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# Note on the Sunyaev-Zel’dovich thermal effect

## Abstract

In a previous publication we have derived an expression for the full distorted spectrum arising when the photons of the cosmic background radiation are absorbed and emitted by an optically thin gas. The expression simply adds up the effects of the joint probability that an electron absorbs an incoming photon of frequency $`\overline{\nu }`$ and emits it with a frequency $`\nu `$. We here show that such an expression is identical to the Kompaneets equation describing the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect. This clearly shows that the two pictures, diffusion and absorption-emission are mathematically equivalent to first order in the Compton parameter. Other consequences of this result are also discussed.

In a recent publication  we have given a detailed discussion of how the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect   may be interpreted in terms of a rather simplified picture as an absorption-emission process. In fact, our view is that such an effect is indeed that of an absorption-emission process in which a few photons happen to be captured by electrons in the optically thin gas. An electron moving with a given thermal velocity emits (scatters) a photon with a certain incoming frequency $`\overline{\nu }`$ and outgoing frequency $`\nu `$. The line breath of this process is readily calculated from kinetic theory taking into account that the media in which the process takes place has a small optical depth directly related to the Compton parameter $`y`$. When the resulting expression, which will be called *structure factor*, is convoluted with the incoming flux of photons obtained from Planck’s distribution, one easily obtains the disturbed spectra.

In Ref.  we derived an analytical expression for the full distorted spectrum of the scattered radiation which reads as

$$I\left(\nu \right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }W\left(\nu \right)}_0^{\mathrm{}}I_o\left(\overline{\nu }\right)\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(\frac{\overline{\nu }(12y)\nu }{W\left(\nu \right)}\right)^2\right]𝑑\overline{\nu }$$
(1)
and defines the joint probability of finding an electron scattering a photon with incoming frequency $`\overline{\nu }`$ and outgoing frequency $`\nu `$ multiplied by the incoming photon flux $`I_o\left(\overline{\nu }\right)`$. In Eq. (1) the incoming flux is given by

$$I_o\left(\overline{\nu }\right)=\frac{2h\overline{\nu }^3}{c^2}\frac{1}{e^{\frac{h\overline{\nu }}{kT}}1}$$
(2)
where $`T2.726K`$, the temperature of the cosmic background radiation, $`k`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`h`$ is Planck’s constant and $`c`$ the speed of light. Further, $`W\left(\nu \right)`$ is the width of the spectral line at frequency $`\nu `$ and its squared value reads (Eq. (14) in Ref. ):

$$W^2\left(\nu \right)=\frac{4kT_e}{m_ec^2}\tau \nu ^2=4y\nu ^2$$
(3)
where $`T_e`$ is the temperature of the electron scatterers, $`m_e`$ is the electron mass and $`\tau `$ is the optical depth, whose meaning is fully discussed in .

The purpose of this note is simply to show that Eq. (1) can be evaluated analytically in an almost trivial way leading to an expression which is identical to the one reported in the literature. Setting in Eq. (1)

$$\alpha =\frac{\overline{\nu }(12y)\nu }{W\left(\nu \right)}$$
(4)
we get that

$$I\left(\nu \right)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi }}_{\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}I_o\left(\nu +\mathrm{\Delta }\nu \right)\mathrm{exp}\left[\alpha ^2\right]𝑑\alpha $$
(5)
where

$$\mathrm{\Delta }\nu =2y\nu +2y^{1/2}\nu \alpha $$
(6)
Notice should be made on the fact that the lower limit in the integral can be readily estimated to be a large negative number, which is for all practical purposes $`\mathrm{}`$. The trick is now immediate. Since $`y`$ is a very small number  and $`I_o`$ is an analytical function of $`\nu `$ we may expand the integrand in Eq. (5) in a Taylor series. Since $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ is linear in $`\alpha `$, all odd powers of $`\alpha `$ yield zero upon integration so that after a straightforward calculation we get that

$$I\left(\nu \right)I_o\left(\nu \right)=2y\nu \frac{I_o}{\nu }+y\nu ^2\frac{^2I_o}{\nu ^2}+2y^2\nu ^2\frac{^2I_o}{\nu ^2}2y^2\nu ^3\frac{^3I_o}{\nu ^3}+\mathrm{}$$
(7)
To first order in $`y`$ we reproduce *exactly* the analytic expression for the distortion curve -. It is also interesting to notice that, taking into account the second order terms in $`y`$ included in Eq. (7), the crossover frequency $`\nu _c`$ corresponding to the solution of equation

$$I\left(\nu \right)I_o\left(\nu \right)=0$$
(8)
is now clearly dependent on the value of $`y`$ namely, on the electron temperature, a feature not ordinarily recognized for a non-relativistic intra-cluster gas. For a typical value of $`y=10^4`$, we obtain $`\nu _c=217.16`$ GHz, while the value obtained by considering only linear terms in $`y`$ yields $`\nu _c=217.12`$ GHz, a difference of nearly $`40`$ MHz.

The result expressed in Eq. (7) is of significant importance. Not only shows that laborious calculations may be expressed in terms of rather elementary concepts borrowed from statistical mechanics, but clarifies an until now intriguing result. Indeed, Eq. (7) contains the famous Kompaneets equation - describing the thermal SZ effect using a diffusive mechanism to account for the motion of photons in an optically thin electron gas where the electron temperature $`T_e>>T_{CMB}`$, the photon temperature (see specifically Ref. ). One must notice that, since most photons *are not scattered even once*, a diffusion approximation would then hardly seem adequate . Nevertheless, the diffusion mechanism is mathematically identical to the absortion-emission process of photons by electrons to first order in $`y`$. The problem posed in Ref.  requiring an explanation of why two different mechanisms lead to the same result is now mathematically solved. The exponential function in the integrand of Eq.(1) is playing the role of a Green’s function for the diffusion equation. Finally, we want to stress that it is now clear why the curves describing the thermal SZ effect obtained by numerical integration of different mathematical expressions turns to be identical. We therefore expect that the relativistic SZ effect and other photon scattering problems in hot plasmas can be handled by a similar procedure.

The authors wish to thank G.H. Weiss for kindly supplying the idea behind the integration method. This work has been supported by CONACyT (Mexico), project 41081-F.


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# Chapter 1 Pierre Auger Atmosphere-Monitoring Lidar System

## Chapter 1 Pierre Auger Atmosphere-Monitoring Lidar System

### Abstract

The fluorescence-detection techniques of cosmic-ray air-shower experiments require precise knowledge of atmospheric properties to reconstruct air-shower energies. Up to now, the atmosphere in desert-like areas was assumed to be stable enough so that occasional calibration of atmospheric attenuation would suffice to reconstruct shower profiles. However, serious difficulties have been reported in recent fluorescence-detector experiments causing systematic errors in cosmic ray spectra at extreme energies. Therefore, a scanning backscatter lidar system has been constructed for the Pierre Auger Observatory in Malargüe, Argentina, where on-line atmospheric monitoring will be performed. One lidar system is already deployed at the Los Leones fluorescence detector (FD) site and the second one is currently (April 2003) under construction at the Coihueco site. Next to the established ones, a novel analysis method with assumption on horizontal invariance, using multi-angle measurements is shown to unambiguously measure optical depth, as well as absorption and backscatter coefficient.

### 1. Introduction

The error in shower energy estimation is directly proportional to the uncertainty in the optical depth between the fluorescence-light origin (within the extensive air shower) and FD cameras . Although reasonable predictions can be obtained using atmospheric models (e.g. US Standard Atmosphere), they do not satisfactorily cover seasonal variations nor occurrence of aerosol layers, typically accompanying windy days and reaching up to 3 km over the ground. As a calorimeter of the FD, atmosphere thus requires on-line or at least periodic monitoring of its optical properties. The lidar seems to be a reasonable choice for this task and it is adopted not only by the Pierre Auger project but apparently also by other cosmic-ray related experiments . In the following sections construction and analysis methods used for the reconstruction of the lidar signal are presented.

### 2. DAQ System

The Pierre Auger lidar system is based on the BigSky Ultra, frequency tripled Nd:YaG laser, which is able to transmit up to 20 pulses per second, each with energy of 7 mJ and 4 ns duration (i.e. pulse length 1.2 m). The emitted wavelength of 355 nm is in the $`300400`$ nm range of the nitrogen fluorescence spectrum. The three receiver telescopes were constructed using $`80`$ cm diameter parabolic mirrors with focal length of 41 cm. The mirror is made of aluminum-coated pyrex and protected with SiO2. The backscattered light is detected by a Hammamatsu R7400 photomultiplier with operating voltage up to 1000 V and gain up to $`10^7`$. To suppress background, a broadband UG-1 filter with 60% transmittance at 353 nm and FWHM of 50 nm is used. The distances between laser beam and the mirror centers are $`1`$ m, and the entry point of the laser beam into the telescope’s field of view is at $`200`$ m. The whole system is fully steerable with $`0.1^{}`$ angular step. The signal is digitized using a three-channel Licel transient recorder TR40-160 with 12 bit resolution at 40 MHz sampling rate with 16k trace length combined with 250 MHz photon-counting system. Maximum detection range of the hardware is thus, with this sampling rate and trace length, set to 60 km. However, in optimal conditions atmospheric features only up to 30 km are observed. In order to limit the huge dynamic range of the lidar signal the laser is operated at 20% of the maximal energy with additional 10% attenuation filter in the beam. Schematic view of the whole DAQ system can be seen in Fig. 1–left. Typical lidar signal is shown in Fig. 1–right. Photon counting channel of the digitizer is a useful capability that can substantially extend the range for faint signals and circumvent possible inaccuracy of the analog channel.

### 3. Analysis

So called lidar equation , describing returned photon flux, in fact represents an under-determined system of nonlinear equations. Therefore, explicit solution of the equation does not exist. In order to obtain some useful results, certain assumptions on optical properties have to be made. One way is to postulate simple potential expression relating the backscatter coefficient $`\beta `$ to the attenuation (extinction) $`\alpha `$, as used by the Klett method . In the case of the Fernald method , both optical properties are separated into molecular and aerosol part. Molecular part, i.e. Rayleigh scattering, is approximated with the assumed atmospheric model, and the lidar equation is solved for the aerosol part.

In Fig. 2, Fernald method is applied on the representative measurement taken with the Los Leones lidar station of the Pierre Auger observatory. Integration of the attenuation $`\alpha (h)`$ results in vertical optical depth (VOD) $`\tau `$ that directly enters estimation of the amount of fluorescence light , as measured by the FD. Due to the aerosol layer near the ground (in Fig. 2–left reaching up to 1.5 km) the resulting VOD clearly differs from the predictions of the (clean) atmosphere model (solid line). Judging from Fig. 2–right, the difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$ between the atmospheric model prediction and the result of the Fernald method can be as high as several tenths of the unit. Neglecting such differences produces a systematic underestimation of the shower energy (and correspondingly the energy of primary particle), since in the first order $`\mathrm{\Delta }E\mathrm{\Delta }\tau `$.

Due to the fairly calm and stratified atmosphere above the huge plane (Pampa Amarilla) where the Pierre Auger observatory is placed, adequate assumption of the horizontal invariance can be made. Under such an assumption the lidar equation is solved in a unique way with the two- or multi-angle method  for both quantities, the backscatter coefficient and the VOD measured relative to some reference height ($`h_0`$, common in all lidar signals taken at different angles). In Fig. 3, multi-angle reconstructions of simultaneous lidar signals from two telescopes in the case of relatively clear atmosphere is compared to the predictions of the atmospheric model. Note, that the relative backscatter coefficient is proportional to the relative atmospheric density, so that lidar system can also serve as a monitoring tool for the atmospheric grammage, important for the description of lateral shower development.

### 4. Conclusion

Aerosol layers near ground, occurrence of haze/clouds, and in a lesser way seasonal fluctuations greatly influence shower energy estimation as obtained by the FD measurements. Periodic monitoring of this sensitive properties is thus unavoidable for any type of detection of the fluorescence light originating from air showers in large atmospheric volumes. Steerable lidar system can be successfully used for such a demanding task. Nevertheless, careful selection, optimization, and calibration of the corresponding lidar analysis methods is strongly adverted.

### References

1. Klett J.D. 1981, Appl. Opt. 20, 211

2. Fernald F.G. 1984, Appl. Opt. 23, 652

3. Filipčič A. et al. 2003, Astropart. Phys. 18, 501

4. Yamamoto T. et al. 2002, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 488, 191

5. Argirò S. 2003, this Proceeding


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# Performance comparison between iSCSI and other hardware and software solutions

## I iSCSI, HyperSCSI and ENBD technologies

### I.1 What is iSCSI ?

*iSCSI* is a protocol designed to transport SCSI commands over a TCP/IP network.
*iSCSI* can be used as a building block for network storage using existing IP infrastructure in a LAN/WAN environment. It can connect different types of block-oriented storage devices to servers.
*iSCSI* was initially standardized by ANSI T10 and further developed by the IP Storage working group of the IETF ietf-ips , which will publish soon an RFC. Many vendors in the storage industry as well as research projects are currently working on the implementation of the iSCSI protocol.

> ”The Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) is a popular family of protocols for communicating with I/O devices, especially storage devices. SCSI is a client-server architecture. Clients of a SCSI interface are called ”initiators”. Initiators issue SCSI ”commands” to request services from components, logical units, of a server known as a ”target”. A ”SCSI transport” maps the client-server SCSI protocol to a specific interconnect. Initiators are one endpoint of a SCSI transport and targets are the other endpoint.
>
> The iSCSI protocol describes a means of transporting of the SCSI packets over TCP/IP, providing for an interoperable solution which can take advantage of existing Internet infrastructure, Internet management facilities and address distance limitations.”
>
> draft-ietf-ips-iscsi-20

### I.2 What is HyperSCSI ?

*HyperSCSI* is a protocol that sends SCSI commands using raw Ethernet packets instead of the TCP/IP packets used for *iSCSI*. Thus, it bypasses the TCP/IP stack of the OS and does not suffer from the shortcomings of TCP/IP.

*HyperSCSI* focuses on turning ethernet into a usable storage infrastructure by adding missing components such as flow control, segmentation, reassembly, encryption, access control lists and security. It can be used to connect different type of storage, such as SCSI, IDE and USB devices.

*HyperSCSI* is developed by the *Modular Connected Storage Architecture* group in the Network Storage Technology Division of the Data Storage Institute from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research of Singapore hyperSCSI .

### I.3 What is Enhanced Network Block Device (ENBD)?

ENBD is a linux kernel module coupled with a user space daemon that sends block requests from a linux client to a linux server using a TCP/IP connection. It uses multichannel communications and implements internal failover and automatic balancing between the channels. It supports encryption and authentication.
This block access technology is only useful with a linux kernel because of the linux specific block request format.
It is developed by the linux community enbd  under a GPL license.

## II Test configuration

### II.1 Hardware and software configuration

The following hardware was used to perform the tests :

* *Test2* :
Dual Pentium 3 - 1 Ghz
3Com Gigabit Ethernet card based on BROADCOM BCM 5700 chipset
1 Western Digital WD1800JB 180 Gbytes
3ware RAID controller 7000-series
* *Test11* :
Dual Pentium 4 - 2.4 Ghz (HyperThreading enabled)
6 Western Digital WD1800JB 180 Gbytes
3ware RAID controllers 7000-series or Promise Ultra133 IDE controllers
3Com Gigabit Ethernet card based on BROADCOM BCM 5700 chipset
* *Test13* :
Dual AMD MP 2200+
6 Western Digital WD1800JB 180 Gbytes
3ware RAID controllers 7000-series or Promise Ultra133 IDE controllers
3Com Gigabit Ethernet card based on BROADCOM BCM 5700 chipset
* iSCSI server : Eurologic eLANtra iCS2100 IP-SAN storage appliance \- v1.0 eurologic
3 SCSI drives

All the machines have a Redhat 7.3 based distribution, with kernel 2.4.19 or 2.4.20.
The following optimizations were made to improve the performance :

sysctl -w vm.min-readahead=127

sysctl -w vm.max-readahead=256

sysctl -w vm.bdflush =

’2 500 0 0 500 1000 60 20 0’

elvtune -r 512 -w 1024 /dev/hd{a,c,e,g,i,k}

### II.2 Benchmarks and monitor

Two benchmarks were used to measure the IO bandwidth and the CPU load on the machines :

* *bonnie++* : v 1.03 bonnie
This benchmark measures the performance of harddrives and filesystems. It aims at simulating a database like access pattern.
We are interested in two results : ’*sequential output block*’ and ’*sequential input block*’.
Bonnie++ uses a filesize of 9GBytes with a chunksize of 8KBytes. Bonnie++ reports the CPU load for each test. However, we found that the reported CPU load war incorrect. So we used a standard monitoring tool (vmstat) to measure the CPU Load during bonnie++ runs instead.
* *seqent\_random\_io64 :*
In this benchmark, we were interested in three results :

+ *’write’* performance : bandwidth measured for writing a file of 5 Gbytes, with a blocksize of 1.5 Mbytes.
    + *’sequential reading’* performance : bandwidth measured for sequential reading of a file of 5 Gbytes with a blocksize of 1.5 Mbytes.
    + *’random reading’* performance : bandwidth measured for random reads within a file of 5 Gbytes with a blocksize of 1.5 Mbytes.

This benchmark is a custom program used at CERN to evaluate the performance of disk servers. It simulates an access pattern used by CERN applications.

*vmstat* has been used to monitor the CPU load on each machine.

## III Performance of iSCSI, HyperSCSI and ENBD

### III.1 iSCSI performance for different software initiators

The server was the Eurologic iCS2100 IP-SAN storage appliance eurologic . The client was *test13*, with kernel 2.4.19smp.

Two software initiators were used to connect to the iSCSI server : ibmiscsi ibmiscsi  and linux-iscsi linux-iscsi . We used two versions of linux-iscsi : 2.1.2.9, implementing version 0.8 of the iscsi draft, and 3.1.0.6, implementing version 0.16 of the iscsi draft.

The results are given in the table below :

*Comments* :

* The maximum measured bandwidth of 60 MBytes/s corresponds to the maximum throughput that the disks in the server can deliver : there were only three SCSI drives in the server, each delivering a maximum throughput of around 20 Mbytes/s.
* In a storage infrastructure, the CPU load on the client should be taken into account. In order to increase the overall performance of the client, offloading engine cards were also considered. Unfortunately, no driver for our Linux platform was available at that time.
* During the performance measurements which represent several days of continuous disk access, no crashes of either the client or the server were observed.

### III.2 HyperSCSI and ENBD

The measurements were made using block client (*test11*) connected to either one or three block servers. The kernel used was 2.4.19.

The results are given in the table below :

*Comments :*

* Compared with local disk access, HyperSCSI is able to access the remote drive at its maximum throughput.
* HyperSCSI performs poorly if there are two or more connections to different servers. More generally, HyperSCSI lacks stability and works only on uniprocessor kernels 2.4.19.
* ENBD is able to handle several connections to different servers and integrates well within a software RAID array.

## IV Local performance tests using hardware and software solutions.

### IV.1 Software RAID performance

This series of benchmarks was done on *test11* with 6 harddrives, using kernel 2.4.20. The hardware used was only composed of IDE drives and IDE controllers. No hardware accelerator cards were used.

The results are given in the table below :

### IV.2 Software RAID and hardware RAID

This series of benchmarks were done on *test11* with 4 harddrives, using kernel 2.4.20.

The results are given in the table below :

*Comments :*

SoftwareRAID delivers more bandwidth than HardwareRAID, but at a higher CPU cost.

## V Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people from the IT/ADC group at CERN for helping me in this study and particularly Markus Schulz, Arie Van Praag, Remi Tordeux, Oscar Ponce Cruz, Jan Iven, Peter Kelemen and Emanuele Leonardi for their support, comments and ideas.

I would also like to thank Eurologic for their iSCSI storage appliance that was used during the evaluation of the iSCSI initiators.

I am currently part of the “Volontaire Internatinal” program, which is funded by the French Foreign Ministry.


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# Methods for Constraining Fine Structure Constant Evolution with OH Microwave Transitions

## Abstract

We investigate the constraints that OH microwave transitions in megamasers and molecular absorbers at cosmological distances may place on the evolution of the fine structure constant $`\alpha =e^2/\mathrm{}c`$. The centimeter OH transitions are a combination of hyperfine splitting and lambda-doubling that can constrain the cosmic evolution of $`\alpha `$ from a single species, avoiding systematic errors in $`\alpha `$ measurements from multiple species which may have relative velocity offsets. The most promising method compares the 18 and 6 cm OH lines, includes a calibration of systematic errors, and offers multiple determinations of $`\alpha `$ in a single object. Comparisons of OH lines to the HI 21 cm line and CO rotational transitions also show promise.

Introduction— Recent measurements of the fine structure constant $`\alpha =e^2/\mathrm{}c`$ claim a smaller value of $`\alpha `$ in the past of order $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}10^5`$ at $`z=1`$–2 (Murphy et al., 2001; Webb et al., 2001), but recent calculations of the Dirac hydrogen atom spectrum with a dynamic $`\alpha `$ reveal new sources of error in the “many-multiplet” analysis of quasar absorption lines (Bekenstein, 2003). The remaining undisputed measurements are consistent with no evolution in $`\alpha `$ (Murphy et al., 2001b; Carilli et al., 2000). Unification theories that require extra compact dimensions predict variations in the fundamental constants over cosmic time, including the fine structure constant (see (Murphy et al., 2001) for a review). New physics is being developed to account for the observed properties of the universe, such as the dark energy manifested in the cosmological constant, and these theories can be tested by high precision observations of the evolution of $`\alpha `$ over cosmic time. Murphy et al. (Murphy et al., 2001) have called on the community to produce independent measurements of the fine structure constant evolution to verify current results from quasar absorption lines. We present a method to exploit the hyperfine structure of the OH molecule to bypass the systematic pitfalls of other radio and sub-millimeter determinations of $`\alpha (z)`$.

Centimeter OH transitions can be observed at cosmological distances in absorption against strong radio continuum sources or in OH megamasers (OHMs) (Kanekar & Chengalur, 2002; Darling & Giovanelli, 2002b). OHMs are luminous natural masers found in the nuclei of major galaxy mergers (Darling & Giovanelli, 2002a). They are detectable at high redshift, and deep surveys at numerous radio telescope facilities are expected to identify many OHMs at medium and high redshifts (Briggs, 1998; Darling & Giovanelli, 2002b). OHMs are luminous, can be observed with high spectral resolution, and like OH absorbers can be narrow and spatially compact, marking with high precision a specific position and redshift which reduces potential systematic errors. The frequency shift in the main 18 cm OH lines due to a change in $`\alpha `$ is considerable: $`30`$ kHz for $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}=10^5`$. Resolution of such a shift is trivial for typical observations of OH lines; the main difficulty lies in identifying the true redshift of a given galaxy because all lines may be influenced by a changing fine structure constant. An ideal measure of $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}`$ would be obtained from ratios of lines that are spatially coincident with identical velocity structure. The multiple microwave transitions in the OH molecule may provide such an ideal diagnostic of the evolution of $`\alpha `$ provided that redshifts can be measured to at least one part in $`10^5`$.

The OH Molecule— Each rotation state of the OH molecule is split by lambda-type doubling — the interaction of electronic angular momentum with the molecular rotation — and each of these states is further split by hyperfine splitting (Gordy & Cook, 1970; Dousmanis, Sanders, & Townes, 1955). The net result is that each of the astronomically observed microwave transitions of OH is both a hyperfine transition and a transition between lambda-doubled levels. The two splittings depend differently on the fine structure constant $`\alpha `$. Hyperfine transition frequencies in OH depend on terms of order $`\mu _{}\mu _I/(I\mathrm{}a_{}^3)`$ where $`\mu _{}=e\mathrm{}/2m_ec`$ is the Bohr magneton, $`\mu _I`$ is the nuclear magnetic moment ($`\mu _I\mu _{}`$), $`I`$ is the nuclear spin, and $`a_{}=\mathrm{}^2/m_ee^2`$ is the Bohr radius (Dousmanis, Sanders, & Townes, 1955). Hyperfine transition frequencies in OH thus follow the same $`\alpha `$ dependence as the HI 21 cm transition: $`\nu _{HF}\alpha ^4`$.

The lambda doubling in OH depends on the molecular state. For the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}`$ state, which includes the OH ground state, the leading term in the lambda doubling energy is independent of $`\alpha `$: $`B^3/(AE_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Pi }})\alpha ^0`$ where $`B\alpha ^2`$ is the rotational constant, $`A\alpha ^4`$ is the spin-orbit coupling constant (also called the fine structure interaction constant), and $`E_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Pi }}\alpha ^2`$ is the energy between the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }`$ electronic states (van Vleck, 1929; Dousmanis, Sanders, & Townes, 1955; Gordy & Cook, 1970; Brown & Merer, 1979). The $`A`$, $`B`$, and $`E_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Pi }}`$ terms also depend on the fundamental constants $`m_e`$, $`c`$, and $`\mathrm{}`$. For the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}`$ state, the dominant term in the lambda doubling energy does depend on $`\alpha `$: $`AB/E_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Pi }}\alpha ^4`$ (van Vleck, 1929; Brown & Merer, 1979). Second order corrections modify the $`\alpha `$ dependence of $`A\alpha ^4`$ at the 10–$`25\%`$ level: $`\nu _{3/2}\alpha ^{0.4}`$ and $`\nu _{1/2}\alpha ^{5.0}`$. Higher order corrections modify the corrected exponent by $`5\%`$ (Mulliken & Christy, 1931; Destombes, Marliere, & Rohart, 1977; Brown & Merer, 1979), and these corrections are only valid for $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}1`$.

Hence, a generic $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}`$ OH microwave transition (ignoring pure hyperfine transitions) can be written in terms of the fine structure constant as $`\nu _{3/2}=\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}\pm (\mathrm{\Delta }^+\pm \mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ where the choices of sign are independent (there are 4 possible lines), $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ sets the frequency of the lambda doubled splitting, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ sets the strength of the hyperfine splitting for the $`\pm `$ parity lambda state. A generic $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}`$ state can likewise be expressed as $`\nu _{1/2}=\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^5\pm (\mathrm{\Delta }^+\pm \mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ where the constants have different numerical values from the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}`$ case. Comparison of pairs of microwave transitions can thus determine the value of $`\alpha `$ in cosmic OH masers; one line fixes the velocity of the source, and the other determines $`\alpha `$. The remarkable properties of the OH molecule provide a means to measure or constrain possible cosmic evolution of $`\alpha `$ from a single species with built-in checks on systematic errors. Previous measurements of $`\alpha `$ are susceptible to systematics such as velocity offsets between species which can mimic a changing $`\alpha `$ (Carilli et al., 2000; Murphy et al., 2001b). As illustrated in detail below, intercomparison of OH lines provides cases with no dependence on $`\alpha `$ which serve as benchmarks to quantify the systematics present in cases with a strong dependence on $`\alpha `$. This property of the OH microwave transitions may provide the highly constrained method required to investigate claims of a time-varying fine structure constant.

OH Ground State Transitions— The four 18 cm OH transitions in the ground $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=3/2`$ rotation state of OH are a combination of lambda type doubling and hyperfine splitting (Dousmanis, Sanders, & Townes, 1955) (Fig. 1). The dominant contribution comes from lambda doubling of order 1666 MHz, and each of these is doubled by hyperfine splitting of order 54 MHz. The hyperfine splitting is unequal between the upper and lower lambda doubled states by 2 MHz, so that four 18 cm lines are possible in the ground rotation state of OH rather than two degenerate lines (Destombes, Marliere, & Rohart, 1977; Destombes et al., 1977):

$`\nu _{1612}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}(\mathrm{\Delta }^++\mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ (1)
$`\nu _{1665}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}(\mathrm{\Delta }^+\mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ (2)
$`\nu _{1667}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}+(\mathrm{\Delta }^+\mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ (3)
$`\nu _{1720}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}+(\mathrm{\Delta }^++\mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ (4)
where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ sets the magnitude of the lambda doubling and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}`$ set the magnitude of the hyperfine splitting of the upper and lower lambda-doubled states, respectively (Fig. 1). For $`\alpha _{}=0.007297352533(27)`$ (1998 CODATA recommended value), $`\nu _{1665}=1665.40184(10)`$ MHz, and $`\nu _{1667}=1667.35903(10)`$ MHz (ter Meulen & Dymanus, 1972), we obtain $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=11926.36309(51)`$ MHz. For $`\nu _{1720}=1720.52998(10)`$ MHz, $`\mathrm{\Delta }^+=9.720353(25)\times 10^9`$ MHz, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^{}=9.375256(25)\times 10^9`$ MHz. These values for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^\pm `$ determine a frequency for the final line of $`\nu _{1612}=1612.23089(12)`$ MHz, which agrees with the measured value of 1612.23101(20) MHz (ter Meulen & Dymanus, 1972). From $`\alpha _{}`$ ($`\alpha `$ today) and the derived coefficients, we obtain the size of the lambda doubling and the hyperfine splitting: $`\nu _\mathrm{\Lambda }=\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha _{}^{0.4}=1666.38044(7)`$ MHz, $`2\mathrm{\Delta }^+\alpha _{}^4=55.12814(14)`$ MHz, and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }^{}\alpha _{}^4=53.17095(14)`$ MHz. Note that $`\nu _\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ has a value equal to the mean of the 1667 and 1665 MHz lines and the mean of the 1720 and 1612 MHz lines; this is the closure criterion for the ground rotation state of OH.

The main lines observed in OH megamasers are at 1665 and 1667 MHz, with the latter dominant. We can form two quantities from the observed frequencies of these lines which isolate powers of $`\alpha `$:

$`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ $``$ $`\nu _{1667}\nu _{1665}=2(\mathrm{\Delta }^+\mathrm{\Delta }^{})\alpha ^4`$ (5)
$`\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu `$ $``$ $`\nu _{1667}+\nu _{1665}=2\mathrm{\Lambda }\alpha ^{0.4}`$ (6)
such that the ratio $`Y=\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu =\alpha ^{3.6}(\mathrm{\Delta }^+\mathrm{\Delta }^{})/\mathrm{\Lambda }`$. In terms of the fractional change in this ratio at a redshift $`z`$ and the difference in redshift derived from the separation and average of the 1665 and 1667 MHz lines,

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }Y}{Y}\frac{Y_zY_{}}{Y_{}}=\frac{z_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}{1+z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}=\frac{\alpha ^{3.6}\alpha _{}^{3.6}}{\alpha _{}^{3.6}}3.6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}$$
(7)
where

$$\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _{}}{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _z}1+z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu },\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _{}}{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _z}1+z_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu },$$
(8)
$`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha =\alpha \alpha _{}`$, and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha |\alpha _{}`$. The difference between the measured redshifts of the difference and sum of the main OH lines is thus of the same order of magnitude as the fractional change in the fine structure constant. Note that the change in $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ expected for $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}=10^5`$ is of order 100 Hz, which is the accuracy to which the 18 cm OH line frequencies have been measured experimentally. Better determinations of the line frequencies are required. Note, however, that a $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ formed from the 1720 and 1612 MHz lines would have the same dependence on $`\alpha `$ but have substantially lower spectral resolution requirements than above (the change is of order 4 kHz, a factor of 55 larger). The OH satellite lines at 18 cm have been detected in only a few local starburst galaxies (Seaquist, Frayer, & Frail, 1997; Frayer, Seaquist, & Frail, 1998), so the prospects for detecting these lines at higher redshifts are poor. Detection of even a single satellite 18 cm line would provide a useful constraint on $`\alpha `$ (a factor of 27 better than is possible with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$).

The evolution in the fine structure constant can be obtained from comparisons of any two OH lines if they originate from the same physical region. The most likely lines are the main 18 cm OH lines at 1667 and 1665 MHz:

$$\frac{z_{1665}z_{1667}}{1+z_{1667}}1.8\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}\right)\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu \mathrm{\Delta }\nu }{\nu _{1667}\nu _{1665}}\right)_{}$$
(9)
The constant factor on the right hand side of Eqn. 9 refers to the rest frequencies of the OH lines and has a value of 0.00235. This is a poor method for constraining fine structure constant evolution because it requires extremely precise redshift measurements. The comparison of the 1667 and 1665 MHz lines combine like powers of $`\alpha `$, so the size of the effect reduces to the ratio between the difference in hyperfine splittings ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu 2`$ MHz) and the line frequency. More sensitive measurements should use ratios of lines with different dependence on $`\alpha `$ such as the 5 cm transitions of OH. Regions with 5 or 6 cm OH transitions are likely to be physically conterminous with 18 cm and CO transition regions (Henkel, Güsten, & Baan, 1987; Caswell, 2001), especially in absorption systems.

6 cm transitions ($`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}J=1/2`$)— The OH 6 cm transitions have been detected in absorption in five nearby OHMs, and the properties of the 18 cm and 6 cm lines appear to be correlated (Henkel, Güsten, & Baan, 1987). The three 6 cm $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}J=1/2`$ OH lines have frequencies 4660.242(3), 4750.656(3), and 4765.562(3) MHz (Radford, 1968). These can be expressed in a similar manner to the 18 cm transitions:

$`\nu _{4660}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_6\alpha ^5(\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+)\alpha ^4`$ (10)
$`\nu _{4751}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_6\alpha ^5+(\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+)\alpha ^4`$ (11)
$`\nu _{4766}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_6\alpha ^5+(\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+)\alpha ^4`$ (12)
Note that the “$`+`$” and “$``$” states in $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{1/2}^{}J=1/2`$ are reversed from the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=3/2`$ ground state; the 4751 MHz line is the analog to the 1667 MHz line (Destombes et al., 1977). From the laboratory values for the line frequencies, we obtain values for the 6 cm coefficients: $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_6=2.2775178(10)\times 10^{14}`$ MHz, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}=1.59421(7)\times 10^{10}`$ MHz, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+=2.6283(7)\times 10^9`$ MHz. Hence, the hyperfine splittings are quite unequal: $`2\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+\alpha _{}^4=14.906(4)`$ MHz, and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}\alpha _{}^4=90.414(4)`$ MHz. LTE ratios of the 4660, 4751, and 4766 MHz lines are 1:2:1 (Pickett et al., 1998). Observations of the nearest OHMs find that the absorption in these lines deviates somewhat from LTE, but the 4751 MHz line still tends to dominate (Henkel, Güsten, & Baan, 1987).

Since the 6 cm lines are of nearly equal strength, it is likely that if any are detected, there will be at least two detectable lines (Henkel, Güsten, & Baan, 1987). Comparison of well-separated pairs of 6 cm lines produces $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}`$ “gain” factors of order $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _6/\nu 0.02`$ where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _6`$ is the line separation. Comparing the dominant lines at 18 and 6 cm we obtain

$$\frac{z_{4751}z_{1667}}{1+z_{1667}}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}\left(1.8\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }{\nu _{1667}}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _6}{\nu _{4751}}\right)_{}$$
(13)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _6=2\mathrm{\Lambda }_6\alpha _{}^5`$ and the constant term is 4.59. This is a dramatic improvement over the 1665 to 1667 MHz line comparison (by a factor of nearly 2000), and for $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha _{}=10^5`$, the resolution required for OH lines is 10’s of kHz which is easily achieved. Equation 13 applies to the comparison of any 18 cm line to any 6 cm line, offering the possibility for multiple measurements of $`\alpha `$ from a single system. One can also obtain an accurate $`\alpha `$-independent zero point by comparing $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu `$ to $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _6=2(\mathrm{\Delta }_6^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_6^+)\alpha ^4`$ to reveal any velocity offsets between 18 cm and 6 cm OH regions:

$$\frac{z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu _6}z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}{1+z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}=0$$
(14)
Hence, comparison of 18 and 6 cm OH lines offers a sensitive method for detecting changes in $`\alpha `$ that includes redundant checks on statistical and systematic errors.

5 cm transitions ($`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=5/2`$) — Absorption in a 5 cm OH line has been detected in just one OHM, Arp 220 (Henkel, Batrla, & Güsten, 1986). The 5 cm OH lines have frequencies 6016.746(5), 6030.7485(2), 6035.0932(2), and 6049.084(8) MHz (Radford, 1968; Meerts & Dymanus, 1975; Pickett et al., 1998). These can be expressed in a similar manner to the 18 cm transitions:

$`\nu _{6017}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_5\alpha ^{0.4}(\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+)\alpha ^4`$ (15)
$`\nu _{6031}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_5\alpha ^{0.4}(\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+)\alpha ^4`$ (16)
$`\nu _{6035}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_5\alpha ^{0.4}+(\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+)\alpha ^4`$ (17)
$`\nu _{6049}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_5\alpha ^{0.4}+(\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}+\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+)\alpha ^4`$ (18)
Note that the “$`+`$” and “$``$” states in $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=5/2`$ are reversed from the $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=3/2`$ ground state; the 6035 MHz line is the analog to the 1667 MHz line (Destombes et al., 1977). From the laboratory values for the first three line frequencies, we obtain values for the 5 cm coefficients: $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_5=43177.898(1)`$ MHz, $`\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}=3.2350(9)\times 10^9`$ MHz, and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+=2.4690(9)\times 10^9`$ MHz. From these, we predict $`\nu _{6049}=6049.096(4)`$ MHz, which is in fair agreement with the measured value. The hyperfine splittings in this case are only slightly unequal: $`2\mathrm{\Delta }_5^+\alpha _{}^4=14.0025(50)`$ MHz, and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }_5^{}\alpha _{}^4=18.3472(50)`$ MHz. LTE ratios of the 6017, 6031, 6035, and 6049 MHz lines are 1:14:20:1 (Pickett et al., 1998).

Comparing the dominant lines at 18 and 5 cm we obtain

$$\frac{z_{6035}z_{1667}}{1+z_{1667}}1.8\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }{\nu _{1667}}+\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _5}{\nu _{6035}}\right)_{}$$
(19)
where $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu _5=2\mathrm{\Lambda }_5\alpha ^{0.4}`$. The constant term is 0.00045, which is smaller than the 1665 to 1667 MHz line comparison by a factor of 5. Comparing any 18 cm line to any 5 cm line gives the same order of magnitude $`\alpha `$ “gain” factor, to within a factor of 2. The difference in the hyperfine splitting between the lambda-doubled levels of $`{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Pi }_{3/2}^{}J=5/2`$ is so small that it provides poor leverage on $`\alpha `$ and requires extremely accurate redshift determinations. The hyperfine splitting of these levels is small overall, so detection of the satellite 5 cm lines would be of limited use (and unlikely).

OH vs HI— The 21 cm hyperfine transition of HI is proportional to $`\mu _p\mu _{}/(\mathrm{}a_{}^3)`$ where $`\mu _p=g_pe\mathrm{}/(4m_pc)`$ and $`g_p`$ is the proton $`g`$-factor (Murphy et al., 2001b). In terms of $`\alpha `$, the 21 cm line frequency is proportional to $`\alpha ^4(g_pm_e^2/m_p)`$ modulo factors of $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$. The ratios of the 1667 or 1665 MHz lines or their sum to the 21 cm line can thus provide a measurement of $`\alpha `$:

$$\frac{z_{HI}z_{1667}}{1+z_{1667}}1.8\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }{\nu _{1667}}\right)_{}3.6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}$$
(20)
Comparison of the 1665 MHz line or $`\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu `$ to HI produces the same relationship. For $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha /\alpha _{}=10^5`$, redshifts must be determined to about 4 parts in $`10^5`$. This method does not require detection of the 1665 MHz line, but if it is detected, it provides a second determination of $`\alpha `$. This is a promising avenue to measure $`\alpha (z)`$, with a check of systematics provided by the $`\alpha `$-independent ratio $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\nu _{HI}`$:

$$\frac{z_{HI}z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}{1+z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}=0$$
(21)
The $`\mathrm{\Delta }\nu /\nu _{HI}`$ ratio can provide an anchor for the method and indicate the influence of physical and/or velocity offsets between OH and HI, whereas the $`\nu _{1667}/\nu _{HI}`$ ratio provides the maximum detectability of a change in $`\alpha `$.

OH vs CO— The rotational transitions of CO (and other diatomic molecules with balanced electronic angular momentum) have frequencies proportional to $`\mathrm{}/(Ma_{}^2)`$ where $`M`$ is the reduced mass (Gordy & Cook, 1970). In terms of $`\alpha `$, the rotational transitions of CO are proportional to $`\alpha ^2m_e^2/M`$ modulo factors of $`\mathrm{}`$ and $`c`$. The ratio of the 1667 or 1665 MHz line to a CO rotational transition can thus provide a measurement of $`\alpha `$:

$$\frac{z_{CO}z_{1667}}{1+z_{1667}}1.6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}\left(\frac{\nu _{1665}}{\nu _{1667}}\right)_{}$$
(22)
For the 1665 MHz line, the constant term is inverted and differs from unity by about 0.1$`\%`$. For $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}=10^5`$, redshifts must be determined to about 2 parts in $`10^5`$. While comparisons of CO to OH transitions do not offer any $`\alpha `$-independent line ratios, the sum and difference of 18 cm OH lines do offer some leverage on systematic errors:

$$\frac{z_{CO}z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}{1+z_{\mathrm{\Delta }\nu }}2\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}};\frac{z_{CO}z_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }}{1+z_{\mathrm{\Sigma }\nu }}1.6\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha }{\alpha _{}}$$
(23)
Conclusions— The remarkable properties of the microwave transitions in the OH molecule provide a robust method to measure deviations in $`\alpha `$ over cosmic time from a single species. This approach eliminates the largest systematic errors present in other determinations of $`\alpha `$ and provides estimates of the remaining statistical and systematic errors. The most promising method for measuring $`\alpha `$ is the comparison of 18 and 6 cm OH lines. This method includes $`\alpha `$-independent line ratios which can identify the true size of statistical and systematic errors. Also promising are comparisons of OH lines to the HI 21 cm line and CO and other molecular rotation transitions, but only HI provides checks on systematics.

Deep surveys for OH megamasers (and OH gigamasers) are underway from the local universe to $`z4`$ and a subset of the new discoveries will have spectra appropriate for measurements of $`\alpha `$. Several OH absorption systems have already been identified out to $`z=0.9`$ (Kanekar & Chengalur, 2002) and more will be found in the near future. In the meantime, more precise laboratory measurements of the microwave transitions in OH would eliminate some of the uncertainty in the proposed techniques.

The author thanks the anonymous referees for insightful and thoughtful comments which significantly improved the content of this presentation. It is a pleasure to thank John Brown for critical discussions and John Grula for library assistance.


text: # 1 Program Star Parameters & Abundances


text:
# A fourth component in the young multiple system V 773 Tau Based on observations collected at the German-Spanish Astronomical Center on Calar Alto, Spain

## 1 Introduction

High angular resolution surveys for companions to T Tauri stars in nearby star forming regions (SFRs) and young clusters (cf. Mathieu et al. mat00 (2000) for a review) have revealed that they show a companion frequency at least as high as among G and K dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood (50 - 60 %, e. g. Duquennoy & Mayor duq91 (1991)). This means that multiplicity must be established already at a very early phase of stellar evolution, and that binary formation is not an exception but perhaps the dominant mode of star formation. The probably most surprising outcome of these binary surveys is that one of the nearest SFRs, the Taurus-Auriga association, shows a significant binary overabundance compared with main-sequence dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood and also most other samples of young stars (Köhler & Leinert koe98 (1998), and references therein). If the distribution of orbital periods in Taurus-Auriga is the same as for main sequence binaries, almost all young stars in this SFR will be members of binary or multiple systems.

Although all known pre-main sequence stars in Taurus-Auriga have been targets of systematic binary surveys, some companions were apparently overlooked. Almost all of them are components of triple or higher order multiple systems (Duchêne duc99 (1999), Richichi et al. ric99 (1999)). In this paper I report on a previously unknown third companion to V~773~Tau.

V~773~Tau is one of the optically brightest members of the Taurus-Auriga association, and is also a strong radio source. The latter property allowed a precise determination of its distance, which is $`148\pm 5\mathrm{pc}`$, using VLBI astrometry (Lestrade et al. les99 (1999)). V~773~Tau is classified as a weak-lined T Tauri star regarding its H$`\alpha `$ equivalent width of 4 Å (Herbig & Bell hbc88 (1988)).

Leinert et al. (lei93 (1993)) and Ghez et al. (ghez93 (1993)) have detected a visual companion to V~773~Tau with a projected separation of $`0\stackrel{}{.}15`$ using speckle interferometry in the K-band. Since this companion, hereafter named V~773~Tau B, was close to its periastron at the time of detection, Tamazian et al. (tam02 (2002)) could derive a first orbital solution based on 9 data points that cover $`\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}160}^{}`$ in position angle, indicating a dynamical system mass of $`3.20\pm 0.71M_{}`$. Welty (wel95 (1995)) has shown that the main component, V 773 Tau A, is itself a spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 51 days. Duchêne et al. (duc01 (2001)) have briefly announced the possible presence of a fourth close component in the V~773~Tau system. In this paper astrometric and photometric properties of this object are given, and its physical membership to V~773~Tau is confirmed from its orbital motion.

## 2 Observations and data analysis

V~773~Tau has been observed with the near-infrared camera Omega Cass at the 3.5 m-telescope on Calar Alto in February 2001, November 2001 and October 2002. All observations were carried out in the K-band at $`\lambda =2.2\mu `$m. Omega Cass is in its subarray mode capable of taking fast sequences of short exposures with integration times $`\tau 0.1\mathrm{s}`$. This allows the application of speckle interferometry as a high angular resolution technique that yields information about object structures down to the diffraction limit that is $`\lambda /D0\stackrel{}{.}13`$ for the given instrumentation. If it is known from previous observations that the object is a binary, then its parameters can be reliably determined even down to a projected separation of $`\lambda /(2D)`$. In each observing run at least 1500 short exposures were taken for V 773 Tau as well as for the nearby single star SAO~76511 that is used as PSF calibrator. These exposures are stored as “data cubes” of 250 frames. After each data cube the telescope position is switched between the object and the PSF calibrator. This ensures that both are observed at nearly the same airmass and seeing conditions. The mean power spectrum of one data cube for the object is deconvolved with that for the reference star. The phase is reconstructed using the algorithm by Knox & Thompson (kt74 (1974)) and the bispectrum method (Lohmann et al. loh83 (1983)). Finally, modulus and phase of the complex visibility are averaged over all data cubes. These mean complex visibilities, derived from all observations of V 773 Tau within one night, are used to determine the parameters of the visual companions, i. e. their position angles, projected separations and flux ratios with respect to the primary. For this purpose artificial complex visibilities are constructed from sets of triple star models and fit to the data. 111A more detailed description of the data reduction and analysis process can be found in Köhler et al. (koe00 (2000)). As an example data, model and the residuals of the fit are shown for the observation at 19 Oct 2002 in Fig. 1. The stripe patterns (from upper right to lower left in the images) are the typical sign of a stellar companion in Fourier space. Note also the shading at the right and left hand sides of the images. This is caused by the presence of V~773~Tau B that is resolved although its projected separation with respect to V~773~Tau A is only 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$115.

The pixel scale is $`0\stackrel{}{.}095/\mathrm{pixel}`$ for Omega Cass and was, as well as the detector orientation, empirically determined for the individual observations using astrometric fits to images of the Orion Trapezium cluster core where precise astrometry has been given by McCaughrean & Stauffer (mcc94 (1994)).

In analyzing the data one has to consider that the Nyquist frequency, defined as half the sampling frequency

$$f_N=f_s/2=\frac{1}{20\stackrel{}{.}095}=5.3\mathrm{arcsec}^1$$
(1)
is less than the cutoff frequency

$$f_c=\frac{D}{\lambda }=\frac{1}{0\stackrel{}{.}13}=7.7\mathrm{arcsec}^1$$
(2)
for the instrument and telescope configuration used. This may cause aliasing effects for spatial frequencies larger than

$$f_sf_c=2.9\mathrm{arcsec}^1.$$
(3)
In Fig. 1 this corresponds to a radius of R = 35 pixel around the images centres, while the whole data range used for the fit is up to R = 64 pixel, i. e. the Nyquist spatial frequency. This has probably not a large influence on the general picture. V 773 Tau C will be resolved already at $`f35\mathrm{pixel}`$, and the relative position of V 773 Tau B matches well the orbital fit by Tamazian et al. (tam02 (2002)) and thus seems reliable. For spatial frequencies $`f>35\mathrm{pixel}`$ the signal is however affected by an unknown bias. Therefore any results about flux ratios and photometry for very close companions like V 773 Tau B and C are highly uncertain for Omega Cass data.

After detecting the new companion in the Omega Cass data, I have re-analysed near infrared speckle interferometric data of V~773~Tau obtained with the MAGIC camera also at the 3.5 m-telescope on Calar Alto in September 1996. The pixel scale of this camera is $`0\stackrel{}{.}07/\mathrm{pixel}`$, corresponding to a Nyquist frequency of $`7.1\mathrm{arcsec}^1`$. This means that the mentioned aliasing problem does barely exist here, and the derived binary parameters are thus almost unbiased by this effect. Evidence for the presence of V~773~Tau C could indeed be found. At the time of this observation the brighter companion V~773~Tau B had a projected separation of less than 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$05 from the primary (Tamazian et al. tam02 (2002)). The pair V 773 Tau AB thus appears as a point source even in a diffraction limited image, and the contribution of V 773 Tau B to the complex visibility is approximately constant for all power spectrum frequencies. The flux ratio has therefore to be read as $`F_C/F_{A+B}=0.06\pm 0.01`$ for this observation. This is at the edge of the dynamical range accessible with speckle methods, but as only a double star model has to be used here, the parameters of V 773 Tau C can be determined from these data with sufficient accuracy.

To test the reliability of the fits I have calculated the $`\chi ^2`$, defined here as

$$\chi ^2=\frac{1}{n1}\underset{k=1}{\overset{n}{}}\frac{(x_{data}(k)x_{model}(k))^2}{\sigma ^2(k)},$$
(4)
where the sum is over all pixels used for the fit. $`x`$ and $`\sigma `$ are the values of modulus or phase and, respectively, the standard deviations for individual pixels resulting from averaging over all data cubes. While this $`\chi ^2`$ is a reasonable indicator for the quality of the fit, its mathematical interpretation should be taken with care. The number of degrees of freedom is probably not $`n1`$ because the pixels are correlated over a distance (in frequency space) that is defined by the reciprocal seeing width. This means that the $`\chi ^2`$ values have to be multiplied with a factor that can be estimated as

$$C=\frac{FOW}{(FWHM_{seeing})^2}.$$
(5)
The field of view (FOV) is $`8\stackrel{}{.}96^2`$ for MAGIC and $`12\stackrel{}{.}16^2`$ for the subarray of Omega Cass. In Table 1 an overview of all observations of V 773 Tau C is presented, and the corrected and uncorrected $`\chi ^2`$ values are given. The latter ones indicate that for all observations the error of the fit is on average smaller than the 1$`\sigma `$ uncertainty of the data.

Relative astrometry and photometry is also given for V~773~Tau B for the last three observations. A complete list of all binary parameter measurements of this latter companion since 1990 can be found in Tamazian et al. (tam02 (2002), Table 1 therein).

## 3 Discussion

### 3.1 Reliability of the detection

Since the projected separations of V 773 Tau B measured in and after February 2001 are in the order of both the diffraction limit and the pixel scale, one may doubt that V~773~Tau really is a visual triple star. If this were the case, the “new” companion would just be V~773~Tau B that has appeared on the opposite side of the primary after passing its periastron. There are several arguments against this idea: The signature of V~773~Tau B is seen in Fig. 1 at a position different from V~773~Tau C, and assuming that V~773~Tau is a visual triple star significantly improves the model fit mentioned in Sect. 2. For the data from October 2002 presented in Fig. 1, a fit only with a double star model (i. e. without V 773 B) yields a (corrected) $`\chi ^2=4.85`$ for the modulus and $`\chi ^2=112.0`$ for the phase. In particular for the modulus this is about ten times larger than the value given in Table 1. The triple star solution has been reproduced in three data sets obtained at different epochs. Furthermore, the data points obtained for V~773~Tau B until 1994 and for the new companion after 1996 cannot be explained by orbital motion of one object since such a companion would have passed through its periastron much too fast.

Another question is if V~773~Tau C really is a gravitationally bound stellar companion. To check this, one has to prove if its relative motion with respect to the primary is orbital motion. A method for this has been discussed in detail in a previous paper (Woitas et al. woi01 (2001)). Briefly, from a linear fit to the four position measurements of V~773~Tau C from 1996 to 2002, I derive a tangential velocity of $`v_t=8.7\pm 2.6\mathrm{km}/\mathrm{s}`$. This means that the relative motion is significant on the 3$`\sigma `$ level and that modulus and direction of this motion are very well explainable with orbital motion. A background star projected by chance close to V~773~Tau A would move in a direction antiparallel to the proper motion of V~773~Tau ($`\mu _\alpha `$ = 0.65 mas/yr, $`\mu _\delta `$ = -24.89 mas/yr from the Hipparcos catalogue). This translates into a relative motion of a projected companion of 17.5 km/s in northern direction which is inconsistent with the data. Furthermore, one can estimate from the low stellar density in Taurus-Auriga that the probability to find a chance-projected object brighter than K = 12 mag within a radius of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 around an association member is only $`1.110^5`$ (Leinert et al. lei93 (1993)). Although I cannot give absolute K-band photometry for V~773~Tau C, it is certainly brighter than K = 12 mag, given the mean system magnitude $`K=6.45\pm 0.09\mathrm{mag}`$ (Kenyon & Hartmann ken95 (1995)) and the flux ratios from Table 1. Any random projections are thus very unlikely. As result of this discussion I conclude that there are really two visual companions in the V~773~Tau system, which makes this system a quadruple, in combination with the close spectroscopic companion to V~773~Tau A detected by Welty (wel95 (1995)). The fact that V 773 Tau C has not been detected in previous observations might be the outcome of a long term variability of its brightness. As discussed in Sect. 2 the flux ratios $`F_B/F_A`$ and $`F_C/F_A`$ derived from Omega Cass data are affected with a bias resulting from aliasing at higher spatial frequencies and have therefore to be taken with caution. The value $`F_C/F_{A+B}=0.06`$ obtained with MAGIC in 1996 is however not affected with this bias. If one assumes $`F_B/F_A0.5`$, which seems justified looking at Table 1 and also at the (unbiased) value of $`F_B/F_A=0.13\pm 0.04`$ given by Leinert et al. (lei93 (1993)), one ends up with $`F_C/F_A0.09`$ for this observation. On the other hand, the value for the observation in Oct 2002 is indeed around $`F_C/F_A0.2`$. This can be proven by lowering the fit radius to $`f=35\mathrm{pixel}`$ where the bias disappears. Since V 773 Tau is a weak-lined T Tauri star with no signs of active circumstellar accretion, variable extinction might explain this unexpected strong variability.

### 3.2 The V 773 Tauri “mini-cluster”

The real (i. e. de-projected) separation between V~773~Tau C and V~773~Tau A cannot be determined from my data. The presence of measurable orbital motion however indicates that this separation is much less than 100 AU. For this semimajor axis the annual orbital motion would be $`0.6^{}/\mathrm{yr}`$ in position angle for the idealized situation of a circular orbit viewed pole-on and a system mass of $`3M_{}`$. The latter is similar to the dynamical system mass derived for V 773 Tau AB by Tamazian et al. (tam02 (2002)). The observed orbital motion is much faster, so 100 AU is a conservative upper limit for the separation between V~773~Tau A and C. The semimajor axis of component V~773~Tau B is $`a_{AB}37\mathrm{AU}`$ (Tamazian et al. tam02 (2002)). This means that together with the spectroscopic binary V~773~Tau A, the whole system consists of four stars within a sphere with a radius that is less than 100 AU. To my knowledge, no other similar “mini-cluster” of T Tauri stars is known at this time. The other young quadruple systems in Taurus-Auriga (GG~Tau, UZ~Tau, UX~Tau and BD+26 718B) consist of components separated by several arcseconds. The very small size of the V~773~Tau system strongly indicates that all components have formed from the same molecular cloud core and thus must be coeval to a high degree. This makes them well suited for an empirical test of theoretical isochrones like in the study that White et al. (whi99 (1999)) have done for the young quadruple system GG~Tau.

The semimajor axes of V~773~Tau AB and AC have probably the same order of magnitude, which means that V~773~Tau ABC is not a hierarchical triple system. This poses the question if the whole system is dynamically stable. This is probably the case. Although age determinations from pre-main sequence evolutionary models are highly uncertain, one can fairly assume that V~773~Tau is at least some $`10^5\mathrm{yr}`$ old since it is a Class III source with no signs of infalling envelopes or strong circumstellar accretion. This age is much larger than the orbital periods of the companions (125 yr for V 773 Tau AB, Tamazian et al. tam02 (2002)), so if there were dynamical instabilities they would have already destroyed the system. It remains however unclear why this is not the case. Another striking property of the V 773 Tau system seen in Fig. 2 is that both visual companions apparently move in different directions on the sky. This means that they either do not orbit in the same direction or have quite different orbital inclinations. For a better understanding of this situation additional observations will be needed to include V~773~Tau C into the orbit calculation for V~773~Tau AB by Tamazian et al. (tam02 (2002)) and then derive the orbital parameters of the whole triple system.

The detection of only one additional companion has of course no significant impact on binary statistics. The finding of an additional component in a very well studied young multiple system like V~773~Tau however indicates that there may be even more companion stars in Taurus-Auriga and that higher order multiple systems may be more common among pre-main sequence stars than was previously thought. The known binary stars in Taurus-Auriga and other SFRs are for this reason interesting targets for next-generation high angular resolution instruments that will be able to close the detection gap between spectroscopic and visual companions.

###### Acknowledgements.

I acknowledge a thoughtful and constructive report from the anonymous referee that led to a significant improvement of this paper. J.W. is supported from the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt under grant number 50 OR 0009. The observations on Calar Alto were supported by travel money from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant numbers Wo 834 / 1-1, Wo 834 / 2-1 and Wo 834 / 4-1). The data reduction has been performed using the “Binary/Speckle” package developed by Rainer Köhler. I am also grateful to the night assistants and the technical staff on Calar Alto for their support during my observing runs.


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# On “Sexual contacts and epidemic thresholds,” models and inference for Sexual partnership distributions

(27 May 2003
Working Paper #31
Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences
University of Washington
Box 354322
Seattle, WA 98195-4322, USA)

## Abstract

Recent work has focused attention on statistical inference for the population distribution of the number of sexual partners based on survey data.

The characteristics of these distributions are of interest as components of mathematical models for the transmission dynamics of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). Such information can be used both to calibrate theoretical models, to make predictions for real populations, and as a tool for guiding public health policy.

Our previous work on this subject has developed likelihood-based statistical methods for inference that allow for low-dimensional, semi-parametric models. Inference has been based on several proposed stochastic process models for the formation of sexual partnership networks. We have also developed model selection criteria to choose between competing models, and assessed the fit of different models to three populations: Uganda, Sweden, and the USA. Throughout this work, we have emphasized the correct assessment of the uncertainty of the estimates based on the data analyzed. We have also widened the question of interest to the limitations of inferences from such data, and the utility of degree-based epidemiological models more generally.

In this paper we address further statistical issues that are important in this area, and a number of confusions that have arisen in interpreting our work. In particular, we consider the use of cumulative lifetime partner distributions, heaping and other issues raised by Liljeros et al. in a recent working paper.

For the full paper in PDF click on http://www.csss.washington.edu/Papers/wp31.pdf