text:
# RXTE observations of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5506: evidence for reflection from disk and torus

## 1 Introduction

NGC 5506 is a bright nearby (z=0.006) narrow emission line X-ray galaxy. It has been classified variously as edge on early type spiral \[de Vaucouleurs et al. ¡1976¿\] and irregular (?, ?). Strong nuclear dust lanes as well as starburst activity are present in this galaxy. Although the optical spectrum of the nucleus is classified as Seyfert 2, NGC 5506 is not a typical member of this subclass. All spectral components, including the narrow lines, are strongly reddened by the disk of the host galaxy. The X-ray source is absorbed by a column of $`N_\mathrm{H}=3.610^{22}`$ \[Perola¡1998¿\]. This column is moderate for a Seyfert 2 nucleus and might be largely due to absorption by interstellar matter in the edge-on galaxy, rather than absorption by a nuclear torus. Despite this relatively low absorption in X-rays, no broad line region has been unambiguously detected in near infrared observations \[Veilleux et al. ¡1997¿\]. ? conclude that the relative broadening of the NIR lines relative to the optical lines is due to a contribution from the inner parts of the narrow line region that is reddened by the dust lane crossing the bulge of NGC 5506.

The 2-30 keV X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies are dominated by two components: a power law component that is believed to originate from the primary source of hard X-rays near the central black hole and a reflected component produced by Compton scattering of the primary radiation by neutral material (eg ?). The principal spectral signatures of the reflected component are a broad hump peaking at $`30`$ keV and iron $`K_\alpha `$ fluorescence emission at 6.4 keV. The strength of the broad hump is more or less independent of the relative abundances but the strength of the iron feature depends directly on the iron abundance.

In many Seyfert X-ray spectra a broad, gravitationally redshifted iron fluorescence line is present, indicating that the reflection at least partly occurs in the accretion disk, (?, ?, ?). However, ? and ? showed that the molecular torus required by unified models of Seyfert galaxies is also likely to modify the X-ray spectra of both Seyfert 1 and Seyfert 2 galaxies by reprocessing the primary radiation. The molecular torus is the supposed origin of narrow iron $`K\alpha `$ components found in the ASCA spectra of several Seyfert galaxies (?, ?, ?). Any reflection component originating from the torus will respond only slowly to variations of the primary X-ray source and therefore its relative contribution to the X-ray spectrum will be anti-correlated with the flux from the variable X-ray source. Due to this temporal behaviour reprocessing by a distant reflector can be identified using long term monitoring X-ray observations. The presence of an obviously distant reflector in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4051 was revealed when a “bare” reflection component became visible while the primary X-ray source virtually switched off for $``$ 150 days (?, ?).

In this paper we present X-ray monitoring observations of NGC 5506 obtained with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) as well as a 100 ksec RXTE observation spread over 20 days in June/July 1997. The reflection hump and the 6.4 keV fluorescence line are clearly detectable in both sets of observations. Since both the equivalent width of the iron line and the relative reflected fraction of continuum are higher during lower flux states, we conclude that two reflection components are present in NGC 5506.

In Section 2 we describe the observations and the analysis of the RXTE data. The results of our spectral modelling are presentend in Section 3. In Section 4 we then describe the variability of the spectral parameters and show that the observed spectral variability can be described by a model involving both disk and torus reflection.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

RXTE observed NGC 5506 with the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) and the High Energy X-ray Timing Experiment (HEXTE) instruments. The PCA \[Zhang et al. ¡1993¿\] consists of 5 Xenon-filled Proportional Counter Units (PCUs), sensitive to X-ray energies from 2-60 keV. The maximum effective area of the PCA is 6500 cm2. The HEXTE \[Rothschild et al.¡1998¿\] covers the energy range 15-250 keV with a maximum effective area of 1400 cm2. We have observed NGC 5506 with the RXTE since May 1996 as part of a long term monitoring campaign of 4 Seyfert galaxies. We used short ($`1`$ ksec) observations separated by a range of time intervals. During 1996 the source was observed twice daily for 10 days, daily for 32 days, and weekly for 13 weeks. Since November 1996 the monitoring has continued with observations every two weeks. The monitoring data presented here cover $`1000`$ days within the gain epoch 3 of the PCA instrument and amount to 77 ksec of good exposure time. We also observed NGC 5506 between 20 June 1997 and 9 July 1997 with RXTE for 91 ksec. See Fig. 1 for the distribution of observations during both campaigns.

We have used ftools v4.2 for the reduction of the PCA and HEXTE data. PCA “good times” have been selected from the Standard 2 mode data sets using the following criteria: target elevation $`>10^{}`$, pointing offset $`<0.01^{}`$, time since SAA passage $`>30`$ min, standard threshold for electron contamination. Since the PCUs 4 and 5 are often switched off, only the data from the PCUs 0, 1, and 2 have been included. Spectra and light curves were extracted from the top Xenon layer data.

We calculated the background in the PCA with the tool pcabackest v2.1 using the L7 model for faint sources, which is suitable for determining the PCA background for energies $`24`$ keV. In the case of NGC 5506, the PCA background dominates over the source spectrum at energies $`>15`$ keV. Therefore correct background subtraction is crucial for the determination of the reflected fraction of the source spectrum from the strength of the reflection hump at energies $`>10`$ keV. In order to test the accuracy of the background model we analysed 100 PCA blank field pointings from observation P30801. We performed the data reduction and background estimation for the blank field pointings in the same manner as for the NGC 5506 science data and produced a set of background subtracted spectra including PCUs 0-3. From this set of spectra we derived the intrinsic standard deviation in each spectral channel by deconvolving the measured variance with the Poisson errors in the respective channel. The result represents the $`1\sigma `$ systematic error in the spectra due to inaccurate background subtraction. Figure 2 shows a comparison of a spectrum selected from the faintest states of NGC 5506 (cr $`<`$ 21 cts/sec, see Section 4 ) and the $`1\sigma `$ background standard deviations. The systematic errors are generally smaller than the Poisson errors in the respective channels. We added a typical background subtracted blank field spectrum to the above mentioned faint state spectrum and fitted the pexrav models described below to the original and the modified spectrum. The resulting change in the spectral parameters is $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.018`$ for the spectral index or $`\mathrm{\Delta }R=0.14`$ for the reflected fraction. Note that the flux selected spectra discussed in Section 4 are averaged from many pointings and therefore inaccurate background subtraction in individual pointings should have only negligible influence on the results derived from these spectra.

Spectral fitting was performed using xspec v10.0 using the latest releases of the detector response matrices. All observations reported here have been carried out during the PCA gain epoch 3. However, small temporal gain variations lead to changes in the detector response within this epoch. In order to account for these changes we used the tool pcarsp v2.37 to create individual response matrices for the June 1997 observation and for each of the monitoring observations.

The inter-calibration of PCA and HEXTE regarding the normalization of the spectrum is still uncertain and the relatively low count rate (2 cts/s per cluster) for NGC 5506 in the HEXTE detectors prevents an accurate measurement of the spectral slope in the HEXTE band alone. Therefore the inclusion of the HEXTE spectra in the fitting did not significantly improve the constraints on spectral parameters and we only present the results of the PCA observations here. Since the spectral calibration of the softest PCA channels is somewhat uncertain and the L7 background model is not recommended for energies above 24 keV, we only use the PCA data between 3 keV and 24 keV.

For the modelling of the spectrum we use the xspec pexrav code \[Magdziarz & Zdziarski¡1995¿\] which calculates a power law with exponential cutoff at high energies reflected by a slab of neutral material. The iron emission feature is modeled by a Gaussian line. The spectrum in the PCA energy range is only marginally affected by photoelectric absorption and by the high energy cutoff of the underlying power law. ? measured the X-ray spectrum of NGC 5506 in the broader energy range of the BeppoSAX instruments and find that the absorbing column density of the host galaxy is $`N_\mathrm{H}=3.610^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Their lower limit for the high energy cutoff is $`E_{\mathrm{max}}=300\mathrm{k}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}`$. In the following we adopt their values for $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ and $`E_{\mathrm{max}}`$.

The reflected fraction $`R`$ is defined as $`R=\mathrm{\Omega }/(2\pi )`$ where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the solid angle subtended by the reflector as seen from the X-ray source. In the case of an infinite flat disk as reflector $`R=1`$ would be expected. The intensity of the reflected component also strongly depends on the inclination of the reflecting slab. However, it is not possible to simultaneously constrain both inclination and the reflective fraction $`R`$. We therefore adopted an inclination of $`40^{}`$ as suggested by the profile of the iron K$`\alpha `$ fluorescence line measured by ASCA \[Wang et al.¡1999¿\].All elementary abundances were set to the solar values.

In order to investigate whether the flux variability of NGC 5506 is accompanied by spectral changes, we have accumulated PCA spectra during epochs of similar source count rates in the 2-10 keV lightcurves as shown in Fig. 1 . For the June 1997 observations we set the ranges $`<24`$ cts/sec, 24-27 cts/sec, 27-30 cts/sec, $`>30`$ cts/sec. For the monitoring observations, where the spread in count rates is larger, 6 ranges have been chosen: $`<21`$ cts/sec, 21-24 cts/sec, 24-27 cts/sec, 27-30 cts/sec, 30-33 cts/sec, and $`>33`$ cts/sec.

Since the detector response matrices of the PCA change over the time span of the monitoring observations, we have produced response matrices for each flux selected spectrum. These matrices have been constructed by averaging the matrices of the individual observations using weight factors according to the exposures contributing to the final spectra.

Each of the spectra was the fitted with a pexrav + gauss model as discussed above, the results on spectral variability are given in Section 4.

## 3 X-ray spectra

A fit of the time averaged PCA spectrum from the June 1997 observation with a simple power law model shows the presence of a strong Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line and a significant reflection component at energies above $`10`$ keV (see Fig. 3).

The combination of the pexrav model and a Gaussian iron line results in a satisfactory fit to the high signal to noise spectrum. The iron line is slightly resolved with $`\sigma 0.30_{.06}^{+.03}`$ keV, but there is no evidence for any gravitational redshift. The best fit energy is $`6.404_{.023}^{+.024}`$ keV in the source frame of NGC 5506. This is consistent with higher resolution ASCA spectroscopy by ?, who report $`\sigma `$=0.2 for a single Gaussian profile and no gravitational redshift of the iron $`K\alpha `$ line.

The best fit value for the reflected fraction during the June 1997 observation is $`R=1.2\pm 0.08`$. This is in good agreement with the value measured by BeppoSAX in January 1997 ($`R=1.05\pm 0.58`$, ?) and is near the value $`R=1`$ that would be expected for the case of a simple geometry with a large disk reflecting the primary X-rays.

For the best fit PEXRAV model the absorbed 2-10 keV flux is $`1.0210^{10}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}1`$, the corresponding X-ray luminosity is $`1.2510^{42}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}1`$ ($`H_0=50\mathrm{M}\mathrm{p}\mathrm{c}\mathrm{km}^1\mathrm{s}`$, $`q_0=0.5`$).

## 4 Spectral variability

In our monitoring data from NGC 5506 we see variations in the 2-10 keV count rate between 12 cts/sec and 42 cts/sec. During the June 1997 observations the source varied between 19 cts/sec and 39 cts/sec. We analysed the hardness-ratios between different bands of the PCA energy range and found that the flux variations are accompanied by variations in the spectral hardness: the spectrum appears to be softer during epochs of higher flux. This spectral behaviour has been observed in a number of other Seyfert galaxies before (e.g. ?, ?, ?. In the framework of the reflection models there are two possibilities to explain an anti-correlation of source flux and spectral hardness:

* The intrinsic spectrum of the primary X-ray source might soften during high flux states.
* As the primary X-ray source weakens, the fraction of reflected radiation might increase, e.g. due to a time lag between the primary and reflected components.

In order to investigate these possibilities we fitted count rate selected spectra (as described in Section 2) with the pexrav \[Magdziarz & Zdziarski¡1995¿\] model and a Gaussian emission line. No significant variability of the source frame energy or the width $`\sigma `$ of the iron fluorescent line have been found. Therefore these parameters have been fixed to values compatible with any of the single fits, $`E_{\mathrm{source}}=6.4`$ keV and $`\sigma =0.35`$ keV. The results of the spectral fits are shown in Table 2. The variations of intrinsic photon index, reflected fraction, and iron line flux with the count rate are shown in Figure 5. During the June 1997 observations the spectral index was $`\mathrm{\Gamma }2.13`$ and did not vary with flux. On the longer time scales of the monitoring observations, however, an anti-correlation of flux and hardness of the intrinsic power law is clearly visible. It is not clear whether the difference between the two data sets regarding the variation of the spectral index is due to the different time scales of the observations. An analysis of the interval of more intense monitoring between MJD=50300 and MJD=50350 showed that during this interval the source showed the same spectral index variability as during the long term monitoring campaign as a whole.

### 4.1 Reflection and iron fluorescence emission

The results on the reflected fraction for both the long term and the intense monitoring are consistent with each other and show tentative evidence for an anti-correlation of the reflected fraction $`R`$ with source flux. Figure 6 shows $`68\%`$ and $`90\%`$ contours for the parameters $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`R`$. On the shorter time scales of the June 1997 observations the changes in reflected fraction $`R`$ contribute to the variability in spectral hardness, while on longer time scales variations of the intrinsic power law index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ seem to be the main cause of the spectral variability. Variability of the intrinsic spectral index was found to be the source of spectral variability in the cases of NGC 5548 \[Chiang et al.¡2000¿\] and MCG$`63015`$ \[Lee et al.¡1999¿\]. Although the best fit values of the reflected fraction for the different flux states in the long term monitoring are formally consistent with each other, an anti-correlation with the source flux is present. ? report a positive correlation of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`R`$ in samples of Seyfert galaxies and X-ray binaries and claim that this correlation also holds for the spectral variability of individual sources. Our results on NGC 5506 are in contrast to these findings, as $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ and $`R`$ are anti-correlated during the long term monitoring observations. ? explain the $`R(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$ correlation as follows: The power law X-ray spectra arises in a hot Comptonizing plasma surrounding a cool accretion disk. Cooling of plasma by soft photons from the disk affects the spectral index. The correlation of $`R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ is likely, as both the strength of the reflection and the flux of cooling photons depend on the properties of the disk. The absence of this correlation in the spectral variability of NGC 5506 means that either the corresponding properties of the accretion disk are not variable in this source or the effect on the reflected fraction is compensated for by reflection from the torus discussed in Section 4.2.

Note that the anti-correlated variations in $`R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ presented here cannot be artifacts of the spectral fitting procedure, which may cause fake correlations between two parameters in the direction of the major axes of the corresponding error ellipses. Spurious variations in $`R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ due to their degeneracy in the pexrav model would result in a positive correlation. In fact the anti-correlation of $`R`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ requires real variations in the hardness of the X-ray spectrum.

During the long term monitoring the iron line flux does increase with the continuum flux, but slower than proportionally as is obvious from the decreasing values of the equivalent width. The spectra from June 1997 do not show significant variations of the iron line flux, but the values are consistent with the results from the long term monitoring. Therefore it is not clear whether the iron line flux is actually constant on shorter time scales or whether the variations are not detectable due to the narrower range of flux states during June 1997. The bottom panel of Figure 5 shows a significant increase of the iron line equivalent width at low source flux levels. This is indicative of a constant component the iron $`K_\alpha `$ line.

### 4.2 Disk and torus reflection

The variations of reflected fraction and iron line flux with the continuum flux indicate that two reflectors contribute to the reflection hump and the iron line. One reflector, most likely the accretion disk, is close to the central source and responds rapidly to changes in the primary X-ray source. A second reflection component, the tentative torus component, arises from matter more distant from the central source and hence is constant on the observed time scales.

Using the pexrav+gauss model we have simulated X-ray spectra for a scenario assuming the following components:

* Variable reflection that is proportional to the current intrinsic flux with the reflected fraction $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}`$.
* Constant reflection of an intrinsic source whose luminosity corresponds to the average luminosity of the central X-ray source. The reflected fraction is $`R_{\mathrm{torus}}`$.
* Each of the reflection components are accompanied by iron $`K_\alpha `$ fluorescence emission. The ratios of reflected continuum flux and fluorescence flux are assumed to be the same in both components.

From a set of simulated spectra with various power law normalizations the total count rates and line equivalents widths have been determined and the variations of the model parameters have been compared with the observed values. The free parameters $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}`$, $`R_{\mathrm{torus}}`$, and fluorescence yield have been adjusted so that the simulations match the observations. The solid lines in Figure 5 show the simulations with $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}=0.7`$ and $`R_{\mathrm{torus}}=0.5`$. The fluorescence yield corresponds to an equivalent width of 103 eV for the disk reflection component alone. If the disk covers $`\mathrm{\Omega }=2\pi `$ of the sky as seen from the source, $`R_{\mathrm{disk}}=1`$ would be expected. For disk reflection with inclination $`i=40^{}`$ and an intrinsic power law index of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=2.1`$ ? calculated $`EW_{K\alpha }=120`$ eV. Hence, both $`R`$ and $`EW_{K\alpha }`$ from the disk component are of the right magnitude and the iron abundance is consistent with the solar value. According to our simulations the torus contributes an iron $`K\alpha `$ component of $`EW=75`$ eV when the source luminosity is at intermediate levels. This is in good agreement with the strengths of the narrow Fe $`K\alpha `$ components found in ASCA spectra of NGC 5506 (66 - 84 eV, ?) and in a sample of other Seyfert 1.9 – 2 galaxies ($`<\mathrm{EW}>=`$60 eV, ?). This and the satisfactory fit to the observed spectral variability makes the disk+torus reflection scenario a likely model for NGC 5506. A single reflection component either from the disk or from the torus is not consistent with the observed spectral variability. Figure 7 shows the reflected fraction $`R`$ and iron line flux as functions of the count rate for 3 different models: the combined disk+torus reflection model as discussed above (solid lines), a single torus reflector (dotted lines), and prompt reflection from the accretion disk only (dashed lines). The combined $`\chi ^2`$ values when compared to the measured values of $`R`$ and $`F_{\mathrm{K}\alpha }`$ are $`\chi ^2/dof=12.2/17`$ for the ‘disk+torus’ model, $`\chi ^2/dof=56.6/18`$ for the ‘torus only’ model, and $`\chi ^2/dof=29.3/18`$ for the ‘disk only’ model.

## 5 Conclusion

We show that the variability of the reflected continuum and the Fe $`K\alpha `$ fluorescence emission in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5506 are well described by a model that assumes reprocessing by both an accretion disk and a distant medium, which might be the molecular torus. In contrast to the monitoring observations of NGC 4051 \[Uttley et al.¡1999¿\], no long lasting states of low X-ray flux have been observed for NGC 5506. Therefore the distance of the reflecting matter from the central X-ray source is not well constrained in this case. However, the time delay of $`>150`$ days found for a similar constant reflection component in NGC 4051 \[Uttley et al.¡1999¿\] supports the torus hypothesis.

The relative contributions of the disk and the torus are approximately equal during the lowest flux states we have observed. When the X-ray luminosity is intermediate to high, reprocessing in the accretion disk dominates the reflected continuum and the iron line. The strength of the reflection features from the accretion disk alone is broadly consistent with an inclination angle $`i=40^{}`$ as inferred from ASCA measurements \[Wang et al.¡1999¿\] of the Fe $`K\alpha `$ profile. At this inclination the observed X-ray absorption ($`N_\mathrm{H}=3.610^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, ?), which is within the range for Seyfert 2 galaxies , but towards the lower end \[Turner & Pounds ¡1989¿\] might be well below the total column density of the torus. The torus contribution to the Fe $`K\alpha `$ fluorescence as inferred from our variability study is in very good agreement with ASCA spectroscopy of the line profile \[Wang et al.¡1999¿\].

We conclude that long term monitoring of AGN is an excellent method to study the geometry of their inner regions as it has the potential to actually measure the linear scales of the components contributing to reprocessing.


format: text

text:
# Changing Molecular Gas Properties in the Bar and Center of NGC 7479

## 1 Introduction

Bars are regarded as an important transport mechanism of material toward the central regions of galaxies, fuelling nuclear starbursts and driving galaxy evolution through the concentration of mass close to the nucleus (e.g. Sakamoto et al. saka+ (1999), Combes combes+ (1990) and references therein). To accomplish this, gas has to flow inward through the bar; however, long bars that are filled with dense gas that can be traced in CO are rare and thus likely transient. Among the few specimens known are NGC 1530 (Reynaud & Downes rendow (1998)), M 100 (Sempere & García-Burillo sem\_ga (1997)), UGC 2855 (Hüttemeister et al. huette+ (1999)), NGC 2903 and NGC 3627 (Regan et al. regan+ (1999)). These bars differ significantly in their properties, i.e. velocity field, linewidth and derived shock structure. This is somewhat surprising, since the gas should in all cases be responding to a strong bar potential in a similar way. The dynamics of this response should then have consequences for the properties of the gas in the bar and the nucleus, e.g. produce a diffuse component unbound from clouds (e.g. Das & Jog dasjog (1995)). The evolutionary state of the bar and the degree of central mass concentration may be instrumental in regulating the conditions of the gas in the bar (see models by Athanassoula atha (1992)). More specifically, the gas is funnelled from outer $`x_1`$-orbits to inner $`x_2`$-orbits as the bar evolves in time (see e.g. the simulations by Friedli & Benz frie\_be (1993)).

To better understand the gas flow, the star formation efficiency along the bar and the feeding of a starburst, it is essential to know the physical state of the gas both along the bar and in the central structure. An analysis based on more molecules than 12CO, the most abundant species after H2, is necessary to investigate gas properties and to go beyond the study of the morphological and kinematic structure of a system. Achieving this goal requires the detection and high-resolution mapping of very faint lines, observations which are at the sensitivity limit of today’s millimeter interferometers.

In this paper, we present such a study, carried out in one of the best known gas-rich barred galaxies. NGC 7479, classified a (mild) starburst SBb galaxy containing a LINER nucleus, has a gaseous bar of $`10`$ kpc projected length (for an assumed distance of $`D=32`$ Mpc, see Table 1), which has been repeatedly mapped in 12CO: Sempere et al. (sempere+ (1995)) present single dish data in the $`10`$ and $`21`$ transition. Interferometric $`10`$ maps have been obtained by Quillen et al. (quillen+ (1995)) and recently by Laine et al. (laine+ (1999)). Our results include the most sensitive 12CO map to date, but we focus on the relation of the 12CO emission to the first interferometric 13CO$`(10)`$ and HCN($`10`$) data obtained in NGC 7479, and the physical state of the gas we can infer from the comparison of these molecules to the 12CO distribution. Preliminary results of this study were given in Aalto et al. (1997a ).

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 Interferometric observations at OVRO

We have obtained interferometric maps of the $`10`$ transitions of 12CO, 13CO, HCN and in the inner 1 (9 kpc) of NGC 7479 using the Caltech six-element Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) millimeter array. All observations were centered on the radio continuum peak. The quasar 3C454.5 was observed every $`15`$ min as a phase and amplitude calibrator. 3C345 was used as an additional passband calibrator, and flux calibration was done relative to the planets Neptune and Uranus. Calibration was done with the standard package developped for OVRO. Continuum emission with a peak flux of 3 – 4 mJy beam-1 has been subtracted from all maps.

The observations were carried out in the low resolution and equatorial configurations of the OVRO array between February and June 1996. The naturally weighted synthesized beam sizes are 4$`.^{\prime \prime }`$6 $`\times `$ 4$`.^{\prime \prime }`$25 for 12CO, 4$`.^{\prime \prime }`$9 $`\times `$ 4$`.^{\prime \prime }`$05 for 13CO and 7$`.^{\prime \prime }`$2 $`\times `$ 5$`.^{\prime \prime }`$2 for HCN. At $`D`$=32 Mpc, $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ equals 155 pc. The positional accuracy of structures in the maps is $`0.^{\prime \prime }5`$ and thus considerably higher than the resolution. Due to the limited $`uv`$-coverage, the maps are not sensitive to structures larger than $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ for CO and $`21^{\prime \prime }`$ for HCN. On-source integration times were 7.2 hr for 12CO, 23.5 hr for 13CO and 11.5 hr for HCN.

The parameters of the observations are summarized in Table 2.

For a beamsize of $`4.^{\prime \prime }4`$, i.e. 12CO, a brightness temperature ($`T_\mathrm{B}`$) of 1 K corresponds to 0.210 Jy beam-1 at a wavelength of 2.6 mm. The spectral resolution of our data is 4 MHz or 10.04 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and the total velocity range covered by the autocorrelator is 1120 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, centered on $`v_{\mathrm{LSR}}`$= 2500 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. For the final presentation, the data were smoothed to a velocity resolution of 20 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (12CO and 13CO) or 40 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (HCN).

Imaging was done using the NRAO AIPS package. For image display and analysis of the data cubes, the ATNF Karma package was also used.

### 2.2 Single dish observations at OSO

Single dish spectra of the $`10`$ transitions of 12CO and 13CO were taken at the Onsala Space Observatory 20 m telescope in 1997. The central position of NGC 7479 was observed with a beamsize of 33′′ and system temperatures of 500 K – 600 K (12CO) and 200 K – 300 K (13CO). The spectra were smoothed to a velocity resolution of 30 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The Distribution of the 12CO Emission

#### 3.1.1 Morphology and Central Kinematics

The 12CO distribution is displayed in Fig. 1a. It extends in one continuous structure over the whole length of the bar, with a number of secondary peaks along the bar axis. The total 12CO flux in the map is 380 Jy $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The distribution has a central concentration with a (deconvolved) FWHM size of $`7.^{\prime \prime }5\times 2.^{\prime \prime }6`$ ($`1200\times 400`$ pc at $`D`$=32 Mpc). This structure holds about 30 % of the total CO flux of the bar. The peak position is at $`\alpha =23^\mathrm{h}02^\mathrm{m}26.37^\mathrm{s}`$ and $`\delta =12^{}03^{}11.^{\prime \prime }6`$, coincident to within 1$`.^{\prime \prime }`$0 with the radiocontinuum peak.

In Fig. 1b, we display some representative spectra from the outer parts of our 12CO map, regions where the confidence level of the integrated intensity maps (which refers to the full velocity width in the center of 400 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) drops below $`2\sigma `$. The lines are clearly detected in these parts of the bar, but become very narrow. The same effect is evident from the dispersion map (Fig. 1c): The dispersion (calculated along the line-of-sight, $`\delta v_{\mathrm{mom}}`$) falls off sharply toward the bar edges, but remains at 40 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to 60 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ close to the major axis.

To show that the change in dispersion is not a result of projected rotation, we display position-velocity (pv) diagrams along the bar major axis (position angle (PA) 5, Fig. 2a) and the disk major axis (PA 25, Fig. 2c). The velocity width is not systematically larger along the disk major axis, where rotation should have the largest effect. Also, the regions of narrow lines are not associated with the disk minor axis. The only possible effect of rotation is a tentative alignment of the 60 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to 80 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ velocity contours in the 12CO dispersion map (Fig. 1c and Fig. 4a) with the disk major axis.

There is no sign of a ‘twin peaks’ structure (as coined by Kenney et al. ken+ (1992)) perpendicular to the bar, perhaps suggesting that there are no $`x_2`$ antibar orbits, occuring within an Inner Lindblad resonance (ILR). However, the question of the existence of an ILR in NGC 7479 is controversial and remains undecided: Quillen et al. (quillen+ (1995)) derived the existence of an ILR close to the nucleus, while in the models of Sempere et al. (sempere+ (1995)) no ILR exists. Laine et al. (lai+2 (1998)) argue that the bar perturbation close to the center is so strong that the issue cannot be resolved without non-linear orbit analysis. In any case, the ILR would be located within 700 pc – 800 pc (4′′ – 5′′) from the nucleus; thus, we would barely resolve a ‘twin peak’ structure.

Another possible signature of an ILR is a ring of material close to its positions, due to the expected pile-up of gas in the collision region where $`x_1`$ and $`x_2`$ orbits intersect. Such a structure may be indicated in our map. There certainly is a clear peak not just in intensity but also in velocity dispersion (Fig. 1c) in the center. This dispersion peak fragments into a high velocity system, consisting of a number of clumps, as is evident from the pv diagrams we show in Fig. 2. This system is confined to within $`\pm 3^{\prime \prime }`$ of the center and distinctly different from the material within the ‘main’ bar, where the velocity changes much more slowly, which is seen in panel (a), a cut along the major bar axis. The central rapidly rotating structure is most easily seen at a position angle close to $`45^{}`$ (panel (b)). While there is a central peak (at $`v_{\mathrm{LSR}}=2330`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$), this peak does not dominate the emission: other features at velocities ranging from 2200 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to 2500 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ are almost as strong and spatially separated by $`1^{\prime \prime }2^{\prime \prime }`$.

A high velocity system like this is a signature feature of many barred galaxies. It has been used by Binney et al. (binney+ (1991)) to argue the presence of a central bar in our Galaxy. The orbits of the gas that can cause this feature have been modelled by e.g. García-Burillo & Guelin (gb (1995)) for the case of the weakly barred edge-on galaxy NGC 891. The structure found in NGC 7479 (already noted by Laine et al. laine+ (1999)) also greatly resembles the system seen in UGC 2855, a strongly barred galaxy where, in contrast to NGC 7479, quiescent conditions are found for the gas along the bar (Hüttemeister et al. huette+ (1999)). As in UGC 2855, the central high velocity system in NGC 7479 can be interpreted as a clumpy tilted ring or torus close to the ILR (which we would then place at $`2^{\prime \prime }3^{\prime \prime }`$ from the nucleus), as a fragmented, tilted, rotating nuclear disk that is freely fed from material inflowing through the bar without being stopped at an ILR, or even as a dynamically decoupled inner bar, as tentatively suggested by Baker (baker (2000)).

#### 3.1.2 Comparison with Prior 12CO Maps

The general morphological structure and velocity field of our map are in excellent agreement with the results reported by Laine et al. (laine+ (1999)). However, the 12CO emission in our map is a continuous bar structure, while the structure seen by Laine et al. breaks up into separate clumps away from the central condensation, a large part of the body of the bar being devoid of emission. As can be expected if the two maps are consistent, the position of these clumps is in exact agreement with the peaks we see embedded in more extended emission.

Comparing the total fluxes contained in the maps, we find that our flux is higher by a factor of 1.45 than that seen by Laine et al. This discrepancy is caused by our map being more sensitive by a factor of $`2`$, due to a larger beam size combined with a slightly longer integration time. Thus, the larger East-West diameter of the bar seen in our map and its continuity are not artifacts of smearing by lower resolution, but real effects: Our map picks up an additional, more smoothly distributed gas component traced by 12CO. We can compare our total flux to the flux seen in the single dish map of Sempere et al. (sempere+ (1995)), which covered a larger area than our map. However, $`80`$% of the flux is contained the region of the OVRO primary beam. We find that we recover more than 90% of this flux, which is consistent with Laine et al., who report recovering 60% of the single dish flux in their less sensitive map. Thus, there is very little, if any, missing flux in our 12CO map and we can analyse the complete molecular distribution as traced by 12CO at high resolution. This complete recovery of flux is the main distinguishing feature between our 12CO map and the interferometric maps published previously, both by Laine et al. and earlier by Quillen et al. (quillen+ (1995)).

### 3.2 Distribution of 13CO and HCN

Since 13CO and HCN usually originate from regions that are more compact and confined than 12CO emitting gas, we consider it very likely that we also recover the entire flux for those molecules, being limited only by sensitivity, not by missing zero-spacings in the interferometer map.

The distribution of the 13CO emission is presented in Fig. 3. While Fig. 3a gives the moment 0 map for the full central velocity of 400 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (see Fig. 5), panel b is integrated over only 200 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, so that very narrow lines are not lost in the noise. Now, a connection between the central distribution and the southern feature becomes apparent. The example spectra shown in Fig. 6 demonstrate the narrowness of these lines. The total 13CO flux we detect is $`9`$ Jy $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

The 13CO emission is distributed very differently from the 12CO. The central 13CO peak is significantly offset to the north-west from the 12CO peak (by 2′′ or 320 pc in linear size).

While the 12CO distribution in the central concentration and south of the center along the bar runs almost exactly north-south, the central 13CO distribution is best described as extending along a position angle of $`30^{}`$, with a curvature toward the south-east (Fig 3). The deviation between the 12CO and 13CO morphology is even clearer in the southern 13CO extension at offsets $`7^{\prime \prime }`$ to $`15^{\prime \prime }`$ to the south along the bar.

No 13CO is seen at corresponding offset along in the northern part of the the bar.

The weak feature offset $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ to the north, close to the bar end, has no southern counterpart, but is coincident with a peak in the 12CO distribution and thus likely to be real. Further peaks at the bar ends are not detected with at a sufficient confidence level, since these regions are close to the edges of our primary beam, and any emission may be affected by the fall-off in sensitivity as well as sidelobes of the central peak. One might expect to recover 13CO again close to the bar edges, due to the crowding of elliptical ($`x_1`$) streamlines, resulting in increased cloud collisions and the formation of dense shocked gas. Further high sensitivity studies are needed to clarify this point.

Still, very dramatic changes in the 12CO to 13CO line intensity ratio are evident, both in the central region and along the bar. These changes, which are indicators of changing gas properties, will be discussed in detail in the subsequent section.

HCN is clearly detected only in the very center of the 12CO distribution (Fig. 7). It is unresolved and its position is consistent with the 12CO peak, i.e. offset from the maximum 13CO intensity. The total HCN flux in this central structure is 1.6 Jy kms .

### 3.3 Line intensity ratios

We present line intensity ratios taken between 12CO and 13CO ($`_{12/13}`$) in different positions and over different areas in Table 3. In this table, we have computed $`_{12/13}`$ and its errors individually for the peak intensity, the integrated intensity as measured within the velocity window where 13CO is detected and the velocity range within which we find 12CO emission. The respective velocity ranges are given along with the values of $`_{12/13}`$. Again, it is obvious that the 13CO line usually is narrower than the 12CO line, especially at and close to the 12CO peak region along the bar. Moving away from this peak, the 12CO linewidth drops and approaches that of 13CO (see the dispersion maps for 12CO and 13CO (Fig. 4) and the spectra displayed in Fig. 6). Especially from Fig. 4c), which displays the ratio of the 12CO and the 13CO velocity dispersion, it is clear that the velocity dispersion of 13CO always is smaller than the velocity dispersion of 13CO. The dispersions are similar (ratio $`<2`$) in the central $`10^{\prime \prime }`$, where the 13CO line is fairly wide ($`\delta v_{\mathrm{mom}}6080`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and in the southern 13CO concentration, where the 12CO transition becomes narrow ($`\delta v_{\mathrm{mom}}1030`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$). The ratio of the dispersion is high (3 – 6) close to the 12CO peak region along the bar, where the 12CO line is wide, while the 13CO line is narrow.

The global 12CO/13CO intensity ratio, i.e. the ratio we find when comparing the total fluxes for the entire map, is quite high at $`40`$, certainly much higher than what is typical for gas in galactic disks or even ‘normal’ galactic nuclei (see Table 3 for typical values). It is very unlikely that this ratio is an artifact of missing flux, since almost all flux in 12CO is seen and we do not expect to miss more flux in the the more compactly distributed 13CO. However, lack of sensitivity to 13CO is a concern.

To evaluate the possible magnitude of this effect, we assume that 13CO emission in a velocity range of 200 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ is present at the 2$`\sigma `$ level in all places where 12CO is detected and we do not find 13CO. This (unlikely) scenario would result in an additional flux of 10.8 Jy $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, i.e. roughly double our 13CO flux and bring the global ratio down from 42 to 19, which we thus regard as a firm lower limit. We have also estimated the global value of $`_{12/13}`$ using the global spectra of 12CO and 13CO, i.e. spectra constructed for the entire spatial extent of 12CO emission. Here, 13CO is only tentatively detected. Using a 3$`\sigma `$ limit and a velocity range of 450 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, we obtain a ratio of $`_{12/13}`$$``$ 30, in full agreement with the ratio determined using integrated fluxes.

In the central condensation, the variation in $`_{12/13}`$ goes along with the morphological shift described above. $`_{12/13}`$ ranges from $`10`$ close to the 13CO ‘ridge’ to $`30`$ at distances of 5′′ or more from it. The average ratio over the central condensation is fully consistent with the ratio determined from the single dish spectra taken toward the central position (Fig. 8). Since we expect the central condensation to dominate the single dish flux in the central 33′′, this result confirms our prior conclusion that there is no missing flux in the interferometry maps.

The even more drastic variation of $`_{12/13}`$ in the bar is evident from both Table 3 and Fig. 9. The latter presents another easy way of visualizing the changing line ratios. It shows cuts in integrated intensities (over a range of 450 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, chosen to include all 12CO emission) along the bar minor axis at a number of offsets. Here, we focus on the southern 13CO extension. As the 13CO emission shifts eastward from 12CO when we move south along the bar, the line ratios change from values around 25 in the central condensation to $`40`$ (integrated intensity) at the 12CO maximum along the bar. The ratios calculated using the peak flux and the velocity range of the 13CO emission are often smaller than the $`_{12/13}`$ referring to the velocity range of the 12CO line since in many places the 13CO lines are narrower than the 12CO lines. At the declination of the maximum of the southern 13CO distribution, $`_{12/13}`$ drops from 73$`\pm `$37 to 3.5$`\pm `$0.6 (integrated) or 24$`\pm `$10 to 3.5$`\pm `$1.4 (peak) within $`5^{\prime \prime }`$! Interestingly, in this position, off the 12CO peak, the widths of the two transitions are identical. These values of $`_{12/13}`$ are put into perspective by noting that $`_{12/13}`$ of 6 – 7 is typical for global ratios in galactic spiral arms (Polk et al. polk+ (1988)), which might already include the contribution of some diffuse gas, while Galactic GMCs typically show $`_{12/13}`$ values of 3–5. An $`_{12/13}`$ exceeding 30 is only seen in a few luminous mergers (Casoli et al. cas+ (1992), Aalto et al. aal2+ (1991)).

The central gas surface density of NGC 7479 ($`2000M_{}`$ pc-2, using the ‘standard’ CO to N(H2) conversion factor for comparison purposes only, see discussion below) is high enough to place the nuclear region in the range of IR-bright starburst galaxies (Scoville scoville (1991)), even though ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) can have core gas surface densities up to an order of magnitude higher (e.g. Bryant & Scoville brysco (1999), who obtained exceeding 20000 $`M_{}`$ pc-2 for NGC 2623, Mrk 231 and NGC 6240, assuming a standard conversion factor). However, the gas surface density in the bar of NGC 7479, where the most extreme values of $`_{12/13}`$ are reached, is far smaller than in luminous starbursts, pointing to a different dominant mechanism accounting for the high value of $`_{12/13}`$.

The large changes of $`_{12/13}`$ have to indicate a very significant change in the properties of the emitting gas, scenarios for which will be discussed below

HCN $`10`$ emission is detected only in the nucleus, with a 12CO/HCN line ratio $`20`$.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Gas Masses Based on CO Isotopomers

The total flux in our map would correspond to an H2 mass of $`410^9`$M if the ‘standard’ CO to N(H2) conversion factor (SCF = $`X_{\mathrm{CO}}=2.310^{20}`$ cm-2 (K $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$)-1, Strong et al. str+ (1988)) were applicable, which is, however, not the case (see discussion below). Instead of giving more masses based on the standard conversion factor, which are unlikely to be very meaningful, we compare the ‘standard’ mass derived from 12CO to masses from 13CO obtained with the simple LTE assumptions of optically thin emission and a kinetic gas temperature of 20 K. Globally, i.e. avaraged over the entire map, the 13CO-derived mass is a factor of 16 – 27 (for 12CO/13CO abundance ratios between 30 and 50) lower than the SCF mass. If the upper limit for the 13CO total flux (see below) is taken, the discrepancy decreases to 8 – 13, still remaining very substantial. A mass discrepancy of $`10`$ is also derived for the central condensation. In 12CO peaks along the bar, the disagreement between the SCF and the 13CO LTE mass reaches values exceeding 30, while in the 13CO maximum in the southern bar, it comes down to $`2`$. Of course, these varying mass discrepancies simply reflect the changing line intensity ratios discussed above.

The SCF mass still exceeds the 13CO LTE mass by a factor 2 – 10 if the kinetic gas temperature is raised from 20 K to 100 K for the 13CO - based estimate. Only in the 13CO peak in the bar south of the central condensation the SCF mass drops to about half the 13CO LTE mass under these conditions, which are, of course, not realistic for a 13CO condensation, presumably consisting of dense gas. However, it seems that the SCF might be correct in this (and only in this) location, which has almost exactly the 12CO/13CO line ratio found in Galactic GMCs. This can be considered as a way to confirm the SCF for a normal spiral environment.

Of course, assuming LTE conditions when deriving $`N`$(H2) from 13CO could underestimate the true $`N`$(H2) when non-LTE conditions apply. Padoan et al. (pad+ (2000)) find a discrepancy of a factor 1.3 – 7 between ‘LTE masses’ and ‘true’ masses in their cloud models. This discrepancy is smaller than the difference between the 13CO LTE masses and the SCF masses we find both for the gas in the center and, even more pronounced, for the gas in 12CO peaks along the bar away from center. Still, the 13CO masses derived for LTE should be considered as a lower limit to the real mass, while the SCF masses are upper limits.

Simple non-LTE radiative transfer calculations (using the Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) assumption) reproduce the results of Padoan et al. to within roughly a factor of two and can thus serve as a guide to possible scenarios. These calculations show that the 12CO-to-H2 conversion factor can be brought down significantly (by a factor of $`6`$) in low density gas ($`n(\mathrm{H}_2)\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}100`$ cm-3). Then, high 12CO/13CO 1 $``$ 0 line intensity ratios of $`2030`$ are predicted. Thus, this scenario points to the presence of ‘diffuse’ gas, discussed in detail in the next section.

When the density is reduced even further, in the LVG models the 12CO-to-H2 conversion factor rises again. The SCF can be recovered for a H2 density of $`10`$ cm-3, while $`_{12/13}`$ remains high. We consider these extremely low densities required for the bulk of the gas unlikely for the following reasons: To reach a column density that is sufficient to ensure shielding of the molecules against UV radiation and to be consistent with the observed brightness of the lines, even for an extreme and very unlikely beam filling factor of unity, the models require an unrealistically low velocity dispersion for a given pathlength ($`0.05`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ pc-1). This is in contradiction to the expectation that diffuse gas should be characterized by a large velocity dispersion (see below). Another argument against extremely low density gas is the expected very low 12CO(2$``$1)/(1$``$0) line intensity ratio ($`<0.3`$), in contradiction to single-dish (Sempere et al. sempere+ (1995)) and recent interferometric observations of 12CO(2$``$1) (Baker baker (2000)).

### 4.2 Physical Conditions – Diffuse Molecular Gas

In this section, we present simple scenarios that might explain the variations in $`_{12/13}`$. The key component of these scenarios is the presence of a diffuse or ‘intercloud’ molecular medium (ICM). This medium consists of low density ($`n\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}10^3`$ cm-3), gravitationally unbound, molecular gas. For a given column density, $`N`$, the 13CO 1 $``$ 0 line emission from gravitationally unbound gas will be weaker than that from self-gravitating clouds, because the velocity dispersion, $`\delta v`$, is higher for unbound material and thus $`N/\delta v`$ is lower for the unbound gas. A low $`N/\delta v`$ results in a low optical depth and, in low-density gas, also results in a low excitation temperature of the transition because of reduced radiative trapping. Hence, the ICM will be difficult to detect in the 13CO $`10`$ line. One may see the ICM as somewhat analogous to high latitude molecular clouds detected in the disk of our Galaxy. These are also low density structures which, unlike most of the disk molecular clouds, are not in virial equilibrium.

While, under these conditions, 13CO is optically thin and subthermal, 12CO reaches a moderate optical depth close to unity. Thus, 12CO still radiates efficiently (and is self-shielding) while the 13CO intensity falls off. This moderate optical depth of the 12CO $`10`$ line is the main reason why the ‘standard’ $`X_{\mathrm{CO}}`$ conversion factor cannot be applied to regions where a significant amount of diffuse gas is found: the gas is neither optically thick nor virialized and the ‘standard’ $`X_{\mathrm{CO}}`$ overestimates the molecular gas mass by up to an order of magnitude. This situation is encountered, e.g., in our Galactic center (Dahmen et al. dah+ (1998)).

#### 4.2.1 The Bar – Outside the Central 10′′ Diameter

The large variations in $`_{12/13}`$ along the bar, with values ranging from 5 to $`>40`$ (and even 73 in one extreme case) is best explained by the presence of a large amount of diffuse (thin, warm, unbound) ICM gas which dominates the 12CO 1$``$0 emission and is very distinctly different from the dense molecular clouds preferentially detected by 13CO. In the southern part of the bar, where 13CO is detected, the difference in linewidth is most dramatic close to the 12CO maxima. Here, the 12CO lines have a width of $`200`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, compared to $`50`$$`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for 13CO. This explains the significant difference in $`_{12/13}`$ depending on whether integrated or peak intensities are used (Table 3). The large linewidths of the 12CO spectra suggest large velocity dispersions at the 12CO maxima along the bar. This provides a strong argument in favour of a diffuse medium contrary to \[12CO\]/\[13CO\] abundance variations. While in a ‘standard’ 12CO emitting ISM, i.e. a medium where low $`J`$ 12CO lines are optically thick, the \[12CO\]/\[13CO\] abundance ratio is not traced by changes in $`_{12/13}`$, a change in the 13CO abundance itself could contribute to changes in $`_{12/13}`$. However, if such a variation reflects changes in \[12C\]/\[13C\] with galactocentric radius, it should not exceed a factor of two (Wilson & Matteucci wima (1992), Langer & Penzias lape (1990)). Even a gradient this small and insufficient to explain the observed changes in $`_{12/13}`$ is almost impossible to maintain in the bar due to efficient mixing (see e.g. Friedli et al. frie+ (1994) for model calculations, Martin & Roy marroy (1994) and Zaritsky et al. zar+ (1994) for empirical studies). Thus, we consider diffuse gas to provide the only viable explanation for the large variations in $`_{12/13}`$ we find along the bar of NGC 7479.

Of course, 13CO may be selectively photodissociated in the diffuse medium and thus really be underabundant, since it is not self-shielding. However, the efficiency of this mechanism also relies on the diffuse nature of the gas.

According to the single dish map of Sempere et al. (sempere+ (1995)), the 12CO(2$``$1)/(1$``$0) ratio along the bar is $`0.6`$. This is, of course, a global value which is likely to vary at higher resolution. It is compatible with cold gas at moderate density ($`10^310^4`$ cm-3) or warm, thin gas (density a few 100 cm-3). Given the evidence discussed aboved, we obviously favour the latter explanation for this line ratio.

The fact that the 13CO intensity maximum is clearly offset along the bar minor axis from the 12CO maximum in the southern bar indicates that 13CO traces a largely different component. The relation of the two tracers to dust, shocks and star formation will be discussed further in Section 4.3.

#### 4.2.2 The Inner Region – Inside the Central 10′′

At first glance, the situation in the center of NGC 7479 might be taken to argue against the ICM scenario outlined above, since the HCN is coincident with the 12CO maximum and offset from 13CO. A situation like this was sometimes seen as suggesting abundance changes for the CO isotopomers (e.g. Casoli et al. cas+ (1992)), since HCN requires high gas densities of at least $`10^4`$ cm-3 to be significantly excited and may be identified with the region where most of the mass resides. In a turbulent environment like the nuclear region of NGC 7479, we consider the alternative explanation of a kinetic temperature gradient between the 13CO and HCN peaks to be more likely. For the high gas densities we expect in the central region (i.e. $`n`$(H$`{}_{2}{}^{})>10^4`$ cm-3), the higher kinetic temperature would occur at the HCN peak rather than the 13CO peak because the brightness of the 13CO 1$``$0 line is a decreasing function of kinetic temperature (for temperatures above 8 K in the LTE, optically thin limit).

The HCN molecule has a high dipole moment and is thus much more sensitive to density variations than 12CO and 13CO. Thus the HCN peak is not expected to coincide with the 13CO peak if the latter is at lower densities than the HCN 1$``$0 critical density. This is true even if the HCN 1$``$0 transition is optically thin, due to the spreading of the molecules over many rotational levels that occurs at high densities (i.e. $`10^6`$ cm-3 for HCN) because of the high collision rates at these densities.

We can give an order-of-magnitude estimate of the gas density that is likely to occur at the HCN peak: Having the bulk of the gas in the central beam at densities of $`10^6`$ cm-3 requires a very low volume filling factor of $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}10^4`$, which seems unlikely in the center of a galaxy undergoing a mild starburst. Also, very high densities suggest a velocity dispersion per pathlength that is too high to be realistic (several 100 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ pc-1). If, on the other hand, the density was low enough for HCN to be subthermally excited, the HCN 1$``$0 line would be optically thick, because the molecules would pile up in the $`J=0`$ level. However, in this case (at peak densities of $`10^4`$ cm-3) we would expect the emission to be more widespread. Low densities close to $`10^3`$ cm-3 lead to very subthermal conditions and very weak HCN 1$``$0 emission. Thus, we consider $`10^5`$ cm-3 to be a reasonable density at the HCN peak.

In summary, since the HCN distribution is confined closely to the 12CO peak, we expect this region to also be a peak in density (but not necessarily in column density), in addition to being a peak in $`T_{\mathrm{kin}}`$. In contrast, the 13CO 1$``$0 emission will preferentially trace cool and/or lower density gas.

A kinetic temperature gradient was also used to explain the different spatial extents of the 13CO(3$``$2) and HCN emission in NGC 253 (Wall et al. ww91 (1991)). The kinetic temperature gradient in NGC 7479 leads to the prediction that the 13CO(2$``$1)/(1$``$0) ratio should be higher in the HCN peak than in the 13CO peak, as is seen in the nucleus of IC 694 in the Arp 299 merger (Aalto et al. 1997b ). It also means that the nuclear 12CO(2$``$1)/12CO(1$``$0) ratio is expected to be high, at least close to unity; this seems to be the case (Baker baker (2000)). 13CO 2$``$1 observations will be crucial to further investigate the gas properties in the central 1.5 kpc of NGC 7479 and make comparisons to luminous mergers, where Casoli et al. (cas+ (1992)) and Taniguchi et al. (tani+ (1999)), based on data by Aalto et al. aalto+ (1995) and Casoli et al., have argued that 13CO 2$``$1 is also relatively faint and thus 13CO may be depressed, at least in some cases.

We note, however, 13CO 1$``$0 is not as faint at the 12CO maximum as under the extreme conditions of mergers: Fig. 5 shows the line to be as strong as HCN – it just peaks in a different position. The central 12CO/HCN line ratio of $`20`$ is on the high side if compared to the range found in the central region of a number of galaxies, where 10 is more typical; however the scatter is very large even among barred starburst spirals (Contini et al. con+ (1997)). Still, a value of 20 may be an indication that the amount of warm dense gas in the nuclear region of NGC 7479 is only moderate and confined to a small region.

Diffuse gas is likely to be also important even in the central condensation of NGC 7479. This is indicated by the high values $`_{12/13}`$ reaches away from the curved ‘13CO- ridge’ in the central condensation. In these areas, the 13CO lines are much narrower than the 12CO transitions (150 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ – 300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for 12CO versus 50 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ – 80 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for 13CO). These differences in line shape are also obvious from the global single dish spectra (Fig. 8).

Diffuse molecular gas has been detected in the centers of a large number of barred and starburst galaxies such as IC 342 (Downes et al. dow+ (1992)) or NGC 1808 (Aalto et al. aal94 (1994)) and, of course, in the bar region of the Milky Way (Dahmen et al. dah+ (1998)). It has also been detected in the center of the elliptical galaxy NGC 759 (Wiklind et al. wik+ (1997)) where a low line ratio of 0.4 is indicative of a two component medium made up of dense, cold clumps embedded in a warm, diffuse molecular medium. A scenario where 12CO and 13CO emission arises from separate components was suggested for IC 342 as early as 1990 by Wall & Jaffe. The idea that diffuse gas characterized by 12CO emission of moderate optical depth is important even in regions of extreme star formation, usually associated with large amounts of dense molecular gas, has recently gained credibility even for ultraluminous infrared galaxies (Aalto et al. aalto+ (1995), Downes & Solomon dowsol (1998)).

It is interesting to note that the 13CO ridge in the central condensation is precisely aligned with the steepest velocity gradient (derived from 12CO, Fig. 10).

### 4.3 Production of an ICM by tidal disruption and cloud collisions

Cloud disruption due to the tidal field along a bar is one mechanism that could produce a diffuse ICM, especially close to the central condensation. Another possible source of the ICM are off-center cloud collisions.

(i) Cloud evaporation due to the tidal field : As a bound cloud moves in a bar potential or elliptical orbit, the tidal field across it will vary in time. This produces both internal heating of the cloud and clump evaporation from the outer regions of the cloud (Das & Jog dasjog (1995)). The evaporated cloud mass will become part of the low density, molecular ICM, raising $`_{12/13}`$.

To get a lower estimate of how the tidal field changes over the bar, we first determined the potential of the galaxy from the deprojected K image data (Combes, private communication). The potential was azimuthally averaged to determine $`\mathrm{\Phi }(r)`$, which was fitted with a polynomial function that was used to derive a rotation curve for the galaxy. The mass to luminosity ratio $`(M/L)`$ was chosen so as to obtain the best fit of the derived rotation curve to that observed. We then used this azimuthally averaged potential to calculate the tidal field over the galaxy. Though this does not give the exact variation of the tidal field across a cloud in the bar potential, it will give a first appoximation as to how the tidal field varies. In Fig 11 we have plotted the tidal field per unit mass, across unit length, $`t_f`$ = $`(F/r)(\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{pc}^1)^2`$ against radial distance $`r`$ in kpc.

With a projected bar length of approximately 10.4 kpc and width 1.6 kpc (Fig. 1), an inclination angle of 41 and a position angle 25 for the bar (Sempere at al. sempere+ (1995)), the deprojected bar length is about 11 kpc and its width is about 2 kpc (Arnaboldi et al. arna+ (1995)). So at the semimajor axis distance of r=5.5 kpc, $`t_f=0.810^3(\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{pc}^1)^2`$ and at the semiminor axis distance of $`r=1`$ kpc, $`t_f=5.510^3(\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{pc}^1)^2`$. Thus, the tidal field changes from being disruptive at the bar ends to compressive close to the bar center. This considerable change in tidal field, which is steepest in the central region, may produce significant cloud evaporation, thus leading to large amounts of diffuse gas.

(ii) Cloud Collisions: Hydrodynamic simulations have shown that off-center cloud collisions lead to gas being sheared off the colliding clouds, forming trailing extensions in the interstellar medium; the gas then dissipates into the ISM (Hausman haus (1981)). This gas may form part of the diffuse ICM. In bars, the crowding of closed $`x_1`$ orbits at the bar ends enhances the cloud collision frequency signigicantly and also produces shocked gas. Collisions also cause the clouds to lose angular momentum and sink inwards leading to the central buildup of gas. This increased concentration of gas in the centers of starburst galaxies and barred galaxies means the rate of formation of diffuse gas in these galaxies will also be high. NGC 7479 has a strong bar and may have undergone a recent minor merger (Laine & Heller laihel (1999)). Thus, the cloud collision rate should be high and there should be a considerable amount of diffuse gas in the central $`1.5`$ kpc.

Distinguishing between the two mechanisms observationally is not easy. The diffuse gas produced by cloud collisions may often be accompanied by shocked, dense gas. Tidally evaporated gas will not have this association. However, diffuse gas is expected to spread over the bar more quickly than dense gas, which will make it difficult to determine its origin. Still, in the future sensitive, high resolution observations of a shock tracer like SiO may be useful to decide this question.

### 4.4 The Relation between Tracers of Shocks and Star Formation

The S-shaped, complex velocity field of the gas in the bar of NGC 7479 (see Fig. 10) has been convincingly explained by e.g. Laine et al. (laine+ (1999)) as the result of gas streaming motions in a strong bar potential. They further argue that H$`\alpha `$, dust lanes, a large velocity gradient and strong 12CO emission more or less coincide. These are all taken to trace, in some sense, shocks, gas compression and star formation.

Including 13CO and the varying line ratios, indicative of at least two different components of molecular gas, (and seeing all the 12CO) leads to a more complex picture. In Fig. 12, we overlay the 12CO (right) and 13CO (left) intensity distributions on an HST red image retrieved from the archive. In the north, where no 13CO is detected outside the central region, 12CO follows the strong dust lane almost perfectly. In the south, the visual dust lane is weaker or more diffuse and the correlation with the 12CO distribution is much less evident. However, the southern 13CO peak coincides with a (faint) peak in a dust lane. South of the center, $`_{12/13}`$ grows when we move upstream (west) across the bar (assuming that the spiral arms are trailing). In other words, the 13CO concentration is located downstream from the 12CO maximum, and possibly also downstream from the peak of the shock, if we identify the 12CO maximum with the shockfront. This may be justified by the close coincidence of the 12CO maximum with the optical dust lane in the north and also by the excellent agreement Laine et al. (laine+ (1999)) find between 12CO peaks (both in the north and in the south) and the maxima in a $`JK`$ NIR color map that is an even better indicator of dust than an optical image.

In the central concentration, the course of the dust lanes is not clear. However, here it is the 13CO that very clearly follows the steepest velocity gradient (Fig. 10b), while 12CO is distributed fairly independently of the velocity gradient. 12CO-emitting gas at a velocity between 2280 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and 2340 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ traces the velocity gradient somewhat more closely than gas at other velocities (Fig. 10c), but even in this restricted velocity range the 12CO emission does not follow the velocity field as clearly as the 13CO emission does. A number of spectra from the central 15′′ have their emission peak close to 2300 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, and a narrow emission component may be associated with this peak (faintly visible in Fig. 4).

The velocity field based on 13CO is displayed in Fig. 10d). It is even more dramatically S-shaped than the 12CO velocity field. We further note that the 12CO velocity field determined by Laine et al. closely resembles our 13CO velocity field, and that their 12CO distribution in the central 15′′ appears more bent than ours.

This evidence leads us to the following scenario: The 13CO emission and a part of the 12CO emission, especially at mid-velocities, traces dense or at least high column density gas that follows the velocity field and is compressed in the region with the steepest velocity gradient. We suspect that this region coincides with the central dust lane, which is, however, not clearly visible in the HST image. In terms of 12CO emissivity, this gas component is not dominant enough to clearly reduce $`_{12/13}`$. Also, the dust lane may be fairly narrow and unresolved in our data. Thus, this component is seen most clearly in the 13CO data, but Laine et al. also trace it in 12CO since they are not sensitive to much of the extended emsission. The 12CO and 13CO distributions in our maps deviate because the 12CO emission, especially but not exclusively at non-central velocities, is due to diffuse gas that is far less confined to the shock region in the central $`10^{\prime \prime }15^{\prime \prime }`$ ($`2kpc)`$. The dramatic S-shape in the 13CO velocity field (Fig. 10d) indicates that the strong inner bar of NGC 7479 is the feature dominating the kinematics of the denser gas in this central region. As discussed earlier (Fig. 2), a rotating disk or gas on $`x_2`$-orbits, perpendicular to the main bar axis, is interacting with the bar on the scale of a few hundred pc at the very center.

It is conceivable that the diffuse gas rises to higher altitudes above the plane of the galaxy than the dense gas, which may be less turbulent and more strongly dominated by the bar potential, which is defined by the stellar potential, since most of the dynamical mass is almost certain to be in the form of stars.

Outside the central 2 kpc, the relation between the various tracers changes: both the detached northern and the southern 13CO peaks are found close to, but not coincident with, regions of steep velocity gradients (Fig. 10). The dust lane (and presumably the region of the strongest shock) is now traced well by the 12CO emission. Possibly, the larger overall amount of gas in the central 2 kpc allows a diffuse component to spread throughout this region, while in the outer bar the gas associated with the shock remains diffuse.

It seems possible that the 13CO peaks in the outer bar indicate conditions that are more quiescent and favourable to the formation of bound clouds and ultimately star formation activity. The low value of $`_{12/13}`$ in these complexes suggests that their properties are similar to GMCs in the spiral arms of normal galaxies. The cuts presented by Sempere et al. (sempere+ (1995)) indicate that the H$`\alpha `$ emission peaks along with the 13CO in the southern condensation, i.e. is offset from the 12CO and main dust lane in this area. If the H$`\alpha `$ traces star formation, this shift away from a region that seems to be totally dominated by diffuse gas may reflect that star formation occurs wherever the gas density is high enough, while the proximity to the shock front may play a secondary role. The fact that the 13CO condensations are close to (offset $`1^{\prime \prime }2^{\prime \prime }`$) strong (12CO) velocity gradients need not be a contradiction to quiescent conditions. The peaks of the condensations are downstream of the strongest gradient by several hundred pc. In addition, the interiors of the condensations could be quiescent while the condensations themselves are following a strong overall large-scale flow. This question, however, requires further study on smaller spatial scales.

Offsets between molecular gas concentrations and dust lanes have recently been reported by Rand et al. (rand+ (1999)) for a part of a spiral arm in M 83. They used 12CO as a tracer, but see only 2% – 5% of the single dish flux in their interferometer map. Thus, they probably filter out the diffuse component, so their 12CO data might trace a dense, clumpy component similar to what we see in 13CO.

## 5 Conclusions

We have mapped the barred spiral galaxy interferometrically in the $`J=10`$ transitions of 12CO, 13CO and HCN. Our main results are as follows:

1. The 12CO map shows a continuous gas distribution all allong the bar. Comparison to single dish observation shows that the interferometer does not miss a significant amount of flux. The velocity field derived from the 12CO map is complex, showing the S-shaped isovelocity contours typical of noncircular gas orbits in a strong bar.
2. A high velocity feature is identified close to the center. This may be a ring associated with an Inner Lindblad resonance, a tilted rotating disk fed directly by mass infall along the bar or even an inner bar decoupled from the main bar.
3. 13CO emission is detected in the central condensation, the southern part of the bar and a single location in the northern part of the bar. HCN emission is only detected from the center. The 13CO central emission is offset by $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ from the 12CO and HCN intensity maxima, which are coincident. Along the bar, the most prominent peak of southern 13CO condensation is also clearly offset from the 12CO distribution.
4. The 12CO/13CO line intensity ratio, $`_{12/13}`$, varies dramatically. Globally (9 kpc $`\times `$ 2.5 kpc), $`_{12/13}`$ is 20 – 40, a high value compared to typical ratios found in the disk component of galaxies or even central regions of normal galaxies. This indicates a prominent contribution of diffuse, unbound molecular gas with a moderate optical depth in the 12CO(1$``$0) transition in both the bar and the center of NGC 7479.
5. On smaller sizescales of $`750`$ pc, $`_{12/13}`$ exceeds 30 in large parts of the bar, reaching values usually found in starburst mergers. Since values as low as 5 are also found in the bar, close to the 13CO condensation, and since a bar environment is very well mixed, we discard an underabundance of the 13C isotope as a possible explanation of the very high $`_{12/13}`$ found in many places. Instead, this is explained by a dominant component of diffuse gas, readily produced by either tidal disruption or cloud collisions in the bar potential. The large variation in $`_{12/13}`$ is reflected by large changes of likely values of the conversion factor from 12CO intensity ro H2 column density. In the central 1.5 kpc, the Galactic ‘standard’ conversion factor (SCF) overestimates the gas mass by a factor of up to 10; in 12CO peaks along the bar the discrepancy is even larger. Only in a 13CO complex in the bar we find the SCF to be correct.
6. The offset in the central HCN (and 12CO) peak from the 13CO peak can be attributed to a gradient in kinetic temperature in which the highest gas kinetic temperature is at the position of the HCN peak. This leads to the prediction that the 13CO(2$``$1)/(1$``$0) intensity ratio should be higher at the HCN peak than at the 13CO peak.
7. The region along the bar where $`_{12/13}`$ is small might be an area where the conditions are more quiescent, which is also indicated by the narrowness of the lines, both in 12CO and 13CO, found here. If the 12CO ridge along the bar, which coincides closely with the dust lanes, is taken to be the location of the bar shock, the 13CO condensation is behind or downstream this shock, possibly in a region where the disrupted (but also compressed) gas emerging from the shock can form bound molecular complexes. However, the region where the velocity gradient is steepest along the bar does not coincide exactly with either the 12CO or the 13CO distribution. In the center, 13CO traces the steepest velocity gradient much more closely than 12CO. Thus, the relation between the molecular tracers and the shock is complex.

###### Acknowledgements.

The OVRO mm-array is supported in part by NSF grant AST 9314079 and the K.T. and E.L. Norris Foundation.


text:
# Theory of plastic vortex creep

## Abstract

We develop a theory for plastic flux creep in a topologically disordered vortex solid phase in type-II superconductors. We propose a detailed description of the plastic vortex creep of the dislocated, amorphous vortex glass in terms of motion of dislocations  driven by a transport current $`j`$. The plastic barriers $`U_{pl}(j)j^\mu `$ show power-law divergence at small drives with exponents $`\mu =1`$ for single dislocation creep and $`\mu =2/5`$ for creep of dislocation bundles. The suppression of the creep rate is a hallmark of the transition from the topologically ordered vortex lattice to an amorphous vortex glass, reflecting a jump in $`\mu `$ from $`\mu =2/11`$, characterizing creep in the topologically ordered vortex lattice near the transition, to its plastic values. The lower creep rates explain the observed increase in apparent critical currents in the dislocated vortex glass.

One of the most fascinating dynamic phenomena of complex systems with internal degrees of freedom is the thermally activated motion of elastic media in a random environment (creep) characterized by a highly nonlinear response to a dc driving force, $`F`$: $`v\mathrm{exp}(\text{const}/TF^\mu )`$, where $`v`$ is the velocity, $`T`$ is the temperature, and $`\mu `$ is the exponent depending on the geometry and the dimensionality of the driven medium. The concept of thermally activated creep, which was originally introduced to describe the driven motion of elastic manifolds through quenched disorder in the context of the dynamics of dislocation and/or domain walls in inhomogeneous environments, was extended later to driven vortex lattices , and has eventually become a paradigm for the thermally activated dynamics of disordered media. The concept of creep proved to be especially successful in describing a wealth of the low temperature transport and relaxational properties of the vortex state of high temperature superconductors. Recent observations on 2D magnets confirmed that domain walls also exhibit creep behavior. Creep dynamics results from the scaling of energy barriers $`U(j)j^\mu `$ which control thermally activated motion. The derivation of such energy barriers diverging at small currents (driving forces) was based on the elastic behavior of the pinned structures; thus in the common view creep behavior is implicitly attributed to the elastic medium free of topological defects.

The description of thermally activated dynamics of amorphous structures containing a large amount of topological defects remains a major challenge. This is a long standing problem in the theory of work hardening and related relaxation processes in dislocated solids. In the context of vortex physics the quest for the description of thermally activated dynamics of a topologically disordered medium was motivated by the observation of the disorder-induced transition between a low-field quasilattice or Bragg glass (BrG) , the phase free of topological defects, and a high-field phase characterized by an enhanced apparent critical current . The latter phase was suggested to be a topologically disordered vortex state. It was shown that the low-field BrG phase is indeed stable against dislocation formation . At high magnetic fields the vortex solid undergoes a structural transition which is described  as a topological transition between the BrG and a dislocated, amorphous VG (AVG) . In a recent series of experiments  the phase coexistence characteristic for a first-order transition was established, and creep barriers in the high-field vortex state were shown to diverge faster than creep barriers in the low-field elastic phase.

These recent experimental findings call urgently for a theoretical description of the AVG, and the main theoretical problem is to find an appropriate quantity enabling parameterization of the amorphous phase. A first step towards such a quantitative description was made in Ref. where all phase transitions between vortex lattice phases were described in terms of dislocation-mediated behavior, and a free energy functional $`[n_D]`$ for an ensemble of directed dislocations in the presence of thermal fluctuations and quenched disorder was derived ($`n_D`$ is the areal dislocation density). The BrG-AVG transition was found to be of weak first order in accordance with the experimental results of Ref. : at the BrG-AVG transition dislocations enter with a density $`n_DR_a^2`$ given by the positional correlation length $`R_a`$ on which typical vortex displacements are of the order of the lattice spacing $`a`$ . Upon increasing the magnetic field up to the critical point the dislocation density of the AVG increases to vortex-liquid-like values $`n_Da^2`$ such that the AVG and vortex liquid phases become thermodynamically indistinguishable at the critical point.

In this Letter, building on the aforementioned ideas, we propose a quantitative description of plastic creep in terms of the dislocation degrees of freedom. We establish and find a critical plastic current $`j_{pl}`$ below which dislocations are collectively pinned and plastic creep occurs via the activated motion of collectively pinned dislocation lines. The critical plastic current is lower than the critical current for vortex depinning $`j_{pl}<j_c`$, hence plastic motion of depinned dislocations sets in before viscous flow of the entire vortex lattice can occur. We calculate the associated plastic plastic creep energy barriers $`U_{pl}(j)j^{\mu _{pl}}`$ diverging infinitely at $`j0`$. We treat dislocations in the pinned vortex lattice as directed elastic strings subject to a pinning force which we derive from the Peach-Köhler force exerted on vortices by the pinning centers. We show that an external current sent through a dislocated vortex lattice generates a Peach-Köhler force with a driving component for dislocation glide. Knowledge of the pinning and driving forces on the elastic dislocation string enables us finally to study the glassy dynamics of the dislocation, in particular the depinning threshold for dislocation glide and the energy barriers for plastic creep below the depinning threshold.

The energy of a single straight dislocation of length $`L`$ and with Burger’s vector $`𝐛`$ in the FLL consists of the core energy and of the logarithmically diverging contribution from the long-range elastic strains : $`E_0=LE_D(c_D+\mathrm{ln}\left(L_{}/a\right))`$, where $`L_{}`$ is the lateral system size, $`E_D=Kb^2/4\pi `$, $`K=\sqrt{c_{44}c_{66}}`$ is the isotropized elastic constant in the rescaled coordinate $`z=\stackrel{~}{z}\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{c_{44}/c_{66}}`$, and $`c_D1`$ is found numerically ($`c_{44}`$ and $`c_{66}`$ are the tilt and shear moduli of the vortex lattice, respectively). Bending of the dislocation line costs an elastic energy associated with its stiffness $`ϵ_D`$. Hence, the single directed dislocation line – parameterized by its displacement field $`𝐮_D(z)`$ – is described by the Hamiltonian

$$_D[𝐮_D]=E_0+𝑑z\frac{1}{2}ϵ_D(_z𝐮_D)^2$$
(1)
where the stiffness $`ϵ_DE_D\mathrm{ln}\left(1/k_za\right)`$ has a logarithmic dispersion due to the long-range strain field.

Let us now consider the driving force on an edge dislocation with $`b||x`$ if a transport current $`j||y`$ is sent through the sample. Due to Maxwell’s equation $`\times B=\frac{4\pi }{c}𝐣`$ the driving current creates a magnetization gradient which, in turn, gives rise to shear strains in the vortex lattice: $`_xu_y=_xa=a\frac{2\pi }{c}\frac{j}{B}`$. Resulting shear stresses give rise to a glide-component of the driving Peach-Köhler force

$$F_x^{drive}=\sigma _{yx}b=bKa\frac{2\pi }{c}\frac{j}{B}$$
(2)
per length (compression stress can only give rise to dislocation climb which can be neglected as slow process requiring diffusion of interstitials ).

The displacements induced by the magnetization gradient can only be accommodated by the creation of a stationary superstructure of regularly spaced dislocation bands with Burger’s vectors with an $`y`$-component in which our single “test”-dislocation is moving. The superstructure is similar to the grain boundaries formed in an bent atomic crystal. Because such dislocation bands are essentially free of shear stresses our test-dislocation experiences the purely elastic driving force (2) everywhere in between the bands such that the presence of the superstructure does not affect the glide motion.

In the presence of a random pinning potential $`V_{pin}(𝐫)`$ in the vortex array also the dislocation experiences Peach-Köhler-type pinning forces. To calculate these we have to determine the random stress exerted by the pinning potential in a frozen-in elastic displacement configuration $`u_{el}(𝐑,z)`$ of the vortex lattice: $`V_{pin}(𝐑+𝐮_{el},z)=\sigma _{ij}^{pin}(𝐑+𝐮_{el},z)_iu_{el,j}`$. The distribution of the pinning stresses is given by the quenched distribution of the elastic displacements $`u_{el}`$. This distribution is determined by the different spatial scaling regimes of the dislocation-free collectively pinned vortex array: (i) Small distances where vortex displacements $`u`$ are smaller than the coherence length $`\xi `$ and perturbation theory applies . (ii) Intermediate scales where $`\xi ua`$ and disorder potentials seen by different FLs are effectively uncorrelated. This regime is captured in so-called random manifold (RM) models , leading to a roughness $`\stackrel{~}{G}(𝐫)=\overline{(𝐮_{el}(𝐫)𝐮_{el}(0))^2}a^2(r/R_a)^{2\zeta _{RM}}`$ where $`\zeta _{RM}1/5`$ for the $`d=3`$ dimensional RM with two displacement components. The crossover scale to the asymptotic behaviour is the positional correlation length $`R_a`$ where the average displacement is of the order of the FL spacing: $`ua`$. (iii) The asymptotic Bragg glass regime where the $`a`$-periodicity of the FL array becomes important for the coupling to the disorder and the array is effectively subject to a periodic pinning potential with period $`a`$ . Here the logarithmic roughness $`\stackrel{~}{G}(𝐫)(a/\pi )^2\mathrm{ln}\left(er/R_a\right)`$, i.e., $`\zeta _{BrG}=𝒪(\mathrm{log})`$  takes over.

For the physics of dislocations on scales $`>a`$ only the RM and BrG regimes are relevant. We obtain approximately Gaussian distributed quenched stresses with $`\overline{\sigma _{ij}^{pin}}=0`$ and $`\overline{\sigma _{ij}^{pin}(𝐤)\sigma _{ij}^{pin}(𝐤^{})}=\mathrm{\Sigma }^{pin}(k)(2\pi )^3\delta (𝐤+𝐤^{})`$ with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^{pin}(k)=K^2k^2G(k)`$, i.e.,

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }^{pin}(k)=K^2a^2k^1\{\begin{array}{cc}\text{BrG:}\hfill & 1\hfill \\ \text{RM:}\hfill & B_{RM}(kR_a)^{2\zeta _{RM}}\hfill \end{array}$$
(3)
determined by the elastic correlations $`G(k)`$ with a numerical constant $`B_{RM}`$. The RM-result holds for $`kR_a>1`$ the BrG-result for $`kR_a<1`$.

To derive the correct Peach-Köhler pinning force on the dislocation it is crucial not only to consider the “direct” quenched pinning stresses $`\sigma _{ij}(𝐫)`$ but also the elastic stresses $`\sigma _{ij}^{el}`$ themselves which are responding to the same pinning potential and hence tend to relax (longitudinal) components of the stress. A lengthy calculation shows that if both components are properly added the pinning Peach-Köhler force on a dislocation element $`d𝐑`$

$$dF_\alpha ^{pin}=ϵ_{\alpha \beta l}(\sigma _{\beta k}^{pin}+\sigma _{\beta k}^{el})b_kdR_l$$
(4)
is rotation-free $`(\times d𝐅^{pin})_\gamma =0`$ such that its potential – the pinning Hamiltonian – can be defined:

$`_D^{pin}[𝐮_D]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑z\frac{d𝐮_{D,l}}{dz}b_kg_{kl}^{pin}(𝐮_D,z)}`$ (5)
$`\overline{g_{kl}^{pin}(𝐤)g_{k^{}l^{}}^{pin}(𝐤)}`$ $``$ $`k^2\mathrm{\Sigma }^{pin}(k)\delta _{kk^{}}\delta _{ll^{}}=K^2G(k)\delta _{kk^{}}\delta _{ll^{}}`$ (6)
The free energy $`_D[𝐮_D]+_D^{pin}[𝐮_D]𝑑z𝐅^{drive}𝐮_D`$ from (1), (6), and (2) finally provides an adequate description for the study of an ensemble of pinned dislocation lines.

We start with statics and discuss roughening of the dislocation line in the presence of disorder. The typical pinning energy fluctuations upon displacing a dislocation segment $`L`$ over a distance $`u_D`$ (in the $`xz`$ glide plane) can be calculated from (6)

$`E_{pin}^2(L,u_D)`$ $``$ $`b^2K^2Lu_D{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{L}{}}}𝑑z{\displaystyle \underset{0}{\overset{u_D}{}}}𝑑x{\displaystyle \frac{d^3k}{(2\pi )^3}k^2G(k)e^{ik_zz+ik_xx}}`$ (7)
$``$ $`E_D^2Lu_D\{\begin{array}{cc}\text{RM:}\hfill & \left(u_D/R_a\right)^{2\zeta _{RM}}\hfill \\ \text{BrG:}\hfill & 1\hfill \end{array}`$ (10)
whereas the corresponding elastic bending energy of the dislocation is $`E_{el}(L,u_D)\frac{1}{2}E_D\mathrm{ln}(L/a)u_D^2/L`$ (1). Optimization gives a dislocation roughness

$$u_D(L)L\{\begin{array}{cc}\text{RM:}\hfill & \left(L/R_a\right)^{2\zeta _{RM}/(32\zeta _{RM})}𝒪(\mathrm{log})\hfill \\ \text{BrG:}\hfill & \mathrm{ln}^{2/3}(L/a)\hfill \end{array}$$
(11)
i.e., exponents $`\zeta _D\frac{15}{13}`$ for RM scaling ($`L<R_a`$) and $`\zeta _D1log^{2/3}`$ for BrG scaling. An instability with respect to dislocation proliferation is signaled by anomalous energy gains if $`\zeta _D>1`$, i.e., in the RM-regime. In the BrG-regime the energy balance is more subtle and to conclude $`\zeta _D<1`$ or stability one can convert the result (11) into an approximate renormalization (RG) scheme: the energy gain due to roughening is $`\mathrm{\Delta }EE_DL\mathrm{ln}^{1/3}(L/a)E_DL\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D(L)^{1/3}`$, where the logarithmic correction is identical to the dimensionless line tension $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D=ϵ_D/E_D`$ on the scale $`L`$. Interpreting $`\mathrm{\Delta }E/(E_DL)`$ as disorder correction to the line tension $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D(L)`$ on the scale $`L`$ and summing these corrections successively on each scale, together with the bare tension $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D^0(L)=\mathrm{ln}(L/a)`$, one obtains an integral RG equation

$$\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D(\mathrm{ln}L)=_0^{\mathrm{ln}L}𝑑\mathrm{}(1\pm \stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D(\mathrm{})^{1/3})$$
(12)
equivalent to the result of Ref. . Integration shows that corrections to $`\stackrel{~}{ϵ}_D^0(L)`$ are irrelevant and hence the stability of the BrG regime with respect to dislocation formation. The detailed stability analysis for both regimes was given in Ref. : the BrG-AVG transition is weakly first-order, and dislocations proliferate with the density $`n_dR_a^2`$ defined by the scale $`R_a`$ of crossover between the unstable RM and the stable BrG regimes.

Now we extend our scaling analysis to the dynamic behaviour of the driven dislocation line in quenched disorder. Minima of the pinning potential are typically distances $`u_Da`$, given by the core size of the dislocation, apart. A dislocation confined within one minimum $`u_Da`$ is collectively pinned on a plastic pinning length

$$L_{pl}a\left(\frac{R_a}{a}\right)^{2\zeta _{RM}/3}<R_a$$
(13)
which is the analogue of the Larkin pinning length $`L_c\xi \delta ^{1/3}`$ of the single vortex where $`\delta `$ is the dimensionless pinning strength of Ref. . To depin the dislocation the driving force (2) has to exceed the pinning force $`F^{pin}(L_{pl})\frac{E_D}{a}L_{pl}\left(a/R_a\right)^{4\zeta _{RM}/3}`$ on a segment of length $`L_{pl}`$. This determines a critical plastic current $`j_{pl}`$

$$j_{pl}\frac{c}{8\pi ^2}\frac{B}{a}\left(\frac{a}{R_a}\right)^{4\zeta _{RM}/3}j_0\left(\frac{2\pi H_{c2}}{B}\right)^{7/4}\delta ^{5/18}$$
(14)
where $`j_0\frac{c}{6\sqrt{3}\pi }H_{c2}/\xi `$ is the depairing current. Comparing this result to the depinning current $`j_cj_0\delta ^{2/3}`$ for a single vortex, one finds $`j_{pl}<j_c`$ for typical disorder strengths $`\delta 10^3`$. This shows that plastic motion of dislocations will set in even if the vortices themselves are still pinned. Thus plastic motion is the dominating transport mechanism in the dislocated AVG phase.

However, the existence of a current $`j_{pl}>0`$ also demonstrates that dislocations can be pinned at low currents and plastic motion for $`jj_{pl}`$ will only occur through activation over diverging plastic energy barriers $`U_{pl}(j)j^{\mu _{pl}}`$ giving rise to plastic creep. The typical segment size $`L(j)`$ for activated motion at $`jj_{pl}`$ is determined by balancing the energy gain by the driving force $`F^{drive}L^{1+\zeta _D}`$ against the pinning energy $`E_{pin}(L,u_D(L))E_DL^{2\zeta _D1}`$ of the rough dislocation line. This yields

$$U_{pl}(j)E_Da\left(\frac{a}{R_a}\right)^{2\zeta _{RM}/3}\left(\frac{j_{pl}}{j}\right)^{(2\zeta _D1)/(2\zeta _D)}$$
(15)
and we obtain the scaling law $`\mu _{pl}=(2\zeta _D1)/(2\zeta _D)`$ (as for single vortex creep) relating the plastic creep exponent $`\mu _{pl}`$ to the dislocation roughness. We find $`\mu _{pl}=\frac{17}{11}`$ in the RM-regime ($`L(j)<R_a`$) and $`\mu _{pl}=1`$ in the BrG-regime ($`L(j)>R_a`$). Both exponents are considerably larger than their counterpart $`\mu =2/11`$ for elastic single vortex creep showing that plastic creep rates are much smaller than elastic creep rates.

So far we focused on a single dislocation. Now we turn to interacting dislocations. On large scales exceeding the dislocation spacing $`R_D`$, which varies from $`R_DR_a`$ at the AVG-BrG transition to $`R_Da`$ at the critical point , interactions become essential and plastic creep is governed by motion of dislocation bundles in a glide plane ($`xz`$-plane). Deformations $`u_D(x,z)`$ of such a 2D bundle can be described by an elastic Hamiltonian with tilt modulus $`K_zE_D/R_D`$ and the compression modulus $`K_xR_D_{R_D}^2(R_D^2f(R_D))`$ which can be calculated from the dislocation free energy $`f(R_D)`$, see Ref.  (in the absence of disorder one finds $`K_xE_D/R_D`$). Including the pinning energies we obtain the Hamiltonian

$`[u_D(x,z)]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑x𝑑z\frac{1}{2}\left\{K_x(_xu_D)^2+K_z(_zu_D)^2\right\}}`$ (17)
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑z_D^{pin}[𝐛_i,𝐮_D(iR_D,z)]}`$
The dislocation bundle contains dislocations of opposite signs with the same density to avoid the accumulation of stress. Hence the sum over the dislocation index $`i`$ in (17) goes over alternating Burger’s vectors $`𝐛_i||x`$. On scales $`L_xR_D`$ dislocations couple effectively as dipoles to disorder and we obtain for the bundle disorder energy fluctuations $`E_{dis}^b(L_z,L_x,u_D)E_{pin}(L_z,u_D)`$ with $`E_{pin}(L_z,u_D)`$ from (10). This has to be balanced against the elastic energy $`E_{el}(L_z,L_x,u_D)\sqrt{K_xK_y}u_D^2`$ with $`L_z\sqrt{K_z/K_x}L_x`$ resulting in a roughness

$$u_D(L_z)L_z^{1/3}R_D^{2/3}\{\begin{array}{cc}\text{RM:}\hfill & \left(\frac{L_z^{1/3}R_D^{2/3}}{R_a}\right)^{\frac{2\zeta _{RM}}{32\zeta _{RM}}}\hfill \\ \text{BrG:}\hfill & 1\hfill \end{array},$$
(18)
i.e., a reduced dislocation bundle roughness $`\zeta _D\frac{5}{13}`$ for RM scaling ($`L<R_a`$) and $`\zeta _D\frac{1}{3}`$ for BrG scaling. It is easy to establish the corresponding plastic creep exponents for bundle creep along the same lines as for the single dislocation, in particular one finds the same scaling relation $`\mu _{pl}=(2\zeta _D+d2)/(2\zeta _D)`$ as for $`d`$-dimensional vortex bundles . This gives $`\mu _{pl}=\frac{10}{21}`$ in the RM-regime and $`\mu _{pl}=\frac{2}{5}`$ in the BrG-regime. The crossover from single dislocation to bundle scaling happens for currents $`j<j^b`$ where $`L(j^b)\sqrt{K_z/K_x}R_D`$. For $`R_Da`$ one finds $`j^bj_{pl}`$, which means that only plastic bundle creep can be measured above the critical point defined by $`R_Da`$. Though we do think that our results apply rather to the YBCO-compound than the strongly layered BSCCO-compound, in Ref.  a creep exponent strikingly close to $`\mu _{pl}=\frac{2}{5}`$ has been measured within the AVG phase.

In the high-field regime above the critical point there is no melting phase transition but a crossover in the resistive behavior due to thermal depinning of dislocations will still be observable. The single pinned dislocation line thermally depins if $`u_D^2_{th}(L_{pl})a^2`$, i.e., when the thermal fluctuations of a segment of the size of the plastic pinning length increase beyond a lattice spacing which leads to considerable smoothing of the pinning potential. This happens at a plastic depinning temperature $`T_{pl}E_Da\left(a/R_a\right)^{2\zeta /3}`$. Using results of Ref., we find $`T_{pl}T_m1.6E_Da`$ at the critical point. this suggests that at the critical point the first-order melting line terminates and transforms into a thermal depinning line $`T_{pl}(B)B^{3/8}`$ describing the dynamic crossover to reduced depinning currents and thermal activation over all plastic barriers $`U_{pl}(j)<T`$.

In conclusion, we have developed a theory of plastic creep in terms of the actual dislocation dynamics in the pinned vortex lattice. We find infinite barriers for plastic vortex transport in agreement with experimentally observed low creep rates or apparently high critical currents. The obtained results are relevant for and are easily extended to other systems where glassy dynamics is controlled by topological defects, for example, charge density waves in disordered crystals and/or work-hardened solids.

We thank A.E. Koshelev for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by Argonne National Laboratory through U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under contract No. W-31-109-ENG-38, and by NSF-STC under Contract No. DMR91-20000 STcS. J.K. acknowledges support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under Grant No. KI 662/1.