionic Fock space $``$ for $`g<0`$ there exists one-soliton state, i.e., such state that the average of the field $`v`$ with respect to it equals to the classical one-soliton solution at least at zero (or any fixed) instant of time. This state does not belong to the zero charge sector of $``$, so it cannot exist in the standard (bosonic) quantization of the mKdV equation. Again, like in  it can be shown that existence of this state implies quantization of the soliton action variable.

## 5. Conclusion

We derived hierarchy of nonlinear integrable and at the same time solvable evolutions of the bosonic field $`v(x)`$ realized as composition of the fermionic fields—current. By (3.9) this means that $`F_0(x)`$ was chosen to be a dynamical variable. But the closed subalgebra of commutation relations (3.18)–(3.20) is given also by $`F_0(x)`$ and $`F_1(x)`$. Moreover, the linear combination

(5.1)
$$\stackrel{~}{F}(x)=F_1(x)+a_xF_0(x)$$

with real constant coefficient $`a`$ also obeys closed commutation relation,

(5.2)
$$[\stackrel{~}{F}(x),\stackrel{~}{F}(x^{})]=i\{\stackrel{~}{F}(x)+\stackrel{~}{F}(x^{})\}\delta ^{}(xx^{})i\left(a^2+\frac{\epsilon ^2}{12}\right)\delta ^{\prime \prime \prime }(xx^{}),$$

as follows from (3.18)–(3.20). This means that $`\stackrel{~}{F}(x)`$ gives another possible choice of a dynamical variable. In  we proved that the dispersionless KdV in this case is also solvable, while—in contrast to the above—it was $`v(x)`$ that evolved linearly. It is natural to expect that the same property is valid for the entire hierarchy (3.30) generated by the quantum version (5.2) of the Magri bracket.

Coefficients of the r.h.s. of the bosonic equations of motion (3.29)–(3.33) are uniquely (up to a common factor) fixed by recursion relations (3.11)–(3.12). Indeed, transformation

(5.3)
$$v(x)av(ax),$$

is the only canonical scaling transformation that is unitary implemented in $``$. Here constant $`a>0`$ in order to preserve definition (2.11) of positive and negative parts of $`v`$. This transformation generates:

(5.4)
$$\psi (x)\sqrt{a}\psi (ax),F(x,y)aF(ax,ay),F_n(x)a^nF_n(ax),$$

that is compatible with (3.9)–(3.12). Thus by (3.23) $`H_na^{n1}H_n`$, and thanks to (3.30) transformation (5.3) can be compensated by rescaling of times: $`t_na^{1n}t_n`$.

Flows given in (3.9)–(3.16) are close to the flows of the KdV hierarchy : they are polynomial with respect to $`v(x)`$ and its derivatives and have the same leading terms. On the other side, the lowest nontrivial example (3.14) shows that some essential terms that are involved in the KdV case are absent in (3.30). In fact, as it was natural to expect by , Eq. (3.14) is the dispersionless KdV equation: the term $`v_{xxx}(x)`$ is absent. The higher equations, like (3.15), (3.16), and so on already include terms with derivatives, so these equations are not the dispersionless ones. On the other side, coefficients of all such terms of all commuting flows introduced in Sec. 3 are proportional to powers of $`\epsilon ^2`$, i.e., of $`\mathrm{}`$ by (2.6). Thanks to (3.9) and (3.11), (3.12) it is easy to see that in the limit $`\mathrm{}0`$

(5.5)
$$F_m(x)\frac{v^{m+1}(x)}{m+1},$$

so that by (3.30) we get in the classical limit equations

(5.6)
$$_{t_m}v(t_m,x)=mv^{m1}(t_m,x)v_x(t_m,x),$$

i.e., the dispersionless KdV hierarchy. Solution of the initial problem for the $`m`$th equation can be written in the parametric form as

(5.7)
$$x=smt_mv_0^{m1}(s),v(t_m,x)=v(s),$$

where $`v(x)`$ is initial data. This solution is known to describe overturn of the front, so the initial problem for the Eqs. (5.6) has no global solution. On the other side, Eq. (3.38) gives global solution of the quantum hierarchy (3.30). It is easy to see that before the overturn of the front we get from (3.38) in the limit $`\epsilon 0`$ (i.e., $`\mathrm{}0`$) that

(5.8) $`v(t_m,x)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{(2\pi )^2i}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x^{}𝑑y^{}𝑑k𝑑p\frac{e^{iy^{}v(xx^{})}1}{y^{}}e^{ikx^{}ipy^{}+imt_mkp^{m1}}},`$
so that for the classical solution of (3.7) we get representation
(5.9) $`v(t_m,x)={\displaystyle 𝑑p\left[\theta \left(v(x+mt_mp^{m1})p\right)\theta (p)\right]},`$
that in this region coincides with (5.7) (here $`\theta (p)`$ denotes the step function). Summarizing, it is natural to call the hierarchy introduced in the Sec. 3 the quantum dispersionless KdV hierarchy. Dispersionless limits of integrable hierarchies attract now essential attention in the literature, see .

Our construction here is essentially based on the representation 3.1 valid for the standard massless fermionic fields. Thanks to this relation we got description of the quantum dispersionless KdV hierarchy. It is natural to hypothesize that anyonic generalization  of the fermions leads to more generic integrable bozonic systems.

Acknowledgment. The author thanks Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical studies for support of his participation in the program “Integrable systems.” He also thanks Prof. P. P. Kulish for fruitful discussions.


text:
# Ten years of nearby galaxies investigation with the Multi-Pupil Spectrograph of the 6m telescope

## 1. Introduction

The Multi-Pupil Spectrograph which works at the prime focus of the 6m telescope for 13 years was born due to close acquaintance of Prof. Afanasiev (during his stay in Marseille Observatory at the beginning of 1988) with the ideas of Prof. Courtes. The first variant of MPFS (Afanasiev et al. 1990) used fibers after the lens array to transmit micropupils to the entrance of a classical ‘long-slit’ spectrograph. The detector was IPCS $`512\times 512`$. The fibers were quite imperfect, due to them the spectral instrumental profile was ugly. We started our scientific observations with the Multi-Pupil Fiber Spectrograph (MPFS) of the 6m telescope in 1989. Our initial preference was gas kinematics, but we had obtained a typical velocity error of more than 50 km/s and had understood that kinematical tasks cannot be effectively made with that MPFS. So we looked for another scientific goal. The same year we published a list of spiral galaxies with kinematically decoupled nuclei that we thought to be unresolved central mass condensations surrounded by circumnuclear gaseous disks (Afanasiev, Sil’chenko, & Zasov 1989). The idea had arisen to study stellar populations of these decoupled nuclei and to see if they differ from the stellar populations of the surrounding bulges. During the end of 1989 and the first half of 1990 we observed a sample of 10 nearby disk galaxies, including 5 spiral galaxies with kinematically decoupled centers. We measured radial variations of azimuthally-averaged equivalent widths of the absorption lines MgIb$`\lambda `$5175 and FeI$`\lambda `$5270 and had immediately detected chemically distinct nuclei in 6 galaxies from 10, including 3 galaxies with kinematically decoupled centers. The drops of EW(Mg) between the unresolved nuclei and their outskirts being calibrated into metallicity terms implied that the nuclei are more metal-rich by almost an order, if the ages of the stellar populations are equal. These results were published in 1992 (Sil’chenko, Afanasiev, & Vlasyuk 1992). Later the spectrograph was modified more than once: in 1992 the fibers were removed, and MPFS began to work in a classic ‘TIGER-like’ mode (Bacon et al. 1995), in 1994 the first CCD had come into operation. In fact, MPFS was three different spectrographs during its whole life: the Multi-Pupil Fiber Spectrograph (1989–1992), the Multi-Pupil Field Spectrograph (1993–1998, Afanasiev et al. 1996), and again the Multi-Pupil Fiber Spectrograph (1998–now, http://www.sao.ru/$``$gafan/devices/mpfs/). The present version of MPFS is equipped with CCD TK $`1024\times 1024`$; it allows to expose at once 240 spectra from an area of $`16{}_{}{}^{\prime \prime }\times 15^{\prime \prime }`$. Besides a target, it accumulates 16 spectra of the blank sky area on the same frame so sky subtraction is now straightforward. The main reduction procedures are written by Prof. Afanasiev under IDL. The data quality is now sufficient to study 2D distributions of various characteristics. From a single MPFS exposure we derive: continuum brightness and emission-line intensity maps, stellar line-of-sight velocity field, stellar velocity dispersion field, line-of-sight velocity field of the ionized gas, and the key issue – maps of Lick absorption-line indices. More than fifty early-type disk galaxies are already observed with the MPFS at the 6m telescope, mainly in the frame of my program of searching for chemically distinct galactic nuclei. More than two dozens of chemically distinct nuclei are detected. We have also re-investigated the galaxies whose chemically distinct nuclei were claimed in our first paper; all of them are confirmed. Figure 1 shows our modern data on magnesium-index radial variations in two galaxies with chemically distinct nuclei, NGC 1023 and NGC 7332, and in one galaxy without such nucleus, NGC 4550. Also, the data obtained with the SAURON of the WHT and taken from the ING Archive (we have reduced them with the software developped in the SAO for the second version of the MPFS by Vlasyuk 1993) and the long-slit data of Fisher, Franx, & Illingworth (1996) are plotted for comparison. One can see the sharp drops of the magnesium-line strength beyond the nuclei in NGC 1023 and NGC 7332; the larger field of view provided by the SAURON allows to trace more surely the flattening of the Mgb profiles in the bulges, especially in NGC 1023 where magnesium gradient in the bulge is absent. If we compare the nuclear measurements with the bulge data extrapolation toward $`R=0^{\prime \prime }`$, we obtain a metallicity difference of 2–3 times between the nucleus and the bulge under the assumption of equal ages. So far the existence of the chemically distinct nuclei in nearby regular disk galaxies is now firmly established.

## 2. Chemically distinct nuclei $``$ compact stellar disks?

What is a structure – and hence the origin – of chemically distinct nuclei in disk galaxies? When Bender & Surma (1992) found a spatially resolved chemically distinct core in the elliptical NGC 4365, they decided that it is a circumnuclear stellar disk within the giant spheroid – mainly because of its fast rotation. Though this hypothesis is not fully confirmed for the other ellipticals with decoupled cores, we feel that something like that is applicable to the chemically distinct nuclei in disk galaxies. The latters are at the limit of our resolution, with the radii less than $`3^{\prime \prime }`$, but high-resolution HST photometric data often reveal a presence of distinct circumnuclear disks within the bulges in the same galaxies where we see chemically distinct nuclei. Sometimes we can even guess a fine structure of the 2D distributions of stellar population properties. Let us look in detail at two galaxies: NGC 1023 (Silchenko 1999a) and NGC 7331 (Sil’chenko 1999b). In both galaxies the nuclei demonstrate strong magnesium overabundance, \[Mg/Fe\]$`+0.3`$. The Mgb-index is peaked in the center and decreases radially quasi-axisymmetrically. The maximum of the iron indices, though located also around the nuclei, is more extended (‘flat’) and strongly elongated. Isolines of the H$`\beta `$-index that is an age indicator repeat the shape of the $`<\text{Fe}>`$ isolines. We should call these quasi-resolved structures ‘Fe-rich disks’. The stellar populations of the ‘Fe-rich disks’ have a solar Mg/Fe ratio and are younger than the nuclear ones by 2–3 Gyr: 5 Gyr vs 7 Gyr in NGC 1023 and 5 Gyr vs 2 Gyr in NGC 7331. The bulges in both galaxies are old, $`T_{bul}15`$ Gyr, and mildly magnesium-overabundant. To explain this combination of properties, we propose a following scenario. Several Gyrs ago a secondary star-formation burst starts over an extended central area of a galaxy. In the very center it proceeds more effectively (due to higher gas density?) and finishes in less than 1 Gyr – to provide a strong magnesium overabundance of the nuclear stellar populations. But at the edges of the circumnuclear (initially gaseous) disks star formation continues over a few billion years resulting in a solar Mg/Fe ratio and a younger mean stellar age. Since the whole process is rather long, we should be able to catch some future chemically distinct ‘cores’ during the non-central star formation. This scenario explain a phenomenon of blue or even H$`\alpha `$-emission rings in the early-type axisymmetric (non-barred) galaxies – we have found such rings in NGC 759 (Vlasyuk & Sil’chenko 2000) and NGC 80 (Sil’chenko et al., in press).

## 3. Inner polar gaseous disks in regular spiral galaxies

One of our by-products during the investigation of the stellar populations in early-type disk galaxies was discovery of inner polar gaseous disks in non-interacting regular spiral galaxies. There is a rare class of peculiar galaxies with large-scale polar rings – the example is NGC 2685; these galaxies are supposed to accrete external gas from another galaxy with orthogonal rotational momentum. Also some S0’s are known to have decoupled stellar and gaseous rotation axes in their centers (Bertola, Buson, & Zeilinger 1992; Bertola et al. 1995); an origin of this decoupling is usually related to external gas accretion as well. Meanwhile we have detected inner polar gaseous disks, with radii of a few hundred parsecs, in spiral galaxies possessing global HI-disks with a quite normal rotation – these galaxies are NGC 2841, 4548, 6340, and 7217. For one of them, NGC 2841, we have had possibility to check our MPFS results by comparing them to the data of the 2D-FIS spectrograph operating at the WHT. Figure 2 shows this comparison: the left plots are the MPFS results (Sil’chenko, Vlasyuk, & Burenkov 1997), the right plots are the 2D-FIS ones. One can see that two data sets are consistent: the gas is really rotating directly to the stars (and in the plane orthogonal to the main symmetry plane of the galaxy, $`PA_0=150^{}`$), and even the shift of the gas rotation center by some $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ to the north from the photometric center is confirmed. As the more outer gas in all four cases belongs to the main planes and rotates normally in these galaxies, an external origin of the inner gas with the orthogonal momenta seems to be doubtful. There must exist any intrinsic mechanism to put the gas onto the polar orbit when approaching the center. Sofue & Wakamatsu (1994) give qualitative arguments that a triaxial potential, or a bar, may easily do so. Among our galaxies with inner polar disks, only NGC 4548 is a bona-fide barred galaxy, the others are SA. But when we have studied photometric structure of the galaxies in detail, we have found triaxial bulges in NGC 2841 (Afanasiev & Sil’chenko 1999) and NGC 6340 (Sil’chenko 2000), and an oval inner disk in NGC 7217 (Sil’chenko & Afanasiev 2000). So perhaps the phenomenon of the inner polar gas is indeed related to the triaxial potential rather than to hypothetical accretion.

## 4. Preliminary statistics of the stellar population properties in the nuclei and bulges of lenticular galaxies

As our sample of S0’s observed reaches now 35 objects, we can try to analyze some preliminary statistics concerning mean metallicities and stellar ages in the nuclei and in the bulges; here we would take a ‘bulge’ as a ring with the inner radius of $`3^{\prime \prime }`$ and the outer radius of $`7^{\prime \prime }`$ so in some cases a circumnuclear disk may contaminate the bulge measurements. To probe an environmental effect, we divide our sample into four parts: cluster galaxies, group central galaxies, peripheric group members, and field galaxies; in more rough division, the first two categories can be attributed to the ‘dense-environment galaxies’ and the last two – to the ‘sparse-environment galaxies’. Figure 3 presents the diagrams confronting two Lick indices, $`<\text{Fe}>`$ vs Mgb, for the nuclei and the bulges separately. One can see a clear environmental effect for the nuclei: all but one galaxies in the group centers and all but one cluster galaxies have \[Mg/Fe\]$`=+0.3÷+0.4`$ in their nuclei, whereas the nuclei of the field galaxies are uniformly distributed between \[Mg/Fe\]=0 and \[Mg/Fe\]$`=+0.3`$. Interestingly, for the bulges the environmental effect is much less pronounced, and in average \[Mg/Fe\] in the bulges of the dense-environment galaxies is smaller than in their nuclei. In general, the bulges of the lenticular galaxies on the diagram ‘$`<\text{Fe}>`$ vs. Mgb’ are quite different from the ellipticals of the similar luminosities: they have lower iron indices and probably lower mean metallicities.

To determine mean (luminosity-weighted) stellar ages, we confront any metal-line index to the H$`\beta `$; as we try to take into account also various magnesium-to-iron ratios in the stellar populations under consideration, we give two sets of these diagrams, with the models of Worthey (1994) having \[Mg/Fe\]=0 (Fig. 4, top) and with models of Tantalo, Chiosi, & Bressan (1998) for \[Mg/Fe\]$`=+0.3`$ (Fig. 4, bottom). From these diagrams one can see three rather unexpected things: the nuclei of the lenticular galaxies are obviously younger than their bulges, and some of them are as young as 1.5–2 Gyr old; though the bulges are in average older than the nuclei, some of them are as young as 5 Gyr old; and the magnesium-overabundant nuclei are not so young as the nuclei with the solar Mg/Fe ratio. The last finding can be easily explained by the fact known from chemical evolution modeling: a short (shorter than $`10^9`$ yrs) star formation burst gives magnesium overabundance, and to obtain the solar Mg/Fe one needs a continous star formation during several Gyrs, so in average the solar-Mg/Fe stellar populations are formed later. Figure 5 gives age distributions for the nuclear and the bulge stellar populations. As some faint emission may contaminate H$`\beta `$ absorption lines and our age determinations are in fact upper limits, we prefer to give cumulative distributions, namely, a number of galaxies with nuclei (bulges) younger than an abscissa age. Again, one can see the environmental effect for the nuclei: the median age for the nuclei of the galaxies in sparse environments is 5 Gyr, and the median age for the nuclei of the galaxies in the dense ones is 7 Gyr, in accordance with the previous claims that the dense-environment galaxies have higher Mg/Fe in the nuclei and that the magnesium-overabundant nuclei are in average older. For the bulges, the environmental effect is absent: the bulges of the galaxies in any environments have a median age of 10 Gyr.

### Acknowledgments.

I thank the astronomers of the Special Astrophysical Observatory V. L. Afanasiev, A. N. Burenkov, V. V. Vlasyuk, S.N. Dodonov, and the post-graduate student A. V. Moiseev for supporting the observations at the 6m telescope. The 6m telescope is operated under the financial support of Science Ministry of Russia (registration number 01-43). Also I am very grateful to Dr. R. F. Peletier for the 2D-FIS/WHT data on NGC 2841. During the data analysis we have used the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA) supplied by the LEDA team at the CRAL-Observatoire de Lyon (France) and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the ING Archive. My work is supported by the grant 01-02-16767 of the Russian Foundation for Basic Researches.

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