We consider the hypothesis that dark energy and dark matter are the two faces of a single dark component that we assume can be modeled by the affine equation of state (EoS) P\simeq p_0 +\alpha\rho, resulting in an effective cosmological constant \rho_\Lambda=-p_0/(1+\alpha). The affine EoS may be seen as an approximation to an unknown barotropic EoS P=P(\rho), but may as well represent the tracking solution for the dynamics of a scalar field with appropriate potential. Furthermore, in principle the affine EoS allows for the dark component to be phantom. We constrain the parameters of the model, \alpha and \Omega_\Lambda, using data from a suite of different cosmological observations, and perform a comparison with the standard \LambdaCDM model, containing both cold dark matter and a cosmological constant. First considering a flat cosmology, we find that the single dark component model with affine EoS fits the joint observations very well, better than \LambdaCDM, with best fit values \alpha=0.01 \pm 0.02 and \Omega_\Lambda=0.70 \pm 0.04 (95% confidence intervals). The standard model (best fit \Omega_\Lambda=0.71\pm 0.04), having one less parameter, is preferred by a Bayesian model comparison. However, the affine EoS is at least as good as the standard model if a flat curvature is not assumed as a prior for \LambdaCDM. For the latter, the best fit values are \Omega_K=-0.02^{+0.01}_{-0.02} and \Omega_\Lambda=0.71 \pm 0.04, i.e. a closed model is preferred. A phantom single dark fluid with affine EoS is ruled out well beyond 3\sigma.
We explore the nature of the radio emission of X-ray selected AGN by combining deep radio (1.4GHz; 60micro-Jy) and X-ray data with multiwavelength (optical, mid-infrared) observations in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS). The fraction of radio detected X-ray sources increases from 9% in the E-CDFS to 14% in the central region of this field, which has deeper X-ray coverage from the 1Ms CDFS. We find evidence that the radio emission of up to 60% of the hard X-ray/radio matched AGN is likely associated with star-formation in the host galaxy. Firstly, the mid-IR (24micron) properties of these sources are consistent with the infrared/radio correlation of starbursts. Secondly, most of them are found in galaxies with blue rest-frame optical colours (U-V), suggesting a young stellar population. On the contrary, X-ray/radio matched AGN which are not detected in the mid-infrared have red U-V colours suggesting their radio emission is associated with AGN activity. We also find no evidence for a population of heavily obscured radio-selected AGN that are not detected in X-rays. Finally, we do no confirm previous claims for a correlation between radio emission and X-ray obscuration. Assuming that the radio continuum measures star-formation, this finding is against models where the dust and gas clouds associated with circumnuclear starbursts are spherically blocking our view to the central engine.
Using fully three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, we investigate the effect of the Coriolis force on the hydrodynamic and observable properties of colliding wind binary systems. To make the calculations tractable, we assume adiabatic, constant velocity winds. The neglect of radiative driving, gravitational deceleration, and cooling limit the application of our models to real systems. However, these assumptions allow us to isolate the effect of the Coriolis force, and by simplifying the calculations, allow us to use a higher resolution (up to 640^3) and to conduct a larger survey of parameter space. We study the dynamics of collidng winds with equal mass loss rates and velocities emanating from equal mass stars on circular orbits, with a range of values for the ratio of the wind to orbital velocity. We also study the dynamics of winds from stars on elliptical orbits and with unequal strength winds. Orbital motion of the stars sweeps the shocked wind gas into an Archimedean spiral, with asymmetric shock strengths and therefore unequal postshock temperatures and densities in the leading and trailing edges of the spiral. We observe the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability at the contact surface between the shocked winds in systems with orbital motion even when the winds are identical. The change in shock strengths caused by orbital motion increases the volume of X-ray emitting post-shock gas with T > 0.59 keV by 63% for a typical system as the ratio of wind velocity to orbital velocity decreases to V_w/V_o = 2.5. This causes increased free-free emission from systems with shorter orbital periods and an altered time-dependence of the wind attenuation. We comment on the importance of the effects of orbital motion on the observable properties of colliding wind binaries.
The possibility for direct investigation of thermal emission from isolated neutron stars was opened about 25 years ago with the launch of the first X-ray observatory, Einstein. A significant contribution to this study was provided by ROSAT in 1990's. The outstanding capabilities of the currently operating observatories, Chandra and XMM-Newton, have greatly increased the potential to observe and analyze thermal radiation from the neutron star surfaces. Confronting observational data with theoretical models of thermal emission, presumably formed in neutron star atmospheres, allows one to infer the surface temperatures, magnetic fields, chemical composition, and neutron star masses and radii. This information, supplemented with model equations of state and neutron star cooling models, provides an opportunity to understand the fundamental properties of the superdense matter in the neutron star interiors. I review the current status and most important results obtained from modeling neutron star thermal emission and present selected Chandra and XMM-Newton results on thermal radiation from various types of these objects: ordinary radio pulsars with ages ranging from about 2 kyr to 20 Myr (J1119-6127, Vela, B1706-44, J0538+2817, B2334+61, B0656+14, B1055-52, Geminga, B0950+08, J2043+2740), millisecond pulsars (J0030+0451, J2124-3358, J1024-0719, J0437-4715), putative pulsars (CXOU J061705.3+222127, RX J0007.0+7302), central compact objects in supernova remnats (in particular, 1E 1207.4-5209), and isolated radio-quiet neutron stars.
Based on an analysis of the interstellar highly ionised species C IV, Si IV, N V, and O VI observed in the FUSE and HST/STIS E140M spectra of four hot stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), we find evidence for a hot LMC halo fed by energetic outflows from the LMC disk and even possibly an LMC galactic wind. Signatures for such outflows are the intermediate and high-velocity components (v_LSR>100 km/s) relative to the LMC disk observed in the high- and low-ion absorption profiles. The stellar environments produce strong, narrow (T<20,000 K) components of C IV and Si IV associated with the LMC disk; in particular they are likely signatures of H II regions and expanding shells. Broad components are observed in the profiles of C IV, Si IV, and O VI with their widths implying hot, collisionally ionised gas at temperatures of a few times 100,000 K. There is a striking similarity in the O VI/C IV ratios for the broad LMC and high-velocity components, suggesting much of the material at v_LSR>100 km/s is associated with the LMC. The velocity of the high-velocity component is large enough to escape altogether the LMC, polluting the intergalactic space between the LMC and the Milky Way. The observed high-ion ratios of the broad LMC and high-velocity components are consistent with those produced in conductive interfaces; such models are also favored by the apparent kinematically coupling between the high and the weakly ionised species.
We study the constraints that the detection of a non-trivial spatial topology may place on the parameters of braneworld models by considering the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) and the globally homogeneous Poincar\'e dodecahedral spatial (PDS) topology as a circles-in-the-sky observable topology. To this end we reanalyze the type Ia supernovae constraints on the parameters of the DGP model and show that PDS topology gives rise to strong and complementary constraints on the parameters of the DGP model.
A series of recent studies has placed the best estimates of the photospheric abundances of carbon and oxygen at log epsilon = 8.39 and 8.66, respectively. These values are ~ 40 % lower than earlier estimates. A coalition of corrections due to the adoption of an improved model atmosphere, updated atomic data and non-LTE corrections, and a reevaluation of the effect of blending features, is responsible for the change. The adopted hydrodynamical model of the solar surface is an important element to the update, but using a theoretical 1D model atmosphere leads to an average oxygen abundance modestly increased by 0.09 dex, and a carbon abundance only 0.02 dex higher. Considering a state-of-the-art 3D hydrodynamical model of the solar surface yields consistent results from different sets of atomic and molecular lines. Systematic errors are likely to dominate the final uncertainties, but the available information indicates they are limited to <0.1 dex. The new abundances are closer to expectations based on the compositions of other nearby objects, although a fully consistent picture, considering galactic chemical evolution and diffusion at the bottom of the solar convection zone, is still lacking.
We investigate structures in the D1 CFHTLS deep field in order to test the method that will be applied to generate homogeneous samples of clusters and groups of galaxies in order to constrain cosmology and detailed physics of groups and clusters. Adaptive kernel technique is applied on galaxy catalogues. This technique needs none of the usual a-priori assumptions (luminosity function, density profile, colour of galaxies) made with other methods. Its main drawback (decrease of efficiency with increasing background) is overcame by the use of narrow slices in photometric redshift space. There are two main concerns in structure detection. One is false detection and the second, the evaluation of the selection function in particular if one wants "complete" samples. We deal here with the first concern using random distributions. For the second, comparison with detailed simulations is foreseen but we use here a pragmatic approach with comparing our results to GalICS simulations to check that our detection number is not totally at odds compared to cosmological simulations. We use XMM-LSS survey and secured VVDS redshifts up to z~1 to check individual detections. We show that our detection method is basically capable to recover (in the regions in common) 100% of the C1 XMM-LSS X-ray detections in the correct redshift range plus several other candidates. Moreover when spectroscopic data are available, we confirm our detections, even those without X-ray data.
We present Spitzer high-resolution spectra of off-nuclear regions in the central cluster galaxies NGC 1275 and NGC 4696 in the Perseus and Centaurus clusters, respectively. Both objects are surrounded by extensive optical emission-line filamentary nebulae, bright outer parts of which are the targets of our observations. The 10-37 micron spectra show strong pure rotational lines from molecular hydrogen revealing a molecular component to the filaments which has an excitation temperature of ~300-400K. Emission is also seen from both low and high ionization fine structure lines. Cold molecular hydrogen dominates the mass of the outer filaments; the nebulae are predominantly molecular.
Cosmic ray air showers produce radio emission, consisting in large part of geosynchrotron emission. Since the radiation mechanism is based on particle acceleration, the atmospheric electric field can play an important role. Especially inside thunderclouds large electric fields can be present. We examine the contribution of an electric field to the emission mechanism theoretically and experimentally. Two mechanisms of amplification of radio emission are considered: the acceleration radiation of the shower particles and the radiation from the current that is produced by ionization electrons moving in the electric field. We selected and evaluated LOPES data recorded during thunderstorms, periods of heavy cloudiness and periods of cloudless weather. We find that during thunderstorms the radio emission can be strongly enhanced. No amplified pulses were found during periods of cloudless sky or heavy cloudiness, suggesting that the electric field effect for radio air shower measurements can be safely ignored during non-thunderstorm conditions.
HST observations have revealed that compact sources exist at the centers of many, maybe even most, galaxies across the Hubble sequence. These sources are called "nuclei" or also "nuclear star clusters" (NCs), given that their structural properties and position in the fundamental plane are similar to those of globular clusters. Interest in NCs increased recently due to the independent and contemporaneous finding of three groups (Rossa et al. for spiral galaxies; Wehner & Harris for dE galaxies; and Cote et al. for elliptical galaxies) that NC masses obey similar scaling relationships with host galaxy properties as do supermassive black holes. Here we summarize the results of our group on NCs in spiral galaxies. We discuss the implications for our understanding of the formation and evolution of NCs and their possible connection to supermassive black holes.
Properties of bars and bulges in the Hubble sequence are discussed, based on the analysis of 216 disk galaxies (S0s and spirals from NIRS0S and OSUBGS surveys, respectively). For that purpose we have collected together, and completed when necessary, the various analysis we have previously made separately for early and late types. We find strong photometric and kinematic evidence of pseudobulges in the S0-S0/a galaxies: their bulges are on average fairly exponential, inner disks are common (in 56%), and in many of the galaxies the bulges are rotationally supported. This would be difficult to understand in such gas poor galaxies as in S0s, if these pseudobulge candidates were formed by star formation in the disk in a a similar manner as in spirals. A more likely explanation is that pseudobulges in the early-type galaxies are bar-related structures, connected to the evolution of bars, which interpretation is supported by our Fourier analysis and structural decompositions. Bars in the early-type galaxies are found to have many characteristics of evolved systems: (1) they have flat-top/double peaked Fourier amplitude profiles, (2) bars have typically sharp outer cut-offs, (3) the higher Fourier modes appear in the amplitude profiles, and (4) many bars have also ansae-type morphologies. We show the distributions of bar strength in different Hubble type bins using four bar strength indicators, $Q_g$, $A_2$, $f_{bar}$ and the bar length, which are expected to give important clues for understanding the mechanism of how bars evolve.
Using the Infrared Array Camera and the Multiband Imaging Photometer aboard the {\it Spitzer Space Telescope}, we have obtained images of the Lupus 3 star-forming cloud at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24 \micron. We present photometry in these bands for the 41 previously known members that are within our images. In addition, we have identified 19 possible new members of the cloud based on red 3.6-8.0 \micron colors that are indicative of circumstellar disks. We have performed optical spectroscopy on 6 of these candidates, all of which are confirmed as young low-mass members of Lupus 3. The spectral types of these new members range from M4.75 to M8, corresponding to masses of 0.2-0.03 $M_\odot$ for ages of $\sim1$ Myr according to theoretical evolutionary models. We also present optical spectroscopy of a candidate disk-bearing object in the vicinity of the Lupus 1 cloud, 2M 1541-3345, which Jayawardhana & Ivanov recently classified as a young brown dwarf ($M\sim0.03$ $M_\odot$) with a spectral type of M8. In contrast to their results, we measure an earlier spectral type of M5.75$\pm$0.25 for this object, indicating that it is probably a low-mass star ($M\sim0.1$ $M_\odot$). In fact, according to its gravity-sensitive absorption lines and its luminosity, 2M 1541-3345 is older than members of the Lupus clouds ($\tau\sim1$ Myr) and instead is probably a more evolved pre-main-sequence star that is not directly related to the current generation of star formation in Lupus.
The apparent low power in the CMB temperature anisotropy power spectrum derived from WMAP motivated us to consider the possibility of a non-trivial topology. We focus on some simple spherical multi-connected manifolds (Quaternionic, Octahedral, Truncated Cube and Poincare spaces) and discuss their implications for the CMB in terms of the power spectrum, maps and the correlation matrix. We also perform Bayesian model comparison against the fiducial best-fit LCDM based both on the power spectrum and the correlation matrix to assess their statistical significance. We find that the first year power spectrum shows a slight preference for the Truncated Cube space, but the 3-year data show no evidence for any of these spaces.
The lunar surface has historically been considered an optimal site for a broad range of astronomical telescopes. That assumption, which has come to be somewhat reflexive, is critically examined in this paper and found to be poorly substantiated. The value of the lunar surface for astronomy may be broadly compelling only in comparison to terrestrial sites. It is suggested here that the development and successful operation of the Hubble Space Telescope marked a turning point in the perception of value for free-space siting of astronomical telescopes, and for telescopes on the Moon. As the astronomical community considers the scientific potential of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and the return to the Moon in particular, it should construct a value proposition that includes the tools, technology, and architecture being developed for this return, as these can well be seen as being more astronomically enabling than the lunar surface itself - a destination that offers little more than rocks and gravity. While rocks and gravity may offer astronomical opportunity in certain scientific niches, our attention should be focused on the striking potential of human and robotic dexterity across cis-lunar space. It is this command of our environs that the VSE truly offers us.
A technique is described for measuring electrical currents in the solar corona. It uses radioastronomical polarization measurements of a spatially-extended radio source viewed through the corona. The observations yield the difference in the Faraday rotation measure between two closely-spaced lines of sight through the corona, a measurement referred to as {\em differential Faraday rotation}. It is shown that the expression for differential Faraday rotation is proportional to the path integral $\oint n \vec{B}\cdot \vec{ds}$ where $n$ is the plasma density and $\vec{B}$ is the coronal magnetic field. The integral is around a closed loop (Amperian Loop) in the corona. If the plasma density is assumed roughly constant, the differential Faraday rotation is proportional to the current within the loop, via Ampere's Law. A very similar technique has been used in plasma fusion devices as a diagnostic of the current in the machine. The method is illustrated with observations of the radio source 3C228 with the Very Large Array (VLA) in August, 2003. A measurement of a differential Faraday rotation ``event'' on August 16, 2003, yields an estimate of $2.5 \times 10^9$ Amperes in the Amperian Loop. A smaller event on August 18 yields an enclosed current of $2.3 \times 10^8$ Amperes. The implications of these currents for coronal heating are explored. It is concluded that these currents are not important contributors to the volumetric heating rate in the corona unless the resistivity exceeds the Spitzer value by about six orders of magnitude.
The components of the wide binary HIP64030=HD 113984 show a large (about 0.25 dex) iron content difference (Desidera et al.~2006 A&A 454, 581). The positions of the components on the color magnitude diagram suggest that the primary is a blue straggler. We studied the abundance difference of several elements besides iron, and we searched for stellar and substellar companions around the components to unveil the origin of the observed iron difference. A line-by-line differential abundance analysis for several elements was performed, while suitable spectral synthesis was performed for C, N, and Li. High precision radial velocities obtained with the iodine cell were combined with available literature data. The analysis of additional elements shows that the abundance difference for the elements studied increases with increasing condensation temperature, suggesting that accretion of chemically fractionated material might have occurred in the system. Alteration of C and N likely due to CNO processing is also observed. We also show that the primary is a spectroscopic binary with a period of 445 days and moderate eccentricity. The minimum mass of the companion is 0.17 Msun. Two scenarios were explored to explain the observed abundance pattern. In the first, all abundance anomalies arise on the blue straggler. If this is the case, the dust-gas separation may have been occurred in a circumbinary disk around the blue straggler and its expected white dwarf companion, as observed in several RV Tauri and post AGB binaries. In the second scenario, accretion of dust-rich material occurred on the secondary. This would also explain the anomalous carbon isotopic ratio of the secondary. Such a scenario requires that a substantial amount of mass lost by the central binary has been accreted by the wide component.
In an earlier paper (Ahuja, et al, 2005), based on simultaneous multi-frequency observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), we reported the variation of pulsar dispersion measures (DMs) with frequency. A few different explanations are possible for such frequency dependence, and a possible candidate is the effect of pulse shape evolution on the DM estimation technique. In this paper we describe extensive simulations we have done to investigate the effect of pulse profile evolution on pulsar DM estimates. We find that it is only for asymmetric pulse shapes that the DM estimate is significantly affected due to profile evolution with frequency. Using multi-frequency data sets from our earlier observations, we have carried out systematic analyses of PSR B0329+54 and PSR B1642-03. Both these pulsars have central core dominated emission which does not show significant asymmetric profile evolution with frequency. Even so, we find that the estimated DM shows significant variation with frequency for these pulsars. We also report results from new, simultaneous multi-frequency observations of PSR B1133+16 carried out using the GMRT in phased array mode. This pulsar has an asymmetric pulse profile with significant evolution with frequency. We show that in such a case, amplitude of the observed DM variations can be attributed to profile evolution with frequency. We suggest that genuine DM variations with frequency could arise due to propagation effects through the interstellar medium and/or the pulsar magnetosphere.
Precursor emission has been observed in a non-negligible fraction of gamma-ray bursts, the time gap between the precursor and the main burst extending up to hundreds of seconds in some cases, such as in GRB041219A, GRB050820A and GRB060124. We have investigated the maximum possible time gaps arising from the jet propagation inside the progenitor star, in models which assume that the precursor is produced by the jet bow shock or the cocoon breaking out of the progenitor. Due to the pressure drop ahead of the jet head after it reaches the stellar surface, a rarefaction wave propagates back into the jet at the sound speed, which re-accelerates the jet to a relativistic velocity and therefore limits the gap period to within about ten seconds. This scenario therefore cannot explain gaps which are hundreds of seconds long. Instead, we ascribe such long time gaps to the behavior of the central engine, and suggest a fallback collapsar scenario for these bursts. In this scenario, the precursor is produced by a weak jet formed during the initial core collapse, possibly related to MHD process associated with a short-lived proto-neutron star, while the main burst is produced by a stronger jet fed by the fallback disk accreting onto the black hole resulting from the collapse of the neutron star. We have examined the propagation times of the weak precursor jet through the stellar progenitor. We find that the initial weak jet can break out of the progenitor in a time less than ten seconds provided that it has a moderately high relativistic Lorentz factor (Gamma>10). The longer time gap following this is dictated by the fall-back timescale, which is long enough for the exit channel to close after the precursor activity ceases, allowing for the collimation of the main jet by the cocoon pressure as it propagates outward.
We present detailed modeling of the disk around the TW Hydrae Association (TWA) brown dwarf 2MASSW J1207334-393254 (2M1207), using {\it Spitzer} observations from 3.6 to 24 $\micron$. The spectral energy distribution (SED) does not show a high amount of flaring. We have obtained a good fit using a flat disk of mass between $10^{-4}$ and $10^{-6}$ $M_{\sun}$, $\dot{M}$ $\la10^{-11} M_{\sun}$/yr and a large inclination angle between 60$\degr$ and 70$\degr$. We have used three different grain models to fit the 10 $\micron$ Si emission feature, and have found the results to be consistent with ISM-like dust. In comparison with other TWA members, this suggests lesser dust processing for 2M1207 which could be explained by mechanisms such as aggregate fragmentation and/or turbulent mixing. We have found a good fit using an inner disk radius equal to the dust sublimation radius, which indicates the absence of an inner hole in the disk. This suggests the presence of a small K-$L^{\prime}$ excess, similar to the observed K-[3.6] excess.
We investigate the success and problems of MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) in explaining the structural parameters and dynamics of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) and Local dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies. Tidal radii of remote GCs are used to calibrate the mass of the Milky Way under MOND. We find a mass consistent with the baryonic mass, $\sim 10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$, obtained from kinematic data, on the $1\sigma$ level. Using this value for the mass of the Milky Way, the tidal radii of dSph galaxies have been derived assuming mass-to-light ratios compatible with a naked stellar population and are found to be fully consistent with the observed tidal radii. Mass-to-light ratios as inferred from the internal kinematics of dSph galaxies can be used, but they appear too large to be accounted for only by the stellar population in Ursa Minor, Draco, Ursa Major and probably Bo\"{o}tes dwarfs. Finally, the ability of the Sculptor dwarf to retain the observed population of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) is examined. Under the MOND paradigm, we find that the retention fraction in Sculptor is likely not larger than a few percent. Compared to the dark matter scenario, it turns out that MOND makes the retention problem worse. We propose that measurements of the radial velocities of the observed LMXBs in Sculptor could provide a way to distinguish between modified gravities or extended and massive dark matter halos.
The intricate interplay of atmospheric shock waves and a complex, variable radiation field with non-equilibrium dust formation presents a considerable challenge to self-consistent modelling of atmospheres and winds of AGB stars. Nevertheless it is clear that realistic models predicting mass loss rates and synthetic spectra are crucial for our understanding of this important phase of stellar evolution. While a number of questions are still open, significant progress has been achieved in recent years. In particular, self-consistent models for atmospheres and winds of C-stars have reached a level of sophistication which allows direct quantitative comparison with observations. In the case of stars with C/O < 1, however, recent work points to serious problems with the dust-driven wind scenario. This contribution analyzes the basic ingredients of this scenario with analytical estimates, focusing on dust formation, non-grey effects, and differences between C-rich and O-rich environments, as well as discussing the status of detailed dynamical wind models and current trends in this field.
Current knowledge suggests that the dust-driven wind scenario provides a realistic framework for understanding mass loss from C-rich AGB stars. For M-type objects, however, recent detailed models demonstrate that radiation pressure on silicate grains is not sufficient to drive the observed winds, contrary to previous expectations. In this paper, we suggest an alternative mechanism for the mass-loss of M-type AGB stars, involving the formation of both carbon and silicate grains due to non-equilibrium effects, and we study the viability of this scenario. We model the dynamical atmospheres and winds of AGB stars by solving the coupled system of frequency-dependent radiation hydrodynamics and time-dependent dust formation, using a parameterized description of non-equilibrium effects in the gas phase. This approach allows us to assess under which circumstances it is possible to drive winds with small amounts of carbon dust and to get silicate grains forming in these outflows at the same time. The properties of the resulting wind models, such as mass loss rates and outflow velocities, are well within the observed limits for M-type AGB stars. Furthermore, according to our results, it is quite unlikely that significant amounts of silicate grains will condense in a wind driven by a force totally unrelated to dust formation, as the conditions in the upper atmosphere and wind acceleration region put strong constraints on grain growth. The proposed scenario provides a natural explanation for the observed similarities in wind properties of M-type and C-type AGB stars and implies a smooth transition for stars with increasing carbon abundance, from solar-composition to C-rich AGB stars, possibly solving the long-standing problem of the driving mechanism for stars with C/O close to one.
Previous work statistically identified 5492 optical counterparts, with approximately 90% confidence, from among the approximately 18,000 X-ray sources appearing in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalog (RASS/BSC). Using low resolution spectra in the wavelength range 3700-7900 angstroms, we present spectroscopic classifications for 195 of these counterparts which have not previously been classified. Of these 195, we find 168 individual stars of F, G, K or M type, 6 individual stars of unknown type, 6 double stars, 6 AGN or galaxies and 7 unclassifiable objects; the spectra of the 2 remaining objects were saturated.
The structural properties of the low surface brightness stellar host in blue compact dwarf galaxies are often studied by fitting r^{1/n} models to the outer regions of their radial profiles. The limitations imposed by the presence of a large starburst emission overlapping the underlying component makes this kind of analysis a difficult task. We propose a two-dimensional fitting methodology in order to improve the extraction of the structural parameters of the LSB host. We discuss its advantages and weaknesses by using a set of simulated galaxies and compare the results for a sample of eight objects with those already obtained using a one-dimensional technique. We fit a PSF convolved Sersic model to synthetic galaxies, and to real galaxy images in the B, V, R filters. We restrict the fit to the stellar host by masking out the starburst region and take special care to minimize the sky-subtraction uncertainties. In order to test the robustness and flexibility of the method, we carry out a set of fits with synthetic galaxies. Furthermore consistency checks are performed to assess the reliability and accuracy of the derived structural parameters. The more accurate isolation of the starburst emission is the most important advantage and strength of the method. Thus, we fit the host galaxy in a range of surface brightness and in a portion of area larger than in previous published 1D fits with the same dataset. We obtain robust fits for all the sample galaxies, all of which, except one, show Sersic indices n very close to 1, with good agreement in the three bands. These findings suggest that the stellar hosts in BCDs have near-exponential profiles, a result that will help us to understand the mechanisms that form and shape BCD galaxies, and how they relate to the other dwarf galaxy classes.
Using the HST ACS, we have obtained deep optical images of a southeast minor-axis field in the Andromeda Galaxy, 21 kpc from the nucleus. In both star counts and metallicity, this field represents a transition zone between the metal-rich, highly-disturbed inner spheroid that dominates within 15 kpc and the metal-poor, diffuse population that dominates beyond 30 kpc. The color-magnitude diagram reaches well below the oldest main-sequence turnoff in the population, allowing a reconstruction of the star formation history in this field. Compared to the spheroid population at 11 kpc, the population at 21 kpc is ~1.3 Gyr older and ~0.2 dex more metal-poor, on average. However, like the population at 11 kpc, the population at 21 kpc exhibits an extended star formation history; one third of the stars are younger than 10 Gyr, although only a few percent are younger than 8 Gyr. The relatively wide range of metallicity and age is inconsistent with a single, rapid star-formation episode, and instead suggests that the spheroid even at 21 kpc is dominated by the debris of earlier merging events likely occurring more than 8 Gyr ago.
(Abridged) We use a complete sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected on the basis of relativistically beamed 15 GHz radio flux density (MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments) to derive the parent radio luminosity function (RLF) of radio-loud blazars. We use a maximum likelihood method to fit a beamed RLF to the observed data and thereby recover the parameters of the intrinsic RLF. We obtain a good fit to the observed data (consisting of 97 radio-loud quasars, 22 BL Lacs and 3 FR II radio galaxies) using a single power law intrinsic RLF with index alpha = -2.553 and a pure density evolution function. We find that an apparent break in the observed MOJAVE RLF arises from binning across a steep and strongly evolving RLF, and does not reflect an intrinsic property of the RLF. The estimated space density of the parent population of the MOJAVE sample (with L>1.3e25 W Hz) is \~1700/Gpc^3, in reasonable agreement with previous estimates of the space density of FR II radio galaxies.
We show that the prompt and afterglow X-ray emission of GRB060218, as well as its early (t<=1 d) optical-UV emission, can be explained by a model in which a radiation- mediated shock propagates through a compact progenitor star into a dense wind. The prompt thermal X-ray emission is produced in this model as the mildly relativistic shock, v/c=0.85 carrying few x 10^49 erg, reaches the wind (Thomson) photosphere, where the post-shock thermal radiation is released and the shock becomes collisionless. Adopting this interpretation of the thermal X-ray emission, a subsequent X-ray afterglow is predicted, due to synchrotron emission and inverse-Compton scattering of SN UV photons by electrons accelerated in the collisionless shock. Early optical-UV emission is also predicted, due to the cooling of the outer \delta M ~10^{-3} M_sun envelope of the star, which was heated to high temperature during shock passage. The observed X-ray afterglow and the early optical-UV emission are both consistent with those expected in this model. Detailed analysis of the early optical-UV emission may provide detailed constraints on the density distribution near the stellar surface.
We have acquired intermediate resolution spectra in the 3700-7000 A wavelength range for a sample of 65 early-type galaxies predominantly located in low density environments, a large fraction of which show emission lines. The spectral coverage and the high quality of the spectra allowed us to derive Lick line-strength indices and to study their behavior at different galacto-centric distances. Ages, metallicities and element abundance ratios have been derived for the galaxy sample by comparison of the line-strength index data set with our new developed Simple Stellar Population (SSP) models. We have analyzed the behavior of the derived stellar population parameters with the central galaxy velocity dispersion and the local galaxy density in order to understand the role played by mass and environment on the evolution of early-type galaxies. We find that the chemical path is mainly driven by the halo mass, more massive galaxies exhibiting the more efficient chemical enrichment and shorter star formation timescales. Galaxies in denser environments are on average older than galaxies in less dense environments. The last ones show a large age spread which is likely to be due to rejuvenation episodes.
We study the duration and variability of late time X-ray flares following gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the narrow field X-ray telescope (XRT) aboard the {\it Swift} spacecraft. These flares are thought to be indicative of late time activity by the central engine that powers the GRB and produced by means similar to those which produce the prompt emission. We use a non-parametric procedure to study the overall temporal properties of the flares and a structure function analysis to look for an evolution of the fundamental variability time-scale between the prompt and late time emission. We find a strong correlation in 28 individual x-ray flares in 18 separate GRBs between the flare duration and their time of peak flux since the GRB trigger. We also find a qualitative trend of decreasing variability as a function of time since trigger, with a characteristic minimum variability timescale $\Delta t/t=0.1$ for most flares. We interpret these results as evidence of internal shocks at collision radii that are larger than those that produced the prompt emission. Contemporaneous detections of high energy emission by GLAST could be a crucial test in determining if indeed these X-ray flares originate as internal shocks behind the afterglow, as any X-ray emission originating from behind the afterglow is expected to undergo inverse Compton scattering as it passes through the external shock.
We present a Comptonization model for the observed properties of the energy-dependent soft/hard time lags and pulsed fraction (amplitude) associated with the pulsed emission of a neutron star (NS). We account for the soft lags by downscattering of hard X-ray photons in the relatively cold plasma of the disk or NS surface. A fraction of the soft X-ray photons coming from the disk or NS surface upscatter off hot electrons in the accretion column. This effect leads to hard lags as a result of thermal Comptonization of the soft photons. This model reproduces the observed soft and hard lags due to the down- and upscattered radiation as a function of the electron number densities of the reflector, n_{e}^{ref}, and the accretion column, n_{e}^{hot}. In the case of the accretion-powered millisecond pulsars IGR J00291+5934, XTE J1751-305, and SAX J1808.4-3658, the observed time lags agree well with the model. Soft lags are observed only if n_e^{ref} << n_e^{hot}. Scattering of the pulsed emission in the NS environment may account for the observed time lags as a non-monotonic function of energy. The time lag measurements can be used as a probe of the innermost parts of the NS and accretion disk. We determine the upper and lower limits of the density variation in this region using the observed time lags. The observed energy-dependent pulsed amplitude allows us to infer a variation of the Thomson optical depth of the Compton cloud in which the accretion column is embedded.
I review the properties of three X-ray accreting millisecond pulsars observed with INTEGRAL. Out of seven recently discovered accretion-powered pulsars (one discovered by INTEGRAL), three were observed with the INTEGRAL satellite up to 300 keV. Detailed timing and spectral results will be presented, including data obtained during the most recent outburst of the pulsar HETE J1900.1-2455. Accreting X-ray millisecond pulsars are key systems to understand the spin and accretion history of neutron stars. They are also a good laboratory in which to study the source spectra, pulse profile, and phase shift between X-ray pulses in different energy ranges which give additional information of the X-ray production processes and emission environment.
A new iterative method for constructing the self-consistent phase equilibrium models of stellar systems with a fixed mass density distribution is used for constructing the Milky Way Galaxy disk model. In this method, we use the density distribution in the Galaxy as input data. Here we used two Galactic density models (suggested by Flynn, Sommer-Larsen & Christensen 1996; Dehnen & Binney 1998a). A few modifications of the iterative method were developed. One of the modifications (the Orbit.NB approach) gives rather specific and probably non-physical models. Although such models are probably non-physical, the fact of such equilibrium phase models existence is of interest. In order to construct the equilibrium stellar Galactic disk model, we used another modification of the iterative method (the Nbody.NB approach). We show that the phase models constructed using this approach are close to the equilibrium.
We present multi-frequency VLBA observations of two polarized Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs), J0000+4054 and J1826+1831, and a polarized CSO candidate, J1915+6548. Using the wavelength-squared dependence of Faraday rotation, we obtained rotation measures (RMs) of -180 \pm 10 rad m^-2 and 1540 \pm 7 rad m^-2 for the latter two sources. These are lower than what is expected of CSOs (several 1000 rad m^-2) and, depending on the path length of the Faraday screens, require magnetic fields from 0.03 to 6 \mu G. These CSOs may be more heavily affected by Doppler boosting than their unpolarized counterparts, suggesting that a jet-axis orientation more inclined towards the line of sight is necessary to detect any polarization. This allows for low RMs if the polarized components are oriented away from the depolarizing circumnuclear torus. These observations also add a fourth epoch to the proper motion studies of J0000+4054 and J1826+1831, constraining their kinematic age estimates to >610 yrs and 2600 \pm 490 yrs, respectively. The morphology, spectrum, and component motions of J1915+6548 are discussed in light of its new classification as a CSO candidate, and its angle to the line of sight (~50\deg) is determined from relativistic beaming arguments.
Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are believed to be evolved, extremely massive stars close to the Eddington Limit and hence prone to bouts of large-scale, unstable mass loss. I discuss current understanding of the evolutionary state of these objects, the role duplicity may play and known physical characteristics of these stars using the X-ray luminous LBVs Eta Carinae and HD 5980 as test cases.
We present results from a narrow-band optical survey of a contiguous area of 1.95 deg^2, covered by the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Both optical narrow-band (lambda_c = 8150 AA and Delta_lambda = 120 AA) and broad-band (B, V, g', r', i', and z') imaging observations were performed with the Subaru prime-focus camera, Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. We provide the largest contiguous narrow-band survey, targetting Ly alpha emitters (LAEs) at z~5.7. We find a total of 119 LAE candidates at z~5.7. Over the wide-area covered by this survey, we find no strong evidence for large scale clustering of LAEs. We estimate a star formation rate (SFR) density of ~7*10^-4 M_sun yr^-1 Mpc^-3 for LAEs at z~5.7, and compare it with previous measurements.
Two years ago a new benchmark for the planetary survey was set with the discoveries of three extrasolar planets with masses below 20$M_\oplus$. In particular, the serendipitous discovery of the 14$M_\oplus$ planet around $\mu$ Ara found with HARPS with a semi-amplitude of only 4 m s$^{-1}$ put in evidence the tremendous potential of HARPS for the search of this class of very low-mass planets. Aiming to discovering new worlds similar to $\mu$ Ara b, we carried out an intensive campaign with HARPS to observe a selected sample of northern stars covering a range of metallicity from about solar to twice solar. Two stars in our program were found to present radial velocity variations compatible with the presence of a planet-mass companion. The first of these, HD 219218, was found to be orbited by a planet with a minimum mass of 19.8 $M_\oplus$ and an orbital period of 3.83 days. It is the 11th Neptune-mass planet found so far orbiting a solar-type star. The radial velocity data clearly show the presence of an additional body to the system, likely of planetary mass. The second planet orbits HD 102195, has a mass of 0.45$M_{Jup}$ and an orbital period of 4.11 days. This planet has been already announced by Ge et al. (2006). Our data confirm and improve the orbital solution found by these authors. We also show that the high residuals of the orbital solution are caused by stellar activity, and use the bisectors of the HARPS cross-correlation function to correct the noise introduced by stellar activity. An improved orbital solution is obtained after this correction. This kind of analysis may be used in the future to correct the radial-velocities for stellar activity induced noise.
Current sheets are essential for energy dissipation in the solar corona, in
particular by enabling magnetic reconnection. Unfortunately, sufficiently thin
current sheets cannot be resolved observationally and the theory of their
formation is an unresolved issue as well. We consider two predictors of coronal
current concentrations, both based on geometrical or even topological
properties of a force free coronal magnetic field. First, there are
separatrices related to magnetic nulls. Through separatrices the magnetic
connectivity changes discontinuously. Coronal magnetic nulls are, however, very
rare. At second, inspired by the concept of generalized magnetic reconnection
without nulls, quasi-separatrix layers (QSL) were suggested. Through QSL the
magnetic connectivity changes continuously, though strongly. The strength of
the connectivity change can be quantified by measuring the squashing of the
flux tubes which connect the magnetically conjugated photospheres.
We verify the QSL and separatrix concepts by comparing the sites of magnetic
nulls and enhanced squashing with the location of current concentrations in the
corona. Due to the known difficulties of their direct observation we simulated
the coronal current sheets by numerically calculating the response of the
corona to energy input from the photosphere heating a simultaneously observed
EUV Bright Point. We did not find coronal current sheets not at the
separatrices but at several QSL locations. The reason is that although the
geometrical properties of force free extrapolated magnetic fields can indeed,
hint at possible current concentrations, a necessary condition for current
sheet formation is the local energy input into the corona.
Recently Neiner et al. reported that the B2 IV-V star zeta Cas contains a weak magnetic field which varies on the same 5.37 day period found from the modulations of its N V, C IV, and Si IV UV resonance lines. We have studied the time variable properties of the same resonance lines in greater detail to determine the physical characteristics of the magnetospheric structure responsible for them. In our formulation this structure takes the form of an axisymmetric "disk" similarto those around magnetic He-strong Bp stars. This structure corotates with the star, covering greater or lesser amounts of its area during its transit. zeta Cas offers a special case because we observe it from a low inclination and yet its magnetic axis is substantially inclined to the rotation axis. The equivalent width-phase curves show a flat maximum for half the cycle, indicating that the disk is extended out of the plane, extends to the star's surface in the magnetic plane, or both. Synthetic spectra of the line profiles during the maximum and minimum occultation phases can be best reconciled with a disk geometry in which the resonance lines are formed at a closed outer edge and along a thin outer layer. We speculate that observed weak redshifted emission is formed in "auroral caps" located near the magnetic poles of the star. We argue that this results from shocks of stagnated wind material returning to the star and shocking against the outflowing wind.
Located in the Orion Trapezium cluster, Theta 1 Orionis C is one of the
youngest and nearest high-mass stars (O5-O7) and also known to be a close
binary system. Using new multi-epoch visual and near-infrared bispectrum
speckle interferometric observations obtained at the BTA 6 m telescope, and
IOTA near-infrared long-baseline interferometry, we trace the orbital motion of
the Theta 1 Ori C components over the interval 1997.8 to 2005.9, covering a
significant arc of the orbit. Besides fitting the relative position and the
flux ratio, we apply aperture synthesis techniques to our IOTA data to
reconstruct a model-independent image of the Theta 1 Ori C binary system.
The orbital solutions suggest a high eccentricity (e approx. 0.91) and
short-period (P approx. 10.9 yrs) orbit. As the current astrometric data only
allows rather weak constraints on the total dynamical mass, we present the two
best-fit orbits. From these orbital solutions one can be favoured, implying a
system mass of 48 M_sun and a distance to the Trapezium cluster of 434 pc. When
also taking the measured flux ratio and the derived location in the HR-diagram
into account, we find good agreement for all observables, assuming a spectral
type of O5.5 for Theta 1 Ori C1 (M=34.0 M_sun) and O9.5 for C2 (M=15.5 M_sun).
We find indications that the companion C2 is massive itself, which makes it
likely that its contribution to the intense UV radiation field of the Trapezium
cluster is non-negligible. Furthermore, the high eccentricity of the
preliminary orbit solution predicts a very small physical separation during
periastron passage (approx. 1.5 AU, next passage around 2007.5), suggesting
strong wind-wind interaction between the two O stars.
We present 350micron observations of 36 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) at intermediate redshifts (0.089 <= z <= 0.926) using the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera II (SHARC-II) on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO). In total, 28 sources are detected at S/N >= 3, providing the first flux measurements longward of 100micron for a statistically significant sample of ULIRGs in the redshift range of 0.1 < z < 1.0. Combining our 350micron flux measurements with the existing IRAS 60 and 100micron data, we fit a single-temperature model to the spectral energy distribution (SED), and thereby estimate dust temperatures and far-IR luminosities. Assuming an emissivity index of beta = 1.5, we find a median dust temperature and far-IR luminosity of Td = 42.8+-7.1K and log(Lfir/Lsolar) = 12.2+-0.5, respectively. The far-IR/radio correlation observed in local star-forming galaxies is found to hold for ULIRGs in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, suggesting that the dust in these sources is predominantly heated by starbursts. We compare the far-IR luminosities and dust temperatures derived for dusty galaxy samples at low and high redshifts with our sample of ULIRGs at intermediate redshift. A general Lfir-Td relation is observed, albeit with significant scatter, due to differing selection effects and variations in dust mass and grain properties. The relatively high dust temperatures observed for our sample compared to that of high-z submillimeter-selected starbursts with similar far-IR luminosities suggest that the dominant star formation in ULIRGs at moderate redshifts takes place on smaller spatial scales than at higher redshifts.
In a recently proposed model the cosmic rays spectrum at energies above
10^{18} eV can be fitted with a minimal number of unknown parameters assuming
that the extragalactic cosmic rays are only protons with a power law source
spectrum ~E^{-alpha} and alpha~2.6.
Within this minimal model, after fitting the observed HiRes spectrum with
four parameters (proton injection spectrum power law index and maximum energy,
minimum distance to sources and evolution parameter) we compute the flux of
ultra-high energy photons due to photon-pion production, the GZK photons, for
several radio background models and average extragalactic magnetic fields with
amplitude between 10^{-11} G and 10^{-9} G. We find the photon fraction to be
between 10^{-4} and 10^{-3} in cosmic rays at energies above 10^{19} eV. These
small fluxes could only be detected in future experiments like Auger North plus
South and EUSO.
We report a new finite-difference scheme for two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations, with and without rotation, in unstructured grids with quadrilateral cells. The new scheme is implemented within the code VULCAN/2D, which already includes radiation-hydrodynamics in various approximations and can be used with arbitrarily moving meshes (ALE). The MHD scheme, which consists of cell-centered magnetic field variables, preserves the nodal finite difference representation of $div(\bB)$ by construction, and therefore any initially divergence-free field remains divergence-free through the simulation. In this paper, we describe the new scheme in detail and present comparisons of VULCAN/2D results with those of the code ZEUS/2D for several one-dimensional and two-dimensional test problems. The code now enables two-dimensional simulations of the collapse and explosion of the rotating, magnetic cores of massive stars. Moreover, it can be used to simulate the very wide variety of astrophysical problems for which multi-D radiation-magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) is relevant.
We report 350micron observations of 18 nearby luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), using the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera II (SHARC-II) mounted on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) 10.4m telescope. Combining our 350micron flux measurements with the existing far-infrared (far-IR) and submillimeter (submm) data, we fit a single-temperature model to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs), and find the dust temperatures, emissivity indices and far-IR luminosities having sample medians of Td = 39.4+-7.9K, beta = 1.6+-0.3 and log(Lfir/Lsolar) = 11.2+-0.6. An empirical inverse Td-beta correlation, best described by Td = 9.86E9^(1/(4.63 + beta)), is established for the local LIRG sample, which we argue can be explained by the intrinsic interdependence between the dust temperature and grain emissivity index as physical parameters, as well as variations in grain properties in the the interstellar medium (ISM).
(ABRIDGED) The ACS camera on board the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to obtain deep images of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 3610, a well-established dissipative galaxy merger remnant. These observations supersede previous WFPC2 images which revealed the presence of a population of metal-rich globular clusters (GCs) of intermediate age (~1.5-4 Gyr). We detect a total of 580 GC candidates, 46% more than from the previous WFPC2 images. The new photometry strengthens the significance of the previously found bimodality of the color distribution of GCs. Peak colors in V-I are 0.93 +/-0.01 and 1.09 +/- 0.01 for the blue and red subpopulations, respectively. The luminosity function (LF) of the inner 50% of the metal-rich (`red') population of GCs differs markedly from that of the outer 50%. In particular, the LF of the inner 50% of the red GCs shows a flattening consistent with a turnover that is about 1.0 mag fainter than the turnover of the blue GC LF. This is consistent with predictions of recent models of GC disruption for the age range mentioned above and for metallicities that are consistent with the peak color of the red GCs as predicted by population synthesis models. We determine the specific frequency of GCs in NGC 3610 and find a present-day value of S_N = 1.4 +/- 0.6. We estimate that this value will increase to S_N = 3.8 +/- 1.7 at an age of 10 Gyr, which is consistent with typical S_N values for `normal' ellipticals. Our findings constitute further evidence in support of the notion that metal-rich GC populations formed during major mergers involving gas-rich galaxies can evolve dynamically (through disruption processes) into the red, metal-rich GC populations that are ubiquitous in `normal' giant ellipticals.
The temporal evolution of the gravitational wave background signal resulting from stellar-mass binary black hole (BBH) inspirals has a unique statistical signature. We describe the application of a new filter, based on the `probability event horizon' (PEH) concept, that utilizes both the temporal and spatial source distribution to constrain the local rate density, $r_{0}$, of BBH inspiral events in the nearby Universe. Assuming Advanced LIGO sensitivities and an upper rate of Galactic BBH inspirals of $ 30\hspace{1mm}\mathrm{Myr}^{-1}$, we simulate GW data and apply a fitting procedure to the PEH filtered data. To determine the accuracy of the PEH filter in constraining $r_{0}$, a comparison is made with a fit to the brightness distribution of events. We apply both methods to a data stream containing a background of Gaussian distributed false alarms. We find that the brightness distribution yields lower standard errors, but is biased by the false alarms. In comparison the PEH method is less prone to errors resulting from false alarms but has a lower resolution as fewer events contribute to the data. Used in combination, the PEH and brightness distribution methods provide an improved estimate of the rate density.
There has been tremendous progress in observing oscillations in solar-type stars. In a few short years we have moved from ambiguous detections to firm measurements. We briefly review the recent results, most of which have come from high-precision Doppler measurements. We also review briefly the results on giant and supergiant stars and the prospects for the future.
We simulate the bulge formation in very late-type dwarf galaxies from circumnuclear super star clusters (SSCs) moving in a responding cuspy dark matter halo (DMH). The simulations show that (1) the response of DMH to sinking of SSCs is detectable only in the region interior to about 200 pc. The mean logarithmic slope of the responding DM density profile over that area displays two different phases: the very early descent followed by ascent till approaching to 1.2 at the age of 2 Gyrs. (2) the detectable feedbacks of the DMH response on the bulge formation turned out to be very small, in the sense that the formed bulges and their paired nuclear cusps in the fixed and the responding DMH are basically the same, both are consistent with $HST$ observations. (3) the yielded mass correlation of bulges to their nuclear (stellar) cusps and the time evolution of cusps' mass are accordance with recent findings on relevant relations. In combination with the consistent effective radii of nuclear cusps with observed quantities of nuclear clusters, we believe that the bulge formation scenario that we proposed could be a very promising mechanism to form nuclear clusters.
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to be connected to luminous and energetic supernovae (SNe), called hypernovae (HNe), resulting from the black-hole (BH) forming collapse of massive stars. For recent nearby GRBs~060505 and 060614, however, the expected SNe have not been detected. The upper limits to the SN brightness are about 100 times fainter than GRB-associated HNe (GRB-HNe), corresponding to the upper limits to the ejected $^{56}$Ni masses of $M({\rm ^{56}Ni})\sim 10^{-3}M_\odot$. SNe with a small amount of $^{56}$Ni ejection are observed as faint Type II SNe. HNe and faint SNe are thought to be responsible for the formation of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars. In this Letter, a relativistic jet-induced BH forming explosion of the 40 $M_\odot$ star is investigated and hydrodynamic and nucleosynthetic models are presented. These models can explain both GRB-HNe and GRBs without bright SNe in a unified manner. Their connection to EMP stars is also discussed. We suggest that GRBs without bright SNe are likely to synthesize $\Mni\sim 10^{-4}$ to $10^{-3}M_\odot$ or $\sim 10^{-6}M_\odot$.
The connection between the long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Type Ic Supernovae (SNe) has revealed interesting diversity. We review the following types of the GRB-SN connection. (1) GRB-SNe: The three SNe all explode with energies much larger than those of typical SNe, thus being called Hypernovae (HNe). They are massive enough for forming black holes. (2) Non-GRB HNe/SNe: Some HNe are not associated with GRBs. (3) XRF-SN: SN 2006aj associated with X-Ray Flash 060218 is dimmer than GRB-SNe and has very weak oxygen lines. Its progenitor mass is estimated to be small enough to form a neutron star rather than a black hole. (4) Non-SN GRB: Two nearby long GRBs were not associated SNe. Such ``dark HNe'' have been predicted in this talk (i.e., just before the discoveries) in order to explain the origin of C-rich (hyper) metal-poor stars. This would be an important confirmation of the Hypernova-First Star connection. We will show our attempt to explain the diversity in a unified manner with the jet-induced explosion model.
We present results from observations made at 33 GHz with the Very Small Array (VSA) telescope towards potential candidates in the Galactic plane for spinning dust emission. In the cases of the diffuse HII regions LPH96 and NRAO591 we find no evidence for anomalous emission and, in combination with Effelsberg data at 1.4 and 2.7 GHz, confirm that their spectra are consistent with optically thin free--free emission. In the case of the infra-red bright SNR 3C396 we find emission inconsistent with a purely non-thermal spectrum and discuss the possibility of this excess arising from either a spinning dust component or a shallow spectrum PWN, although we conclude that the second case is unlikely given the strong constraints available from lower frequency radio images.
Molecular oxygen, O2 has been expected historically to be an abundant component of the chemical species in molecular clouds and, as such, an important coolant of the dense interstellar medium. However, a number of attempts from both ground and from space have failed to detect O2 emission. The work described here uses heterodyne spectroscopy from space to search for molecular oxygen in the interstellar medium. The Odin satellite carries a 1.1 m sub-millimeter dish and a dedicated 119 GHz receiver for the ground state line of O2. Starting in 2002, the star forming molecular cloud core rho Oph A was observed with Odin for 34 days during several observing runs. We detect a spectral line at v(LSR) = 3.5 km/s with dv(FWHM) = 1.5 km/s, parameters which are also common to other species associated with rho Ohp A. This feature is identified as the O2 (N_J = 1_1 - 1_0) transition at 118 750.343 MHz. The abundance of molecular oxygen, relative to H2,, is 5E-8 averaged over the Odin beam. This abundance is consistently lower than previously reported upper limits.
We study the capability of the MAGIC telescope to observe under moderate moonlight. TeV gamma-ray signals from the Crab nebula were detected with the MAGIC telescope during periods when the Moon was above the horizon and during twilight. This was accomplished by increasing the trigger discriminator thresholds. No change is necessary in the high voltage settings since the camera PMTs were especially designed to avoid high currents. We characterize the telescope performance by studying the effect of the moonlight on the gamma-ray detection efficiency and sensitivity, as well as on the energy threshold.
We perform two-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamical core-collapse simulations of massive stars accompanying the QCD phase transition. We study how the phase transition affects the gravitational waveforms near the epoch of core-bounce. As for initial models, we change the strength of rotation and magnetic fields. Particularly, the degree of differential rotation in the iron core (Fe-core) is changed parametrically. As for the microphysics, we adopt a phenomenological equation of state above the nuclear density, including two parameters to change the hardness before the transition. We assume the first order phase transition, where the conversion of bulk nuclear matter to a chirally symmetric quark-gluon phase is described by the MIT bag model. Based on these computations, we find that the phase transition can make the maximum amplitudes larger up to $\sim$ 10 percents than the ones without the phase transition. On the other hand, the maximum amplitudes become smaller up to $\sim$ 10 percents owing to the phase transition, when the degree of the differential rotation becomes larger. We find that even extremely strong magnetic fields $\sim 10^{17}$ G in the protoneutron star do not affect these results.
IGR J18483-0311 is a poorly known transient hard X-ray source discovered by INTEGRAL during observations of the Galactic Center region performed between 23--28 April 2003. Aims: To detect new outbursts from IGR J18483-0311 using INTEGRAL and archival Swift XRT observations and finally to characterize the nature of this source using the optical/near-infrared (NIR) information available through catalogue searches. Results: We report on 5 newly discovered outbursts from IGR J18483-0311 detected by INTEGRAL.For two of them it was possible to constrain a duration of the order of a few days. The strongest outburst reached a peak flux of 120 mCrab (20--100 keV): its broad band JEM--X/ISGRI spectrum (3--50 keV) is best fitted by an absorbed cutoff power law with photon index=1.4+/-0.3, cutoff energy of ~22 keV and Nh ~9x10^22 cm^-2. Timing analysis of INTEGRAL data allowed us to identify periodicities of 18.52 days and 21.0526 seconds which are likely the orbital period of the system and the spin period of the X-ray pulsar respectively. Swift XRT observations of IGR J18483$-$0311 provided a very accurate source position which strongly indicates a highly reddened star in the USNO--B1.0 and 2MASS catalogues as its possible optical/NIR counterpart. Conclusions: The X-ray spectral shape, the periods of 18.52 days and 21.0526 seconds, the high intrinsic absorption, the location in the direction of the Scutum spiral arm and the highly reddened optical object as possible counterpart, all favour the hypothesis that IGR J18483-0311 is a HMXB with a neutron star as compact companion. The system is most likely a Be X-ray binary, but a Supergiant Fast X-ray Transient nature can not be entirely excluded.
The Abnormally Weighting Energy (AWE) hypothesis consists of assuming that the dark sector of cosmology violates the weak equivalence principle (WEP) on cosmological scales, which implies a violation of the strong equivalence principle for ordinary matter. In this paper, dark energy (DE) is shown to result from the violation of WEP by pressureless (dark) matter. This allows us to build a new cosmological framework in which general relativity (GR) is satisfied at low scales, as WEP violation depends on the ratio of the ordinary matter over dark matter densities, but at large scales, we obtain a general relativity-like theory with a different value of the gravitational coupling. This explanation is formulated in terms of a tensor-scalar theory of gravitation without WEP for which there exists a revisited convergence mechanism toward GR. The consequent DE mechanism build upon the anomalous gravity of dark matter (i) does not require any violation of the strong energy condition $p<-\rho c^2/3$, (ii) offers a natural way-out of the coincidence problem thanks to the non-minimal couplings to gravitation, (iii) accounts fairly for supernovae data from various very simple couplings and with density parameters very close to the ones of the concordance model $\Lambda CDM$, therefore suggesting an explanation to its remarkable adequacy. Finally, (iv) this mechanism ends up in the future with an Einstein-de Sitter expansion regime once the attractor is reached.
By means of a multimass isotropic and spherical model including self-consistently a central intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), the influence of this object on the morphological and physical properties of globular clusters is investigated in this paper. Confirming recent numerical studies, it is found that a cluster (with mass M) hosting an IMBH (with mass M_BH) shows, outside the black hole gravitational influence region, a core-like profile resembling a King profile with concentration c<2, though with a slightly steeper behaviour in the core region. In particular, the core logarithmic slope is s< 0.25 for reasonably low IMBH masses (M_BH < 10^{-2}M), while c decreases monotonically with M_BH. Completely power-law density profiles (similar to, e.g., that of collapsed clusters) are admitted only in the presence of a black hole with an unrealistic M_BH>M. The mass range estimate 12s - 4.8 < log (M_BH/M) < -1.1c - 0.69, depending on morphological parameters, is deduced considering a wide grid of models. Applying this estimate to a set of 39 globular clusters (including G1, in M31), it is found that NGC 2808, NGC 6388, M80, M13, M62 and M54 probably host an IMBH. For them, the scaling laws M_BH ~ 0.02(M/Msol)^{0.8} Msol and M_BH ~ 100(sigma_{obs}/km s^{-1})^{0.9} Msol, are identified from weighted least-squares fit. An important result of this "collective" study is that a strong correlation exists between the presence of an extreme blue horizontal branch (HB) and the presence of an IMBH, at a statistically significant level of confidence (>90 percent). In particular, the presence of a central IMBH could explain why extreme HB stars are observed in M13 and NGC 6388, but not in M3 and 47 Tuc where this object is likely absent according to our analysis.
Submillimetre/TeraHertz (e.g. 200, 350, 450 microns) astronomy is the prime technique to unveil the birth and early evolution of a broad range of astrophysical objects. A major obstacle to carry out submm observations from ground is the atmosphere. Preliminary site testing and atmospheric transmission models tend to demonstrate that Dome C could offer the best conditions on Earth for submm/THz astronomy. The CAMISTIC project aims to install a filled bolometer-array camera with 16x16 pixels on IRAIT at Dome C and explore the 200-$\mu$m windows for potential ground-based observations.
We report the results from a six-year, multi-epoch very long baseline interferomertry monitoring of the Seyfert galaxy NGC3079. We have observed NGC3079 during eight epochs between 1999 and 2005 predominantly at 5GHz, but covering the frequency range of 1.7GHz to 22GHz. Using our data and observations going back to 1985, we find that the separation of two of the three visible nuclear radio components underwent two decelerations. At the time of these decelerations, the flux density of one of the components increased by factors of five and two, respectively. We interpret these events as a radio jet component undergoing compression, possibly as a result of a collision with ISM material. This interpretation strongly supports the existence of jets surrounded by a clumpy medium of dense clouds within the first few parsecs from the central engine in NGC3079. Moreover, based on recently published simulations of jet interactions with clumpy media, this scenario is able to explain the nature of two additional regions of ageing synchrotron material detected at the lower frequencies as by-products of such interactions, and also the origin of the kpc-scale super bubble observed in NGC3079 as the result of the spread of the momentum of the jets impeded from propagating freely. The generalization of this scenario provides an explanation why jets in Seyfert galaxies are not able to propagate to scales of kpc as do jets in radio-loud AGN.
We present a statistical study of the occurrence and effects of the cooling cores in the clusters of galaxies in a flux-limited sample, HIFLUGCS, based on ROSAT and ASCA observations. About 49% of the clusters in this sample have a significant, classically-calculated cooling-flow, mass-deposition rate. The upper envelope of the derived mass-deposition rate is roughly proportional to the cluster mass, and the fraction of cooling core clusters is found to decrease with it. The cooling core clusters are found to have smaller core radii than non-cooling core clusters, while some non-cooling core clusters have high $\beta$ values (> 0.8). In the relation of the X-ray luminosity vs. the temperature and the mass, the cooling core clusters show a significantly higher normalization. A systematic correlation analysis, also involving relations of the gas mass and the total infrared luminosity, indicates that this bias is shown to be mostly due to an enhanced X-ray luminosity for cooling core clusters, while the other parameters, like temperature, mass, and gas mass may be less affected by the occurrence of a cooling core. These results may be explained by at least some of the non-cooling core clusters being in dynamically young states compared with cooling core clusters, and they may turn into cooling core clusters in a later evolutionary stage.
This paper is one of a series describing the performance and accuracy of map-making codes as assessed by the Planck CTP working group. We compare the performance of multiple codes written by different groups for making polarized maps from Planck-sized, all-sky cosmic microwave background (CMB) data. Three of the codes are based on destriping algorithm, whereas the other three are implementations of a maximum-likelihood algorithm. Previous papers in the series described simulations at 100 GHz (Poutanen et al. 2006) and 217 GHz (Ashdown et al. 2006). In this paper we make maps (temperature and polarisation) from the simulated one-year observations of four 30 GHz detectors of Planck Low Frequency Instrument (LFI). We used Planck Level S simulation pipeline to produce the observed time-ordered-data streams (TOD). Our previous studies considered polarisation observations for the CMB only. For this paper we increased the realism of the simulations and included polarized galactic foregrounds to our sky model. Our simulated TODs comprised of dipole, CMB, diffuse galactic emissions, extragalactic radio sources, and detector noise. The strong subpixel signal gradients arising from the foreground signals couple to the output map through the map-making and cause an error (signal error) in the maps. Destriping codes have smaller signal error than the maximum-likelihood codes. We examined a number of schemes to reduce this error. On the other hand, the maximum-likelihood map-making codes can produce maps with lower residual noise than destriping codes.
Recent astronomical observations indicate that our Universe is undergoing a period of an accelerated expansion. While there are many cosmological models, which explain this phenomenon, the main question remains which is the best one in the light of available data. We consider ten cosmological models of accelerating Universe and select the best one using the Bayesian model comparison method. We demonstrate that the LambdaCDM model is most favored by the Bayesian statistical analysis of the SNIa, CMB, BAO and H(z) data. The posterior probability of the LambdaCDM model is 96%.
We present a numerical study of the dynamics of magnetized, relativistic, non-self-gravitating, axisymmetric tori orbiting in the background spacetimes of Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. The initial models have a constant specific angular momentum and are built with a non-zero toroidal magnetic field component, for which equilibrium configurations have recently been obtained. In this work we extend our previous investigations which dealt with purely hydrodynamical thick discs, and study the dynamics of magnetized tori subject to perturbations which, for the values of the magnetic field strength considered here, trigger quasi-periodic oscillations lasting for tens of orbital periods. Overall, we have found that the dynamics of the magnetized tori analyzed is very similar to that found in the corresponding unmagnetized models. The spectral distribution of the eigenfrequencies of oscillation shows the presence of a fundamental p mode and of a series of overtones in a harmonic ratio 2:3:.... These simulations, therefore, extend the validity of the model of Rezzolla et al.(2003a) for explaining the high-frequency QPOs observed in the spectra of LMXBs containing a black-hole candidate also to the case of magnetized discs with purely toroidal magnetic field distribution. If sufficiently compact and massive, these oscillations can also lead to the emission of intense gravitational radiation which is potentially detectable for sources within the Galaxy.
Edge-on spiral galaxies often have stellar disks with relatively sharp truncations and warped HI-layers in the outer parts. Warps appear to start preferentially near the optical boundaries of the disks. Here we make a comparative study of warps and truncations in edge-on galaxies. The Garc\'{\i}a-Ruiz et al. (2002) sample with extensive HI-mapping is complemented with luminosity distributions from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The method to identify truncations has been tested using the sample of edge-on galaxies of van der Kruit & Searle. Results are: (i.) The majority (17 out of 23) of the galaxies show evidence for truncations. (ii.) When an HI-warp is present it starts at 1.1 truncation radii. (iii.) This supplements the rules for warps formulated by Briggs (1990), if the Holmberg radius is replaced for edge-on systems with the truncation radius. (iv.) The truncation radius and the onset of the warps coincide radially with features in the rotation curve and the HI surface density. The latter is also true for less inclined systems. (v.) Inner disks are very flat and the onset of the warp just beyond the truncation radius is abrupt and discontinuous. These findings suggest that the inner flat disk and the outer warped disk are distinct components with quite different formation histories, probably involving quite different epochs. The inner disk forms initially and the warped outer disk forms as a result of much later infall of gas with a higher angular momentum in a different orientation. In an appendix the Holmberg radius is discussed. Contrary to what is often assumed Holmberg radii are not corrected for inclination.
The spin temperature of neutral hydrogen, which determines the optical depth and brightness of the 21 cm line, is determined by the competition between radiative and collisional processes. Here we examine the role of proton-hydrogen collisions in setting the spin temperature. We use recent fully quantum mechanical calculations of the relevant cross sections, which allow us to present accurate results over the entire physically relevant temperature range 1-10,000 K. For kinetic temperatures T_K>100 K, the proton-hydrogen rate coefficient exceeds that for hydrogen-hydrogen collisions by about a factor of two. However, at low temperatures (T_K < 5 K) H-p collisions become several thousand times more efficient than H-H and even more important than H-e^- collisions.
The status of the dip as a spectral feature, produced by interaction of Ultra High Energy extragalactic protons with CMB is reviewed.
Nearby galaxies, spirals as well as irregulars, have been found to be much
larger than previously believed. The structure of the huge spheroid surrounding
dwarf galaxies could give clues to their past gravitational history. Thanks to
wide field imagers, nearby galaxies with diameter of dozens of arcmin can be
effectively surveyed.
We obtain, from the CFHT archives, a series of i' and g' MegaCam images of IC
1613 in order to determine the stellar surface density of the field and
determine the shape of its spheroid. From the colour magnitude diagram we
select some 36,000 stars, in the first three magnitudes of the red giant
branch. The spatial distribution of these stars is used to establish the
structure of the spheroid.
The position angle of the major axis of the stellar spheroid is found to be
$\approx 90^\circ$, some 30$^\circ$ from the major axis of the HI cloud
surrounding IC 1613. The surface density profile of the spheroid is not
exponential over all the length of the major axis. A King profile, with a core
radius of 4.5' and a tidal radius of 24' fits the data. The tidal truncation of
the spheroid suggests that IC 1613 is indeed a satellite of M31.
We present the results of ten years of repeated measurements of the Cyclotron Resonance Scattering Feature (CRSF) in the spectrum of the binary X-ray pulsar Her X-1 and report the discovery of a positive correlation of the centroid energy of this absorption feature in pulse phase averaged spectra with source luminosity.Our results are based on a uniform analysis of observations bythe RXTE satellite from 1996 to 2005, using sufficiently long observations of 12 individual 35-day Main-On states of the source. The mean centroid energy E_c of the CRSF in pulse phase averaged spectra of Her X-1 during this time is around 40 keV, with significant variations from one Main-On state to the next. We find that the centroid energy of the CRSF in Her X-1 changes by ~5% in energy for a factor of 2 in luminosity. The correlation is positive, contrary to what is observed in some high luminosity transient pulsars. Our finding is the first significant measurement of a positive correlation between E_c and luminosity in any X-ray pulsar. We suggest that this behaviour is expected in the case of sub-Eddington accretion and present a calculation of a quantitative estimate, which is very consistent with the effect observed in Her X-1.We urge that Her X-1 is regularly monitored further and that other X-ray pulsars are investigated for a similar behaviour.
The circumstellar envelopes of carbon-rich AGB stars show a chemical complexity that is exemplified by the prototypical object IRC +10216, in which about 60 different molecules have been detected to date. Most of these species are carbon chains of the type CnH, CnH2, CnN, HCnN. We present the detection of new species (CH2CHCN, CH2CN, H2CS, CH3CCH and C3O) achieved thanks to the systematic observation of the full 3 mm window with the IRAM 30m telescope plus some ARO 12m observations. All these species, known to exist in the interstellar medium, are detected for the first time in a circumstellar envelope around an AGB star. These five molecules are most likely formed in the outer expanding envelope rather than in the stellar photosphere. A pure gas phase chemical model of the circumstellar envelope is reasonably successful in explaining the derived abundances, and additionally allows to elucidate the chemical formation routes and to predict the spatial distribution of the detected species.
We calculate the excitation and dissipation of low-frequency tidal oscillations in uniformly rotating solar-type stars. For tidal frequencies smaller than twice the spin frequency, inertial waves are excited in the convective envelope and are dissipated by turbulent viscosity. Enhanced dissipation occurs over the entire frequency range rather than in a series of very narrow resonant peaks, and is relatively insensitive to the effective viscosity. Hough waves are excited at the base of the convective zone and propagate into the radiative interior. We calculate the associated dissipation rate under the assumption that they do not reflect coherently from the center of the star. Tidal dissipation in a model based on the present Sun is significantly enhanced through the inclusion of the Coriolis force but may still fall short of that required to explain the circularization of close binary stars. However, the dependence of the results on the spin frequency, tidal frequency, and stellar model indicate that a more detailed evolutionary study including inertial and Hough waves is required. We also discuss the case of higher tidal frequencies appropriate to stars with very close planetary companions. The survival of even the closest hot Jupiters can be plausibly explained provided that the Hough waves they generate are not damped at the center of the star. We argue that this is the case because the tide excited by a hot Jupiter in the present Sun would marginally fail to achieve nonlinearity. As conditions at the center of the star evolve, nonlinearity may set in at a critical age, resulting in a relatively rapid inspiral of the hot Jupiter.
It is argued that accretion discs in young stellar objects may have hot coronae that are heated by magnetic reconnection. This is a consequence of the magneto-rotational instability driving turbulence in the disc. Magnetic reconnection away from the midplane leads to heating of the corona which, in turn, contributes to driving disc winds.
We report on the measurement of the 7.5-14.7 micron spectrum for the transiting extrasolar giant planet HD 189733b using the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Though the observations comprise only 12 hours of telescope time, the continuum is well measured and has a flux ranging from 0.6 mJy to 1.8 mJy over the wavelength range, or 0.49 +/- 0.02% of the flux of the parent star. The variation in the measured fractional flux is very nearly flat over the entire wavelength range and shows no indication of significant absorption by water or methane, in contrast with the predictions of most atmospheric models. Models with strong day/night differences appear to be disfavored by the data, suggesting that heat redistribution to the night side of the planet is highly efficient.
The known galaxies most dominated by dark matter (Draco, Ursa Minor and Andromeda IX) are satellites of the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies. They are members of a class of faint galaxies, devoid of gas, known as dwarf spheroidals, and have by far the highest ratio of dark to luminous matter. None of the models proposed to unravel their origin can simultaneously explain their exceptional dark matter content and their proximity to a much larger galaxy. Here we report simulations showing that the progenitors of these galaxies were probably gas-dominated dwarf galaxies that became satellites of a larger galaxy earlier than the other dwarf spheroidals. We find that a combination of tidal shocks and ram pressure swept away the entire gas content of such progenitors about ten billion years ago because heating by the cosmic ultraviolet background kept the gas loosely bound: a tiny stellar component embedded in a relatively massive dark halo survived until today. All luminous galaxies should be surrounded by a few extremely dark-matter-dominated dwarf spheroidal satellites, and these should have the shortest orbital periods among dwarf spheroidals because they were accreted early.
We analyze the luminosity function of the globular clusters (GCs) belonging to the early-type galaxies observed in the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. We have obtained estimates for a Gaussian representation of the GC luminosity function (GCLF) for 89 galaxies. We have also fit the GCLFs with an "evolved Schechter function", which is meant to reflect the preferential depletion of low-mass GCs, primarily by evaporation due to two-body relaxation, from an initial Schechter mass function similar to that of young massive clusters. We find a significant trend of the GCLF dispersion with galaxy luminosity, in the sense that smaller galaxies have narrower GCLFs. We show that this narrowing of the GCLF in a Gaussian description is driven by a steepening of the GC mass function above the turnover mass, as one moves to smaller host galaxies. We argue that this behavior at the high-mass end of the GC mass function is most likely a consequence of systematic variations of the initial cluster mass function. The GCLF turnover mass M_TO is roughly constant, at ~ 2.2 x 10^5 M_sun in bright galaxies, but it decreases slightly in dwarfs with M_B >~ -18. We show that part of the variation could arise from the shorter dynamical friction timescales in smaller galaxies. We probe the variation of the GCLF to projected galactocentric radii of 20-35 kpc in the Virgo giants M49 and M87, finding that M_TO is essentially constant over these spatial scales. Our fits of evolved Schechter functions imply average dynamical mass losses (Delta) over a Hubble time that fall in the range 2 x 10^5 <~ (Delta/M_sun) < 10^6 per GC. We agree with previous suggestions that if the full GCLF is to be understood in more detail GCLF models will have to include self-consistent treatments of dynamical evolution inside time-dependent galaxy potentials. (Abridged)
Recent models of variations of the Sun's structure with the 11-year activity cycle by Sofia et al (2005) predict strong non-homologous changes of the radius of subsurface layers, due to subsurface magnetic fields and field-modulated turbulence. According to their best model the changes of the surface radius may be 1000 times larger than those at the depth of 5 Mm. We use f-mode oscillation frequency data from the MDI instrument of Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and measurements of the solar surface radius variations from SOHO and ground-based observatories during solar cycle 23 (1996-2005) to put constraints on the radius changes. The results show that the above model overestimates the change of the radius at the surface relative to the change at 5Mm.
In order to identify the dominant nuclear outflow mechanisms in Active Galactic Nuclei, we have undertaken deep, high resolution observations of two compact radio sources (PKS 1549-79 and PKS 1345+12) with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Not only are these targets known to have powerful emission line outflows, but they also contain all the potential drivers for the outflows: relativistic jets, quasar nuclei and starbursts. ACS allows the compact nature (<0.15") of these radio sources to be optically resolved for the first time. Through comparison with existing radio maps we have seen consistency in the nuclear position angles of both the optical emission line and radio data. There is no evidence for bi-conical emission line features on the large-scale and there is a divergance in the relative position angles of the optical and radio structure. This enables us to exclude starburst driven outflows. However, we are unable to clearly distinguish between radiative AGN wind driven outflows and outflows powered by relativistic radio jets. The small scale bi-conical features, indicative of such mechanisms could be below the resolution limit of ACS, especially if aligned close to the line of sight. In addition, there may be offsets between the radio and optical nuclei induced by heavy dust obscuration, nebular continuum or scattered light from the AGN.
In time-distance helioseismology, the time signals (Doppler shifts) at two points on the solar surface, separated by a fixed angular distance are cross-correlated, and this leads to a wave packet signal. Accurately measuring the travel times of these wave packets is crucial for inferring the sub-surface properties in the Sun. The observed signal is quite noisy, and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and make the cross-correlation more robust, the temporal oscillation signal is phase-speed filtered at the two points in order to select waves that travel a fixed horizontal distance. Hence a new formula to estimate the travel times is derived, in the presence of a phase speed filter, and it includes both the radial and horizontal component of the oscillation displacement signal. It generalizes the previously used Gabor wavelet that was derived without a phase speed filter and included only the radial component of the displacement. This is important since it will be consistent with the observed cross-correlation that is computed using a phase speed filter, and also it accounts for both the components of the displacement. The new formula depends on the location of the two points on the solar surface that are being cross correlated and accounts for the travel time shifts at different locations on the solar surface.
We present near-infrared photometry of the globular cluster systems of the early-type galaxies NGC 4472, NGC 4594, NGC 3585, and NGC 5813. We combine these near-infrared data, obtained with PANIC at the Magellan Baade 6.5m telescope, with archival optical HST and FORS/VLT data, and use the optical to near-infrared colors to constrain the ages and metallicities of the globular clusters around the target galaxies. For NGC 4472 we have the most extensive near-infrared and optical photometric dataset. These colors show that the NGC 4472 globular cluster system has a broad metallicity distribution and that the clusters are predominantly old (i.e. ages of about 10 Gyr or more). This result agrees well with earlier spectroscopic work on NGC 4472, and is evidence that the combination of optical to near-infrared colors can identify predominantly old systems and distinguish these from systems with a substantial intermediate age component. Based on the smaller sample of combined optical and near-infrared data NGC 4594 and NGC 3585 appear to have predominantly old globular cluster systems, while that of NGC 5813 may have a more significant age spread. We also match our sample of globular clusters with near-infrared and optical photometry to Chandra X-ray source detections in these galaxies, and discuss how the probability that a globular cluster hosts a low-mass X-ray binary depends on metallicity and age.
Gravitational lensing represents a powerful tool to estimate the cosmological pa- rameters and the distribution of dark matter. I will describe the main observable quantities, concentrating on strong lensing, that manifests its effect through the formation of spectacular events, like multiple quasars, Einstein rings and arcs in clusters of galaxies. In events where a quasar is lensed by an intervening galaxy, it is possible to give an estimate of the Hubble constant H_0, by choosing a mass density model for the lens, thus allowing to constrain the dark matter content.
We establish new dynamical constraints on the mass and abundance of compact objects in the halo of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In order to preserve kinematically cold the second peak of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal (UMi dSph) against gravitational scattering, we place upper limits on the density of compact objects as a function of their assumed mass. The mass of the dark matter constituents cannot be larger than 1000 solar masses at a halo density in UMi's core of 0.35 solar masses/pc^3. This constraint rules out a scenario in which dark halo cores are formed by two-body relaxation processes. Our bounds on the fraction of dark matter in compact objects with masses >3000 solar masses improve those based on dynamical arguments in the Galactic halo. In particular, objects with masses $\sim 10^{5}$ solar masses can comprise no more than a halo mass fraction $\sim 0.01$. Better determinations of the velocity dispersion of old overdense regions in dSphs may result in more stringent constraints on the mass of halo objects. For illustration, if the preliminary value of 0.5 km/s for the secondary peak of UMi is confirmed, compact objects with masses above $\sim 100$ solar masses could be excluded from comprising all its dark matter halo.
We present the redshift distribution of the SHADES galaxy population based on the rest-frame radio-mm-FIR colours of 120 robustly detected 850um sources in the Lockman Hole East (LH) and Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF). The redshift distribution derived from the full SED information is shown to be narrower than that determined from the radio-submm spectral index, as more photometric bands contribute to higher redshift accuracies. The redshift of sources derived from at least two photometric bands peaks at z ~ 2.4 and has a near-Gaussian distribution, with 50 per cent (interquartile) of sources at z=1.8-3.1. We find a statistically-significant difference between the measured redshift distributions in the two fields; the SXDF peaking at a slightly lower redshift (median z ~ 2.2) than the LH (median z ~ 2.7), which we attribute to the noise-properties of the photometric observations. We demonstrate however that there could also be field-to-field variations that are consistent with the measured differences in the redshift distirbutions. Finally we present a brief comparison with the predicted, or assumed, redshift distributions of sub-mm galaxy formation models, and we derive the contribution of these SHADES sources and the general sub-mm galaxy population to the star formation-rate density at different epochs.
We have found Herbig Ae/Be star candidates in the western region of the Magellanic Bridge. Using the near infrared camera SIRIUS and the 1.4 m telescope IRSF, we surveyed about 3.0 deg x 1.3 deg (24 deg < RA < 36 deg, -75 deg < Dec. < -73.7 deg) in the J, H, and Ks bands. On the basis of colors and magnitudes, about 200 Herbig Ae/Be star candidates are selected. Considering the contaminations by miscellaneous sources such as foreground stars and early-type dwarfs in the Magellanic Bridge, we estimate that about 80 (about 40%) of the candidates are likely to be Herbig Ae/Be stars. We also found one concentration of the candidates at the young star cluster NGC 796, strongly suggesting the existence of pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in the Magellanic Bridge. This is the first detection of PMS star candidates in the Magellanic Bridge, and if they are genuine PMS stars, this could be direct evidence of recent star formation. However, the estimate of the number of Herbig Ae/Be stars depends on the fraction of classical Be stars, and thus a more precise determination of the Be star fraction or observations to differentiate between the Herbig Ae/Be stars and classical Be stars are required.
The generation of solar non-axisymmetric magnetic fields is studied based on a linear alpha2-Omega dynamo model in a rotating spherical frame. The model consists of a solar-like differential rotation, a magnetic diffusivity varied with depth, and three types of alpha-effects with different locations, i.e. the tachocline, the whole convective zone and the sub-surface. Some comparisons of the critical alpha-values of axisymmetric m=0 and longitude-dependent modes m=1,2,3 are presented to show the roles of the magnetic diffusivity in the problem of modes selection. With the changing of diffusivity intensity for the given solar differential rotation system, the dominant mode possibly changes likewise and the stronger the diffusivity is, the easier the non-axisymmetric modes are excited. The influence of the diffusivity and differential rotation on the configurations of the dominant modes are also presented.
The University of Tasmania Mt Pleasant 26-m and Ceduna 30-m radio telescopes have been used to search for 6.7-GHz class II methanol masers towards two hundred GLIMPSE sources. The target regions were selected on the basis of their mid-infrared colours as being likely to be young high-mass star formation regions and are either bright at 8.0 micron, or have extreme [3.6]-[4.5] colour. Methanol masers were detected towards 38 sites, nine of these being new detections. The prediction was that approximately 20 new 6.7-GHz methanol masers would be detected within 3.5 arcmin of the target GLIMPSE sources, but this is the case for only six of the new detections. A number of possible reasons for the discrepancy between the predicted and actual number of new detections have been investigated. It was not possible to draw any firm conclusions as to the cause, but it may be because many of the target sources are at an evolutionary phase prior to that associated with 6.7-GHz methanol masers. Through comparison of the spectra collected as part of this search with those in the literature, the average lifetime of individual 6.7-GHz methanol maser spectral features is estimated to be around 150 years, much longer than is observed for 22-GHz water masers.
Of the over 200 known extrasolar planets, 14 exhibit transits in front of their parent stars as seen from Earth. Spectroscopic observations of the transiting planets can probe the physical conditions of their atmospheres. One such technique can be used to derive the planetary spectrum by subtracting the stellar spectrum measured during eclipse (planet hidden behind star) from the combined-light spectrum measured outside eclipse (star + planet). Although several attempts have been made from Earth-based observatories, no spectrum has yet been measured for any of the established extrasolar planets. Here we report a measurement of the infrared spectrum (7.5--13.2 micron) of the transiting extrasolar planet HD209458b. Our observations reveal a hot thermal continuum for the planetary spectrum, with approximately constant ratio to the stellar flux over this wavelength range. Superposed on this continuum is a broad emission peak centered near 9.65 micron that we attribute to emission by silicate clouds. We also find a narrow, unidentified emission feature at 7.78 micron. Models of these ``hot Jupiter'' planets predict a flux peak near 10 micron, where thermal emission from the deep atmosphere emerges relatively unimpeded by water absorption, but models dominated by water fit the observed spectrum poorly.
Increasing observations are becoming available about a relatively weak, but persistent, non-axisymmetric magnetic field co-existing with the dominant axisymmetric field on the Sun. It indicates that the non-axisymmetric magnetic field plays an important role in the origin of solar activity. A linear non-axisymmetric alpha2-Omega dynamo model is set up to discuss the characteristics of the axisymmetric m=0 and the first non-axisymmetric m=1 modes and to provide further the theoretical bases to explain the active longitude, flip-flop and other non-axisymmetric phenomena. The model consists of a updated solar internal differential rotation, a turbulent diffusivity varied with depth and an alpha-effect working at the tachocline in rotating spherical systems. The difference between the alpha2-Omega and the alpha-Omega models and the conditions to favor the non-axisymmetric modes with the solar-like parameters are also presented.
We present a comparison between the published optical, IR and CO spectroscopic redshifts of 86 (sub-)mm galaxies and their photometric redshifts as derived from long-wavelength radio-mm-FIR photometric data. The redshift accuracy measured for 13 sub-mm galaxies with at least one robustly determined colour in the radio-mm-FIR regime and additional constraining upper limits is z \~0.3. This accuracy degrades to z~0.65 when only the 1.4GHz/850um spectral index is used, as derived from the analysis of a subsample of 58 galaxies with robustly determined redshifts. Despite the wide range of spectral energy distributions in the local galaxies that are used in an un-biased manner as templates, this analysis demonstrates that photometric redshifts can be effciently derived for sub-mm galaxies with a precision of Delta z < 0.5 using only the rest-frame FIR to radio wavelength data, suficient to guide the tuning of broad-band heterodyne observations (e.g. 100m GBT, 50m LMT, ALMA) or aid their determination in the case of a single line detection by these experiments.
The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey consists of HST ACS imaging for 100 early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, observed in the F475W and F850LP filters. We derive distances for 84 of these galaxies using the method of surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs), present the SBF distance catalog, and use this database to examine the three-dimensional distribution of early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The SBF distance moduli have a mean (random) measurement error of 0.07 mag (0.5 Mpc), or roughly 3 times better than previous SBF measurements for Virgo Cluster galaxies. Five galaxies lie at a distance of ~23 Mpc and are members of the W' cloud. The remaining 79 galaxies have a narrow distribution around our adopted mean distance of 16.5+/-0.1 (random mean error) +/-1.1 Mpc (systematic). The rms distance scatter of this sample is 0.6+/-0.1 Mpc, with little dependence on morphological type or luminosity class (i.e., 0.7+/-0.1 and 0.5+/-0.1 Mpc for the giants and dwarfs, respectively). The back-to-front depth of the cluster measured from our sample of galaxies is 2.4+/-0.4 Mpc (i.e., +/-2sigma of the intrinsic distance distribution). The M87 (cluster A) and M49 (cluster B) subclusters are found to lie at distances of 16.7+/-0.2 and 16.4+/-0.2 Mpc, respectively. There may be a third subcluster associated with M86. A weak correlation between velocity and line-of-sight distance may be a faint echo of the cluster velocity distribution not having yet completely virialized. In three dimensions, Virgo's early-type galaxies appear to define a slightly triaxial distribution, with axis ratios of (1:0.7:0.5). The principal axis of the best-fit ellipsoid is inclined ~20-40 deg. from the line of sight, while the galaxies belonging to the W' cloud lie on an axis inclined by ~10-15 deg.
This paper presents the design and science goals for the SkyMapper telescope. SkyMapper is a 1.3m telescope featuring a 5.7 square degree field-of-view Cassegrain imager commissioned for the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. It is located at Siding Spring Observatory, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia and will see first light in late 2007. The imager possesses 16kx16k 0.5 arcsec pixels. The primary scientific goal of the facility is to perform the Southern Sky Survey, a six colour and multi-epoch (4 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year sampling) photometric survey of the southerly 2pi steradians to g~23 mag. The survey will provide photometry to better than 3% global accuracy and astrometry to better than 50 mas. Data will be supplied to the community as part of the Virtual Observatory effort. The survey will take five years to complete.
In this paper, we present an expanding disc model to derive polarization properties of the Crab nebula. The distribution function of the plasma and the energy density of the magnetic field are prescribed as function of the distance from the pulsar by using the model by Kennel and Coroniti (1984) with $\sigma = 0.003$, where $\sigma$ is the ratio of Poynting flux to the kinetic energy flux in the bulk motion just before the termination shock. Unlike previous models, we introduce disordered magnetic field, which is parameterized by the fractional energy density of the disordered component. Flow dynamics is not solved. The mean field is toroidal. Averaged polarization degree over the disc is obtained as a function of inclination angle and fractional energy density of the disordered magnetic field. It is found for the Crab that the disordered component has about 60 percent of the magnetic field energy. This value is also supported by the facts that the disc appears not `lip-shape' but as `rings' in the intensity map as was observed, and that the highest polarization degree of $\sim 40$ percent is reproduced for rings, being consistent with the observation. We suggest that because the disordered field contributes rather pressure than tension, the pinch force may be over-estimated in previous relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Disruption of the toroidal magnetic field with alternating direction, which is proposed by Lyubarski (2003), may actually takes place. The relativistic flow speed, which is indicated by the front-back contrast, can be detected in asymmetry in distributions of the position angle and depolarization.
We study the effects of dust in hydrodynamic simulations of spiral galaxies
when different radial metallicity gradients are assumed. SUNRISE, a Monte-Carlo
radiative-transfer code, is used to make detailed calculations of the internal
extinction of disk galaxies caused by their dust content.
SUNRISE is used on eight different Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
simulations of isolated spiral galaxies. These galaxies vary mainly in mass and
hence luminosity, spanning a range in luminosities from -16 to -22 magnitudes
in the B band. We focus on the attenuation in different wavelength bands as a
function of the disk inclination and the luminosity of the models, and compare
this to observations.
Observations suggest different metallicity gradients for galaxies of
different luminosities. These metallicity gradients were explored in our
different models, finding that the resulting dust attenuation matches
observations for edge-on galaxies, but do not show a linear behaviour in log
axis ratio as some observations have suggested. A quadratic law describing the
dependence of attenuation on inclination, as proposed by more recent
observations, reconciles the attenuation of the simulations at intermediate
inclinations with observations. Finally we compare our results with those from
simpler models that do not take into account structure such as spiral arms,
finding no significant differences in the attenuation dependence on inclination
or wavelength.
We are using HST GO programs 10205, 10602, and 10898 to test the stellar upper mass limit in the solar vicinity by attempting to detect optical close companions, thus lowering the calculated evolutionary masses. We have observed with ACS/HRC all the known (as of early 2005) Galactic O2/3/3.5 stars. We also have observations with HST/FGS and ground-based spectroscopy from LCO and CASLEO. Here we discuss our results for Pismis 24 and HD 93129A.
After a brief review of the observational evidences indicating how the populations of Be stars, red/blue supergiants, Wolf-Rayet stars vary as a function of metallicity, we discuss the implications of these observed trend for our understanding of the massive star evolution. We show how the inclusion of the effects of rotation in stellar models improves significantly the correspondence between theory and observation.
It has been traditionally stated that it is not possible to use optical/NIR photometry to measure the temperatures of O stars. In this contribution we describe the steps required to overcome the hurdles that have prevented this from happening in the past and we present our preliminary results for the low-extinction case.
Aims: In this paper we derive tidal radii and masses of open clusters in the nearest kiloparsecs around the Sun. Methods: For each cluster, the mass is estimated from tidal radii determined from a fitting of three-parametric King's profiles to the observed integrated density distribution. Different samples of members are investigated. Results: For 236 open clusters, all contained in the catalogue ASCC-2.5, we obtain core and tidal radii, as well as tidal masses. The distributions of the core and tidal radii peak at about 1.5 pc and 7 - 10 pc, respectively. A typical relative error of the core radius lies between 15% and 50%, whereas, for the majority of clusters, the tidal radius was determined with a relative accuracy better than 20%. Most of the clusters have tidal masses between 50 and 1000 $m_\odot$, and for about half of the clusters, the masses were obtained with a relative error better than 50%.
We report on the results of an i-band time-series photometric survey of NGC 2516 using the CTIO 4m Blanco telescope and 8k Mosaic-II detector, achieving better than 1% photometric precision per data point over 15<~i<~19. Candidate cluster members were selected from a V vs V-I colour magnitude diagram over 16<V<26 (covering masses from 0.7 M_solar down to below the brown dwarf limit), finding 1685 candidates, of which we expect ~1000 to be real cluster members, taking into account contamination from the field (which is most severe at the extremes of our mass range). Searching for periodic variations in these gave 362 detections over the mass range 0.15<~M/M_solar<~0.7. The rotation period distributions were found to show a remarkable morphology as a function of mass, with the fastest rotators bounded by P>0.25 days, and the slowest rotators for M<~0.5 M_solar bounded by a line of P \propto M^3, with those for M>~0.5 M_solar following a flatter relation closer to P ~ constant. Models of the rotational evolution were investigated, finding that the evolution of the fastest rotators was well-reproduced by a conventional solid body model with a mass-dependent saturation velocity, whereas core-envelope decoupling was needed to reproduce the evolution of the slowest rotators. None of our models were able to simultaneously reproduce the behaviour of both populations.
We propose a nonparametric method to determine the sign of \gamma - the redshift evolution index of dark energy. This is important for distinguishing between positive energy models, a cosmological constant, and what is generally called ghost models. Our method is based on geometrical properties and is more tolerant to uncertainties of other cosmological parameters than fitting methods in what concerns the sign of \gamma. The same parameterization can also be used for determining $\gamma$ and its redshift dependence by fitting. We apply this method to SNLS supernovae and to gold sample of re-analyzed supernovae data from Riess et al. 2004. Both datasets show strong indication of a negative \gamma. If this result is confirmed by more extended and precise data, many of dark energy models, including simple cosmological constant, standard quintessence models without interaction between quintessence scalar field(s) and matter, and scaling models are ruled out.
We present updated results from the ongoing XMM-Newton monitoring program of moderately active, solar-like stars to investigate stellar X-ray activity cycles; here we report on the binary systems Alpha Cen A/B and 61 Cyg A/B. For 61 Cyg A we find a coronal X-ray cycle which clearly reflects the chromospheric activity cycle and is in phase with a ROSAT campaign performed in the 1990s. 61 Cyg A is the first example of a persistent coronal cycle observed on a star other than the Sun. The changes of its coronal properties during the cycle resemble the solar behaviour. The coronal activity of 61 Cyg B is more irregular, but also follows the chromospheric activity. Long-term variability is also present on Alpha Cen A and B. We find that Alpha Cen A, a G2 star very similar to our Sun, fainted in X-rays by at least an order of magnitude during the observation program. This behaviour has never been observed before on Alpha Cen A, but is rather similar to the X-ray behaviour of the Sun. The X-ray emission of the Alpha Cen system is dominated in our observations by Alpha Cen B, which might also have an activity cycle indicated by a significant fainting since 2005.
Classical novae are quite frequent in M~31. However, very few spectra of M31 novae have been studied to date, especially during the early decline phase. Our aim is to study the photometric and spectral evolution of a M31 nova event close to outburst. We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of M31N 2005-09c, a classical nova in the disk of M31, using the 1.3m telescope of the Skinakas Observatory in Crete (Greece), starting on the 28th September, i.e. about 5 days after outburst, and ending on the 5th October 2005, i.e. about 12 days after outburst. We also have supplementary photometric observations from the La Sagra Observatory in Northern Andalucia, Spain, on September 29 and 30, October 3, 6 and 9 and November 1, 2005. The wavelength range covered by the spectra is from 3565 A to 8365 A. The spectra are of high S/N allowing the study of the evolution of the equivalent widths of the Balmer lines, as well as the identification of non-Balmer lines. The nova displays a typical early decline spectrum that is characterized by many weak FeII multiplet emissions. It is classified as a P$_{fe}$ nova. From the nova light curve, we have also derived its speed class, t=14+-2.5 days. As the nova evolved the Balmer lines became stronger and narrower. The early decline of the expansion velocity of the nova follows a power law in time with an exponent of \~-0.2.
VLA observations of large-scale HI and OH absorption in the merging galaxy of NGC6240 are presented with 1 arcsec resolution. HI absorption is found across large areas of the extended radio continuum structure with a strong concentration towards the double-nucleus. The OH absorption is confined to the nuclear region. The HI and OH observations identify fractions of the gas disks of the two galaxies and confirm the presence of central gas accumulation between the nuclei. The data clearly identify the nucleus of the southern galaxy as the origin of the symmetric superwind outflow and also reveal blue-shifted components resulting from a nuclear starburst. Various absorption components are associated with large-scale dynamics of the system including a foreground dust lane crossing the radio structure in the northwest region.
We have studied the spatial clustering of high redshift (z > 1) extremely red objects (EROs) as a function of photometric redshift in the GOODS Southern Field using public data. A remarkable overdensity of extremely red galaxies (I-Ks > 4) is found at an average photometric redshift z=1.10. Nine objects (six are EROs) within 50 arcsec of the brightest infrared galaxy in this overdensity present spectroscopic redshifts in the range 1.094 < z < 1.101 with a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 433 km/s typical of an Abell richness class R=0 cluster. Other potential members of this cluster, designated as GCL J0332.2-2752, have been identified using photometric redshifts and the galaxy density profile studied as a function of radius. The mass of the cluster is preliminary estimated at M ~ 5-7 x 10^{13} M_{\sun}. Using available Chandra data, we limit the rest-frame X-ray luminosity of the cluster to less than L_X = 7.3 x 10^{42} erg/s (0.5-2.0 keV). This low-mass, low L_X cluster at z > 1 shows the potential of EROs to trace clusters of galaxies at high redshift.
The stars that populate the solar neighbourhood were formed in stellar clusters. Through $N$-body simulations of these clusters, we measure the rate of close encounters between stars. By monitoring the interaction histories of each star, we investigate the singleton fraction in the solar neighbourhood. A {\it singleton} is a star which formed as a single star, has never experienced any close encounters with other stars or binaries, or undergone an exchange encounter with a binary. We find that, of the stars which formed as single stars, a significant fraction are not singletons once the clusters have dispersed. If some of these stars had planetary systems, with properties similar to those of the solar system, the planets' orbits may have been perturbed by the effects of close encounters with other stars or the effects of a companion star within a binary. Such perturbations can lead to strong planet-planet interactions which eject several planets, leaving the remaining planets on eccentric orbits. Some of the single stars exchange into binaries. Most of these binaries are broken up via subsequent interactions within the cluster, but some remain intact beyond the lifetime of the cluster. The properties of these binaries are similar to those of the observed binary systems containing extra-solar planets. Thus, dynamical processes in young stellar clusters will alter significantly any population of solar-system-like planetary systems. In addition, beginning entirely with a population of planetary systems resembling the solar system around single stars, dynamical encounters in young stellar clusters may produce at least some of the extra-solar planetary systems observed in the solar neighbourhood.
We compute the probability that intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) capture companions due to dynamical interactions and become accreting sources, and explore the possibility that the accreting IMBHs would appear as ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). We focus on IMBHs originating from low-metallicity Population III stars. Two channels of IMBH formation are considered: from primordial halos in the framework of hierarchical clustering, and from non-mixed, zero-metallicity primeval gas in galactic discs. IMBHs can form binary systems due to tidal captures of single stars and exchange interactions with existing binary systems in galactic discs. We find that neither formation mechanism of the accreting IMBH binary is able to provide enough sources to explain the observed population of ULXs. Even at sub-ULX luminosity, the total number of accreting IMBHs with $L> 10^{36}$ erg s$^{-1}$ with dynamically captured companions is found to be $< 0.01$ per galaxy.
(Abridged) With the SMA we have made high angular-resolution (~1" = 160 AU) observations of the protobinary system IRAS 16293-2422 in the J = 4-3 lines of HCN and HC^15N, and in the continuum at 354.5 GHz. The HCN (4-3) line was also observed using the JCMT to supply missing short spacing information. Submillimeter continuum emission is detected from the individual binary components with a separation of ~5". The HC^15N (4-3) emission has revealed a compact (~500 AU) flattened structure (P.A. = -16 degree) associated with Source A, and shows a velocity gradient along the projected minor axis, which can be interpreted as an infalling gas motion. Our HCN image including the short-spacing information shows an extended (~3000 AU) circumbinary envelope as well as the compact structure associated with Source A. A toy model consisting of a flattened structure with radial infall towards a 1 Msun central star reproduces the HCN/HC^15N position-velocity diagram along the minor axis of the HC^15N emission. In the extended envelope there is also a North-East (Blue) to South-West (Red) velocity gradient across the binary alignment, which is likely to reflect gas motion in the swept-up dense gas associated with the molecular outflow from Source A. At Source B, there is only a weak compact structure with much narrower line widths (~2 km/s) seen in the optically-thin HC^15N emission than that at Source A (>10 km/s), and there is no clearly defined bipolar molecular outflow associated with Source B. These results imply the different evolutionary stages between Source A and B in the common circumbinary envelope.
The particle density in extensive air showers fluctuates at the ground level. These fluctuations, at the scale of the scintillator detector size (several meters), lead to the diversity of the individual detector responses. Therefore, small scale fluctuations contribute to the error in the estimation of the primary energy by a ground array. This contribution is shown to be non-Gaussian. The impact on the primary energy spectrum measured by a ground array is estimated. Ir is argued that super-GZK events observed by AGASA experiment do not result from the energy overestimation, due to small scale fluctuations, of lower energy events.
We have studied the long-term (1971-2005) behaviour of the 1.24 sec pulse period and the 35 day precession period of Her X-1 and show that both periods vary in a highly correlated way (see also Staubert et al. 1997 and 2000). When the spin-up rate decreases, the 35 day turn-on period shortens.This correlation is most evident on long time scales (~2000 days),e.g.around four extended spin-down episodes, but also on shorter time scales (a few 100 days) on which quasi-periodic variations are apparent. We argue that the likely common cause is variations of the mass accretion rate onto the neutron star.The data since 1991 allow a continuous sampling and indicate a lag between the turn-on behaviour and the spin behaviour, in the sense that changes are first seen in the spin, about one cycle later in the turn-on. Both the coronal wind model (Schandl & Meyer 1994) as well as the stream-disk model (Shakura et al.999) predict this kind of behaviour.
Solar X-ray and UV radiation (0.1-320 nm) received at Earth's surface is an important aspect of the circumstances under which life formed on Earth. The quantity that is received depends on two main variables: the emission of radiation by the young Sun and its extinction through absorption and scattering by the Earth's early atmosphere. The spectrum emitted by the Sun when life formed, between 4 and 3.5 Ga, was modeled here, including the effects of flares and activity cycles, using a solar-like star that has the same age now as the Sun had 4-3.5 Ga. Atmospheric extinction was calculated using the Beer-Lambert law, assuming several density profiles for the atmosphere of the Archean Earth. We found that almost all radiation with a wavelength shorter than 200 nm is attenuated effectively, even by very tenuous atmospheres. Longer-wavelength radiation is progressively less well attenuated, and its extinction is more sensitive to atmospheric composition. Minor atmospheric components, such as methane, ozone, water vapor, etc., have only negligible effects, but changes in CO2 concentration can cause large differences in surface flux. Differences due to variability in solar emission are small compared to this. In all cases surface radiation levels on the Archean Earth were several orders of magnitude higher in the 200-300 nm wavelength range than current levels in this range. That means that any form of life that might have been present at Earth's surface 4-3.5 Ga must have been exposed to much higher quantities of damaging radiation than at present.
There is growing observational evidence for some kind of interaction between stars and close-in extrasolar giant planets. Shkolnik et al. reported variability in the chromospheric Ca H and K lines of HD 179949 and upsilon And that seemed to be phased with the planet's orbital period, instead of the stellar rotational period. However, the observations also indicate that the chromospheric light curves do not repeat exactly, which may be expected for a planet plowing through a variable stellar magnetic field. Using the complex solar magnetic field (modeled with the Potential Field Source Surface technique) as a guide, we simulate the shapes of light curves that would arise from planet-star interactions that are channeled along magnetic field lines. We also study the orbit-to-orbit variability of these light curves and how they vary from solar minimum (i.e., a more or less axisymmetric stretched dipole) to solar maximum (a superposition of many higher multipole moments) fields. Considering more complex magnetic fields introduces new difficulties in the interpretation of observations, but it may also lead to valuable new diagnostics of exoplanet magnetospheres.
We compute the corrections to the cosmological hydrogen recombination history due to delayed feedback of Lyman-series photons and the escape in the Lyman-continuum. The former process is expected to slightly delay recombination, while the latter should allow the medium to recombine a bit faster. The subsequent feedback of released Lyman-n photons on the lower lying Lyman-(n-1) transitions yields a maximal correction of DN_e/N_e~0.22% at z~1050. Since this is very close to the peak of the Thomson-visibility function, similar corrections to the Cosmic Microwave Background TT and EE power spectra are expected. However, the escape in the Lyman-continuum and feedback of Lyman-alpha photons on the photoionization rate of the second shell lead to modifications which are very small (less than |DN_e/N_e|~few times 10^-6).
We review the present observational knowledge on the spatial distribution and the physical state of the different (molecular, atomic and ionized) components of the interstellar gas in the innermost 3 kpc of our Galaxy -- a region which we refer to as the interstellar Galactic bulge, to distinguish it from its stellar counterpart. We try to interpret the observations in the framework of recent dynamical models of interstellar gas flows in the gravitational potential of a barred galaxy. Finally, relying on both the relevant observations and their theoretical interpretation, we propose a model for the space-averaged density of each component of the interstellar gas in the interstellar Galactic bulge.
We study the hadron-quark phase transition in the interior of protoneutron stars. For the hadronic sector, we use a microscopic equation of state involving nucleons and hyperons derived within the finite-temperature Brueckner-Bethe-Goldstone many-body theory, with realistic two-body and three-body forces. For the description of quark matter, we employ the MIT bag model both with a constant and a density-dependent bag parameter. We calculate the structure of protostars within a static approach. In particular we focus on a suitable temperature profile, suggested by dynamical calculations, which plays a fundamental role in determining the value of the minimum gravitational mass. The maximum mass instead depends only upon the equation of state employed.
We report on the first ultracool dwarf discoveries from the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey Early Data Release (LAS EDR), in particular the discovery of T dwarfs which are fainter and more distant than those found using the 2MASS and SDSS surveys. We aim to show that our methodologies for searching the ~27 sq degs of the LAS EDR are successful for finding both L and T dwarfs $via$ cross-correlation with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR4 release. While the area searched so far is small, the numbers of objects found shows great promise for near-future releases of the LAS and great potential for finding large numbers of such dwarfs. Ultracool dwarfs are selected by combinations of their YJH(K) UKIDSS colours and SDSS DR4 z-J and i-z colours, or, lower limits on these red optical/infrared colours in the case of DR4 dropouts. After passing visual inspection tests, candidates have been followed up by methane imaging and spectroscopy at 4m and 8m-class facilities. Our main result is the discovery following CH4 imaging and spectroscopy of a T4.5 dwarf, ULASJ 1452+0655, lying ~80pc distant. A further T dwarf candidate, ULASJ 1301+0023, has very similar CH4 colours but has not yet been confirmed spectroscopically. We also report on the identification of a brighter L0 dwarf, and on the selection of a list of LAS objects designed to probe for T-like dwarfs to the survey J-band limit. Our findings indicate that the combination of the UKIDSS LAS and SDSS surveys provide an excellent tool for identifying L and T dwarfs down to much fainter limits than previously possible. Our discovery of one confirmed and one probable T dwarf in the EDR is consistent with expectations from the previously measured T dwarf density on the sky.
A popular formation scenario for giant elliptical galaxies proposes that they might have formed from binary mergers of disk galaxies. Difficulties with the scenario that emerged from earlier studies included providing the necessary stellar mass and metallicity, maintaining the tight color-magnitude relation and avoiding phase space limits. In this paper we revisit the issue and put constraints on the binary disc merger scenario based on the stellar populations of disc galaxies. We draw the following conclusions: Low redshift collisionless or gaseous mergers of present day Milky Way like disc galaxies do not form present day elliptical galaxies. Binary mergers of the progenitors of present day disc galaxies can have evolved into intermediate mass elliptical galaxies ($M < M_*$) if they have merged earlier than $\approx$ 4 Gyrs ago. But more massive giant ellipticals in general can not have formed from binary mergers of the progenitors of present day disc galaxies. They must be made from either multiple mergers or binary mergers of spirals at early times whose descendents no longer exist. A major reason for these conclusions is that the mass in metals of typical disk galaxy is approximately a factor of 4-8 smaller than the mass in metals of a typical early-type galaxy and this ratio grows to larger values with increasing redshift.
In this Letter we present results from INTEGRAL and RXTE observations of the spectral and timing behavior of the High Mass X-ray Binary A 0535+26 during its August/September 2005 normal (type I) outburst with an average flux F(5-100keV)~400mCrab. The search for cyclotron resonance scattering features (fundamental and harmonic) is one major focus of the paper. Our analysis is based on data from INTEGRAL and RXTE Target of Opportunity Observations performed during the outburst. The pulse period is determined. X-ray pulse profiles in different energy ranges are analyzed. The broad band INTEGRAL and RXTE pulse phase averaged X-ray spectra are studied. The evolution of the fundamental cyclotron line at different luminosities is analyzed. The pulse period P is measured to be 103.39315(5)s at MJD 53614.5137. Two absorption features are detected in the phase averaged spectra at E_1~45keV and E_2~100keV. These can be interpreted as the fundamental cyclotron resonance scattering feature and its first harmonic and therefore the magnetic field can be estimated to be B~4x10^12G.
We compare the HI column densities from Ly-alpha absorption to the metal column densities from soft X-ray absorption in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Of the eight bursts for which useful measures are obtained we find a range in metallicities from sub-solar to a few hundred times the solar value. The lack of correlation in the column densities, and the large range and extreme values of these `metallicities', suggest that the column densities derived by one or both methods are not a reliable indication of the true total column densities towards GRBs. Ionisation of the GRB's gas cloud to large distances along the line of sight seems the most likely interpretation of these results. From the lower limit on the total column density and the UV luminosity of the GRBs we derive a maximum distance to the majority of the gas surrounding GRBs of ~3 pc, suggesting that the gas probed by optical afterglow spectra is not the cloud in which the burst occurs. This is an encouraging result for the use of GRB optical afterglows as probes of the interstellar medium (ISM) in their host galaxies, as the ISM observed is less likely to be strongly affected by the GRB or its progenitor.
Detecting heat from minor planets in the outer solar system is challenging, yet it is the most efficient means for constraining the albedos and sizes of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) and their progeny, the Centaur objects. These physical parameters are critical, e.g., for interpreting spectroscopic data, deriving densities from the masses of binary systems, and predicting occultation tracks. Here we summarize Spitzer Space Telescope observations of 47 KBOs and Centaurs at wavelengths near 24 and 70 microns. We interpret the measurements using a variation of the Standard Thermal Model (STM) to derive the physical properties (albedo and diameter) of the targets. We also summarize the results of other efforts to measure the albedos and sizes of KBOs and Centaurs. The three or four largest KBOs appear to constitute a distinct class in terms of their albedos. From our Spitzer results, we find that the geometric albedo of KBOs and Centaurs is correlated with perihelion distance (darker objects having smaller perihelia), and that the albedos of KBOs (but not Centaurs) are correlated with size (larger KBOs having higher albedos). We also find hints that albedo may be correlated with with visible color (for Centaurs). Interestingly, if the color correlation is real, redder Centaurs appear to have higher albedos. Finally, we briefly discuss the prospects for future thermal observations of these primitive outer solar system objects.
We present here the first 2D rotating, multi-group, radiation magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) simulations of supernova core collapse, bounce, and explosion. In the context of rapid rotation, we focus on the dynamical effects of magnetic stresses and the creation and propagation of MHD jets. We find that a quasi-steady state can be quickly established after bounce, during which a well-collimated MHD jet is maintained by continuous pumping of power from the differentially rotating core. If the initial spin period of the progenitor core is $\sles$ 2 seconds, the free energy reservoir in the secularly evolving protoneutron star is adequate to power a supernova explosion, and may be enough for a hypernova. The jets are well collimated by the infalling material and magnetic hoop stresses, and maintain a small opening angle. We see evidence of sausage instabilities in the emerging jet stream. Neutrino heating is sub-dominant in the rapidly rotating models we explore, but can contribute 10$-$25% to the final explosion energy. Our simulations suggest that even in the case of modest or slow rotation, a supernova explosion might be followed by a secondary, weak MHD jet explosion, which, because of its weakness may to date have gone unnoticed in supernova debris. Furthermore, we suggest that the generation of a non-relativistic MHD precursor jet during the early protoneutron star/supernova phase is implicit in both the collapsar and "millisecond magnetar" models of GRBs. The multi-D, multi-group, rapidly rotating RMHD simulations we describe here are a start along the path towards more realistic simulations of the possible role of magnetic fields in some of Nature's most dramatic events.
We present a binary channel for the progenitors of long gamma-ray bursts. We test the idea of producing rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet stars in massive close binaries through mass accretion and consecutive quasi-chemically homogeneous evolution. The binary channel presented here may provide a means for massive stars to obtain the required high rotation rates. Moreover, it suggests that a possibly large fraction of long gamma-ray bursts occurs in runaway stars. This can have important observational consequences for both the positions of GRBs, and their afterglow properties.
We study stars and molecular gas in the direction of IRAS06145+1455 (WB89-789) through NIR (JHK), molecular line-, and dust continuum observations. The kinematic distance of the associated molecular cloud is 11.9 kpc. With a galactocentric distance of about 20.2 kpc, this object is at the edge of the (molecular) disk of the Galaxy. The near-IR data show the presence of an (embedded) cluster of about 60 stars, with a radius ca. 1.3 pc and an average stellar surface density of ca. 12 pc^{-2}. We find at least 14 stars with NIR-excess, 3 of which are possibly Class I objects. The cluster is embedded in a 1000 Mo molecular/dust core, from which a molecular outflow originates. The temperature of most of the outflowing gas is < 40 K, and the total mass of the swept-up material is < 10 Mo. Near the center of the flow, indications of much higher temperatures are found, probably due to shocks. A spectrum of one of the probable cluster members shows a tentative likeness to that of a K3III-star (with an age of at least 20 Myr). If correct, this would confirm the kinematic distance. This cluster is the furthest one from the Galactic center yet detected. The combination of old and recent activity implies that star formation has been going on for at least 20 Myr, which is difficult to understand considering the location of this object, where external triggers are either absent or weak, compared to the inner Galaxy. This suggests that once star formation is occurring, later generations of stars may form through the effect of the first generation of stars on the (remnants of) the original molecular cloud.
Interpretation of cosmological data to determine the number and values of parameters describing the universe must not rely solely on statistics but involve physical insight. Statistical techniques such as "model selection" or "integrated survey optimization" blindly apply Occam's Razor - this can lead to painful results. We emphasize that the sensitivity to prior probabilities and to the number of models compared can lead to "prior selection" rather than robust model selection. A concrete example demonstrates that Information Criteria can in fact misinform over a large region of parameter space.
We use N-body simulations of the hierarchical clustering of dark matter and semi-analytical modelling of galaxy formation to assess the detectability of baryonic acoustic oscillations in the power spectrum of galaxies. Our primary simulation has a volume of $2.4 h^{-3} {\rm Gpc}^{3}$, comparable to forthcoming redshift surveys at $z \sim 1$, with sufficient mass resolution to see the galaxies expected in these surveys. We present a step-by-step illustration of the effects which change the form of the galaxy power spectrum on large scales from the simple predictions of linear theory. Nonlinear effects are evident on scales in excess of $100 h^{-1}$Mpc. Nonlinearities, galaxy bias and redshift-space distortions erase some of the acoustic oscillations. We present an improved, robust method to find the equation of state of the dark energy parameter $w$. Our galaxy formation model allows us to construct synthetic galaxy samples with the selection criteria proposed for future surveys. We find a weak systematic difference between the equation of state parameter recovered using galaxies and dark matter. Sampling variance is the dominant source of error despite the huge volume simulated. We use our simulation results to estimate the accuracy with which $w$ will be measured in the future. Pan-STARRS could potentially yield a measurement with an accuracy of $\Delta w = 4-7%$, which is competitive with the proposed WFMOS survey ($\Delta w = 5%$). This represents a factor of two improvement over current constraints on $w$. To achieve $\Delta w \sim 1%$ using acoustic oscillations would require a survey with at least 16 times the effective volume of Pan-STARRS. Thus, it is unlikely that this level of accuracy will be reached by the next generation of galaxy surveys.
Determining an accurate position for a submm galaxy (SMG) is the crucial step that enables us to move from the basic properties of an SMG sample - source counts and 2-D clustering - to an assessment of their detailed, multi-wavelength properties, their contribution to the history of cosmic star formation and their links with present-day galaxy populations. In this paper, we identify robust radio and/or IR counterparts, and hence accurate positions, for over two thirds of the Submm HAlf-Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) Source Catalogue, presenting optical, 24-um and radio images of each SMG. Observed trends in identification rate have given no strong rationale for pruning the sample. Uncertainties in submm position are found to be consistent with theoretical expectations, with no evidence for significant additional sources of error. Employing the submm/radio redshift indicator, via a parameterisation appropriate for radio-identified SMGs with spectroscopic redshifts, yields a median redshift of 2.8 for the radio-identified subset of SHADES, somewhat higher than the median spectroscopic redshift. We present a diagnostic colour-colour plot, exploiting Spitzer photometry, in which we identify regions commensurate with SMGs at very high redshift. Finally, we find that significantly more SMGs have multiple robust counterparts than would be expected by chance, indicative of physical associations. These multiple systems are most common amongst the brightest SMGs and are typically separated by 2-6", or 15-50/(sin i) kpc at z ~ 2, consistent with early bursts seen in merger simulations.
We present the results of a search for wide binary systems among 783 members of three nearby young associations: Taurus-Auriga, Chamaeleon I, and two subgroups of Upper Scorpius. Near-infrared (JHK) imagery from 2MASS was analyzed to search for wide (1-30"; ~150-4500 AU) companions to known association members, using color-magnitude cuts to reject likely background stars. We identify a total of 131 candidate binary companions with colors consistent with physical association, of which 39 have not been identified previously in the literature. Our results suggest that the wide binary frequency is a function of both mass and environment, with significantly higher frequencies among high-mass stars than lower-mass stars and in the T associations than in the OB association. We discuss the implications for wide binary formation and conclude that the environmental dependence is not a direct result of stellar density or total association mass, but instead might depend on another environmental parameter like the gas temperature. We also analyze the mass ratio distribution as a function of mass and find that it agrees with the distribution for field stars to within the statistical uncertainties. The binary populations in these associations generally follow the empirical mass-maximum separation relation observed for field binaries, but we have found one candidate low-mass system (USco-160611.9-193532; Mtot~0.4 Msun) which has a projected separation (10.8"; 1550 AU) much larger than the suggested limit for its mass. (Abridged)
We demonstrate that pulsar timing measurements may be able to detect the presence of dark matter substructure within our own galaxy. As dark matter substructure transits near the line-of-sight between a pulsar and an observer, the change in the gravitational field will result in a delay of the light-travel-time of photons. We calculate the effect of this delay due to transiting dark matter substructure and find that the effect on pulsar timing ought to be observable for a wide range of substructure masses and density profiles. We find that transiting dark matter substructure with masses above 0.01 solar masses ought to be detectable at present by these means. With small improvements, this method may be able to distinguish between baryonic, thermal non-baryonic, and non-thermal non-baryonic types of dark matter. Additionally, information about structure formation on small scales and the density profiles of galactic dark matter substructure can be extracted via this method.
We present evidence that infant mortality of stellar clusters is likely to be a major and very efficient process for the dissolution of young clusters in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. Performing stellar PSF photometry on archival HST/ACS images of the galaxy, we find that a large fraction of early B-type stars are seen outside of star clusters and well spread within the galactic disk, consistent with the scenario of infant mortality. We also calculate the UV flux produced by the stars in and out the clusters and find that 75 to 90% of the UV flux in NGC 1313 is produced by stars outside the clusters. These results suggest that the infant mortality of star clusters is probably the underlying cause of the diffuse UV emission in starburst galaxies. Infant mortality would also explain the numerous B-type stars observed in the background field of our Galaxy as well. We exclude the possibility that unresolved low-mass star clusters and scaled OB associations might be the main source for the diffuse UV emission.
UltraCompact HII regions are signposts of high mass star formation. Since
high-mass star formation occurs in clusters, one expects to find even earlier
phases of massive star formation in the vicinity of UltraCompact HII regions.
Here, we study the amount of deuteration and depletion toward pre/protocluster
clumps found in a wide-field (10 X 10 arcmin) census of clouds in 32 massive
star-forming regions that are known to harbour UCHII regions.
We find that 65% of the observed sources have strong NH2D emission and more
than 50% of the sources exhibit a high degree of deuteration, (0.1 < NH2D/NH3 <
0.7), 0.7 being the highest observed deuteration of NH3 reported to date. Our
search for NHD2 in two sources did not result in a detection. The enhancement
in deuteration coincides with moderate CO depletion onto dust grains. There is
no evidence of a correlation between the two processes, though an underlying
correlation cannot be ruled out as the depletion factor is very likely to be
only a lower limit. In summary, we find CO depletion and high deuteration
towards cold cores in massive star forming regions. Therefore, these are good
candidates for sources at the early phases of massive star formation. While our
sensitive upper limits on NHD2 do not prove the predictions of the gas-phase
and grain chemistry models wrong, an enhancement of ~10^4 over the cosmic D/H
ratio from NH2D warrants explanation.
Migration of protoplanets in their gaseous host disks may be largely responsible for the observed orbital distribution of extrasolar planets. Recent simulations have shown that the magnetorotational turbulence thought to drive accretion in protoplanetary disks can affect migration by turning it into an orbital random walk. However, these simulations neglected the disk's ionization structure. Low ionization fraction near the midplane of the disk can decouple the magnetic field from the gas, forming a dead zone with reduced or no turbulence. Here, to understand the effect of dead zones on protoplanetary migration, we perform numerical simulations of a small region of a stratified disk with magnetorotational turbulence confined to thin active layers above and below the midplane. Turbulence in the active layers exerts decreased, but still measurable, gravitational torques on a protoplanet located at the disk midplane. We find a decrease of two orders of magnitude in the diffusion coefficient for dead zones with dead-to-active surface density ratios approaching realistic values in protoplanetary disks. This torque arises primarily from density fluctuations within a distance of one scale height of the protoplanet. Turbulent torques have correlation times of only $\sim 0.3$ orbital periods and apparently time-stationary distributions. These properties are encouraging signs that stochastic methods can be used to determine the orbital evolution of populations of protoplanets under turbulent migration. Our results indicate that dead zones may be dynamically distinct regions for protoplanetary migration.
We explore correlations between visual extinction and polarization along the western side of the IRAS Vela Shell using a published polarimetric catalog of several hundreds of objects. Our extinction maps along this ionization front (I-front) find evidence of clumpy structure with typical masses between 1.5 and 6 solar masses and a mean length scale L ~ 0.47pc. The polarimetric data allowed us to investigate the distribution of the local magnetic field in small (~pc) scales across the I-front. Using the dispersion of polarization position angles, we find variations in the kinetic-to-magnetic energy density ratio of, at least, one order of magnitude along the I-front, with the magnetic pressure generally dominating over the turbulent motions. These findings suggest that the magnetic component has a significant contribution to the dynamical balance of this region. Along the I-front, the mean magnetic field projected on the sky is [0.018 +/- 0.013]mG. The polarization efficiency seems to change along the I-front. We attribute high polarization efficiencies in regions of relatively low extinction to an optimum degree of grain alignment. Analysis of the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio shows that this quantity is consistent with the subcritical regime (lambda < 1), showing that magnetic support is indeed important in the region. Our data extend the overall lambda-N(H2) relation toward lower density values and show that such trend continues smoothly toward low N(H2) values. This provides general support for the evolution of initially subcritical clouds to an eventual supercritical stage.
Our R-band data show that the optical light from Malin 1 corresponds well with the >2-arcmin extent of the galaxy's HI content and continues well beyond previously published V-band optical light radial profiles. Analysis of our image yields improved understanding of the galaxy's properties. We measure ellipticity of 0.20 +/- 0.03, implying inclination of 38 +/- 3 degrees, and we trace the radial profile to 77 arcsec. A single dusty spiral arm is also weakly discernable, and is consistent with the rotation direction of the HI and spiral structure of the inner disk. Possible scenarios for the origin of the spiral structure are discussed.
We discovered a significant anti-correlation between the mass of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), $M_{\rm BH}$, and the luminosity ratio of infrared to active galactic nuclei (AGN) Eddington luminosity, $L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm Edd}$, over four orders of magnitude for ultraluminous infrared galaxies with type I Seyfert nuclei (type I ULIRGs) and nearby QSOs. This anti-correlation ($M_{\rm BH}$ vs. $L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm Edd}$) can be interpreted as the anti-correlation between the mass of a SMBH and the rate of mass accretion onto a SMBH normalized by the AGN Eddington rate, $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}/\dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$. In other words, the mass accretion rate $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$ is not proportional to that of the central BH mass. Thus, this anti-correlation indicates that BH growth is determined by the external mass supply process, and not the AGN Eddington-limited mechanism. Moreover, we found an interesting tendency for type I ULIRGs to favor a super-Eddington accretion flow, whereas QSOs tended to show a sub-Eddington flow. On the basis of our findings, we suggest that a central SMBH grows by changing its mass accretion rate from super-Eddington to sub-Eddington. According to a coevolution scenario of ULIRGs and QSOs based on the radiation drag process, it has been predicted that a self-gravitating massive torus, whose mass is larger than a central BH, exists in the early phase of BH growth (type I ULIRG phase) but not in the final phase of BH growth (QSO phase). At the same time, if one considers the mass accretion rate onto a central SMBH via a turbulent viscosity, the anti-correlation ($M_{\rm BH}$ vs. $L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm Edd}$) is well explained by the positive correlation between the mass accretion rate $\dot{M}_{\rm BH}$ and the mass ratio of a massive torus to a SMBH.
We present a spectral analysis of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy I Zwicky 1, focusing on the characteristics of the ionised absorbers as observed with XMM-Newton in 2005. The soft X-ray spectrum shows absorption by two components of ionised gas with a similar column density (N_H~10^{21} cm^{-2}) and ionisation parameters log\xi~0 and 2.5. Comparing this observation with a 2002 XMM-Newton data set, we see a clear anti-correlation between the X-ray ionisation parameter xi_X and the 0.1-10 keV luminosity. Viable explanations for this effect include transient clouds or filaments crossing the line of sight in a complex geometry or a gas observed in non-equilibrium. The outflow velocity of the X-ray low-ionisation absorber is consistent with the outflow of the UV absorber detected in a past Hubble Space Telescope observation. In addition, the ionic column densities of CIV and NV derived from the X-ray model are consistent with the UV values. This suggests that the low-ionisation outflowing gas may survive for many years, despite large changes in flux, and that there is a tight connection between the X-ray and UV absorbers that can only be confirmed with a simultaneous UV and X-ray observation.
The central region of our Galaxy is a very peculiar environment, containing magnetic fields in excess of 100 mG and gas densities reaching ~ 10^4cm^-3. This region was observed as a strong source of GeV and TeVs gammas, what suggests that a mechanism of proton-neutron conversion could be taking place therein. We propose that the Galactic Center must also be a source of EeV neutrons due to the conversion of ultra high energy cosmic ray protons into neutrons via p-p interactions inside this region. This scenario should be falsifiable by the Pierre Auger Observatory after a few years of full exposure.
We study an exact swiss-cheese model of the Universe, where inhomogeneous LTB patches are embedded in a flat FLRW background, in order to see how observations of distant sources are affected. We find negligible integrated effect, suppressed by $(L/R_{H})^3$ (where $L$ is the size of one patch, and $R_{H}$ is the Hubble radius), both perturbatively and non-perturbatively. We disentangle this effect from the Doppler term (which is much larger and has been used recently \cite{BMN} to try to fit the SN curve without dark energy) by making contact with cosmological perturbation theory.
We present a measurement of the surface brightness of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) in the Chandra Deep Fields North and South (CDF-N and CDF-S), after excluding all detected X-ray, optical and infrared sources. The work is motivated by a recent X-ray stacking analysis by Worsley and collaborators, which showed that galaxies detected by HST but not by Chandra may account for most of the unresolved CXB at E>1 keV. We find that after excluding HST and Spitzer IRAC sources, some CXB still remains but it is barely significant: (3.4+/-1.4)x10^-13 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 deg^2 in the 1-2 keV band and (4+/-9)x10^-13 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 deg^2 in the 2-5 keV band, or 7%+/-3% and 4%+/-9%, respectively, of the total CXB. Of the 1-2 keV signal resolved by the HST sources, ~=66% comes from objects with colors typical of starburst and irregular galaxies, while objects with ``normal'' galaxy colors contribute \~=34%. In the 0.65-1 keV band (just above the bright Galactic O VII line and including the Fe XVII lines) the remaining intensity is (12+/-2)x10^-13 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 deg^2. This provides a conservative upper limit on the brightness of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) that comes interestingly close to predictions for WHIM emission. A WHIM simulation that accounts for the particular selection of the CDF pointings may constrain the WHIM metallicity.
In this study we show how errors due to finite box size affect formation and destruction rates for haloes in cosmological N-body simulations. In an earlier study we gave an analytic prescription of finding the corrections in the mass function. Following the same approach, in this paper we give analytical expressions for corrections in the formation rates, destruction rates and the rate of change in number density, and compute their expected values for power law (n=-2) and LCDM models.
Dwarf irregular galaxies are unique laboratories for studying the interaction between stars and the interstellar medium in low mass environments. We present the highest spatial resolution observations to date of the neutral hydrogen content of the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy WLM. We find that WLM's neutral hydrogen distribution is typical for a galaxy of its type and size and derive an HI mass of 6.3e7 Msun for WLM. In addition, we derive an HI extent for WLM of 30 arcmin, which is much less than the 45 arcmin extent found by Huchtmeier, Seiradakis, and Materne (1981). We show that the broken ring of high column density neutral hydrogen surrounding the center of WLM is likely the result of star formation propagating out from the center of the galaxy. The young stars and Ha emission in this galaxy are mostly correlated with the high column density neutral hydrogen. The gap in the central ring is the result of star formation in that region using up, blowing out, or ionizing all of the neutral hydrogen. Like many late-type galaxies, WLM's velocity field is asymmetric with the approaching (northern) side appearing to be warped and a steeper velocity gradient for the approaching side than for the receding side in the inner region of the galaxy. We derive a dynamical mass for WLM of 2.16e9 Msun.
Here we present observational results on the RS CVn star UX Arietis from four very-long-baseline interferometry observations distributed in time to cover the rotational period of 6.44 days. The data are better fit by two Gaussian components than by the usual core-plus-halo model. In the first three days the sizes of the two components did not change much from hour to hour but their relative position and orientation changed from day to day. The origin of this evolution can be explained by geometrical factors (i.e., star rotation). The fourth day a large flare occurred and dramatic changes in the sizes of the Gaussian components were seen.
The young massive star-forming region IRAS05358+3543 was observed at high-spatial resolution in the continuum emission at 3.1 and 1.2mm with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, and at 875 and 438mum with the Submillimeter Array. We resolve at least four continuum sub-sources that are likely of protostellar nature. Two of them are potentially part of a proto-binary system with a projected separation of 1700AU. Additional (sub)mm continuum peaks are not necessarily harboring protostars but maybe caused by the multiple molecular outflows. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the sub-sources show several features. The main power house mm1, which is associated with CH3OH maser emission, a hypercompact HII region and a mid-infrared source, exhibits a typical SED with a free-free emission component at cm and long mm wavelengths and a cold dust component in the (sub)mm part of the spectrum (spectral index between 1.2mm and 438mum alpha~3.6). The free-free emission corresponds to a Lyman continuum flux of an embedded 13Msun B1 star. The coldest source of the region, mm3, has alpha~3.7 between 1.2mm and 875mum, but has lower than expected fluxes in the shorter wavelength 438mum band. This turnover of the Planck-function sets an upper limit on the dust temperature of mm3 of approximately 20K. The uv-data analysis of the density structure of individual sub-cores reveals distributions with power-law indices between 1.5 and 2. This resembles the density distributions of the larger-scale cluster-forming clump as well as those from typical low-mass cores.
The main obstacle in exploiting the frequency data of $\delta$ Sct stars is difficulty in mode identification. The $\delta$ Sct oscillation spectra, unlike those of the Sun or white dwarfs, do not exhibit very regular patterns. Thus, the mode identification must rely on sophisticated methods, which involve combined multi-passband photometry and radial velocity data, with an unavoidable theoretical input from stellar atmosphere models. Moreover, there are serious uncertainties in theory of $\delta$ Sct stars that have to be solved. Mode identification and determination of global and internal structure parameters for $\delta$ Sct stars has to be done simultaneously. I describe in some detail the methodology and present some recent results we obtained concerning degrees of excited modes, global stellar parameters, and constraints on models of subphotospheric convection, as well as effect of rotational mode coupling.
The gamma/hadron separation in the imaging air Cherenkov telescope technique is based on differences between images of a hadronic shower and a gamma induced electromagnetic cascade. One may expect for a large telescope that a detection of hadronic events which contains Cherenkov light from one gamma subcascade only is possible. In fact, simulations shows that for the MAGIC telescope their fraction in total protonic background is in order of 3.5% to 1% depending on the trigger threshold. It was found out that such images have small sizes (mainly below 400 ph.e.) what corresponds to the sizes of the low energy primary gamma's (below 100 GeV). It is shown that parameters describing a shape of images from one subcascade have similar distributions like a primary gamma events, so those parameters are not efficient in all methods of gamma selection. Similar studies based on MC simulations are presented also for the images from 2 gamma subcascade which are products of the same pi^0 decay.
Optical and infrared light-curves of classical novae are approximately homologous among various white dwarf (WD) masses and chemical compositions when free-free emission from optically thin ejecta dominates the continuum flux of novae. Such a homologous template light-curve is called a ``universal decline law.'' The timescale of the light curve depends strongly on the WD mass but weakly on the chemical composition, so we are able to roughly estimate the WD mass from the light-curve fitting. We have applied the universal decline law to the old nova GK Persei 1901 and recent novae that outbursted in 2005. The estimated WD mass is 1.15 M_sun for GK Per, which is consistent with a central value of the WD mass determined from the orbital velocity variations. The other WD masses of 10 novae in 2005 are also estimated to be 1.05 M_sun (V2361 Cyg), 1.15 M_sun (V382 Nor), 1.2 M_sun (V5115 Sgr), 0.7 M_sun (V378 Ser), 0.9 M_sun (V5116 Sgr), 1.25 M_sun (V1188 Sco), 0.7 M_sun (V1047 Cen), 0.95 M_sun (V476 Sct), 0.95 M_sun (V1663 Aql), and 1.30 M_sun (V477 Sct), within a rough accuracy of +- 0.1 M_sun. Four (V382 Nor, V5115 Sgr, V1188 Sco, and V477 Sct) of ten novae in the year 2005 are probably neon novae on an O-Ne-Mg WD. Each WD mass depends weakly on the chemical composition (especially the hydrogen content X in mass weight), i.e., the obtained WD masses increase by +0.5(X-0.35) M_sun for the six CO novae and by +0.5(X-0.55) M_sun for the four neon novae above. Various nova parameters are discussed in relation to its WD mass.
We present results from two XMM-Newton observations of the bright classical Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 7582 taken four years apart (2001 May and 2005 April). We present the analysis of the high-resolution (0.3-1 keV) RGS and low-resolution (0.3-10 keV) EPIC spectroscopic data. A comparison with a 1998 BeppoSAX observation suggests that XMM-Newton caught the source in a `reflection-dominated' phase, measuring the lowest continuum flux level ever (F(2-10 keV) = 2.3 x 10^(-12) erg cm^-2 s^-1) in 2005. NGC 7582 therefore experienced a dramatic spectral transition most likely due to the partial switching-off of the nuclear activity. The XMM-Newton spectrum of the continuum emission is very complex. It can be well described by a model consisting of a combination of a heavily absorbed (Nh ~ 10^(24) cm^-2) power law and a pure reflection component both obscured by a column density of ~ 4 x 10^(22) cm^-2. Notably, we detect a significant increase by a factor of ~2 in the column density of the inner, thicker absorber covering the primary X-ray source between 2001 and 2005. The 2005 XMM-Newton spectra show the strongest Fe Kalpha emission line ever measured in this source. This is consistent with the line delayed time response to the decrease of the nuclear activity. Our analysis also reveals that the soft X-ray spectrum is dominated by emission lines from highly ionized metals. The detection of a narrow OVIII radiative recombination continuum suggests an origin in a photoionized plasma.
We present optical and infrared observations of the unusual Type Ia supernova (SN) 2004eo. The light curves and spectra closely resemble those of the prototypical SN 1992A, and the luminosity at maximum (M_B = -19.08) is close to the average for a SN Ia. However, the ejected 56Ni mass derived by modelling the bolometric light curve (about 0.45 solar masses) lies near the lower limit of the 56Ni mass distribution observed in normal SNe Ia. Accordingly, SN 2004eo shows a relatively rapid post-maximum decline in the light curve (Delta m_(B) = 1.46), small expansion velocities in the ejecta, and a depth ratio Si II 5972 / Si II 6355 similar to that of SN 1992A. The physical properties of SN 2004eo cause it to fall very close to the boundary between the faint, low velocity gradient, and high velocity gradient subgroups proposed by Benetti et al. (2005). Similar behaviour is seen in a few other SNe Ia. Thus, there may in fact exist a few SNe Ia with intermediate physical properties.
We present early-time optical and near-infrared photometry of supernova (SN) 2005cf. The observations, spanning a period from about 12 days before to 3 months after maximum, have been obtained through the coordination of observational efforts of various nodes of the European Supernova Collaboration and including data obtained at the 2m Himalayan Chandra Telescope. From the observed light curve we deduce that SN 2005cf is a fairly typical SN Ia with a post-maximum decline (Delta m_15(B) = 1.12) close to the average value and a normal luminosity of M_B,max = -19.39+/-0.33. Models of the bolometric light curve suggest a synthesised 56Ni mass of about 0.7 solar masses. The negligible host galaxy interstellar extinction and its proximity make SN 2005cf a good Type Ia supernova template.
The best measurement of the cosmic ray positron flux available today was
performed by the HEAT balloon experiment more than 10 years ago. Given the
limitations in weight and power consumption for balloon experiments, a novel
approach was needed to design a detector which could increase the existing data
by more than a factor of 100.
Using silicon photomultipliers for the readout of a scintillating fiber
tracker and of an imaging electromagnetic calorimeter, the PEBS detector
features a large geometrical acceptance of 2500 cm^2 sr for positrons, a total
weight of 1500 kg and a power consumption of 600 W. The experiment is intended
to measure cosmic ray particle spectra for a period of up to 20 days at an
altitude of 40 km circulating the North or South Pole.
A full Geant 4 simulation of the detector concept has been developed and key
elements have been verified in a testbeam in October 2006 at CERN.
The cluster 1ES0657-556 is an ideal astrophysical laboratory to study the distribution and the nature of Dark Matter because this last component is spatially separated from the intracluster gas. We show that microwave observations can provide crucial probes of Dark Matter in this system. We calculate the expected SZ effect from Dark Matter annihilation in the main mass concentrations of the cluster 1ES0657-556, and we estimate the sources of contamination, confusion and bias to asses its significance. We find that SZ observations at a frequency of 223 GHz can resolve both spatially and spectrally the SZ_DM signal and isolate it from the other SZ signals, and mainly from the thermal SZ effect which is null at frequencies 220-223 GHz for the case of 1ES0657-556. We conclude that SZ observations with sub-arcmin resolution and micro-K sensitivity of 1ES0657-556 are crucial, and maybe unique, to find direct astrophysical probes of the existence and of the nature of Dark Matter, or to set strong experimental limits.
The ESC-RTN optical spectroscopy data-set for SN 2005cf is presented and analyzed. The observations range from -11.6 and +77.3 days with respect to B-band maximum light. The evolution of the spectral energy distribution of SN 2005cf is characterized by the presence of high velocity SiII and CaII features. SYNOW synthetic spectra are used to investigate the ejecta geometry of silicon. Based on the synthetic spectra the SiII high velocity feature appears detached at 19500 km/s. We also securely establish the presence of such feature in SN 1990N, SN 1994D, SN 2002er and SN 2003du. On a morphological study both the CaII IR Triplet and H&K absorption lines of SN 2005cf show high velocity features centered around 24000 km/s. When compared with other Type Ia SNe based on the scheme presented in Benetti et al. 2005 SN 2005cf definitely belongs to the LVG group.
In this paper we present an analysis of wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity and air pressure taken at TNG, CAMC and NOT at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos, in the Canary Islands. Data are compared in order to check local variations and both long term and short term trends of the microclimate. Furthermore, influence of wind speed on the astronomical seeing is estimated to the aim to better understand the influence of wide scale parameters on local meteorological data. The three telescopes show different prevailing wind direction, wind speed, relative humidity and air pressure confirming differences in local microclimate. We found that seeing deteriorates when wind speed is lower than 3.3 m/s. Comparison in terms of wind speed and high relative humidity (> 90%) shows that TNG seems to have optimal observational conditions with respect to CAMC and NOT. Air pressure analysis shows that ORM is dominated by high pressure. Short time variations of pressure anticipate temperature variations tipically by 2-3 hours, this property vanishes in time scales higher than some hours and disappear in longer time scales.
The available data on isolated X-ray pulsars, their wind nebulae, and the supernova remnants which are connected to some of these sources are analyzed. It is shown that electric fields of neutron stars tear off charged particles from the surface of neutron star and trigger the acceleration of particles. The charged particles are accelerated mainly in the field of magneto-dipole radiation wave. Power and energy spectra of the charged particles depend on the strength of the magneto-dipole radiation. Therefore, the X-ray radiation is strongly dependent on the rate of rotational energy loss and weakly dependent on the electric field intensity. Coulomb interaction between the charged particles is the main factor for the energy loss and the X-ray spectra of the charged particles.
Long-slit spectra have been obtained with the Keck telescope for a sample of 11 early-type galaxies covering a wide range in luminosity and hence mass. Rotation velocity and velocity dispersions, together with 19 Lick line-strength gradients have been measured, to, on average, two effective radii. Stellar population models have been used to derive ages, metallicities and alpha/Fe abundances along the radius. We find that line-strength gradients are due, mainly, to variations of the total metallicity with the radius. We also find both, positive and negative, although small, variations in the [alpha/Fe] ratio with radius. We do not find a correlation between the metallicity and the [alpha/Fe] gradients, and the local metallicity is not correlated with the local velocity dispersion for all the galaxies of our sample, which rules out scenarios where the delay in the onset of the galactic winds is the only mechanism producing the metallicity gradients. We found that metallicity gradients are correlated with the shape of the isophotes and the central mean age and metallicity of the galaxies, for galaxies younger than ~10 Gyr. We show that the correlation between the gradients and the central values is not due to the correlation of the errors and indicates that the same process that shaped the gradient, also modified the structural parameters of the galaxies and triggered star formation in their centres. This strongly supports the merger scenario for the formation of these systems, where the degree of dissipation during those mergers increases as the mass of the progenitor galaxies decreases. Finally, we also find a dichotomy in the plane grad[alpha/Fe]-[alpha/Fe] between galaxies with velocity dispersions below and above ~200 km/s, which requires confirmation with larger samples.
The considerable scatter of the s- and r-process elements observed in low-metallicity stars, compared to the small star to star scatter observed for the alpha elements, is an open question for the chemical evolution studies. We have developed a stochastic chemical evolution model, in which the main assumption is a random formation of new stars, subject to the condition that the cumulative mass distribution follows a given initial mass function. With our model we are able to reproduce the different features of alpha-elements and s-and r-process elements. The reason for this resides in the random birth of stellar masses coupled with the different stellar mass ranges from where alpha-elements and s-and r-process elements originate. In particular, the sites of production of the alpha elements are the whole range of the massive stars, whereas the mass range of production for the s- and r-process elements has an upper limit of 30 solar masses.
The discovery of a short-period giant planet (a hot Jupiter) around the primary component of the triple star system HD 188753 has often been considered as an important observational evidence and as a serious challenge to planet-formation theories. Following this discovery, we monitored HD 188753 during one year to better characterize the planetary orbit and the feasibility of planet searches in close binaries and multiple star systems. We obtained Doppler measurements of HD 188753 with the ELODIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence. We then extracted radial velocities for the two brightest components of the system using our multi-order, two-dimensional correlation algorithm, TODCOR. Our observations and analysis do not confirm the existence of the short-period giant planet previously reported around HD 188753 A. Monte Carlo simulations show that we had both the precision and the temporal sampling required to detect a planetary signal like the one quoted. From our failure to detect the presumed planet around HD 188753 A and from the available data on HD 188753, we conclude that there is currently no convincing evidence of a close-in giant planet around HD 188753 A.
In Hot or Warm Dark Matter universes the density fluctuations at early times contain very little power below a characteristic wavelength related inversely to the particle mass. We study how discreteness noise influences the growth of nonlinear structures smaller than this coherence scale in $N$-body simulations of cosmic structure formation. It has been known for 20 years that HDM simulations in which the initial uniform particle load is a cubic lattice exhibit artifacts related to this lattice. In particular, the filaments which form in such simulations break up into regularly spaced clumps which reflect the initial grid pattern. We demonstrate that a similar artifact is present even when the initial uniform particle load is not a lattice, but rather a glass with no preferred directions and no long-range coherence. Such regular fragmentation also occurs in simulations of the collapse of idealised, uniform filaments, although not in simulations of the collapse of infinite uniform sheets. In HDM or WDM simulations all self-bound nonlinear structures with masses much smaller than the physical coherence mass $M_c$ appear to originate through spurious fragmentation of filaments. These artificial fragments form below a characteristic mass which scales as $m_p^{1/3}M_c^{2/3}$, where $m_p$ is the $N$-body particle mass. This has the unfortunate consequence that the effective mass resolution of such simulations improves only as the cube root of the number of particles employed.
A short replay to the comment of Rossetti & Molendi (astro-ph/0702417) in answer to the paper of Fusco-Femiano, Landi & Orlandini 2007 regarding the presence of a nonthermal component in the Coma Cluster spectrum.
Quite a few things. In particular, reverberation mapping of NGC 4395, the lowest luminosity type 1 Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN, L_bol~10^40 erg/s) revealed a size of only ~1 light hour for the C IV broad line region (BLR), which is by far the smallest BLR. This, together with a similar determination of a size of ~200 light days in a luminous quasar (Kaspi et al. 2007), suggests that the R_BLR\propto L^1/2 relation holds over a range of 10^7 in L. This relation was suggested to result from dust sublimation, which sets R_BLR. This suggestion was beautifully confirmed recently by the dust reverberation results of Suganuma et al. (2006). The R_BLR\propto L^1/2 relation implies that the broad lines width increases with decreasing luminosity according to v\propto L^-1/4. But, there is an observational cutoff at v~25,000 km/s, and thus below a certain threshold L the BLR would not be detectable. Such objects constitute the so-called "true type 2" AGN (e.g. most FR I radio galaxies). The physical origin of the BLR gas is not established yet, but high quality Keck spectra of the Halpha profile in NGC 4395 rule out a clumped distribution, and indicate that the gas resides in a smooth flow, most likely in a thick rotationally supported configuration. The Halpha line also reveals extended exponential wings, which are well modeled by electron scattering within the BLR emitting gas. Such wings can be used as a direct probe of the BLR temperature and optical depth.
Using Chandra observations, we study the X-ray emission of the stellar population in the compact dwarf elliptical galaxy M32. The proximity of M32 allows one to resolve all bright point sources with luminosities higher than 8e33 erg/s in the 0.5--7 keV band. The remaining (unresolved) emission closely follows the galaxy's optical light and is characterized by an emissivity per unit stellar mass of ~4.3e27 erg/s/M_sun in the 2--10 keV energy band. The spectrum of the unresolved emission above a few keV smoothly joins the X-ray spectrum of the Milky Way's ridge measured with RXTE and INTEGRAL. These results strongly suggest that weak discrete X-ray sources (accreting white dwarfs and active binary stars) provide the bulk of the ``diffuse'' emission of this gas-poor galaxy. Within the uncertainties, the average X-ray properties of the M32 stars are consistent with those of the old stellar population in the Milky Way. The inferred cumulative soft X-ray (0.5--2 keV) emissivity is however smaller than is measured in the immediate Solar vicinity in our Galaxy. This difference is probably linked to the contribution of young (age <1Gyr) stars, which are abundant in the Solar neighborhood but practically absent in M32. Combining Chandra, RXTE and INTEGRAL data, we obtain a broad-band (0.5--60 keV) X-ray spectrum of the old stellar population in galaxies.
Classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) are surrounded by actively accreting disks. According to current models material falls along the magnetic field lines from the disk with more or less free-fall velocity onto the star, where the plasma heats up and generates X-rays. We want to quantitatively explain the observed high energy emission and measure the infall parameters from the data. Absolute flux measurements allow to calculate the filling factor and the mass accretion rate.We use a numerical model of the hot accretion spot and solve the conservation equations. A comparison to data from XMM-Newton and Chandra shows that our model reproduces the main features very well. It yields for TW Hya a filling factor of 0.3% and a mass accretion rate 2e-10 M_sun/yr.
The radial distribution of luminous (L_X>10^{36} erg/s) X-ray point sources in the bulge of M31 is investigated using archival Chandra observations. We find a significant increase of the specific frequency of X-ray sources, per unit stellar mass, within 1 arcmin from the centre of the galaxy. The radial distribution of surplus sources in this region follows the rho^2 law, suggesting that they are low-mass X-ray binaries formed dynamically in the dense inner bulge. We investigate dynamical formation of LMXBs, paying particular attention to the high velocity regime characteristic for galactic bulges, which has not been explored previously. Our calculations suggest that the majority of the surplus sources are formed in tidal captures of black holes by main sequence stars of low mass, M<0.4Msol, with some contribution of NS systems of same type. Due to the small size of the accretion discs a fraction of such systems may be persistent X-ray sources. Some of sources may be ultra-compact X-ray binaries with helium star/white dwarf companions. We also predict a large number of faint transients, both NS and BH systems, within ~ 1 arcmin from the M31 galactic centre. Finally, we consider the population of dynamically formed binaries in Galactic globular clusters, emphasizing the differences between these two types of stellar environments.
This paper describes the design, fabrication and testing of the Anti-Coincidence Detector (ACD) for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT). The ACD is LAT first-level defense against the charged cosmic ray background that outnumbers the gamma rays by 3-5 orders of magnitude. The ACD covers the top and 4 sides of the LAT tracking detector, requiring a total active area of ~8.3 square meters. The ACD detector utilizes plastic scintillator tiles with wave-length shifting fiber readout. In order to suppress self-veto by shower particles at high gamma-ray energies, the ACD is segmented into 89 tiles of different sizes. The overall ACD efficiency for detection of singly charged relativistic particles entering the tracking detector from the top or sides of the LAT exceeds the required 0.9997.
We present the results from axisymmetric time-dependent HD calculations of gas flows which are under the influence of gravity of a black hole in quasars. We assume that the flows are non-rotating and exposed to quasar radiation. We take into account X-ray heating and the radiation force due to electron scattering and spectral lines. To compute the radiation field, we consider a standard accretion disk as a source of UV photons and a spherical central object as a source of X-rays. The gas temperature and ionization state in the flow are calculated self-consistently from the photoionization and heating rate of the central object. We find that for a 10e8 MSUN black hole with an accretion luminosity of 0.6 of the Eddington luminosity the flow settles into a steady state and has two components: (1) an equatorial inflow and (2) a bipolar inflow/outflow with the outflow leaving the system along the disk rotational axis. The inflow is a realization of a Bondi-like accretion flow. The second component is an example of a non-radial accretion flow which becomes an outflow once it is pushed close to the rotational axis where thermal expansion and the radiation pressure accelerate it outward. Our main result is that the existence of the above two flow components is robust to the outer boundary conditions and the geometry and spectral energy distribution of the radiation field. However, the flow properties are not robust. In particular, the outflow power and collimation is higher for the radiation dominated by the UV/disk emission than for the radiation dominated by the X-ray/central engine emission. Our most intriguing result is that a very narrow outflow driven by radiation pressure on lines can carry more energy and mass than a broad outflow driven by thermal expansion.
Local and intermediate redshift (z~0.5) galaxy samples obey well correlated relations between the stellar population luminosity and maximal galaxy rotation that define the Tully-Fisher (TF) relation. Consensus is starting to be reached on the TF relation at z~0.5, but work at significantly higher redshifts is even more challenging, and has been limited by small galaxy sample sizes, the intrinsic scatter of galaxy properties, and increasing observational uncertainties. We present here the TF measurements of 41 galaxies at relatively high redshift, spectroscopically observed with the Keck/DEIMOS instrument by the DEEP2 project, a survey which will eventually offer a large galaxy sample of the greatest depth and number yet achieved towards this purpose. The 'first-look' sample analyzed here has a redshift range of 0.75<z<1.3 with <z>= 0.85 and an intrinsic magnitude range from M_B of -22.66 to -20.57 (Vega). We find that compared to local fiducial samples, a brightening of 1.5 magnitudes is observed, and consistent with passive evolutionary models.
Differences in clustering properties between galaxy subpopulations complicate the cosmological interpretation of the galaxy power spectrum, but can also provide insights about the physics underlying galaxy formation. To study the nature of this relative clustering, we perform a counts-in-cells analysis of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in which we measure the relative bias between pairs of galaxy subsamples of different luminosities and colors. We use a generalized chi-squared test to determine if the relative bias between each pair of subsamples is consistent with the simplest deterministic linear bias model, and we also use a maximum likelihood technique to further understand the nature of the relative bias between each pair. We find that the simple, deterministic model is a good fit for the luminosity-dependent bias on scales above about 5 Mpc/h, which is good news for using magnitude-limited surveys for cosmology. However, the color-dependent bias shows evidence for stochasticity and/or nonlinearity which increases in strength toward smaller scales, in agreement with previous studies of stochastic bias. Also, confirming hints seen in earlier work, the luminosity-dependent bias for red galaxies is significantly different from that of blue galaxies: both luminous and dim red galaxies have higher bias than moderately bright red galaxies, whereas the biasing of blue galaxies is not strongly luminosity-dependent. These results can be used to constrain galaxy formation models and also to quantify how the color and luminosity selection of a galaxy survey can impact measurements of the cosmological matter power spectrum.
[Abridged]We compare both the Milky Way and M31 galaxies to local external disk galaxies within the same mass range, using their relative locations in the planes formed by V_flat versus M_K, j_disk, and the average Fe abundance of stars in the galaxy outskirts. We find, for all relationships, that the MW is systematically offset by ~ 1 sigma, showing a significant deficiency in stellar mass, in angular momentum, in disk radius and [Fe/H] in the stars in its outskirts at a given V_flat. On the basis of their location in the M_K, V_flat, and R_d volume, the fraction of spirals like the MW is 7+/-1%, while M31 appears to be a "typical'' spiral. Our Galaxy appears to have escaped any significant merger over the last ~10 Gyrs which may explain why it is deficient by a factor 2 to 3 in stellar mass, angular momentum and outskirts metallicity and then, unrepresentative of the typical spiral. As with M31, most local spirals show evidence for a history shaped mainly by relatively recent merging. We conclude that the standard scenario of secular evolution is generally unable to reproduce the properties of most (if not all) spiral galaxies. However, the so-called "spiral rebuilding'' scenario proposed by Hammer et al. 2005 is consistent with the properties of both distant galaxies and of their descendants - the local spirals.
We discuss the possibility of detecting the presence of primordial black holes (PBHs), such as those that might account for galactic dark matter, using modification of pulsar timing residuals when PBHs pass within ~1000 AU and impart impulse accelerations to the Earth. With this technique, PBHs with masses around 10^{25} g (~0.1 lunar mass) can be detected. Currently, the constraints on the abundance of such dark matter candidates are weak. A 30 year-long monitoring campaign with the proposed Square Kilometer Array (SKA) can rule out a PBH fraction more than ~1/10 in the solar neighborhood in the form of dark matter with mass ~10^{25} g.
We propose a WIMP candidate with an ``excited state'' 1-2 MeV above the ground state, which may be collisionally excited and de-excites by e+e- pair emission. By converting its kinetic energy into pairs, such a particle could produce a substantial fraction of the 511 keV line observed by INTEGRAL/SPI in the inner Milky Way. Only a small fraction of the WIMPs are above threshold, and that fraction drops sharply with galactocentric radius, naturally yielding a radial cutoff, as observed. Even if the scattering probability in the inner kpc is << 1% per Hubble time, enough power is available to produce the ~3*10^42 pairs per second observed in the Galactic bulge. We specify the parameters of a complex scalar field designed to explain the INTEGRAL result, and find that it annihilates chiefly to e+e- and neutrinos, and freezes out with the correct relic density. We discuss possible observational consequences of this model.
Here is studied the presence of absorption components shifted to the violet or the red side of the main spectral line (satellite, or discrete absorption components, i.e. SACs or DACs), in Mg II resonance lines' regions in Be stars and their kinematical characteristics. Namely our objective is to check if exists a common physical structure for the atmospheric regions creating SACs or DACs of the Mg II resonance lines. In order to do this, a statistical study of the Mg II {\lambda \lambda} 2792.523, 2802.698 {\AA} lines in the spectra of 64 Be stars of all spectral subtypes and luminosity classes is performed. We found that the absorption atmospherical regions where the Mg II resonance lines originated may be formed of several independent density layers of matter which rotate with different velocities. It is attempted also to separate SACs and DACs according to low or high radial velocity. The emission lines were detected only in the earliest and latest spectral subtypes.
We present a cautionary study exploring the reliability of the H-delta line in the integrated spectra of galaxies for determining galaxy ages. Our database consists of the observed integrated spectra of ~120 early-type galaxies, of 7 metal-rich globular clusters in M31 and the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tuc, and of the open cluster M67. We have measured H-delta using index definitions designed to assess contamination from the CN molecule in and around H-delta by choosing combinations of bandpasses that both avoid and include a region of CN molecular lines redward of H-delta. We find systematic differences in the ages derived from H-delta measurements among the various definitions when extracting ages from H-delta in old stellar populations with enhanced CN bands due to non-solar abundance ratios. We propose that neighboring CN lines have a strong effect on pseudocontinuum and central bandpass levels. For stellar populations which have non-solar abundance ratios in C and/or N, population synthesis models that do not account for abundance ratio variations cannot reproduce accurately the CN 4216 \AA band, which leads to a corresponding inaccuracy in reproducing the various H-delta indices. Hence, caution must be used when extracting galaxy ages from the H-delta line in old stellar populations with significant non-solar abundance ratios.
We have designed, constructed and put into operation a very large area CCD camera that covers the field of view of the 1.2 m Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. The camera consists of 112 CCDs arranged in a mosaic of four rows with 28 CCDs each. The CCDs are 600 x 2400 pixel Sarnoff thinned, back illuminated devices with 13 um x 13 um pixels. The camera covers an area of 4.6 deg x 3.6 deg on the sky with an active area of 9.6 square degrees. This camera has been installed at the prime focus of the telescope, commissioned, and scientific quality observations on the Palomar-QUEST Variability Sky Survey were started in September of 2003. The design considerations, construction features, and performance parameters of this camera are described in this paper.
We report a supernova discovery in Ks-band images from the NAOS CONICA adaptive optics (AO) system on the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). The images were obtained as part of a near-infrared search for highly-obscured supernovae in the nuclear regions of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The supernova is located within a circumnuclear starburst at 1.4 arcsec (or 500 pc) projected distance from the K-band nucleus of the luminous infrared galaxy IRAS 18293-3413. The supernova luminosity and light curve are consistent with a core-collapse event suffering from a host galaxy extinction of up to about 40 magnitudes in V-band which is as expected for a circumnuclear starburst environment. This is the first supernova to be discovered making use of AO correction and demonstrates the potential of the current 8-meter class telescopes equipped with AO systems in discovering SNe from the innermost nuclear regions of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies.
Rather than using an adaptive optics (AO) system to correct a telescope s entire pupil, it can instead be used to more finely correct a smaller sub-aperture. Indeed, existing AO systems can be used to correct a sub-aperture 1/3 to 1/2 the size of a 5-10 m telescope to extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) levels. We discuss the potential performance of a clear off-axis well-corrected sub-aperture (WCS), and describe our initial imaging results with a 1.5 m diameter WCS on the Palomar Observatory s Hale telescope. These include measured Strehl ratios of 0.92-0.94 in the infrared (2.17 microns), and 0.12 in the B band, the latter allowing a binary of separation 0.34 arc sec to be easily resolved in the blue. Such performance levels enable a variety of novel observational modes, such as infrared ExAO, visible-wavelength AO, and high-contrast coronagraphy. One specific application suggested by the high Strehl ratio stability obtained (1%) is the measurement of planetary transits and eclipses. Also described is a simple dark-hole experiment carried out on a binary star, in which a comatic phase term was applied directly to the deformable mirror, in order to shift the diffraction rings to one side of the point spread function.
We report the spectroscopic detection of mid-infrared emission from the transiting exoplanet HD 209458b. Using archive data taken with the Spitzer/IRS instrument, we have determined the spectrum of HD 209458b between 8.25 and 13.25 micron with an average SNR of ~4 in each 0.25 micron spectral channel. We have used two independent methods to determine the planet spectrum and find the results are in good agreement. In the mid-infrared, the planet spectrum is dominated by thermal emission with a temperature consistent with previous estimates. The absence of strong spectral features is significant and is most consistent with emission at these wavelengths originating primarily from optically thick clouds located at relatively high elevation in the planet's atmosphere. This work required development of improved methods for Spitzer/IRS data calibration that increase the achievable dynamic range for observations of bright point sources.
We present up to two decades of spectroscopic monitoring of the double-peaked broad Halpha emission lines of seven broad-line radio galaxies. These extremely broad, double-peaked lines are successfully modeled by emission from gas in the outer accretion disk, and their profiles vary on timescales of months to years. This variability is a valuable probe for understanding the structure and dynamics of the accretion disk. We characterize the long-term broad-line profile variability in detail, and compare the evolution of the line profiles with predictions from a few simple physical models for dynamical processes in the accretion disk. We find no evidence for persistent, periodic variability that would be indicative of a precessing elliptical disk, or a circular disk with a long-lived, single-armed spiral or warp. We do find transient, periodic variability on the orbital timescale, possibly resulting from shocks induced by tidal perturbations, and variability in the wings of the profile which suggests changes in the emissivity of the inner accretion flow. Dramatic but localized profile changes are observed during flares and high-states of broad-line flux. In 3C 332, these changes can be explained by a slow, smooth, secular change in disk illumination. In Arp 102B and 3C 390.3, however, a simple disk model cannot explain the asymmetric profile changes, suggesting a need for more sophisticated models. We also observe sharp, transient features that appear in the blue peak of the objects, which require a well-organized velocity field.
Popular models for describing the luminosity-density profiles of dynamically
hot stellar systems (e.g., Jaffe, Hernquist, Dehnen) were constructed to match
the deprojected form of de Vaucouleurs' $R^{1/4}$ light-profile. However, we
now know that elliptical galaxies and bulges display a mass-dependent range of
structural profiles. To compensate this, the model in Terzic & Graham was
designed to closely match the deprojected form of Sersic $R^{1/n}$
light-profiles, including deprojected exponential light-profiles and galaxies
with partially depleted cores. It is thus applicable for describing bulges in
spiral galaxies, dwarf elliptical galaxies, both ``power-law'' and ``core''
elliptical galaxies, also dark matter halos formed from $\Lambda$CDM
cosmological simulations.
In this paper, we present a new family of triaxial density-potential-force
triplets, which generalizes the spherical model reported in Terzic & Graham to
three dimensions. If the (optional) power-law core is present, it is a
5-parameter family, while in the absence of the core it reduces to 3
parameters. The isodensity contours in the new family are stratified on
confocal ellipsoids and the potential and forces are expressed in terms of
integrals which are easy to evaluate numerically. We provide the community with
a suite of numerical routines for orbit integration, which feature: optimized
computations of potential and forces for this family; the ability to run
simulations on parallel platforms; and modular and easily editable design.
The properties of interstellar matter (ISM) at the Sun are regulated by our location with respect to the Local Bubble (LB) void in the ISM. The LB is bounded by associations of massive stars and fossil supernovae that have disrupted natal ISM and driven intermediate velocity ISM into the LB interior void. The Sun is located in such a driven ISM parcel. The Local Fluff has a bulk velocity of 19 km/s in the LSR, and an upwind direction towards the center of the gas and dust ring formed by the Loop I supernova remnant interaction with the LB. When the ram pressure of the LIC is included in the total LIC pressure, and if magnetic thermal and cosmic ray pressures are similar, the LIC appears to be in pressure equilibrium with the local hot bubble plasma.
We conducted wide-field JHKs imaging polarimetry toward NGC 2024. We found a prominent and extended polarized nebula over NGC 2024, and constrained the location of illuminating source of the nebula through the analysis of polarization vectors. A massive star, IRS 2b, is located in the center of the symmetric vector pattern. Five small polarized nebulae associated with YSOs are discovered on our polarization images. These nebulae are responsible for the structures of circumstellar matter that produce strongly polarized light through dust scattering. For the point-like sources, we performed software aperture polarimetry in order to measure integrated polarizations, and found five young brown dwarfs with highly polarized integrated emission. These sources serve as direct evidence for the existence of disk/envelope system around brown dwarfs. We investigated the magnetic field structure of NGC 2024 through the measurements of dichroic polarization. The average position angle of projected magnetic fields across the region is found to be 110 degrees. We found a good consistency in magnetic field structures obtained using near-infrared dichroic polarization and sub-mm/far-infrared dust emission polarization, indicating that the dichroic polarizations at near-infrared wavelengths trace magnetic field structures inside dense molecular clouds.
Fast Quasi-Periodic Oscillations (QPOs, frequencies of $\sim 20 - 1840$ Hz) have been recently discovered in the ringing tail of giant flares from Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs), when the luminosity was of order $10^{41}-10^{41.5}$ erg/s. These oscillations persisted for many tens of seconds, remained coherent for up to hundreds of cycles and were observed over a wide range of rotational phases of the neutron stars believed to host SGRs. Therefore these QPOs must have originated from a compact, virtually non-expanding region inside the star's magnetosphere, emitting with a very moderate degree of beaming (if at all). The fastest QPOs imply a luminosity variation of $\Delta L/\Delta t \simeq 6 \times 10^{43}$ erg s$^{-2}$, the largest luminosity variation ever observed from a compact source. It exceeds by over an order of magnitude the usual Cavallo-Fabian-Rees (CFR) luminosity variability limit for a matter-to-radiation conversion efficiency of 100%. We show that such an extreme variability can be reconciled with the CFR limit if the emitting region is immersed in a magnetic field $\gtrsim 10^{15}$ G at the star surface, providing independent evidence for the superstrong magnetic fields of magnetars.
We show that temperature anisotropies induced at a shock can account for interplanetary and planetary bow shock observations. Shocked plasma with enhanced plasma beta is preferentially unstable to the mirror mode instability downstream of a quasi-perpendicular shock and to the firehose instability downstream of a quasi-parallel shock, consistent with magnetic fluctuations observed downstream of a large variety of shocks. Our theoretical analysis of the solar wind termination shock suggests that the magnetic holes observed by Voyager 1 in the heliosheath are produced by the mirror mode instability. The results are also of astrophysical interest, providing an energy source for plasma heating.
At redshifts z <~ 30 neutral hydrogen gas absorbs CMB radiation at the 21cm spin-flip frequency, which is in principle observable and a high-precision probe of cosmology. We calculate the linear-theory angular power spectrum of this signal and cross-correlation between redshifts on all angular scales. In addition to the well known redshift-distortion and density perturbation sources, we also include post-Newtonian corrections and other velocity terms. Although negligible on small scales, these additional terms can be significant at l <~ 100 and can be non-zero even when there is no background signal. We also include gravitational lensing and the linear effect of reionization re-scattering, which damps the entire spectrum and also gives a very small polarization signal on large scales.
We analyze findings of the Stardust mission that brought to the Earth dust from the 81P/Wild 2 coma. Just as the data of the Deep Impact mission to 9P/Tempel 1, they are at odds with the widely accepted condensation/sublimation comet paradigm. They fit rather well to the approach assuming ejection of nuclei of short-period comets from moon-like bodies of the type of Galilean satellites in rare (six to seven events in 4.5 aeons) global explosions of their massive icy envelopes saturated by 2H2+O2, products of the electrolysis of ice. This approach offers an explanation, in particular, for the jet activity of comets, which is sustained by combustion of the 2H2+O2+organics mixture ignited and complemented by the solar radiation. Combustion accounts also for other observations, in particular, the presence in the dust of products of high-temperature (800-900 K) metamorphism. The presence of minerals forming at still higher temperatures (~1400-2000 K), just as the undoubtedly planetary origin of some long-period comets arriving from the joint planeto-cometary cloud beyond Neptune, forces one, however, to invoke the close-binary cosmogony of the Solar system, which three decades ago predicted the existence of such a cloud (in the recent decade, this prediction has been substantiated by the discovery there of many dwarf planets). It considers the Jupiter-Sun system as the limiting case of a binary star and uses it as a basis for explanation of all the known observations and for prediction of the new ones to come. It provides an explanation, in particular, for both the origin and capture by the Earth of the Moon as a high-temperature condensate and the formation of the Galilean satellites, which also contain inclusions of refractory minerals in their ices.
In Radiative transfer, the intensities of radiation from the bounding faces of finite slab are obtained in terms of X- and Y- functions of Chandrasekhar . Those are non linear non homogeneous coupled integral equations . Those non linear integral equations are meromorphically extended to the complex plane to get linear non homogeneous coupled integral equations. Those linear integral equations are converted to linear singular integral equations with. linear constraints . Those singular integral equations are then transformed to non homogeneous Riemann Hilbert Problems. Solutions of those Riemann Hilbert Problems are obtained using the theory of linear singular integral equations to decouple those X- and Y- functions. New forms of linear non homogeneous decoupled integral equations are derived for X- and Y- function separately with new linear constraints. Those new decoupled integral equations are transformed into linear singular integral equations to get two new separate non homogeneous Riemann Hilbert problems and to find solutions in terms of one known N- function and five new unknown functions in complex plane . All five functions are represented in terms of N-functions using the theory of contour integration >. Those X- and Y- functions are finally expressed in terms of that N - function and also in terms of H- functions of Chandrasekhar and of integrals in Cauchy principal value sense in the complex plane and real plane. both for conservative and non conservative cases . The H - functions for semi infinite atmosphere are derived as a limiting case from the expression of X- function of finite atmosphere.
The long gamma-ray burst GRB 060714 was observed to exhibit a series of five X-ray flares beginning ~70 s after the burst trigger T0 and continuing until T0 + ~200 s. The first two flares were detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the Swift satellite, before Swift had slewed to the burst location, while the last three flares were strongly detected by the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) but only weakly detected by the BAT. This burst provides an unusual opportunity to track a complete sequence of flares over a wide energy range. The flares were very similar in their light curve morphology, showing power-law rise and fall components, and in most cases significant sub-structure. The flares also showed strong evolution with time, both spectrally and temporally. The small time scale and large amplitude variability observed are incompatible with an external shock origin for the flares, and support instead late time sporadic activity either of the central source or of localized dissipation events within the outflow. We show that the flares in GRB 060714 cannot be the result of internal shocks in which the contrast in the Lorentz factor of the colliding shells is very small, and that this mechanism faces serious difficulties in most Swift GRBs. The morphological similarity of the flares and the prompt emission and the gradual and continual evolution of the flares with time makes it difficult and arbitrary to draw a dividing line between the prompt emission and the flares.
The heating of the solar corona is likely to be due to reconnection of the
highly complex magnetic field that threads throughout its volume. We have run a
numerical experiment of an elementary interaction between the magnetic field of
two photospheric sources in an overlying field that represents a fundamental
building block of the coronal heating process. The key to explaining where, how
and how much energy is released during such an interaction is to calculate the
resulting evolution of the magnetic skeleton. A skeleton is essentially the web
of magnetic flux surfaces (called separatrix surfaces) that separate the
coronal volume into topologically distinct parts. For the first time the
skeleton of the magnetic field in a 3D numerical MHD experiment is calculated
and carefully analysed, as are the ways in which it bifurcates into different
topologies. A change in topology normally changes the number of magnetic
reconnection sites.
In our experiment, the magnetic field evolves through a total of six distinct
topologies. Initially, no magnetic flux joins the two sources. Then a new type
of bifurcation, called a global double-separator bifurcation, takes place: this
bifurcation is likely to be one of the main ways in which new separators are
created in the corona (separators are field lines at which 3D reconnection
takes place). This is the first of five bifurcations in which the skeleton
becomes progressively more complex before simplifying. Surprisingly, for such a
simple initial state, at the peak of complexity there are five separators and
eight flux domains present.
We probe the stellar population age and metallicity distributions in nearby elliptical galaxies over the largest extension to date. Long-slit spectroscopy is made by using the spectrograph SCORPIO of the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciencies. The Lick indices H-beta, Mg b, Fe5270, and Fe5335 are calculated along the slit up to radii of 1.3 to 3r_e in 4 galaxies and up to 0.5r_e in the fifth one. The comparison with evolutionary synthesis models of simple stellar populations allows us to disentangle age and metallicity and to measure both. We have found that the mean stellar age is constant along the radius only in one galaxy out of 5. The other 4 galaxies demonstrate quite different behaviour of the mean stellar age: the outer parts are older than the centres in 3 cases and younger - in one case. The metallicity gradients cannot be approximated by a single power law over the full radial extension in 4 galaxies of 5. The inner metallicity gradients within 0.5r_e are all rather steep, steeper than -0.4 metallicity dex per radius dex, and are inconsistent with the origin of the elliptical galaxies by a major merger.
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) have recently been observed in the distribution of distant galaxies. The height and location of the BAO peak are strong discriminators of cosmological parameters. Here we consider the ways in which weak gravitational lensing distorts the BAO signal. We find two effects that can affect the height of the BAO peak in the correlation function at the percent level but that do not significantly impact the position of the peak and the measurement of the sound horizon. BAO turn out to be robust cosmological standard rulers.
During 2006 May the first confirmed superoutburst of the dwarf nova V337 Cygni was observed using unfiltered CCD photometry. The outburst reached a peak magnitude of 15.2 on May 22 and lasted 13 days before the object returned to quiescence at around magnitude 20. Time-series photometry revealed superhumps with a period of 0.07012 +/- 0.00033d and amplitude 0.1 magnitude, thereby establishing for the first time its UGSU classification. Astrometry of V337 Cyg in outburst determined an accurate position and enabled the identity of the star in quiescence to be confirmed.
We investigate the effects of 1/f noise on the ability of a particular class of Cosmic Microwave Background experiments to measure the angular power spectrum of temperature anisotropy. We concentrate on experiments that operate primarily in raster-scan mode and develop formalism that allows us to calculate analytically the effect of 1/f noise on power spectrum sensitivity for this class of experiments and determine the benefits of raster-scanning at different angles relative to the sky field versus scanning at only a single angle (cross-linking versus not cross-linking). We find that the sensitivity of such experiments in the presence of 1/f noise is not significantly degraded at moderate spatial scales (l ~ 100) for reasonable values of scan speed and 1/f knee. We further find that the difference between cross-linked and non-cross-linked experiments is small in all cases and that the non-cross-linked experiments are preferred from a raw sensitivity standpoint in certain noise regimes.
Carignan et al. (2006) recently presented an extended HI rotation curve (RC) of M31, using single dish observations from the 100m Effelsberg and Green Bank telescopes. These observations were motivated by a comparison with previous HI data from Braun (1991) which presented a decreasing rotation curve as a function of radius. The single dish data were obtained along the semi-major axis of the approaching half of the M31 HI disk and showed a flat RC at large radius, extending up to ~35 kpc (using D=780 kpc). The kinematical analysis of M31 is pursued here and new deep 21cm observations obtained at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) are presented. A tilted-ring model is fitted to a new HI velocity field, allowing the derivation of the position angle and inclination as a function of radius. We concentrate on the approaching half of the disk. It is shown that the disk warping of M31 does not severely contaminate the kinematics of the neutral gas. As a consequence, the RC from the single dish data is in very good agreement with the newly derived RC.
The luminosity distance - redshift relation given analytically for a wide class of generalized Randall-Sundrum type II brane-world models with dark radiation in the companion Paper I is confronted with the presently available supernova data. The procedure selects a class of brane-worlds, fitting slightly better then the $\Lambda$CDM model. The model has dark radiation representing up to approximately 5 % of the total energy of the universe and therefore it can be regarded as a slight modification of the $\Lambda$CDM model. We show that this model becomes compatible with the known history of the Universe if in previous stages of cosmological evolution the brane radiates away energy into the bulk, thus the dark radiation is only a late-time characteristic. From the supernova data alone the preferred values of the cosmological parameters $\Omega_{\rho}=0.225$ and $\Omega_{\Lambda}=0.735$ emerge, the former being in full accordance with the WMAP 3-year data. The preferred value of the dark radiation parameter is $\Omega_{d}=0.04$.
We have mapped four regions of the southern Galactic plane at 31 GHz with the
Cosmic Background Imager. From the maps, we have extracted the flux densities
for six of the brightest \hii regions in the southern sky and compared them
with multi-frequency data from the literature. The fitted spectral index for
each source was found to be close to the theoretical value expected for
optically thin free-free emission, thus confirming that the majority of flux at
31 GHz is due to free-free emission from ionised gas with an electron
temperature of $\approx 7000-8000$ K. We also found that, for all six sources,
the 31 GHz flux density was slightly higher than the predicted value from data
in the literature. This excess emission could be due to spinning dust or
another emission mechanism. Comparisons with $100 \mu$m data indicate an
average dust emissivity of $3.3\pm1.7 mu$K (MJy/sr)$^{-1}$, or a 95 per cent
confidence limit of $<6.1 \mu$K (MJy/sr)$^{-1}$. This is lower than that found
in diffuse clouds at high Galactic latitudes by a factor of $\sim 3-4$. The
most significant detection ($3.3\sigma$) was found in $G284.3-0.3$ (RCW49) and
may account for up to $\approx 30$ per cent of the total flux density observed
at 31 GHz. Here, the dust emissivity of the excess emission is $13.6\pm4.2
\mu$K (MJy/sr)$^{-1}$ and is within the range observed at high Galactic
latitudes.
Low level polarised emission was observed in all six sources with
polarisation fractions in the range $0.3-0.6$ per cent. This is likely to be
mainly due to instrumental leakage and are therefore upper limits to the
free-free polarisation.
We present the results of a detailed spectroscopic analysis of 20 years of observations of AG Carinae using the radiative transfer code CMFGEN. Among the conclusions of this work, we highlight the importance of including time-dependent effects in the analysis of the full S Dor cycle. We obtained that the mass-loss rate is approximately constant during the cool phases, implying that the S Dor-type eruptions begin well earlier than the maximum seen in the visual lightcurve. We also determined that the S Dor cycles are ultimately a consequence of an increase/decrease of the hydrostatic radius in combination with the formation of a pseudo-photosphere.
The detection of neutrinos from SN 1987A by the Kamiokande-II and Irvine-Michigan-Brookhaven detectors provided the first glimpse of core collapse in a supernova, complementing the optical observations and confirming our basic understanding of the mechanism behind the explosion. One long-standing puzzle is that, when fitted with thermal spectra, the two independent detections do not seem to agree with either each other or typical theoretical expectations. We assess the compatibility of the two data sets in a model-independent way and show that they can be reconciled if one avoids any bias on the neutrino spectrum stemming from theoretical conjecture. We reconstruct the neutrino spectrum from SN 1987A directly from the data through non-parametric inferential statistical methods and present predictions for the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background based on SN 1987A data. We show that this prediction cannot be too small (especially in the 10-18 MeV range), since the majority of the detected events from SN 1987 were above 18 MeV (including 6 above 35 MeV), suggesting an imminent detection in operational and planned detectors.