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# Constraining the evolution of young radio-loud AGN

## 1 Current views on radio source evolution

It has been shown beyond reasonable doubt that the archetypical Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio galaxies are young objects, with typical dynamical ages of $`10^{23}`$ years (Polatidis & Conway 2002, and references therein). These sources are therefore the prime candidates to be the young progenitors of classical large-size radio sources, which subsequently evolve into Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS), and FRI and/or FRII radio sources. Although it is not clear whether all GPS sources are young objects (certainly the GPS quasars seem to be an unrelated distinct class of objects), GPS galaxies are the key objects to study the early evolution of radio-loud AGN.

Current views on radio source evolution are mainly based on the radio power - linear size ($`PD`$) diagram, and source size distributions. These suggest that if GPS and CSS sources evolve into large size radio sources, they should decrease in radio power by at least an order of magnitude, to account for their relatively high space density (Fanti et al. 1995; Readhead et al. 1996, O’Dea & Baum 1997). This luminosity evolution scenario is backed up by theory, ie. it is expected that a radio source with a constant jet power, expanding in a medium with a declining density profile, will decrease in radio power (eg. Baldwin 1982; Kaiser & Alexander 1997).

### 1.1 Perspective from our group

We have used the existing samples of Stanghellini et al. (1998; bright GPS galaxies), Fanti et al. 1990 (bright CSS galaxies), and Snellen et al. (1998a; faint GPS galaxies) to study early radio source evolution. This has been described in detail in Snellen et al. (2000). We noticed a distinct difference between the redshift distribution of GPS galaxies from the Stanghellini et al. sample and 3C galaxies, with the GPS galaxies biased towards higher redshifts (95% confidence in the KS test). First of all, this makes the number count analyses mentioned above, which are averaged over a large redshift range, less straightforward. Furthermore, it is important to understand how two populations, which evolve into each other on timescales several orders of magnitude less than the Hubble time, can have different redshift distributions. It is clear that to explain this redshift bias in a flux density limited sample, the luminosity function of GPS galaxies has to be different from that of old, extended objects, if the former are to develop into the latter.

We advocate that it is the qualitatively different individual luminosity development of young radio sources compared to that of old objects which causes a flatter overall luminosity function. If radio sources increase in radio power until they grow beyond a certain size and thereafter decrease in radio power, a randomly aged population of compact radio sources will be biased towards higher luminosities than a population of large-size objects, producing a flatter luminosity function. This behaviour in luminosity evolution is expected from theory, in which the density profile of the core of the host galaxy is flat (see Fig. 1, and the density only starts to decrease outside this core radius (Snellen et al. 2000; Alexander 2000; O’Dea 2002). Some new evidence for this scenario is also presented by Perucho & Marti 2002a,b).

### 1.2 Synchrotron self absorption and self-similar evolution

Snellen et al. (2000) used the three formerly mentioned samples to study the relation between the radio spectra and the overall sizes of the GPS and CSS sources. When assuming Synchrotron self absorption (SSA), the frequency and flux density of the overall spectral turnover provide a good indication of the subtended solid angle of the radio source and subsequently of the size of the dominant radio components, with the angular size, $`\theta _{\mathrm{ssa}}`$, being,

$$\theta _{\mathrm{ssa}}B^{1/4}S_{\mathrm{peak}}^{1/2}\nu _{\mathrm{peak}}^{5/4}$$

where $`B`$ is the magnetic field strength. If the weak dependence on $`B`$ is taken out by assuming an equipartition magnetic field, then the SSA components sizes are found to be linearly proportional to the overall size of the GPS/CSS sources as measured from VLBI, over a luminosity and linear size range of several orders of magnitude. This indicates that the ratio of overall-size to lobe-size stays constant while the sources grow, and that therefore young radio sources evolve in a self-similar way. Furthermore, it provides strong evidence that the turnovers in the radio spectra of GPS/CSS sources are indeed caused by SSA, and not free-free absorption (FFA). Further evidence in favour of this scheme is presented by Tschager et al. (2002), who find that a new sample of very faint CSS galaxies also follow the relation given above.

Although it is shown that FFA does occur in some compact GPS sources (eg. Kameno et al. 2002; Inoue et al. 2002; Vermeulen et al., 2002), it seems that even in these objects FFA only generally affects faint components close to the nucleus, and not the mini-lobes which form the dominant components in the overall radio spectrum. Although it is possible to fit the spectra of individual sources with fine-tuned FFA models, it is not clear to us why the conditions of FFA would change in such way over a large range of radio source luminosities and linear sizes, that they exactly mimic the frequency and strength of the turnovers as expected for SSA. This makes a very strong case for SSA being the dominant absorption process in GPS and CSS galaxies. Highly accurate flux density monitoring can now be used to further test self-similar evolution by comparing the long-term flux density variability with what is expected for this scenario (eg. Tingay et al. 2002).

### 1.3 Open questions

Although we now start to have a more or less general idea of how GPS and CSS could evolve into old, extended objects, many questions remain open, and the proposed evolution scenarios should be further tested. Is the initial phase of increase in luminosity correct, and if so, how strong is this rise? Do all GPS/CSS galaxies evolve into extended objects, or is there a significant population of short-lived objects, eg. due to the lack of fuel (these may show up as dying drop-outs in GPS/CSS samples; eg. Marecki et al., 2002)? Does intermittance play an important role? Do GPS and CSS sources evolve into FR II only, or do they also evolve into in FR Is as well? Can we in some way recognise objects which are bound to evolve in either class of object, or are FR I and II physically so closely linked (eg. through evolution) that there is no difference in their progenitors?

Several other matters have to be settled. The link between the radio spectra and VLBI morphologies have to be further investigated. Do all GPS galaxies have compact symmetric (CSO) morphologies, such as the bright archetypes? What effect could orientation have on the classification of an object as either a GPS source or a CSO (eg. Snellen et al. 1998b)? Is Doppler boosting really not important in these objects, as is always assumed, or does it significantly affect our statistical analyses? And even more general, but not too obvious, how do you exactly decide what is and what is not a GPS source? To address many of these issues, we are studying a new sample of nearby, young radio-loud AGN.

## 2 A new, low-redshift sample of young radio sources

### 2.1 Rationale

For a statistically sound analysis of radio-loud AGN, it is vital to study a complete, volume limited sample, unaffected by possible cosmological evolutionary effects. Evidently, a nearby sample of young radio sources would be the obvious choice, since key observations, such as optical spectroscopy, are much easier to obtain, and the statistics and properties of other (older) classes of radio sources are well established at low redshift. Radio source evolution scenarios as proposed above provide distinct predictions on luminosity functions, linear size distributions, and emission line properties and dynamical ages as function of radio power and size. The determination of these properties will therefore be the main goal of our investigation, which will form a powerful tool to constrain evolution models.

In addition, as a spin-off, a complete sample of nearby young radio-loud AGN allows us to undertake unique studies of their HI absorption distribution (using VLBI in L-band), X-ray, infrared and optical cluster properties. This will undoubtedly give new insights in the intra- and intergalactic environments of young radio-loud AGN.

### 2.2 Sample selection

Selection of a comprehensive nearby sample has only become possible since the construction of the new generation of radio surveys. Especially the 1.4-GHz FIRST survey (White et al. 1997) with its high resolution is ideal for selecting compact radio sources, and therefore forms the basis of our sample. Only the region north of declination +30 was used, so it overlaps with the WENSS at 325 MHz (Rengelink et al. 1997).

The first step was the selection of all sources in FIRST with an angular size of $`<2^{\prime \prime }`$ and a flux density $`S_{1.4\mathrm{GHz}}>100`$ mJy. It is important to note that no selection was made on radio spectra, but only on angular size, allowing in a later stage an unbiased investigation of possible orientation and/or beaming effects on the radio spectra and morphologies of young radio-loud AGN. Unfortunately, by selecting at 1.4 GHz, sources with spectral turnovers at higher frequencies (very compact objects) may have been missed. To catch these, sources from the flat spectrum CLASS survey (with S5GHz$`>`$30 mJy; Myers et al. 1995) were added to the sample, with an 8.4-5 GHz spectral index such that their 1.4-GHz flux density would have been brighter than 100 mJy, if they were not synchrotron self absorbed.

The positions of the remaining objects were cross-correlated with the optical APM/ POSS-I catalogue, and only those objects which coincided within 10′′ with a galaxy with a red magnitude $`<`$16$`.^\mathrm{m}`$5 were selected. This yielded a total of 55 objects, which were subsequently correlated with other surveys such as 4C, NVSS (Condon et al. 1998), GB6 (Gregory et al. 1996), and CLASS, and images were obtained from the NVSS and the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS, Lasker et al. 1990) to check whether the optical ID was genuine, and to see whether any large scale radio emission may have been missed (on which basis they would be rejected). The literature was searched for any available redshifts, and optical spectra were taken for the remaining objects with the Calar-Alto 2.2-m and the 2.5-m Isaac Newton telescopes.

The final sample contains 28 compact radio sources in the redshift range $`0.008<0.232`$. The redshift distribution is shown in Figure 2.

### 2.3 First observations and results

A comprehensive observational programme is underway to study the individual objects in detail. VLA observations at 5, 8.4 and 15 GHz, and Effelsberg observations at 2.7, 4.8, 10.5, and 32 GHz were taken to refine the radio spectra and to determine possible flux density variability. The shapes of the radio spectra have given us a first indication of the angular sizes expected for these objects (see section 1.2). This information was used to divide the sample into small-size, intermediate-size, and large-size sub-samples. These sub-samples were then observed with the VLBA+EVN at 5 GHz ($``$1.5 mas resolution), the EVN at 1.6 GHz ($``$15 mas resolution), and MERLIN at 1.6 GHz ($``$150 mas resolution) respectively. So far, all but one source have been observed in this way. In addition, optical imaging in B, V, R, and I band filter, and HI absorption observations with WSRT are underway.

The first results look very promising. More than 80% of the objects have radio spectra which can be classified as classical GPS or CSS sources (see Fig. 3), with the remainder also showing a spectral peak but clearly exhibiting variability. Most of the objects have morphologies consistent with them being compact double or compact symmetric objects, as expected for this class of objects, but some seem to show core-jet or more complex structures. This sample is ideal to further study the relation between radio spectrum, morphology, orientation, and Doppler boosting.

At this stage, the foundation has been laid to determine directly the local luminosity function, source size distribution, and the dynamical age distribution for young radio-loud AGN, without cosmological bias.

## Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Tasso Tzioumis for the excellent organisation of the workshop, and the villagers of Kerastari for their warm hospitality. This paper is partly based on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, Spain, operated by the Max-Planck-Institute für Astronomie, Heidelberg, jointly with the Spanish National Commission for Astronomy; the Isaac Newton Telescope (through the service programme), which is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias; The European VLBI Network (EVN, making use of EC’s Access to Research Infrastructures Programme, under Contract No. HPRI-CT-1999-00045), which is a joint facility of European, Chinese and other radio astronomy institutes funded by their national research councils; MERLIN, a National Facility operated by the University of Manchester at Jodrell Bank Observatory on behalf of PPARC. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. KHM was supported by a Marie-Curie fellowship of the European Commission.

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# 𝜂→𝜋⁰𝛾𝛾 decay within the chiral unitary approach.

## 1 Introduction

The $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ decay has attracted much theoretical attention, since Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) calculations have sizable uncertainties and produce systematically rates about a factor of two smaller than experiment . In contrast models using quark box diagrams  claim to obtain acceptable rates. Within ChPT, the problem stems from the fact that the tree level amplitudes, both at $`O(p^2)`$ and $`O(p^4)`$, vanish. The first non-vanishing contribution comes at $`O(p^4)`$, but either from loops involving kaons, largely suppressed due to the kaon masses, or from pion loops, again suppressed since they violate G parity and are thus proportional to $`m_um_d`$ . The first sizable contribution comes at $`O(p^6)`$ but the coefficients involved are not precisely determined. One must recur to models: either Vector Meson Dominance (VMD) , the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model (NJL) , or the extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model (ENJL) , have been used to determine these parameters. However, the use of tree level VMD to obtain the $`O(p^6)`$ chiral coefficients by expanding the vector meson propagators, leads  to results about a factor of two smaller than the ”all order” VMD term, which means keeping the full vector meson propagator. All this said, the chiral approach has been useful to unveil the physical mechanisms responsible for this decay, but it has become clear that the strict chiral counting has to be abandoned since the $`O(p^6)`$ and higher orders involved in the full (“all order”) VMD results are larger than those of $`O(p^4)`$. For a review, see , together with an experimental upper bound.

Once the “all order” VMD results is accepted as the dominant mechanism, one cannot forget the tree level exchange of other resonances around the 1 GeV region. In comparison with VMD, the exchange of $`J^{PC}=1^+`$ axial vectors  yields negligible contributions when using values of the couplings in agreement with $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$ data . Still at tree level, the $`a_0(980)`$ exchange, which was taken into account approximately in , was one of the main sources of uncertainty, since even the sign of its contribution was unknown.

After the tree level light resonance exchange have been taken into account, we should consider loop diagrams, since meson-meson interaction or rescattering can be rather strong. First of all we find the already commented $`O(p^4)`$ kaon loops from ChPT, but also the meson loops from the terms involving the exchange of one resonance. The uncertainty from the latter was roughly expected  to be about 30% of the full width.

Another relevant question is that no attempts have been done to check the consistency of $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ results with data from other processes. On the one hand, the decay results have not been compared with the crossed channel $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$, although some consistency tests with $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$ have been carried out as quoted above. The reason is not surprising since there are no hopes within ChPT to reach the $`a_0(980)`$ region where there are measurements of the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ cross section . On the other hand, the explicit SU(3) breaking already present in the radiative vector meson decays has not been taken into account when calculating the VMD tree level contributions.

The former discussion has set the stage of the problem and the remaining uncertainties that allow for further improvement. In recent years, with the advent of unitarization methods, it has been possible to extend the results of ChPT to higher energies where the perturbative expansion breaks down and to generate resonances up to 1.2 GeV . In particular these ideas were used to describe the $`\gamma \gamma mesonmeson`$ reaction, with good results in all the channels up to energies of around 1.2 GeV . Work in a similar direction for this latter reaction has also been done in . With these techniques, and always within the context of meson chiral lagrangians, we will address three of the problems stated above: First, the $`a_0(980)`$ contribution, second, the evaluation of meson loops from VMD diagrams and, third, the consistency with the crossed channel $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$. In particular, we will make use of the results in , where the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ cross section around the $`a_0(980)`$ resonance was well reproduced using the same input as in meson meson scattering, without introducing any extra parameters.

With these improvements we are then left with a model that includes the “all order” VMD and resummed chiral loops. We expect this approach to provide a good description of $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ because recent studies on the vector meson decay into two pseudoscalar mesons and one photon  indicate that such a combination of ”all order” VMD contribution plus the unitary summation of the chiral loops leads to good agreement with data in a variety of reactions. These include $`\varphi \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ , where the chiral loops are dominant, $`\omega \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$ , where the VMD mechanism is dominant, and $`\rho \pi ^0\pi ^0\gamma `$  where both mechanisms have about the same strength.

Concerning the fourth issue of the SU(3) breaking present in radiative vector meson decays, we will take it into account here by using effective couplings normalized to reproduce the most recent experimental data.

Incidentally, there are preliminary results from a very recent experiment , which give a decay width about half of the previous one. In that work the authors refined the background subtraction, which was known to be rather problematic. Let us remark that, in view of the former discussion, revisiting the previous theoretical calculations is mandatory regardless of whether these new experimental results are confirmed or not.

In what follows we will address all these theoretical issues in detail, including an updated estimation of the uncertainties in the calculation. In particular, we will take into account the experimental errors in the radiative vector meson decays, which were neglected before, although they will turn out to be the largest source of uncertainty.

## 2 VMD contribution

Following  we consider the VMD mechanism of Fig. 1

which can be easily derived from the VMD Lagrangians involving VVP and $`V\gamma `$ couplings

$$_{VVP}=\frac{G}{\sqrt{2}}ϵ^{\mu \nu \alpha \beta }_\mu V_\nu _\alpha V_\beta P,_{V\gamma }=4f^2egA_\mu QV^\mu ,$$
(1)
where $`V_\mu `$ and $`P`$ are standard $`SU(3)`$ matrices constructed with the nonet of vector mesons containing the $`\rho `$, and the nonet of pseudoscalar mesons containing the $`\pi `$, respectively. For instance for pseudoscalar mesons $`P=\stackrel{~}{P}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}\eta _1`$, with $`\stackrel{~}{P}`$ given by

$$\stackrel{~}{P}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\pi ^0+\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\eta _8& \pi ^+& K^+\\ \pi ^{}& \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\pi ^0+\frac{1}{\sqrt{6}}\eta _8& K^0\\ K^{}& \overline{K}^0& \frac{2}{\sqrt{6}}\eta _8\end{array}\right),$$
(2)
and similarly for vector mesons . We also assume the ordinary mixing for the $`\varphi `$, the $`\omega `$, the $`\eta `$ and $`\eta ^{}`$:

$`\omega `$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}}\omega _1+\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}}\omega _8,\varphi =\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}}\omega _1\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}}\omega _8,`$ (3)
$`\eta `$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\eta _1+{\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{2}}{3}}\eta _8,\eta ^{}={\displaystyle \frac{2\sqrt{2}}{3}}\eta _1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}\eta _8.`$
In Eq. (1) $`G=\frac{3g^2}{4\pi ^2f}`$, $`g=\frac{G_VM_\rho }{\sqrt{2}f^2}`$  and $`f=93`$MeV, with $`G_V`$ the coupling of $`\rho `$ to $`\pi \pi `$ in the normalization of . ¿From Eq. (1) one can obtain the radiative widths for $`VP\gamma `$, which are given by

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }_{VP\gamma }=\frac{3}{2}\alpha C_i^2\left(G\frac{2}{3}\frac{G_V}{M_V}\right)^2k^3,$$
(4)
where $`k`$ is the photon momentum for the vector meson at rest and $`C_i`$ are $`SU(3)`$ coefficients that we give in Table 1 for the different radiative decays, together with the theoretical (using $`G_V=69`$MeV and $`f=93`$MeV) and experimental  branching ratios. We shall refer to these results as those with “universal couplings”.

The agreement with the data is fair but the results can be improved by incorporating $`SU(3)`$ breaking mechanisms . For that purpose, we will normalize here the $`C_i`$ couplings so that the branching ratios in Table 1 agree with experiment. These will be called results with “normalized couplings”. In this way we are taking into account phenomenologically the corrections to the $`VP\gamma `$ vertex from an underlying field theory.

Once the $`VP\gamma `$ couplings have been fixed, we can use them in the VMD amplitude corresponding to the diagram of Fig. 1, which is given by

$`it^{VMD}`$ $`=`$ $`\{i\sqrt{6}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{q^2M_\rho ^2+iM_\rho \mathrm{\Gamma }(q^2)}}\left(G{\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}e{\displaystyle \frac{G_V}{M_\rho }}\right)^2|\begin{array}{ccc}qq& qk_2& qϵ_2\\ k_1q& k_1k_2& k_1ϵ_2\\ ϵ_1q& ϵ_1k_2& ϵ_1ϵ_2\end{array}|`$ (8)
$`+(k_1k_2,qq^{})\}+\{\rho \omega \},`$
where $`q=Pk_1`$, $`q^{}=Pk_2`$, with $`P,k_1,k_2`$ the momentum of the $`\eta `$ and the two photons. We have parametrized the $`\rho `$ width phenomenologically as: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\rho (q,s)=\frac{(6.14)^2}{48\pi s}(s^24sm_\pi ^2)^{3/2}`$ whereas for the $`\omega `$ we have considered a constant $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\omega =8.44`$ MeV. Nevertheless, our results are rather insensitive to these details. From the above amplitude, the $`\eta `$ decay width is easily calculated, as well as the $`\gamma \gamma `$ invariant mass distribution

$$\frac{d\mathrm{\Gamma }}{dM_I}=\frac{1}{16(2\pi )^4m_\eta ^2}M_I_0^{m_\eta \omega }𝑑k_1_0^{2\pi }𝑑\varphi \mathrm{\Theta }(1A^2)\mathrm{\Sigma }t^2,$$
(9)
where we take for reference the momentum of the pion, $`\stackrel{}{p}`$, in the $`z`$ direction, so that

$`\stackrel{}{p}=p\left(\begin{array}{c}0\\ 0\\ 1\end{array}\right),\stackrel{}{k_1}=k_1\left(\begin{array}{c}sin\theta \mathrm{cos}\varphi \\ sin\theta sin\varphi \\ cos\theta \end{array}\right),\stackrel{}{k_2}=(\stackrel{}{k_1}+\stackrel{}{p}),`$ (16)
$`p={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda ^{1/2}(m_\eta ^2,M_I^2,m_\pi ^2)}{2m_\eta }},Acos(\gamma _1\pi ^0)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2k_1p}}[(m_\eta \omega k_1)^2k_1^2|\stackrel{}{p}|^2]`$ (17)
with $`\omega `$ the energy of the $`\pi ^0`$.

In Fig. 2 we show the results of the mass distribution with and without the radiative widths normalization factors. The integrated width is given by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.57`$eV (universal couplings); $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.30\pm 0.06`$eV (normalized couplings), where the error has been calculated from a Monte Carlo Gaussian sampling of the normalization parameters within the errors of the experimental branching ratios of Table 1. Let us note that there have been stable values for the vector meson radiative widths throughout the last decade in the PDG but a sizable change in the PDG2002. Had we used the PDG2000, we would have obtained $`0.21\pm 0.05`$eV (normalized couplings).

It is interesting to compare these results with those in , where they used a universal SU(3) coupling with $`G_V`$ adjusted to the $`\omega \pi ^0\gamma `$ decay data existing at that time, and obtained an ”all orders” value of $`0.31`$eV. The difference between that value and the $`0.21\pm 0.05`$eV that we would have obtained with older data has to be attributed to the adjusting to all the branching ratios, instead of just one as in .

Our VMD normalized result is within three standard deviations from the value presently given in ,: $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.84\pm 0.18`$eV, but within one sigma of the more recent one presented in , $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.42\pm 0.14`$eV. There are, however, other contributions that we consider next.

## 3 Meson loops

The contribution of pion loops to $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$, evaluated in , proceeds, to begin with, through the G-parity violating $`\eta \pi ^0\pi ^+\pi ^{}`$ process. Since the contribution is proportional to $`m_um_d`$, it is very small and we think that if such terms are included, other isospin violating terms proportional to $`m_um_d`$, and isospin violating corrections to the main terms should also be included. Rather than undertaking this delicate task, we will use the results of  to estimate uncertainties from all these sources.

The main meson loop contribution comes from the charged kaon loops, calculated at $`O(p^4)`$ in , and proceeds via $`\eta \pi ^0K^+K^{}\pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$. Note that these loops are also suppressed due to the large kaon masses. That is why the $`\eta \pi ^0a_0(980)\pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ mechanism was included explicitly, with uncertainties in the size and sign of the $`a_0(980)`$ couplings. As commented in the introduction, the chiral unitary approach solves this problem by generating dynamically the $`a_0(980)`$ in the $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0\eta `$ amplitude.

In this section, we will illustrate this approach by revisiting the work done in  on the related process $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ where the chiral unitary approach was successfully applied around the $`a_0(980)`$ region. Since for the $`\eta `$ decay the low energy region of $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ is also of interest, we will include next the VMD mechanisms also in this reaction. Once we check that we describe correctly $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$, the results can be easily translated to the eta decay. We will finally add other anomalous meson loops that are numerically relevant for eta decay but not for $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$.

### 3.1 The unitarized $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ amplitude in the $`a_0(980)`$ region

In  it was shown that, within the unitary chiral approach, the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ amplitude around the $`a_0(980)`$ region, diagrammatically represented at one loop in Fig. 3, factorizes as

$$it=(\stackrel{~}{t}_{\chi K}+\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}})t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }$$
(18)
with $`t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$ the full $`K^+K^{}\pi ^0\eta `$ transition amplitude.

The first three diagrams correspond to $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{\chi K}t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$ of Eq. (18), already evaluated at one loop in , where the factorization of the leading $`t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$ also occurred. In our case $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{\chi K}`$, written in a general gauge to be also used for the $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ reaction, is given by

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_{\chi K}=\frac{2e^2}{16\pi ^2}\left(g^{\mu \nu }\frac{k_{2\mu }k_{1\mu }}{k_1k_2}\right)ϵ_{1\mu }ϵ_{2\mu }\left\{1+\frac{m_K^2}{s}\left[\mathrm{log}\left(\frac{1+(14m_K^2/s)^{\frac{1}{2}}}{1(14m_K^2/s)^{\frac{1}{2}}}\right)i\pi \right]^2\right\},$$
(19)
above the $`K^+K^{}`$ threshold, with the $`i\pi `$ term removed below threshold. Note that the unitarized $`t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$ transition matrix, not just the lowest order chiral amplitude, is factorized outside the loop integral. This on shell factorization was shown in  by proving that the off shell part of the meson-meson amplitude did not contribute to the loop integral.

The meson meson scattering amplitude was evaluated in  by summing the Bethe Salpeter (BS) equation with a kernel formed from the lowest order meson chiral Lagrangian amplitude and regularizing the loop function with a three momentum cut off. Subsequently, other approaches like the inverse amplitude method  or the $`N/D`$ method  were used and all of them gave the same results in the meson scalar sector. For $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ below 1 GeV only the $`L=0,I=1`$ amplitudes are needed . The BS equation sums the diagrammatic series of Fig. 4,

which implies that in the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ transition of Fig. 3 one is resumming the diagrams of Fig. 5.

Furthermore, the same on-shell factorization of the $`t`$ matrix in the loops found for $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ was also justified for meson-meson scattering in . Thus, the BS equation with coupled channels can be solved algebraically, leading to the following solution in matrix form

$$t(s)=[1t_2(s)G(s)]^1t_2(s),$$
(20)
with $`s`$ the invariant mass of the two mesons, $`t_2`$ the lowest order chiral amplitude and $`G(s)`$ a diagonal matrix, $`\text{diag}(G_{\overline{K}K},G_{\eta \pi })`$, accounting for the loop functions of two mesons. These $`G`$ functions were regularized in  by means of a cut off. The $`G`$ analytic expressions, both using a cut off or dimensional regularization can be found in .

In Eq. (18) there is another term, $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}}t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$, which corresponds to the last two diagrams of Fig. 3 where the axial vector meson $`K_1(1270)`$ is exchanged. For the one loop result we follow . Given the large mass of the axial vector, both the factorization of the unitarized on shell meson-meson scattering amplitude outside the loop, as well as that of the $`\gamma \gamma K^+K^{}`$ amplitude are also justified . Hence, when the full series of Fig. 5 is considered, one obtains the contribution $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}}t_{K^+K^{},\pi ^0\eta }`$ with $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}}`$ given by

$$\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}}=2e^2\left(g^{\mu \nu }\frac{k_{2\mu }k_{1\mu }}{k_1k_2}\right)ϵ_{1\mu }ϵ_{2\mu }\frac{(L_9^r+L_{10}^r)}{f^2}\left[\frac{s_A}{2\beta (s)}ln\left(\frac{1+\beta (s)+{\displaystyle \frac{s_A}{s}}}{1\beta (s)+{\displaystyle \frac{s_A}{s}}}\right)+s\right]G_{K\overline{K}},$$
(21)
with $`s_A=2(m_A^2m_K^2)`$, and $`\beta (s)=(1\frac{4m_K^2}{s})^{1/2}`$.

First of all we show in Fig. 6 the result for the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ cross section obtained from Eq. (18), which coincides with that obtained in .

To ease the comparison with experimental data we also show the events concentrated in bins of 40 MeV, roughly like the experimental ones. We can easily notice the peak of the $`a_0(980)`$ whose dynamical generation is guaranteed by the resummation of diagrams in Fig. 5. The resummed $`t_{K^+K^{}\pi ^0\eta }`$ amplitude has indeed a pole in the complex plane associated to the $`a_0(980)`$ resonance .

In Fig. 6, we also show results above and below $`a_0(980)`$, whose description requires further ingredients than those needed just for the $`a_0(980)`$ region. In particular, the $`a_2(1320)`$ resonance (second peak) is included phenomenologically as in ref. .

In  loops like those in Fig. 3, but exchanging a vector meson instead of an axial-vector meson were estimated negligible in the $`a_0(980)`$ region and hence neglected. In addition, the VMD tree level mechanism of Fig. 1 (with an outgoing $`\eta `$) was neglected since it has no resonant structure in the $`\gamma \gamma `$ s-channel. As a consequence the agreement of Eq. (18) with experiment is fair but some discrepancies can be noticed in Fig. 6 at low energies.

### 3.2 VMD mechanisms in $`\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^0`$

For the purpose of the present work, $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$, the low energy region of the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ reaction is also relevant. Therefore we will include as a novelty both the VMD tree level contribution as well as the loops involving vector meson exchange.

First, we can see in Fig. 7 that the results obtained adding the tree level VMD amplitude normalized to the $`\omega ,\rho `$ radiative decay rates (dashed line) are acceptable around and below the peak of the $`a_0(980)`$ resonance. Let us note that the inclusion of these terms does improve the description of the low energy region. The binning of the theoretical results would make again the apparent agreement with data to look much better, but for the sake of clarity we have not added more lines to the figure, as long as the binning effect has already been illustrated in Fig. 6. Although in section one we have justified the use of the normalized couplings, we also show in Fig. 7 the result using universal couplings (dotted line). In this process, the effect of normalizing the couplings of the vector meson radiative decays is not as drastic as in Fig. 2 for the $`\eta `$ decay where only the VMD mechanism was considered. In what follows we will only use the normalized couplings.

Second, in addition to the axial vector meson exchange in loops considered in the previous section, we have to include the loops with vector meson exchange for completeness. In fact, some of the uncertainties estimated in  were linked to these loops. For consistency, once again we have to sum the series obtained by iterating the loops in the four meson vertex shown in Fig. 8. Hence, the new amplitude, which we shall call $`t^{VMDL}`$, will be given by:

$$t^{VMDL}=t_{\eta \pi ^0,\eta \pi ^0}(M_I)G_{\eta \pi }\stackrel{~}{t}_{\eta \pi }^{VMD}(M_I)\left[ϵ_1ϵ_2\frac{(k_2ϵ_1)(k_1ϵ_2)}{k_1k_2}\right]$$
(22)
where now $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{\eta \pi }^{VMD}`$ is the factor that multiplies the $`ϵ_1ϵ_2`$ product in the $`s`$-wave projection of the $`t_{\eta \pi }^{VMD}`$ amplitude in the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\eta `$ CM. Although the Lorentz structure of polarization vector products may seem rather complicated from Eq. (8), it is easy to show that after the s-wave projection the polarization vectors factorize indeed as $`ϵ_1ϵ_2`$. In a general frame the $`ϵ_1ϵ_2`$ factor has to be replaced by $`ϵ_1ϵ_2(k_2ϵ_1)(k_1ϵ_2)/(k_1k_2)`$. Once again we have factorized the amplitudes for the same reasons as done with the other terms.

Of course, when introducing loops with vector meson exchange we have to consider loops involving a $`K^+`$ or a $`K^0`$ exchanged between the photons (see Fig. 8.b), which were not present at tree level. These would be given by

$`t_{K\overline{K}}^{VMDL}`$ $`=`$ $`(t_{\eta \pi ^0,K^+K^{}}(M_I)G_{K\overline{K}}(M_I)\stackrel{~}{T}_{K^+K^{}}^{VMD}(M_I)`$
$`+t_{\eta \pi ^0,K^0\overline{K}^0}(M_I)G_{K\overline{K}}(M_I)\stackrel{~}{T}_{K^0\overline{K}^0}^{VMD}(M_I)\left)\right[ϵ_1ϵ_2{\displaystyle \frac{(k_2ϵ_1)(k_1ϵ_2)}{k_1k_2}}]`$
The contribution of all these new VMD loop diagrams is an increase of the order of 10-20% of the result shown in Fig. 7 by the dashed line (normalized VMD couplings). The new result would overlap in a large region with the dotted line of Fig. 7 and hence we do not show it explicitly.

In what follows we make some considerations about the diagrammatic interpretation of the “all order” VMD calculation, the normalization of the $`VP\gamma `$ vertices and the meson-meson interaction. By “all order” VMD one means  that the full vector meson propagator $`(sM_V^2+iM_V\mathrm{\Gamma }(s))^1`$ is used in the calculations. This full propagator includes self-energy diagrams in a Dyson-Schwinger resummation, leading to a shift of the bare mass and generating a width . Thus, one must think in terms of self-energy insertions in the middle of the vector meson lines in Fig. 1 and 8. The $`VP\gamma `$ coupling normalization to agree with the radiative vector meson decays can also be understood as considering vertex correction diagrams in Fig.1 and 8, and therefore it does not lead to any double counting with the dressing of the vector meson propagator. Finally, the meson-meson interaction in the VMD terms leads to the diagrams of Fig. 8, in which the two pseudoscalar mesons interact through four-pseudoscalar meson vertices. The resummation of pseudoscalar meson-meson loops thus leaves apart the vector meson lines and the $`VP\gamma `$ vertices. Once again this ensures that there is no double counting.

### 3.3 Meson loops in $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$

In the $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ case, the meson loop diagrams correspond to those of $`\pi ^0\eta \gamma \gamma `$ but considering the $`\pi ^0`$ as an outgoing particle. Hence, it is enough to replace $`s=(p_\eta +p_\pi )^2`$ by $`M_I^2=(p_\eta p_\pi )^2=(p_{\gamma _1}+p_{\gamma _2})^2`$ in all the $`\pi ^0\eta \gamma \gamma `$ amplitudes, which factorize in all the loop diagrams that we have considered so far, and in the $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{\chi K}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{t}_{AK^+K^{}}`$ function.

Since we are considering all the VMD diagrams and the chiral loops, we still have to take into account another kind of loop diagrams , shown in Fig. 9, which involve two anomalous $`\gamma 3M`$ vertices. Despite being $`O(p^8)`$ it has been found  that they can have a non negligible effect on the $`\eta `$ decay. The further rescattering of the mesons in the diagrams of Fig. 9, given the structure of the $`\gamma MMM`$ vertex  in the momenta of the particles, would be suppressed by factors of $`\stackrel{}{p}_\gamma ^2/\stackrel{}{q}^2`$ (with $`q`$ the loop variable) with respect to those considered for the VMD mechanism. This, and the fact that these anomalous terms are already small, makes the consideration of rescattering in these loops superfluous. Therefore, it is enough to take the results from  where it is found that their largest contribution comes from the kaon loops. We use Eqs.(12),(13) and (27) of that reference (note that there is a global change of sign with respect to our notation). Concerning $`\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^0`$, these kind of loops have been neglected in the previous section, because the intermediate particles are very far off shell, due to the crossed character of the loop in the reaction.

## 4 Results for $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$

Using the model described in the previous sections, we plot in Fig. 10 the different contributions to $`d\mathrm{\Gamma }/dM_I`$. We can see that the largest contribution is that of the tree level VMD (long dashed line). Let us recall that this is a new result as long as we are using the VMD couplings normalized to agree with the vector radiative decays. The resummation of the loops in Fig. 3 using Eq.(18), (short dashed line) gives a small contribution ($`0.011`$eV in the total width), but when added coherently to the tree level VMD, leads to an increase of $`30`$% in the $`\eta `$ decay rate (dashed-dotted line). More interestingly, the shape of the $`\gamma \gamma `$ invariant mass distribution is appreciably changed with respect to the tree level VMD, developing a peak at high invariant masses. The resummed VMD loops in Fig. 8, using Eqs.(22) and (3.2), leads, through interference, to a moderate increase of the $`\eta `$ decay rate (double dashed dotted line), smaller than that of the chiral loops considered before. The last ingredient is the contribution of the anomalous mechanisms of Fig. 9 (continuous line), leading again to a moderate increase of the $`\eta `$ decay rate, also smaller than the chiral loops from Eq.(18). These anomalous mechanisms have a very similar shape to the tree level VMD and interfere with it in the whole range of invariant masses.

Altogether, when integrating over the invariant mass, we get:

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma )=0.47\pm 0.08\text{eV}.$$
(24)
Note that the inclusion of the loops has increased the tree level VMD result by 50%. For comparison, we quote here what we would have obtained using the universal VMD couplings: $`0.80`$eV.

So far, the theoretical error has been obtained only from the propagation of the experimental errors in the vector meson radiative decay branching ratios, given in Table 1. The errors from this source had not been considered before although they will turn out to produce the largest uncertainty. In practice we generate a Gaussian weighted random value for each VMD coupling which yield a result for the width. This procedure is repeated a sufficiently large number of times, leading to an approximate Gaussian distribution of results from where we obtain a central value and the error.

We come now to revisit the uncertainties considered in . One of the largest sources to the $`\pm 0.2`$eV accepted uncertainties in that work, was the contribution of the $`a_0(980)`$, whose sign was unknown. This problem is solved in the present work since the $`a_0(980)`$ is generated dynamically from the rescattering of the mesons implied in the Bethe-Salpeter resummation of the $`t_{K^+K^{},\eta \pi ^0}`$ amplitude. Hence its effect can be easily observed comparing with the standard ChPT result, which is obtained by substituting the full $`t_{K^+K^{},\eta \pi ^0}`$ by its lowest order $`O(p^2)`$. In Fig. 10 this corresponds to the difference between the continuous and the dotted line. The contribution of the $`a_0(980)`$ resonance tail is rather small and increases the $`\eta `$ decay rate from $`0.47`$eV to $`0.48`$eV. The sign of its contribution is unambiguously determined. Thus, the present calculation removes completely this source of error. The explicit calculation of the $`a_0(980)`$ contribution giving such a small effect justifies neglecting the $`a_2(1320)`$ resonance contribution which lies much further away in energy.

The other source of uncertainty in  was the contribution of the VMD loops. We have been able to calculate them in this work and, as seen in Fig. 10, these effects are also rather small. They increase the $`\eta `$ decay rate by $`0.02`$eV. Altogether the $`a_0(980)`$ plus the VMD loops increase the $`\eta `$ decay rate by $`0.03`$eV. We thus eliminate these two sources of previous uncertainties, while realizing at the same time that the uncertainties of $`0.2`$eV attributed to these sources in  were indeed a generous upper bound.

In our approach the tree level exchange of the $`h_1(1170)`$, $`b_1(1235)`$ and $`h_1(1380)`$ axial resonances  will be included as an uncertainty. The reason is that, according to , they would increase the decay width by about $`0.07`$eV. However, as shown in , their inclusion in $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$ with the couplings used in  would overestimate the $`\gamma \gamma \pi ^0\pi ^0`$ cross section. In view of these discrepancies, we thus consider safe to accept a theoretical uncertainty of the order of $`0.05`$eV which should still be a generous upper bound.

As commented at the beginning of section three, there are uncertainties due to isospin violating terms. We estimate the errors from this source using the results obtained in  for the G-parity violating term corresponding to Fig. 3 but with pion loops. This contribution is of the order of $`0.05`$eV to the total $`\eta `$ decay rate.

Finally, by summing all errors in quadrature, we arrive to

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma )=0.47\pm 0.10eV$$
(25)
Note that although we have considered a new error source from the uncertainties in the vector radiative decays, which turns out to be the largest one, we still have reduced the uncertainty from previous calculations.

The result of Eq. (25) is in remarkable agreement with the latest experimental number , and lie within two sigmas from the earlier ones in . Confirmation of those preliminary results would therefore be important to test the consistency of this new approach. Furthermore, precise measurements of the $`\gamma \gamma `$ invariant mass distributions would be of much help given the differences found with and without loop contributions.

## 5 Conclusions

We have reanalyzed the $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ decay within the context of meson chiral lagrangians, gathering all the mechanisms discussed in the literature, but improving them in the following aspects:

On the one hand, using the well tested chiral unitary approach, we have removed the uncertainties from the $`a_0(980)`$ resonance as well as those from loops with the exchange of one vector meson. In particular, since the $`a_0(980)`$ is generated dynamically from the meson loop resummation, we have unambiguously determined the sign of its contribution, whereas for the one vector loops we have performed an explicit calculation that in previous works had only been considered as a large source of uncertainty.

On the other hand, we have also checked the consistency with other related processes: First, a relevant observation is that the tree level vector meson dominance amplitude with a universal SU(3) vector-vector-pseudoscalar coupling is not consistent with the $`\rho \eta \gamma `$, $`\omega \pi ^0\gamma `$ and $`\omega \eta \gamma `$ decays. Consequently, throughout the $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ calculation, we have used couplings normalized to agree with the radiative vector meson decays. Second, we have established the consistency of our $`\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma `$ model with the related $`\gamma \gamma \eta \pi ^0`$ process.

Furthermore, we have performed a careful error analysis of our results. As a novelty we have considered the experimental errors in the vector meson radiative decay widths, which turn out to be the largest source of uncertainty. However, since, as just commented above, we have removed former sources of uncertainty, our final error is still smaller than previous estimates.

Altogether we have found a result of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\eta \pi ^0\gamma \gamma )=0.47\pm 0.10`$eV.

With the improved calculation just presented, it seems clear that the mechanisms thus far suggested in the literature in the context of meson chiral lagrangians lead to a result at variance with the experimental result $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.84\pm 0.18`$eV from . However, it is worth noticing the agreement of the above result with the new preliminary measurement $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.42\pm 0.14`$eV from . Nevertheless, a measurement of the invariant mass distribution would be more stringent. Confirmation of the preliminary results of  and an accurate measurement of the $`\gamma \gamma `$ invariant mass distribution should be the experimental priorities to clarify the situation.

## Acknowledgments

We are specially grateful to J.A. Oller for fruitful discussions, technical help and his careful reading of the manuscript. We would also like to acknowledge useful discussions with J. Bijnens. One of us, L.R., acknowledges support from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. J.R.P. acknowledges financial support from a CICYT-INFN collaboration grant as well as a Marie Curie fellowship MCFI-2001-01155. He also thanks the Dipartimento de Fisica, Universita’ de Firenze-INFN Sezione di Firenze for its hospitality. This work is also partly supported by DGICYT contract numbers BFM2000-1326, PB98-0782, and the E.U. EURIDICE network contract no. HPRN-CT-2002-00311.


text:
# The Be/X-ray transient KS 1947+300Partly based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

## 1 Introduction

The transient hard X-ray source KS 1947+300 was discovered on 8th June 1989 by the TTM coded-mask X-ray spectrometer aboard the Kvant module of the Mir orbiting space station (Borozdin et al. 1990). The source was detected at a flux of $`70\pm 10\mathrm{mCrab}`$ in the $`227`$ keV range. Its spectrum could be approximated by a power law with $`\alpha =1.72\pm 0.31`$ absorbed by a hydrogen column density $`N_\mathrm{H}=(3.4\pm 3.0)\times 10^{22}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ (Borozdin et al. 1990). The source was detected in three further pointings of the area during June and July 1989, but was not detected in August, when the 3-$`\sigma `$ upper limit on the flux was equivalent to 1/7th of the flux observed in June (Borozdin et al. 1990).

The 30″ error circle contains only two bright stars, which were observed by Grankin et al. (1991, henceforth GSY). The brightest object was reported to have the colours of a reddened distant early-type star. Independently, Goranski et al. (1991, henceforth GELS) searched a larger circle ($`r=1\mathrm{}`$) around the position of the X-ray source. They also concluded that the same star (their Star 2) was the likely optical counterpart. A spectrum of this object showed evidence for H$`\alpha `$ emission above the night-sky level (GELS).

The transient X-ray pulsar GRO J1948+32 was detected by the BATSE detectors on board the ComptonGRO satellite on 6th April 1994 (Chakrabarty et al. 1995). The source displayed pulsations at 18.7 s and a hard spectrum extending up to 75 keV. It was detected during 33 days reaching a maximum flux of $`50\mathrm{mCrab}`$ in the $`2075`$ keV range. Chakrabarty et al. (1995) observed modulation of the neutron star’s pulse frequency suggestive of orbital variation. The very large error box of GRO J1948+32 (which included the TTM error circle for KS 1947+300) rendered the search for an optical counterpart unfeasible, but the overall X-ray behaviour was reminiscent of a Be/X-ray binary.

A new outburst of KS 1947+300 was detected by the All Sky Monitor (ASM) on board the RossiXTE satellite starting around 23rd October 2000 (Levine & Corbet 2000). Further RossiXTE observations revealed pulsations at $`P_\mathrm{s}=18.76\mathrm{s}`$ (Swank & Morgan 2000), making the identity of KS 1947+300 and GRO J1948+32 virtually certain. The outburst finished in late November 2000, but it was shortly followed by a much larger one. Analysis of PCA/RXTE pointed observations taken during this phase of activity has resulted in the derivation of an orbital solution with $`P_{\mathrm{orb}}=40.43\mathrm{d}`$ and $`e<0.04`$ (Galloway et al. 2002).

In this paper we report on optical and infrared observations of the proposed counterpart taken during and after the outbursts. Our observations confirm the optical counterpart and identify the system as a Be/X-ray transient.

## 2 Observations

### 2.1 Optical Photometry

Observations of the field were taken in service mode on the night of 29th May 2001 using the 1.0-m Jakobus Kapteyn Telescope (JKT) in La Palma, Spain. We obtained images through $`UBVRI`$ filters with the JAG-CCD imaging instrument equipped with a $`2148\times 2148`$ SITe2 CCD. As well as individual frames covering the field of KS 1947+300, we also observed three Landolt standard fields, containing a total of nine standard stars (Landolt 1992), at a range of airmasses. Bias subtraction and flat fielding were carried out on all frames using Starlink ccdpack software (Draper et al. 2000). Then, using the Starlink gaia software (Draper & Gray 2000), aperture photometry was performed on all frames with background subtraction from annular sky regions around each star.

Instrumental minus catalogue magnitudes were calculated for each of the Landolt standard stars and linear fits were performed against airmass. The resulting extinction coefficient and zero point corrections were applied to the target star, resulting in the magnitudes shown in Table 1. Because the target frames were observed near the zenith, uncertainties in the extinction coefficients have negligible effect, and the uncertainties shown in the table are essentially due to zero point uncertainties only.

Observations of the field were also taken on the night of July 3rd 2001 using the 2.6-m Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in La Palma, Spain. We obtained images through $`UBVRI`$ Bessel filters with the Andalucia Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ALFOSC), equipped with a thinned $`2048\times 2048`$ pixel Loral/Lesser CCD, covering a field of view of $`6\stackrel{}{.}4\times 6\stackrel{}{.}4`$.

As well as individual frames covering the field of KS 1947+300, we also observed three Landolt standard fields, each containing four standard stars (Landolt 1992), at a range of airmasses. Photometric reduction was carried out following an identical procedure to that described above for the JKT data. Similar comments regarding the zero point uncertainties apply.

### 2.2 Infrared Photometry

The field of KS 1947+300 was observed in the $`J`$, $`H`$ and $`K`$ filters (all with 60-s exposures) on 6th December 2000 from the 1.1-m AZT–24 telescope at Campo Imperatore (Italy) equipped with the Supernova Watchdogging IR Camera (SWIRCAM), which has a $`4\stackrel{}{.}4\times 4\stackrel{}{.}4`$ field of view and $`1\stackrel{}{.}04`$/pixel spatial resolution). 10″ dithered images were taken in the three filters. Data analysis procedures similar to those described above were applied. A photometric standard was also observed (SAO 48300; 10 s in each filter) and used to derive absolute magnitudes. Within the X-ray positional uncertainty circle, we detected only one bright ($`H=11.4`$) IR object, corresponding to the proposed optical counterpart to KS 1947+300, which is thus the only reddened star in the field. Its magnitudes are listed in Table 2.

### 2.3 Spectroscopy

We obtained a low resolution spectrum of the optical counterpart on December 1st 2000, using the 1.82-m telescope operated by the Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova atop of Mount Ekar, Asiago (Italy). The telescope was equipped with the Asiago Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (AFOSC) and the SiTE thinned CCD. We used grism #4 which gives a resolution of $`8.3`$Å over the $`\lambda \lambda `$ 3500 – 7500 Å range. Details of this spectrum were reported in Negueruela et al. (2000).

A second spectrum (displayed in Fig. 1) was obtained on February 8th 2001 using the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), located at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain. The telescope was equipped with the Intermediate Dispersion Spectrograph (IDS) with the 235-mm camera. The choice of the R400V grating and thinned EEV#10 CCD results in a nominal dispersion of $`1.4`$ Å/pixel. Measurements of arc line widths indicate a spectral resolution of $`5`$Å (FWHM) at $`\lambda `$5500Å.

Further spectra were obtained on June 19-22, 2001, using the 1.52-m G. D. Cassini telescope at the Loiano Observatory (Italy). The telescope was equipped with the Bologna Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (BFOSC) and the new EEV camera. Several grisms were used, giving different coverages and resolutions. A detail of the higher resolution spectrum is shown in Fig. 1.

Finally spectra were obtained on the nights of July 2nd 2001 and December 5-8th 2001 using ALFOSC on the NOT, equipped with grism #7. On the nights of July 2nd and December 5th, we used a $`1\stackrel{}{.}8`$ slit width, while on December 6th and 7th the slit width was $`1\stackrel{}{.}0`$. The resolutions achieved with these configurations are 10.6Å and 6.6Å respectively. Spectra taken with the $`1\stackrel{}{.}0`$ slit have been normalised and summed and their blue end is displayed in Fig. 4.

All the spectroscopic data were reduced with the Starlink packages ccdpack and figaro (Shortridge et al. 1997) and analysed using figaro and dipso (Howarth et al. 1997).

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Previous photometric work

GSY and GELS independently observed the error box of KS 1947+300 and report several measurements of the optical counterpart. GELS obtained $`UBV`$ photometry of the source. They give 13 data-points covering a span of 15 days starting in September 15th 1990, followed by a single data-point 18 days later. GSY give 14 sets of $`UBVR`$ data-points. The first eight cover a span of 38 days starting on October 16th 1990, while the last six cover 11 days separated from the first set by a 200-d gap (i.e., in June 1991). The last point in the dataset of GELS overlaps in time with GSY’s first run. The values measured by the two teams on JD 2448182 are compatible within the errors quoted, showing that their photometric systems are not very different.

Both sets of authors indicate that the dispersion in their measurements is compatible with observational errors, while GELS explicitly mention that they do not observe any clear correlation between the $`B`$ and $`V`$ bands. Close inspection of the datasets, however, shows that both sets of authors clearly underestimated the accuracy of their measurements. As can be seen in Fig. 2, measurements clearly display a very good correlation between $`V`$ and $`(BV)`$. GSY do not quote any errors for their photometry, but the dispersion of data-points in Fig. 2 shows that they are unlikely to be any larger than the errors in GELS’s photometry. A simple linear fit to all the data-points from both papers (without consideration of errors) gives a Spearson correlation coefficient $`R=0.64`$, clearly suggesting that there is an underlying correlation.

Even though the errors of some measurements are relatively large, none of the values deviates strongly from the general trend. As a consequence, it was thought appropriate to improve the quality of the fit by following an iterative procedure: a linear fit to all the points was obtained, the data-point that deviated most strongly from the fit was removed and the remaining points were fitted, repeating until no further improvement in the correlation coefficient was obtained. Only a few points had to be removed before the correlation coefficient was considerably improved. For example, removal of a single deviating point seen at the top of Fig. 2 improved the correlation coefficient from $`R=0.64`$ to $`R=0.77`$. Figure 3 shows the final linear fit to 19 data-points (taken approximately evenly from both sets). The goodness of the fit is indicated by a Spearson correlation coefficient $`R=0.95`$. Interestingly, the best fit line, given by

$$(BV)=13.30.87V$$
(1)
is identical in slant and zero point to the original fit to the complete dataset, clearly showing that our selective analysis has not deleted any information contained in the plot. Such a result suggests that any dispersion in the photometry due to instrumental errors has not been systematic and the few deviating points may be attributed to low photometric quality.

From the strength of the correlation and the fact that the coefficient multiplying $`V`$ is rather close to unity, it can be deduced that most of the variation in $`(BV)`$ is simply due to variability in $`V`$ and that the variation in $`B`$ is very small in comparison. The whole behaviour is consistent with what is expected from a Be star, where the variability is due to emission from a circumstellar disk with a temperature $`T_{\mathrm{disk}}0.5T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$, where $`T_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ is the effective temperature of the star. The disk contribution to the total spectral energy distribution is very small in the $`B`$ band and increases towards longer wavelengths. The spectral energy distribution (star plus disk) becomes bluer when it is fainter because the contribution from the disk decreases.

For this reason, rather than taking an average of all the photometric measurements of the star, we consider that the faintest (and bluest) points in the dataset are more representative of the intrinsic magnitudes of the Be star, since the contribution from the disk is smallest. The three points in the bottom left region of Figure 3 average to $`V=14.32\pm 0.02`$ and $`(BV)=0.82\pm 0.02`$, which is compatible within the errors with the linear relationship found above.

### 3.2 Spectral classification

An intermediate resolution spectrum of the optical counterpart to KS 1947+300 is displayed in Fig. 1. Except for some variability in the strength of the H$`\alpha `$ line (see Section 3.3), all our spectra are nearly identical. The characteristics are typical of an early-type reddened distant Be star: H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\beta `$ appear strongly in emission, as also does He i $`\lambda `$5875Å. He i $`\lambda `$7065Å and He i $`\lambda `$6678 Å can be seen as very weak emission features in the spectra with highest SNR. Some Fe ii lines (indicated in Figure 1) can be seen in emission, as well. The continuum is characterised by strong diffuse interstellar bands. The presence of He i emission implies a spectral type earlier than B2, putting the source in the spectral range of counterparts to Be/X-ray binaries (Negueruela & Coe 2002).

Absorption lines typical of an early-type star can be seen in the blue part of the spectrum. A higher resolution spectrum of this region is displayed in Fig. 4. The presence of He ii implies a spectral type earlier than B0.5. The ratio between He ii $`\lambda `$4686Å and C iii $`\lambda `$4650Å is only compatible with a spectral type B0 for a main-sequence object. At O9.5V, He ii $`\lambda `$4686Å is already stronger than the C iii line (Walborn & Fitzpatrick 1990), while the presence of He ii $`\lambda `$4200Å is incompatible with a spectral type later than B0.2. Though the strength of the Si iv doublet on the wings of H$`\delta `$ could suggest an O9.5III spectral class, the ratio between He ii $`\lambda `$4200Å and C iii $`\lambda `$4187Å and the weakness of He ii $`\lambda `$4541Å support the earlier spectral type. Therefore we adopt a B0Ve spectral type.

### 3.3 Evolution of H$`\alpha `$

Profile changes in emission lines, particularly H$`\alpha `$, may be used to trace the dynamical evolution of the Be envelope (e.g., Negueruela et al. 2001). Unfortunately, the resolution of most of our spectra is too low for this aim, but some information may still be collected from the evolution of the line strength.

Table 3 displays the Equivalent Width (EW) of H$`\alpha `$ for our spectra. Though the data are sparse, it seems likely that the strength of the line must have remained relatively constant for the whole period, with a slight increase around July 2001 (i.e., after the end of the large X-ray outburst).

## 4 Discussion

KS 1947+300 is a transient X-ray source, which has appeared three times at very high luminosity and is at most weakly detected (below 6 mCrab) by the RXTE/ASM during quiescence (Levine & Corbet 2000). This behaviour is typical of the class of Be/X-ray transients, like 4U 0115+63 or A 0535+26 (see Okazaki & Negueruela 2001). KS 1947+300 has only been observed on three occasions, in 1989, 1994 and 2000-2001. Such a recurrence timescale is typical of Type II (or giant) outbursts in Be/X-ray transients.

KS 1947+300 became active in late 2000. After a first weak outburst in November 2000, it underwent a very long giant outburst, lasting close to 150 days and reaching a flux in excess of $`120\mathrm{mCrab}`$ around MJD 51953 (February 13th). Two further weak outbursts and a moderate-intensity one followed during the second half of 2001 (see Fig. 5).

Our observations have shown that the optical counterpart to KS 1947+300 is a moderately reddened B0Ve star. For the adopted spectral type, an intrinsic colour $`(BV)_0=0.27`$ may be considered (Wegner 1994). We can then assume that the observed faintest photometric dataset corresponds to the intrinsic magnitudes and colours of the star (obviously, if this is not the case, the star will be intrinsically fainter and bluer, allowing the distance derived here to be used as a lower limit). Therefore we derive an excess $`E(BV)=1.09`$. The ratio of selective to total extinction $`R_V`$ in this area has been shown to be close to standard out to moderate distances (Turner 1976). Hence we will use the standard law (i.e., $`R=3.1`$ – see Fitzpatrick 1999), resulting in $`A_V=3.38`$. With an average absolute magnitude for B0V $`M_V=4.2`$ (Vacca et al. 1996), we derive then a distance of $`10`$ kpc to KS 1947+300.

With galactic coordinates ($`l=66\mathrm{°}.1`$, $`b=+2\mathrm{°}.1`$), KS 1947+300 lies in an area of rather low obscuration. Extinction is moderate within one kpc of the Sun and then remains constant out to at least 5 kpc (Forbes 1985), which explains why such a distant object is moderately bright. In this area of the sky, the Perseus Arm is defined by the Vul OB2 association, which, with a dereddened distance modulus $`DM=13.2`$, lies at 4.4 kpc (Turner 1980). The average reddening of six Vul OB2 stars lying at $`b>1\mathrm{°}`$ is $`E(BV)=0.6`$ (Turner 1980). The rather larger reddening to KS 1947+300 supports a higher distance. The source is then likely to be located in the Cygnus or Outer Arm, which in this direction is located at $`9`$ kpc (Taylor & Cordes 1993), in good agreement with our distance estimate. The distance estimated for KS 1947+300 is very similar to that found for the nearby source XTE J1946+274 (Verrecchia et al. 2002), which should also lie on the same arm.

Considering this distance, the peak X-ray luminosity (uncorrected for effects of circumstellar or interstellar absorption) observed by BeppoSAX during the March 2001 outburst was $`L_\mathrm{x}2\times 10^{37}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Rea et al., in prep.), which is a typical value for Be/X-ray transients during a Type II outburst. The occurrence of weaker outbursts after a Type II outburst is also a typical feature of a subgroup of Be/X-ray transients, characterised by close orbits with moderate and low eccentricity (Okazaki & Negueruela 2001). The only peculiarity of this outburst was its duration, rather longer than is typical in other Be/X-ray transients (typically 4$``$6 weeks).

The occurrence of several X-ray outbursts has not been reflected in any changes in the intensity of the H$`\alpha `$ line during the period considered. Though obvious correlations have been seen in other systems (e.g., 4U 0115+63; Negueruela et al. 2001), such effects are likely to be strongly dependent on the relative geometry of the system: if the Be star is seen under a relatively low inclination angle, any changes in the Be disk structure would be barely reflected in the measured properties of H$`\alpha `$. It is a well known fact, as derived from both observations (Hanuschik et al. 1996) and modelling (Hummel & Hanuschik 1997), that at high and moderately high inclinations optically thick lines (such as H$`\alpha `$) show the effects of density perturbations only as relatively weak flank inflections, as the range of projected rotational velocities is small and several radiative transfer effects (such as non-coherent scattering; c.f. Hummel & Hanuschik 1997) result in the broadening of features. Such inflections will certainly not be observable at the moderate resolutions used here. Higher resolution spectroscopy will be therefore necessary in order to derive a value for the counterpart’s $`v\mathrm{sin}i`$.

The main difference between KS 1947+300 and other Be/X-ray transients with similar behaviour lies on its very low orbital eccentricity $`e<0.04`$ (Galloway et al. 2002). Few Be/X-ray transients with low eccentricities are known. An upper limit $`e0.09`$ was set by Kelley et al. (1983) for the orbit of 2S 1553$-$542, an X-ray transient observed in 1975 during a single outburst, which was likely to be a Be/X-ray binary. The 27.1-s X-ray pulsar XTE J1543-568 is also likely a Be/X-ray binary. It displayed a large outburst in 2000, followed by weaker activity (In’t Zand et al. 2001). XTE J1543-568 has a 75.6-d orbital period with an eccentricity $`e<0.03`$. As both 2S 1553$-$542 and XTE J1543-568 have only been observed during one giant outburst each, KS 1947+300 is the first low-eccentricity recurrent transient displaying Type II outbursts.

Okazaki & Negueruela (2001) argued that one could debate whether the preponderance of moderately eccentric orbits among Be/X-ray transients was an observational effect or reflected the actual distribution. Since the neutron star companion is very effective at truncating the circumstellar disk of the Be star when the eccentricity is low, it could well be that low-eccentricity systems rarely display bright X-ray outbursts and are difficult to detect. The behaviour of KS 1947+300 seems to argue otherwise, since this system with a practically circular orbit has displayed 3 Type II outbursts in 11 years, a recurrence timescale comparable to those of the most active Be/X-ray transients.

The implication is then that low-eccentricity systems are as likely to display Type II outbursts as systems with moderate eccentricity and therefore the small number of low-eccentricity systems detected is actually reflecting the dominance of moderately eccentric orbits among Be/X-ray transients. This would then be one further argument in favour of supernova kicks (c.f., vv97 van den Heuvel & van Paradijs 1997; Negueruela & Coe 2002).

## 5 Conclusions

We have shown that the optical counterpart to the recurrent X-ray transient KS 1947+300 is a B0Ve star at an approximate distance of 10 kpc. KS 1947+300 is therefore a Be/X-ray transient displaying recurrent Type II outbursts with intrinsic luminosities similar to other bright Be/X-ray transients. Among the $`10`$ systems known displaying this kind of behaviour, KS 1947+300 is the first one to have an almost circular orbit. Since its existence shows that Be/X-ray binaries with very low eccentricities can be detected as bright X-ray sources, it is to be inferred that the preponderance of systems with moderate eccentricities among the observed sample reflects the actual distribution of orbital eccentricities.

###### Acknowledgements.

Part of the data presented here have been taken using ALFOSC, which is owned by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) and operated at the Nordic Optical Telescope under agreement between IAA and the NBIfAFG of the Astronomical Observatory of Copenhagen. The INT and JKT are operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. The G.D. Cassini telescope is operated at the Loiano Observatory by the Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna. The X-ray results were provided by the ASM/RXTE teams at MIT and at the RXTE SOF and GOF at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center through the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Online Service, which is made available by the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. This research has made use of the Simbad data base, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. We thank the referee, Dr. A. M. Levine, for suggestions that helped to improve the paper.