text:
# O and Ne K absorption edge structures and interstellar abundance towards Cyg X-2

## 1 Introduction

The metal abundance in the interstellar medium (ISM) is an important parameter for the understanding of the chemical evolution of the Universe. However, large uncertainties remain in our knowledge of this abundance. The solar abundance is sometimes regarded as the average of our Galaxy. However, UV absorption lines due to interstellar gas and optical absorption lines in the atmosphere of young B-stars have indicated that the metal abundance in the ISM of our Galaxy is on average about two thirds of the solar abundance (Savage & Sembach, 1996; Snow & Witt, 1996). However, both methods contain uncertainties because the former method is only sensitive to matter in atomic forms, while the abundance of B-star atmospheres may be different from the ISM. Indeed, Sofia & Meyer (2001) recently claimed that B-star abundances are lower than the ISM abundance and that the solar abundance is close to the ISM abundance. Moreover, the O solar abundance itself is not determined well. Recent values by Grevesse & Sauval (1998) and Holweger (2001) are significantly lower than the values in the widely used table of Anders & Grevesse (1989).

High resolution X-ray spectroscopy of absorption features due to the interstellar matter is a powerful tool to measure the amount of interstellar metal. It is sensitive to both the atomic (gas) and compound (molecular and dust grain) forms and can distinguish them by the chemical shifts. There are absorption lines and edges of many elements in the X-ray energy range. We can determine the column densities of these elements in different forms separately, integrating towards the X-ray source. However, the observation requires both high energy resolution and good statistics. Schatternburg & Canizares (1986) determined the O column density towards the Crab nebula with the transmission grating on the Einstein observatory. They could not separate atomic and compound forms. Also they were not able to determine the O abundance since the H column density towards the Crab nebula was not known. Paerels et al. (2001) analyzed the O and Ne absorption structures of the X-ray binary X0614+091 observed with the low energy transmission grating (LETG) on the Chandra observatory. They successfully separated the absorption features of O in atomic and compound forms. They also determined the abundance ratio of Ne to O. However, they could not determine the O abundance because the H column density toward the source is not known. Schulz et al. (2002) determined the column densities of O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe towards Cyg X-1 with the Chandra high energy transmission grating (HETG) data. They discussed the abundances of O, Ne, and Fe. However, it was necessary to assume the abundances of all other elements to be solar, in order to estimate the H column density towards Cyg X-1 from the X-ray spectrum.

In this paper we analyze the spectrum of Cyg X-2 obtained with the Chandra LETG and HRC (High Resolution Camera)-I. Cyg X-2 is a Low-Mass X-ray Binary (LMXB) located at ($`l`$,$`b`$)= ($`87.33^{}`$,$`11.32^{}`$) and its distance is determined to be 7.2 kpc from the optical counterpart and X-ray burst with mass ejection (Cowley, Crampton, & Hutchings, 1979; Smale, 1998; Orosz & Kuulkers, 1999). Smale (1998) claimed a distance of 11.6 kpc, however, this is because he assumed the Eddington luminosity for a hydrogen rich atmosphere. If we assume a helium rich atmosphere, which is more realistic for type-I bursts (Lewin, van Paradijs, & Taam, 1995), the distance is consistent with 7.2 kpc. Adopting this distance, Cyg X-2 is located $``$ 1.4 kpc above the Galactic disk. Thus the H column density towards Cyg X-2 can be estimated from 21 cm (H I), CO ($`\mathrm{H}_2`$), and $`\mathrm{H}_\alpha `$ (H II) observations with relatively small errors. Because of the featureless X-ray spectrum of the LMXB, the high brightness, and the well-determined H column density to the source, Cyg X-2 is one of the best X-ray sources for the study of the interstellar abundance with X-ray absorption.

In the next section, we will first discuss the H column density towards Cyg X-2. Then in the following sections we will show the observational results and discuss the O and Ne abundances and the uncertainties of the present results.

Throughout this paper, we quote single parameter errors at the 90 % confidence level unless otherwise specified.

## 2 H column density towards Cyg X-2

Interstellar hydrogen is distributed in three different forms; atomic (H I), molecular (H2), and ionic (H II).

The column density of atomic hydrogen is measured by the 21 cm radio emission. In the H I map of Dickey & Lockman (1990), the H column density ($`N_\mathrm{H}`$) is given at grid points of 0.8 degree separation. By interpolating between the values of nearby points, the column density in the direction of Cyg X-2 is estimated to be $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{atom})`$=$`2.17\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Since the scale height of atomic hydrogen is $`140`$ pc, the total column density of our galaxy can be regarded as the column density to Cyg X-2. The standard deviation of the $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ values within two degrees of Cyg X-2 is $`0.1\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The power spectra of the small-scale spatial fluctuation of the galactic $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{atom})`$ were measured for different directions (Crovisier & Dickey, 1983; Dickey et al., 2001). On the spatial scales less than 1 deg, the power-law index of the power spectra is in the range from $`3`$ to $`4`$. Assuming the same shape of the power spectrum for the spatial fluctuations in the vicinity of Cyg X-2, we estimate the rms amplitude of the spatial fluctuation less than 2 degrees to be $`0.12\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and regard this as the 1-$`\sigma `$ error of the estimation.

Miramond & Naylor (1995) determined the upper limit of molecular hydrogen column density towards Cyg X-2 from the upper limit of CO emission line in the direction of Cyg X-2 to be $`0.05\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (90 % significance level). According to them, the contribution of H2 in $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ is smaller than $`0.10\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

The total neutral H column density ($`N_{\mathrm{HI}}+2N_{\mathrm{H}_2}`$) is thus estimated to be $`2.17_{0.20}^{+0.22}\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2.`$ On the other hand, the reddening towards Cyg X-2 is determined to be $`E(BV)0.4`$ (McClintock et al., 1984). Combining this with the relation, $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}+2N_{\mathrm{H}_2}=5.8\times 10^{21}E(BV)\mathrm{atoms}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{mag}^1`$ (Bohlin, Savage, & Drake, 1978), we obtain $`N_{\mathrm{HI}}+2N_{\mathrm{H}_2}2.3\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2,`$ which is consistent with the above estimation.

A large fraction ($`97`$ %, Mathis, 2000) of ionized H atoms exists in the warm ionized interstellar medium (WIM) of temperature $`T8000`$ K, distributed in our galaxy with a scale height $`h`$ of $`900`$ pc and a volume filling factor $`f`$ of $`0.2`$. In the WIM, oxygen is effectively ionized through the charge exchange process. The number densities of neutral/ionized oxygen and hydrogen are related to $`N`$(O II)$`/N`$ (O I) = (8/9) $`N`$(H II)$`/N`$(H I) (Field & Steigman, 1971). According to more recent model calculations by Sembach et al. (2000), the ionization fraction of Ne is also similar to that of H; in their ‘COMPOSITE’ model, the values of $`\mathrm{log}(N(X^i)/N(X_{\mathrm{total}}))`$ where $`X=`$ H, O, or Ne and $`i`$ represents the ionization states are, respectively, $`0.73`$ and $`0.09`$ for H I and H II, $`0.71`$ and $`0.09`$ for O I and O II, and $`0.70`$ and $`0.10`$ for Ne I and Ne II. Therefore, $`N(X_{\mathrm{total}})/N(\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{total}})=N(X^0)/N`$(H I) is a good approximation for gas-phase O and Ne and we do not need to consider ionized H when we calculate atomic O and Ne abundances.

On the other hand, since interstellar dust grains are thought to co-exist with the WIM, we need to take into account the column density of ionized H when we estimate the abundance of O in compound forms. We estimated it from the Hα emission line intensity in the direction of Cyg X-2 obtained from the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) survey (Haffner et al., in prep, ) 111http://www.astro.wisc.edu/wham/. The intensity is $`14.6\pm 3.8`$ Rayleighs. From the line intensity, the total emission measure in the column towards Cyg X-2 is estimated to be $`(1.28\pm 0.33)\times 10^{20}(T/8000\mathrm{K})\mathrm{cm}^5`$, where we applied an extinction correction factor of 1.3 assuming $`R_\mathrm{v}=3.1`$ (Mathis, 1990). Assuming the spatial distribution described above, the emission measure and the column density are respectively related to the local ionized H density in the galactic plane, $`n_0`$, by,

$$EM=fn_0^2_0^{\mathrm{}}\left[\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{x\mathrm{sin}b}{h}\right)\right]^2𝑑x$$

and

$$N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{ion})=fn_0_0^d\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{x\mathrm{sin}b}{h}\right)𝑑x,$$

where $`d`$ and $`b`$ are the distance and the galactic latitude of Cyg X-2, respectively. From these we obtain $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{ion})=0.70\pm 0.18\times 10^{21}(f/0.2)^{1/2}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. As a nominal value, we adopted $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{ion})=0.70\pm 0.18\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ ($`f=0.2,`$ Mathis, 2000) and thus $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{total})=2.87_{0.23}^{+0.25}\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2.`$ Even for $`f=1`$, $`N_\mathrm{H}(\mathrm{ion})`$ does not exceed $`1.57\pm 0.40\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2.`$

In Table 1, we summarize the H column densities estimated in this section.

## 3 Analysis and results

### 3.1 Data reduction

Cyg X-2 was observed with the LETG/HRC-I for 30 ks on 2000 April 24 (obsID 87). We retrieved the archival data from the CXC (Chandra X-ray Center). Cyg X-2 is known to show both intensity and spectral variations. However, since the X-ray flux varied only $`20\%`$ during the observation and since we are interested only in the interstellar absorption features, we integrated all the data after the standard data screening.

Since the spectrum in the archival data we retrieved is known to contain some processing errors222 see http://asc.harvard.edu/ciao/threads/spectra\_letghrcs/, we reprocessed the data according to the standard methods described in threads in CIAO 2.2.1 (CALDB 2.10). We first obtained the spectra of the positive and negative orders. Then we summed them, rebinned to 0.025 Å bins, and subtracted the background. The background was only $`2\%`$ of the source counts in the wavelength region we used in the later analysis.

HRC-I has almost no energy resolution. The spectrum we obtained contains photons not only of the first order dispersion but also of the higher orders. We subtracted the higher order spectra utilizing the method described in Paerels et al. (2001). The $`m`$-th order spectrum of photons with a wavelength of $`\lambda `$ appears in the wavelength bin, $`\widehat{\lambda }=m\lambda `$, of the first order spectrum. Since the LETG/HRC-I system has no detection efficiency below the wavelength $`\lambda _0`$, where $`\lambda _0=1`$ Å, we can neglect the contribution of the $`m`$-th order spectrum in the wavelength range $`\widehat{\lambda }<m\lambda _0`$. From the spectrum in the range $`\lambda _0<\widehat{\lambda }<2\lambda _0`$ and the efficiency ratio of the second to the first order spectra, we can estimate the second order spectrum in the range $`2\lambda _0<\widehat{\lambda }<4\lambda _0`$ and subtract it from the total spectrum to obtain the first order spectrum in $`\lambda _0<\widehat{\lambda }<3\lambda _0`$. In the same manner, we can subtract higher order spectra from all the wavelength range. We calculated the efficiency ratio from the effective areas of the LETG/HRC-S system provided at the CALDB WWW page 333letgs\_NOGAP\_EA\_001031.mod for the 1st order and letgs\_EA\_001031\_o$`m`$.mod for $`m`$-th order, at http://asc.harvard.edu/cal/Links/Letg/User/Hrc\_QE/EA/high\_orders/ because the higher order efficiencies are not available for the LETG/HRC-I system and because the efficiency ratios are not dependent on the detector. The calibration files we used are updated compared to those used by Paerels et al. (2001). We show in Figure 1 the spectra with and without higher orders.

We estimated the statistical errors of the first order spectrum obtained with the above method considering the error propagations. Because of the error propagations, the statistics of the spectral bins are no longer completely independent. However, the increase of the statistical errors after the higher order subtraction is smaller than 3% in the wavelength ranges we use in the following analysis. We thus treat them to be independent in the spectral fittings.

According to the LETGS calibration report at the CXC 444see http://cxc.harvard.edu/cal/Links/User/calstatus.html, the wavelength calibration of LETGS spectra is accurate to 0.02 %. This is smaller by an order of magnitude than the statistical errors in the wavelengths determined in the following analyses.

### 3.2 O absorption structure and the optical depth

In the observed spectrum of Cyg X-2, we clearly found two absorption lines and an absorption edge near $`\lambda `$ 23 Å besides the instrumental O absorption line and edge (see Figure 2). The centroid energies of the two absorption lines were determined to be $`23.505\pm 0.007`$ Å and $`23.360\pm 0.014`$ Å, and thus they were identified with the 1s–2p resonant lines of the atomic and compound O, respectively. However, since the absorption lines are saturated ($`\tau 1`$), the absorption column densities cannot be determined accurately from the absorption lines. We thus focus on the absorption edge.

The absorption edge structure was extended compared to the instrumental O K-edge, which suggests that the edge structure consists of absorption edge components with different edge energies.

A complicated structure is expected for the absorption edge of an atomic O, firstly because photo-ionized O atoms take two distinct final states with different total spin numbers, and secondly because there are many absorption lines which cannot be resolved with the LETGS near the absorption edges (McLaughlin & Kirby, 1998). The theoretical values of edge energies calibrated with ground experiments are 544.03 eV (22.790 Å, spin 3/2) and 548.85 eV (22.590 Å, spin 1/2) (McLaughlin & Kirby, 1998). On the other hand, the edge energy of the compound O depends on the chemical state. Thus the absorption edge of the compound forms can have an extended structure. The edge energy must be lower than the edge energy of atomic O, but higher than the absorption line energy. According to Sevier (1979), the edge energy of O in metal oxide is $`532.0\pm 0.4`$ eV ($`23.31\pm 0.02`$ Å).

All the O edge structures may not be identified because the statistics and the energy resolution of the present data are limited. Thus, we first apply a rather simple model to the observed spectrum, then later try more and more complicated models.

We restricted the wavelength range of model fits in order to avoid the contributions of absorption edges of other elements. We did all the analysis described below with several different wavelength ranges. We found that the O absorption optical depth determined from the analysis is not dependent on the wavelength ranges of the fits, so long as the lower and upper limits of the range are within the ranges 17.5–19.0 Å and 27.0–29.0 Å, respectively. Thus we show here the results with the fitting range of 18.5 Å–28.0 Å.

We assumed a power-law function for the continuum spectrum. We also included the absorption by neutral matter represented by the tbabs model in the ‘sherpa’ program (Wilms, Allen, & McCray, 2000) with the O abundance fixed to 0. We included an O absorption edge with a separate absorption edge component represented by edge model in the sherpa program. We fixed the H column density of the tbabs absorption model to $`2.17\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and fixed the helium abundance to the solar value. We performed the fits with the abundances of other atoms fixed at several different values between 0.5 and 1.5 solar. We found that the dependence of the best-fit O absorption optical depths on the abundance of other elements is only about ten percent of the statistical errors. Thus we only show the results with the abundance of other elements fixed at the solar values.

In the first model, we included two oxygen edge components. We treated the edge energies and the optical depths of the two ‘edge’ components as free parameters. We represented the two O absorption lines with negative Gaussian functions. We fixed the centroid wavelengths to 23.505 Å and 23.360 Å, and the widths to 0.04 Å. The free parameters of the fits were the two O edge energies and optical depths, the normalization factor and the power-law index of the continuum, and the normalization factors of the two Gaussian absorption lines.

We show the results of the fits in the first data column of Table 2. The best fit energies of the two edges were $`22.76_{0.04}^{+0.13}`$ Å and $`23.11_{0.03}^{+0.09}`$ Å, respectively. The former is consistent with the atomic O edge of the spin 3/2 final state within the statistical error. On the other hand, the latter is in the middle of the atomic and the instrumental O absorption edges. Thus, it is likely to represent an O edge of compound forms.

Next, in order to investigate possible complex structures of the edges and the model dependence of the absorption optical depths, we increased the number of edge components one by one. In the fits, we allowed both the energies and optical depths of all the edges to vary. In the second and third data columns of Table 2, the results are summarized. The $`\chi ^2`$ value shows a significant improvement from the double to the three edge models (99.6 % confidence with an F-test). The edge energy of the third edge is 22.58 Å= 549.1 eV. This energy is close to the edge energy for a final spin 1/2. In the raw spectrum (Figure 2), we can find this edge structure. On the other hand, the $`\chi ^2`$ value did not improve from the three-edge to the four-edge models. Thus we conclude that the observed O edge structure can be represented with the three-edge model within the limit of the present statistics and the energy resolution; two of the edges represent absorption by atomic O corresponding to the two different O-ion spin states, and the remaining one represents absorption by O in compound forms.

Finally, in order to determine the spectral parameters and their statistical errors for the three-edge model more precisely, we performed the spectral fit with the three-edge model with the two edge energies of the atomic O fixed at the theoretical values. In the last column of Table 2, we show the results. We estimated the statistical error for the total optical depth for the atomic O edge from the $`\chi ^2`$ contour map to find the total optical depth of $`0.43\pm 0.14`$. The optical depth of compound forms is $`0.26\pm 0.11`$.

To estimate the column density of O from the absorption optical depth, we adopted the absorption cross section of Verner & Yakovlev (1995): $`\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}=4.98\times 10^{19}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ both for atomic and compound forms. We obtained $`N_{\mathrm{O},\mathrm{atom}}=8.6\pm 2.8\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`N_{\mathrm{O},\mathrm{comp}}=5.2\pm 2.2\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

Assuming the $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ values of $`2.17_{0.20}^{+0.22}\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for atomic O and $`2.87_{0.23}^{+0.25}\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ for compound forms, we estimate the abundance of O to be $`0.47\pm 0.16`$ solar (atomic), $`0.21\pm 0.09`$ solar (compound), and $`0.68\pm 0.13`$ solar (total), where we assumed the O solar abundance of $`8.51\times 10^4`$ (Anders & Grevesse, 1989). The error of the total abundance was estimated from the $`\chi ^2`$ contour map of the spectral fit, taking into account the difference of $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ values for gas and compound forms and their systematic errors.

### 3.3 Absorption structure of Ne

In the observed spectrum of Cyg X-2, we also clearly found an absorption edge at 14.3 Å, which is identified with the Ne K-edge (Figure 3). We performed spectral fits to the wavelength range of 12.0–15.5 Å. In addition to the edge, there is an absorption line at 14.6 Å. Because the line wavelength is close to the edge, we included an absorption line in the model function. We employed the model function similar to that used for the O features. We represented the Ne edge with a single edge model.

In Table 3, we show the results of the fit. The absorption edge wavelength was consistent with that of the neutral Ne (14.25 Å; Verner & Yakovlev, 1995). From the optical depth determined from the fit and the theoretical absorption cross section of Ne I (Verner & Yakovlev, 1995), we determined the column density and abundance of Ne to be $`2.00\pm 0.51\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`0.75\pm 0.20`$ times the solar abundance of Anders & Grevesse (1989).

Although the absorption-line energy, $`14.599\pm 0.012`$ Å, is close to the resonant line energy of Ne II (14.631 Å, Behar & Netzer, 2002), it is outside the 90% statistical error domain. Thus we can not unequivocally identify this absorption line. However, if we assume it is Ne II, the column density estimated from the line is $`8.0\pm 2.4\times 10^{16}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, which is about 1/3 of Ne I. Thus if the absorption line is due to Ne II, Ne II can be attributed to the WIM.

## 4 Discussion

We have analyzed the O and Ne absorption structures in the X-ray spectrum of Cyg X-2 observed with the Chandra LETG/HRC-I. The O edge is represented by the sum of three edge components within the limit of present statistics and energy resolution. Two edge components represent absorptions by atomic O; their edge energies are consistent with the theoretical values corresponding to the two distinct final O states of different spin numbers. The edge energy of the remaining edge is lower than the other two, and is likely to represent O in compound forms. From the depth of the edges, we estimated the O column densities with atomic and compound forms separately.

We tried a four-edge component model in the spectral fits. We find the sum of the optical depths of all the edge components does not change significantly from three to four edge models. Thus we conclude that the total O column density does not depend significantly on the number of edge components assumed in the spectral models. We estimated the atomic, compound, and total O abundances to be $`0.47\pm 0.16`$, $`0.21\pm 0.09`$, and $`0.68\pm 0.13`$ times the solar abundance of Anders & Grevesse (1989) respectively. The Ne edge is represented with a single edge model and the Ne abundance is estimated to be $`0.75\pm 0.20`$ solar. In the errors of abundance quoted above, we included the statistical errors of the spectral fits, and the systematic errors of $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ estimated from the spatial fluctuation of 21cm and $`\mathrm{H}_\alpha `$ emissions and the upper limit of CO emission.

There is an additional systematic error in the abundance of O in compound forms, arising from the uncertainty in the spatial distribution of the WIM. If we consider the extreme case in which its volume filling factor is 1, the O abundance reduces to $`0.16\pm 0.07`$ (compound form) and $`0.63\pm 0.12`$ (total).

It is very unlikely that the O and Ne absorption edges are associated with the circumstellar matter in the Cygnus X-2 binary system. Suppose that the absorption column of $`N_\mathrm{H}2\times 10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ is located in a distance $`r`$ from the X-ray source. The ionization parameter, $`\xi =L_\mathrm{X}/(nr^2)L_\mathrm{X}/(N_\mathrm{H}r)`$ must be smaller than $`10`$ so that O is neutral (Kallman & McCray, 1982). With $`L_\mathrm{X}=10^{38}`$ erg sec-1, we find $`r10^{16}`$ cm. This is much larger than the size of the binary system ($`10^{12}`$ cm, Cowley, Crampton, & Hutchings, 1979) This is consistent with the facts that all emission and absorption line features found in LMXBs are from highly ionized atoms (e.g., Asai et al., 2000; Cottam et al., 2001) and that low-ionization emission lines from the Cyg X-2 system are from near the companion star (Cowley, Crampton, & Hutchings, 1979).

About one third of O contributing to the absorption edges is in compound form. Dust grains are considered to contribute to this component. In such a situation, the optical depth for dust scattering of X-rays is not negligible compared to the absorption if we assume a typical dust radius of $`0.1\mu `$m. Scattered X-rays form an extended halo on the few arcminute scale (Hayakawa, 1970; Mauche & Gorenstein, 1986; Predehl & Schmitt, 1995). Since the scattering cross section is dependent on the X-ray energy, the energy spectrum of the unscattered X-rays is modified by scattering. However, if multiple scattering is negligible and if the spatial distribution of dust is uniform over the spatial scale corresponding to the dust halo, the energy spectrum of total photons, i.e., the sum of the unscattered core and the scattered halo, is not modified by dust scattering. This is not the case for the present energy spectrum obtained with the LETG, since we derived the energy spectrum only from the central $``$ 1 arc second of the X-ray image. Because the scattering cross sections show anomalous features around absorption edges (Mitsuda et al., 1990), the dust scattering will affect the estimation of the absorption column density; the scattering cross section is smaller at the energy just above the edge (at the wavelength shorter than the edge), while the absorption cross section is larger. This leads to an underestimation of the O absorption column density. We estimated the amplitude of this effect in the following way.

The total scattering cross section of an X-ray photon of a wavelength $`\lambda `$ with a dust grain of a radius $`a`$ is given by

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{dust},\mathrm{sc}}=2\pi a^2\left(\frac{2\pi a}{\lambda }\right)^2\left|\frac{Nr_0\lambda ^2}{2\pi }(f_1+\mathrm{i}f_2)\right|^2,$$

under the Rayleigh-Gans approximation (van de Hulst, 1957), where $`N`$ is the number of atoms per unit volume, $`r_0`$ is the classical electron radius, and $`f_1`$ and $`f_2`$ are the atomic scattering factors (Henke, Gullikson, & Davis, 1993). The Rayleigh-Gans approximation is valid for $`(2\pi a/\lambda )|Nr_0\lambda ^2/(2\pi )(f_1+\mathrm{i}f_2)|1`$.

Because the factor $`|f_1+\mathrm{i}f_2|`$ becomes small near the absorption edge, the dust scattering cross section is reduced at the edge. Assuming typical chemical compositions and densities of dust grains ($`\mathrm{FeSiO}_4`$, $`\mathrm{FeSiO}_3`$, $`\mathrm{Mg}_2\mathrm{SiO}_4`$ and $`\mathrm{MgSiO}_3`$), we estimate the reduction of the scattering cross section at the O edge to be in the range,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{dust},\mathrm{sc}}=(0.530.93)\times 10^{10}\left(\frac{a}{0.1\mu \mathrm{m}}\right)^4\mathrm{cm}^2.$$

Assuming the number density of dust to be proportional to $`a^{3.5}`$ with a cut off at $`a_{\mathrm{max}}`$ (Mathis, Rumpl, & Nordsieck, 1977), we calculate the reduction of the scattering cross section per O atom,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\sigma _{\mathrm{sc}}=(0.741.44)\times 10^{19}\left(\frac{a_{\mathrm{max}}}{0.1\mu \mathrm{m}}\right)\mathrm{cm}^2.$$

Thus the reduction of scattering cross section can be a few tens of percent of the absorption cross section, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{abs}}=4.98\times 10^{19}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The maximum grain radius contributing to X-ray scatterings has been estimated from the spatial size of dust scattering halos. Mauche & Gorenstein (1986) and Mitsuda et al. (1990) suggested $`a_{\mathrm{max}}=0.050.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$, but recently Witt, Smith, & Dwek (2001) suggested the presence of grains with radii as large as $`0.5\mu \mathrm{m}`$. Adopting $`a_{\mathrm{max}}=0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$, and assuming that O of compound forms are all in dust grains, the column density of O of compound forms increases from $`5.2\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ to $`(6.17.3)\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. At the O edge energy, the Rayleigh-Gans approximation is valid only for $`a_{\mathrm{max}}0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$ and the scattering cross section saturates at $`a_{\mathrm{max}}0.1\mu \mathrm{m}`$ (Alcock & Hatchett, 1978; Smith & Dwek, 1998). Thus the correction factor does not increase for larger grains and the correction factor we applied above can be regarded as the maximum correction.

The O abundance values calculated for four different cases (with and without correction for dust scattering, and two different values of the volume filling factor of the WIM) are summarized in Table 4. The total O abundance is between $`0.63\pm 0.12`$ and $`0.74\pm 0.14`$ times solar. On the other hand the Ne abundance is $`0.75\pm 0.20`$. Our results are more consistent with the recent solar abundances than the most widely used ‘old’ values. For example , the O and Ne solar abundances by Holweger (2001) are 0.65 and 0.81 times the values in Anders & Grevesse (1989), respectively.

Another important parameter we can estimate from the present X-ray observation is the gas to dust ratio of the O column densities, which is estimated to be $`2.2_{1.1}^{+3.9}`$, $`2.8_{1.5}^{+5.1}`$, $`1.7_{0.9}^{+3.0}`$, and $`2.2_{1.1}^{+4.0}`$ for cases 1 to 4 of Table 4, respectively. This should be compared with the value estimated from the gas abundance from interstellar UV absorption lines and the assumption that the total abundance is solar. Adopting the O gas abundance of Cartledge, Meyer, & Lauroesch (2001) and solar abundances by Anders & Grevesse (1989) and Holweger (2001), we obtain 0.7 and 1.7, respectively. Our result is again consistent with the latest solar abundance value.

For O, the present X-ray result contains an additional uncertainty due to the correction for dust scattering. We can avoid this if we include the spectrum from the scattering halo in the analysis. This requires non-dispersive high resolution spectrometers such as microcalorimeters, which will be used on board future X-ray missions, such as Astro-E2.

We thank J. Ichimura and K. Masai for discussions on the O and Ne absorption structure, P. Edwards for his careful review of the manuscript. We appreciate the Hα survey of the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper funded by the National Science Foundation. We are also grateful to the anonymous referee for his valuable comments, in particular, suggesting the importance of H II in the H column density.


format: text

text:
# Anomalous single production of the fourth SM family quarks at Tevatron

## Abstract

Possible single productions of fourth family $`u_4`$ and $`d_4`$ quarks via anomalous $`q_4qV`$ interactions at Tevatron are studied. Signature of such processes are discussed and compared with the recent results from Tevatron.

The flavor democracy enforces the existence of the fourth Standard Model (SM) family . The masses of the fourth family quarks are expected to be degenerate and lie between $`300`$ GeV and $`700`$ GeV (see  and references therein).

It is clear that the pair production of the fourth family quarks will be copious at CERN LHC . In addition, extra SM generations will yield an essential enhancement in Higgs production at LHC and Tevatron . Furthermore, the future lepton colliders will be the best place to observe the fourth SM family leptons .

Together with the indirect manifestation of the fourth SM family via enhancement of the Higgs boson production, the fourth family quarks can also be observed at Tevatron if anomalous $`q_4qV`$ interactions exist. The arguments given in  for anomalous interactions of the top quark are more valid for $`u_4`$ and $`d_4`$ since they are expected to be heavier than the top quark.

In this work, we present a preliminary analysis of the anomalous single production of $`u_4`$ and $`d_4`$ quarks at Tevatron. The recent observation of excess of events with the final state containing $`W+2,3`$ jets  can be interpreted as the signature of these processes.

The effective Lagrangian for the anomalous interactions between the fourth family quarks, ordinary quarks and the gauge bosons $`V`$ ($`V=\gamma ,Z,g`$) can be written as follows:

$`L={\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _\gamma ^{q_i}}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}e_qg_e\overline{q}_4\sigma _{\mu \nu }(A_\gamma ^{q_i}+B_\gamma ^{q_i}\gamma _5)q_iF^{\mu \nu }+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _Z^{q_i}}{2\mathrm{\Lambda }}}g_Z\overline{q}_4\sigma _{\mu \nu }(A_Z^{q_i}+B_Z^{q_i}\gamma _5)q_iZ^{\mu \nu }`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{\kappa _g^{q_i}}{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}g_s\overline{q}_4\sigma _{\mu \nu }(A_g^{q_i}+B_g^{q_i}\gamma _5)T^aq_iG_a^{\mu \nu }+h.c.`$ (1)
where $`F^{\mu \nu },Z^{\mu \nu }`$, and $`G^{\mu \nu }`$ are the field strength tensors of the photon, $`Z`$ boson and gluons, respectively; $`T^a`$ are Gell-Mann matrices; $`e_q`$ is the charge of the quark; $`g_e,g_Z`$, and $`g_s`$ are the electroweak, and the strong coupling constants respectively. $`g_Z=g_e/\mathrm{cos}\theta _W\mathrm{sin}\theta _W`$ where $`\theta _W`$ is the Weinberg angle. $`A_{\gamma ,Z,g}^q`$ and $`B_{\gamma ,Z,g}^q`$ are the magnitudes of the neutral currents; $`\kappa _{\gamma ,Z,g}`$ define the strength of the anomalous couplings for the neutral currents with a photon, a $`Z`$ boson and a gluon, respectively; $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the cutoff scale for the new physics.

We assume all the neutral current magnitudes in Eq. (1) to be equal, satisfying the constraint $`|A|^2+|B|^2=1`$ and redefine all anomalous couplings:

$$\kappa _\gamma ^{q_i}=\kappa _Z^{q_i}=\kappa _g^{q_i}=\lambda ^{(4i)}$$
(2)
where generation number $`i=1,2,3,4`$. We have implemented the new interaction vertices into the CALCHEP  package. Two values of $`\lambda `$ are considered ($`\lambda =1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.5}`$) as an example. Table 1 and 2 (3 and 4) present the branching ratios and the total decay widths of the $`u_4(d_4)`$ quark via anomalous interactions. Note that the branching ratios are independent of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ whereas total decay width is proportional to $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^2`$. SM decay modes are negligible for $`\lambda /\mathrm{\Lambda }>0.01/`$TeV due to the small magnitude of the extended Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements $`V_{u_4b}`$ and $`V_{d_4t}`$ .

Anomalous single production cross sections for $`u_4`$ and $`d_4`$ quarks at Tevatron are plotted in Figure 1. The upper curves are obtained with $`\lambda =1,\mathrm{\Lambda }=2`$ TeV and the lower ones with $`\lambda =0.5,\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$ TeV. The excess of events with a $`W`$ and a superjet in $`W+2`$ jet sample, observed by the CDF collaboration at Tevatron, can be explained as anomalous single production of $`u_4`$ with subsequent decay chain $`u_4tgWbg`$. Let us estimate the number of events expected in both senarios mentioned above. In the case of $`\lambda =0.5`$, $`\sigma (p\overline{p}u_4X)\times BR(u_4tg)=0.31`$ pb for $`m_{u_4}=400`$ GeV. Assuming $`40\%`$ detector efficiency and $`BR(We\nu +\mu \nu )0.21`$, one obtains $`23`$ such events for $`106`$ pb-1 integrated luminosity. In addition, the same number of events are expected from $`p\overline{p}\overline{u}_4X`$. CDF collaboration has observed $`8`$ events while the SM prediction is $`2.69\pm 0.41`$ . In the case of $`\lambda =1`$, one needs to set $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=4`$ TeV in order to obtain similar number of events (for $`\lambda =1,\sigma \mathrm{\Lambda }^4`$).

The other main decay modes, namely $`gu`$ and $`gc`$ will give rise to dijet final states. For $`m_{u_4}=400`$ GeV, $`\sigma \times BR(u_4jj)0.18`$ pb with $`\lambda =0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$ TeV and $`\sigma \times BR(u_4jj)1.1`$ pb with $`\lambda =1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=4`$ TeV. The CDF dijet analysis  lead to an upper limit of $`16`$ pb at this mass. The contribution of $`d_4`$ to the dijet events is estimated to be $`0.6`$ pb with $`\lambda =0.5`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$ TeV and $`0.75`$ pb with $`\lambda =1`$ and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=4`$ TeV.

Finally, if we allow the SM decay modes of $`d_4`$ to be comparable to anomalous ones, the superjet events in $`W+3`$ jet sample can be explained through the following decay chain: $`d_4WtWWb`$, where one $`W`$ decays leptonically and the other decays into two jets. CDF collaboration has observed $`5`$ events while the SM prediction is $`1.71\pm 0.40`$ .

In conclusion, the upgraded Tevatron reaching integrated luminosity $`15`$ fb-1 can observe the fourth SM family quarks before the LHC, provided that the anomalous single production is dominant.

Acknowledgments

This work is partially supported by Turkish State Planning Organization under the Grant No 2002K120250.


text:
# Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Early Data Release

## 1 Introduction

Since their initial classification by Osterbrock & Pogge (1985) narrow-line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s) have gained noteriety as interestingly extreme examples of active galactic nuclei (AGN). They were initially defined by their relatively narrow permitted emission lines (FWHM $``$ 2000 km s-1; Goodrich, 1989), strong Fe II relative to H$`\beta `$, and weak \[O III\]. In their analysis of 87 bright AGN, Boroson & Green (1992) found a strong anticorrelation between the strengths of the \[O III\] and Fe II lines (the primary correlation behind their so-called eigenvector 1 or Principal Component 1 \[PC1\]). NLS1s lie at the extreme, low–\[O III\] end of PC1. The authors suggested that this may be due to a high accretion rate relative to the Eddington rate. A more recent analysis by Boroson (2002) reinforces this claim, noting that NLS1s consistently exhibit the lowest estimated central black hole masses for similar luminosities and the highest inferred relative accretion rates among the various AGN types.

Much attention has been devoted in recent years to the X-ray spectra of NLS1s. While AGN have long been known to emit a substantial fraction of their luminosity as X-rays, a soft X-ray “excess” was noted among Seyfert galaxies (e.g., Puchnarewicz et al., 1992, and references therein). Boller, Brandt, & Fink (1996) found a strong anticorrelation between the X-ray photon index ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, where $`f_EE^\mathrm{\Gamma }`$) and FWHM(H$`\beta `$), with NLS1s having $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.5`$. Consequently, selection on the basis of ultrasoft X-ray emission has proven effective in the discovery of new NLS1s (Grupe, 2000). This soft excess is thought to be the high-energy (Wien) tail of thermal emission from the inner accretion disk. Since extremely high temperatures are required to produce this emission, it again follows that NLS1s may be powered by low-mass black holes at high relative accretion rates (Pounds, Done, & Osborne, 1995; Wang, Brinkmann & Bergeron, 1996).

To date, a combination of X-ray and optical selection and serendipity has resulted in the discovery of a large number of NLS1s (see Pogge, 2000, for a review): for example, the sample compiled by Véron-Cetty, Véron, & Gonçalves (2001, hereafter VVG01) consists of 64 NLS1s with z $`<`$ 0.1, B $`<`$ 17.0, and $`\delta >25\mathrm{°}`$, while the Catalog of Quasars and Active Nuclei (10th edition: Véron-Cetty & Véron, 2001) lists 205 NLS1s among Seyferts and QSOs. While these provide a starting point for studying the role of NLS1s among AGN phenomena, the sample size is relatively small and quite heterogeneous due to the wide variety of selection criteria employed. Since many known NLS1s were first discovered in X-rays, it is difficult to ascertain with confidence whether the extreme X-ray softness exhibited by most catalogued NLS1s is a fundamental property or a subtle selection effect. Clearly, a large and homogeneous optically selected sample would be advantageous in resolving these issues.

Such a sample is now becoming available in the form of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al., 2000), in particular the Early Data Release (EDR; Stoughton et al., 2002), released in mid-2001. The EDR contains spectra of approxmiately 4000 quasars (Schneider et al., 2002) as well as a large number of Seyfert galaxies and other AGN. Photometric data are measured in five bands ($`u^{},g^{},r^{},i^{},`$ and $`z^{}`$; Fukugita et al., 1996), and criteria based on these bands are used to select QSO candidates for spectroscopic follow-up, as described in Richards et al. (2002). Parameters such as redshifts, magnitudes and linewidths are stored in a searchable database, with photometric properties in the “PhotoObj” class and spectral properties in the “SpecObj” and “SpecLine” classes. This database also has built into it an “ExternalCatalog” class, which contains all EDR objects within 60″ of objects catalogued in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS), as well as some ROSAT-measured properties of these objects (see section 3.2).

By submitting a query restricted to objects with narrow H$`\beta `$ emission lines and then analyzing the resulting spectra, we have identified 150 NLS1s in the EDR, only two of which have been previously classified as such. In the following section we discuss in more detail the selection criteria and subsequent analysis. The overall selection methods and optical properties are discussed, as well as objects which were previously known and/or misidentified. Finally, we report on those objects which were also observed in RASS, and give possible reasons why some were not detected when they should have been.

## 2 Candidate selection from SDSS

Using the SDSS Query Tool111Available from http://archive.stsci.edu/sdss/software, we searched for spectroscopically-targeted objects which were flagged as QSOs and which exhibited narrow H$`\beta `$ lines. Velocity dispersions were estimated through the relation

$$\mathrm{FWHM}(\mathrm{H}\beta )=\frac{2.35c\sigma }{\lambda _0(1+z)}$$
(1)
where $`\sigma `$ is the data member “sigma” in the SDSS SpecLine class, denoting the value of $`\sigma `$ for a Gaussian curve fit to each H$`\beta `$ line. To account for the possibility that the recorded dispersion estimates are subject to systematics, we initially relaxed the selection criteria, excluding only objects with FWHM(H$`\beta `$$`>`$ 3000 km s-1. The resulting 950 spectra were then visually inspected and measured to identify the NLS1s. Many of these spectra exhibited characteristics of Seyfert 1.5 and Seyfert 2 galaxies (strong \[O III\] compared to H$`\beta `$, no evidence of Fe II, obvious broad components H$`\beta `$ and H$`\alpha `$, etc.), while others were too faint or noisy to classify. All in all, this initial cut removed about half of the candidates from the sample.

The remaining objects generally exhibit the combination of narrow H$`\beta `$, strong Fe II and weak \[O III\] emission characteristic of NLS1s. Each spectrum was first transformed from the log$`(\lambda )`$ space used by SDSS onto a linear wavelength scale and smoothed with a three-pixel FWHM Gaussian filter. The smoothing step is analogous to that used in the EDR presentation spectra returned as .GIF files. We then performed a quadratic continuum fit near the H$`\beta `$ line, measured its peak wavelength with a centroiding algorithm, and measured the width of the line halfway between the fitted continuum and the line peak. Since this method makes no assumptions about the underlying emission-line profile, we took this to be an accurate measurement of FWHM(H$`\beta `$). All objects which exhibited a velocity dispersion larger than 2000 km s-1, as well as those with evidence of a weak very broad component in H$`\beta `$ or H$`\alpha `$ (when the latter was visible in the SDSS spectral band), were removed. The remaining 150 objects thus satisfy the Osterbrock & Pogge (1985) criteria and Goodrich (1989) FWHM cutoff, and comprise the NLS1 catalog presented here (see Table 1). Three of these NLS1 spectra are shown in figure 1, illustrating the spectral shape and appearance for various redshift and FWHM(H$`\beta `$) regimes.

It is interesting to note the concordance between our measurements and those reported in the SDSS EDR database; namely, those of the redshift and H$`\beta `$ linewidth. Figure 2 shows excellent agreement between the two redshift measurements with typical errors of 0.2% or less. Our redshift measurements are systematically higher by about 0.1%, but this is most likely due to properties of the H$`\beta `$ line itself since we base this redshift only on H$`\beta `$, rather than on the narrow forbidden lines that are probably more representative of the systemic redshifts of the galaxies. When the most discrepant redshifts were re-measured using narrow forbidden lines (such as \[O III\] $`\lambda 5007`$Å), our redshifts fall much more in line with the SDSS measurements. Since SDSS bases their redshift measurement on a cross-correlation between many lines and ours is only based on H$`\beta `$, we take the SDSS results to be the more accurate and definitive.

On the other hand, there are large discrepancies between our FWHM measurements and those estimated from the SDSS “sigma” parameter (see figure 3). Not only is there a significant amount of scatter, but our measurements are systematically lower than the SDSS estimates. Most of the scatter is probably caused by the $`2\mathrm{\AA }`$/pixel spectral resolution. That is, if our FWHM measurements vary intrinsically by $`2`$ pixels, this would correspond to an RMS variation of $`250`$ km s-1, which is very close to the observed scatter.

The systematic offset is probably due to several factors. First, such a discrepancy is not particularly surprising since the SDSS FWHM is based on a Gaussian fit to a profile better represented by a Lorentzian or more complicated shape (see, for example, VVG01). These are compounded by the proximity of the Fe II complexes on either side of H$`\beta `$, which tends to drive the automatically-fitted continuum used by the SDSS analysis pipeline higher depending on the Fe II strength. In some cases, the line-fitting algorithm employed by SDSS appears to select only a broad component in the H$`\beta `$ line, again giving larger FWHM values than our measurements. Thus, while SDSS measurements are quite useful for initial linewidth-based selection, careful follow-up measurements are absolutely necessary to take into account peculiarities in the individual spectra.

## 3 Sample properties

Table 1 lists the 150 objects which comprise this sample, along with various measured parameters and previous references to the catalogued objects, found through a NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) query. Although 48 objects had been picked up in surveys such as 2dF, 2MASS, LBQS, and various other projects, most had not been formally classified as NLS1s. Of these, only two have been previously identified as NLS1s: SDSS J014644.82–004043.2 (VVG01), and SDSS J010226.31–003904.6 (Véron-Cetty & Véron, 2001). Puchnarewicz et al. (1992) list another, SDSS J011703.58+000027.4 (also known as E0114-002), as a Seyfert 1 with FWHM(H$`\beta `$) $`=`$ 2980 km s-1, substantially higher than our measurement of 975 km s-1; however, the authors mention that this object’s H$`\beta `$ line may be contaminated. Such contamination was not evident in the SDSS spectrum, so we have included this object in our NLS1 sample. The remaining objects are listed in NED under such generic labels as “QSO,” “AGN,” or “Seyfert.” A few are flagged as “Sy1,” but it is unclear whether these were classified before Osterbrock & Pogge (1985) first defined the NLS1 class. In the interest of brevity, Table 1 contains special references only to those objects flagged as some type of Seyfert galaxy in NED.

All in all, this sample represents 150 spectroscopically-selected NLS1s. While it significantly increases the number of known NLS1s, the homogeneous sample selection criteria (through use of the SDSS EDR catalog) make it particularly useful for studies of the overall NLS1 population. For $`z<0.5`$ (where most of our objects lie), there are 135 objects in our sample out of 944 flagged as QSOs in the EDR. If we take this to be representative of the overall quasar population, this would imply that NLS1s make up roughly 15% of AGN at low redshifts. Until a more definitive selection of both NLS1s and QSOs is made from the SDSS, this number is only a rough approximation. However, this is comparable to the number quoted by Osterbrock (1987).

### 3.1 Constraints

The NLS1s we have found in the SDSS EDR span a range of redshifts from 0.04 to 0.75, the upper bound set by the requirement that \[O III\] $`\lambda 5007`$Å not exceed the SDSS spectrograph limit of $`9200`$Å (though in practice only three objects have $`z>0.6`$). Although Schneider et al. (2002) warn that the quasar selection criteria are inhomogeneous for the EDR, the criteria for objects at these lower redshifts are actually quite well defined (Richards et al., 2002). Since NLS1s are identified primarily by the H$`\beta `$ velocity dispersion and the \[O III\] and Fe II lines surrounding H$`\beta `$, we did not attempt to find NLS1-like AGN at redshifts beyond the range where H$`\beta `$ is seen. Furthermore, a search for narrow-lined objects in the SDSS Galaxy database yielded over 20,000 candidates, and thus it was not feasible to consider objects in that database with the selection methods described in this paper. By restricting ourselves to objects flagged as QSO, our sample also falls within the SDSS QSO color selection criteria described in Richards et al. (2002), making the basic selection very well understood. Even with these restrictions, there are enough objects to undertake a study of characteristics of this NLS1 sample.

### 3.2 X-ray properties

When these 150 objects are cross-referenced with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey catalogue (using an SDSS ExternalCatalog query), we find that 52 lie within 60″ of X-ray detected sources. Power-law slopes were estimated using the ROSAT Hardness Ratio 1 parameter (HR1), which is defined as (Voges et al., 1999):

$$\mathrm{HR1}=\frac{\mathrm{B}\mathrm{A}}{\mathrm{B}+\mathrm{A}}$$
(2)
Here, A and B denote the number of counts in the 0.1–0.4 and 0.5–2.0 keV bands, respectively. Note that if there are zero counts in band A or B, HR1 becomes +1 or –1 respectively. By using HR1 and the sensitivity curve of ROSAT (as implemented in the PIMMS program222Portable, Interactive Multi–Mission Simulator v3.2d, from NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, currently available at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/tools/pimms.html) and Galactic $`N_H`$ obtained from the “nh” utility333Part of the FTOOLS package, available at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/ftools/, it is possible to estimate the X-ray photon indices of ROSAT-detected NLS1s.

Of the 52 X-ray detected NLS1s in our sample, 7 have hardness ratios equal to (or within $`1\sigma `$ of) +1 or –1, with two in the former group and five in the latter. This may be indicitave of extremely hard or soft X-ray spectra, respectively. However, these seven objects are all fairly faint in X-rays ($``$ 0.04 counts s-1) and the two with $`\mathrm{HR1}=+1`$ have unusually high Galactic H I column densities; thus, it is unlikely that these seven objects have unusually hard or soft spectral energy distributions. Power-law slopes were estimated with PIMMS for the remaining 45 NLS1s and plotted against FWHM(H$`\beta `$) (see figure 4). As in Boller et al. (1996), the photon indices of this sample of NLS1s span a range from approximately $`2\mathrm{\Gamma }4.5`$ with little or no apparent dependence on the H$`\beta `$ linewidth. In particular, we note that the vast majority of these sources exhibit ultrasoft spectra with $`\mathrm{\Gamma }>2`$, as was seen in previous samples of soft X-ray selected NLS1s (e.g. Boller, 2000, for a review).

Redshift and $`g^{}r^{}`$ color distributions are shown in figures 5 and 6 respectively, with ROSAT-detected objects shown as the shaded portion of each histogram. Most of these RASS sources are optically bright ($`g^{}18.5)`$; additionally, there appears to be a slight bias toward sources with lower redshifts and Galactic H I column densities. Even with this taken into account by excluding objects with $`N_H4\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, we still see several optically-bright, low redshift sources which should have been easily detected by RASS assuming similar spectral energy distributions, but which were not (see figure 7).

There are two likely interpretations for this. The first is that these undetected sources could have X-ray properties similar to the detected sources, but the soft X-rays are suppressed by a large ($`N_H10^{21}`$ cm-2) intrinsic column density. If this were the case, we would expect to see a pronounced difference in the spectral continuum shapes and/or the photometric colors between the objects that are detected in X-ray and those that are not; however, no such reddening is seen. The soft X-ray weak objects could be members of a gas-rich and dust-poor population (as proposed by Risaliti et al., 2001), which would account for the apparent lack of visual extinction, but this seems somewhat contrived.

The second possibility is that the undetected objects represent a new population of NLS1s with intrinsically flatter (and hence harder) X-ray slopes. In this case, the lack of soft X-rays would be due to a fundamental difference in the central black hole and accretion disk properties. For example, if these objects had larger black hole masses and high accretion rates, the accretion disk spectral energy distribution would shift to lower energies, effectively flattening out the 0.1–2 keV spectrum. Assuming similar spectral properties, these NLS1s would not have been detected in the RASS.

It should also be noted that strong X-ray variability could result in a significant fraction of NLS1s not detected by RASS. However, it is unlikely that such a large number of bright NLS1s would exhibit this degree of variability, and would coincidentally be X-ray faint at the time of observation by RASS. Whichever interpretation is correct, the X-ray undetected NLS1s are possibly something new and intriguing within NLS1 phenomena. Further X-ray observations of these NLS1s over a larger energy range with higher sensitivity may help to decipher the underlying cause of this observation.

## 4 Conclusions

The 150 SDSS-selected NLS1s presented in this paper represent a significant increase in the total known number of these extreme AGN. They comprise approximately 15% of the EDR “QSO” database at $`z0.5`$ and have very well-defined color and linewidth selection criteria. 45 of these NLS1s were also detected with good confidence in the 0.1–2 keV band of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and exhibit ultrasoft X-ray spectra. Of the NLS1s that were *not* detected, several have similar optical properties to NLS1s seen in the RASS, and thus should have been detected as well. This may be due to either high intrinsic absorption or harder X-ray spectra (or both) among the undetected objects. More optical and X-ray data will almost certainly be helpful in determining the cause behind this.

It should also be noted that while most of our objects clearly fall within the defining NLS1 criteria, a substantial fraction are near the 2000 km s-1 FWHM cutoff. Additionally, several of the spectra had low signal–to–noise ratios. This may hide characteristics (such as a broad component in H$`\beta `$) which would reclassify the object as a Seyfert 1.5 or other type. While these objects all appear to be NLS1s from the data given, it is likely that some may be reclassified when higher resolution, higher signal-to-noise spectra are obtained. Thus, this sample should be considered a list of very strong NLS1 candidates rather than a definitive list. Nevertheless, this sample demonstrates that large numbers of NLS1s (and other interesting objects) with well-constrained selection criteria can indeed be found in the SDSS Early Data Release. Since the EDR represents only about 5% of the total spectroscopic survey (Stoughton et al., 2002), the full SDSS catalog will provide a definitive resource for the discovery and study of NLS1s.

The authors would like to thank David Weinberg for helpful discussions. We also thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments. RJW acknowledges the support of an Ohio State University Fellowship. SM is supported by Chandra X-ray Observatory grant G01-2118X from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funding for the creation and distribution of the SDSS Archive has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics, New Mexico State University, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.