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# Circumstellar Disks in pre-Main–Sequence Stars

## 1. Introduction

Circumstellar disks surrounding pre-main–sequence (PMS) stars of solar and intermediate mass have been known and studied, firstly indirectly, through their unresolved emission in the near and far infrared and at millimeter wavelengths, and more recently by direct imaging in the optical, near infrared and millimeter. Excellent reviews of a number of topics concerning disks in the pre-main–sequence phase of the evolution can be found in Protostars and Planets IV (Mannings, Boss & Russell eds. 2000).

The formation of circumstellar disks is considered a necessary consequence of the process by which a molecular core collapses to form a star (see Shu et al. 1987). However, disks live behind this first period during which stars form. PMS stars, which have accreted most of their final mass and dispersed most of their parental cloud, are still surrounded by disks. We usually assume that such disks contain gas and dust with properties that do not differ much from those of the gas and dust in the parental core.

As the star contracts toward the main sequence, the disk ages. A variety of processes change the properties of the gas and dust in the disk, and finally lead to disk dissipation. One such process, but not the only one, is the growth of dust grains and the formation of planets. Planets form in disks around PMS stars, and the properties of planetary systems depend to a large degree on the properties of their birthsites, the PMS disks, and on how they change with time.

In this review, I will first summarize what we know of the properties of PMS disks around solar-type stars. I will then address the question of what kind of stars have disks during their PMS phase, and how these disks evolve. Finally, I will discuss the evidence for grain growth during the PMS disk lifetime.

## 2. Properties of disks around PMS stars

Disks have been detected around PMS stars with masses between about 0.5 and 5 M (T Tauri stars or TTS and Herbig Ae stars or HAe). Some of their properties are known from observation and comparison with theoretical models. However, there are still some important parameters (for example, the run of the surface density with radius) which are not well constrained by the existing observations. Also, as often, new and improved observations reveal unexpected and complex properties, that need then to be taken into account.

### 2.1. Shape

An important recent result is the direct observation of disk shape by means of the HST observations of disks driving HH jets (see McCughrean, Stapelfeldt & Close 2000 and references therein; the first image was obtained by Burrows et al. 1996 for the object HH30). HST images map the shape of the disk surface seen in scattered stellar light and show that the disks are “flared”, i.e., that the ratio $`H/R`$ of the scale height over the distance from the star is an increasing function of $`R`$. This is expected for gaseous disks in hydrostatic equilibrium (Kenyon & Hartmann 1987), and in fact detailed analysis of the HST scattered light images has shown good quantitative agreement between observations and theory. In a disk in hydrostatic equilibrium, the scale height $`H`$ at each radius is determined by the equilibrium between the local pressure and the gravitational field of the central star:

$$\frac{H}{R}=\left(\frac{T_d}{T_c}\right)^{1/2}\left(\frac{R}{R_{star}}\right)^{1/2}$$
(1)
where $`T_d`$ is the disk temperature at $`R`$ (assumed isothermal in the vertical direction) and $`T_c`$ is a measure of the gravitational potential of the star:

$$T_c=\mu _g\frac{GM_{}}{kR_{}}$$
(2)
where $`\mu _g`$ is the mean molecular weight of the disk material, $`M_{}`$ and $`R_{}`$ are the mass and radius of the central star, respectively. If the disk mass is dominated by gas, then $`H/R`$ is about 0.03 at 1 AU, and 0.1–0.15 at 100 AU (for a typical TTS; Chiang & Goldreich 1997). On the contrary, if the disk mass is dominated by dust, $`\mu _g`$ is much larger and $`H/R`$ becomes negligibly small. Dust disks are expected to be geometrically flat, rather than flared.

During the PMS evolution, most of the disk heating is caused by irradiation from the central star, and the shape of the disk affects its temperature profile, and, therefore, its spectral energy distribution (SED). Flared disks intercept a larger fraction of the stellar radiation at large radii than flat disks, so that their SED is a flatter function of wavelength (Kenyon & Hartmann 1987; Chiang & Goldreich 1997). Most PMS stars have SEDs typical of flared disks (see, for example, Chiang et al. 2001; Natta et al. 2001), and we can reasonably conclude, even when direct images are not available, that they must have gas-rich disks. Self-consistent calculations of the structure of disks in hydrostatic equilibrium and their SEDs have been computed, e.g., by D’Alessio et al. (1998, 1999, 2001) Bell (1999), Dullemond, van Zadelhoff & Natta (2002).

Note that both observations, namely the flared shapes seen in scattered light and the flat SEDs, require not only gas-rich disks, but also that relatively small (sub-micron) grains are well mixed to the gas at all vertical heights, i.e., that dust sedimentation and grain growth have not proceeded very far. It is interesting to note that there are some objects with SEDs typical of flat disks (Meeus et al. 2001) or, at least, significantly less flared than predicted by hydrostatic equilibrium models (Chiang et al. 2001; D’Alessio et al. 2001). It is possible that in these systems grains have started settling toward the disk midplane, separating from the gas. The gaseous disk is still flared, but the dust disk is much flatter. It seems unlikely, given that there is some indication of gas accretion onto these stars, that they represent an even older stage of the evolution, when gas has dissipated and dust dominates the disk mass. These “steep SED” objects deserve to be explored in more detail.

### 2.2. Mass

Another very important quantity for planet formation studies is disk mass. It is reasonably easy to measure the mass of the dust in the disk, from the flux at some long wavelength (typically, in the millimeter) where the emission is very likely optically thin. In its simplest formulation, the dust mass is given by the expression:

$$M_{dust}=D^2\frac{F_\nu }{\kappa _\nu B_\nu (T_{dust})}$$
(3)
where $`\kappa _\nu `$ is the dust opacity at the observed frequency, $`T_{dust}`$ the dust temperature (typically, 10-20 K in TTS), $`D`$ the distance and $`F_\nu `$ the observed flux. This expression can be improved using more detailed disk models, which take into account the temperature and surface density profile by fitting, for example, the spectral energy distribution over a wide range of wavelengths. For sources of known distance, the main uncertainty is due to the uncertainty on the dust opacity. Most authors assume $`\kappa _{1.3\mathrm{mm}}=0.51`$ cm2/g of dust, but this value is very uncertain if significant grain growth has occurred (see Beckwith, Henning & Nakagawa 2000).

Once the dust mass has been determined, it is necessary to correct for the gas-to-dust mass ratio. In disks, this is uncertain, and one assumes a value of 100, which is typical of the interstellar medium. Disk masses derived in this way range roughly from 0.003 to 0.3 M, with a large spread even for stars of similar properties. Fig. 1 shows an updated version of the compilation of Natta, Grinin & Mannings (2000).

Direct determinations of the gas mass exist for some objects, but they do suffer from large uncertainties. A number of PMS disks have been observed in gas tracers such as CO. Gas masses derived from CO, using standard values of the conversion factor CO/H2, are much lower (by orders of magnitude) than those obtained from dust (Guilloteau & Dutrey 1998; Mannings & Sargent, 1998, 2000). It is likely that the molecular tracers are affected by depletion onto grains (see, for example, van Zadelhoff et al. 2001), and, in some cases, by optical depth effects. Observations of several molecular species and transitions can be used to constrain the local gas density and to infer from that the disk mass. This has been done so far for only two objects (Dutrey, Guilloteau & Guelin 1997), and showing that depletion occurs in several molecules. Recently, some observations of mid-infared H2 lines have been obtained with ISO for a handful of TTS and HAe stars, and the results seem to indicate a better agreement with dust-derived disk masses (Thi et al. 2001); however, the observed H2 lines do not trace the cold gas, which is likely to dominate the mass, so that large extrapolations are required. Also, in spite of the careful selection of objects aimed at excluding those with surrounding low-density gas, there is some doubt that the H2 emission has its origin in the disk, since ground-based observations obtained with a beam much smaller than that of ISO do not detect any comparable emission (Richter & Lacy, this conference). Future space missions, like SIRTF, will certainly clarify this issue.

### 2.3. Size

Disk sizes can be directly obtained from images at various wavelengths. As one might expect, the result depends on the tracer and on the wavelength of the observations. Millimeter interferometers (PdB, OVRO, VLA at 7mm) have been used to map the outer disk both in the dust continuum emission and in molecular gas, mostly CO. Dust millimeter emission is generally rather compact; when resolved, disks have radii (HWHM) of 50–100 AU ( see Wilner & Lay 2000 and references therein and Mannings & Sargent 1998, 2000). Maps in the lines of various CO isotopes show larger radii, typically a few hundred AU (Koerner & Sargent 1995; Dutrey et al. 1996; Mannings & Sargent 1998, 2000). The HST images in scattered light give similar sizes, but some disks in Orion seen as silhouettes against the luminous background of the Orion nebula can be as large as 1000 AU (McCaughrean & O’Dell 1996). It is likely that these apparent differences result from a combination of the dependence of the specific tracer on the distance from the star with the sensitivity of the adopted technique.

To summarize, we can safely say that there is clear evidence of gas in keplerian rotation on scales of few hundred AU (see Dutrey 2000). In some objects, matter in a flattened structure is present even at larger distances from the central star.

### 2.4. Temperatures

The disk thermal structure can only be derived by comparing observations with model predictions. In principle, we would like to know both dust and gas temperatures, which are coupled only in the high-density regions of the disk, and to determine for both the variation of $`T`$ in the radial and vertical directions.

At the moment, the most abundant information is for the run of dust temperature with radius, which is obtained by comparing model predictions to measured SEDs. Most PMS disks are heated by irradiation from the central star, and dissipation of viscous energy may play a role, if any, only in the very inner disk (Calvet, Hartmann & Strom 2000). Therefore, to a good approximation the disk temperature $`T`$ is proportional to the stellar temperature, ranging from about 1/2 $`T_{}`$ near the star to about 0.01 $`T_{}`$ at $`10^3`$ $`R_{}`$ (for flared disks), as shown in Fig. 2. This temperature is in fact an effective temperature, computed by balancing the absorbed and emitted energy at each radius. To zero order, the disk is isothermal in the vertical direction, so that it is generally assumed that $`T`$ is the temperature of the disk midplane, where most matter resides.

However, simple considerations show that in an irradiated disk the surface is hotter than the midplane (Calvet et al. 1992, Chiang & Goldreich 1997), so that at each radius there is a vertical gradient of temperature, which does indeed affect the shape of the SED and produce dust emission features, as observed in most TTS and HAe stars (see, for example, Chiang & Goldreich 1997).

The gas temperature is likely to differ from the dust temperature as soon as the density drops below some critical value (typically, of order $`10^410^5`$ cm-3). This is likely the case in the surface layers of the disk, as well as in the disk midplane at large distances from the star. Since molecular excitation and chemistry in the disk depend on the gas temperature, predictions of the expected molecular line intensities depend on a good knowledge of the disk vertical structure and of the gas-dust thermal coupling. This is an area of fast progress, both theoretically and observationally, from which we can expect a wealth of results in the next few years.

One final point I would like to mention is that the thermal history of the disk material during the PMS life of the star can be very far from smooth, as high-energy flares, activity-related phenomena, shocks from residual accreting gas and winds take place. These aspects still need exploratioationn.

## 3. The disks of Herbig Ae stars

One of the results of direct disk imaging is that PMS disks are not smooth, simple structures. They are perturbed by a large variety of effects (for example, dynamical perturbations by companions), in ways that can affect their evolution. Sometime, high-spatial resolution observations seem to conflict with our previous understanding of disks. Often, however, they may give us clues to long-standing puzzles, as in the case of disks around Herbig Ae stars.

All the isolated Herbig Ae stars, i.e., PMS stars of mass 2–3 M with little evidence of surrounding matter, have a strong IR excess, reminiscent in many ways of that observed in TTS. However, the origin of this emission has been at the center of a controversy, which began with the work of Hillenbrand et al. (1992) and lasted for many years (see Natta et al. 2000 for a summary). At the core of the discussion was the fact that these stars emit in the near-IR a significant fraction of their luminosity (up to 25%; see Meeus et al. 2001), with a peak at about 2–3 $`\mu `$m (the near-IR “bump”; Hillenbrand et al. 1992). These two properties (shape of the near-IR bump and energetics) are inconsistent with any standard disk model (either heated by viscosity or by irradiation from the star), and there have been various suggestions in the literature that in fact the IR emission of HAe stars is not due to matter in a disk but rather to a more spherical shell of dust (see, for example, Berrilli et al. 1992), possibly containing very small, transiently heated grains (Hartmann, Kenyon & Calvet 1993 ). Further doubts on the disk hypothesis were shed by the first near-IR interferometric observations published for some HAe stars (Millan-Gabet, Schloerb & Traub 2001), which show that the data are not consistent with the predictions of standard disk models, but suggest instead that the emission comes from a ring of dust at a distance from the star comparable to the dust sublimation radius (about 0.3 AU for the A0 star AB Aur).

Recently, it has been proposed that the IR properties of these HAe stars can be understood if one considers the modification to the inner disk structure introduced by dust sublimation. In a disk where the gas is optically thin to the stellar radiation, as is likely to be the case in most optically visible HAe stars where the accretion rate is very low (Grady, this conference), the condensation of dust at radii of few tenths of AU from the star forms an optically thick inner rim which is frontally heated by the star and is therefore hotter than the disk midplane. The disk “puffs up” and forms an inner rim (Natta et al. 2001), whose emission has the characteristics of the observed near-IR excess (see Fig. 3). The SED of puffed up disks has been computed self-consistently (Dullemond, Domink & Natta 2001) and fits very well the observations. Also, it is possible to explain with these models, the interferometry results, since the near infrared emission comes entirely from the inner rim.

A similar “puffing up” may occur also if there is a gap opened in the disk, for example by the formation of a planet (Sasselov & Lecar 2000). In this case also, the dust at the edge of the gap further from the star is exposed frontally to the stellar radiation and is therefore hotter than dust in the disk midplane at the same distance from the star. In a recent paper Calvet et al. (2002) model the disk of the nearby TTS TW Hya as having an inner gap and a puffed-up rim at about 3–4 AU from the star, possibly caused by a still growing protoplanet. As for the inner disks of HAe stars, interferometry in the near and mid-IR with the instruments soon coming on line, such as VLTI, will provide direct images of such structures.

## 4. Do stars of all masses have disks?

As I have already mentioned, most of our knowledge of PMS disks is restricted to stars in a range of mass roughly 0.5-5 M. It is worthwhile to explore disks around stars outside this range, much more and much less massive, and for a variety of reasons. One, and the most obvious, is that disks are the signpost of star formation via gravitational contraction of molecular cores; their presence can shed light on the stellar formation mechanism. There is, however, an additional reason to study disks around “extreme” objects, namely that the very different physical conditions expected in these disks can help clarify the various processes that control disk evolution, including planet formation.

### 4.1. Herbig Be stars

The process of formation of massive stars has been the center of a long-lasting debate (see Stahler, Palla & Ho 2000 for a review). As an alternative to gravitational collapse, where radiation pressure prevents the formation of stars above a certain mass, it has been proposed that massive stars form by coagulation of lower mass objects (Bonnell, Bate & Zinnecker 1998). One prediction of this mechanism is the lack of massive disks around massive stars.

It is very difficult to collect a significant sample of O stars where disks can be studied. The best one can do is to look at the most massive among Herbig Be (HBe) stars. They have masses of about 8–20 M and are very young (less than few million years). These stars lack a PMS phase and when they become visible, they are already on the ZAMS (Palla & Stahler 1993). About a dozen have been observed with millimeter interferometers and only one (R Mon) has been detected. Fig. 1 shows that the derived upper limits to the ratio of the disk to stellar mass (assuming the usual factor 100 to convert from the observed dust mass to total mass) are significantly lower than the values of lower-mass stars. Early B stars reach the ZAMS with disks of relatively little mass, if any.

The conclusion that HBe stars never had disks is, however, premature. All evidence, including the presence of outflows and jets and tentative detection of disks in the embedded phase (see Kurtz et al. 2000), the distribution of the circumstellar gas in HBe stars of different age (Fuente et al. 2001, 2002), and the presence of extended dust structures around these objects (Natta et al. 1993, Di Francesco et al. 1998, Abraham et al. 2000) points to a fast evolution of the circumstellar matter. It seems likely that the HBe disks are quickly dispersed. I will come back to the HBe case in the following section.

### 4.2. Brown dwarfs

Recently, at the other extreme of the mass range, the formation process of brown dwarfs (BD) has become of interest, as more and more BDs are discovered in star forming regions. Formation theories alternative to collapse of a molecular core include the possibility that below a given mass, BDs form like giant planets in gravitationally unstable regions of circumstellar disks (Papaloizou & Terquem 2001), or that they are stellar embryos ejected from multiple systems (Reipurth & Clarke 2001; Bate, Bonnell & Bromm 2002). In both these alternative views, one expects only very small, short-lived disks, if any. The search for BD disks is producing some interesting results. Using near-infrared color-color diagrams, as for TTS, Muench et al. (2001) find that 63% of candidate BDs in the Trapezium cluster have disks. However, in the older region $`\sigma `$ Ori (age 2–7 Myr), the same technique shows that no BD candidate has disks (Oliveira et al. 2002). Mid-infrared ISOCAM surveys have detected many candidate BDs associated with warm dust in star-forming regions (Persi et al. 2000, Bontemps et al. 2001). As for the Trapezium objects, the BD nature of the candidates needs to be confirmed spectroscopically. More detailed studies of individual objects (Natta & Testi 2001; Testi et al. 2002; Natta et al. 2002) selected among mid-IR sources in the young regions Cha I and $`\rho `$ Oph have shown that there are bona-fide BD with excess mid-IR emission that can be modeled as being due to disks irradiated by the central object (see Fig. 4). These disks are optically thick at mid-infrared wavelengths, and in some cases (the two with the lowest mass in the sample), there is evidence that the disks have to be flared, i.e., gas-rich. The SIRTF/Legacy observations of star forming regions, with good wavelength coverage and sensitivity, should allow us to explore the properties of BD disks in detail.

## 5. Disk lifetime

The lifetime of PMS disks is a crucial parameter, since any planetary system must be formed before the disk dissipates. The current wisdom is that PMS disks live a few million years. This is based on near-IR surveys of TTS in a number of young clusters of different age (see Alves et al. 2002), and, strictly speaking, refers only to the inner disk, which emits at those wavelengths. However, there is some evidence (which, however, should be re-discussed with the better statistics available today) that the process of disk dissipation, once started, occurs rapidly (few $`10^5`$ yr; Skrutskie et al. 1990), and over a similar timescale at all radii (see, for example, Duvert et al. 2000), in both dust and gas.

There is evidence that disks around more massive stars have shorter lifetimes. We have already mentioned the case of HBe stars, but the trend of rapid evolution seems to extend to stars of lower mass (A and F), when statistical indicators are used. For example, in the Trapezium cluster Lada et al. (2000) find that only 42% of stars of spectral type OBA have a near-IR excess, versus an average 78%; in IC 348 Haish, Lada & Lada (2001) find that 0% of stars of spectral types BAF have excess, versus 54% of the total.

Although on average there is a clear trend of disk frequency with age, individual objects tell us a much more complex story. There are (relatively) old stars (age $``$ 10 Myr) that still retain their PMS gas-rich disk (see, for HAe stars, Natta et al. 2000), and young objects that have already lost it, as is the case for many weak-line T Tauri stars (WTTS).

This is in fact not surprising, when we consider the variety of processes that can cause the dispersal of disks. Among them are processes intrinsic to the disk itself, such as viscosity and planet formation, and others that depend on the interaction of the disk with the central star, in particular with the radiation field and wind. The environment where the disk evolves is also important. For example, a nearby massive star may evaporate the disk, as in Orion, or destroy it by tidal interactions. Stellar encounters may destroy the disk, and dynamical interaction between the disk and possible companions may also dissipate it. It is also possible that stars are born with disks of different mass. If, for example, the measured spread of disk masses seen in Fig. 1 is intrinsic, we should expect a similar spread in disk lifetimes (more than a factor 100). It is not impossible that WTTS are objects born with disks at the lowest end of the mass spectrum, or that the only disks which live long enough to form planets are those at the upper end of the disk mass distribution. We do not know enough, at present, to have a clear understanding of these points, but they are certainly worth investigation in the future.

Disk dispersal processes have been described in detail by Hollenbach, Yorke & Johnstone (2000), and the effect on disks of dynamical processes is further discussed by Artimowicz in this conference. I will confine myself here to the case of Herbig Be star disks.

### 5.1. The case of Herbig Be disks

All disks evolve as matter is accreted inward and angular momentum is transported outward. This process is usually described in terms of viscosity, by which most of the mass accretes onto the star, while a very small fraction moves to infinity carrying the disk angular momentum. One of the characteristics of viscous evolution is that the disk radius increases with time, so that the viscous timescale of the outer regions, where at any given instant the mass resides, keeps increasing, and viscosity alone cannot explain the complete disk dissipation.

The disk evolution is also affected by the presence of the central star, which can cause photoevaporation of its surrounding disk. Evaporation by photoionization is irrelevant for TTS, and not very effective in HAe stars. In these objects, however, softer photons ($`12<h\nu <13.6`$ eV) can photodissociate and warm up the disk material and dissipate it in a manner similar to photoionizing photons. Also, flares and the UV radiation emitted in TTS by accretion shocks can erode the outer disk. Hollenbach et al. (2000) conclude that photodissociation may be able to dissipate the outer disks of TTS on timescales comparable to those observed.

The case of HBe stars is particularly interesting, since these stars have the shortest timescale for disk dissipation of all PMS stars (much less than 1 Myr). Even if one cannot exclude that other processes such as disk ablation by a stellar wind, may have an important role, it is possible to explain this evolution simply by the combined action of two processes, viscosity and photodissociation. Fig. 5 plots the viscous dissipation and photodissociation timescales for a B0 ZAMS disk. One can see that the outer disk (for $`R`$ greater than about 1/3$`R_{cr}30`$ AU, where $`R_{cr}`$ is the radius at which the gravitation of the star balances the sound speed of the ionized disk material) evaporates very rapidly ( in about $`10^5`$ yr). The residual disk may then be destroyed by viscosity on a comparable timescale.

A combination of various processes is likely to occur in all stars, and may in fact determine the characteristics of disk dissipation. For example, Clarke, Gendrin & Sotomayor (2001) combine viscous evolution and photoevaporation by X-ray emission near the photosphere to explain not only the typical lifetimes but also the rapid transition of TTS from disk to diskless.

## 6. Grain growth in PMS disks

The last topic I want to discuss is that of grain growth in PMS disks. Growth from the typical size of grains in the ISM (roughly smaller than few tenths of microns) to much larger values is expected to occurr in the denser layers of circumstellar disks during the PMS phase. This, if proved, would be a strong indication that the sequence of processes we think lead from typical PMS disks to planets is indeed occurring. However, a robust indication that PMS disk grains are growing has been elusive.

The argument in favour of large grains in the disk midplane is an old one, and is based on a very simple argument. Suppose that the long wavelength emission of a disk is optically thin, then the flux dependence on wavelength should mirror the opacity law. Namely, if $`\alpha `$ is the observed spectral index ($`F_\nu \nu ^\alpha `$) and the opacity can be expressed as $`\kappa _\nu \nu ^\beta `$, then one should have $`\alpha =2+\beta `$. As soon as the first submillimeter and millimeter observations became available, it was realized that TTS have lower values of $`\alpha `$ than more embedded young stellar objects (see Fig. 6). This result was interpreted as evidence for large grains in the TTS disk midplane, of sizes $`>`$ few millimeters. Note that this is not in contradiction with the presence of silicate emission features in the same objects, since such features are due to grains on the disk surface, and a grain size vertical stratification is expected. This argument, and its caveats, has been discussed, among others, by Beckwith et al. (2000).

The main weakness of this result lies in the assumption that the disk emission is optically thin. Indeed, if this is not true and the disk remains optically thick over the whole observed wavelength range, its emission would be that of black-body ($`\alpha =2`$), mimicking the characteristics of extremely large grains with $`\beta `$=0. This effect has been investigated in detail for few stars, using interferometric data between 1.3mm and 7mm (Testi et al. 2001). The results are shown in Fig. 7 for four stars.

It is clear that even for the extreme case of UX Ori, which has $`\alpha _{1.3mm7mm}=2\pm 0.2`$, the observations can be fitted by a very optically thick small disk, or by a larger, optically thin disk with centimeter size grains (pebbles), having $`\beta 0`$ up to a wavelength of 7mm. Of the four stars, CQ Tau has been marginally resolved both at 1.3mm (Dutrey, personal communication, quoted in Natta et al. 2001) and at 7mm (Testi et al., in preparation) and has a rather small disk ($`R`$ about 50 AU). HD 163296 has been marginally resolved by OVRO (Mannings & Sargent 1997) with a size of about 100 AU (FWHM) and an inclination angle of 58 degree. Well resolved images at 7mm are necessary to discriminate between different models.

So far, the best case for grain growth in a PMS object is that of the nearby TTS TW Hya, which has been mapped at 7mm by Wilner et al. (2000) and analyzed recently by Calvet et al (2002) using detailed, self-consistent disk models. The result is that the fluxes and 7mm surface brightness profile are consistent with an outer disk where grains have grown to size of $``$1 cm. This, and similar results on other PMS stars that should come in the near future, will provide much needed observational constraint to grain growth and planetesimal formation theories.

## 7. Summary

In this talk I have presented a summary of the properties of disks around pre-main–sequence stars, i.e., when the central objects have already accreted most of their final mass and have cleared most of the surrounding material from which they have formed. This stage of disk evolution is when planets can form. It is, therefore, of interest to know their properties and and how they change during the PMS life of the stars, if we want to understand how planetary systems form and, in their turn, evolve.

Pre-MS disks are rich in gas. We know something about their shape, namely that in many cases they are “flared”, as expected for gas-rich disks in hydrostatic equilibrium. Masses are uncertain, and vary by more than two orders of magnitude for stars of similar properties. Assuming a gas-to-dust mass ratio of 100, we find disk masses of 0.003-0.3 M, with a rather constant ratio of disk to stellar mass of about 0.03, and again a large dispersion. Sizes are a few hundred AU, with a large spread, due in part to the variety of observational techniques used. Temperatures are consistent in most cases with disks being heated by irradiation from the central star. This is an area of fast progress, as better disk models ( both of the thermal structure and of the chemistry) as well as observations of an increasing number of molecular species become available.

Stars of all mass have disks, from objects of $``$3-4 M to brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. The exception are the more massive stars, that seem to lack significant disks. This is probably a result of the fast disk dissipation caused by a combination of photoevaporation by the stellar radiation of the outer disk and of viscous evolution of the inner disk. Less massive stars have typical disk lifetimes of a few million years. However, there are again large individual variations, and several stars retain their rather massive PMS disks at ages of 10 Myrs. We do not know yet what exactly determines the survival of an individual disk, even if we can guess that being located in a dense cluster or too close to a massive star is a bad idea.

Finally, I have briefly summarized the state of the research on grain growth during PMS lifetimes, which is considered the initial step toward the formation of planetesimals and planets.

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# Memory effect in growing trees

## 1 Introduction

The problem of growing trees belongs to larger class of problems of evolving networks — a new area with many interdisciplinary applications, from biology and computational science to linguistics . In statistical mechanics, we often investigate the state of thermodynamic equilibrium, which is unique and therefore it cannot preserve any information. However, in other sciences memory on past states is an essential ingredient of the system. Here we are interested in search how the structure of the origin of a tree, i.e. of a graph from which the tree is constructed, influences the overall characteristics of the growing system.

A network containing $`N`$ nodes is fully characterized by its connectivity matrix $`𝐂`$: $`c_N(i,j)=1`$ if the nodes $`i,j`$ are linked together, and $`c_N(i,j)=0`$ elsewhere. More convenient but somewhat redundant is the distance matrix $`𝐒`$, where the matrix element $`s_N(i,j)`$ is the number of links along the shortest path from $`i`$ to $`j`$. It is often simpler to describe a network statistically. A local characteristics of a network includes the degree distribution, i.e. the probability that a node is linked to a given number $`k`$ of neighbors. A global characteristics includes the node-node distance distribution. Whereas the former can be treated as complete only conditionally , a few is known on the latter. Recent progress of knowledge on the mean node-node distance $`d[s_N(i,j)]`$ is due to applications of equilibrium statistical mechanics, scaling hypotheses and/or assumptions of lack of correlations between nodes . Here, $`\mathrm{}`$ denotes an average over $`N(N1)`$ non-diagonal matrix elements and $`[\mathrm{}]`$ is an average over different matrices, i.e. different graphs.

By growing we mean adding subsequent nodes to an already existing graph. When each node is added with one link only $`(m=1)`$, a tree — a compact graph without loops and without multiple edges — is formed. In trees, a path between each two nodes is unique, and it cannot be changed during the growth process. When a node is added, the node-node distance matrix $`𝐒`$ is increased by one column and one row. Once the matrix elements are formed, they do not change their values. However, if nodes are added with two or more links $`(m>1)`$, a kind of shortcuts are formed and some node-node distances may be shortened.

The main goal of this work is to demonstrate, that the node-node distance distribution of a growing tree preserves an information on the structure of the initial tree, from which it is formed.

Below we deal with two kinds of growing trees, which differ in the degree distribution. Let us consider the linking of new nodes to randomly selected nodes. When the selection is made without any preference, we obtain a so-called exponential tree. In this case, the degree distribution $`P(k)=2^k`$, where $`k`$ is the number of links of a node. Nodes can be selected also with some preference with respect to their degree. If the linking probability is proportional to the degree $`k`$, we obtain the scale-free or Barabási–Albert networks . In this case, $`P(k)k^\gamma `$, with $`\gamma =3`$ .

To achieve our goal, the simplest method is to calculate the mean node-node distance $`d(N)`$ for trees of $`N`$ nodes, the formation of which has started from two different trees with four nodes. This is done in the next section with iterative equations, which has been derived recently for the exponential trees . In Section 3, the growth algorithms are introduced, basing on an evolution of the distance matrix. In Section 4, numerical results are presented for the exponential trees and the Barabási–Albert scale-free trees. We show also that the memory on the ancestral network is much reduced, if the trees are substituted by graphs with cyclic paths, i.e. with $`m>1`$. The last section is devoted to discussion.

## 2 Weights of exponential trees

Consider the probability that a tree of a given structure is grown. Trees are different if there is no one-to-one correspondence between their pairs of linked nodes . Let us denote the number of different trees with $`N`$ nodes by $`K(N)`$. It is easy to check by inspection, that $`K(2)=K(3)=1`$ and $`K(4)=2`$. As $`K(3)=1`$, the probability — or weight — of the tree of three nodes (Fig. 1(a)) must be one. An exponential tree of four nodes can be formed by linking a new (fourth) node either to one of two end nodes, or to the central one. Then, the probability of a chain of nodes (Fig. 1(b)) is $`2/3`$, and the probability of a star-like-tree (Fig. 1(c)) is $`1/3`$. From the chain, a longer chain (Fig. 1(d)) can be produced in two ways, then its weight is $`2/32/4=1/3`$. From the star, another star (Fig. 1(f)) can appear with the probability $`1/31/4=1/12`$. The remaining tree (Fig. 1(e)) can be formed from either the chain or the star, then its weight is $`2/32/4+1/33/4=7/12`$. We note that in the case of the scale-free trees, the weights of the trees presented in Fig. 1 are: 1, 1/2, 1/2, 1/6, 7/12 and 1/4, respectively. This is a simple demonstration, that the weights of trees in two different classes are different.

Any possible tree can be formed from a tree of three nodes (Fig. 1(a)). The way to form chains and stars is unique and then, their weights are relatively small. Example giving, the weight of an exponential star of $`N`$ nodes is $`2/(N1)!`$. We could eliminate stars, if we develop trees from the chain shown in Fig. 1(b). Seemingly, the weights of other trees should not be changed much, but all of them are influenced by the lack of the stars. Example giving, in this case the tree shown in Fig. 1(e) can be formed in one unique way. As a consequence, the whole distribution of weights is rebuilt. With the iterative equations derived recently , we can calculate the mean distance $`d`$ and the mean square of distances $`e[s_N^2(i,j)]`$ for two “families” of trees. One is formed from the chain-like tree shown in Fig. 1(b) and labeled as “Z”, and another — from the star-like tree presented in Fig. 1(c) and marked as “Y”. Then, the first “family” does not contain stars, and the second one does not contain chains. The equations are:

$$d(N+1)=\frac{(N+2)(N1)}{N(N+1)}d(N)+\frac{2}{N+1},$$
(1a)
and
$$e(N+1)=\frac{(N+2)(N1)}{N(N+1)}e(N)+\frac{4(N1)}{N(N+1)}d(N)+\frac{2}{N+1}.$$
(1b)
The information on the initial trees is encoded in the initial values of $`d(4)`$ and $`e(4)`$. It is easy to check, that for the chain $`d^Z(4)=5/3`$, $`e^Z(4)=10/3`$ and for the star $`d^Y(4)=3/2`$, $`e^Y(4)=5/2`$.

Similar method has been used in . The difference is that here, the Eqs. (1) are exact, but they apply only to the exponential trees.

## 3 Numerical algorithm

Two initial trees with four nodes (the chain and the star) are represented in the computer memory as two distance matrices $`𝐒(Z)`$ and $`𝐒(Y)`$. The starting point are two matrices for two trees of four nodes:

$$𝐒_4(Z)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& 1& 2& 3\\ 1& 0& 1& 2\\ 2& 1& 0& 1\\ 3& 2& 1& 0\end{array}\right)\text{ and }𝐒_4(Y)=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}0& 1& 2& 2\\ 1& 0& 1& 1\\ 2& 1& 0& 2\\ 2& 1& 2& 0\end{array}\right)$$

for the chain and the star, respectively.

Selecting a node to link a new node is equivalent to select a number $`q`$ of column/row of the matrix. Then the matrix is supplemented by new column and row, which are copies of the $`q`$-th column/row but with all elements incremented by one

$$1iN:s_{N+1}(N+1,i)=s_{N+1}(i,N+1)=s_N(q,i)+1,$$
(2a)
and obviously
$$s_{N+1}(N+1,N+1)=0.$$
(2b)
The Eq. (2a) served in the derivation of the iterative formulas (1) .

The same numerical technique is applied also to the case of the Barabási–Albert scale-free trees. The only difference is that in this case, the node $`q`$ is selected with preference of the number of its pre-existing links. Namely,

$$P(q)=k(q)/\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}k(i),$$

where $`k(i)`$ is the number $`k`$ of links of $`i`$-th node. Additional matrix $`𝐫(i)`$ contains the indices of row of the distance matrix $`𝐒`$ where “1” is encountered. Each case $`s_N(i,j)=1`$ indicates a link between nodes $`i`$ and $`j`$. The matrix $`𝐫(i)`$ is useful to select nodes of given degree for the scale-free trees and graphs, according to the so-called Kertész algorithm .

Further, the same technique is applied to simple graphs, where new nodes are attached to previously existing ones by $`m=2`$ links. Then, cyclic paths are possible and the distance matrix $`𝐒`$ is to be rebuilt when adding each node. The algorithm is as follows: Let us suppose that $`(N+1)`$-th node is added to existing nodes $`p`$ and $`qp`$. Then

$$\begin{array}{c}\hfill 1i,jN:s_{N+1}(i,j)=\\ \hfill =\mathrm{min}(s_N(i,j),s_N(i,p)+2+s_N(q,j),s_N(i,q)+2+s_N(p,j)).\end{array}$$
(3a)
For new, $`(N+1)`$-th, column/row
$$1iN:s_{N+1}(N+1,i)=s_{N+1}(i,N+1)=\mathrm{min}(s_N(p,i),s_N(q,i))+1,$$
(3b)
and again for the diagonal element
$$s_{N+1}(N+1,N+1)=0.$$
(3c)
One step of construction of the matrix $`𝐒`$ for simple graphs $`(m=2)`$ is presented in Fig. 2. An example of the construction $`𝐒`$ for trees $`(m=1)`$ is given in .

## 4 Results of calculations

In Figs. 3 and 4 the dependences (a) $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d(N)d^Z(N)d^Y(N)`$ and (b) $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e(N)e^Z(N)e^Y(N)`$ obtained from growth simulations are presented, for exponential trees and for scale-free trees, respectively. The results of simulations are averaged over $`N_{\text{run}}=10^5`$ independent growths. For both kinds of trees the difference in average node-node distance $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d`$ tends to the constant value during the growth process. For higher moments the effect is even stronger and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e`$ increases with the tree size $`N`$. In Fig. 3 we give also the results for $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d(N)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e(N)`$ calculated with Eq. (1) for exponential trees of $`N=10^9`$ nodes. The fact that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e`$ do not decrease with $`N`$ means that growing structures preserve the memory on their initial shapes.

In the case of simple graphs ($`m=2`$), the distance matrix $`𝐒`$ must be reevaluated, what makes the time of the calculation substantially larger. The results for graphs are averaged only over one thousand of independent growths. The curves $`d(N)`$ and $`e(N)`$ for both kind of simple graphs are shown in Fig. 5. The linear fits for $`100N1000`$ are $`d(N)=0.672\mathrm{ln}(N)+0.299`$ and $`d(N)=0.462\mathrm{ln}(N)+0.888`$ for the exponential graphs and the scale-free graphs, respectively. The functions $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d(N)`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_e(N)`$ for both kind of evolving graphs are shown in Fig. 6.

For the scale-free graphs, we observe some small memory effect, which manifests as a constant mutual shift of the plots $`e(N)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{ln}(N)`$. In this case it is not clear if the effect vanishes or not, when $`N`$ tends to infinity.

## 5 Discussion

In the case of the exponential trees, the results of the simulations agree well with the curves obtained from the iteration equations. This fact supports the reliability of the numerical equation for the scale-free trees and the graphs with $`m=2`$, where we have no analytical calculations.

Main result of this work is, that the node-node distance distribution in a growing tree depends on its initial structure. Our calculations indicate, that both the average distance $`d`$ and its second moment $`e`$ in trees display this kind of memory. The information is encoded in the constant $`c_1`$ in the expression $`d=2\mathrm{ln}(N)+c_1`$. The constant $`c_1`$ varies by about 0.109 and 0.164, when we change the shape of the initial tree of four nodes from the Y-like star to the Z-like chain for the exponential and scale-free trees, respectively. In the second moment $`e=4\mathrm{ln}^2(N)+c_2\mathrm{ln}(N)+c_3`$, it is the constant $`c_2`$ which depends on the initial shape. This is true both for the exponential and the scale-free trees.

The memory effect is much reduced or even disappears in the case when new nodes are linked to the network by at least two edges. In this case, the distance matrix $`𝐒`$ is rebuilt by new edges which can shorten distances between initially far nodes by providing new paths between them.

Concluding, we have demonstrated that the growing trees carry an information on their initial geometrical structure. The validity of this result relies not only on pure geometry, but also on a particular application of the graph theory. As remarked in the Introduction, the list of examples of such applications is quite rich . If the considered network is due to the citation index, we trace the flow of a new idea from one paper to another. We see that around some seminal papers, networks of citations are formed, as it happens in the case of Ref. . Sometimes there are two or more seminal papers, and then the shape of the network depends on their clarity, ease of mathematical formulation and individual preferences of the readership, formed in personal contacts. If new results spread just by reading papers, it spreads slowly: somebody reads it, tells to a friend, the friend’s student is asked to calculate a similar problem. The tree is ‘chain-like’. On the contrary, each conference makes the tree of spreading of ideas to be more ‘star-like’, where the possible sources of getting new information are multiple and efficient.

The authors are grateful to Prof. Kazimierz Różański for valuable help and to Mr. Paweł Kułakowski for comments on manuscript. The numerical calculations were carried out in ACK–CYFRONET–AGH. The machine time on SGI 2800 is financed by the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) under grant No. KBN/SGI2800/AGH/018/2003.


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# Vortex critical behavior at the de-confinement phase transition

## Abstract

The de-confinement phase transition in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory is revisited in the vortex picture. Defining the world sheets of the confining vortices by maximal center projection, the percolation properties of the vortex lines in the hypercube consisting of the time axis and two spatial axis are studied. Using the percolation cumulant, the temperature for the percolation transition is seen to be in good agreement with the critical temperature of the thermal transition. The finite size scaling function for the cumulant is obtained. The critical index of the finite size scaling function is consistent with the index of the 3D Ising model.

Yang-Mills theory, confinement, center-vortices, percolation, finite size scaling  preprint: KA-TP-04-2003 UNITUE-THEP/7-2003

Understanding de-confinement at finite temperatures is one of the major challenges of QCD, the theory of strong interactions. Large scale collision experiments (RHIC) are currently operating in order to detect new states of matter at high temperatures Heinz:2002gs ; Kharzeev:2002hw . The general believe is that the confinement of quarks is induced by the gluonic state, and that the mechanism can be anticipated within the pure $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory. Using dimensional reduction in combination with lattice simulations of the emerging effective 3D theory, it was recently shown Kajantie:2000iz  that the non-perturbative effects of $`SU(N)`$ gauge theory are strong for temperatures which are accessible in collider experiments. The universality class of the transition is of particular importance because the corresponding degrees of freedom are weakly interacting close to the transition, thus dictating the dynamics of the theory.

Any theory which purports certain degrees of freedom of being relevant for confinement should also be able to explain de-confinement at finite temperatures. An example for such degrees of freedom are chromo-magnetic monopoles (a pedagogical review to the subject can be found in Chernodub:1997ay ). It was empirically observed that monopole currents, residing in the spatial hypercube, form a network which ceases percolation in the de-confined phase Bornyakov:1991se ; Damm:1997qx . However, it seems likely that the monopoles are strongly coupled even close to the de-confinement transition. Indeed, arguments have been put forward that a (weakly interacting) Coulomb gas of chromo-magnetic monopoles is inconsistent with the phenomenology of confinement Greensite:2003bk .

Below, I will address two scenarios of the de-confinement phase transition at finite temperatures. One of these exploits the realization of the global $`Z(N)`$ center symmetry of the corresponding $`SU(N)`$ Yang-Mills theories. The spontaneous breaking of this symmetry at high temperatures is signaled by a non-vanishing expectation value of the Polyakov line. In the case of the SU(2) gauge theory, the projection of the Polyakov line to the center elements has revealed that the effective theory of the corresponding 3D Ising model is short ranged at the transition Fortunato:2000vf ; Fortunato:2000ge ; Satz:2001zf . The thermal transition corresponds to a percolation transition of the site-bond clusters of the emerging 3D Ising model. More recently, it was observed Engels:1998nv  that also the ratio of the Polyakov line critical amplitudes are in agreement with that of the 3D Ising model. These findings confirm that the transition of the SU(2) gauge theory belongs to the universality class of the $`Z_2`$ Ising model in three dimensions.

A second scenario emerged with the advent of the so-called maximum center gauge (MCG) Greensite:2003bk ; DelDebbio:1996mh ; DelDebbio:1997ke ; DelDebbio:1998uu : a tight relation between quark confinement and the vortex structure of the pure gluonic vacuum was established at a quantitative level for $`SU(2)`$ and $`SU(3)`$ Faber:1999sq ; Stack:sy  gauge theory: projecting $`SU(2)`$ lattice configurations onto those of a $`Z_2`$ gauge theory, the confining capabilities of the static quark anti-quark potential at large distances is retained. On the other hand, removing the vortex structure from the lattice configurations “by hand”, the static potential looses its linear rise and resembles a Coulomb potential. The key observation is that the vortices which emerge from the above effective $`Z_2`$ gauge theory DelDebbio:1998uu  are sensible degrees of freedom of continuum Yang-Mills theory: extrapolating to the continuum limit of vanishing lattice spacing, the planar vortex densityLangfeld:1997jx ; DelDebbio:1998uu  as well as the binary vortex interactions Engelhardt:1998wu  are finite in units of the fundamental energy scale (e.g. string tension). These observations indicate that the MCG vortices are the degrees of freedom relevant for quark confinement. Recently, it was shown that the vortices might also play a role for other low energy observables: the removal of the vortex structure leads to a restoration of chiral symmetry deForcrand:1999ms  and to a strong reduction of the infrared strength of certain Yang-Mills Greenfunctions Langfeld:2001cz ; Langfeld:2002dd .

The question whether one can grasp the essence of the de-confinement phase transition at finite temperatures within the vortex picture was firstly investigated in Langfeld:1998cz ; Engelhardt:1999fd . One finds that the effective $`Z_2`$ theory which arises from the $`SU(2)`$ lattice gauge configurations after center projection DelDebbio:1998uu  reproduces the right order of magnitude of the de-confinement temperature $`T_c`$. In order to detect the change of the vortex structure when $`T_C`$ is approached, the vortex world lines of a hypercube consisting of the time and two spatial directions were studied. While the vortices percolate at small temperatures, the vortices align parallel to the time axis direction for $`T>T_c`$. The de-confinement phase transition appears as vortex de-percolation transition.

A comparison of both scenarios of the de-confinement phase transition which have been discussed above suggests a certain duality: (i) the Polyakov line gives rise to a Ising model defined in the spatial hypercube; site-bond clusters start percolating in the high temperature phase; (ii) closed vortex loops emerge from MCG projection in the hypercube spanned by the time- and two spatial directions; the vortex clusters cease to percolate in the de-confinement phase. In order to establish a duality between both pictures, one must verify that the critical behavior of the vortex percolation transition corresponds to the 3D Ising universality class.

In this letter, a detailed analysis of the center vortex loops in the time-like hypercube is performed at finite temperatures. Using the percolation cumulant, a precise determination of the critical de-percolation temperature $`T_p`$ is obtained. I find that $`T_p`$ nicely agrees with the thermal transition temperature $`T_c`$. Finally, the finite size scaling function of the percolation cumulant will show that the finite size scaling is consistent with that of the 3D Ising model.

The links $`U_\mu (x)`$ representing the $`SU(2)`$ gauge field configurations are generated with the standard Wilson action. The Maximal Center Gauge is installed by maximizing the functional

$$\underset{x,\mu }{}\left[\text{tr}U_\mu ^\mathrm{\Omega }(x)\right]^2\stackrel{\mathrm{\Omega }}{}\text{max},$$
(1)
where $`U_\mu ^\mathrm{\Omega }(X)=\mathrm{\Omega }(x)U_\mu (x)\mathrm{\Omega }^{}(x+\mu )`$ are the gauged links. Finding the global maximum of (1) is a highly non-trivial task and is subject to Gribov ambiguities. One observes that bulk properties of the vortices are little affected by the choice of algorithm (see e.g. Langfeld:2001cz ). Here, I will not further address the Gribov problem, but will adopt a practical point of view: I will employ the procedure described in DelDebbio:1998uu  because it yields good scaling properties of the vortex matter. One must, however, keep in mind that it is not clear to which extent the choice of algorithm affects the results presented here. Center projection is then performed by

$$SU(2)Z_2:U_\mu ^\mathrm{\Omega }(x)Z_\mu (x)=\text{sign }\text{tr}U_\mu ^\mathrm{\Omega }(x).$$
(2)
Defining

$$v(p):=\underset{lp}{}Z_l,l=\{x,\mu \},$$
(3)
one says that a vortex pierces an elementary plaquette $`p`$ if $`v(p)=1`$. Hence, vortices exists on the dual lattice. In view of the $`Z_2`$ Biancchi identity,

$$\underset{pc}{}v(p)=\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}1},$$

where $`c`$ denotes an elementary cube, vortices form closed world sheets in 4 dimensions and appear as closed loops in a particular 3D hypercube. In the following, we will consider the time-like hypercube spanned by the time- and two spatial directions, and we will investigate the properties of the closed vortex loops within this hypercube. A vortex cluster is defined as the vortex material which is connected by a single vortex world line. The time-like hypercube contains $`L^2\times N_t`$ lattice points. The temperature $`T=1/N_ta(\beta )`$ is adjusted by varying $`\beta `$. Below, results for $`N_t=2`$ and $`N_t=4`$ are presented.

For an investigation of the vortex percolation within the time-like hypercube, one determines the minimal box which completely contains a given vortex cluster. If this box is as big as the time-like hypercube, the particular cluster is said to percolate. In order to study the vortex critical behavior at the critical temperature, one defines the so-called percolation cumulant Fortunato:2000vf  $`P(\beta )`$, which is given by the average number of percolating vortex cluster divided by the number of configurations. Analogous to the Binder cumulant, the percolation cumulant is independent of the extent of the lattice $`L`$ at the critical point $`\beta _c`$. This implies that the curves $`P(\beta )`$ corresponding to different lattice sizes cross at the critical point. My numerical results are shown in figure 1. I find

$$\beta _c=1.880(3)(N_t=2),\beta _c=2.305(3)(N_t=4).$$

These values are in reasonable agreement with those quoted for the phase transition signaled by the percolation of the Polyakov line Fortunato:2000vf , i.e.,

$`\beta _c^{pol}`$ $`=`$ $`1.8734(2)(N_t=2),`$
$`\beta _c^{pol}`$ $`=`$ $`2.29895(10)(N_t=4).`$
As long as finite size scaling holds, the percolation cumulant should be a universal function of

$$x:=(\beta \beta _c)L^{1/\nu },$$

where $`\nu `$ is characteristic for the universality class of the phase transition. Figure 2 shows the vortex percolation cumulant as function the scaling variable $`x`$ for $`N_t=2`$ and $`N_t=4`$. The numerical results are consistent with the critical index $`\nu =0.6294`$ of the the 3D Ising model. It is remarkable that the finite size scaling works for a wide range of the scaling variable $`x`$.

In conclusions, the picture of the de-confinement phase transition at finite temperatures as a vortex de-percolation transition is refined: the finite size scaling function of the vortex percolation cumulant is obtained. The critical index $`\nu `$ is seen to be consistent with the index of the 3D Ising model. Hence, the center vortex picture of the phase transition is put on equal footing as the percolation picture of site-bond clusters defined by the Polyakov line Fortunato:2000vf -Satz:2001zf . Since the definition of the Polyakov line breaks covariance, the latter picture is necessarily restricted to temperatures of the order of the de-confinement temperature. By contrast, the center vortex clusters are consistently defined with the symmetries at all temperatures, and provide a picture dual to the Polyakov line picture at $`TT_c`$. However, one must keep in mind that the Gribov problem renders an unambiguous definition of the vortex cluster cumbersome at the present stage of research.

Acknowledgments: I thank M. Quandt for helpful comments on the manuscript.