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# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

One of the basic predictions of Supersymmetry (SUSY) is the equality between the couplings of SM particles and that of their superpartners. The simplest processes in which this predicition could be tested, is the partial decay widths of sfermions into Standard Model (SM) fermions and charginos/neutralinos:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{f}f^{}\chi ).$$
(1)
By measuring these partial decay widths (or the corresponding branching ratios) one could measure the fermion-sfermion-chargino/neutralino Yukawa couplings and compare them with the SM fermion gauge couplings.

We have computed the full one-loop electroweak corrections to the partial decay widths (1). As we will show, the radiative corrections induce finite shifts in the couplings which are non-decoupling.

The QCD corrections to the process (1) were computed in , and the Yukawa corrections to bottom-squarks decaying into charginos was given in . Here we present the last step, namely, the full electroweak corrections in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Full details of the present work can be found in .

## 2 Renormalization and radiative corrections

The computation to one-loop level of the partial decay width (1) requires the renormalization of the full MSSM Lagrangian, taking into account the relations among the different sectors and the mixing parameters. We choose to work in an on-shell renormalization scheme, in which the renormalized parameters are the measured quantities. The SM sector is renormalized according to the standard on-shell SM $`\alpha `$-scheme , and the MSSM Higgs sector (in particular the renormalization of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$) is treated as in .

As far as the sfermion sector is concerned, we follow the procedure described in . However, in the present analysis we treat simultaneoulsy top-squarks and bottom-squarks. Due to $`SU(2)_L`$ invariance the parameters in these two sectors are not independent, and we can not supply with independent on-shell conditions for both sectors. We choose as input parameters the on-shell masses of both bottom-squarks, the lightest top-squark mass, and the mixing angles in both sectors222Throughout this work we make use of third generation notation. The notation is as in .:

$$(m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_1},m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_2},\theta _b,m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_2},\theta _t),m_{\stackrel{~}{f}_1}>m_{\stackrel{~}{f}_2}.$$
(2)
The remaining parameters are computed as a function of those in (2). In particular, the trilinear soft-SUSY-breaking couplings read:

$$A_{\{b,t\}}=\mu \{\mathrm{tan}\beta ,\mathrm{cot}\beta \}+\frac{m_{\stackrel{~}{f}_1}^2m_{\stackrel{~}{f}_2}^2}{2m_f}\mathrm{sin}2\theta _f,$$
(3)
with $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =v_2/v_1`$, the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs boson doublets. The approximate (necessary) condition to avoid colour-breaking minima in the MSSM Higgs potential ,

$$A_q^2<3(m_{\stackrel{~}{t}}^2+m_{\stackrel{~}{b}}^2+M_H^2+\mu ^2),$$
(4)
imposes a tight correlation between the sfermion mass splitting and the mixing angle at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$. Since the heaviest top-squark mass ($`m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}`$) is not an input parameter, it receives finite radiative corrections:

$$\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}^2=\delta m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}^2+\mathrm{\Sigma }_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}(m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}^2),$$
(5)
where $`\delta m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_1}^2`$ is a combination of the counterterms of the parameters in (2), and the counterterms of the gauge and Higgs sectors.

The chargino/neutralino sector contains six particles, but only three independent input parameters: the soft-SUSY-breaking $`SU(2)_L`$ and $`U(1)_Y`$ gaugino masses ($`M`$ and $`M^{}`$), and the higgsino mass parameter ($`\mu `$). The situation in this sector is quite different from the sfermion case, since in this case no independent counterterms for the mixing matrix elements can be introduced. We stick to the following procedure: First, we introduce a set of renormalized parameters $`(M,M^{},\mu )`$ in the expression of the chargino and neutralino matrices ($``$ and $`^0`$), and diagonalize them by means of unitary matrices $`M_D=U^{}V^{}`$, $`M_D^0=N^{}^0N^{}`$. Now $`U`$, $`V`$ and $`N`$ must be regarded as renormalized mixing matrices. The counterterm mass matrices are then $`\delta M_D=U^{}\delta V^{}`$, $`\delta M_D^0=N^{}\delta ^0N^{}`$, which are non-diagonal. At this point, we introduce renormalization conditions for certain elements of $`\delta M_D`$ and $`\delta M_D^0`$. In particular, we use on-shell renormalization conditions for the two chargino masses ($`M_1`$ and $`M_2`$), which allows to compute the counterterms $`\delta M`$ and $`\delta \mu `$. This information, together with the on-shell condition for the lightest neutralino mass ($`M_1^0`$) allows to derive the expression for the counterterm $`\delta M^{}`$. The other neutralino masses ($`M_{2,3,4}^0`$) receive radiative corrections. In this framework the renormalized one-loop chargino/neutralino 2-point functions are non-diagonal. Therefore one must take into account this mixing either by including explicitly the reducible $`\chi _r\chi _s`$ mixing diagrams, or by means of external mixing wave-function terms ($`𝒵_{\{L,R\}}^{0\beta \alpha }`$, $`𝒵_{\{L,R\}}^{ij}`$). See Refs.  for different (but one-loop equivalent) approaches to the renormalization of the chargino/neutralino sector.333See Ref.  for a review of radiative corrections to SUSY processes.

The complete one-loop computation consists of:

* renormalization constants for the parameters and wave functions in the bare Lagrangian,
* one-loop one-particle irreducible three-point functions,
* mixing terms among the external charginos and neutralinos,
* soft- and hard- photon bremsstrahlung.

All kind of MSSM particles are taken into account in the loops: SM fermions, sfermions, electroweak gauge bosons, Higgs bosons, Goldstone bosons, Fadeev-Popov ghosts, charginos, neutralinos. The computation is performed in the ’t Hooft-Feynman gauge, using dimensional reduction for the regularization of divergent integrals. The loop computation itself is done using the computer algebra packages FeynArts 3.0 and FormCalc 2.2 . The numerical evaluation of one-loop integrals makes use of LoopTools 1.2 .444The resulting FORTRAN code can be obtained from http://www-itp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/$``$guasch/progs/.

## 3 Results

The results show the very interesting property that none of the particles of the MSSM decouples from the corrections to the observables (1). This can be well understood in terms of renormalization group (RG) running of the parameters and SUSY breaking. Take, e.g., the effects of squarks in the electron-selectron-photino coupling. Above the squark mass scale ($`Q>m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$) the electron electromagnetic coupling ($`\alpha (Q)`$) is equal (by SUSY) to the electron-selectron-photino coupling ($`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(Q)`$), and both couplings run according to the same RG equations. At $`Q=m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$ the squarks decouple from the RG running of the couplings. At $`Q<m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$, $`\alpha (Q)`$ runs due to the contributions from pure quark loops, but $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(Q)`$ does not run anymore, and it is frozen at the squark scale, that is: $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(Q<m_{\stackrel{~}{q}})=\alpha (m_{\stackrel{~}{q}})`$. Therefore, when comparing these two couplings at a scale $`Q<m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}`$, they differ by the logarithmic running of $`\alpha (Q)`$ from the squark scale to $`Q`$: $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }(Q)/\alpha (Q)1=\beta \mathrm{log}(m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}/Q)`$.

The above discussion has two important consequences:

1. The non-decoupling can be used to extract information of the high-energy part of the SUSY spectrum: one can envisage a SUSY model in which a significant splitting among the different SUSY masses exists, e.g. $`m_{\stackrel{~}{q}}m_{\stackrel{~}{l}}`$, where the sleptons lie below the production threshold in an $`e^+e^{}`$ linear collider, but the squarks are above it. By means of high precision measurements of the lepton-slepton-chargino/neutralino couplings one might be able to extract information of the squark sector of the model, to be checked with the available data from the LHC.
2. By the same token, it means that the value of the radiative corrections depends on all parameters of the model, and we can not make precise quantitative statements unless the full SUSY spectrum is known. This drawback can be partially overcome by the introduction of effective coupling matrices, which can be defined as follows. The subset of fermion-sfermion one-loop contributions to the self-energies of gauge-boson, Higgs-bosons, Goldstone-bosons, charginos and neutralinos form a gauge invariant finite subset of the corrections. Therefore these contributions can be absorbed into a finite shift of the chargino/neutralino mixing matrices $`U`$, $`V`$ and $`N`$ appearing in the couplings: $`U^{eff}=U+\mathrm{\Delta }U^{(f)},V^{eff}=V+\mathrm{\Delta }V^{(f)},N^{eff}=N+\mathrm{\Delta }N^{(f)}`$. In this way we can decouple the computation of the universal (or super-oblique ) corrections. These corrections contain the non-decoupling logarithms from sfermion masses.

As an example of the universal corrections we have computed the electron-selectron contributions to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }U^{(f)}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }V^{(f)}`$ matrices, assuming zero mixing angle in the selectron sector ($`\theta _e=0`$), we have identified the leading terms in the approximation $`m_{\stackrel{~}{e}_i},m_{\stackrel{~}{\nu }}(M_W,M_i)m_e`$, and analytically cancelled the divergences and the renormalization scale dependent terms; finally, we have kept only the terms logarithmic in the slepton masses. The result for $`\mathrm{\Delta }U^{(f)}`$ reads as follows:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }U_{i1}^{(f)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{4\pi s_W^2}}\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}^2}{M_X^2}}\right)[{\displaystyle \frac{U_{i1}^3}{6}}U_{i2}{\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{2}M_W(Mc_\beta +\mu s_\beta )}{3(M^2\mu ^2)\left(M_1^2M_2^2\right)^2}}(M^4M^2\mu ^2+`$
$`+3M^2M_W^2+\mu ^2M_W^2+M_W^4+M_W^4c_{4\beta }+(\mu ^2M^2)M_i^2+4M\mu M_W^2s_{2\beta })],`$
$`\mathrm{\Delta }U_{i2}^{(f)}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{4\pi s_W^2}}\mathrm{log}\left({\displaystyle \frac{M_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}^2}{M_X^2}}\right)U_{i1}{\displaystyle \frac{M_W(Mc_\beta +\mu s_\beta )}{3\sqrt{2}(M^2\mu ^2)\left(M_1^2M_2^2\right)^2}}\times `$ (6)
$`\times `$ $`\left((M^2\mu ^2)^2+4M^2M_W^2+4\mu ^2M_W^2+2M_W^4+2M_W^4c_{4\beta }+8M\mu M_W^2s_{2\beta }\right),`$
$`M_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}^2`$ being the soft-SUSY-breaking mass of the $`(\stackrel{~}{e}_L,\stackrel{~}{\nu })`$ doublet, whereas $`M_X`$ is a SM mass. In the on-shell scheme for the SM electroweak theory we define parameters at very different scales, basically $`M_X=M_W`$ and $`M_X=m_e`$. These wide-ranging scales enter the structure of the counterterms and so must appear in eq.(6) too. As a result the leading log in the various terms of this equation will vary accordingly. For simplicity in the notation we have factorized $`\mathrm{log}M_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}^2/M_X^2`$ as an overall factor. In some cases this factor can be very big, $`\mathrm{log}M_{\stackrel{~}{e}_L}^2/m_e^2`$; it comes from the electron-selectron contribution to the chargino-neutralino self-energies.

In Fig. 1 we show the relative correction to the matrix elements of $`U`$ for a sfermion spectrum around $`1\text{ TeV}`$. The thick black lines in Fig. 1 correspond to spurious divergences in the relative corrections due to the renormalization prescriptions. Corrections as large as $`\pm 10\%`$ can only be found in the vicinity of these divergence lines. However, there exist large regions of the $`\mu M`$ plane where the corrections are larger than $`2\%`$, $`3\%`$, or even $`4\%`$.

The effects of the universal corrections to the partial decay widths (1) are shown in Fig. 2 for top- and bottom-squark decays as a function of a common slepton mass.

Here (and in most of the discussion below) we show the corrections to the total decay widths of sfermions into charginos and neutralinos, that is

$$\delta (\stackrel{~}{f_a}f^{}\chi )=\frac{_r\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{~}{f_a}f^{}\chi _r)\mathrm{\Gamma }^0(\stackrel{~}{f_a}f^{}\chi _r)\right)}{_r\mathrm{\Gamma }^0(\stackrel{~}{f_a}f^{}\chi _r)},$$
(7)
with $`\chi =\chi ^\pm `$ or $`\chi =\chi ^0`$. We will not show results for processes whose branching ratio are less that 10% in all of the explored parameter space. The default parameter set used is:

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{tan}\beta =4,m_t=175\text{ GeV},m_b=5\text{ GeV},m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_2}=m_{\stackrel{~}{d}_2}=m_{\stackrel{~}{u}_2}=m_{\stackrel{~}{e}_2}=300\text{ GeV},\hfill \\ m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_1}=m_{\stackrel{~}{d}_1}=m_{\stackrel{~}{e}_1}=m_{\stackrel{~}{b}_2}+5\text{ GeV},m_{\stackrel{~}{u}_2}=290\text{ GeV},m_{\stackrel{~}{t}_2}=300\text{ GeV},\hfill \\ \theta _b=\theta _d=\theta _u=\theta _e=0,\theta _t=\pi /5,\mu =150\text{ GeV},M=250\text{ GeV},M_{H^\pm }=120\text{ GeV},\hfill \end{array}$$
(8)
The logarithmic behaviour from eq. (6) is evident in this figure. The logarithmic regime is attained already for slepton masses of order $`1\text{ TeV}`$. The universal corrections are seen to be positive for all squark decays, ranging between $`4\%`$ and $`7\%`$ for slepton masses below $`1\text{ TeV}`$.

Although above we have singled out the non-decoupling properties of sfermions, we would like to stress that the whole spectrum shows non-decoupling properties. By numerical analysis we have been able to show the existence of logarithms of the gaugino mass parameters ($`M/M_X`$ and $`M^{}/M_X`$), and the Higgs mass ($`M_{H^\pm }/M_X`$). However, due to the complicated mixing structure of the model, we were not able to derive simple analytic expressions containing these non-decoupling logarithms. Note that in any observable which includes the fermion-sfermion-chargino/neutralino Yukawa couplings at leading order we will have this kind of corrections, therefore the full MSSM spectrum must be taken into account when computing radiative corrections, since otherwise one could be missing large logarithmic contributions of the heavy masses.

As for the non-universal part of the contributions, they show a rich structure, as can be seen in Fig. 3. There we show the evolution of the corrections as a function of the $`\mu `$ parameter for top- and bottom-squark decays. A number of divergences are seen in the figure, ones related to the mass renormalization framework (at $`|\mu |=M`$), and others due to threshold singularities in the external wave function renormalization constants. It is clear that the precise value of the corrections is very much dependent on the correlation among the different SUSY masses.

An important contribution to the corrections of third-generation sfermion decays is the threshold correction to the bottom-quark ($`\tau `$-lepton) Yukawa coupling ($`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\{b,\tau \}}`$. In the processes under study (1) two kind of contributions appear: first, the genuine corrections $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\{b,\tau \}}`$ from SUSY loops in the fermion self-energy; and second in the loops of sfermion self-energies mixing different chiral states $`\stackrel{~}{f}_L\stackrel{~}{f}_R`$. This kind of corrections grow with the sfermion mass splitting, the sfermion mixing angle, and $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$.

A complementary set of corrections corresponds to the genuine three-point vertex functions including Higgs bosons in the loops. These contributions are proportional to the soft SUSY-breaking trilinear couplings (3), and therefore potentially large. Concretely, if $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ is large, and the bottom-squark mass splitting (or the mixing angle) is small, the bottom-squark trilinear coupling grows with $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ ($`A_b\mu \mathrm{tan}\beta `$), eventually inducing corrections larger than $`100\%`$, spoiling the validity of perturbation theory. In Fig. 4a we show the evolution of the corrections to the lightest bottom-squark decay into neutralinos as a function of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ using the parameter set (8). We see the fast growing of the corrections, reaching $`100\%`$ at $`\mathrm{tan}\beta 30`$. Fortunately, applying the (necessary) restriction (4) keeps the $`A_q`$ parameter small. In Fig. 4b we show again the evolution of the corrections as a function of $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, but this time keeping a fixed value for the trilinear couplings $`A_b=600\text{ GeV}`$, $`A_t=78\text{ GeV}`$. The figure shows that the corrections stay well below $`10\%`$ all over the $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ range for this channel.

The complementarity between the $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\{b,\tau \}}`$-like and the $`A_f`$-like corrections is as follows: at large $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$, if the bottom-squark mass splitting is large, there will be large corrections of type $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{\{b,\tau \}}`$; on the other hand, if the bottom-squark mass splitting is small, there will be large corrections of the type $`A_f`$. Note that the QCD corrections contain $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_b`$ terms but not $`A_f`$ terms. When analyzing QCD corrections alone, one could choose a small splitting, obtaining small corrections, however we have seen that this is inconsistent, so one is forced to a large $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_b^{QCD}`$ contribution, which can reinforce (or screen) the negative corrections from the standard running of the QCD coupling constant555Though it is not possible to separate between standard gluon corrections and gluino corrections, one can talk qualitatively about the contributions of the different sectors..

It is known that the electroweak corrections to any process grow as the logarithm squared of the process energy scale due to the Sudakov double-logs . We have observed this behaviour in the process under study.

At the end of the day, we want to analyze the branching ratios, which are the true observables. For this analysis we have to add the QCD corrections to the EW corrections. Due to the large value of the QCD corrections, we made use of the enhanced resummed expression for the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling . In Table 1 we show the tree-level and corrected branching ratios for top- and bottom-squarks using the input parameter set (8) and $`m_{\stackrel{~}{g}}=500\text{ GeV}`$. From inspection of Table 1 we see that the EW corrections can induce a change on the branching ratios of the leading decay channels of squarks comparable to the QCD corrections. Therefore both contributions must be taken into account on equal footing in the analysis of the phenomenology of sfermions.

Acknowledgments: The calculations have been done using the QCM cluster of the DFG Forschergruppe “Quantenfeldtheorie, Computeralgebra und Monte-Carlo Simulation”. This collaboration is part of the network “Physics at Colliders” of the European Union under contract HPRN-CT-2000-00149. The work of J.G. has been partially supported by the European Union under contract No. HPMF-CT-1999-00150. The work of J.S. has been supported in part by MECYT and FEDER under project FPA2001-3598.


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# Disappearance of back-to-back high 𝑝_𝑇 hadron correlations in central Au+Au collisions at √𝑠_{𝑁𝑁} = 200 GeV

## Abstract

Azimuthal correlations for large transverse momentum charged hadrons have been measured over a wide pseudo-rapidity range and full azimuth in Au+Au and p+p collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}`$ = 200 GeV. The small-angle correlations observed in p+p collisions and at all centralities of Au+Au collisions are characteristic of hard-scattering processes already observed in elementary collisions. A strong back-to-back correlation exists for p+p and peripheral Au + Au. In contrast, the back-to-back correlations are reduced considerably in the most central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial interaction as the hard-scattered partons or their fragmentation products traverse the medium.

In collisions of heavy nuclei at high energies, a new state of matter consisting of deconfined quarks and gluons at high density is expected QGP . Large transverse momentum partons in the high-density system result from the initial hard scattering of nucleon constituents. After a hard scattering, the parton fragments to create a high energy cluster (jet) of particles. A high momentum parton traversing a dense colored medium is predicted to experience substantial energy loss Gyulassy ; Wang  and may be absorbed. Measurement of the parton fragmentation products after hard-scattering processes in nuclear collisions may reveal effects due to the interaction of high-momentum partons traversing the medium, thereby measuring the gluon density of the medium Baier .

Hard scattering processes have been established at high transverse momentum ($`p_T`$) in elementary collisions at high energy through the measurement of jets UA2\_jets ; UA1\_jets ; CDF\_jets , correlated back-to-back jets (di-jets) CDF\_dijets , high $`p_T`$ single particles, and back-to-back correlations between high $`p_T`$ hadrons highpt\_corr . Jets have been shown to carry the momentum of the parent parton fragmentation . The jet cross sections and high $`p_T`$ single particle spectra are well described over a broad range of energies QCD  in terms of the hadron’s parton distributions, hard parton scattering treated by perturbative QCD, and subsequent fragmentation of the parton. High $`p_T`$ jet events have also been studied in proton-nucleus interactions pA\_jets . In the absence of effects of the nuclear medium the rate of hard processes should scale linearly with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. Recent results from RHIC, however, show a suppression of the single particle inclusive spectra of hadrons for $`p_T>2`$ GeV/c in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial in-medium interactions PHENIX\_highpt ; STAR\_highpt .

In this Letter, we report measurements of two-hadron angular correlations at large transverse momentum for p+p and Au+Au collisions at $`\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200`$ GeV. These correlation measurements provide the most direct evidence for production of jets in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions, and allow for the first time measurements, inaccessible in inclusive spectra, of the fate of back-to-back jets in the dense medium as a function of the size of the overlapping system. The results reveal significant interaction of hard-scattered partons (or their fragmentation products) in the medium, with a strong dependence on the geometry and distance of traversal.

The measurements were made using the STAR detector STARNIM  at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The STAR detector is a large acceptance magnetic spectrometer, with a large volume Time Projection Chamber (TPC) inside a 0.5 Tesla solenoidal magnet. The TPC measures the trajectories of charged particles and determines the particle momenta. The TPC has full azimuthal coverage over a pseudo-rapidity range $`|\eta |<1.5`$. STAR has excellent position and momentum resolution, and, due to its vertexing capabilities, is able to identify many sources of secondary particles. The p+p analysis uses $``$10 million minimum bias p+p events triggered on the coincidence of signals from scintillator annuli spanning the pseudo-rapidity interval $`3.5|\eta |5.0`$. The Au+Au analysis uses $``$1.7 million minimum bias Au+Au events and $``$1.5 million top 10% central Au+Au events.

Partons fragment into jets of hadrons in a cone around the direction of the original hard-scattered parton. The leading hadron in the jet tends to be most closely aligned with the original parton direction UA1\_83 . The large multiplicities in Au+Au collisions make full jet reconstruction impractical. Thus, we utilize two-particle azimuthal correlations of high $`p_T`$ charged hadrons STARv2  to identify jets on a statistical basis, with known sources of background correlations subtracted.

Events with at least one large transverse momentum hadron ($`4<p_T^{trig}<6`$ or $`3<p_T^{trig}<4`$ GeV/c), defined to be a trigger particle, are used in this analysis. For each of the trigger particles in the event, we increment the number $`N(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ,\mathrm{\Delta }\eta )`$ of associated tracks with 2 GeV/c $`<p_T<p_T^{trig}`$ as a function of their azimuthal ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$) and pseudo-rapidity ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\eta `$) separations from the trigger particle. We then construct an overall azimuthal pair distribution per trigger particle,

$$D(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )\frac{1}{N_{trigger}}\frac{1}{ϵ}𝑑\mathrm{\Delta }\eta N(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ,\mathrm{\Delta }\eta ),$$
(1)
where $`N_{trigger}`$ is the observed number of tracks satisfying the trigger requirement. The efficiency $`ϵ`$ for finding the associated particle is evaluated by embedding simulated tracks in real data. In order to have a high and constant tracking efficiency, the tracks are required to have $`|\eta |<0.7`$, which translates to a relative pseudo-rapidity acceptance of $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\eta |<1.4`$. The single track reconstruction efficiency varies from 77% for the most central Au+Au collisions to 90% for the most peripheral Au+Au collisions and p+p collisions.

Identical analysis procedures are applied to the p+p and Au+Au data. Displayed in Figure 1 are the azimuthal distributions for same-sign and opposite-sign charged pairs from the a) p+p data and b) minimum bias Au+Au data for $`4<p_T^{trig}<6`$ GeV/c. The data are integrated over the relative pseudo-rapidity range $`0<|\mathrm{\Delta }\eta |<1.4`$. Clear correlation peaks are observed near $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi 0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \pi `$ in the data. The opposite-sign correlations at small relative azimuth are larger than those of the same-sign particle pairs, while the sign has a negligible effect on the back-to-back correlations.

To isolate the jet-like correlations (localized in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\eta `$) in central Au+Au collisions, the azimuthal distributions are measured for two regions of relative pseudo-rapidity, $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\eta |<0.5`$ and $`0.5<|\mathrm{\Delta }\eta |<1.4`$ STARv2 . The difference between the small and large relative pseudo-rapidity azimuthal distributions is displayed in Figure 1c along with single Gaussian fits. Near $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ = 0, the azimuthal distributions from Au+Au and p+p have similar shapes. For the opposite-sign azimuthal distributions, the Gaussian widths are $`0.17\pm 0.01(stat.)\pm 0.03(sys.)`$ radians for p+p data, and $`0.20\pm 0.02(stat.)\pm 0.03(sys.)`$ radians for the central Au+Au data. For the same-sign azimuthal distributions, the Gaussian widths are $`0.16\pm 0.02(stat.)\pm 0.03(sys.)`$ radians for p+p data, and $`0.15\pm 0.03(stat.)\pm 0.04(sys.)`$ radians for the central Au+Au data. The systematic errors reflect the spread of values found for different choices of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi `$ bin width. Within the errors, there are no significant differences between the small-angle correlation widths for p+p and central Au+Au collisions.

The ratios of the opposite-sign to same-sign peak areas are $`2.7\pm 0.9(stat.)\pm 0.2(sys.)`$ for p+p and $`2.5\pm 0.6(stat.)\pm 0.2(sys.)`$ for central Au+Au collisions. In jet fragmentation, there are dynamical charge correlations between the leading and next-to-leading charged hadrons Delphi\_charge\_ordering  that originate from the formation of $`q\overline{q}`$ pairs along a string between two partons. This results in a preferential ordering into oppositely-charged adjacent particles along a string during fragmentation. The Hijing event generator, which utilizes the Lund string fragmentation scheme lund  incorporating these concepts, predicts a ratio of $`2.6\pm 0.7`$ for the opposite-sign to same-sign correlation strengths. The agreement of this ratio with those measured in the central Au+Au and p+p suggests that the same jet production mechanism is responsible for a majority of the charged hadrons with $`p_T>4`$ GeV/c in p+p and central Au+Au collisions.

The decay of resonances would also lead to small-angle azimuthal correlations, but a resonance decay origin is unlikely due to the observed correlation of particles with the same charge sign, the similarity in the measured small-angle azimuthal correlation widths in the Au+Au and p+p interactions, and the strong back-to-back correlations of large $`p_T`$ particles seen for p+p collisions in Fig. 1a. The latter correlations, indicative of di-jet events highpt\_corr , are removed from the central Au+Au sample by the subtraction in Fig. 1c. A quantitative analysis of back-to-back jet survival in Au+Au requires the more detailed treatment of background correlations described below.

In addition to correlations due to jets, the two-particle azimuthal distributions in Au+Au exhibit a structure attributable to an anisotropy of single particle production relative to the reaction plane. Previous measurements STARv2  indicate that, even at large transverse momentum, the particle distributions contain an anisotropy due to elliptic flow that can be characterized by $`dN/d(\varphi \mathrm{\Phi }_r)1+2v_2\mathrm{cos}(2(\varphi \mathrm{\Phi }_r))`$, where $`\mathrm{\Phi }_r`$ is the reaction plane angle determined event by event and $`v_2`$ is the elliptic flow parameter. This leads to a two particle azimuthal distribution of the form, $`dN/d\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =B(1+2v_2^2\mathrm{cos}(2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ))`$. The elliptic flow component of the two-particle azimuthal distribution is measured using several methods STARv2 . In this paper, $`v_2`$ is determined using a reaction-plane method.

A simple reference model can be constructed for the two-particle azimuthal distributions of high $`p_T`$ particles in Au+Au collisions. A number of independent hard scatterings (each similar to one measured in a triggered p+p event) included in an event with correlations due to elliptic flow can be represented by the azimuthal distribution,

$$D^{\mathrm{model}}=D^{\mathrm{pp}}+B(1+2v_2^2\mathrm{cos}(2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )).$$
(2)
The elliptic flow parameter ($`v_2`$) is measured independently in the same set of events, and is taken to be constant for $`p_T>2`$ GeV/c STARv2 . The parameter $`B`$ is then determined by fitting the observed $`D^{\mathrm{AuAu}}`$ in the region $`0.75<|\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi |<2.24`$ radians, which is largely free of jet contributions in the p+p data.

In Figure 2, the azimuthal distributions for $`0<|\mathrm{\Delta }\eta |<1.4`$ in Au+Au collisions at various centralities are compared to Equation 2 using the measured p+p data. The centrality selection is constructed by subdividing the Au+Au minimum bias data sample into subsamples with different charged particle multiplicities within $`|\eta |<0.5`$. The parameters $`v_2`$ and $`B`$ are determined independently for each centrality bin, and are listed in Table 1. For all centralities, the azimuthal correlation near $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi =0`$ is well described by Equation 2. This indicates that the same mechanism (hard parton scattering and fragmentation) is responsible for high transverse momentum particle production in p+p and Au+Au collisions. However, the back-to-back correlations are suppressed in Au+Au collisions compared to the expectation from Equation 2, and the suppression is greater for more central collisions. The most central collisions show no indication of any back-to-back correlations beyond that expected from elliptic flow.

The ratio of the measured Au+Au correlation excess relative to the p+p correlation is:

$`I_{AA}(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _1,\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _2)=`$ (3)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{_{\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _1}^{\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _2}d(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )[D^{\mathrm{AuAu}}B(1+2v_2^2\mathrm{cos}(2\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi ))]}{_{\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _1}^{\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi _2}d(\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi )D^{\mathrm{pp}}}}.`$
The ratio can be plotted as a function of the number of participating nucleons ($`N_{part}`$), deduced from the centrality bins as described in reference STAR\_highpt . $`I_{AA}`$ is measured for both the small-angle ($`|\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi |<0.75`$ radians) and back-to-back ($`|\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi |>2.24`$ radians) regions. The ratio should be unity if the hard-scattering component of Au+Au collisions is simply a superposition of p+p collisions unaffected by the nuclear medium. These ratios are given in Figure 3 for the trigger particle momentum ranges indicated. The asymmetric systematic errors are dominated by the +5/-20% systematic uncertainty on $`v_2`$ due to the potential non-flow contributions STARcumulant  as well as other sources of systematic uncertainty STARv2 .

For the most peripheral bin (smallest $`N_{part}`$), both the small-angle and back-to-back correlation strengths are suppressed compared to the expectation from Equation 2. This may be an indication of initial state nuclear effects such as shadowing of parton distributions or scattering by multiple nucleons, or may be indicative of energy loss in a dilute medium WWA . As $`N_{part}`$ increases, the small-angle correlation strength increases, with a more pronounced increase for the trigger particles with lower $`p_T`$ threshold. If there were a large non-jet contribution to particle production (i.e. collective transverse flow) at the trigger threshold and above, it would dilute the jet related correlation signal and this ratio would be reduced. The back-to-back correlation strength, above background from elliptic flow, decreases with increasing $`N_{part}`$ and is consistent with zero for the most central collisions. In the extreme case, if there were *no* elliptic flow for the 0-5% most central collisions, $`I_{AA}(2.24,\pi )=0.4\pm 0.1`$ for $`4<p_T^{trig}<6`$ GeV/c, compared to $`I_{AA}(2.24,\pi )=0.1\pm 0.1`$ using the measured elliptic flow value. Therefore, an overestimation of the elliptic flow cannot explain the observed suppression of back-to-back correlations.

Analyses of fixed-target experiments Apanasevich  have suggested that the shape of the back-to-back dihadron azimuthal distribution is sensitive to the intrinsic parton transverse momentum $`k_T`$ in the initial state. In proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions, additional initial-state transverse momentum can be generated by multiple nucleon-nucleon interactions preceding a hard scattering Cronin ; Corcoran ; Lev . To investigate whether this nuclear $`k_T`$ can account for the observed deficit of back-to-back azimuthal correlations in central Au+Au collisions, we have carried out Pythia lund  simulations varying the $`k_T`$ parameter. A rather extreme change from the nominal value of $`\sigma =1`$ GeV/c to 4 GeV/c introduced only a small effect, reducing the predicted $`I_{AA}(2.24,\pi )`$ by less than 20%. Experimental study of initial state effects on the azimuthal correlations requires the measurement of p(d)+Au collisions at RHIC energies.

In addition to the present data, two other striking effects have been observed at high $`p_T`$ in nuclear collisions at RHIC: strong suppression of the inclusive hadron yield in central collisions PHENIX\_highpt ; STAR\_highpt , and large elliptic flow which saturates at $`p_T>3`$ GeV/c STARv2 . These phenomena are all consistent with a picture in which observed hadrons at $`p_T>34`$ GeV/c are fragments of hard scattered partons, and partons or their fragments are strongly scattered or absorbed in the nuclear medium. The observed hadrons therefore result preferentially from hard-scattered partons generated on the periphery of the reaction zone and heading outwards Bjorken . In this picture the inclusive yield will be suppressed relative to the binary scaling expectation, and the strong position-momentum correlation required to explain the large elliptic flow Shuryak  emerges naturally. The properties of small-angle hadron correlations will have weak dependence on the size of the colliding system, whereas the back-to-back correlations will exhibit strong suppression for a large system relative to a small one, both as observed.

In summary, STAR has measured azimuthal correlations for high $`p_T`$ charged particles over a large relative pseudo-rapidity range with full azimuthal angle coverage. Comparison of the opposite-sign and same-sign correlation strengths indicates that hard scattering and fragmentation is the predominant source of charged hadrons with $`p_T>4`$ GeV/c in central Au + Au collisions. The azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions have been treated as the superposition of independently determined elliptic flow and individual hard parton scattering contributions, the latter measured in the STAR p+p data. The most striking feature of the hard-scattering component is an increasing suppression of back-to-back relative to small-angle correlations with increasing centrality. These observations appear consistent with large energy loss in a system that is opaque to the propagation of high-momentum partons or their fragmentation products.

We wish to thank the RHIC Operations Group and the RHIC Computing Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for their support. This work was supported by the Division of Nuclear Physics and the Division of High Energy Physics of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States National Science Foundation, the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung of Germany, the Institut National de la Physique Nucleaire et de la Physique des Particules of France, the United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Russian Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.


text:
# Stellar population gradients in Seyfert 2 galaxies. Northern sample

## 1 Introduction

The relation between recent star-formation and nuclear activity in galaxies has been the subject of a number of recent studies. Cid Fernandes & Terlevich (1995) were the first to argue that the blue continuum in Seyfert 2 galaxies was rather mostly due to the contribution of young stars than to a scattered featureless continuum (FC), if the hypotheses of Unified Models for Seyfert galaxies were correct (Antonucci 1993). Heckman et al. (1995) reached similar conclusions using a different method. Heckman et al. (1997) and González Delgado et al. (1998) have proved this to be the case for a few Seyfert 2 galaxies with available UV spectra with enough signal-to-noise ratio to show the wind lines of young O and B stars. González Delgado et al. (1998) have also shown that, in these cases, high-order Balmer lines in absorption, characteristic of young and intermediate age stars ($``$ 100 Myr), were also present in the spectra. As optical spectra are more easily available, the high-order Balmer lines could thus be used as unambiguous signatures of the presence of young to intermediate age stars.

In Cid Fernandes, Storchi-Bergmann & Schmitt (1998), Storchi-Bergmann, Cid Fernandes & Schmitt (1998) and Schmitt, Storchi-Bergmann & Cid Fernandes (1999), we used long-slit spectra of about 40 AGNs to measure absorption line and continuum spectral features within a few kiloparsecs from the nucleus, to characterize the stellar population. For the 20 Seyfert 2 galaxies of the sample, we have then performed spectral synthesis of the nuclear spectra, having concluded that the main common characteristic was an excess of an intermediate age stellar population ($``$100 Myr) when compared to early-type non-Seyfert galaxies.

Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2000) used stellar population templates to investigate the effect of combining an old bulge population (present in most Seyferts) with a younger one, in particular to investigate the detectability of the high-order Balmer lines as signatures of the young and intermediate age stars. By comparing the models with the data, we concluded that unambiguous signatures of such stars were present in only 30 per cent of the sample. We have also concluded that is not possible to distinguish a stellar population younger than 10 Myr from a power-law continuum, when these components contribute with less than 40 per cent of the light at 4020Å.

Combining the above results with the stellar population analysis performed by González Delgado et al. (2001) for a northern sample of 20 Seyfert 2 galaxies, we conclude that 40 per cent of nearby Seyfert 2 galaxies present unambiguous signatures of recent episodes of star-formation in the nuclear region. In another 30 per cent, a blue component is also necessary to reproduce the near-UV continuum, but its faintness precludes a firm identification, and this component can either be due to a FC or a stellar population younger than 10 Myr, or both. Joguet et al. (2001), studying the circumnuclear stellar population of the host galaxies of 79 Seyfert 2 nuclei also found high-order Balmer lines seen in absorption in many cases, concluding that young stellar populations are present in around 50 per cent of Seyfert 2 nuclei, a rate similar to that found by us.

In Cid Fernandes et al. (2001b) and Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2001) we have looked for relations between the age of the stellar population in the nuclear region and the host galaxy properties and environment. We have found that the AGNs with largest contributions of recent star-formation occur in galaxies with the largest IR luminosities; these galaxies are frequently in interactions and present distorted inner morphologies. An evolutionary scenario was suggested, in which the interactions trigger both the nuclear activity and bursts of star formation. The bursts then fade before the nuclear activity, which is thus found also in galaxies with old stellar populations.

In the near-IR, Oliva et al. (1999) studied stellar absorption lines in 13 obscured AGNs and 8 genuine Seyfert 1’s and found that the presence of powerful starbursts in obscured AGNs is relatively common while they are not present in Seyfert 1’s.

In more luminous objects, Aretxaga et al. (2000) found young stellar populations in the nuclear regions of some nearby radio-galaxies, as well as Tadhunter et al. (2002) for intermediate redshift ones. Canalizo & Stockton (2001) studied a sample of low-redshift QSOs that may be in a transitionary stage between ULIGs and QSOs and found that every object shows strong recent star-forming activity (younger than 300 Myr) and in many cases this activity is closely related to tidal interactions.

A number of questions are nevertheless still open regarding the hosts of AGNs, and one of fundamental nature is if there are any systematic differences between the hosts of AGNs and non-active galaxies of the same Hubble type. In other words: does the onset of nuclear activity relate to large-scale properties of the host galaxies? In the evolutionary scenario described above, for example, if interactions are responsible for triggering the activity and circumnuclear bursts of star formation, wouldn’t the more external regions also be affected?

In order to answer the above questions we now extend the study of the stellar population to the extranuclear regions of Seyfert galaxies. As a first step towards this goal, in Raimann et al. (2001, hereafter R01) we have analysed the nuclear and extranuclear stellar population of 3 early-type (Hubble type S0) non-Seyfert, 2 LINER and 3 Seyfert 2 galaxies as a function of distance from the nucleus. While we found a common behaviour for non-Seyfert galaxies and LINERs, this is not true for the 3 Seyferts, and a larger sample is needed to characterize the stellar population gradients in Seyferts. We have thus decided to extend this study to the samples of Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2000, called southern sample) and González Delgado et al. (2001, called northern sample), which comprise 25 Seyfert 2 galaxies with $`z<0.02`$ plus 10 with $`0.02<z<0.05`$. This sample can be considered as representative of nearby Seyfert 2 galaxies. The common selection criterion for all the galaxies is a lower limit for the luminosity of the central source, such that the luminosity in the \[OIII\]$`\lambda `$5007 line is L$`{}_{[OIII]}{}^{}>10^{40}`$ ergs s-1. As it was not selected by any property related to the stellar population, it is suitable to explore this property.

As the spectra of the northern and southern samples cover distinct wavelength ranges, we have performed the two studies separately. In this work we analyse the northern sample and in a future work the southern one. We first quantify the radial variations of the equivalent widths and continuum fluxes as a function of distance from the nucleus, used to measure the dilution of the bulge absorption lines by an FC or young stellar population at the nucleus. Then we use these measurements to perform spectral synthesis and derive the stellar population properties and gradients.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe the sample galaxies and the observations. In Section 3 we discuss the spatial variation of the equivalent widths and continuum. We present the spectral synthesis results in Section 4 and, in Section 5, the discussion and in Section 6 the conclusions of this work.

## 2 Sample and Observations

Detailed information about the observations and reductions of the long-slit spectra of the northern sample can be found in González Delgado et al. (2001). It comprises the brightest 20 Seyfert 2 galaxies from the compilation of Whittle (1992a,b). The radial velocities range from 1000 km/s to 15000 km/s but only five objects have radial velocities $`>`$ 9000 km/s. The value mean is 4811 km/s, what gives a mean spatial scale of 310 pc/arcsec. In Table 1 we list the morphological type, radial velocity, spatial scale (using H0 = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1) and foreground galactic E(B-V)G values. The data were extracted from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED)111The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration..

Long-slit spectra of these galaxies have been obtained using the Richey-Chrétien spectrograph at the 4m Mayall telescope of Kitt Peak National Observatory in February and Ocotber 1996. The long-slit spectra used in this work cover the wavelength range 3600 – 4700 Å, at a resolution of $``$ 3 Å. Each pixel at the detector corresponds to 0.7 arcsec in the sky. A slit width corresponding to 1.5 arcsec on the sky was oriented along the parallactic angle except for NGC1068 on which it was oriented at P.A.=123. For two galaxies, NGC5929 and Mrk477, we have two position angles, P.A.=60,80 and P.A.=44,158 respectively.

One-dimensional spectra were extracted in windows of 2.1 arcsec in the bright nuclear regions and progressively larger windows towards the fainter outer regions. The spectra were dereddened according to foreground galactic E(B-V)G. The spatial coverage ranged between 3 (for Mrk34) and 50 arcsec (NGC1068) from the nucleus. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the extracted spectra ranges between 10 and 40.

In order to compare the stellar population of these active galaxies with that of non-active ones of the same Hubble type, we have also obtained long-slit spectra of nearby non-Seyfert galaxies with morphological types between Sa and Sc. We used the R-C Cassegrain Spectrograph at the 1.5m telescope of Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in January 2002 (Table 2). Due to the proximity of these galaxies the nuclear spectrum was extracted in a window of 3 arcsec, in order to allow a similar sampling at the galaxy to that of the Seyferts. Extranuclear spectra were extracted up to about 8 arcsec from the nucleus. The spectra were dereddened according to foreground galactic E(B-V)G. In addition, to represent the S0 Hubble type, we use the data from the S0 non-Seyfert galaxy NGC7049 (see bottom of Table 2), already presented in R01, which is representative of the 3 S0 galaxies studied in that paper.

Because the number of non-Seyfert galaxies is still small, we use as additional reference the study of Bica (1988, hereafter B88), in which he performed stellar population synthesis for about 100 non-Seyfert galaxies, using integrated spectra from regions of about 1 kpc $`\times `$ 1 kpc. B88 grouped the galaxies spectra in six templates, called S1 to S6. The templates S1 and S2 are dominated by galaxies with Hubble types Sa, the templates S3 and S4 by Sb’s and the templates S5 and S6 by Sc’s.

## 3 Radial variation of the equivalent widths and continuum colours

The variation of the equivalent widths (Ws) of absorption lines and the continuum colours as a function of distance from the nucleus allows the study of stellar population gradients in the galaxy. Usually, in non-active galaxies, the Ws increase from the external regions towards the bulge, where they remain approximately constant. The presence of a burst of star-formation and/or a featureless AGN continuum will produce a “dilution” of the absorption lines, whose Ws will then decrease at the nucleus when compared to the values at adjacent locations (Cid Fernandes et al. 1998).

In order to study the run of the stellar absorption features with distance from the nucleus we determined a pseudo-continuum at selected pivot-points and measured the Ws of six absorption features as described in R01. Due to the shorter spectral range of the present work the pivot points used here for the continuum were 3660, 3780, 4020 and 4510 Å and the absorption features for which we measured the Ws were: Wwlb (a blend of weak lines in the near-UV, within the spectral window $`\lambda \lambda `$3810-3822 Å), H9 (a blend of absorption lines which includes H9, $`\lambda \lambda `$3822-3858 Å), CaIIK ($`\lambda \lambda `$3908-3952 Å), CaIIH+H$`ϵ`$ ($`\lambda \lambda `$3952-3988 Å), CN-band ($`\lambda \lambda `$4150-4214 Å) and G-band ($`\lambda \lambda `$4284-4318 Å).

In Figs. 1-3 we present the above Ws, continuum colour F4510/F4020 (hereafter $`C_{4510/4020}`$) and surface brightness as a function of the angular distance from the nucleus for the Seyfert 2 galaxy sample. The typical errors are 0.5Å for Wwlb, H9, CaIIK, CaIIH+H$`ϵ`$ and G-band, 1.0Å for the CN-band and 0.05 for the continuum ratio (Cid Fernandes et al. 1998). The dotted and dashed vertical lines mark distances at each galaxy of 1 kpc and 3 kpc from the nucleus, respectively. The measurements for Mrk463 are not presented here because this data is already shown in R01. We also do not show the data for Mrk78 because it has only one extranuclear spectrum to each side. We present data for just one position angle of Mrk477 and NGC5929 because the other p.a.’s show similar behavious. Measurements of CaIIK and G-band Ws for some of these objects were showed in González Delgado et al. (2001) but they are different from those showed here due to a different pseudo-continuum adopted. As five galaxies of the present sample are also in the sample of Cid Fernandes et al. (1998), we can compare our measurements with theirs in order to check the robustness of on method. We point out that the measurements in the above paper were obtained with a different instrument and along different position angles, although using the same technique. Nevertheless, a careful comparison shows that the W values for the same feature are remarkably similar, usually within the measurement errors.

In Fig. 4 we show the same quantities for the non-Seyfert S0 galaxy NGC7049, first presented in R01. For the non-Seyfert Sa to Sc galaxies, it was only possible to obtain signal-to-noise ratios high enough for reliable measurements for the nucleus and usually a couple of extractions to each side of the nucleus. The corresponding values are summarized below.

The range of nuclear Ws obtained for Seyfert 2 galaxies is 0$`<`$W$`{}_{wlb}{}^{}<`$3.5Å, 0$`<`$W$`{}_{H9}{}^{}<`$11Å, 2$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIK}{}^{}<`$15.5Å, 0$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIH+Hϵ}{}^{}<`$9Å, 2.5$`<`$W$`{}_{CNband}{}^{}<`$14Å and 1$`<`$W$`{}_{Gband}{}^{}<`$9.5Å. While the nuclear values for the S0 are W$`{}_{wlb}{}^{}`$6Å, W$`{}_{H9}{}^{}`$20Å, 18$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIK}{}^{}<`$20Å, 12$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIH+Hϵ}{}^{}<`$14Å, 17$`<`$W$`{}_{CNband}{}^{}<`$19Å and W$`{}_{Gband}{}^{}`$11Å, those of the Sa to Sc are 1$`<`$W$`{}_{wlb}{}^{}<`$4Å, 6$`<`$W$`{}_{H9}{}^{}<`$15Å, 7$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIK}{}^{}<`$18Å, 8$`<`$W$`{}_{CaIIH+Hϵ}{}^{}<`$13Å, 3$`<`$W$`{}_{CNband}{}^{}<`$13Å and 4$`<`$W$`{}_{Gband}{}^{}<`$10Å. The non-Seyfert Sa to Sc galaxies thus present nuclear W values considerably smaller than that of the non-Seyfert S0, but the radial variations show a similar trend.

Almost all Seyfert 2s have some gas emission in the nuclear lines H9 and CaIIH+H$`ϵ`$, and sometimes this emission is present in the extranuclear spectra too. Mrk463E and Mrk477 are examples of objects dominated by extended gas emission. Therefore, almost all Seyfert 2 galaxies have these lines with smaller Ws in and near the nucleus.

In non-Seyfert S0 galaxies most Ws have the largest values at the nucleus, decreasing outwards (e.g., Fig. 4). Two Seyferts, Mrk348 and IC3639, present a similar trend, with Ws increasing towards the nucleus, although at the nucleus proper they show a sudden decrease. If we focus our attention in the behaviour of WCaIIK and G-band, the lines with the smallest measurement errors, we realize that about half the sample (galaxies listed in Table 3) have these nuclear Ws smaller than the extranuclear ones. This behaviour is probably due to dilution of the bulge stellar population by a blue continuum which can either be due to a FC component or a young stellar population, or both.

We estimate the fraction of the continuum associated with the above blue component $`f(\lambda )`$ at the wavelength of an absorption line as:

$$f(\lambda )=\frac{W_{offnuc}W_{nuc}}{W_{offnuc}}$$
(1)
where $`W_{nuc}`$ and $`W_{offnuc}`$ are the Ws at the nucleus and outside, respectively (Cid Fernandes et al. 1998).

In Table 3 we show the dilutions $`f(\lambda )`$ of the nuclear CaIIK and G-band. These dilutions are measurements of the contribution of a FC or a younger population at the nucleus, as compared to that at 1 kpc. The uncertainties listed in the Table are measurements of the difference between the dilution factors obtained using the two extranuclear extractions at opposite sides of the nucleus. In the remaining Seyferts there is no obvious dilution, nor a systematic variation with the distance similar to that observed for the S0 galaxy.

Regarding the continuum, two galaxies (Mrk78 and IC3639) have the nuclear $`C_{4510/4020}`$ redder than the extranuclear ones similarly to those of the non-Seyfert early-type galaxies. Four others have the nuclear continuum bluer than that of the extranuclear region (Mrk1066, Mrk477, NGC5135 and NGC7130) and in the remainder (14 galaxies) the $`C_{4510/4020}`$ behaviour is not symmetrical relative to the nucleus. This is likely due to a non-uniform dust distribution, in agreement with HST images of the inner region of these galaxies, many of which were published by Malkan et al. (1998, their Fig. 2).

### 3.1 NGC1068

NGC1068 is considered the prototypical Seyfert 2 and it is the brightest galaxy of the sample, allowing a more detailed study of its stellar population, as high signal-to-noise ratio spectra could be extracted up to $``$ 50 arcsec (3.7 kpc) from the nucleus, at a spatial sampling of $``$ 200 pc.

Neff et al. (1994) showed that this galaxy contains multiple components at UV wavelengths: the central AGN, a population of very luminous starburst knots, a bright oval inner disk and a fainter, more circular halo. The knots are mostly located in two star-formation rings. One at 10 arcsec from the nucleus (750 pc at the galaxy) – the nuclear ring – that includes the most luminous knot and other at 28 arcsec from the nucleus (2.1 kpc) – the inner ring – that includes several luminous knots. Our slit was oriented to cover one luminous knot from each ring, labeled regions C and J by Neff and collaborators.

In Fig. 2 (bottom left panel) we show the Ws, $`C_{4510/4020}`$ and surface brightness as a function of the angular distance from the nucleus for NGC1068. All Ws show a dip at the nucleus relative to the extranuclear values at $``$ 5 arcsec, where the Ws reach the largest values (which are however still smaller than those of the non-Seyfert early-type galaxy at similar location). Beyond 5 arcsec, the Ws decrease, consistent with the presence of star-forming regions along the slit. In particular, at 10 arcsec NW on the nuclear ring, where knot J is located, the Ws decrease to values smaller than those at the nucleus, while to the other side of the ring the Ws are similar to the nuclear ones, suggesting that the stellar population is not as young as in knot J. At the inner ring, the smallest Ws occur at $``$ 28 arcsec SE, the location of knot C, and are similar to those of knot J, indicating that at the knots there are younger star-forming regions than at other locations along the ring.

The continuum ratio $`C_{4510/4020}`$ shows a behaviour consistent with that of the Ws, being bluest close to the regions where the Ws are smallest, except for the nucleus, which has a continuum redder than that at 2 arcsec NW but bluer than that at 2 arcsec SE.

In order to calculate the dilution of the Ws at the nucleus, we have compared the nuclear Ws with those from the region at 5 arcsec (375 pc at the galaxy) instead of using 1 kpc, because of the nuclear ring at this latter location. All nuclear Ws are diluted relative to the extranuclear values. H9 and CaIIH+H$`ϵ`$ are contaminated by gas emission, while CaIIK and the G-band are diluted by about 30 per cent. This value is consistent with the known contribution of a FC component (Antonucci, Hurt & Miller 1994).

## 4 The spectral synthesis

The spectral synthesis was performed using the probabilistic formalism described in Cid Fernandes et al. (2001a). We reproduce the observed Ws and continuum ratios (Cs) using a base of star cluster spectra with different ages and metallicities (Bica & Alloin 1986). We use 12 components representing the age-metallicity plane plus a 13th component representing a cannonical AGN continuum F$`{}_{\nu }{}^{}\nu ^{1.5}`$ (Schmitt et al. 1999).

To synthesize the data of this work we have used the Cs $`\lambda `$3660/4020 and $`\lambda `$4510/4020, and the Ws Wwlb, WH9, WCaIIK, WCN-band and WG-band. The adopted errors were $`\sigma (W_\lambda )=0.5`$ Å for Wwlb, WH9, WCaIIK and WG-band, 1.0Å for WCN-band and $`\sigma (C_\lambda )=0.05`$ for continuum ratios (Cid Fernandes et al. 1998). In some cases the synthesis was performed with a smaller number of Ws, due to the contamination by emission lines.

It is important to keep in mind that in this spectral range is not possible to discriminate between the FC and 3 Myr components for flux contributions smaller than 40 per cent at 4020Å, because they have very similar continua (Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2000). Therefore, in the description and discussion of the synthesis results we combine the 3 Myr and FC components in one, the 3 Myr/FC component.

According to Cid Fernandes et al. (2001a), this method of spectral synthesis has also difficulty to accurately determine the contributions of all 12 components of Bica’s base for modest signal-to-noise ratio and/or reduced number of observables. These constraints act primarily in the sense of spreading a strong contribution in one component preferentially among base elements of same age. Thus, in order to produce more robust results we have grouped components of same age.

Due to the fact that the spectral resolution of the Bica & Alloin’s (1986) templates is lower than that of the present galaxy spectra we need to estimate the effect of this difference in the equivalent width measurements, and in the synthesis results. The equivalent widths are weaker in the lower resolution case. Therefore, when we use a base with lower resolution than the data, the contribution of the older and/or more metallic populations are overestimated and the contribution of younger and/or less metallic are underestimated. These effects are nevertheless small in our sample, as explained below.

Smoothing a few spectra down to the resolution of the Bica & Alloin’s templates we have estimated that the differences in the equivalent widths are, in most cases, within the measurement errors (see above). Performing the synthesis with the smoothed spectra, we realized that, on average, the percent contribution to the light at 4020Å of the oldest components 10 Gyr or 1 Gyr becomes 5 per cent smaller while the contribution of the youngest component 3 Myr/FC becomes 5 per cent larger, while E(B-V) becomes on average 0.06 larger. These differences do not affect the conclusions of our work, as can be seen in the following sections, and we thus have opted for keeping the full resolution of our data in the synthesis.

### 4.1 Synthesis results for the non-Seyfert galaxies

In order to compare our results with those for non-Seyfert galaxies we performed again the spectral synthesis for the non-Seyfert galaxy NGC7049, with the new input parameters specified above in order to verify if there is any change relative to results found in R01. There are no significant differences: the stellar population is dominated by the 10 Gyr metal rich component at the nucleus, with its contribution decreasing beyond 1 kpc, while the contribution of the 1 Gyr component increases outwards. In figure 5 we show the synthesis results for this galaxy. The results are presented as proportions of the flux contributed by each component at $`\lambda `$4020 Å and the internal reddening E(B-V)i of the galaxy. The panels show from bottom to top the contribution from: the sum of the four 10 Gyr components; the sum of the three 1 Gyr components; the sum of two 100 Myr components; the sum of the two 10 Myr components; the sum of the 3 Myr component and FC (F$`{}_{\nu }{}^{}\nu ^{1.5}`$). The top panel shows the internal reddening E(B-V)i obtained from the synthesis. At the bottom panel we also show separately, with open symbols, the sum of the two metal poor components. The vertical bars are the standard deviation of the results. The vertical lines crossing all panels mark distances of 1 kpc and 3 kpc from the nucleus.

The results of the synthesis for the Sa-Sc non-Seyfert galaxies are summarized in Fig. 6, where we show the values for all non-Seyferts together, due to the small number of points for each individual galaxy. In order to group the results, we had first to transform the angular distances to linear distances at each galaxy. For most galaxies, the stellar population in the nucleus is composed by $``$65 per cent of the 10 Gyr component and $``$30 per cent of the 1 Gyr component. The contribution of the other components are not significant. In six (of seven) galaxies the 10 Gyr component decreases while the 1 Gyr component increases outwards, similarly to the S0 non-Seyfert galaxies behaviour.

A distinct result is found for the Sc galaxy NGC1637 which has recent star formation: at the nucleus the component of 10 Gyr contributes with 35 per cent, that of 1 Gyr with 30 per cent and those younger than 1 Gyr contribute with the remaining 35 per cent of the flux at 4020Å (this galaxy has little information about the stellar population outside the nucleus – only up to $``$ 100 pc from the nucleus).

The E(B-V)i for these galaxies range from 0.1 to 0.6 and it is larger than those for S0 galaxies. The largest E(B-V)i is found for NGC1637, the galaxy with recent star formation.

### 4.2 Synthesis results for the Seyfert 2 galaxies

In order to describe the synthesis results for the Seyfert 2 galaxies, we have grouped the sample in four classes according to their most important nuclear stellar component and describe the main characteristics (or variations) in the populations at the nucleus and outside, using the 1 kpc and 3 kpc (when possible) locations as references. In the following discussion, we consider a population component significant when it contributes with at least 10 per cent of the total flux at 4020Å.

#### 4.2.1 Dominant 10 Gyr metal rich stellar population

In this group are Mrk573, NGC5929, NGC2110, Mrk3, NGC7212, Mrk348 and Mrk34, whose nuclear stellar population is dominated by the 10 Gyr metal rich (with solar or above metalicity) component. The galaxies are sorted above according the importance of the rich component, whose contribution ranges from about 60 per cent of the total flux at 4020Å in Mrk573 to 30 per cent in Mrk34. At the nucleus all these galaxies have a contribution of the 1 Gyr component of at least 15 per cent of the total flux. Some of these objects also have significant nuclear contributions of younger components: Mrk3 with 20 per cent of 3 Myr/FC, Mrk34 with 10 per cent of 10 Myr old and 10 per cent of 3 Myr/FC and NGC7212 with 15 per cent of 3 Myr/FC.

In Figs. 7 and 8 we show the spatial variation of the spectral synthesis results for galaxies of this group. The extranuclear old metal rich component contribution is similar to that of the nucleus in Mrk 3, Mrk 34 and NGC2110, while in the other galaxies this component decreases outwards. The 1 Gyr component increases outwards in all galaxies. The younger components decrease outwards in the galaxies for which they are significant ($`>`$10 per cent) at the nucleus.

In Fig. 9 we compare the observed spectrum (solid-line) with the synthetic one (dashed-line) for one galaxy of this group (NGC5929) at the nuclear and off-nuclear regions. The synthetic spectra were constructed using the star cluster templates (Bica & Alloin 1986, 1987) combined in the proportions given by the synthesis. The synthetic spectra reproduce well the observed ones, considering the lower spectral resolution of the available templates ($``$ 10-20Å) as compared to the observations ($``$ 3Å).

#### 4.2.2 Dominant 1 Gyr stellar population

The galaxies of this group are Mrk78, NGC1386, IC3639, Mrk1073, NGC1068, Mrk1 and Mrk1066, sorted according to the importance of the nuclear 1 Gyr component. In Mrk78 this component contributes with about 50 per cent of the total flux at 4020Å and in Mrk1066 with about 20 per cent. All of them have a significant nuclear contribution of the 10 Gyr component, and all but NGC1386 also have significant contribution of the components younger than 1 Gyr.

The synthesis results as a function of distance from the nucleus for these galaxies are shown in Figs. 10 and 11. Throughout the central 2 kpc the galaxies Mrk78 and NGC1386 have contributions of the 10 Gyr, 1 Gyr and 100 Myr components similar to those at the nucleus. NGC1386 also has significant contributions of the components 100 Myr old and younger outside the nucleus (at 300 and 660 pc), which is different from the nuclear one.

In Mrk1066 the components of 10 Gyr and 1 Gyr increase and those younger than 1 Gyr decrease outwards, while the population in IC3639 has a completely opposite behaviour.

The population outside the nucleus in Mrk1 has contributions of the 1 Gyr and 100 Myr components similar to those at the nucleus and the contribution of the 10 Gyr component increases while that of the components younger than 100 Myr decreases. In Mrk1073 the components of 10 Gyr and 1 Gyr have similar contributions to those at the nucleus and the contribution of the 100 Myr component increases while that of the components younger than 100 Myr decreases outwards.

In Fig. 12 we compare the observed spectrum (solid-line) with the synthetic one (dashed-line) for one galaxy of this group (Mrk1073) at the nuclear and off-nuclear regions. All spectra present the high-order Balmer lines in absorption, characteristic of stellar populations younger than 1 Gyr.

4.2.2.1 NGC1068

At the nucleus of this galaxy all components are significant but we would like to highlight the importance of the 3 Myr/FC component. It contributes with about 17 per cent of the total light at 4020Å. This result is consistent with the contribution of polarized light from the hidden Seyfert 1 nucleus (e.g. Antonucci et al. 1994).

Outside the nucleus, all age components continue to be important, contributing with more than 10 per cent to the flux at 4020Å and indicating the presence of recent star-formation throughout the observed region. In particular at knot J (about 750 pc from the nucleus, NW – positive direction) and at knot C (about 2 kpc from the nucleus, SE – negative direction) the 3Myr/FC component is as important as in the nucleus, contributing about 20 and 25 per cent respectively. This result confirms that these are active star-forming regions. From the synthesis, knot C is younger than knot J. At 3 kpc from the the nucleus the 3 Myr/FC component is not significant.

In Fig. 13 we compare the observed spectrum (solid-line) with the synthetic one (dashed-line) for the nucleus and knots C and J.

#### 4.2.3 Dominant 100 Myr stellar population

In this group are Mrk273, Mrk533 and NGC7130, for which the 100 Myr component contributes about 30 per cent to the nuclear flux at 4020 Å. The 10 Gyr component contributes with about 20 per cent. The other components also have significant contributions at the nucleus of these galaxies, except 3Myr/FC in Mrk273.

The results of the synthesis for galaxies of this group are shown in Fig.14. Outside the nucleus of NGC7130 the contribution of components with 10 Gyr and 1 Gyr increases while that of the components younger than 100 Myr decreases.

The population of Mrk533 shows large variations in the 10 Gyr, 100 Myr and 3 Myr/FC components in the central 2 kpc. In the central 6 kpc the global tendencies are that the component with 1 Gyr increases and the 100 Myr component decreases outwards, while the 10 Gyr component and the components younger than 100 Myr have contributions similar to those at the nucleus.

In Mrk273 the contributions do not vary significantly across the central 6 kpc.

In Fig. 15 we compare the observed spectrum (solid-line) with the synthetic one (dashed-line) for one galaxy of this group (Mrk273) at the nuclear and off-nuclear regions. All spectra present the high-order Balmer lines in absorption, characteristic of stellar populations younger than 1 Gyr.

#### 4.2.4 Dominant 3 Myr/FC component

Here are Mrk463E, Mrk477 and NGC5135. The 3 Myr/FC component ranges from 40 per cent to 30 per cent contribution to the nuclear flux at 4020 Å. At the nucleus Mrk 463E and Mrk477 also have significant flux contributions of the 10 Gyr, 1 Gyr and 10 Myr populations, about 15 per cent each. Besides those, the 100 Myr component contributes about 15 per cent at the nucleus of the NGC5135.

In Fig. 16 we show the synthesis results for these galaxies as a function of distance from the nucleus. In Mrk477 the contribution of the 3 Myr/FC component decreases and that of the 100 Myr component increases outwards. The other components have contributions similar to those at the nucleus.

Outside the nucleus of Mrk463E the behaviour is not symmetric. At one side (positive direction) the 3 Myr/FC component decreases and the 10 Myr and 100 Myr components increase outwards. At the other side these components have the opposite behaviour.

The stellar population of the galaxy Mrk463E has been studied in R01 although with different spatial sampling, spectral range for the observations and normalization wavelength for the synthesis. It is intersting to compare the results of the present work with those of R01 in order to verify the robustness of our method. This comparison shows a general agreement in the sense that the stellar population is dominated by the young components ($``$100 Myr old). Differences are found in the relative contribution of the 100 and 10 Myr components. Investigating the reason for this difference we conclude it is due to the fact that this galaxy has very small W values and the synthesis is strongly constrained by the continuum, which is affected by calibration uncertainties. Nevertheless, within the scape of the present paper, these differences do not alter our main conclusions.

In NGC5135 the contribution of the components of 10 Gyr and 1 Gyr increases and that of the components younger than 1 Gyr decreases outwards.

In Fig. 17 we compare the observed spectrum (solid-line) with the synthetic one (dashed-line) for one galaxy of this group (Mrk477) at the nuclear and off-nuclear regions. The nuclear spectrum is dominated by gas emission of the AGN narrow line region and the star-forming regions. Outside the emission decreases and we can see the high-order Balmer lines in absorption, characteristic of stellar populations younger than 1 Gyr.

We summarize the synthesis results discussed above in Table 4 which shows the contribution of four age bins: 10 Gyr, 1 Gyr, 100Myr+10Myr and 3Myr/FC to the nuclear and extranuclear spectra (at 1 kpc and 3 kpc from the nucleus) of the sample. The Seyfert 2 galaxies are grouped according to the Hubble type (from top to bottom) in the top part of table: the first group contains the S0 galaxies, the second the Sa-Sb’s, the third the Sbc’s and the fourth the galaxies with uncertain morphological type. In the bottom part of table are those for the non-Seyfert galaxies. For these galaxies, due to the smaller signal-to-noise ratio of the 1.5m observations, we could only reach distances at the galaxies somewhat smaller than 1 kpc. In order to allow a comparison with the Seyfert data we decided to show the results for the synthesis at 1 kpc from the nucleus, obtained by extrapolation from the extranuclear spectra. We did the extrapolation based on the hypothesis that the stellar population varies smoothly with the distance from the nucleus, like in the S0 non-Seyfert galaxies studied in R01. This seems to be a reasonable assumption, if one compares Fig.5 with Fig.6, which show similar behaviour of the stellar population gradients for the S0 and later Hubble types. The extrapolated values are shown between parenthesis in Table 4.

E(B-V)i values are found throughout the observed region in the range $`0<`$E(B-V)$`{}_{i}{}^{}<0.7`$. The large E(B-V)i variations present in almost all Seyfert 2 galaxies are likely due to a non-uniform dust distribution (Malkan et al. 1998).

## 5 Discussion

From the synthesis results, the main characteristics of the stellar population of the present Seyfert 2 sample are:

a) At the nucleus 75 per cent of the sample (15 galaxies) have contribution of ages $``$ 100 Myr (or/and FC) larger than 20 per cent. This result is in agreement with those of Schmitt et al. (1999), Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2000) and González Delgado et al. (2001), who found that in $``$ 40 per cent of nearby Seyfert 2 galaxies there are clear signatures of young stars and in another 30 per cent there is a blue continuum which can be either due to a FC or a stellar population younger than 10 Myr. 55 per cent (11 galaxies), have significant ($`>`$ 10 per cent) 3 Myr/FC component at the nucleus.

b) At 1kpc from the nucleus, 70 per cent of the sample have contribution of ages $``$ 100 Myr (or/and FC) larger than 20 per cent and 50 per cent have a significant 3 Myr/FC component.

c) At 3 kpc, 45 per cent of the sample have contribution of ages $``$ 100 Myr (or/and FC) larger than 20 per cent and 25 per cent have a significant 3 Myr/FC population.

d) The contribution of the 1 Gyr component increases outwards from the nucleus in 13 galaxies while the old metal rich component decreases in 7 galaxies. This behaviour was also found in S0 non-Seyfert galaxies studied by R01.

e) The contribution of old metal poor component is significant in 17 galaxies of the sample.

The latter result was also found in R01 and in that work we hypothesized that this contribution, larger than that found in non-Seyfert S0 galaxies, could be an effect of degeneracy between the old metal poor component and the 3 Myr/FC component. In order to verify if this effect is important we repeated the spectral synthesis excluding the metal poor components. We show in Fig.18 the results of the synthesis without these components (crosses) as compared with the synthesis using all components (filled dots), for two extreme cases: Mrk348 and IC3639.

In Mrk348, in the new synthesis, the missing contribution of the metal poor components is shared among all other younger components and the only significant change is in the 10 Gyr population which decreases in about 15 per cent of the total flux at 4020Å. In the other extreme case of IC3639, while the old population decreases about 20 per cent, the 100 Myr component increases about 10 per cent in the new synthesis. The remaining 10 per cent is shared among the other components.

We thus conclude that such possible degeneracy effects are not large in the synthesis. In addition, although the 10 Gyr metal poor component presents a small contribution in S0’s, B88 shows that this component is larger in later-type galaxies, and we would thus need to compare the results for the Seyferts with those of non-Seyfert galaxies of the same Hubble type, considering that, besides 7 S0/Sa’s, the present sample comprises 4 Sab/Sb’s and 2 Sbc’s, and 7 galaxies with uncertain morphology.

### 5.1 Comparison with synthesis results for non-active galaxies

A comparison of the Seyfert 2 stellar population properties and their radial variations with those of non-active galaxies of the same Hubble type is necessary in order to search for systematic differences in the Seyfert sample, which could be related to the AGN phenomenon.

In Table 4 we summarize the individual synthesis results for the Seyfert 2 and non-Seyfert galaxies and in Table 5 we show the corresponding average results for each Hubble type, including also those for the three non-Seyfert S0 galaxies from R01 and the reference sample of B88 (in this latter case we show the integrated results from apertures of $``$ 1 kpc$`\times `$1 kpc).

Presently, we have three S0 non-Seyfert galaxies studied with the same method applied to the present Seyfert 2 sample, large spatial coverage (up to 3 kpc from the nucleus) and typical sampling regions at the galaxy of 200 pc. For Hubble types later than S0, we have the seven non-Seyfert galaxies studied in this work, with a more restrict spatial coverage and a similar typical sampling. In order to compare the results for these Sa to Sc galaxies with those for the active ones, we had to extrapolate the stellar population synthesis to 1 kpc using the nuclear and available extranuclear spectra.

Because the number of non-Seyfert galaxies is reduced we also use as reference the study of B88. We have performed the spectral synthesis of the templates using the same Ws and Cs used for our sample. The synthesis results were then averaged in order to obtain the “typical” population of each Hubble type Sa, Sb and Sc. As the dimensions of the regions studied by B88 are much larger than those corresponding to our nuclear extractions, we need to take into account both the nuclear and extranuclear synthesis results from our Seyfert 2 sample in the comparison with the non-Seyfert galaxies.

Comparing the synthesis results for the Seyferts with those for non-Seyferts of the same Hubble type we realize that, at the nucleus, the contribution of the 10 Gyr component is smaller in Seyfert 2 galaxies than in non-Seyfert galaxies in eleven (of the thirteen, which have Hubble types from S0 to Sbc) of them. The component with 1 Gyr is similar in Seyfert 2 and non-Seyfert galaxies in four objects, larger in five Sy2 and smaller in four. In terms of average values (for each Hubble type) the 1 Gyr contribution is larger for S0 Sy2, and comparable to that of non-Seyferts for Sa to Sbc Hubble type. The components younger than 1 Gyr and FC are larger in Sy2 than in non-Seyferts in eleven galaxies.

At 1 kpc from the nucleus we found for S0 galaxies the contribution of the 10 Gyr component is always smaller in Sy2 than in non-Seyferts, while the contribution of the 1 Gyr and younger components are normally larger. In the later Hubble type galaxies we have usually a smaller contribution of both the 10 Gyr and 1 Gyr components and a larger contribution of the youngest components in Sy2’s than in non-Seyferts.

There are 7 galaxies with uncertain morphology: Mrk1, Mrk34, Mrk78, Mrk273, Mrk463E, Mrk477 and NGC7212, all but Mrk34 and Mrk78 in clear interaction. At the nucleus all of them have significant contribution of components younger than 1 Gyr, while at 3 kpc from the nucleus only for two of them this does not happen. We do not have a reference study, similar to the one we have performed here, for the stellar population in non-active interacting galaxies, but it is a well known result that these galaxies frequently show recent episodes of star-formation, triggered by the interaction (Sanders & Mirabel 1996 and references therein). Thus the results we have obtained for these Seyfert 2 galaxies do not seem peculiar.

Regarding to E(B-V)i values, non-Seyferts S0 galaxies present small internal reddening throghout the central 6 kpc while Seyfert galaxies with same Hubble type have normally larger values and large variation. For later-type galaxies, we did not find significant differences between Seyfert and non-Seyfert galaxies. Both present large E(B-V)i variations (from 0 to 0.7), likely due to a non-uniform dust distribution.

## 6 Summary and Conclusions

In this paper we have analysed the stellar population of a sample of 20 Seyfert 2 galaxies as a function of distance from the nucleus, comparing the contribution of different age components with those for non-Seyfert galaxies of the same Hubble type.

The main conclusions can be summarized as follows.

1) The radial distribution of the CaIIK and G-band Ws show smaller values at the nucleus than that at $``$ 1 kpc from it for 11 of the 20 Seyfert 2 galaxies of the sample, suggesting dilution by a blue continuum from a FC or young stars; two present larger W values at the nucleus than outside, similar to non-Seyfert S0 galaxies, and in the remaining there is no obvious dilution, nor a systematic variation with the distance similar to that observed for the S0 galaxy.

2) Stellar population synthesis shows that, while at the nucleus, 75 per cent of the galaxies present contribution $``$ 20 per cent of ages $``$100 Myr (or/and FC), this proportion decreases to 45 per cent at 3 kpc. In particular, 55 per cent of the galaxies have contribution $`>`$ 10 per cent of the 3 Myr/FC component at the nucleus, but only 25 per cent of them have this component at 3 kpc.

3) Our results point to a systematic difference between the stellar population of Seyfert galaxies and those of non-Seyfert galaxies for the Hubble types from S0 to Sbc. At the nucleus and up to 1 kpc from it the contribution of ages younger than 1 Gyr is in most cases larger in the Seyferts than in non-Seyfert galaxies. Regarding the 1 Gyr component, at the nucleus its contribution is for the Seyferts, on average, larger for S0’s and similar to that of non-Seyfert for later type galaxies. Outside the nucleus it is again larger for the S0 Sy2s but smaller for the later type Seyfert when compared to the non-Seyferts. The 10 Gyr component shows a larger contribution in non-Seyferts than in Seyferts. Both the Seyferts and non-Seyferts show a decrease of the contribution of the 10 Gyr component and an increase of the 1 Gyr component with distance from the nucleus, although the gradient seems to be steeper for the non-Seyfert galaxies.

In the evolutionary scenario proposed by Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2001) and Cid Fernandes et al. (2001), the results above indicate that the interactions which trigger the AGN and circumnuclear bursts of star-formation, also trigger bursts along the body of the galaxy, at least within the inner 1 kpc.

## Acknowledgments

D.R., T.S.B. and R.C.F. acknowledge support from the Brazilian Institutions CNPq, CAPES and FAPERGS. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. We thank an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions which helped to improve the paper.