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# Halting viruses in scale-free networks

\[

## Abstract

The vanishing epidemic threshold for viruses spreading on scale-free networks indicate that traditional methods, aiming to decrease a virus’ spreading rate cannot succeed in eradicating an epidemic. We demonstrate that policies that discriminate between the nodes, curing mostly the highly connected nodes, can restore a finite epidemic threshold and potentially eradicate a virus. We find that the more biased a policy is towards the hubs, the more chance it has to bring the epidemic threshold above the virus’ spreading rate. Furthermore, such biased policies are more cost effective, requiring less cures to eradicate the virus.

(Dated )

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While most diffusion processes of practical interest, ranging from the spread of computer viruses to the diffusion of sexually transmitted diseases, take place on complex networks, the bulk of diffusion studies have focused on model systems, such as regular lattices or random networks. A series of recent results indicate, however, that real networks significantly deviate from the structure of these model systems – deviations that have a strong impact on the diffusion dynamics as well. In particular, the networks responsible for the spread of computer viruses, such as the Internet or the email network , have a scale-free topology , exhibiting a power-law degree distribution $`P(k)k^\gamma `$ where $`\gamma `$ ranges between $`2`$ and $`3`$. Similarly, a recent study indicate that the social network responsible for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, also exhibits a scale-free structure. The topology of scale-free networks fundamentally deviate from the topology of both regular lattices and random networks , differences that impact the network’s robustness and attack tolerance  or the dynamics of synchronization . It is not unexpected, therefore, that the broad degree distribution leads to unexpected diffusion properties as well .

A simple model often used to study the generic features of virus spreading is the susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model. In this model an individual is represented by a node, which can be either ”healthy” or ”infected”. Connections between individuals along which the infection can spread are represented by links. In each time step a healthy node is infected with probability $`\nu `$ if it is connected to at least one infected node. At the same time an infected node is cured with probability $`\delta `$, defining an effective spreading rate $`\lambda \frac{\nu }{\delta }`$ for the virus.

The behavior of the SIS model is well understood if the nodes are placed on a regular lattice or a random network . Diffusion studies indicate that viruses whose spreading rate exceeds a critical threshold $`\lambda _c`$ will persist, while those under the threshold will die out shortly. Recently, however, Pastor-Satorras and Vespignani have shown  that for scale-free networks with $`\gamma 3`$ the epidemic threshold vanishes, i.e. $`\lambda _c=0`$. This finding implies that on such networks even weakly infectious viruses can spread and prevail. This vanishing threshold is a consequence of the hubs – nodes with a large number of links encoded by the tail of power law $`P(k)`$. Indeed, the hubs are in contact with a large number of nodes, and are therefore easily infected. Once infected, they pass on the virus to a significant fraction of the nodes in the system.

The finding that the epidemic threshold vanishes in scale-free networks has a strong impact on our ability to control various virus outbreaks. Indeed, most methods designed to eradicate viruses – biological or computer based – aim at reducing the spreading rate of the virus, hoping that if $`\lambda `$ falls under the critical threshold $`\lambda _c`$, the virus will die out naturally. With a zero threshold, while a reduced spreading rate will decrease the virus’ prevalence, there is little guarantee that it will eradicate it. Therefore, from a theoretical perspective viruses spreading on a scale-free network appear unstoppable. The question is, can we take advantage of the increased knowledge accumulated in the past few years about network topology to understand the conditions in which one can successfully eradicate viruses?

Here we study the spreading of a virus to which there is a cure, eradicating the virus from the node to which it is applied to, but which does not offer a permanent protection against the virus. If such cure is available to all nodes, treating simultaneously all infected nodes will inevitably wipe the virus out. However, due to economic or policy considerations the number of available cures is often limited. This applies to AIDS, for which relatively effective but prohibitively expensive cures are available, unable to reach the most affected segments of population due to economic considerations . But it also applies to computer viruses, where only a small fraction of users commit the time and investment to update regularly their virus protection system. We show that distributing the cures randomly in a scale-free network is inneffective, being unable to alter the fundamental properties of the threshold-free diffusion process. However, even weakly biased strategies, that discriminating between the nodes, curing with a higher probability the hubs than the less connected nodes, can restore the epidemic threshold. We find that such hub-biased policies are more cost-effective as well, requiring fewer cures than those distributing the cures indiscriminately.

Curing the hubs: The vanishing epidemic threshold of a virus spreading in a scale-free network is rooted in the infinite variance of the degree distribution . Indeed, the threshold $`\lambda _c`$ depends on the variance as

$$\lambda _c=\frac{<k>}{<k^2>}.$$
(1)
On a regular lattice the degree distribution is a delta function, while on a random network it follows a Poisson distribution, in both cases resulting in a finite $`<k^2>`$, and therefore nonzero $`\lambda _c`$. In contrast, if the virus spreads on a scale-free network, for which $`P(k)`$ follows a power law with $`\gamma 3`$, the variance is infinite and the epidemic threshold is $`\lambda _c=0`$. Therefore, to restore a finite epidemic threshold, which would allow the infection to die out, one needs to induce a finite variance. As the origin of the infinite variance is in the tail of the degree distribution, dominated by the hubs, one expects that curing all hubs with degree larger than a given degree $`k_0`$ would restore a finite variance and therefore a nonzero epidemic threshold. Indeed, if on a scale-free network nodes with degree $`k>k_0`$ are always healthy, the epidemic threshold is finite and has the value

$$\lambda _c=\frac{<k>}{<k^2>}=\frac{k_0m}{k_0m}\left(\mathrm{ln}\frac{k_0}{m}\right)^1.$$
(2)
This expression indicates that the more hubs we cure (i.e. the smaller $`k_0`$ is), the larger the value of the epidemic threshold (Fig. 1) . Therefore, the most effective policy against an epidemics would be to cure as many hubs as economically viable. The problem is that in most systems of interest we do not have detailed network maps, thus we cannot effectively identify the hubs. Indeed, we do not know the number of sexual partners for each individual in the society, thus we cannot identify the social hubs that should be cured if infected. Similarly, on the email network we do not know which email accounts serve as hubs, as these are the ones that, for the benefit of all email users, should always carry the latest anti-virus software.

Short of a detailed network map, no method aiming to identify and cure the hubs is expected to succeed at its goal of finding all hubs with degree larger than a given $`k_0`$. Yet, policies designed to eradicate viruses could attempt to identify and cure as many hubs as possible. Such biased policy will inevitably be inherently imperfect, as it might miss some hubs, and falsely identify some smaller nodes as hubs. The question is, however, would a policy biased towards curing the hubs, without a guarantee that it can identify all of them, succeed at restoring the epidemic threshold?

To investigate the effect of incomplete information about the hubs we assume that the likelihood of identifying and administering a cure to an infected node with $`k`$ links in a given time frame depends on the node’s degree as $`k^\alpha `$, where $`\alpha `$ characterizes the policy’s ability to identify hubs. In this framework $`\alpha =0`$ corresponds to random cure distribution, which is expected to have zero epidemic threshold while $`\alpha =\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to an optimal policy that treats all hubs with degree larger than $`k_0`$. Within the framework of the SIS model we assume that each node is infected with probability $`\nu `$, but each infected node is cured with probability $`\delta =\delta _0k^\alpha `$, becoming again susceptible to the disease. We define the spreading rate as $`\lambda =\frac{\nu }{\delta _0}`$. As each healthy node is susceptible again to the disease, a node can get multiple cures during a simulation.

We place the nodes on a scale-free network  and initially infect half of them. After a transient regime the system reaches a steady state, characterized by a constant average density of infected nodes, $`\rho `$, which depends on both the spreading rate $`\lambda `$ and $`\alpha `$ (Fig. 2). The $`\alpha =0`$ limit corresponds to random immunization in which case the epidemic threshold is zero. As treating only the hubs will restore the nonzero epidemic threshold, for $`\alpha =\mathrm{}`$ we expect a nonzero $`\lambda _c`$. Yet, the numerical simulations indicate that we have a finite $`\lambda _c`$ well before the $`\alpha =\mathrm{}`$ limit. Indeed, as Fig. 2 shows, $`\lambda _c`$ is clearly finite for $`\alpha =1`$ and so is for smaller value of $`\alpha `$ as well. The numerical simulations do not give an unambiguous answer the crucial question: Is there a critical value of $`\alpha `$ at which a finite $`\lambda _c`$ appears, or for any any nonzero $`\alpha `$ we have a finite $`\lambda _c`$?

Mean-field theory: To interpret the results of the numerical simulations we studied the effect of a biased policy using the mean-field continuum approach . Denoting by $`\rho _k(t)`$ the density of infected nodes with connectivity $`k`$, the time evolution of $`\rho _k(t)`$ can be written as

$$_t\rho _k(t)=\delta _0k^\alpha \rho _k(t)+\nu (1\rho _k(t))k\theta (\lambda ).$$
(3)
The first term in the r.h.s. describes the probability that an infected node is cured, and it is therefore proportional to the number of infected nodes $`\rho _k(t)`$ and the probability $`\delta _0k^\alpha `$ that a node with $`k`$ links will be selected for a cure. The second term is the probability that a healthy node with $`k`$ links is infected, proportional to the infection rate ($`\nu `$), the number of links ($`k`$), the number of healthy nodes with $`k`$ links ($`1\rho _k(t)`$), and the probability $`\theta (\lambda )`$ that a given link points to an infected node. The probability $`\theta (\lambda )`$ is proportional to $`kP(k)`$, therefore it can be written as

$$\theta (\lambda )=\underset{k}{}\frac{kP(k)}{_ssP(s)}\rho _k.$$
(4)
Using $`\lambda =\frac{\nu }{\delta _0}`$ and imposing the $`_t\rho _k(t)=0`$ stationary condition we find the stationary density as

$$\rho _k=\frac{\lambda \theta (\lambda )}{k^{\alpha 1}+\lambda \theta (\lambda )}.$$
(5)
Combining Eq.(4) and Eq.(5) and using the fact that the connectivity distribution $`P(k)=2m^2/k^3`$ for the scale-free network, we obtain:

$$m\lambda _m^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dk}{k^2(k^{\alpha 1}+\lambda \theta (\lambda ))}=1.$$
(6)
The average density of infected nodes is given by

$$\rho (\lambda )=\underset{k}{}P(k)\rho (k)=2m^2\lambda \theta (\lambda )_m^{\mathrm{}}\frac{dk}{k^3(k^{\alpha 1}+\lambda \theta (\lambda ))}$$
(7)
Equations (6) and (7) allow us to calculate the average density of infected nodes for any value of $`\alpha `$. For $`\alpha =0`$ they reduce to the case studied in Ref. giving $`\lambda _c=0`$. For $`\alpha =1`$ we can solve (6), and using (7) we obtain

$$\rho (\lambda )|_{\alpha =1}=\frac{\lambda 1}{\lambda },$$
(8)
which indicates that for $`\alpha =1`$ the epidemic threshold is finite, having the value $`\lambda _c(\alpha =1)=1`$ .

To determine the epidemic threshold as a function of $`\alpha `$ we need to solve the $`\rho (\lambda )=0`$ equation. While we cannot get $`\rho (\lambda )`$ for arbitrary values of $`\alpha `$, we can solve Eq.(6) in $`\lambda `$ using that at the threshold $`\lambda =\lambda _c`$ we have $`\theta (\lambda _c)=0`$. In this case (6) predicts that the epidemic threshold depends on $`\alpha `$ as

$$\lambda _c=\alpha m^{\alpha 1}.$$
(9)
For $`\alpha =0`$ we recover $`\lambda _c=0`$, confirming that random immunization cannot eradicate an infectious disease. For $`\alpha =1`$ Eq.(9) predicts that the epidemic threshold is $`\lambda _c=1`$, in agreement with (8). Most important, however, Eq.(9) indicates that $`\lambda _c`$ is nonzero for any positive $`\alpha `$, i.e., any policy that is biased towards curing the hubs can restore a finite epidemic threshold. Furthermore, policies with larger $`\alpha `$ are expected to be more likely to lead to the eradication of the virus, as they result in larger $`\lambda _c`$ values. Therefore, Eq.(9) indicates that a potential avenue to eradicating a virus is to increase the effectiveness of identifying and curing the hubs. Indeed, if the virus has a fixed spreading rate, increasing $`\alpha `$ could increase $`\lambda _c`$ beyond $`\lambda `$, thus making possible for the virus to die out naturally. To test the validity of prediction (9) we determined numerically the $`\lambda (\alpha )`$ curve from the simulations shown in Fig. 2. As Figure 3 shows, we find excellent agreement between the simulations and the analytical prediction (9).

Cost-effectiveness: A major criteria for any policy designed to combat an epidemic is its cost-effectiveness. Supplying cures to all nodes infected by a virus is often prohibitively expensive. Therefore, policies that obtain the largest effect with the smallest number of administered cures are more desirable. To addres the cost-effectiveness of a policy targeting the hubs we calculated the number of cures administered in a time step per node for different values of $`\alpha `$. Figure 4 indicates that increasing the policy’s bias towards the hubs by allowing a higher value for $`\alpha `$ decreases rapidly the number of necessarily cures. Therefore, policies that distribute the cures mainly to the nodes with more links are more cost effective than those that spread the cures randomly, blind to the node’s connectivity. We can understand the origin of the rapid decay in $`c(\alpha )`$ by noticing that the number of cures administered per unit time is proportional to the density of infected nodes. From Fig. 2 we see that for a given value of the spreading rate the prevalence is decreasing as $`\alpha `$ increases, decreasing the number of necessarily cures as well.

In summary, our numerical and analytical results indicate that targeting the more connected infected nodes can restore the epidemic threshold, therefore making possible the eradication of a virus. Most important, however, is the finding that even moderately successful policies with small $`\alpha `$ can lead to a nonzero epidemic threshold. As the magnitude of $`\lambda _c`$ rapidly decreases with $`\alpha `$, the more effective a policy is at identifying and curing the hubs of a scale-free network, the higher are its chances of eradicating the virus. Finally, the simulations shows that a biased treatment policy is not only more efficient but it is also less expensive than random immunization. These results, beyond improving our understanding of the basic mechanisms of virus spreading, could also offer important input into designing effective policies to eradicate computer or biological infections.


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# Extend Special Relativity to the Superluminal Case

## Abstract

First, we extend the special relativity into the superluminal case and put forward a superluminal theory of kinematics, in which we show that the temporal coordinate need exchanging with one of the spatial coordinates in a superluminal inertial frame, and that the coordinate transformations from any superluminal inertial frame to the rest frame (here rest just says in a relative sense) are the same as the Lorentz transformations from some normal inertial frame to the rest frame. Consequently, the causality can not be violated. Secondly, we investigate the superluminal theory of dynamics and find that the total energy of any object moving at a speed of $`v`$ (faster than the speed of light in vacuum $`c`$) is equal to the total energy of that object moving at a speed of $`u(u<c)`$ provided that the product of two speeds satisfy $`uv=c^2`$. Lastly, we conjecture that this superluminal theory can give a novel interpretation to the essence of matter waves put forward by de Broglie.

Since the special relativity (SR) was put forward by Einstein a  in 1905, the speed of light in vacuum $`c`$ has always been regarded as the limit of particle velocity. As is so often pointed out, the causality will be violated if there are tachyons in our world b  . In fact, nature has exhibited many superluminal phenomena to us, especially in astronomy c ; d  , but they do not imply the genuine existence of superluminal objects. Furthermore, there exist various proposals for observing faster-than-$`c`$ propagation of light using anomalous dispersion near an absorption line and linear gain lines, or tunnelling barriers e ; f ; g ; h  . It is notable that, using gain-assisted linear anomalous dispersion, the group velocity of a laser pulse propagation in atomic caesium gas can exceed $`c`$ and even become negative, while the shape of the pulse is preserved i  . But these proposals can not be explicitly interpreted as the motion of tachyons. The same case also occurs in the propagation of localized microwaves j  . All these seem to suggest that the speed of any moving object cannot exceed $`c`$ indeed. But virtually, Einstein just tells us that $`c`$ is the limit of particle velocity in vacuum. As we know, the limit may indicate the upper bound of the particle velocity which corresponds to the SR, while it may mean the lower bound. In our paper, we aim to develop a superluminal theory which abides by causality and does not contradict most excellent achievements of SR.

Let $`S`$ denote the rest frame in which $`x,y`$ and $`z`$ are three spatial coordinates and $`t`$ is the temporal coordinate. $`S^{}`$ is an inertial frame moving at the speed of $`v`$ along $`x`$-axis of $`S`$. Denote $`x^{},y^{},z^{}`$ and $`t^{}`$ as three spatial coordinates and temporal coordinate respectively in $`S^{}.`$ At the initial time $`t=t^{}=0`$, the origins of two frames are superposed each other. In terms of SR, the Lorentz transformations between $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ can be expressed as follow:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}x^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1\left(v/c\right)^2}}(x\frac{v}{c}ct)(\mathrm{i})\hfill \\ ct^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1\left(v/c\right)^2}}(ct\frac{v}{c}x)(\mathrm{ii})\hfill \\ y^{}=y(\mathrm{iii})\hfill \\ z^{}=z(\mathrm{iv})\hfill \end{array},$$
(1)
where $`c`$ is the light speed in vacuum and $`v<c`$. Eq. (1-iii) and Eq. (1-iv) tell us that we merely need to consider the relation between the pairs $`(x,ct)`$ and $`(x^{},ct^{})`$. Their geometrical relation is shown in Fig.1. The positions of $`x^{}`$-axis and $`ct^{}`$-axis in the coordinate frame $`(x,ct)`$ are obtained:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}x^{}\mathrm{axis}:\mathrm{ct}^{}=0\mathrm{x}=\frac{\mathrm{c}}{\mathrm{v}}\mathrm{ct}\hfill \\ ct^{}\mathrm{axis}:\mathrm{x}^{}=0\mathrm{x}=\frac{\mathrm{v}}{\mathrm{c}}\mathrm{ct}\hfill \end{array}.$$
(2)
Eq. (2) is valid if $`v<c`$, from which we can deduce that, in Fig.1, both $`x^{}`$-axis and $`ct^{}`$-axis are rotating to the line $`(x=ct)`$ with the increasing of $`v`$, and we can suppose that they superpose with the line $`(x=ct)`$ if $`v=c`$. Moreover, we can imagine that, if $`v>c`$, $`x^{}`$-axis enters the domains between that line and $`ct`$-axis, and $`ct^{}`$-axis enters the other domains. In this case, we need to redefine the concepts of $`x^{}`$ and $`ct^{}`$ in $`S^{}`$.

We extrapolate Lorentz transformations to the superluminal case $`(v>c)`$:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}x^{}=\frac{1}{i\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(x\frac{v}{c}ct)(\mathrm{i})\hfill \\ ct^{}=\frac{1}{i\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(ct\frac{v}{c}x)(\mathrm{ii})\hfill \end{array},$$
(3)
where $`i`$ $`(i^2=1)`$ is the imaginary unit.

Consider an invariant of Minkowski space-time:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }s^2=x^2+(ict)^2=x^2+(ict^{})^2,`$ (4)
where the terms $`y^2,z^2,y^2,z^2`$ are omitted for the sake of Eq. (1-iii) and Eq. (1-iv). Eq. (4) tells us that the subtle distinction between space and time of $`S`$ is that, in the expression of the invariant $`\mathrm{\Delta }s^2`$, the spatial coordinate $`x`$ is a real number and the temporal term $`ict`$ is a purely imaginary number. This character can be extracted as a criterion to distinguish between the concepts of space and time.

Now substituting Eq. (3) into Eq. (4), we obtain the expression of $`\mathrm{\Delta }s^2`$ in $`S^{}`$:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }s^2`$ $`=`$ $`[i{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}}(x{\displaystyle \frac{v}{c}}ct)]^2`$ (5)
$`+`$ $`[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}}(ct{\displaystyle \frac{v}{c}}x)]^2.`$
Considering our criterion, we redefine the concepts of space and time in $`S^{}`$:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}c\stackrel{~}{t^{}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(x\frac{v}{c}ct)(\mathrm{i})\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{x^{}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(ct\frac{v}{c}x)(\mathrm{ii})\hfill \end{array}.$$
(6)
Need to point out that we do not write out the expressions $`\stackrel{~}{y^{}}=y,\stackrel{~}{z^{}}=z`$ in Eq. (6). Eq. (6) implies

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{x^{}}\mathrm{axis}:\mathrm{c}\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{t}^{}}=0\mathrm{x}=\frac{\mathrm{v}}{\mathrm{c}}\mathrm{ct}\hfill \\ c\stackrel{~}{t^{}}\mathrm{axis}:\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{x}^{}}=0\mathrm{x}=\frac{\mathrm{c}}{\mathrm{v}}\mathrm{ct}\hfill \end{array}.$$
(7)
Comparing Eq. (7) with Eq. (2), we observe that, in the superluminal inertial frame, the temporal coordinate exchanges with the spatial coordinate in the motion direction. This can be understood by the following way: for every point $`P`$ in the space-time, we can express it with $`(x,y,z,ct)`$ in the rest frame $`S`$ and with four real numbers $`\{q_1^{},q_2^{},q_3^{},q_4^{}\}`$ in some inertial frame $`S^{}`$. We just know something about $`\{q_1^{},q_2^{},q_3^{},q_4^{}\}`$ is that three of them are spatial coordinates and the other one is temporal coordinate. If $`S^{}`$ and $`S`$ are selected according to the rules indicated at the beginning of this article, we can take $`q_3^{}`$ and $`q_4^{}`$ as spatial coordinates and set $`q_3^{}=y,q_4^{}=z`$. Furthermore, we know that $`\{q_1^{},q_2^{}\}`$ form an invariant

$$(\alpha q_1^{})^2+(\beta q_2^{})^2=x^2+(ict)^2,$$
(8)
where $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are two complex numbers: one is a real number and another a purely imaginary number. If $`\alpha `$ is a purely imaginary number, then $`q_1^{}`$ represents the temporal coordinate and $`q_2^{}`$ the spatial coordinate in $`S^{}`$, and vice versa. Note that $`q_1^{},q_2^{},q_3^{}`$ and $`q_4^{}`$ are real numbers because we regard them as measurable magnitudes. In a word, the Lorentz transformations between $`S`$ and $`S^{}`$ are Eq. (6) if $`S^{}`$ is a superluminal inertial frame; otherwise take Eq. (1).

Now suppose there is another inertial frame $`S^{\prime \prime }`$ moving at the speed of $`u(u=\frac{c^2}{v}<c)`$ along $`x`$-axis of $`S`$. The Lorentz transformations between $`S`$ and $`S^{\prime \prime }`$ is:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}x^{\prime \prime }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1\left(u/c\right)^2}}(x\frac{u}{c}ct)\hfill \\ ct^{\prime \prime }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{1\left(u/c\right)^2}}(ct\frac{u}{c}x)\hfill \end{array}.$$
(9)
Substituting $`u=\frac{c^2}{v}<c`$ into Eq. (9), we obtain:

$$\{\begin{array}{c}x^{\prime \prime }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(ct\frac{v}{c}x)\hfill \\ ct^{\prime \prime }=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(x\frac{v}{c}ct)\hfill \end{array}.$$
(10)
Obviously, Eq. (10) coincides with Eq. (6), which means that the coordinate transformations between $`S`$ and $`S^{}(v>c)`$ are the same as the Lorentz transformations between $`S`$ and $`S^{\prime \prime }(u<c)`$. As is known, the causality is abided by in the inertial frame $`S^{\prime \prime }`$ since $`u<c`$. Therefore, it can not be violated in the inertial frame $`S^{}`$ when $`v>c`$ as long as we redefine the concepts of space and time in $`S^{}`$ according to Eq. (6).

Now let us turn to the superluminal dynamics.

Based on SR, we can construct another invariant $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }=xp_x+(ict)(iE/c),$$
(11)
where $`p_x`$ is the $`x`$-direction momentum of an object observed in some inertial frame and $`E`$ is the total energy. Here we still omit the magnitudes involving $`y`$ and $`z`$. It is evidence that the position of $`x`$ is equivalent to that of $`p_x`$ in the expression $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$. The case is available to $`ct`$ and $`E/c`$. Therefore, we need to redefine the concepts of momentums and energy in $`S^{}`$ if $`v>c`$. Imitating Eq. (6), we define

$$\{\begin{array}{c}\stackrel{~}{E^{}}/c=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(p_x\frac{v}{c}\frac{E}{c})(\mathrm{i})\hfill \\ \stackrel{~}{p_x^{}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\left(v/c\right)^21}}(\frac{E}{c}\frac{v}{c}p_x)(\mathrm{ii})\hfill \end{array}.$$
(12)
Assume there is an object moving at the speed of $`v(v>c)`$ along $`x`$-axis of $`S`$. Fixing $`S^{}`$ on this object, we know that $`\stackrel{~}{p_x^{}}=0`$, and denote $`E_0=\stackrel{~}{E^{}}`$ called the rest energy. Eq. (12) suggests

$$E_v=E_0/\sqrt{1(c/v)^2},$$
(13)
where the symbol $`E`$ in Eq. (12) has been replaced by $`E_v`$.

In fact, from SR we have known that the total energy and the rest energy has the following relation

$$E_u=E_0/\sqrt{1(u/c)^2}$$
(14)
when an object moves at the speed of $`u(u<c)`$ along $`x`$-axis of $`S`$. In the same way, here we use $`E_u`$ to replace the symbol $`E`$. Obviously, if $`u=\frac{c^2}{v}`$, then $`E_v=E_u`$, which means the total energy of an object moving at a speed of $`v`$ $`(v>c)`$ is equal to the total energy of that object moving at a speed of $`u(u<c)`$, and the product of two speeds is $`uv=c^2`$. Considering SR and Eq. (13), we can plot the curve shown in Fig.2 to describe the total energy $`E`$ of an object varying with the velocity $`v`$ (here $`0<v<+\mathrm{}`$ and $`vc`$) if the rest energy $`E_0>0`$. As is shown in Fig.2, the total energy $`E`$ increases with the increasing of $`v`$ if $`v<c`$; and decreases with the increasing of $`v`$ if $`v>c`$. If $`vc`$, then $`E+\mathrm{}`$. As to the mechanism that the object switches from the lower-than-$`c`$ state to faster-than-$`c`$ state, it is a mystery.

The expression $`uv=c^2`$ is very familiar to us. Actually, we have learned it in the de Broglie hypothesis of matter waves. This hypothesis implies that the group velocity $`u_g`$ and the phase velocity $`v_p`$ of matter waves satisfy the same expression $`u_gv_p=c^2`$ k . If this is not just a coincidence, the further development our theory will give another novel interpretation to the essence of matter waves.

The authors acknowledge Mr. I. Kanatchikov ik  and D. G. Chakalov dg  who tell us that Mr. E. Recami et al.er  proposed the similar ideas with us about 20 years ago when our manuscript uploaded on arXiv.org.


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# Properties of tidally-triggered vertical disk perturbations Based on observations obtained at the European Southern Observatory (ESO, La Silla, Chile), Calar Alto Observatory operated by the MPIA (DSAZ, Spain), Lowell Observatory (Flagstaff,AZ, USA), and Hoher List Observatory (Germany).

## 1 Introduction

The vertical structure of galactic disks seen nearly edge-on and, in particular, the behaviour of the disk scale height with galactocentric distance is a major source of information on disk properties, such as their global and local stability, the secular evolution of their stellar population as well as the vertical heating process. Until recently most observational results indicated that the constancy of the scale height over the whole radial extent is a fundamental property of galactic disks (van der Kruit & Searle 1981a ,b , kruit1982 (1982); Wainscoat et al. wainscoat1989 (1989); Barnaby & Thronson barnaby1992 (1992)). This result was consistent with the theoretical picture of continuously heated disk stars by massive molecular clouds (Spitzer & Schwarzschild spitzer1951 (1951); Binney binney1981 (1981)) and with the assumption that at all times the star formation rate is proportional to the number density of molecular clouds (Fall fall1980 (1980)). Hence, also the vertical velocity dispersion of the disk stars should exponentially decrease with radial distance.

Although the overall constancy of the scale height of galactic disks was confirmed thereafter by several studies in the optical and near-infrared, the derived constancy levels differ significantly from each other. While Shaw & Gilmore (shaw1990 (1990)) found that the intrinsic variation of the disk scale height along the major axis of a galaxy is typically within 3% of its mean value, de Grijs & van der Kruit (grijs1996 (1996)) obtained a value between $`10\%15\%`$ for Sc and later type galaxies. Reshetnikov & Combes (reshetnikov1996 (1996), reshetnikov1997 (1997)) have split their galaxy sample into two subsamples and found a dispersion of 7% for non-interacting galaxies, while the heavily disturbed disks of interacting pairs of galaxies (equal mass) possess a dispersion of 11%. Although this is almost twice compared to non-interacting galaxies, their values are still consistent with the above mentioned level found for normal galaxies by de Grijs & van der Kruit (grijs1996 (1996)). Furthermore, the results of the latter two studies indicate that there is a correlation between the radial behaviour of the scale height and environment.

At present the existing uncertainties cannot be constrained by statistical studies based on a significantly larger and thus more reliable galaxy sample. Hence the large differences between individual values make it difficult to give a coherent interpretation. Considering that small variations of the scale height are difficult to measure it may be argued that the observed differences are mainly due to a combination of several biasing effects such as selection criteria, the size of the galaxy sample used, or due to different disk models applied for fitting the scale height. On the other hand, there is some evidence for a physically motivated explanation: as a result of a detailed study of vertical surface brightness profiles of edge-on disk galaxies de Grijs & Peletier (grijs1997 (1997)) found that the exponential scale height increases with distance along the major axis. The effect is strongest for early-type galaxies (increase by 50% for $`T=2`$), but negligible for the latest-type galaxies ($`T=8`$). Therefore, they concluded that this effect might be closely related to the presence of an underlying thick disk, with a scale length larger than that of the thin disk (with the possibility that thick disks were formed by accretion of small satellites or gas clouds).

Another frequently observed feature of vertical distortions are warped and bended disks. Various theories have been proposed to explain the existence of warps, considering either tidal interactions with neighbouring galaxies (e.g. Schwarz schwarz1985 (1985); Zaritsky & Rix zaritsky1997 (1997)), gravitational action of the halo on the disk (Sparke sparke1984 (1984); Sparke & Casertano sparke1988 (1988)) or interaction with or accretion of extragalactic gas (Binney binney1992 (1992)). Other possible explanations for gentle warps and bended disks are intergalactic magnetic fields (Battaner et al. battaner1990 (1990)) self-gravitation (Pfenniger et al. pfenniger1994 (1994)), or discrete oscillations and bending modes (Sellwood sellwood1996 (1996)).

The results of recently conducted statistical studies (Sanchez-Saavedra et al. sanchez1990 (1990); Reshetnikov & Combes 1998a ) enable to limit the number of different explanations given for warped disks. They conclude that at least 50% (up to 80% after correction effects) of all observed galaxies exhibit warped distortions. Furthermore, they find a strong positive correlation of observed warps with the environment, suggesting that tidal interactions have a large influence in creating or re-enforcing warped deformations. In spite of selection biases or identification problems (Sanchez-Saavedra et al. sanchez1990 (1990)) the fraction of galaxies possessing warps, particularly that of non-interacting galaxies, is unexpectedly high.

In two previous papers (Schwarzkopf & Dettmar 2000a ,b , hereafter SD I+II) we studied the global properties of disks in 110 edge-on spiral galaxies. The sample was divided into two subsamples of interacting/merging and non-interacting galaxies. We found that galactic disks recently affected by tidal interactions and minor mergers of the order of $`M_{\mathrm{sat}}/M_{\mathrm{disk}}0.1`$ statistically possess a 50% – 60% larger scale height. However, it is still ambiguous whether this thickening is due to a locally increased disk scale height as a result of the vertical perturbations, or caused by global disk thickening. Moreover, the properties of other tidally triggered features in the disks such as “warps” and “flares” have not yet been investigated.

Therefore, we use the galaxy sample described in SD I+II in order to study the scale height of both non-interacting and interacting/merging galaxies in greater detail. The main questions are:

* How constant is the disk scale height of interacting/merging and non-interacting galaxies?
* Is there a systematic dependence of disk thickness with radial distance (scale height gradients)?
* Do the tidally induced disk perturbations possess a typical size and lifetime?
* Are warped disks restricted to interacting/merging galaxies, and what is the typical size of these warps?

In Sect.2 of this paper the sample and approach will be briefly reviewed. In Sect.3 we present the results of a detailed analysis of the vertical disk structure for both non-interacting and interacting/merging galaxies. Finally, the results of this paper will be discussed in Sect.4 and summarized in Sect.5.

## 2 Sample and disk fitting procedure

### 2.1 The sample

The galaxy sample studied in this paper consists of two subsamples of 47 interacting/merging and 61 non-interacting disk galaxies with morphological types ranging from $`1T9`$. All galaxies of the optical data set (passbands $`R`$ and $`r`$) presented here are nearly edge-on: 85% with inclinations $`i88\mathrm{°}`$, and 15% with $`i85\mathrm{°}`$. Since the whole project (Schwarzkopf schwarzkopf1999 (1999) and SD I+II) is focused on the influence of interactions and minor mergers on the disk structure of spiral galaxies only merging candidates in the mass range $`M_{\mathrm{sat}}/M_{\mathrm{disk}}0.050.2`$ were included in the sample (mean ratio $`0.08\pm 0.035`$). Both subsamples were selected in such a way that selection biases, i.e. an uncertain classification of galaxies belonging to the interacting or non-interacting sample, are largely avoided (SDI, Sect.2). We have also shown that both the distribution of morphological galaxy types and distances are statistically indistinguishable for the two subsamples (Sect.2 of SDI+II, resp.). A detailed description of the selection criteria, observations, and data reduction as well as a complete list of the parameters of all sample galaxies and their disk components was given in SDI+II.

### 2.2 Approach

First, the global disk parameters for each individual galaxy in the sample were roughly estimated using the semi-automated disk fitting procedure described in Sect.4 of SDI. These disk parameters are: inclination angle $`i`$, central luminosity density $`L_0`$, cut-off radius $`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$, scale length $`h`$, scale height $`z_0`$, and one of the 3 possible vertical disk profiles $`f(z)`$ exp, sech, and $`\mathrm{sech}^2`$. Since both the scale height and the choice of the optimum vertical disk profile were still subject of further independent investigation, we used the previously derived mean value of the disk scale height as a starting point for the following vertical fitting procedure. The obtained raidal disk parameters were kept fixed. This is a valid approximation since the effects of small ($`10\%`$) variations of vertical disk parameters on radial disk profiles are negligible (SDI, Sect.4). Thus, the only disk parameter that was changed according to the variable scale height was the central luminosity density $`L_0`$.

Using these start parameters a fully automatical least-square fitting procedure was applied in order to fit the disk scale height as a function of the galactocentric distance, $`z_0(R)`$. The fit was performed for all 108 galaxies of the total sample, and for each vertical disk model $`f(z)`$. Due to their importance for the subsequent analysis of the vertical disk structure the main features of this fitting procedure and its output parameters (listed in Table 4) are described in the following (for an illustration see examples in Figs.2-4 and 6):

* The scale height was fitted to the vertical disk profiles, starting in a region as close as possible to the galactic plane but outside the strongest dust absorption, out to $`2\text{ }z_0`$. The radial fit region covers both sides of the major axis out to the disk cut-off, and outside the bulge-contaminated region. The selection of the fit regions (Table1) depends on the S/N ratio of the individual image as well as on several other factors (dust, foreground stars, position of companions, warps, etc.).
* The mean disk scale height $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$, given in pc, and its standard deviation $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$, given both in pc and in percent of $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$, were estimated. These values (average from both disk sides) are listed in Table4, columns(4) and (6), respectively.
* A possible gradient (or constancy) of the disk scale height along the major axis, in the following referred to as $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}`$, was identified by using a 1st order fit (average of both sides) on the radial distribution of disk scale height. Thus the value $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}`$ is a reliable estimate of the behaviour of disk scale height on large ($`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$) scales (column(5) in Table4).
* The variations of $`z_0`$ around the gradient $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}`$, i.e. an estimate of vertical disk perturbations on short scales and hereafter $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}`$, were defined as the standard deviation of the first order fit to the disk scale height: $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}=\mathrm{std}[(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}z_0(\mathrm{R})]`$. The value $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}`$ (average of both disk sides) is given in pc and in percent of $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$ (column(7) in Table4).
* The standard deviation around the position found for the mean galactic plane, named as “Warping” in column(8) of Table4, was used as an estimate for the mean amplitude of stellar warps. It was calculated using the center of symmetric vertical disk profiles.
* The complete vertical fit, $`z_0(R)`$, for all galaxies in the sample was performed for each individual luminosity profile $`f(z)`$ exp, sech, $`\mathrm{sech}^2`$. The two quantitative best disk models, listed in column(3) of Table4, were selected using the goodness-of-fit parameter $`Q`$ of the least-square test, which is given in Table4, column(9).

The software used for the fit was designed primarily to characterize the vertical disk structure of a large number of galaxies in a statistically systematical and homogeneous way. Therefore we decided to use mean values and standard deviations as output parameters for quantifying the properties of the disks. This makes the applied method very robust against “outliers”. The obtained results (Tables2 \- 4) are thus statistically more reliable than measurements emphasizing individual amplitudes of vertical disk perturbations.

The first part of the paper provides a small sample of spiral galaxies that were found to be “prototypes” for particular disk features. They were included in order to illustrate the behaviour of the scale height. A summary of all measured disk parameters is given in Table4. The appendix shows the behaviour of disk scale height and mean galactic plane for the complete sample of 108 objects. The variations of disk thickness (upper panels) and galactic plane (lower panels) are drawn to the same scale. The sample of interacting/merging galaxies is shown in Appendix A, and Appendix B contains the non-interacting galaxies. The corresponding catalog of contour maps can be found in Figs.4 and 5 of SDI, respectively.

## 3 Results

### 3.1 The radial behaviour of the disk scale height

The behaviour of the disk scale height as a function of galactocentric distance, $`z_0(R)`$, is studied for the total galaxy sample. A short description of the applied fitting procedure and their output parameters was given in Sect.2. The complete set of parameters obtained from an analysis of the vertical disk structure is listed in Table4.

In order to derive reliable fit parameters it is important to use similar regions for both the radial and vertical fit, independent of the subsample investigated. As shown in Table1, the radial and vertical fit regions used for the two galaxy samples are typically between $`0.762.77`$ disk scale lengths and $`0.111.81`$ scale heights and thus almost identical. These regions nearly cover the whole disk outside the bulge-contaminated region (named as “bulge” in the plots of the disk scale height). All galaxies in the sample are nearly edge-on (Sect.2), and the vertical profiles were fitted out to $`2`$ scale heights (Table1). As a result the influence of dust on the shape of the vertical profiles and thus on the measured scale heights is negligible. This is confirmed by comparable results obtained after fitting $`50\%`$ of the sample galaxies in the near-infrared (Table3 and Sect.3.3 in SDII). All images used for this study were binned radially by $`2^{\prime \prime }`$ in order to increase the S/N ratio. In order to retain the full vertical resolution no binning was applied in that direction. For the majority of galaxies within a distance of 10Mpc – 50Mpc this gives a radial and vertical spatial resolution between 100pc – 600pc and 10pc – 50pc, respectively. This resolution is sufficient to detect even small deviations and perturbations in the vertical disk structure.

#### 3.1.1 The mean value of the disk scale height

The mean value $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$ of the disk scale height and its error $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$, measured for all galaxies of the two subsamples, are listed in columns(4) and (6) of Table4, respectively. Since many disks show medium or even large gradients in the scale height (i.e. their scale height increases significantly with radial distance, see next section) the obtained errors for the total sample are spread in a wide range around an average value of $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}12\%`$ (Table2, column(2)). Within this error the measured scale heights $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$ are consistent with those obtained using an independent, semi-automated fitting procedure (described in Sect.4 of SDI, values listed in Fig.5 and Table5 of SDII). Both methods also independently deliver the same difference between the mean scale height of both subsamples, which was interpreted as tidally-triggered vertical heating in SDII. As a result, disks of interacting/merging galaxies were found systematically $`50\%`$ thicker than those of non-interacting galaxies. A detailed discussion of the results and the derived conclusions can be found in SDI+II.

#### 3.1.2 The increase of scale height (gradients)

The behaviour of the scale height over the whole radial extent of the disk, i.e. its gradient $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}`$, is listed in column(5) of Table4. In the following we will use the term “gradient” independently whether there is an observed increase or decrease of the scale height ($`z_{0}^{}{}_{\mathrm{grad}}{}^{}0`$) or not ($`z_{0}^{}{}_{\mathrm{grad}}{}^{}`$ = 0). In Fig.1 the measured gradients are plotted against the morphological type of the galaxies (both subsamples are shown). Although the correlation is weak, Fig.1a indicates that the scale height of non-interacting, early-type ($`T2`$) galaxies increases towards the outer parts of the disk. While the obtained values are relatively large ($`z_{0}^{}{}_{\mathrm{grad}}{}^{}>0.04`$) almost no gradients were found for non-interacting galaxies with $`T3`$.

In order to illustrate the different radial behaviour of disk scale heights Fig.2 shows, as an example, the results of vertical fits obtained for 4 galaxies of the non-interacting sample with morphological types ranging from $`1.0T7.0`$. The used disk parameters as well as the corresponding scale height gradients, $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}`$, are indicated. The reason for the relatively weak correlation with type is the high intrinsic scatter. This scatter is due to a number of disks that show considerably low or high gradients compared to the mean level for galaxies with about the same morphological type.

Although many of the interacting/merging spirals in our sample possess considerable gradients (Fig.1b) no systematic correlation between these gradients and morphological type was found. The size and substructure of scale height gradients within the sample of interacting/merging galaxies will be investigated in greater detail in the next section, together with an analysis of accompanying environmental effects like disk “warping” and “flaring”.

#### 3.1.3 Tidally-triggered vertical disk perturbations

In this section we investigate the typical size of tidally induced vertical perturbations in the disk and compare them with values found for non-interacting galaxies. In order to quantify the perturbations both subsamples of non-interacting and interacting/merging galaxies were compared using the disk parameters $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$ and $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}`$. The approach was described in Sect.2. Due to their importance for the forthcomming analysis of the vertical disk structure in the following we give a brief interpretation of these parameters (listed in columns(6) and (7) of Table4).

The standard deviation $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$ of the mean scale height characterizes the sum of all those vertical variations that are due to both perturbations on short ($`z_0`$) scales (e.g. “flaring”) and a possibly systematical trend (scale height gradients). By contrast, the standard deviation $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}`$ of the first-order fit of the scale height considers a large-scale gradient and only gives an estimate of vertical disk perturbations on short scales. The values $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$ and $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std1}}`$ are listed in columns(2) and (3) of Table2, respectively (averaged for the total galaxy sample and for both subsamples).

According to Table2 the obtained results can be summarized as follows: the typical size of vertical disk perturbations in interacting/merging galaxies – including both gradients on large scales as well as perturbations on short scales – is $`14\%`$ of the mean scale height. The corresponding value found for non-interacting spirals is $`10\%`$. In order to compare both values it must be considered that disks of interacting/merging galaxies were found to be systematically thicker by $`50\%60\%`$ on average (Sect.3 of SDII and previous section of this paper). Applying this correction the relative size of vertical disk perturbations in interacting/merging and non-interacting galaxies is of the order of 22% and 10%, respectively (normalized to the scale height of non-interacting galaxies). This factor of two is confirmed by the absolute size of 280pc and 140pc measured for the perturbations (Table2, column(2)).

The size of disk perturbations on short scales is, although statistically significant, considerably smaller and typically of the order of 130pc and 80pc for the sample of interacting/merging and non-interacting galaxies, respectively. This fact is likely due to a combination of two different properties of such perturbations on short scales, namely their transient character and a systematically smaller amplitude of the induced distortions itself. As a result of the first of these effects the amplitude of the perturbations, and thus the velocity dispersion of disk stars within this region, would subside. Since the size of the affected region ($``$kpc) is small compared to the radial extend of the disk the vertical motion excess could be absorbed by neighbouring disk stars. This would contribute to an overall increase of vertical velocity dispersion and thus to a larger value for the scale height (SDII). However, the existing measurements (Table2, columns(2) and (3)) do not allow us to disentangle the individual effects nor to draw conclusions about their significance. We therefore infer that tidally-triggered, vertical disk asymmetries on large ($`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$) scales are a common and persistent phenomenon, while perturbations on small ($`z_0`$) scales are systematically smaller and decline on shorter timescales.

#### 3.1.4 Properties of tidally distorted disks

In addition to the statistical differences found between both galaxy samples we also studied the properties of vertical, tidally-triggered disk perturbations in individual galaxies. This also allows a better illustration of some of the previously obtained results. We therefore selected 4 galaxies in different stages of the interacting/merging process that clearly display some of the above mentioned properties of galactic disks. The upper panels of Figs.3 and 4 show these galaxies together with the adopted disk parameters. The corresponding lower panels display the radial behaviour of their scale height.

Figure 3 shows two galaxies in a transient phase of the merging process, accreting a low-mass satellite. While the small companion and its tidal debris are still clearly visible (left part of the disk in both images) the measured radial behaviour of scale height shows significant variations on short scales. The amplitude of these variations is $`1.5`$ times the mean scale height of the corresponding object. In the case of AM1158-345 the lower panel clearly shows that the scale height increases substantially towards the outer parts of the disk while showing significant perturbations on small scales at the same time. The first of these two effects is responsible for the large scale height gradient of the order of $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{grad}}0.05`$ (depending on the vertical disk model used for the fit; for comparison see Fig.1). It also causes the large deviation of $`25\%30\%`$ of $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{mean}}`$ that was found for the scale height of this disk. The disk of AM0256-321 shows perturbations on short scales with large amplitudes of the order of 10%. There is no evidence of a significant gradient of the scale height. This behaviour was found to be typical for those galaxy disks observed in a transition phase of a still ongoing interacting/merging process.

Figure4 shows two examples of late-type $`(T=5,6)`$ edge-on spirals that are, suggested by their location in compact groups of galaxies (Verdes-Montenegro et al. verdes1998 (1998); Zepf zepf1993 (1993)) and by the typical features detected in their isophotes, in a more progressed phase of the interaction/merging process. Although there is evidence that these galaxies were strongly affected by such events in the recent past it is not clear whether their disk properties do result from accreting a small companion or from tidal interactions without a merger. However, the behaviour of the scale height of these disks is characteristic for many galaxies in the interacting/merging sample: they show substantial scale height gradients between 0.1 and 0.25, caused by a $`1.52.5`$ times larger scale height in a region between 0.5 and 4 disk scale lengths (exceeding slightly the upper limit of the fit region used in the right part of the NGC 3187-panel). Furthermore, the outer isophotes of NGC 3187 and NGC 4634 both show significantly “fringed” disks. The deviations $`(z_0)_{\mathrm{std}}`$ from their mean scale heights were found to be between 22% and 26%. Considering their morphological types ($`T=56`$) and the derived ratio between radial and vertical scale parameters ($`1h/z_02`$) their disks are $`4`$ times thicker than those of typical non-interacting galaxies of the same type (Figs.6 and 7 in SDII).

Despite the described variety of the radial behaviour of the disk scale height within the sample of interacting/merging galaxies the obtained measurements suggest that perturbations on large scales (i.e. gradients) are a widely common feature, while perturbations on small scales seem to be typical only during an ongoing phase of accretion or interaction (Table2, columns(2) and (3)). Furthermore, our data indicate that galaxy disks possessing a considerable scale height gradient do also show a smoother trend of the measured scale height with radial distance, i.e. a smaller level of short-scale perturbations. The detection of features like scale height gradients and perturbations on both short and large scales as described in this section is consistent with results of N-body simulations analyzing the stability of galaxy disks as a result of minor mergers (T$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{o}}`$th & Ostriker toth1992 (1992); Mihos et al. mihos1995 (1995)) and with studies of the stability of galactic disks in general (Griv & Peter 1996c ).

### 3.2 Size, type, and frequency of stellar warps

The majority of galaxies in our interacting/merging sample as well as some of the non-interacting galaxies show substantial geometrical distortions. Apart from vertical perturbations studied in the previous section the most frequently observed kind of distortions are variations of the geometrical center of vertical disk profiles around a mean galactic plane, i.e. “warps”. In the following we investigate their relative and absolute sizes, their types and the frequency of occurrence for both galaxy samples. The method used for quantifying warped disks was described in Sect.2.

Due to the sensitivity of the applied fitting procedure we are able to detect vertical deviations from the mean galactic plane of the order of 10pc – 50pc, depending on the distance of galaxies (Sect.3.1). In order to evaluate the influence of dust extinction, misaligned warps, and the appearance of spiral structures on the detection of warps we refer to a series of studies performed by Reshetnikov & Combes (1998a , 1998b ), in which these effects were statistically studied in great detail. According to their results, in particular the simulations presented in section4 and Fig.10 (same section) of the first paper, the probability of false detections of $`S`$-shaped warps is around 30% for disks with inclinations $`i85\mathrm{°}`$, and drops to 0% for $`i90\mathrm{°}`$. The simulations were performed for 405 flat model galaxies with a $`B/D=0.30.5`$, axis ratios $`a/b>7`$ (average $`a/b9.1`$), and with a nice contrasted spiral structure (the latter two properties both overestimate the simulated projection effects with respect to the sample studied in this paper). According to Fig.10 in Reshetnikov & Combes (1998a ) we therefore estimate that the percentage of false $`S`$ ($`U`$)-shaped warps due to projection effects is smaller than 10% (5%) for our highly inclined (85% $`88\mathrm{°}`$ and 15% $`85\mathrm{°}`$) galaxy sample. This statistical uncertainty is smaller than the error introduced by the applied visual classification of warp types ($`10\%15\%`$) and does therefore not affect the results and conclusions of this study (Table3).

One of the most unexpected results derived from the standard deviation around the mean galactic plane (named as “Warping” in column(8) of Table4) was that all galaxy disks investigated are warped on some level. However, clear differences in the size of warps between both subsamples can be seen (Fig.5 and Table2). Figure5 shows the distribution of absolute sizes of warps for both subsamples of non-interacting and interacting/merging galaxies. Most of the non-interacting galaxies possess disks with warps that have amplitudes around 140pc on average, corresponding to $`11\%`$ of the mean scale height of these disks. In contrast the majority of interacting/merging galaxies shows considerably warped disks with amplitudes up to $`1`$kpc, and with an average size of 340pc. This value corresponds to $`17\%`$ of their mean scale height and $`26\%`$ of the scale height of non-interacting galaxies (column(4) in Table2).

In addition to the size of warps their different types and their frequency of occurrence were investigated. In order to classify the types we visually inspected the results of the above described vertical fitting procedure, i.e. the behaviour of vertical variations around the mean galactic plane along the major axis of the disk (shown in the corresponding lower panels of Fig.6). For our classification we distinguished four different types of warps (the plots in Fig.6 show a typical example for each of these types):
$`U`$-shaped warp, i.e. both sides of the disk are warped in the same direction; $`S`$-shaped warp with an integral sign-shaped disk plane; $`Oneside`$ warp, i.e. deformations are visible only at one side of the disk; $`Irr`$ for irregular warp, i.e. completely asymmetric. While the types $`S`$ and $`U`$ were described in detail by Reshetnikov & Combes (1998b ), it was necessary to introduce One-sided and Irr-shaped warps to enable an adequate description of the observed variety of warped distortions.

The results of this study are summarized in Table3, distinguishing between the total, non-interacting, and interacting/merging galaxy sample. Accordingly, nearly all ($`93\%`$) of the interacting/merging spirals are warped. One third of them shows either $`U`$\- or $`S`$-shaped warps, and nearly another third is warped only at one side. The frequency of warped disks in isolated, non-interacting galaxies is with $`45\%`$ unexpectedly high. These galaxies either have $`S`$-shaped ($`19\%`$) or One-side ($`16\%`$) warps, and only 8% of their disks are $`U`$-shaped. A correlation between size or type of the warps and morphological type of galaxies was not found.

Finally, it should be stressed that the $`34\%`$ of galaxies in the total sample classified as “not warped” are not in contradiction to the previously made conclusion that all galaxy disks investigated are warped (column(4) in Table2). This is due to the larger tolerances used in the visual inspection of deviations from galactic plane. The results of the classification scheme in Table3 are therefore qualitative and less sensitive than the measurements listed in column(4) of Table2.

## 4 Discussion

The correlation between disk scale height gradients and morphological type of non-interacting galaxies found in this study (gradient $`0.006\pm 0.002`$ in $`R`$-band, Sect.3.1 and Fig.1) is consistent with results obtained by de Grijs & Pelletier (grijs1997 (1997)). They found a gradient of $`0.0086\pm 0.0012`$ ($`I`$-band) for spiral galaxies with Hubble types between $`2T8`$. Furthermore, we observe a significant number of galaxies possessing no or very small bulge components but having a large scale height gradient (e.g. NGC 7518). Therefore we can rule out a correlation between the existence of a bulge component and thickened disks. This also supports the results obtained in the two-dimensional study of bulge-disk decomposition by de Grijs & Pelletier (grijs1997 (1997)). Investigating galaxies with considerable scale height gradients they find that the contribution of the bulge to the total light can be assumed to be negligible (less than 5%). We can also discard an influence of warps on the measured thickness of disks – as proposed by van der Kruit & Searle (1981a ) – since this effect was considered in the fitting procedure (Sect.2).

A more plausible explanation for an increase of disk scale height with radial distance might be either the presence of an underlying thick disk with a scale length comparable or larger than the thin disk (Burstein burstein1979 (1979); de Grijs et al. grijsetal1997 (1997); de Grijs & Pelletier grijs1997 (1997)) or recent accretion of material onto the outer disk parts (T$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{o}}`$th & Ostriker toth1992 (1992); Quinn et al. quinn1993 (1993); Zaritsky zaritsky1995 (1995)). However, our observations do not sufficiently support the first of these explanations, i.e. the presence of a thick disk. The studied sample only contains a few galaxies with vertical disk profiles weakly indicating the existence of an underlying thick disk. Hence, accretion of small satellites continues to be a promising mechanism in order to explain the origin of gradients in disk scale height.

The size and frequency of tidally-triggered vertical disk perturbations found in this study (Sect.3 and Table2) both indicate that such perturbations are typical during a transient phase of close interactions or minor mergers. They likely result from large-scale asymmetries of the gravitational potential, caused by the proximity of the companion (Reshetnikov & Combes reshetnikov1997 (1997)). According to results of N-body simulations of minor mergers (T$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{o}}`$th & Ostriker toth1992 (1992); Walker et al. walker1996 (1996)) the vertical structure of affected disks is mainly characterized by a systematical increase of the scale height towards the outer regions (“slanting” disks) as well as by local instabilities and disk “flaring”. Our observations (Figs.3 and 4) confirm the qualitative predictions of these studies, and the derived statistical results (Table2) give a quantitative estimate for the size of tidally-triggered perturbations.

The simulations made by T$`\stackrel{´}{\mathrm{o}}`$th & Ostriker (toth1992 (1992)) and Walker et al. (walker1996 (1996)) also make some predictions on the lifetime of the evoked perturbations. They conclude that after the encounter the tidally induced perturbations do rapidly decline and the vertically heated disk settles into a new, nearly axisymmetric equilibrium which is stable on longer timescales ($`>1`$Gyr). This is consistent with the results of this study (columns(2) and (3) in Table2 and Sect.3), indicating that tidally-triggered perturbations on large ($`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$) scales, i.e. gradients in the disk scale height, are common and persistent phenomena if compared to short-lived perturbations on small ($`z_0`$) scales. Together with the value of $`1.5`$ found for vertical disk thickening due to interactions and minor mergers (SDI+II) this is one of the main conclusions of this paper.

Summarizing the results obtained on the size and frequency of stellar warps the high fraction ($`45\%`$) of non-interacting galaxies possessing warped distortions is in good agreement with the results of Sanchez-Saavedra et al. (sanchez1990 (1990)) and Reshetnikov & Combes (1998b , Table1). They found that the fraction of isolated galaxies with warped disks is at least 50% and $`(42\pm 6)\%`$, respectively. Assuming a hierarchical galaxy formation scenario it is unrealistic to explain this high fraction of warped disks entirely as a result of tidal interactions in the distant past. Hence we have to consider alternative processes that are able to form new or reinforce existent warps. Possible mechanisms were mentioned in the introduction of this paper. On the other hand, the measured differences in their size – warps of interacting/merging galaxies were found to be at least two times larger than those of non-interacting galaxies on average – indicate that such processes are not capable to produce warps of comparable size. Hence tidal interactions/minor mergers as studied in this paper do at least considerably contribute to the formation and size of warps. According to the results found for our total galaxy sample, the fraction of warped spirals ($`66\%`$) is also consistent with a study of stellar warps made by de Grijs (grijs1997a (1997)), who detected warped disks for $`64\%`$ of his objects.

## 5 Summary and conclusions

A detailed study of the vertical disk structure of 108 highly-inclined/edge-on spiral galaxies was presented. The sample consists of two subsamples of 61 non-interacting and 47 interacting/merging galaxies. In particular, we analyzed the behaviour of the scale height of all disks as a function of galactocentric distance and investigated the properties of vertical, tidally-triggered disk perturbations. Furthermore, the size and frequency of occurrence of warped distortions and bends in galactic disks were studied. The main conlusions are:

1. The scale height of disks of interacting/merging galaxies is characterized by perturbations on both large ($`R_{\mathrm{max}}`$) and short ($`z_0`$) scales. The size of these perturbations are of the order of 280pc and 130pc, or 14% and 6% of the corresponding mean scale height, respectively.
2. The scale height of non-interacting galaxies shows similar variations on large (short) scales, with amplitudes of the order of 140pc (80pc). This is only about half the size of the perturbations measured for interacting/merging galaxies, and equivalent to 10% and 6% (6% and 4% if corrected for thickened disks) of the corresponding mean scale height, respectively.
3. A hallmark of nearly all disks in the interacting/merging sample is a scale height that increases systematically with radial distance (gradient). The size of these gradients is typically 14% (22% if corrected for thickened disks) of the mean scale height. This is more than twice the value found for non-interacting galaxies.
4. This indicates that tidally-triggered, large-scale disk asymmetries such as scale height gradients are common and persistent phenomena, while local disturbances and bending instabilities decline on shorter timescales.
5. The existence of large scale height gradients for non-interacting, early-type $`(T2)`$ spirals, weakly dependent on Hubble type, is not associated with the presence of an underlying thick disk. Since many interacting/merging galaxies show the same large gradients, this effect might be due to previous accretion of material or a minor merger.
6. Nearly all (93%) of the interacting/merging and 45% of the non-interacting galaxies investigated are noticeably warped. Down to small amplitudes ($`80`$pc) all galaxy disks possess warped distortions.
7. Warps of interacting/merging galaxies are $`2.5`$ times larger on average than those observed in non-interacting galaxies, with a mean amplitude of 340pc and 140pc, respectively.
8. The results indicate that tidal interactions/minor mergers considerably contribute to the formation and size of warps. However, these processess cannot entirely explain the observed frequent occurrence of warped disks.

###### Acknowledgements.

The authors would like to thank the referee of this paper, Dr. J.A. Sellwood, for his useful comments and suggestions, and M. R. Corbin for his careful reading of the manuscript.
This work was supported by a Lynen fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grants no. De 385 and GRK 118.
This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.