text:
# Lockin to Weak Ferromagnetism in TbNi2B2C and ErNi2B2C

## I Introduction

The material TbNi2B2C is one of a number of rare earth borocarbide materials that display a fascinating variety of magnetic and superconducting phases.mul01  This particular material has a phase transition to a spin-density-wave phase at $`T_N`$ 15 K followed by the appearance of weak ferromagnetism at $`T_{WFM}`$ 8 K.cho96  A neutron diffraction study der96  of the magnetic structure showed that the wave vector of the spin-density wave decreased with decreasing temperature in the spin-density wave phase until the transition temperature to the weak ferromagnetic phase was reached, at which point the spin-density-wave wave vector became approximately constant at $`𝐐=.545𝐚^{}`$. This behavior is characteristic of a continuous lockin transition to a commensurate phase occurring at $`T_{WFM}`$, the commensurate wave vector being $`𝐐=.545𝐚^{}=(6/11)𝐚^{}`$. This value for the locked in wave vector has been confirmed by recent high resolution magnetic X-ray scattering studies.det02  There is some hysteresis observed at $`T_{WFM}`$, which is consistent with the idea that hysteresis can occur at a continuous commensurate-incommensurate transition (as well as at a first order commensurate-incommensurate transition).

Similarly, in ErNi2B2C, there is a transition to a spin density wave phase, followed apparently by a transition to a weak ferromagnetic phase can96  as the temperature is lowered.sin95 ; det99 ; cho01 ; kaw02  The study of the weak ferromagnetism is made more complicated in this case because the magnetic transitions occur within a superconducting phase. Here also a lockin phase transition appears to accompany the transition to weak ferromagnetism. (The evidence for the lockin is that the spin-density-wave wave vector appears to become more or less independent of temperature below $`T_{WFM}`$). The lockin wave vector is close to $`𝐐=0.548𝐚^{}=(17/31)𝐚^{}`$ according to cho01  and close to $`𝐐=0.550𝐚^{}=(11/20)𝐚^{}`$ according to kaw02 ; det02 .

A curious aspect of the behavior of both TbNi2B2C and ErNi2B2C is that the apparent incommensurate-commensurate transition and the transition to weak ferromagnetism seem to occur at the same temperature. It is possible for two independent second-order phase transitions to occur at nearly the same temperature if the interactions in the system happen to have just the right values so that this happens. However, this is very unusual, and to have it happen in two different materials is even more unusual. This suggests that the lockin transition and the transition to weak ferromagnetism are not independent, but have a common origin. The purpose of this article is to describe a model in which weak ferromagnetism necessarily occurs simultaneously with a lockin transition in a spin-density-wave state, and that could therefore be relevant to the magnetic behavior of TbNi2B2C and ErNi2B2C. The model described here is related to that proposed in zhu86 .

One of the results derived below is that weak ferromagnetism necessarily accompanies the lockin transition in the spin-density wave states of TbNi2B2C and ErNi2B2C only if the commensurate wave vector is of the form $`𝐐=(m/n)𝐚^{}`$, with $`m`$ an even integer and $`n`$ an odd integer. An independent microscopic calculation of the nature of commensurate phases of ErNi2B2C, including the possible occurrence of ferromagnetism, has been carried out in jen02 for a number of different commensurate wave vectors. These results for specific wave vectors are consistent with the general rule concerning the occurrence of ferromagnetism developed in this article.

The work described below makes use of a Ginzburg-Landau type of analysis. This is a useful way of obtaining results of general validity which depend on the symmetry of the problem. Thus, the approach is complementary to the microscopic type of calculation described in jen02 .

## II The Spin-Density-Wave Phase

A model specifically related to TbNi2B2C will now be described. Above the spin-density-wave transition temperature the material TbNi2B2C has a body-centered tetragonal structure with space-group symmetry I4/mmm. The spin-density wave in TbNi2B2C is assumed to be represented by the equation

$$𝐒(𝐫)=\underset{𝐑,\stackrel{~}{B},n,i}{}\left[𝐒_{n,i}e^{in𝐐_𝐢𝐫}+𝐒_{n,i}^{}e^{in𝐐_ir}\right]\delta (𝐫𝐑\stackrel{~}{𝐁}).$$
(1)
Here $`𝐑`$ labels the unit cell, $`\stackrel{~}{𝐁}=0,\frac{1}{2}(𝐚+𝐛+𝐜)`$ labels the magnetic ions in the crystallographic unit cell (at the corner and body center positions), n labels the harmonic, and $`i=a,b`$ labels the symmetry-equivalent wave vectors $`𝐐_a=(Q,0,0)`$ and $`𝐐_b=(0,Q,0)`$, where $`Q0.55a^{}`$. Since the spin-density wave in TbNi2B2C is thought to be longitudinally polarizedlyn97 , i.e. $`𝐒_i`$ is parallel to $`𝐐_i`$ (see however kre02 ), the nonzero components of the primary order parameter $`𝐒_{1,i}`$ (describing the first harmonic) are $`S_{1,a,x}`$ and $`S_{1,b,y}`$, which will be denoted below simply by $`S_x`$ and $`S_y`$, respectively. It is important to remember, however, that $`S_x`$ and $`S_y`$ are complex numbers giving the amplitude and phase of the spin-density waves with wave vectors $`𝐐_a`$ and $`𝐐_b`$, respectively. (A similar model relevant to ErNi2B2C would involve $`S_{1,a,y}`$ and $`S_{1,b,x}`$ since the spin-density wave in this material is transversely polarized.sin95 )

Given the above description of the spin-density wave, the Landau free energy describing a second-order phase transition to the spin-density-wave phase has the form

$`F`$ $`=`$ $`A(|S_x|^2+|S_y|^2)`$ (2)
$`+B(|S_x|^2+|S_y|^2)^2+C|S_x|^2|S_y|^2,`$
where $`A(TT_N)`$, with $`T_N`$ being the transition temperature. The constants $`B`$ and $`C`$ must satisfy $`B>0`$ and $`4B+C>0`$ for stability. If $`C<0`$ a tetragonal double-Q spin-density wave phase with $`|S_x|=|S_y|0`$ occurs, while if $`C>0`$ an orthorhombic single-Q phase with either $`|S_x|0`$ or $`|S_y|0`$, but not both, occurs. Below TN in TbNi2B2C, the structure becomes orthorhombickre01 ; det02  so it is clearly the single-Q state that occurs in this material. A given material normally contains both single-Q domains (in spatially different regions of the crystal). In what follows we study explicitly only the properties of the single-Q domain characterized by a non-zero $`S_x`$; the properties of the domain characterized by $`S_y`$ follow immediately by rotating by $`\pi /2`$ about the $`c`$-axis.

Spin-density-wave harmonics of order $`2n+1`$ with $`n`$ an integer are induced by contributions to the free energy proportional to $`S_{2n+1,x}(S_x^{})^{2n+1}+S_{2n+1,x}^{}S_x^{2n+1}`$. Since this term is linear in $`S_{2n+1,x}`$, the value of $`S_{2n+1,x}`$ which minimizes the free energy must be non-zero. There are other terms in the free energy that are also linear in $`S_{2n+1,x}`$ and which also contribute to the induction of the $`(2n+1)^{th}`$ harmonic. However, since we are only interested here in demonstrating that the symmetry of the problem requires the existence of the $`(2n+1)^{th}`$ harmonic (and do not attempt to evaluate its magnitude) it is sufficient to consider only one example of the terms linear in $`S_{2n+1,x}`$. Similarly, throughout this article, only one example of the type of term necessary for our purpose will be given. The wave vector associated with $`S_{2n+1,x}`$ is $`(2n+1)𝐐_a`$. Similarly, charge-density-wave (or, equivalently, longitudinal lattice-displacement-wave) harmonics of order $`2n`$ and complex charge-density-wave amplitude $`\rho _{2n}`$ are induced by terms in the free energy proportional to $`\rho _{2n}(S_xS_x^{2n1})^{}+\rho _{2n}^{}S_xS_x^{2n1}`$. The conclusions of this paragraph are well known from studies of the spin-density-wave state of chromium.faw88

## III Lockin to Weak Ferromagnetism

Consider a single-Q spin-density-wave phase characterized by a nonzero $`S_x`$, as described above. A lock-in transition is obtained by adding so-called lock-in terms proportional to $`S_x^p`$ and $`(S_x^{})^p`$ ($`p`$ is an integer) to this free energy. Since the free energy must be invariant with respect to a translation of the spin-density-wave by the displacement $`\frac{1}{2}(𝐚+𝐛+𝐜)`$, these terms are allowed only for of $`Q`$ such that $`Q=2(m/p)a^{}`$ , where $`m`$ (as well as $`p`$) is an integer. (The factor 2 in the expression $`Q=2(m/p)a^{}`$ appears because the unit cell is body centered.) Thus if $`Q`$ is close to satisfying this commensurability condition for some m, it sometimes pays the system to to adjust its $`Q`$ to exactly satisfy it, so as to be able gain energy from the presence of the lock-in terms in the free energy. If $`p`$ is odd, however, terms proportional to $`S_x^p`$ can not exist by themselves in the free energy since they are not invariant with respect to time reversal. The solution to this problem for odd $`p`$ is to consider terms such as $`S_x^pS_{0x}`$,zhu86  where $`S_{0x}`$ is the ferromagnetic component of the spin density, which are invariant under time reversal, and since $`Q=2(m/p)a^{}`$, are also invariant under body-centered Bravais lattice translations. Note that symmetry requires the ferromagnetic moment to be in the same direction as the spin-density-wave polarization vector \[in this case both are directed along the x (or a) axis\]. Thus, for $`p`$ odd, the terms stabilizing a lockin transition are

$$F_{lockin}=A_0S_{0x}^2+B_0|S_x|^pcos(p\varphi )S_{0x},$$
(3)
where $`A_0>0`$ is expected, and $`S_x=|S_x|exp(i\varphi )`$. These terms must be added to the original free energy given above. Because the second term in $`F_{lockin}`$ is linear in $`S_{0x}`$, the free energy has its minimum at a non zero value of $`S_{0x}`$ in the locked in phase, and weak ferromagnetism is thereby necessarily induced at an odd-$`p`$ lockin phase transition. For a continuous lockin transition corresponding to even $`p`$, ferromagnetism will not automatically be induced, and thus would not be expected to occur simultaneously with the lockin. It should be noted that the lockin terms of Eq. 3 exist in the commensurate phase free energy independently of whether the transition to the commensurate phase is first or second order. Thus, ferromagnetism necessarily occurs in any commensurate phase with $`Q=2(m/p)a^{}`$ where $`p`$ is odd.

If $`B_0>0`$ is assumed, the minimum of $`F_{lockin}`$ occurs for $`p\varphi =2r\pi `$ and $`S_{0x}<0`$, or for $`p\varphi =(2r+1)\pi `$ and $`S_{0x}>0`$, where r is an integer. Assuming $`p=11`$, as is appropriate for TbNi2B2C (since $`Q=2(m/p)a^{}=(6/11)a^{}`$ in the locked in phase), and taking $`r=1,2,\mathrm{}11`$ in $`p\varphi =2r\pi `$, one finds eleven distinct commensurate domains, each with $`S_{0x}<0`$. The new commensurate unit cell has a-axis length $`11a`$, and the eleven disinct domains are obtained by starting with one of them, and then producing the others by translating the spin-density-wave structure by the original lattice constant $`a`$ ten times. Translating each of these different commensurate domains by the displacement $`\frac{1}{2}(𝐚+𝐛+𝐜)`$ gives a corresponding domain with all of the spin directions (including the ferromagnetic component $`S_{0x}`$) reversed in sign. An incommensurate phase can be viewed as a sequence of commensurate domains separated by domain walls, which are often called discommensurations.mcm76  In a continuous incommensurate to commensurate transition, the domain walls are swept out to the sample boundary as the temperature approaches the transition temperature. In a commensurate to incommensurate transition, domain walls must be nucleated in the commensurate phase to form the incommensurate phase. Pinning of the domain walls, as well as the energy barrier required to nucleate a domain wall, contribute to hysteresis effects for both first order and second order lockin transitions. The lockin transition will be first order if the interaction between domain walls is attractive, and second order if the interaction between domain walls is repulsive (e.g. as in jac80 ).

Consider an incommensurate phase viewed as a periodic array of discommensurations, each of which separates two commensurate domains differing by a translation of $`\frac{1}{2}(𝐚+𝐛+𝐜)`$. Suppose also that the commensurate domains all correspond to a particular wave vector $`Q=(m/n)a^{}`$ with $`m`$ even and $`n`$ odd so that each commensurate domain is ferromagnetic. However, from what was said above, neighboring commensurate domains have their ferromagnetic moments in opposite directions so that the incommensurate phase as a whole has no net ferromagnetic moment. Applying an external magnetic field in a direction parallel or antiparallel to the ferromagnetic moments of the domains will then cause the domains with moments parallel to the external field to grow (by movement of the discommensurations) at the expense of those with moments antiparallel to the externa field, thus giving a sort of field induced ferromagnetism to the incommensurate phase. This effect will be inhibited by discommensuration pinning.

## IV Magnetic even-order harmonics

Now consider a magnetic state in which there is a ferromagnetic moment $`S_{0x}`$ and a spin-density-wave (which may be either commensurate or incommensurate for the purposes of this section) characterized by the complex amplitude $`S_x`$. Spin-density-wave harmonics of (even) order $`2n`$ and complex amplitude $`S_{2n,x}`$ are induced in the combined ferromagnetic and spin-density-wave states by terms in the free energy given by

$$F_{even}=S_{0x}[S_{2n,x}(S_x^{})^{2n}+S_{2n,x}^{}S_x^{2n}].$$
(4)
Since this contribution to the free energy is linear in $`S_{2n,x}`$, magnetic even-order harmonics are necessarily present in a state containing both a spin-density wave and ferromagnetism. Conversely, a state containing both a spin-density wave and one of its even harmonics, necessarily contains a ferromagnetic moment.

It has been found that, in ErNi2B2C, even-order magnetic harmonics are present below $`T_{WFM}`$.cho01 ; kaw02  This very unusual result is explained by the discussion of the preceding paragraph.

## V Discussion

The model described above appears to account well for the simultaneous continuous lockin and weakly ferromagnetic phase transitions which occur at approximately 8K in TbNi2B2C. In particular, the commensurate wave vector $`Q=(6/11)a^{}`$ is of the form $`Q=(m/n)a^{}`$ with $`m`$ even and $`n`$ odd. Thus, the continuous lockin transition is necessarily accompanied by the presence of weak ferromagnetism. The direction of the induced weak ferromagnetic moment is required by symmetry to be in the same (or opposite) direction as the polarization vector of the spin-density wave, which is consistent with the observation ofcho96  that the induced ferromagnetic moment is in the basal plane. If there are ferromagnetic domains present, the lowest free energy type of domain structure is expected to have domains of different ferromagnetic spin orientations associated with commensurate regions shifted relative to one another by the displacement $`\frac{1}{2}(𝐚+𝐛+𝐜)`$. Even harmonics have been observed very recently kre02  both above and below the transition temperature to weak ferromagnetism, and it would be of interest to determine the magnetic character of these satellites as a function of temperature. (In the model described above, even harmonics of magnetic character should occur only in the weakly ferromagnetic phase). Also, kre02  has presented evidence that the spin-density-wave phase of TbNi2B2C may not be perfectly longitudinal, at least at some temperatures. A reorientation of the spin polarization should not affect the general arguments of this article concerning the lockin to weak ferromagnetism.

Some features of the weakly ferromagnetic phase observed in ErNi2B2C are accounted for by the above work. For example, the even harmonics which occur in the ferromagnetic phasecho01 ; kaw02 , and which have the unusual characteristic of being magnetic, are shown to necessarily accompany the presence of ferromagnetism combined with a spin-density wave.

However, the observed magnitude $`Q`$ of the locked in wave vector in ErNi2B2C does not obviously satisfy the requirement $`Q=(m/p)a^{}`$, with $`m`$ even and $`p`$ odd, derived above for continuous phase transition to a locked phase that is also ferromagnetic. The commensurate wave vector found in cho01  is $`Q=0.548a^{}=(17/31)a^{}`$, whereas the commensurate wave vector found in kaw02 ; det02  is $`Q=0.550a^{}=(11/20)a^{}`$. It should be noted, however, that the value $`Q=(28/51)a^{}=0.549a^{}`$jen02 , and the value $`Q=(16/29)a^{}=0.5517a^{}`$ would both produce a locked in weakly ferromagnetic phase as described above. The question now arises as to what is the significance of variations of wave vector of the order of $`\delta Q0.001`$. The transition from an incommensurate to a commensurate phase is brought about by sweeping the domain walls between different commensurate regions out of the crystal. If it turns out that the pinning of the domain walls does not allow this process to be completed, so that there remain domain walls separated on average by a distance $`1000a`$, then this will cause a change in the observed $`Q`$ of order $`\delta Q0.001a^{}`$. Clearly, the interpretation of the locked in phase of TbNi2B2C, where the commensurate wave vector involves smaller integers and the absolute precision of its measurement is less significant, is more straight forward than the interpretation of the locked in phase of ErNi2B2C.

It is also of interest to compare the results of this article with those of the microscopic mean field calculation of jen02 . Ref. jen02  studied a number of commensurate spin-density-wave structures having $`Q`$ close to $`Q=0.55a^{}`$ for a detailed model of ErNi2B2C. The commensurate structures of that article having $`Q=(6/11)a^{}`$ and $`Q=(4/7)a^{}`$ both had ferromagnetic moments, whereas the structure with $`Q=(5/9)a^{}`$ had no ferromagnetic moment. These results are consistent with the general rule stated above that weak ferromagnetism is necessarily present in a commensurate phase with $`Q`$ of the form $`Q=(m/n)a^{}`$ where $`m`$ is even and $`n`$ is odd. On the other hand, Ref. jen02  finds a first order phase transition within the $`Q=(11/20)a^{}`$ commensurate phase from a non-ferromagnetic to a weakly ferromagnetic state. This does not contradict the general rule given above, since the rule does not require a commensurate phase of this wave vector to be ferromagnetic, nor does it prevent a particular choice of the model interactions from yielding ferromagnetism at this wave vector. In this case, however, there is no reason for the ferromagnetism to occur simulataneously with the lockin (and jen02  does not argue that it does). Finally, it is interesting to note that certain aspects of the neutron scattering data of cho01  were explained in jen02  by invoking a commensurate phase with $`Q=(28/51)a^{}`$. Interestingly, the symmetry arguments of this article require that such a phase is weakly ferromagnetic. (Ref. jen02  is silent on the question of the ferromagnetism of their $`Q=(28/51)a^{}`$ phase.)

## Acknowledgements

We thank P. C. Canfield for useful comments, and MBW thanks K. A. Moler for drawing the interesting properties of the weakly ferromagnetic phase of ErNi2B2C to his attention. Also, support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is acknowledged.


format: text

text:
# A layered edge-on circumstellar disk around HK Tau BBased on observations carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).

## 1 Introduction

Circumstellar dusty disks are primarily studied to constrain the relevant timescales and various phases of the planetary formation process, from submicron interstellar medium (ISM) dust material to km-sized bodies. The dramatic differences between disks surrounding 10–20 Myr-old zero-age main sequence stars such as $`\beta `$ Pic (Lagrange et al. 2000 and references therein) and those around the much younger T Tauri stars strongly points toward an evolutionary process that occurs within $`10^7`$ yrs. T Tauri stars are thus obvious targets for studying the very first stages of disk evolution and, more specifically, the growth of dust grains in protoplanetary disks from ISM-sized particules to significantly larger ones.

The dust component of circumstellar disks can be traced through its thermal continuum emission. This is especially straightforward at millimeter wavelengths, at which the disk is almost entirely optically thin. Such studies have been performed for over a decade and first hinted at the presence of “large” dust grains, as evidenced by “abnormal” dust emissivity properties (Beckwith et al. 1990, hereafter B90). However, disk masses and maximum grain size are currently poorly constrained due to the uncertain grain shape and composition (Pollack et al. 1994; Henning & Stognienko 1996). Furthermore, the low spatial resolution of most radio observations only rarely allows direct studies of the structure of the disks nor do they resolve the tight visual binary systems commonly found among pre-main sequence stars (Duchêne 1999 and references therein). It is also possible to study the dust grain population of circumstellar disks through high contrast, high-angular resolution imaging of scattered light in the environment of pre-main sequence stars. Such observations, however, are only sensitive to those grains whose sizes are within a factor of a few of the wavelength. The presence (or absence) of much smaller/bigger grains is not constrained by scattered light images. Only the combination of the thermal and scattering approaches can fully determine the properties of dust in circumstellar disks.

HK Tau is a 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$4 pre-main sequence binary system located in the nearby Taurus star-forming region ($`D140`$ pc, Bertout et al. 1999). The primary star presents the usual caracteristics of a classical T Tauri star surrounded by a circumstellar accretion disk (Cohen & Kuhi 1979, Kenyon & Hartmann 1995). However, the secondary component, which was discovered by Cohen & Kuhi (1979), is remarkably faint at visible/near-infrared wavelengths. B90 and Beckwith et al. (1991, hereafter BS91) first detected continuum millimeter and submillimeter emission from the system and estimated a first disk mass, $`M_d10^2M_{}`$, although their large beam sizes did not resolve the binary.

The HK Tau system was later observed at high angular resolution in the near-infrared by Koresko (1998, hereafter K98) and by Stapelfeldt et al. (1998, hereafter S98) through deep HST/WFPC2 visible imaging. HK Tau A appeared as a bright point source while HK Tau B111In some early studies this component was named HK Tau/c. We adopt here the convention proposed by the IAU and name the secondary component HK Tau B. offered a dramatically different shape, that of an extended nebulosity, about 210 AU across, with a central dark lane. Both interpreted these images as the signature of an optically thick circumstellar disk seen almost edge-on that completely obscures the central star and only lets scattered photons reach the observer. They further estimated that the total disk mass needed to reproduce these images assuming ISM-like dust grains is 1–2 orders of magnitude smaller than that derived by B90 and BS91. More recently, D’Alessio et al. (2001, hereafter DACH01) modeled the disk of HK Tau B, trying to match simultaneously the millimeter continuum flux of B90 and the morphology of the disk as seen in optical scattered light. They assumed a disk mass several times larger than that estimated by B90 and BS96 and, allowing the grain size distribution to vary, found a reasonable match to the data for a maximum grain size between 1 mm and 1 m. The large discrepancies with the conclusions of S98 and K98 raised doubts about the actual disk’s structure and dust content.

However, to properly estimate the disk mass or to conclude that dust grains have grown from ISM-like particules, it is necessary to remove the ambiguity induced by the unresolved millimeter measurement of HK Tau from B90. In this paper, we present new 1.4 mm and 2.7 mm images obtained with the IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer with an angular resolution that allows us to resolve the binary system at the shortest wavelength. The observations and results are described in § 2 and § 3 respectively, while a model of the 1.4 mm emission is presented in § 4. In § 5, we evaluate the implications of our observations for the dust content of the disk surrounding HK Tau B as well as for the geometrical properties of the whole system. Finally, we summarize our findings in § 6.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

The interferometric data presented in Figure 1 were obtained with the IRAM-Plateau de Bure interferometer (Guilloteau et al. 1992). The array was used in compact configurations with 4 antennas on 8 September 1998 (configuration 4D1), and 5 antennas on both 17 December 1998 (configuration 5C2), and 5 April 1999 (configuration 5D). The baselines ranged from 24m to 176m. The measured beam size in the final synthesized maps are 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$5$`\times `$1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$4 at position angle 15$`\mathrm{°}`$ at 1.4 mm (220 GHz) and 3$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7$`\times `$3$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 at position angle 23$`\mathrm{°}`$ at 2.7 mm (110 GHz). Three spectral bands of 160 MHz each at 1.4 mm and two such spectral bands at 2.7 mm were used. Two more units of the correlator were tuned to observe lines of carbon monoxyde simultaneously with the thermal continuum: 13CO$`(10)`$ and 13CO$`(21)`$ at 110.2 GHz (10 MHz bandwidth) and 220.4 GHz (20 MHz) respectively. None of them was detected.

We used 0415+379 and 0528+134 as phase calibrators. The rms phase noise was 15$`\mathrm{°}`$ to 40$`\mathrm{°}`$ at 1.4 mm and 8$`\mathrm{°}`$ to 20$`\mathrm{°}`$ at 2.7 mm. This phase noise introduces a position error of less than 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$1. The flux scale was calibrated by observing the sources MWC 349, 3C 84 and 3C 454.4 and its associated uncertainty is about 10 %. Relative fluxes within a map can be obtained with a much better accuracy. The gildas software package was used to reduce the data. The continuum maps were produced using uniform weighting of the visibilities. We CLEANed the images with a Clark algorithm using a maximum of 200 loops of gain 0.1 each and setting the convergence level at 0.1 % of the peak value.

## 3 Results

Table 1 summarizes all the measurements that were extracted from our datasets. The flux densities and positions of the two sources were obtained through a fit to the CLEANed images in the Fourier space. The primary, which is unresolved at both wavelengths was fit with a point source. The secondary was fit with a point source at 2.7 mm and with an elliptical gaussian at 1.4 mm. At this shorter wavelength, HK Tau B appears more elongated than the interferometer beam and a point source fit systematically results in larger residuals. From the fit to the 1.4 mm data, we derive a separation (2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$44$`\pm `$0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$05) and position angle (171$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7$`\pm `$1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$1, measured East of North) between the two centroids that are in excellent agreement with previous astrometric results (Monetti & Zinnecker 1991, S98). Although the 2.7 mm image seems to be extended roughly along the binary orientation at the lowest contour (see Fig 1), the map obtained after subtraction of the primary shows that the residuals at the location of the secondary are not larger than several patches of noise in the image. We therefore derived a 3 $`\sigma `$ upper limit to the actual 2.7 mm flux density of HK Tau B from a fit to the data in which we fixed the separation and position angle of the binary to the values derived from the 1.4 mm data.

The sum of the two components’ fluxes at 1.4 mm is $`43.9\pm 4.6`$ mJy, in excellent agreement with B90’s previous measurement of the unresolved system ($`41\pm 5`$ mJy). Furthermore, we find that, although HK Tau A is the dominant source in the system, HK Tau B accounts for about one third of the system’s flux. From our data, we measure the spectral index222This index, $`\alpha _\nu `$, is defined by the relation $`F_\nu \nu ^{\alpha _\nu }`$ between 1.4 and 2.7 mm. of HK Tau A to be $`\alpha _\nu (\mathrm{A})=2.1\pm 0.2`$. To derive a lower limit for the spectral index of HK Tau B, we conservatively adopt a uniform probability distribution for its 2.7 mm flux density in the range 0–1.5 mJy and conclude that $`\alpha _\nu (\mathrm{B})>3.2`$ at the 99.7 % (3$`\sigma `$) confidence level.

Roughly speaking, the intrinsic size of a source adds in quadrature with the beam size to produce the observed FWHM of the object. An increase of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$1 from the beam size can be detected in our data. Because HK Tau A is not resolved in our data, we infer that the size of its 1.4 mm emission is smaller than 70 AU (FWHM). On the contrary, HK Tau B is extended along its major axis but unresolved along the minor axis. We derive a size of $`125\pm 17`$ AU, a value smaller than the 210 AU disk diameter observed in the visible (S98). The difference is likely an effect of sensitivity limit of the interferometer to thermal dust emission. The position angle along which the elliptical gaussian lies nicely matches the direction of the dark lane seen in scattered light images (40°, S98, K98).

## 4 Model of the millimeter emission from HK Tau B

### 4.1 Nature of the emission

Millimeter emission from T Tauri stars is most frequently thermal in nature, and it has been modelled as such in the past (e.g., B90). However, non-thermal mechanisms, such as free-free and gyro-synchrotron emissions, can represent a non negligible fraction of the observed millimeter flux (e.g., V 773 Tau; Dutrey et al. 1996, hereafter D96). Since variable non-thermal continuum emission at 6.2 cm was detected from HK Tau B in the past (O’Neal et al. 1990), we discuss this possibility below.

The absence of variability in the 1.4 mm flux density of the unresolved system suggests that both sources are stable over several years. This tends to indicate that non-thermal emission, if present, is not dominant even though the preponderant emission from HK Tau A could strongly dilute the effects of variability in HK Tau B in the single dish measurements. Furthermore, the lower limit to the spectral index of HK Tau B between 1.4 and 2.7 mm is typical of optically thin thermal emission from a circumstellar disk (BS91, D96). Finally, the 1.4 mm emission appears to be elongated along the disk semi-major axis, whereas non-thermal emission would be confined to a very small, unresolved, volume surrounding the central star (free-free emission in the stellar chromosphere) or elongated along an axis perpendicular to the disk (synchrotron emission in a jet). We therefore conclude that most of the 1.4 mm we have detected from HK Tau B is the result of thermal emission from dust grains in its circumstellar disk.

### 4.2 Model and results

#### 4.2.1 Objectives

To fully constrain the mass, structure and dust content of a circumstellar disk, one ultimately needs images at all wavelengths. Prior to our observations, the binary system had only been resolved shortward of 3.5 $`\mu `$m. All flux measurements in the thermal regime, i.e., at longer wavelengths, combined the flux of both stars. Building an SED for HK Tau B is not currently possible, and previous models of the thermal emission of this source suffered from this limitation.

Our goal is to present an updated model of the disk around HK Tau B that takes into account the new data of § 3. Our thermal emission model is similar in philosophy to the ones presented by B90 and D96. However, the analytical models presented in the past assumed geometrically thin disks and are invalid for edge-on disks. Although our model is relatively simple, its assumptions are adequate for a direct comparison with the scattered light model presented in S98. Therefore, differences in the disk properties inferred from these models, e.g., disk mass, temperature or dust content, will indicate the limits of our understanding of this circumstellar disk.

#### 4.2.2 Description of the model

To check the relevance of the disk model derived by S98, we adopt here the same disk structure, parametrized as follows: a total gas+dust mass $`M_d`$, a surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(r)r^p`$ and a temperature $`T(r)=T_0(r/r_0)^q`$. The disk is assumed to be vertically isothermal and under vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. The dust and gaseous components of the disk are assumed to be perfectly mixed, i.e., they have the same temperature and density structures. Furthermore, the dust properties are assumed to be constant throughout the disk and a gas-to-dust mass ratio of 100:1 is assumed. We adopt a disk outer radius of 105 AU and an inclination of 84$`\mathrm{°}`$ (S98). The disk inner radius is set to 0.5 AU but has a negligible influence on the result of our model, as the mass enclosed inside this radius (hence the associated thermal emission) is extremely small in all models. Finally, we initially assume a disk temperature of $`T_0=8`$ K at $`r_0=50`$ AU, which has been determined from the disk scale height estimated by S98.

We create synthetic 1.4 mm emission maps by integrating along the observer’s line of sight the observed flux density from independent contiguous cells, which is determined by their volume density, temperature, opacity and optical depth to the observer. The resulting images are then convolved with an elliptical gaussian kernel representing the interferometer primary beam to compare them to our data. One of the most crucial parameters in deriving the millimeter flux density of a disk is the choice of the dust opacity. Following B90, we adopt a total opacity of $`\kappa _\nu (1.4\mathrm{mm})=0.02\mathrm{cm}^2`$/g which takes into account the assumed gas-to-dust mass ratio. As noted by these authors, this value is an order of magnitude larger than those derived for small ($`a0.25\mu `$m), compact silicate grains, but seems to be representative of the dust present in T Tauri circumstellar disks. Possible explanation for this discrepancy include a significant growth of the dust grains in circumstellar disk (B90, BS91) or a dominant presence of submicron fractal grains (Miyake & Nakagawa 1993; Suttner & Yorke 2001).

We explored a range of values for $`M_d`$, $`p`$, $`q`$ and $`T_0`$ in an attempt to fit simultaneously the observed 1.4 mm flux density from HK Tau B as well as its apparent intrinsic size at this wavelength. The latter is evaluated in our model as the square-root difference between the FWHM of the disk and that of the interferometer beam. We checked that this method mimics adequately the data analysis procedures by calculating the Fourier transform of the image of several models, sampling them with the $`uv`$ coverage of the interferometer beam corresponding to our observational configuration and fitting the resulting datasets with the same routines as during data reduction. The disk sizes and fluxes agreed within a few percent in all cases.

#### 4.2.3 Model results

The disk mass derived for HK Tau B by S98 ($`10^4M_{}`$) yields a 1.4 mm flux density of about 0.1 mJy, two orders of magnitude smaller than the observed one. Also, the apparent disk size produced by this model is too small compared to our observations. The best fit for both quantities is obtained for a total disk mass of $`M_d2\times 10^2M_{}`$ in our model. Larger masses result in 1.4 mm flux densities that are too large.

The disk mass needed to fit the thermal emission properties of HK Tau B is excluded by the scattered light images as it would produce a dark lane that is much too wide compared to what is observed assuming ISM-like optical opacities and well mixed grains. The apparent width of this dark lane basically measures the distance between the upper and lower $`\tau _\lambda 1`$ surfaces, and is proportional to the product $`\kappa _\lambda M_d`$. Given an adopted opacity for scattering, the total disk mass is therefore determined rather accurately in the case of edge-on disks (e.g., Burrows et al. 1996). We therefore conclude that the scattered light models of S98 and the present thermal emissiom models for HK Tau B yield solutions that are not compatible with each other. We further discuss this discrepancy in § 5.1.

The disk mass derived here is similar to that derived by B90. This was expected as the loss of a factor of three in the observed 1.4 mm flux density has been compensated for by the lower disk temperature assumed in our model (8 K vs 25 K in B90’s model). Assuming a higher dust temperature of $`T_0=32`$ K at 50 AU, we infer a total disk mass of $`2\times 10^3M_{}`$. This value reduces the discrepancy between scattered light and thermal emission analyses but it is not fully satisfying. The gas scale height for $`T_0=32`$ K is twice the value derived for the dust by S98. This could only be reconciled to the HST images by removing the assumption that gas and dust are fully mixed vertically, in which case the dust would have settled toward the midplane with respect to the gas. However, maintaining a thermal equilibrium between the two populations is then a difficult task, as the starlight only heats up the dust which, in turn, keeps the gas warm through collisions.

We also find that the radial surface density and/or temperature profiles in the disk must be relatively shallow to match the observed ratio between the apparent size of the disk at 1.4 mm and its actual size ($`FWHM_{1.4\mathrm{mm}}/2R_d60`$ %). Quantitatively, $`p+q1`$ is required to reproduce the apparent disk size. Models C and D from S98, which provide the best matches to the 0.8 $`\mu `$m scattered light images, have $`p+q1.1`$ and $`1.9`$ respectively. Therefore, their model D seems too centrally condensed to reproduce the 1.4 mm extent of the disk.

## 5 Discussion

### 5.1 Structure of the circumstellar disk of HK Tau B

We investigate here the various disk models for HK Tau B that could match simultaneously the scattered light and thermal emission observations of this disk. The disk models used here and in S98 are similar to those usually used in studies of pre-main sequence circumstellar disks. In the past, they have produced satisfying models of several disks (HH 30: Burrows et al. 1996; GG Tau: Guilloteau et al. 1999, McCabe et al. 2002; IRAS 04158+2805: Ménard et al. 2002). However, they fail to reproduce the observations of HK Tau B, calling for an unusual dust model or disk structure for this source.

To reconcile the 1.4 mm flux density of HK Tau B with the narrow width of its dark lane in visible and near-infrared images, the ratio of the optical-to-radio opacities must be modified by two orders of magnitudes from the values assumed here and in S98: either the millimeter opacity is much larger, or the optical one is much smaller. Fractal grains are unable to solve this dilemma, as they have larger opacities than compact grains at both millimeter and optical/near-infrared wavelengths (Suttner & Yorke 2001). On the other hand, grain growth in the disk can account for such large changes in dust opacities: if the dust grain size extends continuously up to mm-sized particules, the 1.4 mm millimeter opacity is enhanced with respect to submicron ISM-like mixtures while the optical/near-infrared one is greatly reduced because the mass contained in $``$0.1–2 $`\mu `$m grains (i.e., the most efficient scatterers) is effectively diminished for a given disk mass. A disk mass on the order of a few times $`10^3M_{}`$, i.e., intermediate between the current scattered light and thermal emission estimates, would then be favored.

There are however at least two observational constraints that appear to rule out such a strong grain growth in this disk. First, a grain size distribution extending up to $`a_{max}1`$ mm has a millimeter spectral index333The slightly different wavelength ranges used in various studies to determine the spectral indices may somewhat modify the spectral index estimates but changes are not expected to exceed 0.1–0.2. of $`\alpha _\nu 2.5`$–3.0 (DACH01, Wood et al. 2002), which is smaller than our 3 $`\sigma `$ lower limit for HK Tau B. The observed spectral index implies that the grain size distribution does not extend beyond $`200\mu `$m at most (Figure 3 in DACH01). Second, the analysis of scattered light images have allowed to estimate an average asymmetry parameter of the dust grains, $`g_I=0.65`$ (S98). This value is similar to those derived for other pre-main sequence disks (Burrows et al. 1996, Krist et al. 2002). Furthermore, it is very similar to the value derived by Witt et al. (1990) for a small interstellar cloud which presumably contains only submicron particules, whose absorption properties match the well-known interstellar extinction curve (Mathis & Whiffen 1989, Kim et al. 1994, Zubko et al. 1998). However, $`g`$ is a strong function of grain size, especially for those grains with $`a\lambda `$, with larger grains being more forward-throwing. If there were a significant population of such grains, uniformly distributed throughout the disk of HK Tau B, the value of $`g`$ inferred from scattered light images would therefore be significantly larger than what is observed elsewhere. The relatively large 2.2 $`\mu `$m polarization rate measured by Jensen et al. (2000) for HK Tau B also points towards a dominant population of small grains in the disk since large grains ($`a\lambda /2\pi `$) result in largely unpolarized scattered light.

In summary, we conclude that the dust population traced by scattered light in the disk surrounding HK Tau B does not contain dust grains that are a few times larger ($``$1–3 $`\mu `$m) than those found in other pre-main sequence disks nor than in a small interstellar cloud. We acknowledge that the presence of much bigger grains without intermediate-size particles (i.e., two separate size populations) cannot be established at this stage. However, it is unclear why that intermediate-size range would be depleted: if mm-sized grains are present and have grown from the same population of smaller particules, then grains of any smaller sizes should be present as well. Towards the disk midplane, where most of the mass is, only a moderate grain growth, if any, is allowed by the millimeter properties of the disk. Such a grain growth is most likely unsufficient to account for all observations of HK Tau B and would contradict our conclusions regarding the surface of the disk, implicitely making use of a two component (interior/surface) model. Therefore, our analysis points toward an unusual disk structure rather than to unusual dust properties.

A natural way to reconcile the scattered light images with the 1.4 mm thermal emission map is to assume that both analyses probe different parts of the disk that cannot be extrapolated from one another. So far, we have assumed constant dust properties throughout the disk as well as vertical hydrostatic and isothermal equilibrium. This set of assumptions allowed S98 to infer a total disk mass from the scattered light images which, in fact, only probe the upper and lower surfaces of the disk. If there is a sharp discontinuity in disk properties between those surfaces and the disk interior, where most of the mass lies and most of the thermal emission arises, the validity of this extrapolation breaks down.

We therefore suggest that the disk surrounding HK Tau B has a three-layer structure. The upper and lower surfaces of the disk, above the $`\tau _\lambda =1`$ (as seen from the observer’s line of sight) surface at optical/near-infrared wavelength, consist of a light layer of submicron ISM-like dust grains, which are necessary to reproduce the scattered light images. The central layer, which lies around the disk midplane, has a mass in the range $`10^3`$$`2\times 10^2M_{}`$, depending on its temperature (but see § 4.2.3) and the amount of grain growth. These various parameters cannot be distinguished on the sole basis of a single 1.4 mm flux measurement (e.g., Chiang et al. 2001).

From their fit to the optical image of HK Tau B and to the unresolved 1.3 mm flux measured by B90, DACH01 concluded to a very different set of disk properties, with grain growth up to 1 mm–1 m. Their approach consisted in assuming a disk mass, through an assumed mass accretion rate on the star and disk viscosity properties, and allowing the dust properties to vary until it matched both datasets. Their analysis is weakened by their adopted disk mass which is arguable because HK Tau B displays only moderate signs of accretion for instance. In any case, the fact that this source represents only one third of the 1.4 mm flux density of the system would readily modify DACH01’s conclusions regarding the dust properties. Furthermore, the spectral index of their dust population is $`\alpha _\nu 2.9`$–3.0, smaller than our derived lower limit. Finally, their fit to the scattered light image was performed with a value of $`g`$ fixed to the value derived by S98, even though their grain size distribution requires a modified value that would then be inconsistent with the data. Overall, we believe that our observations do not agree with their model of the disk mostly because the disk mass and/or structure differs from their assumptions.

Models of three-layer circumstellar disks have already been investigated by several groups (Chiang et al. 2001; DACH01; Malbet et al. 2001) and numerical simulations of the evolution of protoplanetary disks have also resulted in such structures (Suttner & Yorke 2001). Therefore, our assumption that the disk interior differs from the surface layers is not unphysical. Noticeably, a similar structure was also recently suggested by Weinberger et al. (2002) for the disk surrounding TW Hya on the basis of similar arguments as those presented here. As mentionned above, however, this configuration is not needed to match the observations of several other pre-main sequence disks. This means that the three-layer disk structure discussed above may not be representative of all young circumstellar disks but may rather indicate an important evolutionary process of circumstellar disks. Interestingly, a similar disk structure was suggested for the more massive, though equally young, Herbig AeBe stars by Natta et al. (2001).

### 5.2 The disk around HK Tau A

Our detection of HK Tau A as a millimeter thermal source confirms that it possesses its own circumstellar disk. The fact that we did not resolve it in our 1.4 mm map suggests that it is smaller than the disk surrounding HK Tau B, although this depends on the surface density and temperature profiles of both disks. In fact, a 100 AU disk with power law indices typical of other T Tauri circumstellar disk ($`p+q2`$, D96) would have an apparent size of 70–80 AU at 2.7 mm (Figure 4 in D96) and would appear even larger at 1.3 mm because of the larger dust emissivity and instrument sensitivity. Therefore, the unresolved disk surrounding HK Tau A must be smaller in size than that surrounding HK Tau B, unless it is unusually centrally concentrated. The relatively low spectral index we derived for that source in comparison to other T Tauri circumstellar disks (D96) further suggests that the disk is partially optically thick, which would naturally happen for a small but massive disk, although it may also indicate that large grains are present in this disk.

The smallest disk known around a T Tauri star to date is the 50 AU-radius disk around HV Tau C (Monin & Bouvier 2000), so this is not an unrealistically small size. However, as the case of HV Tau C illustrates, such a disk would display an obvious central dark lane in scattered light images if it was inclined at $`i84\mathrm{°}`$ as HK Tau B is. To be unresolved in the $`HST`$ images with such an inclination, the circumstellar disk must be much more compact, with a radius not larger than $`25`$ AU. Still, even though it would not be spatially resolved, such an object would appear much fainter than it actually is since only a small fraction of the stellar flux is scattered towards the observer when a circumstellar disk is seen edge-on. The observed $`K`$ magnitude of HK Tau A ($`K8.5`$, Kenyon & Hartmann 1995) places it among the majority of “normal” T Tauri stars in Taurus, while edge-on disk sources in Taurus, such as HK Tau B, are rather characterized by $`K10`$ (Stapelfeldt et al. 1997). We therefore conclude that the visible and near-infrared flux from HK Tau A we receive is dominated by direct starlight as opposed to scattered light.

In conclusion, the disk surrounding HK Tau A is not seen edge-on in contrast to the disk observed around HK Tau B. Constraining the inclination of the disk around HK Tau A, however, is not an easy task. Our model shows that the flux from a typical disk around a T Tauri star varies by less than 20 % when its inclination is changed from edge-on to face-on ($`i=0\mathrm{°}`$). Generally speaking, the observed 1.4 mm flux density from such a disk is insensitive to its inclination, provided that the latter is $`i60\mathrm{°}`$ (see also Wood et al. 2002). This is because the disk is mostly optically thin at this wavelength, so that almost any part of it can be seen from all line-of-sights. Consequently, we can only use the fact that the star is not heavily extincted by its own circumstellar disk and conclude that $`i_{prim}70\mathrm{°}`$, which corresponds to the smallest inclination of currently known flared edge-on disks (Ménard et al. 2002). In other words, the two disks are not parallel to each other and their relative inclination is $`\mathrm{\Delta }i15\mathrm{°}`$.

In a number of simulations of the formation of binary systems through fragmentation of an individual molecular core, a driving role is given to rotation or magnetic field. In both cases, the phenomenon is characterized by a prefered/symmetry axis, leading to the formation of two stars with parallel rotation axes, hence parallel disks. In some cases, the disks can be parallel although they do not lie in the orbital plane (Bonnell et al. 1992). This non-coplanar configuration has already been suggested for HK Tau by S98 on the basis of statistical arguments. We are now concluding that the disks are not parallel, which breaks one more symmetry in the system, as the stellar rotation axes are non-parallel either. Capture of two passing-by disked T Tauri stars is a random process and would naturally result in such a situation, but this is a highly unlikely origin for binary systems in Taurus (e.g., Clarke & Pringle 1991). On the other hand, recent numerical simulations show that turbulent fragmentation leads to misaligned circumstellar disks for systems wider than $`100`$ AU (M. Bate, 2002, priv. comm.), showing that this mechanism can reasonably achieve the configuration observed in HK Tau.

The most puzzling property of the disk surrounding HK Tau A, if confirmed, is the fact that its radius is smaller than that of the less massive secondary component of the system444Although pre-main sequence stellar masses are currently strongly model-dependent, the fact that HK Tau B has a somewhat cooler spectral type than HK Tau A (Monin et al. 1998) rules out the possibility that $`M_B>M_A`$.. All theoretical and numerical studies so far have shown that, if the disks’ size are driven by the dynamical interaction between the two stellar components and their surrounding material, the more massive star is always surrounded by the largest disk because of its deeper potential well (Artymowicz & Lubow 1994, Bate & Bonnell 1997). Our observations therefore suggest that the disk sizes were established during the formation of the binary system rather than through subsequent dynamical evolution.

## 6 Conclusion

We have obtained new high angular resolution continuum maps at 1.4 mm and 2.7 mm of the pre-main sequence binary system HK Tau. For the first time, the binary is clearly resolved at 1.4 mm and we have set an upper limit on the flux density of the faintest component at 2.7 mm. The emission from both objects appears to be thermal and, while the 1.4 mm continuum emission from HK Tau B is resolved along the major axis of its previsouly known edge-on circumstellar disk, HK Tau A is found to be unresolved at both wavelengths. These observations confirm that both stars are surrounded by their own circumstellar disk. We further find that the disk surrounding HK Tau A must be observed at a less favorable inclination ($`i70\mathrm{°}`$) than that of its companion, which could be the result of turbulence-induced fragmentation, while its radius ($`60`$ AU) is unexpectedly smaller than that of the circumsecondary disk.

Considering the various observational constraints on the circumstellar disk of HK Tau B, we suggest that it must have a layered structure, such as investigated by Chiang et al. (2001). The upper/lower layers, which are displaced vertically from the disk midplane, do not contain a significant population of grains larger than 1 $`\mu `$m in radius and thus have dust properties very similar to those of the ISM. On the other hand, the interior of the disk is either massive and constituted of ISM-like grains or has a population of grains that extends significantly beyond $`\mu `$m-sized particules. However, the grain size distribution cannot extend to 1 mm or beyond. Such a disk structure, although suggested for another system, is not required for most disks around T Tauri stars but could naturaly result from dust settling on very short timescales.

Only future high-angular observations of the system covering the mid- and far-infrared ranges will allow a complete study of the disk structure and dust content of HK Tau B, via the analysis of its complete SED. For instance, measurements of the 10–20 $`\mu `$m flux from HK Tau B, where the SED is close to its minimum between the scattering and thermal regimes, would be extremely valuable. NGST and ALMA are among the scheduled new facilities that will allow such observations. A more detailed study of the dust population at the surface of the disk will also be possible through the analysis of visible/near-infrared polarization maps of the disk.

###### Acknowledgements.

Comments from an anonymous referee helped us significantly improve and clarify this paper. Part of this work was supported by the Programme National de Physique Stellaire of the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France.


text:
# Galaxy groups in the 2dF galaxy redshift survey: A Compactness Analysis of Groups

## 1 Introduction

Compact groups (CGs) are small systems of a few galaxies which are in close proximity one another. Their are excellent laboratories for studying galaxy interactions and, in particular, merging processes. Given their high galaxy density (equivalent to those at the centers of rich clusters) and small velocity dispersion ($`200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$), CG members are expected to finally merge into one giant elliptical galaxy within a few short crossing times.

Historically, CGs were of interest because of the obvious distortion of many of their member galaxies. The first systematic seek for CGs was pioneered by Rose (1977), using a surface number density contrast procedure. The most widely analysed samples are the Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) (Hickson 1982, Hickson 1997), which have been selected on the basis of population, isolation (avoiding cores of rich clusters) and compactness. Their compactness criteria involve the computation of the mean surface brightness of a group which should be lesser than a maximun limit. This mean was calculated distributing the flux of the member galaxies over the circular area containing their geometric centers. Previous samples have been visually selected, and thus reflect some of the systematic biases intrinsic to bidimensional identification of systems. A geometric bias arise because prolate systems along the line of sight will be preferentially selected. A kinematic bias could enhance the selection of systems which are in a transient compact configuration due to galaxy internal motions. Mamon (1986) has suggested that about half of HCGs are superpositions of galaxies within loose groups (hereafter LGs). This suggestion could imply that groups properties in any particular sample may be strongly influenced by the criteria used to define the sample. Another important clue in order to test the compact groups environment is the color of their galaxy members. It is well known that elliptical galaxies recently formed from mergers of spiral galaxies should be bluer than normal elliptical galaxies. This kind of interactions should be more frecuently observed in a compact group environment. Nervertheless, a study on galaxy members of HCGs made by Zepf, Whitmore & Levinson (1991) have show that most of the early-type galaxies have optical colors indistinguishable form those of elliptical galaxies in other environments. Furthermore, there is evidence of a strange absence of strong signs of interactions, strong radio sources or far infrared radiation emission, etc. (Menon 1995, Pildis, Bregman & Schombert 1995, Sulentic 1997). Recently, Tovmassian, Yam & Tiersch (2001) and Tovmassian (2001) presents new evidence that indicates that almost all HCGs are dynamically associated generally with elongated LGs which are distributed along the elongation of the corresponding groups, suggesting that the HCGs are the compact cores of the latter. Consequently, an important question about the real nature of CGs arise: are CGs a distinct class by themselves or are extreme examples of systems having a particular range of galaxy density and population.

This question can be addressed studying the spatial distribution and environment of CGs. However, estimating the velocity dispersion and physical separations of galaxies in groups with a small number of galaxies is highly uncertain. Meaningful conclusions on dynamical properties about systems containing only four or five galaxies requires statistical analysis of large homogeneous samples.

In order to overcome these biases, it has recently become feasible to find CGs using automatic identification. Such a procedure has the advantage of generate a sample that is homogeneous and complete within the criteria specified for the search. Barton et al. (1996) have used a selection criteria (friends-of-friends algorithm) based only on physical extent and association in redshift space. Eventhough Hickson’s isolation criteria is not present at all in Barton’s work, this technique is more effective in finding groups in regions of higher galaxy density because foreground and background galaxies are automatically eliminated by the velocity selection criteria. Other automatic algorithm for the selection of CGs from large galaxy catalogues has been developed by Iovino et al. (1999). The algorithm is such as to maximize the probability that the groups selected are physically related and partially reproduces the criteria used in the visual search by Hickson (1982), where his isolation criteria is slightly relaxed.
Since it is very difficult to identify compact groups at high redshifts, more reliable results can be obtained restricting the analysis to low redshift samples. Under this constraint applied on the Updated Zwicky Catalogue, Focardi & Kelm (2002) have shown that triplets are characterized by different properties than that obtained for higher order compact groups suggesting the existence of two different galaxy systems in the compact group samples. It is therefore of great interest to obtain larger and deeper samples of CGs, in order to put the CGs properties on a statistical basis. This will help to work out the controversy around the properties of CGs, contradictions that may only be apparent, given our still limited knowledge of the nature of these structures.

Currently, one of the largest group catalogues (hereafter 2dFGGC) was constructed by Merchán & Zandivarez (2002). They have identified groups in the 2dF public 100K data release using a modified Huchra & Geller (1982) group finding algorithm that takes into account 2dF magnitude limit and redshift completeness masks. This catalogue constitutes a large and suitable sample for the study of both, processes in group environments and the properties of the group population itself. The global effects of group environment on star formation was analysed by Martínez et al (2002a) using this catalogue. Domínguez et al (2002) presented hints toward understanding local environment effects on the spectral types of galaxies in groups by studying the relative fractions of different spectral types as a function of the projected local galaxy density and the group-centric distance. Recently, an extensive statistical analysis on galaxy luminosity function in groups was carried out by Martínez et al (2002b).

The aim of this work is to perform an analysis on the groups in the 2dFGGC by defining new compactness indexes which are assigned to every group in the sample. Several studies have been made using galaxy spectral type, velocity dispersion, luminosity and crossing time as a function of the compactness indexes. The outline of this paper is as follows. In section 2, we present the 2dF Galaxy Group Catalogue (2dFGGC) used throughout this work. Section 3 describes the compactness indexes definitions while in section 4 we analyse the possible dependence of our indexes with group and galaxy properties. Finally, in section 5 we summarize our conclusions.

## 2 The 2dFGGC

Samples of galaxies and groups used in this work are the same used by Martínez et al. (2002b) which were constructed taking into account a revised version of the masks and mask software of the 2dFGRS 100k data release, which includes the $`\mu `$-masks described in Colless et al. (2001). The group catalogue is obtained following the same procedure as described by Merchán & Zandivarez (2002). The finder algorithm used for group identification is similar to that developed by Huchra & Geller (1982) but modified in order to take into account redshift completeness, magnitude limit and the magnitude completeness mask ($`\mu `$-mask) present on the current release of galaxies. The revised group catalogue comprises a total number of 2198 galaxy groups with at least 4 members and mean radial velocities in the range $`900\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{V}75000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. These groups have a mean velocity dispersion of $`265\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, a mean virial mass of $`9.1\times 10^{13}h^1M_{}`$ and a mean virial radius of $`1.15h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$. Throughout this work we adopted the cosmological model $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$.

## 3 Compactness index definitions

The selection criteria used by Merchán & Zandivarez (2002) based on adaptable linking length parameters allow the identification of galaxy systems independently of compactness. We propose two quantities which measure the level of compactness for groups in the 2dFGGC.

These quantities are based on geometrical criteria and their application upon a group catalogue identified in redshift space provides a sample which is not constrained by the usual compactness selection criteria. The first index is defined using the mean nearest projected neighbour separation of galaxies in groups $`R_{nn}`$. This quantity is normalized to the mean of $`R_{nn}`$ for groups in a given bin of redshift $`R_{nn}(z)`$ where the size of the redshift bin is $`0.018`$. This normalization is important in order to avoid a redshift dependence of this parameter since we are working with a magnitude limited sample; thus the mean nearest projected neighbour separation increases its value with redshift (see upper panel of Figure 1). Nevertheless, this ratio is not enough to characterize the compactness of a group. For instance, a group formed by a set of binaries separated one another by large distances would have a small value of $`R_{nn}`$ (see example (a) of Figure 2). Attempting to improve our definition we introduce a virial radius $`R_{vir}`$ dependence. This parameter is also conveniently normalized to the redshift dependent mean virial radius $`R_{vir}(z)`$. Median values, for redshift bin, of $`R_{vir}`$ as a function of $`z`$ are shown in the lower panel of Figure 1. Consequently, the compactness index is defined by

$$CI_1=\frac{R_{nn}}{R_{nn}(z)}\times \frac{R_{vir}}{R_{vir}(z)}$$
(1)
In Figure 3 we observe the distribution of both parameters involved in the $`CI_1`$ definition. Upper and lower right panels show the normalized distributions of each ratio. The similarity of both distributions implies that neither of them is the dominant term in the compactness index definition. Upper left panel of Figure 3 shows the scatter plot for the two ratios, indicating the importance of using both parameters to define the compactness index. The $`CI_1`$ distribution is plotted in the lower left panel of this figure. The groups related with a high level of compactness have the lowest values of $`CI_1`$, whereas very loose groups belong to the tail of the distribution.

As stated above our compactness definition avoids any redshift dependence. This fact is shown in Figure 4 (lower panel) where an uniform distribution is observed for the scatter plot of $`CI_1`$ versus $`z`$. Given the status of the current release of the 2dF galaxy redshift survey, it should be taken into account a possible dependence of $`CI_1`$ on the level of completeness of each group in the parent catalogue ($`R(\alpha ,\delta )`$). In the upper panel of Figure 4 we display the scatter plot of $`R(\alpha ,\delta )`$ vs $`CI_1`$. This plot shows a total lack of correlation between the compactness index and the redshift completeness of groups. Moreover, most of the groups show a high level of completeness which provides confidence to our study.

As mentioned in section 1, finding compact groups within loose groups is a possible scenario. In order to take into account this possibility, we define a new index which is able to identify this particularity. The second index measures the ratio of the number of galaxies enclosed in $`R_{vir}/2`$ to those within $`R_{vir}`$ (see example (b) of Figure 2). As before, this ratio is a measure of the core concentration regardless of the size of the system. Consequently, and keeping in mind that higher ratios imply higher central concentration in groups, we divide this parameter by the normalized virial ratio defined for index $`CI_1`$. Therefore, the second compactness index is

$$CI_2=\frac{N_{R_{vir}/2}}{N_{R_{vir}}}\times \left(\frac{R_{vir}}{R_{vir}(z)}\right)^1$$
(2)
A similar analysis as the one made for $`CI_1`$ shows that the second compactness index $`CI_2`$ depends neither on redshift nor on parent catalogue completeness (Figure 5). Furthermore, upper panel of Figure 5 shows that most groups with high level of compactness ($`CI_22`$) have the highest level of completeness. To study a possible correlation between both indexes we show in Figure 6 the scatter plot of $`CI_1`$ versus $`CI_2`$. From this plot we observe that the groups in the lower left corner have a high level of compactness for $`CI_1`$ whereas qualify as loose groups according to $`CI_2`$. Two examples of groups with 6 and 8 galaxy members are shown in the inset right plots of Figure 6. None of the examples shows a core concentration which implies a low $`CI_2`$ value, while the small mean nearest neighbour separations of galaxies are the main responsible for the low values of $`CI_1`$. These facts imply that a group with a high level of compactness for $`CI_2`$ is also compact for $`CI_1`$. On the other hand small values for $`CI_1`$ do not guarantee high values of $`CI_2`$. Nevertheless, $`CI_1`$ is a better discriminator of non central galaxy concentrations within a group. In the inset left plot of Figure 6 we show the scatter plot of the compactness indexes without the normalized virial radius observing that the particular envelope in the main figure is due to this ratio.

As an example of groups characterized by a high level of compactness for both indexes we show in Figure 7 four of these systems. The left panels show the projection of galaxy members on the sky, where the physical distances are referred to the center of mass of the system. These projections can be directly correlated with the optical images shown in right panels. Central panels display the declination-radial velocity projection of groups. Previous plots show that the observed galaxy members are restricted to a small range in redshift space ($`800\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$).

## 4 Analysing groups with $`CI`$

In the following analysis we study group and galaxy properties for group subsamples defined by their compactness indexes. We have chosen the following criteria:

* High level of compactness: $`CI_1<0.5`$ or $`CI_2>1.5`$
* Low level of compactness: $`CI_1>2.0`$ or $`CI_2<0.8`$.

obtaining $`451(25\%)`$ and $`240(13\%)`$ groups with high level of compactness meanwhile the low level of compactness samples comprise $`387(21\%)`$ and $`690(38\%)`$ groups respectively. These limits were chosen to deal with the tails of the compactness index distributions while keeping an amount of groups large enough to obtain a reliable statistics.

The redshift distributions of groups with low and high level of compactness for both indexes are plotted in upper and central panels of Figure 8. We observe quite similar redshift distributions for high and low level of compactness irrespectively of the index used in the selection.

### 4.1 Radial velocity dispersion and galaxy members

We look for any possible relation linking compactness indexes $`CI_1`$ and $`CI_2`$, group velocity dispersion and group member richness. In analysing radial velocity dispersion dependence we split the group sample in two subsamples with $`\sigma _r<300\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and $`\sigma _r300\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$ obtaining roughly the same number of groups in both subsamples. The obtained normalized continuous distributions for $`CI_1`$ and $`CI_2`$ are plotted in the upper panels of Figure 9. From these plots we observe that velocity dispersion does not discriminate levels of compactness of groups in the 2dFGGC. The velocity dispersion limit is not a critical issue, we have obtained the same results varying the adopted cut-off from $`\sigma _r=200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$ to $`400\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$.

We use a similar criteria to analyse a possible dependence of group galaxy members on compactness. In this case, we split the group sample in two subsamples with $`N_m<6`$ and $`N_m6`$ and plot the normalized distributions in the lower panels of Figure 9. Both distributions show that groups with high level of compactness have typically a small number of members. From our analysis it is not clear whether this is a consequence of our definitions of compactness or a real physical phenomena. These results are not biased by any possible redshift dependence as can be observed in the lower panel of Figure 8, where we plot the redshift distribution of the subsamples defined by $`N_m<6`$ and $`N_m6`$. We also observe that when increasing the galaxy member limit $`N_m`$, the results hold. Nevertheless by doing so the richer group sample becomes statistically poor.

As a complementary test, and using the samples defined at the beginning of this section, we plot the measured radial velocity dispersion distributions. These distributions are shown in Figure 10 where continuous line corresponds to the sample with high level of compactness while dashed line refers to the loose group sample. It can be seen that the normalized distributions (in both panels) are quite similar showing a mean radial velocity dispersion of $`200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This result is in agreement with the previously obtained by Hickson (1997), where characteristic velocity dispersion of compact groups is quite similar to that obtained for loose ones. This agreement is not obvious since our definition of compactness is very different to the one defined by Hickson.

### 4.2 Galaxy spectral type

The following analysis is performed using the classification of galaxies defined by Madgwick et al. (2002) according to their spectral type. This classification is based on the $`\eta `$ parameter which is very tightly correlated with the equivalent width of $`H_\alpha `$ emission line, correlates well with morphology and can be interpreted as a measure of the relative current star-formation present in each galaxy. The four spectral types are defined as:

* Type 1: $`\eta <1.4`$,
* Type 2: $`1.4\eta <1.1`$,
* Type 3: $`1.1\eta <3.5`$,
* Type 4: $`\eta 3.5`$.

The Type 1 class is characterised by an old stellar population and strong absorption features, the Types 2 and 3 comprise spiral galaxies with increasing star formation, finally the Type 4 class is dominated by particularly active galaxies such as starburst.

Recently, using the 2dFGGC, Martínez et al. (2002a) obtained a strong correlation between the relative fraction of galaxies with high star formation (Type 4) and the parent group virial mass. They found that even in the environment of groups with low virial masses ($`M10^{13}M_{}`$) the star formation of their member galaxies is significantly suppressed. Another study with relative fraction of galaxy spectral types in the 2dFGGC was performed by Domínguez et al. (2002). They found a clear distinction between high virial mass groups ($`M_V>10^{13.5}M_{}`$) and the less massive ones. While the massive groups show a significant dependence of the relative fraction of low star formation galaxies on local galaxy density and group-centric radius, groups with lower masses show no significant trends.

Following the study on possible dependences of the galaxy spectral type fractions on the environment, we study here the behaviour of this fractions as a function of the previously defined compactness indexes $`CI_1`$ and $`CI_2`$. In figure 11 and 12 we display galaxy fractions per spectral type as a function of $`CI_1`$ and $`CI_2`$. Error bars were estimated by the bootstrap resampling technique. No statistically significant trends of the fraction of spectral types on the compactness are appreciated.

### 4.3 Luminosity function of galaxies in groups

A possible influence of compactness on the luminosity of galaxies could be studied using the luminosity functions (LF) of galaxies in groups by defining two subsamples according to the level of compactness. The high level of compactness samples is defined by $`CI_10.5`$, $`CI_21.2`$, whereas the loose samples comprise groups with $`CI_12.0`$, $`CI_20.55`$. These limits are chosen in order to obtain samples with a large number of galaxies suitable for our computation.

In this work we use, the $`C^{}`$ method (Lynden-Bell 1971) to make a non parametric determination of the LF. This method is the best estimator to measure the LF and is the less affected by the faint end slope of a Schechter parametrisation or the sample size (Willmer 1997). As a comparative rule we also use the STY (Sandage, Tammann & Yahil 1979) maximum likelihood Schechter fit to the LF of the whole group sample determined by Martínez et al (2002b). These authors found that the corresponding best fit Schechter parameters are $`\alpha =1.13\pm 0.02`$ and $`M^{}5\mathrm{log}(h)=19.90\pm 0.03`$, which are quite consistent with the results by Norberg et al. (2001) for field galaxies.

The adopted $`C^{}`$ method estimator is the same as the used by Martínez et al. (2002b). This method is the version of Choloniewski (1987) developed in an attempt to estimate both, the shape and normalization of the luminosity function. The LF is obtained by differentiating the cumulative LF, $`\mathrm{\Psi }(M)`$. The function $`X(M)`$ defined as the observed density of galaxies with absolute magnitude brighter than $`M`$, represents only an undersampling of the $`\mathrm{\Psi }(M)`$. Linden-Bell has defined a quantity $`C(M)`$ as the number of galaxies brighter than $`M`$ which could have been observed if their magnitude were $`M`$. This quantity represents a subsample of $`X(M)`$ and compensates for the undersampling. Taking into account the sky coverage of the 2dF present release, the differential LF can be written as

$$\mathrm{\Phi }(M)=\frac{\mathrm{\Gamma }_i^{M_i[M,M+\mathrm{\Delta }M]}\psi _i}{\mathrm{\Delta }M}$$
(3)
where

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\underset{k=2}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{C_k+w_k}{C_k}\left(V\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\psi _i\underset{j=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{R(\alpha _j,\delta _j)}{N}\right)^1,$$
(4)
$$\psi _k=\underset{i=1}{\overset{k}{}}\frac{C_i+w_i}{C_{i+1}}$$
(5)
and $`R(\alpha ,\delta )`$ is the redshift completeness of the parent catalogue. $`C_kC^{}(M_k)`$ is defined as $`C(M)`$ but excluding the object $`k`$ itself and weighting each object by $`w`$ which is the inverse of the magnitude-dependent redshift completeness (Norberg et al. 2002, Martínez et al. 2002b).

In Figure 13 we show the luminosity functions for galaxies in groups in arbitrary units. Absolute magnitudes are computed using the $`k+e`$ mean correction for galaxies in the 2dFGRS as derived by Norberg et al. (2002). Error bars are estimated using 10 mock catalogues constructed from numerical simulations of a cold dark matter universe according to the cosmological model adopted in this work with a Hubble constant $`h=0.7`$ and a relative mass fluctuation $`\sigma _8=0.9`$. These simulations were performed using $`128^3`$ particles in a cubic comoving volume of $`180h^1\mathrm{Mpc}`$ per side. In the left panel of Figure 13, filled circles correspond to the LF of galaxies in groups with high level of compactness using $`CI_1`$, while the open circles represent the LF for the very loose groups with the same index. The right panel shows the analogous LF using $`CI_2`$ as compactness discriminator. In both panels, solid line shows the STY best fit to the LF for the overall sample of galaxies in groups obtained by Martínez et al. (2002b) which corresponds to the Schechter parameters $`M^{}=19.90\pm 0.03`$ and $`\alpha =1.13\pm 0.02`$. From this figure we observe that the resulting LF’s are insensitive to the level of compactness of groups when comparing with the whole sample.

### 4.4 The dimensionless crossing time

In order to consider a possible level of dynamical evolution of galaxy systems we compute the dimensionless crossing time as used by Hickson et al. (1992). This particular timescale, $`H_0t_c`$, is the ratio of the crossing time to the approximate age of the universe, and is defined by

$$H_0t_c=\frac{(4\times 100)}{\pi }\times \frac{\mathrm{\Delta }}{\sigma }$$
(6)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ is the mean projected galaxy separation in groups and $`\sigma `$ is the 3-dimensional velocity dispersion ($`\sigma =\sqrt{3}\sigma _r`$). The dimensionless crossing time may reflect dynamical evolution since its inverse is roughly the maximun number of times that a galaxy could have traversed the group since its formation.

Computing the crossing time for group having $`CI_21.5`$ we obtain the range $`0.017H_0^1`$ to $`0.25H_0^1`$ with a mean value of $`0.09`$. This value is significantly higher than the one obtained by Hickson et al. (1992). Their compact group sample shows typically smaller crossing time values mainly due to small values of the mean galaxy-galaxy separation $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. A possible explanation could arise from the suggestion that many compact groups could be the cores of larger ones. Many studies have been carried out about this possibility (Mammon 1986, Tovmassian et al. 2001) obtaining that most of the groups identified as compact are the central region of larger groups. This kind of misidentification could be a very important source of bias in the study of compact groups. In order to quantify this problem we compute the fraction of groups with high central concentrations within larger groups using our catalogue. Seeking for groups with ratio $`N_{R_{vir}/2}/N_{R_{vir}}0.9`$ in larger groups we obtain that roughly the $`70\%`$ of these groups are characterised by a high central concentration. Consequently, this kind of bias can be the explanation for the small crossing time values obtained for Hickson’s sample.

Finally, we intended to search for a possible dependence of the fraction of galaxies per spectral type on the dimensionless crossing time. Figure 14 shows the trends obtained for the four spectral types defined in subsection 4.2. A slight increase of the Type 4 fraction of galaxies with the $`H_0t_c`$ can be observed, meanwhile an opposite trend is shown by Type 2 galaxies. Even when this result is not highly significant, a possible dynamical evolution is suggested. Such evolution would consist in the conversion of late type galaxies to earlier ones by dynamical processes such as mergers. More significant results have been obtained by Domínguez et al. (2002) analysing the spectral type vs local galaxy density relation specially for subsamples of groups with high virial masses using the same catalogue. We should remark that these results are almost independent of the level of compactness of galaxy groups. A similar analysis developed for a sample of nearby compact groups by Focardi & Kelm (2002) have also shown signs of evolution of spectral content in the relation morphology-velocity dispersion mainly for low multiplicity compact groups (see Figure 9 in their work).

## 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

In this work we report a statistical compactness analysis using the catalogue of galaxy groups constructed by Merchán & Zandivarez (2002). Given the size of the original sample and 3-dimensional information our study intend to characterize groups of galaxies according to the level of compactness and analyse its influence on groups and galaxy members. For this purpose, we define two new compactness indexes based on geometrical criteria. Whereas index $`CI_1`$ prioritizes the distance to the nearest neighbour and the size of the system (eq. 1), index $`CI_2`$ enhances a possible core concentration in the system (eq. 2). Special cares have been taken over the construction of these indexes in order to avoid possible dependences on redshift and redshift completeness of the parent catalogue (Figures 4 and 5).

With this characterization, we develop a wide analysis over many physical properties of groups and galaxy members. First, we observe that the compactness indexes distribution shows identical behaviours when the group sample is split for low ($`\sigma _r<300\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$) and high ($`\sigma _r300\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$) velocity dispersion. Furthermore, we observe that groups with high and low levels of compactness show the same normalized radial velocity dispersion distributions with a mean of $`200\mathrm{k}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This result is consistent with previous ones which reflect that the mean velocity dispersion of compact groups is quite similar to that found for loose groups (Hickson et al. 1992). Analysing the dependence of group compactness with numerical richness we observe that groups with high level of compactness have typically a low number of galaxy members, while most of the loose groups are characterized by a larger number of galaxy members.

On the other hand, another study has been made about the fraction of galaxies per spectral type and luminosity as a function of the two compactness indexes (Figures 11, 12 and 13). Our results do not show any particular correlation between the above parameters and the compactness level for groups in the sample.

The similar behaviour observed in groups with high level of compactness and loose ones probably suggests that this distinction is not fundamental. This result is supported by previous works which state an indistinguishable behaviour between compact and loose groups showing that many compact groups are located within overdense environments (de Carvalho et al. 1997, Barton et al. 1998, Zabludoff & Mulchaey 1998). Furthermore, an analysis on X-ray properties of groups shows that it is impossible to separate loose and compact groups on the luminosity-temperature relation, the luminosity-velocity dispersion relation or in the velocity dispersion-temperature relation stating that a more useful distinction is that between X-ray bright and X-ray faint systems (Helsdon & Ponman 2000).

The mean dimensionless crossing times obtained for a sample with high level of compactness is shifted toward higher values when comparing to the obtained for a sample of compact groups constructed by Hickson et al. (1992). This shift could be due to some biases in the compact group identification criteria. These biases could imply the detection of the cores of larger systems generating smaller dimensionless crossing times determinations.

The last correlation we studied is the fraction of galaxies per spectral type as a function of the dimensionless crossing time. Eventhough the correlations we found are not significant, it is worth to mention that for Type 2 galaxies, smaller is the fraction when higher is the dimensionless crossing time and the opposite trend is maintained for Type 4 galaxies. This latter result is consistent with the stated by Hickson et al. (1992) about groups with smaller crossing times typically containing fewer late-type galaxies.

## Acknowledgments

We thank the referee Paola Focardi for helpful comments and suggestions and Mirta Mosconi for carefully reading the manuscript. We thank to Peder Norberg and Shaun Cole for kindly providing the software describing the mask of the 2dFGRS and to the 2dFGRS Team for having made available the current data sets of the sample. AZ and HJM are supported by fellowships from CONICET, Argentina. MJLD is supported by a fellowship from SECyT, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. We also thank to J. Hetfield and L. Ulrich for support. This work has been partially supported by grants from the Secretaría de Ciencia y Técnica de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (SeCyT) and Agencia Córdoba Ciencia. This work made use of the C4JA facilities at IATE.


text:
# Phenomenological Gaussian screening in the nonextensive statistics approach to fully developed turbulence

(30 December 2002)

## Abstract

We propose a simple phenomenological modification, a Gaussian screening, of the probability distribution function which was obtained by Beck to explain experimentally measured distribution from fully developed fluid turbulence, within the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics. The modified distribution provides a good fit to new experimental results on the acceleration of fluid particles reported by Crawford, Mordant, and Bodenschatz. Theoretical foundations of such a modification requires a separate study.

Recently, Beck Beck  have studied application of Tsallis formalism Tsallis  to turbulent flows and achieved a good agreement with experimental measurements Bodenschatz . Remarkably, no fitting parameters have been used by Beck to reproduce histogram of the acceleration $`a`$ of a test particle advected by the turbulent flow, while the stretch exponential fit requires three free parameters for this purpose,

$$P(a)=C\mathrm{exp}\left[a^2/(1+\left|\frac{a\beta }{\sigma }\right|^\gamma \sigma ^2)\right],$$
(1)
where $`\beta =0.513`$, $`\gamma =1.600`$, $`\sigma =0.563`$ and $`C`$ is a normalization constant.

The main idea underlying generalized statistical mechanics approach to turbulence is to introduce fluctuation of temperature or fluctuation of energy dissipation Beck2 ; Wilk  described by gamma distribution.

Crawford, Mordant, and Bodenschatz Bodenschatz2  reported new experimental results, which are slightly different from that reported in earlier experiment Bodenschatz , and pointed out that the Beck’s distribution Beck ,

$$P(a)=\frac{C}{(1+\frac{1}{2}\beta (q1)a^2)^{1/(q1)}},$$
(2)
does not correctly capture the tails of the experimental distribution function. Here, $`q=3/2`$ (Tsallis entropic index), $`\beta =4`$, and $`C=2/\pi `$ is a normalization constant, all the parameter values are due the theory. An essential discrepancy is clearly seen from the contribution $`a^4P(a)`$ to the fourth moment.

To achieve a better fit, we suggest the modified distribution,

$$P(a)=\frac{C\mathrm{exp}[a^2/a_0^2]}{(1+\frac{1}{2}\beta (q1)a^2)^{1/(q1)}},$$
(3)
which is obtained by a ”Gaussian screening” of the Beck’s distribution (2). Again, $`C`$ is a normalization constant, $`\beta =4`$, and $`q=3/2`$, while $`a_0`$ is a our free parameter, which we use for a fitting.

Plots of the distribution (3) and resulting $`a^4P(a)`$, for certain value of $`a_0`$, are shown in Fig. 1. One can observe a better fit of the experimental $`P(a)`$ (top panel, solid line) and much better agreement of the plot $`a^4P(a)`$ (bottom panel, solid line) to the new experimental results presented by Crawford, Mordant, and Bodenschatz Bodenschatz2 , as compared to that derived from Eq. (2) (dashed line).

We conclude by a few comments.

Despite we use only one parameter, $`a_0`$, to fit the experimental data with a good accuracy (values of the other parameters are due to Eq. (2)), it is required to derive Eq. (3) with the help of the same approach as used by Beck in Ref. Beck , to provide a self-consistent description. This would allow one to unravel physical picture lying behind the proposed phenomenological Gaussian screening in Eq. (3).

We note that the experimentally observed large $`a`$ asymptotics of $`a^4P(a)`$ which is evidently not reproduced by Beck’s result may require some modification of the theoretical set up.

To this end, one may be interested in finding a more appropriate statistical distribution of the inverse temperature parameter, instead of gamma distribution, or in modifying of the nonlinear Langevin equation for velocity, used by Beck.

However, it should be noted that while the gamma distribution is justified from various aspects, see, e.g., Refs. Beck ; Johal ; Aringazin , as it provides Tsallis distribution with associated Tsallis entropy, and is known to be in correspondence with a nonlinear Langevin equation for fluctuating temperature Bashkirov  within the framework of the Landau-Lifschitz theory of fluctuations, the use of some different distributions Aringazin ; Beck3 , with large variance of the inverse temperature fluctuations, may send one out of the established anzatz.