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# Search for Lepton Flavor-Violating 𝜏→𝜇𝛾 Decay

## 1 Introduction

Charged lepton flavor-violating decays, such as $`\tau \mu \gamma `$, $`e\gamma `$, $`\mu \mu \mu `$ and $`\mu e\gamma `$, are forbidden in the Standard Model (or highly suppressed even if we consider neutrino mixing). However, new physics beyond the Standard Model allows lepton flavor violation (LFV) decays. In supersymmetric models, left-right symmetric models and others , the branching ratio of the $`\tau \mu \gamma `$ decay, Br($`\tau \mu \gamma `$), is predicted to be $`10^{5\text{-}6}`$ times higher than Br($`\mu e\gamma `$) because of the large $`\tau `$ mass. Also, some SUSY models predict Br $``$ O($`10^7`$), which can be reachable by B-factory experiments of high luminosity.

The current upper limit of Br($`\tau \mu \gamma `$) is $`1.1\times 10^6`$ (90%CL), measured by the CLEO experiment . Our first analysis with 10 fb-1 of data resulted in a slightly better upper limit of $`1\times 10^6`$ (90%CL) . Also, the BaBar group recently reported an upper limit of $`2.0\times 10^6`$ (90%CL) using 56 million $`\tau `$ pairs at the ICHEP2002 conference .

Data is accumulated with the Belle detector  at the KEKB accelerator . KEKB is an asymmetric $`e^+e^{}`$ collider with a center-of-mass energy of 10.58 GeV. Its current peak luminosity is $`7.4\times 10^{33}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$ and the total integrated luminosity amounts to 89.6 fb-1 as of summer, 2002. Here we present an analysis using 32.6 fb-1 of data, corresponding to 29.7 million $`\tau `$ pairs.

## 2 Event selection

In order to determine the selection criteria, a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is performed using the KORALB generator  for $`\tau `$-pair samples and a QQ generator  for other physics processes, as noted below. GEANT  is used for the full detector simulation. We prepare two kinds of $`\tau `$ pair samples: signal and $`\tau `$-pair background, and several kinds of background samples: $`\mathrm{B}^0\overline{\mathrm{B}}^0`$, $`\mathrm{B}^+\mathrm{B}^{}`$, continuum, Bhabha, $`\mu \mu `$ and two-photon processes of $`\mathrm{eeee}`$, $`\mathrm{ee}\mu \mu `$, $`\mathrm{eeu}\overline{\mathrm{u}}/\mathrm{d}\overline{\mathrm{d}}`$, $`\mathrm{ees}\overline{\mathrm{s}}`$ and $`\mathrm{eec}\overline{\mathrm{c}}`$. In the signal MC samples, one $`\tau `$ decays to $`\mu \gamma `$ and the other $`\tau `$ decays generically. The angular distribution of two-body $`\tau \mu \gamma `$ decay is assumed to be uniform in the $`\tau `$’s rest frame.

A candidate event is required to be
$`(\mu \gamma )+[(\mathrm{a}\mathrm{charged}\mathrm{particle}\mathrm{but}\mathrm{not}\mu )`$
$`+(0\gamma )+\mathrm{missing}],`$
which we hereafter denote as “$`\mu ^{\mathrm{not}}\mu `$” events. We therefore select events with “2 charged-tracks and $``$1 $`\gamma `$” with the expected accompanying missing momentum. Below, kinematical variables are defined in the laboratory frame, while those defined in the center-of-mass frame of the system are indicated with an index “CM”. Two oppositely charged particles are required to have a transverse momentum of $`p_t>0.1`$ GeV/$`c`$ and a momentum of $`p^{\mathrm{CM}}<4.5`$ GeV/$`c`$ to reject Bhabha and $`\mu \mu `$ background events. For the signal, a muon track is required to satisfy $`0.819<\mathrm{cos}\theta _\mu <0.906`$ and $`p_\mu >1.0`$ GeV/$`c`$, and to have a $`\mu `$-probability of more than 0.90 from the KL/muon detector (KLM). The signal photon is selected by requiring $`0.866<\mathrm{cos}\theta _\gamma <0.956`$ and $`E_\gamma >0.5`$ GeV. The charged particle on the tag side is required to not be a muon within $`0.819<\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{tag}}<0.906`$. In order to remove the background from radiative $`\mu \mu `$, two-photon and other non-$`\tau `$ processes, we apply the following criteria. The opening angle between the two charged particles be greater than $`90^{}`$, and for the missing particle, $`p_{\mathrm{miss}}>0.4`$ GeV/$`c`$ and $`17^{}<\theta _{\mathrm{miss}}<150^{}`$.

To remove the $`\tau `$-pair background, we demand the opening angle between the $`\mu `$ and $`\gamma `$ of the signal candidate to be $`0.4<\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mu \gamma }^{\mathrm{CM}}<0.8`$ and the opening angle between the charged particle in tag side and the missing momentum to be $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{tag}\mathrm{miss}}^{\mathrm{CM}}>0.4`$. The distributions for these variables are shown in Fig. 1. A further selection is applied for the missing momentum ($`p_{\mathrm{miss}}`$) and the missing mass squared ($`m_{\mathrm{miss}}^2`$) as $`p_{\mathrm{miss}}>5m_{\mathrm{miss}}^21`$ and $`p_{\mathrm{miss}}>1.5m_{\mathrm{miss}}^21`$, as shown in Fig. 2. With these selections, the signal efficiency is evaluated to be 12.8% by MC and the remaining rate of background is $`5.7\times 10^6`$ for $`\tau `$-pairs and $`2\times 10^6`$ for the radiative $`\mu \mu `$.

The signal region on the $`M_{\mathrm{inv}}`$-$`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ plane is determined using the signal MC while assuming a uniform background distribution around the signal peak, where $`M_{\mathrm{inv}}`$ is the invariant mass of the $`\mu `$-$`\gamma `$ system and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ is the energy difference between the $`\mu `$-$`\gamma `$ system and the beam energy in the CM frame. Although we used a box shape to define the signal region in previous analysis, we now employ an elliptic shape in order to enhance the sensitivity, because the signal distribution has a tail due to the initial-state radiation and photon energy leakage from the CsI photon detector. Fig. 3 shows an ellipse with the highest signal-to-background ratio for a total detection efficiency of 9.0%.

With all selections, 69 events remain within the regions called “Area”, defined to be $`1.5<M_{\mathrm{inv}}<2.0`$ GeV/$`c^2`$ and $`0.5<\mathrm{\Delta }E<0.5`$ GeV. One event is observed in the signal region, as plotted in Fig. 3.

## 3 Background estimate

It is not straightforward to use a sideband to estimate the background in the signal region, since it largely depends on the sideband allocation for small samples, especially in the case of a structural distribution.

The backgrounds from $`\tau `$ pairs distribute in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E<0`$ region, as shown in Fig. 4, and could possibly contaminate the signal region. While a negligibly small portion of $`\tau `$ pairs is found at $`\mathrm{\Delta }E>0`$, the data extend to $`0<\mathrm{\Delta }E<0.2`$. Our study finds these to be radiative $`\mu \mu `$ events, one in which muon is not identified due to the KLM inefficiency. Fig. 4(b) shows the events that passed the same selection criteria as the signal, with the tagged track required to be a muon. We call these “$`\mu \mu `$” events. The muon identification inefficiency is estimated to be about 8%.

The background rate is therefore calculated using

$`N_{\mathrm{BG}}=N^{\mu ^{\mathrm{not}}\mu }(\mathrm{MC})`$
$`+\{N^{\mu \mu }(\mathrm{data})N^{\mu \mu }(\mathrm{MC})\}\times \left({\displaystyle \frac{\eta }{1\eta }}\right),`$ (1)
where $`N^{\mu ^{\mathrm{not}}\mu }(\mathrm{MC})`$ is the number of “$`\mu ^{\mathrm{not}}\mu `$” events estimated by MC. The background is mostly $`\tau `$-pair background and a small portion of the continuum. $`N^{\mu \mu }(\mathrm{data})`$ is the number of “$`\mu \mu `$” events extracted from data. The last term is included to avoid double counting. The resultant background rates of the individual contributions in Eq.(1) are listed in Table 1.

Only 5 continuum events (8% in the Area) remain in “$`\mu ^{\mathrm{not}}\mu `$” samples for 32.6 fb-1 luminosity in the Area, but outside of the signal region. The contribution of the fourth term is not significant. It is only 1.9% in the Area.

A comparison between the number of the observed events and the expected backgrounds is given in Fig. 5. The center box is the signal region used in the previous analysis. We find a good agreement between them. We observe 69 events with an expected background of $`62.5\pm 3.5`$ events.

Comparisons of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ and $`M_{\mathrm{inv}}`$ distributions between data (dots) and the expected background (open histogram) are also shown in Fig. 6. While a uniform distribution is seen for $`M_{\mathrm{inv}}`$, a two-bump structure is found in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distribution. The two bumps corresponds to $`\tau `$ pair backgrounds and radiative $`\mu \mu `$ processes.

Fig. 7 shows the $`p_\mu `$ and $`E_\gamma `$ distributions of the signal candidate for the same samples of Fig. 6. Both bumps in the high-$`p_\mu `$ and the low-$`E_\gamma `$ regions are due to the remaining radiative $`\mu \mu `$ samples.

As can be seen in Figs. 6 and 7, the distributions of the expected backgrounds are very consistent with the data.

## 4 Result

In the signal region, we find one event, as shown in Fig. 3. The number of background events is evaluated to be $`2.5\pm 0.6`$. The upper limit is obtained using the Bayesian approach (following refs ,  and ) with the equation

$$\frac{e^{(s_0+b_0)}_{n=0}^{n_0}(s_0+b_0)^n/n!}{e^{b_0}_{n=0}^{n_0}b_0^n/n!}=0.1,$$
(2)
where $`s_0`$ is the upper limit on the signal at 90% confidence, $`b_0`$ is the number of expected background events and $`n_0`$ is the number of observed events. We obtain $`s_0=4.1`$.

The systematic uncertainties of the detection efficiency are listed in Table 2. The conservative and preliminary evaluation gives a 6.7% error in total.

Finally, we obtain a preliminary result for the upper limit of Br($`\tau \mu \gamma `$) using 29.7 million $`\tau `$ pairs with $`ϵ=`$9.0% detection efficiency, as

$$Br(\tau \mu \gamma )<6\times 10^7.$$


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# Comment on “Limits of the measurability of the local quantum electromagnetic-field amplitude”

## Abstract

It is argued that the findings of a recent reanalysis by Compagno and Persico \[Phys. Rev. A 57, 1595 (1998)\] of the Bohr–Rosenfeld procedure for the measurement of a single space-time-averaged component of the electromagnetic field are incorrect when the field measurement time is shorter than that required for light to traverse the measurement’s test body. To this end, the time-averaged “self-force” on the test body, assumed for simplicity to be of a spherical shape, is evaluated in terms of a one-dimensional quadrature for the general trajectory allowed for the test body by Compagno and Persico, and in closed form for the limiting steplike trajectory used by Bohr and Rosenfeld.

PACS number(s): 12.20.Ds

In a recent paper, Compagno and Persico (CP)  revisited the famous analysis of the measurability of the electromagnetic field by Bohr and Rosenfeld (BR) . CP analyze the BR procedure for the measurement of a single space-time-averaged component of the electromagnetic field by treating the interaction of an extended test body with the local quantized electromagnetic field quantum-mechanically in the electric dipole approximation, which is valid for field measurement times $`\tau >a/c`$ ($`a`$ characterizes the linear dimensions of the test body). They obtain a minimum uncertainty in the measured field component that they claim is different from that obtained by BR and which the latter authors eliminated by connecting the test body to the reference frame by a compensating spring. CP eliminate their minimum uncertainty simply by removing from the measurement the neutralizing body employed in the BR procedure to minimize the test body’s field effects.

To investigate why their findings differ from the widely accepted BR results, CP re-calculate the force on the test body due to the field created by the neutralizing body and the test body itself using classical electrodynamics as the BR analysis, and thus not restricting the field measurement times $`\tau `$ to only $`\tau >a/c`$. However, CP here relax the BR assumption that the test body’s unpredictable displacement resulting from the initial momentum measurement stays constant throughout the time period of the field measurement. Using this calculation, CP confirm the results of their quantum-mechanical treatment of the problem, and identify the reason for what they believe is the difference between their results and those of BR in the approximation, according to CP incorrect, of a constant displacement of the test body, which allows us to take the test body’s trajectory outside a time integration and recovers the BR results. CP thus draw a far-reaching conclusion that a single space-time-averaged component of the electromagnetic field can be measured with arbitrary accuracy without any use of compensating forces even when the field measurement time $`\tau <a/c`$; in their opinion, the necessity for compensating forces of non-electromagnetic nature would indicate that quantum electrodynamics is not self-consistent as a physical theory.

Using the Fourier-transform methods of a recent work , where the geometric factors of the field commutators and spring constants employed in the BR analysis are calculated, we evaluate here, as explicitly as is possible in general terms, the time-averaged force on a spherical test body that is due to the fields, calculated assuming classical electrodynamics, of both the test and neutralization bodies; following CP, we call this force the test body’s average self-force. Using this evaluation, we show that the limiting average self-force obtained by BR with a steplike trajectory of the test body’s constant displacement approximates well the time-averaged self-force obtained with a trajectory that, while conforming to the condition that the test body’s maximum speed $`v_{\mathrm{max}}c`$, approaches sufficiently closely the BR steplike trajectory. This provides a rigorous justification of the fact that the use of a steplike trajectory is fully consistent with the physical assumptions of the BR analysis, and refutes the implication of CP that such an approximation is incorrect.

We show also that the BR average self-force for a given field measurement time $`\tau <a/c`$ has a component that is the steplike-trajectory limit of the time average of what CP call the radiation-reaction component of the self-force and which is not affected by the removal of the neutralizing body. Contrary to the conclusion of CP, this implies the need for a BR compensating spring even if the removal of the neutralizing body would leave the “radiation-reaction” component as the net self-force. This is because the time average of the “radiation-reaction” component for field measurement times $`\tau <a/c`$ cannot be reduced arbitrarily when the test body’s trajectory is of a sufficiently steplike character—and such a kind of trajectory is necessitated by the requirements on the type of momentum measurements that have to be performed on the test body.

Our starting point is expression (37) of CP, which they obtained for the self-force on a test body that describes a trajectory $`Q(t_1)`$ along a given direction, say the $`x`$-direction, during the field measurement period $`0t_1\tau `$. This self-force is due to the fields of the test body itself and of a neutralizing body charged oppositely and occupying permanently the space region of the test body’s initial location, and CP assumed in its derivation that the test body’s displacement $`Q`$ and velocity $`\dot{Q}`$ are such that $`|Q|a`$ and $`|\dot{Q}|c`$. We assume that the test body has a constant charge density $`\rho _c`$ and is spherical with radius $`R`$, and describe its spatial region using a uniform distribution normalized to unit volume, $`\rho (r)=(1/V)\mathrm{\Theta }(Rr)`$, $`V=(4/3)\pi R^3`$. The test body’s self-force $`F(t_2)`$ for $`0t_2\tau `$ is thus given as

$`F(t_2)`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _c^2V^2{\displaystyle \rho (r_1)𝑑𝐫_1\rho (r_2)𝑑𝐫_2}`$ (2)
$`\times {\displaystyle _0^\tau }dt_1Q(t_1)A_{xx}^{(1,2)}(t,𝐫),`$
where the quantity $`A_{xx}^{(1,2)}`$ is the distribution

$$A_{xx}^{(1,2)}(t,𝐫)=\left(\frac{^2}{x_1x_2}\frac{^2}{t_1t_2}\right)\frac{\delta (tr)}{r},$$
(3)
with $`t=t_2t_1`$, $`𝐫=𝐫_2𝐫_1`$, and $`r=|𝐫|`$. Units in which the speed of light $`c=1`$ are used henceforth.

The quantity of our interest is the time-averaged self-force $`\overline{F}=(1/\tau )_0^\tau 𝑑t_2F(t_2)`$, which can be written using Eq. (1) as

$$\overline{F}=\frac{\rho _c^2V^2}{\tau }_0^\tau 𝑑t_1Q(t_1)f(t_1),$$
(4)
where

$$f(t_1)=\rho (r_1)𝑑𝐫_1\rho (r_2)𝑑𝐫_2_0^\tau 𝑑t_2A_{xx}^{(1,2)}(t,𝐫).$$
(5)
With the spherically symmetric distribution $`\rho (r)`$, only the monopole component $`A_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t,r)`$ in a multipole expansion of the distribution $`A_{xx}^{(1,2)}(t,𝐫)`$ contributes to the double space integral in (4),

$$A_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t,r)=\frac{2}{3}\frac{\delta ^{\prime \prime }(tr)}{r}\frac{2}{3}\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\frac{ϵ}{(r+ϵ)^3}\frac{\delta (tr)}{r}.$$
(6)
Here, the second term arises from a regularization of the space derivative part in (2) by

$$\frac{^2}{x_1x_2}\frac{\delta (tr)}{r}=\underset{ϵ0}{lim}\frac{^2}{x_1x_2}\frac{\delta (tr)}{r+ϵ},$$
(7)
where the limit $`ϵ0`$ is understood to be taken only after a two-dimensional integration; it is the only term with which the regularization can contribute to the multidimensional integral (4) that defines the function $`f(t_1)`$. To evaluate this integral, we perform first the integration of the monopole component (5) with respect to time $`t_2`$:

$`\overline{A}_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t_1,r)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑t_2A_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t,r)={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ^{}(\tau t_1r)}{r}}`$ (9)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\underset{ϵ0}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{(r+ϵ)^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }(\tau t_1r)}{r}}.`$
Here, use was made of the fact that $`\delta ^{}(t_1r)=0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Theta }(t_1+r)=1`$ for $`t_1>0`$. The function $`f(t_1)`$ of Eq. (4) is now given by

$$f(t_1)=\rho (r_1)𝑑𝐫_1\rho (r_2)𝑑𝐫_2\overline{A}_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t_1,r),$$
(10)
where the double space integration can be done in closed form using the Fourier-transform method for evaluation of folding integrals :

$`f(t_1)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{6}{\pi R^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{}}}[j_1(qR)]^2\{2\mathrm{cos}[q(\tau t_1)]+1\}𝑑q`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2R^3}}(\chi 2)(22\chi \chi ^2)\mathrm{\Theta }(2\chi ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^3}},`$ (12)
where $`\chi =(\tau t_1)/R`$. The above momentum-space integral involves the Fourier transform $`3j_1(qR)/qR`$ of the uniform distribution $`\rho (r)`$, and the Fourier transform $`(4\pi /3)\{2\mathrm{cos}[q(\tau t_1)]+1\}`$ of the “folding” function $`\overline{A}_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t_1,r)`$; its evaluation was done with the help of the computing system Mathematica . Equations (3) and (9) give the average self-force $`\overline{F}`$ in terms of a one-dimensional quadrature involving the test-body’s so-far unspecified trajectory $`Q(t_1)`$. We now assume that the trajectory $`Q(t_1)`$ is of a steplike character, i.e., in an initial time interval $`(0,\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$ with $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\tau `$, the displacement $`Q(t_1)`$ goes smoothly from 0 to a value $`Q`$, then $`Q(t_1)=Q=\mathrm{const}`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }tt_1\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t`$, and in a final interval $`(\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t,\tau )`$ the displacement $`Q(t_1)`$ returns smoothly from $`Q`$ back to 0. As the test body’s maximum speed $`v_{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{max}|\dot{Q}(t_1)|`$, $`0t_1\tau `$ must satisfy the condition $`v_{\mathrm{max}}c`$, the constant $`Q`$ is such that $`|Q|<v_{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Delta }tc\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, and if one defines the mean speed $`\overline{v}`$ in the initial and final intervals by $`\overline{v}\mathrm{\Delta }t=|Q|`$, one also has that $`\overline{v}c`$. When the duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ of the initial and final time intervals is decreased, which needs to be done in order to approach the BR steplike trajectory, the constant $`Q`$, while staying finite, must decrease accordingly for a given test body’s maximum speed $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$. The average force (3) can now be written as

$`\overline{F}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _c^2V^2}{\tau }}[Q{\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Delta }t}^{\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t}}dt_1f(t_1)+{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{\Delta }t}}dt_1Q(t_1)f(t_1)`$ (14)
$`+{\displaystyle _{\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t}^\tau }dt_1Q(t_1)f(t_1)].`$
To simplify their calculations, BR obtained the average self-force on the test body assuming for it a strictly steplike trajectory $`Q_{\mathrm{BR}}(t_1)=Q\mathrm{\Theta }(t_1)\mathrm{\Theta }(\tau t_1)`$, which is a limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }t0`$ of our trajectory $`Q(t_1)`$. A formal substitution of the BR trajectory $`Q_{\mathrm{BR}}(t_1)`$ in (3) gives the time-averaged self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$, obtained by BR in a different way in their analysis:

$$\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}=\rho _c^2V^2\tau Q\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})},$$
(15)
where

$`\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau ^2}}{\displaystyle _0^\tau }𝑑t_1f(t_1)`$ (16)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8R^4\kappa }}(4+\kappa )(2\kappa )^2\mathrm{\Theta }(2\kappa ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^4\kappa }},`$ (17)
with $`\kappa =\tau /R`$, is a BR geometric factor for coinciding spherical space-time regions, which we here evaluated in closed form. According to Eqs. (11) and (12), the average BR self-force for a field measurement time $`\tau 2R`$ reduces to a force $`\rho _c^2V^2Q/R^3`$, which is the electrostatic force of attraction between the test and neutralization bodies when their centers are displaced by a distance $`|Q|R`$. Without the use of a compensating spring, Eq. (12) \[together with Eq. (48) of BR\] leads to a minimum uncertainty $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{}_x(\mathrm{}|\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}|)^{1/2}(\mathrm{}/\tau V)^{1/2}`$ in the measured field component $`\overline{}_x`$ for both $`\tau 2R`$ and $`\tau <2R`$—which in fact agrees with the uncertainty (28) of CP, obtained by them for $`\tau >2R`$ .

CP contend that the BR use of the steplike trajectory, which leads to the BR result (11), is incorrect, presumably as it implies that the velocity of the test body diverges in the vicinities of the beginning $`t_1=0`$ and end $`t_1=\tau `$ of the measurement period. However, with our evaluations (10) and (12) of the average self-force $`\overline{F}`$ and BR geometric factor $`\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}`$, it is easy to show that the BR self-force approximates correctly the self-force obtained with a “physical” trajectory of a sufficiently steplike character. Dividing the average self-force (10) by the BR average self-force (11), we get

$$\frac{\overline{F}}{\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}}=\frac{1}{\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}\tau ^2}_{\mathrm{\Delta }t}^{\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t}𝑑t_1f(t_1)+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_i}{\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}}+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_f}{\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}},$$
(18)
where the quantities $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_i`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_f`$ arise from the time intervals of duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ at the beginning $`t_1=0`$ and end $`t_1=\tau `$ of the trajectory, respectively. We find easily an upper bound on the absolute value of the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_i`$ using the facts that the maximum value of the function $`|f(t_1)|`$ is $`3/R^3`$ for $`0t_1\tau `$ \[see Eq. (9)\] and that $`|Q(t_1)|<v_{\mathrm{max}}\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ in the initial time interval:

$`|\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_i|={\displaystyle \frac{\rho _c^2V^2}{\tau }}\left|{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{\Delta }t}}𝑑t_1Q(t_1)f(t_1)\right|`$ (19)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _c^2V^2}{\tau }}{\displaystyle _0^{\mathrm{\Delta }t}}𝑑t_1|Q(t_1)||f(t_1)|<\rho _c^2V^2v_{\mathrm{max}}{\displaystyle \frac{3}{R^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t^2}{\tau }}.`$ (20)
We find in the same way the same upper bound on the absolute value of the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_f=(\rho _c^2V^2/\tau )_{\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t}^\tau 𝑑t_1Q(t_1)f(t_1)`$. The absolute values of both the ratios $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_{i,f}/\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ thus have an upper bound

$`\left|{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_{i,f}}{\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}}}\right|<{\displaystyle \frac{3}{\tau R^3|\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}|}}{\displaystyle \frac{v_{\mathrm{max}}}{\overline{v}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t}{\tau }}`$ (21)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{24}{(4+\kappa )(2\kappa )^2\mathrm{\Theta }(2\kappa )+8}}{\displaystyle \frac{v_{\mathrm{max}}}{\overline{v}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }t}{\tau }},`$ (22)
where we used Eq. (11) for $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ with $`|Q|=\overline{v}\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ and the closed-form expression (12) for $`\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}`$. As both the speeds $`v_{\mathrm{max}}`$ and $`\overline{v}`$ may be assumed to be independent of $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, the upper bound (15) can be made arbitrarily small by letting $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ be sufficiently small, and thus $`lim_{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}(\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{F}_{i,f}/\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}})=0`$. Using this result, the limit $`\mathrm{\Delta }t0`$ in Eq. (13) is simply

$$\underset{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}{lim}\frac{\overline{F}}{\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}}=1,$$
(23)
as $`_0^\tau 𝑑t_1f(t_1)=\tau ^2\overline{A}_{xx}^{(\mathrm{I},\mathrm{I})}`$. This means that while both $`lim_{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}\overline{F}=0`$ and $`lim_{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}=0`$ \[because $`lim_{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}|Q|=lim_{\mathrm{\Delta }t0}(\overline{v}\mathrm{\Delta }t)=0`$\], a “physical” average self-force $`\overline{F}`$ obtained with a sufficiently small but finite $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ and accordingly small but finite displacement $`|Q|c\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ is approximated arbitrarily closely by the BR self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ of Eq. (11):

$$\overline{F}\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}\mathrm{when}\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{is}\mathrm{sufficiently}\mathrm{small}.$$
(24)
We evaluate also an average force $`\overline{F}_Q`$, which is the time average of the force $`F_Q(t_2)`$ defined by Eq. (40) of CP as the component of the self-force $`F(t_2)`$ that is directly proportional to the displacement $`Q(t_2)`$. CP show that this force is canceled by a force that arises when the neutralizing body is removed temporarily for the duration of the field measurement. It is not clear whether a procedure could be devised for such a removal of the neutralizing body without introducing additional fields that affect the test body, but we shall leave this point aside. The average force $`\overline{F}_Q`$ can be written as

$$\overline{F}_Q=\frac{\rho _c^2V^2}{\tau }_0^\tau 𝑑t_2Q(t_2)g(t_2),$$
(25)
where

$`g(t_2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \rho (r_1)𝑑𝐫_1\rho (r_2)𝑑𝐫_2\frac{^2}{x_1x_2}\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }(t_2r)}{r}}`$ (26)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}f(\tau t_2){\displaystyle \frac{3}{2R^3}}`$ (27)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4R^3}}(2\xi )(22\xi \xi ^2)\mathrm{\Theta }(2\xi ){\displaystyle \frac{1}{R^3}},`$ (28)
with $`\xi =t_2/R`$. Here, the space integration is done simply by using the result (9) of the space integration in (8) on noting that the monopole component of the regularized function $`lim_{ϵ0}(^2/x_1x_2)[\mathrm{\Theta }(t_2r)/(r+ϵ)]`$ can be expressed in terms of the function $`\overline{A}_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(t_1,r)`$ as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta ^{}(t_2r)}{r}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}\underset{ϵ0}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{(r+ϵ)^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }(t_2r)}{r}}`$ (29)
$`={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\overline{A}_{xx\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}}^{(1,2)}(\tau t_2,r)\underset{ϵ0}{lim}{\displaystyle \frac{ϵ}{(r+ϵ)^3}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Theta }(t_2r)}{r}},`$ (30)
and that the contribution of the term $`(2/3)lim_{ϵ0}[ϵ/(r+ϵ)^3]\mathrm{\Theta }(\tau t_1r)/r`$ in Eq. (7) to the function $`f(t_1)`$ of Eq. (9) is $`1/R^3`$.

According to Eq. (19), the function $`g(t_2)`$ is related in a simple way to the function $`f(t_1)`$, and thus on the strength of the same argument as that leading to Eq. (17), but using the function $`g(t_2)`$ instead of the function $`f(t_1)`$, it follows that

$`\overline{F}_Q`$ $`\overline{F}_{Q(\mathrm{BR})}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}{\displaystyle \frac{3\rho _c^2V^2Q}{2R^3}}`$ (32)
$`\mathrm{when}\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{is}\mathrm{sufficiently}\mathrm{small},`$
where $`\overline{F}_{Q(\mathrm{BR})}=(\rho _c^2V^2Q/\tau )_0^\tau 𝑑t_2g(t_2)`$ is the average force $`\overline{F}_Q`$ obtained with the steplike trajectory $`Q_{\mathrm{BR}}(t_2)=Q\mathrm{\Theta }(t_2)\mathrm{\Theta }(\tau t_2)`$. Following CP, we now define an average force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}}=\overline{F}\overline{F}_Q`$, which is the time average of what CP call the “radiation-reaction” component $`F_{\mathrm{RR}}(t_2)`$ \[see Eq. (40) of CP\] of the self-force $`F(t_2)`$. Using Eqs. (17) and (21), it is seen easily that

$`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}}`$ $`(\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}\overline{F}_{Q(\mathrm{BR})})={\displaystyle \frac{3}{2}}\left(\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}+{\displaystyle \frac{\rho _c^2V^2Q}{R^3}}\right)`$ (34)
$`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}\mathrm{when}\mathrm{\Delta }t\mathrm{is}\mathrm{sufficiently}\mathrm{small}.`$
This means that the BR limiting self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ has a “radiation reaction” component $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}`$, given according to Eqs. (11), (12) and (22) by

$$\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}=\frac{3\rho _c^2V^2Q}{16R^3}(4+\kappa )(2\kappa )^2\mathrm{\Theta }(2\kappa ),$$
(35)
where $`\kappa =\tau /R`$. The average “radiation-reaction” force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}`$ vanishes only for field measurement times $`\tau 2R`$. Now, if the removal of the neutralizing body results in the cancellation of the force $`\overline{F}_Q`$, then the limiting force $`\overline{F}_{Q(\mathrm{BR})}`$ must be also canceled and a BR steplike trajectory would result in a net average self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}`$ of Eq. (23), which, without a compensating spring, would lead to a minimum uncertainty $`\mathrm{\Delta }\overline{}_x(\mathrm{}/\tau R^3)^{1/2}(2\tau /R)\mathrm{\Theta }(2\tau /R)`$ in the measured field component. The absence of a neutralizing body would result, in the limit of a steplike trajectory, again in a time-averaged self-force that is independent of the details of the space-time course of the measurement procedure and, for a field measurement time $`\tau <2R`$, the effect of which would have to be compensated by a BR spring when it is desired to measure the field to arbitrary accuracy. We note here that no use of any neutralizing body, instead of its possibly problematic temporary removal, would simply subtract from the average self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{BR}}`$ of Eq. (11) the force $`\rho _c^2V^2Q/R^3`$ of electrostatic attraction to the neutralizing body, resulting in a limiting average self-force that differs only by a factor of $`2/3`$ from the average self-force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}`$ of Eq. (23) that is obtained with the temporary removal.

The steplike character of the test-body’s trajectory in the BR analysis is necessitated by the demands on the type of momentum measurements that have to be performed on the test body at the beginning and end of the field measurement period $`(0,\tau )`$. These momentum measurements are required for the determination of the momentum transfer along the given direction from the field to the test body, and are each allowed to have only a duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }t\tau `$. As BR have shown, the latter requirement is necessary in order to be able to neglect the radiation reaction on an extended test body during the time of the momentum measurement. Thus the momentum measurements are required to be of the ideal repeatable type, i.e., for a given precision, of arbitrarily short duration while at the same time not altering the momentum of the measured object. BR found in the course of their analysis a procedure for such repeatable momentum measurements; a similar procedure was found by Aharonov and Bohm independently some 30 years later . A repeatable momentum measurement of accuracy $`\mathrm{\Delta }p_x`$ and duration $`\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ at the beginning of the field measurement period $`(0,\tau )`$ still results in an unpredictable displacement $`Q`$ of the test body such that $`|Q|\mathrm{}/\mathrm{\Delta }p_x`$, occurring within the initial time interval $`(0,\mathrm{\Delta }t)`$. The requirements that $`|Q|a`$ and $`|Q|c\mathrm{\Delta }t`$ will be satisfied by having the mass of the test body sufficiently great, and this specification will also guarantee that the test body can be considered to be essentially at rest in the interval $`(\mathrm{\Delta }t,\tau \mathrm{\Delta }t)`$ in which it acquires momentum from the measured field .

The test body’s trajectory is thus necessarily of a steplike character, and so the “radiation-reaction” component $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}}`$ of its average self-force can be approximated by the limiting “radiation-reaction” force $`\overline{F}_{\mathrm{RR}(\mathrm{BR})}`$, which is not affected by the removal of the neutralizing body. The removal or the absence of the neutralizing body would not open the possibility of an arbitrarily accurate measurement of a single field component, averaged over a time $`\tau <2R`$, without a compensating spring.

The author gratefully acknowledges correspondence with F. Persico, whose searching questions helped the author to find correct expressions for some algebraic results used in the present Comment.


text:
# Clustered Star Formation in W75 N

## 1 INTRODUCTION

W75 N is a massive star forming region with an integrated IRAS luminosity of $`1.4\times 10^5`$ L (Moore, Mountain, & Yamashita 1991; Moore et al. 1988,1991). The W75 N cloud is located at a distance of 2 kpc (Dickel, Wendker, & Bieritz 1969), just $`15^{}`$ north of the massive outflow system DR 21 powered by a cluster of OB stars (e.g. Garden et al. 1991 and references therein). Both DR 21 and W75 N are part of the Cygnus-X complex of dense molecular clouds. Haschick et al. (1981) identified three regions of ionized gas in W75 N at a resolution of $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$: W75 N (A), W75 N (B), and W75 N (C). Hunter et al. (1994) later resolved W75 N (B) with $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution into three regions: Ba, Bb, and Bc. Torelles et al. (1997) then imaged W75 N (B) at $`0.1^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution, and detected Ba and Bb (which they called VLA 1 & VLA 3), along with another weaker, and more compact HII region, VLA 2.

A parsec-scale molecular outflow originates near the cluster of ultracompact HII (UC HII) regions in W75 N (B). The mass of the CO outflow has been estimated to be 50 M to 500 M based on single-dish, CO observations (e.g Fischer et al. 1985; Hunter et al. 1994; Davis et al. 1998a,b; Ridge & Moore 2001). The UC HII regions have a combined $`L_{bol}`$ of $`4.4\times 10^4`$ L and most are in a protostellar phase based on the presence of OH, H2O, & methanol masers, and compact millimeter continuum emission (Baart et al. 1986; Hunter et al. 1994; Torrelles et al. 1997; Minier, Conway, & Booth 2000, 2001; Shepherd 2001; Hutawarakorn, Cohen, & Brebner 2002; Slysh et al. 2002; Watson et al. 2002). Several studies have assumed the flow is dominated by a single massive star: the central source in the UC HII region VLA 1 (Ba) because the position angles of the ionized gas and the CO emission are similar (Hunter et al. 1994; Torrelles et al. 1997; Davis et al. 1998a,b). Shepherd (2001) suggested VLA 3 (Bb) and, perhaps, VLA 2 may be the primary powering sources based on the presence of compact millimeter continuum emission. More recently, Hutawarakorn et al. (2002) suggested VLA 2 is the dominant source powering the outflow based on OH maser emission. Given the sheer number of interpretations, it is clear that W75 N is a confused region.

Assuming a primary driving source for the CO outflow, Davis et al. (1998b) suggested that the CO red-shifted lobe and H2 morphology supported a jet-driven, bow-shock entrainment scenario in which a steady, over-dense molecular jet, developed to explain highly-collimated outflows from low-mass protostars, was applied to W75 N (Lada & Fich 1996; Smith et al. 1997; & Suttner et al. 1997). The proposed model implied a jet radius of 0.03 pc at 1.3 pc from the star with a jet opening angle of about 2.6 (Richer et al. 2000). If a powerful, well-collimated jet was being driven by an OB protostar in W75 N, it would provide strong constraints on outflow/accretion theories for luminous protostars (see, e.g., Shang et al. 2002; Cabrit, Ferreira, & Raga 1999; Königl 1999; Shu et al. 2000; Königl & Pudritz 2000).

To obtain a better understanding of the number of sources driving outflows and the energetics of the flow(s), we have made interferometric mosaics of the W75 N region in CO(J=1–0) and millimeter continuum using the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and obtained images at near-infrared wavelengths using the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo to compare the morphology of the shocked gas & infrared nebulosity with the CO emission.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

### 2.1 Owens Valley Observations in the 3 mm band

Observations in 2.7 mm continuum and CO(J=1$``$0) line were made with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) array of six 10.4 m telescopes between 1999 March 15 and 1999 December 4. Projected baselines ranging from 15 to 115 meters provided sensitivity to structures up to about $`16^{\prime \prime }`$. The final $`5^{}\times 1.5^{}`$ mosaic images of both line and continuum emission are made up of 17 fields with primary beam $`65^{\prime \prime }`$ (FWHM) spaced $`30^{\prime \prime }`$ apart. The total integration time on source was approximately 3.25 hours/pointing center. Cryogenically cooled SIS receivers operating at 4 K produced typical single sideband system temperatures of 200 to 600 K. The gain calibrator was the quasar BL Lac and the bandpass calibrators were 3C 454.3 and 3C 345. Observations of Uranus, Neptune, or 3C 273 provided the flux density calibration scale with an estimated uncertainty of $`20`$%. Calibration was carried out using the Caltech MMA data reduction package (Scoville et al. 1993). Images were produced using the MIRIAD software package (Sault et al. 1995) and deconvolved with a maximum-entropy-based algorithm designed for mosaic images (Cornwell & Braun 1988).

The CO $`uv`$ data at 115.27 GHz were convolved with a $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ taper resulting in a synthesized beam of $`6.46^{\prime \prime }\times 6.28^{\prime \prime }`$ (FWHM) at P.A. $`54.7`$. The spectral resolution was 2.6 km s-1 and the RMS noise was 0.13 Jy beam-1. The spectral band pass was centered on the local standard of rest velocity ($`v_{LSR}`$) of $`10.0`$ km s-1 (the assumed systemic velocity of the W75 N cloud), taken from the CS(J=7–6) emission peak (Hunter et al. 1994). Simultaneous 2.7 mm continuum observations were made in a 1 GHz bandwidth channel with central frequency 112.77 GHz. The $`uv`$ data were convolved with a $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ taper resulting in a synthesized beam $`7.29^{\prime \prime }\times 7.13^{\prime \prime }`$ (FWHM) at P.A. $`62.9^{}`$. The RMS noise was 3.6 mJy beam-1.

An additional on-source integration time of 4.6 hours was obtained with OVRO centered on the position of W75 N:MM 1 ($`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m36.36s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}37^{}33.5^{\prime \prime }`$). Observations were made on 1999 March 29 and 2001 March 18. Baselines between 35 and 240 meters provided sensitivity to structures up to $`6^{\prime \prime }`$. The CO $`uv`$ data (spectral resolution 2.6 km s-1) were convolved with a $`1.5^{\prime \prime }`$ taper resulting in a synthesized beam of $`2.04^{\prime \prime }\times 1.77^{\prime \prime }`$ (FWHM) at P.A. $`80.5`$. The final RMS noise was 50 mJy beam-1 in each channel.

### 2.2 3 mm single dish spectra

Observations were made in CO(J=1$``$0) and 13CO(J=1$``$0) with the Kitt Peak 12 m telescope on 2000 May 9 using the SIS 3 mm receiver with 1 MHz filter banks centered on $`v_{LSR}=10.0`$ km s-1 to give a velocity resolution of 2.6 km s-1 and a total bandwidth of 650 km s-1. System temperatures ranged from 230 K for 13CO to 360 K for CO(J=1$``$0). The half-power beam width (HPBW) at 115 GHz is about $`60^{\prime \prime }`$.

Single dish spectra were obtained at three positions (J2000 coordinates): centered on W75 N:MM 1 ($`\alpha =`$ 20h38m36.50s $`\delta =`$ $`42^{}37^{}33.5^{\prime \prime }`$); and in the south-east and north-west outflow lobes ($`\alpha =`$ 20h38m31.00s $`\delta =`$ $`42^{}36^{}51.0^{\prime \prime }`$ and $`\alpha =`$ 20h38m41.00s $`\delta =`$ $`42^{}37^{}51.0^{\prime \prime }`$, respectively). The data were reduced with the NRAO UniPOPS software package. The resulting spectra were used to estimate the optical depth in CO(J=1$``$0) as a function of velocity and position in the W75 N region.

### 2.3 Near-Infrared Observations

Near-infrared observations of the W75 N region were made on 2000 June 16, at the 3.5 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory on the Spanish island of La Palma. The ARNICA NIR imager (Lisi et al. Lea96 (1996); Hunt et al. Hea96 (1996)) was used to obtain images in the H2 narrow band filter and in the Ks broad band filter. ARNICA is equipped with a HgCdTe $`256\times 256`$ NICMOS3 infrared array. The pixel scale, when coupled with the TNG, is 0.355 arcsec/pixel, and the corresponding field of view is $`1.5\times 1.5`$ arcmin2 per frame. The seeing at the time of the observations was about 0$`.^{\prime \prime }`$9.

To search for H2 emission beyond the CO emission, a 14 pointing mosaic pattern was employed covering an area of approximately 9$`\times `$2 arcmin2 that was roughly aligned with the CO flow. The mosaic was repeated several times, dithering the telescope by a few pixels each time, until the desired integration time was achieved. The final integration times per sky position was 8 minutes in Ks-band and 30 minutes in the H2 filter.

Data reduction and analysis were performed using the IRAF software package. Following standard flat-fielding and sky subtraction, the individual images were registered and the final mosaic was produced. The Ks-band observations were calibrated using standard stars from the ARNICA list (Hunt et al. Hea98 (1998)). The H2 mosaic was calibrated assuming that a set of stars have the same flux density in the narrow- and broad-band filters. The broad-band mosaic was then used to subtract the continuum emission from the H2 mosaic. Integrated line fluxes are then estimated assuming the width of the H2 filter as measured by Vanzi et al. (Vea98 (1998)).111Due to the different optical configuration used at the TNG with respect to that used at the TIRGO telescope, the narrow-band filters do not suffer from the effective field of view reduction discussed by Vanzi et al. (Vea98 (1998)). The calibration accuracy is expected to be within 20%. Accurate ($`0.^{\prime \prime }5`$) astrometry was derived for both mosaics using stellar positions from the 2MASS second incremental data release.

Additional observations of two $``$4$`{}_{}{}^{}\times 4^{}`$ fields centered north-east and south-west of W75 N were obtained in 2002 August 21 using the TNG near infrared camera spectrograph (NICS, Baffa et al. Bea01 (2001)). Each of the two fields was observed through the H2 ($`\lambda `$=2.12 $`\mu `$m) and \[FeII\] ($`\lambda `$=1.64 $`\mu `$m) narrow-band filters and in two narrow-band continuum filters, Kcont and Hcont; a detailed characterization of all these filters can be found in Ghinassi et al. (Gea02 (2002)). The observations were reduced and astrometrically calibrated following the procedure outlined above. The weather conditions were not photometric during the observations so the data could not be flux calibrated. Line-only images were obtained by subtracting the narrow-band continuum images from the line$`+`$continuum images. The subtraction was not perfect on strong stellar sources or on stars with very red or very blue spectra.

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 H2 and \[FeII\] morphology

Infrared reflection nebulosity is associated with two distinct regions of ionized gas (Fig. 1): W75 N (A) at position $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m38s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}37^{}59^{\prime \prime }`$ and W75 N (B) at position $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m37s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}37^{}32^{\prime \prime }`$ (e.g. Haschick et al. 1981, Moore et al. 1988). Shock-excited H2 emission (Figs. 2 & 3) is present in the north-east (near $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m52s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}39^{}00^{\prime \prime }`$) and along the CO emission boundaries (see also Davis et al. 1998a,b). Our H2 images also show that faint, patchy H2 emission extends nearly an arcminute (0.6 pc at a distance of 2 kpc) beyond the south-west CO flow ($`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m22–18s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}36^{}10^{\prime \prime }`$).

The continuum subtracted H2 mosaic is shown in Fig. 2. Following the nomenclature used by Davis et al. (1998a,b) for the south-west portion of the H2 flow, all previously known H2 knots and filaments are marked with solid lines. These are labeled SW–A to SW–H in the south-west flow, C–A and C–B in the central region, and NE–A to NE–F in the north-east flow. Additionally, Figs. 2 & 3 reveal faint diffuse H2 emission beyond the tip of the south-west flow and within the north-east flow. These new features are marked with dashed lines and labeled SW–I to SW–K and NE–G to NE–I. Faint, diffuse H2 features as well as the filamentary structure of the emission in knots NE–D, NE–E, & NE–F are confirmed by observations obtained in 2002 August. Figure 3 presents an overlay of the continuum subtracted \[FeII\] emission (contours) on the H2 (greyscale) images from the 2002 August observations. \[FeII\] line emission is only detected close to the UC HII regions in W75 N B and near the exciting star of W75 N A. No \[FeII\] emission is detected in the outer flow regions. The non-detection of \[FeII\] far from the protostars does not appear to be due to higher extinction since we clearly detect 2.12$`\mu `$m H2 emission beyond the CO outflow boundaries and we detect \[FeII\] emission near the cloud core where the column density is higher.

A chain of H2 knots, apparently unrelated to the main flow, are detected near $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m32 – 36s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}39^{}3060^{\prime \prime }`$ (Fig. 3). This jet is outside of the CO and infrared mosaic fields. The knots may be associated with a jet from a young star north of the main complex discussed in this paper.

### 3.2 CO outflows and their driving sources

A high-velocity CO outflow, centered near W75 N (B), measures 3 pc from end-to-end (projected length) and extends well beyond the infrared reflection nebula (Figs. 1 & 4). Red and blue-shifted CO emission exists both in the north-east and south-west. The CO mosaic did not include areas to the north-west and south-east so it is unclear if high-velocity CO exists in these regions. The boundaries and flux density of the CO outflow are well determined on the red-shifted side of the line, however, at velocities between 0 and –5.6 km s-1 the DR 21 cloud ($`v_{LSR}=2.5`$ km s-1) confuses the identification of the outflow structure.

Nine millimeter continuum peaks showing the locations of warm dust emission are identified in Fig. 5 & Table 1 (W75 N:MM 1 through W75 N:MM 9222Names of millimeter cores are shortened to MM 1 to MM 9 for the remainder of this paper.). MM 1 – MM 4 are near the origin of the outflow activity and lie $`510^{\prime \prime }`$ from the W75 N (B) reflection nebulosity to the north and west. MM 5 is associated with the more extended HII region, W75 N (A), while MM 6 – MM 9 are not associated with any previously known sources. Infrared counterparts do not exist for the millimeter sources (except MM 5) suggesting that these sources are too deeply embedded to be detected at 2$`\mu `$m. Figure 5 also shows the $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution image from Shepherd (2001) for comparison. The $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution resolved the individual millimeter cores MM 1–4 but resolved out the more extended emission associated with MM 5 and MM 6. Millimeter cores MM 7–9 were outside of the primary beam of the Shepherd (2001) observations and thus, were not detected. Figure 5 also compares the MM 5 millimeter source with narrow-band H2$`+`$continuum emission and Ks broad-band emission in W75 N (A). The central star of W75 N (A) (spectral type B0.5; Haschick et al. 1981) is clearly visible in the infrared and is surrounded by a $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ shell of thermal dust emission. Diffuse reflection nebulosity is centered on the star and a wisp of H2 emission is visible just east of the star ($`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m38–39s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}38^{}00^{\prime \prime }`$).

Compact, high-velocity CO emission appears to originate from the UC HII regions VLA 1 (Ba) & VLA 3 (Bb) and from MM 2 (Figs. 6, 7, & 8). The $`25^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution is not sufficient to determine if VLA 2, located only $`0.5^{\prime \prime }`$ north of VLA 3 (Bb), is also associated with high-velocity CO gas. A detailed discussion of each of the proposed outflows is given below.

The outflow from VLA 1 (Ba): VLA 1 (Ba) is a thermal jet source associated with H2O and OH masers (Baart et al. 1986, Torrelles et al. 1997). It is embedded in the MM 1 core detected in 1 & 3 mm continuum emission (Shepherd 2001). The spectral type of the powering source is unknown since the observed centimeter continuum emission is likely due to the ionized jet rather than emission from an ionization-bounded UC HII region. Red-shifted emission to the north-east of MM 1 can be traced to the jet-like ionized flow from VLA 1 (Ba). Figure 7 presents a $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ image of the integrated CO emission from the flow as well as a position-velocity diagram from a slice along the proposed flow axis (P.A. 51). A ridge of CO emission extends to the north-east with projected velocity greater than 25 km s-1 (relative to $`v_{LSR}`$) almost an arcminute from the UC HII region. High-velocity CO emission is also centered on the UC HII regions (position offset $`18^{\prime \prime }`$ in the PV diagram of Fig. 7). A $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution image (Fig. 6, top left) shows that this red-shifted emission near the base of the outflow appears to be produced by VLA 1 (Ba) as well as VLA 3 (Bb) and possibly VLA 2. The $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution of Fig. 6 resolves out much of the extended emission in the flow leaving only compact clumps visible along the flow axis. The P.A. is similar to the elongation of the ionized emission in VLA 1 (Ba) (P.A. $`43`$) and a line of H2O masers detected along the jet (Torrelles et al. 1997). The molecular flow is also seen in Fig. 1 as a well-collimated, red-shifted lobe extending to the north-east from the MM 1 core. The outflow is shown as one-sided in Figs. 6 & 7 because only one side of the flow is detected. The counterflow may exist however it may be too extended to image at this high-resolution or it may be expanding into a less dense medium that would not create appreciable CO emission.

The outflow from VLA 3 (Bb): VLA 3 (Bb) is a compact UC HII region in MM 1 with a central star of spectral type B0.5 to B0. It is associated with a single H2O maser and compact 1 & 3 mm continuum emission. A lower limit on the mass of warm gas and dust within 2000 AU of the protostar is 5 M (Shepherd 2001). Figure 6 illustrates that compact red-shifted emission to the east and blue-shifted emission to the west of MM 1 can be traced to VLA 3 (Bb) with P.A. $`101`$. There are no obvious features in the extended emission that correspond to an outflow with this orientation, however, the CO mosaic did not extend to the north-west or south-east so a large-scale outflow could have been missed (Fig. 1). The molecular gas morphology does not seem to be correlated with that of the ionized gas or H2O masers near the source: the ionized gas is slightly elongated along P.A. 149 and the H2O maser is located near the southern boundary of the ionized gas.

The outflow from MM 2: MM 2 is a molecular core identified by compact, warm dust emission at 1 & 3 mm and H2O maser emission (Torrelles et al 1997, Shepherd 2001). The mass of the core is $`3050`$ M. No ionized gas has been detected indicating that the spectral type is less than a B2 star or high accretion is preventing the formation of a UC HII region. High-velocity, blue-shifted emission (13 to 36 km s-1 projected velocity relative to $`v_{LSR}`$) can be traced from the MM 2 core to the south-east (P.A. 124). Figure 8 presents a $`6^{\prime \prime }`$ image of the integrated emission from the flow as well as a position-velocity diagram from a slice along the proposed flow axis. The velocity of the jet relative to $`v_{LSR}=10`$ km s-1 increases away from the position of MM 2 and remains well collimated. Diffuse emission at velocities greater than $`v=5`$ km s-1 is due to the W75 N & DR 21 clouds. Figure 6 shows the more compact emission in the flow. Three clumps of high-velocity gas are detected extending away from MM 2 along with faint emission at the location of the core. The compact clumps appear to trace a shell of dense gas surrounding the outflow axis. The molecular outflow is identified as one-sided because the red-shifted counterflow was not detected.

The diffuse millimeter core MM 4 is located along the axis of the proposed MM 2 outflow. Although no H2O or OH maser emission has been detected toward MM 4, nor has centimeter or 1 mm continuum emission been detected, there is diffuse warm dust emission traced by 3 mm continuum. Thus, MM 4 may harbor an embedded protostar. Assuming the MM 4 core is heated internally, the lack of maser activity, compact warm dust emission at 1 mm, and the absence of ionized gas emission at centimeter wavelengths suggest that MM 4 is a low-mass protostar (Shepherd 2001). With the current resolution and sensitivity, we can not determine if the MM 4 protostar is contributing to the observed flow dynamics.

The proposed position angles of the outflowing gas (illustrated by arrows in Figs. 6, 7, & 8) are 51 for VLA 1 (Ba), 101 for VLA 3 (Bb), and 124 for MM 2. The position angle of the parsec-scale outflow detected in H2 and CO (Fig. 1) is 62.5. Although the orientation of the VLA 1 (Ba) outflow is similar to that of the parsec-scale flow, it does not appear likely that VLA 1 (Ba) is the powering source. Assuming the VLA 1 (Ba) flow is symmetric, a blue-shifted counterflow is expected in the south-west, not a red-shifted flow. Thus, our observations do not not identify the source responsible for the 3 pc outflow which dominates the large-scale morphology and kinematics of the region.

### 3.3 Mass & Kinematics of the Outflows

The mass associated with CO line emission is calculated following the method proposed by Scoville et al. (1986). The CO excitation temperature near the millimeter continuum emission varies from about 35 to 75 K with $`50`$ K being the median value near the MM 1 peak (Davis et al. 1998b). Rotational temperatures derived from CH3CN in the cloud core vary from 47 to 78 K, consistent with the Davis et al. estimates (Kalenskiĭ et al. 2000). We assume the gas is in LTE, at a temperature of 50 K, with \[CO\]/\[H2\] = $`10^4`$, and \[CO\]/\[13CO\] = 71 at the galacto-centric distance of 8.5 kpc (Wilson & Rood 1994). The CO optical depth as a function of velocity and position is calculated using single dish CO(J=1$``$0) and 13CO(J=1$``$0) spectra taken at three positions within the W75 N region (Fig. 9). We assume 13CO is optically thin at all velocities which is probably valid in the line wings; however, 13CO is likely to be optically thick near the line core. In channels where no 13CO emission is detected, we assume the CO is optically thin. The CO channel images (Fig. 4) show that the emission near $`v_{LSR}`$ is almost entirely resolved out by the interferometer. If high-velocity ($`>5.2`$ km s-1) structures exist that are larger than the largest angular scale that can be imaged ($`>16^{\prime \prime }`$), then our mass estimate represents a lower limit.

Because multiple, overlapping flows are present, it is not possible to obtain a reasonable estimate of the inclination of each flow. Thus, we assume an inclination angle of 45 which minimizes errors introduced by inclination effects. Table 2 summarizes the physical properties of the molecular gas in the combined outflows originating within MM 1 and from the blue-shifted MM 2 outflow lobe. The total flow mass $`M_f`$ is given by $`M_i`$ where $`M_i`$ is the flow mass in velocity channel $`i`$ corrected for optical depth. The momentum $`P`$ is given by $`M_iv_i`$ and the kinetic energy E by $`\frac{1}{2}M_iv_i^2`$ where $`v_i`$ is the central velocity of the channel relative to $`v_{LSR}`$. The characteristic flow timescale $`t_d`$ is $`R_f/<V>`$, where the intensity-weighted velocity $`<V>`$ is given by $`P/(M_i)`$ (Cabrit & Bertout 1990) and $`R_f`$ is the flow radius. The mass outflow rate $`\dot{M}_f`$ is $`M_i/t_d`$ and the force F is $`P/t_d`$. Assuming D=2 kpc, the total molecular mass in outflowing gas ($`v>5.2`$ km s-1 relative to $`v_{LSR}`$) is $`>255`$ M. The values presented in Table 2 are derived assuming all flows have the same systemic velocity. This is a reasonable assumption for the driving sources of the combined MM 1 outflows since the observed UC HII regions are embedded within the same molecular clump and have a projected separation of only 0.5 to $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ (1000 - 2000 AU at a distance of 2 kpc). The source driving the outflow from the MM 2 molecular core has a projected separation of about $`5^{\prime \prime }`$ (10,000 AU or 0.05 pc) from MM 1. It is possible that MM 2 could have a slightly different systemic velocity from MM 1 that we cannot detect in our images or single dish spectra. If the systemic velocity of the MM 2 core is different by a factor of $`\mathrm{\Delta }v`$ from the assumed velocity of 10 km s-1, then the error in the momentum estimates will be proportional to $`|\mathrm{\Delta }v|`$ and mechanical energy to $`|\mathrm{\Delta }v^2|`$.

The combined MM 1 outflows have a total mass of at least 165 M and energy, E $`>3.4\times 10^{47}`$ ergs. The MM 2 outflow has a total mass $`>90`$ M, E $`>1.8\times 10^{47}`$ ergs. The CO mosaic did not extend in the south-east direction of the MM 2 flow, thus, the full outflow was not imaged and age and $`\dot{M}`$ should be considered a lower limit. Despite the uncertainties, the flow masses and energies are consistent with those for outflows driven by young, early B stars. This is in agreement with the estimated spectral types of the stars powering the UC HII regions in MM 1 (B2 to O9; Hunter et al. 1994; Torrelles et al. 1997; Shepherd 2001; Slysh et al. 2002).

### 3.4 Circumstellar material near embedded protostars

The mass of gas and dust associated with warm dust being heated by the central protostars is estimated from the millimeter continuum emission using $`\mathrm{M}_{gas+dust}=\frac{\mathrm{F}_\nu \mathrm{D}^2}{\mathrm{B}_\nu (\mathrm{T}_d)\kappa _\nu }`$ where D is the distance to the source, $`\mathrm{F}_\nu `$ is the continuum flux density due to thermal dust emission at frequency $`\nu `$, and $`\mathrm{B}_\nu `$ is the Planck function at temperature Td (Hildebrand 1983). Assuming a gas-to-dust ratio of 100, the dust opacity per gram of gas is taken to be $`\kappa _\nu =0.006(\frac{\nu }{245\mathrm{G}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{z}})^\beta `$ cm2 g-1 where $`\beta `$ is the opacity index (see Kramer et al. 1998; and the discussion in Shepherd & Watson 2002). This value of $`\kappa `$ agrees with those derived by Hildebrand (1983) and Kramer et al. (1998) to within a factor of 2. The opacity index $`\beta =1.5`$ appears to be appropriate between wavelengths of 650 microns and 2.7 mm for sub-micron to millimeter-sized grains expected in warm molecular clouds and young disks (Pollack et al. 1994). We assume the emission is optically thin and the temperature of the dust can be characterized by a single value. Using values of $`T_d=50`$ K and $`\beta =1.5`$, we find the total mass of gas and dust associated with the 2.7 mm continuum emission is approximately 475 M (Table 1). Our results are consistent with those of Shepherd (2001) and Watson et al. (2002) to within the errors.

## 4 DISCUSSION

The total molecular mass of outflowing gas from the MM 1 and MM 2 combined flows ($`v>5.2`$ km s-1 relative to $`v_{LSR}`$) is $`>255`$ M. Hunter et al. (1994) found $`M_f=48`$ M with a rough scaling performed to take into account an optical depth correction. However, their image covered only the inner region of the flow so their estimate should be considered a lower limit. Based on single dish observations of CO(J=3–2), Davis et al (1998a) estimated a total flow mass of $`M_f=272`$ M, uncorrected for optical depth effects. This mass estimate is extremely high for an optically thin approximation. Examination of their Fig. 11, T$`{}_{}{}^{}{}_{A}{}^{}`$ vs. ($`vv_o`$), shows that the blue-shifted lobe has an order of magnitude increase in the integrated flux at the velocity of DR 21 (–2.5 km s-1). It appears that their single-dish map may have been significantly contaminated by emission from the DR 21 cloud, which introduced uncertainties in the mass and kinematics estimates. Ridge & Moore (2001) estimated the outflow mass of the red-shifted lobe only to be 273 M based on a CO(J=2–1) single dish image corrected for optical depth. The mass of blue-shifted gas was not estimated by Ridge & Moore due to the contamination by the DR 21 cloud. This value is significantly higher than our estimate and may be due to missing extended emission in the interferometer image, especially at low velocities. Despite this problem, interferometric imaging also provided benefits: it was easier to distinguish between outflow gas and the DR 21 cloud and to identify flows from multiple sources in the cluster.

The total cloud core mass of W75 N has been estimated to be 1800–2500 M based on observations at submillimeter wavelengths (Moore, Mountain, & Yamashita, 1991) and 1200 M based on CS(J=7–6) emission (Hunter et al. 1994). The gravitational binding energy of the cloud, $`GM_{cloud}^2/c_1r`$, is 1–2$`\times 10^{48}`$ ergs, where we take the radius $`r=0.25`$ pc (Moore et al. 1991) and $`c_1`$ is a constant which depends on the mass distribution ($`c_1=1`$ for $`\rho r^2`$). More than 10% of the molecular cloud is participating in the outflow and the combined outflow energy is roughly half the gravitation binding energy of the cloud. The observed W75 N outflows are injecting a significant amount of mechanical energy into the cloud core and may help prevent further collapse of the cloud.

Our CO(J=1–0) images suggest that high-velocity gas is associated with at least two UC HII regions: VLA 1 (Ba) and VLA 3 (Bb) and an embedded source in the millimeter core MM 2. The position angles of the individuals outflows are not aligned, ranging from 51 to 124. The H2 morphology is diffuse and patchy both in the north-east and south-west. The irregular morphology of the infrared reflection nebula with fingers of nebulosity radiating out from the MM 1/MM 2 millimeter cores supports the conclusion that multiple energetic outflows are carving large cavities in the molecular cloud.

Low surface brightness H2 emission extends well beyond the CO outflow while \[FeII\] emission is only detected close to the protostellar cluster. It is generally believed that \[FeII\] line emission associated with low-mass outflows requires the presence of fast, dissociative shocks that disrupt dust grains and release heavy elements just behind a Jump-shock (J-shock) boundary. H2 emission, on the other hand, appears to be produced in slow, non-dissociative J-type shocks (e.g. Hollenbach & Mckee 1989; Smith 1994; Gredel 1994; Beck-Winchatz et al. 1996). Continuous-shocks (C-shocks) cannot easily produce emission from ionized species such as \[FeII\] nor can they produce the observed column densities typically seen in H2 toward Herbig Haro objects from low-mass protostars (Gredel 1994). In fact, Nisini et al. (2002) find that there appears to be no correlation between H2 and \[FeII\] emission in outflows from low-mass YSOs which supports the interpretation that physically different mechanisms are responsible for producing H2 and \[FeII\] emission. In a sample of Herbig Haro objects produced by jets from low-mass protostars, both H2 and \[FeII\] is found toward all sources and the morphology of H2 and \[FeII\] emission is similar on large scales although it differs in the detail (Gredel 1994; Reipurth et al. 2000). These observations indicate that jets from low-mass protostars produce both fast, dissociative regions where \[FeII\] emissions arises and slower, non-dissociative regions where H2 emission arises. In contrast, \[FeII\] emission toward W75 N is only detected close to the central sources and does not show a jet-like morphology as in outflows from low- and intermediate-mass young stellar objects (e.g. Lorenzetti et al. 2002; Nisini et al. 2002; Reipurth et al. 2000). The outflows from W75 N appear to exhibit only slow, non-dissociative J-type shocks which produce copious H2 emission throughout the outflow region but the fast, dissociative shocks responsible for \[FeII\] emission are absent in the outer regions of the flow. Instead, the diffuse \[FeII\] line emission in W75 N is coincident with the brightest Ks-band reflection nebulosity. One possibility may be that the \[FeII\] emission traces photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) along cloud surfaces illuminated by the massive protostars in the MM 1 core. This situation is also observed in the Orion Bar PDR (e.g. Walmsley et al. 2000) suggesting that the W75 N nebula may exhibit similar excitation conditions to those in Orion.

The H2 and \[FeII\] line emission in W75 N does not conform to what is expected for shock-excited emission resulting from the interaction between a well-collimated jet and diffuse molecular gas. In this respect, the physical characteristics of the W75 N flows differ from their low-mass counterparts which produce collimated jets observed in both H2 and \[FeII\] emission.

Many previous authors have assumed that only VLA 1 (Ba) was in an outflow stage based on the elongated morphology of the ionized gas, the presence of H2O maser emission along the UC HII region axis, and because the position angles of the ionized gas and the CO emission were similar. H2O maser emission is also associated with VLA 2 and VLA 3 (Bb) as well as MM 3 and MM 2, however, outflowing material could not be traced to specific sources. Assuming a single primary driving source for the CO gas, Davis et al. (1998b) suggested that the south-west CO red-shifted lobe and H2 morphology supports a bow-shock entrainment scenario for a molecular outflow driven by a jet from a single massive star. Our CO and millimeter continuum observations do not support this theory that a single source drives the high-velocity CO gas. Further, our infrared observations suggest that the W75 N outflows are not likely to be scaled-up versions of jet-driven outflows from low-mass protostars.

A question remains unanswered by this work: what source powers the 3 pc flow at P.A. 62.5? The flow mass is $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}100`$ M, the dynamical age is roughly $`10^5`$ years, and the mass loss rate $`\dot{M}_f10^4`$ to $`10^3`$ M yr-1. The flow parameters are consistent with those produced by an early B protostar. Hutawarakorn et al. (2002) have modeled the OH maser position-velocity data and find evidence for a massive disk centered on VLA 2 (M$`{}_{disk}{}^{}120`$ M with P.A. = 155, roughly perpendicular to the outflow axis). A high-velocity, time-variable OH maser cluster is coincident with VLA 2 suggesting an outflow origin. Further, recent observations with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) show that a clump of strong H2O maser emission with high velocity dispersion is centered on VLA 2 (Torrelles et al. 2003). Thus, the OH and H2O maser activity suggests VLA 2 is producing a powerful outflow. Although our observations did not have adequate resolution to isolate high-velocity gas toward VLA 2, we have determined that VLA 1 (Ba), VLA 3 (Bb), and MM 2 are not likely to drive the 3 pc flow that dominates the region dynamics. Thus, it is possible that VLA 2 may drive the large-scale flow. Follow-up observations at a resolution less than $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ will be required to determine if, in fact, VLA 2 drives the 3 pc flow.

Based on the size and velocity of the CO outflows from the W75 N (B) UC HII regions, the region is $`>10^5`$ years old. W75 N (A) is more evolved than the sources in MM 1 and the exciting star of W75 N (A) has no detectable high-velocity gas associated with it. The star, detected in the infrared, is centered within a shell of warm dust emission and an extended HII region (Hashick et al. 1981). Figure 10 shows a color-color diagram using data from the 2MASS Point Source Catalog for stars within $`1^{}`$ of MM 1 that were detected at all three bands. The locus of main-sequence stars is represented by the thick, curved line (Bessell & Brett 1988, Koornneef 1983) while the two diagonal lines show reddening vectors up to $`A_V=40`$ of dust (adopting the $`R_V=5`$ extinction law from Cardelli, Clayton, & Mathis 1989). Sources within the reddening vectors have colors consistent with main-sequence stars reddened by foreground dust. Those to the right of the reddening vectors demonstrate excess emission at $`2\mu `$m, consistent with the presence of circumstellar material. The infrared colors of the W75 N (A) exciting star are consistent with those of a main-sequence star reddened by foreground dust. In comparison, the two bright stars to the south-east and south-west of MM 1 (IRS 2 and IRS 3) have excess emission at $`2\mu `$m consistent with the presence of circumstellar material. The protostars within MM 1 and MM 2 are not detectable at infrared wavelengths. W75 N represents a region of clustered star formation which appears to be forming mid to early-B stars which exist at a range of developmental stages.

VLA 1 (Ba) appears to have a well-collimated, outflow based on the ionized gas morphology imaged by Torrelles et al. (1997) and the presence of a relatively well-collimated, red-shifted CO lobe which extends about 0.5 pc north-east of the source. However, the spectral type of the protostar is unknown since the ionized gas appears to be due to thermal jet emission. The well-collimated outflow which appears to be produced by the embedded source in MM 2 is not detected at centimeter wavelengths. Either the powering source is not an early-B star (e.g. it does not have sufficient ionizing radiation to produce a detectable UC HII region) or accretion onto the protostar is sufficiently high that it prevents the formation of a UC HII region (see e.g. Churchwell 1999 and references therein).

There is no evidence for well-collimated flows (collimation ratios, length/width, $`>10`$) from the remaining embedded sources (early-B protostars) or in the large-scale morphology of the CO, H2, & \[FeII\] emission. The lack of highly-collimated flows from the known, early-B protostars in W75 N suggests that it may be difficult for massive stars to collimate outflowing material. Although a few mid to early-B protostars appear to be powering ionized jets, their molecular outflows tend to be complex and poorly collimated (see, e.g., the review by Shepherd 2002 and references therein). To our knowledge, there is no well-collimated molecular outflow powered by a massive protostar (spectral type early-B to O) and most do not appear to have ionized outflow components that are well-collimated (e.g. Ridge & Moore 2001, Shepherd, Claussen, & Kurtz 2001; Churchwell 1999). Poorly collimated flows could be due to several factors:

* Confusion from multiple outflow sources in a cluster (e.g. W75 N: this work; or DR 21: Garden et al. 1991);
* Large flow precession angles (e.g. PV Ceph: Reipurth, Bally, & Devine 1997, Gomez, Kenyon, & Whitney 1997; or IRAS 20126$`+`$4104: Shepherd et al. 2000);
* The presence of a strong wide-angle wind (e.g. Orion I: Greenhill et al. 1998; or G192.16–3.82: Shepherd, Claussen & Kurtz 2001); and/or
* The molecular flow represents only the truncated base of a much larger flow (e.g. HH 80–81: Yamashita et al. 1989, Rodríguez et al. 1994; or G192.16–3.82: Devine et al. 1999).

Our observations of W75 N supports the interpretation that massive protostars may not be able to produce well-collimated molecular outflows. This conclusion does not rule out the possibility that an underlying, neutral jet may still exist as part of the outflow from the massive protostars in W75 N. High-resolution observations in shock tracers such as SiO(J=1–0,v=0) or SiO(J=2–1,v=0) may be able to determine whether collimated neutral jets are present in W75 N.

## 5 SUMMARY

W75 N represents an example of clustered, massive star formation. The cluster covers a wide range of evolutionary stages; from stars with no apparent circumstellar material to deeply embedded protostars actively powering massive outflows. The CO outflow measures more than 3 pc from end-to-end and is produced by at least four individual sources. H2 emission extends well-beyond the CO boundaries while \[FeII\] emission is only located close to the protostellar cluster. The CO, H2 & \[FeII\] morphology does not conform to what is expected for shock-excited emission resulting from the interaction between a well-collimated jet and diffuse molecular gas. The irregular morphology of the infrared reflection nebula with fingers of nebulosity radiating out from the millimeter cores supports the conclusion that multiple energetic outflows are carving large cavities in the molecular cloud. More than 10% of the molecular cloud is outflowing material and the combined outflow energy is roughly half the gravitational binding energy of the cloud. Thus, the observed W75 N outflows are injecting a significant amount of mechanical energy into the cloud core and may help prevent further collapse of the cloud.

Research at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory is supported by the National Science Foundation through NSF grant number AST 99-81546. Star formation research at Owens Valley is also supported by NASA’s Origins of Solar Systems program, Grant NAGW-4030, and by the Norris Planetary Origins Project. D. P. Stark acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate program. This paper is partly based on observations made with the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) operated on the island of La Palma by the Centro Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. The ARNICA and NICS observations were performed in service mode by the TNG staff, we especially acknowledge the help of Francesca Ghinassi, Juan Carlos Guerra, and Antonio Magazzú. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

Figure Captions

Figure 1. Integrated CO red-shifted (red lines) and blue-shifted (blue lines) emission contours from 36.0 km s-1 to 17.8 km s-1 and –0.4 km s-1 to –26.4 km s-1, respectively. The images have an RMS of 23.5 Jy beam-1 km s-1 with a peak of 56.0 Jy beam-1 km s-1 in the red-shifted emission image and 100.6 Jy beam-1 km s-1 in the blue-shifted emission image. Contours begin at 10% of the peak emission and continue at increments of 20%. The synthesized beam is $`6.46^{\prime \prime }\times 6.28^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`54.7^{}`$. H2 line $`+`$ continuum emission is shown as grey scale displayed as the square root of the intensity with a peak of $`7.45\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm-2s-1arcsec-2. W75 N (A) is located at position $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m38s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}37^{}59^{\prime \prime }`$ and W75 N (B) at position $`\alpha (J2000)=`$ 20h38m37s $`\delta (J2000)=`$ $`42^{}37^{}32^{\prime \prime }`$. UC HII regions embedded in the core of MM 1 are shown as filled triangles while the millimeter cores MM 2–9 are shown as open circles. The large open circle (MM 5) is coincident with the infrared emission associated with W75 N A. The solid black line delineates the boundaries of the CO mosaic.

Figure 2. Continuum-subtracted H2 line mosaic of W75 N. The H2 image is displayed on a linear scale from –0.6 to a peak intensity of $`2.6\times 10^{15}`$ erg cm-2 s-1. Individual knots of H2 emission are labeled NE–A through I, C–A & B, and SW–A through K. Features observed by Davis et al. (1998a,b) are identified by solid lines, previously undetected H2 features which are more diffuse are shown as dashed lines. Large dashed boxes outline the fields shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 3. Continuum-subtracted H2 emission shown in grey scale with \[FeII\] emission shown as contours. The \[FeII\] contours begin at $`5\sigma `$ and continue with a spacing of $`8\sigma `$. The left panel shows the central and north-east outflow regions. The strong, diffuse \[FeII\] emission is coincident with the W75 N (A) and (B) reflection nebulae. The right panel shows the south-west outflow. \[FeII\] contours coincident with point sources are due to imperfect continuum subtraction.

Figures 4a & 4b. CO channel images at 2.6 km s-1 spectral resolution between 32.1 and $`27.7`$ km s-1. The central velocity is indicated in the upper right of each panel. The LSR velocity is 10 km s-1. The RMS is 0.13 Jy beam-1 and the peak emission is 16.9 Jy beam-1. In the first 12 and last 12 panels, contours are plotted from $`\pm 4`$, 8, 12, 16, 20 $`\sigma `$ and continue with a spacing of $`10\sigma `$. In the central 6 panels (8.7 to –4.3 km s-1), contours begin at $`\pm 10,30\sigma `$ and continue with a spacing of $`20\sigma `$. Panels at velocities 32.1 & –27.7 km s-1 show the synthesized beam in the bottom right corner ($`6.46^{\prime \prime }\times 6.28^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`54.7^{}`$) and a scale size of 0.9 pc. The plus symbol in each panel represents the location of the peak emission in MM 1. No other emission was detected outside of this velocity range.

Figure 5. The bottom left image shows continuum emission at 2.7 mm. No other continuum sources were detected within the mosaic field. The image has an RMS of 3.6 mJy beam-1. Contours begin at $`\pm 3,4,5,7,10,20\sigma `$ and continue with a spacing of $`10\sigma `$. The greyscale is plotted on a linear scale from 7.2 to 265 mJy beam-1. The synthesized beam in the lower right corner is $`7.29^{\prime \prime }\times 7.13^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`62.9^{}`$. UC HII regions in the center of MM 1 are identified by filled triangles, MM 2–4 are shown as open circles. A scale size of 0.15 pc is represented by a bar in the lower left corner. The bottom right inset shows 3.3 mm continuum emission obtained with $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ resolution (Figure 1 from Shepherd 2001). Upper panels show the MM 5 millimeter source compared with narrow-band H2$`+`$continuum emission and wide-band 2.12$`\mu `$m emission in W75 N (A) (from Fig. 1).

Figure 6. The relationship between compact, high velocity CO emission, infrared emission, millimeter continuum peaks, and UC HII regions in W75 N (B). Red- and blue-shifted CO emission (upper panels) is plotted from 20.4 to 36.0 km s-1 and –5.6 to –23.8 km s-1, respectively. The RMS in both images is 0.5 Jy beam-1 km s-1; contours are plotted from –3, 2, 3, 4 $`\sigma `$ and continue at spacings of 1 $`\sigma `$. Millimeter core positions for MM 2–4 are shown as filled circles, UC HII regions embedded in MM 1 are represented as filled triangles. Proposed outflows are identified by arrows from UC HII regions VLA 1 (Ba), VLA 3 (Bb), and MM 2. The synthesized beam ($`2.04^{\prime \prime }\times 1.77^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`80.5^{}`$) is shown in the top right image and a scale size of 0.1 pc is represented by a bar in the top left image. The bottom two images show the Ks and H2 emission relative to the proposed outflows. Both images are displayed as the square root of the intensity.

Figure 7. Top: Integrated emission (zeroth moment) from 17.8 km s-1 to 36.0 km s-1. The RMS in the image is 1.2 Jy beam-1 km s-1, contours are plotted from 4 to $`20\sigma `$ with increments of $`2\sigma `$ and then from 20 to $`45\sigma `$ with increments of $`5\sigma `$. Greyscale is plotted from $`3\sigma `$ to a peak of 56.0 Jy beam-1 km s-1. Millimeter cores are identified as filled circles, UC HII regions by filled triangles. The synthesized beam in the bottom left corner is $`6.46^{\prime \prime }\times 6.28^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`54.7^{}`$. Bottom Position-Velocity plot along the length of the high-velocity, red-shifted outflow. Contours are plotted at 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, & 90% of the peak.

Figure 8. Top: Integrated emission (zeroth moment) from –5.6 km s-1 to –26.4 km s-1. The RMS in the image is 0.96 Jy beam-1 km s-1, contours are plotted from 4 to $`20\sigma `$ with increments of $`2\sigma `$, greyscale is plotted from $`3\sigma `$ to a peak of 20.0 Jy beam-1 km s-1. Millimeter cores are identified as filled circles, UC HII regions by filled triangles. The synthesized beam in the bottom right corner is $`6.46^{\prime \prime }\times 6.28^{\prime \prime }`$ at P.A. $`54.7^{}`$. Bottom Position-Velocity plot along the length of the high-velocity, blue-shifted outflow. Contours are plotted at 3, 5, 7, 9, 20, 40, 60, 80, & 100% of the peak.

Figure 9. CO(J=1–0) optical depth as a function of velocity based on single-dish observations with the Kitt Peak 12 m telescope. Optical depth is derived for three positions within the outflow: in the north-east lobe (Top); centered on the MM 1 core (Center); and in the south-west lobe (Bottom). CO emission was measured in each channel image of the interferometer mosaic and an optical depth correction was made to the mass estimate based on the location and velocity of the emission.

Figure 10. Left: Three color image using data from The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). The image is $`1.5^{}`$ on a side. The J-band image at 1.25$`\mu `$m is shown as blue, H-band at 1.65$`\mu `$m is green, & Ks-band at 2.17$`\mu `$m is red. The $`+`$ symbol represents the location of the MM 1 peak. Right: A color-color diagram using data from the 2MASS Point Source Catalog for stars within $`1^{}`$ of MM 1 that were detected at all three bands. The locus of main-sequence stars is represented by the thick, curved line while the two diagonal lines show reddening vectors up to $`A_V=40`$ of dust.