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# Jet physics at hadron colliders

## 1 Introduction

Over the last decade detailed theoretical description of jet physics at high energy colliders has been established at the next-to-leading order (NLO) accuracy . The theoretical predictions have been successfully compared with the experimental data in the case of three jet production in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation, one or two jet production in photo-production, deep inelastic scattering at HERA, and one or two jet production at proton-antiproton collisions at Tevatron .

Jets are footprints of quarks and gluons produced at short distances. They are defined as some collections of final state hadrons such that the relative angular distances between the hadrons in momentum space are small. Important cancellation theorems valid in all orders of perturbation theory suggest that infrared safe global jet observables can quantitatively be described in terms the weak perturbative dynamics of the point like partons of QCD. A jet observable is infrared safe if it does not change by adding or removing a soft particle from the jet or by splitting an ultra relativistic particle into two collinear particles within the jet.

The data with highest jet energy at Tevatron could give us the most stringent test of the QCD dynamics at short distances and allow for an efficient search for effects of deviations from the Standard Model predictions . The data of CDF and D0 collaborations at Tevatron have about the same ($`<20\%`$) or better statistical accuracy as the theoretical predictions. At the highest jet energies, the uncertainties in the jet energy calibration and the errors of the fitted values of parton number densities, however, lead up to systematic errors of $`50\%`$.

In the case of three jet production in $`e^+e^{}`$, the experimental systematic errors are smaller and the theoretical uncertainties are considerably larger than the current experimental errors . Therefore the theorists have strong motivations to further improve the accuracy of their predicitons.

Recently, we could witness important theoretical progress in four areas of jet physics. First, the NLO calculations could be extended to 5-leg processes (four jet production in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation , three jet production in hadron-hadron collisions  etc.). Secondly, remarkable progress has been made towards the ambitious goal of calculating jet cross sections of 4-leg processes in next-to-next-to leading order (NNLO) accuracy . In particular, the NNLO virtual corrections could be calculated analytically for four leg amplitudes. Thirdly, the NLO calculations could be improved in the threshold region by resumming the large logarithmic contributions to all order . Finally new techniques have been developed to calculate many jet processes in leading order. Below I discuss difficulties related to jet definitions, I briefly review the general theoretical framework of the NLO calculations, I describe in some detail the new NLO results obtained for 5-leg processes, finally I summarize the main results on NNLO corrections.

## 2 Jet definition algorithms

Jet definitions are based on a selection and a recombination algorithm. The selection algorithm selects the group of particles which form the jet and the recombination algorithm specifies how to construct the kinematicl variables of the jet in terms of the momenta of the selected hadrons.

The jet algorithms used in the data analysis are more complicated than the simple theoretical definitions in terms of one, two or three partons. Some ’auxiliary’ features like the phenomena of merging and splitting, or the use of seeds are not always completely specified. These issues may influence the infrared sensitivity and the size of the hadronic fragmention corrections. In a careful analysis one has to require that i) the jet selection process, the jet kinematic variables, preclustering, merging, splitting, the role of the underlying evens are fully specified; ii) The fully specifed algorithm should be infrared safe, independent from the detector properties and the algorithms should be simple to use; iii) The algorithm has to be defined in the same way at parton, hadron and detector level (for a recent detailed discussion for hadron colliders see ).

Although the algorithms have a large amount of arbitrariness they should fulfil a number of important theoretical requirements, such as insensitivity to soft radiation and to collinear splitting, or invariance under boost in the case of hadron colliders etc.. In the latter case the use of transverse momentum and rapidities as kinematic variables is preferred. Another constraint is suggested by the study of resummation corrections. Resummations can only be carried out if the boundaries of the inclusive jet kinematic variables are defined independently from the number of final state particles . This prefers Lorenz covariant recombination schemes (such as the E-scheme). Finally, the algorithm should be as simple as possible. At hadron colliders we do not have one best algorithm. The cone algorithm is broadly used while the $`k_T`$ algorithm is preferred more by the theorists.

### 2.1 Cone jet algorithm for hadron-hadron collisions

The cylindrical shape of the detectors and boost invariance suggest that the kinematics has to be described in terms rapidities and azimuthal angles . In the 2-dimensional $`\eta \times \varphi `$ lego-plot the hadrons or partons constituting the jets lie within a cone of radius R. The trial cone in the lego plot is given by its radius and the value of its center $`(\eta ^\mathrm{C},\varphi ^\mathrm{C})`$. The cone is adjusted in such a way that the geometric center of the cone agrees with the $`E_T`$-weighted recombined values of the particles within the cone. All particles within the trial cone fulfil

$$\sqrt{(\eta ^\mathrm{C}\eta _i)^2+(\varphi ^\mathrm{C}\varphi _i^2)}R.$$
(1)
A stable cone (protojet) is obtained if the “ physical” center of the cone defined by the recombination algorithm

$$\eta _\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{R}=\frac{_i\eta _\mathrm{T}^iE_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{i}}{E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{R}},\varphi _\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{R}=\frac{_i\varphi _\mathrm{T}^iE_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{i}}{E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{R}},E_\mathrm{T}^\mathrm{R}=\underset{i}{}E_\mathrm{T}^i$$
(2)
coincides with its geometrical center $`(\eta ^\mathrm{C},\varphi ^\mathrm{C})=(\eta ^\mathrm{R},\varphi ^\mathrm{R})`$. In this case it is natural to identify the jet variables with the recombined values of the stable cone $`(E_T^J,\eta ^\mathrm{J},\varphi ^\mathrm{J})=(E_T^\mathrm{R},\eta ^\mathrm{R},\varphi ^\mathrm{R})`$. After identification of the jet as group of particles within the stable cone one can construct the jet kinematical variables with using some recombination scheme, for example

$`E_{x,y,z}^J={\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}E_{x,y,z}^i`$ (3)
$`\theta ^J=\mathrm{arctan}{\displaystyle \frac{E_T^J}{E_z^J}},\varphi ^J=\mathrm{arctan}{\displaystyle \frac{E_x^J}{E_y^J}},`$ (4)
$`\eta ^J=\mathrm{ln}\left(\mathrm{tan}{\displaystyle \frac{\eta ^J}{2}}\right),E_T^J=E^J\mathrm{sin}\theta ^J`$ (5)
Different recombination algorithms give aproximately the same kinematical values if $`M^J<<E_T^J`$. The boost invariant recombination scheme, however, is a better estimator of the jet variables. I have noted above that boost invariant variables are not suitable for resummation studies since the kinematic boundary of the $`E_T^J`$ depends on the number of partons. Resummation is consistent with e.g. the E-scheme which recombines the jet four momenta as $`p_\mu ^J=_ip_\mu ^i`$.

If the number of the final states particles are large the method of moving the trial cone gives a slow algorithm. One can speed it up with starting the cone iteration at the center of seed towers which passed a minimum cut-off. But the seeded algorith may have problems with sensitivity to the emission of soft gluons. The algorithm allows for jet overlaps, therefore, one should also specify the details of jet merging and jet splitting. This allows for many ad hoc options and it is difficult to ensure that the definition of jets are the same at the detector and the parton levels. In a quantitative analysis all these details should be treated with great care.

### 2.2 $`k_T`$ algorithms

The $`k_T`$ algorithm was designed to avoid jet overlaps and problems with kinematical boundaries in the case of resummation . I summarize the version of $`k_T`$ algorithm suggested by Ellis and Soper. The algorithm starts with the initial list of particles and an empty list of jets. Performing the algorithm we get an empty list of particles and the list of jets, each separated by $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{ij}^2`$. This regrouping of particles into jets goes iteratively through five steps.

* Every particle (pseudoparticle) $`i`$ and every particle pair $`(i,j)`$ in the particle list is associated with a $`d`$value

$$d_i=p_{i,T}^2d_{ij}=\mathrm{min}(p_{i,T}^2,p_{j,T}^2)\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }R_{ij}^2}{D^2}$$
(6)
where $`D`$ is a free parameter (the usual choice for its value is $`D=1`$) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{ij}^2`$ is the square of the distance between the particles in the lego-plot $`\mathrm{\Delta }R_{ij}^2=(\eta _i\eta _j)^2+(\varphi _i\varphi _j)^2`$.
* Find $`d_{\mathrm{min}}=\mathrm{min}(d_i,d_{ij})`$.
* If $`d_{\mathrm{min}}=d_{ij}`$ replace the particle pair $`(i,j)`$ with a pseudoparticle. Its momentum $`p_{ij}`$ is calculated via the rules of the recombination scheme. For example using the $`E`$-scheme $`p_{ij}=p_i+p_j`$.
* If $`d_{\mathrm{min}}=d_i`$ remove particle (pseudoparticle) $`i`$ from the list of particles and add it to the list of jets.
* If at this step the particle (pseudoparticle) list ist not empty got to step i).

In the experimental analysis the $`k_T`$ algorithm has to combined with some preclustering procedure in order to keep the jet analysis computionally feasible and to diminish the detector dependence of the alghorithm. The $`k_T`$ algorithm has the tendency to reconstruct more energy from calorimeter noise, pile-up and underlying event and multi $`p\overline{p}`$ interactions than a cone algorithm . The jet momentum resolution appears, however, to be the same for $`k_T`$ jets and cone jets. Therefore, it appears that the use of $`k_T`$ jets has clear overall advantages.

## 3 NLO cross sections

### 3.1 Formalism

The lowest order cross-sections strongly depend on the unphysical renormalization and factorization scales. Higher order cross sections reduce this sensitivity with a factor of $`𝒪(\alpha _S)`$. The calculation of the NLO corrections is technically involved since the virtual and gluon bremsstrahlung contributions are separately divergent ( soft and collinear singularities). Fortunately, the divergent pieces are universal in the sense that they are given by the Born cross sections times a universal process independent singular factor . The singular parts of the virtual cross sections can be cancelled analytically with contributions of of the real contributions with the use of local counter terms. They are used to subtract the real contributions in the singular soft and collinear regions. This subtraction procedure is consistent with numerical Monte Carlo evaluation of the phase space integrals provided one calculates physical quantities which are defined in terms of infrared safe measurement functions specified below.

In the case of the collisions of hadron A with hadron B, the physical cross section is given in terms of parton number densities $`f_{h/H}(x,\mu )`$ and parton-parton scattering cross sections $`\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}`$ as follows

$`\sigma (p_A,p_B)={\displaystyle \underset{a,b}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑x_a𝑑x_bf_{a/A}(x_b,\mu _F^2)f_{b/B}(x_b,\mu _F^2)}`$ (7)
$`\times \left\{\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^{LO}(x_ap_A,x_bp_B)+\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^{NLO}(x_ap_A,x_bp_B)\right\}`$
where for example the LO cross section for the physical quantity $`𝒮`$ is given by the phase space integral over the squared matrix element of the 2-to-n process, weighted by the appropriate measurement function $`𝒮(p_a,p_b;p_1,\mathrm{}p_n)`$

$`\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^{LO}(p_a,p_b;[𝒮^(n)])={\displaystyle }_nd\widehat{\sigma }_a^B(p_a,p_b)={\displaystyle }d\mathrm{\Gamma }^{(n)}|M_{a,b}|^2𝒮^{(n)}(p_a,p_b,p_1,..,p_n)`$
The finite parton cross sections in NLO are obatained by summing the virtual, real and counter term contributions

$`\widehat{\sigma }_a^{NLO}(p_a,p_b)={\displaystyle _{n+1}}\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^R(p_a,p_b)+{\displaystyle _n}\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^V(p_a,p_b)+{\displaystyle _n}\widehat{\sigma }_{a,b}^{\mathrm{col}}(p_a,p_b)`$
The individual contributions are evaluated in d-dimension. In the numerical evaluation of the phase space integral over the real part we need to subtract the singular contributions locally. Fortunately there are several general methods for constructing such local subtarction terms analytically . We can write

$$d\sigma _{a,b}^{NLO}=\left\{d\sigma _{a,b}^Rd\sigma _{a,b}^{\mathrm{loc}}\right\}+d\sigma _{a,b}^{\mathrm{loc}}+d\sigma _{a,b}^V+d\sigma _{a,b}^{\mathrm{col}},$$

The local subtraction term $`d\sigma _{a,b}^{\mathrm{loc}}`$ is a suitable approximation of $`d\sigma _{a,b}^R`$. They become equal in the singular regions. In order to cancel analytically the singular parts of the virtual contributions we must be able to carry out analytically the integrals over the single parton subspaces in $`d=22ϵ`$ dimension. After performing this integration over the local subtraction terms the singular pieces of the terms in eq. (3.1) can be cancelled analytically and the remaning part can be evaluated numerically in four dimensions.

The cancellation mechanism of the soft and collinear singularities of the virtual corrections against the singular part of the real contribution is independent of the form of the measurement functions provided that they are insensitive to collinear splitting and soft emission. That is in the soft or/and collinear configurations the measurement functions must fulfil the condition

$$𝒮^{(n+1)}(p_a,..p_{n+1})=𝒮^{(n)}(\stackrel{~}{p}_a,\mathrm{}\stackrel{~}{p}_n)$$
(8)
The existence of universal local subtraction terms  is crucial for the method. The most widely used implementation is the one by Catani and Seymour. The construction of the NLO parton level Monte Carlo programs for 4-leg processes is by now a routine (although rather laborious) work. The success of the NLO description of jet production at hadron colliders is well illustrated by the plots shown figures 1 and 2. We see a spectacular agreement in a wide range of kinematical variables. The ambiguities due to errors in the parton number densities are shown in figure 3.

## 4 NLO description of 5-leg process

### 4.1 New results for $`e^+e^{}`$

The final experimental analysis of 4-jet production and its comparison with the NLO theoretical predictions was recently completed . The most remarkable result is that we obtain a more precise measurement of the strong coupling constant from the analysis of the 4-jet data than from the 3-jet data. This is not completely suprising since the cross section of four jet production is more sensitive to $`\alpha _s`$ than the three jet cross section, furthemore due to the large number of events the statistical accuracy is not the dominating the experimental error.

### 4.2 New results for $`pp(\overline{p})`$ and $`ep`$ scattering

Important progress in this topics is that the theoretical results  (where the singularities are not manifestly cancelled) could be implemented in a efficient parton level C++ Monte Carlo program (called NLO++ ) both for $`ep`$  and for $`pp(\overline{p})`$  scattering. Similarly to the case of $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation, the accuracy of the theoretical prediction is greatly improved. This is illustrated in figure 4 and 5. In fig. 4 inclusive jet cross section for three jet production is plotted using the $`k_T`$ algorithm. As we mentioned above, in multi jet production the use of the cone algorithm is cumbersome. It is assumed that the jets are produced in the pseudo rapidity interval $`\left|\eta \right|<4`$ and at energy of $`\sqrt{s}=1800\mathrm{GeV}`$, with minimum transverse jet energy $`E_T>50\mathrm{GeV}`$. The cross section is plotted as a function of the transverse energy of the leading jet $`E_T^{(1)}`$. The hard scattering factorization and renormalization scale is chosen to be $`E_T^{(1)}`$. The theoretical ambiguity is indicated as a band when the hard scattering scale is changed by a factor in the range $`0.5<x_{R,F}<2`$. One can see that at NLO the cross section values show much less sensitivity to the value of the hard scattering scale as the LO cross sections. Hopefully, these predictions can be compared with the Tevatron data in the near future. In fig. 5 integrated cross section values of three jet production (with the same kinematics as in fig. 4 but integrated over $`E_T^{(1)}>100\mathrm{GeV}`$) are plotted as a function of the ratio $`\mu /E_T^{(1)}`$ where $`\mu `$ is the value of the hard scattering scale.

Due to crossing symmetry the $`e^+e^{}`$ NLO four jet matrix elements allow also the evaluation of the DIS 3+1 jet processes at NLO. The implementation of the matrix elements  into C++ Monte Carlo program with the corresponding local subtraction terms has been recently carried out . The new result is crucial in the quantitative comparison of the data with the theory. As one can see in fig. 6, at NLO, we get substantial reduction in the precision of the theoretical prediction and at the same time the large NLO corrections are needed to bring the data in agreement with the theory.

## 5 NNLO calculations

In the last few years, the most spectacular progress has been achieved in developing the technics of calculating cross section values at NNLO accuracy. This requires the analytic computation of two loop corrections to 4-leg QCD processes (for a recent more complete review see .) The basic ingredient behind this success is the use of two technical tricks. First, if one uses integration by parts  and Lorenz invariance  identities one can reduce the very large number of different integrals into a few master integrals. This step can be very well computerized and by now several computer algorithms are available which perform automatically this reduction. Second, all the remaining master integrals (double box diagrams, etc.) could be evaluated analytically. Three different methods have been used: i) Mellin-Barnes integral transformations ; ii) inhomogeneous linear differential equations  and iii) expansions in terms of nested harmonic sums . In addition, the integrals could be calculated numerically using sector decomposition . Very recently, the differential equation method could be extended also to phase space integrals . New classes of functions appear in the final solutions. Numerical algorithms are available for the fast evaluation of these functions. All parton-parton scattering amplitudes could be calculated analytically at two loop order. Analytic expressions of the virtual corrections to the cross sections of three jet production in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation have been published recently . As a first phenomenological application Bern et.al.  have computed the cross section of two photon production at LHC in NNLO accuracy. In the case of this process the treatment of the bremsstrahlung corrections are considerable easier than in the general case. For processes involving initial hadrons, the parton evolution has to be evaluated also at NNLO accuracy. The results for the non-singlet case have been published recently by Moch and Vermaseren. This is an outstanding technical achievement. If the NNLO splitting functions  will be known the fitting of the initial parton density functions can be carried out at NNLO accuracy. Depending on the nature of the Beyond the Standard Model Physics, the newly achieved theoretical results may be crucial for the success of the experimental programs at future collider experiments. The impact of these developments can not be overestimated for the future high precision measurements at HERA, Tevatron, LHC and TESLA.


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# Critical behavior of the piezoresistive response in RuO2-glass composites.

## 1 Introduction

The term thick-film resistors (TFRs) commonly indicates glass-conductor composites based on RuO2 (or also Bi2Ru2O7, Pb2Ru2O6, and IrO2) grains mixed and fired with glass powders of usually lead borosilicate type. The most successful commercial applications of TFRs exploit their quite large change in bulk resistivity when subjected to applied deformation. Given their low temperature sensitivity and high stability, TFRs are therefore often used in sensor applications like pressure or force sensors .

Besides their applications, TFRs are also a quite unique type of metal-insulator composite due to their complex microstructure , nonuniversal behavior of transport , coexistence of quantum tunneling with percolating behavior , marked microscopic elastic heterogeneities . These peculiarities, which to our best knowledge are only partially shared by other compounds, contribute to make the TFRs an interesting playground for basic research on metal-insulator composites.

Concerning their microstructure, TFRs are often in a segregated structure regime in which large regions of glass of about $`1`$$`\mu `$m in size constraint the much smaller conducting grains (from $`10`$ $`\mu `$m to about $`300`$ $`\mu `$m) to be segregated in between the interstices of neighbouring glass grains. In addition, as a result of the firing process, there is strong evidence of diffussion of nanosized particles of metal insider the glass, leading therefore to a modified glassy region around the original metallic grains .

The role played by these ultrasmall conducting particles in transport has not yet been elucidated. The observation that the original larger metallic grains are separated by thin glass films of only $`1`$-$`2`$ nanometer thickness has suggested direct tunneling as the main mechanism of transport . However, recent electric force microscopy measurements have revealed that the diffused metallic ultrasmall particles can contribute in a substantial way to the electrical connectivity of the conducting regions, suggesting therefore a possible active role in transport of such a modified glass .

In spite of their differences, the above scenarios both indicate or are at least consistent with tunneling transport (between adjacent original metallic grains or assisted by the small particles diffused in the glass). Furthermore, the tunneling hypothesis is sustained also by the high values of the piezoresistive response, i. e. the sensitivity of electrical resistance upon applied strain, and the variable-range-hopping like temperature dependence of transport at low temperatures .

The above picture, together with the percolating behavior observed as a function of the metallic volume concentration, suggestes that TFRs can be regarded as a sort of segregated tunneling-percolation systems: i. e. a non-homogeneous mixture of metal-insulating phases in which tunneling cohexists with percolation. A typical homogeneous counterpart is encountered in some carbon-black–polymer composites where the tunneling-percolating behavior takes place within a homogeneous and random arrangement of conducting and insulating phases .

Among the different unusual aspects of TFRs, the often observed nonuniversality of transport is certainly one of the most interesting ones, both from the point of view of material science and basic statistical physics. According to the classical theory of transport in percolating systems, the resistance $`R`$ of a metal-insulator composite with metallic volume concentration $`x`$ follows a power-law behavior of the form :

$$RR_0(xx_c)^t,$$
(1)
where $`R_0`$ is a prefactor, $`x_c`$ is the percolation critical concentration and $`t`$ is the transport critical exponent. Random resistors network theories predict that $`R_0`$ and $`x_c`$ depend on the microscopic details of the composite, such as the arrangement of the conducting phase within the sample and the elemental resistances connecting two neighbouring sites . Conversely, the value of the transport exponent $`t`$ is quasi-universal: for percolation on a lattice of resistances with non-pathological distributions, $`t`$ depends only upon lattice dimensionality $`D`$ . According to the most recent and accurate calculations, $`t2.0`$ for $`D=3`$ .

Deviations from universality have been repeatedly reported for various composites  and, notably, for RuO2-based TFRs which can display values of $`t`$ of about $`t3`$-$`4`$  or even up to $`t7.0`$ . It is the subject of this paper to investigate further on the universality breakdown of TFRs and its microscopic origin by re-analysing earlier data on transport and piezoresistance. We show that reported metallic concentration dependences of the piezoresistive response for different RuO2-based TFRs imply tunneling-distance dependence of the exponent $`t`$. We argue that a possible origin of such universality breakdown stems from tunneling-percolating processes with strong fluctuations in tunneling distances, as previously proposed by Balberg for $`D=3`$ homogeneous random arrangements of conducting and insulating phases . Finally, we propose a model of TFRs where segregated structures and fluctuating tunneling distances are treated on the same level.

## 2 Transport and piezoresistance of RuO2-glass composites

Among the several published experimental results concerning the transport properties of TFRs, many of them report the contemporary measurement of resistance and piezoresistance on commercial samples for which, however, the actual compositions are not known with sufficient accuracy. Since we are interested on the evolution of transport as the conducting concentration is varies in a controlled way, the literature based on commercial TFRs is of little use. However, we have been able to single out two published sets of data of RuO2-based TFRs  which, to the best of our knowledge, are the only reports providing both the sheet resistance $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$ and the piezoresistance as a function of the RuO2 volume concentration $`x`$. According to Refs., both sets of measurements have been done for RuO2 powders with different specific surface areas (SA) mixed with borosilicate  or high lead silicate  glasses, and the final resistors were obtained after standard firing cycles.

In figure (1) we report the sheet resistance $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$ data as a function of RuO2 volume fraction for different RuO2 grain sizes $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ as extracted from the SA values . The open symbols refer to the data reported in Ref., while the full symbols to Ref.. All sets of data show a strong increase of $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$ as $`x`$ decreases, reflecting the vicinity to a percolation thresold where $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$ diverges. The percolating nature of transport in these composites is demonstrated in the log-log plot of figure (2) where all data collapse in a single straight line in accord with the power-law behavior of equation (1). The values of $`R_0`$, the critical concentration $`x_c`$ and of the exponent $`t`$ have been obtained by least-square fits to (1), and are reported in table 1.

There are a few points worth to be discussed. First, as it is clear from the data of Ref. in table 1, the critical concentration $`x_c`$ decreases as the surface areas SA (or mean grain size $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$) of the RuO2 powders increases (decreases). This trend is also observed in the data of Ref. and it can be understood by realizing that finer RuO2 powders occupy more likely the interstitial regions between neighbouring glass grains. As shown by Refs., this enhanced segregation effect is reflected in a reduction of $`x_c`$. Note that, however, the SA vs $`x_c`$ data of Ref. do not merge with those of Ref.. Maybe the different nature of the glass used in these two types of TFRs is at the origin of this discrepancy.

A second important point is that the values of the transport exponent $`t`$ are well above the universal value $`t2.0`$ of three dimensional lattices. This result confirms other similar findings  and clearly indicates breakdown of transport universality in RuO2-based TFRs. It is worth to remind that transport nonuniversality implies that the exponent $`t`$ acquires a dependence on microscopic details such as local intergrain resistances and microstructure. In this respect, we note that the samples of Refs. display an increase of $`t`$ with the critical volume fraction $`x_c`$ as shown in the inset of figure (2). We have noticed a qualitatively similar behavior also in the transport measurements of Ref., where $`t`$ increases from $`t=2.49`$ to $`t=5.38`$ as $`x_c`$ is varied from $`x_c=0.0237`$ to $`x_c=0.0401`$. Whether the increase of $`t`$ with $`x_c`$ is a general feature of RuO2-glass compounds is still an open question and further studies are needed to settle this point. However it should be stressed that other ruthenate TFRs (Bi2Ru2O7 and Pb2Ru2O6) display a quite different behaviour, i.e., $`t`$ remains constant and very close to its universal value (Bi2Ru2O7) or slightly decreases as $`x_c`$ increases (Pb2Ru2O6) .

The authors of Refs. have also measured the RuO2 concentration dependence of the longitudinal piezoresistance coefficient $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ defined as:

$$K_\mathrm{L}=\frac{d\mathrm{ln}(R)}{d\epsilon }.$$
(2)
The above quantity is also often called the (longitudinal) gauge factor and it is obtained by recording the change of the sheet resistance caused by a strain $`\epsilon `$ applied along the direction of the external voltage drop. When $`\epsilon `$ is orthogonal to the voltage drop, the resistance change gives rise to the transverse gauge factor $`K_\mathrm{T}`$. Both $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ and $`K_\mathrm{T}`$ depend on the geometry of the sample, but they can be expressed in terms of the intrinsic longitudinal and transverse piezoresistive coefficients, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$, defined as the logarithmic change of the resistivity under uniaxial strains applied parallel and orthogonal to the voltage drop, respectively . The values of $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ as a function of $`x`$ are reported in figure (3) for the same samples of figures (1) and (2) . Clearly, $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ seems to diverge as $`x`$ approaches to the same critical volume fraction values for which $`R_{\mathrm{}}`$, figure (1), goes to infinity. The origin of such a divergence has been previously discussed by the authors of Ref.. Here, we disprove their arguments and propose an alternative interpretation based on the universality breakdown displayed by the data of figure (2) and table 1.

Our arguments go as follows. First, since for all the $`x`$ values considered the samples are well within the critical region $`|xx_c|1`$, then there is not marked difference between longitudinal and transverse piezoresistive responses, and the samples can be considered, in a first approximation, as electrically isotropic even if an uniaxial strain has been imposed to evaluate $`K_\mathrm{L}`$. This is due to the tortuosity the current path has in flowing through the sample when $`x`$ is close to $`x_c`$. More specifically, the piezoresistive anisotropy factor defined as $`\chi =(\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_{})/\mathrm{\Gamma }_{}`$ goes to zero as $`(xx_c)^\lambda `$ with $`\lambda 0.5`$ for three dimensional systems , so that for $`|xx_c|1`$ and apart from geometric factors, the $`x`$-dependence of uniaxial strain is basically indistinguishable from that obtained by applying equal strain along all directions. Hence, in the critical region, it is a good approximation to evaluate $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ directly by differentiation of equation (1) with respect to $`\epsilon `$, just as done in Ref.:

$$K_\mathrm{L}\frac{d\mathrm{ln}(R_0)}{d\epsilon }\frac{d}{d\epsilon }\left[t\mathrm{ln}(xx_c)\right].$$
(3)
The first term is the usual contribution to the piezoresistance and it generally measures the strain sensitivity of the mean junction resistance between two neighbouring conducting particles. Since, by construction, this term is independent of the RuO2 concentration, all the $`x`$ dependence of $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ reported in figure (3) must come from the last term of equation (3). The authors of Ref. have assumed that $`t`$ and $`x_c`$ are not strain sensitive, and argued instead that $`x`$, being a volume concentration, depends on $`\epsilon `$. In this way, from equation (3), they obtained a $`(xx_c)^1`$ divergence of $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ for $`xx_c`$ which fitted in a satisfactory way their data \[open symbols in figure (3)\]. There is however a misconception in this reasoning. In fact, in percolation theory, $`x`$ is actually a measure of the concentration $`p`$ of (tunneling) intergrain junctions with finite resistances present in the sample. Current can flow from one end to another of the composite as long as a macroscopic cluster of junctions spans the entire sample. Hence the application of a strain, which is typically only of order $`\epsilon 10^4`$, can eventually change the value of the junction resistances (affecting therefore $`R_0`$) but cannot modify the concentration $`p`$ of junctions .

The dependence of $`x`$ upon strain claimed in Ref. is therefore erroneous and the $`x`$ dependence of $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ must have a different origin. Since also $`x_c`$ is $`\epsilon `$-independent, the only quantity left which could have a strain dependence is the exponent $`t`$. This hypothesis is perfectly in agreement with the universality breakdown demonstrated by the $`t`$ data of table 1. Hence, by allowing a nonzero derivative of $`t`$ with respect to $`\epsilon `$ we obtain from equation (3):

$$K_\mathrm{L}K_0+B\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{1}{xx_c}\right),$$
(4)
where we have defined

$$K_0=\frac{d\mathrm{ln}(R_0)}{d\epsilon },B=\frac{dt}{d\epsilon }.$$
(5)
In figure (4) we report the results of fitting the data of figure (3) to equation (4), represented by the straight line. The agreement is fairly good and indicates that the $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ data are indeed consistent with a logarithmic divergence at $`xx_c`$. The fitted values of the parameters $`K_0`$ and $`B`$ are reported in the last two columns of table 1 where the main feature is that $`B`$ is always positive while $`K_0`$ is always negative. This latter result is quite interesting. In fact, naively, one expects that if $`R_0`$ is a measure of the mean interparticle tunnel junction resistance, then it is a good approximation to set $`R_0\mathrm{exp}(2a/\xi )`$, where $`a`$ is the mean tunneling distance and $`\xi 1/\mathrm{}V`$ is the tunneling factor (or localization length) and $`V`$ is the tunneling barrier potential. Under a tensile strain $`\epsilon `$, the mean tunneling distance is enhanced by $`a\epsilon `$, while $`\xi `$ remains constant. In this situation therefore $`K_02a/\xi `$ is always positive, contrary to the $`K_0`$ values of table 1. We shall see in the next section that this apparent contradiction is solved by allowing for sufficiently strong fluctuations in the tunneling distances. In this case in fact the notion of mean tunneling distance $`a`$ can be meaningless and $`K_0`$ can assume also negative values.

## 3 Balberg’s model

In the previous section, the logarithmic divergence of $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ has been obtained by allowing a strain-dependence of the resistance exponent $`t`$. From a microscopic point of view, this property is equivalent to require that $`t`$ is a functional of the intergrain tunneling distances $`r_{\mathrm{tun}}`$ between two neighbouring RuO2 particles. In fact, an applied strain $`\epsilon `$ would modify the intergrain distance $`r_{\mathrm{tun}}`$ to $`r_{\mathrm{tun}}(1+\epsilon )`$ leading therefore to a variation of $`t`$. Actually, a microscopic theory of this kind exists and has been proposed by Balberg a few years ago as a possible mechanism of nonuniversality in carbon-black–polymer composites . Briefly, the theory of Balberg goes as follows. Consider a random resistor network where the interparticle (bond) conductance distribution is given by:

$$\rho (g)=ph(g)+(1p)\delta (g),$$
(6)
where $`p`$ is the fraction of bonds with finite conductance $`g`$ with distribution $`h(g)`$. The resistor network is constructed in order to mimic a system constituted by a random arrangement of spherical particles of given diameter $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and it is assumed that electrons can tunnel from one particle to its nearest neighbouring particle with a tunneling junction conductance of the form:

$$g=g_0e^{2r_{\mathrm{tun}}/\xi },$$
(7)
where $`g_0`$ is a constant, $`\xi `$ is the localization length assumed to be smaller than the average interparticle distance $`a`$, and $`r_{\mathrm{tun}}=r\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is the distance between the surfaces of two neighbouring spheres whose centers are separated by $`r`$. Since the particle centers are distributed more or less randomly, the distance $`r`$ depends on the particular couple of particles considered. Hence to obtain the distribution function $`h(g)`$ of the tunneling conductances one needs the distribution function $`P(r)`$ of inter-particles distances. Balberg proposed that the relevant distribution function is of the form:

$$P(r)=\frac{e^{r/a}}{a},$$
(8)
where $`a`$ is the mean inter-sphere distance and $`a\mathrm{\Phi }`$. By using

$$h(g)=_\mathrm{\Phi }^{\mathrm{}}𝑑rP(r)\delta \left(gg_0e^{2r_{\mathrm{tun}}/\xi }\right),$$
(9)
then the distribution function of tunneling conductances reduces to

$$h(g)=\frac{1\alpha }{g_0}\left(\frac{g}{g_0}\right)^\alpha ,$$
(10)
where

$$\alpha =1\frac{\xi }{2a},$$
(11)
is supposed to vary between $`\alpha =0`$ and $`\alpha =1`$. As it is well known, distributions of the form of equation (10) lead to nonuniversal behavior of the transport exponent $`t`$ . In fact, according to renormalization group results and highly disordered resistor networks analysis, the overall resistance close to the percolation thresold is given by equation (1) with :

$$t=\{\begin{array}{cc}t_0\hfill & \text{if }(d2)\nu +1/(1\alpha )<t_0\hfill \\ (d2)\nu +1/(1\alpha )\hfill & \text{if }(d2)\nu +1/(1\alpha )>t_0\hfill \end{array}$$
(12)
where $`t_0`$ is the universal value of the exponent ($`t_02.0`$ in three dimensions), $`d`$ is the dimension of the system, and $`\nu `$ is the correlation-length exponent ($`\nu 0.88`$ in three dimensions). We have therefore arrived at the result that, as soon as $`\alpha `$ is sufficiently large, the transport exponent depends upon the tunneling distance $`a`$ and so can be affected by an applied external strain $`\epsilon `$. Hence, from equations (1), (3), and (12) it is easily found that the piezoresistance $`K_\mathrm{L}`$ follows equation (4) with

$$B=\frac{dt}{d\epsilon }=\frac{1}{1\alpha }.$$
(13)
Since $`\alpha <1`$, the parameter $`B`$ is always positive, in agreement therefore with the sign of the $`B`$ values reported in table 1.

The distribution function of equation (10) can also explain the negative values of $`K_0`$ shown in the last column of table 1 and that, as we have pointed out in the last section, are not expected when ordinary interparticle conductance distributions are considered. In fact, let us consider an effective medium approximation (EMA) to the bond conductance distribution of equations (6) and (10):

$$𝑑g\rho (g)\frac{\overline{G}g}{g+2\overline{G}}=0,$$
(14)
where $`\overline{G}`$ is the effective macroscopic conductance . For $`|pp_c|1`$ (where $`p_c=1/3`$ in EMA) the integral in equation (14) can be evaluated by setting $`x=g/\overline{G}`$ with $`\overline{G}1`$ . The resulting resistance $`\overline{R}=1/\overline{G}`$ is then:

$$\overline{R}g_0^1\left[\frac{3\mathrm{sin}(\pi \alpha )}{2^{1\alpha }\pi (1\alpha )}\right]^{1/(1\alpha )}(pp_c)^{1/(1\alpha )}.$$
(15)
from which the EMA piezoresistance $`\overline{K}`$ reduces to $`\overline{K}=\overline{K}_0+1/(1\alpha )\mathrm{ln}(pp_c)^1`$ where:

$$\overline{K}_0=\frac{1}{1\alpha }\mathrm{ln}\left[\frac{3\mathrm{sin}(\pi \alpha )}{\pi (1\alpha )}\right]\left[\frac{1}{1\alpha }+\frac{\pi }{\mathrm{tan}(\pi \alpha )}\right].$$
(16)
As shown in figure (5), where the above expression is plotted as a function of $`\alpha `$, $`\overline{K}_0`$ is always negative in agreement therefore with the sign of the $`K_0`$ values extracted by the fits to the experimental data of Refs. (table 1). The possibility of having $`K_0<0`$ stems from the fact that the distribution function (8) has variance equal to the mean intergrain distance $`a`$. Hence the resistance prefactor $`R_0`$ is no longer a measure of the mean intergrain tunnel junction resistance so that the arguments of the last section do not apply.

The above results for $`B`$ and $`K_0`$ have been derived by a straightforward derivative of $`R`$ with respect to the applied strain $`\epsilon `$. However, elastic heterogeneities can have important effects. This should be particularly true for RuO2-glass systems where quite stiff metallic particles are embedded in a much softer glass. The main effect of such elastic heterogeneity is that the external applied strain induces highly varying local strains which depend on the relative bulk moduli of the metallic and insulating phases and on the microstructure . We can approximately describe the main effect of elastic heterogeneity by arguing that the tunneling distances are affected by a local strain $`\epsilon _{\mathrm{loc}}A\epsilon `$, where $`A`$ is a function of the relative bulk moduli of the conducting and insulating phases. In this way, $`B`$ and $`K_0`$ of equation (5) reduce to:

$$K_0=A\frac{d\mathrm{ln}(R_0)}{d\epsilon _{\mathrm{loc}}},B=A\frac{dt}{d\epsilon _{\mathrm{loc}}}.$$
(17)
Since the local strains are concentrated mainly within the softer (insulating) phase through which the electrons tunnel, then $`A`$ is expected to be larger than the unity . The elastic heterogeneity has therefore the main effect of amplifying the piezoresistive response by enhancing the absolute values of $`B`$ and $`K_0`$, however leaving their signs unchanged.

## 4 Tunneling and percolation in segregated compounds

In the previous sections we have provided evidences that RuO2-based thick-film resistors have nonuniversal behavior of transport and that their piezoresistance response fits well with a logarithmic divergence about the critical concentration $`x_c`$. Furthermore, we have shown that such a divergent piezoresistance arises naturally from a specific model of tunneling transport in percolative composites proposed some years ago by Balberg. Although these results are quite encouraging, we are going to see that there are several open questions regarding Balberg’s theory in general and its applicability to TFRs in particular.

Let us start by considering the interparticle distribution function of equation (8). The reasons which prompted Balberg to use equation (8) are discussed in his original paper , where the interested reader can directly refer. However, if we literally consider a three dimensional random arrangement of spheres, then instead of equation (8) the inter-sphere distance distribution function for low volume densities is more correctly given by the Hertz distribution :

$$P(r)=3\mathrm{\Gamma }(4/3)^3\frac{r^2}{a^3}e^{\mathrm{\Gamma }(4/3)^3(r/a)^3},$$
(18)
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(4/3)0.893`$. As shown in Ref., the above expression is also the exact distribution function for a random set of fully impenetrable spheres at arbitrary density. For large $`r`$, equation (18) falls to zero more rapidly than equation (8), leading to a quite drastic effect on $`h(g)`$. In fact, from equations (7), (9) and (18) and again assuming for simplicity $`\mathrm{\Phi }a`$, the resulting tunneling conductance distribution function reduces to:

$$h(g)=\frac{3\mathrm{\Gamma }(4/3)^3(1\alpha )^3}{g_0}\mathrm{ln}^2\left(\frac{g_0}{g}\right)\left(\frac{g}{g_0}\right)^{1\mathrm{\Gamma }(4/3)^3(1\alpha )^3\mathrm{ln}^2(g_0/g)}.$$
(19)
The above expression is plotted in figure 6 for different values of $`\alpha `$. Clearly, in contrast to equation (10), $`h(g)`$ does not diverges for $`g0`$ but instead it goes to zero at $`g=0`$. In Ref. very accurate analytical expressions for interparticle distance distribution functions of impenetrable (hard-core) spheres are reported. We checked that $`h(g=0)=0`$ also for this case so that such a vanishing limit is a general feature of randomly distributed spheres in three dimensional space. Since transport nonuniversality and the appearance of a tunneling distance dependence of the exponent $`t`$ have as necessary condition a divergent $`h(g)`$ behavior for $`g0`$, then the distribution function of conductances resulting from a random arrangement of (impenetrable or not) spheres is not able to account for nonuniversality and the consequent logarithmic divergence of the piezoresistive response. Such a conclusion is quite at odds with Balberg’s theory and its extension for the piezoresistive problem discussed in the previous section. However there are a couple of points worth to be stressed. First, as shown in figure 6, $`h(g)`$ has a maximum which shifts at lower values of $`g`$ and sharpens as $`\alpha `$ is made larger. Already for $`\alpha =0.6`$, the peak of $`h(g)`$ occurs at $`g/g_00.031`$. In this situation, the critical region where the resistance follows equation (1) with universal exponent $`t=t_02.0`$ is expected to be considerably narrowed. Hence if $`p`$ is not very close to $`p_c`$ the resistance could appear to have the form of equation (1) with an apparent nonuniversal value of $`t`$.

A second important point concerns the use of interparticle distance distribution functions derived from random arrangements of spheres. In real composites, interactions between conducting and insulating phases and microstructural inhomogeneities can easily make the idealized model of randomly distributed spheres of little use. A remarkable example is provided actually by thick-film resistors where the segregation effect due to the different sizes of glass and RuO2 particles is completely missed by, for example, equation (18). However the segregation effect has interesting consequences on the tunneling distance distributions. Let us consider the microstructure model of TFRs proposed originally by Pike  (see also Refs.). In this model, the conducting particles (approximated by spheres of diameter $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$) are arranged in such a way to occupy narrow channels along the edges of large cubes of side $`L\mathrm{\Phi }`$ which represent the glass particles. These channels form a cubic lattice spanning the whole sample and each channels can be occupied or free of conducting spheres. We can imagine the channels to be quasi-one dimensional so that each occupied channel is actually given by a series of adjacent metallic particles separated by the sintered glass. Each channel can contain up to about $`L/\mathrm{\Phi }`$ number of spheres and, for typical TFRs, $`L/\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is roughly between $`50`$ and $`500`$ depending on the relative sizes of the glass and conducting particles. The interesting point here is that equation (8) is the exact interparticle distance distribution function for a one-dimensional random arrangement of penetrable spheres. Hence, $`h(g)`$ given by equation (10) is the relevant conductance distribution function for the junction conductances inside an occupied channel. The question is now whether the total channel conductance $`G`$ has a power law diverging distribution as well. If a channel is occupied by $`L/\mathrm{\Phi }>N1`$ spheres, then the total channel conductance is that given by $`N`$ junctions in series each with conductance $`g_i`$ ($`i=1,\mathrm{},N`$):

$$G^1=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}\frac{1}{g_i}g_{\mathrm{min}}^1+\frac{1\alpha }{\alpha }(N1)g_{\mathrm{min}}^\alpha ,$$
(20)
where the distribution function (10) has been used and $`g_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is the minimum interparticle conductance for a row of $`N`$ particles. In writing equation (20), we have set $`g_0=1`$ and have implicitly assumed that $`N`$ is large enough to replace the summation with an integral. The quantity $`g_{\mathrm{min}}`$ (and so $`G`$) varies from channel to channel and to find its distribution function $`f(g_{\mathrm{min}})`$ consider the probability that, in a given channel, $`g_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is larger than a given arbitrary value $`\delta `$:

$$\mathrm{Prob}(g_{\mathrm{min}}\delta )=_\delta ^1𝑑g_{\mathrm{min}}f(g_{\mathrm{min}}).$$
(21)
The above probability must equal the probability that none of the $`N`$ junctions within a channel has conductance smaller than $`\delta `$:

$$\mathrm{Prob}(g_{\mathrm{min}}\delta )=\left[1_0^\delta 𝑑gh(g)\right]^N=\left(1\delta ^{1\alpha }\right)^N.$$
(22)
$`f(g_{\mathrm{min}})`$ is then readily found by equating the right hand sides of equations (21) and (22) and by taking the derivative with respect to $`\delta `$:

$$f(g_{\mathrm{min}})=(1\alpha )N(1g_{\mathrm{min}}^{1\alpha })^{N1}g_{\mathrm{min}}^\alpha .$$
(23)
The final distribution function $`F(G)`$ of channel conductances $`G`$ is then obtained by combining equation (20) with equation (23). An asymptotic estimate of $`F(G)`$ for small $`G`$ can be derived from equation (20) by realizing that for $`g_{\mathrm{min}}(1/N)^{1\alpha }`$ the total channel conductance is dominated by the smallest junction conductance: $`Gg_{\mathrm{min}}`$. Hence in this limit and from equation (23):

$$F(G)G^\alpha ,\mathrm{for}G(1/N)^{1\alpha }.$$
(24)
The validity of the above limit is demonstrated in figure 7 where we have plotted computer generated values of $`F(G)`$ for $`\alpha =0.5`$ and for different number $`N`$ of junctions. Clearly, in accord with equation (24), the numerical distribution function diverges as $`G^\alpha `$ independently of $`N`$.

The set of channels which form the cubic lattice in our model have therefore conductances $`G`$ with diverging distribution at small $`G`$. In this situation therefore, by following the arguments of the previous section, transport universality breaks down and logarithmically divergent piezoresistive response sets in as long as $`\alpha `$ is sufficiently large. This interesting result can be made even more stringent by considering the more realistic situation in which the spheres inside the channels are impenetrable. Following Ref., the exact interparticle distance distribution function for this case is:

$$P(r)=\frac{1}{a\mathrm{\Phi }}e^{(r\mathrm{\Phi })/(a\mathrm{\Phi })},$$
(25)
where $`r>\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and, again, $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`a`$ ($`a>\mathrm{\Phi }`$) are the diameter of the spheres and the mean interparticle distance, respectively. By using equations (7) and (9) and by following the above analysis, it is straightforward to find that the distribution function $`h(g)`$ within a channel and the channel conductance distribution $`F(G)`$ are again given by equations (10) and (24), respectively, where however $`\alpha `$ of equation (11) is now replaced by:

$$\stackrel{~}{\alpha }=1\frac{\xi /2}{a\mathrm{\Phi }}.$$
(26)
This result has not required the hypothesis that $`r\mathrm{\Phi }`$, as in the original formulation of Balberg, and has therefore a more general validity. A more complete analysis of our model including Monte Carlo calculations and a generalization to spheres with distributed diameters will be presented elsewhere.

Before concluding this section, it is worth to mention that in modelling the microstructure of TFRs along the lines of Pike  we have implicitly considered the metallic particles as more or less the original grains used in fabricating the TFRs. We have therefore not addressed the role of the small metallic clusters of nanometer size which have been shown to occupy the space between two neighbouring RuO2 grains as result of metal-glass interactions . It could be argued that these particles effectively reduce the tunneling potential barrier separating the metallic larger grains, enhancing therefore $`\xi `$. Further investigations and possible modifications of our model are therefore necessary for a more complete description of transport in TFRs.

## 5 Conclusions

In summary, we have confirmed that the sheet resistance of RuO2-based thick-film resistors  follows equation (1) with transport exponent $`t`$ larger than the universal value $`t2.0`$ characteristic of three dimensional systems . Furthermore, we have shown that the piezoresistance data taken on the same samples  are consistent with a logarithmic divergence close to the percolation thresold. We have argued that such divergence stems from a tunneling-distance dependence of the transport exponent $`t`$ and an analysis of Balberg’s theory  of tunneling-induced universality breakdown seems to qualitatively reproduce some of the experimental findings of Refs.. Furthermore, we have adapted Balberg’s theory, which was originally proposed for homogeneously random arrangements of conducting particles in an insulating host, to the highly segregated structure of TFRs. We have shown that this model naturally gives rise to a diverging conductance distribution function leading to universality breakdown of transport and logarithmically divergent piezoresistive response at the percolation thresold.

## 6 Acknowledgments

We thank J. Dutta for stimulating and interesting discussions. This work is part of TOPNANO 21 project n.5947.1.

## References


text:
# On the global structure of distant galactic disks

## 1 Introduction

A very fundamental characteristic of galactic disks is the flatness, defined by the ratio between exponential scalelengths in the vertical and radial direction $`h_z/h`$. The determination of the thickness of stellar disks is a difficult enterprise and has been determined mostly for edge-on galaxies, although attempts have been made in other cases, too (Ma et al. 1998). Typical values are found to be between 0.15 and 1 (van der Kruit & Searle 1981, 1982; de Grijs 1998) with a systematic trend for galaxies to become thinner from S0 to Sc if a more complex multicomponent structure (thick/thin disk) is not taken into account. Stellar velocity dispersion measurements show that the dispersion tends to grow with total luminosity, and vary radially as the square root of surface density, so as to support a constant scaleheight (Bottema 1993). Recently Kregel et al. (2002) have shown that the flattening of disks increases with the amplitude of their maximum rotation, and their total HI mass.

This flatness is an important clue to the formation and evolution history of galaxies. Disk stars are thought to be formed out of a very thin gaseous disk. The observed structure then thickens due to scattering by local fluctuations of the gravitational field as caused, e.g., by giant molecular clouds or spiral structure in the disk. The velocity dispersion of the stars increases in both the radial and vertical direction by this diffusion through phase space (Wielen 1977, Binney & Lacey 1988). The disk may thicken more efficiently through interactions with small companions or minor mergers, as suggested by numerical simulations (Quinn et al. 1993, Walker et al, 1996, Velazquez & White 1999). The thickening could amount to a factor of 1.5–2 and can be a constraint on the frequency of mergers if disks are observed today to be too thin (e.g. Toth & Ostriker 1992). The existence of a thick stellar disk in our own Galaxy has been attributed to an old merger event (Robin et al 1996, Dalcanton & Bernstein 2002). However, other phenomena have to be taken into account since the thin disk could also be maintained through gas infall with subsequent star formation. Many observational facts strongly suggest a high gas infall rate (e.g. Toomre, 1990, Sancisi et al. 1990, Jiang & Binney 1999). Dynamics of galaxy disks, bar and spiral reformation constrain this rate such that galaxies may double their mass in less than 10 Gyrs (Bournaud & Combes 2002, Block et al 2002).

The influence of tidal interaction on the flatness of galaxy disks has been addressed by Reshetnikov et al. (1993) and Reshetnikov & Combes (1997) who found in interacting galaxies the ratio $`h_z/h`$ to be a factor of two higher, due to a disk thicker in absolute values, but also shorter in radial dimensions. Schwarzkopf & Dettmar (2000, 2001) confirmed this trend on a larger sample, but essentially because of a larger absolute thickness of interacting disks. They also noted that tidally interacting galaxies are more frequently warped and that the thickening was more noticeable in the outer parts.

All these studies suggest that the relative flatness of a galaxy disk can vary by both effects during its evolution since the majority of galaxies have experienced interactions in the past. It appears that galaxies were dynamically “hotter” in the past (Abraham et al. 1999), which is seen in a smaller fraction of barred galaxies, and this could also have some consequences for the flattening. As the frequency of interactions/mergers strongly increases with redshift (e.g. Le Fèvre et al 2000), it is interesting to trace the evolution of the disk flatness with time by studying photometrically distant galaxies with high spatial resolution. This is now possible in the Hubble Deep Fields HDF-N and HDF-S and we present below the results of such a study. Section 2 describes our sample and Sect. 3 gives the derived general characteristics of disks in terms of radial and vertical profiles. The last section discusses the main results on the evolution of the flatness for stellar disks.

Throughout the paper, we adopt a flat cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_0=1`$ and $`H_0=70`$ km s-1 Mpc-1. (For a model with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1/3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=2/3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m+\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=1`$, linear sizes at $`z=0.71`$ will be $``$25% larger and absolute magnitudes are brigther by $``$0$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$45.) If not differently specified, all magnitudes are expressed in the AB system (Oke 1974).

## 2 The sample

To study the structural parameters of distant edge-on spiral galaxies, we consider a sample of galaxies presented in Paper I (Reshetnikov et al. 2002). This sample includes 45 galaxies with a diameter larger than 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 selected in the Hubble deep fields north and south. By applying a $`V/V_{\mathrm{max}}`$ completeness test we derived that the sample is statistically complete – $`V/V_{\mathrm{max}}`$=0.50$`\pm `$0.04 (Paper I). From the total sample of 45 distant galaxies we rejected objects with strong overlaps or interactions (e.g. n1031, SB-WF-2353-1914/2340-1898) and objects with unusual morphology (for instance, the ”tailed” galaxies n16, n632, n1027). Also, we excluded the galaxies n749 and SB-WF-3329-3173 since they seem to be deviating from the edge-on orientation. The final sample consists of 34 edge-on galaxies suitable for further analysis.

The mean isophotal diameter of the galaxies within $`\mu (I_{814}`$)=26.0 is 2$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 (14 kpc at $`z=0.9)`$, the mean minor axis is 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$7. The latter is about 5 times larger than the FWHM of the PSF and therefore the galaxies are sufficiently resolved to study the vertical surface brightness distribution.

The general characteristics of the sample galaxies are presented in Table 1. Figure 8 (see Appendix) gives contour maps and radial major axis profiles of the objects.

## 3 General characteristics of edge-on disks

As judged from to the spectral energy distributions (Fernández-Soto et al. 1999), late-type galaxies (Sbc/Irr) predominate in our sample (Table 1). The mean redshift of the sample and the median of the distribution are the same, $`z0.9`$. The mean rest-frame absolute magnitude of the galaxies is relatively low – $`M(B)18^\mathrm{m}`$ (Paper I). This is not unexpected since the Hubble deep fields have a very small coverage of only $``$2 Mpc (comoving) at $`z1`$ each. At $`z<1`$, the expected number of bright $`L^{}`$ galaxies in the two fields is only $``$20-60 (Ferguson et al. 2000). Therefore, assuming random orientation of galaxies, we can expect to find a few highly inclined bright spirals at $`z<1`$.

Two of our edge-on galaxies are possible sources of sub-mm (SCUBA) radiation (Serjeant et al. 2002). These are the objects 304 and 774 in Table 1.

The mean observed axial ratio of the sample objects is 0.3 (Paper I, Table 1), a value exceeding the $`b/a`$ ratio for local edge-on late-type galaxies. Possible reasons are a large intrinsic thickness of distant objects and also the influence of the point-spread function (PSF) on the apparent thickness of the small ($`2\mathrm{}`$) HDF galaxies.

The largest uncertaintiy arises from the range of galaxy inclinations in our sample since we do not know the true intrinsic flatnesses of the sample objects and we also cannot use a standard approach, e.g., on the basis of the Hubble formula or from dust lane geometry. We selected our sample on the basis of careful visual inspection of the HDF frames. Secondary inclination indicators (asymmetry of the minor axis profiles, apparent shift of the nucleus location from the symmetry plane) are in the same range as in local samples of highly inclined spirals (e.g. de Grijs & van der Kruit 1996, Schwarzkopf & Dettmar 2000). Also, comparison with results of realistic numerical models for inclined spirals (e.g. Byun et al. 1994) indicates that most of our sample objects are within 5o of edge-on orientation. Such a moderate deviation from edge-on orientation does not significantly change the slope of the vertical surface brightness distribution (van der Kruit & Searle 1981, Barteldrees & Dettmar 1994).

### 3.1 Optical colors

Figure 1 compares the observed colors of the 14 sample objects with spectroscopic redshifts and of nearly face-on spirals (randomly selected from the HDF-N) as a function of redshift. Both subsamples demonstrate the same trend of colors with $`z`$ with a somewhat larger scatter for the edge-on disks. In the redshift interval $`z=0.41`$ the edge-on disks show a hint of reddening in comparison with the face-on spirals: $`E_{ub}=+0.25\pm 0.18`$ and $`E_{bv}=+0.23\pm 0.13`$. These estimates correspond to inclination corrections for local spiral galaxies (e.g. de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991).

The predictions of apparent color evolution for two models of galaxy formation are shown in Fig. 1 according to Westera et al. (2002). The first model is characterized by a slowly growing dark halo with a continuous infall of gas and dark matter (accretion model, dashed line). The second one is a classical collapse model in a dark matter halo (collapse model, dotted line). Obviously, both models provide a satisfactory description of general observational trends of colors with redshift.

### 3.2 Major axis profiles

To investigate the global structure of the sample objects we adopted as a fitting model the simple standard double exponential disk: $`L(r,z)=L_0`$ exp($`\frac{r}{h}\frac{z}{h_z}`$), where $`h`$ and $`h_z`$ are the scalelength and scaleheight, respectively. This simple model gives a reasonable description of the structure for most local disks, even in edge-on orientation (e.g. Misiriotis et al. 2000). Comparison with other vertical models for disks (for instance, with “sech$`{}_{}{}^{2}(z/z_0)`$” or “sech$`(z/z_0^{})`$” distributions) can be done via $`h_z=z_0/2=z_0^{}/\sqrt{2}`$.

#### 3.2.1 Exponential profiles

Figure 8 presents the major axis photometric profiles of all galaxies in the $`I_{814}`$ passband. The profiles show a large diversity in their shapes. Trying to fit the surface brighness distributions by an exponential law, we find that only 19 or 56%$`\pm `$7% of the disks are reasonably well described by exponential-like profiles.

The parameters for the exponential disks are presented in Table 2. Typical errors for the scalelength values are $``$ 10%. The errors of scaleheights are presented in Table 2 and they are not just the formal errors of the least-squares fit, rather they were estimated by comparing results from four independent fits (see Sect. 3.3). To check the reliability of the exponential model to describe the global photometric structure of the studied galaxies, we have calculated total luminosities as $`L_{\mathrm{exp}}=2\pi I_0h^2b/a`$, where $`I_0`$=dex(-0.4$`\mu _0^I`$) (Table 2) and $`b/a`$ is the apparent axial ratio (Table 1). We found that the mean difference of observed and model magnitudes is $`I_{814}I_{\mathrm{exp}}`$= +0.31$`\pm `$0.12. This small difference can be attributed to the infinite extrapolation for the model magnitudes.

The mean observational characteristics of the exponential disks are $`\mu _0(I_{814})=(22.99\pm 1.16){}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$, $`h=0\stackrel{}{.}43\pm 0\stackrel{}{.}11`$, $`z=1.0\pm 0.5`$. The observed values of $`\mu _0(I_{814}`$ (uncorrected for any inclination effects) have been converted to a rest-frame $`B`$ by applying the cosmological dimming term and a $`k`$-correction color term for Irr galaxies (Lilly et al. 1998, Lilly et al. 1995, Paper I). The resulting mean characteristics of the central surface brightness and of the scale length (after a small correction for the PSF – see Sect.3.3) are $`\mu _0(B)=(20.7\pm 1.3){}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$, $`h=2.3\pm 0.7`$ kpc. For the disks with $`z1`$ (14 objects), the central surface brightness is (21.05$`\pm 1.0)^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$. Therefore, distant edge-on disks demonstrate somewhat brighter central surface brightnesses in comparison to nearby ”Freeman” disks for which $`\mu _0(B)=21.5{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$ in the AB system (Freeman 1970). However, this difference is negligible within the quoted scatter. Note also that our derived value of the mean central surface brightness is in good agreement with results for local samples of edge-on galaxies: $`\mu _0(B)=(21.0\pm 0.6){}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$ (28 members of interacting systems, Reshetnikov & Combes 1997), $`\mu _0(B)=(21.0\pm 1.1){}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$ (45 normal galaxies, de Grijs 1998).

As a first order approximation, let us assume that the galaxy centers are optically thick, or close to that, and so the central surface brightness does not depend strongly on the inclination of the disk. This is a quite realistic approximation since at redshift $`z=0.9`$ the filter $`I_{814}`$ corresponds approximately to filter $`B`$ (8140 Å:(1+0.9)=4280 Å) and the central regions of local spirals are not optically thin in the blue spectral region. There are several lines of arguments – discussed in the following – in favour of such a conclusion.

The only direct and model-independent way to study the transparency of the centers of galaxies is the chance superposition of galaxies. In the innermost few hundred parsecs of NGC 3314A (a sub-$`L^{}`$ Sc spiral galaxy) even the most transparent regions between dust lanes show an extinction of $`A_B7^m`$ (Keel & White 2001). The disk of NGC 3314A is inclined by $`i=41^\mathrm{o}`$, so this galaxy is far from edge-on orientation.

The same conclusion can be derived from statistical arguments. For instance, Giovanelli et al. (1995), using a sample of more than 1700 Sc galaxies with $`I`$-band photometry, found only a weak dependence of the central surface brightnesses of the disks on inclination: $`\mu _0(I)`$ brightens by about 0.3–0.4 mag between the face-on and edge-on aspects. In the $`B`$ band the dependence must be even much weaker. Also, with regard to distant galaxies, Lilly et al. (1998) did not find any significant correlation between $`\mu _0(B)`$ and disk axial ratio for spirals with $`z=0.21`$.

Numerical simulations of the radiative transfer in dusty disks show that even a small optical depth can significantly reduce the expected projection effect on the central surface brightness, especially in the $`B`$ band (Byun et al. 1994).

Therefore, assuming that the central surface brightness shows only a weak (or negligible) dependence on the galaxy inclination ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\mu _0(B)=(00.5)^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$) we can estimate an average “face-on” absolute magnitude of the disks as $`M(B)=\mu _0(B)`$ – 5 log$`h`$ – 38.57 = –19$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$6…–19$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$1. (Let us note also that in edge-on orientation the presence of dust makes the scalelength appear larger than in the face-on case (e.g. Byun et al. 1994) and this can reduce the estimated face-on luminosity.) The observational value for edge-on disks is –18$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$1 or 1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$0…1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$5 fainter. The value of dimming (1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$0…1$`\stackrel{m}{.}`$5) is consistent within uncertaintes with the value of global extinction for spirals (e.g. de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, Tully et al. 1998).

Table 2 presents also the $`h`$ values in the $`V_{606}`$ passband. The mean scale length ratio is $`h(I_{814})/h(V_{606})`$ = 1.04$`\pm `$0.13. (In the rest-frame this ratio resembles $`h(B)/h(U)`$.) Although we did not find any significant color dependence as expected from the modeling by de Jong (1996) for these filters, we cannot draw any firm conclusions due to the small-number statistics.

In Fig. 2 we consider the $`\mu _0`$$`h`$ plane. The dashed cross in the figure shows the mean parameters of 917 Sb–Sd spiral galaxies from Byun’s (1992) thesis (converted to $`B_{AB}`$). The sample of Byun is angular diameter-limited (like ours) and contains galaxies with angular diameter $`d1\stackrel{}{.}7`$. The mean absolute magnitude of this sample of local galaxies is $`M(I)=20\stackrel{m}{.}4`$, or $`M(B)18\stackrel{m}{.}7`$ (adopting $`BV`$=+1.7 for the disks of galaxies, de Jong 1996). Therefore, in edge-on orientation the local galaxies will show about the same luminosities as our sample galaxies. As one can see in the figure, the mean characteristics of nearby and distant sub-$`L^{}`$ disks are close (within quoted uncertaintes) but $`z1`$ galaxies show a small displacement to higher values of surface brightness and smaller sizes. The shift to smaller values of $`h`$ can be even larger due to the above mentioned effect of an apparent increase of scalelength in edge-on orientation.

At least three objects (n15, n805, and n898) can be considered as low surface brightness galaxies. These three galaxies show the rest-frame central surface brightness $`\mu _0(B)22`$ and are intrinsically faint ($`M(B)17^\mathrm{m}`$). Adopting small or neglible internal absorption for such galaxies (e.g. Tully et al. 1998) and converting the observational values of $`\mu _0(B)`$ to face-on orientation, we obtain $`\mu _0^0(B)23.524{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$, typical for local low surface brightness galaxies (e.g. UGC 7321 – Matthews & Wood 2001).

#### 3.2.2 Non-exponential profiles

15 of 34 disks (44%$`\pm `$5%) show “ridge”-like profiles, with several peaks and are often very asymmetric (see, e.g., n55, n506, or n886 in Fig. 8). Therefore, roughly half of $`z1`$ disks are not exponential. This fraction may be even larger due to preselection of the sample (Sect.2). This strongly contrasts with the local Universe and supports a late formation of disks (e.g. Mo et al. 1998, see van den Bergh et al. 2000 about galaxy morphology evolution with redshift).

To understand the origin of non-exponential brightness distributions, we have looked for possible counterparts for such objects among face-on galaxies in the deep fields. One of the best examples is the HDF-N galaxy 866 (2-153.0 in Williams et al. 1996) with the photometric redshift 0.96, $`I_{814}=23.6`$ and the spectral type Scd (Fernández-Soto et al. 1999). The observed characteristics of this galaxy are close to those for the sample edge-on objects. This galaxy exhibits an irregular patchy disk with a low-contrast nucleus and embedded bright knots (five at least – see Fig. 3) and no spiral structure has developed yet. Figure 4 shows two photometric profiles of the galaxy which resemble the “ridge-like” profiles of many of our edge-on disks mentioned above. The galaxy is very similar in optical morphology to the peculiar galaxy H36490\_1221 discussed in van den Bergh et al. (2001). Those authors suggest that such objects represent proto-late-type galaxies. Therefore, we can speculate that about half of our sample objects are young disks still in the formation process which will in their future evolution relax to an exponential distribution.

To check the frequency of non-exponential profiles among less distant spirals we selected in two deep fields all bright ($`I_{814}<22^m`$) and non-edge-on galaxies of Sbc-Irr types. In total, we selected 17 galaxies with mean redshift $`z0.5`$ and absolute magnitude $`M(B)20^m`$. Almost one third (5/17) of these objects show strongly non-exponential surface brightness distributions (work in preparation). The rest of the objects often demonstrate significant ($`0\stackrel{m}{.}5`$) deviations from the exponent. Therefore, non-exponential density distributions of galaxy disks are indeed very frequent at $`z>0`$.

### 3.3 Minor axis profiles

The typical scalelengths of our objects are $`0\stackrel{}{.}30\stackrel{}{.}6`$ (Table 2). Therefore, $`h_z`$ values are expected to be $`0\stackrel{}{.}1`$ or below the PSF width of FWHM(PSF)=0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$14. It is important to note that $`h_z`$ values are characteristics of the surface brightness gradients and are not linear sizes of any structures. To determine true scaleheights, we must study the effects of the HDF’s PSF on the surface brightness distribution of edge-on galaxies.

We have created a grid of double exponential disk models with various input parameters in the region $`h=0\stackrel{}{.}30\stackrel{}{.}6`$ and $`h_z/h`$ from 0.10 to 0.35. Then we prepared an empirical PSF by averaging several stellar images from the $`I_{814}`$-band frames of the HDF and convolved the model disks with the PSF. Comparing input and output disk characteristics, we determined empirical corrections for the observed parameters. The output parameters were estimated from the analysis of major and minor axes cuts of the model images. Finally, we found a strong influence of the PSF on the vertical scale of a disk. Also, we noted a small (within 10%) overestimation of the scale length values due to the PSF.

To present the influence of the PSF more clearly, we show in Fig. 5 the dependence of vertical stretching due to the PSF on the intrinsic flattening ($`h_z/h`$) of the model (the factor S gives the ratio of observed and true values of flattening). It is evident that intrinsically small ($`h0\stackrel{}{.}3`$) and thin ($`h_z/h0.1`$) galaxies become more than 2 times thicker after application of the PSF. Therefore, we cannot expect to find very thin galaxies among small and distant HDF objects.

We excluded the central regions of the galaxies from the study in order to avoid any possible contribution of the bulges. (Although we do not see clear signs of bulges present in most galaxies – see Fig. 8). In order to explore the vertical structure of 19 exponential objects we examined one-dimensional cuts extracted at $`\pm `$(0.5–1)$`h`$ in the galactocentric distance, avoiding the faintest outer regions of the objects. To minimize the influence of dust, we excluded the 1–2 central pixels of the cuts. In the analysis, we distinguished between the different sides of the galaxy planes and obtained the mean value of $`h_z`$ for each galaxy from 4 independent estimates. The mean observational (uncorrected for the PSF influence) scale height for the sample objects is 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$13, the mean dispersion $`\sigma _{h_z}=0\stackrel{}{.}03`$. This value of dispersion (23%) characterises the combined effect of the intrinsic variations of vertical scales and of errors in scale estimates.

The results of the analysis (corrected for the PSF) are given in the last three columns of Table 2. The mean relative thickness of the galaxies reduces after the PSF correction from $`h_z/h_{obs}=0.31\pm 0.09`$ to $`h_z/h=0.21\pm 0.08`$.

#### 3.3.1 Vertical scale

The mean value of the vertical scale for distant edge-on galaxies is $`h_z`$=0.46$`\pm `$0.21 kpc or $`z_00.9`$ kpc. The obtained mean value is unbiased since we work with a statistically complete sample of galaxies with angular diameter larger than 1$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3 (Sect. 2, Paper I). These values are typical for normal spiral disks at $`z0`$ (e.g. Reshetnikov & Combes 1997, Schwarzkopf & Dettmar 2000). However, the direct comparison of local and distant samples must be carried out with caution due to very different selection effects. For instance, distant galaxies are sub-$`L^{}`$ and relatively compact while the local samples usually contain brighter and larger disk galaxies (see Table 2 in Reshetnikov & Combes 1997).

In order to avoid (at least partially) the selection effects, we decided to compare our sample to local galaxies of the same size. Figure 6a shows the dependence of scaleheight on scalelength for 38 edge-on spiral galaxies ($`T>0`$) in the $`I`$ passband according to de Grijs (1998). He adopted an exponential model for the observational brightness distribution and considered one-dimensional photometric profiles so we can directly compare our results. The mean regression for local galaxies predicts that a galaxy with $`h=2.3`$ kpc must have $`h_z=0.3`$ kpc. Therefore distant galaxies are thicker by a factor 1.5 on average. (In the non-zero $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ cosmology with $`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=1/3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=2/3`$ the relative thickening stays the same.)

Figure 6b presents the results of a two-dimensional decomposition in the $`I`$ passband of 34 edge-on spirals from the de Grijs (1998) sample recently presented by Kregel et al. (2002). The fitting model assumes a transparent disk (this is very questionable for our sample objects) and includes the line-of-sight integration of the luminosity distribution. Comparison of two methods shows that a one-dimensional method can overestimate the scalelengths by about 20% (Figure 3 in Kregel et al. 2002). However, a direct comparison of $`h`$ values shows that $`h`$(de Grijs)/$`h`$(Kregel et al.)=0.93$`\pm `$0.20. A comparison of scaleheight values obtained by the two methods leads to a ratio $`h_z`$(de Grijs)/$`h_z`$(Kregel et al.)=1.13$`\pm `$0.22. Strictly speaking, both methods give a statistically insignificant difference. The Kregel et al. (2002) analysis results in a $``$1.4 thickening of distant disks.

In Figure 6c we compare the Schwarzkopf & Dettmar (2000) sample of non-interacting galaxies (the data in the Johnson $`R`$ or Thuan & Gunn $`r`$ filters). The fitting model avoids the central dust lane in the line-of-sight integration. In this case the thickening factor increases to 1.9.

The last sample (Figure 6d) includes 153 edge-on spiral galaxy with published photometric parameters in the $`K_s`$ band (Bizyaev & Mitronova 2002). The fitting model assumes a transparent disk. This work gives about a 1.8-fold thickening of distant galaxies.

#### 3.3.2 $`h/h_z`$ ratio

The relative thickness – $`h/h_z`$ – gives more reliable information about the possible thickening. For our sample we have $`h/h_z`$=5.4$`\pm `$2.0, or, excluding one object for being most likely not exactly an edge-on galaxy (n817), 5.55$`\pm `$1.9. Scaling this in terms of $`z_0`$, we obtain $`h/z_0`$=2.7–2.8, with a median value of 2.63. The disks of local late-type galaxies are distributed over a wider range with the mean $`h/z_0`$ of $`5`$ (see Table 2 in Reshetnikov & Combes 1997). Moreover, disks of more late-type and gas-rich galaxies are thinner (Reshetnikov & Combes 1997, de Grijs 1998, Schwarzkopf & Dettmar 2000). For Sc/Sd disks Schwarzkopf & Dettmar (2000) give $`h/z_08\pm 2`$. De Grijs (1998) and Kregel et al. (2002) give somewhat smaller ratios of 3.7 and 4.3, respectively. The Bizyaev & Mitronova (2002) sample shows the mean ratio of $`h/z_0=4.8`$.

In the previous discussion we neglected the possible dependence of scalelength on the passband. It is known (e.g. Table 7 in de Grijs 1998) that the $`h`$ value increases to the blue spectral region. The ratio of scalelength values in the $`B`$ and $`K`$ passbands can reach $`1.5`$, and $`h(B)/h(I)1.3`$ (de Grijs 1998). This effect, however, would only strengthen the thickness difference in the samples of local and $`z1`$ galaxies.

Therefore, $`z1`$ disks are definitely thicker in comparison to local galaxies. The factor for the vertical thickening ($``$1.5) is approximately the same as for $`z0`$ interacting spiral galaxies ($``$1.5-2: Reshetnikov & Combes 1997, Schwarzkopf & Dettmar 2000).

The dependence of $`h/h_z`$ values on the rest-frame central surface brightness is shown in Fig. 7. Thin disks are present for $`\mu _0(B)21{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$, while among bright objects ($`\mu _0(B)<21{}_{}{}^{\mathrm{mag}}/\mathit{}\mathrm{}`$) we observe only thick disks with $`h/z_02.2`$. Taking into account that the $`B`$-band surface brightness characterises the current rate of star formation, one can speculate that enhanced star-formation and enhanced thickness are the results of ongoing interactions and mergings. The observed morphology of galaxies does not contradict such a suggestion (Fig. 8).

### 3.4 Vertical scale for non-exponential galaxies

We examined the vertical profiles for 15 non-exponential galaxies at distances where the surface brightness drops by 1m relative to the nucleus. The mean observational value of the scaleheight obtained ($`h_z=0\stackrel{}{.}125`$) is the same as for exponential objects (Sect.3.3) with a mean dispersion of individul values of 0$`\stackrel{}{.}`$03. Taking into account that the redshift and angular diameter distributions in both subsamples are approximately the same, one can conclude that non-exponential disks must have approximately the same corrected value of the scale height ($`h_z`$0.5 kpc).

## 4 Discussion and conclusions

Our sample of distant edge-on galaxies shows an unexpectedly large fraction of non-exponential disks. From this observation we infer that many sub-$`L^{}`$ disks are still in the formation process at $`z1`$, or the degree of tidal perturbations is higher, which has already been observed (e.g. Le Févre et al. 2000). One of the possible mechanisms to redistribute matter and to develop the exponential profile is the action of a long-lived bar (e.g. Combes et al. 1990). The young galaxies of our sample may not have experienced enough bar torques for this process, either because of very transient bars in very unstable disks, or because the effects of bars are continuously perturbed by mergers and accretion. The consequence is that a galaxy will spend much less of its time in a barred state. This conclusion is in good agreement with the general depletion of barred spirals at $`z>0.7`$ (Abraham et al. 1999, van den Bergh 2002).

We have taken into account the effect of the PSF to demonstrate that the distant disks examined in this work are thicker by a factor of 1.5 if compared to local disk sample. This is a preliminary result based on a small number of sub-$`L^{}`$ galaxies, and should be confirmed by larger statistical samples.

Since the star formation rate increases strongly with redshift (e.g. Madau et al. 1996, Flores et al. 1999, Thomson et al. 2001) one could speculate that the fraction of young stars formed in the midplane of disks is expected to be much higher in the past, making the young disk appear much thinner. Previous work on local samples has already concluded that tidal interactions between galaxies have a certain thickening effect of the order of 1.5-2 (Reshetnikov & Combes 1997, Schwarzkopf & Dettmar, 2000). Since the frequency of galaxy interactions/mergers increases strongly with redshift, the present result fits into this picture. If one assumes that all disks have undergone such interactions, either additional cooling processes for the hot disks or a substantial growth predominantly in the radial direction are required to explain the flatness of disks in the local Universe.

However, other parameters should be taken into account in the interpretation. The distant disks are on absolute scales smaller than the local sample disks. It is likely that the morphological types are later (less evolved) and the masses of the galaxies smaller on average, as already found in previous studies based on HST surveys (e.g. Abraham et al. 1996, Glazebrook et al. 1998). The lower frequency of bars, associated with the smaller bulge-to-disk ratio, suggests that disks are more unstable and dynamically hotter (Abraham et al. 1999), which could explain the present thickening effect. In this context it is also noteworthy to mention that the galaxies of our sample contain only a few bulges as can be judged from the major axis profiles in Fig. 8. This can either be interpreted as evidence for a later formation of bulges by secular processes (e.g. Combes 2001) or that our sample is selected such that it represents early phases of late morphological types only.

###### Acknowledgements.

VR acknowledges support by DAAD for his extended stay at Ruhr-University Bochum and by Russian Federal Program “Astronomy” (40.022.1.1.1101). We thank Michael Pohlen for his help improving the text. We would like to thank the anonymous referee whose detailed remarks have helped improve the paper.

## 5 Appendix

We present here contour maps and major axis photometric profiles for the sample of edge-on galaxies in the HDF (Table 1).