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# Calculation of entanglement for continious variable states

## Abstract

In this paper, we present a general formula for obtaining the reduced density opeator for any biparticle pure entangled state. Using this formula, we derive, in a compact form, the explicit formula of the entanglement for any bipartical pure entangled Gaussian state. In the case of Gaussian states, the criteria of separabelity can be naturely obtained by the formula. For non-Gaussian states, we also show the usefulness of the method presented in this paper.
PACS: 03.65.Ud, 42.50.-p

Quantum entanglement is one of the essential features of quantum mechanics. It has been an interesting and important topic since it was first noted by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) . Now, it has attracted much attention because of immense progresses both in the foundation of quantum mechanics and in the burgeoning field of quantum information theory. Issues such as the relationship between entanglement and quantum nonlocality and the violations of Bell’s inequality for both discrete  and continuous variable states  further enrich the contents of quantum mechanics. In recent years, quantum entanglement is also viewed as a useful “resource” for various kinds of quantum information processing. The original EPR states of continuous variables can be created either by the nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier , or simply by using passive optical elements (e.g., beam splitters) . While most quantum information protocols were initially developed for quantum systems with discrete quantum variables, quantum information processing based on quantum states with continuous variable has also been proposed, e.g., quantum teleportation , quantum error correction , quantum computation , entanglement purification  and cloning . Thus, inseparability criteria  and entanglement quantification  in continuous variable systems has become an issue of practical importance.

The measurement of entanglement for any biparticle pure entangled state, i.e., the von Neumann entropy of either partial trace of the density operator for the state, is considered as a “good measurement” of quantum entanglement. Parker et al.  have developed an elegant method to calculate the entanglement of the biparticle pure entangled states with continuous variables by means of the integral eigenvalue equations in the coordinate-momentum space. In fact, their method is based on the Schmidt decompositions. But in certain cases, it is somewhat harder to find such a “Schmidt basis” for the continuous variable systems. In this paper, we propose an alternative method to calculate the entanglement entropy for continuous variable states in Fock space. With the help of linear quantum transformation theory (LQTT) , we obtain an explicit formula of the entanglement entropy for any Gaussian state. With this formula, we can easily calculate the Gaussian states’ entanglement without knowing the eigenvalues of the reduced density operator for the system. Furthermore, from the derivation of the formula, we naturally obtain the necessary and sufficient condition of separability for a biparticle pure entangled state with continuous variables. For some non-Gaussian states, one can also calculate the eigenvalues of the reduced density operators, from which the entanglement of this bipartite system may be easily obtained.

It is well known that the entanglement entropy of a biparticle pure entangled state is defined by

$$E=tr\rho _1\mathrm{ln}\rho _1=tr\rho _2\mathrm{ln}\rho _2,$$
(1)
where the reduced density operator $`\rho _{1(2)}`$ is a partial trace of density operator $`\rho _{12}`$ for the state, i.e.,

$$\rho _{1(2)}=tr_{2(1)}\rho _{12}.$$
(2)
In order to give a general formula of reduced density operator $`\rho _1`$ for any biparticle system, we use the following formula

$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ $`=`$ $`:\mathrm{exp}[(a_1^{},a_2^{})\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_{z_1^{}}}{_{z_2^{}}}}\right)+(_{z_1},_{z_2})\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1}{a_2}}\right)]:`$ (4)
$`\times Z\left|\mathrm{\Omega }\right|Z_{z=0},`$
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is an arbitrary bosonic operator, $`a_i^{}`$ $`(i=1,2)`$ is the usual bosonic creation operator for the subsystem $`i`$; $`|Z=|Z_1|Z_2`$ denote the usual coherent states, $`::`$ means the normal ordering and $`z=0`$ means $`z_{1(2)}=z_{1(2)}^{}=0`$. Using Eq. (4), we write the density operator $`\rho _{12}`$ for the biparticle system as

$`\rho _{12}`$ $`=`$ $`:\mathrm{exp}[(a_1^{},a_2^{})\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_{z_1^{}}}{_{z_2^{}}}}\right)+(_{z_1},_{z_2})\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1}{a_2}}\right)]:`$ (6)
$`\times Z\left|\rho _{12}\right|Z_{z=0},`$
where $`|Z|Z_1,Z_{2\text{ }}`$. With the help of overcomplete of coherent states $`\frac{d^2Z_2}{\pi }|Z_2_{22}Z_2|=1`$, and taking the partial trace over subspace of the subsystem $`2`$, one can get the reduced density operator $`\rho _1`$ as follows

$`\rho _1`$ $`=`$ $`tr_2\rho _{12}=tr_2{\displaystyle \frac{d^2z_2^{^{}}}{\pi }|Z^{^{}}_{22}Z^{^{}}|}`$ (8)
$`\times :e^{(a_1^{},a_2^{})\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_{z_1^{}}}{_{z_2^{}}}\right)+(_{z_1},_{z_2})\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1}{a_2}\right)}:Z\left|\rho _{12}\right|Z_{z=0}`$
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2z_2^{^{}}}{\pi }}:\mathrm{exp}\left(a_1^{}_{z_1^{}}+_{z_1}a_1\right):`$ (10)
$`\times \mathrm{exp}\left(z_2^{{}_{}{}^{}}_{z_2^{}}+_{z_2}z_2^{{}_{}{}^{}}\right)Z\left|\rho _{12}\right|Z_{z=0}.`$
In the following we will consider two classes of states: the Gaussian states and the non-Gaussian ones. Let us first consider the following Gaussian states

$`\rho _{12}`$ $`=`$ $`A_0:\mathrm{exp}\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(a_1^{},a_1)M_1\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}}\right)`$ (12)
$`+(a_2^{},a_2)M_2\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)+2(a_1^{},a_1)M_{12}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)]\}:,`$
where $`A_0`$ is a normalization factor, $`M_i`$ $`(i=1,2)`$ is Hermitian matrices, and

$`M_{12}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}e\hfill & f\hfill \\ f^{}\hfill & e^{}\hfill \end{array}\right)`$

with $`e`$ and $`f`$ being two arbitrary complex numbers. In Eq. (12) the linear terms of $`a`$ and $`a^{}`$ are not included since they do not affect the entanglement of the biparticle Gaussian states . In this case, the matrix elements of $`\rho _{12}`$ with respect to $`|Z`$ is

$`Z\left|\rho _{12}\right|Z`$ $`=`$ $`A_0\mathrm{exp}\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(z_1^{},z_1)M_1\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{z_1^{}}{z_1}}\right)+(z_2^{},z_2)`$ (14)
$`\times M_2\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{z_2^{}}{z_2}}\right)+2(z_1^{},z_1)M_{12}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{z_2^{}}{z_2}}\right)]\}.`$
Using the following Gaussian integration formula

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2z}{\pi }\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{1}{2}(z^{},z)Q\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{z^{}}{z}\right)+(u,v)\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{z^{}}{z}\right)\right\}}`$ (15)
$`=`$ $`\left[detQ\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(u,v)Q^1\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{u}{v}}\right)\right\},`$ (16)
where $`Q=\stackrel{~}{Q}`$ is nonsingular and $`u`$ ($`v`$) is an arbitrary complex number, and the formula

$`\mathrm{exp}\left(z_2^{{}_{}{}^{}}_{z_2^{}}+_{z_2}z_2^{^{}}\right)\mathrm{\Psi }(z_1^{},z_1;z_2^{},z_2)_{z_2=z_2^{}=0}`$ (17)
$`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Psi }(z_1^{},z_1;z_2^{{}_{}{}^{}},z_2^{^{}}),`$ (18)
we have, after substituting Eq. (14) into Eq. (10),

$$\rho _1=\frac{A_0}{\sqrt{detM_2}}:e^{\frac{1}{2}(a_1^{},a_1)(M_1M_{12}M_2^1\stackrel{~}{M}_{12})\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}\right)}:.$$
(19)
According to LQTT , if one denotes

$$M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a\hfill & d\hfill \\ b\hfill & c\hfill \end{array}\right),$$
(20)
there is a map of $`M`$ defined as

$`D(M)`$ $`=`$ $`(M_1M_{12}M_2^1\stackrel{~}{M}_{12})\mathrm{\Sigma }_B^1`$ (21)
$`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}c^11\hfill & c^1d\hfill \\ c^1b\hfill & 1c^1\hfill \end{array}\right)\mathrm{\Sigma }_B^1,`$ (24)
where complex constants $`a,b,c`$ and $`d`$ are determined by the known matrices $`M_{1(2)}`$ and $`M_{12}`$ in Eq. (19). Then we can immediately rewrite the normally ordered form in Eq. (19) as

$$\rho _1=A\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}(a_1^{},a_1)N\mathrm{\Sigma }_B\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}\right)\right],$$
(25)
where negative Hermitian matrix $`N=\mathrm{ln}M`$, $`_B=\left(\begin{array}{cc}0\hfill & 1\hfill \\ 1\hfill & 0\hfill \end{array}\right)`$, and $`A`$ is constant

$$A=A_0\sqrt{\frac{c}{detM_2}}.$$
(26)
Substituting Eq. (25) into Eq. (1), we get

$$E=A\left[Z(\beta )\mathrm{ln}A\frac{d}{d\beta }Z(\beta )\right]_{\beta =1},$$
(27)
in which

$$Z(\beta )=tr\mathrm{exp}\left\{\frac{\beta }{2}(a_1^{},a_1)N\mathrm{\Sigma }_B\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}\right)\right\}.$$
(28)
Using the result in Ref.

$`Z(\beta )`$ $`=`$ $`tr\mathrm{exp}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{\beta }{2}}(a_1^{},a_1)N\mathrm{\Sigma }_B\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}}\right)\right\}`$ (29)
$`=`$ $`\left|det(e^{\beta N}1)\right|^{\frac{1}{2}},`$ (30)
direct calculation yields

$$\frac{d}{d\beta }Z(\beta )_{\beta =1}=\frac{1}{2}\left|det(e^N1)\right|^{\frac{1}{2}}tr\frac{N}{1e^N}.$$
(31)
Substituting Eq. (31) into Eq. (27) we get the explicit expression of the entanglement for the state in Eq. (12)

$$E=A\left|det(e^{\beta N}1)\right|^{\frac{1}{2}}\left[\mathrm{ln}A+\frac{1}{2}tr\frac{N}{1e^N}\right].$$
(32)
Thus, from Eq. (32) one can conveniently obtain the entanglement of states in Eq. (12) only by calculating the eigenvalues of negative Hermitian matrix $`N`$, which can be easily obtained. This is the main result of this paper. It is worth pointing out that from Eq. (32), the necessary and sufficient condition of separability for the states in Eq. (12) naturally reads

$$\mathrm{ln}A=\frac{1}{2}tr\frac{N}{e^N1}.$$
(33)
As an application of Eq. (32), we consider the entangled states produced by a beam splitter

$$|\psi _{12}=\widehat{B}(\theta ,\varphi )\widehat{S}_1(\zeta _1)\widehat{S}_2(\zeta _2)|00,$$
(34)
where the beam splitter operator $`\widehat{B}(\theta ,\varphi )`$ is

$$\widehat{B}(\theta ,\varphi )=\mathrm{exp}\left[\theta (a_1^{}a_2e^{i\phi }a_1a_2^{}e^{i\phi })\right],$$
(35)
and the single-mode squeezed operator $`\widehat{S}(\zeta )`$ is

$$\widehat{S}(\zeta )=\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{1}{2}(\zeta ^{}a^2\zeta a^^2)\right].$$
(36)
Making use of LQTT, we can write the normally ordered form of the density operator in Eq. (34) as follows

$`\rho _{12}`$ $`=`$ $`|\psi _{1212}\psi |=A_0:\mathrm{exp}\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(a_1^{},a_1)M_1\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}}\right)`$ (38)
$`+(a_2^{},a_2)M_2\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)+2(a_1^{},a_1)M_{12}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)]\}:,`$
where

$`M_1`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\alpha \hfill & 1\hfill \\ 1\hfill & \alpha ^{}\hfill \end{array}\right),M_2=\left(\begin{array}{cc}\beta \hfill & 1\hfill \\ 1\hfill & \beta ^{}\hfill \end{array}\right),`$
$`M_{12}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\begin{array}{cc}\delta \hfill & 0\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \delta ^{}\hfill \end{array}\right),`$
$`\alpha `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _1}{\left|\zeta _1\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _1\right|\mathrm{cos}^2\theta +e^{2i\phi }{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{\left|\zeta _2\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _2\right|\mathrm{sin}^2\theta ,`$
$`\beta `$ $`=`$ $`e^{2i\phi }{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _1}{\left|\zeta _1\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _1\right|\mathrm{sin}^2\theta +{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{\left|\zeta _2\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _2\right|\mathrm{cos}^2\theta ,`$
$`\delta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{sin}\left(2\theta \right)({\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _2}{\left|\zeta _2\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _2\right|e^{i\phi }{\displaystyle \frac{\zeta _1}{\left|\zeta _1\right|}}\mathrm{tanh}\left|\zeta _1\right|e^{i\phi }).`$
Using Eqs. (26) and (24) yields

$$A=\frac{1}{\left|\delta \right|\mathrm{cosh}\left|\zeta _1\mathrm{cosh}\right|\left|\zeta _2\right|},M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}a\hfill & d\hfill \\ b\hfill & c\hfill \end{array}\right)$$
(41)
with

$`a`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{c}}(1+bd),c={\displaystyle \frac{1\left|\beta \right|^2}{\left|\delta \right|^2}},`$ (42)
$`d`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left|\delta \right|^2}}\left(\delta ^2\beta ^{}+\alpha (1\left|\beta \right|^2)\right),b=d^{}.`$ (43)
Finally, we get the entanglement of $`|\psi _{AB}`$ in Eq. (34)

$`E`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left|\delta \right|\mathrm{cosh}\left|\zeta _1\mathrm{cosh}\right|\left|\zeta _2\right|}}`$ (46)
$`\times {\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{\lambda }}{\left|\lambda 1\right|}}[\mathrm{ln}(|\delta \left|\mathrm{cosh}\right|\zeta _1\mathrm{cosh}\left|\right|\zeta _2|)`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1+\lambda }{2(1\lambda )}}\mathrm{ln}\lambda ],`$
where $`\lambda `$ is any of the roots in the following equation

$$\lambda ^2(a+c)\lambda +1=0.$$
(47)
We can consider a special case of Eq. (34) by choosing $`\theta =\frac{\pi }{4}`$, $`\zeta _i=s_ie^{i\phi }`$ $`(i=1,2)`$ and $`\phi =\frac{l\pi }{2}`$ $`(l=0,1,2,\mathrm{})`$ . In this case Eq. (46) is just the result of Ref. , i.e.,

$$E=\mathrm{cosh}^2\left|s\right|\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{cosh}^2\left|s\right|)\mathrm{sinh}^2\left|s\right|\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{sinh}^2\left|s\right|).$$
(48)
where $`s=\frac{1}{2}(s_1e^{i\phi }+s_2e^{i\phi })`$. Furthermore, if we choose $`\phi =0`$, $`\zeta _2=\zeta _1=r`$ and $`\theta =\frac{\pi }{4}`$, we get $`\lambda _1=\mathrm{tanh}^2r`$. we then get the well known result for the two-mode squeezed vacuum state, whose entanglement is

$$E=\mathrm{cosh}^2r\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{cosh}^2r)\mathrm{sinh}^2r\mathrm{ln}(\mathrm{sinh}^2r).$$
(49)
For non-Gaussian states, generally speaking, their entanglement can not be written in the compact form as in Eq. (32). But for some states such as $`SU(2)`$ coherent states (see, e.g., ) and the photon-added coherent states , the entanglement can be easily obtained by solving the eigenvalue problem of the reduced operator of Eq. (10). To show this, we consider the following example

$$|\psi =\widehat{B}|n_1,n_2=e^{\theta (a_1^{}a_2a_2^{}a_1)}|n_1,n_2$$
(50)
The density operator $`\rho _{12\text{ }}`$of this system can be written, by following the above procedure, as

$`\rho _{12}`$ $`=`$ $`\widehat{B}|n_1,n_2n_2,n_1|\widehat{B}^{}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{n_{1!}n_2!}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_1}}{d\alpha ^{n_1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_2}}{d\beta ^{n_2}}}`$ (51)
$`\times `$ $`:`$ $`\mathrm{exp}\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}[(a_1^{},a_1)M_1\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_1^{}}{a_1}}\right)+(a_2^{},a_2)M_2\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)`$ (53)
$`+2(a_1^{},a_1)M_{12}\left({\displaystyle \genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{a_2^{}}{a_2}}\right)]\}:_{\alpha =\beta =0}.`$
Here

$`M_1`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\alpha \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\beta \mathrm{sin}^2\theta 1\right)\sigma _1,`$ (54)
$`M_2`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\beta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\theta 1\right)\sigma _1,`$ (55)
$`M_3`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{sin}\theta \mathrm{cos}\theta (\beta \alpha )\sigma _1,`$ (56)
where $`\sigma _1`$ is Pauli matrix. Using Eq. (10), we derive

$`\rho _A`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n_{1!}n_2!}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_1}}{d\alpha ^{n_1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_2}}{d\beta ^{n_2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(\beta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\theta 1\right)}}`$ (58)
$`\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{\alpha \beta (\alpha \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\beta \mathrm{sin}^2\theta )}{\left(\beta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\theta 1\right)}}\right)^{a_1^{}a_1}_{\alpha =\beta =0}.`$
Thus we get the eigenvalues as follows

$`\lambda _{N_1}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{n_{1!}n_2!}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_1}}{d\alpha ^{n_1}}}{\displaystyle \frac{d^{n_2}}{d\beta ^{n_2}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\theta }}`$ (60)
$`\times \left[1+{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha \beta 1}{\beta \mathrm{cos}^2\theta +\alpha \mathrm{sin}^2\theta }}\right]^{N_1}_{\alpha =\beta =1}`$
Note that in Eq. (60) we take the replacements $`\alpha =\alpha ^{^{}}+1`$ and $`\beta =\beta ^{^{}}+1`$. Finally, we get the entanglement of the state in Eq. (50)

$$E=\underset{N_1}{}\lambda _{N_1}\mathrm{ln}\lambda _{N_1}.$$
(61)
In summary, we have presented a general formula of reduced density operator for any biparticle pure entangled state of continuous variables. Based on this formula, we have derived the explicit expression of the entanglement for any Gaussian pure state in a compact form. From the examples mentioned above, it is easy to see that Gaussian states’ entanglement can be conveniently calculated by the formula given in this paper. For the case of non-Gaussian states, we have also shown the usefulness of the formula for calculating the reduced density operator, as given above. In this sense, the method to calculate the entanglement for biparticle pure entangled state is easier to operate.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 19975043, No. 10104014 and No. 10028406, and by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.


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# Untitled Document

A central partition of molecular conformational space.
I. Basic structures.

Jacques Gabarro-Arpa*** Electronic Address: jga@lbpa.ens-cachan.fr

LBPA, C.N.R.S. UMR 8532, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan
61, Avenue du Président Wilson, 94235 Cachan cedex, France
and
Ecole Normale Supérieure, C.N.R.S. FRE 2411
Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Géometrie Appliquée
45, rue d’Ulm, 75230 Paris cedex, France

Abstract

On the basis of empirical evidence from molecular dynamics simulations, molecular conformational space can be described by means of a partition of central conical regions characterized by the dominance relations between cartesian coordinates. This work presents a geometric and combinatorial description of this structure.

Introduction

In previous works (Gabarro-Arpa and Revilla, 2000, Laboulais et al., 2002) it was put forward the idea that the three-dimensional structure of proteins could be encoded into binary sequences. For a molecule with $`N`$ atoms in a given conformation the procedure employed consisted in

* defining a procedure for enumerating the atoms, which gives an order relation,
* forming the set of all ordered sets of four atoms (4-tuples), with size $`P=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{N}{4}\right)`$,
* as in the mesoscopic models of macromolecules atoms are represented by pointlike structures, a 4-tuple determines a 3-simplex a three-dimensional (3D) polytope with four vertices., since the atoms in the 4-tuples are ordered a given 3-simplex can be left or right handed. Depending on the simplex handedness each 4-tuple is given a sign $`+/`$,
* the set of 4-tuples can also be ordered to become a sequence, from it and the signs associated to each 4-tuple a sign vector $`\{+,\}`$P can be constructed: the chirotope in this work bold faced words refer to topics that are more fully developed in (Rosen, 2000) and references therein., which is the desired binary sequence.

The chirotope defines an equivalence relation between conformations: two conformations belong to the same equivalence class if they have the same chirotope. This generates a geometrical structure in conformational space: a partition $`𝒳`$ into a set of regions (cells) whose points (3D-conformations) have all the same chirotope.

The connected components of such equivalence classes are locally compatible with a central conical geometry: multiplying the $`3\times N`$ cartesian coordinates of a given conformation by an arbitrary positive factor does not change the chirotope, since under this transformation the handedness of a scaled 3-simplex remains unchanged. Thus, in conformational space the set of points lying on a half-line starting at the origin all belong to the same equivalence class. The term central means that the vertices of the cones are at the origin. In the following, if we talk about a partition without further qualifications, we mean a central partition.

This simple result suggests that conformational space can be partitioned into a discrete set of conical cells, the structure of this partition is encoded by the graph of regions $`𝒯(𝒳)`$, which has as vertices the set of cells of $`𝒳`$ and as edges the pairs of cells that are adjacent.

Since the graph is connected, there is a graphical distance between cells as the length of the shortest path between the two representative vertices in the graph. The same distance between two equivalence classes can be defined as a Hamming distance: the number of different signs between the chirotopes of the two conformations. The latter definition was first employed in (Gabarro-Arpa and Revilla, 2000), were no geometrical interpretation in terms of space partition was attempted.

In the two works cited above the Hamming distance was used to analyze clusters of conformations in molecular dynamics trajectories with measurably good results, in these studies when compared with the classical r.m.s. deviation measure (Kabsch, 1978) it was seen to perform better and to be more robust (Laboulais et al., 2002). This good performance can be qualitatively explained if the mesh that results from projecting the graph of regions onto the hypersurface where the system evolves, is sufficiently fine grained to give an accurate measure, at least in the range explored by molecular dynamics simulations.

Thus it seems not unreasonble to give a description of conformational space based on a central partition of conical cells. However, working out the set of cells derived from the chirotope turns out not to be pratical, so in this paper we present a partition derived from a central hyperplane arrangement, where a set of non-coplanar hyperplanes passing through the origin divide the space in a number of conical regions§§§ In what follows the term cone means a region of space determined by a set of vectors in N such that for any finite subset of vectors it also contains all their linear combinations with positive coefficients..

A central hyperplane arrangement

In what follows N is a real affine space of $`N`$ dimensions, and $`\{𝐞_𝐢\}`$, with $`1<𝐢<N`$, are its unit vectors. We define the following set of vectors $`𝐍=\{𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=𝐞_𝐢𝐞_𝐣,1𝐢<𝐣N\}`$(1) Notice that if $`𝐮=(1,\mathrm{},1)`$ and $`𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}ϵ𝐍`$ then $`𝐮.𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=0`$.

Associated with this set there is a set of central non-coplanar hyperplanes $`_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}(p)=\{pϵ{}_{}{}^{N}:𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}.p=0\}`$(2) each hyperplane divides N into the positive and negative hemispaces $`_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^+(p)=\{pϵ{}_{}{}^{N}:𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}.p>0\},_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^{}(p)=\{pϵ{}_{}{}^{N}:𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}.p<0\}`$ so the hyperplane arrangement determines a partition $`𝒫`$ of N into a set a set of convex regions (cells), where each cell $`𝒞ϵ𝒫`$ can be characterized by an antisymmetric $`N\times N`$ sign matrix $`𝒱`$, such that if $`pϵ𝒞`$ then

$`𝒱_{ii}=0,𝒱_{ij}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill +& \hfill \text{ }pϵ_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^+\text{ }\\ \hfill 0& \hfill \text{ }pϵ_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}\text{ }\\ \hfill & \hfill \text{ }pϵ_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^{}\text{ }\end{array}`$ , $`𝒱_{ji}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill & \\ \hfill 0& \\ \hfill +& \end{array}`$ $`i<j`$(3)

The geometrical meaning of the sign matrix can be easily deduced from the following example: let $`p^a,p^bϵ^N`$ be two points with coordinates $`p^a=(1,2,3,4,5,\mathrm{},N)`$
$`p^b=(1,2,4,3,5,\mathrm{},N)`$ obviously $`𝒱^a=\{𝒱_{ij}^a=+,i<j\}`$ is the sign matrix of $`p^a`$. Now $`p^b`$ has the same matrix except that $`𝒱_{34}^b=`$. Thus, for any point $`p`$ the sign matrix encodes the pairwise dominance relations between its coordinates

$`𝒱_{ij}=\{\begin{array}{cc}\hfill +& \hfill \text{ }p_i<p_j\text{ }\\ \hfill 0& \hfill \text{ }p_i=p_j\text{ }\\ \hfill & \hfill \text{ }p_i>p_j\text{ }\end{array}`$ $`i<j`$

In the above example notice also that $`𝐧_{\mathrm{𝟑𝟒}}=p^bp^a(4)`$.

Let $`\pi (N)`$ be the set of points in N whose coordinates are the permutations of the sequence $`\{1,2,3,4,5,\mathrm{},N\}`$, no two points in this set have the same $`𝒱`$ matrix, and since it encodes the complete set of dominance relations between coordinates, there is a one to one correspondence between $`\pi (N)`$ and $`𝒫`$, making a total of $`N!`$ cells in $`𝒫`$.

The graph of regions of the arrangement

In order to study the graph of regions $`𝒯(𝒫)`$, it is important to notice that $`𝒱`$ is the incidence matrix of an acyclic tournament (Moon, 1968).

Tournaments are directed graphs such that between any two nodes there is always an arc (see example in fig. 1), if $`v_i`$ and $`v_j`$ are two nodes, $`𝒱_{ij}=+`$ if the arc goes from $`i`$ to $`j`$, we say that $`v_i`$ dominates $`v_j`$; otherwise $`𝒱_{ij}=`$ and $`v_i`$ is dominated by $`v_j`$.

The acyclic All along this work tournaments are implicitly assumed to be acyclic. qualifier is because there are no directed cycles in the graph (as can be seen in fig. 1). This is a particularity of the tournaments that characterize the cells of $`𝒫`$: for any permutation there are always two nodes called the source and the sink respectively, the former dominates all other nodes and the latter is dominated by every node in the graph (nodes $`3`$ and $`2`$ in fig. 1, respectively). Moreover it is a centrally symmetric hierarchical structure:

* the graph that results from reversing all the arcs is also acyclic,
* deleting a node always gives a subtournament.

This tells us that each $`N`$-dimensional cell in $`𝒫`$ has exactly $`N1`$ neighbours, since there are exactly $`N1`$ arcs in a tournament that can be reversed without creating a directed cycle. These are the arcs joining nodes whose score differs by 1 (see the legend of fig. 1).

$`𝒯(𝒫)`$ can be obtained by joining with a line segment the points in $`\pi (N)`$ that are in adjacent cells, the result is the 1-skeleton of a convex polytope: the $`N`$-permutohedron or $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$ (Schoute, 1911).

The study of the faces of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$ is an essential part in our study of $`𝒫`$, since it allows conformations and groups of conformations to be accurately located within $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$.

The faces of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$

Central to this construction is the duality between the faces of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$ and the cells of $`𝒫`$: $`k`$-faces and cells of dimension $`Nk`$ lie in orthogonal linear subspaces. The sign matrix of lower dimensional cells has zeros in the entries corresponding to hyperplanes that contain the cell, as defined in (3), this matrix can be represented by incomplete tournaments: these are digraphs where the arcs corresponding to the zero entries have been deleted (see fig. 2).

Incomplete tournaments can be seen as patterns: we say that a given tournament matches a pattern if both graphs have the same order and if the pattern is a subgraph of the tournament.

The simplest non-trivial faces in the hierarchy are the 1-faces: edges that join adjacent vertices ($`0`$-faces). As we have seen, adjacent vertices differ in that they exchange the value of two coordinates, say $`𝐢`$ and $`𝐣`$, and the edge is parallel to the vector $`𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}`$ (4), which is perpendicular to the hyperplane $`_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}`$. This hyperplane contains the $`(N1)`$-dimensional boundary cell that separates the $`N`$-dimensional cells of the vertices, accordingly its sign matrix has $`𝒱_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=𝒱_{\mathrm{𝐣𝐢}}=0`$.

The pattern of fig. 2a, where the arc between $`v_2`$ and $`v_6`$ is missing, matches exactly two tournaments that represent the vertices of the edge segment, also the complement graphs Given a tournament $`T`$ and a pattern $`P`$ the complement graph is a graph with the edges that are in $`T`$ but not in $`P`$ and the vertices that are in those edges (see fig. 3). of these vertices is a set of lower order tournaments that encode the vertices of a lower dimensional permutohedron. In our case we have two order 2 tournaments (one can be seen in fig. 3a), that represent the permutations of the sequence $`\{56\}`$ : the associated permutohedron is a line segment.

On the other extreme lets look at the $`(N2)`$-faces. Notice that for the hyperplane arrangement described above if we construct the vector $`𝐮^\alpha =\{𝐮_\alpha ^\alpha =1N,𝐮_i^\alpha =1,i\alpha ,1iN\}`$(5)
where $`1\alpha N`$; the set of vectors $`𝐍^\alpha =\{𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}ϵ𝐍:1𝐢<𝐣N,𝐢\alpha ,𝐣\alpha \}`$(6) and the subset of hyperplanes $`^\alpha =\{_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}(p):𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}.p=0,𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}ϵ𝐍^\alpha ,pϵ{}_{}{}^{N}\}`$ we have $`𝐮^\alpha .𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}=0`$ for all $`𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}ϵ𝐍^\alpha `$. This means that the vectors in $`𝐍^\alpha `$ are all in the $`(N1)`$-hyperplane $`𝐮^\alpha .p=0`$, consequently

* the hyperplanes in $`^\alpha `$ all have a common intersection: a 2-hyperplane parallell to $`𝐮^\alpha `$,
* the set of vertices in the $`N`$-cells adjacent to this 2-cell all lie in a $`(N2)`$-hyperplane: they are the vertices of a $`(N2)`$-face,
* as can be deduced from (5) and (6), the only arcs present in the pattern of this face are those that connect node $`\alpha `$ to the other nodes,
* node $`\alpha `$ is either a source or a sink.

For $`N=6`$ we have the example pattern of fig. 2b, fig. 3b shows the complement graph which is a $`N=5`$ tournament, the set of all complement graphs encodes the permutations of the set $`\{12345\}`$, and hence the corresponding face is a $`\mathrm{\Pi }_4`$ polytope. This tells us that a total of $`2N`$ faces of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$ are $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N2}`$ polytopes.

Before proceeding further we must introduce the basic notion of product polytope. If $`P`$ is a polytope in p and $`Q`$ a polytope in q then the product polytope $`P\times Q`$ is defined as the set of all vertices $`(x,y)ϵ^{p+q}`$ such that $`xϵ^p`$ is a vertex of $`P`$ and $`yϵ^q`$ is a vertex of $`Q`$. Examples of product polytopes are: the square which is the product of two segments (two polytopes of dimension 1). The cube which is the product of a square by a segment, more generally the prisms, which are the product of a polygon (or polytope) by a segment.

The example pattern from fig. 2c encodes a product polytope: the set of compatible subtournaments formed by vertices $`v_1`$, $`v_3`$, $`v_4`$ and $`v_5`$, encode a $`\mathrm{\Pi }_3`$, and are independent from the subtournament formed by $`v_2`$ and $`v_6`$ which encodes a segment (or $`\mathrm{\Pi }_1`$). Thus there are $`N\times (N1)`$ $`(N2)`$-dimensional faces which are prisms joining two $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N3}`$ from adjacent $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N2}`$ faces.

It can be easily seen that all the faces from this polytope are either permutohedrons or products of permutohedrons, for instance the polytope encoded by the pattern of fig. 2d is a $`\mathrm{\Pi }_1\times \mathrm{\Pi }_1\times \mathrm{\Pi }_1`$, that is: a cube.

Notice that for the product of permutohedrons the complement graphs (see figs. 3c and 3d) are not connected.

The face lattice of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$

The differences among incomplete tournaments, when we disregard the identity of the nodes, arise from the topology of the graph: number of edges and nodes, and the connectivity. We can define an operation on patterns that consists in renunbering the nodes so that the score never decreases upon increasing the node number. Renumbered patterns are stripped from the complications that arise from permuting equivalent nodes, a classification of these objects based on topological differences, is far more simple while keeping their essential characteristics, it results in a comprehensive synthetic view of the face arrangement. Introducing the permutations between equivalent nodes is an unnecesary complication that can always be worked out in a later stage.

The set of equivalence classes obtained upon renumbering is isomorph to the set $``$ of partitions of the sequence $`\{1,2,3,\mathrm{},N\}`$ into subsets of consecutive integers. The correspondence is established as follows

* for each incomplete tournament form a sequence with the partial scores arranged in ascending order
* divide this sequence into subsets of identical partial scores
* replace each element in a subsequence of identical scores by the the corresponding node number in the renumbered sequence.

For instance from the graph of fig. 2b we form the sequence $`111116`$, whose corresponding partition is $`(12345)6`$. Likewise, for figs. 2a, 2c and 2d the sequences $`123455`$, $`111155`$ and $`113355`$, give the partitions $`1234(56)`$, $`(1234)(56)`$ and $`(12)(34)(56)`$ respectively. These partitions represent classes of polytopes that are combinatorially equivalent, there are $`N!/(n_1!\times n_2!\times \mathrm{})`$ elements in each class, $`n_i`$ being the number of elements in each subset. Notice that $`(56)`$, for instance, represents the set of permutations of the sequence $`\{56\}`$

There is a partial order in the set of partitions, it is based on containment: we say that a partition set $`x`$ is contained in $`y`$ ($`xy`$), if each subset in $`x`$ is either identical to a subset of $`y`$ or it is a subset of some subset in $`y`$. Thus for the above example: $`1234(56)(12)(34)(56)(1234)(56)`$, also $`(1234)56(1234)(56)`$ and $`(1234)56(12345)6`$, but $`(1234)(56)(12345)6`$.

It can be shown that the partially ordered set (poset) $``$ thus defined is a lattice, that is: for all pairs $`x,yϵ`$ there is a least upper bound and a greatest lower bound.

The lattice poset $``$ for $`N=6`$ is represented in fig. 4, each element represents a class of faces of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_5`$, they are arranged in five rows, the faces in a row have the same dimension which increases from 0 in the bottom row to 5 at the top. There are $`\left(\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{N1}{d}\right)(0dN)`$, elements in each row.

It should be noticed from fig. 4 the hierarchical structure of $``$: each interval\**\**\** An interval is a subposet which contains all elements $`z`$ such that $`xzy`$. between a given element in the lattice and the minimal element $`123456`$ is also a lattice. Which is an expected result: the face lattice of any face is in the face lattice.

A partition of conformational space

The partition discussed in the previous sections is based on the dominance relations among the coordinates of points in an $`N`$-dimensional space, in conformational space the coordinates of each point are the coordinates of a set of $`N`$ points in 3D cartesian space, as 3D cartesian coordinates are independent of each other it would make little sense to translate automatically the partition described above to a $`3\times N`$-dimensional space, instead we propose the partition $`𝒫^3`$ which is the union of three separate partitions: $`𝒫_x`$, $`𝒫_y`$ and $`𝒫_z`$, that encode the dominance relations among the $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$ coordinates of the set of points respectively. $`𝒫_x`$, for instance, is generated by the set of hyperplanes $`_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^x(p)=\{pϵ{}_{}{}^{3\times N}:𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^x.p=0\}`$ with a set of normal vectors defined as $`𝐍^x=\{𝐧_{\mathrm{𝐢𝐣}}^x=𝐞_𝐢^x𝐞_𝐣^x,1𝐢<𝐣N\}`$ where the $`𝐞^x`$ are the unit vectors in 3×N of the $`x`$ coordinates of the 3D points.

3×N can be seen as a product space $`{}_{}{}^{N}\times {}_{}{}^{N}\times ^N`$, with each factor harboring the $`x`$, $`y`$ and $`z`$ coordinates of the set of points. Thus, as the dual polytope of $`𝒫_x`$, for instance, is $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$, obviously the dual of $`𝒫^3`$ will be $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}^3=\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}\times \mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}\times \mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}`$, its face poset can be worked out from the observation that $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}^3`$ is a $`(3N3)`$-face of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{3N1}`$. See for example the symmetric class of faces $`(12)(34)(56)`$ in fig. 4, the poset of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_1^3`$ is the interval $`123456(12)(34)(56)`$.

Now the question that arises is: how well do 3D $`N`$ point sets arising from the vertices of $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}^3`$ relate to the actual conformations of macromolecules ?

An alternative representation of permutations is as $`0/1`$ matrices, these are objects whose only entries are $`0`$s and $`1`$s with the entry $`1`$ occuring exactly once in each column. As an example to the permutation encoded by the tournament of fig. 1 it corresponds the $`0/1`$ matrix

$`\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& 1& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 0& 1\\ 0& 0& 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 1& 0& 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)`$

likewise the coordinates of a vertex in $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{N1}^3`$ can be encoded by a three-dimensional $`0/1`$ matrix, which can be regarded as a cubic lattice with only one site occupied per row in every dimension. Analogously, we can imagine in 3D cartesian space an $`N`$-point set embedded in a cubic lattice with cell spacing of $`1`$ spanning a rectangle between $`1`$ and $`N`$ in every dimension with the points located at the intersections such that there is only one point in every row in any dimension.

We can compare in fig. 5 the 3D stereoviews of the HIV-1 integrase catalytic core Cα skeleton (fig. 5a)††††††residues 50-212 of the integrase (Maignan et al., 1998)., with the 3D representation, fig. 5b, of the corresponding $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{162}^3`$ vertex within the $`𝒫^3`$ cell. Altough fig. 5b appears to be somewhat deformed with respect to fig. 5a, all the characteristic folding patterns: $`\alpha `$-helices, $`\beta `$-sheets, turns … appear to be conserved.

This means that a lot of the 3D structure is encoded by the set of dominance relations among the cartesian coordinates of individual atoms.

Conclusion

Most of the time conformational space is referenced as an abstract paradigm too complex to be understood. The aim of this work is to show that the geometry of conformational space is not beyond the reach of mathematical intuition: with the help of adequate mathematical structures its sheer complexity can be brought to tractable dimensions, and it can be done with existing and well understood mathematical tools.

The model developped here offers a number of interesting possibilities

* the structural diversity of a macromolecule can be explored by means of combinatorial patterns
* the classification of conformations can give a catalog of structures
* graphical paths can be used to determine and explore the paths between any two conformations
* its hierarchical structure makes it modular

There are shortcomings too: the present model shows a loss of precision in the 3D-structures obtained; but this should not be a major problem:

* precision can be recovered with the help of ad hoc methods. Optimization of structures within a cell should not be difficult
* there is no limit to the refinements that can be introduced into this basic model, in particular it should not be hard to build smaller cells, or to cut the existing ones into finer slices.

The possibilities offered by the model will be the subject of the forthcoming works.

References

Gabarro-Arpa, J. and Revilla, R. (2000) Comput. and Chem. 24, 693-698. Kabsch, W. (1978) Acta Cryst. A34 827-828. Laboulais, C., Ouali, M., Le Bret, M. and Gabarro-Arpa, J. (2002) Proteins: Structure, Function, and Genetics 47 169-179. Maignan, S., Guilloteau, J. P., Zhou-Liu, Q., Clément-Mella, C., Mikol, V. (1998) J. Mol. Biol. 282 359-368. Moon, J. W. (1968) Topics on Tournaments , Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York. Rosen, K. editor in chief (2000) Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics CRC Press, New York. Schoute, P. H. (1911) Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Deel 11, No. 3, Johannes Muller, Amsterdam, 1-87.

Legends of Figures

Figure 1

$`N=6`$ tournament corresponding to the sign matrix

$`𝒱=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& & +& +& & \\ +& 0& +& +& +& +\\ & & 0& & & \\ & & +& 0& & \\ +& & +& +& 0& \\ +& & +& +& +& 0\end{array}\right)`$

The score of a node is the number of nodes it dominates plus 1 (in order to establish a correspondence with permutations). It is annotated above each node in the figure.

Figure 2

Example incomplete tournaments for $`N=6`$ matching the tournament of fig. 1. Their respective sign matrices are $`𝒱^a=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& & +& +& & \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\\ & & 0& & & \\ & & +& 0& & \\ +& & +& +& 0& \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\end{array}\right)𝒱^b=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& & 0& 0& 0& 0\\ +& 0& +& +& +& +\\ 0& & 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& & 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& & 0& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& & 0& 0& 0& 0\end{array}\right)`$ $`𝒱^c=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& & +& +& & \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\\ & & 0& 0& & \\ & & 0& 0& 0& \\ +& & +& 0& 0& \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\end{array}\right)𝒱^d=\left(\begin{array}{cccccc}0& & +& +& 0& \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\\ & & 0& 0& & \\ & & 0& 0& & \\ 0& & +& +& 0& \\ +& 0& +& +& +& 0\end{array}\right)`$

Figure 3

Complement graphs of the tournament in fig. 1 with respect to the patterns in fig. 2.

Figure 4

Poset $``$ of the partitions of the sequence $`(123456)`$ into subsets of consecutive integers. The bold letters above some partitions refer to the incomplete tournaments in fig. 2.

Figure 5

* Stereo drawing of the HIV-1 integrase catalytic core Cα skeleton (residues 50-212 of the integrase, Maignan et al., 1998).
* Stereo drawing of the related vertex in $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{162}^3`$.


text:
# VLA Detection of RRLs from the radio nucleus of NGC 253 : Ionization by a weak AGN, an obscured SSC or a compact SNR ?

## 1 Introduction

NGC 253 is a nearby (D=2.5 Mpc) spiral galaxy with the central $``$100 pc hosting a vigorous starburst. The ionized gas in this region, studied by its emission in the radio, infra-red and the optical, consists of both compact and diffuse components and is distributed along a highly inclined ring. Turner and Ho (1985) discovered a string of compact sources at 15 GHz, which were studied in detail by Antonucci and Ulvestad (1988) and Ulvestad and Antonucci (1997). A number of infra-red (IR) hotspots have also been imaged in this region (Forbes, Ward, and Depoy 1991; Forbes et al. 1993; Piña et al. 1992; Keto et al. 1993; Sams et al. 1994). Kalas and Wynn-Williams (1994) and Sams et al (1994) showed that most of these hotspots are regions of low dust extinction and are not coincident with the radio sources. Optical imaging by Watson et al. (1996) revealed the presence of four star clusters, which were identified with individual IR knots (see also Forbes et al. 2000). The radio and the IR-optical sources seem to trace different populations of objects, presumably supernova remnants and HII regions, respectively. Radio recombination lines (RRLs) have been observed from this galaxy in the cm (Seaquist and Bell 1977; Mebold et al. 1980; Anantharamaiah and Goss 1996) and mm (Puxley et al. 1997) wavebands with a resolution of a few arcseconds (1′′=12 pc) or larger. Since IR and radio continuum images are now available with sub-arcsecond resolution, the identification of the exact sources of RRL emission using high resolution imaging becomes relevant.

The peak of the IR emission is offset by about 3.5′′ southwest from the peak of the radio continuum emission (the radio nucleus). There is no associated radio emission towards the IR peak and weak IR emission is observed near the radio nucleus. Keto et al. (1999) have shown that the IR peak hosts a super star cluster (SSC) and they have also suggested that the radio nucleus is probably an AGN. Turner & Ho (1985), based on their high-resolution VLA image of the 15 GHz continuum emission, discovered that the radio nucleus is an unresolved source with high brightness temperature and suggested that the nucleus could harbor an AGN. Multi-band tracers of ionized gas (\[NeII\]: Böker, Krabbe and Storey 1998; Keto et al. 1999; Br$`\gamma `$ : Forbes et al. 1993; optical continuum and line emission: Engelbracht et al. 1998; Watson et al. 1996; Forbes et al. 2000) show that the maximum emission at these wavebands coincide with the position of the IR peak. It is therefore surprising that the cm-wave RRL emission imaged by Anantharamaiah and Goss (1996) with a resolution of 1.8′′$`\times `$1′′ shows that the recombination line emission peaks at the radio nucleus, with much weaker emission near the IR peak. In order to further investigate the characteristics of this emission, we have carried out sub-arcsecond observations of the RRL emission from NGC 253 at 8.3 and 15 GHz using the VLA. These observations will help identify the compact continuum sources from which the RRLs observed at low resolutions originate. Additionally, since the peak of the line emission is probably coincident with the radio nucleus, the physical properties of the ionized gas in this region, and hence the nature of the nuclear source can be derived by modeling the RRL emission.

## 2 Observations and Results

The 8.3 GHz H92$`\alpha `$ and the 15 GHz H75$`\alpha `$ recombination lines from NGC 253 were observed using the Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the A configuration. This observing mode yields the required parsec-scale resolution with the best sensitivity possible. The data analysis was done using standard procedures available in the software package AIPS. The datasets at 8.3 GHz, acquired over three periods, were concatenated for further processing. Of the two datasets available at 15 GHz, only one was used as the other suffered from bandpass problems. Continuum images were made at both frequencies and are consistent with the images published by Ulvestad and Antonucci (1997). The channel visibilities, after hanning smoothing off-line to reduce the effects of Gibbs ringing, were used to construct line data-cubes. The continuum and line images at both frequencies were convolved to a common resolution of 0.35′′$`\times `$0.22′′ at a P.A. of $``$10. The shortest baselines in the datasets are mentioned in Table 1. The largest well-sampled angular scale in the images are estimated to be $``$7.5′′ at 8.3 GHz and $``$3.0′′ at 15 GHz.

The continuum emission at 8.3 GHz and 15 GHz from the central 3′′ region are shown in Figure 1. Also shown in the figure are overlays of the integrated line emission. The H92$`\alpha `$ and H75$`\alpha `$ spectra towards the peak of the line emission are shown in Figure 2. Further observational details and image parameters are listed in Table 1. The peak of the continuum emission corresponds to the radio nucleus and is associated with the source 5.79-39.0 in the compact source catalog of Ulvestad and Antonucci (1997). Though the central 3′′ region contains multiple sources, the nucleus is separable from the surrounding emission with our resolution of 0.3′′. The peaks of both the H92$`\alpha `$ and H75$`\alpha `$ line emission coincide with the unresolved radio nucleus, with much weaker emission near the IR peak. Extended H92$`\alpha `$ line emission is detected over a 3′′ region. Since the 8.3 GHz datasets were imaged with less weighting given to short spacing visibilities in order to have similar resolution as that of the 15 GHz data, this diffuse emission is not detectable in Figure 1. In this paper, we will only discuss the line emission detected against the unresolved radio nucleus. The discussion of the extended line emission as well as the emission towards other compact sources in the field will follow in a later paper.

## 3 Modeling the RRL emission

The properties of the ionized gas at the nucleus were modeled using the observed continuum and recombination lines. These observational constraints correspond to an area of $``$4 pc (one synthesized beam) and the values are listed in Table 1. The line emitting gas was assumed to be photo-ionized and the atomic level populations were derived assuming that the gas is not in local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE). The ionized gas was modeled as a single spherical HII region, a collection of HII regions and also as a rectangular slab. Since the results are similar in all three cases, we will only discuss the spherical HII region model. The free parameters of the model are electron density (ne), diameter ($`l`$) of the HII region and electron temperature (Te); the range of parameter space is indicated in Table 2. The density was assumed to be uniform inside the HII region. The relative locations of both the line emitting thermal gas and the non-thermal continuum source along the line of sight within the synthesized beam are unknown. Hence, the fraction of the non-thermal continuum radiation which is behind the thermal gas (and is responsible for stimulated line emission due to background radiation) is varied from zero to the total observed flux density in the models. For every combination of ne, $`l`$ and Te, the continuum and line emission strengths were then calculated. Of these combinations, those models which reproduce the observed line strengths at both frequencies and also predict continuum flux densities consistent with the observed values were accepted as valid solutions. The spectral index of the unabsorbed continuum (which includes the non-thermal part as well the thermal part which does not contribute to the observed line emission) was also calculated and was constrained not to be steeper than $``$1.0. The details of the modeling technique are discussed in detail by Anantharamaiah et al. (1993).

The range of values for various solutions are indicated in Table 2. The results do not depend sensitively on the assumed value of the electron temperature within the range explored. Typical parameters of the line emitting gas are listed in Table 3 for specific models. The allowed models described in Tables 1 and 2 assume that the unabsorbed continuum fills the synthesized beam. No solutions were obtained if the gas is assumed to be in LTE; the linear size of the region is too small and the background non-thermal radiation is too weak to produce a detectable RRL. Hence line enhancement due to non-LTE processes is essential to explain the observed line strength. Only a narrow range of densities (6$`\times `$103–1.7$`\times `$104 cm-3) is allowed and the ionizing photon rate ranges from 6–20$`\times `$1051 photons s-1. A power-law multi-density model was also considered (see Model IV of Mohan et al. 2001 for details). In this model, gas at densities which differ considerably from the values derived in this section will not contribute appreciably to the observerd RRL emision (see Mohan et al. 2001). Hence the constant density approximation used in the models mentioned above is justified. For ne$`<`$6$`\times `$103 cm-3, the computed line emissions inside a $``$4 pc region falls short of the observed values. For ne$`>`$1.7$`\times `$104 cm-3, the model predictions do not agree with the observed H92$`\alpha `$/H75$`\alpha `$ line ratio. The observations can be explained without invoking stimulated emission due to a background continuum radiation, i.e., the line emission can be explained solely by spontaneous emission by ionized gas, which includes stimulated emission by its own thermal continuum. For a given emission measure, inclusion of any externally stimulated emission enhances the recombination line strength compared with a case where no background radiation is invoked. Hence, the mass of ionized gas needed and the required ionizing photon flux are both less by up to a factor 2–3 for models incorporating non-thermal continuum radiation. If the unabsorbed continuum is assumed to be a distributed uniform background, then the externally stimulated emission can account for up to 60–70 % of the total H75$`\alpha `$ line strength.

If these models are computed for either the H92$`\alpha `$ or the H75$`\alpha `$ line alone, the range of allowed densities obtained is larger. Including only the H92$`\alpha `$ line changes the lower limit to the allowed density to 2000 cm-3, whereas, densities as high as 105 cm$`^3`$are allowed for models which incorporate only the H75$`\alpha `$ line. Thus, including both RRLs constrains the possible density to a much narrower range, assuming that all of the observed line emission at both frequencies arises in the same region of ionized gas. Our models, therefore, show that the observed H75$`\alpha `$ and H92$`\alpha `$ lines arise in gas with a mass of a few thousand $`M_{}`$, a density of $``$104 cm$`^3`$and require an ionizing photon flux of $``$6$`\times `$1051 s-1. The relative faintness of RRLs from near the IR peak, and the absence of a strong radio counterpart to the IR peak, which is a massive SSC, does not necessarily imply that there is less gas at the latter position; the gas could be of lower density instead.

## 4 The ionizing source

The RRL detection from the unresolved radio nucleus is from a sufficiently small linear size that the interpretation is not complicated by the unknown beam filling factors of the gas. The derived ionizing photon flux inside a $``$0.3′′ (4 pc) region can be compared with the values computed from other tracers of ionized gas. Using photo-ionization models, this value corresponds to a H$`\alpha `$ flux of 1.2$`\times `$10$`^{14}`$W/m2. Forbes et al (2000) list the H$`\alpha `$ fluxes of compact optical sources measured inside a 0.4′′ aperture. Since the strength of the line emission at the position of the radio nucleus is weak (Watson et al. 1996 and Forbes, private communication), we can assume that the H$`\alpha `$ flux from this area is less than that of the weakest source listed in their table. Then the extinction derived using the H$`\alpha `$ estimated from RRL modeling is A$`{}_{V}{}^{}>`$14m, consistent with the AV=24m$`\pm `$6 derived by Sams et al. (1994) towards the radio nucleus. Measurements of other IR emission lines from ionized gas correspond to much larger apertures and since the region surrounding the radio nucleus does contain significant amounts of ionized gas, a direct comparison is difficult. Nevertheless, if we assume an uniform extinction of 25m in the central region, then the extinction corrected Br$`\alpha `$ flux from the central 6′′ (from the data of Beck & Beckwith 1984) is a factor of 10 higher than the predictions of our model for the $``$0.3′′ region of the nucleus. Forbes et al. (1993) measured the Br$`\gamma `$ emission inside a 2′′ aperture centered around the radio nucleus (referred to as spot A). The Br$`\gamma `$ flux measured by them is a factor of two higher than the value predicted by our models, this excess being possibly due to their larger aperture.

Since the region of interest is highly obscured, the source of the photo-ionization remains uncertain. We have considered three possible candidates : (1) supernova remnant expanding in a dense medium, (2) stellar cluster and (3) AGN. Each of these will now be examined in detail to investigate which of these can explain the observed properties of the nuclear region. The imposed constraints are the derived properties of the ionized gas like density, size, ionizing flux and line width and also the radio, UV (derived from ionization) and X-ray luminosities of the nucleus. The 2–10 keV X-ray luminosity (L2-10) of the X-ray source coincident with the radio nucleus is 7$`\times `$1038 ergs s-1 (unresolved for E $`>`$ 2 keV; Pietsch et al. 2001, using the $`XMM`$$`NEWTON`$).

## 5 A compact supernova remnant as an ionizing source

Chevalier and Fransson (2001) invoked a supernova remnant (SNR) expanding into a dense ambient medium to explain some of the compact radio sources in the starburst galaxy M 82 and in Arp 220 as well and we now consider such a model to explain the nucleus of NGC 253. The high ambient density slows down the expansion to a few 100 km s-1, confines the remnant to a smaller size, and causes it to quickly enter the radiative or snowplow phase. These factors could explain the spatial extent ($``$4 pc) and the line width (attributed to the expansion of the remnant) of the ionized gas. In the snowplow phase, the swept-up gas cools and forms a thin shell, and can be ionized by the X-ray photons from the hot gas inside the remnant, giving rise to the observed RRLs. We have calculated the dynamics and radiation of such an SNR in an attempt to explain the RRL observations. In our model, the input parameters are the initial energy of the explosion, Eo, the ambient density, no, and the age of the compact SNR. Following the work of Draine and Woods (1991), we calculate the velocity and radius of the shock front and also the ionization rate and the density of ionized gas in the shell as a function of time, Eo and no. The time dependent value of L2-10 was also computed for both the Sedov phase (using the similarity solutions; Newman 1977) and for the radiative phase. The observed values (listed in Table 1 and 2) are compared with these calculated values for the radiative phase of the SNR (when an expanding recombining gas is produced). We find that the models cannot simultaneously satisfy all of these constraints for any combination of input parameters. Hence the properties of the nucleus cannot be explained by an SNR expanding in a dense medium.

## 6 A star cluster as an ionizing source

In this section, we assume that the nucleus hosts a stellar cluster and derive its properties. The number of O stars necessary to produce $`>`$6$`\times `$1051 photons s-1 is $`>`$450 and the total mass of the cluster is $`>`$8.5$`\times `$104 $`M_{}`$ (computed assuming a Salpeter IMF with a mass range between 1–80 $`M_{}`$ and using the tables in Vacca, Garmany and Shull 1996). Since the region modeled is $``$4 pc in extent, the resultant total stellar mass and the lower limit to the stellar surface density imply that the ionizing source must be a super star cluster (SSC; Meurer et al 1995). The RRLs are assumed to arise in the HII region around this SSC (similar to ‘supernebulae’ discovered in centers of other galaxies: Kobulnicky and Johnson 1999; Neff and Ulvestad 2000; Tarchi et al. 2000; Turner, Beck and Ho 2000; Mohan et al. 2001). The detection of wide lines with FWHM of $``$200 km s-1 from within a $``$4 pc region is a constraint on the dynamics of the nebula, which we investigate below. It should be noted that the dynamical age of the gas ($``$radius/velocity) is $``$104 years and the sound crossing time is $``$105 years.

### 6.1 Gas dynamics of the ‘supernebula’

Though a HII region ionized by a central cluster will expand outwards, its expansion velocity can never exceed the speed of sound in the ionized medium (Spitzer 1968) and hence cannot account for the wide lines observed. Also champagne flows in HII regions cannot produce velocities larger than $``$50 km s-1 (Yorke, Tenorio-Tagle and Bodenheimer 1984). Though supersonic velocities are known in extragalactic HII regions, their line widths are only $``$30–100 km s-1 and the HII regions are also much larger in size (for eg., Muñoz-Tuñón, Tenorio-Tagle and Casteñada 1996). The only plausible way to explain the observed velocity width is by invoking a stellar-wind driven HII region expanding at $``$100 km s-1. The expansion velocity of a wind-driven shell scales as (Lmech )1/5, where Lmech is the mechanical luminosity of the wind and hence a expansion velocity of 100 km s-1 for a cluster whose Lmech is $``$103 times that of an O star is easily obtainable. The dynamical age of a wind-driven shell is $``$0.55$`\times `$Rshell/Vshell (McCray 1983), i.e., $``$104 years.

The model considered here is that of a uniform density nebula whose dynamics is determined by the ionizing photons and the stellar wind of a central SSC. In the wind-driven phase of expansion, the nebula quickly enters the snowplow phase ($``$103 years), wherein it can be either in the energy-conserving or in the momentum-conserving phase. The swept-up matter forms a thin shell which is assumed to trap all the ionizing photons. The input parameters are the star formation history of the cluster, the constant ambient density (no) and the age of the cluster (assumed to be the same as the nebula) and the range of parameter space explored is summarized in Table 4. The time dependent values of NLyc and Lmech were derived from simulations using the code Starburst 99 111URL: http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst99/ (Leitherer et al. 1999). This simulation was carried out for solar metallicity and a Salpeter initial mass function with an upper mass cut-off of 100 $`M_{}`$. These values were obtained both for a continuous and an instantaneous star formation history for a particular value of star formation rate (SFR) and subsequently scaled linearly for other values of SFR. For a given combination of input parameters, the radius and velocity of the shock front (almost the same as that of the ionized gas), mass of ionized gas, ionization rate and the gas density were computed. These calculations were carried out using the expressions in Shull (1980) for the appropriate phase of the nebula. The derived values were compared with the values derived from the RRL modeling, listed in Table 4. Acceptable solutions were identified which were consistent with the imposed constraints. Table 4 summarizes the allowed parameters.

Gas dynamics narrowly constrains the properties of the possible supernebula. The derived solutions correspond to wind-driven shells in the energy-conserving phase. The allowed age of the nebula (and hence the cluster) is $``$2.5$`\times `$104 years, corresponding to a diameter of 7–8 pc; no solutions for smaller sizes were found. These values are a strong constraint on the hypothesized SSC. However, the reliability of these values depends on the accuracy of the Starburst 99 code for young clusters, as discussed in section 8.1.

## 7 A weak AGN as an ionizing source

Turner & Ho (1985) discovered that the nucleus is unresolved in the radio continuum, and has a high brightness temperature and hence suggested a possible AGN at the nucleus. Ulvestad & Antonucci (1997) also arrived at the same conclusion based on their higher-resolution images. The derived size is $`<`$ 0.05′′ and the lower limit to the brightness temperature is between 22 000-90 000 K. If an AGN does exist at the nucleus, then its UV continuum can be invoked to ionize the RRL emitting gas. The expected UV luminosity can be estimated using the observed radio continuum and X-ray luminosities. Based on the upper limit to the size of the ionized gas and the observed line width, the dynamical mass at the center ($``$$`\sigma ^2r`$/G) is constrained to be less than 3$`\times `$106 $`M_{}`$.

Powerful AGNs are powered by a geometrically thin standard accretion disk whose blackbody emission peaks in the UV, called the Big Blue Bump, or BBB (Koratkar and Blaes 1999), which can provide the required ionization. Falcke et al. (1995) showed that this BBB luminosity is correlated with the core radio emission ($`\nu `$Lν at 2 cm) for a sample of quasars. Extrapolating their relation for radio-weak quasars for the 2 cm luminosity of NGC 253 which is about hundred times less than their sample, the BBB luminosity for the nucleus is estimated to be $``$1042 ergs s-1. This UV luminosity corresponds to an ionizing photon flux of $``$2$`\times `$1052 s-1, consistent with the value derived from the observed RRLs. Based on the derived UV luminosity, the value of L2-10 was calculated for a range of input parameters (Frank, King and Raine 1985). It was found that the thin disk model under-predicts L2-10, and is consistent with observations only for super-eddington accretion rates.

However, given the low radiative efficiency of the nucleus (the accretion rate is estimated to be less than 0.01 times the eddington rate), the AGN could be powered by an ADAF disk (Narayan, Mahadevan and Quataert 1998). ADAF models predict the absence of a BBB. The 2 cm radio luminosity of the nucleus of NGC 253 implies that the AGN is of low luminosity (LLAGN; Nagar et al. 2000) and these LLAGNs have been shown not to exhibit a BBB in their UV emission (Ho 1999). Hence we shall now try to explain the ionization from the X-ray luminosity instead. Pietsch et al. (2001) modeled the emission from the nuclear X-ray source as bremsstrahlung radiation from a three-temperature plasma. For simplicity, we shall assume that the UV up to X-ray emission is bremsstrahlung radiation from plasma at a single temperature, Tx. The UV portion of the emission is constrained to produce an ionizing photon flux greater than that needed to explain the RRLs and the 2–10 keV portion is normalized to the observed value. The required ionization is found to be consistent with the observed X-ray flux only for Tx$`<`$0.2 keV. Since it is unlikely that most of the 2–10 keV emission arises in the exponentially decaying part of the thermal emission at 0.2 keV, this result is interpreted to imply that the X-ray emission is too weak to explain the required ionization.

## 8 Discussion

### 8.1 The star cluster model

Given the uncertainty of stellar tracks, NLyc and Lmech predicted by the Starburst 99 code are not accurate to more than a factor of a few for t$`<`$5$`\times `$105 years (Leitherer, private communication). The radius of the shock front is Rs$``$($`\mathrm{L}_{\mathrm{mech}}𝑑t`$)1/5 in the energy-conserving phase. Since Lmech is a monotonically increasing function of time (up to 5$`\times `$106 years for a continuous SFR), the dynamics of the nebula at t$`>`$5$`\times `$105 years is insensitive to the uncertainties in the Starburst 99 model at earlier times. Hence we can conclude that a nebula older than this age will not be able to explain the observations. The only consistent nebular age estimate derived in section 6.1 is $``$2.5$`\times `$104 years. The inputs from the Starburst 99 code are not accurate for such short timescales. Nevertheless it can be shown that since the ratio between Lmech and NLyc is constant with time, if just the functional dependence of Lmech with time for t$`<`$5$`\times `$105 years is reliable, then the model results are relatively independent of the uncertainties in the Starburst 99 codes. However, given the short ages derived, it can be expected that the star formation at this timescale, and hence the value of Lmech and NLyc, is stochastic, in which case, the derived age is inconsistent with the assumptions in the model. Even for a stochastic star formation process, the short dynamical timescale of 104 years needs to be explained. The dynamical model implicitly assumes that the star cluster is spatially within the wind-blown structure, which need not be true for a $``$4 pc region. The model also assumes that the stellar wind of the individual stars add coherently to produce a total ‘cluster-wind’. This assumption will be violated for a young cluster due to stellar-wind collisions and YSO outflows. These factors may help confine the gas for a longer time and also provide a natural way of increasing the line width by stirring up the intra-cluster medium. Hence if a star cluster is invoked as an ionizing source, it must be fairly young, though the properties of such a young cluster cannot be easily predicted.

### 8.2 The AGN model

We have shown in section 7 that if the proposed AGN hosts a standard thin accretion disk with a BBB, then this disk produces enough UV radiation to ionize the RRL emitting gas but its X-ray emission falls short of the observed value. On the other hand, if the AGN has an ADAF disk instead, then again, the observed X-ray emission is insufficient to ionize the RRL emitting gas. ADAF models also predict the X-ray emission for a given radio flux and mass of the black hole (Yi and Boughn 1998) and the estimated X-ray luminosity is a hundred times less than that observed (and is ten times less than the ratio observed in other LLAGNs; Ulvestad and Ho 2001). A possible way of explaining the observed radio and X-ray fluxes along with the required UV flux is the model of Quataert et al. (1999) who explain the spectrum of two LLAGNs which have an X-ray to UV ratio which is too large for a thin disk and too small for an ADAF disk. Following their work, we hyphothesize that the possible AGN in the nucleus of NGC 253 has an ADAF disk in the interior, giving way to a standard thin disk beyond a certain radius. In this picture, the radio and the UV emissions arise in the outer disk (which would have a BBB in its spectrum) and the X-ray emission arises from the inner ADAF disk.

### 8.3 The ionizing source

It is clear from section 8.1 that if the ionizing source is a star cluster, its age must be atleast younger than $``$105 years. The AGN model, discussed in section 8.2, does manage to explain the observations but the constraints on this model are relatively less in number. The probability of detecting a star cluster of age $`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$105 years at the radio nucleus would be small. Since there is additional evidence supporting the existence of an AGN at the nucleus, we favor an AGN as the possible ionizing source. The existence of an AGN at the nucleus needs to be confirmed through high resolution radio continuum or X-ray imaging. The surrounding region has a transitional HII/weak-\[O I\] LINER spectrum (Engelbracht et al. 1998) and hence disentangling the optical signature of an AGN from this LINER emission will be difficult. Detailed multi-wavelength modeling of the nuclear emission also needs to be carried out in the framework of the AGN model in order to further constrain the properties of this object.

## 9 Conclusions

We have imaged the RRL emission from the starburst galaxy NGC 253 at 8.3 GHz and 15 GHz with a spatial resolution of $``$0.3′′ ($``$4 pc) using the VLA. The line emission is maximum at the radio nucleus at both frequencies and is much weaker near the position of the IR peak, which is known to host an SSC. The line widths of both RRLs are large: $``$200 km s-1. The continuum and line emission were modeled in terms of a uniform density photo-ionized gas. The observed RRLs can be explained as arising from a 2–4 pc sized region of gas of mass few thousand $`M_{}`$, at a density of 104 cm-3. The ionizing flux required is 6–20$`\times `$1051 photons s-1. This gas can, in principle, be ionized by a compact SNR, a star cluster or by an AGN. The dust extinction against the nucleus is very high and hence direct detection of the ionizing source in the optical-IR is not feasible. Detailed dynamical modeling shows that a compact SNR cannot explain the observed properties of the ionized gas. The star cluster model was investigated in terms of a stellar wind-blown structure. Such a model can account for all of the observed properties only for a cluster of age $``$2.5$`\times `$104 years. Though this age estimate is shown not to be consistent with the dynamical model considered, a relatively young age ($`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$105 years) for any such cluster is unavoidable. If an AGN is assumed to be the ionizing source, then the observed X-ray flux cannot explain the required ionizing photon rate. However, a simple thin accretion disk model can account for the ionization based on the observed radio flux density. A composite model involving an inner thin disk and an outer ADAF disk is suggested, in order to simultaneously explain the radio, UV and the X-ray observations.

The detection of such a young star cluster at the nucleus of the galaxy is improbable. Since there is additional evidence supporting the existence of an AGN at the nucleus from radio continuum data, we favor the AGN model as an ionizing source. If confirmed, our observations could be the first detection of RRLs from an AGN outside our galaxy. The central $``$36 pc region of NGC 253 is host to a number of compact thermal and non-thermal sources and diffuse gas and is also coincident with the base of the galactic superwind and possibly hosts a central AGN as well. Hence this galaxy would be an ideal laboratory to study the dynamics and the interaction of all these components, much like the galactic center.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research has made use of the Starburst 99 code, made available to the public by the authors and we thank them for sharing it with the community. This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service. We thank Dipankar Bhattacharya, K. S. Dwarakanath, Kelsey Johnson, Biman Nath, Prasad Subramanian and Jim Ulvestad for detailed discussions and helpful comments. We also wish to thank the referee for many insightful comments which helped in improving the clarity of the paper.