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# Mean-Field and Anomalous Behavior on a Small-World Network

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## Abstract

We use scaling results to identify the crossover to mean-field behavior of equilibrium statistical mechanics models on a variant of the small world network. The results are generalizable to a wide-range of equilibrium systems. Anomalous scaling is found in the width of the mean-field region, as well as in the mean-field amplitudes. Finally, we consider non-equilibrium processes.

\] The appropriate description for many complex real-world systems is as a network, a general connection of nodes and vertices which need not have the structure of a regular lattice. The small-world network model combines both long-range and short-range aspects, and interpolates between regular lattices and random graphs. This model, in which a regular lattice is modified by either randomly “re-wiring” links or else by simply randomly adding long-range links, has become a standard model of real-world networks. It incorporates some notion of locality, as most of the links remain the same as that of the original underlying lattice. Yet it also includes the “small world effect”, that the average path length between sites on the network scales only as the logarithm of the network size.

Cooperative behavior on networks is a major topic of interest. Studies of equilibrium statistical on these systems have shown rich behavior. Work on networks with long tails in the probability distribution of the coordination number has found alternatives to mean-field behavior. We will instead study the behavior on small-world systems. The technique will be generically applicable to a wide-range of problems. We show the existence of mean-field behavior, albeit with anomalous exponents describing the width of the critical region and various mean-field amplitudes. These anomalous exponents can complicate the interpretation of numerical data. Finally, we will consider a non-equilibrium case, describing the relaxation to a stationary state via a branching process.

The presence of quenched randomness makes the small-world model difficult to treat analytically. We instead consider a different, but related model, which lacks quenched randomness, considering a variety of equilibrium and non-equilibrium models. We again start with a regular lattice of $`V`$ sites in $`d`$ dimensions. Rather than adding long-range links with probability $`p`$, we give each site of the lattice a weak coupling, of order $`p/V`$, to every other site in the lattice. We will refer to this as the long-range model. We will find that many results can be obtained on this system by combining mean-field with standard renormalization group techniques. Later, we will compare this model to the standard small world model; we will argue that in many cases the presence of quenched randomness in the small world model is irrelevant, and thus scaling results for the small world model can be obtained from the long-range model. It is interesting to compare to a related mean-field solution of path lengths on a small work network. Finally, we will show the long-range model provides an upper bound for the free energy of the small world network model.

In some cases, the long-range model may also be more appropriate than the usual small world model. In the spread of a disease, for example, people tend to spread the disease to those geographically nearby (the regular lattice). There is a chance of a long-range spread of the disease. However, this is not necessarily due to fixed long-range links. Rather, it is due to the random probability that a given person travels a long distance, typically by air. Thus, a slight probability of long-range contact between any two people may be a better description than a set of fixed long-range links.

Equilibrium Statistics— We consider any equilibrium statistical mechanics model, such as an Ising model, XY model, etc… These models can be represented by introducing a field $`\varphi (x)`$, where $`x`$ labels lattice sites and where $`\varphi `$ has 1,2,… components, with a partition function

$$Z=\underset{\{\varphi \}}{}\mathrm{exp}[S[\varphi ]],$$
(1)
where $`S=E/kT`$ is a statistical weight for a configuration of energy $`E`$ at temperature $`T`$.

For a model on a regular $`d`$-dimensional lattice, $`S[\varphi ]=S_{\mathrm{local}}[\varphi ]`$, a local function of $`\varphi `$. We refer to this as the local system. We choose instead for the long-range model a statistical weight with additional long-range couplings of strength $`p/V`$:

$$S[\varphi ]=S_{\mathrm{local}}[\varphi ]\frac{p}{2V}\underset{x_1,x_2}{}\varphi (x_1)\varphi (x_2).$$
(2)
Then, decouple the long-range interaction to find

$$Z=\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}dh\mathrm{exp}[\frac{Vh^2}{2p}]Z(h),$$
(3)
where

$$Z(h)=\underset{\{\varphi \}}{}\mathrm{exp}[S_{\mathrm{local}}[\varphi ]+h\underset{x}{}\varphi x].$$
(4)
Here, $`Z(h)`$ is equal to the partition function of the local system in the presence of a magnetic field, $`h`$.

For $`p`$ large, the long-range interaction outweighs the short-range interaction, and the system can be approximately solved by mean-field theory. We will instead consider precisely the opposite case: when $`p`$ is small. Then, the critical point of the long-range system, $`\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$, is close to the critical point of the local system, $`T_c`$. Thus, we can use scaling laws for the local system: the magnetization, $`m`$, obeys $`m(T=T_c,h)=A_m|h|^{1/\delta }`$, defining the critical exponent $`\delta `$. For $`T>T_c`$, the susceptibility $`\chi `$ obeys $`\chi (T,h=0)=A_\chi ^+|TT_c|^\gamma `$. In general, we can write a scaling function: $`m=h^{1/\delta }f((TT_c)h^{1/(\delta \beta )})`$. For $`h>>(TT_c)^{\delta \beta }`$, we use the first result $`m(T=T_c,h)=A_m|h|^{1/\delta }`$, while for $`h<<(TT_c)^{\delta \beta }`$, we use the second $`m(T=T_c,h)=A_\chi ^+h|TT_c|^\gamma B_\chi h^3|TT_c|^{\gamma 2\delta \beta }`$, where we have added the $`h^3`$ term in the expansion of $`m`$.

The magnetization is defined by $`\mathrm{ln}Z(h)/h=mV`$. Thus,

$$Z(h)=Z(0)\mathrm{exp}[\underset{0}{\overset{h}{}}dh^{}m(h^{})V].$$
(5)
We start by considering the case of $`T`$ near $`T_c`$ so that $`h>>(TT_c)^{\delta \beta }`$. Then, Eqs. (3,5) give

$$Z=Z(0)\underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}dh\mathrm{exp}[\frac{Vh^2}{2p}+A_mVh^{1+1/\delta }/(1+1/\delta )].$$
(6)
Since $`V`$ is taken large, we can use a saddle point to arrive at $`h=(pA_m)^{\delta /(\delta 1)}`$, or

$$m=A_m(pA_m)^{1/(\delta 1)}.$$
(7)
The correlation length $`\xi `$ of the local system in the presence of this field is proportional to $`m^{\nu /\beta }`$, and hence diverges as $`p0`$. The meaning of the correlation length is not that spins beyond this length are uncorrelated. Rather, it is that beyond this length the correlations in the long-range system are controlled by the average field $`m`$, while below this length, the fluctuations are important. Thus, the correlation function $`\varphi (0)\varphi (x)`$ decays as a power law up to the correlation length, and then asymptotes to a constant.

We have seen that at $`T=T_c`$, the system has a net magnetization, and thus $`T_c<\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$. To study the transition itself, we now consider the second case, $`h<<(TT_c)^{\delta \beta }`$. Now, Eqs. (3,5) give

$`Z=Z(0){\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{}}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}\mathrm{d}h\mathrm{exp}[{\displaystyle \frac{Vh^2}{2p}}+A_\chi ^+Vh^2|TT_c|^\gamma /2`$ (8)
$`B_\chi Vh^4|TT_c|^{\gamma 2\delta \beta }/4].`$ (9)
Again using a saddle point, we find a critical point at $`\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$ given by

$$\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c=(pA_\chi ^+)^{1/\gamma },$$
(10)
with $`m=0`$ for $`T>\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$. Slightly below the critical point we find $`h=\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{T}_cT}\sqrt{\frac{\gamma A_\chi ^+}{B_\chi }}(\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c)^{\delta \beta 1/2}`$, and a magnetization given by

$`m=\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{T}_cT}A_\chi ^+\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma A_\chi ^+}{B_\chi }}}(\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c)^{\delta \beta 1/2\gamma }`$ (11)
$`=\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{T}_cT}A_\chi ^+\sqrt{{\displaystyle \frac{\gamma A_\chi ^+}{B_\chi }}}(\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c)^{\beta 1/2}.`$ (12)
Thus, the magnetization behaves as $`m=\stackrel{~}{A}\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{T}_cT}`$, with $`\stackrel{~}{A}p^{(\beta 1/2)/\gamma }`$. If the local system is described by mean-field theory, then $`\beta 1/2=0`$. In other cases, $`\beta <1/2`$, and the mean-field amplitude $`\stackrel{~}{A}`$ diverges for small $`p`$. From Eq. (8), the specific heat jump at $`T=\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$ is equal to $`(\gamma A_\chi ^+|\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|^{\gamma 1})^2/(2B_\chi |\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|^{\gamma 2\delta \beta })|\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|^{2\delta \beta \gamma 2}=|\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|^\alpha `$. Thus, the jump in specific heat at the mean-field transition is of order the specific heat of the local system at temperature $`\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$.

We now consider the width of the mean-field critical region. If we extrapolate Eq. (11) to $`T=T_c`$, we find that the power of $`p`$ in the result is consistent with the power of $`p`$ in Eq. (7). For $`T<T_c`$, the average magnetization of the local system in the absence of a field behaves as $`|T_cT|^\beta `$, and the susceptibility is given by $`\chi =A_\chi ^{}|T_cT|^\gamma `$. In the long-range system, this magnetization produces a field $`hp|T_cT|^\beta `$, which in turns feeds back and increases the magnetization an amount of order $`p|T_cT|^\beta |T_cT|^\gamma `$. For $`|T_cT|^\gamma >>p`$, this effect is negligible compared to the averaged field itself, $`|T_cT|^\beta `$. Thus, at such temperatures the long-range interactions have negligible effect on the magnetization and so the mean-field critical behavior only extends to $`|T_cT|p^{1/\gamma }|\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|`$. Therefore, for small $`p`$, the width of the mean-field critical region is small. The scaling arguments above all rely on this width becoming narrower than the width of the anomalous critical region in the local system, in which case both mean-field and anomalous scaling will be seen in the same system.

Effect of Randomness– We now consider the difference between the long-range model, which lacks randomness and has links of strength $`p/V`$, and a version of the small-world model in which the local network is modified by adding strong links connecting sites with a probability $`p/V`$. The strategy is to consider the system without randomness, and to consider the effects of randomness as a perturbation. We verify that it is self-consistent to ignore randomness, at least for small $`p`$.

At $`\stackrel{~}{T}_c`$, the correlation length of the local system is $`\xi (\stackrel{~}{T}_cT)^\nu p^{\nu /\gamma }`$. Thus, within a correlation volume, there are $`p^{\nu d/\gamma }`$ sites. The correlation volume can be characterized by the average field acting on it, and the average temperature of the correlation volume.

First consider the average field. If sites in the correlation volume are chosen instead with probability $`p`$ to have long-range links, then an average of $`p^{1\nu d/\gamma }`$ sites are chosen. Since $`1\nu d/\gamma <0`$, this number diverges as $`p0`$. Then, there are a large number of such sites within each correlation volume and so the fluctuation in the number of such sites within each correlation volume is negligible. Thus, the fluctuation in the average field is negligible.

Now, consider the average temperature. A site that is coupled via a long-range link has reduced correlations with its neighbors compared to one which does not have such a link. The site it is coupled to via the long-range link produces an average field proportional to $`m`$, and also produces fluctuations about this field. Thus, effectively the temperature of a site with a long-range link is raised, as the fluctuations in the field reduce its correlations with its neighbors. Consider the number of sites with long-range links. The root mean square fluctuation in the number of such sites scales as $`(p\xi ^d)^{1/2}`$, and thus the fluctuation in the temperature averaged over a correlation volume scales as $`(p/\xi ^d)^{1/2}p^{1/2+\nu d/(2\gamma )}|\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c|^{\gamma /2\nu d/2}`$. Compare this to the difference in temperatures, $`\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c`$. As long as

$$\gamma /2+\nu d/2>1,$$
(13)
the fluctuation in temperature is also negligible. Eq. (13) resembles the Harris criterion for the relevance of disorder, with an additional term $`\gamma /2`$ on the left-hand side. This additional term guarantees that the inequality holds for all models that we know. Thus, fluctuations in field and temperature are both negligible and the scaling of both $`\stackrel{~}{T}_cT`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{A}`$ with $`p`$ should be the same in the small-world and long-range models.

Variational Approach— In addition to the scaling arguments above, we now show that the long-range model without randomness provides an upper bound to the free energy of a small world network model, using an argument inspired by the Migdal-Kadanoff bond-moving procedure. Eq. (2) defines the statistical weight $`S`$ without randomness. If instead of connecting every pair of sites with strength $`p/V`$, we add connections between pairs of sites with probability $`p/V`$ and unit strength, we obtain a new statistical weight

$$\stackrel{~}{S}[\varphi ]=S_{\mathrm{local}}[\varphi ]\frac{1}{2}\underset{x_1,x_2}{}\varphi (x_1)\varphi (x_2),$$
(14)
where the sum extends over sites $`x_1,x_2`$ which are connected by a long range link. Then, $`S\stackrel{~}{S}=_{x_1,x_2}w(x_1,x_2)\varphi (x_1)\varphi (x_2)`$, where the brackets $``$ denote an expectation value computed with statistical weight $`e^S`$, and where $`w(x_1,x_2)=p/(2V)`$ if $`x_1,x_2`$ are not connected in the small world network and $`w(x_1,x_2)=1p/(2V)`$ if $`x_1,x_2`$ are connected. The quantity $`S\stackrel{~}{S}`$ is a random function of disorder. However, for a large system, this quantity is self-averaging. If pairs are connected with probability $`p/V`$, the average over disorder, $`\overline{S\stackrel{~}{S}}`$, is equal to zero. Thus, for typical networks, $`S\stackrel{~}{S}=0`$, up to small fluctuations, and thus by a convex inequality, $`\stackrel{~}{Z}_{\mathrm{typ}}Z`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{Z}_{\mathrm{typ}}`$ is the partition function for a typical small world network, with statistical weight $`e^{\stackrel{~}{S}}`$.

This shows that the free energy of such a small world model is less than or equal to the free energy of the long-range model. Intuitively, we expect that the transition temperature in the long-range model will be higher than that in the small-world model: if we ignore the local couplings, and consider only the long-range links then this statement is definitely true. Above we have argued that $`\stackrel{~}{T}_cT`$ should scale as the same power of $`p`$ in both the small-world and long-range models. Even if that argument were to break down, we should expect that $`\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_c`$ scales as at least as large a power of $`p`$ in the small-world model as it does in the long-range model.

Comparison to Numerics— An important work was a numerical calculation of some of these quantities, looking for the shift in the transition temperature. In that paper, a different scaling argument was made for the shift, $`\stackrel{~}{T}_cT_cp^{1/(\nu d)}`$. This is the temperature at which a correlation volume includes roughly one long-range link. However, we have argued that the shift in transition temperature actually scales as $`p^{1/\gamma }`$, which is less than $`p^{1/(\nu d)}`$ as $`p0`$. The difference arises since one long-range link is not sufficient to magnetize an entire correlation volume; several such links are required.

The numerical results in two dimensions are consistent with a shift in transition temperature scaling as $`p^{1/\gamma }=p^{0.57\mathrm{}}`$. The numerical results in three dimensions indicate a shift scaling as $`p^{0.96}`$, while taking $`\gamma =1.2396`$ from $`ϵ`$-expansion gives $`1/\gamma 0.81`$. This indicates some discrepancy with the numerical results. However, in the numerical study, it was argued that their results do not yet involve sufficiently large lattices to obtain accurate scaling; certainly, $`p^{0.81}`$ is closer to the observed scaling than $`p^{1/(\nu d)}p^{0.53}`$ is.

Non-Equilibrium Dynamics— We now consider the generalization to a non-equilibrium process, the contact process, in which each site is marked either infected or susceptible. An infected site becomes susceptible at unit rate, while an infected site can turn a neighboring susceptible site infected at a rate $`\lambda /q`$, with $`q`$ the lattice coordination number. The state with all sites susceptible is absorbing. However, above a critical $`\lambda _c`$, if a single infected site is placed in an infinite lattice of susceptible sites, there is a non-zero probability of the epidemic persisting for all time. We modify the model as follows: each susceptible site can be infected by any other infected site, not necessarily a neighbor, at a rate equal to $`p/V`$. Although we will not decouple this interaction, the general development will be very similar to the equilibrium case.

We start by recalling some exponents in the local case. For $`\lambda >\lambda _c`$, there is an average density, $`\rho |\lambda \lambda _c|^\beta `$. In the presence of a source, where susceptible sites become infected at a rate $`h`$, the density $`\rho (\lambda =\lambda _c,h)=A_\rho h^{1/\delta _h}`$.

Consider also the infection spreading from a single source. At $`\lambda =\lambda _c,`$ the survival probability of the infection after time $`t`$, $`P(t)`$ obeys $`P(t)=A_pt^\delta `$, The number of infected sites is a random variable, $`n(t)`$; the average number of such sites obeys $`\overline{n}(t)=A_nt^\eta `$. The radius of the infection scales as $`t^{z/2}`$. For $`\lambda <\lambda _c`$, the infection dies out exponentially, with an asymptotic survival probability $`P(t)e^{t/\tau }`$, with $`\tau |\lambda _c\lambda |^\nu _{}`$. This gives rise to a divergent susceptibility: in the presence of a source $`h`$, the susceptibility, $`\chi _h\rho `$, obeys $`\chi (\lambda ,h=0)=A_\chi |\lambda _c\lambda |^\gamma `$.

Now, consider the dynamics in the long-range model, with $`\lambda =\lambda _c`$, with a single source for an infection. This source grows as described, with the given $`P(t),\overline{n}(t)`$. However, the local outbreak starting from that source can produce other local outbreaks elsewhere, via the long-range links, at a rate equal to $`p`$ times the number of infected sites. For $`p`$ small, the number of infected sites $`n(t)`$ will be large before such an event, and thus the fluctuations in the $`n(t)`$ are described by a random process with a universal distribution. In the large $`V`$ limit, at fixed $`t`$, each new local outbreak produced via a long-range link is well separated in space from the other local outbreaks. Thus, we can describe the dynamics of the spread from a single source simply: there is initially one local outbreak, created at time $`0`$, which survives at time $`t`$ with probability $`P(t)`$, and which produces additional local outbreaks at a rate equal to $`pn(t)`$. Each local outbreak, created at time $`t^{}`$, evolves independently, surviving with probability $`P(tt^{})`$, and producing additional local outbreaks with rate $`pn(tt^{})`$. This fully describes the dynamics via a branching process. For $`\lambda \lambda _c`$, this description of the dynamics remains valid with a changed $`P(t)`$ and distribution of $`n(t)`$.

At short times, the average number of infected sites in this dynamics is equal to $`\overline{n}(t)`$. At long times, the average number of infected sites grows exponentially. To describe this exponential growth, realize that at long times the number of local outbreaks becomes large. If $`s(t^{})`$ describes the number of local outbreaks started at time $`t^{}`$, then the average number of particles at time $`t`$ is equal to $`_0^tdt^{}s(t^{})n(tt^{})`$, and thus on average $`s(t)=p_0^tdt^{}s(t^{})n(tt^{})`$. Inserting an ansatz $`s(t)=e^{\alpha t}`$, we find that

$$\alpha =[A_\eta p\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\eta )]^{1/(1+\eta )}.$$
(15)
Each local outbreak takes a volume of order $`t^{dz/2}`$. Eventually, at sufficiently large time, such that $`e^{\alpha t}(V/t^{dz/2})`$, the individual local outbreaks start to merge, and the dynamics of different local outbreaks become coupled. This time $`t`$ is of order $`\mathrm{ln}(V)`$.

Beyond this time $`t`$, one approaches a stationary state with density $`\rho `$. At $`\lambda =\lambda _c`$, the dynamics is equivalent to the local system with a source of particles $`h=p\rho `$. Thus, we find that the density obeys $`h=pA_\rho h^{1/\delta _h}`$, or $`h=(pA_\rho )^{\delta _h/(\delta _h1)}`$ and thus

$$\rho =A_\rho (pA_\rho )^{1/(\delta _h1)}.$$
(16)
Eq. (16) should be compared to Eq. (7). It implies that the transition to a spreading epidemic happens at $`\lambda =\stackrel{~}{\lambda }_c<\lambda _c`$. For $`\lambda \stackrel{~}{\lambda }_c`$, following the same steps as in the equilibrium case leads to the same result as Eq. (11), except that the role of temperature $`T`$ is replaced by $`\lambda `$, and the role of magnetization $`m`$ is replaced by density $`\rho `$. The transition is again mean-field. Thus, the stationary results in this non-equilibrium model are described by the same scaling theory as in the equilibrium models, while the spread of infection starting from a single source is described by an interesting branching dynamics.

Discussion— We have developed a general scaling theory for describing equilibrium and non-equilibrium system with both short and long-range interactions. We find that the long-range interactions lead to mean-field behavior, but with a scaling region whose width vanishes as $`p0`$. We have also developed a branching process description of the spread of infection from a single source in the contact process with long-range interactions.

Acknowledgments— I thank Z. Toroczkai for discussion and P. Fenimore for a careful reading. This work was supported by DOE W-7405-ENG-36.


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# VLBI Imaging of Luminous Infrared Galaxies: AGN Cores in Mrk231, UGC 5101 & NGC 7469 1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations from the VLBA of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is a facility of the US National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

## 1  Introduction

The most luminous galaxies in the Local Universe are Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIGs) which emit the vast majority of their radiant power in the far-infrared. These are gas-rich systems which are in the late stages of collisions or mergers, and extrapolation from the properties of lower luminosity Starburst galaxies suggests that the LIGs should be active star forming systems (see Sanders & Mirabel 1996 for a review). The LIGs also show many characteristics of AGN and their luminosities reach values comparable to those of luminous QSOs. Much effort has been focused on whether the power from the LIGs is principally from starburst or AGN activity, although both types of activity may be present, frequently in the same system. The discussion has been framed around a scenario proposed by Sanders et al. (1988) in which a merger of gas-rich disk galaxies stimulates a massive nuclear starburst, which in turn feeds a coalescing AGN core in the galaxy nucleus. As the AGN turns on, radiation pressure drives out the shroud of dust, revealing a nascent quasar. Other authors (Perry & Dyson, 1985; Scoville & Norman, 1989; Terlevich & Melnick, 1985) have proposed variations on the theme of compact, luminous starbursts giving rise to AGN activity. The goal must be not only to understand the dominant source of energy in LIGs, but to understand the relationship between starburst and AGN activity, and other galaxy characteristics, and to place them into an evolutionary context. We have for some time been approaching this problem by investigating the characteristics of a complete sample of LIGs defined by Condon et al. (1991; CHYT); this work has concentrated on VLBI observations which offer unique AGN/starburst diagnostics in one of the few wavelength regimes where the optical depths to the active regions may fall below unity.

In a non-imaging 18-cm VLBI survey of Luminous Infrared Galaxies from the CHYT sample for compact, high-brightness temperature emission commonly associated with AGN activity, Lonsdale, Smith, and Lonsdale (1993; Paper I) showed that milli-arcsecond scale emission with $`T_b>>10^7K`$ is common, perhaps universal in LIGs. Furthermore, the LIGs follow a similar relationship between core radio power and bolometric luminosity to radio-quiet QSOs (Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale, 1995). This work lends support to the interpretation of LIGs as dust-enshrouded AGN. On the other hand, in a detailed analysis of our VLBI survey data, Smith, Lonsdale and Lonsdale (1998; Paper II) investigated a Starburst origin for LIGs in which the compact, high-$`T_b`$ emission is produced by luminous radio supernovae (RSN). This analysis indicates that most, but not all, LIG VLBI-scale emission may be modelled with Starburst-generated RSN, provided the RSN are extremely luminous. The predictions of this analysis were confirmed with the detection of luminous RSN in the nuclei of Arp 220, consistent with a Starburst origin for the infrared luminosity of this LIG (Smith et al., 1998a). We are continuing a monitoring program of the Arp 220 LRSN allowing refinement of the characteristics of LRSN in the extreme LIG environment; preliminary results (Lonsdale et al., 2001) suggest that decay timescales are longer than for “normal” LRSN with a concomitant reduction in our estimate of the rate of luminous RSN — but not total RSN — frequency. Other radio supernova candidates have since been suggested in galaxies studied here — 4 near the nucleus of Mrk 231 (Taylor et al., 1999) and 1 in the starburst ring around the nucleus of NGC 7469 (Colina et al., 2001).

In this paper we present 18cm VLBI imaging of Mrk 231, UGC 5101 and NGC 7469, LIGs which had VLBI detections in our survey of a character which cannot be adequately fitted by multiple, luminous radio supernovae — either isolated or in clumps. All three galaxies have also commonly been interpreted as AGN based on optical spectroscopic data. These continuum imaging observations are designed to determine the nature of the central radio cores in Mrk 231, UGC 5101, and NGC 7469, to investigate the relationship between AGN and starburst within these 3 LIGs, and to investigate the relationship between these galaxies and other AGN and LIG systems. We also present 18cm imaging observations of Mrk 231 in the 1667MHz OH maser line.

### 1.1  UGC 5101

UGC 5101 (D = 164Mpc; 1$`\mathrm{}`$800pc) is a liner system with a strongly interacting morphology (Sanders et al., 1988). A weak soft Xray detection by ROSAT has been reported by Rigopoulou, Lawrence & Rowan-Robinson (1996). UGC 5101 has an estimated reservoir of molecular gas, $`logM_{H_2}=10.3M_{}`$ (Solomon et al., 1997) and a FIR luminosity, $`logL_{FIR}=11.96L_{}`$ (Sanders et al., 2003). With a VLBI flux density estimated from our survey observations, $`S_{vlbi}28`$mJy, nearly 20% of the 18cm flux density was seen in the compact core; this is the highest ratio of core-to-total flux density among the 40 LIGs in our complete sample.

Soifer et al. (2000) have presented mid-infrared (MIR) imaging of UGC 5101 using MIRLIN at Keck and have compared it to IRAS fluxes. They find a compact unresolved core of extent less than 0.22 ($``$175pc) at 12.5$`\mu `$m, surrounded by more diffuse emission on scales of $`1\mathrm{}`$. About 60% of the entire 12$`\mu `$m flux measured in the large IRAS beam is contained within in their 4$`\mathrm{}`$ measurement, and 30% of the entire 12$`\mu `$m flux is within the unresolved core. At 17.9$`\mu `$m the structure is consistent with that at 12.5$`\mu `$m.

Scoville et al. (2000) have obtained near-infrared (NIR) HST/NICMOS images of UGC 5101 with resolution about 0.2. The nuclear source in the near-infrared image is better fit with an r1/4 law than an exponential, with R$`{}_{1/2}{}^{}<`$0.5kpc. Scoville et al. conclude that although it is a cool far-infrared source, UGC 5101 has nuclear NIR colors more similar to those of warm ULIRGs; specifically redder in \[$`m_{1.6}m_{2.2}`$\] than in \[$`m_{1.1}m_{1.6}`$\] than other cool ULIRGs. They deduce that a visual extinction of $`A_v>>`$ 50 mag is required to explain such colors by a starburst model in which the gas is mixed with the dust. The near-infrared colors are alternatively consistent with a central AGN with high extinction, or a much less extinguished AGN plus warm dust emission at 2.2$`\mu `$m.

Soifer et al. (2000) compare their 12$`\mu `$m image with the NICMOS NIR image of Scoville et al. (2000) and the VLA 8.4GHz image of CHYT, finding the sources aligned at these three frequencies, insofar as the relative astrometry allows.

Tran et al. (2001) have analysed the 3′aperture ISO CVF observations of the MIR spectrum of UGC 5101 in terms of a starburst and an AGN contribution, based on the ratio of the strength of the 7.7$`\mu `$m unidentified feature relative to the continuum, combined with the 5–10$`\mu `$m continuum colors. They conclude that approximately 50% of the MIR continuum could come from an AGN, which is consistent with the result of Soifer et al. that $`30`$% of the the total IRAS 12$`\mu `$m flux comes from the unresolved ($`<`$ 0.22) MIR core.

Spoon et al. (2002) report detection of the 6.0$`\mu `$m water ice feature in ISO-PHT-S spectroscopy of UGC 5101, the strongest amongst the 20 galaxies in their sample, as well as strong 9.7$`\mu `$m silicate absorption and PAH emission features. Within the large ISO beam it is not possible to determine the scale on which the absorption is occurring. They caution that the detailed structure of the absorption features and MIR continuum complicates the attempt to separate the starburst vs AGN contributions to the luminosity by Tran et al. . Also, the presence of the deep silicate feature may affect Soifer et al.’s conclusion that only 30% of the total IRAS flux arises from the unresolved core. Moreover, both the Tran et al. and Soifer et al. studies could have underestimated the total MIR radiation arising from the AGN if the extinction to the nucleus is significant in the MIR.

### 1.2  NGC 7469

NGC 7469 (D = 66 Mpc) is a classical Seyfert Galaxy (Seyfert, 1943) which has subsequently been classified as a Sy1–1.2 galaxy based on the strengths of the broad and narrow components of its optical emission lines. NGC 7469 is strongly interacting with a nearby companion, IC5283 (Dahari, 1985). The galaxy shows a strongly variable UV/optical continuum with low extinction, and X-ray emission which is variable on time-scales of $``$1 day (Nandra et al., 2000) with a complex iron line spectrum from BeppoSAX (De Rosa, Fabian & Piro, 2002). There is evidence for an $``$ 107 M central black hole from reverberation mapping (Peterson & Wandel, 2000). NGC 7469 shows nuclear non-thermal radio emission as expected for classical AGN, but also shows a dual ring of star formation 1–3″ and 8–10″ from the nucleus. The inner starburst ring is detected at radio (Wilson et al., 1991), mid-infrared (Miles, Houck & Hayward, 1994; Smith et al., 1998b; Soifer et al., 2003) and optical wavelengths (Mauder et al., 1994).

About half of the 12µm emission originates in this starburst ring, which also shows the 11.3µm emission feature commonly associated with regions of strong star formation, but the ratio of nuclear ring emission increases at longer wavelengths, suggesting that the nucleus may dominate in the FIR (Smith et al., 1998b). NICMOS observations of NGC 7469 by Scoville et al. reveal that $`>`$30% of the 2.2$`\mu `$m flux from the galaxy arises within a radius of 0$`\text{}.`$12, or $``$77pc. Alonso-Herrero et al. (2001) determine non-stellar nuclear fluxes for NGC 7469 between 1–5$`\mu `$m, which together with ISO fluxes they model in terms of a close to face-on dusty molecular torus.

The system is gas-rich with $`M_{H_2}=10^{10}M_{}`$ (Sanders, Scoville & Soifer, 1991). Our VLBI survey observations (Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale, 1993) showed a strong compact radio core with an estimated flux density of 12mJy, about 6% of the integrated 18cm radio emission, and an estimated brightness temperature in excess of $`10^7`$K. MERLIN observations at 18cm by Thean et al. (2001) show a barely resolved nuclear source with $``$30 mJy, surrounded by more diffuse emission associated with the inner starburst ring. This result implies that our VLBI survey observations were insensitive to 15–20 mJy of emission on scales $``$0.1 arcsec. A careful registration of the new 11.7$`\mu `$m image of NGC 7469 of Soifer et al. (2003) with the archived MERLIN 18cm map of Thean et al. (2001) indicates that the compact radio and mid-infrared cores align to better than $``$80mas; see Soifer et al. (2003).

### 1.3  Mrk 231

Mrk 231 (=UGC 5058; $`D=173`$ Mpc; 1″= 840pc for $`H_0=75`$km s-1Mpc-1) has long been recognized as a remarkable galaxy: it is the most luminous galaxy in the local ($`z0.1`$) Universe with characteristics that place it among classical AGN (Boksenberg et al., 1977) and also infrared galaxies (Sanders et al., 1988). Our interest in Mrk 231 was stimulated by the 1993 18cm VLBI survey (Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale, 1993) which demonstrated that Mrk 231 has a strong, high-brightness temperature, VLBI core radio source which accounts for a major fraction of its 18cm radio emission. In its radio properties Mrk 231 is thus the most “quasar-like” of our VLBI sample and of the complete sample of Luminous Infrared Galaxies (Condon et al., 1991) from which our sample was derived.

#### 1.3.1 Mrk 231 as a QSO

Mrk 231 has long been considered an infrared quasar — the integrated luminosity of Mrk 231, $`L_{bol}10^{46}ergs^1`$, is comparable to other low-redshift ($`z1`$) radio-quiet QSOs and it falls in the midst of the radio power-luminosity relation for QSOs (and LIGs) constructed by Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale (1995). Mrk 231 is reported to be variable at optical (Hamilton & Keel, 1987), radio (McCutcheon & Gregory, 1978), and X-ray wavelengths (Gallagher et al., 2002).

The core of Mrk 231 has been imaged by HST at 1.6$`\mu `$m (Quillen et al., 2001), revealing an unresolved point source, FWHM$``$0.13″ (109pc) with absolute magnitude $`M_H26`$, which is comparable to the most luminous z$`<`$0.2 PG QSOs. Adaptive optics imaging by Lai et al. (1998) detected a point source of FWHM 0.1″, with $`[JH]=0.99`$, $`[HK]=1.12`$. Mrk 231 shows a strong, broad optical type 1 emission-line spectrum with strong FeII emission. The optical lines and continuum are reddened with $`A_V2`$ (Boksenberg et al., 1977; Lipari, Colina & Macheto, 1994), and the optical/NIR continuum polarization level decreases from as high as 20% in the UV towards longer wavelengths (Smith et al., 1995), interpreted as a complex scattering geometry in which most lines of sight to the nucleus are moderately obscured.

Mrk 231 was imaged at Keck in 7 MIR bands from 7.9 to 19.7$`\mu `$m by Soifer et al. (2000), and found to be unresolved at 0.13″ in all bands; i.e. on a similar 100pc scale as the NIR point source. All of the 12$`\mu `$m IRAS emission in a much bigger beam is contained within this unresolved source. Spoon et al. (2002) have recently published an ISO-PHT-S MIR spectrum of Mrk 231, which shows strong silicate 9.7$`\mu `$m absorption, and probably water ice 6.0$`\mu `$m absorption, interpreted as a molecular torus around the AGN. The extinction to the AGN cannot be directly estimated from the depth of the silicate absorption because it depends strongly upon viewing angle, involving radiative transfer through the few pc-diameter torus (Efstathiou & Rowan-Robinson, 1995).

Mrk 231 is a low-ionization BAL (Broad Absorption Line) object with three systems: $`v_{ej}4700km/s`$, $`v_{ej}6000km/s`$, $`v_{ej}8000km/s`$ (Adams & Weedman, 1972; Boksenberg et al., 1977; Rudy, Foltz & Stocke, 1985). The $`v_{ej}8000km/s`$ absorption-line system is variable on timescales of order 2–3 yrs (Boroson et al., 1991; Forster, Rich & McCarthy, 1995). Mrk 231 is underluminous in x-rays between 0.1–10kev (Maloney & Reynolds, 2000; Gallagher et al., 2002) and soft $`\gamma `$rays (Dermer et al., 1997) a characteristic it shares with other BAL objects (Gallagher et al., 1999). Spectroscopy with Chandra (Gallagher et al., 2002) in the 2–10kev range reveals a hard spectrum, interpreted as several scattered emission components, and rapid variability which ties the emission to within light-hours of the central black hole. Neither Chandra nor ASCA (Maloney & Reynolds, 2000) directly detects a hard Xray power-law, indicating the presence of a Compton-thick absorber, $`N_H>10^{24}`$. Gallagher et al. (2002) suggest the absorber could be the so-called “hitchhiking” gas at very small radii ($`10^{15}`$cm), invoked to protect the BAL wind from ionization by the UV and soft-X-ray photons (Murray et al., 1995). The X-ray absorber must be small to avoid blocking the highly variable light-hour-scale scattered X-ray component from view.

#### 1.3.2 Mrk 231 as a Luminous Infrared Galaxy

With an infrared luminosity, $`logL_{FIR}=12.51L_{}`$ (Sanders et al., 2003), Mrk 231 is the most luminous infrared galaxy in the complete sample of 40 LIGs of CHYT from the IRAS Bright Galaxy Sample. Like Arp 220 and other well-studied LIGs, the system is rich in molecular gas, $`logM_{H_2}10.2M_{}`$ (Scoville, Yun & Bryant, 1997) and it is one of the original OH megamaser systems (Baan, 1985). Furthermore, Mrk 231 shows tidal tails and other evidence for merger or disturbance in the “host” galaxy, which is itself a luminous system with evidence for rapid star formation (Hamilton & Keel, 1987; Sanders et al., 1988).

The CO in Mrk 231 has been studied at high resolution by Bryant & Scoville (1996) who show that the CO distribution is elongated with a velocity gradient aligned with the major axis of the CO distribution. They interpret the CO distribution as a disk, oriented roughly E–W, containing an estimated $`3\times 10^9M_{}`$ of molecular gas within a diameter of about 1″(=840pc) and a scale height, $`h30pc`$. Bryant & Scoville find the CO brightness temperature to be comparable to the FIR dust temperature, $`T_b(CO)T_{fir}85K`$ and suggest that the disk is filled with dense gas clouds, which may account for the accretion rate required to power the luminous nucleus.

In a comprehensive series of papers Ulvestad and colleagues have described results from a multi-frequency set of VLBA/VLA observations of Mrk 231. Ulvestad, Wrobel & Carilli (1999) present observations from 1.4–15GHz which show a central north-south triple source with overall extent $`100`$mas (80pc), indicative of an AGN in structure. Both lobes of the north-south triple show evidence for free-free absorption near 2 GHz which is interpreted as due to ionized gas with $`n_e10^3`$cm-3. The central (nuclear) component of the triple shows resolution above 5GHz and is resolved into 2 or possibly 3 components at 15GHz with extent $`3`$mas (2pc) at PA $`65^{}`$.

21cm line continuum observations with the VLBA (Carilli, Wrobel & Ulvestad, 1998) show emission from an extended “disk” with a size of 440mas (370pc) which exhibits HI absorption against radio emission from the inner disk ($`r160pc`$), but not against the central radio core. The HI observations suggest $`N_{HI}6\times 10^{22}(T_s/1000K)cm^2`$; $`<n_{HI}>250(T_s/1000K)cm^3`$; and $`M_{HI}2\times 10^7(T_s/1000)M_{}`$, where $`T_s`$ is the spin temperature. These observations are consistent with the neutral hydrogen lying in a disk structure of sub-kpc dimension. Further continuum observations reported by Taylor et al. (1999) trace this emission out to nearly 1”. They interpret the disk radio emission as due to star-formation activity, $`\dot{m}60220M_{}yr^1`$.

On larger scales Ulvestad, Wrobel & Carilli (1999) find continuum emission emerging from the core near star-forming knots (Surace et al., 1998), extending to the south for about 20″, coincident with regions of H$`\alpha `$ emission (Hamilton & Keel, 1987), then curving toward the west in the general detection of the tidal tails observed by Hamilton & Keel (1987) and Surace et al. (1998). They interpret this kpc-scale radio emission as nonthermal emission powered by a jet from the nucleus, principally due to the high degree of linear polarization and the highly ordered magnetic field implied. This emission has previously been interpreted as due to a starburst-driven superwind by Baum et al. (1993).

## 2  VLBI Observations

Observations of UGC 5101 and NGC 7469 were obtained as part of VLBA continuum imaging experiment BL6 on 16 January 1995. All 10 telescopes of the VLBA were used, with on-source integration times of roughly 4 hours per source. UGC 5101 and, in particular, NGC 7469 are relatively weak sources on VLBI scales, as are most of the LIGs in our original VLBI Survey sample, so conventional self-calibration and hybrid mapping techniques were not readily applicable.

However, unrelated compact radio sources bright enough for VLBI fringe-fitting lie within a few arcminutes of both galaxies, and it was possible to perform in-beam phase referencing to calibrate the phases of the target sources. In fact, UGC 5101 and NGC 7469 were selected for this imaging program as having nearby calibrators within the 30′primary beam from a survey of our original list of LIGs with compact VLBI-scale radio emission. The phase solutions from SELFCAL show a point-to-point scatter smaller than 10, commensurate with the signal-to-noise ratio of about 5 for these solutions, and these solutions appear adequate for well over 95% of the data. Long-term trends in phase consistent with typical L-band atmospheric/ionospheric drifts are evident and benign. In this way we were able to produce accurate maps with peak flux densities as low as 1.4 mJy. Typical background rms levels of 60$`\mu `$Jy for NGC 7469 and 80$`\mu `$Jy for UGC 5101 were achieved.

Emission was detected on a variety of size scales, particularly in UGC 5101. The surface brightness sensitivity of the images is a strong function of the data weighting during the mapping process, so we present two images of UGC 5101, one optimizing angular resolution for the purpose of estimating the sizes of compact features, and one with lower resolution, but a better representation of diffuse emission.

The observations of Mrk 231, conducted under project code GL15 on 13 November 1994, involving 17 telescopes in Europe and the U.S., were designed to provide full imaging in line and continuum for the four brightest OH megamaser sources in the northern sky, including IIIZw35, Mrk 231, Arp 220 and IRAS17208$``$0014. Mrk 231 received a long track, of which $``$4 hours was spent on-source, yielding excellent u–v coverage. After correlation in April 1996, standard hybrid mapping techniques were used to reduce the observations of this relatively bright source. The rms noise levels achieved were close to 60$`\mu `$Jy/beam. As for UGC 5101, we show two images, one optimized for angular resolution, and the other to better delineate more extended emission.

Our VLBI maps of the three galaxies are shown in Figures 1–3: Figure 1 shows UGC 5101; (1a) is a near-uniform weighting map exhibiting the highest resolution (with gaussian restoring beam 7.6$`\times `$6.2mas in PA 24 and (1b) is a map tapered to display extended emission (convolution size 11.6$`\times `$9.9mas in PA 42). Figure 2 shows the map of NGC 7469 (convolution size 13.7$`\times `$7.9mas in PA $`8^{}`$). Figure 3 shows Mrk 231; (3a) is the uniformly weighted image with a 4.8$`\times `$3.4 milliarcsec beam, and (3b) is the naturally weighted image with a 6.1$`\times `$4.2 milliarcsec beam.

## 3  Results

### 3.1  UGC 5101

The image of UGC 5101 (Figure 1) displays three major compact, high brightness temperature components in the NW, and a more diffuse component in the SE. The compact components are barely resolved, implying diameters $`3`$ – 4pc. There is faint diffuse emission connecting the 3 compact components, which lie within an area of $`60\times 30`$ mas (RA $`\times `$ Dec), or 48 $`\times `$ 24 pc. The SE diffuse component, A, lies about 60 pc from the easternmost compact component, and a wisp of diffuse emission extends from it towards the compact components. Component A is clearly associated with a spur of emission visible on the highest resolution VLA images of SLL98 on 0.1 scales. It is likely that the flux density of this diffuse structure has been significantly underestimated by our VLBI observations. Details for the compact components are given in Table 2: column (1) gives our component designation; columns (2) and (3) the positional offset from component “C”; column (4) the peak 1.67GHz flux density; column (5) the integrated 1.67GHz flux density; columns (6), (7), (8) the major and minor axial extent and the position angle of an elliptical gaussian fit from AIPS procedure JMFIT and column (9) the integrated radio luminosity (10MHz–100GHz) from standard synchrotron theory (Conway et al., 1983).

The major components lie along a discernible ridge line; at the three compact components the ridge line is at approximate position angle 107, then it bends to $`135^{}`$ towards the diffuse component. The total extent of the VLBI-scale structure is 0.13 $`\times `$ 0.12 (RA $`\times `$ Dec), which corresponds to 103 x 95 pc at the distance of 164 Mpc adopted for UGC 5101. Our experiment is not sensitive to diffuse extended structures on scales significantly larger than these. The total flux detected in our experiment is 38 mJy, which is over 25% of the 18 cm emission detected on scales of 1.5 with the VLA (Condon et al., 1991).

The fact that the major components form a rough ridge-line, coupled with the evidence for diffuse emission connecting the components, strongly suggests an AGN-generated jet structure. If this is the correct interpretation for these features, one of the compact sources is likely to be the core and the others to be knots in the jet. We cannot tell from our single frequency data which of the compact components is likely to be the core. The diffuse component may be due to strong interaction between the jet and surrounding ISM, decollimating and bending the flow. There is no evidence for any bow shock or limb brightnening in the diffuse component. The appearance is reminiscent of centrally-peaked Fanaroff and Riley type I morphology associated with low-luminosity extragalactic radio sources.

The general appearance of the UGC 5101 VLBI structures resembles compact jets in other AGN observed with 18cm VLBI — e.g. 0402+379=4C37.11, 0831+557=4C55.16, 0900+428=4C42.28, etc., in the Caltech Jodrell Bank VLBI Survey (Politidis et al., 1995).

It is very unlikely that the compact structures in UGC 5101 are radio supernovae, (RSN) such as those we discovered in Arp 220 (Smith et al., 1998a). The individual UGC 5101 components are up to $``$30 times more luminous than the brightest Arp 220 RSN. Moreover evidence for extension of the compact components indicates source sizes much too large for a single RSN, which expand at a rate of about 0.01 pc yr-1 (0.013 mas yr-1) near maximum, corresponding to minimum ages exceeding 300yr for resolved features. Neither can clusters of RSN straightforwardly explain the compact emission: the RSN rate implied by the FIR luminosity of UGC 5101 is $`\nu _{sn}1`$yr-1 comparable to that for Arp220 (Smith, Lonsdale & Lonsdale, 1998), but the components A–D are each factors of several greater in radio power than the total 1.67GHz radio power of the Arp220 RSN (Smith et al., 1998a).

The upper limit to the size of the mid-infrared core source detected by Soifer et al. (2000)$``$175pc — is comparable to the total size of our 18 cm source, and is coincident with it within the positional uncertainty of the mid-infrared image.

### 3.2  NGC 7469

The image of NGC 7469 displays 5 compact sources which lie roughly on an E–W line. The 2 western sources are well resolved, and the westernmost could itself be double. Two of the 3 eastern sources are unresolved, and the central of these three has marginal evidence for resolution. There is one additional possible source to the south at low SNR, with flux about 0.3 mJy. See Table 3 for details; column legend is as for Table 2.

There is no VLBI evidence for diffuse emission, connecting ridges or jets between the compact sources. The source complex is contained within an area of dimension $``$168 mas ($``$54 pc) EW. Diffuse emission on scales greater than about 0.1 ($``$30 pc) would not have been detected by our experiment. However, the total flux density detected in our experiment is about 15 mJy, which is $``$50% of the flux density seen by Thean et al. (2001) within a $``$0.15 nuclear component at 18cm using MERLIN. Their contour map indicates clear evidence for E–W extension of the nuclear component with a size and orientation consistent with our VLBI-scale structure. The MERLIN data indicate that our VLBI components are embedded in a region of somewhat more diffuse emission with a scale of order 150 mas (48 pc), which was resolved out on the VLBI baselines. The small size of the MERLIN component implies that the compact and diffuse components of the structure are coincident on the sky (i.e. the compact VLBI components are embedded within the diffuse emission). Furthermore, the “diffuse” MERLIN component is itself compact by the standards of starburst-related diffuse emission, with a brightness temperature approaching 106K, and is thus not readily associated with star-formation as opposed to an AGN-related radio source.

The unresolved sources could in principle be individual RSN like those in Arp 220 (Smith et al., 1998a), being up to a factor of two more luminous than the Arp 220 RSN; the resolved western features, which are too large to be individual RSN (see Table 2), could be clumps of luminous RSN. We consider this unlikely for several reasons: 1) the inferred supernova rate in NGC 7469, ascribing all infrared emission to a Starburst origin, is about a factor of 5 lower than for Arp 220 (Smith, Lonsdale & Lonsdale, 1998), 2) reasonable combinations of supernova luminosity and age would require some resolution of such a clump of RSN, and 3) one would expect compact AGN emission coincident with the Sy 1 nucleus whereas RSN would be expected to be found in the Starburst ring. The most plausible hypothesis, which we adopt, is that the small-scale nuclear radio emission in NGC 7469 is AGN-related.

The Scoville et al. NICMOS images of NGC 7469 have a limit on the core size $``$77pc which is comparable to the overall dimension of the structures detected in our images: $``$54pc. The 12$`\mu `$m core is similarly self-consistent in size to the VLBI image, and is coincident with it to $``$40mas (13pc) (Soifer et al., 2003).

### 3.3 Mrk 231

Our global VLBI experiment exhibits better resolution and somewhat lower noise than the 1.4GHz VLBA image of Ulvestad, Wrobel & Carilli (1999), but generally confirms their results. The central 100mas exhibits a compact core with roughly symmetrically placed lobes approximately 30mas north and south. The southern lobe exhibits strong brightening at the extreme limb, which almost certainly represents the bow shock at the working surface of a nuclear jet upon the ambient medium.

#### 3.3.1  The Compact AGN Continuum Source in Mrk 231

The radio morphology of the central region of Mrk 231 ($`\theta 0\text{}.1`$, $`d84`$pc) places it among the “Compact Symmetric Objects” — CSOs (Wilkinson et al., 1994) — in which radio emission originates from hot spots or lobes symmetrically placed on sub-kpc scales about a central compact source. Readhead et al. (1996) list a dozen characteristics which are exhibited by all or some of the 5 confirmed CSOs in the Pearson & Readhead (1988) and Caltech-Jodrell Bank (Politidis et al., 1995; Henstock et al., 1995) VLBI samples, including high-luminosity, variability, optical evidence for interaction (in one case), etc. Mrk 231 shares most of these characteristics with the exception that in Mrk 231 the core fraction is much higher than in the confirmed CSOs and that other CSOs appear to be in E galaxies dominated by an old stellar population, whereas Mrk 231 is a gas-rich system with a strong starburst. Also, by the above definition a common characteristic of CSOs is lack of extended emission on scales larger than 1 kpc, whereas Mrk 231 shows extended emission due perhaps to a superwind from the circumnuclear starburst (Ulvestad, Wrobel & Carilli, 1999).

It has been suggested that the CSOs are young, $`\tau <<10^6`$yr, with the hot spots representing the working surface of a relativistic jet upon the ambient medium. In this picture the hot spots are confined by ram pressure, advancing with inferred typical speed, $`v_a0.02c`$ (Readhead et al., 1996); advance speeds measured by Taylor et al. (2000) for 4 CSOs are an order of magnitude larger, of the order of 0.1–0.5$`h^1c`$, with kinematic ages ranging from 300 – 1200 yr.

As for UGC 5101 and NGC 7469, the limits on the compact NIR and MIR 12$`\mu `$m core is found to be of similar scale — $``$100pc — to the VLBI structures.

We focus on the Southern Lobe/Interaction Region in order to estimate the age of the radio source and, by implication, that of the QSO core. We have used standard synchrotron theory, assuming equipartition between particle and field energy (minimum energy), to model the physical characteristics of the south lobe, which we assume to be the interaction region between a sub-relativistic jet and ambient gas:

$``$Total Energy:  $`U_{Tot}10^{52}erg`$

$``$Energy density:  $`u2\times 10^6ergcm^3`$

$``$Pressure:  $`P_{rel}7\times 10^7dyncm^2`$

$``$Synchrotron lifetime 1.6GHz:  $`\tau _{sync}2000yr`$

$``$Equipartition field:  $`B_{eq}5mG`$

Assuming that the relativistic pressure in the South Lobe is balanced by ram pressure:

$$P_{rel}\rho v^2$$

We are not certain what ambient medium the jet is ramming into. The lack of 21-cm absorption or of maser amplification against the compact radio source shows that the molecular disk does not cover the central source. Ulvestad, Wrobel & Carilli (1999) estimate the emission measure of the free-free absorbing medium in front of the south lobe to be 107cm-6pc and use the scale over which the spectral index varies to estimate the size of the absorbing cloud to be about 5pc. This yields an electron density in the medium

$$<n_e>10^3cm^3$$

Comparson of our 1.67GHz map with their 1.4GHz map shows a spectral index inversion which yields a consistent result for free-free absorption. If this represents the density in the shock ionized interaction region, then the column length may be much smaller resulting in a correspondingly higher electron density. This density would be, however, a factor of 4 higher than the density of the ambient medium. If we take as an upper limit $`n10^4cm^3`$, this places a lower limit on the lobe-advance speed,

$$v_{adv}2\times 10^4c$$

and thus an upper limit on the age of the recent outburst,

$$\tau _{rs}5\times 10^5yr$$

Considering the uncertainties in the above analysis, a comfortable age limit might be of the order of a million years. We have speculated (Smith et al., 1999) that this limit, combined with the suggested youth of the CSOs, implies that Mrk 231 is a young QSO, emerging from the shroud of dust along the lines of the Sanders et al. (1988) scenario. Of course, we do not know that this is the first AGN-related outburst. If the kpc-scale emission is, indeed, produced by a jet from the nucleus, then this suggests an earlier AGN event has occurred, probably early in the same $``$108 year merger episode of which we are now witnessing the last stages.

If the advance speed in Mrk231 is as large as the speeds measured by Taylor et al. (2000), then the CSO in Mrk 231 has an age of the order of only 1000 yr. In this case the southern lobe movement since our original observations would be approaching a milliarcsecond and will be directly measurable in the near future.

Taylor et al. (1999) report detection of four candidate luminous radio supernovae between 0.2–0.5mJy in Mrk 231 within a 100 pc region of the central source. There is a faint unresolved source with flux density 0.5mJy near the position of their brightest RSN candidate “A” on our image taken just over two years earlier. Since the flux density is comparable over the two year interval, “A” appears unlikely to be an RSN and more likely to be related to the AGN core, a possibility noted by Taylor et al. (1999). We note, however, that the luminous RSN in Arp 220 exhibit longer decay times than do “normal” LRSN (Lonsdale et al., 2001) so that longer timelines are necessary to establish the nature of candidate “A” conclusively. We do not see sources near their candidates B, C or D; Taylor et al. note that these may be artifacts. Since the bulk of the starburst-related radio emission appears to be coming from the HI/molecular disk, we would expect RSN to be found in that region, as is the case with NGC 7469 (Colina et al., 2001).

#### 3.3.2  OH Maser Emission in Mrk 231

The OH megamaser in Mrk 231 has a spectrum typical of the class (e.g. Staveley-Smith et al. 1987), with a velocity width of several hundred km/s. It is one of the most luminous OH megamasers known ($`10^{2.9}L_{}`$), and was one of the first to be discovered (Baan 1985). As described above, Mrk 231 also exhibits strong, compact continuum emission, which we would expect to be amplified by any diffuse foreground OH masing screen, yielding bright maser structures on VLBI scales; based on our picture of the geometry of the inner regions of Mrk 231, we might expect compact OH megamaser amplification spots against the northern radio continuum lobe, but not against the core and southern lobe, to which we apparently have a clear line of sight to the south of the inclined HI and molecular disk. We might also expect compact high-gain (apparently saturated) masers of the type discovered in Arp 220 (Lonsdale et al., 1998), IIIZw35, and IRAS 17208$``$0014 (Diamond et al., 1999) for which no detectable background continuum source exists.

To our surprise, no such compact structures of either sort exist in Mrk 231, on scales significantly smaller than $``$0.1 arcseconds. At the locations of the brightest continuum emission, upper limits on the maser amplification ratio $`S_{line}/S_{cont}`$ are of order 0.05. At the location of the northern lobe, the lack of detectable compact maser emission gives an amplification ratio limit of order unity.

Our OH image of Mrk 231, integrated over the 1667MHz line, is shown in Figure 4. The diffuse OH emission we detect is poorly imaged due to the paucity of short baselines in our array, but based on the information thus gleaned, the location and extent of the emission is consistent with an origin in the molecular disk of material identified by Bryant & Scoville (1996), and is likely to be amplified radio continuum emission from this disk, emission which was imaged by Taylor et al. (1999). The OH emission in Mrk 231, which lacks any compact component, is thus consistent with the classical OH megamaser model for diffuse emission originally presented by Baan (1985).

## 4  Discussion

In each of the three galaxies our imaging results have demonstrated that the radio continuum on scales of $``$100pc is dominated by an AGN, not a starburst. Our VLBI imaging shows that the compact emission is characterized by well-defined ridgelines and high brightness yet spatially resolved components. The structure and flux densities of these VLBI components are not consistent with starburst-generated radio supernovae of the type found in Arp 220.

In all three cases, an unresolved AGN core has also been detected in the NIR and MIR, with upper limits comparable to the size of the AGN-dominated 18cm core structure.

Our direct measurements of the 18cm AGN-related core radio flux for these three objects are 38$`\pm `$4 mJy for UGC 5101, 15$`\pm `$1 mJy for NGC 7469 and 91$`\pm `$9 mJy in Mrk 231. For UGC 5101 and NGC 7469 our measured values may be an underestimate of the total flux from the AGN due to flux on intermediate scales missed by our long baselines. For NGC 7469 a better estimate of the AGN flux is the 30 mJy detected in the compact source by MERLIN by Thean et al. (2001), which is twice as high as the 15 mJy detected by the longer baselines of our VLBA map.

### 4.1 The Circumnuclear Regions

We emphasize that, in addition to AGN activity, each LIG is characterized by an intense starburst in the central regions. However since we have clearly demonstrated that the inner 100pc or so is dominated at 18cm by the AGN in each case, the starburst is a circumnuclear one, and there must be an interface region between the two phenomena.

To investigate the relationship of the AGN and starburst in these three galaxies we have computed the “infrared-to-radio parameter” q, the ratio of infrared to radio 20cm flux density (CHYT), as a guide to the infrared emission expected from the starburst. q has been found to have a remarkably limited dispersion over 5 orders of magnitude in luminosity for star-forming regions and galaxies (Yun et al., 2001). Table 5 presents the results of this calculation.

As a first estimate for q for the starburst, $`q_{sb}`$, we assume that: 1) the VLBI emission, $`S_{vlbi}`$ (column 9, corrected by 8% from 18cm to 20cm assuming a spectral index of 0.7), is produced by the AGN, 2) more extended emission, $`S_{vla}S_{vlbi}`$ (column 8 $``$ column 9) is produced by the circumnuclear starburst, 3) the unresolved nuclear mid-infrared (12$`\mu `$m) component is produced by the AGN, while 4) extended mid-infrared emission is starburst related. Assuming that the mid-infrared component ratios reflect those in the far-infrared we obtain the Starburst fraction (column 5) and AGN fraction (column 6) and the Starburst Luminosity (column 3) and AGN Luminosity (column 4). Since we expect the AGN component to be warmer in the infrared, this represents a lower limit to the Starburst fraction and Luminosity. It is worth noting that Farrah et al. (2003) obtain a very similar Starburst fraction (60%) for Mrk 231 based upon SED modeling.

The resulting values of $`q_{sb}`$ are given in column 10 of Table 5. The values for all three galaxies are significantly low, i.e. relatively radio-loud, compared to a canonical average value of 2.34 (CHYT) for star-forming galaxies. This may indicate that we have underestimated the fraction of the bolometric luminosity arising in the starburst vs the AGN; however, it would require essentially all of the measured IR luminosity of NGC 7469 and Mrk 231 to force $`q_{sb}`$ to 2.34, and for UGC 5101 $`q_{sb}`$ would still be 50% low: 2.17. Such a solution is implausible given the MIR core luminosities detected directly in each of the 3 LIGs (Soifer et al., 2000, 2003; Miles, et al., 1996).

One obvious way to reconcile the low $`q_{sb}`$ values is to assume that some of the radio emission on larger size scales, which we have attributed to the starburst, in fact arises ultimately from the AGN instead, either from unrecognized jet structure or energy pumped into the dense ISM from the central AGN in a more spatially distributed manner which is unrecognized in the VLA maps. To follow this argument to a logical limit we derived the total radio flux that must be attributed to the AGN instead of the starburst in order to raise $`q_{sb}`$ to 2.34; the result is given in column 11 of Table 5. We find we would have to multiply the VLBI-scale detected flux of UGC 5101 by 2.3 to 93 mJy to force $`q_{sb}=2.34`$. The MERLIN-detected flux of NGC 7469 would have to be tripled to 113 mJy, while the core and lobe emission of 98 mJy of Mrk 231 would need to be increased by a factor of 1.4 to 140 mJy (column 11 of Table 5).

We conclude that if we expect a nominal q value of 2.34 in the circumnuclear starbursts in these three galaxies, then the radio flux due to the AGN is $``$ 1.5 to 3 times larger than that detected on long baselines in the compact cores of these sources. A similar analysis by Roy et al. (1998) and Corbett et al. (2002) for two different samples of AGN with compact radio cores, has resulted in similar conclusion: they find evidence for radio structures associated with the compact AGN radio core source which extend tens to hundreds of pc around the core.

### 4.2 AGN Radio Core Powers and a Comparison to Radio Quiet QSOs

Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale (1995) showed that radio quiet PG QSOs follow a relationship between the core radio power and bolometric luminosity, and that ULIRGs with VLBI-scale emission follow a similar relation with higher scatter. This is illustrated in Figure 5, where we plot PG QSOs with z$`<`$0.6, and the new core power estimated for the 3 LIGs, corrected to 20 cm assuming a power law slope of 0.7, and the assumed AGN bolometric luminosities given in Table 5. Compared to the median radio quiet PG QSO relation (the lower sequence of points in Figure 5; the upper sequence of points are radio-loud PG QSOs), all three LIGs have over-luminous radio cores, by factors of about 14, 8, and 10 for UGC 5101, NGC 7469 and Mrk 231 respectively. If we plot the revised AGN-related radio fluxes resulting from the $`q`$ analysis above (column 11 of Table 5; small closed symbols), these LIGs will be even more over-luminous in the radio — these appear to be radio-loud QSOs.

The radio loudness would be reduced if the bolometric luminosity of the AGN has been under-estimated, however there is not enough total measured UV-FIR luminosity (Table 5, column 2) to shift these LIGs to the median PG QSO relation. It is possible some AGN luminosity has been missed altogether due to absorption/beaming (small open symbols; see section 4.3 for analysis and discussion), which might make Mrk 231 consistent with the PG QSO relation, but probably not the other two LIGs.

Are these three objects in fact radio loud AGN in the classic sense of high power output from the nucleus in the form of jets? It is thought that radio power is a function of black hole mass and accretion rate (Lacy et al., 2001; Laor, 2000) and we certainly might expect accretion rate to be high in these dust and gas rich objects. Or are they unusually luminous in the radio because a low power AGN radio source is running into unusually dense ISM in the circumnuclear starburst?

### 4.3 Constraining the Extinction and the Core AGN Luminosity Using NIR and MIR Data

An unresolved nuclear point source has been detected in each of the three LIGs studied here with either HST or AO imaging in the near-IR J, H and K bands and also in the MIR (see Section 1 for details). This emission is assumed to arise in the central core regions of the AGN itself; extensive studies of NIR and MIR SEDs of Seyfert galaxies and QSOs indicates that the MIR emission is most likely due to a warm, dusty, molecular torus, and the NIR emission can arise either from the inner hot regions of the torus from dust near 1000K, and/or from dust entrained in outflow cones perpendicular to the accretion disk of the AGN, perhaps near the location of the narrow line clouds (Efstathiou & Rowan-Robinson, 1995; Efstathiou, Hough & Young, 1995; Granato, Danese & Franceschini, 1997; Nenkova, Ivezic & Elitzur, 2002).

The MIR luminosity of Seyfert galaxies and quasars is potentially a good indicator of both the blue luminosity and the X-ray luminosity, for AGN with modest NH columns, and presumably also the bolometric luminosity (Polletta et al., 2000; Haas et al., 2000; Alonso-Herrero et al., 2001). The near-IR luminosity is less well correlated with the X-ray luminosity than is the MIR luminosity, probably due to a combination of increased effects of extinction, but is still a useful diagnostic.

The analysis of the extinction to these regions is a highly complex topic. It is well known that simple comparisons of EB-V from optical line ratios to NH derived from X-ray absorption measurements often do not reflect a self-consistent extinction law resembling that of the Galaxy. Maiolino et al. (2001) argue that this indicates unusual dust grain compositon in the core regions of AGN, rather than a different line-of-sight path for the X-rays compared with the BLR or other explanations.

A detailed analysis of this issue is beyond the scope of this paper. Here we address the specifics of the NIR and MIR emission and extinction for our 3 LIGs, insofar as it can help to constrain the underlying AGN luminosity.

The PG QSOs investigated by Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale (1995) display a remarkably uniform distribution of JHK colors. This is illustrated in the tight and parallel relations between J, H and K absolute magnitudes as a function of integrated UV-FIR luminosity in Figure 6, where we have restricted the PG sample to objects with z$`<`$0.2 so that the NIR part of the rest frame spectrum is being sampled. This behavior allows a meaningful comparison to the LIG colors, even though the path and extinction law of any extinction to the LIG AGN cores may not be well understood.

In Figure 6 we have plotted the core J, H and K sources of each LIG twice: once against the total near- to far-IR luminosity of the object (Sanders et al., 2003), and once with the AGN luminosity fraction listed in Table 5. There is a quantitative difference in the location of Mrk 231 and the other two LIGs in this figure: Mrk 231 displays the same colors as the PG QSOs. This indicates that it has the same SED shape as these relatively unreddened QSOs, and is therefore probably itself essentially unreddened in the NIR. For a Galactic extinction law, the reddening measured in the optical, A$`{}_{V}{}^{}`$2.0 mag, corresponds to A$`{}_{K}{}^{}`$0.2 mag, which is unmeasurable against the dispersion of the PG colors in Figure 6. The other two LIGs show larger relative separations between the bands, and moreover \[mag$`{}_{LIG}{}^{}`$magQSO\] at the luminosity of the LIG increases from K to H to J, in the sense expected for the effect of reddening. These two LIGs therefore probably display reddening in the NIR to the nuclear point source, that is to the core of the AGN. Note, however, that an analysis of the MIR core flux in section 4.3 may amend this conclusion.

If the nuclear point source in Mrk 231 is unreddened in the NIR then it must also suffer little extinction unless the extinction is grey. We can therefore use the measured NIR absolute magnitudes to fit Mrk 231 horizontally to the PG QSO relations, thereby estimating the true luminosity of the AGN in this source, as given in Table 5: $`logL=12.11`$ (L) with AGN luminosity fraction 40%. Consequently the left-most points representing Mrk 231 in Figure 5 fit nicely onto the QSO sequences because they have been forced to fit.

For UGC 5101 and NGC 7469 we have attempted fits using a Galactic extinction law (Mathis, 1990). This analysis should only be considered indicative of luminosities and extinctions for several reasons. First, the instrinsic uncertainty in the extinction due to the dispersion in the QSO relations is large: $``$0.7 mag. Also, we cannot rule out (a) a different reddening law from Galactic; (b) scattering which could blue the colors (eg. NGC 7469); or (c) emission from hot dust which could redden the $`[HK]`$ color, as suggested by Scoville et al. (2000) for UGC 5101. Furthermore we may have underestimated the bolometric luminosities of either the PG QSOs or the LIGs by excluding X-ray emission, therefore introducing uncertainty in the horizontal separation of the LIGs from the QSOs.

For UGC 5101, with an assumed AGN luminosity of 11.44, we find a consistent fit across the three bands with AV=8.9 $`\pm `$1.0. For NGC 7469, with an assumed AGN luminosity of 11.3, however, the apparent extinction required to correct the J, H and K bands to the PG QSO sequence is AV = 3.2, 3.9 and 5.9 respectively, which displays inconsistency in the extinction law. The discrepancy from the Galactic extinction law is in the sense of the de-reddened LIG colors being too blue. If we take a smaller value for the AGN luminosity the extinction correction decreases in size and shifts to better agreement with the Galactic law; an optimum value occurs at about LAGN=11.2 and AV=1.9.

Finally in Figure 7 we show the relation between integrated UV-FIR luminosity (Lonsdale, Smith & Lonsdale, 1995) and core 12$`\mu `$m power. For the PG QSOs we take the total IRAS flux as reported by Sanders et al. (1989), limiting the sample to z$`<`$0.4 so that the 12$`\mu `$m filter does not shift shortward of the 7$`\mu `$m MIR bump. For the LIGs we plot the $`<`$100pc-scale 12$`\mu `$m core source (solid symbols) (Soifer et al., 2000, 2003; Miles, et al., 1996), taking as the AGN power the luminosity given in Table 5 column 4. Also shown (open symbols) are total IRAS 12$`\mu `$m powers vs total luminosity (column 2 of Table 5). The PG QSO power could be overestimated if there is substantial star formation within the large IRAS beam (Haas, 2001). The PG QSOs show a very tight relation in this figure, with 12$`\mu `$m power $``$1% of total power (neglecting the X-ray range).

The effects of a factor of 2 extinction in Figure 7 are shown. Since the source of the MIR emission is thought to be a dusty torus which can become optically thick in the MIR, a detailed radiative transfer model is required to describe the source. Silicate absorption features are indicative of overall extinction, however the equivalent width of such features depends not only on the intrinsic equatorial optical depth of the torus, but on the inclination to the line of sight, the torus height, and the dust temperature. Inclination is the biggest overall factor in MIR extinction, with edge-on disks being strongly attenuated in observed luminosity. The absorbed MIR luminosity of such an inclined torus is not necessarily detected at longer IR wavlengths after absorption and re-emission from more distant, cooler dust grains, because the torus does not emit isotropically.

In Figure 7 we see that the uncorrected 12$`\mu `$m core power of UGC 5101 is low by a factor of 2–2.5 compared to the PG QSOs (though the QSO relation is not strongly defined in this luminosity range) and that UGC 5101 is more under-luminous compared to the QSOs than the other two LIGs. This could either mean that there is considerable extinction at 12$`\mu `$m or that the UV-FIR AGN luminosity has been over-estimated. We favor the first interpretation because in large aperture ISO spectra, UGC 5101 shows the deepest water ice absorption at 6.0$`\mu `$m among the SEDs reported by Spoon et al. (2002), coupled with a very strong silicate absorption and PAH emission. Also, the core JHK colors are significantly redder than for NGC 7469 and Mrk 231, as shown in Figure 6. Thus a consistent picture arises in which the AGN core of UGC 5101 is more heavily absorbed throughout the NIR and MIR than the other 2 LIGs, and in which the 12$`\mu `$m core luminosity in Figure 7 (filled circle) is an underestimate of the AGN MIR luminosity.

Although the 12$`\mu `$m AGN luminosity is underestimated in Figure 7, the total luminosity of the UGC 5101 AGN (horizontal axis) is not necessarily affected since it is an independently inferred parameter. However the bolometric luminosity of the entire galaxy may have been underestimated due to MIR extinction, depending on where the extinction occurs, and this would affect the analysis of Section 4.1 and the inferred total AGN luminosity. Specifically, if the extinction occurs in front of the torus in the starburst medium, the absorbed MIR flux will have been accounted for in the total far-infrared emission detected by IRAS (open circle in Figure 7) and the Section 4.1 analysis is unaffected. However, if the observed MIR extinction occurs within a torus inclined partly into our line-of-sight, it is possible the some of the missed flux is beamed out of our line-of-sight altogether. In that case the total galaxy luminosity is underestimated by IRAS (column 2 of Table 5), the starburst vs AGN luminosity fraction would decrease in the analysis of Section 4.1 (columns 5 and 6), and the total AGN luminosity of column 4 would increase. Thus both data points in Figure 7 would shift up and to the right.

NGC 7469 is more consistent with the QSO relation in Figure 7, though perhaps a little under-luminous. Alonso-Herrero et al. (2001) have modelled the NIR and MIR emission of NGC 7469 with the torus models of Efstathiou & Rowan-Robinson (1995), finding that the flat SED requires a viewing angle $`<`$30, ie. close to face on. In that case little of the MIR emission would be lost to extinction (see Figure 9 of Alonso-Herrero et al. (2001)). This is generally consistent with the small, but detectable, NIR extinction inferred from the nuclear NIR colors (Figure 6).

In contrast, for Mrk 231 the core 12$`\mu `$m power is somewhat over-luminous unless we have underestimated the bolometric AGN luminosity by a factor of about 2.5. It’s unlikely that this missing luminosity is represented by the total UV-FIR measurement (open triangle) because that would leave nothing over for the starburst, therefore this missing luminosity would need to be attributed to power missed by the IRAS measurements, eg. high frequency UV-X-ray flux beamed away from the line-of-sight. There is indeed evidence for a very high X-ray absorbing column to the core of Mrk 231 (Gallagher et al., 2002), which is probably sufficient to hide a nuclear hard X-ray source of $``$ 1044 erg s-1, as implied by the MIR power by Figure 17 of Alonso-Herrero et al. (2001).

Moreover, the MIR SED of Mrk 231 is probably significantly absorbed, exacerbating the apparent underestimation of the core AGN power deduced from Figure 7. Mrk 231 has a very similar 2–20$`\mu `$m SED shape to NGC 7469 (Spoon et al., 2002; Soifer et al., 2000), except for the significant silicate absorption feature. To reproduce such a feature there could be foreground extinction by the starburst medium, or the torus could be significantly more inclined to the line-of-sight, or of higher equatorial optical depth, in which case the MIR luminosity of the torus that we observe may underestimate the face-on luminosity by a factor of 2 or significantly more. Such a result would seem at face value to be inconsistent with the conclusion from Figure 6 that the NIR core source is relatively unreddened. However such a flat 1$`<\lambda <`$7$`\mu `$m SED (Soifer et al., 2000) can instead be explained as additional warm dust emission from the AGN cone, as modelled for NGC 1068 (Efstathiou, Hough & Young, 1995).

In summary, there is evidence from the NIR and MIR observations that the AGN power of Mrk 231 may be underestimated in Table 5 (column 4) by a (highly uncertain) factor of about 5. Similarly the AGN power for UGC 5101 may be underestimated by a factor of two and overestimated by a similar factor for NGC 7469 though a factor of two is well within the uncertainty of this analysis. This AGN power may be unaccounted for in the total galaxy luminosities listed in column 2 also; this is almost certainly the case for Mrk 231. This unaccounted AGN power in Mrk 231 may be enough to bring it into line with the most luminous radio quiet QSOs in Figure 5 (open symbols), but UGC 5101 and NGC 7469 remain radio-loud in that plot. Detailed hard X-ray spectroscopy and modelling will be required to resolve this question.

### 4.4 The OH Megamaser

Among OH megamaser sources which have been studied at milliarcsecond resolutions, Mrk 231 is currently unique in the lack of compact structures. Well-studied sources such as Arp 220 (Lonsdale et al., 1998) and IIIZw35 (Diamond et al., 1999) have compact maser structures which account for many tens of percent of the total OH luminosity. Darling and Giovanelli (2002a) report temporal variability in one distant OH megamaser, and cite further evidence for widespread saturated (and thus compact) maser emission in $`z>0.1`$ megamaser galaxies (Darling & Giovanelli, 2002b).

Clues to this unique lack of compact OH megamaser emission in Mrk 231 may come from understanding other ways in which Mrk 231 is unusual. The most obvious one is that the AGN core is relatively unobscured in the optical-NIR, suggesting that it lies further along the presumed starburst-AGN evolutionary track. We speculate that as the AGN injected copious quantities of both mechanical and radiative energy into the original dense circumnuclear shroud, as evidenced by the BAL wind and the radio jets, much of the cool molecular environment most conducive to the formation of compact masers was destroyed. This destruction is likely to have been complete in the AGN outflow cones. Mrk 231 may be a rare transition object in which the compact masers have been destroyed, but some diffuse maser clouds in the outer disk have so far survived.

However a strong circumnuclear starburst remains, which is extemely luminous in its own right and which might be expected to contain compact masers like those found in the Arp 220 starburst region. This region, roughly perpendicular to the AGN outflow axis, and of $``$ 400 pc dimension, has not been cleared out by the AGN; indeed a dense optically thick molecular torus is thought to still exist, along with a high column, low ionization BAL wind at smaller radii. Thus the lack of detectable OH emission coincident with the northern continuum lobe is particularly surprising, since the starburst disk geometry proposed by other workers suggests that part of the disk should lie in front of that lobe, which exhibits strong free-free absorption.

One factor which might influence the existence of compact maser clouds is the overall density in the Mrk 231 starburst. Unlike Arp 220, it extends about $``$400pc in diameter, and thus has a star-formation surface density of $`2\times 10^4`$Myr-1pc-2, a factor of approximately 16 less than Arp 220. These lower density conditions in the later stages of a starburst may inhibit the formation or pumping of compact maser clouds. Additionally, the lack of amplified continuum VLBI structures may be explained by the liklihood that the cooler, outer regions of the disk will harbor most of the OH maser clouds. These outer regions may lie, in projection, to the north of all the continuum VLBI-scale structure.

Thanks to Chris Carilli for providing us with a digital 1.4GHz image of Mrk 231 for comparison with our data and to Tom Soifer and Jamie Bock for discussing their mid-infrared imaging of NGC 7469. CJL and HES thank the NRAO VLA AOC for hospitality and assistance. HES wishes to express gratitude to IPAC for providing continued support. IPAC/JPL is supported by NASA. Haystack is supported by the NSF via NEROC. Support of this project at UCSD has been provided by the NSF. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the NSF operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research has benefitted from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, which is operated by JPL/Caltech under contract with NASA.