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# The infrared supernova rate in starburst galaxies Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Chile (proposal 66.B-0417), at the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Centro Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica), and at the Steward Observatory 61” telescope

## 1 Introduction

The first report by Maiolino et al. (2002) on a sample of SNe detected in the near-infrared (NIR) has opened a new window for the search of these events. The presence of dust extinction can seriously reduce the measured SN rate in most of the galaxies, especially in starburst systems where dust obscuration is usually larger than in normal galaxies. This explains the puzzling result by Richmond et al. (1998) who found starburst and quiescent galaxies to have the same SN rate. A similar result was obtained by Navasardyan et al. (2001) who looked for SNe in interacting galaxies, finding no evidence for correlations between SN rate and galaxy properties.

The effects of dust extinction can be vastly reduced by observing in the NIR: at 2$`\mu `$m the extinction is about a factor of ten lower than in the optical V band, allowing for a much deeper penetration into the dusty star-forming regions. This strategy was originally proposed by van Buren & Norman (1989). The first monitoring campaign was conducted a decade ago and produced the detection of one event, SN 1994bu (van Buren et al., 1994). More recently, Grossan et al. (1999) monitored a large number of galaxies over two years but failed to detect extinguished SNe, probably because of their poor spatial resolution (about 3″). Bregman, Temi and Rank (2000) used ISO/ISOCAM to look for mid-infrared spectral signatures of recent SNe in the nuclei of 10 nearby galaxies. However they failed to detect any emission from SNe, such as the \[NiII\] emission line at 6.63$`\mu `$m which is very bright in SN 1987A (e.g., Arnett et al., 1989). This is probably due to the fact that the number of events expected from the far-IR flux (see section 9) is lower than 0.5. Lorionov et al. (2002) reported the detection, while monitoring another event, of SN 2002cv, a bright type Ia SN showing a high extinction (Meikle & Mattila, 2002). A possible SN was also discovered by Mattila et al. (2002) in an archive UKIRT K-band image.

Most SNe in starburst galaxies are expected to be core-collapse events, i.e., to have massive progenitors. The role of type Ia SNe in these galaxies is the subject of an active debate. The progenitors of type Ia SNe are commonly identified with old white dwarfs in binary systems, but their rate could be enhanced in galaxies with active star formation (see, for example, Della Valle and Livio, 1994, and Della Valle & Panagia, 2003), as discussed in Sect. 8.

Near-infrared monitoring is needed not only to compare the SN production in quiescent and starburst galaxies, but also to obtain a complete estimate of the local SN rate to be compared with the rates at high redshift (Madau et al., 1998; Dahlén & Fransson, 1999, Sullivan et al. 2000). Finally, near-infrared searches are needed to detect a significant number of SNe in starburst galaxies; these events are expected to have peculiar properties: the circumstellar medium around them is likely to be very dense because they occur in molecular clouds and the mass-loss rates of the progenitor stars are expected to be higher because of the increased metallicity (Vink et al 2001). The effects of this peculiar environment can be studied only when a significant number of events are discovered (Bressan et al., 2002).

In 1999 we started a program aimed at monitoring a sample of starburst galaxies, as discussed in Section 2. The most important differences with respect to previous monitoring programs are the use of 4-m class telescopes with higher spatial resolution, providing a deeper limiting magnitude especially for point sources, and the selection of galaxies with higher star-formation rate in order to have larger expected rates. This monitoring yielded the detection of 4 SNe, 2 of which were discovered by our group, SN 2001db (Maiolino et al., 2001) and SN 1999gw (Cresci et al., 2002). SN2001db is the first SN detected in the NIR which has received a spectroscopic confirmation.

## 2 The galaxy sample

The SN rate (SNr) is roughly proportional to the star-formation rate (SFR). The best way to have a galaxy sample selected in terms of SFR and not biased by extinction is to use the far-infrared (FIR) luminosity $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ as measured with the IRAS 60 and 100$`\mu `$m bands. For all but the most dust-free galaxies this luminosity is closely proportional to the SFR as measured from the extinction-corrected optical lines and UV continuum and from the radio continuum (see, for example, Mannucci & Beckwith, 1995; Schearer, 1999; Cram et al., 1998).

Here we use a definition of FIR luminosity corresponding to the flux:

$$f_{FIR}=1.26\times 10^{14}C\left(2.58f_{60}+f_{100}\right)(\mathrm{W}/\mathrm{m}^2)$$
(1)
(Helou, 1988), where $`f_{60}`$ and $`f_{100}`$ are the IRAS fluxes at 60 and 100 $`\mu `$m in Jy and $`C`$ is a numerical constant which depends on the $`f_{60}/f_{100}`$ ratio, and assumes values between 1.4 and 1.8. For galaxies with dust temperatures between 20 and 80 K and emissivity between 0 and 2, Eq. (1) is expected to estimate the total flux between 40 and 120 $`\mu `$m within 1%.

We selected galaxies from the various catalogs of IRAS galaxies (Sanders et al., 1995; Soifer et al., 1987; Kim & Sanders, 1998) having $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$$`>10^{11.1}L_{}`$ which corresponds to SN rates larger than about 0.4 SN/year (see Section 9). We chose a limiting distance modulus of 36.5, corresponding to about 200 Mpc, in order to have a good detection (signal-to-noise ratio of about 10) of an average SN (as SN 1980K having M$`{}_{K}{}^{}=`$18.8 at peak) with no extinction, given a typical limiting magnitude of K$``$18.5. Three galaxies with distance modulus up to 37.3 but with very high FIR luminosities were also added to the sample. In conclusion, half of the sample is at distances below 100 Mpc. At 200 Mpc the spatial scale is 200 pc/arcsec, allowing for an easy detection of a point source even within the central kpc of the galaxies.

About a third of the galaxies having a spectroscopic classification suggesting the presence of a Seyfert nucleus, but in all cases the far-infrared luminosity seems to be dominated by star formation (see, for example, Corbett et al., 2002, and Thean et al., 2001). We excluded from the sample a few galaxies with low luminosity and large distance, and Mkn 231 as it contains an AGN whose luminosity outshines the rest of the galaxy.

Table 1 lists the 46 observed galaxies together with coordinates, absolute B band magnitude, FIR luminosity, redshift and distance modulus.

## 3 Observations

The galaxies in Table 1 were observed between October 1999 and October 2001 using three different telescopes: the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) equipped with the NIR camera ARNICA (Lisi et al., 1993) until September 2001 and NICS (Baffa et al., 2001) afterward, the ESO NTT telescope with SOFI (Lidman et al., 2000) and the Kuiper/Steward 61″ infrared telescope (AZ61) on Mount Bigelow, equipped with a near-IR NICMOS3 camera.

In all cases we used the local realization of the “K short” filter (K), similar to K but excluding the thermal part of the spectrum above 2.3$`\mu `$m.

The sampling time was chosen in order to maximize the number of detections. At the limiting distance of our sample, 200 Mpc, an average SN remains above the detection limit for about 40 days, increasing to 110 days at 100 Mpc. To be conservative and concentrate the observations around nights with a full moon, we chose to observe the sample every 30 days. The final sampling is not very uniform as the atmospheric conditions and the actual scheduling on the three telescopes introduced some distortions on the original plan. We collected 234 observations, with an average number of 5.1 observations per galaxy (see Table 7).

The typical on-source integration times were about 20-30 min for NTT and TNG and 45-60 min for AZ61. Typical values of the seeing FWHM were 1.2 arcsec at TNG, 1.0 arcsec at NTT and 1.5 arcsec at AZ61. The photometric calibration was achieved by using the Hunt et al. (1998) and Persson et al. (1998) standard stars.

## 4 SN detection method, limiting magnitudes, and the SNe detections

The comparison of the images of the same galaxies was performed with ISIS, a tool developed by Alard & Lupton (1998), refined by Alard (2000) and available at http://www.iap.fr/users/alard/package.html. First, all the images of a galaxy were aligned by using field stars or the galaxy nucleus. Second, the image with the best point-spread-function (PSF) was identified and used as reference for the comparison with the other images. In order to minimize the residuals without losing spatial resolution, the PSF of the reference image was convolved with an appropriate kernel determined, for each image pair, by a linear fit. ISIS was found to give better results than other similar tasks, such as the IRAF task “immatch”. Finally, the images were normalized to the same total flux and subtracted.

On average ISIS is able to subtract 97% of the total galaxy flux, with a mode of 98%. The residuals were usually concentrated at the position of the galactic nuclei, where the emission has a strong radial gradient. Non circular structures such as the diffraction spikes on the spider arms are not reproduced by the ISIS kernel. The presence of these residuals makes the detection of nuclear SNe much more difficult, as discussed below.

Outside the nuclear regions, i.e., about 1 arcsec away from the galaxy center, the SN detection limit was estimated through simulations by adding point sources to the subtracted image and trying to recover them. The detection was performed by using SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts, 1996) with parameters set to have secure detections of point sources (2.5$`\sigma `$ per pixel over an area of 6 pixels, corresponding to about a 6$`\sigma `$ detection). The limiting magnitudes, defined at a completeness level of 50%, are listed in Table 2 for each telescope, together with their spread because of variable seeing, transparency and integration time. These values are in good agreement (within 0.1 mag) with the expectation from the parameters of the detector and of the exposures.

In the central arcsec, the presence of the PSF subtraction residuals makes it possible to detect only brighter SNe. To estimate this limit we measured the residuals inside a 1.5 arcsec aperture on each subtracted image, as shown in Fig 1. The magnitude corresponding to 5$`\sigma `$ positive counts is taken as the detection limit. This is actually an upper limit to the real sensitivity as in doing this we assume than the measured residuals are instrumental and no SNe are actually present.

The analysis of the data revealed 4 SNe, listed in Table 3. Two objects, SN 1999gd and SN 2000bg, were independently detected by us but they had been already discovered by optical searches a few days before. Their K-band magnitudes are listed in Table 4. The other two SNe, discovered in our images, are presented in Maiolino et al., (2002). All the SNe were discovered out of the galactic nuclei; the event closest to the nucleus of its host galaxy is SN1999gw at 3.5″of distance. As discussed in Maiolino et al. (2002), SN2001db is highly extincted ($`A_V5.6`$), while the available data do not allow to constrain the extinction of the other SNe.

## 5 Computing the infrared SN rate

This paper is devoted to computing the near-IR SN rate in starburst galaxies by comparing the number of detections with the number of expected events. To do this we need a few ingredients which will be the subject of the following sections:

* the computation of the expected number of detections is based on the estimate of the control time, i.e., the amount of time than a SN in a given galaxy remains above the detection limit (as defined by Zwicky, 1938). Therefore it is critical to have a good knowledge of the NIR light curve, as discussed in section 6;
* the expected number of exploding core-collapse SNe is also related to the total SFR and therefore is expected to be proportional to the FIR luminosity of the target galaxies. This proportionality is discussed in section 7;
* type Ia SNe are usually assumed to have old progenitors and therefore to be more related to the total mass in stars of the galaxies than to the current or recent SFR. This might not be true for all types of Ia SNe as discussed by several authors. In section 8 we discuss the relation between type Ia SN rate and stellar mass along the Hubble morphological types sequence. We will discuss the effect of including the type Ia SNe on the infrared SN rate;
* very different detection limits apply to nuclei and to the rest of the galaxies; as a consequence, the SN rates depend of the fraction of starburst activity contained in the inner few arcsec of the galaxies. In appendix A we discuss the existing FIR data, concluding that they do not really constrain the size of the starbursts, even if in many cases most of the star formation activity is concentrated in the nuclear region;
* section 9 contains the actual computation of the SN rate. This is done considering three scenarios for the spatial dimension of the starbursts: we consider the two limiting cases that the fraction of starburst in the central 2 arcsec is (a) negligible, and (b) dominant, and an intermediate case in which 80% of the starburst is contained in the nucleus. The rates are also computed both by considering the core-collapse SNe only and also by including the type Ia SNe.

## 6 The K-band light curve of the core-collapse SN

The evolution of the K band luminosity of the core-collapse SN is currently not very well constrained. Mattila & Meikle (2001) made a compilation of the 12 curves available at that time in the K band to derive the average light curve. The small number of available measures is due to the fact that NIR observations are not available for all the SNe and that only events with a well known epoch of the optical maximum are considered. They divided the core-collapse supernovae in two classes, the “ordinary events” showing decline rate similar to the optical band, and the “slow declining events” with NIR luminosity almost constant for hundreds of days after the optical maximum. We have added 9 new light curves for a total number of more than 200 NIR observations (see Table 5 and references therein). We have also included SN 1987A which, in the near-IR, has a less peculiar behavior than in the optical.

The resulting sample is not complete, so it should not be used for statistics. Nevertheless the fraction of the slow declining events appears to be not negligible: 7 out of 22 SNe show a peculiar behavior at some point of their evolution, and 5 of them are classified as type IIn SNe from the optical spectra. The fraction is even higher, 7 out of 12, if only the SN with observations after 4 months from the maximum are considered. Such a high fraction is certainly due to an observational bias, as SNe with NIR excess are more often observed at such late times (see, for example, Gerardy et al. 2002). SN 1987A shows a peak luminosity similar to the other events and a decline rate intermediate between the ordinary and the slow declining events.

This brightening or stabilization of the luminosity at NIR wavelengths is usually attributed to thermal emission from dust forming in the ejecta or present in the pre-existing circumstellar medium (e.g., Gerardy et al. 2002), whereas the heating could be due to the interaction between the ejecta and the circumstellar medium (Fassia et al. 2000, 2001; Di Carlo et al. 2002). For this reason the effect is expected to be more common in the events occurring in the dense star forming regions as the type IIn SNe (Schlegel, 1990). These SNe become much brighter than the others, but their constant luminosity makes their detection by the usual “blinking” technique almost impossible after the maximum light.

The 15 “ordinary events” show an inhomogeneous behavior during the first 4 months. Most of them reach a maximum 10-20 days after the optical peak, and decline linearly afterward. The NIR luminosity peak of core-collapse SNe is similar to that of the type Ia, estimated to be M$`{}_{K}{}^{}=`$18.8 25 days after the optical maximum (Meikle, 2000), even if the core-collapse SNe are usually much fainter in the optical. SN 1999em is the least luminous event, with K magnitude about 1 mag fainter at the optical maximum than any other measured SN, and shows a very delayed peak, occurring at about 70 days after the optical maximum. The luminosity spread among the SNe of each class is comparable with the spread among the different classes, i.e., there is no evidence of systemic differences for the core-collapse SNe of different sub-types.

After the first 120 days, “ordinary” SNe show similar decline rates of about 0.025 mag/day, much faster than the optical decline rate of about 0.010 mag/day at comparable stages corresponding to the 56Co decay (0.0098 mag/day, e.g., Cappellaro & Turatto 2000).

The spread of the absolute magnitude near the K-band peak is about 3 magnitudes, and about 1.5 magnitudes at later times. To account this large spread we have defined the upper and lower envelopes of the distributions (see Fig. 2 and Table 6) and will use these curves to compute the maximum and minimum SN rate expected from the SFR. The upper envelope is defined by SNe 1979C and 1982R, the lower envelope by SN 1999em. A few SNe, such as 1983I and 1993J, are fainter than 1999em at epochs between 50 and 120 days, but are brighter near the optical maximum and therefore were not considered for the lower envelope.

For the average light-curve we used SN 1980K, an event showing a linear decline and a peak magnitude near the average value. We preferred to use an observed event instead of an average between the two envelopes since the latter is strongly dependent on peculiar sub- or super-luminous events and does not correspond to any observed SN.

## 7 SN rate and FIR luminosity

To compute the number of expected SNe in our sample, we need to discuss the relation between FIR luminosity and SN rate and the role of type Ia SNe. These will be the subject of the next two sections.

Several authors have computed the SN rates as a function of the host galaxy morphological type. These estimates are based on optical observations of local galaxies having dust contents and SFRs much lower than the objects in our sample.

Rates are generally normalized to the luminosity of the parent galaxy, either the B luminosity or $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$. The former normalization is applied when using the SN unit (SNu), i.e., the number of SNe per century per 10$`{}_{}{}^{10}L_{}^{}`$ of B luminosity. This luminosity has an ambiguous physical meaning: in starburst galaxies it is roughly proportional to the SFR, in quiescent galaxies it is related to the total mass in stars, and in dusty starbursts it is very sensitive to the dust content and distribution. Here we will use the rate of 0.93$`\pm `$0.28 SNu by Cappellaro et al. (1999, Tab. 4) for galaxies later than Sb and including the rates for types II and Ib/c.

For galaxies with a significant SFR it is more useful, for many applications and especially when the core-collapse SNe are considered, to normalize the observed number of SNe to the FIR luminosity, known to be proportional to the SFR. Several indirect methods based on radio, FIR or mid-infrared observations have been used to derive the SN rate in obscured starburst galaxies, as described in van Buren & Greenhouse (1994) and Mattila & Meikle (2001). These authors have derived the relation between the SN rate and $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ using galaxies of low FIR luminosity, and therefore a large extrapolation is needed to apply these results to our sample. We have extended the observed range toward high luminosities by using the relation between radio luminosity and SN rate in Condon & Yin (1990) and data in Hackenberg et al. (2000) and Wilson et al. (1991). The SN rate appears to be proportional to $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ with a small scatter for luminosities between 1.6 and 30$`\times 10^{10}L_{}`$ as shown in Fig. 3, without the detection of any dependence on the luminosity of the galaxy or on the SFR. Using the definition of $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ in Eq. (1), we obtain the relation:

$$SNr=(2.4\pm 0.1)\times (L_{FIR}/10^{10}L_{})\mathrm{SN}/100\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}$$
(2)
which, we stress, is based on indirect measures of the SN rate. A similar value of the proportionality factor (2.7) was also obtained by Mattila & Meikle (2001) even though they use a slightly different definition of $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$. In that case the data range was below $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$=10$`{}_{}{}^{10.8}L_{}^{}`$, a factor of two below the faintest galaxy in our sample. These authors discuss how this factor is in good agreement with the expectations from the models of galaxy stellar populations which predict the FIR luminosity from the UV flux and the SN rate from the product of the SFR times the integral of the Initial Mass Function (IMF) over the appropriate mass range. Finally, Cappellaro et al., (1999) obtained the ratio between the rate of unobscured SNe from optical monitoring and the FIR luminosity of a large number of galaxies from the RC3 catalog. They obtained a coefficient of 2.5, in good agreement with our calibration.

Smith et al. (1999) measured the SN rate in the central 10″ of NGC 7771, a starburst galaxy with log($`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$/$`L_{}`$)=11.25. This value cannot be used for the above relation because it only referred to the central part of the galaxy. To correct this SN rate to a value appropriate to the total galaxy, we assume that the FIR luminosity is well traced by the 15$`\mu `$m emission (see, for example, Elbaz et al., 2002) and use the growth profile by Dale et al. (2000). This is probably an overcorrection, as the size of the region emitting 80% of the 15$`\mu `$m luminosity is 54″ while Zink et al. (2000) obtain an upper limit to the 100$`\mu `$m emitting region of about 20″. In Fig. 3 we show the upper- and lower-limits to the SN rate in NGC 7771: the value predicted by Eq. (4) is within the permitted range.

## 8 The role of type Ia SNe

The progenitors of the type Ia SNe are expected to be old systems containing a white dwarf accreting mass from a companion star. If all Ia SNe are produced by the same old progenitors, their properties (as absolute magnitude at maximum, decline rate and expansion velocity of the ejecta) should not correlate with the current SFR of their host location. On the other hand several authors have discovered systematic differences between type Ia SNe in galaxies of different Hubble types in terms of optical spectral properties (Branch & van den Berg, 1993, and references therein), photometric differences (Della Valle & Panagia, 1992), photometric evolution (Hamuy et al., 2000) and rates of occurrence (Della Valle & Livio, 1994).

If the progenitors are old, the number of type Ia SNe should also roughly correlate with the total stellar mass. This fact is barely detectable from the SN rate expressed in SNu as the B luminosity is not a good tracer of stellar mass. On the contrary, the luminosity in the K band is a much better tracer, as discussed for example by Brinchmann & Ellis (2000). The dominating uncertainties are due to the age of the stellar population, and Bell & de Jong (2001) propose a method to correct for this effect from the observed colors. We have therefore corrected the rates in Cappellaro et al. (1999) by using the average B-K colors for galaxies of the various Hubble type by Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1999) and the corrections to the M/L ratio by Bell & de Jong (2001). show an increase of about a factor of 2 of the SN rate in the Sbc-Sd galaxies over that in the ellipticals, rising to about a factor of 7 for Sm-I galaxies. These values could be affected by systematic errors, but the results are consistent with the hypothesis of a substantial enhancement of the type Ia SN rate due to young stars. The details of this computation and the the relation between the stellar mass and the type Ia rate will be subject of a forthcoming paper.

Based on this kind of evidences, Della Valle and Livio (1994) found that late type spirals are more prolific producers of type Ia SNe and proposed the association of part of the type Ia SNe with younger stellar populations.

For these reasons, we will make the calculations under two opposite limiting hypothesis that (1) none, and (2) all the type Ia SNe derive from young progenitors. In the second hypothesis the expected SN rate is raised by about 30% as this is the fraction of type Ia SNe vs. the core-collapse SN measured by Cappellaro et al. (1999) for galaxies later than Sbc. In this case the number of detected SN is also increased, as the type Ia SN 1999gd must be included in the sample, and the two effects (larger expected rates and more observed events) tend to cancel each other.

## 9 The infrared SN rate

The rates we can finally compute depend on the control time and therefore on the limiting magnitude. In the central 1 or 2 arcsecs of the galaxy nucleus the capability of detecting SNe is dimmed because of the presence of residuals after the subtraction, as discussed in Sect. 4. Although the area affected by the residuals is a small fraction of the total galaxy, this part could contain a significant fraction of events because it could host a compact nuclear starburst region at the bottom of the potential well. In appendix A we discuss the information on the size of the starburst region coming from the mid-IR and far-IR data, and we conclude that many galaxies might be dominated by a compact starburst but that the spatial resolution of the data is too poor to obtain definitive conclusions.

As a consequence we compute the rates in the two limiting cases that the FIR flux in the nuclear region is (a) negligible (labeled as off-nuclear case) and (b) dominant (nuclear). Given that in many cases most of the starburst activity seem to originate in the nuclear part of the galaxy, we have also considered a third intermediate case (0.2off+0.8nuc) in which 80% of the starburst is contained in nucleus and the remaining 20% is distributed in the rest of the galaxy. Such a scenario is conservative but compatible with all the observations mentioned in appendix A.

The rates are computed both for core-collapse SNe only and also by including the type Ia events. The results are summarized in Table 8.

In each case, we have computed the control time (i.e., the amount of time a SN remains visible in our images) for each galaxy in Table 1 by using the average type Ia light curve and, for the core-collapse events, the light curve of SN 1980K and the upper- and lower envelopes in Fig. 2. From the control time we computed the expected number of detected SNe using the galaxy’s B and FIR luminosities and using the appropriate limiting magnitude (see discussion in Sect. 4). The control times computed in this way corresponding to the off-nuclear limits are listed in Table 7. Table 8 gives the expected number of detections for the whole sample and the corresponding number of detections.

The uncertainties on the number of expected events are due to (1) the spread of the SN K-band luminosity (see Fig. 2), (2) the uncertainties in the ratio between B luminosity and SN rate, and (3) the spread of the limiting magnitude in our images. The first effect is the dominant one: for example, when using the average light curve (SN 1980K) and the off-nuclear limits, 0.70 core-collapse SNe are expected from the B luminosity, while 0.90 and 0.46 events are expected when using the light curves corresponding, respectively, to the upper and lower envelope of Figure 2.

From Table 8 it is apparent that in all cases the number of SNe predicted from the B luminosity, between 0.31 and 0.84, is much lower than our 4 detections. When the SN rate is estimated from the FIR luminosity we obtain drastically different results: the expected number of SNe is higher by a factor of 3$``$10 than the SNe actually detected (see next section).

The number of the detected SNe can also be used to derive a near-IR SN rate ($`SN_r^{NIR}`$), i.e., based on near-IR observations. We consider only the case with 80% of FIR luminosity coming from the nucleus. The rates were computed by dividing the total number of SNe by the sum of the luminosity of the galaxies times the control time. By using both the B luminosity and $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ we obtain, respectively:

$$SN_r^{NIR}=7.6\pm 3.8\pm 2.8SNu(B)$$
(3)
$$SN_r^{NIR}=0.53\pm 0.27\pm 0.21SNuIR$$
(4)
The two errors terms in each equation are due to the statistics of the number of detections and the uncertainties in the computation of the control time, respectively. It should be noted that the first one (statistics) is the dominant term due to the small number of detections, and that the second one (control time) is not a standard “1$`\sigma `$” 68% value but rather a total 100% uncertainty.

## 10 Comparison between expected and detected SN rates

The first conclusion is that NIR searches for SN in starburst galaxies are, as expected, more efficient than similar searches at optical wavelengths since at least some of the SNe occurs in dusty environments. Two SNe were in fact only detected in the NIR, and Maiolino et al. (2002) demonstrated that at least SN 2001db was too absorbed ($`A_V5.6`$ mag) to be detected during routine optical SN surveys even at its maximum. This is also the case for the type Ia SN 2002cv discovered in the NIR by Di Paola et al. (2002) and for which Meikle and Mattila (2002) derived an extinction in excess of $`A_V`$=6 mag.

The second conclusion is that we are detecting more SNe than expected from the B luminosity, both considering or neglecting the contribution from type Ia SNe. The hypothesis that the detected number of core-collapse SNe (3) is still compatible with the expectations (0.34) can be rejected at more than the 99.5% confidence level. A very similar result is obtained if we include the type Ia SNe (0.49 predicted vs. 4 observed).

This high value for the observed SN rate reflects the higher extinction affecting the B light (which is the normalizing factor of SNu) of the galaxies in our sample, and the higher SN detection efficiency of the NIR observations with respect to the optical.

This result is not only due to obscuration, as 2 of the 4 detected SNe were also observed in the optical. For this reason the low success rate of previous NIR surveys for SNe is probably due to modest star forming activity of the monitored galaxy sample: for this work we used galaxies with higher rates of star formation which translates into a higher expected SN rate.

The third conclusion is that the majority of SNe expected from the FIR luminosity are still missing, i.e., we have detected only about 10$``$30% of the expected SNe. This small number of detections can be explained in several ways:

1. Most of the SNe are so embedded into the dust that their luminosity is vastly reduced even at near-IR wavelengths. The average extinction $`A_V`$ needed to reduce the expected number of 15 SNe to the observed number of 4 is $`A_V=31`$ mag, or $`A_V>26`$ (corresponding to 8 SNe) with a formal confidence level of 90%. These values for the extinction are similar to those obtained by Genzel et al. (1998) from mid-infrared spectroscopy of several luminous galaxies, and by Mattila & Meikle (2001) for M82 by assuming a gas-to-dust ratio similar to the Milky Way. In this case, a NIR search for SN can detect only a fraction of the total SN rate, and a radio survey should also be planned.
2. If 100% of the FIR flux comes from the central arcsec, only 11 events are expected because of the residuals present in the nuclear region even after applying a PSF matching algorithm. When considering also the uncertainties in the predictions, dominated by the dispersion in luminosity of the SNe, the number of expected SNe is compatible with the observed one without the need of a large additional extinction. The presence of a large number of SNe in the central arcsec of the starburst galaxies can be tested by near-IR monitoring from space: NICMOS on HST can provide images with higher resolution ($`0.2`$″) and the more stable PSF to considerably reduce the central residuals and reveal the nuclear SNe. Early results on such a project based on 4 galaxies will be presented in a forthcoming paper (Cresci et al., 2003, in preparation).
3. Another possibility is the presence of AGNs dominating the FIR flux of most of the galaxies: in this case the FIR flux would not be related to the SN rate. There is evidence that the AGN does not dominate the energetics of the galaxies with $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$$`<2\times 10^{12}L_{}`$ (e.g., Sanders & Mirabel, 1996). Nevertheless it is sometimes difficult to exclude the presence of an AGN completely enshrouded by dust and therefore elusive in the optical/IR or even in the X-rays (Marconi et al., 2000; Maiolino et al., 1998).
4. Eq. (4) may overestimate the SN rate for a given FIR luminosity. Many of the points in Fig. 3 and in particular that for the most luminous galaxy NGC7496 are, directly or indirectly, derived from radio observations and make use of the empirical relations by Condon & Yin (1990). In turn, this is based on radio observations of the Milky Way and on the estimate of its SN rate (Tammann, 1982). If the SN radio luminosity has a strong dependence on environment or if the estimates of the Galactic SN rate are subject to strong incompleteness, the coefficient in Eq. (4) could be inadequate. We believe that this is not a likely possibility as there is a robust concordance among several different methods and this relation has been stable through the years (see, for example, Rieke et al., 1980).
5. Part of the difference could also be due to a different IMF in the starburst regions with respect to more quiescent galaxies. Such an effect, studied in M82 by Rieke et al. (1993), could change the relation between luminosity and SN rate. If present, it is not likely to be a dominant effect as both the FIR luminosity and the core-collapse SNe derive from massive stars.
6. An environment dependence could also be present in the SN luminosity: as an example, SN in dense environments are expected to show a flatter light curve because of the presence of a light echo (e.g., Roscherr & Schaefer, 2000). This has some consequences on the expected number of SNe: events showing the “ordinary” decline rate can be detected even if observed only after the maximum light, while the detection of “slow” events need the comparison of images taken before and after the explosion. In the former case the total useful time contains also one control time before the first image, in the latter case only the time between the images should be considered, and the control time is reduced by about 25%. Therefore this effect could be present but is not strong enough to explain the reduced number of detections.

## 11 Summary and conclusions

We have monitored 46 infrared luminous galaxies at near-infrared wavelengths to look for obscured SNe, and detected 4 SNe, 3 core-collapse and 1 type Ia events. The analysis of this data set has allowed us to derive for the first time the infrared SN rate in starburst galaxies.

To apply the control-time technique, we have collected more than 200 observations of 21 core-collapse SNe to derive their average, maximum and minimum K-band luminosities. We have also extended the relation by Mattila & Meikle (2001) between SN rate and FIR luminosity toward objects with higher SFR in order to cover the luminosity range of the galaxies in our sample. This relation remains linear, i.e., the SN rate is proportional to the FIR luminosity, pointing toward a substantial uniformity in this property between quiescent and active galaxies.

We have computed the rate of type Ia SN as a function of the stellar mass of the galaxy, finding a clear evidence of its increase toward galaxies with higher activity of star formation. This is an other indication that a fraction of type Ia SNe is probably be associated with relatively young stellar populations.

We estimated the expected SN rate from the optical (B) and FIR luminosities of the sample of galaxies and compared those predictions to the number of detections. The SN rate predicted from the B-band luminosity is several times below the observed rate. This is likely to be explained by a number of reasons, the most important of which is the effect of dust obscuration on the optical luminosity of the galaxies. On the contrary, a factor of 3$``$10 more SNe than observed are predicted by the FIR luminosity. Among various possibilities, this can be explained by the presence of dust extinction of at least A$`{}_{V}{}^{}=30`$. This result prompts to the revision of the local SN rate obtained in the past, as optical monitoring campaigns have probably missed a significant fraction of SNe.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to S. Mattila and P. Meikle for useful discussions and to Marcia and George Rieke for the use of the AZ61 near-infrared camera.

## Appendix A The spatial dimension of the starburst activity

The spatial resolution at 100$`\mu `$m is too low to image the spatial distribution of the starburst activity: the highest resolution achieved of this type of galaxies is about 23″ by Zink et al. (2000), much larger that the scale of about 2″ of importance here. Even at this coarse resolution, these authors were able to clearly resolve 6 of their 22 galaxies, and obtain “some evidence for extension” in 7 more objects: as a result about two third of this incomplete sample have 100$`\mu `$m dimension above 20″.

Indirect evidence, but on a smaller scale, can be found by considering the images at mid-infrared wavelengths. The tight correlation existing between the emission at 100$`\mu `$m and at 15$`\mu `$m for galaxies over 4 orders of magnitudes of luminosity (Elbaz et al., 2002) implies that the mid-infrared should trace the 100$`\mu `$m emission (unless an AGN is present). High resolution mid-infrared images of luminous infrared galaxies were obtained by Dale et al. (2000) using ISO. Most of the galaxies show emission coming from several kpc of size, corresponding to several (2-20) arcsec in our galaxies. A possible correlation is also seen between $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$ and the size of the region emitting 80% of the 15$`\mu `$m emission (see Fig. 5) for the galaxies with $`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$$`>10^{10}L_{}`$. According to this relation, no starburst region in the galaxies in our sample should have dimensions below 4″.

Bushouse et al. (1998) studied the relative distributions of several indicators of star formation, such as H$`\alpha `$, mid-infrared, far-infrared and radio continuum, and found a good correlation between these indicators in the central regions of a few nearby galaxies. At 10$`\mu `$m, the emitting source is usually not resolved at their resolution of about 5″, indicating that most of the starburst is concentrated in the nucleus. The upper limits to the size of the far-infrared region are generally compatible with those from the mid-infrared. In one case, NGC 660 (log($`L_{\mathrm{FIR}}`$/$`L_{}`$)=10.38), the infrared emission is resolved both in the mid- and in the far-infrared: at 10$`\mu `$m Bushhouse et al (1998) found a size of about 320 pc, while Smith & Harvey (1996) obtained about 2 kpc at 100$`\mu `$m. At least in this case the far-infrared emission seems more extended than at shorter wavelengths.

Soifer et al. (2001) imaged a small number of high-luminosity galaxies with Keck at 12.5$`\mu `$m with a field-of-view of 17″$`\times `$17″. They generally find that most of the emission comes from the central 2$``$3″, much more compact regions than found in the sample by Dale et al. (2000). This result is somewhat expected because of the small field-of-view, but suggests once more that the nuclear star formation contributes most of the mid- and far-IR.

In conclusions, current data don’t put tight constraints of the dimension of the starburst activity and therefore it is not possible to estimate the amount of FIR flux originating the in the central 2 arcsec. For this reason we have computed the SN rate in the two limiting cases that none and all the FIR flux comes from the nuclear region. Given that most galaxies seem to be dominated by nuclear starburst we have also computed the SN rate by assuming the 80% of the FIR flux originates from the nucleus and 20% from the rest of the galaxy.


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# Resolved Jets and Long-Period Black Hole X-ray Novae

## 1 Introduction

The discovery of relativistic jets in SS433 (Margon et al. 1979, Margon 1984) brought the study of jets into the Galaxy from its previous extragalactic home. The speed of these $`v=0.26c`$ jets was emphatically exceeded with the discovery of $`v=0.92c`$ jets in GRS 1915+105 by Mirabel & Rodriguez (1994). This “microquasar” was the first galactic source to show apparent velocities exceeding the speed of light. This discovery led to a search for superluminal jets in other galactic X-ray binaries, and $``$ a dozen examples have now been found (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999).

Many X-ray binaries have been observed with radio interferometers (Hjellming & Han 1995). While most binaries are unresolved by these observations, the similarities in both rapid variability and the spectral indices between resolved and unresolved sources has led to the belief that relativistic jets are commonplace in X-ray binaries (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999, Fender 2002). While it is clear that jets occur in X-ray binaries with both neutron star and black hole primaries, there is a trend for the most relativistic jets (ie, those with $`v>0.9c`$) to be associated with black holes (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999, Livio 1997, but see Fender 2002 for exceptions to this trend).

Soft X-ray transients (SXTs) are a subclass of X-ray binaries which, rather than being persistently bright at X-ray wavelengths, erupt from near invisibility to become among the brightest objects in the sky at X-ray wavelengths. They then fade away in $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$ 1 year. It is thought that most SXTs ($`70\%`$) contain black hole primaries (e.g. Charles 1998). In particular, there are 14 systems where dynamical mass estimates indicate the presence of compact objects that are too massive to be neutron stars (e.g. see the recent review by Orosz 2002). We will refer to these systems as the “dynamical confirmed” black hole X-ray nova (BHXN). Radio observations, which have the potential to detect and perhaps resolve relativistic jets, have been made of nearly all of these. Fender & Kuulkers (2001) present a thorough summary of these observations, noting which have been resolved. They include in addition the related fast transients and neutron star transients (their Table 1). By separating the sources into those containing neutron stars and those suspected of containing black holes, they show that the black hole systems are more radio loud than those containing neutron stars.

In what follows we concentrate on these 14 BHXN, because the dynamical data gives us insight into the nature (size, evolutionary state, mass transfer rate) of these systems which is less available for the other systems. We separate the systems into those having long and short orbital periods. Among these 14 systems, 6 have periods longer than a day. This is an important dividing line among the systems, as the nature of the secondary changes at this period. For periods less than a day the secondaries are close to the main sequence and the mass transfer is driven by gravitational radiation and/or magnetic braking, while at longer periods the secondaries have begun to evolve off the main sequence and the mass transfer is driven by the nuclear evolution of the secondary (which leads to higher time averaged mass transfer rates; Menou et al. 1999; King, Kolb, & Burderi 1996). These evolved secondaries include stars which are in the Hertzprung gap (GRO J1655-40, Kolb, King & Ritter 1997) and low mass giants (GRS 1915+105, Greiner et al. 2001), and they all share the common property of being able to drive high mass transfer rates.

We note that by restricting our sample to dynamically confirmed BHXN, we may introduce an observational bias: the secondary must be bright enough to allow moderate S/N phase resolved optical spectra to be obtained, which will be difficult for systems at the greatest distances or with the smallest secondaries (ie, the shortest periods). However, 8 of the 14 systems in the sample are short period systems and their distances extend out to nearly the same range as the long period systems (eg, XTE J1859+226 with a period of 9.2 hours is at 11 kpc, see Table 1). The similar numbers and distances for long and short period systems indicates that the search for resolved jets is not biased by this effect.

## 2 Data

We have gathered observational data on dynamically confirmed BHXN from the literature and summarize it in Table 1. The list is ordered by orbital period (column 2), with the shortest period first (XTE J1118+480). The object with the longest period is GRS 1915+105, recently found to have a period of 33.5 days (Greiner, Cuby & McCaughrean 2001). This was also the first BHXN system found to have resolved relativistic jets (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1994).

The peak outburst luminosities (column 3) are generally from Narayan, Garcia & McClintock 1997 (hereafter NGM97) or Garcia et al. 1998 and references therein, but have been adjusted to approximate the bolometric ($``$0.1-100 keV) luminosity, as this is likely of most interest to the theory of jet formation. As the NGM97 compilation covered the 1-40 keV range, this adjustment increases the luminosity by a factor of $`2`$ for sources which show a “soft excess” (often modeled by multi-temperature disk black body) in their X-ray spectrum. We note that this adjustment is uncertain, as the low energy cutoff of the detectors (and the ISM) renders the flux below $`1`$ keV unobservable for all but one (XTE J1118+480) of the sources in our sample. The distances (column 4) are taken from Lee, Brown & Wijers (2002), and the dynamical data (columns 5 and 6) is taken from Orosz 2002, unless noted as otherwise in the table footnotes. We have taken $`L_{Edd}=1.1\times 10^{38}(\mathrm{M}_\mathrm{x}/\mathrm{M}_{})`$, appropriate for cosmic abundances and a moderate (neutron star like) redshift correction (Galloway et al. 2002). We assume a mass in the center of the range listed in column 5.

In column 7 we indicate if the system has been resolved into multiple components (MC). Throughout the following text we refer to resolved sources as those which have been separated into two (or more) spatially separate components. We note that this is qualitatively different from determining that a source is extended, ie, larger than the beam of the detector. Upper limits to the size of the radio counterparts are not always quoted in the literature. In these cases, we quote an upper limit (column 8) corresponding to the array beam size as listed in the on-line documentation for each telescope given the array configuration at the time of observation. The delay (column 9) is the time between the X-ray discovery and the first radio interferometric observations. Note that this time is shorter than the time required for the jets to reach the extent listed in the previous column.

We note that these observations span a large range of times after the outburst, sometimes beginning within days, other times within weeks of the outburst. The observations often extend for a year or more. If large scale jets fade to undetectable levels with a few days of an outburst they may be missed in some objects. For example, the September 1999 outburst of V4641 had an extraordinarily fast rise and fall at both X-ray and radio wavelengths. The resolved relativistic jet was visible only for the two days following the outburst, and the longer lasting (3 week) remnant might not have been associated with a jet if not for the prompt observations that detected the jet (Hjellming et al. 2000). However, relativistic jets have also been detected long after the initial X-ray discovery, for example GRS 1915+105 continues to show resolved jets many years after discovery Fender et al. (1999); the resolved jets in GRO J1655-40 were found $`3`$ weeks after the discovery of the X-ray source Zhang et al. (1994); Tingay et al. (1995); Hjellming & Rupen (1995); and those in XTE J1550-564 are visible several years after they were generated Corbel et al. (2002). Therefore delays of a few days in the start of observations should not bias the sample against finding resolved, relativistic scale jets in the short (or long) period systems.

### 2.1 Notes on Individual Objects

#### 2.1.1 Short Period Systems

XTE J1118+480: Approximately 1 month after the start of the outburst, high resolution imaging with MERLIN and a 65x35 mas beam found the source unresolved (Fender et al. 2001). At approximately the same time, and in addition 2 months later, observations with the VLBA found the source unresolved at the $`1`$ mas level (Mirabel et al. 2001). This provides the strongest upper limit to the size of any radio jet in a short period BHXN. Given the association of jets with outbursts near the Eddington luminosity, it is relevant to note that the outburst of XTE J1118+480 was unusually faint as compared to the other short period systems. The system never left the ’low-hard’ state to enter the more luminous ’high-soft’ state. Given the the observed power-law spectrum, the 1-160 keV luminosity from McClintock et al. (2001) is within $`5\%`$ of that in our fiducial bolometric band of 0.1-100 keV.

GRO J0422+32: This BHXN was observed for over a year at the VLA in configurations ranging from D-array to A-array, and from 2 to 20 cm. There were no reports that the system was resolved, and it was well detected at 2 cm during A-array observations 3 months after the start of the X-ray outburst (Shrader et al. 1994). As the HPBW of this configuration is $`0.14^{\prime \prime }`$, we list this as the upper limit to the size of any jet. However, we note that the initial observation of the radio source $`10`$ days after the X-ray outburst (Han & Hjellming 1992) had a HPBW of $`12^{\prime \prime }`$ (VLA in D-array, detection at 6 cm wavelength).

The most complete coverage of the X-ray light curve was provided in the hard X-rays (20-200 keV) by CGRO/BATSE. Observations at $`1/2`$ the peak luminosity with TTM allowed coverage down to 2 keV, and did not show the existence of an extra soft component. The maximum X-ray luminosity listed in Table 1 covers the 2-600 keV band and should be close to the bolometric luminosity (Esin et al. 1998).

GRS 1009-45: The 1993 outburst of GRS 1009-45 was not observed in the radio, and no post-outburst radio observations have been reported (Brocksopp et al. 2002, Masetti, Bianchini & Della Valle 1997). It is therefore not possible to search for radio jets in this source.

We use the same method and parameters as described in Barret et al. 2000 to estimate the distance to GRS 1009-45, but we use a new (fainter) measurement of the quiescent magnitude ($`R=21.2\pm 0.2`$) from Filippenko et al. 1999. The largest uncertainty in the distance is due the lack of an accurate spectral type, and we find distances from 7.5 kpc to 12.8 kpc for M0 to K5 surface fluxes. Assuming a K8 spectra type we find a nominal distance of 9 kpc.

The peak X-ray luminosity is uncertain due to the lack of continuous coverage below 20 keV. The 1-10 keV flux as reported by Tanaka et al 1993 during an ASCA observation $`2`$ months after the X-ray peak corresponds to a luminosity of $`2\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at the 9 kpc distance estimated by Filippenko et al. 1999. The 20-100 keV X-ray light curve (Chen et al. 1997) shows that the hard X-ray flux was down from the peak by a factor of 10 at the time of this ASCA observation, and also shows that the peak X-ray luminosity was $`1.8\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Scaling up the ASCA flux by 10$`\times `$ in order to account for the decay and adding in the observed 20-100 keV flux, we approximate the peak luminosity from 1-100 keV as $`2\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$, but note that the observed peak flux is only 10% of this. We note that soft excesses are often observed near the peak of XRN outbursts, so even though there is no data to confirm its presence at the peak of the GRS 1009-45 outburst such a component seems likely given its presence during the decay. We therefore approximate the bolometric luminosity in Table 1 as twice the 1-100 keV luminosity.

A0620-00: The 1975 outburst of A0620-00 pre-dated the VLA, but it was observed with the NRAO Green Bank Interferometer with a $`2^{\prime \prime }\times 10^{\prime \prime }`$ beam (Owen et al. 1976) and the Jordell Bank MkII-III Interferometer (Davis et al. 1975). At the time, there were no reports that the radio source was resolved. A subsequent investigation of the hand drawn plots from Davis et al. (1975), along with a new estimate of the observational errors, may provide evidence that the outburst was resolved at $`3^{\prime \prime }`$ size (Kuulkers et al. 1999).

At its peak, the $``$2-100 X-ray spectrum of A0620-00 showed a soft component and a hard tail (Ricketts et al. 1975). The peak 1-18 keV X-ray luminosity was $`1.3\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at 1 kpc (Elvis et al. 1975). From Figure 2 of Ricketts et al. (1975) we estimate the hard tail would contribute only $`10`$% to this total. However, below 1 keV the soft spectrum could contribute an additional $`1.6\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to the total luminosity, and we therefore list in Table 1 a peak bolometric luminosity of $`4\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ at a revised 1.1 kpc distance.

GS 2000+25: VLA observations 9 days after the start of the outburst failed to detect this source, but 22 to 60 days later it was detected as an unresolved source. The observations used the VLA C/D array, and detected the source at 1.49 Ghz to 14.9 Ghz (Hjellming et al 1988). We estimate a size of $`<1.2^{\prime \prime }`$ from the HPBW of the VLA C array at 2 cm.

The peak X-ray luminosity is taken from NGM97 (1-40 keV), but has been adjusted up by a factor of two to account for the soft component in the spectrum (Tsunemi et al. 1989, Terada et al. 2002).

XTE J1859+226: As in the case of A0620-00, this BHXN may prove to invalidate our suggestion that resolved relativistic jets are only seen in long-period systems. Observations of the 1999 outburst at the VLA show evidence of a faint structure $`0.7^{\prime \prime }`$ in extent approximately 20 days after the X-ray outburst began (Brocksopp et al. 2002). Further details on this faint structure will appear in a forthcoming paper (Brocksopp et al. 2002).

The peak X-ray flux listed in Table 1 is the bolometric accretion disk flux calculated by Hynes et al. (2002) on 18 Oct 1999, but including the factor of $`2`$ additional flux in the observed power-law component, corrected for the 11 kpc distance and scaled to the ASM peak of 1.5 Crabs seen two days earlier.

GRS 1124-683 (Nova Muscae 1991): Observations with the ACTA detected this BHXN during a phase of decaying radio emission 10 days after the outburst, and also during the rise of a second radio flare 20 days after the outburst (Ball et al. 1995). The source was not reported to be resolved, and from the HPBW at 2 cm for the 2.5 km maximum baselines used we estimate an upper limit to the source size of $`2^{\prime \prime }`$.

The maximum (bolometric) X-ray luminosity listed in Table 1 is the 1-40 keV luminosity listed in NGN97, adjusted for a distance of 5.1 kpc (Gelino, Harrison & McNamara 2001) and increased by a factor of 2 in order to include the observed soft component (Ebisawa et al. 1994, Greiner et al. 1994) that we assume extends below 1 keV.

H1705-250 (Nova Oph 1977): There were no radio observations of the only recorded outburst of this source in 1977 (Brocksopp et al. 2002). VLA observations of the source in quiescence during 1986 failed to detect it, yielding an upper limit of $`5`$ mJy at 6 cm (Nelson et al. 1988).

The X-ray luminosity is the 1-40 keV luminosity from NGM97, but corrected by a factor of two in order to account for the bolometric luminosity likely present in the soft component of the observed X-ray spectrum (Cooke et al. 1984).

#### 2.1.2 Long Period Systems

4U 1543-47: This BHXN has been observed to have outbursts in 1971, 1983, 1992, and most recently in 2002. The brightest of these outbursts was that in 1983 (Chen et al. 1997). Garcia et al. (1998) estimate that the peak luminosity of this outburst was $`4\times 10^{39}`$ (1-20 keV, at 8 kpc). The very soft X-ray spectrum (van der Woerd et al. 1989) would indicate a bolometric luminosity $`2\times `$ larger. This, and the revised distance estimate of 7.5 kpc (Orosz et al. 2002c) would indicate a peak luminosity for this outburst of $`7\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. There were no radio observations of the 1992 outburst (Brocksopp et al. 2002). Observations during quiescence in 1998 did not detect a radio remnant from any of the previous outbursts (Hunstead & Webb 2002).

The 2002 outburst also showed a very soft spectrum (Miller & Remillard 2002). It reached a peak rate in the ASM of $`320`$ c/s (1 Crab = 73 c/s). Assuming the spectrum was similar to that measured by Tenma in 1983 (thermal bremsstrahlung with kT=1.6 keV, Kitamoto et al. 1984) this corresponds to a bolometric luminosity of $`3.2\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$at 7.5 kpc. Observations of this outburst with the MOST did detect a radio transient (Hunstead & Webb 2002). The source was not reported to be extended. The modest beam size of MOST therefore indicates a size $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$ 1. Table 1 lists these parameters for the 2002 outburst.

XTE J1550-564: Resolved ($`5^{\prime \prime }`$) relativistic ($`v2c`$) radio jets were observed shortly after the first strong X-ray flare in September 1998 (Hannikainen et al. 2001). Emission from material associated with these jets was observed in the radio and X-rays roughly 4 years later at angular separations from the source of $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ (Corbel et al. 2002). In addition, Corbel et al. (2001) suggested that the radio spectrum and variability during the decay of the 1998 outburst indicated the presence of much smaller jets on a mas scale.

The X-ray flux of XTE J1550-564 reached a peak during a bright flare on 1998 Sept 19. The power law dominated the spectrum at this time, so it is not necessary to correct the bolometric flux for an additional soft component. Table 1 lists the 1-20 keV flux from Orosz et al. (2002b), which is within 20% of that computed by Sobczak et al. (2002) for the bolometric disk plus 2-100 keV power law component. We note that there is a strong soft component during the plateau immediately following the bright flare, but the bolometric flux at this time is substantially lower (Geirlinski & Done 2002).

GRO J1655-40: Radio emission was not detected until $`10`$ days following the 27 July 1994 X-ray outburst of this source (Harmon et al. 1995, Zhang et al. 1994). The radio source was not resolved until $`3`$ weeks after the X-ray outburst (Tingay et al. 1995). Nearly 3 months after the outburst it was visible at the VLA (1.3 cm) as a pair of jets separated by up to $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ (Hjellming and Rupen 1995). At 20-100 keV energies, this outburst appeared as five (or more) discrete outbursts over more than 1 year. The first three of these has simultaneous radio flares, but the last two were very radio quiet (Rupen 2002). The 1997 outburst also produced a radio flare, but the VLA was in its most compact array (D) and was unable to resolve structures on the size seen in 1994 (Rupen 2002).

GRO J1655-40 is unusual among the long period systems in not reaching an outburst luminosity of $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$ 1039$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The 1994/5 outburst pre-dated the RXTE/ASM, so the entire outburst light curve was accessible only at energies above 20 keV as afforded by CGRO/BATSE. ASCA observations revealed the presence of a soft component in the X-ray spectrum containing $``$40% of the luminosity at a time when the bolometric luminosity was estimated to be $`10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Zhang et al. 1997, Zhang PC 2002). The rates in the BATSE band were 2-5 times below their peak during this ASCA observation (Zhang et al 1997). We therefore estimate that the bolometric luminosity at peak was $`5\times 10^{38}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and list this value in Table 1.

V4641 Sgr: The maximum luminosity during the very fast, 12 Crab X-ray flare lasting $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$ 1 hour was $`6\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$(2-100 keV), or $`3\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$(2-10 keV) (Orosz et al. 2001). This flare was observed only with the RXTE/ASM, so it is not possible to determine if there is an additional soft component which might increase the bolometric luminosity beyond that in the 2-100 keV band. At much lower flux levels (0.01 and 0.3 Crab) I’nt Zand et al. (1999) note the presence of an additional soft component, but Smith, Levine & Morgan (1999) note that the spectrum during the 12 Crab flare is “harder than the Crab”. We therefore assume the 2-100 keV flux is close to bolometric, and list this in Table 1.

V4641 Sgr was observed with the VLA $`16`$ hours following the bright 12 Crab flare, and was resolved into a jet with $`0.25^{\prime \prime }`$ extent. Observations 2 days later showed that the jet had faded below the detection limit, but the core (presumed point of origin of the jets) was marginally resolved and remained visible for another 26 days (Hjellming et al. 2000).

GS 2023+338 (V404 Cyg): This very bright radio transient ($`1`$ Jy) was not resolved at the VLA despite extensive observations using many array configurations (Han & Hjellming 1992). Because the source was not resolved, we take as an upper limit to its size the HPBW of the A-array at 2 cm which is $`0.14^{\prime \prime }`$. Rapid ($``$5 minute) fluctuations of the radio flux and the necessity to avoid the Compton catastrophe require a source size of $`0.2`$mas (Han & Hjellming 1992).

The outburst spectrum of GS 2023+338 was unusual in that it did not show an obvious soft thermal component (Tanaka 1989), instead being consistent with a power-law with photon index $`1.7`$ (Terada et al 1994). Careful review of the GINGA spectrum shows that the $`1`$ keV soft thermal component did make a brief appearance, perhaps at sub-peak luminosities, but was shrouded by heavy absorption and/or comptonization (Zycki, Done & Smith 1999).

The flux appeared to reach a maximum saturation level (perhaps equal to the Eddington limit) early on 30 May 1989, at which time the soft component showed a temperature of $`0.2`$ keV. The bolometric luminosity at this time is computed to be $`3\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Zycki, Done & Smith 1999) and this value is listed in Table 1. We note that the that the 1.7-37 keV luminosity computed by Terada et al. (1994) assuming a simple power-law model is $`50`$% below our adopted value.

GRS 1915+105: The first reported detection of the radio counterpart of this now prototypical microquasar was approximately 4 months after the X-ray outburst began (Mirabel et al. 1992). A large radio flare began $`1.5`$ years after the discovery of the X-ray transient (Rodriguez & Mirabel 1993), which was subsequently resolved into relativistic jets (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1994).

The maximum X-ray luminosity during bright (10s) flares reaches an unabsorbed value of $`7\times 10^{39}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$(1-200 keV). The bolometric luminosity (if the emission extends down to 0.1 keV) may be as high as $`6\times 10^{40}`$$`\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$(0.1-200 keV, Greiner et al. 1998), and we list this value in Table 1. This source continues to be active at X-ray and radio wavelengths and continues to generate relativistic jets (Fender et al. 1999).

## 3 Discussion

From Table 1 we see that the four systems with well resolved (multiple component) relativistic jets are XTE J1550-564, GRO J1655-40, V4641 Sgr, and GRS 1915+105, which all have orbital periods $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$ 1 day. The data also suggests that the radio counterparts of two short period systems (A0620-00 and XTE J1859+226) may be larger than the beam size. However, the data is unequivocal only in the case of these four long period systems. That is, relativistic jets have so far only been resolved into two separate, moving components in long period systems. It appears that a long orbital period and bright outbursts are necessary, but not sufficient, to give rise to resolved jets. For example, the long period systems V404 Cyg and 4U 1543-47 both have had super-Eddington outbursts, but resolved jets have not been found in either.

Given the small number of sources in the sample, we should ask what the odds are that this apparent trend is merely a coincidence. In doing so, we should leave GRS 1009-45 (not observed) and H1705-250 (not detected) out of consideration, as there are no observational constraints on them. This leaves equal numbers of long and short period systems. Depending upon exactly how one asks the question, the probability is $`=0.5^4=6.3\%`$ (assuming each detection of a resolved jet is equivalent to a trial with 50% probability of selecting a long or short period system) or $`(6\mathrm{pick}4)/(12\mathrm{pick}4)=3\%`$ (from the combinatorics of selecting 4 jets out of the 6 long period systems vs. the number of ways to select 4 jets out of all 12 systems). In either case the significance of the correlation is suggestive ($`3\%1.8\sigma `$) but certainly not overwhelming.

Could observational biases lead to this correlation? Certainly the distances of the two classes of sources are not systematically biased, so any observed differences in jet angular scales would indicate physical size differences. The resolved jets in the long-period systems are typically $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$ $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ (V4641 Sgr, GRO J1655-40, GRS 1915+105) or even more ($`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$ $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ in the case of XTE J1550-564). Most of the upper limits to jets sizes in the short-period systems are of a similar scale, ie, $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$a few arcsec (GS 2000+25, A0620-00, XTE J1859+226, GRS 1124-683), but the limits for GRO J0422+32 and XTE J1118+480 are factors of $`10`$ and $`1000`$ smaller. However, the peak luminosities of these two systems were $`0.1`$ and $`0.001`$ of Eddington, so neither had the very bright outburst apparently required to produce resolved jets.

Radio jets can be associated with the transition from a quiescent to outbursting state and may fade in a few days, (ie, V4641 Sgr, Hjellming et al. 2000) in which case prompt observations are required to detect them. The delay between the X-ray outburst and the first interferometric radio observations (column 10) ranges from 1 (2) days to 4 months (11 years) with a median of 5 (10) days for the long (short) period systems. However, jets may also be visible for years after the outburst has faded (ie, XTE J1550-564, Corbel et al. 2002) indicating that prompt observations are not always required. Brocksopp et al. (2002) tabulate the radio observations of 13 of the 14 sources in our sample, and note that the initial rise was observed in the radio in only two systems, one with a short period (XTE J1859+226) and one with a long period (XTE J1550-564).

There are several possible physical reasons to expect and/or explain the correlation which may be present. We discuss some of these possibilities below, but conclude that the situation is currently unclear.

Could this difference be related to the smaller physical size of the short period binary orbits? Certainly the jets in AGN are larger than those in microquasars. Assuming similar black hole masses, GRO J0422+32 and XTE J1118+480 (the two shortest period systems, also with the tightest limits to jet size) have orbital separations $`5`$x smaller than V4641 Sgr and GRO J1655-40 (which have periods near the median for the long-period sample). If the longer period systems have higher masses (Lee, Brown & Wijers 2002) this difference would be further enhanced, but even if we make the extreme assumption that they have twice the mass of the short-period systems the orbital scales are only $`6`$ times larger. This difference is not negligible and might explain an order of magnitude difference in the apparent jet sizes. Orbital dimensions alone cannot account for the factor of $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$ 1000 difference in the size of the jets in the long period systems when compared to the best limit among the short period systems (that in XTE J1118+480, of $`<0.001^{\prime \prime }`$), but given the very low outburst luminosity of XTE J1118+480 this comparison may not be appropriate.

King (1998) suggested that jets appear in systems with ’Hertzprung gap’ secondaries, leading to super-Eddington mass transfer. Others (ie, Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999, Fender 2001) have also suggested that the presence of jets is related to super-Eddington mass transfer. The data in Table 1 provides some support for this, in that the peak X-ray luminosities of 3 of the 4 resolved sources are super-Eddington. The fourth (GRO J1655-40) is apparently not super-Eddington, although it did reach within $`70\%`$ of its Eddington luminosity. However, given the lack of continuous coverage below 20 keV one must allow the possibility that this system did reach (unobserved) super-Eddington luminosities. While the data allows that it may be necessary to reach super-Eddington luminosities in order to produce resolved jets, it does not appear to be sufficient. The long period systems V404 Cyg (39.5), 4U1543-47 (39.5) both were super-Eddington and did not display resolved jets. The short period systems GRS 1124-683 (38.9) and XTE J1859+226 (38.9) both reached, but apparently did not exceed, the Eddington luminosity.

Under low luminosity conditions, the inner edges of BHXN accretion disks may be truncated long before they reach the last stable orbit by evaporation of the disk into an advection or convection dominated flow (Narayan et al. 1996, Hameury et al. 1997, Liu et al. 1999, Meyer-Hofmeister & Meyer 2001). It has been suggested that the rapid filling of this cavity in the inner regions of the accretion disk is necessary to generate relativistic jets (Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999). There is some evidence that the size of this cavity may scale with mass, and that the mass of the BH in the long period BHXN is larger than that in the short period systems (Bailyn et al. 1998, Orosz et al. 2002b, Lee, Brown & Wijers 2002). However, V4641 Sgr shows a strong Fe-line in quiescence which may show the signature of relativistic broadening in the inner disk, indicating that this BHXN does not have a large cavity in the accretion disk during the low state (Miller et al. 2002).

Could the spins be higher in the long period systems, and could this cause larger jets? Blandford & Znajek (1977) demonstrated that it is possible, at least in principle, to extract rotational energy from a black hole with high angular momentum through magnetic field lines threading the horizon. Observationally, magnetic connections to gas in the plunging region (the region inside of which there are no stable orbits) may be quite similar. This may provide an energy source for powering jets from black holes (see, e.g., Blandford 2001). This has some observational appeal: VLBI observations of M87 constrain the point of jet collimation in this AGN to be within 100 Schwarzschild radii (Junor, Biretta & Livio 1999); this suggests a fairly compact region is involved in forming the jet. Moreover, this source is well-described by ADAF models (e.g., Di Matteo et al. 2003), so the jet is not likely driven by a disk in this source.

Evidence for significant angular momentum (or, black hole spin) has also been implied in many Galactic black holes and black hole candidates, but it is not yet clear if the spin has been accurately measured in any source. This evidence has been found through a variety of methods: measurements of the inner disk radius using continuum X-ray spectroscopy (Zhang, Cui & Chen 1997), via measurements of rapid QPOs (Remillard et al. 2002), and via measurements of relativistically broadened Fe emission lines (Miller et al. 2002).

The first method used to estimate the spin in a substantial number of BHXN was to measure the inner radius of the disk via fitting the continuum spectra to multi-color disk black body (MCBD) models (Mitsuda et al. 1984). Using this method Zhang, Cui & Chen (1997) found nearly maximal spins ($`a1`$) for GRO J1655-40 and GRS 1915+105 and near zero spins ($`a0)`$ for GS 1124-68 and GS 2000+25. Hynes et al. (2002) derive an inner disk radius from MCBD fits to XTE data that is consistent with a low spin for XTE J1859+226.

The MCBD method has some uncertainties that are not shared by the other two methods. Not only does the measured inner disk radius depend on the distance to the source and the inclination of the inner disk (which may be different from the system inclination), but the model itself may fail to account for changing opacities due to Comptonization effects (see Shimura & Takahara 1995; see also Merloni, Fabian, & Ross 2000). Regardless of the uncertainties in the theory, the varying dominance of different spectral components may make it difficult to do the spectral deconvolutions necessary to measure the inner disk temperature and radius. For example, while Zhang et al. (1997) find a nearly maximal spin ($`a=0.93`$) based on ASCA spectroscopy of GRO J1655-40, Sobczak et al. (1999) apply the same method to a much larger RXTE dataset on the same source and find a much lower spin ($`a=0.5`$) and a lower limit consistent with zero spin.

As the Keplerian orbital frequency at the marginally stable circular orbit around a non-spinning black hole scales roughly as $`\nu 220\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}(10M_{}/M_{BH})`$, the observation of QPOs at similar frequencies in systems with mass constraints may also provide a means of measuring black hole spin. Evidence for spin has been revealed via this means in GRO J1655$``$40 (Strohmayer 2001, $`0.15<a<0.5`$), in XTE J1550$``$564 (Remillard et al. 2002, $`0.1<a<0.6`$; Miller et al. 2001 $`a>0`$), GRS 1915$`+`$105 (Morgan et al. 1997, Strohmayer 2001b, Remillard et al. 2002, $`a>0`$), and perhaps XTE J1650$``$500 (Homan et al. 2002).

However, uncertainty in exactly what causes the QPO (ie, Homan et al 2001, Remillard et al. 2002) leads to uncertainty in the derived spin, and values as high at $`a>0.9`$ may be allowed for XTE J1550-564 (Remillard et al. 2002) and GRO J1655-40 (Strohmayer 2001, Remillard et al 2002). With multiple QPOs in many systems, comparative measures of the spin among different systems should likely be done by comparing the systems when they are in similar luminosity and spectral states (Mendez, Belloni & van der Klis 1998).

Broad Fe Kα emission lines – sometimes asymmetrically skewed and plausibly explained as emission lines produced at the inner accretion disk – can also provide evidence of spin. At present, this technique has produced strong evidence of spin only in XTE J1650-500 (Miller et al. 2002, $`a1`$). While we do not include XTE J1650-500 in Table 1 because its binary parameters are not yet well known, this BHXN has a short orbital period of 0.212 days (Sanchez-Fernandez et al. 2002). A measurement of the Fe-line in V4641 Sgr at a low flux level ($`10^3L_{Edd}`$) finds a line consistent with zero spin, but which does allow moderate spin (Miller et al. 2002b).

At least one of each of the three methods discussed above has been applied to each of the four jet systems in order to estimate its spin. While the estimates do not always agree, there is evidence for moderate to high spin in three of the four jet systems. The spin in V4641 Sgr may be somewhat lower. Do the two long period systems without resolved jets (V404 Cyg and 4U 1543-47) have even lower spin? V404 Cyg did not show a strong soft disk component at the peak of its outburst (Tanaka 1989), and while they did not fit MCBD models to the spectra, Zhang, Cui & Chen (1997) suggest that this lack of a disk component may indicate a retrograde spin. However, reanalysis of the Ginga spectrum shows brief periods when there was a strong soft component hidden beneath strong low energy absorption (Zycki et al 1999). The spectrum during each of the four recorded outbursts of 4U 1543-47 has contained a strong soft excess (van der Woerd 1989), but thus far multi-color disk blackbody models have not been fit to the spectrum.

Conversely, do the short period systems (where there are no resolved jets) show evidence for lack of spin? All of the systems except for XTE J1118+480 and GRO J0422+32 show a soft component in outburst, indicative of an accretion disk possibly amenable to multi-color disk black model fits. The most interesting systems to explore would be GS 2000+25, XTE J1859+226, and GRS 1124-683, as they reached at least $`1/2`$ of their Eddington luminosities and had $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution radio imaging within about a week of their outbursts. Hynes et al. (2002) found an inner disk radius of $`90`$km $`6\mathrm{R}_\mathrm{g}`$ for the 10M black hole in XTE J1859+226. While the spectra did not allow tight constraints on this radius, it is indicative of zero spin. Zhang, Cui & Chen (1997) have previously noted that the X-ray spectra of GRS 1124-683 and GS 2000+25 are indicative of near zero spin. However, XTE J1650-500 ($`P_{orb}=0.212`$ days) has a highly skewed Fe line indicating a very high spin ($`a1`$, Miller et al. 2002). Thus it is unclear if the short period systems have uniformly lower spin than the long period systems.

As evidence for spin is often found in the systems with resolved jets, it may be productive to explore whether the fastest jets observed may be due to the highest spin parameters (Fabian & Miller 2002). At present, robust measures of black hole spin are difficult to make. Further observations of black holes with high time resolution and high spectral resolution instruments may be able to make more robust measurements. It is possible that magnetic connections between the disk and either the black hole or matter in the plunging region are favored at high mass accretion rates in Galactic black holes; if this is the case, spinning black holes may act to drive jets more often in the more luminous long-period binaries.

## 4 Summary

In order to focus discussion, we have deliberately excluded several resolved relativistic jets in galactic sources which are not dynamically confirmed BHXN. In addition, it may not be fair to compare the jets even amongst this smaller sample, as they may not all be due to the same phenomena: the $`>20^{\prime \prime }`$ X-ray and radio jets in J1550-564 may be powered by deceleration, while the rapidly evolving jets from V4641 Sgr must be powered by relativistic electrons. However, the data we present do suggest that long period BHXN produce larger jets than short period systems, an observation which may provide insight into the jet formation mechanism. The data in Table 1 are consistent with the suggestion that an outburst luminosity $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$Eddington is necessary but not sufficient to produce resolved, relativistic jets. Measurements of black hole spin are not yet sufficiently robust to determine the role it plays in the formation of resolved jets. As has been often noted (ie, Mirabel & Rodriguez 1999), the human time-scale of the evolution of micro-QSO jets may allow insights that are difficult to gain from the much more slowly varying extra-galactic jets.

We thank the Aspen Center for Physics for its hospitality during the summer of 2002 which allowed work on this paper to begin. MRG acknowledges the support of NASA/LTSA grant NAGW-10889 and NASA contract NAS8-39073. JMM acknowledges support from the NSF through its Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. JEM acknowledges the support of NASA ADP grant NAG5-10813. ARK gratefully acknowledges a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.