We present high-precision photometry of the hypervelocity star SDSS J090745.0+024507 (HVS), which has a Galactic rest-frame radial velocity of v=709 km/s, and so has likely been ejected from the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. Our data were obtained on two nights using the MMT 6.5m telescope, and is supplemented by lower precision photometry obtained on four nights using the FLWO 1.2m telescope. The high-precision photometry indicates that the HVS is a short-period, low-amplitude variable, with period P=0.2-2 days and amplitude A = 2-10%. Together with the known effective temperature of T_eff ~ 10,500 K (spectral type B9), this variability implies that the HVS is a member of the class of slowly pulsating B-type main sequence stars, thus resolving the previously-reported two-fold degeneracy in the luminosity and distance of the star. The HVS has a heliocentric distance of 71 kpc, and an age of ~0.35 Gyr. The time of ejection from the center of the Galaxy is < 100 Myr, and thus the existence of the OS constitutes observational evidence of a population of young stars in the proximity of the central supermassive black hole ~0.1 Gyr ago. It is possible that the HVS was a member of a binary that was tidally disrupted by the central black hole; we discuss constraints on the properties of the companion's orbit.
SDSS J0924+0219 is the most glaring example of a gravitational lens with anomalous flux ratios: optical broad-band photometry shows image D to be a factor of 12 fainter than expected from smooth lens models. We report spectroscopy showing that the anomaly is present in the broad emission line flux ratios as well. There are differences between the emission line and continuum flux ratios: the A/D ratio is 10 in the broad Lyman-alpha line and 19 in the associated continuum. Known variability argues for the presence of microlensing. Microlensing can account for both the continuum and emission line flux ratios, if the broad emission line region is comparable in size to the Einstein radii of the microlenses. Specifically, we need R_{BLR} <~ 0.5 R_E ~ 10 lt-days, which is small but reasonable. While we cannot exclude the possibility that millilensing by dark matter substructure is present as well, we conclude that microlensing is present and sufficient to explain all current data. Under the microlensing hypothesis, the flux ratio anomalies should disappear within a few years.
We study microlensing of the faint images that form close to the centers of strong gravitational lens galaxies. These central images, which have finally begun to yield to observations, naturally appear in dense stellar fields and may be particularly sensitive to fine granularity in the mass distribution. Since central images are highly overfocussed (i.e., demagnified compared to an unlensed image), their microlensing magnification maps differ strikingly from the maps for normal, magnified images. The dispersion in microlensing magnifications is generally larger for central images than for normal bright images, especially when the source is comparable to or larger than the stellar Einstein radius. The dispersion depends in a complicated way on the fraction of the surface mass density contained in stars; that behavior may hold the key to using microlensing as a probe of the relative densities of stars and dark matter in the cores of distant galaxies. Quantitatively, we predict that the central image C in PMN J1632-0033 has a magnification dispersion of 0.23-0.25 dex for Rsrc/Rein <~ 1, or 0.11 dex for Rsrc/Rein = 10. For comparison, the dispersions are 0.19-0.23 dex for image B and 0.02-0.05 dex for image A, if Rsrc/Rein <~ 1; and just 0.04 dex for B and 0.003 dex for A if Rsrc/Rein = 10. (The dispersions can be extrapolated to larger sources sizes as sigma \propto Rsrc^{-1}.) Thus, central images are more susceptible than other lensed images to microlensing, but not in a way that will pose significant problems for astrophysical applications that rely on them.
The Sirius AB binary system has masses that are well determined from many decades of astrometric measurements. Because of the well-measured radius and luminosity of Sirius A, we employed the TYCHO stellar evolution code to determine the age of the Sirius A,B binary system accurately, at 225-250 Myr. Note that this fit requires the assumption of solar abundance, and the use of the new Asplund et al. primordial solar metallicity. No fit to Sirius A's position is possible using the old Grevesse & Sauval scale. Because the Sirius B white dwarf parameters have also been determined accurately from space observations, the cooling age could be determined from recent calculations by Fontaine et al. or Wood to be 124 +/- 10 Myr. The difference of the two ages yields the nuclear lifetime and mass of the original primary star, 5.056 +0.374/-0.276 solar masses. This result yields in principle the most accurate data point at relatively high masses for the initial-final mass relation. However, the analysis relies on the assumption that the primordial abundance of the Sirius stars was solar, based on membership in the Sirius supercluster. A recent study suggests that its membership in the group is by no means certain.
One of the key observables of the reionization era is the distribution of neutral and ionized gas. Recently, Furlanetto, Zaldarriaga, & Hernquist developed a simple analytic model to describe the growth of HII regions during this era. Here, we examine some of the fundamental simplifying assumptions behind this model and generalise it in several important ways. The model predicts that the ionized regions attain a well-defined characteristic size R_c that ranges from R_c~1 Mpc in the early phases to R_c>10 Mpc in the late phases. We show that R_c is determined primarily by the bias of the galaxies driving reionization; hence measurements of this scale constrain a fundamental property of the first galaxies. The variance around R_c, on the other hand, is determined primarily by the underlying matter power spectrum. We then show that increasing the ionizing efficiency of massive galaxies shifts R_c to significantly larger scales and decreases the importance of recombinations. These differences can be observed with forthcoming redshifted 21 cm surveys (increasing the brightness temperature fluctuations by up to a factor of two on large scales) and with measurements of small-scale anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Finally, we show that stochastic fluctuations in the galaxy population only broaden the bubble size distribution significantly if massive galaxies are responsible for most of the ionizing photons. We argue that the key results of this model are robust to many of our uncertainties about the reionization process.
We review internal secular evolution in galaxy disks -- the fundamental process by which isolated disks evolve. We concentrate on the buildup of dense central features that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly out of disk gas. We call these pseudobulges. As an existence proof, we review how bars rearrange disk gas into outer rings, inner rings, and gas dumped into the center. In simulations, this gas reaches high densities, and in the observations, many SB and oval galaxies show central concentrations of gas. Associated star formation rates imply plausible pseudobulge growth times of a few billion years. If secular processes built dense centers that masquerade as bulges, can we distinguish them from merger-built bulges? Observations show that pseudobulges retain a memory of their disky origin. They have one or more characteristics of disks: (1) flatter shapes than those of classical bulges, (2) larger ratios of ordered to random velocities, (3) smaller velocity dispersions, (4) nuclear bars or spiral structure, (5) boxy structure when seen edge-on, (6) nearly exponential brightness profiles, and (7) starbursts. These features occur preferentially in barred and oval galaxies in which secular evolution should be rapid. So the cleanest examples of pseudobulges are recognizable. Thus observations and theory contribute to a new picture of galaxy evolution that complements hierarchical clustering and merging. However, an important problem with cold dark matter galaxy formation gets more acute. How can hierarchical clustering produce so many pure disk galaxies with no evidence for merger-built bulges?
We present a proper motion study of the shock waves within the classic stellar jet HH 47 based on Hubble Space Telescope H-alpha and [S II] images of the region taken over two epochs. Individual knots within the jet and in the bow shock/Mach disk working surface of HH 47A move significantly in the five years that separate the images, and the excellent spatial resolution of HST makes it possible to measure the proper motions with enough precision to easily observe differential motions throughout the flow. The bright portion of the jet emerges at 37.5 +/- 2.5 degrees from the plane of the sky with an average velocity of 300 km/s. Dynamical ages of the shock waves in the jet range from a few decades for knots recently ejected by the source to ~ 1300 years for the faint extended bow shock HH 47D. The jet curves, but motions of knots in the jet are directed radially away from the exciting source, and velocity variability in the flow drives the shock waves that heat the jet internally. The jet orientation angle varies with time by about 15 degrees, and currently points to the northwestern portion of a cavity outlined by a reflection nebula, where a quasi-stationary shock deflects the jet. The major working surface HH 47A is more complex than a simple bow shock/Mach disk, and contains numerous clumps that move relative to one another with velocities of ~ +/- 40 km/s. Small clumps or instabilities affect the Mach disk, and dense clumps may move all the way through the working surface to cause the bumpy morphology seen at the bow shock. A localized area between the bow shock and Mach disk varies significantly between the two sets of images.
We have developed a method for fast and accurate stellar population parameters determination in order to apply it to high resolution galaxy spectra. The method is based on an optimization technique that combines active learning with an instance-based machine learning algorithm. We tested the method with the retrieval of the star-formation history and dust content in "synthetic" galaxies with a wide range of S/N ratios. The "synthetic" galaxies where constructed using two different grids of high resolution theoretical population synthesis models. The results of our controlled experiment shows that our method can estimate with good speed and accuracy the parameters of the stellar populations that make up the galaxy even for very low S/N input. For a spectrum with S/N=5 the typical average deviation between the input and fitted spectrum is less than 10**{-5}. Additional improvements are achieved using prior knowledge.
We discuss that energetic electrons are generated near the X-type magnetic reconnection region due to a surfing acceleration mechanism. In a thin plasma sheet, the polarization electric fields pointing towards the neutral sheet are induced around the boundary between the lobe and plasma sheet in association with the Hall electric current. By using a particle-in-cell simulation, we demonstrate that the polarization electric fields are strongly enhanced in an externally driven reconnection system, and some electrons can be trapped by the electrostatic potential well of the polarization field. During the trapping phase, the electrons can gain their energies from the convection/inductive reconnection electric fields. We discuss that relativistic electrons with MeV energies are quickly generated in and around the X-type neutral region by utilizing the surfing acceleration.
Lately, it has been suggested that strange (quark) stars can be responsible for glitches and other observational features of pulsars. Some discussions on whether quark stars, if really exist, are bare or crusted are also a source of controversy in the recent literature. In the present work we use the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model, known to incorporate chiral symmetry, necessarily present in the QCD formalism, in order to describe quark star properties. We compare our results for the stars and the features of the model with the much simpler model normally used in the description of strange stars, namely the MIT bag model. We also investigate the differences in the stellar properties which arise due to the presence of the crust. We show that the NJL model produces results which are somewhat different as compared with the MIT model.
We explore the nature of the faint blue objects in the Hubble Deep Field South. We have derived proper motions for the point sources in the Hubble Deep Field South using a 3 year baseline. Combining our proper motion measurements with spectral energy distribution fitting enabled us to identify 4 quasars and 42 stars, including 3 white dwarf candidates. Two of these white dwarf candidates, HDFS 1444 and 895, are found to display significant proper motion, 21.1 $\pm$ 7.9 mas/yr and 34.9 $\pm$ 8.0 mas/yr, and are consistent with being thick disk or halo white dwarfs located at ~2 kpc. The other faint blue objects analyzed by Mendez & Minniti do not show any significant proper motion and are inconsistent with being halo white dwarfs; they do not contribute to the Galactic dark matter. The observed population of stars and white dwarfs is consistent with standard Galactic models.
It is argued that depolarization of solar radio bursts requires reflection off boundary layers no thicker than about a wavelength (a few meters at most) between regions with large density ratios. The implied inhomogeneities suggest that the corona is much more highly and sharply structured than can be resolved from observations at other wavelengths. A simplified version of magnetoionic theory is used to derive a depolarization coefficient: the effect of the magnetic field is ignored in treating the dispersion, but taken into account in treating the (circular) polarization. Plots of the depolarization coefficient are used to infer conditions under which effective depolarization occurs, and it is concluded that favorable conditions require total internal reflection. For type I sources away from the central meridian, effective depolarization requires reflection off an overdense structure with a density ratio $\xi\approx10$. For type III bursts, a density ratio $\xi\approx2$ suffices, with at least two reflections off walls of ducts at $\approx20^\circ$ to the radial.
The conception of cool dark cosmic dust has been proposed. The process of accumulation of absorbed energy by dust of such kind is considered. The conception of accumulation horizon is introduced. The possible role of cool dark cosmic dust is discussed for solution of the problem of dark matter. The other aspects of the problem are also considered.
We have conducted a systematic search for stellar disk truncations in disk-like galaxies at intermediate redshift (z<1.1) using the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) data. We use the position of the truncation as a direct estimator of the size of the stellar disk. After accounting for the surface brightness evolution of the galaxies, our results suggest that the radial position of the truncations has increased with cosmic time by ~1-3 kpc in the last ~8 Gyr. This result indicates a small to moderate (~25%) inside-out growth of the disk galaxies since z~1.
We present a sample of eight extended X-ray sources detected in the wide-field (~2.3 deg^2), bright (2-10 ksec) XMM-Newton/2dF survey, reaching a flux limit of ~2 X 10^{-14} erg/s/cm^2. Of these, seven are identified as secure X-ray clusters in the soft 0.3-2 keV band using a standard wavelet algorithm on either the PN or the MOS images. Spectroscopic or photometric redshifts are available for five clusters, spanning a range between 0.12 and 0.68. The X-ray spectral fittings show temperatures between 1 and 4.6 keV, characteristic of poor clusters and groups of galaxies. We derive for the first time the XMM-Newton cluster number count log N-log S distribution albeit with poor statistics. Both the log N-\log S and the Luminosity-Temperature relation are in good agreement with previous ROSAT results.
We present new constraints on the initial mass spectrum of the Galactic Old Halo globular clusters. This has remained poorly-known so far, as both an initial power-law mass spectrum and an initial lognormal mass function could have evolved into the presently observed globular cluster mass distribution, making the initial contribution of now lost low-mass objects ill-determined. Our approach consists in comparing the evolution with time of both the radial mass density profile and the number density profile of the globular cluster system. Using the analytical expression established by Vesperini & Heggie for the temporal evolution of the mass of a globular cluster on a circular orbit in a stable Galactic potential, we evolve the mass and number density profiles of many putative globular cluster systems, each starting with different initial cluster mass spectrum and initial cluster space-density. We then compare the modelled profiles with those of the Old Halo cluster system in order to investigate which system(s) provide(s) the best consistency with the data. (abridged)
Online Digital Sky Survey (DSS) material is often used to obtain information on newly discovered variable stars for older epochs (e.g. Nova progenitors, flare stars, ...). We present here the results of an investigation of photometry on online digital sky survey material in small fields calibrated by CCD sequences. We compared different source extraction mechanisms and found, that even down near to the sensitivity limit, despite the H-compression used for the online material, photometry with an accuracy better than 0\fm1 rms is possible on DSS-II. Our investigation shows that the accuracy depends strongly on the source extraction method. The SuperCOSMOS scans, although retrieved with an higher spatial resolution, do not give us better results. The methods and parameters presented here, allow the user to obtain good plate photometry in small fields down to the Schmidt plate survey limits with a few bright CCD calibrators, which may be calibrated with amateur size telescopes. Especially for the events mentioned above, new field photometry for calibration purposes mostly exists, but the progenitors were not measured photometrically before. Also the follow up whether stellar concentrations are newly detected clusters or similar work may be done without using mid size telescopes. The calibration presented here is a "local" one for small fields. We show that this method presented here gives higher accuracies than "global" calibrations of surveys (e.g. GSC-II, SuperCOSMOS and USNO-B)
We have performed a new and homogeneous analysis of all the Li data available in the literature for main sequence stars (spectral-types from late F to K) in open clusters. In the present paper we focus on a detailed investigation of MS Li depletion and its time scales for stars in the 6350-5500 K effective temperature range. For the first time, we were able to constrain the age at which non-standard mixing processes, driving MS Li depletion, appear. We have also shown that MS Li depletion is not a continuous process and cannot be simply described by a t^(-alpha) law. We confirm that depletion becomes ineffective beyond an age of 1-2 Gyr for the majority of the stars, leading to a Li plateau at old ages. We compared the empirical scenario of Li as a function of age with the predictions of three non-standard models. We found that models including only gravity waves as main mixing process are not able to fit the Li vs. age pattern and thus this kind of mixing can be excluded as the predominant mechanism responsible for Li depletion. On the other hand, models including slow mixing induced by rotation and angular momentum loss, and in particular those including also diffusive processes not related to rotation, can explain to some extent the empirical evidence. However, none of the currently proposed models can fit the plateau at old ages.
A short note to propose a procedure to construct excess maps, probability maps and to calculate point source flux upper limits.
We study the way Lyot coronagraphs with unapodized entrance pupils respond to small, low order phase aberrations. This study is applicable to ground-based adaptive optics coronagraphs operating at 90% and higher Strehl ratios, as well as to some space-based coronagraphs with intrinsically higher Strehl ratio imaging. We utilize a second order expansion of the monochromatic point-spread function (written as a power spectrum of a power series in the phase aberration over clear aperture) to derive analytical expressions for the response of a `band-limited' Lyot coronagraph (BLC) to small, low order, phase aberrations. The BLC possesses a focal plane mask with an occulting spot whose opacity profile is a spatially band-limited function rather than a hard-edged, opaque disk. The BLC is, to first order, insensitive to tilt and astigmatism. Undersizing the stop in the re-imaged pupil plane (the Lyot plane) following the focal plane mask can alleviate second order effects of astigmatism, at the expense of system throughput and angular resolution. The optimal degree of such undersizing depends on individual instrument designs and goals. Our analytical work engenders physical insight, and complements existing numerical work on this subject. Our methods can be extended to treat the passage of higher order aberrations through band-limited Lyot coronagraphs, by using our polynomial decomposition or an analogous Fourier approach.
A comprehensive new approach is presented for deriving probability densities of physical properties characterizing lens or source that constitute an observed galactic microlensing event. While previously encountered problems are overcome, constraints from event anomalies and model parameter uncertainties can be incorporated into the estimate. Probability densities for given events need to be carefully distinguished from the statistical distribution of the same parameters among the underlying population from which the actual lenses and sources are drawn. Using given model distributions of the mass spectrum, the mass density, and the velocity distribution of Galactic disk and bulge constituents, probability densities of lens mass, distance, and the effective lens-source velocities are derived, where the effect on the distribution that arises from additional observations of annual parallax or finite-source effects, or the absence of significant effects, is shown. The presented formalism can also be used to calculate probabilities for the lens to belong to one or another population and to estimate parameters that characterize anomalies. Finally, it is shown how detection efficiency maps for binary-lens companions in the physical parameters companion mass and orbital semi-major axis arise from values determined for the mass ratio and dimensionless projected separation parameter, including the deprojection of the orbital motion for elliptical orbits. Compared to the naive estimate based on 'typical values', the detection efficiency for low-mass companions is increased by mixing in higher detection efficiencies for smaller mass ratios (i.e. smaller masses of the primary).
In this paper we deal with the problem of chromaticity, i.e. apparent position variation of stellar images with their spectral distribution, using neural networks to analyse and process astronomical images. The goal is to remove this relevant source of systematic error in the data reduction of high precision astrometric experiments, like Gaia. This task can be accomplished thanks to the capability of neural networks to solve a nonlinear approximation problem, i.e. to construct an hypersurface that approximates a given set of scattered data couples. Images are encoded associating each of them with conveniently chosen moments, evaluated along the y axis. The technique proposed, in the current framework, reduces the initial chromaticity of few milliarcseconds to values of few microarcseconds.
We present a new multiwavelength analysis of the Coma cluster subclustering based on recent X-ray data and on a compilation of nearly 900 redshifts. We characterize subclustering using the Serna&Gerbal (1996) hierarchical method which makes use of galaxy positions, redshifts, and magnitudes, and identify 17 groups. One of these groups corresponds to the main cluster, one is the well known group associated with the infalling galaxy NGC4839 and one is associated with NGC4911/NGC4926. About one third of the 17 groups have velocity distributions centered on the velocities of the very bright cluster galaxies they contain (magnitudes R<13). In order to search for additional substructures, we make use of the isophotes of X-ray brightness residuals left after the subtraction of the best-fit beta-model from the overall X-ray gas distribution (Neumann et al. 2003). We select galaxies within each of these isophotes and compare their velocity distributions with that of the whole cluster. We confirm in this way the two groups associated, respectively, with NGC4839, and with the southern part of the extended western substructure visible in X-rays. We discuss the group properties in the context of a scenario in which Coma is built by the accretion of groups infalling from the surrounding large scale structure. We estimate the recent mass accretion rate of Coma and compare it with hierarchical models of cluster evolution.
The determination of the primary cosmic ray mass composition from the longitudinal development of atmospheric cascades is still a debated issue. In this work we discuss several data analysis methods and show that if the entire information contained in the longitudinal profile is exploited, reliable results may be obtained. Among the proposed methods FCC ('Fit of the Cascade Curve'), MTA ('Multiparametric Topological Analysis') and NNA ('Neural Net Analysis') with conjugate gradient optimization algorithm give the best accuracy.
We study the difference between thermally produced fermionic and bosonic hot dark matter in detail. In the linear regime of structure formation, their distinct free-streaming behaviours can lead to pronounced differences in the matter power spectrum. While not detectable with current cosmological data, such differences will be clearly observable with upcoming large scale weak lensing surveys for particles as light as m_HDM ~ 0.2 eV. In the nonlinear regime, bosonic hot dark matter is not subject to the same phase space constraints that severely limit the amount of fermionic hot dark matter infall into cold dark matter halos. Consequently, the overdensities in fermionic and bosonic hot dark matter of equal particle mass can differ by more than a factor of five in the central part of a halo. However, this unique manifestation of quantum statistics may prove very difficult to detect unless the mass of the hot dark matter particle and its decoupling temperature fall within a very narrow window, 1 < m_HDM/eV < 4 and g* < 30. In this case, hot dark matter infall may have some observable consequences for the nonlinear power spectrum and hence the weak lensing convergence power spectrum at l ~ 10^3 - 10^4 at the percent level.
Based on the {\it dynamical} equivalence between higher order gravity and scalar-tensor gravity the PPN-limit of fourth order gravity is discussed. We exploit this analogy developing a fourth order gravity version of the Eddington PPN-parameters. As a result, Solar System experiments can be reconciled with higher order gravity, if physical constraints descending from experiments are fulfilled.
We calculate the systematic errors in the weak gravitational lensing power spectrum which would be caused by spatially-varying calibration (i.e.multiplicative) errors, such as might arise from uncorrected seeing or extinction variations. The systematic error is fully described by the angular two-point correlation function of the systematic in the case of the 2D lensing that we consider here. We investigate three specific cases: Gaussian, ``patchy'' and exponential correlation functions. In order to keep systematic errors below statistical errors in future LSST-like surveys, the spatial variation of calibration should not exceed 3% RMS. This conclusion is independent true for all forms of correlation function we consider. The relative size the E and B mode power spectrum errors does, however, depend upon the form of the correlation function, indicating that one cannot repair the E-mode power spectrum systematics by means of the B-mode measurements.
Bivariate luminosity functions (LFs) are computed for galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3 for a range of galaxy properties, including morphological type assigned by an artificial neural network, inverse concentration index, surface brightness (bivariate brightness distribution), eClass spectral type, reference frame colours, S\'ersic index, absolute Petrosian 90\% radius, stellar mass and galaxy environment. Several of the parameters are used in this way for the first time. In particular, the sample of 25,915 galaxies classified by Hubble type at the resolution E, S0, Sa ... Sd represents the largest such set in an LF by an order of magnitude. The morphological sample is flux limited to galaxies with $r<15.9$ while the other bivariate LFs use $r<17.6$ samples with a median redshift of $z \sim 0.1$. A wealth of detail is seen, with clear variation between the LFs according to absolute magnitude and the second parameter. They are consistent with a early type, bright, concentrated, red population and a late type, faint, less concentrated, blue, star forming population. This idea of bimodality has been explored by others as it suggests two major underlying physical processes. It is considered further in Ball et al. (2005, in preparation) in the context of galaxy colour and morphology. The LF bivariate with surface brightness is fit with the Cho{\l}oniewski function (a Schechter function in absolute magnitude and Gaussian in surface brightness) and the fit is found to be poor, as might be expected if the LF is a sum of more fundamental processes whose detail is visible in the dataset.
Radial velocity searches for extrasolar planets have recently detected several very low mass (7-20 M_Earth) planets in close orbits with periods < 10 days. The nature and origin of these planets is unknown, although some theories suggest that such planets, as well as planets of even lower mass, should be ubiquitous. Radius measurements for these objects would allow one to distinguish between various alternatives for their origin. We consider the prospects for detecting the analogs of these planets in Galactic open clusters via transits. We outline the requirements for constructing a transit survey that would allow one to probe such ``Hot Earths'' and ``Hot Neptunes.'' Specifically, we present a simple criterion for detection that defines the minimum aperture required to detect planets of a given radius in a cluster at a given distance. We then predict the number of planets one could detect with transit surveys toward several open clusters. Dedicated, 20-night surveys with Pan-STARRS toward the Hyades and Praesepe could detect a handful of Hot Earths, if the majority of stars host such planets. Similar surveys with larger aperture telescopes (e.g. CFHT, MMT), toward M67, M35, M50, and M37 could detect Hot Neptunes, provided that their frequency is > 1%.
The population of high energy and very high energy gamma-ray sources, detected with EGRET and the new generation of ground-based Cherenkov telescopes, conforms a reduced but physically important sample. Most of these sources are extragalactic (e.g., blazars), while among the galactic ones there are pulsars and SN remnants. The microquasar LS 5039, previously proposed to be associated with an EGRET source, has recently been detected at TeV energies, confirming that microquasars should be regarded as a class of high energy gamma-ray sources. To model and understand how the energetic photons are produced and escape from LS 5039 it is crucial to unveil the nature of the compact object, which remains unknown. Here we present new intermediate-dispersion spectroscopy of this source which, combined with values reported in the literature, provides an orbital period of 3.90603+/-0.00017 d, a mass function f(M)=0.0053+/-0.0009 M_sun, and an eccentricity e=0.35+/-0.04. Atmosphere model fitting to the spectrum of the optical companion, together with our new distance estimate of d=2.5+/-0.1 kpc, yields R_opt=9.3+0.7-0.6 R_sun, log (L_opt/L_sun)=5.26+/-0.06, and M_opt=22.9+3.4-2.9 M_sun. These, combined with our dynamical solution and the assumption of pseudo-synchronization, yield an inclination i=24.9+/-2.8 degree and a compact object mass M_X=3.7+1.3-1.0 M_sun. This is above neutron star masses for most of the standard equations of state and, therefore, we propose that the compact object in LS 5039 is a black hole. We finally discuss about the implications of our orbital solution and new parameters of the binary system on the CNO products, the accretion/ejection energetic balance, the SN explosion scenario, and the behaviour of the TeV emission with the new orbital period.
We present a method to numerically estimate the densities of a discretely sampled data based on binary space partitioning tree. We start with a root node containing all the particles and then recursively divide each node into two nodes each containing roughly equal number of particles,until each of the nodes contains only one particle. The volume of such a leaf node provides an estimate of the local density. We implement an entropy-based node splitting criterion that results in a significant improvement in the estimation of densities compared to earlier work. The method is completely metric free and can be applied to arbitrary number of dimensions. We apply this method to determine the phase space densities of dark matter halos obtained from cosmological N-body simulations. We find that contrary to earlier studies, the volume distribution function $v(f)$ of phase space density $f$ does not have a constant slope but rather a small hump at high phase space densities. We demonstrate that a model in which a halo is made up by a superposition of Hernquist spheres is not capable in explaining the shape of $v(f)$ vs $f$ relation, whereas a model which takes into account the contribution of the main halo separately roughly reproduces the behavior as seen in simulations. The use of the presented method is not limited to calculation of phase space densities, but can be used as a general-purpose data-mining tool and due to its speed and accuracy it is ideally suited for analysis of large multidimensional data sets.
We have determined the total numbers and specific frequencies of blue, metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) in eight spiral and early-type galaxies. These data, along with five measurements from the literature, show a trend of increasing blue GC specific frequency with increasing mass of the host galaxy. The increase is not accounted for in a simple galaxy formation model in which ellipticals and their GC systems are formed by the merger of typical spiral galaxies. The data appear broadly consistent with hierarchical formation scenarios in which metal-poor GCs are formed over a finite period in the early Universe during the initial stages of galaxy assembly. In this picture, the observed trend is related to biasing, in the sense that the more massive galaxies of today began assembling earlier and therefore formed relatively more GCs during this early epoch of metal-poor GC formation. We discuss how comparisons of the observed specific frequency of metal-poor GCs with model calculations can constrain the formation redshift of these objects.
We present initial results from a survey of the Orion A and B molecular clouds made with the InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. This survey encompasses a total of 5.6 square degrees with the sensitivity to detect objects below the hydrogen burning limit at an age of 1 Myr. These observations cover a number of known star forming regions, from the massive star forming clusters in the Orion Nebula and NGC 2024, to small groups of low mass stars in the L1641. We combine the IRAC photometry with photometry from the 2MASS point source catalog and use the resulting seven band data to identify stars with infrared excesses due to dusty disks and envelopes. Using the presence of an infrared excess as an indicator of youth, we show the distribution of young stars and protostars in the two molecular clouds. We find that roughly half of the stars are found in dense clusters surrounding the two regions of recent massive star formation in the Orion clouds, NGC 2024 and the Orion Nebula.
It is generally accepted that magnetic fields generated in the nonlinear development of the transverse Weibel instability provide effective collisionality in unmagnetized collisionless shocks. Recently, extensive two and three dimensional simulations improved our understanding of the growth and saturation of the instability in colliding plasma shells. However, the steady-state structure of the shock wave transition layers remains poorly understood. We use basic physical considerations and order-of-magnitude arguments to study the steady state structure in relativistic unmagnetized collisionless shocks in pair plasmas. The shock contains an electrostatic layer resulting from the formation of stationary, magnetically-focused current filaments. The filaments form where the cold upstream plasma and the counterstreaming thermal plasma interpenetrate. The filaments are not entirely neutral and strong electrostatic fields are present. Most of the downstream particles cannot cross this layer into the upstream because they are trapped by the electrostatic field. We identify the critical location in the shock transition layer where the electromagnetic field ceases to be static. At this location, the degree of charge separation in the filaments reaches a maximum value, the current inside the filaments comes close to the Alfv\'en limit, and the phase space distribution function starts to isotropize. We argue that the radius of the current filaments upstream of the critical location is about twice the upstream plasma skin depth. Finally, we show that some downstream particles cross the electrostatic layer and run ahead of the shock into the preshock medium without causing instability. These particles may play an important role in particle acceleration.
We have identified five new R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars in the Galactic bulge using the MACHO Project photometry database, raising the total number of known Galactic RCB stars to about 40. We have obtained spectra to confirm the identifications. The fact that four out of the five newly identified RCB stars are ``cool'' (T(eff) < 6000 K) rather than ``warm'' (T(eff) > 6000 K) suggests that the preponderance of warm RCB stars among the existing sample is a selection bias. These cool RCB stars are redder and fainter than their warm counterparts and may have been missed in surveys done with blue plates. Based on the number of new RCB stars discovered in the MACHO bulge fields, there may be ~250 RCB stars in the reddened "exclusion" zone toward the bulge.
Number counts of galaxy clusters offer a very promising probe of the Dark Energy (DE) equation-of-state parameter, $w$. The basic goal is to measure abundances of these objects as a function of redshift, compare this to a theoretical prediction, and infer the values of cosmological parameters. Various teams have proposed such a measurement, including the South Pole Telescope, the Dark Energy Survey and the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey. The specific study discussed here detects clusters and smaller galaxy groups in the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies inferred from a large spectroscopic redshift survey. This method allows the abundance, $N$, of groups and clusters to be measured as a function of \emph{velocity dispersion}, as well as of redshift, permitting a more sensitive test of cosmology.
Due to the impressive amount of new data provided by the RXTE satellite in the past decade, our knowledge of the phenomenology of accretion onto black holes has increased considerably. In particular, it has been possible to schematize the outburst evolution of transient systems on the basis of their spectral and timing properties, and link them to the ejection of relativistic jets as observed in the radio. Here, I present this scheme, concentrating on the properties of the quasi-periodic oscillations observed in the light curves and on the link with jet ejection.
Resonant cyclotron scattering of the surface radiation in the magnetospheres
of neutron stars may considerably modify the emergent spectra and impede
efforts to constraint neutron star properties. Resonant cyclotron scattering by
a non-relativistic warm plasma in an inhomogeneous magnetic field has a number
of unusual characteristics: (i) in the limit of high resonant optical depth,
the cyclotron resonant layer is half opaque, in sharp contrast to the case of
non-resonant scattering. (ii) The transmitted flux is on average Compton
up-scattered by ~ $1+ 2 beta_T$, where $\beta_T$ is the typical thermal
velocity in units of the velocity of light; the reflected flux has on average
the initial frequency. (iii) For both the transmitted and reflected fluxes the
dispersion of intensity decreases with increasing optical depth. (iv) The
emergent spectrum is appreciably non-Plankian while narrow spectral features
produced at the surface may be erased. (v) Optical photons are less affected by
resonant Comptonization than X-rays due to the different polarization of normal
modes in resonances in these energy bands (circular and linear), so that the UV
flux lies above the continuation of the X-rays fit to low frequency, as is
observed in RX J1856.5--3754.
We derive semi-analytically modification of the surface Plankian emission due
to multiple scattering between the resonant layers and apply the model to
anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1--5937. Our simple model fits just as well as
the ``canonical'' magnetar spectra model of a blackbody plus power-law.
We present a pilot study of 16 micron imaging within the GOODS northern field. Observations were obtained using the PeakUp imaging capability of the Spitzer IRS. We survey 35 square arcminutes to an average 3 sigma depth of 0.075 mJy and detect 149 sources. The survey partially overlaps the area imaged at 15 microns by ISO, and we demonstrate that our photometry and galaxy-number counts are consistent with their measurements. We infer the total infrared luminosity of 16 micron detections using a comparison to local templates and find a wide range of L_IR} from ~10^9 to 10^{12} L_sun. Approximately one fifth of the detected sources have counterparts in the Chandra 2 Msec catalog, and we show that the hard band (2-8 keV) detected sources are likely to have strong AGN contributions to the X-ray flux. The ultradeep sensitivity of Chandra implies some X-ray detections may be purely starbursting objects. We examine the 16 to 24 micron flux ratio and conclude that it shows evidence for the detection of redshifted PAH emission at z~0.5 and z>0.8.
We present detailed theoretical mass-radius relations for massive white dwarf stars with oxygen-neon cores. This work is motivated by recent observational evidence about the existence of white dwarf stars with very high surface gravities. Our results are based on evolutionary calculations that take into account the chemical composition expected from the evolutionary history of massive white dwarf progenitors. We present theoretical mass-radius relations for stellar mass values ranging from 1.06 to 1.30 Mo with a step of 0.02 Mo and effective temperatures from 150000 K to approx. 5,000 K. A novel aspect predicted by our calculations is that the mass-radius relation for the most massive white dwarfs exhibits a marked dependence on the neutrino luminosity. Extensive tabulations for massive white dwarfs, accessible from our web site, are presented as well.
We study the cooling of superfluid neutron stars whose cores consist of nucleon matter with the Akmal-Pandharipande-Ravenhall equation of state. This equation of state opens the powerful direct Urca process of neutrino emission in the interior of most massive neutron stars. Extending our previous studies (Gusakov et al. 2004a, Kaminker et al. 2005), we employ phenomenological density-dependent critical temperatures T_{cp}(\rho) of strong singlet-state proton pairing (with the maximum T_{cp}^{max} \sim 7e9 K in the outer stellar core) and T_{cnt}(\rho) of moderate triplet-state neutron pairing (with the maximum T_{cnt}^{max} \sim 6e8 K in the inner core). Choosing properly the position of T_{cnt}^{max} we can obtain a representative class of massive neutron stars whose cooling is intermediate between the cooling enhanced by the neutrino emission due to Cooper pairing of neutrons in the absence of the direct Urca process and the very fast cooling provided by the direct Urca process non-suppressed by superfluidity.
We have studied the power spectrum and the intermittent behavior of the fluctuations in the transmitted flux of HE2347-4342 ${\rm Ly}{\alpha}$ absorption in order to investigate if there is any discrepancy between the LCDM model with parameters given by the WMAP and observations on small scales. If the non-Gaussianity of cosmic mass field is assumed to come only from halos with an universal mass profile of the LCDM model, the non-Gaussian behavior of mass field would be effectively measured by its intermittency, because intermittency is a basic statistical feature of the cuspy structures. We have shown that the Ly$\alpha$ transmitted flux field of HE2347-4342 is significantly intermittent on small scales. With the hydrodynamic simulation, we demonstrate that the LCDM model is successful in explaining the power spectrum and intermittency of ${\rm Ly}{\alpha}$ transmitted flux. Using statistics ranging from the second to eighth order, we find no discrepancy between the LCDM model and the observed transmitted flux field, and no evidence to support the necessity of reducing the power of density perturbations relative to the standard LCDM model up to comoving scales as small as about $0.08 {\rm h}^{-1} {\rm Mpc}$. Moreover, our simulation samples show that the intermittent exponent of the Ly$\alpha$ transmitted flux field is probably scale-dependent. This result is different from the prediction of universal mass profile with a constant index of the central cusp. The scale-dependence of the intermittent exponent indicates that the distribution of baryonic gas is decoupled from the underlying dark matter.
We examined X-ray spectral and timing properties of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in nearby galaxies in XMM-Newton archival data. There appear to be three distinct classes of spectra. One class shows emission from hot, diffuse plasma. This thermal emission is similar to that seen from recent supernovae; the temperatures are in the range 0.6-0.8 keV and the luminosities are the lowest in our sample, near 10^39 erg/s. Three sources have spectra which are strongly curved at high energies and have the highest temperatures in our sample, 1.0-1.4 keV. These spectra are well fitted with a power-law plus multicolor disk blackbody model with the power-law dominant at low energies or a Comptonization model. The remainder of the sources are best fitted with a power-law plus multicolor disk blackbody model, as is commonly used to describe the spectra of accreting black holes. These sources have the lowest thermal component temperatures, 0.1-0.4 keV, and extend to the highest luminosities, above 10^40 erg/s. The temperature of the thermal component is in three distinct ranges for the three source classes. This diversity of spectral shapes and the fact that the sources lie in three distinct temperature ranges suggests that the ULXs are a diverse population. Two ULXs which show state transitions stay within a single class over the course of the transition. However, we cannot conclude with certainty that the classes represent distinct types of objects rather than spectral states of a single population of objects. We also searched for timing noise from the sources and report detection of noise above the Poisson level from five sources. In three of the sources, the power density spectrum increases with decreasing frequency as a power-law down to the lowest frequencies observed, below 10^-4 Hz.
Thermal conduction has been suggested as a possible mechanism by which sufficient extra heating is provided in radiation-dominated accretion flows. We consider the extreme case in which the generated energy due to the viscosity and the energy transported by a saturated form of thermal conduction are balanced by the advection cooling. For the steady-state structure of such accretion flows a set of self-similar solution are presented. Based on these solutions while the radial and the rotational velocities are both sub-Keplerian, increasing the level of thermal conduction has the effects of decreasing the rotational velocity, but increasing the radial velocity. Conduction provides extra heating and the temperature of the gas increases with thermal conduction.
With the aim to corroborate the result of a search for chemically peculiar stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) we present measurements obtained from CCD-imaging of two fields, one containing a young open cluster (NGC 1711). While for the latter field, including its surrounding we obtain a contribution of three percent of chemically peculiar stars detectable by Delta a photometry (i.e. the magnetic objects of this group), the second field yields about half of this value in good accordance with the finding for NGC 1866 (Maitzen et al., 2001, A&A, 371, L5) the surrounding field of which has been found to exhibit a very low value of such stars - 0.3%. Thus we are faced with the fact, that our incipient impression about a substantially lower appearance of magnetic chemically peculiar stars in the LMC as compared to the Galaxy continues to be valid. Most of the photometrically identified peculiar stars (from their historical origin denominated Ap-stars) are located in the domain of the B-type stars. But this is a selection effect due to the limiting magnitude of our observing conditions impeding the observation of fainter main sequence stars. In addition to objects showing up as positive deviators in Delta a photometry we also discuss nine stars which appear opposite the main line of normal stars, hence are negative deviators. For most of them the interpretation as emission stars of B-type seems to be appropriate. The statistically relevant number of observations obtained so far in the LMC supports the view that the formation of magnetic peculiar stars has occurred there at a significantly lower rate.
Massive Wolf-Rayet stars in a compact binary systems are characterised by very strong winds which collide creating a shock wave. If the wind nuclei accelerated at the shock can reach large enough energies, they suffer disintegration in collisions with soft thermal radiation from the massive stars injecting relativistic protons and neutrons. Protons collide with the matter of the wind and a fraction of neutrons colide with the massive stars producing gamma-rays and neutrinos. We calculate the gamma-rays fluxes from the inverse Compton pair cascades, initiated by primary gamma-rays and leptons produced by protons, and the neutrino fluxes produced by protons and neutrons for the example compact massive binary WR 20a. From normalization of the gamma-ray spectra to the fluxes of the EGRET sources, 2EG J1021-5835 and 2EG J1049-5847, we conclude that this massive binary can be detected by the IceCube type neutrino detector with the event rate between a few up to a few tens per km^2 per yr.
We study the effect of a central mass concentration (CMC) on the secular evolution of a barred disc galaxy. Unlike previous studies, we use fully self-consistent 3D $N$-body simulations with live haloes, which are known to be important for bar evolution. The CMC is introduced gradually, to avoid transients. In all cases where the mass of the CMC is of the order of, or more than, a few per cent of the mass of the disc, the strength of the bar decreases noticeably. The amount of this decrease depends strongly on the bar type. For the same CMC, bars with exponential surface-density profile, which formed in a disk-dominated galaxy (MD-type bars), can be totally destroyed, while strong bars with a flat surface-density profile, whose evolution is largely due to the halo (MH-type bars), witness only a decrease of their strength. This decrease occurs simultaneously from both the innermost and outermost parts of the bar. The CMC has a stronger effect on the Fourier components of higher azimuthal wave number $m$, leading to fatter and/or less rectangular bars. Furthermore, the CMC changes the side-on outline from peanut-shaped to boxy or, for massive CMCs, to elliptical. Similarly, side-on initially boxy outlines can be destroyed. The CMC also influences the velocity dispersion profiles. Most of the decrease of the bar strength occurs while the mass of the CMC increases and it is accompanied by an increase of the pattern speed. In all our simulations, the mass of the CMC necessary in order to destroy the bar is at least several per cent of the mass of the disc. This argues that observed super-massive black holes are not likely to destroy pre-existing bars.
Molecular clouds (MCs) are highly structured and ``turbulent''. Colliding gas streams of atomic hydrogen have been suggested as a possible source of MCs, imprinting the filamentary structure as a consequence of dynamical and thermal instabilities. We present a 2D numerical analysis of MC formation via converging HI flows. Even with modest flow speeds and completely uniform inflows, non-linear density perturbations as possible precursors of MCs arise. Thus, we suggest that MCs are inevitably formed with substantial structure, e.g., strong density and velocity fluctuations, which provide the initial conditions for subsequent gravitational collapse and star formation in a variety of galactic and extragalactic environments.
We propose a new mechanism to explain the radio Arc and threads in the Galactic Center by current sheets produced by local magnetic shears due to interaction of a moving cloud and the vertical field based on three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamical simulations. Magnetic reconnetion and acceleration of cosmic-ray electrons in the current sheet will result in high contrast of radio emissivity inside and outside the Arc and threads.
We have measured the rotational velocities (v.sini) of the mass donors in a number of D'--type symbiotic stars, using the cross-correlation function method. Four from five D' symbiotic stars with known v.sini, appeared to be very fast rotators compared with the catalogues of v.sini for the corresponding spectral types. At least three of these stars rotate at a substantial fraction (>=0.5) of the critical velocity. This means that at least in D'-type symbiotics the cool components rotate faster than isolated giants. If these binary stars are synchronized, their orbital periods should be relatively short (4-60 days). We also briefly discuss the possible origin of the rapid rotation and its connection with mass loss and dust formation.
The physical state of the intergalactic medium can be probed in great detail with the intervening absorption systems seen in quasar spectra. The properties of the Hydrogen absorbers depend on many cosmological parameters, such as the matter-power spectrum, reionisation history, ionising background and the nature of the dark matter. The spectra also contain metal lines, which can be used to constrain the star formation history and the feedback processes acting in large and small galaxies. Simulations have been instrumental in investigating to what extent these parameters can be unambiguously constrained with current and future data. This paper is meant as an introduction to this subject, and reviews techniques and methods for simulating the intergalactic medium.
We present the results of an investigation of post-Main Sequence mass loss from stars in clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, based around an imaging survey in the L'-band (3.8 micron) performed with the VLT at ESO. The data are complemented with JHKs and mid-IR photometry. The goal is to determine the influence of initial metallicity and initial mass on the mass loss and evolution during the latest stages of stellar evolution. Dust-enshrouded giants are identified by their reddened near-IR colours and thermal-IR dust excess emission. Most of these objects are Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) carbon stars in intermediate-age clusters, with progenitor masses between 1.3 and about 5 Msun. Red supergiants with circumstellar dust envelopes are found in young clusters, and have progenitor masses between 13 and 20 Msun. Post-AGB objects (e.g., Planetary Nebulae) and massive stars with detached envelopes and/or hot central stars are found in several clusters. We model the spectral energy distributions of the cluster IR objects to estimate their bolometric luminosities and mass-loss rates. The IR objects are the most luminous cluster objects, and have luminosities as expected for their initial mass and metallicity. They experience mass-loss rates in the range from a few 1e-6 up to 1e-4 Msun/yr (or more), with most of the spread being due to evolutionary effects and only a weak dependence on progenitor mass and/or initial metallicity. About half of the mass lost by 1.3--3 Msun stars is shed during the superwind phase, which lasts of order 1e5 yr. Objects with detached shells are found to have experienced the highest mass-loss rates, and are therefore interpreted as post-superwind objects. We also propose a simple method to measure the cluster mass from L'-band images.
The first CCD photometric investigation of the open cluster NGC 7296 up to now was performed within the narrow band Delta a photometric system, which enables us to detect peculiar objects. A deeper investigation of that cluster followed, using the standard BVR-Bessel filter set. The age and E(B-V) was determined independently to log t= 8.0 and 0.15 respectively by using Delta a and broadband photometry. In total five Be/Ae objects and two metal-weak stars showing significant negative Delta a-values as well as one classical chemically peculiar star could be identified within that intermediate age open cluster.
We show that the amplitude of scalar density perturbations may be damped after inflation. This implies that CMB anisotropies do not uniquely fix the amplitude of the perturbations generated during inflation. One consequence is that the present tensor-to-scalar ratio may be larger than produced in inflation, increasing the prospects of detection of primordial gravitational radiation.
We present the results of a search for cosmic ray point sources at energies above 10^19 eV in the HiRes stereo data set. The analysis is based on a maximum likelihood ratio test using the probability density function for each event rather than requiring an a priori choice of a fixed angular bin size. The search is extended to the combined data set of HiRes data above 10^19 eV and AGASA data above 4.0 10^19 eV. In both cases, no statistically significant clustering of events consistent with a point source is found.
We study the astrophysical implications of neutralino dark matter annihilations in galaxy clusters, with a specific application to the Coma cluster. We first address the determination of the dark halo models for Coma, starting from structure formation models and observational data, and we discuss in detail the role of sub-halos. We then perform a thorough analysis of the transport and diffusion properties of neutralino annihilation products, and investigate the resulting multi-frequency signals, from radio to gamma-ray frequencies. We also study other relevant astrophysical effects of neutralino annihilations, like the DM-induced Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the intracluster gas heating. As for the particle physics setup, we adopt a two-fold approach, resorting both to model-independent bottom-up scenarios and to benchmark, GUT-motivated frameworks. We show that the Coma radio-halo data (the spectrum and the surface brightness) can be nicely fitted by the neutralino-induced signal for peculiar particle physics models and for magnetic field values, which we outline in detail. Fitting the radio data and moving to higher frequencies, we find that the multi-frequency spectral energy distributions are typically dim (with respect to the data) at EUV and X-ray frequencies, but show a non-negligible gamma-ray emission, depending on the amplitude of the Coma magnetic field. The best-fit particle physics models also produce a detectable SZ effect, but do not yield substantial heating of the intracluster gas in Coma. Due to the specific multi-frequency features of the DM-induced spectral energy distribution in Coma, we find that supersymmetric models can be significantly and optimally constrained either in the gamma-rays or at radio and microwave frequencies.
We present a new phase-coherent timing analysis for the young, energetic pulsar PSR B0540-69 using 7.6 yr of data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. We measure the braking index, n=2.140+/-0.009, and discuss our measurement in the context of other discordant values reported in the literature. We present an improved source position from the phase-coherent timing of the pulsar, to our knowledge, the first of its kind from X-ray pulsar timing. In addition, we detect evidence for a glitch which has been previously reported but later disputed. The glitch occured at MJD 51335+/-12 with a fractional change in frequency of (1.4+/-0.2)E{-9} and a fractional change in frequency derivative of (1.33+/-0.02)E{-4}. We calculate that the glitch activity parameter for PSR B0540-69 is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the Crab pulsar which has otherwise very similar properties. This suggests that neutron stars of similar apparent ages, rotation properties and inferred dipolar B fields can have significantly different internal properties.
The stability of the fluorescence telescopes of the Pierre Auger Observatory is monitored with the optical relative calibration setup. Optical fibers distribute light pulses to three different diffuser groups within the optical system. The total charge per pulse is measured for each pixel and compared with reference calibration measurements. This allows monitoring the short and long term stability with respect of the relative timing between pixels and the relative gain for each pixel. The designs of the LED calibration unit (LCU) and of the Xenon flash lamp used for relative calibration, are described and their capabilities to monitor the stability of the telescope performances are studied. We report the analysis of relative calibration data {recorded during 2004}. Fluctuations in the relative calibration constants provide a measure of the stability of the FD.
We present results from the most recent (2002-2004) observing campaigns of the eclipsing system KH 15D, in addition to re-reduced data obtained at Van Vleck Observatory (VVO) between 1995 and 2000. Phasing nine years of photometric data shows substantial evolution in the width and depth of the eclipses. The most recent data indicate that the eclipses are now approximately 24 days in length, or half the orbital period. These results are interpreted and discussed in the context of the recent models for this system put forward by Winn et al. and Chiang & Murray-Clay. A periodogram of the entire data set yields a highly significant peak at 48.37 +/- 0.01 days, which is in accord with the spectroscopic period of 48.38 +/- 0.01 days determined by Johnson et al. Another significant peak, at 9.6 days, was found in the periodogram of the out-of-eclipse data at two different epochs. We interpret this as the rotation period of the visible star and argue that it may be tidally locked in pseudosynchronism with its orbital motion. If so, application of Hut's theory implies that the eccentricity of the orbit is e = 0.65 +/- 0.01. Analysis of the UVES/VLT spectra obtained by Hamilton et al. shows that the v sin(i) of the visible star in this system is 6.9 +/- 0.3 km/sec. Using this value of v sin(i) and the measured rotation period of the star, we calculate the lower limit on the radius to be R = (1.3 +/- 0.1), R_Sun, which concurs with the value obtained by Hamilton et al. from its luminosity and effective temperature. Here we assume that i = 90 degrees since it is likely that the spin and orbital angular momenta vectors are nearly aligned.
We study spectra generated as a result of Comptonization of soft photons by cold electrons radially free-falling onto a black hole. We use a Monte Carlo method involving a fully relativistic description of Comptonization in the Kerr space-time. In agreement with previous studies, we find that Comptonization on the bulk motion of free fall gives rise to power-law spectra. In contrast to some previous studies, we find that these power-law spectra extend only to energies much lower than 511 keV. We indicate several effects resulting in generic cutoffs of such spectra at a few tens of keV, regardless of any specific values of physical parameters in the model. Furthermore, the relative normalization of the Compton power law with respect to the peak of blackbody disc emission providing the seed photons is in general very low, ~<0.01. Then, the inefficiency of producing photons with energies >100 keV and the low relative normalization rule out bulk motion Comptonization as a main radiative process in soft spectral states of black-hole binaries.
VITRUV is a second generation spectro-imager for the PRIMA enabled Very Large Telescope Interferometer. By combining simultaneously up to 8 telescopes VITRUV makes the VLTI up to 6 times more efficient. This operational gain allows two novel scientific methodologies: 1) massive surveys of sizes; 2) routine interferometric imaging. The science cases presented concentrate on the qualitatively new routine interferometric imaging methodology. The science cases are not exhaustive but complementary to the PRIMA reference mission. The focus is on: a) the close environment of young stars probing for the initial conditions of planet formation and disk evolution; b) the surfaces of stars tackling dynamos, activity, pulsation, mass-loss and evolution; c) revealing the origin of the extraordinary morphologies of Planetary Nebulae and related stars; d) studying the accretion-ejection structures of stellar black-holes (microquasars) in our galaxy; e) unveiling the different interacting components (torus, jets, BLRs) of Active Galactic Nuclei; and f) probing the environment of nearby supermassive black-holes and relativistic effects in the Galactic Center black-hole.
We report results from a FUSE survey of interstellar molecular hydrogen (H2) along 45 sight lines to AGN at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 20 degrees). Most (39 of 45) of the sight lines show detectable Galactic H2 absorption from Lyman and Werner bands between 1000 and 1126 A, with column densities ranging from N(H2) = 10^(14.17-19.82) cm^-2. In the northern Galactic hemisphere, we identify many regions of low column, N(H2) < 10^15 cm^-2, between longitude l = 60-180 degrees and at b > 54 degrees. These `"H2 holes" provide valuable, uncontaminated sight lines for extragalactic UV spectroscopy, and a few may be related to the "Northern Chimney" (low Na I absorption) and "Lockman Hole" with low N(HI). A comparison of high-latitude H2 with 139 OB-star sight lines surveyed in the Galactic disk suggests that high-latitude and disk H2 clouds may have different rates of heating, cooling, and UV excitation. For rotational states J = 0 and 1, the mean excitation temperature at high latitude, <T_01(high)> = 124 +/- 8 K, is somewhat above that in the Galactic disk, <T_01(disk)> = 86 +/- 20 K. For J = 2-4, the <T_exc> = 498 +/- 28 K, and the column-density ratios, N(3)/N(1), N(4)/N(0), and N(4)/N(2), indicate a comparable degree of UV excitation in the disk and low halo for sight lines with N(H2) > 10^18. The distribution of molecular fractions at high latitude shows a transition at lower total hydrogen column density, log N_H = 20.38 +/- 0.13, than in the Galactic disk, log N_H(disk) = 20.7. If the FUV radiation fields are similar in disk and low halo, this suggests an enhanced (dust-catalyzed) H2 formation rate in higher-density, compressed clouds, which could be detectable as high-latitude, sheetlike infrared cirrus.
Theoretical considerations lead to the expectation that stars should not have masses larger than about m_{max*}=60-120Msun, while the observational evidence has been ambiguous. Only very recently has a physical stellar mass limit near 150Msun emerged thanks to modern high-resolution observations of local star-burst clusters. But this limit does not appear to depend on metallicity, in contradiction to theory. Important uncertainties remain though. It is now also emerging that star-clusters limit the masses of their constituent stars, such that a well-defined relation between the mass of the most massive star in a cluster and the cluster mass, m_{max}=F(M_ecl) \le m_{max*}\approx 150Msun, exists. One rather startling finding is that the observational data strongly favour clusters being built-up by consecutively forming more-massive stars until the most massive stars terminate further star-formation. The relation also implies that composite populations, which consist of many star clusters, most of which may be dissolved, must have steeper composite IMFs than simple stellar populations such as are found in individual clusters. Thus, for example, 10^5 Taurus--Auriga star-forming groups, each with 20 stars, will ever only sample the IMF below about 1Msun. This IMF will therefore not be identical to the IMF of one cluster with 2 times 10^6 stars. The implication is that the star-formation history of a galaxy critically determines its integrated galaxial IMF and thus the total number of supernovae per star and its chemical enrichment history. Galaxy formation and evolution models that rely on an invariant IMF would be wrong.
We derive constraints on cosmological parameters using the power spectrum of galaxy clustering measured from the final two-degree field galaxy redshift survey (2dFGRS) and a compilation of measurements of the temperature power spectrum and temperature-polarization cross-correlation of the cosmic microwave background radiation. We analyse a range of parameter sets and priors, allowing for massive neutrinos, curvature, tensors and general dark energy models. In all cases, the combination of datasets tightens the constraints, with the most dramatic improvements found for the density of dark matter and the energy-density of dark energy. If we assume a flat universe, we find a matter density parameter of $\Omega_{\rm m}=0.237 \pm 0.020$, a baryon density parameter of $\Omega_{\rm b} = 0.041 \pm 0.002$, a Hubble constant of $H_{0}=74\pm2 {\rm kms}^{-1}{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, a linear theory matter fluctuation amplitude of $\sigma_{8}=0.77\pm0.05$ and a scalar spectral index of $n_{\rm s}=0.954 \pm 0.023$ (all errors show the 68% interval). The scale invariant spectrum, $n_{\rm s}=1$, is only marginally consistent with our estimate of $n_{\rm s}$ at the 95% level. However, the detection of a tilt in the spectrum is sensitive to the choice of model. If we allow the equation of state of the dark energy to float, we find $w_{\rm DE}= -0.85_{-0.17}^{+0.18}$, consistent with a cosmological constant. We also place new limits on the mass fraction of massive neutrinos: $f_{\nu} < 0.105$ at the 95% level, corresponding to $\sum m_{\nu} < 1.2$ eV.
We present a new method for optimally extracting point-source time variability information from a series of images. Differential photometry is generally best accomplished by subtracting two images separated in time, since this removes all constant objects in the field. By removing background sources such as the host galaxies of supernovae, such subtractions make possible the measurement of the proper flux of point-source objects superimposed on extended sources. In traditional difference photometry, a single image is designated as the ``template'' image and subtracted from all other observations. This procedure does not take all the available information into account and for sub-optimal template images may produce poor results. Given N total observations of an object, we show how to obtain an estimate of the vector of fluxes from the individual images using the antisymmetric matrix of flux differences formed from the N(N-1)/2 distinct possible subtractions and provide a prescription for estimating the associated uncertainties. We then demonstrate how this method improves results over the standard procedure of designating one image as a ``template'' and differencing against only that image.
delta Equulei is among the most well-studied nearby binary star systems. Results of its observation have been applied to a wide range of fundamental studies of binary systems and stellar astrophysics. It is widely used to calibrate and constrain theoretical models of the physics of stars. We report 27 high precision differential astrometry measurements of delta Equulei from the Palomar High-precision Astrometric Search for Exoplanet Systems (PHASES). The median size of the minor axes of the uncertainty ellipses for these measurements is 26 micro-arcseconds. These data are combined with previously published radial velocity data and other previously published differential astrometry measurements using other techniques to produce a combined model for the system orbit. The distance to the system is determined to within a twentieth of a parsec and the component masses are determined at the level of a percent. The constraints on masses and distance are limited by the precisions of the radial velocity data; we outline plans improve this deficiency and discuss the outlook for further study of this binary.
Hydrogen Ly-alpha is our primary emission-line window into high redshift galaxies. Surprisingly, despite an extensive literature, Ly-alpha radiative transfer in the most realistic case of a dusty, multi-phase medium has not received detailed theoretical attention. We investigate resonant scattering through an ensemble of dusty, moving, optically thick gas clumps. We treat each clump as a scattering particle and use Monte Carlo simulations of surface scattering to quantify continuum and Ly-alpha surface scattering angles, absorption probabilities, and frequency redistribution, as a function of the gas dust content. This atomistic approach speeds up the simulations by many orders of magnitude, making possible calculations which are otherwise intractable. With these surface scattering results, we develop an analytic framework for estimating escape fractions and line widths as a function of gas geometry, motion, and dust content. We show that the key geometric parameter is the average number of surface scatters for escape in the absence of absorption. We consider two interesting applications: (i) Equivalent widths. Ly-alpha can preferentially escape from a dusty multi-phase ISM if most of the dust lies in cold neutral clouds, possibly explaining anomalously high EWs seen in many high redshift/submm sources. (ii) Multi-phase galactic outflows. We show the characteristic profile is asymmetric with a broad red tail, and relate the profile features to the outflow speed and gas geometry. Many future applications are envisaged. [Abridged]
We combine data from our recent FUSE survey of interstellar molecular hydrogen absorption toward 50 high-latitude AGN with COBE-corrected IRAS 100 micron emission maps to study the correlation of infrared cirrus with H2. A plot of the H2 column density vs. IR cirrus intensity shows the same transition in molecular fraction, f_H2, as seen with total hydrogen column density, N_H. This transition is usually attributed to H2 self-shielding, and it suggests that many diffuse cirrus clouds contain H2 in significant fractions, f_H2 = 1-30%. These clouds cover approximately 50% of the northern sky at latitudes b > 30 degrees, at temperature-corrected 100 micron intensities D_100 > 1.5 MJy/sr. The sheetlike cirrus clouds, with hydrogen densities n_H > 30 cm^-3, may be compressed by dynamical processes at the disk-halo interface, and they are conducive to H2 formation on grain surfaces. Exploiting the correlation between N(H2) and 100 micron intensity, we estimate that cirrus clouds at b > 30 contain approximately 3000 M_sun in H2. Extrapolated over the inner Milky Way, the cirrus may contain 10^7 M_sun of H2 and 10^8 M_sun in total gas mass. If elevated to 100 pc, their gravitational potential energy is ~10^53 erg.
We report test results of the correlation between time variability and peak luminosity of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), using a larger sample (32) of GRBs with known redshift than that available to Reichart et al. (2001), and using as variability measure that introduced by these authors. The results are puzzling. Assuming an isotropic-equivalent peak luminosity, as done by Reichart et al. (2001), a correlation is still found, but it is less relevant, and inconsistent with a power law as previously reported. Assuming as peak luminosity that corrected for GRB beaming for a subset of 16 GRBs with known beaming angle, the correlation becomes little less significant.
The initial radial density profiles of dark matter halos are laid down by gravitational collapse in hierarchical structure formation scenarios and are subject to further compression as baryons cool and settle to the halo centers. We here describe an explicit implementation of the algorithm, originally developed by Young, to calculate changes to the density profile as the result of adiabatic infall in a spherical halo model. Halos with random motion are more resistant to compression than are those in which random motions are neglected, which is a key weakness of the simple method widely employed. Young's algorithm results in density profiles in excellent agreement with those from N-body simulations. We show how the algorithm may be applied to determine the original uncompressed halos of real galaxies, a step which must be computed with care in order to enable a confrontation with theoretical predictions from theories such as LCDM.
The Pierre Auger Observatory is being used to study cosmic rays with energies larger than 10 EeV. An essential quantity that must be deduced from data is the lateral distribution function (LDF). Knowledge of the LDF is important for the reconstruction of the shower core and the shower direction. Here we describe how the LDF is measured using the large sample of events recorded with the surface detector (SD) array and with a small sample observed with the fluorescence detectors (FD). For hybrid events, in which SD and FD measurements of the same shower are available, the core position is much better constrained than for SD-only events, thus providing an important cross-check on the LDF determined from SD measurements alone.
Turbulent flows are ubiquitous in astrophysical environments, and
understanding density structures and their statistics in turbulent media is of
great importance in astrophysics. In this paper, we study the density power
spectra, $P_{\rho}$, of transonic and supersonic turbulent flows through one
and three-dimensional simulations of driven, isothermal hydrodynamic turbulence
with root-mean-square Mach number in the range of $1 \la M_{\rm rms} \la 10$.
From one-dimensional experiments we find that the slope of the density power
spectra becomes gradually shallower as the rms Mach number increases. It is
because the density distribution transforms from the profile with {\it
discontinuities} having $P_{\rho} \propto k^{-2}$ for $M_{\rm rms} \sim 1$ to
the profile with {\it peaks} having $P_{\rho} \propto k^0$ for $M_{\rm rms} \gg
1$. We also find that the same trend is carried to three-dimension; that is,
the density power spectrum flattens as the Mach number increases. But the
density power spectrum of the flow with $M_{\rm rms} \sim 1$ has the Kolmogorov
slope. The flattening is the consequence of the dominant density structures of
{\it filaments} and {\it sheets}. Observations have claimed different slopes of
density power spectra for electron density and cold H I gas in the interstellar
medium. We argue that while the Kolmogorov spectrum for electron density
reflects the {\it transonic} turbulence of $M_{\rm rms} \sim 1$ in the warm
ionized medium, the shallower spectrum of cold H I gas reflects the {\it
supersonic} turbulence of $M_{\rm rms} \sim$ a few in the cold neutral medium.
We present preliminary results of VLA HI imaging of selected Virgo cluster galaxies. The goal is to study environmental effects on galaxy evolution. Our sample of 41 galaxies is spread throughout the cluster and spans a wide range in star formation properties. Here we present the total HI maps of 13 galaxies. We find a number of galaxies with extended HI tails, almost all pointing away from the cluster center. Truncated HI disks are found close to the center but also in the outer region. Some galaxies near the cluster center show compression of the gas on one side. Multiwavelength data of NGC 4569 and kinematics on NGC 4396 indicate that some of the HI is extra-planar. These preliminary results on the HI morphology already suggest that a variety of environmental effects such as ICM-ISM interactions, harassment, tidal interactions or mergers may be at work to affect the evolution of galaxies.
We calculate evolution, collapse, explosion, and nucleosynthesis of
Population III very-massive stars with 500$M_{\odot}$ and 1000$M_{\odot}$.
Presupernova evolution is calculated in spherical symmetry. Collapse and
explosion are calculated by a two-dimensional code, based on the bipolar jet
models. We compare the results of nucleosynthesis with the abundance patterns
of intracluster matter, hot gases in M82, and extremely metal-poor stars in the
Galactic halo.
It was found that both 500$M_{\odot}$ and 1000$M_{\odot}$ models enter the
region of pair-instability but continue to undergo core collapse. In the
presupernova stage, silicon burning regions occupy a large fraction, more than
20% of the total mass. For moderately aspherical explosions, the patterns of
nucleosynthesis match the observational data of both intracluster medium and
M82. Our results suggest that explosions of Population III core-collapse
very-massive stars contribute significantly to the chemical evolution of gases
in clusters of galaxies. For Galactic halo stars, our [O/Fe] ratios are smaller
than the observational abundances. However, our proposed scenario is naturally
consistent with this outcome. The final black hole masses are about
500$M_{\odot}$ for our most massive (1000$M_{\odot}$) models. This result may
support the view that Population III very massive stars are responsible for the
origin of intermediate mass black holes which were recently reported to be
discovered.
The Virtual Observatory (VO) will revolutionise the way we do Astronomy by allowing easy access to all astronomical data and by making the handling and analysis of datasets at various locations across the globe much simpler and faster. I report here on the need for the VO and its status in Europe, concentrating on the recently started EURO-VO project, and then give two specific applications of VO tools to high-energy astrophysics.
Slow-roll inflation is studied as an effective field theory.We find as consistent form of the inflaton potential V(phi)=N M^4 w(phi/[sqrt{N}M_P]) where phi is the inflaton field, M the inflation energy scale, M_P the Planck mass, and N~50 the number of efolds since the relevant modes exited the horizon till the end of inflation. The dimensionless function w(chi) and field chi are O(1). The WMAP value for the amplitude of scalar adiabatic fluctuations |\Delta_{k ad}^(S)| fixes the inflation scale M ~ 0.77 10^16 GeV precisely at the GUT scale. This general form of the potential makes manifest that the slow roll expansion is an expansion in 1/N. Powers of 1/N count the orders in the slow roll expansion.This form of the inflaton potential suggests that the super symmetry breaking scale is at the inflation and GUT scales.A Ginzburg-Landau realization of this inflaton potential reveals that Hubble, inflaton mass and non-linear couplings are of the see-saw form in terms of the small ratio M/M_P. For example, the quartic coupling lambda ~ 1/N (M/M_P)^4.The smallness of the non-linear couplings is not a result of fine tuning but a natural consequence of the validity of the effective field theory. We clarify the Lyth bound which relates the tensor/scalar ratio and the value of phi/M_P.Effective field theory is valid for V(phi)<<M_P^4 allowing inflaton fields phi well beyond M_P.Thus, no bounds based on the value of phi/M_P appear on r.In case one wishes to restrict oneself to chi < 1 in the above potential, values for r larger than the previous bounds are allowed thanks to the new factor sqrt{N}~7.Finally,it is conjectured that inflation is hovering near a trivial gaussian infrared fixed point during slow roll. Slow-roll inflation would then enjoy universality properties as those of critical phenomena.
We obtain the effective inflaton potential during slow roll inflation by including the one loop quantum corrections to the energy momentum tensor from scalar curvature and tensor perturbations as well as quantum fluctuations from light scalars and light Dirac fermions generically coupled to the inflaton. During slow roll inflation there is a clean and unambiguous separation between superhorizon and subhorizon contributions to the energy momentum tensor. The superhorizon part is determined by the curvature perturbations and scalar field fluctuations: both feature infrared enhancements as the inverse of a combination of slow roll parameters which measure the departure from scale invariance in each case.Fermions and gravitons do not exhibit infrared divergences. The subhorizon part is completely specified by the trace anomaly of the fields with different spins and is solely determined by the space-time geometry. The one-loop quantum corrections to the amplitude of curvature and tensor perturbations are obtained to leading order in slow-roll and in the (H/M_PL)^2 expansion. This study provides a complete assessment of the backreaction problem up to one loop including bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom. The result validates the effective field theory description of inflation and confirms the robustness of the inflationary paradigm to quantum fluctuations. Quantum corrections to the power spectra are expressed in terms of the CMB observables:n_s, r and dn_s/dln k. Trace anomalies (especially the graviton part) dominate these quantum corrections in a definite direction: they enhance the scalar curvature fluctuations and reduce the tensor fluctuations.
We discuss a robust and fairly model-independent upper bound on the possible neutrino flux produced by neutralino annihilation in the center of our galaxy, and show that its detection with present or future neutrino telescopes is highly improbable. This bound is obtained by relating the neutrino flux to the gamma flux that would be produced in the same annihilation processes, for which measurements do exist.
We present a new semi-empirical relation for the mass loss of cool stellar winds, which so far has frequently been described by "Reimers' law". Originally, this relation was based solely on dimensional scaling arguments without any physical interpretation. In our approach, the wind is assumed to result from the spill-over of the extended chromosphere, possibly associated with the action of waves, especially Alfven waves, which are used as guidance in the derivation of the new formula. We obtain a relation akin to the original Reimers law, but which includes two new factors. They reflect how the chromospheric height depends on gravity and how the mechanical energy flux depends, mainly, on effective temperature. The new relation is tested and sensitively calibrated by modelling the blue end of the Horizontal Branch of globular clusters. The most significant difference from mass loss rates predicted by the Reimers relation is an increase by up to a factor of 3 for luminous late-type (super-)giants, in good agreement with observations.
Electromagnetic (and adiabatic) energy losses of pions and muons modify the flavor ratio (measured at Earth) of neutrinos produced by pion decay in astrophysical sources, $\Phi_{\nu_e}:\Phi_{\nu_\mu}:\Phi_{\nu_\tau}$, from 1:1:1 at low energy to 1:1.8:1.8 at high energy. The transition occurs over 1-2 decades of nuetrino energy, and is correlated with a modification of the neutrino spectrum. For gamma-ray bursts, e.g., the transition is expected at \~100 TeV, and may be detected by km-scale neutrino telescopes. Measurements of the transition energy and energy-width will provide unique probes of the physics of the sources. pion and muon energy losses also affect the ratio of $\bar\nu_e$ flux to total neutrino flux, which may be measured at the W-resonance (6.3 PeV): It is modified from 1/6 (1/15) at low energy to 1/9 (practically 0) at high energy for neutrinos produced in pp ($p\gamma$) interactions.
Using the first surface detector data of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we present the results of a blind search for overdensities in the cosmic ray flux with respect to isotropic expectations. We consider two energy bands: 1<E<5 EeV and E>5 EeV at two angular scales: 5$^\circ$ and 15$^\circ$. We also report the results of searches for excesses in target directions already defined in a set of prescriptions presented at the ICRC in 2003. Both analyses give results that are compatible with isotropy.
(abridged) Recent studies, using OGLE data for LMC Cepheids in the optical, strongly suggest that the period-luminosity (PL) relation for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids shows a break or non-linearity at a period of 10 days. In this paper we apply statistical tests, the chi-square test and the F-test, to the Cepheid data from the MACHO project to test for a non-linearity of the V- and R-band PL relations at 10 days, and extend these tests to the near infrared (JHK-band) PL relations with 2MASS data. We correct the extinction for these data by applying an extinction map towards the LMC. The statistical test we use, the F-test, is able to take account of small numbers of data points and the nature of that data on either side of the period cut at 10 days. With our data, the results we obtained imply that the VRJH-band PL relations are non-linear around a period of 10 days, while the K-band PL relation is (marginally) consistent with a single-line regression. The choice of a period of 10 days, around which this non-linearity occurs, is consistent with the results obtained when this "break" period is estimated from the data. Long period Cepheids are supplemented from the literature to increase our sample size. The photometry of these long period Cepheids is compared with our data and no trend with period is found. Our main results remain unchanged when we supplement our dataset with these long period Cepheids. By examining our data at maximum light, we also suggest arguments why errors in reddening are unlikely to be responsible for our results. The non-linearity of the mean V-band PL relation as seen in both of the OGLE and MACHO data, using different extinction maps, suggests that this non-linearity is real.
RR Lyrae stars are of great importance for investigations of Galactic
structure. However, a complete compendium of all RR-Lyraes in the solar
neighbourhood with accurate classifications and coordinates does not exist to
this day. Here we present a catalogue of 561 local RR-Lyrae stars V_max less
equal 12.5 mag according to the magnitudes given in the Combined General
Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) and 16 fainter ones. The Tycho2 catalogue
contains about 100 RR Lyr stars. However, many objects have inaccurate
coordinates in the GCVS, the primary source of variable star information, so
that a reliable cross-identification is difficult. We identified RR Lyrae from
both catalogues based on an intensive literature search. In dubious cases we
carried out photometry of fields to identify the variable. Mennessier and
Colome (2002) have published a paper with Tyc2-GCVS identifications, but we
found that many of their identifications are wrong.
Keywords: astrometry -- Stars: RR Lyrae stars -- Catalogues: Tycho-2
catalogue -- Catalogues: The HST Guide Star Catalogue, Version 1.2 --
Catalogues: Combined General Catalogue of Variable Stars
We study the effects of HD molecules on thermochemical evolution of the primordial gas behind shock waves, possibly arised in the process of galaxy formation. We find the critical shock velocity when deuterium transforms efficiently into HD molecules which then dominate gas cooling. Above this velocity the shocked gas is able to cool down to the temperature of the cosmic microwave background. Under these conditions the corresponding Jeans mass depends only on redshift and initial density of baryons $M_J \propto \delta_c^{-0.5} (1+z)^{0.5}$. At $z\simgt 45$ HD molecules heat shocked gas, and at larger redshift their contribution to thermal evolution becomes negligible.
RR Lyrae stars in the Milky Way are good tracers to study the kinematic behaviour and spatial distribution of older stellar populations. A recently established well documented sample of 217 RR Lyr stars with V<12.5 mag, has been used to reinvestigate these structural parameters. The kinematic parameters allowed to calculate the orbits of the stars. Nearly 1/3 of the stars of our sample has orbits staying near the Milky Way plane. Of the 217 stars, 163 have halo-like orbits fulfilling one of the following criteria: Theta < 100 km/s, orbit eccentricity >0.4, and normalized maximum orbital z-distance >0.45. Of these stars roughly half have retrograde orbits. The z-distance probability distribution of this sample shows scale heights of 1.3 +-0.1 kpc for the disk component and 4.6 +-0.3 kpc for the halo component. With our orbit statistics method we found a (vertical) spatial distribution which, out to z=20 kpc, is similar to that found with other methods. This distribution is also compatible with the ones found for blue (HBA and sdB) halo stars. The circular velocity Theta, the orbit eccentricity, orbit z-extent and [Fe/H] are employed to look for possible correlations. If any, it is that the metal poor stars with [Fe/H] <1.0 have a wide symmetric distribution about Theta=0. We conclude that the Milky Way possesses a halo component of old and metal poor stars with a scale height of 4-5 kpc having random orbits. The presence in our sample of a few metal poor stars (thus part of the halo population) with thin disk-like orbits is statistically not surprising. The midplane density ratio of halo to disk stars is found to be 0.16, a value very dependent on proper sample statistics. Keywords: astrometry -- Stars: kinematics -- Stars: variables -- Stars: RR-Lyrae -- Galaxy: Halo -- Galaxy: structure
We investigate the impact of galactic mass loss triggered by ram-pressure stripping of cluster galaxies on the evolution of the intra-cluster medium (ICM). We use combined N-body and hydrodynamic simulations together with a phenomenological galaxy formation model and a prescription of the effect of ram-pressure stripping on the galaxies. We analyze the effect of galaxy -- ICM interaction for different model clusters with different masses and different merger histories. Our simulations show that ram-pressure stripping can account for ~ 10% of the overall observed level of enrichment in the ICM within a radius of 1.3 Mpc. The efficiency of metal ejection of cluster galaxies depends at the first few Gyr of the simulation mainly on the cluster mass and is significantly increased during major merger events. Additionally we show that ram-pressure stripping is most efficient in the center of the galaxy cluster and the level of enrichment drops quite fast at larger radii. We present emission weighted metallicity maps of the ICM which can be compared with X-ray observations. The resulting distribution of metals in the ICM shows a complex pattern with stripes and plumes of metal rich material. The metallicity maps can be used to trace the present and past interactions between the ICM and cluster galaxies.
We present the first sample of galaxy clusters selected on the basis of their weak gravitational lensing shear. The shear induced by a cluster is a function of its mass profile and its redshift relative to the background galaxies being sheared; in contrast to more traditional methods of selecting clusters, shear selection does not depend on the cluster's star formation history, baryon content, or dynamical state. Because mass is the property of clusters which provides constraints on cosmological parameters, the dependence on these other parameters could induce potentially important biases in traditionally-selected samples. Comparison of a shear-selected sample with optically and X-ray selected samples is therefore of great importance. Here we present the first step toward a new shear-selected sample: the selection of cluster candidates from the first 8.6 deg$^2$ of the 20 deg$^2$ Deep Lens Survey (DLS), and tabulation of their basic properties such as redshifts and optical and X-ray counterparts.
We investigate the potential of multi-colour photometry for partial mode identification in both long- and short-period variable subdwarf B stars. The technique presented is based on the fact that the frequency dependence of an oscillation's amplitude and phase bears the signature of the mode's degree index l, among other things. Unknown contributing factors can be eliminated through the evaluation of the amplitude ratios and phase differences arising from the brightness variation in different wavebands, theoretically enabling the inference of the degree index from observations in two or more bandpasses. Employing a designated model atmosphere code, we calculate the brightness variation expected across the visible disk during a pulsation cycle in terms of temperature, radius, and surface gravity perturbations to the emergent flux for representative EC 14026 and PG 1716 star models. Nonadiabatic effects are considered in detail and found to be significant from nonadiabatic pulsation calculations applied to our state-of-the-art models of subdwarf B stars.
Seery and Lidsey have calculated the three-point correlator of the light scalar fields, a few Hubble times after horizon exit during inflation. Lyth and Rodriguez have calculated the contribution of this correlator to the three-point correlator of the primordial curvature perturbation. We calculate an upper bound on that contribution, showing that it is too small ever to be observable.
Surface tension (S) is due to the inward force experienced by particles at the surface and usually gravitation does not play an important role in this force. But in compact stars the gravitational force on the particles is very large and S is found to depend not only on the interactions in the strange quark matter, but also on the structure of the star, i.e. on its mass and radius. Indeed, it has been claimed recently that 511 keV photons observed by the space probe INTEGRAL from the galactic bulge may be due to electron-positron annihilation, and their source may be the positron cloud outside of an antiquark star. Such stars, if they exist, may also go a long way towards explaining away the antibaryon deficit of the universe. For that to happen S must be high enough to allow for survival of quark/antiquark stars born in early stages of the formation of the universe. High value of S may also assist explanation of delayed gamma-ray burst after a supernova explosion, as conversion from normal matter to strange matter takes place. The possibility of some implications from formation of surface waves are also discussed.
We analyze deep X-ray, optical and mid-infrared Spitzer observations of the CDF-N/GOODS-N region to study 13 submillimeter-detected galaxies (SMGs) with spectroscopic redshifts (median z=2.2). We find a correlation between the estimated stellar and X-ray luminosity, implying that masses of the black holes may be related to the stellar masses of their host galaxies. Although the submillimeter emission implies that these galaxies are undergoing an epoch of intense star-formation, the Spitzer data reveal a massive stellar population already in place. These stellar masses are then compared to previously published black hole mass estimates derived from the X-ray luminosities under the assumption of Eddington-limit accretion. We find that the black hole masses for our high-redshift sample are approximately 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than galaxies of comparable stellar mass in the local Universe. Although our estimates of black hole masses will increase if the accretion is sub-Eddington, and our stellar masses will decrease if we assume a much younger stellar population or a different initial mass function, we find that only through a combination of effects is it possible to shift the high redshift galaxies such that they lie on the local relation. This suggests that the black holes need to grow substantially between z=2.2 and the present-day, with much of the black hole growth occurring after the current obscured, far-infrared luminous phase of activity which is likely associated with the formation of the spheroid. This interpretation supports a scenario where SMGs pass through a subsequent accretion-dominated phase, where they would appear as optically bright quasars. (ABRIDGED)
We investigate orbital resonances expected to arise when a system of two planets, with masses in the range 1-4 Earth masses, undergoes convergent migration while embedded in a section of gaseous disc where the flow is laminar. We consider surface densities corresponding to 0.5-4 times that expected for a minimum mass solar nebula at 5.2 AU. Using hydrodynamic simulations we find that when the configuration is such that convergent migration occurs the planets can become locked in a first order commensurability for which the period ratio is (p+1)/p with p being an integer and migrate together maintaining it for many orbits. Relatively rapid convergent migration as tends to occur for disparate masses, results in commensurabilities with p larger than 2. However, in these cases the dynamics is found to have a stochastic character. When the convergent migration is slower, such as occurs in the equal mass case, lower p commensurabilities such as 3:2 are attained which show much greater stability. In one already known example of a system with nearly equal masses in the several Earth mass range (planets around pulsar PSR B1257+12) the two largest planets are intriguingly close to a 3:2 commensurability. A very similar behaviour is obtained when the systems are modeled using an N body code with simple prescriptions for the disc planet interaction. Using that, we found that an 8:7 resonance established in a hydrodynamic simulation run for 10-100 thousand orbits could be maintained for more than million orbits. Resonant capture leads to a rise in eccentricities that can be predicted using a simple analytic model constructed in this paper. We find that the system with the 8:7 commensurability is fully consistent with this prediction.
The SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) is a major blank-field extragalactic sub-mm survey underway at the James Clerk Maxwell telescope.SHADES aims to cover half a square degree at 450+850microns to a 4sigma depth of ~8mJy at 850microns. Two fields are being observed, the Subaru/XMM--Newton Deep Field (SXDF) and the Lockman Hole East. The survey has 3 main aims to investigate: i) the cosmic history of massive dust enshrouded star-formation activity, ii) the clustering properties of sub-mm-selected galaxies in order to determine whether these objects could be progenitors of present-day massive ellipticals, and iii) the fraction of sub-mm-selected sources that harbour AGN. To achieve these aims requires the sub-mm data be combined with co-spatial information spanning the radio-to-X-ray frequency range, the resulting extensive multi-wavelength dataset providing complete photometric redshift information accurate to delta z <~0.5 and detailed SEDs for the vast majority of the sub-mm-selected sources. In this paper, the first of a series on SHADES, we present an overview of the motivation for the survey, describe the survey strategy and provide a detailed description of the primary data analysis pipeline. As of Feb. 2004, 720arcmin^2 had been mapped with SCUBA (about 40% of the anticipated final total) to a median 1sigma depth of 2.2mJy per beam at 850microns (25mJy per beam at 450microns), and a source density of 650+/-50 sources/deg^2 >3sigma at 850microns, uncorrected for Eddington bias. A refined re-analysis of the original 8-mJy survey Lockman hole data was carried out in order to evaluate the new data reduction pipeline. Of the 17 most secure sources in the original sample, 12 have been re-confirmed, including 10 of the 11 for which radio IDs were previously secured.(Abridged)
We propose an ambitious new method that models the intracluster medium in clusters of galaxies as a set of X-ray emitting smoothed particles of plasma. Each smoothed particle is described by a handful of parameters including temperature, location, size, and elemental abundances. Hundreds to thousands of these particles are used to construct a model cluster of galaxies, with the appropriate complexity estimated from the data quality. This model is then compared iteratively with X-ray data in the form of adaptively binned photon lists via a two-sample likelihood statistic and iterated via Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The complex cluster model is propagated through the X-ray instrument response using direct sampling Monte Carlo methods. Using this approach the method can reproduce many of the features observed in the X-ray emission in a less assumption-dependent way that traditional analyses, and it allows for a more detailed characterization of the density, temperature, and metal abundance structure of clusters. Multi-instrument X-ray analyses and simultaneous X-ray, Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ), and lensing analyses are a straight-forward extension of this methodology. Significant challenges still exist in understanding the degeneracy in these models and the statistical noise induced by the complexity of the models.
We present the photometric calibration of the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys
(ACS). We give here an overview of the performance and calibration of the 2 CCD
cameras, the Wide Field Channel (WFC) and the High Resolution Channel (HRC),
and a description of the best techniques for reducing ACS CCD data.
On-orbit observations of spectrophotometric standard stars have been used to
revise the pre-launch estimate of the instrument response curves to best match
predicted and observed count rates. Synthetic photometry has been used to
determine zeropoints for all filters in 3 magnitude systems and to derive
interstellar extinction values for the ACS photometric systems.
Due to the CCD internal scattering of long wavelength photons, the width of
the PSF increases significantly in the near-IR and the aperture correction for
photometry with near-IR filters depends on the spectral energy distribution of
the source. We provide encircled energy curves and a detailed recipe to correct
for the latter effect.
Transformations between the ACS photometric systems and the UBVRI and WFPC2
systems are presented. In general, two sets of transformations are available: 1
based on the observation of 2 star clusters; the other on synthetic photometry.
We discuss the accuracy of these transformations and their sensitivity to
details of the spectra being transformed.
Initial signs of detector degradation due to the HST radiative environment
are already visible. We discuss the impact on the data in terms of dark rate
increase, charge transfer inefficiency, and hot pixel population.
We present results from a Chandra survey of the nine square degree Bootes
field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS). This XBootes survey consists
of 126 separate contiguous ACIS-I observations each of approximately 5000
seconds in duration. These unique Chandra observations allow us to search for
large scale structure and to calculate X-ray source statistics o ver a wide,
contiguous field of view with arcsecond angular resolution and uniform
coverage. Optical spectroscopic follow-up observations and the rich NDWFS data
set will allow us to identify and classify these X-ray selected sources.
Using wavelet decomposition, we detect 4642 point sources with n $\ge$ 2
counts. In order to keep our detections ~99% reliable, we limit our list to
sources with n $\ge$ 4 counts.
The full 0.5--7 keV band n $\ge$ 4 count list has 3293 point sources. In
addition to the point sources, 43 extended sources have been detected
consistent, with the depth of these observations and the number counts of
clusters. We present here the X-ray catalog for the XBootes survey, including
source positions, X-ray fluxes, hardness ratios and their uncertainties.
We calculate and present the differential number of sources per flux densit y
interval, $N(S)$, for the point sources.
CX Cep (WR 151) is the WR+O binary (WN5+O5V) with the second shortest period known in our Galaxy. To examine the circumstellar matter distribution and to better constraint the orbital parameters and mass-loss rate of the WR star, we obtained broadband and multi-band (i.e. UBVRI) linear polarization observations of the system. Our analysis of the phase-locked polarimetric modulation confirms the high orbital inclination of the system (i.e. $i=65^o$). Using the orbital solution of Lewis et al. (1993) we obtain masses of $33.9 M_{\odot}$ and $23.9 M_{\odot}$ for the O and WR stars respectively, which agree with their spectral types. A simple polarimetric model accounting for finite stellar size effects allowed us to derive a mass-loss rate for the WR star of $0.3-0.5\times10^{-5} M_{\odot}/yr$. This result was remarkably independent of the model's input parameters and favors an earlier spectral type for the WR component (i.e. WN4). Finally, using our multi-band observations, we fitted and subtracted from our data the interstellar polarization. The resulting constant intrinsic polarization of $3-4%$ is misaligned in relation to the orbital plane (i.e. $\theta_{CIP}=26^o$ vs. $\Omega=75^o$) and is the highest intrinsic polarization ever observed for a WR star. This misalignment points towards a rotational (or magnetic) origin for the asymmetry and contradicts the most recent evolutionary models for massive stars (Meynet & Maeder 2003) which predict spherically symmetric winds during the WR phase (i.e. $CIP=0%$).
By means of third-order optical theory as well as ray-tracing simulations we have investigated the feasibility of wide-field imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes with a reflective prime-focus design. For a range of desired optical resolutions, we have determined the largest available field-of-view of single-piece spherical, single-piece parabolic, tessellated spherical, tessellated parabolic and Davies-Cotton designs, always considering a wide range of design parameters. The Davies-Cotton design exhibits a surprising similarity to the tessellated parabolic design in its qualitative behaviour. Also, elliptic telescope designs with better off-axis imaging properties than Davies-Cotton are presented. We show that by using f/2 optics it is possible to build prime-focus telescopes with a full field-of-view of 10 degree at 0.1 degree resolution.
Recently, mid-infrared Spitzer observations have been presented that show the light decrement due to the passage of a planet behind its host star. These measurements of HD209458b and TrES-1 are the first detections of direct light from an extra-solar planet. Interpretation of these results in terms of planet equipartition temperature and bond albedo is however strongly model dependent and require additional observations at shorter wavelengths. Here we report on two attempts to detect the secondary eclipse of HD209458b from the ground in K-band, using the UK InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT). A photometry precision of 0.12% relative to two nearby reference stars was reached during both occasions, but no firm detection of the eclipses were obtained. The first observation shows a flux decrement of -0.13+-0.18%, and the second of -0.10+-0.10%. A detailed description of the observing strategy, data reduction and analysis is given, and a discussion on how the precision in ground-based K-band photometry could be further improved. In addition we show that the relative photometry between the target and the reference stars between the two epochs is consistent down to the <0.1% level, which is interesting in the light of possible near-infrared surveys to search for transiting planets around M and L dwarfs.
A galaxy is modeled as a stationary axially symmetric pressure-free fluid in general relativity. For the weak gravitational fields under consideration, the field equations and the equations of motion ultimately lead to one linear and one nonlinear equation relating the angular velocity to the fluid density. It is shown that the rotation curves for the Milky Way, NGC 3031, NGC 3198 and NGC 7331 are consistent with the mass density distributions of the visible matter concentrated in flattened disks. Thus the need for a massive halo of exotic dark matter is removed. For these galaxies we determine the mass density for the luminous threshold as 10^{-21.75} kg.m$^{-3}.
(Abridged) Relativistic outflows carrying large scale magnetic fields have
large inductive potential and may accelerate protons to ultra high energies. We
discuss a novel scheme of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray acceleration due to
drifts in magnetized, cylindrically collimated, sheared jets of powerful AGNs.
We point out that a positively charged particle carried by such a plasma is in
an unstable equilibrium if ${\bf B} \cdot \nabla \times {\bf v}< 0$, so that
kinetic drift along the velocity shear would lead to fast, regular energy gain.
This can be achieved in an axially inhomogeneous jet through gradient drift
induced by propagation of inertial Alfven waves along the jet. We show that if
a seed of pre-accelerated particles with energy below the ankle $\leq 10^{18}$
eV is present these can be boosted to energies above $ 10^{19}$ eV. A key
feature of the mechanism is that the highest rigidity (ratio of energy to
charge) particles are accelerated most efficiently implying the dominance of
light nuclei for energies above the ankle in our model: from a mixed population
of pre-accelerated particle the drift mechanism picks up and boosts protons
preferably. In addition, after a particle traversed large fraction of the
available potential, its Larmor radius becomes of the order of the jet
thickness. In this case, the maximum possible acceleration rate of inverse
relativistic gyro-frequency is achieved and a particle finally become
unconfined and leave the jet. The power-law spectrum of the resulting UHE
particles flattens with time to $\propto E^{-2}$.
We also point out that astrophysical schemes based on DC-type acceleration
cannot have potentials larger than $\sim 10^{15}$ Volts and thus fell short by
many orders of magnitude to produce UHECRs.
We present a pilot study of the clustering properties of Lya absorbers with respect to known galaxies based on 112 Lya absorbers and 482 galaxies identified at z<0.5 along the sightline toward PKS0405-123. The principal goal is to determine the origin of Lya absorbers based on their cross-correlation amplitude with known galaxies and investigate a possible N(HI) dependence of the cross-correlation function. The main results of our study are as follows. (1) The cross-correlation function xi_{ga} measured using only emission-line dominated galaxies and Lya absorbers of log N(HI) >= 14 shows a comparable strength to the galaxy auto-correlation function xi_{gg} on co-moving, projection distance scales < 1 h^{-1} Mpc, while there remains a lack of cross-correlation signal when using only absorption-line dominated galaxies. This signifies a morphology-dependent xi_{ga} and indicates that strong absorbers of log N(HI) >= 14 and emission-line galaxies reside in the same halo population. (2) A maximum-likelihood analysis shows that Lya absorbers of log N(HI) < 13.6 are consistent with being more randomly distributed with respect to known galaxies. Finally, (3) we find based on this single sightline that the amplitude of xi_{ga} does not depend sensitively on N(HI) for strong absorbers of log N(HI) >= 13.6.
We investigate the properties of a cosmological scenario which undergoes a gravitational phase transition at late times. In this scenario, the Universe evolves according to general relativity in the standard, hot Big Bang picture until a redshift z \lesssim 1. Non-perturbative phenomena associated with a minimally-coupled scalar field catalyzes a transition, whereby an order parameter consisting of curvature quantities such as R^2, R_{ab}R^{ab}, R_{abcd}R^{abcd} acquires a constant expectation value. The ensuing cosmic acceleration appears driven by a dark-energy component with an equation-of-state w < -1. We evaluate the constraints from type 1a supernovae, the cosmic microwave background, and other cosmological observations. We find that a range of models making a sharp transition to cosmic acceleration are consistent with observations.
We present a set of high-resolution 3D MHD simulations of steady light,
supersonic jets, exploring the influence of jet Mach number and the ambient
medium on jet propagation and energy deposition over long distances. The
results are compared to simple self-similar scaling relations for the
morphological evolution of jet-driven structures and to previously published 2D
simulations. For this study we simulated the propagation of light jets with
internal Mach numbers 3 and 12 to lengths exceeding 100 initial jet radii in
both uniform and stratified atmospheres.
The propagating jets asymptotically deposit approximately half of their
energy flux as thermal energy in the ambient atmosphere, almost independent of
jet Mach number or the external density gradient. Nearly one-quarter of the jet
total energy flux goes directly into dissipative heating of the ICM, supporting
arguments for effective feedback from AGNs to cluster media. The remaining
energy resides primarily in the jet and cocoon structures. Despite having
different shock distributions and magnetic field features, global trends in
energy flow are similar among the different models.
As expected the jets advance more rapidly through stratified atmospheres than
uniform environments. The asymptotic head velocity in King-type atmospheres
shows little or no deceleration. This contrasts with jets in uniform media with
heads that are slowed as they propagate. This suggests that the energy
deposited by jets of a given length and power depends strongly on the structure
of the ambient medium. While our low-Mach jets are more easily disrupted, their
cocoons obey evolutionary scaling relations similar to the high-Mach jets.
We re-examine the locus of narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies on the M_BH--sigma (black hole mass--bulge velocity dispersion) plane in the light of the results from large new optically selected samples. We find that (1) soft X-ray selected NLS1s have a lower ratio of BH mass to \sigma^{4}_{[OIII]} than broad line Seyfert 1 galaxies; this remains a robust statistical result contrary to recent claims otherwise; (2) optically selected NLS1s have systematically lower Eddington luminosity ratio compared to X-ray selected NLS1s; and (3) as a result, the locus of NLS1s on the M_BH--sigma plane is affected by selection effects. We argue that there is no single explanation for the origin of the M_BH--sigma relation; instead tracks of galaxies on the M_BH--sigma plane differ with redshift, consistent with the downsizing of AGN activity. If these results at face value are incorrect, then the data imply that AGNs with high Eddington accretion reside preferentially in relatively late type galaxies at the present epoch, perhaps a more interesting result and a challenge to theoretical models.
We have determined Li abundances in 55 metal-poor (3.6 < [Fe/H] < -0.7) stars with extreme orbital kinematics. We find the Li abundance in the Li-plateau stars and examine its decrease in low-temperature, low-mass stars. The Li observations are primarily from the Keck I telescope with HIRES (spectral resolution of ~48,000 and median signal-to-noise per pixel of 140). Abundances or upper limits were determined for Li for all the stars with typical errors of 0.06 dex. Our 14 stars on the Li plateau give A(Li) = log N(Li)/N(H) + 12.00 of 2.215 +-0.110, consistent with earlier results. We find a dependence of the Li abundance on metallicity as measured by [Fe/H] and the Fe-peak elements [Cr/H] and [Ni/H], with a slope of ~0.18. We also find dependences of A(Li) with the alpha elements, Mg, Ca, and Ti. For the n-capture element, Ba, the relation between A(Li) and [Ba/H] has a shallower slope of 0.13; over a range of 2.6 dex in [Ba/H], the Li abundance spans only a factor of two. We examined the possible trends of A(Li) with the characteristics of the orbits of our halo stars, but find no relationship with kinematic or dynamic properties. The stars cooler than the Li plateau are separated into three metallicity subsets. The decrease in A(Li) sets in at hotter temperatures at high metallicities than at low metallicities; this is in the opposite sense of the predictions for Li depletion from standard and non-standard models.
The mysterious 21mu emission feature seen in 12 proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) remains unidentified since its first detection in 1989. Over a dozen of candidate materials have been proposed within the past decade, but none of them has received general acceptance. Very recently, silicon carbide (SiC) grains with impurities were suggested to be the carrier of this enigmatic feature, based on recent laboratory data that doped SiC grains exhibit a resonance at \~21mu. This proposal gains strength from the fact that SiC is a common dust species in carbon-rich circumstellar envelopes. However, SiC dust has a strong vibrational band at ~11.3mu. We show in this Letter that in order to be consistent with the observed flux ratios of the 11.3mu feature to the 21mu feature, the band strength of the 21mu resonance has to be very strong, too strong to be consistent with current laboratory measurements. But this does not yet readily rule out the SiC hypothesis since recent experimental results have demonstrated that the 21mu resonance of doped SiC becomes stronger as the C impurity increases. Further laboratory measurements of SiC dust with high fractions of C impurity are urgently needed to test the hypothesis of SiC as the carrier of the 21mu feature.
We present images of NGC4696, the central galaxy in the Centaurus cluster, showing the large extent of cool filaments which are bright in H-alpha line emission. These filaments share the detailed structure of both the central dust lane and the inner regions of the arc-like plumes seen in soft X-ray emission. The X-ray gas is at its coolest, and most absorbed in this same region. The smoothness of the features implies that the local environment is not strongly turbulent. We suggest that these filaments are either shaped by confinement due to a strong magnetic field, or by bulk flows within the intracluster medium. We propose that like similar filamentary systems in the core of clusters, these cooler components have been drawn out of the central galaxy behind buoyant gas bubbles from previous episodes of radio activity. We find a spur of low-frequency radio emission leading to a region of low X-ray pressure within the intracluster medium supporting this interpretation.
Double neutron stars (DNSs), binary systems consisting of a radio pulsar and a generally undetected second neutron star (NS), have proven to be excellent laboratories for testing the theory of general relativity. The seven systems discovered in our Galaxy exhibit a remarkably well-defined relation between the pulsar spin period and the orbital eccentricity. Here we show, using a simple model where the pulsar is spun up by mass transfer from a helium-star companion, that this relation can only be produced if the second neutron star received a kick that is substantially smaller (with a velocity dispersion of less than 50 km/s) than the standard kick received by a single radio pulsar. This demonstrates that the kick mechanism depends on the evolutionary history of the NS progenitor and that the orbital parameters of DNSs are completely determined by the evolution in the preceding helium star - neutron star phase. This has important implications for estimating the rates of NS-NS mergers, one of the major potential astrophysical sources for the direct detection of gravitational waves, and for short-period gamma-ray bursts.
WW Aurigae is a detached eclipsing binary composed of two metallic-lined A-type stars orbiting each other every 2.5 days. We have determined the masses and radii of both components to accuracies of 0.4 and 0.6 percent, respectively. From a cross-correlation analysis of high-resolution spectra we find masses of 1.964 +/- 0.007 Msun for the primary star and 1.814 +/- 0.007 Msun for the secondary star. From an analysis of photoelectric uvby and UBV light curves we find the radii of the stars to be 1.927 +/- 0.011 Rsun and 1.841 +/- 0.011 Rsun, where the uncertainties have been calculated using a Monte Carlo algorithm. Fundamental effective temperatures of the two stars have been derived, using the Hipparcos parallax of WW Aur and published ultraviolet, optical and infrared fluxes, and are 7960 +/- 420 and 7670 +/- 410 K. The masses, radii and effective temperatures of WW Aur are only matched by theoretical evolutionary models for a fractional initial metal abundance, Z, of approximately 0.06 and an age of roughly 90 Myr. This seems to be the highest metal abundance inferred for a well-studied detached eclipsing binary, but we find no evidence that it is related to the metallic-lined nature of the stars. The circular orbit of WW Aur is in conflict with the circularization timescales of both the Tassoul and the Zahn tidal theories and we suggest that this is due to pre-main-sequence evolution or the presence of a circular orbit when the stars were formed.
We develop a general formalism for analyzing linear perturbations in multiple-field cosmological inflation based on the gauge-ready approach. Our inflationary model consists of an arbitrary number of scalar fields with non-minimal kinetic terms. We solve the equations for scalar- and tensor-type perturbations during inflation to the first order in slow-roll, and then obtain the super-horizon solutions for adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations after inflation. Analytic expressions for power-spectra and spectral indices arising from multiple-field inflation are presented.
We report time-resolved optical flux and circular polarization spectroscopy of the magnetic DA white dwarf HE 1045-0908 obtained with FORS1 at the ESO VLT. Considering published results, we estimate a likely rotational period of Prot ~ 2.7 h, but cannot exclude values as high as about 9 h. Our detailed Zeeman tomographic analysis reveals a field structure which is dominated by a quadrupole and contains additional dipole and octupole contributions, and which does not depend strongly on the assumed value of the period. A good fit to the Zeeman flux and polarization spectra is obtained if all field components are centred and inclinations of their magnetic axes with respect to each other are allowed for. The fit can be slightly improved if an offset from the centre of the star is included. The prevailing surface field strength is 16 MG, but values between 10 and ~75MG do occur. We derive an effective photospheric temperature of HE 1045-0908 of Teff = 10000 +/- 1000 K. The tomographic code makes use of an extensive database of pre-computed Zeeman spectra (Paper I).
We review the theory of inflation with single and multiple fields paying particular attention to the dynamics of adiabatic and entropy/isocurvature perturbations which provide the primary means of testing inflationary models. We review the theory and phenomenology of reheating and preheating after inflation providing a unified discussion of both the gravitational and nongravitational features of multi-field inflation. In addition we cover inflation in theories with extra dimensions and models such as the curvaton scenario and modulated reheating which provide alternative ways of generating large-scale density perturbations. Finally we discuss the interesting observational implications that can result from adiabatic-isocurvature correlations and non-Gaussianity.
In this letter we show that the presence of the long-range Coulomb force in dense stellar matter implies that the total charge cannot be associated with a chemical potential, even if it is a conserved quantity. As a further consequence, the analytical properties of the partition sum are modified, changing the order of the phase transitions and affecting the possible occurrence of critical behaviours. The peculiar thermodynamic properties of the system can be understood introducing a model hamiltonian in which each charge is independently neutralized by a uniform background of opposite charge.
We perform a numerical simulation of magnetohydrodynamic radially self-similar jets, whose prototype is the Blandford & Payne analytical example. The reached final steady state is valid close to the rotation axis and also at large distances above the disk where the classical analytical model fails to provide physically acceptable solutions. The outflow starts with a sub-slow magnetosonic speed which subsequently crosses all relevant MHD critical points and corresponding magnetosonic separatrix surfaces. The characteristics are plotted together with the Mach cones and the super-fast magnetosonic outflow satisfies MHD causality. The final solution remains close enough to the analytical one which is thus shown to be topologically stable and robust for various boundary conditions.
Fluxes are measured for the DA white dwarf plus brown dwarf pair GD 1400 with the Infrared Array Camera on the {\em Spitzer Space Telescope}. GD 1400 displays an infrared excess over the entire $3-8\mu$m region consistent with the presence of a mid- to late-type L dwarf companion. A discussion is given regarding current knowledge of this unique system.
A toy model is analyzed in order to evaluate the linear stability of the gain region immediately behind a stalled accretion shock, after core bounce. This model demonstrates that a negative entropy gradient is not sufficient to warrant linear instability. The stability criterion is governed by the ratio "chi" of the advection time through the gain region divided by the local timescale of buoyancy. The gain region is linearly stable if chi< 3. The classical convective instability is recovered in the limit chi>>3. For chi>3, perturbations are unstable in a limited range of horizontal wavelengths centered around twice the vertical size H of the gain region. The threshold horizontal wavenumbers k_{min} and k_{max} follow simple scaling laws such that Hk_{min}\propto 1/chi and Hk_{max}\propto chi. These scaling laws are understood as the consequence of a vortical-acoustic cycle within the gain region, fed by the Rayleigh-Taylor growth of vorticity perturbations during advection. The stability of short wavelength perturbations is compared to the "ablative stabilization" of accelerated ablation fronts. The convective stability of the l=1 mode in spherical accretion is discussed, in relation with the asymmetric explosion of core collapse supernovae. The advective stabilization of long wavelength perturbations weakens the possible influence of convection alone on a global l=1 mode. Convection may however cooperate efficiently with a global vortical-acoustic cycle extending below the gain radius.
We present measurements of the star formation efficiency (SFE) in 3D numerical simulations of driven turbulence in supercritical, ideal-MHD, and non-magnetic regimes, characterized by their mean normalized mass-to-flux ratio $\mu$, all with 64 Jeans masses and similar rms Mach numbers ($\sim 10$). In most cases, the moderately supercritical runs with $\mu = 2.8$ have significantly lower SFEs than the non-magnetic cases, being comparable to observational estimates for whole molecular clouds ($\lesssim$ 5% over 4 Myr). Also, as the mean field is increased, the number of collapsed objects decreases, and the median mass of the collapsed objects increases. However, the largest collapsed-object masses systematically occur in the weak-field case $\mu = 8.8$. The high-density tails of the density histograms in the simulations are depressed as the mean magnetic field strength is increased. This suggests that the smaller numbers and larger masses of the collapsed objects in the magnetic cases may be due to a greater scarcity and lower mean densities (implying larger Jeans masses) of the collapse candidates. In this scenario, the effect of a weak field is to reduce the probability of a core reaching its thermal Jeans mass, even if it is supercritical. We thus suggest that the SFE may be monotonically reduced as the field strength increases from zero to subcritical values, rather than there being a discontinuous transition between the sub- and supercritical regimes, and that a crucial question to address is whether the turbulence in molecular clouds is driven or decaying, with current observational and theoretical evidence favoring (albeit inconclusively) the driven regime.
We report the detection, from FUSE data, of phosphorus in the atmospheres of GD71 and two similar DA white dwarfs. This is the first detection of a trace metal in the photosphere of the spectrophotometric standard star GD71. Collectively, these objects represent the coolest DA white dwarfs in which photospheric phosphorus has been observed. We use a grid of homogeneous non-LTE synthetic spectra to measure abundances of[P/H]=-8.57 +0.09 -0.13, -8.70 +0.23 -0.37 and -8.36 +0.14 -0.19 in GD71, RE J1918+595 and RE J0605-482 respectively. At the observed level we find phosphorus has no significant impact on the overall energy distribution of GD71. We explore possible mechanisms responsible for the presence of this element in these stars, concluding that the most likely is an interplay between radiative levitation and gravitational settling but possibly modified by weak mass loss.
The 2-m robotic Liverpool Telescope reacted promptly to the gamma-ray burst GRB 050502a discovered by INTEGRAL and started observing 3 min after the onset of the GRB. The automatic identification of a bright afterglow of r'~15.8 triggered for the first time an observation sequence in the BVr'i' filters during the first hour after a GRB. Observations continued for ~1 day using the RoboNet-1.0 network of 2-m robotic telescopes. The light curve in all filters can be described by a simple power law with index of 1.2 +/- 0.1. We find evidence for a bump rising at t~0.02 days in all filters. From the spectrum and the light curve we investigate different interpretative scenarios and we find possible evidence for a uniform circumburst medium with clumps in density, as in the case of GRB 021004. Other interpretations of such bumps, such as the effect of energy injection through refreshed shocks or the result of a variable energy profile, are less favored. The optical afterglow of GRB 050502a is likely to be the result of slow electron cooling with the optical bands lying between the synchrotron peak frequency and the cooling frequency.
We present archival high resolution X-ray imaging observations of 25 nearby LINERs observed by ACIS on board Chandra. This sample builds on our previously published proprietary and archival X-ray observations, and includes the complete set of LINERs with published black hole masses and FIR luminosities that have been observed by Chandra. Of the 82 LINERs observed by Chandra, 41 (50%) display hard nuclear cores consistent with an AGN. The nuclear 2-10 keV luminosities of these AGN-LINERs range from ~ 2 X 10^38 ergs s^-1 to ~ 1 X 10^44 ergs s^-1. Reinforcing our previous work, we find a significant correlation between the Eddington ratio, L bol/LEdd, and the far-IR (FIR) luminosity, LFIR, as well as the IR brightness ratio, LFIR/LB in the host galaxy of AGN-LINERs that extends over seven orders of magnitude in Lbol/LEdd. Combining our AGN-LINER sample with galaxies from other AGN subclasses, we find that this correlation is reinforced in the full sample of 129 AGN, extending over almost nine orders of magnitude in Lbol/LEdd. Using archival and previously published observations of the 6.2 mm PAH feature from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), we find that it is unlikely that dust heating by the AGN dominates the FIR luminosity in our sample of AGN. Our results may therefore imply a fundamental link between the mass accretion rate (Mdot), as measured by the Eddington ratio, and the star formation rate (SFR), as measured by the FIR luminosity.
We present high-resolution images of the strongly bipolar planetary nebula NGC 6537, obtained with Hubble Space Telescope and with the infrared adaptive optics system on the Very Large Telescope. The central star is detected for the first time. Using the multi-band photometry and constraints from the dynamical age of the nebula, we derive a temperature in the range 1.5-2.5 10^5 K, a luminosity~10^3 L_sun and a core mass M_c~0.7-0.9 M_sun. The progenitor mass is probably in the range M_i = 3-7 M_sun. The extinction map shows a largely symmetric, and compact dust structure, which is most likely a shell, located at the neck of the bipolar flow, only 4 arcsec from the star. The dust shell traces a short-lived phase of very high mass loss at the end of the AGB. The dynamical age of the shell and bipolar lobes are very similar but the morphologies are very different. The data suggests that the mass loss during the ejection of the compact shell was largely spherically symmetric, and the pronounced bipolarity formed afterwards. The dynamical ages of the bipolar lobes and dust shell are similar, which is consistent with suggestions that bipolar structures form in a run-away event at the very last stages of the AGB mass loss. The inner edge of the dust shell is ionized, and PAH emission is seen just outside the ionized gas. We associate the PAH emission with the photo-dissociation region of the molecular shell.
We present deep submillimetre photometry for 14 galaxies at z=0.5 that are hosts of type 1a supernovae, with the aim of examining the evolution of dust mass and extinction in normal galaxies. We combine these results with our previous observations of 17 z~0.5 SN1a hosts to look for any evolution in the dust content of normal galaxies between z=0 and z=0.5. The average observed frame 850micron flux of SN1a hosts in the full sample, excluding 2 bright individually detected objects, is 0.44 +/- 0.22 mJy. This flux level is consistent with there being little or no evolution in the dust content, or optical extinction, of normal galaxies from z=0 to z=0.5. One galaxy, the host of SN1996cf, is detected individually, and we also present a deep HST STIS image for this object. It appears to be an edge on disk system, similar to the submm bright host of SN1997ey. We thus examine the dust properties of these and one other individually detected object. 450-to-850 micron flux ratios and limits suggest that the dust in the two brightest submm sources, SN1996cf and SN1997ey, is cold, T ~20K, implying that they contain a substantial mass of dust ~10^9 Msun. The presence of two bright (F850 >7mJy) submm sources at z~0.5 in a sample of ostensibly normal galaxies is surprising, and has important implications. It supports the idea that a substantial part of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) may be produced at z<1, while also suggesting that 'foreground' objects such as these may be a significant 'contaminant' in submm surveys. Finally, we examine the overall submm luminosity distribution at z=0.5 implied by our results, and conclude that either there is substantial evolution in the submm luminosity function from z=0 to 0.5, or our submm detected sources are somehow not representative of the bulk of galaxies at this redshift.
We study the properties of the diffuse X-ray background by using the results of a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation of the concordance LambdaCDM model. The simulation follows gravitational dynamics and gasdynamics, including also a realistic treatment of physical processes like radiative cooling, star formation and supernova feedback. Using its outputs we produce a set of maps of the X-ray emission from the intergalactic medium up to high redshift. We find that the signal in the soft (0.5-2 keV) band is lognormally distributed with a mean intensity of about 4 10^-12 erg s^-1 cm^-2 deg^-2; approximately 40 per cent of the emission is contributed by warm-hot (10^5<T<10^7 K) gas, and 90 per cent comes from structures with z<0.9. Since the spectrum is soft, being provided mostly by intergalactic medium at low temperature, the total mean intensity in the hard (2-10 keV) X-ray band is smaller by a factor of about 4. In order to put constraints on the physical processes included in our simulation, we compare the observational upper limits for the soft X-ray emission from diffuse gas (1.2 +/- 0.3 10^-12 erg s^-1 cm^-2 deg^-2) with our results. For this purpose we remove the contributions from observable virialized objects (groups and clusters of galaxies) from the simulated maps by adopting different detectability criteria which are calibrated by using the characteristics of objects observed by Chandra at intermediate redshifts. We show that the diffuse soft X-ray emission is consistent with the present observational upper limits. However, if future measurements will further reduce by a factor of 2 the level of the unresolved X-ray background, a more efficient feedback mechanism should be required to suppress the soft emission from gas residing within group-sized haloes and filaments.
We consider the weak lensing effect induced by linear cosmological perturbations on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization anisotropies. We find that the amplitude of the lensing peak in the BB mode power spectrum is a faithful tracer of the dark energy dynamics at the onset of cosmic acceleration. This is due to two reasons. First, the lensing power is non-zero only at intermediate redshifts between the observer and the source, keeping record of the linear perturbation growth rate at the corresponding epoch. Second, the BB lensing signal is expected to dominate over the other sources. The effect on the total intensity, EE polarization spectra and their correlation is sensibly smaller since they are dominated by primary anisotropies. We investigate and quantify the effect by means of exact tracking quintessence models, as well as parameterizing the dark energy equation of state in terms of the present value ($w_{0}$) and first derivative in scale factor ($w_{a}$); in the interval allowed by the present constraints on dark energy, the variation of $w_{a}$ induces a change in the BB mode lensing amplitude as large as 30%. A Fisher matrix analysis, under conservative assumptions concerning the increase of the sample variance due to the non-Gaussian statistics of lensing in the BB power, shows that a 10% precision on both $w_{0}$ and $w_{a}$ is achievable from the CMB power spectra by the forthcoming experiments capable to detect the lensing peak in CMB polarization. These results show that the CMB can probe the differential redshift behavior of the dark energy equation of state, beyond its average.
The Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) is carrying out a comprehensive multi-wavelength survey on a sample of 75 nearby galaxies. The 1-850um spectral energy distributions are presented using broadband imaging data from Spitzer, 2MASS, ISO, IRAS, and SCUBA. The infrared colors derived from the globally-integrated Spitzer data are generally consistent with the previous generation of models that were developed based on global data for normal star-forming galaxies, though significant deviations are observed. Spitzer's excellent sensitivity and resolution also allow a detailed investigation of the infrared spectral energy distributions for various locations within the three large, nearby galaxies NGC3031 (M81), NGC5194 (M51), and NGC7331. Strong correlations exist between the local star formation rate and the infrared colors f_nu(70um)/f_nu(160um) and f_nu(24um)/f_nu(160um), suggesting that the 24 and 70um emission are useful tracers of the local star formation activity level. Preliminary evidence indicates that variations in the 24um emission, and not variations in the emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at 8um, drive the variations in the f_nu(8.0um)/f_nu(160um) colors within NGC3031, NGC5194, and NGC7331. If the galaxy-to-galaxy variations in spectral energy distributions seen in our sample are representative of the range present at high redshift then extrapolations of total infrared luminosities and star formation rates from the observed 24um flux will be uncertain at the factor-of-five level (total range). The corresponding uncertainties using the redshifted 8.0um flux (e.g. observed 24um flux for a z=2 source) are factors of 10-20. Considerable caution should be used when interpreting such extrapolated infrared luminosities.
We demonstrate the feasibility of detecting directly low mass stars in unresolved super-star clusters with ages < 10 Myr using near-infrared spectroscopy at modest resolution (R ~ 1000). Such measurements could constrain the ratio of high to low mass stars in these extreme star-forming events, providing a direct test on the universal nature of the initial mass function (IMF) compared to the disk of the Milky Way (Chabrier, 2003). We compute the integrated light of super-star clusters with masses of 10^6 Msun drawn from the Salpeter (1955) and Chabrier (2003) IMFs for clusters aged 1, 3, and 10 Myr. We combine, for the first time, results from Starburst99 (Leitherer et al. 1999) for the main sequence and post-main sequence population (including nebular emission) with pre-main sequence (PMS) evolutionary models (Siess et al. 2000) for the low mass stars as a function of age. We show that ~ 4-12 % of the integrated light observed at 2.2 microns comes from low mass PMS stars with late-type stellar absorption features at ages < 3 Myr. This light is discernable using high signal-to-noise spectra (> 100) at R=1000 placing constraints on the ratio of high to low mass stars contributing to the integrated light of the cluster.
We study the clustering properties of groups and of galaxies in groups in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey dataset at z~1. Four clustering measures are presented: 1) the group correlation function for 460 groups with estimated velocity dispersions of sigma>200 km/s, 2) the galaxy correlation for the full galaxy sample, using a flux-limited sample of 9800 objects between 0.7<z<1.0, 3) the galaxy correlation for galaxies in groups, and 4) the group-galaxy cross-correlation function. Using the observed number density and clustering amplitude of the groups, the estimated minimum group dark matter halo mass is M_min~6 10^12 h^-1 M_Sun for a flat LCDM cosmology. Groups are more clustered than galaxies, with a relative bias of b=1.56 +/-0.07 on scales r_p=0.5-15 Mpc/h. Galaxies in groups are also more clustered than the full galaxy sample, with a scale-dependent relative bias which falls from b~2.5 +/-0.3 at r_p=0.1 Mpc/h to b~1 +/-0.5 at r_p=10 Mpc/h. The correlation functions for all galaxies and galaxies in groups can be fit by a power-law on scales r_p=0.05-20 Mpc/h. We empirically measure the contribution to the projected correlation function for galaxies in groups from a `one-halo' term and a `two-halo' term by counting pairs of galaxies in the same or in different groups. The projected cross-correlation between shows that red galaxies are more centrally concentrated in groups than blue galaxies at z~1. DEEP2 galaxies in groups appear to have a shallower radial distribution than that of mock galaxy catalogs made from N-body simulations, which assume a central galaxy surrounded by satellite galaxies with an NFW profile. We show that the clustering of galaxies in groups can be used to place tighter constraints on the halo model than can be gained from using the usual galaxy correlation function alone.
I present a review of recent observational work on Cepheid variables and eclipsing binaries in our Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, and other members of the Local Group.
We have analyzed the properties of metals in the high redshift intergalactic medium using a novel objective pixel optical depth technique on a sample of extremely high signal-to-noise Keck HIRES and ESI spectra of 26 quasars between redshifts 2.1 and 6.4. The technique relies on using the doublet nature of the common ions CIV and SiIV that are the principal metal tracers in the intergalactic medium outside of the Ly alpha forest. Optical depths are statistically corrected for contamination by other lines, telluric absorption, bad pixels, continuum fitting, etc. and for incompleteness, and we achieve in this way an increased sensitivity of approximately 0.5 dex over previous analyses. Unlike existing POD techniques, we do not compare the ion optical depths with HI optical depths; we therefore avoid problems arising from different velocity widths in the ion and HI. We have shown how the conventional analysis can be reproduced using a percolation method to generate pseudo-clouds from ion optical depths. We find that for the higher resolution HIRES data there is a tight relation, tau ~ N^{0.7}, between the peak optical depth and the column density. From the optical depth vectors themselves we show that there is little evolution in the total amount of CIV from z = 2 to z = 5, though there is a turndown of at least a factor of two in Omega(CIV) above z = 5. We do, however, see substantial evolution in the ratio, SiIV/CIV. Two subsequent papers will investigate what fraction of the absorbers lie in galatic wind outflows (Paper II) and what metallicity is associated with regions of tau(Ly alpha) < 1 (Paper III).
We study analytically the possibility that mergers of haloes are more highly clustered than the general population of haloes of comparable masses. We begin by investigating predictions for merger bias within the extended Press-Schechter formalism and discuss some limitations and ambiguities of this approach. We then postulate that mergers occur whenever two objects form within a (small) fixed distance of each other. We therefore study the clustering of pairs of points for a highly biased population in the linear regime, for the overall mass distribution in the quasilinear regime, and (using the halo model of clustering) in the nonlinear regime. Biasing, quasilinear evolution, and nonlinear clustering all lead to nonzero reduced (or connected) three-point and four-point correlation functions. These higher-order correlation functions can in many cases enhance the clustering of close pairs of points relative to the clustering of individual points. If close pairs are likely to merge, then the clustering of mergers may be enhanced. We discuss implications for the anomalously high clustering of Lyman-break galaxies and for correlations of active galactic nuclei and galaxy clusters.
Multi-dimensional simulations of the neutrino-driven mechanism behind core-collapse supernovae have long shown that the explosions from this mechanism would be asymmetric. Recently, detailed core-collapse simulations have shown that the explosion may be strongest in a single direction. We present a suite of simulations modeling these ``single-lobe'' supernova explosions of a 15 solar mass red supergiant star, focusing on the effect these asymmetries have on the gamma-ray emission and the mixing in the explosion. We discuss how asymmetries in the explosion mechanism might explain many of the observed ``asymmetries'' of supernovae, focusing on features of both supernova 1987A and the Cas A supernova remnant. In particular, we show that single-lobe explosions provide a promising solution to the redshifted iron lines of supernova 1987A. We also show that the extent of mixing for explosive burning products depends sensitively on the angular profile of the velocity asymmetry and can be much more extensive than previously assumed.
We present the results of HST/WFPC2 medium and narrow band imaging and VLA and MERLIN2 radio imaging of three powerful radio galaxies: 3C 171, 3C 277.3, and PKS 2250-41. We obtained images of the rest frame [OIII]$\lambda$5007 and [OII]$\lambda$3727 line emission using the Linear Ramp Filters on WFPC2. The correlations between the emission line morphology and the [OIII]/[OII] line ratios with the radio emission seen in ground based observations are clarified by the HST imaging. We confirm that the radio lobes and hot-spots are preferentially associated with lower ionization gas. 3C 171 exhibits high surface brightness emission line gas mainly along the radio source axis. The lowest ionization gas is seen at the Eastern hot spot. In 3C 277.3 there is bright high ionization gas (and continuum) offset just to the east of the radio knot K1. Our observations are consistent with previous work suggesting that this emission is produced by precursor gas ionized by the shock being driven into the cloud by the deflected radio jet. In PKS 2250-41 we resolve the emission line arc which wraps around the outer rim of the western lobe. The lower ionization [OII] emission is nested just interior to the higher ionization [OIII] emission suggesting that we have resolved the cooling region behind the bow shock. We also detect possible continuum emission from the secondary hot-spot. Thus, our observations support the hypothesis that in these sources, the interaction between the expanding radio source and the ambient gas strongly influences the morphology, kinematics, and ionization of the gas.
Blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs) are faint (M(B) < -17 mag) compact (R <1 kpc), at least qualitatively very blue galaxies due to active star formation, and have low metallicities. Found serendipitously as part of a redshift survey of faint galaxies with the Keck Telescope (DEEP), SA 68-6597 is at a distance of 80 Mpc, and is one of the faintest, -12.4 mag, lowest metallicity, ~0.05 Z(sun), BCDs known. Its H-beta linewidth of sigma =27 km/s and small size, R(eff) ~ 190 pc, suggest that it is an extremely low mass galaxy. We have used the Arecibo telescope to measure the HI properties of SA 68-6597 in order to better constrain its total mass and its potential for future star formation. SA 68-6597 has a M(HI) = (1.4+-0.4)x10^7 M(sun) and an HI FWHM linewidth of 33$\pm^{60}_{12}$. Combining the HI linewidth with an estimate of the size of the HI disk, we derive a M(dyn)>~3x10^7 M(sun). The M(HI)/L(B)=1.0+-0.3 M(sun)/L(sun), M(dyn)/L(B) >= 2 M(sun)/L(sun) and M(HI)/M(dyn) <~ 0.47 values are typical for BCDs. Combining the measured star formation rate of 0.003 M(sun)/yr with the HI mass, we derive a gas depletion timescale of 5+-2 Gyr. While SA 68-6597 is a fainter, lower-mass, higher metallicity counterpart to other BCDs like I Zw 18 and SBS 0335-052, its HI properties suggest it will not evolve dramatically in the near future. Given the limits on its gaseous and dynamical masses, SA 68-6597 may be able to evolve into a moderately massive dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
A large fraction of the detections to be made by the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will initially be unidentified. We argue that traditional methodological approaches to identify individuals and/or populations of $\gamma$-ray sources will encounter procedural limitations. These limitations will hamper our ability to classify source populations lying in the anticipated dataset with the required degree of confidence, particularly those for which no member has yet been convincingly detected in the predecessor experiment EGRET. Here we suggest a new paradigm for achieving the classification of $\gamma$-ray source populations based on the implementation of an a priori protocol to search for theoretically-motivated candidate sources. In order to protect the discovery potential of the sample, it is essential that such paradigm will be defined before the data is unblinded. Key to the new procedure is a statistical assessment by which the discovery of a new population can be claimed. Although we explicitly refer here to the case of GLAST, the scheme we present may be adapted to other experiments confronted with a similar problematic.
The Sun's vertical displacement from the galactic plane is determined model-independently from 3457 spectroscopic-parallax distance estimates for 2397 OB stars within 1200 pc of the Sun. The result, 19.5 +/- 2.2 pc, agrees well with other recent determinations. The distribution of stellar z-values with galactic longitude shows a slight sinusoidal dependence with an amplitude of about 26 pc.
It has recently been suggested that ultra-high energy cosmic rays could have an extragalactic origin down to the "second knee" at ~4x10^{17}eV. In this case the "ankle" or "dip" at ~5x10^{18}eV would be due to pair production of extragalactic protons on the cosmic microwave background which requires an injection spectrum of about E^{-2.6}. It has been pointed out that for injection of a mixed composition of nuclei a harder injection spectrum \~E^{-2.2} is required to fit the spectra at the highest energies and a galactic component is required in this case to fit the spectrum below the ankle, unless the proton fraction is larger than 85%. Here we perform numerical simulations and find that for sufficiently magnetized sources, observed spectra above 10^{19}eV approach again the case of pure proton injection due to increased path-lengths and more efficient photo-disintegration of nuclei around the sources. This decreases secondary fluxes at a given energy and thus requires injection spectra ~E^{-2.6}, as steep as for pure proton injection. In addition, the ankle may again be sufficiently dominated by protons to be interpreted as a pair production dip.
We investigate the origin of a nearly pointlike cluster of 5 ultrahigh energy cosmic rays at RA ~169.2deg and dec ~56.8deg, using Sloan Digital Sky Survey and other data. No particular source candidates are found near the estimated source direction, but the direction is exceptional in having a likely merging pair of galaxy clusters at 140/h Mpc, with an unusually low foreground density. Large scale shocks or another product of the merging galaxy clusters may accelerate the UHECRs, or the merging galaxy clusters may be coincidental and the UHECRs may be accelerated in a rare event of an unexceptional progenitor. Low magnetic deflections in the foreground void may explain why this is the only identified pointlike cluster of so many UHECRs.
We present the results of optical spectroscopy and imaging with the SAO 6m telescope for the dwarf galaxy DDO 68 (UGC 5340 = VV 542), falling into the region of the very low density of luminous (L > L*) galaxies (Lynx-Cancer void). Its deep images in V,R bands and in the narrow H-alpha-filter show that the galaxy has the very irregular morphology, with a long curved tail on the South, and a ring-like structure at the Northern edge. The latter consists of 5 separate regions, in three of which we could measure O/H by the classical T_e method. Their weighted mean oxygen abundance corresponds to 12+log(O/H)=7.21+-0.03, coincident within uncertainties with those for IZw18. The (V-R) colour of DDO 68 is rather blue all over the galaxy, indicating the youth of its stellar populations. From the comparison of (V-R)_0 colour of the underlying exponential disk of 0.12+-0.04 with the PEGASE.2 models for the evolving stellar clusters, we give the first estimate of the ages of the oldest stellar population which needs in the confirmation by the other colours and the photometry of resolved stars. These ages are in the range of 200-900 Myr for continuous star formation law, and 100-115 Myr for the instantaneous starburst. We discuss the properties and the possible youth of this nearby object (2.3 times closer than the famous young galaxy IZw18) in the context of its atypical environment.
Long gamma-ray bursts are thought to be caused by a subset of exploding Wolf-Rayet stars. We argue that the circumstellar absorption lines in early supernova and in gamma-ray burst afterglow spectra may allow us to determine the main properties of the Wolf-Rayet star progenitors which can produce those two events. To demonstrate this, we first simulate the hydrodynamic evolution of the circumstellar medium around a 40 Msun star up to the time of the supernova explosion. Knowledge of density, temperature and radial velocity of the circumstellar matter as function of space and time allows us to compute the column density in the line of sight to the centre of the nebula, as a function of radial velocity, angle and time. Our column density profiles indicate the possible number, strengths, widths and velocities of absorption line components in supernova and gamma-ray burst afterglow spectra. Our example calculation shows four distinct line features during the Wolf-Rayet stage, at about 0, 50, 150-700 and 2200 km/s, with only those of the lowest and highest velocity present at all times. The 150-700 km/s feature decays rapidly as function of time after the onset of the Wolf-Rayet stage. It consists of a variable number of components, and, especially in its evolved stage, is depending strongly on the particular line of sight. A comparison with absorption lines detected in the afterglow of GRB 021004 suggests that the high velocity absorption component in GRB 021004 may be attributed to the free streaming Wolf-Rayet wind, which is consistent with the steep density drop indicated by the afterglow light curve. The presence of the intermediate velocity components implies that the duration of the Wolf-Rayet phase of the progenitor of GRB 021004 was much smaller than the average Wolf-Rayet life time.
We report on INTEGRAL observations of AX J1838.0-0655, one of the unidentified objects listed in the first IBIS/ISGRI survey catalogue and located in the Scutum arm region. This object, detected in the 20-300 keV band at a confidence level of 15.3 sigma (9 x 10^-11 erg cm-2 s-1) is the likely counterpart of the still unidentified TeV source HESS J1837-069. It has been detected in the past by various X-ray telescopes, including ASCA, implying that it is a persistent rather than a transient source; the ASCA image is compatible with the source not being resolved. The broad 1-300 keV spectrum is characterized by an absorbed (NH = 6.7+/-1.3 x 10^22 cm-2) and hard (Gamma =1.5 +/- 0.2) power law continuum. Possible counterparts (radio and infrared) present within the X-ray error box are discussed, even if no clear association can be identified. The broad band spectrum together with the TeV detection suggests that AX J1838.0-0655 maybe a supernova remnant or a pulsar wind nebula, which has so far eluded detection in the radio band. This is the second unidentified HESS source that shows a substantial soft gamma-ray emission.
We present rapid-cadence Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observations which show evidence of a filament eruption from active region NOAA 10696, accompanied by an X2.5 flare, on 2004 November 10. The eruptive filament, which manifests as a fast coronal mass ejection some minutes later, rises as a kinking structure with an apparently exponential growth of height within TRACE's field of view. We compare the characteristics of this filament eruption with MHD numerical simulations of a kink-unstable magnetic flux rope, finding excellent qualitative agreement. We suggest that, while tether weakening by breakout-like quadrupolar reconnection may be the release mechanism for the previously confined flux rope, the driver of the expansion is most likely the MHD helical kink instability.
The ideal helical kink instability of a force-free coronal magnetic flux rope, anchored in the photosphere, is studied as a model for solar eruptions. Using the flux rope model of Titov & D\'emoulin (1999) as the initial condition in MHD simulations, both the development of helical shape and the rise profile of a confined (or failed) filament eruption (on 2002 May 27) are reproduced in excellent agreement with the observations. By modifying the model such that the magnetic field decreases more rapidly with height above the photosphere, a full (or ejective) eruption of the flux rope is obtained in excellent agreement with the developing helical shape and the exponential-to-linear rise profile of a fast coronal mass ejection (CME) (on 2001 May 15). This confirms that the helical kink instability of a twisted magnetic flux rope can be the mechanism of the initiation and the initial driver of solar eruptions. The agreement of the simulations with properties that are characteristic of many eruptions suggests that they are often triggered by the kink instability. The decrease of the overlying field with height is a main factor in deciding whether the instability leads to a confined event or to a CME.
We report the results of a search for point-like deviations from isotropy in the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the northern hemisphere. In the monocular data set collected by the High-Resolution Fly's Eye, consisting of 1,525 events with energy exceeding 10^18.5 eV, we find no evidence for point-like excesses. We place 90% c.l. upper limits less than or equal to 0.8 cosmic rays/km^2yr on the flux from such sources as a function of position in the sky.
The contribution of ordered rotation to the observed tilt and thickness of the Fundamental Plane of elliptical galaxies is studied by means of oblate, two-integrals cuspy galaxy models with adjustable flattening, variable amount of ordered rotational support, and possible presence of a dark matter halo and of a central super-massive black hole. We find that, when restricting the measure of the velocity dispersion to the central galactic regions, rotation has a negligible effect, and so cannot be responsible of the observed tilt. However, streaming velocity effect can be significant when observing small and rotationally supported galaxies through large (relative) aperture (as for example in Fundamental Plane studies at high redshift), and can lead to unrealistically low mass-to-light ratios. The effect of a central supermassive black hole on the kinematical fields, and the models position in the v/sigma-ellipticity plane are also discussed.
Radio spectroscopy offers a number of tools for studying a large variety of astrophysical phenomena, ranging from stars and their environment to interstellar and intergalactic medium, active galactic nuclei (AGN) and distant quasars. Main targets of extragalactic radio spectroscopy are atomic and molecular material in galaxies, HII regions, and maser emission originating in the dense, circumnuclear regions. These studies cover all galactic types and span an impressive range of angular scales and distances. Molecular emission, hydrogen absorption and maser lines have become the tools of choice for making an assessment of physical conditions in the nuclear regions of galaxies. In this contribution, some of the recent advances in the aforementioned fields will be reviewed and discussed in connection with future radio astronomical facilities.
We consider a holographic dark energy model, in which both the CC energy density rho_Lambda and the Newton constant G_N are varying quantities, to study the problem of setting an effective field-theory IR cutoff. Assuming that ordinary matter scales canonically, we show that the continuity equation univocally fixes the IR cutoff, provided a law of variation for either rho_Lambda or G_N is known. Previous considerations on holographic dark energy disfavor the Hubble parameter as a candidate for the IR cutoff (for spatially flat universes), since in this case the ratio of dark energy to dark matter is not allowed to vary, thus hindering a deceleration era of the universe for the redshifts z>=0.5. On the other hand, the future event horizon as a choice for the IR cutoff is being favored in the literature, although the `coincidence problem' usually cannot be addressed in that case. We extend considerations to spatially curved universes, and show that with the Hubble parameter as a choice for the IR cutoff one always obtains a universe that never accelerates or a universe that accelerates all the time, thus making the transition from deceleration to acceleration impossible. Next, we apply the IR cutoff consistency procedure to a RG running CC model, in which the low-energy variation of the CC is due to quantum effects of particle fields having masses near the Planck scale. We show that bringing such a model in full accordance with holography amounts to having such an IR cutoff which scales as a square root of the Hubble parameter. We find that such a setup, in which the only undetermined input represents the true ground state of the vacuum, can give early deceleration as well as late time acceleration. The possibility of further improvement of the model is also briefly indicated.
The luminous high-redshift (z=2.17) quasar S50836+710 has been observed in October 1997 with the VSOP at 1.6 GHz and 5 GHz. We report here a previously unpublished image made from the data at 1.6 GHz and compare the structure of a relativistic jet in this quasazr at the two frequencies. We present a spectral index image tracing spectral properties of the jet up to ~40 milliarcsecond distance from the nucleus. The curved jet ridge line observed in the images and the spectral index distribution can be described by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability developing in a relativistic outflow with a Mach number of ~6. In this description, the overall ridge line of the jet is formed by the helical surface mode of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, while areas of flatter spectral index embedded into the flow correspond to pressure enhancements produced by the elliptical surface mode of the instability. An alternative explanation involving a sequence of slowly dissipating shocks cannot be ruled out at this point.
In this paper we present a new deep, wide-field near-infrared imaging survey. Our J- and K-band observations in four separate fields complement optical BVRI, ultraviolet and spectroscopic observations undertaken as part of the VIMOS-VLT deep survey (VVDS). In total, our survey spans ~400arcmis^2. Our catalogues are reliable in all fields to at least Kvega~20.75 and Jvega~21.50 (defined as the magnitude where object contamination is less than 10% and completeness greater than 90%). Taken together these four fields represents a unique combination of depth, wavelength coverage and area. We describe the complete data reduction process and outline a comprehensive series of tests carried out to characterise the reliability of the final catalogues. We compare the statistical properties of our catalogues with literature compilations. We find that our J- and K-selected galaxy counts are in good agreement with previously published works, as are our (J-K) versus K colour-magnitude diagrams. Stellar number counts extracted from our fields are consistent with a synthetic model of our galaxy. Using the location of the stellar locus in colour-magnitude space and the measured field-to-field variation in galaxy number counts we demonstrate that the absolute accuracy of our photometric calibration is at the 5% level or better. Finally, an investigation of the angular clustering of K- selected extended sources in our survey displays the expected scaling behaviour with limiting magnitude, with amplitudes in each magnitude bin in broad agreement with literature values.
We present Spitzer infrared imaging of the peculiar galaxy pair Arp 107, and compare with an optical H-alpha map and a numerical model of the interaction. The [3.6 micron] - [4.5 micron] colors of clumps in the galaxy do not vary around the ring-like primary spiral arm and are consistent with those of stars, thus these bands are dominated by starlight. In contrast, the [5.8 micron] - [8.0 micron] colors are consistent with those of interstellar dust, and vary by about 0.2 magnitudes around the ring/spiral, with redder colors associated with regions with stronger star formation as indicated by H-alpha and mid-infrared luminosity. The [4.5 micron] - [5.8 micron] colors for clumps in this arm are bluer than dust and redder than stars, and vary by 1.3 magnitudes around the arm. This color is therefore a measure of the relative number of young stars to old stars, with a redder color indicating a higher proportion of young stars. There is a clear azimuthal sequence in the [4.5] - [5.8] color around the arm, indicating a sequence in average stellar age. The L(H-alpha)/L(8.0 micron) ratio varies around the arm by a factor of ~7; this variation may be due to extinction or to PAH excitation by non-ionizing photons. Our model of Arp 107 accounts for the general morphology of the system, and explains the age variation along the arm as the result of differences in the time of maximum compression in the arm. Using Spitzer colors, we are able to distinguish background quasars and foreground stars from star forming regions associated with Arp 107.
We show that the accelerated expansion of the Universe can be viewed as a crossover phenomenon where the Newton constant and the Cosmological constant are actually scaling operators, dynamically evolving in the attraction basin of a non-Gaussian infrared fixed point, whose existence has been recently discussed. By linearization of the renormalized flow it is possible to evaluate the critical exponents, and it turns out that the approach to the fixed point is ruled by a marginal and a relevant direction. A smooth transition between the standard Friedmann--Lemaitre--Robertson--Walker (FLRW) cosmology and the observed accelerated expansion is then obtained, so that $\Omega_M \approx \Omega_\Lambda$ at late times.
We present minimum chi-squared fits of power law and Hernquist density profiles to F-turnoff stars in eight 2.5 deg wide stripes of SDSS data: five in the North Galactic Cap and three in the South Galactic cap. Portions of the stellar Galactic halo that are known to contain large streams of tidal debris or other lumpy structure, or that may include significant contamination from the thick disk, are avoided. The data strongly favor a model that is not symmetric about the Galaxy's axis of rotation. If included as a free parameter, the best fit to the center of the spheroid is surprisingly approx 3 kpc from the Galactic center in the direction of the Sun's motion. The model fits favor a low value of the density of halo stars at the solar position. The alternative to a non-axisymmetric stellar distribution is that our fits are contaminated by previously unidentified lumpy substructure.
The cross section of the 16O(a,g)20Ne capture reaction is analyzed at low energies where the direct capture mechanism is dominant. For temperatures below T9 = 0.2 the resulting astrophysical reaction rate is about a factor of two higher than in a recent compilation whereas the energy dependence of the astrophysical S-factor and the branching ratios to the 20Ne bound states are very similar to previous calculations. The validity of the widely used detailed balance theorem for the inverse 20Ne(g,a)16O photodisintegration rate is confirmed for the special case of high-lying first excited states.
We use data from the first epoch of observations with the IRAC/Spitzer for the GOODS to detect and study a collection of LBGs at z ~ 6 to 5 in the HUDF, six of which have spectroscopic confirmation. At these redshifts, IRAC samples rest-frame optical light in the range 0.5 to 0.8 um, where the effects of dust extinction are smaller and the sensitivity to light from evolved stars is greater than at shorter, rest-frame UV observable from the ground or with the HST. As such, it provides useful constraints on the ages and masses of these galaxies' stellar populations. We find that the SEDs for many of these galaxies are best fitted by models of stellar populations with masses of a few x 1e10 M_sun, and with ages of a few hundred Myrs, values quite similar to those derived for typical LBGs at z ~ 3. When the universe was only 1 Gyr old, some galaxies had already formed a mass of stars approaching that of the present-day Milky Way, and that they started forming those stars at z > 7, and in some cases much earlier. We find that the lower limits to the space density for galaxies in this mass range are consistent with predictions from recent hydrodynamic simulations of structure formation in a LCDM universe. All objects in our samples are consistent with having solar metallicity, suggesting that they might have already been significantly polluted by metals. The values for dust reddening derived from the model fitting are low or zero, and we find that some of the galaxies have rest-frame UV colors that are even bluer than those predicted by the stellar population models to which we compare them. These colors might be attributed to the presence of very massive stars (> 100 M_sun), or by weaker intergalactic HI absorption than what is commonly assumed.
In this paper we assess the relationship of the population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) selected by hard X-rays to the traditional population of AGN with strong optical emission lines. First, we study the emission-line properties of a new hard X-ray selected sample of 47 local AGN (classified optically as both Type 1 and Type 2 AGN). We find that the hard X- ray (3-20 keV) and [OIII]$\lambda$5007 optical emission-line luminosities are well-correlated over a range of about four orders-of-magnitude in luminosity (mean luminosity ratio 2.15 dex with a standard deviation of $\sigma$ = 0.51 dex). Second, we study the hard X-ray properties of a sample of 55 local AGN selected from the literature on the basis of the flux in the [OIII] line. The correlation between the hard X-ray (2-10 keV) and [OIII] luminosity for the Type 1 AGN is consistent with what is seen in the hard X-ray selected sample. However, the Type 2 AGN have a much larger range in the luminosity ratio, and many are very weak in hard X-rays (as expected for heavily absorbed AGN). We then compare the hard X-ray (3-20 keV) and [OIII] luminosity functions of AGN in the local universe. These have similar faint-end slopes with a luminosity ratio of 1.60 dex (0.55 dex smaller than the mean value for individual hard X-ray selected AGN). We conclude that at low redshift, selection by narrow optical emission- lines will recover most AGN selected by hard X-rays (with the exception of BL Lac objects). However, selection by hard X-rays misses a significant fraction of the local AGN population with strong emission lines.
Spatially resolved profiles of the Halpha and [NII] lines have been obtained
at unprecendented signal--to--noise ratios over the outflowing lobes of the
high--excitation, poly--polar planetary nebula NGC~6302. A deep image in the
light of [NII]6584 A was also obtained of the extremities of the prominent
north--western lobe. The Manchester Echelle spectrometer combined with the
2.1--m San Pedro Martir telescope (Mexico) was used for these observations.
Firstly, an accurate value of the systemic heliocentric radial velocity of
Vsys = -29.8 +/- 1 km/s has been established. Also, from `velocity ellipses'
across its diameter from previous observations the parallel--sided
north--western lobe is shown to have a circular section with a tilt of its axis
to the plane of the sky of 12.8 deg. With this starting point the pv arrays of
profiles have been very closely simulated, using the SHAPE code, with
Hubble-type outflows. The faint extremities of the north--western outflow are
shown to be expanding at 600 km/s. The prominent lobes of NGC~6302 have then
been generated in an eruptive event with a dynamical age of 1900 y for the
expansion proper-motion distance of 1.04 +/- 0.16 kpc as measured here by
comparing a 1956 image with that taken in 2002.
Kinematical evidence of a high--speed `skirt' around the nebular core,
expanding nearly orthogonally to the lobes, is also presented as are the
unusual motions at the western extremities of the NW lobe.