We use Spitzer Space Telescope observations from the Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (S3MC) to study the young stellar content of N66, the largest and brightest HII region in the SMC. In addition to large numbers of normal stars, we detect a significant population of bright, red infrared sources that we identify as likely to be young stellar objects (YSOs). We use spectral energy distribution (SED) fits to classify objects as ordinary (main sequence or red giant) stars, asymptotic giant branch stars, background galaxies, and YSOs. This represents the first large-scale attempt at blind source classification based on Spitzer SEDs in another galaxy. We firmly identify at least 61 YSOs, with another 50 probable YSOs; only one embedded protostar in the SMC was reported in the literature prior to the S3MC. We present color selection criteria that can be used to identify a relatively clean sample of YSOs with IRAC photometry. Our fitted SEDs indicate that the infrared-bright YSOs in N66 have stellar masses ranging from 2 Msun to 17 Msun, and that approximately half of the objects are Stage II protostars, with the remaining YSOs roughly evenly divided between Stage I and Stage III sources. We find evidence for primordial mass segregation in the HII region, with the most massive YSOs being preferentially closer to the center than lower-mass objects. Despite the low metallicity and dust content of the SMC, the observable properties of the YSOs appear consistent with those in the Milky Way. Although the YSOs are heavily concentrated within the optically bright central region of N66, there is ongoing star formation throughout the complex and we place a lower limit on the star formation rate of 3.2 x 10^-3 Msun/yr over the last ~1 Myr.
We exhibit a model in which a single pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson explains dark energy, inflation and baryogenesis. The model predicts correlated signals in future collider experiments, WIMP searches, proton decay experiments, dark energy probes, and the PLANCK satellite CMB measurements.
Sharp edges in X-ray surface brightness with continuous gas pressure called cold fronts have been often found in relaxed galaxy clusters such as Abell 496. Models that explain cold fronts as surviving cores of head-on subcluster mergers do not work well for these clusters and competing models involving gas sloshing have been recently proposed. Here, we test some concrete predictions of these models in a combined analysis of density, temperature, metal abundances and abundance ratios in a deep Chandra exposure of Abell 496. We confirm that the chemical discontinuities found in this cluster are not consistent with a core merger remnant scenario. However, we find chemical gradients across a spiral "arm" discovered at 73 kpc north of the cluster center and coincident with the sharp edge of the main cold front in the cluster. Despite the overall SN Ia iron mass fraction dominance found within the cooling radius of this cluster, the metal enrichment along the arm, determined from silicon and iron abundances, is consistent with a lower SN Ia iron mass fraction (51% +- 14%) than that measured in the surrounding regions (85% +- 14%). The "arm" is also significantly colder than the surroundings by 0.5-1.6 keV. The arm extends from a boxy colder region surrounding the center of the cluster, where two other cold fronts are found. This cold arm is a prediction of current high resolution numerical simulations as a result of an off-center encounter with a less massive pure dark matter halo and we suggest that the cold fronts in A496 provide the first clear corroboration of such model, where the closest encounter happened ~ 0.5 Gyr ago. We also argue for a possible candidate dark matter halo responsible for the cold fronts in the outskirts of A496.
We have measured the mid-infrared radiation from an orientation-unbiased sample of powerful 3C RR galaxies and quasars using the IRS and MIPS instruments aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. We fit the Spitzer data as well as other measurements from the literature with synchrotron and dust components. At 15 microns, quasars are typically four times brighter than radio galaxies with the same isotropic radio power. Based on our fits, half of this difference can be attributed to the presence of non-thermal emission in the quasars but not the radio galaxies. The other half is consistent with dust absorption in the radio galaxies but not the quasars.
We study observed correlations between supermassive black hole (BHs) and the properties of their host galaxies, and show that the observations define a BH 'fundamental plane' (BHFP), of the form M_BH sigma^(3.0+-0.3)*R_e^(0.43+-0.19), or M_BH M_bulge^(0.54+-0.17)*sigma^(2.2+-0.5), analogous to the FP of elliptical galaxies. The BHFP is preferred over a simple relation between M_BH and any of sigma, M_bulge, M_dyn, or R_e alone at >99.9% significance. The existence of this BHFP has important implications for the formation of supermassive BHs and the masses of the very largest black holes, and immediately resolves several apparent conflicts between the BH masses expected and measured for outliers in both the M_BH-sigma and M_BH-M_bulge relations.
We show that Nova Sco (GRO J1655-40), Il Lupi (4U 1543-47), XTE J1550-564 and GS 2023+338 are relics of gamma-ray burst (GRB) and Hypernova explosions. They had more than enough rotational energy to power themselves. In fact, they had so much energy that they would have disrupted the accretion disk of the black hole that powered them by the communicated rotational energy, so that the energy delivery was self limiting. The most important feature in producing high rotational energy in the binary is low donor (secondary star) mass. We suggest that V4641 Sgr (XTE J1819-254) and GRS 1915+105 underwent less energetic explosions; because of their large donor masses. These explosions were one or two orders of magnitude lower in energy than that of Nova Sco. None the less their rotational energy should have been enough to power GRBs and Hypernovae without dismantling the black hole disk. Cyg X-1 (1956+350) had an even less energetic explosion, because of an even larger donor mass.
We present analytical modelling of conical relativistic jets, in order to evaluate the role of the jet opening angle on certain key parameters that are inferred from VLBI radio observations of blazar nuclear jets. The key parameters evaluated are the orientation angle (i.e., the viewing angle) of the jet and the apparent speed and Doppler factor of the radio knots on parsec scales. Quantitative comparisons are made of the influence of the jet opening angle on the above parameters of the radio knots, as would be estimated for two widely discussed variants of relativistic nuclear jets, namely, those having uniform bulk speed and those in which the bulk Lorentz factor of the flow decreases with distance from the jet axis (a `spine--sheath' flow). Our analysis shows that for both types of jet velocity distributions the expectation value of the jet orientation angle at first falls dramatically with increases in the (central) jet Lorentz factor, but it levels off at a fraction of the opening angle for extremely relativistic jets. We also find that the effective values of the apparent speeds and Doppler factors of the knots always decline substantially with increasing jet opening angle, but that this effect is strongest for ultra-relativistic jets with uniform bulk speed. We suggest that the paucity of highly superluminal parsec-scale radio components in TeV blazars can be understood if their jets are highly relativistic and, being intrinsically weaker, somewhat less well collimated, in comparison to the jets in other blazars.
We investigate the total kinetic powers (L_{j}) and ages (t_{age}) of powerful jets of four FR II radio sources (Cygnus A, 3C 223, 3C 284, and 3C 219) by the detail comparison of the dynamical model of expanding cocoons with observed ones. It is found that these sources have quite large kinetic powers with the ratio of L_{j} to the Eddington luminosity (L_{Edd}) resides in $0.02 <L_{j}/L_{Edd} <10$. Reflecting the large kinetic powers, we also find that the total energy stored in the cocoon (E_{c}) exceed the energy derived from the minimum energy condition (E_{min}): $2< E_{c}/E_{min} <160$. This implies that a large amount of kinetic power is carried by invisible components such as thermal leptons (electron and positron) and/or protons.
We report on the results of a Submillimeter Array interferometric observation of the proto-planetary nebula CRL 618 in the 12CO J=6-5 line. With the new capability of SMA enabling us to use two receivers at a time, we also observed simultaneously in the 12CO J=2-1 and 13CO J=2-1 lines. The 12CO J=6-5 and 13CO J=2-1 lines were first interferometrically observed toward CRL 618. The flux of the high velocity component of the 12CO J=6-5 line is almost fully recovered, while roughly 80% of the flux of the low velocity component is resolved out. The low recovery rate suggests that the emission region of the low velocity component of the 12CO J=6-5 line is largely extended. Continuum emission is detected both at 230 and 690 GHz. The flux of the 690 GHz continuum emission seems to be partially resolved out, suggesting dust emission partly contaminates the 690 GHz continuum flux. The cavity structure, which has been confirmed in a previous observation in the 12CO J=2-1 line, is not clearly detected in the 12CO J=6-5 line, and only the south wall of the cavity is detected. This result suggests that the physical condition of the molecular envelope of CRL 618 is not exactly axial symmetric.
Measurements of the microlensing optical depth, tau, towards the Galactic bulge appear to depend on the method used to obtain them. Those values based on the lensing of red clump giants (RCGs) appear to be significantly lower than those based on the lensing of all stars along the line of sight. This discrepancy is still not understood. Through Monte Carlo simulations, it is found that the discrepancy cannot be explained by a dependance on the flux limits of the two methods. The optical depth is expected to be generally constant as a function of source apparent magnitude for I_0 >~ 13.0, except in the range 13.5 <~ I_0 <~ 15.5. Here many RCGs are detected, causing a significant oscillation in tau. The amplitude of this oscillation is a function of the inclination angle of the Galactic bar, theta_bar, which may thus be constrained. A further constraint comes from a similar dependance of tau with theta_bar: combining the predicted trends with the measured values provides 1-sigma upper limits, which exclude the large bar angles recently reported by the GLIMPSE and EROS surveys. The latest survey data from EROS-2 appear to show the predicted tau oscillation, though currently at a low significance. However, a further sign comes from EROS-2 event counts, which show a clear skew towards fainter magnitudes.
We present high resolution spectroscopic mid-infrared observations of the circumstellar disk around the Herbig Ae star HD97048 with the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for the mid-InfraRed (VISIR). We detect the S(1) pure rotational line of molecular hydrogen (H2) at 17.035 microns arising from the disk around the star. This detection reinforces the claim that HD97048 is a young object surrounded by a flared disk at an early stage of evolution. The emitting warm gas is located within the inner 35 AU of the disk. The line-to-continuum flux ratio is much higher than expected from models of disks at local thermodynamics equilibrium. We investigate the possible physical conditions, such as a gas-to-dust mass ratio higher than 100 and different excitation mechanisms of molecular hydrogen (X-ray heating, shocks, ...) in order to explain the detection. We tentatively estimate the mass of warm gas to be in the range from 0.01 to nearly 1 Jupiter Mass. Further observations are needed to better constrain the excitation mechanisms as well as the mass of gas.
Historically, galactic bulges are thought to be elliptical galaxy-like objects sitting in the middle of a generally larger disk. There are, however, more and more claims that some bulges are much more similar to disks. John Kormendy has named these bulges pseudo-bulges. In this paper I discuss some recent integral field spectroscopy of the SAURON collaboration on a sample of 24 Sa and Sab galaxies. Using their 2-dimensional maps of the stellar velocity, velocity dispersion, and absorption line strength, it is now much easier to understand the nature of nearby galactic bulges. I review several aspects of bulges, namely the surface photometry, stellar kinematics, stellar populations, presence of interstellar matter, and their behavior in the fundamental plane of early-type galaxies.
We present a study of C IV absorption in a sample of 63 damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems and 11 sub-DLAs in the redshift range 1.75<z_abs<3.61, using a dataset of high-resolution (6.6 km/s FWHM), high signal-to-noise VLT/UVES spectra. Narrow and broad C IV absorption line components indicate the presence of both warm, photoionized and hot, collisionally ionized gas. We report new correlations between the metallicity (measured in the neutral-phase) and each of the C IV column density, the C IV total line width, and the maximum C IV velocity. We explore the effect on these correlations of the sub-DLAs, the proximate DLAs (defined as those within 5 000 km/s of the quasar), the saturated absorbers, and the metal line used to measure the metallicity, and we find the correlations to be robust. There is no evidence for any difference between the measured properties of DLA C IV and sub-DLA C IV. In 25 DLAs and 4 sub-DLAs, covering 2.5 dex in [Z/H], we directly observe C IV moving above the escape speed, where v_esc is derived from the total line width of the neutral gas profiles. These high-velocity C IV clouds, unbound from the central potential well, can be interpreted as highly ionized outflowing winds, which are predicted by numerical simulations of galaxy feedback. The distribution of C IV column density in DLAs and sub-DLAs is similar to the distribution in Lyman Break galaxies, where winds are directly observed, supporting the idea that supernova feedback creates the ionized gas in DLAs. The unbound C IV absorbers show a median mass flow rate of ~22(r/40 kpc) solar masses per year, where r is the characteristic C IV radius. Their kinetic energy fluxes are large enough that a star formation rate (SFR) of ~2 solar masses per year is required to power them.
We present the results of a Suzaku spectroscopic study of the soft extended X-ray emission in the HII region M17. The spectrum of the extended emission was obtained with a high signal-to-noise ratio in a spatially-resolved manner using the X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (XIS). We established that the contamination by unresolved point sources, the Galactic Ridge X-ray emission, the cosmic X-ray background, and the local hot bubble emission is negligible in the background-subtracted XIS spectrum of the diffuse emission. Half a dozen of emission lines were resolved clearly for the first time, including K lines of highly ionized O, Ne, and Mg as well as L series complex of Fe at 0.5--1.5 keV. Based on the diagnosis of these lines, we obtained the following results: (1) the extended emission is an optically-thin thermal plasma represented well by a single temperature of 3.0 +/- 0.4 MK, (2) the abundances of elements with emission lines in the diffuse spectrum are 0.1--0.3 solar, while those of bright discrete sources are 0.3--1.5 solar, (3) the metal abundances relative to each other in the diffuse emission are consistent with solar except for a Ne enhancement of a factor of 2, (4) both the plasma temperature and the chemical composition of the diffuse emission show no spatial variation across the studied spatial scale of about 5 pc.
The nature of the dwarf galaxy population as a function of location in the cluster and within different environments is investigated. We have previously described the results of a search for low surface brightness objects in data drawn from an East-West strip of the Virgo cluster (Sabatini et al., 2003) and have compared this to a large area strip outside of the cluster (Roberts et al., 2004). In this talk I compare the East-West data (sampling sub-cluster A and outward) to new data along a North-South cluster strip that samples a different region (part of sub-cluster A, and the N,M clouds) and with data obtained for the Ursa Major cluster and fields around the spiral galaxy M101. The sample of dwarf galaxies in different environments is obtained from uniform datasets that reach central surface brightness values of ~26 B mag/arcsec^2 and an apparent B magnitude of 21 (M_B=-10 for a Virgo Cluster distance of 16 Mpc). We discuss and interpret our results on the properties and distribution of dwarf low surface brightness galaxies in the context of variuos physical processes that are thought to act on galaxies as they form and evolve.
How structures on various scales formed and evolved from the early Universe up to present time is a fundamental question of astrophysical cosmology. EDGE will trace the cosmic history of the baryons from the early generations of massive star by Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) explosions, through the period of cluster formation, down to very low redshifts, when between a third and one half of the baryons are expected to reside in cosmic filaments undergoing gravitational collapse by dark matter (Warm Hot Intragalactic Medium: WHIM). In addition EDGE, with its unprecedented observational capabilities, will provide key results on several other topics. The science is feasible with a medium class mission using existing technology combined with innovative instrumental and observational capabilities on a single satellite by: a) observing with fast reaction Gamma-Ray Bursts with a high spectral resolution (R ~ 500). This enables the study of their (star-forming) environment from the Dark to the local Universe and the use of GRB as back light of large scale cosmological structures b) Observing and surveying extended sources (clusters, WHIM) with high sensitivity using two wide field of view X-ray telescopes (one with a high angular resolution and the other with a high spectral resolution).
Charged pions produced in very high energy hadronic interactions might be the dominant source of cosmic neutrinos in the GeV--TeV range. Spectral energy power of \pi^+ radiation by high energy protons moving in strong magnetic fields typical for magnetars is determined with a semiclassical treatment of the effective pion-nucleon model. The main characteristics emerging from a saddle point approximation to the summation over the allowed range of Landau levels is a sharp lower cut: E_\pi>0.25 E_p. The magnitude of the spectral power agrees in this region with the synchrotron radiation spectra of neutral pions.
We present a detailed analysis of 101 white dwarf-main sequence binaries (WDMS) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) for which multiple SDSS spectra are available. We detect significant radial velocity variations in 18 WDMS, identifying them as post common envelope binaries (PCEBs) or strong PCEB candidates. Strict upper limits to the orbital periods are calculated, ranging from 0.43 to 7880 d. Given the sparse temporal sampling and relatively low spectral resolution of the SDSS spectra, our results imply a PCEB fraction of >=15% among the WDMS in the SDSS data base. Using a spectral decomposition/fitting technique we determined the white dwarf effective temperatures and surface gravities, masses, and secondary star spectral types for all WDMS in our sample. Two independent distance estimates are obtained from the flux scaling factors between the WDMS spectra, and the white dwarf models and main sequence star templates, respectively. Approximately one third of the systems in our sample show a significant discrepancy between the two distance estimates. In the majority of discrepant cases, the distance estimate based on the secondary star is too large. A possible explanation for this behaviour is that the secondary star spectral types that we determined from the SDSS spectra are systematically too early by 1-2 spectral classes. This behaviour could be explained by stellar activity, if covering a significant fraction of the star by cool dark spots will raise the temperature of the inter-spot regions. Finally, we discuss the selection effects of the WDMS sample provided by the SDSS project.
Elliptical galaxies probably host the most metal rich stellar populations in the Universe. The processes leading to both the formation and the evolution of such stars are discussed by means of a new gas dynamical model which implements detailed chemical evolution prescriptions. Moreover, the radial variations in the metallicity distribution of these stars are investigated by means of G-dwarf-like diagrams. By comparing model predictions with observations, we derive a picture of galaxy formation in which the higher is the mass of the galaxy, the shorter are the infall and the star formation timescales. The galaxies seem to have formed outside-in, namely the most external regions accrete gas, form stars and develop a galactic wind very quickly (a few Myr) compared to the central core, where the star formation can last up to 1 Gyr. We show for the first time a model able in reproducing the mass-metallicity and the color-magnitude relations as well as the radial metallicity gradient, and, at the same time, the observed either positive or negative slopes in the [alpha/Fe] abundace ratio gradient in stars.
We have analyzed XMM-Newton archive data for five clusters of galaxies (redshifts 0.223 to 0.313) covering a wide range of dynamical states, from relaxed objects to clusters undergoing several mergers. We present here temperature maps of the X-ray gas together with a preliminary interpretation of the formation history of these clusters.
The discovery of multiband afterglows definitely shows that most $\gamma$-ray bursts are of cosmological origin. $\gamma$-ray bursts are found to be one of the most violent explosive phenomena in the Universe, in which astonishing ultra-relativistic motions are involved. In this article, the multiband observational characteristics of $\gamma$-ray bursts and their afterglows are briefly reviewed. The standard model of $\gamma$-ray bursts, i.e. the fireball model, is described. Emphasis is then put on the importance of the nonrelativistic phase of afterglows. The concept of deep Newtonian phase is elaborated. A generic dynamical model that is applicable in both the relativistic and nonrelativistic phases is introduced. Based on these elaborations, the overall afterglow behaviors, from the very early stages to the very late stages, can be conveniently calculated.
Measurement of the extragalactic background (EGBR) of diffuse gamma-rays is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks for future gamma-ray observatories, such as GLAST. This is because any determination will depend on accurate subtraction of the galactic diffuse and celestial foregrounds, as well as point sources. However, the EGBR is likely to contain very rich information about the high energy-gamma ray sources of the Universe at cosmological distances. We focus on the ability of GLAST to detect a signal from dark matter in the EGBR. We present sensitivities for generic thermal WIMPs and the Inert Higgs Doublet Model. Also we discuss the various aspects of astrophysics and particle physics that determines the shape and strength of the signal, such as dark matter halo properties and different dark matter candidates. Other possible sources to the EGBR are also discussed, such as unresolved AGNs, and viewed as backgrounds.
Star formation depends strongly both on the local environment of galaxies, and on the internal dynamics of the interstellar medium. To disentangle the two effects, we obtained, in the framework of the AMIGA project, Ha and Gunn r photometric data for more than 200 spiral galaxies lying in very low-density regions of the local Universe. We characterise the Ha emission, tracing current star formation, of the 45 largest and less inclined galaxies observed for which we estimate the torques between the gas and the bulk of the optical matter. We could subsequently study the Ha morphological aspect of these isolated spiral galaxies. Using Fourier analysis, we focus on the modes of the spiral arms and also on the strength of the bars, computing the torques between the gas and newly formed stars (Ha) and the bulk of the optical matter (Gunn r). We interpret the various bar/spiral morphologies observed in terms of the secular evolution experienced by galaxies in isolation. We also classify the different spatial distributions of star forming regions in barred galaxies. The observed frequency of particular patterns brings constraints on the lifetime of the various evolution phases. We propose an evolutive sequence accounting for the transitions between the different phases we could observe. Isolated galaxies appear not to be preferentially barred or unbarred. Through numerical simulations, trying to fit the Ha distributions yields constraints on the star formation law, which is likely to differ from a genuine Schmidt law. In particular, it is probable that the relative velocity of the gas in the bar also needs to be taken into account.
We present a detailed NLTE analysis of 39 MnI lines in the solar spectrum. The influence of NLTE effects on the line formation and element abundance is investigated. Our goal is the derivation of solar log gfe values for manganese lines, which will later be used in differential abundance analysis of metal-poor stars. The method of spectrum synthesis is employed, which is based on a solar model atmosphere with initially specified element abundances. A manganese abundance of 5.47 dex is used with the theoretical line-blanketed model atmosphere. Statistical equilibrium calculations are carried out for the model atom, which comprises 245 and 213 levels for MnI and MnII, respectively. Photoionization cross-sections are assumed hydrogenic. For line synthesis van der Waals broadening is calculated according to Anstee & O'Mara's formalism. It is shown that hyperfine structure of the Mn lines also has strong broadening effects, and that manganese is prone to NLTE effects in the solar atmosphere. The nature of the NLTE effects and the validity of the LTE approach are discussed in detail. The role of photoionization and collisional interaction is investigated.
We present PHOENIX atmosphere models for metal-rich cool white dwarfs using improved line shapes for the Na I and K I resonance doublets. Profiles for collisional broadening due to H2 and He based on the adiabatic representation show strong deviations from Van der Waals interaction at short distances. Comparison with observed spectra that show extremely broadened Na I lines indicates that a He-rich atmospheric composition is required to explain the line strengths and spectral energy distributions. Our current synthetic spectra, using an expansion in powers of density to the third order optimised for brown dwarf atmosphere conditions, significantly underestimate the observed absorption in the far wings, even predicting smaller total line strength than a Lorentzian profile. This is due to the handling of multiple perturber interactions becoming inadequate for the extreme densities of the coolest white dwarfs. The density expansion would have to be extended at least to the 7th order for an accurate treatment of such conditions and might break down altogether in the densest objects. The results of a direct calculation of the unified profile should therefore be used for model atmospheres of cool metal-rich white dwarfs. Qualitative comparison of the full adiabatic profile to the spectrum of WD2356-209 indicates good agreement with the observed line shape. Observations of the coolest white dwarfs may therefore serve as a laboratory for testing the physics of the deeper atmospheres and interiors of brown dwarfs and giant planets.
We employ a 3-dimensional magnetohydrostatic model of a horizontal flux tube, embedded in a magnetic surrounding atmosphere, to successfully reproduce the azimuthal and center-to-limb variations of the Net Circular Polarization observed in sunspot penumbrae. This success is partly due to the realistic modeling of the interaction between the flux tube and the surrounding magnetic field.
In colour-magnitude diagrams galaxies are cleanly divided into a `blue cloud' and a `red sequence', with the red sequence extending to significantly brighter magnitudes than the blue cloud. The bright-end of the red sequence comprises elliptical galaxies (Es) with boxy isophotes and luminosity profiles with shallow central cores, while fainter Es have disky isophotes and power-law inner surface-brightness (SB) profiles. An analysis of published data reveals that the centres of galaxies with power-law central SB profiles have younger stellar populations than the centres of cored galaxies. We argue that thermal evaporation of cold gas by virial-temperature gas plays an important role in determining these phenomena. In less massive galaxies, thermal evaporation is not very efficient, so significant amounts of cold gas can reach the galaxy centre and fill a central core with newly formed stars, consistent with the young stellar ages of the cusps of Es with power-law SB profiles. In more massive galaxies, cold gas is evaporated within a dynamical time, so star formation is inhibited, and a core in the stellar density profile produced by dissipationless dynamics cannot be refilled. The different observed properties of AGN in higher-mass and lower-mass ellipticals are also explained because in the former the central black holes invariably accrete hot gas, while in the latter they typically accrete cold gas. An important consequence of our results is that at the present time there cannot be blue, star-forming galaxies in the most massive galactic halos, consistent with the observed truncation of the blue cloud at L*. [abridged]
Stellar populations, building blocks of galaxies, are direct tracers of the star formation history, the chemical enrichment and the assembly of galaxies in the Universe. They therfore allow us to understand how galaxies formed and evolved. This last decade has witnessed a revolution in our observations of galaxies; with larger telescopes and new instruments we are not only able to look deeper in the Universe, we can also study nearby galaxies with greater detail. The fact that now is becoming possible to resolve stars up to the distance of Virgo Cluster allows us to rigorously compare and calibrate the analysis of the integrated light with resolved stellar populations. These Proceedings report the considerable progress made in recent years in this topic. Theorists and observers, researchers of resolved and unresolved stellar populations, discussed the ingredients of stellar population models, and rigorously compared them to new data, forcing theorists to develop more refined models and methods to derive the physical parameters of the stellar populations. New results from the Milky Way, the Local Group, and nearby and distant galaxies were presented.
The galactic black hole candidate XTE J1817-330 was discovered in outburst by RXTE in January 2006. We present here the results of an XMM-Newton Target of opportunity observation (TOO), performed on 13 March 2006 (44 days after the maximum), and an INTEGRAL observation performed on 15-18 February 2006 (18 days after the maximum). The EPIC-pn camera on-board XMM-Newton was used in the fast read-out Burst mode to avoid photon pile-up, while the RGSs were used in Spectroscopy high count-rate mode. We fit both the XMM-Newton and the INTEGRAL spectra with a two-component model consisting of a thermal accretion disk and a comptonizing hot corona. The soft X-ray spectrum is dominated by an accretion disk component, with a maximum temperature decreasing from 0.96+/-0.04 keV at the time of the INTEGRAL observation to 0.70+/-m0.01 keV on 13 March. The Optical Monitors on board INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton showed the source with magnitudes V: 11.3-11.4, U:15.0-15.1 and UVW1:14.7-14.8. The soft X-ray spectrum, together with the optical and UV data, show a low hydrogen column density towards the source, and several absorption lines, most likely of interstellar origin, are detected in the RGS spectrum: OI K-alpha, OI K-beta, OII, OIII and OVII, which trace both cold and hot components of the ISM. The soft X-ray spectrum indicates the presence of a black hole, with an estimate for the upper limit of the mass of 6.0(+4.0/-2.5) Msun.
The quantity of dust in a spiral disk can be estimated using the dust's typical emission or the extinction of a known source. In this paper, we compare two techniques, one based on emission and one on absorption, applied on sections of fourteen disk galaxies. The two measurements reflect, respectively the average and apparent optical depth of a disk section. Hence, they depend differently on the average number and optical depth of ISM structures in the disk. The small scale geometry of the cold ISM is critical for accurate models of the overall energy budget of spiral disks. ISM geometry, relative contributions of different stellar populations and dust emissivity are all free parameters in galaxy Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) models; they are also sometimes degenerate, depending on wavelength coverage. Our aim is to constrain typical ISM geometry. The apparent optical depth measurement comes from the number of distant galaxies seen in HST images through the foreground disk. We measure the IR flux in images from the {\it Spitzer} Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey in the same section of the disk that was covered by HST. A physical model of the dust is fit to the SED to estimate the dust surface density, mean temperature, and brightness in these disk sections. The surface density is subsequently converted into the average optical depth estimate. The two measurements generally agree. The ratios between the measured average and apparent optical depths of the disk sections imply optically thin clouds in these disks. Optically thick disks, are likely to have more than a single cloud along the line-of-sight.
Dust in galaxies can be mapped by either the FIR/sub-mm emission, the optical
or infrared reddening of starlight, or the extinction of a known background
source. We compare two dust extinction measurements for a set of fifteen
sections in thirteen nearby galaxies, to determine the scale of the dusty ISM
responsible for disk opacity: one using stellar reddening and the other a known
background source. In our earlier papers, we presented extinction measurements
of 29 galaxies, based on calibrated counts of distant background objects
identified though foreground disks in HST/WFPC2 images. For the 13 galaxies
that overlap with the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), we now
compare these results with those obtained from an I-L color map. Our goal is to
determine whether or not a detected distant galaxy indicates a gap in the dusty
ISM, and hence to better understand the nature and geometry of the disk
extinction.
We find that distant galaxies are predominantly in low-extinction sections
marked by the color maps, indicating that their number depends both on the
cloud cover of {\it Spitzer}-resolved dust structures --mostly the spiral
arms--and a diffuse, unresolved underlying disk. We note that our infrared
color map (E[I-L]) underestimates the overall dust presence in these disks
severely, because it implicitly assumes the presence of a dust screen in front
of the stellar distribution.
Using analytic expressions, we explore the parameter space for hilltop inflation models with a potential of the form $V_0\pm m^2\phi^2 -a\phi^p$. With the positive sign and p>2 this converts the original hybrid inflation model into a hilltop model, allowing the spectral index to agree with the observed value n=0.95. In some cases the observed value is theoretically favored, while in others there is only the generic prediction $|n-1|\lsim 1$.
Protecting the inflationary potential from quantum corrections typically requires symmetries that constrain the form of couplings of the inflaton to other sectors. We will explore how these restrictions affect reheating in models with UV completions. In particular, we will look at how reheating occurs when inflation is governed by closed strings, using N-flation as an example. We will find that coupling the inflaton preferentially to the Standard Model is difficult, and hidden sectors are typically reheated. Observational constraints will only be met by a subset of models. In some such models, relativistic relics in the hidden sector are the dark matter with masses that range from keV to PeV with lighter masses being preferred.
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We discuss the cosmological degeneracy between the age of the Universe, the Hubble parameter and the effective number of relativistic particles N_eff. We show that independent determinations of the Hubble parameter H(z) as those recently provided by Simon,Verde, Jimenez (2006), combined with other cosmological data sets can provide the most stringent constraint on N_eff, yielding N_eff=3.7 (-1.2) (+1.1) at 95% confidence level. A neutrino background is detected with high significance: N_eff >1.8 at better than 99% confidence level. Constraints on the age of the universe in the framework of an extra background of relativistic particles are improved by a factor 3.
We present new results from our comprehensive comparative survey of two massive, intermediate redshift galaxy clusters, Cl0024+17 (z=0.39) and MS0451-03 (z=0.54). We identify and study several key classes of `transition objects' whose stellar populations or dynamical states indicate a recent or ongoing change in morphology and star formation rate. For the first time, we have been able to conclusively identify spiral galaxies in the process of transforming into S0 galaxies. This has been accomplished by locating both spirals whose star formation is being quenched as well as their eventual successors, the recently created S0s. Differences between the two clusters in both the timescales and spatial location of this conversion process allow us to evaluate the relative importance of several proposed physical mechanisms that could be responsible for the transformation. Combined with other diagnostics that are sensitive to either ICM-driven galaxy evolution or galaxy-galaxy interactions, we describe a self-consistent picture of galaxy evolution in clusters. We find that spiral galaxies within infalling groups have already begun a slow process of conversion into S0s primarily via gentle galaxy-galaxy interactions. The fates of spirals upon reaching the core of the cluster depend heavily on the cluster ICM, with rapid conversion of all remaining spirals into S0s via ram-pressure stripping in clusters where the ICM is dense. In the presence of a less-dense ICM, the conversion continues at a slower pace, with galaxy-galaxy interactions continuing to play a role along with `starvation' by the ICM. We conclude that the buildup of the local S0 population through the transformation of spiral galaxies is a heterogeneous process that nevertheless proceeds robustly across a variety of different environments.
We report the discovery of gas streaming motions along nuclear spiral arms towards the LINER nucleus of the galaxy NGC 6951. The observations, obtained using the GMOS integral field spectrograph on the Gemini North telescope, yielded maps of the flux distributions and gas kinematics in the Halpha, [NII]6584 and [SII]6717,31 emission lines of the inner 7x5 arcsec^2 of the galaxy. This region includes a circumnuclear star-forming ring with radius 500pc, a nuclear spiral inside the ring and the LINER nucleus. The kinematics of the ionized gas is dominated by rotation, but subtraction of a kinematic model of a rotating exponential disk reveals deviations from circular rotation within the nuclear ring which can be attributed to (1) streaming motions along the nuclear spiral arms and (2) a bipolar outflow which seems to be associated to a nuclear jet. On the basis of the observed streaming velocities and geometry of the spiral arms we estimate a mass inflow rate of ionized gas of 3x10^(-4) Msun/yr, which is of the order of the accretion rate necessary to power the LINER nucleus of NGC 6951. Similar streaming motions towards the nucleus of another galaxy with LINER nucleus -- NGC 1097 -- have been reported by our group in a previous paper. Taken together, these results support a scenario in which nuclear spirals are channels through which matter is transferred from galactic scales to the nuclear region to feed the supermassive black hole.
We extend the standard theory of cosmological perturbations to homogeneous but anisotropic universes. We present an exhaustive computation for the case of a Bianchi I model, with a residual isotropy between two spatial dimensions, which is undergoing complete isotropization at the onset of inflation; we also show how the computation can be further extended to more general backgrounds. In presence of a single inflaton field, there are three physical perturbations (precisely as in the isotropic case), which are obtained (i) by removing gauge and nondynamical degrees of freedom, and (ii) by finding the combinations of the remaining modes in terms of which the quadratic action of the perturbations is canonical. The three perturbations, which later in the isotropic regime become a scalar mode and two tensor polarizations (gravitational wave), are coupled to each other already at the linearized level during the anisotropic phase. This generates nonvanishing correlations between different modes of the CMB anisotropies, which can be particularly relevant at large scales (and, potentially, be related to the large scale anomalies in the WMAP data). As an example, we compute the spectrum of the perturbations in this Bianchi I geometry, assuming that the inflaton is in a slow roll regime also in the anisotropic phase. For this simple set-up, fixing the initial conditions for the perturbations appears more difficult than in the standard case, and additional assumptions seem to be needed to provide predictions for the CMB anisotropies.
We present a catalog of 59 z=4.5 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies spectroscopically confirmed in a campaign of Keck/DEIMOS follow-up observations to candidates selected in the Large Area Lyman Alpha (LALA) narrow-band imaging survey. We targeted 97 candidates for spectroscopic follow-up; by accounting for the variety of conditions under which we performed spectroscopy, we estimate a selection reliability of about 76%. Together with our previous sample of Keck/LRIS confirmations, the 59 sources confirmed herein bring the total catalog to 73 spectroscopically confirmed z=4.5 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies in the 0.7 square degrees covered by the LALA imaging. As with the Keck/LRIS sample, we find that a non-negligible fraction of the confirmed Lyman alpha lines have rest-frame equivalent widths (w_{rest}) which exceed the maximum predicted for normal stellar populations: 17% -- 31% (93% confidence) of the detected galaxies show w_{rest} > 190 AA, and 12% -- 27% (90% confidence) show w_{rest} > 240 AA. We construct a luminosity function of z=4.5 Lyman alpha emission lines for comparison to Lyman alpha luminosity functions spanning 3.1 < z < 6.6. We find no significant evidence for Lyman alpha luminosity function evolution from z ~ 3 to z ~ 6. This result supports the conclusion that the intergalactic medium remains largely reionized from the local universe out to z=6.5. It is somewhat at odds with the pronounced drop in the cosmic star formation rate density recently measured between z~3 and z~6 in continuum-selected Lyman-break galaxies, and therefore potentially sheds light on the relationship between the two populations.
We explore the relationships between the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) feature strengths, mid-infrared continuum luminosities, far-infrared spectral slopes, optical spectroscopic classifications, and silicate optical depths within a sample of 107 ULIRGs observed with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The detected 6.2 micron PAH equivalent widths (EQWs) in the sample span more than two orders of magnitude (0.006-0.8 micron), and ULIRGs with HII-like optical spectra or steep far-infrared spectral slopes (S_{25} / S_{60} < 0.2) typically have 6.2 micron PAH EQWs that are half that of lower-luminosity starbursts. A significant fraction (~40-60%) of HII-like, LINER-like, and cold ULIRGs have very weak PAH EQWs. Many of these ULIRGs also have large (tau_{9.7} > 2.3) silicate optical depths. The far-infrared spectral slope is strongly correlated with PAH EQW, but not with silicate optical depth. In addition, the PAH EQW decreases with increasing rest-frame 24 micron luminosity. We argue that this trend results primarily from dilution of the PAH EQW by continuum emission from dust heated by a compact central source, probably an AGN. High luminosity, high-redshift sources studied with Spitzer appear to have a much larger range in PAH EQW than seen in local ULIRGs, which is consistent with extremely luminous starburst systems being absent at low redshift, but present at early epochs.
We explore the possibilities for detecting pulsars that have ceased to radiate in the radio band. We consider two models: the model with hindered particle escape from the pulsar surface (first suggested by Ruderman and Sutherland 1975) and the model with free particle escape (Arons 1981; Mestel 1999). In the model with hindered particle escape, the number of particles that leave the pulsar magnetosphere is small and their radiation cannot be detected with currently available instruments. At the same time, for the free particle escape model, both the number of particles and the radiation intensity are high enough for such pulsars to be detectable with the presently available receivers such as GLAST and AGILE spacecrafts. It is also possible that extinct radio pulsars can be among the unidentified EGRET sources.
We classify various types of planetary lensing signals and the channels of
detecting them. We estimate the relative frequencies of planet detections
through the individual channels with special emphasis on the new channels to be
additionally provided by future lensing experiments that will survey wide
fields continuously at high cadence by using very large-format imaging cameras.
From this investigation, we find that the fraction of wide-separation planets
that would be discovered through the new channels of detecting planetary
signals as independent and repeating events would be substantial. We estimate
that the fraction of planets detectable through the new channels would comprise
~15 -- 30% of all planets depending on the models of the planetary separation
distribution and mass ratios of planets. Considering that a significant
fraction of planets might exist in the form of free-floating planets, the
frequency of planets to be detected through the new channel would be even
higher. With the expansion of the channels of detecting planet, future lensing
surveys will greatly expand the range of planets to be probed.
We introduce a new polarimeter installed on the high-resolution fiber-fed echelle spectrograph (called BOES) of the 1.8-m telescope at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, Korea. The instrument is intended to measure stellar magnetic fields with high-resolution (R $\sim$ 60000) spectropolarimetric observations of intrinsic polarization in spectral lines. In this paper we describe the spectropolarimeter and present test observations of the longitudinal magnetic fields in some well-studied F-B main sequence magnetic stars (m_v < 8.8^m). The results demonstrate that the instrument has a high precision ability of detecting the fields of these stars with typical accuracies ranged from about 2G to a few tens of gauss.
Although both electron-ion and electron-electron bremsstrahlung contribute to
the hard X-ray emission from solar flares, the latter is normally ignored. Such
an omission is not justified at electron (and photon) energies above $\sim 300$
keV, and inclusion of the additional electron-electron bremsstrahlung in
general makes the electron spectrum required to produce a given hard X-ray
spectrum steeper at high energies.
Unlike electron-ion bremsstrahlung, electron-electron bremsstrahlung cannot
produce photons of all energies up to the maximum electron energy involved. The
maximum possible photon energy depends on the angle between the direction of
the emitting electron and the emitted photon, and this suggests a diagnostic
for an upper cutoff energy and/or for the degree of beaming of the accelerated
electrons.
We analyze the large event of January 17, 2005 observed by RHESSI and show
that the upward break around 400 keV in the observed hard X-ray spectrum is
naturally accounted for by the inclusion of electron-electron bremsstrahlung.
Indeed, the mean source electron spectrum recovered through a regularized
inversion of the hard X-ray spectrum, using a cross-section that includes both
electron-ion and electron-electron terms, has a relatively constant spectral
index $\delta$ over the range from electron kinetic energy $E = 200$ keV to $E
= 1$ MeV. However, the level of detail discernible in the recovered electron
spectrum is not sufficient to determine whether or not any upper cutoff energy
exists.
We investigate the molecular gas content and the excitation and fragmentation properties in the central region of the spiral galaxy Messier 81 in both the ^{12}CO(1-0) and ^{12}CO(2-1) transitions. We have recently observed the two transitions of CO in the M~81 center with A, B, and HERA receivers of the IRAM 30-m telescope. We find no CO emission in the inner $\sim$ 300 pc and a weak molecular gas clump structure at a distance of around 460 pc from the nucleus. Observations of the first two CO transitions allowed us to compute the line ratio, and the average I_{21}/I_{10} ratio is 0.68 for the M~81 center. This low value, atypical both of the galactic nuclei of spiral galaxies and of interacting systems, is probably associated to diffuse gas with molecular hydrogen density that is not high enough to excite the CO molecules. After analyzing the clumping properties of the molecular gas in detail, we identify very massive giant molecular associations (GMAs) in CO(2-1) emission with masses of $\sim$ 10$^{5}$ M$_\odot$ and diameters of $\sim$ 250 pc. The deduced N(H_{2})/I_{CO} ratio for the individually resolved GMAs, assumed to be virialized, is a factor of $\sim$ 15 higher than the \textit{standard} Galactic value, showing - as suspected - that the X ratio departs significantly from the mean for galaxies with an unusual physics of the molecular gas.
Four mosaics of deep, continuum-subtracted, CCD images have been obtained over the extensive galactic radio continuum shell, W 50, which surrounds the remarkable stellar system SS 433. Two of these mosaics in the Halpha+[N II] and [O III] 5007 A emission lines respectively cover a field of ~2.3 x 2.5 degr^2 which contains all of W 50 but at a low angular resolution of 5 arcsec. The third and fourth mosaics cover the eastern (in [O III] 5007 A) and western (in Halpha+[N II]) filamentary nebulosity respectively but at an angular resolution of 1 arcsec. These observations are supplemented by new low dispersion spectra and longslit, spatially resolved echelle spectra. The [O III] 5007 A images show for the first time the distribution of this emission in both the eastern and western filaments while new Halpha+[N II] emission features are also found in both of these regions. Approaching flows of faintly emitting material from the bright eastern filaments of up 100 km/s in radial velocity are detected. The present observations also suggest that the heliocentric systemic radial velocity of the whole system is 56+-2 km/s. Furthermore, very deep imagery and high resolution spectroscopy of a small part of the northern radio ridge of W 50 has revealed for the first time the very faint optical nebulosity associated with this edge. It is suggested that patchy foreground dust along the ~5 kpc sightline is inhibiting the detection of all of the optical nebulosity associated with W 50. The interaction of the microquasar jets of SS 433 with the W 50 shell is discussed.
We perform an analytical study of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect within the framework of Unified Dark Matter models based on a scalar field which aim at a unified description of dark energy and dark matter. Computing the temperature power spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies we are able to isolate those contributions that can potentially lead to strong deviations from the usual ISW effect occurring in a $\Lambda$CDM universe. This helps to highlight the crucial role played by the sound speed in the Unified Dark Matter models. Our treatment is completely general in that all the results depend only on the speed of sound of the dark component and thus it can be applied to a variety of unified models, including those which are not described by a scalar field but relies on a single dark fluid.
The fluorine abundance of the Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) star HE 1305+0132 has been derived by analysis of the molecular HF (1-0) R9 line at 2.3357 microns in a high-resolution (R = 50,000) spectrum obtained with the Phoenix spectrometer and Gemini-South telescope. Our abundance analysis makes use of a CNO-enhanced ATLAS12 model atmosphere characterized by a metallicity and CNO enhancements determined utilizing medium-resolution (R = 3,000) optical and near-IR spectra. The effective iron abundance is found to be [Fe/H] = -2.5, making HE 1305+0132 the most Fe-deficient star, by more than an order of magnitude, for which the abundance of fluorine has been measured. Using spectral synthesis, we derive a super-solar fluorine abundance of A(19F) = 4.96 +/- 0.21, corresponding to a relative abundance of [F/Fe] = 2.90. A single line of the Phillips C_2 system is identified in our Phoenix spectrum, and along with multiple lines of the first-overtone vibration-rotation CO (3-1) band head, C and O abundances of A(12C) = 8.57 +/- 0.11 and A(16O) = 7.04 +/- 0.14 are derived. We consider the striking fluorine overabundance in the framework of the nucleosynthetic processes thought to be responsible for the C-enhancement of CEMP stars and conclude that the atmosphere of HE 1305+0132 was polluted via mass transfer by a primary companion during its asymptotic giant branch phase. This is the first study of fluorine in a CEMP star, and it demonstrates that this rare nuclide can be a key diagnostic of nucleosynthetic processes in the early Galaxy.
Given a set of astrometric observations of the same object, the problem of orbit determination is to compute the orbit and to assess its uncertainty and reliability. For the next generation surveys, with much larger number density of observed objects, new algorithms or substantial revisions of the classical ones are needed. The problem has three main steps, preliminary orbit, least squares orbit, and quality control. The classical theory of preliminary orbits was incomplete: the consequences of the topocentric correction had not been fully studied. We show that it is possible to account for this correction, possibly with an increase in the number of preliminary solutions, without impairing the overall orbit determination performance. We have developed modified least squares orbit determination algorithms that can be used to improve the reliability of the procedure. We have tested the complete procedure on two simulations with number densities comparable to that expected from the next generation surveys such as Pan-STARRS and LSST. To control the problem of false identifications we have introduced a quality control on the fit residuals based on an array of metrics and a procedure to remove duplications and contradictions in the output. The results confirm that large sets of discoveries can be obtained with good quality orbits and very high success rate losing only 0.6 to 1.3% of objects and a false identification rate in the range 0.02 to 0.06%.
We report the discovery of a Jupiter-size planet transiting a relatively bright (V = 11.56) and metal-rich early K dwarf star with a period of about 2.9 days. On the basis of follow-up photometry and spectroscopy we determine the mass and radius of the planet, HAT-P-3b, to be M_p = 0.599 +/- 0.026 M_Jup and R_p = 0.890 +/- 0.046 R_Jup. The relatively small size of the object for its mass implies the presence of about 75 Earth masses worth of heavy elements (1/3 of the total mass) based on current theories of irradiated extrasolar giant planets, similar to the mass of the core inferred for the transiting planet HD 149026b. The bulk density of HAT-P-3b is found to be rho_p = 1.06 +/- 0.17 g/cm^3, and the planet orbits the star at a distance of 0.03894 AU. Ephemerides for the transit centers are T_c = 2,454,218.7594 +/- 0.0029 + N (2.899703 +/- 0.000054) (HJD).
We present a statistical study of the non-thermal X-ray emission of 29 young rotation powered pulsars (RPPs) and 22 pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) by using {\sl Chandra} and {\sl XMM-Newton} observations, which with the high spatial resolutions enable us to spatially resolve pulsars from their surrounding PWNe. We obtain the X-ray luminosities and spectra separately for RPPs and PWNe, and then we investigate their distribution and relation to each other and also relations with other rotational parameters. In the pair-correlation analysis we find that: (1) the nonthermal pulsar X-ray luminosity $L_{\rm x,psr}$ is strongly correlated with the pulsar period $P$, period derivative $\dot{P}$, characteristic age $\tau$, and spin-down power $\dot{E}$, $L_{\rm x,psr}=10^{-3.7}\dot{E}^{1.0\pm0.1}$; (2) the pulsar photon spectral index $\Gamma_{\rm psr}$ is negatively correlated with $\dot{P}$ and $\dot{E}$ but positively correlated with $\tau$; (3) the PWN X-ray luminosity $L_{\rm x,pwn}$ shows weak correlation with $\dot{P}$ and strong correlation with $\tau$ and $\dot{E}$, $L_{\rm x,pwn}=10^{-19.0}\dot{E}^{1.4\pm0.2}$; (4) the PWN photon spectral index $\Gamma_{\rm pwn}$ is positively correlated with $L_{\rm x,pwn}$ and $L_{\rm x,pwn}/\dot{E}$. The statistic study of PWN spectral properties supports the particle wind model in which the X-ray emitting electrons are accelerated by the termination shock of the wind.
Using the method of searching for arbitrary shaped voids in the distribution of volume-limited samples of galaxies from the DR5 SDSS survey, we have identified voids and investigated their characteristics and the change in these characteristics with decreasing Mlim - the upper limit on the absolute magnitude of the galaxies involved in the construction of voids. The total volume of the 50 largest voids increases with decreasing Mlim with a break near Mr* = -20.44 for SDSS galaxies. The mean density contrast in voids increases with decreasing Mlim also with a weak break near M*. The exponent of the dependence of the volume of a void on its rank increases significantly with decreasing Mlim starting from Mlim ~ -20.4 in the characteristic range of volumes, which reflects the tendency for greater clustering of brighter galaxies. The galaxies mostly tend to concentrate toward the void boundaries and to avoid the central void regions. The axial ratios of the ellipsoids equivalent to the voids are, on average, retained with changing Mlim and correspond to elongated and nonoblate void shapes, but some of the voids can change their shape significantly. The void centers show correlations reflecting the correlations of the galaxy distribution on scales (35-70)/h Mpc. The galaxy distribution in the identified voids is nonrandom - groups and filaments can be identified. We have compared the properties of the galaxies in voids and galaxies in structures identified using the minimum spanning tree. A noticeable difference is observed in the mean color indices and star formation rates per unit stellar mass of the galaxies in dense regions (structures) - as expected, the galaxies in voids are, on average, bluer and have higher log(SFR/M_star). These tendencies become stronger toward the central void regions.
We present the results of the first spectroscopic observations of two planetary nebula (PN) candidates in the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy IC10. Using several spectral classification diagrams we show that the brightest PN candidate (PN7) is not a PN, but rather a compact HII region consisting of two components with low electron number densities. After the rejection of this PN candidate, the IC10 planetary nebula luminosity function cutoff becomes very close to the standard value. With the compiled spectroscopic data for a large number of extragalactic PNe, we analyse a series of diagnostic diagrams to generate quantitative criteria for separating PNe from unresolved HII regions. We show that, with the help of the diagnostic diagrams and the derived set of criteria, PNe can be distinguished from HII regions with an efficiency of ~99.6%. With the obtained spectroscopic data we confirm that another, 1.7 mag fainter PN candidate (PN9) is a genuine PN. We argue that, based on all currently available PNe data, IC10 is located at a distance 725+63-33 kpc (distance modulus (m-M) = 24.30+0.18-0.10).
In this work we present the first spectrophotometric results obtained with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) telescope during its perfomance-verification phase. We observed two planetary nebulae (PNe) with extreme metallicities in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr). An abundance analysis is presented for both PNe using empirical abundance determinations. We calculated abundances for O, N, Ne, Ar, S, Cl, Fe, C and He. We confirm the high abundances of PN StWr2-21 with 12+log(O/H) = 8.55+/-0.02 dex showing that Sgr contains a younger stellar population with [Fe/H] ~ -0.2 and age t>1 Gyr. The other PN studied, BoBn1 is an extraordinary object in that the neon abundance exceeds that of oxygen. The abundances of S, Ar and Cl in BoBn1 indicate that the interstellar medium (ISM) abundance of oxygen was ~0.9 dex lower at the time of the formation of the PN progenitor, compared to that currently measured. In this case the PN progenitor had an oxygen abundance 12+log(O/H) = 6.88+/-0.06 dex, which is 1/76 of the solar value. It enriched the material by a factor of ~8 in oxygen, ~250 in nitrogen and ~60 in neon during its evolution. Neon as well as nitrogen and oxygen content may have been produced in the intershell of low-mass AGB stars. Well defined broad WR lines are present in the spectrum of StWr2-21 and absent in the spectrum of BoBn1, that puts the fraction of [WR]-type central PNe stars to 80% for dSph galaxies.
Black holes and neutron stars present extreme forms of matter that cannot be created as such in a laboratory on Earth. Instead, we have to observe and analyze the experiments that are ongoing in the Universe. The most telling observations of black holes and neutron stars come from dense stellar systems, where stars are crowded close enough to each other to undergo frequent interactions. It is the interplay between black holes, neutron stars and other objects in a dense environment that allows us to use observations to draw firm conclusions about the properties of these extreme forms of matter, through comparisons with simulations. The art of modeling dense stellar systems through computer simulations forms the main topic of this review.
We investigate the dynamical evolution of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) in typical scattered disk orbits (scattered TNOs) by performing simulations using several thousand particles lying initially on Neptune-encountering orbits. We explore the role of resonance sticking in the scattered disk, a phenomenon characterized by multiple temporary resonance captures ('resonances' refers to external mean motion resonances with Neptune, which can be described in the form r:s, where the arguments r and s are integers). First, all scattered TNOs evolve through intermittent temporary resonance capture events and gravitational scattering by Neptune. Each scattered TNO experiences tens to hundreds of resonance captures over a period of 4 Gyr, which represents about 38% of the object's lifetime (mean value). Second, resonance sticking plays an important role at semimajor axes a < 250 AU, where the great majority of such captures occurred. It is noteworthy that the stickiest (i.e., dominant) resonances in the scattered disk are located within this distance range and are those possessing the lowest argument s. This was evinced by r:1, r:2 and r:3 resonances, which played the greatest role during resonance sticking evolution, often leading to captures in several of their neighboring resonances. Finally, the timescales and likelihood of temporary resonance captures are roughly proportional to resonance strength. The dominance of low s resonances is also related to the latter. In sum, resonance sticking has an important impact on the evolution of scattered TNOs, contributing significantly to the longevity of these objects.
Recent findings by Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes indicate a large transparency of the Universe to gamma rays, beyond expectations based on models of extragalactic background light. We show that the observed transparency is naturally induced by an oscillation mechanism, involving a photon and a new boson with mass m << 10^(-10) eV which can travel unimpeded through cosmological distances. This boson might pervade the Universe in a quintessential way. We compute the flux of gamma rays reaching the Earth from cosmological sources at different energies. Our predictions can be tested in the near future by the gamma-ray telescopes H.E.S.S., MAGIC, CANGAROO, VERITAS as well as by the gamma-ray satellites AGILE and GLAST.
We present Spitzer/IRS observations of a small sample of heavily obscured IRAS sources displaying both the infrared and OH maser emission characteristic of OH/IR stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), but also radio continuum emission typical of ionized planetary nebulae (PNe), the so-called OHPNe. Our observations show that their mid-infrared spectra are dominated by the simultaneous presence of strong and broad amorphous silicate absorption features together with crystalline silicate features, originated in their O-rich circumstellar shells. Out of the five sources observed, three of them are clearly non-variable at infrared wavelengths, confirming their post-AGB status, while the remaining two still show strong photometric fluctuations, and may still have not yet departed from the AGB. One of the non-variable sources in the sample, IRAS 17393-2727, displays a strong [Ne II] nebular emission at 12.8 microns, indicating that the ionization of its central region has already started. This suggests a rapid evolution from the AGB to the PN stage. We propose that these heavily obscured OHPNe represent the population of high mass precursors to PNe in our Galaxy.
Using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we investigate heating and turbulence driving in an intracluster medium (ICM) by orbital motions of galaxies in a galaxy cluster. We consider Ng member galaxies on isothermal and isotropic orbits through an ICM typical of rich clusters. An introduction of the galaxies immediately produces gravitational wakes, providing perturbations that can potentially grow via resonant interaction with the background gas. When Ng^{1/2}Mg_11 < 100, where Mg_11 is each galaxy mass in units of 10^{11} Msun, the perturbations are in the linear regime and the resonant excitation of gravity waves is efficient to generate kinetic energy in the ICM, resulting in the velocity dispersion sigma_v ~ 2.2 Ng^{1/2}Mg_11 km/s. When Ng^{1/2}Mg_11 > 100, on the other hand, nonlinear fluctuations of the background ICM destroy galaxy wakes and thus render resonant excitation weak or absent. In this case, the kinetic energy saturates at the level corresponding to sigma_v ~ 220 km/s. The angle-averaged velocity power spectra of turbulence driven in our models have slopes in the range of -3.7 to -4.3. With the nonlinear saturation of resonant excitation, none of the cooling models considered are able to halt cooling catastrophe, suggesting that the galaxy motions alone are unlikely to solve the cooling flow problem.
We carried out 3 observations of the cluster of galaxies AWM 7, for the central region and 20'-east and 20'-west offset regions, with Suzaku. Temperature and abundance profiles are measured out to 27'~ 570 /h_70 kpc, which corresponded to ~0.35 r_180. The temperature of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) slightly decreases from 3.8 keV at the center to 3.4 keV in ~0.35 r_180 region, indicating a flatter profile than those in other nearby clusters. Abundance ratio of Si to Fe is almost constant in our observation, while Mg to Fe ratio increases with radius from the cluster center. O to Fe ratio in the west region shows increase with radius, while that in the east region is almost flat, though the errors are relatively large. These features suggest that the enrichment process is significantly different between products of type II supernovae (O and Mg) and those by type Ia supernovae (Si and Fe). We also examined positional shift of the central energy of He-like Fe-Ka line, in search of possible rotation of the ICM. The 90% upper limit for the line-of-sight velocity difference was derived to be v ~ 2000 km/s, suggesting that the ellipticity of AWM 7 is rather caused by a recent directional infall of the gas along the large-scale filament.
We investigate the role of Alfven waves in the core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion. We assume that Alfven waves are generated by convections inside a proto-neutron star (PNS) and emitted from its surface. Then these waves propagate outwards and dissipate via nonlinear processes and heat up matter around a stalled prompt shock. To quantitatively assess the importance of this process for revival of the stalled shock, we perform 1D time-dependent hydrodynamical simulations, taking into account the heating via the dissipation of Alfven waves. We show that the shock revival occurs if the surface field strength is larger than ~2x10^{15}G and if the amplitude of velocity fluctuation at the PNS surface is larger than ~ 20% of the local sound speed. Interestingly, the Alfven wave mechanism is self-regulating in the sense that the explosion energy is not very sensitive to the surface field strength and initial amplitude of Alfven waves as long as they are larger than the threshold values given above. It should be emphasized that Alfven waves can produce SN explosions even without rotation if a PNS has strong magnetic fields of the magnetar scale.
GAW is a "path-finder" experiment to test the feasibility of a new generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes that join high flux sensitivity with large field of view capability using Fresnel lens, stereoscopic observational approach, and single photon counting mode. GAW is an array of three telescopes that will be erected at the Calar Alto Observatory site (Spain, 2150 m a.s.l.). To evaluate the performance of GAW, a consistent data--set has been simulated, including a Crab-like source observation, and a proper image analysis code has been developed, as described in this contribution. The expected performance of GAW are also reported, mainly for what concerns effective area, angular resolution, Cherenkov flux as function of the core distance, ability in the gamma/proton separation, and sensitivity. The first telescope realization, foreseen within the end of this year, will allow to verify if the parameters used in the analysis are in agreement with the "real" performance of the GAW apparatus.
We calculate the spatial two-point auto and cross-correlation functions for the 765 galaxies with Rc<21.5 and 0.1<z<0.51 in the ESO-Sculptor survey, and explore the segregation effects among the populations of giant (early-type, late spiral) and dwarf (dE, dI) galaxies. At separation of 0.3 h^-1 Mpc, pairs of early-type galaxies dominate the clustering over all the other types of pairs. At intermediate scales, 0.3-5 h^-1 Mpc, mixed pairs of dwarf and giant galaxies contribute equally as pairs of giant galaxies, whereas the latter dominate at ~10 h^-1 Mpc. We detect the signature of the transition between the 1-halo and 2-halo regimes which is expected in the scenario of galaxy formation by hierarchical merging of dark matter halos. The early-type galaxies largely outdo the late spiral galaxies in their 1-halo component, whereas the 2-halo components of both giant populations are comparable. The dwarf galaxies have an intermediate 1-halo component between the 2 giant galaxy types, and their 2-halo component is weak and consistent with null clustering. The present analysis indicates that the early-type galaxies are preferentially located near the centers of the most massive halos, whereas late spiral galaxies tend to occupy their outskirts or the centers of less massive halos. This analysis also unveils new results on the spatial distribution of dwarf galaxies: at the scale at which they significantly cluster inside the halos (<0.3 h^-1 Mpc), they are poorly mixed with the late spiral galaxies, and appear preferentially as satellites of early-type galaxies.
We address the question of whether or not assembly bias arises in the absence of highly non-linear effects such as tidal stripping of halos near larger mass concentrations. Therefore, we use a simplified dynamical scheme where these effects are not modeled. We choose the punctuated Zel'dovich (PZ) approximation, which prevents orbit mixing by coalescing particles coming within a critical distance of each other. A numerical implementation of this approximation is fast, allowing us to run a large number of simulations to study assembly bias. We measure an assembly bias from 60 PZ simulations, each with 512^3 cold particles in a 128h^-1 Mpc cubic box. The assembly bias estimated from the correlation functions at separations < 5h^-1 Mpc for objects (halos) at z=0 is comparable to that obtained in full N-body simulations. For masses 4x10^11 h^-1 Mo the "oldest" 10% haloes are 3-5 times more correlated than the "youngest" 10%. The bias weakens with increasing mass, also in agreement with full N-body simulations. We find that that halo ages are correlated with the dimensionality of the surrounding linear structures as measured by the parameter (\lambda_1+\lambda_2+\lambda_3)/ (\lambda_1^2+\lambda_2^2+\lambda_3^2)^{1/2} where \lambda_i are proportional to the eigenvalues of the velocity deformation tensor. Our results suggest that assembly bias may already be encoded in the early stages of the evolution.
H13CN J=8-7 sub-millimetre line emission produced in the circumstellar envelope around the extreme carbon star IRC+10216 has been imaged at sub-arcsecond angular resolution using the SMA. Supplemented by a detailed excitation analysis the average fractional abundance of H13CN in the inner wind (< 5E15 cm) is estimated to be about 4E-7, translating into a total HCN fractional abundance of 2E-5 using the isotopic ratio 12C/13C=50. Multi-transitional single-dish observations further requires the H13CN fractional abundance to remain more or less constant in the envelope out to a radius of about 4E16 cm, where the HCN molecules are effectively destroyed, most probably, by photodissociation. The large amount of HCN present in the inner wind provides effective line cooling that can dominate over that generated from CO line emission. It is also shown that great care needs to be taken in the radiative transfer modelling where non-local, and non-LTE, effects are important and where the radiation field from thermal dust grains plays a major role in exciting the HCN molecules. The amount of HCN present in the circumstellar envelope around IRC+10216 is consistent with predicted photospheric values based on equilibrium chemical models and indicates that any non-equilibrium chemistry occurring in the extended pulsating atmosphere has no drastic net effect on the fractional abundance of HCN molecules that enters the outer envelope. It further suggests that few HCN molecules are incorporated into dust grains.
The study of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays represents one of the most challenging topic in the Cosmic Rays and in the Astroparticle Physics fields. The interaction of primary particles with atmospheric nuclei produces a huge Extensive Air Shower together with isotropic emission of UV fluorescence light and highly directional Cherenkov photons, that are reflected/diffused isotropically by the impact on the Earth's surface or on high optical depth clouds. For space-based observations, detecting the reflected Cherenkov signal in a delayed coincidence with the fluorescence light improves the accuracy of the shower reconstruction in space and in particular the measurement of the shower maximum, giving a strong signature for discriminating hadrons and neutrinos, and helping to estimate the primary chemical composition. Since the Earth's surface is mostly covered by water, the ULTRA (UV Light Transmission and Reflection in the Atmosphere)experiment has been designed to provide the diffusing properties of sea water, overcoming the lack of information in this specific field. A small EAS array, made up of 5 particle detectors, and an UV optical device, have been coupled to detect in coincidence both electromagnetic and UV components. The detector was in operation from May to December, 2005, in a small private harbor in Capo Granitola (Italy); the results of these measurements in terms of diffusion coefficient and threshold energy are presented here.
In the past years a wealth of observations allowed to unravel the structural properties of the Dark and Luminous mass distribution in spirals. First, their rotation curves follow, out their virial radius, an Universal function (URC) that can be described as the sum of two terms due to the gravitational potential of a Freeman stellar disk and a dark halo, with the importance of the latter increasing with galaxy mass. Individual objects reveal in detail that dark halos have a density core, whose size correlates with its central value. These properties will guide Lambda CDM Cosmology to evolve to match the challenge that observations presently pose.
In the present paper we derive the density distribution of dark matter (DM)
in a well-observed nearby disc galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy. From photometrical
and chemical evolution models constructed in the first part of the study (Tamm,
Tempel & Tenjes 2007 (arXiv:0707.4375), hereafter Paper I) we can calculate the
mass distribution of visible components. In the dynamical model we calculate
stellar rotation velocities along the major axis and velocity dispersions along
the major, minor and intermediate axes of the galaxy. Comparing the calculated
values with the collected observational data, we find the amount of DM, which
must be added to reach an agreement with the observed rotation and dispersion
data.
We conclude that within the uncertainties, the DM distributions by Moore,
Burkert, isothermal, Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) and Navarro et al. 2004 (N04)
fit with observations. The NFW and N04 density distributions give the best fit
with observations.
The total mass of M 31 with the NFW DM distribution is 1.1x10^12M_sun, ratio
of the DM mass to the visible mass is 13. For N04 DM distribution these values
are 1.4x10^12M_sun and 17.
We have collected available surface photometry for the Andromeda galaxy in U, B, V, R, I, L colours and constructed a three-dimensional luminosity distribution model. The galaxy is modelled as a superposition of five axially symmetric stellar components: a bulge, an old exponential disc, a young star-forming disc, an extended metal-poor thick disc and a faint stellar halo. We ascribe a distinct metallicity value to each of the components to fit the observed values at different distances from the centre. After taking into account for inner extinction in the dust disc of the galaxy, we compare all the derived colour indices of each component with chemical evolution models of single-burst, single-metallicity stellar populations and derive mass-to-light ratios and ages of the components. The total luminosity of M31 corrected for the intrinsic absorption is L_B = (3.3+/-0.5)x10^10 L_sun and it is dominated by light from the star-forming young disc. Mass-to-light ratios for the visible components, resulting from the chemical evolution model are: M/L_B = 5.5-7.4 M_sun/L_sun for the bulge, M/L_B = 3.5-5.8 M_sun/L_sun for the old disc, M/L_B = 0.3-0.42 M_sun/L_sun for the young disc, M/L_B = 2.5-5 M_sun/L_sun for the extended disc and M/L_B ~ 3.7 M_sun/L_sun for the diffuse halo. The total mass of visible matter is M_vis = (5.9-8.7)x10^10 M_sun, giving the total intrinsic mass-to-light ratio of visible matter M/L_B = 1.6-3.1 M_sun/L_sun. The determined ages propose a nearly simultaneous formation of the bulge and the disc a few gigayears after the Big Bang. The use of the model parameters for a dynamical analysis and determining dark matter distribution is presented in a companion paper (Tempel, Tamm, Tenjes 2007, arXiv:0707.4374)
We investigate here the effects of plasma instabilities driven by rapid electron/positron pair cascades, which arise in the environment of GRB sources as a result of back-scattering of a seed fraction of the original spectrum. The injection of electron/positron pairs induces strong streaming motions in the ambient medium. One therefore expects the pair-enriched medium ahead of the forward shock to be strongly sheared on length scales comparable to the radiation front thickness. Using three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we show that plasma instabilities driven by these streaming electron/positron pairs are responsible for the excitation of near-equipartition, turbulent magnetic fields. Our results reveal the importance of the electromagnetic filamentation instability in ensuring an effective coupling between electron/positron pairs and ions, and may help explain the origin of large upstream fields in GRB shocks.
We study the orbital structure of a self-consistent N-body equilibrium configuration of a barred galaxy constructed from cosmological initial conditions. The value of its spin parameter L is near the observed value of our Galaxy L=0.22. We classify the orbits in regular and chaotic using a combination of two different methods and find 60% of them to be chaotic. We examine the phase space using projections of the 4D surfaces of section for test particles as well as for real N-body particles. The real particles are not uniformly distributed in the whole phase space but they avoid orbits that do not support the bar. We use frequency analysis for the regular orbits as well as for the chaotic ones to classify certain types of orbits of our self-consistent system. We find the main resonant orbits and their statistical weight in supporting the shape of the bar and we emphasize the role of weakly chaotic orbits in supporting the boxiness at the end of the bar.
The ATIC balloon-borne experiment measures the energy spectra of elements from H to Fe in primary cosmic rays from about 100 GeV to 100 TeV. ATIC is comprised of a fully active bismuth germanate calorimeter, a carbon target with embedded scintillator hodoscopes, and a silicon matrix that is used as the main charge detector. The silicon matrix produces good charge resolution for protons and helium but only partial resolution for heavier nuclei. In the present paper, the charge resolution of ATIC was improved and backgrounds were reduced in the region from Be to Si by using the upper layer of the scintillator hodoscope as an additional charge detector. The flux ratios of nuclei B/C, C/O, N/O in the energy region from about 10 GeV/nucleon to 300 GeV/nucleon obtained from this high-resolution, high-quality charge spectra are presented, and compared with existing theoretical predictions.
The High Resolution Fly's Eye Experiment (HiRes) measures cosmic rays (CR) at the highest energies using the air fluorescence technique. As data taking on the Dugway Proving Grounds in Western Utah is finished, the HiRes data are relevant for cosmogenic neutrinos in two different ways. We first use our best fit to the measured HiRes CR spectrum together with a model of the extragalactic CR sources to derive the expected cosmogenic neutrino and gamma ray fluxes at Earth. We then use the HiRes data directly to set competitive experimental limits on the electron and tau neutrino fluxes at the highest energies.
We present the results of an interferometric study of the N2H+(1--0) emission from nine nearby, isolated, low-mass protostellar cores, using the OVRO millimeter array. The main goal of this study is the kinematic characterization of the cores in terms of rotation, turbulence, and fragmentation. Eight of the nine objects have compact N2H+ cores with FWHM radii of 1200 -- 3500 AU, spatially coinciding with the thermal dust continuum emission. The only more evolved (Class I) object in the sample (CB 188) shows only faint and extended N2H+ emission. The mean N2H+ line width was found to be 0.37 km/s. Estimated virial masses range from 0.3 to 1.2 M_sun. We find that thermal and turbulent energy support are about equally important in these cores, while rotational support is negligible. The measured velocity gradients across the cores range from 6 to 24 km/s/pc. Assuming these gradients are produced by bulk rotation, we find that the specific angular momenta of the observed Class 0 protostellar cores are intermediate between those of dense (prestellar) molecular cloud cores and the orbital angular momenta of wide PMS binary systems. There appears to be no evolution (decrease) of angular momentum from the smallest prestellar cores via protostellar cores to wide PMS binary systems. In the context that most protostellar cores are assumed to fragment and form binary stars, this means that most of the angular momentum contained in the collapse region is transformed into orbital angular momentum of the resulting stellar binary systems.
Off-the-limb observations with high spatial and spectral resolution will help us understand the physical properties of spicules in the solar chromosphere Spectropolarimetric observations of spicules in the \ion{He}{i} 10830 \AA\ multiplet were obtained with the Tenerife Infrared Polarimeter on the German Vacuum Tower Telescope at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain). The analysis shows the variation of the off-limb emission profiles as a function of the distance to the visible solar limb. The ratio between the intensities of the blue and the red components of this triplet $({\cal R}=I_{\rm blue}/I_{\rm red})$ is an observational signature of the optical thickness along the light path, which is related to the intensity of the coronal irradiation. We present observations of the intensity profiles of spicules above a quiet Sun region. The observable ${\cal R}$ as a function of the distance to the visible limb is also given. We have compared our observational results to the intensity ratio obtained from detailed radiative transfer calculations in semi-empirical models of the solar atmosphere assuming spherical geometry. The agreement is purely qualitative. We argue that future models of the solar chromosphere and transition region should account for the observational constraints presented here.
The existence of dark matter (DM) at scales of few pc down to $\simeq 10^{-5}$ pc around the centers of galaxies and in particular in the Galactic Center region has been considered in the literature. Under the assumption that such a DM clump, principally constituted by non-baryonic matter (like WIMPs) does exist at the center of our galaxy, the study of the $\gamma$-ray emission from the Galactic Center region allows us to constrain both the mass and the size of this DM sphere. Further constraints on the DM distribution parameters may be derived by observations of bright infrared stars around the Galactic Center. Hall and Gondolo \cite{hallgondolo} used estimates of the enclosed mass obtained in various ways and tabulated by Ghez et al. \cite{Ghez_2003,Ghez_2005}. Moreover, if a DM cusp does exist around the Galactic Center it could modify the trajectories of stars moving around it in a sensible way depending on the DM mass distribution. Here, we discuss the constraints that can be obtained with the orbit analysis of stars (as S2 and S16) moving inside the DM concentration with present and next generations of large telescopes. In particular, consideration of the S2 star apoastron shift may allow improving limits on the DM mass and size.
Elongated jets from young stellar objects typically present a nodular structure, formed by a chain of bright knots of enhanced emission with individual proper motions. Though it is generally accepted that internal shocks play an important role in the formation and dynamics of such structures, their precise origin and the mechanisms behind the observed proper motions is still a matter of debate. Our goal is to study numerically the origin, dynamics, and emission properties of such knots. Axisymmetric simulations are performed with a shock-capturing code for gas dynamics, allowing for molecular, atomic, and ionized hydrogen in non-equilibrium concentrations subject to ionization/recombination processes. Radiative losses in SII lines are computed, and the resulting synthetic emission maps are compared with observations. We show that a pattern of regularly spaced internal oblique shocks, characterized by individual proper motions, is generated by the pressure gradient between the propagating jet and the time variable external cocoon. In the case of under-expanded, light jets the resulting emission knots are found to move downstream with the jet flow, with increasing velocity and decaying brightness toward the leading bow shock. This suggests that the basic properties of the knots observed in stellar jets can be reproduced even without invoking ad hoc pulsating conditions at the jet inlet, though an interplay between the two scenarios is certainly possible.
We perform a critical re-analysis and discussion of recent results presented in the literature which interpret the CMa overdensity as the signature of an accreting dwarf galaxy or a new substructure within the Galaxy. Several issues are addressed. We show that arguments against the ``warp'' interpretation are based on an erroneous perception of the Milky Way. There is nothing anomalous with colour--magnitude diagrams on opposite sides of the average warp mid-plane being different. We witnessed the rise and fall of the blue plume population, first attributed to young stars in a disrupting dwarf galaxy and now discarded as a normal disc population. Similarly, there is nothing anomalous in the outer thin+thick disc metallicities being low (-1<[Fe/H]<-0.5), and spiral arms (as part of the thin disc) should, and do, warp. Most importantly, we show unambiguously that, contrary to previous claims, the warp produces a stellar overdensity that is distance-compatible with that observed in CMa.The CMa over-density remains fully accounted for in a first order approach by Galactic models without new substructures. Given the intrinsic uncertainties (concerning the properties of the warp, flare and disc cutoff, the role of extinction and degeneracy), minor deviations with respect to these models are not enough to support the hypothesis of an accreted dwarf galaxy or new substructure within the Milky Way disc.
The metallicity dependence of the primary indices of the uvby photometric system for cooler dwarfs (Teff ~ 6500 K to 5000K) is investigated. The data base for the analysis is composed of the overlap between a composite catalog of selected, high-dispersion spectroscopic abundances for 1801 stars on the metallicity scale of Valenti and Fischer (2005) and a merged catalog of high-precision uvbyHbeta photometry for over 35,000 stars. While [Fe/H] for F dwarfs is best estimated from m_1, with a modest dependence on c_1 as expected, for hotter G dwarfs the pattern reverses and c_1 becomes the dominant index. For cooler G dwarfs and K stars, the c_1 dominance continues, but a discontinuity appears such that stars between (b-y) = 0.50 and 0.58 with [Fe/H] >= +0.25 have m_1 and c_1 indices that classify them as subgiants, confirming an earlier result based upon a much smaller sample. The reversal in the sensitivity to m_1 and c_1 is traced, in part, to the metallicity sensitivity of the (b-y) index. Moreover, (b-y) grows larger in a non-linear fashion for stars above solar metallicity, leading to an overestimate of the reddening for super-metal-rich stars from some standard intrinsic color relations. Based upon successful tests using indices from synthetic spectra and the empirical trends among the observations, metallicity calibrations tied to Hbeta rather than (b-y) have been derived for [Fe/H] >= -1.0, generating dispersions among the residuals ranging from 0.061 dex to 0.085 dex over the entire temperature range of interest. The new calibrations have the added advantage of being significantly less sensitive to errors in reddening than previous calibrations.
GAW proposes a new approach for the detection and measurement of the Cherenkov light produced by GeV/TeV gamma rays traversing the Earth atmosphere which imposes specific requirements on the electronics design. The focal surface of the GAW telescope consists of a matrix of multi-anode photomultipliers. The large number of active channels (of the order of 10^5) makes it basically a large UV sensitive digital camera with high resolution imaging capability. The limited amount of space available, due to the large number of channels, requires a compact design with minimal distance between the elements of the focal surface. The front-end electronics uses the single photoelectron counting technique to capture the Cherenkov light. The data acquisition is based on free-running data taking method. Self-triggering capability for each telescope is assured by detecting an excess of active pixels, in a 10ns time frame, inside overlapping trigger areas covering the whole focal surface. In this paper we describe the GAW electronics, as well as the trigger concept and implementation.
A new method to reconstruct the 3-dimensional structure of extensive air showers, seen by fluorescence detectors, is proposed. The observation of the shower is done in 2-dimensional pixels, for consecutive time bins. Time corresponds to a third dimension. Assuming that the cosmic ray shower propagates as a plane wave front moving at the speed of light, a complex 3D volume in space can be associated to each measured charge (per pixel and time bin). The 3D description in space allows a simultaneous access to the longitudinal and lateral profiles of each shower. In the case that several eyes observe the same shower, the method gives a straight-forward combination of all the information. This method is in an early phase of development and is not used for the general reconstruction of the Auger data.
A new approach to Gamma/Hadron separation algorithms is proposed. The differences between Gamma and Hadron showers are notorious in two main aspects. The first is the wideness of the shower, and the second is the distribution of the angles of emission of Cherenkov photons in respect to the shower main axis. Using more than one IAC telescope, and their respective bi-dimensional images of arrival directions of the Cherenkov photons, the 3D geometrical characteristics of the shower can be reconstructed.
We study the infrared effective theory of gravity that stems from the quantum trace anomaly. Quantum fluctuations of the metric induce running of the cosmological constant and the Newton constant at cosmological scales. By imposing the generalized Bianchi identity we obtain a prediction for the scale dependence of the dark matter and dark energy densities in terms of the parameters of the underlying conformal theory. For certain values of the model parameters the dark energy equation of state and the observed spectral index of the primordial density fluctuations can be simultaneously reproduced.
Curvaton reheating is studied in non-oscillatory (NO) models of inflation, with the aim to obtain bounds on the parameters of curvaton models and find out whether low scale inflation can be attained. Using a minimal curvaton model, it is found that the allowed parameter space is considerably larger than in the case of the usual oscillatory inflation models. In particular, inflation with Hubble scale as low as 1 TeV is comfortably allowed.
A new dark energy model, named as ``agegraphic dark energy'', has been proposed by one of us (R. G. Cai) in arXiv:0707.4049, based on the K\'{a}rolyh\'{a}zy uncertainty relation, which arises from the quantum mechanics together with general relativity. In this note, we extend the original agegraphic dark energy model by including the interaction between the agegraphic dark energy and the pressureless (dark) matter. In the interacting agegraphic dark energy model, there are many interesting features different from the original agegraphic dark energy model and holographic dark energy model, for examples, the model parameter n>1 is no longer necessary to drive the accelerated expansion of our universe; the equation-of-state parameter (EoS) of agegraphic dark energy can cross the phantom divide, whereas the big rip can be avoided; the universe undergoes decelerated expansion at early time and then starts accelerated expansion later; there are scaling solutions which can help to alleviate the coincidence problem. The similarity and difference between the agegraphic dark energy and holographic dark energy are also discussed.
The Equation of State (EoS) of dense matter represents a central issue in the study of compact astrophysical objects and heavy ion reactions at intermediate and relativistic energies. We have derived a nuclear EoS with nucleons and hyperons within the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach, and joined it with quark matter EoS. For that, we have employed the MIT bag model, as well as the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and the Color Dielectric (CD) models, and found that the NS maximum masses are not larger than 1.7 solar masses. A comparison with available data supports the idea that dense matter EoS should be soft at low density and quite stiff at high density.
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The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) are rich resources for studying stellar astrophysics and the structure and formation history of the Galaxy. As new surveys and instruments adopt similar filter sets, it is increasingly important to understand the properties of the ugrizJHKs stellar locus, both to inform studies of `normal' main sequence stars as well as for robust searches for point sources with unusual colors. Using a sample of ~600,000 point sources detected by SDSS and 2MASS, we tabulate the position and width of the ugrizJHKs stellar locus as a function of g-i color, and provide accurate polynomial fits. We map the Morgan-Keenan spectral type sequence to the median stellar locus by using synthetic photometry of spectral standards and by analyzing 3000 SDSS stellar spectra with a custom spectral typing pipeline. We develop an algorithm to calculate a point source's minimum separation from the stellar locus in a seven-dimensional color space, and use it to robustly identify objects with unusual colors, as well as spurious SDSS/2MASS matches. Analysis of a final catalog of 2117 color outliers identifies 370 white-dwarf/M dwarf (WDMD) pairs, 93 QSOs, and 90 M giant/carbon star candidates, and demonstrates that WDMD pairs and QSOs can be distinguished on the basis of their J-Ks and r-z colors. We also identify a group of objects with correlated offsets in the u-g vs. g-r and g-r vs. r-i color-color spaces, but subsequent follow-up is required to reveal the nature of these objects. Future applications of this algorithm to a matched SDSS-UKIDSS catalog may well identify additional classes of objects with unusual colors by probing new areas of color-magnitude space.
We have assembled a sample of halo stars in the solar neighborhood to look for halo substructure in velocity and angular momentum space. Our sample includes red giants, RR Lyrae, and red horizontal branch stars within 2.5 kpc of the Sun with [Fe/H] less than -1.0. It was chosen to include stars with accurate distances, space velocities, and metallicities as well as well-quantified errors. We confirm the existence of the streams found by Helmi and coworkers, which we refer to as the H99 streams. These streams have a double-peaked velocity distribution in the z direction. We use the results of modeling of the H99 streams by Helmi and collaborators to test how one might use v_z velocity information and radial velocity information to detect kinematic substructure in the halo. We find that detecting the H99 streams with radial velocities alone would require a large sample. We use the velocity distribution of the H99 streams to estimate their age. From our model of the progenitor of the H99 streams, we determine that it was accreted between 6 and 9 Gyr ago. The H99 streams have [alpha/Fe] abundances similar to other halo stars in the solar neighborhood, suggesting that the gas that formed these stars were enriched mostly by Type II SNe. We have also discovered in angular momentum space two other possible substructures, which we refer to as the retrograde and prograde outliers. The retrograde outliers are likely to be halo substructure, but the prograde outliers are most likely part of the smooth halo. The retrograde outliers have significant structure in the v_phi direction and show a range of [alpha/Fe]. The methods presented in this paper can be used to exploit the kinematic information present in future large databases like RAVE, SDSSII/SEGUE, and Gaia.
We examine the rest frame energetics of 76 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with known redshift that were detected by the Swift spacecraft. Using the bolometric fluence values estimated in \citet{Butler07b} and the last XRT observation for each event, we set a lower limit the their collimation corrected energy $E_{\gamma}$ and find that a 68% of our sample are at high enough redshift and/or low enough fluence to accommodate a jet break occurring beyond the last XRT observation and still be consistent with the pre-Swift $E_{\gamma}$ distribution for long GRBs. We find that relatively few of the X-ray light curves for the remaining events show evidence for late-time decay slopes that are consistent with that expected from post jet break emission. The breaks in the X-ray light curves that do exist tend to be shallower and occur earlier than the breaks previously observed in optical light curves, yielding a $E_{\gamma}$ distribution that is far lower than the pre-Swift distribution. If these early X-ray breaks are not due to jet effects, then a small but significant fraction of our sample have lower limits to their collimation corrected energy that place them well above the pre-Swift $E_{\gamma}$ distribution. Either scenario would necessitate a much wider post-Swift $E_{\gamma}$ distribution for long cosmological GRBs compared to the narrow standard energy deduced from pre-Swift observations.
We probe the physical conditions in high-redshift damped Ly-alpha systems using the observed molecular fraction and the rotational excitation of molecular hydrogen. We report two new detections of H2 at z = 2.402 and 1.989 toward, respectively, HE 0027-1836 and HE 2318-1107. We also present a detailed analysis of our recent H2 detection toward Q2343+125. All three systems have low molecular fractions, log f < -4, with f = 2N(H2)/(2N(H2) + N(HI)). Only one such H2 system was known previously. The depletion patterns for Si, S, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe and Ni in the three systems are found to be very similar to what is observed in diffuse gas of the Galactic halo. H2 absorption from rotational levels up to J = 5 is observed in a single component toward HE 0027-1836. We show that the width (Doppler parameter) of the H2 lines increases with increasing J and that the kinetic energy derived from the Doppler parameter is linearly dependent on the relative energy of the rotational levels. The excitation temperature is found to be 90 K for J = 0 to J = 2 and ~500 K for higher J levels. Single isothermal PDR models fail to reproduce the observed rotational excitations. A two-component model is needed: one component of low density (~50 cm-3) with weak illumination (chi = 1) to explain the J <= 2 rotational levels and another of high density (~500 cm-3) with strong illumination (chi = 30) for J >= 3 levels. However, the juxtaposition of these two PDR components may be ad-hoc and the multicomponent structure could result either from turbulent dissipation or C-shocks.
We use hydrodynamic simulations of minor mergers of galaxies to investigate the nature of surface brightness excesses at large radii observed in some spiral galaxies: antitruncated stellar disks. We find that this process can produce the antitruncation via two competing effects: (1) merger-driven gas inflows that concentrate mass in the center of the primary galaxy and contract its inner density profile; and (2) angular momentum transferred outwards by the interaction, causing the outer disk to expand. In our experiments, this requires both a significant supply of gas in the primary disk, and that the encounter be prograde with moderate orbital angular momentum. The stellar surface mass density profiles of our remnants both qualitatively and quantitatively resemble the broken exponentials observed in local face--on spirals that display antitruncations. Moreover, the observed trend towards more frequent antitruncation relative to classical truncation in earlier Hubble types is consistent with a merger-driven scenario.
We present deep 350- and 1200-micron imaging of the region around 4C41.17 -- one of the most distant (z = 3.792) and luminous known radio galaxies -- obtained with the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera (SHARC-II) and the Max Planck Millimeter Bolometer Array (MAMBO). The radio galaxy is robustly detected at 350- and 1200-micron, as are two nearby 850-micron-selected galaxies; a third 850-micron source is detected at 350-micron and coincides with a ~ 2-sigma feature in the 1200-micron map. Further away from the radio galaxy an additional nine sources are detected at 1200-micron, bringing the total number of detected (sub)millimeter selected galaxies (SMGs) in this field to 14. Using radio images from the Very Large Array (VLA) and Spitzer mid-infrared (mid-IR) data, we find statistically robust radio and/or 24-micron counterparts to eight of the 14 SMGs in the field around 4C41.17. Follow-up spectroscopy with Keck/LRIS has yielded redshifts for three of the eight robustly identified SMGs, placing them in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 2.7, i.e. well below that of 4C41.17. We infer photometric redshifts for a further four sources using their 1.6-micron (rest-frame) stellar feature as probed by the IRAC bands; only one of them is likely to be at the same redshift as 4C41.17. Thus at least four, and as many as seven, of the SMGs within the 4C41.17 field are physically unrelated to the radio galaxy. With the redshift information at hand we are able to constrain the observed over-densities of SMGs within radial bins stretching to R=50 and 100" (~ 0.4 and ~ 0.8Mpc at z ~ 3.8) from the radio galaxy to ~ 5x and ~ 2x that of the field, dropping off to the background value at R=150". [Abridged]
We present HST NICMOS+ACS and Spitzer IRAC+MIPS observations of 41 galaxies at 2<z<3.5 in the FIRES MS1054 field with red and blue rest-frame optical colors. About half of the galaxies are very compact (effective radii r_e < 1 kpc) at rest-frame optical wavelengths, the others are extended (1< r_e < 10 kpc). For reference, 1 kpc corresponds to 0.12 arcsec at z=2.5 in the adopted cosmology. We separate actively star forming galaxies from quiescent galaxies by modeling their rest-frame UV-NIR SEDs. The star forming galaxies span the full range of sizes, while the quiescent galaxies all have r_e<2kpc. In the redshift range where MIPS 24 micron imaging is a sensitive probe of re-radiated dust emission (z<2.5), the 24 micron fluxes confirm that the light of the small quiescent galaxies is dominated by old stars, rather than dust-enshrouded star formation or AGN activity. The inferred surface mass densities and velocity dispersions for the quiescent galaxies are very high compared to those in local galaxies. The galaxies follow a Kormendy relation (between surface brightness and size) with approximately the same slope as locally, but shifted to brighter surface brightnesses, consistent with a mean stellar formation redshift of z_f~5. This paper demonstrates a direct relation between star formation activity and size at z~2.5, and the existence of a significant population of massive, extremely dense, old stellar systems without readily identifiable counterparts in the local universe.
We describe a program that we have embarked on to estimate the spins of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We fit the continuum X-ray spectrum of the radiation from the accretion disk using the standard thin disk model, and extract the dimensionless spin parameter a* = a/M of the black hole as a parameter of the fit. We have obtained results on three systems, 4U 1543-47 (a* = 0.7-0.85), GRO J1655-40 (0.65-0.8), and GRS 1915+105 (0.98-1), and have nearly completed analysis of two additional systems. We anticipate expanding the sample of spin estimates to about a dozen over the next several years.
Recent halo star abundance observations exhibit an important feature of consequence to the r-process: the presence of a main r-process between the second and third peaks which is consistent among halo stars. We explore fission cycling and steady-beta flow as the driving mechanisms behind this feature. The presence of fission cycling during the r-process can account for nucleosynthesis yields between the second and third peaks, whereas the presence of steady-beta flow can account for consistent r-process patterns, robust under small variations in astrophysical conditions. We employ the neutrino-driven wind of the core-collapse supernova to examine fission cycling and steady-beta flow in the r-process. As the traditional neutrino-driven wind model does not produce the required very neutron-rich conditions for these mechanisms, we examine changes to the neutrino physics necessary for fission cycling to occur in the neutrino-driven wind environment, and we explore under what conditions steady-beta flow is obtained.
We present new results from a multi-wavelength (radio/infrared/optical/X-ray) study of the black hole X-ray binary GRO J1655-40 during its 2005 outburst. We detected, for the first time, mid-infrared emission at 24 um from the compact jet of a black hole X-ray binary during its hard state, when the source shows emission from a radio compact jet as well as a strong non-thermal hard X-ray component. These detections strongly constrain the optically thick part of the synchrotron spectrum of the compact jet, which is consistent with being flat over four orders of magnitude in frequency. Moreover, using this unprecedented coverage, and especially thanks to the new Spitzer observations, we can test broadband disk and jet models during the hard state. Two of the hard state broadband spectra are reasonably well fitted using a jet model with parameters overall similar to those previously found for Cyg X-1 and GX 339-4. Differences are also present; most notably, the jet power in GRO J1655-40 appears to be a factor of at least ~3-5 higher (depending on the distance) than that of Cyg X-1 and GX 339-4 at comparable disk luminosities. Furthermore, a few discrepancies between the model and the data, previously not found for the other two black hole systems for which there was no mid-IR/IR and optical coverage, are evident, and will help to constrain and refine theoretical models.
We present the IR luminosity function derived from ultra-deep 70 micron imaging of the GOODS-North field. The 70 micron observations are longward of the PAH and silicate features which complicate work in the MIR. We derive far-infrared luminosities for the 143 sources with S_{70} > 2 mJy (S/N > 3 \sigma). The majority (81%) of the sources have spectroscopic redshifts, and photometric redshifts are calculated for the remainder. The IR luminosity function at four redshifts (z ~ 0.28, 0.48, 0.78, and 0.97) is derived and compared to the local one. There is considerable degeneracy between luminosity and density evolution. If the evolving luminosity function is described as \rho(L, z) = (1 + z)^q \rho(L/(1 + z)^p, 0), we find q = -2.19p + 6.09. In the case of pure luminosity evolution, we find a best fit of p = 2.78^{+0.34}_{-0.32}. This is consistent with the results from 24 micron and 1.4 GHz studies. Our results confirm the emerging picture of strong evolution in LIRGs and ULIRGs at 0.4 < z < 1.1, but we find no evidence of significant evolution in the sub-LIRG (L < 10^{11} L_{\odot}) population for z < 0.4.
Observations of PMS star rotation periods reveal slow rotators in young clusters of various ages, indicating that angular momentum is somehow removed from these rotating masses. The mechanism by which spin-up is regulated as young stars contract has been one of the longest-standing problems in star formation. Attempts to observationally confirm the prevailing theory that magnetic interaction between the star and its circumstellar disk regulates these rotation periods have produced mixed results. In this paper, we use the unprecedented disk identification capability of the Spitzer Space Telescope to test the star-disk interaction paradigm in two young clusters, NGC 2264 and the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). We show that once mass effects and sensitivity biases are removed, a clear increase in the disk fraction with period can be observed in both clusters across the entire period range populated by cluster members. We also show that the long-period peak (P $\sim$8 days) of the bimodal distribution observed for high-mass stars in the ONC is dominated by a population of stars possessing a disk, while the short-period peak (P $\sim$2 days) is dominated by a population of stars without a disk. Our results represent the strongest evidence to date that star-disk interaction regulates the angular momentum of these young stars. This study will make possible quantitative comparisons between the observed period distributions of stars with and without a disk and numerical models of the angular momentum evolution of young stars.
This paper introduces a new program to find high-redshift radio galaxies in the southern hemisphere through ultra-steep spectrum (USS) selection. We define a sample of 234 USS radio sources with spectral indices alpha_408^843 < -1.0 and flux densities S_408 > 200 mJy in a region of 0.35 sr, chosen by cross-correlating the revised 408 MHz Molonglo Reference Catalogue, the 843 MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey and the 1400 MHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey in the overlap region -40 deg < delta < -30 deg. We present Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) high-resolution 1384 and 2368 MHz radio data for each source, which we use to analyse the morphological, spectral index and polarization properties of our sample. We find that 85 per cent of the sources have observed-frame spectral energy distributions that are straight over the frequency range 408-2368 MHz, and that, on average, sources with smaller angular sizes have slightly steeper spectral indices and lower fractional linear polarization. Fractional polarization is anti-correlated with flux density at both 1400 and 2368 MHz. We also use the ATCA data to determine observed-frame Faraday rotation measures for half of the sample.
We study the influence of the initial stellar environment on the formation and current structure of the Oort cloud. To do this, we have run four different simulations of the formation of the Oort Cloud for 4.5 Gyrs, each containing 20,000 particles. In each simulation, the solar system spends its first 100 Myrs in a different open cluster environment before transitioning to its current field environment. We find that, compared to forming in the field environment, the inner Oort Cloud is preferentially loaded with comets while the Sun resides in the open cluster and that most of this material remains locked in the interior of the cloud for the next 4.4 Gyrs. On the other hand, the outer portions of the Oort Cloud in each of the simulations are all similar. Depending on the initial stellar density of the cluster environment, the internal structure of the present day Oort Cloud will vary widely.
We report the discovery of the first high-amplitude delta Scuti star in an eclipsing binary, which we have designated UNSW-V-500. The system is an Algol-type semi-detached eclipsing binary of maximum brightness V = 12.52 mag. A best-fitting solution to the binary light curve and two radial velocity curves is derived using the Wilson-Devinney code. We identify a late A spectral type primary component of mass 1.49+/-0.02 M_sun and a late K spectral type secondary of mass 0.33+/-0.02 M_sun, with an inclination of 86.5+/-1.0 degrees, and a period of 5.3504751+/-0.0000006 d. A Fourier analysis of the residuals from this solution is performed using PERIOD04 to investigate the delta Scuti pulsations. We detect a single pulsation frequency of f_1 = 13.621+/-0.015 c/d, and it appears this is the first overtone radial mode frequency. This system provides the first opportunity to measure the dynamical mass for a star of this variable type; previously, masses have been derived from stellar evolution and pulsation models.
GAW, acronym for Gamma Air Watch, is a Research and Development experiment in the TeV range, whose main goal is to explore the feasibility of large field of view Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. GAW is an array of three relatively small telescopes (2.13 m diameter) which differs from the existing and presently planned projects in two main features: the adoption of a refractive optics system as light collector and the use of single photoelectron counting as detector working mode. The optics system allows to achieve a large field of view (24x24 squared degrees) suitable for surveys of large sky regions. The single photoelectron counting mode in comparison with the charge integration mode improves the sensitivity by permitting also the reconstruction of events with a small number of collected Cherenkov photons. GAW, which is a collaboration effort of Research Institutes in Italy, Portugal and Spain, will be erected in the Calar Alto Observatory (Sierra de Los Filabres - Andalucia, Spain), at 2150 m a.s.l.). The first telescope will be settled within Autumn 2007. This paper shows the main characteristics of the experiment and its expected performance.
We present the results of the blazar 3C 345 monitoring in Johnson-Cousins BVRI bands for the period 1996 - 2006. We have collected 29 V and 43 R data points for this period; the BI light curves contain a few measurements only. The accuracy of our photometry is not better than 0.03 mag in the VR bands. The total amplitude of the variability obtained from our data is 2.06 mag in the V band and 2.25 mag in the R one. 3C 345 showed periods of flaring activity during 1998/99 and 2001: a maximum of the blazar brightness was detected in 2001 February - 15.345 mag in the V band and 14.944 mag in the R one. We confirm that during brighter stages 3C 345 becomes redder; for higher fluxes the colour index seems to be less dependent on the magnitude. The intra-night monitoring of 3C 345 in three consecutive nights in 2001 August revealed no significant intra-night variability; 3C 345 did not show evident flux changes over timescales of weeks around the period of the intra-night monitoring. This result supports the existing facts that intra-night variability is correlated with rapid flux changes rather than with specific flux levels.
Recent observations have revealed that velocity dispersions of ``ultra-compact dwarf'' (UCD) galaxies are significantly smaller than those of other galaxy populations in the Fornax and the Virgo clusters of galaxies. In order to understand the origin of the observed lower velocity dispersions of UCDs, we numerically investigate line-of-sight velocity dispersion (sigma_los) of galaxy populations with variously different orbits in clusters of galaxies with the total masses of M_cl. We particularly investigate radial velocity dispersion profiles (sigma_los(R)) and velocity dispersions within the central 200 kpc of a cluster model (sigma_m) for galaxies with different pericenter distances (r_p) and orbital eccentricities (e) in the model with M_cl = 7.0 x 10^13 M_sun reasonable for the Fornax cluster. We find that sigma_los(R) and sigma_m of galaxies with smaller r_p are steeper and smaller, respectively, for a given initial e distribution of galaxies. For example, we find that sigma_m is ~ 260 km/s for galaxies with r_p <50 kpc and ~ 336 km/s for all galaxies in the model with the mean e of 0.6. These results imply that the observed lower velocity dispersion of UCD population is consistent with the UCDs having significantly smaller r_p than other galaxy populations in the Fornax. We discuss these results in the context of the ``galaxy threshing'' scenario in which UCDs originate from nuclei of nucleated dwarf galaxies. We suggest that the observed differences in kinematical properties between UCDs and other dwarf galaxy populations in clusters of galaxies can be understood in terms of the differences in orbital properties between UCDs and the dwarf populations.
We manufactured pulsed illuminators emitting in the far infrared for the Planck-HFI bolometric instrument ground calibrations. Specific measurements have been conducted on these light sources, based on Carbon fibers, to understand and predict their properties. We present a modelisation of the temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity and the calorific capacitance of the fibers. A comparison between simulations and bolometer data is given, that shows the coherence of our model. Their small time constants, their stability and their emission spectrum pointing in the submm range make these illuminators a very usefull tool for calibrating FIR instruments.
Based on the results of N-body simulations on the last 2.5 Gyr evolution of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC, respectively) interacting with the Galaxy, we firstly show when and where the leading arms (LAs) of the Magellanic stream (MS) can pass through the Galactic plane after the MS formation. We secondly show collisions between the outer Galactic HI disk and the LAs of the MS can create giant HI holes and chimney-like structures in the disk about 0.2 Gyr ago. We thirdly show that a large amount of metal-poor gas is stripped from the SMC and transfered to the LMC during the tidal interaction between the Clouds and the Galaxy about 0.2 and 1.3 Gyr ago. We thus propose that this metal-poor gas can closely be associated with the origin of LMC's young and intermediate-age stars and star clusters with distinctively low-metallicities with [Fe/H] < -0.6.
Relatively few Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) polarization observations have been carried out at 18 cm. The importance of such observations lies in their ability to reveal information about the jet magnetic ({\bf B}) field structure and the environment of the jet on scales intermediate between those probed by higher-frequency VLBI and connected-element interferometers such as the Very Large Array. We have obtained polarization observations of 34 BL Lac objects with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), at 4 separate wavelengths in the 18-20 cm band. The 18-cm jets typically extend to tens of parsecs. In some cases, the decaparsec jet is a continuation of the jet on smaller scales, while in others, we see appreciable bending. We have constructed Faraday rotation-measure maps and used them to study the jet {\bf B} field structures and distribution of thermal plasma around the jets. The Faraday rotation is typically large at these wavelengths, and knowledge of the rotation-measure distribution is essential to derive the {\bf B} field structures of the jets. The high sensitivity of these observations to Faraday rotation makes them an effective tool for studies of possible interactions between the jets and the media through which they propagate.
Interstellar clouds that exhibit strong Ca I and Fe I lines were called CaFe clouds. The ionisation equilibrium equations were used to model the column densities of Ca II, Ca I, K I, Na I, Fe I and Ti II in CaFe clouds. The chemical composition of CaFe clouds is that of the Solar System and no depletion of elements onto dust grains is seen. The CaFe clouds have high electron densities n=1 cm^-3 that leads to high column densities of neutral Ca and Fe.
Type-Ia supernovae (SNe-Ia) are thought to result from a thermonuclear runaway in white dwarfs (WDs) that approach the Chandrasekhar limit, either through accretion from a companion or a merger with another WD. I compile observational estimates of the fraction eta of intermediate-mass stars that eventually explode as SNe-Ia, supplement them with several new estimates, and compare them self-consistently. The estimates are based on five different methods, each utilising some observable related to the SN-Ia rate, combined with assumptions regarding the IMF: the ratio of SN-Ia to core-collapse rates in star-forming galaxies; the SN-Ia rate per unit star-formation rate; the SN-Ia rate per unit stellar mass; the iron to stellar mass ratio in galaxy clusters; and the abundance ratios in galaxy clusters. The five methods indicate that a fraction in the range eta~2-40% of all stars with initial masses of 3-8 M_sun (the generally assumed SN-Ia progenitors) explode as SNe-Ia. A fraction of eta~15% is consistent with all five methods for a range of plausible IMFs. Considering also the binarity fraction among such stars, the mass ratio distribution, the separation distribution, and duplicity (every binary can produce only one SN-Ia explosion), this implies that nearly every intermediate mass close binary ends up as a SN-Ia, or possibly more SNe-Ia than progenitor systems. Theoretically expected fractions are generally one to two orders of magnitude lower. The problem could be solved: if all the observational estimates are in error; or with a ``middle-heavy'' IMF; or by some mechanism that strongly enhances the efficiency of binary evolution toward SN-Ia explosion; or by a non-binary origin for SNe-Ia.
We have obtained deep J and Ks images of a sample of nine barred galaxies in order to collect a reliable and homogeneous set of images to which N-body simulations of barred galaxies will be compared. The observations were performed using the new near-infrared camera available at the 2.1-m telescope of the Observatorio Astrofisico Guillermo Haro (OAGH) in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. We present the results of surface photometry techniques applied to the observed images, as well as to the deprojected images. These results include radial profiles of surface brightness (elliptically averaged), colour, position angle, ellipticity and the b4 Fourier component. In addition, we present isophotal maps, colour maps, surface brightness profiles along the bar major and minor axes, characteristic radial scale-lengths and bar length estimates. We discuss how projection effects can influence these measurements and the uncertainties introduced by deprojecting galaxy images. We show that analytical expressions can be used to obtain reliable estimates of deprojected bar lengths, ellipticities and position angles directly from the observed images. These expressions are based on the assumption that the outer parts of the bar are vertically thin, as shown by theoretical work. The usefulness of our data in addressing issues on bar formation and evolution is also discussed. In particular, we present results showing a steep drop in the ellipticity profile, as expected for bar formation processes in which the dark matter halo plays a fundamental role. Furthermore, we show that the location of this drop is a good indicator of the end of the bar in strongly barred galaxies, as predicted by numerical models.
Branching fraction measurements from Fourier transform spectra in conjunction with published radiative lifetimes are used to determine transition probabilities for 263 lines of neutral chromium. These laboratory values are employed to derive a new photospheric abundance for the Sun: log $\epsilon$(Cr I)$_{\odot}$ = 5.64$\pm$0.01 ($\sigma = 0.07$). These Cr I solar abundances do not exhibit any trends with line strength nor with excitation energy and there were no obvious indications of departures from LTE. In addition, oscillator strengths for singly-ionized chromium recently reported by the FERRUM Project are used to determine: log $\epsilon$(Cr II)$_{\odot}$ = 5.77$\pm$0.03 ($\sigma = 0.13$). Transition probability data are also applied to the spectra of three stars: HD 75732 (metal-rich dwarf), HD 140283 (metal-poor subgiant), and CS 22892-052 (metal-poor giant). In all of the selected stars, Cr I is found to be underabundant with respect to Cr II. The possible causes for this abundance discrepancy and apparent ionization imbalance are discussed.
We analyze the thermal conductivity of ions (equivalent to the conductivity
of phonons in crystalline matter) in a neutron star envelope.
We calculate the ion/phonon thermal conductivity in a crystal of atomic
nuclei using variational formalism and performing momentum-space integration by
Monte Carlo method. We take into account phonon-phonon and phonon-electron
scattering mechanisms and show that phonon-electron scattering dominates at not
too low densities. We extract the ion thermal conductivity in ion liquid or gas
from literature.
Numerical values of the ion/phonon conductivity are approximated by
analytical expressions, valid for T>10^5 K and 10^5 g cm^-3 < \rho < 10^14 g
cm^-3. Typical magnetic fields B~10^12 G in neutron star envelopes do not
affect this conductivity although they strongly reduce the electron thermal
conductivity across the magnetic field. The ion thermal conductivity remains
much smaller than the electron conductivity along the magnetic field. However,
in the outer neutron star envelope it can be larger than the electron
conductivity across the field, that is important for heat transport across
magnetic field lines in cooling neutron stars. The ion conductivity can greatly
reduce the anisotropy of heat conduction in outer envelopes of magnetized
neutron stars.
We present the first Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) catalog of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which contains bursts detected by the BAT between 2004 December 19 and 2007 June 16. This catalog (hereafter BAT1 catalog) contains burst trigger time, location, 90% error radius, duration, fluence, peak flux, and time averaged spectral parameters for each of 237 GRBs, as measured by the BAT. The BAT-determined position reported here is within 1.75' of the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT)-determined position for 90% of these GRBs. The BAT T_90 and T_50 durations peak at 80 and 20 seconds, respectively. From the fluence-fluence correlation, we conclude that about 60% of the observed peak energies, Epeak, of BAT GRBs could be less than 100 keV. We confirm that GRB fluence to hardness and GRB peak flux to hardness are correlated for BAT bursts in analogous ways to previous missions' results. The correlation between the photon index in a simple power-law model and Epeak is also confirmed. We also report the current status for the on-orbit BAT calibrations based on observations of the Crab Nebula.
The Gamma-Ray Imager (GRI) is a novel mission concept that will provide an unprecedented sensitivity leap in the soft gamma-ray domain by using for the first time a focusing lens built of Laue diffracting crystals. The lens will cover an energy band from 200 - 1300 keV with an effective area reaching 600 cm2. It will be complemented by a single reflection multilayer coated mirror, extending the GRI energy band into the hard X-ray regime, down to ~10 keV. The concentrated photons will be collected by a position sensitive pixelised CZT stack detector. We estimate continuum sensitivities of better than 10^-7 ph/cm2/s/keV for a 100 ks exposure; the narrow line sensitivity will be better than 3 x 10^-6 ph/cm2/s for the same integration time. As focusing instrument, GRI will have an angular resolution of better than 30 arcsec within a field of view of roughly 5 arcmin - an unprecedented achievement in the gamma-ray domain. Owing to the large focal length of 100 m of the lens and the mirror, the optics and detector will be placed on two separate spacecrafts flying in formation in a high elliptical orbit. R&D work to enable the lens focusing technology and to develop the required focal plane detector is currently underway, financed by ASI, CNES, ESA, and the Spanish Ministery of Education and Science. The GRI mission is proposed as class M mission for ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program. GRI will allow studies of particle acceleration processes and explosion physics in unprecedented detail, providing essential clues on the innermost nature of the most violent and most energetic processes in the Universe.
We consider the dissipation by Fermi acceleration of magnetosonic turbulence in the Reynolds Layer of the interstellar medium. The scale in the cascade at which electron acceleration via stochastic Fermi acceleration (STFA) becomes comparable to further cascade of the turbulence defines the inner scale. For any magnetic turbulent spectra equal to or shallower than Goldreich-Sridhar this turns out to be $\ge 10^{12}$cm, which is much larger than the shortest length scales observed in radio scintillation measurements. While STFA for such spectra then contradict models of scintillation which appeal directly to an extended, continuous turbulent cascade, such a separation of scales is consistent with the recent work of \citet{Boldyrev2} and \citet{Boldyrev3} suggesting that interstellar scintillation may result from the passage of radio waves through the galactic distribution of thin ionized boundary surfaces of HII regions, rather than density variations from cascading turbulence. The presence of STFA dissipation also provides a mechanism for the non-ionizing heat source observed in the Reynolds Layer of the interstellar medium \citep{Reynolds}. STFA accommodates the proper heating power, and the input energy is rapidly thermalized within the low density Reynolds layer plasma.
The characteristics of ionized and HI gas in the peculiar star/cluster complex in NGC 6946, obtained with the 6-m telescope (BTA) SAO RAS, the Gemini North telescope, and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), are presented. The complex is unusual as hosting a super star cluster, the most massive known in an apparently non-interacting giant galaxy. It contains a number of smaller clusters and is bordered by a sharp C-shaped rim. We found that the complex is additionally unusual in having peculiar gas kinematics. The velocity field of the ionized gas reveals a deep oval minimum, ~300 pc in size, centered 7" east of the supercluster. The Vr of the ionized gas in the dip center is 100 km/s lower than in its surroundings, and emission lines within the dip appear to be shock excited. This dip is near the center of an HI hole and a semi-ring of HII regions. The HI (and less certainly, HII) velocity fields reveal expansion, with the velocity reaching ~30 km/s at a distance about 300 pc from the center of expansion, which is near the deep minimum position. The super star cluster is at the western rim of the minimum. The sharp western rim of the whole complex is plausibly a manifestation of a regular dust arc along the complex edge. Different hypotheses about the complex and the Vr depression origins are discussed, including a HVC/dark mini-halo impact, a BCD galaxy merging, and a gas outflow due to release of energy from the supercluster stars.
We use a modified version of the halo-based group finder developed by Yang et al. to select galaxy groups from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR4). In the first step, a combination of two methods is used to identify the centers of potential groups and to estimate their characteristic luminosity. Using an iterative approach, the adaptive group finder then uses the average mass-to-light ratios of groups, obtained from the previous iteration, to assign a tentative mass to each group. This mass is then used to estimate the size and velocity dispersion of the underlying halo that hosts the group, which in turn is used to determine group membership in redshift space. Finally, each individual group is assigned two different halo masses: one based on its characteristic luminosity, and the other based on its characteristic stellar mass. Applying the group finder to the SDSS DR4, we obtain 301237 groups in a broad dynamic range, including systems of isolated galaxies. We use detailed mock galaxy catalogues constructed for the SDSS DR4 to test the performance of our group finder in terms of completeness of true members, contamination by interlopers, and accuracy of the assigned masses. This paper is the first in a series and focuses on the selection procedure, tests of the reliability of the group finder, and the basic properties of the group catalogue (e.g. the mass-to-light ratios, the halo mass to stellar mass ratios, etc.). The group catalogues including the membership of the groups are available upon request.
The radii of young pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) have been estimated using their rotation periods and projected equatorial velocities. Stars at a given effective temperature have a spread in their geometrically estimated projected radii that is larger than can be accounted for with a coeval model, observational uncertainties and randomly oriented rotation axes. It is shown that the required dispersion in radius (a factor of 2-3 full width half maximum) can be modelled in terms of a spread in stellar ages larger than the median age of the cluster, although the detailed star formation history cannot be uniquely determined using present data. This technique is relatively free from systematic uncertainties (binarity, extinction, variability, distance) that have hampered previous studies of the ONC star formation history using the conventional Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. However, the current ONC rotational data are biased against low luminosity objects, so the deduced dispersions in radius and inferred age are probably underestimates. In particular, the ages of a tail of PMS stars that appear to be >=10Myr old in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram cannot be verified with present data. If projected equatorial velocities were measured for these objects it could easily be checked whether their radii are correspondingly smaller than the bulk of the ONC population.
We have measured the isotopic abundances of neon and a number of other species in the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) using the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) aboard the ACE spacecraft. Our data are compared to recent results from two-component Wolf-Rayet (WR) models. The three largest deviations of galactic cosmic ray isotope ratios from solar-system ratios predicted by these models, 12C/16O, 22Ne/20Ne, and 58Fe/56Fe, are very close to those observed. All of the isotopic ratios that we have measured are consistent with a GCR source consisting of ~20% of WR material mixed with ~80% material with solar-system composition. Since WR stars are evolutionary products of OB stars, and most OB stars exist in OB associations that form superbubbles, the good agreement of our data with WR models suggests that OB associations within superbubbles are the likely source of at least a substantial fraction of GCRs. In previous work it has been shown that the primary 59Ni (which decays only by electron-capture) in GCRs has decayed, indicating a time interval between nucleosynthesis and acceleration of >10^5 yr.In this paper we suggest a scenario that should allow much of the 59Ni to decay in the OB association environment and conclude that the hypothesis of the OB association origin of cosmic rays appears to be viable.
Explicitly time-dependent, nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova remnants (SNRs) has been employed to investigate the properties of SNR RX J1713.7-3946. Observations of the nonthermal radio and X-ray emission spectra as well as earlier H.E.S.S. measurements of the very high energy $\gamma$-ray emission were used to constrain the astronomical and the particle acceleration parameters of the system. The model assumes that the object was a core collapse supernova (SN) with a massive progenitor, has an age of $\approx 1600$ yr and is at a distance of $\approx 1$ kpc. It is shown that an efficient production of nuclear CRs, leading to strong shock modification and a large downstream magnetic field strength $B_{\mathrm{d}}\sim100$ $\mu$G, can reproduce the observed synchrotron emission from radio to X-ray frequencies together with the \gr spectral characteristics as observed by the H.E.S.S. telescopes. Small-scale filamentary structures observed in nonthermal X-rays provide empirical confirmation for this field amplification scenario which leads to a strong depression of the inverse Compton and Bremsstrahlung fluxes. The results are compared with the latest H.E.S.S. observations.
The size distribution of the stability region around the Lagrangian point L4 is investigated in the elliptic restricted three-body problem as the function of the mass parameter and the orbital eccentricity of the primaries. It is shown that there are minimum zones in the size distribution of the stability regions, and these zones are connected with secondary resonances between the frequencies of librational motions around L4. The results can be applied to hypothetical Trojan planets for predicting values of the mass parameter and the eccentricity for which such objects can be expected or their existence is less probable.
We present Hubble Space Telescope ACS deep photometry of the intermediate-age
globular cluster NGC 1783 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. By using this
photometric dataset, we have determined the degree of ellipticity of the
cluster ($\epsilon$=0.14$\pm$0.03) and the radial density profile. This profile
is well reproduced by a standard King model with an extended core (r_c=24.5'')
and a low concentration (c=1.16), indicating that the cluster has not
experienced the collapse of the core.
We also derived the cluster age, by using the Pisa Evolutionary Library (PEL)
isochrones, with three different amount of overshooting (namely,
$\Lambda_{os}$=0.0, 0.10 and 0.25). From the comparison of the observed
Color-Magnitude Diagram (CMD) and Main Sequence (MS) Luminosity Function (LF)
with the theoretical isochrones and LFs, we find that only models with the
inclusion of some overshooting ($\Lambda_{os}$=0.10-0.25) are able to reproduce
the observables. By using the magnitude difference $\delta
V_{SGB}^{He-Cl}=0.90$ between the mean level of the He-clump and the flat
region of the SGB, we derive an age $\tau$=1.4$\pm$0.2 Gyr.
Explicitly time-dependent, nonlinear kinetic theory of cosmic ray (CR) acceleration in supernova remnants (SNRs) has been used to investigate the properties of the very large SNR RX J0852.0-4622. The available observations do not clearly distinguish between a ``nearby'' (at $\sim 200$ pc) and a ``distant'' (at $\sim 1$ kpc) source scenario. Therefore two correspondingly different models were analyzed. While the 200 pc solution can not be a priory excluded, the 1 kpc solution turns out to be clearly preferable for physical reasons. It requires a core collapse supernova (SN) with a massive progenitor in a molecular cloud $\sim 4000$ yrs ago. The overall synchrotron spectrum and the filamentary structures in hard X-rays both consistently lead to an amplified magnetic field $B > 100 \mu$G in the SNR interior. This implies a suppression of the leptonic TeV $\gamma$-ray emission to about 1 percent of the flux measured by the H.E.S.S. telescope system which therefore must be hadronic, consistent with the theoretical solution. Up to the present the 1 kpc solution has already converted $\sim 10$ percent of the explosion energy into nonthermal energy, as expected for a Galactic CR source. Also the derived $\gamma$-ray morphology is consistent with the H.E.S.S. measurements. For the ``nearby'' solution the leptonic and hadronic $\gamma$ ray fluxes are in the ratio 1:10 which means that this case is also hadronically dominated. However, the magnetic field strength, consistent with the overall synchrotron spectrum, differs significantly from that derived from the X-ray filaments. Finally, the total mechanical energy released amounts to only $1.8 \times 10^{50}$ erg, uncomfortably low even for a core collapse event.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have carried out a survey of candidate preplanetary nebulae (PPNs). We report here our discoveries of objects having well-resolved geometrical structures, and use the large sample of PPNs now imaged with HST (including previously studied objects in this class) to devise a comprehensive morphological classification system for this category of objects. The wide variety of aspherical morphologies which we have found for PPNs are qualitatively similar to those found for young planetary nebulae in previous surveys. We also find prominent halos surrounding the central aspherical shapes in many of our objects -- these are direct signatures of the undisturbed circumstellar envelopes of the progenitor AGB stars. Although the majority of these have surface-brightness distributions consistent with a constant mass-loss rate with a constant expansion velocity, there are also examples of objects with varying mass-loss rates. As in our surveys of young planetary nebulae (PNs), we find no round PPNs. The similarities in morphologies between our survey objects and young PNs supports the view that the former are the progenitors of aspherical planetary nebulae, and that the onset of aspherical structure begins during the PPN phase (or earlier). Thus, the primary shaping of a PN clearly does not occur during the PN phase via the fast radiative wind of the hot central star, but significantly earlier in its evolution.
The properties of a sample of 31 very powerful classical double radio galaxies with redshifts between zero and 1.8 are studied. The source velocities, beam powers, ambient gas densities, total lifetimes, and total outflow energies are presented and discussed. The rate of growth of each side of each source were obtained using a spectral aging analysis. The beam power and ambient gas density were obtained by applying the strong shock jump conditions to the ends of each side of the source. The total outflow lifetime was obtained by applying the power-law relationship between the beam power and the total source lifetime derived elsewhere for sources of this type, and the total outflow energy was obtained by combining the beam power and the total source lifetime. Composite profiles were constructed by combining results obtained from each side of each source. The composite profiles indicate that the ambient gas density falls with distance from the central engine. The source velocities, beam powers, total lifetimes, and total energies seem to be independent of radio source size. This is consistent with the standard model in which each source grows at a roughly constant rate during which time the central engine puts out a roughly constant beam power. The fact that the total source lifetimes and energies are independent of radio source size indicates that the sources are being sampled at random times during their lifetimes.
N-body simulations have demonstrated a correlation between the properties of haloes and their environment. In this paper, we assess whether the ellipsoidal collapse model can produce a similar dependence. First, we explore the statistical correlation that originates from Gaussian initial conditions. We derive analytic expressions for a number of joint statistics of the shear tensor and estimate the sensitivity of the local characteristics of the shear to the global geometry of the large scale environment. Next, we concentrate on the dynamical aspect of the environmental dependence using a simplified model that takes into account the interaction between a collapsing halo and its environment. We find that the tidal force exerted by the surrounding mass distribution causes haloes embedded in overdense regions to virialize earlier. An effective density threshold whose shape depends on the large scale density provides a good description of this environmental effect. We show that, using this approach, a correlation between formation redshift, large scale bias and environment density naturally arises. The strength of the effect is comparable, albeit smaller, to that seen in simulations. It is largest for low mass haloes and decreases as one goes to higher mass objects. Furthermore, haloes that formed early are substantially more clustered than those that assembled recently. On the other hand, our analytic model predicts a decrease in median formation redshift with increasing environment density, in disagreement with the trend detected in overdense regions. However, our results appear consistent with the behaviour inferred in relatively underdense regions. We argue that the ellipsoidal collapse model may apply in low density environments where nonlinear effects are negligible (abridged).
We perform fits of unconventional dark energy models to the available data from high-redshift supernovae, distant galaxies and baryon oscillations. The models are based either on brane cosmologies or on Liouville strings in which a relaxation dark energy is provided by a rolling dilaton field (Q-cosmology). An interesting feature of such cosmologies is the possibility of effective four-dimensional negative-energy dust and/or exotic scaling of dark matter. An important constraint that can discriminate among models is the evolution of the Hubble parameter as a function of the redshift, H(z). We perform fits using a unifying formula for the evolution of H(z), applicable to different models. We find evidence for a negative-energy dust at the current era, as well as for exotic-scaling (a^{-delta}) contributions to the energy density, with 3.3<delta<4.3. The latter could be due to dark matter coupling with the dilaton in Q-cosmology models, but it is also compatible with the possibility of dark radiation from a brane Universe to the bulk in brane-world scenarios, which could also encompass Q-cosmology models. The best-fit model seems to include an a^{-2}-scaling contribution to the energy density of the Universe, which is characteristic of the dilaton relaxation in Q-cosmology models, not to be confused with the spatial curvature contribution of conventional cosmology. We conclude that Q-cosmology fits the data equally well with the Lambda-CDM model for a range of parameters that are in general expected from theoretical considerations.
The observed spectra of blazars, their intrinsic emission, and the underlying populations of radiating particles are intimately related. The use of these sources as probes of the extragalactic infrared background, a prospect propelled by recent advances in TeV-band telescopes, soon to be augmented by observations by NASA's upcoming Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), has been a topic of great recent interest. Here, it is demonstrated that if particles in blazar jets are accelerated at relativistic shocks, then gamma-ray spectra with indices less than 1.5 can be produced. This, in turn, loosens the upper limits on the near infrared extragalactic background radiation previously proposed. We also show evidence hinting that TeV blazars with flatter spectra have higher intrinsic TeV gamma-ray luminosities and we indicate that there may be a correlation of flatness and luminosity with redshift.
Recent numerical simulations of coalescences of highly spinning massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) suggest that the remnant can suffer a recoil velocity of the order of few thousands km/s. We study here, by means of dedicated simulations of black holes build--up, how such extreme recoils could affect the cosmological coalescence rate of MBHBs, placing a robust lower limit for the predicted number of gravitational wave (GW) sources detectable by future space--borne missions (such as LISA). We consider two main routes for black hole formation: one where seeds are light remnants of Population III stars (~10^2 \msun), and one where seeds are much heavier (>~10^4 \msun), formed via the direct gas collapse in primordial nuclear disks. We find that extreme recoil velocities do not compromise the efficient MBHB detection by LISA. If seeds are already massive and/or relatively rare, the detection rate is reduced by only ~15%. The number of detections drops substantially (by ~60%) if seeds are instead light and abundant, but in this case the number of predicted coalescences is so high that at least ~10 sources in a three year observation are guaranteed.
The general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect can be detected by means of a suitable combination of orbital residuals of the laser-ranged LAGEOS and LAGEOS II satellites. While this observable is not affected by the orbital perturbation induced by the zonal Earth solid and ocean tides, it is sensitive to those generated by the tesseral and sectorial tides. The assessment of their influence on the measurement of the parameter mu, with which the gravitomagnetic effect is accounted for, is the goal of this paper. After simulating the combined residual curve by calculating accurately the mismodeling of the more effective tidal perturbations, it has been found that, while the solid tides affect the recovery of mu at a level always well below 1%, for the ocean tides and the other long-period signals Delta mu depends strongly on the observational period and the noise level: Delta mu(tides) amounts to almost 2% after 7 years. The aliasing effect of K1 l=3 p=1 tide and SRP(4241) solar radiation pressure harmonic, with periods longer than 4 years, on the perigee of LAGEOS II yield to a maximum systematic uncertainty on $\m_{LT}$ of less than 4% over different observational periods. The zonal 18.6-year tide does not affect the combined residuals.
The general relativistic gravitomagnetic clock effect consists in the fact that two massive test bodies orbiting a central spinning mass in its equatorial plane along two identical circular trajectories, but in opposite directions, take different times in describing a full revolution with respect to an asymptotically inertial observer. In the field of the Earth such time shift amounts to 10^{-7} s. Detecting it by means of a space based mission with artificial satellites is a very demanding task because there are severe constraints on the precision with which the radial and azimuthal positions of a satellite must be known: delta r= 10^{-2} cm and delta phi= 10^{-2} milliarcseconds per revolution. In this paper we assess if the systematic errors induced by various non-gravitational perturbations allow to meet such stringent requirements. A couple of identical, passive laser-ranged satellites of LAGEOS type with their spins aligned with the Earth's one is considered. It turns out that all the non vanishing non-gravitational perturbations induce systematic errors in r and phi within the required constraints for a reasonable assumption of the mismodeling in some satellite's and Earth's parameters and/or by using dense satellites with small area-to-mass ratio. However, the error in the Earth's GM is by far the largest source of uncertainty in the azimuthal location which is affected at a level of 1.2 milliarcseconds per revolution.
The detection of some tiny gravitomagnetic effects in the field of the Earth by means of artificial satellites is a very demanding task because of the various other perturbing forces of gravitational and non-gravitational origin acting upon them. Among the gravitational perturbations a relevant role is played by the Earth solid and ocean tides. In this communication I outline their effects on the detection of the Lense-Thirring drag of the orbits of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II, currently analyzed, and the proposed GP-C experiment devoted to the measurement of the clock effect.
The tiny general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect can be measured by means of a suitable combination of the orbital residuals of the nodes of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II and the perigee of LAGEOS II. This observable is affected, among other factors, by the Earth' s solid and ocean tides. They induce long-period orbital perturbations that, over observational periods of few years, may alias the detection of the gravitomagnetic secular trend of interest. In this paper we calculate explicitly the most relevant tidal perturbations acting upon LAGEOSs and assess their influence on the detection of the Lense-Thirring effect. The present day level of knowledge of the solid and ocean tides allow us to conclude that their influence on it ranges from almost 4% over 4 years to less than 2% over 7 years.
The accuracy reached in the past few years by Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) allows for measuring even tiny features of the Earth's gravitational field predicted by Einstein's General Relativity by means of artificial satellites. The gravitomagnetic dragging of the orbit of a test body is currently under measurement by analyzing a suitable combination of the orbital residuals of LAGEOS and LAGEOS II. The lower bound of the error in this experiment amount to 12.92%. It is due to the mismodeling in the even zonal harmonics of the geopotential which are the most important sources of systematic error. A similar approach could be used in order to measure the relativistic gravitoelectric pericenter shift in the field of the Earth with a lower bound of the systematic relative error of 0.6% due to the even zonal harmonics as well. The inclusion of the ranging data to the Japanese passive geodetic satellite Ajisai would improve such limits to 10.78% and 0.08% respectively and would allow to improve the accuracy in the determination of the PPN parameters beta and gamma.
The possibility of detecting the gravitomagnetic clock effect using artificial Earth satellites provides the incentive to develop a more intuitive approach to its derivation. We first consider two test electric charges moving on the same circular orbit but in opposite directions in orthogonal electric and magnetic fields and show that the particles take different times in describing a full orbit. The expression for the time difference is completely analogous to that of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic clock effect in the weak-field and slow-motion approximation. The latter is obtained by considering the gravitomagnetic force as a small classical non-central perturbation of the main central Newtonian monopole force. A general expression for the clock effect is given for a spherical orbit with an arbitrary inclination angle. This formula differs from the result of the general relativistic calculations by terms of order c^{-4}.
We study preheating in theories where the inflaton couples derivatively to scalar and gauge fields. Such couplings may dominate in natural models of inflation, in which the flatness of the inflaton potential is related to an approximate shift symmetry of the inflaton. We compare our results with previously studied models with non-derivative couplings. For sufficiently heavy scalar matter, parametric resonance is ineffective in reheating the universe, because the couplings of the inflaton to matter are very weak. If scalar matter fields are light, derivative couplings lead to a mild long-wavelength instability that drives matter fields to non-zero expectation values. In this case however, long-wavelength fluctuations of the light scalar are produced during inflation, leading to a host of cosmological problems. In contrast, axion-like couplings of the inflaton to a gauge field do not lead to production of long-wavelength fluctuations during inflation. However, again because of the weakness of the couplings to the inflaton, parametric resonance is not effective in producing gauge field quanta.
Puff field theories (PFT) arise as the decoupling limits of D3 branes in a Melvin universe and exhibit spatially non-local dynamics. Unlike other realizations of non-locality in string theory, PFTs have full SO(3) rotational symmetry. In this work, we analyze the strongly coupled regime of a PFT through gravitational holography. We find a novel mechanism at the heart of the phenomenon of non-locality: a quantum entanglement of UV and IR dynamics. In the holographic bulk, this translates to an apparent horizon splitting the space into two regions - with the UV completion of the PFT sitting at the horizon. We unravel this intricate UV-IR setting and devise a prescription for computing correlators that extends the original dictionary of holographic renormalization group. We then implement a cosmological scenario where PFT correlators set the initial conditions for primordial fluctuations. We compute the associated power spectrum of the CMB and find that the scenario allows for a distinct stringy signature.
Quantum mechanics together with general relativity leads to the K\'arolyh\'azy relation and a corresponding energy density of quantum fluctuations of space-time. Based on the energy density we propose a dark energy model, in which the age of the universe is introduced as the length measure. This dark energy is consistent with astronomical data if the unique numerical parameter in the dark energy model is taken to be a number of order one. The dark energy behaves like a cosmological constant in earlier times and drives the universe to a forever accelerated expansion with power-law form. In addition the dark energy has a tracker behavior. As a result the coincidence problem of dark energy can be solved in this naturally way.
In a number of previous publications we demonstrated that the Two Measures Field Theory (TMT) enables to resolve the old cosmological constant (CC) problem avoiding the Weinberg's no-go CC theorem and together with this TMT agrees with all tests of the Einstein's general relativity and allows inflationary scenarios. Analysis performed in the present paper shows that there exists an intrinsic symmetry of TMT which emerges in the $\Lambda =0$ ground state. This symmetry contains a subgroup of reflections of the metric $g_{\mu\nu}\to -g_{\mu\nu}$ studied recently by a number of authors as the symmetry imposing zero CC. We show that realization of this idea in TMT is free of fine tuning and has no problems typical to other approaches.
We present Monte Carlo simulations of the extra galactic population of inspiralling double neutron stars, and estimate its contribution to the astrophysical gravitational wave background, in the frequency range of ground based interferometers, corresponding to the last thousand seconds before the last stable orbit when more than 96 percent of the signal is released. We show that sources at redshift z>0.5 contribute to a truly continuous background which may be detected by correlating third generation interferometers.
We study cosmological solutions in the low-energy effective heterotic string theory, which is the Einstein gravity with Gauss-Bonnet term and the dilaton. We show that the field equations are cast into an autonomous system for flat internal and external spaces, and derive all the fixed points in the system. We also examine the time evolution of the solutions and whether the solutions can give (transient) accelerated expansion of our four-dimensional space in the Einstein frame.
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One of the possible low-energy consequences of string theory is the addition of a Chern-Simons term to the standard Einstein-Hilbert action of general relativity. It can be argued that the quintessence field should couple to this Chern-Simons term, and if so, it drives in the linearized theory a parity-violating interaction between the gravito-electric and gravitomagnetic fields. In this paper, the linearized spacetime for Chern-Simons gravity around a massive spinning body is found to include new modifications to the gravitomagnetic field that have not appeared in previous work. The orbits of test bodies and the precession of gyroscopes in this spacetime are calculated, leading to new constraints on the Chern-Simons parameter space due to current satellite experiments.
The variable X-ray source 1E 1547.0-5408 was identified by Gelfand & Gaensler (2007) as a likely magnetar in G327.24-0.13, an apparent supernova remnant. No X-ray pulsations have been detected from it. Using the Parkes radio telescope, we discovered pulsations with period P = 2.069 s. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we localized these to 1E 1547.0-5408. We measure dP/dt = (2.318+-0.005)e-11, which for a magnetic dipole rotating in vacuo gives a surface field strength of 2.2e14 G, a characteristic age of 1.4 kyr, and a spin-down luminosity of 1.0e35 ergs/s. Together with its X-ray characteristics, these rotational parameters of 1E 1547.0-5408 prove that it is a magnetar, only the second known to emit radio waves. The distance is ~9 kpc, derived from the dispersion measure of 830 pc/cc. The pulse profile at a frequency of 1.4 GHz is extremely broad and asymmetric due to multipath propagation in the ISM, as a result of which only approximately 75% of the total flux at 1.4 GHz is pulsed. At higher frequencies the profile is more symmetric and has FWHM = 0.12P. Unlike in normal radio pulsars, but in common with the other known radio-emitting magnetar, XTE J1810-197, the spectrum over 1.4-6.6 GHz is flat or rising, and we observe large, sudden changes in the pulse shape. In a contemporaneous Swift X-ray observation, 1E 1547.0-5408 was detected with record high flux, f_X(1-8 keV) ~ 5e-12 ergs/cm^2/s, 16 times the historic minimum. The pulsar was undetected in archival radio observations from 1998, implying a flux < 0.2 times the present level. Together with the transient behavior of XTE J1810-197, these results suggest that radio emission is triggered by X-ray outbursts of usually quiescent magnetars.
We present measurements of the color and luminosity dependence of galaxy clustering at z~1 in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey. Using volume-limited subsamples in bins of both color and luminosity, we find that: 1) The clustering dependence is much stronger with color than with luminosity and is as strong with color at z~1 as is found locally. We find no dependence of the clustering amplitude on color for galaxies on the red sequence, but a significant dependence on color for galaxies within the blue cloud. 2) For galaxies in the range L/L*~0.7-2, a stronger large-scale luminosity dependence is seen for all galaxies than for red and blue galaxies separately. The small-scale clustering amplitude depends significantly on luminosity for blue galaxies, with brighter samples having a stronger rise on scales r_p<0.5 Mpc/h. 3) Redder galaxies exhibit stronger small-scale redshift-space distortions ("fingers of god"), and both red and blue populations show large-scale distortions in xi(r_p,pi) due to coherent infall. 4) While the clustering length, r_0, increases smoothly with galaxy color (in narrow bins), its power-law exponent, gamma, exhibits a sharp jump from the blue cloud to the red sequence. The intermediate color `green' galaxy population likely includes transitional galaxies moving from the blue cloud to the red sequence; on large scales green galaxies are as clustered as red galaxies but show infall kinematics and a small-scale correlation slope akin to the blue galaxy population. 5) We compare our results to a semi-analytic galaxy formation model applied to the Millenium Run simulation. Differences between the data and the model suggest that in the model star formation is shut down too efficiently in satellite galaxies.
We investigate the potential of exploiting Lya Emitters (LAEs) to constrain the volume-weighted mean neutral hydrogen fraction of the IGM, x_H, at high redshifts (specifically z~9). We use "semi-numerical'' simulations to efficiently generate density, velocity, and halo fields at z=9 in a 250 Mpc box, resolving halos with masses M>2.2e8 solar masses. We construct ionization fields corresponding to various values of x_H. With these, we generate LAE luminosity functions and "counts-in-cell'' statistics. As in previous studies, we find that LAEs begin to disappear rapidly when x_H > 0.5. Constraining x_H(z=9) with luminosity functions is difficult due to the many uncertainties inherent in the host halo mass <--> Lya luminosity mapping. However, using a very conservative mapping, we show that the number densities derived using the six z~9 LAEs recently discovered by Stark et al. (2007) imply x_H < 0.7. On a more fundamental level, these LAE number densities, if genuine, require substantial star formation in halos with M < 10^9 solar masses, making them unique among the current sample of observed high-z objects. Furthermore, reionization increases the apparent clustering of the observed LAEs. We show that a ``counts-in-cell'' statistic is a powerful probe of this effect, especially in the early stages of reionization. Specifically, we show that a field of view (typical of upcoming IR instruments) containing LAEs has >10% higher probability of containing more than one LAE in a x_H>0.5 universe than a x_H=0 universe with the same overall number density. With this statistic, a fully ionized universe can be robustly distinguished from one with x_H > 0.5 using a survey containing only ~ 20--100 galaxies.
(Abridged) We have discovered a strong DLA coincident in redshift with the faint QSO Q2343-BX415 (R = 20.2, z_em = 2.57393). Follow-up observations at intermediate spectral resolution reveal that the metal lines associated with this 'proximate' DLA consist of two sets of absorption components. One set is moving towards the quasar with velocities of ~ 150-600 km/s; this gas is highly ionized and does not fully cover the continuum source, suggesting that it is physically close to the active nucleus. The other, which accounts for most of the neutral gas, is blueshifted relative to the QSO, with the strongest component at ~ -160 km/s. We consider the possibility that the PDLA arises in the outflowing interstellar medium of the host galaxy of Q2343-BX415, an interpretation supported by strong C IV and N V absorption at nearby velocities, and by the intense radiation field longward of the Lyman limit implied by the high C II*/H I ratio. If Q2343-BX415 is the main source of these UV photons, then the PDLA is located at either ~ 8 or ~ 37 kpc from the active nucleus. Alternatively, the absorber may be a foreground star-forming galaxy unrelated to the quasar and coincidentally at the same redshift, but our deep imaging and follow-up spectroscopy of the field of Q2343-BX415 has not yet produced a likely candidate. We measure the abundances of 14 elements in the PDLA, finding an overall metallicity of ~ 1/5 solar and a normal pattern of relative element abundances for this metallicity. Thus, in this PDLA there is no evidence for the super-solar metallicities that have been claimed for some proximate, high ionization, systems.
We present stellar velocity dispersion profiles for seven Milky Way dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite galaxies. We have measured 8394 line-of-sight velocities (+/- 2.5 km/s) for 6804 stars from high-resolution spectra obtained at the Magellan and MMT telescopes. We combine these new data with previously published velocities to obtain the largest available kinematic samples, which include more than 5500 dSph members. All the measured dSphs have stellar velocity dispersion of order 10 km/s that remains approximately constant with distance from the dSph center, out to and in some cases beyond the radius at which the mean surface brightness falls to the background level. Assuming dSphs reside within dark matter halos characterized by the NFW density profile, we obtain reasonable fits to the empirical velocity dispersion profiles. These fits imply that, among the seven dSphs, M_vir ~ 10^[8-9] M_sun. The mass enclosed at a radius of 600 pc, the region common to all data sets, ranges from (2-7) x 10^7 M_sun .
We have identified perhaps the largest major galaxy merger ever seen. While analysing Spitzer IRAC images of CL0958+4702, an X-ray selected cluster at z=0.39, we discovered an unusual plume of stars extending $\gtrsim$110 kpc outward from the bright central galaxy (BCG). Three galaxies 1-1.5 mag fainter than the BCG lie within 17 kpc (projected) of the BCG and are probably participating in the merger. The plume is detected in all four IRAC channels and at optical wavelengths in images from the WIYN telescope; the surface brightness is remarkably high ($\mu_r\approx$24.8 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ at 50 kpc). The optical and infrared colors are consistent with those of other BCGs, suggesting that the plume is composed of old stars and negligible recent star formation (hence a "dry merger"). The luminosity in the plume is at least equivalent to a 4L^* galaxy. A diffuse halo extending 110 kpc from the BCG in one IRAC image suggests the total amount of diffuse light is L_r\sim 1.3x10^{11}h^{-2} L_sun. A Chandra observation shows an X-ray image and spectrum typical of moderate-mass clusters. We use MMT/Hectospec to measure 905 redshifts in a 1 deg^2 region around the cluster. The velocities of two of the BCG companions indicate a merger timescale for the companion galaxies of $\sim$110 Myr and $\sim$0.5-1 Gyr for the plume. We conclude that the BCG and intracluster light of CL0958 is formed by major mergers at moderate redshifts. After the major merger is complete, CL0958 will likely become a fossil cluster.
There is a general consensus that the frequencies of the kilohertz Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (kHz QPOs) in neutron-star low-mass X-ray binaries are directly linked to the spin of the neutron star. The root of this idea is the apparent clustering of the ratio of the frequency difference of the kHz QPOs and the neutron-star spin frequency, $\Delta\nu/\nu_s$, at around 0.5 and 1 in ten systems for which these two quantities have been measured. Here we reexamine all available data of sources for which there exist measurements of two simultaneous kHz QPOs and spin frequencies, and we advance the possibility that $\Delta\nu$ and $\nu_s$ are not related to each other. We discuss ways in which this possibility could be tested with current and future observations.
We demonstrate that cosmic microwave background observations consistent with a cosmological constant universe predict in a well-defined sense that lower redshift measures will nearly automatically deliver w=-1 for the dark energy equation of state value unless they are sensitive to w(z). Thus low redshift data pointing to w=-1 does not truly argue for a cosmological constant. Even the simplest question of whether the equation of state of dark energy is equal to the cosmological constant therefore requires experiments able to sensitively constrain time variation w(z) and not merely a constant w. We also note a number of issues regarding parametrization of w(z), demonstrating that the standard form w(z)=w_0+w_a z/(1+z) is robust but use of high order polynomials and cutting off the high redshift behavior can be pathological.
We present new Hubble Space Telescope photometry of the massive globular cluster M54 (NGC 6715) and the superposed core of the tidally disrupted Sagittarius (Sgr) dSph galaxy as part of the ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. Our deep (F606W~26.5), high-precision photometry yields an unprecedentedly detailed color-magnitude diagram showing the extended blue horizontal branch and multiple main sequences of the M54+Sgr system. The distance and reddening to M54 are revised usingboth isochrone and main-sequence fitting to (m-M)_0=17.27 and E(B-V)=0.15. Preliminary assessment finds the M54+Sgr field to be dominated by the old metal-poor populations of Sgr and the globular cluster. Multiple turnoffs indicate the presence of at least two intermediate-aged star formation epochs with 4 and 6 Gyr ages and [Fe/H]=-0.4 to -0.6. We also clearly show, for the first time, a prominent, 2.3 Gyr old Sgr population of near-solar abundance. A trace population of even younger (0.1-0.8 Gyr old), more metal-rich ([Fe/H]\sim0.6) stars is also indicated. The Sgr age-metallicity relation is consistent with a closed-box model and multiple (4-5) star formation bursts over the entire life of the satellite, including the time since Sgr began disrupting.
We present and describe a catalog of galaxy photometric redshifts (photo-z's) for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 6 (DR6). We use the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to calculate photo-z's and the Nearest Neighbor Error (NNE) method to estimate photo-z errors for ~ 77 million objects classified as galaxies in DR6 with r < 22. The photo-z and photo-z error estimators are trained and validated on a sample of ~ 640,000 galaxies that have SDSS photometry and spectroscopic redshifts measured by SDSS, 2SLAQ, CFRS, CNOC2, TKRS, DEEP, and DEEP2. For the two best ANN methods we have tried, we find that 68% of the galaxies in the validation set have a photo-z error smaller than sigma_{68} =0.021 or $0.024. After presenting our results and quality tests, we provide a short guide for users accessing the public data.
It is well known that magnification bias, the modulation of galaxy or quasar source counts by gravitational lensing, can change the observed angular correlation function. We investigate magnification-induced changes to the shape of the observed correlation function w(\theta) and the angular power spectrum C_{\ell}, paying special attention to the matter-radiation equality peak and the baryon wiggles. Lensing mixes the correlation function of the source galaxies with the matter correlation at the lower redshifts of the lenses. Since the lenses probe structure nearer to the observer, the angular scale dependence of the lensing terms is different from that of the sources, thus the observed correlation function is distorted. We quantify how the lensing corrections depend on the width of the selection function, the galaxy bias b, and the number count slope s. The correction increases with redshift and larger corrections are present for sources with steep number count slopes and/or broad redshift distributions. The most drastic changes to C_{\ell} occur for measurements at z >~1.5 and \ell <~ 100. For the source distributions we consider, magnification bias can shift the matter-radiation equality scale by 1-6% at z ~ 1.5 and by z ~ 3.5 the shift can be as large as 30%. The baryon bump in \theta^2w(\theta) is shifted by <~ 1% and the width is typically increased by ~10%. Shifts of >~ 0.5% and broadening of >~ 20% occur only for very broad selection functions and/or galaxies with (5s-2)/b>~2. However, near the baryon bump the magnification correction is not constant but a gently varying function which depends on the source population. Depending on how the w(\theta) data is fitted, this correction may need to be accounted for when using the baryon acoustic scale for precision cosmology.
In this letter we advance the simple analytic photometric redshift estimator for Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) proposed by Wang (2007), and use it to study simulated SN Ia data. We find that better than 0.5% accuracy in z_phot (with RMS[(z_phot-z_spec)/(1+z_spec)]<0.005) is possible for SNe Ia with well sampled lightcurves in three observed passbands (riz) with a signal-to-noise ratio of 25 at peak brightness, if the extinction by dust is negligible. The corresponding bias in z_phot (the mean of (z_phot-z_spec)) is 5.4\times 10^{-4}. If dust extinction is taken into consideration in the riz observer-frame lightcurves, the accuracy in z_phot deteriorates to 4.4%, with a bias in z_phot of 8.0\times 10^{-3}. Adding the g band lightcurve improves the accuracy in z_phot to 2.5%, and reduces the bias in z_phot to -1.5\times 10^{-3}. Our results have significant implications for the design of future photometric surveys of SNe Ia from both ground and space telescopes. Accurate and precise photometric redshifts boost the cosmological utility of such surveys.
The High Mass X-ray Binary (HMXB) SMC X-1 demonstrates an orbital variation of 3.89 days and a super-orbital variation with an average length of 55 days. As we show here, however, the length of the super-orbital cycle varies by almost a factor of two, even across adjacent cycles. To study both the orbital and super-orbital variation we utilize lightcurves from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer All Sky Monitor (RXTE-ASM). We employ the orbital ephemeris from Wojdowski et al. (1998) to obtain the average orbital profile, and we show that this profile exhibits complex modulation during non-eclipse phases. Additionally, a very interesting ``bounceback'' in X-ray count rate is seen during mid-orbital eclipse phases, with a softening of the emission during these periods. This bounceback has not been previously identified in pointed observations. We then define a super-orbital ephemeris (the phase of the super-orbital cycle as a function of date) based on the ASM lightcurve and analyze the trend and distribution of super-orbital cycle lengths. SMC X-1 exhibits a bimodal distribution of these lengths, similar to what has been observed in other systems (e.g., Her X-1), but with more dramatic changes in cycle length. There is some hint, but not conclusive evidence, for a dependence of the super-orbital cycle length upon the underlying orbital period, as has been observed previously for Her X-1 and Cyg X-2. Using our super-orbital ephemeris we are also able to create an average super-orbital profile over the 71 observed cycles, for which we witness overall hardening of the spectrum during low count rate times. We combine the orbital and super-orbital ephemerides to study the correlation between the orbital and super-orbital variations in the system.
We have assembled a spectroscopic sample of low-mass dwarfs observed as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey along one Galactic sightline, designed to investigate the observable properties of the thin and thick disks. This sample of ~7400 K and M stars also has measured ugriz photometry, proper motions, and radial velocities. We have computed UVW space motion distributions, and investigate their structure with respect to vertical distance from the Galactic Plane. We place constraints on the velocity dispersions of the thin and thick disks, using two-component Gaussian fits. We also compare these kinematic distributions to a leading Galactic model. Finally, we investigate other possible observable differences between the thin and thick disks, such as color, active fraction and metallicity.
Using fully relativistic GEANT4 simulation tool kit, the transport of energetic electrons generated in solar flares was Monte-Carlo simulated, and resultant bremsstrahlung gamma-ray spectra were calculated. The solar atmosphere was approximated by 10 vertically-stacked zones. The simulation took into account two important physical processes,that the bremsstrahlung photons emitted by precipitating relativistic electrons are strongly forward beamed toward the photosphere, and that the majority of these gamma-rays must be Compton back-scattered by the solar atmosphere in order to reach the observer. Then, the Compton degradation was found to make the observable gamma-ray spectra much softer than is predicted by simple analytic calculations. The gamma-ray signals were found to be enhanced by several conditions, including a broad pitch-angle distribution of the electrons, a near-limb flare longitude, and a significant tilt in the magnetic field lines if the flare longitude is rather small. These results successfully explain several important flare properties observed in the hard X-ray to gamma-ray range, including in particular those obtained with Yohkoh. A comparison of the Yohkoh spectrum from a GOES X3.7 class limb flare on 1998 November 22, with a simulation assuming a broad electron pitch-angle distribution, suggests that gamma-rays from this particular solar flare were a mixture of direct bremsstrahlung photons and their Comptonization.
The discovery of the 6.67 hr periodicity in the X-ray source 1E 161348-5055 associated with the supernova remnant RCW 103 has raised interesting suggestions about the nature of the X-ray source. Here we argue that in either accreting neutron star or magnetar model, a supernova fallback disk may be a critical ingredient in theoretical interpretations of 1E 161348-5055. We further emphasize the effect of fallback disks on the evolution of young compact objects in various ways, and suggest that even SS 433 could also be powered by fallback disk accretion process.
We investigate the time-dependent variations of ultraviolet (UV) black hole mass estimates of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). From SDSS spectra of 615 high-redshift (1.69 < z < 4.75) quasars with spectra from two epochs, we estimate black hole masses, using a single-epoch technique which employs an additional, automated night-sky-line removal, and relies on UV continuum luminosity and CIV (1549A) emission line dispersion. Mass estimates show variations between epochs at about the 30% level for the sample as a whole. We determine that, for our full sample, measurement error in the line dispersion likely plays a larger role than the inherent variability, in terms of contributing to variations in mass estimates between epochs. However, we use the variations in quasars with r-band spectral signal-to-noise ratio greater than 15 to estimate that the contribution to these variations from inherent variability is roughly 20%. We conclude that these differences in black hole mass estimates between epochs indicate variability is not a large contributer to the current factor of two scatter between mass estimates derived from low- and high-ionization emission lines.
We report on the wide band spectra of SN 1006 as observed by Suzaku. Thermal and nonthermal emission are successfully resolved thanks to the excellent spectral response of Suzaku's X-ray CCD XIS. The nonthermal emission cannot be reproduced by a simple power-law model but needs a roll-off at 5.7$\times 10^{16}$ Hz = 0.23 keV. The roll-off frequency is significantly higher in the northeastern rim than in the southwestern rim. We also have placed the most stringent upper limit of the flux above 10 keV using the Hard X-ray Detector.
Multi-wavelength observations of Hickson's Compact Groups (HCGs) have shown that many of these groups are physical bound structures and are in different stage of evolution, from spiral-dominated systems to almost merged objects. Very few studies have analysed the Southern Compact Groups (SCGs) sample, which is though to be younger that HCGs, due to an on average higher number of spiral galaxies. We present here the first results from optical and radio observations on a pilot sample of SCGs.
The origin of the soft gamma-ray (200 keV - 1 MeV) galactic ridge emission is one of the long-standing mysteries in the field of high-energy astrophysics. Population studies at lower energies have shown that emission from accreting compact objects gradually recedes in this domain, leaving place to another source of gamma-ray emission that is characterised by a hard power-law spectrum extending from 100 keV up to 100 MeV The nature of this hard component has remained so far elusive, partly due to the lack of sufficiently sensitive imaging telescopes that would be able to unveil the spatial distribution of the emission. The SPI telescope aboard INTEGRAL allows now for the first time the simultaneous imaging of diffuse and point-like emission in the soft gamma-ray regime. We present here all-sky images of the soft gamma-ray continuum emission that clearly reveal the morphology of the different emission components. We discuss the implications of our results on the nature of underlying emission processes and we put our results in perspective of GLAST studies of diffuse galactic continuum emission.
Chandra gratings spectra of a sample of 15 massive OB stars were analyzed under the basic assumption that the X-ray emission is produced in an ensemble of shocks formed in the winds driven by these objects. Shocks develop either as a result of radiation-driven instabilities or due to confinement of the wind by relatively strong magnetic field, and since they are radiative, a simple model of their X-ray emission was developed that allows a direct comparison with observations. According to our model, the shock structures (clumps, complete or fractional shells) eventually become `cold' clouds in the X-ray sky of the star. As a result, it is expected that for large covering factors of the hot clumps, there is a high probability for X-ray absorption by the `cold' clouds, resulting in blue-shifted spectral lines. Our analysis has revealed that such a correlation indeed exists for the considered sample of OB stars. As to the temperature characteristics of the X-ray emission plasma, the studied OB stars fall in two groups: (i) one with plasma temperature limited to 0.1-0.4 keV; (ii) the other wtih X-rays produced in plasmas at considerably higher temperatures. We argue that the two groups correspond to different mechanisms for the origin of X-rays: in radiative-driven instability shocks and in magnetically-confined wind shocks, respectively.
We simulate the cooling of the neutron star in the X-ray transient KS 1731-260 after the source returned to quiescence in 2001 from a long (>~ 12.5 yr) outburst state. We show that the cooling can be explained assuming that the crust underwent deep heating during the outburst stage. In our best theoretical scenario the neutron star has no enhanced neutrino emission in the core, and its crust is thin, superfluid, and has the normal thermal conductivity. The thermal afterburst crust-core relaxation in the star may be not over.
We investigate the modifications to predictions for the abundances of light elements from standard Big-Bang nucleosynthesis when exotic late-decaying particles with lifetimes exceeding ~1 sec are prominent in the early Universe. Utilising a model-independent analysis of the properties of these long-lived particles, we identify the parameter space associated with models that are consistent with all observational data and hence resolve the much discussed discrepancies between observations and theoretical predictions for the abundances of Li^7 and Li^6.
Abundance ratios of carbon, nitrogen and strontium relative to iron, calculated using spectrum synthesis techniques, are given for a sample of main sequence and turnoff stars that belong to the globular cluster omega Centauri. The variations of carbon, nitrogen and/or strontium show several different abundance patterns as a function of [Fe/H]. The source of the enhancements/depletions in carbon, nitrogen and/or strontium may be enrichment from asymptotic giant branch stars of low (1--3 solar masses) and intermediate (3--8 solar masses) mass. Massive rotating stars which produce excess nitrogen without carbon and oxygen overabundances may also play a role. These abundances enable different contributors to be considered and incorporated into the evolutionary picture of omega Cen.
We present high-speed, three-colour photometry of the eclipsing cataclysmic
variable SDSS J150722.30+523039.8 (hereafter SDSS J1507). This system has an
orbital period of 66.61 minutes, placing it below the observed ``period
minimum'' for cataclysmic variables. We determine the system parameters via a
parameterised model of the eclipse fitted to the observed lightcurve by chi^2
minimisation. We obtain a mass ratio of q = 0.0623 +/- 0.0007 and an orbital
inclination i = 83.63 +/- 0.05 degrees. The primary mass is M_w = 0.90 +/- 0.01
M_sun. The secondary mass and radius are found to be M_r =0.056 +/- 0.001 M_sun
and R_r = 0.096 +/- 0.001 R_sun respectively. We find a distance to the system
of 160 +/- 10 pc. The secondary star in SDSS J1507 has a mass substantially
below the hydrogen burning limit, making it the second confirmed sub-stellar
donor in a cataclysmic variable.
The very short orbital period of SDSS J1507 is readily explained if the
secondary star is nuclearly evolved, or if SDSS J1507 formed directly from a
detached white dwarf/brown dwarf binary. Given the lack of any visible
contribution from the secondary star, the very low secondary mass and the low
HeI(6678AA)/Halpha emission line ratio, we argue that SDSS J1507 probably
formed directly from a detached white dwarf/brown dwarf binary. If confirmed,
SDSS J1507 will be the first such system identified. The implications for
binary star evolution, the brown-dwarf desert and the common envelope phase are
discussed.
In this contribution we will discuss recent results concerning the intensity and the angular distribution of the gamma-ray and neutrino emissions as should be originated from the hadronic scattering of cosmic rays (CR) with the interstellar medium (ISM). We assumed that CR sources are supernova remnants (SNR) and estimated the spatial distribution of primary nuclei by solving numerically the diffusion equation. For the ISM, we considered recent models for the 3D spatial distributions of molecular hydrogen. Respect to previous results, we find the secondary gamma-ray and neutrino emissions to be more peaked along the galactic equator and in the galactic centre which improves significantly the perspectives of a positive detection. We compare our predictions with the experimental limits/observations by MILAGRO and TIBET (for the gamma-rays) and by AMANDA-II (for the neutrinos) and discuss the detection perspectives for a km3 neutrino telescope to be built in the North hemisphere.
The formation of subdwarf B (sdB) stars is not well understood within the current framework of stellar single and binary evolution. In this study, we focus on the formation and evolution of the pulsating sdB star in the very short-period eclipsing binary PG1336-018. We aim at refining the formation scenario of this unique system, so that it can be confronted with observations. We probe the stellar structure of the progenitors of sdB stars in short-period binaries using detailed stellar evolution calculations. Applying this to PG1336-018 we reconstruct the common-envelope phase during which the sdB star was formed. The results are interpreted in terms of the standard common-envelope formalism (the alpha-formalism) based on the energy equation, and an alternative description (the gamma-formalism) using the angular momentum equation. We find that if the common-envelope evolution is described by the alpha-formalism, the sdB progenitor most likely experienced a helium flash. We then expect the sdB mass to be between 0.39 and 0.48 Msun, and the sdB progenitor initial mass to be below ~2 Msun. However, the results for the gamma-formalism are less restrictive, and a broader sdB mass range (0.3 - 0.8 Msun) is possible in this case. Future seismic mass determination will give strong constraints on the formation of PG1336-018 and, in particular, on the CE phase.
Non-critical string cosmologies may be viewed as the analogue of off-equilibrium models arising within string theory as a result of a cosmically catastrophic event in the early Universe. Such models entail relaxing-to-zero dark energies provided by a rolling dilaton field at late times. We discuss fits of such non-critical models to high-redshift supernovae data, including the recent ones by HST and ESSENCE and compare the results with those of a conventional model with Cold Dark Matter and a cosmological constant and a model invoking super-horizon perturbations.
The constraints on the radion evolution in the Universal Extra Dimension (UED) model from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data are studied. In the UED model, where both the gravity and standard model fields can propagate in the extra dimensions, the evolution of the extra dimensional volume, the radion, induces variation of fundamental constants. We discuss the effects of variation of the relevant constants in the context of UED for CMB power spectrum and SNe Ia data. We then use the three-year WMAP data to constrain the radion evolution at z \sim 1100, and the 2 \sigma constraint on \dot{\rho} / \rho_0 (\rho is a function of the radion, to be defined in the text) is [ -8.8, 6.6] \times 10 ^{-13} yr^-1. The SNe Ia gold sample yields a constraint on \dot{\rho} / \rho_0, for redshift between 0 and 1, to be [-4.7, 14] \times 10^{-13} yr^-1. Furthermore, the constraints from SNe Ia can be interpreted as bounds on the evolution QCD scale parameter, \dot{\Lambda}_{QCD} / \Lambda_{QCD, 0}, [-1.4, 2.8] \times 10^{-11} yr^-1, without reference to the UED model.
SuperAGILE is a coded mask experiment based on silicon microstrip detectors. It operates in the 15-45 keV nominal energy range, providing crossed one-dimensional images of the X-ray sky with an on-axis angular resolution of 6 arcmin, over a field of view in excess of 1 steradian. It was designed as the hard X-ray monitor of the AGILE space mission, a small satellite of the Italian Space Agency devoted to image the gamma-ray sky in the 30 MeV - 50 GeV energy band. The AGILE mission was launched in a low-earth orbit on 23^{rd} April 2007. In this paper we describe the SuperAGILE experiment, its construction and test processes, and its performance before flight, based on the on-ground test and calibrations.
In the present work we apply a quantum hadrodynamic effective model in the mean-field approximation to the description of neutron stars. We consider an adjustable derivative-coupling model and study the parameter influence on the dynamics of the system by analyzing the full range of values they can take. We establish a set of parameters which define a specific model that is able to describe phenomenological properties such as the effective nucleon mass at saturation as well as global static properties of neutron stars (mass and radius). If one uses observational data to fix the maximum mass for neutron stars by a specific model, we are able to predict the compression modulus of nuclear matter K = 257,2MeV.
We present high spatial resolution maps, obtained with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, of the blue lobe of the L1157 outflow. We observed four lines at 3 mm, namely CH3OH (2_K-1_K), HC3N (11-10), HCN (1-0) and OCS (7-6). Moreover, the bright B1 clump has also been observed at better spatial resolution in CS (2-1), CH3OH (2_1-1_1)A-, and 34SO (3_2-2_1). These high spatial resolution observations show a very rich structure in all the tracers, revealing a clumpy structure of the gas superimposed to an extended emission. In fact, the three clumps detected by previous IRAM-30m single dish observations have been resolved into several sub-clumps and new clumps have been detected in the outflow. The clumps are associated with the two cavities created by two shock episodes driven by the precessing jet. In particular, the clumps nearest the protostar are located at the walls of the younger cavity with a clear arch-shape form while the farthest clumps have slightly different observational characteristics indicating that they are associated to the older shock episode. The emission of the observed species peaks in different part of the lobe: the east clumps are brighter in HC3N (11-10), HCN (1-0) and CS (2-1) while the west clumps are brighter in CH3OH(2_K-1_K), OCS (7-6) and 34SO (3_2-2_1). This peak displacement in the line emission suggests a variation of the physical conditions and/or the chemical composition along the lobe of the outflow at small scale, likely related to the shock activity and the precession of the outflow. In particular, we observe the decoupling of the silicon monoxide and methanol emission, common shock tracers, in the B1 clump located at the apex of the bow shock produced by the second shock episode.
We present extensive optical (UBVRI), near-infrared (JK) light curves and optical spectroscopy of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2006X in the nearby galaxy NGC 4321 (M100). Our observations suggest that either SN 2006X has an intrinsically peculiar color evolution, or it is highly reddened [$E(B - V)_{host} = 1.41 \pm 0.04$ mag] with $R_V = 1.48 \pm 0.06$, much lower than the canonical value of 3.1 for the average Galactic dust. SN 2006X also has one of the highest expansion velocities ever published for a SN Ia. Compared with the other SNe Ia we analyzed, SN 2006X has a broader light curve in the U band, a more prominent bump/shoulder feature in the V and R bands, a more pronounced secondary maximum in the I and near-infrared bands, and a remarkably smaller late-time decline rate in the B band. The B-V color evolution shows an obvious deviation from the Lira-Phillips relation at 1 to 3 months after maximum brightness. At early times, optical spectra of SN 2006X displayed strong, high-velocity features of both intermediate-mass elements (Si, Ca, and S) and iron-peak elements, while at late times they showed a relatively blue continuum, consistent with the blue U-B and B-V colors at similar epochs. A light echo and/or the interaction of the SN ejecta and its circumstellar material may provide a plausible explanation for its late-time photometric and spectroscopic behavior. Using the Cepheid distance of M100, we derive a Hubble constant of $72.7 \pm 8.2$ km s^{-1} Mpc$^{-1}$ (statistical) from the normalized dereddened luminosity of SN 2006X. We briefly discuss whether abnormal dust is a universal signature for all SNe Ia, and whether the most rapidly expanding objects form a subclass with distinct photometric and spectroscopic properties.
We present first results from a multifrequency VLBA observations of 3C273 in 2003. The source was observed simultaneously at 5.0, 8.4, 15.3, 22.2, 43.2 and 86.2 GHz, and from this multifrequency data set, spectra of 16 emission features in the parsec scale jet were carefully constructed by using a new model-fitting based method. The measured spectra and sizes of the emission features were used to calculate the magnetic field density and the energy density of the relativistic electrons in the different parts of the parsec scale jet, independent of any equipartition assumption. We measure magnetic field density of an order of 1 Gauss in the core. The magnetic energy density in the core dominates over that of the relativistic electrons, while in the downstream region our data are roughly consistent with an equipartition. A strong gradient in the magnetic field density across the jet width, coincident with a transverse velocity structure at about 1.5 mas from the core, was found: the slower superluminal component B2 on the northern side of the jet has a magnetic field density two orders of magnitude lower than the faster southern components B3 and B4.
More than 60,000 images of Mercury were taken at ~29 deg elevation during two sunrises, at 820 nm, and through a 1.35 m diameter off-axis aperture on the SOAR telescope. The sharpest resolve 0.2" (140 km) and cover 190-300 deg longitude -- a swath unseen by the Mariner 10 spacecraft -- at complementary phase angles to previous ground-based optical imagery. Our view is comparable to that of the Moon through weak binoculars. Evident are the large crater Mozart shadowed on the terminator, fresh rayed craters, and other albedo features keyed to topography and radar reflectivity, including the putative huge ``Basin S'' on the limb. Classical bright feature Liguria resolves across the northwest boundary of the Caloris basin into a bright splotch centered on a sharp, 20 km diameter radar crater, and is the brightest feature within a prominent darker ``cap'' (Hermean feature Solitudo Phoenicis) that covers much of the northern hemisphere between longitudes 80-250 deg. The cap may result from space weathering that darkens via a magnetically enhanced flux of the solar wind, or that reddens low latitudes via high solar insolation.
(abridged) We review how the recent increase in X-ray and radio data from
black hole and neutron star binaries can be merged together with theoretical
advances to give a coherent picture of the physics of the accretion flow in
strong gravity. Both long term X-ray light curves, X-ray spectra, the rapid
X-ray variability and the radio jet behaviour are consistent with a model where
a standard outer accretion disc is truncated at low luminosities, being
replaced by a hot, inner flow which also acts as the launching site of the jet.
Decreasing the disc truncation radius leads to softer spectra, as well as
higher frequencies (including QPO's) in the power spectra, and a faster jet.
The collapse of the hot flow when the disc reaches the last stable orbit
triggers the dramatic decrease in radio flux, as well as giving a qualitative
(and often quantitative) explanation for the major hard--soft spectral
transition seen in black holes and neutron stars.
After collapse of the hot inner flow, the spectrum in black hole systems can
be dominated by the disc emission. Its behaviour is consistent with the
existence of a last stable orbit, and such data can be used to estimate the
black hole spin. These systems can also show very different spectra at these
high luminosities, in which the disc spectrum is strongly distorted by
Comptonization. The structure of the accretion flow becomes increasingly
uncertain as the luminosity approaches (and exceeds) the Eddington luminosity,
though there is growing evidence that winds play an important role. We stress
that these high Eddington fraction flows are key to understanding many
disparate and currently very active fields such as ULX, Narrow Line Seyfert
1's, and the growth of the first black holes in the Early Universe.
As a constraint for new starburst/AGN models of IRAS bright galaxies we determine the radio spectra of 31 luminous and ultraluminous IRAS galaxies (LIRGs/ULIRGs). We construct the radio spectra using both new and archival data. From our sample of radio spectra we find that very few have a straight power-law slope. Although some sources show a flattening of the radio spectral slope at high frequencies the average spectrum shows a steepening of the radio spectrum from 1.4 to 22.5 GHz. This is unexpected because in sources with high rates of star formation we expect flat spectrum, free-free emission to make a significant contribution to the radio flux at higher radio frequencies. Despite this trend the radio spectral indices between 8.4 and 22.5 GHz are flatter for sources with higher values of the FIR-radio flux density ratio q, when this is calculated at 8.4 GHz. Therefore, sources that are deficient in radio emission relative to FIR emission (presumably younger sources) have a larger thermal component to their radio emission. However, we find no correlation between the radio spectral index between 1.4 and 4.8 GHz and q at 8.4 GHz. Because the low frequency spectral index is affected by free-free absorption, and this is a function of source size for a given mass of ionized gas, this is evidence that the ionized gas in ULIRGs shows a range of densities. The youngest LIRGs and ULIRGs are characterized by a larger contribution to their high-frequency radio spectra from free-free emission. However, the youngest sources are not those that have the greatest free-free absorption at low radio frequencies. The sources in which the effects of free-free absorption are strongest are instead the most compact sources. Although these have the warmest FIR colours, they are not necessarily the youngest sources.
We present X-ray observations of the Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxy (HLIRG) IRAS 00182--7112 (F00183--7111) obtained using the XMM-Newton EPIC camera. A luminous hard X-ray source co-incident with the nucleus is revealed, along with weaker soft X-ray emission which may be extended or offset from the hard. The EPIC spectrum is extremely flat and shows Fe K$\alpha$ emission with very high equivalent width: both are typical characteristics of a buried, Compton--thick AGN which is seen only in scattered light. Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of the spectrum is that the Fe K$\alpha$ line energy is that of He-like iron, making IRAS 00182--7112 the first hidden AGN known to be dominated by ionized, Compton thick reflection. Taking an appropriate bolometric correction we find that this AGN could easily dominate the FIR energetics. The nuclear reflection spectrum is seen through a relatively cold absorber with column density consistent with recent Spitzer observations. The soft X-ray emission, which may be thermal in nature and associated with star-forming activity, is seen unabsorbed. The soft X-rays and weak PAH features both give estimates of the star formation rate $\sim 300 M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, insufficient to power the FIR emission and supportive of the idea that this HLIRG is AGN-dominated.
Self similar 3D distributions of point-particles, with a given quasifractal dimension D, were generated on a Menger sponge model and then compared with \textit{2dfGRS} and \textit{Virgo project} data \footnote{this http URL, this http URL}. Using the principle of local knowledge, it is argued that in a finite volume of space only the two-point minus estimator is acceptable in the correlation analysis of self similar spatial distributions. In this sense, we have simplified the Pietronero-Labini correlative analysis by defining a K-minus estimator, which when applied to 2dfGRS data revealed the quasifractal dimension $D\approx 2$ as expected. In our approach the K-minus estimator is used only locally. Dimensions between D = 1 and D = 1.7, as suggested by the standard $\xi (r)$ analysis, were found to be fallacy of the method. In order to visualize spatial quasifractal objects, we created a small software program called \textit{RoPo} (''Rotate Points''). This program illustrates and manifests local correlative analysis in which the visual inspection emerged as a first step and a key part of the method. Finally, we discuss importance and perspective of the visual inspection on available real and simulated distributions. It is also argued that results of contemporary cosmological simulations do not faithfully represent real data, as they show a formation of ever increasing collapsars. We consent that 2dfGRS data are reminiscent of some kind of underlying turbulence like effects in action.
Under the assumption that LS 5039 is a system composed by a pulsar rotating around an O6.5V star in a ~3.9 day orbit, we present the results of a theoretical modeling of the high energy phenomenology observed by the High Energy Stereoscopy Array (H.E.S.S.). This model (including detailed account of the system geometry, Klein-Nishina inverse Compton, gamma-gamma absorption, and cascading) is able to describe well the rich observed phenomenology found in the system at all timescales, both flux and spectrum-wise.
New observations of GD 99 are analysed. The unusual pulsation behaviour, showing both long and short periods, has been confirmed. All the available periods show a grouping of short and long period modes with roughly regular spacing. If we interpret the groups separately, a binary nature can be a possible explanation as in the similar cases of WD 2350-0054 and G29-38.
The puzzling origin of the ``UV-upturn'' phenomenon, observed in some elliptical galaxies, has recently been settled by identifying hot HB stars as main contributors to galaxy ultraviolet luminosity excess. While a blue HB morphology seems a natural characteristic of metal-poor stellar populations, its appearence in metal-rich systems, often coupled with a poorer rate of planetary nebulae per unit galaxy luminosity, might be calling for an intimate connection between UV excess and AGB properties in early-type galaxies. In this work, we want to briefly assess this issue, relying on infrared surface brightness fluctuations as a powerful tool to trace AGB properties in external galaxies with unresolved stellar populations.
Astronomical seeing is quantified by a single parameter, turbulence integral, in the framework of the Kolmogorov turbulence model. This parameter can be routinely measured by a Differential Image Motion Monitor, DIMM. A new instrument, Multi-Aperture Scintillation Sensor (MASS), permits to measure the seeing in the free atmosphere above ~0.5km and, together with a DIMM, to estimate the ground-layer seeing. The absolute accuracy of both methods is studied here using analytical theory, numerical simulation, and experiments. A modification of the MASS data processing to compensate for partially saturated scintillation is developed. We find that the DIMM can be severely biased by optical aberrations (e.g. defocus) and propagation. Seeing measurements with DIMM and MASS can reach absolute accuracy of ~10% when their biases are carefully controlled. Pushing this limit to 1% appears unrealistic because the seeing itself is just a model-dependent parameter of a non-stationary random process.
Preliminary results on KUV 02464+3239, a pulsating DA white dwarf are presented. Located near the red edge of the DAV instability strip, KUV 02464+3239 shows large amplitude and long period pulsation modes. Up to now only one mode was known from a 50-minute-long light curve. Our more extended observations allowed the identification of three additional frequencies. The presence of previously known harmonics were confirmed and weak subharmonics are also noticeable at some parts of the light curve. This suggests the dominance of nonlinear pulsation effects from time to time.
We report the relative abundances of 17 elements in the atmosphere of the white dwarf star GD 362, material that, very probably, was contained previously in a large asteroid or asteroids with composition similar to the Earth/Moon system. The asteroid may have once been part of a larger parent body not unlike one of the terrestrial planets of our solar system.
We use a diffusion galactic model to analyze the end of the Galactic cosmic ray spectrum and its mixing with the extragalactic cosmic ray flux. We analyze the transition between Galactic and extragalactic components using two different extragalactic models. We compare the sum of the diffusive galactic spectrum and extragalactic spectrum with the available experimental data.
We present a 7 yr timing study of the 2.5 ms X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658, an X-ray transient with a recurrence time of ~2 yr, using data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer covering 4 transient outbursts (1998-2005). We verify that the 401 Hz pulsation traces the spin frequency fundamental and not a harmonic. Substantial pulse shape variability, both stochastic and systematic, was observed during each outburst. Analysis of the systematic pulse shape changes suggests that, as an outburst dims, the X-ray "hot spot" on the pulsar surface drifts longitudinally and a second hot spot may appear. The overall pulse shape variability limits the ability to measure spin frequency evolution within a given X-ray outburst (and calls previous nudot measurements of this source into question), with typical upper limits of |nudot| < 2.5x10^{-14} Hz/s (2 sigma). However, combining data from all the outbursts shows with high (6 sigma) significance that the pulsar is undergoing long-term spin down at a rate nudot = (-5.6+/-2.0)x10^{-16} Hz/s, with most of the spin evolution occurring during X-ray quiescence. We discuss the possible contributions of magnetic propeller torques, magnetic dipole radiation, and gravitational radiation to the measured spin down, setting an upper limit of B < 1.5x10^8 G for the pulsar's surface dipole magnetic field and Q < 4.4x10^{36} g cm^2 for the mass quadrupole moment. We also measured an orbital period derivative of Pdot = (3.5+/-0.2)x10^{-12} s/s. In an appendix we derive an improved (0.15 arcsec) source position from optical data.
We perform helioseismic holography on realistic solar convection simulations and compare the observed travel-time perturbations with the expected travel times from the horizontal flows in the simulations computed from forward models under the assumption of the Born approximation. We demonstrate reasonable agreement between the observed and model travel times which reinforces the validity of helioseismic holography in the detection of subsurface horizontal flows. From the variation of the signal-to-noise ratio with depth, we conclude that the helioseismic detection of individual flow structures with spatial scales of supergranulation or smaller is not possible for depths below about 5 Mm below the surface over time scales less than a day. Approximately half of the observed signal originates within the first 2 Mm below the surface. A consequence of this is a rapid decrease (and reversal in some cases) of the travel-time perturbations with depth due to the contribution to the measurements of oppositely directed surface flows in neighboring convective cells. This confirms an earlier interpretation of similar effects reported from observations.
Networks or webs of domain walls are admitted in Abelian or non-Abelian gauge theory coupled to fundamental Higgs fields with complex masses. We examine the dynamics of the domain wall loops by using the moduli approximation and find a phase rotation induces a repulsive force which can be understood as a Noether charge of Q-solitons. Non-Abelian gauge theory allows different types of loops which can be deformed to each other by changing a modulus. This admits the moduli geometry like a sandglass made by gluing the tips of the two cigar-(cone-)like metrics of a single triangle loop. We conclude that the sizes of all loops tend to grow for a late time in general models with complex Higgs masses, while the sizes are stabilized at some values once triplet masses are introduced for the Higgs fields. We also show that the stationary motion on the moduli space of the domain wall webs represents 1/4 BPS Q-webs of walls.
We investigate evolutional paths of an extended quintessence with a non-minimally coupled phantom scalar field $\psi$ to the Ricci curvature. The dynamical system methods are used to investigate typical regimes of dynamics at the late time. We demonstrate that there are two generic types of evolutional scenarios which approach the attractor (a focus or a node type critical point) in the phase space: the quasi-oscillatory and monotonic trajectories approach to the attractor which represents the FRW model with the cosmological constant. We demonstrate that dynamical system admits invariant two-dimensional submanifold and discussion which cosmological scenario is realised depends on behaviour of the system on the phase plane $(\psi, \psi')$. We formulate simple conditions on the value of coupling constant $\xi$ for which trajectories tend to the focus in the phase plane and hence damping oscillations around the mysterious value w=-1. We describe this condition in terms of slow-roll parameters calculated at the critical point. We discover that the generic trajectories in the focus-attractor scenario come from the unstable node. It is also investigated the exact form of the parametrisation of the equation of state parameter w(z) (directly determined from dynamics) which assumes a different form for both scenarios.
We investigate the Kaluza-Klein braneworld cosmology from the point of view of observers on the brane. We first generalize the Shiromizu-Maeda-Sasaki (SMS) equations to higher dimensions. As an application, we study a (4+n)-dimensional brane with n dimensions compactified on the brane, in a (5+n)-dimensional bulk. By assuming that the size of the internal space is static, that the bulk energy-momentum tensor can be neglected, we determine the effect of the bulk geometry on the Kaluza-Klein braneworld. Then we derive the effective Friedmann equation on the brane. It turns out that the Friedmann equation explicitly depends on the equation of state, in contrast to the braneworld in a 5-dimensional bulk spacetime. In particular, in a radiation-dominated era, the effective Newton constant depends on the scale factor logarithmically. If we include a pressureless matter on the brane, this dependence disappears after the radiation-matter equality. This may be interpreted as stabilization of the Newton constant by the matter on the brane. Our findings imply that the Kaluza-Klein braneworld cosmology is quite different from the conventional Kaluza-Klein cosmology even at low energy.
We study a five-dimensional perfect fluid coupled with Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravity. By dimensional reduction, a modified form of Maxwell's equation is obtained, which is relevant to the equation of state of the source. We then take an ideal Fermi gas as an example to study the modified effect, which can be visible under high density or high energy condition, while the traditional Maxwell's equation can be regarded as a result in the low density and low temperature limit. Since the relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and the 3-dimensional formulation are widely used to study space matter, we derive the modified Maxwell's equations and relativistic MHD in 3+1 form. We also indicate the possibility to test the state-relevant effect of KK theory both in earth laboratory and in pertinent astrophysical phenomena.
A general form of space-time invariant called periodic invariant is proposed in which the special relativity invariant appear as a special case. This leads to invariant force-energy relation which when used in conjunction with suitably modified Newtonian orbital energy equation yields equations for gravitational redshift and bending of light without utilizing Riemannian geometry and geodesic trajectories. Perihelic precession theory of general relativity is retained unaltered and effect of modified Newtonian orbital energy equation on the deviation to flat Minkowski metric is discussed. The periodic invariant can be associated with the development of an improved atomic theory discussed elsewhere, in which spin is successfully introduced in Schrodinger dynamics of particle motion and the resulting energy levels of hydrogen atom are shown to be exactly same as that of Dirac's theory. The periodic invariant is based on the concept that the time is a periodic phenomenon. The theory does not contradict the lowest order predictions of geneal relativity but differs in second order terms. The limiting radius of the event horizon in this theory is half the value of the Schwarzschild radius. The theory leads to the derivation of quantum invariant which can vanish in an absolute sense resulting in a singularity implying a universe beginning with a vibration in an unmanifested state of primal energy eventually followed by inflation of the Lambda-CDM model.
It is proposed that the equations of motion that yielded two major predictions of general relativity without utilizing Riemannian geometry and geodesic trajectories are exact in nature and can be applied to pulsars and inspiralling compact binaries for analyzing orbital period derivative and two polarization gravitational wave forms. Exactness of these equations eliminates the need for higher order xPN corrections to the orbital energy part of the balance equation.
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(Abridged) We calculate the full stellar-structural evolution of donors in AM CVn systems formed through the WD channel coupled to the binary's evolution. Contrary to assumptions made in prior modelling, these donors are not fully convective over much of the AM CVn phase and do not evolve adiabatically under mass loss indefinitely. Instead, we identify three distinct phases of evolution: a mass transfer turn-on phase (during which the orbital period continues to decrease even after contact, the donor contracts, and the mass transfer rate accelerates to its maximum), a phase in which the donor expands adiabatically in response to mass loss, and a cooling phase beginning at orbital periods of approximately 45--55 minutes during which the donor contracts. The physics that determines the behaviour in the first and third phases, both of which are new outcomes of this study, are discussed in some detail. We find the overall duration of the turn-on phase to be between $\sim 10^4$-$10^6$ yrs, significantly longer than prior estimates. We predict the donor's luminosity and effective temperature. During the adiabatic expansion phase (ignoring irradiation effects), the luminosity is approximately $10^{-6}$--$10^{-4} L_\odot$ and the effective temperature is approximately 1000--1800 K. However, the flux generated in the accretion flow dominates the donor's intrinsic light at all times. The impact of irradiation on the donor extends the phase of adiabatic expansion to longer orbital periods and alters the donor's observational characteristics. Irradiated donors during the adiabatic phase can attain a surface luminosity of up to $\approx10^{-2} L_\odot$. We argue that the turn-on and cooling phases both will leave significant imprints on the AM CVn population's orbital period distribution.
Simulations of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy, in which supernovae power a galactic fountain, reproduce the observed velocity and 21cm brightness statistics of galactic neutral hydrogen (HI). The simulated galaxy consists of a thin HI disk, similar in extent and brightness to that observed in the Milky Way, and extra-planar neutral gas at a range of velocities due to the galactic fountain. Mock observations of the neutral gas resemble the HI flux measurements from the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) HI, survey, including a high-velocity tail which matches well with observations of high-velocity clouds. The simulated high-velocity clouds are typically found close to the galactic disk, with a typical line-of-sight distance of 13kpc from observers on the solar circle. The fountain efficiently cycles matter from the centre of the galaxy to its outskirts at a rate of around 0.5 M_sun/yr
GRB070610 is a typical high-energy event with a duration of 5s. Yet within the burst localization we detect a highly unusual X-ray and optical transient, Swift J195509.6+261406. We see high amplitude X-ray and optical variability on very short time scales even at late times. Using near-infrared imaging assisted by a laser guide star and adaptive optics, we have identified a quiescent counterpart to Swift J195509.6+261406. Our spectroscopic observations show that the spectral type of the counterpart is likely a K dwarf/sub-giant. It is possible that GRB070610 and Swift J195509.6+261406 are unrelated sources. However, the absence of a typical X-ray afterglow from GRB070610 in conjunction with the spatial and temporal coincidence of GRB070610 and Swift J195509.6+261406 motivate us to suggest that the sources are related. The closest analog to Swift J195509.6+261406 is V4641 Sgr, an unusual black hole binary. We suggest that Swift J195509.6+261406 along with V4641 Sgr define a sub-class of stellar black holes -- the fast X-ray novae. We further suggest that fast X-ray novae are associated with bursts of gamma-rays. If so, GRB070610 defines a new class of gamma-ray bursts and these bursts dominate the long-duration GRB demographics.
The normalization constant of the lateral distribution function (LDF) of an extensive air shower is a monotonous (almost linear) increasing function of the energy of the primary. Therefore, the interpolated signal at some fixed distance from the core can be calibrated to estimate the energy of the shower. There is, somehow surprisingly, a reconstructed optimal distance, r_{opt}, at which the effects on the inferred signal, S(r_{opt}), of the uncertainties on true core location, LDF functional form and shower-to-shower fluctuations are minimized. We calculate the value of r_{opt} as a function of surface detector separation, energy and zenith angle and we demonstrate the advantage of using the r_{opt} value of each individual shower instead of a same fixed distance for every shower, specially in dealing with events with saturated stations. The effects on the determined spectrum are also shown.
We investigate the optical counterparts of recently discovered Be/X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In total four sources, SXP101, SXP700, SXP348 and SXP65.8 were detected during the Chandra Survey of the Wing of the SMC. SXP700 and SXP65.8 were previously unknown. Many optical ground based telescopes have been utilised in the optical follow-up, providing coverage in both the red and blue bands. This has led to the classification of all of the counterparts as Be stars and confirms that three lie within the Galactic spectral distribution of known Be/X-ray binaries. SXP101 lies outside this distribution becoming the latest spectral type known. Monitoring of the Halpha emission line suggests that all the sources bar SXP700 have highly variable circumstellar disks, possibly a result of their comparatively short orbital periods. Phase resolved X-ray spectroscopy has also been performed on SXP65.8, revealing that the emission is indeed harder during the passage of the X-ray beam through the line of sight.
The cosmic ultraviolet background (UVB) heats the intergalactic medium (IGM), as a result the gas in dark matter halos below a certain mass is too hot to cool within a Hubble time. The UVB effectively suppresses the formation of dwarf galaxies. Using high resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations we show that photo heating leads to small baryon fractions in halos below ~ 6x10^9 h^{-1}M_sun, independent of the cosmic environment. The simulations are carried out assuming a homogeneous UVB with flux densities as given by Haardt & Madau (1996). A halo may stop to condense gas significantly after the universe is reionised, namely when its mass falls below the characteristic mass scale set by the photo heating. Assuming a spherical halo model we derive this characteristic mass analytically and identify the main mechanisms that prevent the gas from cooling in small halos. The theoretically derived characteristic mass is smaller than the one obtained from observations. Increasing the energy per ionising photon by a factor between four and eight would be sufficient to reconcile both. This is equivalent to an average temperature of the IGM of ~ 10^4 K. In this sense the faint end of the luminosity function may serve as a calorimeter for the IGM.
The past decade has seen a surge of interest in astrophysical charge exchange (CX). The impetus was the discovery of X-ray emission from comets in 1996, soon followed by the observation of CX emission in planetary atmospheres and throughout the heliosphere. Geocoronal and heliospheric CX are now recognized to contribute a considerable fraction of the soft X-ray background, and stellar-wind charge exchange is expected to occur in the astrospheres surrounding many stars. CX may also contribute to X-ray line emission in supernova remnants, the Galactic Center, and the Galactic Ridge. This article summarizes the key aspects of CX X-ray emission and its astrophysical relevance, and reviews related laboratory measurements and theoretical predictions with particular attention to spectroscopy experiments conducted on electron beam ion traps.
Abundances of N, Si, S, and Fe for 45 damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) have been compiled and detailed one-zone chemical evolution models have been constructed for 30 of them. Assuming continuous star formation, we found that final abundances in each object can be modelled by adjusting only two parameters, i.e. its time-averaged star formation efficiency and evolutionary age, with ranges in our sample of 0.01-1.5 Gyr^-1 and 0.18-2.0 Gyr, respectively. In addition, average star formation efficiency and evolutionary age appear to be anticorrelated for the sample, suggesting that the star formation efficiency in a typical DLA decreases with age. At the same time, N/Si in DLAs is directly linked to an object's age. There is an apparent bimodality in the distribution of N/Si values which could be the result of a statistical accident or an effect produced by a truncated or flattened IMF. We find that the mean and small dispersion of Si/Fe values is related to the generally young ages of DLAs, wherein not all Fe has yet been expelled by Type Ia supernovae. Finally, the large scatter and generally lower values of N/Si of DLAs with respect to blue compact galaxies, despite their partially overlapping metallicities, indicate that DLAs are generally younger than the latter.
It is shown herein that planets with eccentric orbits are more likely to transit than circularly orbiting planets with the same semimajor axis by a factor of (1-e^2)^{-1}. If the orbital parameters of discovered transiting planets are known, as from follow-up radial velocity observations, then the transit-detected planet population is easily debiased of this effect. The duration of a planet's transit depends upon of its eccentricity and longitude of periastron; transits near periastron are shorter, and those near apoastron last longer, for a given impact parameter. If fitting for the stellar radius with the other transit parameters, this effect causes a systematic error in the resulting measurements. If the stellar radius is instead held fixed at a value measured independently, then it is possible to place a lower limit on the planet's eccentricity using photometry alone. Orbital accelerations cause a difference in the planet's ingress and egress durations that lead to an asymmetry in the transit lightcurve that could be used along with the transit velocity measurement to uniquely measure the planet's eccentricity and longitude of periapsis. However, the effect is too small to be measured with current technology. The habitability of transiting terrestrial planets found by Kepler depends on those planets' orbital eccentricities. While Kepler will be able to place lower limits on those planets' orbital eccentricity, the actual value for any given planet will likely remain unknown.
We present the spatially resolved observations of IRAS sources from the Japanese infrared astronomy satellite AKARI All-Sky Survey during the performance verification (PV) phase of the mission. We extracted reliable point sources matched with IRAS point source catalogue. By comparing IRAS and AKARI fluxes, we found that the flux measurements of some IRAS sources could have been over or underestimated and affected by the local background rather than the global background. We also found possible candidates for new AKARI sources and confirmed that AKARI observations resolved IRAS sources into multiple sources. All-Sky Survey observations are expected to verify the accuracies of IRAS flux measurements and to find new extragalactic point sources.
We have studied the location of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies and broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLS1) galaxies on the M_BH - sigma relation of non-active galaxies. We find that NLS1 galaxies as a class - as well as the BLS1 galaxies of our comparison sample - do follow the M_BH-sigma relation of non-active galaxies if we use the width of the [SII]6716,6731 emission lines as surrogate for stellar velocity dispersion, sigma_*. We also find that the width of [OIII]5007 is a good surrogate for sigma_*, but only after (a) removal of asymmetric blue wings, and, more important, after (b) excluding core [OIII] lines with strong blueshifts (i.e., excluding galaxies which have their [OIII] velocity fields dominated by radial motions, presumably outflows). The same galaxies which are extreme outliers in [OIII] still follow the M_BH - sigma relation in [SII]. We confirm previous findings that NLS1 galaxies are systematically off-set from the M_BH - sigma relation if the full [OIII] profile is used to measure sigma. We systematically investigate the influence of several parameters on the NSL1 galaxies' location on the M_BH - sigma plane: [OIII]_core blueshift, L/L_Edd, intensity ratio FeII/H_beta, NLR density, and absolute magnitude. Implications for NLS1 models and for their evolution along the M_BH - sigma relation are discussed.
Meridional flows with velocities of a few meters per second are observed in the uppermost regions of the solar convection zone. The amplitude and pattern of the flows deeper in the solar interior, in particular near the top of the radiative region, are of crucial importance to a wide range of solar magnetohydrodynamical processes. In this paper, we provide a systematic study of the penetration of large-scale meridional flows from the convection zone into the radiative zone. In particular, we study the effects of the assumed boundary conditions applied at the convective-radiative interface on the deeper flows. Using simplified analytical models in conjunction with more complete numerical methods, we show that penetration of the convectively-driven meridional flows into the deeper interior is not necessarily limited to a shallow Ekman depth but can penetrate much deeper, depending on how the convective-radiative interface flows are modeled.
We studied the properties of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) in two clusters of galaxies (AWM 7 and Abell 1060) and two groups (HCG 62 and NGC 507) with the X-ray Observatory Suzaku. Based on spatially resolved energy spectra, we measured for the first time precise cumulative ICM metal masses within 0.1 and ~0.3 r_{180}. Comparing our results with supernova nucleosynthesis models, the number ratio of type II (SNe II) to type Ia (SNe Ia) is estimated to be ~3.5, assuming the metal mass in the ICM is represented by the sum of products synthesized in SNe Ia and SNe II. Normalized by the K-band luminosities of present galaxies, and including the metals in stars, the integrated number of past SNe II explosions is estimated to be close to or somewhat higher than the star formation rate determined from Hubble Deep Field observations.
Aims. We investigate the effect of the electric return currents in solar flares on the profiles of hydrogen Balmer lines. We consider the monoenergetic approximation for the primary beam and runaway model of the neutralizing return current. Methods. Propagation of the 10 keV electron beam from a coronal reconnection site is considered for the semiempirical chromosphere model F1. We estimate the local number density of return current using two approximations for beam energy fluxes between $4\times 10^{11}$ and $1\times 10^{12} {\rm erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}}$. Inelastic collisions of beam and return-current electrons with hydrogen are included according to their energy distributions, and the hydrogen Balmer line intensities are computed using an NLTE radiative transfer approach. Results. In comparison to traditional NLTE models of solar flares that neglect the return-current effects, we found a significant increase emission in the Balmer line cores due to nonthermal excitation by return current. Contrary to the model without return current, the line shapes are sensitive to a beam flux. It is the result of variation in the return-current energy that is close to the hydrogen excitation thresholds and the density of return-current electrons.
We present a comprehensive study of disks around 81 young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the nearby ~2-Myr-old Chamaeleon I star-forming region. We use mid-infrared photometry from the Spitzer Space Telescope, supplemented by findings from ground-based high-resolution optical spectroscopy and adaptive optics imaging. We derive disk fractions of 52 (+/-6) % and 58 (+6/-7) % based on 8-micron and 24-micron colour excesses, respectively, consistent with those reported for other clusters of similar age. Within the uncertainties, the disk frequency in our sample of K3-M8 objects in Cha I does not depend on stellar mass. Diskless and disk-bearing objects have similar spatial distributions. There are no obvious transition disks in our sample, implying a rapid timescale for the inner disk clearing process; however, we find two objects with weak excess at 3-8 microns and substantial excess at 24 microns, which may indicate grain growth and dust settling in the inner disk. For a sub-sample of 35 objects with high-resolution spectra, we investigate the connection between accretion signatures and dusty disks: in the vast majority of cases (29/35) the two are well correlated, suggesting that, on average, the timescale for gas dissipation is similar to that for clearing the inner dust disk. The exceptions are six objects for which dust disks appear to persist even though accretion has ceased or dropped below measurable levels. Adaptive optics images of 65 of our targets reveal that 17 have companions at (projected) separations of 10-80 AU. Of the five <20 AU binaries, four lack infrared excess, possibly indicating that a close companion leads to faster disk dispersal. The closest binary with excess is separated by ~20 AU, which sets an upper limit of ~8 AU for the outer disk radius. (abridged)
With the assumption of radial motion and uniform longitudinal distribution of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), we propose a method to eliminate projection effects from the apparent observed CME latitude distribution. This method has been applied to SOHO LASCO data from 1996 January to 2006 December. As a result, we find that the real CME latitude distribution had the following characteristics: (1) High-latitude CMEs ($\theta>60^{\circ}$ where $\theta$ is the latitude) constituted 3% of all CMEs and mainly occurred during the time when the polar magnetic fields reversed sign. The latitudinal drift of the high-latitude CMEs was correlated with that of the heliospheric current sheet. (2) 4% of all CMEs occurred in the range $45^{\circ}\leq\theta\leq60^{\circ}$. These mid-latitude CMEs occurred primarily in 2000, near the middle of 2002 and in 2005, respectively, forming a prominent three-peak structure; (3) The highest occurrence probability of low-latitude ($\theta< 45^{\circ}$) CMEs was at the minimum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. However, the highest occurrence rate of low-latitude CMEs was at the maximum and during the declining phase of the solar cycle. The latitudinal evolution of low-latitude CMEs did not follow the Sp\"{o}rer sunspot law, which suggests that many CMEs originated outside of active regions.
We present detailed analysis of the vertical pulsation mode cross-section in ten rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars based on spectroscopic time-series observations. The aim of this analysis is to derive from observations a complete picture of how the amplitude and phase of magnetoacoustic waves depend on depth. We find common features in the pulsational behaviour of roAp stars. Within a sample of representative elements the lowest amplitudes are detected for Eu II (and Fe in 33 Lib and in HD 19918), then pulsations go through the layers where Halpha core, Nd, and Pr lines are formed. There RV amplitude reaches its maximum, and after that decreases in most stars. The maximum RV of the second REE ions is always delayed relative to the first ions. The largest phase shifts are detected in Tb III and Th III lines. Pulsational variability of the Th III lines is detected here for the first time. The Y II lines deviate from this picture, showing even lower amplitudes than Eu II lines but half a period phase shift relative to other weakly pulsating lines. The roAp stars exhibit similarity in the depth-dependence of pulsation phase and amplitude, indicating similar chemical stratification and comparable vertical mode cross-sections. In general, pulsations waves are represented by a superposition of the running and standing wave components. In the atmospheres of roAp stars with the pulsation frequency below the acoustic cut-off frequency, pulsations have a standing-wave character in the deeper layers and behave like a running wave in the outer layers. Cooler roAp stars develop a running wave higher in the atmosphere. In stars with pulsation frequency close to the acoustic cut-off one, pulsation waves have a running character starting from deep layers. (Abridged)
PSR B0540-69 is the Crab twin in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Age, energetic and overall behaviour of the two pulsars are very similar. The same is true for the general appearance of their pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). Analysis of Hubble Space Telescope images spanning 10 years unveiled significant variability in the PWN surrounding PSR B0540-69, with a hot spot moving at ~0.04c. Such behaviour, reminiscent of the variability observed in the Crab nebula along the counter-jet direction, may suggest an alternative scenario for the geometry of the system. The same data were used to assess the pulsar proper motion. The null displacement recorded over 10 y allowed us to set a 3sigma upper limit of 290 km/s to the pulsar velocity.
Lines of diatomic molecules are more temperature and pressure sensitive than atomic lines, which makes them ideal tools for studying cool stellar atmospheres an internal structure of sunspots and starspots. The FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system represents such an example that exhibits in addition a large magnetic field sensitivity. The current theoretical descriptions of these transitions including the molecular constants involved are only based on intensity measurements because polarimetric observations have not been available so far, which limits their diagnostic value. We present for the first time spectropolarimetric observations of the FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system measured in sunspots to investigate their diagnostic capabilities for probing solar and stellar magnetic fields. We investigate whether the current theoretical model of FeH can reproduce the observed Stokes profiles including their magnetic properties. The polarimetric observations are compared with synthetic Stokes profiles modeled with radiative transfer calculations. This allows us to infer the temperature and the magnetic field strength of the observed sunspots. We find that the current theory successfully reproduces the magnetic properties of a large number of lines in the FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system. In a few cases the observations indicate a larger Zeeman splitting than predicted by the theory. There, our observations have provided additional constraints, which allowed us to determine empirical molecular constants. The FeH F^4 Delta-X^4 Delta system is found to be a very sensitive magnetic diagnostic tool. Polarimetric data of these lines provide us with more direct information to study the coolest parts of astrophysical objects.
Many galaxies at high redshift have peculiar morphologies dominated by 10^8-10^9 Mo kpc-sized clumps. Using numerical simulations, we show that these "clump clusters" can result from fragmentation in gravitationally unstable primordial disks. They appear as "chain galaxies" when observed edge-on. In less than 1 Gyr, clump formation, migration, disruption, and interaction with the disk cause these systems to evolve from initially uniform disks into regular spiral galaxies with an exponential or double-exponential disk profile and a central bulge. The inner exponential is the initial disk size and the outer exponential is from material flung out by spiral arms and clump torques. A nuclear black hole may form at the same time as the bulge from smaller black holes that grow inside the dense cores of each clump. The properties and lifetimes of the clumps in our models are consistent with observations of the clumps in high redshift galaxies, and the stellar motions in our models are consistent with the observed velocity dispersions and lack of organized rotation in chain galaxies. We suggest that violently unstable disks are the first step in spiral galaxy formation. The associated starburst activity gives a short timescale for the initial stellar disk to form.
We study the emission and dissipation of acoustic waves from cool dense clouds in pressure equilibrium with a hot, volume-filling dilute gas component. In our model, the clouds are exposed to a source of ionizing radiation whose flux level varies with time, forcing the clouds to pulsate. We estimate the rate at which acoustic energy is radiated away by an ensemble of clouds and the rate at which it is absorbed by, and dissipated in, the hot dilute phase. We show that acoustic energy can be a substantial heating source of the hot gas phase when the mass in the cool component is a substantial fraction of the total gas mass. We investigate the applicability of our results to the multiphase media of several astrophysical systems, including quasar outflows and cooling flows. We find that acoustic heating can have a substantial effect on the thermal properties of the hot phase in those systems.
Previously, a multi-wavelength (2cm, 4cm and 6cm) polarization study by Gabuzda, Murray and Cronin (2004) showed systematic Faraday Rotation gradients across the parsec-scale jets of several BL Lac objects, interpreted as evidence for helical magnetic (B) fields - the gradients were taken to be due to the systematic variation of the line-of-sight B field across the jet. We present here new results for the parsec-scale Faraday Rotation distributions for eight additional BL Lac objects, based on polarization data obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at two wavelengths near each of the 2cm, 4cm and 6cm bands. The Rotation Measure (RM) maps for all these sources indicate gradients across their jets, as expected if these jets have helical B fields. Such gradients are also detected in the cores of several sources. This provides evidence that these gradients are present in appreciable regions of the jets and are not isolated phenomena. We also observe reversals in the RM gradient in the core region as compared to the gradient in the jet in at least three sources.
The paper describes a new upwind conservative numerical scheme for special relativistic resistive magnetohydrodynamics with scalar resistivity. The magnetic field is kept approximately divergence free and the divergence of the electric field consistent with the electric charge distribution via the method of Generalized Lagrange Multiplier. The hyperbolic fluxes are computed using the HLL prescription and the source terms are accounted via the time-splitting technique. The results of test simulations show that the scheme can handle equally well both resistive current sheets and shock waves and thus can be a useful tool for studying phenomena of relativistic astrophysics that involve both colliding supersonic flows and magnetic reconnection.
We present an analysis of high-resolution spectroscopic observations of Polaris B, the optical companion of the Polaris Ab system. The star has a radial velocity V_r of -16.6km/s to -18.9km/s, and a projected rotational velocity vsini=110 km/s. The derived atmospheric parameters are: Teff=6900K; logg=4.3; V_t=2.5km/s. Polaris B has elemental abundances generally similar to those of the Cepheid Polaris A (Usenko et al. 2005a), although carbon, sodium and magnesium are close to the solar values. At a spectral type of F3V Polaris B has a luminosity of 3.868L_sun, an absolute magnitude of +3.30mag, and a distance of 109.5pc. The mass of the star is estimated to be 1.39M_sun, close to a mass of 1.38+/-0.61M_sun for the recently-resolved orbital periods companion Polaris Ab observed by Evans et al. (2007).
The extrasolar planets discovered to date possess unexpected orbital elements. Most orbit their host stars with larger eccentricities and smaller semi-major axes than similarly sized planets in our own solar system do. It is generally agreed that the interaction between giant planets and circumstellar disks (Type II migration) drives these planets inward to small radii, but the effect of these same disks on orbital eccentricity, e, is controversial. Several recent analytic calculations suggest that disk-planet interactions can excite eccentricity, while numerical studies generally produce eccentricity damping. This paper addresses this controversy using a quasi-analytic approach, drawing on several preceding analytic studies. This work refines the current treatment of eccentricity evolution by removing several approximations from the calculation of disk torques. We encounter neither uniform damping nor uniform excitation of orbital eccentricity, but rather a function de/dt that varies in both sign and magnitude depending on eccentricity and other solar system properties. Most significantly, we find that for every combination of disk and planet properties investigated herein, corotation torques produce negative values of de/dt for some range in e within the interval [0.1, 0.5]. If corotation torques are saturated, this region of eccentricity damping disappears, and excitation occurs on a short timescale of less than 0.08 Myr. Thus, our study does not produce eccentricity excitation on a timescale of a few Myr -- we obtain either eccentricity excitation on a short time scale, or eccentricity damping on a longer time scale. Finally, we discuss the implications of this result for producing the observed range in extrasolar planet eccentricity.
The interpretation of water line emission from existing observations and future HIFI/Herschel data requires a detailed knowledge of collisional rate coefficients. Among all relevant collisional mechanisms, the rotational (de)excitation of H2O by H2 molecules is the process of most interest in interstellar space. To determine rate coefficients for rotational de-excitation among the lowest 45 para and 45 ortho rotational levels of H2O colliding with both para and ortho-H2 in the temperature range 20-2000 K. Rate coefficients are calculated on a recent high-accuracy H2O-H2 potential energy surface using quasi-classical trajectory calculations. Trajectories are sampled by a canonical Monte-Carlo procedure. H2 molecules are assumed to be rotationally thermalized at the kinetic temperature. By comparison with quantum calculations available for low lying levels, classical rates are found to be accurate within a factor of 1-3 for the dominant transitions, that is those with rates larger than a few 10^{-12}cm^{3}s^{-1}. Large velocity gradient modelling shows that the new rates have a significant impact on emission line fluxes and that they should be adopted in any detailed population model of water in warm and hot environments.
In this paper, we use the Type Ia supernova data as well as the CMB and LSS data to constrain the agegraphic dark energy model recently proposed by Cai. Due to its peculiar nature, the parameter n of this model cannot be well constrained by the SNIa data, while the other parameter $\Omega_{m0}$ can be constrained to be $0.34\pm0.04$. When combined with CMB and LSS data, the range of $1\sigma$ confidence level for n is greatly narrowed, albeit still very large. The best fit result is $\Omega_{m0}=0.28\pm0.02$, which is consistent with most observations like WMAP and SDSS, and n=3.4, of which a meaningful range of confidence level can not be obtained due to the fact that the contours are not closed. Despite of this result, we conclude that for n>1 this model is consistent with SNIa, CMB and LSS observations. In order to efficiently constrain the parameter n, other independent observations have to be considered.
Several multi-frequency polarization studies have shown the presence of systematic Faraday Rotation gradients across the parsec-scale jets of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), taken to be due to the systematic variation of the line-of-sight component of a helical magnetic field across the jet. Other studies have confirmed the presence and sense of these gradients in several sources, thus providing evidence that these gradients persist over time and over large distances from the core. However, we find surprising new evidence for a reversal in the direction of the Faraday Rotation gradient across the jet of 1803+784, for which multi-wavelength polarization observations are available at four epochs. At all four epochs, we observe transverse Rotation Measure (RM) gradients across the jet, consistent with the presence of a helical magnetic field wrapped around the jet. However, we also observe a ''flip'' in the direction of the gradient between June 2000 and August 2002. Although the origins of this phenomena are not understood, one way to interpret this change is if the sense of rotation of the central supermassive black hole and accretion disc has remained the same, but the dominant magnetic pole facing the Earth has changed from North to South.
In recent years cosmic shear, the weak gravitational lensing effect by the large-scale structure of the Universe, has proven to be one of the observational pillars on which the cosmological concordance model is founded. Several cosmic shear statistics have been developed in order to analyze data from surveys. For the covariances of the prevalent second-order measures we present simple and handy formulae, valid under the assumptions of Gaussian density fluctuations and a simple survey geometry. We also formulate these results in the context of shear tomography, i.e. the inclusion of redshift information, and generalize them to arbitrary data field geometries. We define estimators for the E- and B-mode projected power spectra and show them to be unbiased in the case of Gaussianity and a simple survey geometry. From the covariance of these estimators we demonstrate how to derive covariances of arbitrary combinations of second-order cosmic shear measures. We then recalculate the power spectrum covariance for general survey geometries and examine the bias thereby introduced on the estimators for exemplary configurations. Our results for the covariances are considerably simpler than and analytically shown to be equivalent to the real-space approach presented in the first paper of this series. We find good agreement with other numerical evaluations and confirm the general properties of the covariance matrices. The studies of the specific survey configurations suggest that our simplified covariances may be employed for realistic survey geometries to good approximation.
New photoelectric seven-color observations in the Vilnius system are presented for 65 stars in the region of the open cluster NGC 752. Based on individual stars with accurate photometric classifications, we determine the apparent distance modulus (m-M)=8.38 and the mean reddening to the cluster E(Y-V)=0.027, or E(B-V)=0.034. The mean photometric metallicity for the main-sequence stars, [Fe/H]=-0.14, is found to be slightly lower than that derived for the red clump giants, [Fe/H]=-0.08. This difference suggests that red giants in later evolutionary phases may not have zero-age surface values of [Fe/H]. We made use of the least-squares minimization techniques to fit the Padova theoretical isochrones to the CMD, when the binary star population is taken into account. By varying the distance modulus, metallicity and age, the best match has been found between the seven magnitudes and colors of the observed stars and those of model binaries, which gives the distance modulus by 0.2 mag smaller than that derived from individual stars, i.e., (m-M)=8.18, a closely similar metallicity ([Fe/H]=-0.12), and age of 1.6 Gyr. With these results, the fraction of photometric binaries among the main-sequence stars is ~40%.
A new model is presented which explains the origin of the broad emission lines observed in the LINER/Seyfert nucleus of M81 in terms of a steady state spherically symmetric inflow, amounting to 1 x 10^-5 Msun/yr, which is sufficient to explain the luminosity of the AGN. The emitting volume has an outer radius of ~1 pc, making it the largest broad line region yet to be measured, and it contains a total mass of ~ 5 x 10^-2 Msun of dense, ~ 10^8 cm^-3, ionized gas, leading to a very low filling factor of ~ 5 x 10^-9. The fact that the BLR in M81 is so large may explain why the AGN is unable to sustain the ionization seen there. Thus, the AGN in M81 is not simply a scaled down quasar.
We report the discovery of optical ghosts generated when using Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings in spectrographs employing the Littrow configuration. The ghost is caused by light reflected off the detector surface, recollimated by the camera, recombined by, and reflected from, the grating and reimaged by the camera onto the detector. This recombination can occur in two different ways. We observe this ghost in two spectrographs being developed by the University of Wisconsin - Madison: the Robert Stobie Spectrograph for the Southern African Large Telescope and the Bench Spectrograph for the WIYN 3.5m telescope. The typical ratio of the brightness of the ghost relative to the integrated flux of the spectrum is of order 10^-4, implying a recombination efficiency of the VPH gratings of order 10^-3 or higher, consistent with the output of rigorous coupled wave analysis. Any spectrograph employing VPH gratings, including grisms, in Littrow configuration will suffer from this ghost, though the general effect is not intrinsic to VPH gratings themselves and has been observed in systems with conventional gratings in non-Littrow configurations. We explain the geometric configurations that can result in the ghost as well as a more general prescription for predicting its position and brightness on the detector. We make recommendations for mitigating the ghost effects for spectrographs and gratings currently built. We further suggest design modifications for future VPH gratings to eliminate the problem entirely, including tilted fringes and/or prismatic substrates. We discuss the resultant implications on the spectrograph performance metrics.
The stability of a recently proposed general relativistic model of galaxies is studied in some detail. This model is a general relativistic version of the well known Miyamoto-Nagai model that represents well a thick galactic disk. The stability of the disk is investigated under a general first order perturbation keeping the spacetime metric frozen (no gravitational radiation is taken into account). We find that the stability is associated with the thickness of the disk. We have that flat galaxies have more not-stable modes than the thick ones i.e., flat galaxies have a tendency to form more complex structures like rings, bars and spiral arms.
The cosmological perturbations on a bouncing brane are studied. The brane is moving inside a Klebanov-Strassler throat where the infra-red region of the geometry is smoothly cut off. For an observer confined to the world-volume of the brane, this results in a non-singular bouncing mirage cosmology. We have calculated the scalar perturbations corresponding to the normal displacements of the brane. This is performed in the probe brane limit where the gravitational back-reaction of the brane on the bulk throat is absent. Our model provides a framework for studying the transfer of fluctuations from a contracting to an expanding phase. We find that the spectral index of the dominant mode of the metric fluctuation is un-changed, unlike what is obtained by gluing contracting to expanding Einstein universes with the help of the usual matching conditions. Assuming that the fluctuations start off in a vacuum state on sub-Hubble scales during the contracting phase, it is shown that the resulting spectral index n_s on super-Hubble scales in the expanding phase has a large blue tilt. When the brane is moving slowly inside the throat and its kinetic energy is negligible compared to its rest mass, one finds n_s=3. For a fast-rolling brane with a large kinetic energy, the spectral index is n_s = 2.3. This may put severe constraints on models of mirage cosmology.
We show that the phenomenon of flavor oscillations can be described in terms of entangled flavor states belonging to the classes of Bell and W states. We analyze bipartite and multipartite flavor entanglements as measured by the reduced linear entropies of all possible bipartitions. Such entanglement monotones are found to be essentially equivalent to the flavor transition probabilities, that are experimentally accessible quantities. Therefore entanglement acquires a novel, operational physical characterization in the arena of elementary particle physics. We discuss in detail the fundamental cases of two- and three-flavor neutrino oscillations.
A mean field calculation is carried out to obtain the equation of state (EoS) of nuclear matter from a density dependent M3Y interaction (DDM3Y). The energy per nucleon is minimized to obtain ground state of the symmetric nuclear matter (SNM). The constants of density dependence of the effective interaction are obtained by reproducing the saturation energy per nucleon and the saturation density of SNM. The energy variation of the exchange potential is treated properly in the negative energy domain of nuclear matter. The EoS of SNM, thus obtained, is not only free from the superluminosity problem but also provides excellent estimate of nuclear incompressibility. The EoS of asymmetric nuclear matter is calculated by adding to the isoscalar part, the isovector component of M3Y interaction. The SNM and pure neutron matter EoS are used to calculate the nuclear symmetry energy which is found to be consistent with that extracted from the isospin diffusion in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. The $\beta$ equilibrium proton fraction calculated from the symmetry energy and related theoretical findings are consistent with the constraints derived from the observations on compact stars.
Gravitational greybody factors are analytically computed for static, spherically symmetric black holes in d-dimensions, including black holes with charge and in the presence of a cosmological constant (where a proper definition of greybody factors for both asymptotically dS and AdS spacetimes is provided). This calculation includes both the low-energy case --where the frequency of the scattered wave is small and real-- and the asymptotic case --where the frequency of the scattered wave is very large along the imaginary axis-- addressing gravitational perturbations as described by the Ishibashi-Kodama master equations, and yielding full transmission and reflection scattering coefficients for all considered spacetime geometries. At low frequencies a general method is developed, which can be employed for all three types of spacetime asymptotics, and which is independent of the details of the black hole. For asymptotically dS black holes the greybody factor is different for even or odd spacetime dimension, and proportional to the ratio of the areas of the event and cosmological horizons. For asymptotically AdS black holes the greybody factor has a rich structure in which there are several critical frequencies where it equals either one (pure transmission) or zero (pure reflection, with these frequencies corresponding to the normal modes of pure AdS spacetime). At asymptotic frequencies the computation of the greybody factor uses a technique inspired by monodromy matching, and some universality is hidden in the transmission and reflection coefficients. For either charged or asymptotically dS black holes the greybody factors are given by non-trivial functions, while for asymptotically AdS black holes the greybody factor precisely equals one (corresponding to pure blackbody emission).
A set of fluid equations, taking into account the spin properties of the electrons and positrons in a magnetoplasma, are derived. The magnetohydrodynamic limit of the pair plasma is investigated. It is shown that the microscopic spin properties of the electrons and positrons can lead to interesting macroscopic and collective effects in strongly magnetized plasmas. In particular, it is found that new Alfvenic solitary structures, governed by a modified Korteweg-de Vries equation, are allowed in such plasmas. These solitary structures vanish if the quantum spin effects are neglected. Our results should be of relevance for astrophysical plasmas, e.g. in pulsar magnetospheres.
In these Lectures I review possible constraints on particle physics models, obtained by means of combining the results of collider measurements with astrophysical data. I emphasize the theoretical-model dependence of these results. I discuss supersymmetric dark matter constraints at colliders (mainly LHC) in various theoretical contexts: the standard Cosmological-Constant-Cold-Dark-Matter (Lambda-CDM) model, (super)string-inspired ones and non-equilibrium relaxation dark energy models. I then investigate the capability of LHC measurements in asserting whether supersymmetric matter (if discovered) constitutes part, or all, of the astrophysical dark matter. I also discuss prospects for improving the constraints in future precision facilities, such as the International Linear Collider.
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