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# An empirical criterion to classify T Tauri stars and substellar analogs using low-resolution optical spectroscopy

## 1 Introduction

A classical T Tauri star (CTTS) is a pre-main sequence (PMS) star which presents a characteristic phenomenology which, in general, includes the following: i) An emission line spectrum, including, in the visible, lines such as the Balmer series with very intense H$`\alpha `$; Hei D1,D2,D3 and Hei 6678 Å; Caii H & K and Caii infrared triplet at 8498, 8542 and 8662 Å; etcetera. These emission lines (in particular H$`\alpha `$) are quite broad (several hundred km/s at FWHM), and can present asymmetries. ii) The presence of forbidden –generally blue-shifted narrow– lines (for example, \[Oi\]6300&6364, \[Nii\]6458&6581, \[Sii\]6717&6731). iii) Photospheric continuum excesses, specially in the ultraviolet, the blue part of the optical range and the infrared (Class II spectral energy distribution). Not all of them appear simultaneously.

There are different proposed criteria to define CTTS, and they do not always agree with each other. The simplest criterion is based on the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$ (W(H$`\alpha `$)). Critical values between 5 and 20 Å have been put forward. Martín (1998) suggested a dependence with the spectral type: 5 Å for spectral types earlier than M0, 10 Å for M0–M2, and 20 Å for later spectral types.

The canonical interpretation of CTTS phenomenology states that they possess a circumstellar disk, containing a significant fraction of the mass of the star, which is the source of the infrared excess, and a strong magnetosphere (see Appenzeller & Mundt 1989 for a review). Material from the disk would be magnetically accreted onto the star, in a channeled flux, creating a hot spot, the source of the continuum excesses in the blue side of the spectrum. The broad, asymmetric H$`\alpha `$ (or other hydrogen lines) is produced by this material falling from the disk. In general, for permitted lines, blue-shifted absorptions denote strong winds, whereas red-shifted absorptions indicate infalls. Finally, the forbidden lines are produced in outflows, which are –as this interpretation goes– jets perpendicular to the disk, and are driven by the accretion. For more details, see Shu et al. (1994), Hartmann et al. (1994) and Hartmann (1998).

Weak-line T Tauri stars (WTTS) lack most of the observational features of CTTS. They show H$`\alpha `$ in emission but with equivalent widths smaller than in the case of CTTS (Herbig & Bell 1988). Some WTTS show infrared excess, but not ultraviolet excess or optical veiling. Naked T Tauri stars (NTTS) are equivalent to the WTTS but without infrared excess (Walter 1986). It is assumed that WTTS are in a more advanced stage of their evolution, with no circumstellar accretion disks. Hence, the origin of the emission in H$`\alpha `$ should be purely chromospheric. WTTS are still very young ($`<`$10 Myr), and their interior has not reached a temperature hot enough to destroy lithium which burns at about 2.5$`\times `$106 K. Finally, post-T Tauri stars (PTTS) represent the subsequent PMS evolution of the previous two phases. Together with rapid rotation and high activity levels, they have already started the lithium depletion (Martín 1997, 1998).

Brown dwarfs (BD) are substellar objects which are unable to settle on the main sequence because their interior reaches a degenerate state (Hayashi & Nakano 1963; Kumar 1963). For solar metallicity, current models predict that the borderline between stars and BDs is at 0.072 M (Burrows et al. 1997; Baraffe et al. 1998; Chabrier et al. 2000). BDs are low-mass analogs to PMS stars because they are fully convective, gravitationally contracting objects. There is a continuity from the stellar to the substellar regime in a color-magnitude diagram, a continuous dwarf sequence. In fact, very low mass (VLM) stars need tens of billion of years to reach the MS (longer than the age of the Universe). Observationally, the substellar limit is located at spectral type of M6 in the Pleiades cluster (Martín et al. 1996). This spectral type boundary between stars and BDs is also used in the literature for very young ages (Luhman et al. 1998).

Since the discovery of the first confirmed BDs in the Pleiades cluster (Rebolo et al. 1995; Basri et al. 1996), an avalanche of discoveries and theoretical work has taken place. The standard formation mechanism of BDs is that they come from small cores produced by the fragmentation of molecular clouds –star formation does not know about the H-burning substellar limit. Recent theoretical work indicates that very small fragments can be produced by turbulence in molecular clouds (Padoan & Nordlund 2002). If BDs are formed in a similar manner as stars, it seems natural to expect that some very young BDs could share the same properties as CTTS. In particular, they could have circum-substellar disks with active accretion leading to an emission line spectrum and continuum excesses. In fact, during the last 2 years some initial reports indicate that a few of them, indeed, have disks (Martín et al. 2001a; Natta & Testi 2001; Natta et al. 2002; Testi et al. 2002; Jayawardhana et al. 2002ab, 2003ab; Barrado y Navascués et al. 2002, 2003; White & Basri 2003).

The main aim of this paper is to explore an empirical criterion based on low-resolution optical spectroscopy, which allows to identify accretion phenomena by distinguishing between CTTS, WTTS and their substellar analogs. We adopt the following definitions: substellar classical T Tauri analog (SCTTA), which is a substellar-mass object that shows emission lines indicative of active accretion similar to those observed in CTTSs; substellar weak-line T Tauri analog (SWTTA), which shows chromospheric line emission similar to that of WTTS. We find that SCTTAs and SWTTAs can be classified statistically from low-resolution optical spectroscopy using spectral types and W(H$`\alpha `$). Another criterion, proposed by White & Basri (2003), is based on the width of this line, but its application demands high resolution spectroscopy which is more difficult to obtain, particularly for intrinsically faint substellar objects. Our study extends the classical/weak-line T Tauri classification into the substellar regime. We have applied our criterion to derive the ratio of SCTTA/SWTTA in different star-forming regions. This ratio allows us to discuss the dependence of accretion on age, mass and location.

In section 2, we discuss some of the properties of the CTTS and WTTS population of very young clusters and star forming regions. It also presents an analysis of the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width as a the main empirical criterion to classify CTTS, WTTS, SCTTA and SWTTA. In Section 3, we compare the ratios of accretion in several star forming regions. Section 4 summarizes the results, stating the main conclusions.

## 2 H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width as an empirical criterion of accretion and chromospheric activity

### 2.1 Infrared excesses and H$`\alpha `$ emission in T Tauri stars

Both classical and weak-line T Tauri stars have been identified using near infrared color-color diagrams. We have collected H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths of T Tauri stars belonging to different star forming regions and very young clusters and compared them with the color excesses. These color excesses were computed using the measured color indices and spectral type, and the typical color indices corresponding to the spectral type, as listed by Bessell & Brett (1988), Kirkpatrick et al. (2000), and Leggett (1992) and Leggett et al. (2000, 2002).

Figure 1 illustrates one of these comparisons for stars in Taurus. Open and solid circles denote the location of weak-line and classical T Tauri stars, respectively. In this and other figures discussed below displaying W(H$`\alpha `$), we have avoided objects which have been classified as classical or weak-line T Tauri stars or substellar analogs based on the W(H$`\alpha `$), i.e., the displayed CTTS and SCTTA show either broad H$`\alpha `$, forbidden lines, strong infrared excesses, or veiling. All the data presented in this paper come from a large diversity of papers (see section 2.4 for references), and the corresponding spectra were collected at very different resolutions. This can translate into different values of the equivalent width for a given object (i.e., lower resolution tends to yield larger W(H$`\alpha `$) than high resolution spectroscopy). This is a caveat that has to be kept in mind throught this and any other similar analysis.

In Figure 1, we display as short dashed lines two W(H$`\alpha `$) criteria used in the literature for classifying CTTS. Clearly, most of the CTTS are above the 20 Å threshold, whereas most of the WTTS have W(H$`\alpha `$)$``$5 Å. However, there is an area in between where the transition from WTTS to CTTS is not clear-cut. Part of the confusion arises from the fact that H$`\alpha `$ emission can also be produced by chromospheric activity. Therefore, our next step is to study the H$`\alpha `$ emission of active young stars.

### 2.2 The H$`\alpha `$ emission in young open clusters

Figure 2a displays the ratio between the H$`\alpha `$ and the bolometric luminosities versus the spectral type for members of three young open clusters, namely the Pleiades, Alpha Per and IC2391. The age ranges are 80–125 Myr, 50–90 Myr, and 30–53 Myr for each of them, depending on the age dating technique: upper main-sequence isochrone fitting or lithium depletion at the substellar limit, respectively (Maeder & Mermilliod 1981; Meynet et al. 1993; Stauffer et al. 1998, 1999; Barrado y Navascués et al. 1999). The vertical, dotted lines delimit the age-dependent lithium gap in each cluster (see Barrado y Navascués & Stauffer 2003 and references therein). In order to convert H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width into luminosity, we followed a similar procedure as the one described by Mohanty & Basri (2003). We computed fluxes corresponding to the continuum around 6563 Å –$`F_{cont}`$(H$`\alpha `$)– using theoretical models by Allard et al. (2001). We selected those having log g=4.5, which correspond to ages between 50 and 100 Myr (Baraffe et al. 1998). In particular, we used “dusty” models for Teff$``$3900 K and “NextGen” models for higher effective temperatures. We note that “NextGen” models are good enough down to Teff=2500 K (Martín et al. 2001b), but the predicted fluxes for both sets are very similar and they do not affect the results. Then, the flux of the H$`\alpha `$ emission line was computed as $`F_{line}`$(H$`\alpha `$)= W(H$`\alpha `$)$`\times `$$`F_{cont}`$(H$`\alpha `$). Finally, the ratio can be expressed as L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol) = $`F_{line}`$(H$`\alpha `$)/$`\sigma `$Teff, where L(H$`\alpha `$) and L(bol) are the luminosity in the H$`\alpha `$ line and the bolometric luminosity. This diagram clearly shows a maximum at -3.3, which it is essentially defined by low mass stars with M2-M4 spectral types. A similar diagram was obtained by Mohanty & Basri (2003) for mid-M and L field objects (see their figure 7). Besides H$`\alpha `$, this saturation limit also occurs in other activity indicators such as the X-ray luminosity (Stauffer et al. 1994; Randich et al. 1996) or in H$`\beta `$ (Delfosse et al. 1998).

We have found that our saturation limit, log {L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol)}=$``$3.3, derived from the young open clusters IC2391, Alpha Per and the Pleiades, is somewhat higher than the values obtained by Delfosse et al. (1998) and Mohanty & Basri (2003) in field mid-dM stars, and late M and L spectral type very low mass stars stars and BDs. Since the first group (cluster members) are, on average, younger, and they have larger radius (the ratio between the radii of a 0.072 M at 100 and 500 Myr is 4.7, according to Baraffe et al. 1998 models), this difference suggests that there is an evolutionary component, perhaps related with size and/or surface gravity, in the saturation limit and, by extension, in the chromospheric activity in objects at the end of the dwarf sequence. A similar conclusion has been reached by Basri & Mohanty (2003).

Now, we are interested on observational quantities, in particular W(H$`\alpha `$). Therefore, starting with this saturation limit, we have proceeded backward and derived the W(H$`\alpha `$) value for each spectral type which would correspond to it. Since we are trying to define a criterion for CTTS and SCTTA, which have maximum ages of about 10 Myr, we have used the atmosphere models corresponding to a gravity of log g=4.0. Figure 2b shows the measured W(H$`\alpha `$) of members (low mass stars and BDs) of these three young clusters. The bold–dotted line corresponds to the saturation limit at log {L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol)}=$``$3.3 dex. This criterion can be found in tabular form in Table 1. From now on, this criterion will be called the saturation criterion.

The dashed line in Figure 2b corresponds to the upper envelope of the W(H$`\alpha `$) for the clusters. For objects cooler than M5.5, the maximum W(H$`\alpha `$) measured is 20 Å. Note, however, that the data are sparse at the low mass end of these cluster sequences. For stars warmer than this spectral type, the behavior is pseudo-linear in a logarithmic scale. We have selected a fit which includes all the measurements. This curve, which is purely empirical, will be called the young cluster chromospheric criterion from now on. The mathematical expression of this criterion is:

$$logW(H\alpha )=0.0893\times Sp.Type4.5767$$
(1)
where the spectral type O1 corresponds to 1, B1 to 11, A1 to 21, etcetera. This fit is valid between spectral types G5 and M5.5.

There is a clear tendency that the cooler the object, the larger the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width, on average. The general reason for this trend is the decreasing photospheric luminosity at the wavelength of H-alpha as the temperature decreases (the so-called ”contrast effect”; Basri & Marcy 1995). The quantitative behavior of the line strength, however, is not well understood. We adopt this upper envelope as the maximum emission due to chromospheric activity, without taking into account values measured during flares (known flares, such as that of PPl-15 detected by Basri & Martín (1999), have been excluded).

### 2.3 The H$`\alpha `$ emission in flare stars and field M and L objects

Figure 3 is as Figure 2, but in this case a comparison with flare stars is displayed (UV Cet type, crosses). The figure also includes cooler objects recently discovered by the 2MASS survey (Skrutskie et al. 1997), down to the L5 spectral type (plus symbols). Note the logarithmic scale in the y-axis.

The selected UV Cet sample comes from Gershberg et al. (1999). The IAU defines UV Cet variables as: “Dwarf stars of spectral classes dM3e-dM6e characterized by rare and very short flares with amplitudes from 1 mag to 6 mag. Maximum brightness (usually sharp) is attained in a few, or several tens of seconds after the commencement of the flare, total duration of the flare being equal to about ten to fifty minutes”. A more general definition, which comes from Gershberg et al. (1999), is: “UV Cet-type variables are stars on the lower part of the main sequence which show phenomena inherent to the solar activity. The most manifestations of the solar activity are detected on such stars: sporadic flares, dark spots, variable emissions from chromospheres and coronae, radio, X-ray and UV bursts.” Therefore, this definition includes the first one (all the stars in the first group should be in the second). The sample shown in Figure 3 is based on this definition.

Regarding the cooler sample, the data come from Kirkpatrick et al. (2000), Gizis et al. (2000); Reid et al. (2002); and Mohanty & Basri (2003). In addition, stars and BDs with variable H$`\alpha `$, mainly due to the presence of flares, are also included as arrows and labeled. The beginning and the end of each arrow represent the minimum and maximum H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width ever recorded. The data come from Ruiz et al. (1990); Irwin et al. (1991); Eason et al. (1992); Basri & Marcy (1995), Kirkpatrick et al. (1995); Martín et al. (1996, 1999, 2001), Delfosse et al. (1997); Tinney et al. (1998), Tinney (1999); Gizis et al. (1999, 2000); Liebert et al. (1999, 2003); Reid et al. (1999, 2002); Hall (2002ab); Zapatero Osorio et al. (2002b); and Mohanty et al. (2003).

This figure includes two different curves. The first one (bold, dotted line), also in Figure 2, is the saturation criterion. The second curve, plotted as a thin-solid line, is the upper envelope of the flare stars and field very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, which defines the flare criterion.

As the visual inspection and the comparison with Figure 2 show, most of the flare stars do have H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width which is less or equal than the upper limit defined by cluster stars. In any case, in order to establish the nature of an object with a strong H$`\alpha `$ emission, several consecutive spectra should be collected, to check the possibility of a flare. This an advisable strategy regardless the final goal, when acquiring spectra (i.e., splitting the total exposure time into three or four consecutive observations).

### 2.4 H$`\alpha `$ in very young stellar associations

We have done the same exercise for several star forming regions and very young clusters, with ages in the range 1-10 Myr, and displayed H$`\alpha `$ equivalent with against the spectral type. These results are depicted in Figure 4, which includes the Orion population (from Herbig & Bell 1988; Alcalá et al. 1996, 1998, 2000), Taurus (Briceño et al. 1993, 1998, 1999, 2002; Alencar & Basri 2001; Martín et al. 2001a; Luhman et al. 2003a; White & Basri 2003; Muzerolle et al. 2003) IC348 (Herbig 1998; Luhman et al. 1999, 2003b; Muzerolle et al. 2003; Jayawardhana et al. 2003a), Sco-Cen-Lupus-Crux Complex, including the $`\rho `$ Oph molecular cloud (Bouvier & Appenzeller 1992; Martín et al. 1998, 2004, in prep; Ardila et al. 2000; Jayawardhana et al. 2002a; Mamajek et al. 2002), Chamaeleon I (Guenther et al. 1997; Comerón et al. 2000; Saffe et al. 2003; Jayawardhana et al. 2003), $`\sigma `$ Orionis cluster (Béjar et al. 1999; Barrado y Navascués et al. 2001, 2002, 2003: Zapatero Osorio et al. 2002a), and TW Hydra association –TWA– (Sterzik et al. 1999; Webb et al. 1999; Zuckerman et al. 2001; Gizis 2002; Mohanty et al. 2003).

In these figures, solid circles, small open circles and open triangles correspond to CTTS/SCTTA, WTTS/SWTTA and PTTS, respectively. These classifications are based on criteria that do not use the W(H$`\alpha `$). Small crosses denote unclassified objects. Note the logarithmic scale in the y-axis. Stars and BDs with mid-infrared excesses (signpost of circumstellar disks) are indicated as large open circles. They were selected from Natta & Testi (2001), Natta et al. (2002), Testi et al. (2002), Comerón et al. (1998), and Jayawardhana et al. (2002b, 2003b). In the case of the $`\sigma `$ Orionis cluster, the large solid and broken circles denote the location of cluster members with near infrared excesses (Barrado y Navascués et al. 2003). Large open squares correspond to objects with forbidden lines (Zapatero Osorio et al. 2002a; Muzerolle et al. 2003; Briceño et al. 1998; Barrado y Navascués et al. 2004, in prep.), which characterize outflows. The vertical dotted segment is located at the spectral type which divides the stellar from the substellar domain (for ages younger than $``$100 Myr). The bold, dotted curve corresponds to the saturation criterion to classify CTTSs and substellar analogs. Traditional criteria dividing between classical and weak-line T Tauri stars, such as the 5 or 20 Å limits (long-dashed horizontal lines), are also included. Note that these criteria do not describe the CTTS/WTTS phenomenology appropriately. The criterion proposed by Martín (1998). which depends on the spectral type, is more reliable. Our saturation criterion improves upon the previous ones and extends into the substellar domain.

### 2.5 A new empirical criterion to classify classical T Tauri stars and substellar analogs

When weighting together all the data and criteria presented in the sections above, we have noted that most CTTS have H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths larger than the characteristic values of older stars (i.e., cluster and field stars) even when these last ones are flaring. Our main goal is to define an empirical spectroscopic criterion to classify any object as accreting or non-accreting using solely low-resolution optical spectroscopy. The data clearly indicate that all stars and brown dwarfs, except the few exceptions –mostly having large variability–, that are located above the saturation criteria (the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width corresponding to log {L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol)}=$``$3.3) are, indeed, accreting and, therefore, they can be classified as bona-fide CTTS and SCTTA. This is a rather restricting criterion: all objects above this line should be CTTS and SCTTA (except for very strong peaks of flare activity which are short lived and rare). Below this dividing line there could be objects with a low-level of accretion. Furthermore, we note that throughout this paper, we have used the measured equivalent widths, without any correction due to the veiling of the continuum. Therefore, true equivalent widths should be equal or larger for CTTS and SCTTAs than the measured values, and all or some of the accreting objects located below the saturation criterion might be, in fact, above it once the veiling correction is performed. Unfortunately, the data in the literature are incomplete and very inhomogeneous regarding the technique to derive the veiling, and we have opted for using the uncorrected values.

In order to make easier the visual inspection, and to compare our criterion with all the available data, we have included in Figure 5 the information displayed in Figures 4a-4h. Figure 5 also shows (solid line) the re-definition of the criterion proposed by Martín (1998), carried out by White & Basri (2003). Our proposed criterion has a sound physical basis: the maximum amount of energy which can be released in non-thermal processes by the chromosphere, $``$5$`\times `$10-4 of the total energy. Objects exceeding this limit must have drawn it from other sources, such as accretion from a disk. This criterion is listed in Table 1, which contains the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width depending on the spectral type.

As a conclusion, a moderate signal-to-noise (S/N$``$35), low resolution (R$``$600) spectrum is enough to detect most of the CTTS and SCTTA. There are exceptions, such as a post-T Tauri star belonging to the Sco-Cen complex, with W(H$`\alpha `$) larger than the saturation criterion. However, additional information, such as the lithium abundance measured in the stellar photosphere, is enough to disentangle this ambiguity (see Martín et al. 1997, 1998). Finally, some of the substellar objects with disks (detected via their infrared excesses or because of the presence of forbidden lines in their spectrum) do not satisfy the proposed saturation criterion. We conclude that the amount of material they are accreting should be relatively small when compared with more massive accretors. This might suggest, too, that the time scale for disk dissipation is smaller in brown dwarfs. The veiling might be affecting by a large amount their evolution, when compared with accreting stars. Therefore, besides the saturation criterion, additional information is very helpful to detect accretion in most of the substellar objects, such as W(HeI5876), W(HeI6678) or the ratios between the components of the CaII infrared triplet. Note, however, that they have H$`\alpha `$ above the cluster chromospheric criterion, which equals 20 Å in this region (objects cooler than M5.5).

## 3 Accretion frequency

We have made use of our empirical criterion –the saturation at log {L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol)}=$``$3.3– to determine the number of CTTS and substellar analogs in several star forming regions, and to compute the fraction of accretors (i.e., the fraction of objects harboring an active circumstellar or circum-substellar disk). Table 2 lists the name of the association or cluster, their age (including maximum and minimum values commonly quoted in the literature) and the fraction of accreting objects, as computed for several spectral ranges. Since the saturation criterion –based on the equivalent width of H$`\alpha `$– is very restrictive, the values compiled in the table can be considered as lower limits. Figure 6 displays, in a log-log plane, this information. In this figure, we depict in three different panels the fraction for stellar members (K3-M5.5) and substellar components (M5.5-L2 and M5.5-M7.5). The selection of the M5.5-M7.5 range responds to the need of avoiding biases due to incompleteness of the surveys. However, we do not appreciate any significant difference. We have selected the spectral type M5.5 as the substellar borderline based on theoretical models –1 or 10 Myr isochrones– by Baraffe et al. (1998).

Although there are significant uncertainties due to poor statistics in some cases, ages derived in heterogeneous ways (different evolutionary tracks or methodology to convert theoretical parameters into observational quantities, see Stauffer et al. 1995), age spread within the association, an so on, the decline of the disk frequency seems to be linear.

The data suggest that the accretion disk life-times are similar in the substellar domain than for more massive objects. We note the low fraction of accreting stars found in Rho Oph, although this could be related to strong veiling which could diminish the measured H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths and, hence, the fraction of accretors estimated from H$`\alpha `$. Recent works (Muench et al. 2001, Haisch et al. 2001, Jayawardhana et al. 2003b, Liu et al. 2003) have derived the fraction of objects with disks using different techniques for these and other SFR. Although the ratios are systematically larger in those studies -it has been stated before that our fraction represents only a lower limit–, the trend of decreasing disk emission with age is similar to what we find. Thus, W(H$`\alpha `$) alone is adequate tool to study the frequency of accreting objects in clusters and star-forming regions.

## 4 Final remarks

Based primarily on the saturation limit at log {L(H$`\alpha `$)/L(bol)}=$``$3.3, we have been able to establish an empirical criterion to distinguish between CTTS and WTTS, and we have extended it into the substellar domain. An schematic classification is shown in Figure 7. Four regions are defined in this figure. Region A is populated by CTTSs and their substellar analogs. They have W(H$`\alpha `$) above the line defined by the saturation (i.e., the origin cannot be chromospheric). Since the equivalent width values are very high, a moderate signal-to-noise, low resolution optical spectrum is enough to detect the presence of accretion. In region (B) classical, weak-line T Tauri and flaring objects can be found. Most of the objects in this area should be BDs. In particular, all WTTS and CTTS with spectral type cooler than M5.5-M6. This area is delimited by the saturation criterion (up) and the maximum chromospheric activity measured in upper clusters (down).

Since there is a mixture of objects in region B, it is useful to obtain additional information about the objects.
b1.- Several consecutive spectra at moderate S/N, low resolution, can establish whether the object is flaring, since the H$`\alpha `$ equivalent widths change very fast and with a very characteristic pattern.
b2.- Spectroscopy at R$``$3000 resolution ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$v=100 km/s) allows a rough study of the H$`\alpha `$ line profile and width. In the case of very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, White & Basri (2003) have proposed FWHM=270 km/s as a criterion to establish the presence of accretion (i.e., CTTS/SCTTA).
b3.- At this resolution, the lithium feature at 6708 Å can be detected (S/N$``$35). The lack of lithium denotes that the object is older than the time needed for disk dissipation ($``$10 Myr) and must have a mass larger than 0.060 M.
b4.- Other lines and line ratios, measured in low or medium resolution spectra, such as those Hei5876, Hei6677 and Caii IRT, can differentiate between CTTS/SCTTA, WTTS/SWTTA, and older objects experiencing flares.

In region C there are classical, weak-line and post-T Tauri stars. The limits are the same as for region B, but in this case, this region is located at the warmer side of the diagram. Additional information that helps to classify objects in this regions includes spectroscopy with resolution R$``$3000, which is enough to measure the width of the H$`\alpha `$ line and use the 10% FWHM criterion, which allows the distinction between SCTTA and SWTTA. The lithium depletion or absence of it is an adequate tool for differentiating between T Tauri and post-T Tauri stars.

Region D is populated by cluster and field stars and BDs. This area also includes weak-line and post-T Tauri objects and is delimited by the upper envelope of the activity measured in young open clusters. Additional criteria to classify objects in region D include:
d1.- As in b1, several low resolution spectra are essential to detect a flare.
d2.- Again, a R$``$3000 spectrum suffices to detect the lithium feature in an object with a spectral type later than about M0, and to measure the activity. Lithium equivalent width can be compared with the values shown by cluster members, weak-line and post-T Tauri stars and brown dwarfs.
d3.- Moderate resolution spectroscopy (R$``$10,000) provides measurements of the rotational velocity ($`vsini`$). Since there is a relationship between age and rotation (slower rotators being older for a given spectral type, Stauffer et al. 1987ab, 1989) for dwarfs earlier than about M6, this information characterizes, from the statistical point of view, the evolutionary status.
d4.- Finally, lithium equivalent widths can be measured in objects with spectral type earlier than M0 if a spectrum with resolution larger than R=10,000 is available.

In all these four cases, the detection or lack of forbidden lines, as well as other permitted lines, as discussed in section 4.1, can put strong constrains on the CTTS/SCTTA or WTTS/SWTTA nature.

As a conclusion, by re-analyzing H$`\alpha `$ and lithium equivalent widths in members of several young open clusters and star forming regions, we have been able to define well-defined spectroscopic criterion based on the saturation limit for young open clusters, which can be used to statistically classify populations of stars and BDs in young open clusters and star-forming regions using low-resolution optical spectroscopy, which is efficiently obtained using multi-object spectrographs.

Financial support was provided by the Spanish “Programa Ramón y Cajal” and AYA2001-1124-CO2 programs. Partial funding was provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant NAG5-9992 and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant AST-0205862. We are truly indebted to the referee, Gibor Basri, for his very useful comments.


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# STATUS OF OBSERVATIONAL COSMOLOGY AND INFLATION

## 1 Introduction

It now more than apparent that we are in the era of precision cosmology: during the last year we had an impressive progress, the first detection of the polarization of the CMBR by DASI and the precise determination of the CMBR anisotropies and confirmation of the DASI result by the satellite experiment WMAP. Since the space at my disposal is limited, I will concentrate in these proceedings on the latest results and try to convey the status of observational cosmology after WMAP; I apologize in advance if I will appear to disregard all previous efforts, but they are covered for example in the proceedings of the past editions of the PIC conference series.

This conference is mainly attended by particle physicists not always familiar with the cosmological ”jargon”, so I will start with a short review of Standard Cosmology and then follow up with the latest observational highlights and the consequences of such measurements for the cosmological parameters. The last section will be devoted instead to inflation and the attempt to relate the initial power spectrum with the one predicted by a single-field inflationary model.

## 2 Standard Cosmology

The key assumption of our Standard Cosmological model is the fact that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic on the very large scale. Thanks to this simplification we can write the background metric as a function of very few parameters, in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) form :

$$ds^2=dt^2R^2(t)\left[\frac{dr^2}{1kr^2}+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }\right]$$
(1)
where $`R(t)`$ is the scale factor of the universe and the constant $`k`$ determines the spatial geometry ($`k=+1,0,1`$ for open, flat and closed universe respectively).

The evolution of the scale factor depends on the energy content and geometry of the universe and is given by the Friedmann equation,

$$H^2=\left[\frac{\dot{R}(t)}{R(t)}\right]^2=\frac{8\pi }{3M_{Pl}^2}\rho \frac{k}{R^2}+\mathrm{\Lambda }.$$
(2)
Here $`M_{Pl}`$ is the Planck mass, the energy density $`\rho `$ includes all the radiation and matter of the universe (i.e. relativistic and non-relativistic particles), while $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is the cosmological constant or ”vacuum energy”. $`H(t)`$ is the Hubble parameter and its present value $`H_0`$ is called the Hubble constant; it is usually expressed via the adimensional quantity $`h`$, which is $`H_0`$ in units of $`100`$ km/s Mpc-1.

In order to solve for the evolution of the scale factor, it is also necessary to know the equation of state of the different types of energy, defined as the ratio of pressure over density and use the first law of thermodynamics:

$$w=\frac{P}{\rho }\frac{d\rho }{dt}=3H(\rho +P)=3H\rho (1+w).$$
(3)
In Table 1 are given the solutions for the energy density and the scale factor and Hubble parameter for different equations of state. Note that the dependence of $`H`$ on time allows to distinguish between different types of energy.

Dividing by $`H^2`$, the Friedmann equation can be recast in the simple form

$$1=\mathrm{\Omega }_M+\mathrm{\Omega }_k+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=\rho /\rho _c`$, with $`\rho _c=\frac{3M_{Pl}}{8\pi }H^2`$ being the critical density, while $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k=k/(H^2R^2)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=\mathrm{\Lambda }/H^2`$. Cosmologists therefore usually measure densities in terms of the critical density as $`\mathrm{\Omega }_ih^2`$, which is just the density in units of $`\rho _c/h^2=1.879\times 10^{29}`$ g/cm3 $`=1.054\times 10^4`$ eV/cm3. Also distances and time are measured by the redshift due to the cosmological expansion: $`1+z=\lambda _{obs}/\lambda _{em}=R_0/R(t_{em})1`$, where $`\lambda _{em},t_{em}`$ are the wavelength and time at emission and $`\lambda _{obs},R_0`$ the observed wavelength and the present scale factor respectively.

### 2.1 Structure formation

We have seen that the evolution of our universe is determined by its energy content, but we have not yet explained how an isotropic and homogeneous state evolves into stars, galaxies, cluster of galaxies. The Universe does not appear at all homogeneous on the small scale and this is due to the gravitational attraction: once a small over-density appears, gravity causes it to grow and finally collapse into a bounded system. So the basic ingredient for structure formation is the presence of initial fluctuations in the density, that can in later time act as seeds for the gravitational collapse .

Assuming that the initial fluctuations were gaussian, their properties can be completely described in term of their power spectrum

$$𝒫(k)|\delta \stackrel{~}{\rho }(k)|^2$$
(5)
where $`\delta \stackrel{~}{\rho }(k)`$ is the Fourier transform of the density contrast $`\delta \rho (x)=\rho (x)\overline{\rho }`$. The dependence of the power spectrum from the scale $`k`$ is very often parameterized by the power-law $`k^{n1}`$, with $`n=1`$ corresponding to the scale-invariant case.

Since the fluctuations are very small (of the order of $`10^5`$), we can consider them as perturbations of the FRW metric and use perturbation theory to describe their dynamics. Their evolution depends only on the cosmological parameters $`h,\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot},\mathrm{\Omega }_M,\mathrm{\Omega }_B`$, the nature of Dark Matter and the equation of state of the dominant component of the energy density. Clearly the density fluctuations cannot grow as long as the pressure of the plasma counteracts the gravitational force and therefore during radiation domination the system is still in the linear regime and only oscillations in the plasma (the acoustic peaks !) take place. Later, when matter dominates, the pressure drops to zero and the fluctuations can grow: structures start to form and we enter the complicated non linear regime.

So any cosmological observation of the density contrast (at present or at recombination epoch) contains in principle information on two class of quantities: the cosmological parameters describing the energy content of the universe and governing the evolution of the background metric and the initial conditions for the fluctuations, also known as the primordial spectrum. It is not always easy to disentangle between the two and it is important to beware of degeneracies and correlations between the different parameters.

## 3 Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

The CMBR brings us information about the state of the universe at the recombination epoch at about $`z1000`$, when the electrons were captured by the nuclei to form neutral atoms and radiation decoupled. The photons that reach us now had their last scattering at that time. Density fluctuation in the plasma in thermal equilibrium gave rise to temperature fluctuations, since the denser regions were hotter. So the temperature anisotropies in the CMBR bring us direct evidence of the density contrast at recombination.

It is traditional to express the temperature anisotropies into spherical harmonics functions :

$$\mathrm{\Delta }T(\theta ,\varphi )=\underset{\mathrm{},m}{}a_\mathrm{}mY_\mathrm{}m(\theta ,\varphi )$$
(6)
and obtain the temperature anisotropies as a function of the multi-pole number

$$C_{\mathrm{}}\frac{1}{2\mathrm{}+1}\underset{m}{}|a_\mathrm{}m|^2.$$
(7)
Note that the multi-pole number $`\mathrm{}`$ corresponds to a particular length $`\lambda =k^1\mathrm{}^1`$ on the last scattering surface. Since at this epoch we are still in the linear regime, the equation of motion for the single scales are independent and can be solved, e.g. using numerical codes like CMBFAST . In very broad terms three different behaviours are present, depending on the wavelength: large scales (i.e. small multi-poles) do not oscillate, but feel the presence of the gravitational potential; scales equal or smaller than the sound horizon oscillate and the first acoustic peak corresponds to the scale of the horizon who has just completed one compression before recombination, while even peaks are instead rarefaction peaks; finally the very small scale (large multi-poles) oscillations are damped. For a detailed description of the physics of the CMBR see .

### 3.1 Polarization

Another interesting property of the CMBR, which has been firstly measured in the last year, is that it is partially linearly polarized. Such polarization is due to the fact that Thomson scattering tends to produce preferentially a final photon polarized in the same direction as the initial photon . It is clear then that if the plasma would be completely isotropic, no net polarization would arise. But due to the density fluctuations, the local velocity field of the photons (i.e. the flux) in the rest system of the electrons is not homogeneous. Then the polarization reflects the local quadrupole in the velocity field, which is anti-correlated with the temperature anisotropies (the velocity is zero at maximal compression or rarefaction). The polarization can in general be decomposed into two different modes, the curl-free mode $`E`$ and the curl mode $`B`$. Since the $`B`$ mode is a pseudo-vector quantity, its cross correlations with $`T`$ and $`E`$ (which are a scalar and a vector) vanish. The cross correlation between the temperature anisotropies and the $`E`$ mode of polarization is instead non-vanishing. We can therefore describe completely the CMBR temperature and polarization anisotropies via four independent correlations, the $`<TT>`$ correlation which corresponds to $`C_l`$ introduced in the previous subsection, the mixed correlation between temperature and $`E`$mode polarization anisotropies $`<TE>`$, and finally the pure $`E`$ and $`B`$mode correlations $`<EE>`$ and $`<BB>`$.

It is important to say that scalar density fluctuations excite predominantly $`E`$-mode polarization, while tensor fluctuations (as expected from gravity waves) excite the $`E`$\- and $`B`$-modes at the same level. Once both polarization modes will be detected, it will be clear how large is the contribution of the tensor fluctuations.

### 3.2 DASI

DASI (Degree Angular Scale Interferometer) is an interferometer experiment located at the South Pole, who first detected the CMBR polarization. The measurement was announced last year during the COSMO-02 conference (you can see the announcement live on the web-site ). For the detailed results and plots, I refer to the DASI web-site  and their publications ; the experiment measured all the four correlation in the multi-pole range between $`200`$ and $`800`$ and obtained evidence for a non-zero $`E`$-mode at 4.9$`\sigma `$. Their signal is in agreement with the expected $`E`$-mode polarization produced by scalar density fluctuations and with the measured temperature anisotropies. The $`B`$mode instead is consistent with zero.

### 3.3 WMAP

WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) is a satellite experiment launched by NASA in 2001 (for the details of the mission, please look at their very exhaustive web-page ). The satellite completed the first full sky observation in April ’02 and the first data release based on that sky map took place this year, in February. The data and pictures are publicly available on the web-portal LAMBDA . WMAP is continuing to take data and so there is more to come in the future.

The WMAP team is measuring the intensity of radiation in 5 different bands and then the five maps (subtracting the dipole component and the Milky Way) are combined to obtain the full sky map of the temperature anisotropies. WMAP also measures the cross correlation between temperature and $`E`$-mode polarization anisotropies .

The WMAP data can reach the multi-pole $`\mathrm{}900`$, up to the third acoustic peak; to extend to the higher multi-poles, to $`\mathrm{}1700`$, the WMAP team included in their analysis the data of other two CMBR ground-based experiments, ACBAR (Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver)  and CBI (Cosmic Background Imager) .

## 4 Large Scale Structure (LSS)

Information on the density contrast can also be obtained from the distribution of galaxies in our universe. The main assumption in this case is that the visible matter follows the distribution of the invisible Dark Matter. The unknown difference between the two distribution is usually parameterized by the bias parameter. Also it is necessary to correct for the non-linearity in the evolution of the small scale perturbations to extract the present linear spectrum, which allows to access directly the primordial one.

Present surveys include the 2 degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dF GRS) just completed, which released recently data about 270.000 galaxies . An even larger survey is ongoing, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which aims at 1 million of galaxies in one quarter of the sky . From the distribution of the galaxies in the sky one can obtain the two point correlation function and the density contrast power spectrum.

Other ways to measure the density contrast rely on using photons of distant objects as a probe of the intervening matter or gas densities. Lyman $`\alpha `$ forest data measure the absorption lines in the spectra of distant quasars caused by intergalactic hydrogen and estimate the cosmic gas distribution out to large distances . This method makes possible to access also the power spectrum at the very small scales, but its systematics are still under debate, since the power spectrum estimation relies on modeling and must be corrected for non-linearities . Yet another way of accessing the matter distribution is weak gravitational lensing, which measures the shear (distortion) in the images of distant objects due to the gravitational potential of the intervening matter . Weak lensing is sensitive to the total matter distribution along the line of sight, without any bias. Other methods to obtain informations on the matter distribution and the power spectrum are X-rays measurements  and peculiar velocities .

One recent development about measurements of the matter power spectrum is the fact that the results from CMBR determinations and from the different LSS methods are now overlapping with each other and cover continously all the scales between the horizon size, about $`10^4h^1`$ Mpc, and $`1h^1`$ Mpc (see e.g.  for a compilation of data on the power spectrum just before WMAP).

## 5 The cosmological parameters from WMAP and LSS

### 5.1 Total energy density and matter density

As discussed previously, the position of the first peak in the CMBR power spectrum corresponds to a wavelength equal to the sound horizon at the surface of last scattering. Since the sound horizon for a relativistic plasma is known, the angular position of the first peak measures directly the geometry of the universe, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$. It is usual to express such a measure in terms of the the total energy density $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}=1\mathrm{\Omega }_k`$. From a global fit including LSS data and a prior on the value of $`H_0`$, WMAP obtains $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}=1.02\pm 0.02`$111All errors are $`1\sigma `$ if it is not explicitely stated otherwise. , completely in agreement with the previous result of Boomerang  and MAXIMA .

The dependence of the temperature anisotropies on the matter density is more involved and the quantity determined from the global fit is $`\mathrm{\Omega }_Mh^2=0.135_{0.009}^{+0.008}`$ . Using the best fit value for the Hubble constant $`h=0.71_{0.03}^{+0.04}`$, this gives $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.27\pm 0.04`$ . Together with the measurement of the total energy density, we obtain then $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }0.7`$, as measured independently from Supernova IA (SN IA) data .

### 5.2 Baryon density

The baryon matter present in the plasma at recombination changes the dynamics of the oscillations, enhancing the compressions and suppressing the rarefactions. Therefore a very precise measurement of the baryon density comes from the comparison between odd and even CMBR peak heights. The WMAP collaboration obtains $`\mathrm{\Omega }_bh^2=0.0224\pm 0.0009`$ . This values is much more precise and fully consistent with the one computed from the observed Deuterium abundance with standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). Still the $`{}_{}{}^{4}He`$ and $`{}_{}{}^{7}Li`$ abundances are not so concordant, as discussed in detail in . It is still open if such discrepancies are due to systematics, non standard BBN or else.

### 5.3 Hot Dark Matter and neutrinos

Light particles with mass of the order of eV, which remain relativistic down to late times, constitute what is called Hot Dark Matter (HDM). Their main characteristic for what regards structure formation is the fact that they have a relatively large free-streaming length: for a massive non-interacting particle the free-streaming length is given by $`\lambda _{FS}1200/m_{\text{eV}}\text{Mpc}`$, where $`m_{\text{eV}}`$ is the mass of the particle in eV. The presence of such free streaming suppresses the formation of bound systems of sizes smaller than $`\lambda _{FS}`$, i.e. it suppresses the power spectrum of the small scales. This effect is absent for Cold Dark Matter, which has practically zero free-streaming length. For this reason the HDM density can be estimated from the power spectrum at small scales, which is measured by LSS data, in particular Lyman $`\alpha `$ data. The CMBR measurements are less sensitive to HDM since they sample larger scales than $`\lambda _{FS}`$, but they are useful for setting the other parameters in the game.

Combining CMBR, 2dF GRS and Lyman $`\alpha `$ data, the WMAP collaboration obtains at 98% CL the bound $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\nu h^20.0076`$ , which for 3 degenerate neutrinos with thermal distribution can be translated into $`m_\nu 0.23\text{eV}`$ at 98% CL. Note that the limit strongly depends on the cosmological parameters, the number of sterile neutrinos and their thermalization, as discussed by . There a more conservative, but qualitatively not much different bound is obtained as: $`m_\nu 1.01(1.38)\text{eV}\text{for}N_\nu =3(4)`$. Not surprisingly, the bound is driven mostly by the Lyman $`\alpha `$ data, which sample the smaller scales; substituting those with X-rays data,  finds instead evidence for a non zero neutrino mass, $`m_\nu =0.56_{0.26}^{+0.30}\text{eV}`$. Further analysis and data are needed to clarify the issue.

Note anyway that the effect by HDM of suppressing the power spectrum at small scales could be partially mimicked by the ”running” of the spectral index of the primordial spectrum or by the presence of quintessence at early times .

### 5.4 Equation of state of the Dark Energy

The WMAP team also performed a global fit for the equation of state of the Dark Energy combining CMBR data with the 2dF GRS and SN IA data and obtained the bound $`w0.78`$ at 95% CL  using a constant $`w1`$.

### 5.5 Reionization

A surprising result of the WMAP polarization data is the high signal at low multi-poles $`\mathrm{}<10`$. Such polarization on very large scales cannot be generated at recombination, but is instead due to Thomson scattering at a much later epoch, when the universe was re-ionized. The epoch of reionization took place after the gravitational collapse, when the light of the first stars ionized the hydrogen clouds. The effect of the presence of ionized gas on the temperature anisotropies is to reduce the spectrum by a factor $`e^{2\tau }`$, where $`\tau `$ is the optical depth for a photon traveling in the ionized medium from the epoch of reionization to today. Until the WMAP result, the optical depth $`\tau `$ was thought to be very near to zero, consistent with the models which describe the formation of the early stars at $`z6`$. The polarization data instead give $`\tau =0.17\pm 0.06`$, hinting at reionization happening at much earlier times, $`z20`$ . This independent determination of reionization via the polarization is very important because it breaks the degeneracy between the spectral index $`n`$ and $`\tau `$ present in the temperature anisotropies.

## 6 Inflationary predictions

Inflation is a period of exponential expansion, which is usually introduced before the Standard Cosmology and solves some of its problems about initial conditions . The exponential expansion is driven by the effective cosmological constant due to the displacement of a scalar field from the minimum of its potential. In order for the potential energy to give this effect, the scalar field must have negligible kinetic energy and descend very slowly towards the minimum, i.e. the inflaton potential $`V`$ has to satisfy the slow roll conditions:

$$ϵ=\frac{M_{Pl}^2}{2}\left(\frac{V^{}}{V}\right)^21|\eta |=M_{Pl}^2\left|\frac{V^{\prime \prime }}{V}\right|1,$$
(8)
where the primes denote first and second derivative w.r.t. the inflaton field. Inflation ends when the scalar field starts to roll faster and finally to oscillate around the minimum; then it decays producing radiation and reheating the universe.

Many different models of inflation have been proposed and studied , all involving physics beyond the Standard Model, and one important question is to confront them with the data and try to gain insight on the new physics.

### 6.1 Comparison with the data

The CMBR observations agree very well with the general inflationary predictions for single field models , as we will discuss in detail.

* Inflation produces in general a spatially flat universe, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}=1`$, in perfect agreement with the WMAP measure of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{tot}=1.02\pm 0.02`$ .
* The primordial fluctuations are generated by the quantum fluctuation of the inflaton field, which is practically massless and non-interacting, and therefore they are gaussian and adiabatic; the measured power spectrum is consistent with gaussianity  and adiabaticity (the fraction of isocurvature perturbations $`f_{iso}0.33`$ at 95% CL) .
* The slow roll approximation predicts a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of the scalar primordial perturbations related to the inflaton potential as following:

$$𝒫(k)=\frac{1}{12\pi ^2M_{Pl}^6}\frac{V^3}{(V^{})^2}|_{k=HR}$$
(9)
where the l.h.s. is evaluated at the inflaton value corresponding to the time when the physical scale $`R/k`$ was equal to the horizon $`H^1`$. Due to the slow roll of the inflaton field, the dependence from $`k`$ is expected to be weak. In fact the spectral index is at lowest order in slow roll:

$$n(k)1=\frac{d\mathrm{log}(𝒫_{})}{d\mathrm{log}(k)}|_{k=HR}=2\eta 6ϵ,$$
(10)
so inflation predicts a very small deviation from the Harrison-Zeldovich scale invariant case $`n=1`$. The WMAP data are actually consistent with a spectral index equal to one, $`n=0.99\pm 0.4`$ in . A similar result comes also from other data analysis .
* A surprising hint from WMAP is the preference of the data for a ”running” of the spectral index $`n`$, which means a non trivial $`k`$ dependence. Expanding $`n`$ in a Taylor series around a reference scale $`k_0`$,

$$n(k)=n(k_0)+n^{}(k_0)\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{k}{k_0}\right)+\mathrm{}$$
(11)
and neglecting higher order terms, the WMAP team obtains the best fit value, $`n^{}(k_0)=0.055_{0.029}^{+0.028}`$ for $`k_0=0.002\text{Mpc}^1`$ .

The central value for $`n^{}`$ appears too large to be consistent with the single field inflationary prediction, which is

$$n^{}(k)=\frac{2}{3}\left[(n1)^24\eta ^2\right]2\xi ^2,$$
(12)
where $`\xi ^2`$ is a second order slow roll parameter $`\xi ^2=M_{Pl}^4\frac{V^{}V^{\prime \prime \prime }}{V^2}`$. In fact the only way to accommodate large running for small $`(n1)^24\eta ^20.02`$ is to assume a strange potential with unnaturally large $`\xi ^2`$ . Of course the value for $`n^{}`$ is consistent with zero at the $`2\sigma `$ level , or even less , so further investigations and statistics are required to settle the question.
* Tensor perturbations (primordial gravity waves) have instead power spectrum:

$$𝒫_{grav}(k)=\frac{1}{6\pi ^2}\frac{V}{M_{Pl}^4}|_{k=HR}$$
(13)
and spectral index

$$n_{grav}(k)=\frac{d\mathrm{log}(𝒫_{grav})}{d\mathrm{log}(k)}|_{k=HR}=2ϵ.$$
(14)
So if the scale of inflation potential is much lower than the Planck mass, the contribution of tensor perturbations can be negligible. At the moment the data show no evidence for tensor perturbation, and for $`r=𝒫_{grav}/𝒫_{}`$ one finds $`r<0.90`$ at 95% CL .

## 7 Conclusions and outlook

The era of precision cosmology continues and in this year we have seen the ”concordance” $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM universe confirmed by the new WMAP data. The cosmological parameters are nowadays measured to the level of few per cent, unthinkable precision up to a couple of years ago. This and the overlap between CMBR and LSS data for the power spectrum allow to put better constraints on the models of structure formation, as demonstrated by the strong bound on the energy density in neutrinos.

The polarization of the CMBR has been for the first time detected in the past year and this result confirms beautifully our understanding of the physics of acoustic peaks and gives an independent measure of the reionization.

For what regard the primordial fluctuations, the simple single field inflationary paradigm with negligible tensor perturbation is at the moment sufficient to describe the data.

Some small discrepancies in the concordance picture are appearing, e.g. BBN, the running of the spectral index, reionization, etc…, and are the object of present studies. We are looking forward to the next year with more data to come !

## 8 Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the organizers for the invitation to speak and the exciting atmosphere at the Workshop.

The bibliography here includes basically reviews and papers published in the last year in order to highlight the recent developments, it is surely not exhaustive nor complete. I apologize for the absences and I point the interested readers to the references of the references, in particular . In the case of on-going experiments, I decided to give the reference not only of the publications, but also of the collaboration web-sites, where frequently updated informations and the latest achievements can be found.


text:
# Escaping from nonhyperbolic chaotic attractors

## Abstract

The noise-induced escape process from a nonhyperbolic chaotic attractor is of physical and fundamental importance. We address this problem by uncovering the general mechanism of escape in the relevant low noise limit using the Hamiltonian theory of large fluctuations and by establishing the crucial role of the primary homoclinic tangency closest to the basin boundary in the dynamical process. In order to demonstrate that, we provide an unambiguous solution of the variational equations from the Hamiltonian theory. Our results are substantiated with the help of physical and dynamical paradigms, such as the Hénon and the Ikeda maps. It is further pointed out that our findings should be valid for driven flow systems and for experimental data.
PACS numbers: 05.45.Gg, 02.50.-r, 05.20.-y, 05.40.-a

Many nonequilibrium systems in physics, chemistry, biology or technology exhibit, as a crucial feature, noise-induced escape from a metastable state. Examples range from Josephson junctions Devoret:1987 , switching in lasers Hales:2000 , Penning traps Lapidus:1999 , over chemical reactions Gillespie:1977  and protein folding Sali:1994  to electronic circuits Mantegna:1996 ; Luchinsky:1997 . For small noise intensities, a WKB-like extension of Kramers’ equilibrium theory Kramers:1940 ; Hanggi:1990  has been developed to treat the realm of nonequilibrium systems Onsager:1953 ; Freidlin:1984 . This approach, making use of an auxiliary Hamiltonian system, identifies the so-called most probable exit path (MPEP), whose probability of occurrence is exponentially larger than that of all the other paths. The MPEP can be observed through its ‘prehistory probability distribution’ and it was carried out numerically Dykman:1992  and experimentially Luchinsky:1997 .
The variational equations for the calculation of the MPEP are well known both for continous Freidlin:1984 ; Dykman:1990  and discrete systems Kautz:1987 ; Beale:1989 ; Grassberger:1989 ; Graham:1991 , yet it is in general not clear how to solve them. Methods have been proposed only for the special case of escaping from periodic states (fixed points, periodic orbits or limit cycles) Luchinsky:2002 ; Beri:2003a . Thus the challenging question of noise-induced escape from a chaotic attractor (CA), although tried before, remained to be answered. The reason is that all previous work dealing with the escape from a CA relies on Monte Carlo simulations of the escape path. By making use of the ‘prehistory probability distribution’, an unstable periodic orbit embedded in the CA was identified and taken as initial condition for the calculation of the MPEP Luchinsky:1999 ; Khovanov:2000 ; Silchenko:2003 .
In this Letter we show that, in fact, the initial condition for the MPEP, and thus the path itself, is uniquely determined by the primary homoclinic tangency (PHT) closest to the basin boundary, as well as its preimages and images. Our solution of this long-standing problem does not only uncover the general mechanism of noise-induced escape from a nonhyperbolic CA, but it remedies, in addition, shortcomings in the previous method. Herewith, we establish the following. First, no unstable periodic orbits have to be determined and no Monte Carlo simulations have to be run to identify these orbits in the escape path. Second, the arbitrariness of the selection of one particular periodic orbit, whose coincidence with the MPEP is not given from first principles, can be dispensed with. As a matter of fact, the PHT is, in contradistinction, a completetly deterministic quantity and can be both easily calculated numerically Jaeger:1997  and extracted from experiments Diestelhorst:1999 . Third, complementary to the work of Ref. Silchenko:2003  in which the importance of the homoclinic structure of the fractal basin boundary to the MPEP is stressed, the present work closes an important gap in pointing out the essential role of the homoclinic structure of the chaotic attractor.
Virtually all CAs occurring in nature or serving as prototype models in nonlinear dynamics are nonhyperbolic. Nonhyperbolicity means that the stable and unstable manifolds of the system are tangent in the phase space. If both manifolds belong to the same periodic orbit, these tangencies are homoclinic. They are called primary, if the, generally quadratic, curvature of the manifolds in the vicinity of the tangent points attain a minimum. Bounded noise on nonhyperbolic CAs causes attractor deformations Jaeger:1997 ; Diestelhorst:1999 , which are most pronounced at the forward and backward iterations of the PHT closest to the basin boundary. As a consequence, PHTs can be better defined as being those tangencies which exhibit an amplification of a pertubation under forward and backward dynamics.
In the following we consider discrete systems, but our results are not limited to them and apply equally well to any flow that can be reduced to a Poincaré map. For the nonequilibrium case, in analogy to Kramers’ law, the mean first exit time is given through the least action $`S`$ Freidlin:1984 ; Graham:1984 ; Graham:1991  by $`\tau \mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{S}{D}\right]`$, where $`D`$ is the variance of the additive Gaussian white noise. To be specific, for a d-dimensional map $`𝐱_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}=𝐟(𝐱_𝐧)+\xi _𝐧`$ the action of the escape trajectory to be minimized has the form

$$S_N=\frac{1}{2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}[𝐱_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}𝐟(𝐱_𝐧)]^2=\frac{1}{2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\xi _𝐧^𝐓\xi _𝐧,$$
(1)
where the $`\xi _𝐧`$ are the noise vector terms. The boundary conditions are such that $`𝐱_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ is a point of the attractor and $`𝐱_𝐍`$ is on the basin boundary, from where no fluctuations are needed to pass to another stable state. The MPEP, which minimizes this action, can be calculated through the Lagrangian Grassberger:1989 ; Dykman:1990

$$L=\frac{1}{2}\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\xi _𝐧^𝐓\xi _𝐧+\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}\lambda _𝐧^𝐓(𝐱_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}𝐟(𝐱_𝐧)\xi _𝐧)$$
(2)
to yield upon variation of $`\xi _𝐧,\lambda _𝐧`$, and $`𝐱_𝐧`$ the area-preserving equations

$`𝐱_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}`$ $`=`$ $`𝐟(𝐱_𝐧)+\lambda _𝐧`$ (3)
$`\lambda _{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}`$ $`=`$ $`\{(\mathrm{𝐃𝐟}(𝐱_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}))^𝐓\}^1\lambda _𝐧,`$ (4)
where $`\mathrm{𝐃𝐟}`$ is the Jacobian matrix of $`𝐟`$. The Lagrange multipliers $`\lambda _𝐧`$ replace the noise terms $`\xi _𝐧`$. The optimal solution of Eqs. (3,4) yields the least action $`S=\frac{1}{2}_{n=1}^N\lambda _𝐧^𝐓\lambda _𝐧`$, the corresponding MPEP (given by the $`𝐱_𝐧`$) and the optimal force ($`\lambda _𝐧`$).
The solution of these equations is intricate though, caused by wild, fractal fluctuations of the energy landscape having many local minima and maxima Graham:1984 . A way to deal with these difficulties, when escaping from a periodic solution, is to employ a refined shooting method Luchinsky:2002 ; Beri:2003a . It consists of a parameterization of the initial conditions $`𝐱_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ in Eq. (3) on a small circle centered in one of the components of the periodic orbit $`𝐱_{PO}`$, and for $`\lambda _\mathrm{𝟏}`$ pointing to the unstable manifold of $`𝐱_{PO}`$. Equivalently, one can take as an initial condition one point of the periodic orbit itself $`𝐱_\mathrm{𝟏}=𝐱_{PO}`$ and $`\lambda _\mathrm{𝟏}r\times \varphi `$, where $`\varphi [0,2\pi ]`$ and $`r`$ is varied within $`r[r_{min},Lr_{min}]`$. Here $`L`$ is the largest eigenvalue at $`x_{PO}`$ and $`r_{min}`$ arbitrary, but small. The upper limit of $`r`$ guarantees that every solution is only considered once. This provides an efficient numerical method for the calculation of the MPEP.
Now, we show that the same procedure can be applied to calculate the escape from a chaotic attractor. To do this, one has to select the initial condition $`𝐱_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ as a preimage of the PHT closest to the basin boundary, since there noise causes the largest deviation Jaeger:1997 . This means that the energy to leave the CA is the lowest. The parameterization for $`\lambda _\mathrm{𝟏}`$ remains unchanged, since every point on the CA has a well defined largest eigenvalue. We first demonstrate this for one of the funamental dynamical paradigms, the Hénon map Henon:1976

$`x_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`ax_n^2+by_n+\xi _n`$ (5)
$`y_{n+1}`$ $`=`$ $`x_n.`$
We choose the parameters $`a=1.3`$ and $`b=0.29`$ for which a CA and another attracting state at infinity coexist. In Fig. 1 the CA is plotted, as well as its basin of attraction, and the saddle point on the boundary (square). We also include the PHT closest to the boundary together with its $`10`$-fold preimages (circles) and the MPEP (crosses). The latter is found by iterating Eq. (3) at the $`10`$-fold preimage of the PHT and by looking for the absolute minimum when changing $`\lambda _\mathrm{𝟏}`$ as described above. As it can be seen, the MPEP moves initially very close to the deterministic dynamics yet it deviates increasingly with every iteration (as expected, since otherwise there were no escape).

At the PHT the MPEP already differs considerably from it. Only there, it is for the first time located outside the CA and advances then, following the elongated images of the PHT (depicted as diamonds), to the basin boundary. From there it approaches the saddle point located on the basin boundary. We emphasize that it is not presupposed that the MPEP leaves the CA in the vicinity of the PHT. We simply use a preimage of the PHT as the initial condition $`𝐱_\mathrm{𝟏}`$ and look for the optimal solution of Eqs. (3,4). The fact that the MPEP is indeed following very closely the structure of the PHT (preimages and images) is thus a confirmation of our claim.

To shed further light on this general mechanism, the stepwise action $`S_n=\frac{1}{2}\lambda _𝐧^𝐓\lambda _𝐧`$ is plotted in Fig. 2. There is only one large peak (step $`10`$) where the MPEP moves away from the CA close to the PHT. Afterwards, the required energy drops off exponentially, since the MPEP follows a relaxational path. It is important to note that this scenario differs from the one of the attractor deformation. In the latter, the trajectory deviates from the CA starting at the PHT, while in our case the MPEP departs already at the preimages (cf. Fig. 2, inset) and is, when passing the PHT, a finite distance away. This is the reason why we have to start iterating Eq. (3) at some preimage of the PHT. However, also by using only the $`5`$-fold preimage of the PHT the same MPEP was obtained. Thus neither the exact number of preimages nor the accurate determination of the PHT is crucial - an indication about the robustness of the method.
In Fig. 3 the MPEP is compared with a direct Monte Carlo simulation of the escape trajectory. The simulation was carried out with a noise strength of $`D=2.4\times 10^4`$, resulting in a trajectory of length $`2.5\times 10^{12}`$. One sees a strikingly good agreement of about $`15`$ iterations before the path approaches the saddle point, reaching back to the $`10`$-th preimage of the PHT. This remarkable coincidence of the simulated path with the MPEP corroborates the general validity of the procedure.
To connect the MPEP with the low-period unstable periodic orbits embedded in the CA, we calculate all periodic orbits up to period $`20`$ Biham:1989 . Only one periodic orbit is found to be close to the MPEP, having period $`9`$. It is also included in Fig. 3. Thus, if one had adopted the previous method of finding periodic orbits close to the MPEP by using stochastic simulations of the system, one might have been led to conclude that the MPEP starts at that period $`9`$ orbit. However, such a reasoning obscures the general deterministic structure of the MPEP with respect to the PHT, as presented in this work.

Next we exemplify the method with the Ikeda map Ikeda:1979 , a discrete model of a laser pulse in an optical cavity. With complex variables it has the form

$$𝐳_{𝐧+\mathrm{𝟏}}=a+b𝐳_𝐧\mathrm{exp}\left[i\kappa \frac{i\eta }{1+|𝐳_𝐧|^2}\right]+\xi _𝐧,$$
(6)
where $`𝐳_𝐧=x_n+iy_n`$ is related to the amplitude and phase of the $`nth`$ laser pulse exiting the cavity. The parameter $`a`$ is the laser input amplitude and ($`1b`$) the damping, while the empty cavity detuning is given by $`\kappa `$ and the detuning due to a nonlinear dielectric medium by $`\eta `$.
We fix the parameters at $`a=0.92,b=0.9,\kappa =0.4`$ and $`\eta =6.0`$. For the noisefree system, two stable states are present, a fixed point and a CA. In Fig. 4 we present the result for the Ikeda map, analogously to Fig. 1. The CA, the basin of attraction and the saddle point on the boundary (square) are depicted. It is also shown the PHT closest to the boundary together with its $`5`$-fold preimages (circles) and the MPEP (crosses). We include two period-5 orbits as well (triangles), which are located near the images of the PHT. The behaviour of the MPEP and the optimal force (not shown) is qualitatively the same up to where the path reaches the PHT. Then it passes very close to two unstable period-5 orbits, which are outside the CA, before it approaches the basin boundary. This is so because they happen to be located exactly at the regions of phase space where the noise elongations attain a maximum, which occurs close to the images of the PHT Jaeger:1997 . The passing of the MPEP through another invariant set was also found in a different system Khovanov:2000 , as well in the more complex situation when there exists a chaotic saddle Kraut:2003a . It does not happen for the Hénon map though, since all the unstable periodic orbits lie, for the present parameter values, on the CA.

To conclude, we have unveiled the general mechanism of noise-induced escape from a nonhyperbolic CA. It is shown that the MPEP exits at the vicinity of the PHT closest to the basin boundary. Our findings are established by solving unambiguously the auxiliary Hamiltonian system, which yields the exact description in the low noise limit. This has, for the first time, been established without taking recourse to Monte Carlo simulations, and only the knowledge of the deterministic structure of the PHT is required. This mechanism gives a robust practical procedure and should also be able to be confirmed experimentally Luchinsky:1997 ; Diestelhorst:1999 . It is advantageous both for stabilizing systems and for energy-optimal switching between different states (cf. Khovanov:2000 ).
We acknowledge D. G. Luchinsky, S. Beri, U. Feudel, M. S. Baptista, and H. Kantz for valuable discussions. This work was supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung.