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# The Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey XII: Clustering of Galaxies Based on observations made at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the California Institute of Technology and the University of California; and at the Palomar Observatory, which is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology.

## 1 Introduction

Numerical simulations of the growth of large scale structure (LSS) in the Universe predict that galaxies at the present day ought to lie on sheets or filaments of thickness a few Mpc, separated by distances of tens to hundreds of Mpc, and that these structures have been forming from early times right up to the present day (eg, Buryak et al 1994; Bond et al 1996; Colberg et al 1999). As in the numerical models (although perhaps less clearly), galaxies in the local Universe are indeed observed to populate such structures (eg, Jôeveer et al 1978; Geller & Huchra 1989; da Costa et al 1994; Shectman et al 1996; Vettolani et al 1997). However, the evolution of these structures with cosmic time has not been established empirically in more than a limited way.

In principle, almost any observable aspect of LSS evolution is a strong function of cosmological parameters, including the density and age of the Universe, the nature of the dark matter, and the spectrum of initial perturbations. In accordance with the general principle that all cosmological tests are much more difficult than they at first appear, the observational situation has turned out to be disappointing, since almost any apparent evolutionary behavior, especially on small scales, is explained not just as an evolution of the LSS itself but is combined with an evolving relationship between mass and light (eg, Baugh et al 1999; Pearce et al 1999), which is to a large extent unconstrained, both theoretically and observationally. Even measurements of clustering with a time baseline out to redshifts $`z>3`$, which have a huge cosmological “lever arm” are thought to place stronger constraints on the bias than the growth of structure (Steidel et al 1998; Giavalisco et al 1998; Adelberger et al 1998)!

Since theoretical predictions are turning out to be soft, the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey (CFGRS) has the goal of contributing to an empirically based history of galaxies in the Universe, which will constrain detailed theories. In what follows, we use a pair of redshift samples, containing over 1000 galaxies to redshift unity, and spanning a range of angular separations from arcseconds to degrees, to constrain the sizes, abundances, morphologies, masses, and evolution of galaxy structures as a function of cosmic time from when the Universe was roughly half its present age to the current epoch.

After the catalogs of galaxy spectra and photometry are described in Section 2, a traditional galaxy–galaxy correlation function is measured in Section 3. The pairwise velocity dispersion of galaxies is investigated in Section 4. Highly significant groups of galaxies are identified in one of our survey regions in Section 5. The sizes and morphologies of these structures are investigated in Section 6. Our conclusions are summarized in Section 7.

Unless mentioned otherwise, the adopted world model is $`H=60\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\mathrm{Mpc}^1`$ (or $`h=0.6`$), $`\mathrm{\Omega }_M=0.3`$, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.0`$. All magnitudes are Vega-relative.

## 2 The catalogs

This study makes use of large faint galaxy redshift samples from the CFGRS, in two regions of the sky, one centered on 00 53 23 12 33 58 (J2000), known as the “J0053+1234 region” the other centered on 12 36 49 62 12 58 (J2000), known as the “HDF region”. The HDF region is centered on the Hubble Deep Field image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (Williams et al 1996).

### 2.1 The J0053+1234 region

In a previous paper (Cohen et al 1999a) redshifts were presented from a survey in a $`2.0\times 7.3\mathrm{arcmin}^2`$ field, J0053+1234. Redshifts were obtained for 139 galaxies and identifications were made of 24 Galactic stars in a flux-limited sample of 195 sources to $`2.2\mu \mathrm{m}`$ flux limit $`K20\mathrm{mag}`$. The sample is 84 percent complete at $`K20`$ mag. The redshifts go to $`z=1.44`$, with the median extragalactic redshift $`z=0.58`$. This sample is, by itself, inadequate for study of galaxy clustering. The size of the field is determined primarily by the properties of the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (LRIS; Oke et al 1995) at the Keck Observatory, used for all of our spectroscopic observations; the field corresponds to only $`1\times 3\mathrm{Mpc}^2`$ (proper) in our cosmology at typical redshifts of roughly one half.

To study spatial baselines of 10 to 30 Mpc, it is necessary to span angular extents of 1 deg. Given limits on available observing time, it is impossible at present to obtain a complete redshift sample to this depth over a contiguous solid angle of this diameter. In the 0053+1234 region, as will be described in more detail elsewhere (Cohen et al in preparation), six additional patches of sky (“subfields”) were observed, distributed over a $`1.2\times 1.2\mathrm{deg}^2`$ area on the sky, surrounding the main J0053+1234 subfield. The configuration of the subfields is shown in Figure 1. The displayed area of each subfield corresponds to the area covered by spectroscopically observed sources. Table 1 gives various properties of the subfields, including the offsets of their centers from the center of the main subfield.

For efficiency, the selection of sources (performed with LRIS images taken in the $`R`$ band) was not designed to produce complete samples in all of the subfields. The $`R`$-band photometry consists of 3-arcsec diameter focal-plane aperture magnitudes. Bright sources with $`R<22`$ mag were eliminated to reduce the fraction of low redshift sources and thereby reduce telescope time involved in obtaining a significant sample with $`z0.5`$. Faint sources with $`R>23.5`$ mag were also removed, as the probability of successful spectroscopic identification in only 2 hours of integration is not high. In addition, obviously stellar sources with $`R<22.5`$ mag were avoided, although a few were observed nonetheless given the vagaries of slitmak design and the need for bright setup sources with which to align the masks. Furthermore, even within the restricted magnitude range $`22R23.5`$ mag, not all sources were observed. However, a large enough number of slitmasks were used in each field to wash out any spatial structure in the selection function. Figure 2 shows the histogram of $`R`$-band magnitudes for all galaxies in each subfield. Although the selection function is complicated, it is entirely based on 3-arcsec diameter $`R`$-band magnitudes; in principle all important information about the selection function is therefore contained in Figure 2.

The spectroscopic observations have a resolution corresponding to $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The redshifts and galaxy spectral classes in the new subfields were determined as in the main subfield (described in Cohen et al 1999a). The numbers of galaxies with measured redshifts and other field information are given in Table 1. The redshift completeness within the sample of sources observed exceeds 90 percent in all the subfields. The total sample of galaxies in the 0053+1234 region with known redshifts is 729, with median redshift $`z_{\mathrm{med}}=0.55`$. Figure 3 shows redshift histograms for the subfields. The J0053+1234 sample is comparable in size to the entire CFRS survey (Crampton et al 1995).

### 2.2 The Hubble Deep Field region

The CFGRS also has obtained and compiled 610 galaxy redshifts in a sky region centered on the HDF. The sources in this region are selected in the $`R`$ band. The sample is 92 percent complete to $`R=24`$ mag in the deep HST-imaged portion of the HDF region and 92 percent complete to $`R=23`$ mag in a circular field of $`8`$ arcmin diameter centered on the deep portion. The imaging data, source selection procedures, and redshift catalog are described elsewhere (Hogg et al 2000; Cohen et al 2000). Figures 2 and 3 show the histograms of $`R`$-band magnitudes and redshifts for all galaxies in the HDF region.

### 2.3 Random catalogs

The studies of galaxy clustering presented below require comparison with a random or Monte-Carlo sample with little or no clustering but identical selection criteria, in terms of sky position, magnitude and redshift.

A representative redshift distribution was constructed for the galaxies in each one-magnitude-wide bin in $`R`$ magnitude by smoothing the observed redshift distribution of galaxies in the redshift bin with a gaussian of $`\sigma =3\times 10^4\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in rest-frame velocity. Random catalogs were created for each region by assigning to each real galaxy position 100 new redshifts chosen from the smoothed redshift distribution constructed for galaxies in that real galaxy’s magnitude bin. This procedure results in samples with good approximations to the angular and radial selection functions of the true samples, including the complication that the source selection criteria are different in the different fields. Note that the random catalog is 100 times the size of the real catalog.

Because there is a small but significant angular clustering of faint galaxies, the random sample does not have strictly vanishing spatial correlations. However, the angular correlation length of faint galaxies to $`R24`$ is $`0.3`$ arcsec (Brainerd et al 1995). Typical galaxy–galaxy separations in the sample are on the order of a few Mpc, corresponding to hundreds of arcsec at the typical redshifts, so the bias introduced by this non-vanishing angular correlation is very small.

## 3 Galaxy–galaxy correlation function

The standard statistic for galaxy clustering is the galaxy–galaxy correlation function. The three-space correlation function $`\xi (r)`$ is not directly computed here, because there are significant redshift-space distortions. Rather, a projected correlation function $`\omega (R_{})`$ is found through the angular correlation of galaxies close in redshift. For each galaxy in the real catalog (signified by “D” for “data”), the number of other galaxies in the D catalog, within $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_r=1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ in rest-frame radial velocity, is found in a set of perpendicular proper distance $`R_{}`$ bins to make the number of data-data (DD) pairs. For each galaxy in the D catalog, the number of galaxies in the random (“R”) catalog within $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_r`$ is found in the same set of $`R_{}`$ bins (and divided by 100) to make the DR pairs. For each galaxy in the R catalog, the number of galaxies in the R catalog within $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_r`$ is found (and divided by $`10^4`$) to make the RR pairs. The correlation function estimator is

$$\omega (R_{})=\frac{DD2DR+RR}{RR}$$
(1)
(Landy & Szalay 1993).

Only galaxies in the redshift range $`0.10<z<1.15`$, where the CFGRS is expected to be substantially complete (Hogg et al 1998), were used in the correlation function estimation.

This correlation function estimate is to be compared with a projection of the three-space correlation function $`\xi (r)`$ of the form

$$\omega (R_{})=_{\mathrm{\Delta }v_r}^{\mathrm{\Delta }v_r}\xi \left(\sqrt{r^2+\frac{v_r^2}{H(z)^2}}\right)\frac{dv_r}{2\mathrm{\Delta }v_r}$$
(2)
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }v_r`$ is the $`1000\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ velocity width used in the estimation, and $`H(z)`$ is the Hubble constant as a function of redshift

$$H(z)=H_0\sqrt{\mathrm{\Omega }_M(1+z)^3+\mathrm{\Omega }_k(1+z)^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }}$$
(3)
### 3.1 Results

The results of the correlation function estimation in the 0053+1234 region are shown in Figures 4 and 6. Results of the estimation in the HDF region are shown in Figure 5. Error bars on the points are $`1\sigma `$, computed by bootstrap resampling the D catalog. It is important to note that these bootstrap-resampling error bars do not include uncertainties due to the specific R sample used (though this makes only a tiny contribution to the overall error budget) nor uncertainties due to sample variance, which, with a sample this small, could be quite large. Only intercomparison of similarly surveyed fields will provide an empirical estimate of the uncertainties due to sample variance. On the other hand, the bootstrap errors may be expected to overestimate the Poisson variance in measures of the correlation function like those shown in Figures 4 and 6 (Mo et al 1992). The error bars (and their covariances) are discussed at more length below.

Figures 4 and 5 show the projected correlation function $`\omega (R_{})`$ for the two samples split into three redshift intervals. These figures show that there is no evidence for strong evolution in the proper correlation length with redshift, although the proper correlation length is smaller in the highest redshift subsample of the 0053+1234 sample, and smaller in the lowest redshift subsample of the HDF sample. The Figures also show a theoretical correlation function which is the appropriate line-of-sight projection of

$$\xi (r)=\left(\frac{r}{r_0}\right)^\gamma $$
(4)
where the correlation length $`r_0`$ is set to $`3.5`$ proper Mpc with $`h=0.6`$ and the exponent $`\gamma `$ is set to $`1.8`$.

The HDF sample shows smaller correlation lengths (weaker clustering) than the 0053+1234 sample. This could be due in part to the fact that the HDF region was selected to be “empty”; i.e., devoid of large, bright galaxies, quasars, or radio sources (Williams et al 1996). Since this clustering analysis probes the non-linear regime, such selection criteria can strongly bias the results. This explanation is supported by the much lower clustering amplitude in the lowest redshift bin (Figures 5 and 7), which is the bin most affected by avoidance of bright galaxies. It has been shown in models of structure formation that underdense regions of the Universe show a lower overall clustering amplitude, although the shape (ie, exponent) of the correlation function may be more universal (eg, Scoccimarro et al 1999).

Figure 6 indicates that when the galaxies are separated by spectral type (Cohen et al 1999a), the absorption-line-dominated galaxies show stronger correlations at small separations, as is seen in the local universe (eg, Davis & Geller 1976; Hermit et al 1996; Willmer et al 1998). Of course the sample of absorption galaxies is small (only 121), so sample variance may make this result somewhat uncertain. One indication that this may be important is that the points are not well-fit by a power-law correlation function. Figure 6 also shows that there is not a very strong dependence of the clustering on absolute galaxy luminosity. For the purposes of this test, galaxy luminosities were estimated in the rest-frame $`R`$ band, using the redshift and k-corrections from the literature (Poggianti 1997). A galaxy was classified as having “high luminosity” if its rest-frame $`R`$-band luminosity was estimated to brighter than $`L^{}/4`$ where $`L^{}`$ is taken from the evolving models of Poggianti (1997). The fact that the luminosity trend found in the local Universe (eg, Willmer et al 1998) was not confirmed may be a consequence of the small sample size.

Correlation function models of the form (4) with $`\gamma =1.8`$ fixed were fit to the points in Figures 4 and 5 by least-squares, using the bootstrap uncertainties. The best fits and uncertainties, computed by the one-parameter condition $`\chi ^2<\chi _{\mathrm{best}}^2+1`$ where $`\chi _{\mathrm{best}}^2`$ is the best-fit value of $`\chi ^2`$ (Press et al 1992), are plotted in Figure 7. The figure also shows that the results presented here are consistent with other studies.

Figure 7 contains a line which illustrates the prediction of “stable clustering,” the best no-evolution model for small-scale clustering of galaxies in which virialized groupings of different scales separate without growing in the expanding Universe. If the small-scale clustering of galaxies is basically accounted for by the presence of groups whose proper number densities and radii do not evolve with time, then the clustering length will decrease with increasing radius as the mean cosmic density rises (because the clustering radius is defined to be the radius at which the overdensity is unity). For a correlation function of the form (4), clustered density falls with radius as $`r^\gamma `$ and cosmic mean rises with redshift as $`(1+z)^3`$, so the stable clustering prediction is that the proper correlation length decreases with radius as $`(1+z)^{(3/\gamma )}`$.

More detailed theoretical models, based on extensions of the cold dark matter hypothesis to include the relationship between observable galaxy clustering and mass clustering, make predictions which are remarkably similar to those of stable clustering (Baugh et al 1999; Pearce et al 1999). These models are also shown in Figure 7.

All the studies of galaxies at redshifts $`z>0.2`$ show smaller correlation lengths than expected based on the surveys of the local Universe and the assumption of stable clustering. This evolution result should be treated with caution, because galaxies observed in the $`z>0.2`$ samples have been selected and photometered with data of different qualities and spatial resolutions, observed in different photometric bandpasses, and collected in samples with very different field areas and numbers of sources. Any individual study, taken by itself, including the present study, is at least marginally consistent with stable clustering.

### 3.2 Error bars

It is very important to note that the results from the two sky regions studied in this work differ by significantly more than their shot-noise (as estimated by bootstrap resampling) error bars. Of course the field-to-field variations give a much more secure estimate of the true uncertainties than bootstrap resampling in individual sky regions.

One difficult point of comparison with other studies is in the size of the error bars; there is no agreement about how such error bars should be measured. In particular, some (e.g., Carlberg et al 1997) divide bootstrap error bars by $`\sqrt{3}`$ based on an analysis of the statistical properties of bootstrap resampling (Mo et al 1992). This correction is not made here. Some base error bars on internal field-to-field variations. One such study, the CFRS (Le Févre et al 1996), shows error bars significantly smaller than the field-to-field variations observed in the present work, despite having smaller numbers and similar field sizes. The field-to-field variations observed here agree with those found in the CNOC survey (Carlberg et al 2000a).

Very few surveys, if any, consider the covariances between the error bars on separate points of the angular correlation function, even though it is clear from the analysis techniques that such covariances must be strong. Fortunately, with the bootstrap technique, it is possible to measure these covariances. The covariance matrix (in the form of correlation coefficients $`r_{ij}`$ defined by

$$r_{ij}\frac{\sigma _{ij}}{\sigma _i\sigma _j}$$
(5)
where $`\sigma _{ij}`$ is the covariance between data points $`i`$ and $`j`$ and $`\sigma _i`$ is the square root of the variance of data point $`i`$) for the first ten “whole sample” points in Figure 6 is

$$\left[\begin{array}{cccccccccc}\hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.28& \hfill 0.18& \hfill 0.26& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.03& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.10& \hfill 0.07\\ \hfill 0.28& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.14& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.30& \hfill 0.29& \hfill 0.03& \hfill 0.52& \hfill 0.22& \hfill 0.03\\ \hfill 0.18& \hfill 0.14& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.12& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.05& \hfill 0.06& \hfill 0.32& \hfill 0.25\\ \hfill 0.26& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.12& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.09& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.22& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.00& \hfill 0.13\\ \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.30& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.09& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.01& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.35\\ \hfill 0.03& \hfill 0.29& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.01& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.30& \hfill 0.15& \hfill 0.12& \hfill 0.05\\ \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.03& \hfill 0.05& \hfill 0.22& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.30& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.46& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.15\\ \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.52& \hfill 0.06& \hfill 0.04& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.15& \hfill 0.46& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.23& \hfill 0.09\\ \hfill 0.10& \hfill 0.22& \hfill 0.32& \hfill 0.00& \hfill 0.11& \hfill 0.12& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.23& \hfill 1.00& \hfill 0.07\\ \hfill 0.07& \hfill 0.03& \hfill 0.25& \hfill 0.13& \hfill 0.35& \hfill 0.05& \hfill 0.15& \hfill 0.09& \hfill 0.07& \hfill 1.00\end{array}\right]$$
(6)
It is clear that many of the covariances are large and ought to be taken into account in estimating error regions. Furthermore, this matrix only represents covariances from shot noise, and not the even more significant covariances expected from the fact that the correlation function grows by gravitational clustering (eg, Scoccimarro et al 1999). When $`\chi ^2`$ is computed using the entire covariance matrix rather than just the individual data-point variances, the preferred ranges on the correlation length $`r_0`$ actually go down (i.e., improve) by tens of percent. This statement is true for this study, but will not be true in general, because the values and signs of the covariances depend on the survey size and geometry, along with the analysis technique. In many cases, inclusion of the covariances will loosen constraints on $`r_0`$. The fact that the covariances affect the confidence intervals, however, demonstrates that such covariances should be taken into account in future studies.

## 4 Pairwise velocity dispersion

The pairwise velocity dispersion (roughly the average radial velocity difference between pairs of nearby galaxies) is a combined measure of the mean mass density of the Universe and the amplitude of the power spectrum on relatively small scales (eg, Davis et al 1985). Local measurements vary somewhat by survey and technique but are generally in the range $`300`$ to $`600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (Davis & Peebles, 1983; Marzke et al 1995; Somerville et al 1997b; Landy et al 1998).

In the previous Section, the correlation function of galaxies was estimated from line-of-sight projections which are insensitive to line-of-sight velocities. However, just as the transverse correlation function can be measured, so can a line-of-sight velocity correlation function, which is a convolution of the real-space two-point correlation function and the pairwise velocity distribution of galaxies. The procedure is to compute a two-dimensional correlation function, as a function of both transverse separation and line-of-sight velocity difference, and then fit to models of the correlation function consisting of a radial power-law convolved with a line-of-sight velocity dispersion. The estimator is the same as that used to measure the transverse one-dimensional correlation function, but applied to two-dimensional maps of the numbers of pairs in the D and R catalogs. The fits to the two-dimensional correlation function provide similar correlation lengths to those derived from the fits to the one-dimensional function, although with larger uncertainties.

The best-fit velocity dispersions are found to vary strongly from field to field and from redshift interval to redshift interval, over the range $`200<\sigma _v<600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The reason for this variation is that although the prominent redshift features or groups found in the pencil-beam samples contain only about half of the galaxies, they contain the vast majority of the velocity-space galaxy pairs. This means that any measurement of pairwise velocity dispersion will be dominated by the particular galaxy groups found in that region, in that redshift range. The pairwise velocity dispersion is a statistic strongly dominated by the highest density regions of a survey. This is not a new result; indeed, local measurements of this velocity dispersion in surveys of $`10^3`$ to $`10^4`$ galaxies are strongly affected by the inclusion or exclusion of the richest groups or clusters (eg, Marzke et al 1995, Somerville et al 1997b). This is also true of the simulations (Somerville et al 1997a). Surveys including several or many $`10^4`$ galaxies may be large enough to give stable results (Landy et al 1998).

## 5 Galaxy structures

The redshift histograms for the fields are shown in Figure 3, along with the radial velocity selection functions implied by the random catalogs. As has been noted previously (eg, Broadhurst et al 1990; Crampton et al 1995; Cohen et al 1996a; Cohen et al 1996b; Koo et al 1996), these “pencil-beam” redshift samples exhibit extremely strong clustering along the line of sight in redshift space. In the main subfield in the J0053+1234 region, with its complete sample, we estimated (Cohen etal 1996a) that more than half of the galaxies lie in the five strongest redshift features, which, except for one with a very high velocity dispersion, probably correspond to poor groups of galaxies. The spatial distributions of the galaxies in these redshift features support this (Cohen et al 1996a); they are non-uniform with little central concentration (except in the strongest feature at $`z=0.58`$). Similar conclusions were reached in the HDF region (Cohen et al 1996b). These redshift features are well-sampled to $`z=0.9`$ and appear to persist to higher redshifts. At all redshifts, galaxies are often found in pairs, presumably merging (eg, Carlberg et al 2000b). It is apparent from Figure 3 that all the subfields show these redshift features.

Five of the redshift features may correspond to Abell richness class $`1`$ or greater galaxy clusters, ie, clusters containing more than 20 galaxy members with absolute magnitudes brighter than two mag fainter than the absolute magnitude of the third brightest member. These include the $`z=0.58`$ feature in the J0053+1234 main subfield, the $`z=0.175`$ feature in the J0053+1234 19 West subfield, and three features at $`z=0.516`$, $`0.560`$, and $`0.848`$ in the HDF region. These structures have velocity dispersions above $`500\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and tens of galaxies within the brightest few magnitudes. The presence of these five rich structures in our combined samples seems reasonable; an extrapolation to $`z=0.8`$ of the areal density of the sparsest clusters in the Palomar Distant Cluster Survey (Postman et al 1996) predicts that we should find some of these true clusters.

The statistics of these redshift-space features are discussed elsewhere (Cohen et al 1996a, 1996b, 2000). Briefly, they tend to have velocity dispersions of $`300\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, with large uncertainties since they approach the redshift measurement uncertainties of $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ (in line-of-sight rest-frame velocity). The galaxies in the features are spread across the pencil-beam subfields, each of which spans a few proper Mpc at the redshifts of interest. Typical comoving line-of-sight distances between adjacent features in a single subfield is $`100\mathrm{Mpc}`$. The distribution of comoving radial separations between the redshift-space features shows little evidence of a feature near $`100h^1`$ Mpc and no evidence for periodic structures seen in previous studies (Broadhurst et al 1990).

The transverse size of the individual subfields is $`8^{}3\pm 0.5`$ proper Mpc over most of the redshift interval of interest. We introduce a proper longitudinal coordinate $`Zct(z)`$ where $`t(z)`$ is the age of the universe and just deal with structures whose longitudinal extent in $`Z`$ exceeds $`3`$ proper Mpc ($`250350`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> over redshifts of interest). We are also interested in features whose longitudinal extent is less than the transverse separation between subfields which is roughly $`10`$ proper Mpc. Our procedure (cf Cohen et al 1998) is to examine the overdensities after rebinning the data with all widths $`w_Z`$ in the range 3-10 proper Mpc and all phases and to minimize the probability of a feature arising by chance relative to a Poissonian distribution. This gives us a procedure, albeit somewhat arbitrary, for identifying and rank ordering features on the basis of their relative significance. This also allows us to include features and sub-features together. The rank-ordered (by statistical significance) features, obtained by this procedure, with the number $`N`$ of galaxy members and velocity dispersions $`\sigma _v`$, are given in Table 2. We have chosen only the eight most significant features for the investigations of size and morphology which follow.

## 6 Galaxy structure size and morphology

As the seven pencils in the J0053+1234 region span nearly a degree on the sky, we can investigate the degree of clustering on larger linear scales, $`25`$ proper Mpc, than probed by the two-point correlation function. Previously (Cohen et al 1998) we have hypothesized that structures on even larger scales ($`100`$ Mpc) are present in the distribution of galaxies when the universe was less than half its present age that resemble the giant voids and walls reported in the local universe (eg, Jôeveer et al 1978; Geller & Huchra 1989; da Costa et al 1994; Shectman et al 1996; Vettolani et al 1997). We now have enough data to examine this hypothesis.

Much of the controversy that surrounds the description of clustering on these scales stems from inadequate, quantitative descriptions of large scale structure. When presented with data in which at most a few large features are present, statistical measures like the two point correlation function that assume random phases, or at least a huge, fair sample of the Universe, are likely to be misleading. Furthermore, genuinely random density fields typically exhibit structures which appear, subjectively, to be non-random. Faced with these difficulties, we shall limit ourselves to a description of the structure that we have observed and a comparison with the structure that we find in control locations. (We have attempted to perform more quantitative analyses based upon the Karhunen-Loeve transformation and the “counts in cells” method but find that these do not give stable answers with these samples.)

Three of the most significant redshift features are in the vicinity of $`z=0.430`$. These three features lie along the north-south axis passing through the Main subfield and they span the full degree of the J0053+1234 region. This suggests large galaxy structures that span several subfields. In order to test the hypothesis that such large structure is generic, each of the eight identified features (in Table 2) was taken in turn and the cross-correlation with individual galaxies out to large proper radii was computed. Specifically, all galaxies located within proper distances $`R<30`$ Mpc of the group center were binned. These numbers were ratioed with the same for the random catalog and unity was subtracted to make a standard cross-correlation function. For comparison with a control sample, the exercise was repeated with the same group centers displaced in redshift by 0.1. The results are shown in Figure 8, with error bars on the control points found by taking the scatter among the results for each of the eight control redshift features. No individual group shows a regular, power-law cross-correlation, so it is not possible to objectively fit the individual functions. Roughly speaking, cross-correlation lengths of 5 to 20 proper Mpc are found, with large group-to-group scatter. These sizes, combined with the measured velocity dispersions of a few $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ imply virial masses from a few $`10^{13}`$ to a few $`10^{14}M_{}`$. Crossing times are several $`10^9`$ years. The groups near $`z=0.430`$ show the largest correlation lengths because there are three of them, spanning $`1`$ deg on the sky. Galaxy structures of this size have been found previously (Small et al 1999).

There is a second hypothesis that can be tested with this data set. This is that galaxies are concentrated on planes, similar to those that have been reported locally and are sometimes found in numerical simulations. In order to define a plane, we must consider three non-colinear points. For each feature (group center), any two additional galaxies outside the feature define, along with the feature center a plane. The unit normal vector (3-vector) to this plane can be constructed. The direction cosines of this normal vector are defined to be the two components of the vector transverse to the line of sight; the projection of the normal vector onto the plane of the sky. (Those galaxies which lie in the same subfield as the feature and those pairs for which the subfields are colinear with the feature, for which the planes are poorly defined, are excluded.)

The direction cosines for each triplet (two galaxies and the feature center) are plotted on a plane, for each feature and a set of controls, in Figure 9. If the features lie in prominent planes of galaxies, these will show up as clustering of points on the direction cosine plane. As usual, the controls were made by translating the features in redshift by 0.1. There is no clear evidence that galaxies are concentrated on planes from these data.

It is notable, however, that three of the highly significant redshift features (near $`z=0.43`$) ar roughly colinear. Figure 10 shows the galaxy configuration in the region of these galaxy structures. They may represent part of a filament, a structure generic to the numerical simulations. Clearly studies such as these of the morphologies of large-scale structures will benefit from large, densely sampled, contiguous areas of sky. The sparse coverage of the J0053+1234 field, though necessary for probing large angular scales, is not sufficient for making definitive statements about structure morphology.

## 7 Summary

A clustering analysis is performed on two samples of $`600`$ faint galaxies each, in two widely separated regions of the sky. One of the survey regions is configured so that there are galaxy pairs spanning angular separations of up to $`1`$ deg. The median redshifts of the galaxy samples are both $`z_{\mathrm{med}}0.55`$.

No strong evolution of the proper galaxy–galaxy correlation length with redshift is found (relative to stable clustering), although samples of $`1000`$ sources are simply not large enough for detecting subtle changes. There is some evidence for weaker-than-stable clustering at intermediate redshift, when the results presented here are compared with surveys of the local ($`z<0.2`$) Universe, but it is to be cautioned that this result depends on comparing samples selected and observed with very different techniques. Strong field-to-field variations are found, possibly emphasized by the stringent “blank-field” criteria used to select the HDF.

Galaxies with absorption-line-dominated spectra show much stronger clustering at proper distances of $`<2`$ Mpc than typical field galaxies, in qualitative similarity to the morphological segregation observed in the local Universe.

Although pairwise velocity dispersions are measured to be in the range $`200`$ to $`600\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$, measured value for any particular sky region and redshift interval is dominated by the prevalent individual redshift features. For this reason, no statement about the evolution in pairwise velocity dispersion is possible from these data.

Each individual pencil-beam redshift sample contains of order five significant features (“peaks”) in its redshift distribution to redshift unity. Associating the redshift features with physical galaxy structures, we have performed a three-dimensional structure–galaxy correlation analysis and find that galaxies show measurable clustering around these structures out to $`20`$ Mpc. These lengthscales are longer than the galaxy–galaxy correlation length and similar to scales of superclusters found locally and, indeed, at even higher redshifts (Lubin et al 2000). There is some evidence for filaments, although pencil-beam surveys are not ideally suited for finding them in general.

The most prominent galaxy structures have velocity dispersions of a few $`100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ and coherence lengths of 5 to 15 proper Mpc in the adopted cosmology. These physical parameters imply masses of $`3\times 10^{13}`$ to $`3\times 10^{14}M_{}`$. The galaxies in the structures are not obviously concentrated in walls or sheets, and no evidence is found for periodicity on very large length scales. On the other hand, this survey of spatially separated, sparsely sampled pencil beams is not extremely sensitive to all kinds of structure morphology and will be outmoded by future surveys with larger contiguous solid angle coverage.

Most importantly, large-scale structure at $`z1`$ does not look very different from that found locally at the present epoch.

It is a pleasure to thank Ray Carlberg, Daniel Eisenstein, Simon Lilly, Jim Peebles, Roman Scoccimarro, Todd Small and an anonymous referee for useful comments, discussions and assistance with the literature. This research is based on observations made at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the California Institute of Technology and the University of California; and at the Palomar Observatory, which is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology. Financial support was provided under NSF grant AST 95-29170 (to RDB) and Hubble Fellowship grant HF-01093.01-97A (to DWH) from STScI, which is operated by AURA under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. This research made use of the NASA ADS Abstract Service.


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# Measurement of Transport Lifetime in a Cuprate Superconductor

## Abstract

We report measurements of the phase of the conductivity, $`\varphi _\sigma arg(\sigma )`$, in the normal state of a $`Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_{8+\delta }`$ (BSCCO) thin film from 0.2-1.0 THz. From $`\varphi _\sigma `$ we obtain the time delay of the current response, $`\tau _\sigma \varphi _\sigma /\omega `$. After discovering a systematic error in the data analysis, the extracted $`\tau _\sigma `$ has changed from that reported earlier. The revised data is shown in the sole figure below. Analysis and discussion of these data will follow.

This work was supported under NSF Grant No. 9870258, DOE Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098, and ONR Contract No. N00014-94-C-001.


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# The response of an accretion disc to an inclined dipole with application to AA Tau

## 1 Introduction

Objects accreting material through an accretion disc very commonly contain a significant magnetic field. This is the case for accreting white dwarfs in cataclysmic variables, some X–ray binary pulsars and at least some classical T Tauri stars (CCTS).

It was first suggested by Bertout et al. (Bertout (1988)), as a result of the detection of bright stellar spots, that CTTS may accrete along stellar magnetic field lines. This picture has been further supported by a wide array of observational evidence (see Najita et al. Najita (2000) and references therein), including spectroscopic indications of infalling material onto the stellar surface (Edwards et al. Edwards2 (1994); Hartmann et al. Hartmann (1994)) and the low spin rate of CCTS (Bouvier et al. Bouvier1 (1993); Edwards et al. Edwards1 (1993)).

Since T Tauri stars have a large convective envelope, it is likely that at least part of their magnetic field is generated through a dynamo process. However, there may also be a fossil component originating from the molecular cloud out of which the star formed (Tayler Tayler (1987)). Recent Zeeman measurements indicate relatively strong field strength at the surface of T Tauri stars, on the order of one kilogauss (Guenther et al. Guenther (1999); Johns-Krull et al. Johns (1999)). It is not known what the structure of the field is. At some distance from the star the dipolar component probably dominates, but whether this is the case in the magnetosphere is not clear. However, observations cannot rule out such a coherent field structure (Montmerle et al. Montmerle (1994)), and numerical simulations of nonlinear stellar dynamos indicate that a steady dipole mode is the most easily excited one (Brandenburg et al. brand1 (1989)).

Interaction between the stellar magnetic field and the accretion disc has very important consequences for the disc structure, the accretion process (see Ghosh & Lamb Ghosh91 (1991) and references therein) and the evolution of the stellar rotation (Königl Konigl (1991)). In particular, the disc is truncated by the magnetic torque, so that it does not extend down to the stellar surface (Gosh & Lamb Ghosh79 (1979)). The location of the disc inner radius is determined by the condition that magnetic and viscous torques balance. For CTTS, the radius of the inner cavity is believed to be a few stellar radii (see, e.g., Wang Wang (1995)).

So far, there are only a few numerical simulations of disc–stellar magnetic field interactions (Hayashi et al. Hayashi (1996); Miller & Stone Miller (1997); Goodson et al. Goodson (1997); Kudoh et al. Kudoh (1999)). They all show the disc–magnetosphere interaction to be complex and sensitive to initial and boundary conditions. At this stage, it is not clear what final form a full theoretical model is likely to take. However, analytical or semi–analytical simplified models can still be valuable in pointing out some important processes that may arise in these systems, and the goal of this paper is to describe one of these processes.

We note that the magnetic axis and the rotation axis of the disc at large distances from the star may not be aligned, although often, for simplicity, they are assumed to coincide. We assume here that the stellar rotation axis and the disc rotation axis at large distances coincide. Misalignment would then occur if, for instance, the star were to generate a dipole field with magnetic axis misaligned with its spin axis (like in the case of the Earth). It is possible that the interaction with the disc would lead to some evolution of the misalignment angle, but the details are likely to depend on the processes which generate the field. In any case, when such a misalignment is present, the magnetic pressure is not the same on the upper and lower surfaces of the disc. This mismatch generates a net vertical force which excites bending waves and warps inner parts of the disc (Aly Aly (1980)).

Bending instabilities in a disc subject to a stellar magnetic dipole have been investigated by Agapitou et al. (Agapitou (1997), hereafter APT). APT calculated the global bending modes of a disc permeated by both an internally produced poloidal magnetic field and an external dipole field with axis aligned with the disc rotation axis (in this case no warp is induced by the dipole configuration, but free bending modes can be excited by a perturbation which takes the disc out of its equilibrium plane). They found that instability could occur if the magnetic and centrifugal forces were comparable in some region of the disc. They pointed out that such instabilities may result in the periodic variability observed in the light curve of many CTTS.

Lai (Lai (1999)) studied the warping of a disc induced by an inclined dipole. He calculated the magnetic torque exerted by an inclined dipole on a disc, and studied the stability against vertical displacements of a disc subject to such a torque. In the terms of the APT analysis, he studied the stability of low frequency (as measured in an inertial frame) bending modes corresponding to the modified tilt mode as discussed in APT. We note that, when considering the structure of the disc subject to the inclined dipole, he did not take into account the effects of the distortion of the disc itself on its response, which can have important consequences on the dynamics through wave propagation. But he added the effects of a toroidal field, assumed to be generated by winding up a penetrating vertical field, on the magnetic pressure determining the vertical force on the disc. This contribution is phase shifted with respect to the other contributions and may thus (if not counteracted) cause the modified tilt mode to become unstable, resulting in spontaneous warping. To decide whether this mode can be destabilised requires detailed consideration of the effects of wave propagation and viscosity. We comment that under some conditions warps diffuse away on a timescale much shorter than the viscous timescale (Papaloizou & Pringle Pap2 (1983)) or propagate away with a velocity on the order of the sound speed (Papaloizou & Lin Pap1 (1995)) resulting in stabilisation.

In this paper, we calculate the structure of a thin Keplerian disc subject to an inclined dipole, taking into account the effects of the distortion of the disc itself on its response, i.e. the full dynamics of the system. For simplicity, we suppose that the disc is diamagnetic, so that it is not permeated by the external stellar field. In principle, the calculations presented here could be extended to more general cases. However, if the disc were not diamagnetic, wrapping of field lines would probably become important, leading to the possible disruption of the magnetosphere (see, e.g., Mikic & Linker Mikic (1994)). Also we do not address here the physical processes of accretion or plasma entry into the stellar magnetosphere. We note that because the warp induced in the inner disc appears steady in a frame rotating with the star, any resulting variability would have the same period as that of the star.

We comment that the generation of spontaneous warping does not apply to the calculations we present here, since we study a response which is forced by the inclined dipole and has a pattern speed equal to the rotation rate of the star. Thus, in contrast to the considerations of Lai (Lai (1999)), it is not a modified tilt mode.

This work has been motivated by a recent study of Bouvier et al. (Bouvier2 (1999)) who report that the light curve of the CTTS AA Tau displays photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric variations on timescales from a few hours to several weeks. The most striking feature of this light curve is a photometric variability with a period comparable to the expected rotation period of the star. This has been interpreted by Bouvier et al. (Bouvier2 (1999)) as being due to the occultation of the star by a warp of the inner disc (the system is observed almost edge–on). The authors speculated that the warp could be produced by an inclined dipole. We note that Bouvier et al. (Bouvier2 (1999)) did not consider AA Tau as being a special case as far as its properties are concerned. They pointed out that only its light curve is unusual, and they interpreted it as being due to the fact that the system is seen almost edge–on. In other words, warping of the inner parts of CTTS discs would not be uncommon, but it could be seen only for particular viewing angles.

The plan of the paper is as follows: We begin by considering an equilibrium configuration where the axis of the dipole and the rotation axis of the disc are aligned. This is described in § 2. We then perturb this equilibrium by slightly inclining the dipole. In § 3 we calculate the resulting perturbed magnetic field and derive the integro–differential equation which has to be solved for the disc vertical displacement. This equation is solved in the WKB approximation, which is valid when the wavelength of the bending waves excited in response to the perturbation is small compared to the disc radius. To allow these waves to damp as they propagate away (and therefore to damp very small wavelength oscillations, which would be unphysical), we include the effects of viscous damping in the integro–differential equation. In § 4 we solve this equation numerically and present the results for two different magnetic field equilibria (derived by Aly Aly (1980) and Low Low (1986)). In both cases we find that, if the viscosity is large enough to damp the waves as they propagate away, a smooth warp configuration of the disc inner parts can exist. The elevation above the disc equilibrium plane (i.e. the stellar equatorial plane) can easily be on the order of ten percent of the disc inner radius for reasonably small misalignment angles (less than 30 degrees). If the viscosity is too small to damp the waves efficiently, the disc inner parts may be disrupted, and it is likely that the evolution is then highly time–dependent. In § 5 we apply these results to the case of AA Tau, and show that the variability of its light curve, which occurs with a period expected to be the stellar rotation period, can plausibly be explained by a warp configuration of the type we obtain.

## 2 Disc and aligned dipole

We begin by considering a thin disc configuration such that the gas orbits a central rotating star with a dipole field and where the magnetic axis and rotation axes are all aligned. In this situation, the configuration is axisymmetric. For convenience, we work in a frame corotating with the central star with angular velocity $`\omega .`$ The disc is truncated in its inner parts by the magnetic torque and we will suppose that the inner edge corotates with the star.

### 2.1 Magnetic field

The dipole field $`𝐁_{ext}`$ due to the central star induces azimuthal currents in the conducting disc which in turn generate an additional poloidal magnetic field $`𝐁_d`$.

Here, as in APT, we shall assume that the field external to the disc and central star can be approximated as curl free, i.e. assumed to be a vacuum field (the currents external to the disc and star are at infinity).

The total axisymmetric poloidal magnetic field, $`𝐁_{ext}+𝐁_d`$, is noted $`𝐁=(B_r,0,B_z)`$, where we use cylindrical polar coordinates $`(r,\phi ,z)`$. The associated Cartesian coordinates are $`(x,y,z)`$. The flux function $`\psi `$ is such that:

$$B_r=\frac{1}{r}\frac{\psi }{z}\mathrm{and}B_z=\frac{1}{r}\frac{\psi }{r}.$$
(1)
For the stellar dipole field:

$$\psi _{ext}=\frac{\mu _dr^2}{(r^2+z^2)^{3/2}},$$
(2)
where the magnitude of the stellar magnetic dipole moment is $`\mu _d=B_{}R_{}^3`$, with $`B_{}`$ and $`R_{}`$ being the stellar magnetic field and radius, respectively.

For the general axisymmetric poloidal field, the associated current density is $`𝐣=(0,j_\phi ,0).`$ For an infinitesimally thin disc, as we consider here, we define the vertically integrated azimuthal component of the current density, $`J,`$ such that:

$$J=_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}j_\phi dz.$$

By integrating the azimuthal component of Ampère’s law through the disc, we obtain:

$$B_r^+=\mu _0J/2,$$
(3)
where $`B_r^+`$ denotes the radial component of the magnetic field just outside the upper surface of the disc. Throughout this paper we use MKSA units, and $`\mu _0`$ denotes the permeability of the vacuum. $`B_r`$ is antisymmetric with respect to reflection in the disc mid–plane so that its value just outside the lower surface of the disc is $`B_r^{}=B_r^+.`$

### 2.2 Force balance

Neglecting pressure forces as in APT, the vertical integration of the radial component of the momentum equation yields the condition for radial equilibrium as:

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }}{r}=\mathrm{\Sigma }r\mathrm{\Omega }^2+JB_z,$$
(4)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is the surface density, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the disc angular velocity measured in an inertial frame, and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the gravitational potential here taken to be due to a central point mass, $`M_{}`$, such that:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }=\frac{GM_{}}{\sqrt{r^2+z^2}}.$$

If $`B_z0,`$ in some regions of the disc a variety of configurations are possible (see APT). These include cases where inner field lines cross the disc and join to the central star and thus may be assumed to corotate with it. Outer field lines may be open in the case of an infinite disc or a finite disc with appropriate boundary conditions.

In this paper, for simplicity, we shall perform calculations for the special case where the field is excluded from the disc. This situation arises when the disc is perfectly conducting. Then only surface currents flow in the disc and they screen the stellar dipole field from the disc interior, i.e. they produce an additional field $`𝐁_d`$ which cancels $`𝐁_{ext}`$ in the disc interior. We note that, since the vertical component of the field is continuous at the disc surface, $`B_z`$ just outside the disc is zero in this case. The same does not apply for $`B_r`$, and in general $`B_r^+`$ and $`B_r^{}`$ are non zero.

We remark that, since there is no Lorentz force acting in the disc when $`B_z=0`$, the angular velocity given by equation (4) is Keplerian.

## 3 Disc and slightly misaligned dipole

We suppose that the system is perturbed from the axisymmetric equilibrium state described above by introducing a slight misalignment between the magnetic axis of the central dipole and the rotation axis of the disc and star (the $`z`$ axis). This produces a non axisymmetric response in the disc that can be described using linear perturbation theory.

The main features of this response is that it takes the form of a warping of the disc, as indicated by Aly (Aly (1980)), together with the additional feature of the excitation of bending waves. The response is naturally largest in the inner parts of the disc where the magnetic field is strongest. As we indicate by considering specific examples in § 4, it can take the form of a steeply changing inclination of the inner disc orbits which can make it appear to have an inner wall.

To calculate the geometry of the disc (that is its elevation above its equilibrium plane), we extend the analysis of APT. To compute the free bending modes of the disc, APT solved an eigenvalue problem where the eigenvalues were the mode frequencies and the eigenfunctions their amplitudes. Here we are interested in a response with frequency equal to that of the forcing term. Since the dipole is anchored in the star, this is the angular velocity of the star. The amplitude of the mode (its spatial dependence) can be found from the mode equation of APT with a specified frequency and the addition of the forcing term. However, a different equilibrium field is adopted, since here, in contrast to APT, there is no internally produced field in the disc.

### 3.1 Perturbed magnetic field

To calculate the response we suppose the central dipole moment is rotated in the $`(x,z)`$ plane through a small angle $`\delta `$ being the inclination to the $`z`$ axis. The dipole moment is then given by:

$$𝝁_d=(\mu _d\delta ,0,\mu _d).$$
(5)
This contributes to a potential:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},ext}^{}=\frac{𝝁_d𝐫}{r^3},$$
(6)
where $`𝐫`$ denotes the position vector, which produces a radial external magnetic field perturbation $`B_{r,ext}^{}=\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},ext}^{}/r`$. Just outside the disc surfaces, this is given by the real part of:

$$B_{r,ext}^+=B_{r,ext}^{}=\frac{2\mu _d\delta \mathrm{exp}(i\phi )}{r^3}.$$
(7)
Thus the problem reduces to the calculation of the disc response to a field perturbation with azimuthal mode number $`m=1.`$ This, when acting with the unperturbed azimuthal current, produces a vertical Lorentz force which tends to warp the disc. In other terms, when the dipole is misaligned, the magnetic pressure force is not the same on the upper and lower surfaces of the disc. This mismatch generates a net vertical pressure force which tends to warp the disc.

We thus introduce the Lagrangian displacement $`𝝃`$ which, in a razor–thin disc approximation, has the form:

$$𝝃=(0,0,\xi _z).$$

The only non-negligible component is the vertical one (APT), and $`\xi _z`$ represents the elevation above the disc equilibrium plane. In keeping with the form of the external magnetic field perturbation, we make all the perturbed quantities complex by taking their $`\phi `$-dependence to be through a factor $`\mathrm{exp}(i\phi )`$, which henceforth will be dropped. The physical perturbations will be recovered by taking the real part of these complex quantities. The Eulerian perturbations of the various quantities are denoted by a prime.

The perturbation of the magnetic field interior to the disc, $`𝐁^{}`$, is related to $`𝝃`$ by the flux freezing condition:

$$𝐁^{}=(B_r^{},B_\phi ^{},B_z^{})=\mathbf{}\mathbf{\times }(𝝃\mathbf{\times }𝐁).$$
(8)
The non-zero components of $`𝐁^{}`$ take the form:

$$B_r^{}=\xi _z\frac{B_r}{z},\mathrm{and}B_z^{}=\frac{1}{r}\frac{(rB_r\xi _z)}{r}.$$
(9)
Since $`B_r`$ is antisymmetric with respect to reflection in the disc mid–plane and $`\xi _z`$ is independent of $`z`$ in the thin disc approximation, $`B_z^{}`$ is antisymmetric and $`B_r^{}`$ is symmetric.

As in APT, the vertical component of the perturbed field must be matched to the vertical component of a perturbed vacuum field exterior to the disc. Here this is taken to be a potential field. Therefore we have:

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}}{z}=B_z^+,$$
(10)
where $`B_z^+`$ is the value of the vertical field perturbation just outside the disc surface and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}`$ is the magnetic potential associated with the external field perturbation. To find $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}`$, we first subtract out the contribution of the external field perturbation arising from the tilted dipole. At the disc surface, this is (eq. ):

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},ext}^{}=\frac{\mu _d\delta }{r^2},$$
(11)
where as above the factor $`\mathrm{exp}(i\phi )`$ has been dropped. With this contribution removed, the residual potential has no singularity outside the disc. It can be calculated from equation (10) in an analogous manner to finding the gravitational potential due to a disc surface density distribution, with $`2\pi G\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ (where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant) being replaced by $`B_z^+`$ (see Tagger et al. Tagger (1990); Spruit et al. Spruit (1995); APT). Following this procedure, $`\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}`$ may be written as the sum of a Poisson integral and $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},ext}^{}`$:

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}=\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}+\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},ext}^{},$$
(12)
where

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}=\frac{1}{2\pi }_{R_i}^{R_o}_0^{2\pi }\frac{B_z^+(r^{})\mathrm{cos}\phi ^{}r^{}\mathrm{d}r^{}\mathrm{d}\phi ^{}}{\sqrt{r^2+r^22rr^{}\mathrm{cos}(\phi ^{})+z^2}},$$
(13)
where $`R_i`$ and $`R_o`$ are the inner and outer radii of the disc, respectively. In the above integral, the $`\phi `$-dependence of the perturbed field has been taken into account. Here again, the factor $`\mathrm{exp}(i\phi )`$, to which $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}`$ is proportional, has been dropped.

Since the disc is perfectly conducting, the vertical component of the field given by equation (9) is continuous at the disc surface. Therefore:

$$B_z^+=\frac{1}{r}\frac{(rB_r^+\xi _z)}{r}.$$
(14)
This expression for $`B_z^+`$ can be used in the above integral.

The radial component of the magnetic field just outside the surfaces of the disc is given by:

$$B_r^+=B_r^{}=\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}}{r}\right)_{z=0}=\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}}{r}\right)_{z=0}\frac{2\mu _d\delta }{r^3},$$
(15)
where equations (11) and (12) have been used to write the last expression (we have approximated the derivatives at the disc surfaces by their value at $`z=0`$ because the disc is infinitesimally thin).

### 3.2  The disc vertical displacement

The vertical component of the perturbed Lorentz force integrated vertically through the disc is (see APT):

$$_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}F_z^{}dz=\frac{2B_r^+B_r^+}{\mu _0}.$$
(16)
The term proportional to $`B_z/r`$, which was present in APT, is zero here since $`B_z=0`$ in the disc interior and at its surfaces (see § 2.2).

We note that this force is simply the perturbed magnetic pressure force $`P_m^{}`$ vertically integrated through the disc. The pressure force vertically integrated through the disc is indeed:

$$P_m=\frac{\left(B_r^+\right)^2}{2\mu _0}+\frac{\left(B_r^{}\right)^2}{2\mu _0},$$
(17)
($`B_z=0`$ at the disc surfaces), so that:

$$P_m^{}=\frac{B_r^+B_r^+}{\mu _0}+\frac{B_r^{}B_r^{}}{\mu _0}=\frac{2B_r^+B_r^+}{\mu _0},$$
(18)
where we have used the symmetries of the field. We note that $`P_m^{}`$ is non zero because the perturbation induced by the misaligned dipole has an opposite effect on the upper and lower surfaces of the disc: it increases the magnitude of the radial component of the magnetic field on one of the surfaces from $`|B_r^+|`$ to $`|B_r^+|+|B_r^+|`$ while decreasing it on the other surface from $`|B_r^+|`$ to $`|B_r^+||B_r^+|`$.

The vertically integrated $`z`$-component of the perturbed equation of motion is:

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{\mathrm{D}^2\xi _z}{\mathrm{D}t^2}=\mathrm{\Sigma }\left(\frac{^2\mathrm{\Phi }}{z^2}\right)_{z=0}\xi _z+_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}F_z^{}dz$$
(19)
where $`\mathrm{D}/\mathrm{D}t`$ denotes the convective derivative.

In the problem considered here, the solution is steady in a frame rotating with the central star angular velocity $`\omega .`$ Then:

$$\mathrm{\Sigma }\frac{\mathrm{D}^2\xi _z}{\mathrm{D}t^2}=\mathrm{\Sigma }(\omega \mathrm{\Omega })^2\xi _z.$$
(20)
Also, for a point mass potential:

$$\left(\frac{^2\mathrm{\Phi }}{z^2}\right)_{z=0}=\frac{GM}{r^3}=\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}^2,$$
(21)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$ is the Keplerian angular velocity. Using equations (15), (16), (20) and (21), equation (19) becomes:

$$\left[(\omega \mathrm{\Omega })^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}^2\right]\xi _z=\frac{2B_r^+}{\mu _0\mathrm{\Sigma }}\left[\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}}{r}\right)_{z=0}\frac{2\mu _d\delta }{r^3}\right].$$
(22)
The potential $`\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}`$ can be expressed in term of $`\xi _z`$ and its derivative with respect to $`r`$ using eq. (13) and (14). Therefore equation (22) gives a linear equation for determining the vertical displacement $`\xi _z`$ induced by the tilted external dipole. The term proportional to $`\mu _d`$ in this equation acts like a forcing term for the vertical displacement and it causes the disc to become warped and may also excite bending waves.

As noted above, since there is no Lorentz force acting in the disc interior, $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in equation (22) is the Keplerian angular velocity.

We remark that equation (22) is the same as equation (14) of APT with $`B_z=0`$, but with an additional nonhomogeneous term proportional to $`\mu _d`$. As noted above, this is expected as here we calculate the response which is forced by the nonaligned dipole. We remark that this nonhomogeneous term is simply the pressure force due to the misaligned component of the dipole vertically integrated through the disc:

$$P_{m,ext}^{}=\frac{2B_r^+B_{r,ext}^+}{\mu _0}=\frac{2B_r^+}{\mu _0}\frac{2\mu _d\delta }{r^3},$$
(23)
where we have used equation (7) (see also eq.  of Aly Aly (1980)).

### 3.3 WKB waves

When $`\mu _d`$ is set to zero in equation (22), this equation has solutions corresponding to free bending waves. In the local limit, these can be found by assuming that $`\xi _z\mathrm{exp}(ikr),`$ where $`k`$ is the radial wavenumber, assumed to be very large compared to $`1/r`$. The integral in equation (13) can be evaluated in the WKB approximation to give, after using (14) (see APT and references therein):

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_\mathrm{M}^{}=\frac{B_z^{}}{|k|}=\frac{ikB_r^+\xi _z}{|k|}.$$
(24)
The local dispersion relation derived from equation (22) is then:

$$(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K})^2=\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}^2+\frac{2(B_r^+)^2}{\mu _0\mathrm{\Sigma }}|k|,$$
(25)
where we have used the fact that the angular velocity is Keplerian. We see from equation (25) that bending waves with $`m=1`$ propagate (with $`|k|>0`$) exterior to the Lindblad resonances where $`(\omega \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K})=\pm \mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$. In this paper, we are concerned with the situation where the disc is terminated at an inner boundary $`(r=R_i)`$ where the local Keplerian rotation rate is close to corotation with the central star, i.e. $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}(R_i)=\omega `$. In such a case, only the outer Lindblad resonance (OLR), where $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}=\omega /2`$, will exist within the disc, and it occurs at a radius $`r=1.59R_i.`$

Significantly beyond the OLR, the wavenumber associated with the waves is given by:

$$|k|r\frac{\mu _0\omega ^2r\mathrm{\Sigma }}{2(B_r^+)^2}\frac{r^3}{\beta },$$
(26)
where we define $`\beta `$ such that it would be the ratio of magnetic to centrifugal forces if we had a vertical field $`B_zB_r^+`$ (see § 4). Although $`B_z=0`$ here, we use $`\beta `$ as a measure of the strength of $`B_r^+`$. This is expected to be at most of order unity at the inner edge of the disc and then to decrease rapidly outwards, as the magnetic field decreases (see § 4).

If $`\beta `$ decreases as $`r`$ increases, the forcing term proportional to $`\mu _d`$ in equation (22) will excite bending waves in the disc that propagate outwards with increasing wavenumber until they are damped, much as in the case of Saturn’s rings (see Goldreich & Tremaine Goldreich (1978); Shu Shu (1984)). In some cases, the wavelength may be so short at the OLR that dissipative processes prevent waves from being properly launched (see below).

### 3.4 Viscous dissipation

In order to allow the waves to damp as they propagate away from the OLR, we add an additional viscous force per unit mass to the right hand side of equation (19) of the form $`\nu ^2v_z^{}/r^2`$, where $`v_z^{}`$ is the Eulerian perturbed vertical velocity and $`\nu `$ is a kinematic viscosity. Neglecting the variation of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_K,`$ which is reasonable for short wavelength disturbances, this can also be written as $`i\nu (\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}\omega )^2\xi _z/r^2`$. For $`\nu `$ we use a standard ’$`\alpha `$’ prescription such that $`\nu =\alpha H^2\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}`$, where $`H`$ is the disc semi–thickness and $`\alpha `$ is a constant (Shakura & Sunyaev Shakura (1973)).

With the incorporation of the above viscous force, equation (22), which gives the forced response of the disc, becomes:

$$\left[(\omega \mathrm{\Omega })^2+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}^2\right]\xi _zi\nu (\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}\omega )\frac{^2\xi _z}{r^2}=\frac{2B_r^+}{\mu _0\mathrm{\Sigma }}\left[\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }_{\mathrm{M},d}^{}}{r}\right)_{z=0}\frac{2\mu _d\delta }{r^3}\right].$$
(27)
We now comment briefly on the possible origin of this $`\alpha `$ viscosity. So far, the only process which has been shown to initiate and sustain turbulence in Keplerian discs is the magnetohydrodynamic Balbus–Hawley instability, and it does lend itself to an $`\alpha `$ formalism (Balbus & Hawley Balbus (1998) and references therein). For the disc we consider here, which is not permeated by the external magnetic field, it is difficult to justify the existence of an $`\alpha `$ viscosity. However, in reality, the disc is probably permeated to at least a small extent by the external field (Ghosh & Lamb Ghosh79 (1979)). If the ratio of magnetic to thermal pressure is smaller than unity, the disc is then subject to the BH instability, the internal disc field is amplified and bending waves are damped. The values of $`\alpha `$ produced by the BH instability range roughly from $`10^3`$ to 0.1 (Hawley et al. Hawley1 (1995); Brandenburg et al. brand2 (1995)), the largest values corresponding to the case where the magnetic field varies on a scale large compared to the disc semithickness (Hawley Hawley2 (2000)).

## 4 Numerical response calculations

### 4.1 Unperturbed magnetic field

For the model calculations presented here, we adopt a radial magnetic field corresponding to the situation when the central dipole flux is completely excluded from the disc. We consider both the solutions computed by Aly (Aly (1980)) and Low (Low (1986)). Aly’s solution corresponds to the case when all the dipole flux goes through the magnetospheric cavity in the middle of the disc, and is singular at the disc inner edge. Low gives a solution that is non singular with some flux escaping to infinity.

In these cases we have, for $`r`$ larger than some radius $`r_B`$:

$$B_r^+=B_0\left(\frac{R_o}{r}\right)^3\left[\left(\frac{r}{r_B}\right)^21\right]^{\pm 1/2},$$
(28)
where we have defined:

$$B_0=\frac{4\mu _d}{\pi R_o^3}.$$
(29)
In equation (28), the upper sign corresponds to Low’s solution, whereas the lower sign corresponds to Aly’s solution. Of course, in both cases $`B_z=0`$ since the disc is diamagnetic. Note that the radial field at the disc surface has opposite sign in the two cases.

We comment that $`B_r^+`$ is negative and positive for Low’s and Aly’s cases, respectively, which is the opposite of the solution obtained by these authors. This is because we have arbitrarily chosen $`B_z`$ to be positive when the dipole moment $`\mu _d`$ is positive, in contrast to these authors.

In a two dimensional model, $`r_B`$ is the disc inner radius. However, more realistically it is expected to differ from this by an amount comparable to the vertical thickness of the disc. We adopted the procedure of taking the disc inner radius $`R_i`$ to be slightly larger than $`r_B`$, and to check convergence of the results by decreasing $`\left(R_ir_B\right)`$. For Aly’s solution, convergence requires that the disc surface density increases rapidly enough towards $`R_i`$ such as to limit the Lorentz force there.

### 4.2 Results

We have performed global normal mode calculations for disc models with the unperturbed magnetic field described above.

We solve equation (27) considered as an integro-differential equation for the response function $`\xi _z`$ by the method described in APT. We use the dimensionless radius $`\varpi =r/R_o`$, so that the outer radius is $`\varpi _o=1`$. In these units, the disc inner radius on the computational grid is taken to be $`\varpi _i=R_i/R_o=0.1`$, and to corotate with the central star so that $`\omega =\mathrm{\Omega }_K(R_i)`$.

The radial interval $`[\varpi _i,1]`$ is divided into a grid of $`n_r`$ equally spaced points at positions $`\left(\varpi _I\right)_{I=1\mathrm{}n_r}`$ with a spacing $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varpi _I=\varpi _{I+1}\varpi _I`$. Equation (27) is solved as in APT by discretizing it on the grid so converting it into a matrix inversion problem for $`\left(\xi _z\right)_{I=1\mathrm{}n_r}`$. In the calculations presented below, $`n_r`$ was varied between 500 and 700, but 300 already gave satisfactory results.

As already noted in § 3.3, we use the magnetic support $`\beta `$, which would be the ratio of the Lorentz force to the centrifugal force in the disc if $`B_z`$ were non zero and on the order of $`B_r^+`$:

$$\beta =\frac{2\left(B_r^+\right)^2r^2}{\mu _0\mathrm{\Sigma }GM_{}},$$
(30)
where $`G`$ is the gravitational constant. Although $`B_z=0`$ in the disc, $`\beta `$ will be used as a measure of the strength of the field $`B_r^+`$. We found it convenient to define the dimensionless quantities $`\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}=\mathrm{\Sigma }/\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$, where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ if the surface density at the disc inner radius, $`\overline{B}_r^+=B_r^+/B_0`$, and $`\overline{\beta }=\beta /\beta _0`$ with:

$$\beta _0=\frac{B_0^2R_o^2}{\mu _0\mathrm{\Sigma }_iGM_{}}.$$
(31)
We then have:

$$\overline{\beta }=\frac{2\varpi ^2\left(\overline{B}_r^+\right)^2}{\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}}.$$
(32)
For both Low’s and Aly’s magnetic field, we consider models where the magnetic support is large (reaching values of order unity) close to the disc inner edge and decreases rapidly with radius. For Aly’s solution, we take $`\beta =1`$ at the disc inner edge. For Low’s solution, $`\beta `$ has to vanish at the same location as $`B_r^+`$, i.e. at $`\varpi _B=r_B/R_o`$, otherwise $`\xi _z`$ is infinite there. We then take $`\beta =0`$ at $`\varpi _B`$ and $`\beta =1`$ at the location where $`B_r^+`$ has its maximum. From the value of $`\beta `$ and $`\overline{B}_r^+`$ at the disc inner radius, we can calculate $`\beta _0`$.

From the profile of $`\overline{\beta }`$, we calculate $`\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ using equation (32). We actually take the profile of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ which gives the desired $`\overline{\beta }`$ near the disc inner edge, and we then match it on to a $`r^{3/2}`$ profile further away in the disc (since $`B_r^+`$ decreases rapidly with radius, we do not need to worry about the profile of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ for $`\varpi `$ larger than a value which turns out to be about 0.2).

We note that our results do not depend on the numerical values of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$, $`B_0`$, and $`R_i`$ (or equivalently $`R_o`$) taken individually, but only on $`\beta _0`$ and $`\delta `$. For $`R_i`$ we could take a few times $`R_{}`$, and then compute $`R_o=10R_i`$. We could then get a value of $`B_0`$ by using equation (29) with $`\mu _d=B_{}R_{}^3`$. Then $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ would follow from the expression (31) for $`\beta _0`$. Depending on the value of $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$, the amount of mass in the annulus between $`R_i`$ and $`R_o`$ could be modified by changing the profile of $`\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}`$ for $`\varpi >0.2`$.

An external poloidal magnetic field tends to squeeze the disc. Therefore, we choose a form of the aspect ratio $`H/r`$ which is zero at the disc inner edge and which increases as the magnetic support decreases. The disc is squeezed by the magnetic field if the magnetic pressure dominates over the thermal pressure. If the sound speed is about a tenth of the Keplerian velocity, then the magnetic and thermal pressures become comparable when the magnetic support is about 0.1. Therefore, we choose a profile of $`H/r`$ which reaches a constant value (that we take to be 0.1) at the location where $`\beta =0.1`$.

We note that the vertical displacement of the disc at a location $`(r,\phi )`$ is:

$$[\xi _z(r)]\mathrm{cos}\phi [\xi _z(r)]\mathrm{sin}\phi .$$
(33)
Figures 13 show the magnetic support $`\beta `$, the disc aspect ratio $`H/r`$ and the surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }/\mathrm{\Sigma }_i`$ versus $`\varpi `$. Also displayed are $`(\xi _z)/(2\delta R_o)`$, i.e. $`\xi _z/(2\delta R_o)`$ for $`\phi =0`$ versus $`x/R_o`$, and $`(\xi _z)/(2\delta R_o)`$, i.e. $`\xi _z/(2\delta R_o)`$ for $`\phi =\pi /2`$ versus $`y/R_o`$, for $`\alpha =10^3`$ and 0.1. These quantities represent the disc vertical displacement within a factor $`2\delta R_o`$ in the $`(\phi =0)`$ and $`(\phi =\pi /2)`$ half planes, respectively, or, equivalently, in the $`(x>0,z)`$ and $`(y>0,z)`$ half planes, respectively (see eq. ). The different figures correspond to different models.

Figure 1 and 2 correspond to Aly’s solution and $`\varpi _B=0.0975`$. In Figure 1, $`1/\beta \mathrm{exp}\left[100(\varpi 0.14)\right]+1`$. The results do not depend significantly on the details of the $`H/r`$ profile in the disc inner parts (we considered both the case where $`H/r`$ increases almost linearly and exponentially with radius). We also checked that $`\xi _z`$ hardly changes when $`\varpi _B`$ varies between 0.09 and 0.099, providing we keep the same magnetic support (i.e. we change $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ accordingly). Figure 2 corresponds to $`\beta B_r^+/\left\{\mathrm{exp}\left[40(\varpi 0.14)\right]+1\right\}`$. The results are qualitatively the same as in Figure 1. We also ran the case $`\beta 1/\varpi ^3`$, which gave similar results, except that the positive values reached by $`\xi _z`$ in that case were almost as large as the negative values.

Figure 3 corresponds to Low’s solution and $`\varpi _B=0.09999999`$. Here again, the results hardly depend on the details of the profile of $`H/r`$ in the disc inner parts. From equation (27), we see that $`\xi _z`$ vanishes at $`\varpi =\varpi _B`$ if $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ is non zero there. When $`\varpi _B`$ is very close to $`\varpi _i`$, we indeed check that $`\xi _z`$ is almost zero at the disc inner edge. However, since $`B_r^+`$ varies very rapidly near $`\varpi _B`$, $`\xi _z`$ takes some finite value at the inner edge as $`\varpi _B`$ is moved a little bit away from $`\varpi _i`$. This is illustrated in Figure 4, where we plot $`\beta `$ and $`\xi _z`$ for different values of $`\varpi _B`$, ranging from 0.09 to 0.09999999 (all the curves have the same parameters except for $`\varpi _B`$).

The calculations for the low viscosity $`\alpha =10^3`$ illustrate the excitation of bending waves. Several oscillations corresponding to bending waves excited at the OLR are visible. These are damped by viscosity before they propagate very far. This damping is enhanced by the increasing wavenumber produced by the decreasing magnetic field.

For larger and probably more realistic viscosity $`\alpha =0.1,`$ these waves are so heavily damped they are barely visible. The dominant displacement is near the disc inner edge in this case.

We note that, when viscous damping is present, the response of the disc is not in phase with the perturbation, and the warp lags behind the dipole. That is, the disc is also twisted, and the twist is trailing. Mathematically, this is illustrated by the fact that the imaginary part of $`\xi _z`$ is non zero, as seen in the different figures. It may seem surprising that, even when $`\alpha `$ is as low as $`10^3`$, the imaginary part of $`\xi _z`$ is comparable in magnitude to its real part. This is because $`\xi _z`$ varies rapidly with radius when $`\alpha `$ is small, and the imaginary part of $`\xi _z`$ becomes important when $`|^2\xi _z/r^2|`$ is large (see eq. ). We checked however that the imaginary part of $`\xi _z`$ becomes very small compared to its real part when $`\alpha `$ is reduced further. Practically, the existence of a twist means that the point of maximum elevation in the disc is not in the plane which contains the dipole axis and the rotation axis of the star, i.e. the $`(\phi =0)`$, or equivalently $`(x,z)`$, plane, but in a plane corresponding to a smaller (negative) $`\phi `$. Or, in other words, the elevation does not vanish in the $`(\phi =\pi /2)`$, or equivalently $`(y,z)`$, plane, but in a plane corresponding to a smaller value of $`\phi `$. To illustrate this, we show in Fig. 5 the line of nodes (which joins the points of zero elevation) in the inner parts of the $`(x,y)`$ plane for both Aly’s and Low’s models and $`\alpha =0.1`$. We clearly see that the line of nodes is trailing. If there were no twist, it would indeed coincide with the $`y`$–axis. The curves corresponding to different values of $`\varpi _B`$ or different models are very similar to those displayed in Fig. 5. For $`\alpha =10^3`$, the line of nodes is more tightly wrapped, because $`\xi _z`$ oscillates more rapidly.

In Fig. 6 we present a surface plot of the warped disc corresponding to the Low’s model displayed in Fig. 3. This clearly shows the presence of an obscuring wall like feature near the disc inner boundary and the trailing twist.

## 5 Discussion and application to AA Tau

The light curve of the classical T Tauri star AA Tau displays photometric, spectroscopic and polarimetric variations on timescales from a few hours to several weeks (Bouvier et al. Bouvier2 (1999)). The most striking feature of this light curve is a photometric variability with a period of 8 to 9 days, comparable to the expected rotation period of the star. This has been interpreted by Bouvier et al. (Bouvier2 (1999)) as being due to the occultation of the star by a warp of the inner disc (the system is observed almost edge–on). They proposed that this warp be produced by the interaction of the disc with a stellar magnetic dipole tilted with respect to the disc rotation axis. Following Mahdavi & Kenyon (Mahdavi (1998)), they assumed that material at the disc inner edge, neglecting warping, would be more likely to accrete along the shorter field line than along the longer one connecting star and disc. In their model, based on this accretion geometry, the disc is elevated above the original equatorial plane at the location where the dipole axis is bent toward the disc. This geometry enables at least part of the stellar hot spots, located at the field line footpoints , to still be on the line of sight when occultation of the star is maximum, in agreement with the observations. In this model, the warp is not calculated self-consistently, and is not actually a real dynamical bending of the disc.

The assumption by Mahdavi & Kenyon (Mahdavi (1998)) can become incorrect, precisely because it neglects the warping of the disc. If the inner disc is no longer in the original equatorial plane, then material at the inner edge no longer ’sees’ the short and long field lines it would see if it were in the unperturbed disc plane.

At the disc inner edge, since $`\mathrm{\Omega }(R_i)=\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{K}(R_i)=\omega `$, we see from equation (27) that the sign of $`\xi _z`$ is the same as that of $`P_m^{}`$ (i.e., from eq. , the same as that of $`B_r^+B_r^+`$) for $`\phi =0`$, and that determines the direction in which the disc bends. From Figure 3, we see that for Low’s solution the disc inner edge on the $`x`$–axis is pushed below the equatorial plane, which is the opposite of what was anticipated by Mahdavi & Kenyon (Mahdavi (1998)). For Aly’s solution, the disc is bent above the equatorial plane (see Fig. 1 and 2). It is not surprising that the two cases give different results since $`B_r^+`$ changes sign from one case to another.

To get the elevation of the disc above the equatorial plane, the real and imaginary parts of $`\xi _z`$ have to be combined through equation (33). In Fig. 7, we show the maximum elevation $`\xi _{z,max}`$ (where the $`\phi `$ dependence has been taken into account in $`\xi _z`$), normalized to unity, above the equatorial plane along the $`\phi `$ direction, versus $`\phi `$. This represents the maximum elevation of the disc material located in between the star and an observer looking at the disc almost edge–on and from above along the $`\phi `$ direction. The curves correspond to Aly’s and Low’s models displayed in Fig. 1 and 3, respectively, and $`\alpha =0.1`$. Let us suppose that, to begin with, we look at the system along the $`\phi =0`$ direction. Then, as the star rotates, our line of sight moves to smaller, negative values of $`\phi `$ (to the right along the $`x`$–axis of Fig. 7). In the case of Aly’s model, this corresponds to the star being occulted at first and until it has rotated by about 90 degrees. Then, as the star rotates further, it becomes less and less obscured, and it can be seen by the observer until it has completed a full rotation. In the case of Low’s model, the star is not obscured at first. Occultation begins only after the star has rotated by about 180 degrees and lasts also for about a quarter of a period. We note that, depending on the direction of the line of sight, the radius at which the elevation is maximum varies (typically between 0.1 $`R_o`$ and 0.2 $`R_o`$). It is unlikely that the observer would be able to know at which radius is the part of the disc responsible for the occultation, as the whole structure rotates with the same frequency (that of the star). Indeed, it is important to stress again that a structure located at some radius $`r`$ does not rotate with the local angular frequency but with that of the star (in other words, the warp appears steady in a frame rotating with the star).

With Low’s solution, the disc is pushed below the equatorial plane at the location where the dipole is bent toward the disc. Therefore the stellar hot spots, at the field line footpoints cannot be seen under condition of maximum occultation, unless they are relatively large. In Aly’s case, at least part of the hot spots can still be observed at an occultation maximum because of the phase–lag between the disc response and the perturbation. Indeed, we see in Fig. 7 that, for the particular Aly’s model represented there, the occultation is maximum when $`\phi 15^{}`$, and not when $`\phi =0`$. Therefore, it seems the observations favour Aly’s model.

To fit the observations, Bouvier et al. (Bouvier2 (1999)) needed the amplitude of the warp to be about 0.3 times the disc inner radius. We see from Figures 13 that this is easily attained here. There, $`\left|\xi _z\right|/(2\delta R_i)`$ ranges from about 0.1 to 1. For $`\delta `$ up to about $`30^{}`$ (for which $`\mathrm{sin}\delta \delta `$ in radians), this gives $`\left|\xi _z\right|/R_i`$ from 0.1 to 1. The lower value could even be made larger by considering a profile of $`H/r`$ with an exponential rather than almost linear increase in Figure 2. Therefore only a moderate misalignment angle is required to produce $`\left|\xi _z\right|/R_i0.3`$.

Figures 13 show that when the viscosity in the disc is small ($`\alpha =10^3`$ for instance), the vertical displacement of the disc varies rapidly, on a scale smaller than the disc semi–thickness $`H`$. In that case, we expect the warp to become dispersive (Papaloizou & Lin Pap1 (1995)), and probably the disc to disrupt. It is likely that different situations arise when a disc interacts with a nonaligned dipole, depending on the detailed physics. In some cases we may get a moderate smoothly varying warp, as described above, in other cases it may be that the disc breaks up and reforms. This may also produce light curve variability.

We note that the bending waves which are excited by the tilted dipole transport angular momentum (Papaloizou & Terquem Pap3 (1995); Terquem Terquem1 (1998)), which is deposited in the disc if the waves are damped. Since the dipole rotates faster than the disc in which the waves propagate, the resulting torque opposes accretion onto the star. This effect may produce additional variability, and will be the subject of another paper.

## Acknowledgements

It is a pleasure to thank Jérôme Bouvier for many interesting and stimulating discussions about AA Tau and for useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and Claude Bertout for further information about the variability of CCTS. We also thank an anonymous referee and A. P. Goodson whose suggestions helped to improve the quality of this paper. JCBP is grateful to the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de l’Observatoire de Grenoble for hospitality and visitor support. CT is grateful to the Astronomy Unit at QMW for hospitality and visitor support through PPARC grant PPA/V/O/1997/00261.