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# Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Critical Questions

## 1. Introduction

The past five years have witnessed great progress in identifying the basic features of our Universe. It is spatially flat and thus has the critical density ($`\rho _{\mathrm{crit}}=3H_0^2/8\pi G10^{29}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$). The expansion is speeding up, not slowing down (i.e., $`q_0<0`$). The mass/energy density is distributed as follows:

* Bright stars: 0.5%
* Baryons (total): $`4\%\pm 1\%`$
* Nonbaryonic dark matter: $`29\%\pm 4\%`$
* Neutrinos: at least 0.1% and possibly as large as 5%
* Dark Energy: $`66\%\pm 6\%`$

The evidence for flatness comes from measurements of the anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on angular scales of about 1 degree. The position of the first acoustic peak at multipole number 200, as determined by the BOOMERanG, MAXIMA, DASI and CBI experiments, implies that $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1\pm 0.04`$ (Sievers et al, 2002). This means that the curvature radius of the Universe is greater than about 5 times the Hubble radius since $`R_{\mathrm{curv}}=H_0^1/|\mathrm{\Omega }_01|^{1/2}`$. In the next sections I will discuss the evidence for the accounting of the various dark components.

I did not mention the cosmic microwave background, which today accounts for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{CMB}}=2.47h^2\times 10^5`$ (about 0.005%), or the relativistic neutrino backgrounds which account for $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu =0.56h^2\times 10^5`$ per relativistic neutrino species. Though unimportant to the energy budget today, at very early times relativistic particles were dominant.

The existence of (at least) three components that evolve differently with redshift divides the evolution of the Universe into (at least) three epochs: 1. Early ($`z>10^4`$ and $`t<10^4`$yrs) radiation-dominated era (photons, neutrinos, and a spectrum of relativistic particles that grows with temperature); 2. Matter-dominated era ($`10^4>z>0.2`$, $`10\mathrm{Gyr}>t>10^4`$yrs) during which cosmic structure grew; and 3. Dark-energy dominated era ($`z<0.2`$, $`t>10`$Gyr) characterized by accelerated expansion and cessation of structure formation.

I note that the precision of the present accounting still allows for an unidentified component that contributes perhaps as much as 10% of the critical density.

Now that we can enumerate the components of the Universe, the task is to understand them. Three critical questions arise:

1. What form do the dark baryons take?
2. What is (are) the constituent(s) of the nonbaryonic dark matter?
3. What is the nature of the dark energy?

## 2. Dark Baryons

For many years the theory of big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and a lower limit to the primordial deuterium abundance were used to argue for a low baryon density (see e.g., Schramm & Turner, 1998), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_B<0.1`$. The measurement of the primordial deuterium abundance in high-redshift hydrogen clouds has turned the upper limit into the most precise determination of the baryon density, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2=0.020\pm 0.001`$, or $`\rho _B=3.8\pm 0.7\times 10^{31}\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$ (Burles et al, 2001; Tytler et al, 2000; O’Meara et al, 2001). When combined with knowledge of the Hubble constant, $`h=0.72\pm 0.07`$ (Freedman et al, 2001), this implies

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_B=0.04\pm 0.008$$
(1)
Within the past year the credibility of the BBN baryon density got a tremendous boost from the DASI, BOOMERanG, MAXIMA, and CBI CMB experiments (Sievers et al, 2002). Based upon the ratios of the heights of the odd to even acoustic peaks, these experiments imply: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2=0.022\pm 0.003`$. The agreement with BBN is striking, and the underlying physics is very different: gravity-driven acoustic oscillations at 400,000 yrs vs. nuclear physics at a few seconds. Not only does this give one confidence in a low baryon density, but it also provides a powerful consistency test of the whole framework.

The absorption of light from $`z34`$ quasars by Lyman-alpha clouds provides a lower limit to the fraction of critical density in intergalactic gas which is consistent with BBN and the CMB: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2>0.018[\mathrm{\Omega }_Mh^2/0.17]^{1/4}`$ (McDonald et al, 2001). This determination of the baryon density depends upon a number of assumptions, including the flux of ionizing radiation, the physics of the Lyman-alpha forest being well described by CDM, and the bulk of the baryons at $`z34`$ not being in stars or stellar remnants.

Today, baryons in stars account for only about 10% of all baryons; most of the baryons are still unaccounted for. In rich clusters, the census appears to be complete: The ratio of baryons in the hot, intracluster gas to that in stars is close to 10. While clusters provide an environment where it is easier to carry out a baryon census because of their deep gravitational potential, clusters only account for a few percent of the total matter density and a minority of the baryons.

Where then are the bulk of the baryons today? The conventional wisdom is that they reside in hot intergalactic gas or warm gas more closely associated with galaxies (see e.g., Cen & Ostriker, 1999). While unlikely, it is possible that the bulk of the baryons, or even a significant fraction, exist as the remnants of an early generation of stars.

Finally, it is worth noting that at redshifts $`z3,1000,10^{10}`$ the baryon census is complete and consistent. At BBN the baryons were in neutrons and protons that were in the processing of being fused into the light elements; at last scattering they were in ionized H and He gas; and at $`z3`$, they were in intergalactic gas. To complete the picture, we need a baryon census today (see Fukugita et al, 1998 for a preliminary estimate).

## 3. Nonbaryonic Dark Matter

The total matter density can now be determined by measurements that do not depend upon the connection between mass and light (see e.g., Turner, 2001). They include CMB anisotropy (the heights of the acoustic peaks determine $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Mh^2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2`$), the power spectrum of inhomogeneity (its shape determines $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Mh`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M/\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$), the cluster baryon fraction ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_M/\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$) and the primordial deuterium abundance ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_Bh^2`$). From these a robust and “unbiased” value of the matter density follows (Turner, 2001):

$$\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.33\pm 0.035\mathrm{\Omega }_B=0.004\pm 0.008\mathrm{\Omega }_{NB}=0.29\pm 0.04$$
(2)
With a high degree of confidence, we can say that almost 90% of the matter is in a form other than baryons and yet to be identified! This conclusion receives support from another important, though indirect, argument: Absent nonbaryonic dark matter, there is no model for structure formation that can begin with the level of matter inhomogeneity indicated by the anisotropy of the CMB ($`\delta \rho /\rho 10^5`$) and explain the structure seen in the Universe today.

For almost 20 years there has been a working hypothesis: the bulk of the dark matter exists in the form of stable (or longlived) relic particles left over from the earliest moments of creation. For almost as long, the leading particle candidates have been: one or more light neutrinos, the axion and the neutralino. Significant progress has been and is being made toward testing all three candidates (see e.g., Turner, 2000a or Griest & Kamionkowski, 2000).

### 3.1. Neutrinos

Results from the SuperKamiokande (SuperK, Fukuda et al, 1999; Fukuda et al, 2000) and Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO, Ahmad et al, 2002a,b) experiments have provided strong evidence for neutrino oscillations, with two mass differences identified: $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{12}^210^4\mathrm{eV}^2`$ (SNO/solar neutrinos) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }m_{23}^23\times 10^3\mathrm{eV}^2`$ (SuperK/atmospheric). Oscillation experiments only probe relative masses, and not the absolute mass scale. With the simple assumption of a mass hierarchy, $`m_3m_2m_1`$, this implies $`m_30.05`$eV and $`m_20.01`$eV, corresponding to $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu 0.1\%`$ (note, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu =m_\nu /93.2h^2`$eV). Hierarchy or not, this provides a lower limit to what neutrinos contribute to the mass budget – in the same ball park as stars – and validates the concept of particle dark matter. Cosmology has long since made its judgment on neutrinos – hot dark matter cannot account for the structure we see today and even a modest of amount of hot dark matter ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu >0.05`$) leads to an unacceptable deficiency of small-scale structure (Croft et al, 1998; Elgaroy et al, 2002).

In setting the absolute scale of neutrino mass, cosmological observations may play an important role. CMB anisotropy and large-scale structure measurements have sensitivity at the tenths of an eV level (see e.g., Hu et al, 1998).

### 3.2. Cold dark matter

Cosmology has also made its judgment on cold dark matter – the cold dark matter scenario has much, if not all, the truth about structure formation. The two leading CDM particles are the axion, a very light particle ($`m10^6\mathrm{eV}10^5`$eV), which is cold by virtue of being born in a Bose condensate, and the neutralino, a heavy particle ($`m50\mathrm{GeV}500`$GeV) and the lightest of the supersymmetric partners of the known particles, which is cold by virtue of its large mass.

Experiments to detect the axions or neutralinos that may comprise our own halo have reached sufficient sensitivity to begin seriously testing both possibilities. In addition, the neutralino can be produced at an accelerator or detected by its annihilation products (see e.g., Griest & Kamionkowski, 2000). (Neutralinos that accumulate in the sun annihilate and produce high-energy neutrinos; neutralinos in the halo can annihilate and produce photons, antiprotons or gamma rays.)

Like the neutrino, the interactions of the axion and neutralino with ordinary matter are very weak (mean free path $`H_0^1`$). So far as cosmology goes, axions and neutralinos are particles that only interact via gravity. This fact has made simulation of cosmic structure formation relatively simple (compared to the typical astrophysical simulation). Unfortunately, it also means that axionic cold dark matter and neutralino cold dark matter cannot be distinguished by purely cosmological observations.

There are some indications that CDM does not have all the truth on small scales, namely, the halo cusp problem and the overabundance of substructure (see e.g., Sellwood & Kosowsky, 2000). While plausible astrophysical explanations exist for both problems (see, e.g., Benson et al, 2001; Bullock et al, 2000; Klypin et al, 2001; Merritt & Cruz, 2001; Milosavljevic & Merritt, 2001; Milosavljevic et al, 2001; Somerville, 2001; Weinberg & Katz, 2001), the solution could involve an unexpected property of the dark-matter particle, e.g., large self-interaction cross section (Spergel & Steinhardt, 2000), large annihilation cross section (Kaplinghat et al, 2000), or mass of around 1 keV (i.e., warm dark matter).

At present, there is the tantalizing possibility that further study of cosmic structure on small scales could reveal a new property of the dark-matter particle; in any case, this is the arena where CDM needs to be tested.

## 4. Dark Energy

Dark energy is my term for the causative agent of the current epoch of accelerated expansion. According to the second Friedmann equation,

$$\ddot{R}/R=4\pi G\left(\rho +3p\right)/3;$$
(3)
thus, stress-energy with large negative pressure, can produce accelerated expansion ($`R`$ is the cosmic scale factor).

Dark energy has the following defining properties: (1) it emits no light; (2) it has large, negative pressure, $`p_X\rho _X`$; and (3) it is approximately homogeneous (more precisely, does not cluster significantly with matter on scales at least as large as clusters of galaxies). Because its pressure is comparable in magnitude to its energy density, it is more “energy-like” than “matter-like” (matter being characterized by $`p\rho `$). Dark energy is qualitatively very different from dark matter.

### 4.1. Two lines of evidence for an accelerating Universe

Two independent lines of evidence point to an accelerating Universe. The first is the measurement of type Ia supernova light curves by two groups, the Supernova Cosmology Project (Perlmutter et al, 1999) and the High-$`z`$ Supernova Team (Riess et al, 1998). The teams used different analysis techniques and different samples of high-$`z`$ supernovae and came to the same conclusion: the Universe is speeding up, not slowing down.

The recent discovery of a supernovae at $`z1.76`$ bolsters the case significantly (Riess et al, 2001) and provides the first evidence for an early epoch of decelerated expansion (Turner & Riess, 2002). SN 1997ff falls right on the accelerating Universe curve on the magnitude – redshift diagram, and is a magnitude brighter than expected in a dusty open Universe.

The second, independent line of evidence for the accelerating Universe comes from measurements of the composition of the Universe, which point to a missing energy component with negative pressure (Turner, 2000b). The argument goes like this. CMB anisotropy measurements indicate that the Universe is flat, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1.0\pm 0.04`$ (Sievers et al, 2002). In a flat Universe, the matter density and energy density must sum to the critical density. However, matter only contributes about 1/3rd of the critical density, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.33\pm 0.04`$ (Turner, 2001), leaving two thirds of the critical density missing.

In order to have escaped detection this missing energy must be smoothly distributed. In order not to interfere with the formation of cosmic structure, the energy density in this component must change more slowly than matter, so that it was subdominant in the past. For example, if the missing 2/3rds of critical density were smoothly distributed matter ($`p=0`$), then linear density perturbations would grow as $`R^{1/2}`$ rather than as $`R`$. The shortfall in growth since last scattering ($`z1100`$) would be a factor of 30, leading to far too little growth to produce the structure seen today.

The pressure associated with the missing energy component determines how it evolves:

$$\rho _XR^{3(1+w)}\rho _X/\rho _M(1+z)^{3w}$$
(4)
where $`w`$ is the ratio of the pressure of the missing energy component to its energy density (here assumed to be constant). Note, the more negative $`w`$, the faster the ratio of missing energy to matter goes to zero in the past. In order to grow the structure observed today from the density perturbations indicated by CMB anisotropy measurements, $`w`$ must be more negative than about $`\frac{1}{2}`$ (Turner & White, 1997), and since $`q_0=\frac{1}{2}+\frac{3}{2}w\mathrm{\Omega }_X\frac{1}{2}+w`$, this implies $`q_0<0`$ and accelerated expansion.

### 4.2. Gravity can be repulsive in Einstein’s theory

In Newton’s theory mass is the source of the gravitational field and gravity is always attractive. In general relativity, both energy and pressure source the gravitational field, cf. Eq. 3. Sufficiently large negative pressure leads to repulsive gravity, and so accelerated expansion can be accommodated. Of course, that does not preclude that the ultimate explanation for accelerated expansion lies in a fundamental modification of Einstein’s theory.

Repulsive gravity is a stunning feature of general relativity. It leads to a prediction every bit as revolutionary as black holes – the accelerating Universe. If the explanation for the accelerating Universe fits within general relativity, it will be a major new triumph for Einstein’s theory.

### 4.3. The biggest embarrassment in theoretical physics

Einstein introduced the cosmological constant to balance the attractive gravity of matter in order to create a static cosmological model. He quickly discarded the cosmological constant after the discovery of the expansion of the Universe.

Quantum field theory makes the consideration of the cosmological constant obligatory not optional. The only possible covariant form for the energy of the (quantum) vacuum,

$$T_{\mathrm{VAC}}^{\mu \nu }=\rho _{\mathrm{VAC}}g^{\mu \nu },$$

is mathematically equivalent to the cosmological constant. It takes the form for a perfect fluid with energy density $`\rho _{\mathrm{VAC}}`$ and isotropic pressure $`p_{\mathrm{VAC}}=\rho _{\mathrm{VAC}}`$ (i.e., $`w=1`$) and is precisely spatially uniform. Vacuum energy is the almost perfect candidate for dark energy.

Here is the rub: the contributions of well-understood physics (say up to the $`100`$GeV scale) to the quantum-vacuum energy add up to $`10^{55}`$ times the present critical density. This is the well known cosmological-constant problem (see e.g., Weinberg, 1989; Carroll, 2001).

While string theory currently offers the best hope for a theory of everything, it has shed precious little light on the problem; in fact, it has raised some new issues. The deSitter space associated with the accelerating Universe poses serious problems for the formulation of string theory (Witten, 2001).

The cosmological constant problem leads to a fork in the dark-energy road: one path is to wait for theorists to get the “right answer” (i.e., succeed in showing that indeed quantum vacuum energy contributes $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }2/3`$); the other path is to assume that even quantum nothingness weighs nothing and something else with negative pressure must be causing the Universe to speed up. Of course, theorists follow the advice of Yogi Berra: where you see a fork in the road, take it.

### 4.4. Parameterizing dark energy: for now, it’s $`w`$

Theorists have been very busy suggesting all kinds of interesting possibilities for the dark energy: networks of topological defects, rolling or spinning scalar fields (quintessence and spintessence), influence of “the bulk”, and the breakdown of the Friedmann equations (Carroll, 2001; Turner, 2000a).

The uniformity of the CMB testifies to the near isotropy and homogeneity of the Universe. This implies that the stress-energy tensor for the Universe must take the perfect fluid form. Since dark energy dominates the energy budget, its stress-energy tensor must be to a good approximation

$$T_{X}^{}{}_{\nu }{}^{\mu }\mathrm{diag}[\rho _X,p_X,p_X,p_X]$$
(5)
where $`p_X`$ is the isotropic pressure and the desired dark energy density is

$$\rho _X=2.8\times 10^{47}\mathrm{GeV}^4$$

(for $`h=0.72`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_X=0.66`$). This corresponds to a tiny energy scale, $`\rho _X^{1/4}=2.3\times 10^3`$eV.

The pressure can be characterized by its ratio to the energy density (or equation-of-state):

$$wp_X/\rho _X$$

which need not be constant; e.g., it could be a function of $`\rho _X`$ or an explicit function of time or redshift.

For vacuum energy $`w=1`$; for a network of topological defects $`w=N/3`$ where $`N`$ is the dimensionality of the defects (1 for strings, 2 for walls, etc.). For a minimally coupled, rolling scalar field, $`w`$ is time dependent and can vary between $`1`$ and $`+1`$.

I believe that for the foreseeable future getting at the dark energy will mean trying to measure its equation-of-state, $`w(t)`$.

### 4.5. The Universe: the lab for studying dark energy

Dark energy by its very nature is diffuse and a low-energy phenomenon. It probably cannot be produced at accelerators; it isn’t found in galaxies or even in clusters of galaxies. The Universe itself is the natural lab – perhaps the only lab – in which to study it.

The primary effect of dark energy on the Universe is on the expansion rate. The first Friedmann equation can be written as

$$H^2(z)/H_0^2=\mathrm{\Omega }_M(1+z)^3+(1\mathrm{\Omega }_M)\mathrm{exp}\left[3_0^z[1+w(x)]d\mathrm{ln}(1+x)\right]$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ is the fraction of critical density contributed by matter today, a flat Universe is assumed, and the dark-energy term follows from energy conservation, $`d(\rho _XR^3)=p_XdR^3`$. For constant $`w`$ the dark-energy term becomes $`(1\mathrm{\Omega }_M)(1+z)^{3(1+w)}`$. In a flat universe $`H(z)/H_0`$ depends upon only two parameters: $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ and $`w(z)`$.

While $`H(z)`$ is probably not directly measurable (however see, Loeb, 1998), it does affect significantly two observable quantities: the (comoving) distance to an object at redshift $`z`$,

$$r(z)=_0^z\frac{dz}{H(z)},$$
(7)
and the growth of (linear) density perturbations, governed by

$$\ddot{\delta }_k+2H\dot{\delta }_k4\pi G\rho _M=0,$$
(8)
where $`\delta _k`$ is the Fourier component of comoving wavenumber $`k`$ and overdot indicates $`d/dt`$.

The comoving distance $`r(z)`$ can be mapped out with the aid of standard candles (e.g., type Ia supernovae) by measuring luminosity distances $`d_L(z)=(1+z)r(z)`$. It can also be probed by counting objects of a known intrinsic comoving number density, through the comoving volume element, $`dV/dzd\mathrm{\Omega }=r^2(z)/H(z)`$.

Both galaxies and clusters of galaxies have been suggested as objects to count (Newman & Davis, 2000; Holder et al, 2001). For each, their comoving number density evolves (in the case of clusters very significantly). However, it is believed that much, if not all, of the evolution can be modelled through numerical simulations and semi-analytical calculations. In the case of clusters, evolution is so significant that the number count test probe is affected by dark energy through both $`r(z)`$ and the growth of density perturbations, with the latter being the dominant effect.

The various cosmological approaches to ferreting out the nature of the dark energy have been studied extensively. Based largely upon my work with Dragan Huterer (Huterer & Turner, 2001), I summarize what we know about the efficacy of the cosmological probes of dark energy:

* Present cosmological observations prefer $`w=1`$, with a 95% confidence limit $`w<0.6`$ (e.g., Perlmutter, Turner & White, 1999).
* Because dark energy was less important in the past, $`\rho _X/\rho _M(1+z)^{3w}0`$ as $`z\mathrm{}`$, and the Hubble flow at low redshift is insensitive to the composition of the Universe, the most sensitive redshift interval for probing dark energy is $`z=0.22`$.
* The CMB has limited power to probe $`w`$ (e.g., the projected precision for Planck is $`\sigma _w=0.25`$) and no power to probe its time variation.
* A high-quality sample of 2000 SNe distributed from $`z=0.2`$ to $`z=1.7`$ could measure $`w`$ to a precision $`\sigma _w=0.05`$. If $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M`$ is known independently to better than $`\sigma _{\mathrm{\Omega }_M}=0.03`$, $`\sigma _w`$ improves by a factor of two and the rate of change of $`w^{}=dw/dz`$ can be measured to precision $`\sigma _w^{}=0.16`$.
* Counts of galaxies and of clusters of galaxies may have the same potential to probe $`w`$ as SNe Ia. The critical issue is systematics (including the evolution of the intrinsic comoving number density, and the ability to identify galaxies or clusters of a fixed mass).
* Measuring weak gravitational lensing by large-scale structure over a field of 1000 square degrees (or more) could have comparable sensitivity to $`w`$ as type Ia supernovae. However, weak gravitational lensing does not appear to be a good method to probe the time variation of $`w`$ (Huterer, 2001). The systematics associated with weak gravitational lensing have not yet been studied carefully and could limit its potential.
* Some methods do not look promising in their ability to probe $`w`$ because of irreducible systematics (e.g., Alcock – Paczynski test and strong gravitational lensing of quasars). However, both could provide important independent confirmation of accelerated expansion.

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# On the Interferometric Sizes of Young Stellar Objects

## 1 Introduction

Radically improved infrared (IR) detectors (Millan-Gabet et al. 1999a) have recently allowed optical interferometers to investigate the inner accretion disks around young stellar objects (YSOs) for the first time (Malbet et al. 1998; Millan-Gabet et al. 1999b; Millan-Gabet 1999; Akeson et al. 2000; Millan-Gabet et al. 2001; Tuthill et al. 2001; Danchi et al. 2001; Akeson et al. 2002). In most cases, the near-IR sizes were found to be significantly larger than expected from the favored disk models of the time (Malbet & Bertout 1991; Hillenbrand et al. 1992; Hartmann et al. 1993; Chiang & Goldreich 1997).

These modeling efforts typically did not directly consider the near-IR disk sizes; indeed, much of the model sophistication was directed toward explaining the observed long-wavelength ($`\lambda \stackrel{>}{_{}}10\mu `$m) spectral energy distributions. Theoretical work has recently been focused again on reproducing the near-IR properties of YSOs, both the near-IR spectrum and characteristic sizes (Natta et al. 2001; Dullemond et al. 2001). The new models abandon the optically-thick, spatially-thin gas disk in the inner-most region, incorporating an optically-thin central cavity to explain the “large” near-IR sizes (as suggested by Tuthill et al. 2001). Alternatively, some workers argue for a quasi-spherical envelope of dust grains around Herbig Ae/Be stars which also can explain the large characteristic sizes (Miroshnichenko et al. 1997, 1999).

This paper takes a step back from the increasingly complicated models one encounters in the literature in order to develop a minimalist framework useful for interpreting the new interferometric measurements (e.g., as generic, or model-independent, as possible). While the essential physics are gradually being incorporated in sophisticated, self-consistent (“physical”) models, theoretical guidance is needed now in crafting and interpreting disk size surveys beginning at the Keck Interferometer and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Indeed, most of the free parameters in the physical models do not strongly affect the near-IR sizes and only serve to obsfucate the relevant physics in the context of the recent interferometric measurements.

In this Letter, we explore how basic dust grain properties and gas absorption of the stellar ultraviolet continuum can affect the observed characteristic sizes of YSO disks in the near-IR.

## 2 Compendium of Characteristic Disk Sizes

### 2.1 The Sample

We begin by presenting Figure 1, which contains in one plot the complete set of published near-IR (1.6$`\mu `$m and/or 2.2$`\mu `$m) sizes of Herbig Ae/Be and T Tauri disks (excluding the accretion-dominated source FU Ori). The extended “disk” component of each source was fitted with a ring model, further explained and justified below, and the ring radius is reported for each target star. The majority of measurements come from the IOTA interferometer (Millan-Gabet et al. 1999b; Millan-Gabet 1999; Millan-Gabet et al. 2001). The Palomar Testbed Interferometer contributed the T Tauri observations as well as one Herbig size (Akeson et al. 2000, 2002). Lastly, aperture masking at the Keck telescope was used for LkH$`\alpha `$ 101 and MWC 349 (Tuthill et al. 2001; Danchi et al. 2001). The stellar properties (luminosity, effective temperature, distance, etc.) were taken from the original interferometer papers when possible, unless revised spectral types were reported in Mora et al. (2001, for MWC 614, V1295 Aql, MWC 296).

Since single-baseline interferometers typically only measure characteristic sizes and do not easily produce true images, we must use some model for the brightness distribution when discussing a “size.” The first image of the near-IR emission from a nearly face-on YSO was recently published by Tuthill et al. (2001), revealing a thin asymmetric ring of emission (edge-on disks have been observed before, e.g. Koresko 1998). Partly based on this result, we have chosen to represent the interferometer measurements in Figure 1 by simple ring models. That is, the visibility data for each source were fit assuming the dust emission comes from a thin ring centered on the stellar point source (the fraction of light coming from the star was typically estimated by fitting the broad-band spectral energy distribution).

The use of a ring model can also be motivated theoretically. Near-IR ($`\stackrel{<}{_{}}`$3$`\mu `$m) dust emission can only come from the hottest dust, and thus only emerges from a narrow range of disk annulii nearest to the star. Further, once the dust opacity becomes $`\stackrel{>}{_{}}`$1, the inner disk shields the outer disk causing a further drop in dust temperature. While the near-IR “bump” (Hillenbrand et al. 1992) in the spectra of most target sources indicate that the H-band and (especially) K-band fluxes are probably dominated by thermal emission of grains, some fraction of the emission must also be from scattered stellar light. Although scattered light from the inner edge of the disk will not cause a significant change in the observed size, light scattered in a large-scale halo or upper layers of a flared disk could cause the interferometric size to be larger than the disk inner radius, adding a bias toward larger sizes in the size-luminosity diagram (see §4.1 for further discussion)

Different authors implemented the ring model fitting in slightly different ways and we have used the inner ring radii published in the original papers whenever possible (for details, see Millan-Gabet 1999). This inhomogenity adds only small scatter to the diagram ($``$10%) and is insignificant compared to the intrinsic scatter and other sources of uncertainty. The errors bars reflect only the reported uncertainties in the ring radii, and do not include the typically larger uncertainties in the assumed distances and stellar effective temperatures. Note that for early spectral types the temperatures can be uncertain by thousands of Kelvin (e.g. MWC 297 has a 5 spectral subtype uncertainty; Mora et al. 2001). With improved interferometric data, it will become critical to accurately account for these effects and model each source individually.

### 2.2 Selection Effects

This first generation of YSO disk measurements focused on bright near-IR sources and suffered from some obvious selection effects. The sources typically have unusually large near-IR excesses from thermal emission of hot dust, suggesting that these YSOs could have large disk masses and/or accretion rates (MWC 166 is an exception). The large quantity of hot dust surrounding the sample stars also implies that the inner disks have not yet been cleared of dust, for example by forming planets (e.g. TW Hya, Calvet et al. 2002). Hence, this sample is not designed to study disk evolution, and these disks are all presumably “young.” Lastly, the sample will contain few edge-on disks (MWC 349 is an exception, Danchi et al. 2001), since spectra of such sources tend to peak more in the mid-IR (e.g. Lopez et al. 1995).

Interestingly and fortunately, these selection effects do not strongly influence our final conclusions, which ultimately depend most sensitively on the dust grain properties and not the local circumstellar environment.

### 2.3 Basic Discussion of the “Size-Luminosity Diagram”

From inspection of Figure 1, there is clearly a trend of larger disk inner radii with increasing stellar luminosity L, as one would expect if the inner dust disk (or envelope) were truncated by dust evaporation close to the star. In Figure 1 we have also plotted the predicted location of the hottest dust as a function of stellar luminosity for two simple models: an optically-thick, spatially-thin disk model (“classical” accretion disk after Hillenbrand et al. 1992, assuming dust sublimation temperature $`T=1500`$ K) and a model with an optically-thin inner cavity (radius of dust sublimation $`R_sL_{}^{\frac{1}{2}}`$, after Tuthill et al. 2001, for three different assumed sublimation temperatures $`T=`$1000, 1500, 2000 K).

“Classical” accretion disks have a surface temperature $`Tr^{\frac{3}{4}}`$ since all the heating radiation hits the disk obliquely (Friedjung 1985), the proportionality constant depending on the size and temperature of the star. In order to plot predictions of models which are not functions purely of luminosity, we must relate the stellar properties (e.g, effective temperature) to the luminosity. We have used here an empirical relation fitted to our sample stars, $`L_{}T_{}^{5.3}`$, similar to the slope of the main sequence on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. This allows us to plot our size predictions purely as a function of luminosity; the aggregate properties of our sample are sufficient for this Letter but future detailed modeling must take into account the observed stellar properties of each system individually.

As is evident in Figure 1, the classical accretion disk model predictions of the near-IR sizes are too small for nearly every target in our sample. However, the larger sizes predicted by the optically-thin cavity models seem to fit the measurements better (in agreement with the conclusions of Tuthill et al. 2001, for Lkh$`\alpha `$ 101), although there is large amount of scatter in the diagram for the Herbig Ae/Be stars, as noted by Millan-Gabet et al. (2001). These dust sublimation radii have been estimated as described in detail below, neglecting backwarming by hot grains. One might think that uncertain distances could be a dominant source of scatter in this diagram. However, for a given source, a change in the adopted distance will change both the physical ring inner radius and the stellar luminosity in such a way as to move parallel to the $`R_sL_{}^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ trend lines.

However, we have so far neglected to consider the optical properties of the dust. Tuthill et al. (2001) considered the case of dust sublimating (at temperature $`T_s`$) due to heating only by the stellar radiation (neglecting backwarming); the dust sublimation radius $`R_s`$ follows the standard formula:

$$R_s=\frac{1}{2}\sqrt{Q_R}\left(\frac{T_{}}{T_s}\right)^2R_{}=1.1\sqrt{Q_R}\left(\frac{L_{}}{1000L_{}}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\left(\frac{T_s}{1500K}\right)^2AU$$
(1)
where $`Q_R=Q_{\mathrm{abs}}(T_{})/Q_{\mathrm{abs}}(T_s)`$ the ratio of the dust absorption efficiencies $`Q(T)`$ for radiation at color temperature T of the incident and reemitted field respectively.

The dust destruction radius will be increased if one takes into account backwarming by circumstellar dust, a msall correction dependent on the assumed dust distribution. We have also neglected any effects of grains coupling to gas, which can cool through line emission (this would decrease the dust destruction radius). However, we are not concerned with second-order effects here and concentrate only on the dominant radiative processes in this Letter.

In the next section we consider how realistic dust properties dramatically affect the predicted location of the dust destruction radius.

## 3 Effects of Realistic Dust Properties

Many workers have considered how the optical properties of cosmic dust affect our interpretation of astronomical observations (e.g., Draine & Lee 1984, and references therein). A particularly relevant set of papers by Wolfire & Cassinelli (1986, 1987) considered spherically-infalling dust onto a massive protostar. Much of our argument parallels the calculation of these authors (especially at the high-mass limit), although the present application to T Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars span sufficiently different physical conditions to justify the specific calculation presented below.

For the goals of this paper, it is sufficient to consider the generic optical properties of representative astronomical dust. For the purpose of calculation we have used the complex dielectric constants of Ossenkopf et al. (1992) for warm astronomical silicates and of Draine & Lee (1984) for graphite. Wavelength- and grain size-dependent absorption efficiencies were calculated assuming spherical grains and Mie scattering theory according to the algorithm of Toon & Ackerman (1981). Most of our discussion will focus on silicate grains, and differences for carbon grains are noted at the end of this section.

Figure 2a shows the absorption efficiency of silicate grains of various sizes as a function of wavelength. The important property to note is that grains emit weakly at wavelengths larger than the grain size. Hence, small grains get heated to higher temperatures for the same impinging radiation because they can not cool efficiently. Also included in this figure are Kurucz models (Kurucz 1979, and subsequent papers) for representative spectral types spanning $`1L_{}`$ to $`10^5L_{}`$; note that departures from a Planck function can be significant.

With these results, we can now calculate the factor $`Q_R`$ in Eq. 1 for various dust sizes. Formally, the dust absorption efficiency for a given grain size $`a`$ exposed to incident stellar radiation $`I_\lambda (T_{})`$, is defined as follows: $`Q_{\mathrm{abs}}(T_{})=\frac{{\scriptscriptstyle Q_{\mathrm{abs}}(\lambda )I_\lambda (T_{})𝑑\lambda }}{{\scriptscriptstyle I_\lambda (T_{})𝑑\lambda }}`$. Figure 2b shows the ratio of absorption efficiencies $`Q_R`$ as a function of stellar effective temperature, assuming an emission temperature of 1500 K (appropriate for dust near sublimation). For large silicate grains ($`a\stackrel{>}{_{}}`$1 $`\mu `$m), $`Q_R`$ is relatively insensitive to the stellar effective temperature and close to unity; this is simply because most of the radiation from stars hotter than 3500 K have wavelengths smaller than this grain size. However, the story is radically different for smaller grains. For $`a=0.1\mu `$m, $`Q_R`$ values rise from a value of $``$8 for $`T_{}=6000K`$ to $``$50 for $`T_{}\stackrel{>}{_{}}20000K`$. Hence for a hot star, reducing the dust size from 1 $`\mu `$m to 0.1 $`\mu `$m corresponds to nearly a factor of 50 increase in $`Q_R`$, resulting in a factor of $``$7 increase in dust sublimation radius (see Eq.1).

Figure 3 shows how the dust sublimation radius (for $`T_S=1500K`$) changes (compare to Figure 1) using these results for silicate dust grain sizes $`a`$=0.1$`\mu `$m and 1.0$`\mu `$m. In creating these curves, we have also assumed that all stellar radiation shortward of 912 Å was scattered away by hydrogen gas in the disk midplane (see §4 for further discussion); this slightly effects the predicted sublimation radius for the only hottest stars.

This figure shows clearly that dust grains with sizes similar to that found in the interstellar medium (0.01$`\mu `$m$`<a<`$0.25$`\mu `$m, Mathis et al. 1977) would not survive as close to the stars as is observed, assuming $`T_s1500K`$. However, larger grains with size $`a\stackrel{>}{_{}}`$1.0$`\mu `$m are able to exist, thus reproducing the sizes observed in Figure 1. This conclusion is more tentative for the T Tauris than for the Herbig stars, due to both the smaller sample size and the less dramatic temperature difference between the photosphere and hot dust. We note that large grains are expected in the midplane of an accretion disk, given that there are sufficient densities and timescales for significant grain growth, even planet formation (e.g., Beckwith & Sargent 1991).

We have also performed these calculations for graphite dust and arrived at the same basic conclusions. As seen for silicates, it is the grain size that has the strongest effect on $`Q_R`$ and the near-IR sizes are most consistent with “large” carbon grains ($`a\stackrel{>}{_{}}0.3\mu `$m). Note that the carbon grains can be somewhat smaller (a factor of 3) than the silicate dust to reproduce the characteristic sizes in Figure 3, due to higher near-IR absorption efficiency.

## 4 Gas Absorption in the Inner Disk

In Figure 1, we see that disks around the higher luminosity stars tend to be somewhat smaller in size than the lower luminosity sources, compared to the $`R_sL_{}^{\frac{1}{2}}`$ trendline (see Eq. 1). In the last section, we found that realistic dust opacity effects make this discrepancy even greater (see Figure 3).

We suggest that a relatively low-density gas disk in the inner cavity can significantly scatter the ultraviolet continuum from the star, shielding the dust and hence shrinking the near-IR disk sizes. This effect will only occur for hot stars with significant ultraviolet luminosity and could qualititively explain the trend towards under-sized disks for the high luminosity YSOs. Wolfire & Cassinelli (1986) considered a similar effect in calculating the equilibrium temperature structure around an accreting massive protostar. Indeed, Hartmann et al. (1993) showed that the gaseous inner disk of a Herbig Ae/Be star can become optically thick for high accretion rates ($`\dot{M}\stackrel{>}{_{}}10^7M_{}`$). But what about at the lower accretion rates currently favored (Hartmann et al. 1993; Gullbring et al. 2000)?

Performing the proper calculation of this effect is beyond the scope of this Letter, however we do consider one limiting case here. We have already eliminated the Lyman continuum photons from the impinging radiation field in creating Figure 3, since neutral H is so efficient at scattering such short wavelengths. From inspection of continuum opacity curves by Novotny (1973), we see that scattering from metals (Si, Fe, Mg) becomes an important opacity source for $``$5000 K gas for $`\lambda \stackrel{<}{_{}}2500`$Å. At lower temperatures, molecules can provide an additional source of opacity. In Figure 3, we have plotted additional curves for the dust sublimation radius ($`R_s`$) assuming all the energy shortward of $`\lambda =2500`$Å has been removed from the radiation field, a reasonable limiting case. As expected, this can have strong effects for the hottest stars, $`L\stackrel{>}{_{}}1000L_{}`$, and should motivate a quantitative study of this effect for realistic inner disk gas models. Ideally, modeling of this curvature in the “size-luminosity” relation will provide a unique and powerful constraint on the density distribution of gas (total column density) of the innermost (dust-free) disk.

We remark on an alternative interpretation of Figure 1 and Figure 2b. The near-IR disk sizes could be explained by a classical accretion disk (optically-thick gas disk in midplane) with small ($`a\stackrel{<}{_{}}0.1\mu `$m) grains at the inner radius, where the high $`Q_R`$ compensates for the loss of stellar energy absorbed/scattered by material in the midplane. However, since the inner gas disk is not expected to be optically-thick for typical T Tauris and Herbig Ae/Be stars, we have not favored this model in this Letter.

### 4.1 Other Important Effects

Considering the large scatter in the size-luminosity diagram for the Herbig Ae/Be stars (factor of about 3-10 for a given stellar luminosity), there must be additional effects contributing to the observed disk sizes than the grain sizes and gas opacity. Some effects which may be influencing the observed sizes include: additional sources of luminosity (see Hillenbrand et al. 1992; Hartmann et al. 1993), photoevaporation (Hollenbach et al. 1994; Danchi et al. 2001), turbulent accretion (Kuchner & Lecar 2002), or more complicated emission morphology (scattered light, viewing angles, “disk plus envelope” combinations, etc.; Miroshnichenko et al. 1999).

## 5 Conclusions

Physical models of accretion disks around young stars are critical for understanding the level of IR excess, the spectral energy denstribution, and the interferometric disk sizes. However, such models have a large number of parameters and are subject to many uncertain assumptions. In this Letter we considered only the problem of understanding the observed characteristic near-IR sizes of YSOs. By limiting our focus to just the inner disk, we have motivated a minimalist framework founded on the argument that the characteristic size of a given source is directly related to the radius of dust sublimation.

We investigated quantitatively how the radius of dust sublimation depends on realistic optical constants and gas absorption of the stellar ultraviolet continuum, and we found that the magnitudes of these effects are strong functions of stellar effective temperature and grain size. Our results showed that the observed sizes of YSOs are consistent with the presence of an optically-thin cavity surrounding the star, only if the near-IR emission arises from relatively large dust grains ($`a\stackrel{>}{_{}}1\mu `$m for Herbig Ae/Be stars, somewhat smaller grains are allowed for T Tauris) heated to the sublimation temperature ($`T_s1500K`$). For the hotter stars (Herbig Be), gas absorption/scattering of the stellar ultraviolet continuum is likely to be non-neglible and may further help explain the observed size-luminosity relations.

Despite success at reproducing the typical sizes, we can not easily explain the large scatter in the size-luminosity diagram for the Herbig Ae/Be stars using this minimalist framework. More complete disk surveys are beginning with the Keck Interferometer and the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to explore these systems in more detail. Further, interferometer arrays, such as IOTA, COAST, and CHARA, image the disk emission from YSOs to determine whether the ring morphology (a central assumption here) is common to these systems or unique to Lkh$`\alpha `$ 101.

The authors would like to thank many colleagues for discussions and comments: N. Calvet, L. Hartmann, P. Tuthill, J.P. Berger, M. Kuchner, J. Aufdenberg, C. D. Matzner, and A. Natta. This material is based upon work supported by NASA under JPL Contract 1236050 issued through the Office of Space Science.


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# Advertising effects in Sznajd marketing model

e-mail: ab127@uni-koeln.de

Abstract: The traditional Sznajd model, as well as its Ochrombel simplification for opinion spreading, are applied to marketing with the help of advertising. The larger the lattice is the smaller is the amount of advertising needed to convince the whole market.

Keywords: Econophysics, sociophysics, marketing, advertising

Science models like percolation have been applied to marketing by word-of-mouth  as well as advertising through mass media . The present work applies the Sznajd model of consensus building  (see  for a review) to the same problem. How strong has the advertising to be in order to help one of two products to win the whole market even though initially this product is in the minority ?

In the Sznajd model as used here, initially a random fraction $`p`$ of the sites of a square lattice are customers of product A, while the remaining fraction $`1p`$ of customers buy product B. At every iteration (random sequential updating) two neighbouring A sites convince their six neighbours to become also A sites. In the Ochrombel simplification, one A site suffices to convince its four neighbours . After sufficiently many iterations in a finite lattice, all customers have settled onto one product. In the Sznajd model this product is the one which initially had a slight majority of customers, i.e. product A for $`p>1/2`$ and product B for $`p<1/2`$; for the Ochrombel modification a fraction $`p`$ of lattices end up with only A sites, the others with only B sites.

Advertising is now included by assuming that at each iteration every site becomes an A site with probability $`ϵ`$. We define a success as meaning that all sites buy A, and a failure as meaning that inspite of the advertising all sites buy B for at least one iteration.

Diffusion makes the model more realistic by assuming  that only half of the sites are occupied; at each iteration each agent (= occupied site) moves into a randomly selected neighbour site if that neighbour is empty. (“Diffusion” is used here in the physics sense, not in that of Bass marketing theory ).

Feedback takes into account that advertising is diminished for already successful products. The fraction of A customers is called $`x`$, that of B customers is $`y=1x`$. Then advertising produces an A site no longer with probability $`ϵ`$ but with probability

$$ϵy(t)/y(t=0)$$

at iteration $`t`$.

This defines our advertising model which we now simulate with and without feedback, using the original Sznajd version, the Ochrombel simplification, and for Ochrombel also with diffusion. We used 1000 different samples for each lattice size $`L\times L,L=31,53,71,101,301`$. The initial fraction of A agents was always $`p=0.4`$.

For the Sznajd model we found that without advertising nearly all samples ended with product B. With $`ϵ0.1`$ and larger, all samples were successes, i.e. the advertising convinced everybody even though initially only a 40 percent minority was convinced. Equal numbers of failures and successes were found for $`ϵ`$ 0.04 and 0.025 for $`L`$ = 31 and 53 (not shown). Thus already a small fraction of advertising is sufficient to change nearly all samples from product B to product A.

We also simulated “ageing” by having advertising only for $`t_1<t<t_2`$ Strong advertising $`ϵ=0.5`$ produced nearly always a success for $`t_1`$ up to 10 and was quite useless for $`t_1>100`$ at $`L=31`$, Fig.1; for larger lattices the characteristic times are larger. The difference $`t_2t_110`$ was less important. In short, if a mass media campaign starts too late, then word-of-mouth propaganda through the standard Sznajd process has already cornered the market.

The Ochrombel simplification, that already a single site convinces its neighbours, is numerically much easier since no critical point at $`p=1/2`$ occurs without advertising. Thus far less iterations are needed when failures and successes are nearly balanced. Without advertising we have 400 A fixed points and 600 B fixed points, and thus we ask how much advertising is needed to reduce the number of failures from 600 to 300. Fig.2 includes diffusion and shows that the needed $`ϵ`$ increases from 0.0001 to 0.001 if $`L`$ decreases from 101 to 31; the transition curves all have roughly the same shape. Without diffusion the needed advertising is slightly larger. Fig.3 shows that the needed advertising decreases roughly as $`1/L^{2.3}`$.

Quite similar results are obtained also with feedback (for both Sznajd and Ochrombel version), i.e. the model’s results are quite robust. Again, the Ochrombel version requires less advertising than the original Sznajd version.

In summary, the Sznajd model and in particular its Ochrombel simplification are suitable to show successes and failures of advertising to convince a market.

We thank Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for support, W. Selke for suggesting this work, and D. Stauffer for help.


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# Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Open Cluster NGC 6871 I. New Emission Line Stars

## 1 Introduction

Establishing mass-and age-dependent color-luminosity relations is important for understanding the physical processes leading from molecular clouds to main sequence stars. As in main sequence and post main sequence stars, observational HR-diagrams for PMS stars allow comparisons between observations and predictions of evolutionary models. Because isochrone fitting allows a more reliable measurement of distances and ages for star clusters than for single stars, the detection of PMS stars as members of star clusters offers an advantage over the observation of individual stars in more extended star forming regions. This advantage leads to accurate colors and luminosities for the possible PMS members of open clusters with well defined constraints on age and mass.

The aim of this paper is to describe 37 new emission line objects along the line of sight to the galactic open cluster NGC 6871. We identify these stars from a program to measure accurate spectral types, to derive the reddening, to separate cluster members from foreground and background stars, and to construct the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) for cluster members. We will describe these results in a future paper.

With an age of roughly $`10^7`$ yr, NGC 6871 is at an important stage in the early evolution of an open cluster. Younger clusters with ages of $`10^6`$ yr are often embedded in a bright nebulosity or a dark molecular cloud. Most of the young stars in these clusters have circumstellar disks (Haisch et al., 2001). Older star clusters with ages of $`10^8`$ yr have little nebulosity or molecular gas. Few stars in these cluster have disks (Habing et al., 2001; Spangler et al., 2001). In NGC 6871, the lack of significant nebulosity or molecular gas allows optical spectroscopic observations to derive spectral types and luminosities of cluster members, and to measure IR excesses from circumstellar disks. Optical data provide a reliable measurement of the IMF for comparison with other young clusters (e.g., Slesnick et al., 2002). Recent work suggests that circumstellar disks disappear on timescales of 5-10 Myr (Haisch et al., 2001). Observations of IR excess emission in NGC6871 thus yield better constraints on disk timescale.

NGC 6871 has been relatively well studied photometrically. The cluster is part of the Cyg OB3 association (Garmany & Stencel, 1992), one of the largest nearby star formation complexes. The most recent UBV CCD photometry published by Massey et al. (1995) has a limiting magnitude $`V16.5`$. Several age estimates exist for the cluster members. From isochrone fitting, Massey et al. (1995) derived ages of 2 - 5 Myr for the stars with $`M>25M_{}`$ (spectral type B0 and earlier). From uvby photometry for stars with spectral type earlier than B5 ($`M>4M_{}`$), Reimann (1989) estimated an age of 10 - 20 Myr. The difference between the two ages suggests either a large age spread among the cluster members, contamination from nearby stars in the local spiral arm (Slesnick et al., 2002), or large uncertainties in age estimates derived from optical photometry. The presence of O stars in the cluster sets an upper limit for ages of high mass stars. According to Massey et al. (1995), the highest mass stars in the cluster have $`M=40M_{}`$ and main sequence lifetimes of 4-5 Myr (Schaller et al., 1992). However, Massey et al. (1995) note that the cluster contains evolved 15 $`M_{}`$ stars with main sequence lifetimes of 11 Myr.

One of the goals of our program is to test the origin of the age difference by deriving accurate spectral types for cluster members. According to the WEBDA catalog of J-C. Mermilliod (Mermilliod, 1995), 12 stars in the cluster have reliable spectral types (e.g., Roman, 1951; Hiltner, 1956; Walborn, 1971; Massey et al., 1995). The SIMBAD database lists another 151 stars with spectral classifications in the field of NGC 6871. Only 58 of these stars are included in the photometric database of Massey et al. (1995) from which we selected our spectroscopic candidates. The discrepancy between the numbers of stars with spectral types in different catalogues can be explained by the incompletness of the WEBDA and the uncertain spatial bounderies of the catalogue of Massey et al. (1995). Some stars with spectral type must lie outside the CCD field of Massey et al. (1995). Our sample of 1217 stars will yield a good comparison between ages derived from photometric and spectroscopic techniques. This large sample also provides a good measurement of the frequency of $`H\alpha `$ and other emission lines as a function of spectral types. Emission lines disappear when disk accretion ends; our data thus provide an estimate of the time scale for the end of disk accretion for intermediate and low mass stars.

We adopt an automatic approach and measure spectral types from spectral indices derived from digital spectra. This method allows robust measurement of spectral types and can be rapidly applied to large numbers of spectra. The accuracy of the method is comparable to visual estimates. We also use spectral indices to identify emission line objects. We compare the strength of the H$`\alpha `$ and H$`\gamma `$ indices and identify an object as emission line star if the H$`\alpha `$ absorption is weak relative to H$`\gamma `$. This method yields an automatic identification of emission line stars in cases where the emission is not obviously detectable by visual examination.

In this first paper of the series we report the discovery of 37 new emission line stars and analyze their spectra. Eight stars with accurate spectral types are known emission line stars (we detect seven of these stars). Here, we extend this sample to 45 stars and begin to separate cluster members from foreground and background stars.

## 2 Observations

We use the WEBDA for selecting the target stars for our survey and adopt the WEBDA designation for stars throughout this paper. We selected stars from the WEBDA which have reliable UBV CCD photometry. The survey of 1217 stars is complete to $`V=14.9`$ and includes stars with $`V<16.5`$ between the ZAMS and the $`10^7`$ yr PMS isochrone of Siess et al. (2000).

P. Berlind, M. Calkins, and several other observers acquired low resolution optical spectra of stars on the field of NGC 6871 with FAST, a high throughput, slit spectrograph mounted at the Fred L. Whipple Observatory 1.5-m telescope on Mount Hopkins, Arizona (Fabricant et al., 1998). They used a 300 g mm-1 grating blazed at 4750 Å, a 3″ slit, and a thinned Loral 512 $`\times `$ 2688 CCD. These spectra cover 3800–7500 Å at a resolution of $``$ 6 Å. We wavelength-calibrate the spectra in NOAO IRAF111IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under contract to the National Science Foundation.. After trimming the CCD frames at each end of the slit, we correct for the bias level, flat-field each frame, apply an illumination correction, and derive a full wavelength solution from calibration lamps acquired immediately after each exposure. The wavelength solution for each frame has a probable error of $`\pm `$0.5–1.0 Å. To construct final 1-D spectra, we extract object and sky spectra using the optimal extraction algorithm within APEXTRACT. Most spectra have moderate signal-to-noise, S/N $``$ 30 per pixel.

To measure the spectral types of individual stars, we measure continuum magnitudes and indices using narrow passbands (O’Connell, 1973; Worthey et al., 1994). The absorption and emission indices, derived using SBANDS within IRAF, are $`I_\lambda `$ = $``$2.5 log($`F_\lambda `$/$`\overline{F}`$), where $`F_\lambda `$ is the average flux in the passband $`\lambda `$ and $`\overline{F}`$ is the continuum flux interpolated between the fluxes in the neighboring blue band centered at $`\lambda _b`$ and the red band centered at $`\lambda _r`$. Table 1 lists the indices used in our analysis. We establish relations between indices and spectral type using the standards of Jacoby et al. (1984). We use the sum of the He indices ($`I_{He}=I_{He\lambda 4144}+I_{He\lambda 4387}+I_{He\lambda 4471}+I_{He\lambda 4922}`$) for stars earlier than B2, and two different sums of the H indices ($`I_{H1}=I_{H\alpha }+I_{H\beta }+IH\gamma +I_{H\delta }+I_{H\lambda 3889}+I_{H\lambda 3835}`$, $`I_{H2}=I_{H\alpha }+I_{H\beta }+I_{H\gamma }+I_{H\delta }+I_{H\lambda 3889}`$) for stars later than B0. We define two H indices because $`H\lambda 3835`$ is unreliable for stars with spectral type of A2 or later. We use the sum of TiO indices ($`I_{TiO}=I_{TiO\lambda 5968}+I_{TiO\lambda 6182}+I_{TiO\lambda 6234}+I_{TiO\lambda 7100}`$) for stars with detectable TiO bands. We apply three different linear fits to the different parts of the index - ST relation for the hydrogen and the helium indices and a 3rd degree polynomial fit to the TiO index, where ST is the numerical spectral type ($`0=\mathrm{O0},10=\mathrm{B0},20=\mathrm{A0}`$ and so on).

To check the reliability of our spectral types, we compare with published types for 58 stars in our sample. We define $`\delta `$ST = ST(present paper) - ST(literature), and derive the mean $`<\delta \mathrm{ST}>`$ = $`0.21\pm 4.1`$. Twelve stars are responsible for most of the dispersion. Checking these types visually, we verify that all of these stars are misclassified. For example, of the three K5 stars in the SIMBAD database, one is an M star with strong TiO bands and two are obvious G-type stars. Removing these misclassifications from the complete sample, we measure $`<\delta \mathrm{ST}>`$ = $`0.15\pm 1.7`$. An error of 1-2 subclasses is typical of visual classifications (e.g., Cutispoto et al., 1999).

Spectral indices provide an efficient method for deriving spectral types from low resolution digital spectra. As multi-object spectrographs become available on many telescopes, robust digital spectral types are necessary to place cluster HR diagrams on a reliable, repeatable scale. Our technique yields accurate spectral types for stars without emission lines. Because luminosity classification requires higher spectral resolution, this technique does not yield reliable luminosity classes. However, spectral indices are easily generalized to derive luminosity classes on higher resolution spectra. To derive spectral types for emission line stars, we follow Jaschek & Jaschek (1987) and estimate spectral type visually. Based on comparisons with published spectral types, our classification for these stars have an uncertainty of $`\pm `$ 0.9 subclasses

## 3 Results

### 3.1 Selection of emission line stars

We use HI indices to identify emission line stars in our sample. In normal main sequence stars, the HI equivalent widths are a function of spectral type (see e.g., Jaschek & Jaschek, 1987). The equivalent widths peak at A2 spectral type, (e.g. $`I_{H_\beta }0.7`$), and decrease towards earlier and later spectral types. All of the HI Balmer lines have roughly equivalent absorption line equivalent widths. In contrast, the equivalent widths of Balmer emission lines depend on the upper level. The relative fluxes for the H$`\alpha `$, H$`\beta `$, and H$`\gamma `$ emission lines are roughly 3:1:0.45 (Osterbrock, 1989). Thus, HI emission fills in the H$`\alpha `$ absorption line before affecting higher members of the Balmer series. We use weak H$`\alpha `$ absorption relative to H$`\beta `$ and H$`\gamma `$ absorption to identify emission line stars with no obvious $`H\alpha `$ emission feature (see also Bragg & Kenyon (2002)).

Fig 1. shows the $`H\alpha `$ index ($`I_{H\alpha }`$) as a function of the $`H\gamma `$ index ($`I_{H\gamma }`$) for our program stars. The majority of the stars follow a straight line with relatively small scatter. These are normal main sequence stars without emission lines. We derive a linear relation between the two indices for these stars with a least squares fit,

$$I_{H\gamma }=0.32I_{H\alpha }+0.09.$$

The rms of the fit is $`\sigma =0.02`$. We make several iterations before accepting the final fit. First we reject the stars with obvious emission lines (negative $`H\alpha `$ indices). After performing a first fit we eliminate the stars which lie beyond the 2$`\sigma `$ limit. This group contains all of the obvious emission line stars and outliers with poor S/N spectra (above the 2$`\sigma `$ limit on Fig 1.). Then we perform a final fit and measure the rms of the linear relation for normal stars. We adopt this rms for selecting emission line candidates.

We identify “definite” emission line objects as stars that fall more than 3$`\sigma `$ below the straight line fit. Candidate emission line objects fall 2-3$`\sigma `$ below the fit. Visual inspection of the spectra confirms that 22/24 of the definite emission line objects and 4/20 of the candidates have obvious $`H\alpha `$ emission. In the other stars, the $`H\alpha `$ absorption line is definitely weaker than in normal main sequence stars. Tables 2 and 3 list our sample of 44 emission line stars along with our derived spectral types, reddening, and photometric data from the catalogue of Massey et al. (1995) (MJD95). We also list the designation of the stars from MJD95. Fig. 3 shows the color-magnitude diagram for these stars.

### 3.2 Analysis of the emission line stars

In this section we derive the reddening $`E(BV)`$ of stars in the field of NGC 6871 using their linked photometric and spectroscopic data. Accurate reddening values allow us to filter out foreground and background objects from our sample, and provide a more accurate placement of stars on the HRD.

#### 3.2.1 Reddening and membership

We calculate the $`E(BV)`$ for each non-emission line (normal) main sequence star in our sample from the measured spectral type and the color table of Kenyon & Hartmann (1995). Because Kenyon & Hartmann (1995) does not include stars with spectral type earlier than B0, we calculate a lower limit to $`E(BV)`$ for these stars and do not include them in the analysis. The left panel of Fig. 2 shows the reddening histogram for normal main sequence stars in the cluster field. The distribution peaks around $`E(BV)=0.4`$. This value agrees with previous values of $`E(BV)=0.443`$ (WEBDA) and $`E(BV)=0.46`$ (Massey et al., 1995).

We use the reddening calculated by the computer code of Hakkila et al. (1997) to check our results. The Hakkila et al. (1997) program yields visual extinction as a function of Galactic longitude, Galactic latitude, and distance. The code combines the results of published studies (see references in Hakkila et al. (1997)). Three studies (Fitzgerald, 1968; Neckel et al., 1980; Arenou et al., 1992) provide information on the reddening for the Galactic coordinates of NGC 6871. Our estimate for $`E(BV)`$ agrees only with the results of Neckel et al. (1980). The study of Arenou et al. (1992) overestimates the reddening by a factor of 2; the study of Fitzgerald (1968) underestimates the reddening by a factor of 2. We use the results of Neckel et al. (1980) below.

The right panel of Fig. 2 shows the reddening histogram of emission line stars in the cluster field. The distribution is similar to the histogram for normal stars. However there is an excess of emission line stars with virtually no reddening. These stars may be single young stars in the vicinity of the Sun or part of a nearby young association. Including these zero reddening stars, $`22\%`$ of the emission line stars seem to belong to the foreground population. The stars with $`E(BV)`$ between 0.3 and 0.5 are probably members of the cluster. Roughly 1/3 ($`38\%`$) of our emission line stars belong to this group. Stars with $`E(BV)>0.5`$ could be background objects. Roughly $`40\%`$ of the emission line stars has larger reddening than the cluster members. According to the $`A_v`$-distance relation of Neckel et al. (1980), these stars have distances larger than 1.9 kpc. The distance can be as large as 6.6 kpc for the highly reddened O star id2905 (HD226868). Such large distances seem improbable, because they imply unreasonably large absolute magnitudes. The calculated $`z`$ value above the galactic plane ($`z>200`$ pc) for id2905 also contrasts with the accepted $`z`$ values for O - B stars ($`50100`$ pc), which suggests that this star has extra circumstellar reddening compared to cluster stars. The distances of the other background stars seem reasonable for the position of NGC 6871 but some of these stars might be cluster members with extra reddening due to circumstellar material. We examine this possibility further in the next subsection.

#### 3.2.2 Emission line objects on the cluster Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Having derived the B-V color excess for the emission line stars, we calculate the $`A_v`$ and the bolometric correction for each star in our sample and construct the HRD for each subsample specified in the previous section (foreground, cluster, background). Fig 3 shows these diagrams. Fig 3a (top left) shows the HRD for all stars in our sample, Fig 3b (top right) shows the HRD for the cluster; Fig 3c and Fig 3d (bottom left and right) show the HRD of the background and the foreground stars respectively. Small grey dots denote normal main sequence stars; large black dots denote emission line stars. The solid curves show the ZAMS of Siess et al. (2000) shifted with the distance modulus $`DM=11.08`$ which corresponds to a distance of 1649 pc (Battinelli & Capuzzo-Dolcetta, 1991).

Although the majority of emission line stars in the cluster follow the ZAMS, four emission line stars lie above the main sequence. These objects may be PMS stars (see section 4.). Several other non-emission line objects lie close to these stars in the HRD. The relatively large scatter of these apparent PMS stars in the HRD suggest a large age-spread in the cluster (Massey et al., 1995; Reimann, 1989).

The HRD of background objects (Fig 3c) is very similar to the HRD for cluster members. Roughly half of the emission line stars lie on or above the ZAMS, which suggests that they are cluster members with extra reddening due to circumstellar material. Radial velocity measurements would test this possibility.

The stars with lower reddening occupy an area above the main sequence. Most of these stars are foreground objects with different distance moduli. Three of the four zero reddening stars may lie at the same distance: they are on a line nearly parallel to the ZAMS and may be a small group of young stars. The fourth of the unreddened stars may lie within 100 pc but its spectral type is uncertain. Further observations would place better limits on its distance. The other foreground stars lie just above the main sequence. Their position is consistent with the distance calculated from their reddening using the calibration of Neckel et al. (1980) (1.2 kpc). They may be part of another young open cluster along the line of sight to NGC 6871 or a lower density concentration of stars in the local spiral arm.

## 4 Short description of the spectra of the emission line stars

In this section we give a short description of emission line stars in our sample. We follow the previous section and divide the sample into foreground, background, and cluster stars. In each section, we classify the stars as main sequence or pre-main sequence based on their positions in the HRD, the presence of \[NII\], \[SII\] emission lines, and the detection of the Li I $`\lambda `$6708 absorption line. Although Li I $`\lambda `$6708 absorption provides the best age measure for a young star, we detect Li I $`\lambda `$6708 only in a few cases due to the low resolution of our spectra. Even where we detect the Li I $`\lambda `$6708 line, the detection is very uncertain. Higher resolution spectra would provide a better test for the presence of Li I $`\lambda `$6708 in these stars.

With several O-type stars in the cluster, \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission lines could result from poor sky/nebula subtraction. To test this possibility, we measure an \[SII\] index for the complete spectroscopic sample. If fluctuations in nebular emission across the cluster field produce \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission, we expect roughly equal numbers of sources with apparent \[NII\] and \[SII\] absorption. Our test indicates a small dispersion in $`I_{[SII]}`$ with $`\sigma =0.01`$. We identify a slight trend of increasing \[SII\] index towards later spectral types. The only exceptions to this trend are \[SII\] emission line stars. There are no stars with apparent \[SII\] absorption. Thus, we conclude that nebular contamination is not responsible for the \[SII\] or \[NII\] emission line stars.

### 4.1 Foreground stars

There are 9 stars in our sample with low reddening. Because all are fainter than the Hipparcos limit, we cannot use accurate distances or proper motions to test the evolutionary status of these stars. Most have late spectral types (F - M). One (id2399) has an early spectral type (A2) with very weak emission in the core of the $`H\alpha `$ line.

There are five F type stars among the foreground objects. Two (id1755, id1552) have visible emission; the other three (id1221, id2545, id1869) show weak $`H\alpha `$ absorption. These stars have roughly the same distance according to their position on the HRD and the $`A_v`$-distance relation of Neckel et al. (1980). This distance coincides with the distance of the majority of the normal foreground stars, suggesting that they may be part of a cluster between the Sun and NGC 6871. Radial velocity measurements would test this idea. Only one of these stars (id1755) is among our PMS candidates.

Two of the remaining three stars (id1647, id1659) might be wTTs with spectral type around K8. All of their Balmer lines are in emission along with the Ca H and K lines. We detect Li I $`\lambda `$6708 line in the spectrum of id1659 even at our low resolution.

There is one M star in our sample (id113) with weak $`H\alpha `$ and \[NII\] emission. To examine the possibility that id113 is a dMe star, we estimate the number of nearby dMe stars from the observed stellar density of 0.084 star/$`\mathrm{pc}^3`$ (Henry et al., 2002). Roughly $`70\%`$ of nearby stars are M dwarfs (Henry et al., 2002). At our completeness limit ($`V14.9`$), we can detect M dwarfs at distances of 100 pc. The number of detectable M dwarfs towards NGC 6871 is two. The number of dMe stars among M dwarfs increases monotonically with spectral type ($`4\%`$ around M0 and $`90\%`$ M5 and later (Joy & Abt, 1974)). The overall ratio of dMe stars among M dwarfs is $`17\%`$, which yields a modest probability ($`34\%`$) of detecting one in our spectroscopic sample. Thus, id113 could be a dMe star. High resolution optical spectra of Li I $`\lambda `$6708 would discriminate between a field dMe star and a pre-main sequence star.

### 4.2 Probable cluster members

There are 15 emission line stars in this group. Their spectral types range from early B to late G. Most are definite emission line objects. More than half of the 15 cluster members (9 altogether) appear to be PMS stars. For 8 stars, we base this identification on their position on the HRD. One star has \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission.

There are three B type stars (id8, id186, id38) among the 11 definite emission line stars. They show emission only in $`H\alpha `$. Two of them (id8 and id38) were previously known (see Grigsby & Morrison, 1988; Bernabei & Polcaro, 2001). They could be classical Be stars.

There are two A stars (id2139, id1694) in this subgroup. One (id2139) shows signs of \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission. The $`H\alpha `$ emission of id1694 is very weak, but its position on the HRD indicates that it may be a PMS star.

There are three F type stars with definite emission features among the cluster members. Two (id2646, id2631) are PMS candidates with \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission. The third one (id2055) shows emission in $`H\alpha `$ and lies close to the main sequence.

Three G type members (id2621, id2138, id2675) may be PMS stars. All lie well above the main sequence. The spectrum of id2621 contains \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission; we detect Li I $`\lambda `$6708 line in the spectrum of id2138. The third star of this group does not show any particular feature beside the weak emission in the core of the $`H\alpha `$ line.

### 4.3 Stars with high reddening

Based on their reddening, we identify 16 emission line stars as possible background objects. The majority are early type objects; only three have spectral type F or later. Roughly half of these stars lie above the ZAMS on the HRD, suggesting that these are probably cluster stars with extra (circumstellar) reddening.

Seven of the stars (id3, id6, id2352, id215, id2209, id1062, id1238) have B spectral types. All have definite emission lines except id3. Two (id1062 and id2209) lie above the main sequence and are included in our PMS candidate sample. In the case of id6 and id1062, the whole Balmer series is in emission; id2352, id215, id2209 and id1238 show detectable emission only in the $`H\alpha `$ line.

There are six A type stars in this group (id2320, id2492, id1651,id1093, id2637, id2156). Only two (id2320 and id2492) show definite $`H\alpha `$ emission; four have a weak $`H\alpha `$ absorption line. We identify four (id2320, id2492, id1651, id2156) as candidate PMS stars according to their position on the HRD. One of these stars (id2320) shows emission in \[NII\] and \[SII\]

Because they lie above the main sequence, all of the three late type objects (id1379, id1845, id2245) are among our PMS candidates. Only one (id2245) shows Li I $`\lambda `$6708 absorption line.

## 5 Comparing PMS candidates with the young stars in the Taurus-Auriga molecular clouds

Walter (1987) and Walter et al. (1988) divide the low mass PMS stars into two groups according to their spectroscopic and photometric properties. Classical T Tauri stars (cTTs) have strong $`H\alpha `$ emission, with $`EW(H\alpha )>10`$Å; wTTs have $`EW(H\alpha )<10`$Å. Most cTTs have other strong emission lines from HI, CaII and sometimes HeI. Many have \[NII\], \[SII\] and \[OI\] emission from winds or collimated jets. cTTs also display large infrared excesses from a circumstellar disk. Optical veiling is observable in the spectra of cTTs which indicates the presence of extra emission from a boundary layer or accretion hot spot (Bertout, 1989). wTTs often have CaII and other chromospheric emission lines. They usually have nearly blackbody spectra and rarely display jet or wind emission features (Bertout, 1989).

To place our emission line stars in context with other PMS stars, we compare our sample with stars in the well studied Taurus-Auriga cloud (e.g., Kenyon & Hartmann, 1995). Fig 4. compares the distribution of the $`H\alpha `$ indices of T Tauri stars in Taurus-Auriga (Kenyon et al., 1998) with late type PMS stars in the field of NGC 6871. The two histograms peak at the same index value. Compared to Taurus-Auriga, NGC 6871 has few strong emission stars and an overabundance of weak emission line stars.

With age of $`10^6`$ yr, the PMS stars in Taurus-Auriga are much younger than the apparent age ($`10^7`$ yr) of PMS stars in NGC 6871. Observations of other young clusters suggest that the disk accretion which powers cTTs emission declines on timescales of $`10^7`$ yr (Hartmann et al., 1998; Haisch et al., 2001). Our apparent discovery of wTTs in NGC 6871 is consistent with these observations. We plan to return to this issue in future papers where we analyze the non emission line stars in the cluster.

## 6 Conclusions

We have begun a spectroscopic survey of the galactic open cluster NGC 6871. Our spectra cover $`37007400`$Å at $`6`$Å resolution. The survey is complete to $`V=14.9`$ and includes stars with $`V<16.5`$ between the ZAMS and $`10^7`$ yr PMS isochrone.

Using $`H\alpha `$ and $`H\gamma `$ spectral indices, we identify 44 emission line stars. The spectral types of these stars range from O9 - K8; one star may have an M5 spectral type. Eight stars have \[NII\] emission; six stars have \[SII\] emission. A few stars may have Li I $`\lambda 6708`$ absorption; higher resolution spectra with good signal-to-noise would test these detections.

We use the reddening $`E_{BV}`$ to divide the emission line sample into foreground stars, background stars, and cluster members. Nine stars have very low reddening and are probably foreground stars. Eighteen stars are much more highly reddened than the cluster stars. However, most of these lie above the cluster main sequence on the HRD, suggesting that these stars are cluster stars with extra (circumstellar) reddening. We thus conclude that 24 emission line stars are cluster members.

The 9 foreground stars fall into two groups. Four stars have essentially no reddening and are therefore nearby stars with $`d300`$ pc. These might be part of a nearby association, similar to the TW Hydrae association (de la Reza et al., 1989; Gregorio-Hetem et al., 1992; Zuckerman et al., 2001) or the $`\eta `$ Chamaeleontis cluster (Mamajek et al., 1999). The other five stars also appear to lie at the same distance and might form another association or group along the line of sight to NGC 6871.

The emission line stars in the cluster consist of two groups. Stars with spectral type $``$ A0 lie on the main sequence and have ages of $`\mathrm{t}<1.4\mathrm{x10}^7`$ yr (Siess et al., 2000). Some of these stars may be classical Be stars. Near infrared data would allow a test of the evolutionary status of these stars. Lada & Adams (1992) found that PMS Be stars and classical Be stars occupy well-defined, different regions of the J-H, H-K color-color diagram. A few F-type emission line stars may belong to this group. Several stars with spectral types A - G lie above the cluster main sequence and may be PMS stars. The distribution of $`H\alpha `$ indices for these stars coincides with the peak observed for wTTs in the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. If these are PMS stars, they are wTTs not cTTs. Some of these stars show \[NII\], \[SII\] emission and may have LiI absorption, which provides some evidence for their PMS status.

The discovery of \[SII\] and \[NII\] in apparent wTTs in NGC 6871 is a new and unexpected result of our survey. Previous observations of wTTs in other regions rarely detect \[NII\] or \[SII\] emission (Kenyon et al., 1998; Hartigan et al., 1995). We detect \[NII\] emission in $`45\%`$ and \[SII\] emission in $`36\%`$ of our candidate wTTs; none of these show \[OI\] emission features in their spectra. In many PMS stars, \[OI\], \[NII\], and \[SII\] emission lines are associated with disk accretion phenomena (e.g. jets and disk-wind interactions; Hartmann & Raymond, 1989; Hartigan et al., 1995; Reipurth & Bally, 2001). As a class, wTTs show very little evidence for a wind; the lack of an infrared excess indicates that they have already lost their disk. Thus the origin of \[NII\] and \[SII\] emission in our candidate wTTs is uncertain: If this emission is associated with these stars, the emission must be excited by some mechanism other than accretion. If the emission is not associated with these stars, a faint HII region in NGC 6871 is a plausible alternative source of forbidden line emission. Our test for nebular background emission in Section 4 appears to rule out this source of emission, but high resolution spectra would provide a better test.

We thank the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory staff and A. Mahdavi, K, Rines, E. Falco, W. Brown for helping with the observations and Susan Tokarz and the SAO Telescope Data Center for assistance in the data reduction. Comments from an anonymous referee improved our presentation.


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# Untitled Document

## Abstract

It is assumed, that the clumps of lines do not connected with states mixing and IVR, but they are the result of breaking (destruction) of the process of averaging of momentum of inertia of molecules during the vibration motion of atoms. Rough estimates of the widths of clumps of lines in absorption spectra of some acetylenic derivatives were made with this model. Obtained results are in a satisfactory agreement with the available experimental data. This idea allows also in principle to explain the origin of intensive wings of lines, the existence of which was discussed earlier.

PACS number: 33.70.-w

Alternative explanation of the nature of line clumps

V.A.Kuz’menko

Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research,

Troitsk, Moscow region, 142190, Russian Federation.

It is known that single lines in the absorption infrared spectrum of polyatomic molecules can split into a clump (a cluster) of closely spaced narrow lines . It is supposed that this results from mixing of the states. Recently the structure of line clumps for various molecules has been studied rather intensively . On the basis of these data the time of intramolecular vibrational relaxation (IVR) is calculated.

The Doppler width of individual lines in a clump is determined only by the potentialities of the experimental technique in use and it can equal several MHz. This corresponds to the lifetime of the probed states equal to several dozens nanoseconds. At the same time, from the analysis of the structure of line clumps a conclusion is drawn that the IVR duration is, for example, about 200 ps. No weighty arguments are available which could eliminate this contradiction. Moreover, except a not very good correlation between the densities of lines in a clump and the state densities of a molecule no other reliable data are available to prove that clumps are formed as a result of mixing of states rather than of some other reasons. Previously such proofs were not necessary. This explanation was considered as evident and having no alternative.

The purpose of the present note is to suggest such alternative explanation of the nature of line clumps which is associated neither with mixing of the states nor with IVR. Spectroscopy allows high precision (\<0.01% ) determination of the inertia moment of a molecule. But this is an averaged inertia moment, because of an inertia moment of molecule change during a vibrational motion of atoms in the range $`5\%`$ . Thus, we have a reliably established experimental fact: averaging of the inertia moment of molecule takes place during the vibration period of their atoms. If one supposes that the mechanism of averaging the inertia moment can suffer periodic short–time breaking (destruction) by various vibrational modes then instead of one narrow line in the spectrum we should get something very similar to a clump of lines. The distribution of the lines inside the clump can be expected to be rather chaotic. And the width of the clump of lines is apparently determined by the maximum amplitude of the variation of the molecule inertia moment under atom vibrations.

Clump widths in accordance with the present model can be roughly evaluated using the available data on the amplitude of atom vibrations for various chemical bonds . If one takes into account that in the expression for the molecule inertia moment we have the square interatomic distance $`(𝐑)`$ and that the amplitude of atoms vibrations $`(\mathrm{\Delta }𝐑)`$ is relatively small the expression for the width of clumps $`(𝚫)`$can be written as:

$$𝚫=\mathrm{𝟐}𝐁\left[\left(\frac{𝐑+𝚫𝐑}{𝐑}\right)^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathrm{𝟏}\right]\mathrm{𝟒}𝐁\frac{𝚫𝐑}{𝐑}$$
(1)
where B  is the rotational constant of the molecule.

In Table 1 the results of the appropriate calculations for the width of line clumps for some acetylenic derivatives are presented. For lighter molecules (propyne and 1-butyne) the C-H bond parameters were used as a model for calculation, whereas for $`CF_3CCH`$ and $`SF_5CCH`$ molecules the parameters of C–F and S–F bonds, respectively, were used. One should keep in mind that the data on the vibration amplitude used in Table 1 were taken from Ref. and they characterize the mean square vibration amplitude. For the width of the line clumps the total vibration amplitude is, apparently, more important. Therefore, the calculation results presented in Table 1 can be considered $`\sqrt{2}`$ times underestimated.

Table 1. Evaluation of the clump widths of the acetylenic C-H stretch vibration in some acetylenic derivatives.

| Molecule | $`𝐁^a`$ | $`𝐑^b`$ | $`\mathrm{\Delta }𝐑`$ | $`𝚫_{calc}^c`$ | $`𝚫_{exp}^d`$ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | $`(cm^1)`$ | (Ȧ) | (Ȧ) | $`(cm^1)`$ | $`(cm^1)`$ |
| $`CH_3CCH`$ | 0.284 | 1.08 | 0.078 | 0.082 | $`0.10`$ |
| $`CH_3CH_2CCH`$ | 0.144 | 1.08 | 0.078 | 0.042 | $`0.06`$ |
| $`CF_3CCH`$ | 0.0957 | 1.33 | 0.045 | 0.013 | 0.02–0.08 |
| $`SF_5CCH`$ | 0.0579 | 1.58 | 0.042 | 0.0062 | 0.002–0.008 |

a– the values of the rotational constant B were taken from Ref.\[4-7\].

b– the values of interatomic distances were taken from Ref..

c– results of calculations by the formula (1)

d– the values of the clump widths were taken from Ref.\[5-7,9\].

Thus, it is seen from Table 1 that the results of even a rather rough evaluation of the clump widths within the framework of the present model agree satisfactorily with the experimental results.

Along with clumps of lines in the spectra of polyatomic molecules purely Lorentzian line contours  of comparable width are also observed. The authors of the works usually do not see any principal differences between them. In our opinion, the purely Lorentzian contour actually characterizes the IVR process. Therefore, it cannot have a fine inner structure and, in fact, has nothing in common with line clumps. It is interesting that in Ref. one can observe a gradual transition from a clumps of lines to the purely Lorentzian contour: this occurs in this case at the growing number of the rotational transition.

Investigation of the structure of line clumps does not yield now rich information. On the one hand, now only rather trivial information can be obtained from the clump widths. But on the other hand, it is difficult to understand as yet how to interpret definitely the data on the density of lines in a clump. In our opinion, it is much more interesting to study the wings of absorption lines for polyatomic molecules. Quite reliable experimental proofs are available to show that narrow absorption lines of polyatomic molecules have wide and intensive Lorentzian wings of unknown nature . Namely the breaking (destruction) of the averaging process of the inertia moment of the molecules can, in principle, be responsible for both: the appearance of clumps and the intensive line wings. The very moment of breaking (destruction) can be considered as some short-life state of the molecule, which should be corresponded with some wide component in the line spectrum.

A sufficiently reliable measurement of the intensity and of the width of the line wings can easily be performed in a molecular beam by the technique available. Molecular beam with a cryogenic bolometer is ideally suitable for the study of line wings . Narrow and powerful laser radiation interacts mainly with the line wings. Low rotational temperature in the beam results in that the width of the absorption band is comparable with or less than that of the line wings. Therefore, for precise determination of the width of the line wings it is not necessary to investigate very far wings of the absorption bands. The sensitivity of the apparatus can easily be calibrated using large polyatomic molecules like as hexafluoroacetone. Upon calibration, such an instrument can be used for measuring the intensity and the width of the line wings for most polyatomic molecules. This information is important for the solution of such spectroscopic problems as infrared multiphoton excitation of molecules, infrared laser dissociation of dimers and clusters, the nature of far wings in absorption bands of molecules in the gaseous phase, the line widths for molecule absorption in liquids, etc. It is quite possible, that the Earth’s climate is depended on such intense line wings .