Recent work suggests that Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are composed of two distinct populations: prompt and delayed. By explicitly incorporating properties of host galaxies, it may be possible to target and eliminate systematic differences between the putative prompt and delayed populations. However, any resulting {\em post}-calibration shift in luminosity between the components will cause a redshift-dependent systematic shift in the Hubble diagram. Utilizing an existing sample of 192 SNe, we find that the average luminosity difference between prompt and delayed SNe is constrained to be $(4.5 \pm 8.9)%$. Using mock catalogs we show that, if the absolute difference between the two populations is 0.025 mag, and this is ignored when fitting for cosmological parameters with a sample of 2300 SNe, then the dark energy equation of state (EOS) is biased at $\sim1\sigma$. If this same 2300 SN sample is fit allowing for the possibility of a two-population systematic, then the bias is eliminated. However, assuming no prior on the strength of the two-population effect, the uncertainty in the best-fit EOS is increased by a factor of 2.5, when compared to the equivalent sample with no underlying two-population systematic. To avoid introducing a bias in the EOS parameters, or significantly degrading dark energy measurement accuracy, it is necessary to control the post-calibration luminosity difference between prompt and delayed SN populations to better than 0.025 mag.
Hot, underdense bubbles powered by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are likely to play a key role in halting catastrophic cooling in the centers of cool-core galaxy clusters. We present three-dimensional simulations that capture the evolution of such bubbles, using an adaptive-mesh hydrodynamic code, FLASH3, to which we have added a subgrid model of turbulence and mixing. While pure-hydro simulations indicate that AGN bubbles are disrupted into resolution-dependent pockets of underdense gas, proper modeling of subgrid turbulence indicates that this a poor approximation to a turbulent cascade that continues far beyond the resolution limit. Instead, Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities act to effectively mix the heated region with its surroundings, while at the same time preserving it as a coherent structure, consistent with observations. Thus bubbles are transformed into hot clouds of mixed material as they move outwards in the hydrostatic intracluster medium (ICM), much as large airbursts lead to a distinctive ``mushroom cloud'' structure as they rise in the hydrostatic atmosphere of Earth. Properly capturing the evolution of such clouds has important implications for many ICM properties. In particular, it significantly changes the impact of AGN on the distribution of entropy and metals in cool-core clusters such as Perseus.
We present stellar population modeling results for 11 newly discovered Lyman alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs), as well as four previously known LAEs at z ~ 4.5 in the Chandra Deep Field -- South. We fit stellar population models to these objects in order to learn specifically if there exists more than one class of LAE. Past observational and theoretical evidence has shown that while many LAEs appear to be young, they may be much older, with Lyman alpha EWs enhanced due to resonant scattering of Lyman alpha photons in a clumpy interstellar medium (ISM). Our results show a large range of stellar population age (3 - 500 Myr), stellar mass (1.6 x 10^8 - 5.0 x 10^10 solar masses) and dust extinction (A_1200 = 0.3 - 4.5 mag), broadly consistent with previous studies. With such a large number of individually analyzed objects, we have looked at the distribution of stellar population ages in LAEs for the first time, and we find a very interesting bimodality, in that our objects are either very young (< 15 Myr) or old (> 450 Myr). This bimodality may be caused by dust, and it could explain the Lyman alpha duty cycle which has been proposed in the literature. We find that eight of the young objects also require a clumpy ISM to fit their observed SEDs. We find that dust geometry plays a large role in shaping the SEDs that we observe, and that it may be a major factor in the observed Lyman alpha equivalent width distribution in high redshift Lyman alpha galaxies. We conclude that 13 out of our 15 LAEs are dusty starbursts, with the other two LAEs being evolved galaxies.
Ribas and collaborators have recently proposed that an additional, ~5 M_earth planet orbits the transiting planet host star GJ436. Long-term dynamical interactions between the two planets leading to eccentricity excitation might provide an explanation for the transiting planet's unexpectedly large orbital eccentricity. In this paper we examine whether the existence of such a second planet is supported by the available observational data when the short-term interactions that would result from its presence are accounted for. We find that the model for the system suggested by Ribas and collaborators lead to predictions that are strongly inconsistent with the measured host star radial velocities, transiting planet primary and secondary eclipse times, and transiting planet orbital inclinations. A search for an alternative two planet model that is consistent with the data yields a number of plausible solutions, although no single one stands out as particularly unique by giving a significantly better fit to the data than the nominal single planet model. We conclude from this study that Ribas and collaborator's general hypothesis of an additional short-period planet in the GJ436 system is still plausible, but that there is not sufficient evidence to support their claim of a planet detection.
We present the first use of the Gemini North laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) system and an integral field unit (IFU) to measure the stellar velocity dispersion of the host of a luminous quasar. The quasar PG1426+015 (z=0.086) was observed with the Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrometer (NIFS) on the 8m Gemini North telescope in the H-band as part of the Science Verification phase of the new ALTAIR LGS AO system. The NIFS IFU and LGS AO are well suited for host studies of luminous quasars because one can achieve a large ratio of host to quasar light. We have measured the stellar velocity dispersion of PG1426+015 from 0.1'' to 1'' (0.16 kpc to 1.6 kpc) to be 217+/-15 km/s based on high signal-to-noise ratio measurements of Si I, Mg I, and several CO bandheads. This new measurement is a factor of four more precise than a previous measurement obtained with long-slit spectroscopy and good, natural seeing, yet was obtained with a shorter net integration time. We find that PG1426+015 has a velocity dispersion that places it significantly above the M-sigma relation of quiescent galaxies and lower-luminosity active galactic nuclei with black hole masses estimated from reverberation mapping. We discuss several possible explanations for this discrepancy that could be addressed with similar observations of a larger sample of luminous quasars.
Recent improvements in the capabilities of low frequency radio telescopes provide a unique opportunity to study thermal and non-thermal properties of the cosmic web. We argue that the diffuse, polarized emission from giant radio relics traces structure formation shock waves and illuminates the large-scale magnetic field. To show this, we model the population of shock-accelerated relativistic electrons in high-resolution cosmological simulations of galaxy clusters and calculate the resulting radio synchrotron emission. We find that the sensitive observations possible with upcoming telescopes should find more low-luminosity relics, and that the luminosities and number counts of the relics strongly depend on the cluster mass and dynamical state. By suitably combining different cluster data, including Faraday rotation measures, we are able to measure the underlying properties of the plasma at the structure formation shocks, including properties that are degenerate in current measurements. We also predict properties of the warm-hot intergalactic medium, such as its temperature and density. The luminosity function of cluster relics depends strongly on the magnetic field properties, cluster mass and dynamical state. We find that individual shock waves correspond to localized peaks in the radio surface brightness map. In the best cases, the associated radio observables enable us to extract unique physical properties of the formation shocks, such as Mach numbers, the turbulent spectra of the magnetic field, and the energy densities of shock-accelerated electrons. We predict that the current generation of radio telescopes (LOFAR, GMRT, MWA, LWA) have the potential to discover a substantially larger sample of radio relics, with multiple relics expected for each violently merging cluster. ABRIDGED
We present the first results from our GALEX program designed to obtain ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy of nearby core-collapse supernovae (SNe). Our first target, SN 2005ay in the nearby galaxy NGC 3938, is a typical member of the II-P SN subclass. Our spectra show remarkable similarity to those of the prototypical type II-P event SN 1999em, and resemble also Swift observations of the recent type II-P event SN 2005cs. Taken together, the observations of these three events trace the UV spectral evolution of SNe II-P during the first month after explosion, as required in order to interpret optical observations of high-redshift SNe II-P, and to derive cross-filter K-corrections. While still highly preliminary, the apparent UV homogeneity of SNe II-P bodes well for the use of these events as cosmological probes at high redshift.
e present and analyze the correlations between mid-infrared (MIR), far-infrared (FIR), total-infrared (TIR), H$\alpha$, and FUV luminosities for star-forming galaxies, composite galaxies and AGNs, based on a large sample of galaxies selected from the $Spitzer$ SWIRE fields. The MIR luminosities of star-forming galaxies are well correlated with their H$\alpha$, TIR and FUV luminosities, and we re-scaled the MIR-derived SFR formulae according to the above correlations with differences less than 15%. We confirm the recent result by calzetti et al. (2007) that the combined observed H$\alpha$ + 24$\mu$m luminosities L(H$\alpha$$_{\rm obs}$+ 24$\mu$m) possess very tight correlation with the extinction-corrected H$\alpha$ luminosities L(H$\alpha$$\_$corr) for star-forming and even for dwarf galaxies, and show that the combined L(H$\alpha$$_{\rm obs}$+ 8$\mu$m[dust]) are also tightly correlated with L(H$\alpha$$\_$corr) for the above sample galaxies. Among all the L(MIR)-L(FIR) correlations for star-forming galaxies, the L(24$\mu$m) vs. L(70$\mu$m) and L(8$\mu$m[dust]) vs. L(160$\mu$m) are the tightest and also nearly linear. The former could be related to young massive star formation, while the latter might be relevant to diffuse dust emissions heated by old stellar populations. Composite galaxies and AGNs have higher MIR-to-H$\alpha$/MIR-to-FUV luminosity ratios than star-forming galaxies, nevertheless their correlations among MIR, FIR and TIR luminosities are completely following those of star-forming galaxies.
We revisit the Milky Way satellite problem using a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation and compare the predicted luminosity function to recent result from the SDSS. With cosmic photoionization, the luminosity function can be brought into broad agreement with the data between $-15< M_{V} <-2$. This improvement over previous semi-analytical model results (e.g., Benson et al.2002) is from our adoption of improved models for galaxy merger history and galaxy merging time-scales. The very faint satellites ($M_{v} > -5$) formed in halos with virial temperature over $10^{4}K$ (mass around $10^{9} M_{\odot}$ before accretion), but their baryon content are strongly suppressed by photoionization. We model the mass evolution of the subhalos, and compare the predicted mass-to-light ratio with the data. We find that the measured total mass inside the luminous radii of satellites are about 5% of their present total dark matter mass.
We use the radiative transfer code PHOENIX to study the line formation of the wavelength region 5000-7000 Angstroms. This is the region where the SNe Ia defining Si II feature occurs. This region is important since the ratio of the two nearby silicon lines has been shown to correlate with the absolute blue magnitude. We use a grid of LTE synthetic spectral models to investigate the formation of line features in the spectra of SNe Ia. By isolating the main contributors to the spectral formation we show that the ions that drive the spectral ratio are Fe III, Fe II, Si II, and S II. While the first two strongly dominate the flux transfer, the latter two form in the same physical region inside of the supernova. We also show that the naive blackbody that one would derive from a fit to the observed spectrum is far different than the true underlying continuum.
The recently launched GLAST satellite is expected to find out if cosmic-ray (CR) protons are generated at supernova remnants, especially at RX J1713.7-3946, by observing the GeV-to-TeV gamma-rays. We show, however, that if the nonlinear effects of CR acceleration are considered, it may be impossible to distinguish the evidence of the proton acceleration from leptonic one in the gamma-ray spectrum. On the other hand, future km^3-class neutrino observations will find a clear evidence of the proton acceleration.
We consider to what extent the long-term dynamics of cyclic solar activity in the form of Grand Minima can be associated with random fluctuations of the parameters governing the solar dynamo. We consider fluctuations of the alpha-coefficient in the conventional Parker migratory dynamo, and also in slightly more sophisticated dynamo models, and demonstrate that they can mimic the gross features of the phenomenon of the occurrence of Grand Minima over a suitable parameter range. The temporal distribution of these Grand Minima appears chaotic, with a more or less exponential waiting time distribution, typical of Poisson processes. In contrast however, the available reconstruction of Grand Minima statistics based on cosmogenic isotope data demonstrates substantial deviations from this exponential law. We were unable to reproduce the non-Poissonic tail of the waiting time distribution either in the framework of a simple alpha-quenched Parker model, or in its straightforward generalization, nor in simple models with feedback on the differential rotation. We suggest that the disagreement may only be apparent and is plausibly related to the limited observational data, and that the observations and results of numerical modeling can be consistent and represent physically similar dynamo regimes.
The curvature effect is explored in the case of extremely short intrinsic emission. Assuming a $\delta$ function emission we get formulas that get rid of the impacts from the intrinsic emission duration, which are applicable to any forms of continuum. The formulas predict that the same form of spectrum could be observed at different times, with the peak energy of the spectrum shifting from higher energy bands to lower bands following $E_{peak}\propto t^{-1}$. When the emission is early enough the light curve in the form $f_{\nu }(t)t^{2}$ will possess exactly the intrinsic spectral form, for which the temporal power law index and the spectral power law index will be related by $\alpha =2+\beta $. The analysis shows that there do exist a temporal steep decay phase and a spectral softening which occur simultaneously, and both are caused by the shifting of the Band function spectrum. According to the analysis, we predict that the softening due to the curvature effect will appear at different frequencies; it occurs earlier for higher frequencies and later for lower frequencies; the maximum spectral index time follows the $t_{b,max}\propto \nu^{-1}$ law. We also find: the softening duration would be linearly correlated with the maximum spectral index time; the observed $\beta_{min}$ and $\beta_{max}$ are determined by the low and high energy indexes of the observed Band function spectrum. We propose to check the curvature effect with the $\log f_{\nu}(t)t^{3}$ vs. $log t$ curve which would be in agreement with the $\log \nu f_{\nu}$ vs. $log \nu$ curve. Applying this to GRB 060614 shows that the peak energy of its observed spectrum is expected to pass through the observation band at $\sim $175 s.
Observations of Kepler's supernova remnant (G4.5+6.8) with the H.E.S.S. telescope array in 2004 and 2005 with a total live time of 13 h are presented. Stereoscopic imaging of Cherenkov radiation from extensive air showers is used to reconstruct the energy and direction of the incident gamma rays. No evidence for a very high energy (VHE: >100 GeV) gamma-ray signal from the direction of the remnant is found. An upper limit (99% confidence level) on the energy flux in the range 230 GeV - 12.8 TeV of 8.6 x 10^{-13} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} is obtained. In the context of an existing theoretical model for the remnant, the lack of a detectable gamma-ray flux implies a distance of at least 6.4 kpc. A corresponding upper limit for the density of the ambient matter of 0.7 cm^{-3} is derived. With this distance limit, and assuming a spectral index Gamma = 2, the total energy in accelerated protons is limited to E_p < 8.6 x 10^{49} erg. In the synchrotron/inverse Compton framework, extrapolating the power law measured by RXTE between 10 and 20 keV down in energy, the predicted gamma-ray flux from inverse Compton scattering is below the measured upper limit for magnetic field values greater than 52 muG.
Fully relativistic calculations of radiative rates and electron impact excitation cross sections for Fe X are used to derive theoretical emission-line ratios involving transitions in the 174-366 A wavelength range. A comparison of these with solar active region observations obtained during the 1989 and 1995 flights of the Solar Extreme-ultraviolet Research Telescope and Spectrograph (SERTS) reveals generally very good agreement between theory and experiment. Several Fe X emission features are detected for the first time in SERTS spectra, while the transition at 195.32 A is identified for the first time (to our knowledge) in an astronomical source. The most useful Fe X electron density diagnostic line ratios are assessed to be 175.27/174.53 and 175.27/177.24, which both involve lines close in wavelength and free from blends, vary by factors of 13 between Ne = 1E8 and 1E13 cm-3, and yet show little temperature sensitivity. Should these lines not be available, then the 257.25/345.74 ratio may be employed to determine Ne, although this requires an accurate evaluation of the instrument intensity calibration over a relatively large wavelength range. However, if the weak 324.73 A line of Fe X is reliably detected, the use of 324.73/345.74 or 257.25/324.73 is recommended over 257.25/345.74.
R-mode instabilities lead to specific signatures in the evolution of rotating
pulsars, and may provide a unique signature which can identify the phase of
matter that exists in the interiors of such objects.
The contributions of quarks' bulk and shear viscosities to the dissipation of
r-mode instabilities are studied. It is shown that (contrary to earlier works)
the quark contribution is \emph{not} fully suppressed in the presence of fully
gapped color-superconducting phase due to the fact that the bulk viscosity is a
resonance effect between the density oscillation on one side, and the
interaction rates that try to restore $\beta$-equilibrium during these
oscillations on the other. This will have an effect on the structure of the
r-mode instability window and will affect the angular momentum evolution of
pulsars.
Context. The study of high redshift Tully-Fisher relations (TFRs) is limited by the use of long slit spectrographs, rest frame B band and star formation selected galaxies. Aims. We try to circumvent these issues by using integral field spectroscopy (SINFONI), by studying the rest frame K band and stellar mass TFR, and by selecting targets without a bias to strongly star forming galaxies. In this paper, we demonstrate our methods on our best case. This galaxy, F257, at z=2.03, was selecte from a sample of candidate high redshift large disk galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field South that were selected with photometric and morphological criteria. Methods. We used SINFONI at the VLT to obtain an integral field spectrum of the Halpha line and hence a velocity field and rotation curve. We also use UBVIJHK+IRAC band photometry to determine a stellar photometric mass. Results. We find that F257 is indistinguishable from local late type galaxies in many respects: it has a regular velocity field, increasing velocity disperion towards its center, its rotation curve flattens at 1-2 disk scale lengths, it has the same specific angular momentum as local disks, its properties are consistent with the local K band TFR. Although mainly rotationally supported, its gas component is dynamically heated with respect to local galaxies (V/sigma_z ~ 4) and it is offset from the local stellar mass TFR at the 2sigma level. But, this offset depends on the SED modeling parameters. In particular, for a 2-component star formation history (SFH), F257 is in agreement with the local stellar mass TFR. F257 is then a nearly (~75%) maximum disk. The dynamical properties of F257 are more like those of local galaxies than those of any other galaxy at similar redshift observed to date. However, the gas-to-stellar mass ratio is unusally large: 2.5.
We present optical polarization maps of a sample of four interacting pairs at different phases of encounter, from nearly unperturbed galaxies to on-going mergers. Only the pair RR 24 shows a linear polarization pattern which extends in both galaxies for several kiloparsecs. The more perturbed member, RR 24b, is lineraly polarized up to the level of ~3%. No polarization is measured in the strongly perturbed late-type pair members of RR 23 and RR 99. Also, in the central part of the double nuclei shell galaxy ESO 2400100 there is no significant polarization. We use the ionized gas velocity field of RR 24 to interpret its linear polarization structure. In RR 24a the quite regular gas kinematics reflect the unperturbed spiral-like polarization structure. In RR 24b a strong velocity gradient in ionized gas could be associated with the polarization structure. We suggest that the large-scale magnetic field of the RR 24 pair members still plays a role in shaping the polarization pattern.
In 2005, Scholz and collaborators (Scholz et al. 2005) discovered, in a proper motion survey, a young brown dwarf SSSPMJ1102-3431(SSSPMJ1102) of spectral type M8.5, probable member of the TW Hydrae Association (TWA) and possible companion of the T Tauri star TW Hya. The physical characterization of SSSPMJ1102 was based on the hypothesis that it forms a binary system with TW Hya. The recent discovery of a probable giant planet inside the TW Hya protoplanetary disk with a very short-period (Setiawan et al. 2008) and a disk around SSSPMJ1102 (Riaz and Gizis 2008) make it especially interesting and important to measure well the physical parameters of SSSPMJ1102. Trigonometric parallax and proper motion measurements of SSSPMJ1102 are necessary to test for TWA membership and, thus, to determine the mass and age of this young brown dwarf and the possibility that it forms a wide binary system with TW Hya. Two years of regular observations at the ESO NTT/SUSI2 telescope, have enabled us to determine the trigonometric parallax and proper motion of SSSPMJ1102. Our parallax and proper motion determination allow us to precisely describe the physical properties of this low mass object and to confirm its TWA membership. Our results are not incompatible with the hypothesis that SSSPMJ1102 is a binary companion of the star TW Hya.
We aim to extend and test the classifiers presented in a previous work against an independent dataset. We complement the assessment of the validity of the classifiers by applying them to the set of OGLE light curves treated as variable objects of unknown class. The results are compared to published classification results based on the so-called extractor methods.Two complementary analyses are carried out in parallel. In both cases, the original time series of OGLE observations of the Galactic bulge and Magellanic Clouds are processed in order to identify and characterize the frequency components. In the first approach, the classifiers are applied to the data and the results analyzed in terms of systematic errors and differences between the definition samples in the training set and in the extractor rules. In the second approach, the original classifiers are extended with colour information and, again, applied to OGLE light curves. We have constructed a classification system that can process huge amounts of time series in negligible time and provide reliable samples of the main variability classes. We have evaluated its strengths and weaknesses and provide potential users of the classifier with a detailed description of its characteristics to aid in the interpretation of classification results. Finally, we apply the classifiers to obtain object samples of classes not previously studied in the OGLE database and analyse the results. We pay specific attention to the B-stars in the samples, as their pulsations are strongly dependent on metallicity.
The atmospheric properties above three sites (Dome C, Dome A and the South Pole) on the Internal Antarctic Plateau are investigated for astronomical applications using the monthly median of the analyses from ECMWF (the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). Radiosoundings extended on a yearly time scale at the South Pole and Dome C are used to quantify the reliability of the ECMWF analyses in the free atmosphere as well as in the boundary and surface layers, and to characterize the median wind speed in the first 100 m above the two sites. Thermodynamic instability properties in the free atmosphere above the three sites are quantified with monthly median values of the Richardson number. We find that the probability to trigger thermodynamic instabilities above 100 m is smaller on the Internal Antarctic Plateau than on mid-latitude sites. In spite of the generally more stable atmospheric conditions of the Antarctic sites compared to mid-latitude sites, Dome C shows worse thermodynamic instability conditions than those predicted above the South Pole and Dome A above 100 m. A rank of the Antarctic sites done with respect to the strength of the wind speed in the free atmosphere (ECMWF analyses) as well as the wind shear in the surface layer (radiosoundings) is presented.
We show that the mechanical energy injection rate generated as the intra-cluster medium (ICM) flows around cold clouds may be sufficient to power the optical and near infra-red emission of nebulae observed in the central regions of a sample of seven galaxy clusters. The energy injection rate is extremely sensitive to the velocity difference between the ICM and cold clouds, which may help to explain why optical and infra-red luminosity is often larger than expected in systems containing AGNs. We also find that mass recycling is likely to be important for the dynamics of the ICM. This effect will be strongest in the central regions of clusters where there is more than enough cold gas for its evaporation to contribute significantly to the density of the hot phase.
We measure the nitrogen abundance in 5 Turn Off(TO) stars of the Globular Clusters NGC 6397 and NGC 6752, and compare the cluster abundances with those of field stars of comparable metallicity. We determine the nitrogen abundance from the band head system at 3360 \AA, using spectra of resolution R=45000 obtained with the UVES spectrograph on the VLT. We apply the same method previously used on field stars, to allow a direct comparison of the results. Nitrogen is found to have the same abundance in two of the NGC 6397 stars, in spite of a difference of one order of magnitude in oxygen abundance between them. In a third star of NGC 6397 the value is slightly lower, but compatible with the other two, within the uncertainties. All the stars in NGC 6397 are N-rich with respect to field objects of similar metallicity. The two stars in NGC 6752 show a difference in nitrogen abundance by over one order of magnitude. The same stars differ in the abundances of other elements such as Na, O and Li, only by a factor 3-4. The behaviour of N is different in the two clusters: no variation is observed NGC 6397, while a large variation is observed in NGC 6752. This is consistent with a picture in which the stars in NGC 6752 have been formed by a mixture of ``pristine'' material and material which has been processed by an early generation of stars, referred to as ``polluters''. The N abundances here reported will help to constrain the properties of the polluters. In the case of NGC 6397 a simple pollution history is probably not viable, since the observed variations in O abundances are not accompanied by corresponding variations in N or Li.
Using data from the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source Catalogue, we have extended our census of nearby ultracool dwarfs to cover the full celestial sphere above Galactic latitute 15 degrees. Starting with an initial catalogue of 2,139,484 sources, we have winnowed the sample to 467 candidate late-type M or L dwarfs within 20 parsecs of the Sun. Fifty-four of those sources already have spectroscopic observations confirming them as late-type dwarfs. We present optical spectroscopy of 376 of the remaining 413 sources, and identify 44 as ultracool dwarfs with spectroscopic distances less than 20 parsecs. Twenty-five of the 37 sources that lack optical data have near-infrared spectroscopy. Combining the present sample with our previous results and data from the literature, we catalogue 94 L dwarf systems within 20 parsecs. We discuss the distribution of activity, as measured by H-alpha emission, in this volume-limited sample. We have coupled the present ultracool catalogue with data for stars in the northern 8-parsec sample and recent (incomplete) statistics for T dwarfs to provide a snapshot of the current 20-parsec census as a function of spectral type.
We analyse f(R) modifications of Einstein's gravity as dark energy models in the light of their connection with chameleon theories. Formulated as scalar-tensor theories, the f(R) theories imply the existence of a strong coupling of the scalar field to matter. This would violate all experimental gravitational tests on deviations from Newton's law. Fortunately, the existence of a matter dependent mass and a thin shell effect allows one to alleviate these constraints. The thin shell condition also implies strong restrictions on the cosmological dynamics of the f(R) theories. As a consequence, we find that the equation of state of dark energy in the recent past is constrained to be extremely close to -1. We also examine the potential effects of f(R) theories in the context of the Eot-wash experiments. We show that the requirement of a thin shell for the test bodies is not enough to guarantee a null result on deviations from Newton's law. The constraints which we deduce also forbid any measurable deviation of the dark energy equation of state from -1. All in all, we find that both cosmological and laboratory tests imply that f(R) models are almost coincident with a Lambda-CDM model at the background level.
For a decade, N-body simulations have revealed a nearly universal dark matter density profile, which appears to be robust to changes in the overall density of the universe and the underlying power spectrum. Despite its universality, the physical origin of this profile has not yet been well understood. Semi--analytic models by Barnes et al. (2005) have suggested that the density structure of dark matter halos is determined by the onset of the radial orbit instability (ROI). We have tested this hypothesis using N-body simulations of collapsing dark matter halos with a variety of initial conditions. For dynamically cold initial conditions, the resulting halo structures are triaxial in shape, due to the mild aspect of the instability. We examine how variations in initial velocity dispersion affect the onset of the instability, and find that an isotropic velocity dispersion can suppress the ROI entirely, while a purely radial dispersion does not. The quantity sigma^2/vc^2 is a criterion for instability, where regions with sigma^2/vc^2 <~1 become triaxial due to the ROI or other perturbations. We also find that the radial orbit instability sets a scale length at which the velocity dispersion changes rapidly from isotropic to radially anisotropic. This scale length is proportional to the radius at which the density profile changes shape, as is the case in the semi--analytic models; however, the coefficient of proportionality is different by a factor of ~2.5. We conclude that the radial orbit instability is likely to be a key physical mechanism responsible for the nearly universal profiles of simulated dark matter halos.
Numerical simulations with self-similar initial and boundary conditions provide a link between theoretical and numerical investigations of jet dynamics. We perform axisymmetric resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations for a generalised solution of the Blandford & Payne type, and compare them with the corresponding analytical and numerical ideal-MHD solutions. We disentangle the effects of the numerical and physical diffusivity. The latter could occur in outflows above an accretion disk, being transferred from the underlying disk into the disk corona by MHD turbulence (anomalous turbulent diffusivity), or as a result of ambipolar diffusion in partially ionized flows. We conclude that while the classical magnetic Reynolds number $R_{\rm m}$ measures the importance of resistive effects in the induction equation, a new introduced number, $\rbeta=(\beta/2)R_{\rm m}$ with $\beta$ the plasma beta, measures the importance of the resistive effects in the energy equation. Thus, in magnetised jets with $\beta<2$, when $\rbeta \la 1$ resistive effects are non-negligible and affect mostly the energy equation. The presented simulations indeed show that for a range of magnetic diffusivities corresponding to $\rbeta \ga 1$ the flow remains close to the ideal-MHD self-similar solution.
We consider accretion of matter onto a low mass black hole surrounded by ionized medium. We show that, because of higher mobility of protons than electrons, the black hole would acquire positive electric charge. If the black hole's mass is about or below $10^{20}$ g, the electric field at the horizon can reach the critical value which leads to vacuum instability and electron--positron pair production by the Schwinger mechanism. Since the positrons are ejected by the emergent electric field, while electrons are back--captured, the black hole operates as an antimatter factory which effectively converts protons into positrons.
We use the COMPLETE Survey's observations of the Perseus star-forming region to assess and intercompare three methods for measuring column density in molecular clouds: extinction mapping (NIR); thermal emission mapping (FIR); and mapping the intensity of CO isotopologues. The structures shown by all three tracers are morphologically similar, but important differences exist. Dust-based measures give similar, log-normal, distributions for the full Perseus region, once careful calibration corrections are made. We also compare dust- and gas-based column density distributions for physically-meaningful sub-regions of Perseus, and we find significant variations in the distributions for those regions. Even though we have used 12CO data to estimate excitation temperatures, and we have corrected for opacity, the 13CO maps seem unable to give column distributions that consistently resemble those from dust measures. We have edited out the effects of the shell around the B-star HD 278942. In that shell's interior and in the parts where it overlaps the molecular cloud, there appears to be a dearth of 13CO, likely due either to 13CO not yet having had time to form in this young structure, and/or destruction of 13CO in the molecular cloud by the HD 278942's wind and/or radiation. We conclude that the use of either dust or gas measures of column density without extreme attention to calibration and artifacts is more perilous than even experts might normally admit. And, the use of 13CO data to trace total column density in detail, even after proper calibration, is unavoidably limited in utility due to threshold, depletion, and opacity effects. Linear fits amongst tracers' estimates of column density are given, allowing us to quantify the inherent uncertainties in using one tracer, in comparison with the others. [abridged]
Recent work on abundance gradients have focussed not only on their magnitudes, but also on their spatial and temporal variations. In this work, we analyze the behaviour of radial abundance gradients in the galactic disk giving special emphasis on these variations. The data used includes planetary nebulae and objects in different age brackets, namely open clusters, HII regions, cepheid variables and stars in OB associations. We find evidences for a space variation of the radial gradients as measured for element ratios such as O/H, S/H, Ne/H, Ar/H and [Fe/H], in the sense that the gradients tend to flatten out at large galactocentric distances. Moreover, near the bulge-disk interface a steep decrease in the abundances is observed. The time evolution of the gradients is also evaluated on the basis of approximate ages attributed to the central stars of planetary nebulae and open cluster stars. It is concluded that the available data is consistent with a time flattening of the gradients during the last 6 to 8 Gyr, a time interval in which the age determinations are probably more accurate.
We study, via numerical experiments, the role of bound states in the evolution of cosmic superstring networks, being composed by p F-strings, q D-strings and (p,q) bound states. We find robust evidence for scaling of all three components of the network, independently of initial conditions. The novelty of our numerical approach consists of having control over the initial abundance of bound states. This indeed allows us to identify the effect of bound states on the evolution of the network. Our studies also clearly show the existence of an additional energy loss mechanism, resulting to a lower overall string network energy, and thus scaling of the network. This new mechanism consists of the formation of bound states with an increasing length.
We show that within the inverse seesaw mechanism for generating neutrino masses minimal supergravity is more likely to have a sneutrino as the lightest superparticle than the conventional neutralino. We also demonstrate that such schemes naturally reconcile the small neutrino masses with the correct relic sneutrino dark matter abundance and accessible direct detection rates in nuclear recoil experiments.
Considering gravitino dark matter scenarios with a long-lived charged slepton, we show that collider measurements of the slepton mass and its lifetime can probe not only the gravitino mass but also the post-inflationary reheating temperature TR. In a model independent way, we derive upper limits on TR and discuss them in light of the constraints from the primordial catalysis of ^6Li through bound-state effects. In the collider-friendly region of slepton masses below 1 TeV, the obtained conservative estimate of the maximum reheating temperature is about TR=3\times 10^9 GeV for the limiting case of a small gluino-slepton mass splitting and about TR=10^8 GeV for the case that is typical for universal soft supersymmetry breaking parameters at the scale of grand unification. We find that a determination of the gluino-slepton mass ratio at the Large Hadron Collider will test the possibility of TR>10^9 GeV and thereby the viability of thermal leptogenesis.
We analyze macroscopic effects of TeV-scale black holes, such as could possibly be produced at the LHC, in what is regarded as an extremely hypothetical scenario in which they are stable and, if trapped inside Earth, begin to accrete matter. We examine a wide variety of TeV-scale gravity scenarios, basing the resulting accretion models on first-principles, basic, and well-tested physical laws. These scenarios fall into two classes, depending on whether accretion could have any macroscopic effect on the Earth at times shorter than the Sun's natural lifetime. We argue that cases with such effect at shorter times than the solar lifetime are ruled out, since in these scenarios black holes produced by cosmic rays impinging on much denser white dwarfs and neutron stars would then catalyze their decay on timescales incompatible with their known lifetimes. We also comment on relevant lifetimes for astronomical objects that capture primordial black holes. In short, this study finds no basis for concerns that TeV-scale black holes from the LHC could pose a risk to Earth on time scales shorter than the Earth's natural lifetime. Indeed, conservative arguments based on detailed calculations and the best-available scientific knowledge, including solid astronomical data, conclude, from multiple perspectives, that there is no risk of any significance whatsoever from such black holes.
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We present an integrated study of star formation and galactic stellar mass assembly from z=0.05-1.5 and galactic metallicity evolution from z=0.05-0.9 using a very large and highly spectroscopically complete sample selected by rest-frame NIR bolometric flux in the GOODS-N. We assume a Salpeter IMF and fit Bruzual & Charlot (2003) models to compute the galactic stellar masses and extinctions. We determine the expected formed stellar mass density growth rates produced by star formation and compare them with the growth rates measured from the formed stellar mass functions by mass interval. We show that the growth rates match if the IMF is slightly increased from the Salpeter IMF at intermediate masses (~10 solar masses). We investigate the evolution of galaxy color, spectral type, and morphology with mass and redshift and the evolution of mass with environment. We find that applying extinction corrections is critical when analyzing galaxy colors; e.g., nearly all of the galaxies in the green valley are 24um sources, but after correcting for extinction, the bulk of the 24um sources lie in the blue cloud. We find an evolution of the metallicity-mass relation corresponding to a decrease of 0.21+/-0.03 dex between the local value and the value at z=0.77 in the 1e10-1e11 solar mass range. We use the metallicity evolution to estimate the gas mass of the galaxies, which we compare with the galactic stellar mass assembly and star formation histories. Overall, our measurements are consistent with a galaxy evolution process dominated by episodic bursts of star formation and where star formation in the most massive galaxies (>1e11 solar masses) ceases at z<1.5 because of gas starvation. (Abstract abridged)
We utilize the local velocity dispersion function (VDF) of spheroids, together with their inferred age--distributions, to predict the VDF at higher redshifts (0<z<6), under the assumption that (i) most of the stars in each nearby spheroid formed in a single episode, and (ii) the velocity dispersion sigma remained nearly constant afterward. We assume further that a supermassive black hole (BH) forms concurrently with the stars, and within ~1 Gyr of the formation of the potential well of the spheroid, and that the relation between the mass of the BH and host velocity dispersion maintains the form M_BH ~ sigma^{beta} with beta~4, but with the normalization allowed to evolve with redshift as ~(1+z)^{alpha}. We compute the BH mass function associated with the VDF at each redshift, and compare the accumulated total BH mass density with that inferred from the integrated quasar luminosity function (LF; the so--called Soltan argument). This comparison is insensitive to the assumed duty cycle or Eddington ratio of quasar activity, and we find that the match between the two BH mass densities favors a relatively mild redshift evolution, with alpha ~ 0.26, with a positive evolution as strong as alpha>1.3 excluded at the 99% confidence level. A direct match between the characteristic BH mass in the VDF--based and quasar LF--based BH mass functions also yields a mean Eddington ratio of lambda ~ 0.5-1 that is roughly constant within 0<z<3. A strong positive evolution in the M_BH-sigma relation is still allowed by the data if galaxies increase, on average, their velocity dispersions since the moment of formation, due to dissipative processes. If we assume that the mean velocity dispersion of the host galaxies evolves as sigma(z)=sigma(0)*(1+z)^{-gamma}, we find a lower limit of gamma>0.23 for alpha>1.5. abridged
We present the results of a numerical study on the effects of metal enrichment and metal cooling on galaxy formation and cosmic star formation (SF) history using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. We find following differences in the simulation with metal cooling when compared to the run without it: (1) the cosmic star formation rate (SFR) is enhanced by about 50 & 20% at z=1 & 3, respectively; (2) the gas mass fraction in galaxies is lower; (3) the total baryonic mass function (gas + star) at z=3 does not differ significantly, but shows an increase in the number of relatively massive galaxies at z=1; (4) the baryonic mass fraction of intergalactic medium (IGM) is reduced at z<3 due to more efficient cooling and gas accretion onto galaxies. Our results suggest that the metal cooling enhances the galaxy growth by two different mechanisms: (1) increase of SF efficiency in the local interstellar medium (ISM), and (2) increase of IGM accretion onto galaxies. The former process is effective throughout most of the cosmic history, while the latter is effective only at z<3 when the IGM is sufficiently enriched by metals owing to feedback.
The abundance and distribution of collapsed objects such as galaxy clusters will become an important tool to investigate the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Number counts of very massive objects are sensitive not only to the equation of state of dark energy, which parametrizes the smooth component of its pressure, but also to the sound speed of dark energy as well, which determines the amount of pressure in inhomogeneous and collapsed structures. Since the evolution of these structures must be followed well into the nonlinear regime, and a fully relativistic framework for this regime does not exist yet, we compare two approximate schemes: the widely used spherical collapse model, and the pseudo-Newtonian approach. We show that both approximation schemes convey identical equations for the density contrast, when the pressure perturbation of dark energy is parametrized in terms of an effective sound speed. We also make a comparison of these approximate approaches to general relativity in the linearized regime, which lends some support to the approximations.
The Pierre Auger Observatory reports that 20 of the 27 highest energy cosmic rays have arrival directions within 3.2 deg of a nearby galaxy in the Veron-Cetty & Veron Catalog of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (12th Ed.), with ~5 of the correlations expected by chance. In this paper we examine the correlated galaxies to gain insight into the possible UHECR sources. We find that 14 of the 21 correlated VCV galaxies are AGNs and we determine their bolometric luminosities. The remaining 7 are primarily star-forming galaxies. The bolometric luminosities of the correlated AGNs are all greater than 5 x 10^{42} erg/s, which may explain the absence of UHECRs from the Virgo region in spite of the large number of VCV galaxies in Virgo, since most of the VCV galaxies in the Virgo region are low luminosity AGNs. Interestingly, the bolometric luminosities of most of the AGNs are significantly lower than required to satisfy the minimum condition for UHECR acceleration in a continuous jet. If a UHECR-AGN correlation is substantiated with further statistics, our results lend support to the recently proposed ``giant AGN flare" mechanism for UHECR acceleration.
We present a radial velocity study of the rapidly rotating B-star Regulus that indicates the star is a single-lined spectroscopic binary. The orbital period (40.11 d) and probable semimajor axis (0.35 AU) are large enough that the system is not interacting at present. However, the mass function suggests that the secondary has a low mass (M_2 > 0.30 M_sun), and we argue that the companion may be a white dwarf. Such a star would be the remnant of a former mass donor that was the source of the large spin angular momentum of Regulus itself.
We develop information field theory (IFT) as a means of Bayesian, data based inference on spatially distributed signals, the information fields. Starting from general considerations on the nature of measurements, signals, noise, and their relation to a physical reality, we derive the information Hamiltonian, the source field, propagator, and interaction terms. Free IFT reproduces the well known Wiener-filter theory. Interacting IFT can be diagrammatically expanded, for which we provide the Feynman rules in position-, Fourier-, and spherical harmonics space. Two cosmological signal recovery problems are discussed in detail in their IFT-formulation. 1) Reconstruction of the cosmic large-scale structure from discrete galaxy counts under a non-linear data model by virtue of a response-renormalisation flow equation. 2) Filter-based detection of any possible local non-linearities in the cosmic microwave background, which are predicted from some Early-Universe inflationary scenarios, and expected due to measurement imperfections. This filter is optimal up to linear order in the non-linearity parameter, which is our signal, and can be used even to construct sky maps of non-linearities in the data. Since the filter uses up to 4th order data correlation functions, whereas current non-linearity filters rely on the bispectrum, which is 3rd order, its implementation may help to improve the detectability of this important messenger from the inflationary epoch. Finally, we provide the Boltzmann-Shannon information measure of IFT based on the Helmholtz free energy, thereby highlighting conceptual similarities of information and statistical field theory and outlining how to optimise observational strategies for maximal information retrieval.
Suppression of fluctuations of normally perturbed magnetic fields in dynamo waves and slow dynamos along curved (folded), torsioned (twisted) and non-stretched, diffusive filaments are obtained. This form of fluctuations suppression has been recently obtained by Vainshtein et al [PRE 56, (1997)] in nonlinear ABC and stretch-twist-fold (STF) dynamos by using a magnetic Reynolds number of the order of $Rm\approx{10^{4}}$. Here when torsion does not vanish an expression between magnetic Reynolds number and length scale L as with constant torsion ${\tau}_{0}$ itself is obtained, such as $Rm\approx{\frac{{\tau}_{0}L}{\eta}}$ is obtained. At coronal loops $Rm\approx{10^{12}}$ and torsion of the twisted structured loop from astronomical data by Lopez-Fuentes et al [Astron. and Astrophys. (2003)] of ${\tau}\approx{9.0{\times}10^{-10}}cm^{-1}$ is used to compute a very slow magnetic diffusion of ${\eta}\approx{10^{-8}}$. The slow dynamo obtained here is in agreement with Vishik arguement that fast dynamo cannot be obtained in non-stretched dynamo flows. When torsion vanishes helical turbulence is quenched and but ${\alpha}$-dynamos cannot be maintained since exponential stretching depends on torsion. This is actually Zeldovich antidynamo theorem for torsion-free or planar filaments which has been discussed by the other also recently in another context [Astr Nach. (2008)]. The suppression of magnetic field fluctuations is actually a result of the coupling of the magnetic diffusion and Frenet torsion of helical turbulence.
VLBI observations at 5 GHz have revealed that supernova 1979C, in the galaxy M100 in the Virgo cluster, has shell structure. The shell is approximately circular with the 50% contour deviating from a circle by an rms of no more than 8% of the radius. The brightness distribution along the ridge may vary. The position of the center of the shell is at R.A.=12h 22m 58.66758s and decl.=15^o 47' 51.9695" (J2000), with a standard error of 0.8 mas in each of the coordinates. No isolated central component is visible above a flux density limit of ~0.15 mJy which corresponds to an upper limit of ~15 times the corresponding spectral luminosity of the Crab Nebula. The radio lightcurve is clearly falling again and the radio spectrum is now flatter than at earlier times. SN 1979C is only the fourth, and oldest (optically identified) supernova of which a detailed image could be obtained.
The Galactic black hole X-ray binary XTE J1650-500 entered a quiescent regime following the decline from the 2001-2002 outburst that led to its discovery. Here we report on the first detection of its quiescent counterpart in a 36 ks observation taken in 2007 July with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The inferred 0.5-10 keV unabsorbed flux is in the range 2.5-5.0x1e-15 erg/s/cm^2. Notwithstanding large distance uncertainties, the measured luminosity is comparable to that of the faintest detected black hole X-ray binaries, all having orbital periods close to the expected bifurcation period between j- and n-driven low-mass X-ray binaries. This suggests that a few 1e30 erg/s might be a limiting luminosity value for quiescent black holes.
High angular resolution X-ray imaging is always demanded by astrophysics and solar physics, which can be realized by coded-mask imaging with very long mask-detector distance in principle. Previously the diffraction-interference effect has been thought to degrade coded-mask imaging performance dramatically at low energy end with very long mask-detector distance. In this work the diffraction-interference effect is described with numerical calculations, and the diffraction-interference cross correlation reconstruction method (DICC) is developed in order to overcome the imaging performance degradation. Based on the DICC, a super-high angular resolution principle (SHARP) for coded-mask X-ray imaging is proposed. The feasibility of coded mask imaging beyond the diffraction limit of single pinhole is demonstrated with simulations. With the specification that the mask element size of 50* 50 square micrometers and the mask-detector distance of 50 m, the achieved angular resolution is 0.32 arcsec above about 10 keV, and 0.36 arcsec at 1.24 keV where diffraction can not be neglected. The on-axis source location accuracy is better than 0.02 arcsec. Potential applications for solar observations and wide-field X-ray monitors are also shortly discussed.
Modified dispersion relations from effective field theory are shown to alter the Chandrasekhar mass limit. At exceptionally high densities, the modifications affect the pressure of a degenerate electron gas and can increase or decrease the mass limit, depending on the sign of the modifications. These changes to the mass limit are unlikely to be relevant for the astrophysics of white dwarf or neutron stars due to well-known dynamical instabilities that occur at lower densities. Generalizations to frameworks other than effective field theory are discussed.
The observed Universe is homogeneous on sufficiently large scales but inhomogeneous on smaller scales. While the gravitational dynamics of the inhomogeneous Universe is described by the Einstein equations, the dynamics of the homogeneous Universe obtained by averaging out the inhomogeneities obeys modified Einstein equations. Starting from realistic initial conditions, and using a well defined averaging scheme for a realistic model of nonlinear inhomogeneity, we show that the modifications have no significant influence on the average cosmological dynamics.
J2018-556, an X-shaped FR-I radio galaxy provides a unique opportunity to discuss the formation scenarios for the extended structures seen in this class of radio sources. An understanding of the origin of X-shaped source structures has important implications for radio galaxy models as well as black hole-black hole mergers. Guided by our ATCA radio continuum observations of J2018-556 we discuss evidence in support of 'wings' forming as a result of a redirection of backflows by asymmetric gas distribution associated with the host galaxy. Formation models invoking interaction between backflows with asymmetric environments seem the preferred model for X-shaped radio sources despite apparent discoveries of X-shaped FR-I radio sources.
This article quickly summarizes the performances and results of the GOLF/SoHO resonant spectrometer, thus justifying to go a step further. We then recall the characteristics of the multichannel resonant GOLF-NG spectrometer and present the first successful performances of the laboratory tests on the prototype and also the limitations of this first technological instrument. Scientific questions and an observation strategy are discussed.
Gott has promulgated a rule for making probabilistic predictions of the future duration of a phenomenon based on the phenomenon's present age [Nature, Vol. 363, 315 (1993)]. I show that the two usual methods for deriving Gott's rule are flawed. Nothing licenses indiscriminate use of Gott's rule as a predictor of future duration. It should only be used when the phenomenon in question has no identifiable time scales.
A dust scattering model was recently proposed to explain the shallow X-ray decay (plateau) observed prevalently in Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) early afterglows. In this model the plateau is the scattered prompt X-ray emission by the dust located close (about 10 to a few hundred pc) to the GRB site. In this paper we carefully investigate the model and find that the scattered emission undergoes strong spectral softening with time, due to the model's essential ingredient that harder X-ray photons have smaller scattering angle thus arrive earlier, while softer photons suffer larger angle scattering and arrive later. The model predicts a significant change, i.e., $\Delta \beta \sim 2 - 3$, in the X-ray spectral index from the beginning of the plateau toward the end of the plateau, while the observed data shows close to zero softening during the plateau and the plateau-to-normal transition phase. The scattering model predicts a big difference between the harder X-ray light curve and the softer X-ray light curve, i.e., the plateau in harder X-rays ends much earlier than in softer X-rays. This feature is not seen in the data. The large scattering optical depths of the dust required by the model imply strong extinction in optical, $A_V \gtrsim $ 10, which contradicts current findings of $A_V= 0.1 - 0.7$ from optical and X-ray afterglow observations. We conclude that the dust scattering model can not explain the X-ray plateaus.
The discovery of the extremely luminous supernova SN 2006gy, possibly interpreted as a pair instability supernova, renewed the interest in very massive stars. We explore the evolution of these objects, which end their life as pair instability supernovae or as core collapse supernovae with relatively massive iron cores, up to about $3 M_\odot$.
We present ESO/VLT spectra in the 2.9-4.1 micron range for a large sample of infrared stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), mainly carbon stars, massive oxygen-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, and red supergiants. Strong emission from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) is detected in the spectrum of the post-AGB object MSX SMC 29. Water ice is detected in at least one Young Stellar Object, IRAS 01042-7215, for the first time in the SMC. The strength and shapes of the molecular bands detected in the evolved stars are compared with similar data for stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Absorption from acetylene in carbon stars is found to be equally strong in the SMC as in the LMC, but the LMC stars show stronger dust emission in their infrared colours and veiling of the molecular bands. This suggests that a critical link exists in the formation of dust from the molecular atmosphere in carbon stars which scales with the initial metallicity. Nucleation seeds based on a secondary element such as titanium or silicon provide a plausible explanation. In oxygen-rich stars, both the nucleation seeds and molecular condensates depend on secondary elements (in particular titanium, silicon, and/or aluminium). Data for pulsating dusty AGB stars and supergiants in the LMC are used to show that pulsation is likely the critical factor in driving mass loss, as long as dust forms, rather than the stellar luminosity. Finally, we suggest that the reduced dust production and consequently slower winds of metal-poor AGB stars and red supergiants are more likely to result in chemical inhomogeneities and small-scale structure in the interstellar medium. (abridged)
Heavy stable charged particles can exist, hidden from us in bound atomlike states. Models with new stable charged leptons and quarks give rise to realistic composite dark matter scenarios. Significant or even dominant component of O-helium (atomlike system of He4 nucleus and heavy -2 charged particle) is inevitable feature of such scenarios. Possible O-helium explanation for the positron excess in the galactic bulge and for the controversy between the positive results of DAMA and negative results of other experiments is proposed.
We present ground-based optical and Spitzer Space Telescope infrared imaging observations of the ecliptic (Jupiter-family) comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, the parent body of the Draconid meteor stream, during its 2005 apparition. Onset of nucleus activity occurred at a pre-perihelion heliocentric distance, < 3.80 AU, while post-perihelion 21P was dusty (peak Afrho = 131 cm^{-1}) and active out to heliocentric distances > 3.3 AU following a logarithmic slope with heliocentric distance -2.04. Coma colors, (V-R) = 0.524 +/- 0.003, (R-I) = 0.487 +/- 0.004 are redder than solar, yet comparable to colors derived for other Jupiter-family comets. A nucleus radius of 1.82 +/- 0.05 km is derived from photometry at quiescence. Spitzer images post-perihelion exhibit an extensive coma with a prominent dust tail, where excess emission (over the dust continuum) in the 4.5 micron IRAC image arises from volatile gaseous CO and/or CO2. No dust trail was detected (3-sigma surface brightness upper-limit of 0.3 MJy/sr/pixel) along the projected velocity vector of comet 21P in the MIPS 24 micron image suggesting that the number density of trail particles is < 7 x 10^{-11} m^{-3}. The bolometric albedo of 21P derived from the contemporaneous optical and Spitzer observations is A(theta = 22 degr.) = 0.11, slightly lower than values derived for other comets at the same phase angle.
We present an analysis of a previously unpublished radio-continuum observation of SNR G1.9+0.3 which at an age of <=150 years is the youngest known in the Galaxy. The observations were made in 1993 using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at two 6-cm frequencies. We note two previously unseen blow-out structures in the north and south direcions. We estimate a flux density of 1.545Jy, an outer diameter of ~80" and confirm an expansion rate of ~0.65% per year between 1985 and 2008. No polarisation was detected in the radio emission from SNR G1.9+0.3 above the 1% level. We also present these previously unpublished results as a high resolution reference point from which to study the evolution of SNRs at times for which there is a gap in our knowledge.
We present a comparative study of the observed properties of the optical and X-ray afterglows of short- and long-duration $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs). Using a large sample of 37 short GRBs and 421 long GRBs, we find a strong correlation between afterglow brightness measured after 11 hours and the energy release in the prompt emission, measured in both the optical (R band) and X-ray flux and E$_{ISO}$ : $F_{R,X} \propto {E_{ISO}}^{\alpha}$, with $\alpha \simeq 1$ in both cases. Furthermore, the constant of proportionality is nearly identical for long and short bursts. Therefore, for a given fluence, the afterglows of short GRBs are not significantly dimmer than those of long GRBs in the optical and the X-ray bands. This result is difficult to explain in the framework of the standard scenario, since it requires that either (1) the average number density of the surrounding medium of short bursts is comparable to, or even larger than the number density of long bursts; or (2) short bursts explode into a density profile, $n(r) \propto r^{-2}$. We therefore find it likely that either basic assumptions on the properties of the circumburst environment of short GRBs, and thus the merger origin theory of short bursts, are incorrect, or else the standard models of GRB emission must be fully re-examined.
In this paper, we use the outer-galactic HI scale height data as well as the observed rotation curve as constraints to determine the halo density distribution of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We model the galaxy as a gravitationally-coupled system of stars and gas, responding to the external force-field of a known Hernquist bulge and the dark matter halo, the density profile of the latter being characterized by four free parameters. The parameter space of the halo is optimized so as to match the observed HI thickness distribution as well as the rotation curve on an equal footing, unlike the previous studies of M31 which were based on rotation curves alone. We show that an oblate halo, with an isothermal density profile, provides the best fit to the observed data. This gives a central density of 0.011 M_sun /pc^3, a core radius of 21 kpc, and an axis ratio of 0.4. The main result from this work is the flattened dark matter halo for M31, which is required to match the outer galactic HI scale height data. Interestingly, such flattened halos lie at the most oblate end of the distribution of halo shapes found in recent cosmological simulations.
During last years a few massive binary systems have been detected in the TeV gamma-rays. This gamma-ray emission is clearly modulated with the orbital periods of these binaries suggesting its origin inside the binary system. In this paper we summarize the anisotropic IC e-p pair cascade model as likely explanation of these observations. We consider scenarios in which particles are accelerated to relativistic energies, either due to the presence of an energetic pulsar inside the binary, or as a result of accretion process onto the compact object during which the jet is launched from the inner part of the accretion disk, or in collisions of stellar winds from the massive companions.
The Crab pulsar emits across a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Determining the time delay between the emission at different wavelengths will allow to better constrain the site and mechanism of the emission. We have simultaneously observed the Crab Pulsar in the optical with S-Cam, an instrument based on Superconducting Tunneling Junctions (STJs) with $\mu$s time resolution and at 2 GHz using the Nan\c{c}ay radio telescope with an instrument doing coherent dedispersion and able to record giant pulses data. We have studied the delay between the radio and optical pulse using simultaneously obtained data therefore reducing possible uncertainties present in previous observations. We determined the arrival times of the (mean) optical and radio pulse and compared them using the tempo2 software package. We present the most accurate value for the optical-radio lag of 255 $\pm$ 21 $\mu$s and suggest the likelihood of a spectral dependence to the excess optical emission asociated with giant radio pulses.
Aims. We are trying to probe conditions in the youngest super star clusters, those still embedded in dense obscuring clouds. Methods. The hydrogen recombination lines in the radio and infrared can be observed through the obscuration, as the optical and UV lines cannot, and give us the kinematics of the ionized gas. Results. The line profiles of the clusters resemble superpositions of the lines of many very young ultra-compact or hyper-compact HII regions. This can be explained if each OB star is individually embedded in dense material which it is accreting, even as it ionizes. Conclusions. We speculate on what this implies for the status and evolutionary state of cluster stars.
The line profile variability and photometric variability of the O9.5 Vp star HD93521 are examined in order to establish the properties of the non-radial pulsations in this star. Fourier techniques are used to characterize the modulations of the He I 5876, 6678 and H-alpha lines in several spectroscopic time series and to search for variations in a photometric time series. Our spectroscopic data confirm the existence of two periods of 1.75 and 2.89 hr. The line profiles, especially those affected by emission wings, exhibit also modulations on longer time scales, but these are epoch-dependent and change from line to line. Unlike previous claims, we find no unambiguous signature of the rotational period in our data, nor of a third pulsation period (corresponding to a frequency of 2.66 day$^{-1}$). HD 93521 very likely exhibits non-radial pulsations with periods of 1.75 and 2.89 hr with $l \simeq 8 \pm 1$ and $l \simeq 4 \pm 1$ respectively. No significant signal is found in the first harmonics of these two periods. The 2.89 hr mode is seen at all epochs and in all lines investigated, while the visibility of the 1.75 hr mode is clearly epoch dependent. Whilst light variations are detected, their connection to these periodicities is not straightforward.
We use a sample of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to search for correlations between the $\lambda$ spin parameter and the environment and mass of galaxies. In order to calculate the total value of $\lambda$ for each observed galaxy, we employed a simple model of the dynamical structure of the galaxies which allows a rough estimate of the value of $\lambda$ using only readily obtainable observables from the luminous galaxies. Use of a large volume limited sample (upwards of 11,000) allows reliable inferences of mean values and dispersions of $\lambda$ distributions. We find, in agreement with some N-body cosmological simulations, no significant dependence of $\lambda$ on the environmental density of the galaxies. For the case of mass, our results show a marked correlation with $\lambda$, in the sense that low mass galaxies present both higher mean values of $\lambda$ and associated dispersions, than high mass galaxies. This last direct empirical result, at odds with expectations from N-body cosmological simulations, provides interesting constrain on the mechanisms of galaxy formation and acquisition of angular momentum, a valuable test for cosmological models.
The standard explanation for large pulsar glitches involves transfer of angular momentum from an internal superfluid component to the star's crust. This model requires an instability to trigger the sudden unpinning of the vortices by means of which the superfluid rotates. This Letter describes a new instability that may play this role. The instability, which is associated with the inertial r-modes of a superfluid neutron star, sets in once the rotational lag in the system reaches a critical level. We demonstrate that our model is in good agreement with observed glitch data, suggesting that the superfluid r-mode instability may indeed be the mechanism that triggers large pulsar glitches.
From the analysis of the color-magnitude diagrams and color functions of four wide LMC fields located from ~2 to 6 kpc from the kinematic center of the LMC we present evidence that, while the oldest population is coeval in all fields, the age of the youngest component of the dominant stellar population gradually increases with galactocentric distance, from currently active star formation in a field at 2.3 deg, to 100 Myr, 0.8 Gyr, and 1.5 Gyr in fields at 4.0 deg, 5.5 deg, and 7.1 deg, respectively. This outside-in quenching of the star formation in the LMC disk is correlated with the decreasing HI column density (which is < 2x 10^{20} cm^{-2} in the two outermost fields with little or no current star formation. Other work in the literature hints at similar behavior in the stellar populations of irregular galaxies, and in M33. This is observational evidence against the inside-out disk formation scenario in low-mass spirals and irregular galaxies. Alternatively, it could be that the age distribution with radius results from interplay between the evolution with time of the star-forming area of the LMC and the subsequent outward migration of the stars.
PSR B0540-69 is a young pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud that has similar properties with respect to the Crab Pulsar, and is embedded in a Pulsar Wind Nebula. We have analyzed the complete archival RXTE dataset of observations of this source, together with new Swift-XRT and INTEGRAL-IBIS data. Accurate lightcurves are produced in various energy bands between 2 and 60 keV, showing no significant energy variations of the pulse shape. The spectral analysis shows that the pulsed spectrum is curved, and is best fitted up to 100 keV by a log-parabolic model: this strengthens the similarities with the Crab pulsar, and is discussed in the light of a phenomenologic multicomponent model. The total emission from this source is studied, the relative contributions of the pulsar and the PWN emission are derived, and discussed in the context of other INTEGRAL detected pulsar/PWN systems.
We report here on the discovery of a red quasar, J004929.4+351025.7 at a redshift of z = 2.48, situated within a large Lya emission-line halo. The radio spectral energy distribution implies that the radio jets were triggered < 10^4 years prior to the time at which the object is observed, suggesting that the jet triggering of the active galactic nucleus is recent. The loosely biconical structure of the emission-line halo suggests that it is ionised by photons emitted by the central quasar nucleus and that the central nucleus is obscured by a dusty torus with Av ~ 3.0. The large spatial extent of the Lya halo relative to the radio emission means this could only have occurred if the radio jets emerged from an already established highly-accreting black hole. This suggests that the radio-jet triggering is delayed with respect to the onset of accretion activity on to the central supermassive black hole.
Dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Galaxy may produce high energy neutrinos, which can be detected by the neutrino telescopes, for example IceCube, ANTARES and Super-Kamiokande. The neutrinos can also arise from hadronic interaction between cosmic ray and atmosphere around the Earth, known as atmospheric neutrino. Current measurements on neutrino flux is consistent with theoretical prediction of atmospheric neutrino within the uncertainties. In this paper, by requiring that the DM annihilation neutrino flux is less than the current measurements, we obtain an upper bound on the cross section of dark matter annihilation $ < {\sigma v} >$. Compared with previous investigations, we improve the bound by including DM substructure contributions. In our paper, two kinds of substructure effects are scrutinized. One is the substructure average contribution over all directions. The other is point source effect by single massive sub-halo. We found that the former can improve the bound by several times, while the latter can improve the bound by $ 10^1 \sim 10^4$ utilizing the excellent angular resolution of neutrino telescope IceCube. The exact improvement depends on the DM profile and the sub-halo concentration model. In some model, IceCube can achieve the sensitivity of $ < {\sigma v} > \sim 10^{- 26} cm^3 s^{- 1} $.
White dwarf stars composed of carbon, oxygen or heavier elements are expected to crystallize as they cool down below certain temperatures. Yet, simple arguments suggest that the helium white dwarf cores may not solidify, mostly because of zero-point oscillations of the helium ions that would dissolve the crystalline structure. We argue that the interior of the helium dwarfs may instead form a macroscopic quantum state in which the charged helium-4 nuclei are in a Bose-Einstein condensate, while the relativistic electrons form a neutralizing degenerate Fermi liquid. We discuss the electric charge screening, and the spectrum of this substance, showing that the bosonic long-wavelength fluctuations exhibit a mass gap. Hence, there is a suppression at low temperatures of the boson contribution to the specific heat -- the latter being dominated by the specific heat of the electrons near the Fermi surface. This state of matter may have observational signatures.
A complete manual search has been carried out of the list of 285423 objects, nearly all of them galaxies, identified in the COSMOS field that are brighter than I=25. Two certain and one highly probable new gravitational lenses are found, in addition to the lenses and candidate lens systems previously found by Faure et al. (2008). A further list of 112 candidate lens systems is presented. Few of these are likely to be true gravitational lens systems, most being star-forming rings or pairs of companion galaxies. It is possible to examine of order 10^6 objects by eye in a reasonable time, although reliable detection of lenses by such methods is likely to be possible only with high-resolution data. The loss of completeness involved in a rapid search is estimated as up to a factor of 2, depending on the morphology of the lens candidate.
Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) sources are probably the precursors of local radio galaxies.Existing GPS source samples are small (<200). It is necessary to extend the availabe sample of the Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) and High Frequency Peaker (HFP) sources in order to study their nature with greater details and higher statistical significance. A sample of 214 radio sources, which were extracted from the SPECFIND catalog and show an inverted radio spectrum, were observed quasi-simultaneously at 4.85, 10.45, and 32GHz with the 100-m Effelsberg radio telescope. Using the VLBA calibrator survey (VCS) we have investigated the parsec-scale morphology of the sources. About 45% of the sources in our sample are classified as GPS or HFP candidates. We add 65 new GPS/HFP candidates to existing samples. We confirm the expected tendency that HFP are more compact on milliarcsecond scale than the 'classical' GPS sources, which peak at lower frequencies. The data mining of the SPECFIND database represents a promising tool for the discovery of new GPS/HFP sources.
We describe the construction of a database of extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Galactic halo whose elemental abundances have been determined. Our database contains detailed elemental abundances, reported equivalent widths, atmospheric parameters, photometry, and binarity status, compiled from papers in the recent literature that report studies of EMP halo stars with [Fe/H] < -2.5. The compilation procedures for this database have been designed to assemble the data effectively from electronic tables available from online journals. We have also developed a data retrieval system that enables data searches by various criteria, and permits the user to explore relationships between the stored variables graphically. Currently, our sample includes 1212 unique stars (many of which are studied by more than one group) with more than 15000 individual reported elemental abundances, covering all of the relevant papers published by December 2007. We discuss the global characteristics of the present database, as revealed by the EMP stars observed to date. For stars with [Fe/H] < -2.5, the number of giants with reported abundances is larger than that of dwarfs by a factor of two. The fraction of carbon-rich stars (among the sample for which the carbon abundance is reported) amount to ~30 % for [Fe/H] < -2.5. We find that known binaries exhibit different distributions of orbital period, according to whether they are giants or dwarfs, and also as a function of metallicity, although the total sample of such stars is still quite small.
It is widely assumed that the observed universe is accelerating due to the existence of a new fluid component called dark energy. In this article, the thermodynamics consequences of a nonzero chemical potential on the dark energy component is discussed with special emphasis to the phantom fluid case. It is found that if the dark energy fluid is endowed with a negative chemical potential, the phantom field hypothesis becomes thermodynamically consistent with no need of negative temperatures as recently assumed in the literature.
We discuss a new technique of studying magnetic fields in diffuse
astrophysical media, e.g. interstellar and intergalactic gas/plasma. This
technique is based on the angular momentum alignment of atoms and ions in their
ground or metastable states. As the life-time of atoms in such states is long,
the alignment induced by anisotropic radiation is susceptible to weak magnetic
fields ($1{\rm G}\gtrsim B\gtrsim0.1\mu$G). The alignment reveals itself in
terms of the polarization of the absorbed and emitted light. A variety of atoms
with fine or hyperfine splitting of the ground or metastable states exhibit the
alignment and the resulting polarization degree in some cases exceeds 20%. We
show that in the case of absorption the polarization direction is either
parallel or perpendicular to magnetic field, while more complex dependencies
emerge for the case of emission of aligned atoms. We show that the
corresponding studies of magnetic fields can be performed with optical and UV
polarimetry. A unique feature of these studies is that they can reveal the 3D
orientation of magnetic field.
In addition, we point out that the polarization of the radiation arising from
the transitions between fine and hyperfine states of the ground level can
provide yet another promising diagnostics of magnetic fields, including the
magnetic fields in the Early Universe. We mention several cases of
interplanetary, circumstellar and interstellar magnetic fields for which the
studies of magnetic fields using ground state atomic alignment effect are
promising.
(Shortened) CONTEXT: [...] AIMS: Motivated by the relation proposed by Amati and collaborators, we look within the ``fireshell'' model for a relation between the peak energy E_p of the \nu F_\nu total time-integrated spectrum of the afterglow and the total energy of the afterglow E_{aft}, which in our model encompasses and extends the prompt emission. METODS: [...] Within the fireshell model [...] We can then build two sets of ``gedanken'' GRBs varying the total energy of the electron-positron plasma E^{e^\pm}_{tot} and keeping the same baryon loading B of GRB050315. The first set assumes for the effective CBM density the one obtained in the fit of GRB050315. The second set assumes instead a constant CBM density equal to the average value of the GRB050315 prompt phase. RESULTS: For the first set of ``gedanken'' GRBs we find a relation E_p\propto (E_{aft})^a, with a = 0.45 \pm 0.01, whose slope strictly agrees with the Amati one. Such a relation, in the limit B \to 10^{-2}, coincides with the Amati one. Instead, in the second set of ``gedanken'' GRBs no correlation is found. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis excludes the Proper-GRB (P-GRB) from the prompt emission, extends all the way to the latest afterglow phases and is independent on the assumed cosmological model, since all ``gedanken'' GRBs are at the same redshift. The Amati relation, on the other hand, includes also the P-GRB, focuses on the prompt emission only, and is therefore influenced by the instrumental threshold which fixes the end of the prompt emission, and depends on the assumed cosmology. This may well explain the intrinsic scatter observed in the Amati relation.
Recent models of spectral formation in magnetars called renewed attention on electron-photon scattering in the presence of ultra-strong magnetic fields. Investigations presented so far mainly focussed on mildly relativistic particles and magnetic scattering was treated in the non-relativistic (Thomson) limit. This allows for consistent spectral calculations up to a few tens of keVs, but becomes inadequate in modelling the hard tails (<200 keV) detected by INTEGRAL from magnetar sources. In this paper, the second in a series devoted to model the X-/soft gamma-ray persistent spectrum of magnetar candidates, we present explicit, relatively simple expressions for the magnetic Compton cross-section at resonance which account for Landau-Raman scattering up to the second Landau level. No assumption is made on the magnetic field strength. We find that sensible departures from the Thomson regime can bealready present at B ~5E12 G. The form of the magnetic cross section we derived can be easily implemented in Monte Carlo transfer codes and a direct application to magnetar spectral calculations will be presented in a forthcoming study.
The mid- to far-infrared emission of the outbursting FU Orionis objects has been attributed either to a flared outer disk or to an infalling envelope. We revisit this issue using detailed radiative transfer calculations to model the recent, high signal-to-noise data from the IRS instrument on the {Spitzer Space Telescope}. In the case of FU Ori, we find that a physically-plausible flared disk irradiated by the central accretion disk matches the observations. Building on our previous work, our accretion disk model with outer disk irradiation by the inner disk reproduces the spectral energy distribution between ~4000 angstroms to ~40 microns. Our model is consistent with near-infrared interferometry but there are some inconsistencies with mid-infared interferometric results. Including the outer disk allows us to refine our estimate of the outer radius of the outbursting, high mass accretion rate disk in FU Ori as ~ 0.5 AU, which is a crucial parameter in assessing theories of the FU Orionis phenomenon. We are able to place an upper limit on the mass infall rate of any remnant envelope infall rate to ~ 7e-7 Msun/yr assuming a centrifugal radius of 200 AU. The FUor BBW 76 is also well modelled by a 0.6 AU inner disk and a flared outer disk. However, V1515 Cyg requires an envelope with an outflow cavity to adequately reproduce the IRS spectrum. In contrast with the suggestion by Green et al., we do not require a flattened envelope to match the observations; the inferred cavity shape is qualitatively consistent with typical protostellar envelopes. This variety of dusty structures suggests that the FU Orionis phase can be present at either early or late stages of protostellar evolution.
We have performed nonlinear ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the long term evolution of a magnetized low-density "bubble" plasma formed by a radio galaxy in a stratified cluster medium. It is found that about 3.5% of the initial magnetic energy remains in the bubble after $\sim 8 \times 10^{9}$ years, and the initial magnetic bubble expansion is adiabatic. The bubble can survive for at least $8 \times 10^9$ years due to the stabilizing effect of the bubble magnetic field on Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Holmholtz instabilities, possibly accounting for "ghost cavities" as observed in Perseus-A\@. A filament structure spanning about 500 kpc is formed along the path of bubble motion. The mean value of the magnetic field inside this structure is $\sim 0.57$ $\mu$G at $\sim8\times10^9$ years. Finally, the initial bubble momentum and rotation have limited influence on the long term evolution of the bubble.
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) occur in both old, passive galaxies and active, star-forming galaxies. This fact, coupled with the strong dependence of SN Ia rate on star formation rate, suggests that SNe Ia form from stars with a wide range of ages. Here we show that the rate of SN Ia explosions is about 1% of the stellar death rate, independent of star formation history. The dependence of SN Ia rate on star formation rate implies a delay time distribution proportional to t^{-0.5+-0.2}. The single degenerate channel for SNe Ia can be made to match the observed SN Ia rate -- SFR relation, but only if white dwarfs are converted to SNe Ia with uniform efficiency of ~1%, independent of mass. Since low-mass progenitors are expected to have lower conversion efficiencies than high mass progenitors, we conclude that some other progenitor scenario must be invoked to explain some, or perhaps all, SNe Ia.
We have calculated a series of models of outflows from the obscuring torus in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our modeling assumes that the inner face of a rotationally supported torus is illuminated and heated by the intense X-rays from the inner accretion disk and black hole. As a result of such heating a strong biconical outflow is observed in our simulations. We calculate 3-dimensional hydrodynamical models, assuming axial symmetry, and including the effects of X-ray heating, ionization, and radiation pressure. We discuss the behavior of a large family of these models, their velocity fields, mass fluxes and temperature, as functions of the torus properties and X-ray flux. Synthetic warm absorber spectra are calculated, assuming pure absorption, for sample models at various inclination angles and observing times. We show that these models have mass fluxes and flow speeds which are comparable to those which have been inferred from observations of Seyfert 1 warm absorbers, and that they can produce rich absorption line spectra.
We study the formation of monopoles and strings in a model where SU(3) is spontaneously broken to U(2)=[SU(2)\times U(1)]/\ZZ_2, and then to U(1). The first symmetry breaking generates monopoles with both SU(2) and U(1) charges since the vacuum manifold is \CC P^2. To study the formation of these monopoles, we explicitly describe an algorithm to detect topologically non-trivial mappings on \CC P^2. The second symmetry breaking creates \ZZ_2 strings linking either monopole-monopole pairs or monopole-antimonopole pairs. When the strings pull the monopoles together they may create stable monopoles of charge 2 or else annihilate. We determine the length distribution of strings and the fraction of monopoles that will survive after the second symmetry breaking. Possible implications for topological defects produced from the spontaneous breaking of even larger symmetry groups, as in Grand Unified models, are discussed.
The 2PI effective action formalism for quantum fields out of equilibrium is set up in an expanding (Friedmann-Robertson-Walker) background. We write down and solve the evolution equations for a phi^4 model at NLO in a coupling expansion. We comment on issues of renormalization, lattice discretization and the range of applicability of the approach. A number of example calculations are presented, including thermalization and (p)reheating. Generalizations to more complicated systems and applications are discussed.
The Jackiw-Pi model in 2+1 dimensions is a non-relativistic conformal field theory of charged particles with point-like self-interaction. For specific values of the interaction strengths the classical theory possesses vortex and multi-vortex solutions, which are all degenerate in energy. We compute the full set of first-order perturbative quantum corrections. Only the coupling constant g^2 requires renormalization; the fields and electric charge e are not renormalized. It is shown that in general the conformal symmetries are broken by an anomalous contribution to the conservation law, proportional to the beta-function. However, the beta-function vanishes upon restricting the coupling constants to values g^2 = +/- e^2, which includes the case in which vortex solutions exist. Therefore the existence of vortices also guarantees the preservation of the conformal symmetries.
We show that a contribution to the total curvature perturbation may be due to the presence of flat directions in supersymmetric models. It is generated at the first os- cillation of the flat direction condensate when the latter relaxes to the minimum of its potential after the end of inflation. We also point out that, if the contribution to the total curvature perturbation from supersymmetric flat direction is the dominant one, then a significant level of non-Gaussianity in the cosmological perturbation is also naturally expected.
The present article gives a detailed analysis of the new formulation of Titius-Bode law by (Poveda, Lara 2008) and of the hypothesis that this law may exist in extra-solar planetary system. A thorough study of the correspondences between the calculated distances and the observed ones in the Solar system and in 55 Cancri is given. It is shown that Poveda-Lara hypothesis contains serious mistakes (both in theory and in calculations) that makes it unacceptable.
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We present the analysis of a Suzaku observation of the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. We confirmed that the cluster has a cool core. While the temperature of the intracluster medium (ICM) decreases toward the center, the metal abundance increases. Except for the core (r<~50 kpc), the cluster is hot (~9-10 keV) and is almost isothermal for r<~1 Mpc; the latter contradicts a previous study. We do not detect the variation of the redshift of the ICM in the cluster; the upper limit of the velocity difference is 3000 km s^-1. The iron line ratios in X-ray spectra indicate that the ICM has reached the ionization equilibrium state. From these results, we conclude that the Ophiuchus cluster is not a major merger cluster but one of the hottest clusters with a cool core. We obtain the upper limit of non-thermal emission from the cluster, which is consistent with both the recent claimed detection with INTEGRAL and the recent upper limits with the Swift/BAT. If the cluster has bright non-thermal emission as suggested by the INTEGRAL measurement, it is probably not due to a recent major cluster merger.
We report on our analysis of the 1 Ms Chandra observation of the supernova
remnant Cas A in order to localize, characterize and quantify its non-thermal
X-ray emission. More specifically, we investigated whether the X-ray
synchrotron emission from the inside of the remnant is from the outward shock,
but projected toward the inner ring, or from the inner shell. We tackle this
problem by employing a Lucy-Richardson deconvolution technique and measuring
spectral indices in the 4.2-6 keV band.
We show that most of the continuum emission is coming from an inner ring that
coincides with the location of the reverse shock. This inner ring includes
filaments, whose X-ray emission has been found to be dominated by X-ray
synchrotron emission. The X-ray emission from these filaments, both at the
forward shock and from the inner ring, have relatively hard spectra with
spectral index > -3.1. The regions emitting hard X-ray continuum contribute
about 54% of the total X-ray emission in the 4.2-6 keV. This is lower than
suggested by extrapolating the hard X-ray spectrum as measured by BeppoSAX-PDS
and INTEGRAL. This can be reconciled by assuming a gradual steepening of the
spectrum toward higher energies. We argue that the X-ray synchrotron emission
is mainly coming from the Western part of the reverse shock. The reverse shock
in the West is almost at rest in our observation frame, corresponding to a
relatively high reverse shock velocity of ~6000 km/s in the frame of the freely
expanding ejecta.
We have designed and tested an in-plane echelle spectrograph configured to investigate precision radial velocities from ground-based near-infrared observations. The spectrograph operates across the spectral range of 0.9-1.7 mm at a spectral resolution of R = 50,000, and uses a liquid nitrogen-cooled HAWAII 1K detector. Repeated measurements of the Earth's rotation via integrated Sunlight with two different instrument arrangements in the near infrared Y band have produced radial velocities with ~10 m/s RMS over a period of several hours. The most recent instrument configuration has achieved an unbinned RMS of 7 m/s and suggests that infrared radial velocity precisions may be able to approach those achieved at optical wavelengths.
Aims: We determine the components of the $\Lambda$-effect tensor that quantifies the contributions to the turbulent momentum transport even for uniform rotation. Methods: Three-dimensional numerical simulations are used to study turbulent transport in triply periodic cubes under the influence of rotation and anisotropic forcing. Comparison is made with analytical results obtained via the so-called minimal tau-approximation. Results: In the case where the turbulence intensity in the vertical direction dominates, the vertical stress is always negative. This situation is expected to occur in stellar convection zones. The horizontal component of the stress is weaker and exhibits a maximum at latitude 30 degrees - regardless of how rapid the rotation is. The minimal tau-approximation captures many of the qualitative features of the numerical results, provided the relaxation time tau is close to the turnover time, i.e. the Strouhal number is of order unity.
Whether or not there exists a physical upper mass limit for star clusters is still unclear. HST/ACS data for the rich cluster population in the interacting galaxy M51 enables us to investigate this in more detail. We investigate whether the cluster luminosity function (LF) in M51 shows evidence for an upper limit to the mass function. The variations of the LF parameters with position on the disk are addressed. We determine the cluster LF for all clusters in M51 falling within our selection criteria, as well as for several subsets of the sample. In that way we can determine the properties of the cluster population as a function of galactocentric distance and background intensity. By comparing observed and simulated LFs we can constrain the underlying cluster initial mass function and/or cluster disruption parameters. A physical upper mass limit for star clusters will appear as a bend dividing two power law parts in the LF, if the cluster sample is large enough to sample the full range of cluster masses. The location of the bend in the LF is indicative of the value of the upper mass limit. The slopes of the power laws are an interplay between upper masses, disruption and fading. The LF of the cluster population of M51 is better described by a double power law than by a single power law. We show that the cluster initial mass function is likely to be truncated at the high mass end. We conclude from the variation of the LF parameters with galactocentric distance that both the upper mass limit and the cluster disruption parameters are likely to be a function of position in the galactic disk. At higher galactocentric distances the maximum mass is lower, cluster disruption slower, or both.
(abridged) We present a comprehensive study of a sample of 23 genuine radio-loud NLS1 galaxies which have the radio-loudness parameters greater than 100. The radio sources of the sample are ubiquitously compact. A significant fraction of these objects show interesting radio to X-ray properties that are unusual to most of the previously known radio-loud NLS1 AGN, but are reminiscent of blazars. These include flat radio spectra, large amplitude flux and spectral variability, compact VLBI cores, very high brightness temperatures derived from variability, enhanced optical emission in excess of the normal ionising continuum, flat X-ray spectra, and blazar-like SEDs. We interpret them as evidence for the postulated blazar nature of these very radio-loud NLS1 AGN, which might possess at least moderately relativistic jets. Intrinsically, some of the objects have relatively low radio power and would have been classified as radio-intermediate AGN. The black hole masses are estimated to be within 10^{6-8}Msun, and the inferred Eddington ratios are around unity. The results imply that radio-loud AGN may be powered by black holes with moderate masses (10^{6-7}Msun) accreting at high rates. We find that a significant fraction of the objects, despite having strong emission lines, resemble high-energy peaked BL Lacs (HBL) in their SED. Given the peculiarities of blazar-like NLS1 galaxies, questions arise as to whether they are plain downsizing extensions of normal radio-loud AGN, or whether they form a previously unrecognised population.
Some analyses of recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) data have provided hints that there are deviations from Gaussianity in the WMAP CMB temperature fluctuations. Given the far reaching consequences of such a non-gaussianity for our understanding of the physics of the early universe, it is important to employ alternative indicators in order to determine whether the reported non-Gaussianity is of cosmological origin, and/or extract further information that may be helpful for identifying its causes. We propose two new non-Gaussianity indicators, based on skewness and kurtosis of large-angle patches of CMB maps, which provide a measure of departure from Gaussianity on large angular scales. A distinctive feature of these indicators it that they provide sky maps of non-Gaussianity of the CMB temperature data, thus allowing a possible additional window into their origins. Using these indicators, we find no significant deviation from Gaussianity in the three-year and five-year WMAP data. We also show that our findings are robust with respect to both the details of the method used, and the choice of the WMAP maps employed.
A new antidynamo theorem for non-stretched twisted magnetic flux tube dynamo is obtained. Though Riemannian curvature cannot be neglected since one considers curved magnetic flux tube axis, the stretch can be neglect since one only considers the limit of thin magnetic flux tubes. The theorem states that marginal or slow dynamos along curved (folded), torsioned (twisted) and non-stretched flux tubes endowed with diffusionless plasma flows, if a constraint is imposed on the relation between poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields in the helical dynamo case. A formula for the stretch of flux tubes is derived. From this formula one shows that the Riemann flux tube is stretched by an interaction between the plasma flow vorticity and torsion, in accordance with our physical intuition. Marginal diffusionless dynamos are shown to exist obtained in the case of flux tube dynamos exponential stretching. Thus slow dynamos can be obtaining on the flux tube under stretching. Filamentary dynamos anti-dynamos are also considered. As flux tubes possess a magnetic axis torsioned filament, it can also be considered as thegerm of a fast dynamo in flux tubes Riemannian curved space. It is shown that for non-stretched filaments only untwist and unfold filaments can provide dynamo action in diffusive case. A condition for exponential stretching and fast dynamos in filaments is given. These results are actually in agreement with Vishik argument that fast dynamo cannot be obtained in non-stretched flows. Actually the flux tube result is the converse of Vishik's lemma.
The effect of quintessence perturbations on the ISW effect is studied for a mixed dynamical scalar field dark energy (DDE) and pressureless perfect fluid dark matter. A new general methodology is developed involving the total ``sound speed'' $c^{2}\equiv \delta p/\delta \rho$ and the total equation of state $w\equiv p/\rho$. It is shown that for adiabatic perturbations, the impact on the gravitational potential (and hence on the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect) depends crucially on the evolution (in $z$) of the equation of state parameter $w_\phi (z)$ of the DDE. The effect can differ from the ISW signal expected in a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology by as much as +10% to -60% for parameterizations of $w_\phi$ consistent with SNIa data, and about 20% to -50% for parameterizations of $w_{\phi}$ consistent with CMB+BAO data, both at 95.4% confidence. More general DDE perturbations (not necessarily adiabatic) are also examined, and found to have a stronger impact on the ISW signal, dependent on the sound speed. Our results indicate that, at least in principle, the ISW effect can be used to phenomenologically distinguish a cosmological constant from DDE.
As part of a multiwavelength study of the unusual radio supernova remnant DA 495, we present observations made with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Imaging and spectroscopic analysis confirms the previously detected X-ray source at the heart of the annular radio nebula, establishing the radiative properties of two key emission components: a soft unresolved source with a blackbody temperature of 1 MK consistent with a neutron star, surrounded by a nonthermal nebula 40'' in diameter exhibiting a power-law spectrum with photon index Gamma = 1.6+/-0.3, typical of a pulsar wind nebula. The implied spin-down luminosity of the neutron star, assuming a conversion efficiency to nebular flux appropriate to Vela-like pulsars, is ~10^{35} ergs/s, again typical of objects a few tens of kyr old. Morphologically, the nebular flux is slightly enhanced along a direction, in projection on the sky, independently demonstrated to be of significance in radio polarization observations; we argue that this represents the orientation of the pulsar spin axis. At smaller scales, a narrow X-ray feature is seen extending out 5'' from the point source, a distance consistent with the sizes of resolved wind termination shocks around many Vela-like pulsars. Finally, we argue based on synchrotron lifetimes in the estimated nebular magnetic field that DA 495 represents a rare pulsar wind nebula in which electromagnetic flux makes up a significant part, together with particle flux, of the neutron star's wind, and that this high magnetization factor may account for the nebula's low luminosity.
We determine the density and mass distribution of dark matter within our Solar System. We explore the three-body interactions between dark matter particles, the Sun, and the planets to compute the amount of dark matter gravitationally captured over the lifetime of the Solar System. We provide an analytical framework for performing these calculations and detail our numerical simulations accordingly. We find that the local density of dark matter is enhanced by between three and five orders of magnitude over the background halo density, dependent on the radial distance from the Sun. This has profound implications for terrestrial direct dark matter detection searches. We also discuss our results in the context of gravitational signatures, including existing constraints, and find that dark matter captured in this fashion is not responsible for the Pioneer anomaly. We conclude that dark matter appears to, overall, play a much more important role in our Solar System than previously thought.
We discuss the testable predictions of a phenomenological model in which the accelerated expansion of the universe is the result of the action of a non-gravitational force field, rather than the effect of a negative-pressure dark-energy fluid or a modification of general relativity. We show, through the equivalence principle, that in such a scenario the cosmic acceleration felt by distant standard candles like SNIa depends on the mass of the host system, being larger in galaxies than in rich clusters. As a consequence, the scatter in the observed SNIa Hubble diagram has mostly a physical origin in this scenario: in fact, the SNIa distance modulus is increasing, at fixed redshift, for SNe that are hosted in isolated galaxies with respect to the case of SNe hosted in rich galaxy clusters. Due to its strong dependence on the astrophysical environments of standard candles, we conclude that alternative non-gravitational mechanisms for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe can be interestingly contrasted against the standard metric interpretation of the cosmological acceleration by means of an environmental analysis of the cosmic structures in which SNIa are found. The possible absence of such environmental effects would definitely exclude non-gravitational mechanisms as responsible for the accelerated cosmological expansion and will therefore reinforce a metric interpretation.
We present evidence that the optically unidentified radio source, FIRST J121839.7+295325, may be strongly lensing a background galaxy. We estimate the redshift of the assumed gravitational arc, discovered in HST-parallel imaging, from MMT-Blue Channel spectroscopy to be z_arc=2.48_-0.05^+0.14. We present lens models with an Einstein radius of R_E=1.3" containing a mass M_dyn =10^{12+-0.5} M_sol, where the uncertainty reflects the range of possible lens redshifts. The putative lens is not detected to J(3 sigma)=22.0 mag and H(3 sigma)=20.7 mag in our MMT-SWIRC imaging. Using the flux limits from WFPC2 and SWIRC, we estimate that the dynamical mass-to-light ratio of J121839.7+295325 is M_dyn/L_B >~10 M_sol L_sol^-1. Since the radio source is optically unidentified (V(3 sigma)=25.5 mag) and has a radio flux of S_{1.4 GHz}=33 mJy, it is likely a massive early-type galaxy which hosts a radio-loud AGN at 0.8<z_radio<1.5. However, the present data cannot uniquely determine the mass-to-light raatio of the lensing galaxy, and hence the possibility that this system may be a reasonably dark lens is not ruled out.
To date, there is no core accretion simulation that can successfully account for the formation of Uranus or Neptune within the observed 2-3 Myr lifetimes of protoplanetary disks. Since solid accretion rate is directly proportional to the available planetesimal surface density, one way to speed up planet formation is to take a full accounting of all the planetesimal-forming solids present in the solar nebula. By combining a viscously evolving protostellar disk with a kinetic model of ice formation, we calculate the solid surface density in the solar nebula as a function of heliocentric distance and time. We find three effects that strongly favor giant planet formation: (1) a decretion flow that brings mass from the inner solar nebula to the giant planet-forming region, (2) recent lab results (Collings et al. 2004) showing that the ammonia and water ice lines should coincide, and (3) the presence of a substantial amount of methane ice in the trans-Saturnian region. Our results show higher solid surface densities than assumed in the core accretion models of Pollack et al. (1996) by a factor of 3 to 4 throughout the trans-Saturnian region. We also discuss the location of ice lines and their movement through the solar nebula, and provide new constraints on the possible initial disk configurations from gravitational stability arguments.
We present cosmological magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the formation of a galaxy cluster with magnetic energy feedback from an active galactic nuclei (AGN). We demonstrate that X-ray cavities can be produced by the magnetically dominated jet-lobe system that is supported by a central axial current. The cavities are magnetically dominated and their morphology is determined jointedly by the magnetic fields and the background cluster pressure profile. The expansion and motion of the cavities are driven initially by the Lorentz force of the magnetic fields, and the cavities only become buoyant at late stages ($> 500$ Myr). We find that up to $80%-90%$ of the injected magnetic energy goes into doing work against the hot cluster medium, heating it, and lifting it in the cluster potential.
We have conducted a deep and uniform 1.1 mm survey of the GOODS-N field with AzTEC on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Here we present the first results from this survey including maps, the source catalogue, and 1.1 mm number-counts. The results presented here were obtained from a 245 sq-arcmin region with near uniform coverage to a depth of 0.96-1.16 mJy/beam. Our robust catalogue contains 28 source candidates detected with S/N >= 3.75, only 1-2 of which are expected to be spurious detections. Of these source candidates, 8 are also detected by SCUBA at 850 um in regions where there is good overlap between the two surveys. The major advantage of our survey over that with SCUBA is the uniformity of coverage. We calculate number counts using two different techniques: the first using a frequentist parameter estimation, and the second using a Bayesian method. The two sets of results are in good agreement. We find that the 1.1 mm differential number counts are well described in the 2-6 mJy range by the functional form dN/dS = N' (S'/S) exp(-S/S') with fitted parameters S' = 1.25 +/-0.38 mJy and dN/dS = 300 +/- 90 per mJy per sq-deg at 3 mJy.
I present some new results related to our understanding of the masses of galaxies both in the local and high-redshift Universe. At high-redshift new Spitzer data on galaxies in the Gemini Deep Deep Survey allow us a more accurate measure of stellar mass to light ratios (using rest frame near-IR light) showing a refinement of the measurements but not great discrepancies. In the local universe a new method is explored to estimate the baryonic mass function of galaxies including contributions from unseen HI. This points to an interesting result: that the baryonic mass function of galaxies may in fact be quite steep, of comparable slope to the mass function of dark matter haloes.
Thanks to the availability of high-resolution high-sensitivity telescopes such as the Very Large Array, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, there is now a wealth of observational data on relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) as well as galactic sources such as Black-Hole X-ray Binaries. Since the jet speeds cannot be constrained well from observations, but are generally believed to be relativistic, physical quantities inferred from observables are commonly expressed in terms of the unknown beaming parameters: the bulk Lorentz factor and the line-of-sight angle, usually in their combination as relativistic Doppler factor. This paper aims to resolve the discrepancies existing in the literature about such "de-beaming" of derived quantities, in particular regarding the minimum-energy magnetic field estimate. The discrepancies arise because the distinction is not normally made between the case of a fixed source observed with different beaming parameters and the case where the source projection on the sky is held fixed. The former is usually considered, but it is the latter that corresponds to interpreting actual jet observations. Furthermore, attention is drawn to the fact that apparent superluminal motion has a spatial corollary, here called "retardation magnification", which implies that most parts of a relativistic jet that are actually present in the observer's frame (a "world map" in relativity terminology) are in fact hidden on the observer's image (the "world picture" in general, or "supersnapshot" in the special case of astronomy).
We present synthetic OH Zeeman splitting measurements of a super-Alfvenic model of molecular clouds. We select dense cores from synthetic 13CO maps computed from the largest simulation to date of supersonic and super-Alfvenic turbulence. The synthetic Zeeman splitting measurements in the cores yield a relation between the magnetic field strength, B, and the column density, N, in good agreement with the observations. The large scatter in B at a fixed value of N is partly due to intrinsic variations in the magnetic field strength from core to core. We also compute the relative mass-to-flux ratio between the center of the cores and their envelopes, ${\cal R}_{\mu}$, and show that super-Alfvenic turbulence produces a significant scatter also in ${\cal R}_{\mu}$, including negative values (field reversal between core center and envelope). We find ${\cal R}_{\mu}<1$ for 70% of the cores, and ${\cal R}_{\mu}<0$ for 12%. Of the cores with $|B_{\rm LOS}|>10$ \muG (values that could be detected observationally), 81% have ${\cal R}_{\mu}<1$. These predictions of the super-Alfvenic model are in stark contrast to the ambipolar drift model of core formation, where only ${\cal R}_{\mu}>1$ is allowed.
Cool weakly ionized gaseous rotating disk form the basis for many models in astrophysics objects. Instabilities against perturbations in such disks play an important role in the theory of the formation of stars and planets. Traditionally, axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and recently Hall-MHD instabilities have been thoroughly studied as providers of an efficient mechanism for radial transfer of angular momentum, and of density radial stratification. In the current work, the Hall instability against axisymmetric perturbations in incompressible rotating fluid in external poloidal and toroidal magnetic field is considered.
We present three dimensional hydrodynamical simulations aimed at studying the dynamical and chemical evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) in isolated dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). This evolution is driven by the explosion of Type II and Type Ia supernovae, whose different contribution on both the dynamics and chemical enrichment is taken into account. Radiative losses are effective in radiating away the huge amount of energy released by SNe explosions, and the dSph is able to retain most of the gas allowing a long period (>2-3 Gyr) of star formation, as usually observed in this kind of galaxies. We are able to reproduce the stellar metallicity distribution function (MDF) as well as the peculiar chemical properties of strongly O-depleted stars observed in several dSphs. The model also naturally predicts two different stellar populations, with an anti-correlation between [Fe/H] and velocity dispersion, similarly to what observed in the Sculptor and Fornax dSphs. These results derive from the inhomogeneous pollution of the SNe Ia, a distinctive characteristic of our model. We also applied the model to the peculiar globular cluster (GC) Omega Cen in the hypothesis that it is the remnant of a formerly larger stellar system, possibly a dSph.
We investigate an archival XMM-Newton observation of LHS 2065, an ultracool dwarf with spectral type M9. We clearly detect LHS 2065 at soft X-ray energies in less than 1 h effective exposure time above the 3 sigma level with the PN and MOS1 detector. No flare signatures are present and we attribute the X-ray detection to quasi-quiescent activity. From the PN data we derive an X-ray luminosity of L_x = 2.2 +/- 0.7 x 10^26 erg/s in the 0.3-0.8 keV band, the corresponding activity level of log L_x/L_bol = -3.7 points to a rather active star. Indications for minor variability and possible accompanying spectral changes are present, however the short exposure time and poor data quality prevents a more detailed analysis. LHS 2065 is one of the coolest and least massive stars that emits X-rays at detectable levels in quasi-quiescence, implying the existence of a corona.
We study the development of finite eccentricity in accretion disks in close
binary systems using a two-dimensional grid-based numerical scheme. We perform
detailed parameter studies to explore the dependence on viscosity, disk aspect
ratio, the inclusion of a mass-transfer stream and the role of the boundary
conditions. We consider mass ratios 0.05<q<0.3 appropriate to superoutbursting
cataclysmic binary systems.
Instability to the formation of a precessing eccentric disk that attains a
quasi-steady state with mean eccentricity in the range 0.3-0.5 occurs readily.
The shortest growth times are ~15 binary orbits for the largest viscosities and
the instability mechanism is for the most part consistent with the
mode-coupling mechanism associated with the 3:1 resonance proposed by Lubow.
However, the results are sensitive to the treatment of the inner boundary and
to the incorporation of the mass-transfer stream. In the presence of a stream
we found a critical viscosity below which the disk remains circular.
Incorporation of a mass-transfer stream tends to impart stability for small
enough viscosity (or, equivalently, mass-transfer rate through the disk) and
does assist in obtaining a prograde precession rate that is in agreement with
observations. For the larger q the location of the 3:1 resonance is pushed
outwards towards the Roche lobe where higher-order mode couplings and
nonlinearity occur. It is likely that three-dimensional simulations that
properly resolve the disk's vertical structure are required to make significant
progress in this case.
The X-ray spectrum of NGC7213 is known to present no evidence for Compton reflection, a unique result among bright Seyfert 1s. The observed neutral iron K$\alpha$ line, therefore, cannot be associated with a Compton-thick material, like the disc or the torus, but is due to Compton-thin gas, with the Broad Line Region (BLR) as the most likely candidate. To check this hypothesis, a long Chandra HETG observation, together with a quasi-simultaneous optical spectroscopic observation at the ESO NTT EMMI were performed. We found that the iron line is resolved with a FWHM=$2 400^{+1 100}_{-600}$ km/s, in perfect agreement with the value measured for the broad component of the H$\alpha$, $2640^{+110}_{-90}$ km/s. Therefore, NGC7213 is the only Seyfert 1 galaxy whose iron K$\alpha$ line is unambiguously produced in the BLR. We also confirmed the presence of two ionised iron lines and studied them in greater detail than before. The resonant line is the dominant component in the Fe XXV triplet, therefore suggesting an origin in collisionally ionised gas. If this is the case, the blueshift of around 1000 km/s of the two ionised iron lines could be the first measure of the velocity of a starburst wind from its X-ray emission.
We present a short overview of the properties of faint Galactic X-ray binaries. We place emphasis on current classification scenarios. One of the important parameters for the faint sources is their intrinsic luminosity. In the case of low-mass X-ray binaries it has recently been realised that besides a phase of radius expansion, the duration of type I X-ray bursts can be used as a primer for the source luminosity in some cases. Further, we show that a very low equivalent width of hydrogen and helium emission lines in the optical spectrum alone is not a tell-tale sign for an ultra-compact system. Finally, we list and discuss some unusual sources that could be X-ray binaries.
I have compiled observations of [OIII] 5007 line and 5GHz radio emission for a large sample of GPS, CSS and FR sources. Several properties were studied and compared. The most relevant findings are that the FWHM and the luminosity of the [OIII] 5007 line are correlated with the size of the radio source. I present the data and discuss the correlations, with special focus on jet-host interaction, triggering and enhancing of [OIII] 5007 emission.
The study of self-gravitating stellar systems has provided important hints to develop tools of analytical mechanics. In the present contribution we review how to exploit detuned resonant normal forms to extract information on several aspects of the dynamics in systems with self-similar elliptical equipotentials. In particular, using energy and ellipticity as parameters, we compute the instability thresholds of axial orbits, bifurcation values of low-order boxlets and phase-space fractions pertaining to the families around them. We also show how to infer something about the singular limit of the potential.
We studied the complete randomness of the angular distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by BATSE. Since GRBs seem to be a mixture of objects of different physical nature we divided the BATSE sample into 5 subsamples (short1, short2, intermediate, long1, long2) based on their durations and peak fluxes and studied the angular distributions separately. We used three methods, Voronoi tesselation, minimal spanning tree and multifractal spectra to search for non-randomness in the subsamples. To investigate the eventual non-randomness in the subsamples we defined 13 test-variables (9 from the Voronoi tesselation, 3 from the minimal spanning tree and one from the multifractal spectrum). Assuming that the point patterns obtained from the BATSE subsamples are fully random we made Monte Carlo simulations taking into account the BATSE's sky-exposure function. The MC simulations enabled us to test the null hypothesis i.e. that the angular distributions are fully random. We tested the randomness by binomial test and introducing squared Euclidean distances in the parameter space of the test-variables. We concluded that the short1, short2 groups deviate significantly (99.90%, 99.98%) from the fully randomness in the distribution of the squared Euclidean distances but it is not the case at the long samples. At the intermediate group the squared Euclidean distances also give significant deviation (98.51%).
The available information on isotopic abundances in the atmospheres of low-mass Red Giant Branch (RGB) and Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars requires that episodes of extensive mixing occur below the convective envelope, reaching down to layers close to the hydrogen burning shell (Cool Bottom Processing). Recently \cite{Busso:2007jw} suggested that dynamo-produced buoyant magnetic flux tubes could provide the necessary physical mechanisms and also supply sufficient transport rates. Here, we present an $\alpha-\Omega$ dynamo in the envelope of an RGB/AGB star in which shear and rotation drain via turbulent dissipation and Poynting flux. In this context, if the dynamo is to sustain throughout either phase, convection must resupply shear. Under this condition, volume-averaged, peak toroidal field strengths of $<B_\phi>\simeq3\times10^3$ G (RGB) and $<B_\phi>\simeq5\times10^3$ G (AGB) are possible at the base of the convection zone. If the magnetic fields are concentrated in flux tubes, the corresponding field strengths are comparable to those required by Cool Bottom Processing.
We present a semi-implicit method for isothermal two-fluid ion-neutral ambipolar drift that is second-order accurate in space and time. The method has been implemented in the RIEMANN code for astrophysical fluid dynamics. We present four test problems that show the method works and correctly tracks the propagation of MHD waves and the structure of two-fluid C-shocks. The accurate propagation of MHD waves in the two-fluid approximation is shown to be a stringent test of the algorithm. We demonstrate that highly accurate methods are required in order to properly capture the MHD wave behaviour in the presence of ion-neutral friction.
The physical nature of the X-ray/radio correlation of AGN is still an unsolved question. High angular resolution observations are necessary to disentangle the associated energy dynamics into nuclear and stellar components. We present MERLIN/EVN 18cm observations of 13 X-raying AGN. The sample consists of Seyfert 1, Narrow Line Seyfert 1, and LINER-like galaxies. We find that for all objects the radio emission is unresolved and that the radio luminosities and brightness temperatures are too high for star formation to play an important role. This indicates that the radio emission in these sources is closely connected to processes that occur in the vicinity of the central massive black hole, also where the X-ray emission is believed to originate in.
Gravitational N-body simulations, that is numerical solutions of the equations of motions for N particles interacting gravitationally, are widely used tools in astrophysics, with applications from few body or solar system like systems all the way up to galactic and cosmological scales. In this article we present a summary review of the field highlighting the main methods for N-body simulations and the astrophysical context in which they are usually applied.
We present multi-frequency multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of J11584+2450. These observations clearly show this source, previously classified as a core-jet, to be a compact symmetric object (CSO). Comparisons between these new data and data taken over the last 9 years shows the edge brightened hot spots retreating towards the core (and slightly to the west) at approximately 0.3c. Whether this motion is strictly apparent or actually physical in nature is discussed, as well as possible explanations, and what implications a physical contraction of J11584+2450 would have for current CSO models.
Recent analyses of several isospin effects in heavy-ion reactions have allowed us to constrain the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy at sub-saturation densities within a narrow range. Combined with constraints on the Equation of State (EOS) of symmetric nuclear matter obtained previously from analyzing the elliptic flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the EOS of neutron-rich nuclear matter is thus partially constrained. Here we report effects of the partially constrained EOS of neutron-rich nuclear matter on the mass-radius correlation, moment of inertia, elliptical deformation and gravitational radiation of (rapidly) rotating neutron stars.
The semi-classical nature of braneworld cosmological models does not account for any quantum gravitational effects. In this letter we use the gauge/gravity correspondence to argue that quantum string corrections cannot be ignored in any study of braneworld stability. As an example, we find, by analysing the quantum gravitational backreaction, that a closed universe is unstable to radiation into the bulk.
Astrophysical constraints of new physics are often limited to weakly interacting light particles, such as axions, Kaluza-Klein (KK) gravitons from ADD model, sterile neutrinos and unparticles. We discuss the possibility for an astrophysical scenario to (dis)confirm new physics for heavy particles beyond TeV energy scale. In our scenario, KK protons (protons within KK excited quarks/gluons) within the framework of universal extra dimensions (UEDs), are produced by high energy p + p collisions in Fermi accelerated environments with isotropic spectrum dN/dE \propto E^-2 up to at least 10^18 eV. Thus, because they are also electrically charged, they should be accelerated by the same mechanism similar to normal protons. KK states should contaminate 10^-5 to 10^-2 of cosmic-ray events for some fixed energy E (if assuming the optical depth \tau_pp = 1). Hence, if we have techniques to identify them from air shower data, we can constrain UEDs scenario. Our method may or may not give stronger bounds than colliders, because of some model and detector uncertainties in our estimations. However, it is at least an "existence proof" that we can constrain new physics beyond TeV scale by classical astrophysical scenarios. Our method can be generalized to supersymmetry (SUSY) models, bulk Standard Model (SM) fields within RS model, and the endlessly emerging new models. Our method can also exploit domains which have no possibility to be studied in terrestrial experiments.
Recently a Born-Infeld action for dark energy and dark matter that uses additional affine connections was proposed. At background level, it was shown that the new proposal can mimic the standard cosmological evolution. In Bianchi cosmologies, contrary to the scalar field approach (e.g., Chaplygin gas), the new approach leads to anisotropic pressure, raising the issues of stability of the isotropic solution under anisotropic perturbations and, being it stable, how the anisotropies evolve. In this work, the Eddington-Born-Infeld proposal is extended to a Bianchi type I scenario and residual post-inflationary anisotropies are shown to decay in time. Moreover, it is shown that the shears decay following a damped oscillatory pattern, instead of the standard exponential-like decay. Allowing for some fine tuning on the initial conditions, standard theoretical bounds on the shears can be avoided.
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We present point-source catalogs for the ~2 Ms exposure of the Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S); this is one of the two most-sensitive X-ray surveys ever performed. The survey covers an area of ~436 arcmin^2 and reaches on-axis sensitivity limits of ~1.9x10^{-17} and ~1.3x10^{-16} ergs/cm^2/s for the 0.5-2.0 and 2-8 keV bands, respectively. Four hundred and sixty-two X-ray point sources are detected in at least one of three X-ray bands that were searched; 135 of these sources are new compared to the previous ~1 Ms CDF-S detections. Source positions are determined using centroid and matched-filter techniques; the median positional uncertainty is ~0.36". The X-ray-to-optical flux ratios of the newly detected sources indicate a variety of source types; ~55% of them appear to be active galactic nuclei while ~45% appear to be starburst and normal galaxies. In addition to the main Chandra catalog, we provide a supplementary catalog of 86 X-ray sources in the ~2 Ms CDF-S footprint that was created by merging the ~250 ks Extended Chandra Deep Field-South with the CDF-S; this approach provides additional sensitivity in the outer portions of the CDF-S. A second supplementary catalog that contains 30 X-ray sources was constructed by matching lower significance X-ray sources to bright optical counterparts (R<23.8); the majority of these sources appear to be starburst and normal galaxies. The total number of sources in the main and supplementary catalogs is 578. R-band optical counterparts and basic optical and infrared photometry are provided for the X-ray sources in the main and supplementary catalogs. We also include existing spectroscopic redshifts for 224 of the X-ray sources. (Abstract abridged)
(abridged) We apply a second-order Godunov code, Athena, to studies of the magnetorotational instability using the local shearing box formalism. We present a set of ideal magnetohydrodynamic, unstratified shearing box simulations using two initial magnetic field configurations: a net uniform vertical field, and a sinusoidally varying zero-net vertical field. We find that our simulations agree well with previously published results. We next carry out analyses to study the flow of energy from differential rotation to turbulent fluctuations to thermalization. The first analysis is based on a direct measurement of the time-evolution of volume-averaged quantities. We find that the timescale over which energy is injected into turbulent fluctuations and then dissipated is on the order of \Omega^{-1}, where \Omega is the orbital frequency of the local domain. Magnetic dissipation dominates over kinetic dissipation, although not by as great a factor as the ratio of magnetic to kinetic energy. The second analysis examines the magnetic and kinetic energy evolution equations in Fourier space. From this, we characterize the numerical dissipation as a function of length scale and model it as effective resistive and viscous losses. We find the numerical resistivity and viscosity are a function of resolution, but the effective magnetic Prandtl number is roughly 2, independent of resolution or initial field geometry. These results will serve as a baseline for future shearing box studies where dissipation is controlled by the inclusion of explicit viscosity and resistivity.
As the most common environment in the universe, groups of galaxies are likely to contain a significant fraction of the missing baryons in the form of intergalactic gas. The density of this gas is an important factor in whether ram pressure stripping and strangulation affect the evolution of galaxies in these systems. We present a method for measuring the density of intergalactic gas using bent-double radio sources that is independent of temperature, making it complementary to current absorption line measurements. We use this method to probe intergalactic gas in two different environments: inside a small group of galaxies as well as outside of a larger group at a 2 Mpc radius and measure total gas densities of $4 \pm 1_{-2}^{+6} \times 10^{-3}$ and $9 \pm 3_{-5}^{+10} \times 10^{-4}$ per cubic centimeter (random and systematic errors) respectively. We use X-ray data to place an upper limit of $2 \times 10^6$ K on the temperature of the intragroup gas in the small group.
A novel way of looking at the evolution of star clusters is presented. With a dynamical temperature, given by the mean kinetic energy of the cluster stars, and a dynamical luminosity, which is defined as the kinetic energy of the stars leaving the cluster in analogy to the energy of photons emitted by a star, the dissolution of star clusters is studied using a new dynamical temperature-luminosity diagram for star clusters. The investigation contains a parameter-space study of open clusters of up to N = 32768 single-mass stars with different initial density distributions, half-mass radii, tidal conditions and binary fractions. The clusters show a strong correlation between dynamical temperature and dynamical luminosity and most of the investigated cluster families share a common sequence in such a dynamical temperature-luminosity diagram. Deviations from this sequence are analyzed and discussed. After core collapse, the position of a cluster within this diagram can be defined by three parameters: the mass, the tidal conditions and the binary fraction. Due to core collapse all initial conditions are lost and the remaining stars adjust to the given tidal conditions. Binaries as internal energy sources influence this adjustment. A further finding concerns the Lagrange radii of star clusters: Throughout the investigated parameter space nearly all clusters show a constant half-mass radius for the time after core collapse until dissolution. Furthermore, the ratio of half-mass radius to tidal radius evolves onto a common sequence which only depends on the mass left in the cluster.
We develop observational tests of the idea that dissipation in gas-rich mergers produces the fundamental plane (FP) and related correlations obeyed by ellipticals. The FP 'tilt' implies lower-mass ellipticals have a higher ratio of stellar to dark matter within their stellar effective radii. Models argue that mergers between more gas-rich (typically lower-mass) disks yield larger mass fractions formed in compact starbursts, giving a smaller stellar R_e and higher M_stellar/M_tot within that R_e. Such starbursts leave a characteristic imprint in the surface brightness profile: a central excess above an outer profile established by the dissipationless violent relaxation of disk stars. In previous work, we developed empirical methods to decompose the observed profiles of ellipticals and robustly estimate the amount of dissipation in the original spheroid-forming merger(s). Applying this to a large sample of observed ellipticals, we test whether or not their location on the FP and its tilt are driven by dissipation. At fixed mass, ellipticals formed in more dissipational events are smaller and have higher M_stellar/M_tot. At fixed degree of dissipation, there is no tilt in the FP. We show that the dynamical mass estimator R_e*sigma^2/G is a good estimator of the true mass: the observed FP tilt cannot primarily owe to other forms of non-homology. Removing the effects of dissipation, observed ellipticals obey the same FP correlations as disks: unusual progenitors are not required to make typical ellipticals. Dissipation appears to be both necessary and sufficient to explain the FP tilt.
We report on the results of novel global high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of disk-planet interaction which incorporate simultaneously realistic radiation physics and the self-gravity of the gas, as well as allowing the planet to move. We find that thermodynamics and radiative physics have a remarkable effect on both migration and accretion of Jupiter mass planets. In simulations with radiative transfer adopting flux-limited diffusion, inward migration can be decreased by about 30% relative to the isothermal case, while in adiabatic runs migration nearly shuts off after a few tens of orbits. Migration varies because the relative strength of the inner and outer spiral perturbations is affected by thermodynamics, thus changing the net torque acting on the planet. Mass accretion rates on the planet can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude going from isothermal to radiative transfer and adiabatic simulations. A circumplanetary disk always forms except in adiabatic runs. With radiative transfer the disk is sub-keplerian (Vrot/Vkep ~ 0.7) owing to significant pressure support. We discuss the effect of circumplanetary disk structure on the drift of embedded dust grains and planetesimals and thus on the formation of the rocky satellites of giant planets.
The NASA Star and Exoplanet Database (NStED) is a general purpose stellar archive with the aim of providing support for NASA's planet finding and characterization goals, stellar astrophysics, and the planning of NASA and other space missions. There are two principal components of NStED: a database of (currently) 140,000 nearby stars and exoplanet-hosting stars, and an archive dedicated to high-precision photometric surveys for transiting exoplanets. We present a summary of the latter component: the NStED Exoplanet Transit Survey Service (NStED-ETSS), along with its content, functionality, tools, and user interface. NStED-ETSS currently serves data from the TrES Survey of the Kepler Field as well as dedicated photometric surveys of four stellar clusters. <CA>NStED-ETSS aims to serve both the surveys and the broader astronomical community by archiving these data and making them available in a homogeneous format. Examples of usability of ETSS include investigation of any time-variable phenomena in data sets not studied by the original survey team, application of different techniques or algorithms for planet transit detections, combination of data from different surveys for given objects, statistical studies, etc. NStED-ETSS can be accessed at \tt{this http URL}
We use semi-analytic models of structure formation to interpret gravitational lensing measurements of substructure in galaxy cluster cores (R<=250kpc/h) at z=0.2. The dynamic range of the lensing-based substructure fraction measurements is well matched to the theoretical predictions, both spanning f_sub~0.05-0.65. The structure formation model predicts that f_sub is correlated with cluster assembly history. We use simple fitting formulae to parameterize the predicted correlations: Delta_90 = tau_90 + alpha_90 * log(f_sub) and Delta_50 = tau_50 + alpha_50 * log(f_sub), where Delta_90 and Delta_50 are the predicted lookback times from z=0.2 to when each theoretical cluster had acquired 90% and 50% respectively of the mass it had at z=0.2. The best-fit parameter values are: alpha_90 = (-1.34+/-0.79)Gyr, tau_90 = (0.31+/-0.56)Gyr and alpha_50 = (-2.77+/-1.66)Gyr, tau_50 = (0.99+/-1.18)Gyr. Therefore (i) observed clusters with f_sub<~0.1 (e.g. A383, A1835) are interpreted, on average, to have formed at z>~0.8 and to have suffered <=10% mass growth since z~0.4, (ii) observed clusters with f_sub>~0.4 (e.g. A68, A773) are interpreted as, on average, forming since z~0.4 and suffering >10% mass growth in the ~500Myr preceding z=0.2, i.e. since z=0.25. In summary, observational measurements of f_sub can be combined with structure formation models to estimate the age and assembly history of observed clusters. The ability to ``age-date'' approximately clusters in this way has numerous applications to the large clusters samples that are becoming available.
We investigate the radio emission of ~185,000 quiescent (optically unclassifiable) galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). By median-stacking FIRST cutouts centered on the optically-selected sources, we are able to reach flux densities down to the 10s of microJy. The quiescent galaxy sample is composed of two subgroups inhabiting vastly different regimes: those targeted for the SDSS MAIN Galaxy Sample (~55%), and those targeted for the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) sample (~45%). To investigate the star-formation rates (SFRs) of these quiescent galaxies, we calibrate a radio-SFR conversion using a third sample of star-forming galaxies. Comparing this SFR-indicator with indicators in the optical and UV, we derive conflicting SFR estimates for the MAIN sample quiescent galaxies. These radio-derived SFRs intersect those calculated using the 4000-Angstrom break (D4000) around an SFR of 1 Msun/yr and agree to within a factor of 3 over the range of SFRs. However, we find that the radio-derived SFRs are too high relative to the SFRs estimated for similar populations of galaxies using analysis of UV emission, implying either contamination of the radio by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) or incomplete dust modeling. If AGN activity is dominant in these galaxies, then a relation between AGN radio luminosity and galaxy mass is required to explain the observed trends. For the LRGs, on the other hand, we find the radio luminosity to be independent of SFR as derived from D4000, indicating an AGN component dominates their radio emission. AGN-based radio emission often implies the existence of radio jets, providing evidence of a mechanism for low-level feedback in these quiescent LRGs. (Abridged)
We report on the discovery of three new dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. These galaxies are found in new CFHT/MegaPrime g,i imaging of the south-western quadrant of M31, extending our extant survey area to include the majority of the southern hemisphere of M31's halo out to 150 kpc. All these galaxies have stellar populations which appear typical of dwarf spheroidal (dSph) systems. The first of these galaxies, Andromeda XVIII, is the most distant Local Group dwarf discovered in recent years, at ~1.4 Mpc from the Milky Way (~ 600 kpc from M31). The second galaxy, Andromeda XIX, a satellite of M31, is the most extended dwarf galaxy known in the Local Group, with a half-light radius of r_h ~ 1.7 kpc. This is approximately an order of magnitude larger than the typical half-light radius of many Milky Way dSphs, and reinforces the difference in scale sizes seen between the Milky Way and M31 dSphs (such that the M31 dwarfs are generally more extended than their Milky Way counterparts). The third galaxy, Andromeda XX, is one of the faintest galaxies so far discovered in the vicinity of M31, with an absolute magnitude of order M_V ~ -6.3. Andromeda XVIII, XIX and XX highlight different aspects of, and raise important questions regarding, the formation and evolution of galaxies at the extreme faint-end of the luminosity function. These findings indicate that we have not yet sampled the full parameter space occupied by dwarf galaxies, although this is an essential pre-requisite for successfully and consistently linking these systems to the predicted cosmological dark matter sub-structure.
We present results from spatially resolved spectral analyses of the northeastern (NE) rim of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant (SNR) based on two Chandra observations. One pointing includes northern outermost abundance-enhanced regions discovered by recent Suzaku observations, while the other pointing is located on regions with "normal" abundances in the NE rim of the Cygnus Loop. The superior spatial resolving power of Chandra allows us to reveal that the abundance-enhanced region is concentrated in an about 200"-thickness region behind the shock front. We confirm absolute metal abundances (i.e., relative to H) as well as abundance ratios between metals are consistent with those of the solar values within a factor of about 2. Also, we find that the emission measure in the region gradually decreases toward the shock front. These features are in contrast with those of the ejecta fragments around the Vela SNR, which leads us to believe that the abundance enhancements are not likely due to metal-rich ejecta. We suggest that the origin of the plasma in this region is the interstellar medium (ISM). In the "normal" abundance regions, we confirm that abundances are depleted to the solar values by a factor of about 5 that is not expected in the ISM around the Cygnus Loop. Introduction of non-thermal emission in our model fitting can not naturally resolve the abundance-depletion problem. The origin of the depletion still remains as an open question.
We report the discovery of a planet transiting a moderately faint (V=12.3 mag) late F star, with an orbital period of 3.92289 +/- 0.00004 days. From the transit light curve and radial velocity measurements we determine that the radius of the planet is R_p = 1.40 +/- 0.06 R_Jup and that the mass is M_p = 0.78 +/- 0.09 M_Jup. The density of the new planet, rho = 0.35 +/- 0.06 g cm^{-3}, fits to the low-density tail of the currently known transiting planets. We find that the center of transit is at T_c = 2454417.9077 +/- 0.0003 (HJD), and the total transit duration is 0.143 +/- 0.004 days. The host star has M_s = 1.28 +/- 0.13 M_Sun and R_s = 1.32 +/- 0.07 R_Sun.
We present maps of the cosmic large-scale structure around the twelve most distant galaxy clusters from the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS) as traced by the projected surface density of galaxies on the cluster red sequence. Taken with the Suprime-Cam wide-field camera on the Subaru telescope, the images used in this study cover a 27x27 arcmin^2 area around each cluster, corresponding to 10 x 10 Mpc^2 at the median redshift of z = 0.55 of our sample. We directly detect satellite clusters and filaments extending over the full size of our imaging data in the majority of the clusters studied, supporting the picture of mass accretion via infall along filaments suggested by numerical simulations of the growth of clusters and the evolution of large-scale structure. A comparison of the galaxy distribution near the cluster cores with the X-ray surface brightness as observed with Chandra reveals, in several cases, significant offsets between the gas and galaxy distribution, indicative of ongoing merger events. The respective systems are ideally suited for studies of the dynamical properties of gas, galaxies, and dark matter. In addition, the large-scale filaments viewed at high contrast in these MACS clusters are prime targets for the direct detection and study of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM).
In a recent paper it was suggested that inclusion of mutual gravitational interactions among the collapsing particles can avert a singularity and give finite value for various physical quantities. In this paper we extend this idea further by the inclusion of charge and spin to the system. We have also discussed other possible scenarios by which the singular state can be averted, including a temperature dependent gravitational constant. Also possible modifications in the Einstein-Hilbert action have been discussed, which can again lead to a finite maximal curvature hence avoiding a singularity.
In order to deduce properties of dust in astrophysical environments where dust growth through aggregation is important, knowledge of the way aggregated particles interact with radiation, and what information is encoded in the thermal radiation they emit, is needed. The emission characteristics are determined by the size and structure of the aggregate and the composition and shape of the constituents. We thus aim at performing computations of compositionally inhomogeneous aggregates composed of irregularly shaped constituents. In addition we aim at developing an empirical recipe to compute the optical properties of such aggregates in a fast and accurate manner. We performed CDA computations for aggregates of irregularly shaped particles with various compositions. The constituents of the aggregate are assumed to be in the Rayleigh regime, and in addition we assume that the dominant interaction of the aggregate constituents is through dipole-dipole interactions. We computed the spectral structure of the emission efficiency in the 10 micron region for aggregates with 30% amorphous carbon and 70% silicates by volume with various fractions of crystalline and amorphous components. We find that the spectral appearance of the various components of the aggregate are very different and depend on their abundances. Most notably, materials that have a very low abundance appear spectroscopically as if they were in very small grains, while more abundant materials appear, spectroscopically to reside in larger grains. We construct a fast empirical approximate method, based on the idea of an effective medium approximation, to construct the spectra for these aggregates which almost perfectly reproduces the more exact computations. This new method is fast enough to be easily implemented in fitting procedures.
A recent measurement of $^4$He photodisintegration reactions, $^4$He($\gamma$,$p$)$^3$H and $^4$He($\gamma$,$n$)$^3$He with laser-Compton photons shows smaller cross sections than those estimated by other previous experiments at $E_\gamma \lesssim 30$ MeV. We study big-bang nucleosynthesis with the radiative particle decay using the new photodisintegration cross sections of $^4$He. The sensitivity of the yields of all light elements D, T, $^3$He, $^4$He, $^6$Li, $^7$Li and $^7$Be to the cross sections is investigated. The change of the cross sections has an influence on the non-thermal yields of D, $^3$He and $^4$He. On the other hand, the non-thermal $^6$Li production is not sensitive to the change of the cross sections at this low energy, since the non-thermal secondary synthesis of $^6$Li needs energetic photons of $E_\gamma \gtrsim 50$ MeV. The non-thermal nucleosynthesis triggered by the radiative particle decay is one of candidates of the production mechanism of $^6$Li observed in metal-poor halo stars (MPHSs). In the parameter region of the radiative particle lifetime and the emitted photon energy which satisfies the $^6$Li production above the abundance level observed in MPHSs, the change of the photodisintegration cross sections at $E_\gamma \lesssim 30$ MeV as measured in the recent experiment leads to $\sim 10$% reduction of resulting $^3$He abundance, whereas the $^6$Li abundance does not change for this change of the cross sections of $^4$He($\gamma$,$p$)$^3$H and $^4$He($\gamma$,$n$)$^3$He. The $^6$Li abundance, however, could show a sizable change and therefore the future precise measurement of the cross sections at high energy $E_\gamma \gtrsim$ 50 MeV is highly required.
We present a 3-dimensional model of supernova remnants (SNRs) where the hydrodynamical evolution of the remnant is modeled consistently with nonlinear diffusive shock acceleration occuring at the outer blast wave. The model includes particle escape and diffusion outside of the forward shock, and particle interactions with arbitrary distributions of external ambient material, such as molecular clouds. We include synchrotron emission and cooling, bremsstrahlung radiation, neutral pion production, inverse-Compton (IC), and Coulomb energy-loss. Boardband spectra have been calculated for typical parameters including dense regions of gas external to a 1000 year old SNR. In this paper, we describe the details of our model but do not attempt a detailed fit to any specific remnant. We also do not include magnetic field amplification (MFA), even though this effect may be important in some young remnants. In this first presentation of the model we don't attempt a detailed fit to any specific remnant. Our aim is to develop a flexible platform, which can be generalized to include effects such as MFA, and which can be easily adapted to various SNR environments, including Type Ia SNRs, which explode in a constant density medium, and Type II SNRs, which explode in a pre-supernova wind. When applied to a specific SNR, our model will predict cosmic-ray spectra and multi-wavelength morphology in projected images for instruments with varying spatial and spectral resolutions. We show examples of these spectra and images and emphasize the importance of measurements in the hard X-ray, GeV, and TeV gamma-ray bands for investigating key ingredients in the acceleration mechanism, and for deducing whether or not TeV emission is produced by IC from electrons or neutral pions from protons.
We seek to find a shapelet-based scheme for deconvolving galaxy images from the PSF which leads to unbiased shear measurements. Based on the analytic formulation of convolution in shapelet space, we construct a procedure to recover the unconvolved shapelet coefficients under the assumption that the PSF is perfectly known. Using specific simulations, we test this approach and compare it to other published approaches. We show that convolution in shapelet space leads to a shapelet model of order $n_{max}^h = n_{max}^g + n_{max}^f$ with $n_{max}^f$ and $n_{max}^g$ being the maximum orders of the intrinsic galaxy and the PSF models, respectively. Deconvolution is hence a transformation which maps a certain number of convolved coefficients onto a generally smaller number of deconvolved coefficients. By inferring the latter number from data, we construct the maximum-likelihood solution for this transformation and obtain unbiased shear estimates with a remarkable amount of noise reduction compared to established approaches. This finding is particularly valid for complicated PSF models and low $S/N$ images, which renders our approach suitable for typical weak-lensing conditions.
A comprehensive review is given of the various processes proposed for accelerating particles by shocks to high energies. These energies are limited by several bounds: the non-relativistic nature of the heliospheric collisionless shocks to which this review restricts, the finite size of these shocks, the finite width of the downstream region, and to the nature of turbulence. In general, collisionless shocks in the heliosphere cannot accelerate particles to very high energies. As a fundamental problem of the acceleration mechanism the injection of see particles is identified. Some mecchanisms for production of seed particles are invoked. Acceleration of electrons begins to uncover its nature. The following problems are covered in this chapter: 1. Introduction -- first and second order Fermi acceleration, 2. Accelerating ions when they are already fast, diffusive acceleration, convection diffusion equation, Lee's self-consistent quasilinear shock acceleration model, 3. Observations, 4. The injection problem, ion surfing, test particle simulations, self-consistent shock acceleration simulations, downstream leakage, trapped particle acceleration, 5. Accelerating electrons, Sonnerup-Wu mechanism, Hoshino's electron shock surfing on quasi-perpendicular shocks, quasiparallel shock surfing.
Context: The main sequence binary star 61 Cyg (K5V+K7V) is our nearest stellar neighbour in the northern hemisphere. This proximity makes it a particularly well suited system for very high accuracy interferometric radius measurements. Aims: Our goal is to constrain the poorly known evolutionary status and age of this bright binary star. Methods: We obtained high accuracy interferometric observations in the infrared K' band, using the CHARA/FLUOR instrument. We then computed evolutionary models of 61 Cyg A & B with the CESAM2k code. As model constraints, we used a combination of observational parameters from classical observation methods (photometry, spectroscopy) as well as our new interferometric radii. Results: The measured limb darkened disk angular diameters are theta_LD(A) = 1.775 +/- 0.013 mas and theta_LD(B) = 1.581 +/- 0.022 mas, respectively for 61 Cyg A and B. Considering the high accuracy parallaxes available, these values translate into photospheric radii of R(A) = 0.665 +/- 0.005 Rsun and R(B) = 0.595 +/- 0.008 Rsun. The new radii constrain efficiently the physical parameters adopted for the modeling of both stars, allowing us to predict asteroseismic frequencies based on our best-fit models. Conclusions: The CESAM2k evolutionary models indicate an age around 6 Gyrs and are compatible with small values of the mixing length parameter. The measurement of asteroseismic oscillation frequencies in 61 Cyg A & B would be of great value to improve the modeling of this important fiducial stellar system, in particular to better constrain the masses.
New high-resolution spectra of FU Ori, obtained with the HIRES spectrograph at the Keck I telescope in 2003-2006, make it possible to compare the optical line profiles with those predicted by the self-luminous accretion disk model. A dependence of line width on excitation potential and on wavelength, expected for a Keplerian disk, is definitely not present in the optical region, nor is the line duplicity due to velocity splitting. The absorption lines observed in the optical region of FU Ori must originate in or near the central object, and here their profiles are shown to be those expected of a rigidly rotating object. They can be fitted by a rapidly rotating (v sin i = 70 km/s) high-luminosity G-type star having a large dark polar spot, with axis inclined toward the line of sight. Over these years, the radial velocity of FU Ori has remained constant to within +/-0.3 km/s, so there is no indication that the star is a spectroscopic binary. These results apply to the optical region ($\lambda< 8800$ \AA); more distant, cooler regions of the disk contribute in the infrared.
Mass loss and axial rotation are playing key roles in shaping the evolution of massive stars. They affect the tracks in the HR diagram, the lifetimes, the surface abundances, the hardness of the radiation field, the chemical yields, the presupernova status, the nature of the remnant, the mechanical energy released in the interstellar medium, etc... In this paper, after recalling a few characteristics of mass loss and rotation, we review the effects of these two processes at different metallicities. Rotation probably has its most important effects at low metallicities, while mass loss and rotation deeply affect the evolution of massive stars at solar and higher than solar metallicities.
A new type of $\beta$ model of intracluster gas distribution is established, which is well fitted to the observed X-ray surface brightness profile except for outermost region. It employs the exact King model of the self-gravitating system of collisionless particles instead of the widely used approximated analytical formula for the dark matter distribution. The small difference between the modelled and the observed X-ray surface brightness profiles would disappear if the infall of matter from the intercluster space is taken into account. The number of parameters of our model is the same as for the isothermal $\beta$ model, but the agreement between our model and data points is satisfactory even when the fitting with the isothermal $\beta$ model remains a large central excess. In addition, the enhanced central mass concentration in our model is high enough to resolve the discrepancy between the X-ray and the lensing measurements of cluster mass. These facts suggest that most of the central excess might be no more than a ghost embossed by an inadequate fitting. Therefore the central excess would not necessarily be linked to the existence of cooling flow. It is also shown that the obtained values of $\beta$ (our model) ~ 0.5 support the theory of non-gravitational intracluster gas heatings comparable to those reached through gravitational collapse. On the other hand, the value of $\beta$ ~ 0.6 obtained for the isothermal $\beta$ model is explained as showing the scarcity of matter in the space surrounding each cluster, brobably due to the infall of matter towards it over a long time.
The cosmic acceleration is one of the most significant cosmological discoveries over the last century. The two categories of explanation are exotic component (dark energy) and modified gravity. We constrain the two types of model by a joint analysis with perturbation growth and direct $H(z)$ data. Though the minimal $\chi^2$ of the $\Lambda$CDM is almost the same as that of DGP, in the sense of consistency we find that the dark energy ($\Lambda$CDM) model is more favored through a detailed comparison with the corresponding parameters fitted by expansion data.
A new luminosity function for galaxies can be built starting from the product of two random variables X and Y represented by a gamma variate with argument 2 >. The mean, the standard deviation and the distribution function of this new distribution are computed. This new probability density function is assumed to describe the mass distribution of galaxies. Through a non linear rule of conversion from mass to luminosity a second new luminosity function for galaxies is derived. The test of reliability of these two luminosity functions was made on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in five different bands. The Schechter function gives a better fit with respect to the two new luminosity functions for galaxies here derived.
Currently, one of major problems concerning planet formation theory in close binary systems is, the strong perturbation from the companion star can increase relative velocities ($\triangle V$) of planetesimals around the primary and thus hinder their growth. According to previous studies, while gas drag can reduce the $\triangle V$ between bodies of the same sizes by forcing orbital alignment to planetesimals, it increases the $\triangle V$ among bodies of different sizes. In this paper, focusing on the $\gamma$ Cephei binary system, we propose a mechanism that can overcome this difficulty. We show that in a dissipating gas disk (with a typical dissipating timescale of $\sim 10^5-10^6$ years), all the planetesimals eventually converge towards the same forced orbits regardless of their sizes, leading to much lower impact velocities among them. These $\triangle V$ decrease processes progressively increase net mass accretion and even trigger runaway growth for large bodies (radius $>15$ km). The effect of size distribution of planetesimals is discussed, and found to be one of the dominant factors that determine the outcome of collisional evolution. Anyway, it can be concluded that by including the gas dissipation in the early stage of disk evolution, the conditions for planetesimal accretion become much better, and the process from planetesimal to planet-embryo can be carried out in close binary systems like $\gamma$ Cephei.
[truncated] In Spring 2007, we observed SgrA* with XMM with a total exposure of ~230ks. We have performed timing and spectral analysis of the new X-ray flares detected during this campaign. To study the range of flare spectral properties, in a consistent manner, we have also reprocessed, using the same analysis procedure and the latest calibration, archived XMM data of previously reported rapid flares. The dust scattering was taken into account during the spectral fitting. We also used Chandra archived observations of the quiescent state of SgrA* for comparison. On April 4, 2007, we observed for the first time within a time interval of ~1/2 day, an enhanced incidence rate of X-ray flaring, with a bright flare followed by three flares of more moderate amplitude. The former event represents the second brightest X-ray flare from Sgr A* on record. This new bright flare exhibits similar light-curve shape (nearly symmetrical), duration (~3ks) and spectral characteristics to the very bright flare observed in October 3, 2002. The measured spectral parameters of the new bright flare, assuming an absorbed power law model taken into account dust scattering effect, are N_H=12.3(+2.1,-1.8)e22 cm-2 and Gamma~2.3+/-0.3 calculated at the 90% c.l. The spectral parameter fits of the sum of the three following moderate flares, while lower, are compatible within the error bars with those of the bright flares. The column density found, for a power-law, during the flares is at least two times higher than the value expected from the (dust) visual extinction toward SgrA* (AV~25 mag). However, our fitting of the SgrA* quiescent spectra obtained with Chandra shows that an excess of column density is already present during the non-flaring phase. The two brightest X-ray flares observed so far from SgrA* exhibited similar soft spectra.
We compute two-point correlation functions and measure the shear signal due to galaxy-galaxy lensing for 80,000 optically identified and 5,700 radio-loud AGN from Data Release 4 (DR4) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Halo occupation models are used to estimate halo masses and satellite fractions for these two types of AGN. The large sample size allows us to separate AGN according to the stellar mass of their host galaxies. We study how the halo masses of optical and radio AGN differ from those of the parent population at fixed M*. Halo masses deduced from clustering and from lensing agree satisfactorily. Radio AGN are found in more massive halos than optical AGN: in our samples their mean halo masses are 1.6 x 10^{13} and 8 x 10^{11} M_{sun}/h, respectively. Optical AGN follow the same relation between stellar mass and halo mass as galaxies selected without regard to nuclear properties, but radio-loud AGN deviate significantly from this relation. The dark matter halos of radio-loud AGN are about twice as massive as those of control galaxies of the same stellar mass. This boost is independent of radio luminosity, and persists even when our analysis is restricted to field galaxies. The large-scale gaseous environment of the galaxy clearly plays a crucial role in producing observable radio emission. The dark matter halo masses that we derive for the AGN in our two samples are in good agreement with recent models in which feedback from radio AGN becomes dominant in halos where gas cools quasi-statically.
In the past few years, a new class of High Mass X-Ray Binaries (HMXRB) has been claimed to exist, the Supergiant Fast X-ray Transients (SFXT). These are X-ray binary systems with a compact companion orbiting a supergiant star which show very short and bright outbursts in a series of activity periods overimposed on longer quiescent periods. Only very recently the first attempts to model the behaviour of these sources have been published, some of them within the framework of accretion from clumpy stellar winds.Our goal is to analyze the properties of XTE J1739-302/IGR J17391-3021 within the context of the clumpy structure of the supergiant wind. We have used INTEGRAL and RXTE/PCA observations in order to obtain broad band (1-200 keV) spectra and light curves of XTE J1739-302 and investigate its X-ray spectrum and temporal variability. We have found that XTE J1739-302 follows a much more complex behaviour than expected. Far from presenting a regular variability pattern, XTE J1739-302 shows periods of high, intermediate, and low flaring activity.
A summary of starburst luminosities based on PAH features is given for 243 starburst galaxies with 0 < z < 2.5, observed with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph. Luminosity vLv(7.7um) for the peak luminosity of the 7.7um PAH emission feature is found to scale as log[vLv(7.7um)] = 44.63(+-0.09) + 2.48(+-0.28)log(1+z) for the most luminous starbursts observed. Empirical calibrations of vLv(7.7um) are used to determine bolometric luminosity Lir and the star formation rate (SFR) for these starbursts. The most luminous starbursts found in this sample have log Lir = 45.4(+-0.3) + 2.5(+-0.3)log(1+z), in ergs per s, and the maximum star formation rates for starbursts in units of solar masses per yr are log(SFR) = 2.1(+-0.3) + 2.5(+-0.3)log(1+z), up to z = 2.5. The exponent for pure luminosity evolution agrees with optical and radio studies of starbursts but is flatter than previous results based in infrared source counts. The maximum star formation rates are similar to the maxima determined for submillimeter galaxies; the most luminous individual starburst included within the sample has log Lir = 46.9, which gives a SFR = 3400 solar masses per yr.
BD+53 2790, an O9.5Vp star, is the optical counterpart to the HMXRB 4U 2206+54. This system was classified initially as a BeX, but observational evidence soon stressed the need to revise this classification. The permanent asymmetry in the H-alpha line profiles (in contrast with the cyclic variations shown by Be stars), the variations in the profile of this line in time scales of hours (while time scales from weeks to months are expected in Be stars), and the lack of correlation between IR observables and H-alpha line parameters, strongly suggest that, while BD+53 2790 contains a circunstellar disc, it is not like the one present in Be stars. Furthermore, there is evidence of overabundance of He in BD+53 2790. Together with the presence of an anomalous wind, found through UV spectroscopy, the possibility to link this star with the group of He rich stars is open. We will discuss the work done with IUE data from BD+53 2790 and the unexpected finding of a slow and dense wind, very rare for an O9.5V star.
We present an initial matching of the source positions of the Chandra Nuclear Bulge X-ray sources to the new UKIDSS-GPS near-infrared survey of the Nuclear Bulge. This task is made difficult by the extremely crowded nature of the region, despite this, we find candidate counterparts to ~50% of the X-ray sources. We show that detection in the J-band for a candidate counterpart to an X-ray source preferentially selects those candidate counterparts in the foreground whereas candidate counterparts with only detections in the H and K-bands are more likely to be Nuclear Bulge sources. We discuss the planned follow-up for these candidate counterparts.
The emission of gravitational waves from a system of massive objects interacting on elliptical, hyperbolic and parabolic orbits is studied in the quadrupole approximation. Analytical expressions are then derived for the gravitational wave luminosity, the total energy output and gravitational radiation amplitude. A crude estimate of the expected number of events towards peculiar targets (i.e. globular clusters) is also given. In particular, the rate of events per year is obtained for the dense stellar cluster at the Galactic Center.
We explore the effect of cosmic radiative feedback from the sources of reionization on the thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium. We find that different prescriptions for this feedback predict quite different thermal and reionization histories. In spite of this, current data can not discriminate among different reionization scenarios. We find that future observations both from 21-cm and CMB experiments can be used to break the degeneracy among model parameters provided that we will be able to remove the foreground signal at the percent (or better) level.
Formation of massive stars by accretion requires a high accretion rate of > 10^-4 M_sun/yr to overcome the radiation pressure barrier of the forming stars. Here, we study evolution of protostars accreting at such high rates, by solving the structure of the central star and the inner accreting envelope simultaneously. The protostellar evolution is followed starting from small initial cores until their arrival at the stage of the Zero-Age Main Sequence (ZAMS) stars. An emphasis is put on evolutionary features different from those with a low accretion rate of 10^-5 M_sun/yr, which is presumed in the standard scenario for low-mass star formation. With the high accretion rate of 10^-3 M_sun/yr, the protostellar radius becomes very large and exceeds 100 R_sun. It is not until the stellar mass reaches 40 M_sun that hydrogen burning begins and the protostar reaches the ZAMS phase, and this ZAMS arrival mass increases with the accretion rate. At a very high accretion rate of > 3 x 10^-3 M_sun/yr, the total luminosity of the protostar becomes so high that the resultant radiation pressure inhibits the growth of the protostars under steady accretion before reaching the ZAMS stage. Therefore, the evolution under the critical accretion rate 3 x 10^-3 M_sun/yr gives the upper mass limit of possible pre-main-sequence stars at 60 M_sun. The upper mass limit of MS stars is also set by the radiation pressure onto the dusty envelope under the same accretion rate at 250 M_sun. We also propose that the central source enshrouded in the Orion KL/BN nebula has effective temperature and luminosity consistent with our model, and is a possible candidate for such protostars growing under the high accretion rate. (abridged)
We present a new, high resolution (5" per pixel) near-infrared extinction map of the Nuclear Bulge using data from the UKIDSS-GPS. Using photometry from the J, H and K-bands we show that the extinction law parameter is also highly variable in this region on similar scales to the absolute extinction. We show that only when this extinction law variation is taken into account can the extinction be measured consistently at different wavelengths.
(abridged) We analysed eight XMM-Newton observations toward the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), performed between October 2006 and June 2007, to investigate high mass X-ray binary systems. We found new X-ray binary pulsars with periods of 202 s (XMMU J005929.0-723703), 342 s (XMMU J005403.8-722632), 645 s (XMMU J005535.2-722906) and 325 s (XMMU J005252.1-721715), in the latter case confirming the independent discovery in Chandra data. In addition we detected sixteen known Be/X-ray binary pulsars and six ROSAT-classified candidate high mass X-ray binaries. From one of the candidates, RX J0058.2-7231, we discovered X-ray pulsations with a period of 291 s which makes it the likely counterpart of XTE J0051-727. From the known pulsars, we revise the pulse period of CXOU J010206.6-714115 to 967 s, and we detected the 18.37 s pulsar XTE J0055-727 (= XMM J004911.4-724939) in outburst, which allowed us to localise the source. The pulse profiles of the X-ray pulsars show a large variety of shapes from smooth to highly structured patterns and differing energy dependence. For all the candidate high mass X-ray binaries optical counterparts can be identified with magnitudes and colours consistent with Be stars. Twenty of the Be/X-ray binaries were detected with X-ray luminosities in the range 1.5x10^35 erg/s - 5.5x10^36 erg/s. The majority of the spectra is well represented by an absorbed power-law with an average power-law index of 0.93. The absorption (in addition to the Galactic foreground value) varies over a wide range between a few 10^20 H cm^-2 and several 10^22 H cm^-2. An overall correlation of the absorption with the total SMC HI column density suggests that the absorption seen in the X-ray spectra is often largely caused by interstellar gas.
High-energy observations have unveiled peculiar classes of isolated neutron stars which, at variance with radio pulsars, are mostly radio silent and not powered by the star rotation. Among these objects are the magnetars, hyper-magnetized neutron stars characterized by transient X-ray/gamma-ray emission, and neutron stars with purely thermal, and in most cases stationary, X-ray emission (a.k.a., X-ray dim isolated neutron stars or XDINSs). While apparently dissimilar in their high-energy behavior and age, both magnetars and XDINSs have similar periods and unusually high magnetic fields. This suggests a tantalizing scenario where the former evolve into the latter.Discovering so far uninvestigated similarities between the multi-wavelength properties of these two classes would be a further step forward to establish an evolutionary scenario. A most promising channels is the near infrared (NIR) one, where magnetars are characterized by a distinctive spectral flattening with respect to the extrapolation of the soft X-ray spectrum.We observed the two XDINSs RX J0420.0-5022 and RX J1856.5-3754 with the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) as part of the instrument guaranteed time observations program, to search for their NIR counterparts. Both RX J1856.5-3754 and RX J0420.0-5022 were not detected down to K_s ~20 and Ks ~21.5, respectively. In order to constrain the relation between XDINSs and magnetars it would be of importance to perform deeper NIR observations. A good candidate is 1RXS J214303.7+065419 which is the XDINS with the highest inferred magnetic field.
We present high precision radial velocity observations of HD17156 during a transit of its eccentric Jovian planet. In these data, we detect the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, which is an apparent perturbation in the velocity of the star due to the progressive occultation of part of the rotating stellar photosphere by the transiting planet. This system had previously been reported by Narita et al. (2008) to exhibit a lambda = 62 +/- 25 degree misalignment of the projected planetary orbital axis and the stellar rotation axis. We model our data, along with the Narita et al. data, and obtain lambda = 9.4 +/- 9.3 degrees for the combined data set. We thus conclude that the planetary orbital axis is actually very well aligned with the stellar rotation axis.
We have studied the rapid X-ray time variability in 99 pointed observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)'s Proportional Counter Array of the low-mass X-ray binary 1E~1724--3045 which includes, for the first time, observations of this source in its island and banana states, confirming the atoll nature of this source. We report the discovery of kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (kHz QPOs). Although we have 5 detections of the lower kHz QPO and one detection of the upper kHz QPO, in none of the observations we detect both QPOs simultaneously. By comparing the dependence of the rms amplitude with energy of kHz QPOs in different atoll sources, we conclude that this information cannot be use to unambiguously identify the kilohertz QPOs as was previously thought. We find that Terzan~2 in its different states shows timing behavior similar to that seen in other neutron-star low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We studied the flux transitions observed between February 2004 and October 2005 and conclude that they are due to changes in the accretion rate.
We apply magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modeling to the radio galaxy Hercules A for investigating the jet-driven shock, jet/lobe transition, wiggling, and magnetic field distribution associated with this source. The model consists of magnetic tower jets in a galaxy cluster environment, which has been discussed in a series of our papers. The profile of underlying ambient gas plays an important role in jet-lobe morphology. The balance between the magnetic pressure generated by axial current and the ambient gas pressure can determine the lobe radius. The jet body is confined jointly by the external pressure and gravity inside the cluster core radius R_c, while outside R_c it expands radially to form fat lobes in a steeply decreasing ambient thermal pressure gradient. The current-carrying jets are responsible for generating a strong, tightly wound helical magnetic field. This magnetic configuration will be unstable against the current-driven kink mode and it visibly grows beyond R_c where a separation between the jet forward and return currents occurs. The reversed pinch profile of global magnetic field associated with the jet and lobes produces projected B-vector distributions aligned with the jet flow and the lobe edge. AGN-driven shock powered by the expanding magnetic tower jet surrounds the jet/lobe structure and heats the ambient ICM. The lobes expand subsonically; no obvious hot spots are produced at the heads of lobes. Several key features in our MHD modeling may be qualitatively supported by the observations of Hercules A.
The flyby anomalies are unexplained velocity jumps of 3.9, -4.6, 13.5, -2, 1.8 and 0.02 mm/s observed near closest approach during the Earth flybys of six spacecraft. These flybys are modelled here using a theory that assumes that inertia is due to a form of Unruh radiation, and varies with acceleration due to a Hubble-scale Casimir effect. Considering the acceleration of the craft relative to every particle of the rotating Earth, the theory predicts that there is a slight reduction in inertial mass with increasing latitude for an unbound craft, since near the pole it sees a lower average relative acceleration. Applying this theory to the in- and out-bound flyby paths, with conservation of momentum, the predicted anomalies were 2.9, -0.9, 20.1, 0.9, 3.2 and -1.3 mm/s. Three of the flyby anomalies were reproduced within error bars, and the theory explains their recently-observed dependence on the latitude difference between their incident and exit trajectories. The errors for the other three flybys were between 1 and 3 mm/s.
We present high spatial resolution Submillimeter Array observations and supplementary single-dish photometry of the molecular gas and dust around IRAS 04158+2805, a young source with spectral type M5-M6 in the Taurus star-forming region. A bright, highly elongated dust structure that extends 8" (~1120 AU) in diameter is revealed in a 883 micron thermal continuum image. This emission geometry is in good agreement with optical observations that show a similar structure in absorption, aligned perpendicular to bipolar scattered light nebulae. However, the interferometric data also clearly demonstrate that the submillimeter continuum emission is not centrally concentrated, but rather appears to have a toroidal geometry with substantially lower intensities inside a radius of ~250-300 AU. Spatially resolved emission from the CO J=3-2 transition exhibits a velocity gradient along the major axis of the dust structure. If this kinematic pattern is interpreted as the signature of rotation around a central object, a relatively low mass is inferred (M_star = 0.3 M_sun, with a ~50% uncertainty). We discuss several possible explanations for the observed gas and dust environment around IRAS 04158+2805, including a flattened envelope with an outflow cavity and a large circumbinary ring. This source offers unique views of the gas and dust environment surrounding a young low-mass stellar system. Its properties are generally not commensurate with formation scenarios for such low-mass objects that rely on dynamical ejection, but rather confirms that a single mechanism - molecular cloud core collapse and fragmentation - can produce stars over a wide range of stellar masses (at least an order of magnitude).
A new model for the formation of Jovian planets by gas fragmentation is proposed. Planets may form at large distances from a protostar ($\gtrsim 100$ AU), through direct fragmentation of a gas cloud, by the same formation mechanism as wide binaries of stars and brown dwarfs. Subsequently, planets may be gravitationally perturbed by their mutual interactions or perturbations from external bodies into highly eccentric orbits, causing them to plunge through a disk of gas or planetesimals surrounding the central protostar. Dynamical friction from this disk slows down the planet at each plunge, causing its orbit to be gradually circularized and made coplanar with the disk. After the disk dissipates, a large fraction of these planets may be left at orbits small enough to be detected in present radial velocity surveys. Observational tests of this model are discussed.
SNe Ia are good distance indicators because the shape of their light curves, which can be measured independently of distance, varies smoothly with luminosity. This suggests that SNe Ia are a single family of events. Similar correlations are observed between luminosity and spectral properties. In particular, the ratio of the strengths of the SiII \lambda 5972 and \lambda 6355 lines, known as R(SiII), was suggested as a potential luminosity indicator. Here, the physical reasons for the observed correlation are investigated. A Monte-Carlo code is used to construct a sequence of synthetic spectra resembling those of SNe with different luminosities near B maximum. The influence of abundances and of ionisation and excitation conditions on the synthetic spectral features is investigated. The ratio R(SiII) depends ssentially on the strength of SiII \lambda 5972, because SiII \lambda 6355 is saturated. In less luminous objects, SiII \lambda 5972 is stronger because of a rapidly increasing SiII/SiIII ratio. Thus, the correlation between R(SiII) and luminosity is the effect of ionisation balance. The SiII \lambda 5972 line itself may be the best spectroscopic luminosity indicator for SNe Ia, but all indicators discussed show scatter which may be related to abundance distributions.
We reexamine the production of gravitational waves by bubble collisions during a first-order phase transition. The spectrum of the gravitational radiation is determined by numerical simulations using the "envelope approximation". We find that the spectrum rises as f^3.0 for small frequencies and decreases as f^-1.0 for high frequencies. Thus, the fall-off at high frequencies is significantly slower than previously stated in the literature. This result has direct impact on detection prospects for gravity waves originating from a strong first-order electroweak phase transition at space-based interferometers, such as LISA or BBO. In addition, we observe a slight dependence of the peak frequency on the bubble wall velocity.
With the advent of the LHC there is widespread interest in the discovery potential for physics beyond the standard model. In TeV-scale open string theory, the new physics can be manifest in the excitation and decay of new resonant structures, corresponding to Regge recurrences of standard model particles. An essential input for the prediction of invariant mass spectra of the decay products (which could serve to identify the resonance as a string excitation) are the partial and total widths of the decay products. We present a parameter-free calculation of these widths for the first Regge recurrence of the SU(3) gluon octet, and of the U(1) gauge boson which accompanies gluons in D-brane constructions.
In this paper it has been shown that the neutrino bulk viscous stresses can give rise to the late time acceleration of the universe. It is found that a number of spatially flat FRW models with a negative deceleration parameter can be constructed using neutrino viscosity and one of them mimics a $\Lambda$CDM model. This does not require any exotic dark energy component or any modification of gravity.
WIMPless dark matter provides a framework in which dark matter particles with a wide range of masses naturally have the correct thermal relic density. We show that WIMPless dark matter with mass around 6 GeV can explain the annual modulation observed by the DAMA experiment without violating the constraints of other dark matter searches. This explanation implies distinctive and promising signals for other direct detection experiments, GLAST, and the LHC.
We investigate the impact of neutron capture rates near the A=130 peak on the $r$-process abundance pattern. We show that these capture rates can alter the abundances of individual nuclear species, not only in the region of A=130 peak, but also throughout the abundance pattern. We discuss the nonequilibrium processes that produce these abundance changes and determine which capture rates have the most significant impact.
We introduce brane-worlds with non-constant tension, strenghtening the analogy with fluid membranes, which exhibit a temperature-dependence according to the empirical law established by E\"otv\"os. This new degree of freedom allows for evolving gravitational and cosmological constants, the latter being a natural candidate for dark energy. We establish the covariant dynamics on a brane with variable tension in full generality, by considering asymmetrically embedded branes and allowing for non-standard model fields in the 5-dimensional space-time. Then we apply the formalism for a perfect fluid on a Friedmann brane, which is embedded in a 5-dimensional charged Vaidya-Anti de Sitter space-time.
The problem of vortex pair motion in two-dimensional plane radial flow is solved. Under certain conditions for flow parameters, the vortex pair can reverse its motion within a bounded region. The vortex-pair translational velocity decreases or increases after passing through the source/sink region, depending on whether the flow is diverging or converging, respectively. The rotational motion of two corotating vortexes in a quiescent environment transforms into motion along a logarithmic spiral in the presence of radial flow. The problem may have applications in astrophysics and geophysics.
We consider cosmological perturbations caused by modulated inflaton velocity. During inflation, the inflaton motion is damped and the velocity is determined by the parameters such as couplings or masses that may depend on light fields(moduli). The number of e-foldings is different in different patches if there are spatial fluctuations of such parameters. Based on this simple idea, we consider ``modulated inflation'' in which the curvature perturbation is generated by the fluctuation of the inflaton velocity. This talk is based on our recent papers.
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We discuss the 6Li abundance evolution within a hierarchical model of Galaxy formation which correctly reproduces the [Fe/H] distribution of metal poor halo stars. Contrary to previous findings, we find that neither the level (6Li/H=6x10^-12) nor the flatness of the 6Li distribution with [Fe/H] can be reproduced under the most favorable conditions by any model in which 6Li production is tied to a (data-constrained) Galactic star formation rate via cosmic-ray spallation. Thus the origin of the plateau might be due to some other early mechanism unrelated to star formation.
The presence of black holes (BHs) at the centers of dwarf elliptical galaxies
(dEs) has been argued both theoretically and observationally. Using archival
HST/WFPC2 data, we found the Virgo cluster dwarf elliptical galaxy VCC128 to
harbor a binary nucleus, a feature that is usually interpreted as the
observable signature of a stellar disk orbiting a central massive black hole.
Debattista et al. 2006 estimated its mass M sim 6 10^6 - 5 10^7 Msun. One of
the most robust means of verifying the existence of a BH is radio continuum
and/or X-ray emission, however because of the deficiency of gas in dEs, radio
continuum emission forms the best option here. We have tried to detect the
X-band radio emission coming from the putative black hole in VCC128 when it
accretes gas from the surrounding ISM. While we made a positive 4 sigma
detection of a point source 4.63'' south-west of the binary nucleus, no
statistically significant evidence for emission associated with the nuclei
themselves was detected.
This implies either that VCC128 has no massive central black hole, which
makes the nature of the binary nucleus hard to explain, or, if it has a central
black hole, that the physical conditions of the ISM (predominantly its density
and temperature) and/or of the surrounding accretion disk do not allow for
efficient gas accretion onto the black hole, making the quiescent black hole
very hard to detect at radio wavelengths.
In many theoretical scenarios it is expected that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs, with masses M ~ 100-10000 solar masses) reside at the centers of some globular clusters. However, observational evidence for their existence is limited. Several previous numerical investigations have focused on the impact of an IMBH on the cluster dynamics or brightness profile. Here we instead present results from a large set of direct N-body simulations including single and binary stars. These show that there is a potentially more detectable IMBH signature, namely on the variation of the average stellar mass between the center and the half-light radius. We find that the existence of an IMBH quenches mass segregation and causes the average mass to exhibit only modest radial variation in collisionally relaxed star clusters. This differs from when there is no IMBH. To measure this observationally requires high resolution imaging at the level of that already available from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for the cores of a large sample of galactic globular clusters. With a modest additional investment of HST time to acquire fields around the half-light radius, it will be possible to identify the best candidate clusters to harbor an IMBH. This test can be applied only to globulars with a half-light relaxation time less than or equal to 1 Gyr, which is required to guarantee efficient energy equipartition due to two-body relaxation.
We present discovery images, together with follow-up imaging and spectroscopy, of two large separation gravitational lenses found by our survey for wide arcs (the CASSOWARY). The survey exploits the multicolour photometry of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to find multiple blue components around red galaxies. CASSOWARY 2 (or ``the Cheshire Cat'') is composed of two massive early-type galaxies at z = 0.426 and 0.432 respectively lensing two background sources, the first a star-forming galaxy at z = 0.97 and the second a high redshift galaxy (z> 1.4). There are at least 3 images of the former source and probably 4 or more of the latter, arranged in two giant arcs. The mass enclosed within the larger arc of radius 11" is about 33 x 10^12 solar masses. CASSOWARY 3 comprises an arc of three bright images of a z = 0.725 source, lensed by a foreground elliptical at z = 0.274. The radius of the arc is about 4" and the enclosed mass is about 2.4 x 10^12 solar masses. Together with earlier discoveries like the Cosmic Horseshoe and the 8 O'Clock Arc, these new lenses help probe the very high end of the galaxy mass function -- the regime intermediate between the arcsecond separation lenses of typical strong lensing and cluster lensing.
We investigate the origins of galaxy morphology (defined by bulge-to-total B-band luminosity) in the LambdaCDM cosmology using two galaxy formation models based on the Millennium simulation, one by Bower et al. (the Durham model) and the other by De Lucia & Blaizot (the MPA model). Both models have had considerable success in reproducing a number of observed properties of the local and high redshift universe, including star formation rates, the stellar mass function and the luminosity function out to z ~ 5. There are many similarities, but also fundamental disagreements in the predictions of the two models for galaxy morphology. For example, both produce a realistic morphological mix today, but its evolution is very different. A main cause of this and other differences is the treatment of disk instabilities which play a more prominent role in the Durham model. Our analysis confirms previous theoretical predictions that elliptical galaxies form most of their stars before the bulk of the galaxy is assembled. Spirals tend to have later `assembly' times than ellipticals as a consequence of in-situ star formation. With the exception of the brightest ellipticals (stellar mass > 2.5*10^11 h^-1 M_sun), we find that major mergers are not the primary mechanism by which most spheroids (ellipticals and spiral bulges) assemble their mass. In fact, the majority of ellipticals (and the overwhelming majority of spirals) never experience a major merger (above the resolution limit of our simulation.) Most ellipticals and spiral bulges acquire their stellar mass through minor mergers or disk instabilities. These conclusions are common to both the MPA and Durham models. The rotation properties of spheroids offer an important observational test of these models.
We propose to use spatial correlations of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (KSZ) flux as an estimator of the peculiar velocity power spectrum. In contrast with conventional techniques, our new method does not require measurements of the thermal SZ signal or the X-ray temperature. Moreover, this method has the special advantage that the expected systematic errors are always sub-dominant to statistical errors on all scales and redshifts of interest. We show that future large sky coverage KSZ surveys may allow a peculiar velocity power spectrum estimates of an accuracy reaching ~10%.
This paper investigates the influence of magneto-centrifugally driven or simply magnetic winds of rapidly-rotating, strongly-magnetized T Tauri stars in causing the inward or outward migration of close-in giant planets. The azimuthal ram pressure of the magnetized wind acting on the planet tends to increase the planet's angular momentum and cause outward migration if the star's rotation period $P_*$ is less than the planet's orbital period $P_p$. In the opposite case, $P_* > P_p$, the planet migrates inward. Thus, planets orbiting at distances larger (smaller) than $0.06 {\rm AU}(P_*/5{\rm d})^{2/3}$ tend to be pushed outward (inward), where $P_*$ is the rotation period of the star assumed to have the mass of the sun. The magnetic winds are likely to occur in T Tauri stars where the thermal speed of the gas close to the star is small, where the star's magnetic field is strong, and where the star rotates rapidly. The time-scale for appreciable radial motion of the planet is estimated as $\sim 2 - 20$ Myr. A sufficiently massive close-in planet may cause tidal locking and once this happens the radial migration due to the magnetic wind ceases. The magnetic winds are expected to be important for planet migration for the case of a multipolar magnetic field rather than a dipole field where the wind is directed away from the equatorial plane and where a magnetospheric cavity forms. The influence of the magnetic wind in eroding and eventually destroying the accretion disk is analyzed. A momentum integral is derived for the turbulent wind/disk boundary layer and this is used to estimate the disk erosion time-scale as $\sim 1-10^2$ Myr, with the lower value favored.
We propose a sensitive new detector based on Cooper pair breaking in a superconductor. The quantum capacitor detector (QCD) exploits the extraordinary sensitivity of superconducting single-electron devices to the presence of quasiparticles generated by pair-breaking photons. This concept would enable single-photon detection at far-IR and sub-millimeter frequencies with detector sensitivities that exceed that of transition-edge-sensor bolometers (TES), kinetic inductance detectors (KID), and superconducting tunnel junction detectors (STJ). The detectors we propose are based on the single Cooper pair box (SCB), a mesoscopic superconducting device that has been successfully developed at JPL for applications in quantum computing. This concept allows for frequency multiplexing of a large number of pixels using a single RF line, and does not require individual bias of each pixel. The QCD is ideal for the sensitive spectrographs considered for upcoming cold space telescopes, such as BLISS for SPICA in the coming decade, and for the more ambitious instruments for the SAFIR / CALISTO and SPIRIT / SPECS missions envisioned for the 2020 decade. These missions require large detector arrays (> 10,000 elements) which are limited by astrophysical background noise, corresponding to a noise-equivalent power (NEP) as low as 2x10-20 W / Hz1/2. Given its intrinsic response time, the QCD could also be used for energy-resolved visible photon detection, with estimated energy resolution > 100, enabling imaging low-resolution spectroscopy with an array of detectors.
Using a sub-pixel event repositioning technique, we spatially resolved X-ray emission from the infrared double system IRS 5 in the R Corona Australis molecular cloud with ~0.8" separation. As far as we know, this result - obtained from 8 Chandra archival observations between 2000 and 2005 - is the first X-ray study of individual sources in a Class I protostar binary system with a projected separation of less than 200 AU. We extracted light curves and spectra of the individual sources using a two-dimensional image fitting method. IRS 5a at the south, the source which was brighter in the near-infrared, showed three X-ray flares lasting >20 ksec, reminiscent of X-ray flares from pre-main sequence stars, while the northern source (IRS 5b) was quiescent in X-rays in all the observations except for a 2005 August 9 observation with a factor of ~2 flux enhancement. In quiescence, these sources showed almost identical X-ray spectra, with NH ~4e22 cm-2, kT ~2 keV, and log Lx ~30.2-3 ergs s-1. IRS 5a showed plasma at temperatures up to kT ~5-6 keV during flares, while the column density of IRS 5b increased by a factor of 2 during an observation on 2005 August 9. We discuss the evolutionary stages and variation of the X-ray activity of these sources.
The R CrA region was observed in the 3.5 and 6.2 cm continuum with high angular resolutions (0.6--1.7 arcseconds) using the Very Large Array. Archival data sets were also analyzed for comparison, which provided angular resolutions up to 0.3 arcseconds. A cluster of young stellar objects was detected, and a rich array of star forming activities was revealed. IRS 7A showed an enhanced outflow activity recently. The main peak of IRS 7A positionally coincides with an X-ray source, which suggests that the X-ray emission is directly related to the central protostar. The Class 0 source SMA 2 is associated with a double radio source, B 9a and 9b, and seems to be driving two outflows. The B 9 complex is probably a multiple-protostar system. Both B 9a and 9b are nonthermal radio sources with negative spectral indices. IRS 7B is a compact radio source surrounded by an extended structure. The compact source corresponds to the Class 0/I source SMA 1, and it is also closely associated with an X-ray source, suggesting that magnetic activities start early in the protostellar stage of evolution. The extended structure of IRS 7B may be a bipolar outflow. IRS 5 was resolved into two sources with a separation of 0.9 arcseconds. Both IRS 5a and 5b display radio flares and X-ray emission, suggesting that energetic magnetic processes are active in both members. The month-scale active phase of IRS 5b implies that the flare activity must involve large-scale magnetic fields. During the strong flare event of IRS 5b in 1998, IRS 5a also showed an enhanced level of radio emission. This concurrent activity suggests that IRS 5 may be an interacting young binary system, but the interaction mechanism is unknown. Alternatively, what was seen in the radio images could be a circumbinary halo.
We present the results of optical spectroscopic observations of CI Cam. Double-peaked profiles were simultaneously observed for the first time in the hydrogen Balmer, He {\small I} $\lambda$6678 and Fe {\small II} lines during an observational run in 2001 September. An intermediate viewing angle of the circumstellar disk around the B[e] star is consistent with our data. A significant decrease in the intensity of the H$\alpha$ and He {\small I} lines in our 2004 September observations might have been the precursor of a line outburst at the end of 2004. The remarkable increase in the intensity of all lines and the decrease in visual brightness in 2005 might be due to the environment filling with new material ejected during the outburst. The environment of CI Cam is influenced by mass loss from the B[e] star and the outburst of its compact companion.
Astrophysical jets are widely believed to be self-collimated by the
hoop-stress due to the azimuthal component of their magnetic field. However
this implies that the magnetic field is largely dominated by its azimuthal
component in the outer jet region. In the fusion context, it is well-known that
such configurations are highly unstable in static columns, leading to plasma
disruption. It has long been pointed out that a similar outcome may follow for
MHD jets, and the reasons preventing disruption are still not elucidated,
although some progress has been accomplished in the recent years.
In these notes, I review the present status of this open problem for
pressure-driven instabilities, one of the two major sources of ideal MHD
instability in static columns (the other one being current-driven
instabilities).
I first discuss in a heuristic way the origin of these instabilities.
Magnetic resonances and magnetic shear are introduced, and their role in
pressure-driven instabilities discussed in relation to Suydam's criterion. A
dispersion relation is derived for pressure-driven modes in the limit of large
azimuthal magnetic fields, which gives back the two criteria derived by
Kadomtsev for this instability. The growth rates of these instabilities are
expected to be short in comparison with the jet propagation time.
What is known about the potential stabilizing role of the axial velocity of
jets is then reviewed. In particular, a nonlinear stabilization mechanism
recently identified in the fusion literature is discussed.
Key words: Ideal MHD: stability, pressure-driven modes; Jets: stability
The existence of a gradient in the Faraday rotation measure (RM) of the quasar 3C 273 jet is confirmed by follow-up observations. A gradient transverse to the jet axis is seen for more than 20 mas in projected distance. Taking account of the viewing angle, we estimate it to be more than 100 pc. Comparing to the distribution of the RM in 1995, we detect a time variation of it at the same distance from the core over 7 yr. We discuss the origin of the Faraday rotation based on this rapid time variation. We rule out foreground media such as a narrow-line region, and suggest a helical magnetic field in the sheath region as the origin of this gradient of the RM.
We present the results of the spectroscopic observations of HDE 226868, the optical counterpart to the black hole X-ray binary Cyg X-1, from 2001 to 2006. We analyze the variabilities of the two components in the complex H$\alpha$ line: one P-Cygni shaped component which follows the motion of the supergiant and another emission component moving with an antiphase orbital motion relative to the supergiant, which is attributed to a focused-stellar wind. The results of KOREL disentangling of our spectra indicate that the focused stellar wind is responsible for the major part of the variability of the H$\alpha$ emission line. The emission of the supergiant component had a small difference between the low/hard and high/soft states, while the focused wind component became strong in the low/hard state and weak in the high/soft state. The wind is nearly undisturbed by the X-ray photoionization during the low/hard state. However, during the high/soft state, the X-rays from the compact object could decelerate the line-driven wind and result in a high mass accretion rate, due to the effect of the X-ray photoionization. The X-ray illuminating could also change the temperature profile of the stellar wind and increase its temperature, and thus decrease the H$\alpha$ emissivity of the wind, which could explain the H$\alpha$ variabilities of Cyg X-1 during different X-ray states.
We present results from multifrequency polarimetry of NRAO 140 using the Very Long Baseline Array. These observations allow us to reveal the distributions of both the polarization position angle and the Faraday rotation measure (RM). These distributions are powerful tools to discern the projected and line-of-sight components of the magnetic field, respectively. We find a systematic gradient in the RM distribution, with its sign being opposite at either side of the jet with respect to the jet axis. The sign of the RM changes only with the direction of the magnetic field component along the line of sight, so this can be explained by the existence of helical magnetic components associated with the jet itself. We derive two constraints for the pitch angle of the helical magnetic field from the distributions of the RM and the projected magnetic field; the RM distribution indicates that the helical fields are tightly wound, while that of the projected magnetic field suggests they are loosely wound around the jet axis. This inconsistency may be explained if the Faraday rotator is not cospatial with theemitting region. Our results may point toward a physical picture in which an ultra-relativistic jet (spine) with a loosely wound helical magnetic field is surrounded by a sub-relativistic wind layer (sheath) with a tightly wound helical magnetic field.
In next five years, dramatic progress is anticipated for the AGN studies, as we have two important missions to observe celestial sources in the high energy regime: GLAST and Suzaku. In this talk, I will summarize recent highlights in studies of AGN jets, focusing on the high-sensitivity X-ray observations that may shed new light on the forthcoming GLAST era. I will especially present some examples from most recent Suzaku observations of blazars, which provides important hints for the shock acceleration in sub-pc scale jets, as well as particle content in jets. Then I will focus on the neutral iron-line feature observed in some broad line radio galaxies, as a probe of jet launching and/or the disk-jet connection. Finally, I will discuss new results of large scale (kpc to Mpc) jets recently resolved with Chandra X-ray observatory. Simultaneous monitoring observations in various wavelengths will be particularly valuable for variable blazar sources, allowing the cross correlations of time series as well as detailed modeling of the spectral evolution between the X-ray and gamma-ray energy bands. Possible impacts of these new observations across the electromagnetic spectrum on various spatial scales are discussed to challenge the long-standing mystery of AGN jet sources.
In this review, I will discuss how to characterize synchrotron X-ray variability of TeV blazars by using the observed/simulated light curves. Apparently, temporal studies provide independent and complementary information to the spectral studies, but surprisingly little attention has been paid especially for the blazar study. Only exception is a classical argument for presence of "time lag", which may (or may not) reflect the diffrence of synchrotron cooling timescale. Also very recently, it was suggested that the X-ray variability of TeV blazars indicates a strong red-noise, compared to a fractal, flickering-noise of Seyfert galaxies. Various temporal techniques are proposed in literature, e.g., the power spectrum density (PSD), the structure function (SF), and the discrete correlation function (DCF) and other analysis tools, but special care must be taken if the data are not well sampled and observation is relatively short compared to a characteristic timescale of the system. Also, the situation is being more complicated for low-Earth orbit satellites, e.g., ASCA, RXTE and BeppoSAX, since the light curve inevitably contains "periodic gap" due to the Earth occultation (every ~6ksec). I will present detailed approaches to see how the "gap" and the "finite length" of the data affects the results of temporal analysis, and to what extent we can believe in our results. Finally, I will briefly comment on the high-sensitivity X-ray observations with MAXI, that may shed new light on the forthcoming GLAST era.
(context) Different cosmological data are consistent with an accelerated expansion produced by an exotic matter-energy component, dubbed "dark-energy''. A cosmological constant is a possibility since it satisfies most of the observational constraints. (aims) In this work, the consequences of such a component in the dynamics of groups of galaxies is investigated, aiming to detect possible effects in scales of the order of few Mpc. (methods) The Lema\^itre-Tolman model was modified by the inclusion of the cosmological constant term and, from the numerical solution of the equations of motion, a velocity-distance relation was obtained. This relation depends on two parameters: the central core mass and the Hubble parameter. The non-linear fit of such a relation to available data permitted to obtain masses for five nearby groups of galaxies and for the Virgo cluster as well as estimates of the Hubble constant. (results) The analysis of the present results indicates that the velocity-distance relation derived from the modified Lema\^itre-Tolman model as well as that derived from the "canonical'' model give equally acceptable fits to the existent data. As a consequence, any robust conclusion on the effects of the cosmological constant in the dynamics of groups could be established. The mean value of the Hubble parameter derived from the present study of local flows is H_0 = 65\pm 7 km/s/Mpc.
We report on the detection of very stable modulations with periods unexpectedly (~0.5%) longer than superhump periods during the slowly fading stage of WZ Sge-type superoutbursts in three systems, GW Lib, V455 And and WZ Sge. These periods are naturally explained by assuming that these modulations are superhumps arising from matter near the tidal truncation radius. This finding provides an additional support to the hypothetical idea of expansion of the accretion disk well beyond the 3:1 orbital resonance in some low mass-ratio systems. Combined with the effect of 2:1 resonance, we present an explanation of the origin of positive period derivatives in certain short-period SU UMa-type dwarf novae.
The gas distribution and dynamics in the inner Galaxy present many unknowns as the origin of the asymmetry of the longitude-velocity (lv) diagram of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). On the other hand, there are recent evidences in the stellar component of the presence of a nuclear bar that could be slightly lopsided. Our goal is to characterize the nuclear bar observed in 2MASS maps and to study the gas dynamics in the inner Milky Way taking into account this secondary bar. We have derived a realistic mass distribution by fitting 2MASS star counts maps with three components (disk, bulge and nuclear bar) and we have simulated the gas dynamics, in the deduced gravitational potential, using a sticky-particles code. Our simulations of the gas dynamics reproduce successfully the main characteristics of the Milky Way for a bulge orientation of 20-35 deg with respect to the Sun-Galactic Center (GC) line and a pattern speed of 30-40 km/s/kpc. In our models the Galactic Molecular Ring (GMR) is not an actual ring but the inner parts of the spiral arms, while the 3-kpc arm and its far side counterpart are lateral arms that contour the bar. Our simulations reproduce, for the first time, the parallelogram shape of the lv-diagram of the CMZ as the gas response to the nuclear bar. This bar should be oriented by an angle of ~60-75 deg with respect to the Sun-GC line and its mass amounts to (2-5.5)10e9 Msun. We show that the observed asymmetry of the CMZ cannot be due to lopsidedness of the nuclear bar as suggested by the 2MASS maps. We do not find clear evidences of lopsidedness in the stellar potential. We propose that the observed asymmetry of the central gas layer can be due to the infalling of gas into the CMZ in the l=1.3-complex
We present a unified model of infrared (IR), optical, ultraviolet (UV), and X-ray light curves for the 1983 outburst of GQ Muscae (Nova Muscae 1983) and estimate its white dwarf (WD) mass. Based on an optically thick wind model of nova outbursts, we model the optical and IR light curves with free-free emission, and the UV 1455 \AA and supersoft X-ray light curves with blackbody emission. The best fit model that reproduces simultaneously the IR, optical, UV 1455 \AA, and supersoft X-ray observations is a 0.7 \pm 0.05 M_\sun WD for an assumed chemical composition of the envelope, X=0.35-0.55, X_{CNO} =0.2-0.35, and Z = 0.02, by mass weight. The mass lost by the wind is estimated to be \Delta M_{wind} \sim 2 \times 10^{-5} M_\sun. We provide a new determination of the reddening, E(B-V) = 0.55 \pm 0.05, and of the distance, \sim 5 kpc. Finally, we discuss the strong UV flash that took place on JD 2,445,499 (151 days after the outburst).
The standard picture of accretion is a steady flow of matter from the disc onto the young star - a concept which assumes the star-disc system to be completely isolated. However, in a dense cluster environment star-disc systems do interact gravitationally. The aim here is to estimate the encounter-induced accretion rate in an ONC-like environment. Combining simulations of the cluster dynamics with simulations of the effect of encounters on star-disc systems we determine the likelihood and degree of encounter-triggered accretion processes. We show that accretion bursts triggered by encounters of star-disc systems are common in young dense clusters like the ONC leading in the outburst phase to typical accretion rates of 10^(-7)-10^(-4) M(sun)/yr. Up to a third of stars presently in the Trapezium region accreted at least 1% of their disc mass via this mechanism in the last 1Myr. Accretion of over 6-7% of the disc material can occur in a single encounter. Despite losing their discs quickly, the total percentage of disc matter accreted per star is largest for the massive stars. Supplementing the steady accretion flow there exist episodic periods of high accretion in dense cluster environments. Due to their high accretion rate these processes should be observable even now in some of the low-mass stars in the ONC.
Context: Magnetic fields are thought to be one of the possible mechanisms
responsible for shaping the generally spherical outflow of evolved stars into
often aspherical planetary nebulae. However, direct measurements of magnetic
fields during the transition to the planetary nebula phase are rare.
Aims: The aim of this project is to expand the number of magnetic field
measurements of stars in the (proto-)planetary nebula phase and find if the
magnetic field strength is sufficient to affect the stellar outflow.
Methods: We used Very Long Baseline Array observations to measure the
circular polarization due to the Zeeman splitting of 22 GHz water masers in the
envelope of the proto-planetary nebula candidate star IRAS 19296+2227 and the
planetary nebula K3-35.
Results: A strong magnetic field of B||=-135+-28 is detected in the water
maser region of the proto-planetary nebula candidate IRAS 19296+2227. The water
masers of K3-35 are too weak to detect circular polarization although we do
present the measurements of weak linear polarization in those masers.
Conclusions: The field measured in the masers of IRAS 19296+2227 is
dynamically important and, if it is representative of the large scale field, is
an important factor in driving the stellar mass loss and shaping the stellar
outflow.
We compare the distribution of optically and Halpha (Ha) selected galaxies in the Southern half of the nearby Abell 85 (A85) cluster with the recently discovered X-ray filament (XRF). We search for galaxies where star formation (SF) may have been triggered by interactions with intracluster gas or tidal pressure due to the cluster potential when entering the cluster. Our analysis is based on images obtained with CFHT MegaPrime/MegaCam (1x1 deg2 field) in four bands (ugri) and ESO 2.2mWFI (38'x36' field) in a narrow band filter corresponding to the redshifted Halpha (Ha) line and in a broad R-band filter. The LFs are estimated by statistically subtracting a reference field. Background contamination is minimized by cutting out galaxies redder than the observed red sequence in the g-i vs. i colour-magnitude diagram. The galaxy distribution shows a significantly flattened cluster, whose principal axis is slightly offset from the XRF. The analysis of the broad band LFs shows that the filament region is well populated. The filament is also independently detected as a gravitationally bound structure by the Serna & Gerbal hierarchical method. 101 galaxies are detected in Ha, among which 23 have spectroscopic redshifts in the cluster, 2 have spectroscopic redshifts higher than the cluster and 58 have photometric redshifts that tend to indicate that they are background objects.The 23 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the cluster are mostly concentrated in the South part of the cluster and along the filament. We find a number of galaxies showing evidence for SF in the XRF, and all our results are consistent with the previous hypothesis that the XRF in A85 is a gravitationally bound structure made of groups falling on to the main cluster.
An infinite family of axially symmetric thin disks of finite radius is presented. The family of disks is obtained by means of a method developed by Hunter and contains, as its first member, the Kalnajs disk. The surface densities of the disks present a maximum at the center of the disk and then decrease smoothly to zero at the edge, in such a way that the mass distribution of the higher members of the family is more concentrated at the center. The first member of the family have a circular velocity proportional to the radius, representing thus a uniformly rotating disk. On the other hand, the circular velocities of the other members of the family increases from a value of zero at the center of the disks until a maximum and then decreases smoothly until a finite value at the edge of the disks, in such a way that for the higher members of the family the maximum value of the circular velocity is attained nearest the center of the disks.
It is widely accepted that the progenitors of core collapse SNe are young massive stars and therefore their host galaxies are mostly spiral or irregular galaxies dominated by a young stellar population. Surprisingly, among morphologically classified hosts of core collapse SNe, we find 22 cases where the host has been classified as an Elliptical or S0 galaxy. To clarify this apparent contradiction, we carry out a detailed morphological study and an extensive literature search for additional information on the sample objects. Our results are as follows: 1. Of 22 "early type" objects, 17 are in fact misclassified spiral galaxies, one is a misclassified irregular, and one is a misclassified ring galaxy. 2. Of the 3 objects maintaining the early type classification, one (NGC2768) is a suspected merger remnant, another (NGC4589) is definitely a merger, and the third (NGC2274) is in close interaction. The presence of some amount of young stellar population in these galaxies is therefore not unexpected. These results confirm the presence of a limited, but significant, number of core collapse SNe in galaxies generally classified of early type. In all cases, anyway, there are independent indicators of the presence in host galaxies of recent star formation due to merging or gravitational interaction.
The afterglow of GRB 050401 presents several novel and interesting features :
[1] An initially faster decay in optical band than in X-rays. [2] A break in
the X-ray light curve after $\sim$ 0.06 day with an unusual slope after the
break. [3] The X-ray afterglow does not show any spectral evolution across the
break while the R band light curve does not show any break.
We have modeled the observed multi-band evolution of the afterglow of GRB
050401 as originating in a two component jet, interpreting the break in X-ray
light curve as due to lateral expansion of a narrow collimated outflow which
dominates the X-ray emission. The optical emission is attributed to a wider jet
component. Our model reproduces all the observed features of multi-band
afterglow of GRB 050401.
We present optical observations of GRB 050401 using the 104-cm Sampurnanand
Telescope at ARIES, Nainital. Results of the analysis of multi-band data are
presented and compared with GRB 030329, the first reported case of double jet.
The motion of test particles in the gravitational fields generated by the first four members of the infinite family of generalized Kalnajs discs, is studied. In first instance, we analyze the stability of circular orbits under radial and vertical perturbations and describe the behavior of general equatorial orbits and so we find that radial stability and vertical instability dominate such disc models. Then we study bounded axially symmetric orbits by using the Poincare surfaces of section and Lyapunov characteristic numbers and find chaos in the case of disc-crossing orbits and completely regular motion in other cases.
We show that sterile neutrinos with rest masses ~0.2 GeV could engineer both an augmentation of core collapse supernova shock energies and, through Accretion-Induced-Collapse (AIC) scenarios, an explanation of the observed population of positrons in the Galactic center. If such neutrinos exist, we predict that an AIC supernova occurring at cosmological distances will produce a detectable short gamma-ray burst with energy up to 10^53 erg. The relevant range of sterile neutrino masses and mixing angles can be probed in future laboratory experiments.
We present the derivation of two-integral distribution functions for the first four members of the family of generalized Kalnajs discs, recently obtained by Gonzalez and Reina (MNRAS, 371, 1873, 2006), and which represent a family of axially symmetric galaxy models with finite radius and well behaved surface mass density. In order to do this we employ several approaches that have been developed starting from the potential-density pair and, essentially using the method introduced by Kalnajs (Ap. J., 205, 751, 1976) we obtain some distribution functions that depend on the Jacobi's integral. Now, as this method demands that the mass density can be properly expressed as a function of the gravitational potential, we can do this only for the first four discs of the family. We also find another kind of distribution functions by starting with the even part of the previous distribution functions and using the maximum entropy principle in order to find the odd part and so a new distribution function, as it was pointed out by Dejonghe (Phys. Rep., 133, 217, 1986). The result is a wide variety of equilibrium states corresponding to several self-consistent finite flat galaxy models.
We present the formulation of a new infinite family of self-consistent stellar models, designed to describe axisymmetric flat galaxies. The corresponding density-potential pair is obtained as a superposition of members belonging to the generalized Kalnajs family, by imposing the condition that the density can be expressed as a regular function of the gravitational potential, in order to derive analytically the corresponding equilibrium distribution functions (DF). The resulting models are characterized by a well-behaved surface density, as in the case of generalized Kalnajs discs. Then, we present a study of the kinematical behavior which reveals, in some particular cases, a very satisfactory behavior of the rotational curves (without the assumption of a dark matter halo). We also analyze the equatorial orbit's stability and Poincare surfaces of section are performed for the 3-dimensional orbits. Finally, we obtain the corresponding equilibrium DFs, using the approaches introduced by Kalnajs (Ap. J., 205, 751, 1976) and Dejonghe (Phys. Rep., 133 (3-4), 217, 1986).
The energy spectrum of cosmic rays above 2.5x10^18eV, derived from 20,000 events recorded at the Pierre Auger Observatory, is described. The spectral index gamma of the flux, J ~ E^-gamma, at energies between 4x10^18eV and 4x10^19eV is 2.69+-0.02(stat)+-0.06(syst), steepening to 4.2+-0.4(stat)+-0.06(syst) at higher energies, consistent with the prediction by Greisen and by Zatsepin and Kuz'min.
We present values of temperature and spectral index of the galactic diffuse
radiation measured at 600 and 820 MHz along a 24 hours right ascension circle
at declination $\delta = +42^{\circ}$. They have been obtained from a subset of
absolute measurements of the sky temperature made with TRIS, an experiment
devoted to the measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature at
decimetric-wavelengths with an angular resolution of about $20^{\circ}$.
Our analysis confirms the preexisting picture of the galactic diffuse
emission at decimetric wavelength and improves the accuracy of the measurable
quantities. In particular, the signal coming from the halo has a spectral index
in the range $2.9-3.1$ above 600 MHz, depending on the sky position. In the
disk, at TRIS angular resolution, the free-free emission accounts for the 11%
of the overall signal at 600 MHz and 21% at 1420 MHz. The polarized component
of the galactic emission, evaluated from the survey by Brouw and Spoelstra,
affects the observations at TRIS angular resolution by less than 3% at 820 MHz
and less than 2% at 600 MHz. Within the uncertainties, our determination of the
galactic spectral index is practically unaffected by the correction for
polarization.
Since the overall error budget of the sky temperatures measured by TRIS at
600 MHz, that is 66 mK(systematic)$+$18 mK (statistical), is definitely smaller
than those reported in previous measurements at the same frequency, our data
have been used to discuss the zero levels of the sky maps at 150, 408, 820 and
1420 MHz in literature. Concerning the 408 MHz survey, limiting our attention
to the patch of sky corresponding to the region observed by TRIS, we suggest a
correction of the base-level of $(+3.9\pm 0.6)$K.
We investigate the thermodynamics of the ISM and the formation of molecular
hydrogen through numerical simulations of spiral galaxies. The model follows
the chemical, thermal and dynamical response of the disc to an external spiral
potential. Self-gravity and magnetic fields are not included. The calculations
demonstrate that gas can cool rapidly when subject to a spiral shock. Molecular
clouds in the spiral arms arise through a combination of compression of the ISM
by the spiral shock and orbit crowding. These results highlight that local
self-gravity is not required to form molecular clouds. Self-shielding provides
a sharp transition density, below which gas is essentially atomic, and above
which the molecular gas fraction is >0.001. The timescale for gas to move
between these regimes is very rapid (<~1 Myr). From this stage, the majority of
gas generally takes between 10 to 20 Myr to obtain high H$_{2}$ fractions (>50
%). Although our calculations are unable to resolve turbulent motions on scales
smaller than the spiral arm and do not include self-gravity. True cloud
formation timescales are therefore expected to be even shorter.
The mass budget of the disc is dominated by cold gas residing in the spiral
arms. Between 50 and 75 % of this gas is in the atomic phase. When this gas
leaves the spiral arm and drops below the self-shielding limit it is heated by
the galactic radiation field. Consequently, most of the volume in the interarm
regions is filled with warm atomic gas. However, some cold spurs and clumps can
survive in interarm regions for periods comparable to the interarm passage
timescale. Altogether between 7 and 40% of the gas in our disc is molecular,
depending on the surface density of the calculation, with approximately 20%
molecular for a surface density comparable to the solar neighbourhood.
So far radial velocity (RV) measurements have discovered ~25 stars to host multiple planets. The statistics imply that many of the known hosts of transiting planets should have additional planets, yet none have been solidly detected. They will be soon, via complementary search methods of RV, transit-time variations (TTV) of the known planet, and transits of the additional planet. When they are found, what can transit measurements add to studies of multiplanet dynamical evolution? First, mutual inclinations become measurable, for comparison to the solar system's disk-like configuration. Such measurements will give important constraints to planet-planet scattering models, just as the RV measurements of eccentricity have done. Second, the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect measures stellar obliquity, which can be modified by two-planet dynamics with a tidally evolving inner planet. Third, TTV is exquisitely sensitive to planets in mean motion resonance. Two planets differentially migrating in the disk can establish such resonances, and tidal evolution of the planets can break them, so the configuration and frequency of these resonances as a function of planetary parameters will constrain these processes.
In a search for the signature of turbulence in the diffuse interstellar medium in gas density distributions, we determined the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the average volume densities of the diffuse gas. The densities were derived from dispersion measures and HI column densities towards pulsars and stars at known distances. The PDFs of the average densities of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) and the diffuse atomic gas are close to lognormal, especially when lines of sight at |b|<5 degrees and |b|>=5 degrees are considered separately. The PDF of <n_HI> at high |b| is twice as wide as that at low |b|. The width of the PDF of the DIG is about 30 per cent smaller than that of the warm HI at the same latitudes. The results reported here provide strong support for the existence of a lognormal density PDF in the diffuse ISM, consistent with a turbulent origin of density structure in the diffuse gas.
We look for cosmologies with a scalar field (dark energy without cosmological constant), which mimic the standard $\Lambda CDM$ cosmological model yielding exactly the same large-scale geometry described by the evolution of the Hubble parameter (i.e. photometric distance and angular diameter distance as functions on $z$). Asymptotic behavior of the field solutions is studied in the case of spatially flat Universe with pressureless matter and separable scalar field Lagrangians (power-law kinetic term + power-law potential). Exact analytic solutions are found in some special cases. A number of models have the field solutions with infinite behavior in the past or even singular behavior at finite redshifts. We point out that introduction of the cosmological scalar field involves some degeneracy leading to lower precision in determination of $\Omega_m$. To remove this degeneracy additional information is needed beyond the data on large-scale geometry.
The footprint of inflation in the polarization pattern of the CMB is expected at more than an order of magnitude below the limits of current polarization measurements. Large receiver arrays are mandatory for achieving the required sensitivity. We describe here the approach of the Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) which will use coherent detector arrays. Pseudo-correlation receivers have been produced at 40 (90) GHz in small massproducable chip packages. Deployment of the first arrays with 19 (91) receivers is taking place in 2008 in the Atacama Desert in Chile and an expansion to $\sim$1000 receivers is foreseen for the future. The two frequencies and the selection of observing regions with minimal foreground and good overlap with other upcoming experiments will enable the detection of tensor to scalar ratios $r\sim10^{-2}$.
Thermohaline mixing has recently been proposed to occur in low mass red giants, with large consequences for the chemical yields of low mass stars. We investigate the role of thermohaline mixing during the evolution of stars between 1Msun and 3Msun, in comparison to other mixing processes acting in these stars. We confirm that thermohaline mixing has the potential to destroy most of the ^3He which is produced earlier on the main sequence during the red giant stage. In our models we find that this process is working only in stars with initial mass M <~ 1.5Msun. Moreover, we report that thermohaline mixing can be present during core helium burning and beyond in stars which still have a ^3He reservoir. While rotational and magnetic mixing is negligible compared to the thermohaline mixing in the relevant layers, the interaction of thermohaline motions with differential rotation and magnetic fields may be essential to establish the time scale of thermohaline mixing in red giants.
We revise a magnetic buoyancy model that has recently been proposed as a mechanism for extra mixing in the radiative zones of low-mass red giants. The most important revision is our accounting of the heat exchange between rising magnetic flux rings and their surrounding medium. This increases the buoyant rising time by five orders of magnitude, therefore the number of magnetic flux rings participating in the mixing has to be increased correspondingly. On the other hand, our revised model takes advantage of the fact that the mean molecular weight of the rings formed in the vicinity of the hydrogen burning shell has been reduced by 3He burning. This increases their thermohaline buoyancy (hence, decreases the total ring number) considerably, making it equivalent to the pure magnetic buoyancy produced by a frozen-in toroidal field with B_phi ~ 10 MG. We emphasize that some toroidal field is still needed for the rings to remain cohesive while rising. Besides, this field prevents the horizontal turbulent diffusion from eroding the mu contrast between the rings and their surrounding medium. We propose that the necessary toroidal magnetic field is generated by differential rotation of the radiative zone, that stretches a pre-existing poloidal field around the rotation axis, and that magnetic flux rings are formed as a result of its buoyancy-related instability.
With 40 or more transiting exoplanets now known, the time is ripe to seek patterns and correlations among their observed properties, which may give important insights into planet formation, structure, and evolution. This task is made difficult by the widely different methodologies that have been applied to measure their properties in individual cases. Furthermore, in many systems our knowledge of the planet properties is limited by the knowledge of the properties of the parent stars. To address these difficulties we have undertaken the first comprehensive analysis of the data for 23 transiting planets using a uniform methodology. We revisit several of the recently proposed correlations, and find new ones involving the metallicity of the parent stars.
Gravitational instabilities in a magnetized Friedman - Robertson - Walker (FRW) Universe, in which the magnetic field was assumed to be too weak to destroy the isotropy of the model, are known and have been studied in the past. Accordingly, it became evident that the external magnetic field disfavors the perturbations' growth, suppressing the corresponding rate by an amount proportional to its strength. However, the spatial isotropy of the FRW Universe is not compatible with the presence of large-scale magnetic fields. Therefore, in this article we use the general-relativistic (GR) version of the (linearized) perturbed magnetohydrodynamic equations with and without resistivity, to discuss a generalized Jeans criterion and the potential formation of density condensations within a class of homogeneous and anisotropically expanding, self-gravitating, magnetized fluids in curved space-time. We find that, for a wide variety of anisotropic cosmological models, gravito-magnetic instabilities can lead to sub-horizonal, magnetized condensations. In the non-resistive case, the power spectrum of the unstable cosmological perturbations suggests that most of the power is concentrated on large scales (small k), very close to the horizon. On the other hand, in a resistive medium, the critical wave-numbers so obtained, exhibit a delicate dependence on resistivity, resulting in the reduction of the corresponding Jeans lengths to smaller scales (well bellow the horizon) than the non-resistive ones, while increasing the range of cosmological models which admit such an instability.
The next decade can be considered the "golden age" of the Gamma Ray Astronomy with the two satellites for Gamma Ray Astronomy (AGILE and GLAST) in orbit. Therefore, thanks to many other X-ray experiments already in orbit (e.g. Swift, Chandra, NewtonXMM, etc.) it will be possible to image the Universe for the first time all over the electromagnetic spectrum almost contemporarily. The new generations of ground-based very high gamma-ray instruments are ready to extend the observed band also to the very high frequencies. Scientists from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) are involved in many, both space- and ground- based gamma ray experiments, and recently such an involvement has been largely improved in the field of the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT). INAF is now member of the MAGIC collaboration and is participating to the realization of the second MAGIC telescope. MAGIC, as well other IACT experiments, is not operated as an observatory so a proper guest observer program does not exist. A consortium of European scientists (including INAF scientists) is thus now thinking to the design of a new research infrastructure: the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). CTA is conceived to provide 10 times the sensitivity of current instruments, combined with increased flexibility and increased coverage from some 10 GeV to some 100 TeV. CTA will be operated as an observatory to serve a wider community of astronomer and astroparticle physicists.
We examine a variety of observations that shed light on the orientation of the semi-major axis of the $\eta$ Carinae massive binary system. Under several assumptions we study the following observations: The Doppler shifts of some He I P-Cygni lines that is attributed to the secondary's wind, of one Fe II line that is attributed to the primary's wind, and of the Paschen emission lines which are attributed to the shocked primary's wind, are computed in our model and compared with observations. We compute the hydrogen column density toward the binary system in our model, and find a good agreement with that deduced from X-ray observations. We calculate the ionization of surrounding gas blobs by the radiation of the hotter secondary star, and compare with observations of a highly excited [Ar III] narrow line. We find that all of these support an orientation where for most of the time the secondary$-$the hotter less massive star$-$is behind the primary star. The secondary comes closer to the observer only for a short time near periastron passage, in this highly eccentric ($e\simeq 0.9$) orbit. Further supporting arguments are also listed, followed by discussion of some open and complicated issues.
We investigate the models of dark energy with purely kinetic multiple k-essence sources that allows for the crossing of the phantom divide line, without violating the conditions of stability. It is known that with more than one kinetic k-field one can possibly construct dark energy models whose equation of state parameter $\wx$ crosses -1 (the phantom barrier) at recent red-shifts, as indicated by the Supernova Ia and other observational probes. However, such models may suffer from cosmological instabilities, as the effective speed of propagation $\cx$ of the dark energy density perturbations may become {\it imaginary} while the $\wx = -1$ barrier is crossed. Working out the expression for $\cx$ we show that multiple kinetic k-essence fields do indeed lead to a $\wx = -1$ crossing dark energy model, satisfying the stability criterion $\cx^2 \geq 0$ as well as the condition $\cx \leq 1$ (in natural units), which implies that the dark energy is not super-luminal. As a specific example, we consider a configuration of three k-fields for which $\cx$ is a constant, lying between 0 and 1. The model fits well the latest Supernova Ia gold data, and the best fit shows that $\wx$ crosses -1 at red-shift $z \sim 0.185 - 0.225$.
This paper summarizes our theoretical understanding of supernova events in a "back of the envelope" way. It is intended to aid in the recognition and understanding of those events which are not "standard", and which may provide the most insight.
A fully consistent linear perturbation theory for cosmology is derived in the presence of quantum corrections as they are suggested by properties of inverse volume operators in loop quantum gravity. The underlying constraints present a consistent deformation of the classical system, which shows that the discreteness in loop quantum gravity can be implemented in effective equations without spoiling space-time covariance. Nevertheless, non-trivial quantum corrections do arise in the constraint algebra. Since correction terms must appear in tightly controlled forms to avoid anomalies, detailed insights for the correct implementation of constraint operators can be gained. The procedures of this article thus provide a clear link between fundamental quantum gravity and phenomenology.
The high value of brane tension has a crucial role in recovering Einstein's general relativity at low energies, but was it always that high? In analogy with fluid membranes, we allow here for temperature dependent brane tension, according to the corresponding law established by E% \"{o}tv\"{o}s. For cosmological branes this assumption leads to several immediate consequences: (a) The brane Universe was created at a finite temperature $T_{c}$ and scale factor \thinspace $a_{\min}$. (b) Both the brane tension and the 4-dimensional gravitational coupling 'constant' increase with the scale factor from zero to asymptotic values. (c) The 4-dimensional cosmological 'constant' evolves with $a$, starting with a huge negative value, passing through zero, finally reaching a small positive value. Such a scale--factor dependent cosmological constant has the potential to generate additional attraction at small $a$ (as dark matter does) and late-time repulsion at large $a$ (dark energy). In the particular model discussed here the evolution of the brane tension is compensated by energy interchange between the brane and the fifth dimension, such that the continuity equation holds for the cosmological fluid. The resulting cosmology closely mimics the standard model at late times, a decelerated phase being followed by an accelerated expansion. The energy absorption of the brane drives the 5D space-time towards maximal symmetry, becoming Anti de Sitter.
We report our new code (named SACRA) for numerical relativity simulations in which an adaptive mesh refinement algorithm is implemented. In this code, the Einstein equations are solved in the BSSN formalism with a fourth-order finite differencing, and the hydrodynamic equations are solved by a third-order high-resolution central scheme. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme is adopted for integration in time. To test the code, simulations for coalescence of black hole-black hole (BH-BH), neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS), and black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries are performed, and also, properties of BHs formed after the merger and gravitational waveforms are compared among those three cases. For the simulations of BH-BH binaries, we adopt the same initial conditions as those by Buonanno et al. and compare numerical results. We find reasonable agreement except for a slight disagreement possibly associated with the difference in choice of gauge conditions and numerical schemes. For an NS-NS binary, we performed simulations employing both SACRA and Shibata's previous code, and find reasonable agreement. For a BH-NS binary, we compare numerical results with our previous ones, and find that gravitational waveforms and properties of the BH formed after the merger agree well with those of our previous ones, although the disk mass formed after the merger is less than 0.1% of the total rest mass, which disagrees with the previous result. We also report numerical results of a longterm simulation (with $\sim 4$ orbits) for a BH-NS binary for the first time. All these numerical results show behavior of convergence, and extrapolated numerical results for time spent in the inspiral phase agree with post-Newtonian predictions in a reasonable accuracy.
The most recent results from direct searches for dark matter particles in the
galactic halo are examined in terms of an effective Minimal Supersymmetric
extension of the Standard Model at the electroweak scale without gaugino masses
unification. We show that the annual modulation effect at 8.2 $\sigma$ C.L.
recently presented by the DAMA Collaboration, as the result of a combined
analysis of the DAMA/NaI and the DAMA/LIBRA experiments for a total exposure of
0.82 ton yr, fits remarkably well with what expected for relic neutralinos for
a wide variety of WIMP distribution functions. Bounds derivable from other
measurements of direct searches for dark matter particles are analyzed. We
stress the role played by the uncertainties affecting the neutralino--quark
couplings arising from the involved hadronic quantities. We also examine how
present data on cosmic antiprotons can help in constraining the neutralino
configurations selected by the DAMA effect, in connection with the values of
the astrophysical parameters.
Perspectives for measurement of antideuterons possibly produced in the
galactic halo by self--annihilation of neutralinos belonging to the DAMA
configurations are examined. Finally, we discuss how findings at LHC would
impact on these issues.
We present an exhaustive numerical investigation of the optical caustics in gravitational lensing by a spinning black hole for an observer at infinity. Besides the primary caustic, we examine higher order caustics, formed by photons performing one or several loops around the black hole. Our investigation covers the whole parameter space, including the black hole spin, its inclination with respect to the line of sight, the source distance, and the caustic order. By comparing our results with the available analytical approximations, we find perfect agreement in their respective domains of validity. We then prove that all caustics maintain their shape (a tube with astroidal cross-section) in the entire parameter space without suffering any catastrophic transitions. For nearly extremal spin, however, higher order caustics grow so large that their cross-sections at fixed radii wind several times around the black hole. As a consequence, for each caustic order, the number of images ranges from 2 to 2(n+1), where n is the number of loops spanned by the caustic. As for the critical curves, we note that for high values of the spin they develop a small dip on the side corresponding to prograde orbits.
In this paper, we discuss the non-Guassianity originated from the $\alpha$-vacuum on the CMB anisotropy. For $\alpha$-vacuum, there exist correlation between points in the acausal two patches of de Sitter spactime. Such kind of correlation can lead to large local form non-Guassianity in $\alpha$-vacuum. For the single field slow-roll inflationary scenario, the spacetime is in a quasi-de Sitter phase during the inflation. We will show that the $\alpha$-vacuum in this case will lead to non-Gaussianity with distinguished feature, of a large local form and a very different shape.
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