# THE NATURE OF THE DIFFUSE CLUMPS AND THE X-RAY COMPANION OF MRK 2731

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Mrk 273 is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy with prominent merging signatures. Fig. 1 shows our scanned POSS II J-band image and a deep R-band image (Hibbard & Yun 1999, kindly made available to us by John Hibbard) of the Mrk 273 field. These optical images reveal a long tail to the south and a faint plume to the northeast. The Very Large Array (VLA) continuum observations revealed extremely extended radio lobes up to more than 200 kpc in length extending further along the tip of the southern optical tail into southeast (Yun 1997; Yun & Hibbard 1999). VLA H i 21 cm line observations show extended atomic gas associated with the southern optical tail as well (Hibbard & Yun 1996, 1999). Mrk 273 is also detected in the X-ray by ROSAT and ASCA (Turner et al. 1993, 1997, 1998; Iwasawa 1998). ROSAT HRI image reveals an X-ray companion source of comparable brightness as Mrk 273, about $`1\mathrm{}.3`$ to the northeast of Mrk 273. Xia et al. (1998) named this source Mrk 273x, and found an optically faint source coincident with the X-ray position (cf. Fig. 1 in Xia et al. 1998; the position is marked here by ‘X’ in Fig. 1a and is very prominently shown in the deep R-band image in Fig. 1b). All these optical features are also fairly prominent in the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) image of Mrk 273.

The core of Mrk 273 has been resolved into two compact components in the radio and near-infrared (Condon et al. 1991; Majewski et al. 1993; Knapen et al. 1997), which are believed to be the double nuclei of the two progenitor galaxies involved in the merging and at least one of them is a Seyfert 2 nucleus (Sargent 1972; Asatrian et al. 1990). Spectroscopic observations were carried out on the 2.16m telescope at the Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) to secure the redshift of Mrk 273x and the BAO spectrum indicates that an object (thought to be Mrk 273x) at $`z=0.0378`$ was detected (Xia et al. 1998). Since the signal-to-noise ratio of this spectrum was low, further observations of Mrk 273x were performed at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) for additional check. The new spectrum turned out to be different from the one obtained at BAO. Later examinations and further spectroscopic observations show that the object detected in the initial BAO spectrum was not Mrk 273x, but an object about $`20`$″ to the northeast of Mrk 273; we will call this diffuse object Mrk 273D. The mis-identification was caused by incorrect slit positioning in previous observation at BAO (see Section 2).

In this paper, we present the WHT spectrum of Mrk 273x and new observations for Mrk 273D performed at BAO. In addition, we re-examine all the original data analyzed by Xia et al. (1998). We find that both Mrk 273x and Mrk 273D have intriguing properties. We show that the emission line widths and line ratios of Mrk 273x resemble Seyfert 2 galaxies. Since Mrk 273x turns out to be a distant background source, its X-ray and radio luminosities are one of the highest among Seyfert 2 galaxies and yet it has a very low neutral hydrogen column density. Mrk 273D consists of diffuse clumps at the same redshift as the ultraluminous galaxy Mrk 273 and has quite unusual line ratios of \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ and \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6584/H$`\alpha `$. These ratios are not easily produced by photoionization of O, B stars. We argue that the emission line ratios are better explained by shock excitation with precursors (Dopita & Sutherland 1995). The structure of the paper is as follows. In §2, we describe the WHT observation for Mrk 273x and new observations for Mrk 273D at BAO. We also explain the original observational setup at BAO. In §3, we present the results of our spectral analysis. In §4, we discuss the nature of Mrk 273x and Mrk 273D. And finally, a brief summary of the main results is given in §5. Throughout this paper, we use a Hubble constant of $`H_0=50\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ and an Einstein-de Sitter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$) cosmology.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS AND DATA REDUCTION

The observations carried out at BAO used a Zeiss universal spectrograph mounted on the 2.16m telescope of BAO. A Tektronix 1024x1024 CCD was used as the detector. The original slit setup, for the BAO observation on April 12, 1997, runs from the northeast to southwest passing through star S and source D, is illustrated in Fig. 1a. The slit was approximately $`4\mathrm{}`$ long and $`4\mathrm{}`$ wide. This observational setup was intended to determine the redshift for Mrk 273x (source X in Fig. 1a). Unfortunately the slit missed the target due to a slight error in the slit orientation. This occurred because Mrk 273x was too faint to be seen on the TV monitor, so the slit had to be rotated from an initial orientation (which passed through the star ‘S’ in Fig. 1a) by a prescribed angle such that it would pass through Mrk 273x. The amount of rotation required was calculated from several bright objects within the field. This technique of slit positioning for faint sources had been successfully employed previously at BAO, so no extra check was enforced in the initial observations reported in Xia et al. (1998). In spite of the incorrect rotation angle used, by coincidence, an object other than star S was detected in the spectrum and was (incorrectly) identified as Mrk 273x. Follow-up observations of Mrk 273x carried out at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at La Palma however yielded spectra that are completely different from that obtained at BAO (see below).

A re-examination of the long-slit spectrum obtained at BAO showed that the object detected in the spectrum was separated from the star S by 80$`\mathrm{}`$ rather than 20$`\mathrm{}`$, the actual angular distance between Mrk 273x and the star S. From the angular distance between the object detected in the BAO spectrum and the star S, and from the fact that only two objects were seen in the spectrum, we were able to reconstruct the slit orientation as shown in Fig. 1a. This slit orientation is well-constrained: a little more rotation to the southwest (anti-clockwise) the slit would enclose the bright southern tail of Mrk 273, while slightly more rotation to the opposition direction it would enclose no object other than the star S. It turned out that the slit passed through some bright clumps (source D in Fig. 1a), about $`20\mathrm{}`$ to the nuclear region of Mrk 273 (Knapen et al. 1997). While this slit re-construction seems convincing, as a double check, Mrk 273D was re-observed at BAO on February 20, 1999 with a different slit setup. The new observation yields a spectrum nearly identical to the one published by Xia et al. (1998). The slit setup was recorded with photographs, which allowed us to determine the slit orientation reliably. This new slit is approximately $`4\mathrm{}`$ long and $`2.5\mathrm{}`$ wide and runs nearly vertically (in the north–south direction passing through stars S1 and S2) as shown in Fig. 1a.

Both the previous and the new BAO spectra cover a wavelength range of 3500Å to 8100Å with a grating of 195Å/mm and a spectral resolution of 9.3Å (2 pixels). Wavelength calibration was carried out using an Fe-He-Ar lamp and standard stars were observed to perform flux calibrations. The wavelength calibration accuracy is better than 1Å.

Mrk 273x (source X in Fig. 1) was first observed on June 19, 1998 with the WHT. Since the resulting spectrum was different from the one obtained earlier at BAO, another observation was attempted at the WHT on June 26, 1998 which yielded spectrum identical to the one obtained a week ago on June 19. Additional new spectrum for Mrk 273x was also obtained using the BAO 2.16m telescope, confirming the results from the WHT. The new BAO spectrum for Mrk 273x is not presented here given its lower signal-to-noise ratio. The WHT spectra were obtained using the double spectrograph ISIS. The CCD detector used at the Blue and Red Arm was respectively an EEV chip of 2148$`\times `$4200 pixels with a 13.5$`\mu `$m pixel size and a Tek chip of 1124$`\times `$1124 pixels with a 24$`\mu `$m pixel size. At the Blue Arm, a grating of 64Å/mm centered at 4583Å yielded a useful wavelength coverage from 3200–5300Å. The violet end of the blue spectra was cut off by the atmosphere and by instrumental optics, while the red end was blocked out by the dichroic which had a half-power crossover wavelength of 5300Å. For the Red Arm, a grating of 158Å/mm dispersion covered the wavelength range 5300–8270Å. Three 2400s narrow-slit (0.8″) exposures and one 1800s wide-slit spectra (6″) were obtained for each Arm. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) spectral resolution was 6.2Å for the Red Arm and 3.28Å for the Blue Arm, respectively. Wavelength calibration was carried out using an Ar-Ne lamp; the resulting wavelength accuracy is about 0.2Å. The spectra were flux-calibrated using observations of the standard star BD +33<sup>o</sup> 2642.

All the optical spectral data reduction was performed at BAO using IRAF packages. The CCD data reduction includes standard procedures such as bias subtraction, flat fielding and cosmic ray removal. The measurements of emission lines were performed under the IRAF environment using tasks “splot” and “ngaussfit”.

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 The Optical and X-ray Properties of Mrk 273x

We first show the WHT optical spectrum for Mrk 273x in Fig. 2. The spectrum combines both the Red and Blue Arm data. \[O iii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4959, 5007, H$`\beta `$, \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$4363, H$`\gamma `$, \[Ne iii\] $`\lambda `$3869, \[O ii\] $`\lambda `$3727 and Mg ii $`\lambda \lambda `$2796, 2803 emission lines are all convincingly detected. The redshift determined from these emission lines is 0.458. The measured fluxes for the identified lines are listed in Table 1. All detected lines have a FWHM of about $`600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The optical B and R magnitudes for Mrk 273x are respectively about 20.8 and 19.6 from the USNO-A1.0 catalog (Monet 1996). The absolute magnitude of Mrk 273x is therefore $`M_B=21.6`$, comparable to $`L^{}`$ in the Schechter luminosity function of galaxies (e.g., Lin et al. 1996). This luminosity includes the contribution from both the central active galactic nucleus (AGN, see below) and the host galaxy. In the short Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) snapshot image, the underlying galaxy is visible but its outer faint contours are not well-detected. From the deep R-band image (shown here in Fig. 1b) of Hibbard & Yun (1999), the AGN nucleus and the host galaxy seem to contribute comparable amount of light.

As reported in Xia et al. (1998), Mrk 273x is also luminous in the soft X-ray (0.1–2.4 keV) band. The soft X-ray flux is $`f_\mathrm{X}=1.1\times 10^{13}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{cm}^2`$, corresponding to an X-ray luminosity of $`L_\mathrm{X}1.1\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The soft X-ray spectrum of Mrk 273x is well-fitted by a power-law, with a photon index of $`1.98`$, a value typical for Seyfert 2 galaxies. Spectral fitting yielded a neutral hydrogen column density of $`N_\mathrm{H}=(4.3\pm 2.2)\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$.

Mrk 273x is also detected at the VLA 21 cm continuum observations and appears to be consistent with a point-like source (Yun 1997; Yun & Hibbard 1999). At this high redshift, Mrk 273x falls into the class of powerful radio sources with $`L_{1.37\mathrm{GHz}}2.0\times 10^{40}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This single property sets Mrk 273x into categories of AGNs, QSOs, and starbursts and radio galaxies rather than normal galaxies.

The high X-ray luminosity, strong radio emission and the emission line widths (FWHM $`600\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$) of Mrk 273x imply that the main energy output mechanism is AGN, and Mrk 273x may be either a narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy (Osterbrock & Pogge 1985) or a Seyfert 2 galaxy from the relatively narrow emission lines. Below we explore each possibility in turn.

NLS1s are defined as Seyfert galaxies which have FWHM for the H$`\beta `$ line in the range of 500-2000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and with \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$$`<`$3. Mrk 273x does not satisfy the second criterion since the ratio of the \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ is about 6. Furthermore, Mrk 273x does not show prominent Fe II emission lines, which are strong in most (but not all) NLS1 galaxies. Also, the soft X-ray spectrum is well fitted by power-law with a photon index $`1.98`$ (Xia et al. 1998) and is not as steep as most NLS1s. Hence, Mrk 273x does not fit in the definition of NLS1 galaxies.

The relatively narrow Balmer and forbidden lines and the line ratios of \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ $`6`$ are consistent with Mrk 273x being a Seyfert 2 galaxy. Turner et al. (1997, 1998) and Polletta et al. (1996) presented catalogs for several tens of Seyfert 2 galaxies. In their catalogs, the soft X-ray luminosity for all but a few listed Seyfert 2 galaxies are less than $`10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and the $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ value is larger than $`10^{21}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. The combination of a low $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ value together with powerful X-ray emission ($`L_\mathrm{X}1.1\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$) is therefore rare among Seyfert 2 galaxies. This peculiarity is also supported by its quite high radio luminosity and multi-wavelength observations of Mrk 273x. The flux ratios of Mrk273x in the soft X-ray, B-band, and radio are $`f_\mathrm{X}:f_\mathrm{B}:f_{1.37\mathrm{GHZ}}=7:1:1.3\times 10^3`$; such a spectral energy distribution is rarely seen in any other AGNs (see Xia et al. 1998 for more discussions). Furthermore, the low $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ value is not expected in the unified scheme of AGNs (e.g., Dopita 1997 and references therein). In this picture, the broad-line regions of Seyfert 2 galaxies are postulated to be obscured by a thick torus of gas and dust, which presumably gives rise to high $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ values.

To summarize, the optical emission line properties, the powerful X-ray and radio emission and the low neutral hydrogen absorption indicate that Mrk 273x is a rare source that may provide a test of the unified picture of AGNs.

### 3.2 Diffuse Clumps In the Tidal Plume of Mrk 273

The diffuse clumps (Mrk 273D, labeled as source D in Fig. 1a) are clearly seen in the J-film copy of POSS II and in the DSS image, but they are visible neither in the near-infrared (e.g., Smith et al. 1996), most R-band images (e.g., Yun & Scoville 1995; Mazzarella & Boroson 1993), nor in the HST WFPC2 F814 snapshot image, suggesting that they have quite blue colors. Only the deep R-band image shown in Fig. 1b (Hibbard & Yun 1999) reveals some patches in the northeast plume corresponding to these dense knots. We extracted the BAO spectra for the diffuse clumps in Fig. 1a using an aperture window size of 4″$`\times `$ 17″ for the observation on April 12, 1997 and 2.5″$`\times `$ 17″ for the observation on February 20, 1999. These aperture windows are indicated as the rectangles in Fig. 1a. The spectra are shown in Fig. 3 and the emission line fluxes are listed in Table 1. The old and new spectra are similar. The continuum is somewhat higher in the Feb. 20, 1999 observation. The difference may be real, as the two slits sampled slightly different regions, although the possibility of calibration uncertainties cannot be completely ruled out. The emission line ratios are very similar from both spectra. The redshift for Mrk 273D determined from the emission lines is the same as Mrk 273 ($`z=0.0376`$). Therefore these clumps are physically associated with the major merger process of Mrk 273. Yun & Scoville (1995) suggest that Mrk 273 is the merging product of a nearly edge-on gas-rich spiral and another more face-on spiral. The tidal plume in the northeast is from the face-on progenitor. So the physical association of Mrk 273d with Mrk 273 is expected.

It is clear from Fig. 3 and Table 1 that the continuum emission from Mrk 273D is very weak and the \[O iii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4959, 5007 lines are strong compared to H$`\beta `$. More specifically, from the observation on April 12, 1997, the line ratio of the \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007 to H$`\beta `$ is $`18.6_{4.9}^{+9.5}`$, while the line ratio of the \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6584 to H$`\alpha `$ is $`0.34\pm 0.1`$ (the error bars are 1$`\sigma `$ values). For the new observation, the ratio of the \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007 line to H$`\beta `$ is $`18.9_{5.7}^{+13}`$ while the ratio of \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6584 line to H$`\alpha `$ is $`0.3\pm 0.1`$. Note that these two line ratios are little affected by dust extinction since the two lines involved in the ratios are quite close in wavelength. Fig. 4 shows the standard diagnistic diagram of \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ versus \[N ii\] $`\lambda `$6584/H$`\alpha `$ (Osterbrock 1989) for emission line galaxies. The HII, LINER and Seyfert galaxies occupy different regions in this diagram. For HII regions photoionized by O, B stars, $`[\mathrm{O}\mathrm{iii}]\lambda 5007/\mathrm{H}\beta <5`$ for $`[\mathrm{N}\mathrm{ii}]\lambda 6584/\mathrm{H}\alpha 0.30.4`$ (see also Fig. 12.1 in Osterbrock 1989). The \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ ratio of Mrk 273D is clearly much higher than those typically found for photoionized H ii regions. In fact, Mrk 273D is clearly located in the region occupied by Seyfert 2 galaxies. The \[O i\] $`\lambda `$6300/H$`\alpha `$ and \[S ii\] $`\lambda `$6716,6731/H$`\alpha `$ line ratios of Mrk 273D are also located in the Seyfert 2 region (cf. Fig. 12.2, 12.3, Osterbrock 1989 and more discussions in Xia et al. 1998). To achieve these Seyfert 2 like line ratios, the ionization source must be harder than the radiation provided by young massive stars. Mrk 273D is, however, obviously not an AGN given its diffuse morphology. We discuss further the mechanism of line excitations in Mrk 273D in §4.2.

## 4 DISCUSSION

### 4.1 Mrk 273x: an Unusual Seyfert 2 Galaxy

Mrk 273x is a background object in the Mrk 273 field; it is at a much higher redshift ($`z=0.458`$) than Mrk 273 which has a redshift of 0.0376. It is interesting to note that the X-ray companions of three nearest ultraluminous IRAS galaxies (Arp 220, Mrk 273 and Mrk 231) are all background sources and are therefore not physically associated with the mergers themselves (cf. Xia et al. 1998). Mrk 273x has AGN characteristics both optically and in the soft X-ray together with a high radio luminosity. The narrow emission lines and various line ratios are consistent with it being a Seyfert 2 galaxy. Its soft X-ray luminosity is one of the highest among Seyfert 2 galaxies with a low neutral hydrogen column density. Although many well known nearby Seyferts (including Mrk 273 itself) also host an energetically significant starburst, the low neutral hydrogen column density of $`N_\mathrm{H}4.4\times 10^{20}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ appears to exclude the possibility of Mrk 273x being a dusty luminous starburst galaxy. These observational facts show that Mrk 273x is an unusual Seyfert 2 galaxy that is not easy to explain using the unified scheme of AGNs.

Xia et al. (1998) examined the time variability of Mrk 273x using the ROSAT data taken in May and June 1992. While Mrk 273x is fainter than Mrk 273 by about 20% in the ROSAT PSPC image, it is almost as bright as Mrk 273 in the ROSAT HRI image. A $`\chi ^2`$ test however reveals that these changes are not statistically significant in the ROSAT data. From the 0.5-2 keV image of SIS on board ASCA, Iwasawa (1998) found that Mrk 273x is at most 40 percent as bright as Mrk 273 on Dec. 27, 1994. Since Mrk 273 is not known to vary in the soft X-ray, these multi-epoch observations imply that Mrk 273x has faded by a factor of 2 in two and a half years. Cycle 1 AXAF observations are planned to obtain a high-resolution map of Mrk 273x and Mrk 273. These observations will provide further insights on their X-ray variability, higher energy behaviors and spatial distribution of the X-ray emissions.

### 4.2 The Excitation Mechanism of Mrk 273D

The diffuse clumps in Mrk 273D in the northeast plume could directly come from the extreme outer regions of the face-on progenitor. It is also possible that Mrk 273D was formed in the major merger process. This patchy object is unlikely to be a self-gravitating (tidal) dwarf galaxy since they are usually found far from the interacting parent galaxies and their spectra resemble typical photoionized H ii regions (e.g., Duc & Mirabel 1997). Furthermore, clumps formed close to the merger is liable to tidal disruption once they fall back to the merger. (However, some observations indicate that clumps close to the merging pair do exist, e.g., H ii regions in the NGC 4676A tail, Hibbard & van Gorkom 1996.) In contrast, Mrk 273D is very close to ($`20`$ kpc in projected distance from) the main merging nuclei, and its spectrum differs significantly from photoionized H ii regions.

Although the spectrum of Mrk 273D resembles that of a Seyfert 2 galaxy, its diffuse morphology suggests that it is not a (dwarf) AGN. In fact, the spectrum of Mrk 273D is very similar to that of the soft X-ray nebula to the north of Mrk 266 (cf. Fig. 5 in Kollatschny & Kowatsch 1998). As pointed out by these authors, the $`VR`$ color ($`0.5\pm 0.1`$) of the northern component is exceptionally blue due to the intense \[O iii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4959, 5007 line emission. The diffuse gas clumps in Mrk 273D are also very blue, since they are only seen in the B-band, but not in other bands redder than R. The blue color of Mrk 273D is also due to the continuum being dominated by the \[O iii\] $`\lambda \lambda `$4959, 5007 line emission (cf. Fig. 3). The spectrum of Mrk 273D is also similar to the average spectrum of the northwest cone of NGC 2992 (cf. Fig. 3a in Allen et al. 1999) and the spectrum of diffuse ionized gas in NGC 891 (Rand 1997, 1998). As discussed by these authors, the likely excitation mechanism for these peculiar spectra is the shock plus precursor model (Dopita & Sutherland 1995). For a fast shock with velocity of several hundred $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, copious UV photons are produced in the shock front, which can in turn excite the gas of H ii regions in front of the shock, thus producing radiative precursors. The hardness of the UV radiation (shock temperature) depends on the velocity of the shock wave, and with suitable parameters, this scenario can produce the line ratios as seen in Mrk 273D (cf. Fig. 2a in Dopita & Sutherland 1995).

It is believed that starbursts can drive radial outflows (Wang, Heckman & Weaver 1997). There is some evidence that such outflows (superwinds) indeed exist in several ultraluminous IRAS galaxies out to tens of kpc with velocities of a few hundred to 1000 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, e.g., in NGC 6240, Arp 299, Arp 220 (Heckman et al. 1987, 1990, 1996, 1999; Schulz et al. 1997; Wang et al. 1997). Since Mrk 273 is also a major merger ultraluminous infrared galaxy and has extended soft X-ray emission and H i nebula, it is conceivable that such an outflow exists in Mrk 273. In this regard, Mrk 266 is also a candidate since it is a luminous infrared merging galaxy with double nuclei ($`7`$ kpc in projected separation) and very extended (about 150 kpc) soft X-ray nebula.

These observations suggest that the shock+precursor emission may be a common mechanism to excite gaseous nebulae in luminous infrared merging galaxies, in addition to the O, B star photoionization and AGN excitation. Wu et al. (1998) showed that many observed ultraluminous IRAS galaxies have mixture types in different line ratio diagnostic diagrams. Goncalves et al. (1998) also suggested that most emission line galaxies with the so-called transition spectrum have composite spectra with simultaneous presence of Seyfert, LINER and H ii region contributions. Perhaps these objects are not only just a mixture of AGN and photoionized starburst regions (Genzel et al. 1998), they may also contain shock+precursor regions, as seen in Mrk 273D and the northern nebula of Mrk 266. This also provides a caution: a Seyfert 2 like spectrum in high-redshift luminous infrared galaxies does not necessarily mean the presence of AGNs at their centers, instead such a spectrum could be induced by the shock+precursor excitation in the gas clumps in the mergers.

## 5 SUMMARY

We have presented optical spectroscopic observations for the X-ray companion source and the blue diffuse clumps in the northeast tidal debris surrounding the ultraluminous galaxy Mrk 273. Their peculiar properties are discussed and explored together with soft X-ray and radio observations available. We summarize below the main points we have presented and addressed in this paper.

Mrk 273x, the X-ray companion $`1\mathrm{}.3`$ to the northeast of the ultraluminous galaxy Mrk 273, is a background source at $`z=0.458`$. Its redshift is much higher than the redshift ($`z=0.0376`$) of Mrk 273. The soft X-ray spectrum for Mrk 273x is typical of Seyfert 2 galaxies. The X-ray luminosity of Mrk 273x is exceptionally high for a Seyfert 2 galaxy, $`L_\mathrm{x}1.1\times 10^{44}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. Spectral fitting gives a low neutral hydrogen column density, $`N_\mathrm{H}4.4\times 10^{20}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup>. All the optical emission lines detected for Mrk 273x have a similar FWHM of $`600`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> and the \[O iii\] $`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ ratio is about 6, again typical for Seyfert 2 galaxies. Mrk 273x is also a powerful radio source with a radio luminosity $`L_{1.37\mathrm{GHz}}2.0\times 10^{40}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This adds more peculiarities to this energetically unusual Seyfert 2 galaxy.

The optical knots Mrk 273D in the northeast tidal tail/plume $`20`$ kpc (projected) from the nuclear region of Mrk 273 is at the same redshift as that of Mrk 273. They are diffuse gas clumps physically associated with the major merger. The spectrum of Mrk 237D is dominated by strong emission from the \[O iii\] doublet. The strong line emission gives rise to the blue color of this object. The \[O iii\]$`\lambda `$5007/H$`\beta `$ and \[N ii\]$`\lambda `$6584/H$`\alpha `$ line ratios are $`19`$ and 0.3, respectively. These Seyfert 2–like line ratios for Mrk 273D are likely excited by shocks plus precursor mechanism involved in the merging process.

###### Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to Zheng Zheng for assistance in observations and preliminary data reductions. We also thank Simon White for advice and the anonymous referee and the scientific editor John Huchra for valuable criticisms that have improved the paper. We appreciate very much for the deep R-band image kindly provided to us by John Hibbard. This project was partially supported by the NSF of China and the exchange program between NSFC and DFG. Y.G.’s research at LAI, Dept. of Astronomy is funded by NSF grants AST96-13999 and by the University of Illinois. Y.G. is also grateful to Ernie Seaquist for support at the University of Toronto.      

## FIGURE CAPTIONS