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# Two emission line objects with 𝑧>0.2 in the optical filament apparently connecting the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7603 to its companion

## 1 Introduction

Thirty years ago it was shown that NGC 7603 (Mrk 530, Arp 92) is a remarkable example of an anomalous redshift association (Arp 1971). NGC 7603 is a Seyfert 1 galaxy with strong spectral variability (Kollatschny et al. 2000). A smaller galaxy (NGC 7603B, denoted by object 1 in the figure 1) lies at the end of a filament which apparently connects both galaxies. The galaxies have redshifts corresponding to 8700 km/s and 17000 km/s respectively.

Sharp (1986) suggested that the absence of emission lines in the smaller galaxy argued against a possible interaction between NGC 7603 and the smaller companion (NGC 7603B$``$object 1). However, the non-detection of emission lines is not proof against the existence of a physical connection. In interactions and ejections with a larger galaxy, the gas is often stripped out of a stellar system; so the lack of emission lines could be taken as an indication of interaction rather than non interaction. It might also be that NGC7603B, although roughly at the same distance, is not close enough to NGC7603 to have tidal effects and star formation.

NGC 7603 and other examples, in which two galaxies with different redshifts are apparently connected by a filament, have been considered fortuitous by most researchers. However, we decided that a deep analysis of this system should be carried out to try to give an answer to the controversy. We considered it important to determine the redshifts of the two observed knots (Arp 1971) (objects 2 and 3) in the filament. For some time after the discovery of the system, attempts were made to obtain spectra of the objects in the bridge, but because of limitations of the equipment available in the 1970s, none was successful (M. Burbidge, private comm.). In this paper we report observations in which we were succesful in obtaining spectra of not two but four objects connected by the filament. In §3, we discuss the spectra of objects 2 and 3.

## 2 Observations

Table 1 summarizes the observations111Based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. used in this paper. The image in R-band (Fig. 1a) shows NGC 7603 with 3 companions: NGC 7603B (object 1), object 2 and object 3. We took long-slit spectra of the southern part of NGC 7603B, and objects 2 and 3; all the spectra were obtained within the same 5 arcseconds-width slit indicated by a dashed line in Fig. 1b.

## 3 Discrepant redshifts

Figures 1a,1b show clearly the filament between NGC 7603 and NGC 7603B (object 1). A knot (object 2) is perfectly centered in the line of the filament and positioned where the filament connects to NGC7603B. The other knot (object 3) is also perfectly centered to within 1 arcsecond in the filament, and is positioned where the filament connects with NGC7603. There is also a second filament which sweeps around from the main galaxy through the position of the companion NGC7603B (Arp 1971, 1975). The halo of the common system extends over the northern area of NGC7603B, that is at the left side of the center of NGC7603 in Fig. 1a. However, the halo does not extend on the right position in the same way.

We have determined the redshift of the objects 1(NGC 7603B) to 3. Table 2 summarizes the information about these objects. Fig. 2a shows the spectra of the objects 2 and 3, which are emission line sources with redshifts 0.243 and 0.391 respectively. OII, Hβ and the OIII doublet are plotted in Fig. 2a. They can be classified as broad line objects (Seyfert 1/quasar) since the Hβ line in both cases has a $`FWHM2400`$ km/s, broader than the forbidden lines OIII with a $`FWHM1500`$ km/s (the width of the narrower lines is mainly instrumental), which implies an intrinsic broadening of H$`{}_{\beta }{}^{}1900`$ km/s. Seyfert galaxies and quasars are basically the same, and differ only in the proportion of light coming from the active nucleus and the host galaxy, so we do not make a distinction between these objects; the important feature is the broadening of $`H_\beta `$. Fig. 3 gives a zoom of Fig. 2a for the object 2 around $`H_\beta `$ and OIII lines which shows better the broadening of Hβ. For the object 3, the broadening is similar but the signal/noise ratio is smaller and perhaps not conclusive. A high contrast between the widths of the narrow and the wide lines cannot be expected because the aperture used in our slit produce a large instrumental broadening of the lines. These spectra are similar to other spectra for quasars/Seyferts 1 in other examples of anomalous redshifts (Burbidge 1995, 1997). Moreover, they are point-like objects (FWHM equal to the seeing: $`1.0^{\prime \prime }`$) which is another expected feature in this kind of objects. Other authors (Burbidge 1995, 1997; Arp et al. 2001) have also reported the detection of quasars/Seyferts 1 apparently ejected by a parent Seyfert galaxy.

If we did not trust either the argument of the broadening of Hβ nor the argument of their being point-like objects, they would be narrow emission line extended objects. They would be HII galaxies or LINERs because $`R_{23}\frac{[OII]+[OIIIa]+[OIIIb]}{H_\beta }=`$4.2 and 5.5 respectively for objects 2 and 3, while Seyfert 2 should have this ratio larger than 12.5 (Dessauges-Zavadsky et al. 2000). They should not be LINERs because $`\frac{[OIIIb]}{H_\beta }=2.4`$ and 1.0 respectively for objects 2 and 3, larger than 0.5 (Filippenko & Terlevich 1992). Hence, they would be HII galaxies.

NGC 7603B and the filament present absorption lines, respectively with redshifts 0.058 and 0.030 (like NGC7603). In Fig. 2b, it is shown a part of the spectra, where we can identify Hβ, OIII and MgI. The filament zones were taken as a sum of 87 columns (0.188 arcseconds each) in the zone 1 and 173 columns in the zone 2. Although the identification of lines for the filament is not as clear as for the emission line objects (because the signal/noise ratio is lower), we can tentatively attribute to it a redshift of 0.030 consistent with the NGC7603 redshift. This means that we do not see a progressive change of the redshift between 0.029 and 0.057, which would be expected if both galaxies were at the same distance and the different redshift were due to a Doppler effect of peculiar motions. This is, in some way, the least problematic of our measures. It would be ideal to have longer exposures or a larger telescope to confirm this measurement, although in any case, the most remarkable fact here is the redshift of objects 1(NGC 7603B)-3 rather than the redshift of the filament.

NGC 7603B is a galaxy with magnitude $`m_B=16.8`$ (Sharp 1986) and we have measured magnitudes $`m_R=21.8`$ and $`m_R=21.4`$ respectively for objects 2 and 3 (table 2). Those two objects are more prominent in blue plates than in red plates (Sharp 1986); object 2 is even visible in the blue POSSII plates (with limiting magnitude between 21.0 and 21.5), so we can be sure that the equivalent $`m_{b_j}`$ is not fainter than $`21.9`$, even brighter if there were some extinction through the filament. Up to these magnitudes, we have $`N_18`$ deg-2 (from complete galaxy counts: Metcalfe et al. 1991); and $`N_2N_370350`$ deg-2, depending on the classification of the objects: $`70`$ if they were quasars/Seyfert 1 (from complete quasar counts: Boyle et al. 1991), or 5 times more if they were HII galaxies (10% of the emission line objects are quasars/Seyfert 1 and 50% are HII galaxies; Ho et al. 1997, Meyer et al. 2001). That is, there should be one object like these per each square of 3-7 arcminute size (20 arcminute size for NGC 7603B); much larger than the area of the filament ($`100`$ arcsec2).

## 4 Discussion and conclusions

We have clearly shown that two of the compact emission lines objects in the filament have redshifts very much greater than those of NGC 7603 and its companion galaxy. Thus we have presented a very well known system with anomalous redshifts, NGC 7603, to be an apparently much more anomalous than was previously thought. There are 4 objects with very different redshifts apparently connected by a filament associated with the lower redshift galaxy. This system is at present the most spectacular case that we know among the candidates for anomalous redshift. Future studies of this system are clearly warranted.

Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge the anonymous referee for helpful comments. Thanks are also given to Victor P. Debattista and Gustav Tammann (Astron. Inst. Basel) for helpful discussion about the present paper.


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# Ferromagnetic imprinting of spin polarization in a semiconductor

## Abstract

We present a theory of the imprinting of the electron spin coherence and population in an n-doped semiconductor which forms a junction with a ferromagnet. The reflection of non-equilibrium semiconductor electrons at the interface provides a mechanism to manipulate the spin polarization vector. In the case of unpolarized excitation, this ballistic effect produces spontaneous electron spin coherence and nuclear polarization in the semiconductor, as recently observed by time-resolved Faraday rotation experiments. We investigate the dependence of the spin reflection on the Schottky barrier height and the doping concentration in the semiconductor and suggest control mechanisms for possible device applications.

The physics of the semiconductor/ferromagnet interface is a crucial issue in the emerging field of spin electronics review . Progress has been made in injecting polarized electrons from ferromagnets ohno ; hammer ; zhu ; jonker3  or semimagnetic semiconductors jonker ; fied ; ZnSe2 ; ghali  into semiconductors, an essential step towards the exploitation of the spin degree of freedom in a new generation of multifunctional devices. Recently, time-resolved optical Faraday rotation measurements have demonstrated that the presence of a ferromagnetic interface FMimprinting ; FMcoherence  can produce spontaneous electron spin coherence and large nuclear magnetic fields in the semiconductor. Moreover, the spin-polarized photocurrent from a semiconductor into a ferromagnet Cambridge ; isakovic  has been shown to vary with optical polarization. We report here a theoretical study of the spin reflection of non-equilibrium electrons at the semiconductor/ferromagnet interface. Our results show how (1) unpolarized electrons in the semiconductor are spontaneously polarized and (2) a pre-existing spin polarization vector is tilted. The underlying physics is reminiscent of the Mott scattering mott  of electrons with atoms via spin-dependent interaction.

Our theory is based on the general scattering theory of the electron spin density matrix mott . In particular, we focus on tunneling through an insulator layer slon ; jansen  or a Schottky barrier rashba . The source of the electrons may be electrical or optical. The non-equilibrium carriers produce a spin current into the ferromagnet during the short momentum relaxation time following a pulsed excitation. This ultrafast ballistic process leaves a net spin coherence and population in the semiconductor. We show how to extract from the time-resolved Faraday rotation the ballistic spin transport properties of the semiconductor/ ferromagnetic junction and predict the dependence of the imprinted spin on the system parameters.

The Hamiltonian for the semiconductor/ferromagnet junction (see Fig. 1a-b),

$$H=K+V(x)+\frac{g^{}}{2}\mu _\mathrm{B}𝝈𝐁_\mathrm{T}\mathrm{\Theta }(x)+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{2}\sigma _M\mathrm{\Theta }(x),$$
(1)
consists of: the kinetic energy $`K`$ for the conduction band on the semiconductor side and two spin bands with exchange splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in the ferromagnet; the Schottky barrier potential $`V(x)`$; the Zeeman energy in the semiconductor where $`g^{}`$ is the effective electron g-factor ($`g_{\mathrm{GaAs}}^{}=0.44`$), $`\mu _\mathrm{B}`$ the Bohr magneton, and $`𝝈`$ the vector of Pauli matrices. The total field $`𝐁_\mathrm{T}`$ is the sum of the applied field $`𝐁`$ and of the local field $`𝐁_\mathrm{N}`$ due to the nuclear polarization. $`\sigma _M`$ is the Pauli matrix in the magnetization direction and $`\mathrm{\Theta }`$ is the step function. The orbital effect of the weak magnetic field is neglected.

The contribution to the spin polarization by the valence holes can be neglected since the hole spin relaxation time is much shorter than the optical recombination time $`T_{\mathrm{rec}}`$ holes  due to spin mixing in the valence bands by the spin-orbit interactionueno . The spin dephasing time of the conduction electron in n-doped samples is shown to be much longer than the recombination time longlived . Because of the dominant role of the magnetization in the ferromagnet, we denote the majority and minority spin states by $`|+`$ and $`|`$ respectively. These states are eigenstates of the ferromagnetic exchange splitting operator, namely $`\sigma _M|\pm =|\pm `$ (note that the magnetization $`𝐌`$ is antiparallel to the net electron spin $`𝐒^{\mathrm{fm}}`$). The spin-dependent reflection of the semiconductor electrons at the ferromagnetic interface is represented by the reflection matrix $`\widehat{r}(𝐤)`$ in the electron spin space. In the ferromagnetic spin basis $`\{|,|+\}`$, the reflection matrix has the diagonal representation $`\widehat{r}(𝐤)=|r_{,𝐤}|+|+r_{+,𝐤}+|`$, where $`r_{,𝐤}`$ ($`r_{+,𝐤}`$) is the reflection coefficient for a semiconductor electron spin aligned with the ferromagnet minority (majority) spin band. This diagonal representation in the ferromagnetic spin basis is exact only if the semiconductor magnetic field $`𝐁_\mathrm{T}`$ is parallel to the magnetization $`𝐌`$. However, the exchange splitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ in a ferromagnet is typically several orders of magnitude larger than the semiconductor Zeeman splitting. We have verified explicitly that the effect of the magnetic field $`𝐁_\mathrm{T}`$ on the spin-dependent reflection matrix is negligible. Also, the effective magnetic field due to the lack of the inversion symmetry (the Rashba effect) is negligible here. For extraction of the spin polarization, it is convenient to express the reflection matrix in the form

$$\widehat{r}(𝐤)=\frac{1}{2}\left[(r_{,𝐤}+r_{+,𝐤})𝟙+(𝕣_{,𝐤}𝕣_{+,𝐤})\widehat{𝐌}𝝈\right],$$
(2)
where $`𝟙`$ is the unit matrix and $`\widehat{𝐌}`$ is the unit vector along the magnetization.

Consider the excitation of the n-doped semiconductor by a short optical pulse. Immediately after the light absorption, the excited electron spin density matrix on the semiconductor side is $`\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{i}(𝐤,t=0)=f^\mathrm{i}(k)\frac{1}{2}(𝟙+𝐏^\mathrm{i}𝝈)`$, where $`f^\mathrm{i}(k)`$ is the non-equilibrium electron distribution injected by the exciting laser. The polarization vector $`𝐏^\mathrm{i}`$ depends on the optical selection rules. Since the pump has injected electrons, there will be an electron current (per unit area) from the semiconductor into the ferromagnet,

$$\widehat{j}(t)=\widehat{j}^\mathrm{i}(t)+\widehat{j}^\mathrm{r}(t)=_{k_\mathrm{x}>0}\frac{d^3𝐤}{(2\pi )^3}[\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{i}(𝐤,t)\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{r}(𝐤,t)]v_x,$$
(3)
where $`v_x=\mathrm{}k_x/m_s`$ is the velocity component normal to the interface. The reflected density matrix is given by

$`\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{r}(𝐤,t)`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{r}(𝐤)\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{i}(𝐤,t)\widehat{r}^{}(𝐤)`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`f^\mathrm{i}(k,t){\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[R_0(𝐤)𝟙+𝐑(𝐤)𝝈],`$ (5)
where, with the $`𝐤`$-dependence understood,

$`R_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(|r_{}|^2+|r_+|^2)+(|r_{}|^2|r_+|^2)\widehat{𝐌}𝐏^\mathrm{i}],`$ (6)
$`𝐑`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(|r_{}|^2|r_+|^2)+(|r_{}|^2+|r_+|^2)\widehat{𝐌}𝐏^i]\widehat{𝐌}`$
$`+`$ $`\mathrm{Re}(r_{}r_+^{})(\widehat{𝐌}\times 𝐏^\mathrm{i})\times \widehat{𝐌}\mathrm{Im}(r_{}r_+^{})\widehat{𝐌}\times 𝐏^\mathrm{i}.`$
The time-dependence of $`\widehat{\rho }^\mathrm{i}(𝐤,t)`$ is dominated by the relaxation of the hot carrier distribution $`f^\mathrm{i}(k,t)`$. The spin precession due to a weak applied magnetic field and spin relaxation occur on a much longer time scale compared to the fast orbital relaxation. In the relaxation time approximation, the decay of the non-equilibrium electron population is $`f^\mathrm{i}(k,t)=f^\mathrm{i}(k)\mathrm{exp}(t/\tau _k)`$, yielding a simple expression for the surface spin density imprinted in the semiconductor,

$`𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{Tr}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2}}𝝈{\displaystyle 𝑑t[\widehat{j}^\mathrm{i}(t)+\widehat{j}^\mathrm{r}(t)]}\right\}`$ (8)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{2}}{\displaystyle _{k_\mathrm{x}>0}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^3𝐤}{(2\pi )^3}}f^\mathrm{i}(k)\left[𝐑(𝐤)𝐏^\mathrm{i}\right]\tau _kv_x.`$
After the transient, the surface spin density inherited by the n-doped semiconductor is $`𝐒^{\mathrm{tot}}=n^iL\frac{\mathrm{}}{2}𝐏^\mathrm{i}+𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$ where $`n^\mathrm{i}=\frac{d^3𝐤}{(2\pi )^3}f^\mathrm{i}(k)`$ is the volume density of pumped electrons and $`L`$ is the sample length. Of course, this holds when $`n^\mathrm{i}`$ is smaller than the doping density $`n`$ (acting as a spin reservoir) and when $`L`$ is larger than the mean-free path. In fact, for very thin samples, our treatment needs to be refined to account for multiple reflections.

In the following, we will consider separately the two cases of spin unpolarized and polarized excitation.
(i) Unpolarized excitation
The injected electron ensemble is unpolarized ($`\mathrm{P}^\mathrm{i}=0`$). Reflection from the ferromagnet results in a net spin surface density,

$$𝐒^\mathrm{r}=\frac{\mathrm{}}{4}\widehat{𝐌}_{k_\mathrm{x}>0}\frac{d^3𝐤}{(2\pi )^3}f^\mathrm{i}(k)\left(|r_{,𝐤}|^2|r_{+,𝐤}|^2\right)\tau _kv_x.$$
(9)
The amplitude of the imprinted spin in the semiconductor is determined by the difference between the spin-dependent reflectivities. For each momentum channel the mean free path is $`\tau _kv_x`$. Finally, $`𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$ is aligned either parallel or antiparallel to the ferromagnetic magnetization $`𝐌`$, depending on the interface properties, which will be shown below.

In an applied magnetic field $`𝐁`$, the Larmor precession of the imprinted spin polarization is given by $`_t𝐒(t)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{}}g^{}\mu _\mathrm{B}𝐁_\mathrm{T}\times 𝐒(t)\frac{1}{T_2}𝐒(t)`$, where $`T_2`$ is the spin relaxation time and the initial condition is $`𝐒(t0)=𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$. The total field $`𝐁_\mathrm{T}=𝐁+𝐁_\mathrm{N}`$ contains the local contribution $`𝐁_\mathrm{N}`$ due to the nuclear polarization orientation  where $`𝐁_\mathrm{N}(g^{}/|g^{}|)(𝐒^r𝐁)𝐁/B^2`$. The imprinting of the nuclear spins also affects the effective Larmor precession frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_L=g^{}\mu _\mathrm{B}(B+B_\mathrm{N})/\mathrm{}`$ NMR  which can be measured by the time-resolved optical Faraday rotation FMimprinting ; FMcoherence . The Faraday rotation of a linearly polarized probe beam is proportional to the component of the net electron spin along the direction of the photon wave-vector $`𝐤_{\mathrm{phot}}`$ in the medium, i.e. $`\mathrm{FR}(t)𝐒(t)𝐤_{\mathrm{phot}}/k_{\mathrm{phot}}`$. Now, consider the Voigt geometry with light propagating along the x direction and magnetic field in the $`z`$ direction. Let the ferromagnetic magnetization be in the interface plane at an angle $`\alpha `$ to $`𝐁`$ (i.e. $`𝐌=M(0,\mathrm{sin}\alpha ,\mathrm{cos}\alpha )`$). Since $`g^{}<0`$, the nuclear field is $`B_\mathrm{N}\left(|r_+|^2|r_{}|^2\right)\tau v_x\mathrm{cos}\alpha `$. The spontaneous Faraday rotation is $`\mathrm{FR}(t)\left(|r_{}|^2|r_+|^2\right)\tau v_x\mathrm{sin}\alpha \mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }_Lt)e^{t/T_2}.`$ Therefore, for $`\alpha =0`$ the nuclear imprinting is maximum while there is no spontaneous Faraday rotation. On the other hand, for $`\alpha =\pi /2`$, the nuclear field vanishes while the spontaneous coherence has the maximum amplitude. Moreover, the Faraday rotation oscillates in time as $`\mathrm{sin}(\mathrm{\Omega }_Lt)`$. These trends are in perfect agreement with the experimental observations FMimprinting ; FMcoherence . The theory predicts similar spin polarization effects when an unpolarized current is injected electrically, for example through a ballistic V-groove with non-magnetic contacts as shown in Fig. 1d.

(ii) Polarized excitation
When the excited electron population has a pre-existing spin polarization ($`𝐏^\mathrm{i}\mathrm{𝟎}`$), the current in the semiconductor is changed by the spin polarization and the spin polarization is altered. In addition to two components in the plane defined by the magnetization and initial polarization vectors, there will be an additional component normal to the plane \[cf. Eq. (LABEL:polar)\], as shown in Fig. 1c. Evidence for polarization-dependence of the ferromagnetic imprinting has been reported in Ref. FMcoherence, . Additional studies as a function of the relative orientation between $`\widehat{𝐌}`$ and $`𝐏^i`$ will be needed to test the dependence predicted in Eq. (LABEL:polar). Such a change of the spin polarization direction could provide a mechanism for the manipulation of the semiconductor spin polarization vector.

For the phenomena discussed above to be measurable, the spin-dependence of the reflection coefficients need to be sufficiently strong. We point out that since the transmittance $`|t|^2=1|r|^2`$ in either direction through the barrier is the same, reflection in the semiconductor is no more efficient in creating spin polarization than injection from the ferromagnet. To investigate the dependence on the parameters of the Schottky barrier, we calculate the spin-dependent reflection coefficients for a simplified model of the semiconductor/ferromagnet junction. We consider first a rectangular barrier $`V(x<0)=U_\mathrm{b}\mathrm{\Theta }(x+a)E_\mathrm{s}\mathrm{\Theta }(xa)`$, where $`U_\mathrm{b}`$ is the barrier height measured from the Fermi level and $`E_\mathrm{s}=\mathrm{}^2(3\pi ^2n)^{2/3}/(2m_\mathrm{s})`$ is the kinetic Fermi energy of the n-doped semiconductor. The spin-dependent reflection coefficients are

$`r_{\pm ,𝐤}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{2k_\mathrm{b}a}(iv_\pm ^{\mathrm{fm}}v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\mathrm{x}+v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\pm ^{\mathrm{fm}}+v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\mathrm{x}v_\mathrm{b})}{e^{2k_\mathrm{b}a}(iv_\pm ^{\mathrm{fm}}v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\mathrm{x}v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\pm ^{\mathrm{fm}}+v_\mathrm{b})(iv_\mathrm{x}+v_\mathrm{b})}},`$
where $`v_\pm ^{\mathrm{fm}}`$ is the Fermi velocity (along the x-direction) of the majority (minority) band in the ferromagnet. In the simplified case of two parabolic bands, $`v_+^{\mathrm{fm}}=\sqrt{2E_F/m_{\mathrm{fm}}}`$ and $`v_{}^{\mathrm{fm}}=\sqrt{2(E_F\mathrm{\Delta })/m_{\mathrm{fm}}}`$, implying that $`v_+^{\mathrm{fm}}>v_{}^{\mathrm{fm}}`$. Note that a non-parabolic band dispersion can lead to an opposite relationship, i.e. $`v_+^{\mathrm{fm}}<v_{}^{\mathrm{fm}}`$. The wave-vector $`k_\mathrm{b}=\sqrt{2m_\mathrm{s}(U_\mathrm{b}+E_\mathrm{s})/\mathrm{}^2k_\mathrm{x}^2}`$ is that of the evanescent wave in the barrier region and $`v_\mathrm{b}=\mathrm{}k_\mathrm{b}/m_\mathrm{s}`$. Finally, $`v_\mathrm{x}=\mathrm{}k_\mathrm{x}/m_\mathrm{s}`$ is the incident velocity in the semiconductor. A more realistic Schottky barrier is represented by a parabolic bent potential $`V(x)`$ (see Fig. 1b) with depletion layer $`d\sqrt{ϵ_0U_\mathrm{b}/(2\pi ne^2)}`$ where $`ϵ_0`$ the dielectric constant. To improve our estimate, for each value of $`k_x`$ we approximate the reflection coefficients by taking an effective rectangular barrier width $`a=a(k_\mathrm{x})`$ such that the action integral in the barrier region is the same.

Representative results for realistic material parameters are plotted in Fig. 2. Panel (a) shows contours of $`|r_{,𝐤}|^2|r_{+,𝐤}|^2`$ as a function of the doping density $`n`$ and the barrier height $`U_b`$. In the region where tunneling is significant, the predicted difference between majority and minority reflectivities can be 25 % (the polarization is actually large also when tunneling is small remark ). When $`|r_{,𝐤}|^2|r_{+,𝐤}|^2`$ is positive (negative), the imprinted spin $`𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$ is parallel (antiparallel) to the magnetization $`𝐌`$ in the ferromagnet. For vanishing barrier height and low doping, the transmittance into the ferromagnet is dominated by the spin channel with the lower ferromagnet Fermi velocity, allowing a better matching with the small semiconductor velocity. However, with increasing doping, the semiconductor velocity increases and eventually can match better the ferromagnet spin band with the larger velocity. This is the reason for the change of sign of $`|r_{,𝐤}|^2|r_{+,𝐤}|^2`$ as a function of doping in the low barrier region. When the barrier height is large enough, the velocity matching is not the only relevant feature. Indeed, for moderate doping a barrier increase can induce a change of sign of $`|r_{,𝐤}|^2|r_{+,𝐤}|^2`$ in analogous way to what is predicted for ferromagnet/oxide junctions slon . This prediction suggests that by using a forward bias (i.e., semiconductor Fermi level higher than that in the metal) to tune the semiconductor barrier $`U_\mathrm{b}`$, the sign and amplitude of the imprinted spin could be controlled.

Actually, different spin orientations with different materials have been observed experimentally FMcoherence . In a GaAs/MnAs heterojunction, $`𝐒^\mathrm{r}`$ has been found to be antiparallel to $`𝐌`$, while for a GaAs/Fe system the spin is parallel. Recent transport characterizations of GaAs/MnAs suggest that the Schottky barrier in this system can be very low, allowing nearly ohmic conduction MnAsohmic  and significant spin valve effect in trilayer structures MnAsvalve . In the case of iron, the barrier is quite high (0.7 eV) and thus our model predicts an imprinted spin parallel to $`𝐌`$ as observed FMcoherence . The relatively high efficiency observed in the case of the iron junction at very low doping density ($`10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^3`$) FMcoherence  may be due to the very thin GaAs active region ($`L=100\mathrm{nm}`$) of the investigated sample. The effects of finite size on the Schottky barrier and of multiple electron reflections could significantly enhance the spin reflection efficiency, an issue under current investigation. To complete our study, Fig. 2b depicts the contours of $`\mathrm{Im}(r_{}r_+^{})`$, representing the amplitude of the component of the imprinted spin along $`\widehat{𝐌}\times 𝐏^i`$ (see Eq. (LABEL:polar)) which we predict to occur when the excited electrons are already polarized ($`𝐏^i\mathrm{𝟎}`$).

In conclusion, we have presented a ballistic theory for the ferromagnetic imprinting of the spin coherence and population in an n-doped semiconductor following pulsed excitation. We have given an analysis of the optical pumping and the all-optical detection of spin transport through the time-resolved Faraday rotation, giving a framework for the interpretation of recent experiments FMimprinting ; FMcoherence . We suggest that an electrical tuning of the Schottky barrier could allow for control of the sign and amplitude of the imprinted spin. For the possibilities of device applications, generation of spin currents and reorientation of the spin polarization are predicted also for electrical excitation of non-equilibrium electrons in the semiconductor using traditional non-magnetic contacts. Detailed studies of particular systems and quantitative comparison with experiments will be given elsewhere.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work is supported by DARPA/ONR N0014-99-1-1096 and NSF DMR 0099572. CC is also grateful to the Swiss National Foundation for additional support. JPM acknowledges a graduate fellowship by California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. We thank D.D. Awschalom for discussions and for the experimental results FMcoherence  prior to publication.


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# Chandra LETGS Observation of the Active Binary Algol

## 1 Introduction

Stellar coronae cannot be spatially resolved, yet they are thought to be highly structured just like the solar corona, whose X-ray emission comes almost exclusively from hot plasma confined in magnetic loops. So far the only way to infer structural information in such unresolved stellar point sources has been via eclipse studies in suitably chosen binary systems. Observations of the X-ray light curve can yield information on the location of the X-ray emission (Preś et al.  1995), although the eclipse mapping reconstruction problem is highly under-determined; after all, one is trying to reconstruct a three-dimensional intensity distribution from a one-dimensional light curve. Among a variety of problems discussed in detail by Schmitt  (1998), a specific difficulty arises from the fact that in most eclipsing systems both components are known or likely to be X-ray emitters. Obviously the reconstruction problem is easier to solve in those cases where one of the binary components is X-ray dark. At X-ray wavelengths only two such systems have been studied so far, the eclipsing binary systems $`\alpha `$ CrB (cf. Schmitt & Kürster  1993) and $`\beta `$ Per (= Algol; Oord & Mewe  1989).

The Algol system actually consists of three components, a close eclipsing binary (containing a B8 main sequence star and a K2IV subgiant) and a more distant F-type star, which is not of interest for our purposes. The stellar parameters of the two stars of the eclipsing binary system (inclination angle is i=81) are listed in Tab. 1. Algol is one of the brightest coronal X-ray emitters in the soft X-ray band and has been observed with essentially all X-ray satellites flown so far. Particular interest in Algol’s X-ray emission arises from the fact that no magnetic dynamos and magnetic activity phenomena should occur on stars of spectral type B8, since such stars are fully radiative and thus the primary component of Algol should be X-ray dark. In consequence, all of Algol’s X-ray emission is believed to originate from the cool secondary, which is rapidly rotating because it is tidally locked with the primary on the orbital time scale (2.8 days). We note in passing, however, that there is – in contrast to the totally eclipsing system $`\alpha `$ CrB (cf. Schmitt & Kürster  1993) – no observational proof for this assumption. Nevertheless, X-ray eclipses at secondary optical minimum are expected, yet not all observations of Algol at secondary minimum yield evidence for such eclipses. For example, a long observation of Algol with the EXOSAT satellite (White et al.  1986) centered on secondary optical minimum showed no indication for any eclipse, suggesting the interpretation of a corona with a scale height of more than a stellar radius or a somewhat peculiar configuration of the corona at the time of observation. On the other hand, a long ROSAT PSPC observation (Ottmann & Schmitt  1996) did show evidence for a partial eclipse of the quiescent X-ray emission, demonstrating that a significant fraction of the quiescent X-ray emission is emitted within a stellar radius. A BeppoSAX observation (Schmitt & Favata  1999, Favata & Schmitt  1999) of Algol showed the total eclipse of a long-duration flare, and a sequence of four ASCA observations of Algol at secondary eclipse showed evidence for both eclipses and absence of eclipses at different occasions.

Another method to provide information on structure in spatially unresolved data consists of spectroscopic measurements of density. If the density measurements are combined with the measurement of the volume emission measure EM, an estimate of the emitting plasma volume can be obtained; in an eclipsing binary these volumes will be subject to additional light curve constraints. With the high-resolution spectrometers onboard Chandra it is possible to carry out high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy for a wide range of coronal X-ray sources. We have obtained a Chandra high-resolution X-ray spectrum of Algol, which allows us to combine the information derived from X-ray light curves and X-ray spectroscopy. We will specifically discuss the Algol spectra obtained with the Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (LETGS).

## 2 Instrument description and Observation

The LETGS is a diffraction grating spectrometer covering the wavelength range between 5 – 175 Å (0.07 – 2.5 keV) with a resolution $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda 2000`$ at the long wavelength end of the band pass; typical instrumental line widths are of the order 0.06 Å (FWHM) (cf., Ness et al.  2001a). A detailed description of the LETGS instrument is presented by Predehl et al.  (1997). We note in passing that the LETGS uses a microchannel plate detector (HRC-S) placed behind the transmission grating without any significant intrinsic energy resolution. Thus in contrast to CCD based detectors the energy information for individual counting events is solely contained in the events’ spatial location.
Accounting for the instrumental line widths the symmetry of the grating is sufficient to co-add both sides of the spectrum in order to obtain a better SN ratio (Ness et al.  2001a). The thus obtained spectrum is shown in Fig. 1. A rich line spectrum with lines from Fe, Si, Ne, O, and N can be recognized between 6 and 30 Å as well as many Fe lines above 90 Å. Strong continuum emission is also apparent almost over the whole observed band pass; we note in passing that the spectrum shown in Fig. 1 has not been corrected for effective areas.

## 3 X-ray fluxes and light curve

Algol was observed with the above described instrumental setup between March, 12, 2000, 18:36 and March, 13, 2000, 17:13. The total on-time was 81.41 ksec, almost identical to the actual exposure time. During this time 106181 source counts were collected on the negative side and 101469 counts on the positive side. The high spectral resolution of the LETGS allows the computation of incident photon and energy fluxes without the need of any plasma emission model. In particular, since the LETGS wavelength range covers both the ROSAT and the Einstein wavelength ranges we can directly calculate fluxes corresponding to the respective band passes of these instruments without the need of any model. Using only bins with $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}>0.1`$ cm2 and the distance d from Tab. 1 we compute a total X-ray luminosity of $`\mathrm{1.4\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/s. Restricting the wavelength range to the nominal ROSAT wavelength range (6.2-124 Å), we find $`\mathrm{1.1\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/s, within the Einstein band pass we find $`\mathrm{1.0\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/s (2.8-62 Å). These numbers can be compared with earlier measurements with these instruments. Berghöfer et al.  (1996) report an X-ray flux of L$`{}_{X}{}^{}=\mathrm{0.7\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/s measured with ROSAT. This agrees with our Chandra measurement to within 30% so that significant long term variability can be excluded. Ottmann & Schmitt  (1996) report an X-ray luminosity of L$`{}_{X}{}^{}=\mathrm{20\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/s during a flare, while their quiescent emission is consistent with the values reported by Berghöfer et al.  (1996). Our measurement is therefore well within the range of luminosities found in earlier observations.
In order to compute the ephemeris of Algol, we used the expression $`JD_{prim}`$ = 2445739.003 + 2.8673285 $`\times `$ E (Kim  1989; E being an integer) for the times of primary minimum. Our Chandra observation covers the phases 0.74 to 1.06, i.e., outside optical secondary minimum. In Fig. 2 we show the background-subtracted X-ray light curve of the LETGS data (in the ranges 10 - 120 Å, 10 - 20 Å, 20 - 80 Å, and 80 - 120 Å). As is clear from Fig. 2, the light curve shows a more or less continuous decrease in intensity throughout the Chandra observations by a factor of 1.38 (10 - 120 Å), 1.22 (10 - 20 Å), 1.47 (20 - 80 Å), and 1.77 (80 - 120 Å). Phasing of the data suggests the existence of a primary minimum in X-rays, when the late-type star is located in front of the early-type star, but from our discussion above this appears highly unlikely. Since the Algol system is known to be able to produce giant flares, a far more plausible interpretation would be to interpret the X-ray light curve as the “tail” of a long-duration flare, possibly similar to the one observed by Schmitt & Favata  (1999) with BeppoSAX. From this assumption, however, we would expect the radiation to become softer in time and to detect a cooling of the plasma. From Fig. 2 no evidence for softening can be deduced, rather the radiation becomes even harder. From the temperature dependent line ratios of the resonance lines of the H-like and He-like ions plotted in Fig. 3 again no evidence for cooling is apparent; the plasma might even become hotter with time, but at a very small rate. For oxygen the ratio raises from 3.6 $`\pm `$ 0.27 to 4.2 $`\pm `$ 0.35, for nitrogen from 2.7 $`\pm `$ 0.25 to 3.3 $`\pm `$ 0.37 and for magnesium from 1.7 $`\pm `$ 0.12 to 2.0 $`\pm `$ 0.16. Thus we find no indication for the ”tail” of a long duration flare from this spectral analysis. Other plausible scenarios can be thought of as, e.g., the time-evolution of one or more of the coronal active regions or rotational modulation.

## 4 Data analysis

The data extraction from the HRC-S and analysis of the spectra presented in this paper are identical to the methods described by Ness et al.  (2001a). Specifically the spectra are extracted along the spectral trace without any pulse height correction scheme, the background is taken from nearby adjacent regions on the microchannel plate. The two dispersion directions are co-added, but the individual dispersed spectra can still be used to check for inconsistencies in the co-added spectrum. The thus obtained spectrum is shown in Fig. 1.

### 4.1 Analysis of the continuum

The total spectrum in Fig. 1 shows two components, a multitude of emission lines and a significant continuum. The shape of the continuum suggests thermal bremsstrahlung emission as the dominant continuum emission process. This assumption is supported by the high temperatures measured for Si, Mg, and Fe (cf. Tab. 4). We therefore use the formula

$`{\displaystyle \frac{dW}{dVdtd\lambda }}`$ $`=`$ $`2.051\times 10^{19}n_e^2T^{1/2}{\displaystyle \frac{G(\lambda ,T)}{\lambda ^2}}e^{143.9/(T\lambda )}`$ (1)
\[erg cm-3 s-1 Å-1\]
(Mewe et al.  1986) for the specific volume emissivity $`\frac{dW}{dVdtd\lambda }`$ to model the continuum. $`T`$ is the plasma temperature in K and $`c`$ the speed of light in cm/s. The Gaunt factor $`G(\lambda ,T)=G_{\mathrm{ff}}(\lambda ,T)+G_{\mathrm{bf}}(\lambda ,T)`$ is modeled as the sum of the free-free Gaunt factor

$`\mathrm{log}G_{\mathrm{ff}}(\lambda ,T)`$ $`=`$ $`0.355\lambda ^{0.06}\mathrm{log}\lambda `$
$`+0.3\lambda ^{0.066}\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{T}{10^8}}\right)+0.0043`$
(Mewe et al.  1986) and the bound-free Gaunt factor

$$G_{\mathrm{bf}}(\lambda ,T)=aT^be^{cT^d}$$
(3)
with the parameters $`a`$, $`b`$, $`c`$, and $`d`$ adopted from Mewe et al.  (1986). Introducing the variable $`x=1/\lambda `$ we derive from Eq. 1 an expression for the total number $`dW`$ of recorded photons divided by effective areas in each wavelength bin:

$$dW=BG(\lambda ,143.9/\alpha )/\sqrt{143.9/\alpha }x^2e^{\alpha x}$$
(4)
with $`B=2.05\times 10^{19}EM/(4\pi d^2)\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$, $`\alpha =143.9/T`$, and $`x=1/\lambda `$. The plasma temperature can be derived from $`\alpha `$ and the emission measure $`EM=n^2V`$ from $`B`$ while $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$=0.01 Å (the binsize of the spectrum), and the exposure time $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$=81.41 ksec. Best fit parameters $`B`$ and $`\alpha `$ are obtained with a $`\chi ^2`$ fit. In order to minimize the effects from the emission lines, we actually use the inverse spectrum to be compared with $`1/dW(B,\alpha )`$. In each iteration step we calculate the temperature from $`\alpha `$ with $`T(\alpha )=143.9/\alpha `$ and the Gaunt factor in each wavelength bin from Eqns. 4.1 and 3. From our best fit results we find $`T=20.7`$ MK and $`EM=67.5\times 10^{52}`$ cm-3. This temperature is high, we note, however, that the sensitivity to the temperature is quite different in the different wavelength ranges. In Fig. 4 three such wavelength ranges are shown for three different choices of temperature and the same emission measure $`EM=68\times 10^{52}`$ cm-3. Because of the flatness of bremsstrahlung spectra the choice of the temperature is not important above 18 Å, but the position of the cutoff does depend sensitively on temperature. The number of emission lines between 13 and 16 Å is quite high leading to line blends; the best fit bremsstrahlung continuum is therefore low (cf., middle panel of Fig. 4). With the bottom panel we wish to show that the assumption of $`T=14.4`$ MK provides a realistic description for all wavelength ranges and in particular for the region near the thermal cutoff of the X-ray spectrum. In this case 79% of the X-ray luminosity $`L_X`$ belongs to the continuum, thus $`L_{X,cont}=1.1\times 10^{31}`$ erg/sec. As a cross check we calculate the emission measure from the total luminosity and a mean radiative power loss due to bremsstrahlung of $`1.5\times 10^{23}`$ erg cm3/sec, and obtain $`EM=93\times 10^{52}`$ cm-3. From this exercise we note that the continuum can well be modeled with a bremsstrahlung spectrum, and our Chandra data are consistent with an emission measure $`EM=68\times 10^{52}`$ cm-3 and a (peak) temperature at 15 MK.

### 4.2 Extracted spectra and measured line ratios

For the analysis of emission lines we use a maximum likelihood method which compares the sum of a model and the instrumental background with the non-subtracted count spectrum. In this way Poisson statistics can be explicitly taken into account. The model spectrum consists of one or more lines with a variable or fixed spacing and a source background, which is assumed to be constant over the region of interest (i.e., the spectral lines under individual consideration). This assumption is well justified since both the instrumental background is quite flat as well as the source background (bremsstrahlung spectrum) once multiplied with the effective areas. The method includes Poisson fluctuations both in the line and background counts. Our code assumes the line profile functions to be Gaussian, but other shapes can be easily implemented. In this paper we used the CORA program111detailed description under
http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/Ins/Per/Ness/Cora, version 1.2, for the analysis. It has been developed and described by Ness et al.  (2001a), and can be downloaded from http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/science/astronomy/.

The analysis was performed on the basis of the count spectrum. The measured line counts are given in Tab. 3 and we list the best fits of the wavelengths $`\lambda `$, the Gaussian line-widths, the number of line photons, and the source background $`sbg`$ measured in counts/Å which is assumed constant within the individual parts of the spectrum under consideration. In the last column we list the effective areas (as provided by Pease et al.  Oct. 2000) as used for calculating line ratios needed for further analysis from the measurements; all errors in Tab. 3 are 1$`\sigma `$ errors. The first part of Tab. 3 contains the He-like triplets Si xiii, Mg xi, Ne ix, O vii, and N vi in combination with their H-like lines Si xiv, Mg xii, Ne x, O viii, and N vii. Since the Ne triplet is severely blended, the contaminating lines are also listed in Tab. 3.
For the density diagnostics of the higher temperature regions, five Fe xxi lines are also listed in Tab. 3, together with the ratios of each line with respect to the Fe xxi 128.73 Å line. For an estimate of optical depth effects, two Fe xvii lines were also measured and further analysis is performed in Sect. 7.

#### 4.2.1 Analysis of He-like line ratios

We first discuss the lower temperature He-like line systems from oxygen and nitrogen. In Fig. 5 (a,b) we show the region around the O vii triplet at 22 Å and the N vi triplet at 28 Å together with best fits of the resonance, intercombination, and forbidden lines. All three lines are clearly detected above the background, which is actually dominated by continuum radiation from Algol itself (cf., Fig. 1).

In Fig. 6 (a,b) we show the Mg xi and Si xiii triplets together with our best fits. Obviously, the relative spectral resolution of the LETGS becomes smaller with smaller wavelengths, and at short wavelengths the Chandra HETGS performs far better. Still, the lines are at least partially resolved and line parameters can be determined by fitting a line template to the data whose relative position is fixed. In this fashion the Si xiii triplet blend can be fitted and the determined value for the f/i ratio is consistent with the low density limit. The Mg xi triplet is more complicated. While the Mg xi r-line is clearly detected, there are no clear detections of the i and f-lines. In particular, the emission line feature(s) found at the expected position of the Mg xi f-line is unusually broad, yet we are not aware of other strong contaminating lines in that region as is suggested by the fit in Fig. 6 (b). The determined line fluxes and hence line ratios do of course depend on the adopted background levels, yet in no case do we find an f/i-ratio consistent with the low density limit. Since this is in conflict with both the Si xiii data as well as the Fe xxi data discussed below, we consider the “detections” of the Mg xi i and f lines shown in Fig. 6 (b) and reported in Tab. 3 as spurious.

#### 4.2.2 Analysis of the Ne ix triplet

The analysis of the Ne ix triplet is notoriously difficult, because of severe blending of the intercombination line at 13.55 Å with an Fe xix line at 13.52 Å (cf., Fig. 7 and Tab. 3). The Ne ix resonance and the forbidden lines are clearly detected, while the intercombination line is “lost” in a large line blend longward of the resonance line. Our fits indicate 665 counts in the r-line, 385 counts in the f-line, and 736 counts in the i-line blend. The question is how many of those 736 counts are due to the Ne ix i-line rather than Fe xix. In the following we estimate that by, first, constraining the fit to G=(f+i)/r=0.8, and, second, by extrapolating line fluxes from other Fe xix lines.

The fit shown in Fig. 7 was performed enforcing the boundary condition of G=0.8. With this constraint a reasonable fit is obtained with 147 counts in the intercombination line and the remaining 589 counts in the Fe xix line. We now discuss whether this line count of 589 counts is consistent with extrapolations from other Fe xix lines using MEKAL (Mewe et al.  1995) for calculating flux ratios. For this purpose we selected four other Fe xix lines suitable for comparison, i.e., they are sufficiently isolated and/or sufficiently strong. These lines are located at 13.79 Å, 14.67 Å, 101.5 Å, and 108.5 Å, and our fit results are listed in Tab. 2; for comparison we use as reference line the Fe xix at 13.52 Å. The measured flux ratios can be used for comparison with theoretical line flux ratios taken from MEKAL (Mewe et al.  1995). From the temperature analysis in Sect. 5 and from Tab. 4 we assume a temperature of 10 MK for extrapolating flux ratios from the theoretical fluxes.

The measured Fe xix and Fe xvii ratios listed in Tab. 2 indicate that the measured flux ratios are systematically smaller than the theoretical ratios from MEKAL. This effect is more significant when using the Chianti data base. But the general trend is quite convincing indicating the Fe xix lines at 13.52 Å and 13.79 Å to be well modelled in Fig. 7 and in Tab. 3. Also the results for Fe xvii at 13.84 Å seem to be realistic.

Eventually a reduction of Fe xix at 13.52 Å would cure the difference between measured and theoretical ratios, leading to a higher value of the intercombination line. This would mean a higher G ratio (i.e., a lower temperature) and a lower f/i ratio (i.e., a higher density). But this reduction, in combination with a reduced Fe xix at 13.79 Å flux, would also require an enhancement of the Fe xvii line at 13.84 Å in order to retain the sum of the blend at 13.79Å/13.84 Å, and the ratio of this line with the very strong 15 Å line would become smaller, which is the opposite effect of what would be intended with the reduction. We therefore trust our results obtained from the constrained fit only fixing the G ratio to 0.8.

#### 4.2.3 Analysis of Fe xxi line ratios

The analysis of most of the Fe xxi lines was straightforward. For the Fe xxi line at 121.21 Å only an upper limit could be determined. Some difficulties were encountered for the Fe xxi 102.22 Å and the Fe xxi 117.505 Å lines. The Fe xxi line at 102.22 Å is partially blended with the 6th order of Fe xvii at the original wavelength at 17.054 Å. The Fe xxi line at 117.505 Å is found to be very broad such that it is difficult to find the correct wavelength position. In the top panel of Fig. 8 our model with the isolated Fe xix line at 101.55 Å together with Fe xxi at 102.22 Å and the 6th order of Fe xvii is shown. In the bottom panel of Fig. 8 the Fe xxi at 117.505 Å is shown in combination with the strong, isolated Fe xxii line at 117.17 Å. In both cases the isolated lines are used to determine the line shift of our measurement in comparison with the theoretical wavelengths. In that way the expected wavelength position for the weaker, or blended lines under consideration was used for the fit.

## 5 Temperature diagnostics

We carry out temperature diagnostics using temperature sensitive line ratios of Lyα/Her and of Fe y/Fe $`\mathrm{y}+1`$. The results are listed in Tab. 4. The ratios Lyα/Her were calculated from the line fluxes corrected for effective areas, as listed in Tab. 3. We assume plasma emissivities as calculated in the Codes MEKAL (Mewe et al.  1985; Mewe et al.  1995) and SPEX (Kaastra et al.  1996) and compare the measured ratios with the calculated emissivity ratios in order to derive line formation temperatures. The results are listed in Tab. 4 as $`T`$(H-He).

In addition we also investigate the temperature of Fe emitting layers with various Fe flux ratios (cf. Tab. 4 bottom). We used the photon fluxes corrected for effective areas from Tab. 3 and compared the ratios with theoretical ratios derived with MEKAL and SPEX, in the same manner as for the Lyα/Her ratios. The theoretical flux of the Fe xviii 16.078 Å was corrected (enhanced) by a factor of 2.14 following Mewe et al.  (2001).
From this analysis we find a cooler component of 8 MK, which is consistent with the Lyα/Her result for Ne. We also find hotter plasma at 10.5 MK in which the highly ionized Fe ions are formed. The ratios and derived temperatures are listed in Tab. 4. Clearly, a multitude of spectral components is present in the X-ray spectrum and we defer a discussion of the admissible emission measure distributions to a forthcoming paper.

## 6 Density diagnostics

Estimates of coronal density can be obtained from the density sensitive f/i ratio of He-like triplets and from the Fe xxi line ratios. The He-like N vi, O vii, and Ne ix ions probe the lower temperature components, while the Mg xi, Si xiii, and the Fe xxi ions are used to probe the higher temperature components of the coronal plasma. The low-Z He-like ions are sensitive at densities log($`n_e`$) between 9 and 12, while the high-Z He-like ions can only be used for higher densities above log$`(n_e)>`$12. Lower densities log$`(n_e)>11`$ at high temperatures $``$ 10 MK can be diagnosed from the Fe xxi ratios.

### 6.1 He-like ions

#### 6.1.1 Theory of He-like triplets

The theory of the atomic physics of He-like triplets has been extensively described in the literature (Gabriel & Jordan  1969, Blumenthal et al.  1972, Mewe & Schrijver  1978, Pradhan et al.  1981, Pradhan & Shull  1981, Pradhan  1982, Pradhan  1985, and recently Porquet & Dubau  2000, Porquet et al.  2001, and Ness et al.  2001a).

In this paper we will determine electron densities $`n_e`$ from the equation

$$R(n_e)=\frac{\mathrm{f}}{\mathrm{i}}=\frac{R_0}{1+\varphi /\varphi _c+n_e/N_\mathrm{c}}$$
(5)
where $`R_0`$ denotes the low density limit and the parameter $`N_\mathrm{c}`$ the so-called critical density (cf. Tab. 5), around which the observed line ratio is density-sensitive. Finally, the parameters $`\varphi `$ (the radiative absorption rate from $`2^3S`$ to $`2^3P`$ induced by an external radiation field) and $`\varphi _c`$ describe the additional possible influence of the stellar radiation field on the depopulation of the $`{}_{}{}^{3}S`$ state (cf., Sect. 6.1.2). Values for $`R_0`$ and $`N_\mathrm{c}`$ used in this paper are listed in Tab. 5. Also listed are the peak formation temperatures $`T_\mathrm{M}`$ for the ions.

#### 6.1.2 Influence of the stellar radiation field

Given the effective temperature of 13000 K of Algol A and its close proximity to Algol B (cf., Tab. 1), we must check to what extent the X-ray radiation originating from the corona of Algol B is influenced by the UV radiation from Algol A; the UV-radiation from the Algol B component itself is small when comparing its effective temperature with Capella ($`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$5000 K) and the values computed for $`\varphi /\varphi _c`$ to be used in Eq. 5 as derived by Ness et al.  (2001a). Also the measurements of other G and K type stars, as presented by Ness et al.  (2001c) suggest Algol B not to contribute to the total radiation field. Following Ness et al.  (2001a) we used IUE measurements of Algol in order to derive radiation temperatures for the desired wavelengths, listed in Tab. 6. From this we calculated values $`\varphi /\varphi _c`$ for N vi, O vii, and Ne ix using a dilution factor of

$$W=\frac{1}{2}\left[1\left\{1\left(\frac{r_{}}{a}\right)^2\right\}^{1/2}\right]=0.01$$
(6)
(Mewe & Schrijver  1978) using as distance between Algol A and B $`a=14.6R_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Forbes  1997) and the radius of Algol A $`r_{}=3.5R_{\mathrm{}}`$ (Tab. 1). The result of our analysis is listed in Tab. 6. Since we assumed the worst case scenario, we find the maximally possible values $`\varphi /\varphi _c`$, so that the effects are not negligible for O vii and not zero even for Ne ix. We do point out, however, that in the phases between 0.74 and 1.06 (cf. Sect. 3) much of the visible coronal emission could originate from regions not illuminated by the B star. With an inclination angle of $`81.5^{}`$ and the assumption of a uniform distribution of the coronal plasma, geometrical considerations lead to the result that at phase $`\varphi =1`$ only plasma near the polar regions can be illuminated by the primary component. A detailed discussion of these geometrical considerations is given in Ness et al.  (2001b). In the following analysis we calculate coronal densities with and without the effects of the radiation field from the B star, i.e., assuming $`\varphi /\varphi _c=0`$ and with the values for $`\varphi /\varphi _c`$ from Tab. 6.

#### 6.1.3 Densities with the He-like ions

The measured ratios f/i, corrected for $`A_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ (Pease et al.  Oct. 2000; the values are listed in the last column of Tab. 3), as quoted in Tab. 3, were used for density diagnostics. The theoretical curves from Eq. 5, with the values $`\varphi /\varphi _c`$ from Tab. 6 and the other parameters from Tab. 5, are plotted in Figs. 9 and 10 for each ion in comparison with our measurements for f/i with 1$`\sigma `$ errors. For the low-Z elements O, N, and Ne we also considered the case of no radiation field from the B star affecting the emitting layers with a line-dotted line in Fig. 9. The influence is most severe for N vi and O vii, but is also visible for Ne ix. Assuming a negligible radiation field from the primary component we obtain definite deviations from the low density limit for N vi and O vii and a marginal deviation for Ne ix; in the latter the latter case the 2$`\sigma `$ error includes the low density case. In these cases we find densities between 1–2 $`\times 10^{11}`$ cm-3 (cf., Tab. 7). Assuming the full radiation field supplied from the B star to be effective the sensitivity of our measurements to detect densities is significantly reduced because the difference between the R-value in the high density case (R = 0) and low-density case becomes smaller and smaller. Specifically, for our Algol LETGS spectrum we find that the data are consistent with the low-density limit for nitrogen and neon, and even for oxygen the low density limit is included within the 2$`\sigma `$ error bars. For silicon and magnesium radiation effects are unimportant. The derived f/i-ratio for silicon is consistent with the low density limit, while our measurements for magnesium (formally) yield densities of $``$ log n$`{}_{e}{}^{}=13`$; as discussed in Sect. 4.2.1 and Fig. 6 (b), we consider the measurements of the i and f lines in magnesium spurious.

### 6.2 Density diagnostic with Fe xxi

In addition to He-like ions, ions with more than two electrons can be used as a density diagnostic. The ground configuration of Fe xxi 1s22s22p2 splits up into $`{}_{}{}^{3}P`$, $`{}_{}{}^{1}D`$, $`{}_{}{}^{1}S`$. The energy difference between the ground state $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{0}^{}`$ and the excited levels $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{1}^{}`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{3}P_{2}^{}`$ is 9 eV and 14.5 eV, respectively, and 30 eV between ground state and $`{}_{}{}^{1}D_{2}^{}`$. In low-density plasmas virtually all atoms are in the ground state $`{}_{}{}^{3}P`$, while in high-density plasmas a Boltzmann equilibrium with the higher level will be obtained. Consequently, from excited levels certain lines will appear only in high-density plasmas. In contrast to He-like lines the appearance of certain lines is an indicator of high-density plasmas.

Our measurements of four Fe xxi ratios, corrected for effective areas and interstellar absorption are listed in Tab. 3 (effective areas and values from interstellar absorption are listed in the last two columns) and plotted in comparison with theoretical flux ratio vs. $`n_e`$ curves obtained with Chianti (Dere et al.  2001) in Figs. 11 and 12. As can be seen from Figs. 11 and 12, only low density limits or upper limits are obtained for all Fe xxi line ratios. Similar results are obtained when using the ratios from Brickhouse et al.  (1995). The most sensitive upper limit (log n$`{}_{e}{}^{}<11.52`$) comes from the Fe xxi 102.2 Å/128.7 Å ratio, and is a factor $``$ 24 below the upper limit derived for the Si xiii triplet, which is formed at similar temperatures. This comparison clearly shows that Fe xxi line ratios yield far more sensitive density constraints at high temperature as compared to He-like triplets from magnesium, silicon, and higher ions.

## 7 Optical depth effects

The Chandra Algol spectrum contains a number of strong Fe xvii lines which are sensitive to optical depth effects. In order to estimate the optical depth, we use an ”escape factor” model with a homogeneous mixture of emitters and absorbers in a slab geometry (e.g., Kaastra & Mewe  1995, Mewe et al.  2001). In this geometry the escape factor is $`P(\tau )[1+0.43\tau ]^1`$. Significant optical depths will lead to resonant scattering in strong lines.

If one considers two lines produced by the same ion, the ratio of the optical depths is given by

$$\frac{\tau _1}{\tau _2}=\frac{\lambda _1f_1}{\lambda _2f_2}.$$
(7)
Therefore, one must look for lines from the same ion and large difference in oscillator strength or wavelength. In the solar context one usually studies the ratio of the strong Fe xvii 15.03 Å resonance line ($`f=2.66`$) and another, nearby Fe xvii line with a small oscillator strength (e.g., 15.265 Å, $`f=0.593`$). Estimating the escape factor $`P`$ from $`P=\left(\frac{15.03\mathrm{\AA }}{15.27\mathrm{\AA }}\right)_{\mathrm{meas}}/\left(\frac{15.03\mathrm{\AA }}{15.27\mathrm{\AA }}\right)_{\tau =0}`$ we can deduce the optical depth.

For the measured Fe xvii 15.03/15.265 photon flux ratio we obtain a formal fit result of 2.81 $`\pm `$ 0.25 (cf. Tab. 3). This ratio does depend on the assumed background value and can vary between 2.32 and 3.45 when varying the source background (between 4000 and 5000 cts/Å; comp. Tab. 3). In this particular wavelength region (cf., Fig. 4, middle) line blending is severe and a correct “eye” placement of the continuum is difficult. However, our continuum modeling predicts relative stable values of 4500 cts/Å so that we are confident that our quoted result is correct and not affected by systematic errors from the placement of the continuum background. We point out that this measurement agrees remarkably well with the same line ratio as measured in Capella (Mewe et al.  2001); this is interesting because in Capella no measurements of density could be obtained.

The measured photon flux ratio must be compared to the $`\tau =0`$ flux ratio, which can be deduced either from theory or laboratory measurements. With SPEX we predict a ratio of 3.5, thus $`P=(2.81\pm 0.25)/3.5=0.8\pm 0.07`$, and therefore $`\tau =0.57\pm 0.26`$. With Chianti (Dere et al.  2001), a ratio of $`4`$ is expected for $`\tau =0`$, and using $`P=(2.81\pm 0.25)/4=0.7\pm 0.06`$ we find $`\tau =0.98\pm 0.3`$. In either case we find optical depths significantly different from zero (at $`23\sigma `$ level).

Unfortunately theory does not agree with experiment. The very same line ratio can be measured in the Livermore Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT; Brown et al.  2001, Laming et al.  2000). These experiments typically yield Fe xvii 15.03/15.265 photon flux ratios in the range 2.5 - 3.0, which are significantly different from those expected theoretically. Also, Brown et al.  (2001) point out that contamination of the 15.265 Å with Fe xvi further lowers the observed 15.03/15.265 photon flux ratio. Comparing the Algol (and Capella) flux ratios in 15.03/15.265 to the values quoted by Brown et al.  (2001) we therefore conclude that the observations are fully consistent with an optical thin plasma without any significant optical depth with possibly some contamination arising from Fe xvi. It is worrying that the theoretically predicted emission from some of the strongest emission lines observed in solar and stellar X-ray spectra appears to be wrong by $``$ 30 percent.

## 8 Discussion and Interpretation

From the derived parameters we can obtain structural information on Algol’s corona. From the lower temperature He-like ions definite coronal densities could be determined, from the higher temperature He-like ions as well as from the Fe xxi line ratios (cf., Tab. 7) upper limits to the coronal density at a temperature of 10 MK can be derived. Since EM = $`n_e^2V`$, typical coronal volumes $`V`$ can be estimated from the recorded emission measures.

We now assume that Algol’s corona is composed of a multitude of individual but identical loops, all of which obey the loop scaling equation (Rosner et al.  1978)

$$n_eL=1.3\times 10^6T_{\mathrm{apex}}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}},$$
(8)
with the densities $`n_e`$, the apex temperature $`T_{\mathrm{apex}}`$, and the loop semilength $`L`$, all in $`cgs`$ units. Of course, the apex temperature $`T_{\mathrm{apex}}`$ cannot be directly measured, it must however be close to the formation temperature of the ion with the highest ionization temperature and it can certainly not exceed the temperature of the bremsstrahlung continuum (Sect. 4.1). It is also clear that in Algol one is most likely dealing with a distribution of X-ray emitting loops as is the case in the solar corona. However, our data does not allow us to constrain the parameters of these distributions and therefore we model the distributions by their presumed mean values. From Tab. 4 we conclude that the apex temperatures $`T_{\mathrm{apex}}`$ must be approximately 15 MK, which is also supported by the continuum temperature, while from Tab. 7 we conclude that log $`n_e<`$ 11.5. Obviously the densities at 15 MK could be arbitrarily low. However, if we assume that the material at 15 MK is in thermal pressure equilibrium with the material at 2 MK (where the O vii line is produced) we estimate densities in the range log $`n_e`$ $``$ 9.7 - 10.2, depending on whether the X-ray emitting corona of Algol B is immersed in the UV radiation field of Algol A or not. For log $`n_e=`$ 11.5 we compute $`L=9\times 10^8`$ cm while for densities log $`n_e`$ = 9.7 - 10.2 we find $`L=180460\times 10^8`$ cm. In either case, the loop lengths are much smaller than the stellar radius of 2.45 $`\times 10^{11}`$ cm so that we assume to deal with an essentially planar geometry. If we assume “canonical loops” with circular cross sections of a tenth of the loop length, the volumes of such coronal building blocks are in the range 2.5 1025 cm3 to 3 1030 cm3, again depending on the assumed density, and in all cases one requires at least 1000 loops (or more) in order to account for the total observed emission measure.

Let us next assume that the considered loops are semicircular and extend to height

$$H=\frac{2L}{\pi }.$$
(9)
We define the coronal filling factor as the ratio between the available volume $`4\pi R^2H`$ and the actual volume of X-ray emitting material $`V_{\mathrm{cor}}=EM/n_e^2`$:

$$f=\frac{V_{\mathrm{cor}}}{V_{\mathrm{available}}}=\frac{EM}{8n_e^2R^2L},$$
(10)
where $`R`$ denotes the stellar radius. Inserting the scaling law to replace $`L`$ with $`T_{\mathrm{apex}}`$ and $`n_e`$, we finally find

$`f=9.6\times 10^8{\displaystyle \frac{EM}{n_eR^2T_{\mathrm{apex}}^2}}=9.6{\displaystyle \frac{EM_{52}}{n_{10}R_{11}^2T_6^2}}`$ (11)
\[$`EM_{52}=EM/10^{52}\mathrm{cm}^3,R_{11}=R/10^{11}\mathrm{cm},`$
$`T_6=T_{\mathrm{apex}}/10^6`$ K$`,n_{10}=n_e/10^{10}\mathrm{cm}^3`$\].
Using the continuum values $`EM_{52}=68`$ and $`T_6`$ = 15 we find $`f\times n_e=5\times 10^9`$ cm-3. Since the filling factor $`f`$ can be unity at most, we deduce that $`n_{min}=5\times 10^9`$ cm-3 and the actual density ought to exceed that value. Interestingly, $`n_{min}T_{\mathrm{apex}}/T_{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{v}\mathrm{i}\mathrm{i}}`$ is close to the density determined from demanding that the high temperature material is at the same pressure as the O vii emitting material (assuming that it is immersed in the primary’s radiation field). Alternatively, density values of $`1.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 lead to filling factors of $``$ 0.3. These densities can only be reached without the illuminating UV radiation field of the primary component. The overall phase range covered by the Chandra LETGS observations is 0.32. During that period the star rotates by 115; therefore most of the hemisphere visible at the beginning of our observations are not visible at the end. The observed light curve (cf. Fig. 2) with its slowly decreasing trend does not appear to give the impression of coming from a number of unrelated regions, rather, it appears to come from the same region on the star. This is only possible if the region is located near the pole (in which case it would be immersed in the radiation field) or if it is fortuitously located in a equatorial region which happens to be visible during the whole phase interval. While the latter possibility cannot be excluded, the former option appears more plausible given the previous evidence for polar activity in Algol (Schmitt & Favata  1999), the available VLBI images of Algol (Mutel et al.  1998) and the general occurrence of polar spots in Doppler images in general. It is attractive to interpret the observed X-ray emission as arising from the circumpolar regions, possibly from a long-duration flare similar to the one observed by Schmitt & Favata  (1999). Assuming as height the limit inferred from the eclipsing BeppoSAX flare (H $``$ 7 1010 cm) and as filling factor arbitrarily a value of 1 percent (which is the surface area of the circumpolar polar cap), we find a volume of $`4\times 10^{32}`$ cm3, which requires densities of $`2.5\times 10^{10}`$ cm-3 when combined with the observed emission measures. These densities refer to the hot material at temperatures of $`15`$ MK. Clearly, these densities are fully consistent with the observed upper limits.

Continuing in our picture of “canonical” loops, we can compare a typical pressure scale height $`H_p=5000T_{\mathrm{apex}}/(g/g_{})=3.8\times 10^{11}`$ cm using $`T_{\mathrm{apex}}=15`$ MK and $`g/g_{}=0.2`$, with a typical loop size $`L30\times 10^8`$ cm (Eq. 8). Since $`H_p>>L`$, the assumption of constant pressure is well justified. Hence $`P=n_eT`$ must be constant and thus Eq. 11 can be rewritten as

$`f=9.6{\displaystyle \frac{EM_{52}}{P_{16}R_{11}^2T_6}}T_6=9.6{\displaystyle \frac{EM_{52}}{P_{16}R_{11}^2f}}`$ (12)
\[$`P_{16}=n_eT/10^{16}`$ cm-3 K\],
which relates the unknown filling factor with the - in principle - measured parameters stellar radius, emission measure and coronal pressure. In Fig. 13 we plot the dependence of temperatures on filling factor for different pressures, using Eq. 12; the emission measure obtained from the continuum (Sect. 4.1) was used. The pressures are calculated from the measured temperatures (Tab. 4) and densities (Tab. 7) for O vii. In the case of the radiation field from the B star to influence the density diagnostics, a lower limit for the pressure of $`P=8\times 10^{16}`$ cm-3 K, using the peak formation temperature $`T=2.2`$ MK is calculated, while we obtain $`P=50\times 10^{16}`$ cm-3 K for the higher density from omitting the possible effects from the radiation field and the higher temperature obtained from the Ly$`{}_{\alpha }{}^{}/`$r ratio (Tab. 4).

It is clear that $`T`$ must exceed 10 MK and is very likely below 30 MK. For low pressure (P$`{}_{16}{}^{}=8`$) the filling factor would have to exceed 0.45, while for high pressure (P$`{}_{16}{}^{}=50`$) the filling factor would have to be in the interval $`0.07<f<0.21`$. Since we feel that filling factors $`f1`$ are unlikely, we favor a high pressure scenario.

## 9 Conclusions

The high-resolution spectrum obtained with the LETGS on board the Chandra observatory shows a large number of emission lines and an unusually strong continuum. We analyze both the emission lines and the continuum relying exclusively on ratios of individual lines. The LETGS observation interval covered the orbital phases between 0.74 to 1.06, the light curve appears to indicate a relative state of quiescence. A slow decline is seen, but cannot be attributed to the decay of a giant flare, since no cooling and no softening of the overall emission is detected. The total luminosity is $`L_X=\mathrm{1.4\hspace{0.17em}10}^{31}`$ erg/sec, roughly consistent with the X-ray luminosities found previously with Einstein and ROSAT.

We analyzed the continuum in order to determine an upper temperature and an overall emission measure. The continuum can well be modeled with a bremsstrahlung continuum and a temperature of 15 MK can be derived which is consistent with the peak formation temperature of, e.g., Si xiv which is clearly detected. Optical depth effects leading to resonant line scattering were analyzed and ruled out. The ratio of Fe xvii lines at 15 Å and 15.27 Å are used for testing optical depth effects, but inconsistencies in the atomic line data were found. From our findings in comparison with other measurements with the LETGS we conclude that a line ratio of $`2.8`$ must occur in plasmas with $`\tau =0`$.

The measurement of plasma temperatures is carried out using line ratios of ions from the same element in adjacent ionization stages as, e.g., Lyα and He-like resonance lines. At least two temperature components are found, allowing N vi (3.2 MK) and Si xiv (14.2 MK) to be formed. This is consistent with our findings for Fe xxi/Fe xxii ($`10`$MK).

For the density diagnostics with the He-like triplets the UV radiation field originating from the B star companion was analyzed. We found significant effects for the ions N vi, O vii, and even for Ne ix, however, the illumination geometry of the primary B-type star is unclear. We therefore considered both the case with full illumination and no illumination of the coronal plasma.The determined densities range around $`10^{10}10^{11}`$ cm-3, while for the ions Si xiii and Ne ixwe find only upper limits. This is also found for all Fe xxi line ratios,but these upper limits are consistent with densities $`10^{10}10^{11}`$ cm-3 as well.

A detailed analysis discussing structural information deduced from the derived temperatures and densities is presented. The assumptions used for this discussion are that Algol’s corona is composed of a multitude of individual but identical (semi circular canonical) loops, all of which obey the RTV loop scaling equation. We further assume that the material is in thermal pressure equilibrium at 15 MK. From these assumptions we conclude from our measurements that these loops have semi-lengths of $`L=9\times 10^8`$ cm. The assumption of the emitting plasma to be immersed in the external radiation field leads us to lower densities and thus loop lengths of up to $`L=460\times 10^8`$ cm, which is, however, still much smaller than the stellar radius. The emission measure derived from the analysis of the continuum in combination with the densities allows us to define constraints on the coronal filling factor. However, different pressures ranging between 8 and $`50\times 10^{16}`$ cm-3 K are possible, depending on whether the emitting plasma is immersed in the external radiation field or not. A low pressure plasma (i.e., effects from the radiation field are severe) requires a large filling factor, while the high pressure scenario allows a lower filling factor.

###### Acknowledgements.

J.-U.N. acknowledges financial support from Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) under 50OR98010.
The Space Research Organization Netherlands (SRON) is supported financially by NWO.


text:
# Chandra Deep X-ray Observation on the Galactic Plane

## 1 Introduction

The Galactic plane has been known to be a strong hard X-ray (2 – 10keV) emitter for nearly 20 years (e.g., Worrall et al. 1982; Warwick et al. 1985; Koyama et al. 1986). The emission forms a narrow continuous ridge, thus it is often called the Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission (GRXE). GRXE exhibits emission lines from highly ionized heavy elements such as Si, S and Fe, which suggests that GRXE is originated from thin hot plasmas with a temperature of several keV (Koyama et al. 1986). However, whether GRXE is composed of numerous point sources or truly diffuse emission has been an unsolved problem, mostly because previous instruments have not had good enough spatial resolution in hard X-ray band ($`>`$ 2 keV). The Chandra X-ray mirror has a superior angular resolution ($`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$), which allows one to distinguish numerous dim point sources and truly diffuse X-ray emission. Therefore, we planned Chandra observation on a typical Galactic plane region to resolve origin of the hard X-ray emission from the Galactic plane.

## 2 Observation

Using Chandra ACIS-I, we observed a region around $`(l,b)(+28^{}.45,0^{}.2)`$, where the ASCA satellite could not find any point sources brighter than $`2\times 10^{13}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 (2 – 10 keV) (Yamauchi et al. 1996; Kaneda et al. 1997). We carried out two pointings, each for 100 ksec in AO1 and AO2, with slightly overlapping the fields (Figure 1). Total area of the observed field is $`250`$ arcmin2. The first result from the AO1 result was published in Ebisawa et al. (2001).

## 3 Data Analysis and Results

### 3.1 Point Source Search

In our fields, we see many point sources as well as strong diffuse emission. We have carried out point source search using the “wavdetect” program in the CIAO data analysis package. We have searched for sources in the 0.5 – 3 keV, 3 – 8 keV and 0.5 – 8 keV independently. The sources which exceed 4 $`\sigma `$ significance either in the three energy bands are considered as the true detection. On the AO1 and AO2 overlapping field, we searched for sources for AO1 and AO2 separately, and added the two significances quadratically.

Thus, we have detected 275 new X-ray point sources within the AO1 and AO2 field of view. In the soft band, 183 sources have been detected, while in the hard band we have detected 79 sources. Note that only 26 sources have been detected both in the soft and hard bands. Our sensitivity is $`3\times 10^{15}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 (2 – 10 keV) and $`7\times 10^{16}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 (0.5 – 2 keV).

Four soft sources at $`(\alpha ,\delta )=(280.^{}99,3.^{}91)`$ actually seem to compose an extended feature, that is probably a blob in the super nova remnant AX J 1843.8–0352/G28.6–0.1 (Koyama et al. 2002). We tried to identify other new X-ray point sources with those in published catalogs. About a dozen of the soft sources have been identified in the United States Naval Observatory A2.0 catalog with the R magnitude brighter than $``$ 18. On the other hand, no hard sources have been optically identified. Deep optical or near infrared follow-up observations are anticipated to identify some of these hard X-ray sources111We have been granted two nights to observe this field in the near-infrared band with the ESO/NTT SOFI..

### 3.2 Origin of the Galactic Hard X-ray Emission

After subtracting the expected non X-ray background, we calculated the total hard X-ray energy flux from our field of view, that was $`1.1\times 10^{10}`$erg s-1 cm-2 (2 – 10 keV). On the other hand, total hard X-ray flux calculated by combining all the point sources was $`10^{11}`$erg s-1 cm2 (2 – 10 keV); namely point sources account for only $`10\%`$ of the total hard X-ray flux in the field of view. We compared surface density of the hard point sources in our field view with those at high Galactic blank fields (e.g. Giacconi 2001). After the Galactic absorption ($`6\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2) is taken into account, we found the number density of the hard X-ray sources in our Galactic plane field is comparable to those in high Galactic bland fields (Ebisawa et al. 2001). Therefore, we concluded that most of the point sources are extragalactic, presumably active galaxies seen through the Galactic disk. Present result clearly indicates that GRXE is diffuse origin, which indicates omnipresence of the energetic plasma along the Galactic plane.

### 3.3 Diffuse Emission Energy Spectra

We have made energy spectra of the Galactic X-rays (diffuse emission and Galactic point sources) by subtracting the non X-ray background and contribution of the extragalactic component. Before subtracting the background, we performed the CTI correction on our event lists in order to improve the energy resolution. We took the extragalactic observations on HDF-N (sequence # 90030 and 900061), whose exposure time is 337 ksec in total. We subtracted the energy spectrum of the HDF-N from that of our fields, by adjusting the normalization of the former so that the instrumental Ni Kα lines in the two energy spectra cancel each other. The resultant energy spectrum is shown in Figure 2. Numerous emission lines expected from highly ionized plasma are clearly seen.

### 3.4 Spectral Distribution of Point Sources

In order to study spectral distribution of the point sources, we calculated the spectral hardness ratio (HR) for individual sources. We corrected for positional difference of the instrumental response and difference of the exposure time, such that the corrected count rates are those expected when source are located at the ACIS-I aim point and observed for 100 ksec exposure. We defined the hardness ratio as $`HR(HS)/(H+S)`$, where $`H`$ is the corrected count rate in the hard energy band (3 – 8 keV), and $`S`$ is that in the soft energy band (0.5 – 2 keV). In figure 3, we show histogram of the spectral distribution of the point sources (left), and the counting rate vs. HR ratio diagram (right).

From figure 3 (left), we can see that the softest sources with $`1HR0.8`$ are most numerous. The number of sources decreases as HR increases, but it increases again as HR exceeds 0.6. If we see the counting rate vs. HR diagram (figure 3, right), relatively dim sources with the corrected count rates $``$ 100 cts/100 ksec seem to be clustered into two distinct classes, very soft sources with $`HR0.8`$ and very hard sources with $`HR0.6`$. Brighter sources with the corrected count rates $``$ 100 cts/100 ksec do not seem to have such a tendency.

### 3.5 Point Source Energy Spectra

Individual sources are too dim to make energy spectra, so we combined sources with similar $`HR`$ to make a single energy spectrum to study characteristics of the point sources as a spectral class. We combined 91 soft sources with $`HR0.8`$ and 44 hard sources with $`HR0.6`$, respectively. In Figure 4, we show these energy spectra.

The combined soft spectrum may be roughly fitted with a thin thermal plasma emission model with $`kT=0.76\pm 0.04`$ keV with the interstellar hydrogen column density $`N_H=(1.0\pm 0.1)\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. The small column density relative to the Galactic value ($`6\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2) suggests these are nearby sources, and the low temperature thermal spectra suggests they are X-ray active stars. On the other hand, the hard spectrum may be fitted with a power-law with the index $`1.2\pm 0.4`$, and $`N_H=(8.0\pm 2.4)\times 10^{22}`$ cm-2. The large column density and the flat spectrum are consistent with the idea that most of the hard sources are extragalactic AGN. However, the column density is slightly higher than the Galactic value, and the spectral slope is also slightly flatter than that expected from the composition of dim AGN composing cosmic X-ray background (1.4). These facts, as well as the hint of iron K-line emission or edge feature in the composite energy spectrum (figure 4, right), suggests there are several Galactic hard X-ray sources which have flat spectra and iron emission or edge feature. Quiescent dwarf novae are likely candidates for the Galactic hard X-ray sources with such spectral characteristics (Mukai and Shiokawa 1993; Watson 1999).

### 3.6 Point Source Time Variation

We have studied time variation of the point sources. For each source, we made light curves with 3000 sec and 10000 sec bins. For each light curve, we performed the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and the source is considered to be variable if both light curves show the variation above the 99.9 % significance. Thereby, 17 sources are found to be significantly variable. Among them, 13 source have the $`HR<0`$ and 4 sources have $`HR>0`$. Soft sources with $`HR<0`$ tend to show flare-like variations. Typical flares from some of the soft sources are shown in figure 5.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Origin of the Diffuse hard X-ray emission

We found that GRXE has a truly diffuse origin, then the question is how to produce and maintain such high energetic plasma. However, there are problems in interpreting GRXE in terms of simple equilibrium thermal plasma. The plasma temperature needed to explain the observed spectra, 5 – 10 keV, is much higher than that can be bound by Galactic gravity (Warwick et al. 1985). Also, energy density of GRXE, $``$ 10 eV/cm3, is one or two orders of magnitude higher than those of other constituents in the interstellar space, such as cosmic rays, Galactic magnetic fields, or ordinary interstellar medium (Koyama et al. 1986; Kaneda et al. 1997). We do not know how to heat the plasma gas up to such a high temperature, and hold the hot gas within the Galactic plane.

On the other hand, strong diffuse gamma-ray ($``$ 100 keV – 1 MeV) emission is observed from the Galactic plane (e.g., Gehrels and Tueller 1993; Skibo et al. 1997), which is suggested to have a non-thermal origin, as the energy spectrum is represented with a power-law without a thermal cut-off. GRXE, besides the thermal component, also has a power-law hard tail component which extends above $``$ 10 keV (Yamasaki et al. 1997; Valinia and Marshall 1998). This hard-tail component seems to be smoothly connected to the gamma-ray component (Valinia et al. 2000a), although their physical relationship has not been fully understood.

Currently there are no accepted theoretical models which can explain the origin of both GRXE and gamma-ray emission. Some argue that interstellar magnetic field is playing a significant role to heat and confine the hot plasma (Tanuma et al. 1999). Others argue that interaction of low energy cosmic-ray electrons (Valinia et al. 2000b) or heavy ions (Tanaka et al. 2000; Tanaka 2002) with interstellar medium is mainly responsible for GRXE and gamma-ray emission. Different heating or acceleration mechanism of the plasma will result in different plasma conditions, which are reflected in the emission lines. From precise measurements of the iron emission lines, presumably performed with XMM, we may diagnose the plasma and will strongly constrain the origin of GRXE.

### 4.2 Origin of the Point Sources

We concluded that most of the hard X-ray point sources discovered with Chandra are extragalactic, since the number of hard X-ray point sources does not significantly exceed that expected for extragalactic sources. From statistical arguments, we concluded that number of Galactic hard X-ray point sources between the flux ranges $`3\times 10^{15}`$ and $`2\times 10^{13}`$ erg s-1 cm-2 (2–10 keV) does not exceed $`260`$ sources/degree2 (90 % upper-limit; Ebisawa et al. 2001), while the number of extragalactic source is $`560`$ sources/degree2 (e.g., Giacconi et al. 2001). In other words, among the $``$ 79 point sources (4 $`\sigma `$ confidence) we detected in our AO1 and AO2 Chandra fields (250 arcmin2; Figure 1), there may be up to $``$ 18 Galactic sources. From precise X-ray spectral observations, we may tell which sources are Galactic ones such as quiescent dwarf novae (Mukai and Shiokawa 1993; Watson 1999). Also these Galactic sources are likely to be identified by near-infrared observations, while extra galactic sources will be completely obscured and may not be visible in infrared.

Soft point sources are most likely nearby X-ray active stars, as they have small interstellar hydrogen column densities and low plasma temperatures. They are dim in optical lights (only small fraction was identified), and several sources show flare like time variations; these facts suggests the soft sources are mostly late type stars whose X-ray emission is due to their magnetic activities. Nature of these soft sources will be also clarified by more precise X-ray spectral observations and the follow-up near-infrared observations.

###### Acknowledgements.

The observation was carried out under the Chandra guest observer program by NASA.