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# Net Charge Fluctuations in Au + Au Interactions at √𝑠_{𝑁𝑁} = 130 GeV

## Abstract

Data from Au + Au interactions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$ = 130 GeV, obtained with the PHENIX detector at RHIC, are used to investigate local net charge fluctuations among particles produced near mid-rapidity. According to recent suggestions, such fluctuations may carry information from the Quark Gluon Plasma. This analysis shows that the fluctuations are dominated by a stochastic distribution of particles, but are also sensitive to other effects, like global charge conservation and resonance decays.

The PHENIX detector  at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) is a versatile detector designed to study the properties of nuclear matter at extreme temperatures and energy densities, obtained in central heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. A central goal of these studies is to collect evidence for the existence of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) characterized by deconfined quarks and gluons.

There are several proposed ways to experimentally verify the existence of a QGP . A general problem is that many of these signals also can be produced in a hadronic scenario, albeit special conditions of highly compressed matter have to prevail. Furthermore, it is not straightforward to determine how the various plasma signals are distorted when the deconfined matter transforms back to hadronic matter. Recent theoretical investigations  predict a drastic decrease of the event-by-event fluctuations of the net charge in local phase-space regions as a signature of the plasma state. These fluctuations are not related to the transition itself, but rather with the charge distribution in the primordial plasma state. The basic idea is that each of the charge carriers in the plasma carries less charge than the charge carriers in ordinary hadronic matter. The charge will thus be more evenly distributed in a plasma. The main concern of the theoretical discussions is how and why the original distribution survives the transition back to ordinary matter . Predictions, for a rapidity coverage $`\mathrm{\Delta }y1`$, range up to an 80% reduction in the magnitude of the fluctuations, as measured by the variance of the net charge.

Decays of hadronic resonances influence the net charge fluctuations, whether or not deconfinement is reached. In the absence of a QGP, deviations from statistical behaviour can be used to determine the abundance of e.g. $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$ mesons . In a hadron gas resonances are expected to decrease the fluctuations by about 25%. Globally, fluctuations will be further reduced, since charge is a conserved quantity. Deviations from a statistical behaviour in the net charge are also of relevance when the phase transition is treated as a semiclassical decay of a Polyakov loop condensate . Although multiplicity fluctuations have been studied extensively in both hadronic and nuclear processes , net charge fluctuations have not been addressed experimentally.

In this Letter we report results from an analysis of net charge fluctuations for particles produced in Au+Au interactions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$ = 130 GeV. The fluctuations are studied in the variables $`R=n_+/n_{}`$, the ratio between positive and negative particles, and $`Q=n_+n_{}`$, the net charge . The advantages and disadvantages of these variables will also be discussed.

Information from one of the PHENIX central tracking arms (west) is used in this analysis, where events are required to have a well-defined vertex close to the center of the apparatus ($`|Z|<`$ 17 cm), as defined by the two beam-beam counters (BBC). These are Cherenkov-counters surrounding the beam, placed on both sides 1.44 m from the interaction region, covering the pseudorapidity region 3.0 $`<|\eta |<`$ 3.9. Together with the information from the two zero-degree calorimeters (ZDC), placed further away (18 m), the BBC information is used for off-line centrality selection . A total of about 5$`\times `$105 minimum bias events has been analyzed. The PHENIX west arm spectrometer has an acceptance of 0.7 units of pseudorapidity (-0.35 $`<\eta <`$ 0.35) and $`\pi /2`$ radians in azimuth $`\phi `$. Charged-particle trajectories are recorded in a multiwire focusing drift chamber (DC) . The combination of reconstructed DC tracks  with matching hits in the innermost pad-chamber plane (PC1) defines the sign of the charge of the particle and also provides a high resolution measurement of the transverse momentum $`p_T`$ of tracks originating from the collision vertex. Tracks with a reconstructed $`p_T`$ less than 0.2 GeV/c have been excluded from the analysis due to a low reconstruction efficiency and large contributions from background sources, as revealed by simulations.

The tracking efficiency and the charge assignment have been studied using GEANT  simulations. Of particular importance in this context is a realistic description of the drift chamber response. The drift distances have been calculated based on a geometric model of the individual drift cells. Additional parameters describing the response of the chamber, i.e. single-wire efficiency, pulse width, single-hit resolution, and space drift-time relation, have been extracted from measured data, parameterized, and applied empirically in the simulation.

RQMD  simulations are used to study the detection efficiency, and the fraction of reconstructed particles that preserve their charge, as well as to evaluate the results of the analysis. The charge fluctuations in RQMD are consistent with calculations based on other hadronic models like UrQMD and HIJING . The overall efficiency for detecting a charged particle within the acceptance is found to be around 80% for both positive and negative particles. Depending on $`p_T`$, between 70% and 85% of the reconstructed tracks are in one-to-one correspondence with a primarily produced particle. The remaining tracks come from secondary interactions in the detector material and from decays, where the original charge information is lost.

In each event the numbers of positively charged particles $`n_+`$, negatively charged particles $`n_{}`$, and their sum $`n_{ch}`$ are recorded. In a stochastic scenario, with a fixed number of charged particles within the acceptance, where each particle is assigned a random charge ($`+1`$ or $`1`$ with the same probability), the variance of the net charge, Q, is

$$V(Q)Q^2Q^2=n_{ch}.$$
(1)
The normalized variance in $`Q`$ is

$$v(Q)\frac{V(Q)}{n_{ch}}=1.$$
(2)
For the charge ratio, in the stochastic scenario, $`V(R)R^2R^2`$ will approach the value $`4/n_{ch}`$ as $`n_{ch}`$ increases and $`v(R)n_{ch}V(R)`$ asymptotically approaches 4. A small asymmetry between positive and negative particles affects $`v(R)`$ drastically, whereas the effect on $`v(Q)`$ is negligible. If we write the probability $`p_+`$, that a given particle has positive charge, in the form $`p_+=^1/_2(1+\epsilon )`$, and subsequently $`p_{}=^1/_2(1\epsilon )`$, we find

$$v(Q)=1\epsilon ^2,$$
(3)
while the asymptotic value of $`v(R)`$ is $`4+16\epsilon +O(\epsilon ^2)`$. Detector or reconstruction inefficiencies do not influence those results in the stochastic scenario. To calculate $`v(Q)`$ as a function of multiplicity, Eq. 3 can be used and $`v(R)`$ can be calculated from

$$R=\frac{1}{A}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n_{ch}1}{}}\frac{n_{ch}i}{i}\left(\begin{array}{c}n_{ch}\\ i\end{array}\right)p_+^{n_{ch}i}p_{}^i,$$
(4)
and

$$R^2=\frac{1}{A}\underset{i=1}{\overset{n_{ch}1}{}}\left(\frac{n_{ch}i}{i}\right)^2\left(\begin{array}{c}n_{ch}\\ i\end{array}\right)p_+^{n_{ch}i}p_{}^i,$$
(5)
where $`A=1p_+^{n_{ch}}p_{}^{n_{ch}}`$ is the new normalization due to discarding events with $`n_+`$ or $`n_{}`$ equal to zero. The variance of $`R`$, even for a purely stochastic charge distribution, depends on multiplicity and on the fractions of positive and negative particles.

The data show a small excess of positive particles, growing proportionally with $`n_{ch}`$, in qualitative agreement with calculations using RQMD and GEANT. A part of this excess comes from the intrinsic isospin asymmetry and a part from secondary interactions in the detector and surrounding materials.

In Fig. 1a, $`v(R)`$ and $`v(Q)`$ are displayed as functions of $`n_{ch}`$. $`v(Q)`$ is multiplied by a factor of 4 to compensate for the asymptotical difference between v(R) and v(Q). Both $`v(Q)`$ and $`v(R)`$ are well described by the results obtained from the stochastic scenario, including the positive excess, as given by the curves.

Since $`v(Q)`$ is independent of $`n_{ch}`$ one expects $`v(Q)`$ to be close to unity also in representations where other centrality measures are used. On the other hand, since $`v(R)`$ depends on multiplicity, it will have a complicated behaviour as a function of centrality, making it difficult to draw any further conclusions. We will thus focus on $`v(Q)`$ for the rest of this analysis.

In Fig. 1b, $`v(Q)`$ is displayed as a function of centrality based on the ZDC/BBC information. The full event sample, corresponding to 92% of the inelastic cross section , is divided into 20 centrality classes, where each class corresponds to 5% of the events. Class 20 represents the most central events. With the increased resolution on the y-axis in Fig. 1b, it is evident that $`v(Q)`$ is consistently below unity, and deviates from stochastic behaviour. The value is, however, far above the most optimistic QGP predictions $`v(Q)0.2`$ , although one should keep in mind that our coverage in rapidity is on the limit for these predictions and that we have only partial coverage in azimuth.

There may be other explanations for deviations from stochastic behaviour than the one offered by the quark-gluon plasma. These include global charge conservation and neutral resonances decaying into correlated pairs of one positive and one negative particle. Both of these effects will decrease the fluctuations, and the decrease will grow in proportion to the experimental acceptance. In a stochastic scenario, taking global charge conservation into account, the normalized variance $`v(Q)`$ becomes $`(1p)`$, where $`p`$ is the fraction of observed charged particles among all charged particles in the event. Eventually, if all charged particles are detected, $`v(Q)`$ will become $`0`$.

Experimentally we can change the fraction $`p`$ of particles within the acceptance by using different regions of the PHENIX west arm. In Fig. 2, $`v(Q)`$, for the 10 % most central events, is displayed as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi _d`$, i.e. the chosen azimuthal interval of the spectrometer. For comparison, the results from RQMD processed through GEANT are shown. The data and the simulation show a similar trend. Note that the errors given are correlated, since the data in one bin are a subset of the data in the next. The solid line corresponds to the $`(1p)`$ dependence discussed above. The linear relationship between $`p`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi _d`$ is estimated from the phase-space distribution of particles in RQMD, including effects from reconstruction efficiency and background tracks. For larger angles, both data and the RQMD results lie consistently below the line, which indicates that effects from resonance decays are important.

Due to the influence of the magnetic field the positive and negative particles will have different azimuthal acceptance. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi _d`$ study in Fig. 2 thus selects partly non-overlapping regions of phase space for positive and negative particles. A remedy for this is to use the reconstructed $`\phi `$-angle for each particle $`\phi _r`$, i.e. the azimuthal direction of the particle at the primary vertex, before it is deflected by the magnetic field. Figure 3a shows the acceptance in transverse momentum and $`\phi _r`$ for positive and negative particles. By choosing the azimuthal interval $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi _r`$ symmetrically around the center of the acceptance, a better phase space overlap is achieved for small azimuthal intervals. In Fig. 3b, $`v(Q)`$, for the 10 % most central events, is displayed as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi _r`$. The $`(1p)`$ dependence, which is no longer linear, is given by the solid curve. Again data and the RQMD results show a similar trend, but the deviations from the curve are larger in this representation, indicating that an overlap in phase space is of importance. For large values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi `$, the acceptance approaches the limits determined by the boundaries of the tracking arm, and the two representations are essentially the same.

The effects of the detector inefficiency and background tracks not assigned the correct charge have been investigated in a Monte Carlo simulation. It is assumed that the inefficiency independently removes positive and negative particles with the same probability, and that the background consists of uncorrelated positive and negative particles. The reconstruction efficiency and the amount of background have been determined from the RQMD and GEANT simulations discussed earlier. Both the inefficiency and the background contribution have the effect of diluting the signal and pushing the value of $`v(Q)`$ closer to 1. The dilution due to these effects can be treated as an experimental systematic error, estimated from the simulations, setting a lower limit on $`v(Q)`$. For the net charge fluctuations in the region -0.35 $`<\eta <`$ 0.35, $`p_T>`$ 0.2 GeV/c, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\phi =\pi /2`$,

$$v(Q)=0.965\pm 0.007(stat.)0.019(syst.)$$
(6)
is obtained for the 10 % most central events. A linear extrapolation of this value to full azimuthal coverage gives a value of v(Q) in the range 0.78 - 0.86, in qualitative agreement with calculations from a hadronic gas. For comparison, it would be desirable to have a Monte Carlo model for the QGP which exhibits the predicted reduction in the charge fluctuations and which could be used to study the sensitivity of the method for limited acceptance.

To summarize, we have shown that the data behave in an almost stochastic manner. There are also clear indications that effects from hadronic decays are seen; the data are in good agreement with RQMD calculations, which includes the effects of global charge conservations as well as neutral hadronic resonance decays. Furthermore, the data show no centrality dependence, which is in contradiction to the expectations from a Quark-Gluon Plasma scenario. We have clearly demonstrated that the fluctuations of the charge ratio $`v(R)`$ and of the net charge $`v(Q)`$ are well understood in a stochastic model. We, however, advise against the usage of the proposed R variable , since it unnecessarily complicates the evaluation of the fluctuations, and the intrinsic decrease of $`v(R)`$, as a function of centrality, can be mistaken as a ’plasma fingerprint’. The measured value of $`v(Q)=`$ 0.965 is far from the value predicted for a plasma. Even extrapolating the linear trend seen in the data in Fig. 2 to full azimuthal coverage, renders values of the fluctuations, which are far above the proposed values. With the caveat of our limited acceptance in rapidity, these results clearly indicate either the absence of a plasma or that the proposed signal does not survive the transition back to hadronic matter.

We thank the staff of the Collider-Accelerator and Physics Departments at BNL for their vital contributions. We acknowledge support from the Department of Energy and NSF (U.S.A.), Monbu-sho and STA (Japan), RAS, RMAE, and RMS (Russia), BMBF, DAAD, and AvH (Germany), VR and KAW (Sweden), MIST and NSERC (Canada), CNPq and FAPESP (Brazil), IN2P3/CNRS (France), DAE and DST (India), KRF and CHEP (Korea), the U.S. CRDF for the FSU, and the US-Israel BSF.


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# Observation of X–ray variability in the BL Lac object 1ES1959+65

## 1 Introduction

Over a dozen BL Lacs have been detected at GeV energies (Mukherjee et al., 1997), but only a few nearby BL Lacs have been identified at TeV energies so far. Mkn 421 ($`z=0.031`$) (Punch et al., 1992) and Mkn501 ($`z=0.034`$) (Quinn et al., 1996) are now strongly confirmed sources, seen by more than one ground-based atmospheric Čerenkov telescope (ACT) at or above the $`5\sigma `$ level. Two more, 1ES 2344+514 (z=$`0.044`$) (Catanese et al., 1998) and PKS 2155-304 ($`z=0.116`$) (Chadwick et al., 1999), have been detected only once and are less conclusive. This strongly suggests that low-redshift X–ray selected BL Lac objects (XBLs) such as these may be the only extragalactic $`\gamma `$-ray sources observable at TeV energies. This is because on the one hand more distant objects would have their TeV emission strongly absorbed by the extragalactic background light (EBL), and on the other bright X–ray emission, presumably originating from synchrotron radiation and thus revealing the distribution of radiating particles, implies even higher intrinsic GeV-TeV emission (see, e.g. Tavecchio, Maraschi & Ghisellini (1998)).

The BL Lac object 1ES1959$`+`$65 ($`z=0.048`$), is an XBL also present in the third EGRET catalog with an average measured flux of $`1.8\times 10^7`$ photons $`\text{cm}^2\text{s}^1`$ for $`E>100`$ MeV (Hartman et al., 1999). It is thus a natural source for TeV emission, and Stecker, De Jager & Salamon (1996), using simple scaling arguments, have predicted for it the third highest flux above 0.3 and 1 TeV, after Mkn 421 and Mkn 501. More recently, Costamante & Ghisellini (2001) have also pointed it out as a candidate TeV emitter. Quoting Weekes (1999), the Utah Seven Telescope Array has reported the detection of 1ES1959$`+`$65 based on 57 hours of observation in 1998 (Kajino et al., 1999), with an energy threshold of 600 GeV. The flux level was not reported but the total signal was at the 3.9 $`\sigma `$ level. This is not normally considered sufficient to claim the detection of a new source; however, within this database there were two epochs which were selected a posteriori which gave signals above the canonical $`5\sigma `$ level. This source has not yet been confirmed by any other group; it was observed by the Whipple group but no flux was detected (Catanese et al., 1997). Of particular interest in this source is also the fact that its distance is of the same order as the two other confirmed TeV sources, making it a good candidate to probe the EBL that can in turn probe cosmological problems such as the formation of galaxies (see e.g. Primack et al. (1999); Guy et al. (2000)). 1ES1959$`+`$65 is also part of a 200 mJy radio-selected sample at 5 GHz (Marcha et al., 1996; Bondi et al., 2001) and it was seen in the Einstein Slew Survey (Perlman et al., 1996). Multiple photometric optical values were found in the literature, showing a great variation of the source brightness in the optical band from $`V=16`$ to $`V=12.8`$. A complete study of the optical band can be found in Villata et al. (2000) where variability on short timescales (a few days) was reported.

The capabilities of the USA and the PCA instruments to monitor the X–ray emission are particularly well suited for the detailed study of the X–ray energy spectrum of 1ES1959$`+`$65, and its temporal evolution. Here, we present 31 USA and 17 PCA observations of 1ES1959$`+`$65. The PCA data are two sets of intraday observations, obtained from unpublished RXTE archival data, that span a few days in which the end of a flare and beginning of another flare are detected. The USA observations are short daily monitoring observations that span 7 weeks, ending with a strong flare, where the X–ray flux tripled in 7 days (the USA data were taken in the context of a multi-wavelength campaign that was not successful in the TeV range due to bad weather at the ACT site). In Section 2, we report the details of the observations; in Section 3, we report the main features of the data; in Section 4, we discuss the implications of the X–ray spectral variability and the quiescent X–ray emission detected in 1ES1959$`+`$65; we present our conclusions in Section 5.

## 2 Observations and Data Analysis

### 2.1 USA Data

The USA Experiment observed 1ES1959$`+`$65 about once per day between 2000 September 21 (MJD 51808) and November 11 (MJD 51859). (For a detailed description of the USA experiment see Ray et al. (1999), Wood et al. (2000) and Shabad (2000).) The USA detector was used in the “ping” mode where within one observation the source is pointed at 2 or 3 times for $`T_{ON}`$ seconds and then a background is taken for $`T_{OFF}`$ seconds, where typically, $`T_{ON}`$ = $`T_{OFF}`$ = 60 seconds and an observation lasted for $``$300 s (for more details on the “ping” observation mode see Giebels et al. (2000)). This type of observation has the advantage of not relying on a background model but rather on a direct measurement of the background, but results in some loss of signal within an observation period. USA data were extracted from FITS formatted files using CFITSIO. Care was taken to use an $`OFF`$ position as devoid as possible of bright X–ray sources, and at least 2 away from the source. Observations were made in low background regions of the orbit, where the counting rate was approximately 30 cts/s or 1% of the Crab level in the same conditions. The segments of the observation where the background is too high, especially at the beginning and the ending of each observation, are rejected. For the present investigation, we use only observations where at least 2 pairs of ON - OFF pointings are available for each observation. Within those restrictions, 31 observations were used from which $`16`$ ks of data were selected.

We present the X–ray lightcurve for 1ES1959$`+`$65 in Figure 1; in that Figure, the standard deviation of the average in the background was added in quadrature to the error on the count rate for each observation. The data were then corrected for obscuration by the instrument support structure when necessary, and also for the collimator response. Every point in the lightcurve is a single observation. The lightcurve (normalized to the USA Crab rate in the energy range defined below, or 3500 cts/s) for the total range is shown in the top panel of Figure 1.

The data were taken in the spectral mode, where the instrument integrates a spectrum covering an energy range of approximately 1–17 keV in 48 pulse height analyzer (PHA) channels every 10 ms. In this work, we make no use of the lowest (0) and the highest (47) PHA channels; the PHA channels 1–46 ($`116`$ keV) are referred to as the total USA range. The spectral characteristics of the time series were studied by dividing the USA data into two energy bands, the PHA channels 1–10 (soft band) and 11–46 (hard band), corresponding to approximately 1–3 keV and 3–16 keV, respectively. A hardness ratio, shown in the second from top panel in Figure 1, is the ratio of the counting rate in the hard band over the soft band. The dates are given in Modified Julian Date (MJD) $``$ 51000.

### 2.2 RXTE/PCA Data

Unpublished PCA data of 1ES1959$`+`$65 were obtained from the RXTE data archive. The RXTE/PCA observed 1ES1959$`+`$65 12 times from 2000 July 28 through August 2, and 5 times between 2000 September 1–6, with exposures of $``$900 s in the July-August observations and a few ksec each in September. The STANDARD2 data were extracted using the HEASARC ftools and filtered using the RXTE GOF-recommended criteria (layer 1 only, for better signal to noise, PHA channels 0 to 27 (lightcurves only) or approximately 1-10 keV, Earth elevation angle greater than 10 degrees, pointing offset less than 0.02 degrees, time since the peak of the last SAA passage greater than 30 minutes and electron contamination less than 0.1). The lightcurve and spectral data are from unit 2 (PCU 2) only since a faint background model is not yet available for unit 0 during gain epoch 5. The background models of Epoch 4 were used. Lightcurves were extracted using the ftools saextrct (through the rex script) and lcurve. The variable PCA background was modeled with pcabackest, which uses observations of X–ray blank, high latitude areas of the sky (Jahoda et al., 1996). Spectral fits were done using XSPEC v. 11.0.1 and response matrices generated by the ftool pcarmf.

The source was not detected with a better significance than $`2\sigma `$ with the RXTE/HEXTE instruments. A likely explanation is the steep spectrum, derived from the PCA data, that falls below the HEXTE sensitivity.

### 2.3 Archival Data

An observation with the BeppoSAX instrument in 1997 (Beckmann, 2000; Beckmann & Wolter, 2001) resulted in a measured flux of $`1.3\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 in the 2–10 keV band and a spectral index of $`\alpha =1.64`$. This flux is an order of magnitude fainter than the brightest flux measured here by the PCA. However, the results published by (Beckmann, 2000) should be treated with caution, as there is an apparent error in the value of the Galactic column adopted by them (they adopt $`10^{20}`$ rather than $`1.027\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm$`2`$ adopted by us on the basis of the COLDEN program available as a part of the Chandra Proposal Planning Toolkit, based on relatively reliable 21 cm data). The analysis of the PSPC All-Sky Survey data by those authors implies that assuming a simple power law, the fitted absorption is $`1.6\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm$`2`$, somewhat larger than the Galactic value. However, this might be because the intrinsic X-ray spectrum steepens somewhat towards higher energies, as is often the case for other XBL-type blazars, and an assumption that the observed spectrum is a simple absorbed power law overestimates the fitted absorption. Note that the higher column density makes no difference in the results from the USA or RXTE data. The Einstein Slew Survey Sample of BL Lac Objects (Perlman et al., 1996) quotes a flux of 3.65 $`\mu `$Jy at 2 keV, which is $``$40% brighter than the BeppoSAX measurement.

We also extracted the ROSAT HRI archival data for this source, and used the ROSAT all-sky data. ROSAT HRI observed it on 1996 April 1; the observation lasted for a total of half a day, yielding about 2800 sec of good data. The data were reduced in a standard manner, revealing that the net source counting rate was $``$ 1.57 ct s-1, with no indication of variability, but this is not too surprising given the short observation length. The conversion of the HRI count rate to flux is dependent on the source spectrum, which has to be assumed as there is essentially no spectral information in the HRI data. Since we do not know the soft X-ray spectrum at the epoch of the HRI observation, we assume the energy index $`\alpha =1.5`$, but two different values of $`N_H`$, the Galactic value of $`10^{21}`$ cm-2 and the fitted ROSAT value of $`1.6\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2. To obtain the conversion from the HRI counting rate to the observed flux, we used the PIMMS tool provided by HEASARC (and checked the results using XSPEC with the HRI effective area curve). Assuming the Galactic column of $`10^{21}`$ cm-2, we obtain the 0.1 - 2.4 keV flux of $`5.5\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 and 1 - 2 keV flux of $`2.2\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. Assuming the fitted ROSAT value of $`1.6\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2, we infer the 0.1 - 2.4 keV flux of $`5.4\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1 and 1 - 2 keV flux of $`2.5\times 10^{11}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. In any case, this corresponds to (roughly) 2 mCrab, which is lower than the 13 mCrab level from the Rosat all-sky Survey Bright Source Catalog (1RXS-B). This simply implies that during the ROSAT survey, 1ES1959$`+`$65 was significantly brighter than during the Einstein, ROSAT HRI or BeppoSAX observations, and the episodes of high flux as seen by the USA or RXTE observations described hereafter are not unique.

## 3 Observational Results

### 3.1 Flares in the USA and RXTE Data

The USA and RXTE observations of 1ES1959$`+`$65 conducted from July through November 2000 show that the source was bright and variable in the X–ray band, with the X–ray spectrum significantly harder than observed during the periods of lower brightness. Specifically, these data show that during the last quarter of 2000, 1ES1959$`+`$65 underwent an X–ray flare reaching the 12 mCrab level in the 1-16 keV band on November 14 (MJD 51863). Variability of a factor $``$6 was detected within 20 days, and a factor $``$ 3 within 7 days (Figure 1). By comparison, the peak flux detected by USA on Mkn 421 in 2000 reached approximately 40 mCrab at maximum. Visual inspection of the USA (as well as the RXTE) lightcurves, and in particular of the largest flare, indicates that the source does not appear to vary significantly on timescales shorter than a day; thus the variability is not undersampled. These observations show that 1ES1959$`+`$65 was in a variable state for at least 4 months. To complete the coverage of this flare, 3 data points from the RXTE/ASM were normalized to the Crab and added to the lightcurve in Figure 1; this shows the flare continuing to decrease. The varying spectral index and differences in the energy response of both instruments complicate the comparison. Nonetheless, the full-width at half-maximum region of the flare with these additional points spans 5 $`\pm `$ 1 day, and the doubling time is 2.5 days.

The PCA archival data obtained 2 months prior to the USA observations show 65% flux changes in 3.5 days; the highest observed value was $`F`$(2-10 keV) = $`1.4\times 10^{10}`$ erg cm-2 s-1, but the peak value is unknown, since the observed maxima are at the endpoints of the observed period, when the source was falling or rising as shown in Figure 2. The USA lightcurve shows that the PCA did not cover the typical variation period which appears to be $`>`$ 4 days. The same figure shows a decreasing flux extending over 3.5 days, and after 30 days observations resume for 4 days where a steady increase of flux is seen. The flux did not change more than a few percent on timescales shorter than a day in the PCA data. In the three panels in Figure 3 it is apparent that variations are larger in the harder bands in the decreasing part of the PCA observations.

### 3.2 Flux-Spectrum Correlations

The PCA data were used to perform spectral fits as a function of the flux in the 2-10 keV energy range. The data were fit to a single power-law function with index $`\alpha `$, such that the photon flux $`N(E)=N_0E^{(\alpha +1)}`$ and the absorbing column $`N_H`$=10.27 $`\times 10^{20}`$ cm-2.

The absorbed power law model provides an adequate fit for all RXTE PCA pointings. Spectral indices were obtained for every observation, and in some cases, intraday observations where the estimated indices and fluxes were similar were added together to improve the significance on a daily timescale. The spectral fits are shown in Table 2 along with the month, day and fraction of the day of the beginning of each observation.

The X–ray spectrum follows a “loop” in the spectral index-flux plane, as seen in Figure 4, and it is not surprising that the X–ray spectrum shows significant evolution during the flare given that there is a more rapid rise and drop in the hard X–ray band (see §4 for discussion). The steepest spectrum in the PCA data was observed at the first observations in the declining phase July 28 ($`\alpha =1.68`$), and the hardest spectrum was seen on 2 dates separated by a month and at a similar flux ($`\alpha =1.37`$) which is a hint that the same physical mechanism is generating these flux variations. In the case of the USA observation, poorer photon statistics and an incomplete energy calibration limited the spectral study to a hardness ratio (HR) estimation plotted on the same Figure 1. The USA fluxes and HR are shown in table 1. During the strongest flare, that started around (MJD-51000)=857, a $`20\%`$ variation in the HR is observed.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Doppler Boosting of the Flux of 1ES1959$`+`$65

The electromagnetic emission in blazars is very likely to be Doppler-boosted (or beamed) towards the observer. In the radio regime, the evidence comes from superluminal expansions observed with VLBI. Similar superluminal expansions have now been seen in the optical band with the HST in nearby galaxies such as M87. Relativistic beaming is also required in order to avoid absorption of GeV photons by X–ray photons via the e+/e- pair-production process. It is thus possible to use the X–ray variability data as well as the fact that 1ES1959$`+`$65 is an EGRET-detected BL Lac object, to establish a limit for the Doppler factor $`\delta `$, with $`\delta `$ defined in the standard way as $`[\mathrm{\Gamma }(1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta )]^1`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is the bulk Lorentz factor of the plasma in the jet, $`\beta =v/c`$ and $`\theta `$ is the angle to the line of sight.

Assuming that the $`\gamma `$-rays and X–rays from 1ES1959$`+`$65 are produced in the same region, it is possible to calculate the opacity for pair production $`\tau _{\gamma \gamma }`$ from the source sizes inferred from the USA and RXTE/PCA data. The formula given by equation (3) in Mattox et al. (1993) for the optical depth for an outflow which is nonrelativistic in its comoving frame, as corrected by Madejski et al. (1996), is

$$\tau =2\times 10^3(1+z)^{2\alpha }(1+z\sqrt{1+z})^2h_{60}^2T_5^1\times \frac{F_{\mathrm{keV}}}{\mu \text{Jy}}\left(\frac{E_\gamma }{\text{GeV}}\right)^\alpha $$

where $`T_5`$ is the doubling time in units of $`10^5`$ s and $`h_{60}`$ the reduced Hubble constant in units of 60 km s-1 Mpc-1.

Using the parameters found in 1ES1959$`+`$65 ($`z=0.048`$, $`\alpha =1.4`$, $`T_5=2.5`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{keV}}=40\mu `$Jy), the opacity for 1 GeV photons would be $`\tau _{\gamma \gamma }20`$, and $`\delta >1.6`$ is required in order to have $`\tau _{\gamma \gamma }(E_\gamma >1\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})<1`$. The limit on the required Doppler factor is less than that required for Mkn 421 ($`\delta =5`$), which is not surprising since timescales of $`T=0.5`$ days and a slightly higher luminosity are involved in that object.

Strictly speaking, the above $`\tau _{\gamma \gamma }`$ argument for anisotropy only applies if the $`\gamma `$-ray emitting zone is the same as the soft X–ray-emitting region and, for now, we have no clear observational indications that this is the case. This is important, since the jets are likely to be inhomogeneous. However, since $`\gamma `$-ray variability on timescales shorter than a day has been measured – and since there is an obvious correlation between X–rays and $`\gamma `$-rays that has been seen in objects such as Mkn 421 and Mkn 501 – for such sources $`\delta >`$ a few can be deduced as well. Relativistic source motion, however, does not avoid the problem of the gamma-ray pair production on the external, unbeamed photons likely to be present in the environments currently envisioned for the central engines of such sources.

The X–ray data presented above imply that the X–ray spectrum of 1ES1959$`+`$65 hardens as the source brightens. This is often measured in BL Lac objects; a hardening of the spectrum when flares occur, and a blueward shift of the peak of the synchrotron emission (and presumably higher energy inverse-Compton emission) by factors that can be as large as 100 was measured in the cases of Mkn 501 (Pian et al., 1998), 1ES 1426$`+`$428 and PKS 0548$``$322 (Costamante et al., 2001). In the case of PKS 2005-489 (Perlman et al., 1999), a more moderate shift of a factor of 3 or less of the synchrotron emission was found.

### 4.2 Synchrotron Models and Inferred Parameters

The spectral change is best illustrated as a correlation between flux and the photon index. Using PCA data this correlation is illustrated in Figure 4. Even though the two observations were separated by a month and are certainly related to two different flares, it is still interesting to compare this spectral evolution since the time series have similar rise and fall timescales, which are also comparable to what is seen in the USA detector. It is thus likely that the two flares originate from a similar mechanism and that the correlation plot has some validity. The “clockwise motion” (shown with arrows) observed in the data for 1ES1959$`+`$65 has also been seen in flares in Mkn 421 (Takahashi et al., 2000, 1996), in PKS 2155$``$304 (Sembay et al., 1993) and in H0323$`+`$022 (Kohmura et al., 1994), although in some cases counterclockwise patterns have also been seen (Mkn 501, Catanese & Sambruna (2000)). The spectrum steepens more rapidly than the flux in the declining phase and hardens rapidly in the brightening phase, indicating that the variations of the hard X–rays occur faster than those in the soft X–rays both during the increase and the decrease of the brightness of the source. The spectral index change of $`14\%`$ seen here is comparable to the $`10\%`$ seen in Mkn 421. The variation observed in the flux-index plane can provide information about the acceleration process (Kirk & Mastichiadis, 1999). Counter-clockwise patterns are expected when acceleration, variability and cooling timescales are similar in a flare. In this case the acceleration process proceeds from low energy to high energy changing the number of particles and making the softer energies vary first. Clockwise patterns, where the harder energies vary first, can be explained in flares where the variability and acceleration timescales are much less than the cooling timescale.

For a homogeneous emitting region, the radiative lifetime of a relativistic electron emitting synchrotron photons with energy $`E_{\mathrm{keV}}`$ is (in the observer’s frame) $`\tau _{\mathrm{sync}}=1.2\times 10^3B^{3/2}E_{\mathrm{keV}}^{1/2}\delta ^{1/2}`$ s (Rybicki & Lightman, 1979). This should give some estimate of the magnetic field $`B`$, even though the extent to which the timescale of the flux decrease was due to the propagation of the signal throughout the source and to what extent it was caused by the synchrotron cooling is not known. However, it is possible to measure the relative decrease of the flux $`\mathrm{\Delta }F/F`$ in three energy bands in a time $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ using the PCA data as seen in Figure 3. To estimate the timescale for a drop by a factor of two in each energy band, the measured timescale is divided by a factor $`2\mathrm{\Delta }F/F`$. The factor $`\mathrm{\Delta }F/F`$ is smallest for the lowest energy band (24%) as expected. It is now possible to find $`\tau _{1/2}(E)=`$ 7.7, 4.9 and $`1.9\times 10^5`$ s, respectively, for 3, 7 and 12 keV photons. According to Takahashi et al. (1996) we write $`\tau _{\mathrm{sync}}(E)\tau _{\mathrm{sync}}(12\mathrm{k}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V})=1.2\times 10^3B^{3/2}\delta ^{1/2}(E_{\mathrm{keV}}^{1/2}12^{1/2})`$. Comparing the decline of the flux of 3 keV and 12 keV photons yield $`B=0.007\delta ^{1/3}`$G, while the decay of the 7 keV and 12 keV photons yield a similar result of $`B=0.005\delta ^{1/3}`$G. Using $`\delta =1.6`$ we infer $`B=4\times 10^3`$ G. It is interesting to note here that this is a similar value to that found by Perlman et al. (1999) (P99 hereafter) in an outburst of PKS 2005$``$489 where variability on timescales of days was observed.

The peak observed frequency of the synchrotron emission $`\nu _s`$ of an electron with $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ is given by $`\nu _s1.2\times 10^6B\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}^2\delta ^1`$ Hz. Using the magnetic field inferred above, the Lorentz factors of the electrons $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ radiating at energy $`E`$ can be estimated from $`E=2\times 10^{14}\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}^2\delta `$ keV. This implies that $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ of electrons 111Note that $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ refers to the Lorentz factors of individual radiating particles as distinct from the jet bulk Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ radiating in the X–ray band is $``$ $`10^7`$.

The value of $`B`$ calculated as above is significantly lower than 0.2 G, and $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ higher than $`5\times 10^5`$ inferred for Mkn 421 by Takahashi et al. (1996), but the values inferred by us are similar to those quoted for PKS 2005$``$489 by P99 where a possible undersampling was invoked to explain the possibility of faster (shorter than $``$ 1 day) variability, which in turn would make the inferred value for $`B`$ a lower limit and $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ an upper limit. We believe that in 1ES1959$`+`$65 the flux is sampled relatively densely, and thus the variability is unlikely to be undersampled. This means that the difference in the inferred values of $`B`$ and $`\gamma _{\mathrm{el}}`$ in 1ES1959$`+`$65 as compared to Mkn 421 is unlikely to be a result of the source being more compact, while this could be the case for the potentially undersampled data for PKS 2005$``$489 (P99). With our inferred source parameters being so close to the values found for PKS 2005$``$489, it is now quite possible that real differences between these two sources and Mkn 421 exist. A conclusive test of the physical parameters in this source would be a clear detection of the TeV $`\gamma `$-ray emission, and any correlation with the X–ray flux. Also, longer, more sensitive and well-sampled observations in the X–ray band are needed to either confirm or disprove that the variability pattern of 1ES1959$`+`$65 and its spectral properties are as described here. A noticeable difference between PKS 2005$``$489 and 1ES1959$`+`$65 is that whereas in the latter a variation in the spectral index $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0.6`$ was associated with a flux change of a factor of 30, in the former a $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =0.35`$ produced only a 65% change in the flux. Also note in the USA data, a doubling of the hardness ratio is accompanied by a factor of 6 increase in flux.

### 4.3 Continuous Emission: Knot Radiation?

The USA lightcurve exhibits a non-zero X–ray flux outside of the flaring events of a few 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1 (or a few mCrab, taking 1 Crab $``$ 1.7$`\times `$10-8 erg cm-2 s-1 in the 2–10 keV band). The existence of a steady underlying emission in at least one other BL Lac object, Mkn 421, has been invoked in order to obtain meaningful fits with an exponential decay to X–ray flares (Fossati et al., 2000). It is intriguing to investigate if such steady flux could originate in more extended jets such as those recently resolved by the Chandra and XMM telescopes, but aligned more closely to our line of sight and thus brighter. Such knots (or hotspots) in large-scale (hundreds of parsecs or more) jets have indeed been seen from radio to X–ray energies in many non-aligned sources i.e. sources where the jet is sufficiently misaligned to allow us to resolve the structure of the jet; of course such structures must also originate on a relatively large spatial scale as compared to the sub-parsec jets responsible for the rapid, day-scale variability. These knots are persistent structures visible on timescales of years, and individual spectral energy distributions (SEDs) have been established for knots in multiple sources such as M87 (Marshall, Miller et al., 2001) or PKS 0637$``$752 (Chartas et al., 2000). Their fluxes are usually a fraction of the flux arising from the unresolved core, but a closer alignment to our line of sight than for those sources resolved by Chandra and XMM would result in greater Doppler boost and could provide a continuous background seen in BL Lac-type objects, presumably the objects most closely aligned to our line of sight.

To verify if a flux of a few 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1 could originate from aligned X–ray knots, some fluxes are taken from the literature for the cases where the angles to the line of sight ($`\theta `$ hereafter) and Lorentz factors are available from radio observations. With this, it is possible to estimate the flux enhancement for $`\theta 0^{}`$ and the luminosity at a distance similar to that of 1ES1959$`+`$65. The observed flux would depend on three factors:

* A change in Doppler boost that multiplies the flux $`F`$ by $`(\stackrel{~}{\delta }/\delta )^4`$ (see Urry & Shafer (1984) for luminosity conversions) where $`\stackrel{~}{\delta }`$ is the Doppler factor for the same source but with an angle $`\theta =0^{}`$. Thus the amplification would be $`\left[\frac{1\beta \mathrm{cos}\theta }{1\beta }\right]^4`$. Knowing the Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ we can write $`\beta ^2`$=$`\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }^21}{\mathrm{\Gamma }^2}`$
* The distance difference changes the flux by a factor of $`(z/0.048)^2`$
* a K-correction has to be applied since the bandwidth is narrowed, changing the flux by a factor of $`\left(\frac{1+z}{1.048}\right)^{\alpha 1}`$ where $`\alpha `$ is the spectral index. This effect is minimal compared to the previous ones since in the X–ray band usually $`\alpha 1`$ for BL Lac spectra.

The final ratio $`A`$ of the observed fluxes is then the product of these three terms.

#### 4.3.1 Comparison with M87

The most popular scenario for the “parent population” of XBL-type blazars such as 1ES1959$`+`$65 is that these objects are FR-I type radio galaxies with their jets aligned close to our line of sight (see, e.g., Urry, Padovani, & Stickel 1991, UPS91 hereafter). In contrast, PKS 0637-752 is a member of the intrinsically more powerful FR-II class of objects. We thus believe that it is appropriate to compare 1ES1959$`+`$65 with the FR I radio galaxy M87 ($`z=0.004`$), a nearby object that has knots resolved in the X–ray band (Marshall, Miller et al., 2001) as well as in the radio and optical (e.g. Perlman et al. (2001) and references therein). In the most popular models the X–ray radiation is either synchrotron radiation or inverse Compton scattering (see e.g. Wilson & Yang (2002)). From Biretta et al. (1999) (B99 hereafter) we find that a relativistic jet model requires a bulk flow with Lorentz factor $`\mathrm{\Gamma }6`$ and a jet orientation within $`\theta 19^{}`$ from the line of sight. We will use two sets of $`(\theta ,\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ presented in B99 based on this model.

The set $`(\theta ,\mathrm{\Gamma })(18^{},12)`$ is a possible configuration of the jet. These values may offer an explanation for the apparent lack of superluminal motion in M87 on parsec scales, and were assumed in the model of Bicknell & Begelman (1996). From Marshall, Miller et al. (2001) the flux density at 1 keV, summed over all the knots, is approximately 380 nJy and $`\alpha =1.46`$. Using a distance of 16 Mpc for M87, $`H_0`$ = 60 km s-1 Mpc-1 and $`q_0`$=0.1, then $`A250`$ would yield $``$ 20$`\times `$ 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1 (or 8 mCrab) of flux coming from the knots. In this case, using an angle of $`4^{}`$ would reduce the flux ratio by a factor of 8 (from 250) which would still keep the boosted knot radiation in the detectable range. An angle of $`4^{}`$ was used as well in this example since this is the mean value of angle to the line of sight used recently by Costamante & Ghisellini (2001) as an input parameter for the successful synchrotron self-compton (SSC) model those authors have used to predict TeV candidate BL Lac objects.

The set of values $`(\theta ,\mathrm{\Gamma })(16^{},8)`$ also presented in B99 and consistent with their results yield a flux coming from the knots that is 40 times smaller (or 0.2 mCrab). This configuration is thus less likely to result in a flux of the level that is being looked for.

#### 4.3.2 Comparison with 3C66B

3C66B is a low-luminosity FRI radio galaxy ($`z=0.0215`$). Its jet has knots resolved in the radio, optical and X–ray band (Hardcastle et al. (2001) and references therein). From Giovannini et al. (2001) we find that $`\theta `$ seems well constrained (about $`45^{}`$) but that $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is not (between 1 and 7).

The set $`(\theta ,\mathrm{\Gamma })(45^{},7)`$ is a possible configuration of the jet that would come within the right order of magnitude to explain the origin of the X–ray radiation by IC scattering of seed photons from a hidden BL Lac in the nucleus of 3C66B. From Hardcastle et al. (2001) the flux density at 1 keV, for the 2 brightest knots out of 5 (A and B), is approximately 10 nJy. A value of $`\alpha =1.31`$ is used, the one found for the jet, though the exact value does not matter much given the comparable redshift of 3C66B to the one of 1ES1959$`+`$65. The inferred value of $`A1.6\times 10^5`$ yields $``$ 4$`\times `$ 10-9 erg cm-2 s-1 (or 230 mCrab) of flux coming from the knots in the case of an angle at $`0^{}`$. Using an angle of $`4^{}`$ would reduce the flux ratio by a factor of 2 only and make it still a bright steady source. The level of expected radiation in this case is actually so high that a similar object pointing closer to the line of sight would not be unnoticed in radio emission, thus the $`(\theta ,\mathrm{\Gamma })(45^{},7)`$ set seems quite extreme.

Taking a slower jet ($`\beta 0.75`$) also mentioned in Hardcastle et al. (2001) the flux coming from the knots of 3C66B would be a factor of $`6\times 10^4`$ lower than in the previous case, significantly below the level of a few 10-11 erg cm-2 s-1.

The results from M87 and 3C66B show that it is possible that radiation from knots moving close to the line of sight can generate a significant fraction of the baseline level of X–ray flux invoked in at least two cases, Mkn 421 and 1ES1959$`+`$65 here, assuming they contain knots similar to those observed in M87 or 3C66B. Recent VLBI observations show that the line of sight angle with Mkn 421 is constrained to be in the $`0^{}30^{}`$ range (Giovannini et al., 2001), thus a small angle to the line of sight is a possibility for this source. In a more general way, UPS91 predict that FR I radio galaxies should have jets with bulk flow speeds in the range from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 5 to $``$ 35, with most near $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ 7, and they derive a critical angle $`\theta _{\text{crit}}10^{}`$ for the FR I/BL Lac division. If bright knots are common in BL Lac objects then the amplification factors associated with the large Lorentz factors invoked here could generate a continuous background at the level mentioned above (assuming $`\theta `$ is of the order of a few degrees only). A more thorough search for evidence of continuous emission in blazars and other signatures of boosted knot radiation is currently under way.

## 5 Conclusions

This paper reports X–ray data obtained with the USA and RXTE missions, as well as archival observations for the BL Lac object 1ES1959$`+`$65. Variability on the timescale of a few days with a threefold flux increase in the 1–16 keV band was observed with the USA detector; this is consistent with timescales that have been seen in the optical band at other times. The X–ray data also show a clear correlation of the X–ray flux with the spectrum, which becomes harder when the source is brighter. The data presented in this paper represent an important contribution to the study of this object, a potential TeV emitter, as long term monitoring observations of it in the X–ray band were seldom performed in the past.

From the X–ray variability time scales, we estimate the Doppler factor of the jet to be $`>`$ 1.6. The spectral variability data allow an estimate of the magnetic field which is lower ($``$ milliGauss), and Lorentz factor of radiating electrons which is higher ($`10^7`$) than those derived for the prototype TeV blazar Mkn 421. These parameters are more in line with those inferred for another possible TeV - emitting blazar, PKS 2005$``$489. The data also show the need for X–ray observations of 1ES1959$`+`$65 longer than a few days in order to more accurately characterize the timescale of variability and its relationship with the spectrum. Also, since the source has been seen to be extremely variable in the optical band, future multi-wavelength observations of this object should include simultaneous optical observations.

We attempted to give a plausible scenario explaining the apparent baseline (“quiescent”) emission level seen here in 1ES1959$`+`$65 but also possibly previously observed in Mkn 421. Jets containing bright knots such as those seen by Chandra, but aligned more closely, within a few degrees to the line of sight (and therefore not resolvable as easily as jets with larger angles) and with Lorentz factors of $`10`$ have the required boosted flux to account for the “quiescent” X–ray emission in XBL-type BL Lac objects. Such emission would persist on timescales much longer than the duration of the flares that are much more likely to occur closer to the central object. This scenario can be confirmed by a more systematic study of knot X–ray luminosities in FR I objects, as well as the currently ongoing population study of the steady component of X–ray emission in BL Lac objects.

We are grateful to Paul Kunz for providing useful analysis software. Our referee, Eric Perlman, contributed useful comments that resulted in broadening the scope and clarifying some points in the paper, for which we thank him. This work was performed while RMB held a National Research Council Research Associateship Award at NRL. JDS is grateful to the NASA Applied Information Technology Research Program for support. Work at SLAC was supported by the Department of Energy contract to Stanford University DE-AC03-76SF00515. Basic research in X–ray Astronomy at the Naval Research Laboratory is supported by ONR/NRL. This paper made use of quick-look results provided by the ASM/RXTE team (see http://xte.mit.edu), as well as data provided by HEASARC, a service of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.


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# Quantum computation with coupled-quantum-dots embedded in optical microcavities

## Acknowledgments

Support from the special grant of CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) to distinguished young researchers is gratefully acknowledged.


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# A photometric study of the two poorly known northern open clusters NGC 133 and NGC 1348Based on observations carried out at Mt Ekar, Asiago, Italy,Photometry is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5 or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A//

## 1 Introduction

In this paper we present $`UBVI`$ photometry of two northern open clusters, namely NGC 133 and NGC 1348, for which we provide the first CCD study.
Both the clusters appear as weak concentrations of a small group of bright stars well mixed with the rich Galactic disk field star population toward their direction. This fact renders it difficult to study these objects, and it is the main reason for which they have been almost neglected up to now.
NGC 1348 has in fact never studied. On the other hand, NGC 133 (OCL 296, Lund 17, C0028+60, Trumpler class IV 1p:b) seems to be an asterism of 5 bright stars. Evidence has been brought forth by an early photographic study by Jasevicius (1964, 1970) that this is not a cluster, but simply a random concentration of a few bright stars.
In this study we would like to address the issue of the real nature of these two clusters by means of deep CCD multicolor photometry, and proper motion data from Tycho 2 catalog.

This study is part of a long term project aimed at providing accurate CCD photometry for northern star clusters at the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory (Carraro 2002, and references therein).

The plan of this paper is as follows.
In Sect. 2 we briefly present the observations and data reduction. Sects. 3 to 4 illustrate our results for NGC 133 and NGC 1348, respectively. Finally, Sect. 5 draws some conclusions and suggests further lines of research.

## 2 Observations and Data Reduction

Observations were carried out with the AFOSC camera at the 1.82 m Copernico telescope of Cima Ekar (Asiago, Italy), in the photometric night of December 18, 2001. AFOSC samples a $`8^{}.14\times 8^{}.14`$ field in a $`1K\times 1K`$ thinned CCD. The typical seeing was around 2.0 arcsec.

The basic data of the studied objects are summarized in Table 1, whereas the details of the observations are listed in Table 2, where the observed fields are reported together with the exposure times, the typical seeing and the airmass. The covered regions are shown in Figs. 1 and 8, where two XDSS111Second generation Digital Sky Survey, http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/cadcbin/getdss maps are presented for NGC 133 and NGC 1348, respectively. The data has been reduced by using the IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. packages CCDRED, DAOPHOT, and PHOTCAL. The calibration equations obtained by observing Landolt(1992) SA 93, PG 1047+003, PG 2331+055 and PG 0231+051 fields along the night, are:

$`u`$ $`=`$ $`U+3.520\pm 0.042+(0.099\pm 0.030)(UB)+0.58X`$
$`b`$ $`=`$ $`B+1.407\pm 0.012(0.004\pm 0.017)(BV)+0.29X`$
$`v`$ $`=`$ $`V+0.752\pm 0.009+(0.036\pm 0.012)(BV)+0.16X`$
$`i`$ $`=`$ $`I+1.619\pm 0.017(0.011\pm 0.015)(VI)+0.08X`$
where $`UBVI`$ are standard magnitudes, $`ubvi`$ are the instrumental ones, and $`X`$ is the airmass. The standard stars in these fields provide a very good color coverage. For the extinction coefficients, we assumed the typical values for the Asiago Observatory (Desidera et al. 2001). Photometric global errors have been estimated following Patat & Carraro (2001). For the $`V`$ filter, they amount at 0.03, 0.05 and 0.07 at $`V`$ 12.0, 16.0 and 20.0, respectively.

## 3 NGC 133

NGC 133 is identified by a group of 5 bright stars in a very rich stellar field (see Fig. 1). One of these stars is the binary system BD+6293 (ADS 423A,B), whose $`A`$ component is of $`B3`$ spectral type. It is located very low in the Galactic plane, and therefore presumably suffers from severe field star contamination. This cluster was never studied before, but for a photographic $`UBV`$ survey carried out by Jasevicius (1964,1970). This study however does not report estimates of the cluster fundamental parameters, but the author suggests that there is no cluster in the direction of NGC 133.

### 3.1 Star counts

According to Lyngå (1987), NGC 133 has a diameter of 7 arcmin, so our study covers the entire cluster region. To infer an estimate of the radius, we derive the surface stellar density by performing star counts in concentric rings around the center of the covered area, and then dividing by their respective surfaces. The final density profile and the corresponding Poisson error bars are depicted in Fig. 2. In the lower panel we take into account all the measured stars, whereas in the upper panel we only consider stars brighter than V = 14. By inspecting the lower panel, one can readily see that the profile decreases smoothly, and the cluster does not appear as a clear concentration. This is probably due to the heavy contamination by faint Galactic field stars. In fact, after selecting only the brightest stars, the cluster emerges more clearly (see upper panel). We estimate a cluster radius of about 2-2.5 arcmin, somewhat lower than the value reported by Lyngå (1987).

### 3.2 Proper motions

Important information on the kinematics of the luminous stars in and around NGC 133 can be derived from the proper motions available in the Tycho-2 catalogue. The Tycho-2 proper motions are based on the comparison between contemporary mean positions derived from the recent Tycho observations on-board Hipparcos and early-epoch positions observed many decades ago (see Høg et al. 2000 and references therein). Due to the long time-baseline they have rather high precision and therefore directly indicate the long-term mean tangential motions of the stars. We have collected proper motion components for 16 stars in a field of $`10^{}.0\times 10^{}.0`$ centered in NGC 133. They are shown in the vector point diagram in Fig. 3 together with the errors reported in the Tycho 2 catalog. From this sample we have extracted 8 stars, which seem to crowd in the vector point diagram. By assuming that these stars are likely members, we derive the common mean motion (which we shall assume as the cluster mean motion):

$$\mu _\alpha =0.7\pm 4.7$$

$$\mu _\delta =0.4\pm 3.6.$$

The errors reported in the Tycho 2 catalog amount at more than 2.5 mas/yr, and therefore we conclude that these 8 stars most probably share a common tangential motion since their components deviate less that 1$`\sigma `$ from the derived mean motion. Therefore in the direction of the object NGC 133 a star cluster seems to be present.

### 3.3 Color-Magnitude Diagrams

The Color-Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) for all the stars measured in the direction of NGC 133 are shown in Fig. 4. In panel a) we plot all the stars in the $`V`$ vs $`(BV)`$ plane, where in panel b) the same stars are plotted in the $`V`$ vs $`(VI)`$ plane. For comparison, the photographic CMD by Jasevicius (1964) is presented panel in c). The comparison - in the sense (this study-Jasevicius) - yields:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }V=0.07\pm 0.06$$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(BV)=0.11\pm 0.05$$

$$\mathrm{\Delta }(UB)=0.13\pm 0.09$$

for 29 common stars.
Clearly, the present study supersedes that of Jasevicius (1964). The CMDs are not easy to interpret, since most of the stars are just Galactic disk field stars. This is corroborated by the CMD in panel d), where a simulation is presented of the Galactic disk component toward NGC 133. The simulation has been performed using the TRILEGAL code (Girardi et al 2002), as calibrated by Groenewegen et al (2002). Also from this figure is evident that NGC 133 is a small group of stars brighter than $`V14`$ above the mean stellar background.

### 3.4 Two-color diagram and members selection

We derive cluster membership by grouping stars according to their mean reddening. Individual reddenings have been computing by means of the usual reddening free parameter $`Q`$, following the procedure outlined in detail in Patat & Carraro (2001). The results are shown in Figs. 5 and 6.
In Fig. 5 we plot all the stars having $`UBV`$ photometry in the two-color diagram. The solid line is an empirical ZAMS from Schmidt-Kaler (1982). There seem to be two pupulations. One having a mean reddening E$`(BV)=0.60\pm 0.10`$ mag, which crowds close to a ZAMS shifted by E$`(BV)=0.60`$ mag (dashed line), and another one with a much larger reddening. We consider this latter population as the Galactic disk component, made of stars placed at different distances, and with a different amount of absorption. To guide the eye we have drawn another ZAMS (dotted line) shifted by E$`(BV)=1.5`$ mag. The same conclusion can be drawn by inspecting Fig. 6, where we show the reddening distribution. This has a clear peak at E$`(BV)1.1`$ mag, but at the same time exhibits an hint for a secondary peak at E$`(BV)=0.50.7`$ mag. However, the statistical significance of this secondary peak is quite low, and has to be taken as no more than an indication. An additional confirmation derives from Schlegel et al. (1998) extinction maps, which in the direction of NGC 133 give $`A_V=1.426`$ mag. By assuming a standard value of the total to selective absorption ratio $`R_V=3.1`$, the reddening toward NGC 133 becomes E$`(BV)0.50`$ mag, in close agreement with our results.

In conclusion, we would like to argue that the population of stars having E$`(BV)=0.60\pm 0.10`$ mag (about 20 stars) identify the open cluster NGC 133.
Now, we need to compare these findings with the proper motion data, to check for consistency. Out of 16 stars which have Tycho 2 proper motions, we were able to secure photometry only for 5 (see Table 3). In this Table, we list likely members derived from the analysis of the two-color diagram brighter than $`V14.0`$. The 4 stars with proper motion compatible with the mean turn out to be also photometric members (see the last entry in the table reporting the reddening), whereas the star $`\mathrm{\#}2`$ (Tycho 4019-744), which has $`\mu _\alpha =19.6`$ mas/yr, $`\mu _\delta =6.9`$ mas/yrs, turns out to have E$`(BV)=0.902`$, which makes it both a photometric and an astrometric non-member. This result makes us confindent when using photometrically selected cluster members.
It is however worth noting that these results have to be confirmed by extending proper motion measurements to dimmer magnitudes, and by providing radial velocities of the brightest stars.

### 3.5 Hints for NGC 133 distance and age

In Fig. 7 we plot the reddening corrected CMDs for the likely members stars. In both diagram we have over-imposed the empirical Schmidt-Kaler (1982) ZAMS, shifted by $`(mM)_o=9.0\pm 0.3`$ mag, which provides a nice fit of the stars distribution. This implies that NGC 133 is located $`630\pm 150`$ pc away from the Sun, where the uncertainty mirrors the difficulty of the fit due to the almost vertical structure of the MS.

From the location of the stars in the $`(BV)`$ vs $`(UB)`$ plane, we infer that the stars spectral types ranges from $`B0`$ to $`A5`$ by deriving the absolute colors from the ZAMS at the same position of the stars. This result agrees with the $`B3`$ spectral type reported for ADS 423A ($`\mathrm{\#}4`$ in the present numbering). If the stars having $`B0`$ spectral type are still along the MS, we derive an upper limit of 10 Myrs for the age of NGC 133 (Girardi et al. 2000).

## 4 NGC 1348

This cluster was never studied before. According to Lyngå (1987) it has a diameter of 5, and the spectral type of the brightest stars is $`A0`$. The region we covered is shown in Fig. 8. NGC 1348 is identified by a weak over-density of stars in a rich stellar field. Unfortunately, proper motions are not available for all the stars in the region of NGC 1348, so we must rely only on photometry to derive cluster members and cluster fundamental parameters.

### 4.1 Star counts

We performed star counts in concentric rings around the brightest star ($`\mathrm{\#}`$1, Tycho 3325-48) in the field, assumed as the cluster center. The number density profile is shown in Fig. 9. The profile decreases gently up to the limit of the covered region, and therefore we suspect that the Lyngå estimate has to be taken as a lower limit of NGC 1348 diameter, which would be at least 10. Anyway, NGC 1348 appears as a real concentration.

### 4.2 Color-Magnitude Diagram

The CMDs for all the stars measured in the direction of NGC 1348 is shown in Fig. 10. In the left panel we plot all the stars in the $`V`$ vs $`(BV)`$ plane, where in the middle panel the same stars are plotted in the $`V`$ vs $`(VI)`$ plane. The CMDs are not easy to interpret, since most of the stars are just Galactic disk field stars. This is confirmed by the CMD in the right panel, where a simulation is presented of the Galactic disk component toward NGC 1348. The simulation has been performed using the TRILEGAL code (Girardi et al 2002), as calibrated by Groenewegen et al (2002). From this figure it is evident that NGC 1348 emerges as an overdensity of stars brighter than $`V1617`$ above the mean stellar background.

### 4.3 Two-color Diagram and member selection

We follow the same method adopted above for NGC 133 to derive individual reddenings and membership to the cluster. The results are shown in Figs. 11 and 12.
In Fig. 11 we plot all the stars having $`UBV`$ photometry in the two-color diagram. The solid line is an empirical ZAMS from Schimdt-Kaler (1982). There seems to be two populations. One having a mean reddening E$`(BV)=0.85\pm 0.15`$ mag, which lies close to a ZAMS shifted by E$`(BV)=0.85`$ mag (dashed line), and another one with much larger reddening. We consider this latter population as the Galactic disk component, made of stars located at different distances, and with a different amount of absorption. To guide the eye we have drawn another ZAMS (dotted line) shifted by E$`(BV)=1.5`$ mag. The same conclusion can be drawn by inspecting Fig. 12, where we show the reddening distribution. This has a clear peak at E$`(BV)=0.70.9`$ mag, and several smaller peaks at larger values of the reddening.

We identify NGC 1348 with the group of stars having reddening E$`(BV)=0.85\pm 0.15`$ mag (about 20 stars).

### 4.4 Hints for NGC 1348 distance and age

In Fig. 13 we plot the reddening corrected CMDs for the likely members stars above derived. In both diagrams we have over-imposed the empirical Schmidt-Kaler (1982) ZAMS, shifted by $`(mM)_o=11.5\pm 0.5`$ mag, which provides a nice fit to the stellar distribution. This implies that NGC 1348 is located $`1.9\pm 0.4`$ kpc away from the Sun, where the uncertainty mirrors the difficulty of the fit due to the almost vertical structure of the MS.

From the location of the stars in the $`(BV)`$ vs $`(UB)`$ plane, we infer that the stars spectral types ranges from $`B5`$ to $`A5`$ by deriving the absolute colors from the ZAMS at the same position of the stars. Moreover by inspecting Fig 13, one can readily see that the brighter stars are actually leaving the MS, whereas the stars at $`V_o11.00`$ \- with spectral types in the range $`B8A0`$ \- are much probably still on the MS. Therefore we derive a lower limit of 50 Myrs for the age of NGC 1348 (Girardi et al. 2000).

## 5 Conclusions

We have presented the first multicolor CCD study of the two poorly known northern open clusters NGC 133 and NGC 1348. In the case of NGC 1348, no investigation had been carried out insofar.
Our analysis shows that these objects are two poorly populated, highly contaminated clusters. In details, we find that:

* NGC 133 is a 10-15 stars group located about 600 pc from the Sun. We estimate a reddening $`E(BV)=0.60\pm 0.10`$ and a probable age of less than 10 Myrs;
* NGC 1348 is a 20 stars group with a mean reddening $`E(BV)=0.85\pm 0.15`$, a distance of almost 2 kpc, and an age greater than 50 Myrs.

The results of this study are hampered by the strong field star contamination. Much better constrains on the nature and basic parameters of these clusters can be obtained by enlarging the number of stars with proper motions measurements, and by obtaining radial velocity and spectral classification of the brightest stars.

###### Acknowledgements.

I deeply thank dr. Saulius Raudeliunas for providing me with a copy of V. Jasevicius papers. The kind night assistance at Asiago Observatory by Gigi Lessio and Silvano Desidera is warmly acknowledged. It is a real pleasure to thank Leo Girardi for his permission to use the TRILEGAL code in advance of publication. This study made use of Simbad and WEBDA catalogs.